Management of Selling Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Management of Selling - Case Study Example These measures would be particularly helpful because it would gain the co-operation of the sales force during the investigation process, which would provide more satisfactory results. Oldroyd would require the following information: An insight of the highly dissatisfied A and B accounts who are about to move out from the customer list. This would help Oldroyd to know the problems of the company in detail and its product acceptance in the market. By accompanying the sales force to gather this information will not only ensure their co-operation but they would also feel that their boss is by their side in difficult times. Oldroyd will gain confidence of his sales force in this way. The salesmen are sure that the salary would keep on increasing even if they make minimal effort in getting fresh orders as they have spent a number of years with the company which is well above the average duration of stay for sales people in the industry. Hence there is no pressure on the sales force as job security is high. There is no scheme of incentive for those who get the highest number of orders or for those who over perform. There is also no system of cutting some amount of money from the salary due to underperformance. So each month the salary of the sales force is guaranteed even if they under perform. ... The inner feelings of each salesman and their complaints if any. 2. There are many disadvantages in the way the sales force is currently organised. They are as follows: It is difficult to properly monitor the sales force The salesmen are sure that the salary would keep on increasing even if they make minimal effort in getting fresh orders as they have spent a number of years with the company which is well above the average duration of stay for sales people in the industry. Hence there is no pressure on the sales force as job security is high. Sale in the company is due to 10 years of brand reputation in the market and not due to any effort by the sales force. There is no scheme of incentive for those who get the highest number of orders or for those who over perform. There is also no system of cutting some amount of money from the salary due to underperformance. So each month the salary of the sales force is guaranteed even if they under perform. Hence each of them is assured of his own personal income and do not bother about the company's overall growth. Since there is no incentive scheme, in the words of Dive (2005, p. 13) there is "slow reaction to customers and competitions" which results in "quality work not being done.." There is rather unclear or total lack of vision for the sales force. They themselves are not sure where they are heading. 3. In the next six months Stephen Oldroyd can improve the sales performance of his company in the following ways: He should set up a future course of action and communicate it effectively to the sales force. He should demonstrate his best planning skills because the sales department of Supplies-4-Gardens seriously

Definition of fixed cost and variable cost

Definition of fixed cost and variable cost Fixed cost (FC): is a cost that remains constant, in total, regardless of changes in the level of activity. Fixed costs are not affected by changes in activity. Consequently, as the activity level rises and falls, total fixed costs remain constant unless influenced by some outside force. But fixed cost per unit decreases as the activity level rises and increases as the activity level falls. (Garrison etal., 2006, P49). Fixed costs include salaries of executives, interest expense, rent, depreciation, and insurance expenses. . Variable cost (VC): is a cost that varies, in total, in direct proportion o changes in the level activity. The activity can be expressed in many ways, such as units produced, units sold, miles driven, beds occupied, lines of print, hours worked and so forth. But variable cost per unit remains constant. ((Garrison etal., 2006, P48). Direct cost, indirect cost and overhead costs Direct costs: is a cost that can be easily and conveniently traced to the particular cost object under consideration. The concept of direct cost extends beyond just direct materials and direct labor. (Garrison etal., 2006, P50). Example: the salary of supervisor in marketing department is the direct cost for marketing department. The salary is likely the same each month not depend on the quantity of sales product. Indirect costs: is a cost that cannot be easily and conveniently traced to the particular cost object under consideration. (Garrison etal., 2006, P50).   Each business has its own method of allocating indirect costs to different products, sources of sales revenue and  business units.  Business managers and accounts should always keep an eye on the allocation methods used for indirect costs. Example: Depreciation on the production machine is also an indirect product cost, it stays the same each year not depend on the volume produced on the machine. Costs can be direct and indirect depending on the cost object: product, department,  and others such as division, customer, or geographic market. The total amount of the  cost remain the same as volume changes, it is fixed cost. It is a variable cost if the total cost change in proportion to the change in the activity or volume. Overhead costs: the indirect recurring costs of running a business that are not linked directly to the goods or service produced and sold. Overhead costs can include payments for the rent of premises, utility bills, and employees salaries. Controllable costs and uncontrollable costs Controllable cost: are those costs which can be regulated or controlled by specified member of an undertaking. Most of the variable costs are controllable costs. For example, direct material, direct labor and direct expenses à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦are controlled by the lower level of management. Uncontrollable cost: can not be controlled by the specified member of the undertaking. Most of the fixed costs are uncontrollable cost. For example, factory rental expense, supervisors salary, depreciation. Evaluate the statement I have trouble with the terminology-direct costs, also called variable costs, are the ones that are controllable. Whereas indirect costs or overheads, also called fixed costs, are uncontrollable. Based on the definitions above, I strongly disagree with the statement because the delegate assumed wrongly about the cost. There are many ways to classified cost depending on the purpose of management. According to association with products, costs are divided into product costs and period costs. According to identifiably, costs are divided into direct cost and indirect cost. According to behavior, costs are divided into fixed cost, variable cost and semi- variable cost. According to controllability, costs are divided into controllable costs and uncontrollable costs. Direct cost can be fixed cost and variable cost depending on situations For example: the salary of supervisor in manufacture department is the direct cost for manufacture department. The salary is likely the same each month not depend on the quantity of product. It is a fixed cost of manufacture department. Raw material supply for manufacture department is a direct cost for department but it is a variable cost, total amount of supplies use in the department increases if the volume in the department increases. Indirect costs can be fixed costs and variable cost also: In opposition to direct cost, most of indirect cost is fixed cost. For example rental cost is indirect cost for part production, it is a fixed cost of manufacture department stay the same each month, its not depend on the number of product. But indirect cost can be variable cost also. The cost of electricity for administration of manufacture department is variable cost monthly depending on the number of electricity use more or less. Controllable cost and uncontrollable cost Most of variable costs are controllable. To illustrate: low level manager in manufacture product is the direct monitoring and control of production process. They can be managing the raw material use to create product and direct labors that mean control the number of employees needed to complete product. Management can organize the use of resources effectively in the short term. On the other hand, many of fixed costs are uncontrollable. They are imposed in terms of management such as business can not decide the rental fees of factory, the rent for his unit negotiated by higher management, or the rates dictated by the local authority. Question 2 1. Participative budgeting Budget preparation is the process by which organizational goals are translated into a plan that specifies the allocated resources, the selected processes, and the desired schedule for achieving these goals. There are two main types of budgeting: bottom-up budgeting and top-down budgeting. Participative budgeting is a method of preparing budgets in which managers prepare their own budgets. These budgets are then reviewed by the managers supervisor, and any issues are resolved by mutual agreement. Manager Marketing Manager Sales Vice President Sales Vice President Finance President and CEO Vice President Production Cashier Controller Manager Manufacturing Manager Distribution All level of an organization should work together to create the budget. Each level in organization should contribute in the way that it best can in a cooperative effort to develop budget. Lower level management is responsible for setting the estimate of budget data in a participative system and submits them to the next higher level of management. Before the budget is accepted, they must be reviewed and evaluated by middle management before they are transferred to the organization. Advantage of participative budgeting Participative budgeting is relevant to all member of particular project, it helps to encourage all participants contribute idea to built a project effectively. Budget information is given clearly and fairly accurate because it use of the data available at the project management level Working motivation is higher when an individual directly involved in setting goals rather than goals imposed from above. Self-imposed budget made commitments to implement the goals. If the budget has been setting from top management, managers can say that budget is unreasonable or impractical to start, could not be performed. With participative budget, it does not happen when the managers set a budget for themselves. Disadvantage of participative budget Time consuming and costly because too many participants involved in setting budget project. The influence of top manager is limited over the budget process. However, when the lower-level managers plan the short budgets and mid-range budgets, outlining organizational policies and goals, they can influence the outcome by issuing a statement. Individual tend to overstate the real resource needs because they think that all budget will be cut in certain proportion by top manager and set a goal lower than actual for easy to achieve the goal. 2. Budget variance a. Definition of budget variance: Total budget variance is simply the difference between the actual cost of the input and its planned cost. Total variance = Price variance + Usage variance In standard costing systems, the total variance is broken down into price and usage variance. Price variance is the difference between the actual and standard unit price of an input multiplied by the number of unit used. Usage variance is the difference between the actual and standard quantity of inputs multiplied by the standard unit price of the input. Total variance = (AP x AQ) (SP x SQ) ACTUAL COST (AQ x AP) STANDARD COST (SQ x SP) STANDARD COST (SQ x SP) ACTUAL COST (AQ x AP) > FAVORABLE VARIANCE (ACTUAL UNFAVORABLE VARIANCE (ACTUAL > STANDARD) AQ means the actual quantity of input used to produce the output AP means the actual price of the input used to produce the output SQ means the standard quantity SP means the standard price Favorable variance and unfavorable variance are not equivalent to good and bad variance. The terms indicate the relationship of the actual price or quantities to the standards prices and quantities. b. Budget variance investigation Managers responsibility is carefully calculated the variance because that is a part of effective control of organization. In general, it is difficult to manage external sources of budget variance (government policy, stock market, fluctuation of exchange rateà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) rather than internal sources (raw material, cost per hour on direct labor). Management should know about the acceptable range of performance. If the budget has a favorable balance that means it has brought the profit to the company. Conducting an investigation to find out the reason why the variance of budget was favorable and it could be made more than in the future. If the variance is small, it should not be too worried. In fact, a little variance between actual budget and the projected figures is always happens. With the very small difference, the manager can ignore them, no need to adopt strong action because it does not bring terrible consequences for the business. So, with little difference, the best way to solve is simply putting it into stride. If the budget has unfavorable variance, head of department need to conduct an investigation to find out the main causes by external influence or internal influence. For example the increase of raw material usage per unit more than allowed standard because it was poor condition of machine or poor manufacturing. Find the cause and how to fix the problem; it is a good measure to prevent a similar situation may occur in the future. After having adverse variance the budget needs to rewrite or the budget needs to verify by internal audit. Question 3 Explain the term used in the statement 1. Committed fixed costs Committed fixed costs relate to the investment in facilities, equipment, and basic organizational structure. The two characteristics of committed fixed costs are that they are long term in natural, and they cannot be significantly reduced event for short periods of time without seriously impairing the profitably or long- run goals of the organization. Even if operations are interrupted or cut back, the committed fixed cost will still continue largely unchanged (Garrison etal., 2006, P190). For example: Vietnam airlines has total 80 aircraft, the company must pay money for depreciation, maintenance and insurance expense. The expense is not depend on the number of times the plane fly or the number of passenger in plane. It is a committed fixed cost. Decisions to acquire major equipment or to take on other committed fixed costs involve a long planning horizon. Management should make such commitments only after carefully analysis of the available alternatives. Once a decision is made to acquire committed resources, the company may be locked in to the decision for many years to come (Garrison etal., 2006, P191). For example the total committed fixed cost of renting the building for the hotel is very high and the company must commit to pay for it at least 5 years in Vietnam. Uneven revenue flows It is showed that the difference of demand (low or high) for product or service in different periods. At times the company is very busy and at others it suffers from very slack periods. The hospitality industry is often divided into two distinct seasons: high season and low season. The period time between two seasons can move and change each year. In high season, the hotel does not have enough room for customer and the room rate is very high that bring large of profit for the hotel. In contrast, in low season the hotel must reduce the price and apply promotion to attract tourist. It is a common situation of hotel and resort. The implication of the above situation for the company Many of our cost are committed fixed cost. Our revenue flows occur very unevenly. To be profitable we have to take a flexible approach to pricing The company in hospitality industry has large proportion of fixed cost for the initial investment so the break even point is also very high. Company will operate with high level of capacity before earning a profit. But when passed break even point the profit will increase rapidly. Committed fixed cost has a little effect to the level of costs in the short term. Revenue is the money the company receives for selling their product or service. It is calculated by taking the selling price and multiplying it by the number of units sold. Profit is the amount of money left over after costs have been covered. It is calculated by: total revenue minus total costs. Therefore, profits will not be improved by a greater emphasis on cost management of costs. The company will get profit if the revenue is maintained consistently above break even level. Due to the nature of leisure industry, the product is not in storage so the focus on revenue during the period low level of demand is the necessary task of this company. By adopting a flexible approach the company is adapting the price of the product or service to suit the situation of the company and the amount of money customers are willing to pay. But the given price must be greater than variable cost and above break event point. This pricing strategy is designed to attract as much business as possible when the company has spare capacity. The price will be increased for busy periods when the company can expect to operate near to full capacity. For example: In Vietnam, Da Nang has a long beautiful coastline. Seaside hotels have a high level of demand in the summer (from May to August), this time mainly to serve domestic tourist. The room rates are usually higher two times as much as normal. The hotels have maximum revenue in this period. In the low season from October to February next year, the hotel has launched promotions to attract tourist such as discount 30% room rate at Furama Resort or stay 2 night get 1 night free at Golden Sand Resort. In this case, at times of low volume an inflexible, cost orientated approach to pricing.

Rural to urban Migration in Brazil :: essays research papers

Brazil Investigation ? Challenges Of An LEDC Brazil is the largest and most populace country in South America, and fifth largest in the world in both area and population. Spanning a vast area between central South America and the Atlantic Ocean. Rural To Urban Migration Brazil?s economic development creates wealth like any other country, but due to many different reasons its development has mainly taken place in the Southeast of the country. For example,  · Main ports and air ports are situated in this area making exporting goods easy  · Has the right climate and land that is needed to grow coffee, which is Brazils main export  · It has many mineral resources in the rocks on the coast i.e. iron ore  · It has fast flowing rivers which are a good source of cheap hydro electric power  · It has the best roads and railways in Brazil, making travelling easy. This area is known as the Golden Triangle. At the edges of this triangle there are three major cities, Belo Hoeizante, Rio de Janeiro and Sau Paulo. These are the main ?Favoured? locations for industrial development, normally called the core. People are moving to this part of Brazil because of many reasons, the main one being the jobs at the ports and in the factories or industry, these being mainly secondary (manufacturing) and tertiary (service) sectors. But also it has the best standard of living and the best transport links. Some people live in the skyscrapers with maids, if the earn enough, but if they don?t, then their families have to live in favelas. These are like wooden houses with no main water or electricity. In most countries, the level of wealth decreases with distance from the core. The poorest regions are usually found towards the periphery of the country. The periphery is the area around the core that has not benefited form the economic growth, and development. Most of the wealth is in the centre of Sau Paulo. But the economic development is uneven, as round the edges of Sau Paulo it is a very big contrast. The families are large so all the children can go out and earn money for the family, which is leading to overcrowding and a high birth rate.

The Silver Linings Playbook Chapter 31

Letter #2-November 15, 2006 Dear Pat, First, let me say it's good to hear from you. It's been a long time, which has been strange for me. I mean, when you are married to someone for years and then you don't see that person for almost as many years, it's strange, right? I don't know how to explain it, especially since our marriage ended so abruptly and scandalously. We never got a chance to talk things over – one-on-one – like civilized adults. Because of this, sometimes I think maybe it's almost as if I'm not really sure the multiple â€Å"Pat-less† years have truly transpired, but maybe it's been only a brief separation that feels like years. Like a solo car ride that takes all night but feels like a lifetime. Watching all those highway dashes flying by at seventy miles an hour, your eyes becoming lazy slits and your mind wandering over the memory of a whole lifetime – past and future, childhood memories to thoughts of your own death – until the numbers on the dashboard clock do not me an anything anymore. And then the sun comes up and you get to your destination and the ride becomes the thing that is no longer real, because that surreal feeling has vanished and time has become meaningful again. Finally making contact with you is like arriving at the end of a long car ride and realizing I went to the wrong place – that I have ended up in the past somehow, at the port of origin instead of the dock of destination. But at least I finally get to say that to you, which is important. It probably sounds stupid, but maybe you know what I mean. The part of my life you once filled has been nothing but highway dashes since you were put away, and I am hoping this exchange of letters will help to provide closure for both of us, because soon I will drive back to the place I was before Tiffany contacted me, and we will be only memories to each other. I can hardly believe how much you wrote. When Tiffany told me you were writing me a letter, I did not expect you to give her two hundred photocopied pages of your diary. As you can imagine, Tiffany was not able to read me all of the pages over the phone, because that would have taken hours! She did read me the introductory note and then filled me in on the rest, citing your diary often. You need to know it was a lot of work for her to read through the manuscript and pick out the parts she thought I should hear. For Tiffany's sake, please limit your next letter to five pages – should there be a next letter – as reading five pages aloud takes a long time and Tiffany is typing up what I dictate over the phone as well, which is already too much to ask of her. (She really is a phenomenally kind woman, don't you think? You are lucky to have Tiffany in your life.) Maybe it's the English teacher in me, but I feel as though a page limit is best. No offense, but let's try to be c oncise. Okay? Congratulations on your dance performance. Tiffany says you performed flawlessly. I'm so proud of you! It's hard to imagine you dancing, Pat. The way that Tiffany described the performance was very impressive. I'm glad you are taking an interest in new things. That's good. I certainly wish you had danced more with me. Things at Jefferson High School are gloriously shitty. The PTA pushed for online grade books, and now parents have access to their children's grades 24/7. You would hate working here now because of this new development. All parents have to do is log on to a computer, go to the Jefferson High School Web page, enter an ID # and a password, and they can see if their kid turned in his homework on any given day or scored poorly on a pop quiz or whatever. Of course, this means if we are behind on our grading, parents will know and the aggressive ones will call. Parent-teacher conferences have increased because of this. Every time a student misses a single homework, I'm hearing from parents. Our sports teams are losing pretty regularly too. Coach Ritchie and Coach Malone both miss you. Believe me when I say they could not fill your shoes, and the kids are worse off without Coach Peoples at the helm. The life of a teacher is still hectic and crazy – and I am glad you don't have to dea l with this type of stress as you heal. Sorry to hear about your father being aloof. I know how much that used to upset you. And I'm also sorry your Eagles are up and down – but at least they beat the Redskins last weekend, right? And season tickets with Jake, you must feel as though you died and went to heaven. I think it's best to say I am remarried. I won't go into details unless you want me to, Pat. I'm sure this comes as a shock to you, especially after Tiffany read me the many parts of your diary that seemed to indicate you still hope to reconcile our marriage. You need to know this is not going to happen. The truth is I was planning on divorcing you before the accident, before you were checked into the neural health facility. We were not a good match. You were never home. And let's face it – our sex life was shit. I cheated on you because of this, which you may or may not remember. I am not trying to hurt you, Pat – far from it. I am not proud of my infidelity. I regret cheating on you. But our marriage was over before I began my affair. Your mind is not right, but I have been told your therapist is one of the best in South Jersey, your treatments are working, and your memory will return soon; when it does, you will remember how I hurt you, and then you will not even wan t to write me, let alone try to re-create what you think we once had. I understand my blunt response to your very long and passionate letter might make you upset, and if you don't want to write me again, I will understand. But I wanted to be honest with you. What's the point if we lie now? Yours, Nikki P.S. – I was very impressed with your finally reading many of the books on my American Lit. syllabus. Many students have also complained about the novels being so depressing. Try Mark Twain. Huck Finn ends happily. You might like that one. But I'll tell you the same thing I tell my students when they complain about the depressing nature of American literature: life is not a PG feel-good movie. Real life often ends badly, like our marriage did, Pat. And literature tries to document this reality, while showing us it is still possible for people to endure nobly. It sounds like you have endured very nobly since you returned to New Jersey, and I want you to know I admire that. I hope you are able to reinvent yourself and live out the rest of your life with a quiet sense of satisfaction, which is what I have been trying to do since we parted.

Being A Student Essay

Being a student is a full time job. Students work five days a week, seven hours a day. There is a constant load of work that is given to us, and there is a strict set of rules. Being a student is similar to working at a full time job in many ways. Like working adults, students follow a grueling daily routine, which includes waking up early in the morning, focusing for long hours at a time, having to complete a strenuous work load, dealing with unfair teachers or bosses, an extremely high level of stress, a lot of procrastination, and loss of sleep, among others. These are all problems that students and working adults must deal with on a daily basis, but not all similarities between the day of a student and the day of a working adult are negative. Both students and most working adults go through similar ups and downs throughout a typical day, but there is one profession in particular that is so similar to the job of a student that both students and this specific type of working adult are doing their jobs in the same buildings every day. Students and teachers are alike in so many different ways. If one were to observe the similarities in the days of students and teachers, the observations would include both arriving at a school some time between seven o’clock and eight o’clock in the morning, both going to class throughout the day, both having lunch breaks in cafeterias, both being involved in athletics after school, both having the weekends off, as well as spring break, winter break, summer break, and most holidays, both facing daily academic challenges, and both going home at night to do work in order to prepare for the next day. Students and teachers work together in harmony on a daily basis, learning from each other and becoming better people. Neither could prosper in a school environment without the other. Without teachers, students would not be able to learn, and they would have no one to keep them in line when necessary. Without students, teachers would not have a purpose for working in their profession because they would not have anyone to teach. They depend on each other, and, while learning is a full time job for students, and teaching is a full time job for teachers, both bond over their time spent working and learning together at school every day.

Public Policy Lifecycle Example

Public Policy Lifecycle Example Public Policy Lifecycle – Coursework Example Public Policy Lifecycle The public policy making process entails a set of decisions taken by the government to do something or nothing (Dye, 2010). The stages of the lifecycle of the public policy involve identification of objectives, policy formation, adoption of best solutions, implementation, and evaluation. The Affordable Care Act represents a policy that has undergone through the stages of the public policy lifecycle. The policymakers identified that the objectives of the Affordable Care Act were to expand coverage, lower health care cost, and enhance the quality of care to every American during the first stage of policy lifecycle. The policy gained attention and the Senate and House of Representatives adopted the best options and passed it in 2009 and 2010 respectively, after deliberating on an alternative solution in the second stage of the policy-making process (Emanuel, 2014). In the third stage, the policy identified lowering the uninsured rate, reducing health care for cit izens, and providing subsidies as the best solutions to make health care affordable to all. The implementation stage has encountered challenges from the federal courts, state governments, labor unions, and conservative advocacy groups (Emanuel, 2014). Significant reforms such as minimum standards for insurance policies have happened in the evaluation stage.It is important to develop a viable policy adoption in order to reduce the chances failing or stalling the public policy. Policy networks can facilitate or hinder the adoption and implementation of the public policy (Emanuel, 2014). The policymakers should focus on the best implementation practices by explicitly providing parameters such as targets and restrictions in order to ensure the public understands the implication of the policy. It is imperative for the policymakers to consider whether the adoption or amendment of the existing policy offers the best for all the citizens (Dye, 2010). In essence, the makers ought to look at the relative merits of adoption or amendment of policies.ReferencesDye, T.R. (2010). Understanding Public Policy (13th ed.). London: Pearson Prentice Hall.Emanuel, E. J. (2014). Reinventing American health care: How the Affordable Care Act will improve our terribly complex, blatantly unjust, outrageously expensive, grossly inefficient, error prone system. New York: PublicAffairs.

Criminal justice essays

Criminal justice essays Fine: This option tends to be the most commonly used option by the courts. A fine maybe imposed on both summary and indictable convictions. Depending on the nature of the conviction and length of sentence a fine can be imposed alone or in combination with a prison term or with probation. The maximum allowable fine for a summary conviction is 2000 dollars in the case of an individual and 25,000 dollars in the case of a corporation. Prohibitions and Forfeiture: Under certain conditions and in addition to an imposed sentence the courts may direct that a person be prohibited from certain activities. For example a person convicted of impaired driving will be prohibited from operating a motor vehicle for a specific period of time. Another example might be that a person will be prohibited from owning a firearm for a designated period of time. As well certain convictions could result in the forfeiture of property if it was used in the commission of an offence or was obtained through the proceeds of a criminal offence. An example of this might be that the Crown might require the person to forfeit their boat if it was used in the commission of a drug importation conviction. Absolute and Conditional Discharge: These options are used for first time offenders charged with minor offences. When an individual receives an Absolute discharge, he/she is discharged from the courts and has no further obligation to the justice system. An individual who receives a conditional discharge is subject to conditions of a probation order. Violation of these conditions or further convictions could result in the conditional release being revoked and conviction on the original offence for which he/she received the conditional discharge. Incarceration: The courts can impose a provincial or federal term. The sentence imposed will be determined by the nature of the offence and conviction. A provincial term is any sentence up to two years less a day. ...