Best Buy Case Study Essay Example for Free

Best Buy Case Study Essay Best Buy is a multinational corporation with over 4,000 locations nationwide. Circuit City was Best Buy’s only main competition for some years until it took over and ran Circuit City out of business. Best Buy’s market share increased after that however, other large retailers as well as e-tailers entered into the market. Amazon, Target, Wal-Mart and Apple became Best Buy’s new competition that caused a decrease in market sales in 2010. They all had the same thing in common after the Circuit City collapse and that was to increase electronics. They all had their own strategies to out-beat Best Buy. Although Best Buy acquired some more competition in a 2010 survey consumers still said Best Buy is the first to come to mind when they think about buying electronics. However, even though Best Buy is the first that comes to mind against the other competitors, depending on what the product is they will go to Amazon to buy it instead. Due to their strategy which focuses on three areas; customer-centricity, employment policies and exclusive branding, they are keeping up with the competition. Best Buy’s strategies may help them a majority of the time but they could change their strategies just a little bit. They should try what Wal-Mart does and price match ads with other stores so that way they are still getting the profits and keeping customers. In my opinion, Best Buy could improve their strategy when it comes to prices because they are on the higher end of prices. As a consumer myself, I do look at Best Buy first for my electronics but I usually go somewhere else because the prices are usually cheaper. Other than their prices I actually think their strategies are working out good for them and it shows in their rankings amongst other competitors. Consumer electronics is considered a mature industry because of the new trends. This industry hits record sales during the holiday seasons but still says rather well throughout the year as well. All companies associated with this industry try to keep up so they make their own products. However, due to manufactures cannibalizing their products their product life cycle has decreased. Manufactures started doing this to try to keep their consumers  loyalty. When prices start to fall for technology products this opens a bigger demographic; however by time the prices fall for the products they have come up with better products. In order to recapture the growth of Best Buy they should try to fix the prices to fit a bigger demographic. I think if they at least try to work with the consumers with the prices they would gain more customers. The problem is the fact that consumers go elsewhere when they see the prices and do a price match. Amazon became popular with electronics because people f ound out that they could get electronics of all kinds online. Also Amazon has an advantage over Best Buy because with Amazon there is free shipping on products, well on most products. I think if Best Buy tried to adapt some of Amazon’s strategy they can out beat them in the electronics department. If they could be like Amazon and have a limitless inventory online rather than just have their amount of availability on the showroom. If they did this I think they would see growth in their company. They pride their selves in having the most respected name brands in the consumer electronics industry so if they matched the prices with their pride in their brands I see a definite growth in their company. With Best Buy being a well-known company and is the first that comes to mind when talking about electronics, if they had a bigger choice when it came to the products than they might gain some more growth as well to go along with their already loyal customer base. At Best Buy, they offer a selection of energy-efficient products. These products were designed to help their customers around the world save some more money by using less energy. I think with Best Buy becoming more sustainable they are more able to maintain the interest of the stakeholders. With these products the shareholders play a big role in influencing their overall sustainability strategy. The stakeholders help with modeling Best Buy’s annual sustainability reports. So with them adding this strategy and allowing the stakeholders to get the chance to have a part in the strategy they are gaining their interest. Best Buy actually takes the recommendations from their stakeholders and they try to communicate with them in efforts to keep their interest in their decision to incorporate a sustainability strategy. I think this was a good move on their part because it states they were uncertain about Mr. Dunn’s five year growth strategy. The stakeholders  were worried abo ut Best Buy’s cash position and about if these strategies would work or not. Anytime when stakeholders have the opportunity to have a so in a company is a good thing. In conclusion, I believe Best Buy is a great company but can become a better one if they were to do some modifications with their strategies. With the constantly changing economy they need to adapt their strategies to the changes. I’m not saying they would have to always change their strategies but I think they should always try their best to make their strategies fit the customers as well as help the success of the company. With that being said I believe they will receive even better results for the company as well as the consumers.

Nursing Errors and The Stakes Essays -- Nursing, Medical Errors

Every day there is a constant trust adhered to many different people in the profession of Nursing—the decision of what will help patients in terms of medicine, and the confidence to make these decisions. One false act or one slight misdiagnoses of medication to a patient could be the prime factor in whether the patient lives or dies. Nurses in hospitals across the country are spread thin, and thus makes the probability of mistakes higher. If a medicinal dose is off by even one decimal a patient could die, so the only real answer is for nurses to not be afraid to ask for assistance, always follow procedure and voice opinion is they feel something is wrong. Firstly, every year there are many deaths associated with medical errors. Sarah Loughran writes, â€Å"An average of 195,000 people in the USA died due to potentially preventable, in-hospital medical errors in each of the years 2000, 2001 and 2002†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (medicalnewstoday.com) and this was just in 2000, 2001, and 2002 with the numbers bouncing higher or lower each year; nevertheless, there seems to be no end in sight for errors in the medical field. There is a way to lower these numbers drastically. The way to do this is by leveling the doctor to nurse ratio in hospitals thereby eliminating the stress factors on most nurses whom often have several patients to attend by themselves but no help in doing so. While demand for nurses may be high, there also comes a breaking point for any human being, â€Å"†¦factors including the high acuity of patients, inadequate nurse to patient ratios, increased work demand, and decreased resources.† (American Journal of Critical Care, 503.) The leading causes of most errors among stress and interruption are other factors such as: wrong dosage, dose omissi... ...rking in the hospitals all across the nation, and employing confident employees to those positions will make a large impact on how well people are treated in medical facilities. Every nurse should follow procedure and focus on the job at hand—healing people. Works Cited JB McKenzie, et al. "STRATEGIES USED BY CRITICAL CARE NURSES TO IDENTIFY, INTERRUPT, AND CORRECT MEDICAL ERRORS." American Journal of Critical Care 19.6 (2010): 500-509. CINAHL Plus with Full Text. EBSCO. Web. 7 Mar. 2011. Loughran, Sarah. "In Hospital Deaths from Medical Errors at 195,000 per Year USA." medicalnewstoday.com. Medical News Today, 09 Aug. 2004. Web. 7 Mar. 2011. Agyemang, REO, and A While. "Medication errors: types, causes and impact on nursing practice." British Journal of Nursing (BJN) 19.6 (2010): 380-385. CINAHL Plus with Full Text. EBSCO. Web. 7 Mar. 2011.

Collaborative Fund-Raising Activit Essay

The Phoenix Homeless Agency (PHA) needs to increase funding to continue funding job counseling to qualifying recipients. While they regularly access traditional contracts and grants, the economy has increased the need for services immensely and required them to look for other sources. The Executive Director and Board of Directors have begun their search by using the internet, other agencies, and community networking. They have decided that there are three options that would yield revenue while also keeping costs under control so that they have money left over for their program; appealing to local government officials, contacting local businesses for donations, and holding a strong public donation campaign. First, by contacting local government officials the agency may access information about funding that is available to community agencies that are not related to federal or state traditional grants and contracts. These may include United Way, connections to people who may wish to donate, grants from large out-of the area businesses and foundations, or city donations to help people find work. They may also employ grant writers who may be able to help organization understand the locating and writing process to achieve better results. Second, local businesses are often feeling the pinch of the economy as hard as individuals. They understand that people need help and will donate products to be sold in exchange for tax donation credit. These donations could either be sold or used within the program; either raising money by their sale or saving the program money, respectively. Ultimately, the people they help may become their future employees and/or consumers; people remember who helped them when they were in dire straights. Auctions, in-kind trade of services, and door-to-door product sales may raise money which can be helpful in the continuation of the program with very little if any cost. Lastly, the option to run a strong donation drive within the community may be quite successful. This agency has been helping the local people for many years and many will wish to see it continue its work. At a time when support may be needed the most, communities tend to rally behind local agencies rather than donate to larger, more nationally-based organizations because they can see the way their money is being spent. Asking people for money is never a pleasant or easy task, but when the option is ceasing to exist, it must be done. Appealing to individuals helps pull the community together and provides much needed assistance to agencies.

Short Writing and Discussion Topics for ESL

The idea of this exercise is to get students to quickly write about a topic they choose (or you assign). These short presentations are then used in two manners; to generate spontaneous conversations on a wide range of topics, and to take a look at some common writing problems. Aim: Working on common writing mistakes - generating conversation Activity: Short intensive writing exercise followed by a discussion Level: Intermediate to upper-intermediate Outline Variation 1: Tell students that they will have exactly five minutes (reduce or extend the writing time as you feel is appropriate) to write about a subject on the list that you are going to give them.Variation 2: Cut the list of topics into strips and hand a different topic to each student. Tell students that they will have exactly five minutes (reduce or extend the writing time as you feel is appropriate) to write about the topic you have given them.Explain that students shouldnt worry about their writing style, but, rather, they should focus on quickly writing down their feelings about the topic they have chosen (or you have assigned).Have each student read what he or she has written to the class. Ask the other students to write down two questions based on what they hear.Have the other students ask questions about what they have heard.During the course of this exercise, take notes on common mistakes that occur in student writings.At the close of this exercise, discuss the common mi stakes you have taken not of with the students. In this manner, no student feels singled out and all students benefit from learning about typical writing mistakes. Writing Storms The best thing to happen to me today The worst thing to happen to me today Something funny that happened to me this week What I really hate! What I really like! My favorite thing A surprise I had A landscape A building A monument A museum A memory from childhood My best friend My boss What is friendship? A problem I have My favorite TV show My son My daughter My favorite grandparent