Holographic Technology

In 1989, Robert Zemicks made a movie starring Michael J. Fox called Back to the Future Part II. Unlike its predecessor, this film saw the protagonist Marty McFly, not going into the past to right wrongs and alter his family history, but going into the future to step in and prevent his children’s terrible fate. Comedy and flux capacitor aside, Zemeciks’ future shows several technological advances that captured the imaginations of not only the generation who were of age at the time of the films release but also generations since.Today, someone has crafted self lacing Nikes, tablet devices, and the hoverboard technology seen in the film is being researched. One stand out piece of tech that is often referenced, other than the flying car, was the holographic shark that jumps out from a marquee and tries to eat Marty. Despite the rudimentary appearance of the Jaws shark that tries to virtually take Mr. McFly’s life, it indeed is an interesting idea. Holographic Technol ogy: The Future of MultimediaHolographic technology is nothing new to the world of science fiction but with today’s technological advancements science fiction is moving off the screen an into our every days lives with holograms following suit. Several companies worldwide have beuan research and implementation of this exciting new 3D tech. This new technology offers an array of possible applications ranging from interactive learning experiences, highly engaging entertainment experiences and an entirely new way to present graphics and multimedia elements.I will research how holographic technology works to better understand what is behind the tech itself, the major players producing holographic technology to learn about where we are with the current state of holographic technology, look into the more cutting edge iterations of holograms to see where the technology is heading to be aware of what can be expected in the future and finally explore the ways that holographic technolog y applies to our field to enhance and revolutionize the possibilities of multimedia technology.

The organisation of the sales force

The organisation of the sales force The value of the sales force in any business organization is indispensable. The sales people play a critical role as they convince consumers to purchase products of an organization.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The organisation of the sales force specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More However, it is important to organize the sales force in a manner that supports an organization on various fronts. Specifically, the organization of the sales force should support the pursuit of an organisation’s goals. Structuring follows a well laid down strategy. The structuring of any department is done based on the strategies, objectives, and goals of an organization. Objectives of structuring include getting results from customers, developing new businesses, retaining or increasing current business and increasing customer loyalty. Primarily, sales strategies seek to present solutions to problems that arise from advertising, rei nforce the importance of advertising, creating product value, dominating the supply channels and embracing innovation (Katzenbach and Smith, 2003). Sales management strategies differ depending on various circumstances. As an illustration, an organization may decide to use supply pricing vs. demand pricing. Alternatively, a differentiated or commodity approach may be used. Other approaches such as cross-platform versus single medium, innovative versus traditional, numbers-oriented versus results oriented, etc are used. The realization that a number of variables influence sales implies that structuring the sales departments is a complex task. Customer-Oriented sales force structure One approach that is useful in organizing sales people is based on customer orientation (Kleinman, 2009). This implies that organisations may decide to structure the sales force in a way that lays emphasis on the customer. In this regard, an organization may develop a product-oriented or customer-oriented s tructure.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Therefore, an organization using this approach may organize the sales staff depending on the type of customers. In this scenario, an organization would have retail sales teams, agency sales teams, national sales teams, etc. Organizing the sales team by category is another form of customer-oriented structuring. As an illustration, magazines and newspaper sales departments are organized in terms of categories. More precisely, there are such categories as retail, automotive, jewellery, etc. However, in most cases, large sales departments are organized as verticals or categories. The advantage of using this structure lies on the notion that it enables the salespeople in each group to develop into experts in the respective categories. This structure allows the sales people to be more knowledgeable regarding customer businesses a nd more informed on trends in the industry. An organization’s compensation system influences the structuring of the sales teams into categories. By way of illustration, most organizations pay their sales staff by commission. The commissions are directly related to the volume of sales. It is thus evident that such a system rewards individual performance. Consequently, organizations that offer individual rewards do not encourage the use of category marketing. Category marketing is not preferred in organizations as some categories stand to benefit more than others as different products sell at different rates. The customer-oriented sales structure has a negative part as customers coming from different regions may force sales representatives to spend more resources and time travelling to meet. Product-Oriented sales force structure The products a firm deals in influences the organization of sales staff. By way of illustration, the nature of a product may force a radio network to have different sales teams. Such teams would include a daytime sales group, a prime sales group, a sports sales group, a late night sales group, etc. Regarding a newspaper network such as the Sunday Times, there are multiple products including the Sunday Times magazine and the Sunday paper, hence, the sales staff may be structured based on the product and later by category. Categories are determined based on the product teams.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The organisation of the sales force specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The span of control is an important factor that influences the structuring of sales teams. The span of control has six variables. The variables include sales manager experience, sales person experience, necessary interaction, sales person personality, job scope and task complexity (Ingram, 2008). In reference to the span of control, important questions centre on the number of people who report to a manager. In this regard, job complexity should be considered. Task complexity depends upon such factors as deal, number of categories and proximity of the customer. It is noticeable that some sales tasks are relatively simple as small transactions are involved, for example, transacting a classified advertisement is possibly handled using a telephone conversation. However transacting cross-platform deals is not easy. This view is held since the latter transaction demands more negotiation sessions while the former may not require more than one session. It is thus clear that the second deal requires more preparation. In addition, the location of customers influences the structuring of the sales force. As an illustration, if retailers are close to a newspaper office, then the sellers do not need to travel long distances. Apart from job complexity, job scope affects the structuring of the sales people. In regards to the scope of job, such aspects as the buying cycle, the nature of c ustomer and nature of product are examined. It is important to note that some sales tasks have a limited focus. Such seals as those involving radio advertising may require little preparation or none at all. On the other hand, other some sales may require cross-platform selling which may involve the use of several advertising media. These are sales tasks that have a higher level of complexity and require advanced preparations. It is thus evident that complex jobs demand extra work and may influence the structuring of sales people. This underscores the point that the more complex a product is, the more complex advertising is, and thus this affects the structure of the sales team. More precisely, complex sales require more support staff (Ingram, 2008).Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Regarding necessary interaction, it is worth noting that some jobs require minimum while other call for maximum attention. Sales work demand different levels of interaction between a sales representative and a manager. Some jobs may require constant contact while others do not. As an illustration, a sales representative dealing in a short business cycle where there are high-level negotiations, interaction with the manager is frequently done within short periods. Such would not be the case when a sales person is handling straightforward products that do not require negotiations (Ingram, 2008). The level of experience a sales person holds is crucial in the structuring of the sales force. Those people who have lengthy experience in sales do not need to keep constant contact with management regarding what to do. Thus, a sales executive dealing with experienced sales representatives are allowed a broader scope of control (Ingram, 2008). The approach is useful when dealing in products tha t are produced using sophisticated technologies. The structuring also depends on whether products are interrelated or not. Precisely, every sales team is assigned a responsibility of selling specific products. Geographic-oriented sales force structure The geographic-oriented sales approach presents another way of organizing the sales force within an organization. In this approach, an organization segments its target market into regions (Katzenbach and Smith, 2003). After the segmentation, each region, district, country or any other geographical division is assigned a sales representative or a group of sales representatives. Dividing a market into regions and assigning the divisions to sales representatives is valuable as such helps in improving communication and interaction between organizations and sales representatives. Additionally, the notion that a sales representative is engaged within a specific region supports the view that costs are reduced since travelling is limited. It s hould also be noted that assigning specific people to deal with regions helps such personnel to understand the preferences of customers within the areas of operation. Such an understanding is invaluable since the sales people are able to convey the customer preferences and views to the producers. Based on the information gathered and forwarded to the management by the sales people, the organisations in question have the opportunity to respond by producing products that meet the customers’ specifications. In the process, an organisation benefits from increased sales. Despite the establishment above that organisations gain from geographic-based sales force, it is worth noting that disadvantages abound. As an example, it is difficult to have a homogenous group in any region. This implies that the demand for products in a region is never uniform since customers are spread across various classes. As such, using the geographic-based approach is not helpful in understanding the diff erent classes of consumers because the sales staff may be tempted to lump the consumers of a region into one group. Combination-based sales force structure The fourth approach to organizing the sales force is combination-based. Just as the name suggests, it is possible to put the three approaches together in order to help structure or restructure the sales force (Katzenbach and Smith, 2003). This approach is predominantly preferable in cases where organizations offer different products to various groups of people in a big region. Alternatively, the approach is useful when a business entity focuses on various customers or products within a specific location. By way of illustration, in a bid to underscore a product’s strategic value or to position the product strategically and avoid other products distracting the sales people, an organization should structure the sales force based on the particular product while sales groups of other products are organized bearing in mind the g eography. In embracing this approach, an organization stands a chance to avoid facing the disadvantages associated with the other three approaches. However, it is notable that this approach requires the recruitment of a big number of sales people and as such, the approach is suitable for large enterprises. Using a combination of the sales approaches is very important. Such an approach would ensure that all needs of the different customers are taken into consideration irrespective of the location. Important observations Central to the idea of organizing sales teams is the pursuit of organizational goals as indicated in the introductory part of the paper. This follows from the premise that the way an organization structures its sales force has a bearing on the performance of a business entity. It is expected that the right marketing structure is necessary if any a business is to realize its goals. Right from the initial stages, organizations focus on setting up their sales teams in a manner that is aimed at maximizing sales, improving customer experience and encouraging repeat purchases. Every important manager should take responsibility regarding the association between a consumer and the business. Towards achieving this goal, the manager makes an effort to ensure that customer concerns are addressed by keeping close contact. It would thus emerge based on this observation that the marketing arrangement is intended to foster customer contact and improve a business’ fortunes. It is noticeable that in small businesses, marketing is in most cases structured as a supportive service for sales. This implies that employees report to those individuals that head the sales department. This approach may work well although the marketing strategy is likely to suffer, as other activities involving market research are likely to be relegated to the periphery. However, by structuring an entity with combined sales personnel, a business is in a position to minimize such ris ks. The choice of the structure used in organizing the sales force lies with organizational managers. However, irrespective of the structure an organization chooses, the role of communication is important. This is because, feedback from customers is sought in order to improve services or products. In addition, market research is crucial as it facilitates gathering of competitor intelligence that is useful in helping the sales teams to hone their skills. Conclusion The sales management team is responsible for organizing the sales force. As this essay establishes, the management has the option of organizing the sales force geographically, based on the products sold, based on customer focus or combining these models. Using the geographical structuring approach, sales representatives occupy specific geographical divisions. Although, this approach is cheap as it lowers expenses, it may pose problems since geographical sales representatives do not have a good opportunity to understand ful ly all products offered. Secondly, the use of the product-based approach allows the structuring of a sales force based on special expertise. This approach is useful as it allows only specialized sales people to deal in certain products or respond to needs of special customers. Further, the approach facilitates learning and enables the sales personnel to develop their knowledge on the products in question. Using the customer-oriented approach, an organization gets the chance to align its sales with customer requirements. Based on the paper it emerges that each approach has its benefits and setbacks. In a bid to mitigate the drawbacks that characterize each approach, it is proposed that organizations consider using a combined approach to organizing the sales force. However, only big organizations have the necessary resources to use the combined approach and as thus, it may not be a solution to small organizations. Before choosing the model to embrace in business, it is important for a ny organisation to establish the goals it seeks to achieve. After taking the first step, it is valuable to align the structuring approach with the goals being pursued. Additionally, the size of the business and the costs likely to be incurred should be considered while making the choice of the right structure. As the paper establishes, each approach has its strengths and weaknesses and it is thus important to weigh them. In conclusion, taking the combined approach is preferable although the model may be out of reach for the small organisations. Reference List Ingram, T.N. et al. (2008). Sales Management: Analysis and Decision Making. Armonk, Town of North Castle, New York: M.E. Sharpe. Katzenbach, J.R. Smith, D.K. (2003). The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Kleinman, D. (2009). All Star Sales Teams: 8 Steps to Spectacular Success UsingGoals, Values, Vision, and Rewards: Easy Read Comfort. New York: Read.

The strategy change of ROS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The strategy change of ROS - Essay Example There are two different views about the nature of change and the extent to which change affects organizations. One is incremental change and the other is transformational change. Change should not be done for the sake of change but it is a strategy to accomplish some overall goal. Usually organizational change is provoked by some major outside driving force, e.g., substantial cuts in funding, address major new markets/clients, need for dramatic increases in productivity/services, etc. Typically, organizations must undertake organization-wide change to evolve to a different level in their life cycle, e.g., going from a highly reactive, entrepreneurial organization to more stable and planned development. Transition to a new chief executive can provoke organization-wide change when his or her new and unique personality pervades the entire organization. By far the most sort of change in organizations is incremental change. There are some arguably views that it is beneficial for the nature of change in an organization to be incremental. Incremental change will build on the skills, routines and beliefs of those in the organization, so that change is efficient and likely to win their commitment. (Johnson &Scholes 2002). Incremental change focus on ‘doing things better’ through a process of continuous tinkering, adaptation and modification. Change in these periods builds on what has already been accomplished and has the flavors of continuous improvement. For transformational change, it is regarded mostly as fundamental, dramatic and large scale. It involves changing one or more assumptions in the organizational paradigm and with it the values of the organization. Transformational change could be seen as a means of marking out current thinking and practice as novel and different. It involves a break with the past, a step function change rather than an extrapolation of past patterns of change and development.

Social Impact of Tourism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Social Impact of Tourism - Essay Example In addition to the misrepresentation of identity, changes may occur in community structure, family relationships, shared customary life styles, services and ethics (Din, 1988). Tourism can cause positive social impact as well by means of supporting for peace, promoting cultural traditions and helping circumvent urban repositioning by creating local jobs. Socio-cultural impact becomes indistinct when various cultures meet at the single point of intersection as it may be perceived by some of the groups as positive whereas it may be perceived as negative by some of the groups as well. This paper aims at finding out the social impacts of tourism. Tourism has positive impact on environmental condition. Tourism has the capability to encourage social development by virtue of employment creation, capital distribution and poverty mitigation (web link 6). Travelling is an influential dynamic element that brings individual into get in touch with another individual and a culture into the contact with another culture, as tourism consists of learning element, it may provide knowledge among individuals and cultures and offer cultural exchange among hosts and guests. This eventually results in increasing mutual understanding, mutual respect and in reducing the reciprocated prejudices for each other. - Reinforcement of communities Tourism may adjoin to the strength of communities in several fashions. Example includes the events or carnivals during which the local inhabitants may play the role of primary participants and the spectators may participate as the secondary components and revitalize the events which are further progressed by the interaction of tourist interest. Tourism industry can create jobs that contribute as a vital enticement in order to decline in emigration from country areas. Local individuals as well as local events can contribute in the development of tourism industry and enhance their job and production prospect by means of receiving tourism related professional training as well as business and organizational skills development. - Benefits received by local residents as a result of facilities provided by tourism sector Tourism focuses on the development of services inclusive of communal public services to entertainment services which eventually brings in higher living standards in the local sector of the target destination. The uplifting of standards may include in an improvement in infrastructure, enhancement in health sector and transportation, introducing new recreational facilities, restaurants, and public sectors as well as an arrival of improved commodities and food (Cohen, 1984; Pizam, 1978). - Revaluation of culture and traditions Tourism can enhance the safeguarding and conduction of cultural and historical practices, by means of contributing to the preservation and prolonged management of natural possessions, the conservation of local traditions, as well as a revolution of aboriginal culture, arts and crafts. - Encouragement of civic involvement and pride Tourism has a great impact in raising mass awareness about natural resources and its financial value as well as about cultural significance. Additionally, it may also arouse a feeling of pride in local and national traditions and may encourage

Media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 3

Media - Essay Example They target almost everyone. In the recent past, advertisers have tremendously shifted their focus to children. Eric Schlosser’s through his article tries to bring to our attention how today child advertising is in high note through the various tactics marketers and advertisers are using to get today children to always want and thus in that context demand for their products (Schlosser 356). Eric brings to our attention that advertisers know that if the children saw their advertisement and which are appealing to them, they will with no doubt nag their parent to get the products for them. Again, through the article, we find how advertisers have begun using catching songs and cartoon characters to attract children. Today’s young generation have changed tremendously through media especially through advertisements, as observed by Eric Schlosser’s essay, today even products that young children at their tender age, who are not allowed to access some products such as cig arettes, companies are still coming with ways of developing unique advertisements that are aimed at targeting the children. These companies intelligently achieve this by changing the packaging around these products and go a step further to ensure that they develop iconic symbols on these products so that the children will recognize them even in future. This, they do putting in mind that even though the children will not necessarily access this at young age they will with no doubt remember them from the same advertisements they saw years ago when they were still young. Clearly it is with no doubt that that media has more negatives than positives effects on today’s young people. As a matter of fact, it is in my opinion that media has a tremendously negatives effects on our young children (Johnson 2011). From the article â€Å"Television: The Plug-In Drug† by Marie Winn, we find that today, the television has invaded most family both in known and unknown territories. This is characterized with wake up, go to school, watch television and thereafter retire to bed and this is the pattern in many families today. Almost every family today has a television set on their household and this has led many families dynamic to suffer. Watching television has clearly become the norm in almost every family today and this is leading to loss of touch such the quality of sharing a meal together, going out on holiday and vacations (Winn 457). Television has unknowingly eliminated most of the individuality enjoyed aspect of families and has in turn managed to create a boring uniformity, which is experienced with all families that watches the television. Television also affects how today’s children communicate with other people in the society, it’s evident that a child who spend his/her all day indoors watching television will have difficulties in maintaining eye conducts, and even of great concern failure to maintain conversations and even trust the same people in the society. I strongly believe that in today’s world the media is changing our young people, the family as a whole and even culture and more so education. As observed from Marie Winn’s article, television is invading many families; it is interfering with our today’s culture and eroding most of the family’s rituals in a faster way. Today television denies the families an opportunity to share their daily experiences and in return build their

Annual Day Essay Example for Free

Annual Day Essay Field trips: Post office, Super market, Traffic Signal, Fire station, Horse stable, Plant nursery, etc. Goals: The goal of MapleBear schools is to establish an enthusiasm for learning and knowledge in young children that will serve as a foundation for future success in the education system and in life. In development of the MapleBear program, we have drawn on the best practices in early childhood teaching and learning. MapleBear recognizes that literacy in English is absolutely fundamental to a childs success in English medium schools. The MapleBear Methodology is based on the well established principle that children learn through experience and exploration. The program reinforces and builds on this positive attitude by offering varied stimulating and enjoyable experiences. The knowledge and skills that children acquire by the end of kindergarten, along with positive attitudes to learning that children develop in these early years form the basis of effective learning in later years of school. Aim: This year our aim is Accelerate Success. We have had a very strong growth year in 2010 and we are continuing to build momentum as we enter 2011. Our vertical segment focus is our children’s key elements en route to their success, Success as your child defines it. Our strategy is working, towards the need of our children resulting in their overall development . Our Facilitators will have a number of opportunities to learn more about our well proven curriculum and its execution. We will share with you our roadmaps, which will allow you to interact, involve and participate as parents. In the past year, we have achieved our mile stones and are setting much more aggressive mile stones for this year. We are open for ideas, suggestions feedback from you. We want to Initiate, Analyze and Implement. To do this, we need Innovation, freshness. Please partner with us in this journey to Accelerate your child’s Success.

The Customer Supply Chain Business Essay

The Customer Supply Chain Business Essay The report consists of a project entitled Pillsbury: Customer Driven Reengineering undertaken as a part of the course curriculum for the subject Business Process Reengineering (BPR). As a part of this project, after reading the case, a discussion took place between all the group members so as to clearly identify the problem definition. As a next step, discussion of the various issues faced by Pillsbury were discusses followed by the evaluation of the efforts undertaken by it. Competitive pressures, technology advances, and demanding consumer preferences were causing all companies in the food industry to reexamine their operations and attempt to eliminate waste and inefficiency throughout the food chain. The Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) effort was a multi-industry project, ECRs goals were to reduce costs and drive inventory levels down throughout the system, while simultaneously enhancing capabilities to meet the needs of diverse consumer market segments. Pillsbury executives were unsure whether their company was prepared for the new ECR environment. So, this report basically includes the entire experience involved in undertaking the planning of BPR at Pillsbury and the various phases it went through during the transition and the challenge faced by it i.e. whether to go for a continuous improvement program having a short term view or a redesign of processes which was more futuristic. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY To understand the practical implementation of BPR classroom concepts To understand the degree of complexity involved in planning BPR implementation To understand the importance of customer driven reengineering approach in order to adopt a pull strategy for the entire supply chain i.e. better matching Pillsburys purchasing, manufacturing, and distribution operations to consumers purchases To understand how to use the available resources in an optimum manner To understand the implications of a continuous improvement program Vs Redesign of processes. To understand the importance and criticality of various performance measures like ABC costing. COMPANY INTRODUCTION Pillsbury  is a brand name used by  Minneapolis-based  General Mills  and  Orrville, Ohio-based  J.M. Smucker Company. Historically, the  Pillsbury Company, also based in Minneapolis, was a rival company to General Mills and was one of the worlds largest producers of  grain  and other foodstuffs until it was bought-out by General Mills in 2001.  Antitrust  law required General Mills to sell off some of the products. General Mills kept the rights to refrigerated and frozen Pillsbury products, while dry  baking  products and frosting are now sold by Smucker under license. Leo Burnett  who created Pillsburys  Doughboy  and  Jolly Green Giant  considers them two of the agencys top five brand icons. ProdPack-Pillsbury-Cakemix-Small.jpg NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS Pillsbury once claimed to have the largest grain  mill  in the world at the  Pillsbury A Mill  overlooking  Saint Anthony Falls  on the  Mississippi River  in Minneapolis. The building had two of the most powerful direct-drive  waterwheels  ever built, each putting out 1200  horsepower  (900  kW). There are now plans to convert it into a loft-style apartment building. The Cunningham Group plans to convert six historic buildings to a mixed-use project varying from 6 to 27 floors in height. The project will include 895 units of housing and 175,000 square feet (16,300  m2) of commercial space, including the Pillsbury A Mill. HISTORY The company originated in 1869 when  Charles A. Pillsbury  bought a share in a Minneapolis flour mill. After the purchase of additional mills and the introduction of enhancements to the milling process, his firm was reorganized in 1872 as C.A. Pillsbury and Company. It was sold in 1889 to an English syndicate, which merged Pillsbury with other mills in their holdings to form Pillsbury-Washburn Flour Mills Company, Ltd., with Charles Pillsbury as managing director. The Pillsbury family regained ownership of the company in the 1920s, and it was incorporated as Pillsbury Flour Mills Company in 1935. In 1972 Pillsbury began purchasing  Burger King fast-food outlets, and it soon came to own the entire chain. Through the  Green Giant Company, acquired in 1979, it began marketing canned and frozen vegetables and frozen prepared foods. It also acquired Hà ¤agen-Dazs, maker of premium ice cream and frozen yogurt, in 1983. Pillsbury was owned by British company Grand Metropolitan, PLC (renamed Diageo PLC) from 1989 to 2001, when  General Mills  acquired most of Pillsburys assets (Burger King remained as a separate division of Diageo until 2002). The Hà ¤agen-Dazs brand was marketed through a joint licensing agreement with  Nestlà ©Ã‚  and General Mills. PRODUCTS The company manufactures a wide variety of consumer food products under the Pillsbury brand, including frozen biscuits and rolls, breakfast foods, cookie dough, cake mixes, and snack foodhttp://s3.amazonaws.com/gmi-digital-library/8b86b131-cccf-4292-b584-d216cf00fdd7.jpgBiscuitsBreads Grands! ® Cinnamon RollsCinnamon RollsBuffalo Chicken Crescent PuffsReady To Bake! ® Partner BrandsStrawberry Marshmallow Pie Biscuits, pies, flour, pizza crust, cookies, crescents, cinnamon rolls and various partner brands like Green Giant and Cascadian Farm. CASE INTRODUCTION Pillsbury entered Customer Driven reengineering initiative expecting to achieve significant levels of cost reduction and efficiency. To its delight, it also discovered a new way to compete. Competitive pressures, technology advances, and demanding consumer preferences were causing all companies in the food industry to reexamine their operations and attempt to eliminate waste and inefficiency throughout the food chain. The Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) effort was a multi-industry project .ECRs goals were to reduce costs and drive inventory levels down throughout the system, while simultaneously enhancing capabilities to meet the needs of diverse consumer market segments. Pillsbury executives were unsure whether their company was prepared for the new ECR environment. The executives perceived that Pillsbury lacked several critical capabilities to win in this new environment. In 1991, Dan Crowley as Controller of Green Giant, had launched an activity-based cost (ABC) initiative to examine the groups high cost structure. The study revealed startling plant-to-plant variations in costs for essentially the same process, large dispersion of actual costs from the companys standard cost per case. In August 1993, Crowley and Slocumb took a BPR proposal to CEO, Paul Walshs, Strategy and Policy Group, which comprised the division presidents of Pillsburys major business units and the top functional department heads. The proposal identified a process which would complement Pillsburys existing strategic plan to achieve top quartile financial performance amongst its strategic peers. The case describes the various efforts undertaken by Pillsbury during this transition and the various phases of the reengineering problem detailing various activities undertaken in every phase. The major challenge faced has been a choice between redesign of processes or continuous improvement because the target set in the earlier stages seemed a bit too achievable in the later stages NEED FOR REENGINEERING Customers perceived Pillsbury as an average company, not the best, not the worst, and without much innovation. John Mann, Senior Vice President and General Sales Manager, and another newcomer to the Pillsbury senior management team, concurred with McWilliams assessment: We were viewed as a laid-back Midwestern company, one that found it difficult to create a sense of urgency.McWilliams felt that Pillsbury had to become a different company if it was to change the perception of customers. Pillsbury executives were unsure whether their company was prepared for the new ECR environment. The executives perceived that Pillsbury lacked several critical capabilities to win in this new environment. First, the company was still organized according to traditional functional lines: purchasing, operations, distribution, finance, and marketing and sales. This organization led to local excellence and optimization of the individual functions but not necessarily to the optimization of the entire value chain. Second, the companys financial measurements and performance measurement system reinforced local optimization. The food market had become fragmented and the majority decisions taken by the consumer were made in the retail environment diluting the effect of the brand image. Thus Pillsbury had another challenge to transform its arms length relationship with the retailers (transaction based) to relationship oriented. DRIVERS FOR BPR AT PILLSBURY Highly competitive environment. Pillsbury lacking the necessary capabilities to compete in such environment. Lack of optimization of the entire value chain. The need to transform the arms length relationship with the retailers. To have an Information system to enable fact based marketing To develop a customer driven supply chain i.e. transition from push to pull strategy of supply chain Eye opening results of activity based costings. The project team prepared the classic ABC whale curve which showed a few product lines producing all the profits, with the remaining SKUs either breaking-even or losing money. Based on the insights from the ABC analysis, Green Giant management closed about a half dozen plants and consolidated operations more efficiently in the remaining plants. Crowley then took on a broader finance role within Pillsbury as Operations Controller and extended the ABC analysis to many of the dough manufacturing plants. Pillsbury now had good insights about the cost drivers for its cost of goods sold. The weak link was developing comparable information for its warehouse, sales, marketing, and promotion expenses. It had no ability to trace these expenses to its customers so that it could produce individual customer PLs. Skepticism that TQM was delivering its promised benefits to the PL bottom line within a reasonable time frame. For example, an internal study compared companies known to have adopted TQM principles with a control sample of non- TQM companies. The study found no discernible difference in financial performance between the two sets of companies. PROCESS MAPPINGS VISION: Crowley and Slocumbs vision of a potential for 15% cost improvement (about $300 million) in a staid and mature food processing company was met with some understandable skepticism and disbelief. Despite that, Walsh and his management team provided to Crowley and Slocumb a modest budget and 90 days to develop a business case to determine whether a $300 million cost reduction was possible. Crowley was appointed to a new position, Vice President for Customer Driven Reengineering, and Slocumb became Vice President for Business Process Reengineering. The business case was to focus on cost and margin improvements in three major divisions: Pillsbury branded products, the Green Giant products, and the frozen pizza businesses. These businesses had $2.5 billion of sales in Fiscal Year 1994. Reengineering: Phase I The Pillsbury team selected a consulting firm to work with them to help build the business case. Three months of analysis led to identifying three core business processes that offered targets for improvement: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Customer Supply Chain à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Brand Management à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ New Product Commercialization The Customer Supply Chain (CSC) was decomposed into three sub-processes: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Total Customer Development à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Fast Flow Demand Replenishment à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Value Based Sourcing and Supply The team then proceeded to identify the opportunities for process improvement within each of the three CSC sub-processes. C:UsersdellDesktop9-c89015168d.jpg C:UsersdellDesktop10-19289f286e.jpg Value Based Sourcing And Supply The third CSC sub-process, Value Based Sourcing and Supply, focused on Pillsburys extremely complex system of vendors and sourcing arrangements for its more than $500 million of raw material purchases. Historically, Pillsbury had reduced its material costs by exerting price pressure on its suppliers. Further gains from such price pressure were considered limited. The project team believed that more flexible and robust ingredient specification would allow them to select more efficient vendors, and that additional gains could be realized by leveraging vendor resources and knowledge. To gain these benefits, however, vendors would have to become partners with Pillsbury in a total cost reduction process. Cost savings from Value Based Sourcing and Supply were estimated at about $40 million (around 8% of purchases), plus savings in working capital reduction of about $14million. Outputs of phase 1: A business plan that promised margin improvements through cost reductions and revenue enhancements of more than $100 million, plus reductions in working capital of about $25 million. Reengineering: Phase II Phase II was launched in January 1994 to determine whether the business case developed in Phase I was feasible and realistic. About 25 Pillsbury employees, supported by the external consultants, spent four months analyzing customer data bases on more than 100 top accounts, conducted in-depth interviews with key customers and suppliers, and mapping and assessing the state of all existing internal business processes in the customer supply chain. The study of internal processes revealed highly complex, time-consuming processes with dozens of handoffs, and multiple recycling of requests for decisions and resource authorizations. The customer interviews revealed that important food retailers, wholesalers, and brokers were moving aggressively forward with plans for category management. Category management promised to give retailers far more effective management capabilities over their store shelf space allocations, SKU rationalization, and demographic marketing plans. The Phase II studies confirmed the vision established at the end of Phase I (see Exhibit 17) that reengineering the customer supply chain could provide upwards of $100 million in benefits. About half would come from working more closely with customers-adopting a more focused customer segmentation strategy, targeted marketing using local demographic information on consumer purchasing behavior, and exploiting store-specific cost and profitability information to promote the most profitable mix of brands and SKUs for both Pillsbury and the local store. The other half would come from better managing Pillsburys entire supply chain-from growers and other key vendors, through manufacturing, transportation and distribution to warehouses and individual stores. It needed to take activity-based costing (ABC) down to retail store level PLs. The old financial model calculated standard costs per case and produced product line PLs. The new model will measure activity-based costs of entire processes and give Pillsbury customer PLs. Service based pricing: shifting its pricing focus so that it can charge more for special services that some of our customers may desire but that others do not want. It can define a base level of service that everyone receives, with an explicit statement of what that includes. Major change in measurement: performance measurements will need to be driven by customers and consumers expectations THE CHALLENGE In June 1994, the Pillsbury team had completed the customer analysis and was ready to move into redesign. Before the meeting to present the findings and recommendations to the Integration Committee, Slocumb expressed some concern about the current set of recommendations. The business case to achieve $100 million in cost savings and margin enhancements was then credible. But the target may be too reachable. People may obtain the $100 million in cost savings from local process improvements, not from the complete redesign of its high-level business processes that were described in Phase I. the target of $100 million had come to be the objective rather than the fundamental redesign of our Customer Supply Chain. If we get $100 million in benefits, thats certainly a worthy goal, but it will not redefine the organization. We have a choice whether to be a company with a $25 stock price, or take the actions that will take us to a $50 stock price., Tom Debrowski, Senior Vice President of Operations and Chairman of the Integration Committee DECISION Pillsbury should be re-designing the organization around customer and consumer values to create a new and sustainable competitive advantage. It should strive to be the best in providing the freshest product at the lowest cost to retailers along with unique consumer insights from its superior information systems. It can achieve the $100 million without redefining the way they do business. But to achieve the $300 million, it will have to become a very different supply organization. It will have to get the supply chain to a high level of competitive fitness by getting cost savings that will make it more efficient than its competitors, and, then generating growth through its value-added consumer insights, getting the right product to the shelf at the right time at low cost to the retailers. The largest barrier for achieving this level of competitive fitness is introducing and managing change. Multi-skilled, multi-functional teams, including finance, need to be working with our customers. SOLUTION To achieve the $300 million improvements, Pillsbury needed to approach the organization with a completely open mind, to think the unthinkable. It will force it to think completely out of the box if they are going to achieve benefits of that magnitude. They need to stop managing individual functional departments, and begin to manage core operating processes. With the old model, the manufacturer, the distributor, and the retailer each attempts to optimize its own operations. The new way, through reengineering, should enable them to optimally source raw materials, convert to finished goods, distribute to trade customers, and sell to consumers in ways that minimize total system cost. By determining who can do each process in the chain most efficiently, it can let that process get done only once, at the most efficient site. That way it can eliminate waste from the system. REENGINEERING EVALUATION The success needs the following. The Analysis, Design and Prototype yielded the pain areas and laid out the broad road maps. But implementation needs the following to be successful Senior management must drive reengineering initiatives with a well-articulated vision that is appropriate for the situation. IT is an undervalued asset that can be tapped through reengineering to transform a company from a make-and-sell-oriented enterprise to a sense-and-respond-oriented enterprise. Successful implementation of reengineering projects requires the involvement and participation of the companys managers and employees. Consultants and outsourcing are important for various aspects of a reengineering project, but they are insufficient without the buy-in from managers and professionals in the organization. Business process can be streamlined or reengineered, but to change the long-term economic picture, a transformation initiative needs to encompass the reevaluation of communication systems and the sharing of intellectual assets. The organization should have a clear target in mind, whether it is to incorporate a continuous improvement philosophy or a complete redesign of processes. AFTER EFFECTS OF REENGINEERING EFFORTS During the last three years, the entire strategic direction of the company has changed. Selling off the flour mills was an epochal event. It was a major cultural shock to many people inside and outside the organization who thought of Pillsbury as a vertically-integrated flour manufacturing company. They have demonstrated that they can become a consumer-based company that is prepared to get out of operations that do not add value. An integration of the entire value chain was the target driven by the customers leading to a pull based strategy. Information systems were to enhance the communication capabilities to incorporate fact based marketing. Major cultural change was seen with the relationship with the customers transforming from merely an arms length relationship Major improvements in expenses and profitability were expected rendering Pillsbury with the capabilities required in such competitive environment. CONCLUSION The problems initially faced by Pillsbury required a complete redesign of the processes and not merely a continuous improvement effort. Thus the decision taken by the management to extend the target to $300 million was a correct decision if a long term view was to be considered. The major changes that were to incorporated as a result of this BPR effort were necessary for Pills burry to have the necessary capabilities to compete in the highly fragmented and competitive market. The reengineering effort was well planned in various phases describing the various considerations of each phase starting with the development of a business case followed by its feasibility analysis. The areas chosen for improvement were Customer Supply Chain Brand Management New Product Commercialization These areas provided great opportunity for integration of the entire value chain and to transform into a pull based value chain with the customer as the major driver. The efforts undertaken have led to great motivation amongst all the stakeholders and they believe that Pillsbury is not a laid back organization anymore. Their customers are enthusiastic about shifting from changing the way they do business together and are willing to endorse new relationships, such as service-based pricing. LEARNINGS The importance of manufacturer-retailer relationship in this highly fragmented market. The difference in continuous improvement efforts and redesign of processes How to approach a BPR problem in a systematic way demarcating the tasks to be done in a particular order in various phases. The importance of techniques like ABC Costing and the utilization of the revelations such techniques make