Strategic Choise Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Strategic Choise - Essay Example Porter's Generic Strategies model (Porter, 1985) illustrated that competitive scope is to be either, focused on the whole market, or a narrow segment of the available market. In addition, the model emphasised that only two effective marketing strategies existed: lowest product costs or high-perceived value by the customer (differentiation) (Macmillan & Tampoe, 2000). The model depicts three generic strategies: 1) cost leadership; 2) differentiation; and 3) focus on a target market. The least attractive strategy is one that takes the middle ground between two options. For example, British Airways (BA) uses a differentiation strategy (Johnson & Scholes, 1999). "The "BA Way" business strategy actively engages with employees, shareholders, customers and the community (Johnson & Scholes, 1999). During 2004-2005 BA experienced an increase of 3.3% in revenue. In contrast, Adria Airlines' Customer Relationship Management strategy focuses on quality and the personal touch, according to Porter 's model would be focusing on a target market (Adria Airways, 2004). In contrast to Porter's model Adria experienced an increase in production and administrative costs of 12% during 2003-2004 (Adria Airways, 2004). Both airlines are concerned with only a narrow segment of the airline market, yet neither benefited substantially from their strategic choice. Bowman's Strategy Clock model (Macmillan & Tampoe, 2000) is comparable to Porter's model in that he also categorised competitive strategy into cost leadership or degree of differentiation (Johnson & Scholes, 1999, Macmillan & Tampoe, 2000). However, Bowman's model extended Porter's by incorporating a "hybrid" strategy that represented an optimal balance between perceived customer value and price. This provides an organisation with three broad strategies that exist on a continuum: 1) low cost and low value as perceived by the customer (i.e., generic brands); 2) "good value" products that find balance between price and value; and 3) high cost and high perceived value items (i.e., luxury goods) (Macmillan & Tampoe, 2000). Bowman's model is much more reflective of the 21st century marketing environment, in that many organisations specialise in providing products and services that blend low cost and high differentiation (Macmillan & Tampoe, 2000). For example, British Airways could be co nsidered to be using the hybrid strategy of Bowman's, as its business strategy seeks to lower costs yet differentiate itself by way of increasing its engagement with stakeholders (British Airways, 2005). According to Porter's model, this would be a weak strategy as it combines two generic strategies (i.e., cost leadership and differentiation). Adria Airlines Customer Relationship Management strategy (Adria Airways, 2004), could be considered to be in Bowman's category of focused differentiation, due to its provision of seasonal charter services, and personal high quality services. So that the higher price of their product also has perceived added value for a select target market. This category reflects Porter's generic category of differentiated focus for a narrow competitive strat

Project Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 3

Project Management - Essay Example Earliest Finish Time (EFT) = Earliest Start Time (EST) + Duration Latest Start Time (LST) is calculated by adding float to LST of the critical activity in the group. Latest Start Time (LFT) = Latest Start Time (EST) of critical activity + total float Latest Finish Time (LFT) is calculated by adding duration to LST of the activity. Latest Finish Time (LFT) = Latest Start Time (LST) + Duration Total Float is calculated by subtracting The Earliest Start time (EST) and duration from Latest Finish Time (LFT). Total float = LFT - EST - duration 2) Explain how you determined the project duration and the critical path In order to calculate the project duration, we first need to identify critical path. A critical path is the one that holds series of dependable activities which as whole gives the longest time to complete the project and these activities within critical path are called critical activities. In other words, it is series of activities with â€Å"Zero total Float† (Newell, 2 005). ... Time Required Immediate Predecessor Activities EST EFT LFT LST (days) A 4 - 0 4 4 0 B 5 A 4 9 12 7 C 4 A 4 8 12 8 D 8 A 4 12 12 4 E 6 A 4 10 12 6 F 2 A 4 6 12 10 G 13 B,C,D,E,F 12 25 25 12 H 8 G 25 33 33 25 I 7 H 33 40 40 33 J 6 H 33 39 40 34 K 8 I,J 40 48 48 40 L 13 K 48 61 61 48 M 9 L 61 70 70 61 N 4 M 70 74 74 70 O 5 B 9 14 86 81 P 12 N 74 86 86 74 Q 2 O,P 86 88 88 86 PROJECT DURACTION 88 DAYS    Critical Path 3) If the project starts on the Monday 7 January 2013, what is the earliest date it can be completed using a 5 working day week? Assume no holidays. If the project starts on the Monday 7 January 2013 On the basis of 88 days of total project duration, the earliest date when the project can be completed is the 8th of May, 2013. The date is calculated by counting 88 days from 7 January, 2013 excluding Saturday and Sunday. 4) If the following happened what would be the effect on the duration of the whole project? a) Activity B is delayed 1 day. Activity B is not a critical act ivity and has total float of 3 days, 1 day delay during activity B will not affect the duration of the whole project. b) Activity P is delayed 1 day. As activity P it is a critical activity, a 1 day delay during activity P will increase the duration of the whole project by 1 day, thereby making it to 89 days. c) Activity O is delayed 2 day. Activity B is not a critical activity and has a total float of 72 days, 1 day delay during activity B will not affect the duration of the whole project. 5) Limitations of network diagrams The main limitation of a Network diagram is: do not clearly show time line for a project, it is difficult to update, do not lead to easy distribution and the tools can be expensive to acquire. TASK 2 Abstract The project management main goal is delivering a project