Decision Modeling (Management Decision Models) 2 Assignment

Decision Modeling (Management Decision Models) 2 - Assignment Example Looking or preferring to deal or accept only one discipline may be detrimental to an individual’s worldly-wisdom (Munger & Kaufman, 2008). This is why he is against poetry professors who look at life from an unrealistic point of view. He considers them to be unwise, from a worldly point of view, which is a disastrous way to operate in the real world. Psychology may be the guide to understanding the manner in which things operate and function. According to Munger, it is impossible to be worldly-wise without psychology. When things happen around individuals, it is the role of psychology to help the individual identify this, and identify with the situation (Munger & Kaufman, 2008). If things are not happening, psychology also assists in enabling them to realize this, and adapt. Miscalculation can arise without the presence of psychology and this is why it is crucial to have it as a discipline in one’s arsenal (Mauboussin,

Executive Briefing Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Executive Briefing Paper - Essay Example A mentor can be one of employees with vast experience (in-house) or might hire a professional hired from outside the company (external) to provide guidance to employees of an organization (Lord, Atkinson, and Mitchell 2008, 16-17). Regardless of the type of mentor used, both act as role models to the employees of an organization by providing them with professional advice and guidance through which they can improve in their line of work. Research indicates that the mentorship in an organization has many benefits attached to it, which is why many organizations are eager at developing the culture. Costa Coffee is one of the U.K. companies that may benefit greatly by adopting such a culture following its number of employees who require more training for the ever-expanding business outlets that offer more challenging environment which require a high level of professionalism. This paper is an executive briefing to the management of Costa Coffee on the benefits likely to accrue to the company by adopting a mentoring culture. As earlier stated, many companies are making moves towards developing a mentoring culture within the organization. This company does so because they have realized the numerous benefits that are attached to mentoring culture according to Spencer (1999, p.8-10). Firstly, mentoring is beneficial since it is a cost effective means of training many employees so as to improve their experience. This is particularly beneficial for Costa Coffee, which has many employees spread from different stores that may require more training so as to improve them professionally (Dana 2010, p.8). The method is cost effective in the Costa Coffee will not have to send its employees for a seminar or training workshop to get training. Instead, the company can have the option of choosing a mentor from within who may be an employee with a wealth of experience in line with the area that requires more training (Lord, Atkinson, and Mitchell 2008, 16-17). Alternatively, Costa

The role of dalogue in an organization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The role of dalogue in an organization - Essay Example To retain and maintain competitiveness, organizations are increasingly faced with the task of maintaining dialogue. Organizations have to get agile and creative as they meet their communication needsIn many cases, organizational communication becomes unsustainable, and it tends to be less interactive, less inquiry, less listening, and more talking. This provides minimum room for accommodating opposingDialogue is a means of constructively dealing with opposition and conflicts. Classical diplomacy spheres dictate the needs for dialogue and negotiation skills, which form the basic repertoire in prudent management (Gergen & Barrett, 2008, p. 5). This essay highlights the role of dialogue in organizations, and it is tied to the group project-Organizational Communication Analysis, which has two parts. It aims to report on the findings from small-scale organizational communication evaluation.Organizations incorporate networks of relationships that are broken down to interpersonal interactio ns; hence communication frequently occurs in the organization. Communication is vital in organizations. For instance, people resist change because they believe their concerns and ideas lack audience. When people get the notion that there exist effective communication, and their ideas and concerns have an audience, the resistance fades or dissolves even though the ideas lack in the final resolutions (Jong & Ping, 2005, p.3). Dialogue has its roots from native traditions, and contemporary varieties of talking and spiritual circles. It allows for the creation and flow of meaning between people.

Brain Structure and Smoking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Brain Structure and Smoking - Essay Example Scientists discovered that a chain smoker suddenly lost all his interest in smoking because he suffered some damage to the brain, which altered the structure of the brain. This led scientists to believe that a brain structure deep in the brain was primarily responsible for the habit of smoking and if this can be treated the habit could be kicked very easily because then the smoker would loose all interest in smoking just as the person mentioned above lost all interest because of the stroke that altered his brain structure. Smoking is one of the highest causes of death which is preventable because most people are hooked to the highly addictive nicotine. This is just one example of how physical activities affect the brain or how the brain affects the activities of human beings, it is very vital to understand that addiction is due to structures in the brain that actually cause the addiction to nicotine, the respective brain structures will also be mentioned in the paper. Most people that are hooked on to smoking say that they want to quit smoking but do not know how to do so; this research would be very helpful in making people realize how they can quit their smoking habits and patterns to lead a much more healthy life. There are manStructures of the Brain There are many structures in the brain that affect the habits of human being, as mentioned before the brain has back up resources so some functions might be carried out by other parts if some damage occurs but if any part does get damaged then some habits are affected because there is not a back up resource for it. The insula in the brain is one such part because researchers have found out that any damage to the insula would cause people to quit smoking, they found this out by studying a man who smoked 40 cigarettes per day and he suffered a deep stroke which altered, to an extent, the brain structure and after the stroke the man felt no need to smoke at all. Smoking also has some affects on the brain which tend to damage the brain but the most damaged areas are those of the parietal and the temporal lobes, as mentioned before these lobes tend to the functions of feel and problem solving, once damage has been done to these lobes the problem solving ability decreases and also lowers t he resolve to quit smoking. There are hereditary causes of smoking as well because in a research it was indicated that there were certain receptors known as 'alpha-4, beta-2' are responsible for the 'head rush' that smokers feel when they smoke and it is believed that parents who smoke may transfer these recipients in large quantities to their children and hence this might be a cause of smoking when they children grow up and it is also thought that the initial smoking habits and patterns reflect those of the parents. The reasons for smoking in teenagers and young adults are mostly peer pressure and academic related concerns that cause them to smoke, the top most reason is not the lack of knowledge because every one knows how smoking is a cause of concern to their health's but the problem lies in how are they informed Are they just told the facts and figures or are they showed, how badly smoking can really hurt them They should be told that peer pressure is a daily phenomenon and also should be told how to

Catering Business structuring with Job Discretions and responsbilities Assignment

Catering Business structuring with Job Discretions and responsbilities - Assignment Example To assist him run the Catering Services successfully, the owner will employ an operational manager, executive chef; sue chef, deme chef, accountant, coordinator and waitress. Moreover, all the business staff will be answerable to the operational manager as he will be the one charged with managing all aspects of the business (Shiring, 2014). The operational manager will be charged with all managerial activities with the business, the accountant will be tasked with all financial responsibilities, the Chefs will be tasked with all kitchen and cooking responsibilities, the coordinator will ensure that catering operations and processes of the business are operated as expected and the waitress will ensure that guest and clients visiting the business for whatsoever purposes are satisfied and content by the serving process. All the staff of the business will be expected to deliver their very best in the different sections they will be tasked with management and failure will lead to terminati on of the contract between the staff and the business owner (Magazine, 2012). Timeliness and quality will also be a priority for the staff of the business as they will be expected to report to work within stipulated times, design meals to meet various quality standards and ensure that activities related to catering are accomplished within or before the stipulated time. Moreover, the work within the business will be evenly distributed as each and every staff of the business will have an area of responsibility which he or she will be expected to accomplish (Erdosh, 1994). In the first year, the catering business will strive to create a service-based business whose main goal is to surpass customer’s expectations of the services offered. This will mean that the business will place a lot of emphasis in providing quality than quantity and not basing on profits acquired. Most customers always

Apple Price Cut Essay Example for Free

Apple Price Cut Essay To what extent the iPhone pricing strategy is similar to the iPod pricing strategy? How do you explain that the iPod price cut did not lead to such a level of customers’ protest? Answer: Both iPhone and iPod have experienced a large amount of price cut in their product lifecycle. In this document, we can find that iPod was launched in October 2001. Tough relatively high priced for an MP3 player, it was hugely demanded and remains popular till date though there was a price slash in 2005. Similar to the price cut of the iPod, two months after the launch of the iPhone, Apple lowered the price by 200 USD. However, regarding the price strategy, a big difference between two products is the timing of price cut. iPod adjusted its price after experiencing a 4-year success from its launch in 2001, whereas iPhone drop in price in only 2 month, which is the main explanation of why the iPod price cut did not lead to such a serious level of customers’ protest. Although both price adjustments were designed for the aim to further expand in the mass market and improve the sales, we can find that the main reason for price cut of iPod is to sell more products in its declining period of product lifecycle. By contrast, the objective of price cut of iPhone is to rapidly monopoly the smart phone market in its growing period of product lifecycle, which resulted a part of Apple fans’ profits since they bought the product in a high price. 2. â€Å"Market analysts pointed out that Apple had created a strong brand and customer loyalty which it capitalized on by adopting a skimming strategy in pricing. They also felt that customers accept its highly priced products with equanimity. To go a step further, they consciously expect it to be so. What does this tell you about the value of iPhone own-price elasticity, cross-price elasticity and income elasticity? Answer: The practice of ‘price skimming’ involves charging a relatively high price for a short time where a new, innovative, or much-improved product is launched onto a market. Obviously, due to the reason that Apple had created a strong brand image by its innovation of technology and creativity of design, and loyalty of customers, particularly those Apple crazy fans, the price skimming strategy was able to work extremely well when iPhone was launched onto the market. Meanwhile, Apple’s iPhone entered the highly volatile cell phone market combining telephony, MP3, Web surfing and video watching, which completely revolutionized the tech-savvy market and was most awaited by both the technology enthusiasts and mainstream media. Therefore, the success of this strategy was largely dependent on those first adopters’ inelasticity of demand for the product either by the market as a whole. However, in the cell phone industry, where the product lifecycle is relatively short and the market is highly competitive. Before some other competing products or substitutes emerging on the market, iPhone could enjoy its high price and benefit from its â€Å"monopoly profits† in a short term where demand is relatively inelastic. Whereas in the cell phone industry, the demand from mass market is price elastic, which is the main reason that Apple needs to drop its price to increase its sales according to its mass-market strategy. In terms of cross-price elasticity, we can think about this question from two aspects: complements and substitutes. Firstly, due the reason that the demand of iPhone is price elastic in mass market, price of iPhone decrease, quantity demanded of components increases, which leads Apple to get a lower price of components from its supplier and further guarantee its gross margin of iPhone. In addition, the increase of sales also means the increase number of customer buying and renting apps from Apple’s online store. Secondly, considering substitutes, price of iPhone decrease, and quantity of competing products demanded decrease. Since the demand is price elastic, the lower production cost and increase revenue from Apple softer ware are able to recuperate the loss from cost cut. We can make the conclusion that regarding to the income elasticity, a decrease of price of iPhone has a positive impact on its total revenue. 3. Based on the information provided in the case would you say that the market for smartphone is closer to monopoly or to monopolistic competition? Justify. Answer: Yes, base on the information provided in the case, I regard the smartphone industry as a monopolistic competition. Monopolistic competition  is a form of imperfect competition  where many competing producers sell products that are  differentiated  from one another. Smartphone industry has following characteristics: * There are several producers like Apple, Blackberry, Nokia, Motorola etc. , and many consumers in the market, but no company can total control over the market price. * Consumers perceive that there are non-price differences among the competitors products. * There are few barriers to entry and exit. Producers have a degree of control over price. 4. Is the price cut decided by Apple two months after iPhone initial launch consistent with the smartphone market structure described above? Answer: Yes, the performance of iPhone is consistent with the smartphone market structure. Firstly, the MC firms sell products that have real or perceived non-price differences. However, the differences are not so great as to eliminate other goods as substitutes. Technically, the cross price el asticity of demand between goods in such a market is positive. In this case, iPhone perform the same basic functions but have differences in qualities such as design, style, reputation and appearance. Secondly, independent decision-making is another characteristic of monopolistic competition. The firm gives no consideration to what effect its decision may have on competitors. In other words each firm feels free to set prices as if it were a monopoly. Lastly, Apple has some degree of market power. Market power means that the firm has control over the terms and conditions of exchange. An MC firm can raise it prices without losing all its customers. The firm can also lower prices without triggering a potentially ruinous price war with competitors, which is the reason why iPhone was able to largely cut its price in two months. 5. Knowing the price cut affected negatively Apple reputation, do you believe Apple adopted an opportunistic pricing strategy initially selling the iPhone at a high price to take advantage of holiday season high spending habits and then dropping the price to stimulate market growth? Is this consistent with Apple pricing strategy in its other product lines like computers and iPod? Answer: I don’t entirely believe that iPhone lunched at a high price was due to it attempted to take the advantage of â€Å"holiday season high spending habits†. From my point of view, there are two main reasons why iPhone priced high at the beginning: Firstly, the core consumer groups of iPhone are enthusiastic fans of high-tech gadgets; and some of them are loyalty customers of Apple. These parts of people are not sensitive for iPhone’s price. What attract them are its quality, design and innovation. The first adopters’ inelasticity of demand is a good opportunity for using the price skimming strategy. Secondly, high price strategy is an effective method to build a high-end brand image. It’s much easier that a high brand image product cuts its price for promotion than a low brand image one raises it. For the tech-savvy market, the product lifecycle is short. We can often find on the market that a product of Apple or other brands cuts its price when it has been launched for a period of time. But iPhone dropped its price only 2 months after it had been introduced onto the market. This strategy is quite different from other products of Apple. For instance, iPod depreciated 2 years after it came into the market. Seeing the price of iPhone must be in line with iPod Touch, this strategy is â€Å"special† for Apple, comparing with other products. 6. â€Å"According to Apple executives the move had been planned long ago and felt that the pricing strategy was conceived in part to keep the iPhone’s pricing in line with its new iPod touch. † Explain to what extent a high-priced iPhone could be an obstacle to the success of the new iPod Touch. Based on what you know about Apple late development do you find that explanation convincing? Answer: In terms of the features of these two types of products, iPod Touch is like a simplified version of iPhone, without the function of a â€Å"phone†. This determines that the prices of these two types of products must be â€Å"in a line†, which means, for a reasonable consideration, the price of iPod Touch must be lower than iPhone but not too far away. If iPhone had not cut its price, iPod Touch must have had been priced at a higher level than the realistic one. We assume that, if iPhone 4 GB continued being sold at 499USD, iPod Touch may be sold at 400 or 450USD. As an mp3 player, it would be much more expensive than its competing brands. On the contrary, if iPhone had kept a high price level but iPod Touch had been set at a low one, the customers would have had been confused for â€Å"why a simplified version of iPhone is so much ‘cheaper’ than iPhone? † That would have had a negative impacts on the sales of both iPhone and iPod Touch, even would have had impaired Apple’s brand image. Combining with what I know about the late development of these two types of products, I found although the price cutting had a temporary harm on customer’s trust, iPhone and iPod Touch both performed well on the market. It proved the importance of keeping the price of iPhone and iPod Touch in a line. 7. â€Å"But the sharp price cut suggested that even Apple, which has long lived in a pricing bubble insulated from other personal computer makers, is not immune from the brutal pressures of the cellular phone business. † Does this statement mean that the personal computers market is different from the cellular phone business in other words, the cellular phone market is more competitive than the personal computer market? Why? Do you share this view? Justify. Answer: From this statement, I can’t make the conclusion that the cell phone market is more competitive than the personal computer market. Apple is one of the earliest personal computer manufacturers in the world. Its personal computer products are behalf of the most advanced PC technology of the world. Especially its graphics processing technology and operating system have high reputation. Thus, Apple’s PC products long lived in a pricing bubble insulated from other personal computer makers. That means Apple has definitely strong market power on PC market. Its high price doesn’t mean there is less competition. Furthermore, the technical innovation, appearance design, and function combination of cell phone products are updating so fast. So the lifecycle of a handset product is shorter than a computer. The price cutting often occurs when a mobile phone has come onto market for a period of time. The objective usually is for making price room for a new generation of product, which isn’t caused by competing activities. In conclusion, I don’t share this view. 8. â€Å"Keeping in mind Apple’s range of high priced products which gives it an â€Å"aura† of exclusivity, was Jobs decision to reduce the price a right one? With a 50% gross margin, Apple is setting itself up for aggressive price declines going forward†. Do you believe that Apple move is a sign that it is ready to enter a price war? Would this mean that Apple is leaving the niche market position it held for decades to go after mass market? What would be the pros and cons of that strategy? Do you believe it? Answer: The characteristics of Apple’s products are novel design, fashionable appearance and the combination of music, game, music, web surfing and other functions. It determines the positioning of iPhone must be high, and the main target consumer group is high income, music ; digital amateurs. This segment of consumer has low sensitive for price. Pure price war will not yield more market shares for iPhone. So, the price cutting strategy doesn’t mean Apple is ready for the price war. The product’s features determine Apple’s niche market strategy. But a cell phone product innovates relatively faster than other cargos. When a product successfully attracted some first adopters, how to sell them to more followers should be the core problem. Cutting the price and going in to the mass market is a universal method. Apple also adopted this strategy on iPhone. Pros of going to mass market: * iPhone can attract more followers. Some of them are sensitive to the price, their demands are elastic. Before the price cutting and entry of the mass market, some of the non-owners didn’t buy it just because of the high price. * iPhone can expand its market share quicker, and establish the competitive barriers. Its market power will be stronger. * The expanded customers would have had bought more online products, which would have had a big growth of income. By this strategy, iPhone can consolidate their customer-friendly brand image, and increase the loyalty of the customers. * The cooperation with AT;T can get a synergy between these two brands, and can receive a sum of bonus revenue from the carrier. Cons of going to mass market: * It made the brand image be lower than before. * Decreased the gross margin of iPhone. * Hurt some die-hards’ loyalty. * Increased the degree of monopoly, made the competition imperfect, and harmed the balance of the benign competition with its rivals. But a cellular phone product such as iPhone goes into the mass market is usually a temporary strategy when the product comes into the mature or declining period in its lifecycle, or when the company wants to make some price room for a new product. Apple cut iPhone’s price was just for keeping the iPhone’s price being in a line with iPod Touch’s. It didn’t mean Apple changed its main branding strategy to go into the mass market. For that time, I assume that it was a reasonable strategy for Apple to cut iPhone’s price.

Case Study on Avon Products Inc

Case Study on Avon Products Inc Should Top Management at AVON explicitly shape and change the culture of its organisation? Should Kroft, Woodbury, Jung or Gold has hopes of Succeeding Perrin, what should they do to develop their competencies and managerial leadership further so that the AVON board would look at them, and conclude that they have been there, and they have done that? Identify the problems and issues at AVON, and suggest ideas how the company could gain the competitive advantage in the global trade. Answer to Question 1: Yes, the AVON top management should explicitly continue to shape and change the culture within the organization. Based on our study, we found some issues faced by AVON Company as the following: AVON Managers are lack of sensitivity and slow response to the external environment change. In example: AVON managers were slow to realize that the influx of women in to corporate America had important consequences for home-based cosmetic sales. Resulted profitability slumped in 1980s. Poor financial performance at AVON has signalled the company for a need to become more responsive to a changing consumer market. Some unnecessary internal activities such like company session tickets for the Knicks and Yankees in the pass has also factored unnecessary cost to company. Those activities were scrapped later. As stated in the case study. Multiculturalism is the main challenge to the company as vital element in meeting customer demand and gaining competitive advantage. Those issues had badly contributed to AVON corporate culture and created impact for company performance in the pass. Definition of Corporate culture: So what is the definition of Corporate Culture? The definitions for corporate culture are numerous and are being refined and added to every day. The general academic view is that it is the shared, beliefs, assumptions, values, rules and norms the members of a collective such as a corporation or department hold. While this is perfectly acceptable we prefer to take the view expressed by Marvin Bower of McKinsey who said corporate culture is the way we do things around here. There are more sophisticated and certainly convoluted definitions for corporate culture but it is succinct and provides a good starting point for those who are new to corporate culture. Source: Corporate Culture, nd. Dudley Consulting, Inc. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 30 September 2010] Its difficult to change AVONs culture, the way we do things around here does not practice a positive corporate culture this is due to wrong believes, value and rules applied to the company culture. They dont lead by good examples and good leadership. But AVON has done it and turns those wrong doing to a positive culture started 1990s, as following: AVON start creates leadership campaigns such as sending middle managers for leadership development training. The entire management team participated in awareness training by leading diversity consultants. Management launch multicultural planning research project to evaluated company policies and practices regarding promotion. Indentify potential barriers to the advancement of women and minorities. Set up a task force across corporate head quarters multiple profit centres with more than 100 employees. Company has developed goals. To continue built a positive corporate culture, AVON shall consider below suggestions which is not practice from above example that AVON have done : Stories. A group packages up its culture into stories which are frequently told and re-told, and which typify the values of the group eg the time we all stayed late on Xmas Eve to get the last orders finished and then has an impromptu party at the local. Heroes. Individuals who typify to an extreme the values of the group. Symbols. These may be staff mottoes, the corporate mission statement or anything that symbolises the core values. Rites. These are specific occasions, such as the annual office party, when the core values are publicly displayed. Formal award ceremonies are another example. These are especially important for enculturing new staff. Rituals. This means a standard pattern of behaviour at a specific occasion, such as the office party if things are always done in a particular pattern. Courses. Attending in-house courses is an important way of team-building and communicating the core values. Cultural Networks. This means the informal contacts between employees where they reinforce core values, especially by passing them from older to younger group members. Source: organisation building a positive corporate culture, nd. tutor2u. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 30 September 2010] With above ideas to shape the company culture, AVON is likely achieve the following advantages of Strong Corporate Culture A common interpretation of the Instruction, so work is done to a similar standard and in a similar manner. Increase employee loyalty, and avoid expenses of employee turnover. Increase productivity of the company. Increase the Management control. Answer to Question 2: Before we jump to the point for discussing who shall be taking over AVON dealership there are something more vital to discuss first. Definition of Leadership : Good leaders are made not born. If you have the desire and willpower, you can become an effective leader. Good leaders develop through a never ending process of self-study, education, training, and experience (Jago, 1982) A simple definition of leadership is that leadership is the art of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal. Source: Leadership, Susan Ward, About.com Guide. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 30 September 2010] Leaders carry out this process by applying their leadership knowledge and skills. This is called Process Leadership (Jago, 1982). However, we know that we have traits that can influence our actions. This is called Trait Leadership (Jago, 1982) Leadership is simply showed by good example, lead people to right things and do things right. A good leadership can groom another good leader. However, AVON does not groom any successful leader by any mentor. It caused AVON suffered many years. Until the company decided to source another leader who is experienced as chief executive in another global company. It had shown that company direction is to hire another guru to be the mentor and lead existing executive which hope to groom them in future. Definition of competencies: A competency is a skill, ability, or knowledge set that can be taught or developed. All competencies have indicators that allow them to be observed and measured. A leadership competency model is a group of competencies linked to leadership excellence in a specific organization. A leadership competency model supports the organizations vision and strategy by providing a framework by which the organization can select, develop, and evaluate leaders. Source: Joaquin Roca, 2009. What Is a Leadership Competency and How Do I Create a Competency Model? [Online] Place: USA/ Human resources and labour relations community. Available at: [Accessed 30 September 2010] A successful company should have a good leader with good leadership and competencies. In AVON, one of the main issues that that are facing is most of them are not processing comprehensive leadership and appropriate core competencies. A core competency is fundamental knowledge, ability, or expertise in a specific subject area or skill set. Source: Rafael Gutierrez, 2003. Core Competency. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 30 September 2010] Base on the AVON case study, should Susan Kropf to be the next leader of AVON, she not only needs to process a good operation and global marketing core competency skill which she already has. But also develop the following core competencies: Financial and Administrative skill which Edwina Woodbury has. To able to sustain company financial health growth. Crisis management and cost cutting skill from Christina Gold. Answer to Question 3: The main issue of AVON is due the lack of competitive advantage in global trade. Should AVON, like to gain a better business position, they should focus on building up the Completive Advantage in the globalisation era. Definition of Global Trade: Also refer to Globalisation. As economies become more connected to other economies, they have increased opportunity but also increased competition. Source: globalization, nd. Investorwords. [online] Available at: [Accessed 30 September 2010] Globalisation describes a process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through a global network of communication, transportation, and trade. The term is sometimes used to refer specifically to economic globalization: the integration of national economies into the international economy through trade, foreign direct investment, capital flows, migration, and the spread of technology. Source: Bhagwati, Jagdish (2004). In Defense of Globalization. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. Definition of Competitive Advantage: The Competitive Advantage is the ability gained through attributes and resources to perform at a higher level than others in the same industry or market (Christensen and Fahey 1984, Kay 1994, Porter 1980 cited by Chacarbaghi and Lynch 1999, p. 45) In VAON, they do not gain a Cost Advantage simply because their internal cost is high, unnecessary expenses such like New York City Ballet and the New York Philharmonic session ticket. They also not leverage the advantage of internet technology and still relay on Door-to-Door selling approach. They also do not seem to have differentiation advantage within the company. AVON should consider taking below steps to gain Competitive Advantage in the Global Trade: Cost leadership Is there any way to make cost advantage among all the competitors in this borderless era? They can move the production line move to a country to provide lower cost of production. Or leverage Technology advantage such like internet to cut the advertisement cost or agent cost? Like Dell has been very successful on its direct model to outreach consumers using the internet order system. Differentiation How to make AVON product unique from other product? AVON can consider using product development strategy to improve product packaging to maintain the market awareness. Focus AVON should avoid participate in all product range. And focus on niche product that they are good with. And become the leader of that particular area/product.