Reactive change occurs due to outside pressures on the business these may include a perceived threat to the company or a new opportunity arises out of the blue. Proactive change is when the business actively seeks to modify its practises or work place environment. Proactive change is normally more controllably because the business has been able to plan it. Reactive change can be a bit more chaotic until the business has been able to adapt to the external force. Internal forces can be the business getting new equipment or a restructuring of personal and external forces are changes in one or more
As a result, newspaper circulation fell by 17 percent due to revenues from display advertisement that have plummeted as many marketers engage customers via social media, Internet ads, special events, daily deal sites, and other promotional methods that sidestep newspapers. Consequently, The Wall Street Journal suggestions for price elasticity of demand for its products in digital editions is to try to find pricing approaches that made sense for its situations. In this way, being a national new paper that covers general news politics, economics, investments, the arts, and lifestyle trends that most people need to follow the latest happening in their field and stay updated on world events to pay a yearly amount to access their website. For his manner, the Journal believed it offered a long-term value that they wouldn’t appreciate if they could pay for content by the content or by the week sense they are not providing news instead they are providing a completive advantage tool. Likewise, the Journal site’s loyal and lucrative subscribers base, a growing number of major advertisers are willing to pay to reach audience online, which contributes millions more to the newspaper’s bottom line.
While gas grills were seeing a 8 percent increase since the previous year charcoal grills had dropped by 3 percent. Charcoal grill penetration was trending down since 1997 and gas grill penetration was trending up. Another contributing factor may have been a increase in price by stores to their private label brands as well as their main competitor (who also produced these stores private brands) increase their price as well. Kingsford had kept the prices the same though some stores had increased the prices on their own. Kingsford had also reduced their media presences since 1996 (because of a decrease in media spending), a direct from the text by Warren explains " The charcoal category was now paying the price for the several years of reduced advertising".
The housing market also plummeted leading to negative equity, which the majority of the working class could not afford resulting in the repossession of their houses combined with the drastic increase in unemployment Britain was in a mess. However Major did have some success, he abolished poll tax, which was very popular among the public, he increased spending on the NHS and introduced transport subsides to keep travel fares low.
The UK government in recent years has had to resort to financial cutbacks due to the recession, especially funds for the public services. This had has a large impact on the public services, majority of them being negative. An example could be there have been many Fire station closures within the UK. The fire service in recent years has vastly improved, this can be show by the number of fires is annually decreasing. This means the government does not see the need to have as many fire men/women and therefore made many redundant and closed down fire stations in order to save money.
Confidence's Cost to Collaboration The corporate formula for innovation often focuses on creating a team of experts to cook up the next big thing. Groups of managers -- typically composed of individuals from a variety of fields, including engineering, marketing and operations -- band together to develop new products or services that can create top-line growth. In a recent paper, Wharton management professor Jennifer Mueller and Wharton lecturer Julia Minson looked at the dark side of teamwork -- the tendency of those groups to become insular and less efficient as they grow in complexity. In "The Cost of Collaboration: Why Joint Decision-making Exacerbates Rejection of Outside Information," Minson and Mueller found that people working in pairs were more likely to dismiss outside input than individuals working alone. Mueller
Argument: Due to the economic recession possibly coupled with poor financial decisions, Astrigo missed its earnings estimate by 20 cents a share and profits had dropped by double digits, regardless of efforts to slash inventory and expenses. Although Astrigo enacted aggressive promotions and price cuts, the Astrigo home-improvement stores were losing sales to cheaper retailers with far worse customer service. During the time of their financial struggle customer service was still upheld, talented team members remained innovative, and steps were taken to cut costs and drive sales (promotions, price cuts, slash inventory and expenses). There were strong implications, however, that Astrigo’s executive team may have been spending money in the wrong places. These implications come from the fact that the CFO, during a time when Astrigo was financially unstable, was making decisions about whether or not to layoff workers in an expensive and exclusive dining club.
To maximize profitability among competitors, an organization might need to realign its business lines by centralization or outsourcing. Wherever there is change, there is resistance. Resistance to change stems from human characteristics such as perceptions, personalities and needs. Change can be frustrating if it is perceived as disruption to routines or status quos. This is threatening because it creates a fear of the unknown future as well as failures.
Secondly, the auditors also need to take company’s business into account, which including organization, operation and capital structure. For example, when WorldCom made the acquisitions, the two different company structures would be merge into one structure. Thirdly, the extent of recent changes is also an important factor. WorldCom expanded to new market, but auditors did not know if the management had operated effectively in the new market. Those factors will have an impact on assessment of inherent risk.
Further consideration is given to the problems and issues found including any ramifications these problems may have on the company’s future. Lastly, formulating alternative course of actions as an evaluation takes the analysis to its conclusion. Background Assessment Environment The retail industry has moved into consolidating various chain stores under one roof, therefore restricting competition. This gives more power to the retailers increasing their ability to negotiate prices and demand higher quality from manufactures. “Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have resulted in the consolidation of retail chains, thereby substantially altering the retail competitive arena” (Bolton, Venkatesh, & Dentra , n.d., p. 246).