Textron Case Essay Example for Free

Textron Case Essay 1) How does Textron make money? Textron is able to make money as a result of 4 defining aspects of its business model: a. Textron is a conglomerate: by purchasing a variety of companies, Textron is able to share technology between its business units thus increasing its competitive advantage in these respective units. For instance, lessons learned in aerodynamics at Bell Helicopters can be used in the construction of aircraft at Cessna. Additionally, because of Textrons size, it increases its buyer power and can take advantage of economies of scale when purchasing from the common suppliers across business units. b. Diversification: Textron has purchased a variety of companies that complement one another such as different target markets (regular consumers vs. government consumers) and both high and low priced products (ex: hardware tools vs. private jets). Thus, like a well diversified stock portfolio, Textron is able to hedge its exposure to risk between its various business units (if one industry performs poorly one year, another industry may fair better). c. Vertically integrated: in Textrons history it developed a vertically integrated company that controlled every operational aspect of the business from raw goods to processing to distribution. Thus, it has been able to control the costs of many aspects of its business d. Finance business unit: Additional revenue is generated through the earned interest from customers who purchase credit from Textron in order to purchase Textron products. This revenue stream keeps customers in the Textron environment instead of losing customers to other credit-granting financial institutions. This Textron environment also: * Creates a one-stop-shop that can increases Textrons stickiness to its customers (also increase customer retention), which may lead to longer and stronger customer relationships. * Creates flexibility since Textron can offer more favourable interest rates than other financial institutions to promote more Textron sales 2) Assessment of Textrons: Assessment of Exhibit 1: Textron is investing heavily in assets that are not producing the sales or profits required to sustain its growth. Hence, its only choice is to finance its growth, which increases its debt and risk of bankruptcy. Textron needs to improve its asset management by increasing the output of its assets (such as PPE), changing its assets or improving its days inventory. Textron can increase the outputs of its assets by training staff to use equipment and tools more effectively or upgrade equipment and tools that can increase productivity. Textron can decrease its days inventory by improving its sales forecasting in order to produce only enough units that are demanded by the market. 3) Assessment of Textrons Cash Flow: Analysis of Cash Flow Statements 2004-2006 (in millions): * Under CFO * Net income nearly tripled from 2005 (203) to 2006 (601) * Under CFI * Net cash used in acquisitions increased significantly from 2005 (28) to 2006 (502) * Under CFI the Net Cash Used in Investing Activities of Continuing Operations has more than doubled from 2004 (800) to 2006 (2062) however, under CFO, the Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities of Continuing Operations has not doubled nor has it grown significantly from 2004 (949) to 2006 (1017). * Under CFF * In 2004 the Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities (Net CFO) is 950 and the Net Cash used in Investing Activities (Net CFI) 818. Therefore Textron generated enough cash to finance its investment activity (950-818 = 135). By contrast, in 2005 and 2006, Textron has had to use debt to finance its investments since in 2005 the Net CFO is 1036 million and Net CFI 1195 million (delta = -159) and in 2006 the Net CFO is 969 but the CFI is 1409 (delta = -440). By increasing the amount of debt, Textron increases its risk of going bankrupt in the future should the company not be able to meet its debt obligations. * Final Assessment of Cash Flow Statement: It seems that Textron is making a good amount of cash through its operations but this cash is not enough to feed its investment activities. Even worse, the increased investment has had little impact in increasing cash inflow. * Assessment of Exhibit 2: All of the above ratios are point towards poor cash flow management except Current Ratio. Thus Textrons favourable Current Ratio can be interpreted as Textron has the ability to pay off its liabilities only if it sells its large inventory (indicated by its large Days Inventory value). 4) Textrons use of LIFO and FIFO: e. Textrons income before taxes in 2006 using FIFO * Under current method: * The beginning inventory of 2006+purchase -COGS=the ending inventory of 2006 * 1,712 + purchase 8,528 = 2,069(in millions) let this calculation be called A

PESTEL Analysis :: Business, External Environment

PESTEL Analysis The PESTEL analysis is an important and widely-used tool for understanding the big picture of a firm’s external environment. PESTEL is an acronym for the political, economic, socio-cultural, environmental, and legal environment in which a firm operates. The benefits of the PESTEL analysis are that it helps identify potential environmental influence, helps better understand existing opportunities and threats, and helps understand market growth and decline. Political The political environment has an influence on business. Political factors need to be considered when viewing the external environment. According to Binstock, â€Å"Clorox is voluntarily converting its plants in the United States to safer chemical process in order to protect against disasters and terrorism† ( 2010). More than 200 chemical facilities across the U.S. have converted to safer chemical processes. In the same article, it said that in 2006 congress passed a temporary law that bars the government from requiring disaster prevention. This is good publicity for the company and puts it ahead of its competitors if the government ever puts disaster prevention laws in to place. Economic Economic factors are important to Clorox because these factors affect the company’s profits. Clorox’s main economic concern appears to be increasing raw material cost. â€Å"Significant increases in the costs of energy and transportation, including the cost of diesel, or of key raw materials, including, but not limited to, resin, chlor-alkali, sodium hypochlorite, corrugate, agricultural commodities and other raw materials† (Clorox, 2010). A rise in the price of raw materials could force the company to raise prices to keep making a profit. A struggling economy could reduce consumer spending. â€Å"Sales totaled $1.27 billion, down 2.8 percent from the same quarter a year ago† (Avalos, 2010). Socio-cultural Today’s consumers are very environmentally conscious. The company is taking advantage of this by producing environmentally friendly products. The company has increased its profits through the sales of its Green Works product line. According to an article from the San Francisco Chronicle â€Å"†¦research says that Green Works accounts for about half that $100 million annual market for eco-cleaners† (Said, 2010). Customers like company that give back to the community. Clorox does this through the Clorox Foundation.† The mission of The Clorox Company Foundation is to improve the quality of life in communities where Clorox employees live and work† (Clorox, 2011). Technological Technology factors play a major role in what opportunities a company faces. â€Å"The Company has outsourced a significant portion of its information technology activities to Hewlett-Packard, including its data centers, which are primarily located in Alpharetta, Ga.

Gaps in education sector

Therefore, we applied a quality gaps model to ten courses belonging to the open university system In Brazil, researching course coordinatorsand students. Themulti-methods researchnoticed that institutionsgenerallydo not adopta market- riented model for decision-making in their courses and, therefore do not own d well- defined process to identity students' expectations and, consequently,to create quality strategies andpoliciesbased on theseexpectations. On the otherhand. lthoughhigher educatlonls legallyregulatedby the Ministry ofEducatlon, Institutions seekdifferentiation in the market byhiring and retaining qualified and caring personnel end by thedevelopment oflnnovetlveendexcltlnglearnlng actlvltlesthat stimulatestudent motivation. These actions are strategically differentiated and help reducing barriers related to distance education. Theinfrastructure which Is vital to thesuccess of atechnology-based coursels, stlll,a Ilmltanonlnremote areas. Flnally, a t- test shcwved there was a favorableperception of quality for both students andcoordlnators, but the latterwere moreoptlmlstlc Services quality.Introduction The study of services quality date of 1980's. These studies began with Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry published papers. Until then quality used to be studied only by operations field, which focus on tangible products quality. In operations quality means the absence of defects or compliance with the requirements of production [1]. Operations approach to quality assessment proved inadequate for the study of services, given its peculiar characteristics: intangibility, heterogeneity and inseparability . lntangibility means the inability to account for, store and test a service before its delivery.The heterogeneity comes from the intrinsic variability of the service, it means, a service will have different performance depending on the service provider, the client engagement and the context in which service is provided. Finally, inseparability concerns to th e fact that a service is consumed simultaneously to its production. These unique Mantovant Dateliy Mn et. al. l sep. -oct. 2013 | vol. 2 1 Issue 5130-39 characteristics make it difficult to assess quality for a service [1]. Parasuraman et al. were pioneers in assessing quality in services.Their approach was so successful that it has been used since the 80's. For the authors, unlike tangible products, the quality of a service refers to the perception customers have about it[l] and this perception occurs during the interaction between the client and the service provider [2]. Under this perspective, perceived quality is measured by the difference between the perceived erformance of a service and the initial expectations about it (service quality = perception of service performance – expectations about the service). pproach considers that expectations refer to the service desired by the customer and the minimum level of service acceptable in his/her point of view. Then, a zone of Available online at www. management]ournal. info tolerance is created, determining satisfactory and acceptable levels of service [3]. Difference between perception of service performance and initial expectations gave rise to what is called â€Å"gaps model of service quality', the object of this study. Pioneer studies focused on banking services quality, credit card and maintenance services [1].Services quality assessment became popular and other services began to be studied in the same light. Higher education can be understood under services point of view, since education market has become client-oriented (considering student as a client). This means education market is no longer purely education-oriented (pedagogy-oriented), which makes it possible to consider education institutions as providers of educational products and services [4]. It is important to note that education is not a common service, like banking or estaurant services, since it owns a key role in society and has a non-business mission to develop criticalcitizens.Education core mission is social, non-commercial; it means education aims to develop better human beings and better citizens Higher education institutions (HE's) have been facing fierce local and global competition, besides of challenges, such as high dropout rates and limited understanding of the market and students' needs. Online distance education has outstanding participation in increasing competitiveness among institutions around the approach feasible for education comprehension Word of mouth communicationIn Brazil, distance education has been gaining importance. In 2010, 14. 6 % of college students were attending distance education course, compared to Just 0. 2 % in 2002 [7]. This scenario can be explained by the expansion of education in Brazil, with the creation of new institutions, creation of new vacancies and creation of the Open University of Brazil (I-JAB), subject matter of the article. Distance education, for its pecu liar characteristics (space and temporal separation between instructor and student, technology intensive use, learner empowerment etc. faces its own challenges, such as student motivation ifficulties, high dropout rates and time management trouble. Given social importance of education, the growing role of distance education in Brazil and the challenges faced by this modality, the purpose of this article is to assess quality gaps in a distance education undergraduate course. We studied Public Administration undergraduate distance course from the Open University of Brazil, using the perspective of services quality.Thus, we compared students' and managers' (course coordinators) perceptions about the education services provided. We collected data from institutions belonging to I-JAB project and applied oth qualitative and quantitative methods in a multi-method research approach. Quality Gaps Parasuramanet al. [1] were pioneer on services quality research. As a result, they observed gaps between executives perceptions and consumers' perceptions about a same service quality, which gave rise to a five gap model, presented in Fig. 1.

Gender Stereotypes And Its Effect On Society - 966 Words

For a moment, I want you to imagine the typical images that are displayed in advertisements. Now, I want you to process these ideal images and ask yourself if you have ever made an attempt to achieve a certain look or desire published in advertisements. On a daily basis, the average person in the United States is exposed to roughly 3,000 different advertisements (Baker 13). Because of this high level of exposure, the texts and images that surround us become a part of the culture in society and typically represent and reinforce a fabrication of gender roles, which ultimately frames gender stereotype. This is known as the gender ideology, a process that society considers normal and because of this, we abide by these distinctions without realizing the repercussions. Nonetheless, the advertisers and editors of images put forth great effort in molding each gender differently. Women, for example, obtain an ideal view as being overly thin, feminine, home-oriented, or submissive, and powerle ss. In the advertisement industry, we see images that are much related to this gender ideology. Female models are portrayed as sexual objects, which means they are dehumanized, and their physical and social positions are degraded when compared to men. Men, on the other hand, are the breadwinners who, at the same time are masculine, sexually appealing, and dominant. A company’s main goal when advertising their product, is to capture the targeted audience’s attention in hopes of increasingShow MoreRelatedGender Stereotypes And Its Effect On Society1418 Words   |  6 Pagestheir role in society is associated with masculine ideals. Generalizations that exist are such of men should; be athletic and strong, be in charge, be the head of the family, to make the money, to want sex, and not show emotions. These generalizations are portrayed and instilled in our lives from media influence to even the adults in our lives telling us so. Males all over the world grow up trying to abide by the set limits society deems a male should do. The mindset of today’s society is tainted withRead MoreGender Stereotypes And Its Effects On Society893 Words   |  4 PagesIn society it is very hard to get away from sexism. It shows up in the media, clothing products, toys, and even television shows. Not only do we have lingerie commercials on television but now they consist of very skinny models with big breasts and of course they are gorgeous and a size zero. What ever happened to the overweight women, or the flat chested lady that just had three kids, why is she not on the runway showing off the new items for Victoria’s Secret? From a marketing perspective; sexRead MoreGender Stereotypes And Its Effect On Society861 Words   |  4 PagesZac Galifianakis once stated, â€Å"Welcome to our society. You will be judged on what you wear, your taste in music, what you look like, and how you act. Enjoy your stay.† Today’s society lives under optimum power, commonly known as a democracy. Actually, humanity has so much power that it is able to manipulate people’s behavior and perception in life. Unfortunately, society expects a certain behavior from everyone. For example, men are expected to go to work and bring wealth to the family while womenRead MoreThe Role Of Gender And Stereotyping Of The Sexes Essay972 Words   |  4 PagesIn this paper I will discuss how the role of gender and the stereotypes of the sexes relate. I will also discuss the child’s perception of their male and female superiors and in the way they carry out their own behavior in regards to what has been introduced to them. In this paper I want to also expand on the basic stereotypes that we as individuals portray toward a gender. Gender and stereotyping is among a broad spectrum. There is an expansive amount of content, but the concept still remains theRead MoreHow Women Are Portrayed On Advertising And The Second Looks At This Time1104 Words à ‚  |  5 Pageshas on women in society. 2. State the claim the study supports The scholarly article I am reviewing is a research article that did two separate examinations on the role of humor in gender stereotypes. The first one is the role of humor seen in television advertisements and the second looks at peoples attitudes toward humorous and non-humorous ads that have gender stereotypes in them and how that would affect a persons desire to buy. There has been a lot of research done on the gender stereotyping,Read MoreGender Roles And Gender : A Season Of Madness By Hanan Al Shaykh950 Words   |  4 PagesGender Roles And Gender Stereotype Problems in society Gender problems are big problems in society. Although today s gender problems are better than before, it still cannot be resolved completely. There are many kinds of gender problems. For example, gender role, gender identity, gender stereotypes and gender-equal problems. The short story A Season of Madness, by Hanan Al-Shaykh, shows some problems of genders and society. In A Season of Madness, the author tells a story of a Lebanese woman-Read MoreThe Negative Effect Of Stereotypes1613 Words   |  7 PagesThe Negative Effect of Stereotypes in Comedy We all laugh at the things we see in the media that are perceived as funny; whether it be appropriate or offensive. One of the most popular subjects that comedians and comedy shows rely on is stereotypes. Stereotypes play a large role in society and the everyday lives of individuals. These stereotypes have resulted in blurred assumptions of others based on what we see and hear in the media. The use of stereotypes in comedy to make something funny has aRead MoreStereotyping : Stereotypes And Stereotyping1494 Words   |  6 Pages In everyday life Stereotypes are used, they are directed towards ethnicity, gender, and education. â€Å"In ethnicity, we have the ideas that each race is a certain way† (Aronson. The impact of stereotypes). Here are a couple of examples for blacks, they all can run fast, and that they are all about the welfare system. â€Å"For Hispanics they are stereotyped as being crazy, loud, lazy, drug dealers, illegal immigrants, and slutty† (Typical stereotypes of Hispanics). The stereotypes of ethnicity is causingRead MoreGender Roles And Stereotypes1719 Words   |  7 PagesWhether it is consciously or unconsciously, we humans tend to characterize people by their gender. â€Å"Often, gender expectations or stereotypes shape our thoughts and interactions with others in subtle yet perceptible ways† (Block 1). When children enter the school environment, they will likely experience a number of issues relating to gender. They will continue to encounter gender issues thr oughout their lifetime, so it is important that we teach them to address these issues appropriately. TeachersRead MoreStereotypes And Stereotypes Of Gender Stereotypes1588 Words   |  7 PagesSociety today holds many stereotypes, and sometimes people will rebel against the stereotypes in order to embrace the individual and oppose social norms. However, some stereotypes are harder to rebel against than other. A stereotype that might be harder to break, either because the people who believe in that stereotype are too ignorant to look past it or because the people who need to rebel are not able to, is gender based stereotypes. One example of this type of stereotype is when gender roles appear