Operations Management and the Demise of Best Buy Essay

BEST BUY This project will discuss the inventory methods, customer service, and overall operations of Best Buy and how through better operations management the company can be operated. We will use examples from the text book, class discussion and group discussion. We will also consult with trade journals and internet articles. Overview: Best buy was founded in 1996 in Richfield, Minnesota by Richard Schulze as an electronic specialty store. The company has gained 19% of the consumer electronics sales market. Best buy operates over 1150 stores worldwide and has several different brands and subsidiaries including Geek Squad, Magnolia audio video and Best express. Best buy has generated over 40 billion dollars in revenues in North America, 3 billion in Europe and 1.5 billion in China. Best buy experienced great revenues when its rival Circuit city went out of business and did very well up until the economic downturn of 2008 and 2009. Problems and current situation: The company continues have to have fierce competition from Verizon, ATT, Apple Wal-Mart and most importantly â€Å"Amazon†. The completion for customers is only getting fiercer with the online retailers like Amazon continues to take more and more market share away room Best Buy. Downfall of Best Buy: Why is best buy going out of business now? In one sense Best Buy is its own worst enemy; there has been number of issues with best buy. Some of the stated issues are: 1. Poor product knowledge and lack of product availability: For example at the beginning of the semester I wanted to buy a new laptop. I went to the Best Buy closest to the school and I knew what I wanted and how much I was willing to pay. I had research the Best Buy website and found it  online but did not have time or patience to wait. So I went to the store and they did not have the laptop I wanted. I found a similar laptop that performed just as well but it’s not what I wanted. 2. Higher prices: Best Buy cannot compete on price any longer and the customers know this full and well. For example if you found the attest technology gadget in best buy for 100 dollars and online for 75 dollars, where would you buy all thing being equal. Of the answer is you would buy it online. Especially if it’s a product you are familiar with. This only makes Best Buys show rooming problem even worse. 3. Poor Customer satisfaction: Satisfying a customer is a major key to make business, but best buy seems loosing this key. Some recent surveys show that Best Buy has been doing its best to leave the troops unhappy. Major factors for this are the higher prices, poor customer service, and lack to inventory management. In this era of Cut-Throat Competition, Best buy is losing its grip in the electronic market. Corporation like Amazon, eBay are spreading its business very fast leaving no scope of mistake for its competitors. Best buy has lacks product for display in there show rooms, says my personal experience. Entering the stores and unable to spot the latest products of high end American brands like apple, doesn’t impress anyone. Specially, when you have the access to all kind of electronic product on websites like Amazon that too with all kind of technical details. Best Buy need to develop its inventory management so as to display and deliver products to their customers on time. Focusing the blunders where company made apologies to thousands of customers for not delivering products for Christmas which were orders on thanks giving, Best buy’s reputation is in jeopardy Another trouble which Best Buy is facing is – it is unable to provide a free home delivery unlike Amazon and EBay. Also these online websites provides facilities like picking the product from the customer’s place if the customer wishes to return the order. This has deprived Best Buy from a huge crowd to potential customers. There is a severe need that best buy should make some strategies to develop a system of free home delivery. One more factor which bothers most to a lay man is paying high prices. Best Buy must work out some plans to compete online websites and also some emerging electronic store which intend to sell  products keeping low margin money. Serving the customer in better way seems like a past policy of Best Buy. When a company’s customer experience starts to drop, it’s time to sell the stock. I’m afraid that may have happened at Best Buy, especially when I look at their new customer satisfaction surveys. Moments when the customer representative have no clue to the technical aspect of the product has become common. May be some training sessions for the CR’s may come out fruitful. Dominant trends are consistently conspiring against their business model; Best Buy must accept this fact. Out of which buying products from your house sitting on a couch, interests every customer. Moreover the innovative high graphic design and sophisticated virtual display of product is making things work better for online sellers and buyers but a hard nut for companies like best buy. Best buy has been trying aggressively to flourish its market in places like UK, China and may be, this has led Best Buy to get distracted from its home ground of performance. Seems like its high time for Best buy to re-engineer its business module and work hard on customer satisfaction sector. (Sources: American Customer Satisfaction Index and Devil’s Advocate Group analysis) Many store focus on customer service, but Best Buy does not care. According to â€Å"http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Best_Buy† Best Buy one of the lowest customer rating on customer service. I myself had a bad experience when I bought a Dell laptop on Best Buy online. The laptop will crash (blue screen) when I use more than 30 minutes. First, I thought the software I tried to find the problem, but not found anything. When it crashed too many times, I decided to restore the Windows. It still crashed then I decided to exchange the laptop at Best Buy Saugus (close to my house). I met a lady there then explained the problem. After that she took my laptop to test. When she came back she refused to accept laptop return. She told me there was nothing wrong on that laptop. I told her I cannot use that laptop it crashed if I use more than 30 minutes. I had used that laptop for 5 days and the return policy is 15 days (now change to 30 days), so I can exchange. She replied if I want to return and exchange I have to pay 15 percent restocking fees. I asked her why, she replied because I returned a good laptop. I kept explaining her about the laptop problem, but she did not listen to me then she called another customer â€Å"Next customer†. I was very  angry. 4. Lack of Employee’s Knowledge and the use of technology: Best Buy has sufficient number of employees to serve the crowd of customers. Majority of the best buy’s employee does not have the best convincing power at first glance. They employees do not have sufficient knowledge about the product and are not updated with the updating of technology. From my personal experience I found that some of the employees do not have sufficient knowledge about the products. I went there to buy an Apple Mac Book Pro. I had used apple products since a long time so I asked them some technical queries. And out of my 7 queries they were able to solve only 4 of my queries, and on asking about the rest they replied me that we are extremely sorry but we do not have an answer for this. Then I went to apple store and placed the same 7 queries on their desk and I got the solution for all my 7 queries. The department also faces problems of over stock and out of stock of materials. Best buy is also not updated with the technology of automatic request of placing orders. There are problems when the materials go out of stock and the customer is in need to that particular material only. Being a competitive world the customer won’t wait for couple of days to get that material from best buy instead would go to any other store and get that material. These problems can be solved if technologies are used to a good extent. Comparing Wal-Mart and best buy Wal-Mart uses an automatic re-order technique for all its materials. For example: 100 counts of chips are ordered and the details are placed in their database. As the counts of the chips from their database go below 30 the system automatic places a re-order of 100 counts of chips. Using this way they never face an over stock and out of stock problems. The database is up to date with the latest entries of the inventories. 5. Inventory management: On the management side of the company it has big problems with its inventory management as well as its compensation policy. Best buy was very slow to enter the online market and has not done well in making its website very good. The company inventory system should change to a more perpetual inventory similar to Wal-Mart. And it should have a compensation system based on good sales as well as good service. A better Human resource policy based on production would better serve the company. The company must  also find a way to capture the customer in the store and not has the customer use the store as testing center to later buy over the internet. The company has failed to make this happen; better sales training as well as customer service training could offset this. Additionally Best has got to rid of selling DVD’s, and CD’s. They are taking up way to much space in the stores and they are selling fast enough due to them being obsolete. The company has tried to change this buy opening Best Buy mobile stores in shopping malls similar to cell phone providers. This has reduced cost associated with operating the big box store that best buy has been known for. This also reduces square footage to help in making the company more profitable. If they can continue to use this placement strategy they might be able to save the company. All in all this improvements may help the company in the short term. In the long term Amazon will prevail and put Best Buy out of business. 6. Online- a bad decision: Nowadays, the numbers of customers shopping online increase significantly. It is more convenience save time and money. Many retailers are focusing on Online shopping including Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target, Sear, Home Depot, Loews, Amazon, Newegg, and so on. Many Online stores do much better than Best Buy. Best Buy Online has many weaknesses including: shipping fees, price management, inventory management, and customer service. Best Buy does not care much about shipping fees. The shipping fees is too expensive if compare to other stores. For example, If I want to buy Number Hunt (baby toy), it cost $10.50, plus shipping $6.14, and plus tax $0.65. Total cost would be: $10.50 + $6.14 + $0.65 = $17.29 If I buy three Number Hunt, Best Buy will charge the shipping fee three times ($6.14 x 3 = $18.42). The total for three Number Hunt would be $51.87. If I buy from Amazon it costs $9.99 plus $4.99 shipping. Total $9.99 + $4.99 = $14.98. If I buy three Number Hunt, Amazon will not charge shipping free because the total over $25.00. The total for three Number Hunt would be $9.99 x 3 = $29.97. This example ( $51.87 VS $29.97) show me that Best Buy online store cannot compete with big online stores like Amazon.com or Newegg.com at all. Best Buy should talk to shipping companies to get the same shipping deal like Amazon or Newegg otherwise Best Buy will become a showroom. Another problem, Best Buy Online  has to compete with other retail store like Wal-Mart, Target, Sear, Kmart, Home depot, Loews and so on. The small stuff like toy customers most likely would buy from Walmart.com, because the price always cheaper than Best Buy and Wal-Mart charge flat rate shipping. It means whether customers buy one or five items they pay the shipping for the first item only. Whey Best Buy charge every single item? Best Buy has price match policy to compete with other stores, but the policy does not work on Best Buy Online. Best Buy has small AT&T in side and an Apple retail store. If customers want to buy I-phone 5 in store, Best Buy will sell to contract customers only. On other hand, customer can buy an I-Phone 5 without contract on Best Buy Online. It costs $699.00 ($50 more expensive that Apple Store). Why Best Buy sell $50 more expensive than Apple store? On customer point of view, it does not make any scene to buy an I-Phone 5 without contract form Best Buy Online at all. That problem make customers decide to shop at Apple directly rather than via Best Buy Apple store. Best Buy Online does not have a good inventory management to manage the inventory. Many customers could not receive what they order, because Best Buy Online does not have in their warehouse to ship. Here a quote from resellerratings.com â€Å"awful. Service was bad, rude, and nasty. Didn’t have the product I wanted and told me they did. I had to wait 2 weeks to get it. I called and they said, there was nothing they could do. The entire district was out. That is awful inventory management to let 15 stores go out of a product. Will not be shopping here again† Sometimes there are plenty order items in the local Best Buy Store, but Best Buy local stores could not ship the item that was order on Best Buy Online. It is not a good business practices. Best Buy should allow local store to ship the item if Best Buy Online warehouse run out of stock to keep the customers happy and get the item that they ordered. Another alternative solution, Best Buy could adopt just on time inventory management to manage the inventory. If Best Buy wants to survive and be a best place to buy electronic product online, they should implement the shipping fees, price management, inventory management, and customer service. Best Buy Online has lost many customers. If the customers keep leaving Best Buy Online like that Best Buy Online would be out of business like Circuit City. It is not too late, but the implementation should take an action soon. Conclusion: In conclusion we feel that Best Buy would have to make a huge investment in operations management, training, inventory management and customer service to turn around the company. We feel collectively the end of Best buy is coming soon due to the above factors and more importantly the online retailers. Because of the deficiencies in Best Buy the company will not be able to recover from its flaws. We feel that the consumer will continue to use the Best Buy for showroom purposes and then buy online. The investment in time and dollars needed to change the company will not be worth it in the long run References: www.amazon.com www.newegg.com www.walmart.com http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Best_Buy www.bestbuy.com www.seekingalpha.com http://www.customerthink.com http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2012/01/18/best-buy http://www.heartofthecustomer.com http://storefrontbacktalk.com/e-commerce

Dont Name Your Character Mary Sue

Dont Name Your Character Mary Sue Don’t Name Your Character Mary Sue Don’t Name Your Character Mary Sue By Mark Nichol Are your lead characters a menagerie of Mary Sues? A Mary Sue is a walking clichà ©, unrealistically flawless and therefore flat and boring a hero in your story, but a villain in your efforts to create well-rounded characters. The label for this trope is from a character in a fan-fiction Star Trek parody featuring a winsome but tiresome teenage hero by that name. The story poked fun at the adolescent (or adolescent-minded) authors of fan fiction who create characters often idealized self-representations notably lacking in personality flaws and seemingly incapable of making mistakes. The result, invariably, is a dull Dudley (or Dolly) Do-Right. But wait, you protest some of the most memorable characters in storytelling traditions have been Mary Sues! What about all the heroes of folk tales and fairytales? What about the central figures in Horatio Alger Hiss rags-to-riches stories and the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries? What about icons of the small and big screens like Captain Kirk and Luke Skywalker? There’s no law against coaxing a Mary Sue to life in any creative medium. But recognize that the presence of a gosh-and-golly go-getter is an element that marks the framing narrative as pulp fiction. If you want to produce pulp, have at it; the demand for it is insatiable. But if you wish to be taken seriously as a writer, understand that realistic characters those with hopes and dreams and desires, yes, but also with doubts and faults and weaknesses are full of depth and dimension. Characters who always know what to do and what to say, who always do the right thing, are less appealing, because we are less likely to see our own imperfect selves reflected in them. A faultless character is, like a story free of conflict, a flimsy basis for a good story. Tales appeal to us because we empathize with people who fail but then get up, dust themselves off, and try again, because that’s what we do every day, and that’s what builds our character. If your name is Mary Sue, you never fall and you (and the story that surrounds you) can therefore never truly be admired. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Fiction Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Comparative Forms of AdjectivesBody Parts as Tools of Measurement10 Tips About How to Write a Caption

The Line-Item Veto essays

The Line-Item Veto essays The line item veto came into effect January 1st, 1997 after being passed in an overwhelmingly Republican House, and the Senate, (with many objections by Senator Robert Byrd). However, the republican bill did not live for long, although it took a very long time to pass it, it was struck down in 1998 by a Supreme Court ruling. Although it was declared unconstitutional, President Bush still asks for it to this day, and it is likely that many more Republican presidents will. The implications of the bill, and the reasons around its end, form an ongoing challenge between Republican and Democratic views of the presidential power of the veto. The basics around the Line Item Veto stand as thus; its short lived glory under the administration of Clinton was an effective aid to his policy, as he made use of it 82 times in the one year that it lasted. Also it was a powerful tool in ridding the policy of federal expenses that only existed on bills to attract interest groups. Of course this anger ed Democrats, and so they thought, if outlawed, then bills that were mostly liked by presidents would still pass with the little lobbying amendments. As the Line Item Veto did not last long, there is not much history or usages of it to be described, such as many other bills that created famous cases. However, it is a bill that has been desired by many past presidents, predominantly Republicans, and so it is likely that in them, the legacy and desire for the Line Item Veto will go on. In history every president since Abraham Lincoln has asked for the power of the line item veto. It has been coveted mostly by the big time Republicans such as Reagan and Bush Senior. Despite the constant requests from almost every president, it was not passed until 1997, making Clinton the first president to ever have the power already given to forty-three governors, the power of the line item veto. The conservatives placed the line item veto on the policy agenda in an atte...

Using PrepScholar to Boost Academic Motivation

Using PrepScholar to Boost Academic Motivation SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Many parents have experienced the frustration of high schoolers who seem academically unmotivated. We think we’re a great answer to that problemread on to find out why. Teaching and learning are very complex processes that very few people understand. We at PrepScholar are at the cutting edge of modern educational tools, and that is partly due to our intimate knowledge of teaching and learning. In this post we break down some of the most important factors in motivating your student. Supervision Matters. Studies show that students are inherently motivated by the attention of parents and teachers to their progress. Online SAT and ACT prep might at first seem like a far cry from the intimacy of a 1-on-1 teacher-student relationship, but PrepScholar actually offers more personalized content and feedback than our classroom competitors. Most importantly, all of the information is sent to both students and parents, so you are notified immediately if your student isn’t putting the hours in. We also keep track of your student’s schedule and the time being spent on test prep. With PrepScholar, every week your student enters his or her planned study schedule, aiming ideally to complete ten weekly lessons (or about 5 hours). The study schedule the student enters is sent to the student, parents and PrepScholar so everyone is on the same page. We at PrepScholar believe that one thing affects SAT and ACT score increases the most: the number of hours a student spends preparing. To this end, we send weekly progress reports to students and parents that summarize the number of hours spent studying and the lessons that have been completed that week. Tutoring gives even more detailed feedback. With PrepScholar tutoring, an experienced tutor helps your student navigate through the hardest parts of his or her lessons, paying special attention to skills that appear more often on the test or to the sections that are more important to the schools the student hopes to attend. The tutor also sends session followup emails to parents and students after every tutoring session, discussing the topics covered and any special circumstances parents might like to know about. College Matters. Too many test prep companies focus on the test as an end in itself; we never forget that SAT and ACT prep is a means to an end: the best possible college education for your student. Our prep has a definite and specific goal that motivates students by connecting to real life rewards. We are college admissions experts, and so we never lose sight of the ultimate goal. Going a step further, our strategy lessons help students target the right schools for them and the right scores to get in. We also offer college counseling as part of our tutoring package. Difficulty Matters. Our extensive teaching experience, not to mention contemporary educational theory, shows that students are very easily demotivated by discouragement. We want to avoid the â€Å"I just can’t do it† attitude, so the lessons each student receives are based on his or her scores on our diagnostic testif your student’s skills in Geometry are weak, he or she will receive the most basic Geometry information first. If your student doesn’t master the skill in a given lesson, depending on his or her score on the lesson’s Practice Quiz, the skill will reappear periodically for the student to try againunlike classroom prep, we don’t move on until your student does. Encouragement Matters. With PrepScholar, students get positive reinforcement for progress and hours studying. The weekly emails and interactive feedback are 100% encouraging, designed to cheer students on to the next level of achievement. When students don’t complete their weekly 5 hours, we remind them of the relationship between hours studying and score improvement, encouraging them to try again next week. Encouragement is also one of the main reasons we offer tutoring at PrepScholarfor some students, there’s no substitute for an educator’s friendly face and positive feedback after successes. Our weekly Skype tutoring sessions provide an intimate space for students to ask about their problems and get recognition for their achievements. Fun Matters. Our current program gives students visual information about their progress, tracking all the lessons they did and when so they can view the history of their test prep accomplishments. The site is easy to use, and we will soon be adding more fun features that make the prep experience more like a game to be won than a chore to be completed. Because, really, getting into college is a sort of game, and SAT and ACT prep is one of the most important strategies to win. If you found this article useful, please consider joining our email list at right. Your information will never be shared or sold.

The Criminal Justice System of England and Wales Essay

The Criminal Justice System of England and Wales - Essay Example This is because the acts of the Parliament can override common law provisions. Moreover, its membership in the European Union requires it to follow the European community law. The World Factbook of Criminal Justice Systems also said that the legal system in England and Wales is "adversarial" in all courts, including the juvenile courts. Its criminal justice is the "historical pioneer" of the common law type of legal system. More often than not, the law evolves through the decisions made in previous individual cases while decisions in court influence certain perceptions and rules. Such practices might have originated from the fifth century while it was after 1066 when general perceptions regarding common law principles increased. Also, the World Factbook of Criminal Justice Systems added that England and Wales' common legal systems were derived from the Acts of Union of 1536 and 1542. Moreover, the late 19th and 20th centuries have witnessed a boost in the number and scale of statutes and of delegated legislation in British law. Just like in most countries, crime in England and Wales is classified and distinguished mostly on the basis of its seriousness. In addition, an offense may vary according to the procedure it is brought into trial. For example, if it's through a magistrates' court only, by indictment, or by the higher Crown court. It may also vary according to the sanction. Criminal responsibility in England and Wales is 10, so those between ages 10 and 17 are forced to face a youth court if they are charged with a criminal offense. Its difference with the court for adults is that parents of the child offender may be charged with fines which they must pay and supervise their child's behavior. In terms of drug use, the Misuse of Drugs Act of 1971 covers the terms and conditions. It listed drugs into classes A, B, or C. This act was intended to regulate the use and flow of drugs, according to the World Factbook of Criminal Justice Systems. And as in many countries all over the world, it is unlawful to produce, supply, possess, prepare, cultivate, and import or export and such substances. World Factbook of Criminal Justice Systems said that 1994 data shows that there were 5.3 million recorded offenses in England and Wales, this would include indictable offenses and summary offenses, 26 percent of which were cleared. About 729 of the cases were homicide charges and 220,000 offenses of violence against persons. Meanwhile, only 19,600.of these offenses were classified to be serious. During the same year, 5,039 rape cases were recorded which accounted to only one percent of the total recorded offenses. Meanwhile, an astounding 93 percent of the overall offenses were against property, including burglary, theft, criminal damages, and fraud. As for drug offenses, 17,569 cases were reported. Not surprisingly, about half of the total recorded offenses were to be found in metropolitan police areas while rural areas had the lowest crime rates. Judicial System According to The Criminal Justice System Review, the criminal justice system of England and Wales has changed drastically. This is because before the introduction of the due process, those

Liability Issues - Limited Liability Company Essay

Liability Issues - Limited Liability Company - Essay Example In this case, though, it appears that the â€Å"sole trader† concept is not appropriate for these three individuals. This is because the sole trader is an individual who sets up an entity. Thus, whatever entity they set up will not be a sole trader. Thus, it could either be a limited liability company or a business partnership. A limited liability company is one in which the three individuals can form by pooling their resources in the form of acquiring shares in the company to be formed. The acquisition of shares creates a separate entity that will have a limited liability. On the other hand, if the three individuals in question decide to form a partnership, they will be a collection of individual sole traders who will contribute their resources according to a ratio. Based on the ratio of contributions, they will bear responsibility for issues that come up and also get to split profits on the basis of the ratio. However, partnerships often do not have a limited liability. The concept of â€Å"limited liability† is steeped in the idea that a firm is separated from its owners. This is steeped in the case of Salomon V Salomon (1897) in which a man created an entity with 20,007 shares. He took 20,001 shares and sold one share each to six of his family members. The business went into liquidation and the creditor sued for the recovery of money from the owner with 20,001 shares. The court held that once it was incorporated as a company, the liability was limited and the liability for issues and matters was only limited to the assets and shares owned by the business itself. Based on this, it is deduced that a business that has a limited liability is separate and different from its owners (James and Tilley, 2009). In doing this business, there are risks and there is a possibility that the computers of the firm could encounter some forms of risks.  In that case, there is the need to protect the entity from having its liability spread from the organisation they will form to the owners of the business.  Ã‚  

Family Conditions And Child Treatment Research Paper

Family Conditions And Child Treatment - Research Paper Example Other than parental monitoring, there are also several other aspects of family functioning that influence the behaviour and thinking of the child and they are family relation characteristics like beliefs, cohesion and organisational structure. Studies have shown that low emotional warmth, lack of proper organisational structure, low beliefs and low cohesion levels are associated with delinquent behaviour (Gorman-Smith, p.170). More often than not, juvenile delinquents are individuals who come from broken home background (Siegel, p.74). These children either reside in single-parent households or in any other household in which their biological parents are not there. Intact family may be defined as a nuclear family arrangement in which both biological parents reside in the household with their biological children (Kierkus & Baer, 2002; cited in Murray, p.88). Two-parent arrangement in which a step parent is present, single-parent arrangements, extended family member arrangements and fo ster family arrangements do not fall under intact family.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Association between broken homes and juvenile delinquency was studied as early as 1932 by Shaw and McKay (cited in Murray, p.88). These researchers reviewed literature pertaining to type of homes and delinquents and compared delinquents from intact homes and disrupted homes. In their review they opined that most of the studies pertaining to these had several limitations and that several other factors other than intactness of homes influenced development of juvenile behaviour.... Intact family may be defined as a nuclear family arrangement in which both biological parents reside in the household with their biological children (Kierkus & Baer, 2002; cited in Murray, p.88). Two-parent arrangement in which a step parent is present, single-parent arrangements, extended family member arrangements and foster family arrangements do not fall under intact family. Association between broken homes and juvenile delinquency was studied as early as 1932 by Shaw and McKay (cited in Murray, p.88). These researchers reviewed literature pertaining to type of homes and delinquents and compared delinquents from intact homes and disrupted homes. In their review they opined that most of the studies pertaining to these had several limitations and that several other factors other than intactness of homes influenced development of juvenile behaviour. Research from that period has questioned the influence of family intactness on development of juvenile delinquency. According to a rece nt study by Demuth and Brown (2000, cited in Murray, p.88), though broken homes are strongly associated with juvenile delinquency, the family arrangement are not just the broken home issue. This is because; there is enough evidence to suggest that the risk of juvenile delinquency is higher among teenagers residing with single fathers when compared to those residing in a 2-parent household. This probably is because of the decreased parental involvement in the former case. The researchers opined that the main factors which contributed to delinquency were lack of supervision from parent's side and absence of close relationship between the adolescent and his or her parents. Geismar and Wood (1986;