Potential Companies Research Articles

Design Anthropologists' Role in SMEs: Unveiling Aptitude and Attitude

Research collaboration and methods development within user‐centered design and the emerging discipline of user‐driven innovation have traditionally taken place in research institutions and large forward‐looking enterprises. Due to this fact, concepts, methodologies, approaches have primarily gained foothold in companies with resources, competencies and organizational support to make sense of this seemingly fruitful but somehow elitist approach. The roles that the design anthropologist plays in user‐driven innovation will depend on size and competencies of the specific organization. The economic realities of small‐to‐medium sized companies (SMEs) suggest a more holistic research perspective from the single design anthropologist that potentially constitutes the entire (and affordable) user experience department of the SME. This paper suggests a plausible approach for utilizing the skills of a design anthropologist in a small manufacturing company based on experience from two collaborative projects. Rather than informing about ‘how we look at users’ the design anthropologist may inform and reframe the company's potential for innovation.

People and Structure:A Model for Sustainable Innovation

Organization can be viewed as value-delivery networks and structure as a vital resource. While companies might have an intended strategy, the strategy that actually emerges can be very different. This happens because there are forces that shape strategy in unintended ways and one of the key forces is people and structure. It represents an important building block because it is the actual collectivism of commitment and their relationship; the processes and its direction, which propel an organization. Manpower without 'structure' rarely delivers. A guiding structure is required which is more informal and flexible rather than formal and rigid. In traditional organizations, the employees and moreover the management and directors were far less multi-cultured. They were less gender-mixed. The organizations were run more by positional authority; people knew their places and compliance was often gained by reminding them of their places. Very few ever questioned the wisdom of decisions or the authorities making them. The structure was simpler. The problems were more easily defined and the confidence that our formal leaders would do the right thing was higher. In this seamless, borderless world there is little opportunity to reflect on and integrate different points of view; therefore it requires structures and systems, which enable organizations to enhance their company's potential. In other words, it is imperative that 'structure' should form a vital part of strategy planning and not only implementation. Maximizing your company's potential-and ultimately your results-depends on accelerating the alignment of organizational models and people. Organizational growth and success requires that people with the right profile and motivation find your company to be an environment that is conductive to flawless execution. The knowledge and expertise of people are the key resources for growth. In the new millennium, competitive advantage will flow from the creation of value, which leads, to knowledge-not from its appropriation from rivals.

Optimistic Bias and Perceptions of Bioterrorism in Michigan Corporate Spokespersons, Fall 2001

The notion that individuals believe that they are more likely than others to experience positive events and avoid negative ones is a well-documented phenomenon in the combined literatures of social psychology and health communication. The current study focuses on Michigan corporate spokespersons' perceptions of their company's risk and potential for optimistic bias. Beginning on September 10, 2001, and continuing through October 2001, telephone surveys were conducted by a professional survey research firm to assess spokespersons' awareness of and preparedness for a bioterrorism attack at their corporation, as well as to ascertain perceived self-risk relative to that of other, similar corporations. The results offer evidence of a robust optimistic bias, and provide an unusually timely snapshot of levels of corporate awareness of bioterrorism during a critical period of time in which the U.S. experienced its first anthrax attack.

Agent-based merchandise management in Business-to-Business Electronic Commerce

Currently, there is cutthroat competition in the retail industry, and retail companies struggle for survival. Merchandise management—selecting desirable merchandise, disposing of slow-selling goods and ordering and distributing them—is important to a retailer's success because merchandise is the basis of retailing. Particularly because in an Electronic Commerce (EC) environment, customer preferences are very diverse and their merchant loyalty level is very low, companies should acknowledge the changes in customer demand patterns quickly and respond to them appropriately. However, until now, most retailers have depended on humans for merchandise management. Because there are too many merchandise and brands, it is impossible for merchandise managers to evaluate, compare, select and dispose of merchandise effectively. Retailers need a system that can perform merchandise managers' jobs autonomously, continuously and efficiently. In this paper, we propose an agent-based system for merchandise management, which performs evaluating and selecting merchandise and predicting seasons and building purchase schedules autonomously in place of human merchandise managers under a Business-to-Business (B2B) EC environment. In order to facilitate the agent's intelligent behavior, several analysis tools such as Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), Genetic Algorithm (GA), Linear Regression and Rule Induction Algorithm are incorporated into the system. Lastly, the proposed system is verified in its application to a duty-free shop. The proposed system would accomplish merchandise management timely, autonomously and efficiently, and the effective merchandise management would reduce the inventory level while increasing sales and profits. The agent-based merchandise management system will enhance a retail company's potential for success. Moreover, it will be necessary for survival in the B2B EC.

New development concerning gender discrimination in the workplace

Looks at how US organizations can prevent gender discrimination and support women in the workplace. Lists the actions that organizations have been recommended to take to ensure that the women reach their full potential within the workplace. Also looks at the potential of companies providing benefits, such as child care, maternity/family leave and flexible working arrangements to support women employees with children.

Theory and practice of technological corporate assessment

Conventional audits of a corporate assessment rely heavily on key accounting figures and finally on extrapolating data from a historically oriented analysis of balance sheets or on an estimate of future revenues (gross rental method) or cash flows (discounted cash flow procedure). What is lacking is a substantive statement of technological potential, which is central for assessing sustained turnover and profitability in the future. This gap can be filled through a technological assessment to complement conventional accounting. By taking both a technological and financial perspective, a two-dimensional technological and financial portfolio with the dimensions of technological and financial attractiveness can be developed, which enables key elements to be differentiated in a corporate assessment. A company's technological attractiveness can be assessed by using a technology balance sheet that complements the trade balance sheet, which is used to illustrate and evaluate a company's technological potential. The result is a future-oriented, highly aggregated overall overview of the technological situation. Just as the trade balance sheet, the technology balance sheet can also be understood as a system of logically related and structured key figures, which mathematically link asset and liability items. It is developed according to specific principles and likewise offers several ways to analyse balance sheets. The process of a technological company assessment is illustrated by using the example of a company in the smart card industry. Afterwards, the technological and financial assessments will be consolidated into an overall evaluation.

Ten strategies to enhance supplier management

AbstractPurchased goods and services represent between 50 and 70 percent of a manufacturing company's value potential. Even in service industries, more than half of all services are purchased from other organizations. In other words, the majority of what a typical company is is defined by the components, materials, and services it acquires from outside sources. Conversely, vertical integration is becoming less and less credible, serving only to clutter many organizations with noncore competencies and decrease flexibility in terms of cost structure and adaptability in the marketplace. With more and more parts, materials. goods, and services purchased outside the organization, companies are altering the tenor of their supplier relationships. In this excerpt from Supercharging Supply Chains, the authors explain how organizations can improve strategic sourcing and supplier management by buying smarter.

Maintaining service quality under pressure from investors: a systems dynamics model as a hands-on learning tool

This article, by Ann van Ackere, Kim Warren and Erik Larsen discusses how system dynamics models can help understand a service company's growth potential and its limitations, as well as the use of such models for executive training. The ideas are illustrated using a model built for a European restaurant chain which grew close to 200 outlets in less than a decade. The model is being used for educating the emerging generation of managers who will have to cope with the tensions described in the model. The authors use the model to study how management policies affect the achievable rate of growth. The issues discussed are relevant to any service based company facing the problem of maintaining and improving service quality against the pressure of performance expectations set by shareholders or corporate owners.

The growth of service and the service of growth: Using system dynamics to understand service quality and capital allocation

This paper discusses how system dynamics can help understand a service company's growth potential as well as its limitations. The model discussed here is being built for a European restaurant chain which grew from nothing to over 200 outlets in less than a decade. The model highlights two conflicting pressures: the need to spend on meeting customer expectations and hence build sales versus the need to meet profit targets from headquarters and thus win the capital to fund expansion. We use the model to study how management policies affect the achievable rate of growth. The issues discussed are relevant to any service based company facing the problem of maintaining and improving service quality against the pressure of performance expectations set by shareholders or corporate owners. We also briefly discuss the benefit of using such models for executive training. The model will be used as a basis for educating the emerging generation of managers who will have to cope with the tensions described in the model.

Harvesting a ‘Lost’ Investment: case study of a financial innovation

In the field of Entrepreneurial research, financial innovations have been less studied and reported than product or process innovations. A case example is presented with implications for a large number of firms requiring financial restructuring as a precondition to attracting equity investmemnt. An insolvent asparagus exporter with high growth potential offered opportunity to test a model of financial restructuring and unlisted equity marketing, the ersatz venture capital (EVC) hypothesis. A business plan written in accordance with EVC prescriptions revealed the company's potential and attracted investors. It is argued that the approach may help solve two pressing problems of the Australian economy: re‐vitalisation of businesses rendered insolvent by excessive debt and stimulation of a depressed venture capital market.

Strategy, cross-subsidization and the “business portfolio”

Business portfolio analysis is becoming an increasingly important and indeed critical element in strategy analysis, and the problem of cross subsidization will almost certainly become an issue of some importance for managements under the influence of the new Price Commission. This article analyzes the problem of developing corporate strategy on the basis of the individual contributions which inter-dependent groups of services and products make to the company's profitability, stability and future potential.

Toward an Old Theory of Equity Valuation

o In focusing on earnings per share growth rather than on dividend growth, investors have traditionally made two big assumptions-(1) that dividend payout ratios would remain constant and (2) that earnings retained after dividend payouts would lead to higher future dividends at a rate equal to the earnings growth rate. Although, under the accounting and financial policies that prevailed until the early 1970's, these assumptions were fairly realistic, earnings per share figures are no longer reliable approximations of the cash available to pay earned dividends, finance future growth and reduce debt. While valuation models focusing on earnings per share growth have thus lost much of their usefulness, the source of dividends remains the same-real cash, or the potential to generate real cash. If earnings has become a less useful proxy for a company's dividend potential, the investor must pay less attention to earnings and more attention directly to the source of dividends. To assist the investor in focusing on potential to generate cash, the author introduces what he calls the Total Cash Flow Analysis Statemeni. Viewing corporations in terms of this statement reveals that corporate liquidity is high, cash flow from the operating cycle strong and sustainable, capital expenditures and dividend coverage ratios improving, and debt to equity ratios declining. Under these circumstances, those companies that have not already done so are likely to increase dividends. While the market may already be paying more attention to dividends, it probably does not yet fully comprehend the extent of the improving cash flow situastion. o