Business Examples Flashcards
Bosch environmental / R&D investment:
Bosch invests 50% of its R&D budget in technologies supporting environmental protection
Bosch eXchange program:
Bosch eXchange program remanufactures used car components, generating 23,000 metric tons less carbon dioxide annually compared to new production
Starbucks Sustainable Coffe Challenge:
Starbucks has committed to providing one million coffee trees to farmers as a partner in Conservation International’s ‘Sustainable Coffee Challenge’
- Plan to hire 10,000 refugees across 75 countries in the next five years
Iceland palm oil campaign:
Iceland announced they would stop manufacturing product containing palm oil to draw attention to tropical deforestation
Virgin employee motivation:
Richard Branson puts his employees over customers - he collects feedback from employees by walking around the cabin and talking directly to staff during flights
- “In the end shareholders do well, the customers do better, and your staff remains happy”
Huawei market growth:
Huawei’s market share reached 15% (Samsung is market leader with 17%)
- Consumers in China are turning to cheaper brands for smartphones
Tesla customer service:
Tesla goes to the customer’s home to fix car issues rather than making the customer go to the repair shop in their time
Harley Davison after-sales service:
When a customer purchases a Harley Davidson, they are encouraged to join the Harley Owners Group which connects riders and the brand and also helps with maintenance and bike issues
Aldi sales growth:
Aldi now have a market share of around 7.5% as opposed to 3% in 2012.
Amazon hard HRM:
Amazon accused of treating staff like robots as it emerged that ambulances had been called out 600 times to the UK warehouses in the past three years.
- Employees told “it’s not what you want, it is what we decide”
- Pregnant woman made to stand 10 hours without a chair
Amazon R&D:
Amazon topped the list of US company spending on R&D in 2017 with $22.6 billion to produce products such as Alexa
Primark only selling in store:
Primark does not sell online - their low prices means low profit margins and going online would mean absorbing shipping costs or passing them to the consumer
Sea World reputation:
Sea World’s public image was damaged after a documentary brought to light the conditions that they keep their Orca whales in - their stock fell 33% as a result
Tesco quality control:
Tesco burgers found to contain horse meat leading to their value falling by nearly £300 million
Nike advertisement:
Nike ‘Just Do It’ campaign resulted in their sales going from $800 million in 1988 to $2 billion within a decade
- Nike got support from athletes including Michael Jordan and turned the brand into a fashion statement rather than just sportswear
Debenhams retrenchment:
Debenhams plan to cut 50 stores after £492 million annual loss with up to 5,000 jobs at risk
Unilever shareholder influence:
Unilever cancels plans to move headquarters from London to Rotterdam due to pressure of shareholders
Kleenex pressure groups:
Kleenex ‘mansize’ tissue boxes renamed ‘extra large’ in response to criticism from customers and feminist campaigners
Walmart innovation:
Walmart applied for a patent for smart shopping carts to give store feedback about shopping habits
- Shopping carts are equipped with sensors that can read pulse, palm temperature and walking speed in order to understand how customers feel in the store
Thomas Cook primary research:
Thomas Cook considers introducing pre-bookable sun-beds after survey finds 1 in 10 are in favour of the idea
Premier Inn product development:
Premier Inn new Zip rooms that are 8.5 square metres starting from £19
New look failed international expansion:
New Look abandons Chinese operation as they try to find new tenants for their 130 stores in China
Hoversurf technological change:
Dubai Police started training on Hoversurf hover bikes, costing £114,000, to help attent emergencies quicker
Apple product life cycle:
Apple are no longer supporting the iPhone 5 as it is now considered vintage
John Lewis product life cycle / technological change:
John Lewis will not longer be selling DVD players as sales of product plunged by 40% over the last year following increasing popularity of streaming services such as Netflix
Honda JIT:
Honda Swindon assembly plant retains just an hours worth of parts at the production line - it requires 350 trucks’ worth of components delivered everyday
NHS cyber-crime:
NHS hit with a £92 million bill following fallout of the WannaCry cyber attack which disrupted services and left thousands of appointments cancelled
- Health department agreed £150 million of investment in cyber security over next three years
Dominoes market penetration:
Dominoes use notifications through e-commerce to encourage existing customers to buy more pizza
Amazon technology creating jobs:
Amazon creates 600 research and development jobs in Manchester for workers to focus on software development
Facebook data protection:
Facebook fined £500,000 over Cambridge Analytica scandal for breaches of data protection law
- Data belonging to 87 million users were improperly accessed
Lidl quality control:
Lidl shopper finds dead mouse in rice packet leaving house smelling of cooked mouse
Apple soft HRM:
Apple voted best private sector firm to work for in the UK according to new survey
- They employ around 6,500 people in the UK
Amazon Herzberg hygiene factors:
Amazon warehouse workers have sent emails directly to boss Jeff Bezos urging him to restore their employee share schemes, which were cut to fund a promised pay rise.
- Share scheme entitles them to one share - worth around £1,500 - for every year they work at Amazon