Search results for: 'environment'

How to make an effective contribution to a closely-knit board run by a longtime and rigid chair, and how to do so as the only woman? This is the predicament this fictional case study presents Jane Pruitt, a 54-year-old CFO coming in from another company under shareholder pressure. She is striving to make a much-needed impact on a privately-held formerly family-run metalworking machinery and equipment manufacturer overseen by five male board members (and financially interconnected friends) all about 70 years of age.
Jane begins to suspect that the intellectual, generational and gender diversity she was hired to provide was brought on board only for public show.

The case raises important questions about the value of diversity in a team environment and will engage any student who has been an outsider on an insular, club-like team.

This case presents several challenges that are relevant for organizations today. First, it explores a newcomer’s perspective on being an outsider in an insider-dominated setting. Second, the case presents a number of common board/team practices that undercut effectiveness. Finally, it gives students the opportunity to think and talk about board diversity, its merits and challenges, and possible paths forward to success.

Within that setting, several instructional objectives can be met:

• Diversity: The experience of the outsider, and the deep frustrations of not fitting in.
• Board Process: Board effectiveness requires both the right board composition and the right board process.
• Leadership: The next leader is often already at the table but may not match the stereotype of the old one.

The case describes the story of Meliá Hotels International in Magaluf, Mallorca, as a touristic destination that had an extraordinarily fast development. It became a reference destination, due to its climate and privileged environment. It turned into a reference of quality and cost-effectiveness in Spain for decades, driven by hotel investment and tourism in the area.

However, in the 90s the perception of the area, as a quality tourist destination, decreased and began a period of inflection. These actions led to the fall of prices and margins of hotels.

Faced with the situation of serious deterioration of the Magaluf area and the declining results of Meliá hotels in the area, Mark Hoddinott knew that they had to make a strategic decision about the positioning of Meliá in that destination. After detailed analyzes, reflections and a wide network of consultations with collaborators, Hoddinott concluded that the best alternative for the company was investing in the area and promoting a strategic repositioning to restart Magaluf as a tourist destination.

This document summarizes the concepts and basic processes involved in consumer behavior, emphasizing how understanding consumers' needs benefits both consumers and marketers. Understanding consumer behavior can allow companies to develop a commercial strategy that is better matched to consumers, which will increase demand and optimize the means to generate that demand. Some of the main challenges are the variability of behavior, its changing nature, and the complexities of studying it. The note delves into how consumer behavior can be studied in a systematic and precise way by using a wide range of theoretical approaches and models and how it can be affected by factors such as environmental influences (economic, political, technological and cultural context) and marketing actions. The document outlines the various psychological factors involved in decision-making (personality, lifestyles, beliefs and attitudes, motivation, perception and learning) as well as the non-psychological ones (age, sex, location, etc.) which allow the marketer to better understand the consumers’ buying habits. It explains the basic decision-making model in depth and how consumers’ behaviors can play an active role in generating value for the company or the opposite thanks to undesired behaviors such as boycotts, complaints and negative word of mouth. It wraps up by describing how to move consumers from habit buying to decision making.

This case study discusses Huawei's history and development in Spain. It analyses the telecom operator's origins and culture and the way it entered the Spanish market by focusing on bringing corporate communications in-line with the company's business strategy in order to create awareness, change the firm's image and construct a corporate reputation for its different interest groups. The case study also explains how Huawei's communications department developed as the business grew and illustrates how it overcame the west's prejudices about Asian companies.

Explains the model of aggregate demand, fiscal policy, income, expenditures and production.

It offers a simplistic model to determine production and income. The technical note assumes the learner understands the circular flow diagram and basic macroeconomic identities. The model is created starting from aggregate demand and considers families' consumption and investment of the private sector. Then introduces the public sector, along with some concepts of fiscal policy. It ends with the foreign sector and its implications for income.

This technical note substitutes the previous ones EC2-003 "Los Componentes de la Demanda Agregada y la Renta de Equilibrio" and EC2-015 that are no longer available.

Explains the issues of the economic environment: unemployment, inflation, economic cycle, public and trade deficits and competitiveness. Also goes into some ideas about global financial crises, models used to exit them and some implications of the "new economy".

This technical note substitutes the previous one EC2-011 "Inflación, Paro, Competitividad y el Largo Plazo" that is no longer available.

Analyzes the relationship between the commodity and financial asset markets, going deep into the effect of monetary and fiscal policies separately, as well as the consequences of their simultaneous application. The second section goes into the interest rates between countries and the system of foreign exchange, whether fixed or flexible. It ends with an explanation of the risk premium of several countries.

This technical note substitutes the previous ones EC2-008 "Los Mercados de Bienes y Activos: Las Políticas Fiscal y Monetaria" and EC2-009 "Las Políticas Fiscal y Monetaria en Economías Abiertas con Movimientos de Capitales" that are no longer available.

This note details several details surrounding the foreign sector of the economy. It analyzes trade and current accounts, forex markets, trade policy, competitiveness and several theories about international trade. It also explains the reasons why countries trade, instruments of trade policy and what does being competitive mean.

This technical note substitutes the previous ones EC2-004 "El Equilibrio de la Balanza de Pagos y su Significado Económico" and EC2-005 "El Mercado de Divisas y el Tipo de Cambio" that are no longer available.

This technical note is introductory to a course on the economic environment of businesses. It provides an overview of the main problems of the economic environment, some explanatory ideas and models and a first glance at the main macroeconomic issues: growth and the cycle, unemployment, inflation, public deficit and structural deficit. Some ideas on government intervention in the economy and the global economic environment are also presented.

In the second part, the characteristics of the main models that are used in the analysis of the economic environment of businesses are presented and the main indicators of economic output are defined: income, expenditure, prices and population. We will start from the circular flow of income model, the version that distinguishes the goods market from the factory one as well as the macroeconomic adaptation that identifies the moment of expenditure, output and income. After defining the main variables, the various models that are usually used are briefly reviewed. Some concepts on the analysis of the datasets are provided before. At the end, a number of important clarifications are explained to avoid different economic concepts from being misunderstood.

On the last pages, an overview of building the aggregate supply and aggregate demand model is provided. We will use it as the basis for understanding how the economy works as a whole.

This technical note substitutes the previous ones EC2-001 "Entorno Económico: Dirigiendo Empresas en la Economía Global" and EC2-002 "Indicadores Económicos y Análisis de Coyuntura" that are no longer available.