Week 2
Union Pacific Railroad is a strategically placed America's leading franchise railroad company. Strategically placed because it is dynamically centered, not just geographically to serve 23 states, but it also knows how to benefit from political and environmental factors among others. Environmentally, the company believes that when one is part of the American landscape they have to protect it. With this knowledge in mind, the company holds on increasing fuel efficiency, reducing air emissions and energy consumptions, and recycling used materials. It is based on this belief that Union Pacific uses the Carbon Emission Estimator in their shipping to benefit the environment (Klein & Calandro Jr., 2016). Of organizational operations, the company strives to be a leader in developing technology and conscientiously uses resources to reduce their environmental impact. The company further improves its fuel efficiency through improvements in the locomotive technology, engineer training, and employee involvement. The company can further improve its operations by optimizing on its two primary types of locomotives; the high horsepower locomotives hat pull freight over long distances which work in train yards, sorting and delivering cars. Based on this kind of operation, Union Pacific can increase its current operational achievements from the current one ton of freight 465 miles on a single gallon of diesel fuel. Based on this, the next logical factor to look at is facilities currently UP facilities range from large rail yards that process rail cars to large and small offices. A rail yard's effectiveness impacts the company's operational success by reducing the amount of time trains spend in rail yards.
The company can further optimize on this by increasing their distribution centers and terminals. The current intermodal terminals feature state of the art technology to limit truck idling time. By also equipping the automotive terminals with charging stations to support electric vehicles moving to market, the company will be better placed to reduce the idling time further. The company values community collaboration because it realizes the fact that only by building on relationships with the customers and the general public which digs into the social and political spheres ( Zuschlag, Ranney, & Coplen, 2016). Communicating with the stakeholders is an essential aspect of the company's strategy, and they consider their needs, opinions, and ideas which are affected by the business. It builds on customer values by striving to provide quality and excellent customer service which requires understanding the needs of the customers. It has also learned how to integrate the more than 7000 communities throughout their system which directly trace their origins to a UP depot. By further building on this involvement, the customer is set to benefit even more from customer loyalty.
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Week 3
Amazon.com is an American based online shopping store whose services span from the united states of America and covers the most substantial portion of the earth's online retail services. At the center of this global achievement is a robust internal environment that continually facilitates the company's market force. Talking of internal environments, Amazon.com builds on useful organizational resources and business functions and core competencies as the basis of its internal strengths. It relies on a customer friendly website. Online shopping through internet developed sites has placed Amazon.com step ahead of its competitors. The sites have enabled Amazon.com to respond to clients quickly and effectively. The company also has a reliable infrastructure. It is correct to point out that Amazon.com has a robust and extensive support system that is well automated to serve distribution centers effectively. These structures are also low cost. The low-cost infrastructures have led to lower prices which with the integration of diverse products have resulted in better customer experience. This has been achieved through the evasion of physical retail outlet related costs through online selling.
Merchandise range is another strength Amazon.com has been able to capitalize on. Currently, the company has approximately 339.7 million in stock through online shopping compared to its primary retail competitor; Walmart which sells around 8 million of stock. The other strength of Amazon is the use of third-party sellers. The company supports third-party vendors who offer their products through Amazon. They often offer products that are not available via the company's retail segment. It is incredible to note how Amazon.com is strategically placed in its operations to tap into the online retailing platform. However, one area that the company fails, where it needs concentrating more effectively to promote its strength, is in customer relations, engagement, and involvement ( Ritala, Golnam, & Wegmann, 2014). The online seller does not actively and intensively do a follow-up or to establish ties with the customers, which is quite understandable seeing as it is that it is an online shop. However, by building on close relations with the clients, the company will be better placed to engage more directly with the customers. This it can do by investing more in the customer care and relations department.
Week 4
Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company that is headquartered in California which designs, develops and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services. However, Apple is best known globally for its trademark iPhone series. The company's products are loved by many people, and the products include iPhones, MacBook, and smart watches. However, some regular clients of the company's product are not satisfied with some of the features of their products, especially the iPhones. This is because of the frequent updates and upgrades it needs, especially the ones that are mostly available only on the latest series, prompting one to buy the newest series to continue enjoying better services. Apple Inc. should introduce more features into their business-level strategy to increase their overall level of performance as well as attract new customers through allowing for more updates of every series it produces rather than prompting for the purchase of a new series. For instance, they should create the possibility of a user to have their iPhone 6 upgraded to iPhone 6s at any Apple Inc. outlet rather than forcing them to have to buy iPhones 6s to enjoy the features this series has that the precious series does not have.
Apple Inc. most likely uses the differentiation business-level strategy in its services and products. This is because the company's series of iPhones are unique in the market. The features and benefits of the iPhones are unique only to iPhone users. Such features include the apple store. This differentiation technique comes in handy since iPhones are not the least expensive brand of phones in the market, and as such would need to develop unique features and offer benefits only known to the producer to attract the clientele, it does have. However, if Apple Inc. were to build more on cost leadership than differentiation, it would be able to attract more customers as well as retain the existing clientele (Matt, Hess, & Benlian, 2015). In as much as iPhones have unique features, their prices tend to be way over the board. Cost leadership would imply offering the best prices for the products in question. By taking a relatively affordable price, more customers would be drawn to the company, and they would be more satisfied with the costs and the products that Apple Inc. has to offer. It goes without saying that even if the frequent updates via the new series would be more affordable and it would have lesser of a tussle upgrading than I do now.
References
Klein, M., & Calandro Jr, J. (2016). Jay Gould, the Union Pacific Railroad and Value Creation. Financial History , (119), 24.
Matt, C., Hess, T., & Benlian, A. (2015). Digital transformation strategies. Business & Information Systems Engineering , 57 (5), 339-343.
Ritala, P., Golnam, A., & Wegmann, A. (2014). Coopetition-based business models: The case of Amazon. com. Industrial Marketing Management , 43 (2), 236-249.
Zuschlag, M., Ranney, J. M., & Coplen, M. (2016). Evaluation of a safety culture intervention for Union Pacific shows improved safety and safety culture. Safety science , 83 , 59-73.
