Applied Integrated Business - Essay Example

?Zheng Qin A Reflective Report (Applied Integrated Business - Luton) 06 August (estimated word count 723) Introduction My stay at this university is very productive and during the course of several months, I learned quite a lot. This paper is a reflection of this entire learning process and on the topics which I think are of great importance to me which means I find these topics useful in a future beyond or after finishing my studies here. The world of business has become more intensely competitive due to a number of factors, such as faster communications and globalization. This paper is an attempt to synthesize everything I had learned so far which can be applicable in a world of business that is further made complicated and difficult by various financial crises. In the next few pages, I will elaborate on these further by enumerating the three most important. Discussion I think Professor Michael Porter's Five-Forces Model of competition is the first thing that comes to my mind in terms of importance. His model is applicable to almost all industries anywhere in the world. It has universal applications and any aspiring manager should learn to apply the principles in this model. Doing so will make his job as manager much, much easier. It will allow him to analyze a given industry, formulate the appropriate strategies and then be able to implement this particular chosen strategy to achieve superior results, no matter what. It is a given that the Porter model is extremely useful for industry analysis in order to attain that sustainable superior performance over peer industry competitors. The model further simplifies the whole job of any manager; without it, it is quite difficult to arrive at a good decision due to sometimes too much data to analyze that one can easily get lost of the strategic objective. The second most important thing I learned during the course is the 7 Ps of marketing. Sales professionals always try to outdo each other by outselling the competition and the 7 Ps will help me analyze how they do it successfully. It is a relatively simple management tool but it is also quite powerful in terms of simplifying the analytical process, especially when one is at a loss on what to do next if a product launch fails at the marketplace. This model will help to put things in a proper perspective so corrective measures can be undertaken to rescue new products and services from being failures in the market. This model is a step-by-step guide to successful marketing techniques because it analyzes each step to be taken when selling and it helps to remove guesswork by making the analysis much more professional and accurate. The third most important I learned so far in this course is the SWOT analysis model. It may seem simple but it at least has a systematic approach when analyzing the inherent kind of strengths and weaknesses of any business organization. The first two letters are S and W; it pertains to the internal structure of the business firm by looking inward at its core competence or the areas of operations in which it has advantages while at the same recognize weaknesses. This will allow the firm to take corrective measures to remedy these weaknesses. The second two letters which are O and T represent opportunities and threats from the environment which are considered as external to the firm. The usefulness of this SWOT model is it is applicable to individual persons as well, such as taking pre-emptive or preventive measures to avoid any possible harm or dangers. The SWOT model for analysis is also useful in other situations like disaster preparedness by government units and other non-profit organizations because it will try to recognize possible dangers and allow for sufficient advance planning to avoid failures. The SWOT model has internal and external components, very much like Porter's Five-forces model, which has three external components and two internal features in the said model. I fully intend to use all my accumulated knowledge from the course in my daily life. It is also very appropriate in my future endeavours, especially in a potential business venture. What is required is for me to remember all these things and apply them in the professional or business world, the so-called real world where competition is intense and mistakes are not to be forgotten easily by an unforgiving marketplace. Customers and consumers penalize anyone who puts out a bad product or service, so it pays to focus attention on the subjects that are also being taught in class today. The tendency is to disregard these subjects as not so relevant in a classroom but they are very useful outside of the four walls of the school building. Planning a business start-up is never easy, and so many of the principles taught today are very useful later on. Some of these subjects or topics which I find potentially useful in the near future are evaluating risk and return of any business undertaking, the disciplined analysis of an industry before trying to enter it, how to motivate employees for maximum performance and the type of business organization best suited for what I plan to put up later on. People are the best assets of any business organization and in this connection, attention must be given to employees so they will stay motivated and go the extra mile. Workforce issues will have to be tackled properly, such as compensation, stock options (if possible), personal skills and even a right kind of leadership style that will move the organization and people forward. Some of the changes I intend to implement during this course are my improved study habits and not get distracted by extraneous or irrelevant matters. With life in general, overall idea is to compete with other people fair and square, that is, not take undue advantages over other people if it can be helped. There are ethical and honourable ways of doing things, and to succeed in life, as well as in business, it is important to pay attention to both moral and ethical standards. It is more important to focus on long-term objectives than on short-term gains. In any type of business, it is equally important to enhance sales revenues but also at the same time minimize costs or expenses associated with operating the said business firm. In this connection, I find the course Management Accounting for Business to be very relevant in my future plan. In this subject, I learned the concepts of total absorption costing and marginal costing, two managerial accounting techniques which need to be learned to be successful. The two concepts are inter-related, the former pertains to making an effort to include all the costs associated with making a product or providing a service; the latter refers to the costs that vary with the volume of output. Total absorption costing (TAC) is particularly useful when making make-or-buy decisions for managers; this is because TAC includes everything like overhead costs so a product or service is priced correctly based on its actual or true costs. TAC is more applicable in manufacturing operations while another technique which is related to a service operation is activity-based costing (ABC) method, with each step of a service being accounted for in terms of the costs involved, and provides an accurate measure of total costs. It is a very appropriate tool in today's business environment because many firms today are in the services (Gowthorpe 439); however, both TAC and ABC as cost accounting tools can be utilized more if employed in analyzing the CVP relationship (cost-volume-profit) such as break-even point. The abovementioned accounting techniques are intended for budgetary controls. This approach works well in any type of business (product or services) because the manager has to keep an eye on sales revenues and costs (or expenses). The most important thing is to have the sufficient cash flows managed very well. Any business can fail or go under if there is not any cash or enough cash to sustain its operations, despite having substantial assets. This is because cash flow is everything in a business, as a business firm expands, the more it needs cash. This is paradoxical in a sense, because most people assume a growing firm does not need cash. In particular, managers or the owners of small business enterprises must focus or pay attention to potential cash flow problems before these arise and take preventive measures. The usual problem occurs during the cash-conversion cycle of the business, that is, from accounts receivables not being collected on time from buyers or customers. The subjects I have taken in this course will help a lot in understanding cash-flow problems from the point of view of an entrepreneur (business owner) because this is the most common problem encountered in any business, but more so of small- and medium-sized business entities. The expected cash from a cash or accounts receivables account may not be collected on time, and this presents a serious problem because the firm can become illiquid, running out of funds to operate it. Consequent to this, it is important to note every cash inflow such as borrowings, additional capital, and in other forms such as supplier credits and of course, the sales revenues and collections. On the other hand, cash outflows must also be monitored closely, to have a proper balance of its cash (Longenecker, Moore, Palich & Petty 499). This is what happened to Cyclermate in the course studies, an example of cash flow problems encountered due to its poor cash management. Conclusion Admittedly, there are still many things to learn about doing business successfully. It is a never-ending learning process but a good entrepreneur must have courage, belief in his or her own vision, lots of common sense and ability to influence people (customers and also his employees alike) because no one can succeed in life alone. As further examples of this added learning requirements, it is necessary to study more about net present value techniques used in making investment decisions (discounted cash flow valuation) to help determine if expected investments will provide high-enough returns that will exceed its cost of capital. Lastly, it is a necessity to observe trends in an industry, the additional T in the new SWOTT analysis. Works Cited Gowthorpe, Catherine. Business Accounting and Finance for non-specialists. 2nd ed. London, UK: Thomson Learning, 2005. Print. Longenecker, Justin Gooderl, Moore, Carlos W., Palich, Leslie E. and J. William Petty. Small Business Management: An Entrepreneurial Emphasis. Hampshire, UK: Cengage Learning, 2005. Print. Read More