Dow Chemical
Topic: “Dow Chemicals”
I decided to construct my essay on Dow Chemicals (DC) Company after reading an article in Business Week. Dow Chemical appears to be developing an aggressive market strategy that aligns with our class topics, and that I have found very interesting. Dow Chemical (DC) company, over the last seven years has built their strategy around and focused on their “niche”, which is core chemicals & plastics-manufacturing operations, while simultaneously reducing infrastructure debt, expanding its market share, and apparently building new strategic alliances.
According to Dow Chemical CEO William Stavropoulos, The mission and goals of Dow Chemical company is to be a world leader in chemical and plastics manufacturing by developing new customer demand product lines and expanding long-term profitability through global market expansion in such global markets as Europe and Asia. If Dow Chemicals currently owned assets did not align with and support this mission strategy, they were divested. Dow Chemicals has evidenced this by selling off more than $10 billion in business assets, while at the same time adding $10 billion in new business that support their new strategy, and the strategic addition of the Union Carbide Company.
To develop Dow Chemicals new strategy, which is to say to develop a competitive advantage within their selected market, Dow Chemical appears to have thoroughly examined their role in the macroenvironment, which also encompasses the political/legal, technological, demographic, social, and macroenvironments elements. In analyzing their macroenvironment they would have considered such items as the current economy interest rates, currency exchange rates, and inflation rates, which could impact the customer demand for their products, as well as acting on other environmental factors such as:
a) Technology: Through their advanced research and development of unique and new
innovative products, they easily heighten the of barriers to entry for competitors.
b) Social: Performing research on current and future trends for healthier and safer
products.
c) Demographic: Considered the age and education levels of surrounding manufacturing
plants. Skilled workers directly impact production capacity.
d) Political & legal: What rules and regulations are in place, what is the state of the
governm...
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a) Potential competitors: This area represents a threat to profitability, which can be
combated by raising the barriers to entry/exit costs, brand loyalty, absolute cost
advantages, economies of scale, and possibly through the development of superior
reputation influence and enjoy protection from local governments.
b) Rivalry: Monitor the competitive structure of the consolidated industry, which could
affect market share, and even start price wars, which could be costly. Monitor demand
trends, which could call for market expansion or retraction, and finally monitor exit
barriers, which be a deterrent for potential entrants.
c) Power of Buyers: Monitor supplier industries, when there are many suppliers, buyers
can dominate a bargaining position, and thereby generate cost savings. Consolidate
purchases with Union Carbide to maximize a combined buying power position.
d) Power of Suppliers: Monitor supplier markets for new supplier entrants or potential
suitable substitutes.
e) Substitute products: Monitor the market for suitable substitutes for your
manufactured product, which could negatively impact your market share.
This book also elaborates on the study of rulemaking by giving examples through cases, studies, loads of government documentation and interviews with policy makers. Following the information and chapters is really easy. The book is illustrated with clear tables, charts, and figures. Each chapter is clearly defined and tables/figures are clearly marked after the table of contents.
This strong growth in its downstream can be attributed to its efforts of diversifying its business to those products that have higher margins. For instance, the company’s refining and marketing margins helped the company to increase its earnings by a whopping $4.1 billion in 2015. This was however offset by volume and mix effect that led to increased maintenance costs and reduced its earnings by $200
To conclude, these issues are holding back the firm from being able to sustain profitability to a great extent. If these are resolved, then it can help the firm to form an overall profitability as each of its subsidiaries will contribute to be profitable by functioning only in the packaging sector or exploring new markets.
After reading two different views on what influences political power in the United States, I have set out to answer 4 questions assigned to me to help define how laws and regulations are laid out, and in most cases, gone around all together. In the text "American Government", the reading was a very fundamental basis of how the federal government was ran according to the constitution and the various philosophies that members of political leadership employ to wield power to influence voters and fellow congressional leaders. On the other hand, "Voices of Dissent" gives a different point of view on how business and the capitalists in fact run this country through campaign contributions and legal loopholes.
My current employer is Bayer Business Services. This is an operating service subgroup under holding company Bayer AG. Bayer AG looks after all Bayer’s separate operational and strategic managements. The group’s core businesses have been transformed into limited companies and are each controlled by Bayer AG. These companies are Bayer HealthCare, Bayer CropScience, and Bayer MaterialScience and three service companies which are Bayer Technology Services, Bayer Business Services and Currenta. The company now has operations in over 55 countries across the world (Blake, 2013). Bayer AG holds a key position in four market sectors: healthcare (pharmaceuticals), agriculture (seeds and agro-chemicals), polymers (plastics, synthetic rubber, coatings) and chemicals (chemical raw materials and specialized chemicals) ("Bayer AG : Overview", n.d.).
Henry Ford and his engineers designed several automobiles, each one designated by a letter of the alphabet: these included the small, four cylinder Model N (which sold for $500), and the more luxurious six-cylinder Model K (which sold poorly for $2500). In October 1908, ...
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The automobile industry began with Henry Ford’s production of the Model T in the early 1900’s. With the creation of the assembly line, cars became cheaper and quicker to produce, thus making them affordable for many people. There were originally 500 auto manufacturers. By 1908, there were only 200; and in 1917 only 23 remained. This vast reduction was due to large amounts of consolidation within the industry.
I think it is wise for the board of executives to take an active role in coming up with a system to evaluate their products. This evaluation system is considered a function strategy. In our text, it tells us that functional strategies consist of production procedures, advertising, product research, product development, personnel, economic, and support. (Coulter, K. 2013, p. 7) Due to the fact that Clorox has a wide range of products that are very diverse, it is important for them to evaluate them based on the current market. This strategy has allowed the company to evaluate the value of the products before resulting in a price increase or decrease. Clorox made a competitive strategy when they decided to go green. This was during the period when the company was going through leadership shift and the CEO thought
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Macro Environment consists of Political (P), Economical (E), Social (S) and Technological (T) factors that affect the Company. Continuous monitoring of these variables is an important marketing function. As Corporations today, Ecover is also sensitive to Macro Environmental changes. Some of the PEST factors that affected Ecover are discussed below.
bills when they are due and to take care of unexpected needs for cash, while
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