Achieving a strategic sales focus: contemporary issues and future challenges.

The main aim of this book is to consider how the sales function informs business strategy. Although there are a number of books available that address how to manage the sales team tactically, this text addresses how sales can help organizations to become more customer oriented. Many organizations are facing escalating costs and a growth in customer power, which makes it necessary to allocate resources more strategically. The sales function can provide critical customer and market knowledge to help inform both innovation and marketing. Sales are responsible for building customer knowledge, networking both internally and externally to help create additional customer value, as well as the more traditional role of managing customer relationships and selling. The text considers how sales organizations are responding to increasing competition, more demanding customers and a more complex selling environment. We identify many of the challenges facing organisations today and offers discussions of some of the possible solutions. This book considers the changing nature of sales and how activities can be aligned within the organization, as well as marketing sensing, creating customer focus and the role of sales leadership. The text will include illustrations (short case studies) provided by a range of successful organizations operating in a number of industries. Sales and senior management play an important role in ensuring that the sales teams' activities are aligned to business strategy and in creating an environment to allow salespeople to be more successful in developing new business opportunities and building long-term profitable business relationships. One of the objectives of this book is to consider how conventional thinking has changed in the last five years and integrate it with examples from sales practice to provide a more complete picture of the role of sales within the modern organization.

Marketing in SMEs: the sales process of SMEs on the food and drink industry.

There would appear to be varied approaches to the sales process practiced by SMEs in how they go about locating target customers, interfacing with prospects and new customers, presenting the benefits and features of their products and services, closing sales deals and building relationships, and an understanding of what the buyers needs are in the seller-buyer process. Recent research has revealed that while entrepreneurs and small business owners rely upon networking as an important source of sales, they lack marketing competencies, including personal selling skills and knowledge of what is involved in the sales process to close sales deals and build relationships. Small companies and start-ups with innovative products and services often find it difficult to persuade potential buyers of the merits of their offerings because, while the products and services may be excellent, they have not sufficiently well-developed selling skills necessary to persuade their target customers.

O departamento de revenue management de um grupo hoteleiro: análise dos tivoli hotels & resorts

O presente relatório relata o contacto com a indústria hoteleira nacional por meio da realização de um estágio curricular no departamento de Revenue Management do grupo Tivoli Hotels & Resorts, assentando por base sob as funções desempenhadas na área em estudo. Trata-se de um relatório que apresenta como finalidade a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Gestão e Direção Hoteleira, curso lecionado na Escola Superior de Turismo e Tecnologia do Mar, através da realização de um estágio curricular entre Julho 2014 e Maio 2015. Foram definidos diversos objetivos com a realização do presente estágio, tais como adquirir conhecimentos e competências nas técnicas de Revenue Management utilizadas nos Tivoli Hotels & Resorts, bem como adquirir conhecimentos nas técnicas utilizadas para maximização de receita, quer a nível de clientes individuais, quer a nível de grupos. Outro dos objetivos passava por adquirir experiência na análise de estatísticas e técnicas de monitorização, acompanhando a sua correta aplicação por parte das unidades hoteleiras. O grupo hoteleiro sobre o qual incide o relatório, a Tivoli Hotels & Resorts, é uma cadeia hotelaria nacional que conta com doze hotéis localizados em território nacional e outras duas unidades localizadas no Brasil, e que se destaca ao oferecer um vasto leque de serviços ao cliente que dinamizem a sua estada. Este trata-se portanto do Unique Selling Proposition (USP) da marca Tivoli: vender experiências e não simples estadas – Experience More. Ao longo do relatório será feito desta forma referência ao grupo Tivoli Hotels & Resorts bem como especificamente ao departamento de Revenue Management, incidindo o relatório sobre em que consiste esta técnica de gestão e quais as tarefas diárias de um revenue manager.

Future consumers’ perceptions of sustainability, and their reflections on buying decisions

The purpose of this quantitative study is to study future consumers’ perception of sustainability in relation to business in general and specifically concerning the forest industry. The aim is to understand, what they feel is important for sustainable business and how the forest industry, in their opinion, is performing in this respect. Further, it aims to study how these perceptions reflect in their buying decisions. The research was conducted by a quantitative survey in two countries, Finland and Hong Kong, in the spring of 2015. All data used in the research is primary. The result indicate that consumers see sustainability issues important today and in the future. Sustainability is seen important both for business in general for the forest industry. The industry is considered sustainable now, but room for improvements exists. The appreciation of sustainability does not reflect to buying decisions, however. The buying of ecological products seems to be more up to chance than to intention. Consumers are not proactive in searching for more ecological or responsible options. Information needs to be taken to them. Ecologicalness as such is still not a strong selling point.

Identifying New Business Opportunities and Customer Value Creation: Case Vuosaari

Previously conducted research projects in the field of logistics services have emphasized the importance of value added services in customer value creation. Through value added services companies can extend their service portfolio and gain higher customer satisfaction and loyalty. In more general level service marketing has been recognized to be challenging due the intangible nature of services. This has caused issues in pricing and value perceptions. To tackle these issues scholars have suggested well–managed customer reference marketing practices. The main goal of this research work is to identify shortages in the current service offering. Additionally, the focus is on, how these shortages can be fixed. Due the low capacity utilization of warehouse premises, there is a need to find the main factors, which are causing or affecting on the current situation. The research aims to offer a set of alternatives how to come over these issues. All the potential business opportunities are evaluated and the promising prospects are discussed. The focus is on logistics value added services and how those effect on route decisions in logistics. Simultaneously the aim is to create a holistic understanding of how added value and offered services effect on logistics centralization. Moreover, customer value creation and customer references’ effectiveness in logistics service marketing are emphasized in this project. Logistics value added services have a minor effect on logistics decision. Routes are chosen on a low–cost basis. However, it is challenging to track down logistics costs and break those down into different phases. Customer value as such is a difficult concept. This causes challenges when services are sold with value–based principles. Customer references are useful for logistics service providers and this should be exploited in marketing. Those reduce the perceived risk and give credibility to the service provider.

Efeitos da fusão num grupo grupo de empresas do mesmo setor

Mestrado em Controlo de Gestão e dos Negócios

Herpesvírus

O herpesvírus está disseminado na população canina mundial, com uma seroprevalência de cerca de 40 a 80%. A infeção por herpesvírus canino causa elevadas taxas de mortalidade em cachorros e em cães adultos pode permanecer em estado latente ou ser reativado. A infeção por este vírus em canis de reprodução representa grandes perdas económicas, pelo que se pretende estudar a seroprevalência de herpesvírus em 52 cães pertencentes a dois canis de reprodução, para fins de venda de cães de raça. Foram analisados animais de ambos os sexos e com idades compreendidas entre 1 e 8 anos de idade. Devido a inexistências de terapia para cachorros com sintomatologia de infeção por HVC-1 pretende-se formular um protocolo de cuidados para ninhadas, suspeitas de serem portadoras deste vírus, e para os restantes cães da colónia. Estão descritos estudos que indicam o HVC-1 como um dos agentes indiretamente envolvidos na etiologia do linfoma canino, pelo que se procurou estudar a sua seroprevalência numa amostra de 28 cães com linfoma, sendo um dos objetivos a deteção de anticorpos HVC-1, nestes animais.

Water quality trading: credit stacking and ancillary benefits

Ecosystems can provide many services. Wetlands, for example, can help mitigate water pollution from point sources as well as non-point sources, serve as habitat for wildlife, sequester carbon and serve as a place for recreation. Studies have found that these services can have substantial value to society. The sale of ecosystem credits has been found to be a possible way to finance construction investments in wetlands and easements to farmers to take their land out of production. At the same time, selling one ecosystem service credit may not always be enough to justify the investment. Traditionally market participants have only been allowed to sell a single credit from one piece of land, but recently there have been discussions about the possibility of selling more than one credit from a piece of land because it potentially could lead to more efficient ecosystem service provision. Selling multiple credits is sometimes referred to as credit stacking. This paper is an empirical study of the potential for credit stacking applied to the services provided by wetlands in the Upper Mississippi River Basin, specifically nitrogen, phosphorus and wildlife credits. In the setting of our study where costs are discrete rather than continuous we found that wetlands are a cost-effective way to reduce the nitrogen loads from wastewater treatment plants and that stacking nitrogen, phosphorus and wildlife credits may improve social welfare while leading to a higher level of ecosystem services. However, for credit stacking to be welfare improving we found that there needs to be a substantial demand for the credit that covers the majority of the investment in wetlands, while the credit aggregator has a choice between what ecosystem projects to undertake. If the credit that covers the majority of investment is sold first and is the sole basis of the investment decision and the objective is to improve welfare, a sequential implementation of ecosystem credits is not recommended; it would not lead to an increase in the total amount of ecosystem services provided though it would increase profit for the credit producer.

La Coopérative des Pêcheries d'eau douce du Cambodge

Thanks to the initiative of the Superior Residence of Cambodia and the General Government, a fishery cooperative was founded in late December 1940 in Phnom Penh to ensure proper packaging and direct selling of dry fish. The Cooperative received and treated 10,000 tons of fish. In 1942, the Cooperative directed its efforts towards the Indochinese market and it obtained satisfactory results.

Coordinated pricing and inventory management

This dissertation mainly focuses on coordinated pricing and inventory management problems, where the related background is provided in Chapter 1. Several periodic-review models are then discussed in Chapters 2,3,4 and 5, respectively. Chapter 2 analyzes a deterministic single-product model, where a price adjustment cost incurs if the current selling price is changed from the previous period. We develop exact algorithms for the problem under different conditions and find out that computation complexity varies significantly associated with the cost structure. %Moreover, our numerical study indicates that dynamic pricing strategies may outperform static pricing strategies even when price adjustment cost accounts for a significant portion of the total profit. Chapter 3 develops a single-product model in which demand of a period depends not only on the current selling price but also on past prices through the so-called reference price. Strongly polynomial time algorithms are designed for the case without no fixed ordering cost, and a heuristic is proposed for the general case together with an error bound estimation. Moreover, our illustrates through numerical studies that incorporating reference price effect into coordinated pricing and inventory models can have a significant impact on firms' profits. Chapter 4 discusses the stochastic version of the model in Chapter 3 when customers are loss averse. It extends the associated results developed in literature and proves that the reference price dependent base-stock policy is proved to be optimal under a certain conditions. Instead of dealing with specific problems, Chapter 5 establishes the preservation of supermodularity in a class of optimization problems. This property and its extensions include several existing results in the literature as special cases, and provide powerful tools as we illustrate their applications to several operations problems: the stochastic two-product model with cross-price effects, the two-stage inventory control model, and the self-financing model.

Towards a Framework for Analyzing and Evaluating Servitization Potential: Case Study of ENVIE Loire

Part 4: Transition Towards Product-Service Systems

Developing smart services by Internet of Things in manufacturing business

Manufacturing companies have passed from selling uniquely tangible products to adopting a service-oriented approach to generate steady and continuous revenue streams. Nowadays, equipment and machine manufacturers possess technologies to track and analyze product-related data for obtaining relevant information from customers’ use towards the product after it is sold. The Internet of Things on Industrial environments will allow manufacturers to leverage lifecycle product traceability for innovating towards an information-driven services approach, commonly referred as “Smart Services”, for achieving improvements in support, maintenance and usage processes. The aim of this study is to conduct a literature review and empirical analysis to present a framework that describes a customer-oriented approach for developing information-driven services leveraged by the Internet of Things in manufacturing companies. The empirical study employed tools for the assessment of customer needs for analyzing the case company in terms of information requirements and digital needs. The literature review supported the empirical analysis with a deep research on product lifecycle traceability and digitalization of product-related services within manufacturing value chains. As well as the role of simulation-based technologies on supporting the “Smart Service” development process. The results obtained from the case company analysis show that the customers mainly demand information that allow them to monitor machine conditions, machine behavior on different geographical conditions, machine-implement interactions, and resource and energy consumption. Put simply, information outputs that allow them to increase machine productivity for maximizing yields, save time and optimize resources in the most sustainable way. Based on customer needs assessment, this study presents a framework to describe the initial phases of a “Smart Service” development process, considering the requirements of Smart Engineering methodologies.

The effects of acute administration of Chinese aphrodisiacs sold in Blantyre City on sperm characteristics and fertility profile in guinea pigs

Background Chinese aphrodisiacs have become popular remedy for sexual dysfunction and improvement of libido in men in Malawi. However, selling of these drugs seems not to be well regulated. Probably the aphrodisiacs that are currently on the market have unknown efficacy, potency and safety profiles. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of imported Chinese aphrodisiacs using guinea pigs as a model. Materials and Methods Two types of drugs were purchased from vendors in Blantyre City. Tonic tea, which was purported to improve erectile function and libido, and sperm multiplier tablets which were claimed to increase the sperm count. The tonic tea was prepared by soaking one tea bag in 100ml boiling water. The tea was cooled and administered to eight male experimental animals in varying doses. Each animal was introduced into a separate cage with a female guinea pig. Sexual behaviour such as mounting, sniffing behind the female were observed and recorded. Each sperm multiplier tablet was dissolved in distilled water and administered to the experimental animals in the morning and evening for seven days. At the end of the treatment, the experimental and control animals were sacrificed, their semen collected and analysed sperm motility, concentration and morphology. Results For the tonic tea, there were no statistical differences between the experimental and the control animals in terms of the number of mountings and sniffing behind the female. The sperm multiplier drug showed statistically significant differences between the experimental and the control animals in terms of the sperm motility (78.24 ± 1.35 vs. 86.54 ± 1.88, p< 0.05), and concentration (54.28 ± 1.24 vs. 67.59 ± 2.12, p<0.05). Conclusion The tonic tea did not show any efficacy in improving erection and libido. The sperm multiplier tablets, purported to increase sperm production, significantly increased the sperm motility, sperm concentration in the treated animals.

El Señorío de Chillón. De Bernardo de Cabrera a Sancho de Alburquerque

El presente artículo se refiere a la evolución que experimentó la villa de Chillón en los decenios centrales del siglo XIV. Chillón, perteneciente al término de Córdoba, fue señorío de relevantes personajes de la época. Entre 1344 y 1350, perteneció a Bernardo de Cabrera, privado de Pedro IV de Aragón. Posteriormente, pasó a poder de Juan Alfonso de Alburquerque, que desempeñó la misma función en la Corte del rey Pedro de Castilla. Reintegrada posteriormente a la jurisdicción de Córdoba, fue entregada por Enrique II a su hermano don Sancho, que no logró vencer la oposición de la ciudad y no llegó realmente a posesionarse de la villa, la cual terminó por vender a Diego Fernández de Córdoba, alguacil mayor de Córdoba, en 1370.