Planning and Strategy Essay -- Business, Planning

In any retail operation or company, planning is a very important factor for the success of any endeavor in that it involves the actual anticipation and organization of what needs to be done and how it should be done to reach an objective.(Retailing, pg.40) Strategic planning involves a company or firm to adapt its resources to the actual opportunities and possible threats of the ever-changing retail environment, and, if used properly, a good strategic plan can help retailers achieve and maintain a beneficial balance of its resources and possible opportunities to come. There are, in fact, four major components in proper strategic planning that could assists any retailing company in achieving their goals which are to develop a mission statement, define specific goals and/or objectives, identification and analysis, and to develop a basic strategy. (Retailing, pg.42) I aim to determine, analyze, and document how a fast-paced, up-and-coming retail establishment by the name of Citi Tren ds, which is a fast-growing, value-priced retailer of urban-style fashion accessories and apparel chain store for today’s urban families, implements these particular strategic planning techniques into their operations management and business objectives. Citi Trend’s mission statement is as follows, â€Å"Citi Trends is the go-to place for incredibly low-priced, real urban brands and urban-style fashion for the whole family. You'll find Rocawear, Apple Bottoms, Coogi, Dereon, Akademiks, Mecca, Baby Phat, Ed Hardy and more for up to 60% off mall prices. As of this minute, we have over 480 stores in 27 states. As of May 2005 Citi Trends became a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq exchange with the symbol CTRN. Citi Trends' headquarters are located in hi... ...ring that their customers gain efficient circulation through their merchandise. (Retailing, pg.498) This type of environment is ideal for Citi Trends in that it provokes customers to wish to browse, and Citi Trends has strategically placed signs to provide its customers with cues as to where each department begins and ends. Citi Trends has been in the apparel retail business for over 58 years now with over 480 stores operating throughout 27 states in the United States. They have proven that they know how to adapt resources to their opportunities and are aware of and handle any and all possible threats to its company’s objectives. With their good strategic plan they were able to adapt to an ever changing retail environment to be able to achieve and maintain a certain balance of its resources; thus positioning themselves for accelerated and profitable growth.

College Athletes Essay

Athletes, under the age of 21 years, should be eligible to be drafted into a professional sports team. Playing in a professional sport is a career and setting a limit based on age to when someone can start his or her career is absurd. â€Å"Currently, to be eligible for the NBA Draft, a player has to be at least 19-years-old or one year removed from high school. † (Jessop. 2014) In the one year removed from high school, the athlete can choose to attend college and declare if he or she would be eligible to be drafted after that year. There are many benefits for athletes to graduate from college before starting his  or her career in a professional sport, but that decision should be left solely to them without age restrictions. â€Å"The vast majority of players feel a player should have the right to make a living. If he has the talent and wants to make money to help his family, he should have that right. It’s just a matter of principle. † (Broussard. 2010) Pursuing and completing a college education is a huge reason why many people feel athletes under the age of 21 shouldn’t be eligible to play professional sports. Having a college degree can be extremely useful because of the amount of opportunities and  options available to graduates. However, as much as attending college is encouraged in today’s society, college isn’t a route everyone chooses. â€Å"In 2011, the most recent year for which statistics are available, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 68. 3 percent of students who graduated high school in 2011 were enrolled in college. † (Thompson) The choice to attend college or not attend college is a choice that comes across of the path of many. Why should athletes be held to a different standard of education? A fear that many have with younger athletes entering the professional sports arena  is their risk for injury. â€Å"The NFL and NCAA claim that the NFL age requirement protects young athletes by shielding them from physical injury, requiring them to mature emotionally, and receive an education before entering the world of professional sports. † (Bianchi. 2008) Injuries can happen to anyone, anywhere, at anytime. If a collegiate athlete suffers an injury while playing in a game or practice, the injury can greatly decrease or even eliminate his chances of being drafted into a professional sport. The athlete with potential  to play in a professional sport will no longer have an opportunity to do and might possibly lose their scholarship. If an athlete gets injured playing in a professional sport, at least they would be getting paid and have benefits. Why risk the opportunity to play in a professional sport? If an 18-year-old athlete has the talent to play in a professional sport and have the opportunity to earn money and support their family, age should not be the reason to stop him or her from doing so. Many college student athletes receive scholarships for attending college but (EXPERIENCE with examples).

Multi Decision-Makers Equalizer Essay

A multi objective and multi decision-makers decision support system, which finds a balanced solution among different proposals made initially by the decision-makers, is presented here. The software, denominated multi decision-makers equalizer, balances the interests of the different decision-makers by inducing them to accept losses in certain objectives in exchange for gains in others. The method uses neither parameters of preference with an indirect meaning, such as the weights of relative importance, nor averages. It does not call for all the information at the beginning of the process, but through an iterative process of learning and exchange of information, it offers different possibilities. To begin with the decision support system helps each decision-maker, independently, to define his preferred alternative. The alternatives defined by the decision-makers will compete then among themselves, in a collective negotiation process, in order to define the final alternative to be implemented. (Drucker, 2005) In this initial stage of the process, a model named â€Å"Equalizer† helps each decision-maker, independently to find a non-dominated solution, in such a manner that the values achieved for the objectives are balanced according to his preferences in a similar way to that of the well-known equalizers of a music stereo component. In which, using visual aids, the decision-maker navigates over the Pareto Frontier. Given a point, the decision-maker can choose to improve one objective at the expense of another, increasing or diminishing the values achieved for the objectives to those he would be willing to accept. Once the new levels of achievements have been defined for certain objectives, the system obtains new values for the others, guaranteeing that the combination of the values achieved for the objectives is feasible and efficient (or non-dominated). This methodology assists the decision-maker in the understanding of the relationships in the feasible region of the problem being analyzed. During the search, the decision-maker is presented with information such as constraints, limitations, feasibilities, and efficient interchanges. It allows the decision-maker to begin learning and training process and progressively to select the preferred solution. In this manner he will be able to understand the system as an interrelated one, and to determine the levels at which he must sacrifice some objectives in order to improve others, and to observe the consequences of possible decisions. The method allows each decision-maker to propose to the whole group his preferred alternative. Once completed, the Multi decision-Maker Equalizer identifies the region for negotiation, which includes all the proposals, that is the part of the feasible region that envelops all the proposals, and assigns ranges of values for the objectives. The system defines a balanced solution according to these ranges as a temporary solution to the conflict. It is evaluated by all decision-makers, and if there is no agreement to the proposed solution, a new negotiation process is started. The method will allow each decision-maker, independently, to interact with the system, looking for a way to impel the process toward his interests, by making sacrifices in some objectives which may not be so important to him, but that could be very important to the others. Once the new proposals have been made, the method looks for a new agreement. The process is repeated until a definitive solution, which satisfies all the decision-makers, is reached. it is easier for a consensus to be reached. The method serves as a balancing mechanism, not only for the values achieved for the objectives but also for the decision-makers interests. Execution of Decisions The continuing reorganization of the bank’s procedures and departments was fueled by a growing understanding of the bank’s administration as an organic whole or system. Various organization charts, process charts, and routing diagrams documented this idea. They showed the management’s insight into the fact that its internal and external products were the result of the systematic processing of data and information through the whole organization. Moreover, this insight served to align more efficiently the primary criteria of the bank’s performance (with respect to making profit by satisfying its clients) and secondary criteria having to do with, for instance, balancing work speed and time taken for deliberation during the processing of actual transactions by employees. As far as we can deduce from the information available, this was not explicitly aimed at in ROBAVER. The new technology was not used to allow further division of labor or to remove employees further from decision making that would involve primary criteria. Employees were not made more automaton-like by the new technology. On the contrary, as we noted before, the direct contact that was established between the employees and customers meant that even at the lower levels of the organization, primary criteria had to be taken into account when making decisions. Summarizing, three of the four elements we distinguished have been shown to be present in the context of the reorganizations of ROBAVER in the introduction of the punched-card and other information technology. Improving the structure of the organization, and especially the communication flows, served to increase the accountability of the various departments, managers, and individual employees and also the possibilities of central management to monitor and control the organization as a whole in accordance with primary criteria. The more precise division of labor and tasks and functions of the employees at the departments allowed some measure of scientific management and the development of secondary criteria used to steer the behavior of employees. However, this was done in a way that encouraged the employees to make decisions involving, at least in part, primary criteria and taking the overall interests of the organization into account. In general, the employees were stimulated to come up with ideas useful to the organization. (Howard, & Matheson 2006)