Accounting Applications Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Accounting Applications - Essay Example Value addition allows firms to effectively market their products and services, while putting emphasis on the power of brand rather than the commodity. Through value additions, firms can charge higher prices and enjoy competitive advantage. This is because products and services with higher added value are less price-elastic and difficult to be copied by the rival companies. Addition of value can either enhance the product’s value or price. For example, offering one month of free support on new software would be a value-added attribute (Pramanik 2005).The primary purpose of job functions in MYOB is to group certain transactions into a reportable entry. This is achieved by assigning a job for each profit centers, which for the case of the printing business can be assumed to be the two divisions including Hamilton and Auckland. Henceforth, every transaction that belongs to each division (profit center) is assigned to a job that is associated with it. Job reports, which represent t he profit centers, are used to report the activity of each job. A job function is set up to follow income and expenses associated with service jobs. This function is especially helpful when performing multiple jobs for a particular customer. A suitable job number is allocated to each amount every time the user executes a transaction. This feature allows the user to relate different jobs with different amounts in a single transaction. By creating a jobs budget analysis, a profit and loss statement for each job and actual results can be prepared and compared with the budgeted values, for each profit center. Ideally, job function is useful for companies that perform more than one job for the same customer, for example the printing business could be performing different jobs in the two divisions, but for the same customer. This is made possible by MYOB because it allows such jobs to be created underneath the name of the customer. Furthermore, a printing business can use job function for each service performed or goods transacted in order to track the services and products that are most profitable and those that eventually generate losses. This information can be used to prepare comprehensive reports, which enables the company to analyze all the transactions they have made with the business during a certain period (MYOB 2006). The business of printing can assume each of its two divisions as distinct profits centers, for which it can track income and expanses separately. The jobs function can be used to group transactions belonging to each division (profit centers). The performance of each division can then get tracked and relevant reports generated accordingly. Additionally, to breakdown a job into distinct parts, a firm can use sub-jobs (MYOB 2006). Category function The category function allows firms to track profitability of properties, offices and other segments associated with the business in question. For every time users input a transaction, they are require d to assign the category that suits its description. For the case of a printing business with two divisions, we can take each division as an individual category and then track the profitability of the products they produce: say, product A, product B, and product C for Hamilton and product A, product B, and product C for Auckland division. Thereafter, a profit and loss statement can be prepared for each division. Examples of transaction that can be assigned categories include: general journal entries, receive money, historical sales and purchases, inventory adjustments, inventory transfers, purchases,

Stratigic management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Stratigic management - Essay Example The following analytical tools namely: SWOT analysis, PESTEL analysis as well as Porter’s Five Forces model analysis will be used in this case. The essay starts by outlining a brief historical background of the organisation in question for the sake of easier understanding then followed by an analysis of the above mentioned tools for scanning the environment in which the organisation operates. Environmental scanning plays a pivotal role in helping the marketing managers of an organisation to be in a better position to know the situation taking place on the ground for them to be able to gain a competitive advantage especially in view of the competition that may exist. Background Red Bull GmbH is widely acknowledged as the creator of the 'energy drink' category and has managed to maintain a close association with sports from the time it was launched in 1987. It is known for its sponsorship especially of extreme, alternative sports like white water kayaking, hand gliding, wind sur fing and snowboarding. Through the use of unconventional marketing strategies, Red Bull GmbH has come to be a force to reckon with in the energy drink market. SWOT analysis â€Å"A SWOT analysis is a useful instrument for helping managers to identify internal strengths and weaknesses of a business and external opportunities and threats facing it,† (Strydom J. p 31). Basically, SWOT stands for strengths (S), weaknesses (W) while on the other hand the external environmental factors are regarded as either opportunities (O) or threats (T). This analysis is very important to the managers as it allows them to focus on key strategic issues based on the notion that an effective strategy fully utilises the strengths and opportunities of a business and strives to minimise the weaknesses and threats. Potential internal strengths The major potential strengths for Red Bull include branding strategy. Red Bull was positioned as an energy drink that 'invigorated mind and body' and 'improved endurance levels' of the individual. The company’s slogan 'Red Bull gives you wiiings' also played a great role in reinforcing the positioning of the brand. This strategy played a very big strategic role in product development as well as strategic marketing. The branding strategy gave the company a major strength in that the product is completely different from the other energy drinks available in the market. This differentiation strategy has played a significant role in product development as well as marketing strategy as a result of the uniqueness of the product. The other major strength of the company in its product development and marketing strategy is that it uses unconventional marketing strategies. It targets the students and these are used to market the product. This is a major strength is the way the brand is positioned to the people whereby the aim is to attract consumers and appeal to their interests through its visibility. The packaging strategy has greatly enhanc ed the development of the product which is unique. Potential internal weaknesses The major notable potential weakness is that Red Bull did not rate very high with consumers on the taste dimension. It has been reported that the drink had a medicinal flavour though it smelt sweet. The taste was bitter and few people actually liked the taste of Red Bull. The company however did not focus on the aspect of taste in its promotions of the