Home Depot Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Home Depot - Essay Example Home Depot operates with contracts, establishes credits with the bank, which provides it opportunities to work effectively in the long run (Magretta). In home improvement industry, it is prior for companies to anticipate with the changing market trends and knowledge (Harrison and John). Home Depot is effective to anticipate with the changing trends in the market and retains their customer. For the new entrant lack of knowledge and experience in the field makes it difficult to maintain its supply chains and customer retention. In addition; Home Depot has maintained an absolute cost advantage in the industry (Harrison and John). The pricing offered by the company is low cost pricing which makes the competition tough in the in the industry. Home Depot has maintained an exclusive control on the costing by developing strong relations with its exclusive sellers and suppliers. One of the major advantages Home Depot experience is the brand image, as customers are more inclined to approach co mpanies having strong brand names (Harrison and John). Home Depot has served over years, it is known as for the best quality and service provider in the industry. This eventually declines the dilemma for the existing companies like Home Depot and Lowies from the new entrants. Constantly, it can be concluded that Home Depot has an edge in the market and has restrained others from entering as new threats. 3.3.2 – Bargaining Power of Suppliers The bargaining power of suppliers in the home improvement industry is a low force. Home Depot’s expense controls and cost initiatives are its core competencies. Prominent companies in the industry like Home Depot and Lowe’s are dependent on well recognized brand name suppliers (Harrison and John). These firms maintain strategic alliances and exclusive relationship with certain suppliers; they maintain their market image in the industry, which eventually secures the bargaining power of suppliers. Home Depot maintains exclusive relationship with its suppliers, as it is depend upon products that are well recognized and brand suppliers. This is because of the reason that if these firms are unable to maintain strong relationship with its suppliers the may lose their product variety and quality (Harrison and John). Furthermore Home Depot eliminates the reliance upon third parties and middle man; this is because of the reason that if these third parties run into financial or regulatory difficulties it may caste negative impacts on the company in the industry (Harrison and John). Therefore, home depot has centralized its purchases operations through making direct purchases (Harrison and John). The online centers of the company aid company to minimize the control of suppliers. Home Depot also maintains websites to maintain and to strengthening the relationship with its suppliers, these measures limits supplier’s bargaining power to a low force. 3.3.3 – Threat Of Substitute Products or Services The threat of substitution in the home retailing industry is relatively low, because the substitution for the home product like hammers, nails, and paint etc. can be the similar products bought within the industry which are also sold by the same vendors (Harrison and John). It is true that the demand of products, their supplies and prices are interrelated in a market, which

Stats1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Stats1 - Essay Example For example, one may talk about the population of all individuals in US whose IQ is over 120; or one may talk about the population of all electric light bulbs ever produced by Phillips. Every population is characterized by measurable quantities called parameters. If parameter of a population is known, the whole population is known completely. Sample is a part of the population. The quantities measured from the sample are known as sample statistics. Sample statistics are used to estimate population parameters. While in a given population the parameter is constant, the value of statistic varies from one sample to the other. The population mean is a population parameter while average computed from a sample of size 20, say, from the same population, is a sample statistic which may be used to estimate the unknown population parameter. A different sample of size 20 may provide a different value of the sample mean. 3. When a sample is observed instead of the whole population, sampling error is caused. A sample is observed to understand the whole population. The population parameter is not known, but is estimated using the corresponding sample statistic. The difference between the parameter and the statistic is a measure of the sampling error. 4. An experiment is conducted under the control of an experimenter. An experiment is opposite of an observational research, where the researcher observes the study units and records observations. In an experiment, the researcher sets up the experimental conditions and controls them as per his/her research hypotheses. 5. This is an experimental study. Correlational study finds correlation among different variables from the same group of observations. Here two equivalent groups are compared in terms of effects of breakfast on performance. Finding correlation is not the aim of the study. But testing whether there exists any difference between the two otherwise equivalent groups when treated with two types of breakfast is the main ob jective. There is one case and one control group. Hence this is an example of experiment. 6. Nominal scale is essentially a classification. Even though the classes may have numerical identifications, such as 1, 2 etc, their nomenclature is important but not the values. Suppose in a town there are two groups of hospitals: general and mental. If general hospitals are called Group 1 and mental hospitals are called Group 2, this will be an example of nominal variable. If we interchange the order, there will be no effect. For ordinal scale the ordering is important, but by how much one level is more than the other, cannot be measured. Suppose blood pressure is classified as normal, high-normal and high. In this classification there is a hierarchy but the difference between normal and high-normal and high-normal and high cannot be quantified. Interval scale can compare the lengths of intervals. For example, if a flight starts at 6:00 hrs and reaches its destination at 8:30 hrs and another flight starts from the same origin at 6:30 hrs and reaches the same destination at 10:00 hrs, the lengths of the flights are comparable and the difference measurable. For interval scale measurements, the beginning and the end are fixed. In mathematical term, in interval scale there is no concept os an absolute zero. But it contains more information than ordinal scale variables, since its lengths are quantifiable, which is not possible in case of ordinal variable.