Cvs – Web Strategy

Running head: CASE ANALYSIS – CVS: THE WEB STRATEGY Abstract CVS decided to expand its services by opening a Web -based drugstore. Initially, there were many doubts concerning how to do it â€Å"right†; building it from start, or acquisition were the options on hand. After studying the possibilities CVS decided to acquire Soma. com and gradually (less than 3 months) turn it into CVS. com. There were many challenges during the process: coordinating a bicoastal organization (Soma. om headquarters were in Seattle and CVS headquarters were in Rhode Island), determining how the reimbursement were going to be handle for online purchases, building brand awareness and increasing traffi c and sales on the new channel (the Web). This paper intends to analyze CVS’ Web strategy and provide some recommendations on that area. 1 CASE ANALYSIS – CVS: THE WEB STRATEGY 2 CASE ANALYSIS – C VS: THE WEB STRATEGY After carefully studying how to venture in a new distribut ion channel (the Web), CVS decided to acquire an established company (Soma. com). The goal was to re -launch Soma. com as CVS. om, in just a few months. The pressure was high since the competition was fierce and constantly increasing. By the time CVS acquired Soma. com there were already strong competitors in the market: Drugstore. com and Planet Rx. Venturing on a Web-based drugstore was based on the fact that â€Å"the market for drugstore products was four times the combined sales of books and CD’s, two sectors that had flourished on the web† (Shah, 1999, p. 1). Everyday more and more drugstores were thinking about the possibility of venturing with online presence, the Internet was flourishing and everyone wanted to take advantage of it.According to Shah (1999), CVS decided to acquire Soma. com for several reasons: speed, human resource quality, fully automated warehouse, and similar health -care-focused beliefs. Speed was crucial to respond to the fast -growing com petition, â€Å"it would have taken [them] 3 to 4 months to build what [they] bought for the same cost† (Shah, 1999, p. 6). In fact, Soma. com used top notch technology to operate and control its business, managing up to 3,000 SKUs of just prescription medicines. Moreover, Soma. com’s huma n resource was a great asset that came ‘with the price’.Soma. com was especially careful about hiring people â€Å"with mail order prescription backgrounds† (Shah, 1999, p. 6). Therefore, hiring qualified employees to manage the new distribution channel was not a concern for CVS. The following table was design to summarize the analysis of the provided information about CVS web venture. The table summarizes the strengths and weaknesses of the organization and the opportunities and threats of its environment. CASE ANALYSIS – CVS: THE WEB STRATEGY 3 Table 1 CVS Web-based Drugstore SWOT Analysis Strengths ?CVS brand equity: second drugstore in the US, Weaknesse s ? Bicoastal organization: Soma. com and the one with more number of stores. Detailed and well-design operation process from headquarters were in Rhode Island. Time dispensing to shipping: registration required, ? headquarters were in Seattle and CVS difference is a challenge. specified reimbursement need from the customer, ? Privacy issues: user sensibility to sharing different options to present the prescription, free shipping of orders that included prescription reminders were not in sync with brick -and- edicines. ? medical information online, e-mail prescription mortars drugstores. â€Å"E-mail prescription refill reminders for registered ? Making a product available on cvs. com was users, and 24-hour access to pharmacists via email or telephone† (Shah, 1999, p. 6) Top-notch automated technology in the can click on the dosage, indications and description of ingredients† (Pigott as cited in prescription medicines. ? to web-enable each product to make sure you wareh ouse, able to deal with up to 3,000 SKU of ? time consuming: To add a new SKU â€Å"we haveShah, 1999, p. 8) Xtra! : CVS’ frequent shopper program, which ? Difficulty to agree on joint developing could be implemented online. Making cvs. com a tool to facilitate physic ians’ enable more products for purchase through the jobs: â€Å"A physician could visit cvs. com site to website (such as cosmetics, other related prescribe, confirm a prescription or learn a healthcare products, greeting cards), but the patient’s formulary†¦ [CVS] need[s] to make it website team management constantly wa s in easier to prescribe through CVS than elsewhere† ? trategies for the website: CVS wanted to disagreement with this idea. (Shah, 1999, p. 7) ? ? Different delivery options: â€Å"an order could be mailed to the customer’s home or picked up at the Undefined long-term pricing strategy for the website. ? Inability to successfully draw customers to use local CVS † (Shah, 1999, p. 8) Cvs. com site was treated as a SBU. It had its own strategies implemented for it (free shipping, marketing team and manager, who responded to ? the website, despite the different marketing lower prices, 24-hour service, etc. ). CVS marketing director. Online pricing strategy: lower than in stores. CASE ANALYSIS – CVS: THE WEB STRATEGY 4 Opportunities ? Great market possibility: four times as big as Threats ? Online drugstores were a novelty. No one books and CD’s, products that successfully were being sold online. ? knew how profitable and feasible they really were. Increased negotiation power due to mergers and ? There was a risk of losing the reimbursement acquisitions in the drugstore industry, leaving only to online drugstores: PBM’s have threatened four major drugstores and the rest as industry with that. ndependents. ? ? Strong and increasing direct competition Possibility of being able to have an ‘online (Drugstore. com, P lanet Rx, Walgreens. com pharmacy’ built within the PBM’s dispensary and e-pharmacy. com), as well as indirect (Shah, 1999, p. 9). (healthcare sites without prescription filling such as WebMD, which later became Healtheon). ? Mail-order companies created by PBMs to fill long-term prescriptions created a conflict of interest between suppliers and online drugstores. CVS had everything figured out for a smooth launching and operation of cvs. om: detailed and careful design purchasing process, differentiated prices, and quality customer service. All these were supported on CVS’ brand equity. However, they forgot to truly integrate both companies not only technol ogically but functionally. Even though it appeared to be the best way to do it, having different marketing teams on different time zones created an issue for the company. That was onl y one of CVS integration issues, another one was that the website database was not synchronized with the stores database, whi ch made the e – mail reminder tool ineffective.It appears to be that the main cause of cvs. com issues was the rush of launching the site; no long-term strategies were planned. There was uncertainty in pri cing strategies for the CASE ANALYSIS – CVS: THE WEB STRATEGY 5 website, as well as expansion in product offerings. I t was challenging to look for common ground between CVS and the team managing cvs. com. To make cvs. com a successful distribution channel, CVS needed to start working on long term strategies for growth. CVS needed to take advantage of the great amount of product possibilities available under the drugstore market.There were already other online healthcare sites without prescription filling services (WebMD or Healtheon) offering rela ted products. Hence, more products needed to be introduced for online purchase, and the frequent -shopper program ‘ Xtra! ’ should have been implemented online as well. It was a fact that the â€Å"hybrid ord er -and-delivery offering create[d] an advantage over pur e online competition† (Foulkes as cited in Shah, 1999, p. 8), however, i f they offered different delivery options, they should offer different pricing strategies.Therefore, a discount based on the amount purchased could be designed to increase the website traffic, or a double-point system could be developed for those customers that were Xtra! users. Another major issue that needed attention was the PBMs’ relationship. Conflicts of interest were rising due to the similarities in the delivery process between the PBMs’ mail -order prescription program and the online drugstores. Contract’s liabilities with the PBMs were at risk under this new distribution channel. In conclusion, cvs. com built its foundation but forgot to plan for growth.More efforts need to be made on long-term, consistent marketing strategies; strategies that are a ble to attract loyal customers to the site. Moreover, CVS’ lac k of planning is putting at risk the relationship with the suppliers (PBMs). To avoid failing and committing greater mistakes, CVS should set a marketing plan that allows them to know the profile of the online customer, their needs and wants. Based on that r esearch, they should r e-design a nd implement features on the website. Moreover, they need to develop strategies to keep their suppliers ( PBMs) satisfied, withoutCASE ANALYSIS – CVS: THE WEB STRATEGY 6 feeling at risk of losing business from their mail -order programs. For that specific issue, maybe a joint strategy could be implemented to increase awareness among their customers about whom their PBMs are. By doing so, all the 30 -day refills could be made through them. I f CVS is able to design a nd implement a long-term marketing plan for cvs. com, the website as a new distribution channel would be a complete success. CASE ANALYSIS – CVS: THE WEB STRATEGY 7 Reference Shah, A. (1999). CVS: The web strategy. Harv ard Business School.

Middle School vs. High School Essay

One, the closing of one’s grade school years, and the other, a gateway to young adulthood. Middle school and High school, two very important times of a young person’s life, share some similarities and many differences. Middle school, just like its title explains, is the time when students are stuck in the middle of childhood and young adulthood. People start to mature from earlier elementary years, and try to find out who they are. While in the process of trying to fit in, new friend groups are shaped and instead of being one big group of people, circles form and groups are segregated. In addition to more classmates and teachers, responsibilities increase as students take on the load of multiple classes, and now receive grades for their work. Teachers expect them to participate actively in class, and complete their assignments on time. Although it only lasts 3 years, middle school is the critical transitional period when new teachers, new classmates, more classes, and more work are introduced all to prepare you for high school. After 8th grade, people leave the middle school bubble, and advance to the jungle of high school. Not only is the campus physically larger, but class sizes increase, and great expectations come along with it. Although middle school may have seemed like a challenge, high school comes with once again more work and more responsibilities. For students, high school is a sink or swim moment, and some struggle to stay afloat. Some may have trouble focusing in school, but the ideal student is completing their homework on time, studying for their exams, attending practice for their extracurricular activities, and achieving a respectable grade point average, that will all pay off and get them into their dream college. Not only is the work different between the two environments, but so is the amount of freedom students get. In middle school, kids are restrained to a certain curriculum. The schedule they get, is the schedule they get, and nothing is changing. Part of their schedule, lunch, is also a time that is also very different in middle school. All students are required to eat lunch in the same room at the same time, and lunches include a choice between mystery meat, or last week’s hot dogs disguised as soup. Contrary to middle school, in high school, students are granted much more freedom. Students can choose which classes they will take, what teachers they have, what groups or clubs they will participate in, what sports they will play, and much more. Not only can students choose all of their activities, but students also have many options for what they want to eat. High schools often carry popular foods such as subway, burgers, and French fries, and healthy foods such as fruit, and salads. Just in case the school food is not good enough, many high schools often allow upperclassman to leave for lunch to enjoy a meal in their own home, or food from another restaurant. Overall, high school and middle school are both made to prepare students for higher education, but are very different in many aspects. As we all grow older, we can see how we have changed from middle school to high school, and can see the many distinctions between the two.

Mercantilism and the Physiocracy

Individual economic activity was less controlled by the custom and tradition of the feudal society and the authority of the church. Production of goods for market became more important and land, labor and capital began to be bought and sold in markets. This laid the groundwork for the Industrial Revolution in the second part in the 18th century. However, we have to remember, that still we are talking about pre-industrial world, where agriculture is the most important sector of the economy.During this period from 16th to the half of 18th century, economic thinking developed from simple applications of ideas about individuals, households and producers to a more complicated view of the economy as a system with laws and interrelationships of its own. Mercantilism. Mercantilism is the name given to the economic literature and practice in Europe of the period between 1500 and 1750. Although mercantilist literature was produced in all the developing economies of Western Europe (and I should add some Eastern European, for example in Poland, economies too), the most significant contributions were made by the English and the French.Whereas the economic literature of scholasticism was written by medieval churchmen, the economic theory of mercantilism was the work of secular people, mostly merchant businessmen, who were privately engaged in selling and buying goods. The literature they produced focused on questions of economic policy and was usually related to a particular interest the merchant and writer (in one person) was trying to promote. For this reason, there was often considerable skepticism regarding the analytical merits of particular arguments and the validity of their conclusions.Few authors could claim to be sufficiently detached from their private issues and offer objective economic analysis. However, throughout the mercantilism, both the quantity (there were over 2000 economic works published in 16th and 17th century) and quality of economic literature grew. The mercantilist literature from 1650 to 1750 was of distinctly higher quality, these writers created or touched on nearly all analytical concept on which Adam Smith based his Wealth of Nations, which was published in 1776.The age of mercantilism has been characterized as one in which every person was his own economist. Since the various writers between 1500 and 1750 held very diverse views, it is difficult to generalize about the resulting literature. Furthermore, each writer tended to concentrate on one topic, and no single writer was able to synthesize these contributions impressively enough to influence the subsequent evelopment of economic theory. Secondly, mercantilism can best be understood as an intellectual reaction to the problems of the times.In this period of the decline of feudalism and the rise of the nation-states, the mercantilists tried to determine the best policies for promoting the power and wealth of the nation, the policies that would best consolidate and incr ease the power and prosperity of the developing economies. What is especially important here is the mercantilistic assumption that the total wealth of the world was fixed and constant. These writers applied the assumption to rade between nations, concluding that any increase in the wealth and economic power of one nation occurred at the expense of other nations (the rest of the world).Thus, the mercantilists emphasized international trade as a mean of increasing the wealth and power of a nation. Using some modern game-theoretic language, we may say, that they perceived economic activity and international trade in particular as a zero-sum game, that is a game, where it is impossible for both players to win (In a two-person zero-sum game, the payoff to one player is the negative of that going to the other player). So according to mercantilists, it is impossible to increase a global wealth of the world in effect of international trade.It is a very sad assumption, and modern economists do not snare it. The goal of economic activity, according to most mercantilists, was production, not consumption, as classical economists would later have it. They advocated increasing the nation's wealth by simultaneously encouraging production, increasing exports and holding down domestic consumption. Thus, in practice, the wealth of nation rested on the poverty of the many members of society. One again, they advocated igh level of production, high level of export and low domestic consumption.

Financial Accounting coursework Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Financial Accounting coursework - Essay Example Thus the accrual method of accounting measures the position and performance of the company based on the transactions made in the course of business irrespective of the cash receipts and payments done for the business transaction. The accrual method of accounting combines the current and expected cash inflows and outflows to determine the consolidated financial position of the company (Sofat and Hiro, 2008, p.36). Marks and Spencer has used the accrual method to determine the expected value of the cash flows based on the historical sales returns so that the accrued figures could be allocated accurately in the financial statements. Assumptions related to Going-Concern for preparing financial statements The assumptions related to going concern for preparing financial statements are that the company would continue its business in near future unless the management decides to liquidate the company or decides to stop operations. When the financial statements are prepared by assuming the goi ng concern of a business entity, the assets and liabilities are allocated with the assumption that if the company continues its operations, it would be able to acquire the same amount of assets or would be able to service the same amount of liabilities (Bhattacharyya, 2011, p.48). Ex. Marks and Spencer have prepared their financial statements with the assumption of going concern after considering the risk and uncertainties of the business. The assessment of the assets and liabilities for the foreseeable future has been done based on projections after consideration of risk. Key accounting concepts used in preparation of financial statements The accounting method is a tool based on which the financial statements are prepared and the information given in the financial statements are meant for the users. Thus the preparation of financial statements involves key accounting concepts which are standardized for the companies. The key accounting concepts are combined together to form the gen erally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). The accounting concepts that are used in the preparation of the financial statements are such as money measurement, entity, cost, going concern, objectivity, dual aspect, time period, realization, conservatism, consistency, matching, materiality. The consideration of an entity and its distinction from the owners is important for preparation of the financial statements. The business, sales and receipts in accounting are done in terms of money measurement. The business is considered to carry on its economic activities for a sustainable period of time unless the operations cease to exist on the basis of decision of owners. This concept forms the basis of a going concern that is used in accounting method (Crosson and  Needles, 2010, p.52). The accounting measurements takes into consideration the cost incurred by the company for running the business. This includes the cost of capital, cost of goods sold, etc. The dual aspect in accounting s tates that the assets are equal to the liabilities of the company. The objectivity in accounting met

Fluid management in dialysis patient Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6000 words

Fluid management in dialysis patient - Essay Example When a patient is on dialysis, circulation of the blood is on one side of a semipermeable membrane, while, on the other side, a special dialysis fluid is circulated. Blood composition must be closely matched by the dialysis fluid. Urea and creatinin, metabolic waste products, are diffused through the dialysis fluid membrane and discarded, while necessary substance diffusion is prevented by its presence in the dialysis fluid. (Answers.com). Dialysis treatment is demanding for the patient, as they must spend four hours during thrice weekly sessions hooked up to these machines. (Sonnier, 2000, p. 5). Because patients must observe strict dietary and fluid restrictions, there is a great mortality rate that is directly related to non-adherence with the dietary and fluid restriction protocol. Patients must self-care when they are on dialysis, and must comply with their prescribed regimen that is assigned to them when they start dialysis for the first time. Self-care and compliance are different, yet related, terms. There are reasons why patients do not self-care or comply correctly with their prescribed health regimen, and there are solutions that have been put forth. The solutions include increased education about the necessity of self-care, empowerment through education regarding how to self-care and behavioural modification. Self-care is defined as é  he patients deliberate actions regulating his/her functioning and development for health and well-being.(Ricka, et al., 2002, p. 329). Self-care is pertinent to the patients survival and well-being. Compliance is a related term, what that focuses mainly on the correlation between medically prescribed therapeutic regimen compliance and the outcome behaviours. (Ricka, et al., 2002, p. 331). Dietary factors that require compliance include regulating protein intake; limiting electrolytes, such as potassium and sodium; taking vitamin supplements; and lowering fluid

Managing a multinational corporation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Managing a multinational corporation - Essay Example Multinational corporations bear certain peculiarities which should be taken into account when developing management strategy for any of them. The topic of the present work is relevant in the framework of the existing numerous multinational corporations for the better understanding of the management processes which take place in them. The topic of the present paper is closely related to the field of management. Managing multinational corporations means applying the general notions of management, accounting the peculiarities of the multinational corporation operations and implementing the innovations which ultimately improve the general work of the corporation. Any multinational corporation needs thoroughly developed strategy of development and coping with difficulties which arise at the way of this development, and what else except management notions and theories may be applicable here It is obvious, that the field of management knowledge represents vast opportunities for the successful management of multinational corporations, for the development of innovative strategies, which will ultimately positively influence the profitability and market position of the product. Despite the fact that multinational corporations take significant part of the market and are huge structures, their development and perspectives ar e at best viewed from the viewpoint of an individual manager. (Mockler 2002, p. 10) However, to find the best solutions and to create the most successful guidelines for the development of any multinational company this manager should possess deep understanding of the basic processes taking place inside the company, and the impact the external factors create on its business activity, but even understanding these processes and factors, without knowledge of management, its notions and theories it will hardly be possible to create a solid base for the successful management of so large companies, especially bearing in mind that multinational corporations usually deal with production of various, often not even related each other, products; for their stable market position successful management is crucial, and the field of management is closely related to the narrow topic of multinational corporations' management. (Buckley & Carter 1999, p. 227) Modern companies try to respond to the emerging open market opportunities, and for the aim of winning better market share and higher profits, have to pay their attention to the globalization and the need for creating large multinational corporations. A bright example of such changes may be represented by the German Hoechst chemical company, which at the beginning of the year 2000, admitting the rapidly changing positions on the chemical market and understanding the new accents on the global cooperation and production, decided to take this step and create a new structure. Through the 2001 and 2002 it has sold twelve of its businesses in Germany for being no more profitable, and has bought four new pharmaceutical firms outside Europe. Hoechst in Europe was the pioneer of such drastic changes in the multinational management trends. Though the Hoechst's labor force in Germany was decreased almost twice, it became possible to increase the sales over the US continent from 6 to 33 percent of the market share by the end of 2002. These actions could be

Vincent Van Gogh Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Vincent Van Gogh - Research Paper Example The paper "Vincent Van Gogh" explores the art and life of Vincent Van Gogh. Van was born in 1853 in Groot-Zundert in Southern Netherlands, which was a predominantly catholic; he grew up with a striking attraction of painting and beauty. He was the son of Theodorus Gogh, a minister at the Dutch reformed church. He took his grandfather's name Vincent, whose work as an artist had been largely sculptor. As a young boy, he was a serious, thoughtful and silent, this astonished many children who grew together. Notably, art and religion were two greatest occupations in his lineage and some scholars have linked his artistic work in the family background and early exposure to the artistic world. He attended school at Zundert village from 1860s where a single catholic teacher taught more than 200 pupils. This was quite normal during this time when education was at its early stage if development in the Netherlands. Together with his sister, he moved to a boarding school in 1861 at Zevenbergen th at was about 20 miles away from his home. During his stay in school, he remained distress to be relocated away from the family members, and he began drawing and painting. In 1866, he joined a new middle school called Willem College in Tilburg. Perhaps this was the most influential turning point that influenced his career choice. During his studies, he encountered Constantine Huysmans, who was an artist, and he developed a conviction in the art. In addition, the teacher was instrumental in encapsulating.