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MANAGING PROJECTS

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Projects represent nonroutine business activities that often have long-term strategic ramifications for a firm. In this chapter, we examined how projects differ from routine business activities and discussed the major phases of projects. We noted how environmental changes have resulted in increased attention being paid to projects and project management over the past decade. In the second half of the chapter, we introduced some basic tools that businesses can use when planning for and controlling projects. Both Gantt charts and network diagrams give managers a visual picture of how a project is going. Network diagrams have the added advantage of showing the precedence between activities, as well as the critical path(s). We wrapped up the chapter by showing how these concepts are embedded in inexpensive yet powerful software packages such as Microsoft Project. If you want to learn more about project management, we encourage you to take a look at the Web site for the Proj...
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Analyzing Consumer Markets

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Consumer behavior is influenced by three factors: cultural (culture, subculture, and social class), social (reference groups, family, and social roles and statuses), and personal (age, stage in the life cycle, occupation, economic circumstances, lifestyle, personality, and self-concept). Research into these factors can provide clues to reach and serve consumers more effectively.
Four main psychological processes that affect consumer behavior are motivation, perception, learning, and memory.
To understand how consumers actually make buying decisions, marketers must identify who makes and has input into the buying decision; people can be initiators, influencers, deciders, buyers, or users. Different marketing campaigns might be targeted to each type of person.
The typical buying process consists of the following sequence of events: problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and postpurchase behavior. The marketers’ job is to understand the behavior at each stage. The attitudes of others, unanticipated situational factors, and perceived risk may all affect the decision to buy, as will consumers’ levels of postpurchase product satisfaction, use and disposal, and the company’s actions.
Consumers are constructive decision makers and subject to many contextual influences. They often exhibit low involvement in their decisions, using many heuristics as a result.

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OPERATIONS AND SUPPLY CHAIN STRATEGIES

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MANAGING QUALITY

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Internal Analysis: Resources, Capabilities, and Core Competencies

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