Marketing Draft: Les Mills Essay

Introduction: The Olympian â€Å"Les Mills† first opened the gym in 1968 and has been expanding its branches ever since including its Wellington branch in 1982, the gym I am focusing on (Les Mills, n.d). Les Mills is a one-stop comprehensive and full service gym located in Wellington. It offers facilities assisting in attaining active and healthy lifestyles through its extensive services. Mission Statement: Les Mills is a business providing a service with the goal of helping its consumers lead healthy and active lifestyles in central locations in Wellington. Market Analysis: Market Environment: The market is a considerable size in Wellington. Gyms like Jetts and City Fitness are key contributors to that size. Gyms vary in size and what they offer, they may be gender exclusive gyms, small stand alone gyms, large chain gyms, outdoor based training, and so on. Trends in the market consist of; attentive staff with relevant qualifications and a range of services within the gym (personal training, classes, good equipment). Customers within the market are in the â€Å"age of obesity† and generally concerned with â€Å"weight loss, muscle toning cardiovascular fitness, stress management and injury prevention/rehabilitation,† (The New Zealand Institute of Health and Fitness (March 2009). External Environment: Les Mills has many competitors as all gyms offer many of the same things. However all differ in internal features to set themselves apart from their competitors to target certain markets. Les Mills competitors are gyms like Jetts and City Fitness, and extend beyond gyms alone but also businesses which offer fitness, health and weight loss services, such as paddleboarding companies, Bikram Yoga and Jenny Craig. Internal Environment: Les Mills offers a strong motivational culture, this is important in gyms, to motivate their costumer in achieving their goals. Les  Mills staff are all well trained, personable people who create a motivational culture within the gym. They also offer the facility of personal training, Les Mills also offers a very wide range of equipment and workout machinery, as well as running classes. Competitive analysis: The gym market is an oligopoly-structured market. It consists of many small and large gyms. Gyms generally charge similar amounts for their services but price competition and calling can occur to gain customers over their competitors. Jetts and City Fitness charge less for memberships, however they attrac3t mostly to students or adults with lower incomes as they charge a more affordable fee. MACRO Environment analysis: Economic: Sociocultural Technological Gyms, like majority of businesses were and are affected by the post 2007 recession, which changed consumer-spending patterns. Les Mills had to factor that into its membership cost and how to market itself. Demographics impact Les Mills. Its locations need to be close to their target market. It seats customers who have disposable income to spend on membership costs. Due to the age of obesity there is increasing importance on fitness and health. This is predicted to become more trend in the future. Technological Environment: The Internet has changed the face and conduct of business. Les Mills has adapted to this by creating a website. The technological environment is not highly influential as they are a location-based service, but it is important in terms of communicating with their customers. TOWS: (Heinz Weihrich (n.d).) Threats: Opportunities: Economic struggle/recession: The 2007 economic recession lead to a decrease in its customers. Prior to the crash they had more disposable income. New Entrants: New entrants with innovative ideas extending beyond Les Mills  services is a threat to membership levels, and impact upon profit. Expanding target market: Les Mills could branch out to consumers who otherwise workout in the outdoors. Introducing Nutrition as a core aspect of the services offered. This would give it a competitive edge against competitors, as well as competing against weight loss competitors such as Jenny Craig. Strengths: Weaknesses: Good reputation: Les Mills is a well known, reputable and trusted. It has been operating since 1968. This allows for word of mouth among consumers. Innovative culture: Les Mils innovative marketing ideas such as, popular fitness classes and 24-hour services has set them apart from competitors and allowing them to charge more for memberships. Location: They are locate near customers generally working in corporate fields who can afford to pay higher subscriptions for convenience in city centers. Cost of running services: The classes Les Mills run are costly, as they need to supply the facilities, equipment, and trainers to run them. (Heinz Weihrich (n.d).) Target Market: Les Mills Target Market consists primarily of those in established jobs who have the additional disposable income to spend on a gym membership, typically priced higher than most other gyms. Recommendations: Les Mills could increase its membership levels by attracting a wider base of consumers, perhaps those whose interests lie in fitness but don’t like always being confined to a gym, who enjoy getting outdoors. A marketing idea that introduces a weekly activity such as Standup Paddle Boarding sessions where they take groups of people out on the water each week. The advantage of this is that it attracts customers interested in trying something new, as well as ones who have experience in it. It also strengthens their sense of community and culture in the gym because paddle boarding as a team is a social way to exercise, as opposed to running on a treadmill for example. Reference List: Heinz Weihrich (n.d). The TOWS Matrix— A Tool For Situational Analysis. Retrieved from http://www.usfca.edu/fac_staff/weihrichh/docs/tows.pdf MPlans (n.d) Health Fitness Marketing Plan. Retrieved from http://www.mplans.com/health_fitness_marketing_plan/situation_analysis_fc.php Andrew Weber.(n.d) Fitness Industry Analysis 2014 – Cost & Trends. Retrieved from https://www.franchisehelp.com/industry-reports/fitness-industry-report/ The New Zealand Institute of Health and Fitness. (May 2009). A profile on the New Zealand fitness industry (article). Retrieved From http://www.nzihf.co.nz/media-resources-1/articles/a-profile-of-the-new-zealand-fitness-industry Les Mills (n.d) Welcome to Les Mills. Retrieved from http://www.lesmills.co.nz/join-us/?club=1836&plan=fbabd202-741e-df11-9eaa-0050568522bb,c3280ab8-741e-df11-9eaa-0050568522bb

A study of Compensation Management Essay

In spite of the multiple benefits and advantages of compensation management and its impact on employee’s performance, it cannot still be said that having compensation management policy is a panacea for success in appraising, and managing employee’s performance. It is therefore the duty of all managers to ensure that the use of compensating policy meets employee’s expectation in order to have good and effective performance. The first basic requirement for effective and functional performance system is to have a common understanding of the standards of performance required from each job holder, performance required from each job holder and compensation management should be in relation with organizational goals and objectives. One of the primary responsibilities of management is to make compensation policy a veritable tool for optimizing the potentials of employees and human resources manager or practitioners should be in the driving seat in ensuring that the system is run in line with the principles of fairness and equity. SUMMARY The study was aimed at examining the impacts of compensation management practices on employees’ performance at the Nigeria Port Authority, Apapa. Questionnaires were administered to selected staff of Nigeria ports Authority, Apapa. The entire population was estimated at 340 people comprising of senior and junior staff and out of this population a sample of 100 respondents were randomly selected for intensive study and analyzed. The responses obtained from the questionnaire that was personally administered and the test of hypothesis Using chi square (x2 distribution) statistical method of analysis form the basis of the finding of this research survey. Some of the findings are, 1. That the Nigeria ports authority (NPA) has a well-organized and efficient compensation management system which is applicable to all the employees. 2. That compensation management system has a great impact on employee’s efficiency and performance at the Nigeria ports authority (NPA). 3. There is a relationship between compensation management policy and employee’s performance and that compensation management will lead to positive impact on employee’s performance. 4. That employee’s performance can also be determined through the use of some factors which are not monetary inclined like motivation, leadership, communication, objective, control, sense of belonging and decision making in relation to compensation management practices. 5. That despite the significant impact of compensation management system, performance of some employees is not up to the set standard of the organization.

Retirement Planning Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Retirement Planning - Assignment Example My plan is to work in the private industry for 40 years to then retire. Retirement is very important because it represents the golden years of a person’s life. People expect to enjoy retirement with their love ones. In order to truly enjoy retirement it is important to be financially independent. I will graduate at 25 years of age. The average salary I expect to earn during my career will be approximately $50,000. A retirement calculator on the CNN Money website was used to estimate my retirement goal. My retirement goal is to save $500,000. My expected retirement age is 65 years of age. I estimated my life expectance at 78 years since that is the average life expectancy in the United States (CultureGrams, 2012). My expected pension income and social security income are $1000 each. Based on these variables the retirement calculator gave the following output. Your Results You will need a total of $1.7 million ($496,418 in today's dollars) to retire at 65 years old (Cnn, 2012). The second tool available at the CNN website was an asset allocation display. I stated that I needed the money in 20+ years. I selected that I was willing to take a reasonable amount of risk. I stated I could not afford to miss my target and during market sell-offs I see an opportunity to buy more stock. The result of the calculator is illustrated below: Suggested allocation: (Cnn, 2012). The suggested allocation provided by the CNN calculator provides a list of potential allocation of assets. My plan to save $500,000 by retirement age can be achieved if I implement a proactive saving strategy that uses a wide arrangement of investment and retirement tools. Three retirement instruments that I plan of use as part of my diversified portfolio are IRA, Roth IRA, and 401k plans. An IRA is a retirement savings account that allows taxpayer to save money without paying taxes for the income placed in the IRA account. Money placed in an IRA account accumulates interests every year. The money cannot be taken out of the IRA account until retirement age reaches. Bottom of Form A Roth IRA is, â€Å"An individual retirement plan that bears many similarities to the traditional IRA, but  contributions are not tax deductible and qualified distributions are tax free† (Investopedia, 2012). A 401k plan is a company sponsored retirement plan that allows individuals to set aside tax-deferred income towards retirement. There are other financial instruments that can be used to save money towards retirement. One of the most popular forms of investments is common stocks. Common stocks give investors ownership in a publicly traded company. The investors that keep stocks for a long time earn dividends from common stock as well as a capital gain once the investment is sold. The safest type of stock that an investor can choose is blue chip stocks. A blue chip stock is a stock issued by a well known company with an established record of making money and paying dividends (Teweles, Br adley, Teweles, 1992). An example of a blue chip stock is Microsoft. Due to the risk associated with penny stocks and foreign stocks I will stay away from these two types of stocks in order to minimize the risk of the portfolio. Another good investment instrument that is often chosen by investors is corporate bonds. Corporate bonds pay the investor the coupon rate on a yearly or biannual basis. The principal of the bond is paid at maturity age. Most bonds are of $1000 denominations. A portion of my retirement

Wal-Mart Employee Relations Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Wal-Mart Employee Relations - Research Paper Example Wal-Mart will, therefore, have to consider hiring an external consulting firm to help in settling this issue once and for good. Wal-Mart should start arrangements to hire a consulting firm which is well versed with labor issues in order to help it look for a solution which will bring its issues with its employees to a halt. The internal management will be tasked to procure these services by analyzing the available consulting services in order to choose at the best consulting services. Since the issue at hand is a human resource issue, Wal-Mart will have to look for a consulting firm which is experienced or which specializes in human resource and labor issues. The employees through their representatives should also be involved in the process of hiring the consulting firm so that they do not feel that they have been left out of the process. This will be important since the issue at hand is one that affects the employees, and therefore, the need to involve them in the process of solving the issue. According to Mendy, the success of organizational change starts with the managers', as well as the employees', understanding the need for change. This is why it is necessary for managers to be able to inform their employees of the issues the firm is facing. Failing to involve the employees in the process of developing the solution will only lead to them rejecting whatever solution will be provided to them and, it is, therefore, necessary to make sure that they are involved so that they will own the solution at the end of the process.... As Bruce, Cheryl and Coskun (1994) say, information systems help an organisation to be ahead of the competitors in the industry. Wal-Mart has, however, failed to use this opportunity to reform its workforce and has only concentrated on using technology for other uses such as streamlining its supply chain systems. According to Kharbanda (2002), organisations are supposed to continually change in order to be able to overcome the many issues which they face in the market. As such, well-designed information systems can and do help the organisation in gaining the kind of information and knowledge which will be useful in the strategic decision-making process, thus helping it to deal with the issues it may be facing (Jamieson & Szeto, 1989). Wal-Mart has, however, seemingly ignored this and has failed to look at the issue of employee dissatisfaction. While it is very imminent that Wal-Mart needs organisation change to be able to deal with the human resource it is facing today, it continues to ignore the issues. This lack of organisational change continues to be eminent in Wal-Mart, where the need for change is always disregarded, even in cases where it is very obvious that change is needed. One of the major instances where Wal-Mart has been seen to fail to change was in the 1980s during the Buy-American euphoria era. While Wal-Mart’s competitors refused to fall for this euphoria but rather continued to buy from across the international borders in order to access cheaper goods for their stores, Wal-Mart refused to use this and continued to buy stock from local manufacturers, which were more expensive. This adamant refusal to change regardless of the fact that this was causing the firm to lose its strategic edge in the market can

Managing a Diverse Workforce Around the World Research Paper

Managing a Diverse Workforce Around the World - Research Paper Example   This is because this phenomenon not only is capable of influencing the employers and employees working for an organization, but it also inflicts huge impact on the customers, suppliers, market reputation, and external stakeholders. They naturally drag along their cultures with themselves too and if leaders hesitate in making it their business to step in to look where one culture might crush the values of another culture either by mistake or with intention, big issues can develop and the ultimate consequences signify a major drop in the annual production rate. Therefore, developing the right kind of environment that is positive and healthy from the start is highly important in order to manage a culturally diverse workforce. It remains the job of the leaders to make the workforce understand that certain things which might be acceptable in one culture might appear to be truly inappropriate for workers coming from a different cultural background. Communication and teamwork if used to gether can combat the challenges raised by mismanaged workplace diversity. In the present global marketplace, conflicts originate often when the workers happen to be extremely self-involved and oblivious to the cultural circumstances around them due to which certain ideas might be presented by them that antagonize the cultural values of other workers. A culturally diverse workforce should not only be open to communication but it should be willing to collaborate. When the leaders invest wisely, the payoff might just turn out to be astounding. This is especially important as the payoffs literally affect every area of a business. In addition to better recruitment and employee retention as mentioned earlier, there is enhanced customer loyalty, stronger market position, innovative ideas, creativity, better attitudes, language skills, intuitive global understanding, and improved proposals to complex issues (Andrade, 2010). That is what results when the leaders decide to make a wise invest ment in developing a diverse workforce which is to be maintained later on by relying on teamwork and mutual collaboration as such a strategy helps in tacking the diversity challenges. It is increasingly important that the employers and managers inculcate this thing about how not being able to relate to cultural diversity can wreak havoc for an entire organization very earlier on their minds. This is because acknowledging an issue often serves as the first step to designing a solution. As discussed earlier whenever diversity is not respected at a workplace, one finds oneself entrapped between two opposing ideas as a result of which mental distortion speeds up and dissonance increases.  Ã‚  

Problem Resolution in Corrections Research Paper

Problem Resolution in Corrections - Research Paper Example A vision of this scale requires harmonized and joint attempts on the division of correctional companies to set up a â€Å"seamless† network of relations as well as communication; the Transition/Re-entry Action plan is an organizational guide toward accomplishing this goal (Altschuler, Armstrong & MacKenzie, 2006). The job, independently and jointly, is to create and strengthen the awareness; skills, principles, beliefs, as well as other qualifications that criminal will need so as to be successful in the society. As shown above, this may be attained in a range of methods, comprising the formation of a correctional setting that holds criminals liable for satisfying real-world qualities of work, in school and in the society. Mutually, as a united and combined set of organizations with a universal goal, we may make it come to pass. DOP-Training Services: Include a more wide-ranging transition initiative in the colleges to better train adolescents for release and incorporate an ultimate benchmark for transition in the Yearly Reassessment of Instructive Services. Supply computerization of a checklist of what has been accomplished as well as what requires to be done prior to release; partake in debates with organization staff to make easy sharing of data and computerization of process. Action Steps: 1). Develop a closer functioning association with DOP before release. 2). Improve DOP to permit better right of entry across departments. 3). Carry out combined Primary education meetings for correctional leaders as well as on trial or parole detectives to comprise case administration, transition, and discharge scheduling. 4). Start local transition job groups across departments and make use of resource meetings. 5). Create films to assist debate transition problems with households, employees and prisoners. Provide computerization of a checklist of what has been accomplished and what requires to be performed

Films and Their Reflection of the Mid-Seventies Era Essay

Films and Their Reflection of the Mid-Seventies Era - Essay Example Films are at times influential and determinants of societal behavior. Film, therefore, is believed to be progressive forces in any society and is a reflection of that society. Analysis of â€Å"Rafaelson Five Easy Pieces† shows the effects of the film and the reflection of the mid-seventies era. The film reflected the social attitudes and values in the mid-seventies era. Even though, there are numerous aspects of the film that are progressive and â€Å"influential for the mid-seventies era, the film is a reflection of the social context of the 1970’s America†. A brief comparison of the film and other contemporary issues of the 1970’s era geys also made.  Films are at times influential and determinants of societal behavior. Film, therefore, is believed to be progressive forces in any society and is a reflection of that society. Analysis of â€Å"Rafaelson Five Easy Pieces† shows the effects of the film and the reflection of the mid-seventies era. T he film reflected the social attitudes and values in the mid-seventies era. Even though, there are numerous aspects of the film that are progressive and â€Å"influential for the mid-seventies era, the film is a reflection of the social context of the 1970’s America†. A brief comparison of the film and other contemporary issues of the 1970’s era geys also made.   Five Easy Pieces directed by Bob Rafaelson is among the greatest films of the Hollywood 1970’s golden era. In the film, the character of Bobby Dupea is the archetype of numerous heroes from that period.