1. How has Enterprise Rent-A-Car (ERAC) defined its service differently than that of the typical national car rental company? 2. What features of its business concept allow ERAC to compete effectively with the existing national rental car companies? 3. Use the service profit chain to explain the success of ERAC. Enterprise Rent-A-Car15 Enterprise Rent-A-Car (ERAC) maintains a unique selling proposition in the rental automobile industry, describing its “greatest idea [as] personal service.” This proposition is built into every facet of ERAC’s operations, from point-to-point car delivery to a 427,000 rental-vehicle fleet. This is clearly seen in president Andy Taylor’s welcoming message on the company’s website (www.enterprise.com): They say the greatest ideas are the simplest ones. They’re right, and our greatest idea was personal service. It was so easy because it simply required people to act like people. To treat people in a business environment the way you’d treat them if they were your neighbors. You see, our business has been shaped by this very concept. Treating our customers like good friends and neighbors has enabled us to grow to a point where our automotive operations have annual revenues in the billions, a fleet of cars and trucks numbering hundreds of thousands, and thousands of employees—each dedicated to providing personal service. 16 BACKGROUND Enterprise Rent-A-Car began life in 1957 as a leasing company in St. Louis, Missouri, with a fleet of 17 cars. Founder Jack Taylor soon found that his customers needed short-term rentals to cover times when their leased vehicles were in for maintenance or repairs. Although it was a relatively successful operation, it wasn’t until the 1970s that the business took off. That was when a court ruling held casualty insurers liable for an insured motorist’s loss from being without a car. ERAC became a major player almost overnight, and rapidly grew to a 10,000-vehicle fleet by 1977. By 1993, ERAC began serving Canada and competing inter-nationally. At this time ERAC had more than 200,000 units covering 1,500 locations. Overseas expansion continued in the United Kingdom a year later, bringing the total operation to more than 300,000 rental units and 50,000 lease units in more than 2,500 locations. Today, ERAC operates 7,200 offices in 30 countries around the world. The company has a domestic rental fleet of almost 1.2 million vehicles and annual revenues of $13,880 million. Now that ERAC has become the industry leader in terms of fleet size and market presence, management faces the challenge of maintaining its performance level as the company’s domestic markets approach saturation. SERVICE CONCEPT Andrew Taylor, the second CEO and son of the founder, said, “My father instilled his business philosophy in me, and it’s very simple. When my father started the business, he said that you put customers first because if they are satisfied, they’ll come back. Then come the employees. By making sure they are happy, well informed, and part of a team atmosphere, they will provide the best service possible. If you put the customers and the employees first, the bottom line will happen.”17 Enterprise claims to offer the perfect rental package, as symbolized by its now-famous wrapped car. The focus is on three key benefits for the customer: 1.Extraordinary convenience in the form of nearby locations and picking up and dropping off customers at their homes, offices, or repair shops free of charge. 2. Excellent rates made possible by the operating strategy. 3. Exceptional selection of vehicles with something for every occasion. From the first days of the rental business, ERAC’s market focus has been on the local rental segment rather than following the “suits & shorts” emphasis on the business and holiday segment of the established players. This “hometown” rental market now includes the replacement segment (i.e., customers who need a car because of an accident, routine maintenance, or theft) and the discretionary segment (i.e., short business and leisure trips and other special occasions). ERAC relied on the pickup and drop-off components of its service to help set the company apart from the competition. This focus on convenience is now facilitated by a network of offices located within 15 minutes of 90 percent of the U.S. population. As ERAC began to take on the commercial market, company maintained some airport locations, especially through its acquired holdings of Alamo Rent a Car and National Car Rental. Consistent with its original market focus, customers are picked up and taken back to the office to settle the paperwork and take possession of the car. Still, according to Taylor, the focus is on the customer: “After all, other companies rent, lease and sell pretty much the same cars as Enterprise. The difference is, their business is cars and ours is people, which explains why so much of our energy goes into recruiting, hiring, and training.”18 CULTURE A combination of unusual hiring practices and relatively strict promotion-from-within drives the company’s culture. Virtually every employee is a college graduate; Enterprise claims to be the top recruiter of college graduates in the United States. This factor is out of sync with the labor-intensive car rental industry that seeks to keep employee wages of a unionized workforce low. The recruiting itself is rather nontraditional, also. “Brainy introverts need not apply,” says Donald L. Ross, ERAC’s chief operating officer. “We hire from the half of the college class that makes the upper half possible,” he adds wryly. “We want athletes, fraternity types—especially fraternity presidents and social directors. People people.”19 The company finds that social directors make good salespeople because they are more readily able to chat up service managers and to calm someone who has just been in a car wreck. The focus on athletes also has a noticeable impact on the company’s culture because it fosters a competitive atmosphere to go along with the emphasis on teamwork. Starting pay varies around the country, and ERAC’s reward system feeds this competitive drive because employees don’t receive regular pay raises. They are compensated in part according to the profit earned at their particular location. Financial results by location and region are made available for everyone to see, which further fuels the competition. The “bottom half of the class” also tends to bring a work ethic akin to the zeal of a reformed smoker, because its alumni have been sobered by a scarcity of career opportunities. Jeffrey M. Brummett, vice president for daily rental operations and a onetime semipro baseball player, comments, “Nobody ever went to college planning to go into the car rental business [an often repeated comment among Enterprise employees]. Then a time comes when that’s the opportunity that presents itself, and you grab it.”20 New management trainees are welcomed by long, grueling hours, during which they spend most of their time cleaning cars and shuttling vehicles to customers. Still, almost every employee, including top executives, start this way. Conscious of the bond this creates, senior officers routinely get involved in the dirty work, and even CEO Andy Taylor used a vacuum. “We were visiting an office in Berkeley and it was mobbed, so I started cleaning cars,” he says. “As it was happening, I wondered if it was a good use of my time, but the effect on morale was tremendous.”21 Still, many quit after just a few weeks. At the corporate level, Taylor left many of the decisions to Donald L. Ross, senior executive VP and COO, and to WilliamF. Holtkamp, executive VP. Ross and Holekamp served as role models for new recruits, as both men started by washing cars and serving customers. In time, each decided to take the risk and open an ERAC office in a new location, and their success with these operations proved that they could help guide the company, according to the Taylor philosophy. GROWTH ERAC’s focus on the local market continues to pay off as it takes an increasingly larger share. While the airport market has grown annually at about 3 to 5 percent, the local market has grown at 10 to 15 percent. According to Jon Lesage, managing editor of Auto Rental News, “The local car rental market is a lot more significant than the public would assume. The real growth in this business is going to be in the local market.”22 ERAC likely will continue to benefit from this growth, because the company has so many rental locations spread around the world. CEO Taylor saw no sign of a slowdown. Moreover, the company has grown at an annual rate of more than 20 percent for the past several years. Two-income families also are helping to drive the market: When both partners of a couple work, each depends on his or her car, and when one of the cars falls out, ERAC’s lower price makes it a natural choice. Moreover, people are renting from ERAC even when the family car runs just fine. “We call it the Virtual Car,” said Taylor. “Small-business people who have to pick up clients call us when they want something better than their own car. So do people who have to take a long trip and don’t trust, or just don’t want to use, the family car.”23 A new office is opened usually as soon as adjacent offices have reached a 100-vehicle inventory. After a new office opens, employees move into the surrounding community to develop relationships with the service managers of every good-size repair facility in the area. ERAC knows that the recommendations of service managers carry a great deal of weight with repair customers who are busy dealing with the confusion of the moment. It has become a national Wednesday ritual for ERAC employees to bring pizza and doughnuts to workers at nearby garages. Indeed, a large portion of recent growth has come from auto dealers who offer customers a free or cheap replacement while their cars are in the shop. ERAC has agreements with many dealers to provide these replacement vehicles, but at major accounts, ERAC staffs an office on the premises for several hours a day and keeps cars parked outside. According to one Porsche, Audi, and Rover dealer in West Long Branch, New Jersey: “The Enterprise people are practically part of my staff.”24 OPERATIONS ERAC operations are separated along its two primary lines of business: rental vehicles and corporate fleet management. Enterprise buys cars from a wide variety of American, Japanese, and European automakers. To reduce costs, it keeps its cars on the road up to six months longer than do either Hertz or Avis. Rental Operations ERAC’s 7,200 offices are connected via an exclusive 1-800 number that links customers to the world’s most advanced and most convenient office locator system. It allows customers to contact any of the North American offices via one simple number. This is supplemented by ARMS (automated rental management system), which provides an electronic interface that allows major clients, such as insurance companies, to manage bookings, billings, and payments in the most efficient manner possible. ERAC’s service concepts are evident in the rental operations. Whether at home or at the repair shop, ERAC delivers the vehicle to the customer. Despite this highly personalized service, ERAC offers rates that are often 30 percent lower than those of its competitors. From Chevy Aveo to Lincoln Town-car, from Ford Escape to Cadillac Escalade, ERAC provides a selection from more than 60 vehicles, including electric/hybrid cars, to meet a wide range of customer needs. Variety is also a primary profit driver in the replacement market. ERAC is betting that customers who are stuck for transportation won’t be in the mood to quibble about prices. While the tiny GEO Metro is available for about $30 a day (i.e., the amount many insurance policies pay for replacement rentals), about 90 percent of people pay more to get a bigger car. Fleet Management Operations Its origin was leasing, but ERAC has expanded the scope of its fleet management services by providing complete, end-to-end fleet management, which allows client companies to outsource their entire vehicle departments. A dedicated, local Enterprise Account Services representative manages every aspect of the client’s fleet including acquisition, insurance services, registration, after-market equipment, financing, fuel management and reporting, full maintenance management, corporate rental programs, and disposal. COMPETITION ERAC faces competition from a variety of sources, most notable of which are the traditional airport car rental companies such as Avis, Hertz, and Budget. Nevertheless, ERAC focuses on a different segment of the rental car market than do these companies. Traditional companies are dedicated to short-term, on-site rental for travelers, but ERAC focuses on the “home-town” market. Consequently, its most direct competition comes from the service loaner fleets of car dealerships. When a customer brings a car in for service, many dealerships now provide a service loaner, which eliminates the opportunity for ERAC to provide service. The shape of the competitive field also is changing with a reviving auto industry and rising car prices. Consolidation is ongoing, as the smaller players are finding themselves unable to withstand the higher capital outlays. One of the biggest threats to the independents is the cash reserve of the allied players like Hertz and Budget, both of which are owned by Ford. Still, lacking debt, outside ownership, or red ink, ERAC is one of the most secure companies in a very insecure business.
> 11. Geographic information systems are a visual method of displaying data. 12. Cross-median is an approach to the location of a single facility using the metropolitan metric to maximize the total distance traveled. 13. Marketing intermediaries are busin
> 1. Finding a unique set of sites in a multi-location problem is a simple extension of the methods used for single facility location. 2. When a customer travels to the service facility, the direct cost that is incurred is the decrease in potential custome
> 1. DEA circumvents the need to develop standard costs for each service when comparing the efficiency of multiple service units that provide similar services. 2. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is best used in an environment of low divergence and high com
> 11. Serving complimentary drinks on a delayed flight is an example of empathy being shown by the service personnel to the irate customer. 12. In the service quality gap model, GAP1 arises because of the management’s lack of understanding about how custom
> 1. The concept of quality service deployment is based on the belief that services should be designed to reflect customer requirements. 2. Being meaningful and easy to invoke are important elements of a good unconditional service guarantee. 3. A process i
> 14. The procedure to improve flow distance in a process layout by arranging the relative location of departments is known as operations sequence analysis. 15. A product layout affords some degree of customization. 16. Mid-Columbia Medical Center has a sp
> 1. The servicescape can influence perceived quality. 2. The design of facilities is dependent entirely on the construction and operating costs of the facilities. 3. A well-conceived servicescape can communicate desired customer behavior. 4. Heuristic alg
> 14. Internet banking is a service that would appeal to the economizing customer, the personalizing customer, and the convenience customer. 15. Efficiency- versus-satisfaction is the possible source of conflict in the relationship between the customer and
> 1. Services are deeds, processes, and performances. 2. The Clark-Fisher hypothesis notes the shift of employment from one sector of the economy to another. 3. The fall in employment in the agricultural sector is the primary reason for the increase in se
> 1. Who are Goodwill’s customers and how have their demo-graphics changed over time? 2. How should the introduction of for-profit thrifts affect Goodwill’s decisions about the role of customer service? 3. How can Goodwi
> 1. Marketing analysts use market position maps to display visually the customers’ perceptions of a firm in relation to its competitors regarding two attributes. Prepare a market position map for Alamo Draft house using “food quality” and “movie selection
> 1. For the Burger Palace example, perform a complete analysis of efficiency improvement alternatives for unit S2, including determination of a composite reference unit. 2. For the Burger Palace example, perform a complete analysis of efficiency improveme
> 1. Compare and contrast the strategic service vision of El Banco and United Commercial Bank. 2. Identify the service winners, qualifiers, and service losers for El Banco and United Commercial Bank. 3. What are the differentiating features of banks tha
> 1. Use DEA to identify efficient and inefficient terminal operations. Formulate the problem as a linear programming model, and solve using computer software such as Excel Solver that permits input file editing between runs. 2. Using the appropriate refer
> 1. Assume that you are part of the management staff whose task is to develop this sketch plan. Using Microsoft Project, develop the PERT network as outlined above, identify the critical path, and determine the expected time to reach basic operational sta
> 1. Using Microsoft Project, prepare a network and identify the critical path activities, the expected project duration, and scheduling times for all activities. 2. The elapsed time for delivery of the hardware is estimated at 90 days. Would the project c
> Located in a major southwestern U.S. city, Elysian Cycles (EC) is a wholesale distributor of bicycles and bicycle parts. Its primary retail outlets are located in eight cities within a 400-mile radius of the distribution center. These retail outlets gene
> 1. Assuming that the cost of stock out is the lost contribution of one dessert, how many portions of Sweet Revenge should the chef prepare each weekday? 2. Based on Martin Quinn’s estimate of other stock out costs, how many servings sho
> A.D. Small, Inc., provides management consulting services from its offices located in more than 300 cities in the United States and abroad. The company recruits its staff from top graduates of recognized MBA programs. Upon joining A.D. Small, a recruit a
> Gnomial Functions, Inc. (GFI), is a medium-sized consulting firm in San Francisco that specializes in developing various forecasts of product demand, sales, consumption, or other information for its clients. To a lesser degree, it also has developed ongo
> Oak Hollow Medical Evaluation Center is a nonprofit agency offering multidisciplinary diagnostic services to study children with disabilities or developmental delays. The center can test each patient for physical, psychological, or social problems. Fees
> Computer simulation provides management an experimental laboratory in which to study a model of a real system and to determine how the system might respond to changes in policies, resource levels, or customer demand. A system, for our purposes, is define
> 1. Describe Xpresso Lube’s service package. 2. How are the distinctive characteristics of a service operation illustrated by Xpresso Lube? 3. What elements of Xpresso Lube’s location contribute to its success? 4. Given the example of Xpresso Lube, what o
> On a hillside in Rolling wood, a community just southwest of Austin, Texas, the Renaissance Clinic provides dedicated obstetric and gynecological services. The medical treatment at this facility is wrapped in an exclusive-feeling physical environment tha
> Let us revisit the Automobile Driver’s License Office Example 5.2 and model the proposed process improvement shown as Figure 5.6 (b). Recall that the improvement consisted of combining activities 1 and 4 (Review Application and Eye Test
> Renaissance Clinic is a hospital dedicated to the health care of women. It is located in the hill country surrounding Austin, Texas, and offers an environment that is unique in the city. At the time of a visit, a patient of Dr. Margaret Thompsonâ&#
> 1. During periods of bad weather, as compared with periods of clear weather, how many additional gallons of fuel on aver-age should FreeEx expect its planes to consume because of airport congestion? 2. Given FreeEx’s policy of ensuring that its planes do
> The Houston Port Authority has engaged you as a consultant to advise it on possible changes in the handling of wheat exports. At present, a crew of dockworkers using conventional belt conveyors unloads hopper cars containing wheat into cargo ships bound
> Go forth armed with clipboard and stopwatch and study an actual waiting experience (e.g., post office, fast-food restaurant, retail bank). Begin with a sketch of the layout noting the queue configuration. Describe the characteristics of the calling popul
> 1. In this chapter, we referred to Maister’s First and Second Laws of Service. How do they relate to this case? 2. What features of a good waiting process are evident in Dr. X’s practice? List the shortcomings that you see. 3. Do you think that Mrs. F is
> Thrifty Car Rental (now part of Hertz) began as a regional business in the southwest, but it now has more than 470 locations across the country and almost 600 international locations. About 80 percent of its U.S. locations are at airports, and the rest a
> 1. For the forecast period (i.e., July–December), determine the number of new trainees who must be hired at the beginning of each month so that total personnel costs for the flight-attendant staff and training program are minimized. For
> On the morning of November 10, 2002, Jon Thomas, market analyst for the Mexico leisure markets, canceled more than 300 seats “illegally” reserved on two flights to Acapulco. All of the seats on Jon’s Acapulco flights were booked by the same sales represe
> 1. How is SSM different from Deming’s PDCA cycle? 2. Prepare a cause-and-effect or fishbone diagram for a problem such as “Why customers have long waits for coffee.” Your fishbone diagram should be s
> 1. Assume that you are the assistant to the manager for operations at the FAA. Use the techniques of work shift scheduling to analyze the total workforce requirements and days-off schedule. For the primary analysis, assume that a. Operator requirements w
> River City National Bank has been in business for 10 years and is a fast-growing community bank. Its president, Gary Miller, took over his position 5 years ago in an effort to get the bank on its feet. He is one of the youngest bank presidents in the sou
> Securing a mortgage often is a time-consuming and frustrating experience for a homebuyer. The process involves multi- ple stages with many handoffs to independent organizations providing specialized services (e.g., property survey and title search). The
> 1. What features of the 7-Eleven Japan distribution system illustrate the concept of the bidirectional service supply relationship? 2. Does the 7-Eleven Japan distribution system exhibit scalability economies? 3. How does the 7-Eleven example of B2C e-co
> 1. How does the Boomer Technology Circle illustrate the concept of the bidirectional service supply relationship? 2. How has Boomer Consulting, Inc., made the client a coproduce in the service delivery process? 3. How is the concept of “
> 1. Utilizing a spreadsheet version of the Huff location model (with λ = 1.0), recommend a store size and location for AFI. Assuming that AFI does not wish to consider a store that is smaller than 10,000 square feet, assess the store sizes (b
> Joan Taylor, the administrator of Life-Time Insurance Company, which is based in Buffalo, New York, was charged with establishing a health maintenance organization (HMO) satellite clinic in Austin, Texas. The HMO concept would offer Austin residents an a
> 1. Briefly summarize the complaints and compliments in Dr. Loflin’s letter. 2. Critique the letter of Gail Pearson in reply to Dr. Loflin. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the letter? 3. Prepare an “improved” response letter from Gail Pearson. 4.
> 1. Prepare an -chart and R-chart for complaints, and plot the average complaints for each crew during the nine-month period. Do the same for the performance ratings. What does this analysis reveal about the service quality of CSI’s
> 1. Describe Village Volvo’s service package. 2. How are the distinctive characteristics of a service firm illustrated by Village Volvo? 3. How could Village Volvo manage its back office (i.e., repair operations) like a factory? 4. How can Village Volvo d
> 1. How do the environmental dimensions of the services cape explain the success of Central Market? 2. Comment on how the services cape shapes the behaviors of both customers and employees. Central Market5 The original Central Market grocery store, locat
> 1. Use CRAFT logic to develop a layout that will maximize customer time in the store. 2. What percentage increase in customer time spent in the store is achieved by the proposed layout? 3. What other consumer behavior concepts should be considered in the
> 1. Identify the bottleneck activity, and show how capacity can be increased by using only two pharmacists and two technicians. 2. In addition to savings on personnel costs, what benefits does this arrangement have? Health Maintenance Organization (B) Th
> 1. Beginning with a good initial layout, use operations sequence analysis to determine a better layout that would minimize the walking distance between different areas in the clinic. 2. Defend your final layout based on features other than minimizing wal
> 1. Describe the service organization culture at Amy’s Ice Cream. 2. What are the personality attributes of the employees who are sought by Amy’s Ice Cream? 3. Design a personnel selection procedure for Amy’s Ice Cream using abstract questioning, a situat
> 1.How does Amazon.com illustrate the sources of service sector growth? Comment on information technology, the Internet as an enabler, innovation, and changing demographics. 2.What generic approach(s) to service design does Amazon.com illustrate, and what
> 1. Prepare a service blueprint for Commuter Cleaning. 2. What generic approach to service system design is illustrated by Commuter Cleaning, and what competitive advantages does this design offer? 3. Using the data in Table 3.5, calculate a break-eve
> 1. Describe the growth strategy of Federal Express. How did this strategy differ from those of its competitors? 2. What risks were involved in the acquisition of Tiger International? 3. In addition to the question of merging FedEx and Flying Tigers pilot
> 1. Prepare a service blueprint for the 100 Yen Sushi House operation. 2. What features of the 100 Yen Sushi House service delivery system differentiate it from the competition, and what competitive advantages do they offer? 3. How has the 100 Yen Sushi
> 1. Prepare a run chart on each of the incident categories. Does she have reason to be concerned about burglaries? What variable might you plot against burglaries to create a scatter diagram to determine a possible explanation? 2. What is unusual about th
> Conduct a Google search on “project finance” and find employment opportunities in project finance. What is the role of finance in projects?
> Could firms in the “world-class service delivery” stage of competitiveness be described as “learning organizations’?
> Discuss the difference between time variance, cost variance, and schedule variance.
> Explain why the PERT estimate of expected project duration always is optimistic. Can we get any feel for the magnitude of this bias?
> Are Gantt charts still viable project management tools? Explain.
> Illustrate the four stages of team building from your own experience.
> Give an example that demonstrates the trade-off inherent in projects among cost, time, and performance.
> Identify dependent and independent demand for an airline and a hospital.
> Service capacity (i.e., seats on an aircraft) has characteristics similar to inventories. What inventory model would apply?
> How is a service level determined for most inventory items?
> How valid are the assumptions for the simple EOQ model?
> Discuss how information technology can help to create a competitive advantage through inventory management?
> Determine if the U.S. service sector currently is expanding or contracting based upon the Non-Manufacturing Index (NMI) found at ISM Report on Business on the Institute of Supply Management website: http://www.ism.ws/pubs/ismmag/.
> Compare and contrast a continuous review inventory system with a periodic review inventory system?
> How would one find values for inventory management costs?
> Discuss the functions of inventory for different organizations in the supply chain (i.e., manufacturing, suppliers, distributors, and retailers).
> What changes in (, (, and ( would you recommend to improve the performance of the trendline seasonal adjustment forecast shown in Figure 11.4? Figure 11.4: Profile of Operator Requirements and Tour Assignments Number of operators 25 20 15 10 5 0 12
> Why is the N-period moving-average model still in common use if the simple exponential smoothing model has superior qualities?
> Suggest a number of independent variables for a regression model to predict the potential sales volume of a given location for a retail store (e.g., a video rental store).
> The number of customers at a bank likely will vary by the hour of the day and by the day of the month. What are the implications of this for choosing a forecasting model?
> For each of the three forecasting methods (i.e., time series, causal, and subjective), what costs are associated with the development and use of the forecast model? What costs are associated with forecast error?
> What characteristics of service organizations make forecast accuracy important?
> Discuss how the M/G/( model could be used to determine the number of emergency medical vehicles that are required to serve a community.
> Give an example of a firm that began as world-class and has remained in that category.
> What are some disadvantages associated with the concept of pooling service resources?
> For a queuing system with a finite queue, the arrival rate can exceed the capacity to serve. Use an example to explain how this is feasible.
> Example 13.1 presents a naïve capacity planning exercise and was criticized for using averages. Recall the concept of a "bottleneck" from Chapter 5, "Supporting Facility and Process Flows," and suggest other reservations about this planning exercise.
> Discuss how one could determine the economic cost of keeping customers waiting.
> When the line becomes long at some fast-food restaurants, an employee will walk along the line taking orders. What are the benefits of this policy?
> Suggest ways that service management can influence the arrival times of customers.
> Select a bad and good waiting experience, and contrast the situations with respect to the aesthetics of the surroundings, diversions, people waiting, and attitude of servers.
> Suggest diversions that could make waiting less painful.
> Suggest some strategies for controlling the variability in service times.
> Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yield_Management and discuss the ethical issues associated with yield management.
> What is the value of self-service in an economy?
> Will the widespread use of yield management eventually erode the concept of fixed prices for any service?
> What possible dangers are associated with developing complementary services?
> Illustrate how a particular service has implemented strategies for managing both demand and capacity successfully.
> How can computer-based reservation systems increase service capacity utilization?
> What organizational problems can arise from the use of part-time employees?
> What explains the continuing trade surplus in services for the United States?
> What is the inherent conflict in a franchising arrangement?
> Chili’s, a United States based restaurant chain that offers Mexican food, has its largest establishment in Monterrey, Mexico. Why is Chili’s so successful in Monterrey?
> Recall that service operations can be classified as processing people, goods, or information. What challenges are faced in each category when globalization is undertaken?
> Conduct a Google search and find the definition of “location intelligence.” What use can be made of geographic information?
> For each of the three generic strategies (i.e., cost leadership, differentiation, and focus), which of the four competitive uses of information is most powerful?
