netrashetty
Netra Shetty
Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN, SEHK: 4332) is an international biotechnology company headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California. Located in the Conejo Valley, Amgen is the world's largest independent biotech firm. The company employs approximately 17,000 staff members. Its products include Epogen, Aranesp, Enbrel, Kineret, Neulasta, Neupogen, Sensipar / Mimpara, Nplate, and Prolia. Epogen and Neupogen (the company's first products on the market) were the two most successful biopharmaceutical products at the time of their respective releases.
BusinessWeek ranked Amgen first on the S&P 500 for being one of the most "future-oriented" of those five hundred corporations.[3] BusinessWeek ostensibly calculated the ratio of research and development spending, combined with capital spending, to total outlays; Amgen had the fourth highest ratio, at 506:1000.
Amgen is the largest employer in Thousand Oaks and second only to the United States Navy in terms of number of people employed in Ventura County.
In addition, the top management has also responsibilities in the TQM implementation process. These include: initiating agreement on goals and measures that cascade throughout the organization; providing the agreed resources (people, money, training, machines, etc.); assigning authority and establish deadlines to put resources into motion; monitoring progress in achieving goals, not to apportion blame, but to aim for improvement; and, measuring improvement and reward both the achievement of goals and the ways they are achieved (Bethke et al, 1994). Bethke et al (1994) stated that beyond modeling TQM, the HR department, with senior management's support, can play a leading role in implementing a quality strategy across the firm.
According to Brown et al (1994) stressed that the common mistakes in the implementation of TQM that waste time and money include: "measuring the wrong indicators; focusing on behavior instead of accomplishments; emphasizing courtesy instead of competence; disguising cost control as TQM; focusing on internal instead of external improvements; failing to identify key process variables; and ineffective benchmarking." Furthermore, the authors stressed that TQM is not a program and should not be a separate entity from the rest of the organization which adds bureaucracy. Brown et al (1994) highlighted five suggestions for insuring that TQM is not perceived as a program: "Don't give it a name or slogan; eliminate the banners, slogans, buttons; do one of two things either don't appoint a chief quality officer or make it clear this is a temporary position phased out after a few years; don't build a separate TQM department or organization that is responsible for the implementation of TQM; and don't have separate committees to deal with quality related issues”.
IPCL, in terms of quality, has already established its reputation by being Asia’s first corporate to pierce the sovereign ceiling in any form of external borrowing. Their EURO Convertible offer of US $175 million surpassed more than just the sovereign ceiling. It leveraged their corporate equity in the international context. It enabled them to tap a wide range of foreign investors.
However, experts warn that doing a Web search isn’t the most time-efficient nor reliable approach. It can be tough to use blogs to gauge the potential sales volume or sales cost other than to get a general idea of interest in a product, they say. Laycock recommends doing sneak peaks or products previews with bloggers. Then it’s simply a matter of watching the blog responses.
There are also several companies that offer outsourcing CGM gathering and analysis. Forrester considers Nielsen BuzzMetrics and Cymfony the best of the bunch. A recent report cites Nielsen BuzzMetrics the leader in specific consumer-generated media, such as blogs, while Cymfony is better at analyzing multiple data sources including blogs.
According to Kim, Web aggregators/brand monitoring firms do the following:
Data collection: video, audio and/or text from media consumer and/or traditionally generated
Information processing: filtering the compiled data, classify and tag the pertinent content
Data analysis: focus on client requirements and specific questions. Many services stop here
Insight delivery: continued updates on new data and analysis via email or another online interface
He recommends going to a brand-monitoring service to get the job done. “Tools like Google’s Blog Search, Alerts, and Trends enable marketers to monitor their brand ad hoc and for free,” Kim says. “But the time required to use these tools is prohibitive, and they do not provide comprehensive coverage of data sources, particularly mainstream media.”
Market research is essential to understanding your customers and your competition. Market research can also identify trends that affect sales and profitability. But successful market research takes planning and strategy. Here are some of the most common mistakes businesses make in conducting market research and tips for avoiding them.
Overspending. If you are smart about it, performing market research does not require a huge budget. But in their haste, many business owners shell out big bucks on the first market research firm that promises to provide them with all the data they could ever want on their target audience. If you are hiring an outside firm, shop around for the best deal.
Not knowing what you are looking for. Doing market research in the hopes of discovering something (anything!) about your customers can be an exercise in futility. You should know what information you need before you even begin. Have questions ready for which you are seeking answers, such as "What are the specific needs of my customers?" or "How much would my customers be willing to spend on this product?"
Poor choice of reference materials. The Internet is a great place to start your research. Business libraries are also worth visiting. But you must consider the source of the information you are getting. This is particularly a problem on the Internet, where sites can include dated or biased material. Research your research materials; check dates and double-check pertinent information.
Not thoroughly researching the competition. Get as much information about your competition as you can. The more you know about how they are conducting business, their pricing, and their strengths and weakness, the more effectively you can establish your competitive edge.
Not researching price information. If done properly, your market research should tell you what customers expect to spend and how high they will go to purchase a product or service like yours.
Researching the wrong group. Before accumulating first-hand research from your customers, you need to have an idea of who they are. For example, a focus group must meet your demographic needs, and a survey must be answered by prospective customers. Often businesses make the mistake of gathering random data, much of which does not apply to their business needs.
Not honing a good research instrument. Just handing out a questionnaire is not good enough. You need to be sure that your survey will provide you the answers you need. Take the time to hone a solid research instrument that helps you find out about your customer base.
Not being aggressive enough in your research efforts. The best surveys or questionnaires are useless if you do not get customers to answer them. Businesses are often not aggressive enough and end up with piles of unanswered survey forms stacked up by the cash register.
Relying on one set of data. Whether it is the U.S. Census or a survey you personally conducted, one set of data is rarely enough to get an overview of your target audience. Use various data, including information from primary and secondary resources.
Ignoring your market research. The only thing worse than not doing market research at all is spending money on it and not utilizing the results. Some business owners also tend to toss good research aside just because it did not support the answers they wanted to see.
BusinessWeek ranked Amgen first on the S&P 500 for being one of the most "future-oriented" of those five hundred corporations.[3] BusinessWeek ostensibly calculated the ratio of research and development spending, combined with capital spending, to total outlays; Amgen had the fourth highest ratio, at 506:1000.
Amgen is the largest employer in Thousand Oaks and second only to the United States Navy in terms of number of people employed in Ventura County.
In addition, the top management has also responsibilities in the TQM implementation process. These include: initiating agreement on goals and measures that cascade throughout the organization; providing the agreed resources (people, money, training, machines, etc.); assigning authority and establish deadlines to put resources into motion; monitoring progress in achieving goals, not to apportion blame, but to aim for improvement; and, measuring improvement and reward both the achievement of goals and the ways they are achieved (Bethke et al, 1994). Bethke et al (1994) stated that beyond modeling TQM, the HR department, with senior management's support, can play a leading role in implementing a quality strategy across the firm.
According to Brown et al (1994) stressed that the common mistakes in the implementation of TQM that waste time and money include: "measuring the wrong indicators; focusing on behavior instead of accomplishments; emphasizing courtesy instead of competence; disguising cost control as TQM; focusing on internal instead of external improvements; failing to identify key process variables; and ineffective benchmarking." Furthermore, the authors stressed that TQM is not a program and should not be a separate entity from the rest of the organization which adds bureaucracy. Brown et al (1994) highlighted five suggestions for insuring that TQM is not perceived as a program: "Don't give it a name or slogan; eliminate the banners, slogans, buttons; do one of two things either don't appoint a chief quality officer or make it clear this is a temporary position phased out after a few years; don't build a separate TQM department or organization that is responsible for the implementation of TQM; and don't have separate committees to deal with quality related issues”.
IPCL, in terms of quality, has already established its reputation by being Asia’s first corporate to pierce the sovereign ceiling in any form of external borrowing. Their EURO Convertible offer of US $175 million surpassed more than just the sovereign ceiling. It leveraged their corporate equity in the international context. It enabled them to tap a wide range of foreign investors.
However, experts warn that doing a Web search isn’t the most time-efficient nor reliable approach. It can be tough to use blogs to gauge the potential sales volume or sales cost other than to get a general idea of interest in a product, they say. Laycock recommends doing sneak peaks or products previews with bloggers. Then it’s simply a matter of watching the blog responses.
There are also several companies that offer outsourcing CGM gathering and analysis. Forrester considers Nielsen BuzzMetrics and Cymfony the best of the bunch. A recent report cites Nielsen BuzzMetrics the leader in specific consumer-generated media, such as blogs, while Cymfony is better at analyzing multiple data sources including blogs.
According to Kim, Web aggregators/brand monitoring firms do the following:
Data collection: video, audio and/or text from media consumer and/or traditionally generated
Information processing: filtering the compiled data, classify and tag the pertinent content
Data analysis: focus on client requirements and specific questions. Many services stop here
Insight delivery: continued updates on new data and analysis via email or another online interface
He recommends going to a brand-monitoring service to get the job done. “Tools like Google’s Blog Search, Alerts, and Trends enable marketers to monitor their brand ad hoc and for free,” Kim says. “But the time required to use these tools is prohibitive, and they do not provide comprehensive coverage of data sources, particularly mainstream media.”
Market research is essential to understanding your customers and your competition. Market research can also identify trends that affect sales and profitability. But successful market research takes planning and strategy. Here are some of the most common mistakes businesses make in conducting market research and tips for avoiding them.
Overspending. If you are smart about it, performing market research does not require a huge budget. But in their haste, many business owners shell out big bucks on the first market research firm that promises to provide them with all the data they could ever want on their target audience. If you are hiring an outside firm, shop around for the best deal.
Not knowing what you are looking for. Doing market research in the hopes of discovering something (anything!) about your customers can be an exercise in futility. You should know what information you need before you even begin. Have questions ready for which you are seeking answers, such as "What are the specific needs of my customers?" or "How much would my customers be willing to spend on this product?"
Poor choice of reference materials. The Internet is a great place to start your research. Business libraries are also worth visiting. But you must consider the source of the information you are getting. This is particularly a problem on the Internet, where sites can include dated or biased material. Research your research materials; check dates and double-check pertinent information.
Not thoroughly researching the competition. Get as much information about your competition as you can. The more you know about how they are conducting business, their pricing, and their strengths and weakness, the more effectively you can establish your competitive edge.
Not researching price information. If done properly, your market research should tell you what customers expect to spend and how high they will go to purchase a product or service like yours.
Researching the wrong group. Before accumulating first-hand research from your customers, you need to have an idea of who they are. For example, a focus group must meet your demographic needs, and a survey must be answered by prospective customers. Often businesses make the mistake of gathering random data, much of which does not apply to their business needs.
Not honing a good research instrument. Just handing out a questionnaire is not good enough. You need to be sure that your survey will provide you the answers you need. Take the time to hone a solid research instrument that helps you find out about your customer base.
Not being aggressive enough in your research efforts. The best surveys or questionnaires are useless if you do not get customers to answer them. Businesses are often not aggressive enough and end up with piles of unanswered survey forms stacked up by the cash register.
Relying on one set of data. Whether it is the U.S. Census or a survey you personally conducted, one set of data is rarely enough to get an overview of your target audience. Use various data, including information from primary and secondary resources.
Ignoring your market research. The only thing worse than not doing market research at all is spending money on it and not utilizing the results. Some business owners also tend to toss good research aside just because it did not support the answers they wanted to see.
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