Category: Business management

Lean thinking is a process focused on increasing the value added to products and services and the reduction of waste. The term “lean,” coined by Womack during one of his visits to the Japanese carmaker Toyota in the early 1980s …

One of the first steps any organization needs to take when developing or improving its business strategy, is to define what the organization does and where it wants to be in the future. A mission statement helps the organization to …

Porter defined that competition in most traditional industries follow into one of three generic strategies: cost leadership, differentiation, and niche specialization. A competitive advantage happens when a firm makes more profits selling its product or service than its competitors can …

Cost leadership strategies:

·      In the car industry: Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, and the Nissan Sentra are mass-produced and they compete on price.

·      In the softwood lumber industry: decking products are mass-produced and compete on price

·      Bottled water …

The decision making process in business management can be described as choosing among alternatives. The main steps are: problem definition, identification of decision criteria, allocation of weights to criteria, development and analysis of alternatives, and selection and implementation of alternatives.…

by Drs. Henry Quesada-Pineda and Brian Bond

Virginia Tech

Cutting energy costs remains a way that many wood products firms can trim operating expenses while continuing to develop new business prospects and serve existing customers. This article reviews the most …