Text 7 study competitive advantage stand for impact commitment

As more and more companies selling the same product come onto the market, our company realised that our current product advertising was no longer enough to ensure us a ____ 1 ____. We decided to carry out a market ____ 2 ____ to discover what perception people had of the company and its products. We organised a poll to find out what the public thought our company should ____ 3 ____. The results showed that people needed to view the company as an organisation with a ____ 4 ____ to worthwhile objectives. Therefore we organised a corporate advertising campaign showing the company as a caring member of the community. We haven’t been able to measure ____ 5 ____ of the campaign yet.

Text 8 under leading name range retailer join canned suppliers financial

The origins of Marks and Spencer, Britain’s best known ____ 1 ____ go back to 1882 when a Russian refugee, Michael Marks, began selling simple household products from door to door, in villages in North East England. In 1884 he set up a stall in Leeds Kirkgate market and to overcome his language problem, he made a sign displaying his sales pitch: “Don’t ask the price, it’s a penny”. By 1894 Marks had eight stalls and had invited Tom Spencer to ____ 2 ____ him in what was to become one of the most famous business partnerships in British history.

By the 1920s Marks and Spencer stores were selling some food as well as household products, but the first extensive expansion of the ____ 3 ____ came in the early 1930s when ____ 4 ____ goods, cake, fruit and vegetables were introduced. Today Marks and Spencer sells a wide variety of products in over 670 stores worldwide. They have a 16 per cent share of the UK clothing market, a position they maintain by insisting that their ____ 5 ____ manufacture new collections up to one year in advance of the season. The clothes are sold ____ 6 ____ their own label St Michael, which has become a ____ 7 ____ in the British fashion industry. Marks and Spencer’s profit for the ____ 8 ____ year 2005 was 389 million pounds.

Text 9 launch flexible enabled due strategy

Innovate frequently budget

Since the beginning of the century, 3M has known that it must continually ____ 1 ____ in order to survive. Indeed, the company has been responsible for the ____ 2 ____ of 60,000 products, each of which is protected by a patent.

The successful performance of 3M over the years is ____ 3 ____ to several factors. Firstly, the company spends a large part of its annual ____ 4 ____ on the creation, improvement and testing of products. The company also has ____ 5 ____ structure which allows employees to change jobs ____ 6 ____, from research to manufacturing, or from manufacturing to marketing. The exchange of ideas and information is also a key aspect of 3M’s ____ 7 ____ of constant innovation. Top technical people attend an annual meeting at the headquarters in St Paul where many 3M laboratories show their latest products. Another interesting fact about 3M is that it encourages staff to spend 15% of their time on personal projects. It was this unusual policy which ____ 8 ____ 3M employee Arthur Fry to come up with one of the most famous 3M inventions – the Post-it note.