Financial System at NEXT Plc in Relation to Its Performance Case Study

Financial System at NEXT Plc in Relation to Its Performance - Case Study Example Exploring the impact from the global conditions on the performance of the company being highly effective on firm understudy the report also assessed the future prospects for NEXT brand. The assessment upon developing concluding remarks suggests recommendations for business to maintain success. The recommendation includes a business suggestion to expand with a premium brand and adopting acquisition strategy and efforts to enhance value to gift line and sports. Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 Table of Contents 2 MANAGING THE ORGANISATION 5 The Financial Statements and Current Performance 5 Company Performance Comparison with Industry and Sector 8 The Impact of the Global Economy 12 Future Prospects of the Company 14 CONCLUSION 14 RECOMMENDATION 15 List of References 16 Appendix 18 INTRODUCTION NEXT has been in the business for around 150 years. Group in 1982 revolutionized business and created the brand NEXT. The brand put forward the retailing business for NEXT corporate with co llections of branded women wear and accessories. NEXT Plc offered an affordable line of offerings with distinctive styled products. Over years NEXT expanded the range to men wear in 1984; home interiors line has been introduced in 1985; children wear were introduced in 1987; in 1988 Next Directory was introduced offering a range of products for home shopping. In 1999 NEXT has launched online shopping version entitled NEXT Directory. This expansion credited NEXT Plc pioneer among the businesses offering sales services from triple modes i.e. from shops, by phone and then online. NEXT started day delivery standard and transferred almost 80% of the business online by 2001. NEXT Plc then launched ‘NEXT flowers’ followed by the launch of ‘NEXT gift line’ in the year 2005 (Next, 2012). Continuing with affordable offerings with distinguished style, NEXT Plc has expanded the signature brand in 2007 offering homeward and fashion. 2010 noted NEXT’s launch of NX Sports and then became official staff ware and another textile supplier for the Olympics Athletes Village (Next, 2012). Next Plc currently has 540 stores in the UK while NEXT Directory is serving almost 60 counties of the world with the majority of them being served directly and 14 countries being served through six partners. The success of NEXT can be gauged with fact that only NEXT Directory has 3.3 million active customers. NEXT Plc international has 170 stores in around 33 countries operated through a franchise business. The brand also has 19 company-owned stores in 7 countries (Next, 2012). Other areas of operation include NEXT Sourcing, the segment responsible for designing, sourcing, buying, merchandising and quality control operations of Next Plc products. NEXT Sourcing has the operation in the UK as well as China, Sri Lanka, India, and Hong Kong. In 2008, Next has also acquired fashion brand which is targeting younger women entitled Lipsy and the firm also generates busine ss through property management (Next, 2012). Figure 1 shows the share of business and profits in segments of business in all of Next Corporation for the year 2013. A share price of NEXT Plc has been trading at ? 43.36 as on 11/04/2013 with market capitalization? 6.99 billion (Next, n.d). Share price performance of Next Plc in comparison with FTSE and the general retailer has been shown in figure 2 in the appendix section.  

Examining of SCM models and practices and implement on Iran Automotive Thesis

Examining of SCM models and practices and implement on Iran Automotive Industry - Thesis Example Types of mixed research There are two types of mixed research: the mixed model research and the mixed method research. The former is a mixed research in which quantitative and qualitative approaches are mixed within or across the stages of the research process (South Alabama University, 2011). In the within-stage mixed model research, the researcher mixed the quantitative and qualitative approaches within one or more of the stages of research. For example, the researcher both utilized the closed-ended and open-ended questionnaire in the collection of data. The close-ended is used to obtain quantitative data while the open-ended is used to obtain qualitative data. Likewise, in across-stage mixed model research, the researcher mixed the quantitative and qualitative across at least two of the stages of research. For example, the researcher utilized open-ended interviews in order to both obtain qualitative data and quantitative data. ... For example, the researcher could perform quantitative experiment and qualitative study through conducting interview study to the respondents in order to find out if the experiment agreed with the results. Mixed method research is also categorized into two major dimensions: time order (i.e., concurrent versus sequential) and paradigm emphasis (i.e., equal status versus dominant status) (Leech & Onwuegbuzie, 2007). Stages of Mixed Research Process The mixed research process has 8 stages, although they are numbered, the researcher/s could still use the stages in different orders or move in multiple directions especially steps 4 through 7. The purpose of this is to address the particular needs and concerns that arise during the research study (SAU, 2011). The first step is to determine whether a mixed design is appropriate to the research study. Therefore it is important to consider the following questions: Can it best answer your research question(s)? and Will if offer the best design for the amount and kind of data you hope to obtain? Mixed research was applicable in this study because it both required quantitative and qualitative analysis. The quantitative research provided the detailed description of the implication of SCM to reduce Forrester effect in the automotive industry. It basically gives the generalization of the gathered data with tentative synthesized interpretations (SAU, 2011 & Traynor, 2011). The second step is to determine the rationale for using mixed design. It is important to consider because it ensures the validity and reliability of the research study. There are 5 most important rationales for mixed design: the triangulation,