Google Sets The Standard For A Happy Work Environment

Google is the place to work according to Fortune magazine, which listed the top 50 companies to work for. Google appears as a top contender for most features, including unusual perks, cafeterias, health cover and work environment. Most of the other companies that made the top 50 only excel in one or two areas. This is the second year in a row that Google has managed to capture the number one position on Fortune's company assessment.

Standard perks that Google offers include 100% health care coverage and onsite childcare facilities. In addition, new moms are entitled to 18 weeks of paid maternity leave while dads get 7 weeks. Some perks that aren't quite standard include 17 cafeterias that offer free food to all employees.

The rule at Google is that no staff member should ever be further away than 100 feet from a source of food. That doesn't mean that they only have access to vending machines with junk food, or that the cafeterias give out quick, easy and grease-laden meals. Chefs of the highest calibre prepare range of meals, with unique variations on everyday meals. Macaroni and cheese, for instance, comes with wild mushrooms and truffles.

Google Sets The Standard For A Happy Work Environment

They also have a keen interest in environmental conservation and have a department dedicated to researching "green" technologies. Google makes every effort to be as energy efficient as possible, which is a mind-set that is encouraged in their employees. In the spirit of energy conservation, they subsidise staff members who buy hybrid or electric cars to the tune of 00. Employees based in California are entitled to special discounts if they install solar panels in their homes.

Google is also fairly unique in that they have a policy that allows ardent animal lovers to bring their cherished pets to work. The obvious proviso is that the various dogs, cats, and assorted others must be reasonably well behaved and house trained. It's been reported in The Inquirer, UK, that the pet's policy is under revision, after a pet python that was not very well behaved created chaos and terror in the New York branch.

Bingham McCutchen only made it to 41 on the list, but is the number one firm when it comes to high pay packages. The law firm is known for hiring promising law school graduates at a whopping 0, 000 a year. Their legal secretaries, whose importance is often overlooked by other firms, earn an average of ,000 a year. This is higher than what some managers of other companies' earn. The average salary for staff at Bingham McCutchen is a staggering 1, 017 per year.

The eBay San Jose campuses have special de-stressing areas for employees in need of some serenity and relaxation. Rooms with comfortable pillows and tatami floor mats are ideal for midday prayer and meditation, so that staff can return to their tasks refreshed and revitalised.

Camden Property Trust gives a 20% discount to employees who live in the company's apartment complexes. Staff members going on holiday are also able to use fully furnished apartments for only a night.

Nike is one of the most socially conscious businesses to work for, as those employed in the Portland office volunteer as Portland Mountain Rescuers. They respond to emergencies at a moment's notice, no matter what they are doing or how important it is. When prospective employees are interviewed and warned about the possibility of having their work interrupted by mountain searches, the standard response is, "what's more important, saving lives or selling shoes?"

The one thing that all of the businesses on the top 50 list have in common is that they all realise that a company is only as good as its employees, and so go out of their way to ensure staff happiness and contentment. Staff turnover is low, while job satisfaction is high. Who wouldn't want to work for a company that rents an entire movie theatre for a day so that their staff can see a blockbuster movie on its release date?

Recommended site:

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2008/snapshots/1.html

Google Sets The Standard For A Happy Work Environment
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The Marketing Environment

No business exists and operates in a vacuum, but as a part and parcel of the environment in which it finds itself. Efficient and effective marketing strategy is a function of the marketing manager's ability to understand the environment in which the business operates.

The marketing environment consists of a set of factors or forces that operate or influence a company's performance in its chosen target market.

Jain (1981:69) defined the marketing environment to include all those factors that may affect the organization directly or indirectly in any perceptible way. Marketing environment factors affects the organization by the way of input and the organizations also affect the environment by output. The relationship between the organization and the marketing environment is often referred to as "inseparable" the organization and it environment are constantly in a state of: give and take" or homeostasis.

The Marketing Environment

The marketing environment consist of those forces or element that impacts on the company's capability to operate effectively in its chosen target market.

The marketing environment is divided into two major components. The elements are,

Internal environment: the internal environment is concerned with the controllable variables. Controllable variables are categorized into two groups, they are; the strategy variables and unmarketable variables. External environment: the external environment is concerned with the uncontrollable variables. These variables are called uncontrollable because the marketing manager cannot directly control any of the elements. The marketing manager is left with the option of adapting to the environment by prompt observation, analysis and forecasting of these environmental factors. The external environment can further be divided into two components, the micro environment and the macro environment.

Micro environment:

The elements that fall under the micro environment consist of forces or factors in the firm's immediate environment that affect the firm's capability to perform effectively in the market place. These forces are suppliers, distributors, customers and competitors. Let us discuss each of the variables in details.

Suppliers:

Suppliers are business customers who provide goods and services to other business organizations for resale or for productions of other goods. The behavior of certain forces in the suppliers can affect the performance of the buying organization positively or negatively. The critical factors here are the number of suppliers and the volume of suppliers to the industry. An audit of the suppliers will enable us to appreciate their strength and bargaining power, which the suppliers hold over the industry as a whole. The answers to the issues concerned have the potentials to affect the capability of firms in the industry to effectively deliver need-satisfying goods and/ or services. The trend today is that buyers attempt to persuade the supplier to provide exactly what the firms want. This process is known as "reverse marketing".

Customers:

Customers are those who buy goods and/ or services produced by the company. In a purchase chain, different people play significant roles before a purchase decision is made. The various influences must be understood. The customer may be the consumer of the products where he/she is the user. The critical factor here is that needs and wants of consumers are not static. They are fast changing. The changes in the preferences of the consumer create opportunities and threats in the market. The changes called for the marshaling of separate strategy to either fit into windows of opportunities or survive the threats in the market. A good knowledge of consumers' behavior will facilitate the design and production of goods and services that the customers need and want, and not what they are able to produce.

Competitor:

A competitor is a firm operating in the same industry or market with another firm. The consideration here is that, Firm A produces a substitute to that of firm B (industrial approach) or firm A and firm B seeks to satisfy the same customer need (market approach.

The Marketing Environment
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