The Johns Hopkins Business and Consulting Club Informational Meeting Thursday, December 15

Purpose The purpose of the Johns Hopkins Business and Consulting Club is to serve as a forum through which members of the Hopkins community can learn more about business and consulting, and begin preparing for potential careers in those fields.

Science to Business As scientists, our most valuable skills reasoning and research abilities Business problems are usually much broader than those in lab We need to learn how to apply our reasoning skills to a broader context

Goals 1- Begin learning the language of business 2- Begin reasoning in business terms 3- Think qualitatively about business 4- Learn about business research 5- Provide opportunities for leadership 6- Establish long term career prep groups

Meeting Details Location: Room 2-108, 1830 Bldg Time: noon-1pm Dates: 2006 (All Tuesdays) Jan 10&24 Feb 7&21 Mar 7&21 Apr 5&18 May 2&16

Meeting Topics January 10- Introduction January 24- Categories of Case Questions February 7- Entering a New Market and Industry Analysis February 21- Mergers & Acquisitions and New Products March 7- Pricing Strategies and Growth Strategies

Meeting Topics (cont’d) March 21- New Business and Competitive Response April 4- Increasing Sales and Reducing Costs April 18- Increasing Profits and Turnaround May 2- Additional Tools and Frameworks May 16- Practice Cases

Format Business News Update (15min) First Case Framework and Practice Case (20min) Second Case Framework and Practice Case (20min) Estimation exercise (5min)

Resources Case In Point (fourth edition) by Marc P. Cosentino ($20 at amazon.com)

Resources (cont’d) The Wall Street Journal The Economist

Sample Case Question (posed by interviewer): Your client is a national manufacturer of white goods (fridges, stoves etc). They have approached us because their market share has been declining over the past few years and they want to know what they should do.

Sample Case Industry Dynamics - Competition has been flat - New entrants into the retail channel (Best Buy) has put pressure on the clients business

Sample Case Pricing - Product is currently premium priced at 25% above market price - There are two other price tiers, mid and low Profit - Retailers make on average 10%, manufacturers 20%

Sample Case Operations - Several manufacturing facilities - Capacity at roughly 85 – 90% - Relatively optimized business right now

Solution Best Buy is putting increasing pressure on the margins of our client. In order to negate this power they should look into three key areas: 1- Investigate opening their own retail shops. 2- Investigate building an incentive plan for Best Buy to push their products at a higher price point. 3- Try to build the customer base by building a commercial/contractor business.

How many gas stations are there in the United States? Estimation Exercise How many gas stations are there in the United States?

Estimation Exercise I live in Reisterstown: Population: ~30,000 No. gas stations: ~10 stations US population: ~300 million Total gas stations: 100,000 stations Actual number (1998): 187,097

Contact Info Please put your e-mail on the passed sheet Website coming soon Questions/suggestions: drew.watkins@jhmi.edu