Case study of Business strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Case study of Business strategy - Essay Example e origins of CEMEX was traced in 1906 as Cementos Hidalgo and eventually merged with Cementos Portland Monterrey to form the Cementos Mexicanos, later renamed CEMEX, with Lorenzo Zambrano as its founder. The Lorenzo Zambrano, appointed as the CEO of contemporary CEMEX, was a direct descendant and namesake of the original founder. From the strategies employed and implemented by Zambrano, the most critical was refocusing from the horizontal diversification to a strategy of geographic diversification within the cement business with the objective of attaining growth through acquisitions (Bartlett, Ghoshal & Beamish, 2008, p. 251). This defined Zambrano’s vision to make CEMEX an emerging global giant entrenched as a leader in the cement production and marketing. CEMEX slowly developed its competitive advantage in the cement industry by gaining expertise with priority in its homeland, Mexico. By investing in a$1 billion merger through the acquisition of significant cement producers in Mexico (Cementos Anahuac and Cementos Tolteca); CEMEX was able to secure the market leader position in Mexico, a move which proved to be an effective strategy prior to focusing in geographic diversification through purchase of cement companies in selected international markets. As averred by Ghemawat & Hout (2008), there are basically three significant strategies employed by global giants of the future, to wit: (1) exploiting evolving market conditions; (2) managing convergences in costs; and (3) reworking value chains (pp. 82 – 87). CEMEX has been effective in exploiting evolving market conditions. Through the challenges met from its stance to dominate the Mexican market, despite the peso crisis and the political instability that marked years of operating in their local market, CEMEX managed to generate profit margins partly due to servicing the self-construction part which was minimally affected by the crunch. Further, during the period, CEMEX has already started to venture into

Contract and Employment Law Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Contract and Employment Law - Coursework Example In this regard, I would be able to offer her better advice concerning what action she could take and the consequences associated with each action. Discussion This discussion will start with first explaining the ‘Garden leave’ clause in relation to employment contracts and proceed to explicate the extent of its enforceability. This will be with the aim of finding out whether Clarissa can be able to successfully proceed with her compensation claim of unfair dismissal and under what grounds she should do that. According to Smith & Thomas, garden leave clause aims at offering protection for companies against competition in the situation where one of their employees who may be in possession of commercial information which may be sensitive or have relationship with the company’s clients. A clause is enforced in the employee’s contract, which requires them to not work and stay at home for a given period and still receive their pay in full. The time for gardening l eave varies and is between six months and an year. There is an implied term though that throughout this period, the said employee can not in any way breach confidentiality or work in competition with the company he/she is in contract with. In order to understand better the â€Å"garden leave† clause, let’s consider the Tucker v William Hill organization Ltd1. In this case, it was held that, where there is no contract provision that prescribe the time for which the garden leave will be in enforceable, there are limitations in this clause where an employee enjoys benefits accruing from professional activities apart from the economic benefits he/she receives. In this case, the court ruling heavily relied on the relation in the Sawdon& Co. v Turner2which the House of Lords approved in Herbert Clayton & jack Waller Ltd v Oliver3 that the term ‘employ’ needed a flexible meaning and provision of work would not have to necessarily be guaranteed. However, in the ev ent that the nature of an employee’s profession requires him/her to constantly be working in order to progress his/her career, such as an actor attending public galleries’, than, if there were no provided work, the employer would be grossly breaching the employment contract. A similar ratio is seen in Lanston v AUEW (No. 2)4and in Herbert Clayton & jack Waller Ltd v Oliver5as far as theoretical performances, following the reasoning strategy followed in Montgomery v Fechter6, Daly’s Theatre Ltd (George Edwards) vMarbe7. Same ratios where there were indefinite fixed wage contracts such as Sawdon& Co. v Turner8 have long not been employed or applied by the courts. In the event that a contract provides that, an employer has no obligation of providing work, as it was held in the Hayward v Provident Financial Group9, there is no obligation for providing work. It was held in Tucker v William Hill Organisation Limited10 regarding obtaining court injunction in order to i mplementing the garden leave clause, the court in its judgment argued that it was simpler to enforce than in the restraint of trade clauses. In addition, there is a requirement that a fair amount of work or money be given as far as remuneration for