I my opinion the decision to go ahead with system 360 was a responsible one. It current computer architecture was not flexible enough to accommodate customer needs. Eventhoigh when it decided to invest in system 360, it was in a strong competitive position both financially and technologically, it would have been a matter of time that another competitor would have invented a technology that would have seriously compromised IBM’s dominant position. In order to stay ahead of the competition, IBM had to radically transform its architecture to accomoted customer needs that required flexibility in terms of upgrades. In adopting the system 360 program, IBM was able to firmly position its as the dominant force in the computer market.
Japanese 7-11 vs US 7-11.
Japanese 7-11 were distinctly differect from their US conter parts for many reasons. The Japanes 7-11, instead of building brand new stores, adopting a strategy of converting small moms and pops stores which helped the stores a distinctly friendly environment. This strategy was partly foced on the company due to the Japaneses governments stron support of small business. It also mioplemented a strategy of vendor consolidation which significantly reduced cost and made the franchises efficient compared to their US conunterparts. IN terms of food variety in the store it chose to cater traditional japans snakes as opposed to fast foods. It implemented a strict quality control that guaranted the quality of food in the stores were of the a quality. Lastly, one of the most revolutionalry aspects of the Japanes stores awere their use of advance information technology. Through its advance information technology sustems it was able to capture record of sales and information on customers that allowed it the flexibility to meet customer demands. This move also alloed it to siginifcantly reduce inventory since it was able to quanity the demand of products.