Cutey Barber Salon Cutey Barber Salon is a trendy barber salon that is located in a densely populated city called Maple. Demand for the services offered by the salon is fairly high. It offers services such as haircuts, hair styling, scalp massaging and conditioning treatment, straight razor and wet shave, beard sculpting, facials and hair colouring. In addition to these services provided, the salon sells premium hair products to customers. The salon has the ability to produce a maximum of 20,000 haircuts and hairstyling per year. Demand for haircuts and hairstyling over the last five years can be seen in the following table:- Year Demand for haircuts and hairstyling   2017 11,500 2018 12,200 2019 13,400 2020 14,000 2021 14,500 Although the business does not have a written vision and mission statement, it is clear in the minds of management what they want to achieve and what they would like to be in the future. Currently, customers can walk in at anytime to be served. At times, customers have to wait in line for a long time. This is creating some challenges for the operations manager. He needs to overcome this challenge in order to utilize his resources more efficiently. Competition in the hair salon business is intensifying. New firms are rising up and existing firms are expanding their operations. Increasing competition is gradually eating away profit margins since costs are increasing and customers are demanding lower prices for services. Management has to find some efficient way to add value to their products and to overcome the competition. Question What is the strategic importance of forecasting for a business such as Cutie Barber Salon? What are the possible challenges faced by organizations that do not utilize forecasting in the planning of their operations?

Scenario 3 Ben Gibson, the purchasing manager at Coastal Products, was reviewing purchasing expenditures for packaging materials with Jeff Joyner. Ben was particularly disturbed about the amount spent on corrugated boxes purchased from Southeastern Corrugated. Ben said, I dont like the salesman from that company. He comes around here acting like he owns the place. He loves to tell us about his fancy car, house, and vacations. It seems to me he must be making too much money off of us! Jeff responded that he heard Southeastern Corrugated was going to ask for a price increase to cover the rising costs of raw material paper stock. Jeff further stated that Southeastern would probably ask for more than what was justified simply from rising paper stock costs. After the meeting, Ben decided he had heard enough. After all, he prided himself on being a results-oriented manager. There was no way he was going to allow that salesman to keep taking advantage of Coastal Products. Ben called Jeff and told him it was time to rebid the corrugated contract before Southeastern came in with a price increase request. Who did Jeff know that might be interested in the business? Jeff replied he had several companies in mind to include in the bidding process. These companies would surely come in at a lower price, partly because they used lower-grade boxes that would probably work well enough in Coastal Products process. Jeff also explained that these suppliers were not serious contenders for the business. Their purpose was to create competition with the bids. Ben told Jeff to make sure that Southeastern was well aware that these new suppliers were bidding on the contract. He also said to make sure the suppliers knew that price was going to be the determining factor in this quote, because he considered corrugated boxes to be a standard industry item. Is Ben Gibson acting legally? Is he acting ethically? Why or why not?

Scenario 3 Ben Gibson, the purchasing manager at Coastal Products, was reviewing purchasing expenditures for packaging materials with Jeff Joyner. Ben was particularly disturbed about the amount spent on corrugated boxes purchased from Southeastern Corrugated. Ben said, I dont like the salesman from that company. He comes around here acting like he owns the place. He loves to tell us about his fancy car, house, and vacations. It seems to me he must be making too much money off of us! Jeff responded that he heard Southeastern Corrugated was going to ask for a price increase to cover the rising costs of raw material paper stock. Jeff further stated that Southeastern would probably ask for more than what was justified simply from rising paper stock costs. After the meeting, Ben decided he had heard enough. After all, he prided himself on being a results-oriented manager. There was no way he was going to allow that salesman to keep taking advantage of Coastal Products. Ben called Jeff and told him it was time to rebid the corrugated contract before Southeastern came in with a price increase request. Who did Jeff know that might be interested in the business? Jeff replied he had several companies in mind to include in the bidding process. These companies would surely come in at a lower price, partly because they used lower-grade boxes that would probably work well enough in Coastal Products process. Jeff also explained that these suppliers were not serious contenders for the business. Their purpose was to create competition with the bids. Ben told Jeff to make sure that Southeastern was well aware that these new suppliers were bidding on the contract. He also said to make sure the suppliers knew that price was going to be the determining factor in this quote, because he considered corrugated boxes to be a standard industry item. As the Marketing Manager for Southeastern Corrugated, what would you do upon receiving the request for quotation from Coastal Products?

How do I calculate the Serviceable Available Market (SAM) with the provided Total Available Market (TAM)?