Table of Content

1.0 Introduction 1
1.1 Alibaba Group 1
1.2 Competitors 1
1.2.1 Tencent 1
1.2.2 JD.com 2
1.2.3 Baidu 2
1.3 Market Segmentation 2

2.0 Applications 3
2.1 Sun Zi’s Philosophy 1: Strategic Attack 3
2.2 Sun Zi’s Philosophy 2: The Nine Battlegrounds 3
2.3 Sun Zi’s Philosophy 3: Terrain 4
2.4 Sun Zi’s Philosophy 4: Waging War 4

3.0 SWOT Analysis 5

3.1 Strengths 5
3.1.1 S1 Skilled Workforce 5
3.1.2 S2 Huge Customer Base 5
3.1.3 S3 Strong Popularity in Local Market 5
3.1.4 S4 Strong Internet Enterprise Union 5
3.2 Weakness 6
3.2.1 W1 Low Mobile Presence 6
3.2.2 W2 Mixed And Disorderly Business Platform 6
3.2.3 W3 Lack of Customer Diversity in Operating Foundation 6
3.2.4 W4 Lack of Mass Advertisements 6
3.3 Opportunities 7
3.3.1 O1 Market Globalization 7
3.3.2 O2 Untapped Market Segment 7
3.3.3 O3 Financing Problems of SMEs 7
3.3.4 O4 Uses of Mobile Application 7
3.4 Threats 8
3.4.1 T1 Economics Fluctuation 8
3.4.2 T2 Challenging Environment of Small and Medium Enterprises 8
3.4.3 T3 Uncertainties of China Law Structure 8
3.4.4 T4 Intense Competition in Smart Phone E-commerce 8

4.0 Findings & Recommendations 9

4.1 Recommendation 1 9
4.2 Recommendation 2 10
4.3 Recommendation 3 11

5.0 Conclusion 12

6.0 Reference 13

7.0 Appendix 14
INTRODUCTION
Alibaba Group, is an international Internet company that was created by the Chinese people
which committed to creating a convenient channel for global trade all. Since its inception, the
Group has established a website that includes e-commerce, instant online payment, B2B
(Business to Business) online marketplace and cloud computing business. Alibaba Group was
founded in 1999 by 18 people led by Jack Ma. Basically the company provides the
fundamental technology infrastructure and marketing reach to help businesses leverage the
power of the Internet to establish an online presence and conduct commerce with hundreds of
Millions of consumers and other businesses. It promoted an open and collaborative e-
commerce ecosystem objective that contributes to China economic development. Alibaba
Group's mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere. Since launching its first website
helping small Chinese exporters, manufacturers and entrepreneurs to sell internationally,
Alibaba Group has grown into a global leader in online and mobile commerce. Recent years,
a positive development in the area of wireless applications, mobile operating systems and
Internet TV. Today, the company and its related companies operate leading wholesale and
retail online marketplaces. Alibaba Group also provides payment and escrow services on its
marketplaces through its contractual arrangements with Ant Financial Services Group. Also,
Alibaba Group operates a central logistics information system that connects a network of
express delivery companies in China. Their company’s envision that they customers will
meet, work and live at Alibaba, and that they will be a company that lasts at least 102 years.
Furthermore, they empower their customers with the fundamental infrastructure for
commerce and data technology, so that they can build businesses and create value that can be
shared among their ecosystem participants. Throughout these years, their success and rapid
growth is built on the spirit of their customers. They believe that a strong sense of shared
values enables them to maintain a common company culture and community, no matter how
large they grow.

COMPETITORS
Tencent
According to Investopedia[12], Tencent is a primarily an Internet company, founded in 1998.
With its steady growth over the years, it is among the largest and widely used Internet service
portals in China. The company’s stock, Tencent Holdings Limited is listed on the Hong Kong
Stock Exchange. Though Tencent is more into social media and entertainment, its strong
Internet presence and changing interests have started to overlap with that of Alibaba’s.
JD.com
Base on info provided by Investopedia[12], JD is China’s largest direct online sales company
in terms of transaction volume. JD.com is similar to Amazon.com Inc in its business model
which it involves in direct sales, holds inventory, manage logistics and shipping which a
typical e-commerce company works. Due to the different in operating model, Tencent and JD
individually do not pose much risk to Alibaba but the strategic partnership between Tencent
and JD is a big boost to their power and a threat to Alibaba’s consolidated position in the
home ground. Tencent has great outreach out to smart phone users with its very popular
mobile app We-Chat and JD is a good player in retail, they can reach out to many users,
influence shopping decisions and pose problems for Alibaba.

Baidu
From Investopedia[12], Baidu is China’s dominant Internet-search engine which is
aggressively pushing for O2O (online-to-offline) services, creating demand for products in
physical stores through mobiles and Internet. Baidu alone is not a strong enough competitor
for Alibaba but the deal between Dalian Wanda Group (70% stake), Tencent Holdings and
Baidu (15% each) to set up a 5 Million yuan e-commerce company that enable it to be more
influential in China market places. This deal makes Wanda the world’s biggest online-to-
offline ecommerce platform and each bringing in its expertise to battle against Alibaba.

MARKET SEGMENTATION

Alibaba Group target China’s Internet and smart phone users as they are increasing every
year. From an article written by Kaylene[11], a report published by state-affiliated research
organization China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), at the end of 2013 China
have 618 Million Internet users and 500 Million mobile Internet users. The percentage of
Chinese users accessing the Internet via mobile grew to 81 percent in 2013 from 74.5 percent
in 2012. China’s online shopping population grew to 302 Million, up 24.7% or 59.9 Million
from 2012. As for payments, the number of users transacting over the Internet grew to 260
Million in 2013, up by 39.5 Million. While the usage rate displayed whopping growth, rising
to 42.1 percent from 17.9 percent. More mobile platforms are adding payment services, while
offline merchants are starting to integrate deeper with online payment options, CNNIC
explains. That’s why Alibaba Group launched Alipay(online payment platform) in 2004. The
company also target seller from different industry where they can display up to 50 products
free on Alibaba.com and online training is provided.
APPLICATIONS

Sun Zi’s Philosophy 1: Strategic Attack

“He who knows the other side (the enemy) and knows himself will not be defeated in a
hundred battles.” ~ Sun Tzu, the Art of War Chapter 3 Page 11, Line 1 The philosophy above
is about examines the strategic attack, with emphasis on the stages of strategic attacks .The
leader of Alibaba Jack Ma was adapt the concept specifically for China, knowing that culture,
history, philosophy and mindset were important to success as functionality. That’s why he
included a real-time chat function on Taobao, so that buyers and sellers could build a
relationship, trust and negotiate in real time. In China every transaction is personal. Ma spent
years studying Western culture, management concepts and successful businesses, took what
he needed and left the rest. He combined that with his love and understood China's culture
and consumption habits to create an all-encompassing technology success that is positioned
to become the first truly global Chinese brand.

Sun Zi’s Philosophy 2: The Nine Battlegrounds

“We cannot enter into alliance with neighbouring princes until we are acquainted with their
designs” ~ Sun Tzu, the Art of War Chapter 11 Pages 9, Line 2
The philosophy above is about alliance with a neighbouring country is a must
In 2005 -Yahoo! Inc., a leading global Internet company, and Alibaba.com, China's largest e-
commerce company, today announced a definitive agreement to form a long-term strategic
partnership in China. Under agreement terms, Yahoo! will contribute its Yahoo! China
business to Alibaba.com and both companies will work together in an exclusive partnership
to grow the Yahoo! brand in China. Yahoo! is investing $1 Billion in cash to purchase
Alibaba.com’s shares from the company and other shareholders. The agreement gives Yahoo!
an approximately 40% economic interest with 35% voting rights, making it the largest
strategic investor in Alibaba.com. The partnership model is the first of its kind for an Internet
company in China. By adding the Yahoo! China brands to Alibaba.com's businesses, the new
partnership will allow the companies to respond quickly to local market needs and develop
innovative new products and services for customers in China's dynamic and rapidly-evolving
economy. This also leverages one of the best local management teams, while taking
advantage of Yahoo!'s global resources.
Sun Zi’s Philosophy 3: Terrain

“Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys.
Look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death!”
~ Sun Tzu, the Art of War Chapter 10 Page 16, Line 3
The philosophy above is about the general has to demonstrate the quality of benevolence in
dealing with soldiers. Jack Ma has worked hard from Day 1 to build a unique culture at
Alibaba that sounds like a cliché and old-fashioned management-speak, but it has proved to
be one of the most important factors in Alibaba’s success. Ma has built a culture of
participation, inclusion and fun. He exhibits high energy and is outspoken, fun loving and
charming. He has ensured that all those personal traits have become company traits and is
well known for singing karaoke with employees, holding company retreats for 15,000
(focused on fun not work) and dressing in outlandish outfits when addressing management.
He has created an atmosphere such that Alibaba employees treat him like a combination of
father figure, inspirational guru and band leader. The result is a super loyal, hardworking
group of executives, managers and employees who would follow Ma to the ends of the Earth

Sun Zi’s Philosophy 4: Waging War

A.“Depletion of national wealth and resources, supplies and provisions”

~ Sun Tzu, the Art of War Chapter 2 Page 4, Line 3.
The philosophy above is about high cost of waging war. The company grew very fast but
was burning through cash, and in 2001 Ma had to lay off his entire international staff.
Erisman can remember a phone call after Ma had decided to close Alibaba’s U.S. office,
where Ma was questioning himself, wonder whether or not he was a bad person.

B. “In war, it is better to go for swift victories rather than engage in prolonged military
campaigns”- Sun Tzu, the Art of War Chapter 2, Page 9 Line 1
Ultimately though, it was Ma’s willingness to take risks and his dedication to create a website
that catered to the needs of China’s citizens. Many of whom were just discovering the
Internet that helped the company beat eBay in China in the mid-2000′s. Taobao is now one of
the top twenty most-visited websites globally and combined with another Alibaba site, T-mall;
it had a total transaction volume of $240 Billion in 2013.
SWOT ANALYSIS

STRENGTH
(S1) Skilled Workforce

A team of dedicated workforce is the key strength of the company who put in their best skill
and talent for the development of the company. A large number of members, to enhance the
visibility of the brand so that the set of information Alibaba increasing coverage, the advent
of attracting business. Alibaba increases segmentation of information and comprehensive, so
that more targeted and effective.

(S2) Huge Customer Base

Base on the info provide by Alibaba [Online][8], the side has a team of three (Britain, China,
Japan), to include boarder customer base and conducive to information exchange, an increase
of the amount of information, but conducive to building momentum to expand its influence.
The customer base is gigantic. There are 1.4 Billion people in China and 327 Million in the
U.S. For the record, the U.S. is the third largest country; India is second with a population of
1.2 Billion. Alibaba claims to have 300 Million customers. They employed over 25,000
workers to service the clientele.

(S3) Strong Brand Popularity in Local Market

Referring to thesis of title Development Conditions…pp43[6], Alibaba holding the best B2B
EC brand with huge brand influence power and brand popularity. For most of the B2B
commerce websites, distributing and collecting information are the basic functions, Alibaba
has been starting to do the scientific marketing efforts for the global customers since the year
of 2003, they used many years to establish a good reputation and brand popularity in their
customer’s mind, which has become the core competitiveness of them. Coincidentally, most
of the exports enterprises of China are located in Zhejiang area as the head office and
operational centre, Alibaba has the monopolistic corporation position and irreplaceable
leading status in this area.
(S4) Strong Internet Enterprise Union

Referring to thesis of title Development Conditions…pp45[6], the combination Yahoo,

Japanese Softbank and Alibaba have formed the Internet Union through sharing relations and
exchanging IT technology. Bloomberg BusinessWeek (2009) published an article [2] further
support that Alibaba get the advanced searching technology supports from Yahoo and the
success experience from Japanese C2C market. The sharing of information in domains of
technology, business model and industry trend judgment with strong enterprises will provide
a great deal of precious experience for company’s further improvement.

WEAKNESSES

(W1) Low Mobile Presence

“…Alibaba is behind in mobile...” said by vice president from North American business [4]
.
Alibaba have a very strong desktop presence, but poor in mobile presence. Alibaba found
itself in a lower ground position due to a powerful rival presence, Tencent. Alibaba do have
mobile apps, which promoting mobile presence but is way far behind to the others. Such
tragic happened because Alibaba late develop mobile e-commerce causing itself loses the
pre-empties strike on mobile sector [9].

(W2) Mixed And Disorderly Business Platform

Referring to thesis of title Development Conditions…pp46[6], Alibaba’s website owns over 27

industry classifications during the company early stage, about 800 to 900 business categories,
such a great deal of information have become the biggest obstacle for them to optimize their
business platform. This information all comes from the registered members, which is both the
advantage and disadvantage of Alibaba. The visitors could browse massive trade information
on website, while the low quality of information will be adverse for its improvement; even
bring some needless business reputation problems.

(W3) Lack of Customer Diversity in Operating Foundation

Alibaba's tremendous success in China may be where its growth begins and ends. The
company is booming in China because it's tailored only for the Chinese consumer, which is
ultimately related to Alibaba manage bind perfectly into the local market needs and
additionally Alibaba operating model is based on B2B platform that already occupied by
Chinese initially and now more likely to be a Chinese to Chinese platform. Since Alibaba
foundation is Chinese, it will found very difficult to extend to another region or foreign
culture base on CNBC[3]. There are the distinctive consumer preferences, big cultural
difference and the shopping experiences in foreign country that will make Alibaba uneasy to
step out China.

(W4) Lack of Mass Advertisements

Alibaba did provide a lot of advertisements in China even though Alibaba have successfully
impressed their customers and become the largest Internet companies in China. However,
there were insufficient advertisements in other countries base on a survey report from
Website Magazine. [1] Although there was shared out through Internet but not everyone will
go look through it so it’s not an effective way of publicize its own company throughout the
entire world. As such, Alibaba might loss its potential profit gained from countries other than
China.
OPPORTUNITIES
(O1) Market Globalization

According to statistic, it show that e-commerce section in Alibaba Group has dominant the
China (Asia) market with overall by 80%., this show it has great influence in China Market.
Although Alibaba Group is well-known in China, but in the country other than China, the
market is limited due to other local companies that have developed first, but this doesn’t
mean it is a hard way for Alibaba Group to set the focus in the country other than China. It
can expand and open up on the market by providing its own unique market and services and
gain reputation through it.

(O2) Untapped Market Segment

The business style of Alibaba Group mostly focus on e-commerce service which ease their
customer to build up their business. There are many minor market that less focus by the
company, for example like, media and gaming, search and portals, social media, location-
base service and many more. This part of market segment is a great opportunity to expand the
range of customers and consolidate its own dominant position in the market.

(O3) Financing Problems of SMEs

SMEs have a narrow channel to finance, the development capital of them majorly depends on
the internal accumulation which leads to the exorbitant endogenesis financing rate. It is a
common phenomenon that SMEs lack the long-term stable funding sources and credit
supports, and the asset size is the decisive factors in deciding whether the company can
obtain the capital loans from banks. Based on this, Alibaba launches the joint guarantee loans
and it will brings the large development opportunities for companies help them to deal with
the financing problems in the future.

(O4) Uses of Mobile Application

Mobile application played a very important role in modern day due to rapid development of
technology, almost every single individual own a smart phone that can gain access to Internet
easily. Alibaba Group can create an mobile application that can easily access to its website
and perform transaction easily by just click on the screen. By doing it so, it creates a better
way for buyer or seller of Alibaba to buy or sell their goods using their smart phone. This
process will attract customers as it spending less time on computer but more time on device.
THREATS
(T1) Economics Fluctuation

China GDP growth rate reaching at five-year-low in the third quarter of 2014. Due to the
decline in China’s economic growth,[7] bank lending and government-led investment
increases which indicate that the growth in consumer spending is reduced. The company’s
growth in the B2C (business-to-consumer) segment and C2C (consumer-to-consumer)
segment is correlated to the consumer spending in China. Inactive growth in consumer
spending will affect directly on Alibaba’s growth prospects.
(T2) Challenging Environment of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

Alibaba’s foundation is customer of SMEs. Any adverse impact on the core customer base
will impact the demand for Alibaba’s services. Recently, SMEs are exposed to slowing
domestic, overseas market demands and elevated consumer costs. According to industry
estimates, about 8.6% of the SMEs that needed bank loans got money they applied for in the
first quarter, which was down by one percentage point when comparing the same period in
2011. Furthermore, a large number of SMEs force to shut down during China's economic
restructuring policies which eliminating high energy-consumption and pollution-yielding
firms.

(T3) Uncertainties of China Law Structure

Development of Alibaba been constrained by the loopholes and the “grey area” of Chinese
legal system from Financial Times [5]. VIEs (variable interest entity) structure especially the
sharing ownership right by the oversea investor. The uncertainties of China law structure
result in the fear oversea investment causing a hold back on the expansion of Alibaba on
oversea market. In other words, these unclear Chinese legal system become a time-bomb to
threaten Alibaba unless a clear diplomatic agreement is make.
(T4) Intense Competition in Smart Phone E-commerce

Smart phone apps as a mobile platform for e-commerce are not a new thing. Several
companies had been taking the early bird position in mobile e-commerce, for example “We-
chat” developed by Tencent who is holding an upper hand in mobile e-commerce. Lack of
first move advantage causing Alibaba to become the secondary choice for mobile user would
consider, As long as pioneer other exist, Alibaba is feeling the threat directly.
FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS

Finding 1

(S1) Skilled Workforce

(W1) Low Mobile Presence
(O4) Uses of Mobile Application
(T4) Intense Competition in Smart Phone E-commerce

Recommendation 1: Upgrade the Mobile Apps

“It is the rule in war, if ten times the enemy's strength, surround them; if five times, attack
them; if double, be able to divide them; if equal, engage them; if fewer, be able to evade them;
if weaker, be able to avoid them.”

- Sun Tzu, the Art of War Chapter 3 Page 9 Line 1

The philosophy above emphasize that to finding examines the enemy condition, with emphasis
on the number of troops, then only attack with difference method

A team of dedicated workforce in the Research and Development (R&D) department of

Alibaba should put their own best skill and talent to strengthen the mobile apps so that the
app can be opened in any system of smartphone like Android, IOS and Window. Recently,
research found that Alibaba has low mobile presence in the current mobile market. People
prefer use mobile phone instead of computer. In order to compete with other companies,
developing and upgrading in mobile apps is necessary in order to make Alibaba to become
the domain player in the wide global market.

A team of dedicated workforce is the key strength of the company who put in their best skill
and talent for the development of the company. A large number of members, to enhance the
visibility of the brand so that the set of information Alibaba increasing coverage, the advent
of attracting business. Alibaba increases segmentation of information and comprehensive, so
that more targeted and effective.
“…Alibaba is behind in mobile...” said by vice president from North American business [4]
.
Alibaba have a very strong desktop presence, but poor in mobile presence. Alibaba found
itself in a lower ground position due to a powerful rival presence, Tencent. Alibaba do have
mobile apps, which promoting mobile presence but is way far behind to the others. Such
tragic happened because Alibaba late develop mobile e-commerce causing itself loses the
pre-empties strike on mobile sector [9].

Mobile application played a very important role in modern day due to rapid development of
technology, almost every single individual own a smart phone that can gain access to Internet
easily. Alibaba Group can create an mobile application that can easily access to its website
and perform transaction easily by just click on the screen. By doing it so, it creates a better
way for buyer or seller of Alibaba to buy or sell their goods using their smart phone. This
process will attract customers as it spending less time on computer but more time on device.

Smart phone apps as a mobile platform for e-commerce are not a new thing. Several
companies had been taking the early bird position in mobile e-commerce, for example “We-
chat” developed by Tencent who is holding an upper hand in mobile e-commerce. Lack of
first move advantage causing Alibaba to become the secondary choice for mobile user would
consider, As long as pioneer other exist, Alibaba is feeling the threat directly.
Finding 2
(S2) Huge Customer Base
(W2) Mixed and Disorderly Business Platform
(O1) Market Globalization
(T1) Economic Fluctuation

Recommendation 2 : Improve the website with specific the key words of the product

“To manage a LARGE force is similar to managing a SMALL force.”

- Sun Tzu, the Art of War Chapter 5 Page 3, Line 1

The philosophy above emphasize that large matter is the same compare to small matter,
before success on doing a work, it have to manage well in either is a small matter or a large
matter.

As Alibaba origin from China, most of the global administrative authority is commanded
from there. Due to decline in China’s economic growth, the growth in consumer spending is
reduced in China. So, they should aim their costumer other from China. Alibaba claims to
have large customer base from all over the world. Those who registered as member could
browse massive trade information on the company website anytime and anywhere. Alibaba is
well-known in China, but in other than China, the market is limited due to other local
company that have developed first. In order to compete in global market, Alibaba website
owns over 27 industry classifications that can full-fill the need of the costumers. These
business categories and great deal of information has become the biggest obstacle for them to
optimize their business platform. But some of the low quality of information will make
trouble on the user when browsing information they wanted to know. It will lead the adverse
of the company improvement and reputation. It is recommended that Alibaba should improve
the website with specific the key words of the product so that the user will not confused on
the product they browsing.
Finding 3
(S3) Strong Brand Popularity
(W4) Lack of Advertisement
(O2) Untapped Market Segment
(T1) Economics Fluctuations
Recommendation 3: Re-design their current operating model to be more diverse and
flexible to exploit the untouched sector.
“When I win a victory, I do not repeat the tactics but respond to circumstances in limitless
ways… Thus, the one who can MODIFY his tactics according to the enemy situation shall be
victorious and may be called the divine commander”
- Sun Tzu, the Art of War Chapter 6 Page 14, Line 1

The philosophy above emphasize that to finding that general must be FLEXIBLE in his action
with respect to strategic and tactical variations in order to gain advantage of the changing
circumstances

Alibaba did a lot effort for the customers they establish a good reputation and brand
popularity in their customer’s mind. This could be achieved by the good service of alibaba
itself and of cause with the help of advertisements. However, alibaba tend to not having much
advertisement in other countries result in less known in oversea. “In current slow economic, it
is wise to keep the cash in pocket rather than spending it” but it is more possible to find cheap
and good services as market getting desperate; using slow economic an advantage, alibaba
tend to producing more advertisement globally, absolutely indicate alibaba still in good
condition even though during a pretty bad economic period, this will increasing confident in
investor and customer on alibaba then enchant the reputation and brand popularity directly.
On the other hand, ailibaba has few almost untouched sectors such as gaming and social
media. These segment might seems to be not eye catching for the current operating model of
alibaba but there is market value yet to be discover and harvest. Alibaba itself could re-design
their current operating model to be more diverse and flexible to exploit the untouched sector.
As the company diversifies involving in many sectors toegether with the help of massive
advertisement and strong positive impression, Alibaba is one step closer to monopolize the
market.
CONCLUSION
The strategic plan defines Alibaba.com’s overall mission and objectives that is true for any
given company. Throughout this research of Alibaba Group, we know that Alibaba.com’s
goal is to build strong and profitable customer relationships. Alibaba.com’s marketing
strategy will consider the marketing logic by which the company hopes to achieve these
profitable customer relationships. Through market segmentation, targeting, and positioning,
Alibaba.com designs a marketing mix made up of factors under its control (product, price,
place, and promotion). These four Ps of the marketing strategies have contributed to the
success of Alibaba.com. Alibaba.com has been able to emerge as a grand business to business
site where customers can easily obtain products and services from the wide range of products
available. Using the marketing strategies Alibaba.com has been able to reach the targeted
customers and fulfilling their needs/wants accordingly. According to Jack Ma “customers are
everything”, therefore in order to improve the service levels customer satisfaction should be
achieved by providing customers with the best services. Generally Alibaba.com is still on the
right way more a head of its competitors because Alibaba.com has effective marketing
strategies. The results of the critical examination of the various information regarding
Alibaba.com, including its strengths and achievements only indicate that Alibaba.com should
remain a dominant player in the B2B marketplace category of e-commerce. Its solid financial
standing would help it whether the uncertainties of the future which is largely brought about
by the stiff competition in the industry. Moreover, its sound and innovative business model is
rather hard to copy, making it difficult for new entrants to compete with Alibaba.com. With
respect to its key competitor, Global Sources, Alibaba.com only needs to continue to innovate
and diversify its businesses in order to gain competitive advantage over Global Sources and
other international rivals. To find the best marketing mix and put it into action, Alibaba.com
engages in marketing analysis, planning, implementation, and control. Through these
activities, Alibaba.com should watches and adapts to the actors and forces in the marketplace
environment. In conclusion, Alibaba Group makes it easy for anyone to buy or sell online
anywhere in the world. It is clear that an Alibaba.com objective is to win suppliers and buyers
relationships. Long time relationships are profit to the company.
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APPENDIX