HELP ME ANSWER THIS ASSIGNMENT WITH FULL REFERENCES AT THE BOTTOM. IT MUST BE WRITTEN 100% BY A HUMAN NOT AI. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!

Link to the Library: https://keiseruniversity.libguides.com/c.php?g=759268&p=5444887

BOOK REFERENCE

Title: Contemporary Management

Author: Jennifer M George

Copyright: 2024 Release

Publisher: McGraw Hill LLC

ISBN: 9781266877247 (Unbound Loose-Leaf Version)

ISBN: 9781264948390 (Hardcopy Bound Version)

Complete your assigned Week 2 reading (Chapters 5-8) and then read the two articles below which correspond to this week's discussion topics. Then answer the questions below the article. Use the concepts from the course textbook and the articles to support the information in your initial post. It is required you support your initial posts and peer posts with cited information from all the sources you use and provide all the sources in your reference list to meet the APA style requirements.

Figs Case Study Articles

Figs Case Study Article 1

Figs' Strategy & Growth: 8 Keys to its Success

Who would have thought a business selling scrubs could be so lucrative? Clearly, the founders of Figs, which launched in 2013, did. Before Figs, there were not many options for bringing your fashion sense to work unless you were taking the time to style yourself. But, enter Figs with clothing so well-tailored you do not have to sacrifice style for function. With Figs' more than 1.5 million customers clearly this was an unmet need in the market.

But, Figs' growth and success is about more than stylish high-waisted skinny fit scrubs. If you take a closer look, you will see that the retailer has taken a page from the playbooks of other successful direct-to-consumer retailers and has captured the hearts and minds of customers in the process. If you are curious about the growth and success of Figs, then consider these eight keys to its success.

1.Turn a commodity into a brand.Figs, like Starbucks, took a commoditized product and turned it into a premium brand. For Starbucks, the product is coffee and for Figs, it is apparel for healthcare practitioners. For a long time, the standard uniform for a healthcare practitioner was a pair of baggy undifferentiated scrubs. Nurses and doctors did not need to be stylish while at work, or did they? But, one day Figs co-founder and co-CEO Heather Hasson, who had worked in the fashion industry saw a friend of hers, a nurse, wearing a pair of baggy scrubs. Hasson thought surely there was a more fashionable alternative.

Hasson then went shopping to see what she could find for her friend and was surprised that more trendy apparel for healthcare professionals did not exist. That is when she decided to tailor her friend's scrubs making them more aesthetically pleasing. Hasson then began tailoring scrubs for others as her friend's look became coveted by her co-workers.

From that small beginning, Figs was born. From there Hasson and her co-CEO and co-Founder Trina Spears started selling Figs scrubs out of the trunk of a car in front of hospitals. The clothing was a hit with healthcare professionals encouraging the duo to move the business off the streets and into a direct-to-consumer business.

2.Disrupt the way people shop.Like Warby Parker who changed the way consumers purchased prescription eyeglasses, Figs disrupted the way healthcare apparel is bought. Prior to Figs, healthcare practitioners typically bought their work attire from medical supply stores. But, Figs saw an opportunity to sell clothing directly to consumers online using a model Warby Parker made popular when it launched in 2010.

3. Have a mission that resonates with consumers.Warby Parker like many successful direct-to-consumer retailers is mission-driven. The prescription eyeglass retailer started with a goal to give away one pair of glasses for each pair of glasses its customers have purchased and has donated more than eight million pairs of eyeglasses since its inception. Figs has also had a similar program and so far has donated more than500,000pairs of scrubs to healthcare workers across the globe. Whether it is Figs or Warby Parker many of the successful direct-to-consumer businesses over the past decade have had a deep focus on corporate social responsibility.

4. Get consumers to pay a premium.Like Starbucks, a more premium-priced product is part of Figs' strategy. The price of traditional scrubs can retail for as low as $10 while prices at Figs start at $38 for a top and an entire uniform can start at $86. Premium pricing if the product does what it is supposed to do can create an air of exclusivity that attracts more customers to a brand. If you work in healthcare and there are more options for what you can wear to work, then the price of Figs clothing may signal its scrubs are of superior quality. That added to the brand's stylish look says Figs is worth the investment.

It's like paying more to buy bottled water. Tap water and a bottle of Evian are functionally the same but with Evian sourcing its water from the French Alps as well as Evian's elevated packaging its customers don't mind paying more.

5.Leverage social media.Next up in Figs' direct-to-consumer playbook is social media. Before Figs got its start healthcare apparel companies were not using social media to market to customers. Figs changed that by using its social media channels to market Figs like a lifestyle brand, often drawing comparisons to Lululemon. They introduced a brand nobody had ever heard of, but we live in an [apparel] industry that is disrupted every day. And it's never been easier with the rise of social media and influencers. It started from scratch saying, 'Hey, you know, we're not a uniform company. We're a fashion company that designs great products that function for your work.'"The Figs aesthetic also makes it clear that you do not have to only wear its scrubs to work, but while running errands, to lunch, or even while lounging at home.

Fig has over 250 brand ambassadors who are compensated with free scrubs.All of our ambassadors are medical professionals, not professional influencers who earn a living by posting selfies.They are real doctors and nurses who work 12 or even 16-hour shifts. One Figs ambassador, a nurse in Florida, said Figs sends her a pair of scrubs every month and she only has to make one post on social media per month.

The growth of Figs has also coincided with more and more medical professionals from dermatologists to dentists posting about their lives on social media, becoming influencers in their own right.

APA 7th ed. format referencefor the above article:

McKinnon, T. (2022, January 11).Figs' strategy & growth: 8 keys to its success.Indigo 9 Digital. https://www.indigo9digital.com/blog/figsstrategyandgrowth

Figs Case Study Article 2

Diversity and Inclusion

Taking Care Of Our Team

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (DEI&B) is not just the right thing to do - it allows us to best understand and serve our community. To transform the experience of being a healthcare professional, we must have a team that is as representative as our diverse community. But, diversity alone is not enough. We also need to cultivate a psychologically safe culture where every team member feels respected, valued, and safe to take risks, make mistakes, and propose unconventional ideas. By sticking to our principles, we empower all team members to reach their full potential, and in turn, enable us to continue to create game-changing products and impact programs for our community.

Diversity

Representation has always been a strength of ours. Led by female co-founders, we found early success in maintaining a high percentage of women in the workforce, and thanks to investments in software designed to reduce bias in the hiring process, we have achieved strong racial diversity as well. We are pleased that team members have noticed these efforts, with 81% reporting that they feel we build teams that are diverse. In addition to the strong diversity of our team, we have also seen our pipeline of candidates match the strong diversity of the community we serve - 53% of 2023 applicants identify as a member of an underrepresented community and 38% of high-potential team members identify as a member of an underrepresented community

Diversity at the Leadership Level

The FIGS Leadership Team continues to set a strong standard for diversity. The team first broke barriers when our co-founders, both women, achieved a historic first by becoming the first female co-founders and co-CEOs to take a company public. That legacy continues today

Inclusion at the Leadership Level

We define inclusion as the feeling that your thoughts, ideas, and contributions are seen, heard, and valued. Just as we have a listening strategy to meet the needs of our healthcare professionals, we also have a listening strategy to better understand our team members. Our approach to continuous feedback includes surveys, task forces, focus groups, and one-on-one meetings, culminating in an annual engagement survey. Last year, 78% of team members participated in the engagement survey, suggesting that they trust us with their feedback and feel confident that we will act on it.

84% of team members reported they feel respected at FIGS.

85% feel that they can be their authentic selves at work.

APA 7th ed. format reference for the above article:

Figs. (2023). Figs Impact Report 2023.

FIGS_2023_Impact_Report.pdf

Figs' Strategies for Competitive Advantage

Answer the following questions in their entirety:

1. Differentiate between and describe the business-level strategies and the corporate-level strategies discussed in the course textbook.

2. Read theFigs' Strategy & Growth: 8 Keys to its SuccessCase Study article above and choose one key strategy that is a business-level strategy and one key strategy that is a corporate-level strategy and explain how they create a competitive advantage for Figs.

3. Differentiate between diversity and inclusion. Read the fullFigs Impact Report(2023) and theDiversity and Inclusion Taking Care of our Teamarticle from theFigs Impact Report(2023) and discuss how diversity and inclusion are implemented in the Figs organization and their advertising as a competitive advantage.

Initial Post and Rubric Requirements

To post to the discussion, click on Week 1 Discussion above, then click Create Thread. It is required to submit your initial response post to enter the Discussion Forum. If you enter the Discussion Forum prior to submitting your initial response post, you will not earn credit for your initial post.

It is required to submit the initial post to the Discussion Forum as a discussion post. Please do not submit the initial post as an attached Word document. Posts submitted as attachments are not able to be graded.

Please read each question thoroughly and answer all questions in their entirety in your initial post. It is important to answer all components of the questions in a comprehensive discussion post. One or two-sentence responses are not acceptable. Please note it is required to support your responses with cited information from all the sources you used by providing APA 7th ed. format in-text citations.

Peer Post Guidelines and Rubric Requirements

It is required to respond to two of your peers' posts.Your peer responses are required to be addressed to the student you are responding to by their name.Your peer post responses are required to include the course textbook concepts. Providing comments or a one or two-sentence response is not acceptable. Simply agreeing with your peers or reiterating the information they provided in their initial post is not acceptable. Your peer posts should include a response that reflects your understanding of the course concepts and provide additional information to add to and further the discussion.

Please use the APA 7th ed. format resources found in the 'Getting Started' tab in the 'Business Writing and Research APA Formatting Videos' module to learn how to cite the sources and write the references in correct APA format.

Discussion Posts (APA Guidelines)

It is required you support your initial posts and peer posts with cited information from the current George (2024) course textbook and the Case Study articles. You are encouraged to provide additional professional sources such as scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles found in the Online Keiser Library. You may also use other professional business sources.

It is required to use correct APA 7th ed. format for citing your sources when writing your discussion posts. Please do not provide any direct quotes from your sources. All information used from sources is required to be paraphrased in your own words and cited appropriately.It is required to cite all your sources and provide the references for all your sources at the end of your posts in a Reference List.

When citing information from the Case Study articles cite the reference listed at the end of the article, not the textbook. You should cite the textbook only for the managerial concepts related to the Case Study.

Please note any discussion post created using any information from any Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot with natural language processing (NLP) such as ChatGPT or any other AI program, or any type of paraphrasing tool will not be accepted, and a zero grade will be earned if used.

All sources are required to be published from 2016 to the present year.

The following sources are NOT accepted:Wikipedia, Wiki websites, blogs, encyclopedias, dictionaries, online books or textbooks, other books or textbooks, other students' papers found on online websites, online essays, job search websites such as Indeed.com, student dissertations (thesis papers), White Pages, videos, podcasts, social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, etc.). and non-professional online websites.

THE INITIAL POST IS SUGGESTED TO BE SUBMITTED BY THURSDAY BUT IS REQUIRED TO BE SUBMITTED NO LATER THAN FRIDAY.IT IS REQUIRED YOU POST/PARTICIPATE ON A MINIMUM OF THREE SEPARATE DAYS BY SUNDAY TO MEET THE THREE-DAY PARTICIPATION REQUIREMENT.