Factors that will ensure both short and long term profitability and survival:

• Customer satisfaction; meeting the short and long term needs of the customer will create loyalty that will translate into increased sales.
• Product improvement and innovation; as the products go through their life cycle there is the need to add new features to bring them at par with changing needs of customers.
• Constant improvement in the internal processes to achieve efficient and cost effective production.
• Loyal workforce; this will reduce labour turnover rate, leading to the building of experienced workforce that will produce quality goods at less cost.
• Use of ICT; the use of ICT will not only help in product design but will also help in solving complex decision models that will improve decision making at all levels of management.
• Partnership and collaboration; the new concept in competition is not to see the competitor as an enemy but a partner to look for areas of collaboration.

(5 points @ 2 marks = 10 marks)