Strategic and Organisational Analysis of Li Ning Co. Ltd. The WritePass Journal

Vital and Organizational Analysis of Li Ning Co. Ltd. Presentation Vital and Organizational Analysis of Li Ning Co. Ltd. Introduction1. Inspect the issues related with Li Ning attempting to turn into a worldwide brand. From a showcasing point of view, what do you think Li Ning ought to do to address those challenges?1.1 The opposition with nearby and worldwide opponents in local market1.2 Country of starting point (COO) impacts and the brand image1.3 The item portfolio and RD 1.4 Price decision1.5 International marketing1.6 Distribution agreements1.7 Culture measurements  2. Thinking about the current phase of the internationalization of the organization, for a market of your decision, build up a remote market passage strategy.2.1 The decision measures for the market chosen2.2 The examination of market section methodology 2.3â Key advertising blend exercises for beginning passage to the US marketReferencesRelated Presentation Li Ning Co. Ltd., one of China’s driving games attire producers was established from a privately-owned company by the notable Olympic vaulting gold medallist, Li Ning (Meuer and DiVito, 2010). With the notoriety of its author, the expansion of its item go, some compelling sponsorships and the achievement of infiltrating second-and third-level urban areas in the Chinese market, Li Ning has picked up the prominence and high brand mindfulness in China, likewise a high piece of the pie. In any case, when the universal organizations started to esteem and focus at the developing Chinese sportswear advertise, Li Ning progressively confronted an escalated rivalry from worldwide firm like Nike and Adidas in Chinese market, just as from barely any neighborhood rivals regarding the cost, for example, Anta and Peak. Li Ning firm has put forth some internationalization attempts lately like fare exercises, assembling its RD focuses abroad and different endeavors, however it remains overwhel mingly China engaged and all the activities mean to build up a worldwide brand in Chinese consumers’ eyes. Additionally, those internationalization endeavors didn't bring any significant income. The reason for this paper is to sum up the difficulties which Li Ning may look during the time spent building up its worldwide brands and set forward the attainable universal brand system and the remote market section technique by alluding to certain speculations of global showcasing. The paper continues first by examining a few issues related with Li Ning attempting to be a worldwide brand individually and normal suggestions will be raised during the conversation. Second, the recommendation about the market decision and a remote market section methodology will be represented as far as three perspectives: the decision standards for the passage advertise, the choice of passage mode and some key promoting correspondence systems. 1. Analyze the issues related with Li Ning attempting to turn into a worldwide brand. From an advertising viewpoint, what do you think Li Ning ought to do to address those difficulties? Confronting the wild rivalry from universal and neighborhood matches, the organization agrees to construct its worldwide technique and its worldwide image separated from ensuring the household showcase. Be that as it may, Li Ning needs to consider some likely issues during the time spent internationalization and seven related contemplations will be shown in this part. 1.1 The opposition with nearby and worldwide opponents in household advertise It tends to be seen that some notable universal brand, for example, Nike and Adidas have generally high market income in Chinese sportswear industry, just as Li Ning and Anta, two top household brands (informative supplement 1). To the extent Li Ning concerned, how to square universal brands and furthermore effectively hold the nearby market is one of the key focuses to turn into a worldwide brand. Taking a gander at the whole Chinese market, Li Ning positions itself as a serious opponent in giving value quality deals item and enters various degrees of Chinese markets through its broad system of merchants, sub-wholesalers and retail locations, particularly in second-and third-level urban communities where about 76% of Li Ning’s stores are found (Meuer and DiVito, 2010). Be that as it may, briefly driving position might be debilitated when worldwide brands bit by bit move their concentration to less created locales in China where earnings are rising and consumers’ brand loyalties and shopping inclinations have not been built up (Burkitt, 2010). As to worldwide sportswear advertisers, Nike and Adidas have both focused on China as their second biggest market on the planet and put a great deal of endeavors in first-level urban areas of China, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. They set up their own retail channels like lead stores or brand focuses separately in Beijing to make solid brand and retail experience (Meuer and DiVito, 2010). With higher brand situating and name acknowledgment, worldwide brands are progressively powerful in catching piece of the overall industry in significant urban areas where Li Ning has not paid more considerations. So as to turn into a worldwide brand, Li Ning understands that more accentuation ought to be put available of top-level urban areas, however actually Li Ning may need to utilize lower costs to recognize its image in this hardened rivalry with global firms (Burkitt, 2010). Therefore, Li Ning needs to reevaluate its image situating both in nearby and worldwide markets instead of ju st depend on value quality deals and use promoting correspondences to support its image mindfulness which will be talked about in the later section. 1.2 Country of starting point (COO) impacts and the brand picture According to most Chinese shoppers, Li Ning’s brand character is constantly connected with its author, a national game saint, so it is simpler for Chinese purchasers to comprehend and perceive Li Ning’s logo plan, ‘flying warning and initials of its founder’. Mulling over shopper ethnocentrism, local buyers may have progressively great mentalities to this brand due to the company’s history and culture. ‘Consumer ethnocentrism’ which was presented by Shimp and Sharma (1987), alludes to the customer favors household merchandise because of solid nationalistic convictions and emotions. As the CEO of Li Ning Co. stated, ‘we need individuals to take a gander at our image and feel glad that they are a piece of something-pleased with China’s growth’ (Burkitt, 2010). What's more, with the possible development and significance of more youthful portions, Li ning has moved its sight towards them However, utilizing buyer ethnocent rism to influence the buy choice of youthful urban Chinese may not work, in light of the fact that Javalgi and White (2002, p. 568) summed up that ‘younger, better-taught and high-pay shoppers appear to be less ethnocentrism to outside products and services’, just as individuals who are increasingly open to remote societies. In addition, nation of birthplace (COO) likewise negatively affects item and brand assessment among youthful Chinese shoppers. Numerous Chinese youthful customers, particularly youngsters, are excited about the American culture and other western societies, for example, opportunity, unsafe soul and character, so they are bound to pick a worldwide brand which began from western nations. While according to worldwide buyers, it is difficult for them to make any reverberation with Li Ning without related social foundation, and they may see its logo as being comparable or a duplicate of Nike swoosh. Also, think about the impact of COO, universal purchasers will utilize COO signals when they meet the new brand and the inclination against items for the most part from creating nations, so some nation picture generalizations, for example, low cost or low quality may hurt Li Ning’s brand picture. In this way, so as to debilitate the negative COO observation, Li Ning ought to change the purchaser demeanor towards the item and brand through showcasing correspondence and give its image a novel personality. Considering Nike and Adidas, the two of them have their interesting worldwide characters which are made and protected by assortment interchanges, for example, promoting, VIP support and showcasing efforts. In this way, there is as yet a major hole between Li Ning and w orldwide brands as far as brand mindfulness and brand picture. So as to draw in the more youthful age around the world, Li Ning need to discover and assemble its one of a kind brand picture through upgrade an increasingly separated brand logo and trademark, fortify the item range and plan, and furthermore make more focused on showcasing efforts. 1.3 The item portfolio and RD Sportswear can be separated into the accompanying classifications: proficient sportswear, easygoing sportswear and design sportswear (Euromonitor International, 2007) and there are a few covers among these gatherings. In light of the measurement from Euromonitor International (appendix2), it is indicated that style sportswear, which is the half and half of easygoing sportswear and design wear, is developing more quickly than other sportswear sections in China advertise, so the organization which can quickly find this possible interest and dispatch the new items will separate itself from rivals. Nike and Adidas have encountered significant development after they presented design sportswear arrangement, but, in this section Li Ning has deserted other worldwide brands’ steps. Furthermore, the worldwide tennis shoe organization has additionally grown new advances which would be acquainted into top of the line item with separate its image since universal shoppers accept that worldw ide brands typically grow new items and innovations quicker than rivals (Holt et al., 2004, for example, the Nike Air max 360 (highlights a foamless mid-bottom innovation), the Adidas 1 (incorporates a microchip technology)(scribd.com/doc/39006282/Athletic-Footwear-Industry-Analysis got to 22 April 2011). So, there is as yet far to go for Li Ning to find those worldwide brands in new item advancement and the scope of item

The components of HRM's success Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The segments of HRM's prosperity - Essay Example Regardless of Guest’s aversion in inferring that HRM adds to hierarchical execution, different researchers gave an exact connection between HRM procedures, arrangements and rehearses and certain parts of individual and authoritative execution (Liu et al., 2007; Nohria, Groysberg and Lee, 2008; Huselid, 1995: 635; Wall and Wood, 2005: 430; Pfeffer; and Pfeffer and Veiga 1999). This paper plans to decide HRM issues and to offer a few arrangements. Subsequent to evaluating a few investigations, including restricting ones, HRM frameworks, arrangements, and practices are accepted to drive organization execution through molding enrollment, choice, and maintenance techniques that create drew in and innovative worker, who can fill in as one of the company’s supportable upper hands. The job of human asset frameworks in key enlistment can't be subverted (Liu et al., 2007). Enrollment ought not be excused as something that can without much of a stretch be re-appropriated to differ ent gatherings since enlistment procedure should meet existing HR technique objectives. Walker, Bernerth and Tocher (2009) considered employment seekers’ authoritative perspectives at various periods of the enrollment procedure by assessing the cooperations among the factors of occupation seekers’ procedural equity expectations, procedural equity recognitions and fundamental screening input quality. Subsequent to utilizing two periods of information assortment that remembered 392 members for stage 1 and 351 in stage 2, discoveries demonstrated that members who were occupied with the enrollment procedure with high procedural equity desires were more influenced by starting screening criticism quality than those with low equity desires (Walker et al., 2009: 5). Procedural equity observations all through the starter screening influenced their hierarchical perspectives (Walker et al., 2009: 5). These creators reasoned that how firms enroll applicants can influence the natur e of observations with respect to the association (Walker et al., 2009: 6). Rehman (2012) insisted similar discoveries for his experimental work on the enrollment endeavors of open segment associations in Pakistan. He found that associations with poor advancement and administration frameworks will in general enroll less capable candidates and will in general have higher turnover rates. Chiefs must be clear in clarifying what they anticipate from their workers and what representatives can anticipate from the association, regarding prizes, culture and other hierarchical and administrative variables. HRM directors who cautiously cut the privilege hierarchical picture and occupation desires for its representatives during the enlistment procedure can recruit high-performing workers than the individuals who couldn't care less on the picture and desires they give to candidates. HRM influences singular execution through its enlistment techniques since they impact singular choices through au thoritative variables, which when confirmed through recruiting, can result to worker work fulfillment and maintenance. Han and Han (2009) investigated the connection between employing observations and maintenance and found a relationship between's the two. Another examinations stressed that in enlisting the correct individuals, professional training, aptitudes, and character are basic. Newman and Lyon (2009)

Emotional Brain Systems are critical for understanding the many facets Essay

Passionate Brain Systems are basic for understanding the numerous aspects of enthusiastic experience.Discuss concerning the verifiable advancement of emotional neuroscience - Essay Example In spite of the fact that feeling these feelings are typical piece of being human, it is inescapable for certain individuals to encounter passionate scatters. Without completely dissecting the ordinary cerebrum work, it can extremely hard to decide the primary factors that trigger the abrupt enthusiastic changes. The investigation of full of feeling neuroscience is especially centered around dissecting the connection between the typical mind working with the human feelings and emotional episodes. In the course of recent years, a great deal of research examines were directed to investigate the hugeness of the mind framework with various sorts of feelings including how the feeling is being handled in the cerebrum regardless of the individual subjective, engine conduct, inspiration, and language advancement (Dalgleish, 2004). The fundamental reason for this examination is to inspect the significance of considering the passionate mind frameworks as an approach to empower us to comprehend the numerous aspects of enthusiastic encounters that we experience every day. After experiencing the fundamental conversation, a writing audit will be accumulated to empower the scientist thoroughly analyze the diverse chronicled perspective of others concerning the improvement behind the investigation of emotional neuroscience. Enthusiastic mind is essentially â€Å"a part of the human cerebrum that produces emotions† (Young, 2005). After looking at whether the mind produces feelings in light of oblivious and cognizant observations, LeDoux clarified in his book entitled â€Å"Emotional Brain† that a test was led in creatures uncovered that the amygdale which is a little piece of the limbic framework is dependable in delivering neuronal reactions in the event that a terrifying upgrades is available (Hendrix, 1997). Essentially, there are two different ways wherein tactile info can be handled by the cerebrum as proposed by LeDoux. These are delegated the accompanying: (1) more respectable option; and (2) low street (Hendrix, 1997). The ‘high road’ moves the nerve drive directly from the ears

Analysis Of Lee s We Gon Be Alright - 1607 Words

During the Civil Rights Era from 1954-1968, leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Bayard Rustin and many others utilized the strength of voice to empower the people they were representing. When they stood up to speak, their reason for speaking was not to make others change their minds, but instead, to encourage and inspire those who already believed in their cause and shared their hardships. Fast forward to today, and the same methods are being used. In Jeff Chang’s book, â€Å"We Gon’ Be Alright†, he is constantly using examples and stories as the evidence to back up his ideas and his perspective. While most people think the reason for that is to change the reader’s way of thinking, Chang doesn’t try to persuade anyone. His†¦show more content†¦Chang realized that there are people who get their information from their TV’s, phones and tablets. So they may be led on to believe that the point of the use of the term  "hands up† during protest was solely about Michael Brown, when in fact it was about the longstanding history of racial injustice in the U.S. The mainstream media doesn’t always tell the true story, and using TV as a source can distract people from the actual issues on hand. Rather than debating about why a movement is using a certain term during their protest, the debate should be over why race-based crimes are so frequent. Another example of Chang calling out media bias is on page 113, where he describes the night when a young man named VonDerrit Myers was shot down in an interaction with a police officer during a â€Å"pedestrian check†. According to the police, Myers had a gun and was killed in a one on one gunfight with the officer (Chang, 113), however, that wasn’t the end of the story. â€Å"They [the police] noted Myers had been wearing a GPS ankle bracelet-- a consequence of being out on bail for recent charges of unlawful use of a weapon and resi sting arrest. The media was fed Instagram photos of Myers posing with guns,† (113). Because the media was filled with pictures of Myers with guns, people who didn’t know all the details of the situation formed opinions on it based on something that isn’t even relevant to what the real problem is. In a Fox news article released after the shooting, the

Gulf of Mexico Project Failure

Question: Critically analyse the reasons for the project failure in the Gulf of Mexico, andfrom your researches reach your own conclusions and recommendations for a prevention of such failure in the future.Focus your research and writing on the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Answer: Introduction BP is one of the biggest companies in the world in oil and gas industry. BP was founded in 1990 and holds the fifth position in the world in terms of annual revenue generation. The major field of operation of BP is exploration, production, refining, distribution and marketing of the hydrocarbon products. The company operates in 80 countries throughout the world; establish a greater presence in the international markets. Unlike other organizations, BP was also changing with the dynamics of todays business environment and was adopting new business strategies and management practices (BP and Verenium announce pivotal biofuels agreement, 2010). With this changing environment, the company faced an accident in the Gulf of Mexico situated in United States of America where 11 workers were dead. This is one of the biggest failures in the history of modern era, which cost near about 43 billion dollar and is continuing. Due to this disaster, company has to pay huge amount of fine to various aut horities. This essay discusses about the situations of the company and tries to reveal what are the reasons are responsible for this failure. The details of the system failure are also discussed in this essay. Along with the discussions about the failure, the recommendations are also given in this essay (Alvania, 2011). Reasons of project failure In the Gulf of Mexico BP was operating their oil production unit, which faces the biggest disaster in April 2010. There were several reasons, which can be categorized as technical failure and decisional failure for this disaster from the companies end (Bozeman, 2011). Decisional Failure Extreme Geographic Location BP was operating their production in Gulf of Mexico, which was located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It was very difficult to manage this kind of disaster in the middle of the sea, as the availability of support was very less. Only few rescue ships were able to reach within time so most of the employees were evacuated to take them in a safe place. Immediate action was not there from the companies end due to that extreme location (Cai et al., 2015). Week Risk Management Company was not very well equipped with their risk management decision. The managers never emphasizes on the risk management for that production unit which resulted in such a failure. Few maintenance department of that unit was outsourced where they never monitored to find the risk of an accident. Lack of Timely Decision One of the managers of that company was assuming that there could be a situation like this because he feels that management was not emphasizing on these issues. The decision by the management was very slow particularly in the safety issues where there was no return on investment. This kind of managerial decision is the main reason. Other employee has to suffer for their decision, which is wrong (Choi, Lee and Do, 2011). Sluggish Response in Critical Situation The management of BP was not honest to conduct programs about those safety situations. The employees were not well trained about the process to fight against the incident. BP management never thought that they have to face such situation. Since the employees were not well trained so they was unable to understand the situation how to control it. Since there was, less emphasis on the safety measures so the maintenance of the safety equipment was not done properly this becomes the factors to respond sluggishly during the critical situation. Undermining the Situation The situation was unthinkable to the employees of BP. When there were minor faults and indications, they did not manage the situation with proper guidance. Different teams did the small problems and there was no communication between them, which remain unnoticed, and the situation was unpredictable for the management and the safety workers. Lack of Planning There was a lack of planning by the safety workers, as they never faced such situation. The monitoring process was very bad and there was no communication with different safety team members. This lack of communication was the major failure for the incident. When there was a failure with the well, sealing team there was no backup ready to support those (Gold, 2015). Technical failure There are several technical failures were found for the disaster which was happened in the Gulf of Mexico. The reason for that technical failure was low maintenance and lack of risk management by the company. The technical failures are discussed below. Hydrocarbons were not isolated by annulus cement barrier in the previous day of the accident cement was pumped down in the production pipe to prevent the entrance of the hydrocarbon in the wellbore from the reservoir. Quality of the cement was light which was not up to the mark and the cement was full of nitrogen. The breakout of those nitrogen helps to migrate the hydrocarbon in the wellbore. There was a failure with the quality assurance team to find out the weakness of the cement design and testing (Ladd, 2011). Shoe track barriers did not isolate hydrocarbon When cement fail to isolate the hydrocarbon it started to pass through the shoe track, which was installed in the bottom of the casing. This was happened because both the shoe track was failed to prevent the entry of the hydrocarbons into the production line. The second barrier of the hydrocarbon was float collar, which also fails to prevent the entry. Negative pressure test was accepted Before the well was temporarily abandoned a negative pressure test was conducted about the verification of mechanical barriers. The test was conducted by replacing heavy drilling of mud in the controlled condition. The negative pressure test indicates the flow path communication with the reservoir, which was an indicator of the failure and signifies that the barrier integration was not achieved (Run to failure: BP and the making of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, 2012). The integration of the hydrocarbon was not recognized until it raises its level. Due to the negative pressure test result and implication, the well was over balanced, which prevent the further influx of the hydrocarbon in the well. Since the well was abandoned it was filled with the sea water resulted it to underbalanced which remain unnoticed. The drill pipe pressure was more and crew took action before 40 minutes of the disaster. The hydrocarbons were rapidly flowing to the sea surface, which remains unnoticed by the crew, and no action was taken on that. Well control response was failed the control of the first well was failed to close the diverter and routing was done to separate the gas which increases the release of the fluid in the surface. If the release of the fluid was stopped then it might provide more time to control the situation (Echols et al., 2015). Since the route was diverted into the mud gas separator it started to release the flammable gas into the surface. This release of the gas was the major risk factor of that disaster. The gas reaches the ignition source and there was no time to control the situation any more (Stigall and Dugan, 2010). Hydrocarbon migrated into the deep water horizon where there was a potential risk of ignition to reach there. The ventilation system and the air-conditioning system further transfer a mixture of the gas to the engine room, which increases the risk of ignition. Emergency team did not seal the wells Emergency team was not successful to seal those wells. There were three methods, which fails simultaneously during the process. The explosion and fire was so heavy that it destroy the primary method for sealing and throws it out of the well to disconnect it from the crew. Then there was automatic method to seal the well without the help of BOP personnel which again fail because of the failure of the two BOP control pod. The first control pod was not well charged to perform the activity and the second control pod was not working because there was a problem with the critical solenoid valve. The remotely operated vehicle was the third system to seal the well in such situation which also a failure at that time (TORRICE and VOITH, 2010). It was very clear by all the reports about the incident of Gulf of Mexico that there was a overall failure by the company. The company was very strict about their management and with their business but they never emphasized on the safety parts of the production unit. There were not only technical failures, which are responsible for the disaster situation, but other reasons are also equally responsible. The wrong management decision was more responsible for this, which was the initiator of the technical failure. Recommendations Employee Training- for running any new project it is very important to ensure that whether the employees are quite sure about the new system (Dr. Roslina Ibrahim, 2013). Every project differs from one other. Thus the system also differs. The fact is that it may be quite ensuring that a particular individual may be very much active in the previous project, but he may not be active in other projects. This is because he was well equipped with the previous system. Thus it is very necessary for the organization to handle the employees who will be associated with new project management. Proper training schedule has to be incorporated. The employees need to be given proper ideas about the project. The aim of the project is to be clearly delivered along with its objectives. This will help the new members in the team associated with the project to get a clear idea of the project leading them to be productive in deliver tasks in time. Ensuring Quality Standards- upper level managers along with the line managers have to ensure the quality standards associated with the project (ElKhatib Srivastava, 2013). The components of project quality plan are- Responsibility Management- this ensures that how the management is solving its responsibility for achieving the project quality. The management needs to delegate the responsibilities among the managers effectively where the tasks needs to be mutually exclusive and totally segregated. Document management- the project management should be properly documented. The progress and failures needs to be taken care of. Daily reports have to be properly documented and a track of record has to be maintained. Requirements Scope- the materials that are need for the progress needs to be maintained earlier. The advance material management makes time management. Design Control- projects mainly fail because for improper designing. Changes in design need the consideration of others. Adequate experts- the organization must place exact number of experts for all the projects. This can coordinate with the rest of the members who are also skilled enough. At several times it is seen that though the members are quite skilled by they does not get proper guidance to deliver tasks (Grossard, Martin Pacheco, 2014). This mainly happens as they do not know what they are required to do. So it is the responsibility of the skilled managers to maintain the track of tasks that who are doing what. If anyone faces problem it is the responsibility of the experts to guide them to accomplish the tasks. Clear Hierarchy- at critical times, the decisions needs to be handled properly with patience (Hovorka, Meckel Trevio, 2013). And for this it is very important for organization to maintain an hierarchy. Proper delegation of tasks needs to be segregated in all level. This must be ensured that the tasks that are in need for higher level consideration, hierarchy must be maintained. This will lead to develop better strategies and criticality can be handled efficiently. Maintaining hierarchy will lead in quick decision. Electronic Equipments involvement- as technology has progressed much further from the past decades; new electronic equipments have been developed. These equipments are though effective but one needs to know the procedures that how to handle those. For this proper training schedules need to be incorporated so that all the members get familiar in using the devices. This will lead in time minimization as well as the tasks can be accomplished with least cost (James, 2013). This should also be taken care of that the accuracy of the electronic equipments are verified in regular intervals. With the progress, the electronic equipments become so critical and vital that if those stop working the tasks gets delayed. Transport Resources- some projects are located in the remote areas. As those areas are much beyond the border, transport system lacks there. So it is the responsibility of the organization to provide quick transport resources for the workers who face emergency problems (Khalfan, 2003). If workers fail to work then the whole project will be delayed. Thus satisfaction of the workers has to be taken care of. If workers get what they want then they can be productive. Employees who are in remote areas are more prone to loss of life. In case of emergency, transport vehicles are required a lot. Organizational Culture- At several times it is seen that the employees are not properly organized. They know what they are required to do but eventually intentionally they delays tasks. Thus behaving with a culture is very important where the individuals will get to understand what they need to do and deliver their responsibilities. Casual and unreliable employee in a project has to be cultured to maintain the rules and regulations (Mbat Eyo, 2013). When one works in coordination with other while ensuring the responsibilities, total effectiveness will be maintained and there will be least possibility of derailing the tasks. Employees are required to know their responsibilities and potential risks which are associated with them if they do not accomplish tasks. Proper standard operating procedure (SOP) - SOPs details the recurring work progress regularly that are too followed and conducted within the organization. SOPs reduce the variation and generate quality by the implementation of consistent process though there may be permanent or temporary changes in personnel. The major project failure was due to ineffective SOP. Communication was not properly ensured. Documentation was not regulated at the end of each day. Even though there were effective use of historical data still the current progress was not coordinated with the previous data. This meant there was improper resource handling. For any mega project, SOP must be properly organized so that at critical times information can be shared in all levels (Rwelamila Ssegawa, 2014). Risk management- risk management techniques must be properly accomplished. At critical times there is lack of time and moreover there is pressure from the management (Tang, Jing Wang, 2013). Thus it happens to derail the project from its schedule when techniques are not mentioned properly. Therefore it is recommended to ensure proper risk management techniques quite earlier than the starting of the project. If methods are predefined, then it becomes easier for the management mitigate the criticality. Control System- ignorance is one of the major reason for derailing the project. It has been found that the managers understand that the project is derailing but they do not change the control system. Changing the control system for mega project is much complicated but still it is by far the most important factor that must be taken in concern (Wan, 2013). Prevention is better than cure. In case of mega projects cure accounts to heavy loss in finance and time. Poor testing- it has been found that the tests were not planned in regards to the system. Most of the tests were done by such users who were not so much experienced. Thus any fault that arrived was not able to be measured. Thus it is recommended that tests must be performed by experts and adequate time must be provided (Zhang, 2013). Properly formulation and planning makes a project perfect. External environment suitability- cases delivers the fact that environment was not suitable as geographic location was not so much suitable. It is recommended that management at the very first moment must find out the pros and cons of the geographical area. According to that the necessary suitability provided from external means has to be incorporated. This needs to be ensured about the financial part for accomplishing the suitability. Decision- the project lacked proper segregation of tasks among the individuals. This resulted in lack of decision. When situation raised to be critical, involvement of the managers and experts was found to be lacking. Thus it is recommended to ensure experts who are not only experienced but also knows their responsibility and have the capability of quick decision. Ignorance in critical situation- most of the experts and managers lacked in total involvement. They were ignorant at times of criticality. It is recommended to have dedication on what the managers are doing where the leadership roles must also be effectively ensured to keep a track of record (Zhang, Gao Tang, 2013). Conclusion Every project involves risk. Risk can be mitigated by total participation of associated individuals. Project derailing occurs mainly due to system failure, lack of motivation, lack of communication and improper standard operating procedure. According to these facts providing recommendations are quite easy. But the fact is that in practicality more severe issues are generated. Such issues cannot be theoretically maintained. At times of criticality these issues has to be managed in practical sense according to the situation. But for this a mare experienced expert who is having a great personal knowledge along with patience having the accountability of quick decision needs to be associated. At most of the cases it is found that such a kind of experienced person is lacking. Total involvement of management having sound experts have to be integrated with managerial tasks. In this essay the reasons for the failure of British Petroleum has been shown but perfect recommendations vary from cas e to case.

The Academy Is ... - Santi free essay sample

â€Å"It was a plane ride, from L.A.X. to OHare, and what happened next was a series of unfortunate events. Please stay tuned for what happens next.† This is a quote from an alternative rock band, that call themselves The Academy Is†¦The name of this album is Santi. There are five people in this band. Lead vocals are sung by William Beckett. The bass is played by Adam T. Siska. The rhythm guitarist is Michael Guy Chislett. Lead guitar is played by Mike Carden. Finally, the drums are played by Andy â€Å"the Butcher† Mrotek. â€Å"The Butcher† also sings backing vocals. This is overall outstanding music, played by talented musicians. This CDs genre is alternative rock. This is their latest CD, so it is evolved music from them. The music is simple, but well put together. The creative lyrics go with the beat and the music. William Beckett has an amazing voice that fits the tone of all the songs. We will write a custom essay sample on The Academy Is Santi or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The songs all vary on the CD a lot. The only bad thing about Santi, is that some of the songs could be forgettable to some people. There are slow songs and energetic songs. People that dont like alternative rock music will, most likely, not enjoy this album as much as people that do. Compared to other alternative rock bands, it is a pretty good album. The Academy Is†¦ is a lot like other alternative rock bands such as Fall Out Boy, Panic At the Disco, Dashboard Confessional, and Arma Angelus. They are alike because the word choice is a lot of the same words. Most of the music is pretty simple. There is nothing to extravagant. They are, in many ways, alike. â€Å"I am no gentleman.† These are some lyrics to one of the songs off of Santi. It is called â€Å"Everything We Had.† This is one of their first single released form this album. It is about a boy breaking up with his girl friend. Hes trying to not make her cry though. This is the slowest song on the album. It tells the feelings of the writer, this is called emo music. This song is not a â€Å"pump-up† song. This is a great song, and it shows the real The Academy Is†¦ â€Å"You shut me up and bleed me dry. Cheap champagne and a complicated lifestyle.† These are just more lyrics from a different song called â€Å"Chop Chop.† This was not released as a single. This is about a boy who is deciding whether to stay with his girlfriend. This is a fast paced song. The music is fast, while the lyrics are creative and work with the music. This is definitely my favorite song off this album. Some lyrics to a song by The Academy Is†¦ are â€Å"We are restless and tired of sleeping with giants, with modern mankind and their egos of fire. And it seems like its been a lifetime.† This was also a single released. This is about someone who is trying to go out with this person they met. The verses are medium paced, while they chorus is slow. This is their best song, in terms of lyrics, off of this album. People may not like it that much. It is not your average song. I love this song too. This is an overall great CD. This would be recommended for people who like alternative rock music. People that like to be in touch with their feelings while listening to great instrument playing and awesome singing. If you like awesome lyrics and good music, this is album is recommended to you.

Influences On My Art in 2190 essays

Influences On My Art in 2190 essays Artists in this century have a long and rich, and problematic heritage on which to draw. As an artist I have been influenced by others before me and by the world around me. The technology that has been introduced into art is both a problem and a challenge for artists as it changes the meaning of what art is and could be. World events, the fourth world war and the failure of science and reason as the main tools of modern thought - all these factors have influenced and inspired me in the way I practice and One of the most important revelations that have inspired my work is the non-dualistic artistic school, which has recently come into prominence. It is not well-known that this movement had its origins hundreds of years ago in the early twentieth century. Possibly the greatest influence on myself and many other artists has been the radical changes in the political and philosophical structures of the modern world. I refer particularly to the reaction to the new world order after world amalgamation. My earliest influences, which still inspire me today, are old- fashioned, even primitive artists. This did not endear me to the techno- wizards and virtual art simulators of our time. However, I was impressed with the early twentieth century artists like Picasso and Braque and by the surrealists like Max Ernst. Although their methods were by our standards somewhat primitive, their work laid the foundations for our modern These artists were the first to move away from art as representation and follow, intuitively then, a feeling that art was more than just decoration or social comment. They instinctively showed through their work that they felt that art was a form of thinking and an evolution in human consciousness. Artists like Max Ernst are only now being understood in his u...

History of ELL and Bilingual Trasition Education Essay

History of ELL and Bilingual Trasition Education - Essay Example However, this is not the same case for the students who are â€Å"English Learners† and they need to receive their education via a sheltered English immersion curriculum during the critical transition period. These programs provide all the necessary classroom materials and instructions in English, but also encompass the application of the pupil’s indigenous language when requirement comes. The transition period lasts for approximately a period of one year, but it does not go beyond this threshold. After the child acquires a good and working knowledge in English, the administration moves the student to the regular class to continue with the rest of the gang. This allows guardians or parents to have the ability to apply for waivers from involvement in English immersion classes if their children already have a deep sense of English, or if they have special needs. This adversely affects the way that teaching occurs in the classroom. Teachers are well aware of the challenges they have to put up with and this means that they need to improve on how they deal with their students. The teachers modify their syllabuses to cater for these children as it is important to note that children have different needs and the role of the teacher is to treat each child respectfully and mold the best for them to attain their full potential (Olivia & Bernard, 2012, p. 377). The Flores Consent Decree A consent decree is a stipulated judgment that plays the role of memorializing a charitable agreement between concerned parties to a filed case in revalidation for withdrawal of a criminal charge or in other words to end a public litigation. In the classic consent decree, the defendant agrees to the case or has already ceased the conduct suspected by the plaintiff to be illegal and also consents to a court injunction that bars a repeat conduct in the future. The Flores Consent Decree argued that the programs initiated by the government did not receive sufficient funding to car ry out their roles and the Department of Education failed immensely in ensuring that schools provided necessary and adequate programs. The five main provisions for the decree included the quality of programs, standards for English proficiency, compensatory instruction, IEPs, and monitoring exited students. These were the crucial areas the decree decided to focus much of its attention. The provisions necessary for the implementation of the decree included uniform standards vital to determining English expertise, comparable curriculums for English students, compensatory instructions for students who do not show any signs of progress and regular supervision by the ADE. In a nut shell, the Flores declaration involved mandates that referred to the identification, evaluation, reassessment, instructive services and program observation for English Language Learners educational programs in schools. However is imperative to highlight the fact that once the parties enter the agreement, it is a lmost impossible to review the terms and conditions except in cases where they establish one of the parties obtained the decree by fraud (Ariz, 2005, p.77). Excerpts from Lau v. Nichol Lau v. Nichols (414 U.S. 563 of 1974) was a civil liberties case

Securing America and Protecting Civil Liberties Essay - 1

Securing America and Protecting Civil Liberties - Essay Example The liberties held so dear to the Americans was changed in number of ways where the law enforcements agencies had the right of conducting the searches of the homes and offices without a notice in advance or there were regular monitoring of the computers, email messages and text messages so that the clients can be eaves dropped on and so on. The clash between the civil liberties and the national security had taken place a number of times where the restrictive laws have played an important role to abridge the gap that exists between the two. In response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, on September 14, 2001, Geroge W.Bush declared the state of emergency which gave him the right to invoke his presidential rights passing the Patriot Act which not only centralized the law enforcement powers to the Justice Department, but also gave CIA the oversight of the gathering of the domestic intelligence, and the rights of the citizens and non residents as stated in the constitution were disregarde d. After the terrorist attacks, the Patriot Act has played a very important role where several have debated over how ethical or unethical the Act was. The Department of Justice wanted to do everything possible to ensure that the terrorist attacks in the future can be prevented and therefore Patriot Act in this respect played a very important but at the same time a very controversial role. There were a number of operations carried out so that the Americans could be protected but in the aim of protecting the innocent America, their way of life was put in jeopardy and the true essence of the America life style was lost. It has been debated a couple of times that the first amendment, fourth amendment have been affected and eroded by the USA Patriot Act which gave birth to a large number of legislative changes , where most importantly the investigative powers of the law enforcement agencies was increased. Amendment 1 stated: â€Å"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment o f religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.† (Bill of Rights and Later Amendments ushistory.org) Amendment 2 stated: â€Å"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.† (Bill of Rights and Later Amendments ushistory.org) The American Government made changes to the surveillance laws and gave the law enforcement authorities to not only spy on the citizens but also limit the checks on those powers such as public accountability etc. â€Å"The USA Patriot Act permits seizure of voice mail pursuant to a search warrant , al lows victims of computer trespassing to invite law enforcement to monitor attacks on their computers without needing a court order.† (Etzioni, A., & Marsh, J. H. (2003). Rights vs. public safety after 9/11: America in the age of terrorism. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield) Initially when America declared the war on terrorism, it was

Coupon Accounting Abuse Essay Example for Free

Coupon Accounting Abuse Essay The incentive, opportunity, and rationalization to commit fraud have plagued business organizations for many years. There are numerous ways that managers and employees can commit fraud. This makes it a necessity for businesses to have quality internal controls that help prevent fraudulent activity. However, even with the best set of controls businesses are still susceptible of fraud. This paper will concentrate on the case study concerning coupon accounting abuse and will answer questions pertaining to company controls, ways to prevent coupon abuse, parties who may be harmed, and the type of fraud presented in the case. Coupon Accounting Abuse Question 1: Discuss whether the situation described can happen to a company with a good control environment. It is imperative for a company to have good accounting internal controls. A company that has a good control environment will help deter fraud, but these controls can only provide a company with reasonable assurance. In this situation the brand manager is committing the fraud. This would make it very hard even for a company with good controls to detect fraud. In what is known as management override, managers can simply circumvent a company’s internal controls. Question 2: Describe any steps a company could take to prevent such abuse. There are many steps that a company can take to prevent fraud abuse. A company should implement a strong code of ethics policy. Every manager and employee should be trained and very aware of the policy. This will help in maintaining the integrity of the workforce. There should be a strong screening process that includes background checks to help ensure the company is hiring honest employees. There should also be a segregation of duties. In this case the brand manager has complete control over estimating the coupon liability. This estimate should be approved by another manager at the company. The company should inform independent and internal auditors of the significance that coupons can have on the company’s financial statements. A risk management group should be established whose task is to facilitate and co-ordinate the overall risk management process. Depending on the size and nature of the organization, the risk management group may be in the form of a committee who meet from time to time (CIMA, 2009). Question 3: List those parties who might be harmed by this situation. Fraud is often mistakenly considered a victimless crime. However, fraud can have considerable social and psychological effects on individuals, businesses and society (CIMA, 2009). In this situation the brand manager is harming multiple parties. When the manager replaces the 4% estimated redemption rate with 2% he is increasing revenue making the company look more profitable than it really was. This is misleading to managers and shareholders who are reading the financial statements. It could be detrimental to the business if managers think a brand is doing better than it really is. The shareholder will also be impacted in the coming year because of the added liability expenses. The brand manager is putting himself at risk to be harmed because if he is caught his job will be terminated and he will be prosecuted. Question 4: Do you consider this example to be management fraud or employee fraud? I consider this to be management fraud. Management fraud often involves senior or high level management’s intentional misrepresentation of financial statements, theft or improper use of accompany resources. Employee fraud involves a non-senior employee theft or improper use of company resources (Gottlieb, 2011). The fraud that was committed was by the brand manager who developed a myopic view and knew that he would be managing another brand in the next year. This situation is becoming increasingly common in the workplace. In order to combat fraud and white collar crime in businesses, a concerted effort must be exerted by the management of the business, the external auditors, and by all employees of the business. Everyone must realize that fraud is not a victimless crime. The cost of fraud and theft are shared by all through higher costs and lower corporate profits. Through adequate internal controls by management, better working environments for employees, more stringent requirements for external auditors, and codes of ethics for employees, everyone can start to combat frauds and defalcations within corporate America (Farrell, Franco, 1999).

Marcus Garvey’s Legend, its Influence, Accomplishments, and Effects on the Rastafarian Movement and Reggae Musicians :: essays papers

Marcus Garvey’s Legend, its Influence, Accomplishments, and Effects on the Rastafarian Movement and Reggae Musicians "A race without authority and power is a race without respect." PARTI: INTRODUCTION Marcus Mosiah Garvey was a man that lived a life with a mission. Although his journey may have seemed impossible, his never-ending strength and dedication caused many people’s dreams and wishes to become realities. Garvey is considered a prophet by his followers, because of the inspiration he brought to the black race. He took a group of people that thought they had no place in this world and united them together which gave them pride in their race. He also had a tremendous affect on the creation of Rastafarianism. Even though he could not find enough support for his movement to succeed in Jamaica, Garvey gave Rasta’s the guidance they needed to rise above their oppressors which led them to create a movement for the black race in Jamaica. When Marcus Mosiah Garvey passed away his words were not forgotten. His message is still alive in reggae music and his actions have greatly impacted the black race. PARTII: MARCUS GARVEY: HIS LEGACY Marcus Garvey brought inspiration to many and spoke of many people’s dreams and desires. He led the largest black movement in all of history, although there were many obstacles he had to overcome to successfully create the change he imagined. Marcus Garvey was born in Jamaica, on August 17, 1887, in the little town of St. Anne’s Bay. He grew up in a family that had a very strong sense of closeness and unity, similar to most Jamaican families. He watched his father stand up for himself at all costs whenever he was struggling. This atmosphere encouraged Marcus to pursue his goals and not let anything stand in his way. This is how he found the courage to succeed in life, even if the color of his skin could hinder his success. Marcus expressed to his followers that the color of their skin signified a glorious symbol of national greatness. He brought hope to many people’s lives. (Cronon, pg.4-6) When Marcus was fourteen he had to drop out of school and get a job to help support his family financially. He got a job in Kingston, Jamaica at a printing press with his godfather. This taught Marcus the printing trade and many journalistic techniques that helped him out later on in life. By the time Marcus was twenty he became a master printer and got the stimulation to start organizing public meetings in favor of his fellow workers.

Mms Renta a Car

M02_TURB7293_09_SE_WC02. 1. QXD 12/22/09 2:38 PM Page 1 W2 APPLICATION CASE W2. 1. 1 Part 1: The Intelligence Phase ONLINE FILE W2. 1 THE MMS RUNNING CASE MMS Rent-a-Car, based in Atlanta, Georgia, has outlets at major airports and cities throughout North America. Founded by CEO Elena Markum several years ago, it has seen fast growth over the past few years, mainly because it offers quality service, fast, at convenient locations. MMS is highly competitive, able to offer cars at slightly lower rates than its competitors because most of its airport facilities are located near but not at the airport.A keen user of information systems, MMS tracks competitors’ prices, stored in a large data warehouse, through its Web-based enterprise information system portal, CLAUDIA (Come Learn About statUs for Deals and Information on Autos). CLAUDIA also tracks sales, fleet status, other internal status information, and external information about the economy and its relevant components. CLAUDIA has been a great success in keeping MMS competitive. The First Meeting Elena calls the meeting to order: ELENA: Thank you all for coming on such short notice. I’m glad that we could schedule this meeting through our new scheduling module of CLAUDIA.I know you have all read my e-mail about our latest problem—sales are off by 10 percent. Basically, this will put us in the red for the year if it continues for another 4 months. CLAUDIA’s forecasting system that links to our RMS (revenue management system) indicates that sales will continue to decrease for the next 4 months, even after we adjust prices. Folks, what’s going on? I want to know what has caused this problem, how we can fix it, and how we can prevent it from happening again. Aside from solving the problem, I want to develop some knowledge about it and use it as an opportunity to improve our business.MARLA: Frankly, Elena, I don’t understand it! I noticed a slight dip in sales 2 months ago b ut was so busy with our new fleet acquisitions that I planned to go back and look into what happened when I finished replacing the fleet later this week. I should have passed word on to our analysts to have a look back then. Sorry. ELENA: No problem, Marla. I should have noticed it myself. I’m glad you were at least aware and ready to move on it. So, we have evidence of a problem. What else do we have? S HARON : My up-to-date reports from the travel industry indicate that over the past 6 months there has been a slight increase in businessProblems Elena has called a meeting of her vice presidents to discuss a problem that she noticed yesterday while tapping into CLAUDIA. Rentals are off about 10 percent nationally from the MMS projections for last month. Furthermore, CLAUDIA’s forecasts indicate that they will continue to decrease. Elena wants to know why. This morning, the following VPs are present: Sharon Goldman, Marketing (CMO) Michael Lee, Operations (COO) Marla Da na, Fleet Acquisitions (CFAO) Tonia van de Stam, Information Systems (CIO) Mark Lams, Knowledge Systems (CKO) Jelene Thompson, Accounting (CAO) Rose Franklin, Finance (CFO) 2-1M02_TURB7293_09_SE_WC02. 1. QXD 12/22/09 2:38 PM Page 2 2-2 Part II †¢ Computerized Decision Support overall. More people are flying for business meetings, conventions, trade shows, and pleasure. And the same proportion of them is renting cars in North America. This is true for all of our primary markets—major cities and airports—but not for our secondary markets in the smaller cities, where most rentals are for business. Overall, business should be up. Vacation business is up quite a bit from the central Florida theme parks advertising specials and major conventions. Both political party conventions were held in major cities.Data indicate that our rentals did not increase while the total market did. Our earlier forecasts indicated that business should have increased; our rental rates reflec t this, as does our increased fleet size, by 15 percent. The cars should be moving— but they’re not! ELENA: How about the advertising impacts? ROSE: Our financials indicate that we have been spending more on advertising in our primary markets. Yet those are where our sales are dropping fastest. JELENE: I agree. Though our records were about 3 weeks behind, now they are up-to-date, and they’ll stay up-to-date, thanks to our upgrade to CLAUDIA.I’m looking at the current data right now on our secure wireless network, and we’re definitely down. ELENA: Okay. Our advertising expenditures are up. That’s because we made that deal with GMC (Gold Motors Corporation). We just finished replacing our entire fleet with GMC cars and vans, right, Marla? MARLA: Absolutely! The cars are much more reliable and cheaper to maintain than the ones that had the transmissions burning out every 45,000 miles (72,000 km). These cars and vans are the national best-selle rs, have great reputations, and are of high quality. They have the highest safety records in most categories.All of the standard models came in first: subcompacts, compacts, mid-size, full-size, and minivans. About 6 weeks ago, we started getting in the hot new GMC Spider 1600 convertible. We have an exclusive deal on this hot little number. It looks like the sporty 1971 Fiat Spider but is built to new quality standards. It’s fun to drive—they let me have one for a year before we got the fleet in! They are expensive, and GMC owns the domestic market. We should be able to rent these out all the time. We have 5 at each agency across the country, and by year’s end we should have 10.SHARON: We got an exclusive with them for the next 3 years. They only give the fleet discount to us, we feature their cars in our advertising, and they feature us in theirs. And the Spider came to us right off the new assembly line in Pittsburgh. ELENA: I have one of the Spiders, too. So I suspect that they’re constantly rented out, aren’t they? MICHAEL: Well, no. Only about half of them are rented. The rental rates were supposed to be set pretty high, but our RMS recommends setting it at the same price as a compact. We hedged a little and set the price to about 10 percent higher.Some local agency offices are overriding the system and setting the prices 15 percent less, and they still can’t move them. ELENA : How about the other classes of cars? MICHAEL: Rentals are down about 8 percent nationally on all the other ones. E LENA : So sales are down 8 percent for everything but the Spider, and the Spider, which should be a hot seller, is off by 50 percent. I know from CLAUDIA that our inventory is okay. All the new cars came in on schedule, and we were able to sell the used cars through electronic auction sites and carmax. com. Folks, we definitely have a big problem.M ICHAEL : As COO, I see that this is primarily my problem, though all of you her e are involved. We’ve never had this happen before, so I really don’t know how to classify the problem. But I think we can get at most of the information we need. This situation is only a symptom of the problem. We need to identify the cause so we can correct the problem. I want some time to get my analysts and Tonia’s moving on it. I will need some major help from Sharon’s people, M02_TURB7293_09_SE_WC02. 1. QXD 12/22/09 2:38 PM Page 3 Chapter 2 †¢ Decision Making, Systems, Modeling, and Support 2-3 and probably a bit from everyone else.Sharon and I talked before the meeting. We both have a feeling that there is something wrong with how we are marketing the new cars, but we don’t have enough information just yet to identify it. I hope that once we solve this problem, we’ll have a nice piece of strategic knowledge for Mark to put into the knowledge management system (KMS). I’ll tentatively schedule a meeting through CLAUDIA next week, as close to this time as possible, depending on people’s previous commitments. I’ll e-mail the major results as we go. I’m sure we’ll know something before the next meeting. ELENA: Thanks, Michael.Okay, folks! We know we have a serious problem. We’ve seen its effects. Michael will assume ownership and move ahead. I also want our IS analysts looking at data even before anyone requests them. That includes any weird economic trends or events—and look at the underlying structure and parameters of our forecasting models, okay, Tonia? Sharon, you look into the advertising. See if there are any external events or trends or reports on the cars that could affect our rentals. The RMS has been accurate until now. It’s been able to balance price, supply, and demand, but something happened.Thank you all and have a great day. APPLICATION CASE W2. 1. 2 Part 2: The Design Phase Later on the day of the first meeting, Michael Lee has his top anal yst, Stephanie Elberson, look into what might have happened. Michael recognized that it was too early to start looking into criteria, solutions, and more (he had studied decision making in a DSS course in his MBA program). He was still trying to understand the problem and separate the problem that could be analyzed from the symptoms. He wanted to make the connection between the two, but he felt that something was fundamentally wrong, and CLAUDIA could ot identify it. A good decision maker relies on judgment and has a good feel for what makes sense and what does not. Michael is one of the best. Stephanie put together a team of analysts and started formulating areas to investigate. One member of the team, Dot Frank, worked closely with Sharon’s analyst, Phil Abrams, to establish the accuracy of the forecasting model. Amy Lazbin, on Stephanie’s team, looked into databases of operational data available internally and economic data available through subscription services. T he latter data focused on the auto rental, automobile, and general economic areas.The analysis team initially set the data mining tools on automatic to establish relationships in the data. For the most part, Amy was able to verify most of the relationships and assumptions that were already in the forecasting models and the RMS. Nothing new popped up from the artificial neural networks, clustering analysis algorithms, and statistical regression models. The pricing model and the forecasting models were all right, though there were some new fluctuations, and the errors were higher when the team looked into how well they had performed over the past 2 months as this new problem arose.The team noticed that the neural networks outperformed the regression-based systems a bit, so they set up an information system and marketing group to look into how they could improve the regression-based models with neural networks. (This was a new opportunity, which led them to return to the intelligence p hase with a new set of issues. ) Stephanie was puzzled. She met with Michael 2 days later to discuss what she was going to do next. She also invited the marketing team and the IS team to each send someone to the meeting. Phil Abrams and Marina Laksey (from IS) joined the team at this point.The meeting was held in the electronic meeting center (EMC), where they would be able to analyze data and use the group support system (GSS). Here’s how the meeting went: STEPHANIE: Thank you all for coming today. As you know, we are working hard on the problem— or rather the symptoms—to try to get to the heart of the problem. Data mining tools helped M02_TURB7293_09_SE_WC02. 1. QXD 12/22/09 2:38 PM Page 4 2-4 Part II †¢ Computerized Decision Support a bit, but there is something fundamentally wrong, and we have yet to find it. Any ideas?MARINA: Stephanie, we used the data mining tools and looked at most, if not all, of the data we normally look at. And we usually look at standard views through our spreadsheet-type interface. I know we have to look â€Å"outside the box. † First off, the four of us need to fire up our new, powerful OLAP (online analytical processing) software, DOT (Data on Time). It taps into our data warehouse and other data, but it goes beyond data mining by allowing us to poke about in the data. We just got the software in 2 weeks ago, and I have already gone through the training course.It has many of the features that CLAUDIA has, but it allows us to look into multidimensional data from any of our data sources in any â€Å"slice† we choose. It also lets us link into other databases and data marts like the one that marketing has. Let me start it up! PHIL: I agree. I learned how to use the OLAP software on my own, and I’ve developed some interesting views of our marketing data that show relationships we did not believe possible. The graphics are almost automatic. Let’s try it! The team saw the bumps in the data but had no idea what had caused them. At least they could see them.When they tapped into the advertising plans, they noticed a slight inverse relationship with sales and advertising. When they asked Phil about it, he said: PHIL: Sales dropped 2 weeks after our new jointmarketing campaign began. We heavily advertised the new cars. Every national and local TV commercial prominently displayed the Spider. We have data on that in our marketing databases. I know you don’t normally look at that. Here, let me bring them up. Hmmm! We show how much air time each commercial played where, and what was in them. Let me do a little slicing and aggregating here. Aha! I see. We are mostly advertising the cars nationally.Sales are very weak in primary markets, but they’re also a bit weak in secondary markets. Ah! Ah! Ah! One problem we have is distribution. We have over half the cars in the wrong places. We need to move all the Spiders from the secondary markets to the primary markets. But I think we have another problem: The pricing, supply, and demand data that we are using to predict rentals don’t make sense. The car officially has an â€Å"insurance† back seat, so it is a fourpassenger car. But you’d be lucky to get a carryon suitcase back there. Since we didn’t have data on it, someone in our group entered it as a four-seat compact with two doors.The system thinks it is a car ideal for a small family or a single businessperson on a budget. These rent well in the Midwest in the secondary markets but badly in the convention areas, where there are men who are going through their midlife crises and single women who like to rent sporty cars. We have a lot of analyses to do here on where we are advertising what. I’m not sure who rents what where, but I suspect that we can target our ads better once we determine our market clusters—like males in Nebraska, 45 years old, traveling to San Diego for trade conferences.We have the data; we just need to apply them better. MICHAEL: Hold on. Before I start moving cars around, we need to analyze this a bit more. We’ve never had a car like the Spider, so we need to investigate its properties and which categories of customers would ideally want it. Part of the solution jumped at us. But what are we trying to do? If I remember correctly, a few years ago we ran a â€Å"try before you buy† promotion in conjunction with our previous car supplier. People could rent our excess stock on our off-days for half the rental rate for up to 3 days.If they bought the car from a dealer in the area, they got the rental price back. If not, they had fun with the car. It worked well. We noticed that people who liked the car they rented had a tendency to rent them again, especially in our primary markets. We have a lot to look into. I want to recap what we have. We know that our goal is to maximize net profit. This is clearly our principle of choice. We need to come up with criteria that describe the impact of alternatives and determine how they affect our bottom line. Our RMS sets prices so that we can ideally do that.We have some errors in our marketing database; we must rethink how we advertise and how we distribute our stock. Okay. I’ll meet with the VP team in a couple of days. I’m going to e-mail them information about what we’ve uncovered and where to M02_TURB7293_09_SE_WC02. 1. QXD 12/22/09 2:38 PM Page 5 Chapter 2 †¢ Decision Making, Systems, Modeling, and Support 2-5 find the data. First I’ll talk to Sharon so she can get busy with some ideas on marketing. At a Meeting 2 Days Later: Same Place, Same People S TEPHANIE : Good morning. Those of us in the trenches think we’ve got it! Here’s what’s going on.We have several problems, each of which we have developed some alternatives for. We’re going to discuss what we think are the best ones for each situation. Some we can im plement right away; others will take some time. Let’s start with our objective: to maximize profit. Our principle of choice is profit maximization. This part of the problem was easy. Our RMS recognizes this and adjusts prices automatically to maximize profit on an annual basis. There are some errors in the price elasticity curve for the Spider, but, in general, the real question now is how to manage demand.Our advertising influences demand, as does our inventory. We need for the right product to appeal to the right customers. There are many criteria that we need to measure, from quality to color to size, and customer service, car availability, and so on, in terms of how they affect rentals. We are doing this, but need to do a better job of it in order to track our rentals. We have a team analyzing this right now. In a few weeks, they will have some concrete recommendations for system upgrades to the RMS. Our symptoms indicate the following real problems and alternatives, amon g hich we can choose: †¢ Data accuracy. We need to change the profile of the Spider from a compact to a sports car. We need to develop the RMS profile from what little data we’ve got. Fortunately, we can tap into market data that our faculty consultants at the University of Georgia (UGA) have gathered for us in their research. One of the faculty members drives a Spider as well. †¢ Inventory imbalance. We have done some analysis to determine what the real demand for the Spider is, how it affects the demand for other cars, and vice versa. We built an optimization model and solved it. Based on our urrent advertising, we have determined that by moving about 15 percent of our fleet around (and not too far), we can take care of most of the demand imbalance. We recommend moving all the Spiders from secondary to primary markets right away. We also want to move some of our minivans and full-size cars around. Later, we can adjust advertising to push some secondary market dema nd. †¢ Advertising imbalance. We advertise where our customers are, but they rent elsewhere, and for different reasons. We need to do a better job of identifying customer homes to determine what to advertise where.Our analysis shows rentals are off partly because we indicate that we have the Spider. Young to middle-aged men and single women want to rent it, but we stock out where they are going. For example, we discovered that middle-aged men and women from the Midwest rent compacts in the secondary Midwest markets, but those in the primary markets on the coasts want to rent the Spider. We are still analyzing effects like this and should be able to complete the work in about a week to determine how to realign our advertising efforts. †¢ â€Å"Try before you buy. † This actually is an opportunity, not a problem.When we saturate Spider demand in primary markets, we should get some additional Spiders in the secondary markets and reestablish the â€Å"try before you bu y† campaign. This car will be a real boon in this effort. Sharon’s group has already established a cooperative agreement with GMC. They’re interested, and it should boost our profitability on these cars by 18 percent. †¢ Discount substitutes. We discovered that many customers called or got on our Web site to rent the Spider. When they found out that we didn’t have one for them, rather than rent a different car, many were so annoyed that they rented a car from one f our competitors, usually a Toyota MR-2. This happened in almost all of our primary markets. In our secondary markets, people really didn’t want the Spider but instead wanted full-size cars. Because our advertising features the Spider, they â€Å"forgot† that we rent other cars as well. Actually, we forgot to remind them. Our advertising is backfiring on us. We should immediately M02_TURB7293_09_SE_WC02. 1. QXD 12/22/09 2:38 PM Page 6 2-6 Part II †¢ Computerized Decision S upport discount substitutes for the Spider until we get the Spiders in place next week. †¢ Florida theme park demand.We have a unique opportunity here. Florida theme parks have been advertising heavily in Europe because the euro is strong relative to the dollar. We must increase advertising in Europe either with the theme parks or separately. Phil is confident that we can run a joint campaign. Marketing will look into this and how we might be able to get customers to pay in advance in euros. To do this, we may need to move minivans to Florida from as far away as Tennessee. What it boils down to is that we want to be more aggressive in balancing our stock to meet demand and tie this into the RMS and advertising.We also want to refine our advertising model to handle new types of cars, like sports cars, and update demand data more frequently. Michael, this is what we want to present to the VPs on Monday. Is that okay? MICHAEL: Perfect! We have identified the real problems and have good alternatives. I really appreciate the completed staff work. If this all works out, the end-of-the-year bonuses for this team should be excellent. Let’s go have lunch! I’m buying! APPLICATION CASE W2. 1. 3 Part 3: The Choice Phase Monday’s Meeting: With All Vice Presidents, Stephanie, and Her Team ELENA : Thank you again for coming.Stephanie, Michael tells me you’re on to something. Let’s hear what you have to say. STEPHANIE: Well, we think we’ve discovered what to do. But first let me outline what the real problems are and some suggested solutions and why these are appropriate solutions. Next Stephanie essentially outlines the details from the meeting described in Part 2 of the Running Case. There is a little discussion to clarify a few points: ELENA: Amazing. I’m glad Mark recommended acquiring DOT 3 months ago. Though expensive, it’s already paid off. Can you get me specifics on the bottom line for each alternative? STE PHANIE: Not accurate ones for each just yet.Some will take up to a couple of weeks. We do have estimates on all of them. Here are the results in my PowerPoint presentation. ELENA: Hmmm. Okay. I want those data on the Spider updated immediately—and some of them moved to where they’ll rent. MARLA: It’s already done. I took steps right away once Michael told me what happened. After all, it’s my responsibility. I already gave some updated data to IS. They’ve adjusted the RMS. Preliminary data indicate that they have improved our profitability already. In a couple of markets where it was relatively inexpensive, I have moved some cars around based on the DSS model’s recommendation.It worked! I think we should make the major changes recommended by the solution to the model. My estimates, just from these few markets, are that it will work just as the model predicts. SHARON: We’re looking into how to modify our marketing and tie it into the RM S. We’re also running models on how European marketing should work. We’ll know in a week what to do. ELENA: Excellent! Here’s where we stand. We’re going to adjust the profile data of the Spider and all models frequently, move cars around, and discount substitutes until we can get the imbalance fixed.We’ll decide on what to do about the other issues after the rest of the analysis is completed. M02_TURB7293_09_SE_WC02. 1. QXD 12/22/09 2:38 PM Page 7 Chapter 2 †¢ Decision Making, Systems, Modeling, and Support 2-7 APPLICATION CASE W2. 1. 4 Part 4: The Implementation Phase The implementation of the first couple decisions was relatively easy. Transport vehicles were rented, and cars were moved. Discounts were easy to establish for substitute cars because this could be done as routinely as when there was a normal stockout.A customer would first be offered the opportunity to upgrade. If the customer turned it down, the upgrade would be offered free. This worked 95 percent of the time, even in the case of the Spider. Sales were up, and the company was projected to be profitable with these small changes. Elena got the results of the additional analyses. They all made sense. She decided, with the advice of her VPs and the analysts, to go ahead with all the recommendations, but she held back on European marketing until a presence in Europe could be established in major markets.The â€Å"try before you buy† campaign would be started once there were 15 Spiders in each of most of the major markets and 3 in each secondary market. She also approved adding new data and features to CLAUDIA. When the advertising effort was refined and tied to the RMS, profits soared. Every member of Stephanie’s team and all the VPs involved got a generous end-of-year bonus, an extra week’s vacation, and a gift of a free GMC Spider. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION MMS ran into new problems when it changed its fleet.CLAUDIA was not equipped to h andle new cars that were unlike others from past experience, and it did not track events as well as trends. Simon’s (1977) four phases of decision making, along with feedback, were followed, even though the problems were not really identified in the first phase. Successful problem solving was ultimately accomplished using Web-based DSS. Case Questions 1. What is meant by a symptom versus a problem? Relate these ideas to the case. 2. Why is problem ownership so important? 3. Even though the problem was not identified at the end of the intelligence phase, what was? . How was the design phase performed in this case? 5. The choice phase seemed like a combination of design, choice, and implementation. Is this a problem? 6. The implementation phase seemed to involve elements of all the phases. Is this a problem? 7. How were new problems or opportunities handled as they arose? 8. Why do you suppose some alternatives were either modified or postponed? Source: This fictional decision- making case is loosely based on several real situations. Thanks to Professor Elena Karahanna at the University of Georgia for inspiring it.

Essential Travel Tips for People with Pre-existing Conditions

â€Å"See the world. Its more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories, â€Å"quotes the famous author, Ray Bradbury, in his influential book Fahrenheit 451. However, if you are among the people who have pre-existing medical conditions, such as asthma and allergies, then you may have trepidations about travelling abroad. Although it’s only natural to fear for your safety, your condition should not stop you from pursuing your dreams of travelling the world. To help set your mind at ease and enjoy your travel abroad, read these essential travel tips for people with pre-existing medical conditions. Before Your Travel Your medical condition should not keep you from travelling abroad. All you need to know is learn and understand how your body reacts to certain food intake and environmental condition. Before your planned trip, make sure that your asthma or allergy is controlled. You also need to visit your physician and ask for advice to help you prepare a possible change of treatment that co-relate to your travel destination. Additionally, follow the schedule of your usual treatment even while you are travelling and ask your doctor for the DCI (common internal name) of the medicine that you are taking. By doing this, you will have an easier time to look for it in your travel destination, in case you need it. Furthermore, don’t forget to bring a first aid kit that contains your prescribed medicines (e.g., antihistamines, corticoids, and asthma sprays). IfShow MoreRelatedMedical Tourism in the International Market1783 Words   |  7 Pagesmedical services, patient-physician interactions, publicly financed medical care, and also the spread of healthcare consumerism (Turner, 2010). Medical tourist and managed care Uninsured in the United States In the year 2006, forty seven million people within the US didnt have health insurance coverage (Gould, 2008). In low-income areas with the U.S. labour force, over 75 % of workers reject health insurance coverage (Milstein and Smith, 2006). They are not able to pay for health insurance policyRead MoreRecruitment Process of Pia and Shaheen Air Lines9410 Words   |  38 Pagesthis document is provided for information only and does not constitute advice. Neither the consultant nor People In Aid accepts any responsibility for how you use the information and strongly recommends seeking suitable (legal) advice before implementing employment policy, as there may be specific legal implications in the countries in which you operate. Table of Contents Foreword by People In Aid ............................................................................... 3 Introduction toRead MoreHow Current Health and Safety Legislation, Policies and Procedures Are Implemented in Setting21540 Words   |  87 PagesStandards and requirements. Enforcement If necessary, Ofsted can take action against you if the National Standards and other requirements are not met. TIP It is a fineable offence to work as a childminder without being registered by Ofsted. DISQUALIFICATIONS Anyone wishing to become a registered childminder must meet the standards and conditions set out by Ofsted. There are certain factors that may disqualify you from becoming registered and if this is the case you will not be able to becomeRead MorePattern of Thesis11382 Words   |  46 PageseMatch: An Online Matching System of Missing and Found Persons through Mobile Application Utilizing Dataveillance Technique Submitted by: Submitted to: on July 27, 2011 2 Chapter 1 THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND Introduction Even in ancient times, people have found ways to make their lives easier through technology. Centuries before, humans have created the foundation of modern technological advances by creating the simplest machines, such as the wheel and the ladder. Using human intelligence andRead MoreGraduate Writing Center: Writing Thesis and Dissertation Proposals7304 Words   |  30 Pagesthesis writing. 2. To help you understand the rhetorical situation of the thesis proposal and common elements of such proposals. 3. To introduce practical rhetorical and grammatical principles of writing effective proposals. 4. To provide you with tips for drafting and revising individual sections of the proposal. About this Workshop and the Graduate Writing Center: Please note that these workshops are designed to address general writing principles. As a result, you may not find information inRead MoreMakeup7605 Words   |  31 PagesCOVER 26 FIVE MINUTE MAKEOVER 27 Page 2 Next page http://www.sachacosmetics.com by Kamla Regrello INTRODUCTION Hi, I’m Kamla Regrello, Head Makeup Artist for Sacha Cosmetics. Since joining Sacha, I have had the opportunity to travel with my makeup team to several countries to work the international beauty pageants. I was the head makeup artist for the Miss Universe, Miss USA, the Miss Jamaica, the Miss Trinidad and Tobago and several other international pageants. This isRead Moretax notes15844 Words   |  64 Pagesother tests! Eg. On balance, BEHAVIOUR is consistent with residing in Aus for the period – to –. Ordinary resident test: Only taxed for the period for which they are a resident. DOMICILE TEST (only relevant if domicile is in Aus) – generally for people leaving S6(1)(a)(i) ITAA36: Australian resident includes a person whose domicile is in Australia unless Commissioner is satisfied that the taxpayer has a permanent place of abode overseas. Domicile(Aus citizen or PR): Domicile of origin: born inRead MoreDieting Makes People Fat Essay19490 Words   |  78 Pagesmotorcycle. I had travel from home early morning. On the way, my mother called me that where am I arrive now? I had to stop and talk on the phone. Then I put my cellphone in my pocket to keep. Suddenly I knew that my wallet had lost. Although it doesnt have nothing important but it have some money around 140 baht because an important things I kept in my pocket and put it in my suitcase. WHAT ARE CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF SMOKING? Cause of Smoking There is not one specified reason for people to smoke. ThereRead MoreHr Practitioner Guide Essays17082 Words   |  69 Pagesis a process to identify and determine in detail the particular job duties and requirements and the relative importance of these duties for a given job. Job Analysis is a process where judgments are made about data collected on a job. (Job Analysis Tips and FAQs http://www.job-analysis.net/G022.htm) The Job Analysis process identifies the tasks performed on the job and knowledge, skills, abilities, and personal characteristics needed to perform those tasks. One of the crucial parts of this processRead MorePractiotioners Guide Essay17083 Words   |  69 Pagesis a process to identify and determine in detail the particular job duties and requirements and the relative importance of these duties for a given job. Job Analysis is a process where judgments are made about data collected on a job. (Job Analysis Tips and FAQs http://www.job-analysis.net/G022.htm) The Job Analysis process identifies the tasks performed on the job and knowledge, skills, abilities, and personal characteristics needed to perform those tasks. One of the crucial parts of this process