Group Influence Essay

A group is a combination of more than one individual sharing some values, beliefs, or a set of behaviors. Many individuals together sharing a common goal or need is a group of people. People in a group sharing these common things tend to have interdependent behaviors. Each of the members of a group influences the behavior of another. Individuals will tend to react to situations or have specific behaviors in specific situations guided by a reference group view to those situations. Groups of people that influence their selves are members of the same religion, roommates, school friends, workmates, etc. Groups influence their selves in two ways. A group may influence the identity through conformity or obedience. Group influence has many effects on their selves. Some of them are positive while others are negative and damaging to the personality. The aim of this paper is to evaluate group influence and its effects on the individual. The observation was done at Inland Behavior Health Center , which is an outpatient rehabilitation center in San Bernardino. The physical arrangement or layout of the room and setting was as follows: chairs were arranged in a circle setting and the instructor was in the center of the group. The instructor used brochures and a standing trifold poster. The composition of the group on terms of ages, sex, and ethnicity, this particular class was is given to pregnant women only, ages varying from 19 through 35, ethnicity groups being: 40% Caucasian, 40% Hispanic, and 20 % African American. The purpose, mission, and goal of this class is to learn about the tobacco health effects on the pregnant women and unborn baby, the mission is to be self-reliant and not to depend on tobacco during when stress is experienced. The goals are to teach them to about all the health effects that can happen due to smoking, to prevent premature birth and low birth weight. The duration of the class duration is ninety minutes. Each participant needs to attend eight con secutive weeks and be smoking free for eight consecutive weeks; otherwise, the class has no end date. If any participant relapses during program, they are sent back to week one starting with no incentives. The discussion structure of this class is that the instructor follows a curriculum based on a weekly topic that includes, videos, provides handouts, and group discussion. A quiz was given at the end of session to test comprehension. The class structure and organization is difference, since the class is given at an outpatient rehabilitation center, the participants were in a class when the instructor arrived at 10:45 am. The instructor pulled all the pregnant women from the classroom. Some of the pregnant women were already in the Comprehensive Tobacco Treatment program (CTT), which the instructor was aware of it. The other pregnant women, who were not part of the CTT program, were substance abused screened and those who screened positive for tobacco were enrolled in program. At the beginning of the class, a signing sheet was passed to all attended participants. The instructor has a folder that included a â€Å"communication form† in where she keeps track of each participant’s cessation status. In a group discussion, she begins by asking if anyone would like to share an anecdote to tell about her past week smoking cessation experience. At this time, two participants mentioned how difficult they found that week to stay without smoking and one stated that knowing that if they smoke one cigarette it would equal thirteen packs to the baby. The second participant mentioned that knowing that she had to provide a urine test kept her away from smoking. After the discussion was done, the instructor transitioned by introducing the topic of the week. The topic of this particular week was on â€Å"Secondhand Smoke.† During session, a handout was passed out to all attendees including myself and a video was shown titled â€Å"The Perils of Secondhand Smoke.† A quiz was given at the end. All attendees were tested through a urine test to make sure they were nicotine free and those who achieved session, were rewarded with infant diapers and xylitol gum as an incentive. After nicotine test was done, the session concluded. The primary facilitator of this class was only one female instructor, who was the program coordinator. She has her bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies and currently enrolled in a Human Resource Management program. The program has two instructors who travel to various sites through San Bernardino County. The subject or issues did the group members examine during the meeting was primarily smoking during pregnancy. Other topics may include parenting and baby bonding education. The different information that the members exchanged in this class was the difficulties facing through the cessation process that evolves through stress, financial issues, emotional experiences, and lack of support. The group’s norms, roles, status hierarchy, or communication patterns were that the participants are low income, low level of education (less than high school diploma), and normally come from a substance abuse setting. The communication patterns illustrated if this class was that participants were involved as a group and they were very open for discussion and sharing their experiences. The participants’ members share a sense of identity with one another and the participants shared the same interest of trying to stay tobacco free, provide a health living environment for their unborn baby and other children living with them. In this class or group there was not any indication that members might be vulnerable to groupthink, because at the beginning of the session, the instructor ask for each individual struggles through the cessation process and they all had their unique storytelling. Although some responses were similar, they did not seem influenced by their partner’s response. In my opinion, the group has a positive influence in each other’s behaviors because the participants share the same background and they all seemed to understand each other by giving praises for their successes and advices on how to deal with the cravings and withdrawals of tobacco. Unfortunately, due to the background of the participants, they were influenced by their living surroundings and the only thing they knew is to reach for drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. In this class, the participants learn the tools necessary to cope with stress factors rather than reaching out for a cigarette as a coping tool. A group influences their selves in many ways. While communicating and sharing some defi nite norms, people from the same group tend to behave in the same way. The group influences their selves through either obedience or conformity. This influence has many effects that are both positive and negative but mostly negative. References Myers, D. G. (2010). Social Psychology (10th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Ibm Human Resources

1. Introduction IBM is one of the most successful technology and consulting companies in the world. In 2012, its brand name is in second place in international brand equity rankings, just behind Coca Cola. With its 433,362 employees it is operating in 170 countries and able to generate profit of $15. 85 billion per year. The company itself has been founded in 1911 trough a merger of three technology companies. In 1924, the company’s name was changed to International Business Machines, abbreviated to IBM.Initially, the company was engaged in tabulating equipment and data management and later on was able built a strong market position in the computer and semiconductor production. The IBM PC, introduced in 1981, was one of the company’s major successes. In the 1990s, however, the enterprise experienced stagnating earnings from its operations and therefore developed a transformation strategy. From 2000 onwards, IBM changed its business model towards technology services and consulting. This shift has enabled IBM to achieve a rise of EPS from $3. 32 to $13. 44 in 2011.Simultaneously to this strategic shift, IBM has also changed its international structure and moved from a multinational to an integrated enterprise, thereby saving $6 billion. This paper will analyze the HRM implications of this strategic shift. For this purpose, it will first elaborate on the business model and the strategic focus of the company. Second, it will consider the strategic HRM focus and the general blueprint that IBM has developed for its workforce. Third, it will outline a variety of HRM practices in the fields of knowledge management, compensation and HRM effectiveness. . IBM Business Model 2. 1 Customer Value Proposition At the core of its business stands IBM’s desire to help clients to become more innovative, efficient and competitive through the application of business insights and IT solutions (10 K-filing 2011). The company’s regular clientele mainly consi sts of institutions, both in the commercial as well as in the governmental and educational sector. IBM offers hardware, software and service integrated solutions (KM Worlds, 2011) that support the client to deepen the knowledge about his business through the smart use of information technology.This knowledge enhancement creates value by reducing the operational costs and presenting further revenue opportunities for the client on the one hand, and ensuring superior financial results to IBM’s shareholders on the other hand. 2. 2 Key Resources In general, IBM's key resources consist of intangible assets rather than tangible products, processes or manufacturing capabilities. Its human capital pool and research and development capabilities can be considered as the by far most important of these intangible assets.Concerning the human capital pool, IBM employs 433,362 high-skilled people, thereby being the world's second largest employer, behind Wal-Mart Stores (2,200,000) and even before McDonald’s (420,000) and Hewlett-Packard (349,000) (Fortune, 2011). IBM's workforce has steadily increased in recent years with growth rates of 6,8% in 2010 and 1,5% in 2011 and the firm invests heavily in the development and compensation of its workforce. Since 2002, it has paid over $100 billion in non-salary benefits to its employees.However, in the following years, crowd sourcing could lead to IBM drastically downsizing its workforce and utilizing subcontractors for the work currently performed within IBM. Its permanent workforce could shrink by more than 75% of its current state as a result of the HR transformation process. IBM’s second major assets are its R capabilities. Alone since the year 2000, IBM has invested $70 billion into research and development and has created 10 global research labs. These major investments paid off in 47,000 patents that IBM could generate within the last 10 years.Roughly 70% of these patents were issued for IBM's software an d service. For the major pillars of its current 2015 strategy, Business Analytics and Cloud, IBM employs 400 and 1000 researchers respectively. The IBM computer Watson, a learning system generating answers in normal language, is one of the major breakthroughs of IBM's R investments. Further, research and development was conducted in the field of nanotechnology, systems, analytics as well as the cloud. In general, R investments are concentrated around high-value, high-growth opportunities in order to sustain IBM's technology leadership position.Not only enable the R&D invests IBM to accumulate a great amount of knowledge about state-of-the-art technology and define new technology; due to its history, it also holds huge knowledge about storage capacities, computing power and semiconductors, as IBM’s business was formerly centered on computer production. Furthermore, since its foundation in 1911, IBM has created unique relationships with its clients and knowledge of the markets and has therefore gained strength in the field of Sales and Distribution.This strength exhibits all characteristics that a resource needs to provide a sustainable competitive advantage: They are valuable, rare and costly to imitate due to high path dependency. IBM operates in 170 countries with the G7 countries and a number of developed countries as its major markets. IBM’s brand name is also a major asset of the company. In current reports, IBM ranks second just behind Coca Cola and possesses aggregated brand equity of $69. 905 billion in 2011. This strong brand equity contributes to the relationship and the trust clients have towards IBM. . 3 Key Processes IBM utilizes the above-mentioned assets to operate in five segments, namely the Global Technology Services (GTS), Global Business Services (GBS), Software, Systems and Technology (ST) and Global Financing (GF). The GTS division deals with providing IT infrastructure services along four major dimensions, namely strategic o utsourcing services, Global Process Services, Integrated Technology Services and Maintenance. These services range from consulting on IT projects to the development of a complete IT infrastructure for a company.Within the GBS division, IBM employs the IBM software in order to consult its clients in strategy, process and technology questions. It entails a broad range of services, from Strategy & Change over Supply Chain Management, Customer Relationship Management to IT-services. By offering such a huge product portfolio, IBM is able to cover the complete value chain of its clients and provide all-integrated services for them. Whereas the former division deals with the applicability of the software, the Software Division itself is devoted to the development and writing of the IBM software.Particularly in this field, IBM employs its complete human capital and R&D capabilities, formerly explained under the key resources. The salient software that enables IBM’s clients to integra te processes, communication and logistics within their companies are Lotus Software, Rational Software, Tivoli Software and Security System Software. The Systems and Technology division takes advantages of IBM’s knowledge about computing power and provides clients with the opportunity to employ huge storage capabilities and computing power. Similarly, it assists clients with the latest semiconductor technology, product and packaging solutions.In contrast to the other four segments, the Global Financing division is not engaged in primary software development and client consulting, but rather acts as IBM’s bank. It offers financial instruments to the firm’s clients to facilitate the purchase and licensing fees for IBM’s products. Besides these segments and on the operations side, IBM uses its R&D capabilities to identify new market trends and continuously innovate. To support innovation, IBM heavily engages in the acquisition of companies that possess uniqu e technological skills. In 2011 alone, the company paid $1. billion for acquisition and plans to expand its acquisition to a total amount of $20 billion by 2015. What can be considered as one of the major efforts of the last year is the vertical and horizontal integration of IBM’s operations. These efforts are part of the enterprise transformation strategy aiming to make IBM the premier globally integrated company. For the vertical integration, the company attempts to control the whole value chain of its product. It has therefore invested in advanced semiconductor manufacturing in Fishkill, New York, and a global delivery centre in Columbia, Missouri.Roughly $35 billion are spent through the supply chain in an effort to procure materials and services globally. For the horizontal integration, IBM currently integrates its nationally fragmented units and has realized gains of $6 billion over the last years through increased productivity. 2. 4 Profit Formula The profit IBM is ext racting from its operations can be considered along three dimensions, namely along the segments, the actual products and the markets. Concerning the segments, Software, although not the biggest revenue driver (23,49% of total revenue), generates $14. 07 billion of profit margin and thereby accounts for 43,68% of the company’s profit. The reason is its high margin of 88,5%. GTS, Systems and Technology and GBS are following with 28,31%, 14,95% and 10,99% respectively. Global Financing falls behind and only constitutes 2,07% of profits. Value is created to the client through hardware/financing, services and Software at IBM. Over the last decade, Hardware/Financing has sharply lost importance and today only accounts for 16% of segment profit ($3. 6 billion) compared to 41% for services ($9. 3 billion) and 44% for software ($10. 0 billion).The traditional G7 countries and other developed countries are still the most important revenue and profit drivers. New growth markets currentl y account for only 22% of geographic revenue. However, the portion is rising and is expected to be 30% by 2015. In terms of overall profit growth, the growth markets ($1. 9 billion) – namely BRIC countries, but also Africa and Latin America – are only close behind the major markets ($2. 2 billion). To sum it up, software sales and licensing as well as operations in the major markets are the greatest profit drivers with the growth markets steadily increasing. . 5 Challenges and Opportunities Before IBM engaged in its transformation in 2000, it had mainly focused on computer and semiconductor production. Business and Technology services only constituted a minor part of the strategy. Since 2000, the company has sharply expanded its technology services and nowadays builds its business model around these services. In 2011, 85% of its pretax income came from software and services compared to 65% in 2000. Especially in recent years, a significant amount of new technologies ha s evolved.Cloud Computing, Information Management Systems and Open Source are only some examples of these new trends. As IBM fundamentally relies on anticipating trends and utilizing newest technology to deliver value to its clients, these trends exposes IBM to unique opportunities and challenges in adopting them. Simultaneously, the major G8 countries, which were and currently are IBM’s main revenue drivers, have stagnated in the last years. In contrast, nearly 40 growing countries grew at double-digit numbers in recent years.These emerging markets will be responsible for 60% of global GDP growth in the upcoming years. But not only do the BRIC countries account for this number, but other emerging markets as well. IBM estimates that 60% of growth markets revenue is earned outside the BRIC countries. As these countries are still at the elementary stage of their technology revolution, they become opportunities for technology companies currently operating in mature markets. 2. 6 Strategy In effort to address these challenges, IBM has developed a four-pillar strategy laid down in its 2015 roadmap.The first three pillars refer to new technology trends that IBM is responding to, namely Cloud Computing, Business Analytics and Smarter Planet. The Cloud refers to IBM’s engagement in creating the enterprise cloud. Only from 2010 to 2011, it has been able to more than triple its cloud revenue. Currently, 1 million enterprise users are active in the cloud, enabling IBM to analyze $100 billion in commerce transaction each year. Similarly, business analytics enable the clients to analyze and mine data and realize relationships concerning their respective customers preference and patients outcome.Almost 9000 consultants are employed by IBM to deliver a revenue increase of 16% from 2010 to 2011. Whereas the former two services are targeted at commercial clients, Smarter Planet enables governmental institutions to operate more efficiently. IBM classifies these se rvices as the â€Å"infusion of digital intelligence into the world’s systems† (annual report IBM, 2011). In 2000 cities, the company is engaged in developing Smarter Law Enforcements, Smarter Water and Sewer Systems and Smarter Transportation, as well as further services.Also in this segment, IBM is reporting a rapid growth of almost 50% compared to 2010. The last pillar of the strategy addresses the emerging markets. In 2012, IBM operates in 170 countries. The emerging countries are becoming increasingly important and currently contribute 22% to its geographic revenue. Until 2015, the company aims to increase this percentage to 30% and has recently invested in 100 of these new markets, among them China, Brazil and Africa. 3. Strategic International Human Resource ManagementFor some time now, IBM is undergoing a transition from a multinational orientation to a globally integrated organizational structure. In the old model, every country unit followed its own policies, procedures and processes. Thus, high inefficiency and redundancy was present in the organization. In 2003, Randy MacDonald, the senior vice president of human resources at IBM, and Sam Palmisano, IBM’s CEO at the time, recognized the need to shift from a product to a process driven organizational model, and thus become more globally integrated.This shift became necessary because the organization had to react to the increasing globalization of its supply chain. This change in the company’s orientation also implies a change in the importance of the firm’s HR function and the role of strategic international HRM (SIHRM). Taylor, Beechler, and Napier (1996) define SIHRM as â€Å"the general philosophy or approach taken by top management of the MNC in the design of its overall IHRM approach†. Therefore, IBM had to make sure there was a good fit of the firm’s new strategy with its overall goals. Taylor et al. 1996) pointed out the tension that exists in strategic international HRM between the concepts of integration and differentiation. Integration is described as the need for interunit linkages, which implies some form of overall company strategy that unites all individual country units. Differentiation on the other hand is necessary for successfully operating in the local environment, thus it means adapting the product or service to the specific local needs and requirements. Taylor et al. (1996) identified three generic orientations, which they call the adaptive, exportive, and integrative orientations.A company that focuses on the adaptive view is emphasizing the need to differentiate, and therefore tries to adapt to the local environment. There is little or no interunit exchange of ideas on HRM policies and practices, so the units work rather autonomous. The second approach is exportive, which means that the parent company transfers the parent firm’s HRM system to all its affiliates, which leads to high internal consiste ncy. The integrative orientation is a combination of both the adaptive and the exportive view, and thus tries to balance the dual need for integration and differentiation.IBM initially believed that the firm’s HRM practices are context generalizable, and followed a rather exportive orientation in the past. However, the shift from a product to a process view and the increasing need for global integration also required changing the firm’s orientation in order to build an integrative SIHRM model. The new objective of the HR department therefore was to place business functions where they are best located and allocate the right people to the right job at the right time. The program that is supposed to facilitate this process is called the IBM Workforce Management Initiative (WMI).The aim is to build a HR and talent management system that will enable the effective and smooth management of human resources across the various business units (IBM Case Study, 2010). Randy MacDona ld started the HR reorganization process by separating core from noncore, back office tasks (IBM website, 2010). The idea behind this process was to enable HR professionals to focus on core activities that are value adding for the business, such as designing policy and internal business consulting. The noncore administrative services are now being performed by the IBM Managed Business Process Services (MBPS).This centralization helped to create a global system that enables IBM to manage international projects globally and allows the HR department to implement changes throughout the organization much quicker and more homogeneously than it was possible in the past. Nowadays, country and regional HR managers at IBM both work together in order to adapt to local needs, while still keeping it in line with the overall company strategy. On the other hand, administrative roles are standardized and are being done by global employee service centers, which is also more useful for managing inter national assignments and employee records.This way, HR professionals are able to focus on core activities such as talent management and are able to make use of synergies by exchanging ideas on best practices throughout the organization. Farndale et al. (2010) have studied the various structures and roles of HR departments in multinational corporations through the use of case studies on 16 MNCs, amongst which has also been IBM. The researchers describe IBM’s transition from a HQ-dependent to â€Å"a more interdependent transnational orientation† (Farndale et al. , 2010), which is in line with the integrative orientation described by Taylor et al. (1996).Interdependence as a mixed approach is a much more complex relationship than the pure models of independence or dependence on the firm’s headquarter, and therefore formal control mechanisms become less useful. The researchers suggest the use of informal mechanism, for example the creation of a strong company cultu re and company-wide knowledge management. IBM recognized the need for more integration and interdependence, and starts to give more autonomy to local businesses and therefore more possibilities to adapt to local needs. Rather than giving orders that have to be obeyed, the parent company’s HR department develops broader principles.The local units then are able to apply these guidelines, as they deem right. 4. Blueprint Among the several blueprints Baron and Hannan (2002) propose, in the opinion of the authors of this article, IBM used to follow a commitment blueprint until around 2000, primarily because of its focus on attracting people based on their personal belonging and identification with the company. IBM selected people based on values and cultural fit and has been known as a place that was committed to its employees. It has been awarded as one of the best companies for workingwomen and used to have a â€Å"no layoff† policy until the 21st century (Boudreau, 2010) .IBM was able to build a reputation as an employer with enlightened human resource practices and was therefore able to attract talented young people with the right fit between personal and organizational values. The shift from a product based company to a solution based company in the year 2000, however, also forced IBM to change its HRM blueprint to the star blueprint in order to be more in line with the new direction and strategy of the company. Among other things, the proposal to reduce IBM’s workforce by 299,000 workers made clear that a commitment blueprint is not feasible anymore.Even though IBM plans to re-hire those workers as partners, a committed workforce as it used to be cannot be expected in the future. IBM now focuses on attracting the most talented workers with long-term potential, that can be trained and developed to current and future needs (Boudreau, 2010). Moreover, due to IBM’s consultancy work, IBM provides challenging and interesting work for its current and prospective employees. All these findings are in line with the star blueprint proposed by Baron and Hannan (2002).Despite the fact, that changing the blueprint of a company is accompanied by a negative effect on organizational performance (Baron & Hannan, 2002). Earnings per share rose sharply after the change in IBM’s blueprint. Moreover, financial performance and pre tax income increased from 2000 until 2010 (IBM, 2011). All in all, it is reasonable to say that IBM successfully changed its blueprint from commitment to star. 5. Knowledge Management at IBM It becomes obvious from the above discussion that IBM critically relies on its human capital pool and its research and development capabilities.In order to exploit these intangible assets, knowledge management is essential to the company’s success. â€Å"IBM [†¦] requires true enterprise-wide knowledge exchange and collaboration†, as KMWorlds puts it, one of the most advanced evaluators of cor porate knowledge management. In 2005, IBM has been awarded the KMWorld’s reality price for its efforts towards knowledge management since 1994. Parallel to Hansen et al. (2005), IBM’s efforts towards knowledge management will be considered along two lines: within-team networks and intersubsidiary networks.Concerning the first aspect, the company has launched a number of tools and collaboration platforms that enable teams to effectively cooperate and exchange knowledge. Among the most salient of these initiatives are the Collaboration Central, Bluepages and Xtreme leverage. Whereas Collaboration Central is a company-wide portal providing remote teams with currently 50,000 online team rooms to share information and work collaboratively, Xtreme leverage is a tool providing software sellers with access to intellectual capital, expertise locations and community facilities for IBM’s global software brand.Concerning intersubsidiary networks (ISN), KnowledgeView, the wo rldwide asset Reuse Program, Bluepages and Jams are excellent examples of IBM’s knowledge management. To provide a summary of these tools, KnowledgeView is a knowledge-sharing centre targeting Business Consulting Services and enables exchange of information and experience among all consulting units. In contrast to the general nature of the information, specific business success stories are entered into the worldwide asset Reuse Program and are accessible to all employees.Bluepages offer an opportunity to search for personal profiles throughout the company supporting the employees to find a group of experts to work on a specific business solution. Lastly, Jams aggregates information on specific business topics. Besides these major initiatives, IBM has heavily invested into wikis, called QED wiki, and Dogear, a social bookmarking system. All these ISNs increase the â€Å"knowledge sought† (Hansen et al. , 2005) by employees at IBM.Similarly, the opportunity not only to e xchange explicit, but also tacit knowledge through personal meetings enabled by Bluepages sharply decreased knowledge transfer costs (Hansen et al. ). To coordinate all these networks, the enterprise has established â€Å"IBM collaboration and knowledge†. This department led by Karen Ughetta consists of 10 employees continuously aiming to find new ways, in which knowledge can be transferred within the company. Collins et al. (2006) argue that such efforts improve the social climate of a company and via increased knowledge exchange and collaboration lead to superior financial results.These argumentations seem appropriate when considering IBM. Only to provide some examples, the Worldwide Asset Reuse Program has led to $81 million in cost savings and a $63 million increase in asset revenue as well as a $2. 6 billion increase in service revenue. Xtreme leverage has enabled employees to reduce the finding time for experts from 1 week to 8 hours and therefore opportunity cost savin gs of $50 million. And KnowledgeViews lead to the faster exchange of knowledge and consequently saved $42 million in opportunity costs. 6. Actions and Interest AlignmentThe concept of action alignment is defined as the alignment of employee actions with the objectives of a firm’s strategy. Aligned actions therefore, are not part of the routine job, but rather the ability and capability to understand the big picture of the company and its environment and contributing to the attainment of firm goals (Colvin & Boswell, 2007). To achieve action alignment, employees need to have the awareness of the firm's strategic objectives and a shared mindset towards it. According to Colvin and Boswell (2007), specific strategies need specific employee capabilities.IBM tries to achieve this by either hiring the right employees through assessment centers, talent forums or firm acquisitions or by training and developing existing employees to obtain the capabilities needed to attain IBM’s strategic goals. At IBM China, for example, training and development consists of cross-cultural mentoring programs, individual development programs and management training. Moreover, IBM makes use of several online training programs, including a global campus, which gives employees the opportunity to choose among different online classes.In the year 2008, IBM spent about $1700 per employee to ensure that workers have all required capabilities (IBM. com, 2012). In addition to capabilities, employees also need to have the opportunity to apply their knowledge and capabilities (Colvin & Boswell, 2007). IBM achieves this by empowering employees and giving them a say with regard to value formulation and feedback rounds. The â€Å"Your IBM† program is aimed at new employees and tries to spread the history, values and goals of IBM in order to create a shared mindset among all employees, ensuring that every employee has the opportunity to contribute to the firms well-being (IBM. om, 2012). However, without interest alignment, action alignment, in form of capabilities and opportunities, will not realize its full potential. Colvin and Boswell (2007) define interest alignment as the set of extrinsic and intrinsic benefits that employees derive from their work and employment. Extrinsic benefits mainly consist of compensation, but also include employment security and opportunities for career advancement. Intrinsic benefits, on the other hand, include the employee’s belief in the organization’s strategy it is seeking to achieve.By reason of IBM’s 100th anniversary, IBM recently issued a one-time equity grant to nearly 400,000 non-managerial employees to recognize the commitment of its workforce and therefore increase the extrinsic benefits of its employees (IBM. com, 2012). IBM also uses profit sharing and pays bonuses to non-managerial employees. Software engineers and IT specialists derive around 3% of their total salary from profit sharing and bonuses. On the contrary, jobs like computer programmers and computer system analysts do not derive any compensation in form of profit sharing or bonuses except the one-time equity grant mentioned earlier.All those compensation packages are in line with the reasoning of Colvin and Boswell (2007) about how to align employees’ interest with the organization. In addition to compensation, employment security is also part of the extrinsic benefits. Peacock (2010) notes that IBM wants to reduce its workforce from around 399,000 permanent employees to 100,000 by 2017 to complete their HR transformation. This move is grounded on IBM’s overall transformation from a product-based firm to a solution-based firm, which requires more global flexibility (Boudreau, 2010).Even tough, IBM would re-hire the 299,000 workers as contractors, this still does not assure the same employment security as permanent employment. In this regard, IBM is not in line with the reasoning of Colvin and B oswell (2007) and would to some extent decrease the extrinsic benefits to employees. Contrary to that, Noe et al. (2010) state that employees these days know that companies cannot provide the same employment security they used to provide. Employees rather desire employability, i. e. they want the company to provide training and development to help ensure that they can find other employment opportunities in case of lay-offs.IBM training and development practices are consistent with the concept of employability and it can be assumed that although IBM cannot ensure employment security, the training they offer gives their employees the security of employability. On top of compensation and employability, IBM offers wide arrays of medical benefits to its employees. These practices not only increase the extrinsic benefits, but also increase the intrinsic benefits in form of lifting IBM’s image. Colvin and Boswell (2007) state that intrinsic benefits increase when employees perceive that the organization has an image, which reflects their own personal social identity.By promoting education in weak communities, by being environmental friendly and by offering health care plans to its employees, IBM does lots of things to ensure that its image is consistent with the social identity of its employees (IBM Corporate Responsibility Summary, 2010). All in all, based on the evidence in the discussion above, it is reasonable to assume that action alignment and interest alignment between IBM and its employees is rather high. The preceding discussion mainly describes the alignment between IBM and its non-executive employees.In the proceeding section, this paper now analyses the compensation package of IBM’s executives with the help of Stroh et al. ’s (1996) determinants of variable pay. Stroh et al. found that managers in highly programmable jobs will receive a lower proportion of their compensation in the form of variable pay than managers in less programmab le jobs, whereas managers in highly turbulent organizations will receive a higher proportion of their compensation in the firm of variable pay than managers in more stable organizations.Moreover, there is evidence that managers in organizations with human resource policies that encourage long-term relationships will receive a smaller proportion of their salary in form of variable pay than managers in organizations without such policies. In the case of IBM, one can say that due to nearly 100 acquisitions made by IBM (IBM. com, 2012) and the turbulent environment IBM is operating in, organizational turbulence is rather high.Managers’ task programmability can be regarded as low since IBM offers most of its solution in form of consultancy. Lastly, based on the fact that IBM wants to be more flexible and therefore needs to cut its workforce by 299,000 workers, it is reasonable to assume that IBM human resource policies do not encourage long-term relationships. Taken everything tog ether, one would expect a large proportion of total managerial compensation to be variable in form of bonuses, profit sharing and stock-grants.Appendix 1 shows that in 2011, IBM’s CEO and Chairman Palmisano received 92% of his total compensation in form of variable pay (29% annual incentives and 63% performance share) and IBM’s Vice Presidents received 87% of their total compensation in form of variable pay (20% annual incentives and 67% performance share). Overall, this is consistent with the findings of Stroh et al. (1996). 7. The use of HR Measures and Indicators It is important for HR departments to track how effectively and efficiently their practices and programs have been implemented throughout the organization.This helps them to justify their existence, since â€Å"HR departments are increasingly expected to operate as a business within a business† (Ulrich, Younger, & Brockbank, 2008). By measuring the impact of HR practices, the firm is also able to rec ognize deficits and counteract them. The shift within the HR profession towards a focus on strategic HR also implies the assumption that certain HR practices have an influence on overall firm performance (Huselid, Yackson, & Schuler, 1997), and therefore might even be a source of competitive advantage to the firm. Ulrich et al. 2008) recommend to not only base the evaluation on traditional measures such as the cost and benefits of certain activities, but instead to judge the performance of the HR activities based on the impact they have on overall firm strategy. In recent years IBM has undergone a transformation from a traditional multinational enterprise to a more flexible and global structure, which IBM calls a globally integrated enterprise (GIE). The company therefore needs to develop a diverse workforce with a global mindset, which is supported by common corporate values.For a GIE to be successful it is necessary to have a collaborative environment that takes multiple diverse v iews into account, as well as a less hierarchical and more flexible organizational structure. IBM does this by employing employees at all career stages and let them participate in the decision making process. An example of this employee involvement was a global online â€Å"jam†, where the employees themselves discussed about the company culture and developed specific corporate values (IBM, 2010) as well as skills required to work successfully in a GIE.The HR team should identify some measures to determine the success of the implementation of this new corporate identity. It is important to assess the skill development and improvements in relevant employee competencies over time and measure improvements in employee satisfaction, which could be done through frequent and extensive employee feedback. The HR department also recognized that in order to put these new global skills and views into action, employees needed â€Å"exposure to a wider range of global experiences† ( IBM, 2010). This would be especially valuable if it happens earlier in the careers.IBM developed a global mobility and international assignment framework, which offers specific programs and online tools to facilitate this globalization process. In order to assess the impact of this new framework, IBM should track the number of participants in these global experience projects, the number of available places for such projects, and the retention rate of former expatriates. Corporate HR departments frequently face the threat of the not-invented-here syndrome, as local units might feel overwhelmed by orders from outside.In order to prevent this reluctance, the HR department at IBM has created an integrative approach that fits to the strategic HRM perspective the company has taken on in recent years. The HR department takes all sorts of sources into account, such as corporate HR professionals, regional managers and general staff members. 8. Conclusion In recent years IBM recognized the ne ed to shift from a product view to a process oriented view, which includes a focus on providing services and solutions. This shift was necessary due to the increasing globalization and the stagnating computer market.The shift in IBM’s business view also required a change in IBM’s perception of its HR department. It is not longer seen as a mere department that supports business by executing traditional HR tasks such as selection, training, and reward, but has become a strategic part of the company. IBM has moved from an international organizational structure to a globally integrated company, and the HR department successfully developed a framework that facilitates the collaboration of corporate as well as regional and country-based HR teams, in order to guarantee a consistent company culture and create a globally integrated enterprise.This point of view is also reflected by IBM’s change from a commitment to a star blueprint. IBM now provides interesting and chall enging work for its employees and is more focused on selecting talented employees with a long-term potential than on employees with the best values and cultural fit. IBM’s HR department should make use of specific measures to track the effects that its operations have and justify any efforts with regard to creating a integrative, global workforce for the company in the future.

Leaders and subordinates in Spain Essay

Influenced by its collectivist past, family values, a sense of identity and belonging to a group, are constitutive parts of society in Spain. They care for each other in society like a family. For many Spanish people, the family is effectively a replacement for the state. Generally, Spaniards are very conservative and they will resist making decisions on hazardous matters, particularly if the consequences of their decision would affect other people. Thus, most Spaniards will look for support and approval of family, friends and co-workers before acting on their own. The Spanish believe if you are not a part of a group, neighbourhood, town or business organisation then you are not an integral part of society. This important aspect of the Spanish collectivist culture might restrict business activities and force the ‘outsider’ and visitors to the country to bear down their ‘outsider’ status by fitting into a group. However, regarding personal attributes, individualism is highly valued in Spain, along with an emphasis on character and social status. Therefore, personal qualities, appearance, image and personal relationships are extremely substantial elements in modern Spanish culture. Also, personal attributes and character are frequently valued as highly as technical ability, experience or professional competence. While being rather collectivists in their private lives the Spanish show distinct individualism in business context. When doing business in Spain, you will discover that individualism is especially predominant in management, where Spanish managers are less inclined to prefer group decision making and team orientation, as sharing the burden of decision-making is seen as a sign of weakness. Motivation is based on individual rather than collective relationships. The fact that only the individual in highest authority makes the final decision indicates that decision-making can become very slow and tedious, for many levels of management will have to be consulted in order to analyse the proposition. Therefore, it is crucial to maintain a good relationship with these intermediaries in order to succeed. Spain being a feministic society points to a low level of differentiation and discrimination between genders in Spanish society. Machismo is the word for male dominance, and the culture of old men who created it has changed dramatically. Spain has become a very equalitarian society where women are present at universities and work. However, men yet hold the majority of positions within companies. The reason for that is that Spanish men still restrain to treat women as equals in society. Many women in Spain are career oriented and seek high positions in society. Their social and educational status often assigns the role they eventually play in business. Despite the advancement women have made up to date, the change of women trying to achieve higher positions is progressing very slowly, due to the major barrier of it being the mentality of the females themselves. An example for changed/changing attitudes is Soledad Becerril who became not only the first mayoress in the early 90’s but also a symbol for many women in Spain of how Spanish females have made progress in the last years. She was also the first woman to become minister in the government, in 1981. And that is very significant of how Spain has changed and how it continues to do so. Furthermore, masculinity and femininity can be referred to the goals that are aimed for in professional life. Spain being a feministic society indicates issues of security of the job, good employer-employee relationship, pleasant cooperation with the colleagues and friendly work environment. Also, Spanish managers tend to pay more attention to consensus and apart from that, they like to rely on their intuition. HAMPDEN-TURNER & TROMPENAARS Spaniards tend to particularism rather than universalism. Therefore, at work Spanish seek gratification through personal relationships, especially with their superiors. Charismatic leaders find it easy to put their personal stamp on every area in a business. Most of the time job descriptions in Spain have a different function compared to the job descriptions in other countries. In Spain they seldom serve for selecting an employee, but subsequently they will be tailor-made for the favoured candidate. Spanish culture tolerates – even advocates – the expression of emotions (affectivity), also in the business environment. The admiration and display of heated, vital and animated expressions are just as common as fluent and dramatic delivery of statements in Spain. People from diffuse cultures carry their status everywhere; your boss remains your boss and will expect the same respect even if you meet him/her at the gym. Spain indicates to be a specific culture, where official relationships are carefully isolated from relationships of other nature. Using the previous example it means that you may show respect to your boss at the office but his status will not follow him outside the office, and he/she may well ask you for advice. This explains the Spanish being paradoxical in their decision making and in their relation to the community. As a consequence of the fact that Spaniards separate work and personal matters, nobody would take work-related criticism personally. Another theory is that people from diffuse cultures prefer to â€Å"circle around† and establish a relationship before any deal is done; those from specific cultures would rather get straight to the point, focus on the deal first and the relationship will flow from that. This definition contradicts the Spanish being a specific society as they need long discussions prior getting down to business and want to know the person they do business with. Therefore, networks are quite important. For Spanish, status is a thing that is given to them because of what they are (ascribed). It does not matter what you do but what or who you are. Ultimately, status and respect are conferred with the aid of family ties and connections. Concepts like bien educado (good education) and enchufado (good connections) distinguish this phenomenon. Achievement-oriented concepts like ‘pay for performance’ cause for incomprehension in societies like Spain. FUKUYAMA Fukuyama suggests Spain to be a low-trust society where workers are isolated by a series of bureaucratic rules. He describes Spain as a society with strong families and family businesses, a strong state and large foreign owned companies, where hierarchies are necessary in order to force those by distinct rules and measures, who do not act out ethical codes. Evidence of different leadership styles in Spain backs up this theory. A study on ‘Leadership from a Spanish perspectivei drafted by Instituto de Empresa and Deloitte stated that 56% of Spanish Directors prefer a participative leadership style. The report shows that future leaders have to act as coaches, and they must issue their subordinates with the skills and knowhow they need to work efficiently with their teams. However, participative leadership is not the norm among the Spanish directors. Therefore, there is a need for adapting the other styles and make them more participative which requires great commitment from the leaders. The styles least preferred by Spanish senior managers are those based on compulsion with little or no participation of employees and exception-based management where the director only steps in to sort out mistakes. Leaders of relatively new businesses are better at leadership styles, which are based on objectives and development. Where different sectors are concerned, the report unveils how directors in the financial sector tend to use leadership styles that are more direct, transactional and less oriented to learning. While companies in the technology sector give more importance to coaching and vision. MONOCHRONIC vs. POLYCHRONIC Spaniards can be classed as polychronic where nothing seems solid or firm, and there are always changes right up to the very last minute or even in plans for the future. Polychronic cultures are unconventional and flexible with time because it is not seen as a resource or as opportunity cost. Usually start times are flexible and schedules are unrushed. For example, it is not considered to be impolite to keep people waiting, as long as it does not exceed 30 minutes. Since time is also non-linear Spanish tend to manage several tasks at once, often in an unplanned sequence (e. g. salespeople in stores talk to several people at once rather than give only one customer their attention and taking people in turn; a meeting can be interrupted by a phone call; etc.). Another significant cultural difference is the smaller radius of personal space in Spain. Spaniards are most likely not to appologise when bumping into each other or pushing their way through crowds, which can be a shock to visitors from foreign countries. In the business environment, when it comes to forecasting, plans are often based on assumptions, intuition and experience because every day is regarded as unpredictable. Spaniards in the business environment usually make decisions based on judgement, experience and political realities. The supervisory style allows for the rules to be circumvented, whereas style and creativity are highly valued. Titles describe a person’s status, which people take pride in, causing great motivation for competition in organisations. Additionally, personal feelings affect the performance. Spanish managers feel that the employees must be watched, thus giving them the total control where also mistakes can be blamed on other people. However, the supervision is based on trust and some power is still delegated. LEADERSHIP STYLE Generally, the leadership style in Spain, in terms of concern for production and concern for people, demonstrates a high concern for people and little concern for production, whereby they try to avoid conflicts and concentrate on being liked, even at the expense of production. Managers in Spain are acquiring some qualities they look up to in other leaders. However, this contradicts with the theory stated above. Nevertheless, evidence suggest that Spanish leaders are still concerned about their leadership style. One of the conclusions of the first study on i Leadership from a Spanish perspectivei drafted by Instituto de Empresa and Deloitte indicated that 75% of Spain’s directors say that they regularly, or almost always use coaching, a personalised style that focuses on employee development. These leadership criteria are essential when it comes to competitiveness and organisations’ survival. 41% of directors stated that their preferred style of leadership is contingent reinforcement, which rewards subordinates for their achievements. 37% use the goal-oriented style, based on meeting challenges. Analysing the relations between leaders and subordinates in Spain showed that only 46% of Spanish leaders have a good concept of their subordinates. These leaders tend to use coaching as their preferred style of leadership. 26% of survey participants, however, point out having a quite negative concept of their subordinates. These leaders show a clear inclination to use directive and transactional management styles. Finally, the results of the study show clearly that Spanish development-oriented leaders are also very concerned about developing and educating their subordinates.

Neologisms in Films and Televison Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Neologisms in Films and Televison - Essay Example Formerly the language of high culture, the French language has been unjustifiably and violently reduced to meaningless neologisms. In support of their rather emotive arguments, purists cite passages from a current bestseller among French teenagers. Written entirely in neologisms, the book is replete with sentences such as this one: "6 j t'aspRge d'O 2 kologne histoar 2 partaG le odeurs ke tu me fe subir?" (what if I were to spray you with cologne so I can make you suffer with the smells you make me suffer from). If this is what language has been reduced to, the purists contend, spoken and write language are in crisis. Neologists have largely dismissed the purists’ critique as the â€Å"hyper-ravings of ultra-conservatives.† Were it up to the purists, they claim, populations would be speaking in Biblical tongues and language’s failure to evolve, expressive of its unremitting stance against the very phenomenon of evolution, would have functioned as an obstacle towards scientific and technological progress. The development of language, often spurred by the neological imaginations, or â€Å"hallucinations† as purists would prefer to call it, has long functioned as the primary motivator of technological development and scientific invention. Neologists’ capacity to imagine and name concepts and phenomenon before their actual materialisation has immeasurably contributed to technological evolution. In defence of their seemingly unwarranted claim to contribution to scientific development and technological progress, neologists have presenting rather persuasive evidence. William Gibson, the author of Neuromancer, a science fiction novel written almost entirely in neologism, is a case in point. Gibson's envisioning of cyberspace and virtual reality, his invention of a myriad of concepts to describe them, preceded the popularisation of the internet and the invention of much of that which has accompanied it. While it is difficult to make a case for Gibson's having inspired the development of the internet, there is no doubt that he gave us the language of virtual reality and cyberspace before either were definitive components of civilisation and human life.6 As Fischer recalls, the publication of Neuomancer sent shock waves through the purist ranks. In unison, they accused its publishers of having betrayed the sanctity of language, of being party to Gibson's obvious disrespect for, an d ignorance of, the English language. The coinage of a few terms, only when needed and as long as their semantic roots were accurate, was acceptable but the invention of a virtual dictionary for phenomenon which did not exist, for lifestyles that bore nothing in common with that which was known, and for realities which were non-real, was untenable.7 Interestingly, those very neologisms which Gibson invented two decades ago and was stringently attacked for daring to do so, have been included in English language dictionaries by the purists themselves and are popularly regarded as legitimate English words. These neologisms, cyberspace, cyberpunk, hacking and wired, to name but a few of those contained in Neuromancer, have not only established their legitimate presence in the English language but have been translated into, and embraced by, countless other languages.8 Neologisms, irrespective of the purist perspective, are an evidential reality of any language. Neologisms do

Safety Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Safety - Essay Example All this has contributed to an overall shift to the working and safety patterns in Britain as there has been a massive increase in temporary, agency and contract working, together with an inflow of migrant workers both from within and outside the EU. Also there has been an increase in the use of public places and thus safety issues become focal and form a large part of government planning and policy.(Booth 1992) There is an increased need for interference by the relevant health and safety law enforcement authorities and in Britain the Health and Safety Authorities deal with these activities which range from workplace concerns,nuclear plants,power plants,and offshore installations to colleges and manufacturing factories.However every year many thousands of workers suffer injuries at the work place.(HSE statistics 2007). The laws have been updated to give the workers/labour force protection by focusing on sector specific laws. The Health and Safety Act 1974 alone extended protection public sector employees working in local government, hospitals, education and other services. It also imposed duties on self-employed people and on the designers, manufacturers and suppliers of equipment and materials and those affected by their duties.The past several decades have seen many tragic sagas like that of the Piper Alpha oil installation explosion, the Clapham train crash and the Kings Cross fire which created large health and safety issues.(Booth 1992). The Health and Safety Commission has thus played a seminal role in the management of the health and safety regulation in Great Britain by looking after health and safety in nuclear installations and mines, factories, farms, hospitals and schools, offshore gas and oil installations, the safety of the gas grid and the movement of dangerous goods and substances, and many other aspects of the protection both of workers and the public. The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 is a part of a century long safety tradition in Britain and it set up new institutions and provided for the progressive replacement of all safety law which was then in place.The Act also provided for the setting up of two main institutions .Firstly the Health and Safety Commission(which consists of ten people who are appointed by the Secretary of State for Transport, LocalGovernment and the Regions). HSC makes arrangements to secure the health, safety and welfare of people at work, and the public, in the matters of making new law and conducting inquiries.The Employment Medical Advisory Service run by it advises people on health and safety

Plea Bargaining Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Plea Bargaining Assignment - Essay Example Arreola declined to do either of the two options given to him explaining the Pomona police officers gave a false accusation. He was charged with resisting arrest, assaulting Hamilton as well as interfering with Pomona officers’ work by the Los Angeles County district attorneys office. During his trial, the jury acquainted Arreola after establishing that he was not guilty. He was awarded $260,000 in damages and the LAPD offered to reinstate him. Arreola’s case fits charge bargaining, where the prosecutors trade off serious offenses with lower crimes for a plea. Arreola was given the option to plead guilty for a lesser offense, but decline the plea. According to Rubin, â€Å"Arreola refused to consider a guilty plea in exchange for a lenient sentence† (Para 10). In the, case, Arreola emerged the beneficiary because he was acquainted and awarded $260,000 after he was found not guilty of the offense by the jury. Moreover, he never pleaded guilty for a lesser charge as was initially decided by the Los Angeles County district attorneys office. Rubin, Joel. â€Å"LAPD officer awarded $260,000 over arrest by Pomona police.† Los Angels Time January 24, 2014:A4. Accessed April 18, 2014

Project Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 13

Project Management - Essay Example Preciseness and accuracy as well as meeting the project’s objectives are very vital but cannot be achieved without proper planning (Butler & Richardson, 2011). It is indeed true that people variable is very significant in determining the input and the general planning of a project. Challenging free-wheeler based on the list of project variables may harvest very good returns for a particular project because every issue shall have been incorporated in the project (Butler & Richardson, 2011). Thorough discussions regarding the challenges and difficulties that may face the project may help in exposing future obstacles that may interfere with the smooth running of the project. Project planning is indeed an investment since it leads to success of the project and therefore should not be left to chance. There should be no excuse for such a thing that is aimed at saving both time and money. There may be dangerous costs that may be associated with failure to plan for a project (Rosenwinkel, 1995). According to Thilmany (2011), project planning is very crucial in controlling and evaluating a project right from its start to the end. Accountability and commitment in a project not only requires that all the information is tracked but that the resources are efficiently utilized and any form of wastage is reduced. Project variables should be highly taken into consideration while dealing with a project plan to maximize efficiency and effectiveness of a project. I was engaged in a project where the organization wanted an investigation of the installation of a new information system that would help in eliminating several bureaucracy involved in management including supervisory services. The project was supposed to take 100 hours and it involved exploration of new ways of doing business. We were in a team of five people performing the task for the project and three of us were management information system experts while two were individuals from human resource and a senior

Y-parents questionnaire Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Y-parents questionnaire - Essay Example That's why we moved into a closely knit community where all the residents take part in helping educate and instill the correct social values in our children. That is how we, as parents, were able to instill in the value of family in our children. Since most of the children attending Choate shall be staying in the Rosemary hall as residents, we believe that our daughter will be able to influence them positively by showing them the true value and importance of family life, even when one is living away from home. We raised our daughter to be independent yet mindful of the feelings and needs of others by respecting their individuality and embracing what makes them unique as a person. We raised her to understand what discrimination is and why it is something that should not be done to others. We believe Choate can help develop these values in our child. What qualities would you like to see your child develop while at Choate?1000 Characters left in your response -- We believe in the leader ship abilities that our daughter possesses and shown us glimpses of in her daily life. As a student at Choate, we would like to ask the school to help us further develop, hone, and polish her leadership skills. We see the school doing this by encouraging her to join in and experience diverse activities that can call upon not only her leadership, but also teamwork abilities. After all, in order to become an effective leader in the future, our daughter will have to learn all about becoming a valuable team member first. Choate offers her an abundance of these activities. That is why we are looking forward to seeing our daughter continue to develop her positive thinking, widening her perspective about life, and developing a healthy mind. All of which will hopefully result in our daughter developing a much nobler character than we can ever expect of her. Ownership of the decision to come to Choate can play a significant role in a student's success. Please describe how the decision was re ached to apply to Choate. 1000 Characters left in your response -- We already have one daughter attending Choate. Helena, Julia's older sister, has shown us how educational, happy, and challenging student life can be at Choate. Helena has us that the other students and teachers at Choate can continue to provide the kind of positive influence that we desire for our children. Helena has shown us that she has been positively influence by her peers and mentors at Choate by working hard to achieve her academic goals. That is an endeavor that, although challenging, Helena meets with the most positive attitude that we have ever seen. That is the kind of influence that we hope to expose Helena's younger sister, Julia to. Julia is a child who enjoys a challenge and enjoys reaping the benefits of her successes. We believe that Choate is the best place to help Julia achieve all her goals due to the remarkable person that her older sister has become since attending Choate. What event would you consider the most significant in your child's life? 1000 Characters left in your response -- The most significant event to have recently happened in Julia's life would have to be the decision to send her to school in the United States. We explained the importance of studying abroad to her before we packed her up and shipper her off to the U.S. but that did not mean that she was fully prepared for the move. She went to the United States without knowing much about the culture and people of the Americans. She spoke some English but not as proficiently as she would have wanted to. Worst of all, she was living in a dormitory on her own for the first time, living with other foreign students. This time, she was fully independent and needed to learn to manage her dorm room, her

Select a health care law topic from the assigned readings. Present an Term Paper

Select a health care law topic from the assigned readings. Present an executive summary of the law in 200 words or less, and dis - Term Paper Example Applicable industry standards, statutes, federal laws and ethical guidelines Ethics and laws imply that physicians inform patients of the limit to which confidentiality protection of disclosure of personal information is allowed. This is because a patient requires privacy which should be respected by the physician. Federal statutes allow physicians to diagnose death which should be made in line with industry standards Statutes or federal laws may also require that a medical case be disclosed in fear of further spread. Applicable Industry Standards, Statutes, Federal Laws, Ethical Guidelines There are many ways of acquiring medical insurance benefits under the Medicare coverage program. The largest number of people are automatically eligible for this coverage at the age of 65 if they are entitled to monthly social security retirement benefits, survivor or transport retirement benefits. These individuals are entitled to Medicare coverage irrespective of whether they are eligible for ot her retirement benefits. Those persons not entitled tom these kinds of benefits will need to file an application for the Medicare coverage.

Eco Fashion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Eco Fashion - Essay Example The focus of the paper "Eco Fashion" is on chemical use and pesticides use in the processing of raw materials for garments. Vogue notes that the earliest references in the past three decades with regard to sustainable fashion and ecofashion were made as early as 1990. Then, the New York Times headlined a story with regard to an emergent green movement in the world of fashion, as well as a new environmental push in fashion observed in Vogue not long after that. It was also in 1990 that a pioneer of the ecofashion movement, Katharine Hamnett, spoke before the United Nations with regard to the anomalies in the way garments were produced. The talk was specifically about the negative ecological impacts of those production and marketing processes for fashion and garments. Terms such as acid rain and children of the earth, as they pertain to fashion, also came into vogue. These point to the deep historical roots of ecofashion in the fashion literature. Fast forward to the present, and there are whole movements in countries in support of ecofashion, and awareness of the large negative impacts of mainstream fashion processes, including the production processes for garments, has reached an all-time high. For instance, in Sweden, government assets that promote ecofashion cite statistics with regard to the massive negative environmental toll of producing mainstream fabrics. The chemical trails from the dyes, bleaches and prints that are used to produce garments are said to be on par with the production. of wastes in petrochemical plants. Meanwhile tons of these garments end up becoming part of landfills and cause long-term havoc to the environment because of the chemicals that they contain. They also take a long time to totally decompose. This awareness in turn has been used to provide a boost for the creation of new ecofashion companies all over the world. In Sweden for instance, the first ecogarment firms were founded in 2004 (Quinn 2007). Among organic sources, the lite rature mentions hemp, cotton and bamboo as prime examples of organic materials that have become representative sources of fabrics in ecofashion (Rauf and Vescia 2009, p. 27). Recycling materials and the use of so-called â€Å"low-impact dyes†, or dyes that have a minimal environmental footprint, are also among the key concepts, materials and technologies that are associated with ecofashion (Lee 2009; Styles 2012). On the other hand, new ecofashion trends emphasize how current ecofashion has veered away from the symbolisms and the values associated with past eco-fashion waves. These include those that were produced by the counter-culture hippie movement of the 60's and 70's. Emerging ecofashion trends include that ecofashion has come to be embraced by the biggest mainstream fashion designers and brands, from Armani to Oscar de la Renta. Moreover, the focus of the new wave is on the aesthetics of the person wearing the apparel (Winge 2008, pp. 511-524). Elsewhere in the literat ure, sustainability and ecofashion have also come to be associated with fair trade too. Are the cotton farmers paid well and fairly? Are the supply chain processes optimized to

Us Involvement in Mogadishu Essay Example for Free

Us Involvement in Mogadishu Essay In response to the impending starvation of hundreds of thousands of Somalians the United States entered Somalia in December 1992 to provide humanitarian aid and establish a functioning government as under the UN mandated United Nations Operation in Somalia II (UNISOM II). Acting as a replacement for the ineffectual United Nations Operation in Somalia I (UNOSOM I) mission UNISOM II was carried out by United States-controlled (UN-sanctioned) Unified Task Force (UNITAF). UNISOM was given the power to establish a stable environment in Somalia under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. On October 3, 1993 a battle between UNISOM joint forces and Somali militia ensued in Mogadishu. The operation was in decline following the two day battle of Mogadishu. In the fighting 18 US soldiers perished and a further 83 casualties were reported. The bodies of several US casualties were maimed and dragged through the streets of Mogadishu by an assortment of civilians and members Aidid’s Somali National Alliance. In response to the events pressure mounted for the immediate withdrawal of US troops. President Clinton announced in the days following that, â€Å"our mission from this day forward is to increase our strength, do our job, bring our soldiers out and bring them home† and that by mid 1994 all troops would be withdrawn. The US, for fear of a repeat of the events in Somalia reshaped foreign policy terms the years following. The resulting concept of the â€Å"Mogadishu Line† became intertwined in post Cold War international relations discourse. The withdrawal of US forces following the Battle of Mogadishu has been identified by its commentators as the key reason for the failure of US intervention in later conflicts such as the 1994 Rwanda Genocide. â€Å"The ghosts of Somalia continue to haunt US 2 What effect did US involvement in Mogadishu have on US foreign policy? policy. Our lack of response in Rwanda was a fear of getting involved in something like Somalia all over-again†1 Further instances of Clinton refusing to mobilize US ground troops: †¢ 200 lightly armed hostiles at the Haitian harbor of Port-au-Prince causing the withdrawal of the USS Harlan County a week after the Mogadishu battle †¢ Bosnia and Herzegovina 1995 †¢ August 1998 bombings of the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania Killing 224 people and wounding more than 5,000 †¢ Clinton administration retaliates with missile strike on al-Qua’ida training camps at Zahwar Kili in Afghanistan Policy makers became more keen on risk avoidance. This became evident in a change in military tactics. Following the1998 bombings of the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the failure to kill Osama bin Laden prompted for the construction of plans for an armed assault to capture the Saudi masterm ind. Officers within the Special Operations Command (SOCOM) â€Å"were eager to go after bin Laden† 2. The CIA’s evaluation of the plans estimated a 95 percent chance of successful SOCOM capture of bin Laden given the chance to launch. The plans for the operation were opposed by the top brass. According to a Pentagon officer there was â€Å"reluctance to even discuss pro-active measures associated with countering the terrorist threat through SOF operations.† 2. Concluding in a Pentagon study Richard Shultz expressed that â€Å"The Mogadishu disaster spooked the Clinton administration as well as the brass†2. There was a prolonged and persistent refusal to implement surgical special operations strikes in the face of increasing intelligence regarding unspecified al-Qa’ida plans to attack US targets. A team of 20 Delta operators and SEALs from Task Force 20 were intent on conducting a raid on a home in Mosul, Iraq. The team was backed by a force of app roximately 200 of the 101st Air Assault Division. Forces were repelled by small arms fire repeatedly. To deal with the threat US forces evacuated neighboring homes and fired 18 antitank missiles thus neutralizing the threat. Following the September 11th attacks â€Å"US policy makers became more risk acceptant in dealing with the threat posed by al-Qa’ida.† 2. 1 Former US deputy special envoy to Somalia, Walter Clarke. Command Posts (Aug 2010) â€Å"The Mogadishu Effect and Risk Acceptance† Retrieved August 2nd, 2012, from Command Post site: http://www.commandposts.com/2011/08/the-mogadishueffect-and-risk-acceptance/ 2 3 What effect did US involvement in Mogadishu have on US foreign policy? Evaluation of Sources John S. Brown, Brigadier General, U.S. Army Chief of Military History. Taken from ‘The United States Army in Somalia 1992 1994‘ The source offers the perspective of a historian under military command who was alive at the time. With both hindsight and first hand knowledge the source allows for a more-complete over view of the situation. With the purpose of education, the source is trustworthy to have usable information, however it could very well contain altered information as it has been assembled by a member of the armed forces involved. This source in particular is valuable in that it provides an overall evaluation of US involvement in Somalia from incursion to excursion. With this being written by a member of the US armed forces there is a clear bias towards US service members. This is evident in the statement â€Å"The American soldier had, as always, done his best..†. The source highlights the scope of the blow to US forces during the operation and validates the US’s later decision to refrain from providing military aid on humanitarian missions to come. â€Å"fortytwo Americans died and dozens more were wounded†. While the source serves as an accurate recount of what happened during the operation and provides a brief insight into the events following (Bosnia) it is limited by failing to directly address the topic at hand. The source does not address United States foreign policy changes as a result of the conflict. Benjamin Runkle. August 27, 2011. Taken from ‘The â€Å"Mogadishu Effect† and Risk Acceptance’ http://www.commandposts.com/2011/08/the-mogadishu-effect-and-risk-acceptance/ The above source is an extract from an article written specifically concerning policy changes as a result of incidences during the US lead operations in Somalia. It has been taken from a site focusing on military history and policy. â€Å"CommandPosts.com was launched October 5, 2010, by St. Martin;s Press as a site for military history, current events, and fiction† 3. The purpose of this source is to provide relevant information to those seeking more in depth knowledge concerning Military history. â€Å"It is the intention of CommandPosts.com to foster a community that will engage the audience and provide a location rich in rational discourse and commentary, and find creative ways to support the m ilitary community† 4. Benjamin Runkle ‘is a former paratrooper 3 Command Posts (Oct 5, 2010) ‘About’ Retrieved Oct 30, 2012 the Command Posts site: http:// www.commandposts.com/2011/08/the-mogadishu-effect-and-risk-acceptance/ 4 Command Posts (Oct 5, 2010) ‘About’ Retrieved Oct 30, 2012 the Command Posts site: http:// www.commandposts.com/2011/08/the-mogadishu-effect-and-risk-acceptance/ 4 What effect did US involvement in Mogadishu have on US foreign policy? and presidential speechwriter, with a Harvard PhD, and a Bronze Star from Operation Iraqi Freedom. He has worked in the Department of Defense and the National Security Council, and is currently a Professional Staff Member on the House Armed Services Committee.’ This makes him a person who may have more direct knowledge concerning the topic. The source is limited in that Benjamin Runkle’s current affiliation with government organizations could result in some of the information being censored. The source supports the ideas concerning the ‘Mogadishu Line’ and its prevalence concerning following operations, especially those under the clinton administration. â€Å"The Clinton administration later declined to intervene to prevent repeated atrocities in Bosnia and a genocide in Rwanda due to its experience in the Aideed manhunt†.5 Analysis It became apparent following the unacceptable loss of U.S. lives in what was intended to be a humanitarian effort that changes needed to be made to the way the U.S. deals with foreign affairs and combat operations. A week following the Mogadishu battle the USS Harlan County was withdrawn from the Haitian harbor of Port-au-Prince. The ship was faced with lightly armed hostile demonstrators who’s numbers were well bellow 200. It became evident that the Clinton administration did not want a repeat of the events in Somalia where simple peace keeping initiatives would turn into hostile combat against the very the people the U.S. forces were sent to help. Bosnia and the Rwanda genocide were no different. As a result of its experiences the U.S. officials maintained a safe distance â€Å"deciding against taking a leading role†.7 in Rwanda. Instead public statements, diplomatic demarcates, initiatives for a ceasefire and attempts at contacting both the interim government perpetr ating the killing and the RPF were the chosen course of action. The U.S. further advocated that the UN refrain from a â€Å"robust response†. 7 With the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people and wounding 5,000+, the Clinton administration opted for a missile strike on the al-Qa’ida training camps at Zahwar Kili, Afghanistan. Officers within the Special Operations Command (SOCOM) were keen to launch an infiltration assault to capture Osama bin Laden, head of al-Qa’ida. In spite of a high 95 percent CIA predicted success rate of capturing bin Laden, should forces be given the go ahead to launch, members of the top brass were not convinced. The plans received strong opposition. â€Å"The Mogadishu disaster spooked the Clinton administration as well as the Command Posts (Aug 2010) â€Å"The Mogadishu Effect and Risk Acceptance† Retrieved August 2nd, 2012, from Command Post site: http://www.commandposts.com/2011/08/the- mogadishueffect-and-risk-acceptance/ 5 5 What effect did US involvement in Mogadishu have on US foreign policy? brass.†6 It was evident in the Pentagon conducted study that there was â€Å"reluctance to even discuss pro-active measures associated with countering the terrorist threat through SOF operations.†7 Not only was the Battle of Mogadishu an exemplar for a raid to capture bin Laden. The failed 1980 operation â€Å"Desert One† was â€Å"repeatedly cited as a catastrophic precedent†7 in which a team attempted the rescue of American hostages in Iran. Chairman of the Join Chiefs of Staff, General Hugh Shelton dismissed the proposed SOF raids as â€Å"dumb-ass ideas, not militarily feasible,† and â€Å"something in a Tom Clancy novel† which ignored â€Å"the time-distance factors.†7 In the face of increasing warnings of active al-Qa’ida plans for attacks on U.S. targets the refusal to consider â€Å"surgical special operations strikes in Afghanistan persisted.† A formidable team of 20 Delta operators and SEALs from Task Force 20 were intent on conducting a raid on a home in Mosul, Iraq. The team was backed by a force of approximately 200 of the 101st Air Assault Division which were situated themselves in support by fire positions to the South and northeast of the target building. Forces were repelled by small arms fire repeatedly. Commanders decided against laying siege as it was unknown if there would be escape tunnels leading away from the building. Fears were mounting for an insurgent retaliation, â€Å"trapping the U.S. forces in an ambush similar to Mogadishu.† To deal with the threat US forces evacuated neighboring homes and fired 18 antitank missiles thus neutralizing the threat. This action showed the unwillingness of US commanders to spare the lives of their men for an objective. Decreasing the number of U.S. casualties has become a priority in United States combat operations in foreign lands. Following the September 11th a ttacks â€Å"US policy makers have became more risk acceptant in dealing with the threat posed by al-Qa’ida.†. 6 Richard Shultz. Command Posts (Aug 2010) â€Å"The Mogadishu Effect and Risk Acceptance† Retrieved August 2nd, 2012, from Command Post site: http://www.commandposts.com/2011/08/the-mogadishueffect-and-risk-acceptance/ 7 6 What effect did US involvement in Mogadishu have on US foreign policy? Conclusion As a result of the tragic loss of U.S. lives in Mogadishu changes in foreign policy were issued in attempt to â€Å"prevent repeated atrocities† in future conflicts. The American public became and its leaders became sensitive to the thought of loosing more American lives. For the remainder of the Clinton administration policy towards foreign conflicts was more reserved. U.S. officials took a restrained position on conflicts concerning lands or military operations of a likeness to that of their hunt for Aideed. The losses at Mogadishu and the similar loss during the 1980 â€Å"Desert One† mission combined to restructure the way officials approached military objectives. A higher value was placed on the lives of soldiers which resulted in an increased use of alternative methods such as direct missile strikes to neutralize a thread or complete restrained actions in response to a hostile situation such as Rwanda. 7 What effect did US involvement in Mogadishu have on US foreign policy? Bibliography †¢ ‘About’ [section detailing Website purpose] Command Posts (Oct 5, 2010) Retrieved Oct 30, 2012 the Command Posts site: http://www.commandposts.com/2011/08/the-mogadishu-effect-and-risk- acceptance/ †¢ â€Å"Battle of Mogadishu† Wikepedia (2012) Retrieved June 5th, 2012, from Wikepedia site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mogadishu_(1993) †¢ â€Å"Bosnia and

A research paper on cocaine Essay Example for Free

A research paper on cocaine Essay Grown in the countries of South America, with Columbia being the most productive, the Erythroxylon Coca bush is the natural origin of cocaine, a central nervous stimulant. Its history is as rich and diverse as the people using and dealing the drug. Cocaine use dates as far back as the 16th century when it was used among Inca royalty. In the early 1800s cocaine was introduced to Europe. Sigmond Freud wrote a song in its honor and famous author Robert Louis Stevenson wrote The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde during a six -day cocaine binge. In the early 1900s cocaine was available to consumers over the counter. Its medicinal value was a relief for toothaches and congestion. Parke Davis advised their consumers of the effects of cocaine by stating that it could make the coward brave, the silent eloquent, and render the sufferer insensitive to pain. The use of cocaine found its way into other products like wine and the most famous of all, Coca Cola. Early production of Coca Cola contained 60mg of cocaine. Today, the popular soft drink still uses the leaves of the Coco Bush for flavor but the illicit drug has been removed (www.cocaine.org). The resurrection of cocaine use as a recreational drug began in the 1960s, and was used mostly among the affluent because of its price. Movie stars, sport stars and the like give cocaine its mystique and draw; psychological and physical effects make it addictive. Changes in form and price make cocaine far more accessible and affordable. Today, there is no clear connection between the use of cocaine and education, occupation or socioeconomic status. Cocaine is generally sold as a hydrochloride salt, a fine white powder substance that is commonly referred to as snow, coke or blow. Street dealers of cocaine commonly dilute, or cut the drug with similar looking substances like talcum powder or with active local anesthetics and even sometimes with other stimulants like amphetamines. The purity of street cocaine, powder form, is about 75 percent. When the impurities of this form are removed, it is known as freebase or crack cocaine. Crack cocaine  is easier to find and less expensive to buy. Cocaine in any form can be found in almost every town and city. Research studies done in 1999 showed cocaine is used by over 3.7 million Americans 12 years old and over, with the highest rate among people 18 and 25 years of age. The use among people 35 years and older also continues to rise (www.cocaine.org). The effects of cocaine depend on the route of administration, the amount of consumption, the users past experience, and the circumstances under which its taken. The major routes of administration are snorting, injecting, and smoking. Snorting is inhaling the powder form through the nasal cavity. The drug enters the bloodstream through the nasal tissues. Injecting cocaine is using a syringe to release the drug directly into the bloodstream. Smoking cocaine is inhaling the cocaine vapors or smoke delivering large quantities to the lungs where it then enters the bloodstream as quickly as injecting. Cocaine interferes with the re-absorption process of dopamine that is a chemical messenger of pleasure to the brain. The effects are instant and intense but not long lasting (www.drugs.indiana.edu). The short -term effects usually make the user fell euphoric, energetic, and alert to their senses. It can decrease your anxiety and heighten your sexuality. Crack users have described the rush as a whole body orgasm. Or, a user can feel anxious or panic-stricken. The drug is a parody of heaven and hell. Often times the cocaine user craves other drugs. These symptoms appear quickly and disappear within a few minutes or a few hours. Physically, a persons blood pressure, body temperature, heartbeat, and breathing accelerate, along with pupil dialation. In larger amounts the side effects intensify. The high might include feelings of paranoia, vertigo, and muscle twitches and physically a user might experience chest pains, nausea, blurred vision. Over time with continued use, the effects of cocaine gradually change. Irritability, restlessness, insomnia and paranoia replace the euphoria. Physically, the long- term user will lose interest in sex and lose weight. Those who snort the drug wear out their nasal septum while those who inject it risk the chance of contracting hepatitis or AIDS. Cocaine related deaths  are often a result of cardiac arrest or seizures followed by respiratory arrest. Over time, to the users tolerance, the drug will build. To achieve the same effects as that of early usage requires larger doses of the drug. The user becomes psychologically dependent. The drug becomes pivotal to their thoughts, feelings and their daily activities. Cocaine just made you feel really good. Then after you get done feeling really good then you start to get a Superman ego and thats the beginning of the end. (Drug Wars; A Frontline, PBS Production) Often times, cocaine addicts develop an illicit lifestyle to keep up with their drug habit. Cocaines influence leads a user to stealing from family, friends and even employers. The lifestyle of addicts becomes as corrupt as the organizations that produce and supply the product. Cocaines addiction has two sides: the love of the high and the love of the money. The US Government has estimated that cocaine trafficking takes nearly $80 billion a year out of our economy. In 1990, the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) estimated about 20 Colombian organizations controlled most of Americas cocaine supply. Annual revenues of the Colombian drug trade have been estimated to be 5 billion dollars. The drug cartels existing today control every phase of the drug trafficking business. They manufacture, transport, distribute, and finance cocaine. Like many large corporations, the business involves bankers, accountants, and lawyers, wholesalers and retailers. More special to this business the cartel payroll also includes chemists, pilots and enforcers of security (www.drugs.indiana.edu). The cartels are structured in layers, at the center is the cartel manager or kingpin. Information shared among the members of the cartel is highly secularized. Only a choice few are privy to all the workings of the cartel. Those employees holding positions in the outer layers of the organization (the lawyers, accountants, bankers, and enforcers) reap the financial benefits of serving their bosses but are strictly put on a need to know basis. Cartels operating in the United States are referred to as cells which are self contained organized units. The Medillin Cartel was the first known, successful cartel of cocaine  traffickers coming from Colombia. It was established in 1978 and lead by Carlos Lehder. It used violence and intimidation to stay one step ahead of the justice system. The cartel bribed police officers with money or threatened them with death if they did not honor the cartel and look the other way when they did business. The Medellin Cartel was taken down in March of 1984. Carlos Lehder was arrested in 1987, tried in the United States and sentenced to 135 years without the possibility of parole. George Jungs, the Medillin Cartels American contact, testimony against Lehder assured his conviction. In the 1990s, on the heels of the Medillin, came the Cali Cartel. They are responsible for 70-80 percent of the cocaine coming into the United States and 90 percent of that entering Europe. Instead of violence and intimidation like their counter parts, the Cali operated their business using a subtle approach. Law enforcement has had difficulty in closing the Cali operations for many reasons. Their structure is different from that of the Medillin, as is their methods of smuggling. They are much more conservative. They only sell to people they know. The home office, which is the CEO and vice presidents, coordinate the cells. The cells contact the buyers usually by cellular phone or pager and arrange the time and place to distribute the drugs. Payment is made at the second meeting. When the deal is done, the home office is contacted and accurate records are kept by both (www.awesomestories.com). While the Colombians may monopolize the cocaine market, there are similar organizations in other countries. The Triads and Tongs of China, La Compania of Cuba, and the Yakuza of Japan are some other major drug trafficking organizations. They have successfully invested into legitimate American business. The one thing they all have in common: United States of America as a client base (www.cocainefacts.com). Cocaine touches many people on a variety of levels. It can completely change a persons personality, for the worse. It spins a web of deceit and destruction. Physically and mentally the drug tricks you from recognizing reality. Euphoria tricks you into believing that the high is good, all the while the time bomb is ticking. Blowing up your mind is just a matter of time. Works Cited Bailey, William J. Factline on Cocaine. 1995: Heller, Matthew. Addicted to Love. Los Angeles Magazine. Sept. 1999. No Author Given. No Author Given.

Mahashian di hatti limited | Analysis

Mahashian di hatti limited | Analysis INTRODUCTION Mahashian Di Hatti Limited is an INDIAN manufacturer, distributor and exporter of ground spices and spice mixtures under the brand name MDH. It specializes in several unique traditional blends of spices suitable for different recipes (Chana Masala for chickpeas, for example). The company was founded in 1919 by Mahashay Chuni Lal as a small shop in Sialkot. It has since grown in popularity all over India, and exports its products to several countries. It is associated with Mahashay Chuni Lal Charitable Trust HISTORY Mahashay Chuni Lal started the enterprise in Sialkot (now in Pakistan) on April 13, 1919. In a few years, the spices became very famous and they came to be known as Deggi Mirch Wale (the Pot Chilli People), after the name of one of their famous spice mixtures. After the partition of India, Mahashay Dharam Pal, the son of the founder, shifted to Delhi and opened up his shop at Ajmal Khan Road, Karol Bagh under the banner Mahashian Di Hatti of Sialkot (Deggi Mirch wale). The name Mahashian Di Hatti means the Shop of the Magnanimous in Punjabi GROWTH The company initially relied on hand-ground spices, but has since shifted to automated machines, with a capacity of producing 30 tonnes of packaged spices in a day. There are large fully automatic manufacturing plants at Delhi, Gurgaon (Haryana), Nagpur (Rajasthan), Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh) and Amritsar (Punjab). It has now a network of over 1000 wholesalers and over 4 lakh retail dealers in India. It was ranked 490th among the unlisted Indian companies in 2000-01. MDH pioneered the marketing of powdered spice mixtures in handy attractive packages. It has been co-opted as member of several committees of the Bureau of Indian Standards. In the last few years, the Exports Division of the company has started exporting the spices to several countries including UK, other European countries, Canada, United States, Japan and Switzerland FAMOUS PRODUCTS The MDH brand name is very well known throughout India. The products sold under the brand name include single spices (such as chili, coriander and turmeric) as well as blended spice mixtures. There are over 45 products available in over 100 different packages. The more famous ones are Chana Masala (for chickpeas), Sambar Masala (for Sambar), Kitchen King (for vegetables), Chunky Chaat Masala (for chaat), Garam Masala (hot spice, multi-purpose) and Chicken Masala. In addition to spices, it also manufactures incense sticks, Ayurvedic tooth powder and havan samagri, a mixture for Hindu ritual sacrifices. PRODUCTS We offer a wide and comprehensive range of products, which include: Wheat Flour SPECIES INCENSE STICKS AYURVEDIC INFRASTRUCTURE We are empowered with a state-of-the-art infrastructure, requisite technology, efficient transport facilities and superb working environment. We possess a spacious warehouse which can store large quantities of products. We are backed by a well-qualified and technical team of astute technocrats, business oriented professionals and diligent workers, who are highly experienced and have a thorough knowledge in the relevant field. The team is capable of sourcing large volumes of products to satisfy the customer demands and specifications. We possess one of Asias largest Wheat Flour Manufacturing Plant which is installed in our in-house production unit. We have the capacity to produce 3000 mt. Wheat Flour as per the European Standards on daily basis. Our wide network of distributors and suppliers are scattered all over the globe ensuring the customers of safe, smooth and punctual delivery of products. BUSINESS MISSION We will strive as a corporation,to gain trust from customers and continue to grow in strength. Make an effort on a daily basis to keep every customer satisfied,by offering every area of business, competitive products and services of superior quality thereby contributing to society. Having mutually satisfying interactions with customers through products Not being content with the present reality, continually striving for betterment and improvement, and accepting the challenge t Creating an environment in which each individual can apply their greatest strengths, an environment in which results will be evaluated correctly, and in these contexts, using our collective strengths to the fullest. Continuing to act in righteous ways, as good members of society MARKETING OBJECTIVE Strengthening brand name competitiveness With consumer requirements of tasty, safe and convenient as a basis, detailed analytical assessment of changing consumer demand is becoming vitally important in the food industry. Hereafter, in addition to guaranteeing quality and taste, MDH will analyze market data even to the extent of product quantity and shape, in hopes of predicting forthcoming trends and reflect these in the development of new products SITUATION ANALYSIS Growing interest in healthy eating and convenience has set the pace for this growth. Consumers have been boosting their consumption of whole grains. At the same time, they are buying more highly processed convenience foods like sandwiches, pizzas, and tortillas which often contain large amounts of flour. This situation reflects a turnaround in flours fortunes. . . Types of Flour Wheat flour is the primary grain product consumed in the United States. Thats apparent in the wide variety of food products prepared from flour: packaged flour for home baking, bakery mixes, breads, cakes, cookies, crackers, and pastas. Flour is also used in breakfast cereals, gravies, and soups. Overall, products classified in the bread and cake industry Roller flour mills, producing wheat products like atta, maida and suji are struggling for survival, since wheat has vanished from the markets in india such as uttar Pradesh. Many mills have closed down while others were running at less then 50 per cent of their total capacity utilisation. The total annual installed capacity of Uttar Pradesh was 40 lakh million tonne at one time. COMPETITOR ARE; Shakti bhog 10-15% market share Annapurna 40% market share Pillsbury approx 5-10% These are the competitors of MDH aata as we see Annapurna has the leading market share as number one brand so for to compete with we use latest technology so that amount of vitamins,minerals maintains a high rate. TECHNOLOGY The machines used by us is of latest technology which made good quality aata which is free from moisture,humidity contains an appropriate amount of vitamins, proteins starch carbohydrates which is useful for customer. For to satisfy the customer needs we take care so that cost reduces profit increases with quality of product. SWOT ANALYSIS The strengths, weaknesses opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis provides a snapshot of MDH AATAinternal strengths weaknesses and external opportunities and threats. STRENGTHS 1MDH is Indias largest industry producing spices having a prestigious image in the mind of consumers. RD expenditure is very high in all other existing segments as well as for its MDH aata. Shri Dharmpal ji the Founder of MDH is extremely knowledgeable, personally and financially dedicated to making the business a success. ‘ Just In Time Production Active and committed advisory council. Well developed distribution network. WEAKNESSES Though it has considerable anecdotal information the company is lacking of marketing research. Internal dispute among its subsidiary companies OPPORTUNITIES To capture the market share as using the latest technology.. MDH which is new for Indian Flour industry Government policies like the automatic approval for FDI up to 100% Introduction of new products Online activities, online buying 6 .Easy availability of credit, lower interest rate and higher consumer confidence and gradual recovery witnessed in business cycle. THREATS The major threat comes from rich and big competitors who dominate the Indian market. From companies like Annapurna having market share more than 40% TARGET MARKET STRATEGY As MDH producing its new product that is aata so it has to target the market where he lacks .generally branded aata is purchased in urban region not in rural area.So it our target to capture the market rural as well as urban so that we cater the needs and provide satisfication to customer along with getting market share. And to provide the goods and services in the region where lacks so that market size increases. VALUE CONSIOUS Those that are looking for the ideal combination of high fuel economy and low maintenance cost in long run at an affordable price. All three groups are likely to be exposed to the same degree of outdoor and ambient advertising. It is difficult to estimate the exact size of each group, but most buyers will be a mix of all three and not only one reason will motivate a purchase. The overall size of these groups is probably fairly small and will explain why products are not more common yet. CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES Objectives are important to clarify and set an objective set of targets that ought to be achieved by the planned actions. Objectives exist on three levels; Corporate, marketing and communication. Corporate objective can be summarized as shareholder wealth maximization and is ultimately achieved through higher profits and increased sales. Marketing objectives are the successful introduction of a Marketing communication activities are a vital part in achieving the above two and have to be Coordinated with all other company activities (production, sales, purchasing). Strengthening the relationship with the MDH brand. Increase the consideration of MDH when planning to purchase flour. The target market should be reached as fully as possible Customer and Consumers have to be made aware of a new product and its brand name. PUBLIC RELATIONS â€Å"The development and maintenance of good relationships with different public groups†. Public relations are useful because they enjoy a high credibility at a low cost, but the exact message cannot be controlled. This communication form will be of major importance for the MDH campaign as many buyers draw their information from the media. Personal selling is very important because a car is a high involvement product and affords more Conviction for purchase which is given by PS. personal selling will be carried out by the local dealers who in advance should have been trained to be familiar with the MDH Atta (dealership launch material, conferences) and its advantages and how to overcome objections. CREATIVE STRATEGY The MDH Atta offers features that no other product offers. These unique selling points should be emphasized in the promotions and any barriers to purchase are weakened at the same time (unique selling Proposition strategy). To appeal to the target market promotions should promote the car and its users to be innovative imaginative, bold, intelligent, revolutionary and pioneering. It would make sense to create different executions to target one of the three mindsets identified in the target market and emphasizing their reasons to buy and refute their individual barriers to buy. MARKETING MIX PRODUCT As product is sum total of tangible and intangible attributes including productdesign, style,size, quality, colour,brand name ,labeling etc. So we produce the product in such a way which has all the qualities so that customer takes the proper benefit. Here in case of aata we produce it in such a way so that it carry all the features of good product.. PLACE/DISTRIBUTION Place is the distribution mix. It is concerned with the smooth flow of goodsandservices from the producer to consumer by creating time, place and possession utility. It signifies two things namely physical distribution and the channels of distribution.It also includes transportation, warehousing, inventory control,wholeselling etc. So we create the utility in such a way so that there is proper distribution of goods.. PRICE Price is the value of a product expressed in terms of money.It is a matter of vital importance to the buyer or seller.Exchange of goods and services takes place when buyer is willing to purchase at the proper price. As in case of this aata we set the price in such a way so that it will low then the competitor price and it is of better quality. We set the price in such a way so that their will be proper profit margin, considering the terms of credit and other policies. PROMOTION SALES PROMOTION Monetary incentives to buy, is most effective to trigger a decision or purchase. SP is useful at the beginning of the product life cycle to increase acceptance or provoke a trial. MDH is selling the aata beneath its production cost. However an additional third party sales promotion mechanism has been put into place: Power shift, a government backed agency, To get the biggest benefit out of this MDH should advertise this fact. Otherwise SP should be used spontaneously once a slowdown in sales can be detected (PLC). ADVERTISING a paid form of non-personal mass communication from an identified sponsor, should be the major communication mix ingredient for this campaign. Advertising is controllable, but expensive esp. TV. Advertising can be used to increase awareness, create interest and inform about MDH AATA USPs. Customers or consumer are reached by placing adverts in their target media. Direct mail in the form of newsletters can useful for this campaign to create awareness (pre launch) and inform or offer of opportunity to book a test drive. MDH has already a database in place but can also buy further data. Direct mail is also important when targeting the corporate buyers and provides them with detailed information about the MDH. PACKAGING Packaging is supposed to be the fifth P in marketing. After product, price, place and promotion, packaging is the element which holds the maximum importance in the marketing of a product. As majority of the purchase decisions are made in store, we ensure that our products are attractively packed so as to capture the attention of the buyers. Our products are packaged in different quantities depending upon the different segment and market. MARKETING RESEARCH Good marketer wants insight to help them interpret past performance as well as plan future activities. They need timely, accurate and actionable information about consumers competition and their brands .they also need to make the best possible tactical decisions in the long run. Discovering a consumer insight and understanding its marketing implication can often lead to a successful product launch or spur the growth of the brand. MDHis doing extensive marketing research to understand consumers preferences and also the competitors strategies. It has a separate RD department which conducts online as well as offline surveys to know what consumers think about its offerings and what are their feedbacks The financial objective is to be financially solvent within the first two years of operation. The various expenditure on various operational activities are as follow- Online advertising; button and banner advertising on automotive websites and on online sites of target media Rs 1, 000, 000 Direct Mail news Letter Rs 500000 TV short Rs 3,00000 Print Rs 3, 00000 Outdoor RS 1, 00000 Sponsorship of MDH target group relevant events, celebrity Endorsement Sales Promotion, to be Confirmed Rs 20000000 Other: Promotions Sales Promotion Personal Dealer activity absorbed in Overheads Testing end of campaign Evaluation Rs 20000000 First year total: Rs 4,00000000.Second year total: Rs 3,00000000 .Third year total; Rs 2,000,00000 Considering the small target group of the MDH and the small projected sales figures a budget of Rs 9million over three years seems appropriate, however I would recommend reallocating the budget. That way the launch period communications can be intensified. Three years are also likely to correspond to the Product of this since car manufacturer have increased their output to keep demand high. ORGANSATIONAL STRUCTURE AND PLAN As well established company Reliance currently has many members on its staffs. However its automobile section is new. As this section matures into a stable and profitable organization the need for employees will grow. The first forseeable employee need is in the area of sales. The plan is to hire salespersons in early 2009 to allow Mr. Dharmpal ji to continue his consulting on a regular basis ,while at the same time ensuring a steady supply of for continued development efforts. To obtain the financial flexibility needed to manage its cash flow successfully the company has made contractors a significant component of its workforce SALES OBJECTIVE Sales of Rs 350,000,0 by the end of 2009,sales of Rs 1 million by the year 2011 and by the year 2013 sales of Rs 3 billion SUMMARY The recommended marketing and communications strategy that makes use of advertising, PR, new media and direct mail. Personal selling will be provided by the existing network of local dealers. Advertising will use TV, Print and outdoor media to initiate purchases. The Internet will play an important role for both advertising and direct mail, using a modern medium to underline the advanced character of this aata. However that this plan so far is only a model/ plan, and not definitive, it can and is likely to change esp. if pre or post-testing give negative results. Before realizing the proposed action a long planning period with frequent meetings of all parties is necessary to ensure the integrity and unanimous messages of the campaign. REFRENCES Financial Times 1999 2001. Various issues. Key Note. 2002. The Green Ethical Consumer. Market Assessment. Varey, Richard. 2002. Marketing Communication. London: Routledge. 4. Pickton, David and Broderick, Amanda. 2001. Integrated Marketing Communications. Harlow:Prentice Hall 5. Fitzgerald, Maureen and Arnott, David. 2000. Marketing Communications Classics. London: Business Press, Thomson Learning Westwood, John. 1990. The Marketing Plan. London: Kogan Page Limited.