Pizza Cut Value Chain Analysis Essay Example

Pizza Cut Value Chain Analysis Essay About Value Chain Analysis: Value Chain Analysis describes the activities that take place in a business and relates them to an analysis of the competitive strength of the business. A value chain identifies and isolates the various economic value adding activities such as differentiating a product, lowering the cost, and meeting need quickly that occur some way in every firm. It portrays activities required to create value for customers of a given product or service. It tells where low cost advantages exist; in what ways each activity can be undertaken so as to differentiate it from that of a firm’s competitor, how to deliver satisfaction to customers as quickly as possible. Business is viewd as a process, a chain of activities in order to find the strengths and weakness of a firm operating in a competitive environment. Competitive advantage is created and sustained only when a firm is able to perform the most critical functions either more cheaply or better than its competitors. The value creating activities of a firm, according to Michael Porter suggested that the is grouped under two headings: (1) Primary Activities those that are directly concerned with creating and delivering a product . (2) Support Activities, which are not directly involved in production, but may increase effectiveness or efficiency and work to enhance or to help the functioning of primary activities. Linking Value Chain Analysis to Competitive Advantage A business which wishes to outperform its competitors through differentiating itself through higher quality will have to perform its value chain activities better than the opposition. We will write a custom essay sample on Pizza Cut Value Chain Analysis specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Pizza Cut Value Chain Analysis specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Pizza Cut Value Chain Analysis specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer By contrast, a strategy based on seeking cost leadership will require a reduction in the costs associated with the value chain activities, or a reduction in the total amount of resources used. About Pizza Hut: Yum! Brands Inc is the owner of the Pizza Hut chain worldwide. A Fortune 300 company, Yum! Brands owns Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, AW and Long John Silver’s restaurants worldwide. Yum! generated more than US$ 25. 9 billion in worldwide sales in the year 2003, and has more than 33,000 restaurants in over 100 countries. Pizza Hut entered India in 1996, and opened its first restaurant in Bangalore. Since then it has captured a dominant and significant share of the pizza market and has maintained an impressive growth rate of over 40 per cent per annum. Pizza Hut is believed to have close to 50 per cent market share of the organised pizza-retailing segment in India. I have chosen few objectives of Pizza hut in Indian Market and how did it use Value chain analysis to achieve its objectives. Pizza hut’s main strategy to remain competitive is being customer focused and service oriented. So its main objectives based on this are: Objectives of Pizza Hut in Indian Market †¢To provide world-class facility and taste to its Indian customers in a cost effective way. †¢To maintain uniform taste across all its outlets. †¢To present its products when and where the customer wants within committed half an hour time. †¢To delight the customer, ie more beyond satisfaction. Lets us see that how Pizza hut worked to achieve its objectives by improving its activities using value chain analysis. VALUE CHAIN OF PIZZA HUT: Inbound Logistics: Buying of all raw materials as mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, sauce, base, potato, vegetables, wheat, babycorn, spices, chicken. Manufcaturing Operations: Preparing of pizza base. Customising Pizzas at outlets. Outgoing shipping and Logistics: Transporting pizza base to all pizza hut outlets, Delivery of Pizza to the customers, mainly in home delivery. Customer service: Catering to the needs of the customers before and after pizza supply. Marketing: Advertising and Campaigning of Pizza hut products. It is mainly the support activities that make product differentiation or cost reduction and add value to the product and increases customer’s satisfaction and delight. Lets see how pizza hut works out each of the support activities that improves the functioning of primary activities. Procurement: (This concerns how resources are acquired for the business) Main issue for Pizza hut was to provide quality tasty Pizza’s at affordable cost in Indian Market. They aimed to provide a quality product to their customer and on the other hand be responsive as well. The cost will go high and so to be efficient enough they need to maintain the supply chain. For this they concentrated on economies of scale and developed a chain of local suppliers for 95% of its ingredients. However as they aim to provide world class facility and taste, Pizza hut imports the main taste causing ingredients like pepperoni, mozzarella cheese from Australia and spain resp. But due to this the cost of the product increases. But by local sourcing of all other ingredients like vegetables, tomatoes, wheat they could compensate this increased cost. Carton boxes are also purchased locally to benefit from the economies of scale Their strategic decision here is to form a chain of local suppliers to reduce their cost of material procurement. However further because of entry of other competitors like Domino’s to Indian market Pizza hut further tried to reduce its cost without affecting quality or taste. For this Pizza hut has established a tie up with Bangalore based Dynamix Dairy Industries Ltd(DDIL) for sourcing mozzarella cheese. By this the cost and lead time for cheese has reduced greatly. Landed cost of cheese comes to US$ 3. 3 to 3. 5/kg and the domestic price is US$ 2. 9 to 3. 1/kg, the lead time has reduced from 60 to 30 days. Innovation and Development: The company invest resources for research on customers’ needs and analysing customers’ feedback about what people think about pizzas; what do they like or dislike about pizzas; and what do they want from pizzas. The feedbacks and research are the basis of the company for innovation and development of new products. Telephone numbers are provided for customers to give their feedback about the product and suggestions. Separate teams are dedicated for continuous survey in all the outlets and studying customer preference and taste. Through customer quiestionairre, focus group, market study changing customer needs are studied and new products introduced to continue delighting the customers and make Pizza hut different from the competition. Human Resource Department: Pizza hut invests on skills, Knowledge, training and development of employee for different positions. The company has program like annual performance appraisals designed for Team members to know exactly the expectations and existing opportunities for improvement. Information and skills are well-communicated internally among employees; the company allows open communication all the way to the top. Customer Mania is a program developed for Pizza hut employees and it is a program based on three principles: operational excellence, great marketing and real ‘sit up and take notice’ standards of customer service. The program aims to instil the basics of customer service to every team member of Pizza Hut. These include smiling and greeting the customer, presentation, good service and dealing with service problems themselves without seeking managerial help. Employees set their own targets without supervision. All over the world, Pizza Hut holds a quarterly customer mania mindset session for its team members who include all the crews, managers and Restaurant Support Centre Team to reiterate and motivate employees on the importance of providing consistent product quality, service, ambiance and value for money to the customers. In this session, employees outstanding in customer service are recognised and awarded. Technology Development: Information Technology usage. Proper IT system and information management was absent in Pizza hut. This lead to billing problem, misinterpretation, miscommunication between the suppliers and the outlet managers and wastage of resources. No customer database was maintained and no knowledge about customer demand pattern, preferences, need existed. This lead to improper inventory control and excess, short supply to outlets. Built in server storage system of Pizza hut collapsed due to exponential growth of the organisation network. Pizza hut faced huge loss due to this. To solve this problem it deployed SAP ERP. Now SAP ERP plays the crucial role in helping to manage the internal operations and to maintain the extended supply chain. By this Pizza hut managed its database and invented way to maintain its increasing database. Usage of temperature controlled trucks is also a technological advancement. Other support activities for each of Primary activity: For Operations and logistics: Material handling and Transportation- In order to maintain uniform taste across all its outlets, Pizza hut had set up four commissionaries(Noida, Mumbai, Kolkatta, Bangalore) where Pizza base in made and transported to different Pizza hut outlets. Here same base is transferred to different outlets and there depending upon customer’s order toppings made and served. This also avoids problem rising out of sudden demand of particular pizza, as only plain base is transferred to all places and at outlets customised Pizzas are made to provide varieties to customer. It is a Push Pull strategy employed here, customers are satisfied on getting custom made pizza and Pizza hut also enjoys economies of scale in manufacturing base. The bases produced are transported by use of refrigerated – temperature controlled trucks to keep the base as fresh as possible. There are sufficient trucks employed and also vacant space is there and when demand increases this space can be filled and by this Pizza hut doesnot incur any additional charges when the demand increases. By this way they add value by transportation and cut off cost, also increase the efficiency. Adding on, when planning for new outlets, they do so such that it locates along the trucks route so that no increase in transportation charges and there is optimum use of trucks. Supporting and enhancing Customer service: Timely delivery- As they aim to deliver Pizza’s within thirty minutes, Pizza hut opens outlets in bulk numbers across the cities. So when an order is placed by customer, the outlets communicate with each other and the nearest counter delivers the pizza to the customer within 30 minutes. So by this the responsiveness and efficiency is increased. Catering to local Taste – leveraging the Indian Advantage: Pizza hut offers pure vegetarian dine ins in some Indian cities and also offers jain Menus. By this it attracts minority segment customers. Pizza hut’s Indian Menu offers varieties that match to local tastes and thus it takes good care of the Indian culture and religions and designed its outlets and offerings accordingly, thereby making it a international brand with local taste. Service for differently abled people: As part of its customer service, most Pizza Hut restaurants provide facilities for people with disabilities. The company has improved its physical environment with more easily accessible facilities and has trained its employees to better understand and meet the needs of customers with disabilities. Pizza hut also offers loyalty cards to customers as a token of appreciation and makes them come back to Pizza hut again. Enhancing Marketing activity: Pizza hut has formed partnership with Nestle, Pepsi and it offers combo offers to delight its customers. They have massive TV advertisements and campaigns to enhance its visibility and attract the Indian youth and children especially. It has concepts like ice cream factory, where for one payment persons can take as much ice cream as possible. This attracts many children. Pizza hut employs various techniques like offering surprise gifts to customers, buffet system, and new concepts like hot dots to impress customers by their timely delivery. Brand image is increased by quickly resolving customer complaints, integrating feedbacks in the processes, compensating immediately for dissatisfaction, keeping up promise of delivery. All these are made possible by closely weaved communication system among the outlets. Thus by analysis of every activity in Pizza Hut’s business chain, it successfully modified processes which did not add value into processes that adds and increases value of end product, thereby delighting customer and make them feel as receiving more value for money spent. This tool helped Pizza hut to be cost effective and customer focused and maintain its competitive advantage.

Recruitment And Selection In A Social Setting The WritePass Journal

Recruitment And Selection In A Social Setting INTRODUCTION Recruitment And Selection In A Social Setting } Bowles, N., 1995. Methods of Nurse Selection: a review, Nursing Standard, 9, 15, pp. 25–29. Department for children, schools and families (DCSF), 2010. Safeguarding children and safer recruitment in education.   education.gov.uk/consultations/downloadableDocs/Safeguarding%20Children%20Guidance.pdf   Ã‚  Ã‚  { Accessed on 17th January 2012} Department of Health (DOH), 2004. Code of practice for the international recruitment of healthcare professionals, crown . Erooga, M., 2009. Towards safer organizations: adults who pose a risk to children in workplace and implications for recruitment and selection. nspcc.org.uk/Inform/research/findings/towardssaferorganisationssummary_wdf63929.pdf   {Accessed on 16th January 2012} Social Services Directorate (SSD), 2006. Safeguarding vulnerable adults: Regional adult protection policy and procedural guidance. gain-ni.org/flowcharts/downloads/safeguarding_vulnerable_adults.pdf {Accessed 20th January 2012} Warner, N., 1992. Choosing with Care. The Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Selection, Development and Management of Staff in Childrens Homes, London: HMSO. Wood, R., 1998. Competency-based recruitment and selection. Wiley publishers

Case Analysis for DLC Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Case Analysis for DLC - Essay Example The main business opportunities place considerable  focus  on manufacturing, trade, processing, and on the transport and distribution which became the  regional’s  leading  trade  hub  serving around two million customers all over the world. Dubai media city, Dubai Internet city and the Jebel Ali free zone were also  extremely  favorable to foreign investors. Foreign companies  were allowed  to set up free of the local  ownership  and would benefit from the renewable fifteen years  guarantee  of the absence of taxation. Foreign companies can setup  free  of local ownership and benefit from a renewable 15 year  guarantee  of no taxation. Dubai Logistics City  was  afterwards  built, to the already existing Jebel Ali Port, like a  further  free  region  and  fraction  of the future  prospect  Dubai World Central. The Jebel Ali port, standing in a free zone allowing  expansion  in the future, which is a paramount con sideration to the  Emirates’  leader. The Dubai World Central would be used to  host  the all-new airport. It would make it remarkably easy to  revolutionize  freight  from sea, air or land transportation. ... It  was characterized  by the existing internationality and the  Ã¢â‚¬Ëœeasy-living’  atmosphere. In addition to these, English  is extensively spoken, which makes it more attractive to foreigners and the  religious  issues in the  country  are handled  liberally. Up to present times, growth in tourism has led to the  booming  of construction. The  latest  ambitious project intended is Burj Dubai. It  is planned  to be the highest tower worldwide in completion. Just like the Burj al Arab Hotel, it  is situated  on a manmade island.  Around 4.9% of its current GPD came from tourism and conferences.  It was  mainly  from the tourists attracted by the world class accommodation and the duty-free shopping. Dubai palm island  development  was of one of the greatest projects. It was an  island made  by  man  in the resemblance of a palm tree. It offered villas, apartments and hotels.  The island's large size made it even visib le from the outer space.  The major focus of every decision in the country has been its development and sustainable  growth. Due to its monarchial system of governance, coordination and long  time  planning  of policies and projects  it is made  exceptionally  possible.  However, adapting to the  country’s way of doing business, i.e., the Arabian  style  is extremely difficult to many foreign investors. In most of the negotiations, these Arab partners do not have open discussions about the positive or negative impacts of a project in question. Instead of this, they just  withdraw  from the negotiations involved, consider the  matter  at hand  private  and inform the  alien  business partners concerning their  private  decision later. Nevertheless, life in the country – as a model of tolerance and with its variety of different cultures

The Gathering Storm and Global War (US History) Assignment

The Gathering Storm and Global War (US History) - Assignment Example The Axis powers wanted to rule the world. If not stopped by the combined efforts of the Allies, this could have been a reality. Without the U.S.’s support, the English, Russians, and other Allies might have failed to defeat the Axis powers. 2) JAPANESE INCARCERATION-Should the survivors of the Japanese prison camps have been given a $20,000 reparations payment from 1988 on, or was their imprisonment just the fortunes of war? Explain. Yes. Japanese prison camps should have been given $20,000 in reparations, not only for their economic and material losses, but also for the emotional turmoil at the loss of security of being an American citizen. If we did not issue reparations, then we would have been worse than the NAZIS. We are supposed to be good guys, although America sometimes makes mistakes. These mistakes need to be acknowledged and paid for. Japanese prison camps were not only a mistake, but wrong as well. 3) ATOMIC BOMB-Was there any better option for Pres. Harry Truman to end WW2 than dropping two atomic bombs on Japan? Explain. No. The Japanese had a different perspective about death. Our goal was to protect as many American lives as possible. The Japanese did not mind dying in kamikaze attacks as long as Americans also died. If the atomic bomb had not been used, the war could have lasted indefinitely. This might have caused more causalities, American and Japanese, than the ones that died in Hiroshima or Nagasaki

Week9 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Week9 - Assignment Example In Communist Russia, with the new policy of Dictator Stalin to abolish religion in state, people faced a similar scenario when all of their religious landmarks and praying centres were destroyed. Similarly, in terms of political aspects, there are divisions found in societies because of a difference of opinion and support over a matter of support of political party and even on formats of governance. Social aspects such as the difference of interactions and sharing of opinions also cause cornering of families and selected people among societies (Rees, 2004). Economic statures also have had impact on social gatherings of societies, as a rift is created among individuals of societies who belong to a separate economic standard. Lastly, cultural aspects also create hostile situations, as people of different backgrounds interact with only each other and are subject to racial stereotypes, which cause aggressive behaviour at an individual level. With these aspects, societies are subject to hostile rifts that result in dangerous outcomes at times, which must be controlled by government policy

Complex Leadership Styles And Success Management Essay

Complex Leadership Styles And Success Management Essay Leadership style is too complex to limit to a simple formula, although there are some personality traits that are effective for becoming a successful leader. Some of these belong to leadership, while others are used in project management. Some general characters are common in most of the leaders such as: creativity, intelligence and courage. However, there are two opposite traits among leaders especially in critical situation which can determine whether the leader will be successful or not. Some leaders tend to blame others and avoid responsibility, while other leaders accept the failure and believe that outcomes depend on their decision and also their actions. Today, being an effective project manager is one of the most important issues in each organisation. This chapter will demonstrate the gist of activities which have been done about leadership so far. It will demonstrate the differences between management and leadership within the project environment. Leadership can be expressed in terms of the ability to build the instruction of project, motivate the members and maintain the performance of different groups in the organisation. In general, managers should deal with complexities and leaders should focus on changes. Leadership is related to conflict management and soft skills but management is related to formulating, monitoring and processing. Accepting failure but not defeat, considering the past mistakes during the project, and being the optimistic person should be considered for leaders to overcome the problems and direct the project in the proper way. It is difficult to establish a certain instruction for becoming an effective project manager although many different leadership and management styles have been built to develop the project accurately. All of the leadership styles and management technologies have been made in order to finish the project on time, precisely and satisfactorily. Effective leaders should first find out the purpose of their leadership (George, 2006). . Leadership theories General view Leadership has been considered more than any other aspect of human behaviour in the project management study. Leadership is the ability to bring people together to attain the results over time. Leadership is the long-term process and it needs years of progress and hard working. The leadership for 21st century becomes more complex and should be redefine in order to achieve the great goals (George, 2006). Many investigations have been carried out in leadership studies so as to find an appropriate leadership theory. For instance, Bass (1985) has had a great impact on leadership theory. He identified different types of characteristics, behaviours, and leadership styles. In spite of that, the science of leadership does not have certain factors which can be applied for all of projects in the world. Measuring and assessing projects in different places are not the same due to different situations. Therefore, many aspects of leadership still stay theoretical and cannot be practical (Gehring, 2007, Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). All general leadership theories such as transformation, transaction and path-goal indicate that the project managers should own the required traits to lead a project effectively. In other words, effective project managers should recognise which approach is appropriate for applying to project leadership. Pinto et al. (1998) stated that Any project managers ability to lead effectively is augmented by his or her understanding of alternative approaches to leadership. Therefore, leaders should extract the skills of their employee and apply them to the project in order to lead the project accurately (Gehring, 2007). History of theories Theory of leadership like other theories has the history of formation. The first one was called superior individual and related to ancient Egyptians kings. The second was the great man theory which made by developing the first theory and indicated that a great man could determine the history of his country. The third one was the man of the hour and it was the modern form of the great man theory. This theory expanded and made the basic recorded leadership theory that called trait theory. After this time leadership was broadly modelled due to impact of great leaders on history such as Napoleon, Frederick, Churchill, Roosevelt and etc (Gehring, 2007). Trait theory Generally, traits are concerned with personal characteristics such as courage, intelligence, creativity and appearance. Trait theory has remarkable mistakes due to its limitations. The reason is that it is difficult to determine which leader can be known as a successful leader. Also, many trait lists have been made for leadership; therefore it is not easy to make a trait list as a reference. In addition, leaders who only possess the trait list cannot be called as successful leaders. Finally, by the end of 20th century, this theory is replaced by modern theories which concerned by behaviour of leader rather than traits (Gehring, 2007) . This theory indicates that effective leaders are born, not made. It supposes that effective leaders have almost the same traits. Three major factors are considered in this type of theory: personal appearance, personality, and abilities. Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991) found the main traits of effective leaders; intelligence, technical knowledge, self-confidence, influence, ambition, and integrity. This classification for effective project managers is different. It includes problem-solving and negotiating abilities, initiative, orientation, communication, perspective and self-confidence (Turner, 1999, Turner, 2005). The authentic leaders should have the five main traits for leading the organisations such as: showing self-discipline, making connected relationship, leading with both hearts and heads, training solid value, and encouraging their purpose with passion (George, 2006). Competency Unfortunately, the leadership terms such as: leadership trait, leadership attribute, leadership style and leadership competence have very narrow definition. Therefore, sometimes these terms have been used in an incorrect position. However, it should be noted that in the modern project, all of these terms should be considered in order to evaluate leadership success (Gehring, 2007). According to trait theory, some researchers believe that the effective leaders have the common inherent competencies. Although, this idea is just for inherent competencies and the personal competences can be learned as well as personal characteristics during the work (Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). Some authors believe that all of people have the power of leading in them; some of them in government, some of them in business, and etc. This power as series of competencies should be discovered in a certain time by themselves to serve others (George, 2006). Projects need project management competencies in order to be accomplished successfully. Competence can be defined in terms of skills (including intelligence, management and problem-solving skills), knowledge, traits, aptitude, behaviour, and motive. The competencies have been identified by the project manager competency development (PMCD) framework: knowledge, performance and personal. The personal one also has been classified into six major competencies: (1) personal effectiveness, (2) influence, (3) Managerial, (4) cognitive, (5) human service and (6) accomplishment (Gehring, 2007). Many taxonomy have been made for the competency, although, one of the comprehensive one was made by Dulewicz and Higgs (2003). They defined fifteen leadership competencies for three types of leadership: intellectual, managerial skill and emotional. See table 2.1(Dulewicz and Higgs, 2003). Table 2.1: Fifteen leadership competencies and the competencies profiles of their styles of leadership (Dulewicz and Higgs, 2003). The competency leadership theory was made in 1990 in order to recognise the competencies of effective leaders. It shows that effective leadership can be obtained only by learning. Different combination of competencies can make different styles of leadership; therefore, they can be useful in different situations. Accordingly, Bass (1990) stated that certain leaders are more suitable for stable circumstance and others are suited to an unstable circumstance (Turner, 2005). It should be noted that the leaders in certain industry can very rarely to be effective in other industries where they have not enough experience. Thus, the structure of industry can impact on competence of leaders (Groysberg et al., 2006). Major leadership theories Many leadership theories lists have been identified over the last century. One of the significant of these lists is classified into six theories: (1) trait theory, (2) competency theory, (3) behavioural or style theory, (4) contingency theory, (5) visionary or charismatic theory, and (6) emotional intelligence theory (Turner, 2005). The behavioural or style theory is related to behaviours and assumes that effective leadership can be obtain during the life and effective leaders are not born naturally. The Cognitive theory assumes that an effective leader can be made in a special environment. Path-goal theory is made through cognitive theory. In pas-goal theory leaders should help members to find their path to their goal. This theory determines four leadership behaviours: directive, supportive, participative and achievement-oriented (House, 1971, Turner, 2005). The visionary or charismatic theory appeared in 1980 when business leaders changed their strategy due to critical situation. Two leadership types of this theory are transformational (people-focused) and transactional (task-focused) which are made by Bass (1985). Later, Bass and Avolio (1995) developed these transformation and transaction leadership styles and found that transformation style has greater influence on the project than transaction one. The transformational one is usually for high difficulty circumstance and the transactional one is usually for low difficulty circumstance. However, the appropriate one is the combination of both types which can be useful in diverse condition (Turner, 2005, Bass and Avolio, 1990). The emotional intelligence theory indicates that the leaders emotional intelligence is more effective than the leaders intellectual ability for the project. The main areas of emotional intelligence are as followed: visionary, coaching, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting, and commanding (Turner, 2005, Goleman, 2002). Leadership Models Firelighter and fire-fighter There are two general styles of leadership in project management: fire-fighter and firelighter. The leaders who pay more attention to anticipate and even prevent problems are known as proactive leaders or firelighter, although, the leaders who tackle immediate problems are known as reactive leaders or fire-fighter. There should be a linkage between proactive decision and reactive decision to control the project accurately. Therefore, recognizing the necessary skills for the project manager is vital in order to make the shift in leadership style. However, it is obvious that project leadership which tends to be proactive in controlling projects is more effective (Barber, 2005). Proactive decision affects the direction of project and reactive decision solves the existing problems of project. These two leadership styles might be known as transformational leadership model or firelighter and transactional leadership model or fire-fighter. Transformational leadership is about lighting the fires of stakeholders motivation and creativity. In contrast to the transformational style is transactional leadership style which indicates the reactive behaviour of leadership (Barber, 2005). Bass and Avolio (1990) pointed out that there are times when leaders may need to apply a more reactive transactional style and be fire-fighters, but the main outcomes for success depend on the leaders capacity for being a firelighter. Active and effective leader combines leadership style (how the leader affects) and best practices (the best day to day working behaviours). The best practices for effective leadership style include parameters such as: vision, credibility, collaboration, communication, action-orientation, feedback and recognition, and accountability. In addition, the research has proved that the most popular leadership style for running safety and creating high-performance culture is transformational one (Krause, 2007). Transactional leadership style might be passive or active, although both approaches stay reactive. Fire-fighter leaders who just take action when they face to the problem are known as passive and other fire-fighters who trace deviation from standards tools and react to problems are known as active (Barber, 2005). The firelighter leadership style is more complex than the fire-fighter style. The fire-fighter style is overcoming the inertia of reactive leadership. Many different fire-fighter-firelighter models have been built to control the project precisely. One of these models separates the transactional style into three parts; maintenance, reactive and avoidant. Figure 2.1 (Barber, 2005) illustrates this model. Maintenance comprises initiating structure, emotional consideration and contingent reward. This part can prepare the requirements to transform the fire-fighter leadership style to firelighter one. In other words, the maintenance behaviours make a bridge to the transformational leadership style (Barber, 2005). The reason for that is the forming of credibility and trust of leadership which enable the leader to be accepted among team members as the firelighter leader. The firelighter part of this model combines the maintenance behaviour and the transformational behaviour. The contribution of this model is to expand understanding of the importance of the firelighter role in project management (Barber, 2005). The significant point of this model is the active transactional behaviour. It can provide a bridge to firelighter style for project managers who are confused by reactive fire-fighting style. Maintenance behaviours explain the tasks, assign responsibilities, identify rewards for attempt and observe the personal requirement of the team members (Barber, 2005). Bass (2003) indicated that contingent reward is the capability to establish fundamental objective and to present bonus to project members accordingly. It indicates a combination of task oriented and stakeholders supportive manners. In the initiating structure, the leader should clarify contingent rewards, direction of the project and assignment for the team members. Emotional consideration is related to team structure, personal requirement and ambitions (Barber, 2005). Leadership in project management Figure 2.1: The fire-fighter-firelighter model of leadership (Barber, 2005). The leader should defuse conflict between the team members and provide an appropriate environment for the team members. Bass (2003) expressed that firelighter leaders should persuade the team members to be inventive and imaginative by searching new assumptions, reframing problems, and applying new approaches. They also define four vital elements for transformational leadership; idealised influence, inspirational motivation, individualised consideration and intellectual simulation (Bass, 2003). Firelighter leader should enhance the understanding of the advantages of the project among the stakeholders. They should persuade their members to think about their action beyond simply what is in it for them. In other words, they should raise the consciousness of followers and move the focus of follower away from their self-interests (Bass, 2003). In addition, Bennis and Nanus (1985) asserted that the effective leader can manage changes and unpredictability by encouraging members to be innovative to overcome the difficulties. Therefore project managers are known as fire-fighter due to continually solving the problem and put out fires. Project manager and leadership style Project managers should trace the progress of their project and anticipate any problems before they will occur in the future. So, it is wise that project managers can be proactive and forestall the problems rather than being reactive and solve the problems. Project managers who focus on proactive leadership style will be more successful in completing projects accurately. Thus, project managers are known as fire-fighter due to continually solving the problem and put out fires (Barber, 2005). A project manager is a businessman, a psychologist, an accountant, and a technician. The project management institute (PMI) has developed classification; the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK) which identifies eight main management competencies: scope, time, cost, risk, quality, contract, communication and human resource. Project managers should be highly effective people. They should possess knowledge of the technical details of their jobs as well as the ability to obtain the goals by leading the project team effectively (Barber, 2005). It should be noted that there is not only a comprehensive leadership style for leading a project successfully. However, using different leadership styles for each stage of a project can be more appropriate (Frame, 1987). Project managers leadership style affect their implementations, although, they usually tend to be task-oriented rather than people-oriented. They should create an appropriate environment for their project members. Therefore, their competencies are evaluated in terms of their success in leading the projects. In addition, it should be mentioned that in multiple-cultural projects, project managers should use particular leadership styles (Turner, 2005). Leaders with any leadership styles should be careful with the hazards of leadership in order to prevent to lose their way such as: being an imposter, being a shooting star, being a loner, being a glory-seeker, and being a rationaliser (George, 2008). Implication of the fir-fighter-firelighter model The fire-fighter-firelighter model builds a combination of firelighter and fire-fighter styles. It is useful for different styles of managing especially those which need remarkable changes in the project management environment (Barber, 2005). Firelighter leaders encourage the team members to use their creativity and adopt the requisite manners to deal with the problems. They demonstrate a combination of transformational and transactional behaviours. Nevertheless, they tend to be active leader and rely on transformational behaviour rather than reactive behaviours of management by exception. Thus, It is essential that the leader tend to be proactive in order to conquer the forthcoming problems (Barber, 2005). Software tools in project management by monitoring past data can strengthen a reactive leadership style. The leader who trusts on monitoring software tools would be the reactive fire-fighter through the project cycle. The concept and control of forthcoming problems is the most important ability for being an effective leader in project management (Barber, 2005). Integrating leading and managing Leading versus managing Many different rules have been established for differentiating the leading and managing so far. However, it is difficult to determine the role of them in succeeding of a system. Some researchers state that the competences and traits of leaders and managers should differ from each other in order to perform their tasks successfully. Managers tasks are related to effectiveness, direct and stability of the project, although, leaders tasks are related to adaptation, innovation and flexibility of the project. In other words, managers are practical, critical, and logical, while leaders are imaginative, inventive, and sensitive (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). There are diverse views about managing and leading. Some people who are more pessimistic about managing would like to have leaders in their systems. Some people who are more optimistic about managing would like to have both manager and leader in their systems. The other attitude is to having one person as a both leader and manager in a system. Nevertheless, it is very rare that someone can perform both managing and leading tasks in an organisation. It should be considered that in any of these perspectives, too much attention on leading or managing makes an organisation to be unsuccessful (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). If a system is more complicated, then a managing role is more important and if a system has an active atmosphere with much uncertainty, then a leading role is more significant. In other words, a system which needs more changes requires a leader rather than manager and a system which needs more process and orders requires a manager rather than leader. Herein, the significant point is to inter-relate the leading and managing roles in an organisation. Therefore, if any organisation can establish this joint properly, then it would have the better performance and successful project accordingly (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). Different approaches There have been different approaches for definition of managing and leading. This debate is still continuing due to complexity of appreciation of these contexts. The first approach is to make a coequal role for both leading and managing and defined each of them more broadly. The second approach is to define a leading role as the previous definition but add it to managerial roles. The third approach is to establish a set of roles without identifying as leading or managing roles. The most appropriate approach should be defined in terms of the performance determinants in the flexible leadership model. In spite of that the best approach is still unknown and further research is needed to obtain it (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). The Flexible leadership model Three determinant of organisational performance can be recognised by the flexible leadership model; (1) effectiveness and popularity, (2) invention and changeability, and (3) human resources and relations. Each of these determinants is more important in an especial situation. Human resources and relations are more important when replacing skilled members is difficult. Organisations which consider this determinant are more likely to have effective employee skills. The example of this is General Electric Co. which has been identified as the best organisation in training employees. The reason is that, it uses sequence plan to prepare employees for empty key positions (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). Leadership behaviours There are many kinds of leadership behaviours that can affect the performance determinants such as task-oriented which are related to efficiency, change-oriented related to changeability, and relations-oriented related to human resources. Table 2.2 (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005) illustrates these leadership behaviours (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). Management programs and systems Management is an essential work for any organisation. Organisations prepare their members to be effective in all levels. However, there is not a certain code of conduct for management. The lack of common acceptable knowledge, skill and practice lead to management as a practice rather than profession. However, with enhancing the technology in management some programs and systems cover this problem (Lorsch and Clark, 2009). Management programs and systems also can influence the performance determinants. They are demonstrated in Table 2.2 (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). One of these systems is benchmarking. It is a systematic program for improving adaptation, services, and products. It should be noticed that in all of organisations, programs and systems should be directed by leaders to ensure that a management system is carried out accurately (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005) Table 2.2: Leadership behaviours and management programs and systems (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). Leadership behaviours and management system Both of these ways can affect the performance determinants and they act as supplementary for each other. The leadership behaviour can be applied in an organisation to develop new programs. For instance, if manager persuade employees to attend a new training programs and apply them to their job, then this program would be more successful. In the other hand, management program also can improve the effect of leadership behaviour. Employees cannot be innovative without programs. In spite of that in some cases the application of leadership behaviours are limited by management programs (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). Performance determinants Each of performance determinants can affect the other determinants. Sometimes this affection leads to improve the other determinants and sometimes it leads to degrade the others. Therefore, it is not easy to build a certain formula for enhancing all aspects of performance determinants simultaneously. However, the right balance among performance determinants can be useful for improving the organisational effectiveness (Yukl and Lepsinger, 2005). Project success factors In the 1970s, project success factors have been determined in terms of developing system, improving of implementation, and evaluating time, cost and process. In the 1980s, critical success factors (CSF) was brought up in terms of the quality of the implementation, stakeholders activities and organisational objectives (Turner, 2005). Many efforts have been done for establish the comprehensive project success factors. One of the most popular lists was made by Pinto and Slevin (1988). See Table 2.3 (Pinto and Slevin, 1988) . Table 2.3: Project success factors (Pinto and Slevin, 1988). The other important list which covers the previous efforts was made by Turner (1999). This list includes five main factors for project success: context, attitude, sponsorship, definition, people, system, and organisations. See Figure 2.2 (Turner, 1999). Figure 2.2: The seven forces model for project success (Turner, 1999). Project managers leadership competencies and project success Project manager competencies The six main schools of leadership have been recognised by Higgs (2003): trait, behaviour, contingency, visionary, emotional intelligence, and competency. Leadership is defined in terms of these schools as a combination of personal characteristic and competencies (i.e. skills and knowledge). This combination can create different leadership styles which are suitable for different situation. Moreover, competency school has been identified as the most important school of leadership in project management. Therefore, more studies on this school is required for leadership of project management (Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). Personal characteristics and competencies of leaders can influence skills, knowledge and effectiveness of projects accordingly. Thus, assessing the leadership competencies is essential for any organisation. Many efforts have been undertaken for assessing leadership competencies such as multi leadership questionnaire (MLQ) made by Bass and Avolio (1995). However, the documentation has shown that they are still not trusted by all of organisation(Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). Goleman (1996) asserted that two factors are very important for success of projects: emotional intelligence (EI) and intellectual aptitude (IQ). In accordance with this idea, EI model has been made and used by organisations as the most important factors due to its variation in the performance of project. In general, four key competencies have the major role in leadership performance such as: emotional, cognitive, behavioural, and motivational. Intellectual competencies (IQ), managerial competency (MQ), and social and emotional competencies (EI) are the significant elements of leadership competencies (Dulewicz and Higgs, 2000b, Dulewicz and Higgs, 2000a, Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). Project competence and success of project management are closely interconnected. Many competencies lists for project managers have been determined such as: knowledge (qualification), skills (ability to do diverse tasks as: technical, administrative, planning, budgeting, leadership), and core personality characteristics. The effective project leaders should have the basic characteristics such as: credibility, problem solving, tolerance, flexible and communication. However, the researchers have not been able to make a certain link between project manager leadership competencies and project success (Pinto, 1998, Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). Project success There have been many measurement tools for assessing the project success in terms of time, cost and function. The common tool of evaluating project success is critical success factors (CSFs). These days, the modern instrument can take into accounts the parameters such as: client satisfaction, stakeholders ideas, product and service success, business and commercial success, performance improvement, and system benefit. Nevertheless, there are some hazards in projects which can delay the process of implementations. These can be appeared in planning, controlling, and performing of tasks (Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). There is a close connection between the project managers concept of project success and his or her competence. Some researchers have defined this relationship in terms of people, project strategy, leadership style, teamwork, and industrial relations. Although, others have been defined it in terms of cost, time and quality of project and ignore the influence of people on projects. According to project success, Jugdev (2005) found the four key parameters as follows: (1) The project sponsor should have enough desire to carry out the project, (2) The working relationship between project sponsor and project manager should be adjusted accurately, (3) A project manager should tackle complexity and uncertain situations, and (4) Stakeholders idea should be taken into the success criteria (Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). Instruments Today, managers can measure their performance by an intangible variable based more on perceptions rather than factual proof. It includes the quality of management and the status of relationship with the leaders, colleagues and employees. Geoghegan and Dulewicz (2008) identified that there is a statistically significant relationship between a project managers leadership competencies and project success. They used two different types of questionnaire to approach their idea. The first one is the leadership dimensions questionnaire (LDQ) made by Dulewicz (2005) and the second one is the project success questionnaire (PSQ) made by Pinto (1986) (Budd Jr and Marx, 1999). LDQ This tool has been worked in terms of respondents leadership competencies that evaluated on fifteen aspects of leadership. It includes seven EQ competencies five MQ competencies, and three IQ competencies. It has been known as one of the most popular instruments and has been used in diverse public organisations such as: the Royal Air Force, the Home Office, the Royal Navy and private organisation such as DHL. Each dimensions of this tool can be acceptable by reaching the reliable level (i.e. Cronbachs alpha > 0.7) (Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). The example of LDQ questionnaire that has been filled out by 80 project managers is shown in table 2.4(Geoghegan and Dulewicz, 2008). Project managers work in different par

Kmarts Past Struggle Essay -- essays research papers

Kmart Past Struggles Management is a key to success, and Kmart needs proper management to help create a positive image that attracts more customers. Kmart’s disorderly management and bankruptcy caused many customers to shop with other retailers. According to Carr, Wal-Mart and Kmart were the same size in 1990. Since then, Kmart has grown far slower than its rival or the industry. Once one of the largest discount retailers, Kmart filed for the biggest Chapter 11 bankruptcy for discount retailing in the United States (2002). Struggling to find the right type of management has been one of Kmart’s problems that ultimately helped lead the company to its downfall. Kmart is constantly changing CEO’s, and thus focuses. Kmart has had four different CEO’s since 2000, all with different management objectives. Youdath illustrates some of Kmart’s management changes, Charles Conway wanted to turn Kmart into an â€Å"Everyday low price destination,† making Wal-Mart Stores a direct competitor. Conaway cut back on advertising and the results were not profitable. After an unprofitable holiday season in 2001 the company filed bankruptcy. In 2002, James Adamson hoped to improve customer service and restock the shelves within the Kmart Stores. While Kmart was taking time to recover from filing Chapter 11, its rivals like Wal-Mart and Target were stealing its customers. When Kmart was focusing on random in-store discounts, Wal-Mart and Target were pitching low prices, broad inventories, hip products, and a pleasant shopping experience (2002). Jalexson states that in 2003 Edward Lambert rescued Kmart from bankruptcy. Lambert wanted to attract customer’s back, but the closing of 28% of Kmarts over the last two years hurts the chains ability to attract customers and forced the remaining stores to pay a higher portion of advertising costs. Then, in January of 2003 CEO Julian Day said that when a company exits bankruptcy it should emphasize the exclusive brands like; Joe Boxer, Sesame Street and of course Martha Stewart (2003). As mentioned by Karush, starting in October of 2004 Aylwin Lewis was named CEO of Kmart and will be involved in merging Kmart with Sears (2005). With inconsistent management and objectives, Kmart has been struggling to create concrete guidelines necessary to improve store performance. Effects of Past Struggles on Local Stores Kmart’s reputation of poor manage... ...of Kmart’s financial problems and unclear marketing strategy local stores have also suffered. Kmart struggles to change these negative images, and create a positive image to differentiate itself form its competitors. Even though Kmart has had a struggling past, changes can be made by management to improve stores status and attract customers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Actions such as increasing advertising, improving the store environment, and increasing the availability of quality merchandise must be taken to improve store performance. To make consumers more aware of Kmart’s merchandise more promotions and advertisement is essential. Television, radio, newspaper, and promotional ads should be shown to the general public to spark interest. Stores need to improve appearance and organization and also offer a wider range of quality merchandise.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Kmart’s stores have prime real estate and could be improved by new marketing and management methods to make shopping with Kmart a more pleasant experience. Kmart must improve customer satisfaction, and differentiate itself from its competitors. The future is now and in order to stand out changes must be made.

National Symbols of India Essay

Adopted by the Government of India from the Sarnath Lion, Capital of Ashoka, on January 26, 1950. Only three lions visible, the fourth being hidden from view. The wheel appears in relief in the centre of the abacus with a bull on the right and a horse on the left. The bell-shaped lotus has been omitted. The words â€Å"Satyameva Jayate† meaning â€Å"Truth alone triumphs†, are inscribed below the Emblem in Devnagari script. National Flag: Adopted by the Constituent Assembly of India on July 22, 1947. The National Flag of India is a horizontal tri colour of deep saffron (Kesari), white and dark green in equal proportion. According to Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, the saffron colour represents the spirit of renunciation, the white band stands for truth and purity and the green colour signifies growth. In the centre of white band there is a wheel in navy blue to represent the Chakra. It has 24 spokes. The ratio of the length and the breadth of the flag is 3 : 2. National Anthem: Ravindra Nath Tagore’s song, ‘Jana-gana-maru C was adopted as the National Anthem of India on January 24, 1950. The song was first sung on December 27, 1911 during the Indian National Congress Session at Calcutta. The complete song consists of five stanzas but the first stanza constitutes the full version of the National Anthem. The playing time of the full version of the National Xfrthem is about 52 seconds. However, a shorter version mpressing the first and last lines of the stanza, which has a playing time of about 20 seconds, is played on some occasions. It reads: Jana-gana-mana-adhinayaka, jaya he Bharat-bhagya-vidhata Punjab-Sindh-Gujarat, Maratha Dravida- Utkala-Banga Vindhya-Himachal- Yamuna- Ganga Uchhala-jaladhi-taranga. Tava shubha name jage, Tava shubha asisa manage, Gahe tava jaya gatha, Jana-gana-mangala-dayaka, jaya he Bharat bhagya vidhata. Jaya he, jaya he, jaya he, jaya jaya jaya jaya he ! National Song: Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s ‘Vande Matram’, which was a great source of inspiration to the people in their struggle for freedom. It was first sung  at 1896 Session of the Indian National Congress. Vande Mataram Sujalam, suphalam, malayaja shitalam, Sashya shyamalam, Mataram ! Shubhrajyothsna, Pulakitayaminim, Phullakusumita drumadala shobhinim, Suhasinim sumadhura bhashinim, Sukhadam, varadam, Mataram ! National Calender: A uniform National Calendar based on the Saka era with Chaitra as its first month and a normal year of 365 days was adopted from 22nd March, 1957 along with the Gregorian Calendar for the following official purposes: (i) The Gazette of India; (ii) News broadcasts by All India Radio; (ii) Calenders issued by the Government of India, and (iv) Government communications addressed to members of the public. The dates of the National Calender have a permanent correspondence with the dates of the Gregoian Calendar; 1 Chaitrafalls on 22nd March normally and on 21st March in a leap year. Months of National Calendar: 1. Chaitra; 2. Vaishakh; 3. Jaishta; 4. dha’ 5 Shravan; 6. Bhadra; 7. Ashvina; 8. Kartika; 9. Margashirsha; fn Paus’ha; 11. Magha; 12. Phalguna. National Bird of India: Peacock. National Flower of India: Lotus. NationafAnimal of India: On November 18, 1972, Tiger was declared the national animal by the Wild Life Board of India. National Highways: The total length of National Highways 70,548 km. There are about 77 roads classified as national highways in India. Twelve of the important highways are: Agra – Mumbai, Delhi – Amritsar, Jalandhar – Srinagar – Uri, Delhi __ Ahmedabad – Mumbai, Chandigarh – Manali, Ambala – Shimla – Tibet, Jorhat – Shillong – Bangladesh, Delhi – Kolkata, Manali – Leh, Pathankot – Mandi, Kochi – Madurai, Beawar – Sirohi – Kandla. Mumbai – Pune ExpressWay : The first phase of Mumbai-Pune expressway was thrown open to traffic on May, 2000. Xanguages recognised in the Indian Constitution : Assamese: Bengali; Gujarati; Hindi; Kannada; Kashmiri; Konkani; Malayalam; Manipuri; Marathi; Nepali; Oriya; Punjabi; Sanskrit; Sindhi; Tamil; Telugu and Urdu. In 2003, four more languages, were added Bodo, Dogri, Maithaili and Santhali. (92nd Amendment) Official Language: The Constitution ordained Hindi in the Devanagari Script as the common language for all over India and Arabic  numerals as the common numbers. English was to be retained as an official language until 1963, when it was to be replaced by Hindi completely. Rupee Joins Elite Currency Club : July 15, 2010 turned out to be a historical day, as the Indian Rupee got the much awaited symbol, just like other leading currencies of the world Viz-Dollar, Euro Pound Sterling and the Yen. The new symbol is an amalgamation of Devanagari ‘Ra’, and the Roman ‘R’, without the stem. Till now, the rupee was written in various abbreviated forms in different languages.

The natural resource base of a country is fundamental to any explanation of its level of national economic development Essays

The natural resource base of a country is fundamental to any explanation of its level of national economic development Essays The natural resource base of a country is fundamental to any explanation of its level of national economic development Essay The natural resource base of a country is fundamental to any explanation of its level of national economic development Essay Essay Topic: Fun Home In this essay I aim to show the true importance of natural resource to the economic growth of a country. I will be discussing Japans and Canadas economic situation as well as comparing it to Saudi Arabia in relation to the availability of natural resources. Indicators such as GNP per capita, Literacy rates, and the countries exports and imports will be studied to help suggest if a natural resource base is fundamental to national economic development of a county. Natural resources are a vital part in the development of the Worlds economy. There is lack of theory in terms of generalising about the relationship between resources and development. Japan is a good example. As explained Japan is a very rich economic country. Manufacturing is its strength but it has few natural resources. The countries successful economy is based on the export of high quality consumer goods developed with the latest technologies for example Toyota, Sony, Fujifilm and Panasonic are famous across the globe. One common pattern is for Japanese companies to import raw materials and then process them to make finished products, which are sold domestically or exported. In an often cited statement 1 (e.g. Cairns, 1994, p 782) Erich Zimmerman wrote resources are not; they become. Meaning that natural resources have no value until labour and capital is applied. Japan has one of the largest export based economies. Japan is 5th in the world for largest export of goods 2 $538.8 b illion (2004 est). In reference to table 1 it can be seen that machinery is Japans biggest export. Japan relies heavily on other countries for resources. Japans main agricultural product is rice, and most rice eaten in Japan is home-grown. Since Japan has little arable land compared to its population, it cannot grow enough wheat, soybeans, or other major crops to feed all its citizens. In fact, Japan has one of the lowest rates of food self-sufficiency of all industrialized countries. 5 Only 15% of Japans land is suitable for cultivation. This means it has to import a high percentage of its food from abroad. Japan is the largest market for US exports. Japan has had to build its enormous industrial output and high standard of living on a very low natural resource base. Industry, the most important sector of the economy, is heavily dependent on imported raw materials and fuels. Mostly in terms of fossil fuels, particularly oil. It imports 90% of its oil. Due to the fact that In Japan they supply less that 1% of countries demand. Japan has more oil refining than oil production, and more oil consumption than oil refining. Looking at Table 2 it is notable that Japan is also very short on metal and mineral resources. With Machinery and Mineral fuels being one of the major imports. Japans imports of goods is to the value of $401.8 billion. Meaning Japan is making money from developing the imported primary material then processing these resources to export the manufactured goods. Despite Japan having a very poor resource base it is the 3rd largest economy in the world after USA and China. It has huge amounts of economic power, and its average income levels and standard of living are among the highest in the world.6 Japan GNP per Capita is $29,400 (2004 est.) 99% of the population are literate. 7For 3 decades economic growth has been spectacular 10% average in 1960s, 5% in the 70s and in 1980 4% growth. It is world leading in high technology, industry and has a strong work ethic. Industry is the most important sector of economy. Only 6% of the labour force engage in agriculture while 70% of the labour force, are in the service sector. Japan is among worlds largest and technologically advanced producers of motor vehicles, electronic equipment, machine tools, steel and nonferrous metals, ships, chemicals, textiles, processed foods. Japan is a prime example of that a natural resource base is not fundamental to a countrys development. Its the ability to use and convert these natural resources for example iron ore into steal. 8Blessed with natural resources. From another perspective, the theory of development says that natural resource base is positive in the terms of the benefits for a country. For example Canada has a rich natural resource base. Its an extremely affluent, high tech industrial society with high standards of living. When looking at indicators Canada can be seen as a well developed country. GNP per capita is at an impressive $31,500. This ranks above Japan. The literacy rate for the population is 98%. 9 It has been said that the countrys high income and high standard of living is that its export of natural resource financed the growth and diversification of its national economy in a very beneficial way (Sheppard Barnes). Iron ore, nickel, and zinc, copper, gold, lead, molybdenum, potash, diamonds, silver, fish, timber, wildlife, coal, petroleum, natural gas and hydropower are the main resources. These natural resources along with skilled labour and capital help to secure solid economical prospects. However Canada does not just export these primary resources, it uses them to produce manufactured goods such as; motor vehicles and parts, industrial machinery, aircraft, telecommunications equipment, chemicals and fertilizers along with its natural resources such as timber.10Canada has a large amount of exports $315.6 billion. It is Ranked 10th in the world.It imports $256.1 billion. Canada mainly imports machinery and equipment, motor vehicles, crude oil and chemicals.11 Canada gains more capita from exporting than importing this is why it is an economically developed country with a GDP of $31,500- exports counting approximately for one third of this. Its exporting of natural resources and manufactured goods, has created a high level of economic development within Canada. This helps show that a good natural resource base is important to economic growth. It has been assumed that possessing natural resources benefits a country. However, experience has shown that for most developing countries possessing natural resources has not made them economically strong. Nowhere, is this more obvious than in the oil industry.12 This trend has been identified the resource curse by Richard Auty (1995). For example Saudi Arabia is the largest exporter of oil in the world. It holds 25% of the worlds oil reserves. It makes more money from exporting petroleum and petroleum products than importing machinery, textiles, foodstuffs, motor vehicles and chemicals, 13its GDP is only $12 000- 40% of this and 90% of its oil earnings. 14Saudi Arabia holds a huge dependence on oil. In the past the demand for oil slowed and pulled oil prices down by more than a 1/3 causing Saudi Arabia economic uncertainty. In comparison although Saudi Arabia has this natural resource base, it fails to develop. Countries like the USA and Canada use technology and capital to exploit the natural resources to produce manufactured goods. Then use trade and exchange to create a profit. It does not use natural resources alone. As stated before this is shown from Canada GNP per capita of $31,500 which is relatively high in comparison to Saudi Arabia with a GNP per capita of $12,000 who just uses solely depends on its exports of oil. Japan a country with resource deficiency has GNP per capita of $29,400 because it gains access through trade and exchange. This shows that economic resource base is not always fundamental to a countries development. In conclusion it can be seen from the countries of Canada, Japan and Saudi Arabia that a natural resource base is not always fundamental to the countrys level of economic development. One of the key issues that have been identified is that it is the access to natural resources through trade and exchange that is important. The use of technology, labour and capital thereafter produces manufactured goods that can then be exported resulting in strong economic growth. Depending on a natural resource alone is not enough to sustain economic development. Sheppard and Barnes (2003) help to summarise to a certain degree that natural resource base is not always fundamental to a countrys level of economic growth 15 It appears that the location of resource deposits is almost irrelevant to where geographically those resources will be used. Not natural resources alone that facilitate growth its right technology, the right culture, and the right markets.

Antigone Review essays

Antigone Review essays The video of Antigone is as sad as the story of her father, Oedipus the former king of Thebes. It started off with her brother, Polyneices trying to invade the city-state of Thebes with his Argive army. Long ago Polyneices left Thebes to be with his father, Oedipus who was thrown out of Thebes because of an edict. But now he his back to reclaim his throne, which is presently occupied by his brother Eteocles. The two brothers and their armies engage in battle and killed each other. With the last of the male in the royal family dead, Creon their uncle is next in line to become king. As his first act as king of Thebes, he issues an edict. The edict forbids anybody to bury the body of Polyneices, which is lying in the earth being eaten by birds and dogs. As the citizen of Thebes knew this edict a sentry reports that the edict has already been violated. With his fierceness Creon told the sentry that either he expose the criminal or he is to be kill. The very next day, the sentry returns to Creon with the Princess Antigone. A baffle Creon demands to know why was the Princess Antigone brought before him. The sentry told Creon that she was the one that disobey the edict. The sentry explains that he saw Antigone last night crying, poring wine, and trying to rebury the body of Polyneices. Creon then asks Antigone if the charges that the sentry accused her of are true and she admits to it all. Creon also demands that Ismene be charge with the same crime as Antigone, because she knew about her sister's acts and did not report it to Creon. But Antigone refused that Ismene have the equal honor. Creon on the other hand believe that Ismene should have that honor and sentence both of them to death and remove them from the palace. Haimon, Creon's son, seek to change his father's mind base on reason. Because Antigone was going to be Haimon's wife. But his father tells Haimon that he is too young to make these decisions. Haimon tell his father t...

Interpersonal Speech or Presentation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Interpersonal - Speech or Presentation Example Fredric Heider in his 2009 journal, Psychology of Interpersonal Relations,† effective interpersonal communication improves not only our communication skills but also influences our tactical approach of understanding our occupation through an insight of our social, cultural and economic background diversities† (p21). To relate with one another we must enhance knowledgeable interactions with the people we meet each day with whom we may have common point of interest or not. But how do we create and maintain long lasting social touch with these individuals? According to Wallace Domenici in his 2007 journal, Face Work: Bridging Theory and Practice,† lasting relations can be achieved through quality communication by understanding our diversities and using the learnt communication skills† (p12). This clearly shows that interpersonal communication serves to achieve qualities like charisma, confidence and optimism in my field of patient care. In reference to Edward Gri ffins 2009 book, A First Look at Communication Theory, â€Å"verbal and nonverbal communication, problem solving, listening skills, negotiation and assertiveness are supplement skills to effective interpersonal communication† (p1), these skills have impacted my field positively as I have handled patients from all corners effectively. We need to incorporate in our mindset that interpersonal communication is inevitable especially in this world where we are all interdependent to a greater or lesser extent. In order to improve the qualities, knowledge and skills in the patient care unit, I have come up with ideas that are a result of extensive observation of interactions between my workmates and the patients. Choosing the right words to the patients is the first creative idea as the patients solely rely on our directions and handling. Secondly, clarification of details will help the patients and fellow workmates to understand their obligations and follow simple rules as directed to them. One the third idea, working as a group will enhance smooth transfer and exchange of our skills to serve the patients in the best manner possible. This is necessitated by variety of needs of patients which may vary from one person’s specialization. Being assertive in expression of what I feel in the care unit will be a ground to improve my relations with colleagues and maintenance of sanity in the patients care unit. In addition to these ideas, reflection of one’s achievements and creation of rapport, will not only integrate the workforce in the patient unit but will also improve our working environment. Personally, extensive application of my interpersonal communication skills has improved by relations with the patient care fraternity in that I can freely express what I feel about various sections of our duties. My overall evaluation on the patients’ satisfaction with our services shows a positive index from the patient’s narrations. On the issue of value, patients are content with the current unit’s environment and psycho-social support the facility is offering According to Angelo Dalmas in his 2005 book, Social Penetration, † in order to incorporate global interests, proper social mechanisms of integration are prerequisite†(p3). Thus we need to solve complexities of interpersonal communication by asking ourselves the following set of questions as we communicate: Who are we? Who is our audience? Who does our audience think they are? Who do they think we are? What does our audience

Internal Proposal - Oklahoma State University Research

Internal - Oklahoma State University - Research Proposal Example The paper "Internal Proposal - Oklahoma State University" concerns the Oklahoma State University, Mechanical Engineering department and aims to research on the cancellation of online classes. The cancellation of online classes leads to a lose-lose situation in both student and institution bodies. The main goal of this proposal paper is to find out why the online classes was cancelled and also to supply sufficient information to the reader; Miss Kristi Wheeler. Who is the manager of distance education programs in Oklahoma State University so as to solve the predicament relating to the cancellation of online classes. Methodology method is inclusive of the collection of three facts points of primary research. This included interviews with the proper administration, questioners with students and evaluation with consultants. Data collected will aid in the evaluation for the need for maintaining online classes. Three essential features are based on those students who use online classes, de partments which offer online classes, and other people who use online classes. Approach based on the collection of data is explained from these three features. In the course of the research, Director of Disability services was interviewed; the findings are in this section. A summary of the secondary research sources follows finally. This includes the online classes’ literature, benchmarking and online classes’ statistics. A questionnaire consisting of several questions was made up for the students. The aim was to know how the students perceive the issue of withdrawing or maintaining online classes and its benefits to students. The questions ranged from asking the students if they have taken online classes, the reasons for taking online classes, and a section for grading reasons for taking online classes on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest (poor) score and 5 being the highest score (excellent). The students were also asked to comment on several aspects regardi ng online classes. The other part of the questionnaire asked the students if they planned to take online classes in future, if they thought online classes were worthwhile and if they thought online classes should be banished. The questionnaire also contained a section that required the students to comment more about the issue of online classes, their individual suggestion concerned the improvement and benefits of online classes. Distribution of questionnaires to the students was done by one of the administrators of the Engineering Department. The questionnaires were completed over a period of a week (March 4-11) and set in a selected place in the department. Surveys were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. In regard to quantitative analysis, each aspect of the online classes was conducted on how the students rated it; poor (1), fair (2), good (3), exceptionally good (4) and excellent (5). Total rating number for every location was also calculated. This was done because not ev ery student uses writing center. In regard to qualitative analysis, the students’ comments for each aspect of online classes were compiled. Observations and recommendations of the students were linked so as to obtain a better understanding of the need to maintain online classes. Broader categories and themes were generated by us the researchers. Secondary research Results from the data collected The