BMW

In the BMW's future strategy, it strongly focus on expand of the potential market. For example, China and Russia. In terms of brand promotion, BMW Group, will seize the opportunity, and vigorously advise and expand public awareness network. At the same time, BMW also advertise their ambitions and sense of responsibility to society. In the automotive manufacturing area, BMW Group proposed to advertise new product concepts and environmental protection. BMW believes that with further development of the industrial era, the traditional energy sources will become a bottleneck restricting the development of society, as with the development of traditional energy sources will gradually disappear. All of these above are only general publicity, from the details; BMW also has many methods of influence to advertise the brand promotion. In the past, BMW through the sponsorship of 007 series of films to lead more people know about BMW. Nowadays, Now, BMW further into the ranks of social charity and welfare to go. I believe that in the future, more new ways to promote the brand BMW will also be generated in the process. From BMW’s advertising trends, while BMW focus on its own personality and the brand image. BMW also changed their advertising strategies, slowly trying to go into the market culture. For example, in China, BMW will be promoting the brand through the action to protect the local cultural heritage. In short, any successful brand or product can not be divorced from the success of advertising and publicity. BMW case, other brands also do so.

Amazon Case study

Question 1In what ways does Bezos’s decision to develop and deliver the Kindle and Kindle Fire show systematic and intuitive thinking?I think that Bezo’s decision to develop and to deliver the Kindle show systematic and intuitive thinking through competitive strategy to assure the success of the company. Competitive strategy refers to a strategy that is designed to create value for customers by providing lower prices or unique features not offered by rival organizations. This is proven based on Amazon’s quarterly filing ending March 31,2010 when their net sales had increased to 45% in the electronics category. Jeff Bezo, CEO of Amazon.com says â€Å" as we continue to offer increased selection, lower prices and additional product lines within our electronics and other general merchandise category, we expect to see the relative mix of sales from this category increase!†Another reason would be seeing an opportunity only Amazon.com can give long form reading to be digitalized. They have analyzed their strengths and capacities that helped them develop a new innovation in the market. From there, they were able to produce a refined product called Kindle that has the ability to review and remember more what a person reads follow people of interest and allows one to see their Public notes and manage his books, highlights, and notes.Question 2How do you describe the competitive risk in Amazon’s environment as Wal-Mart, Barnes and Noble, and other retailers strengthen their online offerings?Having the most of the services that Amazon provides myself it is my go to place for every time I am trying to make a purchase. In my opinion, since Amazon has established a great amount of customers and being the one of the most organized and friendly online place where you can purchase practically anything, it will be hard for other competitors to achieve such results. Also the greatest benefit to some people is not paying taxes on the products tha t they purchase which is currently being disused by the Government to have amazon costumers to pay a tax.Question 3Amazon is continuously looking for new markets to exploit. As CEO Bezos addresses the strategic opportunity of delivering streaming video, he calls on you for advice. Amazon’s presence and technology are already established in this market. But what decision error and traps might cause him to make the wrong decisions regarding Amazon’s future moves, and why? What can he do to best avoid these mistakes?Question 4What are the latest initiatives coming out of Amazon? How do they stack up in relation to actual or potential competition? How has the decision to produce the Fire turned out? Is Bezos making the right decisions as he guides the firm through today’s many business challenges?Latest initiatives that are coming out, is Prime membership.The benefits include:FREE Two-Day Shipping on eligible items. Note: If the item you're ordering is out of stock or unavailable to ship, we'll get it to you two days after it's back in stock. Remember to check the cut-off time shown on the detail page. Items are delivered every day but Sunday, and orders over $1300 may require a signature.FREE Standard Shipping on eligible items. FREE No-Rush Delivery (typical delivery one week after placing an order). Note: You may receive promotional credit for selecting No-Rush Shipping. Credit will be automatically applied to your Amazon.com account once the first package from a No-Rush Shipping-eligible order ships. You'll receive an e-mail as soon as the credit is available. You may select No-Rush Shipping as many times as it's offered to you, but you won't be eligible for the credit if you cancel your No-Rush Shipping order or return items from it.Shipping Upgrades to expedite delivery. Free Prime Instant Video access for paid or free trial members in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Note: Instant Video isn't available to customers receiving free Amazon Prime shipping benefits through Amazon Student, Amazon Mom, or as guests of another membership.Kindle Owners' Lending Library access to members in the U.S. For more information, go to Kindle Owners' Lending Library. Note: Customers in a paid membership, free trial or receiving a free month of Prime benefits with a Kindle Fire activation are eligible. The Kindle device must be associated with the Prime account that's eligible for the benefit.Early access for members in the U.S. to download a new book for free every month from the Kindle First picks. For more information, go to Kindle First.An estimated 200 million fire tablets have been shipped worldwide since 2009 and another 1 billion are predicted to ship over the next five years. Market intelligence firm ABI Research estimates that 22% of the U.S. tablet users spend $50 or more per month and 9% spend $100 or more – much higher than the spending levels observed for smartphone users. The growing popularity of Amazon’s Kindl e Fire range could mean that a major share of this spending will be re-directed to Amazon’s online storefronts. Since Kindle devices are optimized to run on Amazon’s services, we expect them to drive greater adoption of Amazon’s services. We believe that the content business comprising eBooks and movie/music streaming will be the biggest gainer from the trend.In my opinion he is defiantly making the right moves especially in todays business world.

Classify the business according to its ownership †McDonalds Essay

The business I have decided to choose for this assignment is McDonald’s. McDonald’s ownership is a franchise. McDonald is a large business with more than 30,000 restaurants in over 100 countries, serving more than 38 million people each day. * Overseas comparisons indicate that franchising is the fastest growing form of retailing and McDonald has grown quickly by granting franchises. The term franchising has been used to describe many different forms of business relationships. This form of business ownership was first introduced in the U.K. It is a form of business organisation that is becoming increasingly popular in the United Kingdom. * A franchise is an agreement between two parties. An entrepreneur (franchisor) and franchisee. The franchise agreement grants to the franchisee the right and authorisation to operate a specific McDonald’s restaurant, at a single address. The franchise term is usually for a period of 20 years. These franchise rights include the use of McDonald’s trademarks, restaurant dà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½cor designs, signage and equipment layout, the formula and specifications for menu items, use of McDonald’s method of operation, inventory control, book-keeping, accounting and marketing. * A separate franchise lease covers the right to occupy the restaurant premises. In returns, the franchisee agrees to operate the business in accordance with McDonald’s standards of quality service, cleanliness food safety and restaurant safety. The franchisee is expected to take a ‘hands on’ role in operating the business, and to be involved in local civic and charitable activities. * Throughout the franchise term, the franchisee’s sole business interest should be McDonald’s. Franchising is really the ‘hiring out’ or licensing of the use of ‘good ideas’ to other companies. A franchise grants permission to sell a product and trade under a certain name in a particular area. For example if I have a good idea, I can sell you a licence to trade and carry out a business using my idea in your area. McDonald’s is a big example of brand franchising. McDonald’s has grown its business in the United Kingdom through franchising outlets. Explain the benefits and constraints of the type of ownership. In order to succeed it is necessary to consider the benefits and constraints involvement in franchise. There are clear benefits to this: * You don’t have to come up with a new idea. Someone else had it and tested too! * Large, well-established franchise operations will often have national advertising campaigns and a reputable, well established trading name. * Good franchisors (BFA) will offer comprehensive training programmes in sales and indeed all business skills. * Good franchisor can also help secure funding for your investment as well as e.g. discounted bulk-buy supplies for outlets when you are in operation. * If you are aware that you are running a franchise customers will also understand that you will be offering the possible value for money and service – although you run your ‘own show’ as a part of a much larger organisation. Benefits for franchisor: * Low capital expenditure — franchising is an excellent method of expanding your business with a limited amount of ready capital. Franchisor takes a share of profit without taking risk. Low risk route to expansion. * Personal commitment and motivation from franchisees is greater than from employees, the reason being that they have more accountability and responsibility than an ordinary employee. * Reduced daily involvement — it is a method of obtaining conscientious and dedicated personal who work hard to a safeguard their investment. Benefits for franchisee: Some of the advantages of franchising to the franchisee are that it gives them the opportunity of sharing some of the benefits of a large business such as: * An established reputation * A known brand name and image * Skilled management * Large scale advertising programmes which are usually paid for by an advertising levy * Economies of scale, producing on a large scale is termed economies of scale. McDonald’s does this by trying to keep low cost through economies of scale. They try to select suppliers, which will give the company value for money. * Franchising also offer much of the independence of a sole proprietor In this way a small business benefits from the economies of scale That comes from being part of a large company organisation. Constraints of franchising * Limits on product price – they can’t change their product price up to wherever they want. They have limits for price. * Limits on variety of product – they can’t have variety of products. Customers get confused if they’ll keep variety of product they have to keep certain products. * Limits on freedom- they can’t do whatever they want. They have to follow owner’s instructions to run their business. Franchisees have not much freedom. * Limits on the title of their business- they can’t even change the colour of their title. As you can see they have same colour and title style wherever their branches are. Task 2: A Clear description and explanation of the objectives of the business. The objectives of businesses can vary enormously. Companies may have a number of objectives. In general, the objectives pursued by a business tend to vary according to its size, ownership and legal structure. Small businesses are more likely to focus on survival as an objective as they tend to lack the financial resources to cope with adverse trading conditions. Larger businesses may aim to maximise profits. As being one of the larger businesses McDonald has the following objectives: * Profit maximisation * Survival * Market share * Growth * Providing exceptional customers care * Remaining an efficient and quality producer offering high value to customers (according to company’s policy) Profit maximisation: Profit maximisation is likely to be an important objective for most companies which shareholder including McDonald’s owns. Profit refers to the extent to which revenues exceed costs, so profit maximisation occurs when the difference between sales revenue and total costs is greatest. Companies such as McDonald’s seek to maximise profit to cover up their costs and to provide high returns for their shareholders. McDonald’s does this by trying to keep cost low through economies of scale. They try to select suppliers which will give the company value for money. In order to maximise sales they have various sales promotion throughout the year. The basis for their profit is low cost rather than high price. Survival: Survival is an important objective for many businesses. According to the business writer Peter Drucker: It is the first duty of a business to survive. The guiding principle of business economics, in the other words, is not the maximisation of profits; it is the avoidance of loss. Business enterprise must produce the premium to cover the risk inevitably involved in its operation. And there is only one source for this risk premium: profits. Most recently established businesses like McDonald’s have survival as objectives. This is because often they have intense competition in the market so they have to spend heavily on their advertising to attract customers. They have to ensure that they remain the Market leader in their industry. Growth: Growth occurs for the company when there is an ongoing increase in an economy’s production of goods and services. McDonald’s pursues growth through selling more franchises all over the world in order to have a presence in most countries in the world. They can achieve this by increasing the overall size of the business by merging or joining other firms of buying them out through a take-over. McDonald’s recently went into a joint venture with prà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½t a manager in order to enter another segment of the U.S market and gain a greater share of the market Increasing sale or market share: Growth occurs when there is an ongoing increase in an economy’s production of goods and services. Many businesses pursue growth strategies because their managers believe that this essential for survival. If the firm grows, it grows with more customers, earn higher profits and begin to establish itself in the market. Growth offers: * Increased returns for the owners of the business * Competitive salaries ( and more job security ) for employees of the business * A wider range of products for the business exists and potential customers it is increasingly common for mangers’ pay packages to successful managers can earn substantial incomes if that is reflected in the company’s share price. Increasing market share is an important objective for McDonald’s. It is likely to be a key objective any business operating in a market which is not growing. For example, the market for traditional beers in the U.K is not growing – indeed there are signs that it may be declining. As the market is not increasing the size, brewers of traditional ales can only increase sales by taking market share from competitors. Market share is also important for McDonald’s because that considerably from producing on a large scale. They use expensive equipment and the financial advantages of producing on a large scale are termed economies of scale. Where these economies exist, firm will attempt to take a greater share of the market. This allows them to sell their product at lower price, increasing their competitiveness. Task Three: Every organisation will need to acquire, use and change factors of production in order to produce goods and provide services. McDonald’s has several functional areas that exist in the business to help the business meet its objectives and to provide goods and services as well. And each of which is supported by a particular administrative office. The administration of each function is based on its offices. There are many administrative offices each with a specialist responsibility and function. The functional areas McDonald’s has are as follow: * Finance * Production * Human resources * Marketing * Research and development * 1) Finance Function: The finance director George Mackay is responsible for finance department. The main activities of finance function are: * To keep record of all business transactions, keeping of cost and revenues and setting target through budgeting. * To provide information about services. * To develop new product that satisfy customer’s expectations. * Quality assurance * Supply chain * Measure the financial performance of the business. * Increase market share so they can make profit and give money to their shareholders. * Control the finances and cash flow so the business stays solvent, i.e. does go bankrupt. * Take timely decisions by comparing the predicted performance with actual performance. This chart shows the structure of finance department. Finance Director Finance Information services New product development Quality assurance Supply chain According to McDonald’s finance director accurate financial information allows them to achieve their most important goals to increase profits by expanding, sustained growth and charitable objectives. McDonald’s not only invests much of its profit in extending its own business but also set aside millions of dollars each year to fund charitable activities. Not only this, McDonald’s also provides different type of support to other organisations and schools. * McDonald’s has invested considerable sums in restoring old buildings, often putting back architectural details that have been lost. * McDonald’s supports the Groundwork Trust, an environmental urban regeneration programme. * McDonald’s is a major sponsor of international football. * McDonald’s donates million of pounds towards community, educational and charity programme. * McDonald’s also provides salary and benefits to its employees and reviewed on regular basis. As for most of the time McDonald’s made consistently high profits around $3,633 million and have grown successfully by making good profit and still planning to grow more further (according to the McDonald’s book). 2) Production Function: The function of the production department is to change inputs into outputs, which means produce goods and services are to be brought by the customers. McDonald’s is committed to maintaining and developing the best food products in the quick service restaurant market. And this is what production department is responsible for. In order to deliver on this, the company has made commitments: to food safety, food quality and to nutrition. Company systems and procedures must be continuously updated to ensure the highest standards of hygiene and safety. All staff receives proper training in food safety. McDonald’s food is made from the basic commodities: red and white meat, fish, eggs, milk, grain and vegetables. All raw ingredients are produced to exacting specifications and the highest possible standards and quality and safety. McDonald’s highly trained workers work with suppliers to maintain and develop product quality. McDonald’s recognises the importance of a balanced diet, lifestyle and health therefore provides hot, less fat and fresh food to their customers. McDonald’s invest a lot of money in new technology. Thus, improving the quality food preparation and helps achieving company’s aim of growth in the fast food market. * Controlling production methods and planning the scale of production * Controlling costs and working efficiently * Meeting the specific needs of customers McDonald’s is working hard to develop their products and provide their customers a variety of differentiated products, which helps to meet another important objective satisfying customer needs because increasingly customers expect to buy the product that meet their exact needs. Developing efficient methods of production to reduce cost is helps to make profit and growth because a fall in the cost of production resulting form an increase in the size of a business, which is called economy of scale in the language of business. When outputs rises, the cost of production per item-the unit cost-falls, and the business can reduce the price of its goods. With the lower price, it will get more customers and so benefit from the even lower unit costs. This will make it more competitive and can easily increase market share. McDonald’s has raised standard through out the food processing industry. 3) Human resources: Human resources department deals with staff recruitment, training and development. Human resources is a very important function for the business because it selects the workforce (the right people for right job), provides training and development of staff, which improve their skills, performance and relates to the aim of McDonald’s, which is the best service for its customers. Efficiency helps a business run more smoothly, effectively and profitability. Efficiency begins with developing ways of working that are easy to understand and do not waste time or energy. Division of labour, in which each workers carries out a specific job, increase speed and the more people you serve each day the more profit you make so it helps to maximize profit as well as expand the business. McDonald’s have their employment policies. McDonald’s employs some of the best, most ambitious people on the job market. Whether they join as hourly paid staff or management trainees through gradua te or a high standard recruitment, they have the opportunity to develop a career, which can take them to the very top. Above all, McDonald’s values people with a positive attitude towards customers, themselves and other employees, and strive towards delivering the highest standards of quality, service and cleanliness. The ability to understand and adopt McDonald’s customer-led culture is as worth as the more usual career entry requirements of GCSE and university degree. The company is an equal opportunity employer and 1992 set up an equal opportunities group to help foster a diverse workplace and highlight equal opportunities as an important part of the company’ s ethos. McDonald’s commitment to equal opportunity extends beyond race, gender, ethnic origin, marital status, colour, nationality or disability, to compass people with very different backgrounds and experience. Whether university graduates and those without formal qualifications, first jobbers or those who have worked for decades, what binds employees is the knowledge that the opportunities are as great as an individual’s ambition and ability allow. And if employees are happy with the opportunities they are getting form the company they work hard for the company and try to provide best service in the world. It is important to retain talented staff and staff who have become skilled through training. By recruiting quality staff who are committed to the business, thus reducing recruitment costs by not having to recruit too often. McDonald’s also provide benefits with salary to its staff. Hourly paid staff benefits: * Free meal allowance * Paid holidays (4 weeks per annum) * Free life assurance (value dependent upon service) * Private health care (for employees aged 19+with 3 years service) * Sponsorship Programme * Stock purchase scheme * Employees discount card * Service awards (at 3, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 years service) * Stakeholder pension Apart from good rates of pay, McDonald’s try to provide good working conditions and incentives. This also helps McDonald’s to meets its objective of expanding and providing best service to the community. 4) Marketing: According to the research about McDonald’s marketing is the whole process by which goods get from producers to buyers. More people work in Marketing than in production. Marketing involves marketing research, distribution, pricing and promotion. As last week McDonald’s was offering 2 normal fries, hamburger, drink for only à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½2 and that offer was only for limited period. Marketing department deals with advertising, promotion and improving the image of the product and services to attract more customers. The fast food industry is in which many companies compete for customers. McDonald’s provide a better product, give better value for money, provide a superior service, better at distributing and selling its good and services and making them known through advertising and publicity. There is no doubt that McDonald’s do a lot of advertising and promotion activities. One of them is mentioned above. Recently McDonald’s announced that Kay Napier, Procter & Gamble marketing veteran, vice President/General manger, has been hired as a senior Vice President of marketing. McDonald’s marketing director said, â€Å"I am delighted to add this kind of marketing talent to our team at McDonald’s. This is another step in elevating one of the world’s great brands to an even higher level of marketing strength and value. This will also help them to achieve their objective, which is growth. Customer can be attracted through good eye-catching advertisement, advertisement has this tremendous ability to shift demand curve to the right. As customer increase income rises which helps achieving company’s aim of making profit so that they can cover their cost more easily. McDonald’s also meets its objective which is satisfying customer need by knowing what customer want and how much they are willing to spend on their food. To achieve this objective marketing department employees special research team for the test products do surveys with customers to taste new product and answer questionnaire about them. According to McDonald’s policy McDonald’s will not work with any supplier who does not adhere to the standards required by UK and EU legislation regarding animal welfare, transportation, husbandry, inspection, and quality & hygiene. This policy helps McDonald’s to meet its o bjective of Providing best food, beat competition and improve the company’ image. 5) Research and development: The purpose of R & D is to enable business to compete successfully and achieve permanently sustainable competition over its competitors by becoming more efficient and/or profitable and giving customers’ added value. To achieve this McDonald’s always and will continue to develop new products that satisfy customer’s expectations for great taste and great value. The company’s new product and development team works with suppliers to expand the menu with new core and promotional food items. The team helps to ensure that all new food items meet McDonald’s high quality and safety standards. As with the existing product range, McDonald’s solicits and carefully listens to customers’ view on any new or promotional products. * McDonald’s offer more and more choices for breakfast by developing new products as more and more customers eat breakfast out rather than at home. * Changing existing products McDonald’s uses conventional food chemicals or additives that add flavour and colour that helps to maintain freshness and make changing in existing products by listening to customers’ views. * Collecting data from worldwide research McDonald’s has special research team to find out what customers want and how much they can spend. McDonald’s also has restaurant development policy: When McDonald’s has local knowledge which is a key to choosing new locations, McDonald’s on discussion with local managers who are closely involved at roots level with their local communities. By keeping customers convenience McDonald’s develop new restaurants. Company is committed to responsible and works closely with local planning and community groups when developing new restaurants. Every bullet point and information is written there helps McDonald’s to achieve its objective of providing good service to the community by attracting more customers and making profit. There are advantages and disadvantages with every functional areas but each functional area helps McDonald’s in one way or another to meet its objectives. Task Four: There are three types of management style and they are: * Democratic * Autocratic * Consultative Management style will describe the different ways that the managers treat their employees and also the way the in charge of the employees. Democratic management style: This type of style involves empowerment. Individuals and team are given responsibility to make decisions, usually with a given frame. The team is then responsible for the decisions that it makes. A manager with this style will feel comfortable allowing others t make decisions. Autocratic management style: This style is where manager gives out instructions, telling people what to do rather than asking employees. The manager is the only person who contributes to decision making. Consultative management style: Consultative mangers are ones who seek to consult other to implement decisions. This type of style wants to draw on more sources of opinion than just her or himself. The purpose of management style is to remember where we started. Business exists to satisfy demand for particular goods and services and in order to do this they need resources; the factor of production. Being the fast food company McDonald’s exists to provide catering service to the community. Management is concerned with planning, controlling and co-ordinating the acquisition and use of these resources. In large concerns like McDonald’s, managers run the business by using people and information. The term ‘managing’ comes from the Latin word for hand, as does the word ‘manual’. It originally meant ‘handling’ things’ but did not originally apply to people. McDonald’s Management is responsible for the preparation, integrity and fair presentation of the consolidated financial statements and financial comments. The financial statement has been audited by independent auditors, Ernst & Young LLP, who was given unrestricted access to all financial records and related data. The audit report of Ernst & Young LLP is presented herein. The Board of Directors, operating through its Audit Committee composed entirely of independent Directors, provides oversight to the financial reporting process. Ernst & Young LLP has unrestricted access to the Audit Committee and regularly meets with the Committee to discuss accounting, auditing and financial reporting matters. McDonald’s has an autocratic management style. A manger takes entire responsibility for decisions and, having set objectives and allocated tasks to employees, expect them to be carried out exactly as specified. Employees are told exactly what, how and when work must be started and finished. It is the kind of management style associated with a corporate culture centred almost exclusively on production. Power is focused at the top, and the centralised decision making is geared to getting the goods out of the company and to customers. The culture of a business can be widely affected by its attitudes, values and beliefs. There are different types of culture McDonald’s is very close to customer driven culture by keeping this culture in its mind McDonald’s works and as it is described before that McDonald’s first priority is its customers. Attention is focused on improving all aspects of the production process down to the minutes detail for the customers’ benefits. Technological culture is focused as well. To improve its technology and develop new products they listen to its customers as well as to their staff. An autocratic style does have some advantages and advantages for McDonald’s. Disadvantages are: * Workers may want some flexibility, freedom, little contact workers therefore little teamwork, can be demotivating. * Disadvantage of having a hierarchical structure is that messages can get distorted or lost from one manager to the next. * There is also poor communication between the different functions. Advantages are: * Need quick decisions, health and safety, clear and consistent approach helps employees * Advantages of the hierarchical structure are that every one knows whom they are responsible to and whom they are responsible for. * This can also shows where specialists are needed in their divisional groups The organisation structure McDonald’s has is hierarchical structure, which you can see on next page. The benefits McDonald’s gets are clear management structure, clear lines of responsibility and control and functions are clear and distinct. Of course where there are advantages there are disadvantages as well. The disadvantages McDonald’s has are many layers of communication and many layers of authority and decision-making. The relationship between structure, management style and culture Structure Management style Culture Hierarchical, many levels Autocratic Based on routine procedures of management, e.g. in and job roles, decisions are large business like McDonald’s centralised. Being a huge company McDonald’s has an Operations Director (Peter Sullivan), Development Director (Peter Richards), Finance Director (George Director), Marketing Director (Matthew Howe), HR & Training Director (Carmel Flatley) and chairman and chief executive (Andrew Taylor) are the most important people in the company. Together with the other directors, they oversee the work of the company’s five vast departments: Operational, technical, real estate, financial and marketing. There are also regional manager senior supervisor and superior supervisor, restaurant manager and assistant manager. The board of directors have senior jobs in the company, overseeing different divisions. These are the executive directors. The board also includes non executive directors, who do not work for the company. They help the board make decisions and look after the interests of the shareholders. McDonald’s also have training and careers or its employers. McDonald’s employs local people in their own community. It is an equal opportunity employer, and women and people from ethnic minorities are represented at all levels. Young people accepted for a position on McDonald’s career programme can quickly climb the promotional ladder. Trainee managers go through a series of training courses at centres set up in their own community. They receive even more important on-the-job training at a McDonald’s restaurant. McDonald’s has an open door policy, which allows staff access to managers from the chairman down. Everyone is welcome to make suggestions or complaints. McDonald’s also holds a frequent meetings called rap sessions where staff can voice their complaints to someone from headquarters or air grievances to a member of management from another restaurant. McDonald’s now has a bureaucracy; senior staff is not even treated with the awe they command in some companies. Even the chairman is approachable. The staff and the public have open access to him through the company’s open door policy. There is a McDonald’s management structure on next page. Task 5: A description of the use of ICT for internal and external communications of the business. Businesses need to communicate with a range of individuals and other organisations including their customers, their suppliers, as well as their own employees. Every organisation will need to be able to communicate effectively with staff at all levels for it to function smoothly and efficiently. These are the reason why communication is important for a business or an organisation whether it is internal or external. The business I have chosen for this assignment is McDonald’s. McDonald’s also has internal and external communication to run its business effectively. McDonald’s has an IT strategy. Information technology is important where it enables a business to achieve its goals. However cost is always important and evidence seems to show that IT is more expensive than firms realise. According to Management Consultants, support cost can be five times the amount estimated. This includes help from other staff and time spent on security and back-up procedures. Other costs can include: * Staff training * Introducing health and safety measures * The need to maintain efficient security Two recent trends in keeping down IT costs are: Downsizing: when we look at human resources management then downsizing means is lying off employees. However in IT it simply means using smaller systems, such as a mini-computer instead of a mainframe, or a PC instead of a mini. This is possible because hardware is becoming more powerful. The other recent trend is outsourcing. Outsourcing: This again is a term used in human resources management Internal and external communications: Internal communication: Internal communication is communication that takes place within the organisation. The three main ways of communicating information inside McDonald’s are intranet, McNews and MDUK and High levels. Methods of keeping In touch with staff: * Intranet Launched in the year 2000, McDonald’s UK intranet provides a fast and up-to-the-minute source of information for McDonald’s restaurant management and office staff. It is a single point of reference administrative requirements, news and marketing materials. * McNEWS AND MDUK McNews was the award-winning magazine published bi-monthly for all restaurant staff. In 2002, McNews was re-launched as MDUK – a lively people-focused magazine, it covers news, activities and events from restaurants around the country. * High levels Published bi-monthly for all management and office staff it is a showcase for best practice, recognising individual’s outstanding practices and achievements, as well as highlighting internal and external awards. * An email system operates in all offices and company-owned restaurants. * Regular staff communication sessions are held in the offices. * Employee satisfaction surveys for both office and restaurant staff are held annually. This is how McDonald’s communicate with its staff. The purpose of internal communication is to communicate with its internal customers, which are employees to run business effectively and smoothly. Provide them information they need time to time. External communication: External communication takes place between the organisation and the outside world. McDonald’s needs to communicate with a range of stakeholders including shareholders, customers, government, suppliers and the community. Communicating with suppliers and customers: * Telephone: The most frequently used form of external verbal communication is telephone. McDonald’s uses this form of external communication to contact with their suppliers. Apart from this McDonald’s has answering machines to keep in touch with customers. Phone answering machines tape callers’ messages, which can be played back from a distance by calling the number and typing in a code. * Business letter: McDonald’s has its address available on it’s every website for their customers and also to obtain your copy of the pack you can contact them by sending a letter. * Website: Most companies have an internet website including McDonald’s. McDonald’s uses this for all external communications purposes and for public relations activities. I also used McDonald’s website to do research for my assignment. * Fax: Fax is a form of external communication. Fax machine is used to transmit and receive suppliers to communicate. The purpose of external communication is to communicate with its customers, suppliers and community. Provide them information about the business they want. Benefits: The benefits of using internal communication are: * The benefit of using intranet to business is that it provides a fast and up-to-minute source of information for McDonald’s restaurant management and staff. * McNews magazine covers news, activities and events from restaurant around the country. * E-mail system is faster and efficient. Information and reports are confidential. The same message can be sent immediately to many people. * Employee surveys helps to get employee views. The benefits of using external communication are: * Telephone is fast and its great benefit is that it allows people who would find it difficult to meet to converse. And a person who can’t read or write can talk over the phone to get information. * The use of business letter saves time for the person whom you are writing to and you can explain in detail. Not everyone has access to internet so if somebody who needs information about the organisation can write a letter to them. * Fax does the same thing its transmitting speed is fast and saves time. Again if somebody need information about the organisation can contact them through fax if has no access to internet. * Website provides a lot of information about the organisation and in detail with pictures and graphs make easier for you to understand. It saves time of both who wants information and the one who is giving. For example if you asking the manager of McDonald about the company but he hasn’t got enough time to give you information in detail so when you have time you can go on to McDonald’s website and look for the information you need in detail. In order to achieve business objectives McDonald’s has created communication channels which all allows the company to communicate effectively both internally and externally. Due to successful communication when looking at the McDonald’s UK financial profile form 1998 to 2001. One can clearly see a substation increase in profit during this period. By using effective communication McDonald’s meets a range of organisational objectives which are crucial for the business such ads being a market leader, no 1 fast food retailer in the world which is due to the excellent reputation built throughout the year by maintain strong relationships with customers, adapting to new environment investing in new technologies and continuously up-grading systems and improving staff training. All this reflected in McDonald’s ability to maximise sales profit and revenues. ICT has an enormous impact on McDonald’s business internally and externally. E-mails replaced the old fashioned methods of communication such as letters and phone calls. The company has a very sophisticated network database which replaced the traditional systems of filing, storing information. Computers are used every where in the business to replace a range of standard operations such as maintaining stock levels, organising deliveries, preparing invoices and recording payments etc. The use of the internet website enables McDonald’s to reach any place in the world and is a very latest link with the global market for example every body can obtain the information from the website in a matter of minutes. The global net exchange enables McDonald’s through electronic data interchange (EDI) system to arrange financials transfer dramatically reducing time, paper work and costs. Poor communication results in mistakes, anxiety, low morale, inadequate control and aggression. Not surprisingly there is concern to improve the quality of communications. First this means improving the communication skills of people within the organisation. Second, it means developing systems of communication. We can identify the skills required by individuals as: o Patience o Discretion o Understanding o Assertiveness —— where necessary. A clear explanation of how the production process and quality assurance / control system employed by the business help it to add value to its product or service. McDonald’s production is a very important process in McDonald’s business activities and it involves: o Processing o Manufacturing o Assembly o Craft-based production Processing: Most of the McDonald’s products are created by processing which includes food and drinks. Processing involves treatment such as washing, cutting, salting, weighting, heating, grilling and frying etc. The raw materials such as meat, chicken, fish and vegetables etc are passed through a series of processes until the desire form product is produced for example chicken fillet is processed into chicken burgers, grilled and then assorted with salad cream. Manufacturing: Manufacturing involves making boxes, cups, sticks and different children’s toys which McDonald’s has special facility to produce techniques include for example producing plastic toys from plastic granules called â€Å"Polietilen† which is put into a machine which is heated and under pressure different shapes are made for toys. The same thing applies for the plastic cups for hot and soft drinks. Assembly: A typical assembly operation for example putting together big Mac and French fries with a cup of soft drink in a paper bag to serve the so-called big meal for à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½4.99. Another example for an assembly is when staff is in the workshop assemble kid’s toys, which go together with the kid’s happy meal. Craft-based production: Craft based production involves making individual products by hand for example a birthday cake for McDonald’s birthday parties where the parent can request a special shape and decoration for the child’s birthday cake. So McDonald’s takes individual offers for special cakes. Especially trained staff has the ability and skill to create imaginative and attractive design that suits the individual needs of customers. Craft production in McDonald’s for example involves working with material such as icing, chocolate, cream, coco powder and baking powder. Quality assurance: McDonald’s is committed to maintaining and developing the best food products in the quick service restaurant market. In order to deliver on this, the company has made a number of other commitments: to food safety, food quality and nutrition. McDonald’s first is always the health and safety of customers. The company believes that the food safety standards required by law are only a minimum and the company continually seeks to go beyond this. Because of this belief, McDonald’s has developed a food safety policy to help keep the focus of the company’s absolute commitment to food safety and quality. – All raw materials delivered to McDonald’s restaurant must be consistently produced to the highest standards of hygiene and safety. – Company systems and procedures must be continuously updated to ensure the highest standards of food hygiene for all customers at all time. – All staff receives proper supervision and training in food and safety. – The equipment used must be the appropriate for the needs of each restaurant, and must be carefully maintained and carefully calibrated. Following its launch in early 1998, McDonald’s continues its programme of sponsoring research grants in food safety. The grants are particularly aimed at supporting the work of researchers in the early stage of their independent research careers, who are working in established UK-based departments and institutions. McDonald’s is committed to serving hot, fresh, great tasting, great value food to all customers, every time that they visit a restaurant. McDonald’s food has made from the basic commodities: red and white meat, fish, eggs, milk, grain and vegetables. All raw materials are produce to exacting specifications and the highest possible standards of quality and safety, The Company will not use any ingredients unless it is clear exactly where it has come from and that it compiles with all relevant regulations and McDonald’s own high standards. Additives are only used to ensure that high quality standards are maintained. Additives are removed or replaced wherever possible, as long as this does not compromise food safety or quality. McDonald’s has a highly trained team of quality assurance whose job includes verifying the company’s supply chain through audits and site visit. These employees also work with suppliers to maintain and develop product quality and to ensure that restaurants consistently serve hot, fresh food. Independent food safety auditors re also used to assess their key suppliers partners. In 1984 McDonald’s became the first UK restaurant company to publish detailed nutritional information on all core menu items. McDonald’s highest priority is for the safety of its customers. The company will not any product or ingredient that does not meet their high standards of quality and safety, or has not received the necessary approval by the relevant UK authorities. McDonald’s will not work with any supplier who does not adhere to the standard required by UK and EU legislation regarding animal welfare, transportation, husbandry, inspection, and quality & hygiene. McDonald’s always and will continue to develop new products that satisfy customers’ expectations for great taste and great value. Around the country, thousands of people form a network of dedicated suppliers involved in the day-to-day operation of McDonald’s business. The responsibility of serving more than 2.5 million customers each day makes quality a consistent goal. McDonald’s work with leading suppliers across the UK – from potato farmers in Lincolnshire and Norfolk to dairies in the south and midlands-to bring the customers the tasty products they expect from McDonald’s. It is McDonald’s policy worldwide to purchase supplies from local producers wherever possible, providing that they can meet exacting product and hygiene regulations, operate responsibly and humanely and are competitive. McDonald’s strives to ensure quality from crop to counter. To that end, McDonald’s requires the highest standards and specifications, not just product ingredients every detail of production, transport, delivery, preparation and service is also exhaustively monitored. McDonald’s also recognises the importance of a balanced diet and lifestyle and continues quality new products, which satisfy customers’ expectations for taste and value. A focus on quality permeates every aspect of the business. McDonald’s standards lead the industry, and will continue to work with government and health officials to investigate improvements. Quality control: Quality control in McDonald’s involves all kinds of inspection system for checking the raw materials, the food processing, customer service and management. The company carries out different types of testing the raw materials as well as the ready made meal and drinks for example the cooking oil in which the French fries are cooked is changed twice a day. Each restaurant manger and supervisor inspects daily the premises, the safety of the equipment and the expiry date on stored product such as milk, cream etc and general hygiene on the premises including McDonald’s car park and the neighbouring areas. In the company mission statement different policies are allocated such as health and safety, food hygiene, manual handling, customer service, litter control, recycling and environmental policy for example McDonald’s is a member of the environment council, the corporate responsibility group of Earth watch Europe, the industry council for packaging and the environment (INCPEN), and greeting the high street, a group of retailers who have come together to develop recycling in the high street. Another example is that McDonald’s takes a sensitive approach to its built environment, working closely with planning and conservation officers to preserve buildings of architectural merit and to improve the townscape. In many towns, McDonald’s has invested considerable sums in restoring old buildings, often putting back architectural details that have been lost. York, Chester and Stratford-upon-Avon are prime examples. McDonald’s has supported the tidy Britain Group’s annual ‘National clean’ activities. Since 1988 and support its campaign ‘just Bin it’. In addition to corporate funding, restaurant throughout the UK organise and support activities to clean up their local environment in conjunction with local youth groups. o McDonald’s is one of the country’s leading sponsors of council litterbins. o All packaging carries the Tidy Britain Group’s ‘Tidy Man’ symbol. o Many McDonald’s restaurant organise litter-related competitions with local schools and youth groups. o McDonald’s was a founding sponsor of ‘Going of Green’, a nationwide awareness campaign for sustainable growth. In 1997 at the TIDY Britain Group’s Queen Mother’s birthday Awards for environmental improvement, McDonald’s received the top award, the Queen Mother’s Birthday Trophy. o 100% recycled used for happy meal boxes, take away bags, take away trays, napkins, kitchen rolls and toilets. o All McDonald’s tray liners are made from 100% fully recyclable and biodegradable materials. o All McDonald’s suppliers have to use minimum recycled content of 50% in their corrugated containers. o All McDonald’s offices recycle waste paper and also use recycled paper. o The majority of McDonald’s restaurants recycle their cardboard and used cooking oil.

Did Black Nationalism hurt or help African Americans pursuit of civil Essay

Did Black Nationalism hurt or help African Americans pursuit of civil rights - Essay Example As far as the rights of African Americans are concerned, this nation is considered the most discriminated nation especially in the South American regions of the United States. There were several political struggles came forward time to time to bring reforms for the protection of civil rights of this group. Black Nationalism was a supporting struggle that expressed the racial awareness among those Africans living in America. The motto of this movement was to ensure the protection of black power. This move greatly assisted the African Americans in pursuing civil rights. The leaders of the movement offered the ways to combat racism. In early 1960s, this struggle became more active and popular in America. This was the year when the move became more advanced and a well known leader Malcolm X, argued that African Americans should focus to improve their lives in order to integrate in American environment in a better way. Black people should also defend themselves against communal difference s. 2. Describe the anti-lynching movement? Who lead this cause, what were their goals and what was the outcome? Anti-Lynching Movement was a popular movement launched to activate and protect the civil rights of the communities living in America. This movement came forward as a reaction against lynching which, basically, involved extra-judicial killings based on racism. Lynching was a very common practice in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In the years 1890 to 1920, these killings reached at its peak. Extra-judicial killings were practiced to ensure white supremacy especially in the southern parts of America. According to an estimate of Tuskegee Institute, between 1882- 1968, 1297 whites and 3446 blacks were badly tortured and killed due to these racist controversies in America. Goals: The goal of this movement was to end up the violence that was a common practice in US against African Americans. This movement rose from the southern parts of United States. The thrust of the move was to ensure protection for the communal groups and this awareness had to spread among common people through education and legal amendments. It was the aim that the legal actions for communal equality would be made keeping in mind the federal legislation as well. Women played a great role in this movement. Leading Agents of the Movement: This movement was, particularly, leading by different organizations including the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching (ASWPL), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), National Association of Colored Women (NACW) and the Council for Interracial Cooperation (CIC). Wells- Barnett was a great leader and supporter of this campaign. He was a renowned journalist. The brutality of lynching movement revolted so white people also started joining this anti-lynching campaign. Outcomes: Finally, in 1940s, lynching was declined and this was the positive outcome of anti lynching campaign. It is considered the prime battle against segregation and racism that finally took shape in a positive manner. 3. Who was A. Philip Randolph and what was his contribution to African American History? A. Philip Randolph was an African American labor who also led civil rights in United States. He was the most prominent among all other trade unionists that fought for the cause of ethnic equality. Randolph was born in Florida and in 1911; he left Florida and moved to New York. Later on, in very young age he joined Socialist Party. Randolph was a realist approach human and believed that African Americans could never gain political power and could never get political freedom until they would be financially strong. He

Critically discuss the distinction between quality control and quality Essay

Critically discuss the distinction between quality control and quality assurance - Essay Example If the team identifies a problem in a product, it makes the quality control department stop the production of that product for the time being not only to make required changes in the product but also to ensure that the product meets the customers’ demands properly. â€Å"Quality assurance is the process of verifying or determining whether products or services meet or exceed expectations† (Kietzman 2011). It is a process-driven approach towards achieving quality which requires specific steps to identify and attain goals. Quality assurance exceeds the customer expectations through a measurable and accountable process. The quality assurance team examines and tests the product manufacturing process in order to ensure excellence in every stage of the process by identify the defects and taking appropriate steps to remove those defects. Quality control involves such actions that assess and evaluate the manufacturing process of a product, whereas quality assurance involves such activities which ensure adequacy of the product development and quality maintenance processes. Quality control team focuses on finding defects in a product in order to remove them.

Group portfolio Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Group portfolio - Research Paper Example However, the organization sticks to its beliefs that successful companies move with the time while still devoting to developing a healthy and dynamic enterprise. One of the core cultural values that Haier group has is the rights and wrongs sense whereby the product users are considered always to be right while the company need to regularly improve itself (Sprague, 2002). The culture acts as the driving force, hence forming value for the customers; the employees work their best to meet the customer’s needs in addition to generating a wide variety of choices that they can choose from. The workforce has a mind-set, whereby, they feel the need to persistently advance themselves, which they perceive to be the only way they can continually refuse, dare and outdo themselves in order to realize their innovative character through change. The organization, in addition, has an adaptive culture that has led to its growth, whereby it maintains its pace with the social growth while maintaining an awareness of any changes occuring in the world. Its innovative character enables the firm to uphold a competitive benefit in the ever-changing market. Tha t is to say, the more radical the world changes the quicker the speed of customer’s variation, hence, the more lasting the inheritance turns out to be (Lin, 2005). In addition, the organization has employed the concept of two spirits, innovation and entrepreneurship, which are considered to be the genes for the company’s consistent culture. The genes ensure that all members of the workforce maintain their value in addition to guiding them in their individual development. It is also mandated for every employee to have the entrepreneurship and innovation spirits. Entrepreneurship is considered to be the spirit of pioneering work in which the company persuades all employees to have it (Yi, Jinsheng and Xian, 2002). They are encouraged to transform from being

Developing a Code of Conduct Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Developing a Code of Conduct - Essay Example The Joint Commission has a mandate of ensuring that health care services provided by health care facilities are up to standards. In order for the commission to improve the quality of health care services provided to patients, it has to review the activities of health facilities to identify situations that may inhibit a health facility from providing quality medical services to patients. The Joint Commission carries out its review with reference to sentinel events and it has to ensure that it includes all required accreditation surveys as well as random unannounced surveys. The main purpose of a Sentinel Event Policy is to provide an avenue where events that occur in the organization, both in the private and public health care facilities, will be identified, reported, investigated and managed (Joint Commission Resources Inc., 2005). Health care facilities are required to work towards meeting the requirements set by Joint Commission. These requirements include: development of effective mechanisms through which sentinel events can be reported and analyzed especially events that involve patient falls, meeting patient-safety goals as well as meeting patient-safety standards. Some health care facilities, however, have not implemented most of the requirements in all areas of operation. This is seen to have huge impacts on improving communication and increasing leadership knowledge of a hospital. These hospitals are therefore not able to account for the safety of its patients. Health care facilities that do not meet the set standards or do not respond to sentinel alerts as required by the Joint Commission may face consequences such as loss of accreditation. This means that a lot of money from Medicaid programs as well as Medicare will be lost. Hospitals will lack financial resources and they will also lose their patie nts since no one would want to seek medical services from an institution that provides unsafe care to patients. A code of conduct policy is in

Age diversity and an ageing population in a new age management Essay

Age diversity and an ageing population in a new age management strategy - Essay Example The new holistic age management strategy provides a new perspective of viewing employee capacity. This has been different from the previous fixed retirement age with the notion of younger breeds of employees are much better than older ones, since the former was perceived as aggressive, more innovative, more creative, and are thus, more productive. The statistics posed by UK labour force indicative of a necessity for UK to attract 2.1 million entrants to the adult workforce signifies the adult's demand for these jobs, and hence, a designed HR strategy focussing towards this scenario. The holistic management strategy suggests a more participatory stance for the ageing population. However, as the UK has a default retirement age of 65 alongside limited opportunities for older workers leading to the inference that the demographics are not in employers' favour, it goes to say then that a tighter law must ensure the welfare of the aged employees in terms of retirement (Blyton and Turnbull 1 992). For the organisation, this would suggest a restructuring of retirement scheme, extending the retirement age for employees while others might continue with their phased retirement, caused by a not too stringent policy on retirement. As the report concludes that the need can be met only through a combination of most adults working longer and an increase in the number of adults, such as unemployed people and mothers re-entering the labour market, the organisation will be impacted with retraining of these people who used to be outside the work force for a long time. The HR function will have to synergize with the modification of the workplace that either rises the retirement age of its ageing employees and/or hires unemployed people and mothers, who have diverse needs and different job approaches. The HR would have to structure its functions to these people, who need to employ greater adaptability in order to adjust to the new work setting (Brewster 1995). Female employees who use d to be full-time mothers have likewise diverse needs that the HR should focus on and must be able to provide, such as a day care system within the workplace in which mothers can frequently visit for their infants. This is one option of the organisation in terms of hiring adults to the workforce but not necessarily extending the retirement age of ageing employees. Extending employees' retirement age can be viewed in two ways; either positively or negatively. People who view that the psychological and physical capabilities of ageing people might not be as healthy as those of the younger ones would say that it is just appropriate that the organisation give them a retirement pay and let them rest from the tiresome buzz of everyday work. It may also be viewed in a way in which retirement age must be fixed and pursuing an otherwise policy means catering to the demand of the capitalist market to extract more labour power from the workers, despite their ageing condition. On the other hand, advocates of holistic age management strategy view the extended retirement period as one that only enhances the capacity of ageing population and viewing them as still productive members of the organisation and society despite their age (Rubinstein and Kochan 2001). This might also cater to the view that older people are wiser, more experienced, and are more learne d than the younger ones. This scenario impacts the individual in two ways as well. The pro-active might see this as a greater opportunity for the ageing employees to exhibit their capabilities, talents and skills in the workplace that enhances their self-esteem, while the other side of the fence might view this as the reverse of the former; in that ageing employees are still

Obesity in Older Nurses Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Obesity in Older Nurses - Assignment Example The next part discussed an implementation plan that may help to reduce and prevent the problem. The plan will be implemented after the acquisition of permission from relevant sources. This plan aims at educating nurses about the foods that they should eat and the exercises that they should undertake to reduce excess weight in their bodies. This plan will be implemented by exercise and diet tutors using resources such as computers, handouts, questionnaires, and finances that will be used to purchase these requirements. The next section was the evaluation plan that aimed at discussing how to appraise the implemented plan to check if it achieves its goals. This plan indicated that it would use interviews, attendance, lists, measurement of weights, and questionnaires as the main techniques of appraising the results of the implemented scheme. The last section of this paper discussed the methods that would be used to disseminate evidence to the organization’s administrators, nurses, and the community. The techniques discussed include reports, workshops, websites, conferences, emails, and press releases. In conclusion, this research aimed at finding out the prevalence of obesity among older nurses and the methods that may be used to prevent and reduce this disorder in the nursing community. The analyzed sources of literature indicate that obesity is a common disease among the nurses of the United States. Since the nurses are mainly involved in giving other patient’s healthcare, it means that the continued prevalence of obesity among them may lead to the deterioration of the overall health of the country. Therefore, it is essential to address this problem before it leads to a destructible catastrophe of lack of health care givers in a giant economy. The main methods of addressing this problem are motivating nurses to eat healthy foods and undertake

Basic Principles of the Marketing Research Paper

Basic Principles of the Marketing - Research Paper Example The researcher states that relevant example of an intangible product can be Australian Open Championship that offers its services for the purpose of satisfying entertaining needs of spectators. Its arrangement requires different kinds of assets, including financial, human and material resources. Sports equipment, food, and beverages for cafeterias, souvenirs play the role of tangible assets, meanwhile administrative and maintenance staff plays the role of human resources. Visitors buy tickets for the Championship, therefore this event has profit basis along with the social goal to develop sport around the country. Tennis Australia considers that the more people enroll in clubs, the more skillful and distinguished players can be trained and stand out. This will increase Australia’s chances to win awards on world championships, improve state’s reputation and attain international recognition of the country. Tennis Australia strives for raising people’s interest and attraction their attention to sports activities. Watching professional players, potential consumers are prone to follow their examples and become tennis players later on by themselves. Australian Open Championship can be considered as a brand due to its main purpose to promote tennis. Its biggest value is that people get closer to sports events and later on become more interest in it. Brand statement of Tennis Australia cannot be considered as useful one in a full way because, in my opinion, it does not display all the urgency and importance of organization’s mission. A brand statement should be more profound and all-embracing so that potential consumers have a clear presentiment about company’s direction and promotion campaign. The success of brand realignment can be measured with the help of the increased number of people who enroll in clubs after realignment. The main participants of the microclimate of air travel industry are competitors; companies that deliver raw materials; suppliers of integrated products; partners and distributors. For instance, if the prices for raw materials increase, the total cost of airplane grows also, therefore airlines which use modern airplanes will increase prices of tickets for preventing a situation from losing additional profits. Factors of macroenvironmental can be political, economic, ecological and legislative situation in the country. If the level of economic development in specific country drops, this decreases profits of the population, who consequently due to lower salary will prefer a less expensive method of transportation substituting jets for trains or buses. Decreased level of demand will influence on air industry’s profits. Finally, airlines will be compelled to review price policies for affecting ticket sales.

The Historical Context of International Communication Essay

The Historical Context of International Communication - Essay Example The developments in film, advertisement and radio ushered a new era in communication and mass culture. Radio as a propaganda tool was first utilized by former USSR and then all the nations of the world followed the suit. Communist and capitalist propaganda used radio all over the world to promote their point of views. Third world countries used communication tools for promoting health care, education and culture. Third World countries genuinely felt the disparity in communication technologies between developed and developing countries and demanded for more just treatment. The MacBride Commission is the result of such efforts by Third World. The commission called for impartial, balanced and responsible reporting. USA opposed the commission as it deemed it more pro Soviet Union. The opponents called the proposals as instrument against freedom of press and information. This opposition came to an end with Soviet disintegration. Opinion The chapter is a detailed look at the role of differ ent communication devices through out history and world. The writer presents different facts and figures from ancient time to colonial era in order to press the point that communication is vital aspect of any empire. The writer then discusses in detail the impact and role of telegraph from 19th Century onwards on different social and political aspects of the world. The writer then relates the development of journalism and radio with telegraph in 20th Century. At the end the writer gives a detailed look at the impact of radio during the Cold War. The chapter is according to the title and it gives a very detailed look at the historical development of international communication. The data regarding length of cables of telegraph and the spread in different areas of the world may confuse the reader but the information is very helpful in understanding the development. The writer has used simple language and starts from ancient time in order to present the main argument. The writer is able to give a cursory look at the ancient history and then focuses on colonial era in order to make argument clear. Overall the reader may find the data presented in the chapter a bit taxing but for scholarly purpose the chapter is very well documented. The logical sequence and development enable the involvement of the reader. The writer overlooks television and internet but still the effort is very good. Summary : The Technology and Society Science has brought many changes in the society. In order to investigate the issue of social changes and scientific discoveries there are two schools of thought. One group attributes all the changes in the society to the scientific inventions. For them scientific discoveries produce change in the society. The other group takes a less radical view by stating that changes in the society are going on the new scientific inventions just contribute in these changes. Both of these views take technology and society in isolation. Military and commercial nee ds forced improvement in communication. These social factors were to great extent satisfied by the development in the field of telegraphy, telephony and early stages of radio. The need of addressing masses in new political world gave power to press but this political urge was satisfied by television. This complex situation set the stage for broadcasting. The use of different broadcasting tools for social communication and political manipulation greatly influenced the rapid technological advancement in the field of communication. Political stimulus and economic benefits made television a popular medium for bringing change.

Socialism in Russia Essay Example for Free

Socialism in Russia Essay Socialism has its origins in the French Revolution of 1789 and the changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution, although it has precedents in earlier movements and ideas. The Communist Manifesto was written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848 just before the Revolutions of 1848 swept Europe, expressing what they termed scientific socialism. In the last third of the 19th century in Europe social democratic parties arose in Europe drawing mainly from Marxism. The Australian Labor Party was the worlds first elected socialist party. In 1903, the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party began to split on ideological and organizational questions into Bolshevik (Majority) and Menshevik (Minority) factions, with Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin leading the more radical Bolsheviks. Both wings accepted that Russia was an economically backward country unripe for socialism. The Mensheviks awaited the capitalist revolution in Russia. But Lenin argued that a revolution of the workers and peasants would achieve this task. After the Russian revolution of 1905, Leon Trotsky argued that unlike the French revolution of 1789 and the European Revolutions of 1848 against absolutism, the capitalist class would never organize a revolution in Russia to overthrow absolutism, and that this task fell to the working class who, liberating the peasantry from their feudal yoke, would then immediately pass on to the socialist tasks and seek a permanent revolution to achieve international socialism. Nationalist tried to create regional self-government for the Assyrian people with the socialist ideology. He even wrote the Uremia Manifesto of the United Free Assyria. However, his attempt was put to an end

Standing Firm On The Word Of God Religion Essay

Standing Firm On The Word Of God Religion Essay Within life there are some things over which you have no control. They are the inevitable storms and adverse weather that life brings to us all. They are called seasons of struggle and times of testing. Our goal is not only to go through them but rather to grow through them by developing yourself and becoming a stronger, smart, and skilful person. Storms of Challenges in your life Thank God we have weather storms because, after they come and go, ever thing is brighter, fresher and clearer. Its the same in life, storms and wind may blow through your home, you may face many challenges, life becomes one big turmoil especially at a certain time of the month, you may become discourage by bad news, monthly bills, credit payment, letter from the bailiff, court prosecution; they can all bring anxiety, stress, frustration, depression, (Matt 14:31) Says you become fearful, your faith is weakens, and you doubt Gods Words. The thing is you will always have some sort of payment one way or the other to fork out each month. There is no immediate antidote to sort everything problem, but there is a place of calm, where the hustle and bustle of life challenges cant touch you. * Do you know that there are words in the Bible for every situation in your life?* When storms are blowing in your life you forget that Jesus is with you, you dont stand on His Word. (Matt 8:26) In spite of opposition and persecution, He promise us peace in the midst of suffering (Matt 14:27) He said be of good cheer, be not afraid. (Matthew 28:20) I am with you always, even to the end of the world Real Life Scenario: Before and after I came to Christ, I was a prisoner in my own home. I became frighten to answer the phone because by creditors would be asking for their money; I even went so far as to answer the take messages on my own behalf. When there was a knock at the door I would lower the volume on the television as not to be heard. It was only when I began to apply the scripture verses in my situation that I began to have peace. Look through the scripture for verses that talk about your situation, and speak them out, remind Jesus of his promise. Build a Foundation on the Rock (Word of God) During life there will be times when it may seam that there is an earthquake under you, attempting to shake your life, family and children as you go through one crisis after another (Matt 7: 24-27) Says build your house on the Rock which is the Word (Matthew 7:10) Jesus says A wise man built his house up a Rock, it did not fall, (Matthew 7:26) a foolish man build his house upon sand, flood, wind blew and beat upon it, and it fell and great was the fall of it. When your marriage is on the rocks, thats when you need to get on the Rocks and stand on Jesus and His Word. Build your life, marriage, and career, endeavours in and around the Word. Be careful of preachers, every preacher is not your Rock dont base youre life solely on them because there human beings, if they backslide your still built on the Rock (check what they say against the Scripture). Scenario: My pastor tells his congregation that he depends solely on God and not on his wife, and he advised her to do the same because he is only human. So build a solid foundation on the Rock (word of God), establish a personal relationship with God, and stay rooted in the Word of God, Spend time with God in Pray and in Meditation. He will disclose His thoughts, and help you to understand His word (Bible). Its not about believing, its about knowing God, when you know Him no one can shake your foundation. Fire of Challenges in Life Fiery troubles and challenges that rage around you are test and trials to strengthen you. Sometimes in life there will be a season when God will take you through a process where by He want to mature you, He may separate you from certain people around you, friends or even family, the enemy will be attacking you on all sides, and people may talk against you making falsely accused. There may be times when you feel totally isolated. (Isaiah 43:2) when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, neither shall the flame Kindle upon you, I will be with you. I will never leave you during your time of trial. (1 Peter 5-10) God will restore you, strengthen you, make you strong, and support you as you suffer for a little while) Conclusion We thank God for His goodness and mercies that continue to follow us each day. Regardless of the Storms and winds that blow through your home, earthquakes that attempt to shake your life, and the fires of challenges that rage around you. The Lord Jesus Christ has promised to see you through! So dont be shaken by what you see, simply focus on your Creator and you will have a brighter tomorrow, In Jesus name.

Effects of Globalisation in Education Essay

Effects of Globalisation in Education Essay Globalisation has brought about many changes in human lives. Globalisation, which started off in the West, was brought about by many factors. Some of it is the the emergence of the information technology and also the economic competition between different countries (Jarvis, 2007, p. 44). Here, it is obvious that globalisation was about the economic benefit at first and later had also impacted many others categories of human lives such as education and environment. The impacts and effects of globalisation could be seen everywhere, from the food industry to the music that one listens. Some would argue that globalisation benefitted the mass, and therefore it is something good. However, some would refute by saying that globalisation has also had some negative impacts. Therefore, I would like to find out and discuss the effects of globalisation specifically in education. This paper would examine closely the effects of globalisation in education in terms of commodification, internationalis ation, citizenship and also accessibility of knowledge. This essay would argue that although globalisation brings some positive effects, it also brings some negative effects that sometimes could be considered to outweigh the benefits of it. The arguments will be put forward by first defining globalisation and then highlighting some of the different types of globalisation. This will be followed by discussing the impact of globalisation in education in terms of commodification, internationalisation, citizenship, and accessibility of knowledge. Last but not least, this essay will discuss the implications for teachers in a Malaysian secondary school classroom. Definition of Globalisation There are tremendous amount of literature on the definition of globalisation. Globalisation seemed to an easy word to define at first. However, there are many definitions of it where each and one of these definitions are looked from various different perspectives such as social, economy and political perspectives. From an political point of view, Beck (2000, p. 11) defines globalisation as a process through which transnational actors undermine sovereign national states with varying prospect of power, direction, identities, and network. From a communication point of view, globalisation as a concept refers to both to the compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole (Robertson, 1992, p. 8). Similarly, Luke (2005), stated that globalisation is how the world is shrinking in the sense that people can communicate to each other instantaneously through the use of technology especially the internet. On a different plane, Waters (1995, p. 3) looks at globalisation as a social change where physical boundaries of place on the social and cultural aspects are diminishing and the public are aware that it is diminishing. Looking from a social perspectives or point of view, globalisation is the escalation of global social relations which connect far localities in such a way that local events are influenced by events occurring in the far distance and vice versa. (Held, 1991 cited in Morrow & Torres, 2000, p. 29). Therefore, it can said that globalisation is the weakening of the physical boundaries surrounding the nation or states, in which affects aspects of human life such as culture, social interaction, economy, politics and many other aspects. The less visible boundaries mean that people are more likely to interact with each other. If the interaction is between people or party of same position or status, the interaction could be in a neutral way. However, if the interaction is between people or party of unequal status or power, the more privileged will tend to influence the less privileged it can also happen that the less privileged might want to imitate the more privileged in order to live the same condition as the opposite party. When looking at the definitions of globalisation, it is important to also highlight the different types of globalisation. Here, cultural, economy and political globalisation will be discussed closely. Cultural globalisation is about the spread of one stronger element of culture, which in many cases, would be the American culture. This is done through the American media which penetrates most parts of world. Songs, films, and many more are easily available around the world (Jarvis, 2007). Besides, he also argues that many new cultural institutions have become industries where these institutions are trying to sell their culture. However, one would argue that cultural globalisation could also strengthen the culture in particular society if the member of the society choose to resist the wave of global influx of different foreign culture. According to Jones (1998, p. 146), cultural globalisation includes deteriorating religious mosaic, a deteriorating cosmopolitanism and diversity, widespread consumption of simulations and representations, global distribution of images and information and universal tourism. Therefore, it can be said that cultural globalisation is the process where the l ocal cultural aspect of a community disappears in certain rate and substituted with a global culture. On the other hand, economy globalisation includes several aspects such as transnational companies. Transnational companies are companies that operate at a global level without needing to follow a certain nations law and regulation (Bottery, 2006). These companies bring profit to the nation through taxation. These companies possess a huge influence as they are not bound to a countrys law. Transnational companies have power beyond the nations or the states (Jarvis, 1998). Besides, economy globalisation also includes the bigger organisations such as International Monetary Fund (IMF) which provides loan and fund to developing countries. However, it is crucial to highlight here that this economy globalisaton is the setting of other types of globalisation (Bottery, 2006). This is because economy is the source of income and the setting of work for people. According to Jones (1998, p. 145), economy globalisation includes freedom of exchange between localities with flows of services and symbo lic commodities, balance of production activity in a locality determined by its physical and geographical advantages, minimal direct foreign investment, flexible responsiveness of organisations to global markets, decentralised, instantaneous and stateless financial markets and free movement of labour. Political globalisation looks at the diminishing power of the state where due to globalisation, the power is local authority might be weakening. According to Jones (1998 p. 146), political globalisation is portrayed through an absence of state sovereignty and multiple centres of power at global, local and intermediate levels, local issues discussed and situated in relation to a global community, powerful international organisations predominant over national organisations, fluid and multi-centric international relations, a weakening of value attached to the nation-state and a strengthening of common and global political values. Thus, the meaning of being a certain country or nations citizen also gets blurred. The notion of citizen is not as a unified and unifying concept as before when there is certain loss of nation-state sovereignty, or the erosion of national autonomy (Burbules and Torres, 2000, p. 14). The Effect of Globalisation in Education Having looked at the brief categorization of globalisation in general, this section will focus on the effect of globalisation in education. This section will look at commodification, internationalisation, citizenship and accessibility of knowledge. Commodification is the term used to describe commodification can be seen in two ways, the displacement of use values by exchange values or in general to describe how consumer culture becomes embedded in daily lives through various ways (Ball, 2004, p.4). This consumer culture that is a global phenomenon today has also affected the education sector. Commodification of education is evident from the primary school to the higher education. Many are affected by, especially the parents and the students. Due to the competition for the entrance of an excellent school, parents and the learner will be under a lot of pressure to prepare themselves so they can qualify to this prestigious or high-league table-ranked schools. The society without noticing is drawn to this concept of education commodification due to the societal pressure. Similarly, the teachers and staff in these schools are forced to work hard to maintain the schools league table position so they can maintain the financial support from the government. The demands of competition, the information provided by League Tables, pressures from the state for performance improvement and target-achievement and per-capita funding, in a period of spending constraints, work together to create local economies of student worth where schools compete to recruit those students, most likely to contribute to improvements and performance (Ball, 2004, p. 10). Therefore, in this situation the commodification of education does not really seem to benefitting the learners, or the even parents. This cycle of incentives for performance is not something good as it contradicts with the value of education. Due to globalisation, the power of sovereign has been reduced. Instead, there is a new concept of citizenship emerging (Capella, 2000).Capella argues that in light of globalisation, citizenship has run away from private sphere and is more open. Besides, democracy is also a sign of the reduced function of citizenship. This has also an effect in education where the introduction of module and courses on being a global citizen. These courses also echo the concept of democracy. .Another effect of globalisation is the internationalization of education. Internationalisation is the process of intergrating an international or intercultural dimension into the teaching, research and exercise function of the institution (Knight, 1994, p. 16 cited in Knight, 1999). Internationalisation is about globalisation. Internationalisation happens usually at higher level education. There are many reasons for the internationalisation of the higher education. One of it is the internationalisation will help foreign policy of a country. Through internationalisation, a country will be perceived as welcoming and friendly to the different cultural aspects. In other words, internationalisation will indicate that the country appreciates the various cultures that exist are open to accepting them. On an economic point of view, internationalisation will help attract investment from foreign countries to a country. This will boost the countrys economy through the investments (Knight, 1999 ). By internationalisation, the quality of teaching and learning process could be improved. This is because internationalisation encourages acceptance of various culture and integrates this in the teaching and learning process. The students will be exposed to various source of knowledge about the world. This knowledge of the world will help the learners to understand and make sense the difference and similarities people around the world have from one culture to another. Besides, internationalisation will also encourage partnership between various universities around the world. This is because through internationalization, one common medium of interaction will be chosen between the cooperating universities, which will likely to be English. Having a common language and some similarities will further encourage cooperation work between universities from different countries. Another effect of globalisation in education is that the accessibility of knowledge. Through the internet, many different kind of knowledge are readily accessible on the internet (Robertson, 1992). This means the acquisition of knowledge by students are much faster since there they have wide range of knowledge available for them. This would help students and teachers in their learning process. This rapidly growing information on the net could facilitate learning process by providing references and validating certain concepts that the learners are confused or unable to comprehend. Besides, the teachers and learners can build a network system through the net where they can talk and communicate with teachers and students from any part of the world through the internet. This would help teachers and learners to create a global view of education n based on their communication with people from around the world. However, this might also be a problem for the students since with the huge amoun t of information available on the net, the reliability of some of the information is sometimes questionable. Therefore, it is important for the learners to be able to distinguish between reliable and unreliable information. Besides, it is also important for them to be able to choose and pick which information that is suitable for them. The downside of this body of knowledge available on the internet is that it cannot be accessed by people in certain parts of the world where the communication technology is not at par with the latest communication technology (Burbules, 2000). This in a way widens the gap between the education progress in a developed country with a well-equipped information technology facilities and the education progress in a developing country with poor information technology facilities. In a less progressed country where it is already a struggle to maintain teaching and learning process, the people will not know what they have missed by the lack of facilities. Another aspect of the manifestation of the accessibility information is the distance learning (Foley, 2003). Distance learning is the teaching and learning process which does not happen in a physical classroom, but instead happens in a virtual classroom. This distance learning was already available before the existence of the internet through the use of post. However, the invention of the internet has taken distance learning into a whole new level. Distance education has enabled more people to gain access to education through the many different types of online courses offered by universities and other online course providers. One of the benefits of this distance learning is that the learning process can be done in learners own time, without any peer pressure form classmates. However, the drawback of distance learning is that the reduced or loss of the human touch in the learning and teaching process. Human touch in the form of communication with one another is important in learning. Implications to Teaching and Learning Process in a Malaysian Secondary Classroom. Having discussed the impact of globalisation in education on a global level, tis section will try to relate back the impact of globalisation in education in a Malaysian context, specifically in a Malaysian secondary classroom. Malaysian secondary classroom consist of students for the age of thirteen to seventeen. These students come from various backgrounds. First and foremost, one of the main implications the effect of globalisation in a Malaysian context is the teachers and students should be aware of the effect of globalisation in education to the Malaysian education system and also to the global education policy and reforms. Here, the teacher training college plays a crucial part in incorporating the effect of globalisation in education to the teacher trainees. This is so that future teachers will be aware of the effects of globalisation and then try to inform the students and then create awareness in the students. Besides, it also a teachers responsibility to make the learners aware of the multi dimension of globalisation that exist beyond Malaysia. This will help the learners to be able develop critical thinking based on their awareness of the world around them. Furthermore, the appreciation of unique multicultural society that exists around the world, not only in Malaysia should be made known to the learners. On a similar note, it is important to realise that a teaching method or education policy that is a success in one environment is not necessarily can be taken and put it into another context. This might not work as the context is as important as the policy itself. Another implication that can be drawn from the discussion above is that it is important to realize that the abundance of information and knowledge available on the internet comes with a price as well. The implication of these to the Malaysian education especially in a secondary classroom is that the learners should be equipped with the necessary skill to filter the knowledge and then distinguish between facts and non-facts. In order to do this, the teachers should give some exposure of this kind of activity in the classroom. This will help learners, the secondary school students to be able to pick and choose the fact from the rest. Besides, it is also important to be able to pick the information which is useful for the individual rather than using all the information available. CONCLUDING REMARKS Globalisation is a powerful process that has influenced many aspects ranging from education to politics and economy. Even in the field of education, globalisation has touched and influenced many parts of education. The internationalisation, the distance learning, the new form of citizenship and commodification are the examples of the endless effect of globalisation in education. On the surface all these seem to be having a positive effect on the education section. However, upon detailed scrutiny of these impacts on teachers, educators and learners in particular, it is evident that globalisation can also negatively impact the learners, teachers and educators. The crucial question here is whether these negative effects outweigh the positive or vice versa. Besides, another thought provoking question is whether the advantages of globalisation is worth fighting for. Therefore, a future teacher who would be directly in the education system facing all this kind of situation should be aware of the impact of globalisation in education and are able make conscious decision about it.