If Research in the Management Area Cannot Be 100 Percent...

INTRODUCTION The performance of an enterprise is considerably affected by its location The degree of significance for the selection of location for any enterprise mainly depends on its size and nature. Sometimes the nature of the product itself suggests some suitable location like a small scale industry mainly selects the site where in accordance with its capacity the local market. for the product is available DEFINATION OF FACILITY LOCATION AND LAYOUT Facility location, also known as location analysis, is a branch of operations research concerning itself with mathematical modeling and solution of problems concerning optimal placement of facilities in order to minimize transportation costs, avoid placing hazardous materials near housing†¦show more content†¦DEFINATIONS OF PLANT LAYOUT A plant layout can be defined as follows: Plant layout refers to the arrangement of physical facilities such as machinery, equipment, furniture etc. with in the factory building in such a manner so as to have quickest flow of material at the lowest cost and with the least amount of handling in processing the product from the receipt of material to the shipment of the finished product. According to Riggs, â€Å"the overall objective of plant layout is to design a physical arrangement that most economically meets the required output – quantity and quality.† According to J. L. Zundi, â€Å"Plant layout ideally involves allocation of space and arrangement of equipment in such a manner that overall operating costs are minimized OBJECTIVES OF LAYOUT 1Economies in materials, facilitate manufacturing process and handling of semi-finished goods. 2. Proper and efficient utilization of available floor space . 3.To ensure that work proceeds from one point to another point inside the plant w/o any delay. 4.control of Provision of better supervision and ctrl of operations, 5.Careful planning to avoid frequent changes in layout which may result in undue increase in cost of production 6.To provide adequate safety to the workers from accidents 7. To meet the quality and capacity require in the most economical manner 8. Provision of medical facilities and cafeteria at suitable and convenient places 9. To provide efficient materialShow MoreRelatedTransforming Total Sales into Net Profits51271 Words   |  206 Pages(pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Sales management. 2. Marketing—Management. 3. Corporate profits. 4. Corporations—Growth—Management. 5. Organizational effectiveness. I. Title. HF5438.4.K46 2004 658—dc22 2004018021 This publication contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reprinted material is used with permission, and sources are indicated. Reasonable effort has been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and the publisher cannot assume responsibility forRead MoreLogical Reasoning189930 Words   |  760 PagesDepartment California State University Sacramento Sacramento, CA 95819 USA ii iii Preface Copyright  © 2011-14 by Bradley H. Dowden This book Logical Reasoning by Bradley H. Dowden is licensed under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. That is, you are free to share, copy, distribute, store, and transmit all or any part of the work under the following conditions: (1) Attribution You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author, namelyRead MoreA Case Study of Online Social Networking at Workplaces in Ghana9658 Words   |  39 PagesTechnology In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For The Degree Of Bachelor Of Science In Management With Computing 2010 1 ABSTRACT This is descriptive study which adopts a case study strategy to identify the perceptions of employers and employees in Ghana about productivity and online social networking at the workplace. A number of Tigo staff, top management and customers, IDEG staff and top management and a few friends were interviewed to solicit information about their perceptions on theRead MoreManagement Challenges for the 21st Century.Pdf60639 Words   |  243 PagesiiManagement Challenges for the 21st Century PETER F. DRUCKER Contents Introduction: Tomorrow’s â€Å"Hot† Issues 1 Management’s New Paradigms 2 Strategy—The New Certainties 3 The Change Leader 4 Information Challenges 5 Knowledge-Worker Productivity 6 Managing Oneself Acknowledgments About the Author Books By Peter F. Drucker Credits Front Cover Copyright About the Publisher iii Introduction: Tomorrow’s â€Å"Hot† Issues Where, readers may ask, is the discussion of COMPETITIVE STRATEGYRead MoreTop 1 Cause for Project Failure65023 Words   |  261 PagesLacking Sponsor s Involvement/Ownership #2. Halo Effect (Wrong Man for the Job) #3. Poor HR Management #4. Poor/Inadequate Project Communications #5. Ignoring Project Stakeholders #6. 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Do Teens Get Enough Sleep - 1407 Words

Chelsea Reed Jerie Smith Composition One 19 November 2014 Do Teenagers get Enough Sleep? According to the National Sleep Foundation, fifty percent of American teenagers are not getting the sleep needed to have a healthy, and productive school year. Although, going to sleep at a proper time is a personal choice, there are many factors that can play a role in preventing teenagers from getting the suggested nine and a half hours of sleep every single night, including weekends. In my opinion too many teens resort to, hanging out with friends, working or staying up late to do school work, instead of going to sleep at a proper time. Natural physical body changes are also reasons of lost sleep in adolescents. This essay will discuss what sleep is, the many reasons why teenagers lose sleep, and ways to get better sleep. (NSF) Sleep is defined by researchers as two different things. One being a Discrete State, a state of reduced responsiveness to external stimuli, and an altered state of consciousness from which a person can be aroused if the stimuli is of sufficient magnitude. Two, a Continuous Clinical Change, which is the physically inactive part of the circadian sleep-wake-activity cycle, and is characterized by clinical charges in the electroencephalogram (EEG) and other psychological parameters. (1) After finding out about what sleep is, I’m sure people wonder what happens while they are asleep. During sleep the body goes through many stages; four to be exact, and repeatsShow MoreRelatedThe Effects Of Teens On Children s Life Essay951 Words   |  4 Pages Teens need to sleep more than bear who need to hibernate during winter for their own health. Teens need to sleep about 8 to 10 hours of sleep to function best and most teens do not get enough sleep study found that only 15 % do not sleep during school night. 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A lot of teenagers stay upRead MoreSummary : Investigative Journalism Essay952 Words   |  4 PagesSavannah Hamman Ms. Falbo Investigative Journalism 21 October 2016 Sleep and Students She woke up and stretched the stiffness from her limbs as she glanced at the clock, squinting through the blur of her tired eyes. 6:30 am, it read back to her, she sighed as she inched her way out of bed, not wanting to reach the edge and just stay in the warmth of her cozy sheets all day. When she finally stumbled into school, the students all around her were exactly the same. They walked the halls onlyRead MoreSleep Deprivation Essay729 Words   |  3 Pages No one really knows why humans sleep, but it is said that they use less energy when they are sleeping. Many Americans do not get the amount of sleep they need to get, and this can affect their cognitive abilities. The cause of this sleep deprivation varies among individuals, but could be overscheduling or even technology. 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Investing in the It That Makes a Competitive Difference Free Essays

string(58) " for digitized products like computer software and music\." www. hbr. org Studies of corporate performance reveal a growing link between certain kinds of technology investments and intensifying competitiveness. We will write a custom essay sample on Investing in the It That Makes a Competitive Difference or any similar topic only for you Order Now Investing in the IT That Makes a Competitive Difference by Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson Included with this full-text Harvard Business Review article: 1 Article Summary The Idea in Brief—the core idea The Idea in Practice—putting the idea to work 2 Investing in the IT That Makes a Competitive Difference 11 Further Reading A list of related materials, with annotations to guide further exploration of the article’s ideas and applications Reprint R0807J Purchased by Steven Stillman (sstillm@post. harvard. edu) on March 13, 2013 Investing in the IT That Makes a Competitive Difference The Idea in Brief It’s not just you. It really is getting harder to outpace the other guys. Since the mid1990s, competition in the U. S. economy has accelerated to unprecedented levels. The engine behind this hypercompetition: IT. Thanks to powerful tools like ERP and CRM, backed by cheap networks, companies are swiftly replicating business-process innovations throughout their organizations. The firm with the best processes (order fulfillment, field installation, job closing) wins, but not for long. Rivals are striking back with their own IT-based process innovations. To gain—and keep—a competitive edge in this environment, McAfee and Brynjolfsson recommend a three-step strategy: †¢ Deploy a consistent technology platform, rather than stitching together a jumble of legacy systems. †¢ Innovate better ways of working. †¢ Propagate those process innovations widely throughout your company. By taking these steps, elevator-systems maker Otis realized not only dramatically shorter sales-cycle times but higher revenues and operating profit. The Idea in Practice The authors recommend these steps for staying ahead of rivals through IT-enabled process innovation: Deploy. Adopt a uniform technology platform to be used throughout your company. Example: Before deploying a consistent platform, Cisco’s various units had nine different tools for checking an order’s status. Each pulled information from different repositories and defined key terms differently, leading to circulation of conflicting order-status reports around the company. The company reconfigured its IT systems for consistent execution of key business processes including market to sell, lead to order, quote to cash, issue to resolution, forecast to build, idea to product, and hire to retire. The payoff? Strong performance over the past few years. Innovate. Design better ways of doing work in your company. The best candidates for innovation are processes that: †¢ Apply across a large swatch of your company (such as all your stores, factories, or delivery teams) †¢ Produce results as soon as your new IT system goes live †¢ Require precise instructions (such as order taking or delivery) †¢ Can be executed the same way everywhere and every time in your organization †¢ Can be tracked in real time so you can immediately spot and address any backsliding to older versions of the process Example: U. K. grocery chain Tesco has long used customer-rewards cards to collect detailed data on individual purchases, to categorize customers, and to tailor offers. But it went one step further: tracking redemption rates for direct-marketing initiatives and tweaking its processes to get better responses from customers. Its process innovation drove its redemption rate to 20%— far above the industry’s average of 2%. Propagate. Use IT to replicate process innovations throughout your company. Example: At CVS pharmacies, customer satisfaction was declining. The reason: Prescription orders were delayed during the insurance check, which was performed after customers had left the store. So customers weren’t immediately available to answer common questions such as â€Å"Have you changed jobs? † The company decided to move the insurance check forward in the prescriptionfulfillment process, before the drug-safety review, so customers would still be around to answer questions. The process change was embedded in the information systems that supported operations at all 4,000 CVS pharmacies in the United States. Performance improved across all the pharmacies, and customer satisfaction scores rose from 86% to 91%— a dramatic difference in the aggressive pharmacy market. COPYRIGHT  © 2008 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. page 1 Purchased by Steven Stillman (sstillm@post. harvard. edu) on March 13, 2013 Studies of corporate performance reveal a growing link between certain kinds of technology investments and intensifying competitiveness. Investing in the IT That Makes a Competitive Difference by Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson COPYRIGHT  © 2008 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. It’s not just you. It really is getting harder to outpace the other guys. Our recent research ? ds that since the middle of the 1990s, which marked the mainstream adoption of the internet and commercial enterprise software, competition within the U. S. economy has accelerated to unprecedented levels. There are a number of possible reasons for this quickening, including MA activity, the opening up of global markets, and companies’ continuing RD efforts. However, we found that a central c atalyst in this shift is the massive increase in the power of IT investments. To better understand when and where IT confers competitive advantage in today’s economy, we studied all publicly traded U. S. companies in all industries from the 1960s through 2005, looking at relevant performance indicators from each (including sales, earnings, pro? tability, and market capitalization) and found some striking patterns: Since the mid-1990s, a new competitive dynamic has emerged—greater gaps between the leaders and laggards in an industry, more concen- trated and winner-take-all markets, and more churn among rivals in a sector. Strikingly, this pattern closely matches the turbulent â€Å"creative destruction† mode of capitalism that was ? rst predicted over 60 years ago by economist Joseph Schumpeter. This accelerated competition has coincided with a sharp increase in the quantity and quality of IT investments, as more organizations have moved to bolster (or altogether replace) their existing operating models using the internet and enterprise software. Tellingly, the changes in competitive dynamics are most apparent in precisely those sectors that have spent the most on information technology, even when we controlled for other factors. This pattern is a familiar one in markets for digitized products like computer software and music. You read "Investing in the It That Makes a Competitive Difference" in category "Essay examples" Those industries have long been dominated by both a winner-take-all dynamic and high turbulence, as each group of dominant innovators is threatened by succeeding waves of innovation. Consider how quickly Google supplanted Yahoo, which harvard business review †¢ july–august 2008 Purchased by Steven Stillman (sstillm@post. harvard. edu) on March 13, 2013 page 2 Investing in the IT That Makes a Competitive Difference Andrew McAfee (amcafee@hbs. edu) is an associate professor at Harvard Business School in Boston. He is the author of â€Å"Mastering the Three Worlds of Information Technology† (HBR November 2006) and has a blog at andrewmcafee. rg/blog. Erik Brynjolfsson (erikb@mit. edu) is the Schussel Family Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the director of MIT’s Center for Digital Business in Cambridge, Massachusetts. More of the author’s research is available at digital. mit. edu/erik. supplanted AltaVista and others that created the s earch engine market from nothing. Or the relative speed with which new recording artists can dominate sales in a category. Most industries have historically been fairly immune from this kind of Schumpeterian competition. However, our ? dings show that the internet and enterprise IT are now accelerating competition within traditional industries in the broader U. S. economy. Why? Not because more products are becoming digital but because more processes are: Just as a digital photo or a web-search algorithm can be endlessly replicated quickly and accurately by copying the underlying bits, a company’s unique business processes can now be propagated with much higher ? delity across the organization by embedding it in enterprise information technology. As a result, an innovator with a better way of doing things can scale up with unprecedented speed to dominate an industry. In response, a rival can roll out further process innovations throughout its product lines and geographic markets to recapture market share. Winners can win big and fast, but not necessarily for very long. CVS, Cisco, and Otis Elevator are among the many companies we’ve observed gaining a market edge by competing on technologyenabled processes—carefully examining their working methods, revamping them in interesting ways, and using readily available enterprise software and networking technologies to spread these process changes to far-? ng locations so they’re executed the same way every time. In the following pages, we’ll explore why the link between technology and competition has become much stronger and tighter since the mid-1990s, and we’ll clarify the roles that business leaders and enterprise technologies should play in this new environment. Competing at such high speeds isn’t easy, and not everyone will be able to keep up. The senior ex ecutives who do may realize not only greatly improved business processes but also higher market share and increased market value. How Technology Has Changed Competition The mid-1990s marked a clear discontinuity in competitive dynamics and the start of a period of innovation in corporate IT, when the inter- net and enterprise software applications— like enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), and enterprise content management (ECM)—became practical tools for business. Corporate investments in IT surged during this time—from about $3,500 spent per worker in 1994 to about $8,000 in 2005, according the U. S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). (See the exhibit â€Å"The IT Surge. †) At the same time, annual productivity growth in U. S. companies roughly doubled, after plodding along at about 1. 4% for nearly 20 years. Much attention has been paid to the connection between productivity growth and the increase in IT investment. But hardly any has been directed to the nature of the link between IT and competitiveness. That’s why, with help from Harvard Business School researcher Michael Sorell and Feng Zhu, who’s now an assistant professor at USC, we set out two years ago to compare the increase in IT spending with various measures of competition, focusing on three quanti? ble indicators: concentration, turbulence, and performance spread. In a concentrated or winner-take-all industry, just a few companies account for the bulk of the market share. For our study, we focused on the degree to which each industry became more or less concentrated over time. A sector is turbulent if the sales leaders in it are frequently leapfrogging one another in rank order. And ? nally the performance spread in an industr y is large when the leaders and laggards differ greatly on standard performance measures such as return on assets, pro? margins, and market capitalization per dollar of revenue—the kinds of numbers that matter a lot to senior managers and investors. Were there economywide changes in these three measures after the mid-1990s, when IT spending accelerated? If so, were the changes more pronounced in industries that were more IT intensive—that is, where IT made up a larger share of all ? xed assets within an industry? In a word, yes. We analyzed industry data from the BEA, as well as from annual company reports, and found that average turbulence within U. S. industries rose sharply starting in the mid1990s. Furthermore, after declining in previous decades, industry concentration reversed course and began increasing around the same time. Finally, the spread between the highest harvard business review †¢ july–august 2008 Purchased by Steven Stillman (sstillm@post. harvard. edu) on March 13, 2013 page 3 Investing in the IT That Makes a Competitive Difference and lowest performers also increased. These changes coincided with the surge in IT investment and the concurrent productivity rise, suggesting a fundamental change in the underlying economics of competition. (See the exhibit â€Å"Competitive Dynamics: Several Ways to Slice IT. †) Looking more losely at the data, we found that the changes in dynamics were indeed greatest in those industries that were more IT intensive—for instance, consumer electronics and auto parts manufacturers. Further, we considered the role of MA activity, globalization, and RD spending in our analysis of the competitive landscape and fo und some minor correlations—but none strong enough to override our measures (see the sidebar â€Å"Is IT the Only Factor That Matters? †). One interpretation of our ? ndings might be that IT is, indeed, inducing the intensi? ed competition we’ve documented—but that the change in dynamics is only temporary. According to this argument, the years since the mid-1990s have seen a onetime burst of innovation from IT producers, and it’s simply taking IT-consuming companies a while to absorb them all. Businesses will eventually ? gure out how to internalize all the new tools, proponents of this theory say, and then all industries will revert to their previous The IT Surge The total real stock of IT hardware and software in the United States began to rise dramatically in the mid-1990s. Dollar value of total U. S. corporate IT stock Spending compared to 1995 level Triple Double Baseline 1965 1975 1985 1995 2005 Source: U. S. Bureau of Economic Analysis competitive patterns. While it’s true that the tool kit of corporate IT has expanded a great deal in recent years, we believe that an overabundance of new technologies is not the fundamental driver of the change in dynamics we’ve documented. Instead, our ? eld research suggests that businesses entered a new era of increased competitiveness in the mid-1990s not because they had so many IT innovations to choose from but because some of these new technologies enabled improvements to companies’ operating models and then made it possible to replicate those improvements much more widely. CVS offers a great example. There’s no shortage of people looking to ? ll prescriptions—or of outlets ready to handle those orders. So CVS works hard to maintain a high level of customer service. Imagine senior management’s concern, then, when surveys conducted in 2002 revealed that customer satisfaction was declining. Further analysis uncovered a key problem: Some 17% of the prescription orders were being delayed during the insurance check, which was often performed after customers had already left the store. The team decided to move the insurance check forward in the prescription ful? llment process, before the drug safety review, so all customers would still be around to answer common questions such as, â€Å"Have you changed jobs? † This two-step process change was embedded in the information systems that supported pharmacy operations, thereby ensuring 100% compliance. The transaction screen for the drug safety review now appeared on pharmacists’ computers only after all the ? elds in the insurance-check screen had been completed; it was simply no longer possible to do the safety review ? st. The redesigned protocol helped boost customer satisfaction scores without compromising safety—and not just in one store but in all of them. CVS used its enterprise information technology to replicate the new process throughout its 4,000plus retail pharmacies nationwide within a year. Performance increased sharply, and overall customer satisfaction scores rose from 86% to 91%â €”a dramatic difference within the aggressive pharmacy market. The enterprise IT underlying this initiative served two key roles. It helped the process changes stick: Clerks and pharmacists couldn’t fall back on their old habits once the new harvard business review †¢ july–august 2008 Purchased by Steven Stillman (sstillm@post. harvard. edu) on March 13, 2013 page 4 Investing in the IT That Makes a Competitive Difference Competitive Dynamics: Several Ways to Slice IT How does IT spending affect the nature of competition and the relative performance of companies within an industry? To answer those questions, we focused on three indicators—industry concentration, turbulence, and performance spread. When we aggregated data from all companies in all industries between 1965 and 2005, we noticed a consistent pattern: All indicators rose markedly in the mid-1990s for high-IT industries (those in which IT accounts for a comparatively large percentage of all ? xed assets), coinciding with the surge in IT spending. Market share held by top 20 largest ? rms 100% Low-IT Industries High-IT Industries 80 60 Industry Concentration: After decades of decline in all industries, industry concentration began to rise in the mid-1990s. Though the absolute level is lower, the rate of rise is faster in high-IT industries than it is for low-IT industries. 0 20 0 1965 1975 1985 1995 2005 Average jump in number of places up or down the rankings from previous year 20 16 12 8 4 Turbulence: In turbulent markets, the top-selling company one year may not dominate the next. Today’s 10th place company, for instance, might catapult to number one the following year. In less turbulent markets the same com panies dominate year after year and there’s very little movement up and down in rank order. By this measure, we found consistently more sales turbulence in high-IT industries—and a marked increase in the mid-1990s. 0 P e r c e n t a g e g ap between top and bottom quartiles 60% 40 Performance Spread: The spread in gross pro? t margin between the company performing at the 25th percentile in its industry and the company performing at the 75th percentile—an indication of the spread between winners and losers—has grown dramatically in high-IT industries since the mid-1990s. 20 0 harvard business review †¢ july–august 2008 Purchased by Steven Stillman (sstillm@post. harvard. edu) on March 13, 2013 page 5 Investing in the IT That Makes a Competitive Difference protocol was embedded in the company’s information systems. More important, it also allowed for quick and easy propagation of the new process to all 4,000 sites—radically amplifying the economic value of the initial innovation. Without enterprise IT, CVS could still have tried to implement this process innovation, but it would have been much more cumbersome. Updated procedure manuals might have been sent to all CVS locations, or managers may have been rotated in for training sessions and then periodically surveyed to monitor compliance. But propagating the new process digitally accelerated and magni? d its competitive impact by vastly increasing the consistency of its execution throughout the organization. Although modern commercial enterprise systems are relatively recent—SAP’s ERP platform, for example, was introduced in 1992— by now, companies in virtually every industry have adopted them. According to one estimate, spending on these complex platforms already accounted for 75% of all U. S. corporate IT investmen t in 2001. More recently, IT consultancy Gartner Group projected that worldwide enterprise software revenue would approach $190 billion in 2008. To understand how this profusion of enterprise IT is changing the broader competitive landscape, imagine that a drugstore chain like CVS has a number of rivals, most of which Is IT the Only Factor That Matters? Previous research suggests that the changes we’ve observed in the competitive environment are not primarily driven by shifts in MA activity, globalization, or RD spending. New York University’s Lawrence White, in a paper published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives in 2002, contended that MA activity explained neither the decline in concentration in the ? st half of the 1990s nor its rise in the second half. In a 2006 research paper published in Industrial and Corporate Change, Harvard Business School’s Pankaj Ghemawat and his colleagues found that industry concentration tends to decrease as globalization rises, implying that concentration has increased since the mid-1990s not because of more global competition but despite it. On the other hand, Harva rd professor Diego Comin and his colleagues, in their 2005 working paper, â€Å"The Rise in Firm-Level Volatility,† did ? nd a correlation between companies’ spending on RD and changes in industry turbulence. So we reexamined our ? ndings, including RD spending in our assessments, and found that it does not detract from the signi? cance of our IT measures. In fact, IT appears to be much more strongly correlated with the changes in competitive dynamics than RD does. also have multiple stores. Before the advent of enterprise IT, a successful innovation by a manager at one store could lead to dominance in that manager’s local market. But because no ? rm had a monopoly on good managers, other ? rms might win the competitive battle in other local markets, re? cting the relative talent at these other locations. Sharing and replication of innovations (via analog technologies like corporate memos, procedures manuals, and training sessions) would be relatively slow and imperfect, and overall market share would change little from year to year. With the advent of enterprise IT, however, not just CVS, but its competitors have the option to deploy technology to improve their processes. Some may not exercise this option because they don’t believe in the power of IT. Others will try and fail. Some will succeed, and effective innovations will spread rapidly. The ? rm with the best processes will win in most or all markets. At the same time, competitors will be able to strike back much more quickly: Instead of simply copying the ? rst mover, they will introduce further IT-based innovations, perhaps instituting digitally mediated outsourcing or CRM software that identi? es cross- and up-selling opportunities. These innovations will also propagate widely, rapidly, and accurately because they are embedded in the IT system. Success will prompt these companies to make bolder and more frequent competitive moves, and ustomers will switch from one company to another in response to them. As a result, performance spread will rise, as the most successful IT exploiters pull away from the pack. Concentration will increase, as the losers fall by the wayside. And yet turbulence will actually intensify, as the remaining rivals use successive IT-enabled operatingmodel changes to leapfrog one another over time. Thus, despite the shakeout, rivalry in the in dustry will continue to become more fast-paced, intense, and dynamic than it was prior to the advent of enterprise technology. These are exactly the changes we see re? cted in the data. In this Schumpeterian environment, the value of process innovations greatly multiplies. This puts the onus on managers to be strategic about innovating and then propagating new ways of working. harvard business review †¢ july–august 2008 Purchased by Steven Stillman (sstillm@post. harvard. edu) on March 13, 2013 page 6 Investing in the IT That Makes a Competitive Difference Competing on Digital Processes To survive, or better yet thrive, in this more competitive environment, the mantra for any CEO should be, â€Å"Deploy, innovate, and propagate†: First, deploy a consistent technology platform. Then separate yourself from the pack by coming up with better ways of working. Finally, use the platform to propagate these business innovations widely and reliably. In this regard, deploying IT serves two distinct roles—as a catalyst for innovative ideas and as an engine for delivering them. Each of the three steps in the mantra presents different and critical management challenges, not least of which have to do with questions of centralization and autonomy. Deployment: the management challenge. Since the mid-1990s, the commercial availability of enterprise software packages has added a new item to the list of senior management’s responsibilities: Determining which aspects of their companies’ operating models should be globally (or at least widely) consistent, then using technology to replicate them with high ? delity. Some top teams have pounced on the opportunity. Many more, however, have embraced this responsibility only reluctantly, unwilling to tackle two formidable barriers to deployment: fragmentation and autonomy. Historically, regional, product, and function managers have been given a great deal of leeway to purchase, install, and customize IT systems as they see ? t. But bitter experience has shown that it’s prohibitively time-consuming and expensive to stitch together a jumble of legacy systems so they can all use common data, and support and enforce standardized processes. Even if a company invests heavily in standardized enterprise software for the entire organization, it may not remain standard for long, as the software is deployed in ways other than it was originally intended in dozens, or even hundreds, of separate instances. When that happens, it’s almost certain that data, processes, customer interfaces, and operating models will become inconsistent—thus defeating the whole competitive purpose of purchasing the package in the ? rst place. That’s what initially happened at networking giant Cisco. In the mid-1990s, Cisco successfully implemented a single ERP platform throughout the company. Managers were then given the green light to purchase and install as many applications as they wanted, to sit on that platform. Cisco’s IT department The Elements of a Successful IT-Enabled Process Given the costs of enterprise IT and the risks inherent in deploying it poorly, it’s especially important that the change projects you select capitalize on IT’s strengths. Consider the following hypothetical example of a company that did just that. A U. S. furniture maker sells both standard and custom pieces out of its 100 showrooms nationwide. Because salespeople in each of the showrooms have very little direct interaction with or information about the company’s three factories, they all quote long lead times for custom furniture, just to be on the safe side. To rectify this situation, the company develops software to integrate the activities of manufacturing and sales, and tests it at one location. Now salespeople can enter the speci? cations of a custom order and instantly receive an accurate delivery date. The company also decides to use the software to manage customer deliveries. The delivery team for the test showroom is required to call back to the dispatch center immediately after leaving a customer’s house. That enables the center to contact the customer to verify his or her satisfaction and address any concerns. The software tracks delivery times and satisfaction levels and ? ds the former is decreasing while the latter ticks upward. Recognizing its success, the company quickly embeds the new process in its enterprise software and rolls it out to the other 99 locations. Because customers value these process innovations, the company’s market share grows nationwide. Successful IT-enabled business process improvements like this one generally have a number of important characteristics: They cover a wide span. The new ways of working apply across a very large swath of a company—in this case, all stores, factories, and delivery teams. They produce results immediately. As soon as the new enterprise system goes live, so do the process changes it enables. They are precise, rather than general guidelines, suggesting highly scripted instructions for business activities (furniture order taking and delivery). They are consistent—executed the same way everywhere, every time. Every furniture store uses the same method to quote lead times, and deliveries are closed out the same way day after day. They make monitoring easy. Activities and events can be observed and tracked in real time, providing unprecedented opportunities for testing and feedback. They build in enforceability. The designers of a new process that’s embedded in IT can have great con? dence that it will be executed as intended. It is often simply impossible to execute the process the old way, and even when backsliding is possible it can be recognized and addressed. The furniture company could easily use the data collected during the delivery process to determine if all teams were calling in properly. page 7 harvard business review †¢ july–august 2008 Purchased by Steven Stillman (sstillm@post. harvard. edu) on March 13, 2013 Investing in the IT That Makes a Competitive Difference helped the various functions, technology groups, and product lines throughout the world get their desired programs up and running without attempting to constrain or second-guess their decisions. When newly arrived CIO Brad Boston assessed Cisco’s IT environment in 2001, he found that system, data, and process fragmentation was an unintended consequence of the company’s enthusiasm for technology. There were, for example, nine different tools for checking the status of a customer order. Each pulled information from different repositories and de? ed key terms in different ways. The multiple databases and fuzzy terms resulted in the circulation of con? icting orderstatus reports around the company. Boston’s assessment also revealed that there were over 50 different customer-survey tools, 15 different business-intelligence applications, and more than 200 additional IT projects in progress. Deployment efforts heig hten the tensions— present in every sizable company—between global consistency and local autonomy. As the Cisco example shows, however, this con? ict often exists by default rather than by design. Ultimately, the top team’s focused efforts to manage this tension reaped tremendous bene? ts. Responding to the CIO’s assessment, senior managers decided to upgrade Cisco’s original ERP system and other key applications to support standardized data and processes. The upgrade was budgeted at $200 million over three years. Cisco identi? ed several key business processes—market to sell, lead to order, quote to cash, issue to resolution, forecast to build, idea to product, and hire to retire—and con? gured its systems to support the subprocesses involved in each stage. The software updates and the strategy discussions the technology engendered eventually resulted in greater consistency throughout the organization and contributed to Cisco’s strong performance over the past few years. At about the same time that Cisco was untangling its legacy spaghetti, the leader of a much older and more traditional company was also reimagining the kinds of information systems his ? rm would need to compete more successfully. When Ari Bousbib became president of Otis in 2002, the information systems of the 149-year-old company were not so much fragmented as virtually nonexistent. As Harvard Business School’s F. Warren McFarlan and Brian J. DeLacey recounted in a 2005 case study, the software applications in place were largely antiquated for implementing the critical processes of gathering customer requests to install a new elevator system, specifying the exact con? guration of the order, and creating a ? nal proposal. In many regions, in fact, the processes were still being done entirely on paper. Like Cisco, Otis took a hard look at its core processes and ended up replacing old software with a new enterprise technology platform the company called e*Logistics. It was designed to connect sales, factory, and ? eld operations worldwide through the internet. Otis de? ned four processes—sales, order ful? llment, ? eld installation, and job closing— and designed e*Logistics to ensure that improvements in the way each process was carried out occurred uniformly, every time, everywhere. Eventually, Otis realized not only signi? cantly shorter sales-cycle times but higher revenues and operating pro? t. Innovation: IT-enabled opportunities. Data analytics drawn from enterprise IT applications, along with collective intelligence and other Web 2. technologies, can be important aides not just in propagating ideas but also in generating them. They are certainly no replacement for brilliant insights from a line manager or a eureka moment during a meeting, but they can complement and speed the search for business process innovations. UK grocery chain Tesco is one company that employs enterprise IT’s aggregation and analysis capabilitie s in this way. Like many retailers around the world, it uses customerrewards cards to collect detailed data about individuals’ purchases, to categorize customers, and to tailor offers accordingly. But the grocer goes a step further, tracking redemption rates in great detail and performing experiments to tweak its processes to get a better response from customers. In an industry where the average redemption rate for direct-marketing initiatives is about 2%, Babson professor Tom Davenport has noted, Tesco’s data analytics help drive its rate to approximately 20%. Web 2. 0 applications that bring collective wisdom to the fore can also uncover potential business innovations. Jim Lavoie, CEO of the technology ? rm Rite-Solutions, built some- harvard business review †¢ july–august 2008 Purchased by Steven Stillman (sstillm@post. arvard. edu) on March 13, 2013 page 8 Investing in the IT That Makes a Competitive Difference thing called a â€Å"Mutual Fun† market within the company’s intranet that has three indices employees can invest in—Savings Bonds for ideas on saving costs, Bow Jones for ideas on extending existing products, and Spazdaq for new product concepts. Any Rite-Solutions employee can suggest a new idea in any of these markets. Workers can also view the â€Å"prospectus of ideas,† invest play money in them, and even sign up to complete any tasks necessary to make those concepts reality. As Lavoie said in a recent online interview with the nonpro? Business Innovation Factory: â€Å"We believe the next brilliant idea is going to come from somebody other than senior management, and unless you’re trying to harvest those ideas, you’re not going to get them†¦. That’s why we give everybody an equal voice, and a game to provoke their intellectual curiosity. † Propagation: top down and bottom up. Part of the attraction of enterprise systems has been the opportunity for management to impose best practices and standardized procedures universally, as CVS did to great advantage, and so eliminate the chaos of inconsistent homegrown practices. There’s really no competitive advantage in having each department develop and use its own idiosyncratic process for inventory control, for instance, especially when best practices already exist. While an ERP system is an obvious tool for propagation, other technologies are also important, and they show that innovations do not necessarily emanate from headquarters. For instance, Web 2. 0 applications can help process changes emerge organically from lower levels in an organization. Within Cisco, for instance, a community of about 10,000 Macintosh users was dissatis? d with the level of support they were receiving from the company’s central IT group. But instead of complaining, they created a wiki to share ideas about how to use their Macs more effectively. They posted information, ? les, links, and applications that could be edited by any user—tips and tricks that ultimately became huge productivity enhancers. In this case, process innovations ? owed through the co mpany to its great bene? t without central management direction. The role of decision rights. At ? rst glance, the Cisco and Otis examples seem to support he view that propagating processes using enterprise IT necessarily leads to more centralized companies—ones in which most of the important decisions are made at the top and the rest of the business exists only to execute them. Many of the choices about core business processes and the systems that support them were taken out of the hands of businessunit leaders and regional managers, and the companies’ change efforts appeared to lead to higher levels of centralization than had previously existed. But the reality is more complicated. Even as some decisions become centralized and standardized, others are pushed outward from headquarters. Senior executives do play a primary role in identifying and propagating critical business processes, but line managers and employees often end up with more discretion within these processes to serve customer needs and to apply tacit, idiosyncratic, or relationship-speci? c information that only they have. To appreciate how important this distinction is, consider an analogy from government. The process of writing a constitution is inherently a highly centralized activity—a small group of framers makes decisions on behalf of an entire population. It’s perfectly possible, and in fact common, however, for that constitution to de? e a highly decentralized government. At both Cisco and Otis, local managers and frontline employees retained critical responsibilities in their companies’ IT-enabled operating models—and often gained new ones. After e*Logistics was put in place at Otis, for example, ? eld installation supervisors became responsible for the ? rst time for certifying that a site was ready to install an elevator before it would be shipped. (In the old operating model, the equipment was simply shipped as soon as it was manufactured. ) The new business practice was standardized throughout the world, but it was not centralized. It actually placed more responsibility in the hands of frontline employees. Consider, too, the Spanish clothing company Zara. It has more than 1,000 stores worldwide, and they all order clothes exactly the same way, using the same digital form, following a rigid weekly timetable for placing orders. Most other large apparel retailers rely on sophisticated forecasting algorithms, executed by computers at headquarters, to harvard business review †¢ july–august 2008 Purchased by Steven Stillman (sstillm@post. harvard. edu) on March 13, 2013 page 9 Investing in the IT That Makes a Competitive Difference etermine which clothes will sell in each location and in what quantities. Headquarters pushes these clothes down to stores with virtually no input from their managers. Zara’s store managers, however, have almost complete discretion over which clothes to order; they choose them based on local tastes and immediate demand. This sharp difference between Zara’s and oth er retailers’ approaches to the same challenge highlights a critically important point: We don’t expect that enterprise IT will inevitably lead to one best way to execute core processes. In fact, it can prompt a great deal of experimentation and variation, as companies try to understand who has the most relevant knowledge to make decisions and where, ultimately, to site decision rights. leverage the talents of a high-performing manager at one location to maximize results in thousands of sites worldwide. †¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ The arrival of powerful new information technologies does not render obsolete all previous assumptions and insights about how to do business, but it does open up new opportunities to executives. Our research has led us to three conclusions: First of all, the data show that IT has sharpened differences among companies instead of reducing them. This re? ects the fact that while companies have always varied widely in their ability to select, adopt, and exploit innovations, technology has accelerated and ampli? ed these differences. Second, line executives matter: Highly quali? ed vendors, consultants, and IT departments might be necessary for the successful implementation of enterprise technologies themselves, but the real value comes from the process innovations that can now be delivered on those platforms. Fostering the right innovations and propagating them widely are both executive responsibilities— ones that can’t be delegated. Finally, the competitive shakeup brought on by IT is not nearly complete, even in the IT-intensive U. S. economy. We expect to see these altered competitive dynamics in other countries, as well, as their IT investments grow. It is not easy for most companies to deploy enterprise IT successfully. The technologies themselves are complicated to con? gure and test, and changing people’s behavior and attitudes toward technology is even more challenging. Enterprise IT typically changes many jobs in major ways; this is never an easy sell to either employees or line managers. As the performance spread, concentration, and churn increase, management becomes a distinctly less comfortable profession—more unforgiving of mistakes, faster to weed out low performers. Even those executives who are prepared will not necessarily survive the inevitable turbulence. But those who do can expect outsize rewards—at least until another player comes along and uses IT to propagate a business innovation that’s even better. Reprint R0807J To order, see the next page or call 800-988-0886 or 617-783-7500 or go to www. hbr. org Maximizing Return on Talent As corporate IT facilitates the implementation and monitoring of processes, the value of simply carrying out rote instructions will fall while the value of inventing better methods will rise. In some cases, this may even lead to a â€Å"superstar† effect, as disproportionate rewards accrue to the very best knowledge workers. Human resource policies and corporate culture will need to evolve to support this type of worker. An effective leader and a well-designed organization will need not only to aggressively seek out and identify such individuals and the innovations they generate but also to develop and reward them appropriately. An analysis of 400 U. S. companies that Erik Brynjolfsson published with Wharton professor Lorin Hitt in 2005, found that organizations successfully using IT were signi? cantly more aggressive in vetting new hires: They considered more applicants. They scrutinized each one more intensively. They involved senior management (not just HR) early and often in the interview process. After identifying top talent, these ? ms invested substantially more time and money on both internal and external training and education. Furthermore, they gave their employees more discretion in how to do their jobs while linking their compensation and rewards—including promotions—more tightly to performance using a suite of metrics that was more detailed than competitors’. The cos ts of managing talent in this way may be high, but the payoff increases exponentially if you can harvard business review †¢ july–august 2008 Purchased by Steven Stillman (sstillm@post. harvard. edu) on March 13, 2013 page 10 Investing in the IT That Makes a Competitive Difference Further Reading ARTICLES Radically Simple IT by David Upton and Bradley R. Staats Harvard Business Review March 2008 Product no. R0803J The authors focus on the â€Å"Deploy† principle for driving IT-enabled process innovations. Their advice? Build a low-cost, efficient IT system that runs your existing business and supports new growth fueled by process innovations. Develop your system over time, using these principles: 1) Forge your business and IT strategies together—so your IT platform supports your strategic objectives. 2) Strive for simplicity—so you can reuse elements of your system and save money. ) Invite users’ input—so they’ll quickly embrace the new system. Using these principles, Japan’s Shinsei Bank created an enterprise system that supported its strategy of providing new retail services. Its customer base jumped from 50,000 in 2001 to 2+ million in 2007. The Next Revolution in Productivity by Ric Merri? eld, Jack Calhoun, and Dennis Stevens Harvard Business Review June 2008 Product no. R0806D This article sheds further light on the â€Å"Propagate† principle. The authors recommend using service-oriented architecture (SOA)—a way of designing business-process technology built on Web-based services. SOA makes it vastly easier to share processes with other units. To take advantage of SOA, identify processes that give you a strategic edge. Then automate these processes through Web-based services anyone (different business units, customers, suppliers) can access. Airlines did this by enabling passengers to check in for flights on their home computers, at airport kiosks, or through customer-service representatives. COLLECTION Wringing Real Value from IT, 2nd Edition by Nicholas G. Carr, Michael E. Porter, and Diana Farrell HBR Article Collection October 2008 Product no. 135 This collection provides additional insights for maximizing the value of your IT investments. In â€Å"IT Doesn’t Matter,† Nicholas Carr recommends ways to save money on your investments. For example, explore cheaper alternatives, such as open-source systems and barebones PCs. In â€Å"Strategy and the Internet,† Michael Porter advises using IT to integrate your virtual and physical business processes. For instance, employ your Web site to attract customers and draw them to flesh-and-blood salespeople, who provide personalized advice and aftersales service. In â€Å"The Real New Economy,† Diana Farrell suggests figuring out what drives productivity most in your company (labor efficiency? asset utilization? cost reduction? ), and sequencing your IT investments so they build on each other. To Order For Harvard Business Review reprints and subscriptions, call 800-988-0886 or 617-783-7500. Go to www. hbr. org For customized and quantity orders of Harvard Business Review article reprints, call 617-783-7626, or e-mail customizations@hbsp. harvard. edu page 11 Purchased by Steven Stillman (sstillm@post. harvard. edu) on March 13, 2013 How to cite Investing in the It That Makes a Competitive Difference, Essay examples

Integrated Project Management for Quasar Company-myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theIntegrated Project Management for Quasar Company. Answer: In the given case study, the case scenario of Quasar Communication company which is the leading communication organization at the international level. The company is working hard for the betterment of the society from last 35 years. The changes are required in the working curriculum of the enterprise. In this paper, we are going to examine and discuss the changes required for the smooth functioning of the enterprise. The modification and manipulation is required in the project life cycle development plan and undergoing processes. Tremendous growth has been seen in the company till the year of 1996. Later on, the project owner has appointed the consultant for implementing project management fundamentals in the proper functioning of the system. The inclusion of information administrative system helps in dividing the roles and responsibilities of the employees. The company is looking forward to expand their association with 20 big companies and 40 small companies. The new association of the company required to manage the team at all levels of the project. The process undertaken by the project has been changed according to the skills and talent of the process group appointed for completing the required tasks (Passenheim, 2015). The request of the client should be managed by the project administrator at top priority. The projects are categorised into different categories like small project, large project, research and development project, capital investment project, and others. The group of team and associated project manager is appointed for managing the particular project category. The administrative process of the QCI project has to be changed according to the new project domains specified for the continuation of business functionality (Kerzner, H., Kerzner, H. R., 2013). The project manager should have the capability of resolving the grievances of the team members which helps in motivating the participants towards the achievement of the goal. Periodically meetings should be arranged with the project team for anticipating the phases and processes required for completing the required task. The diversification in the project activities and areas help in enhancing the skills and talent of the project manager by going through the program of research and development. The scheduling plan of project activities should comprised of marketing and manufacturing operations because marketing analysis helps in gathering the clear requirement specification plan of the customers which helps in developing the product of customer choice (Hall, 2012). The profitability of the company can be measured through the inclusion of return on investment technique. The competitive advantage and minimization of the risks can be done with the deployment of marketing analysis operations. The priorities should be associated with the handling of small and large project by the project manager. It helps in difference out the high and low priorities activities (Morris, 2013). The technical requirement of the client should be taken under-consideration for improvement. It is recommended that the completion and delivery date of the project should be kept on time. The quality project should be provided to the client on time helps in raising the confidence level of them which helps in increasing profitability ration of the organization. The requirement specification plan should be discussed with the clients periodically to minimize the chance of obscure in the final project. References: Hall, N. (2012). Project management: Recent development and research opportunities. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11518-012-5190-5 Kerzner, H., Kerzner, H. R. (2013). Project management case studies on Quasar. Morris, P. (2013). Research and the future of project management. Retrieved from https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/17538371011014080 Passenheim, O. (2015). Project management. Retrieved from https://home.hit.no/~hansha/documents/theses/projectmanagement.pdf

Purchase of a Franchise

Introduction Organizations and individual entrepreneurs continue to adopt more innovative approaches to business. Evidently, globalization and technological developments have played crucial roles in this business. Generally, these two factors have increased the rate of business processes. It is observable that brands have advanced beyond their domestic and regional markets (Schell 2011).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Purchase of a Franchise specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More There is a notable platform for global business negotiation and franchise opportunities. There are several fundamental elements to be considered while establishing and conducting an international franchise. Strategies applicable in the management of complications associated with international franchise are eminent within all sectors of investment. Entrepreneurs interested in franchise business must take into consideration the crucial challeng es. Ideally, the basic objective is always to minimize the negative implications of franchise operations. Precaution and effective examination is vital for all parties interested in the global franchise business (Lorette 2013). This paper presents critical considerations to be undertaken during the establishment of a franchise investment. Additionally, it describes the process of assessment of the risks and returns associated with the business. There is a description of the laws providing special protections to the franchisee. The report also indicates vital analysis and recommendations to be adopted by the franchisees. Assessment of the Risk and Returns of the Franchise Investment The report focuses on investment in the franchise within the Canadian hospitality industry. For this segment of international franchise, the interested parties must consider a variety of factors. However, it is vital for them to examine the risks and returns linked with this global franchise initiative. C anada is strategically fit for the establishment of the franchise. Particularly, the country faces a huge influx of tourists and international travels (Herman 2013). This enables the hospitality industry to realize great revenues and profits. Therefore, it is the ideal destination for the establishment of this kind of investment. It is imperative to indicate that Canada has one of the greatest potential markets for the franchise sector. The nation borrows a lot of franchise strategies and ideas from the major U.S business industry. Those involved in the franchise industry must note that Canada has distinct features. These might have severe business implications. Such important characteristics include the unique regional and the demographic elements. These factors require adequate attention for the business to realize its targeted success.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Fran chising is a process in which the private businesspersons purchase the entitlements to establish and manage a site of a potential company (Arthur 2000). Regulatory concerns within Canada must be fully complied with during the process. The franchisor and the franchisee must be engaged in a legal contract. The contract must indicate and explain the terms and conditions in a comprehensive manner. There are a variety of advantages and disadvantages associated with the franchise business. These must be noted before the franchisee signs the legal business contract. The franchisee must note that the foremost procedure is to analyze and accent to the terms indicated within the contract. Failure to observe this consideration might lead to the experience of potential losses by the franchisee. The Canadian hospitality industry borrows certain regulations indicated in the â€Å"international franchise association† (IFA) charter. Nonetheless, other regulatory frameworks emanate from the s tatutory provisions in Canada (Arthur 2000). The franchisee interested in the Canadian hospitality is entitled to several benefits. They are likely to obtain adequate familiarity with the company’s name. In addition, the impact of the original company’s culture, brand and training may help in the development of a powerful franchise stature. These merits are vital for the successful running g the franchise business in Canada. The franchisee is likely to benefit from the bustling hospitality industry in different ways. The high level of revenue recorded from the tourist sector is set to minimize the probability of failure of the franchise. The explicit Canadian business and investment policies might also lead to a considerable level of business success. The parent company might be willing to extend its innovative practices to the franchise (Elgin 2002). These might include human resource training and apprenticeship. Employee welfare is one of the crucial elements of succ ess. It must be extended to the franchise organization.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Purchase of a Franchise specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Generally, provision of a support strategy to the franchise owner has positive implications on its overall performance. The franchisee must face the elementary risk of raising the rights required for operation of the franchise. There are additional costs required to develop the necessary enterprises and functional systems. This may also cover employee remuneration. The Canadian business laws must be complied with to the maximum level. These also include other necessities involving tax regulations and costs incurred during business licensing. The costs involving the authorization of the capacity to run and manage a franchise in the Canadian hospitality vary in a significant manner. The franchise entrepreneur may remain liable for other constant expenditures. These might have negative implications on the business. Indicatively, they differ in orientation, such as those linked to the royalties and use of the name or brand of the mother company. In the end, such identifiable on-going expenditures might deeply minimize the level of expected profits (Lorette 2013). Other potential precautions might increase the level of associated business risks. For instance, the Canadian franchise is still under refinement. Therefore, certain laws might predispose the franchisee to significant levels of risks. Certain regulations underlined within the franchise contracts appear very stringent and punitive to the business owners. The owners of the franchise must also comply with the contract. The aim is to reduce the likelihood of termination of the contract. Factors to Be Considered For a Franchise Investment There are diverse factors to be considered for a franchise investment in the Canadian hospitality industry. The franchisee must know that Canada has restrictions on trademarks. Canadian authorities only safeguard legally registered trademarks. The power to register such trademarks is only exercised by the federal government. The importation of franchise laws from the U.S must be avoided. Particularly, the franchisee must consider innovative techniques applicable within the hospitality industry. Regulations that advocate for individual franchises must be reviewed (Schell 2011). There are different franchise investment policies within distinct regions in Canada. These include the â€Å"grant master franchise and development agreements.† Observably, these franchise agreements remain unique for every province in Canada. Integration of the domestic businesspersons in the franchise process must be considered.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This is because it is a fundamental initiative that improves the level of engagement of local communities in the franchise process. It is also critical for the franchisee to adopt the â€Å"Canada oriented marketing.† This enables them to enhance the brand and extend the local market for the franchise (Herman 2013). This initiative shall help the franchise business to flourish within Canada. The â€Å"Canadian franchise association†, (CFA) plays a crucial role in the regulation and protection of the franchisees. Therefore, the franchisee must examine and be conversant with the regulatory measures in the CFA. Laws Giving Special Protections to the Franchisee The provincial disclosure provisions are evident in three of the major provinces in Canada. Ideally, this provision offers the franchisee a special kind of cushion and protection from exploitation by the mother organization. There are other provinces with necessary protective legislations for the franchisee. General ly, these regulations have different monitoring agencies throughout Canada (Herman 2013). Some of the regulatory frameworks indicated under the provincial disclosure in Ontario and Alberta are aligned with those of the U.S. This regulation subjects the franchisor to certain conditions that must be attained before any business contract is signed by the potential investors. For instance, all of the parties are required to make public all the material information regarding the deal. The â€Å"uniform franchise commission of Canada† is in the process of establishing a universal franchise law. Recommendations The franchisee must be aware of all legal requirements of the business within Canada. Additionally, it is vital to consider the refinement of these regulations. This shall help to enhance the development of a fully protective and regulatory authority. The hospitality sector is one of the leading franchise industries with approximately 40% records (Schell 2011). However, many precautionary measures must be exercised to ensure minimal losses. The franchisee must be keen to develop effective and transparent business partnerships. Comprehensive documentation and legal consultations are critical components of the franchise business. Stringent measures are appropriate in the practice of franchise business. It is also upon every investor to examine the franchise contracts before they accent to any conditions. Works Cited Arthur, A. Canada’s Hospitality Sector; Consolidation, Consolidation, Consolidation. 2000. Web. Elgin, J. Choosing a Legal Form for Your Franchise. 2002. Web. Herman, M. International Franchising. 2013. Web. Lorette, K. Definition of a Franchise Business. 2013. Web. Schell, C. Canadian Franchise Industry. 2011. Web. This essay on Purchase of a Franchise was written and submitted by user Maddox Chen to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Italian Improper Prepositions - Preposizioni Improprie

Italian Improper Prepositions - Preposizioni Improprie The Italian prepositions ​di, a, da, in, con, su, per, tra (fra), the so-called preposizioni semplici (simple prepositions), perform a variety of functions and are the most frequently used. However, these prepositions have a lesser-known counterpart ones with less variety, but that have a greater specificity of meaning. They’re called â€Å"improper prepositions.† And yes, if you’re wondering, there are â€Å"proper prepositions,† and we’ll talk about those soon. Why must you get to know these? Because they help you say things like â€Å"behind the house,† â€Å"during dinner,† or â€Å"except him.† Many grammarians define these forms as improper prepositions (preposizioni improprie), which are also (or have been in the past) adverbs, adjectives, or verbs. Here they are: Davanti - In front, across from, opposite fromDietro - Behind, afterContro - In front of, againstDopo - After, beyondPrima - First, in front ofInsieme - With, together with, along withSopra - On top of, upon, above, over Sotto - Below, beneathDentro - In, inside, withinFuori - BeyondLungo - During, throughout, along, alongsideVicino - NearbyLontano - Faraway, distantSecondo - On the basis of, according to, alongDurante - During, throughoutMediante - By, through, via, by means ofNonostante - In spite of, despiteRasente - Very near to, very close toSalvo - Save, except forEscluso - ExceptEccetto - ExceptTranne - Except So, which prepositions are proper? Grammarians define proper prepositions (preposizioni proprie) as those that have only a prepositional function, namely: di, a, da,in, con, su, per, tra (fra) (su also has an adverbial function, but routinely is considered one of the proper prepositions). The following are some examples of preposition-adverbs, preposition-adjectives, and preposition-verbs, highlighting their diverse functions. Preposition-Adverbs The largest group is that of the preposition-adverbs (davanti, dietro, contro, dopo, prima, insieme,sopra, sotto, dentro, fuori): Lho rivisto dopo molto tempo. - I saw him again after a long time. (prepositional function)Lho rivisto unaltra volta, dopo. - I saw him again after that. (adverbial function) Preposition-Adjectives Less numerous are preposition-adjectives (lungo, vicino, lontano, salvo, secondo): Camminare lungo la riva - To walk along the shore (prepositional function)Un lungo cammino - A long walk (adjectival function) Participles There are also some verbs, in the form of participles, that in contemporary Italian function almost exclusively as prepositions (durante, mediante, nonostante, rasente, escluso, eccetto): Durante la sua vita - During his lifetime (prepositional function)Vita natural durante - Lifetime (participial function) Among these preposition-verbs, a special case is that of tranne, from the imperative form of trarre (tranne traine). To determine whether a certain term is used as a preposition or has a different function, note that in the previous examples what characterizes and distinguishes the prepositions from other parts of speech is the fact that they establish a relationship between two words or two groups of words. Prepositions are special because they introduce a complement to the verb, the noun, or the entire sentence. If there is no complement, it is not a preposition. Some Italian improper prepositions can be combined with other prepositions (especially a and di) to form locuzioni preposizionali (prepositional phrases) such as: Vicino a - Near, next toAccanto a - Next to, besideDavanti a - In front ofDietro a - BehindPrima di - BeforeDopo di - AfterFuori di - Outside ofDentro di - Inside, withinInsieme con (or assieme a) - Together withLontano da - Away from Prepositions Nouns Many prepositional phrases result from the pairing of prepositions and nouns: In cima a - On top of, at the top ofIn capo a - Within, underIn mezzo a - In the middle of, amongNel mezzo di - In the middle of, in the midst ofIn base a - On the basis of, according toIn quanto a - As for, in terms ofIn confronto a - Compared to, in comparison toA fianco di - At the side of, on the side ofAl cospetto di - In the presence ofPer causa di - Because of, on grounds ofIn conseguenza di - As a result ofA forza di - Because of, through , by persisting thatPer mezzo di - By means of, by way ofPer opera di - ByA meno di - Less than, withoutAl pari di - As much as, in common withA dispetto di - In spite of, despiteA favore di - In favor ofPer conto di - On behalf ofIn cambio di - In exchange forAl fine di - For the purpose of, in order to Prepositional Phrases Prepositional phrases have the same function as prepositions, as shown by these examples: Lha ucciso per mezzo di un pugnale / Lha ucciso con un pugnale. - He killed him using a dagger / He killed him with a dagger.Lha fatto al fine di aiutarti / Lha fatto per aiutarti. - He did it in order to help you / He did it to help you. Attenta! Note, however, that prepositions and prepositional phrases are not always interchangeable: for example, either of the following phrases are valid: il ponte à ¨ costruito dagli operai (or da parte degli operai). But â€Å"la costruzione del ponte dagli operai† is grammatically incorrect, while â€Å"la costruzione del ponte da parte degli operai† is acceptable.

Portfolio Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Portfolio - Assignment Example While such competition among scheduled airlines and low cost carriers (LCCs) is rather indirect, the travel preferences of passengers are what matters at the end. The global financial meltdown changed people's travel habits as they looked for cheaper alternatives to their previous destinations. Have the needs of travelers diverged or changed dramatically? Do they prefer cheaper prices or comfort and good service during the flight? Today it becomes vitally important to understand the consumers’ needs, requirements and expectations from the contemporary air travel services, which should become an integral part of airlines’ future strategies. UK Airline Industry Overview Recently all UK carriers, including LCCs, experience the increasing competitive threats, including potential to depress onboard loads and dilute yields, continuous and increasing pressure to reduce unit costs, need to maximize aircraft utilization, and all magnified by the global economic crisis. Though, a t the same time opportunities for UK airlines include potential traffic stimulation, new markets and route access, new partnerships, and new business models. According to the research by White and Crasta (2010), there are four main purchase criteria of travelers while buying airplane tickets, including price of the ticket, convenient flight times, distance of the airport used by the airline, and brand of the airline. While all four criteria are important for travelers, the price occurred to be the most important factor among 80% of respondents while the rest 20% care more about brand name of the airline and convenient flight times. Throughout the world, British Airways is recognized as the leader in the service industry and as one of the companies which internal and external practices proved high quality service for the clients and care about the employees. Being the largest international scheduled airline of the United Kingdom, British Airways provides flights to more than 550 dest inations at the most convenient times for its customers. Charts 1 and 2 in the Appendix show international versus domestic capacity share and international capacity of British Airways by region in 2011 accordingly. Macro Environmental Analysis PESTLE analysis described below will help to analyze the macro environment of the UK airline industry, including such factors as political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental. Political Factors The current political environment in the United Kingdom is supportive to aircraft services providing loans and funds toward different social and environment projects and programs. Traditionally, many UK companies are based on trade unions, which recently increased their pressure inspiring employees’ strikes. Financial Times informed that 78.5% of BA employees voted for walkouts and strike ballots supported by trade unions as the result of news about merger between BA and Spanish airline Iberia (Groom, 2011). UK government tu rned their main attention toward the security issues of airplanes as the result of several accidents, which will increase the

The Situation of Horace and Wynona Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Situation of Horace and Wynona - Essay Example Further, the parking lease of Nicola is for ten years and according to the section for where a lease for more than seven years is granted, it is compulsory for the title to be registered. Since Horace had failed to do so the title had, in fact, become defective. Also as the title has not been registered Simon would not be obligated to pay any rent to either his parents or to Pavel, Simon would also be able to claim that he has an ownership interest in the property as he is Horace and Wynona’s heir. Wynona is also entitled to take Horace to the court of law over questions regarding his ownership rights, as the title is unregistered and there is no single owner of the property, and since she has also made payments towards to the purchase of the property she is the real owner of the property and hence entitled to an equal share in the income generated from the sale. Under such big circumstances, where the property, which has been transferred, is in dispute any transfers so made a re not considered legal. Horace has also neglected to inform Pavel of any material defect in the contract, and by not doing so has failed to uphold his duties and obligations as a seller. Under such circumstances, Pavel may hold the sale to be void. It has also been established that the sale of the property by Horace to Pavel is a fraudulent one, therefore Pavel may either hold the sale as void or may sue Horace for damages. On his part, Pavel failed to exercise due care and did not inquire about the title.

Toward a Moral Economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Toward a Moral Economy - Essay Example Just for the sake of their rights, some of the people who were in favor of the justice and equality for all raised their voices and thus the concept of moral economy were developed. There are different characteristics or the attributes, which can make any economy a moral and justified economy. The researchers are of the opinion that any economy can be perfect and moral just because of the implications and the practices in that particular duration. There are three main types of economies based on the practices and the implications, i.e. Socialism, capitalism and the communism. Usually if we look over all the concepts and the attitudes of a socialist economy then we can say that socialism is the best moral economy. If we look at the historical perspectives of the establishment of a moral economy, the different sociologists have worked a lot on this discussion. The one common point of all the researchers is the basic foundation of a moral economy. According to their point of view, the economic activities influenced by the sentiments, values, norms, and other just thought patterns might contribute to make a moral economy. The contributions of different authors are discussed here in detail; Adam Smith: Adam Smith wrote two books containing great and inspirational concepts about the establishment of a moral economy. One book ‘Wealth of the Nations’ is directly related to the ethical standards of an economy whereas the other book ‘The Moral System’ gives a general frame work for the foundation of an economic system. In both of his writings, Smith has tried to formulate general rules of justice and laws that should be implemented in an economic system. Adam Smith has even tried to pin point the process that can motivate the people to adopt ethical and moral laws so that they can work their best for the establishment of a moral economy at least on individual basis. Another high point of Smith writings is the formulation of two

Difference between monetary and fiscal policy essay

Difference between monetary and fiscal policy essay Describe the difference between monetary and fiscal policy in the UK and explain how such policies can be used to achieve different macroeconomic government objectives. The main and most obvious difference between monetary and fiscal policy is that monetary policy is set by the central bank and fiscal policy is implemented by the government. In the case of the UK, monetary policy is decided upon by the Bank of England which since 1997 has been independent from the government. It would be worth considering the two types of economic policy in more detail now before turning to look at how they can be used to help meet macroeconomic government objectives. Monetary policy is the attempt to control macroeconomic variables through the setting of interest rates. It is a rather blunt policy tool as its effects can be felt throughout the economy as a whole. By changing interest rates, the Bank of England is trying to influence the overall expenditure in the economy as well as controlling inflation. Reducing interest rates makes borrowing the more attractive alternative to saving which then leads to more spending in the economy. Lowering interest rates can also make assets such as property increase in value which also leads to more spending as homeowners extend mortgages and consume more. By cutting interest rates, it is hoped that this increased spending feeds through to output and then to employment. Increasing interest rates on the other hand, has the opposite effect by making saving more attractive than spending and therefore overall spending in the economy is reduced. Fiscal policy is controlled by central government. It can be defined as, â€Å"a governments program with respect to (1) the purchase of goods and services and spending on transfer payments, and (2) the amount and type of tax† (Samuelson and Nordhaus, 1998). It involved the government changing levels of taxation and spending in order to influence the level of aggregate demand (AD). The purpose of fiscal policy is to reduce inflation, stimulate economic growth and to stabilise this growth and avoid periods of ‘boom and bust which characterised the economy during the 1980s and early 1990s. If monetary policy is described as a blunt instrument then fiscal policy is a precision tool that can target particular sectors of the economy and population in order to achieve the desired economic changes. Both these different types of policy are working towards achieving different macroeconomic objectives. It would be worth looking at these in greater detail now. There are four major macroeconomic objectives that any economic policy should be working to achieve. These are full employment; price stability; sustainable economic growth and; keeping the Balance of Payments in equilibrium. These four different objectives compete with each other and all achieve different levels of importance depending on the priorities of the government. During the 1960s, the Balance of Payments took centre stage. This was before the global economy made operating with a deficit a viable and sustainable option. Nowadays most governments operate with a budget deficit and the balance of Payments is no longer seen as a top priority for the government. In 2007/2008 the UK government showed a deficit of  £38.7 billion which is around 2.7% of gross domestic product (GDP). The general government debt is around  £614.4 billion which is around 43.2% of GDP (ONS, 2008). In the 1960s such levels of debt would be unthinkable but now they are just part of a global reality. In order to implement social programs and fulfil spending promises, the government is forced to borrow from global institutions. This has become a global reality. These current times of economic uncertainty only increases the amount of borrowing by governments all over the world. Full employment enjoyed similar prominence in the period after the war until the 1980s. Full employment meant that more people were contributing to the economy both in terms of output and through taxation. It also meant that the government had to spend less on social programs. This full employment was aided by a largely industrial economy which started to decline in the 1980s. Thatcher wanted to restructure the economy to make it more efficient and move it away from its industrial base. Full employment is still an important objective and it is one that is gaining prevalence again but during this current recession it isnt a realistic prospect. The current rate of employment stands at 74.1% (ONS, 2009) which is a slight decrease on the previous year. However, as the recession deepens, it is expected that this number will fall even further. Perhaps the most two important objectives for the government at present are sustained economic growth and price stability by keeping inflation low. The government is trying to foster sustainable growth in the economy which means growth without inflation. However, the past year has seen the UK economy slip in to a recession, making any sort of growth impossible. During this recession the level of inflation has fallen but this has not translated into economic growth. It was hoped that that low inflation would mean that spending would increase. However, the current economic climate has seen prices fall so much that consumers are now waiting to see if prices fall even further before spending (Monaghan, 2009). This essay will now turn to look at how the use of monetary and fiscal policy can be used to achieve these macroeconomic objectives. Perhaps one of the most significant changes that the current government introduced was giving the Bank of England independence when it comes to setting interest rates. Before the government was dictating both monetary policy and fiscal policy. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is now tasked with maintaining price stability and also supporting the government in meeting its objectives for growth and employment (Budd, 1998). The government still sets the goals of monetary policy but it is up to the Bank of England to decide how best to achieve this through. The independence of the central bank is considered important for a number of reasons. Firstly, politicians are not experts when it comes to monetary policymaking. Secondly, central banks are more likely to have the interest of the country at heart rather than politicians who may be motivated by implementing populist policies for the sake of winning votes. Thirdly, politicians are unlikely to want to keep to monetary policies when t hey have adverse affects like high unemployment, although this wasnt the case with Thatcher. The final argument for having an independent central bank is that countries that have them tend to have lower levels of inflation (Alensina and Gatti, 1995). This essay will now look at how the MPC goes about meeting its objective of maintaining price stability. The present recession has forced the committee to consider radical solutions to the unique problems that the economy is facing. For the past year, the bank has cut interest rates on six consecutive occasions to the current record low of 0.5%. It was hoped that cutting interest rates to this level would stimulate spending in the economy and that this would translate to economic growth and would keep inflation at the. However, this has not happened because the banks have stopped lending the money usually required to facilitate the spending. This has forced the Bank of England to consider other options. One such measure introduced in the past month was quantitative easing. This idea is the equivalent of printing up large amounts of money, in the case of the UK it is estimated to be about  £75 billion, and throwing it out of a helicopter so that the people below could pick it up and spend it (Elliot, 2009). This is a rather simplistic view of what the Bank of England is trying to achieve. This  £75 billion will be used to buy government bonds and corporate debt over the next three months. By exchanging these bonds for cash that the bank has printed, it is hoped that this will increase the flow of money in the economy. With more cash, banks should start lending once again to other banks, businesses, and customers. This will increase spending in the economy which will lead to economic growth. However, the success of this measure rests on whether customers still want to borrow. The popular conception amongst the public is that we are in this position because we borrowed way above our means. It remains to be seen if once credit is made available again b y banks whether people will take it up again. If they dont, then the banks will be awash with money that will be doing nothing and this will not lead to economic growth but rather to inflation. The Bank of England has to achieve a fine balance. It has to provide enough money to banks to encourage them to lend again at competitive rates but it also has to make sure that there isnt a surplus of money that will send inflation out of control (Kollewe, 2009). Beyond cutting interest rates and printing there is little more that monetary policy can offer to delivering macroeconomic objectives. This essay will now look at how fiscal policy delivers macroeconomic objectives. Fiscal policy can be more fine tuned to target particular sectors of the economy and the population. It does not take the rather blanket approach taken by monetary policy. Perhaps the most effective fiscal policy to achieving macroeconomic objectives is through borrowing and taxation. For example, the government recently cut the lower starting rate of income tax. This encourages people on lower incomes to work more hours because they will be able to keep more of what they earn. This they can either spend or save, based on the level of inflation that is determined by monetary policy. Another measure introduced last year by the government was the 2.5% reduction of the rate of VAT. This was introduced at the end of last year as a way of boosting spending, especially in the run up to the busy Christmas period. However, this has not had the desired effect on household spending which is at its lowest level since 1991 (ONS, 2009). It could be argued that fiscal policy is not as much use as monetary policy to meeting macroeconomic objectives at the present time. The government is trying to stimulate spending in the economy by borrowing more money in order to fund tax cuts and increased spending in social programs. However, the effect of this may be that people are realising that they may face a higher tax burden in the future because of this increased spending and so are saving more in anticipation of this. The government is presently pumping money into sectors of the economy that provide large numbers of jobs. For example, it has just stated that it is prepared to make up to  £2.3 billion available to car manufacturers. The Business Minister, Ian Pearson, stated that this level of investment was necessary to, â€Å"ensuring the industry comes out of the current downturn with the skills and technology needed to be competitive in the global automotive market†. However, the success of this initiative again rests with the consumer. Will they want to borrow to finance things such as cars in the future? The car industry may be facing a downturn that will not recover after the recession. Because the economy is at present shrinking it means that the government is not getting as much income from tax revenues because less people are in work and those working arent getting as much. Welfare spending has had to increase to make sure that the standard of living does not fall in the UK. Those who have lost their jobs as a result of the recession have to be provided for by the state. All of this contributes to a much larger deficit which doesnt fit in with meeting macroeconomic objectives. With the global economic situation seemingly changing on an almost daily basis, it is hard to judge just how effective monetary and fiscal policies are in meeting macroeconomic objectives. It is also hard to judge which is the most effective way of delivering these objectives. This essay would argue that both policies are fairly weak at the moment. In order for monetary policy to work, it requires people to have the confidence to spend knowing that money is always going to be available to them. This could be just a person buying goods in the high street or a business buying services from another business. It would seem that UK consumers are willing to hold on to large quantities of money, even though the central bank has lowered interest rates to such an extent that it makes saving a very unattractive option. Consumer confidence is low, and when it is low people tend to hold on to their money rather than borrowing more. It remains to see just how effective this quantitative easing wi ll be. In many ways it seems that fiscal policy is working against monetary policy at present in achieving macroeconomic objectives. While on the surface it seems logical for the government to be borrowing big in order to fund tax cuts and create jobs, many people see this borrowing as storing up problems for the future because all this borrowed money will have to be repaid at some point. This means that people are saving more instead of spending which the government wants us to do to meet the objective of growth in the economy. In a growing, sustainable economy, both monetary and fiscal policy should serve to benefit each other and they should work for each other in achieving macroeconomic objectives. In a receding economy such as is being witnessed in the UK, there needs to be a delicate balance struck between the two. It would seem that this balance has yet to be achieved and at present they are fighting against each other. Bibliography and References: Alensina, A. and Gatti, R. (1995). How independent should central banks be?, The American Economic Review, 85(2), 196-200. Budd, A. (1998). The Role and Operations of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee, The Economic Journal, 108(451), 1783-1794. Dunkley, J. (2009). UK given approval for  £2.3bn auto bail-out, The Telegraph, 28 Feb. Elliot, L. (2009). Quantitative Easing, The Guardian, 8 January. Monaghan, A. (2009). UK inflation falls to lowest in lowest in almost 50 years, The Telegraph, 17 Feb. Kollewe, J. (2009). Bank of England cuts rates to 0.5% and starts quantitative easing, The Guardian, 5 March. Moore, E. and Warwick-Ching, L. (2009). Rate cut brings more misery to savers, The Financial Times, 5 March. Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2008). UK Government Debt and Deficit [online] Available from: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?ID=277 [Date accessed: 10 March 2009] Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2009). Employment [online] Available from: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?ID=12 [Date accessed: 10 March 2009]