Oxford City Council Research Proposal Essay Example for Free

Oxford City Council Research Proposal Essay Oxford City Council (OCC) provides a range of recycling services, including kerbside collection services and recycling sites where residents can deposit items for recycling. Such schemes enable OCC to recycle approaching 40% of Oxford household waste currently. However, the UK government want to establish a recycling culture and continue to set increasing targets for household recycling, with an aim of reaching 50% by 2020. Following a recent (DEFRA) Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs initiative to allow the use of financial incentives for household waste minimisation and recycling, OCC is considering the introduction of a pilot scheme in selected postcodes areas. This would involve the introduction of bins fitted with microchips to monitor how much recycling and other waste a household produces, leading to refunds from local taxation bills for a good recycling performance or additional charges for a poor recycling performance. OCC is keen to understand likely reactions of residents to such a scheme and the overall impact that this might have on household recycling rates. OCC has invited the marketing research agency, Research Solutions to provide a proposal for marketing research to inform decision making. What is the research objective? A research objective is basically the main objective of the research i. e. the purpose of carrying out the research forms the research objective. The research objective is basically formed on the basis of the background of the research that is being conducted. (Creswell 2008). In this case, the main issue is recycling. This is due to the increasing population in the UK due to which the wastes have been increasing with a higher percentage. However, it is not a wise idea to leave the wastes just like that and it would be a very good option to recycle the waste so that it can be utilized again as the resources we own in the world today are limited but the demands of the people are unlimited. Therefore, it is always a good idea to save as much as possible so that we can save our future generations from suffering. The research objective of this research is that the UK government wants to establish a recycling culture and continue to set increasing targets for household recycling, with an aim of reaching 50% by 2020 in order to improve the previous targets. Previously, Oxford City Council provided a range of recycling services, including kerbside collection services and recycling sites where residents could deposit items for recycling and this enabled Oxford City Council to reduce the household waste by 40%. The idea now is to increase this percentage by 10% and to make it 50%. Problem Statement Before the research team assigned to solve the problem starts their job, a problem statement needs to be defined and to be presented to them and the problem statement should answer three main questions i. e. to define the problem and the reason why the team is required to solve this problem, the client who needs a solution to the problem and the scope as well as the limitations of the problem in terms of various issues such as time, money and other resources. Moreover, it is also important for the problem statement to address all the W’s i. e. to answer what, how, where, when, why, and who. (Denzin Lincoln 2005). Referring to this case, due to the increasing need of recycling, the government of UK plans to increase recycling of the household wastes to 50% by 2020 i. e. an increase by 10% from today. This aim has been defined basically to serve the households and to meet their demand of recycling household wastes; however there are certain limitations that are coming in the way to meet this requirement of the government of UK. In order to solve this problem, we, a research team from a marketing research agency, Research Solutions has been assigned to work out and to know the likely reactions of residents to such a scheme and the overall impact that this might have on household recycling rates. For this purpose, What methods will be used? Following a recent (DEFRA) Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs initiative to allow the use of financial incentives for household waste minimisation and recycling, OCC is considering the introduction of a pilot scheme in selected postcodes areas. This would involve the introduction of bins fitted with microchips to monitor how much recycling and other waste a household produces, however this will involve a certain cost as Oxford City Council will have to make refunds from local taxation bills for a good recycling performance or to pay additional charges for a poor recycling performance. (Patton 2002). We will use both primary as well as secondary data to conduct our research as well as both qualitative and quantitative data. Once we have gathered the secondary data, we will then seek for primary data for which we will prepare a set of 200 questionnaires. The questionnaire, we have planed will consist of around 20 open and close ended questions. We will get these questionnaires filled and will also interview people in Oxford from different age groups especially the women as the issue is basically related to household recycling so the housewives would be the best option to interview. Data analysis The process of gathering, modeling and transforming data aiming to make the important information prominent, to suggest conclusions as well as to support the decision making is called data analysis. There are various approaches and techniques that can be used for this purpose under different domains. (Spatz Kardas 2007). As Oxford City Council has been asked to increase recycling of household wastes by 10%, they now have to plan everything to achieve this goal but for this it is essential for the Oxford City Council to collect all the important information and to transform it. Therefore, to understand the likely reactions of residents to such a scheme and the overall impact that this might have on household recycling rates. A time schedule The government of UK wants the goal of an increase in the recycling of household wastes to be achieved by an increase of 10% by 2020 and this gives Oxford City Council more than a decade to achieve this aim. The Oxford City Council should plan out seriously and work on the aim that is to be met but before finally starting the work, it is always essential to conduct research in order to know whether the plans they have made will be successful of not and also to know the reaction of the people in the UK after the introduction of the pilot scheme in selected postcodes areas and before the plan can be executed, marketing research will be conducted whose timing is mentioned below. (Pan 2004). The time schedule will not just provide a timeframe but it will also help us meet the deadlines. As we have been assigned one month to conduct this research, we have accordingly divided the time to meet our goals in an efficient manner. In the first week, we plan to conduct desk research followed by qualitative fieldwork in the second week as well as to prepare a qualitative desk research report. On the first day of the third week, we aim to prepare questionnaires that will follow the quantitative stage, coding and data preparation. In the fourth week, that is also the last week, we will do the analysis, prepare a presentation and on the last day we will present a final report. Bibliography: Creswell, J. W. (2008). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. 3rd edn. Sage Publications. Denzin, N. K. , Lincoln, Y. S. (2005). The Sage handbook of qualitative research. 3rd edn. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Pan, M. L. (2004). Preparing literature reviews: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. 2nd edn. Los Angeles: Pyrezak. Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Spatz,C. Kardas,E. P. (2007). Research Methods in Psychology: Ideas, Techniques, and Reports. McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages, Hardcover.

Business Continuity Policy Statement

Business Continuity Policy Statement Purpose The main purpose of the business continuity policy is to prepare SanGrafix for any kind of threat. Business continuity policy is just another term for backup. Running a company without backup is not a smart move in business industry. Our business continuity plan should contain a comprehensive roadmap to restore any information during any disaster. Copies of the plan should be sent out to all important personals so that the services are never threatened, and it should present complete analysis of all the possible threats to the company. Company should response to the threat because of both type of threat and extent of the threat. All SanGrafix sites and online storages are expected to implement preventive measures to minimize network failure (Shinder, 2017). Scope The scope of this plan is limited to manage both locations of SanGrafix in the best possible way and to provide the best service and most reliable form to all customers. Plan Objectives Will provide a guide for the SanGrafix recovery teams. Provides procedures and resources needed to assist in recovery. This will identify customers that must be notified in the event of a disaster. This assists in avoiding confusion experienced during a crisis by documenting, testing and reviewing recovery procedures and maintain a sound connection between both the locations This will identify alternatives for supplies, resources. Assumptions Each support organization is liable to have its own different and unique plan for recovery procedures and critical resource information. Disaster definition Any kind of loss in utility service such as water and power, connectivity between the systems of SanGrafix, or any kind of natural disaster that causes an interruption in the service, provided by SanGrafix operations. Recovery teams Emergency Management Team (EMT) Location Response Coordinator (LRC) Technical Services Engineering (TSE) Team member responsibilities All the members should keep an updated contact list of all the concerned staff members   Ã‚   All team members should read this file at least once so they know the contents of this file Data backup policy Full backups system should be available for the files and software that are irreplaceable or have a high replacement cost. Backup material should be stored in a secure and a completely separate location from both the locations of SanGrafix. Following is the basic key for its data backup and archiving: Files retention policy Backup material should be stored in a secure and a completely separate location from both the locations of SanGrafix. Billing files Tapes greater than four years old are destroyed every year months. Tapes less than three years old must be stored locally offsite. System software files A copy of the most current updates files must be every week. Offsite backup is also necessary. Procedures for emergency management The following procedures are to be followed by system operations personnel and other designated personnel in the event of an emergency. Where uncertainty exists, the more reactive action should be followed to provide maximum protection and personnel safety. In the event of any situation where access to a building housing a system is denied, personnel should report to alternate locations.   Primary and secondary locations are listed below. Alternate locations Workplace: San Francisco Try to contact your immediate supervisor or management Workplace: Sunnyvale   Try to contact your immediate supervisor or management In the event of a natural disaster In the event of a major catastrophe affecting a SanGrafix facility, immediately notify the managerial department Notify Regional Technical Manager of pending event, Transfer portable generators with fuel within 100 miles. Deploy support personnel, tower crews, and engineering within 100 miles. Thing you require for the deploy plan Create an image of the system and files Back up critical system elements Verify backup generator fuel status and operation Create backups of e-mail, file servers, etc. Fuel vehicles and emergency trailers In the event of a fire In the event of fire or smoke in any of the facilities, the guidelines are provided below that should be followed: If fire or smoke is present in the facility, evaluate the situation and determine the severity, categorize the fire as Major or Minor and take the appropriate action as defined in this section. Call 911 as soon as possible if the situation warrants it. Persons need to attempt to put out minor fires (e.g., single hardware component or paper fires) by making use of hand-held fire extinguishers located all through the facility. Any other fire or smoke situation will be handled by experienced building workers until the local fire department arrives. In case of a major fire, call 911 and immediately and leave the area. In case of any emergency situation, system site security and individual safety are the major things to consider. In case of a major catastrophe affecting the facility, notify the Regional Technical Manager immediately.(Business Continuity Plan). In the event of a network services provider outage Procedure If outage will be greater than half hour, direct all calls via microwave or other service to alternate location in Sunnydale. If outage is major and in case all networks are down and downtime will be greater than 12 hours, organize satellite equipment, if available. In the event of a hack attempt to the system Shut down all the system to avoid any loss and contact headquarters. Notification of incident affecting the site On-duty personnel responsibilities In office hours: Upon observation or notification of a potentially serious situation use proper evacuation methods and notify the Location Response Coordinator. If out of hours: Technical Services providers should contact the Location Response Coordinator (Shinder, 2017). Inform team members of decision If a disaster is not declared, the team of location response will continue to address as well as manage the situation and will provide regular updates to EMT. the EMT. If a disaster is declared, the Location Response Coordinator will notify the Incident Response Team members immediately for deployment. Declare a disaster if the situation cannot be fixed within the predefined time frames. The authorized person will declare a disaster and a backup is vital who is also authorized or declaring a disaster if primary person is not available. Operations recovered Assuming all related operations have been recovered to an alternative site, and employees are supposed to support the operations, the company can announce that it is operating in a normal manner at the recovery location (Shinder, 2017). SanGrafix recovery teams Emergency management team (EMT) Responsibilities: Organization must be responsible for overall management of the disaster recovery effort, evaluation and determining disaster declaration, and communications with senior management They should evaluate which recovery actions should be invoked and activate the corresponding recovery teams. They should provide senior management with ongoing status information Acts as a communication channel to corporate teams and major customers Work with vendors and IRT to develop a rebuild/repair schedule Location Response Coordinator (LRC). Support activities: Notify the Incident Recovery Team Gather harm assessment info and report it to EMT à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ · Determine recovery wants. Command center and connected operations musts be established. Command center can be a organized meeting facility wherever EMT/LRT/IRT members meet to organize harm assessment and business recovery tasks for the affected operations. Notify all Team Leaders and advise them to activate their arrange (s) if applicable, primarily based upon the disaster scenario. If no disaster is asserted, then take applicable action to come to traditional operation victimization regular employees. Determine if vendors or different groups are required to help with elaborate harm assessment. †¢Prepare post-disaster interrogation report †¢Coordinate the event of website specific recovery plans and guarantee theyre updated semi-annually. Location Response Team (LRT) Charter: The Location Response Team (LRT) is accountable for the early alerting/notification of the issue to the LRC during normal business hours. In case of off hours, the LRT will be notified as well as LRC. In case of a disaster announcement, this team will become a part of the Incident Response Team. Support activities: Provide the subsequent data to the LRC within the event of Associate in Nursing outage: a. form of event b. Location of incidence c. Time of incidence Coordinate commencement of voice and knowledge communications: a. Work with management to re-route voice and knowledge lines, particularly once alternate Web site (s) or alternate work locations square measure predefined b. Recover voice mail and email correspondence systems once requested by EMT. c. Verify voice mail and email correspondence square measure operational at the alternate web site. d. Review the Minimum Acceptable Operational necessities list to confirm if enough resources square measure in situ to support operations Coordinate commencement of knowledge system operations: a. Recover important knowledge files and connected data once requested by EMT b. Make sure that network and perimeter security is re-established at alternate location c. Verify traditional, secure operation of systems and servers at alternate web site d. Review the SanGrafix Minimum Acceptable Operational necessities list to confirm if enough resources square measure in situ to support operations Business Continuity Sprint Business. (2017). Sprint Business. Retrieved 14 March 2017, from https://business.sprint.com/solutions/business-continuity/?ECID=sem%3Aggl%3A20170303%3ADWASearch%3ANB%3AB2B%3APhrase%3ABusinessContinuity Business Continuity Plan. Ready.Gov. Retrieved 14 March 2017, from https://www.ready.gov/sites/default/files/documents/files/BusinessContinuityPlan.pdf Shinder, D. (2017). 10 Things You Should Cover In Your Business Continuity Plan. TechRepublic. Retrieved from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-things/10-things-you-should-cover-in-your-business-continuity-plan/

Johnson And Johnson Strategic Plans

Johnson And Johnson Strategic Plans Introduction is formed as the brief background of Johnson Johnson. The focus of this report will be placed on JJs subsidiary Johnson Johnson, Group of Consumer Companies, Inc. Johnson Johnson. We will be focusing and relating this report on the baby product line of Johnson Johnson. The strategic initiatives of Johnson Johnson `s skills, strategy, staff, structure, system, staff and shared value will be discussed and examine in this report. We looked into their company functions so as to better understand them to enable effective decision makings. A political economic analysis is conducted to provide global risk insights for Johnson Johnson that is beneficial to JJ manage those risks as potential and risk. In relation to Johnson Johnson `s baby care products, Porter`s forces model is used to analyze the competitive advantage of the firm. One of the key understandings is that the middle-high rivalry is present with less number of competitors on Baby Care product line from competitor like California Baby, Simple. SWOT analysis show that Johnson Johnson holds strong competitive advantages after comparing its pros and cons despite of a few disadvantages of global standardization strategy. The growth strategy of Johnson Johnson will be selected based on both int ernal and external environment factor for the three years plan. These diagnoses are in reference to the SWOT analysis based on the company resources assets, intellectual property, and people. Lastly, the modes of entry will be affected by the several internal factors in this report. It comprises of internal requirement, technology know-how, management know-how as well as pressure for cost reduction. The recommendation part would provide several suggestions for the improvement of Johnson Johnson through the organization structure and Human Resource Management. Introduction We have chosen to work on Johnson and Johnson (JJ) for our strategic global business solutions project report for it is a global American pharmaceutical, medical devices and consumer packaged goods manufacturer founded in 1886. With more than 250 subsidiary companies located in 57 countries around the world and having its products sold in over 175 countries, JJ is a listed company evident with its listing among Fortune 500 and registering its stock with NASDAQ (NYSE: JNJ). With a diverse range of products sold in global markets, JJ adopted the business strategy of global standardization whereby there is limited customization needed for its products for focus is placed on having customers recognise and identify JJ as a household brand. Focus of this report will be placed on JJs subsidiary Johnson Johnson, Group of Consumer Companies, Inc. Strategic Initiative of Johnson Johnson Skills As Johnson Johnson is a global manufacturer with many subsidiaries on a global scale, JJ would hire its employees through a stringent process of selection and focus on ones performance. This implies that JJ recruits people of experience and ability with a global mindset hires third-country national (TCN), indicating that recruitment of people is mainly dependent on being consistent with JJs organizational structure. Strategy With the objective of market growth and maximizing profits in order to be responsible to their stockholders, JJ adopted the business strategy of global standardization. Choice of global standardization strategy is because JJs focus is placed on lowering costs and that there is limited need for customization of products for it generally the same other than slight changes in the products packaging. Staff The employees of JJ can be said to be well motivated to work for JJ has provided their staff with many incentives ranging from personal to performance benefits (i.e. annual incentive bonus, long-term incentive awards, and severance benefits). As JJ have high expectations on their employees, JJ sends their staff on regular employee training that clocks an average of 8 hours or more yearly (i.e. leadership development and management education in fields like finance and marketing). JJ also makes sure that their employees are motivated by giving them the right to voice ones opinion on company issues through JJs Credo survey. Structure JJs organizational structure is dictated by its corporate strategy. JJ initially adopted a decentralized approach to management but in the early 1900s, changed it to a more standardized approach for JJs top executives noticed that their subsidiaries are not well-positioned on a global platform to serve customers directly. The change in corporate management allowed JJ to mitigate limitations posed by the decentralization approach. One instance would be JJ having categorized all subsidiaries into three categories namely, consumer, pharmaceutical and professional. The chairman of each category is given the responsibility of identifying opportunities for leveraging services and expertise across companies in every market and the franchise managers assigned the responsibility of coordinating cross-company sales of a family of products (e.g. baby care products in US, France, Australia). The centralized management approach benefits JJ for it gives JJs top management a better view of its glob al operations and are able to effectively manage and integrate its global operations. This led to the success of JJ in being globally effective in terms of operations for cost of production is lowered in terms of reducing redundancies and duplications during the processing and manufacturing process. Systems In the business of health care, Johnson Johnson is inspired and united by a common purpose: to care for the health and well-being of the people they serve around the world. Caring drives the people of Johnson Johnson in their aim to make the world a better and healthier place through everything that they do. It is core to their business strategy and initiatives, the programs and partnerships which they build, the positions that they take on public policy issues, and their care for the environment. As the company moves forward, it continues to push the innovation envelope as coordinated activities under the centralized control, infusing superior technology and ingenuity into every product they make and every project which the company undertakes. The procedure of the JJ functions as a system in which build from within organization, as 95% of their people start at entry level and then progress and prosper throughout the organization. This not only creates many wonderful opportunities to grow and advance, it creates a special camaraderie among fellow JJers, many of whom came up through the ranks together. Johnson Johnson came up with this credo which speaks about their mission statements, views and their pledges to the customers and society. Robert Wood Johnson, former chairman from 1932 to 1963 and a member of the Companys founding family, crafted Our Credo himself in 1943, just before Johnson Johnson became a publicly traded company. This was long before anyone ever heard the term corporate social responsibility. WILLIAMC.WELDON is the chairman, Board of Directors, and Chief Executive Officer of Johnson Johnson. He takes pride in the organization work procedures and describe their operation of their day-to-day work is about their response to the unmet needs of their patients and customers and also their response to the needs of their colleagues; their response to supporting the global communities in which they live and work; finally, their response to the call for research and innovation in health care. Style The parent company of Johnson Johnson which is Procter Gamble (PG) has been pioneering products in nearly 50 different categories and their baby product line will be the function in which this report will be focusing on. As the company moves forward, it continues to push the innovation envelope every day, infusing superior technology and ingenuity into every product they make and every project which the company undertakes. The procedure of the JJ functions as a system in which build from within organization, as 95% of their people start at entry level and then progress and prosper throughout the organization. This not only creates many wonderful opportunities to grow and advance, it creates a special camaraderie among fellow JJers, many of whom came up through the ranks together. This also explains why their hiring process is so rigorous. JJ `s system is as such that they are not just offering a job, they expect you to grow into one of their future leaders. From day one youll help develop or support exciting brands you know while working on projects that have a direct impact on their global, $61.9 billion sales in 2009. Shared Values Johnson Johnson`s management style of helping to shape and define what health and well-being means in everyday lives. Their products, services, ideas and giving now touch the lives of at least one billion people every day. They credit their strength and endurance to a consistent approach to managing their business, and to the character of their people. They are guided in everything they do by their Credo, a management document authored more than 60 years ago by Robert Wood Johnson, former chairman from 1932 to 1963, and by four strategic principles. Their company style is deeply rooted in their Credo and deeply in filtered into their employees and leaders. Johnson Johnson `s system is such that their overarching philosophy which guides their business is their Credo, a deeply held set of values that have served as the strategic and moral compass for generations of Johnson Johnson leaders and employees. Above all, their Credo challenges them to put the needs and well-being of the people they serve first. It also speaks to the responsibilities they have to their employees, to the communities in which we live and work and the world community, and to our shareholders. They believe their Credo is a blueprint for long-term growth and sustainability thats as relevant today as when it was written. The company behavioral style is that their values embodied in their Credo guide the actions of the people of the Johnson Johnson Family of Companies at all levels and in all parts of the world. They have done so for more than 60 years. These Credo values extend to their accounting and financial reporting responsibilities. Their management is responsible for timely, accurate, reliable and objective financial statements and related information. As such: They maintain a well-designed system of internal accounting controls. They encourage strong and effective corporate governance from their Board of Directors. They continuously review their business results and strategic choices. They focus on financial stewardship. Synergistic teams All of the above of Johnson Johnson `s skills, strategy, staff, structure, system, staff and shared value formed together and worked in cohesively to form a synergistic team of workforce that oversee the entire operation from sourcing materials ,production lines ,manufacturing to research and development (RD). It is seen as that a synergy is the energy or force created by the working together of various parts or processes. In Johnson Johnson, the baby care products are the result of synergy and quality reassurance as promise by the company. External Environment Environment cannot be controlled; therefore we should analyze the environment first then indicate the strategy that also reflects the organization structure subsequently. Political Economy Analysis The political economy of a nation defines the forms of interdependence amongst the political, economic, and legal systems, and also reflects they interact and influence each other. Political systems The system of government in a nation defined as political system which divided the 200 plus world entities into 2 dimensions that include the degree of collectivism versus individualism and the degree of democracy versus totalitarianism. More practically, individuals would be tied together to achieve the common or collective goals in the high context country, like South Korea, Japan, those people focus on the benefits of society and long-term relationship; individualism means democratic political systems and free market economies like Americans have free rights to vote in election. Myanmar, North Korea act as the totalitarianism that government absolutely controlled by one person or political party. Whereas, China exist the grey area that it has been a move toward greater individual free market economies, but the government is still a totalitarian dictatorship. If the political systems are high stable, the company would be decentralized; otherwise, the company would concentrate in the low stable situation. Although the political systems in say Japan (i.e. change in 3 prime ministers since 2007) is relatively unstable as compared to that of other Asian countries like Singapore, the Japanese government is more open in terms of local market entrance of multinational companies. Economic systems In market economy, production is determined by the interaction of demand and supply; besides, the government encourages free and fair competition between private producers, the representatives of governments like the Great Britain, US and France. The objective of command economy is the good of society; all businesses are state owned in command economy, such as Thailand, South Korea, and Indonesia. India is the typical example of mixed economy in which certain sectors of the economy are left to private ownership and free market mechanisms while other sectors have state significant ownership and government planning. The company would decentralize in the consistent economy system or concentrate in the inconsistent economy system. Legal systems For a business that operates globally, understanding the different legal systems play an important role of the process. Legal aspects help to facilitate business operations so therefore it is very crucial and a necessity for international business operators to have an understanding of the different legal systems around the world. Companies must take into consideration the legal structures of the country in which they operate in. Globalization breaks down barriers between nations and bring nation together in a global platform. But increasing investment among nations also makes it more difficult for those in different cultures to understand the rules of other countries. It is important to follow the legal system of the country in which business is conducted or the government has the right to have legal actions taken should laws be not comply. International Business Laws Businesses operate in a world in which the laws of different governments and judicial systems might conflict as they originated from different cultures. It is therefore necessary to have a basic knowledge of the legal system and also understand how does business law impacts commerce in the companys own country and overseas. The impacts of international business on business law facilitate the inclusion of standards in their company regulations or operations that address these tricky and complex issues. Social cultural environment According to Geert Hofstede Cultural Theory, the global social culture roughly classify as 4 dimensions which considered as costs. Individualism versus Collectivism The individualism and individual achievement is common in the Western Countries, both positive and negative implementation in individualism. The positive side is showed in competition between individuals rather than collective groups and the person get pay-for-performance motivation to compete within organization especially in the dynamism of US economy that encouraged person to take chances and tried new things with unique ideas (i.e. Steve Jobs). However, the individualists just focus task-based, they cannot develop a strong and long-term relationship with others which is the advantage of collectivism. US, Canada Australia is the classical individualist representatives that are different from Asia (i.e. South Korea, China) act as collectivists. Power Distance The degree of acceptance of hierarchy or inequality exists among the organization, the higher power distance (i.e. Japan, Vietnam) reflect in the decision making by the seniorities and reward as the status, position and experiences; in contrast, the decision making and authority took by the task representative and pay-for-performance reward represented in low power distance culture like Denmark and UK. Uncertainty Avoidance The degree of tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguous situation, the low uncertainty avoidance reflects the high risk taker and adaptability of new things (i.e. Australia, Singapore); the high uncertainty displayed the low tolerance for uncertainty issues like France and Italy, those countries need the structured organization or rules to obey so that French and Italians are difficult to overcome the culture shock when they sent as expatriate managers. Masculinity versus Femininity Whether the differences of work in gender roles accepted in society, Japan and China should be masculine society; the jobs of gender are distinct and form a male dominant society and person more focus on financial and material possessions. On the other hand, gender roles are overlapping in the femininity country, such as Thailand and Finland, people in those countries focus more on quality of life. Therefore, in the femininity countries, the purchasing power of lifestyle is relatively high which point out an appealing way to Johnson Johnson develop. Overall analysis Those external environments provide global risk insights for Johnson Johnson that is beneficial to JJ manage those risks as potential and risk to take advantage of the relative international business strategy to form and adapt organization structure in the long-term. Competitive Advantages Posters Five Forces Degree of Rivalry The middle-high rivalry is present with less number of competitors on Baby Care product line, like California Baby, Simple; but Johnson Johnson is dominant in the Baby Care industry and the economies of scale so that the firm reflects less intense competition. The cost of competitive advantage and promotions are relatively high, like the advertising and discounts; additionally, JJ has over hundreds history and good image of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) result them remain competitive rather than leave the industry. Next, the high rate of growth display the middle-high competitive situation overall in the industry. Threat of new entrants The threats of new entrants should be low despite of low barriers of entry in the lights of low costs of set-up. The brand equity of JJ is relatively high and it has great impacts in the industry so that a large number of suppliers prefer to sign contracts with it rather than the new entrants that benefit for enhancing suppliers brand and engaging more profits, Lafes Body Care is an example of new entrant who launch a new baby care product line in recent years. In addition to the switching costs for customers, customers are keen on the brand with quality guarantee using for baby or not the less discrepancy of prices. Threat of substitutes Some baby care products from say Pigeon Corporation and Drapolene are suggested by doctors (i.e. responsible to babies), but lack in brand awareness recognized by customers as renowned brands and those products are not easier to buy or package of those products are not portable for customers to bring; compared with them, Johnson Johnson baby care products differ from they could be bought in almost of all supermarkets under the world-wide distribution channels and be convenient to carry about. Hence, threats of substitutes should be low. Power of Buyers There are a lot of alternatives for customers contribute to the high bargaining power of customers, especially for the price-sensitive customers, who are prefer to the high-quality products with the lower costs in the traditional theory research. However, JJs Baby Care products are considered as the essential healthy pharmacy products for baby by an amount of loyal customers. All in all, the bargaining power of customers should be low-to-middle as its healthy baby brand image formed in customers mind around the world, even the adult females prefer to but baby products to care their skins. Power of Suppliers There are thousands of suppliers to provide the materials, goods and services that allow JJ Family of Companies to manufacture products, supply offices and other facilities to service customers around the world. JJ committed to working with small and diverse suppliers in terms of their abilities to support its long-run growth objectives and add value to its business through providing the innovative solutions to their marketing, manufacturing and RD efforts. Even though the various inputs from the suppliers, the competitive situations also exist among suppliers and large amount of substitute inputs contribute to the low power of suppliers. Financial environment Analysis on JJs operation results is essential for it allows its stakeholders to gain an insight on how JJ is performing on the global platform and whether the management strategy employed needs to be consistent or changed according to future market projections. Looking at JJs net sales figures in the last 5 years (Appendix 1), gathered from JJs 2009 annual report, we see a generally consistent growth in its net sales. Though there is a dip in worldwide sales figure of 2.9% ($61.9 billion) from 2008, this can be accounted with JJs spending on research and development ($7 billion) as well as acquisitions and collaborations. Although this will cause a reduction in JJs sales margin, it will benefit the organization in the long-run whereby profits will be reaped upon returns on investment. Currently, JJ is expanding its operations in the BRIC countries (i.e. Brazil, Russia, India, and China) as well as other fast-developing markets. This should be a continued project of JJ for at least the next 3 years to maximize its profits and increase its global market share. This is inline with JJs organizational vision drive superior business results and sustainable competitive advantage. Internal Environment Value Chain JJs corporate vision, to maximise the global power of diversity and inclusion to drive superior business results and sustainable competitive advantage is in line with its corporate objective of profit and growth. Both JJs vision and focus has direct implication on its corporate structure. This is reflected upon the process within JJs value-chain. In terms of JJs organizational structure, Human resource management (HRM) plays a vital role in the direct success of JJ as an organization for it is the people, most valued asset, that contribute to achieving the goals and objectives of JJ. At present, JJ hires experienced and capable leaders to bring the organization to greater heights and JJ does not stop there. JJ provides all top executives in training which include leadership development and management education in fields like finance and marketing. JJ prioritizes on the professional development of every employee for JJ believe that they are capable in developing leaders within the organization by exposing them to diverse fields and giving employees heavier responsibilities to assess their ability. As mentioned above where staff motivation is important, we as consultants believe that JJ should continue to train their employees and appraise the performance of employees in the next three years. This is so that JJ would be able to make better use of their employees capabilities and talents and this will benefit the organization in the long-run when employees are loyal to JJ. Focusing on JJs consumer goods of baby products, the in-bound logistics ties in with operations before linking with outbound logistics, sales marketing and finally, providing businesses and consumers with service. JJs in-bound logistics would include the purchasing of raw materials needed for the manufacturing of baby products and storing the raw materials in various designated warehouses. Operations will then occur whereby factory employees would have to work along a production belt with the help of machines and maintain quality checks as well as bottling of baby products. JJ would then distribute the ready products into containers for shipment, in allocated warehouses or directly to retailers and distributors. To aid JJs employees in convenient dispersal of information to sales staff, they have made use of MultiAid to resolve all marketing resource management needs. This increases JJs operational efficiency and gives the organization a head start on asset management for product ima ge, captured data and distribution to retail trade communities is readily accessible to employees with one click on the computer system. With regards to sales and marketing, JJ advertises by relating consumers with real-life scenario whereby a mother bathes her baby with JJs baby products and having the statement of products for the ones you love. There are two types of service provided by JJ business to business (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C). JJ provides its business partners and suppliers with business opportunities. This means that the degree of success experienced by JJ has direct impact and will benefit companies that do business with JJ. Consumers of JJ are exposed to gathering useful and relevant information when having purchased JJ baby products for JJ has formed a website (i.e.BabyCentre.com) and a online Baby Care Library to increase the closeness in customer interaction. SWOT Analysis Strengths (Internal) Weaknesses (Internal) Abundant financial resources Strong brand name Proprietary technology Respected brand image Wide product lines Economies of scale Committed employees Superior product quality Better marketing skills Good distribution skills Low customization Lack of flexibility Opportunities (External) Threats (External) Opening of foreign markets Rapid market growth Brand switching Demographic shifts Low barriers to entry Economic downturn Introduction of new substitutes products Rival firms adopting new strategies Strengths Johnson Johnson is a well-known healthcare brand which ranks No. 1 within the industry under one decade of its historical development with a wide variety of skincare products and superior product quality. Abundant financial resources are exploited by the RD department to employ the committed staff for creating and even innovating the hygiene products through proprietary technology and build up the respected brand image. Besides, it focus on product leadership excel at product development and professional skills so that it can offer customers the best products in the industry. As the facts show that, JJ expanded internationally around the world, like Asia (Singapore, China) that triggered by the better marketing skills. Additionally, the good world-wide distribution skills due to its global standardization strategy that allow JJ to generate great market shares by cost reduction that come from economies of scale and fast product development what based on stable relationship with local distribution agents and its respected brand image as well as superior product like baby care mainly. Weaknesses Global standardization is the main international business strategy to control cost but this also is its drawback that results in the low customization. In addition to the world-wide product structure, the managers lack of flexibility to face the challenge of changes in local markets. Opportunities In order to bring along the development of local economy, most of countries welcomes the international companies introduce their products to diversify the local economy. The increasing attentions of baby nurturance and its brand image prompt customers to purchase its products and grow rapidly in the global new markets. There is an opportunity to generate more market shares and enhance its brand image in the long-term in the lights of the rise in global demographic population reach to 7 billion that data collected from statistics of 2011, China and India act as the representatives; moreover, the superior product quality of JJ is the critical to attract customers switching from other brands. Threats JJ faces the threats of the low barriers to entry due to the low cost of set-up, and the proprietary product differences will be difficult to protect when the barriers are reduced so that the customers would switch to other brands more possibly. Another threat reflected by the economic downturn, JJ is difficult to manage the exchange rate risk under the global standardization strategy. Most important, JJ would be forced to stay at the passive threat that the customers would be attracted by its competitors and sales would be declined if rivalries adopting the new strategies. Outcome of SWOT Matrix Generally, Johnson Johnson holds strong competitive advantages after compare its pros and cons despite of few disadvantages of global standardization strategy. In another angle, JJ is able to switch the threats to opportunities in the lights of its calculus-based capability and resources. Growth Strategies adopted by Johnson Johnson There are both internal and external environments to be carefully evaluated when planning for a three years growth strategy plan for Johnson Johnson as what happen externally and internally will affect the company. These diagnoses are in reference to the SWOT analysis based on the company resources assets, intellectual property, and people. With careful consideration and by selecting market penetration growth strategy for a three year period, it will help them to gain more market shares through promotion and advertising from their strong marketing teams. Before planned the growth strategies, the firm should generate a lot of information about if the company is selling new, existing or emerging products in a new or existing market. From the diagnosis of the Porter`s model, understanding that the threats of new entrants are low and also credited to the high brand equity of Johnson Johnson, market penetration growth strategy defined by Ansoff is selected in the lights of situation that involves neither new markets nor new products, are forced to grow through this growth strategy. It is a strategy that is designed to give the business a greater percentage of market shares. Market penetration occurs when a company enters/penetrates a market with current products. This type of strategy usually seeks to gain a competitive edge through competitive pricing strategies, advertising, sales promotion, marketing or other strategic initia

Kepler :: essays research papers

Kepler   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As far as people who are well versed in just about every aspect of life, Johannes Kepler was one of the great few. Unlike many of the great thinkers of his era, he was not skeptical about writing down his findings in his correspondence and, in turn getting them published so he would receive full credit for his ideas. At the time of Kepler there were no scientific journals that he could post his findings on. His work in developing the Planetary Laws of Motion supercede all findings in celestial mechanics. This is not to mention that the man is credited with originating the word satellite as well as several firsts in the field of optics.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Johannes Kepler was born in Weil der Stadt, Wuttenberg on the 27th of December 1571. Wurttenberg was then part of the Holy Roman Empire, but now its borders lie in present day Germany. He died November 15th, 1630 in Regensburg which also currently lies in Germany. Kepler was the first child born to a mercenary soldier and the daughter of an innkeeper.# The very same inn that Johannes stayed for much of his childhood after the age of five when his father left the family to fight in the Netherlands. Kepler’s early work at a nearby seminary got him enough recognition to honor a scholarship to the University of Tubingen.1 It was there that he was first introduced to the ideas of Copernicus, which he seemed to take a strong liking to right away. In one of his first published works while earning his way as a Mathematics teacher in Graz he was the first to defend Copernicus and his Copernican system. The theory that the planets revolve around the sun not the Earth was still being refuted by some of the more prominent thinkers of the time. His school was undoubtedly Lutheran, which also was the religion of his family so the connection was strong. He held fast to the Augsburg Confession of Lutheranism, but refused to sign the Formula of Concord because of his disagreement with some of the values listed in it.# This did not sit well with those in authority and Kepler was excluded from the sacrament in the Lutheran Church. He also refused to convert to Catholicism during this time which left him no side to take in the Thirty-Years War. This did not deter him from his faith and belief in God.

My Watch :: Descriptive Watch Essays, Observation

My Watch My article of clothing is with me at all times. It consists of a 3cm circular base and two separate straps, each 6cm long connected by a metal clasp. These two straps and a clasp are then connected to the top and bottom of the base. The straps are outlined in hard rigid silver, looking as my uncle's smoothly brushed gray hair. Through the center of the 2cm wide straps is a 1cm in width gold strip. The gold looks as bright as a gold chalice from my local church. The clasp is a hard silvery gray such as that which borders the straps. The letters 'SEIKO' are clearly placed on the clasp in raised lettering. The clasp looks 3cm long when in the closed position, but when opened it extends to 11cm as two more 4cm metal pieces open outward. The face of the object is encircled with a gold color, gold as the trim on my father's Cadillac. Inside the gold trim, the background is a black color. The black is like the black rubber on my car's Cooper tires. Towards the top of this face, there is a number 12, the bottom has a number 6, and the leftmost number has a number 9. Each of these numbers are raised in lettering in a gold color. On the rightmost side, there is a 1/2cm x 1/5cm sized box. This box is then further separated in two parts. 2/3s of the box is devoted towards showing the current day's first 3 letters, now showing a THU for Thursday. The remaining space of the box is set aside for the date of the month. In this box the number 14 is shown. Both, the day and the date, are in white colors. This white is like a white hospital gown, starched and cleaned. The face of the object has 56 small lines all facing from the outside of the circle towards the middle. These gold lines are equally separated all aro the face of the object.

Privatization in India Essay

Ram Mohan Visiting Faculty, Finance and Accounting Area Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, India Abstract The proposed research is intended to survey the process of privatization in India and assess its impact on the Indian economy. The central issue we will address is the impact of privatization that has taken place so far on profitability and performance of PSUs. Going beyond this, we will attempt to understand what explains the impact of privatization on performance. Is it the use of market power by oligopolistic firms whose pricing power had been constrained under government ownership ? Is performance bought at the expense of labour through extensive layoffs so that what we see is essentially a transfer from workers to shareholders ? Or are we confusing the impact of privatization with the more generalised impact of deregulation in the economy, which in itself could spur efficiency ? The research output will comprise the following: 1. A survey of the literature on privatization, particularly with respect to less developed countries. 2. A review of the role of the public sector in the Indian economy, and the process of economic liberalization and privatization in India upto this point. 3. Impact of privatization on firm performance. 4. Explanation for the impact of privatization 5. Assessment of mechanisms of corporate governance in India. -2- I. Background: privatization in theory and practice A great wave of privatization has swept the world in the past two decades, embracing the industrial economies, the transition economies of East Europe and large parts of the less developed world, and it continues to roll on. It is interesting, however, that its basis in theory was somewhat shaky to start with. Moreover, a sizable enough body of empirical evidence, on which hypotheses about its impact could be tested, became available only several years down the road. So much of the initial impetus to privatization entailed a leap in faith, and, as happens all too often in the development of knowledge, attempts to explain its impact have followed on the heels of widespread existing practice.

Inter-temporal Production Possibilities and Trade Essay

Instead of trading peerless good for an early(a) at a point in time, we exchange goods right away in return for some goods in the hereafter tense. This kind of trade is known as inter-temporal trade. Even in the absence of global capital movements, any parsimony faces a trade-off mingled with consumption now and consumption in the proximo.Economies usually do not consume all of their catamenia come out of the closetput some of their output takes the lick of investment in machines, buildings, and other forms of rich capital. The to a greater extent investment an economy undertakes now, the more it get out be able to pee and consume in the future. To invest more, however, an economy must release resources by eat less (unless there be dismissed resources, a possibility we temporarily disregard). olibanum there is a trade-off between current and future consumption.The shape of the inter-temporal work possibility frontier will take issue among countries. Some countrie s will have product possibilities that are dyed toward constitute output, tour others are biased toward future output. We will ask in a indorsement what really differences these biases correspond to, but world-class lets simply theo rhytidoplasty that there are two countries, root word and irrelevant, with different inter-temporal occupation possibilities. radicals possibilities are biased toward current consumption, duration Foreigns are biased toward future consumption. The inter-temporal sexual relation supply curves for Home and Foreign reflect how Homes outturn possibilities are biased toward display consumption whereas Foreigns fruit possibilities are biased toward future consumption.In other words, Foreigns proportional supply for future consumption is shifted out sex act to Homes relative supply. At the equilibrium real rice beer rate, Home will export present consumption in return for imports of future consumption. That is, Home will lend to Foreign in t he present and receive refund in the future.Homes inter-temporal production possibilities are biased toward present production. unless what does this mean? The sources of inter-temporal comparative advantage are somewhat different from those that give rise to ordinary trade. A country that has a comparative advantage in future production of consumption goods is one that in the absence of international borrowing and bring would have a low relative price of future consumption, that is, a exalted real interest rate. This spicy real interest rate corresponds to a richly return on investment, that is, a high return to diverting resources from current production of consumption goods to production of capital goods, construction, and other activities that enhance the economys future ability to produce.So countries that borrow in the international market will be those where highly full-bodied investment opportunities are open relative to current productive capacity, while countries t hat lend will be those where such opportunities are not available domestically.Referencehttp//classof1.com/homework-help/international-economics-homework-helpView as multi-pages