Management Control System of a Commercial Bank XY

Management Control System of a Commercial Bank XY This paper attempts to examine the management control system in a Pakistani commercial bank. The commercial banking sector in Pakistan is very competitive. The majority of commercial banks have customer retention on its top priority. Commercial banks are encouraging employees to upgrade their knowledge and skill. The working environment is also congenial in Pakistani commercial banks. Management control systems are essential tool to help management to steer an organization towards its strategic objectives. Designing and implementing an appropriate management control system based on Pakistani national culture can improve both the short and long term performance of commercial banks. This will make commercial banks more efficient and cost effective in extending banking services to all the customers. However, the future research needs to examine the relationship between management control system and effectiveness of the commercial banks of Pakistan. Introduction The introduction part begins with historical background of management control and management accounting. This leads further to an establishment of the purpose of the study and its limitations. 1.1 Historical Background The Management Control and Management Accounting The need for management control arose after the Industrial Revolution and gave companies the opportunity of greater growth and expansion than what had been possible earlier. Larger parts of the value chain were situated within these new and greater companies instead of being spread on different locations in smaller companies or single persons. After these great changes, companies started to require financial measures as business ratios and transfer pricing, and from that point the development of different types of management controls and accounting controls began ( Kaplan Johnson 1987). The Dupont Company is often considered to be the inventor of the modern management control (Kaplan 1984). In the early 1900s, DuPont decided to organize itself by dividing the organization into separate functions, e.g. manufacturing, sales and purchasing. Every single one of these functions had their own manager who could be very specialized in how to manage the specific function. Hence, the senior managers did not have to be involved much in those activities and could fully focus on things as long- term strategies. It was this type of decentralized organization that made Dupont realizes that they needed a performance measurement system. They launched a new accounting measure, return on investment (ROI), because they thought it would be more accurate to use than the old measures which measured earnings and profits as a percentage of sales or costs. Dupont along with General Motors are considered as the pioneers in this area and were also involved in creating different types of decent ralized organizations, budgeting and planning cycles (Kaplan, 1984). In an article from 1984, Kaplan discussed what had happened in the development of the area from 1925 to that point. He considered that not as much as expected had happened between 1925 and 1984. Of those new ideas that had been presented, many were just academic theories which had little or no influence on the real organizations, who should be the beneficiaries. As of today the opposite problem from what Kaplan said in 1984 can be spotted. Today there are almost too many choices in accounting and management control, and they are not as well studied as the older theories and tools (Malmi and Granlund, 2009). There is also another problem with the new theories and tools, companies and organizations seem to have too much faith in them and use them in an uncritical way. They are considered as the solution of all management problems. Examples of these new theories and tools are, activity- based-costing (ABC), business process reengineering (BPR), balanced Score cards (BSC) and total quality management (TQM). These systems are often expensive to acquire and use, and companies perhaps, do not evaluate the relation between costs and benefits of the systems they use, or why they use it at all. Are they used just because they are modern and all the competitors use it, or do they really create value for the company (Siverbo and Akesson 2009). 1.2 Contribution of the Study The banking sector serves as the main source of resource mobilization in developing economies. Commercial bank play significant role in the economic development. Today and more precisely in future, companies, organizations (banks) and other decision making entities whether profit making or not, will face major management challenges. Irrespective of whether the main goal of the organization is to make profit or not, it becomes necessary to institute a mechanism in those entities to control the activities of managers so that they remain on track of the proper routes as established by management. In order to keep activities of the organization in track a management control system is essential (Rijal S., 2006). With the background just proposed I find it interesting to see how a company like a commercial bank XY has commenced its banking operations from November Ist, 1997 as a public limited company is currently operating a large network through 223 branches in Pakistan, with the registe red office at B.A. Building, I.I. Chundrigar, Karachi. The bank perceived the requirements of customers and matches them with quality products and service solutions. During the past five years, bank has emerged as one of the foremost financial institution in the region endeavoring to meet the needs of tomorrow as well as today. To continually upgrade the quality of service to the customers, training of team members in all the integral aspects of banking, customer service and MCS was specially focused. The portfolio concentrates on all aspects of conventional banking as well as the financial needs of corporate sector. Dynamic and high value product includes Car Financing, Home Financing, Rupee Travelers Cheques, Credits Cards, Debit Cards, Online Banking, ATM and consumer Durables. In addition to this, Islamic Banking Division is a recent initiative, which operates as separate branch. With such a huge expansion of branches network, the importance of a well-functioning management cont rol system becomes crucial for their success. People have different beliefs and goals that they want to achieve, which makes it challenging for the management of the company to make every employee take actions in line with what is desirable(www.scribd.com). In this case study author aim to describe the management control systems of a commercial bank with its virtual name XY from Pakistan, since it is expanding and growing with good speed as compared to other banks due to its good MCS system. 1.3 Problem Formulation Bank XY is a commercial bank in Pakistan that is growing rapidly and expanding its branches network in the country. Bank XY has had a huge success and uses almost the same control systems in every branch all over the country (Telephone Interview, 2010), which makes it interesting for me to describe and analyze one of them. My principal research question is that, What management control systems are used at different levels of the commercial bank XY in Pakistan? 1.4 Purpose of Study The main objective of this study is to analyze and describe the management control system of commercial Bank XY in Pakistan. I shall also try to explain how the different management control systems are used in the bank. 1.5 Limitation of the Study The focus of this study is to describe the management control systems used by managers to direct employees, behavior. Considering the size of Bank XY,s organization and the time I have deliberated to this study, it is reasonable for me to limit the study to include few bank branch and the management control systems controlling these branches from higher levels of the organization. I shall also focus on the internal environment, which means I shall not consider most of the external environment that is not crucial to the understanding of the management control system within the bank branch. Data and Methodology This case study will be written by the qualitative school of thought, since author aim is to understand the management control system of the certain company he has chosen. Author has no ambitions to make any general assumptions based on this single study, in contrast to if he had chosen to do a quantitative research study on several companies. The type of case study he has chosen to use is the abductive ase study, since he wanted to have the opportunity to return to the theory even after empirical materials had been collected (alvesson Skoldberg, 1994). The paper is based on both primary and secondary data. Primary data have been collected by phone interview developed for branch manager and employees at different branches. The responses were received from the 12 managers and supporting employees of 12 bank branches. Secondary data have been collected from the website of Bank XY, Pakistan. The data, collected from various sources have been analyzed with the support of previously developed theory. Theory In this chapter, I shall examine the main theories of management control. Before explaining the definitions of management control systems (MCSs), Author shall try to explain management and management control. 3.1 Management and Management Control Literature written on the subject, management is defined in several ways, but all have something to do with the process of allocating resources and direct activities to fulfill the organizations overall objectives. Management is a broad subject and can be divided into smaller elements such as operations, finance, marketing/sales and product development. The management process can also be separated into smaller parts that are objective setting, strategy formulation and management control. Objective setting is a necessary process to formulate and sometimes reconsider the direction and destination of the company. If the objectives are not set it is impossible to determine if the resources are allocated in the right way and if the right activities have been performed. Strategy formulation is the process where organization finds out how to use their resources to meet their objectives. The management processes of objectives setting, strategy formulation and management control is a process of continuum (Merchant and Van der Stede, 2007). 3.2 Merchants Management Control Alternatives According to Merchant and Van der Stede (2007) companies and other organizations have four management control alternatives i.e., result control, action control, personnel controls and cultural controls. 3.2.1 Result Controls The basic idea of results controls is that you do not tell your employees how to do things but what you want them to achieve and how they will benefit if they achieve it. For example, a manager tells an employee that he wants him to produce ten units a week, and if he succeeds he will receive a reward of $50. By these actions the manager may control his employees to do what he desires without interfering too much in their work practices. The process of result controls include four steps, the first is defining the dimensions on which results are desired, the second is measuring performance on these dimensions, the third is setting performance targets for employees to strive for and the last is providing rewards to encourage the behaviors that will lead to the desired results. Results controls are usually used on professional employees who are considered to be able to work effectively without being told how to do things, but instead work efficiently towards targets (Merchant and Van de r Stede, 2007). 3.2.2 Action Controls Action controls are somewhat the opposite of results controls, employees are told what to do and how they should do it, e.g. by rules and procedures. The difficulty with this is that the rules and procedures must be optimized, or else the employees will do everything wrong, despite their doing what they were told by their managers (Merchant and Van der Stede, 2007). 3.2.3 Personnel Controls Personnel controls refer to the assumption that employees by nature want to control themselves. Managers do not have to tell employees what to do and then monitor their every moves to be sure that they do the tasks that that where intended. The assumption is that employees like to perform well for themselves and this should result in a well performing company. Unlike, or at least not as much as results and action controls, these types of controls require more careful selection of employees. Everyone have to fully qualified for the position they occupy on the organization to make it possible to use personnel control. Motivation is another important aspect to make this work; managers have to keep their employees constantly motivated. This may be achieved by training, further work related education or different types of rewards (Merchant and Van der Stede, 2007). 3.2.4 Cultural Controls When personnel controls trust the ability that people want to perform well, cultural controls rely on the ability that group to keep up the values and approaches the organization aims at. In the group organization everyone is supposed to take responsibility and care of everyone else and the peer pressure is important. The idea is that the group should motivate itself; the assignment of the managers is in this case to instruct the group in what to be motivated to do. To their help managers can use things as codes of conduct or group rewards and if the group performs well the group will receive a reward. If only group rewards are provided the individual employee will try to do his/her best to make the group perform well, instead of just caring about themselves (Merchant and Van der Stede, 2007). 3.2.5 Control System Tightness The benefit from any well functioning MCS is that the likelihood that the company will achieve its objectives increases. This benefit can be described in terms of MCS tightness (or looseness), where a tight MCS increases the probability that the employees will take actions that is desirable by the organization. Managers often use more than one kind of management control alternative to tighten control. Sometimes these controls overlap and sometimes they are complementary, which enables the combination of them to create tight control over all of the factors critical to the organizations success (Merchant and Van der Stede, 2007). Whether a results control is tight or loose depends on the characteristics of the definitions of the desired result areas, the performance measures, and the reinforcement or incentives provided. According to Merchant and Van der Stede (2007), for management control to be considered tight in a results controls system, the results dimensions must be congruent with the true organizational objectives, the performance targets must be specific, with feedback in short time increments, the desired result must be effectively communicated and internalized by those whose behaviors are being controlled, and if results controls are given exclusively in a given performance area, the measures must be complete (PP 118 119). Congruence problems can exist because the management does not understand the organizations true objectives or the measure dimensions do not reflect the organizations true objectives (Merchant and Van der Stede, 2007). For a results control system to be tight, the performance measures also have to be precise, objective, timely and understandable. If the performance measures used do not possess these characteristics the control system cannot be considered tight since behavioral problems are likely. Furthermore, if rewards (or punishments) are directly and definitely linked to the accomplishment or non-accomplishment of the desired targets, the MCS is more likely to be tighter (Merchant and Van der Stede, 2007). Action control systems can be considered tight only if it likely that employee will consistently perform the actions desired to achieve the companys objectives and not take any undesirable actions. The tightness of the action accountability controls depends on characteristics of the definitions of desirable and undesirable actions, the effectiveness of the action-tracking system and the reinforcements (rewards and punishments) provided. An effective action tracking system is where employees can be certain that their actions will be noticed relatively quickly. Punishment is more common in action control contexts than in a result control context, since they often include employee violation of rules and procedures (Merchant and Van der Stede, 2007). Tight personnel/cultural controls are most likely to be found in charity and voluntary organizations where employees feel some kind of satisfaction by doing good, in family businesses, where the interest of the family employees are same as the organizations (Merchant and Van der Stede, 2007). Empirical Data The first section of this chapter includes history and other essential facts of a commercial bank XY, Pakistan. The next section includes the empirical information author obtained during his telephonic interviews with the managers and employees at Bank. 4.1 History and facts about Commercial Bank XY Bank XY was founded in June 21st, 1997 its banking operations started from November1st, 1997. The bank engaged in commercial banking and related services. The bank is currently operating through 223 branches. Bank XY target market conceits of individual client as well as number of business organization. Bank XY has segment the market on demographic, psychological and behavioral style to target maximum number of segments with different varieties of products suitable for each segment. Dynamic and high value product includes Car Financing, Home Financing, Rupee Travelers Cheques, Credits Cards, Debit Cards, Online Banking, ATM and consumer Durables. In addition to this, Islamic Banking Division is a recent initiative, which operates as separate branch. This facilitates their commitment to a culture of innovation and seeks out synergies with clients and service providers to ensure interrupted services to its customers. The bank perceived the requirements of customers and matches them wit h quality products and service solutions. During the past five years, bank has emerged as one of the foremost financial institution in the region endeavoring to meet the needs of tomorrow as well as today. To continually upgrade the quality of service to the customers, training of team members in all the integral aspects of banking, customer service and MCS was specially focused (www.scribd.com) 4.2 Telephonic Interviews at Bank XY All the empirical material in this section was obtained during the telephonic interviews. Author interviewed managers at different levels with involvement in personnel, sales, financial and business related areas at Bank XY. Author also made phone interview with an employee at the Bank XY Head Office. 4.3 MCS in Commercial Bank XY 4.3.1 MCS for Selection of Employee Every new employee is carefully selected to fit the profile of how Bank wants them to be and the employees need to know how important the core values are for the bank. The education and banking experience have important consideration during selection of new employees. The personality and which values you have are also important. Hence, selection of employees is important and tries to employee people that already have the right values and beliefs to fit the culture. They also think it is important that the applicants have an interest for bank job. They believe that if the applicant has visited their own website to look for employment, they have taken the first step to show to show interest in bank job. When a new person is employed he or she undergoes an introduction education and training for few days. 4.3.2 Generic Strategy of Commercial Bank The generic strategy of commercial bank XY is divided for two main areas of business, deposit and lending. The different branches of the same commercial banks at the different geographical location are adopting result, action, personnel and culture controls jointly. In case of lending majority of branches uses result and action control simultaneously. 4.3.3 Marketing of New Services Most of the commercial bank branches promote their products/services very aggressively by using result and action control. The majority of the commercial bank branches are concentrating in maintaining customers and only some branches are competing for customer acquisition. 4.3.4 Target setting Practice The commercial bank set target for their branches for the purpose of planning and controlling the activities. In most of the branches target is fixed in terms of number of clients, amount of deposit and the amount of lending. Individual target are also set and properly communicated to them. 4.3.5 Performance Measurement The commercial bank compares actual performance with predetermined target of their branches frequently. 4.3.5 Reward System In commercial banking sector, benefit/reward/salary/promotion is mostly determined by performance followed by education, experience, new relationship/ customer marketed in deposit or lending and factors respectively like majority get benefit for better performance and some did not get performance benefit. The commercial bank provided bonus to their employees out of profit. The amount of bonus is based on the amount of salary the employees are getting. Some bonuses are related to outstanding performance also. 4.3. 5 Encouragement to employees to learn new Skills The commercial bank is encouraging his employees to discharge better performance and enhance educational qualification and attain trainings. The majority of employees working in the bank get leave sanctioned from their bank to attain training related to their jobs. It also supports that the commercial bank is encouraging employees to learn new skill and knowledge. 4.3.6 Cooperation Majority of the employees feel they get complete cooperation from their coworkers. It indicates the working environment is very conducive in the bank to discharge better performance. Analysis In this chapter author has analyzed the empirical data collected at the interviews on the basis of the theories described in the theory part. 5.1 The Combination of Merchant,s Control Alternatives at Bank XY As described by Merchant and Van der Stede (2007) the benefit from a MCS can be expressed by the tightness or looseness of the MCS. As specified, a tight results control system must include results dimensions that are congruent with the organizations true objectives, performance targets that are specific, feedback in short time intervals, effective communication of the desired result and complete measures if the results control system is used exclusively (Merchant and Van der Stede, 2007). As author shall argue below, he thinks that all these factors are met at the Bank branch. First, the measures that the branch working seem to be congruent with the true organization objectives since they measure advances/loans, deposits and costs such as personnel, branch office and operational cost very carefully. They also use non-financial performance measures such as the customer satisfaction index which enables them to overcome the shortcoming of the financial performance measures. Since they take customer satisfaction into consideration they decreased the possibility of increasing result at the expense of decreasing customer satisfaction, which is congruent with their true organizational objectives. Secondly, the targets they use seem to be specific since they use detailed measures to evaluate their performance, e.g. they not measure the number of borrower and depositor, but also borrowed and deposited amount per each customer. Furthermore they set specific targets of how high percentage of customers should be satisfied with their services e.g. the turnaround time for loan application, the waiting time in the counters. Thirdly, the employees get feedback in short time intervals since performance is communicated on a daily basis as well as more detailed feedback weekly at meeting, and yearly when they e.g. see the target achievement report. Lastly the desired results are communicated effectively through their regular meetings and the process of setting the business and action plans. According to Merchant and Van der Stede (2007), a tight results control system also have comprise performance measures that are, precise, objective, timely and understandable. Furthermore they argue that the results control system is likely to be tighter if rewards or punishments are directly and definitely linked to the accomplishment or non-accomplishment of the desired targets. I think that the performance measures of Bank Alfalah meet the characteristics described by Merchant and Van der Stede (2007). The salary system used by the bank is also linked to their performance on the desired targets. Hence, it seems like the results control system of the bank can be considered as tight. The action control systems of a commercial bank does not include as many rules, but instead they have a quite strict organization and governance structure. They also use daily, weekly, monthly performance follow up sheets and manuals to control the actions of employees. According to Merchant and Van der Stede (2007) examples of action controls are behavioral constraints, preaction reviews and action accountability. They further argue that the action control systems can be considered tight only if it is likely that employees will consistently perform the actions. Bank branch does not use as many physical constraints but rather more administrative constraints such as restricting some decisions making to higher levels of the organization. However, in general, the bank branch managers and supporting employees have quite a high influence on their own department of the branch and can make many decisions on their own. The employees actions are supervised by their closest manager and since bank has many different organization levels and each has their own manager it is likely that the managers can track their subordinates actions quite carefully. Furthermore, since the results control system is tight it is also reasonable to believe that undesirable actions will be discovered fairly quickly. Reinforcements used are group rewards such as one basic or two basic salaries that will be paid if the bank employees have achieved the targets. To sum up, there is no doubt that bank uses action controls and action control systems but I would not consider them either tight or loose, but rather moderate or average. As concluded by Merchant and Van der Stede (2007) the personnel/cultural control systems are rarely tight, except in organizations whose corporate cultures are strong. Bank culture includes customers care-consciousness, equality, advances/loans and deposits target focus. These values are prominent and present in their vision, mission as well as in everything they do. They also emphasize the importance that every employee should share their values to fit in. This implies that bank corporate culture is strong which enables me to conclude that their personnel/cultural control is tight or at least moderately tight. Conclusion The Pakistani commercial banking sector is very competitive. The commercial banks are competing mainly in services in order to put in competitive position, to retain customers services at top priority. The majority of the commercial bank branches have been using results control system. All the commercial bank branches are applying the concept of management control system by setting targets for their branch and at individual and comparing it with actual performance. The target for a branch is fixed in terms of number of clients, amount of deposit and lending. Target is also fixed for the majority of the individuals employees. The target of the branches and individuals level is frequently monitored against their performance. The manager of the different branches of the commercial bank desire to evaluate the performance of the branch. According to individual employees responses, their financial and non financial benefit is based on performance followed by education and training and experience respectively. But the yearly bonus is based on salary they are getting. The managers of different bank branches encourage employees to participate in decision-making process. The commercial bank encourages employees to upgrade their knowledge and skill as the benefit is based on educational qualification and training after performance, they provide paid leave to participate in training and for further education. The working environment in commercial bank is very congenial as the majority of the employees felt that they get very much cooperation from their coworkers. However, the future research needs to examine the relationship between management control system and effectiveness of the commercial banks in Pakistan.

Challenges Faced By The Virgin Atlantic Commerce Essay

Challenges Faced By The Virgin Atlantic Commerce Essay Nowadays globalization has increased so competitions in business are very high because of making profits the demand increases through customers. There are lots of good smart phone applications, or app, available for smart phones to help every people to travel easier. People are addicted to travel in different places by flights, so they are looking for cheap rate. If this company decrease the flight charges their marketing in business will be in loss. One really good one is flight track. This flight land at fix time and gate number and even allow to see the geographical position of the flight on a map at any time. In this flight offers many facilities like food, water, drinks ,napkins with free of cost travelers make wonderful journey for their trips on this flight.Many airlines such as southwest,jetblue and others have launched applications which let you book your tickets ,lookup schedules and check in all in phones so customers can book tickets through online and tickets were posted in houses. A few days ago virgin Atlantic came out with app and is called JET LAG FIGTHER which seems to have a lot of potentials for people. In some emergency case workers, families in serious can immediately book on this flight. This aircraft is fastest rather than any other aircraft. TASK1 For years theres been something rather lonely about the British airline its very expensive travelers to travel. The food which they provide is not free of cost. The British airline which flies outside the comforting embrace of the big three alliances, despite the 49%stake owned by the Singapore airline a member of star alliances. That could set to change , though with virgin having now admitted to receiving a number of lines of enquiry. Theres something rather inevitable about a deal for virgin. British airways are very expense this aircraft makes difficult to gain their profits. Its a big rival working ever more closely with American airlines and international air transport associations, virgins continuing survival as a lone operator just seems too shaky. Leadership style is the manner and approach of providing direction, implementing plans and motivating people. Kurt Lewis (1939) led a group of researchers to identify different styles of leaderships.The three major style of leadership are AUTHORITIAN OR AUTOCRATIC PARTICIPATVE OR DEMOCRATIC DELEGATING OR FREE REIGN AUTHORITIAN-This style is used when leaders tell their employees what they want done and how they want it accomplished without getting the advice of their followers .Some of the appropriate conditions to use it is when we all the information to solve the problem. Some people tend to think of this style as a vehicle for yelling ,using demeaning language and leading by threats and abusing their powers. PARTICIPATIVE(DEMOCRATIVE)-This style involves the leader including one or more employees in the decision making process. However leader maintains the final decision making authority.Using this style is not a style of weakness, rather it is sign of strength that your employees will respect. This is normally used when you have part of the information and your employees have other parts. DELEGATING OR FREE REIGN-In this style leaders allow to make the decisions. However the leader is still responsible for the decisions that are made.This is used when employees are able to analyse the situations and determine what needs to be done and how to do it. Leadership is organizing a group of people to achieve a common goal. The leader may or may not have formal authority.Students of leadership have produced theories involving traits. 1.situational,interaction,function,behavior,power,visionand values. 2.charishma and intelligence and among others Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is a British entrepreneur best known for his virgin group of over 400companies His first successful business venture was a magazine called student at age 16.In 1970 he set up an audio record mail order business. In 1972 he opened a chain of record stores .Virgin Records later known as virgin megastores.Bransons virgin brand grew during the 1980.Branson mainly has lots of business he earned more profit for virgin atlantic.He wants to continue his business for a long time. Once he caught arrested and charged selling in virgin stores that had been declared export stock .He settled out of court with uk customs and Excise with an agreement to repay the unpaid tax and a fine. Earning enough money from his record stores. Branson in 1972 launched the record level and a country estate in which he installing a recorded studio. He have lots of professional work and have good idea to build up the companies. DETERMINING ORGANIZATION DIRECTION 1. Through an interpretation of information gathered during environmental analysis managers can determine the direction in which an organization should move. 2. Important ingredients of organizational direction are organizational Mission and organizational objectives. DETERMINING ORGANIZATIONAL MISSION: The most common initial act in establishing organizational direction is an organizational mission. The statement that describes the mission talks about the target market which in this case is families, geographic, domain of neighbourhoods. It also talks about its strategy t be profitable by providing good customer service through friendly and knowledgeable people. It is essential to look into external influences like labour, conditions, competitors, government rules while considering mission statement. Companys mission statement should define stakeholders expected return along with the measurement of the performance of the company through those returns. The expected profit too should be included in the organizations mission. Moreover, the company should come to consensus as to what all areas should be measured like margin growth, efficiency, competitive cost position, product quality, market share etc. A missions statement sets the boundaries for how resources should be allocated and what strategic and operational goals should be set. The mission statement should acknowledge the companys strength and then inform employees where to direst their efforts in order to take advantage of those strength. It is often helpful to allow companywide input when creating a mission statement. Employees from throughout the organization can help identify the core values of the company. It is important to keep in mind that there will be a draft process involving in creating the mission statement. Employees can often provide invaluable insight on how to improve on each draft. In the end the mission statement should reflect the personality of the organization. Thus each company should be creative and unique in developing its own statement. Creating a mission committee that consists of members of management, frontline employees. Communicating the mission statement to customers to make them feel valued a nd important. It can be sending to customers in a mass mailing or posted or signs in areas those customers frequent. It sets the forth the goals of the organizations so customers know what to expect when doing business with the company. Mission and vision statements give organizations a focus and a strategy for the future. Setting up meetings with members of management and frontline employees can often help uncover areas where the company does not meet the standard sets by the mission statement, SWOT ANALYSIS Organizations should begin first by reviewing internal strengths and weakness. When analyzing an organizations strength is important to identify distinctive competencies or strength possessed by only a few competing firms. These distinctive competencies often become the competitive advantage that is included in the mission statement. Distinctive competencies can be found in the financial resources, quality product and services, proprietary technology or cost advantage. Organizational weakness is skills and capabilities that prevent an organization from implementing strategies that achieve its mission. They can be problem with facilities, lack of clear strategic direction, internal operating problems, too narrow a product line, weak market image, or the inability to financial changes. The next step is to identify external opportunities are circumstances in an organizations environment that if capitalized on will result in above normal increases in economic performance. In conclusion mission statement provides a sense of direction and purpose. In times of change and growth they can be an anchor and a guide in decision makings. The benefit far outweigh the disadvantages and challenges when looking at the potential for increase in profitability and returns .Defining an organization by what it produce and who it satisfies are the main target towards creating a sound and stable mission statement. Setting a company apart from the competition is one of the biggest advantages. Task-3 There are two major components to your marketing strategy: how your enterprise will address the competitive market place how you will implement and support your day to day operations In todays every competitive market place a strategy that insures a consistent approach to offering your product its all up to customers how much they required. It is of little value to have a strategy if you lack either the resources or the expertise to implement it. In the process of creating a marketing strategy you must consider many factors. Of those many factors some are more important than others.Because each strategy must address some unique considerations its not reasonable to identify every important factor at a general level. If the market is very attractive and your enterprise is one of the strongest in the industry you will want to invest your best resources in support of your offerings. If the market is very attractive and your enterprise is one of the weaker ones in the industry. A cost leadership strategy based on the concept that you produce and market good quality product or service at lower cost than your competitors. These low cost should translate to profit margins that are higher than the industry average. Some of the conditions that should exist to support a cost leadership strategy include an ongoing availability of operating capital, good process engineering skills, close management of labor, products designed for ease of manufacturing and low cost distribution. A differentiation strategy is one of the creating a product or service that is perceived is being unique throughout the industry. The emphasis can be a brand image, proprietary technology, special features, and superior services, a strong distributor network or other aspects that might be specific to your industry .This uniqueness should also translate to profit margins that are higher than the industry average. In addition some of the conditions that should exist to support a differentiation strategy include strong marketing abilities, effective product engineering, creative personal the ability to perform basic research and a good reputation. A focus strategy may be the most sophisticated of the generic strategies, in that it is a more intense form of either the cost leadership or differentiation strategy. It is designed to address a focused segment of the marketplace, product form or cost management process and is usually employed when it isnt appropriate to attempt an across the board application of cost leadership or differentiations. It is based on the concept of serving a particular target in such an exceptional manner, those others cannot compete. Usually this means addressing a substantially smaller market segment than others in the industry, but because of minimal competitions, profit margin can be high. CUSTOMER SERVICES The strength of the customer service function has a strong influence on long term market success. Factors to consider include. .Experience of the customers service manager in the areas of similar offerings and customer quality control, technical support, product documentation, sales and marketing. The availability of technical to service your offerings after it is purchased. one or more factors that causes your customer support to stand out as unique in the eyes of the customer service. Accessibility of service outlets for the customer. The reputation of the enterprise for the customer service. PROFIT POTENTIAL Potential for competitive retaliation is based on the competitors resources, commitment to the industry, cash position and predictability as well as the status of the market. The enterprises ability to construct entry barriers to competitions such as the creation of high switching costs, gaining substantial benefit from economic of scale ,exclusive access to or clogging of distributional channels and the ability to clearly differentiate your offerings from the competitions. the ability of the enterprise to limit suppliers bargaining power. The availability of substitute solutions to the prospects need. Market potential for new products considering market growth, prospects need for your offerings and the competition and the degrees of the prospect needs. The freedom of the enterprise to make critical business decisions without undue influence from distributors, suppliers, unions, investors, and other influence. COST TO ENTER MARKET This is an analysis of the factors that will influence your cost to achieve significant market penetration. Factors to consider include. your marketing strength. Access to low cost materials and effective productions. The experience of your enterprise. The complexity of introduction problems such as lack of adherence to industry standards, unavailability of materials, poor quality products, regulatory problems, and the inability to explain the benefits of the offerings to the prospects. The effectiveness of the enterprise infrastructure in terms of organization, recruiting capabilities, employee benefit programs, customer support facilities and logistical capabilities. Distribution effectiveness as measured by the history of relations, the extent of channel utilizations ,financial facilities stability, reputations ,access to prospects and familiarity with your offering. Technological efforts likely to be successful as measured by the strength of the development organization. The availability of adequate operating capital. PRODUCTION The strength of the production manager including experience with personnel management, current and new technologies, complex projects and equipments, tools used by the manufacturing personnel. Economies of scale allowing the sharing of production and the potential for vertical integration. Technology and production experience. The necessary production personnel skill level and or the enterprises ability to hire or train qualified personnel. The ability of the enterprise to limit suppliers bargaining power. The ability of the enterprise to control the quality of raw materials and product. Adequate access to raw materials and sub-assembly production. TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS Technology is an outgoing process and BAS competition like virgin Atlantic is also in for the challenge .Virgin Atlantic airlines invested in innovative features that distinguish the company name. The use of information technology and internet are key factors in BAS strategy success and efficiency of the organizations. British Airways recognized this opportunity and turned in to one of its strength. On the other hand Technology advancements may also be a threat to the airline industry. As an example video conferencing may reduce business travel. Another example its internet bookings which are allowing greater price transparency thus leading to aggressive price battles between competitions, resulting in less profit marketing and leading to a less effective financial positions. MARKETING STRATEGY BA lacks of a marketing strategy to win customer loyalty. A weakness that has to be addressed by the organization. It is argued that BA is growing thanks to the globalization and travelers needs rather than to the effectiveness of the marketing campaigns. Despite the great infrastructure hosted by the company.BA needs to carry out better marketing schemes to attract prospective travelers .The company suffers from a deprivation of strategic management strategy to keep its goal aligned with growing market trends to match needs of the future. Virgin Atlantic is being proactive and is currently reviewing it global advertising strategy in a move to increase its advertising effectiveness that could lead to an overhaul of its worldwide arrangement. MAKING STRATEGIC PLANNING MORE EFFECTIVE Rigby has found there is no co relation between satisfaction with financial results and the number or type of strategic management tools used by an organization. The connection between strategies and business results is not perfect because reality usually interference. Reality may interfere internally as when a company is unable to execute its intended strategy, or externally as when events such as competitive response, technological innovation or societal trends affect the business environment. As a result of this week connection the planning process has a limited ability to influence the strategic direction of the enterprise .Most planning process does not work very well. Simpson offered some tips on what planners could do to improve the effectiveness of the planning process. He suggested minimizing the size of the planning function, expanding participation in the planning process, and keeps planning as far away from finance as possible. He noted that a large planning staff tends just to create work and that is important for managers of the functions and business unit to do their own planning .In this way they do the thinking have the insights and are invested in the implementation and results. The business needs to own their plans and against having the corporate planning staff review and critique and an operating department plans. While reducing the size of the planning staff .Planning must become non-elitist and less exclusionary, understanding what business they are in and what value the organization adds. The organization is purpose and strategy flow from the business data. THE THREAT OF TECHNOLOGY Common practices of good management, according to Professor Clayton often sow the seeds of eventual failure; because they are biased towards incremental improvement rather than radical change .He identify two types of technological change, very few established companies have managed to stay top of the change and stay ahead of upstairs competitors. Adopting these disruptive technologies would have caused currently lucrative product lines to become obsolete more rapidly .Companies stumble in the face of technological change for all kinds of reasons, including complacency and arrogance. Failure may be the price of success as companies become captive to once successful paradigms. The gap between what the market requires and what technology is providing creates opportunities for the introduction of radically new technologies. Discontinuities occur when a new technology gives the market smaller, cheaper products with fewer features, less performance or lower quality. Disruptive technologies will not have all the features valued by the mainstream market but may very well serve the needs of the significant portion or an emerging the ability to record. TASK-4 LEADERSHIP SKILL Having this process in place is vital to the organization because the individual identified in the plan will eventually be responsible for ensuring the company is able to tackle future challenges. These high potential candidates must be carefully selected and then provided training and development that gives them skills and competencies needed for tomorrows business environment. Another reason its important is because these high potential will one day become the leaders of the company. This is why their development needs to incorporate a broad range of learning opportunities in your organizations. The individuals should also exposed to as much of the working environment as possible that they gain a good understanding of what the company requires to remain successful. Succession planning is one of those initiatives that many companies dont find the time to start until its too late. If you dont address succession planning now your organization may end up facing the burden in the middle of a crisis. Finally organization understand the need to manage the development of their high performers are step ahead of their competitors. The effort required to establish a development program for future leaders is worthwhile because it creates motivated and capable groups of employees that are ready to move forward in the organization when the need arise. Succession planning is not something a well run company consequences is not being prepared to replace key personnel will have a major impact on organizations ability to achieve its goal and strategic targets. The succession planning needs to be consider as part of the companys strategic planning process because it deals with projecting future changes by anticipating management vacancies and then determining how to meet these challenges. The group turnover is in billions consisting of over 200 companies. The differences in approach from a typical multinational company are: 1) LONG TERM PLANNING-The group is privately held and in the decision making public investors are not involved. Hence the decision is taken from the long term growth perspective. The group does not need to focus on short term profit to show performance in the stock market. 2) COMPANIES OPERATE INDEPENDENTLY-The group is loosely structured under common brand name .The private companies run safely. 3) Containing company wise risk-When a company grows beyond a specific size, the company is divided in two or more. These keep company manageable and while minimizing the impact of its failure in the group. 4) NEW PRODUCT IDENTIFICATION -The group identifies new market and product based on the analysis of the existing market. The existing market for the new market is frequently either a monopoly or oligopoly.

Sympathy for Lady Macbeth Essay -- Literature Shakespeare Plays Essays

Sympathy for Lady Macbeth In this essay I am going to answer the question above and I will do this by saying whether or not I feel sympathy for lady Macbeth and I go through different parts in the play. After reading parts of the play and watching the video I don’t’ feel very much sympathy for lady Macbeth, although I do feel some sympathy for her in some parts in the play. Over all I think that lady Macbeth is a fiend as she says stuff that’s not very nice to make Macbeth do the things that she is too scared to do herself. I also think that she is a caring person really but she needed to be made evil by witchcraft, as she would not be able to do what she does through out the play in her normal person. The way that the play has been dramatised effects the way we feel about lady Macbeth. In scene 1 where there is a soliloquy lady Macbeth is just standing there speaking to herself and the audience. As she reads the letter I think that you get an insight as to what she is about. â€Å"Hail king that shalt be. This have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee†. I think that here she is saying that macbeth is going to be king and that nothing will get in his way as he is crowned king. In this scene you also get a look at lady Macbeth’s interpretation of Macbeth’s personality, this helps you see what type of person she has to live with and you can tak...

Shakespeares Macbeth - Aristotelian Tragedy :: Macbeth essays

Macbeth: Aristotelian Tragedy The definition of tragedy in an excerpt from Aristotle's "Poetics" is the re-creation, complete within itself, of an important moral action. The relevance of Aristotle's Poetics to Shakespeare's play Macbeth defines the making of a dramatic tragedy and presents the general principles of the construction of this genre. Aristotle's attention throughout most of his Poetics is directed towards the requirements and expectations of the plot. Plot, 'the soul of tragedy', Aristotle says, must, be an imitation of a noble and complete action. In Macbeth, Shakespear provides a complete action, that is it has what Aristotle identifies as a beginning, a middle, and an end. These divisible sections must, and do in the case of Macbeth, meet the criterion of their respective placement. In an excerpt from Aristotle's "Poetics" it states: "The separate parts into which tragedy is divided are: Prologue, Episode, Exodus, Choric songs, this last being divided into Parodos and Stasimon. The prologos is that entire part of a tragedy which precedes the Parodos of the Chorus. The Episode is that entire part of a tragedy which is between complete choric songs. The Exodos is that entire part of a tragedy which has no choric song after it. Of the Choric part the Parodos is the first undivided utterance of the Chorus." Shakespeare follows this precise arrangement of parts to tell his story of Macbeth. Macbeth is divided into five acts. It contains a Prologue, Episode, Exodus, Parodos and Stasimon, but is the only one of Shakespeares plays that does not include Choric songs. This does not dismiss Macbeth as a tragedy in the Aristotelian sense, because it still follows Aristotle's fundamental component of a plot. That the arrangement of actions and episodes arrange themselves into a 'causally connected', seamless whole. The ideal arrangement of action into a plot is: Exposition, Inciting Action, Rising Action, Turning Point(Climax), Falling Action, and Denouement. Macbeth follows each of these steps while introducing a new question every moment that keeps our interest. That is called dramatic tension, a very important part of a tragedy: to keep the audiences attention at all times. To make Macbeth's plot a complete action, according to Aristotle, the story must contain an activating circumstance, a disclosure, and a reversal of action. The activating circumstance in Macbeth is the three witches. Macbeth and Banqou meet three witches that posses supernatural powers and predict the two men's futures. It is part of the wicked sisters' role in the play to act as the forces of fate. These hags lead Macbeth on to destroy himself. Their

Review of a live piece of theatre - Blood Brothers Essay -- Drama

Review of a live piece of theatre - Blood Brothers Review of a live piece of theatre Introduction:We went to see the "Blood Brothers" on the 23rd of May at the Phoenix Theatre. The plot of the story was that there were two twins separated at birth. One of the twins grows up in a middle class house hold. The other one in a working class house hold we see the different ways in which they grow up and the clothes that they wear are different. The play examines the issue of social in Britain. Structure: The plot was structured at the begging there was a death scene of the two twins the rest of the piece was a flash back the mother of the twins was on her own and she had seven children already and she had twins coming she didn't have enough money to feed the seven children and could not feed two more she worked with a rich woman who did not have any children the narrator was saying what was happening in each scene. Characters: Mickey was the twin in the working class he had bad clothes he had a green jumper which had holes and he put it over his knees his face was all dirty and you know from his body language that he was a little boy because he was jumping on the floor and he pretended that he had a horse his mum was telling him not to play up there. In his monologue his body language was that he was sitting on the floor and saying what he was not allowed to do but that he was almost eight and when he was a twenty year old he was depressed and his hea...

Marijuana Exploratory

Jamal Mujaddidi English 205 Professor Jay 8 April 2010 Exploratory Essay Legalization: Good or Bad? As part of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, Marijuana for all purposes was outlawed nationwide. Prior to this Act, over 30 states had prohibition laws towards Marijuana because farmers who employed mainly Hispanic workers complained that this drug would cause people to become â€Å"slow† or â€Å"lazy† and would also cause the users to become addicted. Besides the popularity among this crowd, marijuana was used as an intoxicant during the 1850’s through the 1930’s and was listed in the United States Pharmacopeia. The active ingredient in marijuana is THC, or delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, but this is only one of the 400 other chemicals that are in the plant (TheWELL). It was prescribed for conditions such as labor pain, nausea, arthritis, and rheumatism (DeLisle). It was only after individuals began committing crimes while under the influence of Marijuana that the U. S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics gave marijuana the image of a powerful, addicting, substance that would lead users into a more serious addiction. In the 1960s, it was mainly used by college students and â€Å"hippies,† and subsequently became a symbol of rebellion against authority. Marijuana use became a commonplace issue in congress which led to The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 which classified marijuana along with LSD and heroin as S1 drugs, otherwise known as substances which have the highest relative abuse potential and no form of medical use (DEA). Widespread eradication of marijuana and marijuana products began. The current opponents of marijuana legalization claim that marijuana does have addictive qualities and is an epidemic on America’s youth. This crowd presents that marijuana is a â€Å"silent-killer† due to a fungus and mold which can easily grow on the part which is smoked by users (PRNewswire). This fungus can cause lung cancer and they have deemed marijuana as bio-hazardous. The opposition also goes to say that marijuana can have adverse effects on the brain and can cause brain-cells to die. Some research suggests that use of marijuana during pregnancy can result in premature birth and low birth weights and can even cause temporary loss of fertility. Along with adverse effects on the reproductive system, the opposition claims that marijuana use during adolescence can be harmful to physical and sexual development. This side pushes for further prohibition of marijuana and stricter punishments due to their beliefs that the negatives outweigh the benefits. In the middle of this debate, stand the moderate marijuana use supporters. This side views marijuana use as a potential alternative to painkillers which are detrimental to vital organs. This crowd is mainly made up of physicians and health-care professionals, as wells as patients of chronic illnesses and pain. Doctors and nurses say that cannabis is a less toxic and less expensive medicine for diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, migraines, cancers, and many other disorders which cause chronic symptoms and pain. This side also states that marijuana’s versatile nature allows patients to gain the pain relieving effects through ingestion, canceling out the negative effects of smoking. Besides all these benefits, this crowd pushes for a safe, reliable and quality-controlled source of marijuana which can only be achieved through legalization. It is believed that after this source is created, many adverse effects of â€Å"bad† marijuana will disperse. Another camp of this debate is the supporters of full legalization of marijuana use and growth for medicinal and recreational use. These supporters claim that marijuana should be allowed to be used in the way alcohol and cigarettes are used recreationally. They state these comparisons have worse long-term effects than THC and yet they are taxed and regulated. Another point they make is that marijuana would inject millions of dollars into the economy once government grown marijuana is taxed. Besides the smoking and ingesting of the drug, the plant can be used for its naturally produced fiber known as hemp. This can be cultivated from the stem of the plant and used commercially and industrially for paper, textiles, biodegradable products and medical purposes. Overall, they believe the claimed dangers of marijuana are exaggerated and not enough medical trials have been done to verify these claims. As a college level youth and the Legalization of marijuana use in California is on the ballot, I am interested in learning about this issue before I cast my vote. I have seen the benefits of medicinal marijuana in my family and can attest to the pain relieving effects. As for the recreational use, I believe that alcohol is a much more dangerous substance that can be detrimental to mental and physical health and cause irrational decisions while under the influence. Prohibition has shown to not be a viable solution in the past and I don’t think it can ever solve anything. Regulation on the other hand can prove to be effective because substances will not be bought and traded illegally. I think the legalization of marijuana will improve lives, decrease crimes, and slightly improve the economy. Works Cited DeLisle, Judi. _Medical Marijuana Research Guide. Valencia West Campus Library_. Web. 20 Mar. 2007. 7 Apr. 2010. â€Å"DEA, Controlled Substances Act. † Welcome to the United States Department of Justice. Web. 08 Apr. 2010. â€Å"The Marijuana Initiative Is a Silent Killed and It Should be Defeated – Los Angeles, March 25/PRNewswire/. †_PR Newswire: Press Release Distribution, Targeting, Monitoring and Marketing. _Web. 08 Apr. 2010. â€Å"Fact Sheet – Marijuana. † The WELL – The Birthplace of the Online Community Movement. Web. 08 Apr. 2010.

Discourse Communities

DC Essay, Draft 1 Discourse Communities Essay There is a very large variety of academic discourse communities available at the universities today. Deciding to go to college is deciding to enter an academic discourse community all on its own but deciding to choose a major is entering a more specified discourse community. There are many similarities and differences between every separate community which makes it difficult for some people to choose.Understanding a community must be done before involving oneself. Comparing and contrasting majors can make it easier for someone to choose which academic discourse community they decide to involve themselves in. Comparing and contrasting majors can be much simpler than it seems. Taking the time to describe a rhetorical purpose, audience, and values can be a good outline for to understand the community. An example of this would be comparing the discourse communities of a nursing major and an education major.According to the Sacramento State Co urse Catalog, â€Å"Nursing is a caring discipline with a foundation of nursing science guided by the application of moral and ethical principles of care and responsibility† and â€Å"The professional educator brings together subject matter knowledge, appropriate strategies, and interpersonal skills essential to providing successful learning experiences for children. † Preparing to work first-hand with people, possibly even very young children, is the main similarity between the two majors.Although the two prepare to help the community, they plan to help in different ways. The two majors are in a sense the same in their future purpose caring the same values, but different in the actual action it will entail. Both Nursing and Education carry the social value of an equal opportunity. The majors do not discriminate between the sexes or age of a person unlike athletics major possibly would. A woman at a very elderly age most likely wouldn’t be able to run a triathlo n and be successful at the same time.Nursing provides health and well-being for the community also providing safety. By treating someone of a contagious and deadly disease a nurse could possibly prevented a whole community from contact of this disease. Education provides common and even uncommon knowledge also building a future for the community. Teaching a young community to read and write makes them literate allowing them to seek high-end careers in the future.Rhetorically, an audience or a nurse could be doctors, parents, or the elderly while the audience of an educator would most likely be parents, their students directly, or the community no longer directly tied to the education environment. A typical purpose a nurse might have would be to provide health and safety to the community in order to keep a community alive. On the other hand a purpose for an educator would be to educate the community of the importance of a health and safety so they are aware of the seriousness of the matter.Personas in both fields would most likely be informative and professional. Comparing and contrasting the similarities between two separate majors can ease the decision of joining a discourse community. Values of the community can be very similar which may be what draws a person to both but the purpose of them can be completely different. Understanding the communities is done by exploring these aspects and applying rhetorical cases to them. Works Cited â€Å"Sacramento State University Catalog† (2012-2014)