Strategic Retail Management Essay Example

Strategic Retail Management Paper People need a lot of things from their basic things to their luxuries and wants. They turn to the sellers of the merchandise that they need. These sellers may be small retail business owners or big ones such as a department store. Retailing is an important feature of the economy in distributing goods and services from the producers to the people who need them. Retailers usually purchase large amounts of goods from producers, manufacturers or from wholesalers. A quick glance at the supply chain from the production factories would reveal that retailers are at the bottom rung of the chain. Retail stores or shops are usually located where the people are. If people will have to travel long distances just to go to retailers, their business will not grow. Since retail shops are where people go to for their basic needs, they usually develop a connection with their favorite shops. Not a few develop loyalty to the shops they frequently go to. The Retail Environment There are different kinds of retail environments that people may go to. Traditionally sellers and buyers converge on markets. Markets, however, have been supplanted by the rise of malls and big supermarkets. Some retail environments may be in the form of stores where an attendant gets what the customer wants. There are also self-service shops where the customers just get what they want and then pay at the cashier. In stores and shops, however, what can be noted is that the traffic of people never stops. There is interaction most of the time. The retail environment is a place where the economic relationships of people can be highlighted. Yet, such relationships are not only economic, both buyers and sellers may also develop social connections through the retail environment (Berman Evans, 2006). We will write a custom essay sample on Strategic Retail Management specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Strategic Retail Management specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Strategic Retail Management specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Morale and Motivation at the Retail Environment The morale and motivation of the workers in a retail environment is very important to its operations. A motivated workforce will mean that they will also transfer that motivation to the customers that will visit the shop. In order to facilitate this, the workers at the retail shop should enjoy certain benefits and privileges. In this regard, the retail environment should have clear role perceptions, motivation from the manager or owner, and ability, which can be enhanced through training (Weitz, Sujan, and Sujan, 1986). If the management of the retail shop can ensure the motivation of its workers, this would redound to better customer service to the consumers. In a study conducted by Kim, Kang and Kim (2005), they discovered that there are several dimensions of retail shopping motivation from consumers, especially those who are older. They can either consume service, value and food or they can engage in shopping for diversion and leisurely appreciation of aesthetics. Through the model created by these researchers, they found out that people who are lonely and in need of social interaction tend to go to malls and retail shops. Through their experience at the retail shops, their loneliness can be lessened. In this regard, the workers of a shop can make buyers happier by helping them in value consumption and provide them good services (Kim, Kang Kim, 2005). Such kind of motivational spirit would work well if the workers themselves have motivation and if they have high morale. In times of sadness and loneliness, then the workers at the retail shop could also help people become more cheerful. Retailing Trends for Small Businesses One of the most interesting developments in retail management is in two areas, both of them involving technology deeply. Supply chain management is now increasingly integrated with computer applications that enable store owners to manage their inventories more effectively. The technology is also becoming more affordable so even small businesses can afford it. With the availability of online applications, retail management has become more technologically dependent (Krafft Mantrala, 2005). Another important development in retailing is the increasing popularity of the Internet as the place to shop. With credit cards and online payment schemes, more and more people, especially the busy ones, are depending on the Internet and their credit cards for their purchases. If it is any indication, the success of Ebay and other online shopping sites have also led to the emergence of a new kind of entrepreneurs and retailers who are using the Internet in marketing their products. Whatever their products are, they are now able to reach out to a wide segment of buyers not only in their immediate vicinity but also to the whole world (Krafft Mantrala, 2005). This internationalization of retail management has an important impact on the operations of businesses as well as in their business model. With the integration of the Internet as an effective marketing arm, it supplements the traditional marketing media being used by retailers. The internet also helps small retail businesses to get in touch with their customers more quickly and instantaneously. In doing so, they can easily get feedback from them and act on such feedback right away. As such, the marketing aspect of retailing, the interfacing with customers, and the gathering of feedback becomes easier because of the Internet and other online applications. With the internalization of retailing, however, businesses need to think more creatively about their strategy in reaching out to their target market. Another important thing to think about is how to motivate and raise the morale of the customers similar to what they experience when they go to retail centers or to malls. Obviously, retailers also need to take into account the value added needs of the customers that would contribute to a better experience to them when they are shopping online or on site. Apparel shopping on the Internet has been growing in the past few years yet there are hesitations on the part of shoppers to buy clothing over the Internet. This is because of the perceived risks in buying items there. For one, buyers do not get the same visual and texture sensation when they shop on a store. They cannot try on an item of clothing shown online. Given this limitations, retailing through commerce should appeal to other aspects of the buyer experience (Park Stoel, 2002). The Future of Retail Retail management will not be relegated to the dustbins of history. Although economic recession may facilitate the rise and fall of different means of product distribution and retail management but as long as people need goods and services, retailing will remain as a key feature of the country’s economy. Yet the future of the retail industry is worth looking at. Dawson (2000) identified six major challenges to retail management. These challenges have to be addressed in order for retailers to thrive in their industry. The first one is about the challenges of growing and â€Å"bigness†. Big supermarkets and retail chains are on the rise and these industry giants are undermining the small-time players. As such, small and medium businesses should think of creative ways to survive the intense competition. Secondly, brands are highly arbitrary, always in flux and subject to constant change. Choosing which brands to market and distribute may be a crucial issue for retailers. Another challenge would be the over-capacity of the space for retailing. This would refer to the need for careful management of space and buildings of retailers to ensure that both aesthetics and functionality are ensured. In addition to this, changes in the products and services being marketed tend to be abrupt and turbulent. Even the tastes and preferences of consumers can easily change. Retailers therefore should be quick to understand the dynamics of the market so they can prepare for difficulties and problems along the way. The past decade has seen the rise of outsourcing and offshoring in the discussion of business models, processes and services. The challenge that retailers need to address in this area is achieving the balance between internalization and outsourcing of functions. Outsourcing may be an option for businesses but if overdone, it could easily be a source of fragmentation in the business and the loss of trade secrets. Lastly, retailing through e-commerce is yet to prove itself as effective. In order to deal with these challenges, Dawson (2000) recommends several areas that retailers need to look at. One is making the retail firm relevant to the times and to the changing preferences of consumers. There should also be an effective assessment of the risks that the retail firm faces. Another important aspect is to remodel the organization, establish an effective means of gathering knowledge, which will help in development the corporate culture of the firm. Competition is definitely a big issue in retailing. As such, effective strategies should be devised to deal with globalization and competition from large scale companies such as Wal-Mart (Dawson, 2000). Conclusion Retailing will remain as a very important feature of the country’s economy. Actual retailing helps customers with their needs for various products and services. Retailing also gives consumers value added. Through the act of being at the retailer’s shop or store, the loneliness and sadness of certain people can be alleviated. This is not something that people can easily enjoy in huge shopping complexes and warehouses. In spite of big challenges in the retail industry, there are still those that manage to survive. There are also those, however, that cannot cope with the difficulties of the industry and are forced to close or to seek for ways to mitigate their losses. Wendy’s Hamburger has experienced losses in the last two years or so. Some of its stores are no longer visited by customers. Big franchises of the hamburger chain also closed down. Some of the most notable ones are those that are in Australia. Likewise, fifty Wendy’s locations were closed in the United States just recently. This trend could be attributed to intense competition from other hamburger retail chains most notably, McDonalds. More importantly, though, the chain was not able to create a brand name for itself similar to BigMac or Whopper (Wolf, 2007). Retailers can learn valuable lesson from this. Branding is very important in facing the intense and uncertain competition in the world of retailing. Retail management is a difficult business but if the trends in the market can be anticipated, then the right action can be done to make the business thrive.

The eNotes Blog Fact or Fiction Famous Test-taking StrategiesReexamined

Fact or Fiction Famous Test-taking StrategiesReexamined You have approximately 113 standardized tests to take before you graduate high school. That’s not even counting your pop quizzes, AP classes, or college entrance exams. Everyone thinks they have a few magical  test-taking strategies up their sleeve (socks inside out, lucky undies, answers written on the inside of  Ã‚  wait, no!) Find out whether the strategies you swear by are true life-savers or total fiction.   1. Bananas are instant  calming agents. THE MYTH: The whiteboard is going fuzzy. Your leg won’t stop jittering. A bead of sweat rolls down your forehead and your stomach is about six seconds from expelling its contents onto your desk. â€Å"Wait!† you cry. Time stops, and you run to your locker to grab the item that you hope is thereIT IS! You peel the banana in record time, cram it into your mouth, and slide into your seat with a stable heartbeat and steady hands to ace your biology midterm. THE REALITY: Maybe. Some believe bananas function like beta blockers, which keep epinephrine from binding to beta receptors so you don’t feel the effects of adrenaline. Because the fight-or-flight response isn’t triggered, your heartbeat slows and blood pressure drops. Musicians have been using beta blocking drugs (and apparently bananas) for years to banish stage fright. Others think that bananas help correct an imbalance in gamma-aminobutyric acid. Whatever it is they’re actually doing, people from all walks of life report that bananas help reduce anxiety. Go figure. 2. Not sure? Just answer C! collegehumor.com THE MYTH: You’re running out of time. You have no clue what Otto von Bismarcks strategy was in the Austro-Prussian War- you’re just trying to remember where Prussia is. Five. Four. Three. Two. C! You remember that because of a weird glitch in all teacher’s brains, C is statistically the most common answer! You hand in your test feeling good, and are rewarded with an A+++. THE REALITY: Fiction. This one has been around for ages. Seriously. Ages. In your grandpa’s day it was B. One analysis of SAT statistics suggests that the distribution for each answer hovers pretty close to 20%- that’s even. When one answer does show up more often, it’s 1) only occasionally C, and 2) usually by a margin of less than 3%. In short, expecting to score higher on any given test because in the face of doubt you answer C is like consuming soda with Pop Rocks and expecting your stomach to explode. Not going to happen. 3. Don’t change your answer- you were probably right the first time. THE MYTH: You’ve finished the test. You’re just checking over your answers when suddenly you pause. Doubt assails you. George Eliot didn’t write Mrs. Dalloway. It was Virginia Woolf. And hey. These other ones look wrong now, too. Panic threatens, but with a deep breath and an inward smile you toss your test on the teacher’s desk, secure in the knowledge that your first guess is almost always right. THE REALITY: Fiction. Your first instinct is not always the best course. In fact, pretty much its only distinction is that it’swell, first. Research suggests you’re twice as likely to change your answer from a wrong choice to a right one than you are to change it from a right answer to a wrong one. The moral of the story? Edit away. 4. Chewing gum: The jaw bone’s connected to the brain bone. MYTH: You haven’t missed a day of school. You haven’t cut a single class. You haven’t skipped so much as a paragraph of the reading. And for all the good it’s doing you now, every single question on this test might as well be written in Swahili. You’re doomed. Or are you? You reach into your pocket, pull out a crumpled wrapper, and pop a piece of gum in your mouth. Ahhh. It all comes flooding back. You speak Swahili. REALITY: Fact?! At least when you time it correctly. Recent studies suggest that chewing gum will help you on a test, especially where memory and recall are concerned. The funny thing is the latest evidence tells us you shouldn’t chew during the test itself- you should chew immediately beforehand (post-banana). The temporary increase of blood to the brain should give you about a twenty minute window for slightly-increased awesomeness. 5. Dress for success. MYTH: You have not slept. You have not showered. You still have those funky lines you get from reading too long stamped across your vision. And yet you saunter/stumble into your final wearing your best khakis and your favorite button-down, nary a wrinkle in sight. Your wardrobe says it all: you shall triumph. In more of a Bill-Gates-businessman than a Russell-Crowe-gladiator kind of way. REALITY: Fact. I’m not saying ditch your sweatpants (anyone who tries to take mine from me will have to pry them off my warm and cozy dead body). It depends on you. Wearing clothes with strong cultural associations affects your cognition. Students who were asked to test wearing a lab coat they thought belonged to a doctor performed better than those who thought their identical borrowed coat belonged to an artist. Crazy.

Marlene Dietrich Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Marlene Dietrich - Essay Example She was able to cultivate an image that people easily identify as her persona and, most importantly, an image that created a need based on the desires of the audience. Through the manner by which her image was carefully defined, scripted and invented, Dietrich was able to hold onto the material and spiritual power which allowed her image to exemplify â€Å"society producing the impasse into which it casts its members on the level of the libido as much as on the level of economics: the desire for what cannot be avoided without a radical rupture with the world that has formed us.† Consider how some critics point out that the success of The Blue Angel was not because of an excellent storyline or the genius of neither its director, Josef von Sternberg nor its sexual context. If one says that the film succeeded because of Lola’s legs, then those that featured the same theme with different actresses exploiting equally excellent thighs could have been as effective. But that is not the case. With the film, men were given an object of desire that is mostly according to what Dietrich had to give. Lola’s legs and her character did not merely become the foundation of the Dietrich image that movie audience carried in their heads. It was Dietrich’s acumen and sense of what she wanted and how she wanted to be seen and perceived that made the difference. As she made her films, Dietrich learned how to best represent herself, highlight her assets or make an aspect of persona prominent.... Lola’s legs and her character did not merely become the foundation of the Dietrich image that movie audience carried in their heads. It was Dietrich’s acumen and sense of what she wanted and how she wanted to be seen and perceived that made the difference. As she made her films, Dietrich learned how to best represent herself, highlight her assets or make an aspect of persona prominent. This is demonstrated, for instance, in the invention of the so-called â€Å"Dietrich face.† In the earlier photographs of Dietrich, her upturned nose is quite obvious. As a matter of fact, this minor flaw has earned her the moniker "Ducknose" because it is stuck up like those of the duck’s.3 Critics were particularly focused in this aspect during Dietrich early career that is why she learned how to work around it. Later photographs would no longer show this weakness prompting some sectors to say she underwent facial surgery. This, of course, was not true because it was Dietr ich herself who discovered how she could address the problem. Bach explained this in detail: She found it in an automatic photo booth in Berlin, the kind that prints out cheap photograph on strips. She stepped into one to pose, actively searching for a look, and discovered that with a single overhead lamp, her hair went light, she had cheekbones, her pale blue eyes went dark, the upturned nose became straight. There would be sophisticated refinements of makeup and technique, but now the difficulty was getting cameramen to light her her way.4 One can say that Dietrich became a technician in this way. She would go against directions if the lighting is against her wishes. This â€Å"stubbornness† actually paid off. Besides appearing more pleasing, the

Business Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Business - Assignment Example In the model, when the expected returns do not meet the expected returns, then the investment should not be undertaken. For this reason, Capital Asset Price Model focuses on price and investment. Arbitrage Pricing Theory is a model that bases its idea that returns of an asset can be predicted using the relationship that exist between the asset and the common risk factors. This theory also defines the price where an asset that is not well priced is likely to be. The model is always viewed as a substitute to the capital asset pricing classical. For this reason, Arbitrage Pricing Theory is a model that has more elastic assumption requirement (Hodrick, Ng and Song Mueller, 76). Multi-Factor Model of Risk and Return is a financial model based on multiple factors. The multiple factors occur during its computation when explaining the market phenomenon and equilibrium’s asset prices. The factor can be used in explaining either an individual securities or a portfolio of securities. The model achieves such objective by comparing two or more factors in analyzing relationship between variables and the resulting performance of the securities. Capital Asset Price Model is a model that describes the relationship that occurs between the expected returns and the risks that are involved. On the other hand, Arbitrage Pricing Theory is a model that which is based on the idea that returns of an asset can be predicted using the relationship that exist between the asset and the common risk factors. The multi-factor model is based on multiple factors during its computation when explaining market phenomenon and equilibrium asset prices. This is an international bond that is issued in a foreign country whose value is stated in their respective currency. Eurobonds are issued by international organization and categories according to the currency in

IDEAL ACOUSTIC AND INTERIOR DESIGN FOR A JAZZ CLUB Essay

IDEAL ACOUSTIC AND INTERIOR DESIGN FOR A JAZZ CLUB - Essay Example Very often the when dealing with small, closed places, such as a club, there are a few vital aspects that need to be taken into consideration. One such aspect is reverberation. It is the residual sound that remains after the source of sound, or music in this context, is stopped. This occurs due to the presence of highly reflective surfaces such as hard walls and wooden floors. When more such surfaces are present, the reverberation time, i.e. the time duration for which the sound is sustained after the source is turned off, increases. This can cause disastrous effects by increasing the overall noise level. A similar problem is the reflection of sound. This can be very annoying to a listener due to an effect described as the ‘microphone effect’ (â€Å"Education: Acoustics 101†). This is a problem caused due to peaked roofs and reflective corners. Both these problems can be countered by the use of absorptive materials. When the word â€Å"absorptive† is used c ommon materials that come to mind are carpets and wall hangings. While usage of a carpet is a good idea, it will in no way be sufficient to overcome the ill effects of reflection and reverberation. As mentioned before the peaked or domed ceiling should the dealt with. Also if the back walls are flat or, worse, concave they can contribute to the slapping back of the sound to the performer(s) on the stage. Adding absorptive materials to the ceilings and acoustic wall paneling to the back walls can effectively reduce the above mentioned problems (â€Å"Project remedies†). Adding absorptive material, preferably black, to the stage back wall and also sometimes the side walls, is in some cases a very effective measure to obtain same reverberation times both on the stage and the rest of the room. A factor not be overlooked is the audience itself. The audience themselves contribute to the absorption factor. The space is less absorptive without the audience, so care must be taken to m aintain consistency in

Dominos Pizza Is A Food Industry Commerce Essay

Dominos Pizza Is A Food Industry Commerce Essay Dominos Pizza is a food industry and this is a universal  pizza supply  organization. Its headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. This organization Established in 10 June 1960, in Ypsilanti, Michigan by the two brothers Tom Monaghanand J. Patrick Doyle. It is the second-largest pizza manacle in the United States after the pizza hut. It has more than 9,700 community and authorized stores  in 70 countries and all 50 U.S. states. There is near to 145,000 workers working in this pizzas stores all over world. The menu types equally veggie and meat pizzas, chicken wings and boneless chicken, snacks, pasta, stuffed cheesy breads and a range of dessert stuffs, containing cinnamon sticks and brown lava cubes and a range of soft juices, including Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite. (en.wikipedia.org, 2012) I am making this assessment on Onehunga (nz) Dominos. 1-14 waipaulane, Onehunga. New Zealand Phone:  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  0210601627 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ORGANISATION STRUCTURE AND COMMUNICATION CHANNELS. In this dominos pizza organization they have flat organization structure. There are 14 workers working under the store manager. Store manager handle the all staff. The massage goes throw the hierarchy system top to bottom and bottom to top level. In this report I am writing about the organization structure and its communication channels how they communicate with each other. Lines of communication are very formal in this organization its top to bottom and bottom to top in the organization. WORK TEAMS AND GROUP DYNAMICS. In this dominos pizza organization they have very good work team and their group dynamics are very nice. All the staffs do work as a family and try to give their best performance for the company by their communication skills. In this dominos they have hierarchy type of structure in their organization. In this report I am going to write about the work team of the organization and group dynamics. Their team is formed in hierarchy structure like their head office then all franchise then each franchise had one store manager then two manager then crew staff in crew staff they have drivers, customer services representative, pizza cutter and pizza make. Franchise led by head office and store manager and manager are led and managed by franchise and rest of staff are lead and managed by managers. STAKEHOLDER COMMUNICATION. In this company their communication with their stakeholder is awesome. Because they do not have any barrier between their communication. They talk to their stakeholders directly. In this report I will describe how they communicate with their stakeholders and which communication channel they use. The stake holders of the company are Bidvest who provide them all pizza food stuff, pre-produce who provide them all vegetable products, steam-line who provide them all type of papers like epitome rolling paper. ORGANISATION CULTURE, INTERCULTURE COMMUNICATION, ETHICAL AND LEGAL ISSUES. In new Zealand there is different is different cultural people living. In a multicultural country like New Zealand which is home for many different cultures communication have been a challenge for organisations. In this organization there are also many types of person work who belongs to the different cultures. In this report I will describe how they impact on the industry. The store has clear and well-communicated goals, their vision number one in pizza number one in people and mission is sell more pizza, have more fun. All team members take their responsibilities to achieve their mission and vision. COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES AND TOOLS. In this company they have a fabulous communication technologies and tools. Which help them to improve the communication skills and trained their staff as well. On other hand they up to date their staff by these technologies. In this report I will explain how the technologies help them to improve their business and trained their staff. The technologies they are using in their business, computer and internet used in store, they have their own server and printing and scanners, all technologies are up to date, they received online order and also now people can use android application on phone to put the orders. FINDINGS. I got the all information about this organization from the manager of the company. This is my primary source of information no secondary source of information in these findings. ORGANISATION STRUCTURE COMMUNICATION CHANNELS. The manager told me that they have top to bottom structure in this company. And message goes throw the top to bottom and bottom to top step by step. The lines of reporting are quite straight forward in this organization. Figure MESSAGE MESSAGE TOP LEVEL MESSAGE MIDDLE LEVEL MESSAGE BOTTOM LEVEL He told me that in the organization all staff members understand the importance of their communication roles. He told me that at the top level they have their head office they send them all the new policies of dominos and then franchise review the polices and discus with manager then he explain and discuss information with his bottom level staff. So it goes step by step at different level. They have very effective and beneficial opportunities for top- down and down-up communication, like their head office call them for special pizza classes and their crew staff give the suggestion how they can do more cleaning and manage the store. They do face to face communication emails and send text massage to inform their staff. He told me that there is grapevine going in their store but it is positive they discuss how they can increase the sales and how they can more effectively manage the store. WORK TEAMS AND GROUP DYNAMICS. He told me that in this company they have very nice formed team, who do work together as family. He gave me the information about their team structure that our team is formed in hierarchy structure like our head office, then all franchise then each franchise had one store manager then two manager then crew staff in crew staff we have drivers, customer services representative , pizza cutter and pizza maker. Franchise led by head office and store manager and manager are led and managed by franchise and rest of staff are lead and managed by managers. He told me that they all do work as strong team to ensure productive team performance. They do work as a team so they can get their mission and vision to sale maximum pizzas in the world. When I asked the manager about the initiates all allocates task to staff then manager told me that he initiates all allocates task to staff like who will make the pizza, who will be cutter, staff members are maintain their task which is assigned by manager s. Team output is measured at the end of shift like we make our customer happy with our service we provide pizza on time etc. when I asked him about the how team work well in the practice? Are positive team dynamics evident? Then he told me that we have trained staff so we will do effective efficient and well work in real practice. So they can provide a good service to the customer. I asked him if team does the good work or give the good performance for the company is he or she rewarded then he gave the answer Yes, we declare month of the employee and give him/her 20 dollar voucher as e rewarded. So they can motivate for the company and can do better next time for the company. STAKEHOLDER COMMUNICATION. Manager gave me the information about the stakeholder communication that they communicate with the stakeholder very easily. He told me that they communicate with suppliers who supply them pizzas stuff and other things via emails and via phone calls. They order them email then they do not need urgent things but when they need some stuff urgently then they communicate with them on phones so they can provide the things as soon as possible. When I asked them who are the stakeholders of your company then he told me that customer, suppliers, employees etc. are the stakeholder of their company. Then I asked him that who is the suppliers of your company? Who provide you food stuff? Then he gave me the answer that Bidvest who provide us all pizza food stuff, Pre-produce who provide us all vegetable products, Steam-line who provide us all type of papers like epitomes rolling paper. These are the supplier of the dominos pizza. After that I asked them that how effective is this communication in practice? How do people outside the organisation perceive it? Then gave the answer that Emails or internet communication is very effective communication in practice because in single second they received our request and also give us response. People outside the organisation perceive positive communication. ORGNISATION CULTURE, INTERCULTURAL CMMUNICATION, ETHICAL AND LEGAL ISSUES. Manager told me that organization culture employee obligations are very clear in the organization. The  purpose  of an  organization  is to achieve the goals and objectives as indicated within the  organizations  vision statement. To provide the good customer service is our main purpose and to win hearts by serving delicious Pizzas. When I asked him that does the organization have clear and well-communicated goals? Then he said to me that Yes our store has clear and well-communicated goals. All staff members are trained and they know that how to deal with customers and how to handle the any situation because they all are experienced persons. After that I asked him that what is the vision and mission of your organization. Then he gave me the answer that our vision is that our pizza will number one in people and our mission is sell more and more pizzas how many we can sell and have more fun during the work with each other mean enjoy the work so they can do their work good and easily. He told me that all members of the organization take their responsibilities to achieve our mission and vision. The managers of the organization are well qualified and trained and experienced real leader, they understand leadership and knows what leadership is. He gave me the information about the rules and regulations which are govern this organizations business activities. He said to me that different laws and regulations are governed in dominos pizza. I asked him about the How are issues of privacy, defamation and copyright handled? And he gave me the answer that we do not share personal information of our staff with other organisation and told me that all our staff is well aware of legal responsibilities. They all know about the rules and regulations which are governed in this organization. COMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES TOOLS. I collect the information from the interview that in this organization they use the technology and tool for the good communication. Computer and internet used in store, they have their own server and printing and scanner, all technology are up to date, they received online order and also told me that now people can use android application on phone to put the orders. They also use the technologies in staff training they have online training site where their head office put all the training stuff and they do it online and put it in real practice. Staffs are already trained in communication and other key procedures. All staff has clear guideline for internal and external communication, they put information on their web site and send the email to their staff and in the store they put information on the notice board so the staff can know about their guideline for the both type of factors. I asked him how the organization manages its own information base its core data. Is it secure? Then he gave me the answer that we managed our data in our computer database which is very secure because our information technology department take care of it. Conclusions. In this report in the conclusion I am using primary and secondary both resources. ORGANISATION STRUCTURE COMMUNICATION CHANNELS. In this organization they are using the flat organization structure, which is showing down:- Figure Organization chart is like this in this organization. HEAD OFFICE Franchise Franchise Franchise STORE MANAGER STORE MANAGER STORE MANAGER MANAGER MANAGER MANAGER MANAGER MANAGER MANAGER STAFF CREW STAFF STAFF CREW STAFF STAFF CREW STAFF In this organization they have a flat organization structure. According to the manager they communicate with each other top to bottom and bottom to top. This structure is very good structure for a small business. The advantages of this structure are like that first of all this is very cheap for the company because in this structure they have not more managers thats why they have to pay less to the managers because they have not many managers. It makes less intensities of organisation.  For example:- LOWER LEVEL MIDDEL LEVEL TOP LEVELFigure In this organization they can do work and take resolutions of any problem easily and rapidly because there is less stages of supervisions. Thirdly wild and strong communiquà © is probable amongst these rare stages of controlling. This structure has many disadvantages as well. Like in this structure there is less manager but has lots of staff thats why manager can lose monitoring over the staff. Secondly the self-restraint in the group may be corrupt due to miss resistor. Thirdly the relationships amongst the bosses and assistants may be ruthless. Local and familiar relationships may not be conceivable. (Akrani, 2011). In this organization they have good staff so they have not any this type of problem with the staff. So this structure is good for this company. WORK TEAMS GROUP DYNAMICS. Communication is the silver lining of team formation and conflict management in any organisation. Effective team work is essential for the achievement of the organisations goals and objectives. If there will be effective communication amongst the team members there will be honesty, integrity and openness which increases the competency of the team members. The result is that their productivity increases which in turn increases the productivity of the organisation. Effective communication plays an important role in a team formation. If there is effective communication in the team the members co-operate, collaborate, cohesive and are committed to the team. Thus, developing and promoting team communication is important in the company. The management should develop strategies aimed at building team communication which ultimately will increase the productivity of the organisation. Team conflict is team members awareness of discrepancies, incompatible wishes which they perceive are irreconcilable (Bowditch, 2008).In this company they are following the hierarchical communication structure. It has many advantages like all the staff know that to whom they have to report about his or her work. Thats why there is no problem create in the communication between the staff because all know about their own work. Bigger groups must achieve a diversity of responsibilities, reaching from social incomes and office to promotion and buying. The ordered organization splits these parts of anxiety into several division conformations that concentrate. Concentration tolerates administrations to focus on certain ability collections and capitals to attain extreme productivity. On the other hand it has lots of disadvantages like ordered organizations have a habit of familiarize gradually to altering wishes. Administrative groups, for sample, regularly arise below passion for keeping f ilms of bureaucracy that prevent variation. Groups that cannot adjust to new marketplace anxieties or progressing machineries in stride with or onward of other groups frequently finish up relegated. This problematic interrupts sufficient societies that a whole pitch of education, named modification administration, has settled. The other disadvantage is that the achievement of an association often rest on the superiority of interior message within it. As categorized structural have a habit of network announcement straight up, interdepartmental or inter-agency announcement hurts. Departmental speciality can top to communiquà © obstacles when no common mumbo jumbo happens that tolerates followers of altered sections to connect on the similar side by side. In worst-case situations, branches resolutely refuse info from every one. (www.ehow.com, 2012). In this organization these kinds of problems can be created in the communication. This structure is a good structure but as well as harmful structure for the company. STAKEHOLDER COMMUNICATION. It is rightly said that it takes years to build a good reputation and seconds to ruin it (Suzanne McDonald). In this organization they are using the emails and phone calls to communicate with the stakeholders like with the supplier they send them the order list via emails some time they call them in the urgent order and with the customer they attend the call of their customer and take the order what they want to eat and get the online orders from their customer as well. This is the technologies which they are using in their business this is good but it has some disadvantages as well. For example advantages are emails are very low-priced and wild way for the organization for send the orders to the suppliers but disadvantage is some time the suppliers got too many emails from the different-different clients thats why they can-not read the emails on time, if you need the order quickly it got delay so which can harmful for the business (www.time-management-success.com, 2012). But they have very good communication with their customer and suppliers. They ask feedback to customers about their services and the quality of pizzas because if there have any problem or complaint, so they can deal with it and solve it as soon as possible. They also give to customers a large variety of different pizzas according to their needs and home delivery. They greet the customer with smile. They provide them good service, good quality pizzas. Different parts of stores are located in different parts of the city there is only one owner, but each part of the store is being assigned a manage r. To communicate with them they use different type of method like verbal method as there is a meeting in each weekend in which all the employees (part time or full time) are participated and all the managers get together and discuss about the various promotions so that they can satisfy the need of the customers. Feedback is one of the most important part which they use to communicate with the customers if they have any opinion about anything they use a blog so that they can tell them about the various things and on the same blog they can use it as to promote different types of pizzas. They communicate with each other via texting and via call during their work. They can talk with the customer so they can get the ideas of the customer so they can increase sales of their store. ORGANISATION CULTURE, INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION, ETHICAL AND LEGAL ISSUES. Jawaharlal Nehru on one of his visits to America said If we seek to understand a person, we have to try to put ourselves, as far as we can, in that particular historical and cultural background.It is not easy for a person of one country to enter into the background of another country (Adler, 2008). All business processes involves communication at all levels of the organisation. In a multicultural country like New Zealand which is home for many different cultures communication have been a challenge for organisations. In this organization there is many workers are working right now from different cultures which include Maoris, Asians, Middle Eastern, South Africans, Kiwis and many more ethnic communities. All of them share different cultural values and beliefs. For this the managers have to first know what they dont know and attempt to understand their employees from different cultures. There have been many instances in the company when most of the employees face language barriers. This is so because of the difference in the English language accent of the employees and the clients. So it creates the problems in the organization but they give the training to the staff so they have not any communication problem with the staff, with the customer and with the suppliers. They all have their clear and well-communicated goals, they have the vision that they want to become number one pizza in the world and around the people. They have the mission to sell maximum pizza how much they can. In the end of this part I want to say that there are many berries in the communication but they have well educated staff and well educated leaders who knows about the leadership they can handle the situation e asily. They do work together as family so they help each other if they have any problem with the communication. COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES AND TOOLS. All occupation and its several constituents include knowledge and appreciative in edict to whole its duties on an everyday source (Cohn, 2000). Communication technologies and tools are that which technologies use in the organization to improve the business and to communicate with the employees, customers, suppliers etc. They are using the technologies computers, internet, phones etc. Computer and internet used in store, they have their own server and printing and scanner, all technology are up to date, they received online order and also now people are using android application on phone to put the orders. They are using the technology to giving the training to the staff for example they have their own web site where the candidate can get the training their head office put the stuff on the site for up to date to the candidate so they can be up to date. They give the orders to their suppliers via emails and via phone these technologies they are using in the company. These technologies helping them to improve their business and to achieve their mission and vision too. If they have any information which is very necessary to know for the staff then vie emails they send them that information. In this organization they are mostly use internet which is very cheap way for contact with anybody and some time they use phones in emergencies. RECOMMENDATIONS. ORGANISATION STRUCTURE COMMUNICATION CHANNELS. Based from observation and secondary interview, lack of parking space will result to less customers and limited time for them to stay at the store to eat. More parking is recommended to make their customer stay larger and learn more about how the organization works and communicate. Interaction with the staff will encourage them to go back on a regular customer. WORK TEAMS GROUP DYNAMICS. I observed that the company is using a formal way of communication, this is effective in their daily operation, let there must be an outlet for them outside work to relax such as having picnic, coffee, company outing etc. This will enhance them from stress and work related problems. This also promotes teamwork and group dynamics. STAKEHOLDER COMMUNICATION. The management should be more open with the customer feedback and competitions strategy. Talking with them openly will make them gather data that can help them for improvement. Whether a goods, product services or facility reconstruction. Communication will be the key for them to succeed in their operations. ORGANISATION CULTURE, INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION, ETHICAL AND LEGAL ISSUES. Less space at dining area will minimise their stay and wont attract family members. Adding and arranging the set up will promote healthy environment open to any age group. Having family members in the store will give them time to share their culture. Employees will likewise improve their customer service. Manager can monitor their ethical conduct by observing how the staff in tract with the customers. . COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES AND TOOLS. They should have weekly meeting about the improvement for the store. This will let them share their ideas and information to the employees. Use of memo through online will also be an option for the management. VALUE TO ORGANIZATION. The findings about the organization structure communication channels, teamwork and group dynamics, stakeholder communication, organization culture and technologies and tools will help the company identity what improvements they need to do this research will give the management an idea and relevant information about where they stand and have a focus on how to improve their communication skills, get themselves updated on what is going on to the market and by doing these changes that the researcher (ME) recommended, more customer will be attract to go the store, resulting to great profit for the company.

Essay --

My Family Case Study will examine the ‘Nguyen’ family and their current struggle with family finances. I will present the family, their history, and their response to the challenge of dealing with the crisis related to the family finances. I will present the family situation when they were in Vietnam first. In Vietnam, they bought the house and they didn’t have to pay any tax or fee. They were considered as a middle class well-living family in Vietnam. They got their own business over there. Their income per month were enough for them for a good living life. Only the father worked and the mother stayed home and took care the kids. One day they received a letter from the United State Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) said that they got approved to go to America. They got stressful since they got the letter. At that time, they were unsure whether or not to go to the U.S.A or stay back in Vietnam. It was a difficult decision for them because if they went to the U.S.A they had to give up their business which they had built up since they got married. Time went by, they determined to leave everything behind and went to the U.S.A for their kids’ future because they believed that America has a bes t educational system in the world. Until they came to America three years ago, their life had a big changed. Mr.Nguyen was a 45 years old man. He is married to Mrs. Nguyen who was a 40 years old. They were married 16 years ago in Vietnam. They had two children. One named Peter age 5 who was in pre-school and the other one named Mike age 9 who was in intermediate school. One month after they came to the U.S.A, they found a job and got pay minimum wage around 8 dollars per hour. The family lived in an apartment which 2 bedroom. ... ...getting a bad day at work, and feel like he couldn’t make more money to support his family well enough. He sometimes wants to buy electronic things, food, candy, new clothes etc†¦ for his wife and his children but he cannot afford it so whenever the fight starting between him and her, he cannot control all the stress and anxious in his mind and fight back at her even though he doesn’t want to. Mrs. Nguyen wants to help her husband coping with all the stress he has, so she gets some guidelines from the family therapist. Mrs. Nguyen want Mr. Nguyen to spend time with his family on the weekend and not going for a part time job. They will spend their time with their children and planning to have a family vacation, doing activities together or having dinner together in order to maintain a good relationship and not letting financial be a stressful problem in their family.

Vampire Academy Chapter 15

FIFTEEN MASON DELIVERED. He found me the next day before school. He was carrying a box of books. â€Å"I got them,† he said. â€Å"Hurry and take them before you get in trouble for talking to me.† He handed them over, and I grunted. They were heavy. â€Å"Christian gave you these?† â€Å"Yeah. Managed to talk to him without anyone noticing. He's got kind of an attitude, did you ever notice that?† â€Å"Yeah, I noticed.† I rewarded Mason with a smile that he ate up. â€Å"Thanks. This means a lot.† I hauled the loot up to my room, fully aware of how weird it was that someone who hated to study as much as I did was about to get buried in dusty crap from the fourteenth century. When I opened the first book, though, I saw that these must be reprints of reprints of reprints, probably because anything that old would have long since fallen apart. Sifting through the books, I discovered they fell into three categories: books written by people after St. Vladimir had died, books written by other people when he was still alive, and one diary of sorts written by him. What had Mason said about primary and secondary sources? Those last two groups were the ones I wanted. Whoever had reprinted these had reworded the books enough so that I didn't have to read Ye Olde English or anything. Or rather, Russian, I supposed. St. Vladimir had lived in the old country. Today I healed the mother of Sava who has long since suffered from sharp pains within her stomach. Her malady is now gone, but God has not allowed me to do such a thing lightly. I am weak and dizzy, and the madness is trying to leak into my head. I thank God every day for shadow-kissed Anna, for without her, I would surely not be able to endure. Anna again. And â€Å"shadow-kissed.† He talked about her a lot, among other things. Most of the time he wrote long sermons, just like what I'd hear in church. Super boring. But other times, the book read just like a diary, recapping what he did each day. And if it really wasn't just a load of crap, he healed all the time. Sick people. Injured people. Even plants. He brought dead crops back to life when people were starving. Sometimes he would make flowers bloom just for the hell of it. Reading on, I found out that it was a good thing old Vlad had Anna around, because he was pretty messed up. The more he used his powers, the more they started to get to him. He'd get irrationally angry and sad. He blamed it on demons and stupid stuff like that, but it was obvious he suffered from depression. Once, he admitted in his diary, he tried to kill himself. Anna stopped him. Later, browsing through the book written by the guy who knew Vladimir, I read: And many think it miraculous too, the power the blessed Vladimir shows over others. Moroi and dhampirs flock to him and listen to his words, happy just to be near him. Some say it is madness that touches him and not spirit, but most adore him and would do anything he asked. Such is the way God marks his favorites, and if such moments are followed by hallucinations and despair, it is a small sacrifice for the amount of good and leadership he can show among the people. It sounded a lot like what the priest had said, but I sensed more than just a â€Å"winning personality† People adored him, would do anything he asked. Yes, Vladimir had used compulsion on his followers, I was certain. A lot of Moroi had in those days, before it was banned, but they didn't use it on Moroi or dhampirs. They couldn't. Only Lissa could. I shut the book and leaned back against my bed. Vladimir healed plants and animals. He could use compulsion on a massive scale. And by all accounts, using those sorts of powers had made him crazy and depressed. Added into it all, making it that much weirder was that everyone kept describing his guardian as â€Å"shadow-kissed.† That expression had bugged me ever since I first heard it†¦ â€Å"You're shadow-kissed! You have to take care of her!† Ms. Karp had shouted those words at me, her hands clenching my shirt and jerking me toward her. It had happened on a night two years ago when I'd been inside the main part of the upper school to return a book. It was nearly past curfew, and the halls were empty. I'd heard a loud commotion, and then Ms. Karp had come tearing around the corner, looking frantic and wild-eyed. She shoved me into a wall, still gripping me. â€Å"Do you understand?† I knew enough self-defense that I could have probably pushed her away, but my shock kept me frozen. â€Å"No.† â€Å"They're coming for me. They'll come for her.† â€Å"Who?† â€Å"Lissa. You have to protect her. The more she uses it, the worse it'll get. Stop her, Rose. Stop her before they notice, before they notice and take her away too. Get her out of here.† â€Å"I†¦what do you mean? Get her out of†¦you mean the Academy?† â€Å"Yes! You have to leave. You're bound. It's up to you. Take her away from this place.† Her words were crazy. No one left the Academy. Yet as she held me there and stared into my eyes, I began to feel strange. A fuzzy feeling clouded my mind. What she said suddenly sounded very reasonable, like the most reasonable thing in the world. Yes. I needed to take Lissa away, take her – Feet pounded in the hallway, and a group of guardians rounded the corner. I didn't recognize them; they weren't from the school. They pried her off of me, restraining her wild thrashing. Someone asked me if I was okay, but I could only keep staring at Ms. Karp. â€Å"Don't let her use the power!† she screamed. â€Å"Save her. Save her from herself!† The guardians had later explained to me that she wasn't well and had been taken to a place where she could recover. She would be safe and cared for, they assured me. She would recover. Only she hadn't. Back in the present, I stared at the books and tried to put it all together. Lissa. Ms. Karp. St. Vladimir. What was I supposed to do? Someone rapped at my door, and I jerked out of my memories. No one had visited me, not even staff, since my suspension. When I opened the door, I saw Mason in the hall. â€Å"Twice in one day?† I asked. â€Å"And how'd you even get up here?† He flashed his easy smile. â€Å"Someone put a lit match in one of the bathroom's garbage cans. Damn shame. The staff's kind of busy. Come on, I'm springing you.† I shook my head. Setting fires was apparently a new sign of affection. Christian had done it and now Mason. â€Å"Sorry, no saving me tonight. If I get caught – â€Å" â€Å"Lissa's orders.† I shut up and let him smuggle me out of the building. He took me over to the Moroi dorm and miraculously got me in and up to her room unseen. I wondered if there was a distracting bathroom fire in this building too. Inside her room, I found a party in full swing. Lissa, Camille, Carly, Aaron, and a few other royals sat around laughing, listening to loud music, and passing around bottles of whiskey. No Mia, no Jesse. Natalie, I noticed a few moments later, sat apart from the group, clearly unsure how to act around all of them. Her awkwardness was totally obvious. Lissa stumbled to her feet, the fuzzy feelings in our bond indicating she'd been drinking for a while. â€Å"Rose!† She turned to Mason with a dazzling smile. â€Å"You delivered.† He swept her an over-the-top bow. â€Å"I'm at your command.† I hoped he'd done it for the thrill of it and not because of any compulsion. Lissa slung an arm around my waist and pulled me down with the others. â€Å"Join the festivities.† â€Å"What are we celebrating?† â€Å"I don't know. Your escape tonight?† A few of the others held up plastic cups, cheering and toasting me. Xander Badica poured two more cups, handing them to Mason and me. I took mine with a smile, all the while feeling uneasy about the night's turn of events. Not so long ago, I would have welcomed a party like this and would have downed my drink in thirty seconds. Too much bothered me this time, though. Like the fact that the royals were treating Lissa like a goddess. Like how none of them seemed to remember that I had been accused of being a blood whore. Like how Lissa was completely unhappy despite her smiles and laughter. â€Å"Where'd you get the whiskey?† I asked. â€Å"Mr. Nagy,† Aaron said. He sat very close to Lissa. Everyone knew Mr. Nagy drank all the time after school and kept a stash on campus. He continually used new hiding places – and students continually found them. Lissa leaned against Aaron's shoulder. â€Å"Aaron helped me break into his room and take them. He had them hidden in the bottom of the paint closet.† The others laughed, and Aaron gazed at her with complete and utter worship. Amusingly, I realized she hadn't had to use any compulsion on him. He was just that crazy for her. He always had been. â€Å"Why aren't you drinking?† Mason asked me a little while later, speaking quietly into my ear. I glanced down at my cup, half surprised to see it full. â€Å"I don't know. I guess I don't think guardians should drink around their charges.† â€Å"She's not your charge yet! You aren't on duty. You won't be for a long time. Since when did you get so responsible?† I didn't really think I was all that responsible. But I was thinking about what Dimitri had said about balancing fun and obligation. It just seemed wrong to let myself go wild when Lissa was in such a vulnerable state lately. Wiggling out of my tight spot between her and Mason, I walked over and sat beside Natalie. â€Å"Hey Nat, you're quiet tonight.† She held a cup as full as mine. â€Å"So are you.† I laughed softly. â€Å"I guess so.† She tilted her head, watching Mason and the royals like they were some sort of science experiment. They'd consumed a lot more whiskey since I'd arrived, and the silliness had shot up considerably. â€Å"Weird, huh? You used to be the center of attention. Now she is.† I blinked in surprise. I hadn't considered it like that. â€Å"I guess so.† â€Å"Hey, Rose,† said Xander, nearly spilling his drink as he walked over to me. â€Å"What was it like?† â€Å"What was what like?† â€Å"Letting someone feed off you?† The others fell quiet, a sort of anticipation settling over them. â€Å"She didn't do that,† said Lissa in a warning voice. â€Å"I told you.† â€Å"Yeah, yeah, I know nothing happened with Jesse and Ralf. But you guys did it, right? While you were gone?† â€Å"Let it go,† said Lissa. Compulsion worked best with direct eye contact, and his attention was focused on me, not her. â€Å"I mean, it's cool and everything. You guys did what you had to do, right? It's not like you're a feeder. I just want to know what it was like. Danielle Szelsky let me bite her once. She said it didn't feel like anything.† There was a collective â€Å"ew† from among the girls. Sex and blood with dhampirs was dirty; between Moroi, it was cannibalistic. â€Å"You are such a liar,† said Camille. â€Å"No, I'm serious. It was just a small bite. She didn't get high like the feeders. Did you?† He put his free arm around my shoulder. â€Å"Did you like it?† Lissa's face went still and pale. Alcohol muted the full force of her feelings, but I could read enough to know how she felt. Dark, scared thoughts trickled into me – underscored with anger. She usually had a good grip on her temper – unlike me – but I'd seen it flare up before. Once it had happened at a party very similar to this one, just a few weeks after Ms. Karp had been taken away. Greg Dashkov – a distant cousin of Natalie's – had held the party in his room. His parents apparently knew someone who knew someone, because he had one of the biggest rooms in the dorm. He'd been friends with Lissa's brother before the accident and had been more than happy to take Andre's little sister into his social fold. Greg had also been happy to take me in, and the two of us had been all over each other that night. For a sophomore like me, being with a royal Moroi senior was a huge rush. I drank a lot that night but still managed to keep an eye on Lissa. She always wore an edge of anxiety around this many people, but no one really noticed, because she could interact with them so well. My heavy buzz kept a lot of her feelings from me, but as long as she looked okay, I didn't worry. Mid-kiss, Greg suddenly broke away and looked at something over my shoulder. We both sat in the same chair, with me on his lap, and I craned my neck to see. â€Å"What is it?† He shook his head with a sort of amused exasperation. â€Å"Wade brought a feeder.† I followed his gaze to where Wade Voda stood with his arm around a frail girl about my age. She was human and pretty, with wavy blond hair and porcelain skin pale from so much blood loss. A few other guys had homed on her and stood with Wade, laughing and touching her face and hair. â€Å"She's already fed too much today,† I said, observing her coloring and complete look of confusion. Greg slid his hand behind my neck and turned me back to him. â€Å"They won't hurt her.† We kissed a while longer and then I felt a tap on my shoulder. â€Å"Rose.† I looked up into Lissa's face. Her anxious expression startled me because I couldn't feel the emotions behind it. Too much beer for me. I climbed off of Greg's lap. â€Å"Where are you going?† he asked. â€Å"Be right back.† I pulled Lissa aside, suddenly wishing I was sober. â€Å"What's wrong?† â€Å"Them.† She nodded toward the guys with the feeder girl. She still had a group around her, and when she shifted to look at one of them, I saw small red wounds scattered on her neck. They were doing a sort of group feeding, taking turns biting her and making gross suggestions. High and oblivious, she let them. â€Å"They can't do that,† Lissa told me. â€Å"She's a feeder. Nobody's going to stop them.† Lissa looked up at me with pleading eyes. Hurt, outrage, and anger filled them. â€Å"Will you?† I'd always been the aggressive one, looking after her ever since we were little. Seeing her there now, so upset and looking at me to fix things, was more than I could stand. Giving her a shaky nod, I stumbled over to the group. â€Å"You so desperate to get some that you've got to drug girls now, Wade?† I asked. He glanced up from where he'd been running his lips over the human girl's neck. â€Å"Why? Are you done with Greg and looking for more?† I put my hands on my hips and hoped I looked fierce. The truth was, I was actually starting to feel a little nauseous from all I'd drunk. â€Å"Aren't enough drugs in the world to get me near you,† I told him. A few of his friends laughed. â€Å"But maybe you can go make out with that lamp over there. It seems to be out of it enough to make even you happy. You don't need her anymore.† A few other people laughed. â€Å"This isn't any of your business,† he hissed. â€Å"She's just lunch.† Referring to feeders as meals was about the only thing worse than calling dhampirs blood whores. â€Å"This isn't a feeding room. Nobody wants to see this.† â€Å"Yeah,† agreed a senior girl. â€Å"It's gross.† A few of her friends agreed. Wade glared at all of us, me the hardest. â€Å"Fine. None of you have to see it. Come on.† He grabbed the feeder girl's arm and jerked her away. Clumsily, she stumbled along with him out of the room, making soft whimpering noises. â€Å"Best I could do,† I told Lissa. She stared at me, shocked. â€Å"He's just going to take her to his room. He'll do even worse things to her.† â€Å"Liss, I don't like it either, but it's not like I can go chase him down or anything.† I rubbed my forehead. â€Å"I could go punch him or something, but I feel like I'm going to throw up as it is.† Her face grew dark, and she bit her lip. â€Å"He can't do that.† â€Å"I'm sorry.† I returned to the chair with Greg, feeling a little bad about what had happened. I didn't want to see the feeder get taken advantage of anymore than Lissa did – it reminded me too much of what a lot of Moroi guys thought they cold do to dhampir girls. But I also couldn't win this battle, not tonight. Greg had shifted me around to get a better angle on my neck when I noticed Lissa was gone a few minutes later. Practically falling, I clambered off his lap and looked around. â€Å"Where's Lissa?† He reached for me. â€Å"Probably the bathroom.† I couldn't feel a thing through the bond. The alcohol had numbed it. Stepping out into the hallway, I breathed a sigh of relief at escaping the loud music and voices. It was quiet out here – except for a crashing sound a couple rooms down. The door was ajar, and I pushed my way inside. The feeder girl cowered in a corner, terrified. Lissa stood with arms crossed, her face angry and terrible. She was staring at Wade intently, and he stared back, enchanted. He also held a baseball bat, and it looked like he'd used it already, because the room was trashed: bookshelves, the stereo, the mirror†¦ â€Å"Break the window too,† Lissa told him smoothly. â€Å"Come on. It doesn't matter.† Hypnotized, he walked over to the large, tinted window. I stared, my mouth nearly hitting the floor, as he pulled back and slammed the bat into the glass. It shattered, sending shards everywhere and letting in the early morning light it normally kept blocked out. He winced as it shone in his eyes, but he didn't move away. â€Å"Lissa,† I exclaimed. â€Å"Stop it. Make him stop.† â€Å"He should have stopped earlier.† I barely recognized the look on her face. I'd never seen her so upset, and I'd certainly never seen her do anything like this. I knew what it was, of course. I knew right away. Compulsion. For all I knew, she was seconds away from having him turn the bat on himself. â€Å"Please, Lissa. Don't do it anymore. Please.† Through the fuzzy, alcoholic buzz, I felt a trickle of her emotions. They were strong enough to practically knock me over. Black. Angry. Merciless. Startling feelings to be coming from sweet and steady Lissa. I'd known her since kindergarten, but in that moment, I barely knew her. And I was afraid. â€Å"Please, Lissa,† I repeated. â€Å"He's not worth it. Let him go.† She didn't look at me. Her stormy eyes were focused entirely on Wade. Slowly carefully, he lifted up the bat, tilting it so that it lined up with his own skull. â€Å"Liss,† I begged. Oh God. I was going to have to tackle her or something to make her stop. â€Å"Don't do it.† â€Å"He should have stopped,† Lissa said evenly. The bat quit moving. It was now at exactly the right distance to gain momentum and strike. â€Å"He shouldn't have done that to her. People can't treat other people like that – even feeders.† â€Å"But you're scaring her,† I said softly. â€Å"Look at her.† Nothing happened at first, then Lissa let her gaze flick toward the feeder. The human girl still sat huddled in a corner, arms wrapped around herself protectively. Her blue eyes were enormous, and light reflected off her wet, tear-streaked face. She gave a choked, terrified sob. Lissa's face stayed impassive. Inside her, I could feel the battle she was waging for control. Some part of her didn't want to hurt Wade, despite the blinding anger that otherwise filled her. Her face crumpled, and she squeezed her eyes shut. Her right hand reached out to her left wrist and clenched it, nails digging deep into the flesh. She flinched at the pain, but through the bond, I felt the shock of the pain distract her from Wade. She let go of the compulsion, and he dropped the bat, suddenly looking confused. I let go of the breath I'd been holding. In the hallway, footsteps sounded. I'd left the door open, and the crash had attracted attention. A couple of dorm staff members burst into the room, freezing when they saw the destruction in front of them. â€Å"What happened?† The rest of us looked at each other. Wade looked completely lost. He stared at the room, at the bat, and then at Lissa and me. â€Å"I don't know†¦I can't†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He turned his full attention to me and suddenly grew angry. â€Å"What the – it was you! You wouldn't let the feeder thing go.† The dorm workers looked at me questioningly, and in a few seconds, I made up my mind. You have to protect her. The more she uses it, the worse it'll get. Stop her, Rose. Stop her before they notice, before they notice and take her away too. Get her out of here. I could see Ms. Karp's face in my mind, pleading frantically. I gave Wade a haughty look, knowing full well no one would question a confession I made or even suspect Lissa. â€Å"Yeah, well, if you'd let her go,† I told him, â€Å"I wouldn't have had to do this.† Save her. Save her from herself. After that night, I never drank again. I refused to let my guard down around Lissa. And two days later, while I was supposed to be suspended for â€Å"destruction of property,† I took Lissa and broke out of the Academy. Back in Lissa's room, with Xander's arm around me and her angry and upset eyes on us, I didn't know if she'd do anything drastic again. But the situation reminded me too much of that one from two years ago, and I knew I had to defuse it. â€Å"Just a little blood,† Xander was saying. â€Å"I won't take much. I just want to see what dhampir tastes like. Nobody here cares.† â€Å"Xander,† growled Lissa, â€Å"leave her alone.† I slipped out from under his arm and smiled, looking for a funny retort rather than one that might start a fight. â€Å"Come on,† I teased. â€Å"I had to hit the last guy who asked me that, and you're a hell of a lot prettier than Jesse. It'd be a waste.† â€Å"Pretty?† he asked. â€Å"I'm stunningly sexy but not pretty.† Carly laughed. â€Å"No, you're pretty. Todd told me you buy some kind of French hair gel.† Xander, distracted as so many drunk people easily are, turned around to defend his honor, forgetting me. The tension disappeared, and he took the teasing about his hair with a good attitude. Across the room, Lissa met my eyes with relief. She smiled and gave me a small nod of thanks before she returned her attention to Aaron.

My Firm’s Acquisition Essays

My Firm’s Acquisition Essays My Firm’s Acquisition Essay My Firm’s Acquisition Essay My Firm’s Acquisition Name: School: Course/Number: August 16, 2011 Instructor Name: My Firm’s Acquisition As the CEO of McCann Erickson, I am trying to acquire Ogilvy Mather advertising company, which is the same size with our company. With its acquisition, our firm is bound to become the biggest market leader in the advertising industry. Ogilvy Mather being a foreign international company in many countries around the world, we are sure to become the market leader through an acquisition in the whole world without competitors coming in close. Considering that both firms are ion the same industry, an acquisition would come in helpful in saving costs through economies of scale and a synergetic benefit as well as added expertise and diversity of services. However, considering that majority of acquisition and mergers do not go well and end up causing more problems than benefits, a close analysis will need to be conducted to come up with the best way to go about the acquisition. McCann Erickson is one of the biggest worldwide agencies that has specialized in traditional advertising and offers a wide range of marketing services through the McCann world group that coordinates several other companies such as Futurebrand and Weber. Our company has been in existence for around 8 decades and has had a vast experience in multinational services. The firm is based in the United States of America with its headquarters in New York City. The firm uses its local expertise together with its resources to build a reputation that makes it among the biggest agencies. Ogilvy on the other hand, is an international firm. Ogilvy Mather on the other hand, as mentioned earlier is an international company in the same industry in advertising, marketing and public relations. It was established around 948 in Britain as a simple service firm of few workers to become one of the leading advertising firms in the world today. The firm is currently based in Manhattan making it ideal for neg otiations of the acquisition since it is within United States. More so, the company has engaged in more diversified activities such as providing consulting services for clients and formulating strategies for its clients that they call cross-cultural marketing practice. Procedure Considering that most of the acquisitions fail, a procedure to ensure this does not happen will be required. Most of acquisitions fail due to the amount of acquiring the firm paid especially if it was too high and outdoes the benefit of the acquisitions. However, acquiring price is not the only problem causing failure of acquisition, but also other factors such as difference between the firm cultures and operation. In my acquisition of Ogilvy Mather, I would proceed using the following steps to ensure everything goes well to avoid failing in the future. The first strep would be establishing an acquisition team to undertake the acquisition procedures that will include all stakeholders (acquisition.gov, n.d.). The best thing to do is have a team to undertake the acquisition project that will contain professionals, as well as stakeholders to ensure they are aware and contribute to the process considering that know the profile of the firms well. This way, all the team members will focus on one goal of coming up with the best strategy. The team will be issued with specific duties per person and they will be empowered to carryout their roles effectively. In this team, the senior management from both firms would be involved since they are aware of the companies’ performances and the worth of the company. The second step would be describing any problem that may arise or needing to be solved. In this step the team should be focusing I on what the firms aim to solve or improve such as the problems with the firm to be acquired consideri ng that during acquisition the problem or issues are such as reducing costs, building expertise and solving the problems within the firm. The team should seek to define the desired outcomes from both firms at this stage, whether the acquisition can help meet the organizational goals, which in our case is becoming the biggest market leader and doubling our size of our firm. The third step would be examining the market sector, both private and public so that the team can know the possibilities or opportunities in the market place for the firm. This way, the team can be I a position to know what opportunities are available in the industry after the acquisition and whether the goals of the firm are achievable (acquisition.gov, n.d.). After this steps, the fourth step would be developing a performance-based acquisition that would involve conducting an analysis and formulating the objectives of the firm. Then an analysis of job would follow and then complete a performance statement for the company (acquisition.gov, n.d.). This way the team would have a draft of expected performance after the acquisition and implementation would be easier. The fifth step would be developing a way of measuring performance after developing the performance-based acquisition. This will come up with the strategy to follow in managing the performance of the firm after acquisition to achieve the desired and set out goals. This would involve selection of measure for judging the performance of the firm after acquisition to find out if there is any problem with the strategy used. The sixth step would be finding the right contractor for the work, one who will understand the performance-based acquisition set out by the team (acquisition.gov, n. d.). The contractor must know what the firm needs and possess the necessary requirements for executing the strategy. Collaborating with a good contractor will help solve some of the potential problems that arise after acquisition. The last step is putting the contractor as part of the acquisition team to work together. This last step involves allocating resources to the contractor and the team to execute the plan well that involves maintaining the team, restructuring the roles and assigning responsibilities for managing contract performance (acquisition.gov, n.d.). The contractor is supposed to ensure that all goes as planned by the team. Using these seven steps, the acquisition is bound to succeed and potential problems that cause failure will be dealt with easily after the acquisition is done. Institutional-based Issues Some of the institutional issues I am likely to encounter in the acquisition are the need to responding to constraints in the institutions and transitions after the acquisition. Most of companies at most times do not fit in most of the aspects, and such issues will arise, making a bit difficult to integrate easily (Peng, 2010). Such issues can be handled prior to acquisition to ensure that after acquisition, there will be no hard time integrating the systems of the companies together. The other issue is hard behavior ad norms that may be hard to kill to get a chance to acquire the firm such as hubristic managers and who may feel that their firm is worth more and may not feel they are better in some things and may want to remain in control (Peng, 2010). Resource-based Issues Resource –based issues are such as leveraging of the management capabilities of the two firms after acquisition that may be a little hard considering the size of the firms. Ogilvy Mather could be better in some certain management than we are while we could be better at other management places such as in traditional advertisement management. The other issue that could be encountered is integrating the resources such as cash and human resource to realize the best combination of roles and maximum productivity. More so, the integration of the intangible assets such as the reputation might be quite hard (Peng, 2010). Motives of my Acquisition The first managerial motive my acquisition is synergy that comes with combining of two firms. With acquisition of Ogilvy Mather, there will be a chance to build more power in the market since all resources used by the form will be used together with ours. This way, our weak points in terms of resources will be eliminated and some of the unused resources will be used for better purposes. In addition, this will increase our economies of scale and access to more resources. With economies of scale, there is a greater possibility of reducing costs especially from attained discounts. The other motive is growth of our firm to become the market leader as well as have the biggest market share. With acquisition, we are in a position to enter markets that we did not serve while at the same time we shall maintain the market of Ogilvy Mather. Another motive is to create value of shareholders’ wealth as well s increase the value of the stock. Innovation is the other motive that will be ea sily achieved through combined expertise of the firms after acquisition since each firm has its strong brands that will build a bigger band together (Peng, 2010). With acquisition of the Ogilvy Mather, we are in position to retain their market share and make a bigger firm after combining its resources. More so, with such an acquisition, McCann Erickson is bound to be the most powerful firm in the industry that will give us the chance to the advertising industry (Peng, 2010). However, the performance of the acquisition has to be considered first before such motives. In addition, my motive is to negotiate the most successful acquisition by ensuring that its performance is quite good. Our motives can be achieved with proper implementation of the acquisition and ensuring not to offer a bigger premium than benefits that we would get to ensure a successful acquisition. Hubris I do posses hubris considering that I am confident that my organization is the best suite to perform this acquisition and ensure success. The reason that makes me possess hubris is out of my vast experience in the industry, which has made be a better CEO. I learned that confidence boost my capabilities in executing my duties. More so, it makes me more aggressive in business that further aids my guts to take up risky situations that have brought me to my current position. However, I ensure that my hubris character does not ruin my firm and I ensure to involve others in making decisions. Ensuring Success of the Acquisition To ensure that the acquisition is going to be effective, during the performance based acquisition development, we shall consider several strategies. One of the strategies is speed at which we acquire and integrate the firm with our company. It is important to assimilate an acquisition swiftly to avoid losses and realize the synergetic benefit as early as possible to avoid having to incur costs due to unplanned acquisition. With the developed performance-based acquisition, it will be easier for our firm to integrate Ogilvy Mather into our strategy considering that comprehensive analysis abut the matching of the firms shall be done before the acquisition. This will include making quick decisions about the leadership of the firm, processing the necessary administration operations such as compensation, the business cards, and integrating the human resource to ensure harmony among the employees (cpstrat.com, 2011). The other strategy to ensure success of the acquisition is integrating sales to have one or combined sales team, marketing and service deliveries to ensure that everything id run smoothly and to enable tracking of performance. Considering that staff will play a big role in the success of the acquisition, there will be a staff rearrangement where the best will be retained and those that may not fit within the new working culture will be eliminated to ensure only productive ones are left. There will be a clear vision outlined that supports the new acquisitions and considers goals of the new entity formed after acquisition. The statement will be for all stakeholders to understand. Moreover, many acquisitions have failed to lack of better communication and joint management. Before our acquisition, we shall have a selected team of leadership to ensure the acquisition will not waste time on selection of top management after acquisition. The selected leadership team will be served with the responsibility of integrating the employees after the acquisition and ensure communication flows freely from top-down and down to top (cpstrat.com, 2011). Conclusion Acquisition of Ogilvy will not be easy, however, with careful planning the right team it is bound to succeed. With the strategy mentioned above, it is my intention to ensure that I dedicate my self to ensuring it goes as smoothly as possible so that our desired goals and objectives of doubling the size of our firm is achieved. Io intend to work with the management team of the Ogilvy Mather company to ensure that we come to a deal that will be of benefit to all of us including the shareholders who want to realize the best value of their investment. I call upon all the personnel that will be involved to cooperate and make sure the process runs smoothly and fast enough as it would be necessary. References cpstrat.com. (2011). Merger and Acquisition Success Strategies. Retrieved from cpstrat.com/merger-and-acquisition-success-strategies acquisition.gov. n.d. Seven steps to performance-based acquisition. Retrieved from https://www.acquisition.gov/comp/seven_steps/home.html Peng, M.W. (2010). Global Business. Hoboken, N.J: Cengage Learning.

The Information Technology Revolution essays

The Information Technology Revolution essays Information technology is a fundamental change which is taking place in the nature and application of technology in business. This change has profound and far-reaching implications for an organization. Information technology is driven by the demands of the new, competitive business environment on the one hand and profound changes in the nature of computers in the other. Information Technology systems come in the shape of many technologically advanced devices which help deliver important information to managers who in turn, use this information to make a crucial decision regarding the operations of their organization. Information Technology can come in the form of computers, robots, sensors, and decision support systems. The newest form of Information Technology which is being implemented on the market today is the use of handhelds to aid managers and subordinates in their day to day operations. Is information Technology Flawless? Information technology (IT) is revolutionizing how bus iness operates. Advanced information technology is becoming the single most powerful force shaping the structure and functioning of work organizations, plants, offices, and executive suites. However, this revolution has not been without casualties, such as systems not running as they were supposed to, millions of dollars lost in downtime and missed opportunities, as well as computer systems that intended to expand creativity productivity instead turned around and made unwanted organizational responses and remained sluggish. These Information Technology systems usually fall short of their potential due to the failure to understand and manage the mutual influences of technology and organization throughout the extended implementation process. In recent years, many corporations have made major investments in the area of information technology. Despite these large investments, productivity and efficiency gains related to IT have been disappointing at times f...

Maritime Logistics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Maritime Logistics - Essay Example Both parties sought to develop a solution meant to avert a strike, which would cause a substantial economic and social impact on East and Gulf Coast citisens and other business stakeholders. One port in eastern Florida employs approximately 64,000 workers on full-time and casual labour jobs. Staging of a strike means that the port will suffer an economic predicament for an indefinite period of time – certainly until authorities address the workers’ issues. According to maritime statistics, the port generates approximately $1 billion daily in form of gross domestic revenue to the US economy. This means that downing of tools by port workers will affect Florida residents because of the $1 billion revenue gap created on a daily basis. Among the stakeholders affected are export merchants involved in production and sale of agricultural produces. Norilsk (2012) argues that prolonged wrangles between workers and employers in the port will affect Florida farmers and other indust rial businesses that depend on the port for business activities. Efforts were made by the Longshoremen Association to pursue federal government into stopping the strike in the event that the parties could not reach an agreement. Despite these efforts, legal proceedings within the Florida judicial system allowed workers to continue with the strike. The courts arrived at this decision after considering the provisions availed by proportionate workers’ right in accordance with the Trade Union Ordinance. Therefore, the next step would be to appraise the economic and social impact that will result from the strike. Ports in Supply Chain Management Maritime technical operations indicate that ports play a significant role in international supply chain management. Supply chain management entails integration of technology, information, and manpower skills in facilitating the movement of products from the producer’s premises to the different types of consumers in the market. Wang (2007) states that the role played by supply chain management at the international business platform became more pronounced as a result of increased globalisation. Currently, these chains enhance synchronisation of business activities between trading partners. Supply chains facilitate flow of goods and information from one region to another. As a result, export companies can acquire relevant information meant to make future business decisions. From an economic perspective, producers will adjust their production likes based on consumer patterns observed in their market segments. On the other hand, consumers will only benefit in their trade relationship if they stay abreast of latest developments within the producers environment. This means that international supply chains are charged with the responsibility of developing and maintaining day-to-day movement of goods and information between trading regions. In the context of international supply chain management, ports play a key role as a source of relevant logistical infrastructure. Ports provide a suitable environment where buyers meet sellers. In this regard, involved stakeholders could adjust their business activities in relation to the dictates of supply and demand witnessed in ports. Supply inclines towards the trends created by the demand of goods and services within the consumer market. In this case, some producers wait

Research paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 2

Research Paper Example However, as the industry grew the early manufacturers could not keep pace with the technology that advanced in so many directions all at the same time. Vertical integration in the industry became difficult as there were too many technologies and manufacturing intricacies. As a result specialist companies emerged that mass-produced specialized components and supply it to several computer manufacturers. This form of outsourcing worked cheaper for computer manufacturers and many such as IBM, Sony, HP and Compaq abandoned the vertical integration model. They preferred to concentrate on efficient assembly and marketing their own brand computers instead of developing and R&D base and investing in it. Dell, however, preferred to continue with the shorter-value chain model by selling directly to customers, avoiding the intermediary commissions and costs associated with distribution through independent retailers. Gradually, companies such as HP even started outsourcing the assembly to contrac tors, while focusing on product design and marketing. All the vendors tried to minimize the amount of finished goods in dealer inventories and shorten the time it took to replenish dealer stocks. Dell stuck to its own business model of Built-to-Order (BOT). Dell’s supply chain efficiency had eroded between 2003 and 2006 when it peaked at five days on inventory supply. They found it difficult to get cooperation from other organizations and bureaucracy started prevailing within the organization. There was misalignment between its procurement and supply chain activities, and with its assembly line. Dell wanted to partner only with reputed suppliers rather than have 20 suppliers all supplying to all computers manufactures. They stuck to one or two suppliers and maintained long-term partnership with them. They however, brought down their inventory turn cycle from 32 days in 1995 to 7 days in 1998, and to four