Economies of Asia Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Economies of Asia - Assignment Example However, it is clear that the policies were not well thought since by 1959 the communes could not succeed in meeting the demands of the policies (Riskin 117-133).The commune leaders on the other hand could not push its subjects towards achieving the set goals, and some would even be charged for the same. It is evident that the factors of production were not factored in by Mao since the machines produced were not of good quality. Riskin explains how the farm machinery produced were completely destroyed while being used in the farms (117-133). This means that the food produced could not be harvested even with China presenting a perfect environment for agricultural practices. The policies can, therefore, be said to have put more focus on quantity as opposed to quality productions. Riskin explains how the policies could not deal with drought issues on some parts of the country and floods on the other (117-133). Even with high produce from the farms, Riskin explains how starvation occurred in different places in the country, to the extent that the government had to measure food for its citizens (42, 77, 136). In the industrial sector the same issue of not focusing on factors of production was imminent. As seen in the work of Riskin, the backyard furnaces were seen to consume huge amounts of coal (125-126). Since China’s railway system was heavy reliant on coal at the time, the coal driven train suffered a great deal since they did not have enough energy that would be useful for transport form place to place (Riskin 127, 195). Also, it is key to know that the in as much the production of steel was high prior to 1958, the products were of very low quality (Riskin 125-126). A good example is that of the home made utensils such as pots and pans that were made of the lowest quality steel and could not even be recognizable (Riskin 273, 279). It is true that the steel was produced but was

Issues in Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Issues in Management - Essay Example Investigation was carried out before Houston offered to purchase the company. Although the deal failed, Enron assets were made the largest corporate bankrupt in the history of United States’ corporations. The collapse of Enron serves as a lesson for managers and all sub-versions of company management controls. The meteoric rise and down fall of the company astonished groups of people thereby becoming a dream for researchers to unveil what led to such misfortunes; however, the entire ordeal has ever since remained a nightmare for all former and current stakeholders of the company. The company’s downfall is associated with individuals born with greed and in atmospheres on corporate arrogance. However, many people kept on buying stock; thus, making it buy risk deals. After some time, Enron was then bought from the union of Houston Natural gas. In the union process, the company incurred huge debt and lost its rights to pipeline. To revive its operations, the company decided to initiate new ideas and formulate new strategies that would help to generate cash flow and good profits. On the other hand, to regain its stability, the company hired Jeffrey Skilling, a young consultant with good skills in banking and liability management who created gas bank whereby, Enron could buy gas from suppliers and sell it to consumers. This activity brought about huge profits and created new product as well as new paradigm for the company. Under the leadership of the young consultant, the company’s finance corporation soon dominated the market with many contracts and good access to suppliers. The number of customers was also seen to multiply. Its gained market power was utilized on predicting future prices with accuracy. Skilling begun to change the culture of the company to much its transformed image as a trading business entity. For instance, he

Effectiveness of Public Private Partnerships Cooperation Between Essay

Effectiveness of Public Private Partnerships Cooperation Between Business and The Government - Essay Example In such sort of relationship, there is a co-dependency of both the parties involved. The responsibility of government is of primal importance as it is solely the duty of government to provide the private sector with public services. Hence, governments are making use of such partnerships thereby getting massive financial benefits from public private partnerships. Apart from providing value for money, public private partnerships are also useful for providing newly formulated designs, advanced public services, and an excessively rapid process of construction. Some governments are facing alleged accusations of using public private partnership for political motives. It is a substantial fact that public private partnership function properly under the mutual affinity between the private and public sector thereby making pp services as non-privatized and non-nationalized services. In addition to it, such partnerships offer mutual dependency upon each other, which allows them to attain remarka ble results. The core issue related to public private partnership is budgeting for it entirely depends upon the financing of the private group. For instance, if finances and cost of the project are the responsibilities of the private sector, the government does not feel the necessity to take control of matters related to finance. However, when funds are un-available, government feels the need to meet the financial requirement by imposing public taxes. Trans-European Network for transport is proposed to alleviate problems related to financing in public private partnership. This network is constructed to meet the requirements of recession and inflation. As with the descending economical condition of many countries,...This paper outlines the growing importance of successful cooperation between public and private sector in form of public private partnerships in the world today. The well designed project not only helps the parties to stay committed to their work but it also offers them a scope of improvement than the previous project, the risk factors are reduced, reliability is higher and the efficiency of the project is also higher. One of the biggest advantage of public private partnership is that in case of any mishap or loss in the project; the expenses are shared by both the parties involved. The risks of bigger losses are minimized. Another significant advantage of these partnerships is achieved by the fact that it is essentially duty of the government to decide the user charges on which a normal person can use the infrastructure. Due to the current economic recession, the significance of public-private partnership has been increased as now governments are facing grave economical pressure and private-public partnership has become a strong medium to facilitate the building of infrastructure because the investors have been encouraged to invest in the building of infrastructure that may include hospitals, re-creational parks, educational institutions, etc. Apart from providing value for money, public private partnerships are also useful for providing newly formulated designs, advanced public services, and an excessively rapid process of construction. There are many forms of public private partnerships depending upon the business and finance controller of the project as sometimes it is solely in control of the public sector or in control of the private sector the other times.

The Kennedy Space Center Essay Example for Free

The Kennedy Space Center Essay I am the most typical American man who is born in Pensacola Florida. Most people dream of visiting Florida, but I get to live there. What I find interesting about Florida is that it was part of Spain until 1845, when it became a State of the United States; making it the twenty seventh State to join the Union. Most of the population in other states has to shop at a grocery store for oranges or orange juice, but for myself, orange groves are nearby and I can smell the fresh ripe oranges that ripened on the trees and are available for my breakfasts for when ever I chose. What I find humorous at times when I hear other people speak of Florida is our Alligators and that we should be fearful of them. But we are not, they are just part of our life style and they are much protected from the government. Even if the Alligator is walking on a sidewalk, it is illegal to remove them, the ideal of the situation is to give them total respect and stay out of their way. With the ocean nearby, I get to fish when ever I can. Living with my grandparents, my grandpa always went with me. After casting out our lines, I always surrendered to one of his famous stories about the fish the got away. I chuckle to myself just remembering those stories, but one thing for sure; it was a time when my grandpa Willy and I would bond the most. At the end of the day, I would stand side by side with Grandpa Willy and clean our daily catch, often having races to see who could beat who. Sometimes the scales would fly! When it would be done and over, the smell of fresh fish would fill our senses, making all that work worth while. In my spare time, I sit in front of my television playing video games. Halo is my favorite! I like it because it is a combat game with lots of action. I get to be the Master Chief who fights to protect my planet. There are aliens who come from far away to fight to take over my planet and I have to fight them and kill them to protect the planet. I utilize all my army gear to fight these distorted aliens. I even go to their planets with my Banche which is a flying aircraft and is loaded with necessary weapons to succeed my strengths mission. The object is to take over their planet as well. If I use the Blanche, or the Warthog or I may chose to move in the tank, what ever the case may be, I am assured to have the necessary weapons to be successful. When I am not playing the video games, I am a typical male who checks out the â€Å"hotties† at the mall. My buds and I just hang around, trying to look not interested but we don’t miss a thing. But the ways I have some down time is to put on my headphones and jam to the â€Å"Beastie Boy’s†, and look through some car magazines. I like to get my hands dirty and love hearing my engine of my 1969 engine purr. I spent many pain staking hours working on that machine, but I successfully was able to soup up my car and am the envious of many of my peers as I drive it to my school. Finally, when I am done with school, I am going to concentrate on becoming a lawyer. Thinking of our Sunshine State and all of our sixty seven counties I feel there is room for someone like me who will work hard to help out with some areas like International Trade; Tourism, which Florida has seventy six point eight million visitors alone in 2004 and is the top traveled state; Space Industry, which employs something like fifteen thousand employees at the Kennedy Space Center; Agriculture, Florida leads with farming income from orange groves and orange juice and the University Research, five million dollars are being sponsored for research at the Florida University. I feel no matter what area of law I would go into, I would be protecting companies or people. No matter if I would be working in Space or working for the common farmer; what ever the case may be I feel it could be very challenging and interesting at the same time. Another area of my interest is in Math. Math comes easier for me and I feel no matter what area of any professions I may go into, Math will be really important to know. Whatever the case, I love working with people in general and math is definitely one of my and I think it could be fun teaching it to students. I can envision myself in front of a class with eager eyes looking up to me to learn a new gained knowledge of how math can be applied to our daily lives. Most people feel that how is Algebra, Core Math, Calculus, Trigiometry, we never really use in our daily lives; but in reality we use them daily without knowing that we do. People who work not only in teaching, but in some fields like Chemist, Farming, Architecture, Wood workers (cabinet makers), and in any field that constitutes measuring of some sort. Teaching it would be a challenge of its own. That would mean I would have to be more organized than what I am. I am still leaving my clothes on the floor, and I may even have separate piles of clothing if I get rushed like; a pile of clean clothes, pile of only worn once clothing and can be worn again if sprayed, and then there is the must be washed, we all know those ones when the jeans stand on their own legs without help and the shirts smell strongly of the partying of the night before. But still even if organization could be the worst challenge, I know that all of my commitment and hard work would pay off with my student’s achievements. Knowing a head of time that Math is one of the harder subjects to teach because it is the least interesting and sometimes really hard for some people, I know I would have to be sensitive to the children who do not have the same appreciation of Math as I do and make it as interesting as possible. How I would do that I am not sure as of yet, but I know I could achieve that goal. Knowing that math is all around us in our daily lives I will have to just grasp some of the ways they use it and incorporate it in the teaching for starters. What ever the case may be if I go into being a lawyer or teacher, I know that it will present its own challenges and with hard work and dedication I can achieve anything that I set my mind to. I love working with people, though I am a little shy at times, I know I can be a true asset to any field I venture into.

New Industries in the Caribbean Essay Example for Free

New Industries in the Caribbean Essay Caribbean economies from their earliest periods of colonization were essentially agrarian based (during slavery). Economical activities included livestock farming and small farming done by the peasants. There were also trading and commerce which included the establishment of shops, inns and taverns. Large plantations were worked by a mass of slaves with the premier crop being Sugar Cane. When the colonizers first came to the West Indies they mainly grew crops such as coffee, cotton, ginger, banana and cocoa mainly for export. However during the second half of the 18th century, these crops lost their comparative advantage to sugar. When sugar experienced its depression the planters relaxed their stronghold over control of the land and some estate workers turned their attention to the peasant sector and other industries. NEW INDUSTRIES By the beginning of the twentieth century, the peasantry had begun to play a very important role in the diversification of the West Indian economies. The Royal Commissions before the Norman Commission, and the Norman Commissions had made recommendations for the development of the peasantry (Curtis: p 32). Many of the export crops recommended by the Norman Commission were already being cultivated by the peasantry. For these crops to have greater success, the peasantry would need capital for greater investment. But this capital was not forthcoming. This was due to the fact that they had limited capital, occupied small plots of land because they were charged a lot for these lands. Additionally the peasants cannot produce at subsistence level. The black peasantry in particularly faced a number of obstacles which included the increase in land prices, eviction from lands, refusal to subdivide and sell lands and also heavy taxations. The planters most of the times sold large pieces of lands for lower cost to the whites in comparison to the ex-slaves. Rice, which had been cultivated earlier as a subsistence crop in Guyana began to assume importance as a cash crop in the late nineteenth century. The abandonment of sugar cultivation on some estates made more land available, as did the opening up of riverain crown lands in 1898 on what for some were manageable terms of purchase. By 1900 government interest was being channeled through the board of agriculture ith conducted experiments in different rice varieties and supplied seed to the growers. A more objective was to develop a uniform grain size to reduce wastage in the milling process and by 1908 this had been substantially achieved. All of this stimulated further expansion so that, whereas in 1891 the land under rice amounted to only 4000 acres, there was a tenfold increase in the following two decades, and by 1917 for every ten acres planted in sugar, Guyana, eig ht acres were planted in rice. Expanding rice acreage was accompanied by the mushrooming of small mils. In 1914 there were 86 of them in existence. They were hardly elaborate structures but they were linked to the large mercantile firms in the capital and they controlled growers in the villages through a system of advances. Many of the millers, like many large rice growers were Indians who employed Indian labour, and the evidence suggests that ethnicity hardly guaranteed favourble treatment. In 1905 it was exporting to the Caribbean. Rice enjoyed considerable prosperity during the first war. In the inter-war period alternative sources of supply to the Caribbean market dried up and this provided the main basis for the steady expansion of the industry in Guyana. Guyana is by far the most important producer of rice in the Commonwealth Caribbean. There were about 20 thousand peasant farmers in 1952; by 1965 their numbers were believed to have more than doubled, reaching 45 thousand. There were 222 rice mills in 1960 and 199 in 1970. All were privately owned, except two which were owned and operated by the Rice Development Company. Bananas were first introduced into Jamaica in 1516. However the first exports took place in 1869 after the depression of sugar. As the industry flourished American companies came in to handle the trade as the peasants supplied bananas to a US [Boston] banana trader Lorenzo Dow Baker. Boston Fruit Company later formed to trade in Bananas with Caribbean and Central America which later became the United Fruit Company [UFCo]. By 1890 the value of Banana exports exceeded that of sugar and rum, and it retained this position except for a few years until the Second World War. By 1937 Jamaica provided twice as many stems as any other country in the world. It thus became a plantation crop-corporations and large entrepreneurs. Banana soon became the principal exports from Jamaica, and Windward Island. Trading partners also changed-Destination was now USA. During the war the industry declined because the ships could not be spared to transport the product. By the beginning of the nineteenth century coffee was also an important crop in Jamaica (The Banana production was done mainly by the Middle class mulattoes). During the depression sugar farmers in Trinidad turned their attention to cocoa which was the first major export of the island, and by 1900 it had become the major export once again. It retained this position until 1921 when Ghanaian cocoa began to swamp the world market. During that time too cocoa was also an important crop in St. Lucia, St. Kitts and St. Vincent. In the 1930’s citrus, which had been cultivated in the stricken cocoa areas became important. So too did Pineapples in the 19th century. Relatively small scale farmers earned cash for production of bananas, coffee, cocoa and pimento for exports. They also produced tubers, fruits and vegetables for domestic markets. A substantial part of small farming was for subsistence with relatively small surpluses for sale. Bauxite, tourism and urban-based manufacturing and services replaced export agriculture as the dominant sectors of the economy in the post-war era, as the British West Indies pursued a programme of industrialization-by-invitation The mineral resources which include bauxite, aluminum, gold et cetera have been developed by foreign capital and for the export market, to a much greater extent than the main agricultural products. In Guyana the American-owned Bauxite industry shipped its first load of ore in 1922. Expansion was steady throughout the inter-war period but it was not until the second war that bauxite became an important force in the economy. The Jamaican bauxite industry was developed by American companies after the second war. Demand for aluminum by the United States military and space programmes and by the automobile and other consumer goods industries created a lucrative market for bauxite and aluminum. As of such in 1957 Jamaica became the world’s leading bauxite producer and the main U. S. supplier. The U. S. dollar earnings from this new export financed the import of capital goods manufacturing industries that were set up to produce for the growing domestic and regional markets. The investment cycle of the multinational bauxite mining companies began topping offs as the decade of the 1960s drew to a close. Bauxite and aluminum thus replaced sugar and bananas as the leading export product after the Second World War. In 1964 Jamaican bauxite industry had over 800 registered manufacturing establishments including a cement factory, cigarette factories, breweries and bottling plants, extiles, clothing factories and plant producing soap, margarine and edible oil. In February 1967 an agreement was announced between the Jamaican government and an American metal-fabrication company to erect an aluminum plant in Jamaica. The petroleum industry in Trinidad and Tobago is the oldest mineral industry in the common-wealth Caribbean. The first successful well dates back to 1857 but it was not until the first decade of this century that the industry was established. By 1909 the country was exporting oil and by 1919 five refineries were in operation. The industry is largely owned and controlled by foreigners. The production of crude oil is mainly in the hands of four companies-Texaco, Shell, Trinidad Northern Area owned by Trinidad Tesoro, Shell and Texaco as equal partners. However by 1980 the government had purchased all foreign operations except Amoco. The tourist industry was developed after the Second World War, and this two is foreign owned and controlled. This industry is an offshoot of the banana and bauxite industry especially in Jamaica. The establishment and development of the tourist industry were facilitated by incentive legislation and special institutions. Jamaica passed the Hotels Aid Law, 1944, granting accelerated depreciation allowances and duty-free importation of materials for the construction and furnishing of hotels, and the Hotel Incentives Law, 1968, granting tax holidays and other concessions. The Hotel Aids Act passed in Barbados in 1967 allows duty free importation of building materials and equipment and grants a tax holiday of ten years. And all three territories set up Tourists Boards to promote and service the industry. As in the other generating sectors of the economies, there is a large proportion of foreign ownership in the tourist industry. In 1971 thirty-five per cent of the hotels in Jamaica were wholly foreign owned, 56 per cent wholly locally owned and 9 per cent joint ventures. Foreign ownership was more pronounced in Barbados. Foreigners owned 61 per cent of the capacity there: 33 per cent was owned by nationals of the United Kingdom. 16 per cent by Canadians and 12 per cent by Americans. Barbadians owned 34 per cent, and 5 per cent was jointly owned. Local ownership was dominant (80 per cent) among the smaller establishments which provided 25 per cent of the total capacity. Trade and commerce was also taking place in many places in the British West Indies as well. According to Beckles and Shepherd (1993) â€Å"export trade in the British Islands showed in a number of the units spectacular increases to the peak of prosperity between 1929 and 1940. † British Guiana traded with Europe and North America, commodities such as sugar cane, coffee and fruits. Trinidad exported petroleum products such as oil to places such as North America and the United Kingdom. Jamaica too traded tropical fruits, sugar cane, coffee, cocoa and other commodities with Europe and North America. In the late 1950s, Jamaica became the biggest supplier of bauxite to the United States. RACE: The Indians are concentrated mainly on the sugar estates while the Africans are concentrated in the villages and the towns. The Africans have always been more mobile geographically and socially and the chief supporters of the urbanization movement. They provide the overwhelming majority of the labour force in the bauxite industry and mining camps in the interior of Guyana, and the petroleum industry in Trinidad, and the bulk of the factory and service workers in both countries. Until the 1950s they occupied a somewhat monopolistic position in the white-collar and professional positions. The Indians supply the bulk of the field sugar workers and also the rice producers in Guyana. -Europeans owned most of the wealth-producing assets in the colonial economy. The indigenous Ihere, imported labour] populations were allowed to engage in small-scale peasant farming on the fringes of large white-owned plantations but mainly relegated to providing cheap labour for the white settlers in the expanding corporate economy. Where this posed problems, intermediary racial groups (Chinese, Indians, etc. ) were brought in to fill the gaps in labour supply. As export staples increased the wealth base of the colonial economy and as some diversification into minerals, tourism and manufacturing increased that wealth base further, commerce and services expanded. This opened up opportunities for small-scale capital and smaller entrepreneurial firms to operate alongside the large white-controlled corporations. (Thompson: p 244). In Jamaica, this intermediate minority group comprised immigrant white ethnics like the Lebanese and Jews (who joined a much older community of Jamaican Jews dating back to the period of colonization and settlement) and the Chinese, whose upper and middle echelons, occupying a shopkeeper niche, secured for the group the real and/or symbolic function of social whites. A racially mixed brown middle class also formed a component of this minority, intermediary ethnic group. The traditional white planter class was displaced both by foreign corporate capital, whose interests were concentrated on sugar, and later bauxite and tourism, and the intermediary ethnic groups with whom they eventually merged. The latter groups formed a domestic merchant and manufacturing sector alongside the transnational enclaves. A black rural middle class emerged on the basis of medium-sized holdings concentrating on export crops such as bananas, pimento, coffee and citrus. They comprised a tiny minority of the rural population, however, most of whom occupied a range between full-time peasants and full-time proletarians. The race related dualism of Caribbean economy was classically exhibited in the division between the (TNC or Jamaica-white-owned) plantation and (black) peasant economies of rural Jamaica. In 1938, this division was reflected in a tenure system which concentrated over fifty per cent of agricultural land into some 800 holdings and left nearly 100,000 poor peasants and their families with twelve per cent of the land* (Post, 1981: 2-3). In addition, the black peasant economy was itself internally stratified, partly along the lines of the division between export production and domestic food crop production, which was itself related to size of holding. In addition, there were roughly 80,000 households at the lower margins of the peasantry with an average of a quarter of an acre each. .A significant bureaucratic and professional black middle class emerged, but Blacks failed to challenge the entrenched economic positions of the intermediary-ethnic elites. In the meantime, economic frustration and disfranchisement led large numbers of peasant and working class Blacks to participate in a massive outward migration to Britain and a large-scale exodus from rural to urban areas, which translated rural poverty into urban ghettoes and urban poverty (ibid. : 252). In the late 1960s and early 1970s, many ethnic elites from the BWI began migrating abroad. This created unanticipated and unexpected new openings for black entry into the entrepreneurial class and facilitated large-scale entry of Blacks into the middle and upper levels of private sector management (ibid: 254). Blacks became well established within the corporate managerial elite and gained a foothold in many sectors of the economy manufacturing, construction, business services, tourism, commerce and agriculture alongside the still dominant minority ethnic groups. Their enterprises tended to be smaller, but a few were large. Other developments were the growth of import-trade higglering, which represented an expansion and in some cases a very lucrative enhancement of a traditional female working class role. The big corporate sector enterprises in insurance, banking, distribution, manufacturing, hotels and services remained under the predominant ownership of the economically dominant minority Jews, Whites, Lebanese and Browns. Indeed, migration of some of the less important families appears to have facilitated a consolidation and expansion of corporate ownership among the biggest capitalist families.

The implementation of strategic change at Microsoft Canada

The implementation of strategic change at Microsoft Canada The Organization Development literature has directed appreciable attention at in being able to lead and manage change. The major portion of the material is highly normative, advising managers about how they should be planning and implements organizational changes. For example, one study suggested that successful managers in ceaselessly changing organizations should first; provide clear responsibility and priorities with extensive communication and freedom to improvise. Second, explore the future by experimenting with a wide variety of low cost probes; and thirdly, link current projects to the future with predictable intervals and choreographed transition procedures. Traditionally the main focus of change management is on identifying sources that resist change and offers ways to overcome them. Most of the recent contributions have been challenging the focus on resistance and have shifted the aimed at creating vision along with gaining political support for them, and managing the trans ition of the organization toward them. The various ways in which managing change can be classified are in figure below. MOTIVATING CHANGE Creating Readiness for Change Overcoming Resistance to Change CREATING A VISION Describing the Core Ideology Constructing the Envisioned Future EFFECTIVE CHANGE MANAGEMENT DEVELOPING POLITICAL SUPPORT Assessing Change Agent Power Identifying Key Stakeholders Influencing Stakeholders MANAGING THE TRANSITION Activity Planning Commitment Planning Management Structures SUSTAINING MOMENTUM Providing resources for Change Building a Support System for Change Agents Developing New Competencies and Skills Reinforcing New Behaviors Staying the Course The above mentioned activities contribute a lot to effective change management and have been listed in the order in which they usually are performed. The first amongst the activities involves motivating change and also includes creating a readiness for change amongst the members of the organization and which indeed helps them to address resistance to change. Initially motivation is a critical issue for change process because a lot of evidence indicates that people as well as the organizations want to preserve the status quo and are willing to change only when there are strong powerful reasons to do so. The next activity is considered with creating a vision and is closely alignment with leadership activities. The vision has the sole purpose of providing a purpose and lay out for change and it describes the desired future state of the organization. The next activity involves the task of developing political support for the change. Organizations of all kinds are composed of powerful ind ividuals as well as groups that can either block or promote change, and it is the task of the leaders and the change agents to gain the support and permission of the higher authorities in order to implement changes. The fourth activity is concerned with managing movement from the current state to the desired level in the organization. It involves designing a plan for managing the change activities as well as planning particular management structures for working of the organization during this transition. The next and the final activity involve sustaining the flow or momentum for change so that it is being able to be carried to completion. The final activity includes task such as providing resources for implementing the changes, building a support system for change agents, developing new competencies and skills needed to implement the changes. Unless man-to-man are motivated and bound up to change, unfreezing the status quo will be very difficult. Without vision, chances are there th at change will be disorganized and diffused. Along with the fast moving pace of global, economic, and technological development change becomes an inevitable feature of the life of the organizational. But change that happens to an organization externally by the environment is quite different from the change that is planned and incorporated by the members of the organization. The main motive of Organizational development is to bring in changes in the organization in a planned manner so as to be able to increase its effectiveness and this organizational change is usually initiated and implemented by managers, with the help of professional OD practitioners. Conceptions of planned change have tended to focus on how change can be implemented in organizations. In order to implement change in any organization, certain frameworks are used as models that describe the activities that must take place to initiate and carry out successful organizational change. Let us now discuss change that Microsoft Canada tried to implement in its organization by implementing Strategic Change. MANAGING STRATEGIC CHANGE AT MICROSOFT CANADA Microsoft Canada is a subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation responsible for the service, marketing and the sales of the full range of software products, including the Windows operating system, the office productivity suite, a variety of Net products, and the Xbox game console. The organization marketed to a variety of segments, such as software application developers, small and medium business and large enterprises, through a broad range of partners that worked directly with the client organizations to install and optimize the software used. A small service organization provided consulting support to clients with the partner. Before 2001, Microsoft Canada had been part of North American subsidiary. Under this structure, large US market was clearly the focus of attention from Microsoft server, desktop, other software products. However, Frank Clegg, President of Microsoft Canada, argued that the Canadian market was different and under developed. It had a different mix of customers that did a United States, different competitors and different growth opportunities. Moreover, software sales and personnel computers shipments as a percentage of markets size and growth were below worldwide averages. These differences, Clegg argued warranted a specialized strategy. As the fiscal year ended Clegg and his newly appointed Director of Strategic Planning, Sandra Palmero, wanted to cease the opportunity to define a uniquely Canadian strategy. Before becoming Director of Strategic Planning, Palmero had been Director of Marketing and Corporate Communications in Microsoft Canada. There with Richard Reynolds, her Senior Marketing Manager, they had planned and implemented a participative process of strategic planning. Sandra conducted the OD practitioner who had worked with them and contracted to design and implement a Strategic planning process for the Canadian organization. Over a 2 month period, Sandra conceived of a series of workshops involving the Canadian leadership team. This team represented a broad cross section of the organization including representatives from legal staffs, human resources, service business and Microsoft consultant, marketing managers, customer support and managers responsible for different segments of Microsoft business inclu ding enterprise customer, small and medium business, the Microsoft Network and the Xbox. The strategic analysis phase consisted of preliminary work by several members of the Canadian leadership team as well as initial exercises during the first workshop. Member of Canadian Leadership team each prepared an analysis of their respected areas of responsibilities. For example, the enterprise sales manager provided historical growth rates in the revenue, developed forecast for market growths and Microsofts share, described current levels of Customer satisfaction and technology road map of products being developed by the Redmond headquarters organization. In addition to this specific analysis, Sandra contracted with a market research firm to provide overall description of Canadian information technology market. Finally a competitor analysis was performed to develop and understanding of likely strategies, goals, and initiatives from key competitors such as IBM, Sun Micro System, and Oracle as well as competitive threat posed by the Linux Operating System Software. During first workshop the Canadian Leadership team used the pre work data to perform an environmental scan. They discussed, debated, and ultimately came to some agreements about the trends affecting the organization. Based on that scan, the group engaged in a vision and value formation exercise and set out an initial list of short and long term goals. These activities let to several important decisions for new marketing organizations. For example, the vision and values exercised produced important insight about what the Canadian organization stood for, its uniqueness compared to the marketing subsidiaries within the Microsoft Organization, and its strengths in competing as a Canadian organization. The values also informed discussion about future goals and strategy to achieve them. Importantly, the Canadian leadership realized that customer loyalty would and should become a driving force for the organization. This realization led to passionate discussions about the relative emphasis i n the organization on revenues versus customer satisfaction and loyalty. It also led to development of Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) that the members of the Canadian Leadership Team believed would be challenging but achievable. The first workshop ended with a number of assignments, unresolved issues, and excitement about the future. In between the first and second workshops, members of the Canadian Leadership Team worked with their own organizations. Issues, decisions and questions that were addressed within the Canadian Leadership Team were discussed throughout the organization. The most important discussion concerned the Big Hairy Audacious Goal and the relative emphasis of revenues and customer loyalty over the short and long term. A consensus began to emerge that the right and proper strategy for Microsoft was to argue for a slower growth rate in revenues the short term, invest in customer satisfaction and then leverage that loyalty for a more secure stream of revenues in the future. Frank Clegg took this idea to the executives in Redmond and discussed the implications of this strategy, including revenue projections, risk involved, the budget implications, and how the strategy aligned with corporate and other marketing organizations initiatives. The result of these conversations became the subject of opening discussions at second workshop. The cautions but positive support from the corporate organization allowed the Canadian leadership team to move forward on its strategic intent. In second workshop, the organizations mission and values were finalized; year by year revenue goals were agreed upon to achieve the Big Hairy Audacious Goal, and these goals were broken down and assigned to specific groups and managers. Finally, key customer and partner loyalty programs were established and outlined. Ownership for different initiatives was assigned and a strategic change plan originated. Frank Clegg pressed the group on its decision to emphasize customer loyalty and challenged the group with several scenarios that tempted them to trade off satisfaction for revenue. These scenarios helped fix the Canadian leadership teams commitment to their strategy. The important part of the strategic change plan that came out was a discussion and decision to tie the individual performance appraisals of Canadian leadership team as a whole also staked their end of fiscal year bonuses to the achievement of customer satisfaction, instead of revenue goals. The strategic change efforts at Microsoft Canada are important for few reasons. First, the Canadian organizations realization of the benefits of customer satisfaction and loyalty was influential in moving the larger Microsoft Corporation to examine its values in this area. Business Week reported on the changes Steve Ballmer was making in the organization; they reflected the increased importance of customer loyalty in Microsofts strategy and structure changes. Second, the organization learned how to organize a strategic planning effort. In the second year since this effort began, Sandra Palmero did built a stronger strategic planning organization and taken more and more responsibility for driving the strategic planning process. Even as the corporate Microsoft organization was making important changes in its reporting structure, business process, financial systems, the Canadian organization was able to adapt using its own resources and knowledge. Finally, the Big Hairy Audacious Goal h as become an institutionalized part of the organization that drives thinking and decision making in the organization. In context with the case in hand we are suppose to work on a few task related to the case in hand. Firstly, let us discuss the history of the organization in hand, which is Microsoft Canada. Microsoft Canada Inc. was established in 1985. It is the Canadian subsidiary of Microsoft Corp. the worldwide leader in services, software and solutions that help inhabit and small business realize their full potential. Microsoft Canada provides nationwide sales, marketing, consulting and local support services in both French and English. It has its headquarters in Mississauga and has nine regional offices across the country dedicated to empowering people through great software- anytime, anywhere and on any devise. Secondly, let us now discuss the circumstances that led the organization to undergo strategic change. Frank Clegg, President of Microsoft Canada, argued that the Canadian market was different and under developed and it had a different mix of customers. Thus it demanded for different co mpetitors and different growth opportunities. Another circumstance was that the percentage of markets size and growth of software sales and personnel computers shipments were below worldwide averages. These circumstances demanded a specialized strategy. Thirdly, the type of change that was implemented in the Microsoft Canada was basically strategically. The change has been incorporated in such a way that every aspect of the organization starting from legal staffs, human resources, service business and Microsoft consultant, marketing managers, customer support and managers responsible for different segments of Microsoft business including enterprise customer, small and medium business, the Microsoft Network and the Xbox were taken into consideration. The senior members of the organization have tried its best to formulate and design the strategically change in such a manner that it helps Microsoft Canada to increase its percentage market share and gain better growth. Fourthly, in orde r to incorporate the strategically change into the organization the involvement of every member of the organization is very necessary. The strategically change was initiated by Frank Clegg, President of Microsoft Canada and Sandra Palmero, Director of Strategic Planning. Sandra Palmero along with Richard Reynolds, her Senior Marketing Manager, had crafted and implemented a participative process of strategic planning. Sandra conducted the OD practitioner who had worked with them and contracted to design and implement a Strategic planning process for the Canadian organization. Fifthly, the methods used in implementing the strategically change were basically workshops, assignments and discussions of issues related to work. Canadian Leadership Team was formed by members of various departments of the organization that were focused on developing and implementing strategically change in the Microsoft Canada Organization. During the first workshop the Canadian Leadership team used the pre w ork data to perform an environmental scan. They discussed, debated, and ultimately came to some agreements about the trends affecting the organization. Based on that scan, the group engaged in a vision and value formation exercise and set out an initial list of short and long term goals. These activities let to several important decisions for new marketing organizations. The Canadian leadership realized that customer loyalty would and should become a driving force for the organization. A consensus began to emerge that the right and proper strategy for Microsoft was to argue for a slower growth rate in revenues the short term, invest in customer satisfaction and then leverage that loyalty for a more secure stream of revenues in the future. In second workshop, the organizations mission and values were finalized; year by year revenue goals were agreed upon and these goals were broken down and assigned to specific groups and managers. The important part of the strategic change plan that emerged was a discussion and decision to tie the individual performance appraisals of Canadian leadership team as a whole also staked their end of fiscal year bonuses to the achievement of customer satisfaction, rather than revenue goals. Steve Ballmer increased the importance of customer loyalty in Microsofts strategy and structural changes and also the organization learned how to organize a strategic planning effort. Microsoft organization has made important changes in its reporting structure, business process, financial systems; the Canadian organization was able to adapt using its own resources and knowledge. Big Hairy Audacious Goal has become an institutionalized part of the organization that drives thinking and decision making in the organization. Finally, the main changes that have been seen in the performance level of the employees getting better along with rise in the percentage of market share which led to its growth both internal as well as external. Also, the Canadian Leadership Team and the Big Hairy Audacious Goal was permanently incorporated in the structure of the organization. (b) Strengths of Bureaucratic organizations are as follows: Higher level of consistency is maintained in decisions and implementation of projects. The control exerted by the head quarters or top level management ensures that the systems and delivery of services to the beneficiaries are in line with the laid down procedures. The major and important final decisions made by top management, considering various perspectives of organization. In this aspect the powers and interests of various stakeholders also taken care in delivering the final outcome. Another benefit is better cost control and management. Weaknesses of Bureaucratic organizations are as follows, The higher level of bureaucracy leads to lack of innovation and development in the organization, which leads to loss of competitive advantage in certain circumstances. Another disadvantage is that higher the structure and communication ladder impedes the speed of communication and decision making, and speed of response in emergency situations. The motivation of employees drops because of the lower level of delegation of duties and responsibilities and lower empowerment.. What must be realized is only that the strait jacket of bureaucratic organization paralyzes the individuals initiative, while within the capitalist market society an innovator still has a chance to succeed. (c) Managing change is an inevitable part of Organizational Development. Organization Development is about how people and organizations function and how to get them to function better. The field is based on knowledge from behavioral science disciplines such as psychology, social psychology, sociology, organizational behavior, organization theory and management. OD programs are long-term, planned, sustained efforts. Various definitions of OD are: Organization development refers to a long-range effort to improve an organizations problem solving capabilities and its ability to cope with changes in its external environment with the help of external or internal behavioral-scientist consultants, or change agents, as they are sometimes called. (Wendell French) Organization development is a system-wide process of data collection, diagnosis, action planning, intervention, and evaluation aimed at (1) enhancing congruence among organizational structure, process, strategy, people, and culture; (2) developing new and creative organizational solutions; and (3) develop the organizations self renewing capacity. It occurs through the collaboration of organizational members working with a change agent using behavioral science theory, research, and technology.(Michael Beer) Thus, Organization development is a system based and wide application that transfers behavioral science knowledge to the planned improvement, and reinforcement of the process that lead to effectiveness and efficiency of the organization. All OD programs have three basic components: diagnosis, action and program management. The symptomatic component represents a uninterrupted collection of data about the total system, its subunits, its processes, and its culture. The action component consists of all the activities and interventions designed to improve the organizations functioning. The program management component encompasses all activities designed to ensure success of the program. The process of Organizational Development is quite complicated and the completion of the change process consumes a lot of time with a minimum of one year and sometimes keeps indefinitely. There are different approaches to the process but the usual process consists of seven steps, which are initial diagnosis, data collection, data feedback and confrontation, action planning and problem solving, team building, inter group development and evaluation and follow up. organizational development process The following steps are vital steps taken into consideration while implementing any alternative forms of organizational development: Communications patterns, styles and flows. Goal setting. Decision making, problem solving, and action planning. Conflict resolution and management. Managing interface relations. Superior- subordinate relations. Technological and engineering systems. Strategic management and long-range planning. Vision/ Mission formulation. Organizational learning. Task 2 (a) The key stakeholders in Microsoft Canada can be people from any of the departments and levels of the organizations. But in general, the following people are the stakeholders of Microsoft Canada: Financial analysts Business analysts Forecasting or sales individual contributors Controller IT specialists and administrators. Legal staffs Human resources Service business and Microsoft consultant Marketing managers Customer support Managers responsible for different segments of Microsoft business including enterprise customer. Etc. (b) As discussed already it has been seen that the above cited stakeholders are the main members of the Canadian Leadership Team and plays a very significant role in the successful formation and implementation of Strategically Change in Microsoft Canada. The stakeholders, most of whom are also the members of the Canadian Leadership Team have played important role in the workshops, assignments, and discussions that was basically done to decide upon implementing new strategically changes required by Microsoft Canada to achieve its long term and short term goals. Also in the beginning of this report we have discussed three different models that are usually used in any organization as models for implementing and managing change, which are, Lewins Planned Change Model, Action Research Model and Positive model. After going through the entire case in hand it is seen that the Action Research Model best suits the procedure in which implementation of strategical change was carried out in Microsoft Canada. As the Action Research Model of change suggests, Microsoft Canada firstly, identified the problem that the organization was facing and having done that it was discussed upon by the experts of the organization and data was gathered from various sources to analyze the problem in order to be able to provide with the best possible solution. Finally, The Canadian Leadership Team acted as the Action team that helped to implement the solutions and bring in the Change in Microsoft Canada. Thus, the above report is a good example of implementing and managin g change in an organization. Task 3 (a) UnfreezingLewins Planned Change Model Refreezing Movement Action Research Model Data Gathering after Action Action Joint Action Planning Joint Diagnosis of Problem Feedback to Key Client or Group Data Gathering and Preliminary Diagnosis Consultation with Behavioral Science Expert Problem Identification Positive Model Design and Deliver ways to create the Future Envision a Preferred Future Discover Themes Inquire into Best Practices Initiate the Inquiry There are various types of change that an organization may implement. (b) It is often remarked that the only constant thing in the world is Change and having said that in todays so fast moving world and economy, every organization needs to implement change in its working structure and structure to be able to cope up with the changing environment. Today, organizations basically go for a change in order to be up to date with the current world and also are able to cope up with the increasing competition. Change suiting to the organization helps the organization to attain better brand name and a increased market share. Also change in the structure and working environment usually helps the organization to provide its employees to be happy and satisfied working in the organization and give maximum effective result to the output of the organization. Thus there may be a number of reasons that might have led to any organizations decision to implement change in the organization. In case of Microsoft Canada, Frank Clegg, President of Microsoft Canada, argued that the Canadian market was different and under-developed and it had a different mix of customers. Thus it demanded for different competitors and different growth opportunities. Another circumstance was that the percentage of markets size and growth of software sales and personnel computers shipments were below worldwide averages. These circumstances demanded a specialized strategy. Thus this was the major reason that led Microsoft Canada to decide to implement Strategic Change in the organization.

How MTV Maintains Its Dominance Essay -- essays papers

How MTV Maintains Its Dominance Music Television, a basic cable service known by its acronym MTV, remains the dominant music video outlet utilizing effective marketing and competitive business practices throughout its nineteen year history. The creation of the "I Want My MTV" marketing campaign and use of the campaign throughout the 1980's helped the cable outlet secure a substantial subscriber base. MTV dealt with competition from cable mogul Ted Turner's Cable Music Channel by creating a fighting brand, sister cable service VH-1, along with facing challenges by numerous other music video programming services. Through exclusivity agreements with record labels for music videos and limiting access to cable systems owned by MTV's parent company, MTV exercised anticompetitive and monopolistic means to fend off competition. From its launch, MTV successfully applied these marketing and competitive business practices. The board of the Warner - AMEX Satellite Entertainment Company (WASEC), a partnership between Warner Communications and American Express, gave approval in mid-January 1981 for the creation of a cable service that would broadcast music videos . Music videos, song length visual depictions used in the promotion of a musical act's latest release, were already popular on European television since the mid 1970s. A deadline of August 1, 1981 was set for the launch of this new cable service as programs featuring music videos were beginning to appear on cable outlets such as Home Box Office and USA Network. The set-up and programming of the entire operation was to be established in approximately six-and-a-half months. Bob Pittman, a WASEC programming executive with a background in radio, wanted to ensure the new music video outlet delivered programming that appealed to its target audience of twelve to thirty-four-year-olds. This age demographic was both desirable and difficult for advertisers to reach as young adults typically did not watch much of what television offered at the time. He determined that, with little exception, the cable service would have no distinguishable programs. Video upon video would be presented by on-air personalities dubbed video jockeys, veejays for short, who would also provide entertainment news and conduct artist interviews. The absence of scheduled programming was, as stated by Tom McGrath in MTV: The Maki... ..., Tom. MTV: The Making of a Revolution. (Pennsylvania: Running, 1996), p. 47. Ibid., p. 53. Ibid., p. 47. Ibid., p. 48. Ibid., p. 48. Ibid., p. 50. Banks, Jack. Monopoly Television: MTV's Quest to Control the Music. (Colorado: Westview, 1996), p. 34. McGrath, Tom. MTV: The Making of a Revolution. (Pennsylvania: Running, 1996), p. 62-63. Ibid., p. 80. Ibid., p. 80. Ibid., p. 81. Ibid., p. 81. Ibid., p88. Ibid., p. 88-89. Ibid., p. 89. Ibid., p. 124. Ibid., p. 124. Ibid., p. 125. Ibid., p. 125, 129. Ibid., p. 129. "Ted Turner Turns off the Music." The Economist. 8 December 1984: 77. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Denisoff, R. Serge. Inside MTV. (New Jersey: Transaction, 1988), p. 155. Ibid., p. 155. Ibid., p. 155. Ibid., p. 156. Bibliography: Banks, Jack. Monopoly Television: MTV's Quest to Control the Music. Colorado: Westview, 1996. Denisoff, R. Serge. Inside MTV. New Jersey: Transaction, 1988. McGrath, Tom. MTV: The Making of a Revolution. Pennsylvania: Running, 1996. "Ted Turner Turns off the Music." The Economist. 8 December 1984: 77. How MTV Maintains Its Dominance Essay -- essays papers How MTV Maintains Its Dominance Music Television, a basic cable service known by its acronym MTV, remains the dominant music video outlet utilizing effective marketing and competitive business practices throughout its nineteen year history. The creation of the "I Want My MTV" marketing campaign and use of the campaign throughout the 1980's helped the cable outlet secure a substantial subscriber base. MTV dealt with competition from cable mogul Ted Turner's Cable Music Channel by creating a fighting brand, sister cable service VH-1, along with facing challenges by numerous other music video programming services. Through exclusivity agreements with record labels for music videos and limiting access to cable systems owned by MTV's parent company, MTV exercised anticompetitive and monopolistic means to fend off competition. From its launch, MTV successfully applied these marketing and competitive business practices. The board of the Warner - AMEX Satellite Entertainment Company (WASEC), a partnership between Warner Communications and American Express, gave approval in mid-January 1981 for the creation of a cable service that would broadcast music videos . Music videos, song length visual depictions used in the promotion of a musical act's latest release, were already popular on European television since the mid 1970s. A deadline of August 1, 1981 was set for the launch of this new cable service as programs featuring music videos were beginning to appear on cable outlets such as Home Box Office and USA Network. The set-up and programming of the entire operation was to be established in approximately six-and-a-half months. Bob Pittman, a WASEC programming executive with a background in radio, wanted to ensure the new music video outlet delivered programming that appealed to its target audience of twelve to thirty-four-year-olds. This age demographic was both desirable and difficult for advertisers to reach as young adults typically did not watch much of what television offered at the time. He determined that, with little exception, the cable service would have no distinguishable programs. Video upon video would be presented by on-air personalities dubbed video jockeys, veejays for short, who would also provide entertainment news and conduct artist interviews. The absence of scheduled programming was, as stated by Tom McGrath in MTV: The Maki... ..., Tom. MTV: The Making of a Revolution. (Pennsylvania: Running, 1996), p. 47. Ibid., p. 53. Ibid., p. 47. Ibid., p. 48. Ibid., p. 48. Ibid., p. 50. Banks, Jack. Monopoly Television: MTV's Quest to Control the Music. (Colorado: Westview, 1996), p. 34. McGrath, Tom. MTV: The Making of a Revolution. (Pennsylvania: Running, 1996), p. 62-63. Ibid., p. 80. Ibid., p. 80. Ibid., p. 81. Ibid., p. 81. Ibid., p88. Ibid., p. 88-89. Ibid., p. 89. Ibid., p. 124. Ibid., p. 124. Ibid., p. 125. Ibid., p. 125, 129. Ibid., p. 129. "Ted Turner Turns off the Music." The Economist. 8 December 1984: 77. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Denisoff, R. Serge. Inside MTV. (New Jersey: Transaction, 1988), p. 155. Ibid., p. 155. Ibid., p. 155. Ibid., p. 156. Bibliography: Banks, Jack. Monopoly Television: MTV's Quest to Control the Music. Colorado: Westview, 1996. Denisoff, R. Serge. Inside MTV. New Jersey: Transaction, 1988. McGrath, Tom. MTV: The Making of a Revolution. Pennsylvania: Running, 1996. "Ted Turner Turns off the Music." The Economist. 8 December 1984: 77.