Morrison Takeover Safeway Plc

Morrison Takeover Safeway Plc This part of the proposal provides the overview of the study relating to merges and acquisition in UK grocery retailers giants. One of the most maligned antitrust decisions in the history in UK involves acquisition of grocery retailer giant, the fourth largest supermarket Safeway takeover by Morrison in 2004. In 1990s, retail markets throughout the world began to be transformed by acquisition and merges. Many of the worlds largest retailers, particularly in the food and grocery sectors involves and this is to reduce the struggling competition between the leading competitor and positioned themselves to dominate or becomes holders of major market share (wrighley, 2000a, lowe, 2002). However such an event still remain a non-routine and challenging occurrence within the life time of the individual organisation and its members merges and acquisition is still one of the areas of finance which attracted interest from the general public as well as the finance analyst and the managers According to (Glen 2008) said that expanding the activities of the firms through acquisition involves significant uncertainties (Schweiger and Ivancevich, 1985) Rappaport (1998) stated that, the basic objectives of making acquisition is identical to any other investment associated with a companys overall strategy, i.e. to add value. In practise, the motivation for expansion through merges, and the diverse range of issue such as action rises by using discounted cash flow technique. First of I would like to define merges and acquisition:- MERGES- Is used to mean the combing of two business entities which result in common ownership. Merges could be either horizontal integration, vertical integration and conglomerate integration. Horizontal integration, where two companies in the same industry, whose operation are very closely related is combined, that of the case of Morrison and Safeway. One of the motives advanced for horizontal merges is that economic of scale can be achieved, but not all merges achieve such gains or enhancement of market power resulting from the reduction in competition Merges and acquisition can have a profound impact on an organisational member and their family (Hayes,1981) indeed, merges and acquisition can sufficiently transform the organisational structure ,system ,processes and culture of one or both of the firm that people often feel stressed, frustrated and even frightened {Schweiger and ivancevich 1985} Although, the recent retailing revolution in the early 1990s resulted in a number of very significant developments. The grow in size of retailers not only replaced the manufacturers dominance in the supply chain but also eliminated many wholesaler and started the trend towards backward integration of the retailer. in 1990s,there is continued concentration and consolidation in all areas of supermarket sector (Davies and Ward, 2000). The industry structure is characterised by a number of common attributes including greater store size increase in retailer concentration and adoption of a range of formats by retailers to reach as wider as their customer catchment areas. Back in January 2003 Morrison, the mostly north of England based supermarket chain, announced that it had been in discussion with Safeway over a proposed takeover. The takeover would give Morrison access to the market in the south which has been difficult to break into. Morrisons bid to buy 480 stores of Safeway that will put it major competitors for the other big supermarket chains, Tesco, Sainsbury and Asda. The current market share of Morrison as at January 2008 is at 11.4% and make it the smallest of the big four supermarket and behind Tesco (31.5), Asda (16.8) Sainsbury (15.9), but far head off the fifth place Co-operative Group (4.4%).The merges could put Morrison on a par with Sainsbury. After the takeover of Safeway, the Morrison family currently owns around 15.5% of the company. According to Hayes 1981, stated that indeed, merges and acquisition often feel stressed and frustration because of the fear of loosing their job, their family life and the culture that they must have to changes. In light of this economic approach to defining markets and approaches that turn entirely on how customers respond to prices changes. In the u k, following the Wal-marts market entry in 1999, popular perception has focused on Alhoids acquisition with Sainsbury. Indeed, Alhold has regularly been obliged to damp down market speculation on the issue .However, given such a merges, not only would it then faced competing head to head in the UK market with the other supermarkets. Although the competition commission found that little evidence of monopolistic behaviour, the findings indicated both the significance of buyer concentration and the need for voluntary regulation (Cooper, 2003 Dobson et al, 2003) The takeover has not yet gone through smoothly due to the involvement of other potential buyer, including the other main supermarket entering the race. As a result of this, the Competition Commission investigated the issue. The commission found that, of the major supermarkets, only Morrison should be allowed to proceed with a potential takeover of Safeway. However this does not rule out another potential buyer. Phillip Green, billionaire owner of Top Shop and British Home Stores (BHS) has also expressed an interest in Safeway. The commission has recommended that if Morrison is successful in their bid that they will have to sell off some of the stores to ensure that competition is not compromised. Here in UK regulation which is the issue both the land-use planning regulation which restricts the other supermarket Wal-Marts ability to develop ASDA stores at a sufficiently rapid pace to challenge for market leadership and the threats of regulatory action to safeguard competition . UK food retailers makes clear Competition Commission ,2000 Vol. 1 Morrison could safely add significant market share in the southern England, Northern Ireland ,Scotland and Wales without triggering regulatory action. As a result, although Safeway as an operational entity would be unattractive to Wal-Mart, and some of the assets of Safeway certainly would be (Poole et al.,2002) stated that for an attempt to address this issue, similar scenario can be considered in the case of Safeway and Morrison s which has stores with a price-positioning and format ideal for Wal-Mart. Unfortunately Morrisons regional market strength mirror those of ASDA and acquisition of Morrisons operations in west-midlands and Southern would inevitably trigger regulatory action. Morrison with the family-owned regional chain, is likely to want to see that independent maintained or, at least its essence continued, in any link up with larger retailer Morrison has slashed prices on over 800 Safeway products to bring them in line with its prices strategy. After the takeover of Safeway in march 2004, of the leading supermarket chain which owned 479 stores, mainly in Scotland and South of England. The acquisition ran into difficulties caused by the outgoing management of Safeway changing their accounting system just six weeks before the transaction was completed. This results of series of profit warning being issue by Morrison that leads to poor financial results and a need to revert to manual system. Morrison currently has 375 superstores in the UK, this including new store opening by the end of 2007. Until 2004, Morrison superstores were largely concentrated in the English midland and the north of England, but expanded southward, Most of its stores operates home wares with fewer electronic, clothing than the main supermarket rivals. Morrisons strategy is based on doing the basic efficiently, selling predominantly food at lower prices and doing so only from large stores. This is the different approach from the other three big chain, which have moved into service such as banking and insurances, place greater emphasis on non-food In March 2009, after completed takeover of the Somerfield, Morrison purchases 30 stores from the combined group with the commend of the competition commission. This marks the move away from the post-Safeway strategy of concentrating on superstores, to adopt the work in a smaller space of a new smaller store as its aims to have a store within 15 minutes every UK homes According to Thomas (2008) in some circumstances, acquiring management seriously underestimate the complexities involved in merges and post-acquisition integration (Robino and Demeuse 1985) The history of Wm Morrison First of all let me give the history back ground of Wm Morrison. Morrison was founded in 1899 by William Morrison, an egg and butter merchant. In 1958, the company opened its first counter service store in a small town of Bradford, UK. Morrison opened its first supermarket in Victoria, in 1961 and stated trading on London stock exchanges in 1967. The lack of opportunities for the leading UK grocery retailers to increase market share through large-scale organic store development and has made merges and acquisition strategies particular important (Poole et al., 2002) Wm Morrison carryout the expansion programmes and in 1978, the company acquired Whelan Stores and began operating in Lancashire in UK, and opened the distribution centre Wakefield and expanded its operation to include chilled stores and an ambient storages area for produce In 2004 march Morrison takeover Safeway supermarket at  £3bn, this enables them to become the fourth largest retailers and more than double its store presence. In 2007 January, the company gave access to two new in-store recycling services in over 345 store spread across England, Scotland and Wales The media have highlighted the fact that Morrison and Safeway are an ideal geographical fit in that there are no areas of overlap. It was clear from the findings of the Competition Commission that these two companies would not imposed local monopoly and the customers interest would served. The debated concerning each of these bids by different companies, have not simply been financial. The distinctly geographical issues have been very much to the force. First the commentators have talked about geographical fit, not a subject always prominent where, merges and acquisition are debated (Bikini et al 2002). The ASDA and Morrison bids look more promising in term of geographical fit although Sainsburys fit in northern England and Scotland is also good, but the objective was to creates more level-playing field and although of course this bid may not be acceptable to the shareholders of Safeway, especially taking account of the ASDA /Wal-Mart financial packages said to be on offer Safeway stores and therefore present fewer problem of high local market share, and their acquisition of Safeway would leap-frog them above Sainsbury and leave three major players well ahead of the chasing pack (Poole, Clerk and Clerk 2002) 4.1 Empirical reviews In the real world the takeover and merges have several motives behind (Glen Arnold 2008.Buono and Bowditch 2003), among which the following could be associated with the Wm Morrisons takeover 4.1.1 Synergy= which mean the combine entity will have a valve greater than the sum of its part. This increases in valve comes about because of boost to revenue and the cost base when two firms AB are to be combined or gain may result fro synergistic benefit to provide a valve above that of the present valve of the two independent cash flow :- PVAB= pva+ pvb+ gain PVA=discounted cash flow of company A PVB=discounted cash flow of company B PV AB=discounted cash flow of the merged firm Therefore synergy is often expressed in the form 2+2=5 4.1.2 Market share/power==One of the most important forces driving merges is the attempt to increase market power {Alderson 2002}This is the ability to exercise some control over the prices of the products, and this can be achieve through either monopoly, oligopoly or dominant producers position. However, Wm Morrison, this is one of the objectives to gain the market share in the South where it was very difficult to break into and the shareholders valve would be maximised .Its the fourth largest company by sales and the second by market capitalisation, The strong market presence enhances the brand images of the company and provides economic of scale 4.1.3 Economic of scaleAnother important contributor to synergy is the ability to exploit the economic of scale. The larger size often leads to lower cost per unit of out put. In the case of wm Morrison, this is not the main motive of takeover 4.1.5 Financial Performance for six years 1feburary 2009 turnover  £14528m compare to two year after the takeover January 2006  £12115m. The profit and loss before tax in 2009 February  £655m compare to January 2006 of ( £312.9) The profit after tax in 2009 January  £460m compare to January 2006 ( £250.3) In 2005 immediately after the takeover, Wm Morrison give the profit warning and the share price drop drastically and the turnover was down to  £12116m compare to February2004 and the profit before tax in 2005 was  £193m to ( 312.9) loss in 2006. These are due to the pos-acquisition syndromes and the managements reaction to the takeover of Safeway .The accounting system were changes few weeks before the completion of the acquisition 4.1.6 The market share As of August 2008, according to TNS World panel, Morrison is the smallest of the Big Four supermarkets with a market share of 11.1%. Whilst Tesco, Asda and Sainsburys saw increases in market share from July 2008 of 31.6%, 17.0% and 15.9% respectively. Morrisons saw a smallest sized decrease of 0.2% in the same period There has been a significant amount of empirical research into merges and acquisition and the impact 4.2 The strength and weakness of Wm Morrison 4.2.1 Strength Strong market presence In examining the strength and the weakness of wm Morrison in its operation as the fourth largest supermarket in the UK ,this is to discover that competition in grocery industry in the southern market is intensified ,but Morrison is able to gain the market shares of strong presence in those areas. It serves over nine millions shoppers every week. Strong market presence enhances the brand images of the company Strong geographical presence Poole et al 2002 stated that Wm Morrison has strong geographical presence across the UK, both in superstores and petrol filling station .The company spread across Scotland with 50 stores ,Northern UK55 stores , 20 stores in Wales ,62 and 42 stores in midlands East and midland West respectively . Therefore, because of it geographical presence enhances the companys sale penetration opportunities and gives it a competitive advantages Extensive ranges of food and services The companys fresh food counters offer valve added services including personal advice, cleaning and preparation of fresh meat and fish according to customer s requirement {Troy 2003}Morrisons extensive list of specialized food products and services helps the supermarket chain to differentiate itself with competitors and thereby provides it with an exclusive bran identity Vertical integrated operations A study has been performed by Balto (2001) to examine the uniqueness of the services provided by the supermarket chain. Morrison is the only major food retailers to own and operate fresh food manufacturing and processing facilities. The companys operations are vertically integrated in its food category, which allows it to manufacture, distributed and retail the vast majority of its fresh meat and dairy requirement 4.2.2 Weakness Lack of presence in the online channel Online shopping has steadily grown in popularity in the UK. The amount of money spent online by consumers in the UK increased to  £14.7billion in 2007 Over the next five years online sales are expected to more than triple to £44.5billion by 2012 (Datamonitor-Uk Retail issues 2008:Time to re-evaluate propositions, BFVT0041,May 2008) With internet shopping rising at a rapid pace, supermarkets are establishing their online sales channel to increase revenues. Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury in the UK have establishing the presence in the internet online shopping, in order to capitalize on this rapidly growing trend towards convenience. However Morrison is yet to capitalize on this trend which limited the companys potential growth opportunities 4.2.3Opportunities Increasing demand for organic products Looking in the real world of the grocery industry, wm Morrison have the opportunities to increase the demand for the organic produces, where the Big Four supermarket chain are real competition , The increasing consumer awareness of health and environmental issue along an increasing resistance towards genetically modified (gm) food products and GM farming. Has led to rapid increase in the demand for organic food (Andrew 2004) Growth in private label market The private label market in the UK is witnessing a strong growth in sales. The UK private label sector is one of the most developed in the world. The valve of the sector is at  £45billon and forecast suggests that this will increase to  £ 52billion by 2011. Morrison has increase its private brand product portfolio over the years (DTI, 2008) 5. Research Methodology The way in which research in conducted is not the easy process of transforming the information into reality, but it need cautious planning exercise which follow the procedures and stages Before commencing the study, appropriate selection of the vital research methodology is essential to ensure that the proposal is in the correct steps. Research methodology is divided into two methods of qualitative and quantitative methods. In some circumstances the two methods are combining together as well depending the nature of the study i.e. multiple method (Litter, et al 2003), Tashakkori and Teddlie (2003) Industrial economist argue that market structure is intrinsically linked to firm behaviour and financial performances (Scherer and Ross, 1999; Martin ,1994) ,which look at the financial performances of the company wm Morrison and the market share above In this research proposal, the quantitative method will be use heavily because of the information provided and as the data resources are secondary data which considered the extraction of data manually from the statistical reports available on the website . Secondary data are used for research projects that were originally collected for some other purposes. It includes both raw data and published summaries. Most organisations collect and store a variety of data to support their operation. Secondary data could be divided into three parts=1. Documentary secondary data, 2.Multiple source of secondary data and third the survey based secondary data. The reasons for the uses of Quantitative method is that, its objective, systemic and orderly way of gathering and interprets the information for the use of the study Quantitative approach is predominantly used as a synonym for any data collection technique such as questionnaire and analysis procedures like graphs or statistic, that generate a numerical data Tashakkori and Teddlie (2003) In contrast, Qualitative is used predominantly as a synonym for any data collection technique such as an interview and analysis procedure like categorising data that generates or use non- numerical data Qualitative therefore can be refer to the data other than words. The qualitative data is very expensive to carryout and costly to undertake. It involve primary data analysis which are gathered from the the interviews, questionnaire, field survey carryout during the research study. The technique of both quantitative and qualitative methods, as maintain earlier, refer to some authors as multiple method (Tashakkori and Teddlie (2003) Also mixed method is the general term for when both qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques and analysis procedures are used in research design. It was argue that multiple method are useful if they provide better opportunities for the users to answer the research question and where they allowed the user to better evaluate the extent to which your research finding can be trusted and make better references 5.1 Empirical question The centre issue is the effect of the big firm merges on competitive pricing, which we sum up in the following question: What are price effects for clients of Wm Morrison and Safeway following merges? Merges can improve consumer or customer welfare by creating efficiencies or decrease consumer welfare by creating conditions conducive to monopoly pricing (Sullivan, 2002:381-3284). Simunic (1980) argues that some segments of the market could be more competitive than others; this could have an impact on the effects of the merges. Also test whether the merges have enabled the brand name firms to pass on any cost saving associated with efficiencies to their clients in the form of reduction in competitive price. Therefore the research question is very important and cannot be overemphasised. It is one the key criteria of the research success will be whether you have a set clear conclusion drawn from the data you have collect the research question is one of key question that the research process will address. These are often the precursor of research objectives. 5, 2 Research Ethics When doing research proposal the ethic should be bear in mind. This is considering the integrity of work as well as to give utmost respect of people and the organisation. In any research undertaken the ethical behaviours should be put into consideration not to offended any one in any manner When using other peoples works and materials for any research, their permission should be obtained or information should be given to them. In some research where the individual permissions are require, ethics play a very important part ,However in this study the research ethics is not very much applicable because the information used are secondary data which is already available in the website and internet Your research design may need to consider the extent to which you should collect data from a research population that is unaware of the fact that they are the subject of research and so have not consented It may be quite a different matter if you are collecting data from individuals, rather than from an organisation. However, there may be a case if you are conducting your research while you are an employee in an organisation and you are collecting data on individual was not disclosed, then this would pose a similar ethical dilemma(Gibb,1995). Conclusion The competition in UK food retail sector has been intensified in the recent years, and the four big supermarkets are competing among themselves. In these aspects, this study has not concluded that there was little evidence of the retailers having adverse effects on the consumer; nor was there significant evidence of the price changes at the wholesale level not passing effectively to the consumer. Traditionally, as UK food retailers have become ever more concentrated and consolidated, increasing levels of power have enabled them to exercise substantial control over the supply chain. In this case study analysed the competition commissions report will do little to stop the trend of expansion, as a means of entry into different market. Recently, there is another merges and acquisition of Somerfield by Co-operative Group which was completed in March 2009. From the recent literature on retail competitiveness and observations made regarding current developments within the competitive environment, it is evident that buyer power will definitely concentrate in the hands of the major retail players .The fact that the retailer are expected to grow their market share by acquiring another companies for them to compete with the others Wm Morrison the fourth big supermarket has this opportunity to expand into the Southern England which was very difficult or not impossible without the takeover of Safeway. During the takeover process many speculators were predicting another foreign takeover and were subsequently surprised by Morrisons unexpected interest

The Racial Struggle of Afro-Cubans Essays -- Race Ethnicity Discrimina

The Racial Struggle of Afro-Cubans Introduction Afro-Cubans struggled to no avail for racial equality between the years 1886-1912. The slaughter of protesting blacks in 1912 shows that the battle cries for equality of Antonio Maceo and Josà © Martà © during the war for independence had dissolved. What was left was a unequal Cuban society, divided racially and fearing a black revolution. Aline Helg speaks directly to this issue in her book Our Rightful Share: The Afro-Cuban Struggle for Equality, 1886-1912. The aforementioned period was one in which the nation’s formation was taking place, thus the unsuccessful attempt at equality has left difficult remnants of racial inequality buried deeply in the fabric of the nation. The Unique Cuban Situation According to Aline Helg In discussing the experience of blacks in Cuba between 1886-1912, Helg gives six "Cuban particularities" which made the experience what it was. She first mentions how Cuba’s racial construct strayed from the norm in Latin America and the Caribbean. Cuba had a two-tier racial system where the group of "others" did not differentiate between mulattoes and blacks. In the other Latin American and Caribbean societies, multi-tier racial systems existed where the stratifications were numerous. Helg suggests that the joining of all blacks and mulattoes into one group may have stemmed from the Conspiracy of La Escalera in 1844, in which both free blacks and slaves were accused of plotting an insurrection against the white Spanish domination. Helg is also quick to point out the differences between the two-tier racial system in the United States, and that of Cuba. In Cuba, the distinction is made by visible physical differences, whereas the United States racial line is... ...from el Oriente initiated everything with their rebellion. It is an important distinction to make I think, because it not only places the blame where the blame belongs, but it also highlights the idea that racial myths put Afro-Cubans in a no-win situation. The lack of further open protest after the massacre of 1912 showed the sense that more protest would only lead to more extensive repression. Similar to the punishment of slave resistance before abolition, the punishment inflicted upon the Afro-Cubans in 1912 showed the Afro-Cubans were still to be considered lesser and somehow less human (Helg 1995, p. 241). These inequalities have reached as far as today, with remnants of racial inequality easily visible in the disproportionate number of Afro-Cubans in high ranking positions in society. Afro-Cubans yearned and continue to yearn to attain their "rightful share".

WWII survivor, Elie Wiesel Essay -- Auschwitz, indifference

Indifference; a lack of sympathy. This is a word of power that describes how a person may watch or know of violence that occurs, yet not take action till it is too late. WWII survivor, Elie Wiesel, creates a dramatic speech, The Perils of Indifference, in which this one word is presented to a group of world leaders. He provides valid examples of how it is our fault, as a united people, for the evil that revealed itself in the last era. One example used in his speech is Auschwitz, a German concentration camp where its prisoners were slaughtered with no remorse from their murderers. The author, though only mentioning this place once, captures his audience as they are silently reminded of what happened and how indifference is to blame for the disaster. Auschwitz is a grand example in Elie Wiesel’s speech and shows how indifference was to blame and that the world leaders are to blame, for this one concentration camp defines that one word with accurate evidence such as by what happ ened within its walls, how the nation leaders let Hitler’s Third Reich grow, and how they did not liberate or delay it before the lives of innocent people were exterminated The horrors in Auschwitz were dark and twisted, and he uses the emotional tension to show what we let happen within those walls. Prison doctors, such as Josef Mengele, would experiment on prisoners with new types of drugs, or in pressure chambers. Mengele also conducted multiple twin dissections and would often kill for no apparent reason other than intimidation, giving him the nickname â€Å"The Angel of Death†. Between medical barracks and crematorium stood the â€Å"Black Wall†, where German soldiers executed hundreds of prisoners. But the prisoners were not only captured Jews. All who opposed H... ...ow and expand before good prevails. It has been a trait passed down generation after generation and must be eradicated in order for our race to be at its fullest. Works Cited "Auschwitz." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. N.p., 10 June 2013. Web. 13 Dec. 2013. . "Auschwitz Bombing Controversy." Jewish Virtual Library. American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2013. . Bulow, Louis. "Gate to Hell, Auschwitz." Auschwitz, Nazi Death Camp. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2013. . "Hitler's rise and fall: Timeline." The Open University. Open University, 26 Apr. 2005. Web. 9 Jan. 2014. .

What Is Your Definition of Leadership?

In my opinion, leadership is the ability to inspire and motivate people enough for them to be willing to participate and get involved towards the achievement of a common goal. I see leadership as a process which can be improved over time and experience, but only by someone who has some innate leadership competences. In determining what leadership means to me, I decided to analyse two different leadership cases. I will firstly discuss and analyse Nelson Mandela’s leadership style, which appeared to be mainly transformational.I will try to demonstrate how Nelson Mandela proved that leadership was a two-way process between the leader and his followers, and how crucial it is for a leader to be respected and admired by his followers in order for him to be effective. In addition, a leader needs to be trustworthy, passionate and devoted to achieving a shared objective. More importantly, a good leader will abandon his subordinates once he achieved a personal goal. Throughout this essa y, I will try to support my opinion being that, efficient leadership lies somewhere in between the trait and the style approaches whilst taking into account the situational approach.In my opinion, not everyone can be a leader, but if someone is meant to be one, leadership skills need to be learned and improved over time and adapted according to different situations. If not born a leader, one can only become one to a certain and limited extent, as we will see in Barack Obama’s case. President Obama first started as an acknowledged inspirational and passionate leader, who people admired, respected and wanted to join. However, a few years after his election, it seems like his glory days are behind him, and that he isn’t the leader he used to be anymore.It might appear that once he was elected president, and his personal goal has been achieved, Obama didn’t fight as hard for his subordinates as he did for his personal satisfaction. His lack of communication and insp irational speeches seem to have considerably damaged his reputation as a leader. It appears that Obama gave Americans too high hopes that he wasn’t able to keep up with and fulfil, creating a wave of disappointment among his supporters. It seems to me that Barack Obama was a great leader throughout his campaign, but that once elected, he was lacking some crucial leadership skills required as a President.In fact, one could argue that he wasn’t born a leader. In contrast to Nelson Mandela, he was only able to be a leader to a certain extent, his apogee being during his presidential campaign. By fighting vigorously against apartheid, Nelson Mandela rapidly became an iconic figure of resistance in South Africa, and was thereafter acknowledged as the most significant black leader South Africa had ever known. He devoted his life to fighting against racism and apartheid in South Africa and for peace.However his life objectives were not personal satisfactions, but satisfaction s of his supporters. He fought for their freedom and well-being before fighting for his own. In fact, he never compromised his political position even to regain his freedom. He could have backed down after being released from the Robben Island prison in 1990 (after 27 years of cruel imprisonment), after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 or even after becoming president in 1994. Yet he didn’t, and continued to fight for his people’s freedom and rights.Nelson Mandela has always demonstrated some legendary listening skills which are essential to being an efficient democratic leader. Indeed, he learned at a very young age from his guardian how listening to others was a vital skill in effective leadership. In fact, his guardian used to listen to everyone’s opinions first while remaining silent, before guiding the group to reach a consensus (Stengel, 1994). Therefore, one could argue that Mandela’s effective democratic or participative leadership styl e was greatly inspired by his childhood experience.Throughout his life as a leader, Nelson Mandela always encouraged people to share their ideas and opinions, to which he carefully listened before making the final decision. This way, he managed to get people to be more engaged and devoted to a particular cause, leading to higher productivity towards their goals’ achievement (Lewin, K. , Liippit, R. and White, R. K. 1939). Moreover, by entering the debate and being the last one to speak, he also gains a considerable advantage, as he is the one to close the argument.He also cultivated other leadership skills through his personal experience of being a cattle herder: â€Å"When you want to get a herd to move in a certain direction, you stand at the back with a stick. Then a few of the more energetic cattle move to the front and the rest of the cattle follow. You are really guiding them from behind. That is how a leader should do his work† (Stengel, 1994, Nelson Mandela: Th e making of a leader, Time Magazine, May 9th 1994). Thus, even before being in any position of leadership, Nelson Mandela revealed himself as a born leader.We can consequently assume that the Traits approach is relevant to efficient leadership. Indeed, Mandela seems to have been â€Å"born† with some essential traits that characterize a leader. Known as the â€Å"main-man† in South Africa, he was charismatic, influential, sociable, intelligent, alert, persistent, responsible, self-confident, and ready to assume the consequences of his decisions, as he did by going to jail. Thus Mandela innate leadership style clearly corresponds to Stogdill’s characteristics of the Traits approach (Stogdill, 1948).Moreover, Nelson Mandela was also widely accepted as a transformational leader, as he was able to inspire and motivate his supporters to work towards a common goal through the power and persuasiveness of his vision and personality. He strongly engaged with his follower s, and made them aware of what achieving a particular goal meant (Barbuto, 2005; Barnett, McCormick & Conners, 2001; Gellis, 2001). As James MacGregor Burns (1978) firstly introduced it, transformational leadership is when â€Å"leaders and followers maker each other to advance to a higher level of moral and motivation. † In addition, according to Bernard M.Bass’s Transformational Leadership Theory (1985), transformational leaders are trusted, respected and admired by their followers. Thus, as Nelson Mandela clearly gathered trust, respect and admiration among his supporters, we can say that his leadership style also corresponded to the transformational one. In fact, Nelson Mandela didn’t sharpen his leadership skills from anywhere, he was a natural leader and his skills came intuitively. He was born a leader and refined his skills with the personal experiences he gained over the years, which enabled him to effectively adapt to various situations.He strongly bel ieved in consensus and knew how to empower his subordinates and motivate them to achieving a common objective. His legendary success as a leader was also mainly due to the fact that he was seen as approachable compassionate and honest. Yet, he was undeniably respected and admired for his courage, his wisdom and his determination. On the other hand, Barack Obama, whose presidential campaign aroused unrecorded enthusiasm, hope and inspiration, seems to have unexpectedly disappointed his followers once elected President of the United States of America.Indeed, during his campaign, Barack Obama astonished everyone with his unpredicted inspirational, passionate and enthusiastic speeches. Who doesn’t remember his â€Å"Yes we can† speech given in New Hampshire in 2008? At the time, it seemed like Obama had all it took to be a great leader, he had a strong charisma, was motivated, inspired and seeking to achieve a common goal, thus showing many aspects of a Transformational as well as Charismatic leader. However, soon after his election, his supporters found themselves disillusioned by their President’s leadership skills.They felt like his motivation and enthusiasm had faded away, and that he wasn’t the inspirational leader he used to be. Obama was effective as a leader during his campaign, at one place and time, but became unsuccessful as soon as the situation and the factors around him changed, due to his rigidity and inability to adapt to contextual changes. Thus, Obama can clearly be related to Fiedler’s Contingency theory, as he became ineffective as soon as the factors around him changed.Unlike Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama seems to be more of an educated leader, who cultivated most of his leadership skills from Columbia and Harvard universities, therefore embracing the style approach which suggests that his behaviour of leader is distinct from his personality. In fact, Obama never appeared as a â€Å"born† leader, with i nnate leadership skills, and had no particular leadership experience, when he became President. Critics of Barack Obama emphasize the fact that his lack of leadership has already been demonstrated in various scenarios.Most of his supporters criticize his lack of communication and his â€Å"invisibility†. They feel somehow deserted and let down by the man who not long ago, aroused their highest hopes. Even the Democrats now acknowledge his lack of presence â€Å"Dems say privately Obama is invisible, not a leader. † (Joe Scarborough, 2011). One would have thought that Barack Obama’s leadership skills would have had improved as he gained in experience as a President, yet it looks like his apogee as a leader what during his campaign and that since then the leadership part of him is disappearing.In fact, Barack Obama brought only a few, if any, leadership skills into his presidency, and has deceivingly developed none after almost 3 years of experience (Kelly OConnel l, 2011). As a President, Obama has espoused a delegating and passive leadership style, which wasn’t the best style to adopt in a period of deep crisis, when perseverance and prompt decision-making skills were required, thus clearly lacking some situational leadership skills (David Brooks, 2011). Barack Obama consequently appeared as the wrong man for the situation, and not the erson America needed, due to his lack of toughness, imagination and determination. The Presidential candidate who was known for his grand enthusiasm and his passion seems to have vanished to make room to a President who got overwhelmed by his job and ran out of ideas shortly after taking office (David Frum, 2011; David Brooks, 2011). It became vague in Obama’s supporters’ minds whether he was the â€Å"turnaround leader† America needed or not (Michael Watkins, Thursday January 22, 2009, â€Å"Can Obama lead the Great American Turnaround? Harvard business review). According to Mich ael Watkins, Obama demonstrated more Steward Attributes than Hero Attributes, which were vital considering the depth of the crisis. Undoubtedly, President Obama was more conservative, diplomatic and supportive than visionary, directive and charismatic. To conclude, we can say that the difference between Nelson Mandela’s and Barack Obama’s leadership style is striking.Nelson Mandela, can be acknowledged as a â€Å"born† leader who improved his leadership skills throughout his experience as a country’s leader, whereas Barack Obama tends to be more of an â€Å"educated† leader, who couldn’t keep up with his status’ expectations. One was able to adapt to situational changes and prove himself as a true leader fighting for his people when the other disappointed his followers by suddenly disappearing through a lack of communication and perseverance to achieve the set common goals, thus generating a common feeling of abandonment.In my opinion , these two cases reinforce my proposition of a leader’s definition, as we clearly saw that leadership skills should be innate and improved through time to make an effective leader. Moreover, by observing Mandela’s and Obama’s leadership cases, we saw how an efficient leader must constantly motivate and inspire his followers to achieving a common objective that should be kept in mind and should remain the main focus of the leader as well as the followers.Clearly, without the support of his followers, a leader cannot achieve anything. Thus, as I suggested it, leadership is a two-way process in which the nurture of relationships between the two parties is essential, as recognized by Peter Northouse (2010). References: Barbuto, 2005; Barnett, McCormick & Conners, 2001; Gellis, 2001 Bass,B. M,(1985). Leadership and Performance. N. Y,: Free Press Brooks, David (June 28, 2011), Convener in Chief, The New York Times, N. Y edition pA23. Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. N. Y: Harper and Raw.Fiedler, F. E. (1967) A Theory of Leadership Effectiveness, New York: McGraw-Hill Frum, David (June 28th 2011), Obama is his own worst Enemy, http://www. frumforum. com/obama-is-his-own-worst-enemy, accessed the 07/01/12 Lewin, K. , Liippit, R. and White, R. K. (1939). Patterns of aggressive behavior in experimentally created social climates. Journal of Social Psychology, 10, 271-301 Northouse, P. G. (2010), Leadership: theory and practice (5th edition) Thousand Oaks, Sage. OConnell, Kelly, Sunday, July 31, 2011 , www. canadafreepress. om â€Å"obama’s leadership style is classic liberalism: no vision+ utter incompetence = total failure† accessed the 05/01/12 Stengel, 1994, Nelson Mandela: The making of a leader, Time Magazine, May 9th 1994 Stogdill, R. M. , 1948. â€Å"Personal factors associated with leadership: A survey of the literature. † Journal of Psychology. 25: 35-71. Watkins, Michael (Thursday January 22nd, 2009), â€Å"Can Obama lead the Great American Turnaround? † Harvard business review, http://blogs. hbr. org/watkins/2009/01/the_great_american_turnaround. html, accessed the 07/02/12

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan is bordered in the north-west by Afghanistan, north by the former USSR and China, east by India and south by the Arabian Sea. The Muslim state that emerged from partition of British India on 14 August 1947 included an eastern wing comprising mainly the eastern half of Bengal province and parts of Assam. (The name Pakistan is coinage representing ‘Punjab, the Afghan border states, Kashmir, Sing and Baluchistan') For nine years Pakistan remained a dominion. It was proclaimed an Islamic republic on 23 March 1956.A federal parliamentary system functioned until-Field -Marshal Muhammad Ayub Khan seized power in a coup in October 1958. Ayub proclaimed a presidential system in the constitution of 1962 and ruled until March 1969, when he was deposed by Gen. Yahya Khan. In the first free elections in December 1970, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's Pakistan People's Part dominated the west, while Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Awami League swept the board in the east, winni ng 160 of the 162 seats. East Pakistan proclaimed sovereignty and formed the People's Republic of Bangladesh on 26 Narcg 1971.Civil war followed after Yahya, supported by Bhutto, ordered troops to arrest Mujib and put down the Bengali uprising. The east-west war ended in December 1971. Yahya handed over power to Bhutto, who ruled until July 1977, before being over-thrown after an opposition campaign against alleged rigging in general elections. Gen. Zia-ul-Haq took over-initially to hold elections and transfer power to a civilian regime. But elections were twice postponed and Bhutto was tried for the murder of a political opponent and executed. Gen.Zia was killed in a plane crash on August 17, 1988 and Senate Chairman Ghulam Ishaq Khan took over as Action President. The country was placed under emergency rule. In the general election held on November 16,1998 the Pakistan People's Part (PPP) led by Benazir Bhutto won the largest number of seats (92). Benazir assumed office as the PM on December 9. Ghulam Ishaq Khan was elected President on December 12. Benazir was dismissed in Aug. '90 and Nawaz Sharif of Islami Jamhoori Ittehed took over as Pakistan's 11th Prime Minister on November 5. Sharief was dismissed in 1993.The Supreme Court annulled the dismissal leading to constitutional impasse. Moeen Qureshi took over as caretaker Prime Minister in July. PPP returned to power in Oct. '93 and Ms. Bhotto took over as PM once again. In Apr. ;96, Imran Khan launched a new part ‘Movement for Social Justice'. In Nov. , Ms. Bhutto was dismissed as PM, the National Assembly dissolved, and M. M. Khalid appointed caretaker PM. On Feb. 17, 1997, Nawaz Sharif was sworn in as Pakistan's 13th PM. Tensions between the military and PM Sharif ended in a coup by army chief. Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Oct. 12, 1999. Nawaz Sharif was later exiled to Saudi Arabia. e was convinced and sentenced to 25-year-long life sentence on charges of hijacking and terrorism. Pakistan was suspend ed (Oct. 18, 19999) from the Commonwealth. A milestone in Indo-Pak relations was the Lahore bus ride by Indian PM Vajpayee in Feb. 1999. Ethnic and communal conflict that had been raging in Karachi intensified in 1995. The Urdu-speaking Muhajirs are demanding equal rights and autonomy. in Jan-Aug, '97, over 150 persons were killed in Shia-Sunni violence, and at least 250 were shot dead in Karachi. In Aug. , government enacted a new law to combat the growing sectarianism and terrorism.Elections are to be held in Oct. 2002, as per Supreme Court order and judgment. Kashmir: Pakistan controls the northern and western portions of Kashmir, an area of about 84,160 sq km with a population of about 2. 8m. in 1985. The pak-occupied Kashmir has its own Assembly, its own Council, High Court and Supreme Court. There is a Parliamentary form of Government with a Prime Minister as the executive head and the President as the constitutional head. The seat of government is Muzaffarabad. The Pakistan G overnment is directly responsible for Gilgit and Baltistan (the north).On May 28, 1998, Pakistan tested five nuclear devices and this was followed by a sixth one on May 3. Agriculture )including forestry and fishing) is the mainstay of Pakistan's economy, employing about 50% o the working population and providing about 25% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). The entire area in north and west is covered by great mountain ranges. The rest of the country consist soft a fertile plain wintered by five big rivers and their tributaries. Agriculture is dependent almost entirely on the irrigation system based on these rivers.The main crops are wheat, cotton, maize, sugar-cane and rice, while the Quetta and Kalat divisions (Baluchistan) are known for their fruits and dates. Pakistan is self-sufficient in wheat, rice and sugar. Industry employs about 10% of the population. Manufacturing contributes about 20% to GNP. Refined sugar, vegetable products, jute textiles, soda ash, sulphur acid, caustic soda, chip board and paper board, bicycles, cotton cloth, cotton yarn, cement and steel. Main exports are cotton cloth, cotton yarns, rice, leather, carpets and tapestries. There are international airports at Karachi, Islamabad, lahore, Peshwar and Quetta.

Letter of Recommendation Essay

A.Current Performance Last year, Google had strong financial metrics. According to Google’s operational highlights, the company reported worldwide revenue growth and cash flow for the four quarters of 2013, making Google one of the most successful companies within its industry. Overall, Google’s last year’s return on investment, market share, and profitability were positive (2013 Financial Tables n.d.). B.Strategic Position Google’s main focus is on the customer. Furthermore, the company’s mission statement is â€Å"to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.† 1.Google has been able to reflect its mission statement by making its customers a priority, always delivering excellence with its products to worldwide customers. 2.Google has been in the technology industry since 1998. Although the company was incorporated on September 4, 1998, Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin had already built a search engine (initially called BackRub) by 1996. 3.Google’s main objective was to â€Å"create the perfect search engine,† an engine that would â€Å"understand exactly what you mean and give you back exactly what you want.† Nowadays, Google has not only been successful at creating this perfect search engine, but has been able to make it smarter and faster. 4.One thing Google focuses on the most is that its business operations are aligned with its strategy. The Business Operations and Strategy team at Google is in charge of identifying and clarifying Google’s â€Å"strategic priorities, addressing operational challenges, and facilitating innovation.† 5.In order to maintain a positive experience for its users, Google considers its policies to play an important role in the structure of the company. Google’s policies are against â€Å"illegal activities, malicious products, hate speech, the distribution of personal and confidential information, the access of another user’s account without their permission, child exploitation or child abuse, spam, ranking manipulation or relevancy, sexually explicit material, harassment and  bullying, violence, impersonation or deceptive behavior; and the run of contests, sweepstakes, and promotions on Google+.† 6.Google has proven to be an effective company while under the scrutiny of local and international regulations. Although Google has no control over foreign rules , the company attempts to provide accurate and genuine information within the enforced parameters. Furthermore, Google’s main priority is to abide by national and international rules and regulations as much as possible (Company Overview, n.d.). II.Corporate Governance A.Board of Directors Eleven members constitute the Board of Directors for Google Inc. The company’s board of directors is comprised of a multicultural team that supports the company with their knowledge, skills, and connections. Every member, as a reward for their contribution of knowledge, skills, or connections to the company, is entitled to receive Class B shares of stock. Google is a publicly traded company. On August 18, 2004, 19,605,052 shares of Class A common stock went out for public offering on Wall Street. Google’s internal members are: 1.Larry Page, CEO. Larry was the founder of the company and has been the chief executive officer since 1998. He is responsible for the day-to-day-operations, as well as leading the company’s product development and technology strategy. His engineering skills are such a great contribution to the company. 2.Sergey Brin, Co-Founder. Along with Larry, Sergey Brin co-founded Google Inc. in 1998. Sergey is responsible for directing the special tasks of the company. He also served as President of Technology from 2001 to 2011. His knowledge in computer science is of a great value to the success of the company. 3.Eric E. Schmidt, Executive Chairman. Eric joined the company in 2001 and helped Google to become the great company it is now. Eric is responsible for building partnerships and expanding business relationships, and for advising the CEO on industry and policy issues. Representing the external members of the company are: 4.L. John Doerr has been a member of Google’s board of directors since May 1999. John’s areas of expertise are social networks, greentech innovation, and education and economy development. 5.Diane B. Greene has acted as a member of Google’s board of directors since January 2012. Diane’s background is in computer science and mechanical engineering. 6.John L. Hennessy has been a member of the company’s board of directors since April 2004. John has also been Google’s Lead Independent Director since April 2007. John’s areas of expertise are computer science and electrical engineering. 7.Ann Mather has served as a member of the company’s board of directors since November 2005. Furthermore, from 2004 to 2009, Ann was the director of a company in charge of developing and operating national commercial television channels and stations in Central and Eastern Europe. Ann holds a Master of Arts degree from Cambridge University in England. 8.Alan R. Mulally holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in aeronautical and astronautical engineering, and a Master’s degree in Management. Alan has been a member of Google’s boards of directors since July 2014. He has also been a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of England’s Royal Academy of Engineering. 9.Paul S. Otellini has served as a member of the company’s board of directors since April 2004. Paul holds a Master’s degree of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics. 10.K. Ram Shriram has acted as a member of Google’s board of directors since September 1998. Ram’s areas of expertise range from advice on how to raise venture capital, how to manage the hiring process in a corporation, how to make the right product choices and how to define and adapt the business model to changing market conditions. Ram has a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the University of Madras, India. 11.The last member of Google’s board of directors is Shirley M. Tilghman; she has served to the company’s board of directors since October 2005. Shirley holds a Doctoral degree in biochemistry from Temple University, and a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in chemistry from Queen’s University (Corporate Governance, n.d.). B.Top Management Google’s top management is not only composed of some of the most experienced technology professionals in the industry, but of a team knowledgeable in  conducting business worldwide. In fact, Google’s top management team is responsible not only for the day-to-day operations, but for the company’s performance during the past few years. The following six members are part of Google’s Top Management team: 1.Larry Page, CEO and Co-Founder. 2.Sergey Brin, Co-Founder. 3.Eric E. Schmidt, Executive Chairman. 4.Nikesh Arora, Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer. 5.David C. Drummond, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer. 6.Patrick Pichette, Senior Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer. Most of Google’s top management team is hired internally, although they have held management positions with other companies prior to joining Google’s management team. As stated in Google’s Corporate Governance Guidelines, the duty of the board of directors is to supervise management’s functioning to ensure that the company is operating in an effective, efficient, and ethical manner in order to attract and encourage future investors, and to generate value for current Google’s stockholders. Moreover, the Board is in charge of evaluating Google’s overall strategy and monitoring Google’s performance to compare it to its operating plan and the performance of its peers (Management team, n.d.). III. External Environment: Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) A. Natural Physical Environment: Sustainability Issues No natural physical environmental forces threat Google or the industry in which it competes. Google is an internet search engine where users have the ability to gain access to mass amount of information quickly and easily. The ability for users to utilize the search engine is not physically impacted in other regions of the world. B. Societal Environment Although physical environments do not affect Google, social environmental factors do. 1.Economic: Google can face economic downtime due to market recession. Making Harder for Google to gain advertisers and therefore decreasing current revenue of 97%, this comes from advertising.   2.Technological: Internet Security Issues is a concern to the massive pool of information and one of Google’s major problems is identity theft, which affects its users. Users that use Google and are threat by the possibility of identity theft may cease from usage of the search engine. 3.Political-Legal: As Google grows, putting the competition to shame, it could gain monopoly power. If so regulatory issues pertaining to monopoly power can rise and/or other legal issues. Google can face liability issues with the Digital Millennium Copyright that limits the linking to a third-party site. 4.Social-cultural: Due to different government and other country views, Google is force to censor web content in different locations. Countries like Germany, France, Poland and China have forced these censors. The above social environmental forces vary in other countries due to geographical regulations, languages, and cultural beliefs. C. Task Environment Google innovation is transparent. The company continues to strive by gaining users, providers and bringing to light new tools. These achievements do not seem to stop the competition and competitors will remain the same from country to country. A.Threat of new entrants: medium B.Bargaining power of buyers: high C.Threat of substitute products or services: high D.Bargaining power of suppliers: low E.Rivalry among competing firms: medium F.Relative power of unions, governments, special interest groups, etc.: high Google faces competition from all internet base companies that intent to communicate information to users. One of Google’s possible strongest competitors is Bing. Current threats involve vertical search engines and e-commerce sites, providers of online products. Social Network, such as Facebook and twitter, are driving users in for advertising and other referrals, which causes current and future threats. Other than possible increased on competition, which may drive users and advertising ads elsewhere, Google also faces possible liability issues, Information Technology issues and security issues. With each threat, the company may seek an opportunity. For example, developing operating systems for mobile  devices and others, this drives users to continue the use of Google. D. Summary of External Factors The integration of European Community, Eastern Europe, with economic development of Asia are all external opportunities factors that may contribute to Google’s growth. Increasing governmental regulations and new product advances are factors that represent the most threat. The company’s opportunity lie on the electronics industry and the driverless cars patent represented. IV.Internal Environment: Strengths and Weaknesses (SWOT) A. Corporate Structure Google is known to be one of the top employers. Google’s management executives are not the main decision makers, although executives do have the last say on decision to assure it meet Google’s innovative strategic. Employees involvement is highly encourage at Google. At Google, the atmosphere is pleasant, family oriented. Google’s approach is for top managements develop strategies and effective implementation while serving as an inspiration to the employees collaborates and brings ideas to life. B. Corporate Culture In a successful company, the employers are the main drivers. At Google, employees are the â€Å"Googlers.† One of Google firm belief is that happy employees make a company. Google hire talented, strong-minded individuals who strive for better, greater results. Many companies use this approach where they encourage employees to take lead and executives/managers simply assure projects are met and within the organizational goals. Google is a transparent company where they make sure employees keep inform by using technology and standard process for communication. Their developments and announcements are discussed in forums. Google has adapted well over 12 languages, reflecting the global audience that they serve. C. Corporate Resources Marketing: Google’s marketing objective is clearly stated, the company doesn’t shy away. Company’s mission is to provide accessibility to information to users. Google’s User Interface is everywhere and can be access from any device. The corporation performs well and has sustained growth. Google continuous growth come from innovation. Google has created new products in the past years, such as, Google Maps, Google Video, PageRank, Google Docs, Gmail, among others, providing users free accessibility to several products within the brand. Finance: Advertisement drove the revenue gain of 97% for Google and in 2008 it amounted to 51% gain. The company was not affected by the economy downtime. Although like many companies, seasonality affects Google’s growth, but not significantly. After 2008, Google financial position remains stable. Revenues are constant, around $13-14 million per quarter, and operating/net income do not fluctuate a lot. Google’s growth comes from the development of new products. Research and Development (R&D) / Operation and logistics: Google hires innovative and talented employees so their creativity is used for developments of new product and processes. Google objective and strategies have been consistent with the company’s mission. One of the strategies Google is to obtain knowledge about the market’s need to create programs funding, company acquisition, and product development. Google products do not require storage, delivery; it is not a tangible service. Google’s products are at no cost to users. Google’s operation mirrors their mission, provide relevant and useful search results for users, advertising, and always strive to improve users’ experience in their search engine. Human Resource Management (HRM): At Google, the Human Resource Management seeks talented individual to come aboard. Employees at Google are awarded for high performance. In 2009, Google had around 19,835 employees. In 2010, all employees received a one thousand dollar cash bonus and a 10% pay raise. Google provided such incentive to retain skilled employees. Google’s rapid growth and innovations are due to its talented employees that bring their experience and technology wisdom. Google works hard to retain those employees by providing a family  oriented workplace and striving for employee satisfaction. Information Technology (IT): Information Technology is a concern for Google. Because hackers and spammers can harm Google’s credibility, Google IT system must avoid injuries from hackers, spammers and even natural disasters. IT must work towards providing an utmost internet security. Google is well aware of these issues and it uses appropriate technology to help maintain its integrity and services. D. Summary of internal factors Internal Factors are brand, user experience, marketing, advertising, employee retention, and information technology issues. Google stands out and dominates the market. Bing, Yahoo and even AOL are Google’s current competitions, yet Google excels with their continuous products creations and services. Google mission statement is clear and through the services it provides it is recognized how it holds true to its mission. Working at Google it is known to be pleasant, everyone would like to work happily at such employee driven company. In summary, Google has strong brand recognition, utmost service quality, and a creative cultural atmosphere. Google’s success comes from its retention of skilled employees, resources in technology and innovation, and advertising. V. Analysis of Strategic Factors A.Strengths Google is a global technology company, whose main focus is to improve the ways in which people connect and transfer information via the web. With that in mind, Google’s capability as a company has positioned it as one of the most important entities in the market. The main source of revenue for Google comes from the placement of online advertisements. However, because Google itself already has an established name within the public eye, the company does not need to need to place much emphasis on their own company advertisement – being rated the number one search engine. Google’s operation cost is very low. The way that Google extracts its information for searches is through the use of low cost Unix web servers, which index web  pages across the Internet. Moreover, with the use of Pagerank, Google is able to rank web pages and give users amplification to the most important sites first. Google is not only a search engine, but also a sort of portal to information of various categories across the web. Its product line includes: Images, Groups, Directory, and News among others. It is apparent that Google envisioned this as on its home page it keeps tabs so that the simplicity of the site can give users easy and accessible navigation. Through the use of AdWords, an advertising platform that incorporates relevant ads to the right of Google’s search results, buyers and sellers are instantly connected. Users have the decisive choice to pick how much will be paid per click and the number of times the ad is to be displayed. As for advertisers, they do not have to pay by the number of clicks on the advertisement, the can choose to pay for the number of sales. Google is a company that is continuously evolving and under development. Because the market of this company has unlimited possibilities, the source of revenue is endless. Google’s growth has lead to the purchasing of other large emerging companies such as Postini, YouTube and DoubleClick, which have ultimately continued to enlarge the growth of the overall company. With expansion and strengthening of the company, Google has also been able to develop solutions for personalized toolbars as well as wireless handled devices and tablets. As of the current moment, Google’s momentum and development (through low operation cost) have lead it to be considered within the top 10 brands in the U.S., surpassing Microsoft’s market cap with 221.19B. B. Weaknesses Like every company out there, though very potent, Google also has its drawbacks. On a scale, only 50-65 percent of web search queries are answered within precision. Regulatory scrutiny was made to be increased by Google, which in turn negatively impacted the business. This particular situation gave way for increased risk with continued growth and corporate expansion. Spammers, who have created dummy sites with links of pages they want Google to rank highly, have manipulated Google’s search ranking technology. Google has also been faced with problems with censorship, as Government pressure has lead the company to block certain information in  several locations. For example, in Germany, France and Poland, it was illegal to post material that denied the Holocaust. As a result, Google was forced to filter out this information. With the increasing amount of data and applications available on the web, and the rising privacy issues, Google’s concern for identity theft has increased as well. Cost per click advertising is confusing for customers and makes it hard for marketers to predict the cost and positioning of their ads. The presence of Google on social networks is not very big, and therefore their advertisement presence is not as big as other companies though it heavily relies on it. Nonetheless, the cost of data centers rise per year, which also means that Google’s expenditures increase substantially yearly as well. C. Opportunities Through the use of portalization, Google can increase its income. Another opportunity on the plate is also for Google to merge with other already existing portals in order to enter the social media loop market and become a strong competitor with companies such as Facebook and Twitter. Being a developer of wireless handheld devices, Google could increase into telecommunication products such as tablets in order to enter a market that goes beyond the systematic World Wide Web. Capitalizing on the use of e-books and buying consumer sales based sites as Groupon and Gilt City could also signify a great opportunity for Google. D. Threats Google’s biggest threat is losing its name value. Google runs the risk of its name being used by the public as a simple search engine. Although Yahoo! Was the first search engine to gain widespread acceptance and top the charts, it quickly lost its top notch title to Google when it introduced its state of the line search engine technology. Google fears that the same can happen to its company, the biggest threat being Bing, who owned by Microsoft, could become a serious competitor due to the great marketing power of Microsoft. Other threats include social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Yelp) as users are beginning to rely heavily on product/service referrals rather than having to take the time to search for information themselves through the search engines. Mobile applications are another  threat that Google encounters. Other forms of advertisement such as billboards, magazines, newspapers, radio, television and yellow pages are also parties that Google competes against for ad dollars. Being a portal of creation and connectivity, Google provides services such as Gmail and Google Docs which compete directly with other companies who offer the same services embedded into their medium. E. Review of Current Mission and Objectives Google’s overall mission was to be able to organize information and make it readily available to people around the world. Management of the company believed that in order to achieve the purpose in the most effective and fruitful way would be to put the needs of the users first. Committed to maintaining this, the mission of the company has been carried out in accordance and has provided heightened results. VI. Strategic Alternatives and Recommended Strategy Strategic alternatives and recommended strategies for Google include taking advantage of new emerging technologies and embedding them into the new creation of products and services. An example of such use can be portrayed through the artificial intelligence being incorporated into the software of cars, in order to have them drive themselves and have memory of recurring routes. Having a op of the line management team that will lead the company to the top is always a factor that should be kept in line – a highly driven and talented workforce. The culture of Google should always be kept as a strategy: emphasizing teamwork, innovation, flexibility and transparency. Moreover, Google needs to place a large focus on the development of ideas in the mobile computing market due to the fact that mobile devices are quickly growing in use and soon the use of desktops and laptops will be replaced and outdated by the use of smart phones. VII. Implementation A. Programs to be developed to implement the recommended strategy Reconstructing Google is not a feasible nor needed option. Having the market  strength that they possess allows them to go the route of instituting TQM. Total quality management will allow them to continuously improve. In order in order for the implementation of TQM, a program should be developed, to keep improving both the product and the process quality. Top management should take the role of developing these programs. In the TQM program there has to be a process where employees that work directly with the product and services are highly involved to make sure that everything is running smoothly and evaluate the situation to see where improvements can be made. B. Financial feasibility of the programs and appropriateness of timetables and priorities Fortunately for Google, they are very financially stable and able to take on new projects and programs. A program like the suggested TQM program will not have a significant impact on their financials but it will have a great reward when it comes to their long-term success. This long-term success will come from the heightened attention to quality that will be seen by consumers in the product that are made. This will make consumers trust the brand even more and give Google a completive advantage. C. Need for new SOP Development As of now it seems clear that Google has very effective standards of operating procedures, as with anything, nothing is static and change is inevitable. In the future as demand changes and new technology is introduced, Google will have a need for a new SOP in order to stay efficient and above in the market. VIII. Evaluation and Control A. Current information system This case does not mention the current information system used by Google, but in researching the top business intelligence systems that are available, Google no doubt has custom software that does everything and even more than the ones available in the market. Some examples of BI solutions are SAS and IBM’s Cronos. Both of these solutions offer reporting, analytical processing, data mining, event processing, business performance management and many more useful tools. With the programs containing historical and  present data, it can help business plan for their needs and see where they are able to get a competitive advantage by forecasting and creating what if scenarios. B. Control Measures to ensure conformance with the recommended strategic plan In reading over the case it was not clear what control measures were used by Google, form researching, Google sends out â€Å"Tech Talks† blogs and weekly â€Å"TGIF† meetings to pass information and communicate with employees. Rewarding good performance is something that is at the top of the list for Google. In today’s competitive job market, competitors are always looking for new talent. Talent management comes into play, where Google’s HRM has to constantly monitor top talent and retain them. Google has a history of maintaining a corporate culture of innovation and performance aligning the needs of the corporation with that of their employees. Google paid $1,000 cash bonus and a 10% raise to all of their employees in 2010, this here shows how valuable it is to Google to maintain their employees. Work Cited Company ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ¢â€š ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ¢â‚¬Å" Google. (n.d.). Company ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ¢â€š ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ¢â‚¬Å" Google. Retrieved July 18, 2014, from https://www.google.com/about/company/ Wheelen, Thomas L., and J. David Hunger. Strategic Management and Business Policy: Toward Global Sustainability. 13th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2011. Print.

Report on oncology nursing career Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Report on oncology nursing career - Essay Example Oncology Nursing Oncology nursing involves the task of conducting research on cancer, taking care of cancer patients directly and performing administrative functions to treat cancer incidents. Thus, an oncology nurse is responsible for providing care and supervising cancer patients whom are chronically or critically ill (Williamson, 2008). Furthermore, an oncology nurse is expected to monitor the physical condition of the cancer patients, formulate strategies to manage the symptoms and give medical prescription. Consequently, owing to the critical roles the oncology nurses are expected to conduct to protect and treat chronically ill cancer patients form deaths, they should possess intensive qualifications. Indeed, for an individual to be become an oncology nurse, the individual should undergo a comprehensive training on psychological and physiological needs of cancer patients. This involves understanding the prevention and detection of cancer, diagnosis and treatment, survivorship, e nd-of- life care and rehabilitation of cancer patients (ONS, 2007). Thus, the oncology nurses are prepared through the educational system with the knowledge of providing primary, sensitive and painkilling care to cancer patients by applying genomics and genetics knowledge. This is done through educational program that gives the students teachings on advanced pharmacology, physical assessment and pathophysiology (Williamson, 2008). Consequently, upon graduation the oncology graduates gain additional skills, knowledge and abilities during their practice experience which may not be provided during the entry educational competency qualifications. Owing to this high demands for one to admitted in the oncology nursing profession, the remunerations have been relatively growing over the last couple of years and second after the medical and surgical nursing (Williams & Wilkins, 2011). Indeed, latest empirical findings have shown that the salary increment over the last five years between 2006 and 2011 surpassed the inflation change in the same period. The salaries increased by a rate of 22% between 2006 and 2007 while inflation increased by 11% in the same period (Williams & Wilkins, 2011). This depicts that the salary of oncology nurses have been fairly increasing since they are able to compensate for the hiking change of money value in the market. Another aspect that is witnessed in the salary reward of the oncology nurses is that they face differential remunerations according to their level of study, specialisation or healthcare organization they serve. Indeed, on average the nurses earn a salary of $60,000 per annum. However, depending on the number of years the nurses has spent in their current position, the rate of reward increases. This is also, replicated in rewarding the nurses according to their job title. Furthermore, if an oncology nurse is a registered member of a given union, they earn more than those not registered. Similarly, oncology nurses working in r ecognized Magnet facilities enjoy higher pays than those in Non-Magnet facilities. This is also, witnessed in private hospitals, community hospitals, university hospitals and military hospitals where the salaries differs in an increasing rate respectively. Moreover, an oncology nurse whom has higher level of education enjoys a higher reward compared to other. This is also, applied by segmenting the rate of rewarding the nur