Social Psychology Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Social Psychology - Assignment Example Consequently, I seldom participated in get together or other social activities conducted within school premises by my class-fellows. It is therefore, the boys and girls considered me as a very temperamental, unpredictable and arrogant person. One of my girl class-fellows, called Sandy, was very naughty and lively student. She looked like a tom-boy, and participated in sports and games, and every mischief observed by the naughty students. She did not like such a book worm like me, and always displayed her disliking for too much study and no play in quite an innocent mode. She cited psychological causes that led humans towards isolation and described the reasons behind leading the lonely life. â€Å"Lonely people have an intense longing to be needed and wanted by someone else. Some people suffer from loneliness from time to time, and for some it’s a daily way of life. Most lonely people wear the affects of it on their face with a sad continence or a dejected look.† (Nicel y, 2008: 1) But it was not the case actually; rather, I wanted to spend most of my time in the world of literature, colors and imagination. I even had no care regarding the views my class-mates maintained about me. Time was passing with its usual flow, and everything appeared to be routine matter. Then one day one single event made revolutionary changes in my life. It was a pleasant April morning, when the speech contest was going to be held at school level. One student from 7th to 10th grade could participate in the contest. I was one of the spectators, when I found my class-teacher in a perplexed state. On enquiry, I came to know that the contester from our class was absent from the school and there was no one to represent our class. Since everyone knew that I had vast knowledge of almost all topics, the teacher requested me to represent the class. After little hesitation, I stepped forward and spoke at

Business Management Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Business Management - Term Paper Example But how is this done? Research reveals that employees may be motivated in a number of ways. One such is through recognition and reward as noted in the article Leadership Coaching: Employee Motivation Rewards In The Workplace. The article was written on August 15, 2012 by Mike Krutza and Jodi Wiff. It attempts to bring out the importance of employee motivation and what managers need to do in order to ensure that employees under them are motivated. One of the strategies identified by Krutza and Wiff is that managers must learn to praise and reward the deserving. They note that giving credit to teammates is very important. In this regard, they argue that a manager who gives spotlight on a coworker who is doing a fabulous job will most likely be recognized by the management. As such, they advice that a manager should ensure that an informal employee recognition award is established, which he would be comfortable creating, and overseeing, as well. The article also suggests that taking an initiative to develop an employee award system, is good since it also help the manager keep his job. The reason being, it shows that the manager cares about his teammates and the value put on team. In addition, they point out that for the manager to appear self-confident before his seniors, he should also praise his teammates for a job well done. Several management approaches have been developed that can be used to explain why this is so. The approaches include classical, behavioral, quantitative and contemporary. The objective of this paper is to relate the article â€Å"Leadership Coaching: Employee Motivation Rewards in the Workplace† to these approaches classical, behavioral, quantitative and contemporary. It will also relate the article to the organization structure of a company or business. Classical Principle The classical school of thought is based on managing the organization and workers more effectively, and falls under different groups: scientific, administrative a nd bureaucratic management. Scientific management is based on a number of principles such as the application of scientific methods to work in order to come up with the best way of accomplishing a given task in an organization. This implies that failure to establish the best way of accomplishing the organizations task is may lead to managers using actions which are inconsistent with the overall organizational goals (Griffin 16). Scientific management under classical school of thought suggests that employees should be carefully hired based on their qualifications and trained to do their jobs more effectively and efficiently (Griffin 14). Hiring of qualified and competent workers minimizes labor turnover within an organization and contributes to better work and ethics. Despite the fact that employees may be qualified, some may not be up to the task. Therefore, to ensure that employees are motivated, a manager would still have to organize for an award scheme for those to does their work better according to Krutza and Wiff (par. 1). This will increase the overall performance of the organization, thereby making the manager be recognized by top management as an important person in the organization which they cannot afford to loose. Scientific management principle also proposes that there should be genuine cooperation between management and workers based on mutual self-interest (Griffin 16). This aspect relates quite well with the article as the authors point out that the reward

Friction. Lab report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Friction. - Lab Report Example Record the load and the hanger’s weight and repeat this procedure placing masses of 200, 400, 600, 800, and 1000 g successively on top of the wood block. Turn the wood block on its side and repeat former task with a mass of 400 g on top of the block then turn the same block with the largest contact surface with the plane and place 400 g on top of the block, gradually increasing the load on the hanger until the block just starts to move. Set up the board as an inclined plane and place the wood block on the plane with its largest surface in contact, and gradually tip the plane up until the block just starts to slide down. Results: Coefficient of Kinetic Friction (based on the graph) = 0.323 ÃŽ ¼k = 0.307 (procedure 4) ; ÃŽ ¼s = 0.3710 (procedure 6) ÃŽ ¼s = 0.4073 (procedure 5) ; ÃŽ ¼k = 0.3575 (procedure 7) Applications: The concept may be applied by an engineer or specialist who needs to know the type/ property, mass of material, and angles of impending motion suitable for use in problems where friction is a significant factor in design and construction. Calculations (1) Using MS Excel, Based on this, ?k = 0.323 (2) Using the data of Procedure 4: total normal force = 6.388 N and friction force = 1.962 N and since fk = ?k * FN then, ?k = 1.962 N / 6.388 N ---? ?k = 0.307 (3) From the data of Procedure 5: ?s = force to start moving the block / total normal force Trial 1: ?s = 2.7468 N / 6.389 N ---? ?s = 0.4299 Trial 2: ?s = 2.354 N / 6.389 N ---? ?s = 0.3684 Trial 3: ?s = 2.707 N / 6.389 N ---? ?s = 0.4237 Average value (?s) = (0.4299 + 0.3684 + 0.4237) / 3 = 0.4073 Deviation (trial 1) = 0.4299 - 0.4073 = 0.0226 , |0.0226| = 0.226 Deviation (trial 2) = 0.3684 - 0.4073 = -0.0389 , |-0.0389| = 0.0389 Deviation (trial 3) = 0.4237 - 0.4073 = 0.0164 , |0.0164| = 0.0164 (4) From the data of Procedure 6: ?s = tan (?max) Trial 1: ?s = tan (19Â °) ---? ?s = 0.3443 Trial 2: ?s = tan (23Â °) ---? ?s = 0.4245 Trial 3: ?s = tan (19Â °) ---? ?s = 0.3443 Averaage value (?s) = (0.3443 + 0.4245 + 0.3443) / 3 = 0.3710 Deviation (trial 1) = 0.3443 - 0.3710 = -0.0267 , |-0.0267| = 0.0267 Deviation (trial 2) = 0.4245 - 0.3710 = 0.0535 , |0.0535| = 0.0535 Deviation (trial 3) = 0.3443 - 0.3710 = -0.0267 , |-0.0267| = 0.0267 Difference between two values of ?s = 0.4073 - 0.3710 = 0.0363 (5) From the data of Procedure 7: ?s = tan (?max) Trial 1: ?s = tan (21Â °) ---? ?s = 0.3839 Trial 2: ?s = tan (19Â °) ---? ?s = 0.3443 Trial 3: ?s = tan (19Â °) ---? ?s = 0.3443 Averaage value (?s) = (0.3839 + 0.3443 + 0.3443) / 3 = 0.3575 Deviation (trial 1) = 0.3839 - 0.3575 = 0.0264 , |0.0264| = 0.0264 Deviation (trial 2) = 0.3443 - 0.3575 = -0.0132 , |-0.0132| = 0.0132 Deviation (trial 3) = 0.3443 - 0.3575 = -0.0132 , |-0.0132| = 0.0132 Questions & Answers (1) Explain in your own words why it is necessary that the block move at constant velocity in Procedures 2 – 4. The block must move in constant velocity so that no acceleration occurs which would create a net force that would affect determination of normal force and friction. (2) (a) How does the coefficient of friction depend upon the normal force between the surfaces in contact? (b) How does it depend upon the area of the surfaces in contact? The coefficient of friction decreases with increasing normal force between the surfaces of contact. However, coefficient of friction does not depend upon the contact surface area because in the experiment, values of normal forces stay the same while the force to keep the block moving uniformly does not differ much between that of the flat position and the

Fieldwork report Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Fieldwork report - Personal Statement Example While reporting this session, I will also examine these aspects. Being a senior registered nurse in a Hong Kong Hospital, it is part of my duty to teach the fellow nurses and nursing students. In my work as an infectious disease nurse, coming across patients with infection is a daily routine, but as a nurse, I must be able to follow the hospital guidelines regarding infection containment. There are certain theoretical principles that guide these infection prevention policies, and isolation is one of them. Like every hospital, our hospital also sends suspected patients to isolation so spread of a particular infection and related contagious disease is prevented (Hospital Authority, 2006). There are certain places where such a patient is to be restricted during the span of the disease, and once the patient is no longer contagious, the patients is discharged to a step-down unit. The relevance of these guidelines are to be understood by the students and nurses, so they can follow the hospital guidelines accurately based on their understanding on the t opic (Preventing Transmission). After I was entrusted to conduct a teaching session, I made thorough preparation to design the course content, the audiovisual aids, and hand out questionnaire to assess knowledge of the participants at the end of the session. The date of my session was scheduled to be on September 18, 2008. Report on the Session The session was held on September 18, 2008, in the hospital lecture theater. It was a well illuminated, spacious sound-proof room with state of the art and comfortable seating arrangement. There was a modern public address system, and the teacher is supposed to talk through it. The audiovisual head sets were available for each student, but since the group was large, all new headsets could not be arranged for all. At the end and also in the feedback form, quite a few of the students complained about disturbed hearing, and sometimes, they could not even follow the lecture (Bahn, D., 2001). There was a podium, where I was standing and talking, and the podium had been structured in such a manner that all students can have an equal view. There was computer set up in the room, an internet connection, and the computer was connected to an LCD projector. The functions of these were checked and rechecked before the session began so technical failure does not happen. I must accept that once on the podium, I was feeling a little shaky, by voice was dry, and was perplexed for a moment or two, not able to pick my words. However, I was careful to demonstrate openness of my personality, and in the introduction while setting my topic, I made it clear that we shall learn together. This broke the ice, and a healthy learning environment was set up immediately (Bastable, S., 2003). I also informed that whenever they think they are having difficulty following, they are welcome to stop me and ask questions, and I would heartily entertain them. I also mentioned that there are time constraints in the programme, and they should not ask anything unnecessary or irrelevant during the session. At the end of the s

Universe in 1850-1914 Essay Example for Free

Universe in 1850-1914 Essay Science in the period of the later half of the 19th century to the early years of 20th provides a rather busy picture for the scientific community in identifying the extent of the universe. In the previous generations, the universe was perceived to be an only small patch of space occupied by some considerable amount of celestial bodies. However, due to the expansion of industrialism and technology in the West, more and more aspects of the true beginnings and characteristics of the universe were uncovered. With the use of instruments, science was able to reveal that the actual composition of the universe is not merely influenced by planets and stars. There are other materials in various elemental forms which can be found in the vast space. Also, theories were formulated about the true nature of the start of the universe itself which is in direct contrast to the previous generations of â€Å"materialism† which asserts that the universe has â€Å"always† existed (Koestler, 2003). The materialism approach was definitely put into fiction in this era. The more modern approach of science about the universe was deeply presented by the Big Bang and Relativity theories in the early 20th century. In terms of the philosophy about humanity’s true significance in the universe, many scientists believed that human existence is just another segment of the evolutionary line of events. The philosophy of the same scientific community between late 1800 and early 1900 provided a rather radical approach in presenting that there is a certain design pattern which allowed humans and other biological entities to exist. The design is not a correspondence to the true goal of the creation of the universe rather; it is a design which would permit life to exist. The previously accepted Darwinian approach was considered as just the supporting fact to this philosophy. References Koesteler, A. 2003. A Century of Discoveries in Physics. Retrieved November 8 2007 from http://www. creationofuniverse. com/html/materialism. html.

Chocolate Processing Is A Long History Industry

Chocolate Processing Is A Long History Industry Chocolate processing is a long history industry in global and since it been discovered in the mid 1600, the passion for cocoa grew. When Joseph Fry Son discovered a way to make the first modern chocolate bar, its become favourite for sweet and dessert lovers. Since the demand increasing substantially, lots of large chocolate company established in the international market such as Cadbury, Ferrero roce, Hersheys and their brands are strong identified by consumers. Therefore chocolate industry is a high rivalry global market and it is crucial for Cocoa Boutique to plan appropriate strategic to modify the structure and competitive dynamics to gain an advantageous position. Prior to strategy planning, Cocoa boutique required understanding the internal and external environment and its position within the industry by using business strategy tools such as SWOT analysis, PEST analysis, and value chain analysis. 2.0 SWOT analysis of Cocoa Boutique SWOT analysis model is the most common using tool by large organization whereas it is stand for strength, weakness, opportunity and threat of the firm or industry. Through SWOT analysis, managers can better understanding its organizations position within the industry and planning appropriate strategy to achieve its mission and goals. Strength Although the rivalry is fierce, chocolate making in Malaysia is quite unique because almost chocolates products imported from western company. This given an opportunity for Cocoa Boutique to establish their local chocolates making company to build brand identify among local citizens. Through effectiveness marketing direct, Cocoa Boutique established their seventh outlets in Eastern Malaysia to satisfy the demand increase dramatically from chocolate lovers. Owing to a small organization, the structure of Cocoa Boutique is easily to manage and control hereby reduces the administration and operation expenses as well as overall costs. Further, Cocoa Boutique also gain benefit cheaper cost of material because Malaysia is a place which rich with natural resources like fruits that widely use to process different chocolates taste. Weakness Since they are lots of large international chocolate company in the market, as a small company it is difficult for Cocoa Boutique to entry because they had build strong identify toward customers. Again, chocolate is a snack that different people has different flavor taste and thus whose customers loyal to their flavor brand chocolate would not easily change to the other brand. To gain strong brand identify and loyal customers, Cocoa Boutique facing financial problem in advertisement and distribution because this required a large sum to be able to compete with other international chocolate company. Further, some of the international brands who achieved the benefits of economic of scale enable to sell their chocolate products in a competitive price. For example, Cadbury who achieve high productivity and lower the cost per unit lead them sell their confectionaries at the lower price and become the price leader in the market. Opportunity Since Malaysia is a tropical country which is rich with tropical fruit such as mango, durian, and papaya, hereby create an opportunity for Cocoa Boutique to research and develop in the chocolate product mixed of variety fruits. Through developing creation and innovation, Cocoa Boutique launched new chocolate product by mixed tropical fruit into chocolate as their unique product to maximize customers satisfaction and pursue as the local market leader. As example, to date Cocoa Boutique is the one and only chocolate house that came up with distinctive Durian Chocolate which had been awarded as The Most Innovation Chocolate Product 2004 by the Malaysian Cocoa Board. Strategically, the ingredients which produced by local are cheap and easily to access directly lower the cost of distribution as well as research and development expenses however setting a higher selling price because of its unique. The increasing demands from customers create motivation for Cocoa Boutique to establish their seventh outlets in Sabah, Eastern Malaysia which is one of the famous tourist attractions. Chance comes from own efforts. In continuous development, Cocoa Boutique seeking opportunity likes establish outlets in other area or expected alliances with potential company to expand its business scope. Threats Although the sweetness of chocolates attracts many people, the growing of health concern stick the passion of chocolate products. According to a health research, chocolate is such a food contributing to diseases like obesity, blood pressure, and diabetes. Chocolate contains high sugar, fat and caloric may have negative effect on health especially those chocoholic inheritances with these kinds of disease. However, this threat changes to an opportunity for Cocoa Boutique to make special less sugar chocolate to satisfy customers need. Price is one of the most important elements in strategy planning. Those large chocolate company gain benefit from economic of scale able to sell their products with lower price threatens Cocoa Boutique adjusted their product price to adopt the market trend and result in less profit. PEST framework of Cocoa Boutique The external environment consists of variables that are outside the organization and not typically within the short-run control of top management. Opportunity and Threats are components of external environment which influence the success or failure of strategy. PEST framework provides an analysis of possible influences of the broad marco-environment of an organization. PEST stands for Political, Economic, Social, and Technological. Political The political issue of Malaysia is stable although it made up of variety races. As a policy to improve economic, Government offer substitute and appeal local citizens to start up their own business and this policy had lead many small businesses been established including Cocoa Boutique. Cocoa Boutique takes advantage from political factor when launched its chocolate product range of local tropical fruit. According to the Minister of Tourism, these products are in line with governments vision of providing visitors something unique, a distinct element that cannot be found elsewhere. For instance Durian Chocolate, which is unique and only produced by Malaysia. The local fruits used in making chocolate would help increase demand for local fruits, and resulting in agriculture development such as economic spin-offs for Malaysian fruit growers and local farmers so that they can enjoy the benefits generated by tourism industry. Economic Chocolate product is such a luxury item where people would purchase it when they are with stable-income. Suppose the global economic crisis, people would have less money to spend on luxury items however save their money to buy necessary item such as rice and daily accessories. Again, as outline that many global chocolate manufacturers gain their benefit from economic of scale can setting their product price lower and relatively such a small business Cocoa Boutique failing to compete in price war. Customers who are in middle or low income group would prefer buying the global brand chocolate because of cheaper and believed high quality. Sosiocultural Malaysia is a combination of variety race country giving opportunity for Cocoa boutique earn profit by develop differ range of chocolate products to adopt different cultural customers. As example, Malay people prefer the rich taste of coconut, Cocoa Boutique launched coconut flavor chocolate to satisfy Malay group. People lifestyle considered as a key element in food processing industry. Todays people emphasis on diet or lose weight and healthy lifestyle as a barrier to food industry especially those sweeten snack like chocolate. Many chocolate manufacturers shift to adopt the market trend by concentrate on dark chocolate or low sugar chocolate products which believed would help to prevent from heart disease and cancer. Technological Using technological in process manufacturing would result in cost efficiency and gain competitive advantage in the market. Even though Cocoa Boutique is a small company, its chocolate cooking equipments are standardizing such as using specific machine in the process of chocolate making. Handmade chocolate becomes unique and interesting in this century because the trend of technological world. Strategically, Cocoa Boutique launched ready- handmade chocolate as this may attract many people and can selling with a higher price because of its unique. 4.0 Value Chain Analysis of Cocoa Boutique The internal environment of a corporation consists of variables (Strengths and Weaknesses) that are within the organization itself and are not usually within the short-run control of top management. Despite external influencers, company should analysis those internal factors that are most likely to affect the implementation of the present and future strategic decisions. Strengths and weaknesses are such impacts of the structure of internal environment within the company. Value chain analysis, as proposed by Michael Porter, is a way of examining the nature and extent of the synergies that do or do not exist between the internal activities of a corporation. Its comprising the activities within and around the organization, they are design, produce, packaging of the products and distributing, marketing and sales the products to customer. Differences among competitor value chains are a key source of competitive advantage. Cocoa Boutique using the lowest cost material to make innovation chocolate product such as local tropical fruit chocolate product range. The fruits supplied by local farmers are cheaper however the product able to sell with a good price because of its unique design. Effective value chain occurred when the entire stakeholders value maximized. In the part of advertisement and distribution channel, Cocoa Boutique maintain long term bond with their stakeholders such as tourism agencies and taxi drivers by offered sales commission to motive t hem bring customers or tourists into Cocoa Boutiques concept stores. Customers can visit and purchase such special and quality chocolates with acceptable price meanwhile maximize the value of the tourism agencies and increase profit to the shareholders. Cocoa Boutique only distributes and sells their chocolate products to its seven outlets. This may reduce distribution costs but as such weakness of Cocoa Boutique which limited its market share and the possible profitable in the future. 5.0 Cocoa Boutiques strategy formulation Strategy formulation is the development of long-range plans for the effective management of environmental opportunities and threats, in light of corporate strengths and weaknesses. It includes defining the corporate mission, specifying achievable objectives, developing strategies, and setting policy guidelines. A corporations strategy formulation takes place at corporate-level, business-level and functional-level. Corporate-level strategy of Cocoa Boutique The corporate-level strategy should be defined the organizations purpose and the lines of businesses in which it plans to operate, thus providing the overarching direction for the organization. Many organizations begin their growth and development with a corporate-level strategy aimed at concentrating resources in one business or industry in order to develop a strong competitive position within that industry. Since Cocoa Boutique established in year 2003, they merely concentrate their business growth and performance in chocolate industry within these seven years evidence that they applied directional strategy approach into their business. They develop long term into high quality chocolate processing and chocolate house concept store to provide special products range to customers and build their brand identify in Malaysias market. Since the substantial increase in customers demand when they established the first outlet, they recognized the potential of local chocolate market and strat egically applied horizontal growth approach where expand their business into other geographic location and increasing the range of product and service to their current market. For instance, the high volume sale of Gourmet chocolate in Sabah motivate Cocoa Boutique to develop a wide range of Gourmet chocolate to satisfy the particular customers need. Cocoa Boutique would not wait for lunch but strive to meet opportunities from the competitive environment. Next step to expand their business, they committed a joint venture agreement with a local corporation so called Genting Strawberry Leisure Farm who engages in tourist attraction development. Though the agreement, they alliance aims to acquire substantial revenues by create a diversity theme park for customers to have not merely an experiential but learning journey. In brief, the strategy marked out by Cocoa Boutique clearly orientating their corporations vision of continuous growing and developing creation and innovation to maximize their revenues in local chocolate retail market. Business-level strategy of Cocoa Boutique A business level strategy is the blueprint that should enable an organization to leverage its resources, so that it can differentiate itself from the competition within a particular line of business. Companies struggle in planning strategy in order to obtain competitive advantage and then gain superior profits from the strategy they designed. Michael Porter has proposed three generic strategies that provide a good starting point for strategic thinking; they are overall cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. Considering the rivalry in chocolate industry is fierce, small companies are unable to lead a stand in the market unless they target on the right market segment with the right products. Accordingly, Cocoa Boutique used focused differentiation strategy in chocolate industry which serving only one segment of overall market and trying to be the most differentiated organization serving that segment. Unlike other chocolate retailers who sells and distributes their confectionary products on the shelves of minimarket, supermarket or hypermarket, Cocoa Boutique focused on performance in travel retail. Based on the potential tourism industry of Malaysia, they pursuing a niche strategy in focusing on travelers, who are stable income, may come from local and foreign country and main purpose to visit and on the other hand purchase some native products, gifts or souvenirs. As stated that chocolate house concept store is rarely in Malaysia, and to date there are just two companies running this conceptual store, one is Cocoa Boutique and another is Beryls Chocolate retailer. To adopt their targeted customers segment, Cocoa Boutique launched handmade chocolate which is another selling point apart from Durian chocolate. The chocolate made with different shapes like the chocolate model design of Twin Towel doubtlessly suit the tourists need and demand. Due to run a focused on a niche market segment, Cocoa Boutique sells their products price higher than the market brand such as Cadburys and Nestle. In general, the strategy formulated by Cocoa Boutique is directly and simply within an undersized coverage yet is potentially in the future, especially in their business-level strategy planning. In the market of Malaysia, chocolate products can be seen in anywhere and they are usually Cadburys, Ferrero, Mars, Snickers, and other international brands. Almost of them develop in diversity market with the competitive advantage of economic of scale and well known in the line of international. In accordance with the outlined SWOT analysis, Cocoa Boutique recognized their weakness of limited finance as well as low reputation and hence wisely develops differentiation strategy in specific market segment in order to acquire higher profit with premium price. This strategy effectively decreases the scope of competition environment and evaded the intense price war with existing chocolate retailers. Their effort in business-level strategy also access to strategic alliances in corporate-level. Cons idered Genting Strawberry Leisure Farm is a potential travel attraction that might complement their strengths and offset their weaknesses, the joint-venture strategy allows Cocoa Boutique to obtain a greater sales impact at less cost. 6.0 Strategy implementation of Cocoa Boutique An idea is nothing until it becomes an action. Even the best conceived strategies are of little value if they are not implemented effectively. It should be noted that the plan for implementing a strategy might require radical design of organizational structure, the development of new control system, well skilled in handling human resources by develop strategic leadership. Cocoa Boutique who is the small enterprise gains the benefit in implementing their conceived strategies because the small fields of organization structure simplify their operation. Operations Decision of Cocoa Boutique Location is such key success in tourism industry and strategically, Cocoa boutique allocated its outlets nearby or within the tourist attraction. For instance, the latest Cocoa Boutique outlet has been established in Sabah, which is the famous vacationland in East of Malaysia. In order to gain competitive advantage, Cocoa Boutique develops appropriate operations decision to implement the strategy and ensure all the resources are used efficiently. Considered travel trade is depend on seasonality of demand, the inventory planning and control should be well- handle to avoid the problem of whether inefficient to meet customers demand or over- order during the peak season. From processing cocoa to chocolate products, Cocoa Boutique decides how much material or ingredients should be ordered and determines the production quantity because food products may have expired date and the expensive costs to storage them with low temperature. A range of customers demand analysis is needed to prevent the food perish and suffer lose from seasonal discount. Quality control is the key role in operating food processing companies because the food is directly influencing the customers perspective and even their healthy. Poor quality control of food and beverage would significant result a companys reputation and vicious aftermaths like involving in lawsuit. To ensure the quality and delicious of chocolates, all the Cocoa Boutique products are produced by using 100% pure cocoa butter in authentic Belgium recipe following Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and stringent quality control that complies with the international standard of hygiene. Cocoa Boutique to build reliability has offer live chocolate making show to customers to indicate their professional chocolate making procedure. In the part of service quality performance, they allocate employees at every corner of specific products range to provide free taste testing and reliable sales advice to customers. The information system of Cocoa Boutique not merely worked in the part of financial and human resource management, but also the key role in implementing their business level strategy. Regarding in the aspect of tourism, customers would not come themselves unless they heard about the tourist attraction from fellows, advertisement from newspaper and radio, or joining a tour group. Hence, it is imperative to develop in advertisement and distribution channel in order to build reputation among customers. To gain competitive advantage, Cocoa Boutique promotes their attraction by building long term relationship with travel agencies. They allocate vouchers and brochures to travel agencies for customers convenience and offered forty percent of commission for travel agencies, bus and taxi drivers to motive them brin g customers to visit their shops. To satisfy these important stakeholders, the commissions from the total purchase of the customers bring by them can be obtain immediately after the customers checked-out. That is to say, a computer information system is imperative to record all the details of the tour guides and drivers including their codes and the commissions they collected based on the total purchase of customers they bring. Conversely, the low service quality of commission checking would result in loss confident among tour guides toward the company and the likelihood of being boycott by them. There is a manager allocated in each branch of Cocoa Boutique to responsible for the commission-pay system and tour guides service control. To maintain long term relationship, managers would send information about the total commission collected to each tour guides and drivers once a month though e-mail or SMS. Human resource management Effective strategy implementation should occur when the people required to take action to this end are motivated to do so. Employees are the key role of sale achievement in Cocoa Boutique because they using direct sale approach to persuade customers purchase their products. Consider chocolates is perishable and have limited life shelf, employees must struggle to sell out the products in advance. Thus, developing motivation strategy is required to increase employees willingness to hard sale the products and enhance their job satisfaction. Cocoa Boutique uses the performance-pay approach to motive their employees. The idea is employees paid a base salary, however is eligible for additional compensation based on achieving certain pre-approved tasks or goals. For instance, Cocoa Boutique had setting target revenue of incoming Chinese New Year holiday, the entire workforce of the branch will be rewarded bonus suppose they reach the target. The key of success is the managers who wisely dev elop leadership in the team or branch to build a healthy workforce and thus improve cooperation among employees. In other words, performance-pay plan make it clear to managers what should be pay prior attention because they would get even more compensation. Cocoa Boutique also concern in training and development to ensure their employees is skillful to sell their products and provide appropriate advice to customers. They applied on the job training by admit employees to learn job tasks by actually performing them. This method, in somehow has effectively reduce the cost of expenditure in formal training and bring the training meaning to both employees and organization. Marketing Strategy Marketing strategy is about the approach to deliver companys products and services to satisfy customers. Wrong decision in marketing would affect success or failure of strategy implementation. Likewise, marketing plan would be determined base on the companys mission. Cocoa Boutique engage in pursuing market leader in chocolate manufacturer and retail which catering for travel trade. They merely concentrate on their performance in tourist market segment by developing four Ps, which consisting product, price, place, and promotion. The Implication of Four Ps in Cocoa Boutique Place always the first consideration in developing marketing strategy. Before even starting a business, companies need to assess their own core competencies and then evaluate the place that will complement them in business line, geographic positions, or competencies. Strategically, Cocoa Boutique and its outlets are located in the place that is accessibility, visibility and mainly catering for travel trade, for example some of them are located in the Malaysia Tourism Centre and Genting Highlands, which is an international tourist attraction. Cocoa Boutique continuous research and develop in products creation and innovation to become the leader in chocolate processing industry. To date, they offered variety of products range to meet different customers need and want, they including tropical fruit chocolate, gourmet chocolates, healthy range, and so on. Among the various chocolate flavor, Durian chocolate is the unique and best recommendation products because of the selling point of Malaysias symbolic. Others, the healthy chocolate range is even catching on the trend of healthy lifestyle in todays world. They promote this range of product by using slogan Sugar free pleasure without the guilt to attract those chocoholics struggling between health an d delicious. In the consideration of Malaysia is an Islamic country, Cocoa Boutiques chocolate product also complying with Halal requirement to encourage Muslims consumption. In fact, the price of products and services in travel trade are usually higher than the market because they serving on stable or high income group. However, Cocoa Boutique set their chocolate products price higher than the available in common market because of the quality of their chocolate and provides well services to increase customers value. Even they pursuing premium price in their marketing strategy, they have launched a Super Value package to adopt different customers demand. Travel trade is deeply depending on seasonal demand, therefore Cocoa Boutique design different promotion to different special day. For instance, they launched new packaging in Valentine day as the ideal gifts for couples. Environmental protection issue becomes popular in this contemporary since the global temperature again hit the peak in this summer. Most of the country had implemented zero plastic policy to reduce pollution and recently Malaysia started implements this policy too. Cocoa Boutique takes t he chance to offer free reusable bag for customers who purchase their chocolate products as a way to promote their products. In consideration of cost efficiency, the reusable bags are made in China due to the low cost and acceptable quality. Despite a compliment marketing strategy is non-executable without develop appropriate marketing skills. Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) is a concept of marketing communication planning that recognizes the added value of a comprehensive plan. IMC can produce stronger message consistency and greater sales impact. Most of the large organizations engage in improved integrated offering by acquire promotion agencies, public relations firms, package design consultancies, web site developers, and direct mail houses. Cocoa Boutique promotes their attractiveness by take part in Tourism Malaysia Promotion Board created by Malaysia Ministry of Cultural, Art and Tourism. Furthermore, they organized public relations activities in order to build good reputation and well-known brand in the segment of tourists. Even a small company, they hired package design consultancies and web site develops in the way to improve their business visibility, build brand identify and customer loyalty and fina lly result in increase sales. Strategic leadership A key strategic role of managers is to provide strategic leadership for their subordinates. Hereinbefore all strategies would not implement successfully without leading by an effective leader. Take a place of managers of Cocoa Boutique is vital to develop leadership characteristics such as emotional intelligence and empowerment. Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to recognize and manage emotion. A leader who is high degree of EQ understands his role in the organization and ability to control them mood and drive subordinates motivation to complete different job tasks. Meanwhile, they also develop empathy and social skill to build good relationship with the employees and help to earn loyalty from employees. Considering Malaysia built up with various racial, the workforce of Cocoa Boutique likely consists by different culture and religion. Managers should well handle in conflicts settlement and strive to maintain harmony in the workforce. Managers may develop mentoring by alloca tes the experienced employee even themselves to coach new employee to build good attitude and behavior modeling in the branch on the other hand increase communication among them. When employees seek some one as the model in the organization, they willing to pursue the goals and commit high loyalty to the career. Empowering subordinates or employees to make decisions is a good motivational tool. Such employees involve in decision making would increase their job enrichment and satisfaction and thus enhance their motivation to perform better. There is high empowering in Cocoa Boutique where managers need the opinions and suggestions from employees regarding the customers perspective and value to their products. The employees opinions sometimes helpful in research and development of new products which likely match customers need and want. Others, Cocoa Boutique also give high authorize to each branch managers to manage the operation as long as they keep their performance in sales and services quality. 7.0 Conclusion In general, the strategic formulated by Cocoa Boutique is only present on the travel trade and implemented by simply managing people, develop marketing purpose and operating management to satisfy all the stakeholders of the organization, such as shareholder, employees, and the agents involving in travel trade. A strategic that focuses on specific market is rather good because concentrates on single business definitely easy to manage and control, yet, the business scope is limited and pin down the potential profits in other markets. In continuous develop in local market, Cocoa Boutique should expand their business scope to increase awareness among customers to their brand and impact on sales.

The Outsourcing Fundamentals For Dell Computers

The Outsourcing Fundamentals For Dell Computers Dell is one of the leading PC manufacturers in the world. Its business strategy involves outsourcing a number of its operations such as sales order processing, distribution, after sales service. The focus of this report will be to critically evaluate and analyse one such outsourcing project of Dell of its technical support which was considered a failure. There are a number of reasons why Dell chose to outsource its technical support call centre. The main reason for doing so is that Dell saw this part of its operations as non core. It decided to outsource in order to concentrate on its core business processes which were manufacturing and design. The cost savings that an outsourcing deal offered also was a major factor in it doing so. Other factors such as to gain accesses to world class facilities , to share the risk involved, to accelerate redesign engineering process were also critical. After having decided to outsource a deal with Stream Global Services was struck. Stream took its call centre in India to operate the entire tech support of Northern America. After the first term of the contract the deal was called off and Dell decided to back source the tech support from Stream and bring it back in-house. The report analysis the key issues for the failure of this deal. One of the most important issues that resulted in the failure of this outsourcing deal is the drop in quality of service. After initial period the quality of service provided by Stream went down considerably which resulted in unsatisfied customer and complaints. This resulted in fall of sales and loss of market share. Other issues such as loss of control over the operations and loss of tacit knowledge, unable to meet the customer demand due to large increase in customer base, loss of intellectual property, lack of expertise too played a critical factor in its failure. The tip of the iceberg came when n egotiating a contract extension and Stream demanding more, which lead to Dell calling off the whole deal. Critical analysis shows that tech support may be a core competence of Dell, which they had to retain more control over. The possible recommendations are to offshore the call centre to a cost efficient location rather than outsource it. Put in a confidentiality agreement in place in order to protect from loss in intellectual property. Negotiate smaller lengths of contract and to choose quality over price as main criteria while evaluating vendors for outsourcing in the future. Contents 3 Introduction 4 Why Outsource 5 Non core function 5 Gain Access to World-Class Capabilities 6 Cost Saving 6 Accelerate Reengineering Benefits 6 Share Risks 6 Redirect Resources to more Strategic Activities 7 The Stream Story 7 What went wrong 8 Quality of Service 8 Loss of Control 8 Viability of Service Provider 8 Relative Size of Customer 8 The Issue of Trust 9 Lack of Expertise 9 Hidden and Uncertain Costs 9 Tip of the Iceberg 9 Conclusion Recommendation 10 1 . Offshore not out-source : 10 2. Confidentiality Agreements: 11 3. Quality over price: 11 4. Short term contracts : 11 References 12 Appendix 13 Appendix I 14 Sales of Dell from 1999- 2007 14 Appendix II 14 Market Share of PC Manufacturers 14 Introduction Dell is a multinational computer company which has managed to stay in the first place of computer system sales for over a decade. Ranked in the top 50 among the Fortune 500, Dell offers a range of IT products and services, including hardware, software, consulting services, support services, and managed services. Dell employs more than 100,000 employees at services, manufacturing, and design locations around the world. Its strong and revolutionized strategy of direct selling computers to the customers increased its success in the computer companies field providing it with a competitive advantage. Dell was founded in 1984 by Michael Dell a 19-year old teenager and it was named as PCs Limited. Starting with a capital of $1000 and the aim of selling IBM PC-compatible computers he managed to establish Dell as one of the most worldwide successful and profitable companies only after the first years of its function. The first year gross revenues amounted to $6 million. In 1985 Dell introduce d the first computer of its own design- the Turbo PC. In 1988 the company made its initial public offering at $8.50 a share and was renamed to Dell Computer Corporation.    By 1990 it had been expanded in 12 different countries. Six years later(1996), Dell began selling computers via its web site and offered online technical support at the same time and by the 1997 Dell was one of the top five computer makers in the world. As one of the worlds leading direct computer systems companies and a premier supplier of technology for the Internet infrastructure, Dells competitive advantage is its direct customer focus. Constant interaction with its customers online and via the telephone gives Dell the ability to understand unique computing needs that drive individual and enterprise productivity. Even though growth rates for the computer industry are expected to be less than previous years, Dell can still successfully operate, enjoying healthy sustainable profits. With its unique operation strategy and reduced inventory levels gives Dell a competitive edge over its rivals. Dell chooses to outsource a whole bunch of its processes of its operations. Right from most of its production line to sales order processing to distribution to after sales service. Outsourcing allows companies to focus on broader business issues while having operational details assumed by an outside expert. The main focus of this report will be around the outsourcing of its call centre for the technical support. Why Outsource The reasons why Dell chose to outsource its technical support are as follows: Non core function The main reason for its choosing to outsource this aspect of its operations is that Dell saw the technical support operation as not part of its core competence. A core competence provides a competitive advantage through being competitively unique and making a contribution to customer value or cost (Prahalad Hamel, 1990). Long Vickers-Koch (1995) expand the idea of core competences to core capabilities. They distinguish these two by noting that competencies relate to the skills, knowledge, and technological know-how that give a special advantage at specific points of the value chain, which, in combination with the strategic processes that link the chain together, form core capabilities, (p. 12). Dell clearly identified techincal support or the call centre as a non core part of its operations. They saw themselves as clearly being a computer manufacturer who sold customised computers to the users directly and chose to concentrate on this aspect of its business which turned out to be a mistake, we will look at why this was the case in the later part of this report. Gain Access to World-Class Capabilities By the very nature of their specialization, outsourcing providers bring extensive world-class resources to meeting the needs of their customers. Dell wanted to fully utilise this specialization that many of the outsourcing vendors had to offer. Partnering with an organization with world-class capabilities would offer access to new technology, tools and techniques that the Dell may not have possessed more structured methodologies, procedures and documentation; and a competitive advantage through expanded skills. Cost Saving Cost implications are critical factor for any company when it chooses to outsource and Dell being no different. The single most important tactical reason for outsourcing is to reduce or control operating costs. Access to an outside providers lower cost structure is one of the most compelling benefits of outsourcing. The overall operating cost of the tech support would be significantly lower if the project was off shored to a more cost efficient location. Although cost benefits would not be realised in the immediate future but over the long run it promised huge cost savings. Accelerate Reengineering Benefits Outsourcing is often a by-product of another powerful management tool; business process reengineering. It allows an organization to immediately realize the anticipated benefits of reengineering by having an outside organization one that is already reengineered to world-class standards process. Dell wanted to utilise the reengineered business process of the vendor to the fullest. Share Risks There are tremendous risks associated with the investments an organization makes in information technology like a call centre. Dell believed that by outsourcing they would become more flexible, more dynamic and adaptable to meet changing opportunities. This would reduce the risk both financially and strategically in the long term. Redirect Resources to more Strategic Activities Every organization has limits on the resources available to it. Outsourcing permits the redirection of resources from non-core activities toward activities that provide a greater return in serving the customer. Dell clearly saw tech support as its non- core activity and hence thought of outsourcing as a way to redirect its resources and attention to its core business activities like manufacturing and direct sales. The Stream Story After having decided to outsource the tech support and after careful vendor evaluation the eventual order for the outsourcing deal was struck with Stream Global Services. Stream was a business process outsource (BPO) provider specializing in customer relationship management services including sales, customer care and technical support services. Tech support for the entire North America was shifted to Stream located in Mumbai, India. The contract signed was relatively short term which needed evaluation in 4 years. Although, the initial few years of the contract was a success and the company started reaping benefits from sales and profit generation. In 2007 the sales growth started to take a downward turn. Dell started to lose its market share and HP had taken over the market as the premier brand. (Refer Appendix). While there were several factors in the downturn of the companys fortunes, the outsourcing deal with Dell was also said to be a reason. After four years into the deal and wh en the time for evaluation and re contracting came along Dell decided not continue its relationship with Stream and the outsourcing deal went bust. There were several reasons for the failure of this particular deal. What went wrong Quality of Service One of the main reasons for unsuccessful deal was that the quality of service that Stream was offering gradually went down. As with any outsourcing deal the vendor tends to provide high quality service to begin with but over a period of time this quality tends to drop due to several reasons. The average time per call went up, there was more waiting time etc. Dell started to receive a lot of complaints from unsatisfied customers, which was bad for the image of the company. Their competitors started offering better after sales services and Dell started to develop this reputation of having bad customer service. This resulted in sales dropping and Dell loosing market share. Loss of Control The main business strategy of Dell was that it sold computers directly to customers. It is paramount for Dell to know the needs of its customers. After having outsourced its tech support they started to lose control over this aspect. The market and customer demands are constantly changing and its critical for Dell to always be in close conjunction with these changes. Customer feedback is a medium through which they can keep track of the changing needs, but because tech support was outsourced they realised they did not have the control over feedback like they wanted. Viability of Service Provider Dell realised that Stream were not offering the services that was agreed upon. But due to flaws in the contract it was very difficult for them to make any headway into this matter. They realised that Stream did not have the technical proficiency that they had claimed to have had, thus resulting in lower service levels. Relative Size of Customer As the sales of the company grew there were greater customers needing technical assistance. This meant that there was a huge influx of customers for Stream which they did not have the capacity to handle at that time. This resulted in service levels dropping and quality going down. The Issue of Trust Intellectual property became a key issue as well. Stream at the same time were providing services to other computer manufacturers and IT companies which were if not direct but in direct competition with Dell. Hence, confidentiality became an issue with this relationship. Lack of Expertise Dell realised that Stream lacked the technical expertise that they expected. This was but natural as Dell was the experts in designing and manufacturing the computers and they had the technical knowhow of the product. Even with extensive training Stream could not fully gain the technical expertise possessed by Dell. Hidden and Uncertain Costs As in any outsourcing deal the uncertain costs and the hidden cost are always the main reason why any deal is called off. The outsourcer in this case Dell realised that there was a lot hidden costs that was involved in the deal and thus the overall cost benefits they had expected would not be realised. Tip of the Iceberg The final nail in the coffin of the deal came when the time for re-contracting had come along. As in many of the outsourcing cases the bargaining power of the vendor increases as the years go by. Stream had the knowledge that it had the upper hand when it came down to the bargaining power and demanded more money. Dell realised this and decided to bail out of the contract extension. It was a bold decision on the part of Dell because in-sourcing or back sourcing always is a tough task for any company as knowledge transfers becomes a critical issue. Never the less the decision to bring back its technical support in-house was made. After a couple of years Dell again outsourced its tech support but after having the experience of a failed deal they were more careful with this deal. Conclusion Recommendation The first and the foremost function of any company when deciding to outsource should be to evaluate its core competence. As mentioned above core competence gives a competitive edge over the competition. Clearly the technical support for Dell computers is a core function. The main reason for this being that as we saw that the sales started to drop and one of the reasons being the poor quality of customer service. After sales service is an order winner for most computer manufacturers as most of the customer choose to buy a certain brand based on the after sales support that they offer. Based on this analysis the following recommendations can be given. All recommendations given analysis its benefits and its limitations. 1 . Offshore not out-source : Dell should look to offshore the tech support part of its operations rather than outsource. This means that they should retain control of the operation but try and move it offshore for a cheaper alternative. India, Philippines etc are cheaper alternatives that should be considered for future operations. Benefits: They will retain much more control of the operations thus retaining the tacit knowledge and be in close contact with its customers. They will retain their core competence and will not end up losing their competitive edge. Limitations: Initial capital for this is very large. Another limitation is that as in the case with outsourcing the overall cost of operations is not significantly low .This is because with a outsourcing vendor the cost can be reduced by means of economies of scale. Dell will not have this luxury and hence the cost as compared to outsourcing will be relatively high. 2. Confidentiality Agreements: In order to safeguard the intellectual property of the company, some sort of confidentiality agreement needs to be made between Dell and the vendor. Benefits: The core competence of the company will not be shared with its rivals and Dell will not lose its competitive edge. Limitations : It is very difficult to negotiate such kind of contracts with any vendor and such agreement and at times do not hold much value in certain situations and countries. 3. Quality over price: When evaluating a vendor quality and not price should be the foremost criteria. The capacity of the vendor to offer a certain kind of service should be looked upon first. Most outsourcing deals are looked at from a cost point of view and quality gets overlooked. Benefits : Improved quality standards. The vendor will have means to cope with the change in customer quantity and demand. There will be less unsatisfied customers thus enhancing the reputations of the company which is diminishing quickly for its poor customer service. Limitations: Price goes up. Quality always comes at a price and better quality means paying more for such services. These vendors will not be able to meet the price standards of the cheaper vendor which will very often be the case. 4. Short term contracts : Dell should look at signing short term deals with the outsourcing vendors. Ideally the length of the contract should be 2 -3 years after which it should be evaluated. Benefits: Gives Dell more flexibility and opportunity to evaluate the situation of the deal. If Dell feels that the service levels are not up to the mark then it will give them an opportunity to re negotiate. It will put the bargaining power in the hands of Dell. Limitations: The problem with negotiating short term contracts with vendors is that quite often they try and increase their price as they are not guaranteed return on their investment. So they try and increase their profit margins so that they can compensate it for the short length of the contract. References Christensen, Clayton M. (2001), The Past and Future of Competitive Advantage, Sloan Management Review, 42 (Winter), 105-109.   J. Barthelemy, The seven deadly sins of outsourcing,  Academy of Management Executive  17  (2003) (2), pp. 87-97. Magretta J. 1998. The power of virtual integration: an interview with Dell Computers Michael Dell. Har-vard Business Review 76(2): 72-84. Long, C., Vickers-Koch, M. (1995), Using core capabilities to create competitive advantage,  Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 24 No.1, pp.6-20. Prahalad, C. K., G. Hamel. 1990. The core competence of the organization. Harvard Business Review. May-June. Quinn, J. 2000. Outsourcing innovation: The new en-gine of growth. Sloan Management Review, 41(4): 13-29. Quinn, J. Strategic Outsourcing: Leveraging Knowledge Capabilities, Sloan Management Review (40:4), 1999, pp. 9-21.s Willcocks L. Fitzgerald G., Feeny D., (1995). Outsourcing IT: The Strategic Implications, Long Range Planning, 28, 5.