Elections, Political Parties, and Civil Society in Authoritarian Regimes Essay

Within many Authoritarian Regimes, the conditions are very similar and the political participation becomes severely limited. The following essay will attempt to briefly capture a few key characteristics of two countries in terms of elections, political parties, and the role of civil societies within the state. The two countries that I will be discussing are Iran and China. First of all, after reading page 80-81 in our Comparative Politics textbook written by Carol Ann Drogus and Stephen Orvis, it soon became clear to me that Authoritarian Regime structuring has a heavy political saliency in terms of elections, political parties, and the role of civil societies. It seems that if elections even manage to exist in an authoritarian regime, they do not determine who holds the majority of power in the state. For example, on page 80, the textbook discusses how 1906 a new democratic state within Iran was created in order to provide a real legislature with elections. This democracy was soon polarized, and the central state has limited sovereignty over the other provinces and was able to control most economic profit and most of the military power. Although elections were ushered into Iran’s political system, they had little influence on the government itself. On page 81, the textbook discusses how a left-wing prime minister named Mohammad Mosaddeq was elected in 1951, but due the primary regime’s influence and power, they overthrew this elected prime minister because he did not support their interests. This example shows that even if an election determines something within an Authoritarian Regime, this determination may not last for very long or may not have any power in the first place. An elected official such as Mosaddeq can be overthrown at any point if the people that truly hold the power within a state decide too. This brings me to the next topic of political parties. Within the country of China, it is clear to me that the political system of the Authoritarian Regime has created an extremely powerful political party with little to no opposition. Elections have almost no affect and are just a disguise for the Chinese Communist Party to make the real decisions affecting their country, especially in terms of the economy. As discussed on page 86, after a series of wars ended, the Communist Party of China soon created a Soviet-style command economy with a huge bureaucracy that controlled most of the society. This society is interesting because as time went by, more and more economic freedoms were created, but political freedoms became increasingly denied. It is ironic that one can live in China and possess private property, but when it comes to the decisions governing that person’s society and economic policy, that same individual will have zero rights whatsoever. The book also discusses how these socio-political conditions have created a sense of political uncertainty and fear. This brings me to my final topic of civil society. It is a huge risk for citizens within an Authoritarian Regime to form organized and nonviolent groups in pursuit of political reform. Citizens tend to fear the consequences of their actions and punishment from their government, and when they do attempt to reform, it tends to end up violent. For example, many protests within China in the past century have ended in massive bloodshed or violence. I do not recall ever hearing of a widely successful nonviolent civil society causing politically salient changes within an Authoritarian Regime. I believe that I have never heard of such a thing because civil societies do not have much impact on a society that is restricted by an Authoritarian Regime’s influence and political/economic desires.

Keeping the Good Ones

Training employees will lead to increased productivity and better outcomes. Therefore, it is necessary to treat team members as people first and as employees second. It will motivate their engagement in work and interest in outcomes. Actually, staff training will inspire employees and provide them with necessary practical tools in order to keep the good people the company already has. The core principles of successful management are:To offer yourself (director, senior manager) as a person firstly and director secondlyTo offer time with a regular take 10 check-inTo offer motivation and appreciationIt is known that companies spend lots of capital investments in tomorrow’s leaders without paying attention to today’s employees. It is suggested that money is the main reason of departures. Nevertheless, it is not. Money plays important part, though this part is minor compared with other factors. Motivation based only on material awards is insufficient, although lack of money is also a de-motivator.So, there is not need to throw money after employee who is unhappy, because it will create an unhappy employee who is better off financially. It is necessary to outline that variety of factors exist to motivate employees. Therefore, motivation should be intrinsic. There is not single method to motivate all the employees at once. Motivation depends on each employee. Directors should understand these principles, if they want to develop leaders. Otherwise, directors will serve only corporate ambitions of leading competitors.The first key is to build a better culture. If a company wants to retain its employees in whom it has invested capital, time and relationships, it has, firstly, to provide improvements of corporate structure. It s required to look at corporate hierarchy culture – vertical or horizontal. Vertical structure results in decreased communication, less employees’ empowerment and general decrease in commitment, whereas horizontal structu re does the opposite meaning it aims at decreasing friction and power struggles between employees and senior management.Horizontal structure tends to ensure higher visibility and accountability. The next step is to improve employee commitment and communication mechanism. It is important to remember that to improve the quality of employees’ life means to ensure better commitment and performance of the company.The second key is to empower employees. Actually, empowerment is a matter of discussion, though often this concept is misunderstood. It is proved that empowered employees are able to make quicker decisions, they are more confident in their abilities, etc. Thus, empowerment increases employee’s satisfaction and decreases corporate costs related to remediation work.Motivated employees are willingly engaged in innovations and problem-solving processes. The main benefit of empowerment is that it generates loyalty among employees. Therefore, empowered employees realize that their contribution is valued and they are respected.Finally, the third key is to improve relationship skills. It means that relationships within corporate culture may either make or break the company’s performance. Relationship and communication skills are vital component of corporate culture. The company’s managers and directors should display corporate personality traits such as sense of humor, family values, empathy, genuineness to motivate employees follow their example. People should be valued more then outcomes.Further, chief executives should be readily accessible and easily approached. It goes without saying that the better relationship skills among employees and directors, the better the corporate culture. Effective communication is playing nowadays one of the most important roles in organizations and companies, because it is the only source of mutual understanding among employees and customers, directors and suppliers, etc.ReferencesKeeping the Good Ones . (2001). Retrieved March 11, 2007, from http://mpcfilms.com

Statistical Applications

The pie chart shows percentage among adults with diagnosed diabetes receiving treatment of insulin or oral medication. It is normally used to present the data. I believe that this was a proper graph used to present the data. The information is clear. The data was presented in a good visual that I could recognize the patterns and trends. The colors used to differentiate type of treatment are helpful. Was this the best way to display the data? What other types of graphs could have been used? This is the most appropriate chart for this type of data presentation. The Pie chart was the best way to present and display the data. Another type of graph or chart that could have been used is the bar graph. Both are graphs showing proportion. They produce the same information just in different forms Is the scope and scale of the graph appropriate? Why or why not? The scale of the chart was appropriate for the article and how it was presented. This article was part of a journal article and the chart had to be inserted into the article so the scale was appropriate. Does the chart or graph support the findings in the article? Why or why not? The pie chart was described clearly in the article with percentage and the type of treatment. The article also unclouded the source of data, it has the credential to the reader.

Taking a Stand Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Taking a Stand - Term Paper Example Speaking and acting on behalf of a vulnerable patient is an example of an issue that requires me to perform the role of moral agent or advocate to improve the situation. Walsh (201o) brings forward the fact that "The prime responsibility of nurses is to nurse her patient, and that, in doing so, she is free to express compassion, the emotion that is distressing, but that motivates her actions in satisfying the most basic of her patients needs" (p. 748). It is an ethical or moral issue for nurses to act as advocates for their patients as some of them may be frail, susceptible, and helpless. Through advocacy, nurses are able to eliminate pain, distress, as well as uncalled for forms of treatment. The issue of incompetence is the medical profession also necessitates the need for advocacy. Incompetency may include wrong medications and breach of confidentiality of patients records. The relationship between patients and their doctors does not in many cases allow them to speak freely hence they are not involved in making decisions regarding their treatment. Patients have a right to be involved in the decision making process and are subsequently entitled to decide on the mode of treatment they would prefer (Tomajan, 2012). Therefore, nurses are obligated to act as advocates for patients rights and speak on their behalf. There are a number of negative outcomes that may result if this role is not fulfilled. Firstly, patients will not have the capacity to make informed choices and decisions in regard to their health issues as well as treatment. A patient may lack the capacity to speak on his or her behalf, meaning that there is poor communication. It is also worth noting that if advocacy for patients rights is not fulfilled, then issues of incompetence may increases (Tomajan, 2012). For instance, advocacy in nursing ensures that patients medical records are treated with discretion and hence if it is

Wall In and The Lives of Others Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Wall In and The Lives of Others - Movie Review Example This paper illustrates that the Berlin wall lasted for 28 years (that is, from August of 1961 to November 1989). Its first erection was done during the hours of the night and it was seen to curb the fleeing of Germans from the East to the West. It was later to be demolished in an instantaneous way which triggered a great deal of celebration across the globe. When the WWII came to a conclusion, the then divided Allied powers took over Germany and divided it into quarters. The four zones were either occupied by Great Britain, the US, France or the Soviet Union. This had been after the agreement that was reached in the conference of Postman. This same approach was done in the capital city of Germany, Berlin. The relationship of the three powers forming part of the Allies in the WWII against the Soviet Union went on to deteriorate, the atmosphere of cooperation in Germany turned into a race and it also became more aggressive. In spite of the original intention to unify Germany had been s et the turn of events of competition brought about the split between the East and the West- Communism versus Democracy. The three of the four zones occupied by France, Great Britain, and the US on one side formed West Germany. The other zone remaining and which had been taken over by the Soviet Union was East Germany. This same division was also witnessed in Berlin. The fall of this Berlin wall, which was rather quick happened due to the weakening of the Communist bloc and the eventual disagreement of the citizens from the Eastern side of Germany.

Article review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Review - Article Example ) â€Å"The goals of SOX were to enhance the transparency of financial information, reaffirm auditor independence, and define corporate governance – the responsibilities of corporate boards and audit committees†. The author has pointed out the advantages of Sarbanes act on the economy and young generation, as many of them are indulging in educating themselves on the aspects of this new law. However, one fact that distracts the reader is that, paragraphs are divided in to real small units. Moreover it can be realized that, the third paragraph is slightly complicated, which can turn the readers perplexed and confused. Many a times, readers can be of ordinary category and they can find theses sentences overwhelming or distracting. On the other hand, the best part is that, the third paragraph gives out statistical fact and figure by mentioning historical evidence on the financial security acts. In the third paragraph, there is also statement about the merits of the Sarbanes Act on the financial and investment sector Further, more proceeding into the later paragraph, it can be understood that the writer is projecting on the quality of PCAOB (Public Companies Accounting Oversight Board) in giving organizations an opportunity in securing their investment and financial transaction processes. It is stated in the article that, PCAOB will establish quality control in auditing, maintain ethical independence and standards in a registered public accounting firms. Moreover, the authenticating nature of PCAOB is revealed in the article, where in it shows how the accounting firms, media and press consider the above listed act. Another highlight of the PCAOB is detailed as its ability to give employment opportunity to people in information technology field. According to (Rosavich)â€Å" Documenting internal control involved a thorough review of systems and also meant additional employment opportunities for information technology professionals†. The writer had presented the

Pier Paolo Pasolini Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Pier Paolo Pasolini - Essay Example Were it simply a question ÃŽ ¿f quantity, however, were Pasolini's art no more than the indulgence ÃŽ ¿f an unrepressed narcissist, there would be scant interest in a study ÃŽ ¿f this kind. Instead, his work offers an extraordinarily fertile and dense example ÃŽ ¿f how subjectivities are built on something other and something far more complex than merely saying 'I'. Indeed, one might say that his work offers an illustration ÃŽ ¿f the ultimate incompatibility ÃŽ ¿f saying 'I' and being 'I', in any cohesive sense these phrases might have (Benveniste, 1966, 259-60). For Pasolini does indeed, as Barberi Squarotti implies, constantly offer himself up for display in his work, but to such a degree ÃŽ ¿f intensity that conventional mediation 'is cast aside: he is personally, bodily present within language, as he explains in Petrolio, 'in queste pagine io mi sono rivolto al lettore direttamente [. . .] in carne e ossa'. In other words, he uses the textuality ÃŽ ¿f his work or the semiosis ÃŽ ¿f his multiform interventions in order to embody himself, to project himself into, rather than onto forms ÃŽ ¿f expression. The project is, ÃŽ ¿f course, deeply flawed and unrealizable, but also strangely utopian. It is an almost mystical aspiration to being-in-the text, to textual transubstantiation which can be related to his homosexuality. It represents a recourse to the essential signifier ÃŽ ¿f an 'authentic' body as a public locus ÃŽ ¿f discourse, in response to the exclusion from discourse and from normative sexual ideologies. But the recourse is a subversive and not a naturalizing one, since the irreducible aura f presence surrounding the body disavows coded norms (Dollimore, 1991). It radicalizes the relations between selfhood, signification and the real by projecting irreducible markers f the latter into the first two. It brings selfhood and form into uneasy synthesis, in a dynamic akin to that seen by De Lauretis, 1984, in Pasolini's essays in film semiology: a deployment and experience f forms f discourse as active and subjective

Sleep and Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Sleep and Culture - Essay Example This study will guide the readers to understand how factors such as the environment and culture affect the sleeping pattern of a person. Keywords: sleeping pattern, environment, culture Sleep and Culture 2 Sleep and Culture Sleep is an essential activity of our body. The function of sleep has a significant effect in our body. One function of sleep is to repair and to restore both body and brain because during the waking life, our body and brain â€Å"produce wear and tear on the body and some mind/brain down time (Nairne, 2003)† and this can be fixed during sleeping. Another function of sleep is that it increases our survival value. It was believed that â€Å"sleep is an adaptive response to changing environmental condition, a form of behavior that is useful because it increases the chance to survive (Nairne, 2003)†. However, every person has his own sleeping pattern or practice. It is due to the factors such as the environment and culture that affects the sleeping patt ern of a person. The sleeping pattern is incorporated on our biological clock that is influenced by the environment (day and night, climate, lifestyle).

Document Interpretation 1 Upload Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Document Interpretation 1 Upload - Coursework Example According to the story teller, those Natives looked much exited. They danced and signaled the strangers to come to their home. This shows that these natives were friendly and were willing to make friends with strangers whom toured their land. Despite their hospitality, Jacque did not trust them. This is symbolized by the fact that he was afraid to go to their home because his crew had only one boat. May be he was afraid since they had no back up and things could go wrong. The Natives did not let go and made sure that they followed them. They were exited and very happy indeed to have seen the strangers. According to the writer, the Natives showed that they were in need of their friendship. Jacques shot at them and they were afraid since that was strange to them, hence the fled (Sympatico). Jacques and his crew slowly learned how friendly the Natives were. They got closer and closer to them as time went by and soon they were exchanging goods; skins for metallic goods among other goods. After all, the wild people were not such bad people. Despite that they did not have much to offer, they could offer everything that they had. Jacques admired their hospitality and even that he could convert them to his religion. The only problem is that what the wild people offered for trade was of no value (Wisconsin Historical Society). Later, Cartier erected a 30 foot wooden cross which had a fleur-de-lys shieldas well as plaque with â€Å"Vive-le Roi- de France† which means â€Å"long live the king of France,† which had been engraved in it as well as knelt in prayer. Donnacona became upset with the fact that his land was being taken away from him and his people. He showed signs that the land belonged to his people. However, Cartier lied to him that this cross was just a marker of the way and since Donnacano could not read what had been written, Cartier managed to trick him in this way

JOUR 330 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

JOUR 330 - Research Paper Example The video (viewer discretion advised due to graphic content) shows the CEO and his hunting party looking over a farmer's damaged crops, shooting at elephants at night, and Parsons posing with the dead bull. It also shows crowds of villagers field dressing the carcass the next morning.† (Burgess, 2011) Perhaps because the image recalled African safaris of the robber barons of late 19th century capitalism and the archaic, out of touch, and even barbaric behavior of the â€Å"super-rich,† bloggers around the world wrote articles protesting this, and thousands of customers cancelled accounts with GoDaddy. The company’s competitors took advantage of this, issuing free transfer and discount coupons for people who wanted to switch their business away from GoDaddy. This situation can be regarded as a case example in public relations because Bob Parsons illustrates exactly what not to do when media problems occur for a company. His actions, statements, and behavior in resp onse to the first controversy arguably made the situation even worse for him and his company in the public relations context. While the company claims it has not lost much business from this, the story will undoubtedly remain linked to the brand and competitors will continue to take advantage of this. To some degree, Parsons may have been overdue for a PR breakdown, because his company is known for a particular marketing campaign that is based on a certain amount of â€Å"sleaze†. Yet, for a company that once hoped to go public through an IPO, having the CEO of the company labeled this way in the mainstream press is very problematic. Consider that major media publications such as CNN, Salon, the New York Times, The Guardian, etc. all ran major articles on the story, and kept it active with update reports. In PR, the goal is for the problem to be out of the news cycle and out of discussion as soon as possible. When mainstream media repeat a story such as this over and over, it does continual damage to the brand and its credibility. For most people, the killing of an elephant is really a blatant act of stupidity, cruelty, and arrogance. That Bob Parsons defended his behavior immediately inflamed the situation. For example, instead of apologizing publicly, Parson conducted media interviews where he said: "These people have literally nothing and when an elephant is killed it's a big event for them, they are going to be able to eat some protein. This is no different than you or I eating beef. All these people that are complaining that this shouldn't happen, that these people who are starving to death otherwise shouldn't eat these elephants, you probably see them driving through at McDonald's or cutting a steak." (McCarthy, 2011) What Parsons did not critically understand is the fact that indeed millions of people do think and care deeply about issues such as environmental protection, endangered species, as well as the social justices issues related to hunger and global poverty. To compare eating an elephant to a problem for African starvation is simply a ridiculous justification. Salon critically notes that the original video Parsons posted included â€Å"captions to the nighttime scene that read ‘Bob Parsons fires first’ and ‘Bob Parsons fir

Film Reaction EthicsWag the Dog Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Film Reaction EthicsWag the Dog - Movie Review Example Doublespeak is a term that is intentionally used to disguise or distort the actual meaning of words. It makes a situation more pleasant. In the movie "Wag the Dog," Conrad, playing â€Å"Mr. Fix it,† employs the technique of doublespeak to take off the gross appearance of the president’s sex scandal. He diverts the attention of the public to other false war stories, making the situation seem less serious. In the movie, Motss emerges in the media and public belief that the war story is true, while also believing the idea of sex scandal to be true. However, the false war tales overshadow the true sex scandal of the president until he gets re-elected. When Motss tries to let the cat out of the bag, he is killed to keep the truth secrete. The movie is a clear show of how propaganda forms the normal recipe of the political discourse, where politicians use the power to get everything they

Define an SLA and state why it is required in a risk adverse organization Essay Example for Free

Define an SLA and state why it is required in a risk adverse organization Essay 1. This is a closed-book, closed-notes quiz. No reference material (including assignments and labs) will be permitted for use during the quiz session. 2. The quiz contains the following types of questions: * Short essay type 3. Place your answers in the space immediately following each question. Quiz Questions 1. Define an SLA and state why it is required in a risk adverse organization. A SLA is a service level agreement, which is a contract between the ISP and the company. A SLA gives the company an idea of how much time they will be without services, should something happen with the ISP. A SLA is important to a company in making recovery plans, knowing what critical systems need to be available for a continuance of business and formulation of disaster recovery. 2. Using the user domain, define risks associated with users and explain what can be done to mitigate them. The user domain has several risk’s involved, as people are involved and there is no way employees can be monitored without the use of CCTV. Social engineering a person trying to obtain information through malicious means. The greatest tool in mitigating risk in the user domain is training and reminders for users to be aware of their surroundings. No acceptable user’s policy, AUP, or lack of training employees on the correct usage of the network. User accounts left active, if the employee is terminated, and another employee has the log on credentials. Mitigation would to be disabling all user accounts upon termination. . 3. Using the workstation domain, define risks associated within that domain and explain what can be done to reduce risks in that domain. The use of USB’s or disk, the files could contain viruses and infect other files or applications on the network. No acceptable user’s policy, AUP, or lack of training employees on the correct usage of the network. The users staying signed into their accounts when leaving their desk. Session timeout would help with this risk, but training and follow up with need to be done as well. 4. List four compliance laws or regulations or mandates, and explain them. HIPAA- covers all healthcare industries and states all patient information must be encrypted in storage, transmissions, and restrictions on access to the information. SOX- cover all publically traded companies and require auditing of the accounting procedures of the business. The reports required by SOX are reported to the SEC. Access to the financial information is restricted and based on need to know. FISMA- covers government agencies and is to ensure all assets of the government are protected. Assets like information, operations and actual machinery are protected from hackers or internal threats. Guidelines to develop a security guideline for government agencies, requires regular audits. CIPA-Child Internet Protection Act- covers federally funded entities’ than provide internet services to individuals, schools and libraries. The Act requires content filters to be used to prevent children from being exposed to harmful content, pornography and illicit sites on the internet. 5. Define risk with a formula. Explain what each variable means. Risk= Threat x Vulnerability- Threat is any compromise in the network that can be used for malicious behavior, an example worm, or Trojan horse. Vulnerability- is a weakness in the software or OS of a network that can be exploited for malicious intent. The two multiplied equals a risk to the information, assets or intellectual property of a business.

Global Operations Strategy Of Hard Rock Cafe Tourism Essay

Global Operations Strategy Of Hard Rock Cafe Tourism Essay Among the four global operations strategy, Hard Rock Cafà © falls under a multidomestic strategy as all of its restaurants share the same type of themes while still maintaining certain differences towards different locations. All restaurants of this brand adopts the mission of promoting rock spirit, combining a cafà © environment with live music and rock n roll memorabilia museum. They are operated under united management styles and processes which favor flexibility, emphasize the Hard Rock values and apply precise administration with close planning and forecasting. However, Hard Rock Cafà © makes careful response to the differences in culture and interest in each specific location. For example, an average menu from Hard Rock Cafà © includes classic American food like burgers and chicken meat or lobster, however their restaurant in Hawaii locations also specialize  in fresh fish with delicious meals like fish tacos or ahi tuna sandwich. Hard Rock Cafà ©s retail shops provide l ocation-specific merchandise that cannot be purchased at anywhere else, not even online. In London, fans can acquire t-shirts with the name London printed on them while in Prague, Czech Republic, limited-edition Prague  signature pins with exclusive design quality  are sold. In order to success with this global operation strategy, Hard Rock Cafà © has made good response to the ten operation management decisions. First, their design of goods and services has brought their restaurants a unique, charming appearance that differentiates them well with other brands. Hard Rock Cafà © introduces the concept of experience to its operations. As customers dine at a Hard Rock Cafà ©s restaurant, what they can gain is not only a custom meal from the menu but also an unforgettable event with unique visual pleasure from various rock memorabilia and exciting sound experience from a variety of music activities. This kind of design has brought Hard Rock Cafà © a sharp edge to its competitiveness as theres nothing like an originator (Hard Rocks marketing director, Steve Glum, 2003). Other brands may find aspiration in its special concept; however it has something that cannot be easily copied, music and its $30 million-worth of historically priceless rock paraphernalia (Matt Haig, 2004, p. 233). Their retail merchandises, which take up to 48% of their sales, also carry heavy rock characteristics like Hard Ro ck Monopoly, Hard Rock Calendar, guitar case and other rock items. To follow the experience concept, Hard Rock Cafà © doesnt focus its quality managing effort on only some dishes or services but the experience that its customers get as a whole. Food quality is important, but more important is the quality of visuality and auditory. Hard Rock Cafe attaches much importance to customers opinions in valuating quality as in their experience concept, maximum value is what perceived by the customers. Hard Rock gives out surveys on a regular basis with the scores rating from 1 to 7, and to maintain the restaurants reputation of high quality, if the score is not 7, the service is considered a failure (Jay Heizer Barry Render, p. 56). About process and capacity design, Hard Rock Cafà © provides continuing training to its staff so that they remain highly competent, skillful and passionate about the main theme rock n roll. The restaurants are decorated by buying and displaying musical objects which are sometimes expensive and require much effort in preservation. Hard Rock also holds music events in which the number of fans participating may exceed 100,000 people. The locations of Hard Rocks restaurants are carefully chosen. According to Oliver Munday, Hard Rocks vice president, they have to look at political risk, currency and social normsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ In general, most of these restaurants are located where tourism is developed and in places where each restaurant itself has a great rate of exposure. For example, the Hard Rock Cafà © in Atlanta separates from major hotels and downtown attractions like Georgia Aquarium, Centennial Olympic Parkà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ for only a small walking distance. This location can be called a gold position as tourists can easily find and choose Hard Rock Cafà © as their dining destination easily without much effort. Another example, Hard Rocks newest restaurant in Japan is open at Universal CityWalk Osaka. These entertainment and retail districts are a part of the huge Universal Studios Japan theme park, a famous tourism destination that had welcomed 11 million visitors in its first year of operation and thus b ecome one of the most successful theme parks in history (Universal Studios Japan Welcomes 11 Millionth Visitor, PR Newswire, 2002). The restaurant is also situated in a gold position, at the Konohana park site, only 10 minutes by rail away from JR Osaka station. Thanks to this location, hungry tourists getting out of the station will be eager to stop at Hard Rock Cafà © for a little exciting experience before continuing on their tours. The layouts of Hard Rocks restaurants cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Each colorful layout is like a museum of musical history in the shell of a restaurant. The walls of the restaurants are decorated with memorabilia. Here and there, large television screens bombard the senses of guests with scenes from rock videos. There is quite a lot of space as a Hard Rock restaurant is usually large enough to hold a great number of seats and support live concerts and shows. All of these create a unique Hard Rock atmosphere that no other restaurant can possess. Not only that there are some differences between each location. In Florida, the lavish exterior features an old car driven through the building and the decorations make one think of an ancient ruin. In Prague, a 5-meter crystal guitar is hanging down from the ceiling, creating a rock n roll atmosphere attractive to all rock fans. These differences in design allow Hard Rocks customers to have truly unique visual experience as th ey visit its restaurants at many locations around the world. Up to 2010, Hard Rocks staff has reached 20,000 employees (http://www.hardrock.com). These employees play an indispensable part in keeping the experience economy concept alive. Hard Rocks restaurants have beautiful layouts, exciting music and unique memorabilia; however, what has truly close the bridge between these lifeless items and the customers is the staffs passionate attitude. Hard Rocks employees are not only skillful in their jobs but also quite knowledgeable about rock n roll. In Hard Rock Cafà ©, waiters and waitress pride themselves on being able to recognize every piece of musical paraphernalia, and the staff will enthusiastically engage in conversations with the guests to introduce the objects to them or encourage them to go around and find out the excitement by themselves. In order to ensure their staff to meet the above standard, Hard Rock Cafà © pays much attention to their human resource strategy. They have created a dynamic working culture that gives much ground t o personal development and individuality. Beside incentives like high pay rates and promotion opportunities, Hard Rock gives its staff continuing specific training and encourages them to be positive and self-motivated around the core Hard Rock Value. To minimize the input cost and to ensure the fresh state of its ingredients, Hard Rock Cafà © takes advantages of local supply whenever it can. For example, the restaurant in Honolulu purchases fresh fish from the fish auction near Honolulu Harbor. This action allows the restaurant to have a fresh, always available food source, and also help them to serve their special dish: fresh catch of the day (http://www.hawaiimagazine.com). Hard Rock Cafà ©s inventory consists of over 60,000 unique objects that once belonged to famous rock legends like Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown etcà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ They range from lyric sheets and gold discs to even worn clothes and guitars. Packed with these items, each restaurant becomes a living museum of rock n roll history. In Hard Rock Cafà ©s restaurants, there are also many large flat screen televisions continuously play rock videos and concert footages. This type of inventory becomes one of the brands strength. Theyve got something people can connect to, music and memorabilia (Hard Rocks marketing director, Steve Glum, 2003). As Hard Rock Cafà © constantly grows all over the world with numerous rock concerts and events, its schedules are tightly managed both in long term and short term, large scale and individual scale. For a large event, a plan is made several months before the event day. The closer it gets to the event day, the tighter the schedule is managed. For example, the scheduling for the Rockfest event is done within a tight 9-month horizon, where it is updated monthly in the first 3 months, weekly in the next 6 months and twice a week in the last month (Jay Heizer Barry Render, p. 128). In order to pull off such a tight schedule, Hard Rock Cafà ©s managers must have good project management skills and good supportive software. The schedule of a staff is more flexible. Since 70% of its guests are tourists (Jay Heizer Barry Render, p. 82), Hard Rock Cafà © must have flexible schedules in their restaurant to answer the demands of tourism. For example, in Orlando, a famous tourist location, caf à © staff has schedule of 15-minute intervals to adapt to the seasonal and daily changes of this tourist environment (Jay Heizer Barry Render, p. 56). The special rock-theme of Hard Rock Cafà © requires it to make huge maintenance efforts. The collection of musical items are shared and rotated among restaurants from time to time (Matt Haig, 2004, p. 233). This type of maintenance is quite costly as moving these priceless musical items require not only transportation fee but also special protection and preservation. However, in doing so, the visual experience of a returning customer can remain unique as there are always new pieces of memorabilia to display. As of 2010, Hard Rock Cafà © has already opened a restaurant in Vietnam. This restaurant located at 39 Le Duan street, District 1,   Ho Chi Minh City. Hard Rock Cafà © still doesnt have any restaurant in Hanoi though. The opening of such restaurant will create both operations management opportunities and challenges for Hard Rock. In general view, Hanoi is a potential market in Vietnam. Even though she doesnt have as many entertainment site as Ho Chi Minh City, her cultural buildings, beautiful parks and traditional festivals can usually attract quite a few tourists. According to the statistics of Vietnam General Statistics Office, in the first 8 month of 2010, Hanoi has received about 6 625 000 tourism visits and expected to have a population of over 6 610 000 people. With these statistics, Hanoi will be a good choice for Hard Rock Cafà © to open a new restaurant here. The first challenge Hard Rock Cafà © will meet in opening a new restaurant in Hanoi might be how to find a good location. There may be many cultural sightseeing places all over the old city; however, both tourism activities and local entertainment activities are busiest in Hoan Kiem district, especially around Hoan Kiem Lake and the old quarters. This district has seen the appearance of many large restaurant brands. KFC has a restaurant at the most beautiful position available, beside Hoan Kiem Lake. BBQ has found a good location in the busy Trang Tien Street. Lotteria has a so-so but still good enough location right on the side of Hanoi Train Station. With Hard Rock Cafà ©s tradition of placing its restaurants in tourist locations with high exposure rate, the gold position is undoubtedly here. It will not be easy to find a place large enough to hold a Hard Rock restaurant here though, as this area has a high density of buildings where all business are packed together in a small sp ace. A lot negotiation will have to be made and quite a large amount of money will have to be invested as the price of land in this area is unfortunately highest in the country. There is of course the option of renting a large part or event a whole floor in a building like Highland Cafà © has done with Hanoi tower. However, with its noisy characteristic of rock music culture, this will not be very realistic. Choosing a location in more remote areas of Hanoi will be easier, but the forfeit of tourism attraction must be made up with lots of advertisement and promotion methods. For a Hard Rock Cafà © in Hanoi, there wont be the need to put too much effort in creating a specialized menu. Hard Rocks menu is often heavily affected by the local ingredients. Hanoi doesnt really have any special ingredients while her inhabitants are eager to have Western food as a change, and so its menu can safely stay with its traditional dishes of burgers and chickens. Local supply is plentiful with cheap prices because Hanoi has many satellite towns and provinces as her source of supply for chicken, pork and beef meats. However, this OM opportunity also comes with a challenge. The above source of supply may be cheap and easy to access, but it is also notorious for bad food hygiene and safety. Even though Hanoi government has issued a lot of food safety standards, administration and inspection activities are weak, which results in ingredients with bad quality floating on the market. In order to protect its high quality standards, Hard Rock Cafà © will have to explore the loc al environment to search for trustable suppliers for long-term partnership. Vietnams strength in attracting investment also lies in cheap labor forces. In Hanoi, Hard Rock Cafà © can find all kinds of labor with all kinds of education background. There are people with only high school education level eager to find jobs. There are also university students seeking for part time jobs to earn some money to support their own studying and living. This kind of labor force is cheap and easy to replace. These employees usually dont have much need and can agree easily to low incentives. As a side aspect, a little bonus may be enough to boost their morale hugely. Because of this, Hard Rock Cafà © will not have a hard time in hiring staff and maintaining them. However, the true hardship in human resource management is how to keep this type of staff true to the Hard Rock Cafà © value. In Vietnam, the education style is quite different from that of Eastern countries. Vietnamese students are taught in a passive environment where individuality doesnt have much important while the collective consciousness is highly encouraged. And in Hanoi, this passive characteristic is still very heavy. People in Ho Chi Minh City tend to be more dynamic and flexible with more open-minded thinking method. But because of its delicate but slow culture, Hanois townsmen tend to be more passive and rigid with more close-minded thinking method. The concept of self-motivated, individualistic and creative attitude may be quite unfamiliar to the employees that Hard Rock Cafà © can hire in Hanoi. As a consequence, even though the cost of labor may be low, the cost of training will be relatively high. In Hanoi, the maintenance efforts should not be only for Hard Rocks special collections of musical items but also for the staff itself. To maintain a high quality standard, the staff must also be maintained carefully. The quality of a Vietnamese staff in the restaurant field tends to deteriorate slowly if the managers dont pay enough attention. One of the most important reasons is that except cooks, not many people will consider a position in a restaurant to be the solid foundation of their careers. The case of Mega Star can be taken to view this matter more clearly. Even though Mega Star is a cinema brand, its cinema groups often come with large fast food stalls, and Hard Rock may as well pull one or two lessons from this brand in dealing with a Vietnamese staff. In their first months of operations, Mega Star quickly won over the heart of their customers with five-star services. Their employees were highly professional with positive attitudes, always ready to answer every question f rom customers. However as time go by, because of many reasons, the lack of adequate continuously training, the low incentives, the insufficient number of staff, the come-and-go nature of the labor force,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ the quality of their staff falls, and in my opinion, falls terribly. Just a little surfing around the internet, we can find quite a lot of complaints from Mega Star customers. Many people, including me myself, miss the old days when we were greeted with smiles from the first steps into the cinema group and not being driven crazy with the attitude I-dont-know-but-somebody-may-know almost every time we sought for help. In Hard Rock Cafà ©s case, Hard Rock places a great deal of importance in their human resource strategy and their employees also play an indispensable role in applying the experience economy concept in reality. Extra efforts like more training, better bonusà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ will not be unnecessary in order to maintain the high quality of the staff. In fact, according to the official website of Hard Rock Cafà ©, beside the restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City another Vietnam-based restaurant is planned to open in 2011 in Hanoi. Im looking forward to this new opening and cant wait to see how much successful will Hard Rock Cafà © be in Hanoi.

Criminology Essays Merton Anomie Durkheim

Criminology Essays Merton Anomie Durkheim Merton Anomie Durkheim How does Merton’s theory of anomie differ from that of Durkheim? Durkheim usefully conceptualised the phenomenon of anomie, and I consider the context in which this occurred. I look at Durkheims examples of crime and deviance and his discussion of social solidarity to clarify how his terms are understood. I discuss how, for Durkheim, anomie was a product of social change, resulting in loss of social cohesion and I go on to examine why, for Merton, the concept needed reconsideration. I examine Mertons view that society is in constant flux and his distinction between anomie and strain toward anomie, between social structure and individual responses, discussing briefly his five modes of adaptation, loosely divided into conformity and deviance. Finally, I identify key points of difference between their two theories of anomie. Emile Durkheim conceptualised the term anomie in The Division of Labour in Society (1893). In this treatise he discusses in detail the subject of social solidarity. Durkheim holds that all members within society are a product of society, bound together by societal bonds. Durkheim used the term anomie to describe lack of social cohesion or relative normlessness, where bonds break down or are undefined. (p.212) According to Durkheim this blurring of societal bonds causes members of society to become detached from societal regulatory constraints that govern and control their behaviour and aspirations, leaving them with no set guidelines within which to act or to aspire, resulting in anomie. Durkheim was a positivist; he was not interested in the study of individuals subjective meanings but aimed to identify and study different social facts. Many forces contributing to anomie can be measured only by their visible effects as some forces are invisible, like gravity. Durkheim studied the observable effects of invisible social forces. Anomie can be observed through effects such as societal disorganization and deregulation, leading to criminal and deviant behaviour but also social facts as personal as suicide (discussed below). Durkheim suggests that an anomic state is more likely to be present during periods of social unrest, perhaps caused by social changes like increases and decreases of economic prosperity, due to the disruption of traditional values (p.201) Durkheim believed that crime and deviance were socially constructed. Durkheim saw acts of crime and deviance as an integral part of society’s temporal transition; he suggested that a certain amount of crime and deviance is an essential component of the healthy functioning of society, and he suggested it reinforces society’s moral code and causes social solidarity, change and innovation. Although crime and deviance could threaten the stability of society, Durkheim suggests that a society without crime would also produce an anomic state. (p.226) In Durkheim’s treatise Division of Labour in Society (1893) he differentiated between two types of societies, characterised by their degree of social cohesion: mechanical solidarity, which has strong social cohesion, and organic solidarity, which has weak social cohesion. Durkheim suggested that society has evolved from a mechanical society, based on similarity, to an organic society, based on difference. (p.226) Mechanical societies describe the solidarity found in traditional societies; these societies existed before the modern industrial era. In mechanical societies communities were smaller, societal bonds were stronger; people shared collective norms and values which Durkheim described as collective consciousness. These societal bonds were reinforced by peoples shared religious beliefs. People in this society performed similar tasks and worked to achieve collective goals which benefited the whole group. In this type of society individuals were not as dependent on each other as later, organic, societies. In mechanical societies everyone was doing similar work and did not rely on others for their needs; they did, however, rely on society to function adequately as a whole: â€Å"In societies where this type of solidarity [mechanical] is highly developed, the individual is not his own master†¦. Solidarity is, literally something which the society possesses.† (Durkheim, ed Giddens, 1972, p.139) Durkheim suggests that anomie was less likely to exist in mechanical societies because of society’s strong cohesion. He states The state of anomie is impossible whenever interdependent organs are sufficiently in contact and sufficiently extensive. If they are close to each other, they are readily aware, in every situation, of the need which they have of one-another, and consequently they have an active and permanent feeling of mutual dependence. (Durkheim, 1893, p.184) The second type of solidarity, organic solidarity, Durkheim linked to complex modern industrial societies, suggesting that they are constituted, not by a repetition of similar, homogeneous segments, but by a system of different organs each of which has a special role, and which are themselves formed of differentiated parts. (p.181) In organic societies the division of labour increases and work tasks become more complex, specialised and individualised. The labour force is divided; therefore individuals are no longer working on similar tasks but segregated to individualised tasks. Members of organic societies are highly dependent on each other to produce what they need. Durkheim suggests that this functioning is similar to the functioning of the human body, all different parts working on specialized tasks to sustain the organism as a whole. However if the organ fails to function it causes the other parts of the organism that are reliant on that part to fail as well. This dependence is significant to the survival of society; healthy functioning of the society is based on the reliance of others. (Durkheim, 1893, p. 226) Organic societies differ from mechanical societies as they are based on differences in individual functions, rather than similarity. These differences can cause members to become detached from society which in turn causes misidentification with society. The breakdown of interpersonal bonds (without which individuals lack guidance and feel detached from society) thus produces anomie. Durkheim noted that Man is the more vulnerable to self-destruction the more he is detached from any collectively, that is to say, the more he lives as an egoist. (Durkheim, ed Giddens, 1972, p.113) This organic form of society, he suggested, was the cause of the decline of social cohesion and integration, and the creation of anomie (p.200). This is demonstrated by Taylor, in his publication Durkheim and the Study of Suicide (1982) Taylors interpretation of Durkheim suggests that suicide is present in modern organic societies because of the decline of social cohesion: Durkheim held that in modern society there were two principle causes of high (and rising) suicide rates: (egotistic) suicide was higher where individuals were not well integrated into collective social life; and (anomic) suicide was higher when societys norms and values were too weak to regulate individual desires and drives The relationship between levels of social integration and regulation and suicide rates demonstrated that society exerted an independent influence over the individual. In Durkheims terms, society was external to the individual, so much so that even such a supremely individual act as suicide had its roots in society. (p.21) Durkheim suggested that when social conditions change, the traditional norms and values needed for public consciousness no longer remain the same. An anomic detachment from societal restraints frees members of society from limits to their aspirations causing anomic suicide. (Durkheim, 1893, p. 203) Durkheim writes in Suicide (1897) that, â€Å"The limits are unknown between the possible and the impossible, what is just and what is unjust, legitimate claims and hopes and those which are immoderate. Consequently, there is no restraint upon aspirations.† (p.253) Robert Merton elaborated on Durkheims work on anomie; however, he did not always agree with Durkheim’s theory. Merton adapted the theory of anomie to a general sociological approach to crime and deviance. He considered that deviance was not caused by sudden social change, as suggested by Durkheim, but was, rather, a symptom of a constantly changing social structure. Merton was writing in America at a time when there was inequality between ethnic groups. Merton observed that not all individuals within society have an equal chance of success; he believed that inequality in society blocked people from attaining the means needed to achieve their goals. Many Americans were aiming to achieve â€Å"the American dream† and he was interested in how they pursued their goals, and whether or not dreams were equally attainable to everyone. (Merton, 1957, p.121) Like Durkheim, Merton held that crime and deviance were caused by society: â€Å"the functional analyst†¦ considers socially deviant behaviour just as much a product of social structure as conformist behaviour†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (p.121) but Mertons view of deviance is different to Durkheim’s. While Durkheim believed that identifying deviance is a demonstration of society’s norms, and a barometer of cohesion and change, Merton held that crime does not generate social solidarity or social progress and that crime and deviance demonstrate poor societal organization. Merton suggested that society does not evolve from mechanical to organic, but that society is constantly changing and generating new goals if not necessarily the means by which to achieve these goals. (p.121) Merton’s theory of anomie is not easily conceptualized in his writings, as he spoke about both anomie and strain towards anomie, which can be hard to distinguish. For clarity, I have discussed these as if they were two different concepts. Firstly, when Merton talked about anomie, his theory does not refer to the normless societal state identified by Durkheim. Merton suggested â€Å"no society lacks norms governing conduct. But societies do differ in degree to which [such] institutional controls are effectively integrated with the goals which stand high in the hierarchy of cultural values† (p.121) Merton’s theory suggests that there is no decline or undefined presence of societal norms governing behaviour but a disjunction â€Å"between valued cultural ends and legitimate societal means to those ends† (Akers, 2000, p.143). Merton’s anomie theory, like Durkheim’s, can be used as an explanation of deviant and criminal behaviour. Merton held that individual goals and aspirations are regulated by societal restraints unlike Durkheim, who suggested that the anomic state causes no limitation to members aspirations. Merton suggested these societal restraints put pressure on members of society to conform to societal norms. He held that an anomic state is caused by a de-institutionalization of societal norms. This occurs when society emphasizes culturally preferred goals and their achievement but does not emphasize the culturally approved means to achieve these goals: â€Å"any cultural goals which receive extreme and only negligibly qualified emphasis in the culture of a group will serve to attenuate the emphasis on institutionalized practices and make for anomie.† (Merton, 1968, p.235) This disjunction, Merton suggested, is the cause of macro-structural anomie. Mertons structural anomie theory is similar and compatible with what Durkheim suggested as both theories can be used to explain macro-level implica tions of anomie, but the development of the concept of strain allows the application of the concept of anomie to individual experience of society. (p.189) This micro-individual level of anomie, Merton suggested, is caused by strain, and an anomic societal state is needed for strain to occur. In turn, the strain experienced by individuals fosters anomie. Merton’s strain theory can also be used as an explanation of deviant behaviour: â€Å"cultural (or idiosyncratic) exaggeration of the success-goal leads men to withdraw emotional support from the rules† (p.190). Individuals are more likely to pursue illegitimate means to attaining culturally prescribed goals when they are blocked from accessing the institutionalized means to these goals: The social structure†¦ produces a strain toward anomie and deviant behaviour. The pressure of such a social order is outdoing ones competitors. So long as the sentiments supporting this competitive system†¦ are not confined to the final result of â€Å"success†, the choice of means will remain largely within†¦ social control. When, however, the cultural emphasis shifts from satisfaction deriving from competition itself to almost exclusive concern with the outcome, the resultant stress makes for the breakdown of the regulatory structure. (Merton, 1957, p157) Merton also suggested that â€Å"some individuals are subjected more than others to the strains arising from the discrepancy between cultural goals and effective access to their realization. They are consequently more vulnerable to deviant behaviour.† (p.235) Merton described those who are restricted by inequality. This can be used as an explanation of the suffragette movement: women prevented from achieving their goals were provoked into deviant acts of protest. Merton identified five types of response to societal pressure: conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion. (p.136) The first two modes accept, and the last three modes reject societal rules. Firstly, Merton described conformity which he considered the most common response to strain. It describes the process by which people strive to succeed using the most socially acceptable means they have available to them. This conformity to social values is cohesive of society according to both Merton and Durkheim. The second mode, ritualism, describes individuals who accept they have no opportunity to achieve their goals. These individuals maintain what they have but are discouraged from doing more: they don’t believe they can become more than what they are. In effect, they join the conformists. (p.200) However, not all people conform. The third mode is rebellion; this describes individuals who have rejected the idea that everyone can achieve success. These individuals have rebelled against the system and rejected socially acceptable means to achieve their goals. The fourth mode is retreatism which occurs when individuals choose to drop out of society, give up on their goals and make no effort to achieve because they see it as impossible. Merton suggested this response is associated with drug addicts and alcoholics. (p.267) The fifth mode is what Merton called innovation: innovation describes the process through which people conform to atypical forms of acquiring means; however, they also seek success that would be unachievable without taking advantage of illegal goals available to them. (p. 267)Each of these modes of adaptation demonstrates the individual’s response to societal strain arising from anomie; modes that accept societal pressures are not as likely to pursue illegitimate means. In conclusion, Durkheim suggested that anomie is caused by the undefined presence of social bonds. This undefined presence causes a decline of social cohesion therefore individuals become detached from society and recognise no limits to their behaviour. Durkheim also suggested that anomie is caused by the decline of social cohesion representative of today’s organic societies, and that mechanical societies found in pre-modern societies had a stronger degree of social integration, reducing the occurrence of anomie. However this view was not shared by Merton; he considered that there has been no time when society lacks norms. He held that the presence of societal norms and their pressure on society and individuals causes anomie and strain towards anomie. Durkheim and Merton also differ on when anomie occurs. Durkheim suggested that anomie is present during periods of social change due to the disruption of traditional bonds. However, Merton disagrees as he believes that anomie can be found in relatively stable societies. For Merton transition was not from one specific type of social structure to another but a constant state of flux, with changing goals. Both Durkheim and Merton agree that crime and deviance are consequences of anomie. However, they differed on whether crime has value to society Durkheim held that some crime and deviance is a product of a normal functioning society, reinforcing solidarity and encouraging social progress, while Merton suggested that crime and deviance demonstrates societal disorganisation. Durkheim and Merton’s theories differ most strongly on what constitutes the causes of anomie. Durkheim looks at anomie from a structural perspective, whereas Merton looks at the causes of anomie from both a macro and micro level, giving the theory a more detailed explanation. Merton looks in detail at the individual’s response to societal strain not discussed intensively in Durkheim, as his positivist ontology did not consider individuals internal motives and drives unless they had objective effects. For Durkheim anomie is the effect of the breakdown of societal bonds; for Merton, strain is a mechanism of anomie and can occur during anomic societal states: strain towards anomie describes the individual’s battle to obtain the necessary means needed to achieve their goals. Durkheim suggested that during an anomic state individual aspirations are not limited because of the undefined presence of societal norms; without these norms, he suggested, members of society are deluded as to what is realistically achievable (Durkheim, 1897, p.253). Mertons theory, on the other hand, offers an explanation for why social forces influence some people to commit deviant and criminal acts and why some individuals conform to societal pressures and why some do not. Bibliography Akers, R. (2000) Criminological Theories: Introduction, Evaluation, and Application. Los Angeles: Roxbury. Durkheim, E. (1893) The Division of Labor in Society, tr. W. D. Halls, (1984) New York: Free Press. Giddens, A. (1972) Emile Durkheim Selected Writings. London: Cambridge University Press Merton, R.K. (1957) Social Theory and Social Structure. 2ed ed. New York: The Free Press. Taylor. S. (1982) Durkheim and the Study of Suicide. London: The Macmillan Press. Thompson, K. (1982) Emile Durkheim. London: Tavistock Publications.

Social Psychological Experiments Essay -- Social Issues, Authority

Stanley Milgram, a social psychologist, conducted an experiment in 1963 about human obedience that was deemed as one of the most controversial social psychology experiments ever (Blass). Ian Parker, a writer for the New Yorker and Human Sciences, and Diana Baumrind, a psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, responded to Stanley Milgram’s experiment. These articles represent how the scientific community reviews and scrutinizes each other’s work to authenticate experiment results. Baumrind focuses on the moral and ethical dilemma while, Parker focuses more on the experiment’s actual application. The experiment’s original intent was to determine if society would simply obey to authority when put under pressure by an authoritative figure. Milgram put a twist on the experiment asking the age-old question of, â€Å"if the Germans during WWII were simply obeying to authority when carrying out the Holocaust or were they all acting on their own†(Blass). The test subject, or teacher, would administer electric shocks to the learner, a paid actor, when the learner incorrectly answered the word pairings. The teacher thought the learner was receiving electric shocks when in reality the learner was not receiving any shocks. An instructor, the authoritative figure, was sitting behind the teacher reassuring the teacher that the shocks may be painful but would not inflict permanent damage. Throughout the experiment, the teacher can be seen looking back towards the instructor for permission on whether to continue or stop (ABC).The teacher instructed the learner to continue even when the learner cried out in pain and begged for the experiment to stop (ABC). Sixty-five percent of the time, the teacher continued until he administered the ... ... Baumrind’s idea that if Milgram were to fully disclose the experiment would it still produces the same results as the original experiment? Milgram does arrange for a friendly meeting between the teacher and the learner after the experiment. The meeting was supposed to relieve all tensions that are burdened upon the teacher throughout the experiment. Baumrind does not believe that this simple meeting between the teacher and learner was enough to relieve all tensions of the experiment (227). She simply suggests that Milgram should have offered a psychiatric evaluation or therapy to the patients after participating in the experiment (227). The ethical treatment that Milgram showed towards his patients denied him his APA membership. â€Å"The ethical furor preyed on Milgram’s mind – in the opinion of Arthur G. Miller, it may have contributed to his premature death†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (234).

Monopolistic Competition in the Retail Industry Essay -- Microeconomic

Monopolistic Competition in the Retail Industry Defining the Market The retail industry is comprised of thousands of different brands and companies. However each is defined by its quality of make and materials used. Abercrombie & Fitch, Timberland, and Guess are all well-known and respected brand names. However if prices were to exceed what people are willing to pay, then the consumers would alter their preferences and buy from another brand. Therefore we are dealing with a monopolistic competition. Monopolistic competition is often defined as: a common form of industry structure characterized by a large number of firms, none of which can influence market price by virtue of size alone; some degree of market power is achieved by firms producing differentiated products. New firms can enter and established firms can exit with ease ) I. ?common form of the industry structure characterized by a large number of firms none of which can influence market price by virtue of size alone ? New firms can enter and established firms can exit with ease.?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Every year hundreds of new designers emerge into the retail industry. No matter what one?s style of clothing, there are dozens of other brands to choose from should one company?s price go beyond the household?s expectation of price. Each company is on a careful balance of price and cannot exceed the other company?s prices beyond what the consumer sees as reasonable. Moreover, firms can enter and exit easily because there are no tariffs and resources are plentiful. This is the competitive side of monopolistic competition. II. some degree of market power is achieved by firms producing differentiated products   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  However the retail firm is also monopolistic because of the added aspect that each company does have some degree of market power through their differentiation of products. One way firms differentiate themselves is through the consumer and the way they fashion their products. The consumer determines the success/failure of a company. A major problem firms face is how to accommodate to the changing preferences of the consumer. Guess was at one point similar to Levi?s, a brand of jeans limited to the department store. However in 2002, Guess signed on Marciano, a prominent high-end European designer, and sales have boomed since. Now, Guess is a well-known, popular brand among teenagers and ... ...l be most receptive. Timberlands are successful in areas with cold, long winters like Ohio but would make minimal profit in area such as Florida. Bibiliography 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Case, Karl E. & Ray C. Fair. Principles of Microeconomics. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2004. 2.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  ?Guess-Marciano,? 2004. < http://www.marciano.com> 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  ?Glossary of Economic Terms? Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Understanding the Terms Symbol = a code comprised of letters used as a unique identification of the stock 52 week High = the highest price reached during the last 52 weeks 52 week Low = the lowest price reached during the last 52 weeks Dividend = taxable payment declared by a company?s board of directors & given to its shareholders out of the company?s current/retained earnings Dividend Yield = yield a company pays its shareholders in the form of dividends; calculated by the amount of dividends paid per share over the course of the year divided by the stock price P/E Ratio = (aka the price earnings ratio) most common measure of how pricey the stock is; equivalent to a stock?s market capitalization divided by its post tax earnings over a year?s period

Role of Managers in Company Management

STUDY GUIDE FOR THE Management Role of Managers in Company Management for BMCF TM study – course M_RMCM Role of Managers in Company Management Karel Havlicek Ing. Karel Havlicek, PhD. , MBA Management – Role of Managers in Company Management  © Karel Havlicek, 2011 Management – Role of Managers in Company Management Contents : 1. Role of management in hypercompetitive environment 1. 1 Owners and managerial strategy 1. 2 Managerial strategies and managerial planning 1. 3 Involved persons – Stakeholders 1. 4 Key terms 1. 5 Test questions 1. 6 Recommended literature 2.Role of management within marketing management 2. 1 Marketing management 2. 2 Marketing policy 2. 3 Marketing researches 2. 4 Marketing planning 2. 5 Key terms 2. 6 Test questions 2. 7 Recommended literature 3. Role of management within sales management 3. 1 Sales management 3. 2 Sales planning 3. 3 Management of forecasts 3. 4 Trade receivables management 3. 5. Customers communication managem ent 3. 6 Key terms 3. 7 Test questions 3. 8 Recommended literature 4. Role of management within financial management 1. Financial management 2. Financial planning 3. Controlling 4.Management of relations with banks 5. Costing 4. 6 Key terms 4. 7 Test questions 4. 8 Recommended literature 5. Role of management within quality and innovation management 5. 1 Quality management 5. 2 QMS models 5. 3 TQM models 5. 4. Balanced Score Card 5. 5 Innovation management 5. 6 Key terms 5. 7 Test questions 5. 8 Recommended literature 6. Role of management within team building 6. 1 Managerial team building 6. 2 Recruitment of managers 6. 3 Implementation of managers in teams 6. 4 Motivation and education 6. 5 Establishment of organizational designs 6. 6 Key terms 6. 7 Test questions . 8 Recommended literature 1. Role of management in hypercompetitive environment 1. 1 Owners and managerial strategy 1. 2 Managerial strategy and planning 1. 3 Stakeholders 1. 4 Key terms 1. 5 Test questions 1. 6 Recomme nded literature 1. 1 Owners and managerial strategy The term strategy has been frequently used in various contexts, which often leads to many misunderstandings and confusions. It originates from Greek – we can translate it as the art of a leader, general. Within business terminology it used to mean the ability to make decisions on the basis of high expertise and professionalism.However, there is another term with the same root used in English – â€Å"stratagem†. The term is generally translated as an act performed by company management within its top managerial activities. By the term strategy we mean certain scheme (process) that outlines how to achieve the set objectives under given conditions. It is a summary of steps and activities to be adopted â€Å"being aware† of partial lack of knowledge of all the future circumstance, conditions and connections, where not every possible alternative is identified, and individual advantages and disadvantages can't be determined for the purpose of future decision making.The objective is to establish adequate coordination of all the company's activities, and create unified complex of its perspectives. The strategy in small or medium enterprise should be defined in a short or mid-term horizon, not for more than 5 years ahead. Such horizon should be sufficient for medium sized enterprises. An enterprise of this size should anticipate a flexible change required by general trends. Flexibility is one of the major competitive advantages of small and medium enterprises compared to multinationals and large corporations. Thus it is not necessary to set up long term strategies, as their continuous changes are likely.The maturity of mid- and long term investment loans can be used for orientation with regards to the period of compiled strategy. In normal practice we discern owners' and managerial strategic aspects. Owners strategy is basically outlined by owners (shareholders, partners), and has a global character. The owners determine what is their mid- and long term objective. These can be for example: – financial requirements (ROE, EVA, profit, dividend, available CF etc. ), – marketing and sales aspects (market position and share, turnover etc. ), – strategic objectives (market value of the company, synergic effects etc. . Managerial strategy is based on the owners strategy, developing concrete strategic plans in order to achieve the owners' objectives. This strategy is prepared by the company management at the level of sales, marketing, financial, production, human resources or other directors. strategic objectives and strategies are identified on the basis of analyses, frequently in cooperation between the top management and owners. As mentioned before, the company management is responsible for achievement of strategic objectives, represented by the executive or general director.Controlling body can be an advisory or supervisory board of the company, or bo ard of directors, provided the board is not the management at the same time. This always depends on particular model and organizational design (structure) of the company. 1. 2 Managerial strategies and managerial planning The following steps are usually understood under the term â€Å"company strategy†: a) Description of current status by SWOT analysis. b) Determination of target status in a mid-term horizon. c) Outline of strategic objectives. d) Strategy of achievement of these objectives. ) Establishment of control mechanisms of the achievement. Strategies and strategic objectives are above all the activities and departments of the company. They are the starting point of plans and concepts of individual departments, divisions etc. The objectives of financial, sales, marketing, human resources and production have to be based on global strategy, when formulating partial plans and goals, and the short term objectives of these departments have to be modified in accordance with overall strategic objectives, which is an essential precondition of their achievement.This process is illustrated in the Figure 1-1. Figure 1-1 Illustration of the company strategy and its links to the plans of individual departments Individual strategic issues are not definitive, heir implementation in the company depends on its orientation, size, organizational design etc. It is obvious there will be no production strategy implemented in a trading company etc. Another strategies and consequent plans we may come across are innovation, quality, logistic and others. It is possible to combine certain strategies as well.Typical example for the small and medium enterprises is the amalgamation of marketing and sales strategy into one sales and marketing plan. Human resources plan in SMEs is sometimes substituted with a simpler motivation plan. Marketing strategy Marketing strategy is the basis for articulation of all the company's objectives. We may claim a successfully implemented sale s and marketing strategy is decisive for the enterprise's efficiency. Basis is the marketing mix, from which we derive the following marketing strategies: -product (product mix, life cycles, brand strategies†¦) -price (costing, pricing strategies) distribution (distribution channels mix, approach to the management of distribution conflicts) -communication (strategy of setting up internal and external communication mixes) The strategy consists of analytical and implementation parts. The analytical part describes current status, or history in all the strategic issues defined above, and together with the marketing research they are the basis for identification of strength and weaknesses, opportunities and threats – so-called SWOT analysis. The principles of marketing management of the company are defined in the marketing strategy and its implementation part.Fundamental is the marketing plan, as it includes marketing objectives, strategy of achievement and control mechanisms . Sales strategy The sales strategy is built on the marketing plan, and SWOT analysis. History of sales is described in the analytical part in the following breakdown: – product groups or individual products – customer segments, or individual customers – foreign or local territories The implementation part describes principles of sales management, and with regards to the above mentioned breakdown it includes the sales objectives to be developed further into detailed sales plans.Financial strategy It is created in the context of sales plan, with regards to the marketing research, SWOT analysis, and marketing and sales objectives. The analytical part includes history and updated summary f financial results and indicators in the structure relevant to the size and orientation of the company, and financial requirements of the owners. The implementation part consists of an overview of the required financial objectives in the horizon of several years. The achievement o f objectives is defined in the financial management policy, which is the basis for development of financial plans and budgets.The financial plan consists of balance sheet, profit and loss account, and cashflow statement. Annual budget is the basis of company's operating management. The financial strategy is a result of marketing and sales strategy. The marketing and sales plan has to come before the financial plan. This means the marketing and sales information – to who, for what price, where, in what form and with what marketing cost – has to precede the budget. Sometimes wrongly used reverse process tends to unrealistic forecasts, and may cause existential problems to the enterprise. Financial director is responsible for the financial strategy.In order to be able to prepare it credibly, the director needs timely and correct information from the marketing and sales department, at minimum in the form of sales plan. Production strategy Similarly to the previous cases th e production strategy includes analytical and implementation parts. The analytical part describes history of production, namely with regards to capacities, technologies, processes and individual sections, productivity and relation to the fulfillment of sales results. The implementation part describes how many products, in what quality ad structure, time and efficiency will be produced in the strategy's horizon.The production strategy defines overall management of the production, sometimes also the management of procurement and technologies. Its results are local production plans – basis for dispatch plans (can be included logistic or warehousing plans). The production strategy in smaller companies is usually complemented with procurement policy and investment strategy related to new technologies. The marketing and sales, and financial plans have to come before the production plan. The director of production is responsible for the production plan and strategy.This procedure ha s to be emphasized once again! In many enterprises so-called manufacturing approach survives: â€Å"The production has produced and now it's up to you – the salesman – to sell it! † Production directors and managers as the driving forces in companies are a mistake. It is not possible for the production departments to decide on the product range, price and quality. It is the customer who decides, and his decision is mediated in the company through marketing and sales department. As an example we can take the transformation of so-called Eastern bloc.High demand in former East-European countries in early nineties that often exceeded the supply of both traders and manufacturers, was a unique phenomenon, result of the transition towards market environment. Such situation is really unlikely in future. Logical consequence of company management was tremendous pressure of production and financial departments on sales – priority was HOW to produce and HOW to secure funds, WHERE to place the product or service was a secondary concern. The sales (actual sales, not the trading) were often simpler than the very manufacturing concept.Incoming multinationals and consequent growth of competition in general, stricter legislation, more cautious banks, higher pressure on quality and saturation of the market – these are the basic attributes that change the view of still frequent process: manufacture – finance – sales – marketing. The supply today exceeds the demand in most cases. Overproduction and surplus products come as a result. The enterprise capable of assessing market development and placing its products in variants, products that are sold, is more competitive and successful.The priority now is WHERE to place the product, WHAT price is the customer and the consumer willing to accept, WHAT quality is expected by the customer and the consumer, WHAT distribution channel is optimal for customers, WHAT means of communicatio n will be used to offer the product, and only then: HOW and FOR HOW MUCH to produce the required product (to ensure profit at the end of the day). The Figure 1-2 illustrates trends of supply – demand relations in eastern Europe. It means in most cases it is the customer who decides on quality, design, parameters, price and placing of the product, not the manufacturer.The manufacturing approach is thus replaced with customer-oriented, sales/marketing approach. There is gradual transfer from production-oriented marketing towards the modern marketing philosophy of customer relationship management. This process was typical for the whole period of nineteen nineties, and due to the dynamic development of market environment, relations and competition it was very intensive. Figure 1-2 The trends of supply – demand relations in Eastern Europe in 90s Human resources strategy Human resources strategy has an analytical-historic part, and implementation part, too.It consists of hum an resources policy, followed by the plan of human resources management, so-called human resources plan. The plan describes in detail recruitment system, inclusion of employees in teams, creation of organizational designs, training and motivation of the staff. Personnel (in larger companies human resources) director is responsible for its preparation. In smaller companies, where there is no post of personnel director created, the human resources strategy falls within the executive director's responsibility.In some medium marketing-oriented companies the bearer of personnel policy can be the marketing and sales director, who includes in his marketing plan the area of so-called internal marketing. Internal marketing in this case is a philosophy that treats the employees as customers – the main point being communication with the staff. They are informed of what is going on, why it is going on and what is required from them in order to ensure efficiency. In smaller companies the human resources plan is often substituted with motivation plan. The importance and sequence of managerial strategiesThere is a change of priorities and sequences of managerial going on presently. The effects of overproduction and surplus products lead to the necessity of considering the market information first – where to sell the product, under what conditions and quality. This means the marketing and sales plan is a cornerstone of further strategic planning, i. e. human resources, financial, production, quality, logistics, innovations, procurement etc. It is important to understand the planning in relation with the annual budget, as illustrated in the Figure 1-3 Figure 1-3 Strategic planning in small and medium enterprises related to annual budget . 3 Stakeholders One of the definitions of modern relations marketing talks about the tool of marketing philosophy of creation and distribution of values for targeted and identified markets – customers. Therefore correct id entification of the customer, understanding the desires, values expected from us (the enterprise), for which he is willing to pay, are the basis of any marketing approach, and the starting point for the treatment of any marketing case. Basically we recognize two types of users of our products: – customers who buy or pay for the products and services we provide, but they do not necessarily use them (e. . purchase of gift for somebody, pet food, toys for children), – consumers who use the products ad services, but they do not necessarily buy them (husband uses aftershave from his wife, children play with toys from their parents). Another possible interpretation of the term customer is provided by P. Kotler and G. Armstrong (Marketing. Grada Publishing, Praha 2004), working with the following division: – organization whose purchasing behavior includes goods and services for the manufacture of another products to be sold, rented or provided further. These are also w holesale and retail companies.They operate in so-called industrial markets, – consumers (individuals and households) that buy goods and services for their own needs, the transactions take place in so-called consumer markets. Thus every enterprise has several different groups of customers and consumers, each of which expects different values from the relationship. We may even develop this idea further, and include another parties that neither buy nor directly use the services, still influencing the enterprise's behavior. Those interested in particular company, because they can influence or be influenced by its activities (production, sponsoring, communication etc. are called involved persons, or stakeholders. In the relation marketing theory you may come across one statement – survival of an organization depends on its effective management, and wide range of involved persons. The satisfaction of the may and often conflicting interests of involved persons is a task for e very manager within an organization. Involved persons – stakeholders, and their expectations are identified in the model shown in the Table 1-1 As seen in the table, the involved persons include several groups not to be called customers in our sense; however, on the other hand we would call the customers stakeholders.The term â€Å"stakeholders† is thus considerably wider than the term â€Å"customers†. The success and managerial skill does not mean maximum satisfaction of just a part of the stakeholders, but adequate satisfaction of everybody, if possible. The word â€Å"adequate† is used on purpose, as it is almost impossible for the reason of often conflicting interests to satisfy everybody to maximum extent. Involved persons |Expectations | |Employees |Financial remuneration, satisfaction from work, sureness | |Shareholders |Growing capital, dividends | |Suppliers |Regular and paid deliveries |Customers, consumers |Quality, value | |Government |Employ ment, legislative environment, payment of taxes | |Managers |Prestige, acknowledgment, career opportunities | |Minorities |Employment without discrimination, equal approach to values | |Creditors |Payments in time, safety of investments | |Municipality |Employment, taxes | Table 1-1 Involved persons and their expectations 1. 4 Key terms Owners strategy Managerial strategy Marketing strategy Sales strategy Human resources strategy Production strategy Sales plan Marketing plan Financial plan Production plan Human resources plan Industrial market Consumer market Stakeholders Shareholders Customers Consumers SME / Small and medium enterprise 1. 5 Test questions 1. What objectives definitely belong to the owners strategy? ) achievement of the defined turnover b) achievement of higher market share c) achievement of the objectives defined in quality policy d) achievement of the defined ROE 2. What has to precede the financial plan unconditionally? a) quality management plan b) marketing r esearch c) human resources management plan d) logistic management plan 3. Who pursues the market requirements within an organization? a) production director b) sales and marketing director c) financial director d) technical director 4. B2B means to trade in: a) industrial markets b) commercial – consumer markets c) the area of employees' purchases d) the field of state contracts 1. 6 Recommended literatureHavlicek, K: Management, Role of Managers in Company Management, chapter 1 Hellriegel, D. – Jackson, E. S. – Slocum,J. W. (2005) : Management , A Comepetency-Based Approach. Thomson South-Western, Mason, chapters 1, 5, 6, 7. 2. Role of management within marketing management 2. 1 Marketing management 2. 2 Marketing policy 2. 3 Marketing researches 2. 4 Marketing planning 2. 5 Key terms 2. 6 Test questions 2. 7 Recommended literature 2. 1 Marketing management Marketing management is an essential business activity, without which no company can do, even more so if it has an ambition to export its own products, and to conquer new territories.Marketing management in CRM mode is defined as continuous process of analysis, planning, implementation and control of all the company's activities. (Source: Kotler, P. , Armstrong, G. : Marketing. Grada Publishing, Praha 2004). The goal of marketing management in a company is to satisfy business objectives of the entity or entrepreneur by satisfying the customers' requirements. K. Havlicek and M. Kasik in their publication Marketing management in small and medium enterprises (Management Press, Praha, 2005 ) created practical model of marketing management (Figure 2-1) when applying the philosophy of managed relations with customers: 2. 2. Marketing policy Each enterprise should have its marketing policy defined by the marketing director.This is a simple document that describes basic philosophy of the department, including product portfolio, customer segments, proposal of corresponding distribution, communi cation, and human resources. It should be linked to the overall strategy. The purpose of marketing policy is to provide simplified map of the main line of work of the department, what are the current customer segments, what marketing and sales activities are being prepared in the horizon of one year, who implements the current activities, how is the evaluation organized. The policy is prepared once a year, it should be in the form of a document given to every employee of the marketing and sales department, and to the company director. Marketing policy document usually includes: Organizational design of the marketing and sales department.Simple graphic chart of the organizational design is enough, where marketing director is on the top (in smaller companies marketing and sales director), followed by other team members, managers, sales representatives for domestic or foreign markets (so-called front office), sales assistants, background personnel (so-called back office), etc. Everythi ng depends on the orientation, size, and organizational design of the enterprise. It is important to highlight the relations between possible subdivisions and hierarchy, i. e. who report to whom, who is responsible for whom. It is quite easy in smaller enterprise, but tens of staff members in the marketing and sales department are not an exception, of which some are field sales people, others work in branch offices or abroad. In such a case the organizational design is very important – from both control and transparency point of view.Main product groups and territorial division of the customers This means the overall product and territorial division, and major customer segments. The product division does not have to be detailed (individual products), but it should correspond to the group structure according to sales plan, maximum ten basic product groups (depending on the scope and orientation of the products). Territorial design means the division to individual countries, or regions. Customer segments should also be divided to maximum ten categories. It should be clear who is the customer, and what product mix will we offer. It is important to include concrete personal responsibility for all the above mentioned categories in the marketing and trade policy document.Human resources status and activities Complete list of all the department's employees, their job assignments, classification within the organizational design of the team or projects of marketing and sales character, or projects of another departments and sections. It is useful to include e-mail addresses, mobile and fixed phones in the list. The fact that such document can be a major communication tool for some staff of the marketing and sales department should be taken into account. Motivation system The motivation system represents team motivation, system of evaluation aimed at departments, groups, or projects, concrete motivation instruments leading to the best performance of the staff, an d consequently to prosperity. In other words – the system of remuneration should be clear from this document, i. e. nder what conditions, when and for what, in what way and by whom the remuneration will be approved and provided. Summary of individual evaluations, or even individual incomes should definitely not make part of this public document. Communication within the department When and where regular meetings take place, in what intervals, who takes part, what source materials are required, where the minutes are archived etc. The dates of â€Å"brainstorming† meetings, workshops, project sessions, innovation committees etc. can be provided as well. Marketing department directives In case there are directives of any kind used in the department, they should be included to the marketing policy as well.These can be for example directives related to quality policy, or internal directives of the department, such as a directive on the management and administration of trade receivables. 2. 3 Marketing researches For both large companies and small and medium enterprises the continuous market research is a cornerstone of their activities. It should not relate only to a particular goal or immediate plan; its ongoing implementation and monitoring are advisable. Product life cycle gets naturally shorter in the era of growing competition. Endless flow of information on new trends, competition, groups of customers and suppliers are key of further company development.The objective of marketing research is systematic planning, collection, analysis and evaluation of the information needed for an effective solution of marketing problems. This applies to all types of organizations in general. In small and medium enterprises the research is adequate to their possibilities, but even here it is necessary to understand that sound research is a basis for other activities. This implies the necessity of system approach, i. e. to apply the research of external environmen t aimed at the following aspects (so-called STEEP analysis): – sociological, – technological, – economic, – environmental, – political. This research is crucial, namely in the case of more remote territories, market environment of which is not well known.When researching the internal competitive environment it is convenient to use factor environment analysis (so-called Porter's model of competitive environment): – number and strength of competitors, – customers, – suppliers, – substitute products, – potential competition. It depends on the purpose, type of business, size of the competitive environment, market share, power of the organization etc. The research includes collection, processing and analysis of the information, and a report has to be prepared, and maybe its results presented. To cover the information needs plan of the research can require collection of secondary data, primary data or both. The secondar y data includes information that has been already collected for a different purpose. On the contrary the primary data is collected for a specific purpose.In the first case the enterprise makes use of its databases, and open external sources (public electronic databases, associations, chambers, media etc. ). In the second case ordinary accounting and economic data from the database of deals and customers will be the source, including minutes from meetings. However, it is good to realize that the market research does not mean just some spreadsheet and statistic methods, tens of pages of various papers, and expensive agencies providing professional surveys. The very research can be simplified in the small and medium enterprises under the slogan: â€Å"Collect and use the information from the market and its surroundings†, and it is up to the managers' abilities to get the information on continuous basis.It means to keep communicating with the customer, to listen, to ask for feedb ack. It should be a precondition for the managers conducting marketing research to improve their education in this field further, to travel and learn new methods, to extend their general overview. To clinch a good deal is often not a matter of high expertise, but of general overview of politics, culture, sports, history, religion etc. Marketing department personnel should be able to absorb various kinds of information, and use and implement it further. General overview and fast work with information, as well as the ability to recognize their importance, are key criteria of recruitment of people for marketing and sales posts.Apart from the marketing research being performed on continuous basis, and the important data being archived, we obviously organize targeted research, depending on the upcoming events, which can be in the small and medium enterprises for example: – business or investment goal, – opening foreign market, – launching new product groups in the ma rket, – establishing communication with a new customer segment, – expansion of resent production – increase of production capacity. It is also recommendable to update the marketing research on regular basis, when preparing annual sales and marketing plan. As a comprehensive document it should include an opening page and provide reasons why it has been conducted, information on the date and person, or contact to cooperating agency. Sales and marketing directors should be in charge of all the researches, not just relying on heir subordinates to do the work.The activities relate to significant, often sensitive data, which may be possibly carried away to a new employment. Successors usually start working on these data, which often represents the only document that provides characteristics of the product, customer segment and particular customers. At the level of small and medium enterprises it is useful when such research is performed by individual experts supervise d by their manager, or directly by the marketing and sales director. This means the sales people who will be directly responsible for the researched segment or territory. Sales and marketing departments in SMEs usually do not dispose of a team of market research specialists, which is rather advantage.The research can be very well evaluated by the commercial success or failure of the responsible sales person, in comparably short time. However, this required good skills of the sales people. Apart from usual business skills and sales psychology training these people (often sales representatives) should be regularly trained in the basis of marketing in order to understand mutual connections of marketing, trade and communication. Marketing research is a necessary source document for the marketing and sales plan. 2. 4 Marketing planning Marketing plan belongs to basic pillars and documents needed for a successful management of the whole enterprise.Within SMEs, where we discern sales and m arketing management, the sales plan is often part of the marketing plan, called marketing and sales plan. The sales and marketing parts of the plan are still independent, mutually connected documents, use of which can be: – (A) Annual, as a fundamental document for the management of marketing and sales department. – (B) Individual, as one of the basic documents for various activities and fields, for example: – business or investment goals, – opening of new foreign markets, – launching activities in new regional territories, – launching of new products in the market, – restructuring of enterprises.Marketing plan comes before financial plan, production plan, and human resources plan. Marketing plan is developed by the whole sales and marketing team, finalized by the marketing and sales director, who submits it to the enterprise's director and bears responsibility. Marketing plan has to comply with the selected sales and marketing policy , and to be based on the whole company's strategy. Within the time sequence of individual plans it is always on the first place, i. e. being developed in September – October of previous year. It is linked to marketing research, good quality of which is fundamental for the success or failure of the marketing and sales plan. The marketing plan (Figure 2-2) includes: SWOT analysis of the enterprise, – department (whole company) objectives, – strategy of achievement, – control mechanism of (assessment) achievement. Figure 2-2 Process of creation of marketing plan SWOT analysis To evaluate the result of enterprise's or its department's activities the frequently used and well-known analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats – SWOT is used. The strengths are compared with opportunities (creative thinking), and the weaknesses with threats and potential risk (basis for risk analysis). SWOT analysis in general is considered to be a very imp ortant strategic tool, which exceeds the framework of marketing.It provides information from the viewpoint of customer relationship management on what works (and what doesn't work), and on the changes in the interface between us and our customers. It is obvious we usually prepare SWOT analysis on the basis of previous research of external and competitive environment. The basis for SWOT analysis has to be thorough prior marketing research, otherwise we will not be able to compare our strengths and weaknesses, neither to define the opportunities and threats. Another danger of SWOT analysis is frequently a long list of wishes and limitations that remain the same for years. That is why it is important to focus on areas we can manage and influence.We use SWOT analysis not only as a necessary part of marketing plans, but also when evaluating personnel, annual reports and the like. Every salesperson and marketing staff member shall know the SWOT analysis and be able to make use of it withi n trading negotiations. The point s not to make too detailed analyses, 3 – 6 apt facts are enough for each area, expressed in the form of easily remembered slogans. The purpose of marketing plan should be considered. In case it is a regular document (see A) annually prepared for the company management, it is a description of status, opportunities and threats of the marketing and sales department, or the whole enterprise (in smaller companies).In case of plans prepared for certain event (see B) the SWOT analysis relates to one activity only, it is a partial or professional SWOT analysis, which is used for the decision on how and whether to perform the activity. SWOT analysis should be brief (three to five points to every issue), communicated to the whole sales team, which should possibly participate in its preparation. It is not just a basis for next decisions in the sense of feasibility of the set objectives and consequent method of their achievement, but also a good basis fo r negotiations of sales people with partners. Knowledge of the weaknesses and strengths, opportunities and threats of the enterprise due to its environment should be a matter of course for the whole company management.Strengths generate opportunities, some of which may even become objectives, on the contrary the weaknesses can lead to threats come true, and represent a basis for risk analysis. As well as the whole marketing plan the SWOT analysis should be created by team, while the final version and expressions are task for marketing and sales director. The very form of SWOT analysis within marketing plan can be one page, graphically clear matrix. Following the SWOT analysis we define the export department's or company's objectives. To systemize these factors a simple form is used (Table 2-1). SWOT analysis of a food processing company is provided as an example. | | |COMPANY STRENGTHS: |OPPORTUNITIES IN THE MARKET: | |– team of specialists in the company's |– new cus tomers recruited among chain | |management |stores | |excellent safe input material |– new product range – finished | |– well established network of supplied |food for the existing customers | |entities |– CR in EU – new customers | |– modern technological background | | |– wide assortment of products | | | | | | | | |COMPANY WEAKNESSES: |THREATS FROM THE MARKET: | |– language barriers |– strong competition in the market of | |– communication within the company, and |foodstuff suppliers | |towards external customers |– foreign competition | |– no product certified as â€Å"TOP product† |due to Czech Republic in EU | |– efficient approach to sales promotion |– orientation of multinational chains to | |missing |the products of their home countries | Table 2-1 Example of SWOT analysis of a food processing company Marketing objectives When defining the objectives we again di fferentiate between the plan as a managerial document (see A), or a plan of implementation of particular project (see B). In both cases the objectives should comply with several parameters, initials of which gave the method of their setting its name – SMART. They should be: – Specific (repeatability), – Measurable (turnover, margin, customers numbers), Achievable (in accordance with the enterprise's objectives), – Realistic (possibilities of the enterprise, market capacity), – Time (realistic delivery terms, possible to control). The objectives are based on SWOT analysis, i. e. on actual possibilities and opportunities of the enterprise. It should not be difficult to set objectives using SMART method, provided the marketing research was performed well, or carefully updated. It is definitely not correct to go deliberately for high targets with the idea they do not have to be really achieved, but still we will have some good results. The proverb â₠¬Å"if you want to go high, you have to aim even higher† does not apply here.It is recommendable to â€Å"stand on the ground† and create safe buffer, while keeping necessary and expected efficiency. It is because motivation plan is linked to the objectives, which would otherwise not make sense – unreal objectives would be rather de-motivating. It is not exceptional that the motivation plan is not related to the achievement, but exceeding the target, which once again confirms the need to set the objectives in a realistic manner. In the first case (A) we set the objectives for one year ahead, maximum of ten easy to remember and measurable objectives are recommended. Considering joint sales / marketing plan, its first objective should be to fulfill the sales (commercial) plan.Other objectives can come from a wide range of marketing activities, depending on the company's focus, financial possibilities and realistic ambitions in the upcoming year. In the second case ( B) fewer objectives are recommended (maximum five). Here the objectives logically relate to a project to be implemented. As one of the first objectives it is advised to set the fulfillment of sales plan for specific project or territory, to which the whole plan refers. Other objectives can be for example aimed at winning certain number of customers, penetrating specific territories, organization of foreign trade fairs, implementation of particular reference deal, launch of a new product etc.It is not the most convenient in small and medium enterprises to set objectives related to achieved percentage of market share, for example to increase the share by x%, because the market share of small entities is hard to measure, and there is not necessarily a possibility of credible verification of its achievement, and the motivation for these objectives is not easy either, as it is not an exception to obtain quite different data on our market share. Specific marketing objectives in individual markets can be expressed as: – given desirable volume of sales, – financial indicators – achieved profit, return on investment, – customers relationship – increase of spontaneous awareness of the brand within the target group, increase of customers' loyalty.The objectives should fulfill the above mentioned SMART criteria, they have to comply with main company goals, and geographically outlined. Organization of active marketing is quite costly even in domestic markets, and definitely more in foreign markets. Therefore it is necessary to set the amount of anticipated income and revenue for the planned period. The work on formulation of department's or company's objectives should be a task for the whole sales and marketing team. Every participant should be able to complete and substantiate own sales plan, depending on the knowledge, market research, last years' results, skills and experience, and factual data, and provide adequate reasons.This is ano ther reason why a specialist shall perform the marketing research, which consequently addresses the specified segment, or implements the selected product in the territory. The form of objectives: – it is sufficient to describe the chosen objectives in pregnant terms (one page document), – it is necessary to mention who is responsible for the achievement (name, position), – deadline has to be provided with each objective (specific date). Strategy of achievement of objectives The strategy of achievement of the set objectives describes how we shall implement them. In a sense it is a small business plan, â€Å"timetable† of HOW we want to achieve the set objectives.It is the most important part of marketing activity in the company, where creative, analytical and theoretical skills have to be combined, as the method of execution of the set task has its own system and order. When planning the strategy of achievement of objectives it is necessary to select the p rocedure that not only complies with the character of our business, but also covers the whole marketing area. It is convenient to use 4P or 4C marketing mix. Every step we are going to implement has to be compared back to the company's possibilities in financial, marketing, personnel, and production sense; sometimes the compliance with quality policy is verified.That is why the team work with financial manager (or quality manager)is good for development of the strategy, it is proper to involve production managers who should create feedback to production and capacity conditions, and give the sales and marketing strategy adequate direction. This process is not in conflict with the previous principle of pressure on production and preferential position of marketing in the sense of product decision making. In case of a dispute the production shall not have veto right, as this should be the power of company's director to decide on further procedure, based on the views from marketing and s ales, finance and production.However, this does not mean that the salespeople will not consult the strategy with financial and production managers. It is considered ideal situation, when there are variants emerging during discussions, acceptable for all parties. One should always be aware of the human resources opportunities of the department, which does not relate strictly to financial matters. Even if we have sufficient resources in budget to pay new salespeople, we do not necessarily find them in the market, and we may thus sacrifice the objectives. Following the above-mentioned, the qualification of sales and marketing staff should not be limited to expertise and general knowledge, they should be able to provide sound arguments and negotiate within internal discussions as well.For this purpose they have to know the company's environment, capacities and possibilities. Major advantage is their basic knowledge of financial terms, which means at least the ability to read the budget, and defend their sales and marketing procedures properly. Figure 2-3 illustrates possible process of defining the strategies of achievement of objectives. This can obviously vary depending on the focus, size and goals of the enterprise. Figure 2-3 Possible process of defining the strategies of achievement of objectives 2. 5 Key terms Marketing management Marketing policy Marketing director Qualitative marketing research Quantitative marketing research Marketing planning Far environment Near environmentInternal environment Product group Product range Pricing policy Pricing strategy Distribution strategy Marketing targets Communication mix Customer segment 2. 6 Test questions 1. SWOT analysis is a basis for: a) marketing research b) managerial plans (sales, marketing, financial) c) establishment of company information system d) company's annual report 2. Enterprise can't control in any significant way the factors defined in: a) STEEP analysis b) SWOT analysis c) Porter's analysis d) customers analysis 3. Questionnaire survey is a part of: a) quantitative marketing research b) qualitative marketing research c) risk analysis d) analysis of strengths 4. CRM is: ) the highest level of marketing management b) database file c) information system d) credit customer system 2. 7 Recommended literature : Havlicek, K : Management, Role of Managers in Company Management, chapter 2. Hellriegel, D. – Jackson, E. S. – Slocum,J. W. (2005) : Management , A Comepetency-Based Approach. Thomson South-Western, Mason, chapters 3, 5, 16 3. Role of management within sales management 3. 1 Sales management 3. 2 Management and development of sales plans 3. 3 Management of forecasts 3. 4 Trade receivables management 3. 5. Customers communication management 3. 6 Key terms 3. 7 Test questions 3. 8 Recommended literature 3. 1 Sales managementSales management is linked to the marketing strategy, in many respects complementing the marketing management. It is often quite difficult in SMEs to tell the boundary between marketing and sales management. In any case, it is not possible to simplify the very sales activities only to the purchase – sales level. For example the management of forecasts and receivables belongs to major managerial activities that exceed the borders of sales significantly, being of crucial importance for the company. Karel Havlicek in his publication Marketing management of foreign trade (Eupress, 2006) summed up the basic aspects of sales management to the following four areas ( Figure 3-1 ) : 3. Management and development of sales plans The sales plan is an essential document for the sales department; in smaller companies, where there are mostly joint sales / marketing departments, it is also a part of marketing plan. That is why it is convenient to incorporate the objectives of sales plan in the objectives of marketing department. This fact of rather technical character does not change a word said about the sales plan being cruc ial for the budget, strategic document that has to comply with certain requirements. Some enterprises, mainly the smaller ones, often ignore the marketing plan, and use only sales plan for commercial management.From short-term viewpoint this is possible, but it can't be effective in a long run, as the enterprise is going to lose contact with market reality sooner or later. Such plan is then more or less routinely re-written every year, some per cent added or subtracted here and there according to the current view of sales people. Innovation impulses are missing, as well as new trends and feedback, the control over competition is lost, communication with customers chaotic, distribution without concept, and prices frequently at random, i. e. according to what the customer asks, regardless of the overall market and company situation, not to speak about the prolongation of development trends.In these circumstances the staff can be hardly motivated, and the discussions concerning sales p lan figures are difficult. Sales people are not continuously forced to collect new information (which they may like at times), and they lose so important arguments for business negotiations, they have problems describing major competitive advantage of the company, and they face difficulties when defending it against competing offers. It is up to the personality of marketing and sales director and general director to be consistent when requiring the preparation of marketing and sales plans, be it very simple documents of few pages. Absence of such policy is mostly due to the fact that company directors don't know how to apply it.This â€Å"lack of knowledge† is being argued: â€Å"we have never needed that, we have read the market for a long time, everything has worked fine so far, you are making up useless things†¦Ã¢â‚¬  etc. It is one of serious mistakes and managerial faults to be rigorously eliminated. In case the sales plan makes part of annual budget it should be developed for one year ahead (submitted in October the previous year), divided in months and quarters. In case of export activities it is correct for every conquered territory to have its own sales plan, even very simple one. This brings the possibility of easy monitoring of every market by assigning overhead and personnel cost to each territory, and working actively with the price map. Complete sales plan is then total of all the territories, or other monitored groups.Overall sales plan for foreign markets is usually divided by: – product groups (sometimes we talk about commodities, or product lines), – customer segments or specific major customers (in mix by the product groups and territories), – territories (every foreign territory separately, individual regions can be sub-groups), Detailed sales plan can include other sub-categories, as well as some plans can ignore certain above mentioned points of interest. It is definitely useful to divide the plan at lea st in two categories, and cross-compare the results and forecasts (see below). This is good for the management of forecasts, and this way we compel the sales people to think about the plan and the prognoses. Sometimes the plan is complemented with â€Å"by sales people† or other category. is logical that the end and total monthly figures have to be equal in the individual categories. From these data we can tell immediately where a major difference occurs, and what should be our focus. For example – if we plan smoothly by product groups, but there are problems with planning and formulation of expectations by customer groups, it means we have a good overall picture of the market, but the work with individual groups of customers and relevant prognosis is difficult. In other words the communication between us and the customer is not exactly perfect one, which can lead to losing them over time. This means we need to respond and look for a remedial measure.Another important aspect of the division is the immediate overview of individual market segments, as we can measure their trends and performance in these segments, and following the data we can develop further marketing activities. These obviously vary depending on the groups and segments, often in all the marketing mix aspects. Sales plan indicators Major indicators of sales plan are turnover, sales, or own output. This indicator is always provided in one measurable currency – CZK, EUR or other. The data regarding measuring units can be also included in the sales plan; they are significant, but not crucial. It can be a major mistake, when some companies use as their main sales plan indicator such measuring units as number of pieces sold, square meters, tons etc.The control gets more complicated, as measuring unit can change its price in a short time, but most importantly – we can't measure immediate efficiency. The fact that more tons are sold does not mean increasing turnover or outpu t. Sometimes other indicators are measured, such as margin, but once again – it should be measured as a sub-category, and evaluated on continuous basis. This indicator is important namely for trading companies, where the turnover may grow and plan be achieved, but at the expense of lower margin, which can influence the whole company's economy at certain stage. It is necessary to adopt strategic measures in time. How to develop a sales plan? When compiling a sales plan, we most often utilize mixture of the following primary and secondary methods:Data from previous periods This is the most simple and available method, by which we track our sales results in given product groups, territories and customer segments in previous periods. In case we have been in the market for a longer time, we follow trends in specific categories, overall turnover figures, the margin and seasonal trends. Such information is definitely important for the development of plans, but not crucial. The preco ndition here is we've already made business in the territory. Market research from the viewpoint of competitive and external environment The basis is continuous or specific research of a foreign market, which is described in previous chapters.Apart from other data we are interested in the sales of our competition, trends and purchasing behavior of our customers, price policy of our suppliers, the threat of substitute products, capacity of foreign markets etc. In more remote territories we would track sociological, technological, economic, environmental, or political factors. The market information collected during marketing research of external and competitive environment is usually the most important basis for correct estimation of revenues. Professional intuition, experience and market estimates This is rather complementary method of estimation of revenues, which is nevertheless very valuable. Only the experienced sales staff can afford this, capable to foresee the behavior of con sumers in selected markets.Foreign traders who operate in foreign territories on our behalf, and know the purchasing behavior of local population very well, can serve as an example. These experienced managers are priceless, but even here we need to think of their estimates and intuition, prognoses and forecasts as a complementary factor for plan development. Form, reporting and approval of the sales plan The sales plan has to be well arranged with regards to given period – usually prepared for individual months. The best would be to fit it within one page for the sake of good orientation. Budget, forecast (see below) and reality columns should be included. Differences have to be regularly monitored and evaluated. The sales plans of individual sales persons should be regularly (usually once a week) reported (e. g. lectronically via the company's information system) to the marketing and sales director, and made part of regular meetings of the marketing and sales department, or export department. Total annual sales plan is a work f the whole export team, marketing and sales director is responsible for its completion on the basis of individual plans. Individual sales persons are responsible for their partial sales plans. It is the task for marketing and sales director to evaluate each individual plan objectively, to provide a healthy opponency and cooperate on the final figure, which can be either the revenue, turnover, or margin. The sales persons bear absolute responsibility, and their motivation aspects are derived from the plan.It is recommended to set motivation bonuses for exceeding the plan, as the financial budget should be built on basic salary and fulfillment of the sales plan, or achievement of economic result. This means bonus shall be paid on the basis of exceeding the plan in certain ratio determined by the company's management, with a reserve for marketing and sales directors (following the logic: exceeding the sales plan = exceeding the tota l economic result). 3. 3. Management of forecasts The importance of management of forecasts is bigger than generally perceived, and it goes far beyond the framework of marketing and sales department. The term â€Å"forecast† is used in foreign companies in the meaning of â€Å"estimate†. Other used terms are â€Å"sales prognosis†, or â€Å"expectancy†.Foreign companies have learned to use the forecasts as an essential managerial act – basis for the whole company's strategy . There is some lack of willingness of sales persons and managers regarding forecasts in our country. It is a strategic mistake, which should be avoided by marketing and sales directors. This insufficient willingness is more or less due to the fact that the sales people don't know how to prepare the forecasts, or how to estimate the purchasing behavior of their customers, and sales of their products in the horizon of few upcoming months. But first let's have a look at the sequen ce and importance of the management of forecasts.Sales person submits and substantiates the following data within the sales plan development: a) sales plan – usually one year ahead, by months (territories, segments or product groups), b) continuous forecasts – always several months ahead, prepared every month (tracking the differences between the plan and forecasts), c) reality – i. e. actual result by months (tracking how the reality differs from budget and continuous forecasts). Importance of the management of forecasts We prepare the forecasts usually every month, always for 3-6 months ahead, i. e. in January for Jan-Jun period (six-month prognosis), in April for Apr-Sep period, in November for Nov-Apr period (in this case we overlap in two sales plans – of the current and following year), etc.We see the importance of management of forecasts in the following aspects: 1. We monitor the differences from budget sales plan By continuous monitoring of the t rends and preparing prognoses (e. g. sic months ahead) we track the differences between actual and budget figures, i. e. the effects on budget economic result. There are basically three options: – Continuous forecasts do not vary from the budget – it means we have prepared the budget very precisely, there will be likely no effects on the economic result. – Forecasts are higher than the budget – it means our revenues will be probably higher than the budget expects, which may leads to many positive effects, but possible negatives should be considered.These can include higher receivables due to larger volume of sales, and consequently possible need to supply external resources to cover operating capital, which is not necessarily a matter of short time (guarantees). Moreover, the overdue receivables may grow, which is another complication when supplying external bank resources. However, there can be a reverse effect, i. e. cash surplus, which is obviously a p ositive. Even in such a case it s good to know in advance, as we can cancel loans, change funding or develop another investment project, where the resources can be used. This is a matter of several months, therefore continuous information on higher forecasts in the horizon of months is very important for us. Continuous forecasts are lower than the budget – undoubtedly negative message, in such situation the economic result is at stake, sometimes even general company's existence. Here the timely indication in the form of six-month advance is twice as important, as it is necessary to adopt immediate measures. These may include an application for external resources, which is a matter of several weeks, or even months in banks. These may also be considerable cost cuts, such as layoffs, which is once again a matter of months (considering the compensations and notice periods). 2. We force the sales people to collect market information and communicate with customersThis is another ve ry significant aspect of both marketing and psychological importance. It requires prognoses in six-month advance (there are companies, namely multinationals, which require even annual forecasts with monthly breakdown). This means the sales people have to collect new, updated information on regular basis, i. e. to work with the market. On