Hong Kong Style

HONG KONG STYLE An Interview with Victor Fung BY JOAN MAGRETTA UPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT is Working its Way onto the strategic agendas of CEOs in an expanding list of industries, from autos to personal computers to fashion retailing. Propelling that change is the restructuring of global competition. As companies focus on their core activities and outsource the rest, their success increasingly depends on their ability to control what happens in the value chain outside their own boundaries. In the 1980s, the focus was on supplier partnerships to improve cost and quality.In today's faster-paced markets, the focus has shifted to innovation, flexibility, and speed. Enter Li et) Fung, Hong Kong's largest export trading company and an innovator in the development of supply chain management. On behalf of its customers, primarily American and European retailers, Li et) Fung works with an ever expanding network PORTRAIT BY LANCE HIDY 103 SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT, HONG KONG STYLE of thousands of su ppliers around the globe, sourcing clothing and other consumer goods ranging from toys to fashion accessories to luggage.Chairman Victor Fung sees the company as part of a new breed of professionally managed, focused enterprises that draw on Hong Kong's expertise in distribution-process technology-a host of informationintensive service functions including product development, sourcing, financing, shipping, handling, and logistics. Founded in 1906 in southern China by Victor Fung's grandfather, Li &) Fung was the first Chinese-owned export company at a time when tbe China trade was controlled by foreign commercial houses. In the early 1970s, Victor was teaching at the Harvard Business School, and his younger brother, William, was a newly minted HarvardM. B. A. The two young men were called home from the United States by their father to breathe new life into the company. Since then, the brothers have led Li et? Fung through a series of transformations. In this interview with HBR edito r-at-large foan Magretta, Victor Fung describes how Li &) Fung has made the transition from buying agent to supply chain manager, from the old economy to the new, from traditional Chinese family conglomerate to innovative public company. Victor and William Fung are creating a new kind of multinational, one that remains entrepreneurial despite its growing size and scope.Victor Fung is also chairman of a privately held retailing arm of the company, which focuses on joint ventures with Toys R Us and the Circle K convenience-store chain in Hong Kong. He is also chairman of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council and of Prudential Asia. How do you define the diHerence between what Li & Fung does today-supply chain managementand the trading business founded by your grandfather in 1906? ing which quotas have been used up in Hong Kong, for example, tells you when you have to start buying from Taiwan. Understanding products was also more complex. We knew that in Taiwan the synthetics were be tter, ut that Hong Kong was the place to go for cottons. We could provide a package from the whole region rather than a single product from Hong Kong. By working with a larger number of countries, we were able to assemble components; we call this â€Å"assortment packing. † Say I sell a tool kit to a major discount chain. I could buy the spanners from one country and the screwdrivers from another and put together a product package. That has som. e value in it-not great value, but some. In the second stage, we took the company's sourcing-agent strategy one step further and became a manager and deliverer of manufacturing programs.In the old model, the customer would say, â€Å"This is the item I want. Please go out and find the best place to buy it for me. † The new model works this way. The Limited, one of our big customers, comes to us and says, â€Å"For next season, this is what we're thinking about-this type of look, these colors, these quantities. Can you come up with a production program? † Starting with their designers' sketches, we research the market to find the right type of yarn and dye swatches to match the colors. We take product concepts and realize them in prototypes. Buyers can then look at the samples and say, â€Å"No, I don't eally like that, I like this. Can you do more of this? † We then create an entire program for the season, specifying the product mix and the schedule. We contract for all the resources. We work with facto- When my grandfather started the company in Canton, 90 years ago during the Ching dynasty, his â€Å"value added† was that he spoke EngUsh. In those days, it took three months to get to China hy hoat from the West; a letter would take a month. No one at the Chinese factories spoke English, and the American merchants spoke no Chinese. As an interpreter, my grandfather's commission was 15%. Continuing through my father's generation, Li &Fung was basically a broker, charging a fee to put buyers and sellers together. But as an intermediary, the company was squeezed between the growing power of the buyers and the factories. Our margins slipped to 10%, then 5%, then 3%. When I returned to Hong Kong in 1976 after teaching at Harvard Business School, my friends warned me that in ten years buying agents like Li & Fung would he extinct. â€Å"Trading is a sunset industry,† they all said. My brother and I felt we could turn the business into something different, and so we took it through several stages of development. In the first stage, we cted as w^hat I would call a regional sourcing agent and extended our geographic reach by establishing offices in Taiwan, Korea, and Singapore. Our knowledge of the region had value for customers. Most hig buyers could manage their own sourcing if they needed to deal only with Hong Kong-they'd know which ten factories to deal with and wouldn't need any help. But dealing with the whole region was more complex. In textiles, quotas g overn world trade. Know104 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW September-October 1998 SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT, HONG KONG STYLE ries to plan and monitor production so we can ensure quality and on-time delivery.This strategy of delivering manufacturing programs carried us through the 1980s, but that decade brought us a new challenge – and led to our third stage. As the Asian tigers emerged. Hong Kong became an increasingly expensive and uncompetitive place to manufacture. For example, we completely lost the low-end transistor-radio business to Taiwan and Korea. What saved us was that China began to open up to trade, allowing Hong Kong to fix its cost problem by moving the labor « intensive portion of production across the border into southern China. So for transistor radios we created little its-plastic bags filled with all the components needed to build a radio. Then we shipped the kits to China for assembly. After the labor-intensive work was completed, the finished goods came back to Hong Kong for final testing and inspection. If you missed a screw you were in trouble: the whole line stopped cold. Breaking up the value chain as we did was a novel concept at the time. We call it â€Å"dispersed manufacturing. † This method of manufacturing soon spread to other industries, giving Hong Kong a new lease on life and also transforming our economy. Between 1979 and 1997, Hong Kong's position as a trading ntity moved from number 21 in the world to number 8. All our manufacturing moved into China, and Hong Kong became a huge service economy with 84% of its gross domestic product coming from services. So dispersed manufacturing means breaking up the value chain and rationalizing where you do things? That's right. Managing dispersed production was a real breakthrough. It forced us to get smart not only about logistics and transportation but also about dissecting the value chain. Consider a popular children's doll-one similar to the Barbie doll. In the early 1980s, w e designed the dolls in Hong Kong, and we also produced the olds because sophisticated machinery was needed to make them. We then shipped the molds to China, where they would shoot the plastic, assemble the doll, paint the figures, make the doll's clothing-all the labor-intensive work. But the doll had to come back to Hong Kong, not just for final testing and inspection but also for packaging. China at that time couldn't deliver the quality we needed for the printing on the boxes. Then we used Hong Kong's welldeveloped banking and transportation infrastructure to distribute the products around the world. You can sec the model clearly: the labor-intensiveHARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW September-October 1998 middle portion of the value chain is still done in southern China, and Hong Kong does the front and back ends. Managing dispersed manufacturing, where not everything is done under one roof, t akes a real change of mind-set. But once we figured out how to do it, it became clear that our r each should extend heyond southern China. Our thinking was, for example, if wages arc lower farther inland, let's go there. And so we began what has turned into a con- forced us to get smart about dissecting the value chain. † stant search for new and better sources of supply.Li& Fung made a quantum leap in 1995, nearly doubling our size and extending our geographic scope hy acquiring Inchcape Buying Services. IBS was a large British hong w ith an estahlished network of offices in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. The acquisition also brought with it a European customer base that complemented Li &. Fung's predominantly American base. This Hong Kong model of borderless manufacturing has become a new paradigm for the region. Today Asia consists of multiple networks of dispersed manufacturing-high-cost hubs that do the sophisticated planning for regional manufacturing.Bangkok works with the Indochinese peninsula, Taiwan with the Philippines, Seoul with northern China. D ispersed manufacturing is what's behind the boom in Asia's trade and investment statistics in the i99os-companies moving raw materials and semifinished parts around Asia. But the region is still very dependent on the ultimate sources of demand, which are in North America and Western Europe. They start the whole cycle going. What happens when you get a typical order? Say we get an order from a European retailer to produce 10,000 garments. It's not a simple matter of our Korean office sourcing Korean products or ur Indonesian office sourcing Indonesian products. For this customer we might decide to buy yarn from a Korean producer but have it woven and dyed in Taiwan. So we pick the yarn and ship it to Taiwan. The Japanese have the best zippers and buttons, but they manufacture them mostly in China. Okay, so we go to YKK, a big Japanese zipper manufacturer, and we order the right zippers from their Chinese SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT, HONG KONG STYLE LI & FUNG'S GLOBAL REACH Li & Fung prod uces a truly global product by pulling apart the manufacturing value chain and optimizing each step.Today it has 3 5 offices in 20 countries, but its global reach is expanding rapidly. In 1997, it had revenue of approximately $1. 7 billion. San Francisco Paris Oporto, Portugal San Pedro Sula, Honduras †¢ Brussels †¢ Istanbul †¢ Cairo Mauritius plants. Then we determine that, because of quotas and labor conditions, the best place to make the garments is Thailand. So we ship everything there. And because the customer needs quick delivery, we may divide the order across five factories in Thailand. Effectively, we are customizing the value chain to hest meet the customer's needs. Five weeks after we have received the order, 0,000 garments arrive on the shelves in Europe, all looking like they came from one factory, with colors, for example, perfectly matched. Just think about the logistics and the coordination. This is a nev*? type of value added, a truly global product that has never heen seen hefore. The label may say â€Å"made in Thailand,† but it's not a Thai product. We dissect the manufacturing process and look for the best solution at each step. We're not asking which country can do the best joh overall. Instead, we're pulling apart the value chain and optimizing each step – and we're doing it globally. 106Not only do the benefits outweigh the costs of logistics and transportation, but the higher value added also lets us charge more for our services. We deliver a sophisticated product and we deliver it fast. If you talk to the big global consumer-products companies, they are all moving in this directiontoward heing best on a glohal scale. So the multinational is essentially its own supplychain manager? Yes, exactly. Large manufacturing companies are increasingly doing global supply-chain management, just as Li & Fung does for its retailing customers. That's certainly the case in the auto industry.Today assemhly is the easy par t. The hard part is managing your suppliers and the flow of parts. In retailing, these changes are producing a revolution. For the first time, retailers are really creating produets, not just sitting in their offices with salesman after salesman showing them samples: â€Å"Do you HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW September-October 1998 SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT, HONG KONG STYLE Beijing Dalian Qingdau Shanghai Liuyang New Delhi Karachi Guangzhou . Shantou Dhaka Hanoi f† Bombay Bangalore †¢ Taipei Zhanjiang Bangkok Manila Saipan Colombo JohorBaharu . . Singapore Jakarta want to buy this?Do you want to buy that? † Instead, retailers are participating in the design process. They're now managing suppliers through us and are even reaching down to their suppliers' suppliers. Eventually that translates into much better management of inventories and lower markdowns in the stores. Explain why that translates into lower markdowns for retailers? Companies in consumer-driven, fast-moving m arkets face the prohlem of obsolete inventory with a vengeance. That means there is enormous value in heing able to huy â€Å"closer to the market. † If you can shorten your buying cycle from three onths to five weeks, for example, what you are gaining is eight weeks to develop a better sense of where the market is heading. And so you will end up with substantial savings in inventory markdowns at the end of the selling season. HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW September-October 1998 Good supply-chain management strips away time and cost from product delivery cycles. Our customers have hecome more fashion driven, working with six or seven seasons a year instead of just two or three. Once you move to shorter product cycles, the prohiem of obsolete inventory increases dramatically.Other businesses are facing the same kind of pressure. With customer tastes changing rapidly and markets segmenting into narrower niches, it's not just fashion products that are becoming increasingly time sensit ive. Several years ago, I had a conversation about ladies fashion garments with Stan Shih, CEO of Acer, the large Taiwan-hased PC manufacturer. I jokingly said, â€Å"Stan, are you going to encroach on our territory? † He said, â€Å"No, no, hut the PC business has the same basic problems you face. Things are changing so fast you don't want to wind up with inventory. You want to plan close to the market. He runs his husiness to cut down the delivery cycle SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT, HONG KONG STYLE and minimize inventory exposure by assembling PCs in local markets. So what I have to say about supply chain management for fashion products really applies to any product that's time sensitive. Supply chain management is about buying the right things and shortening the delivery cycles. It requires â€Å"reaching into the suppliers† to ensure that certain things happen on time and at the right quality level. Fundamentally, you're not taking the suppliers as a given. The classic supply-chain manager in retailing isMarks ik Spencer. They don't own any factories, but they have a huge team that goes into the factories and works with the management. The Gap also is known for stretching into its suppliers. Can you give me an example of how you reach into the supply chain to shorten the buying cycle? Think about what happens when you outsource manufacturing. The easy approach is to place an order for finished goods and let the supplier worry ahout contracting for the raw materials like fabric and yarn. But a single factory is relatively small and doesn't have much buying power; that is, it is too mall to demand faster deliveries from its suppliers. We come in and look at the whole supply chain. We know the Limited is going to order 100,000 garments, but we don't know the style or the colors yet. The buyer will tell us that five weeks before delivery. The trust between us and our supply network means that we can reserve undycd yarn from the yarn supplier. I can l ock up capacity at the mills for the weaving and dying with the promise that they'll get an order of a specified sizc; five weeks before delivery, we will let them know what colors we want. Then I say the same thing to the factories, â€Å"I on't know the product specs yet, but I have orga- the retailer hold off before having to commit to a fashion trend. It's all about flexibility, response time, small production runs, small minimum-order quantities, and the ability to shift direction as the trends move. Is it also about cost? Yes. At Li & Fung we think about supply chain management as â€Å"tackling the soft $3† in the cost structure. What do we mean hy that? If a typical consumer product leaves the factory at a price of $1, it will invariably end up on retail shelves at $4. Now you can try to squeeze the cost of production own 10 cents or 20 cents per product, hut today you have to be a genius to do that because everybody has been working on that for years and there's not a lot of fat left. It's better to look at the cost that is spread throughout the distribution channels-the soft $3. It offers a bigger target, and if you take 50 cents out, nobody will even know you are doing it. So it's a much easier place to effect savings for our customers. Can you give me an example? Sure. Shippers always want to fill a container to capacity. If you tell a manufacturer, â€Å"Don't fill up the container,† he'll think you're crazy.And if all you care about is the cost of shipping, there's no question you should fill the containers. But if you think instead of the whole value chain as a system, and you're trying to lower the total cost and not just one piece of it, then it may he sm^arter not to fill the containers. Let's say you want to distribute an assortment of ten products, each manufactured hy a different factory, to ten distribution centers. The standard practice would be for each factory to ship full containers of its product. And so those ten cont ainers would then have to go to a consolidator, who would unpack and epack all ten containers before shipping the assortment to the distribution centers. Now suppose instead that you move one container from factory to factory and get each factory to fill just onetenth of the container. Then you ship it with the assortment the customer needs directly to the distribution center. The shipping cost will be greater, and you will have to be careful about stacking the goods properly. But the total systems cost could be lower because you've eliminated the consolidator altogether. When someone is actively managing and organizing the whole supply chain, you can save costs like that. We think about supply chain management as ‘tackling the soft ‘ in the cost structure. † nized the colors and the fabric and the trim for you, and they'll be delivered to you on this date and you'll have three weeks to produce so many garments. † I've certainly made life harder for myself no w. It would be easier to let the factories worry about securing their own fabric and trim. But then the order would take three months, not five weeks. So to shrink the delivery cycle, I go upstream to organize production. And the shorter production time lets 108 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW September-October 1998SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT, HONG KONG STYLE So when you talk about organizing the value chain, what you do goes well beyond simply contracting for other people's services ot inspecting their work. It sounds like the value you add extends almost to the point where you're providing management expertise to your supply network. In a sense, we are a smokeless factory. We do design. We huy and inspect the raw materials. We have factory managers, people who set up and plan production and balance the lines. We inspect production. But we don't manage the workers, and we don't own the factories. Think ahout the scope of what we do.We work with about 7,500 suppliers in more than 26 countries. If the average factory has 200 workers – that's probahly a low estimate – then in effect there are more than a million workers engaged on behalf of our customers. That's why our policy is not to own any portion of the value chain that deals with running factories. Managing a million workers would he a colossal undertaking. We'd lose all flexihility; we'd lose our ability to fine-tune and coordinate. So we deliherately leave that management challenge to the individual entrepreneurs we contract with. Our target in working with factories is to take nywhere from 30% to 70% of their production. We want to he important to them, and at 30% we're most likely their largest customer. On the other hand, we need flexibility-so we don't want the responsibility of having them completely dependent on us. And we also benefit from their exposure to their other customers. If we don't own factories, can we say we are in manufacturing? Absolutely. Because, of the 15 steps in the manufactu ring value chain, we prohably do 10. Our basic operating unit is the division. Whenever possible, we will focus an entire division on serving one customer. We may serve smaller customers hrough a division structured around a group of customers with similar needs. We have, for example, a theme-store division serving a handful of customers such as the Warner Brothers stores and Rainforest Cafe. This structuring of the organization around customers is very important – remember that what we do is close to creating a customized value chain for every customer order. So customer-focused divisions are the building hlocks of our organization, and we keep them small and entrepreneurial. They do anywhere from $20 million to $50 million of business. Each is run hy a â€Å"What we do is close to creating customized value chain for every customer order. † / The way Li & Fung is organized is unusual in the industry. Can you describe the link between your organization and your strateg y? Just about every company I know says that they are customer focused. What, in fact, does that mean? Usually it means they design key systems that fit most of their customers, they hope, most of the time. Here we say-and do-something different: We organize for the customer. Almost all the large trading companies with extensive networks of suppliers are organized geographically, with the country units as their profit centers.As a result, it is hard for them to optimize the value chain. Their country units are competing against one another for husiness. HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW September-October 1998 lead entrepreneur-we sometimes call them â€Å"little John Waynes† because the image of a guy standing in the middle of the wagon train, shooting at all the had guys, seems to fit. Consider our Gymhoree division, one of our largest. The division manager, Ada Liu, and her headquarters team have their own separate office space within the Li & Fung building in Hong Kong. When you wal k through their door, every one of the 0 or so people you see is focused solely on meeting Gymhoree's needs. On every desk is a computer with direct software links to Gymhoree. The staff is organized into specialized teams in such areas as technical support, merchandising, raw material purchasing, quality assurance, and shipping. And Ada has dedicated sourcing teams in our branch offices in China, the Philippines, and Indonesia because Gymboree buys in volume from all those countries. In maybe 5 of our 26 countries, she has her own team, people she hired herself. When she wants to source from, say, India, the branch office helps her get the joh done.In most multinational companies, fights hetween the geographic side of the organization and the product or customer side are legendary – and predictable. From the product side, it's â€Å"How can I get hetter service for my customer? It may be small for you in Bangladesh, hut it's important for my product line globally. † A nd from the country side, it's â€Å"Look, I can't let this product group take unfair advantage of this particular factory, hecause it pro109 SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT, HONG KONG STYLE duces for three other product groups and I'm responsible for our relationships in this country overall. Here's our solution to this classic prohlem: Our primary alignment is around customers and their needs. But to balance the matrix, every productgroup executive also has responsibility for one country. It makes them more sensitive to the prohlems facing a country director and less likely to make unreasonahle demands. Can you tell us more about the role of the little John Waynes? The idea is to create small units dedicated to taking care of one customer, and to have one person running a unit like she would her own company. In fact, we hire people whose main alternative would be to run their own business.We provide them with the financial resources and the administrative support of a hig organization, h ut we give them a great deal of autonomy. All the merchandising decisions that go into coordinating a production program for the customer-which factories to use, whether to stop a shipment or let it go forward-are made at the division-head level. For the creative parts of the business, we want entrepreneurial behavior, so we give people considerable operating freedom. To motivate the division leaders, we rely on substantial financial incentives by tying their compensation directly to the unit's bottom line.There's no cap on bonuses: we want entrepreneurs who are motivated to move heaven and earth for the customer. Trading companies can be run effectively only when they are small. By making small units the â€Å"We think of our divisions as a portfolio we can create and collapse, almost at will. † heart of our company, we have been able to grow rapidly without becoming bureaucratic. Today we have about 60 divisions. We think of them as a portfolio we can create and collapse, a lmost at will. As the market changes, our organization can adjust immediately. What role, then, does the corporate center play?When it comes to financial controls and operating procedures, we don't want creativity or entrepreneurial behavior. In these areas, we centralize and manage tightly. Li &. Fung has a standardized, fully computerized operating system for executing 110 and tracking orders, and everyone in the company uses the system. We also keep very tight control of working capital. As far as I'm concerned, inventory is the root of all evil. At a minimum, it increases the complexity of managing any business. So it's a word we don't tolerate around here. All cash flow is managed centrally through Hong Kong.All letters of credit, for example, come to Hong Kong for approval and are then reissued by the central office. That means we are guaranteed payment before we execute an order. I could expand the company by another 10% to 20% hy giving customers credit. But while we are ver y aggressive in merchandising – in finding new sources, for example-when it comes to financial management, we are very conservative. I understand^ though, that Li & Fung is involved in venture capital. Can you explain how t hat fits in? We've set up a small venture-capital arm, with offices in San Francisco, London, and Brussels, hose primary purpose is corporate development. If you look at a product market grid, Li &. Fung has expertise in sourcing many types of products for many types of retailers, but there are also holes in our coverage. A big piece of our corporate development is plugging those holes-the phrase we use is â€Å"filling in the mosaic† – and we use venture capital to do it. Let's say Li &. Fung is not strong in ladies fashion shoes. We'll have our venture group look for opportunities to buy into relatively young entrepreneurial companies with people who can create designs and sell them but who do not have the ability to source or to finance.Th at's what we bring to the deal. More important, doing the sourcing for the company lets us build presence and know-how in the segment. At the same time, we think it's a good way to enhance our returns. All venture capitalists will tell you that they bring more than money to their investments. In our case, we are ahle to back the companies with our sourcing network. One of our biggest successes is a company called Cyrk. We wanted to fill a hole in our mosaic in the promotional premiums business-clothing or gift items with company logos, for example. We bought a 30% stake in Cyrk for $200,000 in 1990. We ended p doing all the M&M gum hall dispensers with them, but the real coup was a full line of promotional clothing for Philip Morris. After five years, we sold our investment for about $65 million. We're more than happy with our investment results, but our real interest is in corporate developHARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW September-October 1998 SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT, HONG KONG STYLE SUPPL Y CHAIN MANAGEMENT: HOW LI & FUNG ADDS VALUE LI & Fung does the high-value-added front- and back-end tasks in Hong Kong front end design engineering production planning back end quality control testing logistics It organizes the ower-value-added middle stages through its network of 7,500 suppliers, 2,500 of which are active at any one time. raw material and component sourcing ment, in filling in the mosaic. We're not looking to grow by taking over whole companies. We know we can't manage a U. S. domestic company very well because we're so far away, and the culture is different. By hacking people on a minority basis, however, we improve our sourcing strength and enhance our ability to grow existing client relationships or to win new ones. That's real synergy. You've grown substantially both in size and in geographic scope in the last five years.Does becoming more multinational bring any fundamental changes to the company? Since 1993, we've changed from a Hong Kongbased Chinese compan y that was 99. 5% Chinese and probably 80% Hong Kong Chinese into a truly regional multinational with a workforce from at least 30 countries. We used to call ourselves a Chinese trading company. (The Japanese trading companies are very hig, and we wanted to he a big fish in a small pond, so we defined the pond as consisting of Chinese trading companies. ) As we grow, and as our workforce hecomes more nationally diverse, we wonder how Koreans or Indians or Turks will feel bout working for a Chinese multinational. HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW Septtmber-October 1998 managing production We're torn. We know that if we call ourselves a multinational, we're very small compared to a Nestle or a Unilever. And we don't want to he faceless. We are proud of our cultural heritage. But we don't want it to be an impediment to growth, and we want to make people comfortable that culturally we have a very open architecture. We position ourselves today as a Hong Kong-based multinational trading company. Ho ng Kong itself is hoth Chinese and very cosmopolitan. In five years, we've come a ong way in rethinking our identity. As we grow and become more multinational, the last thing we want to do is to run the company like the big multinationals. You know – where you have a corporate policy on medical leave or housing allowances or you name it. How do you avoid setting policies, a path that would seem inevitable lor most companies? We stick to a simple entrepreneurial principle. For the senior ranks of the company, the mobile executives, we â€Å"encash†-that is, we translate the value of benefits into dollar figures-as much as we can. Cash gives individuals the most fiexihiiity. I annot design a policy to fit 1,000 people, so when UI SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT, HONG KONG STYLE in doubt we give people money instead. You want a car? You think you deserve a car? We'd rather give you the cash and let you manage the car. You buy it, you service it. The usual multinational solution i s to hire experts to do a study. Then they write a manual on car ownership and hire ten people to administer the manual. If you ask yourself whether you would rather have a package of benefits or its equivalent in cash, m. ayhe you'll say, I don't want such a nice car, hut I'd prefer to spend more money on my home leave.Cash gives individuals a lot more freedom. That's our simplifying principle. month is still doing so this month. The committee of 30 not only shapes our policies hut also translates them into operating procedures we think will he effective in thefield. And then they hecome a vehicle for implementing what we've agreed on when they return to their divisions. There are few businesses as old as trading. Yet the essence of what you do at Li & Fung-managing information and relationships-sounds like a good description of tbe information economy. How do you reconcile the new economy with the old?At one level, Li &. Fung is an information node, fiipping information hetween ou r 350 customers Since you operate in so many countries, do you and our 7,500 suppliers. We manage all that today have to index cash equivalents to local economies? with a lot of phone calls and faxes and on-site visits. That's the guts of the company. Soon we will need Wherever we operate, we follow local rules and hest practices. We do not want uniformity for lower- a sophisticated information system with very open architecture to accommodate different protocols level managers. If they say in Korea, â€Å"We don't rom suppliers and from customers, one rohust want bonuses hut everyhody gets i 6 m onths enough to work in Hong Kong and New York-as salary,† that's the market. What we do would probwell as in places like Bangladesh, where you can't ahly drive the HR department in a multinational crazy. But it works for us: for the top people, we fig- always count on a good phone line. ure out a cash equivalent for henefits, and for the loI have a picture in my mind of the ideal tr ader for cal staff, we follow local hest practices. It's fine if today's world. The trader is an executive wearing e do things differently from country to country. a pith helmet and a safari jacket. But in one hand is a And rememher, we are an incentive-driven commachete and in the other a very high-tech personalpany. We try to make the variable component of computer and communication device. From one compensation as hig as possible and to extend that side, you're getting reports from suppliers in newly principle as far down into the organization as possi- emerging countries, where the quality of the inforhle. That's the entrepreneurial approach. mation may he poor. From the other side, you ight have highly accurate point-of-sale information from the United States that allows you to reAs you spread out geographically, how do you hold plenish automatically. In other words, you're mathe organization together? The company is managed on a day-to-day hasis by neuvering between areas that have a lot of catching the product group managers. Along with the top up to do-you're fighting through the underbrush, so to speak-and areas that are already clearly fomanagement, they form what we call the policy committee, which consists of about 30 people. We cused on the twenty-first century. meet once every five to six weeks.People fly in As the sources of supply explode, managing inforfrom around the region to discuss and agree on polimation becomes increasingly complex. Of course, cies. Consider, for example, the topic of compliwe have a lot of hard data about performance and ance, or ethical sourcing. How do we make sure our ahout the work we do with each factory. But what suppliers are doing the right thing-by our cuswe really want is difficult to pin down; a lot of the tomers' standards and our own-when it comes to most valuable information resides in people's issues such as child lahor, environmental protecheads.What kind of attitude does the owner have? tion, and countr y-of-origin regulations? Do we work well together? How good is their interCompliance is a very hot topic today-as well it nal management? That kind of organizational memory is a lot harder to retain and to share. We should be. Because our inspectors are in and out of see the capturing of such information as the next the factories all the time, we probably have a hetter frontier. You could look at us as a very sophisticated window on the prohlem than most companies. If IT system. So that's the modern side of who we are. we find factories that don't comply, we won't work ith them. However, because there is so much subcontracting, you can't assume that everyone is doWbat about the more traditional side? ing the right thing. That is, you have to make sure In the information age, there is an impersonality that a supplier that was operating properly last that seems to say that all the old-world thoughts 112 HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW September-October 1998 SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT, HONG KONG STYLE about relationships don't matter anymore. We're all taken with the notion that a bright young guy ean bring his great idea to the Internet, and it's okay if no one knows him from Adam. Right?Maybe. But at the same time, the old relationships, the old values, still matter. I think they matter in our dealings with suppliers, with eustomers, and with our own staff. Right now we're so big, three of our divisions could be seheduling work with the same factory. We could be fighting ourselves for factory capacity. So I'm in the process of creating a database to track systematically all our supplier relationships. We need something that everyone in the company ean use to review the performance history of all our suppliers. One of my colleagues said, â€Å"We'd better guard that with our lives, because if somebody ever ot into our system, they could steal one of the company's greatest assets. † I'm not so worried. Someone might steal our database, but when they call up a supplie r, they don't have the long relationship with the supplier that Li & Fung has. It makes a difference to suppliers when they know that you are dedicated to the business, that you've been honoring your commitments for 90 years. I think there is a similar traditional dimension to our customer relationships. In the old days, my father used to read every telex from eustomers. That made a huge difference in a business where a detail s small as the wrong zipper color could lead to disastrous delays for customers. Today William and I continue to read faxes from customers-certainly not every one, but enough to keep us in personal toucb with our customers and our operations on a daily basis. Through close attention to detail, we try to maintain our heritage of customer service. As we have transformed a family business into a modern one, we have tried to preserve the best of what my father and grandfather created. There is a family feeling in the company that's difficult to describe. We don't care much for titles and hierarchy.Family life and the company's business spill over into each other. When staff members are in Hong Kong to do business, my mother might have tea with their families. Of eourse, as we have grown we have had to change. My mother can't know everyone as she once did. But we hold on to our wish to preserve the intimacies that have been at the heart of our most successful relationships. If I had to capture it in one phrase, it would be this: Think like a big company, act like a small one. A TRADITION OF INNOVATION In the company's early years, Li & Fung dealt in porcelain and other trnditidnal Chinese products, inclLidinK bamboo nd rattan ware, jade and ivory handicrafts-and fireworks. Li ik Funj;'s invention of paper-sealed fireerackers in 1907 to replaee the traditional mudsealed firecracker was a major breakthrough. At that time, the U. S. import duty on firecrackers was hased on weight. The paper-sealed fireeraekers not only ineurred lower unport duti es by being lighter but also eliminated the problem of excessive dust produced by the discharge of the mud-sealed variety. Li &. Fung's paper-sealed manufaeturing process has become the industry's standard. i Is the growing importance of information technology good or bad for your bnsiness?Frankly, I am not unhappy that the business will HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW September-October 1998 113 SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT, HONG KONG STYLE be more dependent on information technology. The growing value of dispersed manufaeturing makes us reach even further around the globe, and IT helps us accomplish that stretching of the company. As Western companies work to remain competitive, supply chain management will become more important. Their need to serve smaller niche markets with more frequent changes in products is pushing us to establish new sources in less developed countries.We're forging into newly emerging centers of production, from Bangladesh to Sri Lanka to Madagascar. We're now landing in northern Africa – in Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco. We're starting down in South Africa and moving up to some of the equatorial countries. As the global supply network becomes larger and more far-flung, managing it will require scale. As a pure intermediary, our margins were squeezed. But as the number of supply chain options expands, we add value for our customers by using information and relationships to manage the network. We help companies navigate through a orld of expanded choice. And the expanding power of IT helps us do that. So the middle where we operate is broadening, making what we do more valuable and allowing us to deliver a better product, which translates into better prices and better margins for our customers. In fact, we think export trading is not a sunset industry but a growth business. Was the professional management training you and William brought with you from the United States helpful in running an Asian family business? It's an interesting question. For m y first 20 years with the company, I had to put aside-unlearn, in act-a lot of what I had learned in the West about management. It just wasn't relevant. The Li & Fung my grandfather founded was a typical patriarchal Chinese family conglomerate. Even today, most companies in Asia are built on that model. But a lot has changed in the last five years, and the current Asian financial crisis is going to transform the region even more. Now, instead of managing a few relationshipsthe essence of the old model-we're managing large, complex systems. It used to be that one or two big decisions a year would determine your success.In the 1980s, for example, many of the Asian tycoons were in asset-intensive businesses like real estate and shipping. You would make a very small number of very big decisions-you would acquire a piece of land or decide to build a supertanker-and you were done. And access to the deals depended on your connections. 114 The Li & Fung of today is quite different from the company my grandfather founded in 1906. As it was in a lot of family companies, people had a sense over the years that the company's purpose was to serve as the family's livelihood. One of the first things William and I did was to persuade my father o separate ownership and management by taking the company puhlic in 197 3. When our margins were squeezed during the 1980s, we felt we needed to make dramatic changes that could best be done if we went back to being a private company. So in 1988, we undertook Hong Kong's first management buyout, sold off assets, and refocused the company on its core trading business. Later we took our export trading business public again. I'm sure some of our thinking ahout governance structure and focus was influenced by our Western training. But I'm more struck by the changes In the company's decision making.Right now in this building, we probably have 50 buyers making hundreds of individual transactions. We're making a large number of small decisions instead of a small number of big ones. I can't be involved in all of tbem. So today I depend on structure, on guiding principles, on managing a system. Of course, I think relationships are still important, but I'm not managing a single key relationship and using it to leverage my entire enterprise. Instead, I'm running a very focused business using a systems approach. That's why I say that in the last five years, everything I learned in business school has come to matter. Li &

Compare and Contrast Emily and Miss Brill Essay

Miss Brill in Katherine Mansfield’ short story â€Å"Miss Brill† and Emily in â€Å"A Rose for Emily† by William Faulkner exhibits interesting similarities and differences. The differences and similarities are evident in their characters. The two stories appear different but the relationship they share is very profound. The stories openly to the reader the realization of similarities and dissimilarities in them and the readers in terms of themes within the story, character traits and plot advancement. The plots of the stories unfold to review the dissimilarities in the social lives between Miss Brill and Grierson Emily. The dissimilarities cannot overweigh the similarities between the two characters in the luck of romantic and genuine social lives and their fateful states of denial. The pride that associates with the community involvement is the major difference between the two characters. Normally people are proud to associate with the community since the involvement gives them a sense if something bigger. Miss Brill takes a community level with more seriously and to a higher level than Emily Grierson who does not take it with much seriousness. This fact makes them different. Miss Brill has a boring life. This fact is evident when she goes to the dark cupboard room. In the room, the almond slice of cake excites her. The depth of Miss Brill loneliness and sadness convinces her that she is an important member of the community. He fills that her contribution is the key driver of her community and in case she withdraws, the community will not survive or operate properly. She thinks that they (community) â€Å"were all stage acting. She was assigned a part sand came every Sunday. No doubt if she hadn’t been somebody there would have noticed; after all she was part of the performance† (Mansfield 20). On the other hand, Emily’s character is a clear contrast of Brill’s character. The narrator brings out the difference when he speaks of Emily’s death. According t the narrator, â€Å"the whole town attended Miss Emily Grierson’s funeral†. The narrator continues to add that, the males attend  the funeral â€Å"as a sign of respect to a fallen monument.† The females attend the funeral because they â€Å"were driven by curiosity to find out how the inside of her house appeared like since no one other than an old manservant had seen it in at least ten years† (Faulkner, 32). Miss Emily Grierson’s father confined her to into the house and continues with the state even after her death. The situation makes the people of the town curious about the life of Miss Emily Grierson’s. The only thing the Miss Emily Grierson did with people was to teach children how to paint china, a craft the people considers useless and outdated. Her l ack of involvement and disinterest in the society is clear when she evades taxes. Read Also:  Compare and Contrast Essay Topics for College She says, â€Å"See Colonel Satoris. I have no taxes in Jefferson† the colonel is dead for almost ten years. The relationship is another point of comparison between the two characters. The both lack romantic and ordinary relationship. None of the two ended up with a functional social life, although there is a bid difference between their public lives. The two stories reveal to the reader a life of two lonely women. Brill would spend her Sunday outings watching people with hopes that she would hear their voices. To her disappointment, people â€Å"did not speak.† (Mansfield, 18). Brill’s gets boredom, a mixture of feelings, and joy from things that she sees and unconsciously relates them to her own life. Comparing herself from a woman who gives her a flower confuses her about whether to reject or accept them. She finally â€Å"she throws flowers† (Mansfield, 19). Emily’s distinctive relationship with her father is the reason she lacks social relationship. His father overprotective nature denies Emily a chance to relate socially. She remembers the â€Å"the young men that had been driven away by her father† (Faulkner, 36). Her father denies her a chance to meet people, not only during the time she is alive, also after she is dead. Brill comes up with a reason for apparent signs of poor circulation ensuing from old age. The grief in her life is what causes the feeling in her. She suppresses and denies the feeling. She says, â€Å"And what they played was sunny, warm, yet there was a mere faint chill or something, what was it?-it is not sadness but rather -a something that made you desire to sing† (Mansfield, 21). The rebuff in Emily’s side is first apparent when she fails to accept her father is dead. She is dressed normally. Despite the  efforts of doctors and the ministry efforts to convince her that her dad is dead, â€Å"She said to them that her father was still alive. She remained in this state of denial for three days (Faulkner, 36). This shows the results of suppressing grief. In conclusion, even though the two stories, â€Å"A Rose or Emily† and â€Å"Miss Brill† seem to revolve around two dissimilar women living lives that completely differ; they are the same in many subtle, but valuable ways. At the same time, their lives differ in how the two women socialize.

9.Define the concepts of risk and threat and discuss the statement Can Essay

9.Define the concepts of risk and threat and discuss the statement Can you have Risk without Threat - Essay Example The whole idea can be also defined as: the ability of a certain system to protect all its information with respect to discretion and veracity .Another point to ponder upon is Note that the scope of this second definition includes system resources, which include CPUs, disks, and programs, in addition to information. A brawny security protocol addresses all three of these areas. Take, for example, Netscapes SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) protocol. It has enabled a detonation in ecommerce which is really about conviction (or more precisely, about the lack of trust). SSL overcomes the deficiency of conviction between transacting parties by ensuring discretion all the way through encryption, veracity through checksums, and substantiation by means of server certificates (see Chapter 15 of Unix System Security Tools). Access control -- Make sure that users admittance is only to those resources and services that they are permitted to access and that competent users are not denied access to services that they lawfully expect to receive These supplementary rudiments dont neatly put together into a particular definition. From one perception, the concepts of seclusion, discretion, and security are quite distinct and possess different attributes. Privacy is a property of individuals; discretion is a property of data; and security is a property assigned to computer hardware and software systems. From a realistic perspective, the concepts are interwoven. A system that does not sustain data discretion or entity privacy could be tentatively or even precisely "secure," but it probably wouldnt be wise to systematize it anywhere in the real world. Risk avoidance -- A security essential that starts with questions like: Does my organization or business engage in activities that are too risky? Do we really need an unobstructed Internet connection? Do we really need to computerize that secure business process? Should we really standardize on a

I give you the information and you give me the topic Research Paper

I give you the information and you give me the topic - Research Paper Example Personally, as a student, it affects me because the decision I have already made regarding my degree major is irreversible. For this reason, understanding the skills and requirements, or the chance of securing a job in the labor market is imperative. F. The topic regarding the employability and the importance of various degree majors draws heated debate amongst individuals. Different groups have diverse perspectives regarding the topic based on their evaluation of the reality. G. Although the supporters of the skill-specific argue that the modern labor market is dynamic and requires an individual who has adequate skills in technical courses. Regardless of that, there is sufficient evidence that skills learned in the liberal arts arm the student in facing the real world. H. Audience: with the current debate, students joining colleges are confused about the degree course to pursue. Alternatively, this reason, it is the obligation of the career counseling officers in the school to ensure that new students have adequate knowledge on the impact of various degree courses on their future lives. A. Include a brief introduction to the two discipline categories: changes in the work environment, job made obsolete, job outsourcing, modern job requirements, and impact of social networks on employment. Skill-specific majors (engineering) have the highest wage and an average employment potential while liberal arts (Education) have the highest employability ratio and an average salary (Carnevale, Cheah, and Strohl 8; (Thomas 13) Rampell, Catherine. "Outlook Is Bleak Even for Recent College Graduates - NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. The New York Times,  2011. Web. 8  Feb.  2015.

Management and Leadership in Higher Education Essay - 1

Management and Leadership in Higher Education - Essay Example provision of services; including nurses, receptionists, technicians, cleaners, and therapists, as well as the dentists themselves; effective managers and leaders in dental care need skills to harness the potential of these professionals.5 Some of these skills include ability to communicate within the care team, with patients, and commissioners, ability to negotiate and resolve conflicts, and knowledge of risk management and its application to clinical governance. Dentists often envision working with people who derive pleasure from assisting one another and caring for their patients but that is never to be as a large proportion of dentists report staff-related issues as the leading stressor in their practices, something that is attributable to the lack of leadership training in dentistry.6 In that respect, lack of leadership training in dentistry makes it impossible for them to lead their teams, ensure a supportive work environment, and dealing with staff issues; a dentist’s le adership approach inevitably influences the dental care communication practices. Consequently, specific leadership behaviours affect the extent to which individuals identify with one another within teams in dental practice, interdependence, and social distance between the dental-care providers; in that case, there is a dire need to incorporate effective management and leadership approaches in dental care as seen in the creation of leadership development programs.7 The first management approach that can be applied in dental care is the situational or contingency approach, which examines managerial actions as reaction to a given set of environmental variables, suggesting that certain management alternatives are most suitable for particular situations.8 Leadership actions in dental care entail... This paper approves that management, both in the dental care and in the general context of organizational management, entails solving a varied spectrum of management issues and complexities that may equally demand for a multi-dimensional tackling; there is no particular management action that can be suitably appropriate in all situations. The most appropriate action is one that fits not only the external environment, but also the internal states and needs, and the contingency or situational approach to management is the sophisticated tactic to comprehend the complexity of management today. This essay makes a conclusion that some approaches that can be applied by dentists include the empirical approach, the socio-technical systems approach, and the operational approach, together with, the mathematical approach. There is a dire need for dentists to incorporate the most effective leadership and management approaches to enhance dental care, especially because, there exists direct correlation between the quality of service provided and the latter. In that case, dental healthcare practitioners should adopt leadership and management approaches that emphasize the people side of dental care rather than simply the business part of dentistry, and overlooking the staff welfare. In this respect, dentists must continuously engage in management and leadership activities that promote not only the interpersonal interrelationships, but also positive group dynamics because these lead to high job motivation that translates to quality of dental care services.

Pursue MS in Computational Finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Pursue MS in Computational Finance - Essay Example However the biggest revelation that I experienced was when I came across the concepts of finance, economics and banking during my under graduation. I began to realize the true importance of numbers. That was when I began comprehending the magnitude of services that mathematics could provide. I immediately realized that a domain that blends mathematics and finance was my future. Even before I completed my Class X, I had achieved a high level of proficiency in various nuances of mathematics, much advanced than required by convention. I spent vast amounts of time identifying the roles that mathematics plays in everyday life. Of the various applications with their pith as numbers, I was most fascinated by Finance and its related domains. Consequently, I took up Finance as my major subject for my under-graduation at Georgia State University. The subjects that I learnt during my undergraduate course have taught me the art of formal and logical thinking. My passion for finance only escalated from day one of my under-graduation. Some of my favorite subjects were Mathematics, Finance, Economics and Risk Management. I took several interesting courses in finance and completed all the required credits successfully.

The state of Journalism in America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The state of Journalism in America - Essay Example As America cities such as Boston, Washington, New York and Philadelphia grew so did journalism. The telegraph, larger printing presses, alongside other technological innovations provided for mass printing of newspapers, and boosted circulation of the newspaper thereby increasing revenues collected (Winfield, 2008). In large cities, some of the newspapers were politically independent. For smaller cities, most were closely tied to political parties, which were used to communicate and campaign. The editorials of such newspapers explained party position on current issues while damning the opposition. The press expanded rapidly as the major support element in the American party systems. By 1900 key newspapers had turned into profitable power houses of muckraking, sensationalism and advocacy, along with professional news gathering. In the late 19th Century much of United States Journalism were housed in large media conglomerates. The digital journalism was later introduced in the 21st Cent ury, with all newspaper facing business crisis as readers turned to internet as their major source of getting news with advertisers following them (Joyce, & Nip, 2006). The increasing growth of the impact of internet, particularly in after 2000, introduced â€Å"free† news. It also classified advertisements to audiences that could no longer care for paid subscriptions. Many dally newspapers had the business model undercut by the Internet. Bankruptcy loomed across America and even hit major papers such as the Chicago Tribune, the Loss Angeles Times, and the Rocky Mountain news among many others. Since then, journalism has never remained the same. This paper explores the state of journalism in America.... However, like other public service broadcasting corporations in which journalists operate, often derive some of their funding from the government. Some public service corporations derive their funding from the community or non-profit organizations. Other forms of funding include pledges from sponsors. The government directly discharges broadcasting services, albeit their limited number. Public broadcasting corporations often come with their programs. They also purchase the programs from distributing and producing companies such as APT, APM and NPR, among others. The funding of the public broadcasting corporations are channeled through the Public Broadcasting Corporation (Brad, 1994). The Public Broadcasting Television service receives support from the viewers, as well as commercial sponsors. It is this feature that has made them to be characterized as commercial broadcasting corporations. However, it is worth noting that the commercial advertisements are often limited, short and rela tively muted. Technologies have enabled the public to access the channels of television through the cable systems, which are funded by the franchise fees and television donations (Brad, 1994). The United States’ public broadcasting television channels have been widely criticized for leaning towards conservatism. Since 2012, erosion of news reporting resources has continued to converge with increasing opportunities for those on government agencies, politics, companies with others taking messages directly to the public (Fuller, 1999). In 2012, there were signs of shrinking in reporting power. The estimates for cutbacks in the newspaper newsroom in 2012 put media industry down 30 percent since 2000. It also put the industry below 40,000 employees who are on a full-time

Carbon Price Mechanism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Carbon Price Mechanism - Essay Example The main goal of this essay is to comprehend the importance of this plan to the household economies and forecast the impacts of its implementation on these economies from the consumer behaviour perspective. It is crucial to overview main features of the proposed program before going into the discussion on its impacts. This program involves four major areas including the energy consumption, carbon price mechanism, increasing the efficiency of the energy consumption units and the management of the energy resources. The focus of this essay will be the mechanism for carbon price that has direct effects on the household economies and patterns of consumption of energy. This mechanism accompanies a list of various measures to explain its expected consequences on the business and households and methods for reducing the harmful effects by providing assistance in the form of increased cash payments and the reduction of taxes. Beyza reported that changes in the prices and income impacted the consumer behaviour, the proposed plan suggest two phase strategy for the implementation of carbon price mechanism. The first will continue for three years and during these years the carbon prices will remain fixed for at different levels for each year. For the first year the prices will be set at $ 23, for the second year the price will remain at $ 24.5 and during third year it will be increased further and will be fixed at $ 25.4. It shows that the prices will continuously increase during the first three years. The second phase is referred as the flexibility phase in which the prices remains flexible and will be determined with the help of emission trading scheme. The government will issue permits for the certain amount of carbon emission to various industries and the fees obtained from these permits will be used for the assistance of the household, small scale industries and for the promotion of alternate sources of energy which involve less carbon emission. Deborah (2010) described that the carbon price mechanism and assistance program by the government will have a combined impact on the household economies. The impact of both these factors on the economy of the household is explained below. Q. 1: What is the effect of rising energy prices for the economic wellbeing of households? Household is responsible for loads of carbon emission by consuming conventional sources of energy in large amounts. The economic reform program introduced by Austrian government aims to control the emission of carbon, change the energy consumption patterns of the

Team Dynamics - Conflict Resolution Strategies for Students and Essay

Team Dynamics - Conflict Resolution Strategies for Students and Workplace - Essay Example Teamwork is a gratifying and often crucial part of employment and many leisure activities. Moreover, today one's ability to work in a team is sought after and highly valued. It seems that working in groups is very easy, though as the experience shows, it may be one of the most challenging tasks one faces at university and in the workplace. This is caused by the fact that all people are different as well as not all traits of characters of different people can be combined successfully. The biggest drawback of working in a team is that usually not every member of the team is prepared to put in the same amount of effort. Moreover, in every team, there are "free riders", who come to the group meetings to socialize instead of doing what they are supposed to do and do not complete their tasks. Because of the other team members end up having to do work that they fail to complete or start an assignment over because someone did not do it right. Of course, such situations are very stressful and after a couple of experiences of this kind one may get a strong feeling and he/she is better off, though doing more work, completing the project alone. However, working in teams has strong advantages. When working in the team it is possible to combine the strengths of all the members and direct them to the completion of the project. Whilst being a member of a team, a person acquires such useful skills these days as the ability to plan and organize the time. In a group, one learns to negotiate and compromise and to practice decision-making skills. Moreover, one gains additional knowledge from another person, meets new people, and discovers how to identify the needs of others and build positive relationships, and develop cooperative learning strategies (University of Phoenix, 2004). As it was mentioned earlier, groups do not exist without conflicts. According to Wisinski (1993) conflict is defined as "a disagreement or disharmony that occurs in groups when differences regarding ideas, methods, and members are expressed". What is important to remember that conflict does not always lead to negative outcomes, furthermore, a healthy conflict may lead to a rise in motivation and successful completion of the project. Thus, the primary goal for the administration of the company or a team leader is to learn how to use conflict as a tool that can benefit, rather than destroy the group (Krivis, 2006). For this, one should be familiar with conflict resolution methods. Lower I would like to mention two of them: the "4 R's" method, and the A E I O U method. Â  

Aspiring Education Essay Example for Free

Aspiring Education Essay Education is a must on every people’s lives, a requirement for a person to be successful in life. We can all remember how our parents scold as, as we disobeyed on what they are telling us to do. My parents inspire me about education. Both of them finished high school and graduated in college; my father graduate with a Master’s Degree while my mother has a Bachelor’s Degree. They struggled so hard to be successful, so my siblings and I will have a healthier life, a better house, family and a brighter education. In this quote Chanakya said, â€Å"Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere. Education beats the beauty and the youth.† Chanakya interprets that it is the most powerful and the best treasure in all things that you will achieve in life. Education is intensely vital; it can strongly provide one with priceless life opportunities, ultimately save one from a life of agony, and powerfully free those who are understated. In â€Å"Straw into Gold,† Sandra Cisneros emphasizes sharply that education opens doors, gives one perspective, and provides one with valuable life opportunities. For instance, she openly explains, â€Å"I had the same sick feeling when I was required to write my critical essay for the MFA exam – the only piece of noncreative writing necessary in order to get my graduate degree.† Sandra conveys the idea that she still continue to pursue her education even though she knows that she can fail anytime. The author suggests that you have to keep going even though you know that you will fail. Further, she later explains, â€Å"Along the way there has been straw for the taking. With a little imagination, it can be spun into gold.† Sandra articulates the idea that we can create a better person in ourselves if we allow education to permit to take a hold of us. The author suggests that even with a little imagination you can achieve your dream. Therefore, in her narr ative, Cisneros ultimately reveals that we just need to turn our dreams  into reality. In â€Å"Learning to Read and Write,† Frederick Douglass emphasizes that education is the key to freedom. For example, he explains, â€Å"Under its influences, the tender heart became stone, and the lamblike disposition gave way to a tiger-like fierceness.† Douglass conveys the idea that his once gentle mistress transformed into a cruel woman who did not want him to get educated. The author suggests that his mistress became gullible to the ignorant ideas about slavery. Further, he later explains, â€Å"The silver trump of freedom had roused my soul to eternal wakefulness.† Douglass implies the idea that he found a new hope of freedom to slavery that makes his soul to eternal wakefulness. The author suggests that if he has the determination and work-hard he will become a free person and not a slave. Thus, in his slave narrative, Douglass ultimately reinforces the concept that only education will provide one with liberty and self-determination. In â€Å"Superman and Me,† Sherman Alexie emphasizes that education can save one’s life. For example, he explains, â€Å"We were poor by most standards, but one of my parents usually managed to find some minimum wage job or another, which made us middle class by reservation standards. I had a brother and three sisters. We lived on a combination of irregular paychecks, hope, fear, and government surplus food.† Alexie express the idea that they’re living in poverty and they survived because of his parent’s minimum wage job. The author suggests that they still persist to live on a world of hope, fear, irregular paychecks, and government surplus food. Further, Alexie interprets, â€Å"I am smart. I am arrogant. I am lucky. I am trying to save our lives.† Alexie conveys the idea that he struggled, studied hard, and stood up just to save the other Indians and escape from the reservation. The author suggests that if you study hard you can get out, f rom the reservation, and be a free Indian. Thus, in his narrative, Alexie ultimately reinforces the concept that only education will provide one with valuable life opportunities. The three authors showed the different essential sides of education. Education is intensely vital; it can robustly provide one with  opportunities, ultimately save one from a life of misery, and mightily free those who are discreet. In this quote, Carl Rogers said, â€Å"The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn.† Carl conveys that if you know how to listen, speak, read, and learned how to learn it means that you are an educated person. He also interprets that you will not be educated if you don’t know how to learn. Therefore, we should take advantage of education while it last.

Strategic Management Nike | Case Study

Strategic Management Nike | Case Study Introduction: This assignment is about analyzing our own personality and behavior and focusing on developing the behavior which will help in building different characteristics that are needed to become an efficient strategic manager. We have taken Nike as the organization, where we will focus on different traits that are required to be developed in person to be a strategic manager for the particular organization. This assignment will bring into focus different skills and traits that will help an individual to build his managerial as well as leadership skills that are important for the success of an individual in an organization. LO1: Be able to identify personal skills to achieve strategic ambitions Analyse the strategic direction of the organisation Nike Inc. is worlds leading company in sports industry. The company was established in the year 1968 in the state of Oregon. It is one of the leading players in sports footwear, apparel, equipments and accessory products. Nike, the name of the company is taken on the name of the Greek Goddess of Victory. With its strong marketing strategy, Nike Inc. has been successful in stretching its reach globally. Nike has followed the innovative strategy and has captured the market by introducing different athletic brands such as Nike Air, Max Air, Zoom Air, Nike Golf, Nike Pro, Nike +, Air Jordan, Nike Skateboarding and Nike Shox. The company operates in over 170 countries globally with company operates retail outlets, and independent distributors and licensee. The principle activity of the company is design, development and worldwide marketing of its products which includes sports footwear, apparel, equipment and accessories. The company produces its footwear and apparel products outside Unit ed States, whereas the sports equipments are manufactured in United States as well as other parts of the world. With its highly recognized slogan Just do it and its distinguish swoosh logo (representing the wing of Greek goddess NIKE), Nike has been successful in building up a strong brand image which successfully captures maximum sports market and sponsors different athletes and sports teams around the world and has evolved into one of the biggest multinational corporation in sports industry. The strategic objective of Nike is to hold its position as the market leader in sports footwear sector with a strong focus on innovation, research and development. Company works on authenticity, honesty, athletic, competitiveness, performance and teamwork. These are the strategic objectives which the company follows so as to have a competitive edge in the market. Evaluate the strategic skills required of the leader to achieve the strategic ambitions Nike operates in highly competitive environment and needs to have a strong focus on innovation, research and development. To operate in highly competitive and a multinational organization it is very important to have strong communication skills, analytical skills, leadership skills, time management skills, problem solving skills and negotiation skills. Communication Skills: Communication is the base of an organization. It is one the most important skills which focuses on meeting the personal as well as organizational goals, it is one of the biggest driver which focuses on stimulating the behavior of an individual in an organization. It is very important for a manager to have effective communication skills as it helps in driving and motivating the employees behavior. It also helps in effectively expressing the feelings and emotion of the employee and the manager which helps in creating a bonding between the manager and the employee. Leadership Skills: Leadership is one of the most important aspect of an organization without leadership the organizational performance is minimal as it helps in increasing the efficiency and the working of the employees in the organization. It helps in influencing the people. Leadership can be termed as an interpersonal process that involves attempts to influence other people in attaining organizational goals (Hitt, 2009). Leaders help the employees and other members of the organization to focus on achieving the set goals and objectives of the organization. Leaders help in guiding and motivating their subordinates or followers to work on a certain perspective which helps in attaining productive results. Negotiation Skill: Being in a multinational organization it is very important for an manager to have negotiation skill as it is a skill that is needed on day to day working within the organization as well as personal working. It is important for a manager to have efficient negotiation skills so as to settle different arguments and conflicts in the organization. For being an efficient negotiator it is important for a manager to be open mindedpro active, empathic, good communicator, friendly, and intuitive. Problem Solving Skills: It is important for a strategic manager to have strong analytical and problem solving skill as the manager encounters different challenges in their day to day working where their analytical skill and problem solving skill playa a crucial rule which helps in achieving the organizational goals and objectives. Time Management: Time Management is very important tool which helps in developing the personality of the person. It basically refers to the skills, and techniques which help in managing the time in respect to accomplish the set goals and objectives. An effective time management is helpful in many ways such as effective time management helps in reducing stress and anxiety, builds a sense of achievement, helps in increasing the energy, helps in increasing productivity, helps in reducing avoidance, helps in building up the confidence. Time never stays for anyone. So time can only be managed, it cannot be controlled replaced or recreated. Assess the relationship between existing, required and future skills to achieve the strategic ambitions To achieve the strategic goals and objectives the strategic manager needs to have strong skills in respect to manage the team and their working. The manager needs to have strong analytical skills and technical skills which will help in nurturing innovation in the organization. The strategic manger needs have a strong focus on authenticity, honesty, athletic, competitiveness, performance and teamwork skills which are the pillars of Nike so as to focus on achieving the strategic objectives and goals of the organization. The manager needs to have strong leadership skills so as to achieve the strategic goals and objectives of the organization. LO2. Be able to manage personal leadership development to support achievement of strategic ambitions 2.1 Discuss the opportunities to support leadership development Nike is the organization which has a strong focus on research and development, for this the organization gives a strong focus to training and development of the employees. The organization strongly focuses on innovation, the employees are motivated to do different experiments in an innovative measure. The CEO of the company has focused on reorganizing the company into different units that are categorized in different particular sports. Mark Parker says, a conscious decision to sharpen each piece of the business so were not some big fat dumb company,. He has put strong emphasis in new global market and have made a strong emphasis on the nations like China and Japan because they are nations on low cost production, the CEO of Nike strongly focuses on eliminating the middle management and restructured the organization by down turning. This has helped in increasing the leadership skills within the organization. Nike also has an Innovation Kitchen, which is a think tank where all the desig ners work on their creativity and enhance their skills. The Kitchen is a free-range creative playpen, with every type of tool, material, machine, toy, instrument, software, game, and inspirational image at the ready. (McGrit, 2010). Kitchen is one of the most secured place in the organization where not all the employees are allowed to enter the organization. The organization focuses on open communication so as to facilitate innovation in the organization. He wants all his employees to share all their thoughts and imagination so as to build innovative company. These are different perspectives which help in developing leadership skills within the organization. The organization also urges the managers to work innovatively by collaborating themselves on different perspectives by focusing on nature, animal and building so as to inspire the employees in the organization to work innovatively and effectively. 2.2 Construct a personal development plan to direct leadership development For having effective leadership skills it is very important to work on different skills which help in enhancing the leadership qualities that are required in the organization. Nike being an organization which focuses on innovation, being creative is one of the most important perspective that is required for an efficient strategic manager, as creativity helps in building up new ideas for developing new products and will also help in facilitating the creativity within the organization. For facilitating a high creative perspective it is important for a manager to work on five P model of creativity i.e. Passion, Persistence, Persuasion, Playfulness and Positivity. It is important to have innovative thinking as well as strong visionary goals which will help in building a positive environment in the organization. For being an efficient manager it is important to have strong communication skill which will help in facilitating communication where employees share the problem with subordinates as a group, and together, they generate and evaluate alternatives and attempt to reach consensus on a solution. The manager needs to develop skills which include drive, the desire to lead, honesty/integrity, self-confidence, cognitive ability and knowledge of the business. It helps in enhancing the performance of the employees. The efficient strategic manager needs to be characterized by high Self-confidence, strong vision, ability to articulate the vision (speaking ability), strong convictions about the vision, highly creative and innovative, perceived as agents of change and Environmental Sensitivity (threats, opportunities). An efficient manager needs to ha ve enhanced time management and stress management skills which will help in increasing the efficiency of the managers and will help them in building different leadership skills which will help the employees and subordinates to work on different organizational goals and objectives. 2.3 Devise an implementation process for the development plan Improvement of skills: Time Management: For being an efficient strategic manager it is important for a manager to work efficiently on given time. It is important for a manager to set their priorities and work according to the set proprieties so that they are able to finish up the most important thing at the first stage and are able to manage the time effectively and efficiently. There are different techniques which help in setting the priorities such as ABC analysis, Pareto analysis, POSEC method, these methods helps in prioritizing different tasks by Organizing, Streamlining, Economizing and Contributing. With the help of these techniques the manager are able to manage their time effectively and also manage their meeting efficiently. With a strong focus on time management the manager will not work under stress and pressure and will have ample time to work on enhancing their creativity and building up new ideas for development of new products focusing on enhancing creativity and skills which will help the manager to achieve the set targets and goals. Stress Management:Working under a multinational organization creates stress. There are several techniques which help in managing stress, one of the most important being Yoga, yoga is one of the best exercise which helps in attaining mental peace. It helps in developing different skills and controlling different stress situation as a person is at mental ease when he does yoga. Eating healthy food is also important to minimize stress, healthy food helps in giving proper health to the person and he is able to work efficiently as healthy body helps in removing stress. Sports activities are also one of the important ways through which stress can be minimized, one can indulge himself in indoor or outdoor sports activity, it helps in relaxing the mind of an individual which in turn helps in increasing the mind power. Communication Skills: It is very important for a manager or leader to possess. They need to have strong communication skills so as to facilitate different information through different levels of the organization. To have strong communicator one need to be a good listener and believe in whatever he communicates. One should be clear in what he is communicating to the other person. Problem solving: to become a good problem solver, a person needs to be creative and innovative in every work he does, he must work on developing practical solutions so as to facilitate proper problem solving, Different strategies and methods must be used to solve problems pertaining to different areas. LO3. Be able to evaluate the effectiveness of the leadership development plan With a strong focus on enhancing the skills, the manager will be able to develop several skills which will help in enhancing the skills of the strategic manager. With adoption of the leadership development plan the manger will be able to build on Inspirational leadership quality with a strong focus on vision for the future, self awareness and empathy. The manager will also able to build on the traits of charismatic leaders, with the improvement on his communication skills, with enhancing and working on the communication skills the manager will be able to clearly communicate with the employees and maintain their enthusiastic and excitement level with a display of high level of self confidence and self esteem. With working on time management skills the manager will be able to adopt cost efficient and cost effective measures with a strong focus on increasing the productivity of the organization. The manager will focus on developing the skills of people by motivating them to accomplish t heir goals. The manager will focus on building the organization culture and environment that will help in building a strong and friendly environment. With enhancement on communication skill the manager will also focus on displaying participative leadership. The manager will focus on assigning their subordinates new tasks and involving them in new tasks enhances the performance of the subordinate. This will also help in enhancing the skills of the subordinates. LO4. Be able to promote a healthy and safe environment that supports a culture of quality 4.1 Assess the impact of corporate and individual health and safety responsibilities on the organisation Nike considers sustainability as one of the most essential part for the success of the organization. Today, the corporate responsibility approach has evolved from focusing on risk management, philanthropy and compliance to one that utilizes natural focus on innovation to transition NIKE, Inc. into a business that is more sustainable, by which it mean that it brings people, planet and profits into balance for lasting success. (Corporate Social Responsibility report 2009). Nike focuses on delivering innovative products in sustainable way. It focuses on recognizing the sustainability that routes to future profitability. With the increasing globalization and new demands across the market, according to him the company needs to focus on capturing the maximum market and provide its customers innovative and customized products. According to Mark Parker, the company needs to work innovatively which is possible only when the organization is able to succeed in a world where natural and human resources are constrained. There are several issues that will impact the business and the preferences of the consumer market, these issues concern the change in climate, depletion of natural resources, peaking oil prices and growth in population. The company focuses on working on the grounds in which it can survive in the changing conditions. With these changes around the world and economy, there will be potential effect to labor forces, working conditions, communities, dev elopment, youth, sport, supply chains, products and more. The company has built up a new strategy to focus on the coming future. It has built a new model and shift to sustainable business and innovation. The vision for SBI is to enable NIKE, Inc. and our consumers to thrive in a sustainable economy, one where people, planet and profit are in balance. To do this, the company will: Innovate to deliver enterprise-level sustainability solutions. Integrate sustainability into the heart of the NIKE, Inc. business model. Mobilize key constituents (civil society, employees, consumers, government and industry) to partner in scaling solutions. (Corporate Social Responsibility Report, 2009). The company focuses on designing products that are fully closed-loop: products produced using the fewest possible materials, designed for easy disassembly and capable of being recycled into new products or safely returned to nature at the end of their life. The company focuses on innovating its manufacturing, production, recapturing, recycling ad reusing. Nike focuses on building innovation lab focuses on delivering enterprise and industry level sustainability solutions. The company focuses on integrating corporate social responsibility to its organization on whole. This will help in upstream decision making and integrated sustainable thinking. The company has taken several efforts to improve the working conditions across its supply chain. This can be done through influencing policies in respect to improving the working conditions and encouraging collaboration between society, industry and government. Nike focuses n achieving sustainability across all its horizons of its operations. Nike has incorporated several steps so as to bring sustainable change in the working condition and for the workers of footwear, apparel and equipment industry. 4.2 Estimate an organisational culture of quality on the achievement of strategic ambitions Leadership and organizational culture are the most important part of an organization which helps in improving the efficiency and productivity of the organization. Organization culture can be termed as the set of values, and the beliefs that are shared by the individuals working in the organization whereas organizational climate is the environment of the organization, it affects the structure, performance and responsibility of the employees in an organization. It is oriented towards behavioral approach, which revolves around the creativity, innovation, and safety. Organizational culture is an element which brings into picture the organization climate and design. Organizational culture is the study of the psychology, attitudes, beliefs, values of an employee working in the organization. It encompasses personal as well as cultural value into consideration. Organizational culture is composed of three layers i.e. material culture which includes the characteristics of products, technology and equipment used in the organization, it basically represents the style of enterprise manager. Material layer is called the foundation layer of the organization. System layer which includes different code of conduct and regulations on which is there in the mind of the employees, it works as the key of the organization. The last layer of the organization is the spiritual culture which is the core of the organizational culture which includes the philosophy, strategy, value orientation, emotion of the employees. Leaders needs to set an example in an organization as being an element of culture, so as to enhance the productivity within the organization. Organization culture fosters an organization to achieve its business goals and objectives. The culture of the organization helps in increasing the efficiency of the organization as well as the employees.The corporate culture of the organization brings out the value and norms of the organization as well as the organizational behavior in respect of technologies, strategies, products and services that are used in the organization. The organizational culture also fosters changes in the organization like downsizing, technological advancement which is important for the growth of the organization. Seven dimensions of the organizational culture are attention to detail, innovation and risk taking, outcome orientation, stability, people orientation, aggressiveness and team orientation. The organizational culture can foster ethics as well unethical issues. Like Enrons leadership and organizational culture was unethical whereas 3M and apple fosters innovative organizational culture so as to improve its efficiency.Organizational culture of an helps in fostering the behavior of the employees and the future of the organization. Organizational culture helps in team building within the organization. As through the organizational culture helps in fostering creativity, innovation, and sharing of values.Organizational culture has become highly focused to innovation, through technological development and advancement the organizational culture helps in fostering change in the organization which helps in adopting total quality management. Organizational culture is one of the most important aspect of the organization which helps in fostering development and change in the organization as well as achieving the set strategic objectives and goals of the organization. It is the base of the organization which highly affects the behavior of the employees in the organization. The organizational culture can build positive behavior in an employee as well as negative behavior. It can be said that the growth of the organization highly depends on the organizational culture.