Author: chris

The New Smart Phone Marketing Plan in the Sony Mobile

Executive Summary

Currently, Sony has already bought out the 50% part of Ericsson in the phone manufacturing industry. The company has started going alone in the industry and is planning heavy marketing for some of its smart phones. In Australia, Android is the current leading operating systems in terms of market share. Therefore, marketing an android phone in Australia is likely to be easy. The PEST analysis of the country is quite promising for the Sony Android phone. For Sony to succeed in the Australian market with the Xperia Active, a lot of aggressive marketing will have to be done the company should seek a marketing mix that suits the country, especially with its product. In addition, the segmenting and targeting of the product should be quite well planned to achieve its goal of being the market leader in the active lifestyle category using the Xperia Active. The company has targeted those with an active lifestyle, especially the farmers, miners and those involved in fitness programs. The marketing mix, the 4Ps are well targeted to this class. The phone is designed to withstand harsh conditions. The place for marketing the product is mobile network providers and supermarkets, where all consumers can have access. The company should contemplate using a market penetration price or competitive pricing for the product. In addition, the promotion should be quite aggressive in the media, Internet and other places. Evaluation of the plan should happen after every 3 months to ensure objectives are going to be achieved or whether there will be need for another strategy. In addition, the implementation of the plan is to be done well to ensure consumer awareness objective is achieved in order to drive sales.
 

Table of content

Introduction ……………………………………………………………………. 3

Goals and Objectives…………………………………………………………… 4

Target Markets and Segmentation …………………………………………… 5

Marketing Mix Strategy …………………………………………………….…. 6

1. Product Strategy………………………………………………………..… 7
2. Place Strategy ………………………………………………………..….. 7
3. Price Strategy……………………………………………………………… 8
4. Promotion Strategy ……………………………………………..……….. 9

Evaluation and Control ………………………………………………………. 10

Implementation and Action Plan …………………………………………….. 10

Conclusion and Recommendation …………………………………………………………. 13

References …………………………………………………………………..….14

 

 

 

 

The New Smart Phone Marketing Plan in the Sony Mobile

Introduction

For the last ten years, Sony in partnership with Ericsson  company have been in the mobile handset industry, making successful phone brands such as Walkman, music phones, and cyber shots, camera phones, that have marketed well. Recently, Sony Ericsson has just as its competitors entered the Smartphone industry, which has gotten a lot of attention. The company embraced the Android operating system with its Xperia brand to capture the Smartphone market. Some of its Xperia have done quite well in several markets, including Australia, which is the focus of this study. Currently, the company is undergoing tremendous changes considering it has already bought out its partner, Ericsson, to become Sony Mobile communications.

One of their current cheap Smartphone available in Australia is the Xperia Active, which is designed to withstand harsh conditions of weather such as resistance to water and dust. This would be ideal for people working in a mine where dust is likely to be in plenty. One of the strengths of the product is its design, which is designed to fit the Australian weather that allows people to be in the outdoors almost the whole year. Its opportunities come from the people in an active lifestyle interested in having a good phone that can resist the harsh conditions of outdoor. Its weaknesses come from the reduce market share of the company, and the newly strategy made, whether Sony has fully bought the Ericsson half in mobile industry. Before the company fully adjusts, this can be considered a weakness. Threats for this product come from the competitors, especially the Motorola Defy, which has the same features and other cheap Android phones.

The political conditions of Australia are ideal for this product, considering it is stable, and allows foreign companies to engage in business without much restriction. The political arena of Australia seeks to attract foreign companies to invest in their. The economic status of the country is promising for this product, considering the low income earners earn between $10,000 and $20, 000. Therefore, they are likely to afford the phone. The technological aspect affecting this product is the availability of networks in the rural areas where much of the sales shall be targeted. Technologically, the country is advanced, thus, there is networks everywhere to offer services to those who buy the product. Finally, the social factors likely to affect the product are lifestyle, which is infact ideal for this product. Designed for active lifestyle people means those involved in manual work can find the product ideal for their social lifestyle. In addition, considering Australians will spend much time outdoors to their weather conditions, the product is ideal.

Goals and Objectives

The goal of this marketing plan is to introduce the Sony Xperia Active phone in the Australian market and make it the leader in this category of phones designed for an active lifestyle. Currently, many consumers are interested in having phones that can suite their activities. The plan aims at selling this product to the low-end users especially the farmers and miners. The other goal is to position its products as the most quality in the market.

One if the objective is to capture 55% of this market to become the leader within the next twelve months after its introduction. In overall market, the plan aims at capturing 15% of the Australian market with the Xperia brand in the next one year.

The other objective is to reach out its marketing to 80% of the Australian market through the various marketing strategies.

 

 

 

Target Markets and Segmentation

The Sony Xperia Active is a phone designed to withstand rough conditions such as falling, water resistant and dust resistance as well. The phone is also equipped with a study rubber lanyard and holder for an armband when in active activities such as jogging (Zlatanov, 2011). In addition, the phone is equipped with a fitness application for monitoring the heart rate. The Xperia Active also comes in as a Smartphone, equipped with the Android operating system Considering the Australian weather conditions that are ideal for outdoor activities such as swimming, mining and farming, a phone with capabilities to withstand rough conditions is very important. The phone is designed to survive in a wet and dusty environment, as well as few hardy enough not to break when dropped. Considering these conditions that Australians have to go through, the Sony Xperia finds its need here quite well. This is the main benefit to be identified with the phone. Users of the phone can be able to operate it even with wet fingers to scroll the touch screen and even in dusty environments to take pictures (Hooley, Saunders & Piercy, 2004).

This phone is likely to appeal to the lower income earners interested in owning a Smartphone that is guaranteed to suite their needs, as well as fit their environments. This phone is targeted to those working in outdoor environments such as mining and farming where they are likely to been exposed to water and dust among other issues such as dropping the phone. In addition, it is targeted to those involved in sports activities such as jogging where the phone is equipped with an armband holder. In addition, considering it can be targeted to middle age class, who are likely to be less concerned with complex operating systems, but also interested in having a Smartphone. However, the marketing plan does not only target people at this class considering its added features such as the fitness application, entertainment and games. Thus, the marketing plan aims at capturing people involved in an active lifestyle.

Competition for this product is likely to come from Motorola’s phone known as Motorola Defy, which is designed to withstand harsher conditions in the outdoor. It uses the same operating systems as the Xperia Active, and other features such as music layer, radio, and a camera, qualifying it as Smartphone, just as the Sony mobile Xperia Active (Ziegler, 2010). Motorola Defy was launched around 2010, thus it has already captures a wide market internationally as well as in Australia. Sony mobile communication will need an aggressive marketing strategy to beat the Motorola Defy. Although the targeted market share of this product is not yet announced, it also happens to be quite unpredictable. Other Smartphone brands such as apple, Samsung, HTC, and Huawei have already acquired significant market share in Australian market. Sony has significantly a lower market, and capturing the market to be among leaders will require time. Despite Sony mobile targeting the active lifestyle people, not many may be willing to do away with devices they already love. Therefore, it will require a very aggressive marketing team and strategy to push the product to the market.

Marketing Mix Strategy

Marketing mix strategy is one of the most important tools in any company, since it determines selling of the products (Irsic, 2004). Marketing mix strategy ensures that the company products are well known in the market and people are willing to buy them. Sony has been in marketing for quite a long time as a corporate company. However, to market the Sony Xperia Active that is faced by competition, there is need of a good marketing mix strategy, focusing on the four Ps, product, place, price and promotion.

 

Product Strategy

Xperia Active as described earlier is designed to suit an active lifestyle. The design is attractive, with different colors for consumers to choose. More so, the phone comes with a differentiation from other smart phones, considering it is equipped with an armband holder for securing the phone while one is engaging in active activities. Having different colors has been a Sony corporate strategy, where it seeks to give people products with different colors. The product is differentiated from others by the inclusion of a fitness application that monitors activity of the users. In the packaging, other products and enhancements are provided such as earphones with hooks, rubber wrist strap and an arm case for holding the phone on the arm to monitor the heart rate. Moreover, it can be used under any weather, whether wet or dusty, as well as I places likely to drop. In addition, the product does offer customers what they want. The need is a phone that can withstand water, dust and shock, suiting people leading an active lifestyle, in this case being farmers and miners. The strategy is to offer a product that guarantees protection from the actors likely to ruin it, such as water, which is the worst enemy of electronics. The product is positioned as a low-end product considering it offers the basic utilities of a phone, and extra functions from the Android operating systems. Its innovative technology is at average, for the low income to afford.

Place Strategy

For marketing to be effective, it has to avail the products to the people in the most convenient way possible. The marketing strategy should consider the places where people are likely to look for the product (jpkc.tjpu.edu.cn, 2007). For the Xperia Active to sell well, the product has to provided to areas where there are more people leading an active lifestyle. The most targeted people with this phone are the miners and farmers, as well as people engaging in fitness activities occasionally. However, Sony should also consider what competitors are doing to push their products to the market. Currently, in Australia, Telstra is one of the most preferred mobile networks, and many customers tend to buy their phones from them. There is high level of trust for the mobile network providers, thus, Sony should consider marketing this product through availing it in the mobile network providers’ retail shop to capture their customers as well. Distributing directly to the customers may also be an option, but more marketing has to be done. In addition, this will be more expensive since the company has to provide several retail centers to reach the consumer. Thus, distributing through the mobile networks is a preferred option. In addition, the mobile networks have retail shops in many places easily accessible. To target the people in the rural areas, provision stores and supermarkets can be used considering farmers and miners may not travel to town all the time.

Price Strategy

Price of any product is the amount of money the customers have to pay to get the product. Pricing is one of the most challenging tasks, and several strategies are available depending on the nature of the product (Ferrell & Hartline, 2011). For the Xperia Active, it can be considered an average innovative technology, which is new to the market. For technological devices that are new to the markets, the producers mostly use price skimming depending on the market and the target. However, for Xperia Active, there is another competitor offering close substitution, thus, price skimming would not be ideal. In addition, considering competition and that Sony are late in introducing such a product, it should consider either competitive pricing, or penetration pricing. Competitive pricing is ideal when the products are the same with other competitors. Sony could price the Xperia Active at the lower price. In addition, this would be ideal considering it is targeting the low-end users or low-income earners. Another price strategy to consider is price penetration, designed to enter the market and capture a big market share. Again, this could be ideal, positioning a good product at a low price to attract many customers. Sony can use this as a strategy to get a big share of the market for other of its products in the future.

Promotion Strategy

Marketing promotion can be defined as the process of affecting the behavior of customers in order to make a purchase (Rust, Lemon, Zeithaml, 2004). It mainly includes three areas, advertising, public relations, and sales promotion. In the past, Sony has been aggressive in promotion of its products, making use of the three strategies in promotion. Looking at the first one, Sony does a lot of advertising in the television, internet and newspapers. Considering it is targeting people in the rural and mining areas, mode of communication used to consider what such people would be relying on for information. Television is ideal considering they will watch television after their work. Thus, television advertising should be placed I the evening hours, when the targeted consumers are watching. In addition, it should be targeted during the popular programs such as sports and series, which many will be watching. In radio advertisement, it should be considered that farmers and miners could be listening to small radios during the day, thus, advertising can be placed during the day. I addition, internet can be used for advertising to those who are into sports and fitness, who are looking for information on devices compatible with their lifestyle. In addition to this, the company should use a push strategy by packaging design that includes several sales promotion items, trade shows to encourage demand from retailers, and direct selling to customers at their showrooms and face to face where possible. Sales promotions will be ideal considering the product is at introduction level (Belch & Belch, 2009).

 

Evaluation and Control

Considering the objective of this marketing plan is to capture 50% of the active lifestyle people as well as low end, evaluation of the marketing plan can be done using several metrics. One of them, which are the most common or easiest, is monitoring the sales increase of the product. The main aim of marketing is to realize sale increase (articlesbase.com, 2008). The number of units of the phone sold should be monitored after every three months. If sales are not increasing, then the strategy is not effective. Thus, increase of sales will indicate effectiveness of the plan. Monitoring of sales should also include where most sales are made to determine whether the targeted consumers are reached.

The other metric that can be used for monitoring the effectiveness of the plan is monitoring feedback and inquiries from customers. This can be done through aliasing with the retail point, where the company should collect information about the number of people enquiring about the product. In addition, this can be evaluated through the market by monitoring the search engines on the frequency of searches about the product. In addition, feedback and surveys can be collected randomly at the targeted market to find out how many people are aware of the products. Their perception towards the company and the product should also be included to find out whether positioning of the product was successful (Pšunder, 1998).

Implementation and Action Plan

The first thing before the product is launched is hiring and training needed staff in June, one month prior to launching for the product. The hired staff should include sales persons and marketing managers in various regions as well as promoters such as prominent people with influence on the people. The team should be trained on operating the phone to help the customers with their inquiries. The next step is launching of the product in July, which should be done publicly in open forums where consumers can interact with the staff to learn more about the product. This can be done in conference centers and using open field especially for the rural areas. This should be done by the executives of Sony in Australia. It should be done in several parts of the countries for about a month in order to cover all the targeted areas.

Advertising in ABC and CBAA Televisions should start running in the same month of launching to create awareness. It should continue for three months, and restart in ABC again in January to February and April in CBAA television. Radio advertising should start the month of launching in Blue Danube radio until for three months and restart in January to February. Newspaper advertising will be the same time as the radio. Advertisement in the company’s website should run throughout the marketing plan to continue offering information to all that might have any questions. Sales promotion should start with the launching to attract as many customers as possible. It should include free enhancements such as earphones and wrist strips and free additional memory of 2GB. Distribution should be done through the mobile network providers in the countries since many people buy their phones from them. This is where most of the customers are likely to look for the phone. Supermarket should also be used as distribution channels where customers without close access to mobile network provider retail shops can go. Finally, evaluation should be done every six months by the marketing and sales team as well as the other departments involved.

 

 

Gantt Chart on Market Plan Implementation

product launching

hiring staff

TV advertising

ABC Television

CBAA television

radio advertising

Blue Danube Radio

News paper ads

the Australian

Sony website

Sales promotion

packaging items

additional memory

distribution

network providers

supermarkets

Sony showrooms

evaluation

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

January

February

March

April

May

 

Conclusion and Recommendation

From the research conducted concerning the environment of Australia, the Xperia Active should have a very aggressive marketing strategy considering it shall be trying to regain its market share that the company has lost for the past decade under the partnership with Ericsson. Therefore, the marketing strategy should not only aim to capture the low end market with the Xperia Active, but should also seek to use it to capture market for the whole product line of the Xperia smart phones. I would recommend that Sony use this strategy as a penetration to the Australian market for its other products, especially the phone industry. Considering the Smartphone industry, Sony mobile should seek to improve its Android smart phones considering this is the market leader in Australia, and its future is quite bright. However, they could also use other operating systems such as the windows for those customers interested in other operating systems.

References

articlesbase.com. (2008). Measuring the Effectiveness of Your Advertising Campaign. Retrieved from http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/measuring-the-effectiveness-of-your-advertising-campaign-564280.html

Belch, G. E., & Belch, M. A. (2009). Advertising and promotion: An integrated marketing communications perspective. Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Ferrell, O.C. & Hartline, M.D. (2011). Marketing Strategy. New York, NY: Cengage Learning.

Hooley, G. J., Saunders, J. A., & Piercy, N. (2004). Marketing strategy and competitive positioning. Harlow, England: Prentice Hall Financial Times.

Irsic M. (2004). The influence of factors determining relationship between organizations and their strategic suppliers on the frequency of implementations of purchasing marketing strategies. Management, 9, 2, 1-33.

jpkc.tjpu.edu.cn. (2007). Marketing Mix Strategy. Retrieved from http://jpkc.tjpu.edu.cn/2007/gjmysw/ckwx/Marketing%20mix%20strategy.pdf

Pšunder, I. (1998). Implementation of strategies in projects. Project Management, 4: 93-95.

Rust, R. T., Lemon, K. N., & Zeithaml, V. A. (2004). Return on Marketing: Using Customer Equity to Focus Marketing Strategy. Journal of Marketing, 68 (1): 109.

Ziegler, C. (2010). Motorola Defy review. Retrieved from http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/18/motorola-defy-review/

Zlatanov, H. (2011). Sony Ericsson Xperia active review: The Rainmaker. Retrieved from http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_xperia_active_review-review-671p2.php

 

Corporate governance

Question one

Good governance is achieved by implementing certain strategies. The most important strategy is setting goals. These goals must be realistic and in accordance to the company. The company must also have principle. They govern the conduct of the corporate members and what they are required to do. Some of the principles are accountability, integrity, honesty and transparency among others. The leaders in the top management should be effective. This can be achieved by appointing only those who are qualified. Top management should be exemplary to the rest of the corporate members. For example, top managers should practice the principles and others will emulate (Monks & Minow, 21).

Corporate governance is enforced by the board of the organization. The board has overall management of the organization. The board is elected and given the authority to govern a company or organization. It acts according to the powers and duties it has been given. The rest of the managers are chosen by the board of directors. The board has the power to make decisions and implement them. They preside over appointment of important people like chief executive officers (Tricker, 34).

Australia relies on good principles of management. Proper management is successful if the business entity has the right personnel in all management procedures. Company law requires organizations and companies to be headed by board of directors. This is to ensure the company is not managed by a single person with selfish interests. It protects the rights of other members. Some company issues are difficult and need a group of people to solve them. This is why Australian company law requires a company to be run by the board. A board has a number of directors. They are many to ensure good decisions are made. When several intelligent people work together, they will come up with brilliant ideas and decisions (Harvard business school, 57).

The board of directors has many roles in a company. The major one is formulating policies and objectives for the company. These policies are used to ensure discipline and direct member on their duties. Objectives are determined by the board hence they formulate them. It also has to determine the values, vision and mission of the company. The board appoints chief executive officer and evaluates his or her performance. Other roles include making SWOT analysis of the company. It helps them to reduce threats and weakness and capitalize on strengths and opportunities (Kim & John, 5).

The value of the board to the company is ensuring it is running smoothly. Shareholders appoint the board to manage the company on their behalf. Therefore, the board adds value by improving management. Shareholders ensure all members are competent when they are appointed. Members of the board drive the company to its success my making the right decisions. An annual meeting is held to evaluate the performance of the board. If the shareholders would feel the board is incompetent, they have authority to appoint other members. It makes the board accountable and transparent (Harvard business school, 66).

The most appropriate way of promoting ethical decision-making is by having a professional code of ethics. It outlines how all members of the company should conduct themselves. Employees will make decisions according to the policies of the code. Code of ethics depends on nature of the organization. For example, hospitals will have a different code of ethics from a company with a different product. Defying policies of a code of ethics has repercussions. This is another factor, which will make employees to make responsible and ethical decisions. Professional code of ethics provides reference to the employees and management. It helps them to make quick decisions where necessary. Too much time can be wasted if they had to consult top management on every ethical dilemma.

A company can respect shareholders rights by allowing them to practice them. This can be done by communicating to them any relevant agenda. They should also be allowed to participate in the annual general meetings. From these meetings, they will make their own evaluations and conclusions, which is part of their rights. If they need to know any information about the company, they should be allowed to access. For instance, they may be interested to know about the financial position of the company. They should have access to the company’s financial statements (Tricker, 42).

The head of a board is the chairperson. Other directors with positions include the secretary, chief financial officer and chief operating officer. The secretary files documents for the minutes of meeting with shareholders. He writes the minutes and then files them for future reference. The treasurer presides over all financial activities in the company. He or she has power to intervene and investigate any financial malpractice. The board also approaches him or her in case of any misappropriation of funds. The operating officer has been given power to oversee daily operations. He can make necessary decisions involved in those daily operations. All board of director members have power to appoint and dismiss the CEO.

Individual directors and shareholders have powers in the company. Directors have the role of managing the company. Therefore, they have all power that pertains maintaining proper management. For example, directors can hire and fire any employee. They are also involved in making decisions on daily activities. The article of the company does not require a director to be a shareholder. Shareholders have power to appoint or demote members of the board. They are the actual owners of the company. They have power to make decisions, which they see fit for the company. Some decisions made by the directors have to be allowed by the shareholders. The article forbids a shareholder from being a director (Mallin, 78).

Power is divided among the board members and other directors for the interest of all stakeholders. Concentration of power may result to abuse of power. For instance, if power was only rested upon the board, it might misuse it. Power is also distributed for efficiency. It reduces bureaucracy in the line of authority. An operation officer does not have to consult the board of minor issues. He has the power to make such decisions since is he expected to be responsible. People find it confusing in differentiating powers of directors and shareholders. This is mainly experienced in making decisions.

The directors and managers can be sued in case of mismanagement, especially concerning funds. However, this method of discipline is not working. The vice of mismanagement is still on the increase and there is a rise in number of lawsuits. Shareholders are not liable for the acts of the business. For example, they cannot use their personal property to settle business debt. This can only happened if they signed a lawful contract with the company. There are problems associated with these limitations. The company incurs a loss if a director is sued for embezzling funds and he or she is bankrupt. The board is liable for the action of the company, which the shareholders are not liable. They are left to the board to solve them (Kim &John, 112).

 

Question two

            Conflict of interest takes place in all types of governance. It is likely to interrupt with making decisions and bring poor results. The outcome of these results is poor performance of a company. It happens when a personal interest affects the performance of duty. The top management and all other employees are required to avoid dealing, which will affect their performance negatively. Directors are expected to exercise power for the right intentions. It is common for the management to abuse their powers and use them for personal benefit. It becomes difficult when a director does something in good faith but the law considers it improper. The law expects actions of good faith should be done for lawful purposes.

Conflict of interest corresponds with business ethics. Internal stakeholders like employees and the rest of the management should be professional. This way they will not be involved in any unofficial activities, which will cause conflict of interest. No stakeholder is allowed to enjoy a personal benefit from the business or company. Companies should abide to the fiduciary principle. It states that employees are expected to be diligent and loyal to their work. Therefore, dishonest practices should be avoided (Tricker, 102).

The board of directors should determine the direction of the company. It should lead the company to greater achievements. This can be done by setting the values for other members to follow. The best way to enforce this is having the board practice them. The other employees will be obliged to follow. Develop good cultural practices for the company members. These practices will be followed by the future management. Board of directors should embrace corporate social responsibility practices. They are a good way of giving back to the community. Participating in community development is a good way of advertising the company. The people in the society are part of potential customers.

As the top management, the board should show concern to the welfare of all stakeholders. It should ensure good working conditions for the employees. Shareholders’ rights should also be observed. They are the owners of the company and contribute in providing capital for the company. Their rights should be observed and respected (Harvard business school, 123). The board should support the CEO as he undertakes his or her role. It will help the officer to manage the company effectively. Some board members tend to undermine the efforts of the CEO. This is a malpractice since may affect his or her performance. The board should seek all possible ways to motivate employees for better performance. They rely on employees’ performance so they should be motivated.

Performance of the board should be evaluated by the shareholders. They appoint or remove these directors. Shareholders should evaluate how the board is managing the company. This is by looking into the decisions they make. The board appoints the rest of the managers who take part in the management of the company. These managers and other employees should be competent. Shareholders should ensure this by checking their professional qualifications. It is a major contributing factor to the performance of employees. For instance, if an individual is not qualified, he or she will not be competent (Tricker, 121).

The policies, goals, values and mission of the company can be used to manage the board’s performance. Shareholders will use these components to evaluate whether the company is achieving them. Some of the decisions made by the board have to be confirmed by the shareholders. This is part of managing board’s performance (Harvard business school, 156). If the board is not performing well, the shareholders form a general meeting and elect other members. Poor performance of a company may result to its failure. This is why the board’s performance must be observed. The shareholders will also incur losses if the company performs poorly.

Company’s funds must be protected from embezzlement. There are endless cases of directors and other employees who have embezzled funds. The company incurs losses and cannot pay it debts. Funds must be protected to ensure the company remains a going concern. Every person who handles cheques and bank statements should be accountable for expenditure. Funds are vulnerable to those who handle them directly. This is why they should be followed up keenly. All the financial statements should be presented to the shareholders. Auditors should also be invited to very proper accounting of money. The most senior financial officer should handle the bank statements of the company. He or she should scrutinize closely with the accountant and detect any fraud cases. It will minimize chances of fraud to those who are bookkeepers. It is important for the company to have an insurance cover on losses. In case any loss of funds occurs, the insurance company will compensate (Mallin, 99).

Prices of products may have confidential information. This information should be disclosed only to the relevant people in the company. If such information leaks out it might be used by competitors. This is a disadvantage to the company because other rival companies will out do them. Employees who are expected to handle this information must be discreet and practice policies of privacy of company information. It is illegal for employees to violate privacy policies of a company. Privacy of price information is required when the management is determining the price of a product. After the price has been set, it is disclosed to the customers.

Transparency is derived from the concept of seeing through an object if there is light. This concept is also applied in governance. Transparency entails accounting for all actions used in governance. The board must be transparent to the shareholders. Transparency corresponds with responsible conduct since one has to give a record of actions. All companies with good governance are transparent to the public. This mainly happens when they are attracting investors. They have to present financial statements, which will be used in attracting investors. Transparency requires all internal stakeholders to engage in business ethics and make their actions visible (Kim & John, 71).

Transparency boosts confidence of customers and other external stakeholders to the company. For instance, if a company states the real time of making payments to its suppliers, it has to adhere to it. Since all people in the company are transparent, they will not be involved in fraud cases. This will benefit the company since it will not incur any losses. The company will continue to grow. Good governance highly depends on sensible thinking. All the decisions made must be thought through carefully. This is why there are several members in the board. When they combine their capabilities of thinking, they should come up with good decisions. Sensible decisions contribute to the growth of the company. They entail innovative ideas, which will help the company to be competitive in its industry. Companies must embrace a culture of good governance for the company to be successful (Mallin, 126).

Works cited

Harvard Business Review on Corporate Governance. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2000. Print.

Kim, Kenneth A, and John R. Nofsinger. Corporate Governance. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2007. Print.

Mallin, Chris A. Corporate Governance. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Print.

Monks, Robert A. G, and Nell Minow. Corporate Governance. Malden, Mass: Blackwell Pub, 2004. Print.

Tricker, R I. Corporate Governance: Principles, Policies, and Practices. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Effects of media

Media affects people at different degrees in society. Through media, the individuals are influenced to buy marketable products in the market. The major disapproval against media is its unethical twists and exploitation on the individuals. Media’s nature transforms and affects human behavior and beliefs. This causes great harm to consumers. It only focuses in marketing its products. It has offered individuals with news about the world with ease through television. Media enables people to have their own opinions about different subjects and be able to argue them. This results to individuals acquiring worldwide information and awareness. Media grants all individuals’ freedom of expressing their views on all matters. It has also enabled easy communication all over the world (Bryant & Thompson, 2002).

Media affects a great part in our everyday life. It influences our decisions, thoughts and beliefs. Advertisers influence people to become worldly spendthrifts. Some individuals are made to believe that they have to purchase more goods than usual to lead a great life. It provides ground for choice to the customers since people’s needs are different. Consumers have to put their vital needs first. Whatever choice individuals make, the sellers will always benefit. This is whether they choose to overspend or spend wisely. There are advertises involving both expensive and simple lifestyles whichever someone decides to choose.

Advertising may influence people to buy products they might not need by convincing them. This persuasive nature is so influential that customers can barely protect themselves from it. In their defense, the advertisers claim that customers cannot make a choice of buying something they will not need. They argue that people who think or say that do not respect customers choice and decisions. They claim most advertised goods do not have demand in the market and that there are products with greater demand that are not advertised. Therefore, advertising’s power is exaggerated. People are cynical and know little about advertising.

The best way of advertising a product is by fulfilling the actual human need other than creating one. There cannot be demand for a product without a need. Advertising only helps individuals to make a choice on what product to purchase. It does not influence a need. Some individuals consider advertising to be futile and a bad way of marketing a product. In this case, the individual is considered insulting since many things that used to be Insulting years ago are not anymore Example is the alcohol advertisements that may seem offensive to some people. Mostly, the product is never offensive, but the advertisement itself offends the people to gain attention.

Nonetheless, if a promotion fails to gain peoples attention it is the usual view of promotion specialist that does not excel. The individuals have a choice to overlook the insulting advertisements. Promoters are conscious of the many things considered unpleasant the public. In most cases, they strive to evade it. Advertising avoids stereotypes. Vast changes have taken place concerning this situation. Of late, promoters have turn out to be receptive to stereotyping people, since consumers enable their success in the market. Women are featured in advertisements and their images put on billboards. This is done so that there is equality between men and women.

Some people find marketing to be misleading. The advertisers, however, claim that if they lied to people then they would lose since the customers will lose interest in their product. The advertisers always strive to maintain honesty Advertising encourages the introduction of original and efficient products. It provides individuals with many options, maintains low prices, promotes competition, sponsors the media, encourages press liberty, and offer a way of broadcasting information for health and public matters and products. Though promotion is sometimes misused, it is the responsibility of advertisers and customers to guarantee that advertising is utilized wisely and sensibly (Espejo, 2010).

Advertising accompanied by regulations and ethics. Principles of high-quality taste should be taken in to consideration. Advertisers could make advertises that were unethical without breaching any regulations. The society may inflict its own informal ideas for such actions. However, advertisers declare to uphold great ethical principles and publicly responsible advertising actions today, their uncouth past actions trouble them. As it is, the stress to make a tough and pioneering notion is challenging. This makes the desire achieve fine taste and ethics irresistible. Ethical thought usually come last in the preparation of most advertisements (Turow & McAllister, 2009).

Due to earlier extremes and weakness, advertising is now a seriously synchronized career. Customers and government, can analyze, confirm, control and transform advertising. Federal bylaws of advertising enforce firm rules to advertisers. These laws are guarded by responsible institutions. The media also influences children greatly. When still young, children are unable to make a distinction between a dream and reality. They can easily believe to be true what might be a lie.  They cannot differentiate programs from advertisements and in most cases prefer the advertisements. As children grow, they are most exposed to media manipulation. With time, they may suspect dishonesty in advertisements. They then build a mentality in them that advertisements never tell the truth about products Inexperience makes children not to be able to avoid advertisements. This may prove to be dangerous to them since they are even unable to differentiate it from other programs.

Advertisers should be frank, moral and truthful when it comes to their products.  One way of advertising is making the customer anxious in buying the product. In this case, the consumer can only gain comfort through purchasing the product. Advertisements are important to the consumers since it creates awareness on products existing locally and in foreign countries

Advertising has a negative feature of increasing the cost of its products. This is because consumers sponsor the advertisements by paying high prices.

Advertising has a bad influence on the public when it provides wrong information. Advertisements involving smoking have made the society believe it okay to smoke. It has encouraged the belief that most people smoke. Some people who do not smoke may see the advertisement and feel that in order to fit in the society, they have to smoke and, therefore, start smoking. Advertising influences consumer’s feelings in the society and persuades them in believing that purchasing is the behavior of life. Advertisements that exhibit a lot of sexuality negatively influences the society. Greed is valued much due to advertisements Society has become unaware of public issues since they are concentrated on satisfying their needs. Individuals focus on making more money so that they can live luxurious lives. They desire material goods and want to grow richer every day (Bryant & Thompson, 2002).

The demand growths of goods and services enables faster economic grow. New ideas grow rapidly in the economy. Higher demand of a product leads to lower prices of the good in the market. Otherwise, advertisements are very costly, and it is believed that this leads to additional costs in the products prices. Advertisements make girls to want to be like the beautiful models they see in the media. This makes some of them to stop eating which is not healthy for them. Others become stressed for not resembling the models. Due to this, their self-esteem is lowered.

Advertisers carry out detailed market research and try to find the products weaknesses. They then advertise the products to be great to the public luring consumers to the product that may be harmful. This exposes the society to harmful products. They only consider themselves and strive to be successful at the expense of consumer’s safety. An example is the beauty products. They are usually sold making people believe that they will be beautiful but then they only end up being bleached. Eventually, advertising aim is to make consumers purchase their goods and they attain this by gaining knowledge about the people they aim to sell the product. After succeeding, they then exploit them taking advantage of their weaknesses.

It enables consumer’s choice of the products that are best for them. Advertising, mostly in independent states, permits an individual acquire knowledge concerning the different lifestyles and political options that exist. From this, they can voice their opinions and choose the ones they prefer. An example is candidates running for election in the US normally make advertisements stating their opponent’s advantages and disadvantages. This helps the Americans to weigh their options and make a choice on the candidates they prefer.

References

Bryant, J., & Thompson, S. (2002). Fundamentals of media effects. Boston, Mass: McGraw-Hill.

Espejo, R. (2010). Advertising. Detroit: Greenhaven Press.

Turow, J., & McAllister, M. P. (2009). The advertising and consumer culture reader. New York: Routledge.

Managing projects

Initial Public Offerings (IPO’s) are the first sale of stock to the public by a company. The main purpose of having IPO’s is to raise capital for expansion as well as becoming more open to being owned by a variety of public shareholders. Most IPO’s are usually managed by an investment-banking firm that oversees all the amendments, corrections and negotiations that would help a private company get the best share price. The benefits of going public include accessing more capital, attracting better management through liquid equity participation as well as creating other various financing opportunities for example convertible debts.

InterCat will require the full contribution of their employees in order to achieve the deadline set for 28 weeks. On the recommendation of the head of the finance department, they adopt the PERT/ CPM method of analyzing their IPO project I order to prioritize. The Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) is a statistical tool that is used to analyze and represent the tasks involved in a project. The Critical Path Method (CPM) however is an algorithm for scheduling a set of project activities. Using these two techniques, one can analyze, categorize and present all the activities of a project in a systematic manner in order to reduce costs and time taken to complete the project. Planning, scheduling and control are the basic functions within CPM. Focus is placed on the duration each activity takes with emphasis being placed on reducing the time taken to finish an activity. PERT / CPM techniques have the following advantages: they explicitly define and display all the elements and their relationships within the network. Two, the PERT/ CPM techniques facilitates identification of the shortest time needed to complete a certain task and the project as a whole. Third, PERT technique provides for the starting and finishing deadlines that may help a manager approximate his schedule. There are six steps common to PERT and CPM techniques, going in the following order. Defining the project including stating the activities as well as the tasks involved. Next, developing the relationships among the activities, placing them in the order in which they are to be executed. After that, the various network links are drawn in order to connect all the activities. Then, time and cost estimates are awarded to each activity. Lastly, the project manager uses the network to help plan, schedule, and monitor the project.

 

Project network diagrams are essentially flow charts showing the relationship between project elements. It is easy to read as it shows the sequence of activities as well as the links between each activity. Some of the methods most commonly used in CPM include crashing the critical path. This refers to the shortening of the duration of crucial paths by adding other resources. Therefore, the crash duration refers to the shortest possible time for which an activity can be scheduled. Fast tracking on the other hand, refers to the performing of more activities simultaneously. This will ensure faster completion of each task as well as greater levels of monitoring. Within the network diagram, some processes for instance appointment of the registrar  and the transfer agent have been subjected to the fast tracking principle that will see the simultaneous sourcing of theses two bodies.

The above network diagram shows the overall process of completing the IPO for InterCat Company. The estimated time for ensuring this project will be completed will be 51 weeks and 3 days. Before looking at the most important steps in this PERT chart, the most critical steps in the process of ensuring this IPO successfully pulls through are the following. One, the selection of syndicate underwriters is a vital step. The competence and experience of these underwriters will help InterCat get the best share price. Two, calculating the share price is also very important. A share price is the price of a single share of a stock floated by a company. Share prices are affected by future expectations. Therefore, existing information affects the price and changes it only at the disclosure of new information. Share prices are calculated by dividing the total value of fund’s holdings by the total number of shares outstanding. This is only for determining a share price for the day.

If the negotiation time for each of the syndicate members are increased from to three weeks, this would first, increase the duration taken to complete the project to 56 weeks and 3 days. This already disrupts the intended deadline. The most damaging consequences that this extension of negotiation has is the possibility that InterCat will miss out on the best share price that we set out to be timed approximately when the project is achieved. Increasing the negotiation time by a week will mean the possibility of acquiring a lower share price for InterCat.

Reduction of the time taken by the underwriters by a week is an advantage to InterCat as they can have more time to analyze the markets to properly identify the missing parts of their project and come up with a successful IPO. The efficiency of the underwriters means as InterCat, they have more time to re-evaluate their whole schedule and can revise any poorly scheduled activities. The SEC makes the regulations for trading in the stock exchanges. Therefore, it will dictate the rules, which InterCat must comply. The amendments by SEC having been increased by 2 and a half weeks means that the project manager must make haste in finishing and resubmitting the final version as it will require a couple more days for the agencies’ bureaucracy to process the application. This process must be awarded more time as it displays a poor formulation of the registration statement on the part of the team members.

The compliance with various laws is also quite similar to the SEC situation in that they are external influences to a company’s marketing resolutions. States’ requirements must be met and therefore, amendments cannot be hurried owing to their high priority and have to go the full length of four weeks, which is required for satisfactory changes to be made to the compliance laws. However, with proper interpretation of the laws, this duration can be reduced to two and a half weeks. Coupled with the accruing time lag in other succeeding activities, this change in duration will most certainly affect the timeline in a significant way. Working with worst-case scenarios is never the best as will be witnessed in the pressure that come with it.

The owners’ decision to reduce the duration taken to process the issuing of new stock down to twenty-two weeks is mainly due to the emerging of SoftSales that threatened to clinch a bigger part of their market share by planning to float their shares as well. This competition by a rival firm is the main reason for the increased resources. Meeting these new deadlines will require certain changes in the working schedule as well as the contribution by the project members. First, the working hours have to be increased. Typically, this may be done by introducing night shifts for the newly employed workers. In this way, the duration taken for finishing a particular activity can be reduced by up to half. The deadline that was previously set at 52 weeks can now be reduced to around 25 weeks in order to have a closer reach at the new deadline set at 22 weeks.

Termed as maneuvering the crash duration, this will be achieved by shifting more resources towards the completion of that activity. Crash duration will be significantly increased by this new change in deadlines. The increased resources that were previously availed to InterCat employees will be essential in fast tracking the IPO process too. The increased funding to the project by the clients, Janet and Gilbert can be used in the following ways in order to shorten each activity and achieve the proposed deadline. First, the new funds can be used to recruit new employees. High salaries are a potential source of motivation for employees and this is what will be required in order to beat the deadlines. Proper rewarding of team members will eliminate any potential distractions that crop up. The money can also be used to increase personnel that would be responsible for confirming the compliance with state laws. This influx of money and workers will definitely have the overall impact of fast forwarding the whole IPO process which will enable InterCat compete with SoftSales and come out on top. The project manager can also establish a clean, neat and organized working environment. This can significantly promote focus and increase productivity among the team members that will translate into more efficiency at completing tasks on time.

The hiccup on the part of SoftSales in organizing their documents gives InterCat an advantage in that they can afford to be more lenient in allocation the time duration for completing the project. This added time will be useful in the following processes, which need the most attention. The evaluation time for each syndicate can be increased to two full weeks. This is because the selection of an underwriter was previously three weeks but was reduced to one and a half weeks. This process will eventually determine the expertise with which the InterCat case is handled. Some investment banking firms are unscrupulous and may shortchange the client for example the one in InterCat’s case that also represented their competition, SoftSales.

Increased time on the schedule will allow the project team to engage in studying the effect that the preliminary prospectus had on the relevant buyers. The response gathered from issuing these prospectuses will have an influence on the calculation of the issue price and the drafting of the final prospectus. The increased time will also allow for an in-depth investigation into the most competent registrar as well as transfer agents that InterCat can afford. Between the times when institutional investors are exposed to the information that InterCat is going public up to the time the final prospectus is issued, quite a lot of information is disseminated. The project manager will need to factor in this new information to help in decision making at the later stages.

In conclusion, the whole process of making an initial public offering for InterCat has been optimized by the following key inclusions. One, the adoption of the PERT/ CPM method will ensure proper prioritization of activities as well as detailed breakdown of tasks into manageable proportions. The real-time handling of all the contingencies that popped up during the process for example increased resources and reduced deadlines have contributed to the project’s success.

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure

Companies in the US that communicate through E-mails or instant messages should keep and produce records of such information. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, introduced on December 1, 2006, were meant to solve e-discovery problems that existed. The organizations should know how to retrieve their data, fulfill data requirements and decide what records should not be searched. It applies to any company that is likely to be mixed up in proceedings in the Federal Court of the U.S. Companies lacking system that enable them to efficiently record, explore and recover emails faster at a low cost. In certain situations, companies that fail to present the records lose their court case (Gensler, 2007).

Email messages are good evidence in court since they can be stored and retrieved when necessary. Abidance with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure is a requirement when litigated in a federal court. Email and any other electronic information that can be stored comply with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure has a 99-Day Rule. This rule necessitates people facing court cases to decide the degree and ease of access of email and other electronic information within 99 days. Fulfilling the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in the given time may be hard. Therefore, email enables easy fulfillment of the policy preventing expensive federal court sanctions (Clermont, 2008).

Failure to provide information in court may be taken as a show of guilt and failure to fulfill specific target could result to serious fining. Rule 26 is particularly difficult. Though it has broadened the evidence provided in court and enabled wiser judgment, it involves many procedures and creates traps for gullible judges in court. Though rule 26 was employed to minimize amount of money spent on expert discovery, it relates to all imminent federal cases. It also puts in to place new ways to be followed in judging cases in a federal court.

Rule 26 has affected the detection of the lawyer’s evidence. Previously, courts believed evidence from an eyewitness was relied upon in coming to a conclusion. Lawyers could try as much as possible not to provide confidential information. In addition, eyewitnesses would avoid communicating with lawyers through emails. This was because the personal emails could be requested in court thus providing evidence. Rule 26 now clearly prohibits detection of specialist information, including interactions between specialists and lawyers (Gensler, 2007).

Tactics, final opinions, probable evident queries, and other relations are all guarded except if the information bases an opinion. Rule 26(a) (2) (B) necessitates people to grant information from the specialist they hold on to testify. Conversely, the rule also enables experts who are not employed to provide evidence in the case. Lawyers must reveal the issue of the witness’s probable statement and a review of the particulars and judgment to which the witness should give evidence.

Rule 26 simplifies the procedure of training a specialist and making specialist information. Worse still, they ensnare a careless lawyer into revealing private information that should be confidential. These drawbacks though can be handled and Rule 26 gives considerable benefits for people who utilize them. Rule 26 is not specific on the matter of confidentiality between two specialists. Supposing no specialist depends on information given by the other. The evidence that leads to judgments should come from the witness. However, this is not openly considered by Rule 26 (Clermont, 2008).

 

References

Clermont, Kevin M. (2008). Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Selected Other Procedural Provisions. Foundation Pr.

Gensler, S. S. (2007). Federal rules of civil procedure. Eagan, Minn: Thomson/West.

 

Title: Oedipus

Analysis of the play

This tragic play resides in the impeccable works of Sophocles who develops an interesting plot, brandishing an aspect of immorality. It brings the audience to the realization of King Oedipus’ folly intertwined with a series of life’s coincidences. Although unconscious of the effects of his acts on the turn out of prior event’s, king Oedipus is intrigued by the loophole that bars him from knowing the truth about his father’s death and is eager to unveil the mystery. Little does he know that it is at his own peril. Regrettably, he cannot reverse the hands of time. King Oedipus exiles himself from Corinth following oracle’s dictation. The play begins with an alert from Thebes concerning a plague that has befallen it. It then revolves around a cloud of confusion and contradiction since king Oedipus happens to have killed his real father, king  Laius, unknowingly at a place where “three roads meet” as noted in the play and he ends up fathering four children with his biological mother. This is undoubtedly incest, though the king is not guilty of the immoral deed per se but is somewhat ignorant enough to be entangled in such a predicament. He crosses the line when he curses his father’s murderer who, in the real sense, is none other than him. Might be that he brought to himself the absurd inevitability since he curses himself unknowingly when he rebukes his father’s murderer. He does not get a hunch of the clues at his premise. He is informed that his father was killed in old age just as old as the old man he murdered on his way to Thebes. The exact point he terminated the old man’s life is identical to the place his father was killed. Despite this, he still clings to some doubt and disregards the oracle and the seer’s message, which could have sufficiently fed his curiosity. The play, therefore, creates a slot of paradox whereby king Oedipus has evidence to see but is still blind. His misfortunes force him to leave, “exiled by his own decree” (p. 52) and his wife cum mother, Jocasta, upon realizing the truth, takes away her own life in the end. The two appear to have been commanding destiny despite the fact that it had power over them. Their ignorance takes its toll on both of them. The series of events in the play as it commences have the audience anxious as the truth gradually unravels.

Oedipus’ actions

Free will dictates independent decision-making. Oedipus makes a decision to defy the supernatural beings that present his life and he faces the punishment of doing this. The accounts reflecting the destroyed life of king Oedipus provide an analytical basis for the audience to determine the major reasons behind the bizarre outcomes of events. Sophocles communicates the setbacks attached to the choices people make. Therefore, there is a scope for arguing whether Oedipus’ actions are free will or fate.

Free will

King Oedipus is developed in the play as a man who barely knows his origin and biological parents. It is also clear that he “suffers” a memory lapse when he is unable to recall the incident adequately at the confluence of roads where he kills an old man. Coincidentally, through the turn out of events, the old man happens to be the real father, king Laius. The entire spoken evidence is right in front of his eyes, but he is chooses not to see it. The prophet, Teiresias, refers to the king as man with sight but cannot see. Oedipus is unable to come out of his cocoon to be finally enlightened with details of his life. He does not want to believe what the prophet tells him. Both the oracle and the prophet foretell that Oedipus will get rid of his father and get married his mother. He ignores such implications and is even disgusted by the thought. He is brought out as one running away from his own responsibility and destiny. King Oedipus is ignorant and not cautious enough to speculate about his life. A factor presents a bleak future for him. He is obviously on a precarious situation because of his own doing. The idea of marrying his own mother, Jocasta, raises a major question; why did he marry an elderly woman who is just the age of his mother. On logical grounds, it would have paid off if he did some investigation. Nevertheless, he clearly has no time for the past which comes back to ruin his present. Presumably, he knows of the risk. All his actions follow his uninformed choices he makes out of taking the relevant clues for granted. He gorges out his eyes and exiles himself when everything clearly dawns on him. His idea of gorging out his eyes might be because he bitterly regrets his metaphoric blindness earlier in the play. Tierias’ prophecy is also fulfilled at this point. The irony is that he becomes blind when he finally sees the truth. However, Oedipus is not entirely responsible for his actions.

Fate

Fate refers to the natural source that determines the outcome of events. In Oedipus rex, inevitable actions unfold. The tragic life story of king Oedipus could also have been ordained by fate. Thebes faces a threat of destruction if the culprit to king Liaus murder does not come forth. Oedipus’ actions are prophesied earlier in the play and are expected to take place later as the climax is approached. His parents ordered him to be killed after finding out from the oracle that he is to kill his father and marry his mother. Fate manifests itself as he resists death and is still alive, contrary to the order and emerges a king as his birth father.  Oedipus does not know his real parents and finding out the truth about them at his age might have taken its toll on him considering the emotional impact. He attempts to change the course of his life, but it is futile. It can be assumed that the actions he takes are meant to happen in the end since it is already prophesied by the seer. He does not decide to kill his father, but it happens out of mere coincidence just as any other person would drive along that road. He is on his own mission, which is leaving Corinth to go back to Thebes. The oracle appears to be the main determinant of fate, followed by Tiresias’ prophecy. It caused Oedipus’ send off to Corinth where he became prince, his encounter with the oracle again, his journey back to Thebes, the accident of killing his father and the result of fathering four children with his mother. The plague in Thebes is also aligned with fate since the reason behind it was the unawareness of the demise of their former king, Liaus, killed by Oedipus himself. Towards the end of the play, Oedipus curses himself and fate, which indicates the weight of fate as a theme in the play. Everything that was earlier predetermined has happened.

Conclusion

Therefore, question in Oedipus Rex over whether Oedipus’s actions are determined by fate, or free will is significant. Both aspects are usable in understanding of complex outcome. If it was not for fate, king Oedipus’ parents would not have had it in their mind to kill their own son in the first place and prior to that, the oracle could not have foretold what Oedipus would have done. The idea of fate through the play is more solid than freewill since fate is the genesis of sequence of events that spring out. Oedipus actions might have triggered the consequences he is facing. In as much as Oedipus possesses a degree of pride that makes him appear as ignorant, it would be unfair to blame him for his actions; he simply comes out as puppet led by fate in the tragedy.

 

 

 

Work cited

Sophocles and Paul Roche. The Oedipus Plays of Sophocles: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone. New York: New American Library, 1958. Print

Gillespie, Sheena, Tony Pipolo, and Terezinha Fonseca. Literature Across Cultures. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2008. Print.

Sophocles,, and R D. Dawe. Oedipus Rex. Stutgardiae: B.G. Teubner, 1996. Print.

Sophocles, , and Theodore H. Banks. Three Theban Plays: Antigone, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus. New York: Oxford University Press, 1956. Print.

 

 

 

 

Discrimination versus Diversity and Inclusion/ Managing Layoffs

Discrimination verses Diversity and Inclusion

Discrimination in business is whereby individuals are discriminated against because of their gender, disability, religion, ethnicity, just but to name a few. Diversity allows for different characters to mix and work together, while inclusion is the acceptance of an individual into a group. In this case, Debbie is a new HR manager for a distribution company and she tries to advocate for diversity and inclusion in all departments in the company, for greater productivity.

Hiring diverse staff in a business has positive effects in that, allows for new ideas, perspectives and views. It also allows for new talents. This hence improves on business productivity and performance. In the Ship ‘Em Distribution company, Harry’s department has the lowest productivity compared to the other departments which do not discriminate on employee hiring. In The Future of Diversity and the Work Ahead of Us, Harris Sussman says, “Diversity is many things – a bridge between organizational life and the reality of people’s lives, building corporate capability, the framework for interrelationships between people, a learning exchange”

Debbie uses the participative strategy in solving the discriminatory situation. This strategy involves everyone who would be affected by anticipated changes. Experts can also be used. She comes up with three charts, which support her argument that discrimination lowers productivity. Her strategy is to create turnover rate criteria, which would hold managers accountable for low turnover in their departments. She would also form a Diversity Committee, which would introduce employee relation activities to improve employee relationship.

The strategy used is a good approach as it improves in the overall productivity of the business. The turnover rate criteria would ensure that managers are diverse in hiring employees, in order to get a high turnover, as they are held accountable. As Harry’s department is the lowest in productivity and turnover, he would have to be diverse in hiring in order for the department to improve. Employee relation activities would improve on how the employees relate to each other and hence work together better.

Harry should not be allowed to continue with the approach, even if his department would have performed best. This is because one of the company’s policies prohibits discrimination and further states on its website that it complies with all laws. Harry’s behavior would reflect a bad image of the company and its policies. The company could also lose its trust with clients as it does not apply its policies or meet to its word. This could also affect the employees take on the company’s policies, on the basis that there is unequal treatment, on complying of the policies.

The company should use an affirmative action approach, where a quota or percentage of positions is allocated to women and minorities. This would ensure equal opportunities for minority and women in the company. Harry would react negatively to this approach, and he could be biased in his treatment on the group. Those hired might be given a negative treatment by other employees on the basis that they are not qualified for their jobs. Employees could be educated on affirmative actions approach, in order to reduce the perceptions. Conducting regular, organizational appraisals on pay, promotional opportunities and benefits, could be used as a way of integrating the values of diversity and inclusion into a company. Recruitment, orientation, benefits and compensation should be offered equally to all employees and the public.

Managing Layoffs

If the company wants the fastest, easiest way, it should use the first hire, last hire approach. If the company has a high percentage of employees with a lot of tenure, it should use the rating approach in order to keep the best workers. This is because it assesses the performance of employees with their years of service. If the company wants a minimal impact on morale and conductivity, it should use the Voluntary Early Retirement or Voluntary Layoff. If the company wants to take advantage of tax breaks or write-offs and the end of the fiscal year is fast approaching, it should use the lump sum payout strategy. If the company wants to avoid paying unemployment as much as possible and stop severance if the employee gets a job, it should use the Salary Continuation payout strategy.

Pros and Cons of the Communication strategy

The pros of the shack approach are that the company would have to deal with the questions of the employees, as to why they are the ones being discontinued. It also saves on time that the company could have taken on the meetings with employees. The cons are; the employees could sue the company, they could form riots and lastly it could reduce the morale of the remaining employees. The pros of the communication strategy, where the HR meets with affected members and the managers meet with there are; the company is able to avoid legal risks and maintain trust with the remaining employees. The cons are that the employees could create chaos in the process of the meetings.

 

 

 

 

Work Cited:

Judith, Lindenberger and Marian, Stoltz-Loike. “Diversity in the Work Place” n.p. n.d. Web. 9 May 2012.

Wilson, Latoya, “The Stigma and Unintended Consequences of Affirmative Action in the Workplace” Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 4. (2005). Web. 9 May 2012.

Desire to Change

Introduction

Kristen Photakis is a CEO in a rural hospital. Her complains are that the employees do not participate in company strategies and changes. Her friend, a healthcare consultant advises her on where she goes wrong in implementing strategies. A strategy is necessary in order for successful completion of goals. It can also be used to overcome change resistance.

Discussion

The consultant is right on that; employees should be involved in developing company strategies and work plans and one should not set too many goals, based on workloads.

A strategy shows the long-term actions that the institution will in achieving its objectives. There are two elements of a strategy, which are, vision and mission. Vision is the future that an institution desires to attain for both staff and users. Mission is the justification for the institution in the eyes of the users. It explains the institution services on the users. In developing a strategic plan, one must first identify a need and then determine how to meet the need.

One should determine the mission with regards on the internal and external users. This should be done using the affinity technique. An affinity technique involves consensus building that involves community members and staff. It allows for the organization of a large number of ideas, without conflict and struggle of power. It also involves the community in quality improvement issues. On this basis, the consultant was right in advising Kristen to involve her staff when coming up with strategies. The technique is also used to analyze the causes of a problem. Kristen could also use this technique, to know why the employees respond poorly to the strategies.

One should analyze the weak and strong points of the institution when coming up with a strategic plan. This can be done using force field technique or the SWOT analysis. This technique is based on the theory that change results from a struggle of forces that impede change and forces that favor change. Through this, one can decide on the best courses of action, based on its strong driving forces and least resistance. Kristen should involve the employees in coming up with a strategy, in order to identify the weak and strong points of the organization. In this, she would be able to know why the employees do not participate in the strategic plan and come up with a different strategy.

The strategies should be well laid and determined, by analyzing how viable they are technically, economically and politically. The consultant advices Kristen that the goals are too many, considering the work load of the employees and other commitments. She must come up with strategy objectives that can be achieved in terms of these three attributes. In achieving a strategy, one should assign responsibilities for achieving the objectives. This provides opportunity for involvement of employees and the lay out of work plans by the members in the institution.

Kristen should take several steps for effective, strategic planning. She must identify the key points as to why the employees are not developing or responding positively to the strategies. In this, she should involve the employees and strategy team members. She should clearly explain the goals of the institution, that is, the visions of the institution, the mission and the strategies. One of the challenges that Kristen faces is resistance to change by her employees. Some of the reasons for resistance of change are fear of the unknown, power loss or lack of motivation to change habits.

In achieving change, a change management process should be carried out. This involves three phases. These are preparing for change, reinforcing change and managing change. In preparing for change, she should; define her change management strategy, prepare her change management team and develop her sponsorship model. The second face is managing change, which she should do by developing change management plans and implementing plans. On the third face, of reinforcing change, she should; collect and analyze feedback, diagnose maps and manage resistance and implement corrective actions and celebrate successes.

Another component of change management is the readiness assessments. These are tools used by the management team, to determine the readiness of the employees to change. They can include organizational assessments, culture and history assessments, employee assessment, sponsor assessment and change assessment. These tools show change management team the challenges and opportunities it stands to face. Kristen should use this knowledge to assess the readiness of her employees to change.

The third component of change management is resistance management. The resistance management manages the resistance that may be incurred in instilling change. The fourth component of change management is data correction, feedback analysis and corrective action. This enables the organization to get feedback from employees on the change. Kristen should conduct this process to enable her to know her employees’ stand on the changes she wants to make. The fifth component is celebrating and recognizing success. This reinforces the changes in the organization and gives the employees motivation. In coming up with new strategies, Kristen should first acknowledge past successes of strategies by  the organization, individuals or groups in the organization.

Conclusion

Motivation is necessary in organizations as it helps in: the achievement of goals, gaining positive perspectives, creation of power for changing and management of individual development and helping others with theirs. Kristen should first determine the problem then work towards solving the issues that bar the development of strategies.

Reference:

MSH & UNICEF. (1998). The Guide to Managing for Quality. Retrieved from

http://erc.msh.org/quality/ittools/itbrnst3.cfm

Title: Risk Task

(a)Introduction

Risk can be defined as uncertainty of outcome and it can be either a threat or an opportunity within or without an organization. Since the Victorian Public Transport network as an organization, is embarking on a project, which includes replacing an old railway station with a new railway station, there are risks that are tagged to it. It is not assured of what might pop up during or after the process. The existing telecommunication services at the new railway station will need to be transitioned to the new railway station. This might be in the positive or negative aspect. The telecommunication infrastructure consists of 10 phone services to a dedicated PABX with the transport network, an IP connection to the NTS ticketing network, a connection, IP connection to a railway operator private network.Thus, risk should be identified analysed and responded to with immediate effect for the  construction of the project to thrive. This can be done by going through a detailed risk assessment process.

Discussion

(b)Project scope

The project has clearly outlined the endeavours of the Victorian public network transport in that it will reconstruct a new railway station and transition telecommunication services to it. It has therefore established strategies highlighting the direction of the project. However, it has failed to brainstorm on the barriers that might deter progression.

(c)Risk process

Risk identification

This involves brainstorming by the construction practitioners. Through a viable survey and related knowledge, they will be able to pinpoint major ideas from external environment of the organization. A risk event statement should be developed stating what might happen in the future or calculating the possible impact on the project. For instance, bad weather, high cost of construction equipment, incompatibility of IP connectors, poor phone services, meagre resources committed to the project and procurement problems, lack of suitable equipments or legal implications. All the findings are supposed to be recorded in a risk log.

Risk evaluation

This step involves the stakeholders of the Victorian Public Transport Network determining the probability of the outlined risks having an observable impact on the construction project. . A risk assessment informational log should be adopted to show the specific impact the risk could have on the budget scope and quality and whether a feasible plan can be enacted to counter or support it. The impact should be measured in terms of the overall time consumption of building the new railway station, whether the risk will affect the quality of the output in the organization and the competitive advantage it has compared to other transport networks. An examination on the cost of resources is also valid.

 

Risk response

After evaluation of the risks, the Victorian public transport network must undertake certain actions to sustain the process. Actions taken in response to the risks are recorded. The risk is terminated by doing things differently. For example, the Victoria public transport networks can source for compatible equipments can reschedule operations concerning the weather if necessary or can outsource for funds for more resources.

(d)Recommendation

The Victorian public transport network can also manage the risks through a third party and the project manager should ensure that the issue is identified, recorded in a systematic way, ownership is recorded, the impact is analysed and the issue is classified in an understandable manner.

 

 

 

Possibility of Existence and Necessity

Introduction

Thomas Aquinas argues that that God’s existence can be proven in five ways. In the third way, which this paper reconstructs, explains and criticizes, Aquinas argues that all things are capable of being in existence or not, suggesting that at one point they did not exist. He argues that existing things find their necessity to exist from others that have necessitated their existence. Eh reckons that, nothing can be both at the same time; thus, things are either existing or not existing. He goes ahead to put a claim that if everything is possible of not existing, at one time then, nothing existed. If this were true, nothing could have caused the existence of another, and nothing could be in existence even today, which cannot be true. Therefore, must have existed to cause the existence of other things, which people consider God. Reconstruction of his argument in the third way of proving existence of God is given below.

Reconstruction of Argument

 

1	When something exists, it cannot be out of existence. If something is not out of existence, it is therefore in existence. Therefore, something is there because it exists.	It is either A or B Not B   Therefore, A
2	Because things exist, something must have existed to cause their existence. Things exist because something existed before them. If everything is possible not to exists, then at one time nothing existed. If at one time nothing existed, then nothing could be in existence even today. Therefore, things are in existence because something must have existed before them, which guarantees their existence. Thus, C and D cannot be true.	If A, then B B C   If C, then D   Therefore, A
3	Things that do not exist start or derive their existence from existing things. Things already in existence derive their necessity of existence from other things that have been there before them. Therefore, for things to be in existence, something that begun existing before them must have caused their necessity. Therefore, B exists because A, which causes its necessity is I existence.	A causes B   B derives necessity from A Therefore, if B, A must be there
4	Any necessary thing whose necessity is caused by another cannot go to infinity since their cause could stop existing. If the cause of necessity stops existing, the necessary thing could stop existing too, thus, it cannot be infinitive. Thus, the resulting things cannot go to infinity since A determines their existence. Infinity things must have been in existence in the beginning.	If A then B   If B then C   Therefore A
5	If everything derives its necessity from another, nothing can derive its necessity from it itself. If nothing derives necessity for itself, then all things resulted from others in existence. Therefore, necessity of something is caused by something before them, which then cause necessity of other things after they are in existence.	If A then B   B   Therefore A

 

Explanations of Arguments

The first premise in argument 1 means that something already exists and it is there, there is not way it can be considered out of existence. The second premise means that if something is not in existence, it cannot be there. Thus, both in existence and out of existence cannot be present at the same time. Something is either existing or not existing. Both do not happen at the same time since they are both opposite of each other. Thus, something cannot be in existence while it does not exist. While something exists, it means it is there, and unless it is eliminated, it continues to exist. Both happen alternatively; thus, making this premise plausible.

The premise in the second argument suggests that things are in existence because something must have caused their existence. The second premise argues that something must have existed before, which must have made other things possible. Further, in the third premise of the same argument he suggests that if everything can be out of existence, then probably at one time there was nothing existing. If this was the case, there could have been nothing to cause the existence of another, which only means that nothing could be in existence even today. This premise would be true, but it only proves that something existed to cause the existence of others. The argument that everything is possible of non-existence would not be plausible since it would mean nothing would exist. Therefore, citing that this would be absurd suggests that it cannot be so, thus, something must have existed from the beginning that still exists. This argument is plausible on the basis that we exists, thus, something existed to cause our existence.

The first premise in the third argument states that things not in existence will derive their existence from the already existing things. This is plausible considering newborn exist because their parents existed before them, thus deriving their existence from them. Therefore, the same way, the parents derived their existence from those who existed before them. The argument suggests that things exist from the existence of others before them, meaning that something at the beginning must have been in existence to cause existence of others. This argument is plausible considering many things have come to be in existence after the earth was already there. For instance, human beings have not been in existence since the beginning of the world, thus, something must have caused their existence. The relationship in this argument is that something must be there for another to occur, which is true considering the example provided on existence of human being.

In the fourth argument, the premises provided try to explain that necessity of thins is caused by the things causing their existence. It suggests that something that derives its necessity from another cannot become infinitive. The reason that is provided by the premise is that the thing is not self-independent, thus, its cause must be present to ensure its existence. The reason something whose necessity is determined by another cannot be infinity is that if the thing causing its necessity stopped existing, it might as well stop existing. In addition, if something has not been present before, when it comes into existence, it must be caused by another thing, meaning it could not last forever if it has not lasted since beginning. Therefore, this argument is true in some part, while others may not be. For instance, considering animal that come into existence from others, those before them do not have to be in existence for them to exist.

The fifth and final argument explains that nothing can derive its own necessity for itself. Therefore, nothing can be said to come into existence out of its own necessity, since it would mean having existed before it existed, which does not make sense. The argument suggests that nothing started exist out of its own free will to exist. Therefore, there is a relationship between all the things in existence, where necessity is derived from already existing things for the new things. The argument is true considering that nothing exists alone without other things.

Criticism of the Argument

The first premise is right, and Aquinas makes no mistake by saying that existence and non-existence cannot be present at the same time, since they are inversely related, where only one can exists at one time. Many things come and go. In this argument he further says that anything that is possible of not to be does not exist at some time. This might be true, but considering some things such as the earth might render the argument untrue. The first argument is simple, and fails to give clarity on the issues it presents.

The second argument suggests that all things must have existed from other things. This is to mean that there must have been at one point when there was almost nothing in existence, except the main cause of the existence. The second argument makes a contradiction by citing that everything is capable of being out of existence, thus at one point nothing existed. Further, he emphasizes that all things are preceded by something that causes their existence. Thus, if this was true, how could anything ever exist? In this argument, Aquinas does not give a holistic argument to his claim.

On the premise that things derive their necessity from what caused their existence does not hold much sense considering something that came from something else could have a different life or existence of their own without deriving necessity from its cause. He has rather posed a general view that does not offer any details to support his account.

In the fourth argument, Aquinas argues that things deriving necessity of existence from others cannot go to infinity. This might be true, but it looks like things that cause other things still determine their existence, while the resulting things could be independent of the cause, and have their existence. Finally, the fifth argument suggests that nothing can derive its own necessity. This claim is not explained deeply, since it only suggests that things in existence cannot have their own necessity; rather, it is derived from others that were there before them.

Conclusion

Aquinas does pose very credible arguments as shown in the reconstructions with the aim of proving the existence of God. However, in this short passage, he does not show how his argument has proven the existence of God. Rather, he leaves it to the readers to get the answer from the argument provided, which is quite complicated. He only mentions God at the final sentence, to mean that all the descriptions on existence and necessity must have been caused by something that was in existence from the start.