Small business management (find attachment) Assignment

Small business management (find attachment) - Assignment Example For reason that it needs to monitor the customers’ marketing response to prove that indeed Mobile Plus Group Ltd., is a viable business endeavor. This feedback on how the market responds shall be used to evaluate the efficacy of the marketing effort and business structure that will cater to customer needs. Through feedback control, it will be able to identify which part of the business went according to plan or fell short of expectation and be able to apply remedial measures when required. II. Relevance of Selected Method of Control. Employing an effective control mechanism in Mobile Plus Group Ltd. will assure us that the performance of the business will go as planned. Through it, we will be able to measure actual performance and will also be able to apply corrective measures to ensure that the â€Å"business’s objectives and plans are being carried out† (Dixon, 2003). In determining the method of control to be employed, it is important to determine the objectiv e of a business at a given time. And to elect appropriate modality of control given the circumstances which in this case is the Feedback Control as the business is still in its introductory phase that needs to urgently capture enough market share to prove itself as a viable business entity. A. ... This will be aided by an effective Management Information System that will provide us with concrete data to analyze. Control will also be performed by soliciting written feedback from the customers through feedback form available in our outlet. C. How Control will be Effective The efficacy of monitoring actual sales versus target sales will give us an indication of the efficacy of our marketing drive and to validate our hypothesis about the market. If market performance fell short of expectation, we will be able to apply remedial measure to steer actual performance in the direction of planned performance. By soliciting the feedback of our customers, we will be able to determine which part of the business is doing well or fell short of expectation. As it is the vision of the company to leverage itself from the competition through customer service that is second to none, we will be able to determine if indeed our frontliner’s performance is in line with this vision and make nece ssary correction or retraining if actual performance fell short when compared to expectation. III. Risk Involved While there is a huge potential for our celphones having an 80 % market for them, we are not however without competition. This competition poses a risk to the business as customers have other alternatives to purchase their need for a handheld mobile device. There is also a direct competition with our products, meaning there are also other businesses selling the same product such as ours and priced competitively and could even be lower. Also, there is also a risk that the market may not respond to our marketing drive of providing them a celphone with two working SIM cards with a TV and game functionality. While this added functionality may provide them with convenience and

Re sit assessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Re sit assessment - Essay Example This issue can be resolved by an examination of the intention of the parties to the contract. Through the landmark case of Heilbut, Symons & Co v Buckleton,1 the House of Lords had established that whether or not a statement is a term of the contract shall be decided by employing the intention of the parties as the overall guide. This intention shall be ascertained under the four tests of timing, importance of the statement, reduction of terms to writing, and possession of special knowledge or skills. First, under the test of timing, the use of cream Welsh slate can be considered as a term of the contract if the reverend’s statement was made within a short interval of time from the writing of the contract. Otherwise, if there was a long lapse of time, then it is a mere representation and not part of the terms of the contract.2 The second test that could be used to determine the true intention of the parties is the importance of the statement. If the court determines that the s tatement was the principal reason for the aggrieved party to enter into the contract in question, then it is a term. Otherwise, if it was not the essential cause for the conclusion of the contract, then it is a mere representation. ... It is established that when a contract is reduced into writing, it contains all the stipulations agreed by the parties and all those not mentioned on paper are deemed not part of the contract. However this rule admits of some exceptions where statements were considered as part of the terms of the contract although they were omitted in the written contract.4 The final test for the intentions of the parties is the possession of special knowledge or skills. If the person who made the disputed statement has special knowledge or skills thus placing him in a better position to know the truth or validity of his claim than the other party, then the statement is a term of the contract. For example, between a veteran car dealer and a first-time car owner, the statements made by the former about the conditions of the car shall be considered as part of the terms of the contract.5 If after applying the foregoing tests it shall be found that the statement about the use of cream Welsh slate is a te rm of contract, it shall then be determined whether the term is one of condition or warranty. A condition is a key term of the contract which is important to its very existence while a warranty is a minor term which does not affect the main purpose for the contract. In addition, a breach of condition entitles the injured party to repudiate the contract and to claim damages6 while a breach of warranty only entitles the injured party to a claim for damages without the remedy of repudiation.7 Moreover, despite the breach of condition, the aggrieved party has the option to simply demand for damages and just proceed with the execution of the contract. Finally, a breach of condition gives rise to a remedy for

Macroeconomics Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Macroeconomics - Research Paper Example This in turn influences the supply of money in the market. b) TRUE: Increased competition in the product market could cause an increase in the equilibrium rate of unemployment. When there is increased competition, firms sell products. The reduction in selling prices forces firms to reduce their production cost through reduction of their labour requirements. Therefore increases level of unemployment. c) TRUE: Fiscal policy includes taxation and government expenditure. Investment is function of saving. Government can induce public spending through public investment. If the government investment is a constant figure, then the only option is to manipulate tax. In this situation the tax increase or decrease can only increase the government expenditure which is exogenous. Thus no effect on national saving. IS curve-It combines the equilibrium levels where the commodity market is at equilibrium. If interest rates go pup, then the gross domestic product (GDP) goes down. If interest rates go down, the level of GDP goes up .. Investment is function of saving. Government can induce public spending through public investment. If the government investment is a constant figure, then the only option is to manipulate tax. In this situation the tax increase or decrease can only increase the government expenditure which is exogenous. Thus no effect on national saving. I=f(s) Where I; investment and S is national saving. d) TRUE: Multiplier effect is the effect of a change in investment on income 'Y'. It was true that if consumption and investment are exogenous the Keynesian multiplier equals one Question three If there is an increase in deposits of bank reserves will lead to less money supply. IS curve-It combines the equilibrium levels where the commodity market is at equilibrium. If interest rates go pup, then the gross domestic product (GDP) goes down. If interest rates go down, the level of GDP goes up LM curve- it joins together combinations of the rate of interest and national income at which the monetary sector is at equilibrium. IS curve - Joins the combinations of rate of interest and levels of income at which the product market is at equilibrium. Factors that cause a shift in LM curve are a) Change in transaction demand for money b) Change in the speculative demand for money c) Change in the money supply An increase in money supply will shift the LM curve to the right. A decrease shifts the LM curve to the left. In our case where there is a decrease in money supply, we expect the LM curve shift to the left. In the short run Effects of decreased money supply. From the above graph, it is evident that the rate of interest goes up from ie to i1. The level of output also goes down from Ye to Yi. The inflation level also goes up due to an increase

Auguste Comte Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Auguste Comte - Research Paper Example Comte’s success in defining sociology from an all-embracive or universal perceptive provokes the frontiers of other branches of knowledge to accept it and utilize in various purposes. Due to these harmonious relations of sociology with other sciences, scholars were inspired to consider it as science and they began to consider human being as well as his society and culture as a subject matter of this branch of knowledge. According to Comte, the preamble of sociology is considered to be embedded in his Positive Philosophy, that is, Positivism. After theoretically reviewing all the origins of all sciences he comes to a conclusion that human knowledge about has gone along three different stages: theological, metaphysical and scientific. The later, according to Comte, is Positivism. Therefore it is evident that Comte’s Positivism involves the scientific exploration of human society and thus â€Å"sociology† emerges as a branch of human knowledge. In fact, the polysemu s connotation of the scientific exploration of society provokes him to use the term â€Å"positivism†. At the theological phase, the knowledge of society basically comes from how religion and religious beliefs tend to define it. This theological view is based on the dogmatic doctrine of religion that is devoid of any opposition unless another religious view comes up with a set of totally different dogmas. It defines man and society as the implementation of the will of God and the social rules and regulations are referenced to God. This view, in the first place, circumcises the scope of experimenting the validity of the religious doctrines of society under the blasphemous taboo. So according to Comte, it goes exclusively goes against the zeal of science. But the Enlightenment in Europe in the 19th Century challenged this superiority of religion to shape human and to determine the position of human

Comprehensive Education under re-evaluation Essay

Comprehensive Education under re-evaluation - Essay Example As a result, as is occurring across the western civilizations, the UK is experiencing significant decline when measuring the academic progress of its students. Specifics of the problem were discussed by Terry Hadyn in his essay on the death of comprehensive schools in England and Wales. He cites that although the comprehensive education system was established in 1965 with lofty ideals, the policy has failed to grow the desired fruit. Previous to the 1965 initiative, the country's secondary school system was divided. Students who were more suited for an academic career path were sent to Grammar schools, and those for whom an academic career did not seem suitable were sent to what was called a secondary modern school, or the equivalent of a trade school for apprenticeship, and transition into the lower class working social strata. (Haydn, 2004) However, since the passage of this educational policy, educators have come to realize much more about the educational needs of the children with which they have been entrusted. The modern educational system recognizes that children learn at different rates, just as they mature physically and emotionally at differing rates. Therefore putting children of different levels of educational abilities together, and expecting them to mutually benefit, as if by osmosis, is a policy that is coming to be understood as a bit short sighted. The children are not building social networks across the educational and social differences. Rather the opposite is occurring, and has been occurring increasingly over the past 15 years. The divide between the educational 'haves' and 'have - nots' is growing. The social order that is present outside the classroom is only becoming reinforced in the classroom. As a result, the more academically able children are being slowed down in their progress, and the less academically inclined are no more encouraged to make better progress. If anything, they are becoming resentful, along with their parents, at being bussed 25 miles or more in order to facilitate a quota system for the schools. At the same time comprehensive school policy was being put into place, influences blew across the educational ponds which included linking the educational institution to social trends. The school organization, as seemingly the single most influential element in the child's life, shifted its focus too. The social fabric of the family and close community was breaking down in the post war era. As a result schools picked up the responsibility to address cultural and social learning issues, in addition to their primary goal of creating educated and intelligent students. The result, as mentioned, was a steady decline in the educational quality as measured in academic progress of the student. The student was learning how to feel better, but not taught how to read better. In the UK, by mixing the more academically inclined with those who may prosper better in a trade school environment, educational policy makers expected to bridge socio-economic patterns. If the wealthier, more academically inclined students were allowed to co-exist in a school setting with lower income, more academically challenged students, the belief was that the barriers would be breached, and lower performing students would

Immigrant and Black Women Status in Workplace Term Paper

Immigrant and Black Women Status in Workplace - Term Paper Example Canada enacted flexible policies to allow a considerable number of immigrants to enter the country. The massive immigration brought in people with diversified cultures and ethnic backgrounds. The ethnic factions extended to the workplace. The immigrants and black women suffered the brunt of ethnic divisions in the labor force in Canada. Before industrial revolution, gender segregation was very high and it was women’s role to perform household chores only1. The black women did not get enough attention to secure jobs because the popular patriarchal ideologies in the workplace. Most of the work was a reserve for the masculine gender. However, things took a positive turn for women with advent of Industrial Revolution. The industries required varied skills in their operations. This paper seeks to analyze the status of immigrant and black women’s status in the workplace and their developments after industrialization in Canada. First, the report will endeavor to reveal the exp eriences that brought about the women’s desire to challenge their status in the workplace. Second, it will point out the process of their development after industrialization. Lastly, the paper will give its conclusion on black women’s developments in Canada2. Diverse cultural, legal, demographic, and ethno-racial influences shaped the history of women in the Canadian labor force. Like men, women in the industrial Canada contributed to their household and community economies through both paid and unpaid labor. However, cultural beliefs, social practices, and laws limited the material rewards. These practices subordinated women to men. The black married women could not sign labor contracts, own property or even claim their wages. The women who worked in the same type of work as their male counterparts earned lower wages than men did. The black women participated in heavy field labor that the Canadian natives could not work in. The immigrants faced a lot of discrimination and social prejudice from the employers’ suppressive policies. This made the employment status of the immigrant and black women uncertain3. During the late 1700s and early 1800s, the Industrial Revolution profoundly changed the conditions under which immigrant and black women worked. Industrial Revolution shifted the workplace away from farms, where men and women lived, to factories, mines, and other spaces away from home. This shift created two different spheres. These comprised of a domestic and a separate working sphere away from the home. Compelling was the strategy that Canadians used to get the Black women to enter the workplace mostly in the textile industries4. It was burdening to women because they served as homemakers and caregivers on top of working in the textile industries. In the middle of the 1800s, the number of women declined in the workplace. The wages of the industrial workers rose making the jobs desirable for men. Canada passed the laws restricting the n umber of workers for the black women and the number of lower-class working-women fell. A cult of domesticity, stressing that women place was in the home and men in the workplace dominated the Canadian culture. This was especially among the middle and upper class. This catapulted formation of strong and vigorous women’s movements that agitated for suffrage, equality to work, equal pay, temperance, and other issues. The women formed most prominent organizations such as National Council of women in Canada, Women Christian

Toyota way Essay Example for Free

Toyota way Essay With a market capitalization greater than the value of General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler combined, Toyota is also, (by far), the world s most profitable automaker. Toyota s wellknown secret weapon is Lean production the revolutionary approach to business processes that it invented in the 1950s and has spend decades perfecting. Less well known are the management principles that underlie Lean production, Lean product development, and all of Toyota s business and service processes. Today businesses around the world are attempting to implement Toyota’s radical system for speeding up processes, reducing waste, and improving quality. But are they getting beneath the surface of Lean tools and techniques to the real foundation of Toyota s success? The Toyota Way, explains Toyota’s unique approach to Lean management the 14 principles that drive Toyota s quality and efficiency-obsessed culture. You will gain valuable insights that can be applied to any organization and any business process, whether in services or manufacturing. You will discover how the right combination of long-term philosophy, processes, people, and problem solving can transform your organization into a Lean, learning enterprise the Toyota Way. Foreword When I joined Toyota after 18 years in the U.S. automobile business, I didn’t know exactly what to expect. But I was hopeful. I knew that I wasn’t comfortable with the direction that American automobile manufacturing was taking, and I felt Toyota might be different. In no time at all I noticed a fundamental difference between Toyota and my previous employers. At a Toyota/GM joint venture plant in Fremont, California, called NUMMI (New United Motor Manufacturing), I witnessed the transformation of a workforce from one of the worst in the General Motors system to one of the best in any manufacturing facility in the United States. The difference was the Toyota Way. In this book, Dr. Liker explains the management systems, thinking, and philosophy that form the foundation of Toyota’s success, providing the reader with valuable insights that can be applied to any business or situation. While there are many books that provide insight into the tools and methods of Toyota’s Production System (TPS), Professor Liker’s book is unique in its explanation of the broader principles at work in the Toyota culture. The Toyota Way is not the Japanese Way or the American Way or even the Gary Convis Way of managing. It is the fundamental way that Toyota views its world and does business. The Toyota Way, along with the Toyota Production System, make up Toyota s DNA. This DNA was born with the founders of our company and continues to be developed and nurtured in our current and future leaders. The Toyota Way can be briefly summarized through the two pillars that support it: Continuous Improvement and Respect for People. Continuous improvement, often called kaizen, defines Toyota s basic approach to doing business. Challenge everything. More important than the actual improvements that individuals contribute, the true value of continuous improvement is in creating an atmosphere of continuous learning and an environment that not only accepts, but actually embraces change. Such an environment can only be created where there is respect for people hence the second pillar of the Toyota Way. Toyota demonstrates this respect by providing employment security and seeking to engage team members through active participation in improving their jobs. As managers, we must take the responsibility for developing and nurturing mutual trust and understanding among all team members. I believe management has no more critical role than to motivate and engage large numbers of people to work together toward a common goal. Defining and explaining what the goal is, sharing a path to achieving it, motivating people to take the journey with you, and assisting them by removing obstacles those are management s reasons for being. We must engage the minds of people to support and contribute their ideas to the organization. In my experience, the Toyota Way is the best method for fulfilling this role. However, readers of this book should understand that each organization must develop its own way of doing business. The Toyota Way is the special product of the people who created Toyota and its unique history. Toyota is one of the most successful companies in the world. I hope this book will give you an understanding of what has made Toyota successful, and some practical ideas that you can use to develop your own approach to business. Gary Convis Managing Officer of Toyota and President, Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky Preface In 1982 when I first arrived as a new assistant professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, the automotive industry was in serious turmoil in the midst of a national recession. The situation seemed dire. The Ford Motor company was seriously flirting with bankruptcy. The Big 3 were losing market share fast. There was a lot of debate at the time over the root cause. The party line among Detroit auto executives was that the cause was the Japanese invasion. Japan, Inc. had banded together with industry and government colluding to set up trade barriers to prevent American cars from being sold in Japan and artificially lowering prices of Japanese cars in the United States. Of course, in the minds of U.S. companies, as long as the root cause was unfair business practices, there was no need to seriously change the way they built cars. Instead, political channels would right the wrongs. Around this time I was fortunate to be invited by David Cole and Robert Cole (two University of Michigan professors who were leading the study of the Japanese quality movement) to work on a U.S.-Japan automotive study. This research was an effort to help U.S. companies learn from the Japanese automakers. My project focused on how automakers worked with their suppliers on new product development in the U.S. and Japan. The numerous studies that made up the overall U.S.-Japan auto study covered many aspects of the industry, and all the studies collectively pointed to a single conclusion. Whatever was going on with Japan s government and the value of the yen and other macro-economic factors, Japanese auto companies were very good at engineering and building cars. They were not necessarily financial or marketing whizzes. They were not the leaders in advanced manufacturing technology, at least not in complex automation. They designed in quality and built in quality at every step of the process, and they did it with remarkably few labor hours. Not only were Japan s automakers good, their top suppliers were also world class in engineering and manufacturing, and they worked together as a team. But even in these early stages of my introduction to the auto industry in Japan, there were indications that Toyota was different from the other Japanese automakers. While the basic product development process seemed similar across the three automakers, and the top tier suppliers were all integrally part of the product development process, there was a sense of partnership between Toyota and its suppliers that we did not see as strongly in the keiretsu of Mazda and Nissan. Later, in 1991 John Campbell and I received a grant to create the Japan Technology Management Program at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, which I am still directing. The goals of this program are to learn about the practices that have helped the best Japanese companies become strong globally, teach what we learn to our students and industry, and encourage technically oriented students to learn about Japanese language and culture through courses and internships in Japan. This research program allowed me to continue my studies of the Japanese auto industry, and I chose to focus more intensively on Toyota, in particular its product development process and the Toyota Production System. The U.S. government grant focused on transfer of learning so I began studying Toyota’s efforts to transfer its practices to its U.S.-based subsidiaries and American companies efforts to learn from Toyota. By the early 1990s all of the Big 3 auto producers had woken up to the reality of Japanese quality and concluded that Toyota was the company to beat. They were all actively studying Toyota and creating their own versions of Toyota’s systems. They benchmarked the company on its production system, product development system, and supplier relationship management. Their great interest in Toyota’s systems has given me an opportunity to teach about Toyota’s production system and product development process, and get my hands dirty consulting to implement these systems. I have had opportunities to work in America, the United Kingdom, and Mexico in industries including automotive, paint manufacturing, nuclear fuel rod assembly, ship building, ship repair, an engineering professional organization, and lawncare equipment. I have taught lean change agents from over one thousand companies worldwide, and my participation in lean transformation has given me a deeper understanding of what is involved in transforming a culture and learning from Toyota. My studies of U.S. companies working to implement versions of the Toyota Production System led to a book I edited called Becoming Lean: Experiences of U.S. Manufacturers (Liker, 1997), winner of a Shingo Prize (in honor of Shigeo Shingo who helped create the TPS) in 1998. Articles I co-authored on Toyota’s product development system and supplier management in Sloan Management Review and Harvard Business Review also won Shingo Prizes. But it was not until I was invited to write The Toyota Way that I had an opportunity to pull together in one volume 20 years of observations of Toyota and companies learning from Toyota. Reading this book might give you the impression that I am a strong advocate for Toyota. As a professor and social scientist, I work at being objective, but I will admit I am a fan of the Toyota Way. I believe Toyota has raised continuous improvement and employee involvement to a unique level, creating one of the few examples of a genuine learning enterprise in human history—not a small accomplishment. Much of the research behind this book has come from 20 years of visits to Japan and interviews in Toyota facilities there and in the United States. When I was asked to write this book, I immediately asked Toyota for support through additional interviews specifically focused on the Toyota Way. They graciously agreed. As it turned out, they had just launched their own internal version of the Toyota Way to keep the â€Å"Toyota DNA† strong as they globalize and entrust international team members to run subsidiaries. This was the pet project of Fujio Cho, President of Toyota Motor Company, who learned the Toyota Way from one of its inventors, Taiichi Ohno, and he agreed to a rare, personal interview. I asked him what was unique about Toyota’s remarkable success. His answer was quite simple. The key to the Toyota Way and what makes Toyota stand out is not any of the individual elements. But what is important is having all the elements together as a system. It must be practiced every day in a very consistent manner—not in spurts. Over a one-year period I was able to interview over 40 Toyota managers and executives from manufacturing, sales, product development, logistics, service parts, and production engineering. I gathered over 120 hours of interviews, all transcribed. Included in these interviews were several former Toyota managers who left to apply what they learned to U.S. Companies and several suppliers to Toyota. I visited many Toyota plants, supplier plants, Toyota’s sales offices, a parts distribution center, a supplied parts cross-dock, the Arizona proving ground, and the Toyota Technical Center. I have thought about what impact I would like to make on readers of The Toyota Way. First, I have had a special opportunity to get inside the culture of a unique and high performing company and wish to share my insights. Second, Toyota is a model to many companies throughout the world so I wish to provide a different look at what makes Toyota so successful. The fundamental insight I have from my studies of Toyota is that its success derives from balancing the role of people in an organizational culture that expects and values their continuous improvements, with a technical system focused on high-value-added â€Å"flow.† This leads to my third and more challenging goal: to help other companies learn from Toyota and themselves so they can continuously improve on what they do.