Toyota And Lexus Pestel Analysis

Toyota And Lexus Pestel Analysis The purpose of this report is to conduct a strategic appraisal of Ebrahim Khalil Kanoo Group and assess the implications for the strategy of the company. To conduct these analysis two main stages will be taken into consideration. Firstly the external environment of the company that will focus on its wider environment by applying a PESTEL framework and Porters five forces that will lead on to identify key opportunities and threats facing the company. Secondly the internal resource capability analysis that will focus on the companies Recourse Audit and its value chain followed by a linkage of its Core Competency by applying the VRIN analysis, that will lead to an indication of the key strengths and weaknesses of E.K.Kanoo Group. For over a century, the Kanoo family has been one of Bahrains leading merchant dynasties. With business connections spanning the Arab world and South Asia from the days of antiquity even before the invention of the motor car the Kanoo name has for generations been a byword for trust, service, and dependability. In 1920, there were only two cars on the island of Bahrain, both owned by the Ruling family. Therefore in 1952 Ebrahim took the chance to established himself as a leading importer of automobiles and spare parts under the name Green Auto Stores, securing in 1966 the sole authorized distributorship in Bahrain of Toyota automobiles, industrial vehicles and related services. The Toyota Motor Corporation was founded in 1937 by Kiichiro Toyoda. The first vehicle, the Toyota AA, was produced in 1936 whilst the company was still associated with Toyoda. The brand as we know it became established as an independent company in 1937 and changed their name to Toyota. They opened their first factory in 1938 but it had to be cease production during World War II. In 1974, Ebrahims sons, Mohamed and Fuad, assumed responsibility for the day-to-day operations and strategic direction of the business, steering it into a new era. They formed the E.K. Kanoo Group of Companies. Focus was initially exclusively on the Toyota franchise, and this resulted in the establishment of one of the most sophisticated and successful automotive businesses in the region. In 1989 Toyota launched their new luxury product line Lexus and in 1990 the company was offered to become the sole distributorship of Lexus automobiles. Toyota is currently one of the largest corporations developing hybrid vehicles for the commercial market. Today, with more than 50 years of commitment to service excellence, E.K. Kanoo is universally acknowledged as one of the islands automotive pioneers of Toyota and lexus, developing and exceeding expectations in the automotive business. The next generation of the Kanoo family are now fully involved in the business and are building their careers, and expanding the business, in the founders footsteps. Further diversification expansion took the group into other business areas, building new companies with the same commitment to trust, commitment and dependability such as Kanoo IT, security 1, Kanoo Power solution. Kanoo IT in 1999 In 1999 Kanoo IT was launched as a division of Ebrahim K. Kanoo B.S.C.(c) which deals in A commitment to first-rate ICT product and service support that is reflected in its partnership with the leading hardware and software brands throughout the world. The changing face of the ICT industry drives Kanoo ITs strategy to provide industry leading products and services to its clientele in Bahrain. The company has geared itself to meet this challenge by offering an innovative range of products and allied services and being sensitive to the precise needs of todays customer Security 1 in 2006 In 2006 Security One was launched as a division of Ebrahim K. Kanoo B.S.C.(c). Which deals in a division of the Ebrahim K Kanoo Group of Companies that stands on developing and providing specialized solutions in the areas of Security, Fire, Safety and Automation requirements for all Governmental, Commercial, Residential and Industrial projects. In involvement with the foremost and established international product manufacturers in Security business, it has created a strong Competence Center in Bahrain with an professional experienced team of consultants and certified engineers, aimed at providing the most innovative and cost effective solutions, coupled with excellent customer support and after sales service. They develop, deliver and support the most mission-critical applications to meet the most stringent customer service requirements Kanoo Power solution in 2006 In 2006 the Kanoo Power Solutions was launched as a division of Ebrahim K. Kanoo B.S.C.(c) which deals in power products for industrial applications. It is the Authorised Distributor in the Kingdom of Bahrain for Exide Technologies and Chloride UPS Systems who are pioneers in their respective fields. Exide batteries have a design life ranging from 5 to 20 years and are available in both AGM and Gel technology. Exide Technologies is a Global leader in stored electrical energy solutions for all major critical reserve standby power applications and needs. Standby power applications include communication/data networks, UPS systems for computers and control systems, electrical power generation and distribution systems, as well as a wide range of other industrial standby power applications. Toyota Lexus PESTEL Analysis The first stage of the external environment analysis is through the PESTEL framework that helps E.K.Kanoo managers understand the big picture of the political, economical, social, technological, environmental and legal issues that they are operating within. (reference) Based on our research it has been recognised that they share the same analysis as the mother company in Japan but differ in some areas.(To be added) Political factors: impact on many vital areas such as the environment of the workforce, the humans health and the quality of technology such as hybrid system. Based on our research, Toyota have positive political impact. By producing the environmental friendly cars which use less gasoline and reduce dependency on petrol, Therefore, the country itself reduce the dependence of the petrol. On the other hand EKKanoo and its customers benefit from this issue as prices of full are much lower than Japan and the US. The dependence of the natural gas and oil from the foreign source will directly and indirectly affect one country economy growth and also the national security. Growth in the infrastructure development sector following the announcement of Qatar hosting the 2022 world cup and Qatar Bahrain causeway will revise the economy.(Economical factor) The social unrest continues to weigh heavily on the countrys political stability. People are not in a position to comfortably invest in expensive products. Economical factors: This includes interest rates, taxation charges such as the road tax, insurance tax, economic growth, inflation and tax incentive. In other words, the costs have to pay more for car users. Economy is also another impact to almost all countries around the world. The consumers start to choose the hybrid car based on the benefits of fuel savings over time which means the paid back. There had been a slight decline in sales of non-luxury automotive brands due to the political unrest and economic slowdown (2009-2011), but the figures this year reflect a positive outlook and the growing sales numbers will carry forward in 2013. Market share for Toyota has increased over 2011 which was lost due to shortage of stock and end of cycle models. High projected oil prices in 2013-17 will contribute to financial surpluses. Neighbouring GCC investments will increase due to huge petrodollar surpluses. Major projects have been declared to commence and be completed by 2013 2014. These projects are residential as well as industrial; with the potential of increased population and commercial activities that would generate higher sales of vehicles and equipment. Appreciation of Yen currency does not help in maintaining competitive pricing. Social factors: This factor takes into consideration all events that affect the market and community socially. Thus, the advantages and disadvantages to the people of the area in which the project is taking place also need to be considered. These events include cultural expectations, norms, population dynamics, healthy consciousness, career altitudes and global warming. Due to the climate change become a serious topic nowadays, Therefore EKK is importing vehicles from Toyota which adapt with GCC standards and environment also Toyota should produce a vehicle which it will not bring pollution to the environment. Very low dependence on public transportation system in Bahrain, therefore people prefer to own cars. Technology factors: New technologies create new products and new processes. Technology can reduce costs, improve quality and lead to innovation. These developments can benefit consumers as well as the organizations providing the products. Toyota plaza is one of the largest service centres mechanism in the world for Toyota and Lexus. Enterprise Recourses Planning (ERP) which have the latest version of oracle system. Legal factors: Organizations also have to adjust their products and ways of operating to the different regulatory and legislative framework that govern each of the products areas and countries in which they are active. Other than that, the programs also need to take into consideration. Organizations have to follow all the rules and regulations which are set by the governance even if there is new technology involvement, Electrical cars from Toyota which the company cannot import due to country economic growth issues. Changes of country importing rules and regulations can affect. Number of automobiles allowed into the country and yard parking cost. Environmental factors: include the weather and climate change. With major climate changes occurring due to global warming and with greater environmental awareness this external factor is becoming a significant issue for firms to consider. In Bahrain one of the GCC countries which have hot climate over the year.(to be changed). E.K.K have signed contracts with recycling companies to recycle all after service materials such as oil, tiers, spark plugs and packaging boxes. All imported cars are installed with an friendly environment exhaust system that reduces the amount of air pollution. Porters 5 forces As for considering the competitive issues the organisation faces Porters five forces helps identify the attractiveness of the industry it operates in and helps it understand the strength of the current competitive position.(reference) Power of suppliers The bargaining power of suppliers is low. There are various types of suppliers in the vehicles industry, including the cooling system, electrical system, braking system and fuel supply system distributed across the globe. EKKanoo became the sole distributor of parts and extended their car warranty to 4 years/150,000 KM with a 3 year free service package and built a good network of service and parts centres throughout the region. However, most vehicle manufactures own many interchangeable suppliers, and also have the ability to produce the components by their own in the short time. Thus, the suppliers do not own the power to change the price. Power of buyers The Bargaining power of buyers is high. Bahrain market continues to be price driven for most of the customers segments. Today, buyers have a lot of information channel, such as the internet, where can easily find the proper vehicle. And, the preferences of the private consumers are important to the vehicle corporations. If automobile Company increases one type, they can also choose other type or the cheaper one. Customers look for more discounts, free service packs and better financial schemes or they can easily find the substitutes. Such as used cars, trade in or exporting from other countries. Threat of new entrants The entrants cannot enter to the automotive industry easily, as automobiles are special products that require a large amount of money on the design, monopolize the market, electronic functions, and safety issues. And another important issue is the brand loyalty in the car market. Vehicle firms always benefit the brand value, and decrease the consumer sensitivity about the price. As EKKanoo has been the first automotive industry on the island and Toyota stands for Quality, Safety, Durability and Reliability; a benchmark in the automotive world customers have a strong belief in the brand and feel that Toyota is the most reliable brand in the automotive market and feel that it has become more advanced technologically with refined interior which reflect unrivalled elegance and exclusiveness. Therefore Toyota stands out as a high value brand and Low cost of ownership is associated with the brand. Rivalry among competitors The competition in the auto industry is strong. The top eight auto companies have occupy large part of global revenues, and these automobile manufacturers strengthened the globalization and consolidation across the worldwide range. Korean brands are proving to be a potential threat with the introduction of attractive design and features at competitive prices. This reflects their increase in market share over the years. Competition among the Japanese brands is intense, American brands will take advantage from the appreciated Japanese Yen and Chinese brands have started to show their presence in the market. With new models being launched in 2013 for the Toyota line up, Toyota would be able to dominate the market and emerge as the leading brand. Toyota will face intense competition from Nissan, Hyundai and Kia in the passenger segment, youthful and sporty brands will have more opportunity. Nissan poses to be the major threat for Toyota in Bahrain as they have an aggressive pricing strategy which is helping them to dominate the market. This is reflected in the increase of market share of Nissan over the years. Korean products have a more youthful and sporty design with added technological features at a competitive price. The main competitors of Luxes in Bahrain are BMW, Mercedes, Audi and Infinitià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. 5. Threat of substitutes The threat of the substitutes is high. There are a lot of substitutes in the automobile industry. When the price of the vehicles rises, the substitutes will emerge, there are many types of equipment that can take the place of vehicles, such bus, subway, bicycle and even walking. In Bahrain it is Low because of the hot clement it is hard for people to walk and ride bikes, low public transportation services as its a small island. Internal Environment Analysis Resource Audit: The next stage is to carry out an analysis of E.K.Kanoos internal resource capability by applying the Threshold and Distinction capability framework that will maintain a briefing of the resources available to the company and how they help them achieve competitive advantage and superior performance. Threshold Resources: Based on the analysis of E.K.Kanoo business field its Threshold Resources are the need of capital, showrooms, service garages, storage, logistics, land transportation, customers, suppliers, technical equipment, shop and garage equipment and staff personal to achieve its competitive advantage and superior performance within the market. Threshold competences: Marketing E.K.Kanoo has a high strategy of innovation therefore the need of marketing is highly recommended to launch its new automobiles, spare parts and accessories , for example handling the launch of 2013 models. IT systems Updated technologies and IT experts are crucial for the running of the business as without these, the organisation would not succeed as they have innovated the organisation with the Oracle system that will be explained farther along in the report . Distribution E.K.Kanoo has managed to lower the cost of distribution which is also a vital part of its business by having its storage spaces next to the automobile market and within its service centres. Competitor research Having an insight on what competitors are doing helps E.K.Kanoo achieve constant marketing innovation to continue making progress over its competitors.? Customer relations One of E.K.Kanoo distinct features is its Online and mobile Personalised Service that is arranged by the customer relations management department that is computerized System for Identifying, Targeting, Acquiring, and Retaining the Customers, helps in Profiling , Understanding Their Needs, and in Building Relationships With Them By Providing the Most Suitable Products and Enhanced Customer Service and also Integrates Back and Front Office Systems to Create a Database of Customer Contacts, Purchases, and Technical Support, Among Other Things. This Database Helps The Company in Presenting a Unified Face to Its Customers, and Improve The Quality of the Relationship. Recently they have introduced the customer online service appointment booking system that will ? Allowing customers to provide direct feedback and recommendations to them to increase company innovation and customer satisfaction? Distinctive resources: Location E.K.Kanoo has expanded from operating in the capital only to operating all around the Kingdom of Bahrain. Recruitment Staff are recruited based on the companys needs and is also task oriented, targeting experienced people with high talent and thus target staff working for well known companies such as ? Price -? Scale of business Moving from selling random automobiles only to covering all customer needs from all types of Toyota and Luxes automobiles, offering service packages, spare parts and accessories plus innovation by introducing .? Brand image -? Distinctive competence: Supplier advantage Amazons ability to source a different range of suppliers. Starting with Ingram books, the largest book distributor in the US, before going live online. After which Amazon built many different types of distributors, from the seller customers to book publishers. Building relationships with well known manufactures and brands along the way easing the launch of Kindle. Three pillar strategy Selection; by offering a wide selection of both luxury and passenger automobiles , Price; committing to price leadership with no sacrifice to quality by offering free shipping and on time delivery, Convenience; by dedicating many resources and building a customer relation management team to understand its customers needs and wants. Technology E.K.K enhanced its technology by launching the online service appointment and rent a car option on its website. Value Chain Analysis: Analysing the value chain will help describe the categories of activities within E.K.Kanoo which together creates its retail service. Support activates: Firm Infrastructure: E.K.Kanoo corporate headquarter is based in Manama the capital of the Kingdom and its showroom is placed in the middle of the automotive marked district, as E.K.Kanoo is a sales and after sales business they built a good network of service and parts centres throughout the region and expanded the service branches all over the main cities of Bahrain to reduce customer traffic and time consuming. Human Resource Management: Employees are an expensive and vital resource. EKKanoo manage recruitment and selection, training and development, rewards and remuneration. They consider their employees as HUMAN CAPITAL and this is mostly focused on the technical side as the select technicians based on specific sanders that enhance them to be sent for a two years secondment to the mother company in Japan to improve their talent management and implement it within the organisation. They also follow the team 21 technical training scheme the development of this new team curriculum was necessary to keep carnet with changes in the automotive industry and to take advantage of advanced training technology to better serve customers satisfaction, achieving high efficiency and quality work process in each service shop, is the main global of restructuring service training. The mission and objectives of the organisation is the driving force behind the HRM strategy. Technology Development: Technology is an important source of competitive advantage. Companies need to innovate to reduce costs and to protect and sustain competitive advantage. Therefore EKKanoo implemented its own Enterprise Resource Planning team that installed the Oracle system to the organization by liking it from its headquarters to all branches and department all threw the kingdom that could be modified based on the departments requirements as pear enhancement report that shows departments needs objectives of their requests besides to advantages and how it will impact the business, billet one of the largest and most advanced Toyota and Lexus service centers in the world called the Toyota plaza that is installed with the most advanced technology equipment that assures health and safety to both the environment and staff, increases service quality, equipped with the latest accidents repair and chassis alignment technologies, the most advanced painting systems and quality control t echniques are utilized in the Toyota Plaza. Kaizen continual development that calculates the utilization performance of all technical support that are engaged in the technical work field. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) ( ? ), and many other technological developments. Procurement: This function is responsible for all purchasing of goods, services and materials. The aims to secure the lowest possible price for purchases of the highest possible quality. Toyota motors will be responsible for outsourcing (components or operations that would normally be done in-house are done by other organizations), and e-Purchasing (using ITand web-based technologies to achieve procurement aims). Primary activates: Inbound Logistics: E.K.Kanoo invests in Research and Development to enable them to find new ways to improve their customer experiences and, taking into account customer feedback to understand their wants and needs before ordering any new vehicles. Operations: Operations include organizing and ordering the parts and accessories for new cars, and the final tune for a new cars engine. E.K.Kanoo are known for their reliability which comes from efficient operations. Therefore they always take into consideration the number of sales staff and technicians that are required to be trained to achieve organization and customer satisfaction during the sales and after sales process. Outbound Logistics: The goods are now finished, and they need to be sent along the supply chain to wholesalers, retailers or the final consumer. Toyota motors manage their own Showrooms in different countries. Toyota motors make their product easily assessable. Marketing sales: In true customer orientated fashion, at this stage E.K.Kanoo prepares the offering to meet the needs of targeted customers. Therefore they focus strongly upon receiving the ordered vehicles, coordinating the logistic yard, marketing communications, promotions mix and showroom display. Service: This includes all areas of service such as final checking, after-sales service, complaints handling, training and so on. E.K.Kanoo value their customers Support Activities.

Hrm Learning Log Essay

The first lecture that we had was basically explaining the module and gave a brief outline of what we are going to be studying throughout the year. We then went on to discuss this in the seminar. Obviously there was not much work done for this week as we were just taking everything in and coming to grips with what the module entailed. Lecture number two started off with a series of quotes with people defining organisational behaviour. I consider the ‘organisational behaviour is one of the most complex and perhaps least understood academic elements of modern general management but since it concerns the behaviour of people within organisations it is also one of the most central’ as one of the most accurate and appropriate ways to describe organisational behaviour. The other two quotes were by no means inaccurate, but they were a bit brief and wouldn’t really explain much if you were trying to tell somebody what organisational behaviour was. This then brought us to the organisational iceberg, this is an interesting and key point. I have found a diagram from the internet to illustrate the iceberg I found this model very fascinating and the quote about what sinks a ship is very clever, because so much that goes on in an organisation is not seen. It is simply that an informal organisation is a ‘looser’ structured flexible organisation with informal relationships and a formal organisation would be an opposite one with a planned structure with a hierarchy. Hugh put some definitions of organisational behaviour up and I read them and found that they were both fairly strong definitions although one was a lot more detailed than the other. The next lecture was very much defining what an organisation is, different types of organisations and how we define them. This was a fairly big lecture and there was quite a lot to take in I thought. What is an organisation? I agree with the definition of JD Mooney that organisation is the form of every human association for the attainment of a common purpose, as well as Huczynski & Buchanans ‘entity’ view because they are short yet strong and easy to understand and I feel that I would definitely be more likely to remember these definitions than Robbins’ definition for example, which sounds a bit more intricate. The next lecture brought us to something similar, giving us the chance to reflect on the organisational iceberg, and still defining organisational structure. I researched into tall and flat organisational structures this week and found this diagram on the internet which helps demonstrate how different organisations have different structures, and there is no better or worse structure, because each organisation requires a different structure. I found centralisation and decentralisation quite challenging, so I looked up the meanings to begin with on the internet. I found that centralisation is described as the process by which the activities of an organisation, particularly those regarding planning decision-making, become concentrated within a particular location or group. Alternatively, decentralisation was defined as the process of dispersing decision-making governance closer to the people and citizen. It includes the dispersal of administration or governance in sectors or areas like engineering, management science, political science, political economy, sociology and economics. These definitions helped me understand the table in the lecture slides easier. The matrix structure was also covered in this lecture. This seemed a more complex structure where a lot of individuals are mixed together and each person may have to work under several managers at a time. For this week’s lecture we were given a SEMCO case study and some organisational charts to look at. We spoke about trying to define work and then got into small groups and came up with our own definition of work. It was very interesting how everyone’s opinions and definitions of work were so different. Although nearly everyone agreed that we work for money and for example in our group, we said that if you are not paid, for instance voluntary work, it is simply a hobby. We then went on to organisation theory and classical management. This focuses on then total design of the total organisation. This is different to scientific management because that focuses on the design and management of individual jobs. This was quite a difficult lecture to fully comprehend with again a lot of information to take in. Through research I found that Henri Fayol was the main classical theorist and he proposed the functions such as technical; commercial; financial; accounting; security and managerial. He believed the latter to be slightly different to all the rest. In our lecture it said that management is a process of planning, organisation, command, coordination and control. I found that Fayol was very influential to the modern concepts of management and proposed his own theory, called fayolism. I also discovered that there is a set of 14 principles of management that he devised and I found this quite thought-provoking. The lecture also told us about Taylorism, which is a scientific management theory. We then went on to Hawthorne studies, which I had previously learnt about in sociology at A level so I was fairly familiar with. Then it went on explaining that there is more to the work than just the pay, there needs to be a strong sense of belonging. I agree with this because I feel in today’s society too many people are driven by money and instead of opting for being happy in life, they would rather have more money. I feel that the media makes people feel that they should put money before a sense of belonging and I don’t think that is right. In this week’s seminar we went back to organisational structures and charts. Our group discussed that the needs of all organisations are very different so there will always be different structures suiting different organisations. Bureaucratic structures were brought up and we spoke about how they were suitable for larger organisations rather than smaller ones, also how they tend to stick to a tall rather than flat structure. I found other structures such as a divisional structure, where they group organisational functions into different divisions. I then looked back over earlier lectures about defining work, and the extrinsic purposes which are essential yet do not reap the same intrinsic rewards where workers should have a considerably high level of job satisfaction. The occupational structure- this is shaped by several factors like bureaucracy, technology and the economy. Watson’s patterns are key points for the subject of occupations and the structure of work because he points out the key elements. Mobility is seen as a key part of occupational structure and there are factors which positively and negatively affect mobility. The next lectures brought us to organisational culture; there was a good quote to start the lecture saying that â€Å"The ideologies, beliefs and deep-set values which occur in all firms†¦. and which are the prescriptions for the ways in which people should work in those organisations. † This got me thinking about organisation culture and what it was about. Organisational culture frequently refers to the collective patterns of behaviour, beliefs and values within an organisation. I also found a different definition of organisation culture saying that ‘organisation culture is a set of values, often taken for granted, that help people in an organisation understand which actions are considered acceptable and which actions are considered unacceptable. ’ Often these values are shaped in the course of stories. I feel that culture is significantly hard to define and measure. We covered socialisation in this lecture and it is quoted as ‘getting ones hands dirty’. I found that Socialization is the main way humans start to obtain the skills needed to carry out their task of being a member of society. The largely basic look of culture is set up at the individual level. Through both learning and teaching is the how cultural and social characteristics achieve permanence. I believe that the best quote of this lecture was that ‘to change an organisation in any significant or lasting way you need to change the values and beliefs that lie at the core. ’ This brings us to the iceberg and the onion. The onion illustrates that the core is shielded by many layers, and you have to change everything right down to the bottom to make a significant change for the organisation. Through my research I found some different information as to what was in our lectures on the several different types of culture, such as person cultures and task cultures. Person cultures are basically an organisational structure in a business which is constantly changing and has no permanent foundation, no real formal role and no sole objective. Where all the people involved believe themselves to be superior to the organisation, because of this some of these organisations struggle to cope, but can do because of the certain expertise each different individual possesses. On the other hand, task cultures are often found in a matrix type organisation, where employees tend to have similar roles and responsibilities, they solve problems as and it is often described as a business based around the high skills of an employee. More organisational cultures are power cultures, and role cultures. Power cultures I think are the most interesting because they are more or less based around one ultimate source, which everything revolves around and depends on. These are often found in small organisations and have little bureaucracy and a small number of rules. Role cultures is similar to that of a tall structure that I have spoken about earlier where there is a basic hierarchy of roles and power. In the seminar this week we spoke about different retailers and what kind of organisation structures they had. I found this seminar very enjoyable because we found out from each other in depth about what sort of organisations each company were and decided what frame they would be in and whether we would prefer to be in one or another. The next lecture was mostly on change, I found this fairly weird because there were not many things I could relate to or understand so I just had to try and take as much in as possible. Although it brought us to again this man Charles Handy. He said that â€Å"Less than half the workforce in the industrial world will be holding conventional full-time jobs in organisations by the beginning of the 21st century. Those full-timers, or insiders, will be the new minority. † This has obviously been proved correct to some extent, so Handy was right. Because of technology fewer and fewer people are needed from day to day in the industrial sector, because machines are replacing them. Today we again talked about the paradigm and how organisations all have different values and missions and how they go about them. I think the most powerful part of this lecture is the part where it says the only permanent thing is change. This is such a good quote because no matter change will never ever end, it can’t. Yet everything else can. This is another one of those quotes that gets you thinking. I liked the 7-S framework part because it helps me remember all the very important reasons of change. This week’s lecture was on organisational change. This was different to previous lectures because I didn’t feel there was much we could talk about. I researched more into organisational cultures again and found information on strong cultures and weak cultures. A strong culture is one where staff responds to stimulus because of their position to organisational values. In a strong culture, it is believed that the people do what they are told to do, because they think that is the right way to do things. In a weak culture things are fairly different. They do it their own way and things would be pretty much the opposite. Research suggests that organisations with a strong culture will achieve the companies’ goals a lot easier than a weak culture; they will also have higher levels of employee satisfaction, motivation and loyalty. We came on to leadership today, and spoke about management. It started with a man I was familiar with Max Weber again because of A level sociology so I was intrigued to how he linked in with this element. We then came on to Fayol’s 14 principles of management. I decided to research into these 14 principles out of curiosity and it is proved that Fayols principles still have a big relevance to contemporary management, so do his 6 functions that I mentioned earlier, however most people these days like to only talk about 4 of the 6 functions that Fayol originally proposed and they have been slightly tweaked into; planning; leading; organising and controlling. Taylorism popped up this week and we discussed the difference between the bosses and the workers, as Taylor says the bosses think as the workers do. Then onto other theorists such as Drucker, he proposed the five basic operations of a manager. I very much agree with these five operations because at my workplace it seems that the managers are trying to set objectives, organise, measure, motivate and develop people. I think that managers are different to leaders. Yes some managers are leaders, but they are two completely different things in my eyes. As it says in the lecture slides managers plan, organise, direct etc, leaders envision, inspire, influence, leaders effect people more emotionally than managers do. We also spoke about how hard it is to describe leadership, who would we call a leader? How do we become a leader? These are all questions that I do not know the answer to. Yukl says that â€Å"Most definitions of leadership reflect the assumption that it involves a process whereby intentional influence is exerted by one person over people†¦.. to guide, structure and facilitate activities and relationships in a group or organisation’ I don’t think that this is as good of a description as â€Å"Leadership is a process of giving purpose (meaningful direction) to collective effort, and causing willing effort to be expended to achieve purpose. By Jacob and Jacques because they seem to hit the nail on the head because I believe leadership is all about giving a meaningful purpose to effort and be willing to do anything to achieve your goal. I still very much agree with Yukls view on leadership because what he says is true but I don’t feel it would give me anythin g that I can learn or think about whereas Jacob and Jacques’ I can. There were a lot of quotes in today’s lecture, some I felt more powerful than others. They have taught me a lot about leadership, one being that it there is not a definition. I even googled it and there wasn’t one. Another being leadership is what you make of it, from what I think will be different to what the next guy thinks, so I can understand why it raises so many controversies and discussions. I can understand why it proved virtually impossible to identify the particular traits that separate leaders from non-leaders. I believe that leadership is based on many things, personality being the main one. Many people would think you have to be at the top of the hierarchy to be branded a leader, for instance they would think of a manager of a leader. But a leader can be anyone, some people just possess a trait that makes them a natural born leader, for example a footballer that steps on the pitch and instantly tells everyone what to do, they all listen to him without question. Even though he may not be captain, he is the leader. In today’s lecture we looked at technology, a new topic. Technology has played a massive part in how businesses operate as of recent years, I didn’t find this as interesting as the previous few weeks but there were still things I wanted to look up on. We also touched on leadership again this week. This week brings us onto personality. This lecture was one of the tougher ones because there was a lot of material I have never heard of before. I agree with everything Robertson and Smith have put forward because for instance if there was no variety in the tasks, or if there was no feedback given or no significance of the tasks, then the employees job satisfaction would surely be lower, and I think it would be a hard job to try and make someone completely satisfied with their job in every aspect because nearly everybody isnt happy with atleast one aspect of their job. Our lecture this week was on motivation, learning about motivation was quite enjoyable. I find the american and chinese needs hierarcies quite interesting and how they differ. The american hierarchy has self-actualisation in individual development at the top whereas the chinese hierarchy has self-actualisation in service to society. This goes back to the collectivist and individualist cultures. I have found a slightly more detailed diagram of a hierarchy here: Another big difference is that the sense of belonging is in the middle of the american hierarchy and it is right at the bottom of the chinese one, maybe because the chinese people see society as a whole more important. I also find Hertzbergs two factor theory quite interesting because of what he thinks motivates and de-motivates intrinsically and extrinsically. Today we looked at perception. I was quite amazed at how the mind perceives things and it sees what it wants to see instead of what it actually might be. The quote â€Å"You see, that’s the problem with you Jerry. You think we’re arguing, I think we’re finally communicating! † defines what perception is really about. You think you are doing one thing, yet you are doing another. Throughout this year my favourite topic has definitely been leadership. I feel genuinely interested in this subject because it is so intriguing and there are so many talking points about it. I think one of the most meaningful and intelligent quotes I have ever heard has come from the leadership topic, managers do things right, leaders do the right thing. It has made believe that being a leader is such a good thing. Most people probably think managers are leaders, but they are really nothing alike what so ever, when you look into it in detail you realise. I particularly like how Bennis describes both Managers and leaders, saying that Managers ask how and when, leaders and what and why. Managers rely on people, leaders inspire trust. Managers focus on systems and structure, leaders focus on people, and so on. It is strange how they seem so true yet every one is the completely different. This proves surely that there is a real big difference between a leader and a manager. I was quite amazed at the perception topic though because it enlightened me slightly on how our minds actually work. Like the non-standard shaped polygon, I would never think it is one of those, yet that is what it is. Also the x’s and o’s in alternating rows is clever. One of the least exciting topics I would say is organisational change. It was challenging yet quite boring and I didn’t really enjoy the content in the lectures or the seminars around this time. One of the more tricky subjects I found was motivation. Although it was more interesting than most of the others, it was one of the hardest to understand and I found it hard to relate to this lecture because it didn’t seem like there was much relevance to business in it. It is definitely an area I will need to revise more for my exam. I have also found writing this learning log challenging as I have never done anything like this before. But it is different I guess.

Hot Term Paper Topics

When the term paper is assigned, first thing you’re supposed to do is to pick the right topic to investigate. Of course, you’ve got a lot of things that hook your attention, but make sure to give preference to something that will 100% engage your readers. Make sure to link innovative technologies to conduct the research and some history background of the topic and voila! The supreme quality paper is right out there! Space When it comes to the hottest topic for the term paper, some prefer to look right into the sky. The Cold War has finally ended, which means there is no race for space. Nonetheless, the question of the space travel is worth your attention. Imposed Democracy After the dreadful World War II, the USA has a significant influence over the countries all over the globe. The topic is pretty hot and the so-called â€Å"imposed† democracy is highly controversial even today. The Globalization Impact on Religion By means of the technology, the world is buried in the world wide web that interconnects everyone on the planet in the new way. Decisions that are made within any land can cause great changes in a country located half-way around the globe! When dealing with this topic make sure to investigate how globalization influences religion and its aspects. U.N. Policies and Their Impact on the Environment Scientists from all over the globe spend every single day in order to research and know more about the U.N. policies impact upon our planet. This topic will gives you an opportunity to know more about the global environmental issues and find out whether the policies mentioned above have made any impact on the behavior of a human being. Media Its Influence on Teens One can hardly name any other powerful tool that can influence beliefs and ideas of the younger generation! By means of the most known media channels one can easily manipulate the choices individuals make to buy this or that product and viewpoints on this or that issue. Bar Code Implants as a Replacement for the Social Security Numbers? One of the most controversial topics that cause hot debates in the whole world. Although one can easily steal our social security numbers, some people still do not accept body implants needed to identify them. At the author of this term paper, you have an opportunity to describe both – the identification methods and the technologies used in the process.

Pharmaceutical Industry The Best Performing Industry,...

One of the most prominent sectors of the market has been healthcare. 2 The healthcare sector makes up 14.0% of the SP 1500 and has had the highest 1 year, 3 year, and 5 year returns at 28.58, 30.51, and 23.85. 1 According the 2014 stock prices, investments within the healthcare sector have outperformed the SP 1500 by 11.9%. The healthcare sector is made up of two industries, health care equipment services group (37% of the healthcare sector) and pharmaceuticals, biotechnology life sciences group (63% of the healthcare sector). According to the SP industry analysis, the biotechnology industry has been the best performing industry, based on stock performance. In each of the last four years the biotechnology industry has outperformed†¦show more content†¦This can be interpreted as, 41.7% of every dollar contributes to net income. Debt to capitalization is used to measure the amount of debt that in the capital structure. Companies with high debt to capitalization show weak fin ancial strength in that more of its operations are financed through debt rather than equity, which increases default risk. The biotechnology industry of the SP 1500 has been constant for the most part, only slightly increasing over the past several years due to mergers and acquisitions. To establish a valuation estimate of the biotechnology industry, the PEG ratio (price to earnings growth ratio) is analyzed. The average PEG ratio for the biotechnology industry is 1.2%, which is just higher than the ideal value representing a fair tradeoff between cost and growth. This means that the industry is slightly overvalued in terms of its growth. According to one year data, today’s market suggest that the overall state of the market is in an upward positive trend. The industries that provided the most potential for profit, revenue, and growth are ideal. Therefore, it is recommended to invest and overweight the biotechnology industry because of its performance and expected growth. Biogen (BIIB) is an SP 500 company that has a 95.12 billion dollar valuation. It is part of the healthcare sector and one of the world’s oldest independent company in the biotechnology industry. Biogen develops, markets andShow MoreRelatedFinancial Analysis of Merck and Pfizer3681 Words   |  15 PagesPharmaceutical Industry The pharmaceutical industry includes companies that research, develop, market or distribute generic and branded drugs. The industry expanded during the 1980’s and drugs to treat heart disease and AIDS were prominent. Consumer demand for nutritional supplements and alternative medicine increased during the 1990’s with the Internet facilitating direct purchases of drugs. 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