Personal Responsibility Essay Example for Free

Personal Responsibility Essay An individual has a duty to look after self. This is achievable through maintaining a certain level of concern and cultivating in the ways of caring for self. A human being has esteem needs which need to be maintained in order to feel whole and complete. The variables in personal responsibility occur in one self and their decision to accept themselves as they are. The focus on personal responsibility engages an individual to be confident in personal affairs as well as life. Personal responsibility is a commitment to the application of the issues one has an individual dedication to undertake. One ought to believe in individual ability to follow the aspects of personal responsibility. This is portrayed by individuals when they uphold the mission and goals in their lives . When one sets a target in life, following it is a choice and one choosing not to give up is a commitment in the responsibility of that person’s life. Persisting and not giving up in a person’s responsibility is a property of commitment and dedication in one’s life. The aspect of applying all the energy one may have is a reflection of the areas where one is being responsible to accommodate the pressure in. Therefore, dedication to excellence and doing the good things in life for development of self is a reflection of personal responsibility. When an individual is concentrating on making life comfortable and making it pleasing, the level of commitment is certainly high. Individual’s morals and decision making which may be hard to make are examples of commitment to one’s personal values, which is a responsibility to self. The image that one commits to portray to the society is cultivated inside, hence it is a detail to show dedication to personal growth and respect. Personal responsibility gives a positive growth to life when an individual has the obligation and feeling that they have a direction to make it. Personal responsibility instills values in an individual that are very helpful in their life. Through personal responsibility, an individual will learn how to be determined and never back down to obstacles. This is a positive experience when difficult situations come up. Courage and self determination are portrayed in an individual. One obtains trust with self and with other people by maintaining a level of self responsibility. The way one portrays these aspects with confidence is the same way the other people will acknowledge them. Personal responsibility gives one power and the confidence to accept responsibilities in the various disciplines in life that may arise. It is a great influence of the decisions we make. This shows other people that we are mature people and can be bestowed roles of responsibility and positions for us to take care of. Personal responsibility refers to the aspect in which individuals are in charge of themselves and their lives, taking care of the way they think and feel. This involves being concerned more about their affairs, self satisfaction and comfort ability. Maintaining a mental and physical healthy and keep clear emotions and treating oneself with respect is essential in achieving personal responsibility. This obligation to oneself causes individuals to be accountable to their lives and forces them to put across some conditions or rules in their lives. The achievement of goals is triggered by some of these rules. Responsibility of self is paramount in ensuring the achievement of a positive living attitude.

Describe The Strategic Alternatives Given Business Essay

Describe The Strategic Alternatives Given Business Essay We are shivering in our paints, as we grope against new competition from firms from USA and Korea. A very senior LT executive to the author at a Management Development Programme at IIM (Ahmedabad) in 1993 The competition we have faced till now is nothing is compared to what lies in store for us. Till now, the period (post-liberalisotion) was one of learning and assessment for the big global competitors Sudhakar Divokar Kulkarni, CEO. to the case author in April 1997. In 1997 Larsen and Tubro (LT), one of the largest engineering companies in India (and one of the top five private sector companies) posted yet again a growth rate of over 20 per cent. This happened for the fourth consecutive year despite acute liquidity crisis in the market, political instability, and uncertainty about execution of power projects of foreign companies (e.g. Enron), and so no. Since last few years, LT was becoming a lesson for companies worldwide in managing explosive growth and developing internal capabilities on a continuous basis. Simultaneously, it was setting new challenges for the academics in defining core competencies and core capabilities. An independent survey named LT to be one of the best managed companies in Asia and another by Business Toda, showed that the company was one of the most transparent and a leader on the issue of corporate governance. During 1995-96 and 1996-97, the company achieved an incredible growth in sales of nearly Rs. 1,000 crore per a nnum over the previous years, crossing the landmark turnover of Rs. 5,000 crore in the process. The Evolution L T was set up in 1938 as a partnership trading firm by two Danish engineers, Henning Holck Larsen and Soren kristian Toubro, who had quit their jobs. In 1946, it became a private limited company and by 1950 reached the status of a public limited company. Table 1 gives the evolutionary picture in brief. LT presently has a shareholder base of nearly 1 million and employee strength of over 24,000 As a company, this multi-dimensional engineering giant is actually the nucleus of a group of companies involved in building complexes, worksheets, offices and service outlets at different locations all over India and abroad. Over the years, LT has acquired a commendable reputation for capabilities for executing engineering related projects. Table 1 LT Business History: The Milestones 1938 Incorporation as a partnership firm 1946 Incorporation as a Private Ltd Co. I950 LT goes public Powai Works set up 1961 Audco India incorporated for manufacturing valves 1962 Retirement of Soren Toubro; EWAC Ltd. set up for manufacture of welding alloys 1963 TENGL founded to manufacture crawler undercarriage parts for caterpillars 1969 Agency business abolished, formation of LT Bottle Closure division 1971 LT McNeil set up for manufacturing Presses for tyre industry 1974 Management Organization Structure and Management Planning and Control System introduced LT Bangalore Works commences production of hydraulic excavators 1978 Larsen retires. LT Faridabad commences production of switchgear 1982 ECC merged with L&T; LT enters shipping business with two ships 1983 LT enters cement manufacturing with Awarpur plant commencing production 1987 LT enters computer hardware with floppy discs and printers; LT Gould for electronic test and measured instruments 1988 Cement capacity enhanced to 2.2 m tons per annum 1989 90 LT under DH Ambani (as chairman) 1990 93 Repeated takeover attempts by RIL 1993 95 Series of strategic alliances and tie-ups resulting in formation of LT-Niro. LT-Chiyoda, LT Sargent Lund9, LT Finance, and so on. The Takeover Attempt During 1991 93, as the country progressed towards liberalisation, the company just emerged from a not-so-welcome takeover threat from the powerful Ambanis of Reliance. The Ambanis were themselves embarking upon massive expansion in chemicals and petrochemicals business, and LT would have provided a real and logical synergy in terms of executing turnkey projects for construction, engineering, supplying machinery and of course, offering suppliers credit (to the tune of Rs. 1.000 crore). Through protracted investigation and litigation (in which the Reliance Industries Ltd. was found to have collected forged proxies), the company somehow remained in the hands of professionals. The big question mark as posed by an article in the Economic and Political weekly was Where does LT go from where it has reached now? However, it was obvious that a total new mindset and working culture would be required if LT was to grow and remain competitive. In 1993 94, the company started adopting the principles of Total Quality Management (TQM) by becoming customer focused, reducing the costs and wastage, and adding value at all stages for maximising customer satisfaction. In 1994, Mr. S.D. Kulkarni took over as the CEO of LT and confidently promised that the company would reach its mission of being a Rs. 10,000 crore ($3 bn.) company by the end of the century. He also declared that the company would strive to maintain and develop leadership positions in all its businesses or else it will quit. Simultaneously, zero retrenchment was promised. The philosophy of TQM was embraced with added emphasis on customer delight, that is, delivering more value than expected by the customer. Vision, Core Values, and TQM Infrastructure being a key bottleneck for Indian industry was identified as the engine of Growth for the companys ambitious plans. But before that, the company needed an ambition statement, which every employee could own and share. A massive companywide exercise for finding out what the company stood for and what its core values were was embarked upon. The emergent statement though not sounding much different from several other organisations vision, however, came to be owned and understood by almost every employee because of the process of identifying the mission and peoples involvement. The key elements of LTs vision f focussed towards a world class company dedicated to: excellence and professionalism customer delight through service entrepreneurial leadership and creation of an organisation that is on the path of continuously learning by fostering teamwork, trust, and care Community service and environmental protection. Core Competencies According to a senior executive, today the core competence of LT lies in its ability to synthesise, integrate and harmonise its diverse world-class engineering, manufacturing, procurement, construction and fabrication skills around turnkey projects (in core economic sectors) and people. This is made possible through a world class vendor base and quality technological alliances, excellent IT infrastructure (CAD,/CAM systems, PMIS etc.) sophisticated fabrication facilities for plant and machinery in the core sector. Business Leadership LT holds a leadership position in India in most of the areas in which it operates. The first company to introduce hydraulic excavators in the country, it still maintains its leadership status in this and in the vibratory compactor segments. LTs switchgear products enjoy a dominant position in Indian as well as the international markets. It continues to be a leader in the manufacture of Z-Line petrol pumps and its cement is considered to be of high quality. LT has pioneered the manufacture and supply of critical nuclear reactors and space vehicles hardware in the country. It has to its credit many firsts in the Indian industry from the indigenously manufactured hydrocracker reactor, naptha run power plants, the worlds largest curing press, to the first vertical dairy in the country and so on. With the Project and Construction business in the country growing at a fast pace and expected to continue to do so with the country s emphasis on infrastructure, both LT ECC (Construction Group) and LT s Projects (EPC) businesses are being treated as thrust areas. The ECC construction group has been responsible for construction landmarks both in India and abroad, for instance, the Bahai house of worship in Delhi, an international airport terminal in Abu Dhabi, bridges in Malaysia, hotels in Uzbekistan, and so on. Its major projects have been building of cement plants for Grasim Industries, Gujarat Ambuja Cements, and ACC Ltd., construction of bridges and railway tunnels for the Konkan Railway project. In projects business, LT EPC group successfully executed orders from ONCC (for piping and oil platforms), Tata Chemicals {for captive co generation power plant) and Gandhinagar Dairy. In shipping and international business too, the company has made significant progress to become one of the leading players in their line of business. LT has a long and enviable record of high-tech fabrication. The workshops in Powai with CNC precision machines house large-size precision fabrication facilities. Its major heavy engineering complex at Hazira also caters to such needs. LTs units and its links with globally reputed organisations have contributed much in developing manufacturing excellence. Decision-making at LT Over the years, the company has implemented its vision through various approaches. Foremost is the emphasis on empowerment, teamwork, and continuous training of employees. In terms of structure, the company has decentralised decision-making, and according to Mr. Kulkarni, CEO, the concept of Strategic Business Units (SBUs) is being actively encouraged. The company is decentralised for all practical purposes. Budgets and allocations are made at the beginning of the year and SBUs undertake the responsibility for achieving the targets. Only in major decisions involving capacity augmentation, business divestment, diversification, and so on does the CEO personally involve himself. According to Mr. Kulkarni, only through empowerment and decentralised decision making can a highly diversified company like LT be managed. For example, though the decision to divest the Dot Matrix Printers (DMPs) business was first proposed by the concerned department, yet the decision was taken ai the MD/Board level as it agreed that product and technological obsolescence and synergy of DMPs with other businesses was indeed low. The Culture of TQM The TQM journey, initiated in 1993, has now taken firm roots in LT. The efforts put in training a large number of employees has resulted in the launch of many quality improvement initiatives. A large number of employees have participated in continuous improvement (Kaizen) and small group activities. Several cross-functional teams regularly function in the areas of manufacturing, design, marketing and services. LT has created an environment for increased empowerment to further improve customer services. The TQM Awareness Programmes have also been extended to the stockists and vendors to achieve improvement in the operations and customer service. LT strongly believe in the concept of internal customers. With TQM knowledge spreading widely inside the company, employees have realised that everybody in every department is a supplier to somebody in the organisation if not directly to an outside customer. One employee says, even though it is difficult to oblige everybody, I believe that we should go a step forward to understand the real requirements of the customer, which he himself may not be fully aware of, and delight the customer through total quality and service. Such an attitude should be our guiding force. A value strongly sought to be inculcated in the employees is that people can confront competition better by moving from a product-oriented philosophy to a customer-oriented philosophy. For this, employees are being trained in multi skills, including quality transactions and market engineering, besides product engineering. With people being regarded as the prime movers, a strong HRD culture pervades the organisations personnel policies, and HRD systems are designed to sustain motivation, encourage learning, and achieve higher levels of quality and productivity through job involvement. The embracing of TQM philosophy.and implementation of ISO 9000 systems by almost all divisions has led people to work towards common goals with a customer oriented approach. Social Commitments Corporate Citizenship The Mumbai Chamber presented the Good Corporate Citizen Award for the year 1994 -95 to Larsen and Toubro Limited for its contribution to Larsen and Toubro Limited for its contribution to the corporate world, but more importantly for its conspicuous achievements in improving the quality of life in the community. Award for most Outstanding Concrete Structure The ECC Division of LT received the ICI-Mc-Bauchemie Award presented by The Indian Concrete Institute for the most outstanding concrete structure for the year 1995 96 for Sree Kanteerava Indoor Sports Complex is Bangalore. The structure is considered to be an engineering marvel. The citation for the award reads Sree Lanteerava Indoor Sports Complex is designed in the shape of an ellipse using 120 V shaped precast folded plate elements. Each element is 43 m long and weighs 55. t. The thickness of the plate is just 40 mm, but strengthened by ribs throughout its length. Since the folded plate springs from the ring beam along the outer periphery and connected by the compression ring at the crown, the entire roof is self supporting, providing an unobstructed column-fee space of 119 m x 91 m with a playing arena of 65 m x 45 min the centre. Environment Upgradation LT has been showing its commitment towards corporate citizenship. As one goes around the works and offices of LT. one experiences a soothing and refreshing ambience because of the rich foliage and delightful floral blooms around these structures. LT has undertaken extensive tree plantation programme. Over three lakh trees were planted in and around the factory in 1993-94 under the programme Trees for Life. The villagers have been given grafted saplings of fruit-bearing trees and encouraged to plant them. The success of this ongoing effort led to LT being selected by the Government of Maharashtra for the prestigious Vanashree Award in 1990. Contribution to Academics LT set up LT Institute of Technology, a polytechnic in Mumbai. In a short period, it has come to be widely regarded as one of the best training institutions of its kind in the country, particularly for the full-fledged workshops and laboratories that provide a strong practical orientation to theoretical inputs. There is a good demand in engineering companies for the students passing out from this Institute. LT also contribute financially towards Upgradation of facilities in several polytechnics. It regularly interfaces with academic institutions to promote quality education and has established research chairs for faculty in several institutions including ai IIM, Ahmedabad. Within the company, one of the most invaluable and lasting investments made by LT is the establishment of a Management Development Programme Centre at Lonavala (near Mumbai). According to Mr. CM Srivastava, Joint General Manager (JGM) (HRD), the management development centre has been visua lized as a temple of learning where people would come with the sole purpose of enhancing knowledge, learning through experience, self-study, and introspection. The emphasis, therefore, is on providing an ambience for learning rather than training. The centre has modern learning facilities like computer-added packages, a library, and outdoor training facilities. Manufacturing Facilities Some important manufacturing facilities of LT are shown in Table 2. Table 2 Important Manufacturing Facilities of LT Location Product/Plants Powai, Madh (Maharashtra) Plant and heavy equipment switchgears, Petrol pumps, Bothell closures, control and automation, welding alloys, undercarriage components Thane (Maharashtra) Electronics and Inputs for undercarriage components Awarpur (Maharashtra) Cement Nashik (Maharashtra) Light-weight glass containers Faridabad (Haryana) switchgears Ankleshwar (Orissa) Welding Alloys Kansbajal (Orissa) Plant and equipment for steel paper and pulp, material handling and mineral processing industry Mysore (karnataka) Medical electronic equipment computer peripherals, telecommunications, test and measuring instruments Bangalore (Karnataka) Earth-moving and construction equipment, hydraulic equipment and diesel engines, Gen. Sets Hazira (MP) Heavy equipments Hirmi (MP) Cement manufacturing unit Chennai (TN) Valves, rubber and plastic processing machinery Kandla (Gujarat) Export oriented fabrication Pondicherry Transmission towers Kalol (Gujarat) Export footwear Jharsuguda (Orissa) Cement grinding unit The Future The financial results of LT far the year 1996 97 are not too encouraging as far as profits are concerned. The company has reported profits of Rs. 410 crore against the previous years profit of Rs. 390 crore, thereby achieving a slim growth of five percent. However, the turnover has recorded a sharp jump from Rs. 4249 dare to Rs. 5304 crore. From another perspective, the performance has been commendable considering the slump and intense competition in the cement industry and performance of other competitors during the period. LT is firmly consolidating itself in four major business areas engineering, construction cement, and equipment manufacture, Presently, cement accounts for 15 per cent of the total revenue. lt has embarked on a major expansion programme that will double the capacity to 12 m tons per annum, which will make it the largest cement manufacturer in India. A Euro-issue of $135 million has been planned to fund this expansion. Having defined EPC as a thrust business for t he future, it will be relevant to take a look into the competitive structure of the EPC business. In the domestic business, LT has a handful of competitors among whom BHEL. Punj and Lloyd, and RITES are the major ones. The peculiar nature of EPC business is that it is not a sector specific industry. The core infrastructure activities such as power, telecom, and roads will become key focus areas for the country. Most players in this industry have specific competencies which cater to specialised areas, LT is perhaps the only company which competes in almost every sector by virtue of its diversified technical competence and expertise. LTs EPC business takes the form of competitive bidding for executing projects from start to finish for third parties, part execution of projects as sub contractors to other bidders, and autonomous bidding for setting up its own projects in the core sectors. In the global EPC business, however the company faces stiff competition from the global construction and engineering giants like Hyundai, Saipern, Mcdermoft, Caterpiller, to name a few. In such a highly competitive environment with technology being a handicap (that most Indian companies suffer from), the logical step is to enter into strategic and technological alliances. Most Indian EPC players follow this route and LT is no exception. Some of its alliances are with its competitors, for instance, Caterpillar, Marubeni. Like most Indian EPC players going global, LT s overseas EPC operations are concentrated in the developing and developed countries of South-and Middle-East Asia such as Thailand and Malaysia, Vietnam, Burma, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Gulf countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia. Bahrain, Oman, and so on. Though LT has attained impressive achievements, the productivity of several businesses are alarmingly low on the international benchmark level. In an environment of high interest rates and tight liquidity position, the efficient management of working capital will form the key to future LT successes. Some of the areas of concern for LT in the short-term would be: the need to attain faster delivery standards, customer satisfaction, continuous cost reduction, productivity improvement and operating with low working capital, and aiming at least to be a regional player of repute and recognition. Questions: (a) Carry out a SWOT Analysis of LT. (b) Explain the Decision-making process at LT and how does it contribute to performance of the company. (c) What are the various strategies that you recommend for LTs EPC division in domestic and foreign markets? Paper-2 Section-A 1. Strategy includes the determination and evaluation of alternative paths to an already established mission or objective and eventually, choice of the alternatives to be adopted. Explain the statement underlining the process of strategy formulation. 2. Technological factors represent major opportunities and threats, which must be taken into account while formulating strategies. Discuss. How can a firm build a sustainable technology based competitive advantage? 3. The low-cost leadership strategy at times enables the firm to defend itself against each of five competitive forces. Explain. 4. Briefly explain the factors which contribute towards the success of a strategic alliance. Illustrate with a recent example of strategic alliance. 5. Explain any three methods/techniques used in strategic control systems, giving examples. SECTION B 6. Read the case carefully and answer the questions at the end. Rupbani Beverage Limited Rupbani Beverage Limited entered the Indian wine industry in 1975 by acquiring the Mastana Wine Company of Shimla and two other smaller wine companies at Kalka for Rs. 50 lakh. Despite hostility expressed by other wine makers and predictions that Rupbani would very soon fail as other outsiders such as Parminder Wine Company had, the entry succeeded. Rupbani Limited performed the unheard of feat of establishing a volume of 30 lakh cases within two years and taking the market share away from premium brands such as the National Wine Company of Bombay, Pearl Drink Limited of Pune and Syndicate Cola Limited of Madras. Rupbani advertised heavily and incurred Rs. 10 lakh in one year and standardised the taste of its wines with considerable success. It also invested Rs. 48 lakh in a large, new winery at Ahmedabad. A Rupbani Executive said, By 1995, consumption of wine in India will be a liter per capita, compared with half a liter today. The industry reacted to Rupbanis presence by doubling and tripling advertising expenditure. ABC and Company began a costly campaign to market premium and varied wines while reducing marketing emphasis on its cheap wines such as Nahan Drinks and the Gola Beverage. ABC maintained its 25 percent market share but had to resort to some heavy price discounting to do so. In 1982 Pearl Drinks formed a special wine unit to combine efforts for all its brands. Mr. Sailesh Kumar former Vice President of the National Wine Company had directed a project to coordinate Pearls world-wide wine business and develop a world wide strategy. The new unit was, in fact, a result of his work. In1983, wine consumption changed from growth at a rate of 5 per cent to no growth. The government also lifted the ban on imports of wine. This presented an even greater challenge because imported wines were cheaper as well as superior in quality. In1984 Mr. Ranganathan took over as Managing Director of Rupbani. He reviewed the recent performance of the company and its competitive position. He noted that the company was losing its hold over the market and it was not getting the return as expected. He also found that the companys performance in the syrup business was excellent. He, therefore, thought of selling out the wine business to Pearl Drinks, He convened an executive meeting and apprised the executives of his proposal. He also informed them that Pearl Drinks had offered the company to recapture its investment in the wine business which was about Rs. one crore. Mr. Arun Mehta, General Manager, observed that Rupbani was in and out in the past six years and has joined different organisations in trying the wine business. The finance Manager, M. Subhash Ghai said, The return on assets in the wine business is not the 30 to 35 per cent, which Rupbani is used to getting in the syrup business. Gaining share and trying to compete with ABC and Company left Rupbani with, eventually, the number two position in the wine industry with profits of Rs. 60 lakh on Rs. 220 lakh in sales. The stockholders wanted immediate return and hence, the company could not afford to make long-term investments necessary to popularise the brands. Had they stayed for five more years, they would have been a key leader in a large and profitable industry. Pearl Drinks immediately went from the sixth position in the industry to a strong second place with an 11 per cent market share. The Chairman of Pearl Drinks stated: We believe you can make money in this business in two ways remain a small boutique winery or become large and achieve economies of scale. Mr. Harish, Marketing Manager of Rupbani said, It is no use selling out our business to Pearl Drink and get back what we have invested. We can compete with our competitors successfully and improve our market share if we manufacture wines of varying qualities to suit the varied preferences and pockets of diverse sections of society. We should also offer price discounts to attract the consumers. There should be wide publicity of our brands throughout the country. Questions: (a) Perform SWOT analysis of Rupbani. (b) In the light of opportunities and threats of Rupbani Beverage and its strengths and weaknesses, what strategy should it formulate to improve its performance and strengthen its competitive position? (c) Should Rupbani spend on advertising in line with its competitors? Discuss. (d) What other strategies would you suggest for Rupbani for increasing their share of the market? Paper-3 Section-A 1. Explain the various steps involved in Strategic Management process in a single business firm. 2. Explain the following: (a) Types of resources (b) Strategic importance of resources 3. Discuss the importance of differentiation strategy in the present competitive environment. Explain taking into consideration its advantages and disadvantages. 4. Every strategic alliance incurs certain costs and comes with a set of risks. Explain any five costs/risks of entering into a strategic alliance. 5. Corporate culture plays an important role in the success of an organization. Explain giving suitable example. SECTION B NEECO LIMITED At the end of the recent five-year plan, it was estimated that there would be a considerable demand in the manufacturing capacity of power transformers in the country. It was further projected that the gap between demand and the manufacturing capacity would be even larger in the subsequent plans. Thus, anticipating the countrys demand in future, Neeco Limited decided to set up a new unit for manufacturing transformers. This was in addition to the manufacturing capacity already built up at one of the existing factories. Formal Planning Process Formal planning was introduced in the very first year of the commencement of activities at the new unit. The planning process at Neeco Limited included the setting up of broad objectives and the preparation of the three-year forecast. In a letter addressed to departmental heads, the General Manager, Mr. S.K. Patel said, The time has come to put down on paper the objectives and goals of our organisation and to develop a proper framework whereby we can take a more systematic look at the future we are heading for. This, I believe, can be achieved by involvement and cooperation of all the departmental heads in putting into practice a culture of planning. The responsibility for developing a three-year plan was entrusted to the planning cell, which reported directly to the General Manager. There was a separate controllers office, which looked after budget preparation and the subsequent monitoring of actual performance. Goal Setting Process Planning began each year in the month of April with the establishment of goals by the top management. The top management group consisted of the General Manager and his various functional heads. The goals were set both in qualitative as well as quantitative terms. The quantitative goals were in terms of growth in sales and profits. Commenting on the quantitative goals, Mr. Patel observed that: Profit is the primary goal. The planning cell, after collecting dl the information, consolidated and integrated the data and prepared operating results and cash flow projections for the three-year period. Exhibit-I NEECO LIMITED Date Steps in planning 1st Week of April Planning call sends relevant formats to departmental heads, with detailed explanations. 4th Week of April By the fourth week, the various departmental send the formats back to the planning cell, duly filled. 1st Week of May Planning officer compiles all the data and puts it in an integrated form. 2nd Week of May The first draft of the plan is discussed in a management group meeting, wherein several suggestions emerge and the draft is thoroughly revised by resolving the conflicting objectives of various departments. 1st Week of June The final draft of the plan is ready and is sent to corporate headquarters. (b) Responsibility for Plan Preparation Segment of the Plan Responsibility Sale Plan (Order Book Position) Manager Marketing Production Plan Manager (Production) Materials Plan Materials Manager Manpower Plan Personnel Manager Township Development Plan Manager (Projects) Plan and Final Plan Document Planning Officer Before finalising the plans as prepared by the various functional/department heads, a detailed discussion was held. During these discussion was held. During these discussions various departmental heads explained the basis of their respective plans. The final plan was arrived after resolving the conflicting objectives of various departments. The Planning-Budgeting Linkage Immediately after the plan was approved b9 the Management Group, the process of preparing a detailed budget for the next year was initiated. The three-year plan set out the broad objectives for the first year and projections for the next two years. A detailed exercise had already been conducted in preparing the broad objectives, which served as a basis for the preparation of a detailed budget for the ensuing year. Thus the first year of the plan document, with necessary modifications, became the budget for the next year. The three year plan document and the budget were, therefore, closely inter-related. It was said that the preparation of a three year plan was, in a way, a process of creating an organisational climate for a rigorous and time consuming process of budgeting. Reactions of Executives

A Leadership Detailed Overview Leadership Essay

A Leadership Detailed Overview Leadership Essay Leadership had been started from many century. There are so many person who are known because of there leadership. I have read many articles on leadership and also had read the life history of many popular leaders so I came to know that leadership is the capability and skill of an individual to make other to do to achieve the common goal. Good leadership always ends with the good result and satisfaction. There are so many leader who didnt have any quality to be the leader in their childhood but slowly and gradually they grew the leadership skill in them so, we also can say that leadership quality are not inborn it comes through experience, training, hard work and above all strong desire and will power. A good leader not only led the team but also influence other to be like him. He must have the vision and the drive to see it through. Leadership is mainly consist of four factors they are briefly discussed below: Leader: There should be good, trustworthy, honest, understanding leader for leadership. He should have knowledge what they are doing, How that should be done, and for whom that is being done. He must have confidence on himself and thrust on the team. Followers: Leader without followers cannot be imagining. Followers follow as per the leaders orders. Communication: If there is no communication is not there than its impossible to tell what leader wants. Communication also helps to build the good relation between him and his follower. Situation: Each situation is different than another. He should be able to decide in which situation require which leadership. Leadership style varies from situation, follower and assigned task. For example, a new follower requires more supervision than the old one. He should also know his follower nature, their needs, emotion etc. All the leadership are based on following principle Be technically proficient   Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions   Make sound and timely decisions   Set the example   Know your people and look out for their well-being   Keep your workers informed   Develop a sense of responsibility in your workers   Ensure that tasks are understood, supervised, and accomplished   Train as a team   Use the full capabilities of your organization   The leadership instinct you are born with is the backbone. You develop the funny bone and the wishbone that go with it. Elaine Agather To be the good leader is not easy. Strong determination, hardworking and some of the following keys can help to be the good leader: Humble and positive : A leader must be humble and polite. There is certain way to get job done through the team member. A harsh and strict manner of leader can demotivate his follower and can decrease their interest level of working though they finish their assigned task but they may not want to work with him again. He should also have positive attitude towards everyone. He should think positive be positive and do positive. Effective communication: Leader should be able to communicate his ideas and knowledge among the follower. There should be no misunderstanding and dilemma among the follower regarding the work assigned to them so, he should be able to communicate effectively. Confident and trustworthy: leader should be confident enough to say what he wants and how he want. He should be able to confidently present himself among the team member because the entire employee wants the guidance from the confident leader. He should also be trustworthy. He should be able to win the trust of his follower. Motivation: He should be able to motivate other to their assigned work. Every one are motivated in different way so he should know that which way is best for whom. Some are motivated from negative motivation and some are with positive so he should understand every one and take the right decision. Self-Esteem: Underlying everything, is a high sense of ones own self-worth. Without that, individuals will never undertake tough challenges. If one does not have it, its important to  develop self-esteem. A leader must have self esteem. Goal Orientation: A leader must e goal oriented. Every work what he does should be goal focus. For many, leadership characteristics of being focus on a goal can be difficult but a good leader always focuses on what he wants and how he wants. His every step is towards his goal. Courage: Many professors talk about entrepreneurs as risks takers. But this leadership characteristic is like saying snow is cold-its accurate but missing something. Another way is to say the same thing is that one must have guts. It requires a great deal of courage to build a company from the ground up. Tolerance of uncertain risk: A leader should have tolerant ability of uncertain risk or misshapen. There can occur uncertain risk in the future the leader should not run rather handle the situation and tolerate it. Being the leader is not small task you should have brilliant tolerant ability also. Dont tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results. George S. Patton Everyone is not leader it is the fact everyone should accept it. You must have some leadership skill also to: Lead by leader: One of the best ways to lead is by example pitching in where needed, lending a helping hand and assuring that everything is done. Passion: A leader without passion is not the leader. be organized: A good leader should be well organized. Delegate: A leader cannot do anything alone so he should also delegate his power among the well deserved person. Great Listener.  A huge part of being a great communicator is being a great listener. Know your people: You should be able to now the nature of people because different people have different in nature. Be follower: all the great leaders are follower too so you leader can follow other good leader. The above mention skill and character I found and I am on them highly inspired by the Rob Fyfe and Alan Bollard. I feel that they have all the quality to be the leader and they are inspiring leader of this generation though they face unsuccessful some time. At first I want to talk about Rob Fyfe. Rob Fyfe: He was born on 6 May 1961and now he is a current Chief Executive Officer of New Zealand national airline Air New Zealand. He was born in New Zealand and graduated with Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical) honors from the University of Canterbury in 1982. He currently lives in Auckland, New Zealand. He was previously General Manager of the Bank of New Zealand, Chief Operating Officer of ITV Digital (which went into bankruptcy while he was at the helm) and group general manager of Air New Zealand. Fyfe has been with the company since 2003. The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it. Theodore Roosevelt I consider him a good leader because airline is going through the many difficulties like high fuel price, increased competition, global economy crash down etc. Fyfe, now into his fourth year at the top, he took stand in each difficult situation and each situation. He is the quick mover in charge. He was up front and available immediately after the crash of his one airplane, responding with an openness that is characteristic of his dealings with staff and passengers. He has given the high priority to the innovation in the company as a result Air New Zealand recently made the worlds first flight using a sustainable bio fuel. It also attempted sending a rocket into space. He listen to the every ideas of the employee and they has an interesting programme called Test Flight where employees share ideas to the executive team if the idea is chosen the person can work in the project and he also can have share in the profit. While mass layoffs have been a feature of other airlines response to the crises facing aviation, Air New Zealand has avoided this around 200 of 11,000 staff will go early next year. His positive nature an can do attitude was always seen in his leadership. He says We operate this airline in a New Zealand way were not trying to emulate a Singapore Airlines or emulate a McDonalds. Were trying to go out there day in and day out and trying to be authentic Kiwis and give people a real genuine New Zealand experience. He never stop working in his product and improvising it. Due to his leadership and his dedication made Air New Zealand Airline of the Year by the Air Transport World Magazine. My other inspirational leader is Alan Bollard. This year has been really difficult and challenging due to economic crisis but the man tasked with maintaining that structure in these difficult times is the Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard. Alan Bollard  born on 1951 in  Auckland is the current governor of the  Reserve Bank of New Zealand, having been appointed on 23 September 2002. He succeeded  Donald Brash  in this role. His earlier public service included four years as Secretary to the  Treasury, and time as head of the  Commerce Commission. He headed the  New Zealand Institute of Economic Research  (1987-1994) and has edited or written at least three books about economic reform in  New Zealand. He gained a PhD in Economics from the  University of Auckland  in 1977 and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by the same university in 2007. Bollard has had to face with the steepest commodity price rise and then with the global financial crisis since the great depression. But he has not been afraid of recession. He had confident on himself and on what he was doing. He always says that bank are silence army always prepare themselves foe the uncertain future so he was always ready to face what comes on future. He says that we should be worry about what comes in next year though we can learn from the previous year and should never do such mistake again. He was future oriented. He follows the Integrity (being professional and exercising), Innovation (actively improving what we do) and inclusion (working together for a more effective bank. The very essence of leadership is its purpose. And the purpose of leadership is to accomplish a task. That is what leadership does-and what it does is more important than what it is or how it works. Colonel Dandridge M. Malone He always tries toinnovate new for the more effective being professional. His leadership was so good that he got credit from the Westpac chief Brendan ODonovan for not being afraid of engineering a recession when curbing inflation and other excesses requires. he was able to lead the bank successfully so that he won the Heralds 2008 New Zealand Business Man of the Year. Its easy to be the leader but hard to be the good leader. Both business leader have so many similar qualities which made them a good business leader. Both leader believes on their work. They were future oriented and goal oriented thought they are from different field of business, one is of airlines and other is bank. They faced many challenges (recession, commodities price high etc.)but they never back out from the situation. They always thought about the employees and their benefit also. They didnt became leader from less effort they give their heart to it so that they are her tasting the fruit of success. They mainly follow: Be good Know your role Take responsibilities Take risk Decision on right time Innovation of ideas Participation of employees Know your strength and weakness Accept the change Find your unique selling point Dont give up So they can be taken as the good example of leader and can learn many thing from their life. There are less leader who became the leader overnight but you need long hard work and determination to be the good leader. There are many leader in the history who agve their life being leader. Every country have the story of leader who gave their life saving the country. Leader are in every field other than business also. Leadership quality is not in born it shoul be acquire with strong willpower, determination and hard work. You should know that everyone cannot be the leader and leader are Leadership is understanding people and involving them to help you do a job. That takes all of the good characteristics, like integrity, dedication of purpose, selflessness, knowledge, skill, implacability, as well as determination not to accept failure. Admiral Arleigh A. Burke also once the follower of some other leader. Leadership can be inside of you also you just need to find that and work on it. Who knows you can be also the successful leader of the future. There can be success waitng you far away just know your character and skill.

The Effect of Being an Only Child on the Childs Personality Essay

The Effect of Being an Only Child on the Child's Personality Literature Review: Before a child has friends they have their family. Everything that they know and love about the world mostly comes from what they see around in their house. Children usually find role models in their family most of the time it is the child’s sibling. Yet only children don’t have that experience of living with another child and begin to develop their personality and traits from what they see in their parents. An only child’s role model is usually their mom or dad. Most of their time is anyway spent with them. Looking up to an adult rather than a younger being can really change a lot about the child’s personality. Only child are mostly known to be responsible and develop good language skills because they are around their parents so much. They may see the responsibility that the parent has and learn how to be responsible from that. They don’t have any influences of seeing a child being lazy and not listening to their parent they just see the work of th e parent. Also because an only child’s main person to speak to is an adult they learn how to speak more properly and are able to talk better because they are learning from an expert of speaking that will not make mistakes at saying common words. This is a great advantage later in life for these only children. (Brophy, 1989)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Only children are also commonly known to become more mature faster then other children who grow up with siblings. Their maturity grows faster because again adults surround them most of the time. They copy what they see their parents do and they try to fit in and be like the parents. As other kids with siblings they would try to fit in with their siblings but only children have their parents to fit in with. (Koontz, 1989)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As these only children try to fit in with their parents they also try hard to fill up the expectations of their parents. Most parents put very high expectations on their only child since this is their only child and all their energy and attention is on them. They have high expectations because this is the only child that can make them proud. Knowing this, only children have a hard time trying to be the best. Only children have this pressure of being perfect for their parents because if they make a mistake they can’t say well at least I’m doing better than my brother or sister... ...y child. By giving out this survey to many children not just only children we can see the differences between only children and children with siblings. Statements 2-4 test whether or not the person likes school because most people who like school tend to do well at school. Statements 4-9 test whether the person is a hard-working student or not. Statements 10 and 11 test whether or not the person can have relationships with people because self-centered may not care too much about other people. Also in strong relationships you must think and care about other people this is hard for self-centered people. Statements 12,15,16,17 test whether or not the person has a high view of himself or herself because self-centered people have very high views of themselves. Statements 13 and 14 test whether or not the person cares about other people because self-centered people only care about themselves.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Works Cited Brophy, B. (March 6, 1989). It doesn't hurt to be alone. U.S. News and World Report, 106, 54-55 Koontz, K. (February 1989). Just me. Health, 21, 38-39 Sulloway, F. J. (September 1997). Birth order and personality. Harvard Mental Health Letter, 14, 5-7

Dialects in American Literature Essay -- essays research papers

Dialects in American Literature In the late 19th and early 20th centuries dialect was not common in American Literature. Writers who attempted to accurately capture American dialect and slang often failed to make it believable. In my essay, â€Å"Dialects in American Literature,† I will compare and contrast three writers who used dialect in their writings and explain the difference between effective and ineffective use of dialect. The writers I will be discussing are Mark Twain, Bret Harte, and William Dean Howells. The use of dialect in American literature comes from using a combination of realism and regionalism. According to dictionary.com â€Å"realism is an inclination toward literal truth and pragmatism and regionalism is the use of regional characteristics, as of locale, custom, or speech, in literature or art.† Regionalism includes local language, which is often expressed by using dialect. Three examples of accurately capturing regionalism are: Bret Harte’s â€Å"The Outcasts of Poker Flat† (1869), Mark Twain’s â€Å"Adventures of Huckleberry Finn† (1884-1885), and William Dean Howells â€Å"A Hazard of New Fortunes† (1890). The Biography of Bret Harte states that he was born in Albany New York on August 25, 1839. In 1854, his mother, a widow, moved him to California. In California Harte worked as a miner, school teacher, express messenger, printer, and journalist. While Harte was in San Francisco writing for â€Å"The Californian† he worked with Mark Twain, Charles Warren Stoddard, Prentice Mulford and the editor, Henry Webb. He contributed many poems and prose pieces to the paper. Bret Harte was appointed Secretary of the United States Branch Mint at San Francisco in 1864. He held that office until 1870. Harte then became the first editor of the â€Å"Overland Monthly.† "The Luck of Roaring Camp" published in the â€Å"Overland Monthly† brought him instant and wide fame. He was thereafter requested to contribute poems and articles to a number of publications. His stories of the American West were much in demand in the eastern United States. In 1871 he moved to New Yo rk. He later moved to Boston. â€Å"The Outcasts of Poker Flat† was first published in an issue of the Overland Monthly magazine in January, 1869. Bret Harte was also the editor of Overland Monthly ... ... â€Å"Harte’s influence on the writings of Mark Twain,† Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism 25 (1964): 209. Harte Bret. â€Å"Outcasts of Poker flat.† Page by Page books 25 Nov 2004 Lewis Andrew G. â€Å"Biography of Samuel Clemens alias Mark Twain.† Biography of Mark Twain 22 Nov. 2004 McMurray William. A Hazard of New fortunes,† Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism 7 (1967): 390. McMichael George, Leonard James S, Lyne Bill, Mallon Anne-Marie, Mitchell Verner D. Anthology of American Literature. Volume II ed 8. New Jersey: Person Education, 2004 O’Brien Edward J. â€Å"The Advance of the American Short Story.† Short Story Criticism 8 (1923): 230-231. Reuben Paul P. "Biography of Francis Bret Harte.† The History of San Francisco. 24 Nov. 2004 Wall Rachel G. â€Å"Dialect and Subtle Characterization in William Dean Howells A Hazard of New Fortunes,† Issues in Languages and Linguistics 24 Nov. 2004 Dialects in American Literature Essay -- essays research papers Dialects in American Literature In the late 19th and early 20th centuries dialect was not common in American Literature. Writers who attempted to accurately capture American dialect and slang often failed to make it believable. In my essay, â€Å"Dialects in American Literature,† I will compare and contrast three writers who used dialect in their writings and explain the difference between effective and ineffective use of dialect. The writers I will be discussing are Mark Twain, Bret Harte, and William Dean Howells. The use of dialect in American literature comes from using a combination of realism and regionalism. According to dictionary.com â€Å"realism is an inclination toward literal truth and pragmatism and regionalism is the use of regional characteristics, as of locale, custom, or speech, in literature or art.† Regionalism includes local language, which is often expressed by using dialect. Three examples of accurately capturing regionalism are: Bret Harte’s â€Å"The Outcasts of Poker Flat† (1869), Mark Twain’s â€Å"Adventures of Huckleberry Finn† (1884-1885), and William Dean Howells â€Å"A Hazard of New Fortunes† (1890). The Biography of Bret Harte states that he was born in Albany New York on August 25, 1839. In 1854, his mother, a widow, moved him to California. In California Harte worked as a miner, school teacher, express messenger, printer, and journalist. While Harte was in San Francisco writing for â€Å"The Californian† he worked with Mark Twain, Charles Warren Stoddard, Prentice Mulford and the editor, Henry Webb. He contributed many poems and prose pieces to the paper. Bret Harte was appointed Secretary of the United States Branch Mint at San Francisco in 1864. He held that office until 1870. Harte then became the first editor of the â€Å"Overland Monthly.† "The Luck of Roaring Camp" published in the â€Å"Overland Monthly† brought him instant and wide fame. He was thereafter requested to contribute poems and articles to a number of publications. His stories of the American West were much in demand in the eastern United States. In 1871 he moved to New Yo rk. He later moved to Boston. â€Å"The Outcasts of Poker Flat† was first published in an issue of the Overland Monthly magazine in January, 1869. Bret Harte was also the editor of Overland Monthly ... ... â€Å"Harte’s influence on the writings of Mark Twain,† Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism 25 (1964): 209. Harte Bret. â€Å"Outcasts of Poker flat.† Page by Page books 25 Nov 2004 Lewis Andrew G. â€Å"Biography of Samuel Clemens alias Mark Twain.† Biography of Mark Twain 22 Nov. 2004 McMurray William. A Hazard of New fortunes,† Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism 7 (1967): 390. McMichael George, Leonard James S, Lyne Bill, Mallon Anne-Marie, Mitchell Verner D. Anthology of American Literature. Volume II ed 8. New Jersey: Person Education, 2004 O’Brien Edward J. â€Å"The Advance of the American Short Story.† Short Story Criticism 8 (1923): 230-231. Reuben Paul P. "Biography of Francis Bret Harte.† The History of San Francisco. 24 Nov. 2004 Wall Rachel G. â€Å"Dialect and Subtle Characterization in William Dean Howells A Hazard of New Fortunes,† Issues in Languages and Linguistics 24 Nov. 2004

The Tomatis Method Essay -- Health Medical Essays

The Tomatis Method Dr. Alfred A. Tomatis is a French ear, nose, and throat doctor who made astonishing medical and psychological discoveries that led to audio-psycho-phonology, or the Tomatis method. Also called â€Å"auditory training†, auditory stimulation†, and â€Å"listening therapy†, the purpose of this treatment is to reeducate the way we listen, and it is used in over two hundred and fifty centers around the world. (http://www.tomatis.com/overview.html) The Tomatis method claims to benefit a wide variety of people. People suffering from auditory processing problems, dyslexia, attention deficit disorder, autism, and learning disorders can improve their communication and social behavior by auditory stimulation, which can eliminate or reduce the severity of the disorder. This is based on the belief that the symptoms of these disorders are not caused by the disorder itself, but by a sensory regulation problem that begins in our most primordial sensory instrument, the inner ear. (http://www.tomatis.net/Tomatis_tomatis.html) In addition, those suffering from depression, low self-esteem, or just wanting to learn a new language or fine tune their musical talent can also benefit from this unique treatment. Attention, focus, learning, and language abilities can all be improved by retraining the ear to listen using â€Å"charging high-frequency sounds†. (http://www.tomatis.com/overview.html) BACKGROUND: THE EAR The ear has three basic functions. The first is the most obvious, the filtration and analysis of sound by a part of the ear called the cochlea. This function consists of two parts: hearing and listening. Hearing is a passive process and we have limited abilities to improve it. Listening, ho... ...vailable one can conclude that it lacks the concrete evidence needed to become a standard treatment. Bibliography Anonymous. (1994). Auditory Integration Training. ASHA, 36, 55-58. Cummings, Richard Lloyd. (1986). An Evaluation of the Tomatis Listening Training Program. Dissertation Abstracts International, 47, 858-859. Kershner, John R. (1990). Journal of the Division for Children with Learning Disabilities. Learning Disabilities Quarterly, 13, 43-53. Kershner, John R. (1986). Evaluation of the Tomatis Listening Program. Canadian Journal of Special Education, 2, 1-32. Tomatis, Alfred. (1969). Dyslexia. Ontario: University of Ottawa Press, 83. Van-Jaarsveld, Pieter E; du-Plessis, Wynand F. (1988). Audio-psycho-phonology at Potchefstroom: A review. South African Journal of Psychology, 18, 136-143.

Erpsim Game Report for Distribution Game

Final analyze and Game report of ERPsim Distribution Game To: Dr. Shirley Stretch-Stephenson Group C H Members: Iris Huang Ankit Sethiya Ken Chen Yuankai Wang (GS) After 2 trial rounds of ERPsim distribution game, our group got rank 2 out of 4 groups (actually climbing from rank 3 to 2). So everyone in the group is fully confident about the real game running in the upcoming week. After several discussions, we settled down our objective as the first seller of products 1L&500ml ClearPure bottled water. But the result coming from real running game is really out of anyone’s expectation.And the truth that we got rank 3 on Net Income ranking is some kind of shock on everyone’s mind. From my point of view, though, it is a great opportunity for us to look into all the operations and strategies we used, analyze all the rights and errors we made, discuss all the situation each member got into, perfect our knowledge and experience background on SAP ERP system. It is a failure, at the same time, is also a givengift. In this report, we will analyze the whole market as well as our company’s performance throughout the game.By comparing ourselves to the market, to the competitors, the differences will unveil the reasons: which part we did right, which part we made errors. Following the market analyze is our initial group objectives and strategy. Then we use section â€Å"discrepancy† to show the differences between our results to the objectives. After that, we analyze the whole group performance during the game by integrating the reports from each member. For results analysis section, we conclude all the problems we were facing and all the errors we made.Last but not the least, is the summary summarize concluding the whole reportvaluable lessons we got from this ERPsim game. Market Analyze: For the whole market, we will use several charts below to show the market demands in different termsperspectives. By products: [pic] Chart 01: Total sales revenu e for each product after 3 quarters From the chart 01, we can clearly see that the 1L & 500mL ClearPure are the major products on the market. They totally took 79. 35% market share of bottled water, within this 79. 35%, 1L took 42. 46%, and leaves 500mL occupied 57. 54%.So the 500mL ClearPure is the best product in this distribution game and 1L ClearPure follows closely. It is the same story when you check the quantities of each product sold on market in chart 02. By Areas: [pic] Chart 02: Total sales revenue for each area after 3 quarters From chart 02, we can conclude that the area has highest demand for bottled water is North area due to its highest sales revenue of $796622. 67, followed by West and South areas. By Competitors: [pic] Chart 03: Sales performance of each group in every quarter From the chart, we discovered all the groups as internal competitors in the classroom only took 54. 5% market share of the whole market. The rest 45. 95% has gone to those external competitor s: bottled water importer companies. Due to we didn’t have the total sales revenue for each quarter of the whole market, it is impractical to draw any conclusion on the performance of us our company quarterlyfor each quarter. But from the chart, all the teams together here has a relatively steady contribution to the market throughout 3 quarters. And under this condition, we can start to compare the performance of each team in every quarter. Group Objectives and Game Roles ReviewPerformance Objective: Our goal is to be the No. 1 distributor on sales of the product ClearPure bottled water (including 1L and 500ml) in Germany. The operational objective is keeping the inventory turnover rate of ClearPure as fast as we can. That means we should keep adjusting our B-01 and B-04 products’ price according to plan and having a steady stock level on these two products. Financial goal is keeping the gross margin over all of our products exceeds 7% in last time we played. Game Role Set: Ankit: oversee the Reporting transactions; report the situation every five days.Iris: adjust price of products in the Decision transactions. Ken: track Accounting transactions and make purchase orders. GS: follow Operational transaction, calculate requirements and forecasting. Discrepancies From the results of each round, our group got rank 4th after round 1st, 3th after round 2nd, and stayed in that rank after round 3rd. The result is hardly anyone’s expectation on that point. So, what are the differences and how those differences showed up as results of our game performance? In this section, let us first figure out what are the differences between our results and the objectives.From our Professor Dr. Stretch’s final report, we got full financial information for each round of the game. [pic] [pic] [pic] Comparing the afterwards performance to our objectives and chart 03 in Market Analyze section, our group found out that: speaking of our main goal: No. 1 seller of 1L&500mL ClearPure products; we only achieved it during quarter 2 (without knowing how much importers sold in quarter 2), but failed on overall, and totally failed on the goal of financial objective to keep 7% gross margin after 3 quarters due to the negative net loss we have.So how and why we come to this situation, what kinds of mistakes we made affected our company’s performance? Are there any good methods leftimprovements we could make if there is another chance? Analyzing the Game In this section, we will analyze each group member’s performance throughout 3 quarters according to his/her role in the game. Some methods we were taking should stay as a good model for future reference; some methods should refer as a lesson we learnt. Planning: GS in our group is in charge of forecasting and planning purchase orders in the whole game.The basic rule of this player is to understand the reports data from member overseeing the market and calculate then predict the future market demand as well as plan the stock level. In Quarter 1 Our Goal: Earn enough profit and make sure we have enough stock level at the beginning of quarter 2 since no procurement could be done in quarter 1. From the start, each group has 1000 units on each product. As prepared, GS (me) set the stock level of products B-01, B-04 (ClearPure) to 1500 units, the rest got 500 units.Due to the inability to make procurement order (as we understand in that way at that time, here is our major and most lethal mistake), there is not much I can do in this quarter. By following up the market report, I helped Ankit calculate the average market price from the report. Our sales were very slow during that time even Iris constantly decrease the price bit by bit. Only after overhearing other groups started to make purchase orders for inventories, we started to realize the procurement system under menu round2&3 can be used to increase stock level in round 1.I directly made my plan into purchase orde rs and let Ken to process the first purchase order on day 17. In Quarter 2 Our Goal: Sell as many as BO1 and BO4 as we can and also clear the stocks of the rest 4 products (here is our second big mistake) at the same time. In this quarter, my role was trying to decide the reasonable stock level for each of the product. To decrease the accounts payable liability, I chose 1000 units instead of 1500 for our main products B-01, B-04, left 500 units as the target level for the rest products.The truth is except B-01 and B-04, there is no any other product will have a stock level even close to 500 in the first 10 days of round 2. After the dreadful sales revenue from quarter 1, Iris directly dropped the prices closing to the cost (this is the move we should apply in round 1), and the sales wheel broke loose. The sales were flying; I was so busy trying to figure out when I should make the purchase order standby. Fortunately, the tight work didn’t break me and Ken. We managed always k eeping our inventories for our main products over 300 units (This is a pretty wise move to keep it over 300 units. ).Due to the nature of procurement system, if we started the purchase after the inventory dropped down to 300, when sales order larger than 250 came in we would face a period of time running out of inventory. If we started the purchase before the inventory went below 500, we would have a larger account payable and inventory cost when round was finished. At the later 10 days of quarter 2, I changed the stock level to 800. Although this would increase the risk of running out of inventory, we could have relatively low cost on main products, which directly increase our net income (although it is trivial to the losses on the cost of other products).Near the end of quarter 2, Ken spotted the inventory of B-06 500mL Sprintz was close to under 200 units. Thus he noticed and urged me to make a purchase order on it. I made the stock level of 300 units for that product and finishe d the purchase order (Here is another direct hit on our net income performance. Without this purchase we will decrease our net loss by $3844. ). In Quarter 3 Our Goal: All products had to be sold out and make maximize profit from BO1 and BO4 (Our third major error to consider the initial inventory will not reflect on the balance sheet. ).During quarter 3, the role for play was the same as in quarter 2. But I set an even lower stock level of 500 units’ later 300 units to B-01, 04 in order to achieve a lowest ending inventory on them. This would dramatically increase the difficulty of predicting when I should proceed the purchase order. Meanwhile it can give us a hope when the time reaches day 20, our inventory would be precisely close to zero. The plan was working, little by little our inventory dropped to around 300 units. Then I adjusted the stock level to 150 units as the sale speed started slowing down.At the end, we had 9 units of B-01 and 30 units of B-04 left in invento ry. Procurement Ken is the man in charge of procurement. His role mainly needs him to follow the planned stock level and inventory level, and decide when is the best time to finish one purchase order is. In Quarter 1 During the first quarter of the Game, our group’s product inventory did not significantly fluctuate since we set a relative high price to them and hoped this strategy could save some inventory for next quarter.Nonetheless, from the sales report of quarter 1, our group failed to acquire any market demand in day 7, 8, 18, and 19. It is such a factor that contributes to us ranking the 4th in both sales and net income in the first quarter. Although we maintained a reasonable stock level in the first quarter, Ken suggested us to lower the product prices in day 8 since bottled water is a price-driven product that retailers tend to choose the lower price while purchasing, though we didn’t follow. In Quarter 2 Ken didn’t finish any purchase order in quarter 1.Our first procurement delivered on day 21 quarter 2. Since then, whenever B-01, B-04’s inventory dropped to below the stock level at a certain rate, Ken would finish one purchase order to stay us in the competition. Ken and I had a very good time working together. We managed to keep inventory level away from zero but also had enough stock to sale except the purchase of B-06 500mL Sprintz 300 units. From our point of view, procurement is more like a delicate job than a difficult one as long as you got right stock level to maintain, though this job requires lots of efforts on requiring information.During quarter 2, Ken finished dozens of purchase orders. The first one is the biggest one of them all, as time passed to later half, the purchase orders became smaller because it the number purchased is the difference between your planned stock level and present inventory level. In Quarter 3 In quarter 3, the main purpose of procurement was to closely follow the order from planner and together keep the inventory level gradually lower down to zero. Ken just did that. Each time when I adjust the stock level of the main products, Ken would know the best time to replenish.When we passed the midpoint of day 10, the inventory level was around 300 for each product. At day 15, still in a tight purchase schedule, Ken was doing a great job to reduce the inventory level by increasing purchase frequency. At day 17, Ken stopped purchasing any more orders, and we were sitting on a very healthy inventory of 150 units. There we come to the final inventory level as chart 04 is showing. [pic] Price Iris is in charge of all the price adjustments due to her experienced retail background. As our professor pointed out, bottled water is a commodity highly sensitive to its price strategy and adjustment.So, in this section, we analyzed all our adjustments as well as the market average price based on the information Iris recorded. In Quarter 1 Our Goal: Earn enough profit and make su re we have enough stock level at the beginning of quarter 2 since no procurement could be done in quarter 1. Pricing Strategy: Skim Premium Pricing Strategy, we set the prices higher in the beginning and reduce prices periodically, to maintain the inventory level for quarter 2. Price Setting: We set the high profit margins and try to keep the quantities we sell to make sure we would earn enough profit.Since every team have the same 1,000 Initial stock for each of the 6 products for the first 20 days, the orders can only be purchased in the beginning of the Quarter 2, and need 1-3 days to the stocks and the market demand for the bottle water is high, so we set the prices a little bit higher to make sure we have enough inventory to last 20 days. Then we reduce prices periodically, to attract more retailers. The prices for both sizes of the ClearPure are higher than the initial prices and the prices for all flavors and all sizes of Sprintz and Lemon Sprintz are lower than the initial p rices. Material |$$-B01 |$$-B02 |$$-B03 |$$-B04 |$$-B05 |$$-B06 | |Name |1L ClearPure |1L Spritz |1L Lemon Spritz |500mL ClearPure |500mL Spritz |500mL Lemon | | | | | | | |Spritz | |Cost |$11. 99 |$14. 99 |$16. 99 |$16. 99 |$19. 99 |$22. 99 | |Initial price |$14. 99 |$17. 99 |$19. 99 |$19. 99 |$22. 9 |$25. 99 | |Our price |$16. 59 |$16. 99 |$17. 99 |$22. 59 |$21. 99 |$23. 99 | Chart 05: The prices for the D1 of Q1 Price adjustment: The prices adjustment is based on the available stock, the market reaction and the market average price (Here is another mistake we made. ). 1. If the product sells too fast, we would increase the price a little bit, to make sure we have enough stock for 20 days. For example the bestselling item BO1, was marked up 58% from the cost, but sold out 55 units and brought us $385 net profit.But it was most profitable with the 38% mark-up. 2. If the inventory is static for more than 2 days, we would mark down the price, close to the cost or even lower the cost to create sales revenue. Especially for product BO2, BO5 and BO6, the market less favorable products, we marked down their price even lower than the cost, in order that we would not left lots of inventory in the Quarter 3. Product BO1 prices changes and relative factors in the Q1 [pic] Product BO2 prices changes and relative factors in the Q1 [pic] Product BO3 prices changes and relative factors in the Q1 [pic] Product BO4 prices changes and relative factors in the Q1 [pic]Product BO5 prices changes and relative factors in the Q1 [pic] Product BO6 prices changes and relative factors in the Q1 [pic] In Quarter 2 Our Goal: Sell as many as BO1 and BO4 as we can and also clear the stocks of the rest 4 products (here is our second biggest mistake) at the same time. Pricing Strategy: Penetration pricing strategy, achieve high volumes and ultimately earning profits from high sales volumes, but low profit margins. Price setting: We cut down the profit margin for BO1 and BO4. Lower all the o ther prices, since some of the prices were setting too high in the Q1.The prices set for the D1 of Q2 were as below, |Material |$$-B01 |$$-B02 |$$-B03 |$$-B04 |$$-B05 |$$-B06 | |Name |1L ClearPure |1L Spritz |1L Lemon Spritz |500mL ClearPure |500mL Spritz |500mL Lemon Spritz | |Cost |$11. 99 |$14. 99 |$16. 99 |$16. 99 |$19. 99 |$22. 99 | |Initial price |$14. 99 |$17. 99 |$19. 99 |$19. 99 |$22. 99 |$25. 99 | |Our price |$12. 00 |$145. 7 |$16. 99 |$17. 00 |$19. 89 |$22. 88 | Price adjustment: Adjust the prices for the products based on the available stock, the market reaction and the market average price. Product BO1 prices changes and relative factors in the Q2 [pic] Product BO2 prices changes and relative factors in the Q2 [pic] Product BO3 prices changes and relative factors in the Q2 [pic] Product BO4 prices changes and relative factors in the Q2 [pic] Product BO5 prices changes and relative factors in the Q2 [pic] Product BO6 prices changes and relative factors in the Q2 [pic] In Quarter 3Our Goal: All products had to be sold out and make maximize profit from BO1 and BO4 (Our third major error to consider the initial inventory will not reflect on the balance sheet. ). Pricing Strategy: Penetration pricing strategy Price setting: Kept the prices close or lower to the market average price. The prices for the D1 of Q3 were as below, |Material |$$-B01 |$$-B02 |$$-B03 |$$-B04 |$$-B05 |$$-B06 | |Name |1L ClearPure |1L Spritz |1L Lemon Spritz |500mL ClearPure |500mL Spritz |500mL Lemon Spritz | |Cost |$11. 9 |$14. 99 |$16. 99 |$16. 99 |$19. 99 |$22. 99 | |Initial price |$14. 99 |$17. 99 |$19. 99 |$19. 99 |$22. 99 |$25. 99 | |Our price |$12. 99 |$14. 99 |$17. 00 |$17. 99 |$20. 00 |$22. 89 | Price adjustment: Product BO1 prices changes and relative factors in the Q3 [pic] Product BO2 prices changes and relative factors in the Q3 [pic] Product BO3 prices changes and relative factors in the Q3 [pic]Product BO4 prices changes and relative factors in the Q3 [pic] Produc t BO5 prices changes and relative factors in the Q3 [pic] Product BO6 prices changes and relative factors in the Q3 [pic] Overseeing Ankit is our guy for overseeing the whole market report for each five days. After each market report announced, he will first quickly calculate out the average price for each product (There is a good move in our group), and pass them to Iris for price adjustment reference. But he hadn’t reported the quantity sold on each products during five days (Here is another mistake we made). In Quarter 1After the first report came out, Ankit readily passed his estimate of average market price to Iris. Then Iris and Ken could revise the price according to the available inventory and also the market price. We were so focusing on price change and inventory level, thus only the slow sales speed did we discover, we neglected the total sales for five days on the report. At that time, we didn’t know the relationship between our own sales to the overall sal es. In Quarter 2 Ankit still kept his amazing work about reporting the market average price, the average price collected from the reports were proved to be very helpful.Each time we changed our price to be a little bit lower than the market average, the retailers would response to that immediately. Finally, after all the efforts we put down, the sales volume and orders really shot up. Beside the regular activity, Ankit also suggested us to cut down price of B-02, B-05, B-06, which was undergoing at the same time. For the rest of the quarter 2, he started to look into the sales quantity of five day on each product and tried to compare the number with our own. But at that time, he didn’t report on this matter which should be done from quarter 1.In Quarter 3 Directly following up the strategy from last quarter, the overseeing activity didn’t change its role in quarter 3. Ankit still reported on the average market prices as reference. Later he noticed the number of sales i n quarter 3 was much less than that in quarter 2. He gave us his estimation about market demand for bottled water was dropping. In order to move all the inventory, after group discussion, Iris continued her marking down on prices which inflict more harm on our profitability. Results analysis Financial Statement for Quarter1 [pic] [pic]After the Quarter 1, from the performance chart above, we were facing 2 problems. BO1, BO3 and BO4 were profitable and moving at certain rate, and BO2, BO5 and BO6 were selling lower than cost and without too much sales. Our team sold the least quantities and had the least net income among the 4 teams. Whether should we start to put money on marketing expense to promote our low price B-01 and B-04? Errors we made about Quarter 1: 1. We misjudged the market demand for products B-01 and B-04. As we expected, the initial market will be so thirsty about ClearPure products even we set premium price on them.So we could assure our profit as well as average sa les on it. The truth is even the market is very thirsty, retailers will always have choices between domestic vendors or importers. The competition directly drive down the demand for higher priced goods as the basic economic principle: Quantity and Demand would show. This is our major and most lethal mistake leading to a very poor performance on profit in quarter 1 and no turning back whatever we do in next two quarters. 2. We thought we can only make the replenishment in the beginning of Quarter 2, but actually the purchased orders were available in Quarter 1.The MD61 planning menu and purchase order menu are both under folder round 2&3. So our assumption is no purchase for the inventory in quarter 1. We build our strategy based on this assumption. The decision leads to two consequences: overvalued price and small sales volume. 3. It was 20 days in one quarter, but I told them it was 30 days, and then we missed the selling momentum. I should take this the responsibility for this err or. 4. The average prices setting were too high since the profit margin was too high as we already explained in error 1 and 2. 5.The person responsible of overseeing the market failed to report the relationship between our sales volumes to the whole market sales volumes during five days. If we applied this control method, we would discover our sales volumes were too low at the beginning period of quarter 1. So we would have 10 to 15 days to correct the wrongs. Without this powerful control method, we were totally blind during the first 5 to 10 days regarding to our sales performance. This error undermined our performance during the first one and half quarters, until Ankit and GS started to report. 6. Negligence of foreign import competitors.The reason we dare to set a very premium price on B-01 and B-04 is we didn’t realize there are foreign import company competing. If we took that into consideration at first time, we won’t choose premium strategy to earn profit and s ave inventory. The Financial Statement for Quarter2 [pic] [pic] After Quarter 2, from the performance chart, we were facing 2 problems. 1. We were losing money. Only BO1 and BO4 had positive income, the rest four were all negative. And the profit could not cover the cost. 2. The Profit Margins of BO1 and BO4 were too low. They were much less profitable in Q2 than in Q1. |Material Description |Qty |Total Profit | |Q1 |BO1-1L ClearPure |1124 |$3224. 2 | | |BO4-500mL ClearPure |868 |$2801 | |Q2 |BO1-1L ClearPure |4642 |$213. 06 | | |BO4-500mL ClearPure |4781 |$379. 5 | 3. There were still so many available stocks of BO2, BO3, BO5 and BO6. Errors we made about Quarter 2: 1. In this quarter, our goal contains clearing out the inventory of products B-02, 03, 05, 06; this is another big mistake leading us to a net loss at the end. The cost of 1000 units’ initial inventory is actually NOT a sunk cost according to the final financial statement. If we just set the price at the cost lev el and never cared about their sales, we will have all the positive net income from B-01 and B-04 as results, which will added up to over $10000 net income.As long as you keeping the prices higher than cost, B-02, 03, 05, 06 will contribute to the net income in certain ways. 2. A wrong decision was made on order purchasing. 300 units of product B-O6, which is the highest cost and lowest yield, were purchased at the end of Quarter 2. 3. In order to clear the inventory of those products and pursuit our objective of sales, the prices were set too low. The Total Sales was high, actually ranked 1st in that round, but we were trading our profit with sales volume. This will help us got closer to our goal, but it is not a wise move because it doomed the whole profit margin.Financial Statement for Quarter 3 [pic] [pic] After Quarter 3, from the performance chart, we can conclude our errors in this quarter, Errors we made about Quarter 3: 1. We continued the strategy applied in round 2 which are setting average prices way lower than cost for BO2, BO3, BO5and BO6, so we were continuing losing money. 2. The purchasing behavior of retailer stores for BO2, BO3, BO5 and BO6 was misunderstood. According to the sales reports, those products were purchased periodically, and less price sensitive than BO1 and BO4. 3.The prices on those four products were changing too frequently. The market could not react to the change, and the market needs a longer period to consume those products before repeat purchasing. Improvements If we ever have another chance to perform in this distribution game, we will keep our goals and objectives, though several improvements will be carried out as follows. In Quarter 1: 1. Prepare the whole game plan only focused on 1L&500mL ClearPure products, for other products, prices should be set slightly higher than cost. 2. Set the prices of our main products close to the cost in order to reate huge sales volume to meet our goals and objectives. 3. Prepare the inventory purchase order in quarter 1, and proceed the first purchase when the unit number hit 500. 4. The whole period is only 20 days, meaning day 10 will be the checking point to control team’s performancedecide whether we should adjust our strategy. 5. Analyzing the sales volume in the market reports, compare to our summary sales report data as a controlling method of sales volumes. Using the same information, we could evaluate the performance of our direct competitors and also foreign importers’. 6.Put $25 to $50 on marketing expense per day on B-01 and B-04, so more retailers could be attracted and establish relation with us. In Quarter 2 1. Stay in the price battle for main products, but do not directly cut the price under cost. 2. Maintain the price on other products; do not use pricing penetration strategy to increase the sales. 3. Better management on stock level and inventory level following the same code applied in game before. 4. Keep relatively stable pri ce on B-02, 03, 05, 06. Allowing time taken by market to consume the products. Do not rush into price war.In Quarter 3 1. According to the performance in quarter 2, we will adjust slightly on our game plan to respond. Still we should stay in the price war of our main products and avoid price war of other products. Sometimes without losing money is also earning money from the market. Summary From this 3-quarters ERPsim distribution game, our group learnt a lot about price sensitive commodity market. For the market, we start to understand why healthy, competitive environment is so vital to it. Two extremes, whether monopoly or simply price war,will not do any good to the industry.The harm inflicts on the different sizes of firms will later affects the market, and ultimately reflects on the end user: normal customers. For each company in the market, careful thought plus preparation are a must to whatever the project is. Always think big, move slow, check twice will help one company sta ys in healthy growing mode. To achieve that, every company will need practical control method to implement. How to set those control methods will need our knowledge and experience from all the courses we learnt here. And if a company is selling commodity products, DO pay attention to price competitiveness.Try to make sure positive profitability and high sales volume, at the same time avoid price war. It is not a wise move as our group showed in quarter 2, after actively involved in the price contest, we successfully grab the No. 1 seat of sales for one round, but lose heavily on profit. For each member in Group C, we had fun, argument, discussion all through our participation in the ERPsim game. We learnt, evolved, and developed our skills and abilities of marketing throughout the whole process. It doesn’t matter what results or rank at last, only those knowledge and friendship matter and will last forever.