Consent searches in the Fourth Amendment Essay

The Fourth Amendment provides provisions that protect citizens from searches and seizures that are unreasonable. However, the individuals may waive their rights by consenting to searches. This essay is aimed at listing (Zalman, 2010), describing and explaining the rules regarding consent searches and providing a case study to illustrate the rules. When the court is called up on to determine whether consent was given for a search, it puts into consideration several issues. The first is that it considers the age, background and mental capacity of the subject. When the officer is seeking consent from the subject, he or she should not show weapons as that is considered to be coercive. In short, the officer should not use aggression to get the consent (Stephens & Glenn, 2006). The other rule is founded in the case Monroe v. Pape (1961) and which is based on the time the consent is sought. The rule requires officers to desist from seeking consents at night. Attempting to conduct a search at night is seen as evil and in a most obnoxious form (Zalman, 2010). Conclusion In conclusion, the law provides a waiver for the rights of protection from searches and seizures and the Fourth Amendment. However, the rules that govern such a waiver are so strict such that, an officer may find himself in breach easily if care is not exercised. These rules cover issues such as the mental capacity, age, time of getting the consent and the manner of soliciting such consent. As mentioned, care has to be exercised or otherwise the search constitutes a breach. References Zalman, M. (2010). Criminal Procedure : Constitution and Society, Sixth Edition. Prentice Hall.Hess, K. Orthman, C. H., & Cho, H. (2014). Introduction to Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice. Cengage Learning. Top of Form Stephens, O. H., & Glenn, R. A. (2006). Unreasonable searches and seizures: Rights and liberties under the law. Santa Barbara, Calif. [u.a.: ABC-Clio. Bottom of Form Source document

Crime Scene Essay

In an organized step by step approach â€Å"Scene Documentation† is one of the stages in the proper processing of a crime scene. The final results of a properly documented crime scene are the ability of others to take the finished product to use in either reconstructing the scene or the chain of events in an incident and our court room presentation. In documenting the scene there are actually three functions or methods used to properly document the crime scene. Those methods consist of written notes which will ultimately be used in constructing a final report, crime scene photographs, and a diagram or sketch. Consistency between each of these functions is paramount. Each method is important in the process of properly documenting the crime scene. The notes and reports should be done in a chronological order and should include no opinions, no analysis, or any conclusions; just the facts. The crime scene investigator or evidence recovery technician should document what they see, not what they think. The final report should tell a descriptive and factual story. A general description of the crime scene should be given just as the investigator sees it when she does the initial walk through of the scene. Each department or agency has a method which they use will for written documentation of the crime scene. There investigator or technician should follow her departments assigned procedures for written documentation. The importance of sharing information can never be over-looked. This article is intended to share ideas in the area of uniform documentation as an example of the format that is used by my department. We use a narrative section of the report divided it into five categories. The categories are the summary, the scene including a detailed body description if in a death investigation, processing, and evidence collected, and the pending that may be collected at another date or time. The summary would to basically give the details of how he was initiated into the investigation. For an example: â€Å"At the request of Robbery Detective H. Granier, this writer was requested to respond to assist in processing the scene of an armed robbery involving 4 unknown masked subjects. Detective H. Granier’s preliminary investigation revealed that the subjects startled the victim as she returned home from shopping†. For further details of this investigation refer to Detective H. Granier. Our summary is brief and does not include a lot of the said information  (http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/unavailable/) The investigator in charge should obtain the following for the crime scene case file: 1. Initial responding officer documentation. 2. Emergency medical personnel documents. 3. Entry and exit documentation. 4. Photographs and any videos. 5. Crime scene sketches and diagrams. 6. Evidence documentation. 7. Other responders’ documentation. 8. Record of consent form or search warrant. 9. Criminal background check Reports such as forensic or technical reports should be added to this file when they become available. This will ensure that reports and other documentation pertaining to the crime scene investigation are compiled into a case file by the investigator in charge of the crime scene and allow for independent review of the work conducted. In the scene section of the narrative we should give a detailed description of the scene as it is seen when we approach the area. The scene description usually includes anything that is unusual and out of place. Any weather or environment conditions are also included. Again this is a description of what we see, not what we think. The evidence that should observe is: its location, the condition, or anything about the item will be included in our scene description section. This would also correspond to any identification markers used to number or label the items of evidence. These remarks would all be consistent with any numbers, letters, or labels indicated in the photographs, or drawn into a sketch of the scene (http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/unavailable/). The processing section is for our units to describe what we did, if assistance was needed during the processing stages, who we had assisting, and what functions they did. The evidence collection section is to organize what evidence we and others assisting were able to recover from the crime scene, where the items were recovered from, and what part of the lab the items were  directed to for analysis. Criminal History A Criminal History Summary often referred to as a criminal history record or a â€Å"rap sheet† is a listing of certain information taken from fingerprint submissions retained by the FBI in connection with arrests and, in some instances, federal employment, naturalization, or military service. If no Criminal History Summary on file, the investigator will receive a response indicating that the person has no prior arrest data on file. If the person does have a criminal history Summary on file, you will receive your summary†. Pending Section The pending section would be for any known tasks that would need to be completed at a later date or time in the investigation. What is turned in to the Department? 1. A written report 2. Crime scene photographs 3. Crime scene sketch Crime Scene Example Final Report: Initial Information: Victim Name: Incident Address: Incident Date: Incident Time: Offense Report Date: Victim Information: Victim Name: Victim Address: Height: Weight: Eye Color: Hair Color: Scars: Tattoos: Other: NCIC #: Medical Examiner/Medical Summary: Medical Examiner/Agency: Injuries: Cause of Death: Manner of Death: Crime Scene Summary: Write a narrative about the crime scene. This is a summary of what you observed at the scene. You do not make hypothesis or draw conclusions. Evidence Log Summary: Evidence Number: Description Note: Attach Completed Evidence Collection Log to the end of this report. Image Inventory: Image Number Description Conclusions: Draw conclusions based on the evidence gathered. Be as complete as possible. Note: This list is limited to crime scene documentation. This should not be considered a comprehensive list of the documents involved in an investigative case file In conclusion, the final results of a properly documented crime scene are the ability of others to take the finished product to use in either reconstructing the scene or the chain of events in an incident and our court room presentation.

Consensus Decision Making Essay Essay

A decision is a determination of a question or doubt by making a judgment. Decisions are a part of everyday life for normal human beings and can be as insignificant as to where to eat lunch, or as important as whether to pop the marriage question to a longtime girlfriend. Decisions can be made in a variety of ways, but most of the time they are either made individually or in a group setting. Both individual decision making and group decision making have their pros and cons, and can even determine the type of individual a person is. Decision making is not always an easy process, but is a part of life. There are major differences between group decision making and individual decision making. When individuals are in a group, decision making could not only involve one person’s opinion, but everyone’s opinion which could become vital to the final outcome. This could sometimes make it easier for a final decision to be reached, or maybe make it even harder to reach a final decision. Arguments and disagreements can occur in group decision making based on other people’s opinions. Sometimes people try to persuade other individuals to change their decision to the one they want, by giving them their own opinions and making them seem like facts. Group decision making can also be positive because there is more brain power involved which can ultimately lead to a quick and more efficient type of decision making. The other type of decision making is individual decision making. This type of decision is basically based solely on one opinion and one opinion only, which ultimately gets the individual what they want. The individual decision making also comes from one point of view and only from the knowledge from the individual. This could lead to a misunderstanding on how to decide because the individual was presented the information to process and had a hard time understanding on which way to decide. The individual’s knowledge on the topic they are deciding on may be little to none, and could lead to a poor decision. Either way, individual decision making and group decision making both have their major differences, positives, and negatives. All of the activities in class and the film â€Å"12 Angry Men,† give us individuals some perspective into decision making and also show us the explicit pros and cons. One very interesting and fun assignment we had to  do was the NASA assignment were as individuals we were given 15 choices of important items and had to rank them based on what we thought was important. Then we were put into groups and had to decide which ones were most important barring our opinions. Many people had conflicting views on what was important and what was not, and some had not realized how important an item was until they were in a group. It was extremely interesting to see how all of the group members came to decisions on this although conflict had occurred. Another group activity that we did in class was the time capsule activity. This was another strongly opinion based activity but because there were other people in the group there were many items being tossed around. There wasn’t a set list of items to choose from like the NASA activity, so there were unlimited amount of choices and some choices were surprising. Some important items were many of the times overlooked by the people in the group because their opinion came into play, which was just like the NASA activity. There were many disagreements while working in a group setting because some people may have different priorities. The movie â€Å"12 Angry Men† showed us more positives and negatives of individual and group decision making. In the beginning of the movie all but one juror votes individually decide that the man was guilty without any deliberation of the evidence. After discussing each piece of evidence the jury slows takes a turn towards not guilty. Although some were stubborn, the fact that all of the jurors talked out their opinions and had a reasonable doubt had some of the change their decision to not guilty. After much deliberation and conflict, the jury was unanimously deciding that the accused was not guilty after all. This was after almost all of the jurors had decided guilty, which meant that the group decision making was much more successful than the individual decision making. The right decision was made in the end because of the talking and opinions that were thrown around which ultimately had the jurors changing their initial decisions. This movie again showed us the positives and negatives when it comes to decision making. Many believe that group decision making is a much more efficient way of deciding outcomes which is why it is so often used in the United States Government. Examples like the House of Representatives and Congress show how many people deliberate about new decisions. Many new laws are discussed  by these groups of people and then eventually passed to the president. This just exemplifies how people opinions and votes do matter to the government. Of course the judicial branch is the branch the uses group decision making a lot. Jury’s make decisions on crimes by deliberating and talking about evidence and whether there is a reasonable doubt. They reach a verdict together and all have to agree on the same thing. The executive branch also uses group decision making. The president just doesn’t make decisions based on his opinions, he usually consults many people about new changes that he wants to make. The president is only one brain, and if he gets more opinions from other brains he can ultimately decide on whether or not this is going to benefit society as a whole. Individual decision making and group decision making have major differences. Both of them have their positives and negatives which are a part of everyday life, and are prevalent in the government.

What should the role of the state be in contemporary society Essay

What should the role of the state be in contemporary society - Essay Example A State is the main institution which exercises power on behalf of the people in the contemporary society. It is bestowed with legitimate authority by the society for preserving its institutions for the betterment of the welfare of all. The contemporary society has empowered the state to make and impose laws that are necessary for the harmonic existence of all members of the society (Woodrow, 2001). The main role of State is providing protection to the entire society (Petricus, 2009). This core role of the state arises from the fact that it is almost impossible to guarantee all members of society protection that is based on voluntary arrangement amongst individuals. There is need for an institution that is acceptable to the entire society to provide protection from both internal and external forces that may threaten the well being of individual members or the entire society. Protection by state refers to securing the rights, liberties and freedoms of the individuals as well as their property. This role is undertaken by one authority within a given society to avoid conflicts which may arise in dispensation of this important duty. However the state has other important roles which are related to its protective role such as promoting economic welfare of the society, provision of basic needs such as food, shelter and education. This paper is a critical evaluation of the roles of the state in the contemporary society. The Protective Role of the State The protective role of the state to the society can be understood by evaluating the status of security and human rights practices in stateless societies such as Somalia in comparison with a society which has an effective system of governance such as the United States of America. It is evident that there is widespread abuse of human rights and lack of protection in a stateless society. Somalia is a country in the horn of Africa, which has survived for more than 10 years without a formal authority to govern the citizens. A s a result, numerous criminal organizations such as Al-Shabaab have continued to terrorize citizens as well as committing atrocities against the country’s peaceful neighbors. As a result, Somalia has continued to lag behind in terms of development especially due to power struggles, which have created conflicts that have resulted to some of the citizens seeking refuge in some of the neighboring countries since there is no sufficient security. This has also created a loophole which has facilitated international terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaida with a ground to fulfill their violent missions around the world (Abukhalil, 2006). It is important to note that the powers of the state are at times abused for the benefits of the ruling class thus negating the core role of this important societal institution. Since, by design, some members of the society exert relatively higher control on the state, it is possible for such group to extract more benefits than the majority of the society who are under control through acts of corruption and nepotism. It is for this reason that recent developments in some of the Arab nations such as Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, have taken place, where civilians have taken it upon themselves to overthrow corrupt leaders, whose main agenda was to remain in power and continue to acquire illegal wealth. The western society and other societies which have adopted and successfully implemented democratic ideals have at their disposal three means by which they protect themselves from undue exploitation by the state. These are; restraint through judicial processes, voicing concern through voting in general elections and removing irresponsible officials through votes of no confidence as well as invoking the right to hold non violent

Starbucks Coffee Company Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Starbucks Coffee Company - Research Paper Example This is a persistent human behaviour, whether there was Starbucks or not. Some people go to bars, but coffee shops provide a great alternative. The fact that Starbucks took this behaviour and institutionalized it was a strategic success. b. Development of long-term buyer-seller relationships (Griffin, 2011: 498) Starbuck’s aim was ‘to create a relevant, emotional and intimate experience’ in order to build trust with the consumer (Jain, 2009: 3). By creating a unique relationship that cannot be matched by having just another cup of coffee in another coffee shop, customers seek to relive the pleasant personal experience by returning repeated to the same brand. c. International marketing mix (Griffin, 2011: 498) Schultz, who conceptualized Starbucks’ renowned business model, developed his concept from observing Italian coffee bars and was impressed that each had its own character (Jain, 2009, p.1). Starbucks has grasped the universality of appeal in what was a n Italian custom, and replicated this in all the countries the company was able to successfully market to. d. Value creation in its operations process (Griffin, 2011: 347) In the case, it was said that Americans will not pay a high price for coffee (Jain, 2009: 2), but Starbucks was able to overcome that, because customers found value in the store ambience and the service, which actually comprise its operations process. Cleanliness, a relaxing atmosphere, prompt and courteous service are as much a part of the product as the coffee itself, for which reason people find value in it to pay a high price for it. 2. SWOT Analysis in point form. Strengths Ability to accommodate customers’ requests (‘just say yes’): Enhanced customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. Store ambience and design: Created a comfortable atmosphere that encouraged repeated and long-term seller-buyer relationship that reinforced brand loyalty. Strong employee culture: Generous benefits keep employ ees engaged and high employee morale encourages innovativeness and pleasant staff-customer interaction. Weaknesses Too many stores located close to each other tended to cause stores to ‘cannibalize’ each other’s customers The competitive advantage is essentially replicable. Unlike manufacturing which can patent its product design or manufacturing process, what Starbucks offers – coffee blends, ambience, service – can be replicated by others, as it already has. Opportunities Expansion to international markets; emerging market such as China and India, allows the firm alternatives to its already saturated market. Innovations in coffee preparation could further be explored, such as the Frappuccino developed by its staff. Threats Strong competition has posed challenges not only for coffee but tea and other products Economic weakness discourages personal consumption spending. Environmental and anti-globalization activism targets multinationals like Starbu cks. 3. Compensation provided baristas Starbucks’s compensation package was described as generous because it included health benefits for both full-time and part-time employees who rendered 20 hours of service per week, and also provided them stock options which is a gain-sharing plan (Griffin, 2011: 258). The advantages to the company were enhanced

Sexuality among Individuals with Disability Research Paper

Sexuality among Individuals with Disability - Research Paper Example It is important to note that the lives of individuals with intellectual disability occur within various social systems that interact, including peer systems, work systems, family systems, school systems, legal systems, and community systems. Thus, it is vital to understand the mores and norms that may influence sexual identity development of such individuals through providing them with or mitigating opportunities for such development. According to Dukes and McGuire (2009), the attitudes that the surrounding individuals may have in relation to the sexual expression of individuals with intellectual disability is a measure of inclusiveness and openness of the community to such individuals(McGuire, Daly, & Smyth, 2007). As such, communities that are more inclusive will tend to have a more positive attitude towards such expression of the intellectually disabled as they are allowing them the same platform of judgment as the rest of the members of the society. It is clear from research that most caregivers are still overshadowed with attitudes when dealing with the sexual expression of the intellectually disabled individuals. Case in point, in the explorative study conducted by Isler, Beytut, Tas and Conk (2009), in which the concerns, opinions, knowledge and attitudes of parents of children having intellectual disabilities, it was clear that such parents have great concern regarding their children’s sexuality. It is important to note that most young people and children are shaped by the beliefs.

The causes and effects of Global warming Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The causes and effects of Global warming - Essay Example Statistics indicate that in the last 100 years, the temperatures have risen by approximately 0.8 o C and it is projected that this will continue to worsen as it is expected that the rise could reach 1.7o C in the next few years if stern measures are not taken to avert this catastrophe (Christian 28). Global warming mainly results from over concentration of carbon dioxide (co2) and other harmful gases, such as methane and nitrous oxide, in the atmosphere (Michaels 40). This is due to the fact that these gases have the capability to trap heat from the sun and storing it to the extent that temperatures in the surroundings remain extraordinarily higher than normal. In order to understand this, one may use the example of a car, which, when left outside, allows sun rays to penetrate through the windows thereby raising the temperatures inside, which cannot go down unless the windows or the doors are opened in order to allow cool fresh air to circulate. Human beings are the ones to blame for this catastrophe as they have continued to conduct activities, which are major sources of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses. These are for example air pollution through gaseous emissions from industries and heavy machinery such as motor vehicles which utilize fossil fuels. The world’s car population has continued to explode and though this may be perceived as a positive trend in economics as it is good for business, it is a major threat to the environment especially due to the fact that most of these vehicles use petrol and diesel as fuel. Statistics indicate that the number of cars worldwide exceeded the 1 billion mark as at the year 2010 and it is estimated that this number will significantly increase to 2.5 billion by the year 2050 (Michaels 66). From these statistics, the US is ranked as the leading country, with approximately 240 million cars followed by China, which has approximately 78 million cars. It is not a wonder then to have reports indicate that the tr ansport sector contributes approximately 25% of greenhouse gas emissions (Christian 52). This may also explain why reports indicate that the US is the leading country with regard to greenhouse gas emissions. China and the US are two major economic houses, which have the capability and economic muscle to develop and influence the world to utilize better technologies that are friendlier to the environment. For example, they can lead the way in convincing their citizens to utilize bicycles or electric vehicles as a common mode of transportation especially due to the high income per capita. However, this may not be helpful if strong policies are not put in place to effect the change, which may include creating favoring infrastructure, roads, for cyclers, so a to avoid cases of obstruction and preventable accidents. This may serve as an example and a reference point especially for the developing countries, which are projected to have a significant increase of motor vehicles on their road s, which is believed to be by approximately 300% by 2050 (Christian 63). Deforestation is also a major contributing factor to the availability of high levels of carbon dioxide

'Classical pluralism comes nowhere near capturing the reality of local Essay

'Classical pluralism comes nowhere near capturing the reality of local politics' (Stone 2008). Discuss - Essay Example This paper aims to study the classical pluralist theory and analyze how much it is found in our local politics today. Classical pluralism is the view that politics and decision making are mostly located in the government, but there are also non-governmental groups who use many resources to exert their influence on politics and decision making (Barzilai 2003). Discussion What we observe these days in our local politics is actually neopluralism. It is the reconstruction of political science and advancement in the fundamental and traditional structure of classical pluralism of political sociology. Our societies have come a long way from the traditional classic era of classic pluralism of the post second world war era. Pluralist legacy emphasized on the primacy on the pluralist social agents and factors. Neopluralism still falls in the pluralist legacy of the classic, but it has undergone a series of complicated revisions. There are many theoretical perspectives on one of the most fundam ental question of politics. Who should rule? The answer varies from the many, the few, to one? Classical pluralist answer to this question is the rule of many. Although there are not many theories that support the rule of one but classical theories do support the existence of one ruling class or powerful elite. In short we can term it as the rule of the few (Connolly 2010). What is classical pluralism? The central theme of classical pluralism is the concept of unity in diversity proposed by Aristotle. It is also followed by early liberal’s competitive and representative democracy. This theory of liberal democracy in socially diverse countries flourished and evolved into what is called Polyarchy. Polyarchy form of pluralism is about effective rule of elected representatives through a process of free and competitive elections conducted in the supervision of the civil associations of civil liberties. Polyarchy is rooted in the heterogeneous pluralist social structure. The era of 1960’s and 70’s was the era of political and ideological tumultuous and the pluralist theory also responded by evolving into neo pluralist theory. In this theory attention was given to state initiatives. The pluralism of agency was extended to the state-based interest groups (Janosky 2005. The theory of classical pluralism is founded on two building blocks namely interest groups and power politics. It revolves around the idea that interest groups compete with each other to acquire power to further their own interests. The classical pluralist democracy also has equilibrium in place through self correcting balance of political powers. It believes that all the interest groups will have equal opportunities to influence public decision making process. Classical pluralist theory was more an idealistic vision rather than the actual situation although proponents of this theory claimed it to be realistic and based on empirical evidence. This was the first generation of plurali st. Second generation pluralist also called neopluralist were led by Robert Dahl and Charles Linblom. These second generation pluralist were more realistic and realized the inequalities in the theory which were not in favor of the less disadvantaged. Third generation pluralist restricted the identification and categorization of fixed groups with fixed interests (Behrouzi 2006). What are interest groups? There are two views about

Philosophy mind and world Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Philosophy mind and world - Essay Example ogic of premises, claims and conclusion whereas Heidegger’s philosophy demands deep understanding of metaphysics in order to decipher the same distinction between the self and its existence. Descartes offers proof in the discourse in his arguments of the six meditations in which he explains the distinction between mind and body while Heidegger elucidates the self on the basis of metaphysics. It can be argued that Rene Descartes has been more successful in undertaking the task of explaining ‘Next I examined attentively what I was’ than Heidegger. While Descartes defines the difference in the mind and body in his theory of dualism in stages of meditation and the experience of the person who undergoes hierarchy of meditation Heidegger’s explanation is based purely on metaphysics and philosophical sciences. Descartes’ explanation can be understood by pure logic of premises, claims and conclusion whereas Heidegger’s philosophy demands deep understanding of metaphysics in order to decipher the distinction between the self and its existence with reference to philosophy, mind and the world. Descartes’ explanation through meditation ‘ Next I examined attentively what I was’ I saw that while I could pretend that I had no body and that there was no world and no place for me to be in , I could not for all that pretend that I did not exist. I saw on the contrary that from the truth of other things, it followed quite evidently and certainly that I existed; whereas if I had merely ceased thinking, even if everything else I had ever imagined had been true, I should have had no reason to believe that I existed. From this I knew I was a substance whose whole essence or nature is simply to think and which does not require any place or depend on any material thing in order to exist (Hatfield, Descartes, and p246). The empirical â€Å"Descartes observed: "Thus the whole of philosophy is like a tree: the roots are metaphysics, the trunk is physics, and

Systems Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Systems Development - Essay Example Different steps get used in order to achieve a successful system conversion and most crucial to give it a reasonable approach in trying to achieve the best out of it (Bernard, 2004). The first step in this is the planning, and this is the understanding of the whole system and its organization. This follows the analysis, and this is the identifying and predicting any potential problems that may rise, in the future in the system. The third phase is the design, and this determine show the system operates and the user interface involved. Also, known as the system environment, and it mostly deals with the internal structures of the system (Gautier, 2005). The last phase and the most crucial are the implementation phase which is time consuming of all. This stage includes activities like the user training and system maintenance. The best example in this is the plunge where it gets applied in the school. In this system, different phases used to combine information from different sources. Data can be sent to different members of the staff all at once by use of the data-centered approach. Programs can be edited before they get sent to the workers (Lorain, 2008). For example in my school, the SDLC used to analyze the fee statement for the students by grouping the data into one sheet. On the other hand, the data can be manipulated and shared by use of different user interfaces. The other example is the parallel method that makes use of the adaptive approach technique. In the initial stages, the data get tabulated after which the information get extracted from the raw data. This is possible by use of the object-oriented approach (OOA) which helps in maintaining accuracy in the data manipulation. The parallel method has extensively been used in my school, in the learning process the students can easily access the notes from the teacher through some codes installed already in the computer systems (Lorain, 2008). In

Catoon Obama Essay Example for Free

Catoon Obama Essay The cartoon shows President Barack Obama who is walking towards the White House. In the foreground there are two African-American which are hiding between the trees and bushes in the garden. Obama stops his march into the White House to look back to the black people and waves. One of them is retuning the gesture. In the garden are three sings. On one of them is the name â€Å"JIM CROW† written, which is a symbol of the race discrimination. He symbolizes the stereotype of a singing, dancing black man, who is satisfied with himself and the world around him, although his intelligence is below the average. On the other sings is â€Å"SEGREGATION† and â€Å"SLAVERY† written. These two words also refer to the history and discrimination of the African-American in the United States. In the left hand corner is a kind of headline which says â€Å"THE FINAL DESTINATION ON THE FREEDOM ROAD †¦Ã¢â‚¬ . The cartoon is an exaggerated view on the events which are related to Obama’s presidency and his status as the first African-American President. The White House, which is located in the center of the picture and it’s painted in bright colours. Alpha This results a huge contrast to the dark forest on both edges of the picture. Obama is walking in the opposite way of the direction. This means, that he has overcome the discrimination and has become the first black president. But on his half way he pauses and looks back to the other black people and raises his hand, so that they know that he still knows, that he hadn’t forget them. He symbolizes the opportunities of the black people, and how much they have changed in the past fifty years, so even an African-American man can be in the nation’s highest office and be respected by the most of the American citizens. Obama’s still very popular so he was reelected although he isn’t that superhero figure. He has reached the final destination on the road of the freedom and the equality of the black.

Revenue and profit Essay Example for Free

Revenue and profit Essay Q1 – What is the difference between revenue and profit? A1 – Revenue is the total amount of money that a business takes in during a given period by selling goods and services. Profit is the amount of money a business earns above and beyond what it spends for salaries and other expenses, which is to use revenue to minus salaries and expenses. Q2 – What is the difference between standard of living and quality of life? A2 – The term of standard of living refers to the amount of goods and services people can buy with the money they have. Standard of living is the physical measurement of peoples living. Q3 – What is risk, and how is it related to profit? A3 – Risk is the chance an entrepreneur takes of losing time and money on a business that may not prove profitable. The more risk that business people take, the more profit that business people may have. Q4 – What do the terms stakeholders, outsourcing, and insourcing mean? A4 – Stakeholders refer to all the people who stand to gain or lose by the policies and activities of a business and whose concerns the business needs to address. Outsourcing means that contracting with other companies to do some or all of the function of a firm, like its production or accounting tasks. Insourcing means that the company internally do some or all of the functions of a firm, like its production or accounting tasks. Q5 – What are some of the advantages of working for others? A5 –Somebody else assumes the companys entrepreneurial risk and provides you with benefits., like paid vacation time and health insurance. The company you work for will provide the tools and technology to make your job more productive. Q6 – What benefits do you lose by being an entrepreneur, and what do you gain? A6 – As an entrepreneur, you do not receive any benefits such as paid vacation time, and you have to provide them to yourself. By being an entrepreneur, you will have freedom to make your own decisions, opportunity, and possible wealth. Q7 – What are the five factors of production? Which ones seem to be the most important for creating wealth? A7 – The five factors of production are land, labor, capital, entrepreneurship , and knowledge. The most important one is knowledge. Q8 – What are four ways the government can foster entrepreneurship? A8 – First, the government allow private ownership of businesses. Secondly, the government can further lessen the risks of entrepreneurship by passing laws that enable businesspeople to write enforceable contracts. Thirdly, the government can also establish a currency thats tradable in world markets. Finally, the government can help minimize corruption in business and in its own ranks. Q9 – Whats the difference between effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity? A9 – Effectiveness describes producing the desired result, and efficiency refers to produce goods and services using the least amount of resources. Productivity is the amount of output you generate given the amount of output. Q10 – What is empowerment? A10 – Empowerment defines that giving frontline workers the responsibility, authority, freedom, training, and equipment they need to respond quickly to customer requests. Q11 – What are some of the major issues affecting the economy today? A11 – First, the war and terrorism issue makes the government to spend more money on the military, and firms have to purchase more secure devices to ensure their customers security. Second, global changes create a need for continuous learning. Finally, the climate change of the world affects the way people use energy. People tend to save energy and to produce products that cause less harm to the environment. Q12 – What major factor caused people to move from farming to manufacturing and from manufacturing to the service sector? A12 – The using of technology and machines increases the productivity and eliminates many jobs in agricultural fields. Then, with the development of technology and machines, farms and industries need few and few farmers and workers. Therefore, more and more people tend to find jobs in service sectors. Q13 – What does the future look like for tomorrows college graduates? A13 – The service ear now seems to be coming to a close as a new era is beginning . We are in the midst of an information-based global revolution that will alter all sectors of the economy. Save your file as Chapter 1.doc and submit it through the appropriate Assignment Link in Blackboard.

HP Introduction

HP Introduction Hewlett Packard popularly called HP is a company that provides technology solutions to consumers, businesses and all forms of institutions worldwide. The company later expands its operations to IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing services. The company is known throughout the world by operating in more than 170 countries around the world. The mission of the company is to facilitate how technology and services can assist individuals and institutions in addressing their problems and challenges so as to realize their dreams. The company applies new thinking and ideas come out with basic and valuable experiences with the technology with her IT corporation headquarter in Palo, Alto, California, USA. The company has been maintaining a lead among her contemporaries due to the effective strategic planning of the company and this has been jealously guided by the company in virtually all her businesses. Background of HP Company The initiators of HP Company are Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard who were classmates at Stanford Universities. They established the company in 1993, seventeen years ago. The first product of the company is called audio oscillators, an electronic testing instrument used by sound engineers. The product is developed in Palo Alto garage. Walt Disney studios were the first HP customers that bought a number of the audio oscillators for testing a new sound system. The company has gained enough popularity in so many countries of the world to have become the No 1 infrastructure support services revenue in 2003 among many world top support services providers. HP as a company always rise to challenges when it comes to IT-related issues, this is manifested in so many ways, the company offers one of the tech worlds most comprehensive portfolios of hardware, software, and services. The products range from personal computers, servers, and sophisticated storage devices, variety of printers and series of networking equipments. Asides this, the service unit of HP still offers series of IT and business outsourcing, software application development, IT consulting, and other IT-related services. The company has produces series of software such as carrier-grade communications applications, information management business intelligence and enterprise IT management among others. The coverage of her business are covered in consumers, business, government agencies and educational organization and such has been spread to more than 170 countries of the world. HP as a company believes so much in working towards achieving her set objectives and that has been the corporate values shared by all the employee within the organization. This is confirmed by the quotation of Dave Packard, co-founder of HP as follow: It is necessary that people work together in unison toward common objectives and avoid working at cross purposes at all levels if the ultimate in efficiency and achievement is to be obtained. Dave Packard The company has always been careful in following the pathways to achieving its set objectives based on the organizational values.Table 1 below summarizes the HPs corporate shared values and corporate objectives. Table 1: HPs Corporate values and objectives HPs Corporate Shared Values HPs Corporate Objectives Passion for customers Customer loyality Trust and respect for individuals Profit Achievement and contribution Growth Results through teamwork Market leadership Speed and agility Commitment to employees Meaningful innovation Leadership capability Uncompromising integrity Global citizenship Information Technology in HP HP company has been maintaining a lead in Information Technology (IT) which is evidenced as contained in the following discussions. To start with, it is revealed from the analyst firms report that HP recorded a tremendous increase in the infrastructure support services revenue from $7.889 billion to $8.028 billion between 2002 and 2003. This accounts for over 6% of the world infrastructure support service market. This marks the second year of the company (HP) leading the IT industry in support service revenue. Among the identified 450 IT service providers which is finally categorized in to the following four categories: Major service (Hardware maintenance and support, software support) Platform (Computing and connectivity) Industry Major geographical region and country HP maintains the lead in all the categories. HP is identified as one of the largest IT companies that operate in nearly every country. HP specializes in developing and manufacturing computing, data storage, networking and its hardware infrastructure, software design and rendering support services. The impact of Information Technology (IT) on the achievement of HP is not limited to the technological aspects but also the soft skills and expertise which are unique to HP software crew. Malan, Coleman Letsinger (1995) in their study conducted to explore the current state of object-oriented practice. The findings of the study revealed that the best practice is derived from lesson learnt from HP. This means that HP is maintaining a lead in this regard. Object oriented programming approach is the most competing approach and any organization with required expertise in this area will make its ways in the competitive environment. This part of what strengthens the IT proficiency of HP company . Therefore, the success of HP cannot be a surprise since IT is now considered as the hub of every business. HP as an IT-based company has always been ready to assist serious-minded organizations in solving their IT-relate problems and such has been a plus to the company. A good scenario in this regard is how HP came to the aid of St. Peters Anglican Primary School with 560 students in both the K-6 and pre-kindergarten classes. The leadership of the school so much believe that the creating a computer-assisted learning environment for the children will serve as a good motivation for them to learn, in their quest to achieve this, the school can only afford desktop PCs due to budget constraints. The desktop PCs were found to be very slow in network operation and some were even too old to work which affects the realization of the schools goals. An introduction to HPs channel partner Somerville, and HPs Consolidated Client Infrastructure (CCI), made St Peters to begin a complete overhaul of its IT infrastructure that would bring a new flexibility and efficiency to its entire computing platform. In doing this, HP plays a significant role in addressing this problem. HP implemented a Consolidated Client Infrastructure based on a series of blade PCs for St Peters. This system meant that when a blade PC went down, another would pick up the active session, immediately minimizing disruptions to users. In a Consolidated Client Infrastructure, desktop PCs are replaced by thin client terminals, which are then virtually connected to HP blade PCs stored on a blade rack enclosure in a remote and centralised location. Each blade PC has its own CPU, RAM and hard disk. A HP blade enclosure can contain up to 20 blade PCs in a 3U rack enclosure, allowing up to 280 blade PCs per 42U rack. Blade PCs are then accessed via the Microsoft RDP, Citrix ICA or HP RGS protocols and displayed on thin client devices. Only screen updates, keyboard strokes, mouse actions, audio and peripheral data travel over the network, all the processing happens on the blade PCs. Users are connected to blade PCs either statically or through a broker such as HPs Session Allocation Manager, thus allowing the creation of a concurrent pool of resources and lowering the amount of IT administration required. This among others repositioned HP within organizations in terms of IT support. Information System in HP The company does not limit herself to only the IT aspects but also doing well in information system. A good testimony to this is the HP being announced as the as the support company for the Defense Information System Agency (DISA) with the company tapping from the HPs software for optimizing the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) to deliver a reliable kind of interoperability capable of servicing all US defense departments. SOA is a technique of delivering IT services in a secured and manageable manner by using flexible, reusable and standard technology that can easily be adjusted to take care of any unplanned changes that occur in the business plan. The HP systinet SOA (HP business technology) is very good in this regard as it assist business organization in building a kind of information system (record) to manage the services rendered throughout the cycle of that service. This is to explain how far HP as a company has gone in terms of information systems to have provided DISA which is solely used for planning, engineering, acquiring, fielding and supporting IT solutions capable of serving the U.S president, Vice President, Secretary of Defense and all departments of US defense. This has earn HP series of awards from 2005 to date. HP offers SOA services to help customers at any point along the SOA lifecycle, including the design, build, integration, management and evolution of their SOA environment. HP Services also collaborates with technology partners such as BEA Systems, JBoss, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP to offer customers choice and flexibility. Competitive Advantage Introduction about Competitive Advantage First of all, it is important to briefly define what is competitive advantage? Competitive advantage is a feature exhibited at the expense of the firms rivals or competitors. It is a state where a firm sustains profits that is more than the industrial set average profit. Primarily, it is the dream of every business organization to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. According to Michael Porter, cost advantage and differentiation advantage are identified as the two basic types of competitive advantage. Cost competitive advantage A business firm/organization is considered to achieve cost competitive advantage if she is able to offer a better service or products to customers at a relatively reduced cost compared to her competitors. For example, HP has achieved sustainable cost competitive advantage over all her competitors by being able to produce highly quality laptops at a cheaper rate. Differentiation competitive advantage Differentiation competitive advantage is gained or achieved by a firm or an organization if she is able to deliver services or products of better values compared to those offered by her rivals or competitors. With the explanation of the two types of competitive advantage, it can be described as a way of getting more values for the customers and getting more profits for the company. Figure 1 below describes a competitive advantage model. As can be seen from the model combination of the organizational resources (human and material) and capabilities forms the distinctive competencies that makes the organization to be able to make a difference with respect to either cost advantage of differentiation advantage which eventually creates values for both the organization and the customers. This is in line with the resource-based theory that for a firm to attain a sustainable competitive advantage, such a firm must have superior resources and capabilities compared to her competitors. How Competitive Advantage helps HP Company HP Company being one of the world largest IT companies with a quarterly revenue of approximately $97.1 billion is able to maintain such a wonderful record through the sustainable competitive advantage over the competitors. The sustainable competitive advantage has benefited the company in so many ways that she has no other choice other than sustaining such record. The gained competitive advantage has increased the companys revenue tremendously. In year 2006, HP recorded a much better revenue of $91.7 billion against the rival, IBM with $91.4 billion. In year 2007, the annual revenue of the company was jacked up to $104 billion to become the first IT company reported to have a revenue of more than $ 100 billion, it doesnt stop there, acquisition of the EDS in 2008, also jacked up the revenue to $118.4 billion. All these achievements in terms of boosting in the revenue are products of the gained competitive advantage. The competitive advantage gained and sustained ever since by HP can be also attributed to her leadership position in the world technology with groups strategically assigned to drive industry leadership in main technology areas. The Personal Systems group are responsible for the lead in the business and consumer PCs, mobile computing equipments and work station. In the same manner, the imaging and printing group is responsible for the successes recorded in all forms of printing devices (personal and commercial printing), printing supplies and the enterprise business group is in charge of all business products. The performance of each of these groups among others is what makes HP what it is today among her equal. In addition HP became the largest world seller of personal computers as a result of her competitive advantage. In January 2010 a report from Gartner and IDC (Market Research Firms) shows that there is a wide gap between HP and Dell with HP taking 8.3% market share lead at the end of 2009. It was equally reported that HP is the 6th largest world software company. HP Company is equally reported in year 2008, to have retained the global leadership position in Jacket, laser, large format and multifunction printers market and at the same time the second IT service provider throughout the world. All these benefits/achievements do not come by chance it is as a result of being able to maintain some degree of superiority over the competitors. This results in to competitive advantage and the benefits being discusses the created values based on the competitive advantage. Analysis of Competitive Advantage in HP Company HP is able to achieve and sustain competitive advantage with her distinctive competencies. First of all, the company is committed to simplifying technology experiences for all its customers. This is applicable to all the services rendered ranging from printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure. This is very important since it assists in making virtually all the HP products usable by the intended users by putting the customers first. There is no way one can analyze HP competitive advantage without discussing the HP values; HP values is associated with the complete adherence to the ways or paths set out by the founding HP leaders. These unique ways account for the decision-making and the firms advancement since it is just like a roadmap. Also, HP pioneers based the corporate culture on the integration and reinforcement of critical opposites. This is achieved by simultaneously creating an environment that both celebrates individualism and at the same time supports the team work. The beauty of it is that such a practice will allow the company to tap from the benefits of both approaches as the case may be and also to neutralize their associated risks. Another way by which the competitive advantage of HP Company is sought is through her concept of developing cross functional individuals. Unlike other companies that just hire staffs and train them for a specific job requirement to be assigned to such staffs throughout their stay in the organization, HP makes sure that all her employees move more than 4 to six functional areas within the company to allow them to work in more than one departments of the company and thereby effectively managing the organizational knowledge through effective sharing among her staffs. It has been widely agreed that in this knowledge era, effective knowledge management will surely lead to achievement of competitive advantage. The quest for developing employee has always been the strength of HP company in attaining competitive advantage since this makes the company to achieve effective organizational change considering the rampant changes in the business organizations. Miller (2004) revealed that since 1980, HP has been engaged in extensive employee retraining program called Software Job Skills (SJS). Personnel who might ordinarily be laid-off underwent serious retraining the complex set of required skills and techniques. This makes the company to be able to sustain her competitive advantage since the employees always continue to be relevant and compliant with the new trend organizational need and employee are considered important in the performance of every organization. Organizational competitiveness is derived by the implementation of knowledge management and its associated benefits. Knowledge management helps in reducing the production cost as a result of the possibility of reusability. This allows the organization to be able to offer services of the same quality or even better than that of its competitive at a relatively low cost. This is an important way of gaining competitive advantage. In addition, the implementation of knowledge management brought about enhanced employee productivity and coordination which has a resulting positive effect on organizational performance. Another important factor is early delivery or ubiquitous service deliver powered by the real time communication facility. It is a wise saying of HP as quoted as follow If only HP know what HP knows! It means that the required knowledge and skills for solving your problem resides somewhere within the company. This means that the company has achieved a lot through effective communication. All these account for achieving sustainable competitive advantage. There have been series of academic evidences responsible for the early delivery experienced in the company due to regular improvement and enhancement of the supply chain. According to Lava, Feyhl and Kakourus (2005),full optimization of the business supply chain cannot be achieved using only the Operation Research (OR) approach in this demanding fast-paced ubiquitous business environment of the globalized era. Using OR alone will require a lot of time which might result in to delay in the service delivery and thereby negatively affect customer satisfaction. HP strategic planning and modeling (SPaM) came out with a more efficient approach which combines the optimization ability of OR and scenario analysis of the expert knowledge to arrive at an effective supply chain approach capable of solving complex supply chain decision problem for HPs imaging and printing group of company. the earlier the customers can get the required service the more satisfied they are, the efficient supply chain of HP has been of the secretes of the companys sustainable competitive advantage. It ha equally been argued that the risk associated with supply chain are related to product demand, component cost and availability uncertainties and they all affect the companys revenues and profits. According to Ngali, Hwang, Sanghera, Gaskins, Pridgan, Thuvston, Mackenvoth, Branvold, Scholler and Shoemaker (2008), procurement management group is formed in HP and they developed and implemented a mathematical model, business process and software to estimate and manage risks associated with supply chain. This has brought a lot of benefits to the company. To the extent that in year 2006, HP was able to manage $7 billion of her spending by saving only material cost of not less than $128 million. This really maximizes the companys profits and contributes to the sustainable competitive advantage of the company. The products of HP are always better than that of her competitors and such are refined and rebranded from time to time to meet the changing technological needs of the customers. Just in November 2009, HP StorageWorks X9000 was introduced as the new network storage system which is primarily designed to meet the emerging trend of the explosive data growth and to enhance the performance of the file-based applications using scale-out network storage that has the ability to manage information efficiently using a single namespace. This has fetched the company more popularity in the networking society since such an innovation is needed in virtually all organizations that deal with large data. The StorageWorks is very efficient in storing data and it is known for relatively low down time. Conclusion From the discussion so far, it can be seen that organizational success cannot be easily achieved without adequately set certain outstanding objectives with pathways to achieve those objectives. From all the sources it can be deduced that the leading position maintained by HP company can be largely attributed to the aggressive ways of achieving the organizational objectives and that is only possible because of the shared corporate values among all members of the organization. No doubt such shared corporate values will make all members of the organization to have almost equal motivation to contribute to the overall organizational performance. Also, one value must always be guided to avoid being eroded and same holds for organizations. It will be difficult for any organization to beat the HP record as long as the corporate value is maintained.

Is Technology to Blame for Americas Obesity Problem? Essay -- Overweig

As a future educator of physical education, I feel that our nation’s weight problem is an issue that needs to be addressed. I feel that it is and will be my job to educate students about the importance of taking care of your body because â€Å"fat kids have a 92% chance of becoming fat adults† (www.amp.com). The leading cause of death in the United States, for men and women, is heart disease. â€Å"The United States alone the estimated annual number of deaths attributable to obesity is about 280,000.† (www.members.iglou.com) â€Å"Results on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999–2000 indicate that an estimated 64 percent of U.S. adults are either overweight or obese.† (www.cdc.gov) In addition, â€Å"The number of overweight children in the United States has more than doubled since the early 1970s† (www.naaso.org) and â€Å"about 15 percent of children and adolescents are now overweight.† (www.cdc.gov) There is a difference in being overweight and being obese. Being overweight â€Å"refers to increased body weight in relation to height, when compared to some standard of acceptable or desirable weight.† (www.cdc.gov) Being over weight may or may not be due to the increase in body fat. It may be due to an increase in lean muscle. A perfect example of this is in professional athletes. Professional athletes may be very lean and muscular, with very little body fat, yet may weigh more than others of the same height. This may qualify the athlete as â€Å"overweight† due to their large muscle mass. This is based on the belief of someone who has come up with what they believe to be desirable. Now â€Å"obesity is defined as an excessively high amount of body fat or adipose tissue in relation to lean body mass. The amount of ... ...e. No one is making you eat what you are it is your choice. I think we should also think about things that we are doing to our children, which is training them to be lazy. An example of this is when it is a nice day outside and we allow our children to stay inside and play video games or watch television. This is a great opportunity to have your kids getting some more activity. Something we should consider not doing anymore is to stop putting televisions in our children’s bedrooms. â€Å"If a child replaces those almost 20 minutes a week with ANY other activity (besides reading or thinking), he, or she is going to be more physically active. Even painting would be more active than watching television.† (www.texas.teachers.net) Robinson TN. Reducing children’s television viewing to prevent obesity: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA 1999; 282: 1561-7.

Attention Deficit Disorder :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Attention Deficit Disorder Attention Deficit Disorder is a neurobehavioral disorder that affects thousands of people in the United States. Over the past decade, media focuses have been primarily on children with the disorder and the effects of the traditionally used medication, Ritalin. It is important to note that A.D.D. does not target only children, but it also greatly affects adults because it is not a condition than can be outgrown or cured. Furthermore, it has become critical, since more doctors have become specialists on this disorder, thus presenting the many ways in which it affects the life of a human being. The identification of Attention Deficit Disorder dates to the early 1900's when it was called "minimal brain dysfunction"; researchers found that children with encephalitis and soldiers who had received some brain damage (after World War I), demonstrated hyperactivity, impulsivity, and conduct disorders. (1) Consequently, researchers made the assumption that since brain injury could cause hyperac tivity then all hyperactivity would be caused by brain damage. After many years of new observations, this statement has been shown to be untrue; however, there are still many misconceptions and rumors about the causes of A.D.D., which limit the general understanding of the disorder. The topic of A.D.D. is of great interest to me since two of my siblings have been diagnosed with the disorder. This first assignment has given me the opportunity to explore the causes and the many faces of A.D.D. I found myself to be one of many people who believed many rumors and misconceptions to be true about A.D.D. as well as learning about the newest most commonly accepted observations and conclusions about the causes of this disorder. For example, A.D.D. does not occur in one form only; in fact, there are two major types of A.D.D.: Inattentive: In general, people with this type have trouble keeping focus and attention and are not consistent with hyperactivity. †¢ Often failure in paying close attention to details/making mistakes in assignments †¢ Difficulty in retaining attention in tasks †¢ Seems not to listen/forgets daily activities †¢ Failure to follow instructions or finishing assignments †¢ Constantly loosing belongings Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: In general, people with this type are in constant overactivity and are highly impulsive, which leads to the inability to remain focused and attentive. †¢ Fidgety and squirmy/ not being able to stay seated †¢ Feeling restless †¢ Often "on the go" or acts if "driven by a motor" †¢ Often talking excessively

The Role of Women in Homers The Odyssey Essay -- Papers Odyssey Home

The Role of Women in Homer's The Odyssey Women form an important part of the folk epic, written by Homer, The Odyssey. Within the story there are three basic types of women: the goddess, the seductress, and the good hostess/wife. Each role adds a different element and is essential to the telling of the story. The role of the goddess is one of a supernatural being, but more importantly one in a position to pity and help mortals. Athena, the goddess of wisdom, is the most prominent example of the role; in the very beginning of the story she is seen making a plea for Odysseus' return home, and throughout the first half of the book she assists him in his journey. She is the driving force behind arranging Odysseus' return home from getting Kalypso to release him to making sure Nausikaa found him on Skheria. In books 1-4 she helps Telemakhos, Odysseus' son, gather the courage to go out and get news about his father. Other than Athena, there are many examples of goddesses taking pity on a mortal, usually Odysseus, and helping him out. When Odysseus is s...

How Does SHRM Influence Organizational Outcomes? Essay

Introduction In modern business environment, †Strategy† is always applied in each business area. As strategic management discipline originated in the 1950s and 1960s, strategic human resource management emerged as following. At the beginning, HR department is not viewed as an important division and in many multinational companies (Vymys.P 2014), only marketing, R&D and finance which are direct associated with the competition and revenue could get enough attention from general manager, stockholders and professors in management area. However, nowadays, strategic human resource management (SHRM) is considered to be a source of competitive advantage for a firm (Wright, Dunford, & Snell, 2001). An increasing number of senior managers or professors have begun to focus on human capital. Actually, the core competition ability of an enterprise is accumulated value of employees. During the process of promoting and implementing all the business in an enterprise, the initiative of the people, the guaranteed skills and the team cooperation is the key factor for it to work effectively; SHRM is, in fact, the management of power development and the core of management behavior includes the acquisition, motivation, organization and development of human resource management. These four parts form a unified whole and none is dispensable. The circulation of the â€Å"unified whole† promotes human resources management and enterprise management constantly, thus enhances the enterprise’s core competitiveness and profitability. In Google, the Human Resource department is called People Operations. They emphasize on the process which employees create value for the company and presents strategic modes in HR management. For example,each employee in Google has material packages in HR department with at least dozens of pages, on which record their abundant personal information,like SAT scores,rankings,GPA,resume, papers published,referees and even message in BBS and blog (Wei,J. 2013). In terms of recruitment,the questions candidates received are various and strange. Google devotes into seeking the smart to compete rivals and indeed,  this strategic recruitment method does work and provides countless value for the enterprise (Poundstone,W. 2012). In total, SHRM plays a crucial role in enterprise management and affects the success and failure in an organization. Strategic Human Resource Management and 8P Model Strategic human resource management (SHRM) is different from the concept â€Å"human resources management†. Put it in detail,SHRM refers that the essence of SHRM is to adopt a flexible but strategic perspective that accurately analyses both the internal and external environments of organizations to assure ’fit’ between HR strategies and practices, and between these and business strategiesï ¼Ë†Redman,T. and Wilkinson, A. 2013,p.50). The main characteristic of SHRM is to emphasize matching up between human resource management and enterprise strategies, to establish relevant human resource management activities and deployment according to organizational strategic objectives and to provide services and support for the implementation of enterprise strategy(Strategic Human Resource Management And 8P Model 2012) . Therefore, if an organization wants to achieve the goals, the first thing is to successfully manage human capital. However, how to motivate human talent to create a network and make the company successful? According to Adam Smithï ¼Ë†1776ï ¼â€°, economic activity was fulled not by workers as a collective mass but by †the acquired and useful ability of all the inhabitants and members of the society†. With the development of strategic human resource management, there is an increasing number of people focusing on capitalize the intangible asset. Many practices and strategies are applied in promoting the †best fit† and encouraging the network. Theodore Schultz(1960), American economist and the creator of human capital theory, in his report †Human Capital Investment and Urban Competitiveness† said, the source of economic growth can not increase only depending on the material input of the Labor force, but the more important is to rely on improved peopl e’s ability. According to the American economists estimates, from 1900 to 1957, the material capital investment increased by 4.5 times, profits increased by 3.55 times,while human capital investment increased by 3.5 times, profits increased by 17.55 times. During the 38 years from 1919 to 1957, 49% of  gross national product is the result of human capital(What Is Strategic Human Resource Management In An Organization 2008). Obviously, the contribution rate of human capital in the era of knowledge economy is far greater than that of material capital. Therefore, paying attention to the importance of human capital on economic growth is particularly urgent. Under the background of modern social economy, the enterprise must carry out strategic management of human capital and strengthen the competition and development of the enterprise. As I mentioned, SHRM is power management and its core function and soul is acquisition,motivation,organization and development. In terms of behavior and responsibilities of strategic human resource management, to conclude, there are eight essential abilities: Table1.Strategic Human Resource Management and 8P model (MBA Lib,2012) These eight abilities are specifiedï ¼Å¡ ——HRM project system based on strategy(Project) Understanding organizational strategic decision and management environment is the precondition of human resource planning. According to the enterprise development strategy, combining with the enterprise human resource current situation and making enterprise human resources plans enable the enterprise’s human resources to support enterprise strategic development needs and to contribute to the realization of enterprise strategy. The main activities of enterprise human resources planning encompass the analysis of supply and demand of human resources, the planning of amount of human resource planning, human resources structure optimization planning and human resource qualification promotion planning, and the concrete measures to realize the objective of human resource planning, namely, the various business plans. ——Job analysis system based on strategy(position) Job analysis is a basic work in an enterprise’s SHRM. Enterprises select the appropriate organization mode according to their own strategic and on the basis of this, set up departments including management processes and business processes and clear the responsibility and authority of the various functional departments. HR department should clear the responsibilities and  content of each department and analyze the necessary knowledge, skills, experience and personal quality as an employee. ——Employee’s qualification analysis system based on strategy and position (personnel) Enterprises should proceed based on strategic objectives and customer demand, on the basis of job analysis, analyze and conclude the staff with high performance and then set up â€Å"Staff Quality Model† in order to optimize human resource and motivate the staff’s potentials. ——recruitment system based on strategy and competence(provide) Recruitment based on strategy is no longer to simply hire people to fill the vacancies and what they acquire is the resource with which an enterprise can survive and win the competition. A company not only care about if the candidate is qualified in the position, but also care about if the candidate could provide support for the company to achieve the enterprise strategic objectives. Therefore, an enterprise should take human resource planning and â€Å"Staff Quality Model† into account, when recruiting. ——training system based on strategy and employee’s career(plant) The training system based on strategy and staff’s career development should encompass training demands assessment, drawing up a training plan and training results transformation. Training needs assessment should consider about strategic requirements, staff qualities and training needs by which employees want to achieve professional development in their career. ——career management based on strategy(profession) Career management based on strategy requires an enterprise to set up job positions and job classification based on the organizational strategies. Enterprises should establish different levels of qualification standards according to different employee’s classification, drive the employees to study and improve professional skills. In addition to this, HR division should set up promotion system by which employees have more motivation to do the work and improve themselves. Besides, an enterprise should build a good environment for employees to grow up and positively provide consultancy for  employees about promotion and skill improvement. By that, realize that the enterprise leads employees to grow up and employees promote the enterprise to develop. ——appraisal performance system based on strategy and key performance indicator (performance) Performance is an effective output in order to achieve strategic objectives including organizational performance, department(team) performance and personal performance. SHRM focuses on organizational overall performance whose goal is to survive and develop in the competition. Appraisal performance system based on strategy and key performance indicator requires an enterprise to develop relying on organizational strategic objectives and to determine the enterprise key results areas and key performance indicators through the analysis of the value chain of enterprises. Organizational performance is based on individual performance and team performance. When the organization performance targets are allocated to every employee and every job, and as long as each employee meets the organizational requirements, the realization of organizational performance is guaranteed. Standard procedure of performance appraisal comprises five links, namely, planing assessment, performance management(e,g, performance coaching, counseling and performance tracking), performance appraisal, performance feedback such as performance interview, and the use of performance appraisal(e.g. reward, promotion, elimination and improving the performance appraisal mode). ——payment management based on ability and achievement(payment) There are three ways measuring the value that employees create for the enterprise. So on the basis of it, there are emerging three compensation modes. The first mode is based on job duties which is determined by the importance of job and relative value of job in the enterprise. The second is based on performance evaluation. In this way, an employee’s salary is related to his performance. Evaluating the salary level by employee personal performance or team performance is a result oriented value distribution way. The third is to pay the employees according to employee’s ability, capacity, professional skills, experience internal quality and so on. Under the framework of strategic human resource management, the enterprise’s salary incentive  system should focus on the short-term performance improvement and long-term development of the enterprise. Therefore, compensation management must link to performance and ability appraisal by which each employee’s income and performance is related to the realization of organizational strategies. Payroll management based on performance and ability not only emphasize the value created by individuals and teamwork but also emphasize potential value that individuals and teams could bring about for the enterprise. Conclusion To conclude, SHRM to a large extent influences the organizational outcome. I have explained each function separately and each one is closely associated to the organizational strategy. Actually, the core management of an enterprise is human management and each department in the enterprise is operated by people. Therefore, what extent to capitalize the human resource and how to match the human resources with the organizational strategies is critical issue. More importantly,this also requires the HR division to understand the organizational strategies on which manage employees effectively and plan and execute SHRM strategies to help the enterprise to survive and win the global competition. To sum up, SHRM is to explore and motivate the value of people. A good HR division knows exactly which division need which talents and understand how to motivate the employee potential. However, to what extent to motive and explore these potentials to be the â€Å"Best Fit† and how to manage the talents from motivating personalities to forming a standard is another important issue. This would be discussed more deeply. References 1. Vymys,p.2014,Introduction to Human Resource Strategy(WORK6017), The university of Sydney,Sydney, 29 July, viewed 10 September 2014, 2. Mayhew,R. and Demand 2014, Chron,Small Business,10 September 2014, 3. Strategic Human Resource Management And 8P Model 2012, MBA Lib, viewed 10 September 2014, 4. Schultz,T. 1960,Human Capital Investment and Urban Competitiveness,social Sciences Academic Press, China. 5.What is Strategic Human Resource Management In An Organization 2008, MBA Lib, viewed 10 September 2014, 6. Redman,T. and Wilkinson,A. 2013, Contemporary Human Resource Management,Pearson,UK 7.Human Resource 2014,MBA Lib, Viewed 10 September 2014, 8.Wei,J. 2013,demystify the recruitment of Google:lengthy and picky five rounds of interviews,Sina ChuangShiJi, viewed 17 September 2014, 9. Manjoo,F. 2013,The Happiness Machine:How Google became such a great place to work, Slate, viewed 17 September 2014, 10. Google,2014,Google Career, viewed 17 September 2014, 11.Pounderstone,W.2012,Are You Smart Enough To Work At Google,Little,Brown and Company Press,United States of America.

The Express Transportation And Logistics Industry Commerce Essay

Using illustrations from FedEx Corporation and your ain research on the Global Transportation and Logistics Industry, critically evaluate the: Strategic Vision and airy Leadership behind FedEx Corporation Federal Express is a planetary express transit and logistics company that offers clients a individual beginning for planetary transportation, logistics, and supply concatenation solutions. It was founded in 1973 by Frederick W. Smith. Since its origin FedEx pioneered the express bringing industry. The company focused on the nucleus concern of express bringing and provided nightlong bringing services to the clients globally. However, the transmutation of concerns and clients from old economic system to the new economic system forced FedEx to shift itself from ‘overnight bringing service ‘ to a ‘one-stop-shop ‘ for the full logistics demand of the concern. The company became the logistics service supplier of taking organisations, like, General Motors.Background:During the late sixtiess, Frederick Smith ( Smith ) chanced upon an thought to get down an air hose messenger company. During this period, it was common pattern to direct bundles as lading on commercial b earers like American, United or Delta Airlines. This pattern had a figure of drawbacks because rider air hoses normally operated during the daylight and were grounded at dark. In add-on, cargo forwarders ( the company responsible for transporting the bundles from the airdrome to the finish reference ) normally did non offer place bringing. Smith felt the demand to get down an air hose messenger company that would turn to all these jobs. During his college old ages, he recognized that the United States was going a service-oriented economic system and needed a dependable, nightlong bringing service company designed to entirely transport bundles and paperss. He wrote a Yale term paper on this thought, and received ‘C ‘ class. His professor thought it would ne'er work. Fortunately for Frederick Smith, he did n't take it to bosom and ended up edifice that company he dreamed of.Smith found investors willing to lend $ 40 million, used $ 8 million in household money, and receive d bank funding. He started Federal Express with over $ 80 million, doing it the largest company of its clip of all time funded by venture capital. In the last 36 old ages, FedEx has expanded horizontally with its five subordinates to include FedEx Express ( once Federal Express ) , FedEx Ground ( once Roadway Package System ) , FedEx Custom Critical ( once Roberts Express ) , FedEx Logistics ( once Caliber Logistics ) , and Viking Freight. As a consequence, the FedEx household has been able to vie jointly in the express transit and logistics industries. FedEx ‘s scheme is to confirm on merchandising and synergisms for all FedEx companies, but run operations individually and maintain each company ‘s strengths and markets separate. Today, services offered by FedEx include worldwide express bringing, land small-parcel bringing, less-than-truckload cargo bringing, and planetary logistics, supply concatenation direction, and electronic commercialism solutions. Federal Express is the universe ‘s largest bundle bringing company today. FedEx began its ‘ operations with the exclusive focal point of bettering client cleavage, pricing and quality of services for the nightlong bringing market in the United States. Since so, it has grown to supply taking papers and cargo services for the full North America and for over 212 states abroad. Federal Express Corporation had the airy leading to go the first mover in the express transit and logistics industry go forthing FedEx with one beginning of distinction: their ability to assist in the control of the full supply concatenation direction. FedEx Firsts†¦ Company dedicated to nightlong bundle bringing Offer next-day bringing by 10h30 Offer Saturday bringings Offer a clip unequivocal service for cargo Money-back warrants and free cogent evidence of public presentation services that now extend to its worldwide web The company ‘s ability to utilize engineering and make its ain supply of resources has made it hard for rivals to fit the company ‘s criterions for service.FedEx has been successful chiefly because of their technological promotions. Technology has allowed them to hold superior client service and quality that was unparalleled by any company. No company was able to offer nightlong bringing of bundles with the velocity and preciseness that Federal Express did. FedEx ‘s mold capableness gave them a competitory advantage as they implemented new methods and engineering. They presently have a SuperHub with several regional hubs and bundles are managed and tracked by a system called COSMOS. COSMOS – Customers, Operations and Services Master Online System, a centralized computing machine system to pull off people, bundles, vehicles and conditions scenarios in existent clip. This system allowed clients to cognize where their bundles are at all times and was subsequently integrated for web usage, leting clients to track bundles over the Internet. In add-on, the customized bringing service of the company is alone in the market. Mission Statement The Mission Statement of FedEx is â€Å" to bring forth superior fiscal returns for shareholders, by supplying high value-added logistics, transit and related information services through focussed operating companies. Customer demands will be met in the highest quality mode appropriate to each market section served. FedEx will endeavor to develop reciprocally honoring relationships with its employees, spouses and providers. Safety will be the first consideration in all operations. Corporate activities will be conducted to the highest ethical and professional criterions † . This mission statement shows that FedEx has a clear focal point. ( 1 ) The chief focal point is to convey returns to shareholders. ( 2 ) They will stress adding value above and beyond merely their service of transporting an object from one topographic point to another. ( 3 ) Their focal point of operations will be logistics, transit, and related information. This mission statement is focused plenty to maintain FedEx from diversifying into for illustration, nutrient merchandises ; yet obscure plenty to let growing in all of those countries. A Doctrine Federal Express holds a People-Service-Profit doctrine. The ‘People ‘ end is the uninterrupted betterment of direction ‘s leading. The ‘Service ‘ criterion is 100 per centum client satisfaction. The ‘Profit ‘ end is much like any other company ‘s end, and is indispensable to long-run viability. This doctrine governs how FedEx runs its concern, and defines schemes. Federal Express Five-Point Strategy Federal Express has five schemes that govern concern tactics. These are to better service degrees, lower unit costs, set up international leading and sustain profitableness, acquire closer to the client, and keep the People-Service-Profit Philosophy. The alone FedEx runing scheme works seamlessly – and at the same time – on three degrees. Compete collectivelyA by standing as one trade name worldwide and talking with one voice. Operate independentlyA by concentrating on our independent webs to run into distinguishable client demands. Manage collaborativelyA by working together to prolong loyal relationships with our work force, clients and investors. Valuess Peoples: We value our people and promote diverseness in our workplace and in our thought. Service: Our perfectly, positively spirit puts our clients at the bosom of everything we do. Invention: We invent and inspire the services and engineerings that improve the manner we work and live. Integrity: We manage our operations, fundss and services with honestness, efficiency and dependability. Duty: We champion safe and healthy environments for the communities in which we live and work. Loyalty: We earn the regard and assurance of our FedEx people, clients and investors every twenty-four hours, in everything we do Transportation system and logistics substructure within FedEx Corporation FedEx started its operation by directing eight bundles on the first dark, of which 7 were test tally addresses from one employee to another. The company has since grown to managing an amazing 9.8 million cargos per twenty-four hours. An overview of FedEx ‘s Infrastructure: Managing 9.8 million cargos per twenty-four hours More than 700 aero planes, Daily lift capacity of 12 million kgs Servicing more than 220 states through 375 airdromes Work force of more than 140,000 lasting employees worldwide 500,000 calls are dealt with professionally With this Infrastructure and new 1s being added over clip, the Purple Promise of â€Å" I will do every FedEx experience outstanding † is achieved with the aggregation and bringing of each cargo. Physical goods when transported over trucks on a main road normally travel the most frequented paths. But as more vehicles start tracking that main road, and as the trips become longer, bundles get delayed, travel astray, arrive spoiled, or do n't get at all. To work out this job, faster, more attentive bearers with their ain hardware and substructure came into being: FedEx, UPS, Airborne Express, and so on. These new bearers pay attending to rush, tracking, charge, quality of service and mechanization. They besides devised systems that did n't go through the center of town, except for concluding bringing, and did n't alter custodies en path. And eventually, they offered tonss of optional services to do life easier for both shipper and receiver.Home bringing substructure:As portion of Infrastructure enlargement programs of its U.S. bringing web, FedEx Corp. will add another 9 distribution hubs, conveying its entire figure of hubs to 39. In add-on, a new home-delivery installation pla nned for Florida will be able to treat more than 10,000 bundles per hr. The three hubs that are under building are in Dallas, Cincinnati and Hagerstown, MD, the 4th hub in Memphis, TN. The hub enlargement undertaking will besides spread out the 30 bing hubs ; this will about duplicate the company ‘s mean day-to-day hub bundle volume capacity by the terminal of its 2010 financial twelvemonth. The enlargement undertaking will back up a crisp growing in FedEx ‘s cargos to consumers on behalf of on-line retail merchants. The new Florida orbiter distribution centre, in Pompano Beach near Fort Lauderdale, will be three times the size of the two bing installations combined, and will open with a work force of about 356 employees and independent contractors, an addition from the current combined figure of 200 employees and independent contractors. FedEx Smart Post ‘s best-of-breed engineering ensures fleet bundle processing and bringing. This engineering provides shipment visibleness throughout the bringing procedure of the bundles while they are en path to their finishs. This enables to cognize ever where the bundles are and where they ‘re traveling following. Advanced control systems, sophisticated automated sorters, and state-of-the-art data-collection devices enable FedEx to roll up elaborate information about every bundle. And the extremely adept logistics squad is to the full equipped to screen 100s of 1000s of bundles each twenty-four hours. The client tools are housed on a secure Web site, customized to run into the alone demands of each client. These tools provide seasonably entree to box bringing information, logistics analysis, manifest item, and charge statements, every bit good as the ability to make necessary studies needed in be aftering the bundle bringing scheme. As a leader in the bundle bringing industry, FedEx provides with informations and coverage needed to analyze and heighten logistics operations on an on-going footing. Virtual information substructure at FedEx Corporation. Though FedEx began as an express air bringing company in the early 1970s, it has successfully transformed itself into an integrated transit and logistics service supplier. A major portion of FedEx ‘s success is straight attributed to its committed usage of information engineering ( IT ) . IT has non merely facilitated its concern procedures like operations, client service and employee preparation but besides integrated its information web with that of its clients to supply them with seamless logistic and supply concatenation solutions. Dennis Jones, former Chief Information Officer ( CIO ) of FedEx says – â€Å" IT ( information engineering ) is a map that has a strategic value because the kernel of our concern is taking a basic service and adding information engineering services to transform into a value added merchandise. And that is really of import. Any company can travel freight from point A to point B. But the manner you make it a valuable merchandise to your client is to wrap it with intensive information engineering capablenesss † .Leveraging Information TechnologyIn the late seventiess, FedEx saw a great benefit in utilizing IT to simplify its concern procedures. Smith had really early on understood that velocity, dependability and client service was an indispensable factor for success in the planetary transit industry.IT in Human ResourcesFedEx had in topographic point Interactive Video Instructions ( IVI ) that allowed employees to take advantage of slack periods to develop themselves at any clip of the twenty-four hours. The plan was used for preparation and trial r eadying ( Customer service employees at FedEx were tested twice a twelvemonth on occupation cognition ) .IT in Customer ServiceFedEx besides used IT to better upon its client service, by supervising assorted facets of a client ‘s dealing. The end was to accomplish â€Å" 100 % truth, quality, and client satisfaction † on all minutess. One such system that FedEx used was the Service Quality index ( SQI ) that quantified every portion of a dealing like â€Å" Was the bundle undamaged? Was the client billed right? †Using the InternetThe widespread usage of the Internet from the early 1990s threw unfastened important chances for FedEx. Since the company already had an EDI based system on which it had spent a batch of money, FedEx decided to utilize a combination of Internet and the EDI. One illustration was the execution done for the buying of merchandises. FedEx purchased a merchandise from a company called Ariba. Ariba was a requisitioning system that was housed on the FedEx intranet. The system was set up so that providers could keep a database of catalogs that could be accessed by any FedEx employee. The company website hosts more than 6.3 million alone visitants per month and grips on an norm over 2.4 million bundle tracking petitions daily. More than 2 million clients connected with the company electronically every twenty-four hours, and electronic minutess accounted for about two-thirds of the more than five million cargos FedEx delivered daily. FedEx operates one of the universe ‘s largest computing machine and telecommunications networks- more than 75,000-networked computing machines and 1000s of handheld computing machines that recorded and tracked cargos. FedEx ‘s informations centre processes more than 20 million information direction system minutess daily, more than any other US company. The company is involved in linking 39 hubs across the Earth, runing 677 planes and 90,000 vehicles, supervising 200,000 employees and presenting six million bundles daily in 220 states where every second was of import. This is the ‘FEDEX EDGE ‘ , for which the company is known for. FedEx transformed both client and concern transit theoretical account with higher velocity, dependability, application of information engineering, improved stuff managing system and streamlined logistics web. The company popularized the constructs of ‘just-in-time ‘ and ‘build-to-order ‘ which reduced client ‘s lead clip and increased productiveness. Apart from embarking into ‘logistics solution supplier ‘ the company was able to keep its leading place in little bundle and light cargo market through its alone ‘hub and spoke ‘ theoretical account. The function information engineering has played in FedEx ‘s scheme is exciting. By utilizing IT as a major portion of its concern, FedEx has reached an about wholly new group of people. It has maintained its repute and increased its concern at the same clip. IT has created a greater chance for clients in the planetary market. They can now bespeak service, wage for that service, and track the bundle online. Customers no longer necessitate to talk to FedEx. They are now free to order as they need, 24 hours per twenty-four hours, seven yearss per hebdomad. Because of this, FedEx ‘s scheme has changed. It is now focused on the usage of the Internet and other technological progresss. Because this is such a critical facet of the scheme, the execution of the scheme had to be about immediate. To vie with other major concerns in the industry, FedEx had to supply a service to clients that could be accessed utilizing engineering. They besides had to supply a bundle tracking service. As they developed this service, their repute and concern grew. FedEx has done several things with its value concatenation to develop new concern. First they have ever recognized the demand to hold engineering and IT work to pass on the logistics that they run. They have developed cyberspace engineerings that work merely and expeditiously to enable clients and Sellerss to utilize FedEx as a spell between. This has enabled many companies to incorporate FedEx engineering into their ain web sites for clients to utilize.Question Two: – Stigmatization and concern construction up until 19 January 2000Using information from the instance survey and your ain research, critically evaluate the benefits and restrictions of Merger and Acquisition ( M & A ; A ) strategies in the Global Transportation and Logistics Industry. Discuss how FedEx Corporation managed the acquisition of Caliber Systems in 1998, and find whether or non the acquisition of Caliber Systems was a success or failure?Mergers & A ; acquisitions in the Transportation & A ; Logisticss industryThe Transport and Logistics ( T & A ; L ) sector is characterized by a important degree of denationalization, finance-raising and amalgamation and acquisition activity. Minutess are frequently complex and impacted by the regulative environment, competition issues, or demand for contracted subsidies to back up operations. We have witnessed many denationalizations of coach companies, ports and airdromes which have created successful private sector groups that have continued to turn via farther acquisitions. In other sections there is ongoing planetary consolidation within and between operators from the messenger, package, cargo forwarding and contract logistics arenas. Postal organisations and railroad companies that have historically been more nationally oriented are now seeking chances to spread out into cross-border markets driven by a more commercial focal point and broad regulative government.Transportation & A ; LogisticssThe Transportation & A ; Logistics ( T & A ; L ) industry forms the anchor of planetary supply ironss. Postal operators every bit good as big logistics suppliers play a dominant function as cardinal stakeholders in the T & A ; L industry. In recent old ages some former national Posts have undergone an extended transmutation to emerge as transnational suppliers of complex logisti cs and fiscal services. These evolved entities face new competition in their nucleus markets of mail bringing through the liberalisation of markets and denationalization. At the same clip, former Posts may be able to leverage their old ages of experience in roll uping, processing, transporting and presenting national and international mail in order to develop and supply a broader pallet of logistics based services, upstream with direct mail activities and downstream with bundle bringing and payment services. Further, many bing logistics and express companies have expanded good beyond simple bringing services and are now pull offing all facets of the supply concatenation. These ongoing tendencies have changed the face of an industry which has become progressively focussed on functioning clients in all parts of the universe. Amalgamations and Acquisitions: Three types Amalgamation: A dealing where two houses agree to incorporate their operations on a comparatively coequal footing because they have resources and capablenesss that together may make a stronger competitory advantage. Acquisition: A dealing where one house buys another house with the purpose of more efficaciously utilizing a nucleus competency by doing the acquired house a subordinate within its portfolio of concerns. Coup d'etat: An acquisition where the mark house did non beg the command of the geting house.Problems inAchieving SuccessIntegration Difficulties/Cultures Inadequate rating of mark Excessively much variegation Large or extraordinary debt Inability to achieve synergism Directors excessively focused on acquisitions Too big Increased market power Overcome ent entry barriers Lower hazard compared to developing new merchandises Cost of new merchandise development Increased velocity to market Increased variegation Avoid inordinate competitionAcquisitionsReasons forAcquisitionsBenefits of AcquisitionsIncreased Market Power: Acquisition intended to cut down the competitory balance of the industry Overcome Barriers to Entries: Acquisitions overcome dearly-won barriers to entry which may do â€Å" start-ups † economically unattractive Lower Cost and Risk of New Product Development: Buying established concerns reduces hazard of start-up ventures Increased Speed to Market: Closely related to Barriers to Entry, allows market entry in a more timely manner Diversification: Quick manner to travel into concerns when house presently lacks experience and deepness in industry Reshaping Competitive Scope: Firms may utilize acquisitions to curtail its dependance on a individual or a few merchandises or marketsProblems with AcquisitionsMerely a â€Å" fiscal squad † assembled and they make â€Å" the determination † ( should hold two squads: one fiscal and one organisational – where the organisational Team says â€Å" Yes † or â€Å" No † Integration Troubles: Differing fiscal and control systems can do integrating of houses hard Inadequate Evaluation of Target: â€Å" Winners Curse † command causes acquirer to overpay for house Large or Extraordinary Debt: Costly debt can make burdensome load on hard currency escapes Inability to Achieve Synergy: Justifying acquisitions can increase estimation of expected benefits Excessively Diversified: Acquirer does n't hold expertness required to pull off unrelated concerns Directors Excessively Focused on Acquisitions: Directors may neglect to objectively measure the value of results achieved through the house ‘s acquisition scheme Excessively Large: Large bureaucratism reduces invention and flexibleness FedEx Corporation has made 31 acquisitions while taking bets in 3 companies. FedEx Corporation has 22 divestitures during this period. FedEx-Caliber Amalgamation: Reason for Merger: FedEx and Caliber believe that the combination of the two companies will allow their clients to take advantage of a broader portfolio of services and picks at a degree of excellence unmatched by any rival. Stockholders of both companies will go shareholders of a $ 15 billion human dynamo in planetary transit and logistics. When FedEx announced in October 1997 that it was purchasing Caliber System for $ 2.4 billion, perceivers warned that the amalgamation could interrupt FedEx ‘s already profitable express transportation concern. Perceivers were incorrect. FedEx finalized its Caliber System amalgamation in January 1998, and by the terminal of that twelvemonth, the new company, FDX, was posting a seven per centum addition over the same one-fourth the twelvemonth earlier. Domestic income grew 30 per centum that period, from $ 168 million to $ 217 million. The company claimed that its tough cost controls and low fuel monetary values contributed to this short-run growing. FedEx subordinates that came from Caliber Systems besides grew. RPS, the largest subordinate besides FedEx, grew 14 per centum for the period, while Viking Freight grew seven per centum. In the long-run, the amalgamation strengthened FedEx ‘s overall wellness. UPS mostly rebounded from a stultifying 15-day work stoppage in 1997, and now the two companies compete head-to-head for the express-shipping concern in most markets. While FedEx does conflict, several smaller companies continue their dependable service for niche markets, such as logistics operations, business-to-business transit, overseas transportation, and little bundle bringing. FedEx has ensured its long-run endurance by purchasing several of these smaller companies. After the Caliber System amalgamation, FedEx included six runing divisions: FedEx ; RPS, the second-largest small-package transportation concern ; Roberts Express, the universe ‘s largest express hauling house ; Viking Freight, a prima regional hauling company ; Caliber Logistics, a logistics outsourcing house ; and Caliber Technology, an order fulfilment operation.Question Three: – Events taking up to the January 2000 reorg anizationUsing appropriate illustrations from FedEx Corporation, critically evaluate FedEx ‘s fiscal and non-financial public presentation in the context of developments in the â€Å" Internet market and e-tailing † up to the January 2000 reorganization.Fiscal Performance AnalysisFedEx has an impressive public presentation record. In 1998 they had grosss of $ 15.9 billion adult 15 per centum from 1997. Gross saless have been turning steadily for the past five old ages. The net income, though, is n't that impressive. It even declined in 1997, from the lifting fuel costs during that twelvemonth. However, in 1998 it grew from $ 200,000 to $ 500,000. That could be from decrease in operating costs, or from the acquisition of the subordinates which had lower operating costs compared to Federal Express. FedEx ‘s fiscal statements shows that its assets have non been utilized every bit good as other houses in their industry, but their profitableness is better than other industry houses. Still they must diminish merchandising and administrative disbursals while increasing gross revenues. Many of their technological promotions have been financed chiefly with internal hard currency, which decreases long-run debt. Future assets perchance and should be invested in the international market and new concerns, while still puting a nice per centum for technological promotions. Today FedEx has a competitory advantage over other houses and if they continue the patterns that they have in the past, while besides opening up to new thoughts, FedEx will stay a human dynamo in the bundle bringing industry. The fiscal ratios for FedEx clearly show that it is the market leader in this industry, have outstanding gross revenues, a healthy net income, and a safe sum of debt. These ratios over clip demo a steady addition, except for twelvemonth 1997, where fuel costs hurt FedEx deeply.Company AnalysisIn this subdivision we shall discourse FedEx ‘s strengths and failings as a company, chances and menaces. S.W.O.T. Analysis Company Strengths and Resource Capabilities: Globalism: Federal Express operates on a planetary graduated table in 211 states. They provide services that appeal to most of the universe, realize enormous grosss and besides achieve planetary economic systems of graduated table. Invention: Federal Express took aeroplanes and trucks and used them otherwise than any other company before them. This is invention. They have first-mover advantage in name acknowledgment because of this invention. This has helped them to stay the industry leader since 1973. Technology and Communication: Federal Express utilizations and continues to seek for new engineering. They allow passing of $ 1billion a twelvemonth, 10 % of entire grosss, for information engineering. That commitment keeps clients from exchanging to other suppliers. Federal Express besides has first-class communicating with their clients. They use tracking devices on all cargos, and clients can happen out where their cargo is through many different avenues including a user-friendly Web site. Federal Express clients are assured that FedEx will ever be on top of engineering. Strategic Vision: Federal Express ‘ will ever hold competent top directors in charge of strategic way. Frederick Smith built an industry leader, and kept it in that place since 1973. First-Mover Advantage: Federal Express has had first-mover advantage in several countries. ( 1 ) Bing a planetary express transit company. ( 2 ) Advanced engineering and communicating throughout the company ‘s operations. ( 3 ) Integrating smaller companies with similar operations under its belt to synergize and command more of the market. Strong Brand Image: In 1990, Federal Express became the first company awarded the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in the service class. In 1994, Federal Express became the first planetary express transit company to obtain coincident system-wide ISO 9001 enfranchisement in international quality criterions. Federal Express has besides developed their ain quality system that matches their client ‘s criterions. Company Weaknesses and Resource Lacks: Rising Monetary values: Federal Express ‘ monetary values are above their rivals ‘ . This can be a failing if their clients do non comprehend a difference between Federal Express and its rivals ‘ services. Labor Disputes with Pilots: Federal Express pilots have formed the Fedex Pilots Association. This organisation demanded alterations in the pilots ‘ wages, retirement benefits, and the fact that Federal Express outsources some foreign flights alternatively of giving their ain pilots the occupation. The pilots have a Web site where intelligence is posted and feelings are discussed. During the busy Christmas season in 1998, the pilots threatened to strike. Federal Express and the Fedex Pilots Association have developed a probationary understanding, which is published on the pilots ‘ Web site. However, the pilots do non believe this understanding to the full meets their outlooks. This difference is decidedly an internal failing for Federal Express, sing they have 3,500 pilots employed with them. Their operations would endure if there were work stoppages. When UPS employees went on work stoppage in 1997, Federal Express took the excess 800,000 cargos a twenty-four hours. If Fe deral Express employees went on work stoppage, their rivals could derive an advantage. Runing Subordinates Individually: FDX has intentionally chosen to maintain their companies separate. In FDX ‘s 1998 Annual Report, CEO Frederick Smith provinces, â€Å" Simply layering the alone resource and operating demands of a time-definite, planetary, express-delivery web onto a day-definite, land small-package web would certainly ensue in lessened service quality and increased costs. Under the FDX umbrella, we will leverage our shared strengths while runing each bringing web independently, with each focused on its several markets. † Frederick Smith is confident this will be a strength, alternatively of a failing. Time will state. Company Opportunities: Expansion Globally: Federal Express can go on to spread out globally, including the other companies under FedEX. Expansion Internally: Federal Express can go on to get more companies, and spread out into new engineerings or countries in their industry. Run Subsidiaries Together: If FDX does n't gain from running the subordinates individually, they can alter to incorporating their operations to accomplish better synergisms and economic systems of graduated table. Contracts with Large Corporations: To remain the industry leader, Federal Express should organize contracts with companies who will add cost-saving or value-adding benefits to their services. Joint-Ventures: Federal Express can organize joint ventures, such as already with Netscape and American Express, to bask the growing of incorporating their client bases. Expansion of e-commerce: Federal Express already has a major presence of transporting online. They should maintain happening Internet companies to contract bringing of their merchandises. Since the growing of e-commerce is rapid now, Federal Express could bask both net incomes and trade name name acknowledgment from this sort of enlargement. Company Threats: Y2k Problem: If Federal Express ‘ communicating and tracking systems are n't really Year 2000 ready, they will see lost cargos, lost clients, and lost net incomes. This is a menace for every concern, but a planetary company will be affected on a larger graduated table. Community Responsibility in the U.S. : Federal Express might be capable to community disapproval in enlargement within the United States. Right now, Federal Express has programs to construct a 2nd super-hub in Greensboro, NC. The airdrome is supportive, but the citizens of the community are non. Federal Express has to make up one's mind whether the community support or constructing the centre is more of import. Relationss with Foreign States: Through Federal Express ‘ enlargements globally, they are capable to Torahs and ordinances of all foreign states. There could be major jobs in this country, stunting growing and elevation costs. Already, Great Britain will non allow Federal Express fly their ain planes for cargos. Federal Express must either lade their lading on to British planes, or usage land transit. This is really inefficient for Federal Express ; nevertheless, it keeps competition out for British Air Transportation companies. Everywhere Federal Express goes, they are at hazard for ordinances that hinder their operations or efficiency. Economic and Political Conditionss: Federal Express is capable to the full universe ‘s economic and political status in the countries of fuel monetary values and supply, client purchase of their services, and dealingss with foreign states. As a planetary company, they are capable to much more hazard than domestic companies. Industry Prospects and Overall Attractiveness A tendency among Air Freight shippers is to utilize the Internet for communicating with clients and even obtaining transporting contracts with companies selling on the Internet. This confederation with the fastest-growing industry will convey exponential growing to the Air Freight industry, above and beyond what they would usually hold realized without this. This industry would stay attractive, with concentration on competition for market portion, service distinction, and trade name image.RecommendationsBased on the company history, company analysis, industry analysis and public presentation analysis, we have the undermentioned recommendations for Federal Express. Ensure that the employees, particularly pilots, are good compensated. Since Federal Express is a service company, employees are critical to its success. Place pilots ‘ wages at or above the industry norm. They need to keep a strong presence on the Internet, in instance of a shakedown, and happen ways to do their e-commerce user-friendly and profitable. They need to maintain monetary values within 10 % of their rivals monetary values, or do certain that their clients view their service as worth the monetary value.