General Nutrition Companies Inc

General Nutrition Companies Inc. , was founded 65 years ago in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on the premise that Americans wanted to maintain control over their health. David Shakirian founded the company. In 1935 he launched a dream of his by establishing a little health food store in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He called it Lackzoom. The products that were offered at his store included yogurt and healthy foods such as honey, grains and healthy sandwiches. The concept of being a health store and serving health food was thought to be a fad that would soon pass over back then. To the surprise of many of Shakarian's critics, many people embraced Lackzoom. David and his store came a long way from its first day†s receipts of 35 dollars to open a second store six months later. Since those first two stores, Lackzoom, which is now GNC, has grown to be the largest manufacturer of vitamins and mineral supplements in the United States (1998 Annual Report). General Nutrition Companies, Inc. , collectively with its subsidiaries, is the only nationwide specialty retailer of vitamin and mineral supplements, sports nutrition products and herbs, and is also a leading provider of personal care, and other health-related products. The products were sold through 3,757 General Nutrition Centers, 2,531 of which were owned and operated by the company and the other 1,226 stores were franchised. Much of the growth of GNC has occurred in the last 7 years. Since 1992, the Company has opened or acquired in the United States 2,593 new GNC stores (SEC 10k form). The company†s initial growth was through company-owned stores located primarily in regional malls. Many of the stores that were created in the past 7 years have been franchises. This franchise initiative has enabled GNC to expand into secondary locations as well as International markets. It appears that there is no end to the growth of GNC. At a Franchising meeting on February 6,1999 GNC awarded and agreed to open an additional 323 domestic and 428 international franchise locations. All of these stores report to GNC headquarters, which is located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh is also home to one of General Nutrition†s three distribution centers. The other two distribution centers are located in Atlanta and Phoenix. The products that are distributed through these channels are manufactured in Greenville, South Carolina. This facility is one of the largest and most modern vitamin and supplement manufacturing facilities in the United States. Within the coming months a new 600,000 sq. ft. manufacturing plant and distribution center in Anderson, SC will open which will double the capacity of the company (www. gnc. com/about/history). As you can see net revenue increased to 1. 4 billion dollars, an increase of 18. 8 % over 1997. This increase was driven by the success of the Company†s store expansion program and increased demand for the Company†s products, as reflected by increased sales, across all business segments. During 1998, the Company developed a web site, GNC. com, to sell products via the Internet. Although still in the early stages of operation, the Company expects sales to increase based on the growth of the Internet. The history of GNC shows their excellence in planning and execution of these plans. Going into the next millennium, the Company must actively scan their environment for opportunities and threats. The General Nutrition Company is exposed to many external threats. Over the past five years there has been a trend in consumer behavior towards healthy living. This trend has caused the health product and supplement market to drastically increase. Some of the most prominent external threats that GNC faces are new competitors, competing products and services, new technologies, government regulations, increasing customer expectations, general economic conditions, and the different cultural ways of the host countries. Some of GNC†s new competitors include Internet and mail order companies such as discountnutrition. com and the Vitamin Shoppe have entered the vitamin and supplement market recently. They have taken some of the Company†s residual sales by offering different mediums of purchase. The Internet and mail order companies tend to offer discounted prices because they buy their products in bulk. A new competitor that has appeared in small regions across the United States has been Vitamin World. These shops tend to carry a similar product line with the exception of General Nutrition†s exclusive products. In addition to Vitamin World many other small chains have been started. Two of these chains are Great Earth and Vitamin Specialty of New York. These stores propose more of a threat to GNC†s corporate stores rather than the franchises because of the personalized service. The franchise stores also have more leniency in determining the final price and any discounts or specials. With the addition of these new competitors and the threat that they pose the Company has maintained if not increased its market share in many markets. GNC manufactures and sells several lines of supplements, vitamins and minerals, as well as a variety of health foods. These product lines carry many names. Some of these names include Preventative Nutrition, GNC, and Pro Performance. All of these lines are sold exclusively at GNC stores and at their online manufacturer. In addition to their own product lines, GNC stores carry a variety of products from third-party vendors. These third-party vendors include big names such as EAS (Experimental and Applied Sciences), Twinlab, Met-Rx, and Metaform. All of these vendors are in the top 5% of sales for their flagship product. The Company must realize this and make their own products more attractive to the consumer. Competing products from the third-party vendors are also sold at other stores, so this forces the Company to not only compete within their own store but to also compete in the marketplace. Today, many companies are facing the threat of the internet. Many companies are not used to this advanced technological system and do not have the resources to compete. Not only is the Internet used for advertising purposes but it is also being used as an online ordering system. With the shift towards an online ordering system many things have to be taken into consideration and changed accordingly. The entire supply chain must be examined to identify any and all potential problems and differences that must be made as a result of this shift. In this case, the manufacture, supply, distribution, and information flow are critical and will inevitably be modified from the traditional way of supply the product to the retail centers. Government regulations pose an enormous threat to the company. Potential government regulations will mandate FDA regulations and the testing of all products. This will dramatically increase the cost of production, which will ultimately be passed on to the end consumer. Some sport and diet supplements sold by the company today could be ruled illegal in the coming months if this occurs. This could potentially reduce the number of products available as well as the customer base. With the nation†s shift towards healthier living, many consumers have begun to experience unrealistic expectations of the products offered by the company. This can be witnessed by the fact that 45% of all adult American†s take some form of supplement. An attitude that many American†s exert today is that they want the â€Å"pill† or supplement to take the place of the work that they themselves would otherwise have to do. Customers are also looking for a company that offers exceptional customer service and sales associate knowledge. With today†s flourishing economy, the average American†s income is at an all time high. If anything would happen to cause a negative occurrence in the economy the average American†s disposable income would, as a result, probably decrease. This decrease in their disposable income would take away from their ability and/or desire to spend their money on products offered by GNC. The Different Cultural Ways of Host Countries The way that GNC handles their international business is through franchising. The franchising done internationally is done differently than is domestically. During the international franchising process, the entire General Nutrition rights are sold to the franchisee for the entire country, not just an individual store as done domestically. The government regulations and culture differences or preferences are left to the discretion of the potential or existing franchisee. The threat is posed as a result of the lack of assistance and guidelines that would normally come from the corporation headquarters. As far as dealing with the individual host country†s government regulations and culture, it may discourage business in that country all together. The availability of raw materials poses basically no threat to the company at this point because of their vast resources and long term contracts with their suppliers. But, in the future with the addition of many new entrants into the market a shortage of some raw materials and components may occur. General Nutrition was the pioneer of the nutrition industry and will continue to be for years to come. On of the major contributing factors to their success has been their ability to maximize their external opportunities. Around the late 1980's the average Americans active lifestyle had reached an all time low. With the 1990's came the current trend of healthier living. It was at this time that consumers turned to GNC to help maintain a healthy lifestyle. GNC capitalized on this opportunity in several different ways. They began to change the typical consumer†s idea and preferences about the General Nutrition stores and products. They began advertising to all people and having specially trained employees with knowledge of all products that were carried. This helped to make the store a more inviting place to everyone from a young high school athlete to a middle-aged mother of two. This also lead to new product market niches. Some of the more successful are the pro-performance line which is geared towards athletes, also the live well concept which promotes an overall healthy lifestyle which would be more suited for the average adult. With the change in customer preferences, GNC has the opportunity to increase market share by creating customer loyalty and trust through groundbreaking products. General Nutrition has done a tremendous job on utilizing these opportunities and in order to remain atop the competition they must continue to fine tune the and analyze the business strategy. Definitely one of General Nutrition†s greater external opportunities is their franchising and long-term alliance with Rite Aid. This opportunity is so tremendous that along with 697 stores opened in 1998 they also signed an alliance with Rite Aid. The alliance with Rite Aid allows GNC to enter a new channel for marketing its supplements. With a the average American only five miles away from a GNC, there still is such a demand for the stores that they plan to open an additional 250 stores in the next year alone. This combined with a total commitment to providing customer support has helped make GNC one of the most successful franchises for the past decade. To continue to capitalize on these external opportunities the company can look to actively pursue their franchising capabilities while avoiding cannibalization of existing stores to allow them to remain the pinnacle of the health food industry. The main reason that GNC has been and will remain the world leader in the nutrition industry is due to their ability to use technology to receive great benefits. Their greatest areas of technology that set them apart from the rest are their manufacturing and distribution. This past year the company took a tremendous leap into the 21 century with the completion of a 630,000 square foot state of the art manufacturing facility in South Carolina. Along with the new manufacturing facility, the Company was involved in a recent merger with the Dutch pharmaceutical company Royal Numico. This merger makes the Company the world†s largest manufacturer of vitamins and supplements. This merger presents the company with a great opportunity to take advantage of the world class research facilities available to them. The Company should streamline their supply chain to fully take advantage of the new manufacturing and distribution facilities. This will increase the Company†s overall efficiency. The Company should look for a strategic alliance with an established online drugstore to broaden the Company†s market share. This would also allow the Company to gain entry into the world of e-commerce. Internal strengths of the company include quality products emphasizing vitamins and minerals along with sports nutrition. This product mix focuses on high margin value added products, which are sold under the GNC proprietary brand. Along with vitamins, herbal, and sports supplements the Company also offers customers the opportunity the Gold Card program. This program enables stores to add to their product line. The basis for this program charges a $15 annual fee that entitles each member to a 20% discount on all products one time each month. Sales of proprietary brands represented over 50% of total sales in 1998. Company reputation is another strength for the company. The Company is the only nationwide specialty retailer of vitamin, mineral supplement, sports nutrition products, and herbs. Along with these products the Company is also the leading provider of personal healthcare products. The company†s reputation was built on two basic principles. The first of these is strong customer service. The Company has a strong competitive advantage over competitors because of well-trained and informed employees who have knowledge of the entire product line. The Company†s employees are knowledgeable and efficient because of the strong employee-training program. The second principal that has built their reputation is a superior product line. The proprietary brands along with other strong brand names enable them to have a product line better than the competitor. Production capabilities at the Company have enabled them to become the world leader in the their industry. The Company will be able to maintain their position as a leader because of their capacity to not only meet company inventory requirements, but also enough to sell to third parties in the wholesale market. The Company is able to maintain strong production capabilities because of their emphasis on quality control. Each product is tested from the beginning to the end until the final product meets their standard. The Company has experienced a strong sense of executive leadership. The current president has 25 years of experience within the company and the CEO has 18 years. The executive vice president has 19 years of experience and the head of logistics has 22 years under his belt. Along with this experience it is evident to see that there is an extremely low employee turnover ratio within management. Turnover within this company as with any retail organization occurs with retail store management and part time sales positions. To keep this factor at a low level the Company started the franchise program. The Company wanted to bring strategic partners into their system that would personally invest in the Company†s program. Along with strong management leadership the Company maintains a strong employee base through orientation and hiring kits that enable the new employee to adjust quickly and become an efficient employee. The company gives their employees the opportunity for tuition reimbursement, profit sharing, good medical and health benefits, and 401k and stock options. All of these factors allow a GNC employee to be part of a team. The Company uses patents to its advantage. By having patents on their proprietary formulas, vitamins, sports nutrition, and herbal supplements, the Company creates barriers between themselves and competitors. Along with their patents the Company conducts research with other companies. One such company is Proctor and Gamble. Recently the Company has held the patent with Proctor and Gamble on calcium (calcium citrate malate). This product was found to be more absorbent than any other type of calcium. The Company achieves economies of scale throughout the entire organization and network of 5,000 retail stores by a close arrangement of entities. These include arrangements with product suppliers, raw materials, packaging material, store supplies, retail advertising, third party advertising, insurance coverage, and credit card processing. The close surveillance and agreement of these entities allows the company to achieve greater economies of scale. The mission of the Company is to maintain quality over quantity in its products. The company typically introduces 25 to 30 new products each year and reformulates existing products on an annual basis. An annual reset is done for the stores to introduce new vendor third party products, and new company products through expansion and deletion of retail shelf space. General Nutrition Companies Incorporated is the leader in health products but the company is not adverse to risk. These risks that we can find within the company are considered to be the weaknesses of the company. The first risk is that Royal Numico has acquired GNC, now being a part of a larger company they must now try to fit into the larger system and integrate themselves. With the integration of the Company into Royal Numico there will be a significant amount of cash spent, some potentially dilutive issuance†s of equity securities, incurrence of debt or amortization expenses, related to goodwill and other intangible assets. Any of these can adversely affect the company; it†s operating results and financial conditions. In addition to the financial and operating factors we could find difficulties in the assimilation of the technologies, products and personnel of the integrated company. Another weakness that the company has is their leverage problem. This means that the company has raised much of its capital through debt financing, including loans. Based on the current level of operations and anticipated level of growth, the company†s available cash flow, together with other sources of liquidity, will be adequate to meet to future needs of capital. Although it looks to be enough, there can be no assurance that the company will generate enough cash flow.

European Financial Aspects

Forplay, Inc. , is about to become a reality on the European market. Our company will base its distribution on strategic alliances with local mail order companies, while starting a global ad campaign targeted to an audience age 18 to 45. While we don†t expect too many difficulties in converting and repatriating our funds, the financial aspects of this operation will still have to face the upcoming European monetary integration. The new currency — the euro – could significantly impact the way international business is conducted. In January 1996, Andersen Consulting surveyed 169 companies throughout the European Union, finding that â€Å"nearly three quarters felt that deeper integration in the form of European monetary union (EMU) would enhance the single market and bring further benefits — such as a more stable currency, lower inflation, lower interest rates, cost savings, efficiency improvements, a more competitive European Union (EU), and increased foreign investment. † There are benefits for companies outside the EU too. Business with Europe will be easier, and investment choices simplified through increased visibility and comparability of prices. Medium- and small-sized companies like Forplay, Inc. , will have less trouble opening a bridgehead into an enlarged unified market, with fewer financial risks. However, there are also many uncertainties. For example, which countries will join? Member states must meet criteria for economic convergence, and it is not certain how strictly these criteria will be enforced. Sluggish economic performance is giving finance ministers little room to maneuver. In some countries, notably the United Kingdom, a significant portion of the political establishment is hostile to the whole process, while in other countries, notably Germany, there is a reluctance to relinquish a strong national currency. Adjustments for the new currency must be made between the start of 1999 and the start of 2002. As a business, we must begin planning now to minimize the cost of changing our information systems and administrative operations and address the legal issues. All software implementations will have to be consistent with the changeover needs, so decisions made in the IT field will be of paramount importance. The migration to the euro will be of concern to risk managers in the world's major banks. Long term, there are many inherent advantages to EMU for controlling financial risk, although there is a chance of â€Å"backing the wrong horse† by adopting a technical solution that is rapidly made obsolete by the market, technological advances, or unexpected legislation. In the short term, uncertainty and market volatility mean increased risk. According to Bengt Bengtsson, SAS Institute European product manager for risk management solutions, â€Å"Companies should take this opportunity to review and update their treasury operations, foreign exchange, and interest rate management. Flexibility in risk controlling systems and adequate hedging mechanisms will be vital. Liquidity risk will also come high on the agenda as new products and funding possibilities (bonds, for example) become available in the euro. One of the keys to success will be the separation of risk controlling functions from day-to-day trading activities through a risk warehouse strategy. † For a while at least, Forplay, Inc. will have to operate some form of dual accounting, with consequent additional burdens on our corporate chief financial officers (CFOs). In the meantime, CFOs will need maximum flexibility within their ledger accounting systems and their financial consolidation and reporting systems, so they should take advantage of the introduction of the euro to review both. Two types of organizations face challenges,† says Richard King, SAS Institute European product marketing coordinator. â€Å"The first is those with more than one type of transactional ledger system. They will need to consolidate and report in two currencies, based on data from several incompatible sources. Consequently they will need a solution that allows them to look at all relevant dimensions from any perspective, instantly. â€Å"The second is any organization that has standardized on a single type of transactional ledger system but nevertheless lacks flexibility when it comes to financial reporting,† adds King. CFO Vision from SAS Institute, which supports all ledger systems, gives full flexibility in reporting (including multiple currencies concurrently) while protecting existing investments. For us as marketers, the transition to the Euro also raises awkward issues that may seem insoluble to anyone exporting to the EU. For example, should prices be expressed in euros, national currencies, or both? In addition, even though our prices are extremely competitive, for many products there is a marked difference in pricing policies within different EU countries. With the introduction of the euro, prices will be more transparent and such differences more difficult to maintain. Forplay, Inc. should therefore be investing in market research and database marketing to formulate pricing and marketing strategies now to avoid loss of market share and secure the benefits of operating in a single market. Preparation will mean everything as further developments in the deployment of the euro unfold. A keen understanding of current systems, a strong business plan, and flexible technology will mean continued business success — in any language.

“Othello” and “A Doll’s House”

In every story, we often see a colorful character in the form of the story’s antagonist. They are usually held in contrast to the story’s main character or the protagonist. This is how the antagonists were portrayed in both the stories â€Å"Othello† and â€Å"A Doll’s House.† The antagonists of the stories were set in comparison to the respective protagonists. On both these stories, the antagonists played a great part in destroying the happy marriages of both protagonists. Through their schemes and manipulation, they were able to destroy what these people held so dearly: their relationships with their loved ones.In William Shakespeare’s â€Å"Othello,† Iago plays the antagonist role, opposing the position of Othello. Iago is depicted as one of Othello’s men, since the latter holds a high position which the former serves. When Iago felt that another man was favored aside from him, he planned to take Othello down by destroying hi s happy marriage with Desdemona (Shakespeare).In the story, we can see that Iago’s source of motivation in his schemes when Othello favors his lieutenant Cassio rather than his Ancient and ensign, Iago. It was jealousy that made him conceive every evil schemes and plans that he came up with. As the story’s antagonist, we can say that Iago is very clever with his plans, managing to outwit other characters and making them his â€Å"tools† to bring down Othello. He was very successful in manipulating the main character, making him believe that his wife was cheating on him.Analyzing the motives of Iago, we can say that his reasons were very shallow. It was his jealousy that led to the way things happened. But there was no point to be jealous about. He has a good position in Othello’s men. The way he see Cassion being favored more than him was just superficial, since it was him that Othello believed most. If Othello didn’t believe him, then the story wo uldn’t have led to the way it went. But Othello trusts Iago. He believes him so much that it has led to the destruction of his happy marriage, his downfall, his wife’s death, and eventually, his own death.The person who suffered the most in this story was Othello. With Iago’s schemes, Othello lost his trust in his wife. His faith in their relationship crumbled as Iago stirred up his thoughts. As a man of his stature, Othello need not be faithless with his wife. But because of his insecurities, Iago managed to toy with his emotions. As a â€Å"different† man, Othello thought that his wife was not satisfied with him. He was the Moor of Venice, a dark skinned man in the land of whites. Because of these insecurities, his suspicions grew to hatred. That hatred caused him to kill Desdemona only to find out afterwards that it was all Iago’s doings.In Henrik Ibsen’s â€Å"A Doll’s House,† the main protagonist was Krogstad, who was on t he brink of losing his job. He was an employee of the main character, Torvald. Torvald is the husband of Nora Helmer, and their relationship as a married couple is an example of a happy marriage for the society. But the happiness didn’t last for long, as soon as Krogstad schemed his way from getting himself fired from the job he didn’t want to lose (Ibsen).Krogstad’s reasons for his actions were all rooted to him keeping his job. It was very unfortunate that he knows a secret of Nora Helmer. He used this secret to try and save himself from getting fired. It was Nora’s head who’s on the line, fearing that her secret might be discovered by others, especially her husband. The only favor Krogstad asked in exchange for his silence was for Nora to convince his husband not to fire him. However, all of Nora’s efforts were futile, not being able to save Krogstad his job. Because of this, Krogstad chose to unveil Nora’s well kept secret, at the expense of Nora and Torvald’s happy marriage. After all, Krogstad has nothing to lose anymore.Looking at Krogstad’s reason for his actions, we can say that he is on the edge, that’s why he was forced to blackmail Nora just to save him. It was his job on the line, and he really didn’t want to use it. The fact that he knows something that Nora has kept so much for herself was not his discretion. It was the only option he has, and he chose to use that option well, in exchange for everything that he might lose. Krogstad may be seen as a bad man, but his actions show that it was fate that forced him to do what he has done. This doesn’t concern anything about keeping Nora’s secret just to save her shame or marriage. It was his own battle, and he must fight with everything he has. The only weapon he has in store at that time was Nora’s secret.We can say that the antagonists of the story had their way with the protagonists. They were able to blindly manipulate anyone in order to have their biddings fulfilled. In the end, it was all misery for the protagonist, each with crumbling relationships as both the stories closed. No matter what their reason may be, these antagonists were able to make the most out of every situation turning it into something advantageous for their own benefits.Works Cited:Ibsen, Henrik. â€Å"A Doll's House†.   1879.   Spark Notes. October 7 2007. .Shakespeare, William. â€Å"Othello†.   1603.   Spark Notes. October 7 2007. .

Anthea and the Conert Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Anthea and the Conert - Essay Example This is because, they were sighed up to perform at the Hamden Hall and just a few days before the concert each artist had a problem that apparently caused them not perform. In addition to that, Anthea had already paid these artists a 25% fee of the total amount of money that they were to receive and the rest was to be paid after they did actually perform at the concert, which they did not. Therefore, it is evidenced that Anthea was the only party that did duly perform her part in the contract while other performance artists did not. Therefore, by law, Anthea has the right to take legal action against the performance artists as they did not abide by their part of the contract. As a result, one of the claims that the Student Union is prone to get is a refund of their money from the performance artists as they took the money without attending to their call of performance. This case can be compared to the one of Cutter v Powell (1795). Powell promised Cutter that if he took the role as h is running mate, he would top him up with â€Å"a total of thirty guineas, provided he proceeds, continues and does his duty as second mate in the said ship from hence to the port of Liverpool. Unfortunately Cutter died at sea. His widow sued Powell to recover a proportionate part of her husband's wages on a quantum meruit for work and labour done by her husband during that part of the voyage that he lived and served Powell† (Legal Max, n.d.). Unfortunately, â€Å"payment was on condition that he worked the ship to Liverpool, since he did not fulfil this condition the widow was entitled to nothing† (E-Law Resources, n.d.). When compared to the case of Anthea and The Concert, it can be concluded that Anthea did fulfil her end of the contract by paying them the 25% initial fee. Since the performance artists did not perform then they are entitled to nothing. Bolton v Mahadeva  [1972] is another case that can be termed as similar to the Anthea and The concert case. In th is instance, â€Å"The claimant installed central heating in the defendant's home. The agreed contract price was ?560. The defendant was not happy with the work and refused to pay. Defects in the work amounted to ?174. The action by the claimant to enforce the payment failed since the court held there was no substantial performance† (E-Law Resources, n.d.). The comparison that can be deduced in this case is that, the plaintiff did install the heating system which had defects that amounted to an extra ?174. In addition to that the client had already incurred a total cost of up to ?560. Therefore, the plaintiff claimed that the balance should have been less the extra cost of ?174. When compared to the Anthea and The Concert claim, the performance artists would have come to the concert to perform but they would not have done it well due to the challenges that they were facing. With this case, one of the liabilities that the student council ought to be aware of is that despite th e fact that they did perform their duty by paying the 25% fee initially, they ought to have had an exception in the contract that would cater for such kinds of calamities. For example, they would have drafted a clause that would ensure that a party in the contract is only paid when they have performed their duties or obligations as part and parcel of the stated terms in the contract so as to avoid instances where they pay the artist and they do

About Alexander McQueen Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

About Alexander McQueen - Essay Example However, he interrupted his education and ventured into fashion design. Later, in 1994, he joined Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design for a master’s degree in fashion design (Frankel, 17). Unlike many designers, McQueen’s passion for fashion started during his childhood. He had always desired to be a designer when he grew up. This was demonstrated when he used to make dresses for his elder sisters while still a young boy at Rokeby Primary School (Bremner, 117). It is during the same time that he declared his interest in design and pledged that he would be a fashion designer when he grew up. His love for clothes made him to associate with designers. It is for this reason that he left school at a tender age to advance his design interests at Savile Row Tailors; Anderson & Sheppard; Gieves & Hawkes and Angels & Bermans (Deniau, 73). His services in these premises as an apprenticeship exposed him to the challenging modern trends in fashion design. Upon graduating as a fashion designer, McQueen took several jobs in prestigious fashion companies both within the United Kingdom and Spain. Here, he got an opportunity to interact with reputable designers who later influen ced his life (Rawi, 91). For instance, after working as a Chief Designer at Givenchy, he encountered Hussein Chalayan, Pauric Sweeney and Katy England. These are some of his contemporaries who really shaped the direction of his fashion career. Had it not been for these contemporaries, he would not have achieved much. They were of a great importance to him. For instance, Katy later became his right hand lady who stood beside him and gave him the necessary assistance in whatever he was doing (Knox, 2010). As a designer, McQueen is credited for making magnificent contributions in the field of fashion design. After terminating his six-year contract at the prestigious Givenchy in 2001, he founded his own company under his name. Here, he developed the new McQueen Alexander Brands which has now revolutionized the fashion design industry (Bremner and Robertson, 11). Moreover, he brought a new idea to fashion shows when he introduced drama and extravagance as new features in catwalk. Initial ly, fashion shows were cheaper to organize and did not involve the use of drama. This necessitated him to fetch for renowned pageants to grace his shows. A t the same time, he introduced silhouettes to enable him incorporate the element of fantasy in his shows. Actually, these have become significant a component of fashion shows which are still prominent up to date. These are his legacies which will always remain in the minds of fashion lovers for a very long time (Cartner, 66). His McQueen out fits were properly designed to suit the modern man. By the year 2007, he had established boutiques in London, Las Vegas, New York, Milan and Los Angeles (Searle, 48). Hence, he managed to win the confidence of many clients who preferred his clothes to any other designer. However, this did not only include ordinary people, but celebrities like David Bowie, Nicole Kidman, Rihana, Koda Kumi, Penelope Cruz, Ayumi Hamasaki, Namie Amuro and Sarah Jessica Parker. As a result of his bright ideas, his designs are still prominent and used by people from all corners of the world. Indeed, McQueen was not made, but born a designer. After realizing his ambitions as a child, he prepared himself for it. However, could not manage to achieve anything single-handedly. First, he owes his success to his family. Had it not been for the co-operation from his parents, he would have shielded his interests for something else. This was a great source of inspiration for him (Bolton, 39). Moreover, he received

COMPARE CONTRAST THE DEVIL WENT DOWN TO GEORGIA AND GOETHE'S FAUSTUS Research Paper

COMPARE CONTRAST THE DEVIL WENT DOWN TO GEORGIA AND GOETHE'S FAUSTUS - Research Paper Example No contemporary song better illustrates the persistence of the â€Å"Devil as fiddler† than the 1979 country-rock hit â€Å"The Devil Went Down to Georgia† by the Charlie Daniels Band. The Devil encounters a young man â€Å"who plays the fiddle hot† and challenges him to a musical duel, the outcome of which is unexpected: After centuries of bargaining, humankind has finally produced a musician whose natural skills surpass the Devil’s. This paper analyzes the similarities and differences between Goethe’s Faust and Charlie Daniels’s The Devil Went Down to Georgia. It is the contention of this paper that the song has largely adapted the ‘devil wager’ theme while making its subject more straightforward than the complex Faust play. The tune is made up of two instrumental pauses ushered by Charlie Daniels himself on fiddle; every break symbolizes the performance of one of the competitors. The song of the devil has no actual, genuine tune, but an eerie melody that Daniels attained by overdubbing some parts of his own performance with the fiddle. Johnny performs a rendition of the old song called Fire on the Mountain. His melody is presented in the song through the below puzzling verses (Daniels 10): Charlie Daniels, in creating this song, was obviously inspired by folk stories about the demon taking part in fiddling competitions, which have been popular in the U.S. for more than a century. Charles M. Skinner documented such a story, narrated by a Black fiddler called Joost in New York, perhaps in the middle of the 19th century. Similar to numerous devil and ghost tales, in the story of Skinner the demon is chased off by the devotion of Joost in performing a hymn, and by the coming of dawn (Bendix & Hasan-Rokem 128). Nevertheless, in other renditions of the story, the demon is easily conquered by grander musicianship. Still in relation to The Devil Went Down to Georgia, consider, for instance, a rendition obtained by Herbert

Managing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words - 3

Managing - Essay Example He perceives power as dispersed as opposed to previous conceptions of power as concentrated and possessed. He also views power as conversational rather than virtuously coercive. The terms ‘power and knowledge’ are applied by Foucault to suggest that power is founded through recognized forms of knowledge, logical understanding and reality. This paper reflects and explains Foucault’s claim by focusing on managerial work and management power/roles. It discusses Foucault’s body of work on power and discipline. It supports Foucault’s approach withreference to published empirical examples. The paper also depicts the application of Foucault’s approach to power and order to management practice. Pfeffer (1993) defines power as the deliberate inducement on the opinions, feelings and conduct of people to achieve a particular objective. In the absence of power, cooperation among people may not be achieved and hence social order cannot be achieved. Power in organizations is manifest in leaders who apply different means of exercising the power vested in them to accomplish their goals. Foucault (1977) asserts that people in positions of power exercise it as opposed to possessing it. In other words, positions of power have been created in organizations as a strategy to develop infrastructure for enhancement of discipline. It therefore does not matter who possesses the power as such a person can be replaced by another and power in the organization will remain. Power forms the political structures of social organizations that operate to initiate the non-egalitarian and disproportionate relations. Organizations are established through human relations, which are characterised by inher ent power (Knights and Willmott, 1989). Power is therefore not restricted to an individual but rather is engaged and implemented through a

Fund managers combine assets into portfolios with attributes expected Essay

Fund managers combine assets into portfolios with attributes expected to be attractive to their clients. Identify and describe a - Essay Example The active strategies for financial investments are: proper stock selection; good market timing; appropriate bond swapping; and a ladder approach in multi-investments. Appropriate or proper stock selection involves the buying of undervalued stocks. The investor must be aware of any existing public information related to the stocks he/she is going to buy to be able to evaluate fairly well the best possible stocks that are being offered which will eventually yield the best possible growth and return. This type of investment technique keeps the portfolio streamlined and more manageable because the investor is well-informed about the stocks’ standing. Market timing strategy leads any potential investor to purchase stocks when the prices are low and to sell them when they reach their maximum peak values at a given time. This entails guessing the ups and downs of the money market that is usually dependent on various issues that affects marketable stocks. Bond swapping is an active i nvestment strategy that requires an investor to make a forecast as to when to sell long-term bonds and when to buy short-term bonds. The capital gains on bonds are based on the changes involved in interest rates, which normally fluctuates from time to time. Last but not the least active strategy for financial investment is the ladder approach where investors are encouraged or advised to invest in mixed or various types of investments that have different maturity dates and varying levels of risks. This particular active strategy is designed to provide the investor a more regular and fixed income that has lower risks (Norton, 2008a). The second type of investment strategy is the passive investment strategies. This type of investment strategy involves the following investment techniques: balance mutual fund; index portfolio, dollar cost averaging, buy and hold; and dividends reinvestment plan. The balance mutual fund is a diverse combination of investments offering various maturity dat es along with different risk intensities. This kind of investment strategy helps to make any investment portfolio more stable since the levels of risks vary and the returns augment losses if any. Next passive strategy is the index portfolio intended to copy a main index. Similar shares with the same proportion as the main index is bought with the primary aim of duplicating its performance and not out-performing it. This makes returns more predictable and is often utilized when investing in equities. The dollar cost averaging is another form of passive investment strategy where investments are purchased at standard periodic intervals without considering the fluctuation of market prices. Hence, if the price movement is downhill the average price for the investment is usually greater than the current market price. But if the price trend is uphill then the average cost is less than the market price. Buy and hold is another type of passive investment method which aims to provide the best possible return for a particular risk level. This method normally involves bonds and stocks that are held for long periods of time or until their respective maturity dates. The dividends reinvestment plan strategy is a type of passive i

Media & Cultural Analysis Gender, Representation and Advertising Essay

Media & Cultural Analysis Gender, Representation and Advertising Images - Essay Example It has been noted that males are generally attracted to advertisements that are related with fast cars or fancy cigars or costly liquors, whereas females are attracted to advertisements that deal with decorating houses and make up kits among others. Therefore, the ad-makers before designing an advertisement campaign thoroughly judge the targeted gender and develop the advertisement accordingly. Thus, the objective of the paper would be to discuss the aspect that gender is performative while designing advertisements. Furthermore, the techniques used by the media firms and their way of organising the socio-cultural elements will be demonstrated. Moreover, the strengths and the weaknesses of semiotics used to convey message through visual meanings will also be critically analysed. Semiotics is the signs that are used to convey messages to the viewers. Advertisements play an imperative role in promotional activities. Therefore, the two examples of print media that will be discussed below will show how it appeals to the different genders. Theoretical Understanding of Media Forms and Genres According to Kress (1998), genre is a kind of text that is derived from a structure of a social occasion and characteristics and their purposes. It can further be said that genre may be considered as a realistic device which is used to help any gathering to produce efficiently and over and over again and to relate them to the customers’ expectations (Chandler, 2000). This aspect can be interpreted from an example of advertising image below: Source: (Mike’s Computer Marketing, 2004). From the image above, it can be interpreted that as the genre used in the advertisement of Jupiter Auto Spa, which depicts the unique offerings and discounts, may attract the male more than the female. Free car wash and other discounts will make the male feel that they are getting added value for the price they are paying. Moreover, the free service of pickup and delivery of the car will play on the mind of the male that will be a convenient factor (Mike’s Computer Marketing, 2004). The male genders usually are busy in working due to which the care towards their vehicle is being neglected. Thus, the added facility may encourage the male as their time is not spent uselessly whereas the desired task is done effectively. This print advertisement is expected to attract less to the women as they are more concerned about products that take care of their physical beauty and fitness. The discounts and the offerings will somewhat be attractive to women who have craze towards cars. As stated by Judith Butler (1995), desires are often intentional which are towards a given object or other, but at the same time it is also reflexive where it is a modality in which the subject is both improved and discovered. Thus, desire is the relationship between the image and the viewer, between object of desire and desiring matter, between product and customer. Therefore, in the above mentioned print advertisement the desire of the female genders towards the product is comparatively low than the male ones (Butler, 2011). Though the product is a part of luxury category, the added value and convenience offered to the customers will help the male genders to get attracted towards the service of Jupiter Auto Spa. According to Dines and Humez (2003), â€Å"

Organizational Behavior in Walmart Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Organizational Behavior in Walmart - Essay Example According to the paper long before the inception of Wal-Mart, Sam Walton toured across the country and making a study of everything he came across that was related to discount retailing. The more he studied about it he was increasingly convinced that consumers in America needed a different kind of store. Therefore, Sam trusted his instincts and together with his wife Helen, pumped in about 95% of the money in Rogers, Ark for his very first Wal-Mart store in 1962 and by 1972, there were a total of 15 Wal-Mart stores across the country. In fact, it was in 1972 that Wal-Mart stock began for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange. By the end of the decade the company expanded to 276 stores scattered over 11 states. This growth was primarily due to the infusion of capital over the years. In 1983, the Wal-Mart store came of age as it expanded into â€Å"Sam’s Club member’s warehouse. In 1988, the first Wal-Mart supercenter was established, a complete grocery store com prising of 36 separate departments for general merchandise. By the year 1989, the Wal-Mart business boomed by way of 1402 stores and 123 locations for Sam’s Clubs. The rate of employment escalated 10 fold as the growth of sales shot up from $1 billion during the 1980’s to $ 26 billion in the years that followed. Currently, Wal-Mart is considered to be one among the world’s best and most successful retailers of the 21st century, with approximately 8,100 stores employing around 2.1 million employees and associates who serve approximately 176 million customers each year. From what we know of the history of Wal-Mart, that is not doubt that it could be a perfect example in portraying how the company manages its growth by always keeping its values insight.  

Course project Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Course project - Coursework Example The company is quite strong compared to the peer group and the top competitors whose current ratio is 2.01 and 1.10 respectively. The strength emanates from the fact that the current ratio of the company is in between to indicate the assets are steering the growth of the company. The profitability ratio will measure the company’s ability to generate profits. Aswath argues that the gross margin indicates the percentage of net sales going towards fixed costs and profit (34-35). Macys aim for high gross margins that mean more money to cover fixed costs and increase profits. Asset management ratio is a good measure of the company’s efficiency and effectiveness in using the assets in revenue generation. Market value ratios relate to the stock price, observable market value and book value will get obtained in the company financial statement. Therefore, Equity Investors can extend credit to investors due to the report found in its financial ratios. The ratios show an upward trend to indicate that the company is

Developing Yourself as an Effective Human Resources or Learning and Development Practitioner Essay Example for Free

Developing Yourself as an Effective Human Resources or Learning and Development Practitioner Essay Today’s human resources department are in each and every company, one of the important aspect for human resources is to develop an emphasis and educate their human capital, in order for more efficiency and effectiveness for the company. The Charted Institute Personal Development â€Å"CIPD† covers the implication of profession map which assists for better results in companies. The profession map captures the knowledge and behaviors that human resources need to improves and sustain the value for the organization to meet its requirements, the professional map is divided into three segment where each segment defines. First segment Profession areas: contains ten activities that human resources apply for the employee to gain knowledge. Performance and reward: Assist in create and sustain a high achieving organization culture environment by carrying programs that prize and recognize the productivity and capabilities of the employee. Through motivation, employee enhances their skills and performances and experience to receive a reward for an outstanding performance. For example; American Express Company, any agent who meet the quality of the call center and deliver the message in a professional way, by having high quality and quantity calls, the agent will be recognized and rewarded for this outstanding performance. Another example; in Ithamar Bank any employee who has a creative and innovative idea will get rewarded, this is an appreciation from the bank to encourage the behavior of brainstorming, which might lead the company to huge success. Learning and development: Learning and development is a subdivision of human resources department, which objects to develop and to educate group and individual performance by increasing and enhancing knowledge and skills. For example; Direct English institution provided me for a course in human resources course â€Å"CIPD† in order to have improved effect company by applying the benefited knowledge from the course. Developing the human capital to have a better outcome performance and experience and knowledge helps the company to have improved outcome. Learning and development is part of an organization’s management strategy which is designed to align with the organization’s general vision and goals. Organization design: confirms the company’s structure design is according to company’s goals for both the long run and for the short. Organization development: ensures that human resources applies its strength and improving its weakness to develop the organization by changing its activities through align strategies with the company’s objective. Resourcing and talent planning: ensure that the human resources the use its assets in useful and efficient and productive approach for achieving company’s objective. Employee engagement: ensures that to improve the communication skills in the work environment for greater productivity and greater contribution toward the company’s objective through leadership Employee relations: enhance the relationship between the employees and manage it through the company’s structure through policies and code of conduct and rules and by relevant law. Service delivery and information: Ensures the quality and informatio n of the customer through human resources by applying project management to enable effective and cost-efficient service delivery throughout the company. Learning and managing human resources function: Ensures that the leadership is to hence the maximizing the contribution by supporting and developing others, by acting as a role model in the organization. Strategy insight and solutions: develop a strategy that aligns with the company’s vision by improving the understanding of the organization. Second segment behaviors: The Profession Map Behaviors define the capabilities for human resources profession. Human resources need to carry and achieve related role to reach the level of professionalism, the role requires specific competencies to be proven at each band level throughout the human resources path. Courage to challenge: Shows courage and confidence to speak up skillfully and to challenge others, even when challenged with resistance or unfamiliar circumstances. For example; you have to prepare a presentation for an important meeting for the first time, the person needs to overcome this challenge and break their fear of a failure, by putting the trust in their self for this accomplishment. Role model: Regularly leads by example. Acts with honesty, A role model is a person other individuals look up to in order to help define appropriate behaviors. Role models can be either positive or negative. For example, positive role models offer a variety of supportive or valuable behaviors and actions. On the other hand, the negative role models offer examples of injurious or troublesome failure behaviors and actions. Curious: Future concentration, create an evolving and innovative ways to add value to the organization. Decisive thinker: Establishes the ability to investigate and understand data and information. Using knowledge and information in a structured way to recognize opportunities. Skilled influencer: Reveals the ability to inspire and to gain the necessary commitment and support from the organization. Personally credible: create professionalism through joining commercial and human resources expertise to add value to the organization. Collaborative: Works effectively and inclusively with a variety of employees, both within and outside of the organization. Driven to deliver: Establishes determination, creativity, and persistence to carry the finest outcome for the organization and its people.Third segment bands: The four bands of professional competencies define, the contribution that human resources professionals mark at every stage of their profession. It aids to give a clear path and em phasis to all human resource professionals progress planning and behaviors. At Band 1: the role would be a human resource consultant, whose role would be to focus on consumer support and direct and ongoing problems, spend time providing information, handling data and serve the consumer with facts and evidence and peace of mind. They must also be well-organized, flexible and give client satisfaction. Band 2: the role would a human resource advisor who counsels and manages human resource related matters and linking to the individual or a team. Human resource advisor has an understanding of the estimated process and solutions available. Assists the consumer with flexible selections and recommendations and allow frequent business. Band 3. Leads a professional range acting as an advisor or partner, reports the key human resource challenges at an organizational level for the average and long-term. Band 4. Leads and accomplishes professional areas in the organization. Responsible for devel oping and carrying organizational and human resource strategy.Activity 2 2.1 In order to priorities the conflicts within the company and to manage the customer’s priority, each matter needs to be adjusted to either imported or urgent. Upon this, a decision can be made whichever is important or urgent, and the matrix describes it into four categories, 1. Important and Urgent: There are two different types of urgent and important activities: ones that you could not have expected and others that you have left until the last minute. 2. Important but Not Urgent: These are the activities that support you to achieve your personal and professional goals for the long run and complete important work. 3. Not Important but Urgent: Urgent but not important tasks are things that prevent you from accomplishing your goals always try to reschedule or delegate them. 4. Not Important and Not Urgent: These activities are just a disruption, avoid them if possible. An external customer is someone who consumes your businesss products but is not part of your company. For example, an external customer is an individual who enters your store and buys merchandise or service. An internal customer is any member of your company who trusts on support from another to their job responsibilities, for example; sales representative who needs help from a customer service representative to complete an order. Another example for an internal customer; a customer calls on the call center to ask about his credit balance, the customer service agent calls the credit department to assist him to pass on the information to the end customer. And lastly, we have end users customer, business to business; which is a business that emphasis on marketing and selling products and services to other companies; for example in our direct English institution, we have other institutions that request to purchase our particular education course. Dealing with different customers the org anization must priorities for each, which mainly depends on its importance and its urgency for each situation and condition. 2.2 Effective communication is important to the company and it can be improved in many ways. In truth, communication act as a role in product development and customer relations also employee management and almost every aspect of a business operations process. Employees are a key audience because they often serve as the conduit to other audiences. If employees are knowledgeable, communications with other communities are likely to be strong as well. Effective structural communication will create a strong communication and the teamwork for employees to achieve company goals. There are mainly three types of communication, Verbal Communication which can be through a telephone or internet Skype, which is only through a voice channel, and Nonverbal Communication like emails, fax, SMS, test and lastly we have, Visual Communication which is mainly faced to face or meetings. Each has its own advantages and disadvantage for example; Verbal Communication you can communicate with a large number of cu stomers in short time, on the other hand, customer won’t be able to fully understand everything as the visual communication, and for Nonverbal Communication for example; customer has a reminder and a proof of the text which is reliable, on the other hand, some messages might be sent incorrectly and cause a large damage, Visual Communication is what customers prefer as so that they can express their emotions in better way, the disadvantage that this process takes lots of time to deal with each customer. 2.3 Effective service delivery, There are several overall points to think about when managing and planning the delivery of your services and products to be measured. There are also some particular aspects and methods that you may find helpful if you have limited time or resources. Within the framework of planning the business some aspects should be considered in order to improve the quality and the trust relationship with the community: Delivering service on time Time is limited. You cannot buy more time, but there are several things you can do to manage your time more efficiently. Plans rarely show up to be accomplished in the best way, and even the finest managers have to deal with unpredictable matters like suppliers not delivering on time, one of the employee members getting ill or trains are being delayed, equipment breaks, etc. Nevertheless, if you plan sufficiently you are more likely to deliver on time. When business starts deliver on time the business will start to be trusted and dependable, and this will attract lots of customers due to its timely delivery quality. Delivery service on a budget Planning a strategy based on a budget will enable you to identify the resources needed accurately before you start a project. Try to mark the things that may cost additional money. You should also make sure you are not forgetting anything that could end up costing you additional cost. Some practical preparation tools can be used to assist you to approximate how much resources will be needed at each stage of the process and how much will it cost and how long will it take. By then the business will start to reduce cost and be more efficient and effective in dealing the on a budget. Dealing with difficult customers First of all the one who deals with the customer needs to adjust his mindset once he/she is aware that the client is unhappy then the first priority is to have a customer service mindset. Secondly listen actively which is the most important phase of the whole dealing process is listening actively to what your client or customer is saying. Repeat the customers concerns to make sure that addressing the right issue, ask questions to make sure that youve identified the problem correctly. These matters should be considered when dealing with difficult customers, and it helps to solve future problems. Handling and resolving complaints Be Empathic and Apologize for example; I understand why youre upset. I would be too. Im very sorry that we didnt get the samples to you on time, especially since its caused these problems. And then to find or suggest the solution to his problem, if the suggested solution didn’t please the customer try to hear his perspective suggestion for the solution. Once you have both decided on a solution, you need to take action straight away. Explain every process to fix the problem to your customer Take Action and Follow-up to show your customer that you care. And lastly, use the Feedback from the complaints to decrease the risk of the condition happening again. References BIBLIOGRAPHY Eisenhower. (August 19, 1954). Eisenhowers Urgent/Important Principle. Address at the Second Assembly of the World Council of Churches, Evanston, Illinois: The American Presidency Project. Steven Edwards, K. J. (n.d.). Turning a Challenge into an Opportunity. Retrieved from www.mindtools.com: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/unhappy-customers.htm

Computer System Architecture of Buses

Computer System Architecture of Buses Abstract This report focuses on the computer system architecture of buses. The research is based on the buses which used by AMD K computer system. Those are includes bus characteristics, bus arbitration and bus topology. In bus characteristics, we had cover the bus width and bus speed, types of buses and bus lines, and also advantages and disadvantages of a bus to a network. In bus arbitration, there was include purpose of arbitration, how does the arbitration protocol work and multiplexing. Other else was the bus topology. In the end of the report, there was a summarize results which include why a bus hierarchy is required, how a bus hierarchy works and additional hardware circuitry required. Introduction This assignment is mainly explaining a fundamental architectural feature present in all computer system, buses. Buses have historically provided a flexible communications structure in computer systems. Furthermore, buses in computing are a digital communication mechanism that allows two or more functional units to transfer control signals or data. Most buses are designed for use inside a single computer system; some are used within a single integrated circuit. Many bus designs exist because a bus can be optimized for a specific purpose. For example, a memory bus is intended to interconnect a processor with a memory system and an I/O bus is intended to interconnect a processor with set of I/O devices. Furthermore, buses can be divided into two major groups based on their control. Those two groups are local buses and system buses. Various bus designs have been used in the PC, including ISA, EISA, Micro Channel, VL-bus and PCI. Other peripheral busses are NuBus, TURBOchannel, VMEbus, MULTIBUS and STD bus. Bus Width A bus is characterized by the amount of information that can be transmitted at once. It is call bus width. The amount expressed in bits, corresponds to the number of physical lines over which data is sent simultaneously. The term width is used to refer to the number of bits that a bus can transmit at once. Typical widths are 8, 16, 32, or 64 bits at a time. In other words, the bus width means the size of the entity that the bus sends data in one cycle. For example 32 bits, this means that the bus has 32 wires that are used for the transmission. (This may also be different, depending on the transmission protocol). Bus Speed Bus speed means how many bits or bytes (1 byte = 8 bits) is the bus able to send in a unit of time (typically second). For example for a computer network it could be 100 Mbs means 100 Megabits (12, 5 Megabytes) in a second. The bus speed is also defined by its frequency. It expressed in Hertz. Frequency means the number of data packets sent or received per second. Each time that data is sent or received is called a cycle. Besides, the bus speeds also commonly known as front side bus (FSB). It is shows how fast the components can communicate with each other. Faster bus speed means faster computer. You can easily see how a faster FSB helps your computer get more information from one place to the other. For example, if two computers are exactly the same in all ways except one has an FSB speed of 500 MHz and the other has an FSB of 1066 MHz, twice as much data will get through on the second computer compared to the first. This means your computer will get more work done in the same amount of time faster spreadsheet calculations, faster decoding of that movie, or smoother video games. To increase the bus speed you can either increase the bus width or the frequency of the transmission on the bus. The Different Types of Buses Local Buses A local bus is the simplest buses consist of set of wires. Within the central processing unit (CPU), local buses can generally be divided in three types. They are address buses, data buses or control buses. Address buses tend to be specialized in purpose and are usually unidirectional. It carries an address from the CPU to memory or I/O devices. Data buses tend to be more general in purpose and are bidirectional. It carries data between the CPU and memory or I/O devices. Control buses carry signals from the control unit to other components of the computer and back to control unit. System Buses Unlike local buses, system buses are independent functional components of many computers. Each system bus has its own control circuit, called a bus controller, and within each bus controller is an arbiter, which process requests to use the bus. The bus controller may be distributed among the devices that use the bus. Systems buses generally connect system components together, such as the CPU,I/O system and often the main-memory system, and designers often optimize system buses for transferring data between I/O devices and main-memory. A key distinction between system buses and local buses is that system buses tend to have well-documented and stable definitions, so that designers can attach a wide variety of devices to them. Local buses are processor-specific and not widely documented. They tend to be proprietary. Example of system buses are DEC UNIBUS and the Apple NuBus. Bus Lines The wires that comprise a bus are called lines. Four main categories of bus lines : Data lines Carry data from one place to another. Address lines Specify the recipient of data on the bus. Control lines Provide control for the synchronization and operation of the bus and the modules to which it is connected. Power lines Provide power to various components connected to the bus. Advantages / Disadvantages of a Bus to a Network Data bus networks have quite a few advantages compare the other network topologies such as point-to-point links in these applications. Generally, a data bus can make possible the interconnection of a set of terminals when the number of terminals is so large that interconnection through individual point-to-point links becomes unusable. Furthermore, a data bus topology can provide large configurationally flexibility. Terminals can be added to the network or moved to different locations without major revisions in the cabling layout. Both of these advantages are of particular importance in applications in which cable installation is the dominant system cost, for example in shipboard applications. Purpose of arbitration In a computer system, all the devices communicate with the other device are connected to the main board over a same bus. If two or more I/O (input and output) devices try to use the bus at the same time to access the main board, there will be a conflict arise. Therefore, bus arbitration is created is to resolve the problem. Bus arbiter is a circuit to coordinate the activities of devices request for memory transfer using the bus. The process that runs by bus arbiter is name as Bus Arbitration. It is to prevent two or more I/O devices initiating transfers at the same time. The bus arbitration mechanism is designed to allow high priority devices such as the processor and RAM get first access to the bus, while the other devices (disks, video cards, sound cards etc.) get lower priority, and often have to wait to access the bus. The prioritization is according numbered interrupts to priority systems. The lower the numbered interrupts will has the higher priority. On many systems, the CPU has interrupt 0. Therefore, CPU always goes first on the bus. Meanwhile, there are time slices provided over the bus. How does the arbitration protocol work The device that uses to allow for initiating data transfers on the bus is called as bus master. Therefore, only one bus master can exist at a time. When the bus master relinquished its control, the other device also can act as bus master. However, the process of transferring the bus mastership from one device to another device has to coordinate carefully to take account of the needs of various devices. As stated earlier, the bus arbitration has been design to use by high priority device. Therefore, scheduling function will be performs by bus arbiter. Bus arbiter can be part of the processer or separate unit that connected to bus. The diagram above show a basic arrangement example of processor contains the bus arbiter circuitry. In this case, the processor is act as the bus master. However in some cases, the other DMA (direct memory access) controller can gain the bus mastership. DMA controllers activate the Bus-request line, BR before it gain the bus mastership. The Signal of Bus- request line is transfer using the logical OR concept from the bus-request line to the other I/O devices. When the bus request is activated, the processor will activates the bus Grant signal, BG1, gives permission to the DMA controller use the bus when it become free. The signal is using a daisy-chain arrangement to connect all DMA controllers. Therefore, when DMA controller 1 request for the bus, it will block the propagation of the grant signal to other I/O device automatically. Else, it will assert BG2 to grant downstream. The bus master indicates all I/O devices that it is using the bus by activating another open collector line call as Bus Busy, BBSY. Therefore, a DMA controller need to wait for Bus busy to inactive after the Bus Grant signal send. In the situation, the DMA controller can assumes the bus mastership. Multiplexing Multiplexed bus is a type of bus structure which the number of signal lines represented by the bus is less than the number of bits of data, addresses, and control information being transferred between devices of the computer system. For example, if a multiplexed address bus use 8 signal lines to transmit 16 bits of address information. The information is transferred sequentially where the additional control line is being used for sequencing the transfer. In another example, the system represent a master control unit (MCU) connecting to one or more receiver-transmit unit (RTU) by a data bus. The MCU transmits a message to the RTU for comprising a synchronization pulse of known duration and successive time spaced timing signals separated by time duration T marking the boundaries of data bits to be transmitted from the RTU to the MCU. The RTU is including a clock pulse source which utilizes the synchronization pulse to determine the frequency of the clock pulse source in P pulses per duration T. The value P is used in conjunction with the timing signals to create properly timed data determining signals in the data bits. Point to point topology Point to point (PTP) is directly connects two nodes to together. Following is some example of using PTP to connect 2 nodes together. Two computers communicating via modems. A mainframe terminal communicating with a front end processor. A workstation communicating along a parallel cable to a scanner. In a point-to-point topology, all the devices are connected with a shared switch. The switch is different from the shared topology. Computational components that are connected using a point-to-point topology do not need to use any type of bus arbitration scheme. Instate, the shared switch breaks the continuous stream of data on the bus into data packets that are routed to the individual devices. Using this method, the shared switch able establishes point-to-point connections between the different devices. From an individual devices perspective, a connection has to be a private, direct, continuous connection to another device. The connection may comprise one or more two-way of serial-connections. By increasing the number of lanes of a connection, therefore the bandwidth of the connection can by increase. An example of point-to-point bus topology is the implementation in peripheral component interface expresses (PCI Express). PCI Express is a computer expansion card standard designed t o replace the older PCI, PCI-X, and AGP standards. It was introduced by Intel in 2004, PCIe is the latest standard for expansion cards that is available on mainstream personal computers. Multipoint Multipoint is a bus topologies that carries signals to several destinations. It is also known as multidrop bus (MDB) or broadcast bus. Multipoint bus usually requires addressing signals on the bus to identify the addressed destination. Example : Ethernet. It is also a computer bus in which all components are connected to same set of electrical wires. Summary From this assignment, we had classified out the type of buses which its basically grouped into four parts known as processor bus, cache bus, local I/O bus and standard I/O bus. Each of this is different as processor bus is the highest-level bus that the chipset uses to send information to and from the processor. While, cache bus used to accessing the system cache. At the same time, the local I/O bus is for connecting performance-critical peripherals to the memory, chipset, and processor such as video cards and disk storage devices. Example of local I/O bus is like Peripheral Component Interconnect Bus (PCI). Last would be the standard I/O bus which it used for slower peripherals such as modems while it also for compatibility with older devices. Bus hierarchy is required due to the lower level bus like local and standard I/O buses need to steps by steps sent the data to the upper levels of buses in order to allow users to retrieve or transfer the data from each particular memory to another. Hence, I consider them a hierarchy because each bus is to some extent further removed from the processor; each one connects to the level above it, integrating the various parts of the PC together. Each one is also generally slower than the one above it. As a conclusion, bus is generally designed for multiple devices to share the medium. Furthermore, additional hardware circuitry is needed because of that may have problems when two clients want to transmit at the same time on the same bus. Therefore, hardware like bus arbitration is needed to overcome this conflict. Conclusion As a conclusion, buses are actually helpful as its act as a vital medium in order to transferring data. Basically, buses connect different modules within the CPU and to memory and other I/O peripherals. Meanwhile, buses can also connect two different components at the same time through the usage of point-to-point or multipoint. Buses can carry data, address and control function as it could transmit the instructions of the users into the outputs. Buses are form in the combination of data line, address line, power line and control line. Then, buses and buses communicate through a medium called bridge. Further, we had identified the characteristics of the buses as it categorized into two categories. For bus speed, it covers the area for speed of transmitting data to another medium. While, bus width is the amount of data can be transferring. Besides, type of buses, pros and cons of bus and network and buses arbitration also included within our report. Lastly, we had also stated out the purposes of buses arbitration. Frequently Ask Question (FAQ) What is a bus? How to solve the conflict of different data is being transferring through the same bus but at different devices? What are the functions of buses? How to measure the speed of transferring or retrieving data from buses? How does buses connected to each other? How to increase the buses speed? Which method allows buses to connect 2 devices? References Jospeph.S, 1985, Multiplex bus system for controlling the transmission of data between a master control unit and a plurality of remotely located receiver-transmitter units [online], Available from http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4538262.html [Accessed 30 October 2009] What is a computer bus? [Online], Available World Wide Web : URL http://en.kioskea.net/contents/pc/bus.php3 [Accessed 26 Oct 2009] Shinichi, What is bus speed? [Online], Available World Wide Web : URL http://www.helium.com/items/986164-what-is-bus-speed [Accessed 26 Oct 2009] Multidrop bus [Online], Available World Wide Web : URL http://wikirank.com/en/Multidrop [Accessed 02 Nov 2009] Derwyn.J, 1984, Passive fiber optic data bus configurations [online], Available from http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4457581.html [Accessed 10 November 2009] System bus, online, Available from http://www.inetdaemon.com/tutorials/computers/hardware/mainboards/bus/[Accesed 30 October 2009] DAINTITH.J, 2004, multiplexed bus. A Dictionary of Computing [online], Available from http://www.encyclopedia.com [Accessed 03 November 2009] Hamacher.C, Vranesic.G, Zaky.G, 1996, computer organization In, 4th edition, McGraw-hill international editions, Singapore, 1996, pp186

The leadership challenge faced by Toyota

The leadership challenge faced by Toyota My decision to work on Toyota is related to a moving scene I saw on television few months ago .Under the media spotlight, Akio Toyoda (Toyota CEO) was standing tearful under a giant display bearing the name of the company. This emotional reaction is the story of a senior leader who commits their life to the business, such a vulnerability is atypical enough to study the case. How Toyota, recognized as model in terms of management, can meet such tragic situation? The consequences of poor crisis management could severely damage the reputation of a company thats why every company must be prepared for crisis. This is the case with Toyota, one of worlds leading auto makers. I have decided to work on Toyota case to show how a company known for its reliable and innovative products , an exemplar of production efficiency with a perfect storm of rapid growth , can become a company with a series of product defects that has caused deaths and put many consumers at risk. Is it a technological matter or a leadership crisis?, What has been Toyotas solutions for crisis response? Toyoda went into hiding and sent American CEO Jim Lentz to make apologies. The issues of product quality became out of control. This left the media, politicians, and consumers to dictate the conversation, while Toyota was looking for the responses. This situation without a proper solution and explanation let people talk and imagine the worst things. Artful apologies and confused plans for resolution have been made to face this crisis. If you have a leader who isnt capable to deal with global issues of this significance level, should he be in the leadership position? What makes a true leader? In this work, I will try to understand how the Prince became the no show Akio Toyoda. For that I will first focus on the external analysis to identify the market place of the company, then I will emphasize on the internal analysis that is to say more specifically the cultural aspects of this company moral , management, attitude at work, with a special focus on the leadership concept. Finally, I will make recommendations that will help Toyota to handle the crisis well. 2)The external analysis The impact of the crisis on the company is huge. When customers lose trust with companies the impact is high. Toyotas customers are meeting a kind of identity crisis. There is a discrepancy between what they were expected from the company and the reality. They expected Toyota to have the highest quality, best reliability and great safety. Because of the crisis, people who used to buy Toyotas think that the value of their car has decline since the problem of confidence began. Twenty seven percent of customers surveyed that said they were considering a Toyota prior to the recall now say they no longer are considering the brand for their next vehicle purchase. Now nearly half of the car buyers who have defected from Toyota say they are not sure if they will consider the brand again, even once Toyotas problems are resolved. This is showing how the impact is huge and how a long term work need to be made to restore customers confidence. It is the main difficulty that Toyota will have to confront. Which is as well a tough nut to crack is that Toyota build all his philosophy on the concept of quality. This shows in quantifiable terms the impact of this crisis of confidence on future purchases. To me it seems that Toyota has losing its focus on customers and has payed more attention to market share and profits, millions upon millions of Americans were buying their automobiles believing Toyotas promises. Moreover Competition will be even more stronger. Rivals will take advantage of Toyotas crisis particularly Ford. Its a competitive market . I think it is important to realize the impact of a break down in trust with customers. In the case of Toyota, the company will see falling profits and possibly losses that may extend well into the future. By some estimates their US dealers are losing over $2B per month. The manufacturing line has been shut down at two US plants with more closings possible. None of this takes into consideration parts suppliers and the economic impact on all those who either do business with Toyota or provide goods and services to Toyotas dealers and their employees. Why is all this happening? We dont have a lots of information on the specific problems, we can guess from the Toyota executives appearances before congress that it was because Toyota lost its essence of what they valued. The old values of quality and customers first were replaced with growth and profitability. Competition is increasing almost daily with new entrants coming into the market from China , South Korea ,Toyota faces tremendous competitive rivalry in the car market, Toyota should not forget what make its fame: reliability How could this happen? We can imagine that leaders like Toyoda did not want to hear from anyone something that is going to slow down the growth train. Even one of the best corporate systems, such as the Toyota Production System, can be subverted by fear and greed. We can say that Toyota has done many things right in responding to the crisis: Talk to the media , using all canals( facebook, twitter, diverse websites) to reassure customers. But it seem that whatever Toyota says now, and however well it acts, there is a sense that it ignored the problem until it was forced to take action. If it stinks, put a lid on it. Toyota follow this japanese proverb to sort out the problem. Toyoda didnt accept to face the reality it is a management crisis and develop a lack of trust from the customers. To react properly, this requires an organisational culture that is vigilant for potential crises, has open lines of communication from staff to management, and a willingness to address unpleasant truths. . The challenge is created by two elements of culture: firstly, an obsession with quality, which means that anything less than perfection is seen embarrassing. As a consequence, problems with quality are literally inconceivable. The second interlinked element of culture is a hierarchical approach to management and a lack of open communication. People who are at the best placed to spot early signs of crisis feel unable to point out flaws. As a result, problems unresolved until they explode into a major crisis. Another reason why Toyota has such a major challenge on its hands is that this crisis touch at the essence of its reputation. Toyota has built its reputation on quality and reliability, and anything that calls this into question is especially threatening. This is a lesson for all organisations: understand what lies at the heart .It is essential that the company remains true to these values in its approach to crisis management . Toyota company has failed to get ahead of events and take control. It looks like the crisis is managing Toyota rather than vice versa. Toyoda, the chief executive, should have been the face of the organisation during this major crisis. No chief executive can be absent from the public eye when the business is in the middle of a crisis It is not necessarily the reality of how a business manages a crisis that will determine its success. Its how the organisation is perceived to have managed the crisis: We know the importance of public relation and the organization of a proper communication. Get it right and the organisations reputation and value can be protected; get it wrong and serious damage can result. In this context, the role of the media spokesperson is pivotal, even in this age of social media. Observers draw conclusions based not just on what the spokesperson says, but also their body language, and tone of voice. executives like Toyoda are unlikely to represent their organisation well in a crisis when they disapear in front of serious crisis Toyota should have create the right culture to avoid crisis , developing workable crisis management plans and processes, and training managers likely to be part of a crisis response team this would have play a large part in determining the success of the organisation in the event of a crisis. Full recovery requires continued communication and actions to regain the trust of customers affected by the crisis. If Toyotas recent troubles encourage more businesses to recognise the impact that crises can have on a businesss long-term reputation and take steps to protect themselves as a consequence, then at least some goodwill has come from recent events. But I am sure that Toyota could regain most if not all of its lost market share with a vigorous marketing campaign and reassurances on quality but for that one step more need to be overcome: a deep and radical changes in terms of culture, moral and management approach. This is what we are going to study in the second part. . the internal analysis We have seen that the impact of the crisis on the external market share is mainly financial now we will focus on the cultural , philosophical, organizational matters. I will try first to sum up what make the specificity of Toyota. A) Philosophy: Before we build a car , we build people why do I exist? That s the question we try to answer through the philosophy. In Toyota company it is fundamental. The company built a long term thinking asking what is the meaning of our organization? where do we want to go?Toyota based its management decisions on a long term philosophy, even at the expense of short-term financial goals to build a sustainable success. They also generate value for the customer , the society and the economy.They align the organization toward a common goal that is bigger than making money. Toyota has turned operational excellence into a strategic weapon not because of the tools and quality improvement methods but a deeper business philosophy rooted in understanding of people and what motivates them. Its success is ultimately based on its ability to develop leaders, build teams, and nurture a supportive culture, to devise strategy, to build deep supplier relationships, and to maintain a learning organization. B) Toyota leadership model: Toyota leaders are builder of learning organization. The aim is to grow leaders who understand the work, leave the philosophy and teach it to others.The leaders real challenge is to develop people so they are strong contributor to the organization but also having the long term vision of knowing what to do, the knowledge of how to do it and the ability to develop people. Leaders at Toyota, like anywhere want to see measurable results. But they know that the financial result is a result of a process. They also realize that the financial reflect the past performance of that process. Good Toyota leaders dont jump to conclusions they try to first size up the situation and then ask why.All action at Toyota revolve around planning and problem solving, for the system to work problems must be exposed. Toyotas way provides extraordinary focus, direction, control, while at the same time they provide maximum flexibility. Three keys to toyotas leadership: Go see, ask why and show respect: getting people to think and take initiative is key! The leaders job at Toyota is to act as a teacher, get each person to take the iniative to solve problems and improve his job, ensure that each persons job is aligned to provide value for customer and prosperity for the company.Leaders must be the role of models, he understand the daily work.So coaching , promote from within the team is key to success. Toyota emphasize on the fact that their role is to develop exceptional people and teams who follow the companys philosophy.They usually use a cross functional teams that is to say a group of people with different functional expertise working toward a common goal. It may include people from finance, marketing, operations, and human resources departments. Typically, it includes employees from all levels of an organization. Members may also come from outside an organization (in particular, from suppliers, key customers, or consultants). Cross-functional teams often function as self-directed teams responding to broad, but no specific directives. Decision-making within a team may depend on consensus, but often is led by a team leader. They also continuously teach people how to work together, because team work must be learned, they want to reinforce the culture continually. The way they solve problem is also interesting : go and see for yourself to thoroughtly understand the situation : It s a really pragmatic approach of problem solving , they go to the source to observe and verify data. Don t theorize on the basis of what people and computers tell you They want to have a true relation with the reality and even high level managers should do this. In Toyotas culture we talk about consensus decision all decision are made slowly by consensus, considering all options. They also implement decision rapidly discussing problem and potential solutions with all involved. B) motivation theory: Maslows need hierarchy looks at motivating people as equivalent to satisfying their internal needs. When you work for Toyota , your lower level needs are covered. Youre well paid, you have job security and youre working in a safe, controlled environment. Toyotas culture emphasizes the use of challenging work situation to build self confidence. Its a culture of continuous improvement. Herzbergs theories are similar to Maslow but they are focus on characteristics of work that are motivators.Their absence will cause a dissatisfaction, but providing a person more and more of them will not positively motivate. Toyota has done a good job. Indeed , for example people are responsible only for a tiny piece of an overall product and work repeatedly , to make the task more motivating they worked on designing assembly line to improve job enrichment. Toyota organizes teams around complete project from start to finish. Having the responsibility of participating in the project from the beginning to the end empowers the employee. They also provide job rotations, they allow people to be proactive in solving problems and they develop autonomy other the tasks. About the external environnement theory, we can notice from Taylors scientific management based on reward with money performance relative to standards that all scientific management principles are followed but at the group level rather than individual level and based on employee involvement. About the goal setting that is to say : set specific, measurable , achievable challenging goals and measure progress, Toyota sets goals that meet these criteria through the policy deployment and the continuous measurements is relative to targets. B)Managing people Toyota has taken various steps to build high performance teams: Step 1: Orientation. This is about the visionary leadership.A leader need to be guide and the vision must be different, unexpected.It must be memorable , stick in the mind.The leader also have to exemply the vision to give concrete dimesion to the vision.This step is vital because if a vision is not shared the success of a project may be risky. The group needs strong direction from the leader and must understand the basic mission, rules of engagement, and tools the members will use. This step is fundamental, a leader have to share purpose and vision to have the support of all the team. Its a condition to build a sustainable success. A leader and his team need to wonder , what kind of organization are they going to build?To build a challenging but achievable goals, the goals that everyone wants and shares Step 2: Dissatisfaction. To avoid discouragement the leader need to build blocks of sustainable success , it could be for example about values.How do we do things round here?Are our values real or window dressing? These reflexions need to involve the inclusive company to be efficient. After going to work, the members discover it is harder than they thought to work as a team. In this stage, they continue to need strong direction (structure) from the leader but also need a lot of social support to get through the tough social dynamics they do not understand. Step 3: Integration. At this stage people become more independent, they understand the meaning of the work.The difficulty is to balance flexibility and control. The group starts to develop a clearer picture of the roles of various team members and begins to exert control over team processes. The leader does not have to provide much task direction, but the team still needs a lot of social support. Step 4: Production. The group becomes a high-performing team, no longer dependent on the leader. In Toyota people do the same mindless task repeatedly and are responsible only for a tiny piece of an overall product. Toyota has tryed to enrich jobs in various ways, to give a meaning to this repetitive work they organized job rotation, various kinds of feedback on how workers are doing at their jobs, it let a significant work group autonomy over the tasks. They redesigned its assembly lines so that the parts that make up a subsystem of the vehicle are installed in one specific area on the assembly line. Rather than a work group assembling electrical systems and then putting in floor mats and then door handles, a work group might focus almost exclusively on the electrical system under the hood., Toyota also organized teams around complete projects from start to finish. For example, the design of the interior of the vehicle is the responsibility of one team from the design phase through production. Participation in the project from beginning to end enriches and empowers the employee. Empowerment of the employee is as well key to success. Empowerment is the process of enabling or authorizing an individual to think, behaves, take action, and control work and decision making in autonomous ways. It is the state of feeling self-empowered to take control of ones own destiny. The organization has the responsibility to create a work environment which helps and give to people the ability and desire to act in empowered ways. Toyotas trouble : crisis or opportunity? As we studied, Toyota company is knowing as reliable and strong organization , on the other hand during the recent recall crisis the company showed weaknesses that we could not imagine. Lets have a critical analysis about what happened.. It seems that the crisis that Toyota met is mainly a problem of communication.Both internal and external communications must be timely and effective. Ongoing daily phone conferences need to be conducted to obtain the latest status and to share information. In addition, status reports must be e-mailed to all interested parties on a daily basis. External communication has to be managed to avoid misinformation being leaked to the media. Moreover leaders need to be visible during crisis but it is also a lake of humility. They didnt take seriously the risk of quality, they were not enough prepare to this risk, they saw themselves as untouchable but we know that even a good company can be involved in crisis. Their strategy is a long term one, they were not prepared to face such an immediate crisis , may be because of their lake of realism. They didnt keep the contact with reality through an efficient communication. We know how listening is an important attribute for a leader and it seems that Toyota company with its hierarchical structure is not prepared to collect information from all the employee. Its a possibility for them to reassert their value and to think their organisation more as living organism that need to adapt to this unpredictable context. We can also be critical about the concept of consensus team decision making, for Japanese it is the essence of decision.Its interesting to talk about the difference of culture that exist between European and Asiatic management. In our country we mainly emphasis on the answer to the question , for Japanese the important element is defining the question that is why they need a consensus to find out what the decision is really about , this can explain the difficulties they meet to find in a short time a good solution. Toyota could turn their crisis situation into an opportunity and build clear channels of communication with the public, improving their relationship and calming the fears of millions of car owners. 4) Recommendations and conclusion Its not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent but rather the one the most responsive to change Charles Darwin Toyota needs leader with credibility and with a clear plan. Toyoda need to see himself as change agent, representing, and protecting the group. He needs to learn how to deal with resistance but also take a risk and to confront the reality. He should, as well, know how to cope with complexity, ambiguity , uncertainty .A real leader is the one who view mistakes as a learning opportunity. There is real challenges of change. For the moment we can see Toyoda as a hiders, the one hoping the change will go away it is not the role of a leader, on the other hand he has to enable the group endure hard times. So lets talk about few recommendations to change the way to lead: 1) Face the reality. Toyoda did not want to face the problem and did not take his responsibility in the crisis . We expect from a leader to be courageous instead of that Toyoda hide the reality.He should have said that he pushed too hard for growth and neglected quality. By admitting his errors, he gives every Toyota employee permission to acknowledge mistakes and to get on with correcting them, instead of denying reality. 2: Get the world off your shoulders. Toyoda cannot expect to solve problems of this magnitude himself. Instead, he needs a crisis team reporting directly to him, working to get problems fixed permanently. He also needs outside counsel, as he appears to be listening only to insiders who are defensive about criticism. He should add the worlds top quality experts to his fix-it team and listen carefully to their advice. 3: Understand the real causes of the crisis. When Toyotas problems first surfaced, the company blamed a symptom loose floor mats and exonerated the accelerators. Instead, management should have required its best engineers to get to the root cause of this problem and every other quality problem being reported. This is basic engineering and quality discipline. 4: Crisis will have effects on a long term.It is going to be worst before getting better.So the organization need to be prepared to face a long term crisis. It will take years to resolve the trust crisis. Toyota must invest heavily in corrective actions while its sales shrink and profits implode, requiring major cash resources until its reputation can be restored. 5:We can change the crisis to an opportunity to restore Toyota quality. The crisis is melting away the denial and resistance that existed in recent years. For sure Employees are waitingfor new direction, and they want to make radical changes to renew the company. With Toyodas leadership, Toyota automobiles can be restored to the worlds highest quality.It is the moment to rebuild brand loyalty and to demonstrate the value and the promise in the answer to the problem. 6: Leaders personify the reputation of a company: In a crisis, people insist on hearing from the leader. Akio Toyoda cant send out public relations specialists or his American executives to explain what happened. Toyoda must come out of hiding, take personal responsibility, Then he should make a personal commitment to every Toyota customer to repair the damage, including buying back defective cars. 6: Leaders need to move quickly to solve causal operational issues, erring on the side of overcompensating. 7: After this crisis Toyoda need to focus on future success. Its important to focus also on the future , the long term benefits, trying to see the opportunity to win market share because afetr this crisis, the market will never look the same. GM and Ford are rapidly regaining market share, while the confidence of Toyotas loyal customers is badly shaken. Toyota cannot wait until all its quality problems are resolved. The company need a reactivity. It must play defense and offense simultaneously. To win, Toyota need to offer advanced features and superior quality, better value for consumers, greater safety, and improved fuel efficiency. I believe this is a great company that will resurrect its reputation and restore its leadership. But there is a lots of effort to make: first it is obviously most important to solve the problems with their cars.. But they also may be find new way to communicate with their customer using for example the social web. It seems that their responses have appeared a little slow and awkward. Giving consumers information about the recall in more pedagogic way, easily understandable. A leader should have a clear message .They should explain exactly what theyre doing, why things will be different in the future. Toyoda did not manage this crisis as we expect a real leader will do.He did not go past the emotional when customers and also employee from the company were waiting for a solutions. It show to us the affective link that a leader can build with his company, but people were expected from him a rational approach. On the other hand I am convinced that even if it is a long term working, particularly trying to regain the customers trust, the company with its reputed story , their experienced know how will be back .Its for them the opportunity to change practices , to work on crisis management ,and to change their organizational work beliefs. Bibliographie: The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the Worlds Greatest Manufacturer de Jeffrey K. 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