Globalization on the people of Belize. Essay

Local and regional tensions have increased while the prospects of conflict with regional states have increased. In certain cases globalization has become a disruptive force by fragmenting the state of Belize. Some groups inside Belize have opposed globalization because of their strong nationalism and sense of identity (Barnett 69, 2000). Trade agreements with larger countries has allowed for the removal of all obstacles to corporate infiltration of Belize. Companies extend their businesses to Belize where labor force allows them to accumulate high profits at the expense of local workers and government. They also exploit Belize as they employ person outside the country work in the higher paying jobs. Most of the profits made by these corporations is sent outside the region and not spent inside Belize. The trade of Belize has also been affected because corporations have the technology and financial resources to produce goods and services at cheaper prices and bulk quantities as compared with the domestic market. Some local business organizations in Belize have lost their identities in the global trade (Barnett 68, 2000). Globalization also creates a strong sense of nationalism because it restricts the ability of Belizean government to control its policies. It has allowed free access to markets which were once protected. The country has found itself open to unfair competition with vastly larger neighboring countries. The economy has been vulnerable to the world price of commodities like sugar cane, bananas and other agricultural products. Globalization has a negative impact on the culture of Belize. The people of Belize are exposed to the music, news, sporting events, television shows, and movies which come out of the United States of America. The younger citizens of Belize are attracted to the culture of the US. They have marginalized the traditional music and arts of their country. Cultural events of the country have been ignored by the youth of Belize. Since American media has a culture of violence, these negative aspects have been transferred to the youth of Belize. There have been rise in crime and violence in the country. Health and environment also have negative repercussions from the advent of globalization. Transportation technology has made communications more efficient and less time consuming but it has also contributed to the spread of deadly and infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS (Neuman 30, 2003). The country is also at risk of global warming which is a negative byproduct of globalization. Global warming has occurred because of the burning of fossil fuels and creation of nuclear waste. Industrialized countries produce and exchange goods rapidly which forces the environment to become more lethal and toxic. Small countries like Belize have been affected by the rise of global warming. They are at threat because of the changes in weather patterns, increased costs in fuels, inflation, and potential environmental disasters (Neuman 30, 2003). The environmental degradation of Belize has been one of the negative aspects of globalization. Many animal species are at threat because of environmental pollution in Belize. Recommendations Belize has witnessed the positive and negative impact of globalization. The opening of its economy and markets has helped to increase the level of social spending in the country. The health and education indicators have also improved. The economy has also registered moderate economic growth. Globalization has helped the country to increase the standard of living. Belize has a robust economy which is dependant on financial services, sugar cane, shrimp, tourism, and oil reserves. The economy however faces challenges because of the substantial foreign debt. The political system is open and tolerant as compared with regional states. But it is recommended that Belize continue to focus on political transparency and accountability. The political system must be enhanced by ensuring that policy making is strong. The institutions of the country must also be strengthened which would assist the country in making better policy decisions. The Belizean government must strive to limit the negative affects of globalization. The culture of violence, crime, disease, environmental pollution is severe threats to the country. Belize Telemedia must continue to expand its network and deploy technologies in the rural areas. It must decrease its reliance on fixed telephone services which have witnessed declining revenues. It must improve the coverage and range of cellular services which is the fastest growing sector in the country. It is also recommended that BTL continue to enhance its services by promoting efficiency and reliability. BTL should increase its fixed line, cellular, and internet services to the rural areas which would benefit the local economy. Conclusion Globalization is a controversial topic which has sparked fierce debates in the world. Belize is a small country located in Central America. It has been the recipient of the positive and negative aspects of globalization. On the positive side, the economy is liberal, open, and private. It has reduced its tariffs and duties on several goods. Globalization has helped the country to link with international markets. International corporations have invested in the country which has led to the development of infrastructure and business. The country also has a robust domestic private sector which has advertised the services and goods of Belize. Tourism has substantially increased with the advent of globalization. It is a major source of revenue in the country. Tourists can now use cheap and less time consuming modes of transportation to travel to the country. The economy of Belize is still vulnerable to the external shocks of commodity prices in the world. The increased role of multinational corporations has also reduced the ability of the government to control its policies. The youth of Belize have been influenced by the culture of the US. There has been an increase in crime and spread of diseases like HIV/AIDS. Belize Telemedia has also been successful because of globalization and trade liberalization. It has increased its network coverage and provision of various services. The company now provides cellular, fixed line, internet, and data communication services to urban and rural areas. It has also deployed wireless networks for rural residents and business organizations. References: Kalinina, Olga. (2008). Belize. Standard Poors. 1 (2), 1-24. Neuman, Stephanie G. (ed. ). Small States and Segmented Societies. New York: Praeger, 2003 Furtado, Celso. Economic Development of Central America. (2d. ed. ; trans. , Suzette Macedo. ). (Cambridge Latin America Series. ) London: Cambridge University Press, 2005 Jeffrey, Henry B. , and Colin Baber. Belize: Politics, Economics, and Society. Boulder, Colorado: Rienner, 2006. Barnett, Carla Natalie. â€Å"The Political Economy of Land in Belize: `Machete Must Fly’. † (Ph. D. dissertation. ) Mona, Kingston Jamaica: University of the West Indies, 2000. Barry, Tom. Belize: A Country Guide. Albuquerque, New Mexico: Inter-Hemispheric Education Resource Center, 2005 Bolland, O. Nigel. Land in Belize. Kingston, Jamaica: Institute of Social and Economic Research, 2006. Broad, David. â€Å"Belize: On the Rim of the Cauldron,† MonthlyReview, 2007, 38-42. Fernandez, Julio A. Belize: Case Study for Democracy in Central America. Brookfield, Vermont: Gower, 2006 Brock, Gerald (2005) Telecommunication Policy for the Information Age: From Monopoly to Competition. Harvard University Press Mansell, Robin (2007). The New Telecommunications: a political economy of network evolution. London, SAGE Publications Calabrese, A. and D. Jung (2007). Broadband telecommunications in Central America. Telecommunication Policy 16 BTL. (2008). Belize Telemedia Limited. Available: http://www. belizetelemedia. net/directors-report-2007. php. Last accessed 2 Aug 2008 Cronin, F. J. , E. B. Parker, et al. (2007). Telecommunication Infrastructure investment and economic-development. Telecommunication Policy 17 Fox, W. F. and S. Porca (2007). Investing in Rural Infrastructure. International Regional Science Review 24.

Interviewing two teachers Essay

Teachers have a very important but difficult job in our society. They are educators, counselors, coaches, friends, and sometimes even a parental figure all at the same time. This is a very heavy burden to carry while trying to educate our youth. The two teachers that were interviewed for this paper were Victoria Rivera, a sixth grade teacher from Brooklyn, New York, and Marcus Williams, a high school history teacher that also lives in Brooklyn, New York. Mrs. Rivera was the first of the two interviews. Victoria Rivera wanted to become a teacher her entire life, and has achieved that goal by becoming one. She graduated with a teaching degree from Brooklyn College , and has been teaching in the New York City public school system since 1983. Her main reason for becoming a teacher was because of past teachers. During the interview, she said that she was impressed by teachers she had as a child. She also added that as a youth, she found it amusing to play school while working on her own studies. â€Å"I retained what I learned through role playing as a teacher,† was one of her responses. Marcus Williams was the second interview. He graduated from Hunter College, in Manhattan, and has been teaching in New York City public high  schools for about 6 years. When asked his main reason for becoming a teacher his response was, â€Å"There are a lack of positive African-American male teachers in New York. I feel that young minority males especially African-Americans need positive men figures in their life anyway they can get it.† Mr. Williams also said that he feels teaching is essential for trying to give young people good education. Mrs. Rivera is really a teacher that strongly cares about the students. When asked what is her opinion of an outstanding teacher, Mrs. Rivera’s first response was, â€Å"A person who can retain children’s attention while they achieve their aim or goal†¦Ã¢â‚¬  She said that this is important because there are so many distractions in today’s society, that it is difficult, but important for teachers to meet the challenges of today’s student. She came off as very caring, and student oriented. On the other hand, Mr. Williams believed that an outstanding teacher was someone students could closely relate to. He felt that students need to feel comfortable around teachers. He said, â€Å"One of the reasons that I help coach the football team is because students can see me on a more personal level. I am very close to some of the players on the team, and at times I feel as if they look at me as an older friend, and counselor, rather then just another history teacher.† Mrs. Rivera was then asked what major teaching strategies does she use. In  response she said that she thinks â€Å"hands on† lessons, and student involvement was  very important. She said that student involvement in class discussions often leads to student interaction. â€Å"Students remember better when they talk about a topic themselves, instead of just taking notes.† Mr. Williams happened to agree with Mrs. Rivera. He said during his interview that in his classes there are many discussions about current events, and also the lessons. He felt that students are capable of having intelligent conversation whether the discussion is about a research paper for class, or a discussion about the possible war in Iraq. Both Mr. Williams, and Mrs. Rivera said that the workload after school is the most difficult part of teaching to deal with. Mrs. Rivera said that she spends two to three hours after school doing paperwork. On the other hand Mr. Williams said that after football practice he spends between two to four hours grading papers, tests and doing other paperwork. He teaches six different sections a day, compared to the one class that Mrs. Rivera has all day. Mrs. Rivera also said that discipline, and lack of parental involvement are also difficulties she comes across teaching. She said, â€Å"I do have a minor in psychology, so I try to put myself in the parents shoes. I try to stay positive and understand parents situations, but have to get the point across of how students should progress.† Mr. Williams agreed with  Mrs. Rivera’s comments. He said that at the high school level there is an  even greater lack of parental involvement then in the elementary schools. In conclusion from the two interviews, I have learned both some of the positives, and negatives of teaching. Paperwork, and lack of parental involvement seem to be the most difficult problems to overcome. Both Mrs. Rivera, and Mr. Williams are dedicated to helping students achieve overall success in education, and also in life. They are two teachers who want nothing else but to help the students they are dealing with, and to be successful professionals.

Citation and Argumentative Research Paper

Kenned Taylor Evaluator: Angela Moore Title: Pro's and Cons of Abortion What was the thesis statement of the essay? Abortions, an unethical practice of termination should be illegal because it is considered murder, can cause physiological and medical problems, and reduces the number of adoptions. How was the introduction? Did it grab your attention? If so, how? If not, what could have been done differently? The introduction was good and it did grab my attention by showing interesting facts.Did the author make a strong case for their argument? What was the strongest argument that was made? Lacked evidence for the arguments, not strong enough arguments. What was the weakest argument made? Arguments were all kind of weak How well did the author Incorporate: Facts? Yes Anecdotes? No Quotes? There wasn't many quotes In the paper. How well did the author follow the PAP formatting and citation requirements? What could have been done differently? The PAP Format could use a little more work b ut overall it was fine.The reference page needs to be finished. How well did the author do with using correct grammar and punctuation? Were there any specific areas that he or she needs to work on for future papers? (Be specific) There were a few spelling mistakes and the sentences had much grammar (Passive 1 OFF Could you determine a Christian worldview in the paper? If yes, what was it? Yes there was a Christian world view, abortion is a sin. Did the conclusion wrap up the paper without introducing new information? Yes but you need to work on length.

Public manager observation paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Public manager observation paper - Essay Example The Board voted for the program. PAIR is a humanitarian approach in dealing with the mentally sick. It is aligned with the principles of compassion and natural modalities that the Bible and mental health reforms support. Introduction The Board of Supervisors is the leading body of the County, several special districts, and the Housing Authority. The Board passes ordinances and resolutions, approves the annual budget, endorses contracts, appropriates funds, makes decisions regarding land use zoning for the unincorporated area, and appoints some of the County officers and members of various boards and commissions. To understand more about public administration in practice, one of the meetings of the Board will be analyzed. The Board of Supervisors of Riverside County, California voted on the issue of â€Å"Submittal to the Board of Supervisors, County of Riverside, State of California† on 2 October 2012. ... The Council of State Governments Justice Center (2008) presents its report, Mental Health Courts: A Primer for Policymakers and Practitioners. According to this report: â€Å"In 1999, the Los Angeles County Jail and New York’s Rikers Island jail held more people with mental illnesses than the largest psychiatric inpatient facilities in the United States† (Council of State Governments Justice Center, 2008, p.2). This statistics demonstrate the magnitude of handling mentally ill cases because these people may have such difficulty handling everyday functioning that they consciously or unconsciously participate in criminal activities. In addition, involvement with a criminal justice system that is tailored for the mentally sane can have harmful effects on the mentally ill and their families, as well public finance and governance. Hence, finding different solutions to help those with mental problems integrate into the community will benefit both the community and the mentall y ill. The Board of Supervisors of Riverside County, California understands the importance of the mental health needs of their constituents. The situation of policymaking for this paper is the voting for Agenda 2.5, â€Å"Memorandum of Understanding between the Riverside County Department of Animal Services and Riverside County Department of Mental Health for a Program called Pets Assisting in Recovery (PAIR).† The Board of Supervisors voted on this matter on 2 October 2012 at the County Administration Center, which is located at 4080 Lemon St Riverside, CA 92501. According to the â€Å"Submittal† (2007), the Riverside County Department of Mental Health (RCDMH) and Riverside County Department of Animal Services (RCDAS) recommended the

Financial strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Financial strategy - Essay Example It is however, critical to understand that such balancing act often depend upon the firm’s choice of the risk level which it attempts to undertake. (Walsh, 1996), As such the growing firms may be more risk loving and willing to take on higher level of risks and therefore all their decisions to expand and develop their markets will be based upon the higher degree of risk firm is willing to assume. Similarly, if a firm is more mature and risk averse in nature, its overall strategies will be relatively different as compared to a growing firm. (De Wit, & Meyer,1998). This paper will attempt to argue and explore that a firm’s overall risk consciousness governs the underlying strategies of the firm. The concept of Risk and firm The question of whether risk is the major factor behind the strategy formulation or not need to be discussed from the different perspectives. Each organization operates in an environment which is both internal and external to it and therefore develops its strategies in accordance with its environment. Firms, to a large extent, develop their capabilities to deal with the risks arising from their internal environment however; it’s the external competitive landscape of a firm which poses it significant and important risks because of the volatile and uncontrollable nature of the external environment. The overall development of the risk consciousness of the firm therefore largely depends upon the kind of external environment faced by the firm and how firm can actually utilize its strengths to withstands such external risks Risk as a concept therefore outlines that the outcome of any decisions or strategies of a firm may not be exactly according to what is perceived by the firm. As such it becomes critically important for the firms to account for and plan risks and develop strategies which can help them to counter risks arising from their internal as well as external environment. It is this uncertainty of the external environmen t which firms need to account for and prepare themselves through proper planning and strategy formulation process. It is also important to understand that the overall risk factors in an external environment can be diverse however; normally firms perform PESTLE Analysis to analyze their external environment. PESTLE Analysis allows the firms to actually evaluate the impact which political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors could have on the firm. (Ellis, & Williams, 1993) If a firm has relatively high tolerance for the risk, it may choose to work in an environment which can be politically volatile and uncertain. For example, any firm willing to operate in Afghanistan now must have relatively higher tolerance for the risk because of volatile and extremely uncertain political environment. As such its policies and strategies will be driven by the volatility of the external environment within which it is operating or willing to operate. Risk and Return Risk and Return criteria serves as the basic premise under which all the economic decisions are made. Every investor as well as the firm attempts to decide and take actions based on their overall risk and return profile.

Multic wk6 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Multic wk6 - Essay Example Traditionally girls wear pink and boys wear blue. This does not happen as often in our society anymore, but it still is a way that people tell whether a baby is a boy or a girl. I wondered whether that little girl would grow up to be a girl who liked frilly dresses and wore makeup or whether she would grow up another way. Her grandmother was socializing her to be a girl, but sometimes this is not the way that the child sees themselves. I think my own gender socialization was towards being female but because I have met so many people in my life, I believe that I am open minded enough to understand that people are different in many ways. As an example, if I were to counsel someone who was transgendered, although I could not relate directly to the way they felt, I could understand the impact of how their gender socialization may or may not have been a positive situation for them. In think that my socialization could only help to enhance my work with clients because although I was geared towards being very feminine, I found out later in life that that was not exactly the person that I was -- I enjoyed being a tomboy sometimes, dressing in frilly clothes sometimes, and then just wearing causal clothes when I hang out with my friends. The greatest challenge for gays and lesbians is the fact that many people think that it is "wrong". Although some aspects of society have accepted that this lifestyle is just an additional aspect of peel relating to each other, there is a faction of society that wants to believe that this is wrong according to God. Because of this, many gays and lesbians experience oppression in a similar way that blacks did before civil rights. Many gays and lesbians would like to be legally married because they have families in similar ways as heterosexual couples. This means that they need to have provisions made for custody of their children in case something happens to one or both of the parents and they need to

Compare the Motives and Results of the Bully Husbands Essay

Compare the Motives and Results of the Bully Husbands - Essay Example On the other hand, the image of masculinity has not altered much. Despite the waves of feminism and woman empowerment, men still occupy leadership roles at home and are expected to dominate the woman. What Western society classifies as male chauvinism in the 21st century was mainstream masculinity in the times of Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s plays, The Taming of the Shrew (1590) and The Winter’s Tale (1610) are two comedies in which the men had underlying motives for treating their wives the manner in which they did. The aftermath varies in both cases, yet the treatment is spawned from a sense of insecurity and constitutes an attempt to remain in control. In her society, there are the expectations and functions that every woman has to meet such as taking care of her husband and children.   If Bradstreet did not perform these duties as a family woman, her works would have been discredited. Her poetic works mainly relate her experience fulfilling the roles of wife, mother , and dedicated Christian. She lived in a conservative society where the woman is confined to the domestic sphere. Her poems focus on her life and more specifically her family life as her works are redolent with her love and devotion to her husband, and children and her God. The colonial puritan society embraced the sanctity of marriage and the oneness of both husband and wife, a relationship characterized by the prominence of the man and the subjectivity of the woman. The union between man and wife is consummated in the act of sexual intercourse and lasts in a faithful, monogamous marriage. Bradstreet incorporates Biblical doctrines relating to marriage into her works and consolidates conjugal love, oneness, harmony, unity, and chastity. The woman has to manifest stellar qualities as a virtuous Christian woman in the private sphere. She industriously sees after the home's needs maintaining her honor and integrity as a wife, mother and consummate homemaker. Shakespeare in The Taming of the Shrew and The Winter’s Tale involve two male protagonists, labeled as bullying husbands because of the way in which they treat their wives. Based on these plays, one observes that the bullying husband is typically one who demands the subjection of his wife. He generally employs techniques to systematically break down the woman’s assertiveness and he can also be physically and emotionally abusive. The Victorian perception of masculinity objectifies, belittles the woman, compelling childish submission of her and reinforced the power of the man. One facet of Petruchio is his mercenary character since his main motive was â€Å"to wive it wealthily† (Shakespeare, Act 1, Scene 2). In Shakespeare’s period as in modern times, money factored much in the forging of spousal relationships; therefore, love is not as important as a moneyed matrimony. In his determination to embark on a marriage of convenience, Petruchio’s preponderant concern was the eco nomic status of his wife. Beauty or good character formation was never a qualification in Petruchio’s eyes. Similar to an economic transaction, among his first questions to his prospective father-in-law, Baptista, Petruchio posed a question on the sum of the dowry. Even Katerina’s initial conduct toward him does not turn him off from marrying her. From the play’s commencement, Petruchio asserts that nothing would deter him. He would wed a woman â€Å"as foul as Florentius’ love/ As old as Sibly and as curst and shrewd as Socrates’

Thomas Hobbes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Thomas Hobbes - Essay Example Only societies and governments stop this from being a constant state. This is a sort of fiction, since Hobbes points out that this has never actually happened in history. However, it helps to explain why people in countries often suffer from mistrust, violence and criminality. This ‘state of nature’ is central to Hobbes’ view of the world. This reason this is not a reality is because it is blocked by fear and reason. Reason is how man knows how to escape from the state of nature and this is how the natural laws are created which allow man to live in peace. Hobbes then develops his ideas on the ‘laws of nature’. This works against the destructive nature of the ‘state of nature’ and helps man to maintain peace and stability. These laws are instinctive to man and are obtainable though natural reason and philosophy. The first law is the law of peace and divides into the seeking of peace and the right to defend ourselves from violence in order to maintain peace. The second law is connected to peace and states that we give up certain rights, such as murder, in order to avoid continuous warfare. People mutually give up their rights and this becomes a contract, which is the foundation for moral obligations. The third law, therefore, requires us not just to make such contracts, but to respect and keep them. These first three laws are the essential way in which continuous war can be avoided. Hobbes then outlines a number of other associated laws which contribute to maintaining peace. All these laws can be summarised as avoiding actions which an individual would not want performed against themselves. God ultimately rules over these laws. Hobbes then explores how the contracts work. There are two different types of person who can be involved in a contract – natural and artificial. Hobbes defines a natural person as one who uses their own words. An artificial person, rather, is one who uses the words of

Business Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Business Strategy - Essay Example Outsourcing and offshoring are some of the new business concepts contributed by globalization. These business strategies help the entrepreneurs to exploit overseas markets. Those who stick with the old business strategies may not take advantage of these revolutionary business concepts and may struggle to survive in the market. â€Å"Competition existed long before strategy. It began with life itself† (Henderson,1989, 139). Competition is becoming intense in every field of life and business is also not an exception. In order to stay in the market most of the organizations devises new strategies and approaches within and outside their organization. According to Markides (1999:6) â€Å"Behind every successful company there is a superior strategy; however there is little agreement on what strategy is or how to develop a good one†. This paper critically analyses the importance of strategy in business. Importance of strategy in business â€Å"There are two major types of str ategy: (1) corporate strategy, in which companies decide which line or lines of business to engage in; and (2) business or competitive strategy, which sets the framework for achieving success in a particular business†(Strategy formulation, n. d). Business strategy seems to be getting more attention than the corporate strategy because of the importance of it in determining future of the organization. ... For example, the recent financial crisis came quite unexpectedly and many big organizations struggled for survival. However, the negative effects of recession have not affected some organizations very much. For example, Apple Inc escaped from recession without much trouble whereas Lehman Brothers faced immense problems. This is because of the better business strategies of Apple Inc compared to that of Lehman Brothers. Negative entropy, Feedback and Steady state etc are some of the business strategies adopted by organizations. Negative entropy is a scenario in which organizations conserve something for the harder times. Apple Inc succeeded in conserving something for the harder times whereas Lehman Brother failed to do so. Feedback is another important business strategy through which an organization fine tunes its strategies. Negative feedback enables the organization to correct deviations or problems. For example, most of the new products developed by organizations will be tested in the market for a substantial period of time before the introduction of the final product. This is a business strategy adopted by organizations ensure the success of the new product in the market. Steady state refers to the balance to be maintained between inputs from the external environment and the outputs going back to it. In other words, â€Å"Companies should define their strategy not based on the product they are selling, but according to the underlying functionality of the product they are selling† (Markides, 1999, p.6). It is necessary to know the market requirement of a product before deciding about the amount of production. So the inputs from the market collected through various market research methods will help an organization decide about

Rocking Horse Winner Essay Example for Free

Rocking Horse Winner Essay Lawrence son of a coal miner and a school teacher, was born and grew up in Nottinghamshire, England. Lawrence was rejected for the military service in World War 1 because of lung trouble. This story took place just years after World War 1. It took place near London; London’s Richmond Park. There are a couple of characters in this story. They are Paul, Hester, Paul’s father, Bassett, Oscar Creswell, Miss Wilmot, Paul’s two younger sisters and Chief Artist. In the story â€Å"The Rocking Horse Winner† Lawrence uses the setting, the point of view and tragic irony to illustrate the theme that Paul was on quest to gain wealth, but lost his life. Lawrence chose London because of the different things going on in the city such, as the major races he mentioned that took place in England. â€Å"The child had never been to a horse race meeting before, and his eyes were blue fire. †(Lawrence p. 105). The horses that raced were Daffodil who came in first, Lancelot who came in second and Mirza who came in third. Lawrence wrote this story in omniscient third person point of view. This young women artist earned several thousand pounds a year, but Paul’s mother only made several hundreds, and she was again dissatisfied. † (Lawrence p. 261). Paul’s mother wanted to make more money, so she wanted to be the first in something but did not succeed. The tragic irony was when Paul picks the winning horse in the Derby but he loses his life. â€Å"But, poor devil, poor devil, he’s best gone out of a life where he rides his rocking horse to find a winner. † (Lawrence p. 266). The money he had combined was about eighty thousand pounds which is the equivalent of a million dollars today and that became his misfortune. In the story â€Å"The Rocking Horse Winner† Lawrence uses the setting, the point of view and tragic irony to tell the story. The theme of the story is a quest to find a winner. â€Å"But, poor devil, poor devil, he’s best gone out of a life where he rides hid rocking horse to find a winner. † (Lawrence p. 266). Before Paul died he is on a quest to find a great prize, luck that will let him win money to bet on horses and win to help his mom. Paul dies while he riding his horse like a knight on a quest to find a winner.

Market and situational analysis: Starbucks Coffee

Market and situational analysis: Starbucks Coffee Executive Summary Starbucks is a long history company in specialty coffee industry, established in 1971 Seattle Washington USA and traded in NASDAQ stock market since 1985 under the symbol SBUX, provided beverages e.g. high quality coffee, tea and light food items through company-owned and licensed stores in domestic market and international market all over the world with strongly focus in differentiate and innovation known by Starbucks experience together with Global Responsibility strategy; commitment to communities and employee satisfaction policy complemented in its business strategy (Starbucks, 2009). Starbucks is a fast growing company and played a major role as the leader in specialty coffee industry until in 2006 to 2007, the company growth was starting to declined and turned to negative growth since 2008. While the company was in the bad situation with the global economic crisis and forced by the strong competitors McDonalds and Dunkin Donut, Howard Schultz had return as CEO (MSNBC, 2008) a nd tried to transform Starbucks from the struggling period return to innovative and growth again (Howard, 2009). In this following report provides analysis of company mission, business strategy with Porters Generic Strategies (Michael, 1980), using Michael Porters five forces (Michael, 1979) to analyze specialty coffee industry, situation analysis with SWOT, Starbucks core competencies (C.K. Gary, 1990) and competitive advantage (Michael, 1996) examine by C.K. Prahalad Gary Hamel method and Michael Porter competitive advantage model. The report includes strategy recommendation by using TOWS matrix in conjunction with SWOT analysis and competitive advantage, and ending with Potential fallout. Company Mission To inspire and nurture the human spirit one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time. (Starbucks, 2009) as Starbuckss recently mission statement. The company has the principles and concerns all stakeholders including their suppliers, employees which recognized as partners, customers, communities, shareholders and even environment. Starting from its products themselves (coffee bean, tea, cocoa), theyre passionate to find the finest sources, finest process of products with improving the quality of life of the farmers. With the feeling of partners, all employees treat with respect and pride, also the engagement with customers and sense of human connections by the friendly and warming stores atmosphere to earn their royalty and trust, responsibilities and contribution to communities and social, together with one of the important missions is environmental friendly these make them Starbucks as a leader for changes and new standards. (Starbucks, 2009) Business strategy According to Starbucks mission, their business strategy used is mainly on differentiation focus strategy (Michael, 1980), not the cost leadership strategy, which try to make the different, to be the leader and innovate new standard with their unique products and services that customer could perceived and valued better than others competitors which not easy to be copied or time needed (for some particular periods), as their named it Starbucks experience and with quite focus on particular target and market; customers whom share the same valued, required premium-level coffee, have spending ability; young urban professionals, teenage and trendy (Wikinvest, 2010) but not the pricing competition. Source: Generic Strategies Michael Porter (1980), http://www.marketingteacher.com Starbucks business strategy (differentiation focus) has been used in all processes and all stakeholders; starting from suppliers and farmers that Starbucks made the different in the way of finding the source of materials (e.g. coffee bean) at the origin places not from the secondary sources and the most significant is tried to improve farmers quality of life in the same time also got the good quality of coffee beans. Secondly, they treat the employees differently from the others whom they called partners that hope to make the different in the way of service-minded and relations. Another most important and differentiate point is the global/environment/community responsibilities as their shared value as mention by Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO, said You dont do these things for recognition, you do these things because they are the right thing to do (Nancy, Marya, Katherine, 2008). Industry Structure As a different industry has different nature of business, competition or level of profitability (productivity and efficiency). So for better understanding in this coffee specialty industry, it could use a framework of Michael Porter, which influenced by the five forces (Michael, 1979). First, the industry competitors or rivalry among existing firms in the current situation is very high. There are a lot of coffee specially brands and stores offers in the market including independent, local or small-chain coffee house. They are also choose the variety of competition including lower pricing, products differentiate improvement (e.g. taste, technique or quality of services Caribou coffee) (Nancy et al., 2008), innovative channel or new distribution (e.g. through fast-food chain McDonalds, Dunkin Donut, digital media, social network Facebook). There are many factors that influenced the rivalry intensity of the industries such as increasing the numbers of specialty coffee stores, declined of market growth so the firms have to fight for market share or expand the market (Starbucks is also faced this factors) with the same demand or fewer buyer and crowding with new entrances (Pascal, 2009). Next, Threat of Substitutes; the substitute of the products from other industry that can cause by the economic situation or even some new concern issue, for example, health concern (Starbucks, 2009). In economic recession period, the spending and value of customers might be an important concern and with more alternatives they may choose to consume instant coffee at home instead of costly premium-quality coffee from the stores. Also with healthy concern, customer might switch to drink healthier beverage juice, milk or less/no caffeine drink such as tea, herbal tea. Third force, Bargaining power of buyer (Buyer power), in this specialty coffee industry customers are powerful because there a lot of alternative choice of stores or others type of beverages to choose with limited scope of market, as not everyone like to drink coffee. It is easy for customer to change from one product to another without difficulty so its also low switching cost; one may pass by McCafe nearby their working place and get a coffee with meal instead of walk a long way to Starbucks. Another is Bargaining power of supplier (Supplier power), that most of industry needs raw material, component, others supplies. In this case the most significant supplier for specialty coffeehouse is Coffee bean that is the main cost of the productions following by milk (Starbucks, 2009). And the premium or high-quality coffee bean usually from the specific places or proper agriculture areas so supplier power plays important role and has power in this industry so the one who understand and take these into account also can gain the advantage from the others competitor like Starbucks currently does. At last, new entrance (Barriers to entry) is the barrier or threat to enter to this specialty coffee market. When there are opportunities or increasing in the profit of an industry, we can expect to have new comer to take or those benefit. With the not too (quite low compare to some advance technical expert required industry) expensive start-up cost, it can be seen that this specialty coffee industry is easy to entry or low barrier to entry so for the ones existing in this industry have to concern and find a proper strategy to gain the advantage or create barrier for the new comer. Starbucks Situations and SWOT Analysis From the specialty coffee industry, it can be seen that this industry has high competition with low barrier for new entrants and customer switching cost to others brand or substitute product is low. So during the previous year Starbucks faced the struggling situation to growth that will explain in the following paragraph. From the study from Pascal (2009) found that the situation in which Starbucks revenue was rose slowly in 2008 and net profit fell significantly. The growth rate began to be negative the first time in 2008 since 1997. One of the reasons may come from the economy recession that reduced customer spending but in the same period some company such as McDonalds sale increased which can be assumed that customer finding for most value for the spending from the less income. Secondly, Starbuck strategy of fast store expanding especially in U.S. markets that almost every a corner in the big city had Starbuck store has to find more customer to keep up with new opened store. So in 2008 and Jan 2009, Starbuck had closed around 800 stores in U.S. and 100 stores internationally. Third, another reason was from increased rival in coffee-house business and new competitor from fast food chain restaurant; McDonald and Dunkins Donuts that have large number of stores and existing customers provided with var ieties value or economy meals and beverages. Even Starbucks tried to provide hot breakfast but finally had to stop by the customers complaint of smell detraction from coffee house environment. According to those situations, it could be use SWOT analysis to study the detail of Starbucks situation, challenges and opportunity to overcome those situations. At first, the Strengths, it can be seen that Starbucks has a strong brand name and good brand reputation (Nancy et al., 2008), Strong visionary leadership of currently CEO, Mr. Howard Schultz with experienced management team (Starbucks, 2009), Expertise and know-how in coffee house business, Well-training systems and engagement from partners (employees) and large number of distribution stores. Especially they have their own exclusive sources of coffee beans with experienced and expert team to prove the quality of materials in conjunction with researchers to improve the quality of coffee bean. In addition Starbucks has strong financial situation as can be seen from the cash flow and the increasing of dividend which will be paid in August this year (2010) (The New York Times, 2010). Secondly, the Weaknesses, Starbucks branded itself as a premium coffee for premium customers, trendy, young and teenage that limits the scope of the markets or loses the new potential customers (Wikinvest, 2010). Because of Starbucks has experienced management and has long term relation with the company, the loss of high level management can affect the current operation and strategy plan (Starbucks, 2009). Another point is that Starbucks is a fast-growing and successful company in the past decade so this make Starbucks complacent (Howard, 2009) making the company not creating new innovations in coffee business. Next weak point is that currently, there are higher turnover rate of partners (employees) that some caused by company restructuring and others by the heavier load in the stores, less connection or relation between managements and partners also causing by the fast expansion and the large number of partners (Nancy et al., 2008). Additional, Starbucks has high cost of productions especially for the coffee bean that normally 15% higher than the market price (Nancy et al., 2008) to maintain the business strategy which aim to improve quality of farmers or workers life- fair wages and research and development for the best quality of coffee beans. Furthermore, there is not too nimble to make decision and execution together with struggling in the business strategy so there are lacks of new distribution channels, partners and networks. Third, Opportunities: There is the growth trend of specialty coffee as the demand of more people drinking coffee and the trend of flavor to have a coffee at coffee house (Vending market watch, 2008). There are International market gap that still available to fulfill the demand of coffee drinking, especially in the emerging country like Russia, India and China (The Seattle Time, 2010). Another good sign is that the economic recession seems to be at the lowest point and starting to recovered (Jeremy, 2010). And with the new technology arrival, Starbucks can improve IT system from back-end processes that can provide faster and prà ©cising information helping management to react or make immediate decision to the market situations and competitors including using IT to improve the supply chain management, factory/warehouse automation or even the operation processes at the stores to improvement customer ordering process such as billing and information gathering to expand customers network and distribute information through digital media and social network like Facebook or iPhone Apple online store (Starbucks, 2009). Additional condition of the global warming and climate change situation has bring the social concern and that can make more reputations to the Starbucks as the leader in environment friendly which is one of their mission and business strategy. Forth, Threats: The economic crisis and recession change the way of consuming and spending of customers (Pascal, 2009) and also high rivalry in the coffee house industries in which the competitors can provide similar products and services with difference values and strategies like fast-food chain restaurant such as McDonalds and Dunkin Donut in addition with new entrances which have expertise of coffee brew or experienced barista in the local brand stores. Another threat is the new technology of automatic coffee machine that can provide similar quality or taste with cost competitive and convenience as the coffee house provided. One of the most important threat is the Demographic changes which the reduce of the growth rate in number of young and teenage compare the baby boomer ages that become more and more (Wikinvest, 2010) that are not Starbucks target market and not match with their strategy. The last threat may include the concern of the health of the people to drink coffee that h as caffeine, lots of sugar and fat and this issue can become the significant threat of customers switching to the substitute more healthy products. Core competencies and competitive advantage As the core competencies are the source of competitive advantage and they are lead to the development of products and services (C.K. Garry, 1990). Source: The Core Competence of the Corporation by C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel Starbuckss Core Competencies: From the diagram above, Starbucks uses one of its competency (e.g. expert and passionate to find the finest source of raw material) to build their core product (Coffee bean) that did not sale directly to the customers but they use it to create a large numbers of end products. It can be explored more detail of Starbucks core competencies such as: From Nancy et al. found, it can be seen that, Starbucks develop their own competency on the expertise of coffee bean selection that difficult for the competitor to copied by use their passion to find out the source of great coffee bean also with the mind of differentiate and innovation, they keep researching and developing the process to improve the way of agriculture and transfer the knowledge to the contracted farmers or worker with long-term relationship using the principle of fair wages and improving the quality of their life together with community engagement. Also with the knowledge and research development in roasting technology in their factory make them expertise in coffee bean roasting process as another competency, these make Starbucks own unique premium quality coffee beans as their first core product. From this point, Starbuck distribute this core product to different business to create varies end products; one of the business unit is Global Consumer Product Group (CPG) that responsible for the different products type of packaged coffee. Another business unit, foodservice, will distribute the coffee bean to Starbucks stores to make many type of coffee beverage drink; Cappuccino, Late, etc. (Starbucks, 2009) Additional competency that we can extract from Starbucks is their expertise in management and leadership with ethical to transfer and make all stakeholders shared the same values which include partner (employees), supplier, communities or public and customers. Some of the values are global responsibility, fair trade certified, environment friendly, engagement of partners with customer in personal level and engagement of the firm to communities. From this competency they got Starbucks brand itself as another core products. These core competency can be distribute to different business units and provide others the end products such as Starbucks coffee machine, Souvenir-Mug, Cup, Cap, T-shirt, etc. or even CDs, music and books in the name of Starbucks selections. And it can be seen that these kinds of the products also generate good revenues to the company. Starbucks competitive advantage These can be used Michael Porter Competitive advantage (Michael, 1996) to analyze Starbucks competitive advantage that he categorized into two type; Cost advantage and Differentiation. It can be seen that Starbucks position itself in differential advantage and use it as their business strategy to create competitive advantages. The detail explanation will be shown in following paragraph. Source: Competitive Advantage, Strategic Management from http://www.quickmba.com As diagram above, in order to develop competitive advantage the firm must to have resource and capabilities know to utilize the resource in efficiency way, in this case Starbucks has superior resources than others competitors as mentioned in their core competency, they have strong brand and firm reputation, knowledge or expertise in specialty coffee process and business including royalty and good networking in the value chain suppliers, licensed stores and customers that not easy or very few competitor and gain similar resources. With the capabilities to utilize or bring their products and services to the market faster than competitors, those make them has the distinctive competencies (QuickMBA, n.d.). Compare to a competitor like Caribou Coffee which has fewer resources fewer stores network (less than 5% of Starbucks) (Wikinvest, 2010) and less capabilities (slower expansion stores growth rate) to bring products or innovation to the market. While compared to the potential competitor such as McDonald that has good similar resources, brand reputation in food-services and with more stores networks than Starbucks but there still some resources (know-how of coffee brew and coffee bean) Starbucks has more superior than McDonald. Even McDonald has almost the same capabilities to use those resources but they choose to use cost advantage as their strategy that opposite with Starbucks. Combining with the value that Starbucks created in the value chain system (upstream value created with suppliers, social and downstream to customer) that perceived by the customer has overall more value and differentiate than McDonald. Strategy recommendations Currently, most of Starbucks strategy are tried to create differentiate and tried to use Blue Ocean Strategy with pursuit differentiation and cost advantage (low-cost) in the same time (W. Chan Renee, 2004). So from the SWOT (TOWS) analysis in section 5 above, strategy recommendation might be developed using TOWS Matrix (Heinz, n.d.) as Source: The TOWS Matrix A tool for Situation Analysis, Heinz Weihrich, University of San Francisco First, as the opportunities in the growth of coffee drinking markets, Starbucks could use their strength in Brand reputation to build more brand awareness to new potential customers by using various type of medias include digital media especially in social network that might increase stronger network and royalty, in which Starbucks currently does it (Willis, 2010) but these would cover only the target which customers involving in the social network such as teenage and young adult so they should expand more target market to ones who still use the traditional way of media including TV, Magazines or Sport or communities activities. Also create more social responsibility activities and interaction between customers and the company. Another opportunities is to fulfill in international market that compare to the current ratio of domestic stores in U.S. (11,128) and international stores (5,507) that only a half compare inly in U.S market (Starbucks, 2009). As their strength in knowledge and experience in Specialty Coffee industry, strong management training procedure and financial situation, they should focus more in international expansion, finding local experienced partner that understanding and knowledgeable in customers in that local market. Additional strategy recommended is using Maxi-Mini which utilize strengths to minimize threats is that, as they are strong in Brand, knowledge to find the own sources of coffee bean and strong financial position by using cost advantage strategy in this economic recession, Starbucks may create additional second brand which they are started to have another brand named Seattles Best Coffee (Starbucks, 2010) distribute to different channel such their new fast food chain partner, Burger King, to compete and try to get additional market share in this sectors also create a barrier for the new local coffee brew to entrance to this industry too. And as their strength in quality coffee bean, Starbucks may create more varieties products to serves new target market to minimize the change of demographic situation that more senior citizen or baby boomer ages that have different value and life style these products may include premium quality coffee bean packages and Starbucks automatic brew coffee machine which they can make their own high quality at home and new distribution channel (not only sell in Starbucks stores) such as discount stores to supply instant soluble coffee and packaged coffees bean, even Starbucks already had this kind of products such as VIA, TAZO (Starbuck, 2010) but in the target market and focus still so strong to aim at this population changed as were not easily see those products in currently situation. One more strategies to minimize the weakness by take advantage of the opportunities that are: first, even Starbucks has faced the drop in revenue growth during economic recession but there are opportunities for them to improve their business to be more productivity using new opportunities in new IT system technology that can help them to improve customer satisfaction in the process of the stores, ordering, billing and customer feedback also provide fast and precise information for manager to make decision such as additional partners (employees) in peak period or in crowded stores by those technology include semi-automatic coffee brew machine to reduce overload task of employee that can improve partners satisfaction and reduce turnover rate. Also free WIFI-internet available (Rick, 2010) for customer while waiting and crate new attraction for customers to spend frequently time at Starbucks. Another strategy recommends minimizing weakness and avoiding threat, which Starbucks has experienced and good management team as their strength also its the weakness of them if they are lost good management team, so to minimize this effect of management turnover, they have to make sure that they have prepared successors or executive trainees to be ready to take in charge. To minimize partners (employees) turn over caused by over loaded task at store, they have to improve employees satisfaction, proper workload, improved skilled by provide well-training course, valued creation and attractive benefits. In the same time, avoiding some threats such as customers health concerned by provide more choice in healthy options like Low-sugar, Sugar-free, low-fat, decaffeinate on beverages and snacks/meals. An another important threat is the changed in demographic of Higher number of seniors and reduced number of teenage or adults that can overcome by prepared additional or wider range of product s and services to match with their life style such as more healthy drinks- fruit juice, high-calcium milk product beverages and warm friendly (not too trendy) classical with senior facilities-easy accessible comfortable chair/table at stores. Potential fallout According to the suggestions and solutions in which some of them are using different business strategy and competitive strategy (Michael P., 1980); Differentiate and Cost advantage, in the same time and same industry may create conflict each other or create others issue (Constantinosc Daniel, 2010) or even bring the company to get stuck in the middle (Michael P., 1996) so Starbucks has to concern some of this consequence that could go wrong and make problems in the future such as: As the recommended strategy they might have more distribution channels (Stores, discount/convenience store, second brand Seattles best and fast-food chain restaurants), variety of products (In-store, Ready-to-Drink, Soluble, packaged bean and meals) and different type of international expansion (Starbucks own stores, Licensing and franchising). One issue that may occur is the Channel conflict which cause by the new way of provided products and services or over productions or product substitutions such as less consume at store increasing soluble and packaged coffee bean make at home might that may drop the demand of in the store and rising the coffee sale in discount store that harm some of channels. Increasing sale through fast-food chain restaurant such as Burger King and Subway (Carol, 2010) but reduce revenue from the Starbuckss own stores or even decreasing the partner (licensed/Franchise) relationship. More than that the recommendation strategy to make new innovation, differentiation by create more Social/global responsibility, research and development, suppliers and partner satisfaction and used of new technology as customer satisfaction are more costly to the production and with the concern of cost advantage for simultaneous use of differentiation and low cost (W.Chan Renee, 2004) to create more value to customer, efficiency and stretch all the resources are important and some of them may lose from this process that may damage brand reputation or even lost the value or culture of the company (Constantinos Daniel, 2010). At last, as the current situation in August, 2010 of Starbucks leading by Mr. Howard Schultz, it seems that Starbucks has got back into the track which has the positive growth in both sales and profits (The New York Times, 2010) and will have new innovation products and services launched in sooner days.

The Massacre Of Maguindanao Media Essay

The Massacre Of Maguindanao Media Essay November 23, 2009 since a horrible massacre happened in Maguindanao on one of the islands of the Philippines Mindanao .   A number of civilians were killed which shook the whole country and among those civilians excluding motorists, drivers, politicians, lawyers, women, 34 journalists were named.   This fact shocked the press, the government, and the ordinary citizens as well.   But why did this senseless massacre happen in a country like the Philippines where freedom and democracy are being took care of?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Nearly few months have passed since this most horrible killing of civilians marked the history of the Philippines , and because of this, it leads us to many realizations.   Politicians were killed thus morality was killed.   Women were killed thus their rights were killed.   Lawyers were killed so justice was also killed.   And journalists were killed therefore freedom was also killed.   And the latter realization inspired this paper the freedom of the press.   And since the Maguindanao massacre became one of the most talked about issue until now because of its massive killing of journalists, thus killing of freedom, it leads us to be more aware of the work and responsibilities of the press, the laws which made to protect the rights of the press, but eventually made us notice that there are some laws which restrict the said freedom.   In this case, since the press must have its independence, there should be no restrictions t o such an institution because its independence will be repressed.   Furthermore, a country could be considered non-democratic nation for democracy doesnt prevail on that community.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Then, the researcher chose this study to come up with an answer to the personal question:   Why is there such freedom of the press if freedom here does not have the same meaning if read from our constitution from how the ordinary people understand it?   Hence, this paper will cover only about press freedom here in the Philippines .   If it is so, the paper will not tackle any issue that would probably come out while the paper is being discussed.   Moreover, the objectives of the paper are firstly, to present situations where freedom of the press was repressed, secondly, to state how freedom of the press go along with democracy, and thirdly, the paper would want the researcher to be more aware of what is happening around him/her.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Now, for the researcher to start discussing what this paper is all about, a question will be first asked.   That question would be:   What is freedom of the press? Definition of Freedom of the Press   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Freedom means independence and independence means boundless, therefore, press freedom means press independence, meaning there should be no limits to whatever the action of a member of the press would be.   But as part of the social equality authorization, the right of the people, and not of the press, is what the term freedom of the press really means.   It can be stressed, moreover, as the right of the press is the right of the people to be informed and to be heard (Reyes, 1992).   Press freedom is not a sectoral right, a right to be asserted and enjoyed only by members of the media sectorà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Freedom of the press is a basic right of the people, that is, of the entire body politic and every ordinary citizen (Reyes, 1992).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Here, we come up with two different denotations for the term freedom of the press, but since the press plays the role of being the voice of the Filipinos here in the Philippines as well as serving as an instrument to inform the public, then the press, particularly the journalists, could represent the entire Filipino community.   Because of this, the next pages will focus mainly on the first meaning the researcher has presented wherein the press is the term used to represent the journalists and other media sector not the people in general.   Then we substitute the word 3 journalist to press thus making the term freedom of the press as the right of the journalists to freely express what they want to express.   Moreover, freedom of the press is not merely freedom for the press, and to have social equality isnt competence.   It is indeed the freedom of every individual, and its the hard and risky method but it has a reward in the end (Coronel, 1991). In connection to this, our constitution provides: No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech and of the press (Section 4, Article III). This means that no one could prevent any media sector from writing what he/she wants to write as well as from speaking what the person wants to say.   Nor even the government has no right to prevent any member of the press from doing so.   And since the press has its full access on newspapers, radios, and televisions, the information could be spread to the people easily and freely.   But how did it become a right? Freedom of the Press as a Right   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The researcher defines freedom here as the right of journalists.   This is because everyone has his/her own rights and since the press includes journalists and journalists are human, then, journalists should have their own freedom too.   Press freedom should not be excluded as a right of an individual for it is one of his/her rights when he/she was born.   It is a right that if oppressed violates human right (Reyes, 1992).   But in a deeper meaning, freedom of the press not only stands for the right of every journalists but also for the right of every people to be informed, because media exists to serve the people. 4   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Journalists work could be seen on newspapers as well as could be heard from radios and televisions.   But they do not only present the truth to the public with supporting evidences but also give their own opinions towards it.   And an idea can never be misleading nevertheless, its destructive power we still hang on for its amendments because of the opposition of other existing ideas (Zelezny, 1993).   That is why, debates and other discussions were lead by journalists and other media sectors because, otherwise, if the ideas of oneself is not being told to anyone, freedom is unreal or fictitious (Reyes, 1992).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Consequently, freedom of idea is the persons right to search for truth that the surrounding is hiding from his/her.   It is our right to communicate to others what we have in mind freely.   Moreover, it is also our right that allows us to do actions freely regarding our thoughts (Reyes, 1992).   Likewise, freedom of the press is the freedom of truthà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦(Pinon, 1960). And if truth firms and is unbreakable, it is free to say ones side (Reyes, 1992).   This is mainly the function of mass media to reveal the misconducts in its country, freedom of truth to its sovereign. Media in the Philippines   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Media plays a very risky role in the society for it reveals the truth which people are refusing to admit even with irresistible proofs (Braid, 2005).   And journalists have chosen a more risky career because their work needs to, and they could do their job through critiquing and even criticizing an issue.   Particularly, they are not only supplying the truth because he/she also gives his/her own opinion and view on a particular issue (Coronel, 1991).   And so, under the freedom of the press, people has the right to criticize on things which matters them (Pinon, 1960). 5 But most people misunderstood this.   Comments from an individual do not mean insulting someone or something.   Still, it is inevitable for an individual to have his/her own assessment towards it.   It is public opinion, since the individual is the basic unit of any government, which is the uniform foundation of freedom and social equality (Bookwatch Legal Editors, 2006).   Furthermore, freedom of the press is the uncontrolled freedom wherein a person can freely express his thoughts (Pinon, 1960).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   On the other hand, it is also the responsibility of the journalists to make the younger generation involve themselves to issues which also affect them.   Media contributes in giving information to the people and it also educates them to the real work of justice.   Media men shows to the public that justice should not be passed within laws but must also showed to the people that justice really prevails in their society (Braid, 2005).   This is why there are shows like Y-Speak where students voices are given the time to be heard.   à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦the mass media have an essential part to play in the education of young peopleà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦in making known the views and aspirations of the younger generation (Holopainen,1987). Like it had been said, the youth is the hope our hope, hence, whatever the opinions of the youth are, it will contribute a big part on the decision-making of that certain issue.   Everyone has the right to freed om of opinion and expression; the right includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart in information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦(Reyes, 1992).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   But even though it is really the right thing to have media as a tool to spread information to the reading and listening public, few Filipinos knew that there are laws which restrict some of the possible actions of the journalists when doing his/her work.   Those few people are only those 6 who have knowledge on laws, then how about the ordinary people who, in reality, do not have any knowledge about such laws because they only gain knowledge from what the television brings to them?   If the majority of the sovereign do not have any way to learn information other than through tv, then, in the case, is the truth being concealed from us?   And from our experience to Maguindanao massacre, press freedom and rights are oppressed in the most monstrous way killing, yet killing is not the only way to oppress the press freedom because there are laws which restrain that freedom in some situations.   If so, why is it still stated on the constitution that no laws should shorten the press to the right of free speech? Limitations of the Press   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In a society, to see the misconception on a functioning country and to see the lies existing on it, the step to make is to express what is in the mind.   Repression to freedom is only acceptable in spare times (Salvilla, Penasales, Sornito, 1991).   For example, if the people are to be informed about the corruption of an official, the journalist shall gather first data to support his/her idea.   But highlighting a corrupt official isnt that easy so the journalist shall have a great strategy like spying, eavesdropping, and even making his/her way to a private place.   These are normally what a journalist will do, but he/she isnt aware that he/she is stepping into some offenses such as theft, robbery and trespass.   à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Free speech is everyones right and freedom of the press is exercised in protecting every citizens right to know what his government is doingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Reyes, 1992)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Another is all of us are paying our ITRs (Income Tax Returns) and because of this, everyone should know information on what the Bureau of Internal Revenue is collecting from us.   And, therefore, if a journalist will try to gather information about these ITRs for the public to be 7 informed, he/she will again stepping to the law, which is on some aspect, a sort of national security.   But freedom of the press means that people has the right to know what is happening around them and its country, and to speak up what they want to tell the government.   It is also the right of the people to have an entry to information.   Moreover, journalists and media men exist just to serve the rights of the people (Reyes, 1992).   Consequently, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦based on the peoples right to know what is happening in their government because the people are the sovereignà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Salvilla, Penasales, Sornito, 1991).   In other way round, there are cases were the government puts tax on some published works.   But it is invalid in the case of putting tax on published works because, if do so, it will restrict such periodical to have its freedom to disseminate information to the public (Salvilla, Penasales, Sornito, 1991).   In this case, journalists have the righ ts to comment freely on an issue, but have no right to do so for he/she must follow laws concerning his/her action (Coronel, 1991).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Also, we all know that journalists chose words with more striking impact to the readers that they would be more interested on the works the journalists have produce.   And works of media overstate what the real story behind.   It is their work to put great intensity on anything they produce and the impact of that intensity to the people is the basis of their success in their profession (Braid, 2005).   Moreover, press is an excellent source for the search of truth.   Its impact to the people is merely for them to feel anger and thus, it is more likely to stay for many days, than the feeling of having good news for that day.   Its good works are quite forgotten but its scandalous works long for many days in the memory of the readers (Gerald, 1948).   But there are cases wherein journalists were accused because he/she uses words like coward, savage, etc., and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦and writing and publishing an article containing the wor ds coward, vile soul, dirty-   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   8 sucker, savage, hog who always looks toward the ground is libel per seà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦( Coronel, 1991).   And libel à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦is a public and malicious imputation of a crime vice or defect a real or imaginary, act or omission, condition or status tending to cause dishonor, discredit of a person and even to blacken the memory of a dead personà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦(Salvilla, Penasales, Sornito, 1991).   Media do, in connection with their profession, brings out works by chance without meanness, but unacceptably though.   In this case, media should be quite careful in doing their right to publish (Coronel, 1991). There is also this Right to Reply Bill which was proposed by Senators Pimentel, Revilla Jr., and Escudero in year 2008.   According to this bill, all persons natural or juridical who are accused directly or indirectly of committing or having committed or of intending to commit any crime or offense defined by law or are criticized by innuendo, suggestion or rumor for any lapse in behavior in public or private life shall have the right to reply to the charges published or printed in newspapers, magazines, newsletters or publications circulated commercially or for free, or to criticisms aired or broadcast over radio, television, websites, or through any electronic device.   This means that the person being attacked by the works of a journalist has the right to reply on that work of the journalist.   That person could say that the journalist do not have the credibility of writing that issue to him/her.   Moreover, he/she could not only go against the journalist but also to the newspaper who published it.   But à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦speech shall be free even though that law be written into the Constitutionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦(Coronel, 1991).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   To sum it up, laws are made to limit the press to protect other rights in some situations.   Libel laws are designed to protect the name and character of a person; national security laws, to 9 protect the very existence of the State; obscenity laws, to protect the morals of society; and contempt to efficient functioning of the judiciary and the legislatureà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦(Salvilla, Penasales, Sornito, 1991). These laws are really needed to have a healthy country and the researcher is aware of the benefits that these laws could bring.   But the researcher is concerned mainly on the term freedom of the press thus having laws which restrict the journalists is the researchers primary problem because à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦to dare abridge these indivisible freedoms, and in effect negate them, assaults human dignityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦(Reyes, 1992).   And à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦a more liberal atmosphere has made the media even more powerful in fosteringà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦bringing public opinion to bear on politicians who once wheeled and dealed with impunityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Eng, 1997). Freedom of the Press to a Democratic Nation   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   If freedom of the press will not be restrained as well as the freedom of the people, then democracy prevails on that country for [f]ree speech is indispensable to free governmentà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦(Coronel, 1991).   When a nation is controlled and its rights and those of the people, then democracy dies.   After this instance, the right of the media men and of the people to speak out their opinions and thoughts are also been oppressed (Reyes, 1992).   Having limitations provided by law concerning public officials could be said as anti-democratic.   Those limitations are cannot be opened to the public.   But in the sense of wanting to have a better nation, open and free discussions between individuals, and access to the government, are ways to know the underlying truths of a nation (Salvilla, Penasales, Sornito, 1991).   Moreover, in the search of truth, an unrestricted and unlimited conversation is needed for the ideas that made up a good conversation which came from the people whose concern matter (McCormick and MacInnes, 1962).   And in a democratic country, it is better to have means of communication between the 10 functioning government and its society.   Choosing to have a newspaper than to have a government is what democracy really means, for newspaper is something where free discussion of thoughts could be seen (Salvilla, Penasales, Sornito, 1991).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Going back into the problem in the first place, the government is the one who made and accepted this laws which limit the press freedom, and the government must be doing this things just for their own sake.   In addition to this reality, people accept these restrictions as necessary for their own benefits (Reyes, 1992).   And this isnt new for all of us because of its transparency on our own government.   And since the superior power is being held by the government, there are cases where it [government] uses its power to take actions opposed to individuals who freely gave their opinions without the government being analytical if their actions are under the international law (Reyes, 1992).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Still, violence against newspeople remained significantly oppressiveà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦there were more newspeople killed in the Philippines than in any other nationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Case, 1991).   But this problem could be resolved.   We may preserve freedom of speech by making no laws which restrict it.   If repressive laws are passed they may be carefully circumscribedà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Coronel, 1991).   Moreover, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦free speech and press not as a separate entity deserving nurturing, but as part of a larger processà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦free speech and press as contributing to good governmentà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Chamberlin and Brown, 1982). Conclusion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Press freedom doesnt mean that it is the freedom of the media establishments or other media members.   And to defend for it is not only defending the freedom of this media men, but also defending the freedom of the people because all freedoms are being took care of the people 11 Yuyitung, 2000).   But media people do not have the assurance that they will have their freedom every time, because the government is making laws that, for the eyes of ordinary people, are a good law to be implemented but if observed with critical eyes, is indeed a way to interfere with the freedom of the press itself (Malaya, B9+B15).   And if à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦the public restrict journalists freedom, the public restricts its own freedomà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦( Reyes, 1992). Moreover, having freedom of speech and of the press in the Philippines means the people can freely express their thoughts and ideas.   Consequently, it is true that those laws stated in the body of this paper are implemented to not violate other human rights.   But, even if these limitations were good, to have those to restrain such freedom isnt freedom at all for freedom means no restrictions, no bound.   Yes!   There is really freedom of the press existing here in the Philippines because the press still has their freedom to write, speak, and publish what is the truth.   But still, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦concepts as a less-free press or a freer pressà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦(Reyes, 1992) do not exist.   It is because the term freedom of the press has no comparative form for it is if and only if process to acknowledge this right of free publication and also of free expression (Reyes, 1992).   Then, even though the press can still express what they want to express, but on the other hand still has limitations, then we could be on one side only.   Therefore, because of those limitations we have discussed before, freedom of the press do not exist.

Film Analysis of High and Low Essay -- Film Analysis Movies High and L

Film Analysis of High and Low Film 1010 Mise en scene is a stylistic form of filming that is French for â€Å"staging the shot†, which is referring to everything in front of the camera. Director Kurosawa understood this style and used it in High and Low (Kurosawa, 1962). He used several Mise en scene techniques such as closed composition, space manipulation, and lighting to compliment the crime thriller story. Closed composition is one of the main themes that Kurosawa uses throughout the movie. He chooses to keep the scenes tight and in close quarters mostly. This is seen predominately in the first half on the movie. Here the action takes place in Mr. Gondo’s house on top of a hill. The viewer has very little idea that there is much of a world outside the house. This idea is supported when Mr. Gondo has to close all the drapes in the house to prevent the kidnapper from looking into the house. This gives a mood and feeling of anxiety from being enclosed. Also, shots of the house sitting on top of the hill give the feeling of loneliness. This feeling is repeated in the bullet train sequence where the quarters are much smaller. The viewer is somewhat relieved with the view of the outside, but because of the close quarters and the sense of a speeding train, it does not allow the viewer to enjoy the openness the windows provide. A scene that clearly shows the Mise en scene style is the next day comes and Mr. Gondo must now decide whether to pay the ransom or not. We see and hear the argument with Mr. Gondo and Mrs. Gondo, with Mr. Aoki crying to the far left of the scene. Soon the dialog ends and we see Mr. Aoki still to the far left, Mrs. Gondo with Jun in the middle, and Mr. Gondo to the far right. Clearly separating them are the detectives who are standing silently with their heads down. The placement of the detectives manipulates the space in the scene into thirds. It also helps in emphasizing the differences between the three characters regarding what should be done about getting Mr. Aoki’s son back from the kidnapper. In the scene where two of the detectives find the man and woman dead, we see the detectives enclosed in the window of the house where, we the viewers are looking in. This is the closed form composition, which is used to help focus the viewers’ attention on the characters. In doing so, the characters’ surprise reactions... ...arly being used as a separation between Mr. Gondo and the police. That, with the combination of the lack of furniture, along with the predominance of white created by the light in the house enforces the tone of emptiness and loneliness that the viewer feels. Finally, the last few scenes show desperation by the kidnapper. Mr. Gondo and the kidnapper are sitting across from each other in a closed off room. The room gives the feeling of being trapped along with the wire mesh and window separating them. Here the viewer can see the reflection of whom the character is talking to so that we can see the expression from what is being said. Plus by being in such a small room, the emotions seem to be increased as the kidnapper releases his own emotions to Mr. Gondo. We have seen that Kurosawa used many techniques of the mise en scene throughout High and Low. The use of the closed stylistic form along with the lighting and space manipulation of characters and objects help increase the intense emotion of the film as well as help the viewer focus on key points and characters. This ultimately moved the story forward and complimented the crime thriller categorization of the film.

Japans Anime and Cyberpunk Genres :: Cyberpunk Anime Films Literature Essays Papers

Japan's Anime and Cyberpunk Genres Anime films are cartoons, usually from Japan, with adult subject matter. Despite the prevailing American view that cartoons are for children, Japanese view anime as a legitimate art form that is appropriate for adult viewing. Anime subjects vary widely from soap opera drama, to medieval adventures, to science fiction. Many of the sci-fi anime films exhibit traits that are common to the cyberpunk ethic. Cyberpunk as a genre seems to defy a precise definition, but several common themes can be used to exemplify what ideals the "movement" represents. This movement is a new view of the world, one in which neither apocalypse nor utopia is presented. Those involved in creating cyberpunk show the current global situation, only much more so. They extrapolate from current events and take it to a higher degree. Almost everything in their fictional worlds is recognizable to modern readers, only they have projected technology and events into a future that is possible. The creators of anime present views of the future that are often very similar. Big robots, crowded metropolises, and powerful corporations are all commonplace. The Tessier-Ashpool mega-corp of Neuromancer can be likened to GENOM, a multinational corporation from Bubblegum Crisis. The Tessier-Ashpool artificial intelligences, Wintermute and Neuromancer, quitely amassed power and eventually changed the world. This idea of technology out of control is mirrored in GENOM's escaped Boomers. Boomers are pretty much Terminator endoskeletons, but even more bulky. Occasionally, one would escape and wreak havoc on the surrounding city. Both the novel and the anime film examine the social ramifications of technology beyond human intervention. And while it is true that Gibson's take on it is much more subtle, watching a Boomer get blown up by a cyberbabe in power armor can be pretty rewarding in its own right. A Boomer cocks his head, small optical relays click. He almost grins. A split second later, a helicopter is going down in flames. ...he sees that the dark wavelike phenomenon was a wave of blood ... a miniaturized gatling gun ... whirs around. (Stephenson, 361) The feelings evoked by these two passages are similar. Although the first quote was my pitiful attempt to paraphrase the animated action of Bubblegum Crisis; you can clearly see that directors of anime seem to share literary cyberpunks' fascination with cool tech. The Boomer's gun that spews zillions of rounds of superheated death is reminiscent of Stephenson's depleted uranium Reason gatling gun. Japan's Anime and Cyberpunk Genres :: Cyberpunk Anime Films Literature Essays Papers Japan's Anime and Cyberpunk Genres Anime films are cartoons, usually from Japan, with adult subject matter. Despite the prevailing American view that cartoons are for children, Japanese view anime as a legitimate art form that is appropriate for adult viewing. Anime subjects vary widely from soap opera drama, to medieval adventures, to science fiction. Many of the sci-fi anime films exhibit traits that are common to the cyberpunk ethic. Cyberpunk as a genre seems to defy a precise definition, but several common themes can be used to exemplify what ideals the "movement" represents. This movement is a new view of the world, one in which neither apocalypse nor utopia is presented. Those involved in creating cyberpunk show the current global situation, only much more so. They extrapolate from current events and take it to a higher degree. Almost everything in their fictional worlds is recognizable to modern readers, only they have projected technology and events into a future that is possible. The creators of anime present views of the future that are often very similar. Big robots, crowded metropolises, and powerful corporations are all commonplace. The Tessier-Ashpool mega-corp of Neuromancer can be likened to GENOM, a multinational corporation from Bubblegum Crisis. The Tessier-Ashpool artificial intelligences, Wintermute and Neuromancer, quitely amassed power and eventually changed the world. This idea of technology out of control is mirrored in GENOM's escaped Boomers. Boomers are pretty much Terminator endoskeletons, but even more bulky. Occasionally, one would escape and wreak havoc on the surrounding city. Both the novel and the anime film examine the social ramifications of technology beyond human intervention. And while it is true that Gibson's take on it is much more subtle, watching a Boomer get blown up by a cyberbabe in power armor can be pretty rewarding in its own right. A Boomer cocks his head, small optical relays click. He almost grins. A split second later, a helicopter is going down in flames. ...he sees that the dark wavelike phenomenon was a wave of blood ... a miniaturized gatling gun ... whirs around. (Stephenson, 361) The feelings evoked by these two passages are similar. Although the first quote was my pitiful attempt to paraphrase the animated action of Bubblegum Crisis; you can clearly see that directors of anime seem to share literary cyberpunks' fascination with cool tech. The Boomer's gun that spews zillions of rounds of superheated death is reminiscent of Stephenson's depleted uranium Reason gatling gun.

Managing to Achieve Results

Table of Contents Introduction2 Details3 1. Structure and culture of Ford Vietnam3 1. 1. Structure of Ford Vietnam3 1. 2. Culture of Ford Vietnam5 1. 3. Inter-relationships between the different processes and functions of the organization9 2. Mission, aims and objectives o Ford and the effect of these on the structure and culture of the organization10 3. Process maps, output evaluation, and quality gateway analysis12 4. Resources, tools and systems required to support the business process17 5. Quality audit system/ practice to manage and monitor quality to standards specified22 6.Quality culture embedding to ensure continuous monitoring and development of the process25 6. 1. Quality in employees25 6. 2. Quality in process26 7. Recommendation to improve quality and the function of Ford Vietnam27 7. 1. Problem27 7. 2. Reasons27 7. 3. Recommendations and evaluation29 Conclusion33 References34 Introduction At the present car industry in Vietnam is huge. Its expansion grows strongly due t o market demand and social development. Ford Vietnam is one of car enterprise which has entered in this market for over 15 years and gained quite a lot of success.For 15 years in Vietnam, despite of being competed by many rivals, Ford Vietnam still stands firm in the car market. Last year, with the new models, the sale volume of Ford reached approximately 8,000 cars. However, its market share in recent years has decreased by few amounts. Our group 19 had a chance to visit Ford factory and observed it with the purpose of understanding its culture, structure and process in order to make suggestions for how to improve quality and the function of Ford organization. Details 1. Structure and culture of Ford VietnamOrganizational structure and culture play a very important role in terms of creating the organizational success. Based on the company’s business and objectives, there are various organizational structures and cultures which can be applied to organizations. 1. 1. Structure of Ford Vietnam Theoretically, organizational structures can be defined as tall structure and flat structure; centralization and decentralization; functional structure, product structure, market structure, geographic structure and matrix structure; multifunctional teams and multidivisional structures.According to the span of control, there are two kinds of organizational structure: tall organization and flat organization. A flat organization is one which, in relation to its size, has a small number of hierarchical levels. This implies a wide span of control. A tall organization is one which, in relation to its size, has a large number of level management hierarchy. This implies a narrow span of control. According to the degree to which authority is delegated, there are two kinds of organizational structure: centralization and decentralization.Centralization is the concentration of authority for making most decisions at the top levels of organization. In contrast, decentralization i s the dispersion of authority to make decisions throughout all levels of the organization. Besides, the structure of an organization can be classified by geography, by function, and by product and brand. Additionally, there are some kinds of organization structure that are more complex: the matrix, multifunctional teams and multidivisional structures. The matrix is a structure in which people are grouped by function and by product team.A multifunctional team is a group of individuals brought together from more than one functional area of a business to work on a problem or process that requires the knowledge, training and capabilities across the areas to successfully complete the work. A multidivisional structure is an organizational structure in which each district product line, market or business unit is placed in its own self-contained unit or division and each division has within it several functional sub-divisions for production, marketing and so on.Ford Vietnam has established and developed its organization based on nine fields with nine managers including Technical Affair, Finance, Human Resource, Marketing, Sales, After Market Sales and Service, Public Affair, Deputy Manager, Quality manager. Under the authority of Technical Affair manager, there are two departments: Manufacturing and Supply Operation. The manager of manufacturing department is responsible for four divisions including Body shop, Paint shop, TCF (final assembly) and support function. There are three divisions in the supply operation department: Logistics, purchasing, and launching.In fact, the name of each field, each department and division is clearly based on their tasks. Therefore, the structure of Ford Vietnam has organized by functional structure. Furthermore, Ford Vietnam is considered as a large company in Vietnam with more than 500 employees. Mr. Michael Pease, the General Director of Ford Vietnam tried to emphasize in the authority and responsibility of individual managers, who enact the role expected of their position. In this company, everybody can make decisions based on their level of authority. Hence, Ford Vietnam follows the decentralized structure and the tall structure as well. . 2. Culture of Ford Vietnam Organizational culture is defined as â€Å"the informal set of value, norms, and beliefs that control the way people and groups in an organization interact with each other and with people outside the organization†. There are four types of culture: power culture, role culture, task culture, and person culture. Power culture is the culture in which the organization is controlled by key, central figures – often the owners of founders of the organization. Role culture is used in classical, rational organization or bureaucracy.In task culture, management is seen as completing a succession of projects or solving problems, often as part of a team. Person culture is a culture where the organization tends to serve the interest of the individ ual within it. Ford Vietnam was established in 1995. Since then, there were 15 years for Ford Vietnam to build up its culture which can be represented by its slogan, image, clothing, office decor, rules, policies, motivation, leadership style, belief and attitude, and so on. It is so surprising that you can see a lot of slogans in manufactory of Ford Vietnam.For example, to emphasize the value that Ford Vietnam wants to build up as well as motivate the workers in the plants, Ford VN uses the slogan â€Å" Ford moving with you, quality is job # 1†. Additionally, Ford VN realized that saving is an important with the development of its business. As a result, there are a number of slogans about saving in the plant, office, canteen, even in toilets such as â€Å"the higher saving energy, the higher salaries†, â€Å"one hour oven burning equals to 100 oxen†, â€Å"one hour air compressing equals to 100 pumpkins†. Ford VN understands that the majority of its wor kers were grown up in farms.Therefore, using the familiar things with the workers such as ox, pumpkin is to make the workers more understand the slogan and then m work more effectively. Addition to the slogans, the company publics the price list of the tools the workers using to make them understand the value of each tools they are using, the take care of those tools, saving and using effectively. [pic] Figure 1: Ford Vietnam Symbol is an element showing the Ford VN culture. It acts as shorthand way to keep people aligned as well as the way to indicate status within a culture.This includes clothing, office decor, and so on. In term of clothing, Ford VN designed uniforms for its employees based on the characteristics of the work the employees carrying out. For example, the staffs working in the office wear the blue shirt while the workers in the Paint shop wear a green-stripe suite which is quite convenient, and suitable with the condition in Paint shop. Meanwhile, the uniforms of wo rkers in Body shop and Final assembly are different from the office staffs and Paint shop workers but quite similar to each other.These uniform are not only for identifying the employees in different fields of work, but also for showing the spirit that Ford VN wants to build up for its employees. From that, they are proud to be the employees of Ford VN and then have behaviors that are appropriate for their status and position. In term of office decor, the manufactory looks quite friendly with the environment. There are a lot of green grass between blocks with beautiful flowers and trees which are taken carefully.Besides, to support the rules and policies about the safety in the manufactory, there are drawings to distinguish the paths for walking and paths for goods carriers. It looks like an in-zooming traffic system in the manufactory. In addition to policies about the production, safety and saving in the notice-board, there are a lot of signboard in the plant. For example, there a re signboard about the areas for smoking and no smoking, areas for using cell phone. Moreover, there are a lot of pictures, certificates, cups divided into two groups.One group is about the Ford Company in history, introducing the presidents of Ford, the T-model, and achievements. The other group is about the achievements of Ford VN. In the office, there is no separate room for each department. The departments are all in a huge hall and separated by the sectors. That is quite helpful for the employees among departments to communicate with each other easily. In term of motivation, the company has done a lot of activities to motivate the employees. Firstly, when becoming the employees of Ford VN, they have opportunities to take part in training courses sponsored by Ford.Furthermore, if the workers want to exchange the field in job in the plant, they can register and will be provided a six month training to improve their skill so that suitable with the position they want to change. Mor eover, they can be exchanged to other manufactory of Ford in the world wide. It is the good way for the employees to develop themselves and be globalized. Suggestion plan is an activity motivating the employees have new ideas to improve the quality of production which is updated every first day of a week. If the new ideas are evaluated as the good ideas, the ones who have those ideas will be given a bonus.If those ideas can be applied in production, those will be rewarded. Besides, there is a closing ceremony to acknowledge the best idea every year. Additionally, the best employee will be recognized and rewarded. The bonus will be given based on that situation of the company. Besides, the company also organizes a consulting sales competitive festival in the whole Vietnam. In addition to activities related to the production and operation, the company also organizes competitions on chess, billiards, table-tennis, tug of war, and so on. It helps the employees entertain after tired work ing ours. Moreover, there is a family day in which all the member in the family of employees can come to visit the manufactory and join the party with others. Besides, there are a lot of propagandas from Ford Vietnam so that the employees enhance their sense to take care of themselves. From example, the company propagandized about the way to prevent from chicken blue H1N1 when that disease appeared. Additionally, HIV-AIDS is a century disease that the whole society is taking care, so is Ford VN. There are a lot of pictures and slogan in the manufactory propagandizing about it.Besides, there is a automatic machine selling condom in the Man toilet with very low price (VND 1000). The company is doing the job showing the right way for their employees to prevent and protect themselves from that disease. In term of leadership, Michael Pease, the General Director of Ford VN is apprised to follow the democratic leadership style. He is commented that he is an open-hearted, friendly, funny, c ondescending, reliable, and stable man, especially in the business. Within more than two years from the first day he came to Ford VN, he succeeded in building trust, faith with the employees.In Ford VN, every employee can take part in the decision making process and made decision based on the level of their authority. With the important issue, normally the one makes the final decisions is still the general director. In term of social responsibility, Ford VN always considers that activities contribute for the society is one part of responsibility of the company. Ford VN has carried out many programs in driving safety, environment protection, and prevention in Vietnamese traditions, and other charity activities.For example, Road safety education for both children and adults, driving skills for life which guide the driver how to drive safety. Besides, in 5 years ago, Ford VN sponsored a lot of cars for American war veterans with about USD$ 150,000. Additionally, Ford Grant sponsors for the environment protection and prevention in cultural traditions with about USD$ 40,000. In conclusion, by the way Mr. Pease decentralize the power of the authority in the company, his individual managers can understand clearly their works and responsibilities, so that they can take their own decision in their field of business.Besides, individuals in the company tend to learn an expertise without experiencing risk. Additionally, employees are rewarded for their expertise and their contribution to the company rather than simply for their position in the hierarchy or their length of service. Furthermore, he also wants to build trust, respect and commitment, and work best when wanting to receive input. Theoretically, it is called role structure. Moreover, the employees in Ford VN work with team based. There is no dominant or clear leader. The performance is judged by the results.The most important thing is how to get the job done. Theoretically, Ford VN also follows the task culture. In conclusion, the culture of Ford VN is combined between role culture and task culture. 1. 3. Inter-relationships between the different processes and functions of the organization Among the departments of Ford VN, there are two kinds of close relationships that will be mention and evaluate below. The first kind the writers want to mention is the relationship where the output of this department becomes the input of other departments.This kind of relationship make the departments inside Ford VN become the internal customers of each others, and ensure that the process inside the company will be fluent and qualified. In reality, the output of each department in Ford VN is created based on the orders of other departments. For example, the output of Marketing department is the fact that customers come to the company, and this fact becomes the input of the sales department. The output of the sales department: cars sold to customers becomes the input of the Aftermarket sales & service dep artment.In this kind of relationship, the departments of Ford VN become customers of each other and they have to try their best to satisfy their internal customers and to keep their products qualified with ISO 9001. In the structure of Ford VN, there is a department which supervises the output of the others: the quality manager department. This department represents for the customers. As a result, their comments and ideas are very important to the other departments. The second relationship is the supporting relationship among the departments. All the departments have a main aim: the development and profit of Ford VN.Therefore, they team up to create the power of Ford VN. Every part of the process has the contribution of the whole company. For example, in a marketing campaign, from the preparation to the implementation, there are contributions of the public affair department, marketing department, sales department, and after sales and service department. First the marketing departmen t will research the market to find out the demand, the needs and wants of the customers, and then they design a proposal which call for the contributions of the other departments.The ideas come to make the proposal more applicable. After that, the proposal will be tested by the quality manager department, whose voice represents for the voice of the customers. After that, the proposal will be brought to trial after the agreement with the finance department, then moving to implementation process, and this process depends on the efforts of the sales department and the service and after sales department. To ensure that a proposal running right as it was designed, the whole company has to participate and support each other. 2.Mission, aims and objectives o Ford and the effect of these on the structure and culture of the organization ? Mission To talk theoretically, a mission describes the organization’s basic function in society, in terms of the products and services it produces f or its clients (BPP 2004). A mission can also be an answer for the question: â€Å"why does the company exist? † Bases on this definition and to link up with Ford Company, our group considered that the firm’s mission is â€Å"To build up a safety, creative and comfortable working environment for everybody. † ? AimsAims or goals give a sense o direction for the activities of an organization and are sufficient for the satisfaction of the organization’s mission (BPP 2004). There are some important functions to make a statement as an aim. Firstly, aims provide a standard of performance. Second, Aim can be considered as a guideline which provides the basis for planning and management control of the firm’s activities. Next, aims influence the structure of the organization and determine the nature of the technology employed. Last, aims are the basis objectives and policies of the organization.In terms of understanding exactly what the aims are, Ford has s ome main and important ones. Ford Vietnam wants to focus on satisfying the needs of the customers and improving the quality of its cars. Furthermore, the company will expand the scale of the firm in Vietnam by developing more retailers and customer services around our country. Not only this, Ford Vietnam wants to improve the organization’s market share because Ford had lost too much share to other competitors. ? Objectives Objectives are very necessary for a company.We can understand objectives as the goals of the firm but more particular. An objective often includes five elements, Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Result-orientated, Time-bounded. In case of Ford Vietnam, it has some objectives for the year 2010. First, Ford will take a new model of its car, named Fiesta to Vietnamese market in the second quarter of 2010. This model got a big success in Europe market and was voted as one of 10 cars of the year 2010. Therefore, Ford Vietnam believes that it can get the same re sult in Vietnam market as well.Moreover, Ford wants to open new retailer, customer service centre, raise the number of dealer to 23 at the end of two first quarter of the year. Through it, the firm will raise people’s awareness and maintain the stand in customer’s mind. Lately, one of many important purposes in this year is to raise the share in Vietnam market from only 11% to 25% at the end of this year. ? Effect of mission, aims, objectives to the structure and culture of Ford Vietnam Aims and objectives are the first factor in terms of creating the firm’s structure and help facilitate systems of communication between different parts of the organization.To achieve aims and objectives, Ford creates the One Ford structure; include One team, One plan and One goal. It helps Ford’s agents all over the world to be identical to Ford Company. As this result, it will be easier to control the structure and make a general plan for the organization. [pic] Figure 2: One Ford model The most important mission of Ford is to create an equal and comfortable working environment for all employees of the company, so it influences so much to the organization’s culture. 3. Process maps, output evaluation, and quality gateway analysisBody shop Paint shop and accessories There are quality gateways in the process maps that the writers want to mention. The first quality gateway is placed right after the completion of the frame of the car, with doors and engines. In this gateway, the workers take a completed frame randomly and take it to a room where they use machines and modern technology to check whether the frame achieved the size and quality that they want or not. If the frame has no issue, it will be certified to be the completed frame and be moved to the paint shop.If it has issues, the worker will check the whole lines to see whether those issues happens in all the other products or not, and they will fix it. The second gateway is placed after the frames are painted. Here, the worker will check whether the surface of the painted frames achieved the quality. If not, the frame will be re-clean and repaint. If the frames are qualified, they are considered completely painted. They will be moved to the area where bumpers, accessories and tires are installed.The last quality gateway that a car must pass to be certified is a combo of tests such as water proof test, speed test, acceleration test, etc†¦ If the car fails any of these tests, it will be moved to the fixing area and be re-testing till it passes all of these tests. After that, the car is considered completed, qualified with ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and QS 9000, and ready to be sold in the market. The cars of Ford are the products of a strict process. The quality of the Ford cars have been proved and accepted all over the world. However, in Vietnam, Ford is not so favored as Toyota, Kia, and Hyundai.The main reasons are the design of Ford cars and the fact that Ford car s consume more fuel than other brands. The design of Ford cars, according to some professional ideas, looks muscular than other brands. Another problem is the fuel consumption of Ford car. Because Ford cars have the higher engine capacity, they consume more fuel than almost the cars of other brands in the same segmentation. However, in the recent years, Ford has tried a lot to improve these problems and we now can see more Ford cars on the road. 4. Resources, tools and systems required to support the business processFord’s success totally depends on such supporting elements as resources, tools and systems. Acknowledgement of those supports will determine the human recruitments, managements, therefore helps to evaluate the sources of cost and sales of Ford. ? Resources required supporting Ford’s process In a business process, identification of its resources is very important because from identifying resources, we can acknowledge what we have and therefore are able to bu ild up an appropriate strategy, in order to support the business process. The resources can be divided into these groups: ?Financial Resources A financial plan consists of sets of financial statements that forecast the resource implications of making business decisions. It is important because the financial plan will need to take into account sources of finance, costs of finance, and costs of developing the project, as well as the revenues and likely profits to justify the expansion programme. Financial plans are typically made out for a given time period, e. g. one, three or five years. Without a financial planning, Ford will not be able to know which target to aim and do not know how much to spend.It will avoid unnecessary debts and be more effective in the construction, use and protection of its wealth through the years. An audit of financial resources would include assessment of the following factors: |Existing finance funds |- Cash balances | |   |- Bank overdraft | |   |- Bank and other loans | |   |- Shareholders' capital | |   |- Working capital (e. g. tocks, debtors) already invested in the business | |   |- Creditors (suppliers, government) | |Ability to raise new |- Strength and reputation of the management team and the overall Ford | |funds | | |   |- Strength of relationships with existing investors and lenders | |   |- Attractiveness of the market in which the business operates (i. e. s it a market that is attracting investment | | |generally? ) | |   |- Listing on a quoted Stock Exchange? If not, is this a realistic possibility? | ? Human Resources The importance of human resources within an organization is becoming increasingly understood in today's rapidly changing and uncertain business environment. In order to assist employees in helping Ford to reach its strategic business goals, effective human resource managers often gather job related information in a job analysis and job description, which is vital to creating or re-d esigning jobs which provide employees with a high level of job satisfaction.The basic human resource activity can help Ford to achieve strategic goals more efficiently and effectively by avoiding both duplication and overlapping of work. An audit of human resources would include assessment of the following factors: |Existing staffing |- Numbers of staff by function, location, grade, experience, qualification, remuneration | |resources | | |   |- Existing rate of staff loss | |   |- Overall standard of training and specific training standards in key oles | |   |- Assessment of key such as morale, business culture | |Changes required to |- What changes to the organization of Ford are included in the strategy (e. g. change of location, new locations, | |resources |and new products)? | |   |- What incremental human resources are required? | |   |- How should they be sourced? | ? Physical Resources The category of physical resources covers wide range of operational resources concerned with the physical capability to deliver a strategy.These include: |Production facilities |- Location of existing production facilities; capacity; investment and maintenance requirements | | |- Current production processes – quality; method & organisation | | |- Extent to which production requirements of the strategy can be delivered by existing facilities | |Marketing facilities |- Marketing management process | | |- Distribution channels | |Information technology |- IT systems | | |- Integration with customers and suppliers | ? Intangible Resources It is easy to ignore the intangible resources of a business when assessing how to deliver a strategy – but they can be crucial. Intangibles include: |Goodwill |- The difference between the value of the tangible assets of the business and the actual value of the business | | |(what someone would be prepared to pay for it) | |Reputation |- Does the business have a track record of delivering on its strategic object ives?If so, this could help gather | | |the necessary support from employees and suppliers | |Brands |- Strong brands are often the key factor in whether a growth strategy is a success or failure | |Intellectual Property |- Key commercial rights protected by patents and trademarks may be an important factor in the strategy. | ? Tools required supporting Ford’s process Policy is a mandate and directive from the top of the organization. Its purpose is to influence behavior. From it, management provides the overarching principles under which the business operates. It should not vary in its message or enforcement model. Procedures are process specific and detail the steps taken to achieve an objective. Procedures include operations manual, user manual, and all manner of process documentation. Policies are usually seen as the rules, or laws, of an organization, whereas the procedures are the processes used to enact the policies.However, many companies see policies and procedures a s belonging to the Legal/Compliance department, and create another set of processes — usually referred to as an â€Å"operational guide† — that are created and maintained by the operational area that executes the actual processes. If it is put into BPM (Business Process Management), then some of these operational procedures may be further documented in the process. Besides, there is the responsibility issue that is referred to above lead to the question who is responsible for each of these essential bits of corporate documentation. If process maps are created within a BPMS, do they become part of the business process documentation, replace part of it, or stay as a separate â€Å"implementation view† of the processes?There are several cases where the process maps in a BPMS bear little resemblance to what the business perceives as its processes, either due to limitations in the BPMS environment or to the business having an incomplete view of the process. Th ird is the whole technology issue: how is all of this information captured, published and synchronized? There are tools such as Rules Arts and Rule Burst that help to capture policies as high-level non-executable rules — an approach that makes more sense than just trying to document them free-form in a word processor while praying for consistency. Some of this systems are also business rules engines, that is, they execute the rules and can be called from other applications; some are just platforms for non-technical users to document policies, detect gaps and exceptions, and help to ensure compliance. Processes based on rules.Those organizations documenting their policies in a word processor are likely also documenting their procedures in the same way — in fact, possibly in the same document — using descriptive text and a few diagrams. At some level of detail, someone starts drawing process maps, although these are usually as illustrations to the descriptive text rather than a replacement for it. Policies are guidelines and best practices which are enforced by an organization to achieve a desired outcome consistently to the benefit of an organization. There are two distinct types of policies – technical policies and business policies. Changes in technical policies may or may not impact the business processes.Changes in business policy will certainly affect business processes since business policies are nothing but externalization and manifestation of business rules using XML and BPEL. Service orientation provides the capability to alter the business processes dynamically and instantaneously as per the changing business needs by applying the policy changes unlike in the traditional IT + Business environments, where a simple policy change can take several months to implement. ? System required supporting business process A structured, measured set of activities designed to produce a specific output for a particular customer or market. It implies a strong emphasis on how work is done within Ford, in contrast to a product focus’s emphasis on.A process is thus a specific ordering of work activities across time and space, with a beginning and an end, and clearly defined inputs and outputs: a structure for action. †¦ Taking a process approach implies adopting the customer’s point of view. A typical characteristic of a successful process-based organisation is the absence of secondary activities in the primary value flow that is created in the customer oriented primary processes. The characteristic of processes indicates that processes are embedded in some form of organisational structure. Also, a process can be cross-functional, i. e. it ranges over several business functions. A structure system required for supporting a business process identifies: ? The activities and tasks within a business process. ? The actions (i. e. steps) performed in each task, the mode in which each action will be performed , and the time that will be required to execute the task. ? The inputs/materials required by a task. ? The outputs/products produced by a task. ? The internal and external customers and suppliers of a task. ? The organisational units that will be responsible for performing the task and the geographical locations where the task will be performed. ? The sequence in which the tasks will be performed. ? The data required by a business process and the quality and timeliness requirements of the data. ? The process measurement capabilities designed into the new business processes. 5.Quality audit system/ practice to manage and monitor quality to standards specified By adapting some models which based on controlling quality in manufacturing and operated process, Ford Vietnam is the only one Motor company in Vietnam that was granted three quality certifications by International Organization for Standardization, that are ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and QS 9000. In specific certification about quality was set, Ford Vietnam was passed the test and standard quality certification ISO/TS 16949 by International Automotive Task Force (IATF). ISO 9001: when receiving this kind of certification, that means Ford Vietnam was the company that achieves all the requirements about quality regulation.There are some kinds of quality objectives was required, they are quality of broad of directors and quality of all departments of company to meet the customer demands. ISO 14001: is the standard of environmental management requirements given its management of environment needs for organizations. The purpose of ISO 14001 is to help organization protecting its environment. By receiving this standard, Ford Vietnam expresses that they built the environmental management system and set the environmental objectives and had the system to control what they had set. QS 9000: The QS-9000 Quality System requirements are divided into three sections. Section 1: Common requirements, includes the exact text of IS O 9001 with the addition of automotive / heavy trucking requirements.Section 2: Additional Requirements, includes requirements beyond the scope of ISO 9001, common to all three manufacturers. Section 3: Customer Specific Sections contains requirements unique to either Ford, General Motors, or Chrysler. ISO/TS 16949: is the quality system requirement for Ford Motor Company suppliers (production and service parts and materials). It includes innovate and improve quality of products cause of changing requirements all the time. Receiving these standard certifications that means Ford was accepted by customer cause of quality. As the result, Ford needs to apply a quality audit system to keep going these standards. In recent time, by always innovate the quality of product and management, ith slogan â€Å"Quality is Job number one†, Ford is using TQM (Total Quality Management) system to manage and monitor the standards specified. Based on the Managing activities to Achieve Result BBP course book, TQM was defined that â€Å"as the management approach of an organization centered on quality, based on the participation of all its members and aiming at long-term success. This is achieved through customer satisfaction and benefits to all members of the organization and to society†. TQM requires the integration of all functions of organization (marketing, finance, production†¦). As a tool support to meet objective of TQM that â€Å"Do the right thing, right the first time, every time†, Six Sigma was concerned within Ford Company.Mike Stock, a Ford Master Black Belt said â€Å"Consumer Driven 6-Sigma allowed us to look at the interactions between all of the components to find the true root cause; the data it produced allowed us to identify all of the key contributors, and how much each truly impacted the overall issue† First of all, â€Å"for each department of Ford Vietnam like Marketing, Finance, Human resource must achieve target 6-Sigmaâ⠂¬  _ say Mr Vuong. That explains the first rules of 6-sigma that everyone must be involved. According to Mr Vuong, every management levels and team of staffs have a Scorecard that set objectives about safety, quality, and delivery have to achieve. Each staffs of team in company need to have their own objectives based on the top-management objectives and have monthly review.In 6-Sigma, there are two pieces Project in Ford, they are Green Belt and Black belt teams. Black Belts typically use tools such as process mapping, cause-and-effect diagrams, failure mode and effects analysis, design of experiments, and mistake proofing in their daily work. Black belt team is gathering of the ones who have experiences, skills. Green belt team learns to help Black Belts do projects faster. Green Belt training allows the people who are affected by the Six Sigma projects to be able to continue to monitor and control the improvement and to do their jobs better. To Ford, 6- sigma is the channel to c onduct training in manufacturing for SPC (Statistical Process Control).As the Process map was discussed in part above, at the end of each period of process, there are the testing step from input to output, the staff in testing step will check whether having mistakes or not. For example, in body shop, after frame of car was assembled, there have the 3D measure checking machine to check whether the standard parameter meets the requirements or not. Moreover, any issue appears in assembling process, the employee will warn to manager of this part and he will solve the issues. Furthermore, the feedback of customer voice will be concerned and solved. In conclude, the quality audit system was used by Ford is TQM with the improvement method is Six-sigma. The quality of human and products of Ford was improved and developed. 6. Quality culture embedding to ensure continuous monitoring and development of the processAutomobile industry requires strictly safety condition, because it relates to sa fe of consumers. Before reaching to consumers, they are tested many times carefully. Thus, if the company focuses mainly on quantity, ignore quality, defects may occur that affects to customer satisfaction. In addition, the company might encounter with compensation for their defects that affect directly to revenue of the company. Therefore, in order to avoid errors that results in costing money, and risk of losing customers, quality-focus should be carried out and be the culture of the company. It means that quality should be concerned by all employees and continuous improving it.Quality is considered as the most concerned factor of Ford with slogan: â€Å"Quality is job number one. † Quality is not only carried out in steps of process but also in employees. 6. 1. Quality in employees Beginning with employees of Ford organization in Vietnam, located in Hai Duong, most of them are qualified and skilled employees. Bachelor degree for staff with English skills, experiences, inte rview, team work, and so on. Workers at least intermediate degree to satisfy working requirements, i. e. English skills, technical abilities, team work, and interview. After that they have training course to accustom to the work. Salary for Ford employees are competitive compare to other companies.They are also received bonus depends on the company situation. The best employee will be awarded for the one who work best each month. It proves that the company selects and trains employees carefully to maintain and attract quality employees. Through our visiting to Ford, Ford employees are friendly; show us their operation dedicatedly, answer all questions responsibly that makes advantages for us to do assignment well. They also work really discipline. Workers follow safety labor strictly. In addition, in this factory, clinic is quite clean and equipped; first aid process is displayed everywhere, there are at least two nurses in the clinic in case there is any accident.Thus, the most ser ious accident in this factory is lost one part of a finger. 6. 2. Quality in process Qualified employees help manufacturing process in factory go well. As we mentioned in some parts above, input and output are tested carefully in each period, and in general. In addition, Ford care about feedbacks as well as complaints of customers. Ford products must satisfy Ford standards in particularly, achieve ISO, requirements of car industry, i. e. ISO 9001, QS 9000, ISO 14001, TS 16949. If there are more orders than usual, Ford still focuses on quality, careful in each step of process. Although it takes time and lengthen delivered time, it brings guaranteed for consumers.Furthermore, Ford builds quality culture based on two factors of Six Sigma system, i. e. Green Belts and Black Belts. Green Belts support for Black Belts to carry out projects more effective. Employees take one week training program to understand Six Sigma system as well as Black Belts basically. There are three classes in Gr een Belts training which depends on fields that employee trained, i. e. technical, manufacturing, and transactional. Apart from these, one of the responsibilities of Green Belts is to ensure the quality improvement, continuous monitoring, and control it which can avoid losing control management. In terms of Black Belts which used some methods, i. e. xperiments, mistake proofing, process map, cause and effect diagrams, failure mode and effect analysis in their daily work to avoid errors that make work better. Ford has applied Black Belts for two years and DMAIC cycle model, which stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control for current operations, will be organized for one month to train employees. To sum it up, Ford is now carrying out to maintain as well as improve quality to make it become culture of the organization. However, building quality culture to ensure monitor and development of process is take time and cost. 7. Recommendation to improve quality and the function of Ford Vietnam 7. 1. Problem Ford VN is evaluated as one of the companies which have the best working environment.In fact, with half a day visiting in the manufactory of Ford VN, everything seems to be very good. The employees are equipped with many modern working tools. Besides, the manufactory is clean and quite friendly with the environment. In addition, all the employees follow the roles, policies and procedures of the factory. Moreover, there are a lot of activities to motivate the employees. However, our group realized that the atmosphere in the manufactory is so serene that there is very little communication among employees. Of course, when they are in the working hours, they focus on the works that they have to get done. However, it is not better in the break time.In the lunch, the employees just stand in a queue to wait for taking their meals. After that, they sit down, eat, give back the dishes, and then go back their places. There is no hurry, fun, sense in their face. E verything happening likes a film in slow motion and repeats every day. 7. 2. Reasons There are two main reasons for that problem such as the characteristic of the job and the not high pressure in work. ? The characteristic of the job The main characteristic of the job is the specialization in production. It means that each employee is a specialist in a specific job, so that they will repeat the acts in the assembly line day by day. As a result, it will make the employees feel boring.In fact, the first using assembly line with Model T in 1908 by Henry Ford created the success and strong brand of Ford Motor Company. Henry Ford did not invent the automobile or the assembly line. He did, however, change the world by using an assembly line technique to produce cars which could be afforded by everyone. By improving the assembly line so that the Model T could be produced ever more inexpensively, Ford placed the power of the internal combustion engine within reach of the average citizen. He transformed the automobile itself from a luxury to a necessity. From 1909 to 1029, the Ford Motor Company built more than 15 million Model T[1]. Without a doubt, Henry Ford transformed the economic and social fabric of the 20th century.However, this masterpiece of the 20th century is now becoming a headache problem of the 21st century. In fact, the company makes many chances for the worker to exchange their job in the assembly line with six months training. Nevertheless, this seems to be not effective in improving the atmosphere in the manufactory. ? The not high pressure in work The work with not high pressure or even quite love pressure is a peaceful work. It might sound good. However, stability and peace are not a good element to motivate the employees. It may cause boredom for the employees, and then may cause the reason for their leaving. The main reason why the pressure in work is low is the very low demand consuming products of Ford VN.The productivity of the manufactory is quite low only reached about 10%. Although, the sales volume of Ford in 2009 is grow up comparing with the sales volume of Ford the year before, it is quite low comparing with the biggest competitor, Toyota and the development of Car market in Vietnam. The first reason is the product itself. The design of products of Ford is not outstanding in comparison with products of other motor company such as Toyota, Honda, GM Daewoo, and so on. Meanwhile, the main customer buying car is the one who have very how income and care about the fashion trend so much. Moreover, the engine of products of Ford is petro consuming and quite cumbersome.It is a very big advantage of products of Ford in the period of financial crisis. Besides, the marketing activities of Ford VN are quite quiet. As a result, the image of Ford VN is dimmer and dimmer. Many people don’t know about the different product line of Ford VN. If this problem continues to happen. This will make the decreasing in market share. As a result the profit of the company is also going down, then the profit is decreasing, and then the bonus is also decreasing. This will lead to a result of the leaving of their employees. 7. 3. Recommendations and evaluation Due to reasons mentioned at the previous part, there is a need of changing in the Ford VN.In general, Ford VN should change in two issues: increasing the market share and motivation. The main job of increasing the market share is to create the demand for the Vietnamese customers. Based on the reasons of the problem, carrying out market researches, developing marketing activities, and changing in the product itself should be done to increase the market share. Although it may cost a lot in short-term, the company can obtain benefits in the long-term. The company does not have to apply all methods presented below at the same time, they can be applied depends on the situation of the company and the Vietnamese car market in specific period. ? Market researches Mark et research includes four methods, i. e. urvey, interview, observation, focus group. Depends on the situation of the company, Vietnamese market, appropriated methods can be applied. The company should carry out two kinds of market research. Firstly, the company should do a research inside the company. It means that the company should understand clearly about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities as well as the threats of the company. It is important for the company to find out the disadvantage competitive to make it better and the advantage competitive to develop. The company should also find out about the distribution system to support them. Secondly, Ford VN should do research market about car market in Vietnam.It is important for the company to understand clearly about the potential market size, and trends of the car consumers. With the development of technology, the trends of the customers are changing so much days by days. They also care about the reputation of the brands, t he fashion trends, petrol-consume and so on. Therefore, by doing the market research regularly, Ford can catch up the new trends of the market in common. Additionally, the company also can set up the price so as suitable with the Vietnamese living standard. Besides, the company may update information about the competitors in Vietnamese market. The best way to be the leader in the car market is to itself create its trends that attract the customers.However, the result of market research may not really precise; thus, the company should not rely totally on those results. ? Marketing activities Although Ford is a well-known brand, and familiar to Vietnamese customers, rarely do Ford products circulates in Hanoi streets. Through our observation, one of the reasons is rate of advertising on television, public places is rather low. In addition, car is luxury goods, not everyone can afford it, thus customers tend to consider carefully before making decision based on price, infrastructure, c limate, petrol-consume, and so on. Therefore, marketing and sales is very important to increase market shares in Vietnam.It is common knowledge that there are six lines of Ford cars in Vietnam, i. e. New Focus, Mondeo, Escape, Everest, Ranger, and Transit. Each of them has their own functions and features that appropriate with Vietnamese geography. Vietnam is divided into three areas, i. e. the North, the Middle, and the South with different geography. Geography in the North is flatter than the Middle and the South. Thus, Escape, Everest, and Ranger are likely to be suitable for the Middle and the South. New Focus and Mondeo are appropriated to the North, and some parts of the South where has flat terrain. Therefore, Ford should carry out promotional activities that suitable for each place based on Vietnamese geography.There are a range of promotional activities, i. e. advertising, sale promotion, public relations, direct marketing, and personal selling, and so on. On the other hand , cost for promotion is very high. Therefore, promotional activities should be applied effectively and creatively. Advertising It is important to regain attention of Vietnamese customers by advertising to prove that Ford is new trend and people will be fashionable when drive it. Besides, Ford should increase rate of advertisement on television, magazines, cinemas, placards, posters in public places. Ford can advertise in golden hours, from 7p. m to 10p. m to catch attention of customers.Advertisement should be in long-term. Feature of cars should be emphasized to remind customers that they select the most appropriate car. Advertising should be assigned to experience as well as creative advertising company. Public relation Besides advertising, public relation is very important. In this method, some celebrities should be invited to use and promote Ford cars to show that it is fashionable when driving Ford every day. Furthermore, in order to build up a good cooperate image, good relati onship with customers, some activities should be carried out: †¢ Sponsoring for events, e. g. V-League championship, concerts, sport events, and so on.Especially, there is ceremony of 1000 year of Thang Long – Hanoi, Ford can take part to sponsor this activity. †¢ Awarding scholarship for poor children or encourage pupils, students who have excellent result. †¢ Participating in charities programs, or celebrates the days about environment. Sales promotion: Ford can discount for sales promotion, or reduce tax, free-register, or give gift for customers. Ford should concern about old customers, e. g. discount guaranteed. Direct marketing Among six lines of products, Transit is likely to be used in enterprises. Therefore, besides those activities above, direct marketing should be applied. With business buyers, there always have a group of people response o select product for their business. Ford should use face-to-face marketing method at the first stage by offer so me experienced employees with communicative ability, flexible, professional to come to these firms to introduce. With those activities are presented above, although the cost is high and can make loss for Ford in short-term, the company can achieve the good result in long-term. Along with that, with activities Ford plan to contribute to community, it is proved that Ford is an ethic company, has responsibilities for Vietnamese and to be favored by Vietnamese citizens. ? Changing in the product itself This changing in the product mostly depends on the market research.Furthermore, the most difficult thing of Ford VN is that the main job of the company is to assemble the car based on the design of Mother Company in the United State of America. Every spare parts and engine are imported from foreign countries. However, the company can propose the changing to the suppliers so that the products of Ford are more suitable with the demand and trends and the car market in Vietnam. Nevertheless, changing in the product applied for Vietnam must ask for permission from the Mother Company as well as shareholders. Thus, it may take time whether the suggestion is passed or not. In addition, the suggestion applied for Vietnam should be similar to other countries.Ford cannot manufacture a new design only for Vietnam because it cost too much and it does not guarantee that whether the company can cover the loss or not. In term of motivation, the company has quite done a good job in creating the good working environment for its employees. However, there are some changes the company should do to manage and motivate employees more effectively. Firstly, the company should have a little bit change in conditions of taking the training courses sponsored by Ford VN. There is a problem that, some employees of Ford taking the Master course at the faculty of international education at NEU have serious attitude in studying because there is no rules or condition between the employees and Ford VN . Then, they were absent a lot.As a result, the training courses sponsored by Ford VN that those employees took were not effective. Besides, there is a problem that, after taking the training courses sponsored by Ford VN, some employees left Ford and went to other company, the competitors of Ford, for example. Therefore, instead of no condition of taking the training courses, the company should have some conditions when support the employees taking the training courses to hold its employees. Additionally, the company should build up an entertainment room for the employees. From that, it increases the communication among employees, and then creates enthusiasm for the employees.Moreover, the company should build a hostel building for the employees whose houses are far from the manufactory. Furthermore, the company should also have a psychological consulting room. In that room, the employees can share all their worries, opinion, and so on as well as receive advice from the profession. It is the good way to reduce stress for employees and have better results in working. Conclusion After observing, analysing and evaluating Ford’s organisation, we, group 19 has drawn to the conclusion as well as some recommendations for Fords to change for improvement of quality and its function. 15 years has gone by and Ford’s market share has decreased while the sale volume is increasing rapidly each years.It means that Ford is not the trend-setter but trend-follower. Ford’s line seems to be in the position of wait, which is not appropriate in this competed market when lots of car enterprises took part in the market such as Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, BMW, Daewoo, Hyundai, etc. As for the middle class car, Ford was unable to compete with Hyundai or Daewoo whose prices are suitable for most of Vietnamese people. Besides, luxury car of Ford has no chance to compete with Mercedes-Benz, Camry of Toyota or Audi of BMW, etc. On the other hands, Ford’s cars have a disadvantage that lead to the slow sale volume is petrol-consuming whether others Cars Company has considered of this problem long time ago.Therefore we have analysed and evaluated Ford’s situations and drawn some recommendations for it to improve quality as well as its function. However, this recommendation is still in theory, it depends on market’s variety and requires sensibility and sensitivity of Ford’s managers, in order to act suitably with the change of market. 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[Assessed April 22, 2010] ———————– [1] History of Model T, Available from: http://www. modelt. ca/background. html ———————– General Director Quality M anager Deputy Manager Public Affair After market sales & service Sales Marketing Technical Affair Human resource Finance Supply Operation Launching Purchasing Logistics Manufacturing Body shopPaint shop TCF Support function Materials (Body parts, paints, engines, etc. ) Yes No No No Yes Stored in the ground Completed cars Fix Is the car water-proof? Water-resistance test Are the functions of the car qualified? Functional Tests Yes Yes Yes Yes Is the frame of the car installed right? No Yes Check, then fix or discard if cannot fix Accessories, bumpers and tires installation Is the surface of the paint qualified? Body shop (ground up frames, install engines, etc. ) Paint shop (paint the car) Stored in the warehouse Yes No No Yes Yes No Material from warehouse Doors installation Engine installation Are there any issues with the frame?Are there any issues with the materials? Change and check the whole materials in the warehouse. Frame ground up Random size check with specific machines I s the size of the frame achieved the estimated quality? Completed frame with engines and doors Moved to paint shop Moved to testing area Completed car, prepare for last tests Accessories installation Yes Tires installation Bumpers installation No Yes Re-clean the surface Are there any issues with the surface of the frame? Surface check Dry room Paint No Are there any issues with the surface of the frame? Surface check Flow the surface to clean it up with high speed fans Completed frame with engines from body shop