Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words
Case Study - Essay Example The combination of satellite, cable and fiber based broadband penetration together with targeting, interactivity, and companyââ¬â¢s knowledge of peopleââ¬â¢s physical address and other contact credentials has launched a new era in marketing, organizational communication and advertising (Institute for Innovation and Improvement, 2006). ITV (an acronym for Interactive Television) is a range of technologies which has blended data services together with the traditional television technology. It entails enhancements and interactive contents. Interactive Television is enriched with providing interactions, rich entertainments, more information regarding various shows, props together with all the personnel responsible in its creation. Basically, Interactive television combines the features of the traditional television with interactivity which is enjoyed by people through a network such as LAN, WAN and internet (Interactive Advertising Bureau, 2011). Programming of interactive Television ranges from links to websites, richer graphics, and electronic communication among online users through a back channel. As a result, there is on ââ¬â demand delivery of content together with services such as shopping, banking, ticket booking, among others (Institute for Innovation and Improvement, 2006). Digital Interactive Television exists in several forms and are manufactured by different companies. One form of Digital Interactive television is the Set top Boxes. This kind of Interactive Televisions are made by companies such as Microsoft, Motorola, Scientific Atlantic and Pace. This types of televisions are designed specifically to run interactive television services. During the manufacture of these products, the interactive TV is designed in such a manner that it can collect data from the user to the service provider (Institute for Innovation and
The Future of Nursing Essay Example for Free
The Future of Nursing Essay With the current trends and changes that are eminent in the healthcare delivery system in the United States of America and due to the additional needs required for the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) many alterations in nursing will be required in order to meet the needs of the patients. According to the Institute of Medicineââ¬â¢s (IOM) report The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, changes in the education, practice, and leadership of nurses will be required to make available accessible, high quality, high value care for patients in the health care system (Institute of Medicine [IOM], 2011, p. 85). Although these changes will affect all registered nurses the greatest volume of these modifications will be in the policies, restrictions, and regulations regarding scope of practice for advanced practice registered nurses (APRN). With the diploma, ADN, and BSN avenues to becoming a registered nurse there are many different options for those desiring to enter the nursing field. However, there are many barriers as well including cost, availability and location of nursing schools (IOM, 2011, p. 166). With the recommendations for nursing detailed in the IOM report many changes will need to be implemented in the education of nurses and also to ease the transition of the graduate nurse into practice (IOM, 2011). In order for nurses to fulfill the full scope of their capabilities in will be essential for them to achieve higher levels of education both before and after licensure. The need for baccalaureate educated nurses will rise significantly as a result of the increasing demand placed on nurses due to the implementation of the ACA. With an increased number of patients entering a health care system that is already exhibiting a shortage of nurses and physicians in many areas of the country it will be necessary for nurses to expand their practice and encompass more tasks and skills to provide the needed high quality care each patient deserves. These changes will require additional education and an evolution to lifelong learning on the part of both the up and coming nurses as well as those already in practice. The educational system for nursing needs to make modifications to provide for an easier and seamless transition to allow for academic advancement. According to the IOM nursing care is linked to higher quality care and increased patient safety. The reliance on nurses to assist in the transformation of the health care system is of the utmost importanceà however there are many barriers that impact this ability. The fragmented health care system also makes the nursing practice difficult with regards to completing tasks such as discharge planning and implementation of home health. Regulatory policies are so diverse across the country that it will be critical to revise and standardize nursing scope of practice across the states. It is particularly imperative for APRNs to be allowed to practice independently to the full scope of their education and a capability to provide care for those living in states with vast rural areas that are severely underserved in primary care (IOM, 2011, p. 107 ). The advancement of APRNs scope of practice has also been met with much resistance from physicians and the American Medical Association (AMA). In addition there is also opposition in relation to prescriptive privileges for APRNs; however the contention that APRNs are less able than physicians to deliver care that is safe, effective, and efficient is not supported by research (IOM, 2011, p. 111). It is also very difficult to determine the actual value that nurses can bring to the health care system as, ââ¬Å"The accounting systems of most hospitals and health care organizations are not designed to capture or differentiate the economic value provided by nurses.â⬠(IOM, 2011, p. 115). With the execution of the ACA it will be vital for nurses to be knowledgeable about cultural and ethnic diversity to implement the patient centered medical home model of healthcare. I believe the patient centered medical home model will be the most plausible tool to accomplish the evolution of the hea lth care system. It has been put into practice within the Military and Veteranââ¬â¢s Administration hospitals and clinics and has been very successful thus far. To make the essential changes in the United States healthcare system however a change in the leadership roles nurses play will be of utmost importance to bring about the necessary restructuring required. Leadership roles which in the past have been those in upper level position handing down commands will need to be reformed into a form of ââ¬Å"leadership which flows in all directions and levelsâ⬠(IOM, 2011, p. 223). The competencies and expertise of those nurses in practice will be imperative in leading the regulatory policies to contribute to the care and safety of the patients (IOM, 2011). Although nurses have never been viewed in a leadership role, and are more commonly viewed as the doers rather than the leaders a change in these views will be required not only in aà collaborative situation with other members of the health ca re team but on all levels. It is therefore crucial that current nurses and those of the future are equipped with the competencies not only to give high value, high quality and safe care to the patient population but also an intimate knowledge of health care delivery, ethics, and innovative ideas with the ability to provide effective patient advocacy (IOM, 2011, p. 224). Mentorship, leadership programs, and fellowship programs are the key in preparing nurses to answer the call to collaborate and lead not only the committees, and established boards but also our country in the innovation and reformation of the healthcare system (IOM, 2011). In conclusion the role of nurses will be forced to undergo radical changes in the areas of education, practice and leadership in the transformation of our health care system. Higher education will be required to produce individuals that are better prepared to practice at the full scope of their ability and will continue to promote lifelong learning. The action of nurses in the field both in the patient centered home model as well as assuming a role of leadership in the patient care environment and in the board room will be fundamental in the future of nursing in the United States. References Institute of Medicine. (2011). The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12956page=R2
Monday, October 14, 2019
Strategic Report on Delta Airlines
Strategic Report on Delta Airlines Introduction The airline of our group research is Delta Airlines which is one of the most famous international airlines in the world. And this article is going to discuss the comparison and contrast with another famous airline, Singapore Airlines. Besides, it will also evaluate how they will get today business scale through analysis their growth strategy. Comparison and Contrast According to the web page of Delta Newsroom, Delta Airlines was a dusting services organization, which named Huff Daland Dusters, in U.S. in 1924. One of the Delta partners, C. E. Woolman bought it in 1928 and changed it to provide the air mail services and its name Delta Air Services. Moreover, after Woolman took over the company, it started to services the passenger in 1929 which just serviced 5 passengers with only one route from Dellas, Texas to Jackson, Mississippi (Delta Newsroom). In 1945, Delta was officially changed its name to be Delta Airlines (Delta Newsroom). Its services hub had become from 1 to around 11 and flying over 119 countries with 606 destinations in nowadays. Moreover, its annual passenger is around165 million with around 5400 daily flights (Delta Newsroom). Besides, its net profit is around US$10.54 billion in 2013 (Karp 2014). Delta Airlines has become to be today business scale which was mainly depend on its growth strategy of mergers and acquisition in pas s few decades (Ireland, Hoskisson Hitt 2008). Comparing with Singapore Airlines, it also is one of the famous Airlines in the world. According to the web page Singapore Airlines, It was found in 1947 that cooperated with Malaysia Airlines firstly. Its original name was Malaysia-Singapore Airline. However, in 1972 Singapore Airlines suspended to cooperate with Malaysia Airlines and established its hub in Singapore. When it started the business it already has around 18 destinations with 20 airports that including the international flights of Europe, the Middle East and Australia etc and around 6200 staff which already have the related industry experience (Chua n.d.). Until 2014, Singapore Airlines expand to be over 30 destinations with more than 60 airports (Singapore Airlines website). And in 2013-2014 fiscal year, Singapore Airlines got US$ 288 million net profit (Torr, 2014). That is far different from Delta Airlines when Singapore Airlines officially started its business as the business of Singapore Airlines has already tendin g to be mature. However the business scale of Singapore Airlines is less than Delta Airlines nowadays. On the other hand, the first passenger service flight of Delta Airlines is the domestic flight from Texas to Mississippi. And the Singapore Airlines doesnââ¬â¢t have any domestic flight, it just operate international flight. Moreover, Singapore Airlines has Singapore government support. Such as the Singapore government signed a lot of agreement with other countries to support the developing of Singapore Airlines (Chua n.d.). Besides, the Singapore government owned company, Temasak Holding (Pte) Ltd, is one of the shareholders of Singapore Airlines which holds around 56.15% stake of Singapore Airlines (Singapore Airlines website). Meanwhile, Singapore Airlines is mainly utilizing an organic growth strategy to develop its business (Roll 2005). All of these are also different from Delta Airlines. Although Delta Airlines and Singapore Airlines have a lot of difference of starting the business and its growth strategy, they also utilize the alliance strategy, Delta Airline is Sky Team and Singapore Airlines is Star Alliance, to enlarge its business network (Sky Team website and Star Alliance website). Moreover, Singapore Airlines has mergers and acquisition with 49% stake of Virgin Atlantic such as Delta Airlines, however it sold the 49% stake to Delta Airlines in 2012 (Singapore Airlines website).Besides, they also seem to face a similar macro environment. According to our research portfolio in Chapter 2, PESTEL and Porterââ¬â¢s Five Forces analysis that can refer to appendix 2 and 3 for simply analysis, they need to be threat by higher level of bargaining power of suppliers such as fuel and aircraft suppliers and rivalry competitive in the industry with other airlines. Moreover, they also need to face the impact of deregulation that causes the price war with other competito rs. Evaluation of growth strategy According to the above discussion, it related that Delta Airlines is utilizing the strategy of mergers and acquisition to grow its business to become today position. And its first Mergers and Acquisition was starting from 1953, Delta bought Chicago and Southern Air lines and its first international flight in Caribbean and Caracas region had been developed. Then in the later few decades, Delta had another merger and acquisition actions. Through the merger and acquisition strategy, Delta Airlines earned a lot of equity, routes and facilities from those airlines. Therefore, the company scale had been become even bigger and its merger and acquisition time liner such as below table: Table 1 Besides, Delta Airline also use the differentiation strategy to make it different from its competitors to grow its business such as it is first to utilize radio frequency identification (RFID) Tag to check the baggage location through internet. That can help Delta Airlines to save the cost around US$100 million a year to avoid losing the baggage (Rosencrance 2014). Besides, it develops ââ¬Å"Skymileâ⬠to the customers to earn the mile for rewarding the free travel to attract more passengers (Delta Airlines website). Moreover, it also utilizes the technology such as twitter and facebook to interact with the passenger, thus it also got an award of Top Tech-Friendly U.S. Airline in 2012 (Delta Newsroom). Meanwhile Delta Airlines establish Delta TechOps to maintain its own fleet and to provide maintenances services to other company (Delta TechOps website). And it has reduce the threat by supplier and cut its operation cost as well. All of these strategies led Delta Airlines to reach today business scale. And Singapore Airlines, it is mainly based on the organic growth strategy to develop its business. Singapore Airlines develop a lot of different new routes as the Singapore government signed the agreement with the government of New Zealand, Indonesia and Japan etc. before (Chua n.d.).Besides, the Singapore Airlines utilizes the differentiation strategy as well to enlarge its business scale such as it is first to provide free choice of meal and free drink in an economy class in 1970s (Singapore Airlines website). Singapore Airlines seems to be become an industry dominator to provide a lot of services to its passenger for attracting more passengers. It desires to build up a good branding of Singapore Airlines as well. Therefore, it also creates its branding through well training its staff such as providing four month training to its carbine crews that is longer than regular two months training of western airlines (Marquardt 2012). It creates a good image of its carbine crew which name Singapore girls that represent always elegant images as an ambassador of Singapore Airlines to attract the customer (Singapore Airlines website). Therefore, it also got one of the Worldââ¬â¢s Top Airlines award in 2014 (World Airlines Awards website). On the other hand, Singapore Airlines use the modern and new fleet of aircraft (Chua n.d.). The new and modern aircraft of Singapore Airlines build a good perspective to the customer for enhancing its profits sales. Besides, the new aircraft seems to reduce the maintenance time that can also decline the maintenance cost as well. Singapore Airlines is utilizing all of these strategies to develop its business to reach today position. Conclusion In conclude that, a different strategy has a different result and that also affect the development of its business scale such as Delta Airlines and Singapore Airlines. Delta Airlines utilize the mergers and acquisition strategy and Singapore Airlines utilize organic growth strategy. Therefore, their business scale has significantly different from each other. Meanwhile it found that effective growth strategy should also coordinate with other kind of strategies to attract more customers for enhancing the company growth such as Delta Airlines and Singapore Airlines which also coordinate with the differentiation strategy to enlarge its profits sales. One more important thing that, choosing the different growth strategy also depends on its sources such as Singapore Airlines which has Singapore governmentââ¬â¢s financial support, in contrast with Delta Airlines, it has even enough source to be organic growth. Appendix 1 Deltaââ¬â¢s M A timeline Appendix 2 PESTEL Analysis Appendix 3 Porterââ¬â¢s Five Forces Analysis Reference Chua, A n.d., Singapore Airlines (SIA). Accessed on 8 Nov 2014 http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_1705_2010-08-10.html Delta-Newsroom. Accessed on 25 Sep 2014 http://news.delta.com/History Delta TechOps websirte. Accessed on 8 Nov 2014 http://www.deltatechops.com/ Ireland, RD, Hoskisson, R Hitt, M 2008, Understanding Business Strategy: Concepts and cases, Cengage Learning. Karp, A 2014, Delta Air Lines earns $10.5 billion 2013 net profit. Accessed on 8 Nov 2014 http://atwonline.com/finance-amp-data/delta-air-lines-earns-105-billion-2013-net-profit Marquardt, M 2012, Global Leaders for the Twenty-First Century, SUNY Press. Roll, M 2005, Asian Brand Strategy: How Asia Builds Strong Brands, Palgrave Macmillan. Rosencrance, L 2004, Delta to use RFID tags to tack luggage. Accessed on 8 Nov 2014 http://www.computerworld.com/article/2564693/mobile-wireless/delta-to-use-rfid-tags-to-track-luggage.html Singapore Airlines website. Accessed on 8 Nov 2014 http://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/about-us/sia-history/ Sky Team website. Accessed on 8 Nov 2014 https//www.skyteam.com/en/ Star Alliance website. Accessed on 8 Nov 2014 http://www.staralliance.com/en/ Torr, J 2014, Singapore Airlines annual net profit down 5%, operating profit up 13%. Accessed on 8 Nov 2014 http://atwonline.com/finance-data/singapore-airlines-annual-net-profit-down-5-operating-profit-13 World Airline Awards website. Accessed on 8 Nov 2014 http://www.worldairlineawards.com/Awards_2014/Airline2014_top20.htm
Sunday, October 13, 2019
Nepal Essay -- Nepal Economy Culture Essays
Nepal Despite nine development plans spanning five decades, Nepal remains one of the worldââ¬â¢s poorest countries. Nepalââ¬â¢s underdevelopment is a result of the historical effects of unequal distribution of assets and social and economic status among different groups, and effects of recent development efforts that have generated further iniquitous income and assets distribution. Understanding Nepalââ¬â¢s underdevelopment has become particularly pressing in light of the Maoist insurgency that began in 1996. In addition to the deaths of more than 6,000 civilians, instability has caused economic stagnation, discouraged foreign investment, and prevented the expansion of the hydropower and tourism industries. Nepalââ¬â¢s future depends on an understanding of how its institutions have created inequity, and how it will respond to the need for institutional reform. Culturally, Nepal is a patriarchal and hierarchical society. Caste is important in the worldââ¬â¢s only Hindu nation. Gender, ethnicity, land ownership, and location are also historically important social determinants. Nepalââ¬â¢s history and geography have contributed to the perpetuation of these cultural values. Historically, Nepal has been very isolated. Situated between China and India, it is bisected by the Himalayas. The country is divided into three bands running from east to west ââ¬â the Himalayas furthest north, the flat and dry Terai in the South, and the middle hills sandwiched in between. Extreme differences in topography, and a lack of roadways and efficient transportation, have meant that communities tended to remain isolated and distinct, closely linked to traditional cultural practices and norms. Industry has been slow to change this, as most Nepalese depend upo... ...astern Nepal, respondents reported that ââ¬Å"society does not recognize the merit of physical work in agriculture; it encourages people to prefer leisure over work, and sees working people as belonging to the lower classes. So far, foreign aided projects have not been able to alter peopleââ¬â¢s attitudes towards physical work by providing alternate examplesâ⬠(Shrestha, 41). Even as development efforts increase, rural people mistrustful of exploitation, and depressed by development failures, are growing harder to reach. Nepalââ¬â¢s political crisis is a response to social inequalities increased and hardened by recent development. Future development will require radical reform: redistribution of resources and increased rural development, weakening of traditional power structures, increased access to and transparency in government, and independence from foreign interests.
Saturday, October 12, 2019
Immanuel Kants Theory of Judgment Essay example -- Immanuel Kant, 201
What are, and what are the differences between, judgments of perception and judgments of experience for Kant? Understanding how the mind works has been a major goal throughout philosophy, and an important piece of this deals with how humans come to experience the world. Many philosophers have attempted to investigate this issue, and Hume successfully proposed a framework by which human understanding could be understood. This writing, however, spurred Kantââ¬â¢s philosophical mind, awaking him from his ââ¬Å"dogmatic slumberâ⬠and leading him to develop his own framework to define thought. As Kant strongly disagreed with Humeââ¬â¢s stance that ââ¬Å"it was entirely impossible for reason to think a priori,â⬠he set to correct Humeââ¬â¢s misguided view of custom in regards to objective and subjective reality.à ¹ The outside world, as defined by Kant, is referred to as nature, and ââ¬Å"nature considered materialiter is the totality of all objects of experienceâ⬠(Kant, 36). Human interaction with nature leads to judgments of experience, and these are empirical by def inition (p. 38). Empirical judgments are not limited to judgments of experience, however. Judgments of perception and judgments of experience constitute all empirical judgments, and there are significant differences between the two (p. 38). In order to properly define judgments of perception and judgments of experience, one must first examine the general framework for thought that precedes them. Kant begins by breaking cognition into two distinct parts: analytic and synthetic judgments (p. 9). Analytic judgments are simply statements about the status of some object, and essentially serve as definitions. Analytic judgments are true by virtue, as they ââ¬Å"express nothing in the predicate but what has... ... when looking at pure understanding. Because these concepts exist a priori, it is interesting that they are used in the understanding of experience. Kant is careful in his application of his framework, however, as a goal in his writing was to outline boundaries of metaphysics as a science, and to determine if ââ¬Å"such a thing as metaphysics be at all possibleâ⬠(p. 1). Unfortunately for Kant, it is impossible for all things to be described with objective reality, as seen in his case of the soul (p. 86). While ââ¬Å"determinable bounds [to reason] cannot be thought,â⬠Kant successfully established a framework to examine thought and experience (p. 87). This framework exists in itself as subjective, however, and truly shows how pervasive metaphysics is. Works Cited Kant, Immanuel. Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics. New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1950.
Friday, October 11, 2019
Forgiveness in Personal life
Forgiveness is a superior moral trait and has great reward for the one who forgives. Forgiveness is one of the moral traits recommended in the Quran: Hold to forgiveness, command what is right, and turn away from the ignorant. (Qur'an, 7: 199). In another verse Allah commands: ââ¬Å"They should rather pardon and overlook. Would you not love Allah to forgive you? Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful. â⬠(Qur'an, 24:22) Those who do not abide by the moral values God has commanded find it very difficult to forgive others. Because, they are easily angered by any error committed. God knows that forgiveness is not a very easy thing to do and sometimes it is very hard, that is why HE has declared it as a very superior deed. ââ¬Å"The repayment of a bad action is one equivalent to it. But if someone pardons and puts things right, his reward is with Allahâ⬠(Qur'an, 42:40). Even though many people may say they have forgiven someone who has offended them, it nevertheless takes a long time to free themselves of the hatred and anger in their hearts. Their behavior tends to betray that anger and it destroys relationships. I believe if forgiveness isnââ¬â¢t granted from heart in good faith, its not complete forgiveness. Words are worthless if actions donââ¬â¢t follow. Forgiveness in Workplace: At the organization level forgiveness is associated with higher morale and satisfaction, greater social capital, trust, and caring relationships. Forgiveness does not require abandoning anger or resentment, nor does it require pardoning or dismissing the offense. It involves acknowledging and reframing negative feelings and attitudes. Forgiving organizations experience more trusting alliances, productivity, quality, customer care, and a sense of calling among employees. Forgiveness is active not passive. It involves not only the cancellation of negative emotions and attitudes, but also the development of positive emotions and attitudes. Forgiveness is not very common in corporate world. If an employee commits a mistake, itââ¬â¢s not taken as mistake keeping in view of history of employeeââ¬â¢s performance; rather employee is being fired or demoted depending on the severity of mistake. I believe the reason of non-tolerance of the mistakes nd lack of forgiveness culture in organizations is the flow of the talent that is available in the market. Organizations that are short sighted and do not consider their employees as their human capital, doesnââ¬â¢t promote forgiveness in the workplace. Such organizations face huge employee performance issues due to lack of employee morale and employee retention issues as employees always stay insecure about their jobs. When managers and leaders in an organization fail to forgive employees, there is a lack of personal and team productivity that leads to aggressive behavior of employees. An organizational culture that does not promote forgiveness will be engaged in negative and destructive politics which will eventually decrease the organizationââ¬â¢s effectiveness. Each of us can help create a greater sense of forgiveness in the culture of our organizations by (1) honestly evaluating ourselves and (2) seeking forgiveness for our mistakes. Based on my personal experience, there are two examples in one case where forgiveness was granted and the other where it wasnââ¬â¢t. First example involves one of the recruiter in our department, who took an initiative and prepared a report that included an analysis of different resource pools & sites the company was using, the success level of each sourcing pool and how many employees were hired from that source. She sent the report to head of the HR department. HR head received her report well, but her manager was angry about her apparent lack of respect and disregard for the chain of command. Their working relationship became strained in the weeks that followed. The second involved myself, at one of my startup jobs, I was responsible for recruiting and on boarding. My job responsibilities included recruiting, sending offer letter, informing IT about the employee date so that the new hire computer is ready on the start date. One time I forgot to notify the IT department about the start date. The first day of the new hire, who was a director level candidate, office wasnââ¬â¢t ready. He had to wait for an hour before IT had to set up everything on the short notice and urgent basis. Although my manager was very angry, but he supported me and was able to see past my mistake, considered my performance to date, and recognized my potential of the person. Although I was held accountable but my manager did not hold the incident against me. In fact, manager suggested that I devise a solution to the problem so that such an occurrence would not happen again. I documented the whole onboarding procedure with all the steps that ensured the all steps are followed properly in the future.
Thursday, October 10, 2019
Company Analysis of General Electric Essay
Running a company often centers on the idea of considering both positive and negative factors in order to then hand down executive decisions accordingly. To best understand the strengths and weakness of any given company, one must understand its base operations and the scope of industry in which the firm exists. In doing so, one would have a bigger picture of how the company operates and how success has been fostered in, as well as highlight in areas in which the organization could stand to see improvement. In this vein, a full analysis of General Electric was conducted, which includes an overview of the company including background and position in the manufacturing industry, as well as insight into the companyââ¬â¢s management structure. Additionally, the companyââ¬â¢s financials will be examined so that a recommendation can be made. Overview of Company According to the company website (2014) General Electricââ¬â¢s slogan is ââ¬Å"Imagination at Workâ⬠and to this extent, the organization has been fostering in imagination for quite some time. According to the research, the company was founded in 1878 by Thomas Edison in Menlo Park. Edison is most notable for inventing the light bulb, and as such, this corporation is one of the largest companies on Earth more than a hundred years later (General Electric, 2014). After getting its start in the 1800s the company, being a leader in the industry of manufacturing and resting solely on the idea of innovation and inventions, began to manufacture different items across a wide variety of industries. According to the GE company website (2014) these inventions were primarily Edisonââ¬â¢s own, and by the early 1900s the company, even against the Great Depression, the organization continued to make appliances for the home, delved into aviation technology, and began to further expand into new markets. As the research notes, because of this the company began to break up into several subdivisions such as GE Consumer Finance or GE energy in order to fully control its wide scope of offerings (General Electric, 2014). By the 2000s, the corporate website notes that the company further expanded into new markets, both online and for various infrastructures and industries around the world. Today, the company hasà also delved into clean energy technology and pulls in an estimated $2 billion for electronics and home appliance sales alone (General Electric, 2014). Management Structure Looking to research conducted by Abetti (2011) one can see that the organization has one of the most complex management structures of all major conglomerates. In addition, as the company website (2014) points out, this structure has been in effect since the 1920s and instead of reevaluating this system; the company has only expanded upon it. According to Abetti (2011) at the top of the management structure, governing all areas is the Chairman and CEO, as well as the board of directors. Next, according to the research are two specific divisions: external and internal company functions. Internally, the company has global research, human resources, and its finance department, while externally; the company has commercial and public relations, business development, and its legal department. As noted by the company website (2014) next the company has its specific divisions or sectors, which this breakup is most notable for. These are as followed: Global Growth and Operations, Energy, Capital, home and Business Solutions, Healthcare, Aviation, and Transportation. It should be noted that each of these organizations exist as their own subdivision and entity, following the GE name. For instance, there is GE Energy, GE Home & Business Solutions, and so forth. This kind of management structure is beneficial to the company in two different ways. To start, it allows the organization to have each subdivision hand down its own division and be more or less contained within its own scope of industry, however, it also ensures that a high level of guidance will still ensure that upper-management is still well aware of what kind of decisions and operations these subdivisions will invest into. In this vein, according to research that has been conducted by Souraj (2010) each of these divisions utilize a lean manufacturing type of approach in order to ensure that all waste is eliminated and the sectors are utilizing the resources to the fullest. This ensures that the company is being cost effective in its approach and it allows the company to be innovative, without creating the potential problem of being extremely wasteful, which would then cut back on the organizationââ¬â¢s profitability (Souraj, 2010). Moreover, each division also utilizes a six sigma approach in order to achieve near perfection. Essentially, this process rests on considering how each sector is doing in its own industry. For instance, despite the fact that GE Energy has seen slowed economic growth, this does not mean that GE Home & Business Solutions has as well. As such, utilizing a six sigma approach will allow the organization to consider the needs and goals of GE Energy before planning for solutions accordingly. Financial Overview According to research that has been drafted by Abetti (2011) by the year 2000 ââ¬Å"General Electric was the worldââ¬â¢s most valuable company with a market capitalization of $520 billion.â⬠However, as the research points out, by 2008, after the U.S. recession led to a national economic downtown this figure had fallen 69% percent to $163 billion (Abetti, 2011). In addition, the global financial system has been equally a cause of concern and if one can consider the U.S. economic downturn the cause of the decrease in market capitalization, the worldââ¬â¢s economy is the factor that has kept the companyââ¬â¢s overall financial state lower than usual (Abetti, 2011). Although, the research points out that the organization has began to see a small increase, and thus, the company has hopes that these numbers will turn around, growth and expansion has not been seen as it had prior to 2008 (Abetti, 2011). This is largely attributed to the belief that the worldââ¬â¢s financial system will see an upwards swing as a natural flow and with the idea that expansion can be considered a way for the company to cut back losses in some areas, while gaining them in others. According to research conducted by Abetti (2011) this line of thinking will not lead to the company to success and instead the company should ââ¬Å"go back to GEââ¬â¢s traditional core competencies and divest non-core businesses.â⬠Moreover, the company should also expand its globalization efforts, rebuild trust between employees and the company, strengthen financial and auditing function authority, and continue to invest in R & D. Although, many of these considerations are subjective, they bear a great deal of consideration when examining the companyââ¬â¢s financials going forward. Conclusion General Electric remains one of the largest companies in the world, despite some of the misgivings mentioned previously. The company has a number of strengths including a diverse portfolio, existing in a wide range of industries, and its ability to be industry-leaders when it comes to innovation and gauging what products will be a success in the future. With this in mind, however, one recommendation that can be made to the company, based on the available research is for the organization to focus on current offerings, rather than continue to seek after non-traditional competencies. Moreover, the company must consider R & D efforts in order to continue to be the forbearers in innovation and creativity. Doing so will open the company to new markets, rather than the company attempting to slip into them and then compete with others in the market as a smaller entrant. If the company commits to these factors than there remains little doubt that General Electric will go back to being one of the worldââ¬â¢s most valuable and innovative companies. References Abetti, P.A. (2011). General Electric at the crossroads: the end of the last US conglomerate? International Journal of Technology Management, 54(4), 345-368. General Electric. (2014). From Inspiration to Industry. Retrieved from http://www.ge.com/about-us/history/1878-1904. Souraj, S. (2010). The integration of Six Sigma and Lean Management. International Journal of Lean Six Sigma, 2040-4166.
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