INSURANCE REPORT

May 21, 2007

 

Adrian

CellTech Laboratories Ltd.

 

 

Dear Mr. :

 

Good day! I would like to ask for further information regarding the insurance report that you want made. There is just a few more information that I would wish to know.

           

Since you are the sole breadwinner of the family and that you still have a child at school, what type of insurance would you like to have made? I think it would be very wise to apply for disability insurance or life insurance since it is one may really not be certain of the future. This way, one can be certain that the dependents that are left behind would not have to carry the burden of living their life difficultly.

 

If you have any other concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

 

Sincerely yours,

 

Agnes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May 21, 2007

 

Bob,

CellTech Laboratories Ltd.

 

 

Dear Bob,

 

Good day! I just have to confirm and add a few minor details regarding your insurance report request.

 

Since you are a regular employee of CellTech, I recommend that you demand for workers compensation. This way, you are assured that even though you may be sick or disabled as of the moment, you would still receive compensation as you regularly would. I also recommend that you sign up for life insurance, in case anything happens because as you mentioned in the interview, you have four schoolchildren with one being disabled.

 

If you have any further requests or questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

 

Sincerely yours,

 

Agnes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May 21, 2007

 

 

 

Claire,

CellTech Laboratories Ltd,

 

 

Dear Claire:

 

Good Day! I just have little information that I would like to add before making your requested insurance report.

 

Since you only have one dependent, your husband, I recommend that you get for yourself life insurance. This is a very good investment because you are assured that the ones you leave be hind would not be left empty handed. Also, I recommend that you demand for worker’s compensation. I also recommend that you sign up for trauma insurance and total and permanent disability insurance. These types of insurances would be highly useful in case something happens which cannot be controlled or altered.

 

If you have any further questions of requests, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

 

 

Sincerely yours,

 

Agnes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Insurance Report

CellTech Laboratories Ltd.

 

Please find the following attached report regarding the insurance coverage of CellTech Laboratories Ltd. The following is a report regarding the risks taken, risk management strategies of CellTech and insurance reports. The paper is an analysis on the possible risks that may affect the company in the near future.

The following is taken from the report. There are certain tools and techniques for Risk Identification in terms of: Ø      Recognize the value of understanding the tools and techniques and the outputs of risk identification Ø      Identify the steps to performing documentation reviews Ø      Apply the steps to prepare for a documentation review for a given project Ø      Sequence the steps of the interviewing technique used for risk identification Ø      Apply the interviewing technique to gather information about project risks, given a scenario

 

Insurance benefits and coverage of employees are also included in the paper.

If any further issue regarding the report may arise, please contact me immediately.

Agnes

CellTech Laboratories Ltd.

Business Insurance Report

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Executive Summary

          CellTech Laboratories Ltd is a small biotech business providing lab services, pharmaceuticals, and specialized testing kits to vets, agribusinesses, and other laboratories. It is mainly run by Adrian Hall, the founder, three shareholders and the senior management staff.

            The general objective of the paper is to provide detailed insurance coverage for the company, its employees and the shareholders as well. Risk management refers to keeping to the positive side of risks. Risks are not entirely negative. They allow positive sides that can work to the risk-taker’s advantage. Therefore, risk management are present in the development and implementation of a business’s risk-taking strategy and it is anticipated that most individuals offering such risks are likely to be acting from non-commercial motives and will encourage highly functional, value-added, access and the Individual IP owners will appreciate the benefits of making risks.

            In the light of risk taking and management, it is also vital that one must take a step to insure the risks one might take. Insurance plays a great role in the advancement of a business. Whether the risk taken is successful or not, it is always good to have been insured, it is some sort of back-up plan.

The myriad of risks that can cause a small or midsize company to crumple has increased its number throughout the years. In the words of  of , a Towers Perrin company, a number of small and midsize companies are facing the equal number of risks as those of large multinational ones (, 1992). Also , a number of small-scale companies who purchase insurance coverage have increased in number over the last few years. In addition to that, the same employee-compensation problems are occurring in small companies same as those in large companies.

            In the context of this paper, the insurance coverage and the risks covered by the insurance will be discussed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table of contents

 

Executive Summary

Introduction and Background

Risk planning and identification

Risk analysis, evaluation and treatment

Conclusion

Recommendations

List of references

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction

The quality, risk and procurement management and insurance report will examine the risks taken by CellTech, the needs of the company and its shareholders; the need to establish the appropriate levels of quality and build quality into the project processes and deliverables; how to ensure that the appropriate quality is given to each and every one of involved in the company; planning for the level of risk in a project and identifying the risks and uncertainties that could impact on the company; analysis and evaluation of the identified risks; definition of risk treatment strategies so that appropriate plans are in place for anticipated events; planning an appropriate procurement strategy for the project; review of the various procurement strategies and their implications for stakeholders; procedures for procurement solicitation and source selection; monitoring and control of the procurement processes; and identifying coverable (insurable) aspects of the company  and its shareholders.

In the report and interview conducted with CallTech’s shareholders, we have identified the factors that may play a major role in the business insurance report. The report would cover key person, debt and obligation and share purchase cover.

          CallTech is a 15 year old company which has been run by the founder, , three shareholders and a senior management team. CellTech is financially sound. The latest books are not yet  complete, but Bob and the company accountant have advised you the company is likely to have made taxable profit of around like $400,000, valuing it at $2.4 million (based on a generally agreed EBIT times 6). CellTech pays out 50% of available surpluses after tax as tax paid dividends, and this expected to continue. Profit growth is expected to be strong over the next five years, mainly because of the rapid growth of several of their agribusiness customers. They conservatively believe its value will double during this time, and then level out.

            As was mentioned in the interview, CellTech is leasing its purpose-built

and ideally located premises for six years. It already used up the four years of its leasing term, and with a three-year right to renewal. An occupancy cost (lease and operating expenses) is $124,000 pa. The company is planning to purchase some high-tech equipment for $800,000 in two months. The purchase will be financed partly by using surplus cash, but will require additional borrowing of $450,000. The three shareholders, who are also company directors, will provide personal guarantees covering the full amount of all loans. Total current company debt is $350,000.

            There have been talks about two companies interested in buying the company. These are two multinational suppliers. They are intent on purchasing the company whether it be available now or in the future.

 

 

 

 

 

Discussion

Risk Planning and Identification

The risk management planning will recognize the benefits of understanding risk management planning and identify the inputs used in planning risk management activities as well as identify the key components of a risk management plan. There are such inputs to risk identification like for instance, in dealing with the company’s risks; it is usually a must to have better understanding of the inputs to its risk identification of their business risks and of sources of information. There are certain tools and techniques for Risk Identification in terms of: Ø      Recognize the value of understanding the tools and techniques and the outputs of risk identification Ø      Identify the steps to performing documentation reviews Ø      Apply the steps to prepare for a documentation review for a given project Ø      Sequence the steps of the interviewing technique used for risk identification Ø      Apply the interviewing technique to gather information about project risks, given a scenario In addition to that, in insuring a company and its shareholders, certain risk planning is developing and documenting organized, comprehensive, and interactive strategies and methods for identifying risks.  It is also used for performing risk assessments to establish risk handling priorities, developing risk handling plans, monitoring the status of risk handling actions, determining and obtaining the resources to implement the risk management strategies.  Risk planning is used in the development and implementation of required training and communicating risk information up and down the project stakeholder organization.  There are several key elements in successfully implementing an effective risk management process and each is necessary for risk management planning. Risk Management is an ongoing process - it's "cradle to grave", starting on receipt of an invitation to tender, covering the bid period, the life of the project up to delivery then on through subsequent support phases. Furthermore, risk taking is essential to progress, and failure is often a key part of learning. On the other hand, the inevitability of risks does not imply the inability to recognize and manage risks to minimize potential negative consequences while retaining the opportunities for creating new and better opportunities for the company.

The paradigm is represented as a circle to emphasize that risk management is a continuous process while the arrows show the logical and temporal flow of information between the activities in risk management. Communication is placed in the center of the paradigm because it is both the conduit through which information flows and, often, is the major obstacle to risk management and before risks can be managed, they must be identified. Identification surfaces risks before they become problems and adversely affect a company or its shareholders. There has to be developed techniques for surfacing risks by the application of a disciplined and systematic process that encourages project personnel to raise concerns and issues for subsequent analysis. Analysis is the conversion of risk data into risk decision-making information. Analysis provides the basis for the project manager to work on the “right” risks.

The focus of the risk identification method described here is on risks that are known whether or not they have yet been communicated to project management, and on unknown risks. The risk identification method achieves the desired focus through the interdependence of the instrument, and its application process. Effective risk identification must cover all key development and support areas of the project. The risk identification process must create and sustain a non-judgmental and non-attributive risk elicitation environment so that tentative or controversial views are heard.

 

Potential Risk Treatments

Once risks have been identified and assessed, all techniques to manage the risk fall into one or more of these four major categories:

Ø      Transfer

Ø      Avoidance

Ø      Reduction

Ø      Acceptance

 

The ideal use of these strategies may not be possible. Some of them may involve trade offs that are not acceptable to the organization or person making the risk management decisions.

 

Conclusion

 

            The insurance of the company and its shareholders is a must not only for large, multinational companies but for small-scale companies as well. Therefore, there has to develop the rule of basics from the procurement strategies, identify operational improvement plans and be able to define the organizational and system savings required to support the management of its respected procurement as well as providing clear access upon the recent infrastructure for procurement strategy systems and identify gaps in process support, information analysis and integration of development. ( and , 1994) There defines requirement for a more cohesive and integrated procurement platform in order to determine and decide a practical and rollout procurement strategic planning as useful as possible within the new functionality of the development realization as it focuses particularly on unifying strategic layers that the process have spend and by acting out on the desired information from the best strategy can be improved continuously from its   transactions and application drives for the process of procurement systems. ( and , 1994)

Recommendations

In order to consistently deliver the best possible services into the market for its business through effective procurement and partnerships as it essential to take into account whole life costing, innovation and continual improvement for the strategies used. (, 1994) Thus, the process of its procurement ways can be realized through providing leadership and building capacity for procurement though effective management, training and support. Aside, it is useful to have better process delivering excellent structures and procedures to facilitate effective procurement process and compliance. There has the environment stimulating the way it deals to the procurement matters working with the organizations both internal and external to execute and apply best practice of the procurement strategies involved. There should be certain guidelines as contained elements of strategy but the authority for the development of best practice and the utilization of procurement skills may possibly be an unclear notion. (, 1994)

 

There has to be a well developed strategy providing:

 

Ø      A clear description of its procurement arrangements

Ø      Authority for the timely application of procurement expertise

Ø      For its application to all non-payroll expenditure wherever it may potentially add value and give assurance on propriety and regularity

Ø       strategy approved at Management Board and participation of procurement staff

Ø      Development of supplier base and modern procurement practice

Ø      Restriction of right to negotiate prices, enter into contracts and to amend or alter contracts to procurement staff trained to exercise the necessary skills

Ø      Management and enforcement of contracts to completion

Ø      Standards and behavior in connection with procurement

Ø      Setting of targets & performance monitoring

 

List of references:

Plea Bargain

Is the Adversarial Process Fair?

 

            The adversarial process in the US court system refers to the reliance upon the skills of the advocates who are representing the cause of their clients in an ongoing case to determine the truth (Anders v California (1967); United States v Cronic 1984). This system is differentiated from the inquisitorial system where a judge or group of judges conducts the investigation of the case. In the adversarial process, judges play the role of ensuring the application of due process such as deciding questions of admissibility of evidence and achievement of justice. ( 1977)

 

There are two significant ways of differentiating the adversarial from the inquisitorial process. First aspect of differentiation is the process following the admission of guilt of the defendant. In an adversarial process, the case proceeds to sentencing after the admission of guilt because is no longer any controversy to be settled. However, the process does not work in case of false confession so that in most states, the courts mandates or allows the defendant to have allocution. In the inquisitorial system, the confession is included as evidence but does not remove the requirement of case presentation by the prosecution. In the adversarial system, plea bargain is allowed and many cases before the courts have been determined using the plea bargain. Second aspect of differentiation is the rules of evidence. Since evidence in the adversarial system is deemed presented to laymen the rules on evidence are strict when compared to the inquisitorial evidence when the evidence is presented to jurists with the ability to distinguish the merit of evidence. The admissibility of hearsay is strictly considered in an adversarial process relative to an inquisitorial process. (1977)

 

            In criminal cases governed by the adversarial process, the presence of counsel is inevitable (Strickland v Washington 1984; Penson v Ohio 1988). However, representation by counsel was only declared by the US Supreme Court as a right in 1963 through Gideon v Wainwright. In this case, the court held that courts are mandated to by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to provide counsel to defendants in criminal cases without the financial capacity to acquire legal services. This decision enhanced the adversarial process by ensuring that all defendants in criminal cases have lawyers to advocate their cause and rights in court.

 

            Reliance upon the advocacy skills of lawyers in the adversarial process gives rise to several issues hinging upon the fairness of the process. The first issue is the lawyer’s possible manipulation of truth by advising a client not to testify and provide evidence. In a criminal case, the defendant has the option to choose whether to testify or not. In case, the defendant chooses to testify, his testimony is subject to cross-examination with the possibility of being declared guilty of perjury in case of any validated lies. Since, defendants may not have the proper skills to make the decision lawyers influence their decision. In case putting the defendant on the stand would be detrimental to him, the lawyer would invoke the defendant’s right not to testify preventing the presentation of possibly self-incriminating evidence.

 

            Another issue is the possibility that a favourable judgment may be obtained only due to the personal appeal of the lawyer and not based on evidence. Juries, despite their duty to be unbiased and decide based on the weight of evidence, form impressions of the parties to the case and their respective lawyers. A charismatic lawyer would likely have a captive audience with the jury compared to a less or non-charismatic adversarial opponent. This offers an important issue in the delivery of justice.   

 

            Still another issue is that the adversarial process is akin to ancient systems of discerning the truth such as trial by ordeal because the basis of deciding the case depends upon the persuasiveness of the parties and their advocates to their cause. The adversarial process is considered as a display of rhetoric prowess among lawyers with little weight given to the evidence presented.

 

            Despite these issues, the adversarial process is fair because it allows the parties the freedom to settle the case amicably through plea bargaining giving the defendant to choose a course of action. Concurrently, it is also fair because the state is not given any room to develop biases against the defendant because of the protection given by the Fifth Amendment to defendants in a plea bargain by preventing the judge and jury from developing any negative notions against the defendant. In relation to the role of counsel, the presumption is of course their diligent performance of their duty but the law does not hesitate to sanction any lawyer proven to have erred in his legal duties.

 

 

 

International criminal law research proposal paper

Research problem

The International Criminal Court came into existence on 1 July 2002. The new Court has jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes; but the Court can only try international crimes committed on or after 1 July 2002. Any national, from any of the more than eighty states that have ratified the Statute of the Court, can be a potential defendant before the new Court. In addition, the Court will have jurisdiction over crimes committed in state parties, even when perpetrated by nationals from states which have not become parties to the Statute. Only individuals can be tried in the new Court. It will not be possible to bring cases against states, nor there will be cases against political organizations or companies (Rosenne 2004). The new International Criminal Court's Statute includes accomplice liability not only for those who aid and abet, but also for those who otherwise assist. The complicity concept in the Statute is designed to cover those who act for the purpose of facilitating crimes. In any event, the Court can impose penalties that range from fines, a specific length of imprisonment, to life sentence. An attempt was made to limit the maximum sentence to 30 years' imprisonment, as many states were opposed to the principle of handing down life sentences. In the end, a compromise was reached which gives the Court the right to hand down a life sentence if the crime is deemed grave enough, but includes a clause stipulating a regular review procedure and the right to claim parole irrespective of where the sentence is served (Sands 2003). The proposed paper wants to determine if the international criminal court is a solution to international criminal justice or simply politics, having in mind the United Nations Security Council veto power. The paper wants to understand the concept of international criminal court.

 

Importance of the paper

The proposed paper will help in determining the benefits of the international criminal court. The proposed paper will analyze if the international criminal court would bring justice. The proposed paper will analyze if the international criminal court is only made for political purposes.

 

Literature Review

In the new court system all nation states will be able to demand exclusive jurisdiction for national prosecution before their own courts. At first sight, this probably seems like a huge defect in the Statute. But it may be that the principle of complementarity will create a new international legal order. In preparation for the entry into force of the Statute of the International Criminal Court, dozens of states around the world are considering national legislation to enable them not only to surrender suspects to the new Court, but also to assert jurisdiction over various categories of individuals accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. This is partly self-interested. Without such legislation it may be impossible for a government to reclaim a case for trial at the national level. But the passage of such legislation has led to a flurry of activity with regard to possible national trials for war crimes and crimes against humanity (Light & Smith 2001). The complementarity at the heart of the Statute has generated a complementary transnational legal order for the prosecution of international crimes. Attempts to establish an international criminal court had run into the sands and were widely seen as utopian. International criminal law had developed in a different direction, and the enforcement of crimes which were inherently international in character or context had been almost entirely ineffective. An international criminal court would have to be seen as legitimate, to comply with standards for the rule of law which we have come to expect from national criminal justice systems. Yet it would only operate on an occasional basis. This created an issue for international human rights and the rule of law. It was of particular importance in criminal cases (Ralph 2007). The international criminal court has made changes in the policies of countries and states.

Methodology

Sample collection

To determine the number of respondents that will be asked to participate and give information regarding the study convenience sampling will be used. Convenience sampling means to collect or interview individuals who actually experience the phenomenon. Convenience sampling will focus on individuals that experienced diabetes mellitus or has someone in the family that experienced such disease.

 

Methodology/Data Collection

Primary and secondary sources of data would be used for the study. Surveys will the primary method of data collection.  Internet surveys would be the primary source of data. Internet surveys have been both hyped for their capabilities and criticized for the security issues it brings. Internet surveys would also require less time for the researchers and the respondents.  Secondary source of data would involve the use of books and journals.

 

Data Analysis

            In analyzing the collected data, the paper will be divided into the demographic profiles of the respondents and the ideas of respondents. The data that will be acquired will be put into graphs and tables.

 

References

Light, M & Smith, KE 2001, Ethics and foreign policy, Cambridge

University Press, Cambridge, England.

 

Ralph, J 2007, Defending the society of states: Why America

opposes the International Criminal Court and its vision of world

society, Oxford University Press, New York.

 

Rosenne, S 2004, The perplexities of modern international law,

Nijhoff, M, Boston.

 

Sands, P (ed.) 2003, From Nuremberg to the Hague: The future of

International Criminal Justice, Cambridge University Press, New

York.

 

 

DISCUSS THE IMPACT OF E-COMMERCE ON THE MARKETING STRATEGIES OF INTERNATIONAL HOTEL COMPANIES

The Impact of E-commerce on the Marketing Strategies of International Hotel Companies

 

            The hotel industry can potentially use e-commerce to improve its primary and support marketing management operations by using the new technologies in the value chain. This essay generally narrates the impact of e-commerce on the marketing strategies of international hotel companies. Specifically, it tackles on the concept of e-commerce, marketing mix structure, and examples of different international hotels that ventured into e-commerce. 

 

Definition of e-commerce

            E-commerce is another name for electronic commerce. It offers what many people believe to be an effective property of the World Wide Web (WWW). The property of the web is the ability to adjust sites to the different needs, wants, desires and, even personalities of each individual customer. The increasing competition worldwide, increasing demands made by customers and the rapid pace of change in technology are forcing companies to review the way they do business, what kinds of products and services they offer, and the speed with which they release products to market. The term e-commerce is simply defined as transacting through electronic means. Gathering, relaying and exchanging information electronically are all covered by e-commerce. Electronic media used for e-commerce can be through the internet, telephone or fax machines ( 2002). At present, these e-commerce methodologies are very significant in the business field, thus, the interchangeable term, e-business, was introduced. The scope of e-business covers various business and marketing processes that are performed through networks mediated by computer systems.

 

The Impact of e-Commerce in Marketing Strategies of International Hotels

            The use of electronic business processes allowed organizations to carry out more efficient activities, including buying and selling processes, production and management. The basis of e-business is on the processing and transmission of digitized information such as sound, text and images from one computer to another electronic instrument or device ( 2001). According to the         (1999), businesses have various reasons for introducing e-commerce into their operations. One of these reasons is the ability of e-commerce to reduce the costs incurred from business transactions. The inexpensive cost of internet application allows small and medium sized companies to avail to e-commerce’s many benefits. The ability of e-commerce to improve the quality of both product and customer services also encourages companies to use this business trend. Conducting transactions through e-commerce channels allows faster delivery of services, which in turn leads to higher levels of customer satisfaction. Finally, businesses engage themselves to e-commerce in order to cope with competition. As more and more businesses are recognizing the role of e-commerce to successful business operation, other businesses would have to integrate this trend as well into their respective operations so as to adapt and maintain their businesses afloat.

            Generally speaking, e-commerce using the internet as the main infrastructure enhances sales activity and revenue generation ( 2002). This is due to the fact that the internet uses a single-button-click process that leads to the appearance of various data in a significantly brief time allocation. Speed may be considered as one of internet’s feature in the e-commerce. Through the speed, it enables business to automate many operations and create worldwide products, 24-hours per day at low cost (2002). In the hotel industry, such speed is advantageous in terms of overseas corporate or personal travel appointments wherein there is a need to immediate reserve for a room accommodation. Online reservation is faster and hassle free. Of particular example, Hilton Hotel implemented an electronic ticketing scheme through their website in order to make an easier booking of rooms and meeting facilities (2000). According to        , Hilton Hotel’s senior VP for e-business and distribution, the internet facilitates the hotel’s interaction and helps in the transformation of customer-business relationship.

Meanwhile, the increasing competition worldwide, demands made by customers, and rapid pace of change in technology force companies to review the way they do business, kinds of products and services they offer, and speed with which they release products to market ( 2002;  1994). E-commerce empowers customers to conduct business from corner to corner of the globe and enhances their array of product choices and preferences and information about prices. In the hotel industry, the presence of complete information with regards to prices brings out favorable response to the hotel clients. This is because the client will save more time by just looking directly into the price list instead of calling over the line. Hotel owners and operators who understand and implement the science of e-commerce will be able to permanently survive competition while those who do not may be out of business (2000).

Internet is also dynamic and decentralized. This technology brought shopping to consumers with innovative types of market for information. In click of a button, consumers will have a wide choice of products to purchase. It provides very satisfactory global marketing application ( 2000). E-commerce facilitates wide market coverage for products and services. In international hotel operations, the presence of websites allows the potentialities of marketing across geographical borders. Foreign clients who are first-time visitors depend on the information about a particular hotel and its service provided in the web. There are several international hotels who invested in multilingual website and seen to be effective means in expanding geographical market coverage. For instance, Adlon Hotel in Stockholm increased its clientele by maintaining a website that caters to specific international languages such as German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Scandinavian languages and English (1998). Also, the application of multilingual website of Adlon Hotel reduced the amount of advertising using the mainstream media. As to this case, international advertising is cost effective and at the same time extensive in scope. Just by taking the pains of translating one single page of Adlon Hotel’s website and promoting these language gateways into the site, the marketing operations significantly improved ( 1998).

Using e-commerce technology such as the internet, the promotion of products and services of international hotels is more cost and time efficient. For instance, in the marketing communications mechanisms of international hotels (like advertising), management hope to create consistent brand images worldwide, spend less marketing resources in producing unified appeals, and use only one or a few international agencies to handle the company's entire advertising ( 1994;  1991;  1994). Today, internet advertising is among the most popular means of marketing promotion. Internet advertising or sometimes called web advertising is a type of advertising in which a person can control or customize the information according to his/her interest with the use of internet ( 2001). It provides instant interaction and connection to the consumers since the buyers or the audiences are the one who decides on what advertisement to view favorable to the field of their interest. The consumers are given the power to control the opportunity in establishing an on-line participation through the use of internet ( 1997;  2001). In Europe, Internet advertising revenues in the year 2000 reached an estimated amount of US$ 180 million in the UK and US$300 million in France ( 2001). With this innovation, internet advertising have gained significance in promoting the company’s products and services and have considered that the medium have been successful in providing the company to have instant interaction with the consumers which marked opportunity for the company to save time and money.

E-commerce enthusiasts are aware of the technical and financial advantages of using the internet as the infrastructure ( 2002). Internet-based commercial activities offers opening up of markets, improving information provisions about products, including non-corporate information (  2003;  1998; 2002). The Internet allows consumers much greater access to information, opening up the market and undermining monopolies. For international hotels and their marketing strategies, it is expected that e-commerce makes marketing procedures to be fast, cost saving, convenient and simple for consumers. With the presence of existing technology today, it allows consumers to focus their resources and make decisions through a series of self-interaction with the internet.

As to the case of Bass Hotel, the brewer and world's second largest hotel operator, it is predicted that it would hit its $1 billion annual target for internet room booking revenues within four years of using e-commerce (2000). In 2000, the company together with its 2,800 hotels with 450,000 rooms saw an increased of $12 million a month of hotel bookings over the internet. Accordingly, this figure represents almost 3% of the company's global revenue and it is perceived to double each day of operation ( 2000). In general reference to international hotel businesses, e-commerce provides competitive advantages ranging from cost and time effective mechanisms, expansion of market coverage, and integrated product and services promotions. However, there are some criticisms on e-commerce dealings ( 2000).  (1999) noted that most non-buyers criticize the internet's lack of human contact, personal privacy and credit card security, and cite a need for more time to make a decision. Another barrier on effective implementation of e-commerce is the consumers’ concern on online access and cost ( 1996). In some nations, internet access is only limited to business sites and schools. In some cases, the lack of appropriate training or education on using various e-commerce channels tend to be one of the barriers encountered by consumers.

Generally, there are numerous advantages of e-commerce and its related technologies (like the internet) to international hotel operations. However, analyst       (2000) declared that hotels have been rather late getting into the internet game. The implementation of e-commerce not only to international hotel business but to other businesses as well needs appropriate strategy and managerial research and development efforts. According to  (2004), appropriate strategy must reflect a company's customer type, product type, geographic scope, procurement and distribution channels, and so forth. He added that the consideration of timing and speed of entry into the e-commerce environment is important. Most importantly, businesses must know how to provide differentiation in the marketplace, since strategy is about being different. Thus, the international business environment worldwide departs with the traces of traditional marketing. Today, they engage in contemporary marketing experiences that include e-commerce and internet-based economic activities. For there are uncertain trends that emerge in the business internal and external setting, global firms like hotel bunnies use e-commerce as a marketing strategy to go along with the challenges of the more competitive and diverse global market.

             

 

References

With Appropriate Examples Critique Five (5) Barriers To Successful Controlling In Organizations?

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTROL BARRIERS

 

      There are many barriers to effective organization control this may come unpredictably without measures although most organizations observed projected future plans and budget but still the struggle for organizational control comes in the most unexpected time and nobody could ever expected it when and where it is going to happen but it should not hinder them to continue to develop and implement certain actions and future solutions of what may come. It is more essential to take calculated risks rather then prevent them in fact they cannot prevent such occurrences.  

      Legal Barriers, for example a certain company in Asia would like to expand in their locality they need to produce all legal documents to establish their business they must present municipal, police and safety clearance and others but if they have not pass such documents they may never even start their business. Amway is probably one of the biggest networking organizations but they have encountered several legal issues in other countries. In September 2006 they were banned in India and most of their offices have been closed because of illegal issues and business practices. In November of 2003 they paid $56 million dollars in California because of pyramiding allegation and many other legal controversies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amway

      Environmental Barriers including typhoon, climate change, earthquakes and other disasters are widespread in most regions especially in Asia. Many Japanese companies and organizations are still unable to recover their loses in last earthquake and tsunami during 2011, according to BBC news this is probably one of the most powerful and devastating earthquake that happened in Japan it even has 1000 aftershocks. Toyota Motors closed at least three factories and other offices that have the capacity to create 120,000 automobile per year when they are hit and they also decided to evacuate their employees in other countries for safety precautions but they can never recover some of their machineries and factories. Sony evacuated six major factories, refineries exploded, nuclear power plants shut down and thousands other companies has also lost their production. Environmental disasters also happened in any other countries including New Zealand, China and Philippines etc. in 2011. Environmental barrier is probably on of the most uncontrollable barriers that can affect an organization. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-11/toyota-other-japanese-companies-assessing-damage-from-miyagi-earthquake.html

      Political Barriers is another organizational hindrance although this is a more predictable risk. The Civil War in Syria still reflects a negative position in their country especially the trading, future investment and tourism has post a threat in their country. Companies and workers left them and still there are threats of war until today because there are about 14,000 people killed and detained with or without reasons because of political dilemma of the past when Ghadaffi are forced to step down in his position. There are still rebels and loyalists suffering and threatening each other, this can create so much impact of scarcity in organizations and in their government. One of the most unforgettable political barriers in organizations is the September 11, 2001 attack in New York City and Washington DC. Almost 3000 people have died.

      Technological Barriers has also post a threat in major industries and technology is needed. When most of the organization has made an update in their machineries and information technology compared to a company or government who never had much access in the recent changes in technology. This is probably one of the biggest factor why most countries in Africa is considered to be in a third world countries or newly developed countries because they still experienced poor access to electricity and communication that hinder their knowledge in basic computer education and telecommunication and production. They also lack in modern health care and medical facilities, they are sometimes dependent on the production of crops from other countries while they are left behind in the agriculture when Asian and nearby regions uses heavy machineries in farming while most of their farmers still use manual labor. They also used the most advance technology in their production in most of their factories while some countries in Africa used manual labor.

      Structural Barriers are usually concern in manpower or human resources these are organizational positioning of employees that concerned with basic human resource management functions. Employees should be placed according to their qualification and structural barrier becomes a management error when they employed their workers in unsuitable position. There are also lapses, insubordination, power struggle, strikes, corruption, cultural barriers and rallies that can happen in organizations because of structural barriers. This happens in most organizations like in US New Haven Connecticut Court in the case of White Reverse Discrimination when there are needs for firefighter’s promotion the local government favors black minority for promotion even if they failed the exam and the white majority was more qualified. http://articles.cnn.com/2009-06-29/politics/supreme.court.discrimination_1_promotional-exams-white-firefighters-test-results?

Identify four types of control mechanisms (ways controls are applied) for McDonalds

Identify four types of control mechanisms (ways controls are applied) for McDonalds

 

 

Control can be defined as a device or mechanism used to regulate or guide the operation of a machine, apparatus, or system. Organizations use controls to regulate their business processes, which include production, distribution, finance, and so on. Controls help organizations to restrain and correct atypical behavior, and to reduce and prevent the spread of problems and errors (Microsoft Technet, 2006). Control is described as one of the four fundamental functions of management which includes organizing, planning, and coordinating where organization controls describe the primary mechanisms that managers use to direct attention, motivate, and encourage McDonald’s members to act in desired ways to meet business objectives. Control mechanisms is defined by Boland (1979) as seeking compliance with established plans, standards, quality criteria, and in conformance with organizational goals and values in which can be both enabling and constraining to the organization.  Control mechanisms are used to monitor progress and evaluate performance. Businesses, like McDonalds must have control mechanism in order to be more efficient in managing their business organization.

 

Controls are implemented through internal controls, technology, social structure and culture. Internal controls are broadly defined as the standards and procedures that a company establishes to protect its assets (Kelleran, 2006). McDonald grows, it would tend to hire more people to help conduct the business. However, without these policies and procedures in which companies implement, it would be impossible for the company to protect its assets and conflicts may arise between the people in the organization. Standards and procedures must be implemented in the company. Personal control is defined as the dyadic relationship between the direct supervisor and subordinate. While social structure is embedded controls with policies, procedures, rules, well-defined job descriptions, career ladders and incentive schemes. On the other hand, culture is the workers' shared norms and values that shape behavior, order perception, and influence attitudes. A shared ideology obviates the need for extensive and explicit procedures and rules, providing a philosophy of interests and norms from which members can deduce an almost limitless number of specific rules to suit varying conditions.

The company’s Code of Conduct adhere highest levels of ethical business practices in which guidelines for ethical conduct of directors, officers and employees are provided. It is the code in which the company put into practice. It is an expansive statement of principles of the company that should conform to their actions as part of the company. It means “being at McDonalds is striving toward the highest possible standard of ethical business conduct. In addition, the board of directors has a set of Corporate Governance Guidelines to provide framework so that the management and the board can operate effectively together to achieve the company’s objectives. Its corporate structure has established appropriate financial controls and internal process management. In order for the company to establish good control over the hired employees, it important to consider having potential employees completes an application form in their own handwriting. It is important also to have the potential employee over a series of two to three follow-up interviews with the other staff member. In the case, hiring is by committee in which one person talks to different people. It is also essential to ask a potential employee tough question. In this manner control of incapable applicants may be avoided and that managing these people would to much easier.

Control mechanism also can by specialization of labor or responsibilities, projects are made by teams. Division of responsibilities would be also a much easier to control since it would be easy to determine which work is effective and efficient and whose work are not. Performance management would be easy to accomplish. Having also specialization gives an individual more responsibilities and the sense of making works more efficient and effective.  McDonalds has set policies in their company in order to protect their most valuable assets which are the knowledge workers which are mostly engineers. The following are enumerated by Eric Schmidt and Hal Varian (2005). Hire by Committee in which the person being interviewed would actually at least half dozen of the company’s management and staff.  Cater to every need, provide standard package of fringe benefits, but on top of that are first-class dining facilities, gyms, laundry rooms, massage rooms, haircuts, carwashes, dry cleaning, commuting buses about anything a hardworking engineer might want.  Pack them in as McDonalds is team project, and teams have to communicate, employees are put within feet away from each other for ease of communication. Sitting next to knowledgeable employee was an incredibly effective educational experience.  Communicate effectively; allow management to stay in touch with what knowledge workers are thinking and vice versa. McDonalds has remarkably broad dissemination of information within the organization and remarkably few serious leaks.

 

 

HIT Problem Analysis

HIT Problem Analysis

 

Overview of the Case

The existence of information technology has brought transformation to the society specifically how business is done (Weill & Broadbent, 1999). The details of attaining business goals through increased effectiveness, efficiency and competitiveness integrated with information technology has sharpen the awareness of both IT and business individuals towards more strategically oriented strategies for planning and management.

With this, various organisations are able to develop an efficient information system which would enhance the competitiveness in the modern market. However, using or implementing information system requires a rigorous planning and implementation to avoid some problems. One of the companies which adhere to the use of information system is the Hong Kong International Terminal (HIT). However, it seems that the implementation of information system in the company has encountered problems and difficulties which affect the organisational performance of the company.

Primarily, the main goal of this paper is to analyse the existing problems with the Information technology implementation of HIT.

Problems of HIT with IT

            As mentioned, implementing information system is a complex process since the company may face different problems. In HIT, the implementation of their information system has been challenged by different problems in terms of the IT system itself, cost, competitor, land and staffing (See Appendix 1).

            One of the problems encountered by HIT upon their implementation of the IT system is with regards to competitors (See Figure 1).

Figure 1

Problems with Intense Competition

 

 

 

            The stiff competition within the market in which HIT belongs has been considered to affect the performance of their IT system. HIT’s major competitors are Yantian. Shekou, and Chiwan.  These China ports have considered having competitive advantage that HIT because of the attributed elements such as lower cost, cheap labours, and enough land to fulfill the demand. Such advantages of this port allow these industries to outgrow their competitor like HIT. In addition, another problem encountered by HIT is the aging of their infrastructure. Since competition in the market environment requires modern and state of the art infrastructure, HIT’s aging infrastructure are now facing major dilemma in terms of maintenance which affects its performance. It can be said that these problems should be given enough attention by the management to ensure that the company would sustain its position in the market and even outgrow their rivals.

Figure 2

Land Problems

 

           

Being an intensive industry, HIT needs more lands to cover their business operation needs (Krawjewski and Ritzman, 2002). However, because of the limited lands in Hong Kong, HIT could not be able to fulfill the demand of their target market. In addition, since HIT needs to have a container which is restricted, the safety requirement is being compromised. This problem can be considered as a major issue since the operations of the terminal is always restricted.

 

Figure 3

 

IT SYSTEM PROBLEMS

 

 

            The operations of HIT solely depends on its IT system, hence having problems with its system may cause major problems in the entire industry. It can be said that the industry is now facing problems in line with its NGen and OMS. For instance, if the system failure or electric power has been cut, all the documents need manual handling and this may affects the efficiency of their operation and the paralysis of the entire operation of the industry.

            Aside from these problems, issues also occur in cost. It an be said that the aging infrastructure of the company requires intensive financial resources to be maintained or the industry has an option of totally transform their infrastructure which is more technologically advanced. In this regard, the company faces major dilemma on how they would be able to have enough budget to maintain or change their infrastructure.

            In addition, problems in HIT also occur in terms of their staffing. It can be said that the HIT is experiencing difficulties in recruiting new staff that would handle their 24 hour operation.  The staffs needed will be working in shifting with a monotonous and hush job. In this regard, the company is also having problems in retaining their employees to junior level. This problem can be rooted to the inability of the management to motivate their employees.

 

Conclusion and Recommendation

            Based on the analysis, it can be said that HIT should consider and change management approach. The problems that have been noted in this analysis should not be taken for granted because these problems are major problems which have a negative impact on the overall operation of the industry. Hence, in order for HIT to have competitive position in the terminal industry, they should always allow innovation and changes within the technical and technological aspects of the company.

 

Appendix

Appendix 1

Reference:

Weill, P. & Broadbent, M. (1999). Leveraging the new Infrastructure. Harvard        Business School Press.

 

Krawjewski, L.J. & Ritzman, L.P. (2002). Operations management: strategy and analysis. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.