Effects of Chinese tea culture on American’s life

Primarily, Chinese tea culture refers to the occasions when people consumed tea as well as how tea as prepared in China. Moreover, the tea culture in China is peculiar, and it differs from tea culture from other parts of the world such as European countries such as Britain and Japan in Asia on how it is prepared. Remarkably, tea being one of the most popular beverages across the globe it is regularly consumed both on formal and casual occasions. It is utilized in Chinese cuisine Chinese traditional medicine. Therefore, this paper seeks to underscore a critical discussion on the effects of Chinese tea culture on the American’s lives (Reid et al., 22).  

Notably, over the past few decades, United States has embraced the Chinese tea culture in their workplaces and restaurants, which was initially predominated by drip brew coffee from machines. Tea in America was originally meant for the elderly; nonetheless, this nation is outdated since drinking is synonymous with all ages and tea parties can be celebrated on many auspicious occasions from the minute to big family gatherings. Furthermore, tea is served, early in the morning, at dawn, and midday or whenever one feels like taking a cup of tea.

Remarkably, the Chinese tea culture has been embraced enormously due to the benefits it beholds to the health and living standards of the Americans. Tea is good for the heart, to begin with, studies ascertain the fact that tea is an essential beverage because green and black tea may help prevent heart diseases and stroke. American has made it a duty of inculcating tea as a drink in their daily delicacies and diets since this has a benefit of reducing the bad and high cholesterol content in the heart muscle (Janssen 34). The presence of cholesterol in the myogenic cardiac muscles may result to contraction of heart attack or heart failure when the coronary artery is blocked. Furthermore, the phytochemical present in tea as a beverage exacerbate and improves the functionality of the blood vessels and the arteries dilation. Eventually, increasing blood flow and at the same time dwindle the blood pressure hence controls hypertension. It is, for this reason, the majority of American citizens embraces the tea culture.

Additionally, another health benefit of tea culture to the body is that teams are hydrating the body hence improves the body process as well as the physical appearances. A cup of tea contains approximately 90% of water (Blumentha’25). Hence, it remains a major source of the body fluids and hence enhances body biochemical process or metabolism. Likewise, tea is also a source of valuable body mineral potassium that regulates the body moisture and makes the body stays hydrated (Towler 23).

Tea has made the Americans’ fabulous because of its unusual taste, soothing and ability to rejuvenate wrong both from outside and inside. Tea is a soothing stress reliever, soothing, green tea is known for its capacity to improve skin complexion, as well as eroding wrinkles, sun damage, age spots, and reactivate skin cells. The benefits that emanate from the consumption of tea motivated and encouraged many Americans to change their notion towards tea culture. After the different benefits that the consumption tea, and the culture adopted by the Americans, dangerous trading ensued between the two countries with tea as the primary commodity (Liu, 24).

In all over the world, including the pioneer culture and that is the Chinese tea cultures are fascinating. Tea, which is the second largely, consumed beverage on the entire globe after water wins the minds of people and capture minds and becomes people’s way of life. Across the world teach has a different culture (Dublin 26). In the case of Chinese culture, for instance, tea was used a medicine that is the tea blended with spices whereas in golden ages it was consumed for artistic inspirations and pleasure. The sensational and fascinating culture that a tea drinking ceremony beholds compelled the American to adopt the tea culture also to be in the system.

The choice of American o tea as a beverage was influenced mostly by the great benefits embedded in the consumption of tears itself. Moreover, this makes tea a unique drink on the globe due since also tea acts a stimulant drug, which is very essential n reading as it awakens the brain and enhances proper meditation (Blumenthal 12). Teas as a beverage are also calories free and serve as a better alternative of predominated beverage in America coffee. Tea being calories free when taking without sugar, and other ingratiates it is essential to fat and lipids regulation, hence, upholds weight loss. Tea made drunk immediately after a meal removes the puckish feeling and ushers in a sensational and fascinating mood.

In conclusion, tea as a beverage in the second most consumed beverages after water. Tea culture mainly originated from the Far East with the Chinese. Tea is an essential beverage to the body since it has numerous health benefits to consumers. The many key benefits become the yard still that influenced the choice of the Americans to embrace the Chinese tea culture.

Work cited

Blumenthal, Mark, Rudolf Hänsel, Volker Schulz, Terry C. Telger, and Varro E. Tyler. Rational Phytotherapy: A Reference Guide for Physicians and Pharmacists. Berlin [u.a.: Springer, 2004. Print.

Janssen, Mary B. Pleasure Healing: Mindful Practices & Sacred Spa Rituals for Self-Nurturing. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, 2009. Internet resource.

Dublin, Beverly. Tea Culture. Watertown, Mass: Imagine Pub, 2010. Internet resource.

Reid, Daniel P, and Chris Janzen. The Art and Alchemy of Chinese Tea. London: Singing Dragon, 2011. Print.

Towler, Solala. Cha Dao: The Way of Tea, Tea As a Way of Life. London: Singing Dragon, 2010. Internet resource.

Wang, Ling. Tea and Chinese Culture. San Francisco: Long River Press, 2005. Print.

Liu, Tong. Chinese Tea. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Print.

Groupthink and Teamthink

Introduction

Companies can be able to achieve their goals through coming up with possible ways of making it easier for the employees to be able to effectively offer services to the company. This therefore requires the inclusion of the employees in different decision making processes in the company, in a bid to boost the performance of the company. Most companies therefore involve the employees in the setting of strategies and company’s goals. Through the inclusion of employees in the company’s decision making, most employees feel appreciated thus offering the best services for the company. On the other hand, the company may group employees with the same abilities in the same team, thus allowing them to come up with different ideas on how to perform different tasks. In addition, these employees’ teams may also be given a task by the management of the company, which they are supposed to accomplish after a certain period of time. This paper is therefore going to look at the best ways of managing groups and teams by the management of the company.

Organizational culture seeks to improve and act as a navigator in the company. Therefore leaders and employees in a company need to work according to the dictates of the organizational culture, and in so doing, being able to forge forward and avoid any obstacles (Johnson, 2013). The organizational culture is therefore very significant in the evolution of groups into teams. This is consequently because it provides a set of rules within which the groups should be able to work under in order to grow (Hickman, 2010). In addition, the organizational culture provides different techniques whereby different groups in the company can be able to use in order to foster developments. It is therefore essential for groups to work under the organizational culture thus enabling the company to be able to effectively beat its competitors (Passmore & Cantore, 2012).

One of the main ways of transforming groups into teams is through the development of common goals and visions for the groups (Schein & Schein, 2017). This is usually done by the organizational culture, which develops certain goals for the company in order to be able to perform well. Thus if a group has common goals and visions, then the group is likely to develop. This is consequently because, the members of the group will come together and work very hard in order to be able to reach their goals (Hickman, 2010). In addition, the vision of the group determines its future, and the direction in which it is heading to. If the group therefore has a common vision, then its members will be able to work very hard thus enabling the group to reach its vision (Passmore & Cantore, 2012). Therefore, in order to be able to develop groups into teams, the management of the company needs to consider the common goals and visions of most of the members, thus making them to work accordingly.

Secondly, the management should undertake a survey of the groups, which highpoints the diverse working roles within a group (Hickman, 2010). Thus the data received should be used to guide the type of tasks which the groups should be given in order to accomplish (Johnson, 2013). The data collected will also reveal the weaknesses of the groups, thus advising them on how to deal with such issues. In addition, the management should foster diversity and understanding within the groups in order to allow all members to work without any misunderstandings (Passmore & Cantore, 2012).

Thirdly, proper communication between the members of the groups should be fostered. This can be done through choosing the right group leaders. This will allow proper execution of tasks within the groups, thus making it easier for the members to be able to work to achieve the goals of the group (Passmore & Cantore, 2012). The group leaders should be able to communicate effectively to the group member, moreover, he or she should also be able to listen to their ideas. This will not only see the group achieving most of its goals, but it will also be able to grow as a team. This and the above factors should therefore be taken seriously and put into consideration, thus making it easy for groups to be able to grow into teams (Schein & Schein, 2017).

Managing groups and teams is one of the hardest things which leaders usually encounter, this is because misunderstandings and disagreements with the groups (Johnson, 2013). Leaders need therefore possess very unique leadership styles in order to be able to effectively lead their teams and groups. These leadership styles may include: working together with the group members, being authoritative, and encourage teamwork (Hickman, 2010). The members of a team and a group do not like to be told what to do by their leaders, instead they like leaders who act. Leaders need therefore provide examples of how different tasks should be undertaken (Passmore & Cantore, 2012). This encourages maximum participation from the members hence ensuring that the groups become more effective hence impacting the company positively.

Secondly, leaders should also be authoritative, hence making the group to take them very seriously. One of the things which makes it hard for most leaders to be able to lead their teams effectively is through being too familiar with their team members (Passmore & Cantore, 2012). This consequently makes it hard for the team members to respect their leader, or otherwise they may not take the leader seriously. The leader should therefore be courageous and authoritative thus spearheading the group into achieving its goals (Schein & Schein, 2017). In addition, the leader should also encourage team work within the group, hence enabling the members to be able to work with the help of each other.

Having groups or teams as team think vs groupthinks may either be advantageous or disadvantageous to the company, depending on the organizational culture of the company (Johnson, 2013). Teamthink and groupthink may be advantageous in that they help in ensuring maximum participation of the members in each and every activity in the company. This consequently enables the company to be able to avoid any obstacles that are likely to come its way. In addition, groupthink puts the affairs of the company first into consideration, before looking at the affairs of the group, this therefore makes the employees to work hard in order to achieve the goals. On the other hand, considering the company’s affairs and not that of the employees, may also be very disadvantageous. This may lead to disagreements between the employees and the management of the company. Moreover, the employees in the company are likely to provide poor services to the company, and thus affecting its performance (Passmore & Cantore, 2012). Team think may also lead to disagreements amongst the employees, due to being bias while considering the interests of the employees. This consequently leads to poor service output by the employees.

Conclusion

In order for a company to be able to perform better, it should be able to create employee groups and teams, thus being able to accomplish a lot of tasks. In addition, the company should also align the groups with the organizational culture, hence making the employees to carry on with the organizational culture of the employees. On the other hand, group leaders should be able to spearhead their groups into achieving a common vision and goal. Team work should also be encouraged, thus ensuring better performance of the company.

Reference

Passmore, J., & Cantore, S. (2012). Top business psychology models: 50 transforming ideas for leaders, consultants, and coaches. London: Kogan Page.

Johnson, C. E. (2013). Meeting the ethical challenges of leadership: Casting light or shadow.

Schein, E. H., & Schein, P. (2017). Organizational culture and leadership.

Hickman, G. R. (2010). Leading organizations: Perspectives for a new era. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications.

Ethics Individual Paper

            Beliefs, values, and principles are the aspect of what makes a certain individual themselves. My beliefs - though they might have been altered throughout the years - have guided me throughout my journey in life, and surely those values and principles have made me who I am today. The most important values that I’ve implemented in myself would be empathy, loyalty, integrity, perseverance, and kindness. These are my guiding principles that I truly believe in, they make and shape the decisions that I take, and the story that I make.

            Empathy to me means the ability to understand and share the feelings of another, the ability to put myself in other people’s shoes and to look and live this life from another person’s perspectives, I think this is critically important on how to interact with someone else, the ability to see another’s perspective in how they look at life will impact the way we look at our live and hopefully it will give us a better understanding on ourselves. Loyalty is the quality of being loyal and faithful to your commitments, it’s having faith in someone or something that you personally believe in. Loyalty to me is having a few number of trusted companions that will fight to the death with you, than to have thousands of civil union that would only spectate when you are in your troubled times. Integrity is about being honest and morally upright, it’s perhaps the most important principle of being a leader because it demands truthfulness and honesty. Integrity means telling the truth even if it’s the harder thing to do, integrity believes that it’s always better to be honest than to delude others, because then you can truly face your problems upfront and solve it for the better. One of my most favorite principle is perseverance, It’s about steadfastness in doing something despite the difficulty in achieving success. It’s the most important quality to have for a successful life. Perseverance means that giving up is not an option, it means that you won’t stop until you get what you aim for. In a society where instant gratitude is perceived to be great, perseverance is now rarely seen, which makes it even more critical for an individual to implement in order for a successful life. The last but not least, is kindness. I know it might sound cliché, but becoming aware of how you treat others is crucial in seeing how you would relate to others and to yourself. Kindness is the tool you use to impact someone else’s life, it’s that one thing that would never be too much for humanity, it’s how you will be remembered. Maya Angelou perfectly said “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel” and that is the reason for kindness.

            I personally believes that every single interaction with people or even with ourselves is a place for ethical environment. Every moment has it’s own necessity of a particular principle or value like being empathetic to a friend that is going through a rough time, or using your integrity to not cheat in a test even though it’s hard. Hence, ethical environment is present in everyday life. Furthermore, an ethical person is someone who have the principles and values instilled in their character, principles like honesty, integrity, loyalty, etc; that they use in the respected manner in their every day of life. An ethical person should have a good nature and common understanding in using their great understanding of moral to treat other people with their respected beliefs. An ethical person is someone who abides by his or her own principles, and also the law.

Analysis

            My group and myself are focusing on the topic “Uber’s battle in Indonesia”. We are bringing up the issue in regards to Uber’s expansion to international countries, and in this case, specifically Indonesia. Last year, more specifically on the 22nd of March, 2016; the traffic in the capital city of Indonesia, Jakarta was brought to a complete stop due to chaotic situation on ‘unfair’ ride-sharing apps. Local taxi drivers demonstrated their grievances by blocking the city.

Their actions came in response to the unfair operations and the Indonesian government’s failing to regulate or outright ban the ride-sharing services. Local drivers assert that an actions must be done and address this issue because Uber does not feel the impact of heavy tax demanded by the government

The legal issue

            Uber has been operating in Indonesia since August, 2014.  However, its operations have brought chaos in that it started Ride-Hailing Services in Indonesia without official permit.  Jakarta officer reported that Uber does not have an official permit to carry out its services in Indonesia and so it operates illegally. Uber is involved in illegal issue in that as a tax company, it should have a license for public transportation. Since the company has failed to follow the legal standards, it has violated the law which mandates the use of yellow license plates.  Before starting its operations on public transportation, it could have visited the Transportation Agency to seek for a permit. This is a big problem with the Uber Company because other partners are authorized and they comply with the country’s law.  Uber legal issues are evidence due to unfair taxation. It operates without legal regulations from the government. However, the Indonesian government is also involved in legal issue because it fails to enforce law and to offer permit to the company. The government also has the responsibility to ensure that licensed cars have Yellow License Plate. On the same note, drivers are treated as contractors but not as employees and for this reason, they are denied insurance, pension funds and job security.

 Ethical issues

By violating the legal law, Uber is involved with ethical problem. First, its operations are referred to as ‘illegal taxi’ and this causes social chaos and disruption. The society is despondent with these operations and consumers feel unsafe. Not only consumers are affected but also the economy in that Indonesians’ taxi drivers feel that there will be no growth of the business in the future.  Uber should understand that its operations should align with society norms in Indonesia rather than existing as an alien. They fail to follow the company’s standards and society norms have created distrust. Other prong is that there is big difference between U.S and Indonesia culture.  For example, in U.S the crime rate is higher than in Indonesia and this creates the mentality that the Uber Company will increase crime.

Ethics Decision Model

 The main problem with the Uber Company is that it is operating illegally in Ride-Hailing Operations. In this case, taxi companies, taxi drivers, government and society are affected. Tax companies   are affected in that it is their responsibility to ensure that taxi drivers have the necessary skills on traffic laws. However, Uber’s taxi drivers do not have license nor do they understand the country’s obligations and safe services required. This means that the companies will not achieve the required expectations. Taxi drivers are also involved in that they are denied they rights such as employees’ benefits and security. Due to poor working conditions and lack of regulatory compliance, they are unable to manage risk and the possibility of being involved in legal cases is high. Society is affected in that there is a differing value between local dwellers and Uber workers. Failure to follow the social norms in Indonesia creates a distrust and disunity. Last, the government has a work to do to ensure effective operations.  Indeed, it has worsened the situation by failing to offer regulations to the Uber Company.

 In addressing this problem, fairness, responsibility and respect should be the core values to implement. First, fairness is important because it will create a transparent government which regulates all business operations without discrimination. On the same note, government has failed to do its work or to show its responsibility in areas such as background checks and insurance.  Thus, they need to be responsible and ensure that Uber drivers follow the regulatory compliance. Finally, Uber Company should show value and respect the society norms in order to eliminate the social

 According to Utilitarian approach, ‘effectiveness is achieved through best actions. Therefore, human being should execute the good things in order to produce the best result. In this case, the approach is very helpful in addressing both legal and ethical issues. Thus, government should be in the front line to demonstrate two important core values namely; fairness and responsibility in addressing the issues. In applying the utilitarian analysis, the government should create rules and regulations which all taxi drivers should follow. On the same note, it should create direct legal regulations and put enforceable laws which ride-sharing operators should comply with. To implement this decision, the government should hold a constructive discussion with Uber and allow them to understand the rules and regulations. This will contribute to better results since Uber will prefer following the law rather than terminating the operations. In addition, Uber will value ethical and legal considerations while in legal boundaries.

Reference

The attached slide

UBER’s Battle in Indonesia.

Disney Park Strategic Issues

The operations of Disney theme park in different parts of the world began after the company realized that most Japanese tourists visited two American Disney parks. Disney therefore gave a go ahead to Oriental Land Company, to build and also operate the Tokyo Disney. The park currently receives more than 25 million visitors every year. Thus the company is looking for possible ways of opening more theme parks in different parts of the world thus being able to cater for the high demand (Kolah, 2013).

            Disney theme parks have been very important particularly when it comes to business, since most foreigners visit the parks, and get to buy goods. In addition, they have become tourist attraction centres thus making it easy for the country to be able to earn foreign exchange. The two theme parks in America have really helped in boosting economic growth in the US and thus enabling businesses to be able to strive (Kolah, 2013). Moreover, the parks have created job opportunities for very many people thus translating into a good economic market for finished products. On the other hand, theme parks have led to the growth of hotel businesses, whereby most tourists go to sleep after visiting the park. This has therefore seen the parks impacting the business sector positively, since wherever tourists visit, businesses grow.

            The main issue facing Disney theme parks is the poor adoption of the new technology. The park depends on the old means of communication such as advertisements over the television. The park has not since the past been able to embrace the new technology in order to be able to attract the youths. If the park only uses the social media in order to advertise its services, then it is likely to attract more young tourists from all over the world (Kolah, 2013). This is however not the case since the park has only decided to rely on the former ways of advertising and passing information concerning its services. Due to its slow adoption of the new technology, the parks have registered very low turnover rates of the youths. This is consequently because the youths perceive the Disney parks as outdated, since Disney parks cannot be able to use the social media and other means of reaching the youths easily.

            Disney Park Action Plan

The above method will enable the park to be able to increase the total number of tourists visiting the park. This means that the park will receive a minimum of 33 million tourists per year (Kolah, 2013). Moreover, the park will be able to attract more youths, boosting the number of youths visiting the park. The main target of the park to receive a total of 13 million youths by the end of this year.

Reference

Kolah, A. (2013). High impact marketing that gets results. London: Kogan Page.

Boston Pizza Communication plan

Boston Pizza is headquartered Richmond Canada and its management intends to expand its operation in South Korea. The company owns various franchise restaurants in Canada, Mexico and United States.

Steps to training on new culture

For Boston Pizza managers to understand the new culture in the Korean corporate environment there is a need to create awareness on multi-cultural environment. Johnson, Lenartowicz, and Apud (2006) stated that  cultural awareness enable the managers to deal with challenges or conflicts arising from exposure to the new culture so as to enhance management competence .The managers should be aware of the importance of showing respect to cultural differences  so that to enhance a favorable working environment in a diverse workplace.  On the other hand Selmer and Lauring (2015) argued that training should be carried out through a thorough process that will ensure the employees adapt easily to the new culture. Korean culture involves a quite high context culture with many implicit peculiarities which are followed while conducting business activities. The rules form and inflexible structure but which is greatly corrected through an authoritative rule implementation process. The steps for training include the following:

1. Establishing a training program

The leadership should start by making the vital decision that gives priority to cultural change. In the new Korean market, it will be important for the executives and the managers to put the customers in front and this will require them to adapt to the new culture. The plan should entail an established training program that enables executives and functional managers to identify with both individual and cultural difference in Korea.

1. Training on employee relations

This should be included in the training program so that to managers and executive can learn  how tolerate with  Korean employees given that  cultural differences extend to  corporate culture , religious views , sexuality and even political perspectives. The managers should b trained to be sensitive to concerns expressed by employees regarding their welfare in the workplace and specific issues that may prevent their productivity. This will improve communication between the expatriates and the locals by eliminating any cultural hindrance that my affect interactions. 

• Practicing effective communication

Communications skills are very essential in adapting to a different culture and building relations with individuals from such culture. The training should focus on how the executives and managers can communicate with people not familiar with local language including the employees, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders in the Korean different environment. This involves learning the communication process, language used and undertones that are commonly used to avoid offending people from the Korean community.

Boston Pizza should export only executives and pat of functional managers to the Korean Branch while recruiting the locals for most functional positions. Sending the entire team of functional managers be costly due to immigration requirements, allowance and cultural adjustment that may be needed for the entire team. Having a mixture of both the expatriates and the locals will enable the foreigners to be oriented by their local colleague to the new culture. 

Ensuring an effective transition of expatriates will ensure that they understand easily the host culture and adapt easily to the new environment. To prevent lack of productivity in this new environment, Boston Pizza leadership should ensure that they consider individuals background, their social needs and personal growth and development which will ensure that they achieve work-life balance. This involves providing some time for the expatriates to visit their families and engage in social activities.

Workplace culture

The working culture expected in Korea is based on centralized authoritative leadership where pressure is applied from the hierarchical upper level to ensure work is duly done. Unlike in the Western working culture where teamwork is highly regarded, the decision making is less focused on teamwork contributions but individual inputs is highly regarded. Dastmalchian, (2000) stated that coordination and control of production process is carried out through laid down procedures and the local workers are expected to deliver results individually.  Due to the hierarchical leadership the communication involves a top-down process unlike the flat communication used in the Boston major offices in Canada.  With the lack of autonomy in decision making the, the expectations of the local workers is pegged on their individual performance and any success or reward is rarely attributed towards teamwork. However, Daniel& Reitsperger (2004) argued that Korean workers consider having a good relationship with their superiors as a key commitment determinant which also affects the communication process.  

Dastmalchian, (2000) asserts leadership methods and management style favors a verbal but formal communication instead of formal and written communication in the decision making process.  This implies that the communication process to be adopted by Boston Pizza branch in Korea will involve eliminating the many barriers that hinder a flat communication process that creates good working condition in the company’s head office in Canada.  It will also enable the facilitation of frequent communication given that formal and verbal communication in Korean Culture needs a lot of follow up for confirmations and clarification. The new management in the Korean Branch of Boston Pizza will introduce more open working culture which allows workers to work as a team rather than individual efforts to enhance productivity. According to Petersen, Kushwaha and Kumar (2015) involvement of all workers in decision making ensures that companies do not sabotage teamwork efforts by placing too much attention on individual achievement.

Communication with head Office in Canada

Effective communication between the Korean Boston Pizza branch will aim at improved engagement and hence productivity for the management and the workforce.  The communication between the two sides needs to be frequent so that information on decisions made and feedback can reach at the right time and relevant head office managers or colleagues. As such a centralized communication will be necessary especially where the decisions are to primarily be made by the executives located at headquarters in Canada. Centralized communication allows for a focused vision or goal and elimination of any inconsistencies while delivering a common message.

Communication with customers

Communication between the firm and customers will be based on the interpersonal communication between the customers and frontline employees. In order to achieve this, changes on interpersonal communication will be facilitated so that to establish a Customer Service Culture that will enhance customer interaction. The key message for customer interaction will be delivery of high quality products that exceeds customer expectation and this will be aimed at communicates the Boston Pizza brand. The approach to be used involves a center for customer communication, where aspects such as customer concerns can be addressed while correspondence will be used as a tool for differentiating the Boston Pizza from local competition.   Therefore any inquiries about the products can be addressed while other after sales services will be communicated to the relevant customers. This approach will also involve establishing an online communication platform to tap into the huge online masses in the Korean market.

References

Daniel, S. J., & Reitsperger, W. D. (2004). Challenges of globalization. 120-125

Johnson, J. P., Lenartowicz, T., & Apud, S. (2006). Cross-cultural competence in international business: Toward a definition and a model. Journal of International Business Studies, 37(4), 525-543.

Selmer, J., & Lauring, J. (2015). Host country language ability and expatriate adjustment: The moderating effect of language difficulty. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 26(3), 401-420.

 Dastmalchian, A., Lee, S., & Ng, I. (2000). The interplay between organizational and national cultures: a comparison of organizational practices in Canada and South Korea using the Competing Values Framework. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 11(2), 388-412.

Petersen, J. A., Kushwaha, T., & Kumar, V. (2015). Marketing communication strategies and consumer financial decision making: The role of national culture. Journal of Marketing, 79(1), 44-63.

Cisco Case Study Mist

Cisco’s organizational culture

The organizational culture for Cisco is a centralized organization which was introduced by John Morgridge after being appointed in 1988 as the New CEO.  Morgridge thought that organizations in Silicon Valley embarked on quick decentralization which led to loss of control (Cotteleer, 1988).  In this structure only two departments were decentralized, which include research and development and product marketing. Other functions in the firm such as human resources, manufacturing m finance and customer support remained centralized.  The centralization of the firm involved the establishment of various teams which formed part of the organizational hierarchy and the flow of various leadership functions from the top executives to the lower technical workers who implemented the various functions.

The culture in this firm involves the use various print media for communication purpose.  The choice for print media involves targeting of various magazines, newspapers, and others like financial and business publications where the message is tailored for a specific target for every type of publication. The communication as a form of organizational culture indicates how information is shared across the various departments and among the executives, the IT departmental leaders, business and IT consultants and the various users (Cotteleer, 1988). To relay information to the various stakeholders the publications are printed specifically to target the right recipients.  In the publications of financial statements, a bottom line approach is stressed to target the employees and shareholders of the firm who need information about its performance.  Communication with the external stakeholders involves trade publications where the advance nature of products is shared along with reasoning that they are the best in the market (Albadri, 2013). In addition, radio and television are used since they can reach a broader audience. To facilitate general awareness about the firm , advertisement have been widely used  by Cisco , and  such activities involves the participation of the various members in the leadership structure beginning with the CEO to the technical IT Staff.  Culture is also embedded in the Cisco Systems product line where there is vast connectivity, which allows the firm to provide a very broad solutions line for data, video and voice transportation in the whole organization. Training of the various teams in the departments can also be deemed as being part of this culture.  An important aspect in the organizational culture can be seen in the production line where it is expected that products have to be certified and hence, the existence of various programs for product satisfaction. 

IT structure

The IT structure for Cisco is based on the Oracle ERP product which offers new and friendlier interface for various users. The system makes it possible for client to access application by the use of web browsers. If a client wishes to use the application in a data center, they have to install client software in their computers.  The use of Oracle product has allowed the redirection of traffic dynamically and automatically which aligns with increasing need for SAN’s storage in the industry.  With the possibility that many servers may be installed without a replacement of the existing system, the requirement for storage is being met (Cisco, 2009).  There are also various locations for disaster locations such as in North Carolina and California.

Problems and Key issues

In the implementation of ERO systems there were various problems which were involved, and a major one involved convincing the board that the project could not become uncontrollable hence provides results that are sub-standards, while another one involved convincing them about the need for it to be funded.  The technical problems involved the sizing and hardware of the ERP system and the ability for it to handle all the volume for the transaction needed in the Cisco environment. The first problem arose from the purchase of the system on the  basis of promised capability instead of the necessary configurations which are required in a Cisco environment. The second problems resulted from how testing process us done, where data is tested by Cisco individually and the used database were partly used. A common reason for the problems is that the motivation factors depended on the present legal system that was failing which made the implementation process to be done under the constraint of time.  Another key issue is that the team needed the participation of the business community for the implementation process to meet their business needs and   strong partners who could help in the selection process and implementation of the whole process.

Answers to the questions

Where team got lucky

The several areas where the team got lucky includes getting KPMG to be their partner, the approval of the project by the board and having a dedicated team that wished to see the success of the implementation.  KPMG was willing to come on board and to exploit an opportunity for building business around the process of putting in the application. Unlike other firms that wanted to which could have brought many “greenies”, KPMG brought with it experienced people from the industry which is what, Cisco needed at this point in time.   The implementation team was very motivated and was ready to take advantage of experience available in the industry for building as much knowledge and skills as possible. In addition, the team was also lucky because it did not face fierce opposition from the board in regard o the cost and feasibility of the implementation of the whole process. Facing such opposition could have resulted to lack of timely implementation and even lack of implementation due to lack of funding.

Possible cost of the project

Given the large number of employees involved, 2500 and the various contracts issued to Oracle and KPMG, the income for Cisco would have been about $20, million for the whole project, given that the system replacement had cost about $15million without  adding other miscellaneous expenses.

Capacity to carry out another project

The Cisco team could undertake such a project again if needed arose, since they had acquired enough experiences on challenges they would face and how to navigate them in order to gain full to complete it. The experiences range from how to carry out selection process and the best players or partners to involve in the whole process.

Alternative solutions

For the team to implement the project, it had to build hardware infrastructure for installing the applications and looking out for a sizing solution. An alternative could have been for the team to purchase the whole system – hardware – on the basis of specific and predetermined configuration required to meet the daily operations of the firm. For the purpose of testing the software the firm could have used larger size of data base other than the daily database that was being used.  This use of larger database for testing the applications would ensure that despite the volume of transactions and data, the software would not have run into problems. In addition, the team would reduce the number of days needed for the system to stabilize. However, this could mean that the implementation process would take longer than expected time.

Management recommendations

The priority for reviving Cisco was fixing and implementing the ERP system and this should have been embraced by the whole management team and the board.  The installation of the new information system would ensure that the rapid growth of the firm and meet the expectation of the board, the management and the implementation team.  Winning commitment from Oracle and KPMG played a lead role in ensuring the success of the implementation process and the experience of outside team helped in fixing the problem.

Conclusion

A hitch in the functional areas of Cisco systems led to the deterioration of operations of the Cisco and a system replacement needed to implement. For Cisco to gain its previous position of, an efficient ERP system had to be implemented so that operations and growth can be maintained. The ERP systems aimed at helping the firm to occupy its position in the market and serve the needs of the business community. There was need for testing the system using a large amount of data before it could be implemented to assess its sustainability.  By involving experienced experts and partners such as KPMG and Oracle , business needs will easily be met .

Reference

Cotteleer, M., (1988). Cisco Systems INCL: Implementing ERP. Boston: Harvard Business School.

Albadri, F. A. (2013). Cases on enterprise information systems and implementation stages: Learning from the Gulf. Hershey, PA: Business Science Reference.150-152

Cisco, (2009).How Cisco IT Implemented Organizational Change and Advanced Services for Operational Success .

PLACE TO EAT

INTRODUCTION

McDonalds café is my favorite restaurant collectively because of their quality customer services, the quality and nutritional value of the food they offer, the children playing places are safe and well decorated, their bake shop provides fresh baked food products, their restraunt is very inviting and attractive and its fascinating food and beverages. McDonalds have a coffee shop (Mc Cafe) that serves different coffee beverages and bakery. McDonald café is more modernized in services provision and delivery, for customers can get their menu online in their website. The foods services options in McDonalds are such as breakfast, Burgers, chicken and sandwiches, Salads, Snacks and sides, desserts and shakes and are drinks while their beverages provided in Mc café (which offers coffee beverages) are such as coffee late. In case of this paper I will discuss McDonald cafés in Los Angeles.

McDonald café in Los Angeles serves its customers very well as it has adopted modern technologies in communication with its customers, marketing and repackaging of its products. In services provision McDonald offers it menu online, they have placed their menu in their website where customers can access, see pictures and read what they are providing in their cafés and shops. The McDonald restaurant have created a website where it publicly markets its products, its website is interactive as customers can ask quick questions and search the location and direction of the nearest McDonald restaurant in the area through their website for instance customers can search in Mc Donald website the location of the nearest McDonald café in their website as their website is interlinked with the Google maps. Their website also shows the pictures of the products they sell and pictures of services they offer for instance they show pictures of coffee beverages in their coffee shops and in their website, there are pictures of baked food in their bake shop. In McDonald, they use modern technologies in repacking their products for instance their drinks such as Mc Cafe chocolate shake is served in custom Mc Cafe designed mug and the drink itself is well decorated and crafted with top ups.

McDonald restraunt is very broad and honest to its customers the quality of the food they offer to their customers. McDonald cafes and bake shop serves it customer quality food in terms of the nutritional value, healthy and production standards.  Through their website, McDonald helps its customers know the nutritional value of the food they offer for instance in their website you find a link of nutritional calculate where customer can count the value of the food they take from the McDonald café and bake shop. In the McDonald website, their customers get a link about the quality of their product in terms health standards for instance in their website they tell their customer how healthy their food is for human consumption for instances they tell their customer how they source chickens which have never been treated with antibiotics which is dangerous for human being health. Through the website McDonald café confirms to its client the production quality of its food products for instance in their website their assure their customers about how they support and source their beef from farmer who practice sustainable environmental practices in beef farming, with this they assure their customers that their beef product is of high quality standards.

In McDonald cafes and bakery their buildings are well designed making them inviting, attractive and comfortable for dinner, their bakeries sell fresh baked products and coffee drinks. McDonald cafe sells liquid refreshments which are non-alcoholic drinks for instance they sell coffee beverages which comes with different flavors from natural ingredients such as vanilla and which are served with salads. The McDonald café coffee comes in different options to meet each customer needs such as Mc Café late or Hot chocolate. Their bake shop provides fresh baked food products, for all day meals for instance they have a menu for breakfast, which is made of both drinks such as fruit and yogurt parfait and baked products such as big breakfast which provides all day meal. Most of all the McDonald restaurant buildings are designed attractively decorated and located in strategic locations, which makes them inviting, conducive, clean and comfortable for breakfast and dinner for instance most of the McDonald cafes in Los Angeles have ample parking place. The other reason for choosing McDonald restraunt is that they are family friendly, that is a family may choose to have dinner in one of their restaurants, as they sell healthy food and beverages for kids for instances they sell sugar free apple juice for kids, they provide low fat hamburger and chicken Nuggets.

In conclusion, McDonald restraunt saves more on your spending for they provide healthy meals, in a clean environment and in a secured place are some of the reason for choosing McDonald services and products. With   the support from the above reasons McDonald is a better place to eat.

Works cited

McDonald restraunt.2016-2017, 13 march 2017, https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us.html.05

       April 2017.

                                    McDonald’s Restaurant

McDonald’s restaurant is my best place for meal, not only because it provides healthy and tasty food, but also for the addictive scary fast food. It is one of the best American restaurants appreciated world-wide, simply because it does something good in giving back to the community. The company offers free breakfast for kids in the kindergarten, as an act of showing care and concern for the society. McDonald’s fame is not only generated by the fresh and good food it provides, but during the Hurricane Katrina it proved that it could make it. My attraction to the company is that it offers health menu flanking the delicious golden fries. There is also a platform for online menu whereby, customers are given a chance to order meal at any place. McDonald serves as my restaurant of choice because the food served has made it turn into local fresh and flavor. The local food has found its way to the bistro, from the fine dining to casual meals such as sandwich.

McDonald a famous restaurant and, I love it for it known essential role in the business industry. It has made sure that social as well as logical artistic life is booming in the society. Despite other huge restaurants and even cafes I decided on the McDonald, because I find it more appreciated especially by the several professionals in the State. Despite the restaurant fulfilling it purpose of generating food and drinks, it also ensures that the customer need fulfilled. McDonald is one of the best in America in the today’s generation that serves an essential part in shaping the economy. McDonald serves as my restaurant of choice because the food served has made it turn into local fresh and flavor. The local food has found its way to the bistro, from the fine dining to casual meals such as sandwich. The physical appearance of the restaurant is attracting whereby, it is located in a stunning town that all citizen are eager to visit.

McDonald is a restaurant that creates a multi-cultural society and, according to my views the community always wants to be part of it. It design is a show of how cultural activities influences development of architecture in the State. The restaurant is huge that it has accommodations, for visitors from all sort of the world. It has made visitors want to spend more days in town, while others vacate for the delicacy offered. With my observation, I have found that people prefer the local food because; ever after the harvest season there is still plenty in McDonald. Personally I love the poultry, pork as well as honey and daily product since; they are always available. I tend to believe that for the restaurant owner, it does not hurt to support the local economy generating their business relationship with other individuals.

McDonald is the only restaurant in America that you find magic on meals, considering the three types on burns offered here.  It is well known as the fast food giant due to the variety it has to offer thus; giving back to the community. Employees in the restaurant, work with the aim of treating customer’s right for a better tomorrow. I have been observing the workers and, their customer service is genuine plus how they pay close attention to meals. No matter how many times I visit the restaurant; there is always a warm welcome for me. They use polite and respectful words to customers because, it is known for fosterling higher corporate leaders.

Back to the design of the restaurant it suggests beauty of nature, considering the colors painted on the outside. The inside is paradise filled with all place meals, simple and enjoyable junk foods. The furnished luxurious restaurant gives me comfort and, I highly values it maintenance as a diverse work for the society. The development in technology has highly favored McDonald restaurant that, they offers online menus. Customers are saved with the time to move all the way thus, required to order meals online and wait for delivery.  I have tried the online menu and, the delivery service was faster than I thought.

McDonald mainly known as the Big Mac shows much concern to the customers by providing them with comment cards. It is a good thing because from the comments, workers are able to learn of the good and bad in their work. Giving customers a chance to comment makes they part of the organization and, the pleasure of looking forward to improve on meals and services. When I first saw the comment card, I thought of a business aimed in excelling.

 McDonald is a business that knows on ways to build their customer relationship as well and enhancing the restaurant. I don’t think of anything bigger, when talking of fast food than the McDonald. A highly recognized restaurant world-wide, that some heard of it while they were toddlers. The restaurant is gigantic that it has housing, for visitors from all sort of the world. It has made visitors want to spend more days in town, while others vacate for the delicacy offered.

Apple Inc. SWOT analysis

References

Beattie A, (2015) “Apple’s key weaknesses” Investopedia

Bhasin H, (2016) “SWOT analysis of Apple Inc: Apple SWOT analysis” Marketing91

Hellman J, (2014) “Apple Inc: A short SWOT analysis” Value Line

Jurevicius O, (2016) “Apple SWOT analysis”

Meyer P, (2017) “Apple Inc. organizational culture: Features and implications” Panmore Institute

Smithson N, (2017) “Apple Inc SWOT analysis and recommendations” Panmore Institute

Business plan

Market evaluation that is data driven provide an opportunity to assess the level of acceptability of the product, the products market growth and meeting customer satisfaction. To achieve, customer engagement through an online platform will serve as an important source of data which can be used to test the penetration of the products in the market. To achieve this, it is important to have a data analytic team which will have the skills and capability to engage with people in Twitter,  collect the necessary information from such engagement and analyze it to  so as to understand the market better. There is a need for skilled and knowledgeable team with an effective leadership structure and operating guidelines which will direct the team members towards the achievement of the set goal and objectives.  With such a team structure, it will be possible to determine whether people present in online platform can buy the product and this will be the reflection of how it will be perceived in the market.  For real time analytics, there is a need for a capacity to use data as soon as it enters the system.

Development of the right analytic team will involve a group of individuals working towards a common goal of achieving the required data analysis. An effective is one that has specific characteristics which allow members to carry out their function productively and efficiently (Alt-Simmons, 233). To achieve this, there will be development of various ways of sharing leadership roles and accountability for the work, and shifting the focus from an individual to the overall team members. The strategy will involve a science and an art of building a high performance team comprised of  people who can use statistics , manage thorough quantitative and qualitative analysis and come up with information based techniques for making decisions about the marketing of product. The need to have these skills among the team members is driven by nature of the market where testing and evaluation using potential customers’ data cannot be underestimated. These individuals must have effective communication skills so that to engage people online and using the laid down procedures, collect responses from tweets about their perception about the product presented to them. This is important for real time analytics which can provide instant information about customers needs, their perception about the products in terms of shortcoming and use the information provided to improve on quality to meet these needs. Effective communication will ensure the right customer interaction that can provide the basis for segmentation of the market in meeting the right consumers.

The recruitment strategy to be used will involve actively networking to identify experienced and talented professionals and fresh individuals from the job market who have promising capabilities. This recruitment program will involve putting these individuals through an intensive training and later pairing the new professionals with experienced professionals on business information analysis. Networking is crucial in building a talent pool that meets the required knowledge and skill levels. Networking as a strategy helps to cultivate interest among potential team members and delivers a message to them about the organization, its culture and opportunities available (Belton, 5). A personal conversation helps in laying the ground for key connectors which will be important for cohesion and team building efforts.  It will also help in identifying people who can utilize social media to engage others and use this information to assess the nature of the market for the product.  To coach the team members, various principles will be used which comprises of regular communication and enhancing self-esteem which help the team members have meaningful work and feel appreciated.  The coaching will involve helping the team members to learn about their roles in engaging customers and analyzing data and have growing experience for  intrinsic motivational and  reward. This will entail listening deeply, creating and sustaining developmental alliance with other team members so that to support the achievement of intended goals.  This approach will also enable delivering feedback about the progress of the project and this will create a mutual trust relationship that is founded on a constant relationship. As a team leader it will be necessary to provide feedback on team performance both corrective and positive.

Analytic capacity building for this project, the team will embark on observing the collected data from customer engagement, questioning the analysis of the data and change the product so that it aligns to the demands of customers.  It will involve creating meaning by collection of data and reflecting on how to interpret it in regard to specific features of the product. In essence, it will involve gaining awareness of how the product is viewed and how to adjust it and then develop necessary buy in.  The amount of support gained in terms of potential customers will warrant the resources invested in the whole process data analytic. Hence, the development of an effective team for this project will involve good leadership skills, selection and recruitment of best talent, growth and motivation through coaching and delivering feedback.

Works cited

Alt-Simmons, Rachel. Agile by Design: An Implementation Guide to Analytic Lifecycle Management. , 2016 .233-234

Belton, Amanda. Social Networking in Recruitment: Build Your Social Networking Expertise to Give Yourself a Cost-Effective Advantage in the Hiring Market. Birmingham, UK: Impackt Pub, 2014. 5

Analysis of IBM

Section 1

IBM is a technology firm whose operations include Global Business Services, Cognitive Solutions, Systems and Global financing, Cloud Platforms and Technology services.  The main driver of the firm’s strategic imperative is to develop markets through a transformation of professions and industries with data.  It provides an entire  range of capabilities needed by its clients in the extraction of Big Data value  which enables them to obtain  many data sets , both structured and unstructured across they business operations ( IBM, 2013). The portfolio of IBM’s data and analytics is the deepest in the entire industry and provides cognitive systems as the basis for the future era in computing.  The other strategic imperative of IBM is remaking of the IT infrastructure enterprise for the cloud era whose economic impact is very significant in the current business world.  The firm also aims at enabling the systems of engagement for businesses which will allow them to embrace a systematic approach in dealing with all their stakeholders including employees, partners, customers and the entire community (IBM, 2013).

The company has a strategy of continuing in remixing of high value and addressing areas of its business that are holding back its success. This involves addressing its two major challenges which involves transforming and preparing its hardware business for new opportunities and realities and the growth in world markets.  While strong growth was realized in Africa, Middle East and Latin America, other key markets encountered a slow business spending. Therefore, IBM is increasing its focus on emerging growth opportunities which remains attractive in this period (IBM, 2013). 

Section 2: Tables

Income statement

Ratios

Section 3

Looking at the income statement through a vertical analysis makes it possible to capture the significant changes that IBM has been experiencing over the three years period. Running through the income statement above, the company has been undergoing decline in profitability of the 3 year period explored. The gross margin indicates a gradual decline in profitability level of this company which is in line with the decline in the sales over the sale period. This is despite the total cost of the sales seeming to decline yearly for the services and non-services revenue from $ 37,564 to $ 40,740 and $12,572 to $ 14,973 respectively.  The gross margin and the operating margin  shows a somehow different trend to the revenue and cost trend , as indicated in the increase  from 46.89 % to 49.49 % and  18.97 % to 20.65 % .  There were no drastic changes in the trends of sales of both the services and non-services products in the period but the revenue indicates decreasing trend.  The strength in the company is seen in the sale of services where the revenues, operating margins and profit margins are higher as compared to the non-services or software sales over the 3 year period.

 Weaknesses have been experienced in the sales of the software products, which when put together under the title strategic imperatives saw a trend of reducing revenues in this period. There is a trend of software sales decline in this period which may have contributed to the overall decline in profits total gross profit from $48,505 to $ 50,138 over the three year period. For an investor, this trend is worrying but given the resilience in gross profit for service revenue, it may be a good buying option for the long-term investment.   An aggregate change in a company’s profitability is useful in the forecasting of growth, based on an analysis of the financial statements (Konchitchki, & Patatoukas, 2014).

Section 4

 A stability test shows that IBM has remained fairly stable over the last decade, where margins have been strong even though increase and decline in revenue has been common in this period (Sharma, 2016). This is in line with the common size income statement analysis discussed above where sales revenue has remained stable even though there has been a bit of decline.  Even though the debt-to-equity ratio is high at 1.14, it could be so due to the high financial leverage of between 5.78 and 5.54 percent.  This could be an indication that the higher amount of this debt can be due to financing of the operations of the company.  Slow growth in the software and non-service products remains to be a concern which requires digging into the firm’s strategies and literature to assess its competitive positioning and even future prospects. The changes in technology could be said to have lead to the big business climate which has also led to growth in software market globally and consulting in business processes.

Analysts have recently raised the concerns that declining business legacy in software has not been offset by the company’s faster-growing areas such as provision of data crunching services.  The present optimism for investors is that firm’s increment in services revenue and profitability is an indication the firm is trying to focus on areas where higher growth in business is and such a strategy will work (Sharma, 2016). With such a focus, it could align with the above analysis of common size income statement and where the strength in services sales makes it buy option for long-term investment.   The company has continued with its transformation from historically focusing on hard-ware to an increase emphasis in business services.  There has been a rapid rise in debt mostly so as to repurchase shares which may increase the value of investors remaining shares (Sharma, 2016).

Reference

IBM, (2013).What will we make of this moment? Annual Report. Retrieved from: https://www.ibm.com/annualreport/2013/bin/assets/2013_ibm_annual.pdf

Sharma, A. (2016). Book of value: The fine art of investing wisely. 283-288

Konchitchki, Y., & Patatoukas, P. (2014). Taking the pulse of the real economy using financial statement analysis: Implications for macro forecasting and stock valuation.