TABLE OF CONTENTS Page
Student Declaration 3
Task 1 4
.0 History of Money and Business 5
.1 Sources of Finance 5
.2 Cash Flow 6
.3 Investment Decisions 7
.4 Budget 10
.4.1 Why Budget 10
.4.2 Elements of a Budget 10
.5 Profit and Loss 11
1.5.1 What is asset? 11
Task 2 12
2.0 What is Strategy? 13
2.1 Why is Strategic Planning Important? 13
2.2 Strategic Planning Process 15
2.3 The Business Environment 16
2.4 PEST- Political, Economic, Social and Technological 16
2.5 SWOT- Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats 17
Task 3 18
3.0 Intranet 20
3.1 Two Functions of an Intranet 20
3.1.1 Examples of Intranet 21
3.2 Extranet 21
3.3 Two Functions of an Extranet 22
3.3.1 Examples of Extranet 22
3.4 Work groups 23
3.5 Two Functions of a Workgroup 23
3.5.1 Examples of Workgroups 24
3.6 Intranet, Extranet and Work groups Summary Table 25
Task 4 27
4.0 What is Mentoring 28
4.1 Roles of a Mentor 28
4.2 Process of Mentoring 29
4.3 Cost of Mentoring 30
4.4 Benefits of Mentoring 30
4.5 Inducting New Employees or Interns 31
5.0 Reference List 33
6.0 Bibliography 36
7.0 Appendices 37
Appendix I - Michael Porter Five Forces 38
Appendix 2 - Michael Porter Value Chain 39
Appendix 3 - Cash Flow Statement 40
Appendix 4 - Profit and Loss Account 41
Appendix 5 - Budget 42
Appendix 6 - Value Chain 43
8.0 Electronic Copy of Project 44
Tables and Figures
Tables
Table 1 - Network Summary Table 26
Table 2 - Network and Features Differences 26
Table 3 - Roles of a Mentor 28
Figures
Figure 1 - Strategic Planning Process Diagram 15
Figure 2 - The Business Environment 17
Figure 3 - SWOT Diagram 19
Task 1
The Role of Money
.0 History of Money and Business
The use of money started out of deeply rooted customs as is shown by the study of primitive forms of money, e.g. cowries shells, cattle, whales' teeth and manilas (ornamental jewellery). Barter is the exchange of services or resources for mutual advantage, and may date back to the beginning of humankind. Banking was invented before coins and reached a high level of sophistication in the Egypt of the Ptolomies. The word "dollar" was used by Shakespeare and derives from "thaler" the name of a European coin. The first coins were developed out of lumps of silver. They soon took the familiar round form of today, and were stamped with various gods and emperors to mark their authenticity. The pound Sterling has a very different history from continental currencies. Adapted from - Davies, Glyn. "A History of money from ancient times to the present day", 3rd. ed. (2002)
.1 Sources of Finance
Money may be sourced for a variety of reasons. Traditional areas of need may be for acquirement of capital asset - construction of a new building or new machinery or the development of new products can be enormously costly and capital may be required. Mostly, such developments are financed internally, whereas capital for the acquisition of machinery may come from external sources. With tight liquidity, many organizations have to look for short-term capital in the way of overdraft or loans in order to provide a cash flow cushion.
A popular and important source of finance to many organizations is borrowings from banks. Bank lending is mainly short term, although medium-term lending is quite common. Short term lending can be in the form of an overdraft, which a company should keep within a limit set by the bank. Interest is charged (at a variable rate) on the amount by which the company is overdrawn from day to day. Medium-term loans are loans for a period of from three to ten years. The second is a short-term loan, for up to three years.
Debentures are a form of loan stock, legally defined as the written acknowledgement of a debt incurred by a company, normally containing provisions about the payment of interest and the eventual repayment of capital. These are debentures for which the coupon rate of interest can be changed by the issuer, in accordance with changes in market rates of interest.
A lease is an agreement between two parties, the "lessor" and the "lessee". The lessor owns a capital asset, but allows the lessee to use it. The lessee makes payments under the terms of the lease to the lessor, for a specified period of time.
Leasing is a form of rental. Leased assets have normally been plant and machinery, commercial vehicles and cars, but may also be computers and office equipment. There are two basic forms of lease: "operating leases" and "finance leases".
Venture capital is money put into an enterprise which may all be lost if the enterprise fails. A businessman starting up a new business will invest venture capital of his own, but he will probably need extra funding from a source other than his own pocket. Venture capital is more closely associated with putting money, usually in return for an equity stake, into a new business, a management buy-out or a major expansion scheme.
Franchising is a method of expanding business on less capital than would otherwise be required. For many businesses, it is an alternative to raising extra capital for growth.
.2 Cash Flow
Cash flow is an accounting term that refers to the amount of cash being received and spent by a business during a defined period of time, sometimes tied to a specific project. Measurement of cash flow can be used to evaluate the state or performance of a business or project, to determine problems with liquidity. Being profitable does not always mean being liquid. Because of a shortage of cash, a company may fail even while profitable. Also, it can be used to generate project rate of returns. The time of cash flows into and out of projects are used as inputs to financial models such as net present value, internal rate of return and to examine income or growth of a business when is believed that accrual accounting concepts do not represent economic realities. Alternately, cash flow can be used to validate the net income generated by accrual accounting.
Cash flows may be classified into three parts- investment cash flows (Cash received or expended through capital expenditure, investments or acquisitions), operational cash flows (Cash received or expended as a result of the company's core business activities) and financing cash flows (Cash received or expended as a result of financial activities, such as receiving or paying loans, issuing or repurchasing stock, and paying dividends). All three together are necessary to reconcile the beginning cash balance to the ending cash balance.
One of the four main financial statements of a company is the cash flow statement. The cash flow statement may be examined to determine the short-term sustainability of a company. If cash is increasing (and operational cash flow is positive), then a company will often be deemed to be healthy in the short-term. Increasing or stable cash balances suggest that a company is able to meet its cash needs, and remain solvent.
Cash flow statements may allow careful analysts to detect problems that would not be evident from the other financial statements. For example, the company WorldCom had committed an accounting fraud that was discovered in 2002. The fraud consisted basically of treating ongoing expenses as capital investments, thereby fraudulently boosting net income. Use of one measure of cash flow would potentially have detected that there was no change in overall cash flow.
.3 Investment Decisions
Diversification means the distribution of your investments to different types of investments, companies or securities in order to limit losses in the event of a fall in a particular market or industry. Thomson Gale (2005)
Diversification is important as every investment has varying degrees of potential return and associated risk. The higher the potential return, the higher the associated risk of any given investment. Thomson Gale (2005)
Cost-benefit analysis refers both to a formal discipline used to help assess or appraise the case for a project or proposal, which by itself is a process known as project appraisal and an informal approach to making decisions of any kind.
Under both definitions the process involves, whether explicitly or implicitly, weighing the total expected costs against the total expected benefits of one or more actions in order to choose the most profitable or best option. The formal process is often referred to as or Benefit-cost analysis. Closely related, but slightly different, formal techniques include cost effectiveness analysis and benefit effectiveness analysis.
Cost-benefit analysis is mainly used to assess the value for money of very large private and public sector projects. This is because such projects tend to include costs and benefits that are less amendable to being expressed in financial or monetary terms (e.g. environmental damage), as well as those that can be expressed in monetary terms. Private sector organizations tend to make much more use of other project appraisal techniques, such as rate of return where feasible.
The internal rate of return (IRR) is a capital budgeting method used by firms to decide whether they should make long-term investments. The IRR is the annualized effective compounded return rate which can be earned on the invested capital, that is, the yield on the investment.
A project is a good investment proposition if its IRR is greater than the rate of return that could be earned by alternative investments (investing in other projects, buying bonds, even putting the money in a bank account). The IRR should include an appropriate risk premium. Mathematically the IRR is defined as any discount rate that results in a net present value of zero (NPV) of a series of cash flows.
If the IRR is greater than the project's cost of capital, or hurdle rate, the project will add value for the company. In finding the internal rate of return, the IRR that satisfies the following equation needs to be found:
Sturm's Thorem
Adapted from the Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education
Example
Year Cash flow
0 -100
1 +30
2 +35
3 +40
4 +45
Calculation of NPV:
i = interest rate in percent
NPV = -100 + 30/ [(1+i) ^1] + 35/ [(1+i) ^2] + 40/ [(1+i) ^3] + 45/ [(1+i) ^4]
Calculation of IRR:
NPV = 0
-100 + 30/ [(1+i) ^1] + 35/ [(1+i) ^2] + 40/ [(1+i) ^3] + 45/ [(1+i) ^4]
IRR = 17.09%
The calculated IRR, as an investment decision tool should not be used to rate mutually exclusive projects, but only to decide whether a single project is worth investing in. In such cases where one project has a higher initial investment than a second mutually exclusive project, the first project may have a lower IRR (expected return), but a higher NPV (increase in shareholders' wealth) and should thus be accepted over the second project. A method called marginal IRR can be used to adapt the IRR methodology to this case.
Return on investment means the percentage you make each year on the money you invest. For example, if you put $10,000 in a savings account at the bank you will earn interest - probably around 5-6% per year. However, if you put that same $10,000 in stocks you will hope to earn dividends as well as have the value of the stock go up to give you a return on your investment. Now, if you invest that $10,000 in your business you will hope to be able to make even more as a return on your investment than ...
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Return on investment means the percentage you make each year on the money you invest. For example, if you put $10,000 in a savings account at the bank you will earn interest - probably around 5-6% per year. However, if you put that same $10,000 in stocks you will hope to earn dividends as well as have the value of the stock go up to give you a return on your investment. Now, if you invest that $10,000 in your business you will hope to be able to make even more as a return on your investment than just putting it in the bank. In that case you would expect to make an annual profit that is greater than about $500 (5% of $10,000). After all, the higher the risk the greater return the entrepreneur would expect for the investment from The Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education.
.4 Budget
A budget is a statement of expected income and expenditure over a period of time. In a business this statement may include such areas as production capacity, the number of stall, the sales effort, the marketing spend and generally, planned investment. It is then a planning document and despite the rapid changes experienced in most businesses, a very valuable planning document. It is the process of managing outgoing so that they don't exceed income. A budget is therefore a document listing details of income and expenditure. Budget (from French bougette) generally refers to a list of all planned expenses and revenues. A budget is an important concept in micro-economics, which uses a budget line to illustrate the trade, offs between two or more goods.
.4.1 Why Budget
Managing and constructing budgets can be one of the most useful tools of a manager. Management depends on planning and measuring. A budget provides the baseline for this measure. Budgeting also gives an accurate picture of your financial position. It will almost certainly demonstrate that money is not being spent according to the priorities and will highlight where changes in spending habits can be made and, possibly, where savings can be made. Budgeting also helps make money go further. The fundamental aim of budgeting is to ensure that basic needs are met and that, where necessary, steps are taken to get you out of debt. A budget can be a very effective brake on large impulse spending. Budgeting can help prevent the running up of debts to the point where contractual payments can no longer be maintained. It will also help to reduce stress levels.
.4.2 Elements of a Budget
Elements of a budget may be phased into three categories - services (also called indirect costs), labour and materials. Also in some budgets, there will be income. Within each element of the budget the items will be fixed costs, which are expenses that stay the same regardless of the amount of activity in the project and Variable costs - expenses that increase with the level of activity in the project.
.5 Profit and loss
Profit is the gain resulting from the employment of capital. It can also be viewed as the difference between the price we sell a product for and what it cost to produce. Profit is the difference between a security's purchase price and selling price. If the selling price is higher than the purchase price, there is a profit. Conversely, if the selling price is lower than the purchase price, there is a loss. Profit is an accounting concept, normally the bottom line of the Income Statement, which is also called Profit or Loss statement. Start with sales, subtract all costs of sales and all expenses, and that produces profit before tax. Subtract tax to get net profit.
.5.1 What is asset?
An asset is any economic resource controlled by an entity as a result of past transactions or events and from which future economic benefits may be obtained. Examples include cash, equipment, buildings, and land. Assets have three essential characteristics. They embody a future benefit that involves a capacity, singly or in combination with other assets, in the case of profit oriented enterprises, to contribute directly or indirectly to future net cash flows, and, in the case of not for profit organization, to provide services. The entity can control access to the benefit and the transaction or event giving rise to the entity's right to, or control of, the benefit has already occurred.
Current assets are cash and other assets expected to be converted to cash, sold, or consumed either in a year or in the operating cycle. These assets are continually turned over in the course of a business during normal business activity.
Task 2
Strategic Planning
2.0 What is Strategy?
"Strategy is the direction and scope of an organization over the long-term: which achieves advantage for the organization through its configuration of resources within a challenging environment, to meet the needs of markets and to fulfill stakeholder expectations" as quoted by Johnson and Scholes in Exploring Corporate Strategy.
A strategy is a long-term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal, most often "winning". Strategy is differentiated from tactics or immediate actions with resources at hand by its nature of being extensively premeditated, and often practically rehearsed. Strategic planning is the process by which the members of an organization envision the future and develop the necessary operations and procedures to achieve that future. The strategic plan sets the stage for creating the marketing plan and the financial plan. The risk analysis section of the strategic plan includes the development of a succession plan.
Strategic planning provides a framework to coordinate efforts and support. Strategy involves decisions of what should be done by a wide range of individuals in health services organizations and facilities. Planning as a management process leads to the establishment of objectives and helps to give the organization a direction that can exist in the external environment. It is then possible to determine the methods to achieve these objectives.
2.1 Why is Strategic Planning Important?
Strategic planning is a systematic way of planning for the future, but it's based on strategic thinking. A major business function is to create a sustainable (something that works long-term) means of creating revenue so you can pay the bills.
Strategic Planning helps to identify your target audience and create realistic goals for your Web site. Knowing your audience and what you want to accomplish with your Web site, helps both of us in identifying the appropriate Web strategies to utilize.
Strategic Planning also helps to identify which Web pages are critical in the initial development of your Web site. This saves you development time, money and helps to get your site quickly working for you. A phased implementation process allows faster roll out and helps to manage budgets.
The ultimate goal of strategic planning is to be able to act effectively in a changing environment. Strategic planning requires clarity in seeing both the existing situation, and the future potential. It also requires the ability to clearly assess all possible impacts of a strategic decision.
To plan for the next phase of your business, a very clear understanding of your organization's strengths and weaknesses is important. You must be able to identify the market niches in which you are most likely to succeed. This is where a strategic review could play a role - a trusted business advisor assisting you and providing an external perspective could be particularly helpful.
2.2 Strategic Planning Process
Vision
Mission
External Environment Situational Analysis Internal Environment
(PEST, SPIC) (Value Chain)
SWOT
Feedback Objectives
Strategic Options
Choose & Implement strategy
Figure 1 - Strategic Planning Process Diagram
Mission - The mission is the reason for the existence of the organization - the ultimate purpose. This statement is very short and concise, but at the same time very broad and general.
Positioning Statement - This statement defines how the organization implements its mission in a way that differentiates it from all other organizations working toward the same mission. Like the mission, this statement is very short and concise, but is also very detailed in how organizational differences are to be implemented in processes and within the organizational culture. What are the meaningful points of difference between this organization and others?
Strategy - Strategy involves how the mission and positioning statement are to be attained. The rubber meets the road here by developing ways to bridge the gap between present reality and the future envisioned in the mission and positioning statements. While there may be a number of strategies to close the gap the organization should pick a manageable number that can be realistically addressed by the organization. The gap involved between the present and the desired future may be too large to close at one time, so concentrate on foundational issues and those strategies that make the greatest contribution for closing the gap.
Vision - Mission, positioning, and strategy all fall under a general umbrella called vision. Because it involves everything, it is sometimes difficult to summarize in a few statements. Instead, the vision is more abstract and is only understood within the context of the mission, positioning, strategy, and the organizational culture. To a large extent, the culture is carried in the stories told throughout the organization that illustrates what the organization does and why it does it that way. Vision is carried in the stories that address the future and how the organization will move from the present state forward. Not a single story, but many stories told from different perspectives.
Performance Measures - Progress toward gap closure requires some type of measurement process. Generally, metrics are focused on mission attainment, which normally has some financial component of past performance. A more balanced approach widens the measurement process to also focus on other areas that are likely to influence future mission attainment. Customer issues, internal process efficiencies, and learning & development all effect future mission performance and can be tracked in meaningful ways.
2.3 The Business Environment
The business environment is divided into three categories: the external, internal and immediate. It is generally affected from different cycles of the society and the different people and places in the business world. The internal environment deals with staff or Internal customers, office technology, finance and wages. The external environment deals with the microenvironment for example a company's external customers, agents, distributors, competitors and suppliers. The immediate environment deals with the Political and Legal, Economic, Social, Technological or PEST factors.
Wider/External (PEST)
Immediate (SPICC, Porters5Force)
Internal (Porter's Value Chain)
Figure 2 - The Business Environment
2.4 PEST- Political, Economic, Social and Technological
PEST analysis measures a business's market and potential according to external factors; Political, Economic, Social and Technological. It is often helpful to complete a PEST analysis prior to a SWOT analysis.
The political factors are influenced greatly upon the regulations, laws of the businesses and spending power of customers and businesses. The government's stability, policies, marketing ethics, economy, trading agreements, culture and religion of the political environment all influence the External environment. In Trinidad and Tobago, the governmental institutions are affected by political factors as it is a democratic nation and as a new government may not support the previous government's plans and policies in terms of the 20/20 vision the current government has for Trinidad.
The Economic Factors are influenced greatly upon the interest rates, level of inflation and long-term prospects (GDP) of the marketing planning of the economy both short term and long term. Trinidad and Tobago is currently affected by the economic factors such as the rate of exchange (US) and this increases the rates of importing goods from United States.
The Social Factors are influenced greatly upon the dominant religion, attitudes to foreign products and services, language impact on products/markets, time of consumers, roles of men/women, the population living, wealth of population and population's opinion on green issues in society. Trinidad and Tobago is currently a cosmopolitan nation and this slightly impacts on the businesses, as the twin-island is also a democratic nation.
The Technological factors is powered by globalization and influenced by the technology of products/services quality, availability of new generation services e.g. Internet banking and internet mobile phones, distribution of new technologies and communication with companies and new technology offers e.g. CRM. For example, in Trinidad and Tobago, most businesses are competing with each other with the use of advanced computer technologies. SuperPharm is currently more advanced than most pharmacies as they operate a RFID database system, which is technology at an advanced stage.
2.5 SWOT- Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats
SWOT Analysis, is a strategic planning tool used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieving that objective.
The SWOT analysis headings provide a good framework for reviewing strategy, position and direction of a company or business proposition, or any other idea. Completing a SWOT analysis is very simple, and is a good subject for workshop sessions. SWOT analysis also works well in brainstorming meetings. Use SWOT analysis for business planning, strategic planning, competitor evaluation, marketing, business and product development and research reports. A SWOT analysis measures a business unit, a proposition or idea; a PEST analysis measures a market.
A SWOT analysis is a subjective assessment of data, which is organized by the SWOT format into a logical order that helps understanding, presentation, discussion and decision-making. In SWOT Analysis, the S and the W are internal and the O and T are external.
An example of a SWOT analysis is based on an imaginary situation. The scenario is based on a business-to-business manufacturing company, who historically rely on distributors to take their products to the end user market. The opportunity, and therefore the subject for the SWOT analysis, is for the manufacturer to create a new company of its own to distribute its products direct to certain end-user sectors, which are not being covered or developed by its normal distributors.
Figure 3 - SWOT Diagram
Task 3
Difference Types of
IT Networks
3.0 Intranet
An intranet is a private computer network that uses Internet protocols, network connectivity to securely share part of an organization's information or operations with its employees. An intranet can be understood as "a private version of the Internet," or as a version of the Internet` confined to an organization. An Intranet is similar to the Internet, but restricted to users within a company. Intranets use web servers to distribute information, and users view the Intranet with a web browser. Intranets use the same protocols (HTML, TCP/IP) as the Internet. Intranet can improve workforce productivity, save time, enhance effective communication, be cost-effective, promote common corporate culture, enhance collaboration and provide cross-platform capability among other benefits.
Intranet reduces paper as documents are processed online. They offer a one-client interface and are easy to use. Intranets connect across disparate platforms and are supported by agreed standards set by global governing bodies. Intranets house information online that is readily available for quick consumption. It provides quick access to information making them more efficient. An intranet also offers dynamic information to leaders and provides global access for knowledge to an organization. Intranet also builds a new culture within an organization built on information exchange and collaboration.
3.1 Two Functions of an Intranet
Intranet provides quick access to everything from company handbooks to downloadable forms. Employees can find whatever information they need, whether they're at home, work, or on the road with an Intranet. It benefits organizations as companies can save money by putting documents onto an Intranet. Employees print documents only if they need to. Not only does this save printing thousands of copies, there are no distribution costs.
Workforce productivity is improved as intranet helps users to locate and view information faster and use applications relevant to their roles and responsibilities. With the help of a web browser interface such as Internet Explorer or Fire fox, users can access data held in any database the organization wants to make available, anytime and - subject to security provisions - from anywhere within the company workstations, increasing employees' ability to perform their jobs faster, more accurately, and with confidence that they have the right information. It also helps to improve the services provided to the users.
3.2 Examples of Intranet
Ford Motor Co has more than 175,000 employees in 950 locations worldwide, each of whom had access to the company's intranet. The intranet gave employees information about benefits, demographics, salary history, and general company news and human resources forms.
Another example is North Korea controls access to the Internet among its people by using a countrywide intranet called "Kwangbyong" ('Bright'), while those with actual access to the Internet are controlled by a government agency called the Korean Computer Center. They are employed in searching the web for useful information, which is then copied and moved onto the Kwangbyong.
3.3 Extranet
An extranet is a private network that uses Internet protocols, network connectivity, and possibly the public telecommunication system to securely share part of an organization's information or operations with suppliers, vendors, partners, customers or other businesses. An extranet requires security and privacy. These can include firewalls, server management, the issuance and use of digital certificates or similar means of user authentication, encryption of messages, and the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) that tunnel through the public network.
An extranet can be understood as "a private intranet over the Internet". Extranets interconnect to each other and creates a private network for sharing information and provides access to websites where registered users can use. Extranets also improves relationships with key customers and competitors by providing them with accurate and updated information as information can be updated, inserted, deleted and edited instantly.
3.4 Two Functions of an Extranet
Extranets supports supply chain management (SCM) as it moves in on the process from supplier to manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer and makes it easier to communicate. Supply chain management involves coordinating and integrating these flows both within and among companies. It is said that the ultimate goal of any effective supply chain management system is to reduce inventory.
An Extranet also allows organizations or project information to be viewed at times convenient for business partners, customers, employees, suppliers and other stakeholders. This cuts down on meeting times and is an advantage when doing business with partners in different time zones. It is a basically a network that connects with other networks within a specified business arena.
3.3.1 Examples of Extranet
In the construction industry, project teams could login to and access a 'project extranet' to share drawings and documents make comments, issue requests for information, etc.
Also, in 2003 in the United Kingdom, several of the leading vendors formed the Network of Construction Collaboration Technology Providers, or NCCTP, to promote the technologies and to establish data exchange standards between the different systems. The same type of construction-focused technologies has also been developed in the United States, Australia, Scandinavia, Germany and Belgium, among others. Some applications are offered on Software as a Service (SaaS) basis by vendors functioning as Application service providers (ASPs).
3.4 Work groups
A workgroup is a logical collection of computers identified by a unique name. Members of the workgroup can see and access resources shared by other computers within the group. Each computer in the workgroup manages its own security. Workgroup computing uses groupware to assist in this task. Workgroups are a tool to be used by other applications and services.
Workgroups are collections of machines configured to advertise themselves as belonging loosely to a "group of machines" with a common name. Each machine maintains its own local database of users, printers, and other resources. Access control and sharing of resources like files or printers is handled in a peer-to-peer fashion and there are no "controlling" or "master" machines like domain controllers or central file servers.
Workgroups allows communication with group members as they manage projects and schedule meetings. They also identify affiliates and other persons who have privileges in their system and also manage administration privileges across its application. They manage administration privileges across its applications and takes records of who has completed specific authority prerequisites. Workgroups also restrict control access to web pages and assists in project orientation and distributes working.
3.5 Two Functions of a Workgroup
Workgroups makes it easy to use and provides an intuitive interface and shallow learning curve allows even a non-programmer to create detailed and complex surveys within hours of getting started. Workgroups allows multiple-user full options to simultaneous work, defines access privileges including master and
sub-accounts.
Workgroups allows the ability to manage a small number of machines individually when joining a domain requires an extensive learning curve for local IT resources and/or the deployment and operation of additional local services.
3.5.1 Examples of Workgroups
A workgroup is in charge of preparing a school site for a butterfly garden, the materials manager discusses with the workgroup what garden tools are needed and whether they can be borrowed from parents, the school, or the local garden supply store. During the project, the materials manager keeps track of the tools and, with the teacher's guidance, makes sure they are used and cared for properly. Once the project is complete, the materials manager collects the equipment and makes sure everything is returned to its owner in good condition.
Workgroup participants have conducted many projects that have impacted the growth of the processing tomato industry in California. Examples include activities related to variety of evaluations, crop modeling and disease forecasting, plant or soil fertility, efficacy and crop safety evaluations of pesticides for potential registration, and fruit quality improvement. An additional objective of the workgroup is to transfer technology to industry through newsletters, trade journal articles, regional meetings, Internet web sites, and industry discussion groups.
3.6 Intranet, Extranet and Work groups Summary Table
Network
Similarities
Differences
Intranet
Connects through various platforms and allows access to selected information resources.
It is internal and only computers connected to this network can access files and get privileges. It is highly maintainable and manageable as it is basically a large LAN.
Network
Similarities
Differences
Extranet
Alike Intranets and Workgroups, shared access is applicable among collaborating parties
Uses Internet technology to link businesses with their suppliers, customers, or other businesses that share common goals considered external communication.
Workgroup
Like Intranets and Extranets, Workgroups allows the sharing of information, access control, file sharing and resources.
Lack of single sign-on benefits and the need to separately maintain local user accounts and passwords compared to Intranets and Extranets.
Table 1 - Network Summary Table
Network/Features
Cost
Geographic Limit
Users
Intranet
Medium
Small Area
National Organizations staff
Extranet
High
Large Area
International Organizations staff
Workgroup
Low
Large Area
Small group of staff internationally
Table 2 - Network and Features Differences
Task 4
Mentoring
4.0 What is Mentoring?
"A mentor is a person who has the ability to empower another person and increase his or her capacity for success". Mentoring has been described as a process of sharing experiences and transferring and exchanging information between professionals as they develop a long-term relationship that will provide insight for leadership says The Mentoring Partnership of Southwestern Pennsylvania.
Mentoring includes promoting intentional learning, which includes capacity building through methods such as instructing, providing experiences, coaching, modeling and advising. Also provides valuable opportunities for analyzing individual and organizational realities. Successful mentoring is sharing responsibility for learning despite the subject matter and the timing involved
4.1 Roles of a Mentor
Roles
Description
Supportive
Supports the needs and aspirations of the mentee and encourages mentee to accept challenges and overcome difficulties.
Patient
Willing and patient to spend time performing mentoring responsibilities. Allows adequate time to interact with the mentee
Respected
Has earned respect of peers within an organization and in an profession.
Motivating
Inspires a mentee to do better and motivates the mentee through encouraging feedback and challenging work assignments.
People-Oriented
Genuinely interested in people and has a desire to help others. Has "Good People Skills" and knows how to communicate well and listen actively. Resolve conflict and give feedback appropriately.
Confident
.Confident in his career so that pride for the mentee's accomplishments can be genuinely expressed. Appreciates mentee's strengths and abilities, enjoys discoveries and welcomes achievements and be a part of the mentee's growth and expansion.
Roles
Description
Achiever
Achieves professionally or sets lofty career goals, evaluates these goals, and strives to reach them. Takes more responsibilities than is required and volunteers for more activities.
Accepts Others
Shows regard for others by accepting vulnerabilities, imperfections, weaknesses and minor flaws.
Promotes mentee
Gives the mentee the right amount of exposure by securing challenging projects for the mentee and talking with others about the mentee's accomplishments.
Table 3 - Roles of a Mentor
4.2 Process of Mentoring
Adapted from CCC/THE MENTORING GROUP (2003) and Barry Sweeny (2003)
Building Relationships - The mentor is the most directive and exerts the most leadership. Focused on teaching information for which there is one right answer. The mentor is the more proactive and the mentee the more reactive, deferring to the mentor's experience and knowledge.
Negotiating Agreements - The mentor is still somewhat proactive regarding some tasks, but feeling much less ownership in those areas where the mentee has learned what to do and is demonstrating skill and wisdom in doing it well. In those areas, the mentee is becoming much more proactive and defers less to the mentor's experience and guidance. In newer areas and tasks, the mentee still relies on the mentor's knowledge base and experience as a guide and so, is less proactive and more reactive.
Developing the Mentee - the mentee and mentor become true partners and are much more equal or peers in feeling ownership and responsibility for monitoring task accomplishment. In the real sense of the word, they co-labor. The mentee is mostly proactive and the mentor is mostly reactive, giving the lead to the mentee in all areas where the mentee has gained experience, and retaining the mentor's leadership just in those topics, which the mentee has yet to experience.
Ending the Relationship - the mentor becomes primarily a cheerleader and encourager of the mentee. This is a hard step for many mentors, as they often value the collaborative phase and sharing so much, they may be unconsciously reluctant to let go and get out of the mentee's way. They must, so there are no dependencies created and the mentee can become a self-sustaining and self-renewing, reflective person capable of both independent and collaborative work. The mentee has assumed or is about to assume all the task accomplishment responsibilities because the mentee has experienced it all at least once and needs no external prompting. At this point the mentor is reacting to the lead of the mentee, and the mentee knows enough to be able to be proactive in anticipating what's ahead and appropriately planning for the mentee's own success.
4.2 Cost of Mentoring
The cost of mentoring may depend on the desired organization and the level of mentoring which is required. The cost of Mentoring may not be measured in Dollars and cents, as there is no fixed cost for knowledge and time. The more important and crucial cost would be intangible costs. These costs would include the time and effort of the mentor as well as the lost of production while mentoring to mentee. The organization as a whole would have to cover these costs as other employees and team leaders would fill the gap of the lost production.
4.4 Benefits of Mentoring
Mentoring Improves Performance as it improves business relationships and produces faster cycle time. Productivity increases along with sales and consequently better quality product or service, reduced variations and improved ration of labour cost to production/service costs.
It also builds commitment and culture as it improves personal or work satisfaction, improves work attitude or workforce teams, decreased absenteeism and reduced staff turnover.
It promotes a responsive workforce as it improves customer satisfaction, reduces complaints, and allows adaptability or responsiveness of workforce to opportunities, more rapid adoption of innovations, work practices, new technology, improved teamwork and the ability to adopt new service modes.
Mentoring reduces staff replacement costs, which is the cost of retraining and recruitment, accommodation of existing staff to vacant jobs, staff retention, promotion and term of employment, volume of part-time/casual staff moving to full-time jobs and number of potential recruits.
As have been observed in Transport and Logistic Center's website, its seems the advantages of mentoring is greatly outnumbered by the disadvantages as there are only few which are hardly relevant when dealing with an organization with existing problems and conflicts among peers and employees.
4.5 Inducting new employees or interns
After conducting a considerable amount of research on mentoring in various organizations, it has been established that mentoring is a very good and beneficial to induct new employees/interns in an organization. This could impact on the overall performance of the existing employees and the business itself. The mentors may be someone in the organization who could particularly train and mentor new employees to the needs of the business organization, which would match the needs of the management and production as well. This is beneficial for the mentor as well as the employee.
As The Network of Executive Women published, new employee or interns would benefit from mentoring, as they would learn from their mentor's expertise, receives critical feedback in key areas, such as communications, interpersonal relationships, technical abilities, change-management and leadership skills. They gain knowledge that can be critical for success; as a result, adapts more quickly to the organization's culture. A mentor can gain insight from the mentee's background and history that can be used in the mentor's professional and personal development. This enhances leadership and communication skills, broadens industry perspective from a different corporate culture and Connects to emerging leaders.
Reference List
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APPENDICES
Appendix 1
Porter's 5 Forces
Michael Porter's famous Five Forces of Competitive Position model provides a simple perspective for assessing and analyzing the competitive strength and position of a corporation or business organization
The five forces that Porter suggests drive competition are:
. Existing competitive rivalry between suppliers
2. Threat of new market entrants
3. Bargaining power of buyers
4. Power of suppliers
5. Threat of substitute products (including technology change)
Appendix 2
Value Chain
The value chain in its original sense was defined as a sequence of value-enhancing activities. In its simplest form, raw materials are formed into components, which are assembled into final products, distributed, sold, and serviced. Frequently, the activities span multiple organizations. This orderly progression of activities allows managers to formulate profitable strategies and coordinate operations
Figure from Michael E Porter
Appendix 3
Cash Flow Statement
This Cash Flow Statement adapted from Prestige Holdings Ltd which is a local Restaurant Management Company located in Trinidad and Tobago.
31/05/07 31/05/06 30/11/06
Cash generated from operations 12,883.00 8,848.00 50,543.00
Interest paid (5,859.00) (5,693.00) (10,606.00)
Net Tax Paid (net of refund) (12,473.00) (5,845.00) (10,708.00)
Net cash (used in) or
Generated from operating activities (5,449.00) (2,690.00) 29,229.00
Investing activities (26,726.00) (17,053.00) (42,686.00)
Financing 6,679.00 17,769.00 20,034.00
Net cash (used in) or provided
By for the year (25,496.00) (1,974.00) 6,577.00
Cash and cash equivalents
Year Start 14,232.00 7,655.00 7,655.00
Year End (11,264.00) 5,681.00 14,232.00
Appendix 4
Profit and Loss Account
This Profit and Loss account was adapted from Prestige Holdings Ltd which is a local Restaurant Management Company located in Trinidad and Tobago.
31/05/07 31/05/06
Sales 317,041.00 280,858.00
Cost of Sales (214,782.00) (190,404.00)
Gross Profit 102,259.00 90,454.00
Operating Expenses (82,415.00) (72,097.00)
Operating Profit 19,844.00 18,357.00
Finance Costs (net) (5,859.00) (5,693.00)
Profit before Tax from Operating 13,985.00 12,664.00
Pre-Opening Expenses 0.00 (1,297.00)
Profit before Taxation 13,985.00 11,367.00
Taxation (4,624.00) (3,905.00)
Profit after Taxation 9,361.00 7,462.00
Attributable to:
Equity Holders of the Company 10,782.00 8,378.00
Minority Interests (1,421.00) (916.00)
9,361.00 7,462.00
Earning per share (Basic) 17.6 cents 13.8 cents
Earning per share (Diluted) 17.3 cents 13.4 cents
Appendix 5
Budget
This budget was obtained from a local snack company FJ Sales and Services Limited located in Soledad Road, Claxton Bay in Trinidad.
Marketing Expense Budget January December 2006
Advertising 15,000.00 10,000.00 150,000.00
Catalogs 2,000.00 2,000.00 25,000.00
Websites 3,000.00 5,000.00 113,000.00
Promotions 16,000.00
Shows 20,200.00
Literature 7,000.00
Promotions 1,000.00
Seminars 1,000.00 31,000.00
Service 2,000.00 250.00 10,250.00
Training 5,000.00 5,000.00 60,000.00
Other 1,000.00 1,000.00 12,000.00
Total Sales and Marketing Expenses 29,000.00 23,250.00 445,750.00
Appendix 6
Value Chain
This Value Chain is a simple one adapted from the company applicable to the Gas Sector.
Electronic Copy of Project
Renuka Dabideen 287591 Business Management
