How will ethical issues affect leadership in a business
Contemporary and Pervasive Issues "How will ethical issues affect leadership in a business?" Name: Lauren Canning Student no: 15010789 Date: 31/03/2009 Tutor: Christine Gilligan Word Count: 5671 In this essay I am going to discuss how ethical issues can affect leadership in a business. In order to answer this question the essay will start by giving a brief introduction into the two topics; leadership and business ethics. I will then aim to successfully link them by considering the argument of whether leaders should concern themselves with ethical issues or whether making as much money as possible should be their main consideration. Leadership has many different meanings and there have been numerous different classification systems used to define the dimensions of leadership. Infact as Stogdill (1974) pointed out, "there are almost as many different definitions of leadership as there are people who have tried to define it." One popular definition used for this subject is that "leadership may be considered as the process (act) of influencing the activities of an organized group in its efforts toward goal setting and goal achievement"(Stogdill, 1974). This definition suggests that it is not a characteristic but is an event that takes place between a leader and his or her followers and that there are three aspects to leadership. Firstly, it involves influence in that
Case Analysis: Slendertone
Ranee Sirirushneekorn MKTG901-49 9/18/04 Case Analysis: Slendertone Problem Definition McDonnell has aimed to develop "Slendertone" into a world-class brand and to achieve sales of over £100 million in two years. In order to achieve this, the company had to develop new markets and redevelop the existing markets. Plus, the company needed to place more emphasis on customer satisfaction issues for both the home based user and professional markets to retain the customer's loyalty which in turn helped to boost revenue. Solution Developing New markets Alternative 1: E-commerce - "Slendertone" can be known in just a single click. Pros Cons . No barrier to entry 1. Leads to higher global competition 2. Reach worldwide potential customers 2. Privacy and Security issues 3. Low cost of Investment 3. Hesitate to buy via online Alternative 2: Directly market to France. Referring to the market research, there is still a high demand in France. The company has to re-penetrate this big market and try to become the market leader there. This achievement will generate millions to the company earnings and help to achieve the company's goal. Thus, it is a must to locate the office in France to manage and control this segment carefully. By using a new infomercial, the company can reach the targeted customers by using real users to be
Case Study Of The Home Video Game Industry from Pong to Dreamcast
Case Study Of The Home Video Game Industry from Pong to Dreamcast Strategic Management 240 Instructor Janet Jones By Ivy Felicia Martin June 27,2003 Introduction The home video game market is a 30 billion dollar booming industry. Technology and entertainment have been combined together to create a world wide phenomena. The year 2001 marked the thirtieth year anniversary of the home video game. Where did it all begin. History, Development, and Growth of the Industry The year of 1972 was a period of innovation for Norman Bushnell. Bushnell vision was to create a video game. Past experience required that the game had to be as simple as possible. Pong was the product that resulted based on the concept table tennis. The game was placed in a bar and soon generated revenue. Norman Bushnell received a line of credit from a local bank and founded his company Atari. The employee's would soon go on to be innovators in their own right, Steve Jobs and Steve Woziak.. Capital was provided by Don Valentine, a successful venture capitalist. The company's first year sales were 3.2 million dollars. Competition began to enter the market and Sears soon came to the rescue. Sears provided a much needed push and sales were reached of 450 million dollars. Atari was sold to Warner Brothers for 28 million dollars and became Atari Inc. Success followed with the Atari 2600
Buyer Decision Process
Buyer Decision Process Chad Ramsey April 6th, 2008 AIU Online Buyer Decision Process The purpose of this paper is to examine the buyers' decision process when purchasing a product and/or service. For specific purpose of this assignment, I constructed 5 interview questions pertaining to the buyer decision process. The interview questions were based around the purchase of a laptop computer. My brother, Shane Ramsey, is one person that I chose to interview. I answered the questions in the interview, since I had recently purchased a laptop as well, and because Shane helped me in the buying process. This paper will also analyze the demographic characteristics that influenced the behavior of each consumer involved in the interview. Armstrong and Kotler (2007) break the buyer decision process into 5 stages; "need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and postpurchase behavior". In the interview, the first question was based on "need recognition" (the first stage in the buyer's decision process). "When did you realize you needed a new computer and why?" When I first realized I needed to get a laptop; I had just enrolled in AIU Online and my desktop PC was old and could not support the 2007 version of the software, Microsoft Office, as required. Also, I wanted to be able to take my school with me. Shane quotes, "I realized I needed a
Report using the five forces model of Ceasars Entertainment.
As the CEO of Ceasars Entertainment, much of the information in this report on the casino and gaming industry will sound familiar to you. To expound upon traditional industry data this report utilizes the five forces model developed by Michael Porter along with a general environmental trend analysis. Porter's renowned forces include threat of entry, buyer power, supplier power, threat of substitutes, and the intensity of rivalry in the industry. When coupled with an analysis of the changing nature of the casino industry these forces make for powerful tools to evaluate the overall attractiveness of the casino industry. The first aspect of the Five Forces Model is threat of entry. Due to the nature of the industry, there are very low switching costs. In the United States legalized gambling is restricted to certain areas so all competitors are bound to the same geographic boundaries. This gives buyers a tremendous amount of flexibility. Furthermore, differentiation of one's product has a relatively short life span. This is illustrated by the expectation of above average returns on a new casino or remodeled area of the strip in Las Vegas for only one to two years. So companies are constantly forced to open new locations, remodel, or reinvent in order to keep a competitive advantage on the competition. Because of this, the capital requirements in this industry are
Verifone EMEA and the changing environment.
VERIFONE EMEA AND THE CHANGING ENVIRONMENT To: Rosamund Bell, CEO VeriFone EMEA Author: Mark O'Flynn, EMEA Sales Manager Date: June 18th 2003 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 3 2 VERIFONE ENVIRONMENTS 4 2.1 THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT 5 2.1.1 Competition 6 2.1.2 Suppliers 7 2.1.3 Clients 8 2.1.4 International Card Associations 8 2.2 THE INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT 9 2.2.1 Structure 9 2.2.2 Culture 10 3 CRITICAL ANALYSIS & RECCOMENDATIONS 12 3.1 Going to Market 13 3.2 Dealing with Competition 14 3.3 Supply Chain 14 3.4 The Far Environment 15 3.5 Company Culture 15 4 CONCLUSION 16 5 REFERENCES 17 INTRODUCTION Well over half of the twenty million credit & debit card payment terminals installed globally are VeriFone devices. At the height of the dot.com boom, Hewlett-Packard, anxious to diversify into the e-commerce arena, purchased the then profitable and dynamic global leader for $1.4 billion. Three years later HP realized that VeriFone, by then losing $90m annually, along with skilled personnel and huge chunks of market share to competitors, had little to do with e-commerce or other core businesses. Private equity fund GTCR picked VeriFone up for a mere $45 million and began immediately turning the company around, embarking on a mission to change the corporate structure and culture. As part of the cohesive and
Why do people shop?
MCE UNIT 9 UNDERSTANDING CONSUMERS WHY DO PEOPLE SHOP? marketer is seeking to address three basic questions: Why does the customer want to buy a particular product or service? How will he or she decide which option to purchase? What factors may influence this decision? Consumer Motivation The study of consumer motivation essentially addresses the question: "Why do people shop?" According to Tauber, there are two main categories of motivation for shopping: Personal Motives: Role Playing Diversion Self-Gratification Learning Physical Activity Sensory Stimulation Social Motives: Social Interaction Peer Affiliation Status & Authority Pleasure of Bargaining Motivation: The Psychodynamic Approach Motivation featured prominently in Freudian theory. Freud himself subscribed to the principle of psychological determinism; the idea that no aspect of human behaviour is ever accidental, even if it appears so to us at times. Key to this deterministic view of behaviour is the dynamic unconscious, hidden drives, desires, fantasies and anxieties directing all behaviour. the topographical model of the mind. consists of three psychological apparatus; the id, the ego and the super-ego. The id is the instinctual part of the mind, driving all behaviour toward instant gratification of basic animalistic needs; i.e. hunger, thirst, sexual arousal, etc. The super-ego,
Southwest Airlines: Expanding Beyond the Southwest
Southwest Airlines: Expanding Beyond the Southwest Maastricht University Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Maastricht, March 9th, 2004 Bächle, K. (175447), Fixson, S. (180319), Vetten, R. (198862) International Business Economics Strategic Management Group 5, Subgroup 4 Assignment Session 9 Tutor: Swaan, W. Southwest Airlines was founded in 1966 and began its service in June 1971 with flights to Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. The company has become the fourth largest major airline in America under the guidance of Herbert Kelleher as its CEO. The Airline offers low-fare seats, high-frequency flights, point-to-point carrier, on-time flights, and no-frills carrier services. The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of customer service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company spirit. Southwest Airlines provides employees a stable work environment and encourages their creativity and innovation. Analysis of airline industry structure The structure of the airline industry can be analyzed with the help of Porter's Five-Forces-Model. The elements of an industry structure are industry competitors, buyers, new entrants, suppliers, and substitutes. The competitors in the industry can be grouped into different categories: major airlines, national airlines, and regional airlines. Southwest,
The Partitions of 12.
Year 9 Maths Coursework By Rahul Dey Form: 9P Contents 3. Coursework Version History 4. Question 1 5-9. Question 2 0. Question 3 Coursework Project History Version 1.0 - Added all of the needed information into the coursework. Version 1.1 - Neatened up layout of partitions, and elaborated briefly on some ideas Version 1.2 - Put all of the partitions into tables to save space, and to neaten it up. Question 1 The Partitions of 12: Using the following systematic process, the number 12 can be partitioned into the following pairs: First Integer Second Integer Product 2 0 0 1.5 0.5 5.75 1 1 0.5 .5 5.75 0 2 20 9.5 2.5 23.75 9 3 27 8.5 3.5 29.75 8 4 32 7.5 4.5 33.75 7 5 35 6.5 5.5 35.75 6 6 36 5.5 6.5 35.75 5 7 35 4.5 7.5 33.75 4 8 32 3.5 8.5 29.75 3 9 27 2.5 9.5 23.75 2 0 20 .5 0.5 5.75 1 1 0.5 1.5 5.75 0 2 0 (NOTE: I HAVE ALSO PUT THE PRODUCT COLUMN HERE TO SHOW THE PRODUCTS OF THE TWO PARTITIONING INTEGERS WHEN MULTIPLIED) Due to the fact that there are infinite partitions of the number 12 (and indeed any other number), I have only broken them down into halves, to show that it works with fractional numbers. Answer: The answer to question 1 is 6x6. This is because 6x6 gives the highest product when multiplies together. Notes: I notice that there are some interesting facts regarding the
Porter's Five Forces Degree of Rivalry.
Porter's Five Forces Degree of Rivalry * Number of firms: There were 7 major and 7 moderately strong companies in the United States Dry pasta industry and the total value of the industry was $2.6 billion so it is a big number according to the size of the industry. That means U.S. Pasta industry's concentration ratio was pretty high i.e. only 7 manufacturers (AIPC, Hershey Foods, Borden Food Holdings Company, DGP, Philadelphia Macaroni Company, A. Zerega Sons. Inc and Gooch Foods) held 55% market share, another 25% of market share was owned by other 7 farms. So, with only a few firms holding a large market share, the competitive landscape is very competitive. Imported pasta was another big competitor, which has been growing in the 1990s (Exhibit 10) and represented around 12.5 percent of the domestic market. * Slow market growth: Pasta consumption in the United States had risen in the early 1990s reaching a maximum of 14 pounds per capita in 1994. But then it decreased slightly to approximately 12 pounds per capita (exhibit 1) in 1998. The main acceptance of pasta, healthy food that can be prepared easily, is on question by other substitutes. Also its main customers, single households are shrinking. So, the market is actually declining, which would cause firms to fight for market share and make the industry more competitive. * Economies of Scale: One of the main principal