Project management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Project management - Assignment Example Team functionality and consequent performance depends on various collaboration aspects that are designed to enhance the realization of the project objectives. Communication is a fundamental aspect in the undertaking of a project that engages team work. There should be a clear flow of information from the team leader to the members and vice versa. This flow is designed to maintain a consistent system through which all players in the team are kept posted to emerging issues and expected trends in the project (Gowen, 2007). Team efficacy is highly influenced by modes and means of communication within and without the team. It is important that each member contributes to the design, formulation and implementation of a communication process that is properly suited to the specific variables of the project being undertaken. Running of a project is not always at par with the expectations. However, with effective communications designs, it easier for the entire team to deal with emerging challe nges in the process. The team encompasses diverse and dynamic reasoning, knowledge and skills. Project undertakings also require that balanced collaboration be observed if the desired results are to be achieved. For this reason, the team cannot avoid discussions and decision making at both individual and team level. This requires that effective communication among all stakeholders. ... Team coordination of project phases is characterized by numerous activities. These activities call for decision making from time to time, across every stakeholder. With proper communications designs, negotiations fall into place. Negotiations encompass critical evaluation and assessment of scenarios that need to accounted for as different project activities unfold. Negotiations are designed to bring on board different views of every person involved, so that what is decided upon binds to every team participant. Negotiation in the team level aims to bring to terms all the individual duties and responsibilities, so that what is achieved reflects a team effort. Although the team is made up of a number of players, each player’s contribution counts in the overall success or failure of the team. On the same note, the different players are divided in accordance to their specialization, prior to the activities that need to be undertaken, and the duties and responsibilities that need to be met. Therefore, the team operates in functional areas that range from management and leadership, finance, operations and human resource (Bollen, 2009). The interaction of these parties must encompass proper negotiations, so that in case anything goes wrong in the process, a blame game does not emerge. In such an instance, these functional areas engage in discussions, evaluations and assessments that account for misconducts realized if any. Team performance is highly dependent on the meetings aspect. Meetings are inevitable at all decision making levels. From the time the team is being formed to the completion of the project, meetings play an essential role in uniting all

Resource Management Essay Example for Free

Resource Management Essay Mattel is one the strongest manufacturers of toys in the world. It is the market leader in developing toys of highest international standards. But staying at the top is not easy for Mattel, as it is positioned in one of the most intensive natured markets in terms of competition. Mattel has over twenty-five thousand employees around the globe (Mattel, 2010). In fact, what makes Mattel No. 1 in the toy industry is its well trained and high skilled workforce. This paper will discuss the strategies implemented to enhance the productivity and skills of Mattel workforce. Question 1 The most important challenge for Mattel is to recognize and provide for the need of coordinated development. Development is an essential part of any organization. Mattel’s development programs were introduced by the CEO of the company. The first step was to develop broad based strategy. These development programs resulted in skilled and productive workforce. Secondly Mattel wished to integrate corporate culture, for which development facilitators met groups of 10 or 12 employees globally and supervised them how to implement the new culture. Mattel also introduced digital training centers, by which employees have access to more than 200 e-development courses. These measures have helped Mattel to convert its workforce as the most important assets of the company. As a result of all these actions, Mattel’s selection and recruitment strategies would likely improve and become more intense. The succession plan aims to retain HR talent, but as a result Mattel’s selection criterion would be more challenging. Apart from this, Mattel would wish to seek employees who are sociable and have good communication skills, as coordinated development efforts require employees from different departments to interact more. Further, Mattel might also judge the GK (General Knowledge), IQ (Intelligence Quotient) and EQ (Emotional Quotient) levels of new recruits as a part of enhanced selection strategy. (Mathis Jackson, 2008) Question 2 There is no probability of the instance where the developmental efforts of Mattel would appeal to some employees more than others. The rationale behind this is that the coordinated development efforts were aimed to work for all employees of the Mattel industry. Most employees of Mattel are related to manufacturing process, even if they work in different departments. Since majority employees work towards similar goal (manufacture highest quality toy), their mental and developmental processes would almost be the same. Furthermore, the developmental efforts and programs aim to create skilled and productive workforce does not involve technical training in manufacturing a toy, hence these processes are developed such as to appeal all Mattel employees equally. Lastly, Mattel has recently implemented an integrated corporate culture. This culture acts as a niche for the Mattel employees where they interact with other teams and seek to pursue coordinated development efforts. Thus Mattel employees can be defined as ‘bees collectively working to produce honey’. In such instances, these development efforts appeal all employees the same. (Bratton Gold, 2001) Question3 There can be several reasons for the ‘Barbie’ girls group and ‘Hot Wheels’ boys group not interacting with one another and working effectively together in the past. Firstly, Mattel requires its employees to feel the passion and become a part of what they manufacture. Hence, the Barbie girls group had all the instructions and manufacturing processes that coincided with Barbie’s feminine nature. While the Hot Wheels boys group reflected aggressive, daring and bold nature concepts in their manufacturing processes and instructions. Secondly, ‘Barbie’ and ‘Hot Wheels’ were brands of Mattel, and had different market segmentation and target markets. Hence the strategies designed to sell each brand was different and couldn’t have been merged. Barbie was targeted at teenage girls while Hot Wheels was targeted at teenage boys. Furthermore, the culture within which the employees of Hot Wheels and Barbie worked were completely different. There was nothing common in the cultural environment where both the brands were manufactured. (Montgomery, 1993) There are, however, several methods by which Mattel could reinforce the needs for these groups to work together. Firstly, the identity of both groups should be reinforced as a part of Mattel family rather than separate entities. Hence, the employees of both brands would realize that they are part of a Mattel family, and could interact with one another and share their secrets and strategies about skills, labor empowerment and employee dedication. Secondly, Mattel should more intensely implement a common corporate culture within the company which will create a common ground for Barbie and Hot Wheels manufacturers to work together. Thirdly, the need for coordinated development efforts should be emphasized upon by promoting teamwork and interaction to achieve goals (Mathis Jackson, 2008). Furthermore, managers can also use succession plans for key positions. Thus they can use terms as ‘Boys need Girls, and vice versa’ to emphasize the reality that both Hot Wheels (boys) and Barbie (girls) are equally important part of the company. Conclusion Mattel has developed several strategies and techniques to empower its employees. The development programs aims to improve skilled labor, and succession plans aim to retain human resource talent. If properly implemented, these strategies, along with the new corporate culture could enhance the performance and efficiency of all employees. These methods would surely help Mattel to retain the No. 1 spot as market leader in toy manufacturing industry. References Bratton, J. and Gold, J. (2001). Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice. 2nd EditionNew York: Routledge Mathis, R. L. and Jackson, J. H. (2008). Human Resource Management. 12th Edition. New York: Cengage Learning Mattel (2010). Mattel Website. Accessed on August 23, 2010 from http://www. mattel. com/ Montgomery, B. P. (1993). Mattel, Inc. International Directory of Company Histories Vol. 7, pp. 304.

If You Want To Help Visit Egypt Tourism Essay

If You Want To Help Visit Egypt Tourism Essay One of the most important activates that any country has through its different cities as all people know is tourism. It is one of the most interesting and exciting type of activities and services used to provide individuals or certain amount of people travelling experiences all around the world. These experiences revolve around travelling across countries miles and miles, overseas and oceans to enjoy different places, with different cultures other than home. (Michigan State University, 2007) After what happened in Egypt recently, 25th revolution, there has been a turning point in all the industries, production processes, and even services. Unfortunately, when Egypt was about to become one of the most successful developing countries in industries, production, providing services, and even having special positions in the stock markets in comparison to another countries all around the world, suddenly, all this has turned upside down. Production has been stopped, services became poor in satisfaction, and Egypt became out of stock market ranking. The service that was highly affected by that revolution was the Tourism. Tourists who were in Egypt throughout the revolution, travelled back to their homelands as a result of fear of what was happening from serious political events in Egypt. This was also as a result of the bad Public Relations campaign that was made on Egypt at that time through the media and press. For that reason, a new Public Relations campaign must be developed and settled in order to give to Egypts Tourism life back as before. Egypt has been constantly a country of tourism where Europeans use to spend their vacation there and observe its archeological finding and its antiques. The tourists there are visiting the most attractive places such as Sharm -el-Sheikh, Hurghada, Safaga and others. Besides that, Egypt is also well-known for its marvelous environmental tourism on top of other varieties such as Safari, consultations and sports. Egypt was acknowledged all over the history as a target or what the tourists are aiming for since it was visited throughout the primeval era, the tourists feel affection for visiting enormous and immeasurable places in Egypt, yet it sustained the reflection throughout the middle and modern history. On the other hand, the innovation of the Paranoiac ancient artifacts which had been extended long time ago has added a unique appeal to Egypt and also its inimitable religious and cultural testimonials or tombstones which are very precious to visit and grab the attention of the touri sts to come back and visit those unique places. As for the educational and archaeological tourism, Egypt has many different types of broader fragments that the tourists can visit across the world with its geographical location and its moderate atmosphere all the year round, together with its horizontal measureless coastlines, and beaches with its exclusive reserves of coral reefs which truly present Egypt with rewards of a competitive edging. Situation Analysis: Egypts Tourism Crisis after 25th Revolution: As Egypts national profit is based on its strong historical stories that revolved around its different cities. Tourism has been one of the most important factors of letting foreign currencies as well as people with different nationalities enter Egypt. As a result of the revolution, an international financial crisis had arisen between Egypt and different nations. Most of the European tourists who come and visit Egypt recently, their rate has decreased in a theatrical way. After the peak that was in presence all around Egypt, many of the reservations in terms of airplane seats, hotel bookings, and business meetings have been decreased in their amounts. (Mwathe, 2011) In order to make a successful Tourism Media Public Relations campaign, this situational analysis must be put in consideration in order to know what type of message will be sent to the audiences across the main topic Tourism and its improvements. -Women before and after the 25th revolution, before the revolution the Egyptian people usually believe that women are inferior to men, The Egyptian women were used to avoid contact with men who were not in their family connections, while after the 25th revolution, women have their rights; they learnt how to say their opinions and views, also the womens strong contribution in Egypts protests against the Mubarak supervisions or regimes has a positive coverage to the political equality that have took place in the Tahrer Square ,many women were marching to take their rights and civil liberties, yet this occurrence highlighted the fundamental consequences of defending the womens rights in Egypt and may hold back the enduring developments towards civilizing the womens political rights in the country. -In addition after the revolution, all people were connected together hand in hand in order to protect and clean their country. Egyptian people were and still calling everyone to sanitary Egypt by those things first to buy local products, second to stop shouting and learn to listen to each other, third to keep the streets clean by painting them, and last but not least calling the tourists to come back and visit our precious country which have lots of marvelous places to visit. Moreover, Muslims and Christians were one soul at the time of the revolution fighting to take their rights and now they are much connected to each other and finding ways to protect their mosques and churches as Egypt has been well familiar with its religion, values and principles. Key Messages: There are different groups that messages need to be sent to; these include groups that have direct influence on tourism (publics)such as the media, the tourists and tourism companies, and others that have indirect influence (public) such as colleges and college students. Messages used should be appropriate, meaningful, memorable and understandable by different targeted groups (Yeomanz Tench, 2006). The following is an example of the messages that can be used with different groups of the publics; First, the media should be inspired to show the positive side of the revolution instead of the negative one. For example, showing the streets that have been cleaned after the revolution and how the Egyptians are getting more civilized and are caring more about their country. The media is normally looking for a good story that attracts people; however, sometimes the messages communicated give poor image of the country. Therefore, the media should be send messages about the economic and social effect of losing tourism for the whole Egyptian society and also for Egypts reputation and image all-over the world. Second, the tourists probably play the major role; because they are the ones who decided whether to visit Egypt or not. The media may be helpful at this time; it can show foreigners a positive image for the Egyptian treatment to the tourists. Tourists need to see how the Egyptians are getting more respectful to them and how they are willing to welcome tourists in their country. Moreover, tourists should be shown the positive side which is the clean streets, the planted trees and so on. Third, the legal bodies should be encouraged to reform new policies and regulations that make the tourists feel safe when visiting Egypt. For example, according to Mr.Maher Moussa, an Egyptian tour guide; he stated that after the revolution when there were almost no policemen; the sales people at the Egyptian bazars where treating the tourists very bad and they were pulling them from their shirts in order to purchase products. Tourists at that time did not find anyone to help them; apparently they did not feel safe at all. Therefore, the policymakers should be told these stories and should be encouraged to return the tourism safe as it was before the revolution. Forth, the workers in the field of tourism need to be sent a message stressing on the fact that tourism is crucial for them and for maintaining or even improving their living standards. They need to be encouraged to develop and improve the way they treat tourists and also need to be encouraged to remain committed to their work and do not look for other options such as switching their careers or immigrating. Sales persons should be treated the ethical behavior of dealing with tourists. The following table gives a brief summary for the messages to be communicated, to which groups and what are the success indicators; Target Group Messages Communicated Success Indicators The Media You can play a vital role in improving the current situation of tourism in Egypt; encourage, inspire and attract everyone working in the tourism sector to work harder and motivate tourists to come to our country Increase in the rate of trips Increase rate of security Reduced terrorism Increased level of awareness about the importance of tourism The Tourists You can now watch the place where the whole Egyptians have met at once to ask for their rights In Egypt you can see monuments that are never seen anywhere else in the world. Your safety is our first priority; we will thrive to keep you safe. Egypt is now welcoming you more than ever before Legal Bodies Tourists represent a major part of Egypts future; we need to keep them secure we need to implement strict laws and rules that make tourists feel more safe in Egypt than any other part of the world Workers in the Field of Tourism We should prove to the whole world that all Egyptian never give up, never leave their work because of fear. do what you love to do and make a difference Steve Jobs Think of ways to develop your career and improve your work situation in the tourism industry. Businessmen who Own Tourism Companies your role is vital in improving the current situation in Egypt The future is bright for tourism in Egypt. But, we need to prove this to the whole world. Schools and Universities you need to implement new teaching methods that teach students the ethics of dealing with tourists. The Medias Goals and Objectives towards Tourism after 25th Revolution: Any campaign that is in the building stages must set goals and objectives in order to know what problem they are trying to solve, what message they are trying to send to audiences and what communication and media tools they will be able to use. According to Egypts tourism case, Medias goals and objectives should be settled in a way that will help to improve the tourism as an industry, and overcome the crisis after what happened in 25th of January. These goals and objectives will help marketers in choosing media tools and deciding what to put in them. On of the most important goal and objective that the media must focus on according to tourism is that to in increase the amount of tourists coming to Egypt again the goal through the objective which is increasing the flights amounts and hotel bookings. Targeted Audiences: The whole Public Relations campaign beside the media era is targeting mainly foreigners who are located outside Egypt. They are mainly Europeans, and Asians. As a result of that, this media campaign must build up the appropriate communications tools with the key message of the campaign, and build them up in the correct way to reach the targeted publics Europeans and Asians and let them convey the message and understand it as it should be understood. Media and Communication Tools: Tourism Media Campaign Communication Tools: Communication tools are elements and objects that are used to convey the message from the campaign to the targeted audiences. They usually are the main factors in the media campaign that will help in achieving the goals and the objectives of the campaign. The message could be conveyed through articles, radio, television, World Wide Web, event sponsorship, or even a whole collection of press releases. According the tourism media campaign, the main media tools that will be used are television, World Wide Web, and event sponsoring. Television: Through Television media tool used for a tourism campaign, videos should be directed and produced as a recorded videos on tourism places in Egypt, for instance, Luxor and Aswan, the pyramids, Sharm el Sheikh resorts, and so forth, that will attract tourists to do not miss what history and civilization Egypt has made. In addition, to tourism areas all around Egypt in the videos, celebrity endorsement could be used. Through using celebrities that are known locally and internationally, the message transmitted will be more trusted and tourists will be attracted to come and see Egypts history, visit every museum, every temple, and so forth. Also, marketers could stress on tourists emotional aspects in which their feelings gets connected which Egypt as a country, and bear to them in mind that these emotions will be satisfied when they visit Egypt. The Television tool began with a small video that was made right after the 25th revolution, From Egypt with Love (Boyd, 2011) It was encouraging Egyptian people to treat tourists in a friendly way and in the same time, the message is transmitted to tourists that the Egyptians are kind and welcoming to anyone who come and visit the country (refer to the Videos Screenshot in Appendix 3). (Boyd, 2011) World Wide Web: The internet and World Wide Web now plays an important role in the media sector, as it is a spider web that connects the whole world and makes it as a one united island. Internet could be used in tourism media campaign through making groups on Face book, twitter and all social networks that anyone could join them. They could include information about how strongly the tourism is going to be after the 25th revolution and what good changes have been made to the tourism in Egypt. Also, websites could be designed for information about every tourism place that is recommended for visiting in Egypt including history, pictures, and even videos to let tourists get attracted and become emotionally attached with Egypt. Also, this will increase the needs to the foreigners to come and enjoy what they have seen in real-life. Taking Face book as an example to World Wide Web Media, there are one of the campaigns that already started straight after the revolution containing two groups about surviving and getting the life back to the tourism in Egypt. These two groups have made a huge impact on tourists and foreigners Facebook users all around the world hoping that it will improve Egypts tourism image internationally. (Refer to one of the groups Profile Picture in Appendix 3). (Ling, 2011) Event Sponsoring: Sponsorship generates a massive chance for any type of companies in which it helps to widen the good reputation through viewing companys picture, view, and everything that makes the company unique through reinforcements of certain events that will increase the attention of the targeted audience. (Khera Communications, Inc., 2011) This event sponsorship could be an effective way to communicate with tourists all around the world, especially when Egyptian companies sponsor international events or vice versa. Through doing these kinds of sponsorships, foreigners will know and observe that despite all the series of events that happened in Egypt is still and trying to be in a high position in the economy of the world. In my opinion, for getting back tourism to its normal cycle in Egypt, Egyptian companies must sponsor international events in order to stay connected with international audience and attract them to the country to be interested in the long-run to come and visit Egypt. Also, for international companies Egypt must make life easier to them in order to be easily located in Egypt and this will help them sponsor Egyptian events, for instance, sports events, charity events, that will build trust between Egypt and different Nations. Through following these steps in building a media public relations campaign to the tourism in Egypt, it will help in an enormous way to improve Egypts image to the outside world, not just view the dark side of the image. Furthermore, the message delivered from the country Egypt to the targeted audiences foreigners will be sent and understood effectively Communication Process Appendix 3 and there will be no noise nor distraction in the messages process/ Egypt was always known with its loyalty, loving, kindness and so forth to its visitors and even its citizens, and this image must be the same till end of life time, And as the video said through one of the video campaigns, Egypt We Love You! (Tench Yeomans, 2009) Barriers to Communication of the Message: The physical barrier is too much related to the distance between the parties. For example, face-to-face communication may be too much needed in some situations to make sure that the receiver understood the message sent. Recommendation; always ask for feedback from the receiver in order to make sure that the message has been understood. Language differences are always very critical for delivering the messages; people from different countries may find difficult to understand the language or a certain message or may even perceive the messages in different ways. Recommendation; translate the messages to as many languages as possible. Psychological barriers may also be to some extent significant; peoples emotions are very important to be considered when delivering messages. For example, when asking workers to keep working, they may feel that the media have no idea about how they are suffering financially from being unable to gain money and satisfy their needs. Recommendation; the messages should show clear awareness of the different situations and giving emotional support to every target group. Barriers that arise from conflict of interest between the crisis management campaign and the different targeted groups. For example, the campaign may be willing to encourage the businessmen who operate in the tourism sector to continue operation. While, at the same time the businessmen cannot continue because they are losing money and adding costs on themselves. -Indentifying the Publics: Egypt was known and will always remain as one of the amazing countries in the world due to its outstanding historical pyramids, Luxor and Aswan. Nothing will ever affect Egypts beauty in the eyes of the world, therefore I encourage and persuade all Italians, British, and Russians to come and visit Egypt after the breathtaking revolution which was accomplished by the Egyptians on January 25th in the liberation Square that has now become a touristic area which people from all over the world speak about and are so eager to visit it and to feel the pain and happiness which the Egyptian youth have created in Egypt. Tourist Plans Campaign The sense of To act the sense of the Egyptians, unenthusiastic and construct a dwell taken at the first attainment of the knowledge of the nation of battle by the full of meaning, the kingdom of the war with a broad-start is in that reimbursement of periegesis underscore the target of the seven recognized before the spectators. Mingling with the crowd to councils, factories, session of the doctrine of print advertising and out of the material Broadcasting / advertising will be the Customer, or gain the overall effectively blow. To be infected with the war On both sides, it shall be done within the degrees of the first part I will strengthen the services of a war which is rotating with an although, according to an exact and in the manner to the effect of all the target Promotional Views. (Weber, 2010) The perigees will be underpinned the wages of the knowledge of such activities six: 1. Known to a better Tourist Lives This was the foundation of the first phase to the knowledge of the identity of perigees war. Will continue using the same expedition, I extended the look and feel standardize and of all the relevant under the expedition might have recognized this belonging to the different labour. But just as changes to submit to an identity for its ability to upgrade the answer to the principle of the hearers of the draw. 2. With the cooperation of the allies Fabios, the war of the will hinge on implementation of the foundation of the fellowship of the various stakeholders the efficient meals. And here, the object of responsibility of coordinating the land of Egypt, has hired manager w perigees with the rest of the allies this one of the sectors: Private sector of my companions: depends on type of activity, Telecom sectors can be different so that, juridical, etc. It is of interest should be put in each of efficient contact is at hand. This elite cooperate with the associations to take part to fit the protector of a co-addition to the expense of the proofs have been early. 3. Communications software To raise the Profile of the war and acquire the advice and the support of the various stakeholders, while the entire marketing communications program designed for, it will be implemented. Any one is, the needy, Target Audience marketing communications best a piece of the instruments of which is extended to the ears. 4. The communication of the Public Relations Program Marker between different kinds of communications tools will be got ready, Public Relations are the most important of its ability to inject credibility in the wars of operation. Further they can adnotacione Public Relations of the singular degree the State had different segments of the tenement of the city. For if the history of the place Published in Print Media, I will stretch lying in around about. 5. The knowledge of expeditions Plan Designs of all wars is a quality know that to be done is to take care in and reap results fine. Things are established, the phases of Planning, for the following key steps: The Project web perigees shall manage the public to conduct attitudinal research to take the perceptions of conscience and to the views of the Egyptians, and travellers will perigees. The research by the art of effectively expose the child is crucial gauge degrees of conscience to the sector of State. Or Event elite, ecumenical, it is to eat of awareness have been done research results. This state of affairs so all the troops the will of stakeholders perigees page, perigees projects, a Government of Egypt, arts institutes, and of the media. From the committee I will be the keeper of the knowledge of perigees to appoint a council and in Latin implementation of the knowledge of triumph in war. 6. Develop the communication of the plans of the campaign tools Print material the consciousness that the target the seven petitions of the ground will be supported by disseminating print customized Promotional material for a war, and the items. And it is its distribution of Posters, Flyers, brochures and through the schools of the offices of the Central After the Egyptian, Social Security Corporation, leaves and inserts. Further Promotional material for school as mugs with sackcloth, Bumper Stickers, etc. it shall be repaid. Matter and CDs to be stable as the value of the Promotional and a large (Alaya, 2004) Strategy: Tourism is considered to be a very crucial activity for the whole Egyptian population; it accounts for 11% of the total Egyptian GDP and employs more than 2 million Egyptians (Feuilherade, 2011). According to the previous Vice President, Omar Soliman; during the days of the 25th January revolution, Egypt has lost around 1 billion dollars in tourism. For any campaign to be successful it needs to have clear guidelines and strategies to follow. The main strategy for overcoming the crisis of Tourism that occurred in Egypt after the revolution is probably encouraging integrated efforts between different population groups for the sake of improving the tourism conditions in Egypt. These conditions include, the treatment of tourists, the safety and security, services offered and so on. The integration of efforts is not only including the publics; who are directly affected by the tourism industry. But, it should also include the whole public society because apparently everyone in the Egyptian society is affected by tourism either directly or indirectly. Appendix 1: (Women before and after the 25th revolution) (Indentifying the public) 1. (n.d.). In Tourism . Retrieved April 2, 2011, from http://www2.sis.gov.eg/En/Tourism/ 2. (n.d.). In Tourism of Egypt. Retrieved April 2, 2011, from http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/hellochina/egyptambassador09/2009-08/24/content_8608649.htm 3. (n.d.). In Egypt 25th January revolution tourism revival. Retrieved April 2, 2011, from http://www.2travel2.nl/English/egypt-25th-january-revolution-tourism-revival.html 4. (n.d.). In Egypt Update: Womens Rights After The Revolution. Retrieved April 2, 2011, from http://sparksf.wordpress.com/2011/03/17/egypt-update-womens-rights-after-the-revolution/ 5. Tench, R., Yeomans, L. (2009). Exploring Public Relations (Second ed., pp. 185-186). Edinbrugh, AL: Pearson. Appendix 2: 1. How to plan Tourism Campaign 2. Strategy 1. Weber, L. (2010). Plan To Fund Tourism Campaign Draws Critics (IPR ed., pp. 1-3). Retrieved April 5, 2011, from http://ipr.interlochen.org/ipr-news-features/episode/10427 2. Feuilherade, P. (2011, February 12). Tourism Crisis as Foreign Visitors Desert Egypt. Retrieved April 3, 2011, from http://www.suite101.com/content/tourism-crisis-as-foreign-visitors-desert-egypt-a342840 3. Alaya, A. (2004). Tourism campaign aims to help ( ed.). , AL: Article The Star-Ledger. Retrieved April 5, 2011, from http://www.hackensackriverkeeper.org/Articles.php?ID=43 Appendix 3: 1. Key Messages 2. Communication Barriers Al-Arabia. (2011, March 31). Tahrir Square presented as historic site worth visiting. Retrieved April 3, 2011, from Al-Arabia : http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/03/31/143675.html Article Base. (2009, February 3). 12 Barriers to Effective Communication-Beware of These Relationship Killers. Retrieved April 3, 2011, from www.articlebase.com Yeomanz, L., Tench, R. (2006). Exploring Public Relations. Pearson.

Incorrect Interpretation of the USA Patriot Act :: Politics

Incorrect Interpretation of the USA Patriot Act The USA Patriot Act is a legitimate law. It was rightly passed in light of the terrorist attacks on American ground. Americans have a right to be concerned about terrorism. However, the fear of the terrorists should not make Americans give up their way of life. Americans should not be forced to sacrifice what our country is proud of, including democracy and freedom of expression. In the case of the University of California San Diego (UCSD) administration banning the link to the terrorist website, the USA Patriot Act was interpreted incorrectly. Their decision to ban the hyperlink was a violation of freedom of speech. A link to a website should not be seen as communications equipment. Americans, obviously, have a right to be concerned about terrorists. In concern for the Americans’ own safety, the USA Patriot Act was passed with good reason. It should stay in effect and should not be modified. The terrorist attacks opened all Americans’ eyes and it was good to see that a law was actually passed to do something about it. The USA Patriot Act was passed in order to prevent Americans from supporting terrorists. It made it illegal to provide money, lodging, training or communications equipment to terrorists. An example of someone breaking this act would be John Walker Lynn. John Walker Lynn outraged many Americans and was one of the reasons why the USA Patriot Act was passed. This law would condemn future cases of John Walker Lynn. He is an American who joined the Taliban in the fight against the United States in Afghanistan. His case is currently in progress because there was no Patriot Act earlier when he did fight for the Taliban. He quickly became the American people’s favorite enemy. Many people argue that since UCSD owns the server which the students use for internet access, they have the right to restrict what the students do on their server. Some even make an argument that this is merely a property issue instead of a freedom of speech issue.

Heathcliff has been described as both an archetypal romantic hero and an intrinsically evil villain

â€Å"She abandoned them under a delusion† he said, â€Å"picturing in me a hero of romance and expecting unlimited indulgences from my chivalrous devotion. † Heathcliff is portrayed as a villain but at the same time, a romantic hero. It seems that he is double edged. He schemes to get Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights, but he is not always so vengeful and rancorous. For example, when the ghost of Catherine Earnshaw came to the window, he wept for her and begged for her to come back. â€Å"Come in! Come in! Cathy do come. Oh do once more! Oh! My heart's darling! Hear me this time, Catherine at last! † in this he shows his hypersensitive side and emotional side. He begs Catherine to go to him and be with him forever. However, his vengeful side does get the better of him quite often and demonstrates him to be gothic, dark, evil and morose. â€Å"Though it's as dark, almost as if it came from the devil. † This explains his gothic and dark approach. The evil and morose trait is unveiled with Hindley, where he swears revenge on him for all the grief and pain Hindley inflicted on Heathcliff. Hindley was so callous and malicious towards Heathcliff and always belittled him as well as treating him like a dog, that this made Heathcliff become so vengeful, he became bitter, twisted and calculating. This vengeance has built up inside Heathcliff stemmed from the mistreatment that he received as a young boy. The fact that he ran away from Wuthering Heights was because of an Earnshaw, just not Hindley, but Catherine. An archetypal romantic hero is one that was typical and habitual. They can be dark and moody and vampiric, like Heathcliff, or hypersensitive, passionate and emotional, also like Heathcliff. In the Victorian era, there would've been lots of heroes like Heathcliff, called Byronic heroes. Bronti challenges the morals of the Victorian era, by creating a dark, bitter, twisted mind that is Heathcliff. Also she challenges the morals of the Victorian era by giving Catherine the more dominant role. Her husband, Edgar Linton, is made out to be more feminine than Catherine is. In the Victorian period, the male would've played the dominant role traditionally. Bronti defies convention by portraying Catherine as the more dominant of the two. Bronti depicts Edgar as somewhat womanly up against Heathcliff. She describes Heathcliff as a tall grown man and up against him; Edgar looks and acts more pale and feminine than normal. Bronti also makes Edgar out to be the weaker sex. He is always being pushed around by Catherine and is a complete walkover. He never sticks up for himself around Heathcliff and cannot fight Heathcliff on his own. Edgar is constantly hiding behind his men or Catherine because he is so weak and anxious. Even his sister, Isabella, completely makes him out to be superfluous and unneeded. Bronti also defies convention by giving the females the authoritive role. She gives Nelly the role of the person who stirs things up and blows things right out of proportion. Nelly always interferes with other people's business and meddles in other people's affairs. She stirs up a rumour about Catherine and Heathcliff ‘arguing' and tells Edgar. This sparks off a massive argument between Catherine and Edgar because he won't fight Heathcliff on his own. Catherine is thought to be attention seeking by Nelly, who doesn't believe her at all. By being an attention seeker, Catherine gets what she wants, and if she doesn't, then she will do her damnedest to make sure she gets it. Because she cannot have both Edgar and Heathcliff, she makes herself terribly ill because they have both broken her heart by arguing. By doing all of this, Catherine makes herself so ill, that she eventually dies. But before she dies, Heathcliff wills to see her. He is portrayed as the romantic hero then towards Catherine. He cries when she is drastically ill and dying in his arms. â€Å"Oh Cathy! Oh my life! How can I bear it? This shows how hypersensitive he can be. He truly loves Catherine and doesn't want to lose her. He blames her for inflicting pain on him by making herself ill. He hates her for it but he still madly and deeply loves her and cannot find it in himself to hate her forever. He has an absolute determination to be with her for as long as they both shall live and even when she dies, he cries. He detests being away from her and wills her to haunt him. He cannot bear the thought of someone else having her, which is why he was so cut up about Catherine and Edgar getting married. He believes in transcendent love and wants to carry on loving her but wants to be with her. He wants Catherine to come back to him so they can carry on together. Whilst he is with Catherine, he turns quite violent on her and shouts at her, demanding to know why she has been making him suffer so badly. She is very apologetic towards him and begs for his forgiveness, as well as wishing she wasn't dying so she could be with him for even longer. Heathcliff is intent of pushing the boundaries so as he and Catherine can be together forever. Towards Hindley's son Hareton, he deviously takes away his rights, but at the same time, makes Hareton love his oppressor. Because Hindley has neglected Hareton due to his drink problem, Heathcliff has taken the liberty of acting like Hareton's parent, but at the same time, taken all of Hareton's rights away from him and downtrodden him to the level Hindley walked over and belittled Heathcliff to. This is one form of many ways of revenge Heathcliff has on the Earnshaw family. We wouldn't have expected this of Heathcliff, because Nelly described him as a sweet little boy who never stirred whilst ill. Heathcliff has shown and intrinsically evil villainous side to him. He is a born evil character and is always seeking revenge on everyone who mistreated him or anyone who did something to him or did something he didn't like, such as Edgar and Catherine getting married. An intrinsically evil villain is one who is pure evil, 100% evil even. He or she will stomp and trample over anyone to get what he or she wants and will not stop until they get it. His actions and evil motives are essential to the plot because he is the most unpredictable person in the novel. What he does is so unpredictable, yet so obvious. This reading of Heathcliff is backed by his mistreatment of Isabella and Hareton, his scheming to get what he wants (namely Wuthering Heights, Thrushcross Grange and Catherine) and his violence towards Hindley. â€Å"If you don't let me in, I'll kill you! † this evil quote was spoken by Heathcliff and aimed towards Isabella. This was when she locked him out in the cold, just like when Hindley made him sleep in the stables. We cannot however, deny the fact that we are secretly impressed with his cleverness, shown through his scheming and wickedness. We are impressed because we are all a tiny bit envious of him because of his cleverness and amazed at how he gets away with the scheming. Not only does he act a role of the villain but he also challenges the generic description of a romantic hero. He has no morals, his behaviour is devilish and demonic, his gothic and vampiric connotations and his sheer enjoyment of being with the dead. He is, to some extent an anti-hero, yet has the charm and with to win over anyone he chooses. He is cunning, conniving, scheming and hell-bent on revenge. This type of behaviour makes him out to be an anti-hero. He is so outrageous and demonic, he lacks all heroic, admirable morals and qualities and is so evil, and it is hard to describe him as a hero. Throughout the book, Heathcliff only ever shows his ‘romantic' qualities he has to Catherine. He doesn't show them to Isabella, who really he should because she is his wife. He is totally iniquitous towards Isabella. However, she does antagonise him by taunting him about the death of Catherine and derides him about how he is going to live without her. It doesn't help that she locks him out of his own house. We sympathise with Heathcliff over the way he treats Isabella because she is silly and has a terrible attitude. His vengeance also stemmed from abuse he suffered as a young child from Hindley. Although he was a calm and peaceful child, his revenge grew and grew. So we fell his actions towards these two individuals is justifiable. For some strange reason he always has our feeling that, however unscrupulous his behaviour is, he is always right and justified. We see him as a villain but sympathise with him on the night of the funeral for the reason that he is distraught at the thought and reality of losing Catherine. Bronti is making a stand against convention. She feels that by giving males the dominance in novels and life is unfair, so she makes a stand against it. She wants people to be shocked by reading this novel and feels the only way she can do it is by doing the normal, then flipping it upside down. For example, Catherine is a rich female living with her husband. However, she is the more dominant of the two, which would have been strange to individuals in the Victorian era. The novel at the time was received with great criticism. One review of the novel quotes â€Å"too disgusting for the eye or the ear to tolerate, and unredeemed, so far as we could see, by one single particle either of wit or humour, or even psychological truth, for the characters are as false as they are loathsome. † This was one of the reviews that many people would have agreed with. They would have agreed with this because the characters were indeed eccentric and officious, but they were what they were. They were characters in a kind of love triangle. They were ordinary people who had very tumultuous relationships but deeply loved each other. Edgar loves Catherine, Heathcliff loves Catherine and Catherine loves both Heathcliff and Edgar. The novel was considered to be evil and immoral. Bronti wrote about females dominating some men in the novel. She defied convention to try and shock the reader into reality. She truly believed that women should have had the same rights as the men had. She criticised the way that women had to give up themselves and remain silent. This means they had no say in what happened. They could not work. They had to sit at home all day and sew or serve. Bronti didn't like that, so she wrote a novel that would make the reader see reality and hopefully change the way women lived. To publish the novel however, she used a pseudonym. She used the pseudonym ‘Ellis Bell'. If women wrote anything for example, it would not be published. The world then was considered to be male. The only way for women to heard was if they somehow managed to present themselves as male. This is why she used the pseudonym Ellis Bell. Her sister, Charlotte Bronti, also a writer, used the pseudonym Currer Bell, so as her novels, including Jane Eyre, could be published. Emily Bronti challenges stereotypes and the archetypal heroes that the readers are familiar with. She criticises the people who do not stand up for what they believe in. in Heathcliff, there is a character that everybody has to love because he poses a threat to conventional order and morality. Without Heathcliff, the novel would lack all passion and be boring and tentative. Bronti's suggestion in this novel is that people should follow their heart and not convention. Heathcliff and Catherine's idea of heaven is returning to the Heights. This is highly unconventional and totally unchristian. The raison d'itre of all the tragedy and evil in the novel was a result of Catherine doing what every other women in the Victorian era, not standing up for what she believed in and not standing up for what she really wanted. Heathcliff is full of contradictions. He has been described by many as a villain and also described as a romantic hero. He is intrinsically evil and contradictory. He is also an archetypal romantic hero. He flouts the typical description of him as a romantic hero and swears he is not a romantic hero. He seems to be double edged and has an absolute determination to be with his one true love forever. He is a great believer in transcendent love and assumes he can push the boundaries and be with Catherine for as long as time. His connotations with the devil and death are clearly stated and he refuses to be classed as a hero. He fascinates yet repulses us. We seem to take his side no matter how awful and immoral his actions are. I think that Bronti challenged the Victorian critics because she wanted to change the way life was. Women were not allowed a say in anything that happened, and she felt that that wasn't fair. Personally, I don't think Heathcliff is a very approachable character. He is moody, self-centred, annoying, vile, hypocritical and malevolently malicious. He only cares about himself, even after 150 years he is problematically difficult to understand. â€Å"His black eyes withdraw so suspiciously under his brows† is a perfect description of the demonic, evil mortal he is; he denotes the demonic qualities of a flea. He is annoying, you wish he wasn't there; you purposefully avoid anything like him and certainly do not want to be another victim of his cruel, malicious, blood sucking nature.

ITStrategy and Positioning for Volkswagen Financial Services (UK) The WritePass Journal

ITStrategy and Positioning for Volkswagen Financial Services (UK) Introduction ITStrategy and Positioning for Volkswagen Financial Services (UK) report, the company has experienced a rise in the number of contracts in their portfolio from just under-8 million to over 8.8 million, a 10.9 percent rise. The Management Board Chairman Frank Witter attributes this growth to a 5 percent increase in number of vehicles delivered to more than 9.7 million. The company was also able to attract more customers with their financial services. As a leading financial provider for all things automotive sales within the umbrella of Volkswagen Financial Services AG, the company has developed key strategies to ensure they achieve their mission, which is â€Å"to support the sales of all Volkswagen Group brands worldwide and increase customer loyalty in a sustainable manner along the entire automotive value chain† (VW FS Annual Report, 2013). Volkswagen strategy statement is based on â€Å"customer-focus†, â€Å"pioneering† and â€Å"getting things done†. To ensure sustainable growth, the company pursues its strategy in three fronts: brands, markets and products. That is, developing new brands for Volkswagen Group, establishing new markets, and developing new products in existing markets. Volkswagen Financial Services continue to adopt a consistent customer relationship management (CRM) strategy in its customer care. As such, structures of the company and its processes have been aligned with customer groups and their unique requirements (VW FS Annual Report, 2013). Johnson et al (2013, p.69) describes strategy as the â€Å"long-term direction of an organisation.† A leading strategy theorist Michael Porter would refer to this as a competitive strategy that seeks to be different from competition, by â€Å"deliberately choosing a different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of value† to the intended consumers (Porter, 1996, p.31). The Volkswagen Financial Services strategy can be considered to be based on what Porter (1996) describes as variety-based and needs-based positioning. However, Volkswagen Financial Services continual pursuance of consistent CRM strategy in customer care led the company to rethink its organisation structure and customer groups as aligned by the customer requirements. In attempt to support this organisational restructuring, the organisation required an IT structure to allow the company have a standard of customer data, standard and continuous process support right from customer support to subsequent processing and transaction execution, integrating existing transaction-related banking system without any additional extensive conversions. In order to meet these requirements, a product and division-oriented IT environment was implemented. Core applications and systems related to transaction-related banking systems where clients’ accounts and contracts could be managed were implemented. The implementations of these applications and systems isolated the various specific client data from each other making an integral view much more complicated and cumbersome. But the company solved this problem when they installed customer-oriented IT architecture in SAP CRM for a standard customer care and SAP NetWeaverTM as a system integration platform. Although Volkswagen Financial Services may have considered this a triumph in its efforts to strengthen their CRM-oriented strategy in customer service, it’s not a unique strategy that can strengthen their competitive advantage given its ease of adoption by competitors or new entrants. Le Pest C for Volkswagen Financials Services In order to comprehensively understand Volkswagen Financial Services strategic capabilities, it is significant to use the Le Pest C model (Brooks and Weatherston, 2002): LePestC Possible Issues at VW FS (UK) Legal Data security and privacy legislations and legal challenges Economic Low profitability due to decreased consumer spending power and inability to expand to emerging markets Political VW Financial Services AG, which inevitable controls its strategic decisions making process Environment/Ecologic Environmental pressure from regulatory authorities Social Change of consumer preferences, e.g. study shows that more consumers in Europe prefer to travel via train rather than personal cars Technological New technology that are likely to render the current ones obsolete and requires upgrade regularly Competitiveness Competition from financial companies and other auto dealers Legal: Data security and privacy have become serious challenges to many businesses, raising concerns with rise in big data and cloud computing initiatives. Auto suppliers like Volkswagen Financial Services Company collect and store highly confidential and sensitive customer data that may be at risk from data breaches. It must be noted that the company is networked not only internally but also externally through internet or other telecommunication connectivity. As such, the company needs to have a robust information security practices not only well documented in the form of information security policies but also ensure strict adherence to ethical standards to avoid legal suits. Moreover, the company needs to develop internal ethical standards in line with their business principles and treat it as part and parcel of the CRM strategies (Barreto, 2010). In case the company wants to use big data, it must strive to develop policy that informs the clients in advance to agree or disagree wit h such plans. Failure to develop such policies may attract legal suits from clients disputing the use of their personal data. The outcome of legal suits may be extremely costly to the company in terms of legal fees, unfavourable strict government regulations and reputation damage. Economic: Volkswagen Financial Services Company has experience the challenges associated with the economic financial crisis that started at the onset of 2008. Although the company considers rise in sales and number of client subscribed in the latest reports, the reduced disposable income is likely to affect the company negatively in the long run, given financial challenges affecting its major European market. Environmental/ Ecological: Auto suppliers like Volkswagen Financial Services face various challenges in maintaining extra-regulatory compliance with contractual clauses. Some of these clauses often require them to certify that the car parts of sale are free of asbestos, lead paint, chromium, and blood minerals among other banned elements (Mintzberg, et al., 2002). These regulatory compliance requirements are meant to ensure sustainability and protection of environment. Issues such as greenhouse gases that cause global warming, and waste management increases cost of production. Socio-cultural: Studies have shown that public transport in Europe is becoming more popular than passenger cars (Tyrinopoulos and Antoniou, 2013). This kind of finding may suggest that the change in trend is more associated with change in social preference. More significantly, the company has not managed to break into Chinese among other emerging markets with its financial services considering that Chinese consumers are cash-buyers rather than credit buyers, as noted by the company’s 2013 Annual Report. This cultural barrier has affected the company’s financial front in terms of sales return. Technological: there are technological challenges associated with auto and financial industries. The challenge with technology is that it changes every day, with new ideas propping up that may provide fast-moving competitors with better competitive advantage (Maritan and Brush, 2003). VW FS (UK) is one of the companies in this sector that suffers from the technological challenges. Competitive: competition from other auto suppliers is real. Although the company has gained competitive advantage with multi-brand CRM, there is likelihood that their major competitors will do the same. Strategic Capabilities of Volkswagen Financial Services (UK) Strategic capabilities of a firm are those capabilities that lead to a competitive advantage. Mintzberg, et al. (2002) defines strategic Resources and competencies as the two components that define resource capability. Further, resources are those assets that an organisation own or can call upon to aid their progress. Competencies are the ability to deploy those resources effectively or to make use of the available resources to achieve a certain goal (Teece, 2007). In others words, resources are what is available and competencies are the ability to use these resources. Table: Representation of strategic capability of Volkswagen Financial Services Resources Competencies Machines, raw materials, products, patents, database, computer systems Physical The company has the means to achieve utilisation of plant, efficiency, productivity, flexibility, marketing Balance sheet, cash flow, revenue Financial That company has the means to raise funds and manage cash flow, debtors, creditors, etc. Managers, employees, partners, suppliers, customers Human The company has experience, skills, knowledge, and ability to build relationships, motivate others and innovate. However, it’s yet to exploit this ability to the maximum. (Brooks and Weatherston, 2002). If fully used, the above representation would lead to long term survival of VW FS, and subsequently strengthen their competitive advantage. Although the strategic capabilities should be dynamic enough, there is a clear indication that Volkswagen Financial Services’ is not as dynamic as required. The company should be able to recreate and renew its strategic capabilities according to the changing business environment. For example, while tangible assets, cost control, and quality maintenance are important capabilities that the company has embraced, there are more long term capabilities such as sensing, seizing and reconfiguring that are significant Using innovation to spur entrepreneurship Innovation and entrepreneurship is about creating the new- both new products and services and new business models and organisations (Johnson, et al., 2013). Creating value for firms and customers, innovation and entrepreneurship are fundamental to today’s highly competitive economies. But the decision to innovate and pursue new market leads through innovation can be a hard choice for organisations as has been demonstrated by Volkswagen Financial Services’ attempts to enter Chinese market. The company ought to have asked various fundamental questions such as: Will it be appropriate if they too pioneer in new technologies or rather be a fast follower (timing and relationship)? innovation dilemma How should they react to radical innovations that threaten to destroy its existing revenues? In such a highly competitive industry, entrepreneurship is a significant aspect of any business. In other words, entrepreneurship is fundamental aspect of any business that wants to keep up with the changing business environment. It’s entrepreneurship that drives innovation. Innovation dilemma However there are innovation dilemmas that may affect a firm’s decision-making process. Many corporations face strategic dilemma on whether to innovate or note. Johnson et al. (2013,p. 239) describes innovation as the process of converting new knowledge into a new product, process or service and the putting of this new product, process or service into actual use. Another aspect of innovation dilemma facing VW FS is whether to adopt open or closed innovation. Porter (1996) describes open innovation as the process of deliberate importation and exportation of knowledge by a firm in their attempt to speed up and intensify innovation. Open innovation advocates for open exchange of ideas for quick better products to keep ahead of competition. Closed innovation is based on a firms insistence on making every innovative ideas internal, keeping everything secret from outside people. Volkswagen Financial Services Company seems to focus on closed innovation, which inevitably limits their ability to source for ideas. There is likelihood that this limits their ability to attract external skills or innovative ideas. Technological or business model innovation Most successful and progressive innovative activities do not necessarily rely on the latest or new science or technology, but involve reorganizing into new business by combining every aspect of a business (Johnson et al., 2013). A business model describes how an organisation manages incomes and costs through the structural arrangements of its activities. For example, when Ryanair decided to adopt the ultra cheap airline tickets, its business model innovation involved the generation of revenues via direct sales through the internet, thereby cutting out intermediary travel agents, while also using cheap secondary airports. Cheap airports and internet sales proved more significant than technological innovation. There are various ways of analysing a business model innovation, including the use of value chain, value net or activity network frameworks (Johnson et al., 2013). Typically, these frameworks are meant to direct managers and entrepreneurs to two primary frameworks for potential innovations: The product a new business model may redefine what the product or service is and how it is produced. This concerns technology in relation to the value chain. The selling a new business model may change how an organisation generates its revenue, with implications for selling and distribution. In the perspective of Volkswagen FS, the company’s value chain in terms of emerging markets has not picked up as anticipated. The emerging markets, unlike the developed markets are generally cash buyers. The company may consider using instalments payment model to establish its value chain within the emerging markets like China and India, with attractive product packages targeting the growing middle class consumers in these countries. Innovators and followers There are those who choose to lead innovations and those who follow. Barreto (2010) argue that firsts of first-movers who have succeeded in this line are Coca Cola in soft drinks and Hoover in vacuum cleaners. However, there are many first-movers that have failed such as the powerful Microsoft which failed with its tablet computer launch in 2001. Nine years later, Apple swept the market with its iPad tablet computer. First-mover advantages and disadvantages First-movers are generally temporary monopolies. Their advantage exists where they appear better off than their competitors as a result of being first to market with a new product, process or service (Teece, 2009; Teece, 2007). There are five potentially more robust first-movers advantage: They can build on experience in a market and benefit from the accrued market knowledge and skills; They can scale faster and enjoy the early benefits; They have the opportunity for pre-emption of scarce resources; They can build early reputation, particularly because consumers have little ‘mind-space’ to recognise new brands that follows; They can exploit the buyer switching costs, by ensuring that their customers are locked with privileged or sticky relationships that later challengers may find too costly to adopt (Teece, 2009) However, Mintzberg (2002) observe that there are disadvantages for being first-movers as seen with Microsoft’s earlier failure with tablets. First is the free-riding factor. Late movers may find it easy to imitate first mover’s technology and other innovations at less expense than originally incurred by pioneers. Research indicates that the costs of imitation are only 65% of the cost of innovation (Teece, 2009). In addition, late-movers have the ability to learn from the errors made by first-movers, picking on what worked well and avoiding what did not work for their pioneer competitor. In other words, they may not make so many mistakes and be able to get it right first time unlike their pioneer competitor. Should Volkswagen Financial Services be a first or second? Managers and entrepreneurs often find it hard to choose either to be a first-mover or a follower. However, London Business School’s Costas Markides and Paul Geroski argue that the most appropriate response to innovation, especially radical innovation, is often not to be a first mover but to be a ‘fast second’ (Mintzberg, 2002). A first second strategy involves being one of the first to imitate the original innovator. According to Porter (1996) there are three contextual factors to consider in choosing between innovating and imitating: Capacity for profit capture. If a follower can imitate faster and efficiently, it can capture good profits. It’s more effective where the pioneer is not able to define the boundaries for intellectual property; Complementary assets. An organisation in possession of the assets or resources have the ability to scale up the production and marketing of the innovation; Fast-moving arenas. In situations where markets or technologies are moving very fast, and especially where both are highly dynamic, first-movers are unlikely to establish a durable advantage. The incumbent can respond to new entrants into the market by adopting disruptive innovation. As has been shown earlier, disruptive innovation can create substantial growth by offering a new performance trajectory that, even if â€Å"initially inferior to the performance of existing technologies, has the potential to become markedly superior† Winter, 2003). Incumbents can follow two policies to help keep them responsive to potentially disruptive innovation: Develop a portfolio of real options and new venture units. References Barreto, I. (2010). Dynamic capabilities: a review of past research and an agenda for the future. Journal of Management, 36 (1): 256-80. Brooks, I. and Weatherston, J. (2002). The Business Environment: Challenges and Changes. NJ: Prentice Hall. Johnson, G., Whittington, R., Scholes, K., Angwin, D., and Regner, P. (2013). Exploring Strategy Text Cases. NJ: Pearson Education. Maritan, C.A and Brush, T.H. (2003). Heterogeneity and transferring practices: implementing flow practices in multiple plants. Strategic Management Journal, 24 (10): 945-60. Mintzberg, H.,   Ghoshal, S., Lampel, J., and Quinn, J.B. (2002) â€Å"The Strategy Process: Concepts, Context, Cases†,4th Edition, Prentice Hall. Porter, M. (1996) â€Å"What is Strategy?†, Harvard Business Review, November- December: 61-78. Tyrinopoulos, Y. and Antoniou, C. (2013) Factors affecting modal choice in urban mobility. European Transport Research Review. 5 (1). pp. 27-39. Teece, D.J. (2009). Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic management- organising for innovation and growth, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Teece, D.J. (2007). Explicating dynamic capabilities: the nature and microfoundations of sustainable enterprise performance. Strategic Management Journal, 28 (1): 1319-50. VW FS Annual Report (2013). Volkswagen Financial Services AG: The key to mobility. Winter, S.G. (2003). Understanding dynamic capabilities. Strategic Management Journal, 24 (10): 991-5.