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Case summary

The case is an analysis of Giordano’s corporate expansion mission. The case examines what Giordano’s future is and whether it would be beneficial if it maintains its current positioning strategy. The case also analyses the factors that will be essential to Giordano’s success and whether the company’s competitive strengths in merchandise selection and service are can be transferred to the new market. The company willing to retain its success in their existing market, wanted to examine issues that would affect their market entry and factors that will determine their success in the new market. Among the issues that the case presents is whether Giordano should change its present position. The company also debated if the factors that had contributed to the company’s success in their current market should be exercised in the new market.

The report also analyses the company’s background where it explains when and where Giordano was founded. The report records that Giordano initially opened its first retail store in Hong Kong and then expanded to other cities for instance Taiwan through joint venture. The company, according to the report expanded to Singapore later in 1985.

According to the report, the company since its formation used various positioning strategies. In understanding why the company took the options it took, the report analyses management values and Human Resource Policies. According to the report, the company has been willing to try new unconventional ways of doing business. According to the report, strong empowerment has helped the company to grow in various market segments as it believed that suppose it reduced its errors, they could be successful.

Describe and evaluate Giordano’s product, business and corporate strategies.

Giordano has continuously applied and is continuing to apply the facet of marketing which is concerned with the actualization of goods and/or services, as related to the customers’ needs. It was previous argued that a good product or service will sell itself. But in the highly competitive markets of today, there may be no bad products .Therefore the obvious questions regarding product include: Do the products meet the customer’s needs? And if so then what are the features of the products or services that meet the needs of our clients? These questions are best answered by the management as well as the relevant committees assigned with Napster land’s strategic planning.

Giordano has to maximize the use the four P’s which are parameters which the control of marketing, on condition of inner as well as outer constraints related to marketing environment. The goal here is to make decisions that center the four P’s on the customers in the target market in order to produce perceived value and generate a positive response.

Describe and evaluate Giordano’s current positioning strategy. Should Giordano reposition itself against its competitors in its current and new markets, and should it have different positioning strategies for different geographical markets?

A major requirement in business is to capture the attention of the customers by providing them with whatever they require at a meaningful cost. Understanding the customer is a critical aspect in this case since the business would be in a position of working towards the customer expectations. These expectations are best realized by contacting customer research.

To enhance customer relationship, various approaches can be used. First, one can observe the customers in their normal and everyday surrounding. Observing the customers’ normal and their daily life would include establishing their daily opportunities as well as getting to know their expectations. This would make the management work in a way that would meet such expectations. Customer expectations could be established in a friendly way whereby customers are requested to state their satisfaction from the consumption of the provided products or services. The observation could be made through interactive ways such as observing the way customers enjoy the use of the business products or services. The behavior of the customers could as well be observed such as establishing whether customers end up becoming repeat customers.

Again, it would be important to observe the way customers shop and consume the business products or services. Some customers would want to increase the quantity of products they purchase depicting an aspect of satisfaction. Various aspects could enhance customer satisfaction. Some customers would be satisfied by the type of product packaging used while others would be captivated by the quality of customer care services available. The feature that contributes to increased customer satisfaction should be considered. To establish such feature, the use of several prototypes could be used such as observing several packs in the case of packaging as a key factor. Customers would always seem to be attracted by different versions of packaging, which portrays their expectations and level of satisfaction.

The company that operates like Giordano is Yumi Kim which was founded in 2004. Since its formation, the company expanded and currently has more than five retail centers. Yumi mainly deals with cloths just like Giordano.

What are Giordano’s key success factors and spruces of competitive advantage? Are its competitive advantage sustainable, and how would they develop in the future?

The most important thing to know the customer expectations and needs a way of improving the business-customer relationship would be the customer feedback. Using the right prototype to initiate these feedbacks would be a critical consideration (Cross, 2010). The feedbacks would make it possible to understand what the firm has to improve to improve customer satisfaction. This could be done with the use of effective communications systems via the business website, social networks, or personalized communications. The customer could also be involved in developing new ideas via these modes of interactive communication. This is the strategy that it has used.

Again, to understand customers effectively, the researchers should place themselves in the various situations of the customers. This could include having the same experience that customers have or pointing out own experience with respect to an observed behavior form customers (Cross, 2010). Direct experience of what the firm is offering would be of great importance in understanding why some customer would act in certain ways.

Customers are the most important driving factor behind the supermarket retail industry. Even though Giordano is constantly innovating and implementing newer technologies to retain and impress its customers, for customers it is all about convenience and better savings. A customer might be ready to change his supermarket store on the basis of proximity, lower price on particular commodity or better offers. The most significance attribute of Giordano is its dedicated and committed team. It is very much evident when one glances over its financial performance which sits high at a 6.5% greater than the forecast growth. Even the financial services have recorded growth in almost every product for Giordano. Splendid performance and stellar growth has been shown in women attires and grocery.

Could Giordano transfer its key strategies factors to new markets as it expanded both in Asia and other parts of the world?

The strategy that Giordano plans to execute in the future is focused on the customers. Quality, production, cost and capability will be among the areas addressed. The company’s original mission of providing the needed clothes to customers worldwide and to be the leading firm in the clothing industry still remains. Since it is focusing on the customers, their needs and how the products reach them, distribution is top on the formulation process. Giordano plans to apply an offensive approach defending its international business status as the global leader in the heavy industry. Since the company is already stable, established, and delivering, maintaining this impressive performance presents the biggest challenge. Increased financial service options, improved competitive prices and introducing innovation are some of the strategies that will obtain an offensive stance. Timely delivery of products, improved customer relations, and provision of high quality products to the customer is the other approach that targets customer satisfaction and loyalty. Company execution and accountability will also be included in the strategy for the future since it will build trust in the customers. Giordano u has in the past utilized upgrades to fend off competition. The strategy set for the future similarly applies the concept of improvement of quality and reliability.

How do you thing Giordano had/would have to adopt its marketing and operations strategies and tactics when entering and penetrating your country?

The main agenda on the strategy model of Giordano is expansion into the global market. The company has in the recent past and is presently hiring foreign and flexible employees who will help improve the company’s quality and accelerate sales abroad. Given the weakness of the domestic market, Giordano has applied an appropriate strategy to expand. Furthermore, its 2010 impressive profit illustrates the necessity of the company to join the international market as it has gained enough financial recognition to compete with global heavyweights. Additionally, the company aims to expand its product line to include other equipment in line with the needs of the customers.

Placement simply refers to the process through the goods in addition to services reach the customers (the market).This facet is sometimes referred to as Place, implying, a channel through which a product or service gets to the targeted clients. This is a process that involves making decision on the prices of goods and/or services together with the preferred discounts on the products. The objective is to work on a pricing strategy best suited for both the clients and the business firm.

What general lessons can be learned from Giordano for other major clothing retailers in your country?

Strategic management requires assessment of the company’s strengths and weaknesses and the environment’s opportunities and threats. Three countries can be compared as they have competed in the same market for a considerable time. The competitive strategy applied by each company is different from the other. New entrants and competitive companies pose little or no threat to a giant market leader like Giordano. Although, a new entrant might offer a better offer on a particular product, it cannot overtake the hold of Giordano in the Australian market.

The value aspect of the three firms can apply to Giordano in its projected future competitive strategy whereby Giordano plans to improve its quality and reliability. Once the quality of Giordano is guaranteed to improve, the value of the products of the firm will improve consequentially and thereafter the profits realized will reflect the change in value. Value creation applies best in the factors that promote profit realization.

Recommendations

Giordano has opted for a strategy that will give positive feedback but there is uncertainty whether the income statement will reflect the success. The cost incurred in a customer service improvement strategy does not bring immediate and returns to cover for the expenses. A marketing and sales strategy would have been better. The Company has realized success from its quality and reliability improvement strategy in the past therefore the possibility of its strategy to succeed is high. The value aspect of the firms can apply to Giordano in its projected future competitive strategy whereby the Company plans to improve its quality and reliability. Once the quality of Giordano is guaranteed to improve, the value of the products of the firm will improve consequentially and thereafter the profits realized will reflect the change in value. Value creation applies best in the factors that promote profit realization.

Conclusion

Strategic management requires assessment of the company’s strengths and weaknesses and the environment’s opportunities and threats. Three countries can be compared as they have competed in the same market for a considerable time. The competitive strategy applied by each company is different from the other. Giordano has prioritized improvement in quality and reliability as its most utilized strategy. Giordano has merged, created a joint venture, expanded its product line and introduced financial services to offer ranging financial services globally. Giordano plans to focus on improving customer services which may be a long-term strategy that would reflect results later on rather than immediately. Giordano would rather have opted for improved marketing and sales activities which would have realized similar results but in a faster manner. The three companies have achieved a number of their original objectives with Giordano being recognized as the world leading firm in clothing.

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The Case of an Elementary Boy Claiming Abuse

In this case study, I am interviewing an 8-year-old boy who is in elementary. He lets me know that his mother has been physically abusing him at home and these incidents have taken place on more than one occasion. After informing my supervisor, she assured me she would meet with the student to further assess the situation. My supervisor insists that the boy always makes this claim to the new interns that come now and then. Because of this, I feel there is a possibility that she will not file an abuse claim with the state. On the other hand, I believe there is sufficient reason to file a report based on what the boy told me.

As an intern instructor tasked with safeguarding the boy’s well-being, my next step is to involve a third party to ensure the child gets all the help that she requires. I believe that as an instructor, my ultimate responsibility is to the child and no one else. As such, I will do all that it takes to keep him safe. The fact the boy opened up to me that his mother was abusing him physically was a cry for help. If I fail to take necessary action, I would never be at peace with myself. This is why I would be willing to go against my supervisor and talk to the school Principal or any other third party who will see to it that the state department of children is made aware of the incident so they can get to the bottom of the matter. Although going behind my supervisor’s back to report the issue to a higher authority is unprofessional, in special cases such as this, where the child’s life could be in potential danger is justifiable. I would choose to let the state department know about the child’s claim as child abuse tends to have a serious impact and can ruin the lives of families and children easily. In this case, I am only left with two options; following my supervisor’s lead and hoping that she will take the necessary action or taking the initiative and reporting the incident and abuse claims to the children’s department myself. In this case, I would decide to go with the latter. I would bring on board the principal to the elementary school to explain the situation and file a report with the state department of children. At the end of the day, teachers have a mandate to report any cases of suspected child abuse that they might run into. This means that as an instructor-intern, it is my duty to let the state department know if I have any suspicions of maltreatment.

There would be many benefits to contacting the state department of children on my own. One is that I would be helping rescue a boy that is in potential danger of even more harm. If it is true that the boy’s mother has been beating him, then this is bound to take a toll on the boy’s emotional and social well-being. The boy might be suffering in silence, and reporting the issue to the children’s services independently can help him access the help he needs. Victims of physical abuse tend to suffer emotionally, which explains the need for psychosocial support. The Children’s Department is best placed to help the boy deal with the trauma from the abuse as they have a team of qualified sociologists trained to help him overcome the ordeal. I strongly believe that contacting the children’s department is the right thing to do as they have the best available resources at their disposal to determine whether the boy is a victim of abuse and also because it is the right thing to do. Just because my supervisor says that the boy has a trend of saying his mother is harassing him to every new intern does not mean that the claim might not be true. At least, the boy’s complaint should be enough reason to investigate a matter. There is a lot of benefit in giving the boy the benefit of the doubt and believing that he is a victim of abuse.

While reporting the incident to the children services s the right thing to do, there are various reasons pointing to why calling them is not a good idea. For starters, if the claim turns to be a force there is the burden of incriminating the parent and interrupting a disrupting a cohesive environment. Another reason for not calling the children’s services is that there is no physical proof of abuse, such as unexplained bruises, unusual interest in physical violence, and inappropriate clothing does not exist. However, the fact that there are no signs of violence does not take away from the fact that the boy’s claim might be legitimate.

The Case of Artificial Nails

Katira Marshall, Toyin Ajayi, Sharun Manu

West Chester University

Applied Nursing Research NSG313-90

Professor Megan A. Infanti Mraz RN, PhD

13 July, 2022

Abstract

Maintaining proper hand hygiene among clinical workers is important to reduce the prevalence of the disease. However, there are several techniques are used to promote hand hygiene. This paper is going to focus on the use of liquid soap to clean the hand and nails.

Introduction

In clinical care practice use and maintenance of proper hand, hygiene is very important. This is because, in most cases, the hand contains a high level of microorganisms, which can lead to disease. However, in most cases, nurses do not give enough attention to this topic. As a result, poor hand hygiene practice in a nursing facility leads to additional disease risk for the patient. Moreover, poor hand hygiene is also harmful to nurses (Ellingson et al., 2014). Lin et al., (2003) mention in most cases, clinical setting follows poor hand hygiene protocol, and they provide less funding to improve the hand hygiene practice in a care facility. As a result, this can lead to the development of several pathogenic diseases. For instance, E.coli is a very common bacterium, which can be found within nails. Hence, poor hand hygiene practices e can lead to E.coli-related infection.

As a result, from a nursing standpoint, poor hand hygiene can be considered a significant issue. Moreover, nowadays many female nurses use artificial nails for beauty purposes. However, due to their long size, artificial nails can contain more pathogenic microorganisms compared to normal nails. Hence, it is important to properly clean hands and nails (Ellingson et al., 2014). There are several techniques are used to properly clean hands. However, this paper is going to particularly focus on liquid soap.

Hence, here the PICO question is about the use of liquid soap to reduce the microbial load in hand and artificial nails compared to alcohol use and other hand washing technique.

Search strategy

For this research, PubMed was used. Here, the keywords along with Boolean operators like OR and AND were used to find the proper papers. The keywords for this search were keywords 1: Hand hygiene and Keyword 2: Artificial Fingernails and Keyword 3: Health care workers were used. The inclusion criteria for this paper include being published within 20 years, discussing hand hygiene techniques and the presence of microorganisms within the fingernails of healthcare workers, and the paper that is written in the English language. Exclusion criteria for this search include articles that are not written in English, articles that are not relevant to the topic, and articles which are not peer-reviewed.

Literature review

Lin et al., (2003) investigated the impact of different hand washing techniques to remove caliciviruses and E.coli. In this research, the author considered both artificial and normal fingernails. In this study, they made a bacterial preparation containing E.coli, which was then mixed with the grounded beef and put into the gloves. Human volunteers were selected to perform the research. In this study, a total of 6 hand washing methods were checked, which were liquid soap with a nailbrush, alcohol gel, alcohol-based sanitizer, antibacterial liquid soaps, regular liquid soaps, and tap water cleaning. According to the findings, the author mentioned the use of liquid soap with a nailbrush had the greatest result. However, the alcohol-based solution did not provide a good result. Moreover, this study indicates that the use of soap is effective to reduce the load of microorganisms in both artificial and normal nails regardless of their sizes. Therefore, this study demonstrates that the use of soap is more effective compared to alcohol-based solutions.

Likewise, McNeil et al., (2001) conducted a similar study on 21 healthcare workers (HCW) to check the efficacy of antimicrobial soaps against alcohol-based gel. However, in this study, only artificial nails were used. Also, this study has a control group of 20 HCWs to compare the effectiveness. In this study, the cultures were obtained from all of the participants and it was analyzed and contrasted to get the result. According to the findings, McNeil et al., (2001) mention, that the experimental group has 86% of microorganisms in their hand before the experiment. However, after the intervention, the load of pathogens decreased in both cases.

According to this evidence, both alcohol and soap can be effective enough to reduce the level of microbes in length. This can reduce the load of germs in both normal nails and in artificial nails. Hence, in a clinical setting use of liquid soap with a nailbrush needs to be focused on to improve hand hygiene.

Conclusion

Implementation of proper hand hygiene in the workplace is important to reduce the prevalence of the disease. Hence, to promote good hand hygiene practice use of liquid soap with a nailbrush is important.

References

Ellingson, K., Haas, J., Aiello, A., Kusek, L., Maragakis, L., Olmsted, R. & Yokoe, D. (2014). Strategies to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections through Hand Hygiene. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, 35(S2), S155-S178. doi:10.1017/S0899823X00193900

Lin, C. M., Wu, F. M., Kim, H. K., Doyle, M. P., Michaels, B. S., & Williams, L. K. (2003). A comparison of hand washing techniques to remove Escherichia coli and caliciviruses under natural or artificial fingernails. Journal of Food Protection, 66(12), 2296-2301. https://doi.org/10.4315/0362-028X-66.12.2296

McNeil, S. A., Foster, C. L., Hedderwick, S. A., & Kauffman, C. A. (2001). Effect of hand cleansing with antimicrobial soap or alcohol-based gel on microbial colonization of artificial fingernails worn by health care workers. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 32(3), 367-372. https://doi.org/10.1086/318488

Timothy McVeigh

Name: Nathan Johnson

Instructor: Dr. Wendy Hicks

Course: CRJ 308

Date: April 26, 2015Timothy McVeigh

Introduction

Both mass and serial murders are considered one of the most surprising types of crime. Knight (2006) believes that the reason for this is the fact that it is not easy to understand the reason why others would derive joy in killing others. Serial and mass murders are surprising because they present a small section of the population involved in insane acts. This is despite the fact that they are not insane. Under most circumstances, victims of serial and mass killers are always caught off-guard. This paper examines the psychology these brutal killers by using Timothy McVeigh as a case in point.

The Case of Timothy McVeigh

In the year 1995, Timothy McVeigh who was an ex-army man hired a Ryder truck and parked it in Oklahoma City close to Alfred P. Murray Federal Building. McVeigh was prepared to commit mass murder (FBI, 2015). The vehicle was fitted with a strong bomb that had been made from a combination of chemicals. He got out, shut the door and walked towards the car that he sought to use in order to escape. The bomb exploded at about 9.02 am. In a short period of time, the neighborhood appeared like a war zone. Part of the building was destroyed with a number of floors brought down. In addition, several vehicles were burned and more than three hundred buildings in the neighborhood were damaged. This event led to the death of a hundred and sixty eight people including nine children (FBI, 2015). Hundreds of people also suffered injuries. This was the worst case of homegrown terrorism the US every witnessed.

Psychology of Serial and Mass Killers

The actions of Timothy McVeigh were triggered by his hatred for the government. His main goal was to topple the government (FBI, 2015). Though a large section of the population could hate Timothy for heinous act and lack of remorse, McDermott (2013) would beg to differ. On the contrary he would ask that McVeigh not be blamed for his actions. This is attributed to research which has established that serial and mass killers cannot help doing what they do. It has been submitted that psychopaths lack basic hard-wiring within the brain that makes it necessary for people to show care and compassion.

From a psychological perspective, criminal and aggressive behavior would be founded on the connections between the behaviors of people and their thought processes. The psychological approach would lay emphasis on the individual. However, it differs from biological approach given that psychology analyzes the individual based on the connections with the rest. In the same vein, Keppel and Birness (2003) believe that the successful development of a kid is determined by its early relationships with the major caregivers. According to Whitman and Akutagawa (2004), psychological disorders with the inclusion of depression could sometimes lead to violent behaviour. Finally, the sociological approach could be used so as to order to determine other kinds of crime. The sociological approach holds that criminal behaviors are those that shift from the norms that are acceptable in society.

Conclusion

In conclusion, research offers information regarding serial and mass murder murders. Based on the case of McVeigh, it is apparent that these people are selective and are capable of committing heinous crimes. This notwithstanding, in analyzing the life of a mass killer like Timothy McVeigh, it is hard to understand the manner in which a person like McVeigh operates. It can be deduced that McVeigh is an outcome of both biological and environmental factors.

 

References

Federal Bureau of Investigation {FBI}. (2015). Terror Hits Home: The Oklahoma City Bombing.

Retrieved from http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/oklahoma-city-bombing

Keppel, R., & Birnes, W. (2003). Profiling the serial killer: The efficacy of profiling. The Psychology of Serial Killer Investigations, 32(3), 129-168

Knight, Z. (2006). Some thoughts on the psychological roots of the behavior of serial killers as narcissists: an object relations perspective. Social behavior and personality, 34(10), 1189-1206

McDermott, K. (2013). Is this proof evil killers are born not made? Psychopaths’ brains ‘lack

basic wiring that triggers empathy and compassion.’ Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2314130/The-proof-evil-killers-born-Psychopaths-brains-lack-basic-wiring-triggers-empathy-compassion.html

Whitman, T., & Akutagawa, D. (2004). Riddles in serial murder: a synthesis. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 9(6), 693-703

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The Case of Wafer Express Inc.Lee Questin has lots of management challenges including time management and coordination of his subordinates. He is not able to manage his staffs and motivate them to work hard. It also seems that Lee does not understand most of the operations going on in the company. Moreover, Lee seems strains in his work because he cannot remember even Lazarus’ fifth year anniversary with the company. Lee is not sure about his abilities and responsibilities in management. There are also incomplete instructions and set of rules for manufacturing products which causes delays in operations and also raises the costs of production. Production engineers should come up with standardized way of building different products to reduce the delays and costs of operations (Buller & Randall 2-8).

In addition, the company is also faced by test failures which are regarded as serious problems and this may make customers be delayed. Product engineers should try to be as competent as possible to reduce various causes of test errors and other test related activities which consume most of their time. Part of improvements that need to be taken care of are proper documentation. Stopping interruptions especially while the product engineers are in the meeting with Lee may not be the solution to the problem because it would also mean that there would be delays during the meeting. Lee should just ensure that his engineers come up with effective layout on how to build different products. Lee should also come up with solid agenda in his meetings to ensure that important issues are raised at a particular time limit. Considering that time is an important thing for the company particularly the product engineers, he should therefore fix a particular duration for the meetings. Some of the agendas of the meeting should not involve problem affecting a single product engineer but general challenge facing all of them (Buller & Randall 2-8).

Moreover, Lee should also encourage product engineers to interact amongst themselves via various channels such as verbal or communication through mobile phones in case there is any problem in their work. There should be no time to discuss about wide company views in Lee’s meeting because these discussions may waste a lot of time. Lee should ensure that every issue raised in the meeting or amongst engineers that concerns the entire product engineering department is addressed and proper solution be found. Lee’s department does also not coordinate very well with the application engineers. Indeed there is a serious communication breakdown between application engineers and product engineers that even leads to customer dissatisfaction (Buller & Randall 2-8).

Furthermore, Lee should ensure that there is cooperation and good relationship amongst the two departments to minimize the issues arising due to communication breakdown. There is also a shaky relationship between manufacturing department and product department which derails the functions of the company. Relationship between Lee and his boss too does not seem promising. Sam is not giving Lee enough support to smoothen operations in the product engineering department. For instance he is not providing the under-staffed product department with more personnel to make work easier. Moreover Sam cannot give or mediate between Lee and Reese as a way of creating peace and motivating the workers. As much as Lee may try to be a good leader who intends to ensure that his department works well and achieves the best results as possible, he does not have good support to succeed in his duty and objectives (Buller & Randall 2-8).

OB Perspective

There is an increasing pervasiveness in job dissatisfaction and disengagement due to paradoxical organizational behaviors which has resulted into negative consequences for employers and employees. Management of job and work output is largely contributed by degree of job satisfaction and attitude towards work. Various issues concerning organization performance are never costly because they only need proper and timely implementation of actions. There are few issues that should not be taken for granted as far as performance and social co-existence within the organization is concerned. Various concepts such as motivation, leadership and communication are very vital in initiating success of a business. Employees have become very distrustful and unhappy while performing their duties thus causing organizational failures and customer dissatisfaction. This essay analyses some of the organizational behavior concepts that are necessary in Wafer Express Company (Wagner & Hollenbeck 213-225).

Effective communication skills entail good listening, non-verbal communication, team culture, consistency, clarity, and preciseness. Careful listening makes the communicator feel respected and appreciated whereas on the other hand careful listening reduces misunderstanding. A good listener shows interest to the information communicated, do not interrupt inappropriately, and is not judgmental. Lee could have listened to his juniors grievances and address them appropriately. He could have let them communicate only important information affecting them in the weekly meetings but not regarding company’s general information (Chaturvedi & Chaturvedi 27-40). However it is important to note that Lee exercises his communication skills to arrange for weekly meetings which are very essential. Sam and Reese are also not good in communication especially when it comes to providing feedback to information enquired. Whenever Lee raises issues regarding manufacturing engineering, Reese do not want to give a listening hear.

Communication greatly affects the daily operations of organizations and therefore, should be used effectively and efficiently. Better communication promotes employee morale and eventually boosts organization’s performance. Communication in Wafer Express is indeed very poor and therefore the management should ensure that effective communication is exercised for improved cooperation amongst employees. Every engineering department should have clear communication on what should be done from their leaders in order to avoid obstacles in operations. Top down communication right from the Vice president Sam Porter to the engineers via their leaders should be practiced (Chaturvedi & Chaturvedi 27-40).

Quality attention should be paid and the right effective method of communication be applied by considering cost, quantity, quality and the audience. Sam, just like Lee should effectively organize for forums where he can address employees’ grievances and understand weaknesses that may arise under his leadership. He should also be able to communicate target required for the departments to attain. Lee should also clearly communicate to his juniors about the mission and objectives of their particular departments. Communication breakdown must be avoided by using the most appropriate methods of communication where applicable. Skills and elements of communication are very vital in communication (Chaturvedi & Chaturvedi 27-40).

Team culture is another behavior concept that requires respect and team spirit among members. Members of a team should work towards a common goal with clear rules, regulations, and empowerment. Roles of every member of the team should be clear and respected by other members. Lee should ensure that all the team members work on their areas assigned properly as a way of boosting team’s performance. On the other hand, Sam Porter who is the overall head of application engineering and product engineering should arrange for a meeting that encourages team spirit amongst and within the departments. Consistency is another important aspect of communication where a leader practices honesty and open communication that allows subordinates space for discussion (Chaturvedi & Chaturvedi 27-40).

Finally, while communicating, clarity and preciseness should be encouraged. Whoever is communicating must be straight to the point and conclusive. Rules that all the engineers and other workers in the company should adhere to must be set by the seniors. Participation and engagement of everyone in decision making is very crucial in retaining and attraction of great people in a department (Wagner & Hollenbeck 213-225). If Sam could be able to mobilize all his juniors and encourage them to work hard towards achieving a common goal then there could be amazing results. Business itself is a team that requires highly motivated team spirit to catapult it to success. Inspiring employees is one thing that Howard believes in as it motivates them to share the company’s common goal (Banutu-Gomez & Rohrer 54-60).

Lee should allow for hands off approach where he encourages his juniors to work without interfering with them. He ought to encourage the team members to function independently and work out their problems by themselves. However he should avail himself for advice or assistance and offer little control over team members leaving them to tackle in their roles. Although this leadership style is recommended to a highly motivated and skilled team with an excellence of work performance, it usually leave the team struggling with little direction and motivation. It is vital to note this kind of style cannot be used on Wafer Express employees because they are not motivated (Banutu-Gomez & Rohrer 54-60).

Generally, there are skills or traits that an effective leader is required to have as explained by various theories both old and contemporary theories. Some of the main traits that appear in leaders are ambition, zeal, intelligence, self-directive, and self-confidence. At times, physical characteristics, capability, and persona may be important aspects used to summarize what a leader is. There are six distinct characters that popular effective leaders have such as honesty and integrity. In addition, drive, motivation, cognitive ability, and business knowledge are also other characteristics of leaders. These traits would definitely distinguish whether a manager will be an effective leader or not. Leaders are incredibly ambitious persons who are never afraid of taking inventiveness as well as people whom apart from willingness to lead, are especially ready to take charge (Gareth & Gill 35-45).

Furthermore, leaders usually have technical expertise in their businesses and are straightforward people who fulfill their promises. In Wafer Express, Lee does not fulfill his promise of doing documentation of the works of product engineering as he had promised Sam. This shows an element of distrust in his leadership. Leaders are individuals who do not fear taking risks and are very assertive and influential that admits mistakes and promotes trust and commitment to a vision (Wagner & Hollenbeck 213-225). Lee is not able to let his juniors committed to their duty because there are several mistakes done by his people as complained by manufacturing department. Leaders are emotionally stable, intelligent, discerning, and theoretically skilled who are able to show analytical ability, good ruling, and the capability to think strategically. Lee is unable to think strategically about challenges affecting his department especially after several foul cry from the manufacturing engineering department (Gareth & Gill 35-45).

The organization’s background and the values and associated behaviors of whoever is being led are in fact imperative while considering the leaders skills. Managers are usually needed to use these skills, which may be improved in training courses such as guidelines for decision-making, problem solving methods as well as appropriate use of power and influence. Leaders should be able to build trust to enable smooth and effective running of an organization. Lee has failed to use his power and influence to address the challenges facing his juniors. His department is constantly blamed by manufacturing engineering but he does not seem to have problem solving and effective decision making skills to stop these (Wagner & Hollenbeck 213-225).

Effectual leadership earns and keep others trust, have personal integrity, inspires trust among their followers, and ensures steadiness with what they promise their hanger-on. Nice leaders define and set a sense of mission by setting goals, priorities, and standards and ensuring the communication and implementation of the objectives set for smooth running of the organization (Gareth & Gill 35-45). However, Lee does not seem to set clear and achievable targets for his juniors since there are several issues arising in his department. Moreover, good and successful leaders acknowledge leadership as a responsibility rather than a rank by surrounding themselves with sharp and proficient people and do not blame others in case of failures. Lee is supposed to take responsibility in his department and set goals for his juniors. He should ensure that he addresses all the problems facing product engineering to reduce the blame and test failures (Gareth & Gill 35-45).

Lee need to engage in participative management style by involving subordinates in decision-making process through consulting group members. This is significant in promoting engineers ownership for the decisions. Nevertheless Lee should not be overtaken by his juniors’ participation by losing sight of the fact that he bears all the crucial responsibility of leadership (Wagner & Hollenbeck 213-225). A good leader supports participation and delegation intelligently and values group discussion and contribution from team members by maximizing their strong points in order to obtain best performance from the group. Although participative managers motivates and empowers the subordinates, there may be assumption that he is unsure of himself and that all issues are solved in the group discussions (Gareth & Gill 35-45).

Additionally, leaders may use motivation to reach goals by either positive or negative approach. Positive approach includes use of praise, recognition and rewards while in negative style comprises of punishment, penalties, potential job loss, threats, suspension and remands (Wagner & Hollenbeck 213-225). Task and employee orientation is the manager’s approach on the best way to get work done by using better methods, controlling the work surrounding, assigning work, and monitoring performance. Attitudes and behaviors of workers significantly affect the management and operations of firms regardless of the management style used.

Interview Response

Julie responded to the first question by admitting that she has had several occasions where her subordinates are just too reluctant to meet the deadline set. In many occasions there may be delays of supply of solar to her company’s customers due to failure to manufacture the products on time. She would talk to her team to work overtime and even over the weekend just to ensure the customer is satisfied and the company does not loss her customers. Because of additional incentives, most employees would always turn up.

On the other hand, James has also had numerous instances but the one he says that remains important to him was when he advised his subordinates to exercise positive attitude and corporate amongst themselves. There was division amongst the subordinates as the male ones felt that James favored two female employees compared to them. Male employees refused to understand until they were transferred to other retail shops because their performance went down. Additionally, Terry stopped two months allowance for her employees due to poor performance of the business. Employees threatened to sue her and four of them resigned.

Both the people I interviewed admitted that dealing with human being is not an easy task and that it requires high degree of caution. However Terry feels that as a boss she must use all the authority under her to ensure that the business does not fail.

Regarding challenges faced within the teams they work with, they all acknowledged that there have been many instances they disagreed with their groups. Julie recalled frequent cases where she has to push her team to work on solar panels and meet deadlines. She thought male employees did not like her perhaps because of her sex or her low profile attitude. Nevertheless, James and Terry who admitted challenges with their respective teams did not think that they were personally hated.

Interestingly, all the interviewees confessed that working as a group is a good thing. Though James thought that team or group politics may greatly affect teamwork and therefore individuality may be preferable. He further added that a focused individual is better than a million members of a discouraged and politicized team. Also, Terry shared almost similar thought that as much as she loves teamwork, at times a single individual may really bring it down. Three of them said that they normally talk to all of them in weekly meetings to clear air on any important issues raised. Julie carefully tries to listen to challenges affecting them and she admits that there have been marvelous results of late.

Julie feels that she is a transformational leader who has achieved great success with her team. She postulates that the team believes in her and she too believes in her team from the way she interacts with them. On the other hand, Terry feels that being that she is a quick decision maker and loves her team to work efficiently; she must be an autocratic leader. However, she admits that she has faced few challenges with her employees regarding this. They feel that she is pushing them to work. Interestingly, she says that success of her retail shop is attributed to her leadership style. Furthermore, James thinks that because his team do routine work, he does not like interfering with them. He says his leadership style must be Laissez-Faire and that the style has really improved performance of his team.

Indeed every leader is faced by numerous challenges in their teams but what makes a difference is the type of a leader or manager someone is. Dealing with subordinates is not an easy task unless they feel motivated. Both the interview and the Wafer Company case have revealed a lot about challenges facing leaders. The case and the interviews are very similar in numerous instances. Leadership indeed is all about motivating the employees and showing them visionary direction to follow.

Works Cited

Banutu-Gomez, Michael, and Rohrer, William. “Teams in Organization.” The Business Review, Cambridge 18.1 (2011): 54-60. ProQuest. Web. 9 Aug. 2013.

Buller, Paul F, and Randall S. Schuler. Managing Organizations and People: Cases in Management, Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management. Mason (Ohio: South-Western, 2006. Print.

Chaturvedi, and Mukesh Chaturvedi. Business Communication: Concepts, Cases and Applications. Delhi: Dorling Kindersley, 2011. Print.

Gareth, Edwards and Gill, Roger. “Transformational Leadership Across Hierarchical Levels in UK Manufacturing Organizations.” Leadership & Organization Development Journal 33.1 (2012): 25-50. ProQuest. Web. 9 Aug. 2013.

Wagner, John A, and Hollenbeck, John. Organizational Behavior: Securing Competitive Advantage. New York, NY [u.a.: Routledge, 2010. Print. (Wagner & Hollenbeck 213-225)

Appendix

Questions Raised

Is there job experience in which you had to talk and tell people what you felt and what is right for the company? How was their reaction

Is there any situation where you felt that you should be more cautious while handling company operations especially while dealing with subordinates?

Have you ever had a challenge while dealing with a team in which you are the leader and team members do not like you?

People either love working as a group or an individual. Which one do you prefer? How do you make your style effective?

What is your leadership style? What have you achieved with your leadership style?

Interviewees

Name: Julie Gircys

Phone number: 416 712 1488

Email: juliegircys@sympatico.com

Companies of interviewees: Mondial Energy and Beach Solar

Number of People Managed by Interviewee: 10

Venue of the Interview: Office

Name: Peter James

Phone number: 760 9871234

Email: Peterjames@starbuck.com

Company of interviewee: Starbuck

Number of People Managed by Interviewee: 5

Venue of the Interview: Restaurant

Name: Lucy Terry

Phone Number: 760 988 5432

Email: Terril@gmail.comCompany of Interviewee: A small retail shop

Number of People Managed: 8

Venue of the Interview: Within the retail shop

Supply Chain Management

Name

Course

Tutor’s Name

Date

The case study involves some top supply chain disasters by singling out every company’s issues regarding supply chain. Looking at Boeing, their new outsourced supply chain could not deliver components for the new Dreamliner 787 aircraft, which led to a two-year delay in product launch. There were almost $2 billion that were incurred to support the component supplies. Revenues were lost due to cancellation of orders.

Apple was overwhelmed by the demand for new Power Macs, which they could not deliver after their decision to use the conservative inventory strategy. It was unfortunate that the failure for delivering the goods made Apple to lose PC market share.

Loblaws attempted to restructure her supply chain by affecting their logistics network redesign program, which implied that they wanted to do more than they could with inadequate plan. There were consecutive poor financial quarters that followed including the stock price took big hit.

Foxmeyer Drug introduced new order management as well as distribution systems that did not work.

Robert Smith of GM invested billions of dollars in non-functional robot technology that largely reduced sales.

WebVan increased their investment in the automated warehouses which consumed too much of their capital without ascertaining the demand. The company eventually goes bankrupt within a short period.

Inventory management was a major issue after attempts to implement the new warehouse system prompting the company to under-ship and lose market share.

Denver Airport bought a baggage handling system that did not work causing a number of challenges including PR issues.

Quality of offshore toys in China turned out to be inferior forcing a number of goods made in China be recalled and this greatly damaged Mattel’s brand and lowered stock prices.

Toys R US.com could not deliver to their customers as they had earlier promised due to poor inventory management procedures that prohibited them from supplying goods on time. Instead, they just sent apologies to their customers who felt much more dissatisfied.

Hershey’s Halloween wanted to transform the company’s IT infrastructure and supply chain but the project slipped due to poor implementation strategy. Hershey Food missed many clients’ orders and shipments hence leading to lose in revenue and stock.

Cisco experienced poor inventory management strategy, which made them pile excessive inventory due to lower demand. Cisco was not sensitive enough to the slowing demand and this forced them to write down inventory worth $2.2 billion.

Nike experienced serious challenges of predicting demand and deploying factory by creating vital inventory shortages and excesses because of the new but complex supply chain planning system they wanted to implement.

Walmart has continuously been involved with RFID issue which has not achieved its intended purpose after it was rolled out. It is unfortunate that after Wal-Mart introduced the RFID, the retail company as well as other key players in the system have not seen its benefits. It may be argued therefore that the introduction of the system was just a poor decision making that was done by the management.

Aris Isotoner was faced by high cost of production as well as poor quality products when their Division of Sara Lee moved production from Manila, which already characterised with low cost production to even lower cost regions in Asia. Aris Isotoner experienced a serious drop in sales and begun making losses.

The largest automobile companies, Ford, GM and Chrysler’s plans for a massive trading exchange Covisint as well as a parallel e-procurement effort failed forcing the big three to lose millions of dollars.

Terry v Ohio (1968)

Joel Canton

Columbia Southern University

The case under discussion was presented in 1968, where the Supreme Court of the United States made a landmark decision. The Supreme Court passed a judgment that; the fourth amendment, which is for protecting citizens from being searched and seized without any police warranty, is not violated whenever a police officer subjects a suspect to search in the streets. The effect was that a police officer would search a person in the streets without any likely cause for arrest, if the police officer suspected that the person might be in the process of committing a crime, is likely to commit a crime, or has already committed a crime. The police can also search a person if they suspect that the person has a weapon in his possession and, therefore, dangerous to the public CITATION Ame95 l 1033 (America Civil Liberty Union, 1995). The suspicion must have a base on solid facts rather than on a personal hunch. The reasonable doubt should come from solid, reasonable, and specific facts. This action by the police is known as ‘stop and frisk’ or ‘Terry frisk.’ The court’s judgement argued that, the fourth amendment law was to protect citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures with the aim of gathering evidence, rather than searches for the prevention of crime CITATION Jer11 l 1033 (Byellin, 2011).

On the 31st of October, a detective named Martin McFadden noticed that two men were studying a particular window on the street suspiciously. The two men were later identified as Richard Chilton and John W. Terry. The detective was famous for apprehending pickpocketers and arresting them. He noticed that the two men alternated in checking out the building through the same window although they used different routes. After each round, the two men would meet at the corner and discuss in low tones. The two men continued with the cycle for about five times. After doing the rounds, another man by the name Katz joined the duo, discussed something, and then left them. McFadden went after them for a few blocks, where they met again with the third man CITATION Leg92 l 1033 (Legal Information Institute, 1992).

The detective approached the men and informed them that he was a police officer, and requested for their names. The men did not tell him but rather mumbled incoherent words. At this point, the detective held Terry and discovered that he had a gun in his possession. He got out the gun and ordered the three men to turn around lifting their hands back up in their air where he could see them. He also removed a gun from Chilton’s pockets. He arrested the two men and left Katz since he did not have any weapon in his possession. Richard and Terry were charged with carrying concealed weapons CITATION Chi051 l 1033 (Chicage Kent College Of Law, 2005).

The lawyers of the suspects posited that the search was equal to violation of the fourth amendment law. The court, however, did not accept the prosecution’s argument that the aim of seizing the weapons was to stop a crime from happening. The court agreed that the guns were, however, reasonable evidence that the men were about to commit a crime. The court believed that the detective had the right to check their outer clothing because he had enough reason to believe that they were armed. The courts decision differentiated between an investigatory stop, and frisk for weapons. The two men were found guilty. This decision was further upheld by the Appellate court and the supreme court of Ohio CITATION Jer11 l 1033 (Byellin, 2011).

One judge said that the fourth amendment rule was meant to protect citizens and not places. The judge decided that Terry’s rights had been violated, but only to a certain extent. This was the opinion of Chief Justice Warren. The procedure commonly known as the terry frisk has elicited different reactions from different people CITATION Jer11 l 1033 (Byellin, 2011). Officers argue that they require some level of freedom when they are patrolling the streets, so that they can combat crimes effectively. However, some people feel that the police are not justified since they are likely to use the rule for their benefit, or that they may end up harassing innocent citizens. The court, however looked at the issue from a different viewpoint. It looked at the evidence that the police had presented to the court, and the exclusionary rule was given to the state police officers CITATION Leg92 l 1033 (Legal Information Institute, 1992).

In this case, the question of the court was if the exceptions that the police were given were not leeway for them to harass citizens; and not if the frisk was inappropriate. The judge commented that, in any case that required the use of the exception rule, all the limitations should be carefully thought out and considered. Complaints by the minority groups, Latinos and African Americans, who are commonly harassed by the police officers, will not be controlled if evidence is not used in court. If the rule is carried out without any concerns, people will end up being frustrated in the name of preventing crime. The rule is to be used sparingly to ensure that it is fair to the people and at the same time uphold morality in the society.

In order to address these concerns, the court observed that, it is not reasonable for a policeman to corner a person and subject them to search, unless there is a tangible reason to arrest a suspect. The court had the responsibility of determining what exactly is a search, and the time a person was being searched. The court did not agree that the Terry-frisk would constitute a search and seizure and, therefore, the fourth amendment did not fully apply to the citizen. However, court’s decision agreed that some police action could constitute a seizure. When the police arrested Terry, they seized him, and searched him. This is what the fourth amendment aims to protect. However, the fourth amendment only applies when the search is unreasonable. In essence, the court had a duty to decide if the seizure was unlawful CITATION Jer11 l 1033 (Byellin, 2011).

In sum, the court’s argument is comparable to the activity that would warrant an arrest. The police officer must provide facts and reasons why a person is being prosecuted. In a situation where there is a warrant of arrest, the police officer would be required to present the facts to the judge before searching and seizing the suspect CITATION Ame95 l 1033 (America Civil Liberty Union, 1995). A policeman’s hunch is not considered a reason enough to search and seize a citizen. If the police merely acted on their instincts, then the protection that the citizens are granted by the fourth amendment rule would be non-existent. The reason has to be in the best interest of the state, and must be towards prevention of crimes. It was necessary for the police to realize that, even though they may start out their searches with reasonable doubt, they may end up being illegal, owing to the intensity and coverage. All these conclusions led to the court believing that the detective was justified in frisking Terry CITATION Chi051 l 1033 (Chicage Kent College Of Law, 2005).

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY America Civil Liberty Union. (1995, October 31). Police Practices on the Docket. Retrieved June 13, 2014, from America Civil Liberty Union: http://www.acluohio.org/cases/terry-v-ohio

Byellin, J. (2011, June 10). Legal Research. Retrieved June 13, 2014, from Thomsons Reuters: http://blog.legalsolutions.thomsonreuters.com/legal-research/today-in-1968-terry-v-ohio-creates-the-terry-stop/

Chicage Kent College Of Law. (2005, July 2012). OYEZ. Retrieved June 13, 2014, from Chicago-Kent College of Law: http://www.oyez.org/cases/1960-1969/1967/1967_67

Legal Information Institute. (1992, January 14). Cornell University Law School. Retrieved June 13, 2014, from Legal Information Institute: http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/392/1

Case Overview

The Broadway Cafe was recently inherited from a family member. The cafe is strategically located in downtown, and it offers a wide variety of foods from different kinds of tea, coffee, sandwiches, salads, soups, and different products from the bakery. Once, the cafe was a local hotspot. It was opened in 1952. However, since the café was passed on from its first owner, it has been performing poorly. It seems that the approaches being applied to run the cafe are outdated as they are the ones that the former owner used since the 1950s.as it follows, the store does not have any form of technology including computers. The former owner had an excellent memory and, as a result new all of his customers by first name. It is unfortunate that this information was not recorded anywhere including the recipes, inventory, marketing coupons and the payroll of employees. The cafe probably has been dropping its sales because of the fact that it does not have any website, or any form of effective marketing other than word of mouth, and because it is essentially run in the same way as it was in the 1950s.

This paper, thereby, will show how the cafe can be operated and owned successfully through the use of some beneficial business practices that can be used to increase the profitability of the cafe. Some of these practices include; the use of technology to enhance the competitive advantage of the business, to create an e- business strategy, to establish a collaborative online community, implement a customer’s wireless network, to utilize CRM for the implementation of sales strategies and campaigns for marketing, address challenges resulting from different information and ethical problem. Establishing management activities for projects, and understanding how technology can be useful in running a business.

Competitive Advantage

The Five Forces Model by Michael Porter is an essential tool that can be used by organizations to come up with effective strategies and decisions when entering a new industry segment. These Five Forces can be used to determine the attractiveness or profitability of an industry or company, and they include; buyer power, threat provided by new entrant, threat produced by substitute services or products, supplier power, and rivalry among existing business (Porter, 1979). There are a number of aspects that are making the Broadway Cafe unsuccessful. These are despite the facts that the café has existed since the 1950s and that the business remained a hot spot for an extremely long time. Some challenges that the company has been facing include; sales have been declining, the system used to run the cafe is outdated, things are done manually, systems are not computerized, prices have not been reviewed for years, the business does not offer any reward program to its customers, and there are no hot spot or website connections for the business’s customers. By using the Five Forces Model by Porter, one can analyze the performance of Broadway Cafe.

When it comes to supplier power, the café has been increasing the number of suppliers leading to an increase in cost. The business can reduce the number of suppliers and still maintain quality, and reduce operating costs. To address the challenges brought about by threat of substitute services and products, the cafe will have to change its products such as teas, coffees and soups, and the prices of these foods so as to match with the needs of the changing market (Porter, 1979).

The buyer power of the company has been declining for the last five years. To deal with this challenge, the cafe has to engage in numerous promotions and campaigns so as to attract new customers, as well as, old ones. New entrants are also giving the café a substantial amount of competition. The business has to reinvent itself and offer its market new services and products so as to increase its business. To solve challenges brought about by the rivalry that exists between competitors, the business has to update its systems like computerizing its ordering systems, inventory, and the payroll system to make the operations of the business efficient, and eventually reduce operation costs and increase sales (Porter, 1979).

Of the Three Generic Strategies by Porter, differentiation can be used to rebuild the café and improve its performance and profitability. It is essential to differentiate businesses from other similar businesses since prices of the offered services and foods must reflect competitiveness (Porter, 1979). The customers of the cafe started decreasing because the business practices practiced by the business are outdated. Today, people need to meet, relax and conduct business with wireless devices, services that the café cannot offer for the moment. So as to rebuild the café, the business has to remain competitive while at the same time offering value for its customers.

E-business

Broadway Cafe must take advantage if strategies in e-business for it to remain competitive in the market. B2B is an e-business strategy the café can deploy. This strategy can allow the business to buy supplies and access shipping and delivery data. It will increase the efficiency of the business in the company. An e-business strategy can have other numerous benefits. It can increase the innovativeness of a business, increase its value and provide essential information to existing and potential customers. Conversion is another benefit which can help the cafe track its sales, track payment and employee information, and store data. These are things that can increase the efficiency of a business. The above advantages can also attract new customers and increase sales (Baltzan & Phillips, 2009).

E-business strategies can also allow a business to establish a website that can allow customers to interact online, that can also enable existing and potential customers to access information about the cafe, and allow the cafe to review the feedback of its customers about the service. The business should, therefore, put such metrics on its websites as the services and foods offered, the prices of these foods, the location of the cafe, pictures of the cafe, and other essential features that can attract customers to the business. E-business strategies can also be essential in partnering with suppliers. This is because it will allow the café to stay in touch with its suppliers through Extranet. Through this feature, it will be possible for suppliers to view what orders are required without having to contact the cafe physically. This can save a lot of money and time (Baltzan & Phillips, 2009).

Portals are also other features of e-business that can be used by employees to monitor and manage discussion boards the cafe is planning to implement. This will act as an added advantage which will help the business measure the views and opinions of potential, younger customers. A kiosk will also be useful in the cafe. A kiosk will be established with two or more laptops for use by employees and customers. This is an extremely beneficial e-business strategy as it will differentiate the café from its competitors. The cafe will be current and trendy. It is assumed that many customers and employees will get the word out that the café has become a fashionable, trendy and current spot. This will attract more customers, and increase sales (Baltzan & Phillips, 2009).

Networks, Telecommunications, and Wireless Computing

Broadway cafe can entice and attract the younger customers through the use of mobile phones. They can try offering them coupons for free meals or coffee by use of mobiles. One of the advantages why mobile coupons are more effective than normal coupons is that they have a higher redemption rate as they cannot be forgotten. Their use can, therefore, reduce costs associated with delivery and redemption, and they can also be a good trigger of impulse buying. The café can, hence, benefit immensely from such coupons. There are, however, several risks associated with mobile coupons. The coupons are based on the internet, and their concept is new. As a result, certain restrictions can affect the usability of mobile coupons like privacy policies, protocols and disclosures. Privacy issues might also arise as a result of the wireless technologies the system is based on. Some of these issues include the increased ability for the café to gather information that is personal, the ability to track and find out who visited to the site, and the ability to identify the locations of the customers (ACP, n.d).

There are several advantages the cafe can get from tracking and gathering rates of responses from mobile coupons as such activities can provide the business with information that can be analyzed about the performance of the business and the performance of the cafe. Such analysis could assist a business in correcting mistakes and enforcing positive activities. Tracking a mobile coupon that has been forwarded to another customer can be as beneficial as tracking other mobile coupons. This is because forwarded coupons still increase the customer base of the café (ACP, n.d).

Customer Relationship Management

Customer relations management can be advantageous for Broadway especially because it has implemented new espresso machines that the customers do not seem too familiar with. In addition to this, the café also has four new employees who are not experienced and are causing delays during peak hours. It has been noticed that this frustrates the customers. YouTube can be used to communicate the customers and address their concerns. The manager of the café can attach clips of videos and pictures on YouTube showing customers how the new espresso machines are used. The new employees can also access these videos and use them to sharpen their skills and to serve the customers efficiently without causing unnecessary skills. The manager can also attach a video explaining about the new employees and explain that they will be trained as soon as possible to improve efficiency. Though this feature can be extremely beneficial, it also has a number of cons. Some have to do with education. Technology needs some substantial amount of training and education. If customers do not have these basic tools then they cannot access what you are trying to tell them. Other disadvantages have to do with permissions and privacy. There are several alternatives to YouTube incase the café feels that it is not an effective tool. These include facebook, twitter, blogs and other social networks (Nichols, 2008).

Systems Development

There are various advantages and disadvantages of using an employee to build your business a custom system. One advantage is that they possess the basic information about the operations of the cafe, its customers, and employees. So if there is anyone better to develop the café a system it would be someone who works there. A disadvantage is that the employee might not possess the best skills and education to develop such a technological system. The café can opt to buy a COTS application, outsource custom development, and buy an attendance application. One of the advantages of doing this is that these developments are designed by professionals, and therefore the chances of them being correct and appropriate, and making the café efficient and productive are high. A disadvantage is that they can be awfully expensive for a café that is strained like Broadway. The new system would not be readily accepted especially by the old employees. Change is always hard and it would be beneficial for the older employees to be engaged in training to ensure that they know what benefits the new system can bring, and to make the transition easier through offering them knowledge about what the new system is about (Beynon-Davies, 2009).

References

ACP. (n.d). Internet coupons guidelines and overview from the Association of Coupons professionals (ACP). Retrieved from http://www.couponpros.org/resources/Internet_Coupon_Guidelines_and_overview.pdf

Baltzan, P. & Phillips, A. (2009). Business driven information systems. USA: McGraw Hill Companies Inc.

Beynon-Davies, P. (2009). Business Information Systems. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Nichols, S. (2008). YouTube as a corporate communications tool. Go Articles. Retrieved from http://goarticles.com/article/YouTube-as-a-corporate-communications-tool/1267054/

Porter, M.E. (1979). How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy. Harvard business Review.

The Capstone Doctrine and its application in MONUC

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The ‘capstone doctrine’ refers to the United Nations Operations, Principles and guidelines, it was a document produced in early 2008and which aimed at streamlining the operations of peace keeping missions by the UN globally. It reconfirms and offers a contemporary guideline of how the peacekeepers and their commanders are to apply the three basic principles of peacekeeping viz, impartiality, consent and nonapplication of force except where force is necessary for self defense or the mandates defense. In the most basic, consent implies that the parties in the cease fire or peace agreement have agreed to an intervention. It is a particularly essential tool for the mission’s success and calls for constant management. Unfortunately, it is often lacking. Impartiality (not to be confused with neutrality) implies that the application of the mandate must be seen to be fair and not favoring or prejudiced towards one party of the peace agreement. No-application of force strategically refers to the nonapplication of force to enforce peace. The capstone doctrine recognizes this and pitches for operations based on consent. With the doctrine came the introduction of the term ‘robust peacekeeping’ which simply seeks to recognize that tactical force may be necessary for the defense of the mission and when mandate has been provided, protect civilians. The highlights of the doctrine are legitimacy; drawn from the UN charter and the security council, credibility which means that the mission has to constantly build and maintain its credibility among local communities in the face of challenging factors and local ownership. This last part seeks to ensure that the host state has to be responsible for its own governance.

The eastern region of the Democratic republic of Congo experienced long drawn out conflict arising from various ethno-political differences. The former colony of Belgium has historically had a series of conflict, violence and instability. The conflict has led to the loss of 3.8 million deaths according to the UN and more than 2.4million people have become displaced internally with a further 388, 000 people seeking refuge outside the country’s borders. At the height of the conflict, 1,000 deaths were occurring daily. Sexual violence including rape was the most common crime,, and it is reported that, between 2005 and 2007, 14,200 cases of rape were registered. As is common with wars, complications like malnourishment, disease and fatalities from landmines are also prevalent. United Nations peacekeeping force in the DRC was the largest at its peak. Though this involvement started as early as 1960 soon after independence, the involvement became more eminent in the 1990’s owing to the international attention captured by the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. The MONUC which is the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo got its mandate from the resolution 1291 of 2000 of the UN Security Council with the basic mission of overseeing and implementing the ceasefire and the release of war prisoners, military captives and facilitate human rights improvements (Roessler and Prendergast 2006, p. 230). The initial force comprised 5,537 troops. At its peak, it had 18,385 personnel in uniform and other international and local staff and personnel.

MONUC and the Capstone doctrine

Consent and legitimacy

Cognizant of the fact that the local actors and main host have to appear to give consent so as to avoid a situation where the rationale of the peace keeping mission would be challenged, MONUC co operated closely with Kinshasa as the host nation. This is well within the capstone doctrines argument that peace missions have to incorporate skills that would mitigate against breakdowns in local consent. It means having a balance between forceful handling of spoilers while avoiding the concept of ‘even-handedness’ to be used to excuse inaction. In dealing with the spoilers, the force was forced to take sides with the FARDC with the mandate of the Security Council. This in the face made MONUC appear like an enemy of the forces opposed to the FARDC. Whenever it was concluded that it was more crucial to stop some spoilers or force them into joining the peace process, the mission would call on the FDLR or the LRA as local armed players. Legitimacy issues arose when groups like the FARDC were involved in military operations alongside mission officers. Though the missions were aimed at garnering greater control for the central government, the FARDC forces ended up being involved in human rights abuses by killing civilians and engaging in sexual crimes. There in lay the challenge for capstone. The doctrine insists on a distinction between principal parties and so called small spoilers. The distinction collapses where pockets of small spoilers exist within the major parties. The FARDC was not just a local actor that could be immediately labeled spoiler and militarily attacked, the process of identifying and sanctioning those units that were undermining the legitimacy of the mission was a complex one (Isberg, 2011). The legitimacy among the local population was thus dented by the sexual abuse scandal considering that it was generally weak from entry owing to the propaganda war by Kabila the UN was coming to re-colonize the country.

Civilian protection and the use of force

Though capstone advises the use of force only in a tactical manner, the mission can be said to have flirted with ‘peace enforcement’ owing to its involvement in providing fire support in instances where its commanders have deemed necessary (UN Secretary General 2009, Para. 5). The provision of force multipliers can also be termed as military involvement even though the mission’s soldiers are not involved in the frontline. This also extends to assistance in planning attacks and facilitation. In 2001, the UN secretary general Kofi Annan insisted that hunting down of armed groups and their forceful disarmament are not UN peacekeepers duties and no military solution should ever be considered by MONU (2001, Para. 103). This argument was based on the fact that most of these military groupings were interspersed with civilians and as such it was impossible to carry out such missions without innocent casualties. These arguments coupled with the fact that the deployed units have neither suitability nor the resources to carry out operations of the same level as war connects to the capstones limited goal for any military operation by peacekeepers. A caveat by capstone that allows military operation in protection of civilian lives has been well exploited by MONUC in the diverse occasions it was called to do so.

Conclusion

Though capstone is not a military document, it goes a long way in providing a guideline on how troops on the ground should operate. In the DRC, capstone has helped the Security Council make decisions on mandate extension, troops, enforcement, necessary use of force and eventually the end of the mandate. The conditions that capstone sets for success might not always be existent, but this does not mean that the Security Council has to terminate the troop’s engagement, rather it is necessary to achieve a far wider application of capstone in trying to establish such conditions.

References

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Cilliers, J., Malan, M., & Institute for Security Studies (South Africa). (2001). Peacekeeping in the DRC: MONUC and the road to peace. Pretoria, South Africa: Institute for Security Studies.

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Durch, W. J. (2006). Twenty-first-century peace operations. Washington, D.C: United States Institute of Peace and the Henry L. Stimson Center.

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Isberg, J.-G., & Victor, T. L. (2011). By all necessary means: Brigadier General Jan-Gunnar Isberg’s experiences from service in the Congo 2003-2005. Stockholm: The Swedish National Defense College and the authors.

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UN. Secretary-General. (2000). Third report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. New York: UN.

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United States. (1995). Joint doctrine capstone and keystone primer. Washington, D.C.?: Joint Chiefs of Staff.