Research Topics: Marketing Core Values

HOW HENRY FORD SEE THE SUPPLY CHAIN

HOW HENRY FORD SEE THE SUPPLY CHAIN Introduction             Henry Ford is known as one of the pioneer of mass production particularly in the automobile industry.  Undoubtedly, his achievements at Ford and impacts to American culture in the first decades of the 20th century should be remembered.  Presented in this paper is a confirmation of his contributions in operations management which can be considered as machine- and mechanical-based approach rather human capital priority.  Although his influences to supply chain management could largely be appreciated by learning from his human resource management loopholes, his public-centered idea and industrialization philosophy should be approached in a conventional manner.  Also included is the relevance or irrelevance of Henry Ford’s supply chain model in the 21st century disclaiming any threats of war, absence of information technology, and simplicity and localization of competition.          The Influence of Ford’s Value to Supply Chain             Even though Chevrolet models in the mid-1920s () caused the mere demise of Model T due to its superior amenities against the stereotype-driven T form, Henry Ford undoubtedly installed value to his product through price leadership strategy.  The company curbed the costs of distribution channels and marketing campaigns through focusing its production in one car model.  In fact, the cited readings about the company did not mention significant distributors and dealers of Ford products while marketing () was noted as minimal.  As an offset to absence of sales representatives and considerable publicity, the roads and traffics of the country had unintentionally shouldered such tasks as a certain point in time came when half of the American car owner () used Model T.             The intentional single model production had been the core object for the legacy of Henry to transform the automobile possession from luxury to necessity.  Such had not only offered affordability, but also gave customers light, durable, efficient () and other characteristics, particularly on performance, other dearer priced and imported cars have.  Since Henry insisted to manufacture the same model until 1927 (), marketing-based savings had mutated to include production and supplier savings.  When company discovered that producing black-colored models required less drying (), and ultimately, more production, it maneuvered to ignore colored models.  With the objective consistently fixed at price reduction, as Henry would not bother to dwell business models rather intuition () and perhaps legacy, Model T improvements remained stagnant.             If there is one big fish that Henry Ford did not caught, not because he was dumb or did not have the fishing tools rather he ought not to do so, it was innovation.  This was boldly showed off with Henry’s violent and myopic tearing down of every model () his engineers had eagerly developed.  Because of this, there came a point in time when his successor son, had conflict with him due to his T-model mediocrity that Henry cultured to maintain and further achieve price superiority.  Even though he had the majority ownership at the company (), the autocratic rule of Henry and innovation-averse thinking demoralized the capabilities of skilled engineers that later had adversely affect the competitiveness of the company.             The advantages of supply chain efficiency due both forward and backward familiarity and mastery had provided an unpopular customer savings instead of corporate one.  The value of the product was transmitted from the diminishing relative physical value of the T-model to largely customer-driven approach.  The idea, however, was too much for the culturally stagnant company internal stakeholders.  They were dismayed by the public-based Henry Ford that profit margin, which should be brought inside the company and reward the employees and shareholders, were unorthodoxly went the opposite.  This resulted shareholders to charge Henry and employees to resort turn-over () to reflect their respective revolution in aspects of shared decision-making, career development and mutual gains (at best, between them and Henry Ford “The Emperor”).                       The lesson for exclusivity of product lines, to feed the then transforming taste of some Americans in view of value other than price (), had brought supply chain management to another level.  Control of supply chain was undoubtedly resulted Ford to maintain its price leadership.  There was minimal supplier coordination (because raw materials were not diverse but rather similar), absence of middlemen (because warehousing need not be conducted as demand exceeded supply) and customers can ride their car on the spot to drive them home assured that the prices were pure and at the least.  But product value was not exclusively confined in price, as the law of supply and demand suggests, the more the cheaper while fewer the dearer.  This situation could be observed with two facts: the T-model was competing with enormous number of car manufacturers (increasing substitutes) and Americans had seen and used enough of the model (decreasing physical value; dear became obsolete; price factor was the only platform for value).  Consequently, a family member would opted to buy a new color to express oneself apart from the father and the family’s neighbor may select comfortableness to distinguished own values or perhaps social status.  The absence of business planning at Ford Company threw away the importance of market segmentation, that is, the failure to classify different markets for their specific needs other than price concerns. The company should had been more riskier to despise some supply chain savings, not necessarily incur inefficient one, to experiment and innovate its product features for long-term gains other than customer price loyalty.  Research and development would had kept, what Henry Ford treasured as T-life or T-legacy car model, longer and more profitable in the market with modifications and enhancements.  However, Henry’s strict and deaf leadership due to his personal legacies swallowed the entire innovative feats— A culture that merely ended his company forever.  Not until the 6-month closure of his plant in 1927 that he realized and accepted the potential of innovation (he might bent down his knees for this) through the introduction of Model A (), which was the first company-wide acknowledged model significantly apart from facets of the twenty-year old Model T.          The Influence of Ford’s Production to Supply Chain                The economies of scale brought by increasing volume (2000) demanded by the market, especially in the early years of operation, thoroughly pulled the company towards mass production.  Consequently, Avenue base needed expansion to give rise to what termed as “the industrial miracle of the age” ()Factory.  By the move, 1910 onwards accelerated plant productivity at a minimum of 100% annually ().  But Henry was not contented.  He insisted the quest for continuous improvement each assembly day until supplier’s bargaining power was eclipsed by the construction of the world’s first efficient plant at.      The Ford’s plant expansion proved the automobile manufacturing industry that they can live with fewer suppliers under their heels that could distract growth or get a big share of it.  With this, not only lean management and the absence of “dam” or storage house (2002) were emphasized but also the enthusiasm to integrate manufacturing activities that discourage backward dependence to suppliers.  The company was not contented in the acquisition of huge factory sites in order to ovoid clogging of the production stages due to stored purchase supplies and finished products.  It tried to monopolize the manufacturing process by converting raw materials into finished cars.  Henry Ford believed that such move can minimized semi-finished material costs and transaction complexity with suppliers that was compatible decision to the intention of the company to produce a homogenous model and ultimately realizing savings.             The establishment of seemed a near-end to semi-finished supplier relationships.  Supply chain was indicative exclusive within the company operations.  Being endowed with power and fabricating capabilities (), Ford was able to create raw materials into semi-finished products until the parts were installed in the assembly line.  The supplier partnership slack was aggravated by the added capability of the plants to make use raw materials, energy and disposable in an efficient and optimum manner.  Apparently, the limits of Ford’s plants were unstoppable that deepened the pushing through of efficient mass production and supplier independence. This Ford’s model evidenced a hybrid of bow-tied and diamond supply chain management approaches (2001).  It placed the supplier in risky position as it cannot rely to Ford’s venture in the long-term due to the internal improvement of the company and the latter’s hesitance to keep the communications open as to avoid fear from the former that the they can stand on their own after the internal improvements materialized.  In contrast, the diamond seemed to surface when such improvement minimized the breadth of supplier based, thus, coordination was somehow focused but limited. However, physical assets and machineries’ silence to pressure of expansion, integration and standardization for maximum productivity and efficiency was in extreme opposite human capital can bear.  They basically became “non-thinking laborers” due to too much formality and specialized day-to-day tasks aggravated by the introduction of conveyor belts and “man high” line () wherein movements became unnecessary and timing turned very crucial.  Such drowsy and unchallenging environment was the primary cause of high turnover in 1913 () and the company needed to increase spending in retention projects just for the sake of supplier independence on top of production efficiency. What Henry Ford overlooked in his feat to eradicate supplier relations was the limitation of the human capital in a very formal and suffocating working mode.  Coordination, being the part of management, was minimal between Henry and the employees particularly the unskilled foreign ones which probably not use to Henry’s unusual efficiency plans, and more importantly, unaccustomed to the objective of those.  A  working environment where what you can only see is the color black and specific car parts for a long time that can reach nine hours () aggravated by unfair compensation would likely make one resist and rebel unless outside sanity.  The proliferation of efficiency engineers in the core front of Ford’s departments undermines the possible human resource leverage to resistance and obscurity at work like job sharing, flexi-time, and productivity based incentive programs.  Another, the pressure of Ford to claim profit at one side, that is, minimizing costs, served as impediment to place some rest for his employees and physical assets’ fatigue for company-wide efficiency.  To give a chance for sales and marketing to divert the company focus towards maximizing profits was undermined, untapped and unwisely skipped.  If any, simple print advertisement was resorted at times when sales went bursting off the peak.  Supply chain was totally broken by Henry ideals both at back and forward activities. Lessons, however, melted at the face of Henry with implications in supply chain management.  First, to be able to dismantle the presence of suppliers in the corner’s of Ford’s company, huge financial capability accompanied by total shouldering of operation vulnerability for demand fluctuations was the initial requirement wherein Ford had accomplished including the stability of demand to go up.  In a contrast, it did not end there.  Maintaining independence in the long-run necessitated production efficiency to beat the cost of supplier’s material price, and therefore, incur a breakeven, or better, surplus to be able to place rationale to such objective.  Such efficiency was illustrated not only plant and machinery capabilities, but most importantly, keen participation from the human resources.  Motivation was crucial and the move of Henry to bribe workers by exponentially increasing their wages seemingly minimized the significance of cost savings harvested through supplier independence.               Secondly, to be able to discard the significance of distribution channels and marketing strategies, innovation should not be tolerated and intensive cost minimization is required.  A paradigm Henry Ford had lived for twenty years with Model T merely caused the demise of his company in 1927.  With the lack of innovation, mass production was the most compatible operations management for the company.  But such limited their option to realize profit as they resorted to Henry’s frugality and flat management instead of hard-earned revenues in constructing efficient plants like and spending labor retention and profit-sharing costs just to fill the gap of imbalance source of returns.  Consequently, “doing things better” () concept was frequently resisted because workers knew that there was another employee-friendly way to raise profits through distribution channels and marketing to increase sales, but then again, Henry Ford did not listen.    The 21st Century Non-Manufacturing Relevance             At one point, the (VM) applied in United States Army logistics (2000) seemed to agree for the disciplined and formal culture instituted by Henry Ford for his company.  However, this logistics transformational procedure varied in its approach by seeing the infusion of the new method as a cultural change.  In the past, Army logistics of its ammunitions and equipments was “stockpiled” that caused inefficiency and unnecessary costs (2000) probably due to the wear and tear their inventories experienced when kept and unused for a long time.  Such made the project into inception unlike that of Ford where the efficiency endeavors seemingly not intended to address a problem but to create one for itself.             Ford’s model of value stemmed at price leadership and zero innovation.  On the other hand, the VM project, although had the cost reduction as its ultimate goal, did not hamper the additional expense needed to bring out the best ideas the Army can offer.  It had provided incentives for the Logistics heads, commanders and other Army leaders (2000), who were called managers, based on their performance and adherence to the objectives of the VM project.  Undoubtedly, Ford had the money, but being a price leader, frugality was a major driver.  And in contrast to a dearer treatment of Ford when it comes to infrastructure development than human resources, VM project put people in front making individual decision-making possible, group accountability indispensable and conceptual thinking manageable at all levels.                 As the VM project observed the Define-Measure-Improve methodology (2000), Henry Ford had myopically defined, hardly measured and relentlessly adhered to improvement resulted to imbalance between corporate intentions and individual goals.  Since VM was guided by analysis, driven by the top and made by teams, soldiers were assured that objectives that needed their participation were something they cared about or had positive impacts to their welfare either monetarily or largely job satisfaction.  As an individual who is subject to die any minute, instilling the value of organizing inventory and logistics of ammunitions and equipments is fairly hard to develop except for the concerned logistics division or a corpse commander.                      Apart from the costs incurred by Ford to construct River to conduct efficient operations, VM model merely needed to maximize its existing resources like trucks and systematize its equipment ordering and shipping processes (2000).  To argue that Ford aimed at mass production level could be counter-argue by emphasizing the international scope of Army operations.  The obvious difference was that Army solved a problem to properly enhance and inform inefficient processes and unknowing soldiers while Henry remained a wanderer as to answer a corporate, public or personal one.  .             If there would be a close relevance of Ford efficiency system to VM project, it will be a general cue.  Both had exemplified the means of attaining efficiency from within internal operations.  That is no supplier or distribution channel can have revolutionary and long-term effects to cost savings and effectiveness than fusing the concept into the corners of the company infrastructure (what Henry emphasized) and into the heart of the corporate culture (what US Army underlined).                 Further, at the healthcare sector, Ford’s model of internal efficiency was likely to coincide than that of Army.  The healthcare sector, which is projected to be one of the fastest growing industries (2001), needs not to be fancy and innovative but rather maintain customer service satisfaction under affordable prices.  Henry Ford built strong customer relationship when he implemented price leadership which is crucial to the healthcare sector particularly customer loyalty.  If not, patients may be forced to resort traditional and ancient approach to illness like rituals and austerely herbal medicines due to expensive healthcare service.             As diseases are competent to mutate and inflict devastating effects in the future, technology and breakthrough within the sector is required.  Another departure to innovative-averse Ford model, healthcare should emulate continuous improvement in treatment and prevention apparatus, medicines and techniques that would not result to luxury prices.  As Henry believed that unnecessary movements were detrimental to efficiency within the company operations, healthcare sector could look at a bigger picture and indulge its direction to provide basic or “skin-deep” rather lavish or “skin-surfaced” operations.  And like Henry legacy to democratize automobile ownership, healthcare sector is expected to place greater emphasis to health security or else be mocked by Henry descendants citing its dexterity wherein a private enterprise could promote greater public welfare than the traditionally known public institution.                       Crucial to provide service at least costs, healthcare infrastructure must emulate the economies of scale epitomized in Ford’s plants including the efficiency that saw paper and wood vital to cost reduction.  Employees, however, should be given the independence and be accountable to their decisions and actions.  A wrong impression of people to call nurse and doctors calm approach to a 50-50 patient as disregard should be informed and coordinated to the public that would serve as one step to empower the decision-making of hospital personnel to conceive an urgent and non-urgent situation.  If Henry would be a hospital president, however, he would argue that every “waste” move could save hundred lives.             Conclusion             Henry Ford should have been a public servant to relate his price sensitivity for customers or a Japanese anti-cultural imperialism minister to signify his attempt to free his company from the shackles of supplier and distribution channels that could ultimately reduce efficiency and stole cost savings.  He had ignored supply chain relationships, at the periphery, but lived to foster its infusion into the mainstream of corporate operations— a historical ideal that patent a tough crack to monopolize the supply chain system.  However, 21st century environment had provided the technology like E-commerce while most successful CEOs followed business theories and concepts, at least a part, to lead their Fortune 500 companies.  Such present- and future- looking events discounted the obvious intention of Ford to integrate supply chain in its sole operation.  But modern firms will not hesitate to hear the then “deaf leadership” of Henry to decide and apply whether or not backward and forward integration fit a situation.  If there is the intent, capability and what Henry undermined, long-term profitability, a replica of Henry’s model might just be around the corner.                 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HOW HENRY FORD SEE THE SUPPLY CHAIN

HOW HENRY FORD SEE THE SUPPLY CHAIN Introduction Henry Ford is known as one of the pioneer of mass production particularly i...

Appropriate approach to democratic decision making

Introduction             It is a common activity for a firm to make decisions from the employee responsible to keep the floors clean to a manager who thinks about diversification.  However, decision-making becomes complex as business partners and customers are taken into considerations.  With this, there is a need to identify and assess the level of risk attached to a certain decision making.  Then, presentation becomes crucial as investors and board of directors listen and evaluate plans and proposal of the firm in the future.  All of these are tackled in this paper with pertinent samples not only in the fitness club industry but extends to manufacturing and other service industries that can serve as guides for a gym manager.  Theories and concepts are also presented for a deeper analysis on how to handle crucial decisions, business partners and customers, business risks and finally deal with annual general meeting.     Decision-Making Appropriate approach to democratic decision making, responsive pattern involves identifying a situation and select a course of action consistent to the situation named.  The more inputs involved in the process, the more acceptable the outcome to everyone in the organization to reach the consistency pattern which is in nature, based on value judgement.  For strong leadership, goal-oriented pattern will attach decision alternatives and consequences to a fixed and unambiguous goal.  Unlike responsive pattern that is largely characterized by general acceptability, goal-oriented is based on suitability of decisions to the identified goal.  Informed debate, on the other hand, requires at least two courses of actions and comparison is necessary to arrive on the final decision.  Originative pattern does not invoke consistency patterns and goals.  The chosen alternative should be preferred based on the consequences accrue herein that are delivered by the informed debaters (1997).  .           In improving decision-making processes, the traditional research approach like Rational Choice method focuses on decision processes and how to rationalize the option by identifying what process obtain the highest score.  The method does not have something to speak about the decision-maker, the situation and the vitality of time pressure although behavioural biases of people are often measured.  In the aviation profession, however, the applicability of Naturalistic Decision Making (NDM) is highlighted as decision failure is deemed fatal.  In NDM, the experience and expertise of decision makers, strategies used to come-up with the decision, context and situation, and the awareness to the circumstances are put in a veil for research.  The method understands and prioritizes experience of decision makers, dynamism of the group of decision makers, uncertainty of environment, importance to identify the situation and the significance of the consequences to decision makers and other organizations affected by the decision ( 1997).              Agents of change, for , will direct the whole organization to achieving more valuable ventures that the firm never tried before.  It was her definitive claim for the corporate challenges under the 1980s recession of the United States.  Agents of change provide the platform to remind firms that value-added capabilities are important to them, generally to the country as it could loose its industrial leadership, and can only be realized by establishing a culture of change.  When decisions are inclined in the context of change, ideas tend to be diverse and the management is more responsive to employees’ needs which enforce cooperation needed to materialize a managerial decision.  As a result, a more adaptive and comprehensive choice is recognized which embodies the strengths and weaknesses of every unit of the organization (1998).             Further, sustainable competitive advantage can be monitored by these agents and inform the top management every now and then its significance for the survival and prosperity of the firm.  They will push their firms to neutralize threats and exploit opportunities to create capabilities that are valuable, rare, costly-to-imitate and non-substitutable.  Serving as spark and light to the whole organization towards the culture of change, agents can affect decisions and strategies in an aggressive and passionate manner ( 2003). As to speed in the deliberation of decisions, change agents have the willingness and capability to explain the need of change and its accompanying advantages that suit to individuals or group.  According to  (2002), the chief reason of change failure is resistance.  The phenomenon impedes success objectives infused by decision makers and implementers to organizational changes.  Because they do not merely monitors the occurrence of such, change agents actually act as coaches and champions of change.  They might be called as transformational leaders that possess the charisma to halt impediments to the application of decision that generally includes organizational changes in work-related issues.  They create readiness by influencing beliefs, attitudes, intensions and behaviour of those individuals to be affected by the decisions.  Hence, decision makers and the objectives wrapped in their course of action could realize the fruits of the effort efficiently because resistance-prone areas are managed by the agents of change ( 2000). At the , school officials appropriated a budget for the gym construction at Rockoff Building.  It was aided in construction and funding by a non-profit firm Devco.  The joint venture, however, was obstructed by a delay in the formal opening of the Gym until January 2006.  Initially, officials at both sides are blaming each other with shortcomings from the university who held the blue print of its planned designs for a long time while Devco had been accused to manipulate material prices.  As a result of this, the original school appropriation amounting to 0,000 was increased to 0,000 while Devco shouldered a larger increase from 5,000 to 0,000.  The latter confirmed that it can finish construction earlier than next year, however, the school demanded more time to train gym assistants.  This conflict can be regarded as the root cause of coordination failure and partly “pride in action” wherein the final victims are the building residents who must wait longer even the construction is already been done and the conflict at both sides tamed (2005).               In this specific case, the decision to appropriate money for school ventures demonstrated a quotation-based approach.  The process involves scrutiny of concerned school officials to the quotation of a contracting partner (Devco), comparing the quotation to their existing budget and levelling “what they could afford” in accordance to the quotation.  The Dean of Recreation, Executive Manger for Community Projects, and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs are the common actors that participate in the decision making process and execution.  For the part of Devco, the Vice President linked its company to the university and effect coordination (2005).             However, this methodology created loopholes in communication that   ultimately delay plan execution and project completion.  The original design plans of the university was forwarded to Devco several months after agreeing to the latter’s quote.  As a result, Devco demanded an appropriation increase of 0,000 from the university’s 0,000 which the latter could not afford as argued by the VP for Academic Affairs.  On her part, the Dean of Recreation disputed the design of Devco as she expected a spa-like atmosphere in the gym.  Devco officials reacted to these by emphasizing the delay of blue print of the ideal design of the university.  Finally, at the time financial bottleneck was settled, the delay could not be addressed because of the inability of university officials to train gym staffs ahead of time.  The delay problem persisted even construction was possible to reach deadline as claimed by Devco ( 2005).             The decision-making process between the two organizations was heavily burdened by the type the university officials conducted their internal affairs.  Quotation drafts had the contracting firm’s blueprint, time frame, materials to be used and costs of construction.  The university should have accomplish an early request to include their own version of the gym, so at the same time, the budget sharing could also be adjusted.  Another, the university’s planning should also be improved to avoid their faults passed-on to their business partners.  To do this, the model of planning should be changed form the complex and quantity-based responsive pattern, as many actors have their concerns on minimizing budget and maximizing the gym’s potential, into goal-oriented pattern.  This could be carried by creating a group of people that have background and experience in the field of appropriation, engineering, management and income-generating projects.  Their knowledge will provide goal-oriented inputs to rationalize alternative courses of action and identify consequences of such actions.  Responses are likely unbiased and based on cause-and-effect.  This change in decision process can be enforced by young faculty who are likely not fully inclined to the ordinariness and formality of academic policies.  They can be catalyst of change in this respect.  Finally, the leader of the university should also affect his constituents to act pro-actively rather in a reactive manner especially when huge amount of money is involved in a decision ( 2005).   Trading with Others Gold’s Gym is forty years in the fitness industry with more than 600 facilities in 43 states and 25 countries.  A firm that highlights the potential of human strengths, it continued to offer modern equipment, personal and group training, yoga and its core niche, weight lifting as illustrated by its yellow brand logo of a man holding a barbell.  Among its core business portfolio are franchising, selling fitness machines (Powerflex) and fitness apparels while its business partners are real state developers, equipment suppliers, textile companies, internet providers and franchisees.  However, aerobic gyms like Les Mills threatens the position of Gold’s Gym in the fitness industry as the former operates its patented seven groups of fitness accompanied by music in 55 countries worldwide             To have a suitable sale and purchase, the firm relies to the efficiency of its marketing channel.  Activities involve in the process are gathering of information from customers and competitors, stimulating purchase, reaching agreements in price from manufacturers, placing orders, acquisition of funds, storing and moving physical products, providing customers intermediaries for payment and overseeing actual transfer of product to the organization or person.  These activities are divided into two kinds of activities: the forward flow (promotion) and backward flow (ordering and receiving payment).  In evaluating major intermediary alternatives, the firm should be informed and aware on the pros-and-cons selecting a business partner in the marketing channel.  The Internet and telemarketing are relatively cheaper but have limited value-add of sale.  On the other hand, creating own sales force and building alliances like distributors and retail stores cost more but provide higher value to customers and suppliers ( 2003).             There is also the option for the firm to internalize the marketing channel activities through vertical integration in view to keep its core competencies private and gain market power over rivals.  It can save operating costs, improve quality of products and services, and prevent unfair imitation.  Franchising became popular in industries where competitions among small firms are prevalent because it consolidates independent companies in contractual relationships.  In the franchising, the franchisor controls the sharing of resources and capabilities with the franchisees ( 2003).             The search for a suitable company partner, on the other hand, should be consistent to the strategy of the firm.  As  says, “There is no right organization anymore.  Rather, the task… is to select the organization for the particular task and mission at hand.”  Cisco, a global information technology company, created cooperative relationships with suppliers and maximize the use of the Internet to provide critical information about customers and inventories.  It also formed a series of “ecosystems” to provide solutions to customers through business partnerships in the distribution channel making e-learning to transfer freely to salespeople.  This marked Cisco’s success especially in Japan ( 2003). The franchising scheme at Gold’s Gym offers a Master Franchise Agreement (Gold’s Gym Homepage) in which the buyer is entitled to create sub-franchisees in provinces or states the latter deemed advantageous to their contract.  On the other hand, it partners to business consultants, advertising agencies and other significant entities to infuse add-on support to its franchisees.  To cut the cost of external negotiations, a crucial activity in franchising, it adapted the technology of Avaya Incorporated .  The communication breakthrough provided Gold’s Gym with cheaper communications facility.  The technology also allowed the corporate employees to move in a central headquarters, unlike the old days wherein they are situated in local communities.             The franchising scheme that is central to Gold’s Gym business portfolio of selling its brand name and providing resources, capabilities and historical reputation to franchisees also has limitations.  The cost of franchise is 0,000, of which 0,000 is paid in cash (), could be too costly for a starting fitness gym owner.  The limited business portfolio aside from slow-moving and low-margin line of products like fitness facilities and apparels put high pressure to demand soaring franchise fees.  To recoup from this bottleneck, internet platform and impersonal selling to prospects should be reduced and back-up with direct advertisement to potential franchisees.  Affluent businessmen and politicians all over the world are the most probable people to bite the expensive venture.  International visits to such countries can intensify the potential of add-on value of direct marketing as an offset to short-term communication and transaction savings.  It should be remembered that franchising is a long-term relationship, the headquarters can even extend the length of the contract life, and that long-run profits are far more important in strategic planning.             On a different solution to narrow portfolio, Gold’s Gym could learn from Les Mills activity-based approach embodied in its patented group fitness system developed over 20 years of industry experience.  The prominence of aerobic exercise, both for males and females alike, is likely to defeat the core business advantage of Gold’s Gym that necessitates extensive and dedicated training.  Because of this, it limits its market segment to men undermining the more sensitive and figure conscious women.  This could give explanation to the four million participants at Les Mills compared to Gold’s Gym three million.  In their websites, Les Mills highlights its pool of international fitness instructors and offers seven different kinds of program while Gold’s Gym merely show the celebrity figures who uses its facilities without considering that customers may think if those names continue their subscription ().                Seemingly, Gold’s Gym franchisees operate under a cost leadership strategy in which goods and services are made acceptable at lower cost to customers.  On the other hand, Les Mills operate under differentiation strategy in which goods and services are priced acceptable but perceive by customers as being different in ways that are valuable to them.  As a result, Gold’s Gym is limited to franchising unlike Les Mills that provide support services to fitness gym partners under latter’s own brand names.  The consultancy-based offerings of Les Mills give it the chance to regularly update the features of its fitness systems through the help of its internationally-acclaimed partner instructors.  On the contrary, Gold’s Gym products and services tend to be stagnant and fixed to bodybuilding interested males and few females ( 2003).                                As a lesson, Gold’s Gym should broaden its business portfolio touching new offerings and markets to compete the shifting preference to aerobic exercise.  Although it admitted that such activities are offered in its gyms, the logo speaks it off that it is still focusing on heavy weight lifting.  It should show the market that its services are untied to the history, where works-out, and equipped with manpower and facilities to provide emerging customer needs.  It could change the outlook of its internal gym visible to the outside viewing by replacing the lay-out with an aerobics group of women.  It could also widen the scope of its business competencies by classifying anaerobic exercise from aerobic ones that can cater to men and women alike including young and old enthusiasts.  Diversification is needed by a company who needed to increase profitability and maintain leadership in the industry.  Since Gold’s Gym can be argued to reach its maturity stage along its product life cycle, putting flavour to its current offerings can mean change but such is necessary to compete with emerging strong competitors like Les Mills.    Business Risk Management Traditionally, risk management is viewed exclusively in the lens of financial instruments like acquiring insurance.  By creating financial hedges to firm’s liquidity, preservation of the firm’s resources from the risk of loss due to decision-making can be possible.  In the contemporary view, however, risk management is considered an integrated process and risks are deemed to affect the whole operations of the firm.  As a result, traditional management techniques are directed to particular problems in order to operate the risk management system of modern firms ( 2003). The first task is to identify the occurrence of potential loss in the company’s key departments and evaluate the impact of such looses to the financial attribute of the firm.  This phase is done in a proactive manner.  The second step is to select among the identified risks those that will be disengaged in management decisions and those that will be retained and controlled to reduce the severity of the possible loss.  It can be quite distorted to accept losses, but these looses are elements of a certain corporate activity that cannot be entirely depleted.  In this stage, coordination and expertise of involved managers are crucial to rationalize retained risks.  The third level is to inform the budget department of the firm if the company has the financial capability to absorb the retained risks.  If not, those activities could be transferred to other capable companies.  This situation can be illuminated by a banks, human resources agency and insurance firms wherein internalization could mean huge amount of risk exposure ( 2003).    The fourth step is the implementation stage wherein managers allocate the scarce resources from the programmed risk retained activities to people, money and time.  This includes activities such as safety program for employees, purchasing insurance and provision of petty cash revolving funds.  At the end of the process, monitoring of the internal (improvements in net income) and external environment (federal regulatory changes) is necessary to identify the need to restructure the existing risk management model for the firm to obtain optimal use of its resources and economically leverage risks ( 2003). In insurance industry, being risk-averse counted the most especially when the sector looks the experience of the once untouchable .  In 1906 San Francisco earthquake, one distinguished underwriter instructed his agent to pay all the policy-holders in full even the terms do not claim for such.  However, its “Confidence” motto and “Utmost Good Faith” as its trading standard including its emblem of anchor that connotes “Security”, all sank as 1980s asbestos and pollution catastrophe wherein risks were absorbed by Lloyd.  It was aggravated by diversification to vast markets that resulted to quote the firm’s managing director as greedy, incompetent and bad manager due to careless risk-taking without commitment.  Due to adverse impact to the company,  learned to adopt the thinking to limit the shouldering of policy holder’s risks (1995).  On the other hand, a firm limiting its decisions and activities within the veil of being risk-verse looses entrepreneurial opportunities which are important to growth and innovation.  As the firm do not have such culture, it will also have effects to dependent and mechanical employees, technology remains stagnant, decisions tend to be reactive rather than proactive and loose competitive aggressiveness crucial to outperform competitors ( 2003).  In today’s hypercompetitive and fast-phased business landscape, there is need of a systematic and continuous assessing mechanism for an enterprise risk.  Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) system operates like an alarm clock wherein firms can be assured that it ventures to certain risks wherein the path towards achieving their objectives is sustained.  Through ERM, the firm can understand the interdependency of risks, their nature and potential impacts to the organization.  In addition the approach is holistic that the entire organizational actions and strategies are studied to succeed in the program wherein internal auditors are key people in its implementation (2003). ERM does not exclusively involved hard numbers and hard analysis.  Before preparing an ERM framework, organizational culture, management’s philosophy and ethical values, and the entire human resources practices and competencies are considered.  At the time the program is already established, the commitment of managers to meet and identify the worst-cases rely its continuum.  Risk taking attitude also decides over findings of quantitative measures to risks.  It serves as the traffic light that signals resources to accelerate, wait or totally detour.  Even though internal audit shows both risk impact and the possibility to occur as low, when management are risk-averse or hate change, opportunity in such venture could not be realized.  Further, the program requires creation of risk nervous system in which risks are filtered with the aid of an existing knowledge and anticipating stance.  With presence of cultural impediments like the failure of the firm to discuss sensitive but significant issues, misunderstood and underestimated risks are not mitigated.  As shown managerial and human resources’ behavioural factors are the most important aspects to the success of the program (Funston 2003).    Finally, risks cannot be avoided rather controlled.  With the use of risk management breakthrough in ERM, top management are pressured to create the platform (culture) that embraces continuous coordination and optimal se of available quantitative risk measures.  It should also adjust its human and physical resources towards adherence to the program through risk policy enforcement, manager commitment, creating oversight and monitoring teams and databases ( 2003).     In the operation of Gold’s Gym, risks are intolerable to aggressively innovate new products and services.  They expand even to other countries but offerings remained the same.  This can be emphasized its licensing feats that controls the operations, advertising and products of franchisees.  Because of this centrally-planned structure, it added impediments to search for value-adding products apart from weight lifting.  In addition, the location of its franchisees abroad like the Philippines are located in the urbanized areas near the capital of the country that suggested that it is limited to cater in the high-end slice market.  This lack of entrepreneurial commitment of the firm will prevent them to achieve profitable income at the log-run.  In a different manner, Les Mills acquires international fitness instructors all over the world and in different industries.  Some of them came from martial arts sector, choreography and sports.  This service-oriented approach suggests that the firm is risking its finances to pay relatively high compensation to these internationally-acclaimed instructors.  The advantages of which is continued upgrade of consultancy services to worldwide subscribers of its Les Mills Fitness Group System.  Unlike Gold’s Gym that do not prefer to risk the fruits of its innovation and kept it within itself (as it use licensing for control), Les Mills tap on several opportunities to offer new ways of performing fitness regimes that the risk of diminishing the value of its publicized routines are offset.  Gold’s Gym must understand that being risk-averse and entrepreneurial has its pros-and-cons.  However, without innovation and risking some investments to improve product and service diversification, firm performance will not improve while rivals will capitalize on the former weaknesses.  It claims that it is the number one in the fitness industry and being such requires strong differentiation and customer-value apart from competitors.  To get out from this bottleneck, the top management must create a committee to operate the risk identification and evaluation in the firm.  Resources and capabilities should be measured to give concrete rational to limit offerings.  Of course, the idea to execute this endeavour should be accepted by the entire organization, especially the top management.  As proved, ERM can only be possible if behavioural factors are supportive of its continuum.      Planning and Managing an Annual General Meeting             A firm manages communication by undergoing steps to develop effective communication.  First, there is a need to identify the target audience and evaluate their familiarity with the subject one hand and favourability with its attributes.  The second stage is to determine communication objectives that seeks to transfer information, change attitude and obtain action from the receiver.  Third, it is time to design the message by determining its content, structure, format and source.  The next step is to select communication channels that can be face-to-face or utilize several forms of media.  Fifth, there is a need to take a crucial step to establish communication’s budget wherein methods are available that could emphasize the cost, benefit and objectives of the design which only managers can decide.  Lastly, the need to manage integrated communication process is stimulated by the proliferation of new types of media and growing sophistication of people ( 2003).             Channels of communication that are frequently used by managers are face-to-face, voice mail, teleconferences, electronic mail, employee publications and computer conferencing.  Although the personal type is crucial in discussing critical issues, first-time acquaintances and detailed problem analysis, it emphasizes the restrictive time and space constraints between the sender and receiver that the use of other forms of media is preferred in day-to-day operations (1991).           Internet is one of the prominent media wherein corporate communications are networked and corporate data are integrated.  However, security in critical network assets and services are hindrances to effectively harvest the fruits of information technology.  As a result, a developer and communications provider in North America, American Tower, sought partnership with Mazu Profiler that provided insight into the firm’s network behaviour to reduce risks, costs and complexity of securing critical networks.  In this case, American Tower preferred to judge cost effective in the lens of future threats to its internal operations or in a pro-active stance.  Being a technology-based and –resourced firm, investments is needed to protect the wires from hackers that can adversely affect internal communications and loss revenues for the company ( 2004).  In the similar manner, Michelin did not plunge to lower cost of labour from Far East countries in an abrupt manner even it can soften higher compensation rates from United Kingdom’s 10,000 manpower-level manufacturing centres.  The managing director argued that the high level of compensation to English workers is nothing to be upset as they know how to speak not only English but also French and German.  Such communication advantages is seen in a holistic and futuristic manner wherein the importance of coordination to efficiency at work is indispensable than cost-savings in labour itself ( 2006).             Conducting an annual general meeting (AGM) basically entails matters pertaining to company shares, financial and management reports, adoption of balance sheet and resolution of any loss, election of new set of directors, incentive programs for the management and other matters pertaining the resolution of directors over matters concerning shareholder’s pre-emptive rights ( 2005). In the cost side, preparing an AGM largely involve information dissemination costs wherein notices are delivered several months before the actual date.  The host management has the option to use over a wide variety of media devices but the most common is through direct mail.  However, the number of shareholders will indicate the efficiency of such use.  If the number is too large, management could spend more while the effectiveness and timeliness of delivery of those mails are questionable.  To be cost effective, succeeding AGM should be announced before the current AGM meeting is held.  However, the firm should prevent schedule shifts and delays as this will equate financial allocation for media information.                Further, the level of difficulty organizing AGM relies in the preparation of the host management.  If the event is ill-prepared, contingency measures are more prevalent and these could cause additional tasks burden to the organizers.  Perhaps, the lack of planning to meditate about future threats to the event like recession, threats to security and firm’s financial standing could suggest selecting a tentative stance in the events schedule.  This is the result of consolidating reports that accrue from the present hazardous situation the company is involved.  Using pro-activeness approach to planning, the less laborious is the job of the organizers.             Being a small fitness club firm, the key objectives of AGM are to provide clear and interesting agenda, focus discussions on firms performance and opportunities, encourage queries from the directors and creating a lively meeting all throughout.  To spark further investment, there might also be the need to present SWOT of the firm, its position for expansion and risks attach in such action.  This should be supported by facts and figures to prevent directors from the thinking that discussions are bias and baseless.  Their status and professionalism should be counted in the preparation of the agenda.             To ensure that every director understands and confirms with their responsibilities, a documented lists of each are prepared for reading.  After the declaration, every director is entitled to comment the scope and limitations of their duties and if alterations should be made in the original paper.  This will suggest that the meeting is done in a democratic manner, professional one and emphasis is given to elite officers and investors.  A committee is established to monitor the propensity of directors to use these powers and refrain from unauthorized ones.  They will be the one to advise the presiding manager if there is a need to waive requests for modifications from the directors.  However, being the managing director, he has the discretion to determine if such advise do not obstruct the purpose of the firm as directors may not like the idea of being rejected.              When contingency actions are required and execution should be fast and accurate, the managing director will use the goal-oriented pattern.  This will guide him to stay in firm’s objectives behind the agenda and performance reports and achieve the intended outcome.  His experience and authority should be clear to employees of the firm who help consolidate his reports.  In the same manner, his qualities and reputation should be known throughout the directorship.  In the process, even though he did not accurately estimate the exact figures, like losses, from certain alterations of the directors to a prepared project, he can measure the level of risks in general.  And although he might miss important financial considerations, emplaning them to the concerned employees and managers can be carried out rather easy.  Before the meeting, his agents of change should be attentive enough to decipher consequences of approved projects that later will be disseminated in different levels of organization.                 At the end, the manager and his committed employees are the responsible authorities of their actions.  Upholding behavioural considerations in the approved projects in the AGM, their confirmations and decisions with the directors would not be largely affected by the lack of numerical application to calculate risks.  If leadership is strong in the entire organization, their decision in front of investors will be respected and accepted by the rest of the firm units.  However, resistance could occur but these are resolved in the planning stage in which employees pulse are measured including the bounds of physical resources and financial status.              Conclusion                 There are no ideal decisions that can serve as a model for any firm at any given circumstances.  As discussed, organizational culture is important and the stating point of every strategic decisions.  There is a need to study the characteristics of both trading partners and customers before entering a venture and cross-examine the activities involve in additional transactions against the firm’s resources and capabilities.  When they are compatible, managers should be courageous enough to inform investors and board of directors of such opportunities while crediting employees that act as catalyst and agents of change.  Sound management and harmonious coordination in the firm can establish its decision-making and risk-taking endeavours in a manner that is favourable to employees, management and investors alike.  Hard analysis and numbers cannot replace the employee motivation and enthusiasm to affect competitive advantage and achievement of organizational objectives.  If commitment is present, risks will not be as risks rather a quest where everyone is counted to obtain fruits as well as mitigate unwanted outcomes from it Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Appropriate approach to democratic decision making

Introduction It is a common activity for a firm to make decisions from the employee responsible to keep the floors clean to ...

DHL Business Strategies

ABSTRACT This study aims to first analyze the customer service and quality levels of intangible service nature through the operation of DHL Express of DHL International Hong Kong Ltd. (DHL) and address how the company overcomes the problems in industrial section of express industry.  The quality level will be analyzed through Service Quality Determinant and Gaps Model.  The findings indicated DHL performs more than satisfactory in industrial express service.  However, the company also needs to conduct more qualitative research and expand its offer in service differentiation.  For long-term, the company should emphasize its “differentiation” image, maintain its high quality service and keep high employee morale.   Keywords: Express industry, Services marketing, Services quality, Customer satisfaction   INTRODUCTION Customer service has been an important instrument for businesses to reach out to their customers. In turn, this feature allowed business organizations to be adaptable to customers’ specific needs and preferences. Moreover, customer loyalty is also achieved through quality and efficient customer services. At present, businesses are becoming more focused on becoming customer-oriented. This is mainly attributable to the many challenges the business industry is currently facing, particularly on the growing competition among similar organizations. But the reliance to the internal resources of the organization will not do if environmental considerations of the company are not likewise considered. These include the significant market characteristics that directly and indirectly influence and dictate the strategic business implementation and sound decision-making from the options available. The forecast of subsequent political, economic, and social implications that change will result to also needs to be identified and enumerated to ensure the success and development of the organization as well as the welfare of the general public.   DHL has managed to enter China and Hong Kong’s logistics market through the only means available to them at the time, and that was by teaming up with a Chinese company called Sinotran. DHL’s entry took place in 1986, a time when Chinese regulations on foreign businesses were very strict and the only way to join the Chinese market was to enter a joint venture with a local company. But DHL took the risk and chose Sinotran because of Sinotran’s expertise in Chinese foreign trade and export industry ( 2004). After gaining a solid foothold in the Chinese market, DHL-Sinotrans then eyed expansion. Branches of this joint company where established in other Chinese cities. By 2004, they had built a network of DHL-Sinotrans all over China in only 3 years time since they started (2004). DHL-Sinotrans is not the only logistics company in China. The American FedEx and UPS are also presenting this existing company good competition, among other companies such as TNT-Skypack Sinotran and the local China Couriers Service Company. FedEx entered China in 1984, two years before DHL, while UPS joined in 1988. Like DHL, they too established partnerships with existing local companies; FedEx with Da Tian Air Services Limited, and UPS with Sinotrans. DHL stayed on top of the competition by an expert combination of business strategies, product innovations and well-thought out company expansion ( 2004). With annual revenues of nearly euro22 billion in 2003, DHL is the global market leader of the international express and logistics industry, specialising in providing innovative and customized solutions from a single source. DHL offers expertise in express, air and ocean freight, overland transport and logistics solutions, combined with worldwide coverage and an in-depth understanding of local markets. DHL’s international network links more than 220 countries and territories worldwide. Over 160,000 employees are dedicated to providing fast and reliable services that exceed customers’ expectations. DHL’s new Central Asia hub operated from Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) at Chek Lap Kok beginning on March of 2000. DHL International also formed a partnership with Cathay Pacific Airways (2004). Among the major competitors of DHL are Fedex, UPS, TNT as well as national post carriers like the US Postal Service and Royal Mail. The success of every DHL delivery is highly dictated by the company’s complex process of supplementary service chains. This includes taking the order, taking and picking, documentation, monitoring of the supplies and deliveries for assurance purposes and control, billing, packaging, transportation and delivery, and problem resolution to address the concerns and specifications of partners and customers. Short-comings during this process along with other possible failures lead to customer irritations and complaints since the company promises on-time delivery. Other failures are normally sequential in nature as directed by the delivery process adapted by the company which comprise abandoned calls and missed pickups; over-goods and late aircraft leading to late deliveries and subsequent traces and invoice adjustment requests. There are also instances of damaged packages as well as missing documentation (1997). This study is concentrated in DHL’s industrial express service in Hong Kong, as Hong Kong is one of the world’s busiest ports (2005) and DHL the global market leader of the international express and logistics industry, with annual revenues of over EUR 24 billion in 2004 ( 2005). Industries that DHL is targeting include manufacturing, automotive, textile, electronics, pharmaceutical, aerospace and financial services ( 2005). The specialized requirements of these industries are complicated.  Therefore, DHL has tailor-made many different types of services to fulfill the unique shipping requirements of different industrial customers.   SERVICE CHARACTERISTICS Most companies find it impossible to create any kind of sustainable competitive advantage based on product alone. It is common knowledge that every one of the successful companies sought and found a precise understanding of how it could create a customer-centered competitive advantage.  (1996) emphasized the idea to take advantage of the competitive situation not just by being better in how that product gets sold, serviced, and marketed at the customer interface. It requires that companies create breakthroughs in how they interact with customers, and design a way of interacting that makes an indelible impression on customers, one that so utterly distinguishes them from others that it becomes a brand in itself. Every year, DHL delivers 100 million shipments which includes transporting documents, parcels and weight shipments, as well as tailored products which resulted to a networks of planes, trucks and facilities monitored and controlled by the company’s IT system offering the customers lo9gistic solutions to meet demanding distribution specifications supported by state-of-the-art technology (1997). Customer service has been an important instrument for businesses to reach out to customers. In turn, this feature allowed business organizations to be adaptable to customers’ specific needs and preferences. Moreover, customer loyalty is also achieved through quality and efficient customer services. At present, businesses are becoming more focused on being customer-oriented, considering the growing competition among businesses. In order to respond to the challenges of the business world, companies are allocating considerable resources on how to improve their customer services. As a member of the express industry, DHL is confronted with challenges that address speed and a reliable delivery system of the company as business operations essentials to compete competitively in today’s global trade business highlighting the value and importance of time. Accountability in terms of service deliveries define the success and competitive advantage of companies in the express industry in which the leading trading firms strategically manage time in their supply chains (1996). In this light, dealing effectively with customs and putting pressure to encourage rational and efficient customs operations is an integral part of managerial skills of time management in major trading firms as problems of inefficiencies and irregularities in functioning of customs in different territories significantly influences the trading environment where just-in-time supplies, electronic trading and increased internationalization govern the current  trend in the express industry (2000). DHL despite it lead among its competitors are likewise confronted with such delivery and services issues.   SERVICE QUALITY ASSESSMENT  Customer service has been an important instrument for businesses to reach out to customers. In turn, this feature allowed business organizations to be adaptable to customers’ specific needs and preferences. Moreover, customer loyalty is also achieved through quality and efficient customer services. At present, businesses are becoming more focused on being customer-oriented, considering the growing competition among businesses. In order to respond to the challenges of the business world, companies are allocating considerable resources on how to improve their customer services. The success of integrating quality in a company’s customer services depends heavily on the management. While some company management send their employees to training, some managerial factors would have to be used as well. As discussed by (1990), the manner to which management train, motivate and recognized their employees results to a significant effect on the quality of customer service they deliver.  The level of commitment the management provides for instance has a direct impact to the quality of customer service the company provides. According to  (2003), it is a common mistake for most management to think that they are highly committed in servicing the customers with quality when in fact their commitment is only based on internal and technical viewpoints. According to (1997), in a participative organizational management, the empowerment of employees is a typical priority. This plays a significant role in speeding up the company’s utilization of personnel for optimal effectiveness. Within an organization, an important behavior is the inclusion of constant improvement, which enables it to apply innovations and strategies that are more appropriate. Training for employees and increasing their responsibilities are some of the important organizational behaviors that are applicable for every employee. Aside from enhancing the skills, these increase the employees’ sense of pride and self-worth. All of these organizational behaviors are vital in making work teams perform more effectively. The value that the management puts on employee empowerment results to important customer service outcomes. For example, through proper employee training, employees become more efficient in handling customer concerns by providing effective solutions. Currently, customers are more knowledgeable, selective and expectant. Thus, the management must be committed in enhancing their employees to become good providers of customer service ( 2005). All these are taken into account by the DHL management which resulted to the high service quality as initiated by the members of the organization particularly the staff and employees who personally attend to the requirements and needs of the customers. This made the company reliable through strategic and efficient delivery services based on highly credited customer services by well-trained staff and employees.    SERVICE QUALITY MODEL The importance of quality in customer service has been recognized by companies worldwide. Several major companies have applied prioritized quality in customer services, resulting to positive business outcome. Customer satisfaction, loyalty, employee satisfaction and profit growth are some of the main advantages of this business practice. In order to cope with the present business challenges, several businesses have implemented different strategies that will enhance their respective customer services. Consumer studies, trainings and application of information technology are some examples of the most commonly used strategies for customer services. However, it is said that these strategies are not enough for quality integration. Values, skills and most importantly, involvement of the members of the entire organization must be part of the quality customer service framework.  According to  (1982) is the output of the service delivery system among pure service systems which refers to customers’ appraisals of the service core, the provider, or the entire service organization ( 2002). Normally, it is assumed that service quality leads to customer satisfaction thereby resulting to loyalty to a particular service delivery provider (1994; 1990, 1989). The SERVQUAL instrument developed by (1988) provided means of measuring the perceived quality of service by analyzing the gaps between the expectations of the customers and the assessment of the finality of the service accorded using five dimensions. These dimensions include the variables of (1) tangibles, (2) reliability, (3) responsiveness, (4) assurance, and (5) empathy. According to  (2002) tangibles are the physical facilities, equipment, and appearance of the employees providing the services. Reliability is the ability to perform the specific service requested by the customers with the promise of being dependable and accurate in delivering the services. Responsiveness entails the willingness to assist the clients immediately and as they deem demand. Assurance is the ability of the people from the service provider company to imply their knowledge and courtesy of helping the customers in order to gain trust and confidence in providing the requested services while empathy is the attention accorded by the staff on the concerns and situation of the clients in need of their services. In the case of DHL, the company makes it a point to minimize the gap between the expectations of the customers as well as partners and the output of their services. This is evident in the highly technological and dependable networks that the company maintains in order to meet the demands of the clients in delivering the requested services. For this, the company has long been established as the leading service delivery provider in the world in terms of efficiency and accountability. The advances in technology greatly contributed to the fast and on-time delivery of documents and parcels entrusted by clients to the company leading to high customer loyalty to DHL not just among individual persons availing the service but also of big firms and corporations that DHL assists. The networks of planes, trucks and other efficient delivery facilities utilized by the company made possible the success of the company in gaining a considerable market share in the express industry. Moreover, the tangible assets of DHL made possible the reliable service characterization of the company through strategic operations management and supply chin as guided by the organization’s goal of meeting the requirements of the clients. The high quality customer service provided by the company to clients characterized and illustrates the responsiveness of the organization to address the needs of the customers. As such, DHL was able to satisfy and meet the expectations of the people who avail their services as the staff try to minimize failures in delivering the shipments. The responsiveness of the customer services facilities of the company resulted to increased assurance among clients regarding the safe delivery of the shipments. The ability of the staff to empathize with the concerns and considerations of the customers lead to the success of DHL as the leading service delivery organization in the assisting the complex demands and specifications of international market players and common citizens alike.         CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION The company should among others, consider the viewpoints of it customers, including their needs, interests and preferences. Rather than concentrating on personal objectives and requirements, the company should exert effort in studying their customers. By doing so, their level of commitment towards service quality significantly increases. The management however, should not only be committed to its external customers. The internal customers, or the workforce, also need committed support from the company management. Hence, they must be empowered. In order to improve service quality, it is necessary to contact employees regularly and assess their service experiences. Like the external customer, an internal customer too considers categories of service attributes, such as reliability and responsiveness, in judging the quality of the internal service. With the knowledge of the internal service quality dimensions, the service organizations can then judge how well the organization or employees performed on each dimension and managers could identify the weakness in order to make improvements. So far, DHL’s business strategies in China and Hong Kong are working well. They cater to their customer’s needs, always keeping in mind the need for speedy, efficient and safe delivery while striving to provide simple documentation needs and cheaper costs. The findings indicated DHL performs more than satisfactory in industrial express service.  However, the company also needs to conduct more qualitative research and expand its offer in service differentiation.  For long-term, the company should emphasize its “differentiation” image, maintain its high quality service and keep high employee morale. It is clear that DHL will continue to improve their strategies, especially in the presence of their strong competitors. So far, they manage to meet their customer’s needs very well.    Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

DHL Business Strategies

ABSTRACT This study aims to first analyze the customer service and quality levels of intangible service nature through the operation of ...

CRITICAL EVALUATION OF PALM, INC.’S INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (IHRM) STRATEGIES AND PRACTICES FOCUSING ON CONSISTENCY AND APPROPRIATENESS

CRITICAL EVALUATION OF PALM, INC.’S INTERNATIONALHUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (IHRM) STRATEGIES AND PRACTICES FOCUSING ON CONSISTENCY AND APPROPRIATENESS   EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This business paper utilized Palm, Inc as the model organization to review their present human resource management policies. From the analysis, key trends in the policies were identified, how the policy works and the position of Palm, Inc. were ascertained. The paper then moves on to assess whether Palm, Inc.’s espoused consistent international human resource management policies can contribute to its suitability to international competitiveness. Palm, Inc.’s internal capabilities in relation to its human resources policies were analyzed to assess the company’s performance as in international competitive business organization. Gaps in the capabilities and environment, with respect to Palm, Inc.’s human resource management policies were also identified.   Finally, several levels of business management strategies to improve the current international human resource management policies of Palm, Inc. were presented and evaluated in terms of appropriateness. Several key implementation issues related to managing strategic change were also identified. Recommendations to address international human resources issues relevant to the company were likewise presented as well as the feasibility in carrying out the options and acceptability within the key stakeholders and decision makers.   I. INTRODUCTION In order to achieve the new objectives of the work organizations, changes and reformulations must take place; thus, resulting to the transition of both human resource management and industrial relations. Primarily, these changes can be attributed to the emergence of globalization. Industrial relations practices for instance, had changed so as to increased collective bargaining at the enterprise point, flexibility in relation to areas of employment as well as with regards to working time and job functions. The change in industrial relations had been encouraged due to the increasing global competition, rapid development in products and systems as well as the emphasis on the importance of quality, productivity and skills of the employees (1994).   In the same way that these factors had caused an impact to industrial relations, human resource management policies and practices were also affected. Employees have to be involved so as to overcome the changes and increasing competition. Organizations should then ensure that their laborers are equipped with the necessary skills for the creation and development of goods and the provision of services that the global market will accept. Human resource management now manages the workforce in a way that will motivate the employees to be more productive.  In order to induce productivity and quality among the employees, human resource management incorporates work motivation through training and rewarding their employees. The realization of the goals and needs of both management and employees and the significance of commitment and training had become the top priorities and important activities of the human resource management.   By delving into this business management paper, the author intends to have better insights into how human resources of organizations and companies are being managed. Utilizing strategic analytical tools as well as analyzing Palm, Inc.’s current human resource management policy, the author hopes to have an in-depth understanding as to how Palm, Inc. as an organization is able to function effectively and profitably in this era of internationalization through the maximization of the potentials of its international human resources.   Two key focal issues were focused upon i.e. innovation and diversity. Innovation is discussed with regard to strategic change where Palm, Inc. is renowned for its human resource policies that are constantly developing. Diversity comes under strategic thinking and formation as the company must consider the diverse culture, political climate, economic surroundings, social environment, technological settings, government policies and legal systems in developing its human resource policies to become a leading player in the mobile computing industry.   II. INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCES MANAHGEMENT (IHRM) As (1994) pointed out, human resource management had transformed itself as more emphasis is stressed on commitment and control. Quality, competence and flexibility among the employees had efficiently replaced quantity of task accomplished and dumb obedience. Furthermore, the objectives of the management become concentrated on the adoption of modernization, quality and cost reduction. As human resource management requires and demands more from their employees, work is then intensified resulting to less slacking of the management.   Aside from globalization, changes in the HRM management have occurred due to cross-national dissimilarities. The diversities among nations are likely to develop practices that are different from other countries, (1999). In reality, human HRM practices are subject to distinctive sets of national rules as well as sensitive analysis of labor unions whose strength and thoughts towards management differ. Thus, this concept is contrary to the idea of HRM as a high managerial autonomy (, 1993;, 1997).   Multinational companies like the Palm, Inc. need to manage human resources at an international setting. This “process of procuring, allocating, and effectively utilizing human resources in a multinational corporation” (2002, p.360) is referred to as international human resources management, or IHRM. The establishment of a new facility in another country entails that human resource managers achieve two strategic objectives. One is that the managers must integrate HRM policies and practices across a number of subsidiaries in different countries in order that common, or global, corporate objectives be achieved. This means that the manager has to reconcile and incorporate local HRM policies with the existing company policy. Also the management approach must be flexible enough to allow for differences in the HRM practices of various countries, and yet adequate to be effective in various business settings. This is done to allow the head office control of the whole operation.               IHRM basically involves the same duties as domestic HRM. However, while the domestic HRM handles local (from one country) employees, IHRM handles international employees. IHRM personnel are responsible for the relocation and orientation of foreign employees and help them adapt to the new culture. IHRM encompasses more functions, involves changing perspectives, requires more involvement in the employees’ personal lives, is influenced by more external forces, and generally involves greater risks than domestic HRM (2004). IHRM staff deals with international taxation, international relocation and orientation; provides administrative services for expatriates; are responsible for the selection, training, and appraisal of international and local employees; and manages the host government relations (2002).               International HRM personnel need to address a variety of national and international pay issues. HRM personnel in the headquarters must coordinate pay systems in different countries with different currencies. These currencies change in relative value to one another with time. They also need to consider the fringe benefits provided to host-country employees as these benefits vary. Headquarters-based managers also need to deal with employee groups that have different cultural backgrounds. The headquarters manager must coordinate policies and procedures to manage expatriates from the firm’s home country, or parent country nationals (PCNs); host country nationals (HCNs); and third country nationals (TCNs). The domestic HRM personnel must also develop HRM systems that are satisfactory in the host country and also attuned with the company systems. These policies and practices must effectively balance the needs of local employees, PCNs, and TCNs.               Domestic HRM personnel must also arrange housing, health care, transportation, education, and recreational activities for expatriate and local staff. The headquarters-based HRM personnel have to set EEO policies that meet the legal requirements of both the home country and that of the host country. Domestic HRM personnel may have to deal with government ministers, other political figures, and a greater variety of social and economic interest groups.               HRM personnel need to be aware and careful about unfair hiring practices, as they may result in the company’s being charged with violation of EEO laws and subjected to financial penalties. Failure to establish constructive relationships with domestic unions may lead to strikes and other forms of labor actions. High-cost problems like expatriate failure or the premature return of an expatriate from an international assignment need to be addressed by HRM personnel so it can be prevented. Expatriate failure is a high-cost problem for international companies. Direct costs like salary, training costs, and travel and relocation expenses per failure to the parent firm may be as high as three times the domestic salary plus relocation expenses, depending on currency exchange rates and location of assignments. Indirect costs such as loss of market share and damage to international customer relationships may be considerable. Clearly, if managers do not perform well and must be recalled to the home country, their failure represents a huge financial loss for the firm.               Another consideration is the expropriation or seizure of the MNC’s assets in a foreign country. If HRM policies antagonize host country unions or important political groups, the MNC may be asked to leave the country, have its assets seized, or find the local government taking majority control of its operation. This will be a great loss to the company and needs to be prevented. All these are in line with the contextual paradigm, which is widespread in the UK and other European countries. This paradigm explores the importance of such factors as culture, ownership structures, labor markets, the role of the state and trade union organization as aspects of the subject rather than external influences upon it  (2000).   III. THE PALM, INC. A. Overview of the Industry Gone are the days when employees work on their desks for eight hours a day. Today’s employees want to utilize their productivity tools and interact with different individuals and groups in different settings. The technological advancement in wireless technologies has allowed workers and employees to access communication tools in new settings.    Research from revealed that there are more than 78 million remote and mobile workers in the United States alone (, 2002). It also states that the provision of access to mobile business applications and wireless access to the Internet to the workers and employees will be key priorities for business. On the other hand, a study by () Partners Inc. predicts that more than half (67 million) of the US domestic workforce will be mobile by 2006 (2003). This should create an enormous demand for wireless data/Internet solutions.    B. Company Profile Palm, Inc. is a business entity specializing in mobile computing. Its products enable its customers to put the power of computing in their hands, along the process accessing the information they need.  Palm, Inc. was established in 1992  by, which later co-invented  the Palm Pilot (, 2001).   The company’s products for consumers, mobile professionals and businesses include Palm® Treo™ smartphones, Palm LifeDrive™ mobile managers and Palm handheld computers, as well as software, services and accessories.  Palm’s products are equipped with a comprehensive suite of Personal Information Management (PIM) software, infrared beaming capabilities, calculators, note-taking applications, and games. A range of additional features—including hi-res color screens, wireless capabilities (), MP3 software and digital cameras—ensures that there’s a Palm product to meet almost any user’s needs.   In 1995, Palm, Inc. was acquired by U.S. Corporation.  A year later, the company introduced the Pilot 1000 and Pilot 5000 which revolutionized hanheld computing technology. In June 1997, Palm, Inc. became a subsidiary of 3Com when the U.S. Corporation was acquired by 3Com. As its subsidiary, 3Com then made Palm, Inc. an independent company on March 2, 2000 through a public trade under the ticker symbol PALM. In August 2003, the company renamed its hardware division to palmOne, Inc. In April 2005 palmOne was bale to buy PalmSource’s share in the ‘Palm’ trademark for  about US million. Then just last July 2005, palmOne launched its new name and brand going back to Palm, Inc. and trading under the ticker symbol PALM (2004).   C. Company Mission / Corporate Objectives Palm, Inc. aims for sustainable growth as a broad market leader in mobile computing as well as for segment leadership. In both cases, the Palm, Inc. brands will play a crucial part. Palm, Inc. is able to establish its broad leadership usually by acquiring other strong mobile computing companies and their products, which are then combined into a new, larger company. Offering training to its employees, improving the company operations, and the introduction of new technologies then reinforces the positions of the various Palm products (2004). This practically results in economies of scale that is able to create a distribution network for both the local and international Palm products. If a market is already in the control of other mobile computing companies, Palm, Inc. devotes its attention towards the development of a premium segment with its various Palm products.               The mission of Palm, Inc. is to secure the growth of the business in a sustainable manner, while at the same time constantly improving the company’s profitability. The strategy to achieve this involves four elements:   <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Striving in order to reach a leading position in attractive markets </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Focusing on securing a competitive share of the mobile computing market segments.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Working in order to improve the company’s efficiency and cut costs in operations.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Continuous growth through selective acquisitions for as long as they are able to create shareholder value. </li>   IV. CONSISTENCY WITHIN IHRM STRATEGY COMPONENTS A. Palm Inc.’s Human Resources Palm, Inc. knows that its future depends on the company’s ability to attract new personnel and retain existing personnel in key areas including engineering and sales. None of the company’s employees is subject to a collective bargaining agreement. The company considers its relationship to its employees to be good. As of June 30, 2003, Palm, Inc. has a total of 982 employees operating within a company organization structure.  The company’s management team includes:   A.     – President and CEO B.     – Senior Vice President for Worldwide Sales and Customer Relations C.    – Senior Vice President for Worldwide Marketing D.    – Senior Vice President for Global Operations E.     – Founder and Chief Technology Officer F.     – Senior Vice President for Engineering G.    – Chief Financial Officer H.    – Senior Vice President for Business Development I.        – Senior Vice President and General Counsel J.      – Senior Vice President for Human Resources      The board consists of three standing committees: Audit Committee, Compensation Committee and the Nominating and Governance Committee. A majority of board members are independent of the company and its management. The Audit Committee of the board has established policies consistent with the newly enacted corporate reform laws for auditor independence. The independent members of the board meet regularly without the presence of management. The charters of our board committees clearly establish their respective roles and responsibilities.   The company has a clear code of ethics and all employees must affirm their acceptance of this code. The code of ethics includes a conflict of interest policy to ensure that key corporate decisions are made by individuals who do not have a financial interest in the outcome separate from their interest as company officials. The company actively monitors compliance with the law and the global financial policies and practices over critical areas. These areas include internal controls, financial accounting and reporting, fiduciary accountability and safeguarding of our corporate assets.   All these efforts to promote order within the firm through effective and efficient human resources management strategies and practices are implemented by Palm, Inc. in order to facilitate consistent observation of the company’s policies and regulations as well as to define standard and globally competitive administration of employees and staff for the overall benefit of the business organization. Since the company participates in the international business arena, there are HRM policies that Palm, Inc. adheres to across its various regional establishments around the world so as to address equally all the human resources concerns and issues regardless of cultural and economic differences as well as promote social welfare and development while gaining control in the entire operation of the company.   B. Palm, Inc.’s Human Resources Management Policies Palm, Inc.’s Human Resource Management Policies are divided into four (4) main policies: (1) equal opportunity and employment practices, (2) compensation and benefits management, (3) development and training management, and (4) records disclosure management. All these company policies and regulations are observed by all employees and staff of Palm, Inc. in all its offices and firms worldwide. Such strategy enables the management to deal with human resources issues of the company based on legitimate and equal grounds.   Equal Opportunity and Employment Practices. Palm, Inc. does not allow employment discrimination on the basis of race, gender, religion, age, or against qualified disabled persons. Moreover, the company does not allow the lowering of bona fide job requirements or qualifications in order to give favor to any applicant for employment. Lastly, Palm, Inc. does not allow all its employees, including, managers from taking any grudge against any person making allegations of violations of the company policies.   Compensation and Benefits Management. Palm, Inc. determines how it will implement the Compensation and Benefits Management System which is the basis for ensuring the equitable implementation of pay decisions. The Palm, Inc. Salary Administration Plan administers the company’s internal compensation philosophy and policies, recruitment and selection process, performance management, administration of pay practices, and program evaluation plan. Palm, Inc. regularly evaluates this plan to make sure that its employees are continuously complying to the company policies as well as with the company’s mission and organizational needs.   Management Development and Training. Palm, Inc. provides various employee training sessions appropriate for them to be able to help the company in achieving its mission and accomplishing its objectives. The company appoints an employee that is capable in helping to implement its training and development programs and serving as coordinator for the duration of training services. It also develops a biennial training plan which includes a training needs assessment, an action plan illustrating the objectives and approaches through which the plan can possibly be done, and funding needed to implement the plan.   Records Disclosure Management. Certain personal information needs to be divulged to third parties upon request of Palm, Inc. and may be relayed to others without necessarily the knowledge and consent of the subject employee. This information includes the employee’s position title, job classification title, dates of employment, and annual, official or rate of pay. The personnel records of Palm, Inc. employees are maintained in a safe place. Employee records are confidential and, therefore, access is limited to authorized persons only.   C. Roles of Managers: Performance Development and Management The system theory assumes a synchronized work environment. To synchronize the parts of the organization, it is necessary for the productivity of the company is ensuring the effectiveness of the organization. An organization needs constantly to take stock of its workforce and to assess its performance in existing jobs for three reasons:   <ul style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in" type="disc"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> To improve organizational performance via improving the performance of individual contributors.  </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> To identify potential, i.e. to recognize existing talent and to use that to fill vacancies higher in the organization or to transfer individuals into jobs where better use can be made of their abilities or developing skills. </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> To provide an equitable method of linking payment to performance where there are no numerical criteria (2002). </li> </ul>   Gathering Information. Managers have the primary role to make specific identifications of all the possible sources of evaluation information which includes observable employee behaviors. This is because aside from the observations of the immediate supervisor, performance evaluation information can still come from a variety of other sources, including the employees, subordinates, and work products (2001). Whenever Palm, inc. utilizes performance information from individuals other than the employee’s immediate supervisor to build up the employee’s annual evaluation, the management informs the employees of the possible sources at the start of the performance cycle, where they receive their performance plans.   Development and Presentation of Performance Plans. Palm, Inc. managers are the ones who develop their employees’ performance plans according to instructions on the Palm, Inc. Employee Work Profile form. The plans are signed by the managers and then passed on to the management for approval. Managers make sure that performance plans are complete and adequate before signing the forms (2003). The manager also discusses the performance plans with the Palm, Inc. employees in a clear and organized manner. Generally, discussions are conducted within 30 days of the start of the performance cycle. With regards to Palm employees who are starting at a new position, discussions are normally held within 30 days of the employee’s starting date (2003).   Documentation and Identification of Substandard Performance. Palm managers document their employees’ performance and provide feedback to them from time to time throughout the performance cycle. Documentation normally occurs in the form of memos, and these are retained in the manager’s confidential files, instead of being in the employees’ personnel files (2002). Palm managers also have the authority to determine substandard or unacceptable performance (2002). Managers normally address minor or marginal performance issues through performance counseling and coaching.   V. APPROPRIATE LEVELS OF “FIT” OF IHRM STRATEGIES  There is definitely a need to reconcile both the inside-out and outside-in capabilities of the company. While Palm, Inc.’s human resource development policy involves focusing on its human resources as its core competencies with market position following its resource base, the company will be put into a disadvantageous position should it choose to neglect both the macro as well as industry environment. Therefore, Palm, Inc. has to be aware of the latest human resource development changes, as well as changes in political, economic, legal and even demographic trends in order to develop the outside-in capabilities, such as market sensing, customer linking, channel bonding and technology monitoring.   A. Business Level Strategy The advantages enjoyed by the company may come in the form of increased revenues. Knowing what the market demands and the latest trends could help Palm, Inc. fully exploit its research and development capabilities to come out with innovative human resource development efforts which are cost-effective but high in quality and performance. The strategic option can even be used as marketing tool where the focus is on staying close to your employees and listening to their feedbacks. On the flip side of the coin, there will be huge mobilization of resources involved, and the associated risks bestowed on the company.   Nevertheless, the mentioned strategic option seems the most practical in the wake of globalization, since there is a sudden shift towards a more integrated and independent human resource development. The key stakeholders too should not have any objections so long the company’s core business is not threatened. By virtue of Palm, Inc.’s centralized control of its subsidiaries, it is being expected that major barriers should not exist in carrying out such an option except additional time may be required given the scope and span of Palm, Inc.’s operations.   B. Corporate Level Strategy The Palm, Inc. Board of Directors and management believe that sound principles of corporate governance are critical to obtaining and retaining the trust and respect of stockholders, employees, other stakeholders and the public. The Palm, Inc. board serves at the discretion of Palm, Inc. stockholders and works to represent their interests by enhancing business strategies and practices for the creation of long term stockholder value.   As such, understanding the strategic importance of human resource development of its employees is something Palm, Inc. has to be familiar with. Palm, Inc. normally practices a centralized and globally scaled development of capabilities among its employees. This allows information dissemination to be retained at the corporate headquarters of Palm, Inc.   C. Network Level Strategy There are various strategic options available for Palm, Inc. These are enumerated as follows:   ·         Tie up with various mobile computing companies ·         Collaborate with major competitors ·         Alliances with leading players in human resource development   A tie-up or merger with various mobile computing companies offers tremendous benefits in terms of access to the company’s human resource development strategies and even its resources. However, Palm, Inc. must not lose sight of its core competencies while pursuing these tie-ups. Otherwise, the image of Palm, Inc. might be put in jeopardy.   Meanwhile, the collaboration of Palm, Inc. with its major competitors can be seen as a ridiculous move at first.  However, upon close examination, this move could pave the way for Palm, Inc. to improve even more its human resource development policies and strategies. The bottom line is both sides would be able significantly gain in such an alliance. Palm, Inc.’s strengths in product development combined with the human resource development capabilities of either Compaq or Microsoft can transform them suddenly into an unbeatable force to reckon with. Also, equal opportunities are created among the human resources of the companies involved. One possible setback, however, is the differences in the cultures of the companies involved. Another possible setback could be whether any of Palm, Inc.’s competitors has the need to form alliances.   The third option also focuses on alliances, but this time with organizations specializing in human resource development. The benefits of these alliances should outweigh the costs in the long run.   In terms of appropriateness, all three options are able to directly address the current human resource development issues mentioned. However, the question remains whether Palm, Inc. could be able to implement any of these options, and whether these options can be acceptable to the key stakeholders. Any merger or alliances may also involve the sharing of expertise. Palm, Inc. has traditionally relied on the inside-out approach. It is important to note that any merger transactions would have many implications on the company’s values and culture as well as the resources. The key stakeholders definitely would be concerned with such options and need to be convinced of the positive aspects. Somehow, Palm, Inc. will be able to overcome this barrier in managing strategic changes in the process of implementing any of the above mentioned strategic options.   VI. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MAXIMUM COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IHRM is about understanding, researching, applying and revising all human resource activities in their internal and external contexts as they impact the process of managing human resources in enterprises throughout the global environment to enhance the experience of multiple stakeholders, including investors, customers, employees, partners, suppliers, environment and society.   As with organisation, “people are the most valuable asset”, employee satisfaction – ensured through proper motivation and compensation – must be carefully considered by the Human Resource team. This must be done to retain good staff and to encourage them to give of their best while at work requires attention to the financial and psychological and even physiological rewards offered by the organization. This is made more complicated by the trends of internationalization necessitating a more extensive yet flexible human resources management approaches that will best apply to a particular organization.   The results of the analysis carried out on the human resource development policies of Palm, Inc. indicated very significant benefits for the human resources of the company, even amidst the threats of unrest. Therefore, we could conclude that the human resource development policies of Palm, Inc. could still be expected to expand and progress.  The review of Palm, Inc.’s human resource development policies also revealed very little inconsistencies considering the company’s strategies. This is coherent with Palm, Inc.’s traditional inside-out approach. However, the need to reconcile both the inside-out and outside-in approaches becomes imperative now for Palm, Inc.   The analysis among the environment and human resource development capabilities of Palm, Inc. revealed certain gaps, most of which are biased towards the environment. However, these gaps paved the way towards determining a number of recommended strategic options to secure Palm, Inc.’s human resource competitiveness. Also, Palm, Inc. has to find a balance between adherence to internal forces within the company and to the changing forces of the environment in order to implement such strategic options.     Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

CRITICAL EVALUATION OF PALM, INC.’S INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (IHRM) STRATEGIES AND PRACTICES FOCUSING ON CONSISTENCY AND APPROPRIATENESS

CRITICAL EVALUATION OF PALM, INC.’S INTERNATIONALHUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (IHRM) STRATEGIES AND PRACTICES FOCUSING ON CONSISTENCY AND A...