Mattel Toy Recalls

Mattel, Inc. is the largest toy company in the world. This largest toy company in the world was founded by Harold Matson and Elliot Handler in 1945, as they started to produce picture frames. However it was Elliott Handler who had a visionary of a side business in dollhouse furniture out of the converted garage (Mattel). As a top company, the primary activities of Mattel are to design, manufacture, and market the toys. As the company’s sales growing slowly, Mattel started to produce varieties of high quality products and became one of the of the best toy companies around the nation at the time.The major move by Mattel was when it sponsored Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Club television show that put the company in spotlight and company’s sales increased significantly. That sponsorship of Mickey Mouse Club helped the company to attract a very high proportion of young potential customers. In 1959, the wife of Elliot Handler, Ruth Handler came up with an outstanding ide a that changed Mattel forever. As Ruth Handler watched her daughter playing with paper dolls, she suggested the idea of making three dimensional dolls to her husband.Elliott loved the idea of making such dolls and introduced the doll with a full wardrobe and accessories to the market. The doll initially named after the nick name of daughter of Elliott and Ruth. The introduction of the new doll was a huge success for Mattel and immediately the doll became the major product line of Mattel (Finding). With the success of Barbie doll, Mattel was named a public company and ranked soon as one of the largest industrial companies in the United States. In 1968, Mattel have introduced another consumer-loved product called Hot Wheels. This was second biggest hit since the company introduced Barbie.Hot Wheels immediately labeled Mattel as the largest toy company in the world. As the toy industry was changing and new competitors were coming in, Mattel saw a stiff competition rising in the mid 198 0s. Like other companies in the toy industry, Mattel faced a stiff from the electronic entertainment. The electronic entertainment introduced many electronical videos games in which children switched to at an increasing young age from the traditional entertainment. To cope up with the competition and attract the new generation, Mattel decided to expand into technology by producing lectronic gaming products. Mattel failed to attract a high proportion of consumers, and were unable to fit in with the new strategy as there were new competitors producing electronic games with lower prices. Later, Mattel decided to focus on producing the core products of the company. This strategy to refocus on the core products and makeover some of the core products was a great success for Mattel. For example, after doing makeover, in 1988 to 1993, the sales of Barbie doll increased to $ 1 Billion dollars from $430 Million dollars (Sansweet).As Mattel is known for making most of its own products in their owned manufacturing facilities, the company owned and operated 10 manufacturing plants worldwide. Half of the manufacturing plants are located in China (Jiangyong). Since Mattel started its business, the company produced its products mostly in developing countries to take the advantage of cheap manufacturing costs. Unlike many toy companies, Mattel produced 70% to 80% of its products in their own manufacturing facilities. The company believed that making products in-house will be more stable and high efficient products.According to Mattel, in-house facilities have high standard safety measures and high quality control that produce high-quality products. Besides making most of its products in Mattel’s own manufacturing facilities, some of its production was outsourced to China and other developing countries in order to focus on domestic strategic efforts such as Research and Development and Marketing. However these outsourcing products were not efficient as products were made in in-house facilities. These outsourcing products were less stable and not as efficient.Many times these products needs to be recalled as they do not meet the safety standards and tend to hurt the image of a well-known organization like Mattel. Therefore, Mattel’s strategy was to focus on making most of its core products at their own manufacturing facilities, and outsource the products that are less popular and non-core. Due to outsourcing to other developing countries, the toy industry faced many hardships. The products that are made in developing countries that had substandard quality control were recalled many times due to the safety reasons.Mattel too faced a stiff pressure from the government and consumers for the products that were not safe and stable which are made in manufacturing facilities in China. Recently, Mattel recalled several of its products because they were not safe for consumers. Recalling millions of products, not only reduced the total revenues of the company, as well as it hurt the company’s image at the same time. Mattel had been always trusted by its consumers for making providing its consumers high-quality products and stable products.The recalls that are connected with lead paint made by Mattel’s lont-time manufacturers. These manufacturers are responsible for not having strong safety regulations and not complying with the quality control within the organization. The manufacturer, Early Light Industrial, was responsible for the second major recall of about 1 million toys. The manufacturer had more than 200 employees to inspect if the contractors were complying with safety regulations, but none of them were stationed on-site to inspect the products. Failure to inspect the products left the company with rooms or errors.In order to understand a company’s situation, financial statements are very important. Financial statements allow you to see the company’s performance, financial condition, and financ ial trend. By examining financial statements of Mattel, we can clearly foresee where the company is heading financially. Looking at ROA and PM, both ROA and PM increasing year to year from 2005 to 2007 which is very good news for Mattel. Despite the recalls, Mattel’s total revenue is still increasing year to year. These analyses clearly show that Mattel is performing very well in making profits.Some of the key financial highlights of Mattel recorded below: Selected Financial Highlights of Mattel, Inc. : YEAR 2007 2006 2005 Net Sales 5,970. 09 5,650. 16 5179. 02 Cost of Sales 3,192. 79 3,038. 36 2,806. 15 Net Income 599. 9 492. 93 417. 02 Total Assets 4805. 46 4955. 88 4372. 31 ROA (%) 12. 4 9. 5 9. 53 PM (%) 10. 4 8. 72 8. 05 Firm Strategy One of the Mattel’s primary strength is that the company is the leading brand named leading toy company in the toy industry. Ever since Mattel started its business, the company always produced high-quality and consumer-loved products . Mattel has plenty of name brands products that are very popular among the customers. Mattel’s brand name recognition stared in 1959 when the company first introduced the famous doll, Barbie.Other products, Hot Wheels, Fisher Price, and NASCAR also are very popular products and behind the huge success of Mattel. In order to continue making the high-quality products Mattel’s main focus is to keep doing what the company is doing and find out what the customers’ want and desire by research and development. Mattel’s main goal is to maximize production efficiency while minimizing the risks, controlling expenses, and maintaining flexibility. In order to focus on that strategy, Mattel has decided to use the third party manufacturers to produce its non-core products.Slowly, Mattel has been moving its manufacturing to countries like China, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, and many other developing countries. As Mattel has contracts with thousand of vendors in those co untries, the company does not need to rely on a single manufacturer. However, this strategy may not convey quality assurance of the products and also raise concerns over safety regulations. Due to substandard safety measures revolving toy designing and manufacturing in China, Mattel has been facing some tough challenges.During 2007, Mattel has made five recalls of over 21 million toys are made in China due to the excessive lead paints on toys and having loose magnets that normally impose danger to the children while playing with them. These loose magnets and lead paint can easily be consumed by the children. These recent recalls started to hurt the image of the company and as well as the reputations of the company. Sales in some areas started declining, however, the total revenues of the company is increasing than the previous year.Possible Options As we have detected causes of the problems, we need to come up with alternative solutions to solve the problems. There are some alternat ive strategies Mattel can apply in order to stay on the of the toy industry. Possible alternatives include rebuilding strategy, and manufacturing in United States. Option 1: Rebuilding Strategy: Mattel should focus on rebuilding strategy. The company needs to rebuild the consumer trust in toys, rebuild the trust of the industry, and as well as the trust of China.Accountability and responsibility required strongly to repair the image. Denial and accusations will just hurt the image of the company more as it could bring counter attack by the accused. Option 2: Manufacturing in United States: Mattel may decide to move its manufacturing back to United States as they are facing many problems in foreign countries. However, this strategy will be really costly to Mattel financially. Also, it will harm the relationship with foreign countries. Therefore, rebuilding strategy is strongly recommended. Recommendations and ImplementationsDuring the crisis management, accountability and responsibil ity is very important to maintain the reputations and sales of the company. Admit the wrongdoing, instead of throwing blame on China. Blaming China will just hurt the relationship with the Government China. Mattel, Inc. is also required to change its strategy to address the concerns in design, manufacturing, quality control, and safety assurance of the products. In order to implement the rebuilding strategy, Mattel needs to take some of the important steps. The company needs to be open and truthful.Confess to wrongdoing is a great tool to start re-establishing the trust. The company also needs to focus on communicating with the consumers to address their needs. For better standard safety measures, Mattel should hire a third party for sudden inspections of the products in manufacturing facilities. The company should maintain its current strategy and continue outsourcing in China where it could focus on expanding product lines. The company may also incorporate with established manufac turing facilities where they have standard quality control and strong safety measures.Most importantly, the company needs to focus on more modifying the safety operations in facilities by inspecting standards of production and examining the materials that are supplied by third-parties. October 26, 2010 Robert D. Katz Ishaque Mohammed Ibrahim Mattel’s Case Memo Executive Summary: California-based Mattel, Inc. is well-known to the world for making the high-quality and brand-name recognized products. Recently, the Mattel Company recalled millions of products that are mostly made in China for the safety concerns that raised many questions about the sustainability of the company’s products.Due to these recent recalls, now Mattel is totally aware of the perils of manufacturing in developing countries, where the safety measures and working environment were totally unacceptable. The purpose of this case analysis is to understand the problems that occurred and how Mattel will c ome to solutions to solve them. This case analysis will review the problems Mattel is facing, analyze firm strategy by using SWOT, and recommend alternative strategies to solve the problems and best way for Mattel to proceed successfully in the future.

Mind Your Own Business Essay

What makes someone a successful entrepreneur? It certainly helps to have strong technology skills or expertise in a key area, but these are not defining characteristics of entrepreneurship. Instead, the key qualities are traits such as creativity, the ability to keep going in the face of hardship, and the social skills needed to build great teams. If you want to start a business, it’s essential to learn the specific skills that underpin these qualities. It’s also important to develop entrepreneurial skills if you’re in a job role where you’re expected to develop a business, or â€Å"take things forward† more generally. It’s very easy to get lost trying to rate ourselves against our peers or even rate ourselves around society when it comes to success. Its actually depressing at times and inconclusive as you often get side tracked comparing apples to oranges. In our quest for success, we often look for some sort of ranking system to gauge how well we are doing and unfortunately decide to use others as the measure. It is often an inaccurate scale as so many factors come into play, so many that it makes it unfair to compare yourself to others on any level. There are so many circumstances that dictate success it makes it impossible to find multiple people with identical circumstances to compare us to. Since we cannot compare ourselves to others, we must become our own competition and strive for perfection daily in order to move forward. We ultimately set the velocity at which we move. The results however are none that can be compared to others as every situation is as unique as the next. The real point here is why do we worry about what others are doing if we ultimately shouldn’t compare ourselves to them. The answer is jealousy and should end immediately. If you are someone that often finds yourself worrying about what others are doing, how they are doing it and where their wealth comes from, then start minding your own business and instead focus your energy on yourself and your work which is what will get you there, not finding out if your neighbor is in the Mafia or indeed a real estate guru. The best way to check if you are yourself is to ask yourself if you often form conclusions when faced with an individual who has attained a higher level of monetary success. Do you often find yourself guessing that perhaps this person was given wealth from past generations or that they are involved in negative activities that have led to financial success? One should rather focus our energy and efforts on our own growth and not criticize others whose level of success is above ours. If you find yourself in such a negative position where a friend or relative seems to feel that way, then identify them as one whose lack of effort and lack of motivation is ultimately going to be the reason they fail, and separate yourself from that energy instantly. Defining Entrepreneurship Some experts think of entrepreneurs as people who are willing to take risks that other people are not. Others define them as people who start and build successful businesses. Thinking about the first of these definitions, entrepreneurship doesn’t necessarily involve starting your own business. Many people who don’t work for themselves are recognized as entrepreneurs within their organizations. Regardless of how you define an â€Å"entrepreneur,† one thing is certain: becoming a successful entrepreneur isn’t easy. So, how does one person successfully take advantage of an opportunity, while another, equally knowledgeable person does not? Do entrepreneurs have a different genetic makeup? Or do they operate from a different vantage point, that somehow directs their decisions for them? Though many researchers have studied the subject, there are no definitive answers. What we do know is that successful entrepreneurs seem to have certain traits in common. Check for yourself if you have these traits: †¢Interpersonal skills. †¢Critical and creative thinking skills. †¢Practical skills. Optimism: Are you an optimistic thinker? Optimism is truly an asset, and it will help get you through the tough times that many entrepreneurs experience as they find a business model that works for them. Vision: Can you easily see where things can be improved? Can you quickly grasp the â€Å"big picture,† and explain this to others? And can you create a compelling vision of the future, and then inspire other people to engage with that vision? Initiative: Do you have initiative, and instinctively start problem-solving or business improvement projects? Desire for Control: Do you enjoy being in charge and making decisions? Are you motivated to lead others? Drive and Persistence: Are you self-motivated and energetic? And are you prepared to work hard, for a very long time, to realize your goals? Risk Tolerance: Are you able to take risks, and make decisions when facts are uncertain? Resilience: Are you resilient, so that you can pick yourself up when things don’t go as planned? And do you learn and grow from your mistakes and failures? Interpersonal Skills As a successful entrepreneur, you’ll have to work closely with people – this is where it is critical to be able to build great relationships with your team, customers, suppliers, shareholders, investors, and more. Some people are more gifted in this area than others, but, fortunately, you can learn and improve these skills. The types of interpersonal skills you’ll need include: Leadership and Motivation: Can you lead and motivate others to follow you and deliver your vision? And are you able to delegate work to others? As a successful entrepreneur, you’ll have to depend on others to get beyond a very early stage in your business – there’s just too much to do all on your own! Communication Skills: Are you competent with all types of communication? You need to be able to communicate well to sell your vision of the future to investors, potential clients, team members, and more. Listening: Do you hear what others are telling you? Your ability to listen can make or break you as an entrepreneur. Make sure that you’re skilled at active listening and empathetic listening. Personal Relations: Are you emotionally intelligent? The higher your EI, the easier it will be for you to work with others. The good news is that you can improve your emotional intelligence! Negotiation: Are you a good negotiator? Not only do you need to negotiate keen prices, you also need to be able to resolve differences between people in a positive, mutually beneficial way. Ethics: Do you deal with people based on respect, integrity, fairness, and truthfulness? Can you lead ethically? You’ll find it hard to build a happy, committed team if you deal with people – staff, customers or suppliers – in a shabby way. Critical and Creative Thinking Skills As an entrepreneur, you also need to come up with fresh ideas, and make good decisions about opportunities and potential projects. Many people think that you’re either born creative or you’re not. However, creativity is a skill that you can develop if you invest the time and effort. Creative Thinking: Are you able to see situations from a variety of perspectives and come up with original ideas? (There are many creativity tools that will help you do this.) Problem Solving: How good are you at coming up with sound solutions to the problems you’re facing? Tools such as Cause & Effect Analysis, the 5 Whys Technique, and CATWOE are just some of the problem-solving tools that you’ll need to be familiar with. Recognizing Opportunities: Do you recognize opportunities when they present themselves? Can you spot a trend? And are you able to create a plan to take advantage of the opportunities you identify? Practical Skills You also need the practical skills and knowledge needed to produce goods or services effectively, and run a company. Goal Setting: Do you regularly set goals, create a plan to achieve them, and then carry out that plan? Planning and Organizing: Do you have the talents, skills, and abilities necessary to achieve your goals? Can you coordinate people to achieve these efficiently and effectively. And do you know how to develop a coherent, well thought-through business plan, including developing and learning from appropriate financial forecasts? Decision Making: How good are you at making decisions? Do you make them based on relevant information and by weighing the potential consequences? And are you confident in the decisions that you make? Core decision-making tools include Decision Tree Analysis, Grid Analysis, and Six Thinking Hats. You need knowledge in several areas when starting or running a business. For instance: Business knowledge: Do you have a good general knowledge of the main functional areas of a business (sales, marketing, finance, and operations), and are you able to operate or manage others in these areas with a reasonable degree of competence? Entrepreneurial knowledge: Do you understand how entrepreneurs raise capital? And do you understand the sheer amount of experimentation and hard work that may be needed to find a business model that works for you? Opportunity-specific knowledge: Do you understand the market you’re attempting to enter, and do you know what you need to do to bring your product or service to market? Venture-specific knowledge: Do you know what you need to do to make this type of business successful? And do you understand the specifics of the business that you want to start? Conclusion: As a dreamer, you need to understand its significance and mind your own business. Never lose track of your vision for your life. Do not ever get so busy making a living that you forget to live your life.

Critiquing Current Educational Issues Essay

Matters of education, like any other sociological issues, can cause a lot of controversy if they are handled in a manner that does not represent or take into account the views of all the stakeholders (ABC, 2010). This has been the case with the My school website in this country. Long before the My school website came into operation, support as well as opposition could be clearly witnessed from different stakeholders including teachers, the Australian Education Union (AEU), and the government through the independent Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) which is charged with the responsibility of making available to the public data about schools that is nationally comparable. However, the most controversy has arisen after the website became operational. The issues of contention vary depending on the particular sides embroiled in the debate. However, regardless of the views that are being raised, the effects that the controversy about the My school website has generated have been dire not only to students and their schools but also to teachers in the Australian education curriculum, the parents, as well as investors who need to finance education programs in the country. This paper critically discusses the sociological issues that have surrounded the My school website prior to and after its inception. This is with a view to establishing the extent to which the controversy has affected the various stakeholders in the education sector in the country. The My School Website My school is a website which profiles close to a thousand Australian schools. All these schools may be searched by any interested person or organization using filters such as the location of the school, its sector, or even the name. Perhaps the most important information to be found on the website is that of statistical and contextual nature; but also included is information about the results by the National Assessment Plan for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). These results allows for comparisons to be done for schools; particularly those that are statistically similar. Therefore, the My school website allows for the searching for schools across the nation; finding local schools in one’s own area; comparing schools that are statistically similar; viewing school-level results by NAPLAN; and identification of schools’ performances so that there is an allowance for sharing successful strategies (Peatling, 2010). Contentious Issues Proponents of My school, who mainly comprise of the government, NAPLAN, and a section of parents, argue that the website has allowed parents and other people an opportunity to assess schools on the basis of key indicators, particularly on literacy and numeracy, so that they can make informed decisions about where to enroll their children. They also argue that through the site parents can monitor the performance of their children and so be better placed to advise them accordingly. The site has also been lauded for bringing together all schools across the nation so that finding information about school performances and other records is no longer difficult (Peatling, 2010). This site, they argue, has enabled the results of schools on national tests to be better understood in a manner that is both meaningful and fair. The site has also enabled schools seeking to enhance their performance to learn from others which have similar populations. By providing extensive information on Australian schools, the My School website introduces a new level of transparency and accountability to the Australian school system. However, the opponents have forwarded a number of critical issues which they believe are actually making the education sector to suffer. The first contention and one which has generated the most opposition is the use of particular indices to rank schools (Peatling, 2010). These indices have apparently failed to present to the public what the actual facts about schools are because it has been proved that some schools that are known widely to be underperformers have been ranked or placed in the same category as other elite schools whose national record has been known by the people to be very high. A notable example that has been widely quoted is the grouping together of Bulli High School, Wollongong, and Trinity Grammar, Summer Hill; as well as ranking of Scotch College which is among the most prestigious schools in the country alongside Epping North Public School. This issue has particularly caused a lot of concern among teachers, led by the Australian Education Union, who have used it to reiterate their allegation that the My school website is deeply flawed and cannot be relied upon for its inaccuracy, invalidity, and incompleteness (Peatling, 2010). Another key issue has been the margin of error that has been identified in the ranking of the schools in the test results by KAPLAN. In some cases, it has been found that the margin of error has been as wide as 34 – pointing out that there was no way the website could be relied on to convey the correct information to the public. From the AEU’s perspective, the site is only a source of conflict and serves to create tension and unnecessary competition among teachers and schools. The union reiterates the need for the education sector to be made rather autonomous so as to avoid events that can compromise the quality of education (Peatling, 2010). AEU holds that tests ought not to be used to rate the student’s ability but only as a means to ascertain where a child or learner is up to. Sociologically, tests results ought to be the secret of the learner because the test was done that one learner alone. Exposing such results to other people, especially when the results are poor, serves to embarrass the learner and cause one to be less confident in school. The overall outcome is a tendency to continue failing in successive tests. Another issue that has raised a storm about the My school website is that it is being used to discriminate against certain ethnic communities, particularly the Aboriginal students (ABC, 2010). This lament, mainly from parents, has stemmed from the system used where schools have been listing the number of Aboriginal students enrolled there as part of the statistics posted on the My school website. This, the parents contend, is discriminatory as it tends to bring to the fore the notion that the Aboriginal students are responsible for the poor performance of schools so that the more of them a school has the lower it is likely to perform on the KAPLAN index. This can never be farther from the truth (ABC, 2010). The Clash Between Government Policy and Public Opinion Even on the international scene, there have been constant clashes between the policy of governments and what the public feels is the best. In matters of education in particular, there has been a series of policy frameworks that governments have put in place without considering their effects on the other stakeholders. For instance, issues regarding the performance of educators in learning institutions like schools and colleges have been hotly contested because while the policy might require teachers and other educators to be appraised based on their performance, the indices used in certain cases never really depict the actual input by these educators. For instance, teachers can be assigned to students who are hard of learning for a reason or more and so such teachers, if rated on the basis of the performance of their students alone, never really get justice done. Similarly, it is not appropriate for the government to continue using indices to rank schools and publishing such information on the My school website without considering other factors. The effect this has on teachers is that they are likely to become demoralized and put less effort in their work for they know the evaluation of their work is not at all fair. For parents, the use of the My school website has had different effects (Peatling, 2010). First, it may help them to ascertain the best performers among schools and so enroll their children in such ones. However, there is another more critical issue about what parents whose children are in poor-performing schools can do. The natural inclination of such parents is to withdraw their children from these poor performing schools and have then enrolled in other schools with better performance indices. This, if allowed, would cause a mass exodus of students from some schools into others, eventually causing another problem of overcrowding and subsequent declining in the quality of education in those schools initially ranked highly. But since the government is not prepared to allow such migrations, continuing to use the My school website might only cause parents a lot of anxiety from knowing that their children might never be able to make it in life because they are in lowly-ranked schools. For the students, they will get discouraged if they learn that their school does not perform well in comparison to others. As AEU has claimed, education is not all about literacy and numeracy but more about individual students’ ability to learn to do many other things in life. Students in lowly-ranked schools might be led into the false belief that their teachers are not competent enough and so give up trying to improve their performance. However, the My school website has had the positive effect of creating a competitive environment in schools so that low performers are compelled to work harder to improve while the best performers try their level best to maintain or improve their performance record (Peatling, 2010). Conclusion The My school website is bound to continue eliciting a lot of debate in the days to come with varying effects on the society, the students, teachers, and the government. What is clear in this debate is that there has been no attempt to have the feuding parties to work together to sort out their differences. Instead, every side has been unilateral in its decisions and has not cared about the implications of its actions on the students, teachers, and parents. While the government is downplaying the opposition to the My school website by AEU and citing it as any other opposition that happens whenever there is change, the fact is that the union has key sociological issues that ought to be addressed if the education standards in this country are to be kept high. Sociologically, therefore, the feuding parties ought to work together to find ways of ironing out their differences before the matter gets out of hand.

Final essay questions for Introduction to Anthropology

Final questions for Introduction to Anthropology - Essay Example Basing on many beliefs, for instance, the biblical belief, the practice is seen as against the norms of the societies. Anthropology has tried to enlighten people about such like practices ((Kottak 33). Child labor and abuse: this is another issue that is on the rise in the developing countries. Children are being overexploited in their life. Child abuse is deadly as it causes those exposed to such conditions being affected directly or indirectly. The role of anthropologists here is to try and come up with ways that could show those doing so that what they are doing is not right. Violence against women: in most states, women are taken as inferior creatures who have no power to talk against what they don’t want and that what is said by men is always right and every woman should follow it without obligations. In the changing world, women are becoming just like men, to have ideas of much help in the development of the world. This has called for the intervention of anthropology in trying to show the world that when given equal chances like men, they can be productive to the society in one way or the other. Alienation of Youths. The world is fast to recognize the presence of a great and powerful youth sub-cultures. This, with its own individual behavior and values, is particularly prominent in the cities (Kottak 45). Suicide: there is a good confirmation to designate that suicide rate has been on the rising in recent years. In most cases, it was elicited by a fall out that the victim had with a spouse, a close relative, or parents over what seemed to be a trifling matter. It seem to be normally a response, both self-pitying and bellicose, to the danger that a close interactive relationship will be ended (Kottak, 60). In all these issues, anthropology has tried to play a role so as those that are not in line with straight living realize their mistake and change for the developement of the community and the world as a whole. Religion

Multivariate Techniques Paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Multivariate Techniques - Research Paper Example In view of the possible incoherence due to the management restructuring at Company W, retraining of Company W’s top management in key departments such as sales, marketing, and production is vital. In addition, the top management at WidgeCorp needs statistically verifiable conclusions on issues and recommendations resulting from broad management restructuring agenda. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the use of factor analysis as a statistical data analysis technique, highlight some of its real life applications, and demonstrate its applicability to company W. Keywords: Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) Factor Analysis Introduction Acquisition is a corporate strategy in wide use by organizations that seek to increase their market presence, lower operation costs, or retain profitability in unfavorable economic conditions. One of the major challenges facing mergers and acquisitions, which accounts for many failures associated with the pro cess, is lack of coherence and incompatibility in the management teams of the corporate entities involved. A disconcerting 50% of merger and acquisition deals fail due to a number of factors, one of which is the inability to reconcile the management cultures of the companies involved (Monahan, 2000). Therefore, a successful acquisition does not end with the formalization of the acquisition process, but with retraining and restructuring to ensure retention of harmony in the management structures of the two companies. The integration process is delicate, and needs careful deliberation and planning by the top management so that it does not defeat the purpose of the acquisition. This summary seeks to explain the effects of implementation of factor analysis in Company W. Admittedly, subjective judgment and experience present glaring limitations as decision-making techniques (Monahan, 2000). Despite the proven effectiveness of multivariate statistical analysis techniques such as factor an alysis techniques, WidgeCorp should not undermine the possible benefits that traditional methods used at Company W might offer the new corporate conglomerate. The management should aim to bring the best practices from either side of the management landscape to benefit from the synergies appropriately (Monahan, 2000). The transition to a common management approach should be as smoothly as possible, and should aim to win the cooperation of the employees the changes will affect the most. What is Factor Analysis? Factor analysis is a statistical analysis technique that explains the variation and correlation of variables with the use of uncorrelated, unobserved variables known as factors (DeCoster, 1998). Statistical researchers hail Charles Spearman, a psychologist, as the pioneer in the practical application of factor analysis. Factor analysis is highly applicable to social sciences and in business in areas such as marketing, production, and sales (DeCoster, 1998). The technique is hig hly effective in areas that involve the processing of very large quantities of data. The overriding premise of factor analysis is that factors that have high correlation share the same driving factors and vice versa. Factor analysis assumes two forms: exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and confirmatory factor analy

Business ethics Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Business ethics - Research Paper Example The module takes ideas from all range of disciplines which include some of the greatest time while thinking how and understand, analyze all the ethical dilemmas in management. Business ethics Practical problems of the moral conduct in the business field, it emphasizes on the philosophy of the foundation of ethical conduct and other practical problems encountered daily. Much of the practical problems centers on the actual problem. Ethics is the study of what is admirable and right for human, business ethics refers to the aspect of human value. Business people speak about business ethics means, avoid breaking the law, in the relate work place, avoiding which may result in civil law against the company and avoid action which portray an unfavorable image about the company. All business are concerned with the three basic things, if not taken keenly the business can result to large loss and company reputation. A business theory addresses various sectors by assigning corporate attorneys and public relation to escort the employees on t heir dairy activities. Anytime an employee might stay a narrow and straight path for an acceptable conduct. Obviously, the solution would be a financial disaster is carried out in practice since it cost the company more. However, it is not the philosophers can teach the ethical issues, even if they can teach the advice will not be financially efficient. Morally responsible, pay attention to the product safety, truthful advertising and environmental impacts with excellent working conditions, we can never solve the tension between the ethical interests. Business people argue that the symbolic relation between business and ethics in which ethics naturally emerge from a profit oriented business. They are both strong and weak version of this approach; it expressed in dictum moral ethics result to a good business. It may be the best financial interest in respect of the company privacy policy. Moral business, practice usually has an economic ad vantage in the long run. It provides little incentive for business which is designed to simply as a matter of survival. More business practices are not economically viable even in the long run. Second approach to business ethic is the moral obligation in business which is restricted to what the law requires. Universal aspects of western morality have been put into a legal system such as, law against stealing, killing, fraud, harassment, validity and society wavers about its acceptance. Issue under consideration such as determining the counts is responsible in marketing in privacy in the work place. Moral requirements in the society become evident when considering societies that have strong external source morality, broad range of the requirements prohibits against sleeping partners that collect unearned money. Business ethics have limitation ethic is complex and history is filled with different theories, which systematically refuted by rival theories. We expect to find controversies when applying ethics in practices of the business. However, they bring closer to an acceptable moral behavior, close attention to ones profit motive and moral interest of consumers, in addition, the above business ethics help to examine stories of business that have a moral responsibility. Such often reveal blatantly crude,

Collective Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Collective Law - Essay Example There were many law collectives in the 1970s and till late 1980s. These collectives ran as worker-run, co operative law firms. They often had revolutionary politics, and supported explicitly revolutionary groups and individuals. Lawyer and non-lawyer employees were paid the same wages, and had equal decision- making power. At some law collectives, workers supporting families were paid more. A handful of law collectives organized along those lines still exist – For example, the People's Law Office in Chicago. There has been a small movement of activist law collectives since the 1999 Seattle WTO protests. These groups are usually non-lawyer centered, they run along anarchist principles even if they do not explicitly identify as anarchist, and work as part of the movement for social justice. These law collectives are made up mostly or entirely of non-lawyers. They are located in cities including Philadelphia, Washington, DC; New York; Madison; Portland; Oakland; and Montreal, Ott awa, and Toronto, Canada. This new generation of law collective works to empower people to provide their own legal support. They give "trainer trainings" so people can give "Know Your Rights" and other workshops to their communities; teach people to provide legal support for their affinity groups or for specific protests; and demystify the law in general and law collective work in particular.... the "A16" World Bank and IMF protests in 2000; the Republican and Democratic convention protests, also in 2000; the Free Trade Area of the Americas FTAA protests in 2001 and 2004; on going protests by the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty; and in the mass protests around the US against the war in Iraq in 2003. Role of collective law in Canada:- Canadians believe that the rule of law must govern relations between states. Canadians have deemed their own security indivisible from that of their allies. These are the abiding foundations of Canada's commitment to collective security. Canadians have a strong sense of responsibility to alleviate suffering and respond, where their efforts can make a difference. Canadians have proven their worth in the past and remain equally valid in a global environment that is increasingly inter dependent. Canada cannot dispense with the maritime, land, and air combat capabilities of modern armed forces. at present, there is no immediate direct military threat to Canada and that today's conflicts are far from our shores. even so, the country must maintain a prudent level of military force to deal with challenges to our sovereignty in peacetime, and retain the capability to generate forces capable of contributing to the defense of their country when the need arise. Beyond the basic national requirement, were Canada to abandon the capability to participate effectively in the defense of North America, NATO-Europe allies, and victims of aggression elsewhere, the country would stand to lose a significant degree of respect and influence abroad. Collective Security and the Changing Face of Peacekeeping. If the country make a significant