Innovation and Enterprise 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Innovation and Enterprise 2 - Essay Example It is possible to apply the concept of open innovation on SMEs. However, Chesbrough (2006) revealed that SMEs have different ways to adopt with the open innovation as compared to large-scale multinational companies. Considering the growing importance of open innovation among the large-scale companies, this study will seek to evaluate and explore the relevance of open innovation on SME’s. To give the readers a better understanding of this subject matter, an overview with regards to open innovation will be provided in this study. As part of going through the main discussion, this study will first discuss how SMEs are able to adopt to open innovation followed by evaluating and examining several existing research studies with regards to the impact of open innovation activities over the business performances of SMEs. Open innovation requires companies to use internal and external sources to make use of technologies. In line with this, Chesbrough (2003) explained that the use of external pathways can increase the chances wherein companies will be able to innovate new product and technological processes which could improve the overall performance of a company. Instead of heavily relying on internal R&D, the large-scale multinational companies were enticed to incorporate open innovation in their business practices in order to gain competitive advantages over their close business competitors (Chesbrough, 2003). The process of developing and commercializing the use of technologies within the internal boundaries of a business organization is called the â€Å"closed innovation† (Chesbrough, 2003). In the past, large-scale multinational companies are heavily relying over the use of their internal R&D to allow them to develop new product lines that can be easily marketed to the consumers. By doing so, large-scale multinational companies were able to outperform the SMEs (Teece, 1986). Since a

Poetry Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Poetry Analysis - Essay Example ‘Your absence distributed itself†¦ When I sat down in the armchair The silent memories of the departed soul have made a strong impression on the poet who was pregnant at that time. She has expertly used the imagery in the text to capture the soul stirring emotional gap that is evident in the place and time that was once inhabited by him. ‘Friends and relatives kept coming, trying to fill up the house†¦ the green hanger swang empty/ and the head of the table/ demanded a plate’. People and acquaintances come voluntarily to visit the place and pay homage to a person who is so patently loved and who is present despite his physical absence. The poet’s use of the figurative speech, has correctly reflected the acute sense of loss one and all. Another very important feature of the poet’s text is that she has beautifully associated the death with the beginning of life that is growing inside her body. According to her, the inevitability of the death and inconsolable loss has brought for the ultimate truth of the universe. Death is final and one is totally helpless in front of it. The poet has compared this feeling of helplessness to that of the child who is still growing inside the womb of the mother and is totally dependent on her for his survival. Indeed the allegory of death and life is the philosophical reminder that it is a cycle that must be encountered by all. ‘I lay down in the cool waters/ of my own womb/ and became the child/ inside, innocuous/ as a button, helplessly growing’. The stark realities of the life are beyond our control and the poet has succeeded in expressing this ideological philosophy through the simple words by ending the poem with ‘I slept because it was the only/ thing I could do. I even dreamed/ I couldnt stop myself’. ‘Those Winter Days’ by Robert Hayden, is a poem that shows that death has a strange way of acknowledging love that

The Nature of Demand for Shipping Essay Example for Free

The Nature of Demand for Shipping Essay The shipping industry is engaged in the production of water borne transport of goods and people. This industry can be defined as a group of individual industries or sectors operating within different markets and reacting to different economic conditions. The primary economic function of shipping services is, like all transport, to bridge the gap which exists between producer and consumer. Shipping is an expanding, global business which carries most of the worlds traded goods; it is relatively free of capacity constraints, and less harmful to the environment than other transport modes. The future offers substantial opportunities for the shipping industry, bringing with them the potential for significant inward investment and wider economic benefits for the world. For example if we look in to the economic contribution of shipping in UK we can see Efficient shipping is vital to our economic well-being: 95% of our external trade by weight (77% by value) and 7% of domestic freight tonnage (but around 25% in terms of tonne kilometres), moves by water. So when we will judge the nature of demand for shipping we have to look into the traditional demand supply rules of economic theory. Human wants are the core of all economic activities. This is the core of economic analysis that how people choose what needs they are going to satisfy through the use of which resources. In economics, demand means effective demand or demand that is backed by ability to pay. The demand for shipping is effective demand because it has actually been satisfied by the world fleet. Generally demands for transport results from demand for goods. Without the demand for goods there would be no demand for transport. Here transport itself is not the primary demand, its the secondary one. Where it (the demand for transport) derives from the need of goods to be transported. Thats why the demand of the mode of transport, here shipping, is a derived demand. So shipping demand is determined by the final consumers for the Product. Here the level of sea borne trade determines the number of shipping and cargo space required. For Example, after 02nd world war ,the rapid world wide industrialization, resulted in concentrated centres of production and consumption, which led to rapid growth of world trade and particularly shipping. 3 So Shipping is directly related to world trade. And world trade is directly related to world output or production. Here industrial economic development is the central factor in the volume of sea borne trade, but the volume can also be influenced by technological development and political factors. And this demand for shipping is mainly derived from two sources, the demand for the commodities for industrial utilisation and demand for those commodities for final consumption. As said before that shipping demand is an effective demand because the demand for the quantity of an economic good which can be transported by ships at each and every possible price during a given time period. And also because the shipping of commodities creates utility because it creates user value in a number of ways like 4 1. The Utility of Place and Location : Shipping makes it the availability of goods in a certain place where they are wanted. For example Australian apple or Costarican banana is available in the UK super market. 2. The Utility of Time : Shipping makes the availability of goods when they are required heating oil during the winter. 3. The Utility of Form :Shipping services contribute to make the change in the material or physical form of a good in such a way to increase its ability to satisfy wants. For example ,middle east crude oil converted to gas or petroleum in refineries adjacent to consumer markets. 4. Intangibles: Like other services, shipping service is also intangible in that it does not result in the physical production of a commodity. The growth rates of 1999 had been strongly distorted by the Asian crisis. In 2000 a sound recovery took place. Both world trade growth of 8. 0 per cent and the world output growth of 3. 0 per cent represent favourable values, but did not entirely approach to the higher levels in 1994, 1995 and 1997. For the years 2000 and 2001, OECD and other international organisations expect a growth rate of real world output of 4.3 per cent and 3. 8 per cent, respectively, with clearly higher rates for world trade, namely about 10 per cent and more than 8 per cent, respectively. This will boost especially world container shipping towards even higher growth rates5 Table 01: World Output, World trade and shipping trend 1993 to 2010. (IMF/World Bank ISL-Estimates) Source: ISL Shipping Statistics and Market Review 2000 Table 02: World merchant fleet Annual tonnage changes as of January 1st, 1987-2001 (dwt-% change) Source: ISL Shipping Statistics and Market Review 2000

Examining The Corporate Culture And Values Of McDonalds Corporation

Examining The Corporate Culture And Values Of McDonalds Corporation Introduction McDonalds corporation is the worlds most recognised and largest provider of foodservice serving millions of customers daily around the world and operates more than 30,000 restaurants in more than 120 countries. It was initiated in 1940 with a restaurant opened by brothers Mac and Dick Donalds in California. After since its incorporation in 1955, McDonalds has sold more than 100 billion hamburgers. McDonalds team of experienced managers, high ranking operating system, global infrastructure and one of the well recognized brand names in the world. It is the biggest fast food retailer capturing the whole world. It has initiated Hamburger University where the assistant managers and the mangers are trained. McDonalds corporate culture is based on shared value system and maintains standardised quality process to ensure same quality and reduction in lead time. McDonalds has the vision to be the best employer in each community in the world. The restaurants are run either by franchise, or as c orporate itself. This paper attempts to define the organisational structure and shortcomings in its operations. The operational structure is the system of the operation of an organisation i.e. the values, beliefs and policies. There are some shortcomings which poise as a thread to achieve its goal and work effectively. The organisational problems of McDonalds have been disturbing the activities to be carried out by the organisation effectively. The policy of McDonalds is to promote an working environments which is free from unlawful discriminations. The study will include the causes underlying the problem and the alternatives available to the organisation along with the recommendation for the future. www.bized.com,mcdonalds/mcindex, Retrieved from : Business source complete database Corporate culture and values of McDonalds Corporation McDonalds corporate strategy is to do the right things and provide the best to the customers and community they serve, and the employees of the organisation. McDonalds has a strong corporate culture and supportive about the global youth employment. In McDonalds every procedure has a very particular rules and regulations of how it should be carried out. It tries to provide best support to its employees. It is dedicated to provide the customers unique level of quality, cleanliness, value and service. They are in the believe that well trained team will serve the best by working together and , so they are committed with people and encourages team building and team work. McDonalds sets out all aspects of business with integrity and honesty. They believe in celebrating the achievement and are strived for new higher goals and its accomplishments. They are highly committed to customers expectation and satisfaction. They are directed to convert awareness into action. The Goal of McDonalds is to have people within the organisation to work to better performance and living to reach their full potential. They have performance based rewards for the employees which provide a platform for the workers to deliver the best to the day to day activities. They believe in balance of work as higher burden of time and work pressure will deteriorate the performance of the employees. They have proper and specific roles and responsibly mentioned for each employees of the workforce. McDonalds have systematic Nick Hopkings,www.docstoc.com, organisational structure of McDonalds(2006) Retrieved from: improving customer focus through organisational structure rules to follow and are inclined towards good health. The following are experienced in the organisation:- Fast customer service. Free from error occurrence. Decision making is simple. Facilities are well maintained. The premises of the restaurants are clean. Well built teams and effective team work with specified work. Standards are based on value, quality and cleanliness. Full control on the every link of the supply chain Food safety is the important consideration of the company Performance based rewards and better scope for promotions on the basis of performance. Organisational problems and causes underlying the problems: McDonalds has also some organisational problems which led it to criticism in its operations. Organisational problems provide a thread to operate smoothly in its activities and poise a difficulty in maintaining quality and performances. The following are the organisational problems and the underlying causes www.mcdonalds.com/us, our story , our values ,Retrieved from : Business source complete database McDonalds is blamed for excessive packaging waste. The main cause of this is due to unplanned packaging design and in accurate way of handling it. Centralised authority is maintained in McDonalds. All the decisions are made by the higher level management and the lower level and crew members have to follow it which created a bridge of gap among various level of management. Strict procedure and employees must focus on how things to be carried out which discouraged many employees as they were unable to communicate their feedback and difficulties. The team lacks motivation to the performance due to strict rules and no feedback process. The team lacks ability as they are allowed to work under fixed guidelines as skills and capabilities all differs. McDonalds is often blamed for obesity and high in calories food. Horizontal division of labour as each task of the employees is specified and the more compliance on the final product which creates boredom among the employees which will lead to decrease in performance. Interiors and the look should be changed as it has been quite a long they have not uninitiated any new look. www.bized.com,mcdonalds/mcindex, Retrieved from : Business source complete database Alternatives and recommendations for the problems arising in the organisation Vertical decision making should be facilitate in the organization which will encourage communication among the various levels in the organisation Decentralised organisational structure should be maintained so that the lower level management should be able to communicate and express their ideas freely. The crew members will feel their importance to the organisation and will play a vital role in improving the performance. The organisation should follow work hard and play hard culture. This will lead to more employee participation through more involvement and decrement in risk taking. Increase in delegation of responsibility to subordinates must be initiated which will encourage higher performance by the employees Negative attention should be stopped to attract i.e. no hormones , no chemicals etc Should be more focused into customer care Should not be associated with globalisation and corporate greed Make the interiors more attractive by introducing more attractive uniforms for employees, new themes etc. Better and improvements in community relations should be started. Each restaurants should be allowed to adapt to its own local area which will encourage better selling and attractions from the locality Take more risk by adding new food items in the menu Rotation of employees works tasks so that they get trained in various sections like finance and accounting. Should try to go organic and provide more healthy food i.e. less in calories etc Conclusion McDonalds has strong corporate values and the industry where it is operating is highly competitive. To maintain the customer value and satisfaction it must improve on the products they are offering. McDonalds should initiate with new product line or new items in the menu so customers are not bored with same items and also maintain the quality of the products it has been serving. The interiors and design should be given a new look to attract new generation and new customers also the old customers feel the speciality about it.

Hybridity and National Identity in Postcolonial Literature Essay

Hybridity and National Identity in Postcolonial Literature  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚     Every human being, in addition to having their own personal identity, has a sense of who they are in relation to the larger community--the nation. Postcolonial studies is the attempt to strip away conventional perspective and examine what that national identity might be for a postcolonial subject. To read literature from the perspective of postcolonial studies is to seek out--to listen for, that indigenous, representative voice which can inform the world of the essence of existence as a colonial subject, or as a postcolonial citizen. Postcolonial authors use their literature and poetry to solidify, through criticism and celebration, an emerging national identity, which they have taken on the responsibility of representing. Surely, the reevaluation of national identity is an eventual and essential result of a country gaining independence from a colonial power, or a country emerging from a fledgling settler colony. However, to claim to be representative of that entire identity is a huge undertaking for an author trying to convey a postcolonial message. Each nation, province, island, state, neighborhood and individual is its own unique amalgamation of history, culture, language and tradition. Only by understanding and embracing the idea of cultural hybridity when attempting to explore the concept of national identity can any one individual, or nation, truly hope to understand or communicate the lasting effects of the colonial process. Postcolonialism is the continual shedding of the old skin of Western thought and discourse and the emergence of new self-awareness, critique, and celebration. With this self-awareness comes self-expression. But how should the i... ...nial institution--one voice which would articulate their own sense of national identity. But exploration of these societies, and the literature produced by postcolonial authors and poets illustrates that there is a veritable infinite number of differing circumstances inherent in each postcolonial society, and, consequently, in each piece of literature produced by postcolonial writers. If one is to read this literature in a way which will shed some light on the postcolonial condition, one must understand and adopt the theory that we are all walking amalgamations of our own unique cultures and traditions. We are all always struggling with our own identities, personal and national. We must understand that there is no "one true voice" representing an easily identifiable postcolonial condition, but, instead, each author is his or her own voice and must be read as such.

Lessons Learned From the Epic of Gilgamesh Essay -- Epic of Gilgamesh

The Epic of Gilgamesh, a Mesopotamian epic poem with no known author, is the story of the brute King of Uruk, Gilgamesh, who was two-thirds divine and one-third human, which teaches readers the unstoppable force of death, the wrath of the gods, and also the power of friendship, which are illustrated to readers through the characters journeys, and those encountered along the way. The poem, which is divided into twelve tablets, starts off with Gilgamesh being a vicious tyrant, one who â€Å"would leave no son to his father†¦ no girl to her mother†(Gilgamesh 101), and as for newly married couples â€Å"was to join with the girl that night†(Gilgamesh 109) transitions to by the end of the story an entirely new man. One of the main reoccurring themes in The Epic of Gilgamesh is the wrath of the gods. King Gilgamesh had qualities that one would need to excel as a ruler, both brain and brawns, yet he chose to rule with selfishly, and caused this people of his kingdom to live in fear. As one might expect, the gods were not pleased with the way the king was treating everyone. So, Anu, the father of all the gods, showing his wrath, enlisted Aruru, a goddess of creation who created Gilgamesh himself, to create an equal to Gilgamesh, and that being was named Enkidu. Originally, Enkidu was made so he could defeat Gilgamesh and put him in his place, but once they realized they were equal in strength, they became friends. Once companions, the two go on a journey to the Cedar Forest and slay the demon guardian Humbaba. At first, Anu was pleased that Gilgamesh was occupied and not tormenting the people of Uruk. Ishtar, a resident of Uruk, is the goddess of love and fertility, and has a bit of a crush on Gi lgamesh, and makes promises to â€Å"ready fo... ...and the power of friendship are all themes that are very present in The Epic of Gilgamesh, which are shown in the story through the journeys that Gilgamesh embark on, and characters he meets along the way. At the time of it’s writing, I am sure that The Epic of Gilgamesh served as lesson to readers to obey gods, to love one another, and to not let the fear of death keep you from living. These days, it is seen more as just an old epic that is actually very entertaining, but that doesn’t mean that we still can’t take a good message out of it. Works Cited Abusch, Tzvi. "The Development and Meaning of The Epic of Gilgamesh." Journal of the American Oriental Society 121.4 (2001): 614-23. Ebscohost.com. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. Unknown Author. "The Epic of Gilgamesh." The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Vol. A. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2012. 95-151. Print.

My Grandparents Essay

One favorite place from my childhood that I remember fondly is my grandparents’ house. On one hand, its marvelous location is unforgettable to me. On the other hand, I have a lovely remembrance of all the fun activities my family and I did there. In addition, other memories include the delicious meals we enjoyed there. To begin, it had a marvelous location. My grandparents’ house was in Punta Cuna, one of the eastern beach cities in the Dominican Republic. The house was very near to the beach, on the top of a hill: for that reason, a fresh breeze was always blowing. It was surrounded by beautiful gardens and a huge back yard with many fruit trees on which lived a lot of birds that would delight with their trills. The view from all of the windows, which included the sea or the backyard, was marvelous. Also, my sisters and I could see the sunrise from the portal. Being a woken up by the sound of the neighbor rooster was my favorite. Not to forget the different aromas coming from the prevalent peddlers made you just want to savor all the different bouquets coming there my little pink bedroom window. In addition, my grandparents planned a lot of activities to keep us amused. We and our friends used to go to the beach every morning, and sometimes we went in the afternoons too. We played a lot of board games such as dominoes, canasta, continental and monopoly. Also, we used to play outdoors for example we did races, played hide-and-seek, and took refreshing hose showers at the backyard. My grandfather would send us out on mini scavenger hunts around the yard for different things he would hide. While we would search for them he would change them locate and then yell out â€Å" Your so freezing cold ; wrong direction† in creole, then start laugh. My grandmother would take us with her on occasion to the Marche aux Puces and we would go around and view the different Merchants who enticing fragrance would wake me up in the morning. At night we would lay under the stars in the backyard and enjoy what we bought from the Marche aux Puces. Last but not least, was the exquisite meals that we ate there. My grandfather was a wonderful cook, and he used to prepare tasteful dishes for us. We tried vegetables, seafood, and all kind of meat made for him. Sometimes, my grandparents and we went out to dinner and could taste a wide variety of meals. The beautiful location left indelible marks in our minds. The amusing time that we passed there is unforgettable. I never try again a meal with the delicious taste of my grandfather’s meal. For all of that, my grandparents’ house was in my memory as the most favorite place that I visited during my childhood.