I
Strategic
position
Macro-
environment
Resources Culture
StakeholdersIndustry
Learning outcomes
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
• Analyse the broad macro-environment of organisations in
terms of political, economic, social, technological, ecological
and legal factors (PESTEL).
• Evaluate di�erent approaches to environmental forecasting.
• Construct alternative scenarios in order to address possible
environmental changes.
Chapter 2
Macro-environment analysis
Key terms
forecasting 50
key drivers for change 49
macro-environment 35
nonmarket environment 37
organisational field 41
PESTEL analysis 36
scenarios 52
2.1 Introduc tion
35
2.1 Introduction
Organisations depend upon their environments for their survival. Here environments are being
understood in their widest sense – to include political, economic, social, technological and
legal factors as well as ecological ones. These environmental factors supply both opportunities
and threats. Political factors helped knock 20 per cent o� Facebook’s share price when it was
revealed in 2018 that it had allowed Russian meddling in the American presidential elections
two years earlier. The clustering of millennials as a social group in high-rent cities has prompted
the emergence of new co-living businesses, such as Roomi and Bedly, o�ering cheap and flex-
ible accommodation. Drone technologies are creating opportunities ranging from audit for
accounting firms such as Deloitte and Ernst & Young to wildlife protection in Africa. It is clearly
important that entrepreneurs and managers analyse their environments as carefully as they
can in order to anticipate and – if possible – take advantage of such environmental changes.
Environments can be considered in terms of a series of ‘layers’, as summarised in
Figure 2.1. This chapter focuses on organisations’ macro-environments, the outermost layer.
The macro-environment consists of broad environmental factors that impact to a greater
or lesser extent many organisations, industries and sectors. For example, the e�ects of
macro-environmental factors such as the Internet, economic growth rates, climate change
and aging populations go far beyond one industry or sector, impacting a wide-range of
activities from tourism to agriculture. The industry, or sector, makes up the next layer within
this broad macro-environment. This layer consists of organisations producing the same sorts
of products or services, for example the automobile industry or the healthcare sector. The
third layer is that of specific competitors and markets immediately surrounding organisa-
tions. For a car company like Nissan, this layer would include competitors such as Ford and
Volkswagen; for a hospital, competitors would include other hospitals and markets would
be types of patients. Whereas this chapter focuses on the macro-environment, Chapter 3 will
analyse industries and sectors and competitors and markets. Chapters 4 and 5 ex ...
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3.2 Environmental Analysis
Previous section
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3.2 Environmental Analysis
Marketing managers are tasked with shaping the elements of the marketing mix to fit the preferences and needs of the target market. This process does not, however, take place in a constant or unchanging environment. The dynamic external environment to which decision makers must respond and adapt comprises two distinct types of variables. Macro-environmental forces are those uncontrollable external variables that impact all firms within an industry. These include demographic shifts, prevailing economic conditions, cultural trends, and changes in the regulatory environment. The PESTEL framework, discussed in the following section, addresses these macro-environmental forces. Micro-environmental forces are external stimuli that selectively and discretely influence each firm uniquely and independently. Though not directly under the control of any single organization, some of these elements of the external environment can be managed and influenced to a significant degree. These micro-environmental forces include the behavior of a company’s suppliers, customers, and channel intermediaries such as independent wholesalers and retailers.
Marketing managers exercise direct control over a limited range of internal resources and decision variables through which they can respond to the threats and opportunities posed by the external environment. Primary among these tools are the marketing mix variables and managers’ discretion to identify segments and select target markets. The success of a marketing plan hinges on the ability to adapt the marketing mix to fit the changing character of both the target market and the larger context provided by macro-environmental forces and trends.
Understanding Forces and Trends: PESTEL Analysis
The process of systematically assessing how elements of the external environment will impact a business or market is termed environmental scanning. Factors of particular concern to marketing managers include those issues and trends that influence the attitudes and behavior of current and prospective target markets. Other points of concern focus on conditions relevant to economies, industries, allied companies (e.g., suppliers), and competitors.
Conducting an environmental scan can incorporate a wide range of information sources and research methodologies such as statistical trend analysis and data mining. However, each variation on the process shares the goal of providing managers with relevant information to improve the quality of marketing decisions. These decisions include choices about new opportunities nested in the strategic alternatives of market penetration, market development, and product development.
Although there are a number of ways to scan the external environment, among those models with the most comprehensive set of external factors is t.
Marketing managers are tasked with shaping the elements of the mar.docxinfantsuk
Marketing managers are tasked with shaping the elements of the marketing mix to fit the preferences and needs of the target market. This process does not, however, take place in a constant or unchanging environment. The dynamic external environment to which decision makers must respond and adapt comprises two distinct types of variables. Macro-environmental forces are those uncontrollable external variables that impact all firms within an industry. These include demographic shifts, prevailing economic conditions, cultural trends, and changes in the regulatory environment. The PESTEL framework, discussed in the following section, addresses these macro-environmental forces. Micro-environmental forces are external stimuli that selectively and discretely influence each firm uniquely and independently. Though not directly under the control of any single organization, some of these elements of the external environment can be managed and influenced to a significant degree. These micro-environmental forces include the behavior of a company’s suppliers, customers, and channel intermediaries such as independent wholesalers and retailers.
Marketing managers exercise direct control over a limited range of internal resources and decision variables through which they can respond to the threats and opportunities posed by the external environment. Primary among these tools are the marketing mix variables and managers’ discretion to identify segments and select target markets. The success of a marketing plan hinges on the ability to adapt the marketing mix to fit the changing character of both the target market and the larger context provided by macro-environmental forces and trends.
Understanding Forces and Trends: PESTEL Analysis
The process of systematically assessing how elements of the external environment will impact a business or market is termed environmental scanning. Factors of particular concern to marketing managers include those issues and trends that influence the attitudes and behavior of current and prospective target markets. Other points of concern focus on conditions relevant to economies, industries, allied companies (e.g., suppliers), and competitors.
Conducting an environmental scan can incorporate a wide range of information sources and research methodologies such as statistical trend analysis and data mining. However, each variation on the process shares the goal of providing managers with relevant information to improve the quality of marketing decisions. These decisions include choices about new opportunities nested in the strategic alternatives of market penetration, market development, and product development.
Although there are a number of ways to scan the external environment, among those models with the most comprehensive set of external factors is the PESTEL analysis. PESTEL is an acronym for the six environmental factors identified in the framework shown in Figure 3.4: political, economic, social, technological, environmental, ...
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· TOC/Annotation menu
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3.2 Environmental Analysis
Previous section
Next section
3.2 Environmental Analysis
Marketing managers are tasked with shaping the elements of the marketing mix to fit the preferences and needs of the target market. This process does not, however, take place in a constant or unchanging environment. The dynamic external environment to which decision makers must respond and adapt comprises two distinct types of variables. Macro-environmental forces are those uncontrollable external variables that impact all firms within an industry. These include demographic shifts, prevailing economic conditions, cultural trends, and changes in the regulatory environment. The PESTEL framework, discussed in the following section, addresses these macro-environmental forces. Micro-environmental forces are external stimuli that selectively and discretely influence each firm uniquely and independently. Though not directly under the control of any single organization, some of these elements of the external environment can be managed and influenced to a significant degree. These micro-environmental forces include the behavior of a company’s suppliers, customers, and channel intermediaries such as independent wholesalers and retailers.
Marketing managers exercise direct control over a limited range of internal resources and decision variables through which they can respond to the threats and opportunities posed by the external environment. Primary among these tools are the marketing mix variables and managers’ discretion to identify segments and select target markets. The success of a marketing plan hinges on the ability to adapt the marketing mix to fit the changing character of both the target market and the larger context provided by macro-environmental forces and trends.
Understanding Forces and Trends: PESTEL Analysis
The process of systematically assessing how elements of the external environment will impact a business or market is termed environmental scanning. Factors of particular concern to marketing managers include those issues and trends that influence the attitudes and behavior of current and prospective target markets. Other points of concern focus on conditions relevant to economies, industries, allied companies (e.g., suppliers), and competitors.
Conducting an environmental scan can incorporate a wide range of information sources and research methodologies such as statistical trend analysis and data mining. However, each variation on the process shares the goal of providing managers with relevant information to improve the quality of marketing decisions. These decisions include choices about new opportunities nested in the strategic alternatives of market penetration, market development, and product development.
Although there are a number of ways to scan the external environment, among those models with the most comprehensive set of external factors is t.
Marketing managers are tasked with shaping the elements of the mar.docxinfantsuk
Marketing managers are tasked with shaping the elements of the marketing mix to fit the preferences and needs of the target market. This process does not, however, take place in a constant or unchanging environment. The dynamic external environment to which decision makers must respond and adapt comprises two distinct types of variables. Macro-environmental forces are those uncontrollable external variables that impact all firms within an industry. These include demographic shifts, prevailing economic conditions, cultural trends, and changes in the regulatory environment. The PESTEL framework, discussed in the following section, addresses these macro-environmental forces. Micro-environmental forces are external stimuli that selectively and discretely influence each firm uniquely and independently. Though not directly under the control of any single organization, some of these elements of the external environment can be managed and influenced to a significant degree. These micro-environmental forces include the behavior of a company’s suppliers, customers, and channel intermediaries such as independent wholesalers and retailers.
Marketing managers exercise direct control over a limited range of internal resources and decision variables through which they can respond to the threats and opportunities posed by the external environment. Primary among these tools are the marketing mix variables and managers’ discretion to identify segments and select target markets. The success of a marketing plan hinges on the ability to adapt the marketing mix to fit the changing character of both the target market and the larger context provided by macro-environmental forces and trends.
Understanding Forces and Trends: PESTEL Analysis
The process of systematically assessing how elements of the external environment will impact a business or market is termed environmental scanning. Factors of particular concern to marketing managers include those issues and trends that influence the attitudes and behavior of current and prospective target markets. Other points of concern focus on conditions relevant to economies, industries, allied companies (e.g., suppliers), and competitors.
Conducting an environmental scan can incorporate a wide range of information sources and research methodologies such as statistical trend analysis and data mining. However, each variation on the process shares the goal of providing managers with relevant information to improve the quality of marketing decisions. These decisions include choices about new opportunities nested in the strategic alternatives of market penetration, market development, and product development.
Although there are a number of ways to scan the external environment, among those models with the most comprehensive set of external factors is the PESTEL analysis. PESTEL is an acronym for the six environmental factors identified in the framework shown in Figure 3.4: political, economic, social, technological, environmental, ...
Chapter 2 Theories about Business Government .docxwalterl4
Chapter 2: Theories about Business Government Relations
*
AgendaThree models of government-business relationsThe shareholder modelThe strategic modelThe stakeholder modelCrony Capitalism
*
Why Study Theories?Helpful in understanding complex social realitiesSimplify and organize knowledge by describing patterns and regularitiesOffer different perspectives regarding the interactions between business and government.In practice they define the strategies, operations, and outcomes of businesses
*
Three Models of Business and SocietyBusiness centered approachesShareholder modelStrategic business modelStakeholder modelNote that there are other important “players” in society, in particular, religion
*
The Shareholder ModelEmphasizes economic principlesViews business in isolationEmphasizes economic analysis and profit-making for direct or indirect ownersEmphasizes the invisible hand at the micro levelStresses the importance of dynamic marketPromotes non-intervention by government Contends the principle duty of government is to ensure that markets function properly, and to correct market failures
*
Examples of shareholder modelEconomic freedom Index (Heritage Foundation)Rule of lawLimited governmentRegulatory efficiencyOpen markets(Top in 2015: Hong Kong, Singapore, NZ, Australia, Switzerland, Canada, Chile, Estonia, Ireland, and Mauritius)Domestic example: Investment banks
Various critiques of the Shareholder ModelDownplays market imperfections Ignores the need for government vigilance and intervention to protect market failureIn practice, tends to ignore the reality of business’ demands on government and the advantages frequently provided by governmentToo much emphasis on monetary and material gains
*
The Strategic Business ModelEmphasizes the practice of business and successOne element: being highly competitiveMost efficient and effective use of resources; Competing to win through hard work and clevernessPlaying the game wellThe model also emphasizes collaborationJoining other strong competitors, networking, creating goodwill, focusing on comparative strengthsPragmatically, it wants: Moderate taxes and moderate regulations, stable policies, and protections in global competitionTo pragmatically use/exploit governmental resources
*
ExamplesCouncil on Competitiveness
Where America Needs to Be
To drive US productivity, buttress our leadership in world markets, and raise the standard of living for all Americans, the United States must:
• Immediately work to:
– Ensure lower cost, easy access to high quality education and training for all Americans
– Maintain long-term federal investments in science and technology leadership
– Reform and simplify the tax code to stimulate investment and attract global capital to the United States
• Over the next ten years:
– Create at least 21 million jobs
– Reduce unemployment to 5 percent
– Reduce government debt by $4 trillion to ensure America’s long term solvency
.
Business Administration CapstoneBUS499The External Environme.docxjasoninnes20
Business Administration Capstone
BUS499
The External Environment: Opportunities, Threats, Industry Competition, and Competitor Analysis
Welcome to the Business Administration Capstone.
In this lesson we will discuss the external environment: opportunities, threats, industry competition, and competitor analysis.
Please go to the next slide.
Objectives
Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
Identify how the six segments of the general environment affects an industry and its firms
Identify the five forces of competition that impacts an industry
Analyze the external environment for opportunities and threats that impact the firm
When you complete this lesson you will be able to:
Identify how the six segments of the general environment affects an industry and its firms;
Identify the five forces of competition; and
Analyze the external environment for opportunities and threats that impact the firm.
Please go to the next slide.
Supporting Topics
The General, Industry, and Competitive Environments
External Environment Analysis
Segments of the General Environment
Industry Environment Analysis
Interpreting Industry Analysis
Strategic Groups
Competitor Analysis
Ethical Considerations
In order to achieve this objective, the following supporting topics will be covered:
The general, industry, and competitive environments;
External environment analysis;
Segments of the general environment;
Industry environment analysis;
Interpreting industry analysis;
Strategic groups;
Competitor analysis; and
Ethical considerations.
Please go to the next slide.
General, Industry, and Competitor Environments
Six Dimensions of Environmental Segments
An integrated understanding of the external and internal environments is essential for firms to understand the present and predict the future. As shown on the figure on the slide, a firm’s external environment is divided into three major categories: the general, industry, and competitor environments.
The general environment is composed of dimensions in the broader society that influence an industry and the firms within it. We group these dimensions into six environmental segments:
Demographic;
Economic;
Political/legal;
Sociocultural;
Technological, and
Global.
The industry environment is the set of factors that directly influences a firm and its competitive actions and competitive responses:
The threat of new entrants;
The power of suppliers;
The power of buyers;
The threat of product substitutes; and
The intensity of rivalry among competitors.
How companies gather and interpret information about their competitors is called competitor analysis. Understanding the firm’s competitor environment complements the insights provided by studying the general and industry environments.
Please go to the next slide.
External Environmental Analysis
Opportunities
Threats
Scanning
Monitoring
Forecasting
Assessing
Most firms face external environments that are highly turbulent, comp ...
Thanks to all my readers. It gives boost when I get calls from my readers and am always happy to revert back to my followers and readers. I am sorry if I am unable to reply to all the e-mails due to my busy schedule.
Contact me for any type of assignments help(nominal charges).
Thanks and Regards,
Er. Bhavi Bhatia
e-mail: bhavi.bhatia.411@gmail.com
Phone: +91-9779703714, +91-9814614666
International Journal of Engineering Research and Development (IJERD)IJERD Editor
journal publishing, how to publish research paper, Call For research paper, international journal, publishing a paper, IJERD, journal of science and technology, how to get a research paper published, publishing a paper, publishing of journal, publishing of research paper, reserach and review articles, IJERD Journal, How to publish your research paper, publish research paper, open access engineering journal, Engineering journal, Mathemetics journal, Physics journal, Chemistry journal, Computer Engineering, Computer Science journal, how to submit your paper, peer reviw journal, indexed journal, reserach and review articles, engineering journal, www.ijerd.com, research journals,
yahoo journals, bing journals, International Journal of Engineering Research and Development, google journals, hard copy of journal
The marketing environment represents a mix between the internal and external forces which surround an organization and have an impact upon it, especially their ability to build and maintain successful relationships with target customers.
The marketing environment consists of the micro and macro environment.
Macro environmental factors include social, economic, political and legal influences, together with demography and technological forces. These are sometimes referred to as the PESTLE factors and are discussed in more detail in PESTLE analysis. The organization cannot control these forces, it can only prepare for changes taking place.
Micro environment refers to the forces closely influencing the company and directly affect the organization’s relationships. The factors include the company and its current employees, its suppliers, marketing intermediaries, competitors, customers and the general public. These forces can sometimes be controlled or influenced and are explained in more detail in Porter’s 5 Forces.
Porter’s 5 Forces model is an excellent tool to analyze the structure of the competitive environment. Two important forces are the bargaining power of customers and the bargaining power of suppliers.
Supplier power is represented by their ability to determine the terms and price of supply and will increase if there are fewer suppliers than buyers, if the organization is not a key customer for the supplier, or if their industry is not attractive for suppliers.
Buyer power refers to the pressure that customers exert on companies to obtain high quality products and services at lower prices. Buyer power increases when there are few buyers and many sellers in the field, or when products are not significantly differentiated and can be easily substituted. For the seller, buyers’ demands represent costs. This means that the stronger the buyer is, the less profit available for the seller, which is why many companies try to develop strategies that reduce the power of buyers.
The PESTLE Analysis is a framework used to scan the organization’s external macro environment. The letters stand for Political, Economic Socio-cultural, Technological, Legal and Environmental.
Please readRobert Geraci, Russia Minorities and Empire,” in .docxTatianaMajor22
Please read:
Robert Geraci, “Russia: Minorities and Empire,” in Abbott Gleason, ed., A Companion to Russian History (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), 243-260.
And discuss:
How does Geraci portray the legacy of the early Russian history for the make-up of 18-19th century Russia?
Please read: Leonard Victor Rutgers, “Roman Policy Towards the Jews: Expulsions from the City of Rome during the First Century C.E.,” in Classical Antiquity, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Apr., 1994), pp. 56-74.
And discuss: Rutgers surveys the different reasons historians have given for the expulsion of the Jews from Rome in the first century C.E. Who place did Jews have in Roman society at this time? Were they expelled because of their religious practices, or because they were ‘unruly’ as Rutgers argues? If so, what caused them to act in this way? What kind of historical evidence does the author use?
There are 2 essay, each one should write at least 300-350 words and plus one reference page.
MLA format. Must use quote( “ ”) for every source you use from website. And put (author, page number) behind quote.
Roman Policy towards the Jews: Expulsions from the City of Rome during the First Century
C.E.
Author(s): Leonard Victor Rutgers
Source: Classical Antiquity, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Apr., 1994), pp. 56-74
Published by: University of California Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25011005 .
Accessed: 26/08/2011 13:35
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]
University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Classical
Antiquity.
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LEONARD VICTOR RUTGERS
Roman Policy towards the Jews:
Expulsions from the City of Rome
during the First Century c. E.
Tant de causes secretes se melent souvent a la cause apparente, tant de ressorts
inconnus servent a persecuter un homme, qu'il est impossible de demeler dans les
siecles posterieures la source cachee des malheurs des hommes les plus consider
ables, a plus forte raison celle du supplice d'un particulier qui ne pouvait etre
connu que par ceux de son parti.
-Voltaire, Traite sur la tolerance (1763)
IN THIS ARTICLE I want to discuss the evidence for expulsions of Jews from
the city of Rome in the first century C.E. Scholars have long been interested in the
reasons underlying these expulsions. Because the anci.
Ford VS ChevroletThere are many reasons that make the Chevy.docxTatianaMajor22
Ford VS Chevrolet
There are many reasons that make the Chevy’s and Ford’s motors two most common trucks. Studies reveal that that they are the most popular vehicles on sales today. It is because they are powerful, versatile and reasonably priced. They also come in a wide variety of configurations and styles. However, many buyers and sellers have questioned themselves on the better vehicle compared to the other in terms of quality, Wi-Fi, price ranges, value, and costs. To compare and contrast on this subject, let us take an example of two vehicles each from each company to facilitate comparison.
Ford offers the full-size track with automatic high-beam control, automatic parallel parking and power-retractable running boards. Fords are elegant, and they are mostly aluminum making them save weight and bolster gas mileage. None of these features are offered Chevy’s. Chevrolets have outstanding quality. They are mostly comprised of steel, for instance, the Chevrolet Silverado. This makes them good for rough roads and difficult terrains.
Fords have employed the use of up to date Wi-Fi technology. Ford intends to provide the Ford Sync, which will provide robust connections for occupants. Latest Chevrolet brands Malibu utilize the 4G LTE Wi-Fi Technology that provides rich in-vehicle experiences. This technology is powerful compared to Ford Sync, and is used for connecting devices and executing few remote operations within the car.
From the value and cost standpoint, Ford can consume a little more, and its payload capacity is a little higher. Additionally, its mileage is too better. The prices vary from nation to nation. Chevrolet seems to be a little cheaper, and reasonably priced going for $33,044, which is slightly less than Ford, but the differences are not serious to propel buyers towards one truck leaving the other
Technophiles are likely to put their preferences on Ford to Chevrolet. On overall, Fords have many features as compared Chevy’s. However, they may be hard to maintain. Compared to Fords, Chevrolets are reliable and cheaper. However, the two brands are equally good performers. It is, therefore, prudent to pick what one thinks would fit his or her usage and preference and personal style
Ethical Systems, Research Paper, Spring 2015, Douglas Green, Page 1 of 1
Ethical
Systems/Final
Research
Paper
2,000
words
minimum,
double-‐spaced
Final
Draft
Due:
Tuesday,
April
28,
12:00
pm
(afternoon)
Please
email
your
final
research
paper
to
me
via
MS
Word
attachment
AND
by
cutting/pasting
the
entire
document
into
the
body
of
your
email.
IF
YOU
DO
NOT
RECEIVE
A
CONFIRMATION
EMAIL
BACK,
I
DID
NOT
RECEIVE
YOUR
ESSAY
AND
YOU
WILL
LOSE
ALL
CREDIT
FOR
THIS
REQUIREMENT.
NO
LATE
WORK
WILL
BE
ACCEPTED…
PERIOD!
.
More Related Content
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Chapter 2 Theories about Business Government .docxwalterl4
Chapter 2: Theories about Business Government Relations
*
AgendaThree models of government-business relationsThe shareholder modelThe strategic modelThe stakeholder modelCrony Capitalism
*
Why Study Theories?Helpful in understanding complex social realitiesSimplify and organize knowledge by describing patterns and regularitiesOffer different perspectives regarding the interactions between business and government.In practice they define the strategies, operations, and outcomes of businesses
*
Three Models of Business and SocietyBusiness centered approachesShareholder modelStrategic business modelStakeholder modelNote that there are other important “players” in society, in particular, religion
*
The Shareholder ModelEmphasizes economic principlesViews business in isolationEmphasizes economic analysis and profit-making for direct or indirect ownersEmphasizes the invisible hand at the micro levelStresses the importance of dynamic marketPromotes non-intervention by government Contends the principle duty of government is to ensure that markets function properly, and to correct market failures
*
Examples of shareholder modelEconomic freedom Index (Heritage Foundation)Rule of lawLimited governmentRegulatory efficiencyOpen markets(Top in 2015: Hong Kong, Singapore, NZ, Australia, Switzerland, Canada, Chile, Estonia, Ireland, and Mauritius)Domestic example: Investment banks
Various critiques of the Shareholder ModelDownplays market imperfections Ignores the need for government vigilance and intervention to protect market failureIn practice, tends to ignore the reality of business’ demands on government and the advantages frequently provided by governmentToo much emphasis on monetary and material gains
*
The Strategic Business ModelEmphasizes the practice of business and successOne element: being highly competitiveMost efficient and effective use of resources; Competing to win through hard work and clevernessPlaying the game wellThe model also emphasizes collaborationJoining other strong competitors, networking, creating goodwill, focusing on comparative strengthsPragmatically, it wants: Moderate taxes and moderate regulations, stable policies, and protections in global competitionTo pragmatically use/exploit governmental resources
*
ExamplesCouncil on Competitiveness
Where America Needs to Be
To drive US productivity, buttress our leadership in world markets, and raise the standard of living for all Americans, the United States must:
• Immediately work to:
– Ensure lower cost, easy access to high quality education and training for all Americans
– Maintain long-term federal investments in science and technology leadership
– Reform and simplify the tax code to stimulate investment and attract global capital to the United States
• Over the next ten years:
– Create at least 21 million jobs
– Reduce unemployment to 5 percent
– Reduce government debt by $4 trillion to ensure America’s long term solvency
.
Business Administration CapstoneBUS499The External Environme.docxjasoninnes20
Business Administration Capstone
BUS499
The External Environment: Opportunities, Threats, Industry Competition, and Competitor Analysis
Welcome to the Business Administration Capstone.
In this lesson we will discuss the external environment: opportunities, threats, industry competition, and competitor analysis.
Please go to the next slide.
Objectives
Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
Identify how the six segments of the general environment affects an industry and its firms
Identify the five forces of competition that impacts an industry
Analyze the external environment for opportunities and threats that impact the firm
When you complete this lesson you will be able to:
Identify how the six segments of the general environment affects an industry and its firms;
Identify the five forces of competition; and
Analyze the external environment for opportunities and threats that impact the firm.
Please go to the next slide.
Supporting Topics
The General, Industry, and Competitive Environments
External Environment Analysis
Segments of the General Environment
Industry Environment Analysis
Interpreting Industry Analysis
Strategic Groups
Competitor Analysis
Ethical Considerations
In order to achieve this objective, the following supporting topics will be covered:
The general, industry, and competitive environments;
External environment analysis;
Segments of the general environment;
Industry environment analysis;
Interpreting industry analysis;
Strategic groups;
Competitor analysis; and
Ethical considerations.
Please go to the next slide.
General, Industry, and Competitor Environments
Six Dimensions of Environmental Segments
An integrated understanding of the external and internal environments is essential for firms to understand the present and predict the future. As shown on the figure on the slide, a firm’s external environment is divided into three major categories: the general, industry, and competitor environments.
The general environment is composed of dimensions in the broader society that influence an industry and the firms within it. We group these dimensions into six environmental segments:
Demographic;
Economic;
Political/legal;
Sociocultural;
Technological, and
Global.
The industry environment is the set of factors that directly influences a firm and its competitive actions and competitive responses:
The threat of new entrants;
The power of suppliers;
The power of buyers;
The threat of product substitutes; and
The intensity of rivalry among competitors.
How companies gather and interpret information about their competitors is called competitor analysis. Understanding the firm’s competitor environment complements the insights provided by studying the general and industry environments.
Please go to the next slide.
External Environmental Analysis
Opportunities
Threats
Scanning
Monitoring
Forecasting
Assessing
Most firms face external environments that are highly turbulent, comp ...
Thanks to all my readers. It gives boost when I get calls from my readers and am always happy to revert back to my followers and readers. I am sorry if I am unable to reply to all the e-mails due to my busy schedule.
Contact me for any type of assignments help(nominal charges).
Thanks and Regards,
Er. Bhavi Bhatia
e-mail: bhavi.bhatia.411@gmail.com
Phone: +91-9779703714, +91-9814614666
International Journal of Engineering Research and Development (IJERD)IJERD Editor
journal publishing, how to publish research paper, Call For research paper, international journal, publishing a paper, IJERD, journal of science and technology, how to get a research paper published, publishing a paper, publishing of journal, publishing of research paper, reserach and review articles, IJERD Journal, How to publish your research paper, publish research paper, open access engineering journal, Engineering journal, Mathemetics journal, Physics journal, Chemistry journal, Computer Engineering, Computer Science journal, how to submit your paper, peer reviw journal, indexed journal, reserach and review articles, engineering journal, www.ijerd.com, research journals,
yahoo journals, bing journals, International Journal of Engineering Research and Development, google journals, hard copy of journal
The marketing environment represents a mix between the internal and external forces which surround an organization and have an impact upon it, especially their ability to build and maintain successful relationships with target customers.
The marketing environment consists of the micro and macro environment.
Macro environmental factors include social, economic, political and legal influences, together with demography and technological forces. These are sometimes referred to as the PESTLE factors and are discussed in more detail in PESTLE analysis. The organization cannot control these forces, it can only prepare for changes taking place.
Micro environment refers to the forces closely influencing the company and directly affect the organization’s relationships. The factors include the company and its current employees, its suppliers, marketing intermediaries, competitors, customers and the general public. These forces can sometimes be controlled or influenced and are explained in more detail in Porter’s 5 Forces.
Porter’s 5 Forces model is an excellent tool to analyze the structure of the competitive environment. Two important forces are the bargaining power of customers and the bargaining power of suppliers.
Supplier power is represented by their ability to determine the terms and price of supply and will increase if there are fewer suppliers than buyers, if the organization is not a key customer for the supplier, or if their industry is not attractive for suppliers.
Buyer power refers to the pressure that customers exert on companies to obtain high quality products and services at lower prices. Buyer power increases when there are few buyers and many sellers in the field, or when products are not significantly differentiated and can be easily substituted. For the seller, buyers’ demands represent costs. This means that the stronger the buyer is, the less profit available for the seller, which is why many companies try to develop strategies that reduce the power of buyers.
The PESTLE Analysis is a framework used to scan the organization’s external macro environment. The letters stand for Political, Economic Socio-cultural, Technological, Legal and Environmental.
Please readRobert Geraci, Russia Minorities and Empire,” in .docxTatianaMajor22
Please read:
Robert Geraci, “Russia: Minorities and Empire,” in Abbott Gleason, ed., A Companion to Russian History (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), 243-260.
And discuss:
How does Geraci portray the legacy of the early Russian history for the make-up of 18-19th century Russia?
Please read: Leonard Victor Rutgers, “Roman Policy Towards the Jews: Expulsions from the City of Rome during the First Century C.E.,” in Classical Antiquity, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Apr., 1994), pp. 56-74.
And discuss: Rutgers surveys the different reasons historians have given for the expulsion of the Jews from Rome in the first century C.E. Who place did Jews have in Roman society at this time? Were they expelled because of their religious practices, or because they were ‘unruly’ as Rutgers argues? If so, what caused them to act in this way? What kind of historical evidence does the author use?
There are 2 essay, each one should write at least 300-350 words and plus one reference page.
MLA format. Must use quote( “ ”) for every source you use from website. And put (author, page number) behind quote.
Roman Policy towards the Jews: Expulsions from the City of Rome during the First Century
C.E.
Author(s): Leonard Victor Rutgers
Source: Classical Antiquity, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Apr., 1994), pp. 56-74
Published by: University of California Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25011005 .
Accessed: 26/08/2011 13:35
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LEONARD VICTOR RUTGERS
Roman Policy towards the Jews:
Expulsions from the City of Rome
during the First Century c. E.
Tant de causes secretes se melent souvent a la cause apparente, tant de ressorts
inconnus servent a persecuter un homme, qu'il est impossible de demeler dans les
siecles posterieures la source cachee des malheurs des hommes les plus consider
ables, a plus forte raison celle du supplice d'un particulier qui ne pouvait etre
connu que par ceux de son parti.
-Voltaire, Traite sur la tolerance (1763)
IN THIS ARTICLE I want to discuss the evidence for expulsions of Jews from
the city of Rome in the first century C.E. Scholars have long been interested in the
reasons underlying these expulsions. Because the anci.
Ford VS ChevroletThere are many reasons that make the Chevy.docxTatianaMajor22
Ford VS Chevrolet
There are many reasons that make the Chevy’s and Ford’s motors two most common trucks. Studies reveal that that they are the most popular vehicles on sales today. It is because they are powerful, versatile and reasonably priced. They also come in a wide variety of configurations and styles. However, many buyers and sellers have questioned themselves on the better vehicle compared to the other in terms of quality, Wi-Fi, price ranges, value, and costs. To compare and contrast on this subject, let us take an example of two vehicles each from each company to facilitate comparison.
Ford offers the full-size track with automatic high-beam control, automatic parallel parking and power-retractable running boards. Fords are elegant, and they are mostly aluminum making them save weight and bolster gas mileage. None of these features are offered Chevy’s. Chevrolets have outstanding quality. They are mostly comprised of steel, for instance, the Chevrolet Silverado. This makes them good for rough roads and difficult terrains.
Fords have employed the use of up to date Wi-Fi technology. Ford intends to provide the Ford Sync, which will provide robust connections for occupants. Latest Chevrolet brands Malibu utilize the 4G LTE Wi-Fi Technology that provides rich in-vehicle experiences. This technology is powerful compared to Ford Sync, and is used for connecting devices and executing few remote operations within the car.
From the value and cost standpoint, Ford can consume a little more, and its payload capacity is a little higher. Additionally, its mileage is too better. The prices vary from nation to nation. Chevrolet seems to be a little cheaper, and reasonably priced going for $33,044, which is slightly less than Ford, but the differences are not serious to propel buyers towards one truck leaving the other
Technophiles are likely to put their preferences on Ford to Chevrolet. On overall, Fords have many features as compared Chevy’s. However, they may be hard to maintain. Compared to Fords, Chevrolets are reliable and cheaper. However, the two brands are equally good performers. It is, therefore, prudent to pick what one thinks would fit his or her usage and preference and personal style
Ethical Systems, Research Paper, Spring 2015, Douglas Green, Page 1 of 1
Ethical
Systems/Final
Research
Paper
2,000
words
minimum,
double-‐spaced
Final
Draft
Due:
Tuesday,
April
28,
12:00
pm
(afternoon)
Please
email
your
final
research
paper
to
me
via
MS
Word
attachment
AND
by
cutting/pasting
the
entire
document
into
the
body
of
your
email.
IF
YOU
DO
NOT
RECEIVE
A
CONFIRMATION
EMAIL
BACK,
I
DID
NOT
RECEIVE
YOUR
ESSAY
AND
YOU
WILL
LOSE
ALL
CREDIT
FOR
THIS
REQUIREMENT.
NO
LATE
WORK
WILL
BE
ACCEPTED…
PERIOD!
.
Fairness and Discipline Weve all been disciplined at one.docxTatianaMajor22
Fairness and Discipline
We've all been disciplined at one time or another by a parent or a teacher. What disciplinary experiences have you had as a child that took a non-punitive approach?
I need paragraph or half page with reference
.
Appendix 12A Statement of Cash Flows—Direct MethodLEARNING .docxTatianaMajor22
Appendix 12A
Statement of Cash Flows—Direct Method
LEARNING OBJECTIVE
6
Prepare a statement of cash flows using the direct method.
To explain and illustrate the direct method, we will use the transactions of Computer Services Company for 2014, to prepare a statement of cash flows. Illustration 12A-1 presents information related to 2014 for Computer Services Company.
To prepare a statement of cash flows under the direct approach, we will apply the three steps outlined in Illustration 12-4.
Illustration 12A-1
Comparative balance sheets, income statement, and additional information for Computer Services Company
STEP 1: OPERATING ACTIVITIES
DETERMINE NET CASH PROVIDED/USED BY OPERATING ACTIVITIES BY CONVERTING NET INCOME FROM AN ACCRUAL BASIS TO A CASH BASIS
Under the direct method, companies compute net cash provided by operating activities by adjusting each item in the income statement from the accrual basis to the cash basis. To simplify and condense the operating activities section, companies report only major classes of operating cash receipts and cash payments. For these major classes, the difference between cash receipts and cash payments is the net cash provided by operating activities. These relationships are as shown in Illustration 12A-2.
Illustration 12A-2
Major classes of cash receipts and payments
An efficient way to apply the direct method is to analyze the items reported in the income statement in the order in which they are listed. We then determine cash receipts and cash payments related to these revenues and expenses. The following pages present the adjustments required to prepare a statement of cash flows for Computer Services Company using the direct approach.
CASH RECEIPTS FROM CUSTOMERS.
The income statement for Computer Services Company reported sales revenue from customers of $507,000. How much of that was cash receipts? To answer that, companies need to consider the change in accounts receivable during the year. When accounts receivable increase during the year, revenues on an accrual basis are higher than cash receipts from customers. Operations led to revenues, but not all of these revenues resulted in cash receipts.
To determine the amount of cash receipts, the company deducts from sales revenue the increase in accounts receivable. On the other hand, there may be a decrease in accounts receivable. That would occur if cash receipts from customers exceeded sales revenue. In that case, the company adds to sales revenue the decrease in accounts receivable. For Computer Services Company, accounts receivable decreased $10,000. Thus, cash receipts from customers were $517,000, computed as shown in Illustration 12A-3.
Illustration 12A-3
Computation of cash receipts from customers
Computer Services can also determine cash receipts from customers from an analysis of the Accounts Receivable account, as shown in Illustration 12A-4.
Illustration 12A-4
Analysis of Accounts Receivable
Illustration.
Effects of StressProvide a 1-page description of a stressful .docxTatianaMajor22
Effects of Stress
Provide a 1-page description of a stressful event currently occurring in your life.
Discuss I am married work a full time job as an occupational therapy assistant am taking two courses
Have to take care of a home feed the animals attend to laundry
Think of my pateitns worry about their well being and what I can do for them ( I bring home my patients issues)
Constantly doing paper work for work such as documentation for billing
I feel like I have no free time for me some days I don’t even eat dinner or lunch because I don’t have time to make anything or am just too tired to cook
On top of this I am married and married ppl do argue and my husband am I have been bunting heads on finances.
Then, referring to information you learned throughout this course, address the following:
· What physiological changes occur in the brain due to the stress response?
· What emotional and cognitive effects might occur due to this stressful situation?
· Would the above changes (physiological, cognitive, or emotional) be any different if the same stress were being experienced by a person of the opposite sex or someone much older or younger than you?
· If the situation continues, how might your physical health be affected?
· What three behavioral strategies would you implement to reduce the effects of this stressor? Describe each strategy. Explain how each behavior could cause changes in brain physiology (e.g., exercise can raise serotonin levels).
· If you were encouraging an adult client to make the above changes, what ethical considerations would you have to keep in mind? How would you address those ethical considerations?
In addition to citing the online course and the text, you are also required to cite a minimum of four scholarly sources. For reputable web sources, look for .gov or .edu sites as opposed to .com sites. Please do not use Wikipedia.
Your paper should be double-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman font, and with normal 1-inch margins; written in APA style; and free of typographical and grammatical errors. It should include a title page with a running head, an abstract, and a reference page.
The body of the paper should be at least 6 pages in length total
not including the reference or title page
Assignment 1 Grading Criteria
Maximum Points
Described a stressful event.
20
Explained the physiological changes that occur in the brain due to the stress response.
36
Explained the emotional and cognitive effects that may occur due to this stressful situation.
32
Analyzed potential differences in physiological, cognitive, and emotional responses in someone of a different age or sex.
32
Discussed the physical health risks.
28
Provided three behavioral strategies to reduce the effects of the stressor and explained how each could cause changes in brain physiology.
40
Analyzed ethical considerations in implementing behavioral strategies and offered suggestions for addressing these.
40
Integrated at least two scholarly references .
Design Factors NotesCIO’s Office 5 People IT Chief’s Offi.docxTatianaMajor22
Design Factors
Notes
CIO’s Office
5 People
IT Chief’s Office
5 People
LAN/WAN Maint.
20 People
Reception
4 People
Telecommunications
20 People
LAN Management
50 People
Server Room A
2 Person
Server Room B
4 Person
Equipment:
Patch Cable
Computer to Wall
Patch Cable
LAN Room
Cable Trays/Runs
Horizontal Runs
Cisco Border Router
Research: Attached to 5 Floor Switches
Server Room A
10 Servers
Server Room B
10 Servers
Computers
One Per Person
Standard floor (first floor) Lesson 2 Project Plan info
Design Factors
Notes
CIO’s Office
5 People
IT Chief’s Office
5 People
LAN/WAN Maint.
20 People
Reception
4 People
Telecommunications
20 People
LAN Management
50 People
Server Room A
2 Person
Server Room B
4 Person
Equipment:
Patch Cable
Computer to Wall
Patch Cable
LAN Room
Cable Trays/Runs
Horizontal Runs
Cisco Border Router
Research: Attached to 5 Floor Switches
Server Room A
10 Servers
Server Room B
10 Servers
Computers
One Per Person
Basement floor
Design Factors
Notes
Vertical Riser Run
On Outside Wall of LAN Room on Each Floor.
Fiber-Optic Multimode
Riser Runs: Backbone
SC Connectors
Fiber-Optic Cable
Cisco Catalyst: Switch: WS-C3750G-24PS-S: 24 Ports
Leave a Minimum of four ports free on each switch
Color Laser Printer
Minimum of One per Room or One per 20 people
Vertical Riser Run
On Outside Wall of LAN Room on Each Floor and Server RM B on this floor.
Fiber-Optic Multimode
Riser Runs: Backbone
SC Connectors
Fiber-Optic Cable
Cable Trays/Runs
Horizontal Runs
Horizontal Runs
Leave a Minimum of four ports free on each switch
Applicataion
U.S. Minimum Requirement Ranges
Space per Employee - 1997
Two people, such as a supervisor and an employee, can meet in an office with a table or desk between them
60" to 72" x 90" to 126:/5.78m2 to 11.7m2
280Sq. Ft./26.0m2
Worker has a primary desk plus a return
60" to 72"x60"to 84"/5.78 to 7.8m2
193Sq. Ft./17.9m2
Executive office - three to four people can meet around a desk
105 to 130"x96 to 123"/9.75 to 11.4 m2
142Sq. Ft./13.2m2
Basic workstation such as a call center
42" to 52" x 60" to 72"/3.9 to 6.7 m2
114Sq. Ft./10.6 m2
NT1310: Project
Page 1
PRO JECT D ESC RIPT ION
As the project manager for the Cable Planning team, you will manage the creation of the cable plan for
the new building that will be built, with construction set to begin in six weeks.
The deliverables for the entire Cable Plan will consist of an Executive Summary, a PowerPoint
Presentation and an Excel Spreadsheet. You will develop different parts of each of these in three parts.
The final organization should contain these elements:
The Executive Summary:
o Project Introduction
o Standards and Codes
Cable Standards and Codes
Building Standards and Codes
o Project Materials
o Copper Cable, Tools, and Test Equipment
o Fiber-Optic Cable, Tools, and Test Equipment
o Fiber-Optic Design Considerations
o Basement Server Comp.
Question 12.5 pointsSaveThe OSU studies concluded that le.docxTatianaMajor22
Question 1
2.5 points
Save
The OSU studies concluded that leaders exhibit two main types of behavior: structure behavior and consideration behavior.
True
False
Question 2
2.5 points
Save
Fiedler suggests when there is a mismatch between the type of situation in which leaders find themselves, and the leaders style of leadership:
leaders should shift to situations for which they are best suited
the situation should be changed
immediate training is necessary no matter how long it may take
any leadership style is appropriate
the leaders should be flexible enough to adapt to the new situation
Question 3
2.5 points
Save
The OSU studies concluded that leaders exhibit two main styles of behavior:
employee-centered behavior and job-centered behavior
structure behavior and consideration behavior
boss-centered behavior and subordinate-centered behavior
consideration behavior and job-centered behavior
structure behavior and employee-centered behavior
Question 4
2.5 points
Save
The life cycle theory of leadership maintains that:
as a manager becomes more mature, he/she should become more participatory
the organization should match the individual with a specific leadership situation
a manager's leadership style should be independent of the follower's maturity levels
the leader's abilities will peak when the leader is 45 years old, and decline thereafter
a manager's leadership style will be effective only if it is appropriate for the maturity level of the followers
Question 5
2.5 points
Save
According to the characteristics of the emerging leader versus characteristics of the manager, which of the following would be associated with the leader?
problem-solving
independent
consulting
stabilizing
authoritative
Question 6
2.5 points
Save
Under which of the following conditions would Fiedler say a considerate leader would be most effective?
good leader-member relations, high task structure, and strong leader position power
moderately poor leader-member relations, high task structure, and weak leader position power
moderately poor leader-member relations, weak task structure and weak leader position power
good leader-member relations, high task structure, and weak leader position power
good leader-member relations, weak task structure, and weak leader position power
Question 7
2.5 points
Save
Which approach to leadership suggests successful leadership requires a unique combination of leaders, followers, and leadership situations?
transformational leadership
the trait approach
the situational approach to leadership
contingency approach
the contemporary leader approach
Question 8
2.5 points
Save
According to the Vroom-Yetton-Jago Model, when a manager and subordinates meet as a group to discuss the situation, and the group makes the decision, it is the ________ de.
Case Study 1 Questions1. What is the allocated budget .docxTatianaMajor22
Case Study 1 Questions:
1. What is the allocated budget ? $250,000
2. Where does the server room located? Currently, there is no server room
3. What is the number of users with PCs inside each existing site?
Currently there are
4. What is the current cabling used in each location? (cat5e or cat6) Current cabling does not meet the company’s current and future needs
5. Do want us to upgrade token Ring or use a completely new Ethernet network What is your recommendation and why?
6. regarding the ordering system , it is not clear what the we should do , do you want to talk about how to connect the system to the network or how to built the ordering online system because it is more software engineering than networking . Talk about the kind of network (hardware) you recommend based on the business requirements
7. all the sites should have access to our servers in the main branch? yes
8. Regarding the order software, do you need more details about the way it works or just about its connection with the network? Your solution should be from a network point of view
9. Distances are given in Meters or feet? feet
10. Shipment is done by truck, or ships? Currently, only trucking
11. In Dimebox branch, where are administration offices located? See Business goals # 4
12. What is the current network connectivity status? How many devices are currently on the network? How they are physically laid out? Is cabling running all over the floor, hidden in walls or threaded through the ceiling? What are the switches used and its speed? Currently, only the office is networked (token ring) NOVELL
13. What is the minimum Internet speed wanted? See Business Goals on page 2 – I only can tell you what we need the network for, you must tell me what we need to meet the business needs
14. Will the corporation provide wireless access? If yes will it be in all department and buildings? Wireless access would be helpful if we can justify the cost
15. Are there phones in offices? yes
16. What is the internet speed available now? What speed do you want for future? Internet access is through time warner cable company which is not very reliable
17. Do employees access their emails outside the company? yes
18. Do you have plans for future expansion? We like to increase our customer base by 20% over the next year
REMEMBER, you are the IT expert, I’m only a business person who must rely on your expertise.
Network Design and Performance
Case Study
Dooma-Flochies, Inc. with headquarters located on Podunk Road in Trumansburg, NY, is the sole manufacturer of Dooma-Flochies (big surprise). They currently have a manufacturing facility in, Lake Ridge, NY (across Cayuga Lake) on Cayuga Dr. and have recently diversified by purchasing a company, This-N-That, on Industry Ave. in, Dime Box Texas. This-N-That is the sole competitor of Domma-Flochies with their product Thinga-Ma-Jigs. This acquisition gives Dooma-Flochies, Inc a monopoly in this mark.
Behavior in OrganizationsIntercultural Communications Exercise .docxTatianaMajor22
Behavior in Organizations
Intercultural Communications Exercise Response Paper –
Week 5
The most overt cultural differences, such as greeting rituals and name format, can be overcome most easily. The underlying, intangible differences are very difficult to overcome. In this case, the underlying cultural differences are
· Assumptions about the purpose of the event (is the party strictly for fun and for relationship building, or are their business matters to take care of?).
· Assumptions about the purpose and the nature of business relationship.
· Assumptions about power and leadership relationships (who makes the decisions and how?).
· Response styles (verbal and nonverbal signals of agreement, disagreement, politeness, etc.).
Many (though not all) cultural differences can be overcome if you carefully observe other people, think creatively, remain flexible, and remember that your own culture is not inherently superior to others.
The Scenario
Three corporations are planning a joint venture to sponsor an international concert tour. The corporations are Decibel, an agency representing the musicians (from the US, Britain, and Japan); Images, a marketing firm which will handle sales of tickets, snacks and beverages, clothing, and CDs; and Event, a special events company which will hire the ushers, concessionaires, and security officers; print the programs; and clean up the arenas after the shows. The companies come from three different cultures: Blue, Green, and Red. Each has specific cultural traits, customs, and practices.
You are a manager in one of these companies. You will attend the opening cocktail party in Perth, Australia the evening before a 3-day meeting during which the three companies will negotiate the details of the partnership. Your management team includes a Vice President and a number of other managers.
During the 3-day meeting, the companies have the following goals:
Decibel
· As high a royalty rate as possible on sales of T-shirts, videos, and CDs
· Aggressive marketing and advertising to increase attendance and sales
· Good security, both before and during the show Image
Image
· Well known bands that will be easy to market
· As much income as possible from the concerts
· Smoothly functioning event so that publicity from early concerts is positive
Event
· Bands that are not likely to provoke stampedes, riots, or other antisocial behavior
· Bands that are reliable and will show up on time, ready to play
· As much income as possible from the concerts
The cultures that are assigned to the various companies are:
BLUE CULTURE
Image (Marketing Company)
Beliefs, Values, and Attitudes that Underlie This Culture’s Communication
Believe that fate and luck control most things.
Believe in feelings more than reasoning.
An authoritarian leader makes the ultimate decisions.
Nonverbal Traits of This Culture
Treat time as something that is unimportant. It is not a commodity that can be lost.
Conversation distance is close (about 15 inches, face-.
Discussion Question Comparison of Theories on Anxiety Disord.docxTatianaMajor22
Discussion Question:
Comparison of Theories on Anxiety Disorders
There are numerous theories that attempt to explain the development and manifestation of psychological disorders. Some researchers hold that certain disorders result from learned behaviors (behavioral theory), while other researchers believe that there is a genetic or biological basis to psychological disorders (medical model), while still others hold that psychological disorders stem from unresolved unconscious conflict (psychoanalytic theory). How would each of these theoretical viewpoints explain anxiety disorders? Does one explain the development and manifestation of anxiety disorders better than the others?
200- 400 words please
Three min resources with
in text citations and examples
you can use the following as a module reference
cite as university 2014
Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorders such as panic disorder, specific phobias, and social anxiety disorder feature a heightened autonomic nervous system response that is above and beyond what would be considered normal when faced with the object or situation that the person reacts to. For example, a person with a specific phobia of spiders (called arachnophobia) experiences a heightened autonomic response when confronted with a spider (or even an image of a spider). This anxiety response must result in significant distress or impairment. In general, anxiety disorders have been linked to underactive gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the brain, resulting in overexcitability of the amygdala and the anterior cingulate cortex. Additionally, genetic research shows that anxiety disorders demonstrate a clear pattern of genetic predisposition
Charles Darwin's Perspective
We talked about Charles Darwin when discussing evolution and natural selection. Darwin was also very interested in emotions. One of his books published in 1872,The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals, was devoted to this topic.
Darwin believed that emotions play an important role in the survival of the species and result from evolutionary processes in the same way as other behaviors and psychological functions. Darwin's writing on this topic also prompted psychologists to study animal behavior as a way to better understand human behavior.
James–Lange Theory of Emotions
Modern theories of emotion can be traced to William James and Carl Lange (Pinel, 2011). William James was a renowned Harvard psychologist who is sometimes called the father of American psychology. Carl Lange was a Danish physician. James and Lange formulated the same theory of emotions independently at about the same time (1884). As a result, it is called the James–Lange theory of emotions. This theory reversed the commonsensical notion that emotions are automatic responses to events around us. Instead, it proposes that emotions are the brain's interpretation of physiological responses to emotionally provocative stimuli.
Cannon–Bard Theory of Emotions
In 1915, Harvard physiologist Walt.
I have always liked Dustin Hoffmans style of acting, in this mov.docxTatianaMajor22
I have always liked Dustin Hoffman's style of acting, in this movie he takes on a sexually deprived young male just out of college, and has never been with a female, and is duped by horny older woman that feels neglected. Dustin Hoffman takes the characters form of a young male, goofy, respectful virgin and intelligent male, missing something but not really sure at the beginning till Ann Bancroft coaxes him with seduction to fulfill her own needs. In an other movie called "The life of Little Big Man" he plays almost the same character but as a white child raised by the Native Americans and a wise old chief that deeply care and loves him as his own, and Fay Dunaway plays a Holy rollers wife that is older and sexually deprived and feeling neglected by her husband and also she goes through major changes in her life from devoted wife, to a honey bell/ house hooker, whats funny Dustin Hoffman is a awesome actor but has to have his surrounding characters bring his character to life. The Graduate was Dustin Hoffman's first big movie of his career.
I actually liked movie "Little Big man" way better due to he went through major changes in his life, from being a Native boy warrior, captured by Yankees, meets Fay Dunaway who loves to give baths, to finding his sister who teaches him to be a gunslinger and then returns to his Grand Father to be a native again and tells his blind Grand Father the world of the white man is a crazy one, then his see the Psyho Col. Custer and gets his revenge by telling Custer the truth. The movie Little Big Man makes you laugh, teaches you things about people and survial and cry at times... its a must see...
Although a stray away from the Benjamin Braddock written about in the novel The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman does an awesome job with this character on film. When you first meet Ben he is at a party that his parents are throwing in his academic honor upon his graduation from school and return home. The whole night, Hoffman stumbles though various conversations and tries to coyly escape from the festivities. Small things such as this Hoffman did a great job at, conveying the hesitance and crisis that Ben was going through as a graduate. There are multiple times in the movie he hardly expresses anything at all, yet it clearly shows you that Ben is having a very hard time internally with everything going on. Even through his relationships with Mrs. Robinson and her daughter Elaine you see the young man struggling with himself through either failed attempts at affection or lack thereof.
.
Is obedience to the law sufficient to ensure ethical behavior Wh.docxTatianaMajor22
Is obedience to the law sufficient to ensure ethical behavior? Why, or why not? Support your answer with at least three reasons that justify your position.
100 words
Discuss the differences between an attitude and a behavior. Provide 4 substantive reasons why it is important for organizations to monitor and mitigate employee behavior that is either beneficial or detrimental to the organization's goals and existence.
150 words
.
If you are using the Blackboard Mobile Learn IOS App, please clic.docxTatianaMajor22
If you are using the Blackboard Mobile Learn IOS App, please click "View in Browser." V BUS 520Week 9 Assignment 4 Paper
I need the paper as soon as possible
Students, please view the "Submit a Clickable Rubric Assignment" in the Student Center.
Instructors, training on how to grade is within the Instructor Center.
Assignment 4: Leadership Style: What Do People Do When They Are Leading?
Due Week 9 and worth 100 points
Choose one (1) of the following CEOs for this assignment: Larry Page (Google), Tony Hsieh (Zappos), Gary Kelly (Southwest Airlines), Meg Whitman (Hewlett Packard), Ursula Burns (Xerox), Terri Kelly (W.L. Gore), Ellen Kullman (DuPont), or Bob McDonald (Procter & Gamble). Use the Internet to investigate the leadership style and effectiveness of the selected CEO. (Note: Just choose one that is easier for you to right about.) It does not matter to me which CEO you pick
Write a five to six (5-6) page paper in which you:
1. Provide a brief (one [1] paragraph) background of the CEO.
2. Analyze the CEO’s leadership style and philosophy, and how the CEO’s leadership style aligns with the culture.
3. Examine the CEO’s personal and organizational values.
4. Evaluate how the values of the CEO are likely to influence ethical behavior within the organization.
5. Determine the CEO’s three (3) greatest strengths and three (3) greatest weaknesses.
6. Select the quality that you believe contributes most to this leader’s success. Support your reasoning.
7. Assess how communication and collaboration, and power and politics influence group (i.e., the organization’s) dynamics.
8. Use at least five (5) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.
Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:
· Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
· Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.
The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:
· Analyze the formation and dynamics of group behavior and work teams, including the application of power in groups.
· Outline various individual and group decision-making processes and key factors affecting these processes.
· Examine the primary conflict levels within organization and the process for negotiating resolutions.
· Examine how power and influence empower and affect office politics, political interpretations, and political behavior.
· Use technology and information resources to research issues in organizational behavior.
· Write clearly and concisely about organizational behavior using proper writing mechanics.
Click here.
Is the proliferation of social media and communication devices a .docxTatianaMajor22
Is the proliferation of social media and communication devices a good thing or a bad thing for society? Use personal examples to support your opinion.
( I’m currently a freshmen in university)
.
MATH 107 FINAL EXAMINATIONMULTIPLE CHOICE1. Deter.docxTatianaMajor22
MATH 107 FINAL EXAMINATION
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. Determine the domain and range of the piecewise function.
A. Domain [–2, 2];
B. Domain [–1, 1];
C. Domain [–1, 3];
D. Domain [–3/2, –1/2];
2. Solve:
A. 3
B. 3,7
C. 9
D. No solution
3. Determine the interval(s) on which the function is increasing.
A. (−1.3, 1.3)
B. (1, 3)
C. (−∞,−1)and (3,∞)
D. (−2.5, 1)and (4.5,∞)
4. Determine whether the graph of y = 2|x| + 1 is symmetric with respect to the origin,
the x-axis, or the y-axis.
A. symmetric with respect to the origin only
B. symmetric with respect to the x-axis only
C. symmetric with respect to the y-axis only
D. not symmetric with respect to the origin, not symmetric with respect to the x-axis, and
not symmetric with respect to the y-axis
5. Solve, and express the answer in interval notation: | 9 – 7x | ≤ 12.
A. (–∞, –3/7]
B. (–∞, −3/7] ∪ [3, ∞) C. [–3, 3/7]
D. [–3/7, 3]
6. Which of the following represents the graph of 7x + 2y = 14 ?
A. B.
C. D.
7. Write a slope-intercept equation for a line parallel to the line x – 2y = 6 which passes through the point (10, – 4).
A.
B.
C.
D.
8. Which of the following best describes the graph?
A. It is the graph of a function and it is one-to-one.
B. It is the graph of a function and it is not one-to-one.
C. It is not the graph of a function and it is one-to-one.
D. It is not the graph of a function and it is not one-to-one.
9. Express as a single logarithm: log x + log 1 – 6 log (y + 4)
A.
B.
C.
D.
10. Which of the functions corresponds to the graph?
A.
B.
C.
D.
11. Suppose that a function f has exactly one x-intercept.
Which of the following statements MUST be true?
A. f is a linear function.
B. f (x) ≥ 0 for all x in the domain of f.
C. The equation f(x) = 0 has exactly one real-number solution.
D. f is an invertible function.
12. The graph of y = f(x) is shown at the left and the graph of y = g(x) is shown at the right. (No formulas are given.) What is the relationship between g(x) and f(x)?
y = f (x) y = g(x)
A. g(x) = f (x – 3) + 1
B. g(x) = f (x – 1) + 3
C. g(x) = f (x + 3) – 1
D. g(x) = f (x + 1) .
If the CIO is to be valued as a strategic actor, how can he bring.docxTatianaMajor22
If the CIO is to be valued as a strategic actor, how can he bring to the table the ethos of alignment, bound to the demands of process strategic planning to move IT to the forefront of the organization's future? Is there a lack of information on strategic planning? Nope. I think the process of planning is poorly understood, and rarely endorsed. The reasons are simple enough. Planning requires a commitment of resources (time, talent, money); it requires insight; it requires a total immersion in the corporate culture. While organizations do plan, planning is invariably attached to the budget process. It is typically here that the CIO lays out his/her vision for the coming year Now a few years ago authors began writing on the value of aligning IT purpose to organizational purpose. They wrote at a time when enterprise architectural planning was fairly new, and enterprise resource management was on the lips of every executive. My view is that alignment is a natural process driven by the availability of the tools to accomplish it. Twenty years ago making sense of IT was more about processing power, and database management. We are in a new age of IT, and it is the computer that is the network, not the network as an independent self-contained exchange of information. If you will spend some time reviewing the basic materials I provided on strategic planning and alignment, we can begin our discussions for the course. Again, here is the problem I would like for us to tackle: If the CIO is to be valued as a strategic actor, how can he bring to the table the ethos of alignment, bound to the demands of process strategic planning to move IT to the forefront of the organization's future? Most of the articles I bundled together for this week are replete with tables and charts. These can be a heavy read. Your approach should be to review these articles for the "big ideas" or lessons that are take away. I think these studies are significant enough that we will conclude our first week with an understanding of the roles between executive leaders, and how they see Information Technology playing a role in shaping a business strategy.
Read the articles to answer the question. Please No Plagerism or verbatim but you are allowed to quote from the article.
Achieving and Sustaining
Business-IT Alignment
Jerry Luftman
Tom Brier
I
n recent decades, billions of dollars have been invested in intormation tech-
nology (IT). A key concern of business executives is alignment—applying IT
in an appropriate and timely way and in harmony with business strategies,
goals, and needs. This issue addresses both how IT is aligned with the busi-
ness and how the business should be aligned with IT Frustratingly, organizations
seem to find it difficult or impossible to harness the power of information tech-
nology for their own long-term benefit, even though there is worldwide evi-
dence that IT has the power to transform whole industries and markets.' How
can companies.
I am showing below the proof of breakeven, which is fixed costs .docxTatianaMajor22
I am showing below the proof of breakeven, which is fixed costs/ contribution margin.
We start with the definition of breakeven and proceed using elementary algebra to derive the formula. Breakeven is a number and is created by knowing fixed and variable costs, and the retail sales price. It is thus not a point of discussion but is based on the assumptions of these variables.
Proof of Breakeven
Definition of BreakevenVolume: Total Revenue = Total Expenses
Definition
1.Total Revenue = Total Expenses
Breakdown of Definition
2. Retail Price * Volume = Fixed Expenses + Variable Expenses
Further Analysis
3. Retail Price * Volume = Fixed Expenses + (Volume * Unit Variable Expenses)
Subtract (Volume * Unit Variable Expenses) from both sides
4. Fixed Expenses = (Retail Price * Volume) — (Volume * Unit Variable Expenses)
Factor
5. Fixed Expenses = Volume * (Retail Price – Unit Variable Expenses)
Divide both sides by (Retail Price – Unit Variable Expenses)
6. Volume = Fixed Expenses
(Retail Price – Unit Variable Expenses)
Substitution based on Definition
7. Since (Retail Price — Unit Variable Expenses) is called Contribution Margin,
Therefore:
Breakeven Volume = Fixed Expenses / Contribution Margin
NAME_________________________________________________ DATE ____________
1. Explain some of the economic, social, and political considerations involved in changing the tax law.
2. Explain the difference between a Partnership, a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) and a Limited Liability Company (LLC). In each structure who has liability?
3. How is “control” defined for purposes of Section 351 of the IRS Code?
4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using debt in a firm’s capital structure?
5. Under what circumstances is a corporation’s assumption of liabilities considered boot in a Section 351exchange?
6. What are the tax consequences for the transferor and transferee when property is transferred to a newly created corporation in an exchange qualifying as nontaxable under Section 351?
7. Why are corporations allowed a dividend-received deduction? What dividends qualify for this special deduction?
8. Provide 3 examples of a Constructive Dividend. Are these Constructive Dividends taxable?
9. Discuss the tax consequences of a new Partnership Formation and give details to gain and losses and basis?
10. Provide 2 similarities and 2 differences when comparing Sections 351 and 721 of the IRS Code.
11. What is the difference between inside and outside basis with a partnership?
12. ABC Partnership distributes $12,000 of taxable income to partner Bob and $24,000 of tax-exempt income to Partner Bob. As a result of these two distributions, how does Bob’s basis change?
13. On January 1, Katie pays $2,000 for a 10% capital, profits, and loss interest in a partnership.
Examine the way in which death and dying are viewed at different .docxTatianaMajor22
Examine the way in which death and dying are viewed at different points in human development.
Using only my text as a reference:
Berger, K.S. (2011). The developing person through the life span (8th ed.).
I need 3 detailed PowerPoint slide with very detailed speaker notes. There must be detailed speaker notes on each slide. The 4th slide will be the reference.
.
Karimi 1 Big Picture Blog Post First Draft College .docxTatianaMajor22
Karimi 1
Big Picture Blog Post First Draft
College Girls in Media
Sogand Karimi
Media and Hollywood movies have affected and influenced society’s perception on
female college students. Due to Hollywood movies and media, society mostly recognizes the
negative stereotypes of a college women. Saran Donahoo, an associate professor and education
administration of Southern Illinois University, once said, “The messages in these films
consistently emphasized college as a place where young women come to have fun, engage in
romances with young men, experiment with sex and alcohol, face dilemmas regarding body
image, and encounter difficulties in associating with other college women.” In this essay I will
be talking about the recurring stereotypes and themes portrayed in three hollywood movies,
Spring Breakers, The house bunny and Legally Blond and how these stereotypes affect our
society.
The movie Spring Breakers is about four college girls who are bored with their daily
routines and want to escape on a spring break vacation to Florida. After realizing they don’t have
enough money, they rub a local diner with fake guns and ski masks. They break the laws in order
to get down to Florida, just to break more rules and laws once they’re there. During the film, you
will notice a lot of partying, drugs and sexual activity. The four girls wear bikinis for majority of
the film and are overly sexual. These are some common themes and stereotypes seen in all three
movies. Media and movies like spring breakers have made it a norm to constantly want to party,
get drunk and have sex as a college woman. In an article by Heather Long, she mentions how the
movie can even be seen as supporting rape culture. She believes because of these stereotypes
always being shown in media, it is contributing to the “girls asking for it” excuse when it comes
to rape cases with young girls. Long also said “...never mind the fact that thousands of college
students are spending their spring break not on a beach, but volunteering with groups like Habitat
for Humanity and the United Way, especially after Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy.” THIS shows
how media only displays one side of a certain group or story. Even though not all college girls
like to party and lay on a beach naked for spring break, that’s what media likes to portray. Not
only does this give the wrong message to our society but it influences bigger issues like rape, as
the author mentioned.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/10/alternative-spring-break_n_494028.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/10/alternative-spring-break_n_494028.html
Karimi 2
The movie House bunny. The House bunny is a movie about an ex playmate or girlfriend
if Hugh Hefner that gets kicked out of the Playboy Mansion due to her aging. She then becomes
a mother of an unpopular sorority with girls that are bit geeky, and unusual compared to other
girls on campus. The story.
Please try not to use hard words Thank youWeek 3Individual.docxTatianaMajor22
Please try not to use hard words Thank you
Week 3
Individual
Problems and Goals Case Study
Select one of the following three case studies in Ch. 6 of The Helping Process:
· Case Susanna
· Case James and Samantha
· Case Alicia and Montford
Identify three to five problems in the case study you have selected.
Write a 500- to 700-word paperthatincludes the following:
· A problem-solving strategy and a goal for each problem
· The services, resources, and supports the client may need and why
· A description of how goals are measurable and realistically attainable for the client
Here is the case studies
Exercise 3: Careful Assessment
The following case studies are about Susanna, James, Samantha, Alicia, and Montford, all
homeless children attending school. The principal of the school has asked you to conduct
an assessment of these children and provide initial recommendations.
Before you begin this exercise, go to the website that accompanies this book: www.
wadsworth.com/counseling/mcclam, Chapter Three, Link 1, to read more about homeless
families and children.
Susanna
Susanna is 15 years old. Th e city where she lives has four schools: two elementary, one
middle, and one high school. Th ere are about 1,500 students enrolled in the city/county
school district and about 450 in the local high school that Susanna is attending. For the
past six months, Susanna has been living with her boyfriend and his parents. Prior to this,
she left her mother’s home and lived on the streets. She is pregnant and her boyfriend’s
parents want her to move out of their home. Her father lives in a town with his girlfriend,
about 50 miles from the city. Her mother lives outside the city with Susanna’s baby brother.
Right now Susanna’s mother is receiving child support for the two children. Susanna wants
to have a portion of the child support so that she can find a place of her own to live. Her
mother says that the only way that Susanna can have access to that money is to move back
home. Susanna refuses to move back in with her mother.
You receive a call from the behavior specialist at Susanna’s high school. Susanna’s
mother is at the school demanding that Susanna be withdrawn from school. Susanna’s
mother indicates that Susanna will be moving in with her and will be enrolling in another
school district.
Currently Susanna is not doing very well in school. She misses school and she tells the
helper it is because she is tired and that she does not have good food to eat. She has not told
the helper that she is looking for a place to live. Right now she is failing two of her classes
and she has one B and two Ds. Her boyfriend has missed a lot of school, too.
James and Samantha
James is 10 years old and he has a sister, Samantha, who is 8. At the beginning of the
school year, both of the children were attending Boone Elementary School. Both children
live with their aunt and uncle; their parents are in prison. In the middle of the scho.
June 3, 2024 Anti-Semitism Letter Sent to MIT President Kornbluth and MIT Cor...Levi Shapiro
Letter from the Congress of the United States regarding Anti-Semitism sent June 3rd to MIT President Sally Kornbluth, MIT Corp Chair, Mark Gorenberg
Dear Dr. Kornbluth and Mr. Gorenberg,
The US House of Representatives is deeply concerned by ongoing and pervasive acts of antisemitic
harassment and intimidation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Failing to act decisively to ensure a safe learning environment for all students would be a grave dereliction of your responsibilities as President of MIT and Chair of the MIT Corporation.
This Congress will not stand idly by and allow an environment hostile to Jewish students to persist. The House believes that your institution is in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and the inability or
unwillingness to rectify this violation through action requires accountability.
Postsecondary education is a unique opportunity for students to learn and have their ideas and beliefs challenged. However, universities receiving hundreds of millions of federal funds annually have denied
students that opportunity and have been hijacked to become venues for the promotion of terrorism, antisemitic harassment and intimidation, unlawful encampments, and in some cases, assaults and riots.
The House of Representatives will not countenance the use of federal funds to indoctrinate students into hateful, antisemitic, anti-American supporters of terrorism. Investigations into campus antisemitism by the Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Committee on Ways and Means have been expanded into a Congress-wide probe across all relevant jurisdictions to address this national crisis. The undersigned Committees will conduct oversight into the use of federal funds at MIT and its learning environment under authorities granted to each Committee.
• The Committee on Education and the Workforce has been investigating your institution since December 7, 2023. The Committee has broad jurisdiction over postsecondary education, including its compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, campus safety concerns over disruptions to the learning environment, and the awarding of federal student aid under the Higher Education Act.
• The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating the sources of funding and other support flowing to groups espousing pro-Hamas propaganda and engaged in antisemitic harassment and intimidation of students. The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is the principal oversight committee of the US House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate “any matter” at “any time” under House Rule X.
• The Committee on Ways and Means has been investigating several universities since November 15, 2023, when the Committee held a hearing entitled From Ivory Towers to Dark Corners: Investigating the Nexus Between Antisemitism, Tax-Exempt Universities, and Terror Financing. The Committee followed the hearing with letters to those institutions on January 10, 202
Instructions for Submissions thorugh G- Classroom.pptxJheel Barad
This presentation provides a briefing on how to upload submissions and documents in Google Classroom. It was prepared as part of an orientation for new Sainik School in-service teacher trainees. As a training officer, my goal is to ensure that you are comfortable and proficient with this essential tool for managing assignments and fostering student engagement.
Acetabularia Information For Class 9 .docxvaibhavrinwa19
Acetabularia acetabulum is a single-celled green alga that in its vegetative state is morphologically differentiated into a basal rhizoid and an axially elongated stalk, which bears whorls of branching hairs. The single diploid nucleus resides in the rhizoid.
Biological screening of herbal drugs: Introduction and Need for
Phyto-Pharmacological Screening, New Strategies for evaluating
Natural Products, In vitro evaluation techniques for Antioxidants, Antimicrobial and Anticancer drugs. In vivo evaluation techniques
for Anti-inflammatory, Antiulcer, Anticancer, Wound healing, Antidiabetic, Hepatoprotective, Cardio protective, Diuretics and
Antifertility, Toxicity studies as per OECD guidelines
The French Revolution, which began in 1789, was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France. It marked the decline of absolute monarchies, the rise of secular and democratic republics, and the eventual rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. This revolutionary period is crucial in understanding the transition from feudalism to modernity in Europe.
For more information, visit-www.vavaclasses.com
Synthetic Fiber Construction in lab .pptxPavel ( NSTU)
Synthetic fiber production is a fascinating and complex field that blends chemistry, engineering, and environmental science. By understanding these aspects, students can gain a comprehensive view of synthetic fiber production, its impact on society and the environment, and the potential for future innovations. Synthetic fibers play a crucial role in modern society, impacting various aspects of daily life, industry, and the environment. ynthetic fibers are integral to modern life, offering a range of benefits from cost-effectiveness and versatility to innovative applications and performance characteristics. While they pose environmental challenges, ongoing research and development aim to create more sustainable and eco-friendly alternatives. Understanding the importance of synthetic fibers helps in appreciating their role in the economy, industry, and daily life, while also emphasizing the need for sustainable practices and innovation.
Introduction to AI for Nonprofits with Tapp NetworkTechSoup
Dive into the world of AI! Experts Jon Hill and Tareq Monaur will guide you through AI's role in enhancing nonprofit websites and basic marketing strategies, making it easy to understand and apply.
2024.06.01 Introducing a competency framework for languag learning materials ...Sandy Millin
http://sandymillin.wordpress.com/iateflwebinar2024
Published classroom materials form the basis of syllabuses, drive teacher professional development, and have a potentially huge influence on learners, teachers and education systems. All teachers also create their own materials, whether a few sentences on a blackboard, a highly-structured fully-realised online course, or anything in between. Despite this, the knowledge and skills needed to create effective language learning materials are rarely part of teacher training, and are mostly learnt by trial and error.
Knowledge and skills frameworks, generally called competency frameworks, for ELT teachers, trainers and managers have existed for a few years now. However, until I created one for my MA dissertation, there wasn’t one drawing together what we need to know and do to be able to effectively produce language learning materials.
This webinar will introduce you to my framework, highlighting the key competencies I identified from my research. It will also show how anybody involved in language teaching (any language, not just English!), teacher training, managing schools or developing language learning materials can benefit from using the framework.
How to Make a Field invisible in Odoo 17Celine George
It is possible to hide or invisible some fields in odoo. Commonly using “invisible” attribute in the field definition to invisible the fields. This slide will show how to make a field invisible in odoo 17.
The Roman Empire A Historical Colossus.pdfkaushalkr1407
The Roman Empire, a vast and enduring power, stands as one of history's most remarkable civilizations, leaving an indelible imprint on the world. It emerged from the Roman Republic, transitioning into an imperial powerhouse under the leadership of Augustus Caesar in 27 BCE. This transformation marked the beginning of an era defined by unprecedented territorial expansion, architectural marvels, and profound cultural influence.
The empire's roots lie in the city of Rome, founded, according to legend, by Romulus in 753 BCE. Over centuries, Rome evolved from a small settlement to a formidable republic, characterized by a complex political system with elected officials and checks on power. However, internal strife, class conflicts, and military ambitions paved the way for the end of the Republic. Julius Caesar’s dictatorship and subsequent assassination in 44 BCE created a power vacuum, leading to a civil war. Octavian, later Augustus, emerged victorious, heralding the Roman Empire’s birth.
Under Augustus, the empire experienced the Pax Romana, a 200-year period of relative peace and stability. Augustus reformed the military, established efficient administrative systems, and initiated grand construction projects. The empire's borders expanded, encompassing territories from Britain to Egypt and from Spain to the Euphrates. Roman legions, renowned for their discipline and engineering prowess, secured and maintained these vast territories, building roads, fortifications, and cities that facilitated control and integration.
The Roman Empire’s society was hierarchical, with a rigid class system. At the top were the patricians, wealthy elites who held significant political power. Below them were the plebeians, free citizens with limited political influence, and the vast numbers of slaves who formed the backbone of the economy. The family unit was central, governed by the paterfamilias, the male head who held absolute authority.
Culturally, the Romans were eclectic, absorbing and adapting elements from the civilizations they encountered, particularly the Greeks. Roman art, literature, and philosophy reflected this synthesis, creating a rich cultural tapestry. Latin, the Roman language, became the lingua franca of the Western world, influencing numerous modern languages.
Roman architecture and engineering achievements were monumental. They perfected the arch, vault, and dome, constructing enduring structures like the Colosseum, Pantheon, and aqueducts. These engineering marvels not only showcased Roman ingenuity but also served practical purposes, from public entertainment to water supply.
Unit 8 - Information and Communication Technology (Paper I).pdfThiyagu K
This slides describes the basic concepts of ICT, basics of Email, Emerging Technology and Digital Initiatives in Education. This presentations aligns with the UGC Paper I syllabus.
"Protectable subject matters, Protection in biotechnology, Protection of othe...
IStrategicpositionMacro- environmentResources Cu
1. I
Strategic
position
Macro-
environment
Resources Culture
StakeholdersIndustry
Learning outcomes
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
• Analyse the broad macro-environment of organisations in
terms of political, economic, social, technological, ecological
and legal factors (PESTEL).
• Evaluate di�erent approaches to environmental forecasting.
• Construct alternative scenarios in order to address possible
environmental changes.
Chapter 2
Macro-environment analysis
Key terms
forecasting 50
key drivers for change 49
macro-environment 35
2. nonmarket environment 37
organisational field 41
PESTEL analysis 36
scenarios 52
2.1 Introduc tion
35
2.1 Introduction
Organisations depend upon their environments for their
survival. Here environments are being
understood in their widest sense – to include political,
economic, social, technological and
legal factors as well as ecological ones. These environmental
factors supply both opportunities
and threats. Political factors helped knock 20 per cent o�
Facebook’s share price when it was
revealed in 2018 that it had allowed Russian meddling in the
American presidential elections
two years earlier. The clustering of millennials as a social group
in high-rent cities has prompted
the emergence of new co-living businesses, such as Roomi and
Bedly, o�ering cheap and flex-
ible accommodation. Drone technologies are creating
opportunities ranging from audit for
accounting firms such as Deloitte and Ernst & Young to wildlife
protection in Africa. It is clearly
important that entrepreneurs and managers analyse their
3. environments as carefully as they
can in order to anticipate and – if possible – take advantage of
such environmental changes.
Environments can be considered in terms of a series of ‘layers’,
as summarised in
Figure 2.1. This chapter focuses on organisations’ macro-
environments, the outermost layer.
The macro-environment consists of broad environmental factors
that impact to a greater
or lesser extent many organisations, industries and sectors. For
example, the e�ects of
macro-environmental factors such as the Internet, economic
growth rates, climate change
and aging populations go far beyond one industry or sector,
impacting a wide-range of
activities from tourism to agriculture. The industry, or sector,
makes up the next layer within
this broad macro-environment. This layer consists of
organisations producing the same sorts
of products or services, for example the automobile industry or
the healthcare sector. The
third layer is that of specific competitors and markets
immediately surrounding organisa-
tions. For a car company like Nissan, this layer would include
competitors such as Ford and
Volkswagen; for a hospital, competitors would include other
hospitals and markets would
be types of patients. Whereas this chapter focuses on the macro-
environment, Chapter 3 will
analyse industries and sectors and competitors and markets.
Chapters 4 and 5 examine the
individual organisations at the heart of Figure 2.1.
Figure 2.1 Layers of the business environment
4. The macr
o-environment
Industry (or sector)
Competitors
Markets
The
organisation
Chapter 2 Macro - environment analysis
36
Macro-environmental changes can often seem too big, complex
or unpredictable for
managers to grasp. The result is that changes can creep up on
them until it is too late to
avoid threats or take advantage of opportunities. Thus many
traditional retailers, banks and
newspapers were slow to seize the opportunities of the Internet;
many oil and steel producers
underestimated the potential impact of China’s slowing
economic growth. While managers
are always liable to some biases and inertia (see Chapter 5), this
chapter introduces a number
of analytical tools and concepts that can help keep organisations
alert to macro-environmental
change. The point is to minimize threats and to seize
opportunities. The chapter is organised
in three main sections:
5. • PESTEL factors examine macro-environmental factors
according to six key types: political,
economic, social, technological, ecological and legal. These
factors include both market
and nonmarket aspects.
• Forecasting, which aims to predict, with varying degrees of
precision or certainty.
Macro-environmental forecasting draws on PESTEL analysis
and often makes use of three
conceptual tools: megatrends, inflexion points and weak signals.
• Scenario analysis – a technique that develops plausible
alternative views of how the
environment might develop in the future. Scenario analysis
di�ers from forecasting
because it avoids predictions about the future; it is more about
learning di�erent possi-
bilities for environmental change.
The structure of this chapter is summarised in Figure 2.2.
2.2 PESTEL analysis
This section introduces a key tool for analysing the broad
macro-environment of an organ-
isation: PESTEL analysis. Providing a wide overview, PESTEL
is likely to feed into both envi-
ronmental forecasts and scenario analyses.
The PESTEL framework is one of several frameworks
(including the similar ‘PEST’ and
‘STEEPLE’ frameworks) which categorise environmental
factors into key types.1 PESTEL
analysis highlights six environmental factors in particular:
political, economic, social,
6. technological, ecological and legal. This list underlines that the
environment includes not
only the economics of markets, but also nonmarket factors.
Organisations need to consider
both market and nonmarket aspects of strategy:2
• The market environment consists mainly of suppliers,
customers and competitors. These
are environmental participants with whom interactions are
primarily economic. Here
Figure 2.2 Analysing the macro-environment
PESTEL analysis
•
•
Learning-emphasis
•
•
•
Prediction-emphasis
2.2 PESTEL analysis
37
companies typically compete for resources, revenues and
profits. Pricing and innova-
tion are often key strategies here. The market environment is
discussed extensively
in Chapter 3, but issues such as economic cycle are also
7. considered in this chapter
(Section 2.2.2).
• the nonmarket environment relates primarily to social,
political, legal, and ecological
factors, but can also be impacted by economic factors. The
nonmarket environment
typically involves interactions with non-governmental
organisations (NGOs), polit-
icians, government departments, regulators, political activists,
campaign groups
and the media. In the nonmarket environment, organisations
need to build reputation,
connections, influence and legitimacy. Lobbying, public
relations, networking and collab-
oration are key nonmarket strategies.
Nonmarket factors are obviously important for government and
similar organisations
reliant on grants or subsidies, for example schools, hospitals
and charities. However,
nonmarket factors can be very important for business
organisations too. For example,
nonmarket factors are particularly important where the
government or regulators are
powerful (for instance in the defence and healthcare sectors);
where consumer sensitivities
are high (for instance in the food business); or in societies
where political, business and
media elites are closely interconnected (typically smaller
countries, or countries where the
state is powerful).
The following sections consider each of the PESTEL elements
in turn, providing key analyt-
ical concepts and frameworks for each. Meanwhile, Illustration
8. 2.1 on the so-called FANGs
provides examples of various PESTEL factors, showing how in
practice they often interrelate.
2.2.1 Politics
The political element of PESTEL highlights the role of the state
and other political factors in
the macro-environment. There are two important steps in
political analysis: first, identifying
the importance of political factors; second, carrying out
political risk analysis.
Figure 2.3 is a matrix that distinguishes two variables helpful to
identifying the importance
of political factors:
• The role of the state: in many countries and sectors the state is
often important as
a direct economic actor, for instance as a customer, supplier,
owner or regulator of
businesses.
• Exposure to civil society organisations: civil society
comprises a whole range of organisa-
tions that are liable to raise political issues, including political
lobbyists, campaign groups,
social media or traditional media.
To take an example from Figure 2.3, the defence industry faces
a highly politicised
environment. Defence companies typically have high direct
state involvement: national
armed services are of course key customers, while states are
often owners of their national
defence companies. At the same time, defence companies are
10. not to rely just on an organisation’s managers, who may
have limited views. A PESTEL analysis of the four main FANG
companies based on published sources shows a growing
preponderance of macro - environmental threats over
opportunities (specific industry analysis will be dealt with in
Chapter 3). In the figure above, the scale of Opportunities
and Threats on each of the PESTEL dimensions is indicated
by the relative extent of the bars. Just taking some issues for
illustration, the figure shows more and longer bars on the
Threats side than the Opportunities side. Thus:
• Political: FANG companies face increasing political hostil -
ity. India has banned Facebook’s Free Basics, a free but re-
stricted internet service. The United Kingdom is planning
specific taxes for online retailers such as Amazon.
• Economic: FANG companies are now facing market sat-
uration in developed markets. In 2018, Netflix missed
its subscriber growth targets by one million, and in the
USA, the costs required to acquire each new subscriber
have doubled from $60 to $120 (€105; £90.00). Netflix
is spending big now on producing new content specific-
ally for international markets. Facebook, facing declining
usage in Europe, is diversifying into new activities such as
digital dating.
• Social: growing awareness of internet addiction has
increased consumer willingness to undertake digital
detoxes. In 2018, Google launched a ‘Digital Wellbeing’
app, with user-friendly dashboards giving a detailed view
on how users spend their time.
• Technological: autonomous planes and balloons are being
developed by Facebook and Alphabet to deliver internet
access to large populations in the developing world. New
11. technologies may provide substitutes, as Telegram and Sig-
nal provide encrypted alternatives to Facebook Messenger.
• Ecological: the FANGs are big energy consumers, with
cloud computing accounting for 2 per cent of energy con-
sumption in the USA, and Google using as much power as
San Francisco.
• Legal: Amazon alone accounts for nearly half of US retail
spending, and 80 million Americans are part of its Prime
membership programme. Both in the US and Europe,
there is an increasing threat of legal regulation to curb the
market power of Amazon and other FANG companies.
Questions
1 Taking one of the FANG companies, what do you think
is its greatest macro-environmental threat, and what is
its greatest macro-environmental opportunity?
2 Have the opportunities and threats changed since
2018? How would you update this analysis?
Illustration 2.1 A PESTEL for the FANGs
In 2018, US technology giants were facing a toughening macro-
environment.
P
E
S
T
E
12. L
Opportunities Threats
Developed world saturation
Digital detox
New technologies
Governmental partnerships
Substitutes
Political hostility
Online taxation and data constraints
New growth regions; diversification
Energy fears
High High
2.2 PESTEL analysis
39
about Internet monitoring by national security agencies has
placed companies such as
Amazon and Facebook much more under scrutiny by
governments, civil liberties groups
and consumers (see Illustration 2.1).
13. Organisations that face politicised environments need to carry
out political risk analysis,
the analysis of threats and opportunities arising from potential
political change. There are
two key dimensions to political risk analysis:3
• the macro–micro dimension. The macro dimension of political
risk refers to the risks
associated with whole countries: for instance Nigeria, Russia or
Venezuela. Many
specialist organisations publish relative rankings of countries’
macro political risks.
Western European countries are typically ranked low in terms of
macro political risk,
as even changes of government following elections do not bring
fundamental change.
On the other hand, some Middle Eastern countries rank high in
terms of macro polit-
ical risk, because changes of government there can be sudden
and radical.4 However,
there is also an important micro dimension of political risk,
relating to the specific risk
of particular organisations or sectors within a country. It is
important to distinguish
between macro political risk and specific micro-level risk.
China is typically ranked
medium political risk on the macro dimension, but for some
Japanese companies oper-
ating there the micro dimension is higher and variable. For
many Chinese consumers,
resentment of Japan is strong and Japanese car companies are
from time to time
targeted by nationalist boycotts.
• the internal–external dimension. The internal dimension of
14. political risk relates to factors
originating within the countries, for example government
change or pressure from local
campaigning groups. These can be relatively easy to monitor,
requiring attention to elec-
tion dates and opinion polls for example. However, there are
also external political risks,
the knock-on e�ects of events occurring outside particular
countries’ national boundaries.
For example, a fall in oil prices driven by the internal politics
of Saudi Arabia is liable to
have negative economic and political impacts on other big oil-
producing countries such
as Russia and Venezuela. On the other hand, oil price falls can
produce political benefits in
energy importing countries such as India or Japan. External
political risk analysis involves
careful analysis of economic, political and other linkages
between countries around
the world.
Figure 2.3 The political environment
Direct state involvement
Political exposure
High
Low
Low
High
e.g. Defence industry e.g. Canal industry
15. e.g. Food industry e.g. Hotel industry
Chapter 2 Macro - environment analysis
40
2.2.2 Economics
The macro-environment is also influenced by macro-economic
factors such as currency exchange
rates, interest rates and fluctuating economic growth rates
around the world. It is important for
an organisation to understand how its markets are a�ected by
the prosperity of the economy
as a whole. Managers should have a view on how changing
exchange rates may a�ect viability
in export markets and vulnerability to imports. They should
have an eye to changing interest
rates over time, especially if they have to borrow to fund
strategic investments. They should
understand how economic growth rates rise or fall over time.
There are many public sources
of economic forecasts that can help in predicting the movement
of key economic indicators,
though these are often prone to error because of unexpected
economic shocks.5
A key concept for analysing macro-economic trends is the
economic cycle. Despite the poss-
ibility of unexpected shocks, economic growth rates have an
underlying tendency to rise and
fall in cycles: several years of good growth are likely to be
followed by a couple of years or so
16. of lower or even negative growth. These cycles link to other
important economic variables. For
example, rises in interest rates are likely to decrease economic
growth rates as consumers cut
back on credit cards and businesses borrow less for investment.
Awareness of cycles reinforces
an important pattern in the macro-environment: good economic
times do not last forever, while
bad economic times lead eventually to recovery. The key is to
identify cyclical turning points.
Managers making long-term strategic decisions should assess
where they stand in the
overall economic cycle. For example, after several years of
rapid growth a company might
be tempted to launch major investments in new capacity: in
Figure 2.4, this would be year
202x. However, any new facilities might not be needed in the
subsequent slowdown, leaving
the company with expensive over-capacity which still needs to
be paid for at a time of low
growth. On the other hand, two or three years of slowing growth
might make a company
over-cautious about new investment. But after the cyclical
turning point of year 202y in Figure 2.4,
the company might face under-capacity and be unable to match
recovering demand. Rivals who
had invested in extra capacity (or new products) would be able
to seize the advantage, leaving
the over-cautious company struggling to catch up. In assessing
the economic environment,
therefore, it is crucial not to assume that current economic
growth rates will continue. Before
making any strategic investment, you should ask where you are
in the current economic cycle.
17. Some industries are particularly vulnerable to economic cycles,
for example:
• Discretionary spend industries: where purchasers can easily
put o� their spending for a
year or so, there tend to be strong cyclical e�ects. Thus demand
for furniture, restaurants
and cars tends be highly cyclical because people can easily
delay or curtail spending on
Figure 2.4 Economic cycles and strategic investments
Economic
growth rate
(%)
Over-capacity
Under-capacity
Years
202x 202y
2.2 PESTEL analysis
41
these for a while. After a period of reduced spending, there is
liable to be a strong upturn
as pent-up demand is finally released into the market.
• High fixed cost industries: industries such as airlines, hotels
18. and steel su�er from economic
downturns because high fixed costs in plant, equipment or
labour tend to encourage
competitive price-cutting to ensure maximum capacity
utilisation when demand is low.
For example, an airline might try to fill its seats in the face of
falling demand simply by
o�ering cheap tickets. If its competitors do the same, the
resulting price-war will result in
low profits for all the airlines.
2.2.3 Social
The social elements of the macro-environment have at least two
impacts upon organisa-
tions. First, they can influence the specific nature of demand
and supply, within the overall
economic growth rate. Second, they can shape the
innovativeness, power and e�ectiveness
of organisations.
In the first place, there are a number of key aspects of the social
environment that can
shape demand and supply. These can be analysed under the
following four headings:
• Demographics. For example, the ageing populations in many
Western societies create
opportunities and threats for both private and public sectors.
There is increasing demand
for services for the elderly, but diminishing supplies of young
labour to look after them.
• Distribution. Changes in wealth distribution influence the
relative sizes of markets. Thus
the concentration of wealth in the hands of elites over the last
19. 20 years has constrained
some categories of ‘middle-class’ consumption, while enlarging
markets for certain luxury
goods.
• Geography. Industries and markets can be concentrated in
particular locations. In the
United Kingdom, economic growth has in recent decades been
much faster in the London
area than in the rest of the country. Similarly, industries often
form ‘clusters’ in particular
locations: thus there are high concentrations of scientists and
engineers in California’s
Silicon Valley (see also Chapter 10).6
• Culture. Changing cultural attitudes can also raise strategic
challenges. For example, new
ethical attitudes are challenging profit-maximising investment
strategies in the financial
services industry. Changing cultural attitudes can be linked to
changing demographics.
Thus the rise of ‘digital natives’ (generations born after the
1980s, and thus from child-
hood immersed in digital technologies) is changing expectations
about media, consump-
tion and education.
A second important social aspect of the macro-environment is
organisational networks,
with significant implications for innovativeness, power and
e�ectiveness. These networks are
frequently described as ‘organisational fields’.7 An
organisational field is a community of
organisations that interact more frequently with one another
than with those outside
the field. These organisational fields are partly economic as
20. they include competing organ-
isations within the industry or sector, as well as customers and
suppliers in the marketplace
(see Chapter 3). However, the concept of organisational fields
also emphasises social inter-
actions with other organisations. Such social interactions may
be with other businesses, for
instance via managers who are members of the same industry
associations or sporting clubs,
or via non-executive directors who sit on several company
boards. There may also be noneco-
nomic interactions with political organisations such as
governments and campaign groups,
legal entities such as regulators, and other social groups, such
as professions and trade
unions. Sometimes key actors in the field might even be
particularly influential individuals,
Chapter 2 Macro - environment analysis
42
for example politicians. The organisational field is therefore
much broader than just indus-
tries or markets. Because of the importance of social networks,
managers need to analyse the
influence of a wide range of organisational field members, not
just competitors, customers
and suppliers.
Networks and organisational fields can be analysed by means of
sociograms, maps of
potentially important social (or economic) connections.8 For a
new hi-technology enterprise,
21. important network connections might be links to leading
universities, other innovative firms
or respected venture capitalists, for example. Sociograms can
help assess the e�ectiveness of
networks and identify who is likely to be most powerful and
innovative within them. Three
concepts help to understand e�ectiveness, innovativeness and
power:
• Network density typically increases network e�ectiveness.
Density refers to the number
of interconnections between members in the network map.
E�ectiveness is increased by
density because the more interconnections there are, the better
the sharing of new ideas
between network members. Everybody is talking to each other,
and nobody with poten-
tially useful information is isolated. It is easier to mobilise the
whole network in support
of new initiatives. In Figure 2.5, the network on the right
(organisation C’s network) is
denser than the network on the left (A’s network).
• Broker positions, which connect otherwise separate groups of
organisations, are
often associated with innovativeness. Brokers’ innovation
advantage stems from their
ability to link valuable information from one group of
organisations with valuable infor-
mation from the other group. Because they provide the
connection between the two
groups, they are able to exploit this combination of information
before anybody else.
In Figure 2.5, organisation B is a broker, connecting the two
networks on the right- and
left-hand sides.
22. • Central hub positions typically provide power within
networks. A central hub connects
many organisations. Hubs have power because network
members rely on them for inter-
connection with other members. Hubs are also potentially
innovative because they can
collect ideas from the whole network, and they hear about what
is going on in one part
of the network before most other parts. In Figure 2.5, both A
and C are hubs. However,
organisation A is more central in its immediate network than
organisation C (all network
members must pass through A), and to this extent is more
powerful relative to its network
members.
Figure 2.5 Sociogram of networks within an organisational field
Organisational field
C’s immediate network is denser than A’s; B is a broker; A is a
more central
hub than C.
CA
E D
B
2.2 PESTEL analysis
43
23. Sociograms can have clear implications for strategic action. For
example, organisation A
could gain an advantage over organisation B by establishing
direct interaction with organ-
isation C, undermining B’s exclusive broker position. On the
other hand, organisation E could
increase its innovativeness and improve its power relative to
organisation A by making a
direct connection to organisation D in the right-hand network.
Sociograms can be drawn for key people as well as
organisations: individuals are often the
link between organisations anyway. Personal networks are
important in many societies, for
example the network of former consulta nts at the elite
McKinsey & Co. consulting firm, or
networks of company directors, or the interpersonal guanxi
networks that prevail in China.
Illustration 2.2 describes the network that has emerged from the
armed service backgrounds
of many Israeli entrepreneurs. The crucial issue in analysing
social networks is how hub posi-
tions, brokering roles and network density are likely to a�ect a
particular organisation’s
power, innovativeness and overall e�ectiveness.
Some organisational fields can be characterised as ‘small
worlds’.9 Small worlds exist
where the large majority of a network’s members is closely
connected, either just one step
away (as C is from A in Figure 2.5) or perhaps a couple of steps
away (as E is from B). Small
worlds typically give members a good deal of protection and
e�ectiveness, due to their
density. However, outsider organisations (for example foreign
26. Unit 8200’s alumni have produced more hi-tech start-ups
per capita than the University of Stanford. Some of the
successful companies originating with Unit 8200 include
Check Point, with 2,900 employees and a pioneer in Virtual
Private Networks; NICE Systems, with 2,700 employees and
a pioneer in telephone recording technology; and Palo
Alto Networks, with 3,000 employees and a pioneer in
computer firewall technology. Unit 8200 recruits are drawn
from young Israelis doing their national military service.
Recruitment into Unit 8200 is highly selective (in the Israeli
Defence Force, only pilot training is harder to enter) and
favours skilled computer science students and linguists.
Recruits come disproportionately from the richer and more
highly educated Tel Aviv area of Israel, and from elite schools
such as Leyada, the semi-private Hebrew University High
School in Jerusalem (where the founder of Check Point was
a student). Alumni of Unit 8200 go not only into hi-tech
business; many pursue successful careers in politics, the
judiciary, the media and academia. For example, the former
CEO of NICE Systems became director general of the Israeli
Ministry of Finance.
Unit 8200’s young recruits are intensively trained and
work long hours in small groups applying the latest tech-
nology to security matters that might involve life and death.
To maximise security, Unit 8200’s technology systems – from
analytics to data mining, intercept and intelligence manage-
ment – are designed and built in-house. This experience
prepares Unit 8200 alumni well for futures in hi-tech busi-
ness. Avi Hasson, Chief Scientist at the Israeli Economy
Ministry and himself an alumnus of Unit 8200, describes
the working environment: ‘When it comes to managing a
startup, Unit 8200 is a fantastic school. . . . The unit encour -
ages independent thought. It’s something that was adopted
27. later by many companies, a little like the culture in Google,
in which good ideas can come from anywhere.’
Because recruitment in hi-tech tends to favour a ‘buddy-
system’,
alumni are often sought out for employment by other alumni.
Experience of this intense, elitist organisation in the formative
years of youth creates strong social bonds. The 8200 alumni
asso-
ciation has more than 15,000 members, and hosts networking
events and community outreach programmes, including start-up
accelerators.
By 2020, Unit 8200 is due to move adjacent to the
Advanced Technology Park at Be’er Sheva in southern
Israel’s Negev Desert. In 2013, Israel’s President Benjamin
Netanyahu had declared that Be’er Sheva would become the
‘cybercenter of the Western hemisphere’. Be’er Sheva already
had the advantage of the local Ben-Gurion University and its
Cyber Security Research Centre. The National Cyber Bureau,
a newly created agency advising the government on cyber
policies, moved to Be’er Sheva in 2015. Companies already
with operations in the Advanced Technology Park included
many leading foreign firms such as Deutsche Telecom, IBM,
Lockheed Martin, Oracle, PayPal and EMC. Venture capital
firm JVP, with more than $1bn funding available, was also
running a local ‘cyberincubator’ for start-ups. One of its first
ventures was sold to PayPal.
Sources: Haaretz, 18 April and 24 April 2015; Financial Times,
10 July
2015; TechCrunch, 18 March 2015
Questions
1 Identify at least one important hub and one important
28. broker in the Unit 8200 network.
2 If you were a foreign cybersecurity company, what
would you do to access Israel’s expertise?
Illustration 2.2 Intelligence Unit 8200 and the Small World
of Israeli Hi-Tech
2.2 PESTEL analysis
45
Although there is some variation between firms, sectors and
countries in how far their inno-
vative activity is reflected by these kinds of indicators,
generally they will help to identify areas
of rapid technological change and locate centres of
technological leadership. For example,
the number of patent applications for the new material graphene
(a material just one atom
thick, but both strong and highly flexible) increased from less
than 100 a year in 2006 to 4,000
a year a decade later. China alone accounts for 58 per cent of
the world’s graphene patent
applications and, while 76 applicants that have at least 60
applications each in the sector, 49
of them are Chinese organisations.11 For any organisation
seeking a strong position in the
fast-developing graphene industry, links with China will plainly
be important.
Many organisations also publish technology roadmaps for their
sectors going forward.12
Technology roadmaps project into the future various product or
29. service demands, identify
technology alternatives to meet these demands, select the most
promising alternatives and
then o�er a timeline for their development. Thus they provide
good indicators of future tech-
nological developments. Figure 2.6 provides a simplified
technology roadmap for the Internet
of Things, providing connectivity for devices from fridges to
heart monitors: in the period to
2033, this roadmap forecasts rapid progress in the number of
Central Processing Units (CPUs)
and sensors per device, but less progress in CPU frequency, a
measure of processing speed.
This kind of roadmap has implications for product design
strategies in industries far beyond
the electronics industry, for instance architecture, domestic
appliances and healthcare.
2.2.5 Ecological
Within the PESTEL framework, ecological stands specifically
for ‘green’ macro-environmental
issues, such as pollution, waste and climate change.
Environmental regulations can impose
additional costs, for example pollution controls, but they can
also be a source of opportunity,
for example the new businesses that emerged around mobile
phone recycling.
Figure 2.6 Technology roadmap for the Internet of Things
0
2
4
30. 6
8
10
12
14
16
18
2019 2021 2024 2027 2030 2033
CPUs per device
Max CPU frequency
(MHz x 0.01)
Sensors per device
Source: Drawn from data extracted from the International
Roadmap for Devices and Systems, 2018 edition, Institute
for Electronics and Electrical Engineers.
Chapter 2 Macro - environment analysis
46
When considering ecological issues in the macro-environment,
there are three sorts of
31. challenges that organisations may need to meet:13
• Direct pollution obligations are an obvious challenge, and
nowadays typically involve not
just cleaning up ‘at the end of the pipe’ (for example, disposing
of waste by-products
safely), but also minimising the production of pollutants in the
first place. Having clean
processes for supply, production and distribution is generally
better than managing the
consequences of polluting after the fact.
• Product stewardship refers to managing ecological issues
through both the organisation’s
entire value chain and the whole life cycle of the firm’s
products. Stewardship here might
involve responsibility for the ecological impact of external
suppliers or final end-users.
It will also involve responsibility for what happens to products
at ‘end of life’, in other
words how they are disposed of when consumers have no more
use for them. Thus car
manufacturers are increasingly responsible for the recycling and
safe disposal of old cars.
• Sustainable development is a criterion of increasing
importance and refers not simply
to reducing environmental damage, but to whether the product
or service can be
produced indefinitely into the future. This sustainability
criterion sets constraints on the
over-exploitation of particular sources of raw materials, for
instance in developing countries,
and often raises issues regarding the economic and social well -
being of local communities.
32. In assessing the macro-environment from an ecological point of
view, all three criteria of
pollution, stewardship and sustainability need typically to be
considered.
The extent to which these ecological criteria are important to
organisations relies on three
contextual sources of pressure, the first two arising directly
from the macro-environment:
• Ecological. Clearly ecological issues are more likely to be
pressing the more impactful
they are: a chemical company may have more to worry about
than a school. However,
there are three less obvious characteristics to assess. First,
ecological issues become more
salient the more certain they are. For example, as doubts have
reduced about the facts of
global warming, so the pressures on organisations to act on it
have increased. Pressures
are also likely to be greater the more visible ecological issues
are: aircraft pollution is more
salient as an issue than shipping pollution because aircraft are
more obvious to ordinary
citizens than pollution done far out to sea. Similarly, the
emotivity of the issue is liable to
be a factor: threats to polar bears generally get more attention
than threats to hyenas.
Ecological analysis therefore requires assessing certainty,
visibility and emotivity.
• Organisational field. Ecological issues do not become salient
just because of their inherent
characteristics. The extent of pressure is influenced by how
ecological issues interact with
the nature of the organisational field. An organisational field
33. with highly active regulators
or campaign groups will clearly give saliency to ecological
issues. However, high levels
of field interconnectedness will also increase the importance of
ecological issues: within
densely interconnected networks, it is harder to hide damaging
behaviour and peer pres-
sure to conform to ecological standards is greater.
• Internal organisation. The personal values of an organisation’s
leadership will clearly influ-
ence the desire to respond to ecological issues. Actual
responsiveness will rely on the
e�ectiveness of managerial systems that promote and monitor
behaviours consistent with
ecological obligations.
Although ecological issues can exercise unwelcome pressure,
there are potentially strong
organisational motives to respond. As in Figure 2.7, the three
kinds of contextual pressure can
satisfy a variety of motives. Fundamentally, there is of course a
sense of ecological responsi-
bility: thus the personal values of the organisation’s leaders
might stimulate ecological initia-
tives, or routine production systems might reduce pollution.
However, another outcome can
2.2 PESTEL analysis
47
be legitimacy, as reflected in regulatory compliance and a good
reputation with consumers.
34. Finally, responding to ecological issues can even enhance
competitiveness. For example, mini-
mising waste in production processes for pollution reasons can
reduce costs. Green products
are attractive in the marketplace and often command a price
premium.
2.2.6 Legal
The final element in a PESTEL analysis of the macro-
environment refers to legal aspects.
These can cover a wide range of topics: for example, labour,
environmental and consumer
regulation; taxation and reporting requirements; and rules on
ownership, competition
and corporate governance. In recent years, the relaxation of
legal constraints through
deregulation has created many new business opportunities, for
example for low cost
airlines and ‘free schools’ in various countries. However,
regulations can also handicap
organisations: Illustration 2.3 shows how the e-cigarette
company Juul ran into important
legal issues as it entered new markets and regulators struggled
to keep up with the new
technology.
Legal issues form an important part of the institutional
environment of organisations,
by which is meant the formal and informal ‘rules of the
game’.14 This concept of insti-
tutional environment suggests that it can be useful in a PESTEL
analysis to consider not
only formal laws and regulations but also more informal norms:
the ‘L’ can be stretched
to cover all types of rule, formal and informal. Informal rules
35. are patterns of expected
(ʼnormal’) behaviour that are hard to ignore. Thus, regardless of
the law, there are fairly
explicit norms regarding proper respect for the ecological
environment. Organisations
ignoring these norms would risk outrage among consumers or
employees, whatever the
legal situation.
Formal and informal rules vary sufficiently between countries
to define very different
institutional environments, sometimes known as ‘varieties of
capitalism’.15 These vari-
eties of capitalism have implications for the ways in which
business and management
are done in those environments and the prospects for success,
both for insiders and for
outsiders. Although every country differs in detail, three broad
varieties of capitalism
Figure 2.7 Contexts and motives for ecological issues
Ecological:
•
•
•
Contexts
•
•
•
•
Organisational motives
36. Substantially adapted from: Bansal, P. and Roth, K. (2000),
‘Why companies go green: a model of ecological
responsiveness’, Academy of Management Journal, 43(4), 717–
36 (Figure 2, p. 729.)
Chapter 2 Macro - environment analysis
48
Adam Bowen and James Monsees launched their distin ctive
Juul e-cigarette in 2015. The product’s sleek style led to the
Juul becoming known as the ‘iPhone of e-cigarettes’. Juul
became the most popular e-cigarette in the United States
by the end of 2017, and by the end of 2018 commanded a
market share of over 70 per cent. In November 2018, the
Altria Group (a traditional tobacco company) bought one
third of the company for $12.8bn, making the two founders
billionaires.
Bowen and Monsees dreamt up their colourful e-cigarettes
while pursuing their master’s degrees at Stanford Univer-
sity. They were smokers themselves, wanting to free them-
selves of a dirty and dangerous habit. The Juul design uses
a patented form of nicotine salts, at 5 per cent strength,
to deliver the quick nicotine peak associated with trad-
itional cigarettes. The website for their company declares
its mission as to ‘improve the lives of the world’s one billion
adult smokers by eliminating cigarettes’. Juul claims that it
has converted one million adult smokers to Juul products,
allegedly a safer product.
Traditional tobacco companies typically rely on television
advertising, but Juul initially focused on powerful social
37. marketing campaigns featuring attractive young models
and singers on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Campaigns
went viral, with celebrities such as Bella Hadid posting
about Juul. The result was a surge of use among teenagers,
attracted also by Juul’s sweet flavours and by the fact that its
small size and low odours help concealment. In 2018, it was
estimated that 3.6 million American schoolchildren were
using e-cigarettes, presumptively mostly Juuls.
However, Juul faced increasing criticism from the media,
health professionals and regulators over its marketing. Nico-
tine addiction can cause substantial damage to the devel -
oping brain, including lasting impairment to memory and
attention span, and increased psychiatric conditions such as
depression and anxiety. Four lawsuits were filed in 2018 in
the United Sates against Juul by parents, underage users and
others, attacking its marketing strategy and safety claims.
Monsees declared: ‘Any underage consumers using this
product are absolutely a negative for our business. We
don’t want them. We will never market to them. We never
have.’ The company launched a new marketing and social
media code underlining that its products were not appro-
priate for young people, switched to using only models
aged over 35, restricted the availability of sweet flavours,
and made increasing use of traditional television rather than
social media channels. At the same time, it began exploring
markets overseas.
Juul’s first overseas market was Israel, which it entered
early in 2018. At the time, Israel had no regulations on
e-cigarettes. However, the Israeli government responded
within two months, banning Juul on the grounds that its
5 per cent nicotine concentration was two and a half times
the level required by the European Union, a norm that Israel
38. freely adopted. Juul next launched in the United Kingdom,
still in the European Union, using a formulatio n with less
than 2 per cent nicotine. In late 2018, Juul launched in
Canada, where a relaxed legal regime allowed it to o�er
both 3 and 5 per cent formulations plus a range of flavours
larger than the recently restricted ones in the US.
At the same time, Juul was revealed to be considering
expansion into Asia. Indonesia was one potential target
market, given its fast-growing population of nearly 270
million. Indonesia is also one of a handful of countries
which has not signed the World Health Organization’s
global treaty on tobacco control: two thirds of Indonesian
men smoke tobacco daily. Other markets Juul was reportedly
considering were Malaysia, Singapore, India, South Korea
and the Philippines.
Main sources: Fast Company, December/Januar y 2018/19;
Reuters
Business News, 18 November 2018; Forbes, 16 November 2018;
www
.juul.com.
Questions
1 Assess the relative importance of formal laws and
informal norms for the development of Juul’s strategy
in the United States.
2 How do you think the di�erent institutional environ-
ments internationally have influenced Juul’s overseas
strategy so far and what kinds of countries do you think
it should prioritise?
Illustration 2.3 Juul duels with the rules
The fashionable e-cigarette company addresses regulatory
39. environments
internationally.
2.2 PESTEL analysis
49
have been identified, whose formal and informal rules lead to
different ways of
doing business:
• Liberal market economies are institutional environments
where both formal and informal
rules favour competition between companies, aggressive
acquisitions of one company
by another and free bargaining between management and labour.
Companies in these
liberal market economies tend to raise funds from the financial
markets and company
ownership is either entrepreneurial or, for older companies,
widely dispersed among
many shareholders. These economies tend to support radical
innovation and are recep-
tive to foreign firms. Although neither is perfectly
representative, the United States and
the United Kingdom correspond broadly to this type of
institutional environment.
• Coordinated market economies encourage more coordination
between companies, often
supported by industry associations or similar frameworks. There
are legal and normative
constraints on hostile acquisitions on the one hand, and various
supports for consensual
40. and collective arrangements between management and labour on
the other. Com panies
in these coordinated market economies tend to rely on banks for
funding, while family
ownership is often common. These economies support steady
innovation over the
long-run and, because of coordination networks, are typically
less easy for foreign firms to
penetrate. Again, neither is perfectly representative, but
Germany and Japan correspond
broadly to this type of institutional environment.
• Developmental market economies tend to have strong roles for
the state, which will either
own or heavily influence companies that are important for
national economic devel-
opment. Formally or informally, the state will often encourage
private-sector firms to
coordinate between themselves and with national economic
policy-makers. Labour rela-
tions may be highly regulated. Banks, often state-owned, will be
a key source of funding.
Long-term, infrastructural and capital-intensive projects may be
favoured, but foreign
firms will often be at a disadvantage. Although each is very
di�erent in its own way, Brazil,
China and India all have aspects of this developmental market
economy environment.
A macro-environmental analysis of any particular country
should therefore include an assess-
ment of the local variety of capitalism and the extent to which it
favours particular kinds of
firm and strategy.
2.2.7 Key drivers for change
41. The previous sections have introduced a variety of concepts and
frameworks for analysing
each of the PESTEL factors, particularly at a macro-level. As
can be imagined, analysing these
factors, together with their interrelationships, can produce long
and complex lists of issues.
Rather than getting overwhelmed by a multitude of details, it is
necessary to step back to
identify the key drivers for change in a particular context.16
Key drivers for change are the
environmental factors likely to have a high impact on industries
and sectors, and the
success or failure of strategies within them.
Key drivers thus translate macro-environmental factors to the
level of the specific industry
or sector. Thus social and legislative changes discouraging car
use might have di�erent and
greater e�ects on supermarkets than, for example, retail banks.
Identifying key drivers for
change in an industry or sector helps managers to focus on the
PESTEL factors that are most
important and which must be addressed most urgently. Without
a clear sense of the key
drivers for change, managers will not be able to take the
strategic decisions that allow for
e�ective responses: to return to the example above, the
supermarket chain might address
reduced car use by cutting the number of out-of-town stores and
investing in smaller urban
and suburban sites. It is important that an organisation’s
strategists consider each of the
key drivers for change, looking to minimise threats and, where
possible, seize opportunities.
43. that they will provide just one forecast number (as in Figure
2.8 i). For instance, an
organisation might predict that the population in a market will
grow by 5 per cent in the
next two years. This kind of single-point forecasting implies a
great degree of certainty.
Demographic trends (for instance the increase in the elderly
within a particular popula-
tion) lend themselves to these kinds of forecasting, at least in
the short term. They are
also often attractive to organisations because they are easy to
translate into budgets:
a single sales forecast figure is useful for motivating managers
and for holding them
accountable.
• Range forecasting is where organisations have less certainty,
suggesting a range of
possible outcomes. These di�erent outcomes may be expressed
with di�erent degrees
of probability, with a central projection identified as the most
probable (the darkest
shaded area in Figure 2.8 ii), and then a range of more remote
outcomes given decreasing
degrees of likelihood (the more lightly shaded areas). These
forecasts are often called
‘fan charts’, because the range of outcomes ‘fans out’ more
widely over time, reflecting
growing uncertainty over the longer term. These ‘fan charts’ are
often used in economic
forecasting, for example economic growth rates or inflation.
Figure 2.8 Forecasting under conditions of uncertainty
Probable
44. Possible
Unlikely
Possible
Unlikely
Time Time Time
Outcomes OutcomesOutcomes
(i) Single-point forecast (ii) Range forecast (iii) Alternative
futures
A
B
C
UncertaintyLow High
2.3 Forecasting
51
• Alternative futures forecasting typically involves even less
certainty, focusing on a set of
possible yet distinct futures. Instead of a continuously
graduated range of likelihoods,
alternative futures are discontinuous: they happen or they do
not, with radically di�erent
outcomes (see Figure 2.8 iii). These alternatives might result
from fundamental policy deci-
45. sions. For example, for a country facing possible exit from a
currency union (for instance
the Euro), outcome A might reflect the consequences for growth
or unemployment of
staying in the union; outcome B might reflect the consequences
of exiting the union;
and outcome C would be a further alternative outcome,
consequent on a decision that
followed the initial decision pointing towards outcome B (for
instance, to adopt trade
barriers as well as to exit the currency union). For a busines s,
outcome A might represent
expected sales if a competitor business did not invest in a new
machine or similar capacity;
outcome B is a consequence of the competitor making that
investment; and outcome
C is a consequence of the competitor both making that
investment and then slashing
prices to make full use of the new capacity. It is possible to put
probabilities to each of
these outcomes too: for example, outcome A might have a 40
per cent probability, while
outcomes B and C would be 30 per cent each. These kinds of
alternative futures are often
fed into scenario analyses (see Section 2.4), though not as
simple forecasts.
2.3.2 Directions of change
It is helpful in forecasting to keep an eye on the fundamental
directions of likely change.
Managers need to check their forecasts are consistent with
major trends and to be alert to
possible turning points. Three concepts help focus both on
major trends and on possible
turning points that might invalidate existing forecasts:
46. • Megatrends are large-scale political, economic, social,
technological, ecological or legal
movements that are typically slow to form, but which influence
many areas of activity,
possibly over decades.18 A megatrend typically sets the
direction for other factors. Thus
the social megatrend towards ageing populations in the West
influences other trends in
social care, retail spending and housing. The megatrend towards
global warming a�ects
agriculture, tourism and, with more extreme climatic events,
insurance. It is important to
identify major megatrends because they influence so many other
things. Forecasts should
be checked for consistency with such trends.
• Inflexion points are moments when trends shift in direction,
for instance turning sharply
upwards or downwards.19 For example, after decades of
stagnation and worse, in the
early twenty-first century sub-Saharan Africa may have reached
an inflexion point in
its economic growth, with the promise of substantial gains in
the coming decade or so.
Internet retailing may also have put urban shopping on a path to
significant decline in
advanced economies. Inflexion points are likely to invalidate
forecasts that extrapolate
existing trends. Clearly it is valuable to grasp the inflexion
point at the moment when
trends just start to turn, in order either to take advantage of new
opportunities early or
to act against escalating decline as soon as possible.
• Weak signals are advanced signs of future trends and are
47. particularly helpful in identi-
fying inflexion points.20 Typically these weak signals are
unstructured and fragmented
bits of information, often perceived by observers as ‘weird’. A
weak signal for the world-
wide financial crisis that began in 2008 was the rise in mortgage
failures in California the
previous year. An early weak signal foreshadowing the current
success of Asian business
schools was the first entry of the Hong Kong University of
Science and Technology into the
Chapter 2 Macro - environment analysis
52
Financial Times’ ranking of the top 50 international business
schools in the early 2000s. It is
important to be alert to weak signals, but it is also easy to be
overwhelmed by ʼnoise’, the
constant stream of isolated and random bits of information
without strategic importance.
Some signs of truly significant weak signals (as opposed to
mere noise) include: the repe-
tition of the signal and the emergence of some kind of pattern;
vehement disagreement
among experts about the signal’s significance; and an
unexpected failure in something
that had previously worked very reliably.
2.4 Scenario analysis
Scenarios o�er plausible alternative views of how the macro-
environment might develop
48. in the future, typically in the long term. Thus scenarios are not
strategies in themselves,
but alternative possible environments which strategies have to
deal with. Scenario analysis is
typically used in conditions of high uncertainty, for example
where the environment could go
in several highly distinct directions.21 However, scenario
analyses can be di�erentiated from
alternative futures forecasting (Section 2.3.1), as scenario
planners usually avoid presenting
alternatives in terms of finely calculated probabilities.
Scenarios tend to extend too far into
the future to allow probability calculations and besides,
assigning probabilities directs atten-
tion to the most likely scenario rather than to the whole range.
The point of scenarios is
more to learn than to predict. Scenarios are used to explore the
way in which environmental
factors inter-relate and to help keep managers’ minds open to
alternatives possibilities in
the future. A scenario with a very low likelihood may be
valuable in deepening managers’
understanding even if it never occurs.
Illustration 2.4 shows an example of scenario planning for the
world of work to 2030,
published by the international advisory firm PwC. The scenarios
start from five megatrends
covering a range of factors from technology to natural
resources. PwC then identifies two
drivers which are clearly di�erentiated on the dimensions of the
scenario cube in terms of
having (i) high potential impact; (ii) high uncertainty; (iii) high
independence from each other
(see Figure 2.9 and below). The first of these two drivers is
political, i.e. collectivism versus indi-
49. vidualism, referring to the roles of government. The second of
these key drivers addresses the
nature of business, i.e. integration versus fragmentation,
pointing to the relative importance
Figure 2.9 The scenario cube: selection matrix for scenario key
drivers
Low
Low
Low
Select key drivers in the high-impact, high-uncertainty, high-
independence box
High
High
High
Independence
Impact
Uncertainty
53
2.4 Scenario analysis
Wanting to provide its clients with long-term advice about the
50. future evolution of work, PwC cooperated with researchers at
the James Martin Institute for Science and Civilisation at the
Saïd
Business School, University of Oxford, to produce four
scenarios
each named after a distinct colour. The researchers drew on
a specially commissioned survey of 10,000 people in China,
India, Germany, the UK and the US and built on the concept of
megatrends.
The five megatrends underpinning all the scenarios were:
1. Rapid advances in technological innovation, particularly au-
tomation, robotics and artificial intelligence.
2. Demographic shifts, especially aging populations and work-
forces.
3. Rapid urbanisation, from about 5bn people to 8bn by 2030.
4. Shifts in global economic power, with today’s rapidly devel -
oping nations such as China gaining particularly, while within
nations new technologies will threaten employment for the
traditional middle classes.
5. Resource scarcity, as demand for energy and water will in-
crease respectively by 50 per cent and 40 per cent by 2030.
On this basis, the PwC-Oxford team developed two main axes
upon which to di�erentiate their scenarios: collectivism versus
individualism and fragmentation versus integration.
Collectivism
implies a strong role for governments in society, individuali sm
more self-reliance. Integration implies an advantage for big
busi-
nesses able to integrate and coordinate many activities;
51. fragmen-
tation implies an important role for small firms and
organisations.
These two axes yielded four scenario stories, as summarised
in the figure above:
Briefly, the four scenarios for 2030 were as follows:
1. Yellow World, in which social enterprises and community
businesses flourish. Crowdfunded capital flows towards eth-
ical brands. Meaningful work is important. Artisans and craft
production thrive. Human values have priority.
2. Red World, in which consumers are dominant, and
organisations
and individuals race to serve them. Regulation cannot keep up
with
innovation. Competition tends towards ‘winner takes all’
results.
However, specialists and niche businesses do well.
3. Green World, in which social responsibility and trust are cru-
cial for large corporations and demographic and climate
changes are key drivers for business.
4. Blue World, in which big business dominates, and individual
wants have priority over social responsibilities.
Source: ‘Workforce of the future: The competing forces shaping
2030’,
PwC, 2018: www.pwc.com/us/en/hr-management/pwc-
workforce-
of-the-future-the-competing-forces-shaping-2030.pdf
Questions
52. 1 What other megatrends might have been considered
beyond the five considered here?
2 What are the di�erent implications of these scenarios
for an international consulting firm such as PwC? Which
scenario would it like best; which would it like least?
Illustration 2.4 Colouring the World
In 2018, PwC’s People and Organisation’s consulting practice
published a major report
on four scenarios for the world of work in 2030.
Fragmentation
Integration
Collectivism Individualism
Yellow World
– humans come first
Red World
– innovation rules
Green World
– companies care
Blue World
– corporate is king
Adapted from: PWC US (2018), ‘The competing forces shaping
2030’, https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/hr-
management/workforce-of-the-
future.html
53. Chapter 2 Macro - environment analysis
54
of big and small firms. Both of these drivers may produce very
di�erent futures, which can be
combined to create four internally consistent scenarios for the
next decade or so. The various
scenarios draw in distinct ways on the megatrends: for example,
Green World assumes a
di�erent response to resource scarcity than Blue World; Red
World is less optimistic than
Green World about the capacity of government regulators to
keep up with techno logical
change. PwC does not predict that one scenario will prevail over
the others, nor do they
allocate relative probabilities. Prediction would close managers’
minds to alternatives, while
probabilities would imply a spurious kind of accuracy over this
period of time.
While there are many ways to carry out scenario analyses, the
process often follows five
basic steps (summarised in Figure 2.10):22
• Defining scenario scope is an important first step in the
process. Scope refers to the subject
of the scenario analysis and the time span. For example,
scenario analyses can be carried
out for a whole industry globally, or for particular geographical
regions and markets.
While businesses typically produce scenarios for industries or
markets, governments often
conduct scenario analyses for countries, regions or sectors (such
55. • Developing scenario ‘stories’. As in films, scenarios are
basically stories. Having selected
opposing key drivers for change, it is necessary to knit together
plausible stories that incor-
porate both key drivers and other factors into a coherent whole.
These stories are often
encapsulated with striking titles: for example, oil company
Shell launched two opposing
scenarios entitled simply ‘Oceans’ and ‘Mountains’, the first
describing a more free-market
world with solar power important, the second a more
government-led world, with gas
power important.23 Striking titles help to communicate
scenarios and embed them in
strategic discussions (see also Illustration 2.4).
Figure 2.10 The scenario process
Define
scope
(industry,
region,
years)
Identify
key drivers
(PESTEL,
forecasts,
cube)
Develop
distinct
scenario
56. ‘stories’
(name
scenarios)
Identify
impacts
(check and
adapt
strategies)
Monitor
progress
(early
warning
indicators)
55
Thinking di�erently the crowdsourced forecast
• Identifying impacts of alternative scenarios on organisations is
the next key stage of
scenario building. For example, in Illustration 2.4, a Blue World
would pose major
challenges for small and ethical businesses. It is important for
an organisation to carry
out robustness checks in the face of each plausible scenario and
to adapt strategies that
appear vulnerable and develop contingency plans in case they
happen.
• Monitor progress. Once the various scenarios are drawn up,
57. organisations should
monitor progress over time, to alert themselves to whether and
how developments
actually fit scenario expectations. Here it is important to
identify indicators that might
give early warning about the final direction of environmental
change, and at the same
time set up systems to monitor these. E�ective monitoring of
well-chosen indicators
should facilitate prompt and appropriate responses. In
Illustration 2.4, the diminishing
likelihood of a Red World would be growing regulation of
technology firms such as Uber
and airbnb.
Because debating and learning are so valuable in the scenario-
building process, and they
deal with such high uncertainty, some scenario experts advise
managers to avoid producing
just three scenarios. Three scenarios tend to fall into a range of
‘optimistic’, ‘middling’ and
‘pessimistic’. Managers naturally focus on the middling
scenario and neglect the other two,
reducing the amount of organisational learning and contingency
planning. It is therefore
typically better to have two or four scenarios, avoiding an easy
mid-point. It does not matter
if the scenarios do not come to pass: the value lies in the
process of exploration and contin-
gency planning that the scenarios set o�.
We usually think of forecasts (Section 2.3) as the product
of small groups of experts. But there is a di�erent way.
Forecasts can be ‘crowdsourced’, using the collect ive
judgement of many di�erent kinds of people, not just
exper ts. There are two principal ways of using the
58. wisdom of crowds in forecasting: prediction markets and
internet media analysis.
Prediction markets are markets designed specifically
to combine the scattered information of many partici-
pants into values (for instance, market prices or betting
odds) that can be used to make predictions about specific
future events.24 An example is the Iowa Electronic Market
(IEM) for betting on the outcome of American Presiden-
tial elections. Market participants buy a contract that
pays a dollar if, for instance, a Democrat wins the elec-
tion. The more money participants are prepared to pay
for that contract, the more likely it appears that a Demo-
crat will indeed win that election. Google uses similar
prediction markets to forecast the success of possible
new products: if many people within the company are
prepared to bet on their success, then probably the new
products will indeed turn out well. The bets of many
employees may be more reliable than the self-interested
forecasts of the product’s own developers.
Internet media such as Twitter and Google can also
provide forecasts, drawing on the inputs of many thou-
sands of users. For example, Google Trends analyses the
frequency with which people search about flu symptoms
to predict the onset of flu epidemics. Others analyse the
mix of positive and negative sentiments expressed by
ordinary people in Twitter feeds to forecast the direc-
tion of financial markets, up or down.25 Data about what
people are interested in, or how they feel, provides valu-
able clues to what will happen next.
Question
Why might experts make bad forecasters in the case of
i. Presidential elections; ii. new product developments?
59. Thinking di�erently The crowdsourced forecast
Do we need experts to forecast anymore?
Chapter 2 Macro - environment analysis
56
Summary
• Environmental influences can be thought of as layers around
an organisation, with the
outer layer making up the macro-environment, the middle layer
making up the industry
or sector and the inner layer strategic groups and market
segments.
• The macro-environment can be analysed in terms of the
PESTEL factors – political, economic,
social, technological, ecological and legal.
• Macro-environmental trends can be forecast according to
di�erent levels of uncertainty,
from single-point, through ranges to multiple-futures.
• A PESTEL analysis helps identify key drivers of change,
which managers need to address in
their strategic choices. Alternative scenarios about the future
can be constructed according
to how the key drivers develop.
Work assignments
✱ Denotes more advanced work assignments.
* Refers to a case study in the Text and Cases edition.
60. 2.1 For an organisation of your choice, carry out a PESTEL
analysis and identify key
opportunities and threats. Use Illustration 2.1 as a model. For
simplicity, choose an
organisation that is focused on a limited number of industries.
2.2 For your own country, or any other country with which you
are familiar, look up the
political risk as assessed by Aon, the Economist Intelligence
Unit or similar (see refer-
ences in endnote 4). How far do you agree with this assessment?
2.3 For the last year or two, review the forecasts for national or
global economic growth
made by key forecasting organisations such as the OECD or the
World Bank (see
references in endnote 5). How accurate were they? What
accounts for any di�erence
between forecast and outcomes?
2.4✱ For the same organisation as in assignment 2.1, and using
Illustration 2.4 or Siemens
A as a model, construct four scenarios for the evolution of its
macro-environment
(or main industry or sector). What implications are there for the
organisation’s strategy?
Integrative assignment
2.5 Carry out a full analysis of an industry or sector of your
choice (using for example
PESTEL and scenarios). Draw also on the five forces and
strategic groups analyses of
Chapter 3. Consider explicitly how the industry or sector is
a�ected by globalisation
61. (see Chapter 9, particularly Figure 9.2 on drivers) and
innovation (see Chapter 10,
particularly Figure 10.2 on product and process innovation).
Recommended key readings
• An overview of techniques for thinking ahead is in P.
Tetlock and D. Gardner, Superforecasting: the Art and
Science of Prediction, Crown, 2015. For approaches
to how environments change, see K. van der Heijden,
Scenarios: The Art of Strategic Conversation, 2nd
edition, Wiley, 2005 and R. Ramírez, J.W. Selsky and K.
Van der Heijden (eds), Business Planning for Turbulent
Times: New methods for applying scenarios, Taylor &
Francis, 2010.
• A collection of academic articles on PEST, scenarios
and similar is the special issue of International Studies
of Management and Organization, vol. 36, no. 3
(2006), edited by Peter McKiernan.
57
References
References
1. PESTEL is an extension of PEST (Politics, Economics,
Social and Technology) analysis, taking more account
of ecological (‘green’) and legal issues. PEST is some-
times called STEP analysis. PESTEL is sometimes called
PESTLE and is also sometimes extended to STEEPLE in
order to include ethical issues. For an application of
62. PEST analysis to the world of business schools, see H.
Thomas, ‘An analysis of the environment and compet-
itive dynamics of management education’, Journal
of Management Development, vol. 26, no. 1 (2007),
pp. 9–21.
2. J. Doh, T. Lawton and T. Rajwani, ‘Advancing
nonmarket strategy research: institutional perspec-
tives in a changing world’, Academy of Management
Perspectives, August (2012), pp. 22–38; S. Dorobantu,
K. Aseem and Z. Bennet, ‘Nonmarket strategy research
through the lens of new institutional economics: An
integrative review and future directions’, Strategic
Management Journal, vol. 38, no. 1 (2017), pp. 114–40.
3. I. Alon and T. Herbert, ‘A stranger in a strange land:
micro political risk and the multinational firm’, Busi-
ness Horizons, vol. 52, no. 2 (2009), pp. 127–37; J.
Jakobsen, ‘Old problems remain, new ones crop up:
political risk in the 21st century’, Business Horizons,
vol. 53, no. 5 (2010), pp. 481–90; Sottilotta, C. ‘Polit-
ical risk assessment and the Arab Spring: What can we
learn?’ Thunderbird International Business Review, vol.
57, no. 5 (2015), pp. 379–90.
4. Organisations such as the insurance company Aon,
and economic media such as the Economic Intell-
igence Unit and Euromoney, publish regular rankings
of country political risk.
5. Macroeconomic forecasts can be found at: www
.oecd.org/eco/outlook/; www.imf.org/external/;
www.worldbank.org/
6. M.E. Porter, ‘Clusters and the new economics of compe-
tition’, Harvard Business Review, vol. 76, no. 6 (1997),
63. p. 7790.
7. A useful review of research on this topic is: R. Suddaby,
K.D. Elsbach, R. Greenwood, J.W. Meyer and T.B. Zilber,
‘Organizations and their institutional environments –
Bringing meaning, values, and culture back in: Intro-
duction to the special research forum’, Academy of
Management Journal, vol. 53, no. 6 (2010), pp. 1234–40.
For a more general review see G. Johnson and R.
Greenwood, ‘Institutional theory and strategy’, in Stra-
tegic Management: a Multiple-Perspective Approach,
edited by Mark Jenkins and V. Ambrosini, Palgrave, 3rd
edition, 2015.
8. R.S. Burt, M. Kildu� and S. Tasselli, ‘Social network
analysis: foundations and frontiers on advan-
tage’, Annual Review of Psychology, vol. 64 (2013),
pp. 527–47; R.S. Burt and G. Soda, ‘Social Origins of
Great Strategies’, Strategy Science, vol. 2, no. 4 (2017) ,
pp. 226–33.
9. M.A. Sytch, A. Tatarynowicz and R. Gulati, ‘Toward
a theory of extended contact: the incentives and
opportunities for bridging across network communi-
ties’, Organization Science, vol. 23, no. 6 (2012), pp.
1658–81.
10. J. Hagedoorn and M. Cloodt, ‘Measuring innovative
performance: is there an advantage in using multiple
indicators?’ Research Policy, vol. 32, no. 8 (2003),
pp. 1365–79.
11. Z. Zhao, ‘China No 1 in world patent applications for
graphene tech’, China Daily, 2 February 2018.
64. 12. J.H. Lee, H.I. Kim and R. Phaal, ‘An analysis of factors
improving technology roadmap credibility: a
communications theory assessment of roadmap-
ping processes’, Technological Forecasting and Social
Change vol. 79, no. 2 (2012), pp. 263–80.
13. S.L. Hart and G. Dowell, ‘A natural-resource-based view
of the firm: Fifteen years after’, Journal of Manage-
ment, vol. 37, no. 5 (2010), pp. 1464–79.
14. J. Cantwell, J.H. Dunning and S.M. Lundan, ‘An evolu-
tionary approach to understanding international busi-
ness activity: the co-evolution of MNEs and the institu-
tional environment’, Journal of International Business
Studies, vol. 41, no. 4 (2010), pp. 567–86. See also M.
Peng, H. Nguyen, J. Wang, M. Hasenhüttl and J. Shay,
‘Bringing institutions into strategy teaching’, Academy
of Management Learning & Education, Vol. 17, No. 3
(2018), pp. 259–78.
15. M.A. Witt and G. Redding, ‘Asian business systems:
institutional comparison, clusters and implications
for varieties of capitalism and business systems
theory’, Socio-Economic Review, vol. 11, no. 2 (2013),
pp. 265–300, and M.R. Schneider and M. Paunescu,
‘Changing varieties of capitalism and revealed
comparative advantages from 1990 to 2005: a test of
the Hall and Soskice claims’, Socio-Economic Review,
vol. 10, no. 4 (2012), pp. 731–53.
16. R. Vecchiato, and C. Roveda ‘Strategic foresight in
corporate organizations: handling the effect and
response uncertainty of technology and social drivers
of change’, Technological Forecasting and Social
Change, vol. 77, no. 9 (2010), pp. 1527–39.
65. 17. U. Haran and D.A. Moore, ‘A better way to forecast’,
California Management Review, vol. 57, no. (2014),
pp. 5–15; H. Courtney, J. Kirkland and P. Viguerie,
‘Strategy under uncertainty’, Harvard Business Review,
vol. 75, no. 6 (1997), pp. 67–79.
18. R.A. Slaughter, ‘Looking for the real megatrends’,
Futures, October (1993), pp. 823–49.
19. A. Grove, Only the Paranoid Survive, Profile Books,
1998.
Chapter 2 Macro - environment analysis
58
20. S. Mendonca, G. Caroso and J. Caraca, ‘The strategic
strength of weak signals’, Futures, 44 (2012), pp. 218–28;
and P. Schoemaker and G. Day, ‘How to make sense of
weak signals’, Sloan Management Review, vol. 50, no. 3
(2009), pp. 81–9.
21. For a discussion of scenario planning in practice, see
R. Ramirez, S. Churchhouse, A. Palermo and J. Ho�-
mann, ’Using scenario planning to reshape strategy’,
MIT Sloan Management Review, vol. 58, no. 4 (2017),
pp. 31–37. For how scenario planning fits with other
forms of environmental analysis such as PESTEL, see
G. Burt, G. Wright, R. Bradfield and K. van der Heijden,
’The role of scenario planning in exploring the
environment in view of the limitations of PEST and its
derivatives’, International Studies of Management and
Organization, vol. 36, no. 3 (2006), pp. 50–76.
66. 22. Based on P. Schoemaker, ‘Scenario planning: a tool for
strategic thinking’, Sloan Management Review, vol. 36
(1995), pp. 25–34.
23. www.shell.com/global/future-energy/scenarios/
new-lens-scenarios.html
24. G. Tziralis and I. Tatsiopoulos, ‘Prediction markets: An
extended literature review’,The Journal of Prediction
Markets, vol.1, no. 1 (2012), pp. 75–91; K. Matzler, C. Grabher,
J. Huber and J. Füller, ‘Predicting new product success with
prediction markets in online communities’, R&D Manage-
ment, vol. 43, no. 5 (2013), pp. 420–32.
25. P. Wlodarczak, ‘An Approach for big data technologies
in social media mining’, Journal of Art Media and Tech-
nology, vol. 1, no. 1 (2015), pp. 61–66.
59
Alibaba: the Yangtze River Crocodile
Case example
Alibaba: the Yangtze River Crocodile
Richard Whittington
In late 2018, Jack Ma, founder of China’s largest
e-commerce company Alibaba, announced shock news: in
the coming year, he would step aside as company Chairman
in favour of the Chief Executive, Daniel Zhang. Jack Ma had
been Alibaba’s charismatic leader for two decades. But Ma
made it clear that he was not disappearing altogether: he
remained a major shareholder and would be a permanent
member of the 36 strong ‘partnership’ that nominated
67. the majority of the company’s board of directors. A senior
banking analyst observed of Ma: ‘He has been the spiritual
leader of the company since he founded it, and everyone
looks up to him. People call him Teacher Ma. That means
people are not looking at him as manager or chief execu-
tive or chairman – they are looking to him for guidance.’
The new Chairman and Chief Executive Daniel Zhang
was more of a professional manager than the entrepre-
neurial Ma. Educated in China, he had begun his career
in the accounting firms Arthur Andersen and PwC before
joining Alibaba in 2007. One of Zhang’s great successes
at Alibaba had been the idea of making Singles’ Day in
November a national festival of shopping, all served
by Alibaba’s online commerce businesses of course.
Recently Zhang has rolled out Singles’ Day internationally,
backed by his experience in international firms. During a
company-wide strategy session soon after becoming Chief
Executive in 2015, he said: ‘We must absolutely globalize.
We will organize a global team and adopt global thinking
to manage the business and achieve the goal of global buy
and global sell.’
Jack Ma and colleagues had launched Alibaba in 1999
as China’s first business-to-business portal connecting
domestic manufacturers with overseas buyers. Since
then, the Group has grown in many directions. 1688.com
was founded for business-to-business trade within China.
Alibaba’s Taobao Marketplace serves small businesses and
individuals. Tmall.com provides electronic shop fronts to
help overseas companies such as Nike, Burberry and
Decathlon to reach Chinese consumers. Juhuasuan o�ers
daily deals on everything from toys to laptops. Behind
all this are Alibaba’s enormous server farms, which form
the basis for another market-leading business, cloud
computing. There is also Alipay, e�ectively under Ma’s
68. personal control but functioning as the Group’s equivalent
to PayPal, which processes most Group transactions. One
way or another, it is possible for Alibaba’s customers to
trade almost anything: the American security services have
even set up a sting operation on Alibaba to catch traders
selling uranium to Iran. In 2018, Alibaba had approaching
58 per cent of the e-commerce market in China, the largest
e-commerce market in the world. In 2015, Alibaba had
invested in the Indian e-commerce business Snapdeal and
the following year it bought a majority stake in the Singa-
pore e-commerce business, Lazada. The company also
had strong positions in Brazil and Russia. International
e-commerce represented nearly 7 per cent of the
company’s sales in the last quarter of 2018 (about $1,247m
out of total quarterly sales of $17,057m: see also Table 1).
Alibaba had always had an international bent. Jack
Ma had started his career as an English language teacher
in the city of Hangzhou, capital of the prosperous prov-
ince of Zhejiang and not very far from Shanghai. Ma had
discovered the Internet on his trips to the United States in
the mid-1990s. As early as 2000, Ma had persuaded both
the leading American investment bank Goldman Sachs
and the Japanese internet giant Softbank to invest. The
then ascendant American internet company Yahoo had
bought nearly a quarter of the Group in 2005. Even after
Alibaba went public in 2015, SoftBank still held 32.4 per
cent of the shares and Yahoo 15 per cent. The Alibaba
Group board counted as members Yahoo’s founder Jerry
Yang, Softbank’s founder Masayoshi Son and Michael
Evans, former vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs. Even so,
Jack Ma was ambivalent about Western investors: ‘Let
the Wall Street investors curse us if they wish!’, Ma had
Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba.
Source: Eugenio Loreto/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
69. Chapter 2 Macro - environment analysis
60
proclaimed at a sta� rally. ‘We will still follow the principle
of customers first, employees second and investors third!’
Strictly, overseas investors do not directly own stakes
in the Alibaba Group, instead owning shares in a shell
company – a so-called variable interest entity (VIE) – that
has a contractual claim on Alibaba’s profits. This VIE struc-
ture is a common way for Western-listed Chinese firms to get
around Beijing’s foreign-ownership rules. But the Chinese
government could close the loophole at any time, and it
gives foreign shareholders limited recourse against abuses
by Chinese companies’ managers. Ironically, the most notor-
ious VIE controversy so far involved Alibaba’s Jack Ma, who
in 2011 separated Alipay from the rest of the Group without
board approval. Ma said new Chinese regulations forced him
to make the move. Yahoo was only told about the spin-o�
five weeks after it had happened. A fundraising round for
Alipay’s new parent company valued Alipay at nearly $50bn.
Jack Ma cultivated important relationships within China
as well as abroad. Early on he socialised with a group of
businessmen known as the Zhejiang Gang, because of
their common roots in the province whose capital was
Ma’s home city of Hangzhou. Prominent members of this
group included some of China’s most successful entrepren-
eurs: for example, Guo Guangchang of the huge divers-
ified Fosun Group; Shen Guojun of China Yintai Holdings,
a retail property developer; and Shi Yuzhu, of the online
gaming company Giant Interactive.
70. Alibaba’s relationship with the Chinese government is
hard to read. Jack Ma insists that he has never taken loans
or investment from the Chinese government or its banks:
he had gone to overseas investors instead. However, given
that a third of Chinese business activity is carried out
within state-owned enterprises, the government is bound
to be in close liaison with the dominant national player in
e-commerce. Ma explained his philosophy as: ‘Always try to
stay in love with the government, but don’t marry them.’
The Alibaba Group has built up its political connections.
Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong’s first chief executive after its
return to China, served on its board of directors. Alibaba
has also allied with several so-called ‘princelings’, children
of important political leaders. Princeling investors include
Winston Wen, son of a former Chinese premier; Alvin
Jiang, grandson of a former Chinese President; He Jinlei,
son of a former Politburo member and a senior manager
of the state Chinese Development Bank; and Je�rey Zang,
son of a former vice premier and a senior manager at
China’s state sovereign wealth fund, Citic Capital.
Given Chinese President Xi Jinping’s sweeping political
and economic reform campaign, there are no guarantees
of Alibaba’s position domestically. In 2015, princeling
investor He Jinlei’s older brother was placed under house
arrest because of accusations of corruption. 2015 had also
seen the publication of an investigation by China’s State
Administration for Industry and Commerce into counter-
feit goods and fake listings on the Group’s Taobao site,
leading to a 10 per cent fall in Alibaba’s share price. Jack
Ma commented on his relations with Chinese regulators:
‘Over the past two years, not only was I a very controver -
sial figure, but also these days, the disputes are bigger
and bigger.’ He continued, ‘I, too, felt puzzled, sometimes
71. wronged – how did things become this way?’ Nonetheless,
Ma promised to clean up the site. In 2018, in an apparent
reproof, Chinese state media let out the news, previously
withheld, that Jack Ma was a longstanding member of the
Chinese Communist Party.
President Xi Jinping’s reform campaigns were partly
in response to changing economic conditions in China.
After three decades of double-digit growth, China’s
growth rate has slowed to around 7 per cent a year more
recently (see Table 1). Such growth is very respectable
by world standards. Besides, faced with rising domestic
concern about the environment, President Xi was happy
to restrain the expansion of high polluting industries such
as cement, coal and steel. At the same time, the Chinese
government was promoting e-commerce as a key area for
future economic growth. However, there were causes for
concern. Many local authorities and firms had borrowed
heavily on expectations of higher growth, and there
2010 2012 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Alibaba Group Sales Yuan bn 6.7 20.0 52.5 76.2 101.1 158.3
250.3
Chinese GDP Yuan Tr. 40.4 53.4 64.4 68.9 74.4 82.7 90.0
Chinese online retail sales Yuan Tr. 0.5 1.3 2.8 3.9 5.2 7.2 n.a.
Per cent of Chinese using Internet 34.3 41.0 46.0 50.3 52.2 55.8
n.a.
Sources: Statistical Report on Interne t Development in China;
InternetLiveStats.com; Statista.com. One Yuan = €0.13; $0.15;
£0.11.
72. Table 1 Key statistics
61
Alibaba: the Yangtze River Crocodile
were fears that financial institutions had over-lent. Some
warned of a consequent crash. Moreover, it was hard to
see China’s growth rate picking up again, on account of
an aging population and the drying up of the traditional
supply of young labour from rural villages: the Chinese
labour force participation rate has dropped from a high
of 79 per cent in 1990 to 69 per cent by 2017. Although
the government relaxed the famous one-child per family
rule in 2013, Chinese parents are still reluctant to have
more children because of the cost of housing and good
education in the main urban centres. It is predicted that by
the early 2030s, about a quarter of China’s population will
be over 65 (against 17 per cent in the United Kingdom).
Slower economic growth in China overall is being
matched by a slowing in the rate of growth of the Chinese
e-commerce market (see Table 1).
At the same time, Alibaba faces greater competition
in its home market. A decade ago, Alibaba had seen o�
an attack by American rival eBay in the Chinese market
with a fierce price-war. Jack Ma had proclaimed: ‘EBay is
a shark in the ocean; we are a crocodile in the Yangtze
River. If we fight in the ocean, we will lose, but if we
fight in the river, we will win.’ A combination of cultural,
linguistic and government policy factors kept Western
internet companies at arm’s length in the Chinese
market: Google has been reduced to a market share of
about 1 per cent, while Amazon eventually chose to list
73. on Alibaba’s TMall site after a decade pushing its own
venture in China.
But now Alibaba’s home-market dominance is facing
a local challenge from the aggressive JD.com. JD.Com’s
founder and chief executive Richard Liu has declared a
goal of beating Alibaba to the top position: ‘The compe-
tition makes the two companies stronger. I’m actually
enjoying competing.’ While Alibaba depended for a long
time on China’s unreliable postal service to get its goods
to customers’ doors, JD.com has been more like Amazon
in investing heavily in its own distribution centres and
delivery services. By 2018, JD.com had 16.3 per cent of
China’s e-commerce market. Tencent, China’s largest
social networking and online games company, has taken
a 15 per cent stake in JD.com, giving the challenger access
to more than 890 million users of its WeChat phone
messaging app. WeChat allows users to scan product bar
codes with their smartphone cameras to make instant
purchases through JD.com. Mobile commerce is increas-
ingly important in China, with 788 million people being
mobile users, 98 per cent of the country’s total user base
in 2017. Mobile has been a challenge for Alibaba’s tradi -
tional PC-based retail model, but the company has been
catching up with about 80 per cent of its e-commerce
business on mobile devices by 2017.
In a context of slower Chinese growth and increased
domestic competition, the internationalisation strategy
of Alibaba’s new Chairman Daniel Zhang seemed to make
sense. However, Zhang faced one major challenge: resist-
ance in the world’s second largest e-commerce market,
the United States. In January 2017, the first month of the
new American Presidency, Jack Ma had met Donald Trump
in New York and promised that Alibaba’s investment
74. in the United States would bring one million new jobs
to America. Alibaba invested in two large data centres
for its expanding cloud computing business. However,
the United States was the home of Amazon, Micro-
soft and Google, all with vast cloud businesses of their
own. Besides, nationalist Donald Trump was imposing
boycotts on Chinese technology companies and threat-
ening tari�s. At the end of 2018, Alibaba announced the
winding down of its cloud computing operations in the
United States. For the Yangtze River crocodile, attacking
the ocean sharks in their home seas may have been a step
too far.
Main case sources: China Daily, 8 and 13 May 2015; Financial
Times,
9 September 2014 and 14 September 2018; South China
Morning Post,
12 February 2015; Washington Post, 23 November 2014; Wall
Street
Journal, 4 December 2018.
Questions
1 Carry out a PESTEL analysis of Alibaba at the time of the
case. Evaluate the balance of opportunities and threats,
using the same kind of figure as in Illustration 2.1.
2 Draw a basic sociogram of Alibaba’s network (see
Section 2.2.3 and Figure 2.5): some simplification may
be necessary. Explain why Alibaba’s network might be
useful.
[Type here]
Case Study 128 – Postpartum
75. Read the scenario and answer all questions
Scenario:
T.N. delivered a healthy male infant 2 hours ago. She had a
midline episiotomy. This is her sixth pregnancy. Before this
delivery, she was G6, T4, P0, A1, L4. She had an epidural block
for her labor and delivery. She is now admitted to the
postpartum unit.
1. What is important to note in the initial assessment?
necessary.
2. You find a boggy fundus during your assessment. What
corrective measures should be instituted?
3. The patient complains of pain and discomfort in her perineal
area. How will you respond?
4. The nurse reviews the hospital security guidelines with T.N.
The nurse points out that her baby has a special identification
bracelet that matches a bracelet worn by T.N., and the nurse
reviews other security procedures. Which statement by T.N.
indicates a need for more teaching?
a. “If I have a question about someone’s identity, I can ask my
nurse about it.”
b. “If someone comes to take my baby for an examination, that
person will carry my baby to the examination room.”
c. “Nurses on this unit all wear the same color uniform.”
d. “Each staff member who takes my baby somewhere will have
a picture identification badge.”
5. An hour after admission, you recheck T.N.s perineal pad and
find that there is a very small amount of lochia on the perineal
pad. What will you do next? a. Ask T.N. to change her perineal
pad
b. Check her perineal pad again in 1 hour
c.
Check the pad underneath T.N.’s buttocks
d. Document the findings in T.N.’s medical record
6. That evening, the nursing assistive personnel assesses T.N.’s
vital signs. Which vital signs would be of concern at this time?
Vital Signs:
76. Temperature:
99.9°F
Blood pressure:
100/50
Pulse rate:
120 bpm
Respiratory rate: 16/min.
7. What will you do next? Monitor VS, notify doctor is BP and
pulse do not improve. Assess pt for bleeding or leaking. Assess
for color, amount, consistency, and odor of the lochia. Check to
see if blood has spread to other areas of the body. Check uterine
fundus, if boggy, massage until firm.
8. After your prompt intervention, you need to document what
occurred. Write an example of a documentation entry describing
this event.
Time: 1600 Pulse: 120 BP: 100/50
Large amount of lochia rubra noted with small clots underneath
patients buttocks. Fundus was boggy until massaged firm.
Patient encouraged to increase fluid intake. Patient voiding
without difficulty. Assisted patient with perineal hygiene and
provided a clean perineal pad which was placed under patient.
Will continue to monitor.
9. Two hours later, you perform another perineal pad check and
observe a 2 in. stain on the pad. How would you document your
findings in terms of the amount of lochia on the peripad? Light
10. T.N.’s condition is stable, and you prepare to provide
patient teaching. What patient teaching is vital after delivery?
11. T.N. tells you she must go back to work in 6 weeks and is
not sure she can continue breastfeeding. What options are
available to her?
T.N. is discharged to home and plans to consult a lactation
specialist before returning to work.
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We are writing a reflection of your understanding of the
concepts and answer the end of the chapter case questions for
chapter 2. These reflections should be typed using Microsoft
Word (no more than 4 pages), double-spaced, 12-point Times
New Roman font, with 1-inch margins, and uploaded on Canvas.
The reflection of each chapter should include 1) our
understanding of the key concepts of the chapter, 2) a summary
of the end of the chapter case, and 3) answers to the case
questions.