The Attention Deficit Disorder Controversy

Attention Deficit Disorders have become a very highly controversial topic during the last decade. Attention Deficit Disorder, also known as ADD, is a broad, almost generic term for the different types of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders. The Diagnostic and Statistical manual of the American Psychiatric Association offers us this definition: â€Å"ADHD is a disorder that can include a list of nine specific symptoms of inattention and nine symptoms of hyperactivity/impulsivity. † In addition, the Concise Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia provides this interpretation: † (a) chronic, neurologically based syndrome, characterized by any or all of three types of behavior: hyperactivity, distractibility, and impulsivity. Unlike similar behaviors caused by emotional problems or anxiety, ADHD does not fluctuate with emotional states. † About 1-3% of the school aged population has the full ADHD syndrome, without symptoms of other disorders. Another 5-10% have partial ADHD syndrome with one or more other problems, such as anxiety or depression. CHADD) Gender and age affect the way the patients display their symptoms. Boys are more likely to have the disorder than girls. The symptoms of ADHD usually decrease with age, but those symptoms related with other similar disorders are said to increase with age. 30-50% of children with ADHD may display symptoms, although often times less ADHD may be observed in children before the age of four, but it†s signs are often missed until the child begins school. ADHD is often accompanied by learning difficulties, excessive physical activity, impulsive actions, nattention and social inappropriateness. Many of the children affected by ADHD exhibit a low threshold for frustration, which predisposes them to uncontrollable tantrums, and inability to concentrate in a controlled setting, such as a classroom. The behavioral symptoms associated with ADHD must last more than six months to be diagnosed as an attention disorder, although, it is not uncommon for medical doctors promote the idea of office diagnosis. Diagnosis of ADHD syndrome in a doctor†s office however, presents an evaluation in a controlled environment, which are subject to rror. Office diagnosis entails a child being put in a observation room, usually alone, which enable the doctor to observe their behavior. This observation does not produce accurate results due to the fact that the environment is not one of which the child frequently has problems in. Frequently the behaviors of children affected by ADHD will parallel those of a normal child, other times, the child can be uncontrollable. Most children with ADHD have problems with interacting with other children or when asked to omplete a task, especially if additional distractions are present. More frequently, children suspected of having ADHD are evaluated by their intellectual, academic, social and emotional functioning. The evaluation often includes input from the child†s teacher(s), parent(s), and others adults that frequently interact with the child. There are questionnaires that will rate the child behavior that are often used by the parents and teacher of the child. (See Addendum 1) Being that the behavior must last for at least six months, a log of behavior is also encouraged to be kept. ADHD — Combined type is defined by an individual meeting both sets of attention and hyperactive/impulsive criteria. ADHD — Not otherwise specified is defined by an individual who demonstrates some characteristics but an insufficient number of symptoms to reach a full diagnosis. These symptoms, however, disrupt Although we mostly hear of children having the disorder, many adults are also affected by ADHD. Adults often try and shape their lifestyles to compensate their abilities by seeking jobs in fields that: do not require long periods of focused attention, allow them the freedom to move about, do not equire close attention to detail, etc. (Wender, 15) In adults, their are greater problems with stress, which lead to greater expressed emotions. Other psychiatric disorders, known as comorbidity, are also found in ADHD patients. Oppositional Defiant Disorder , Conduct Disorder, and Learning Disorders can confuse the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD. These disorders display similar characteristics and can be negatively influenced if the patient is treated for disorders they do not have. Treatment of ADHD is often done through behavior management, parent training, psychiatric treatment, educational intervention and psychostimulant medications. The combination of medication and psychosocial intervention is called multimodality treatment. 70-80% of children treated with ADHD respond positively to psychostimulants. Medications primarily used in treatment include Ritalin (methylphenidate), which is the most commonly prescribed, Dexedrine (dextroamphetamine), and Cylert (pemoline). (CHADD) The most common side effects of these are loss of appetite, loss of weight, and problems with falling asleep. The loss of appetite typically lasts while the drug is working, and after it has worn off, the patients hunger returns, often stronger. Weight loss occurs rarely, and fter research, growth is not revealed to be affected. Insomnia and sleeping problems are mainly credited to doses taken too late in the day. It is common practice to give the last dose no later than 4:00 p. m. (Diller, 263) Ritalin, which is a stimulant, confuses many people on why it is used to treat ADHD patients. The reasoning is that ADHD patients have a chemical imbalance within their brains, which causes Amphetamines, such as Ritalin, to have a reverse, typically calming affect. These effects allow the patient to concentrate more and interact better with others. Schools are developing better programs to aid children with attention eficit disorders. IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Act) and ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) ensure that students with all types of disabilities, including ADHD, receive a free and appropriate education. ADHD students have an IEP (Individualized Educational Program) which can result in placement in resource or SDC (Special Day) classes. IEP†s involve the child†s parent(s), teacher(s), school psychologist, and even a school administrator. The IEP†s provide the student†s current level of performance, a plan of educational goals, both long and short term, and how these goals The prognosis with children affected by ADHD is encouraging, especially for those whose symptoms are identified early and treated accordingly. Many children can cope with their disorder and become productive members of society. Untreated cases of ADHD can lead to failure in school and emotional and social difficulties, which puts them at a disadvantage compared to their peers. Numerous studies are underway and will hopefully produce more answers and a better understanding of the American Psychiatric Association. The Diagnostic and Statistical manual of Psychiatric Diagnoses.

Statistics and Golf Ball

Case Study 1: Par, Inc. Par, Inc. , is a major manufacturer of golf equipments. Management believes that Par’s market share could be increased with the introduction of a cut-resistant, longer-lasting golf ball. Therefore, the research group at Par has been investigating a new golf ball coating designed to resist cuts and provide a more durable golf. The tests with the coating have been promising. One of the researchers voiced concern about the effect of the new coating on driving distances. Par would like the new cut-resistant ball to offer driving distances comparable to those of the current-model golf ball.To compare the driving distances for the two balls, 40 balls of both the new and current models were subjected to distance tests. The testing was performed with a mechanical hitting machine so that any difference between the mean distanced for the two models could be attributed to a difference in the two models. The results of the tests, with distances measured to the near est yard, follow. These data are available on the excel file â€Å"Golf†. Managerial Report 1. Formulate and present the rationale for the hypothesis test that par could use to compare the driving distances of the current and new golf balls. . Analyze the data to provide the hypothesis testing conclusion. What is the p-value for the test? What is your recommendation for Par, Inc.? 3. Provide descriptive statistical summaries of the data for each model. 4. What is the 95% confidence interval for the population mean of each model, and what is the 95% CI for the difference between the means of the two populations? 5. Do you see a need for the larger sample sizes and more testing with the golf balls? Discuss. Case Study 2: Higher Education in Asia-Pacific The pursuit of a higher education degree in business is now international.A survey shows that more and more Asians choose the MBA degree route to corporate success. The number of applicants for MBA courses at Asia-Pacific school s continues to increase about 30% a year. In 1997, the 74 business school in Asia-Pacific region reported a record 170,000 applicants for the 11,000 full time MBA degrees to be awarded in 1999. A main reason for the surge in demand is that an MBA can greatly enhance earning power. Across the region, thousands of Asians show an increasing willingness to temporarily shelve their careers and spend two years in pursuit of a theoretical business qualification.Courses in these schools are notoriously tough and include economics, banking, marketing, behavior sciences, labour relations, decision making, strategic thinking, business law, and more. The data named â€Å"Asian† shows some of characteristics of the leading Asia-Pacific business schools. Managerial Report Use the methods of descriptive statistics to summarise the data. Discuss your finding. 1. Include the summary for each variable in the data set. Make comments and interpretations based on maximums and minimums, as well as the appropriate means and proportions.What new insight do these descriptive statistics provide concerning Asian-Pacific business schools. 2. Summarise the data to compare the following: a. Any difference between local and foreign tuition costs. b. Any difference between mean starting salaries for schools requiring and not requiring work experience. c. Any difference between mean starting salaries for schools requiring and not requiring English tests. 3. Do starting salaries appear to be related to tuition? 4. Present any additional graphical and numerical summaries that will be beneficial in communicating the dataset and others.

Electronic Monitoring System Implementation Case Study

Electronic Monitoring System Implementation - Case Study Example I have been appointed as the consultant and my responsibility is to carry out a research-oriented study for management Board of an organization, for the implementation of the electronic monitoring system for the better management and handling of the employee’s activities and daily tasks on the job. This report will provide a deep insight into the overall organizational implementation new electronic monitoring system. Companies desire to be persuading their personnel are carrying out a first-class job; on the other hand, employees don't desire their every trip or sneeze to the water-cooler logged. That's the fundamental conflict or clash of office observation (Workplace? 2009). Up-to-date technologies put together it feasible for organizations to view numerous activities of their worker’s occupation, predominantly on computer terminals, telephones in the course of voice mail, electronic as well as when workers are making use of the Internet. This sort of monitoring is practically unregulated. As a result, except business strategy purposely position otherwise, our company can listen, observe as well as read the majority of our place of work communications (Workplace? 2009). From the perspective of workers, electronic monitoring through companies engages considerable isolation distress. Electronic monitoring allows an organization to check what staff is performing on the duty as well as investigation of worker communications, encompassing Internet activity and e-mail, frequently confining as well as evaluation of communications that workers judge privately. Since electronic monitoring as well comprises utilize of computer forensics, a comparatively innovative discipline as well as a significant progression in the wider areas of computer evidence and electronic monitoring (King, 2009). There are numerous business reasons for organizations to electronically monitor employees in the place of work encompassing the judgment of employee’s effectiveness, defending organization’s property from mistreatment, as well as making sure and fulfilment through the place of work  strategies.

Drug Abuse as a Crime Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Drug Abuse as a Crime - Research Paper Example It is a very personal matter. The drug abuser willingly chooses to indulge in this practice. Accordingly, it is no one else but the very abuser that suffers in the end. This division between the consequences of crime and drug abuse makes one think of the extent to which, drug abuse should be considered as a crime. Through my research, I shall tend to find answer to this question; Taking its consequences into consideration, to what extent is drug abuse a crime? Significance: More and more people are indulging into the practice of drug abuse. This practice saps their ability to play a constructive role in the society. Drug abusers ruin their own life. Caught in this habit, drug abusers are more in need of psychological counseling and moral help than punishment. In fact, punishment may even aggravate the negativity in the behavior of drug abusers. Therefore, there is dire need to distinguish between drug abuse and crime so that more rational ways can be adopted to deal with drug abusers and make them become responsible citizens. Theory: One of the popular theories of crime is the Lombroso’s theory of crime. In 1876, Lombroso said that criminals are born criminals. They are born with some physical features that distinguish them from the society in general. Lombroso believed that criminals were in the middle of existing and ancient humans. Their heads and faces have specific features that make them criminal.

The End of American Exceptionalism Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The End of American Exceptionalism - Assignment Example However, Woods tainted his reputation and that of his country despite the global respect that he had attained over time in his career. This had a major effect of undermining the historical American exceptionalism that had put the nation at a superior level in the face of the global nations (LeVine, 2009). As an indirect technical rejoinder, Obama proves to the world that America still owns its superpowers. He delivers a powerful speech to the world that shifts the global attention from the tainted side of America to a more convincing side of the same. However, either through America’s leadership history or Woods’ misdeeds, the brand that America has boasted about long is under threat (Beinar, 2014). Like Obama, Woods humbly accepts his mistakes and expresses willingness to change and restore their country’s reputation. Obama who is a victim of the mistakes made by his predecessors openly accepts the nation's failures attributed to historical mistakes. This is so despite the fact that he may not mention or wish to know the how, where and when the misdeeds caused by his predecessors came about. On his part, Woods accepts his mistakes and he pretty understands how his wrong deeds served to tarnish the nation’s image. Both Woods and Obama intercept at the point that mistakes recognized and accepted, preserve and or restores America’s national brand despite the fact that challenging the costs and justification for such mistakes may not be possible (LeVine, 2009). Obama understands very well what the repercussions for mentioning and detailing the mistakes would be felt severely by the U.S. Mentioning what exactly transpired during the past regimes, even if he knew a million about them, would threaten the country’s reputation and international pride. The world views America as a powerful and autonomous nation that wields a vast socio-economic command over other nations in the world... However, Obama understands that when the past mistakes, injustices and constraints of the predecessors were to be unearthed in details, the nation could lose considerable amounts of power and command in the socio-economic aspect.  Ã‚  

Tthe First Bank of the United States Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Tthe First Bank of the United States - Essay Example They needed to shore up their own fiscal policy and standardize a currency that could be adopted nationwide and begin to get the country off on the right financial footing. The First Bank of the United States was an effort to do this, and its charger came into effecting 1791. While certainly far from perfect, nor even ideal in the eyes of many, it was a solid first effort by the founding fathers of the nation to set the country on the right path to financial security and freedom, in addition to their newfound global independence. They also wanted to show the world that the nation was capable of not only paying back its debt, but also in handling its own internal needs moving forward. This was seen as a necessary first step towards establishing domination throughout the region and keeping potential invaders from arriving on the shores of the young country. To understand this First Bank, one needs to discuss the background of Hamilton’s Plan, the economic policy associated with the Bank, and its eventual implementation. While the First Bank of the United States was all about creating fiscal policy for the new country, it is still important to remember that it was also an actual physical building. The bank itself was built in Philadelphia, which at that time of the capital of the country. Alexander Hamilton was the brainchild behind the concept of the bank, and his desire was to implement a mechanism by which the United States, and each individual state within the union, could begin to tack its monumental debt as a result of the Revolutionary War. Prior to the creation of the bank and the implementation of its charter, coins and paper currency were actually issued by state banks, and these individual currencies combined to form the national currency. For obvious reasons, if the Union was going to succeed, they had to nationalize its monetary

Human resources labor relations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Human resources labor relations - Essay Example In other words trade unions are more powerful than the employers at present which is not good for the market. In a heavily competitive and extremely globalised market, trade unions may reduce the competitive power of the organizations. Majority of the organizations in the current world are functioning in a democratic manner and employees can directly contact their managers for establishing their rights. It is better to form a body, consisting of the representatives from both the employer and the employees to settle the employment disputes. One big union approach is definitely better than multi-union approach. The exploitation of the employees by union leaders will be reduced considerably when single union approach implemented. Majority of the trade union problems occur because of the trade union leader’s egoism. If more unions are present in an organization, each union may put different unacceptable and illogical demands to the employer to catch the attention of the employees. One of the major disadvantages of one big union concept is the possibility of more disputes inside the union because of the differences in the political beliefs of the members. In multi-union approach, members of each union may have same political ideology and therefore internal conflicts would be

Persuasive Speech-Problem & Solution Design Essay

Persuasive Speech-Problem & Solution Design - Essay Example Marriage is typically defined as the uniting of two people of the age of majority of their own free will and volition. In this way, regardless of culture contractual unions (often referred to as marriage) are recognized by the law of the state in every nation on the face of the planet. Child marriage is a situation where children are subjected to matrimony before they have achieved the legal marriage age. In the Middle East nearly half of Yemeni girls are married before they reach eighteen years of age. In some instances, marriages occur even before the tender age of 8. The law in Yemen set the minimum age at one that is approved for marriage to be 15 years; however, traditional customs more often than not continuously flout this law. 1. This is due in part to the fact that the law was continually interpreted differently by different individuals, the laws was changed in 1999 to allow marriage only after the point in time in which a girl reached the age of puberty. However, the issue with the change in the law meant that many tribal elders interpreted puberty to be as early as the age of 9. In the actual practice, it can be said that the law in Yemen allows women of any age to be able to wed, but it is forbidden to practice sex with them until they achieve the age where it is now considered suitable to do so. 2. The law was later to be raised from the minimum age of marriage to be 18 years after a girl, Nujood Ali, 10 years of age, in April 2008 was able to be granted divorce successfully after being raped under the set circumstances. Much later in 2008, a council for maternal care and childhood established a proposal for the minimum age to be defined at 18 years and was passed as law in April 2009. However, this law was to be dropped the very next day after maneuvers by parliamentarians opposed to it, and negotiations are still ongoing for the legislation to be

Barbie Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Barbie Assignment - Essay Example One of the arguments against girls playing with Barbie dolls is that by â€Å"dramatizing stereotypical feminine roles during play, girls will internalize† (Kuther & Mcdonald 39) and later strive to personify such roles. Boys do not wish to be seen playing with dolls, hence Barbies’ impact on them is less. Thesis Statement: The purpose of this paper is to investigate Barbie dolls and their impact on oneself, as an essential area of gender and sexual studies. One’s Personal Perceptions of Barbie as a Child and Adolescent Though boys generally would not dream of playing with Barbies, most have experiences of some kind of destructive play with a Barbie belonging to their siblings or friends. As a child and while growing up, I had a fascination for the perfectly formed Barbie doll that my younger sister would dress in garments she stitched on her own. As a ten year old, she played imaginatively with her doll, and was proud to display it with her handiwork, of what sh e believed was high-fashion wear fit for the runways of Paris and Milan. Being her brother a couple of years older to her, I took immense pleasure in hiding her doll in inaccessilbe places, rolling it in mud, or coloring her hair with multi-colored inks, to horrify my kid sister. This would result in her crying and reporting to our parents, which would inevitably lead to some kind of punishment for me. However, her look of utter shock over my destructive work would give me immense satisfaction. The demolition was in a way related to the fact that the perfectly formed adult shape of Barbie made me uneasy. Hence I considered destructive measures to be a good way to display my disdain for all things feminine and attractive. This natural impulse that boys have is reiterated by Kuther and Mcdonald (p.46) who state that torture play with Barbies is commonly reported by boys. Another reason was my wish to teach my kid sister a lesson for having to baby sit her for short durations while I w ould have preferred to join my friends’ boisterous outdoor games. This destructive phase however, did not last long, and I stopped harassing her due to parental imposition. Girls in relation to their experiences with Barbie doll play are found to have long-lasting outcomes resulting from the unrealistically ideal body shape of the doll. It is widely argued that girls are severely constrained and even subjugated by the â€Å"rigid boundaries of normative femininity as well as the patriarchal and overly sexualized portrayals of females in Western cultures† (Ivashkevich 40). This is further rooted in the fact that the female body is checked, obsessed over, beautified and objectified through the media and other cultural products and discourses. In rebellion, girls are also stated to innovatively and imaginatively transform existing cultural texts and artifacts created for their consumption, not content to passively internalize cultural norms and values. On the other hand, one of the approaches that girls have towards their childhood play with Barbie dolls is a practical one, as revealed by Reid-Walsh and Mitchell (p.175). They state that they grew up loving the doll, and her exaggerated proportions made no difference to them. Further, they believe that those who consider Barbie dolls to be the root of their eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa should look into themselves for the causes,

Comparing the Organizational Structure of Nonprofit Organizations and Research Paper

Comparing the Organizational Structure of Nonprofit Organizations and For Profit Organizations - Research Paper Example r an organization is for-profit or non-profit, the organization exemplifies very diverse goals and objectives that are constructed around a particular strategic initiative and where all internal activities are aligned with these strategic objectives. It is the responsibility of an organization to not only fulfil its strategic goals, but to also satisfy the needs of very diverse and disparate stakeholder groups. To accomplish this, the organization must consider multiple dynamics, including economic policies within the organization’s region of operations, internal capabilities to accomplish its strategies, market conditions, social and cultural factors that will impact organizational strategy and be considerate of flexibility and change internally that will allow the entity to evolve with changing external conditions or needs. In order for an organization to remain relevant in its region of operations and sustain long-term significance, the organization must continuously adapt and develop contingencies to mitigate risks and better service stakeholders (Buchanan & Huczynski, 2010). Understanding that both for-profit and non-profit organizations have very disparate visions, missions and goals, the organization requires leadership and governance that can ensure regulatory compliances, develop a valuable product or service, promote a desired social or political change in a society, or generally remain competitive. Governance includes systems and oversights that direct and control an organization, inclusive of aligning management activities to strategic intention, performing various market analyses, ensuring all value chain activities effectively support the organizational mission and promoting change with minimal resistance (Tricker, 2009). For-profit and non-profit organizations operate quite differently in some dimensions, while also sustaining many similar characteristics. The most significant differences between non-profit and for-profit organizations are in

Chemistry in Daily Life Essay Example for Free

Chemistry in Daily Life Essay 1.You feel hungry because of the satiety center in your brain falls short of particular hormones to function and then sends the signal of hunger. 2.You fall in love, get attracted and have a feeling of belonging because of certain monoamines present in your brain which get stimulated through nerve sensors. 3.If you have wondered, why is the sky blue, it is due to a phenomenon called the Rayleigh scattering, which depends on scattering of light through particles which are much smaller than the wavelength. Hence when light passes through gases, there is scattering and the sky appears blue. 4.Coffee keeps you awake because of the presence of a chemical called adenosine, in your brain. It binds to certain receptors and slows the nerve cell activity when sleep is signaled. 5.Anaerobic fermentation is also a great concept which is present in the chemistry of everyday life. It is present in yogurt, breads, cakes and many other baking products. It is the multiplication of certain useful bacteria which increase the size of the food and make it more filling and soft. 6.Soap is formed by molecules with a head which likes water (hydrophilic) and a long chain which hates it (hydrophobic). 7.Lactose is the main complex sugar found in the milk. Its a pretty big compound formed by two smaller components: glucose and galactose. Such a big compound cannot get through the intestinal wall and into the bloodstream, so we need something to break it into smaller pieces. This something is an enzime named lactase. The more milk and milk products we consume, the more lactase we need. 8.The iodised salt is a necessary intake. It prevents a disease called goitre. 9.In the garden we use sprays to kill insects from attacking our plants. 10.Vermiwash is a liquid fertilizer. It isused as a leaf spray.

Googles Performance Management System

Googles Performance Management System Contents (Jump to) 1. INTRODUCTION 2. FORMULATION OF HR STRATEGY 3. IMPLEMENTATION OF PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT: 4. EVALUATION OF PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT REFERENCES: 1. INTRODUCTION The practice of human resource management is concerned with all aspects of how people are employed and managed in organizations. The main principle of human resource management is to make sure that the organization is able to attain success through people. HRM aims to increase organizational efficiency and ability and the capacity of an organization to achieve its goals by making the best use of the resources available to it. Human resource management mainly deals with organizational behavior, organization design and development, people resourcing, performance management, learning and development, rewarding people and employee relations. In the organizational context, performance is usually defined as the extent to which an organizational member contributes to achieving the goals of the organization. Performance management is a regular process to improve organizational performance by improving the performance of individual persons and teams. The performance management strategy is practical to be the procedure of providing the study about the performance of the employee and is consider being the important tool in the decisions taken by the human resource department. Performance management is defined as Performance management is a strategic and integrated approach to delivering sustained success to organizations by improving the performance of the people who work in them and by developing the capabilities of teams and individual contributors (Armstrong and Baron, 2004). Performance management is the method of formulating, implementing and evaluating the work performance of employees, so that the organization will achieve their goals and objectives. Successful performance management is designed to develop performance, recognize performance requirements, and provide feedback related to those requirements and help with career development. The overall aim of performance management is to establish a high performance culture in which individuals and teams take responsibility for the continuous improvement of business processes and for their own skills and contributions within a framework provided by effective leadership (Armstrong, 2006). The objectives of performance management are (Hawkes, 1998): To sustain employees to find knowledge and skills to do their job well, To encourage in the ability of improved standards of work performance of an employee. For employees to work towards definite goals. For employees to get regular feedback on performance and For employees to achieve personal growth through acquiring significant knowledge and skills and attitudes. In todays business environment, the companys bottom line is to make more profits in long term by attracting, retaining and motivating top talent people for utmost performance. The approaches of companies for attaining profits are by offering the best rewards in the industry. The company which is in that list is Google Inc. Google early years, the search engine attracted an ever growing number of trusty users, which finally lead to an initial public offering valuing Google at US$ 23 billion. After the IPO, Google under the professional leadership of CEO Eric Schmidt, has grown greatly and continuous to innovate and expand into a numberless of industries, such as communication and web applications etc. The modern environment in which Google operate is very competitive. According to Google employees and their technical knowledge is companys greatest advantage (NYU IBA, 2008). This case study will focus on performance management tool of reward and feedback system of Google. Concentrating on how reward system is influencing the employee performance? And what are the methods used to evaluate the feedback performance management? 2. FORMULATION OF HR STRATEGY 2.1 Process of Performance Management: Performance planning and agreements: This process helps people to get into action so they can achieve planned and agreed results. This process briefly focuses on the elements like what has to be done and how it should be done and what is to be achieved. And this process is equally concentrated on developing people; helping them to learn and giving them the support they need to do well. The managers and the individuals carry out performance and development plan jointly. These planning should lead to an agreement on what needs to be done by two parties. This process is concentrating on Role profiles Objective settings Measuring performance and assessment Performance planning Development planning Role profiles This section describe the function in terms of the key result areas; define what the role possessor desires to know and be able to do and how they are likely to behave in terms of behavioral competencies and maintenance the organizations core values. This process will concentrate on rising the role profiles, defining the core result areas, defining the technical competencies, defining the behavioral competencies, and core values. Objective Setting This process describes the organizational goals or objectives to achieve over a period of time by the departments and the individuals. This will give ongoing role or the work objectives, targets, tasks, behavioral expectations, values, performance improvement, learning, and integrating objectives to manager and the individuals. As per (Armstrong, 2006) most of the organizations follow SMART mnemonic to summarize the characteristics of good objectives. S (Specific) Clear, understandable and challenging. M (Measurable) quality, quantity, money and time. A (Achievable) challenging but in the reach of a experienced and committed person. R (Relevant) related to the objectives of the organization so that the goal of the employees is associated to corporate goals. T (Time framed) objective is to be completed within a timescale. Measuring performance and assessment This process is a significant model in performance management. It is the main finding for providing and generating feedback, it identify where things are going well and where things are not going well, so that necessary action to be taken. The criteria for measuring the performance should be (Armstrong, 2006) linked to the strategic goals Focusing on inputs, outputs and outcomes, and behaviors. Point out the data or evidence that will be available as the source for measurement. Be as specific as possible in accordance with the purpose of the measurement and the accessibility of data. Give a sound basis for advice and action. Be comprehensive, covering all the main aspects of performance. The CIPD surveys of performance management in 2004 discovered that, in order of significance, the following performance measures were used by the respondents (Armstrong, 2006). Attainment of objectives Capability Quality Contribution to team Customer care Working relationships Output Flexibility Skills/learning targets Aligning personal objectives with organizational goals Business awareness Financial awareness Performance planning The performance planning is part of the performance management chain, which involves contract between the manager and the person on what presently needs to do to achieve objectives, move up standards, improve performance and develop the required competencies. It also establishes priorities the key aspects of the job to which attention have to be given. The aim is to make sure that the meaning of the purpose, performance standards and competencies as they apply to everyday work is understood. Agreement is also reached at this phase on how performance will be measured and the proof that will be used to begin levels of competence. It is important that these procedures and evidence requirements should be known and fully approved now because they will be used by persons and managers to check and demonstrate achievements (Armstrong, 2009). Personal development planning Personal development plans provide a learning action plan for which employees are responsible with the support of their managers and the organization. It may contain official training but, more importantly, it will include a wider set of learning and development actions such as self managed learning, training, mentoring, project work, job improvement and job enrichment. It is likely to focus on development in the existing job, and to improve the capability to make it well and to enable individuals to take on bigger responsibilities, extending their ability to accept a broader role. This plan therefore contributes to the success of a policy of continuous development that is predicated on the belief that everyone is able of learning more and doing better in their jobs. The plan will also give to enhancing the likely of persons to carry out higher level jobs (Armstrong, 2009). Managing performance throughout the year: Managing performance is that it is a continuous process that reflects normal good management practices of setting direction, monitoring and measuring performance and taking action accordingly. Performance management should not be imposed on managers as something special they have to do. It should instead be treated as a natural function that all good managers carry out. This approach contracts with that used in conventional performance appraisal systems, which were usually built around an annual event, the formal review, which tended to do well on the past. This was carried out at the behest of the personnel department. Managers proceeded to manage without any further references to the outcome of the review and the appraisal form was buried in the personnel record system (Armstrong, 2009). Performance review and assessment: Performance management is a permanent process it is compulsory to have an official review once or twice a year. This will give an idea on the key performance and development issues. There are mainly five performance management elements for review meetings; they are agreement, feedback, measurement, positive reinforcement and dialogue. These elements will leads to the end of the performance management cycle by informing performance and development agreements (Armstrong, 2009). The criteria for the performance review are Achievements with respect to objectives The level of skills and knowledge possessed and applied (Technical competencies) Performance is getting effected in job by the behavior (Competencies) Day-to-day effectiveness 2.2 Learning and Development: Employee development is the main method followed by most of the organizations to develop organization performance, which in turn requires a perceptive of the processes and techniques of organization, team and individual learning. Performance reviews can be regarded as learning events, in which employees can be encouraged to think about how and in which ways they want to develop. Development programs are reflecting the needs of sequence plans and looking for to promote leadership skills (CIPD, 2010). In a successful organization, employee developmental needs are addressed. Developing in this case means increasing the ability to make through giving training, develop new skills or by giving more responsibilities. Introducing the processes of performance management provides an outstanding opportunity to identify developmental needs. During the planning and monitoring of work, deficiencies in performance become clear and can be addressed. Areas for improving good performance also show up and action can be taken to help successful employees progress even better (OPM, 2010). 2.3 360 Degree feedback: 360 Degree feedback recognizes the difficulty of management and the value of input from a range of sources. The feedback is frequently unspecified and may be presented to the employee to the manager or to both employee and manager. Some organizations do not arrange for feedback to be mysterious. Whether or not feedback is anonymous depends on the organizations culture (Armstrong, 2009). The main advantages of having feedback are Individuals get a broader viewpoint of how they seem by others. It gives people a broad view of their performance Increased awareness by senior management. The main disadvantages of having feedback are Employees or managers do not always give honest feedback People may feel stress in receiving or providing feedback Too much official procedure (bureaucracy) In organizations they do not have a practice of open feedback; it is likely that 360 Degree feedback will be seen with greater levels of distrust. 2.4 Reward: Reward management is concerned with the formulation and implementation of strategies and policies in order to reward people fairly, equally and consistently in agreement with their value to the organization (Armstrong, 2009). The aims of reward management are Reward people as per the organization want to pay for. Reward people for the value they creating. Build up a performance culture Motivate people and obtain their commitment. Help to attract and keep the high quality people the organization desires. Operate fairly Operate transparently 2.5 Rating performance: Rating scales can be defined alphabetically, or numerically. Initials are sometimes used in an attempt to disguise the hierarchical nature of the scale. The alphabetical or numerical points scale points may be described adjectivally, for example, a= excellent, b= good, c= satisfactory and d= dissatisfactory. 2.6 Advantages and concerns of performance management: The advantages of performance management are Performance management focuses on results instead of behaviors and activities. Aligns organization activities, and processes to the goals of the organization. Explains long term views of the organization Provides specificity in commitments and resources Provides specificity for comparisons, directions and planning. The concerns expressed about performance management are that it seems extraordinarily difficult and often unreliable to measure phenomena as complex as performance. People point out that todays organizations are rapidly changing, thus results and measures quickly became obsolete. They add that translating human desires and interactions to measurements is impersonal even heavy handed. 2.7 Role of line managers and HR managers in performance management: Human Resource division at any organization has unique challenges, it has to make sure that the employees are motivated and dedicated to the organization with complete reliability and honesty. However, at the same time, the Human resource division has to make sure that the market dynamics are not badly affected by the total volumes of investment involved in the process. And also line managers are crucial to the success of performance management. But there can be problems with their commitment and skills and it is necessary to involve them in developing the process, provide training and guidance, gain top management support, keep the process simple, emphasize that performance reviews provide for quality time with their staff and need not be stressful if conducted properly. The main objective to the success at Google Inc. is simple work procedure apart from the incredible perks and compensations. There are a few fundamental rewards existing at Google like, there is no real hierarchical structure in the company, and it works in small groups it will give an opportunity to maximize the performance and this follows a flat structure. The ideas getting at the work place which are shared within the groups. Even though they work in smaller groups, they will have a project manager to look over the development of the committees. The company treats the small groups and teams as individual start-ups (NYU IBA, 2008). 3. IMPLEMENTATION OF PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT: 3.1 Methods of performance management: There are number of methods we can use for managing performance. Below table shows some information on a number of official methods of performance management that may be used (Department of Economic Development, Tourism and the arts, 2010). Process What is this method? Where is this method used? 360 Degree appraisal This method gives a valuable approaching into how the persons work and behavior. This method is often used for managers and supervisors. While the values of this method are very useful, it can be administratively good method for small businesses. This method is used when funding and time is available. Where it is important to get quite a few perspectives on a persons performance, for example in the customer service roles or where the person is working across teams. Self assessment Just the name suggests, the individual assesses their own performance to set criteria. This is a good method for identifying where the businesses opinion of performance and the individuals opinions are different. Where there is an interview based performance management process Competency based assessments In this method they will access skills and capabilities. Ability can be harder to define in jobs with a high level of vagueness or where outcomes are not clearly express, such as managing relationships with staff. Where there are task oriented jobs with little or no ambiguity or decision making responsibility. Management by objectives A collaborative method, the MBO defines goals and future targets by consultation. Future tasks, behavior and productivity, for example, are discussed and a SMART plan is created so that the manager and staff member are aware of what needs to be achieved, to what standard and by when. Where the business uses formal processes to manage performance and where outcomes can be measured accurately. Google feedback program Google implements formal and informal feedback system to evaluate their employees. At Google, an employees manager report and individual reports are considered for the evaluation process. Its formal system of evaluation uses 360 Degrees review method. The employee will also selects three or more officials to review his performance. These reviews are made twice a year and this will reflect on the performance review with an employees bonus. Anyways, there is nothing surprise because regular checking of the performance is a form of informal feedback system and they are more comprehensive than a formal review which is performed twice a year (NYU IBA, 2008). Google reward program Google reward system extensively makes use of these formal and informal feedbacks, where the bonuses are based on the combined performance of the corporate, team and an individual. It got a complex structure of promotions and stock options within the organization. In addition, there is a strong clan society within the organization and comparatively flat organizational structure, making the company more a fusion of the two reward system. One of the Googles most exhilarating employee rewards is its capability to offer stock options. Stock options are typically to exercising the option and purchasing stock at a given date or not, however Google has decided to take a more innovative approach to its reward. Transferable stock options are a compensation program that Google developed for the purpose of allowing employees to trade their options off to a bidder. In this way, Google not only increases the value of every stock option given to its employees but also enhance its options valuations (NYU IBA, 2008). 4. EVALUATION OF PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT Google feedback program By considering all the above statements, we can say that Google has room to improve upon its feedback system in terms of making it more stabilized and prearranged. In addition, one-on-one interaction should be encourages as much as possible. The informal feedback should come in some sort of format that helps employees more than hurts them, and gives beneficial analysis rather than negative and strange feedback (NYU IBA, 2008). Google reward program What is Googles incentive in giving out these perks and rewards?. Well it is becoming increasingly important to attract and keep top talent in an increasingly competitive job market. With competition from technology giants like Microsoft and Yahoo! Google is offering US$2000 to the current employees, if they refer a friend to work at Google. At the same time these perks and rewards help differentiate Google from its competitors that have expanded their own benefits program in recent years. Despite the seemingly phenomenal environment at Google, we believe the company should consider the system of perks to ensure a stable employee base in the future. In the future, an overemphasis on perks may not build sufficient employee commitment, especially if competitors can imitate Googles programs. Thus, it is better Google slowly merge the perks with the rewards system. Increasing employee rewards, rather than merely offering interesting perks will in the long run help increase employee productivity and loyalty (NYU IBA, 2008). REFERENCES: Armstrong, M. and Baron, A. (2004). Managing performance: performance management in action. London: Chartered Institute of Personal and Development. Armstrong, M. (2006). Performance Management: Key Strategies and Practical Guidelines. 3rd Ed. London: Chartered Institute of Personal and Development.

Life Insurance And Swot Analysis Commerce Essay

Life Insurance And Swot Analysis Commerce Essay Security has always been a universal desire, right from the earliest civilizations. This quest for security has been a major motivating force in the progress of mankind. The early societies looked up to their families for providing this security, which resulted in cohesive units. Gradually, as lifestyles changed and as man progressed into a more modern industrialized setup, this cohesive quality of the family started fading. One had to look for other ways of providing economic security and somewhere along the line was born à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬-insurance. The insurance landscape in India is in the process of tremendous change. Closed to foreign competition due to nationalization in 1956, the Indian insurance industry was run by the government for over 40 years through the life insurance corporation of India (LIC) and four general insurance companies that spanned the length and breadth of the country. In the last couple of years there are a few forces acting on the industry that have brought about significant changes in the behaviour of the industry trends. Moreover there have been significant changes in the service outlook with respect to insurance industry. From the opinion that it was an instrument intended to provide monetary support at the time of the death of an individual, life insurance life insurance grew up to be a major financial instrument during the past 50 years in our country. There has also been a change in the consumer outlook with regards to life insurance as very beneficiary financial tool as against the orthodox thinking of unfruitful use of money. In this highly competitive market where mere survival has become primary objective for companies, customer service holds a major place in business. Every insurance company delivers service as per the terms of contract, however there are very few companies that go beyond the contract and augment the customers. This requires a learned and trained staff i.e. the agents. The following findings throw light on the service perspective bringing out the fundamentals of service marketing and its determinants. The finding of the research widens the consumer understanding aspect and it would be very helpful to imbibe customization. The research studies the changing trends in life insurance and describes the latent potential and also gives a hypothesis on the future of the insurance industry based on the study of insurance sector and the expert opinion. Origin of Insurance We live in exciting times with changes and upheavals all around. New technologies, new inventions and changes in the economic and financial scenario, all have thrown up new insurance needs; needs never felt or heard before. This type of evolutionary process, in the last few decades, has given hope to new types of need-based insurance covers; public liability insurance, product liability insurance, indemnity for medical practitioners for negligence, indemnity for chartered accountants and auditors for professional lapses, etc. Further, covers are engineering insurance, erection insurance, loss of profit, cover against atomic radiation and space travel and contracting AIDS. Around 6000 years ago, Babylonians, whose home in the Tigris Euphrates valley lay at the crossroads of early world traffic, had developed business practices to a high degree. Babylon had become the clearinghouse of trade as all the important land trade routes converged in that territory. From Armenia in the north, China and India in the east, Egypt in the west, caravans came laden with merchandise. Though Babylon built up a great commercial system, and her people were the first to enjoy the fruits of political economy, their territory was surrounded by huge tracts of desert. Recorded evidences testify that ancient India was a prominent maritime power. There were busy seaports on the west coast at Broach, at Kaveripumpatnam in the south and Bang in the east. Traders expressed difficulties in realizing money for the goods sent abroad. Loans were advanced to traders at specified rates of interest depending on the risk run and the duration of time for which money was required. Men skilled in sea voyages worked out risk premium rates. The first Indian insurance company was the Bombay Mutual Assurance Society ltd., formed in 1870. This was followed by the Oriental life Assurance in 1874, the Bharat in 1896 and the Empire of India in 1897. Hindustan Cooperative was formed in Calcutta, the United India in Madras, The Bombay Life in Bombay, The National in Calcutta, The New India in Bombay, The Jupiter in Bombay and the Lakshmi in New Delhi. These were all Indian companies started as a result of the swadeshi movement in the early 1900s. By the year 1956, when the Life insurance business was nationalized and the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) was formed on 1st September 1956, there were 170 companies and 75 provident fund societies transacting life insurance business in India. After the amendment to the relevant laws in 1999, the LIC did not have the exclusive privilege of doing life insurance business in India. By 31st march 2002, eleven new insurance companies had been registered and began to transact life insurance business in India. Does one need insurance The business of insurance is related to protection of the economic values of the assets. Every asset is of some value and is expected to last for a certain period of time during which it will deliver that value. In case the asset is destroyed it ceases to provide the value to the owner thus leading to an unpleasant situation. Insurance is a mechanism to reduce the effect of such unpleasant situation. Human life is considered to be a value generating asset and is also subject to risks. Assets are insured because there if a possibility that perhaps they might get destroyed, through accidental occurrences. Such possible occurrences are called perils. If such perils can cause damage to the asset we say that the asset is exposed to risk. To be more prà ©cised Perils are the events and risks are the consequential losses or damages. The risk only means that there is a possibility of a loss or damage, the loss may or may not happen. Insurance is done against the contingency that it might ha ppen. Insurance is relevant only if there are uncertainties. If there is no uncertainty about the occurrence of an event, it cannot be insured against. In case of human beings death is certain; however the time of death is uncertain. Insurance doesnt protect the asset. It doesnt prevent the loss due to its peril. The perils can sometime be avoided by ensuring better safety and damage control management. Insurance only tries to reduce the impact of the risk on the owner of the asset and those who depend on that asset. Only economic consequences can be insured. If the loss is not financial, insurance may not be possible. Moreover insurance is backed up with many economic benefits which can be enlisted as follows. Life insurance provides financial security to the family in case of untimely or premature death. Life insurance is also a potent instrument for saving. Life insurance provides financial independence in old age. Organizations or individuals, who are in credit business, can ensure for themselves recovery of loan in case their debtor dies. A partnership firm can insure partners to the extent of capital invested by each in the business. Under à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬-key man insurance, an organization can insure the lives of their executives, whose expertise greatly contributes to their profits. Organizations can purchase group insurance policies as a part of their employee- welfare program. Life insurance also provides tax benefits to the holder. Life insurance policies create an estate. Life insurance policies also create thrift. I.e. a compulsory saving. A policy of life insurance can be used as a collateral security for procuring loans from the market. Working of life-Insurance Business There are three primary methods to avoid risk viz. A) AVOID B) REDUCE C) TRANSFER Insurance deals with transfer of risk from the consumer to the provider. Insurance works on a fundamental principle of pooling of risk. People who are exposed to the same risk come together and agree that, if any one of them suffers a loss, the others will share the loss and make good the person who has suffered the loss. The manner in which the loss is to be shared can be determined beforehand. It may be proportional to the risk that each person is exposed to. This would be indicative of the benefit he would receive if the peril befell him. Insurance companies collect the share in the form of premiums and create a fund from which losses are paid; this fund is known as the life fund. The insurance company pays the losses to the members of that group. The insurance company also invests the funds in governmental and private organizations. Ex. LIC has lent a capital of Rs.215million to NABARD for its rural financing activities. Life Insurance Marketing Triangle The above diagram explains the services triangle with its three constituents, namely, the company, the provider and the consumer. Each of them have been explained as follows:- The Company The Company makes various promises to its customers through external marketing. The way and means of marketing will be covered it the marketing mix. The Provider The agents and the development officers act as the front-line staff and they are in direct contact with the potential or existing customers. They are the ones who keep or satisfy the promises made by the company. The marketing of insurance basically comes under concept selling. The agents are thus given various incentives, rewards, commissions and all the necessary training required. As regards incentive, they receive PLI (Productivity Linked Incentive), which is based on the increase in premium amount and the sums assured by the agent. They are also given extra commissions in case of policies, which are of high value. There are normal promotions for any good work done on a regular basis. The agents generally work under the training and guidance of their respective development officers. The Consumers The consumers are the policyholders. Apart from the routine life insurance policies other services like housing finance, mutual funds, pension and group insurance. Thus the range of consumers is far and wide Life insurance mix The identification of the seven Ps of marketing mix helps a firm to form better marketing strategies and also to serve the customers in a more efficient manner. Product Mix The best way to get and keep customers is to constantly figure out how to give them more for less. A product mix is the set of all products and items that a particular seller offers for sale. In case of insurance sector, the product mix comprises of Life and Non life insurance policies that are offered to the customer by the company. A companys product mix has certain width, length, depth and consistency. The length of a product mix refers to the total number of items in the mix. In case of insurance sector, the following is the length of product mix: Whole Life Policy Limited Payment Life Convertible Whole Life Policy Joint Life Endowment Policy Double Endowment Policy Jeevan Saathi Money Back Policy Annuity Plans Group Insurance Policy Bima Sandesh With or Without Profit Policy The depth of a product mix refers to how many variants are offered of each product in the line in the insurance sector, one policy can be made available in different variations. Some of the examples are as follows: WHOLE LIFE SCHEMES Whole life policy whole life Limited payment whole life Single Premium With profit policy These product mix dimensions permit the company to expand its business. E.g.: It can add new product lines thus widening its product mix. Product Differentiation Product differentiation may be referred to as the points or the qualities that a firm has in its product, which makes the product different from its competitors product. The product differentiation as far as the insurance sector and LIC in particular is concerned are as follows- Bonus- insurance companies issue bonus to their policyholders when they make a substantial amount of profit. If a company issues a high amount of bonus, it delights the customer and creates a good image in the eyes of the customer. Past records- the differentiation can be done on the basis of past records. Customers choose to take policy from that company which has well past records in terms of claim settling periods, premium collection intervals etc. Market reputation- a company with a good market reputation and goodwill is perceived to deliver the best of the service quality and customer satisfaction. Technology- technology plays an important part in product differentiation. For e.g.: LIC was the first company in the insurance sector to introduce use of I.T and Computers. This makes customers feel that the company is not lagging behind the world and is capable of making the full use of technology to satisfy the customers. Feedback- feedback from customers also is an important tool with which product of the company can be differentiated. If effective steps are been taken on the feedback of the customers, it leaves a long lasting impression on the minds of the customers. Price- if a particular company charges more for the same product as compared to their competitors, it may lose the customers and vice versa. Price Mix Price is one element in the marketing mix that produces revenue; all the other elements produce costs. Prices are easiest marketing mix elements to adjust; product features, channels and even promotion take more time. Price also communicates to the market the companys intended value positioning of its product or brand. In the insurance sector, every company has to deposit an initial fixed capital of about Rest. 100 crore with Insurance Regulatory Development Authority, which is considered as the apex body of Insurance sector. The company gets periodic interest on this amount. With this interest amount, the company pays for the recruitment, training and development of the agents. The price in case of insurance sector refers to the premium charged on the policy. The Tariff advisory committee fixes the price for each policy. Hence all insurance companies have to charge approximately similar premium on similar policies. However, different elements affect the rate of premium to be charged on each policy. The price for the same policy is different for different companies. The company must set its price in relation to the value delivered and perceived by the customer. If, the price is higher than the value received, the customer will not be willing to pay so high and the company will lose potential profits. If the price is less than the value received then, the company will fail to receive the profit that it deserves for providing a good service. BLUE PRINTING SEVICE MAPPING The blue printing show what the product should look like a details the specification to which it should conform. In contrast to the physical architecture of building, ship, or piece of equipment service process have a largely intangible structure. The process of logistics, industrial engineering, decision theory, and computer system analysis each of which employs blue print techniques to describe processes involving flow, sequences, relationship and dependencies. Sectorial study Insurance is suddenly gaining all the attention and what used to be a strange would in it is a household name, thanks to opening up of the industry, while there are several reasons for opening up of insurance sector the foreign investors are eyeing it as a very lucrative prospect. After the opening up, several private insurers have started operating in life insurance, especially in metro areas. New marketing channels like Banc assurance, brokers, etc. are also in the offing. KEY MARKET INDICATORS.Size of market life non-life $16 billion Total Global insurance premium (as on 2001) $2408.25 billion(-1.5% as against 2000) Rate of annual growth 2002-03 Life- 11.27% Non-life- 23% Geographical restriction for new players None. Players can operate all over the country. Registration restriction Composite registration not available. Equity restriction in the new Indian insurance company Foreign investor can hold up to 26% of the equity. Number of registered companies. Public sector 01 Private sector 13 Comparison of similar policy of competition Company Policy Min/Max entry age Minimum Premium Min sum assured Liquidity years Maturity benefits LIC Money back with Profit 13/50 Rs. 3186 yearly Rs. 50000 5,10,15,20 40% of sum assured + bonuses ICICI Prudential Cashbook 16/55 Rs. 6000 yearly Rs. 75000 4,8,12,16,20 50% of sum assured + bonuses Bajaj Allianz Cash Gain 14/50 Rs. 5000 yearly Rs. 50000 4,8,12,16,20 125% of sum assured + bonuses Life insurers in India As an answer to globalization of economy and the increasing pressure of the WTO regulations, the govt. appointed the Malhotra Committee. After considering all aspects, the government ultimately enacted Insurance Regulatory and development authority and vested the authority to formulate regulations for insurance industry. IRDA and the LIC allowed the entry of foreign investors on a condition that they enter in collaboration with a local company. Public sector Private sector Life Insurance Corporation of India(LIC) 1. Allianz Bajaj life insurance Company limited. 2. Birla sun life insurance Company limited. 3. HDFC standard life insurance company limited. 4. ICICI Prudential life insurance Company limited. 5. Reliance life insurance Company limited. 6. ING visa life insurance Company limited. 7. Max New York life insurance Company limited. 8. MetLife insurance company limited. 9. Om Kodak Mahindra life insurance co. ltd. 10. SBI insurance company limited 11. TATA-AIG life insurance Company limited. 12. AMP-Samar Assurance Company limited. 13. Aviva Life insurance company limited Life Insurance Players in India 1. Yr.: 1947-2000: (From 1947 to 1st April 2000) First life insurance company (LIC) set by Indian government in 1956. This is public company. 2. Yr.: 2000-2001: (From 2nd April 2000 to 31st December2001) Insurance Industry in the year 2000-2001 had 10 new entrants, namely: Synod. Registration Number Date of Reg. Name of the Company 1 101 23.10.2000 HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company Ltd. 2 104 15.11.2000 Max New York Life Insurance Co. Ltd. 3 105 24.11.2000 ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Ltd. 4 107 10.01.2001 KodakHYPERLINK http://www.omkotakmahindra.com/Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance Limited 5 109 31.01.2001 Birla Sun Life Insurance Company Ltd. 6 110 12.02.2001 Tata AIG Life Insurance Company Ltd. 7 111 30.03.2001 SBI Life Insurance Company Limited. 8 114 02.08.2001 ING HYPERLINK http://www.ingvysyalife.com/Visa Life Insurance Company Private Limited 9 116 03.08.2001 Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company Limited 10 117 06.08.2001 MetLifeHYPERLINK http://www.metlife.co.in/India Insurance Company Pvt. Ltd. 3. Yr: 2001-2002: (From 1st Jan 2001 to Dec. 2002) Insurance Industry in this year, so far  has 5 new entrants; namely S.No. Registration Number Date of Reg. Name of the Company 1 121 03.01.2002 AMP HYPERLINK http://www.ampsanmar.com/Samar Life Insurance Company Limited. 2 122 14.05.2002 Aviva Life Insurance Co. India Pvt. Ltd. 4. Yr: 2003-2004: (From 1st Jan 2003 till Date) Insurance Industry in this year, so far  has 1new entrants; namely S.No. Registration Number Date of Reg. Name of the Company 1 127 06.02.2004 Sahara India Insurance Company Ltd. Performance of the Industry Post-Privatization, the life insurance industry grows by leaps and bounds. The attitude of people towards life insurance itself is changing. People are becoming more and more aware of the advantages of the Life insurance policies. Generally performance in life is measured in terms of first year premium collection and no. of lives covered. In 2003-04 Life Industry grew by 10.5% in terms of first year premium. It is showing steady growth rate in the current financial year as well. The sector witnessed a growth of over 50% for the month of April 2004, vis-à  -vis April 2003. The premium in comparison, LIC underwrote premium of Rs.72, 304.62 lakh i.e., a market share of 82.33%. In terms of policies Underwritten, the market share of the private players was 17.88% as against 82.17% of LIC. The premium underwritten by the private players for individual policies stood at Rs.12, 107.63 lakh, towards 89,918 policies with group premium accounting for Rs.3, 411.30 lakh towards 84 schemes. The n umber of lives covered under group schemes was 1, 01,392. ICICI Prudential continued to lead amongst the private players with premium at 6.15% and policies at 4.85%. In terms of number of lives covered, OM Kodak led with 21,325 lives viz., 5.83% of the total lives covered. Premium underwritten by LIC under Varishtha Bima Yojana during the month of April, 2004 was Rs.26, 734.25 lakh towards 13899 policies of which 29.60%, in terms of both premium and policies, was underwritten in the rural sector. From the opinion that it was an instrument intended to provide monetary support at the time of the death of an individual, life insurance life insurance grew up to be a major financial instrument during the past 50 years in our country. There has also been a change in the consumer outlook with regards to life insurance as very beneficiary financial tool as against the orthodox thinking of unfruitful use of money. Increasing number of people has been opting for it. The number of policies issued by the LIC of India since 1995-96 is a clear indication of the popularity gained by life insurance. Competitors on life insurance Year. No. of policies (total) No. of policies (rural) 1995-96 1996-97 1997-98 1998-99 1999-2000 2002-2003 1.10 core 1.23 crore 1.33 crore 1.48 crore 1.70 crore 2.42 crore 52.57 lacs. 60.33 lacs. 68.40 lacs. 81.23 lacs. 97.04 lacs. 45.23 lacs. Form the above table it is eminent that the importance of life insurance has grown gradually over a period of time not only in metro areas but also in rural areas. As there has been a dramatic increase in the importance of life insurance, the number of policies issued per annum has also increased, thus leading to a great change in the total premium amount collected. The total amount mobilized by LIC during the past few yearsstands witness to the growing importance of insurance. (Rs. In Cores) Total amount mobilized 1998-99 2002-03 Total premium income from investments Rs.22,805.80 Rs. 13,183.92 Rs.54602.37 Rs.25030.50 Market share of private player Characteristics of Insurance sector as oligopoly are as follows: 1. Presence of few sellers: After liberalization the no. of sellers increased from 1 to 13 as on date, like LIC, ICICI Prudential, HDFC Standard, Birla Sun life, Om Kodak, SBI Life, ING Visa, and MAX New York Life etc. 2. Regulator: IRDA (Insurance Regulatory Development Authority) regulates the Insurance industry. License to the new comer is granted by it only. All products, premiums, Tariffs require its approval. 3. Price Giver: Price of the policy i.e. premium is calculated by the actuaries of the respective companies depending upon the nature of risks covered, coverage of the policy and many other probability calculations. But premium as well as the product needs to be approved by IRDA. 4. Entry or Exit Barrier: There is no free entry into this sector as already outlined New entrants has to satisfy certain condition before entering into this industry. Exit is even tougher since all the contracts are long term so there are very strict regulations for exit from the industry by IRDA. 5. Product Differentiation: There are no homogenous products. There are wide varieties of products available in the market. Each seller can introduce Any new policy depending on the efficiency of its product development team within the broad guidelines of IRDA. 6. Advertisement: Sellers spend huge amount of their yearly budget on advertisement to educate the consumers about their products and their company. IRDA ensures that advertisement does not mislead people. The IRDA has made it mandatory that every advertisement carries the line; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Insurance is matter of solicitationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬- so that people know that they are reading an advertisement. 7. Investment Policy: Investment of life fund up to 75% in government securities is mandatory as per IRDA. 89% of the total surplus to be distributed to policyholder as bonus every year. 8. Market Share: Still the private sector companies are in nascent stage and major chunk of market pie is still owned by public sector giant (LIC). But private players are also competing very bravely. The influence of private players has created the following benefits: Benefits to customers: Reduction in the price of product under competitive market. More innovative products to be available in a competitive market. Improved management of investment portfolio. Improved quality of service due to use of IT and multi distribution channels. Benefits to Industry: New Insurers to earn high profit in the initial stages due to large size of Indian insurance market. Insurance intermediaries will include agents, Brokers, Independent Financial Consultants etc. The commission paid may exceed Rs.46000 Cores in a period of 10 yrs. annually. Advertising campaigns may reap benefits as an additional advt. market for Rs.10000 Cores will be opened in 10 yrs. directly related to the insurance sector. Computer industries will benefit. Placement services, management institutes training institutes will also be benefited as the insurance sector after opening up will require many people thus increasing the employment opportunities. PEST Analysis for Insurance services Political/ Legal Influences which have an impact on financial services and consumer confidence include the following:  · The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA): Reforms in the Insurance sector were initiated with the passage of the IRDA Bill in Parliament in December 1999. The IRDA since its incorporation as a statutory body in April 2000 has fastidiously stuck to its schedule of framing regulations and registering the private sector insurance companies. The other decision taken simultaneously to provide the supporting systems to the insurance sector and in particular the life insurance companies was the launch of the IRDAs online service for issue and renewal of licenses to agents. The approval of institutions for imparting training to agents has also ensured that the insurance companies would have a trained workforce of insurance agents in place to sell their products, which are expected to be introduced by early next year. The IRDA since its incorporation as a statutory body has been framing regulations and registering the private sector insurance companies. IRDA being an independent statutory body has put a framework of globally compatib le regulations. Privatization of Insurance sector: The introduction of private players in the industry has added to the colours in the dull industry. The initiatives taken by the private players are very competitive and have given immense competition to the one time monopoly of the market LIC. Since the advent of the private players in the market the industry has seen new and innovative steps taken by the players in this sector. The new players have improved the service quality of the insurance. As a result LIC down the years have seen the declining phase in its career. The market share was distributed among the private players. Though LIC still holds the 80% of the insurance sector but the upcoming natures of these private players are enough to give more competition to LIC in the near future.  · FDI in insurance sector: Then, the issue came of amount of FDI to be allowed by a foreign player in the insurance sector. The government had allowed the private players to have foreign equity up to just 26 %. Efforts are going on to raise this to 49 %. After the opening up of the sector, a total of 18 private sector companies have entered the life insurance business and all of them have entered with a foreign partner. Economic factors are key variables which have an impact on the activity in the financial services sector. The level of consumer activity is governed by income levels and personal wealth. As income levels grow, more discretionary income is available to spend on financial services. Consumer confidence in the economy and in job security also has a major impact; if lean times are foreseen ahead, savings will take priority over loans and other forms of expenditure. Consumers may also seek easy access savings and be willing to tie up their money for longer periods with potentially more attractive investments.  · Indian economy growth projections: By 2025 the Indian economy is projected to be about 60 per cent the size of the US economy. The transformation into a tri-polar economy will be complete by 2035, with the Indian economy only a little smaller than the US economy but larger than that of Western Europe. By 2035, India is likely to be a larger growth driver than the six largest countries in the EU, though its impact will be a little over half that of the US. India, which is now the fourth largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity, will overtake Japan and become third major economic power within 10 years. All these facts or forecasts only drive at one point. India is

The Impact of Weather and Climate on Health in New Zealand Essay

Weather can affect human health in a variety of ways. For New Zealand, some of the specific health issues that are linked to weather and climate include melanoma skin cancer, weather-sensitive rheumatism, asthma, Seasonal Affective Disorder, and stress in farmers caused by weather extremes. Several studies have been done in New Zealand investigating the link between particular health problems and the weather. There are limitations to such studies, including the obstacle of trying to isolate cause and effect, but it is clear that weather and health correlations do exist. Lying on a New Zealand beach and basking in the warm sun sure sounds appealing, but there are health risks involved. Prolonged exposure to UV radiation can lead to skin cancer and eye diseases, and this is a significant issue in New Zealand. Malignant melanoma is one of the most serious types of skin cancer, and New Zealand has the second highest rate of melanoma in the world. Only Australia has a higher rate, which seems to imply that this region is particularly susceptible to harmful UV radiation.1 One cause for this may be the depletion of stratospheric ozone, which acts as a shield for earth’s surface against this radiation. Decrease in the levels of ozone has been an issue around the world, but the southern hemisphere has generally been more strongly affected. Ozone monitoring in New Zealand shows that the concentration of ozone has declined 5-7 percent over the last 30 years. During this same period of time, the skin-damaging solar radiation has increased approximately 6 -9 percent.2 Fortunately, due to international government actions such as the Montreal Protocol, restrictions are in place against the use of ozone-depleting substances. But the damage t... ... Zealanders: 1995-1999. J. Surg. 2004; 74: 233-237. 2 The state of the Atmosphere. Ministry for the Environment website: http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/ser/ser1997/html/chapter5.8.html 3 SunSmart in New Zealand website: http://www.sunsmart.co.nz 4 Ng J, Scott D, Taneja A, Gow P, and Gosai A, Weather changes and pain in rheumatology patients. Journal of Rheumatology 2004; 7: 204-206. 5 Hales S, Lewis S, Slater T, Crane J, and Pearce N, Prevalence of adult asthma symptoms in relation to climate in New Zealand. Environmental Health Perspectives 1998; 106: 607-610. 6 Broederlow, Christel, Weather Hypersensitivity. The Universal Empath 101 website: http://www.geocities.com/christabelle67/WeatherHypersensitivity.html 7 Cutt, John, Lambs up despite losses. The Southland Times, Nov 20, 2004. http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3103633a3600,00.html

Tastes Great or Less Filling :: Commercial Analysis Essays

Tastes Great or Less Filling? Works Cited Missing Yes, yes, oh yes! Most of us are familiar with the current advertising campaign of Clariols Herbal Essences shampoo and conditioner. It has been running for quite a while now. The woman enters a room and to her surprise a bottle of shampoo and conditioner await her. Then we suddenly find her either washing her own hair or having her hair washed and she is pleasurably screaming and shouting. The add seems to imply that the shampoo and/or conditioner causes an orgasm like experience for the woman. The commercial is clearly targeted towards women, yet the woman is usually beautiful. Between the beautiful woman and the screaming female it is difficult to deny that men do not keep a slight interest in the commercial. The images in the commercial keep peoples attention, and that is what sells the product. Another commercial recently made its debut earlier this year during the closing weeks and playoffs of the NFL season. It is the highly controversial Miller Lite catfight commercial. The commercial was considered controversial because of the two women in it. Many argue that the women were being exploited for their good looks, yet in McClouds Show and Tell, ...words and pictures have great powers to tell their stories when creators fully exploit them both, (152). That is how advertisers accomplish their mission. What are they trying to do? They are trying to keep your attention so that you will buy their product. They exploit their images and their words to get the most of them. Also, words and moving pictures have half the world in thrall to their charms, (141). The commercial starts out with two women fighting over why Miller Lite is such a good beer. One claims that it is the taste of the beer and the other claims that it is because it is less filling. The verbal struggle erupts into a physical battle when the brunette woman flips the table over. The blonde then punches the brunette which is followed by the brunette throwing the blonde into a fountain and they fight as they rip each others clothes off. The commercial then cuts to two men laughing at what a great commercial the viewer just saw would make, while two women are shown with their mouths wide open as if they were offended by what they had just heard.

Tesco - Product, Price, Place and Promotion Essay -- Business Manageme

Tesco - Product, Price, Place and Promotion Product, price, place and promotion are all essential factors that Tesco need to take into consideration when ensuring the success of their business. How ever there are a variety of different aims and objectives in which Tesco have to pursue, therefore in the following paragraphs my primary objective to demonstrate how each of the 4 p’s interfere with Tesco’s aims and objectives. The aims in which I am going to study are: * Full global expansion as a business * Become a very profitable business * To make the business people value the most * Maintain market dominance * To be as strong in food as in non food * To have loyal and committed staff In order for Tesco to fully globally expand as a business then their major concern in relation to the 4 p’s would be place and promotion. Tesco need to ensure that they have researched into all of the major public areas around the globe in order to gain maximum customer attraction. Promotion is also another factor in which Tesco need to consider when aiming to globally expand. Seeing as though they want to be a popular business globally then there are going to be different ways and methods in which they can advertise and promote their enterprise in different countries. Therefore I believe that a good idea would possibly to research into the countries culture and traditions and elaborate and expand on these traditions and use them as a method of promotion. How ever ...

Blackberry

The product that we have chosen Is Blackberry smartened. The term BlackBerry refers to a line of wireless handheld devices and services designed and marketed by BlackBerry Limited, formerly known as Research In Motion Limited (RIM). Target Markets: Its target markets are Business professionals who opt for high security text messaging and E-mails.Productivity of BlackBerry and why It has Targeted the business professionals: During the early 20005, Research In Motion's Blackberry's were the most popular smartness In the world; since then, though, RIM's market hare In the Industry has been eaten up by Apple's Phone and Google's Android. Still, the BlackBerry remains a popular model amongst business professionals, as It offers not only a fast and powerful processor, but also Blackberry's Enterprise Services.This corporate email system makes it easy and convenient for professionals on-the-go to connect to their respective corporate email accounts and is undedicated by other major smartene d lines like the phone and Android. Visualize and risk taking strategy: Blackberry main strategy is how secure the customer data and E-mails with this agenda they mainly targeted the business professionals which can be called as a Niche market . With the development of new technology and o. The Android smart phones and phone devices which made the technology user friendly with millions of APS. These Android mobiles and phone has targeted each and every individual right from students who are interested in playing games but also the business professionals by integrating and synchronizing treachery in Motion's future grows iffier each quarter as it signs on fewer new customers and has had to discount large numbers of BlackBerry smartness and Playback tablets to clear inventory.The company revealed today that its revenue dropped 25 percent in the last fiscal quarter versus a year earlier, a decrease of $5. 6 billion. RIM executives said they were willing to explore other business models , such as licensing all or some BlackBerry technologies to other companies. Some Investors have suggested that RIM license or sell access to Its secure messaging network or Its BlackBerry Messenger instant messaging service.RIM has licensed there IBM services and made the app available In android and Los this made the Blackberry unique. Santos Krishna Surest shogun Blackberry By Crackerjacks messaging and E-mails. Productivity of BlackBerry and why it has Targeted the business professionals: During the early sass, Research in Motion's Blackberry's were the most popular smartness in the world; since then, though, RIM's market share in the industry has been eaten up by Apple's phone and Google's Android.Still, the BlackBerry remains a popular model amongst business professionals, as it offers not only a fast and powerful processor, but also BlackBerry's Enterprise agenda they mainly targeted the business professionals which can be called as a phones and ‘phone devices which made the technology user friendly with millions of PlayBook tablets to clear inventory.The company revealed today that its revenue as licensing all or some BlackBerry technologies to other companies. Some investors have suggested that RIM license or sell access to its secure messaging network or its services and made the app available in android and ISO this made the Blackberry

Acme Omega

The other plant, located in Cleveland, was purchased by investors and renamed Omega Electronics. The Omega investors hired a new president who had worked in research and development for a large computer manufacturer. Some new research engineers were hired and several Copernicus personnel remained with the company but in new positions. Acme and Omega often competed for contracts to supply components to several large electronics manufacturing firms in the US. Both companies prospered in the mid-sass and early sass as computerized electronics equipment boomed.Acme had annual sales of over $170 million and employed 350 people. Omega was somewhat smaller with sales of $140 million and about 275 people. However, Acme was consistently more efficient and profitable than Omega. Acme – A close-up. Acme's president, Fred Taylor, attributed his company's success to the fact that he and his managers ran a â€Å"tight ship. † They retained the same basic structure that the division h ad when it was part of Copernicus because it was efficient for high volume production of electronics components such as switching devices and printed circuit boards.Taylor noted that, â€Å"Acme regularly undercuts the competition cause of their focus on efficient production. We are regularly the profit leader in this business. † Acme's structure is shown in Figure 1 . Workers are generally satisfied at Acme, but a few managers recently left the company because of the lack of flexibility or variety in their jobs. One recently departed manager stated that Taylor â€Å"knows one way of doing things -? his way. † He went on to say, â€Å"Fried's a good manager, but he did not provide us with much information or much freedom to make decisions. He makes all of the critical decisions himself. Revised version based on J. F. Vega and J. N. Handouts, from The Dynamics of Organization Theory, 1979, 1 984, West Publishing Figure 1 Acme Electronics Organizational Chart President Taylor UP Marketing UP Operations UP Personnel UP Finance Controller Plant Manager Production Research & Development Design Purchasing Shipping Omega – An inside view. Simon Herbert, former head of research and development at Snell Computers, was chosen as president of Omega. Based on his research and development experience at Snell, he claimed that he did not believe in a formal organizational chart.Although he said that his people loud be fit into departments similar to those at Acme, he felt that such departments formed artificial barriers between deferent functional specialists. Herbert stated that, â€Å"we are small enough so that people can usually communicate face-to-face when necessary. † Instead, Omega used a team-based structure that was adapted to fit new projects. Most of Omega's contracts were small and customized. Production runs were generally short. One manager noted that much of his time was taken up trying to understand problems and communicate solut ions.The Head of the Production Design Team noted, â€Å"Simon spends too much time trying to understand problems and communicate with everyone. † Most important decisions get made by the top management team. Part II In 1 993, the electronics component business began to change dramatically. Many of the old circuit boards disappeared from product designs and were replaced by increasingly complex chips. Miniaturization swept the electronics industry. Many complex office machines included on-board processors – basically dedicated computers. Such was the case in the copier industry.In July 1 993, Global Xerography, the company that spun off Acme and Omega, name to the two firms requesting component production for a new generation of copying machines. The component was essentially a specialized processor and memory Engineering unit that would power the copying machine. Once the copiers were in full production, the contract could be worth as much as ASS-$30 million per year. Both Acme and Omega bid on the contract for the initial 100 prototype processor memory components. Although Acme's bid was slightly lower than Omega's, XX decided to award both companies contracts for 100 units each.Ex.'s project manager told both Taylor and Herbert that speed in placement and production of the prototypes was essential. XX had already promised delivery of the new generation copiers by January 1, 1994. Customers were counting on the new products and once word of the new design got out, it would only be a matter of time before competitors began imitating the new design. Not only that, but investors were counting on the new design to add to Ex.'s profits. These demands for speed meant that XX, Acme, and Omega would need to engage in simultaneous design. Design of the components would need to begin before the final copier design was complete.Acme and Omega would have no more than two weeks to produce the first 1 00 prototype components or they would delay final product ion of the copiers. Part Ill As soon as F-red Taylor received the design specifications (July 6, 1993), he sent an email to Purchasing requesting that they determine the necessary parts to be purchased and initiate purchasing. At the same time, Taylor sent the specifications to the Design Department for design and production rendering. Engineering was then given the task to take the output from the Design Department and create the production system for the actual reduction of the prototypes.Production was to take the system and create the actual production facility and schedule production of the prototypes. Taylor sent emails to all department heads stating that speed of production was essential and that all departments should work as efficiently as possible. On July 9, Purchasing discovered that a particular chip supplied by their authorized supplier was unavailable and could not be shipped for at least two weeks. As there were few suppliers for this particular chip, the Purchasing manager assumed that Omega would face the same problem and he did not Reese to find an alternative supplier.He also informed Taylor of the problem who in turn decided that the company should go forward with production without the missing chip. The chip could be inserted once the other production processes had been completed. The Design Department was instructed to design the component in such a way that the missing chip could be inserted later. On July 1 1, Design informed Taylor that the missing chip and would substantially increase the time necessary to assemble the completed components. Taylor saw no alternative and gave approval to go forward with the design and production.The Design Department then gave purchasing specification for the chassis that would hold the memory and processor unit. Since this was a small prototype production, the company's standard procedure was to find an outside source for the metal work. On July 14 Taylor asked for a progress report and was dismayed to learn that Purchasing was still waiting for the chips and for bids on the chassis. Taylor was shocked by the lack of progress and demanded that Engineering begin fabricating the chassis internally. By July 17, all of the necessary parts (except the chip) were available and Engineering had begun producing the hashish.Production had already designed the manufacturing process, so once the parts began flowing production of prototypes began. In their haste to begin production, the Production Department and the process engineers had not consulted extensively with the Design Department or Engineering (who produced the chassis that held the memory and processor unit). The result was a production system that was rather awkward and inefficient. However, there was not sufficient time to stop now and rework the manufacturing process.Taylor and the manufacturing foreman both agreed that the kinks in he system could be worked out after the production of the prototypes. One concern voiced by t he Design team was whether the missing chip could easily be inserted at the end of the production run. That was not clear. On July 18, at about the same time that the first batch of prototypes was coming off the production line, the missing chips arrived. The designers were correct to raise concerns about inserting those chips. The process required technicians to partially disassemble the units and insert the chips. The process was messy and time-consuming.As the last of the 100 units was assembled on July 20, Taylor received a call from the project manager at XX informing him of a design error that the engineers at Omega had discovered on the previous day. Apparently, the original specifications from XX had reversed the installation of a voltage transformer. The XX engineers checked the information from Omega and found that a mistake had been made in the original design. Taylor said that the Acme units were completed and ready to ship. The designer explained that the error had to b e corrected first. The prototypes that Acme had produced would not work.The new design pacifications would be emailed later in the day. When the new specifications arrived, Taylor met with the Production manager to determine what needed to be done. It was determined that the units would once again need to be partially disassembled. The transformers would need to be removed and reinserted. This required substantial labor and re-soldering of the transformers. All of the disassembly and reassembly of the units caused damage to the chassis and some components. The finally reassembly, packaging and shipping of the first 50 units was completed on July 29.However, none of the units were inspected or tested. The final 50 units were shipped on August 2. At Omega, Simon Herbert called a meeting department heads on July 6 after receiving the email of specifications from XX earlier in the day. He told the department heads that they should look over the design specifications so they could begin production as soon as possible. The next day the department heads met to discuss the project and form a project team. At the end of the morning meeting the department heads had designated engineers, designers, production people and a purchasing agent to the new component design-production team.The team began to work closely to determine the necessary components, identify suppliers, and create a production system. Purchasing determined that one particular chip would not be available locally for two weeks. One engineer suggested that they search for alternative suppliers. At the same time, the engineers also determined that it would be faster to produce the chassis internally rather than sending specifications out for bids from contractors. The team also determined that they could modify the design for installing the missing chip at the end of the production process if they were unable to find an alternative source.On July 9 purchasing reported that they found an alternative source fo r chip in Thailand. The chips would be shipped by express mail on July ID and would arrive at Omega on July 13. Although the chips from Thailand were somewhat less expensive, the cost of shipping resulted in the final cost being about 15% higher. The purchasing agent made the decision to purchase the Thai chips without consulting with other team members or with Herbert. By July 17 the production team assembled five sample units to determine if the assembly process would work correctly.The manufacturing process irked flawlessly, however when the units were tested on the bench, they did not work. When the engineers and designers inspected the five sample units, it was obvious to them that the transformers were installed incorrectly. The units were disassembled; the transformers were removed and re- installed; and the units were reassembled. The resulting sample units performed up to specifications. Herbert called the project manager at XX to discuss the problem. On the morning of July 1 8, the project manager confirmed that the original design specifications were in error and that the Omega team was correct.