Impact of Culture on International Marketing Strategy Assignment

Impact of Culture on International Marketing Strategy - Assignment Example From the international business perspective culture refers to the distinct way of living for the people of a particular society. The term culture includes but is not limited to values, beliefs, assumption, moral, ethics, religion, etc of a society. These factors of culture are gradually learned from the members of the society and are passed from one generation to others. It defines and determines the ways in which the people of a particular society live. In addition to this, the culture of a society also determines what is acceptable and what is unacceptable for a society (Helsen 2009). As the market of developed countries like UK are getting saturated, and because of high level of competition it become important for the organization to look for the new territories and markets (Doole and Lowe 2008). Markets of developing countries like India and China are in the state of evolution and their economy is booming, because of which there are good amount of opportunities are present for th e foreign organizations. This statement can be supported by the fact that sales rates for Coca-Cola get doubled every three years in the countries like India, China and Indonesia, whereas in developed countries its average growth rates are below 5% (Fletcher 2007). Thus it can be said that developing countries provides more growth opportunities in comparison to the developed countries. But to capitalize these opportunities it is important for the organization to adopt a strong marketing strategy for such international markets. Currently, companies like Coca-Cola are targeting the elite population of developing countries. Most of the firms having imperialist mindset, which made them to sell the same products without any change as per the needs of the new market and consumers. Most of the organization believes that with the increase in the income level, people will start using their products. But this approach of the organization will help them to utilize only a part of the total mark et. At this stage, the role of international marketing come into the act as it helps the organization to understand the different market drivers, through which organization can capitalize the market well. Different market drivers are technology, culture, competition, etc. (Giligan and Hird 1986)

Performance and Management Essay Example for Free

Performance and Management Essay Performance and Management A. Policy For Recognizing Employee Contributions The purpose of this report is to use the compensation system we previously developed in Phases I and II to pay people, develop plans that reward performance, add benefits into the mix, and evaluate these results. First we will look at performance-based-pay as a policy for recognizing employee contributions. Performance-based-pay is a pay plan that varies with some measure of individual or organizational performance, such as merit pay, lump-sum bonus plans, skill-based pay, incentive plans, variable pay plans, risk sharing, and success sharing. It is basically a pay plan that moves away from the traditional base pay and across-the-board increases, and focuses more on factors of performance that can increase overall productivity for a company. Performance-based-pay plans can be very effective in creating a positive impact in performance of both employees and a company as a whole, but only is the plan is designed well. In order to be successful, it is crucial that the performance-pay plan be designed to support FastCat’s business strategy and compensation objectives. To design this pay-for-performance plan, we will recommend a specific policy plan that is tailored to FastCat’s goals towards success. We will compare different performance-based plans, which include individual vs. group incentives and merit vs. incentive pay, to see which combinations will help FastCat compete more effectively. a. Emphasis on Individual vs. Group Incentives Two strategies to consider with performance-based-pay plans are providing individual incentives, group incentives, or both. Individual incentive plans involve incentive compensation that is tied directly to objective measures of individual production. On the other hand, group incentive plans are incentive plans that are based on some measure of group performance rather than individual performance. Taking data on a past year as a base, group incentive plans may focus on cost savings or on profit increases as the standard for distributing a portion of the accrued funds among relevant employees. We recommend a mixture of both individual incentive and group incentive pay plans. How the individual incentive plan will work is there will be a year-end bonus pool as function of company performance. The employee’s share in the pool will be based on three factors: (1) employee’s grade, (2) employees personal performance analysis, (3) employee’s tenure at the company. This plan will go hand-in-hand with the group incentive plan we recommend, which will be a profit-sharing plan. A profit-sharing plan is a plan that focuses on profitability as the standard for group incentive. This group incentive plan will encourage employees to work hard as a team to create better company performance overall. We used the balanced scorecard approach to measure the company’s performance. A balanced scorecard approach is a way to look at what contributes value in an organization. It is a corporate-wide overall performance measure typically incorporating financial results, process improvements, customer service, and innovation. We determined that there are eight main elements that must be measured to determine good company performance. These metrics, which are weighted differently based on importance to FastCat’s business strategy, are as follows: (1) revenue growth, (2) labor costs, (3) innovation, (4) customers see FastCat representatives as responsive and knowledgeable, (5) customers value FastCat solutions, (6) employees take pride in working for FastCat, (7) employees have the tools and support to do their jobs, (8) employees understand how to make teams successful. In essence, the individual incentive plan and the group incentive plan work together to increase both individual performance and company performance. The better the company performs based on the balanced scorecard approach, the more money there is for the bonus pool in the individual incentive plan. b. Emphasis on Merit vs. Variable Pay All the pieces of this compensation system fit together Add justification on why this matches FastCat’s business and compensation objectives from problems B. Implementation a. Matching FastCat Jobs With Benchmark Survey Jobs When matching FastCat jobs with benchmark survey jobs we first had to separate the jobs at FastCat into four different job families: engineering, technical, marketing, and administration. We started off with sixteen FastCat positions of the various job families and matched them with the benchmark jobs based on the responsibilities of the job as well as the experience and competencies required to hold the position. For example, take the engineering family. For the Engineer 1 of the benchmark survey job, it is described by the following statements: â€Å"Participates in development, testing and documentation of software programs. Performs design and analysis tasks as a project team member. Typical minimum requirements are a Bachelor’s degree in a scientific field or the equivalent and up to two years of experience. † We compared that to the Usability Engineer in our own organization. Some responsibilities of the Usability Engineer are as follows: â€Å"Contributes to the development and implementation of FastCat web applications,† â€Å"work with FastCat quality assurance to ensure integrity of FastCat software; test, debug, and fix data,† and â€Å"design appropriate software testing strategies. † The position requires a B. S. egree in Computer Science or related field plus at least two years of experience. A competency required of the position is to communicate with team members, support team decisions, and work effectively as part of a team. As the numbers within the families of the benchmark jobs increase (Engineer 2, Engineer 3) the responsibilities, experience, and competencies required of the position also increase. For example, Senior Fellow, the position we assigned the most JE points in the organization to, was matched with Engineer 5, the highest position in the benchmark engineer family. . Determining Relevant Market(s) When selecting market competitors to establish our suggested pay policy line for FastCat our team tried a few different markets before deciding on the one we felt most reflected the values of the company. The first market group we chose to try was all the surveyed industries provided to us by FastCat. This line fit well with our benchmark jobs being fairly close to the line on both the high and low end. The second fit we looked into was just using the data regarding Software companies, this line seemed to fit slightly better than the previous with jobs on both the high and low end of the JE scale being fairly evenly distributed above and below the line. The final fit we tried was software companies with the exception of company 15 because we found that their compensation data created a huge outlier from the average of the other companies. We decided to go with the final fit of only software companies excluding company 15 because we felt this line best reflected our views on which jobs were most important. c. Adjusting our Data for More Desirable Regression Results Our team was rather flexible when making decisions about possible adjustments to our data during and after making our regression results. At first when our team was benchmarking the FastCat jobs against other companies, we felt that a couple FastCat jobs were very similar. We matched two of them with the same survey job titles. The first match was Software Developer and Implementation Consultant, which were both matched with â€Å"Engineer 2†. The second match was with Administrative Assistant II and the Administrative Aide, which were both matched with â€Å"Office Support 2†. When we were entering the data into the software to create a regression analysis, we realized that we would only be able to create this analysis on fourteen jobs, instead of the sixteen that was expected. We initially decided that moving some of our matches around and entering full data for all sixteen jobs would be the proper route to take. Our R? number was not where we wanted it to be after doing this; coming in at less than . 70, and this was probably because it was a bit forced and unnatural for us to change the jobs around just to get the full amount of jobs. Going back to our original benchmarking brought our R? up considerably. When we looked at the new data we saw that there was one major outlier and it was the Senior Quality Assurance Technician. Our team had marked this position at a â€Å"Technician 4† originally, but we all took a look at the FastCat information again and reached an agreement that we had made a mistake in benchmarking the position. What threw us off at first was the statement that the Senior Quality Assurance Technician was, â€Å"at the direction of the Implementation Consultant, which had a rather low amount of Job Evaluation points. We decided to move the position from a â€Å"Technician 4† to a â€Å"Technician 5†. This is the last change we made, and it gave us our final R? of . 882. d. Different Grades and Ranges Regarding grades of pay and the range of pay within those grades we chose to go with 4 grades of 100 JE points each. We found this to be a satisfactory suggestion as the jobs falling within these ranges have a relatively similar importance to the company and should be compensated in a way that demonstrates this. We used 15% as our selected range for all grades, meaning that the amount paid in each grade would range from 15% below to 15% above the midpoint of our pay policy line within that grade. With the results from the selected grades and ranges we had one difficulty; the difference in pay from grade 1 to grade 2 was nearly $10,000. To fix this discrepancy and encourage our lower level employees to stay with the company we chose to use an above market policy of 15% for this grade to close the gap. After completing these steps we had a pay policy that we felt was right to suggest to the FastCat Company for their base wage policy.

Job Order Costing Process Costing and Activity Based Costing

Job Order Costing Process Costing and Activity Based Costing A cost accounting system is the sum methods and techniques used by businesses allowing them to track resources consumed in production and distribution of services or goods to consumers. These methods and techniques are used by the management in order to evaluate and reward staff performance, by employees in order to manage recourses efficiently while the cost accounting system is also used for external reporting requirements meaning balance sheets and income statements. The cost accounting system is usually designed to meet particular needs of individual companies, for that reason there are three main systems businesses apply according to their needs. Job Order Costing is a cost system used to accumulate costs of jobs also called batches. Job order costing is used when individual production centres or departments work on a variety of products rather than one king of a product during a specific period of time. Prime costs and factory overhead costs are the two categories of production costs monitored with this method. Process costing is a type of costing system used for production of small identical, low-cost items. Process costing averages the costs and cant be directly traced to individual products. Activity based costing (ABC) is designed to assign costs to activities. This method has become popular because of the fact that the complexity of businesses keeps growing and so does their need to assign increasingly large indirect costs to the appropriate department or activity. ABC is the process where costing is assigned based on the cause and effect relationship between costs and activities that drive costs. What are major objectives of a cost accounting system in a hospitality establishment? Within hospitality establishments cost accounting systems help successfully achieve the following management objectives: Measuring the various needs and generated revenues of departments Monitoring and controlling the progress of each department Department related data gathered is used to evaluate costs and make proper adjustments and corrections in operating procedures What are the major objectives of a cost accounting system system in a manufacturing company? In manufacturing and service companies cost accounting systems help achieve the following management objectives. They provide the managers with helpful information regarding planning, cost control procedures and determining unit production costs. In most cases manufacturing companies also use a complete job cost sheet which contains Cost Summary and Unit Cost information since manufacturing costs are not immediately recorded as current period expenses. These information include total and costs per unit for: Direct materials, which are the raw materials used in production which costs are directly traceable throughout the product manufacturing process. Direct labour, which are the wages and other pay roll costs of employees whose efforts are directly traceable throughout the product manufacturing process. Manufacturing overhead, is the category including all other manufacturing costs like utilities aside for the above mentioned ones. What are the procedures in job order costing, process costing and activity based costing. Job order costing process is a specific set of events which will usually occur with each job. Generally the process is as follows: an order (or sale order) is received for the batch of products, a production order is issued from the sale order materials and labour are ordered and tracked for the set of products, manufacturing overhead is allocated to the job using a predetermined rate (usually per labour or per machine hour). In fact manufacturing overhead will not affect the work in process account; instead it is changed to a control account. Direct labour and materials are charged by the accountant to the work in process accounts using the actual quantity acquired. These quantities are all tracked using a job costing sheet which will likely be already a computerized ledger and use used for each job. Spoilage which surpasses expected levels based on the job at hand is considered a period cost and is reclassified from work in process account into a separate account so it can be addre ssed by the management. Process costing procedures follow specific procedures and while exact procedures may differ between different companies and businesses, but they generally follow these steps. While other types of costing are initiated when a sale order is issued, a sale order is not required for process costing as it is a continuous process. The work in process accounts are separated departments and are named according to the department they reflect on e.g. Work in process- FB department. The first department in the production process makes the first entry into the work in process account, generally for the raw materials. While the products move from department to department entries are made to each work in process account of each department. Direct labour costs are recorded at each period. Actual overhead costs are recorded; no contra-account in needed because there is no over- or under-applied overhead due to the actual costs being applied. Indirect costs are applied to the overhead account in actual amounts. Activity based costing procedures can be more complicated to set up and operate than other costing systems. The activity based costing procedures are: Only if a cost driver cant be recognized a cost can be assigned on an allocative basis. Related cost pools are assigned to an overhead rate on costs drivers. Cost pools are used to assign costs; the basis depends on the business and industry. Costs can be assigned to units, batches or products. These pools can be combined to look at facilities, divisions, or other levels of cost classifications. Costs can then be evaluated in order to see how and where they are occurring, knowing this the management can discern what cists are controllable and how they arise. Which costing methods (job order costing, process costing and activity costing) are best suited to the following businesses and why: Old Home Bakery, Inc (a bakery that produces to order): It will be able to use job order costing because it is designed for businesses which work with orders rather than mass production. Apache Oil and Gas Refinery: Because the products are similar or identical the process costing is the appropriate method the business should apply. It is also recommended because the company uses an automated continuous process. The Sea View Resort Hotel: the hotel is best recommended to use the job order costing because it offers services and the method is designed for such businesses. Willie Wonkers Chocolate Factory: because the business produces a standard item which units are identical it is best to apply the process costing method. Harris and Harris Law Firm: Since this business offers services in the form of legal counselling or legal representation is it best to use the job order costing which refers to a desired unit which might not be identical to another offered service. Explain and evaluate LIFO, FIFO and AVCO techniques. LIFO stands for last-in first-out what means that recent purchases will be stored recorded and sold before the items that already existed in stock when the purchase was received. LIFO valuation is permitted due to the belief that an ongoing business does not realize an economic profit only from inflation. When prices are rising they must replace the inventory currently being sold with items oh higher prices. It also matches better current cost against current revenue and defers paying taxes on phantom income arising exclusively from inflation. LIFO is preferred by businesses because it delays a major negative effect of inflation; higher taxes. FIFO is the most commonly used method used by businesses to record the value of inventory. It is appropriate when dealing with many different batches of similar products. The method assumes that the next item that will be purchased will be placed at the end of the line of to-be-sold items of that kind meaning what was purchased first will be sold first. In an economy of rising prices (during inflation), it is common for new companies to use this method to report the value of merchandise to boost their balance sheet. While the older and cheaper good are sold the new and more expensive goods remain as assets in the businesss books, financial statement boosted by FIFO also increase the chances a business has to get a loan. AVCO is used to establish the value of an inventory by calculating the costs of units. In practice it provides us the results we want by dividing the total cost of good available for sale with the number of items for sale.

Mythology Of Indian Dance :: essays research papers

Like many Indian arts, Indian dance also has its root in religion. Without the religious and cultural background of India, the growth and beauty of Indian dance is not possible. In ‘Natya Shastra’, there is a small story about the origin of Indian dance. According to Hindu mythology, dance first existed in heaven. There was always a constant conflict between the Asuras and the Devas for wealth and power. The Devas were tired of the Asuras’ greediness and jealousy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It was during this long period of tedium that all the Devas approached Lord Indra too find good ways and means of entertainment. Lord Indra, who was also tired of the Asuras, approached Lord Brahma (believed to be the creator of the Universe) and asked him to help them. They made a request to Lord Brahma that this method of entertainment should be pleasing to both the eye as well as the ear, and that it should be enjoyed by the masses of both higher and lower classes. Lord Brahma gave a long thought to the request of Lord Indra and finally decided to help them.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lord Brahma went into a state of deep meditation. He called to mind the four Vedas. Vedas are the earliest scriptures of the Hindus. He distilled the essence from each of the Vedas. From ‘Rigveda’, he derived the words, from ‘Sama Veda’, he derived the music, from ‘Yojurve Veda’, the code of gesture and from ‘Atherva Veda’, the element of sentiment or flavor. He blended all of these ingredients and added his own divine genious. Thus, he created an entirely new activity. Brahma named this activity ‘Natya’, which was later renamed ‘Natya Veda’.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Brahma had simply created a technique, but someone was needed for putting it into practice. Lord Brahma sought the cooperation of Bharat, a trusted sage. Bharat, with the help of his sons, started working. Vishvakarma, the supreme architect of heaven, then created a splendid theater in the hall of India’s court for the performance. Bharat told Brahma that certain characters of the dance sequences could only be performed by women. Brahma solved the problem by creating twenty-three beautiful ‘Apsaras’.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  All of the preparations were made accordingly, and for the very first time, the art of ‘Natya’ was performed before an audience of Devas and Asuras. In this Natya, the Devas were portrayed as victorious and the Asuras as losers. The Asuras (demons) got angry and rose in protest and threatened even worse consequences.

Importance of Understanding Culture Diversity in the Workplace

Importance of Understanding Culture Diversity in the Workplace In business today it is important to have a diverse group of employees in the workplace. Our textbook defines diversity as real or perceived differences among people in race, ethnicity, sex, age, physical and mental ability, sexual orientation, religion, work and family status, weight and appearance, and other identity-based attributes that affect their interactions and relationships (Bell, 2012, p. 5).It is very important to understand the cultural, ethnical, and gender differences by professionals and management in the workforce in this day and age. If an organization develops a reputation for valuing all types of employees, it will become known as an employer of choice, in which workers from all backgrounds feel they have the opportunity to work, grow, and be treated fairly (Bell, 2012, p. 4). By being diverse in its employees, a business has a better opportunity for new ideas and growth potential and less likely to be stymied.Despite extraordinary corporate and media attention paid to diversity in the past thirty years, discrimination, inequality, and exclusion persist in organizations (Bell, 2012, p. 4). As discussed this week in class, when the department head turned down the Jamaican friend for the position, even though he seemed better qualified, it showed stereotyping and prejudices can have a negative effect in the workplace. The situation made for an uncomfortable, even negative environment in the workplace.By the department head’s negative behavior it caused a barrier for productivity and potentially harmed working relationships. It is essential in today’s business world for managers and professionals to understand the importance of cultural, ethnical and gender differences to make the workplace environment an at-ease one for employees to thrive and be productive. In every culture there are unique thought processes and behaviors and these cultural differences have a strong impact on workplace interaction and communication.What may be considered the norm for one person’s culture could be completely unacceptable to another. People from diverse cultures bring new ways of thinking, ingenuity and communication skills needed to endure in today’s workforce. Working in and learning in environments with people who are different can benefit individuals through intellectual engagement, perspective taking, and greater understanding of the implications and benefits of diversity (Bell, 2012, p. 4). In the healthcare industry, employers benefit by hiring a diverse workforce.Hospitals have come to appreciate that by hiring staff from different cultural, ethnical, and gender backgrounds, it brings a great deal of valued thoughts and insight when it applies to patient care. Ultimately, if a hospital's workforce more closely resembles the patient population it serves quality measures and patient satisfaction scores will improve (Commins, 2012, p. 2). Nursi ng care must become more culturally, ethnically, and gender diverse in order for the nursing unit to reflect the diversity of the population it treats.The ball and sock experiment really showed me how it feels to be different. I felt awkward and uncomfortable, I struggled with daily tasks that I normally accomplished without having to even think about, for example, brushing my teeth, shaving my legs, inserting the keys into the ignition of my car, shifting the gears of my car to just name a few. By the end of the day I could perform these tasks more easily but I still had to use more focus and effort.The ball and sock experiment opened my eyes to how it must feel to be outside of what society considers to be the norm and gave me a new appreciation for how these differences help shape our society. In conclusion, it is very important to understand the need for cultural, ethnical, and gender differences by professionals and management in the workforce in this day and age. Diversity in the workplace, no matter in healthcare or any other business, is of the utmost importance for growth and prosperity.

Relative Clause ESL Lesson for Specific Purposes

Relative Clause ESL Lesson for Specific Purposes Relative clauses are used to describe the noun naming the process or position when discussing tasks that need to be completed, or explaining how certain things work. The ability to use relative clauses easily is important to all English learners, but perhaps even more important to those wanting to use English in their workplaces. For example, salespeople need to explain and define anything relating to the use of the goods or services being sold. The Instaplug is a device that allows you to use any type of outlet throughout the world.Our Ontime Service is a type of consulting which allows you to access consulting services 24/7.The Sansolat Tile is a roofing tile which reflects sunlight in order to keep air conditioning costs down. Another example would be of the use of relative clauses to describe people at work: Youll need to speak to Mr. Adams who is ​in  charge of vacation and sick leave requests.Jack Wanders is the union organizer who represents this region.We need consultants who can travel anywhere on 24-hour notice. This lesson plan focuses on helping students learn to use relative clauses to discuss important issues at work such as who works with them, various types of work and workplaces, as well as describing goods or services manufactured or provided by their employer. Aim Building confidence in using relative clauses to describe goods, services, personnel and other related workplace situations. Activity Sentence matching, followed by guided writing exercise Level Intermediate to advanced English for Specific Purposes learners Outline Introduce students to the topic of using relative clauses by asking a few questions such as:How would you describe a blue collar worker?Whats full time work?Who is a consultant?What is a computer lab?These questions should elicit a number of responses, hopefully a few with competent use of relative clauses. Make sure to rephrase student answers throughout using relative clauses to help inductively introduce the idea of relative clause use. For example:Oh, full time work is a type of work which takes place for at least 40 hours a week.Good, yes, a consultant is someone who provides services and advice to a company on a contractual basis. etc.Once you have completed this warm-up, write four sentences on the board. Use one sentence with a relative clause referring a person with that and one with who. The other two sentences should refer to things; one beginning with that and the other with which. Ask students to point out these differences and explain why which or who is used, as well a s what. As far as is possible, try to coax the students into inductively stating the rules for relative clause use. Ask students to complete the sentences in the exercise below by choosing the two halves that go together and connecting each with a relative pronoun (who, which or that).Check answers as a class.Ask students to imagine ten items or people that are important to them in day-to-day work. Students should first write a list of the ten items / people. On another sheet of paper, ask students to write explanatory sentences using relative clauses.Have students exchange their ten item lists with a partner. Students should then practice explaining these items to each other using relative clauses. Students should not simply read what they have written, but try to use their examples as a starting point. Encourage students to ask probing questions based on the information they hear.Circulate about the room and help students. Once the exercise is finished, go over common mistakes youve heard while listening to student pair work. Matching Halves Match the first half of the sentence in A with the appropriate phrase in B to complete the definition. Use an appropriate relative pronoun (who, which or that) to connect the two sentences. A A supervisor is a personI have difficulties with bossesOffice Suite is a group of programsSuccess on the road can be assisted by the cloudThe human resources director is the liaisonUse the ratchet as a toolInternal office communications are handled by our company forumYoull find that Anita is a personI couldnt get my work done without DarenTaplist is an app B you can contact to resolve contract issues.can tighten a wide variety of nuts and bolts.provides a friendly place to post questions, make comments and discuss issues.I use to keep track of all my mileage, meals and other work expenses.allows me to access documents and other data from a wide range of devices.do not take my point of view into consideration.is willing to help with any problem you may have.assists me with day-to-day tasks.directs employees working in a team.is used for word processing, creating spreadsheets and presentations.