Financial perspective Essay Example for Free

Financial perspective Essay As seen balanced scorecards does not totally disregard financial measures of performance. Thus, timely and accurate data is essential to the successful implementation of balanced scorecard. This implies that handling and processing of financial data should be swift and centralize perhaps fully automated. The financial data should be integrated with corporate databases and especially data regarding risk assessment and cost benefit analysis (Stewart, 2000). Learning and growth perspective This category recognizes that people are the only repositions of knowledge i. e. people posses intangible assets of the company. In this information age intelligence is the heart of organization success and hence Ned to ensure continuous learning through employee training. This is because technology changes rapidly as aloes people exiting an organization for greener pastures. (Lipe Salterio, 2000) As a result, corporations’ culture and attitude need to be shaped to ensure that people within the organization pursue self-improvement and reverse brain drain to other companies. The cost of recruitment and training people is usually high and measures of allocating the funds to reap maximum benefits need to be developed. Knowledge sharing is equally important. Notably not all training translates to learning but the most effective learning occurs, using mentors and group discussions and communication within the organization. Intranets may contribute towards facilitating communication and learning (Norton, 2001) Process perspective This category identifies two kinds of process within the business one, the mission oriented processes and two the support process. Support processes are repetitive in nature and nature and hence easier to measure on the other hand mission oriented involve government offices and hence difficult to measure. Attention to these perspectives enables managers to know how well the operations of the business are and whether they are in tandem with customer requirements and expectations. (Kaplan Norton, 1996) Problems associated with financial measures. The move to adopt the balanced scorecard at Intel has been triggered by the inefficiency of financial measures to link corporate strategy and goals to measurement it ahs been difficult for Intel to link the strategies used in say marketing and advertising campaigns to the effects or anticipated results. Thus a shortfall in gauging performance has been experienced.. As pointed out, Intel faces strong competition from Microsoft and there has been to re-strategize its operations in order to gain competitive advantage and adopt with the changing technology. The previously used financial measures are outdated as the PC industry how shifted from the industrial age to become more knowledge based. White previously, Intel management of the company’s property equipments and plant was adequate to accord the company competitive edge, now a days the intangible asset i. e. the employee’s knowledge plays a great role in ensuring that Intel stays ahead of its game. The company’s income statements, and balance sheets are still used to capture revenues and profits but they still account very little to the company’s market value hence the need for balance scorecard. The balanced scorecard becomes handy for Intel to link its strategy i. e. deploying its intangible assets to the company’s goal i. e. dominate the PC industry. The problem of financial measures utilized at Intel is its failure to measure how effective customer relationship operating process product innovation skill of the workforce culture and other variables are in contributing to the company’s goal of maintaining lead in the PC industry. The financial measures i. e. balance sheets and incomes statements fail to assist management describe its asset and link it to strategy and goal. The pitfall of this measure is that without a clear description of the situation and the company’s possessions in terms of assets then it is difficult to know what to manage or measure. Recommended design and implementation of Intel’s balance scorecard Intel balance scorecard design will incorporate strategy aimed at increasing the company’s revenues by twenty percent in a period of 18 months. In order to do so the balance scorecard components will be used in designing the strategy. The invaluable contribution of the employees at Intel is recognized in this design. They contribute indirectly to the company’s revenue investment in the employees will improve their functional competence and hence lead to better quality products and innovations hence greater customer satisfaction. This satisfaction in turn will translate to higher sales and thus increase in revenue and profit margins. Rewards systems for hardworking employees will be given in form of cash incentives and recognition awards. More importantly, dead wood employees will not be retained in the company, as they are liabilities to the company. The workplace culture and climate will also be representative of the company’s goal; hence performance appraisals will also be used to boost hard work. The no-office policy at Intel will be retained in order to ensure equality among the company’s employees. Communication and knowledge sharing will be boosted by upping Intel intranets and using monthly meetings in departments to achieve this end. Intel will have to upgrade its internal processes to improve its customers and shareholders satisfactions hence achieve revenue. The way to do this will be by availing its microprocessors speedily to its customer’s at the time when needed. Intel will need to keep track of releases of operating systems by software hence increase sales and revenues. Intel should also develop new products and services that are relevant to meeting customers’ wants and needs. Perhaps, there is need to identify new markets in order to broaden its customers base also promote satisfaction among customers. Grievances and complaints will handle with immediacy and accuracy. Additionally, Total quality management and zero tolerance production techniques will be used in its manufacturing plant to ensure that consignment delivered to customers have zero defects. Intel will also ensure that it exercises social responsibility and that its activities benefit the greater society and don’t harm the immediate environment. The customers’ perspectives components of Intel balance scorecard will work towards creating a image of value and distinction in its customers. Intel will achieve this by incorporating a mix of different products and service that uniquely identify the customers to the company. Intel will sustain intimacy with its customers by being a representative of the customers’ diverse traits. It will ensure indiscriminate customers service to customers regardless of race, gender or religion its branding and advertisement campaigns will be acceptable to the customers. Intel will employ competitive pricing to attract and retain customers. At the same time Intel will assure great performance and auxiliary features in its products so that customers get value for their money, hence boost revenue. Delivery lead times will equally be reduced by half in order to encourage customers to buy more from them. The financial position of Intel will be influenced by the effects o customer’s internal process and the learning perspectives of the company’s workforce. Ultimately, if the positive changes on these sections are effected then the company will realize profitability and increased revenues. In effect, the company’s value in the eye of the shareholder will also improve, more to that; an increase in company assets value will be evident.

Social Constructionism and the Message of Feminism Essay -- Sociology

In this essay I will define social constructionism and how the theories of social construction altered feminism’s message during its second wave. The second wave of the feminist movement started during the 1950’s and is thought to have ended with the failure of the equal rights amendment. The amendment was only three votes shy of being ratified. Prior to this era the first wave of feminism seem to focus mainly on suffrage, a women right to vote and own property. During the second wave era, feminist incorporated the theories of social construction in their message. Social construction is the theory based on the idea that things that are present in our society were created by said society. As it relates to the message of second wave feminism, the biological factors of gender, physical traits, genitalia, hormones and the like, do not determine behaviors, gender roles, social status, and male superiority. Our society forms these conventions. Women during the years before the second wave were being coaxed back into the home. To quote Betty Friedan, â€Å"They were taught to pity the...

Performance Management at Vitality Health Enterprises, Inc. Essay

Vitality Health Enterprises is a large beauty products and nutraceuticals company offering a full range of health, wellness, and beauty products around the globe. The company was originally founded in 1987 in Ames, Iowa, by Hikaaru â€Å"Fred† Kikuchi who is an experienced serial entrepreneur. His inspiration for Vitality came when his wife was continually dissatisfied with the quality of beauty products she was finding here in the U.S., since they emigrated from Japan. Kikuchi saw a business opportunity and used his relationships from back home to import beauty products and the rest is history. Vitality has gone through numerations of growth that has included: moving company headquarters to Des Moines – thought to be a better location for growth, establishing its own manufacturing facility with its own chemists – to develop its own unique products specifically targeting the U.S. marketplace, purchasing HerbaPure Nutraceuticals to offer a broader range of products, and establishing an IPO to raise capital for further expansion – which now includes nine global offices representing markets in Asia, Southeast Asia, and Europe. Vitality has grown far beyond selling products out of Kikucki’s garage to a large scale enterprise in the personal care products sector. Beth Williams is the current CEO who was recruited in mid-2008 to replace Kikuchi over concerns for his health, and to infuse Vitality with fresh blood and new ideas in the highly competitive marketplace. The board liked her no-nonsense approach and hoped she could turn Vitality around after a period of stagnation. James Hoffman is the newly appointed vice president of Human Resources at Vitality Health Enterprises and shares concerns with Beth that Vitality is not maintaining its edge on innovation, and has a large employee turnover rate among the highly talented research scientists. His first assignment is to take the lead on the new Performance Management Evaluation Team, constructed to evaluate the success of the system, and present the findings and recommendations to the board. Hoffman’s evaluation can either provide him with a great career opportunity, or be the catalyst for his departure. His concern is they do not have all the data to present and having been with Vitality for two months, he needs to be certain of his analysis – not to mention his boss, Beth, is the one who implemented the program several years earlier. The main problem in this entire case is how Vitality can maintain being the industry leader in innovation. There is a high turnover rate with high performing employees, especially those who are the innovators in product development. The high turnover is attributed to the poor incentive structure. Innovation is vital at maintaining the competitive edge, in any rapidly changing industry. For other employees, the structure encourages complacency and a culture of ineffective performance, not easily identifying poor performers. There is a problem with the evaluation process required of the managers, in the performance evaluations. They are not properly trained on how to evaluate the teams and don’t like the structure because it alienates team members. There might also be legal issues with discrimination and how the evaluation is designed. Company wide motivation has been declining due to the performance management system. Managers don’t feel thorough evaluations are, â€Å"worth their time†, and they are concerned the force- rank system incorrectly ranks individual performance. Employees can be placed in the lower tier, comp structure, if they are part of a high performing team and the opposite can be true for employees ranked in the higher tier, if they are part of a lower performing team. The system’s â€Å"fairness† has been questioned throughout the organization, and no clear standards are understood on what dictates your placement in the tier system. If employees are not clear on the system, it is challenging to make corrections in their performance. In addition, management feels employees are less likely to take additional initiative, outside their roles, to better the team’s performance – since there is no real incentive to do so. These issues negatively affect the culture, and have led to increased turnover in top-tier talent, which has left Vitality struggling to maintain its hold as industry leader. Performance management systems primary goal should be to stimulate behaviors that improve performance within a company. It appears as Hoffman suggested – Vitality has, â€Å"missed the mark† and is not fostering the type of behavior it originally set out to accomplish. The question for Vitality and Hoffman is: does the performance management system need correction, or should they start from scratch? We believe they can modify the current system they have in place and make it successful. They have already taken the appropriate measures to find where the system is lacking, which is in motivating the employees. This demonstrates that Vitality is moving in the right direction by being proactive on improving the working environment and culture of the company. One system will never be a perfect fit for all, but we believe we’ve identified a few key suggestions, based off the organizational feedback, that would enable Vitality to â€Å"hit the mark† with their performance management system. First we would address the time constraints the managers have in preparing the evaluations, by allowing the process to be extended by three months. Teamwork is central to turning out new products, yet the evaluation removes the motivation and encouragement for individual initiative that would benefit team performance. We recommend a piece of the individual performance, perhaps 20-30 % of the evaluation, be based off team accomplishments; similar to a NFL football team winning the Super Bowl and earning bonuses for the team. It’s well known that some players contribute more than others due to ability, yet the entire team contributes and receives additional compensation based off the accomplishment. The force-rank component would be based off the employee achieving key individual milestones, that would be determined by the manager and employee, at the beginning of the year. We would also remove the required number of rankings for top achievers, achievers, low achievers, unacceptable and not rated. We would leave these up to the discretion of the manager. The manager would then have a pool of money to distribute throughout his team contingent on the performance evaluations. In order to entice innovation, within the organization, a specific bonus/kicker structure should be incorporated into the plan that rewards individuals and teams that bring new product development to market. It’s clear that Vitality has made the right moves to maintain its market leader perception. We applaud Beth Williams for identifying a problem within the company, and being proactive to change course in order to maintain continued high performance.

Student-Athletes and Compensation - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1354 Downloads: 7 Date added: 2019/05/28 Category Career Essay Level High school Tags: Should College Athletes Be Paid Essay Did you like this example? Created in the 1950rs, the term student-athlete is still the NCAArs foundation of all prior and current debates about not paying collegiate athletes. The current debate is less about should these high caliber players be paid by the universities and now seems more focused on how they can receive their share of a multi-billion-dollar industry and the effects if student-athletes do get paid. The effects of student-athletes being paid is where the opposition continues to rely on an out of date defense that tuition is fair compensation. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Student-Athletes and Compensation" essay for you Create order Pay for students is illegal and competitive balance in college sports will be compromised. The NCAA has a history of dealing with players being paid on a case to case basis. Most recently permitting some athletes to earn money for use of their name, image, and likeness (NIL). A great example of these inconsistencies would be Katie Ledecky having to leave the Stanford swim team to take advantage of her Olympic success, whereas Arike Ogunbowale was allowed by the NCAA to continue playing basketball for Notre Dame while being paid to be on Dancing with the Stars because it was not related to basketball (Brennan 2). After hearing the NCAArs explanation, Commission chair Condoleezza Rice said, ?I couldnt for the life of me understand the explanation . . . because obviously shers there because she hit two winning shots in two basketball games (in the womenrs Final Four), so thatrs the connectionIts time to clear this up (qtd. in Brennan 2). If Commission chair Condoleezza Rice believes NCA A policies are confusing, it must be time for existing policies to be reevaluated. The NCAA executives should clearly define a consistent way and then allow student-athletes to be compensated for their personal name, image, likeness, and participation in non-collegiate events because the non-profit organization has evolved, there are ways to properly regulate payment, and numerous cases of paying student-athletes already exist. In 1906 President Teddy Roosevelt founded the NCAA to provide safety for college football players, and at the time students were not allowed to be recruited based on athletic ability (Katz, Vaughn and Gilleran 1). Athletic scholarships were not first introduced until the 1950rs, and the term student-athlete was used soon thereafter by the NCAA President of the time, Walter Byers, to protect the NCAA from legal issues (Katz, Vaughn and Gilleran 1). The main issue the NCAA faces today, pay for play, goes back to 1984 when they were forced, by the Supreme Court, to stop limiting the telecasts of college sports and revenue started rapidly increasing (Katz, Vaughn and Gilleran 2). A century after its creation, the NCAA President Myles Brand spoke at the NCAA convention in 2006 about the status of the organization (Katz, Vaughn and Gilleran 1). He expressed that the NCAA as an enterprise had commercialized, but the players must remain amateurs: ?Amateur defines the participants. . . not th e enterprise (qtd. In Katz, Vaughn and Gilleran 1). This shows that President Brand is contradicting the NCAAs original intentions. They are not the only organization to transform into something they were not intended to be. The Olympics is a perfect example of how a platform deeply rooted in the term amateurism (student-athlete) can change and allow players to receive endorsements (Solomon 17). The Olympic model has evolved to combat the opposing opinion that funding student-athletes will make it less competitive and less appealing as Jon Solomon notes: The public hasnt stopped watching the Olympics with professionals. Making money through endorsements while being good at a sport doesnt seem to hurt interest in the Olympics, which once had the most stringent definition of amateurism (Solomon 17). While not paying these athletes according to The New York Amsterdam News the NCAA is violating the law, Jaimie C. Harris wrote, In 2015, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lo wer court ruling stating the organization violated antitrust laws by limiting what athletes can receive while participating in college sports (Harris 1). NCAA Commission chair Condoleezza Rice sees the problem, she addressed it in a telephone interview with USA Today stating, ?We believe that students ought to be able to benefit from name, image, and likeness. . . It makes sense for the NCAA to have a legally justifiable framework that works, and currently the framework doesnt work (qtd. in Brennan 1-2). If the framework is broken, fix it; there are plenty of companies, professors, former athletes, etc. that have ideas on how to legally pay student-athletes. Major companies like EA Sports would like to pay the collegiate players for the use of their name, image and likeness, so some form of legal structure needs to be developed to provide this (Solomon 14). To combat legal concerns, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick suggests, college sports could manage group licensing for athletes (Solomon 16). This method will provide a fair distribution of the wealth across all players (Solomon 16). With a group-licensing approach, representatives for the players go to the companies to work out a fair deal for the players, which will create an all or nothing deal made with the player and the interested company. These ideas from Jack Swarbrick are created from the fact that students and student-athletes are separated (Solomon 16). If a player also wants other forms of endorsement for their NIL, this will be possible with some conditions. As proposed in the CAP Act as a benefit it would allow student-athletes to . . . engage in commercial acti vities that reflect the athleters public visibility as long as the athleters college sport or institution were not identified (Sack 3). The final way players should get paid is through prize money from all events outside the NCAA. Ideas like the ones mentioned above would allow the NCAA to maintain its non-profit status and allow players to profit financially. Some student-athletes are already profiting financially under NCAA guidelines, some more than others. Take University of Texas swimmer Joseph Schooling, he won Singaporers first gold metal by defeating Michael Phelps and received a huge bonus from his home country of $740,000 (Solomon 1). Some of the most recognizable collegiate football players can hope to pick up a bowl gift worth no more than $550 (Solomon 2). This random allowance does not seem to be relevant when a tennis player can earn $10,000 in prize money. Kyle Parker is not amused by these tennis players earnings because he got a $1.4 million bonus for signing as a professional baseball player and was still the quarterback for Clemson in 2010 (Solomon 2). NCAA players split $60 million awarded to them in a case against EA Sports for using their likeness (Solomon 14). All of these exceptions make it hard to understand what is and is not allowed and becomes more confusing which brings up the question whether the NCAA should just allow the athletes to get paid by outside resources. Tom McMillenrs statistics help support this argument, 79 percent of athletic directors in the NCAArs highest football division support players making money off their name for non-athletic related activities (qtd. in Solomon 13). Policy makers for the NCAA need to specifically clarify and grant permission for student-athletes to be paid for their name, image, likeness and participation in non-collegiate events because it would bring the NCAA regulations up to speed, properly regulated payments are possible, student-athletes have already been paid. The oppositions stance on the debate believes that tuition is a fair compensation, paying students is illegal and the competitive balance in college sports will be compromised. Not only is this defense outdated but can also be rejected by the Olympic model and the legal structure developed above. As Condoleezza rice says, ?Itrs time to clear this up there needs to be some changes to the policies derived from the NCAA to cope with the desires of the players (qtd. in Brennan 2). These wants for payment is very understandable given the facts provided by Knight Commission, In 2015, the 53 public schools from the five major conferences [SEC, Big Ten, ACC, Big 12, Pac-12] paid their football coaching staffs (530 individuals) combined $405.5 million, compared to $179.8 million in scholarships to their football players (4,979 individuals) (Solomon 4). This large gap in ratios makes it easy to agree with Bob Bowlsby prediction; ?that the day will come when players decide not to play in a major college sporting event (qtd. in Solomon 17).