Friday, March 27, 2020

The role of Community in modern World an Example of the Topic Psychology Essays by

The role of Community in modern World The society is never static and this attributes to the the fact that the changes are there in the society. These change are brought about by the natural and individual sources. That is why this call for the systematic and well structured approach to deal with these projected adversities in the society where we human beings leave. Through the study of emergency management it enables the society to be prepared in the avoidance of risks and develop good structures to be able to mitigate the severity of the outcomes from a possible risk. The community is the core of the global society which faces various forces that are coming together to shift the community dynamics in a dramatic way, in the aspect as the widening gap between the rich and the poor in both developed and developing nations. There's population influx in relation to consumption and the environment ability to support and sustain the community. Need essay sample on "The role of Community in modern World" topic? We will write a custom essay sample specifically for you Proceed Environmental crisis evident in the global warming resulting into floods, climatic instability, hydrological and atmospheric challenges and the socio-economical issues that faces our today community. And as those challenges persists to become unbearable the urge for change in the social life to acquire and leave a more stress life so that we can have constructive and positive impact in the world today than destructive. Therefore this dissertation looks at these unfolding challenges to humanity in their environment and how to integrate and build a healthy relationship between the various systems of the community to have resilient and sustainable community by the use of emergency management techniques. The ideas are being incoperated with the case study of Singapore in in the year 1960 when they withdrew from the Malaysian federation and were faced with economic recession and communist subdivisions. Community is a group of organisms who are interacting and shares a common environment. The more advanced approach to community concept is to mean persons that shares common characteristics their location and the extend of their interaction not withstanding (Graham John 2003) . In this sense however, resilient community uses a combination of live satellite, video conferencing, articles, locally organized community based articles for discussion and the web based resumes (Delvant 2003). The community also encompasses the international community which includes the coverage of such terms as ecovillages, communities, student cooperation's, residential land trusts where persons work together to achieve a common vision that is beneficial to all regardless of their geographical environment (Charles 2003) . Community also can mean a group of individuals living together in a large society who are linked with a common policy. Sustainability is the characterized process that can be maintained at a definite level therefore, sustainability of community will focus on the community development that will last and be well maintained which focuses on the values, purposes and outcomes of the community factors which includes the prescriptive values of economic, political, religion and philosophical systems that should be networked and interlinked to yield better results the community (Walker David 2006). In order for the community to succeed in its sustainable community development it should employ the principle of transparent handling of the risk, appropriately valued nature restoration, integration of all sectors of community such as ecological, social, economical and humanistic in its policies, Equality in community opportunities and participation, continuous improvement through innovative and inventive to existing structures ofter assessing and evaluating and the supervisory functionality of good and cooperate governance (Charles 2003) . Resiliency is the ability of an individual or group of individual or society to manage the adversity in a way that is effective and which has the ability to respond to future adversity (Gupta 2003) . The most community today in the challenging world have resiliency in the adversity of poverty, war conflicts and both climatic and parental illness resiliency is characterized by two major concepts, such concepts are risk factor which is in terms of adversity or stress life events characterizing the individual and his/her environment (Charles 2003). The second one is the protective factors that includes skills or formality and essential aspects which act as buffer and base of resumes to deal with adversities effectively. Therefore, resiliency is the balance between the risks in the environment and the capability to manage them using the available support. Therefore, in the community resiliency builds around the issue of community structure seen from infancy to entrance to school then to adolescence to adulthood by detachment from the parents to becoming responsible adults. In community resiliency is an important concept during society transition when adversity tend to accumulate (Delvant 2003). The issue of whether the adversity will be successful managed it should be compartmentalized into separate sub-units and dealt with separately as entities in the society. These sub units includes physical and change or emotional resiliency that should be tackled well at present and the future. If that is due it yields the process of sustainable community development. Therefore, resiliency in the context of community development will be used as mechanism which the community used due to their capabilities to cope up with stress successfully and that it should have the aspect of dynamism which will contribute to community enhancement and maintenan ce of the key sectors of the community. The community is composed of individuals therefore, in order to build a resilience community individuals are key factor. Individuals characteristics puts them at risks, such characters as low self-esteem (Delvant 2003). The environmental characteristics plan a threat to pose an individual to risks as poverty, neighborhood, crowding, parental psychopathology and deviated peer group. Individuals protective factor that contributes to resiliency in includes cognitive skills, ability to plan independently, competency in ones history that lead to success in life and being optimistic and positive in life perceptions. Resiliency in individuals trickles down to familial protective factors where the individual is natured and influenced in most aspects of his life. These factors may include positive parent to child attachment and interaction, effective parenting constituted by the structure of rules and regulation within household (Graham John 2003). Then one resiliency has been established from individuals for families then can be looked as in terms of community. Community is seen to be resilient when it responds to adversity in a manner that strengthens the community resources and the ability to manage stress in future. The factors that contribute to the community resiliency is the mutual support characterized by high level of community participation and the community collective expectations excelling and sailing through the challenges that faces it. The community responds to crisis such as environmental, economic, working hard and voluntary, equal treatment of members of community. The key to community resiliency is empowerment factor which has direct bearing to the level of community empowerment in relation to policies and policy choices in the community (Gupta 2003) . These leads to establishment of community based programs directed to individuals resiliency such as experiential outdoor education. In order to achieve the resilient community it calls for procedures, process and principles to be involved. This key tools includes: there are a number of reasons for a resilient community is clearly seen through positive of harmonious partnership and cohesiveness between the grassroots, natural and regional level of communism which leads to potential stability, security, social and economic prosperity and progress. Impotent measure to controlling internal conflicts which can result into external hazards for outside which created sustainable livelihood of the people in a given region. Through construction of a resilient community in operations and functions it gives support to the inter community lend for instance national political and socio-economic. In construction resilient community key step is network connections in that, communities are built on connections which should be good to give better opportunities (Thomas 2001). This is achieved through improving the interaction of community internally and externally. Connectivity which is improved is created through interactive procedures by knowing and mending the network which starts with a network map that shows the complexity of human system the resilient community is to be built in. the network will provide the connections and relationship between the community ecosystems in business, political, socio-economic which helps answer key questions that can be based on when building resilient community (Gupta 2003) . The networking process touches the fundamental concepts of leadership roles in the community, preparedness of the community and whether right connections are in place. the effective network should reflect the common objective attainment in the subsystem of governance, should embrace the diversity factor so that it can cluster and nodes to maximize innovation in the network. The network should have an average path length since long path length usually distorts the message when it travels for long between the two nodes. However the average path length is convenient to measure networks global efficiency (Charles 2003) . The network for the community resiliency and sustainability undergoes four main phases to build. All these phases are inter linked to each other with bridging and facilitation by the subsistence of the leadership and the society preparedness to undergo the whole process in order to achieve the common goal. Each phase apart from the first one is built on a more adaptive and resilient structured network than the previous one so that it can be effective in tracing and tracking the community progress through the use of these phases. These phases are interconnected through evolving in the an effect that one phase should lead gradually to the next but systematical (Thomas 2001) . The first phase is usually at the individuals level that organizes them selves which is the initial stage referred to as the scattered cluster (Gupta 2003) . Clusters are with individuals ranging from one to five a group which gives the insight of the underdeveloped communities. Persons always isolate from each other and therefore lack of interactive learning and exchange of ideas that leads to underproduction sand low rate of development which makes the community structure to remain weak. At the stage there is a vital requirement to transform the system to be able to attain higher achievements. Tis the point where the role the leadership comes in and in this regard is refereed to as the weaver (Charles 2003) . The weaver makes the critical role of establishing new interactions to coordinate the activities within these groups leading to the emergency of strong groups. After a series of coordinated events the network weaver connects the small groups to come up with the spoke and him o r herself becomes the hub. The make the second system referred to as single hub and spoke. The weaver is expected to have energy, vision and necessary skills to connect the diverse of individuals by inducing the information flow ]from and to the groups. Weaver has to establish external links to bring a bout innovation and resources in the community (Walker David 2006) . Empowerment of the groups is key to achieving the informative relationship establishment and attain the collaboration and link up with member groups (Charles 2003) . Members of the community unless they cooperate the system may not blossom into a successful relationship to have a constructive development. These can be attained by proper of the society training which will help to identify and come up with other emerging weavers so that they can be equipped with necessary skills to run the community (Gupta 2003) . The weaver also starts to receive and develop a comprehensive data bank for the single hub and spoke network in the community, and starts to link them up with common goals and objectives and handles similar operations. The connection and linking up of the single hub and spoke will make the weaver to be the facilitator amongst the groups of the society (Walker David 2006). Once the process of the linking of the groups is successfully achieved the second phase is upgraded to the next phase resilient and sustainable community building and development which will be formed by the various single hub and spoke system. Thus in Singapore the young, energetic and visionary prime minister Mr. Lee Kuan Yew established a grassroots based movement, referred to as Peoples Association (PA). T he main objective was to have all people residing in the neighborhood are proactive members involved in the activities as sports, religious affairs, vocational training. The resulting level will be the multi hub small world network where the relationship between the the divide should be built. So that the information and innovation will be accessed by the community. The community groups can organized, collaborate and cooperate within the network. The original weaver engages in the activities and planing which model new weavers to take care of the network building and maintenance processes (Thomas 2001) . this is significant because the original leader will have deviated in its role play from the direct to indirect leader or weaver. Where he will be performing supervisory roles in the whole process and will be responsible of detecting the weaknesses of the system and strength through evaluating the performance of the current system its ope rationality and productivity outcomes to the society. Once the multi system has been will coordinated it should gradually lead to the end and ultimate goal of the structure system. By the year 1970 Singapore establi shed 150 community centers who were managed by 1500 managers helped by 450 volunteers. Management supervised by 2000 management committees. As a result it collected total of $20.9 million community funds which was used to support this centers to promote and prevent other related risk a part from containing the two major threats of communism and recession of economy (Graham John 2003). These system will be referred to as the periphery and core phase that comes as a result of strong and well established that have the capacity and characteristics to link up with other regional networks and perform well. The phase is characterized by the factors such as those organizations that are new to the network and work hard to get to the core, it act as the bridging to diverse the community and lastly usually have the unique resources that operates outside the community (Delvant 2003). The periphery allows the reaching out of the ideas and informations that leads to desirable innovations and development of the community that are not prevalent in that society (Gupta 2003) . While the core offers the community systems with effect of acting and implementing those ideas and informations availed by the periphery to attain practical outcomes. Thus the periphery acts as the evaluation and monitoring tool to the system henceforth resulting data analyzed and statistical in formation obt ained will be used in the weaving or reweaving to match the present environment requirements. The challenge is in the aspect of updating and maintenance of the structured system so as to yield a resilient sustainable community. In conclusion theres an need for construction of the resilient and sustainable community in the todays world as its evident with psychological, physical and socio-economical adversities. By the use of the expanded scope of disaster management it can be done through the identification of the current network, assessed and then embark on the making it effective to suit the community. These will be achieved through the explication of the conceptual link between the community aspects, resilient and the mechanisms which foster resiliency with the proper tools put in place to create the enabling and supportive environment to the processes of resilient community building. As a result will develop community which will have a good capacity and capabilities to meet the community needs without compromising the future ability of the community. Therefore its important for the community to be stable status, coexist and be cooperative to attain the objective of a resilient and sustainable community to have a viable livelihood for the community. All in all resiliency has a great promising future for the sustainable community if its based on the sound theory and comprehensi9ve research. Reference: Delvant Gerard, 2003, Community; alienation, Routledge. Vougha Antony, 1982, Studies of library management; Cline brngley, New York. Burton Philip, 2003, Towards sustainable management of boreal forest; NRC research press, United States. Capaldo Guiharia, 2002, Global community; Abebooks, Philadelphia. Walker Brian, David Salt, 2006, Resilient thinking; island press, Michigan. Huber Diane, 2005, Leadership and nursing care management; nursing services, United States. Parker Dennis, 2001, Floods; Francis and Taylor, New York. Taylor, 2008, Disaster management handbook; CRC prt lic. New York.

Saturday, March 7, 2020

summary of people of gilded age essays

summary of people of gilded age essays After the Civil War had ended, several soldiers had returned home to find their places of living destroyed. Most of these people returned to practically nothing. The United States had to rebuild itself, and this rebuilding was called Reconstruction. Today historians refer to this era of reconstruction as the part of the Gilded Age. Many people had to pickup and start all over again, while others continued their quests of expanding. Expanding by taking control over the land or by expanding their beliefs, either way lives of these people reflected the social tensions of the Gilded Age. Philip H. Sheridan, who was one of the heroes of the Civil War, was a soldier who had started his career on the frontier and would return there after the war to help the United States in expanding its territory by having to combat many Native Americans in doing so. Sheridan was an extremely important person who helped conquer the frontier. Sheridan believed in the freeing of black slaves, and decided that he would help protect the blacks now that they were free. He expresses his opinion about what is done to black people in Texas by commenting that the black codes are a policy of gross injustice toward the colored people on the part of the courts, and a reign of lawlessness and disorder ensued.(10) Sheridans defense of the black cause much tension in his life, in Texas, that he was later reassigned to command the Department of the Missouri. (11) In 1869 when Grant had became President; he appointed Sheridan lieutenant governor and command of the Division of Missouri. Sheridans past on tactics for attacking the Indians made him the best man for the job in defending the western frontier. Much of Sheridans life involved being enrolled in the army and defending the frontier. He is also known for the quote The only good Indian is a dead Indian, which he became synonymous with. (13) Sheridans life practically ...

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

The Impact of Advertisement on Children Research Paper

The Impact of Advertisement on Children - Research Paper Example This essay "The Impact of Advertisement on Children" describes the negative effects of TV advertisement on children health and behavioral patterns as well as the family economy. According to the recent research children are most influenced by food promotion. Moreover, food companies have the most powerful advertising campaigns. One of the major negative impacts of advertising on children is eating habits change due to numerous junk food commercials (Quereshi et al., 2). Most companies advertise food with increased amount of fats, calories, and salt. Numerous sugared drinks, unhealthy snacks, chips, and sweets are promoted products on TV and the Internet. Even cereals which are advertised as useful have increased amount of sugar (Quereshi et al., 2). Kids who are influenced by TV commercials have wrong perception of healthy portion sizes because people on the screen often eat enormous portions. That is why children who watch TV advertisements regularly have distorted eating habits. Te enagers are also affected by TV commercials, although they know the difference between healthy and unhealthy food they usually choose products that are more desirable. It is problematic that eating habits formed in early childhood most likely to remain for the rest of life. Nevertheless, family eating patterns and dietary preferences are estimated to have more influence on children that TV commercials (Quereshi et al., 4). TV is proved to be connected to increase of obesity and overweight in children.

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Theoretical Causes of Rape Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5750 words

Theoretical Causes of Rape - Essay Example The 16 questions shall be sub-grouped to represent the four theories as causes of rape identified in Hyde's text (1996). With the goal of raising the school board's consciousness in recognizing the lack of education and awareness of the topic, this research aims to take future action towards preventive measures for an inevitable sexual assault. In a civilized society, human behavior is governed by acceptable norms and punishment is often sought as an alternative course to correct a deviant behavior. With increasing highlight on sexual violence as a punishable crime in the civilized world, rape stands among one of the heinous crimes by an individual or group of individuals against an individual for the life altering consequences that is brought about by the experience to the victim. However society's idea on equal protection of laws brings out the need to understand the core of such errant behavior. The need to discover any adaptation techniques that would help limit the incidence of this sexual perversion common even to highly-educated individuals is seen as an effective approach to the problem of rape in particular would gear everyone on the knowledge that "no means no" and using the "point of no return" excuse will eventually tarnish the perpetrator's ideas that leads to an aberrant behavior. Knowledge is therefore consi dered as the most effective approach to combat rape as a form of sexual deviation that helps society understand and formulate an well-founded approach to this problem. Rape as a form of sexual assault is common in most societies. It is the most prevalent issue in the world that represents violence against women in common and as a sexual assault on the victim(s) itself. Throughout time, rape has had many meanings that prior to the 1970s under the common law definition predominantly defined rape as an unlawful act of carnal knowledge of a female without her consent (Reid, 1989). Where copulation is resisted to the best of the victim's ability (Thornhill and Palmer; 2000, p. 1); Searles and Berger (1987) defined rape as a non-consensual sexual penetration of an adolescent or adult obtained by physical force, by threat of bodily harm, or when the victim is incapable of giving consent by virtue of mental illness, mental retardation, or intoxication. More specifically all of the above definition has been simplified by the Minnesota State Law (section 609.342) that considers rape as simply a sexual contact achieved without consent; through physical force , coercion, deception, threat; that includes the victim's mental or physical impairment. In the broader legal term it indicates a sexual activity with another person who cannot or does not consent (RAINN, 2001). For the purpose of this study, the researcher shall utilize Hyde's (1996), definition of rape, which states, "nonconsensual oral, anal, or vaginal penetration, obtained by force, by threat of bodily harm, or when the victim is incapable of giving consent" (p. 344). Koss et al. (1987) found that more than 15% of the women claimed being raped, and 12.1% indicated that they had been victims of attempted rape in the United States. An additional 14.4% reported that they had experienced lesser forms of sexual assault. Such reports according to the US Department of Justice (RAINN, 2001) warns that a woman is sexually assaulted every two minutes in America, and a woman has a one in

Monday, January 27, 2020

The Frugal Innovation In Africa Economics Essay

The Frugal Innovation In Africa Economics Essay Failure by conventional theories such as the product life cycle and closed innovation to explain recent trends in innovation, have laid a foundation for the emergence of different approaches to innovation management. One such approach is frugal innovation which has, in the recent past, been given recognition both by practitioners and academics. Frugal innovation aims at offering goods and services that are affordable, robust and of acceptable quality in a volume-driven market. So far academic attention on frugal innovation has been paid to countries outside Africa. The review of extant literature found only one academic paper on frugal innovation in Africa. This paper was based on a single case study and just focused on the service industry. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify examples of successful frugal innovation in Africa and categorize them based on local conditions. Using an analogical method, six successful cases of frugal innovation were identified in differ ent countries. Frugal innovations were categorized into basic needs and luxury frugal solutions respectively. Further from the six cases, five success factors were identified. These are; needs conceptualization, passion, local networks, investing in local RD and a flexible and well defined rolling out process. These cases suggest that companies wishing to develop frugal solutions aimed at specifically addressing the needs of customers in Africa must be receptive to the above factors. This study highlights the existence of frugal innovation in Africa and the critical factors vital for creating new, affordable and robust products and services for what we call unthawed markets in Africa. The study has also shown that despite frugal innovation attracting academic attention in the last decade, it has existed in Africa for a considerable period of time. For the future, studies should be focused on identifying more cases of frugal innovation in Africa. In addition, such cases should be sub jected to in-depth analysis. We also encourage comprehensive studies aimed at developing new theories and testing the proposed ones. Keywords: Frugal Innovation, Africa, product life cycle, unthawed markets, success factors 1. INTRODUCTION The ongoing shift in the global innovation landscape has presented numerous challenges (Magnusson 2000; Chesbrough 2003). These challenges have brought conventional theories such as the product life cycle and closed innovation into the spot light. As a result many countries and firms are developing new ways and means of conducting business. For example, multinationals from developed countries are increasingly globalizing their RD activities. Firms from emerging economies such as India and Brazil, which traditionally played a secondary role in global innovation, have now begun to catch up with developing their own innovative capabilities (Mathews, 2002). Some of these firms have emerged as major players in certain sectors like information technology and mobile communications. In this shift, particular attention has been paid to emerging concepts of innovation. Recent research has identified five distinctive but interrelated innovation concepts for the years ahead (Eagar et al., 2011). These concepts are: customer-based innovation; proactive business model innovation; integrated innovation; high speed/low risk innovation and frugal innovation. The literature on all the five concepts is scant because they are in their infancy phase. Frugal innovation also known as reverse innovation is about minimizing the use of material and financial resources in the complete value chain with the objective of reducing the cost of ownership while fulfilling even exceeding certain predefined criteria of acceptable quality standards (Tiwari and Herstatt, 2012). From the organizations point of view, a frugal solution is designed, produced, delivered and maintained to achieve the needs of underserved consumers in constrained environments (Bhatti, 2012). For the consumers, frugal products and services extend from simply costs to functioning with few resources, and lack of necessary infrastructure. Examples of successful frugal innovation include the Tata Nano car in India that costs less than US$3000, a low-cost battery powered refrigerator in India (called Chotukool) created by Godrej Company and a mini-handheld electrocardiogram (ECG) machine called Mac 400 created by GE at its Bangalore laboratory (Howard, 2011). Based on evidence from frugal solutions in and outside Asia, it is clear that frugal innovation is a cutting edge initiative that has challenged conventional ways of innovation management. It is destined to address the needs of both the lower and middle income groups all over the world. Despite these impressive strides, the initiative has received little academic attention particularly in Africa. Scholarly works that have attempted to deal with this subject have mainly concentrated on emerging economies in Asia (Tiwari and Herstatt 2011, 2012; SAGPA 2011; Tood and Lawson 2003; Fukuda and Watanabe 2011; Kohlbacher and Hang 2011; Pinelli 2011; Eagar et al., 2011). Africa is in desparate need of frugal innovation given the higher levels of poverty in comparison to other continents. For instance in 2011, 35 out of 45 nations identified as having Low Human Development on the United Nations Human Development Index were located in Africa (UNDP, 2011). The implications of these facts are tha t the gap between the rich and the poor in most African countries is quite high and the population of the lower and middle income groups is higher than those in the high income group. This means that there are fewer people who are able to enjoy certain things in life because of the low purchasing power. More often than note, people in the lower income group would like to enjoy the same goods and services as those at the top of the economic pyramid but are not able to. Therefore there is a seemingly dormant and non-consuming market for which frugal products can take advantage. We call this market unthawed market because it is not fully exploited and seems frozen. The limited research so far carried out on frugal innovation has not addressed emerging issues in this field in Africa. To our knowledge there has only been one study conducted on frugal innovation in Africa. It was a single case study that focused on service innovation in Kenya (Wooder and Baker, 2012). There is need to cas t the net wide and look at Africa as a whole in order to identify other cases of frugal innovation. This will give us a clearer picture of both product and service innovations for mass markets in Africa. As populations in Africa grow and demand for unique and reasonably cheap goods and services go up, frugal innovation is a must for this continent. Given the foregoing, it is imperative that a preliminary study to find examples of frugal innovation in Africa is conducted. Hence the purpose of this study is to address this gap. More specifically our study aims to identify cases of frugal innovation in African, categorize them and bring out success factors of such innovations. Identifying cases of frugal innovation will provide important insights that will stimulate further research not only in Africa but in other parts of the world. 2. FRUGAL INNOVATION: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND In this era that is increasingly being defined by the globalization of competition as well as major fiscal and demographic challenges, the task of managing innovation is vital for companies of every size in every industry (Tidd, 2006). Although innovation is a very difficult process to manage, it is critical in sustaining businesses and ensures competitive advantage. The way organizations bring out new ideas and take them to the market has undergone fundamental change. There is a paradigm shift in how companies commercialize industrial knowledge. In the following we have shown how two conventional theories of innovation and product development are no longer sustainable. Subsequently, frugal innovation is becoming relevant. 2.1 The Product Life Cycle cannot explain recent trends in innovation Historically there were attempts and initiatives to understand product and service innovation. One such initiative was the product life cycle (PLC) theory developed by Raymond Vernon. The PLC is an economic theory that attempted to explain the observed pattern of international trade. Vernon (1966) argued that many products experience cycles. The theoretical rationale behind the PLC theory emanates from the concepts of diffusion and adoption of innovations (Everett, 1962). Schematically, the PLC may be approximated by a bell-shaped curve that is divided into different stages (see Figure 1). Although the number of phases suggested by different scholars varies from four to six, for the purpose of this paper we have adopted a four-phase cycle as proposed by Polli and Cook (1969). The four-phase cycle is realistic. Some cycles, which include a saturation stage, have proved to be unrealistic and questionable. For example, a clear distinction could not be drawn between the mature and satura tion stage (Gardner, 1987). Pollit and Cook (1969) stated that sales follow a sequence of stages, starting with product introduction and proceeds with growth, through maturity and eventually decline. Figure 1. Product Life Cycle Source: Polli and Cook (1969) Below is the summary of the four stages in a products life cycle: Introduction New products are introduced to meet local and national needs. Profits are often low because customers are few. This stage is characterized by significant uncertainty regarding the market size, consumer tastes and technological constraints. Growth Products become more widely known and accepted. Profits begin to be earned as the image of the product is developed. Maturity Products may be extended by adding both width and depth. Sales are at their peak and profits are high. There is production of standard products through standardized production processes. Decline Sales fall very fast and profit go down. Prices are also likely to fall. Vernon (1966) posited that products are initially discovered and produced in developed countries (north) and exported to the less developed countries (south). The emphasis was on the role of innovation, scale ignorance and uncertainty. Vernon discarded the classical assumption that knowledge is a free good. He claimed that developed countries spend more on product development and innovation than developing countries. Hence they tend to develop high end products. Initially, the manufacture of a new product tends to be located in the country that developed it. This is largely on account of large markets in the developed nations therefore early stages of a products life production need to be located close to the market. Vernon further argued that when products become mature their degree of standardization and consequently of price elasticity of demand increases, cost considerations become more important and production will often move to less developed countries. Concerns about productio ns costs and possibilities of economies of scale results in shift of location of production from the north to the south. Hence the north produces only new goods while the south produces only old goods (Funk, 2004). The cycle arises because what is a new good in one period eventually becomes an old good in another period. The PLC theory is a conventional concept which has stood the test of time. It has represented central elements of innovation and marketing for four decades (Mercer, 1993). Following its development in the 1960s and subsequent popularization in the 1970s, the theory has remained a stable feature in international trade. A great deal has been written on the subject and several empirical studies have validated its existence (Polli Cook 1969; Meenaghan Turnbull 1978; Klepper 1992; Mercer 1993; Funk 2004). The PLC has been used for strategic planning, product development, financial management and has been considered to be an influential concept (Moon, 2005) and an enduring marketing framework (Golder Tellis 2004). The concept has been used for specific technologies (Abernathy and Utterback, 1978); for dominant designs (Tushman and Anderson, 1990), for customer adaptations of new technologies (Rodgers, 1962) and for specific industries and clusters (Audretsch and Feldman, 1996). Indeed the evidence supporting the PLC theory and the amount of attention bestowed upon the theory in the academic literature over the years have been impressive. However, in the recent past the PLC concept has begun to appear unsustainable. There is a serious deficiency in the assertion that new products and innovations happen in developed countries and later get adopted in developing nations. Recent scholarly work has brought out evidence showing an increasing trend of product development and innovations originating from developing nations such as India and China (Tiwari Herstatt 2012; Prahaland 2005; Economist 2010b). These countries are no longer just borrowing innovations from developed countries; but from time to time are contributing innovations to the rest of the world including advanced economies (Govindarajan Ramamurti, 2011). Recent research has suggested that enterprises are increasingly using fast-growing developing economies as lead markets for innovating specific pro ducts, services and technologies (Tiwari Herstatt, 2012). An example of such innovations is a washing machine called Mini Magical Child introduced by Haier, a Chinese home appliances firm. This washing machine is being sold in the US and Europe. These innovations have been termed frugal innovation because they meet the needs of low end customers at affordable prices and have acceptable quality (Zeschky et al. 2011). This trend cannot be sufficiently explained by the PLC theory and by factors such as degree of standardization and price elasticity of demand. To the contrary, the trend has challenged the core assumptions of the PLC theory and proves, in the interim, that innovation and new products can emerge from anywhere and not just in advanced countries. The assertion, by Vernon, that discarded the notion that knowledge in a free good therefore cannot stand. 2.2. The Closed Innovation approach has been eroded The old paradigm was called closed innovation which was based on the strict control of successful innovation (Chesbrough, 2003). Under this view, organizations generate their own ideas, develop them, finance them and support them on their own. In short, companies maintain complete control of all aspects of the innovation process and inventions are kept highly secretive. Traditionally many organizations followed this model and it worked well for most of the twentieth century (OVO, 2008). However, over the years a number of factors have led to the erosion of the closed innovation approach (Chesbrough, 2003). First, due to an increase in the mobility and availability of highly educated people, large amounts of knowledge leave the research laboratories of many companies. Second, the availability of venture capital has increased significantly in the recent past making it possible for promising ideas and technologies to be further developed outside the organization. Third, other firms in the supply chain began to play an increasingly pivotal role in the innovation process. Finally, today there is an abundance of knowledge in virtually every field. The proliferation of public scientific databases, online journals, low-cost internet access have given firms access to a wealth of knowledge that was far more expensive and time-consuming to reach as recently as the early 1990s. The above factors have rendered the closed innovation model unsustainable. Consequently, some mature firms got stuck in a narrow search for efficiency, displaying short sightedness and an inability to innovate to the extent needed to sustain their competitiveness (March, 1991; Dougherty and Hardy, 1996). Hence, many organizations started looking for other ways of increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of their innovation processes. On the other hand, these conditions have led to the globalization of innovation and emergence of what Chresbrough (2003) has called open innovation. Under this paradigm, firms can and should use both internal and external ideas to develop and commercialize products and services. Open innovation provides means to benefit from a much broader base of individuals and organizations. Ideas coming from customers and business partners may identify gaps and needs that internal team may have been ignoring or unable to identify. Firms are tapping into internal a nd external sources of knowledge to review development cycles, re-think development costs and develop products for particular markets with differing customer tastes, geographic conditions or regulatory requirements (Buse et al. 2010; Cantwell, 1995; OECD, 2008). Internationalization of RD which was thought to be phenomena of the developed countries such as Japan and Germany has now shifted to developing countries (Carlsson, 2006). There is a remarkable trend of multinational enterprises selecting locations in emerging economies such as India and China to conduct innovation activities (Tiwari, 2007; OECD; 2008). 2.3 The emergence of frugal innovation The open innovation approach and the failure by traditional theories such as the PLC to elucidate the current innovation trends, have laid a basis for the emergence of different approaches to innovation management. One such approach is frugal innovation which targets middle and lower-income customers in rapid growth markets (Pinelli, 2011). Frugal innovation is also called reverse innovation (Govindarajan and Ramamurti, 2011) constraint-based innovation, meaning sparse in the use of raw materials and their impact on the environment (Innovation Post, 2011). It is driven by resource constraints imposed by infrastructural and business environment (Sehgal et al. 2010). Practitioners have referred to frugal innovation as a holistic rethinking of products and services offered to the customers and underlying processes and business models so that companies can squeeze costs and expand the customer base, business and profit (Jagati, 2011). These customers are enjoying their first taste of mod ern prosperity and are buying for the basics not for fancy features (Prahalad, 2005). They have unique needs that are not usually addressed by mature market products, mainly due to prohibitive cost base of developed world products. To produce frugal goods, complex and concerted RD efforts are required (Jagati, 2011). In this regard, the field of engineering has also undergone some changes in order to face these challenges. In 2006, the Chairman and CEO of Renault-Nissan Alliance, Carlos Ghosn came up with the term frugal engineering to describe the competency and aptness of Indian engineers in developing products like Tata Motors Nano. Frugal engineering is an overarching philosophy that enables a true clean sheet approach to product development (Sehgal et. al. 2010). It avoids needless costs and addresses millions of consumers at the bottom of the pyramid who are moving out of poverty in developing nations. Kumar and Puranam (2012) in their recent research identified the following underlying principles on which frugal engineering efforts seem to rest: Robustness The characteristic of being physically strong and inured to endurance. Most of the developing nations have harsh environments such as extreme temperatures. Portability Poor roads and transportation in the emerging economies call for the importance of goods that are easily portable. Small and lightweight products become highly desirable. Defeaturing This refers to feature rationalization. Usually features accumulate in products over time. Therefore there is need to remove some of them that do little to enhance the actual product. Leapfrog technology Leapfrogging is a process of making progress by large jumps as opposed to small increments. This may seem contradictory for developing nations. However, engineers in India and China have adopted technologies that make dependence on existing infrastructure irrelevant. Mega-scale production It is estimated that the middle class in Asia alone is 525 million people, greater than the entire population of the European Union (Pinelli, 2011). This massive population can help firms produce on a massive scale and drive costs down. Service Ecosystems By using efficient service ecosystems, firms utilizing frugal engineering have been selling large volumes to multiple segments, each with slightly different needs. With ecosystems low costs have been achieved. In India, frugal innovation is known as Jugaad innovation which means doing the best with what one possesses (Innovation Post 2011). Jugaad is a colloquial Hindi word which roughly translates as an innovative fix; an improvised solution born from ingenuity and cleverness (Radjou et. al., 2012). The term refers to a unique way of thinking and acting in response to challenges. Juggad is, quite simply, achieving more with less. India is becoming a leader in frugal innovation (Tiwari and Herstatt, 2012). In fact it is rapidly emerging as one of the hotspots for the development of innovations tailored to the needs of lower income groups (Kubzansky and Karamchandani, 2009). As mentioned earlier, the best known example of a frugal product is probably the Tata Nano car, which has become so popular in India and dubbed the peoples car (Howard, 2011). At the end of 2010, 70,000 units had been sold. Tatas aim was to develop and produce a car that would be much cheaper than any other car in the w orld. To achieve this, the company reengineered parts to save weight, reconfigured assembly methods and developed a complex network of third party suppliers to increase efficiency (Pinelli, 2011). In view of this ground breaking technology, some established car manufactures from advanced economies have seen a reduction in their sales. According to the Society of India Automobile Manufacturers, in 2011 Suzukis car sales in India dropped by 11.9 percent for the first time in 9 years (Nagata, 2012). Suzukis market share in India which was 50 percent in 2009 dropped to under 40 percent in 2011. Another example of frugal innovation is Indias technologically sophisticated solutions. The country is providing satellite launch services at the India Space Research Organization (ISRO). This organization is offering commercial services to space agencies and research institutions all over the world for costs that are significantly lower than those of its competitors in the developed world (Chand rashekar, 2011). In the medical field, a unique and interesting trend has emerged. Sometime back people seeking specialized medical treatment from developing nations would travel to developed nations for treatment. However, because of new and affordable medical services in India, patients from wealthy countries are going there for specialized treatment (Moriyasu, 2012). The comparably decent treatment is much cheaper and waiting time is short. For instance, the heart bypass surgery which costs US$144,000 in the US is available for US$8,600 in India (Moryyasu, 2012). In this regard, the number of medical tourists received by India has grown to 4.6 times the number received five years ago. At Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in New Delhi, patients from the US, the UK and the Persian Gulf States have been treated. Another country with successful cases of frugal innovation is China. For example, BYD in that country has developed a very low-cost method of producing lithium-ion batteries whose cost has been reduced from US$40 to less than US$5 per unit (Kharas, 2010). Other frugal products in China include a washing machine called Mini Magical Child developed by Haier, a home appliance company in 1996 (Hang et. al., 2010). The product was designed for small daily loads and offered an alternative to large expensive washing machines. These are all examples of good enough products designed to fulfill the basic needs at low cost thereby providing high value. From the scarce literature, three studies that attempted to address frugal innovation theoretical issues were identified. The first one proposed a frugal theoretical model on the basis of resource constraints, institutional innovation and social innovation (Bhatti, 2012). According to this model, the intersections among these three innovation streams present a fertile space where frugal innovation can be located. If each stream is taken separately, it cannot deal with the challenges of innovating for the underserved in emerging markets. The second study presented a conceptual framework for product innovation (Ray and Ray, 2011). As shown in Figure 2, they contended that to serve the markets at the bottom of the pyramid three concepts need to be harnessed; architectural innovation, modularity and collaborative partnerships. When performance of existing product technologies far exceeds what customers in mass markets are able to utilize or pay for; innovators need to develop simpler and cheaper products. They likened this to Christensens model of disruptive technologies. In this context, architectural innovation becomes the logical low cost choice, since it recombines existing component technologies in new ways, to create and alter price-performance packages without further investments in developing new core technologies. Modularity incorporated in such products enables firms to improve performance overtime to appeal to more discerning mainstream customers, eventually facilitating a technology to emerge. In short modularity is for customization and improvements. Furthermore, given that developing disruptive technologies is prone to high uncertainties and unforeseen costs, which maybe further exacerbated by institutional weaknesses in emerging economies, the authors drew on the concept of collaborative partnerships. Such firm practices will lower the costs and risks associated with innovation. The third study focused on frugal service innovation in Kenya, Africa. T he aim of the study was to explore how the MPESA solution (which will be discussed later in this paper) was conceived, designed and delivered to the customers (Wooder and Baker, 2012). The study proposed a service innovation framework comprising how to; create, deliver, capture, defend and sustain value. Unlike the model proposed by Bhatti, the last two conceptual frameworks have been subjected to some testing. While the three models are in tandem on affordability, resource constraints and internal capacities of firms, the Bhatti model appears complicated and difficult to implement. To test the intersection of social innovation, institutional innovation and resource constraints is such a mammoth task. BOP DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY simpler, cheaper than mainstream products Architectural Innovation Modularity Collaborative Partnerships Figure 2: A Conceptual Framework for product innovation for mass markets in emerging economies Source: Ray and Ray (2011) In order to understand how MNCs are organizing frugal innovation efforts in emerging markets, an in-depth study of five firms was carried out (Zeschky et al., 2011). Initially 13 firms, representing a variety of industries, were identified. The firms were sieved and eight dropped due to insufficient available data. The remaining five were found suitable case studies. Analysis was based on three criteria; product characteristics, motivation for developing products and implementation of product development. The study found that besides having similar structures regarding organization of RD, all of the five firms had a successful history of frugal innovation. Based on the above criteria it was established that successful frugal innovation: Should be grounded in the drive to meet the needs of resource-constrained customers at the lowest possible cost. Require local organizational structures and resources. Should result in products and services that are easy to use, robust and reliable. The above and other previous studies provide empirical evidence and a yardstick upon which future studies can be benchmarked. First, primary data was used; second the sample was reasonable and third firms represented different industries. 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This research focuses on identifying examples of frugal innovation in Africa. Being the first study of this kind in Africa, we used analogical thinking to identify of frugal innovation. The use of analogies in research involves the transfer of knowledge gained from one area (source domain) to another area or field (target domain) (Kalogerakis et al. 2010; Keane 1988). The knowledge and evidence of frugal innovation in some emerging economies (source domain) presented in this paper was used to identify examples of frugal innovation in Africa (target domain). As shown in this paper, there are successful examples of frugal innovation in India and China and these will be the yardstick against which cases in Africa will be identified.. Specifically the Zeschky et al. (2011) selection criterion was used to locate exceptional cases of frugal innovation in Africa. We scanned research databases and reviewed reports, articles and papers from previous studies and projects. Sources of such data included the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Bank, reputable journals, African Union (AU) and New Partnership for Africas Development (NEPAD). This methodology was appropriate at this stage of the research. For the future, there will be need to carry out comprehensive in-depth case studies of the identified cases. Such studies will provide us with detailed insights of the firms design, and production processes and commercialization of products. 4. EXAMPLES OF FRUGAL INNOVATION IN AFRICA Drawing from the literature, we present six examples of successful frugal innovation in Africa. These cases are drawn from a range of broad areas ranging from housing construction to electronic money transfer technologies. 4.1 Moladi: Affordable houses in South Africa In many African countries, housing is one of the most sensitive issues affecting the lower income groups. In South Africa for example, close to 13% of the 14.3 million households are informal dwellings (Statistics South Africa, 2011). The term informal dwelling is often used in South Africa to designate shacks, corrugated-iron structures and other makeshift shelters. The above statistics represents about 1.8 million households (between 7.2 and 10.8 million people). Informal structures are often made of highly combustible materials such as wood and cardboard which pose serious safety and environmental concerns. The structures are easily damaged and exposed to the external elements meaning that people often live in damp, very hot or very cold conditions. The other concern is inadequate or lack of sanitation and running water which constitute a serious health hazard for the population. Similar conditions are present in many parts of Africa. In order to address this problem and as part of public policy, the South African government took a number of initiatives. It became one of the few countries in the world where the right to adequate housing of all citizens is enshrined in the constitution. According to section 26 of the constitution, the state has an obligation to take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realization of this right [to housing]. (Republic of South Africa, 1996). In order to translate this commitment into results, the first fully democratic South African government, immediately upon taking office in 1994, embarked on a far-reaching economic policy framework called the Reconstruction and De

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Introduce yourself to company Essay

Today, I am going to explain why I am a suitable person to this job. There are three parts in the presentation. First of all, I will introduce to you who am I? And tell about which job am I applied? At last I will discuss why I am the right person for this job. At the first part, I am going to talk about myself. I was born in China on 14 September 1990. I can speak two kinds of language: English, Mandarin and I can understand Cantonese. During the free time I would like to swim and watch movie and cook. I got a bachelor of management degree at University of Ballarat. There are some major courses I had studied, International business, Social media marketing product management, project management. At the same time, I got some awards. Such as got scholarship in Shenzhen Polytechnic (2011) and the outstanding volunteers in 2011 Shenzhen Universiade. In my business card, you can get my contact and you can through the social media know more about me. The last point is my job intention. I am looking for full time or internship job. My objective position is sale assistant, marketing assistant and manager assistant. I am applying for sales assistant on Toll. Toll is the leading provider of integrated logistics services in the Asian region, operating throughout more than 45 countries across the world. I found this position on the Career one website. According to the job description, I think I am the right person for this job. I had ever learned the knowledge about business and some sales skill. I have been tired to apply what I learnt, such as do part-time job on Shenzhentong Co., Ltd which is selling the transportation card with a partner in the metro station. During the part-time job, I learnt something that I can’t get from the class. It was improved my how handling of interpersonal relationships on term work. My partner and I have well done finish our job objective. We have done a great cooperation during the job, at the same time, we building a positive relationship at workplace. I have already got a computer certification CEAC in China which contains about this ability of the software, including MS PowerPoint, Word & Excel. Moreover I will use Mindmanager to organize my thinking. In general, I can use those softwares smoothly to deal with some basic project and report. As a foreigner, I don’t think the language is a barrier to communicate with people. But I had to admit that the ability of written and verbal communication may not as good as the native, English is my second language. With the time go by, I believe the communication skill will be better and better if I try my best to practice and learn. Australia is multicultural country, there are many kind of languages can accept. I can speak English, mandarin, and I can understand Cantonese. Therefore I can dig more kind of potential customers. By my internship experience in some relate job of a logistics company. During the internship, my duties of the jobs was that I should provide admin support, book or confirm the appointment, processing of accounts, monitoring sales materials, sending out external communication and so on. And I just finished my studies, but I am willing to learn more at work. Now, I am going to introduce my personality to you. First, I have organizing ability team-work awareness. I am willing to learn new thing. Meanwhile I am a creative thinker. Second, I am good at customer service skills and friendly to the customers. Third, I have a strong sense of responsibility towards the job, Fourth, I am good at manage time. Give your example. As we know, In China, Cow stands for work hard. So I think I will like a cow work so hard. In western, the dog means honest. So look at this picture, this dog looks cute smart and honest, I also have same good character. You deserve have me. Thank you Planning Notes The presentation has 4 parts. First part is Self-introduction second part is Job description and next part is I am the right person for this job the last one is self-assessment. 1. Self-introduction Brief Information- Give the audience some information about me. From day of birth, Citizenship, Language, Hobby, Education, Major course I have learnt, and award. Meanwhile, show the contact. Mention that get more information about me thought the social media. At the last brief told about my job Intention. 2. Job description   mapply for Sales Administrator at Toll  brief intro the Toll  The position source from career one 3. The right person for this job   Sales skill  communication skills  Expert in computer operation  Work experience 4. Self-assessment  Strong responsibility  organizing ability   team-work sense   Willing to learn new thing  Creative thinking   Good customer service skills and friendly to the customers Good time management skills Today, I am going to explain why I am a suitable person to this job. There are three parts in the presentation. First of all, I will introduce to you who am I? And tell about which job am I applied? At last I will discuss why I am the right person for this job. At the first part, I am going to talk about myself. I was born in China on 14 September 1990. I can speak two kinds of language: English, Mandarin and I can understand Cantonese. During the free time I would like to swim and watch movie and cook. I got a bachelor of management degree at University of  Ballarat. There are some major courses I had studied, International business, Social media marketing product management, project management. At the same time, I got some awards. Such as got scholarship in Shenzhen Polytechnic (2011) and the outstanding volunteers in 2011 Shenzhen Universiade. In my business card, you can get my contact and you can through the social media know more about me. The last point is my job intention. I am looking for full time or internship job. My objective position is sale assistant, marketing assistant and manager assistant. I am applying for sales assistant on Toll. Toll is the leading provider of integrated logistics services in the Asian region, operating throughout more than 45 countries across the world. I found this position on the Career one website. According to the job description, I think I am the right person for this job. I had ever learned the knowledge about business and some sales skill. I have been tired to apply what I learnt, such as do part-time job on Shenzhentong Co., Ltd which is selling the transportation card with a partner in the metro station. During the part-time job, I learnt something that I can’t get from the class. It was improved my how handling of interpersonal relationships on term work. My partner and I have well done finish our job objective. We have done a great cooperation during the job, at the same time, we building a positive relationship at workplace. I have already got a computer certification CEAC in China which contains about this ability of the software, including MS PowerPoint, Word & Excel. Moreover I will use Mindmanager to organize my thinking. In general, I can use those softwares smoothly to deal with some basic project and report. As a foreigner, I don’t think the language is a barrier to communicate with people. But I had to admit that the ability of written and verbal communication may not as good as the native, English is my second language. With the time go by, I believe the communication skill will be better and better if I try my best to practice and learn. Australia is multicultural country, there are many kind of languages can accept. I can speak English, Cantonese, mandarin. Therefore I can dig more kind of potential customers. By my internship experience in some relate job of a logistics company. During the internship, my duties of the jobs was that I should provide admin support, book or confirm the appointment, processing of accounts, monitoring sales materials, sending out external communication and so on. And I just finished my studies, but I am willing to learn more at work. Now, I am going to introduce my personality to you. First, I have organizing ability team-work awareness. I am willing to learn new thing. Meanwhile I am a creative thinker. Second, I am good at customer service skills and friendly to the customers. Third, I have a strong sense of responsibility towards the job, Fourth, I am good at manage time. Give your example. As we know, In China, Cow stands for work hard. So I think I will like a cow work so hard. In western, the dog means honest. So look at this picture, this dog looks cute smart and honest, I also have same good character. You deserve have me. If you want to know more information about me, please contact me. Thank you.

Friday, January 10, 2020

Extent to Which an Organization Meets the Objectives of Different Stakeholders.

A person, group, organization, or system who affects or can be affected by an organization's actions. † A â€Å"project stakeholder† is defined as â€Å"a person, group or organization with an interest in a project. † That could mean a sponsor (an executive, customer, supplier, agency, etc. that is sponsoring / funding the project), upper management, a project manager, and others. Whoever has a â€Å"stake† in the project? In order to perform good project management, you need to both manage and meet stakeholder expectations. The result of the project should match their expectations for what will be delivered at the end of the project.Why would an organization look at project management software to help them with that? Certainly project management software cannot in and of itself meet stakeholder objectives, but it is a tool that is in the Project Manager's arsenal to facilitate meeting objectives. Here are some ways that organizations use it for this purpos e: -Providing a mechanism for stakeholders to check on the status of the project (such as task and schedule completion). -Providing a collaborative platform to interact and view interactions, such as via a blog. Sending proactive reports, such as cost, schedule, and issue data. In addition, project management software can help the Project Manager and other managers ensure that a) the project team understands the stakeholder expectations (perhaps by having a project description or attaching a key project document), and b) the project team is currently on the right path to meeting those objectives. How you utilize project management software depends on your particular needs, objectives, and culture, but meeting stakeholder objectives is one way to demonstrate the value of a good tool.In order to meet its objectives, the organization needs to know the people and/or the groups affected by, or affecting, its work – the stakeholders. Knowing who your stakeholders are will help you to: †¢Understand the effects of your activities, whether they were anticipated or unexpected, positive or negative. †¢Identify, and then respond to, their concerns and the issues they raise. There are all kinds of ways of doing this – a list, a chart, putting people and organizations on a geographic map, or making a ‘mind map’ (a technique for arranging ideas and their interconnections visually)