Monday, October 21, 2019
Mci Worldcom Essays - Verizon Communications, MCI Communications
Mci Worldcom Essays - Verizon Communications, MCI Communications Mci Worldcom Introduction MCI Worldcom new CEO Bernard Ebbers is changing MCI's old ways. The problem is that MCI before merging spent too much money on accommodations for senior management. The second problem is that MCI Worldcom is ignoring the wireless industry boom. Recommendation I recommend that MCI Worldcom should try to acquire a wireless company like Nextel or Airtouch to gain entry to the booming market. The company would become a better telecommunications business and establish significant market presence that would generate profitability. If MCI Worldcom doesn't acquire a wireless company, they should consolidate. Consolidating with GSM would provide MCI Worldcom with an almost nationwide wireless network. It would also give MCI Worldcom a clear advantage since it is a year and a half ahead than other companies in digital standards. MCI Worldcom must also reduce high costs. To cut costs, the company must first identify where costs can be eliminated or replaced with more economical substitutions. I would also recommend that if the company wants to reduce costs that the CEO should demonstrate his commitment to lowering costs by making himself as an example. I would not invest on MCI Worldcom stock. The company's market price has been trickling down lately. I think that if MCI Worldcom were part of the wireless market then it would improve revenues. Since they have ignored this opportunity, I feel that the company will fall behind because of failure to remain responsive to its customers and to changing market conditions. Current Strategy MCI Worldcom's new CEO Bernard Ebbers philosophy of slashing expenses and consolidating all traffic on a single network has been proved 67 times after buying 67 phone companies. He is now trying to do the same after merging with MCI by reducing carefree spending and avoiding leasing links from other companies for their phone and internet networks. He has reduced the company's workforce by laying off 2215 workers and plans to continue. He also has downgraded luxuries for executives such as corporate jets, first class seating and stays at expensive hotels. These luxurious accommodations have been substituted with low cost carriers, coach class and staying at Inns. Mr. Ebbers has also eliminated company cars for all executives except for himself and Chairman Bert C. Roberts Jr. He is also trying to change the organizational structure of MCI Worldcom by using the appropriate control and incentive systems to motivate employee behavior. The new CEO has offered all employees stock options. Stock options give employees the incentive to help improve company performance and to share in the profits that result. He is also implementing a control system that monitors spending by asking executives to submit monthly revenue statements. Bernard Ebbers personal lifestyle and down to earth attitude has also helped project the company's new culture by popping in employee offices to say hello, and wearing jeans and cowboy boots has made him popular among workers. Mr. Ebbers likes to eat in casual restaurants and currently lives in a double wide trailer home on his soybean farm. Ebbers ways of doing business have given results, MCI Worldcom reported fourth quarter revenues surged 14 %, to $8 billion for the combined companies, while net earnings hit $428 million after a loss in the year earlier period. The stock soared to 5.5 % that day, to $80.44. Ebber believes he can bring more results like this in the future and that this is only the beginning. MCI Worldcom currently wants to focus on the data and international services segments. MCI Worldcom's data business is expected to triple to $23.2 billion, by 2002. The company also plans to build its own communication networks overseas and boost international sales by 40 % to take market share. ANALYSIS OF MCI WORLDCOM The benefit of MCI Worldcom joining the wireless business segment is that it would become a stronger competitor for AT&T. The number of U.S. wireless customers has risen 25% in the past year to 69 million. By 2003 wireless will account for 15% of total communication minutes in the U.S. AT&T is planning to introduce a new bundle of services for corporate customers designed strategically to take advantage of MCI Worldcom's weak point in the wireless segment. The head of AT&T's corporate unit says that under the new plan they would be able
Sunday, October 20, 2019
How to Display Menu Item Hints in Delphi Applications
How to Display Menu Item Hints in Delphi Applications Use specific coding language to program Delphi applications to display a hint, or tooltip, when the mouse hovers over a menu component. If the ShowHint property is set to true and you add text to the hint property, this message will be displayed when the mouse is placed over the component (a TButton, for example). Enable Hints for Menu Items Because of the way Windows is designed, even if you set the value for the hint property to a menu item, the popup hint will not get displayed. However, the Windows start menu items do display hints. The favorites menu in Internet Explorer also displays menu item hints. It is possible to use the OnHint event of the global application variable in Delphi applications to display menu item hints in a status bar. Windows does not expose the messages needed to support a traditional OnMouseEnter event. However, the WM_MENUSELECT message is sent when the user selects a menu item. The WM_MENUSELECT implementation of the TCustomForm (ancestor of the TForm) sets the menu item hint to Application.Hint so it can be used in the Application.OnHint event. If you want to add menu item popup hints (tooltips) to your Delphi application menus, focus on the WM_MenuSelect message. Popup Hints Since you cannot rely on the Application.ActivateHint method to display the hint window for menu items (as menu handling is completely done by Windows), to get the hint window displayed you must create your own version of the hint window by deriving a new class from the THintWindow. Heres how to create a TMenuItemHint class. This is a hint widow that actually gets displayed for menu items! First, you need to handle the WM_MENUSELECT Windows message: type TForm1 class(TForm) ... private procedure WMMenuSelect(var Msg: TWMMenuSelect) ; message WM_MENUSELECT; end...implementation...procedure TForm1.WMMenuSelect(var Msg: TWMMenuSelect) ;varà à menuItem : TMenuItem;à à hSubMenu : HMENU;begin inherited; // from TCustomForm (so that Application.Hint is assigned) menuItem : nil; if (Msg.MenuFlag $FFFF) or (Msg.IDItem 0) then begin if Msg.MenuFlag and MF_POPUP MF_POPUP then begin hSubMenu : GetSubMenu(Msg.Menu, Msg.IDItem) ; menuItem : Self.Menu.FindItem(hSubMenu, fkHandle) ; end else begin menuItem : Self.Menu.FindItem(Msg.IDItem, fkCommand) ; end; end;à à miHint.DoActivateHint(menuItem) ;end; (*WMMenuSelect*) Quick info: the WM_MENUSELECT message is sent to a menus owner window when the user selects (but does not click) a menu item. Using the FindItem method of the TMenu class, you can get the menu item currently selected. Parameters of the FindItem function relate to the properties of the message received. Once we know what menu item the mouse is over, we call the DoActivateHint method of the TMenuItemHint class. The miHint variable is defined as var miHint : TMenuItemHint and is created in the Forms OnCreate event handler. Now, whats left is the implementation of the TMenuItemHint class. Heres the interface part: TMenuItemHint class(THintWindow)private activeMenuItem : TMenuItem; showTimer : TTimer; hideTimer : TTimer; procedure HideTime(Sender : TObject) ; procedure ShowTime(Sender : TObject) ;public constructor Create(AOwner : TComponent) ; override; procedure DoActivateHint(menuItem : TMenuItem) ; destructor Destroy; override;end; Basically, the DoActivateHint function calls the ActivateHint method of the THintWindow using the TMenuItems Hint property (if it is assigned). The showTimer is used to ensure that the HintPause of the Application elapses before the hint is displayed. The hideTimer uses Application.HintHidePause to hide the hint window after a specified interval. Using Menu Item Hints While some might say that it is not a good design to display hints for menu items, there are situations where actually displaying menu item hints is much better than using a status bar. A most recently used (MRU) menu item list is one such case. A custom taskbar menu is another.
Saturday, October 19, 2019
Globalization in economie Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5750 words
Globalization in economie - Essay Example Globalization, however, is also an ideology with multiple meanings and lineages. Sometimes it appears loosely associated with neoliberalism and with technocratic solutions to economic development and reform. The term also appears linked to cross-border advocacy networks and organizations defending human rights, the environment, women's rights, or world peace. The environmental movement, in particular, has raised the banner of globalism in its struggle for a clean planet, as in its Think Global, Act Local" slogan. Thus, globalization is often constructed as an impersonal and inevitable force in order to justify certain policies or behaviors, however praiseworthy some of them might be. Not only capitalism or advocacy movements but also Christianity, Islam, and Marxism have made global claims and harbored global pretensions. The term "globalization" in the press appears associated with multiple ideological frames of reference, including "financial market," "economic efficiency," "negati ve effect," and "culture." The start of globalization is also a contested issue. One could argue that globalization begins with the dawn of history. The literature, however, has tended to date the start of globalization more recently in the experience of the West. The word "globalization" has attained significant affecting strength. Several inspect it as a technique that is helpful-a means to prospect global financial improvement-and also predictable and unalterable. Others consider it with antagonism, even terror, thinking that it enhances disparity in and between states, intimidates service and living principles and prevents societal advancement in other words, one of the ways by which the rich get richer (and the poor are made poorer) is through increased globalization. Globalization has been defined as the collapse of time and space, but more detailed explanations distinguish between "interdependence of markets and production in different countries;" "(perception of) living and working in a world-wide context;" and a "process that affects every aspect in the life of a person, community or nation. (Aart, 2005) There are also sources that use "modernization" as a synonym for globalization, and it is sometimes subsumed under "liberalization, " "Neoliberalism," and "post-modernism." Globalization may be seen as a structure, a process, an ideology, or a combination of these. Proponents of globalization see it as, "A force which is beneficial to all, individuals and states, in all parts of the world" (George& Wilding, 2002). Opponents of globalization see it "as of benefit to the upper groups in society, to the multinational companies and the affluent world; and as detrimental to the satisfaction of public needs," and as a "force for the perpetuation and accentuation of inequalities within and between groups of countries for the benefit of multinationals and the upper classes. Its constant emphasis on increased competitiveness involves a race to the bottom". Conversely, the term globalization should be used to refer to a set of social processes that are thought to transform our present social condition into one of globality. At its core, then, globalization is about shifting forms of human contact. Indeed, the popular phrase 'globalization is happening' contains three important pieces of information: first, we are slowly leaving behind the
Friday, October 18, 2019
Do European Works Councils represent a major advance in employee Essay
Do European Works Councils represent a major advance in employee representation - Essay Example countries with central management of large multinational companies to discuss issues as complex as worker rights and any plans the company may be considering that would affect workers. Meetings also allow employees of one country to share information and experiences with colleagues from other nations. ââ¬Å"Employee participation at a European level became a reality with the introduction of the European Works Council Directiveâ⬠(Fitzgerald, 2004: 1). The purpose of the Councils: to provide workers within large multinational corporations, through their designated representatives, a direct line of communication to top management. With communication as key, various national councils insure that workers in all countries are provided accurate information about plans and policies of the transnational companies who employ them, and ensure worker representatives of established unions and national works councils the opportunity to consult amongst each other and develop a common response before policies and plans are implemented. Beyond these goals, three main views about why works councils primarily exist include benign goals as stated to improve communication and less benign goals of worker control over bargaining and negotiations and input into company policy when market failures occur that may negatively impact their employment. Based purely on description of purpose, the formation of the councils appear a valid and reasonable response to the advent and power of multinational corporationsââ¬âimpersonal behemoths larger than life with little sense of employee conditions or problems experienced at lower management levels. The success of the councils as regards employee representation is, as might be expected, mixed. This paper examines the reality of the success or failure of the councils, and to what degree they have advanced the cause of worker representation. Fitzgerald (2004) points out that the EWC Directive in its final form was viewed as a watered-down version of
Effective Leadership Styles for an Educational or Training Institution Essay
Effective Leadership Styles for an Educational or Training Institution - Essay Example A general definition would be that ââ¬Å"a leader is someone who influences a group of people towards the achievement of a goalâ⬠. There are 3Ps that are related to the term ââ¬Å"leaderâ⬠and these are People, Purpose, and Person. A leader is a person that is deeply committed to the goal and s/he will try to achieve it even if nobody follows him/her. A leader is someone who has a personal vision and in order to achieve needs the help of others. The leader should communicate his/her vision in such a way that the followers will share it and the goal will become a common goal. The leader needs the trust of the followers. Some people are more effective than others at influencing people. This effectiveness has been attributed to leadership styles, persuasion skills and the personal attributes of the leader. A leader is someone that brings big changes and innovations, someone who has handled effectively big crises whereas a manager is someone who improves the effectiveness of an organization at a given place and at a controlled course. Coercive. This is the least effective since it erodes employeesââ¬â¢ pride. The leader here creates terrifies and demeans the employees at the slightest misstep. As a style it can be used in emergency situations. Authoritative. The leader has a vision, s/he motivates people by showing them how their work fits in the vision of the organization. This approach fails when the leader has a team of experts but it is a style which is effective in most business situations. Affiliative. The leader focuses on strong emotional relations and then he receives the benefits i.e. employees loyalty. S/he offers positive feedback. As a style it is positive but it should be better used when the leader wants to improve communication and increase morale. Democratic.Ã
Thursday, October 17, 2019
Classic Airlines marketing Solution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words
Classic Airlines marketing Solution - Essay Example As per the case study, the firm is losing its profitability and faring really poorly against its competitors. Customer retention rate is poor and the service is very inadequate. Root Cause Analysis Model The Root Cause Analysis (RCA) model is used in internal audits and other problem detection fields. It is ââ¬Å"a research-based approach to identify the bottom-line reason of a problem with root cause representing the problemâ⬠(Mainardi, 2011: p180). It involves a structured investigation into a given problem to ascertain the true and real cause of a given problem (Anderson et al, 2009). This is done to ensure the continuous improvement in the quality and systems of a given organization. Root Cause Analysis is a practical transition from the apparent cause analysis to the examination and critique of the root cause of a given problem. This involves the identification of the actual causes in order to find the intermediate causes and from there, detect the root causes (Lorenzo an d Hanson, 2008). Issues in Classic Airline's Marketing Unit From the case study, some apparent causes and issues are identifiable in Classic Airline's marketing unit. In order to identify it and critique it better, it will be worthwhile to identify the apparent issues, the intermediate issues in order to identify the root cause. A. ... The deregulation of the markets and the integration of small carriers and other overseas investors has led to price wars and other competitive restructuring. Classic Airline's extremely low margins give a strong indication that the airline is really losing out in the competition presented by the other airline companies in the industry. Market Share Issues The failure to compete on the markets have led to a sharp fall in the market share that Classic Airline controls. There customer retention of the company has been weakened by the competition posed by other companies. This is because their current reward program has lost as much as 19% of its members, which has culminated in the reducing the flights of the company by as much as 21%. B. Intermediate Issues Areas of Interest: Marketing Alliances & Restructuring of Marketing It has become almost apparent that the firm needs to restructure its marketing units, the marketing structures and the marketing alliance programs. This is meant to correct the wrongs in the company and also retain some degree of stability. This has created two issues which also needs to be examined and resolved from the root-cause approach. Cost Structure Issues The quick and aggressive growth of the firm has been identified as a major cause of issues with the company. The reduction of the cost budget by a whopping 21.5% and the reduction of budgets in other departments is one of the apparent issues. It will therefore be worthwhile to identify the impact of this reduction and the best way of soothing its effects and correcting its issues. This include amongst other things, infighting amongst the executive managers, and the reduction in important units
My Gift of Authenticity as a Lead Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 13
My Gift of Authenticity as a Lead - Essay Example Hutchison claims that living theory is an embodiment in researching for authenticity leader. In this method, Hutchison has made use of autobiographical narrative to develop real-life experiences. Hutchison says that one of the most important exercises in his research was to write his autobiography. Through this, he says he wrote himself out of all explanatory stories in his life and how he became a leader. In addition, he says that it is the values more than anything else that made him rise as a leader. In his project, Hutchison says that he uses multimedia because it makes him use words as well as other aspects that embody his values. The use of multimedia ensures that leaders are relational and do not get fixed to formal representation. Hutchison also claims that the use of multimedia helps in developing an epistemology that is relevant to authentic leadership. Moreover, he argues that multimedia increases his learning capabilities as well as improving his practice of leadership. Hutchison says that everyone has his gift. He says that his gift is an authentic leader and that why he devotes his time researching and finding ways in which he can help other develop the gift of authentic leadership. He started working not knowing that he will be an authentic leader, but he passionately loved his career. Hutchison worked as a community caregiver to young people out of employment and who had addiction problems. For this reason, it is through this journey of his career up being the leader of a Carerââ¬â¢s Centre that he narrates to demonstrate that each and every person has his or her gift and talent. Hutchison says that his practice as an authentic leader help improves the culture of Carerââ¬â¢s Centre organization. Through authentic leadership, he has developed a living theory of learning and mindfulness (Hutchison, 2012). However, Hutchison attests that his journey has not been easy and in time he felt as if he was contradicting himself.Ã
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