Effective Leadership and Management of Starbucks UK Essay

Effective Leadership and Management of Starbucks UK - Essay Example According to chairman of the board, Howard Schultz, "You get more than the finest coffee when you visit a Starbucks-you get great people, first-rate music and a comfortable, upbeat meeting place." This is what the company calls "the Starbucks experience." The impacts of globalisation, the influx of Internet commerce and intense competition in the market have dramatically influenced management in order to sustain the organisation's existence. The primary business objective of a firm has evolved into creating strategic and competitive advantage. Starbucks reinvented the traditional coffee shops and created a global brand because of its corporate strategies and competitive edge. Strategic advantage is the product of synthesizing different learning of managers from sources such as personal insights, people's experiences and market research. Strategy is the plan that the organisation shall pursue in order to achieve the organisation's purpose. Developing a competitive strategy is developing a broad formula for how business operates and how it is going to compete. (Porter, 1980, p. xxvi) It includes the goals the organisation desired and policies needed to carry out those goals. However, the most successful strategies lie in the leader's vision (Mintzberg, 1994, p. 107). It is the role of leadership to give purpose and meaningful direction to the company and to cause organisational effort in order to achieve that purpose (Jacobs & Jacques, 1990, p. 281). Successful leaders understand that strategy is not stagnant but instead it is dynamic and changing. Creating strategic advantage requires a leader's deep understanding of the company's strengths, weaknesses, its competitive strategy, and its current and potential customers. (Porter, 1985, p. 4) Starbucks' mission is to "build customer loyalty around cappuccinos, lattes and other fancy beverages." Starbucks redesigned the coffee industry by shifting its focus from commodity coffee sales to the emotional atmosphere in which customers enjoy their coffee. Howard Schultz made it a point to visit his stores every week and talk with his employees. He spreads his unique gospel of how to run a business. He preaches his vision to as many people as possible in order to engage his employees to the strategies of the company. (Kim & Mauborgne, 2005, p. 74) The management of Starbucks has invested a great deal of resources to know and understand their customers' perspective. The knowledge that they learned is transformed and utilised to provide services, products and communications. These business processes are long lasting and consistent. The management of Starbucks are aware that customers are the company's most valuable asset. They make it a point to consider the pulse of the customers in creating their strategies. Starbucks create competitive advantage through a strategy of differentiation. The company offers coffee and fancy beverages, baked goods, and a unique experience that distinguishes them from other market players. Starbucks is good at making consumers feel special when they arrive at their regular Starbucks store because the barista knows the customer's preferred drink. Starbucks has an edge over their

Employee Contribution and Wellbeing Dissertation

Employee Contribution and Wellbeing - Dissertation Example Many descriptions of â€Å"motivation† abound. One acceptable definition of motivation was postulated by Dr. Stephen Robbins. According to the Doctor, motivation is the process behind an individual’s direction, persistence, intensity, and effort towards the attainment of an objective or goal (Buford, Bedeian, & Lindner, 1995). Generally, though, motivation may be described as any factor that causes an increase in a person’s normal input with the hope and knowledge that a reward will follow (the input). One of the most important aspects of any organization is productivity. Motivation plays a big role in how people perform at their workplaces. Kreitner, 1995 defines motivation as the psychological process that gives behavior purpose and direction. Motivation may also be defined as the predisposition to behave in a purposive manner to achieve specific, unmet needs ((Buford, Bedeian, & Lindner, 1995) Motivation Theories According to Changing Minds.org (2009) motivated employees are vital for the success of rapidly changing organizations. Motivated employees help organizations survive. Motivated employees are more productive†. This means that to be effective, employers need to know what exactly motivates employees in their jobs. Content Theories of Motivation In an attempt to explain the various factors that motivate people, a number of researchers have postulated motivational theories. Content theories of motivation as some of these are commonly referred to include those associated with ERG, McGregor, McClelland, and Herzberg. Content theories explain fundamentally the reason humans keep changing in terms of their needs over time. Content theories, therefore, focus on the specific factors that lead to people’s motivation. The main idea or logic behind these theories is the fact that individuals need should be considered for them to be satisfied. This in effect means that if the individual’s specific needs are not satisfied or met, he/she will probably not be motivated enough to achieve objectives and goals. The following section describes the four main content theories.

Musical Form And Structure

Musical Form And Structure What is the difference between music and noise? In a personal point of view, one important difference is that music makes sense. It has its own structure, basic patterns and it shows how composers made the pieces by their logic as well as their elaborate management. Therefore I would say, a piece without any structure and form can be only called noise instead of music. To research the structures and forms of a piece, we have to know what the structure is as well as what the form is, when I was studying in schools, I thought the structure is the different themes and how they were connected to each other; the form would be sonata form, ternary or something like minuet. After getting deeper into some Twentieth Century composers and their music, I realized it is not as simple as that. Firstly, the structure in music means the complex composition of musical knowledge or experiments as elements and their combinations. And the form in music means the shape and the figure throughout the whole work. I consider that in music, structure and form are both extremely important somehow we can analyze structure by a macro view and seek form by a micro view. Children who study in music schools learn some early period formal music structures and forms such as analyzing pieces by Bach and Beethoven We all knew about many basic forms in music since childhood. But in the modern world, music gets mystic and complicated. For some audiences, it is impossible to realize any structure in contemporary music such as John Cages piece: 433. They think the piece was just composed like a blank paper. Structure and form seems never existed in this music. I have to say, people whom consider contemporary music does not have structure or form just do not understand the music itself at all. Everything has a reason to be there, such as composers have their own notions of creating music. To prove this view, and to show the forms and structures in John Cages 433, I will analyze this piece below. 1. Introduction John Cage has made a huge experiment on this composition 433 to the world. Unfortunately the first performance of this piece was like a scandal. It was written in 1952, his so-called piece in silence. Performers basically go on to the stage and play nothing for exactly four minutes and thirty-three seconds. At the premiere some listeners did not even realize they had heard anything at all. Obviously audiences were angry and felt being deceived after the concert. The premiere was performed by the young pianist David Tudor at Woodstock, New York, on August 29, 1952.1 433 was written for any instrument or any instruments combination. NOTE: The title of this work is the total length in minutes and seconds of its performance. At Woodstock, N.Y., August 29, 1952, the title was 433 and the three parts were 33, 240, and 120. It was performed by David Tudor, pianist, who indicated the beginnings of parts by closing, the endings by opening, and the keyboard lid. However, the work may be performed by (any) instrumentalist or combination of instrumentalists and last any length of time.2 FOR IRWIN KREMEN JOHN CAGE _________________________ 1 J.Cage, Silence: Lectures and Writings (USA, 1961), 102. 2 J.Cage, A year from Monday: new lectures and writings (USA, 1985), 77. From the statement above, we can already see some basic structures in this piece: it is divided in three parts, and the lengths of them were 33, 240 and 120. (There are two ways of dividing this music, which I have mentioned below) 2. Materials John Cage has used a few materials, or elements to compose 433. Through this piece, Tacet (As the image of the score shows) is one of the materials. However, another material which people always ignore is the division of tacets. Image of John Cages writing of this piece Base on the score, Cage used division twice to make three tacets in the whole piece. And these two divisions and three tacets formed this composition logically, thus:  ¼Ã‹â€ I ¼Ã¢â‚¬ °TacetDivision ¼Ã‹â€ II ¼Ã¢â‚¬ °TacetDivision ¼Ã‹â€ III ¼Ã¢â‚¬ °Tacet 3. Analyze Cage has clearly shown the tacet in this piece. But about the division, we can analyze it in different ways. If we think mathematically, use tacets and divisions to build a function: If division is independent variable x, the musical form is dependent variable y, then based on the function mode y=f(x), we can get this: Form = Tacets (Divisions) Now we calculate this mode, we get two different results: 1. Tacet-Division-Tacet-Division-Tacet If we make Division bigger and bigger, then it becomes the part of the piece, (as important as tacets), therefore we can get this musical form: A-B-A-B-A 2. Tacet-(Division)-Tacet-(Division)-Tacet If we make Division smaller and smaller, until it has but only has the ability of dividing Tacets, then we can get this musical form: A1-A2-A3 Those two forms we all have studied in early schools, so I am not going to talk about them further here. As we can see from this image statement, John Cage has given some freedom in this piece to the performers The performance in Woodstock gave the timings 33, 240, and 120, but the original print program says that the timings were 30, 223, and 140. Also as I mentioned above, this silent piece could be played by any single instrument or any combination of instruments. It is a freedom piece But that does not mean this piece has no form however it divides, we can still find the forms. People may ask, although the piece has a form such as A-B-A-B-A or A1-A2-A3, it still does not have a very convictive structure. How did John Cage make three movements out of this piece and how did he determine the length for each of them? These three parts seem unlikely balanced and managed. Well, in that case, Cage has pointed to this particular Tarot card formation when shown a number of possible configurations: This is one of the most complicated configurations and is organized in three parts of concentric horseshoes. Each horseshoe has represented one movement, with these cards which bearing a length that could have been plus to the duration of each movement. The point above seems to be able to answer a lot of questions about the structure of this silent piece. It illustrates how the movements were built up by those little silent cards, also how the composer can know when a movement finishes, why he made this piece into three parts. Somehow these questions seem to have a greater effect on what we hear. However, we can suppose that he used these cards for his composition and it shows the decision of three movements. When people asked about the differences in time lengths of the scores, Cage said that it could be of any length. This does not mean that the formal structure of this piece could be violated at all. He said that it would still be titled 433, also the durations of the movements mu st be determined by some type of chance procedure, and it must be in three movements. 3 This piece seems to be very difficult for performers after seen this Tarot Cards formation. Because it becomes so easy to make mistakes and miss the beats. But Cage said that this is not the point. The point is about the feeling it creates, both the performers and audiences are dispensable. What the piece needs is a devoted and interesting listener. However, those methods which Cage used for 433 have offered the audiences a huge freedom area. The point, the meaning of this piece has changed. Normally we try the best to do what composer says on the score, now we do what we feel and define our own potentials. The structure that Cage used was mathematical for composer as well as humanized for performers and listeners. Although this piece has no harmony and melody lines, it still has a strong meaning. The spirit of Cage, like what Alex Ross said about this piece in his book The music was the sound of the surrounding space. It was at once a head-spinning philosophical statement and a Zen- like ritual of contemplation 4 To conclude, structure in music is the sense which composer has given; form in music is the shape and the propriety which composer wants to represent. In the premiere of 433, audiences were angry and negative, but after understood the inner sense and getting deeper into the purpose of Composer, people loved it. When you could not find the structure or the form in any particular piece, it does not mean that they were not existed. As I have said, everything has a reason to be there, such as composers have their own notions of creating music. The real music only appears after researching and understanding. ______________________________ 3 J.Cage, Silence: Lectures and Writings (USA, 1961), 109 4 R.Alex, The Rest is Noise, listening to the Twentieth Century (USA, 2007), 401 Selected bibliography: Books: -J.Cage, Silence: Lectures and Writings (1961, USA) -R.Alex, The Rest is Noise, listening to the Twentieth Century (2007, USA), 401 -P.Yates, Twentieth Century Music (1967, London) -J.Cage, A year from Monday: new lectures and writings (1985, USA), 77. -P.Marjorie, J.Charles, John Cage: composed in America (1994, USA), 193 Articles: -L.Eleni, Learning from Masters of Music Creativity: Shaping Compositional Experiences in Music Education, Philosophy of Music Education Review, 15.2 (2007), 93-117 -C.Hong, John Cage with his silence piece, Zhong Hua Music Review, 17.2 (2003), 78-92 Websites -S.David, Unreconstructed Modernist, the Atlantic online (Accessed September 1995), http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/95sep/boulez.htm

BioEthics :: essays research papers

Bio-Ethics The issue of bio-ethics presents a myriad of new dilemmas; all of which have arisen in the recent past, and must be addressed in the near future. The majority of these questions stem from the introduction of new, genetically-engineered organisms. These organisms, or at least many of them, are created in laboratories, by gene splicing, swapping, etc. and essentially, these scientists are playing god, creating biological entities as they want them. This is the main source of the controversy. In more developed countries where genetically engineered disputes may ensue, the trend is total protection through patents and other regulatory and monitoring agencies. These problems come about from identification of the new bio-engineered organisms, and this approach allows the industries and entrepreneurs to recover the enormous costs involved in the research and development of genetic engineering. It promotes the development of products to benefit society, and it allows access for a larger genetic bank for analyses, experimentation, and investigation. There is a second side to this coin-it means that the researchers can assert an excessive price to their ‘product' while eliminating any competition for a given period of time. It allows for copies of living things to be made easily and inexpensively. This happens outside the United States, where strict regulations are not in continuity with those pirating compact discs in Japan, bottling Coca Cola in India, etc. No countries spend any monetary amount comparable to the over 300 million dollars to run the patent and trademark office, as the U.S. does. Another observation can be made that because of the time involved and the cost that the free flow of information is inhibited between researchers. These arguments all take place under the umbrella that "Life forces can be controlled by ownership." Many countries take the view that these genetic products are not intellectual property, and as such, not subject to the conventional patent laws. These properties should not be protected and belong to society as much as any organism which has naturally evolved through normal processes. GATT (General Agreement on Trade and Tariff) has attempted to address this issue through a larger commercial / trade package; however, this is a position in which very little agreement among parties is found.

Marketing Channel Management Exam Essay

Please start each section on a new page. 3. Please write clearly and neatly. Marks will be penalized for bad writing. 4. Cross out any unwritten pages in the answer sheet. 5. Calculators are allowed to be used during the exam. Section A 5 X 2 Marks = 10 Marks This section consists of Multiple Choice questions. Please mark you answer in the answer sheet by writing only the option number after the question number. Please write only what is asked. As a thumb rule, write a maximum of a page for each 10 marks and half a page for a 5 marks question. 1. Define Marketing Channels. Explain how and why marketing channels are managed. marks 2. What are the responsibilities of a sales executive? 5 marks 3. Illustrate the sales call process and write down all the steps involved in the sales call. 5 marks 4. Draw a typical marketing channel for a mass product and illustrate the flow with directions for the following A. Money B. Stock C. Information 10 marks Section C This section consists of numerical questions. Please illustrate all steps and try to show calculations wherever possible. Please state any assumption you are making clearly. Question: 15 marks Please estimate the number of sales executives, and supervisors needed for the following Channel Partner for Hindustan Singleshaft which is a top FMCG company in India. The channel partner has to service 1000 outlets. The categorization is given below along with the time required to complete a sales call at each outlet and the frequency of visiting the outlets. The time required to travel from one outlet to another is 10 minutes on an average. Each Sales Executive has a six day work week and works for 10 hours a day including an hour long lunch break. So each sales executive has 9 effective hours of work for 6 six days a week. Assume a 10% buffer sales force in your estimation. For every 4 sales executives one supervisor is required to supervise them.

Marketing Memo Essay

Attention: Mr. Donald Douglass and Mr. Ronald Abrahams, as well as all stockholders for U Driver Transport. After much research and evaluating of information pertaining to the country of Australia, I believe that Australia will be an impeccable candidate for the next location for Global Expansion for U Drive Transport. There are six factors of the external environment that Australia possessed that made this decision possible. These six factors are: Social factors, Demographic factors, Economic factors, Technological factors, Political and Legal factors, and Competitive factors. This conclusion is based upon mainly the economic strength and the Technological External Environmental factors of this country. Australia has economic stability to patron the U Drive Transport business, along with their impressive Demographics. The Technological factors are strong as well, they have the modern technology that would withstand the requirements of a new business entering into their country, for example: U Drive Transport. Being that Australia also plays an active role in the World Trade Organization expresses to a business like U Drive Transport that this country already has the experience and the knowledge of the business world. There is definitely more information that could be acquired about this fantastic country that has shown signs of very strong potential for the new expansion location for U Drive Transport. Within this Memo, I am also requesting not only should Australia be considered to be the next location but I am also requesting an expansion for more research and evaluation due to the fact that there is so much more to see especially about the Social External Environmental factors of Australia. This explains why this information is not included in the Memo. Looking forward to your response.  Ms. Tijuana Hutcherson U Drive Transport External Environmental Analysis World Region: Country: Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Major City Center: Australia Social External Environmental Factors (Textbook Pages: ) Opportunities: Threats: Resources: http://www.state.gov/e/eb/eppd/csr/index.htm Demographic External Environmental Factors (Textbook Pages: ) Opportunities: Being that the life expectancy at birth is long and healthy, U Drive Transport will be able to provide services for not just the young but the old too for a substantial amount of years. The life expectancy at birth for Australia is 79.63 years for men and 84.64 years for women. Threats: As long as there is not any severe diseases or any natural disasters that would wipe out a huge amount of the population that would prevent the young as well as the old to be able to live. We have all learned from Hurricane Katrina that natural disasters do occur. The U.S. Census International Data Base is located at: http://www.census.gov/population/international/data/idb/informationGateway.php Economic External Environmental Factors (Textbook Pages: ) Opportunities: The Australian economy has experienced continuous growth and features low unemployment, contained inflation, very low public debt, and a strong and stable financial system. By 2012, Australia had experienced more than 20 years of continued economic growth, averaging 3.5% a year. Demand for resources and energy from Asia and especially China has grown rapidly, creating a channel for resources investments and growth in commodity exports. Threats: The United States just experienced a recession, this would be the only cause for Australia’s successful economy growth. That would be a recession, and this has been known to happen to the best of countries, it happened to the United States so it could happen to any country. Technological External Environmental Factors (Textbook Pages: ) Opportunities: Australia has 10.47 million telephone main line in use, and 24.4 million mobile cellular lines. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) runs multiple national and local radio networks and TV stations, as well as Australian Network, a TV series that broadcasts throughout the Asia-Pacific region and is the main public broadcaster. Australia has 17.081 million Internet hosts and 15.81 Internet users. Threats: Just like the economic recession, the technology systems for this country could run into a glitch that could prevent all of their systems from running, and that could destroy their technology. Political and Legal External Environmental Factors (Textbook Pages: ) Opportunities: Australia has an Executive Branch, Judicial Branch, and a Legislative Branch. They also have nine political parties with leaders. The Australia legal system is common law system based on the English model. Threats: Whatever Allies that Australia may have, those countries will always have the ability to no longer respect the politics and the legal system of Australia. Resources: The World Factbook  Competitive External Environmental Factors (Textbook Pages: ) Opportunities: All the countries that do not participate in the World Trade Organization with Australia, will actually deal with other countries that will be against Australia competitively. Threats: The possibility of those competitive countries establishing a stronger economy, demographic, and political and legal factor than Australia. References Central Intelligence Agency. (2014). The world factbook. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/ library/publications/the-world-factbook Lamb, C. W., Hair, J. F., & McDaniel, C. (2014). MKTG7, 7th Edition. Retrieved from