Assignment 2.1: Policemen of the World Thesis and Outline
Due Week 7 and worth 70 points
After the Civil War and by the mid-20th century, the United States had become the dominant force in international relations. Some have argued that the United States’ military functions as the world’s “police.” This assignment covers the manner in which this shift occurred and the consequences the United States faces as a result of its status as “policemen of the world.” Using the Internet, research two (2) real-life international incidents from the past five (5) years in which:
• The U.S. used military action abroad.
• Controversy existed within the American public regarding U.S. involvement.
• Controversy existed within the country or countries affected by U.S. involvement.
For the first part of this assignment you will create a thesis statement. A thesis statement is usually a single sentence somewhere in your first paragraph that presents your main idea to the reader. The body of the essay organizes the material you gather and present in support of your main idea. Keep in mind that a thesis is an interpretation of a question or subject, not the subject itself. (Note: Please consult the Purdue OWL Website with tips on how to construct a proper thesis; the website can be found at: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/545/01/
For the next part of this assignment you will create an outline of the main points you want to address in this paper. This will serve as the basis for your Assignment 2.2 Final Draft. (Note: Please use the Purdue Owl Website to assist you with this assignment; this website can be accessed at: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/engagement/2/2/55/
Part 1
1. Write a thesis statement that is one to two (1-2) sentences long in which you:
1. State your opinion on the significance of the two (2) real-life international incidents that you have researched. Justify your response.
Part 2
2. Write a one to two (1-2) page outline in which you:
1. Determine two to three (2-3) international events from the past five years that can be traced back to a foreign policy created after the Civil War.
2. List three (3) aspects of US history since 1865 that has led to the US’s rise as a world super power policeman.
3. List three to five (3-5) international incidents since World War II where America has taken on a policing role.
4. List three to five (3-5) driving forces that fueled international policy decisions involving the international incidents you outlined previously. (Consider treaties, exit strategies, elections, wars, etc.)
5. Use at least three (3) quality references. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not quality as academic resources.
Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:
• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.
The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:
• Identify and discuss the different ways that the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Industrialization after the Civil War have shaped America’s history.
• Summarize and discuss the ways that formal policies of government have influenced the direction of historical and social development in the United States.
• Recognize the major turning points in American history since the Civil War.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in contemporary U.S. history.
• Write clearly and concisely about contemporary U.S. history using proper writing mechanics.
Click here to view the grading rubric.
SAMPLE ANSWER
Introduction
The United States is known to be watching all the countries of the world, a role that is termed as the policemen role. There are many operations that the American police have constantly been involved in their amending with the interest of promoting the states national interest of remaining as a world super power. The United States government has encountered a lot of controversies that were as a result of their military operation that took place both in the country and abroad. The United States military action as the world police is a success but it has always become an issue of controversy both within and outside their country.
Outline
Three International Events from the past five years that can be traced back to a foreign policy created after the Civil War
Three Aspects of U.S. history since 1865 that has led to the U.S.’s rise as a world super power police
Five ways international incidents since World War II where American has taken on a policing role.
Five driving forces that fueled international policy decisions involving the international incidents you outlined previously (consider treaties, exit strategies, elections, wars, etc.)
Recently, the United States also used military action abroad in Somalia when they were attacking the Al-Shaabab terrorist. This is a terrorist outfit in East Africa that also has links with Al-Qaeda. The Pakistan government became furious with the American leadership of their role in meddling with their internal affairs without their involvement especially in the killing of the Osama bin laden who was under the protection of the Pakistan government. According to (Herring, 2011) the Pakistan government, felt rejected by the Americans who penetrated their territory in search to kill the most wanted criminal of the world without even seeking their consent to carry out such an operation. This was because; the Pakistan government saw it as against the international laws to penetrate their territories so deeply and inconspicuously without even seeking their permission to do so. The Americans being the biggest policemen of the world attacked Osama contrary to the Pakistan military expectations who were caught off guard despite them being amongst the best trained in the Middle East region. The act of the American policemen proved that Pakistan military failure in their intelligence following such a shocking raid which they could not stop it. The Ukraine government wanted all its citizens who were in other countries and voted for the former president living in Russia to be killed, hence, the US government had to intervene so as to stop the massacre from taking place. The US government wanted also to stop the fake Ebola flag epidemic that was said to be taking place in the country.
After the civil war, there was a high growth of industries whereby, this led to US emerging as the best industrialized country and at the same time it became the super policeman of the world. The Americans politics are at a high level and this has made the United States to emerge as the super policeman of the world. The state has advantageous geographical position, high population enough to defend its territory, government with the influence and inclination to dominate the sea territory, have a society with aptitude for the sea, commercial enterprise and an extent of territory (Herring, 2011). This makes the state to be geopolitically positioned which is a factor to it being the world’s biggest super power. The United States was the strong hold of the Christianity, a factor which made it to be termed as the greatest policemen of the world having led in the Christian faith.
The United States government encountered a lot of policemen action that made them to be a super policemen power. According to Brian (2008), there was the evidence of tussle in the Obama government and even the European government over Libya in the attempt to oust the Libyan strongman. Therefore, the American president had to read the public mood before the use of military force in a case like this which had to take place outside the country. Harold Koh worked hard to defend the Obamas administration deployment of the operation that was carried out by the military in Libya since he was the legal state adviser of the state defense department. The adviser argued that the states operations did not warrant sixty-day withdrawal rule as suggested by opponents of the same move since Libya did not encounter a lot of hostilities. The Americans have been the superpower policemen of the world since the second world war, since they took the policing role in the gulf war by establishing stability in that region. The American government has recently taken a big role in Arab springs to ensure that dictator are prevented from using civilians like in the case of Syria or even removed from power. The Americans being the super power police of the world they normally watch the election process all over the world to know how the process is carried out (EngeLhardt, 2014). The crisis in Syria brought a lot of controversy on the American role as the global policeman. The Obama administration was determined to act and end the reckless killing by the Al-Assad government on the civilians by the use of weapons of mass destruction. However, most Americans were not comfortable with military action against Syria and this put the Obama administration on a very complicated situation. Therefore, in order to avert the controversy, the American government entered into a treaty with Russia to help destroy the Syrian weapons of mass destruction. The tussle between the Crimea and Russia also put the Americans of the tight rope as the policeman of the world. The Americans were determined to end the conflict in that region but some members of the American public and leadership were unconformable with such a move.
In the US military driving force there was the involvement of the Iraq and Syria who fought and dissolved the global terrorist by sending 750 military Special Forces. The fight of the Ebola epidemic in the West Africa made the Obama administration to be termed as the policemen of the world since they really fought to stop the epidemic (Brian, 2008). When the Syrian government violated the international rules by deciding to use the chemical weapons, the US government intervened to ensure the weapons were not made as planned since they are the world super power. When Qaddafi violated human rights in Syria, the US government intervened to help promote a future built on foundation of dignity, freedom and opportunity to all citizens in the country. The US has really been committed to the reduction of nuclear weapons as well as nuclear materials which are highly dangerous to human life.
Due to their superpower position, the united states have positioned themselves as the policeman of the world by watching and intervening in any injustice that takes place in all the corners of the world. The ouster of Muammar Gadhafi, the conflict in Syria, the killing of Osama bin Laden, the tussle between Crimea and Russia are some of the events in the past five years that have demonstrated their global policing role. However, this comes with challenges due to criticism from their citizens as well as other foreign countries.
References
Brian, M. (2008).Woodrow Wilson: United States of America: Makers of the Modern World. Haus Publishing
EngeLhardt, T. (2014).Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World. Haymarket Books.
Herring, G.C. (2011).From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations since 1776 (Oxford History of the United States).Oxford University Press; 1 edition
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The Role of the Nurse Practitioner
For this paper, the writer will have to provide a minimum of 3 references per section, and it’s important that the writer include a reference list at the end of each section, as each section has a sub-topic. Grammar and APA 6th edition must be use throughout the entire paper. The writer must pay attention to grammatical errors and proper spellings.
SECTION A (1 page minimum)
Critical thinking and clinical reasoning
Critical thinking and clinical reasoning are terms used to describe complex and comprehensive thought processes nurse practitioners use routinely in practice. Develop a definition for each term.
SECTION B (2 page minimum)
Scope of practice
The scope of practice for RNs and NPs varies greatly. There are also variations in scope of practice for RNs and NPs from state to state. Review the scope of practice for RNs and NPs in The state of Maryland and describe the differences.
Resources
From your textbooks, read the following:
Advanced Practice Nursing: Emphasizing Common Roles
• Chapters 2, 6
Please review the following web resources:
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid – National Provider
Identification Standard (NPI)
Nurses Service Organization (NSO)
SAMPLE ANSWER
Critical Thinking and Clinical Reasoning
In clinical practice, critical thinking and clinical reasoning are two terms used to describe complex and comprehensive thought processes nurse practitioners use routinely. Understanding these two terms can be done on getting to their definition. Critical thinking on nursing includes reasoning both outside and inside of the clinical setting. Therefore, critical thinking is a set of information, belief producing, and generating skills in clinical expertise (Darlington, 2009). It is also the process based on intellectual commitment of using those skills to guide behavior. Critical thinking in nursing includes both clinical judgment and clinical reasoning that involve a purposeful, informed, outcome-focused thinking which, is focuses on safety and equality hat employs constant self-correcting and striving to improve (Pagana, 2010 ). Clinical thinking in nursing can also take the dimension of carefully identifying and notifying the key problems, issues, and risks improved in clinical practice. Finally, critical thinking in nursing practice is based on applied logic and creativity that is grounded in specific knowledge, experience, and skills.
Clinical reasoning in nursing is the thinking through which a nurse practitioner takes through various aspects of patient care to arrive at a reasonable decision regarding the prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of a clinical problem to a specific patient (Gaberson, Oermann & Shellenbarger, 2015). This through taking analysis of patient history, taking and conducting a physical exam, ordering laboratory tests and diagnostic methodologies, designing a safe and effective treatment regimens, preventive initiatives as well as providing education and counseling (Arnold & Boggs, 2011). Therefore, clinical reasoning needs critical thinking skills, traits and abilities that are mostly not taught in schools and colleges for the nurse practitioners.
References
Arnold, E., Boggs, K. (2011). Interpersonal relationships: professional communication skills for nurses. St. Louis: Saunders.
Darlington, R. (2009). How to think critically. Retrieved January 6, 2011, from
Gaberson, K. B., Oermann, M. H., & Shellenbarger, T. (2015). Clinical teaching strategies in nursing.
Pagana, K. D. (2010). The nurse’s communication advantage: How business-savvy communication can advance your career. Indianapolis, IN : Sigma Theta Tau International .
Scope of practice of registered Nurse (RN) and Nurse Practitioners (NP)
Not only do registered nurse and nurse practitioners differ on their education, they also differ on their scope of practice. This is mainly attributed to state of Maryland. In the state of Maryland, NP is independently responsible and accountable for the continuous and comprehensive management of a broad range of health care that comprises counseling and promotion, and maintenance of health to the patients in Maryland related hospitals. NP have also the mandate in use of research skills and using critical thinking to devise ways in which to facilitate provision of quality services to patients (Citizen Advocacy Center, 2010). The state of Maryland gives that NP should be highly insured due to the specialty of job they engage in. This is per according to Nurses Service Organization (NSO), which gives that nurse practitioners should be insured of their malpractices.
Nurse practitioners have also the responsibility to prevent illness and disabilities of patient to the concerned state, and to collaborate or consult with other caregivers and community resources for a holistic and effective provision of quality services (Institute of Medicine (U.S.) & Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2011). On licensure, NPs in Maryland have to pass NCLEX-RN and an additional certification needed to become an APRN. In addition, NPS in Maryland have to get further licensure at from the government. The government of Maryland requires NPs to work with a doctor for a certain period to get their license. The Nurse Practitioners should also give referral to other health care providers and community resources to ensure that the objective of the state of Maryland in providing health care to patients is affected. The state of Maryland gives credit to NPs in that locality to specialize in certain activities in Hospital in Maryland. Using The American Nurses Credentialing Center, the state of Maryland give Nurse Practitioners in this locality a certification exam that can be used as a proxy measure for NPs licensure or designation, therefore, it is not a voluntary but a requirement. Nurse practitioners and registered Nurses have different identification numbers as according to Identification Standard (NPI) (Ryan, Riff & Hansen-Turton, 2013). NPs can do all of the things that an RN can do in Maryland, but enjoy the advantage of ordering diagnostic tests and interpret those results. In Maryland, NPs are allowed to prescribe medications to patients.
The RNs in Maryland have also distinct roles. An RN’s practice in Maryland includes maintenance and prevention of all possible illness. This responsibility extends to diagnosing human responses to actual or potential health problems. In the state of Maryland, RNs have a role in administering, teaching, delegation, and evaluation of health and nursing practice (Declercq, 2009). The national board of nursing in Maryland gives that the respective RNs should also engage in providing supportive and restorative care and nursing treatment, medication administration, teaching, health counseling, case finding and experiencing changes in the normal health processes. RNs in this state also have the role in analyzing results of certain tests; operate medical machinery as well as administering medication (Ryan, Riff & Hansen-Turton, 2013). More often, RNs have responsibilities to help patients with follow-up care and educating them about medical conditions. However, RNs in Maryland cannot prescribe medications, but enjoy the privilege of providing input into a patient’s care program. The state of Maryland does not give licensure to RNs to have certification in certain specialty. Therefore, they can involve themselves in many activities in health care settings in Maryland
References
Citizen Advocacy Center. (September 2010). Scope of Practice FAQs for Consumers: Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs). Retrieved July 7, 2011 from http://www.cacenter.org/files/SOPaprn.pdf
Declercq, E. (January/February 2009). Births Attended by Certified Nurse-Midwives in the United States in 2005. Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health. 54(1), pp. 95-96.
Institute of Medicine (U.S.)., & Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. (2011). The future of nursing: Leading change, advancing health. Washington, D.C: National Academies Press.
Ryan, S., Riff, J., & Hansen-Turton, T. (2013). Convenient Care Clinics: The Essential Guide to Retail Clinics
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Identify and assess the benefits that should be part of a core package and those benefits that should be part of a flexible package. Defend the use of such benefits and how they may be superior to others with regards to motivation.
The following conditions must meet in the essay:
1) I want a typical and a quality answer which should have about 1400 words.
3) The answer must include examples from experience or the web with references from relevant examples from real companies.
4) Do include all your references, as per the Harvard Referencing System,
5) Please don’t use Wikipedia web site.
6) I need examples from peer reviewed articles or researches.
Appreciate each single moment you spend in writing my paper
Best regards
SAMPLE ANSWER
Employee benefits comprise of various types of non-salary compensations that are Employee benefits comprise of various types of non-salary compensations that are accorded to employees in addition to their basic salaries or wages. A set of core benefits must be covered in the various company plans with significance. Some benefits that employees need to receive are well stipulated in the law, such as unemployment compensation, social security as well as worker compensation. Employees, therefore, have the right to be provided with such benefits. Other types of benefits are diverse and distinct from one farm to another or different industries e.g. pension, life insurance, health insurance, gratuity, medical plan, and paid vacation.
Flexible business plans should enable employees to make a choice of the benefits that they need or want from a program package that is offered to them by employers (Wayne, 2010). This paper is the identification and assessment of the various benefits that should from part of the core package and the benefits that should form part of a flexible package. There is an analysis on the superiority of the respective benefits in regards to motivation in this discussion as well.
Creating a benefits package that is comprehensive for employees encourages them to lead productive and healthy lives at the workplace. Such unique core benefits like on-site care during work, pet insurance, sponsorship of corporate events, and the matching of the company with donations for charity all make a very important difference. However, in compiling the core benefits package, employers should be able to choose the benefits that perform optimally with the culture of the company and determine how programming of benefits will ultimately affect the bottom line (Wayne, 2010). In some instances, it is those smallest perks that are less costly in both financial and time frameworks that bring in the most impact. In the present day, organizations are increasing their creativity by compiling their core benefits packages such that stress on the health benefits to employees. Such programs that have been included in the CORE plans even include; flu shots on the worksites, prenatal care, CPR training, and smoking cessation programs (Wayne, 2010).
A study has shown that organizations that present attractive packages to their employees enjoy significantly reduced turnover rates as compared to an organization that don’t do the same. In terms of the level of motivation that core benefits packages are set to increase on the part of the employees, retirement and benefits programs often come first, and then the preferred network of partnership programs come second. Retirement planning and the administration of these benefits is one essential core package content that should be put into consideration by employers. Organizations should involve an experienced team in implementing health plans, disability and life insurance, 401ks, and accounts for tax saving (Hunt, 2007). The employer’s network affiliates should look at the unique employee situations and then customize a harmonized retirement and benefits plan. In regard to preferred network for partnership as the second most crucial package of the benefit plan, organizations should strive to offer sound advice and customized solutions to help employees achieve their short and long-term objectives, making sure a secure financial future is guaranteed. The preferred partners that they hire should provide educational guidance and information on mortgages, home buying, insurance, financial planning and many more (Hunt, 2007). This will save their employees on money and time substantially.
The reason retirement and benefits programs will come before the preferred network for partnership in terms of employee motivation is because a core benefits package must include supplemental health products as the most significant component. The supplemental health benefits offer creative solutions to the issue of the cost of healthcare, at the face of sky rocketing healthcare costs. Employees need to benefit by having a catastrophic coverage, but still under reasonable deductions, and that’s why this package must be included in the core benefits package. In an era of sky rocketing costs of benefits, employers are in a dilemma concerning the cutting down of costs related to employee benefit while at the same time providing a comprehensively attractive benefits plan. A research survey done by LIMRA shows that 63 per cent of the employees stated that core benefits were an important factor in the selection of job offers from two different companies (Hunt, 2007). Core benefits for full-time employees include basic life insurance and personal accident insurance; longtime disability coverage; tuition remission; and tuition exchange, among others. The core benefits that are awarded to both part time and full time employees include; business travel and accident travel insurance and health advocate and employee assistance programs (Hunt, 2007).
Flexible benefits packages allow employees are normally formalized systems that enable employers to make a variation of their benefits and pay package in order to meet their personal wants and requirements (Wayne, 2010). Majority of organizations only give chance limited form of flexibility for a few number of benefits, but in the recent developments in the realms of the work environment, a comprehensive flexible benefit culture has been adopted, but still they are not adopted widely as much as Core benefits are. Companies should however introduce a flexible benefits package scheme as part of a broad move towards more flexible environment for work. Flexible schemes will increase the reward value that is perceived as being offered to employees at no extra cost, hence boosting the employee motivation levels. The inclusion of benefits plans ranges from organization to the other with some organizations favoring a limited approach as opposed to the limited one (Wayne, 2010).
In order of decreasing impact on the level of employee motivation, the flexible benefit package content can be listed as follows: company pension scheme, life assurance, private medical insurance, critical illness insurance, personal accident insurance, and holidays (Henricks, 2013). It is evident that this list encompasses mostly on the flexible health benefits. This is because they perform better in the realms of employee motivation, tax and national insurance implications, as well as the impact to the organizations determined by employee health. Other flexible benefits that fall behind the above listed category include flexible schemes on; marriage and divorce, birth or child adoption, death of a dependent, absence of long-term sickness, and promotion (Henricks, 2013).
In the case of a flexible business plan, employees are actual contributors to the benefits plan because they are accordingly deducted from their before-tax income, hence reducing their contribution of the employers (Gould, 2010). The flexible plans have increased in popularity with employers in the present day workplace setting. This is because of such corresponding changes in the health and child-care cost, which have dramatically and tremendously risen in the last few decades. The organizations, therefore, have to customize and harmonize on the benefits to offer and which not to offer because, in the general sense, all employees expect benefits as a result of employment. In return, they will be motivated, and this will benefit their employers (Gould, 2010).
At Suncor, for example, the organization has believed the importance of rewarding people who have a hand towards the success of the business. This can either take monetary as well as nonmonetary form; examples of employee packages that have been implemented in this organization include career development programs, benefits and pensions. The organization has specifically implemented competitive saving plans and pension schemes, insurance and comprehensive healthcare, generous time of duty put together in a package that is adjustable to accommodate the constantly changing needs of individual employees and their families (Compensation & Benefits – Careers – Suncor. (n.d.). Flexible benefits scheme can allow employers to give room to staff to choose the benefit that they feel suit them, in the USA; this benefit is considered a popular method of integrating benefits packages. During acquisitions and mergers, flexible benefits scheme a diverse option from which the employees can choose from. These include provision of mobile phones, vouchers and childcare
In the general analysis, the main logic of offering employee benefits besides employee motivation is to meet the changing workforce needs (Johnny, 2011). Especially with the generation z entering the workforce and the generation y extending their retirement times, it is becoming increasingly important and common to create a workplace whereby the employee benefits cover both generations working in this setting. By offering both core and flexible benefits, employers are offering the employees an opportunity to the choice of packages that will best satisfy their various unique requirements, hence keeping them motivated to the goals of the organization (Johnny, 2011).
References
Johnny F. (1 February 2011) “Flex Plan Enrollment Rules Eased” Employee Benefit News.
Henricks, Mark. (May 2013) “Take Your Pick: Want to keep health-care costs low and employees happy in today’s economy?” Entrepreneur.
Gould, Jay (24 November 2010, “Flexible Spending Accounts Benefit Both Employees, Employers.” San Antonio Business Journal..
Wayne R. (11 December 2010), “How to Set Up a Cafeteria Plan.” Capital District Business Review. 11 December 2000.
Hunt, Kelly A. (August 2007), “Survey Finds Flexible Benefits on the Rise, Particularly Among Public Employers.” Government Finance Review.
Identify and assess the benefits that should be part of a core package and those benefits that should be part of a flexible package. Defend the use of such benefits and how they may be superior to others with regards to motivation.
The following conditions must meet in the essay:
1) I want a typical and a quality answer which should have about 1100 words.
2) The answer must raise appropriate critical questions.
3) The answer must include examples from experience or the web with references from
relevant examples from real companies.
4) Do include all your references, as per the Harvard Referencing System,
5) Please don’t use Wikipedia web site.
6) I need examples from peer reviewed articles or researchs.
Appreciate each single moment you spend in writing my paper
Best regards
SAMPLE ANSWER
A core benefit is a package that is known to include supplemental health products due to its great concern to everyone (Martocchio, 2010). The many benefits of core values entail an open public process that deals with the education of the different departments in an organization so that they understand the plans provided by the employer. This is best done by revising the plans submitted by the employer on labor recommendations done on the process in order to define and update the essential health benefits. Core values benefits by taking into account advances, effects of benefit regarding change in cost and also assists in balancing the cost and the comprehensiveness of the health benefits. Essential health benefits also include the hospitalization, laboratory services, prescription drugs, rehabilitative, devices, emergency services, ambulatory patient services, maternal and newborn care that come as core benefits.Essential health balance is a core rule that helps in the provision of health information on its importance to offer benefits that are equally compared to the ones offered by the benchmark plan.The benchmark plans include any of the large three national Federal Employee Health Benefits Program and the largest state employees’ health benefits plans options by enrollment(Ryan, Vanderbilt, Lewis & Madden, 2013). These plans are now providing benefits to the customers despite them clarifying that in the remaining states a selection should not be done.
Supplemental health benefits are best in offering of the health cost issue that can help employers in the saving of money and be able to offer benefits to their employees.Supplemental health insurance helps employees fill the gaps in lost coverage, hence, an important cost management tool to even employers (Martocchio, 2013).Core benefits in supplemental health are evident since, products do not automatically increase each year. Therefore, even at the loss of their jobs they are assured of taking coverage with their current employers at the same price.Employers can pass increased costs to their employees despite the health insurance cost trying to take a large share of their company whereby, this is possible due to the benefit attained from having a catastrophic coverage. The benefit to employees is that supplemental products do not have to cost them anything since they are now viewed as part of a core benefits package.
Core value brings out the benefit of the actuarial value which is calculated as the total average costs of the covered benefits that a certain plan on the table will be able to cover over a certain period of time (White, 2009).Accreditation is a core benefit and it entails the non-state-based market place accepting the existence health plans that should be accredited from an acknowledged accrediting entity.The market place has the access to be able to meet certain customer standards and the ability to realize the importance of time that is highly needed by the issuers to be able to obtain accreditation which is a core benefit on time. Other examples of core benefits include the housing that are either provided by the employer or paid for by the employee, group insurance either on health matters or even on dental ground, protection, reimbursement and the funding of education and other specialized benefits.The core benefits employees,though assuring them of economy, security, especially on the side of staff members and this helps in the increase of the work retention in return. This helps the employees to be rewarded by the organization management due to their commitment for the job (Lamy, 2010).
A pliable material is what makes up a flexible packaging material that retains the element of flexibility which improves the life of the employees. These materials include: grocery bag, flexible packaging materials, and flexible drink pouches that have a common characteristic of being flexible.These materials are of great benefit to the consumers since they are lighter and one does not tire from carrying them with consumers having an added appeal to their convenience.They have a variety of benefits that are economically friendly due to the less material that is used to create them (Beam, 2007).Less weighing material will always have fewer transportation cost incurrence and also the energy that tend to be wasted is less as compared to heavy packaged materials.When there is the use of less material there is benefit to the environment with less water and energy also being utilized in the creation of a flexible packaging. However, this is due to the less material which is also left in the landfills following the low weight of the material that is contained in the package.
On the other side, some flexible packaging materials can be frozen,heated and printings easily done on them, therefore, helping give the material better advantage as compared to other available material since it’s a preferable choice to many.Flexible packaging has another usefulness of ensuring food safety and also prolongs the shelf life: hence, ensuring that food remains clean and durable for the scheduled time (Stabb, 2007).
Many of the packaging materials can easily change their shapes and most of these materials are found in consumer, industrial and institutional products where they are even commonly used.Bags, over wrap that change their shapes are all said to be flexible since they are able to change their shape. Food industry contains a lot of products that are categorized as flexible packaged material comprising of beverages, baked food, coffee, cookies, frozen food, confections and breakfast product among others. There are other manufactured products that have been of great benefits to industries which mainly are: sporting goods, photography, household cleaners, electronics tobacco and toys (Beam, 2007). Flexible packaging materials are of different types and they include the high impact polyethylene, low-density polythene, biaxially oriented nylon and biaxially oriented polypropylene.
Customer has great benefit on the matters of the packaging design since it involves hand design process and the modeling process that are most preferred by most consumers.The various type of the design gives choice to both the designing team and the client to be able to decide on the most preferred design to be used for the customer’s product. Beam, McFadden & Stefano (2012) argues that, the appeal of the consumer also increases with increase of the tailoring of the consumers packaging material because this in return will help the competition edge of the company in the industry.The traditional flexible packaging materials have an obvious appeal and this is an advantage to the consumer who prefers using such flexible packages for his convenience. Several industries take advantage of the benefit that come as a result of the flexible packaging and so they compete hard to produce quality materials in order to dominate the market.
References
Beam, B. (2007).Employee Benefits. Kaplan Publishing; 8 edition
Beam, B.T., McFadden, J., & Stefano, K. (2012).Employee Benefits. DF Institute, Inc., d/b/a Dearborn Real Estate Education; 9th edition
Martocchio, J. (2010). Employee Benefits. McGraw-Hill/Irwin; 4 edition
Martocchio, J. (2013). Employee Benefits: A Primer for Human Resource Professionals. McGraw-Hill/Irwin; 5 edition
Lamy, L. (2010). Core-selecting package auctions: a comment on revenue-monotonicity. International Journal of Game Theory. Vol. 39 Issue 3, p503-510
Ryan, M., Vanderbilt, A., Lewis, T., & Madden, M. (2013). Benefits and barriers among volunteer teaching faculty: comparison between those who precept and those who do not in the core pediatrics clerkship.Medical Education Online. Vol. 18, p1-7
Stabb, J. (2007). Mortgage affinity programs can add value to employer benefit packages. Employment Relations Today (Wiley). Vol. 33 Issue 4, p15-19 https://doi.org/10.1002/ert.20125
White, J. (2009). Gap and Parallel Insurance in Health Care Systems with Mandatory Contributions to a Single Funding Pool for Core Medical and Hospital Benefits for All Citizens in Any Given Geographic Area. Journal of Health Politics, Policy & Law. Vol. 34 Issue 4, p543-583
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In this assignment we are to perform a critical analysis of the chosen case and identify the ethical, legal and cultural safety issues which emerge in your analysis of the case. The case is as follows;
Molly is a 14 year old indigenous girl who has been admitted with suspected appendicitis.She is scheduled for emergency surgery in two hours time when Sandy the registered nurse discovers that the consent form has not been signed. Molly’s parents are not present as she has been flown in by the Royal Flying Doctor Service.She is however in the company of her aunt.
SAMPLE ANSWER
Integrative Case Analysis
In the modern age of medicine, it is important as a general rule for practitioners to obtain the consent of a patient in order for any procedure, operation or treatment is undertaken if the patient is a competent adult. Competence is an important concept in the consent form debate and is in itself a legal status. An adult person is assumed as a competent individual unless they are determined by a court of law to lack the ability to make the decisions required in order that they live safely in the community in a way that they may not hurt themselves or others. Therefore, in this context, all children below the age of Eighteen years are described as incompetent while not all adults are competent (Rikoon, 1992).
The purpose of the content form in the case of molly brings ethical, legal and cultural issues. She is a child and therefore she cannot be able to give a valid consent because she may not comprehend the implications of having the surgery. The doctors cannot however go on with the procedure without the consent of the child’s parents. If they do conduct the procedure without the consent form being signed, they might end up with various legal issues such as they may be faced with legal action for assault and battery which in itself is a criminal offence whose acquittal may lead to other serious problems for the practitioner. The signed consent form is a tool that also solves various ethical issues in handling surgical procedures. For example, it ensures that the surgical and medical team has properly handled their moral and ethical obligation of informing the patient and related parties about the condition and the procedures necessary to rectify the condition as well as prospective material risks. The form ensures that the patients receive their legal and ethical rights to know what will happen and the physicians have an ethical duty to provide adequate information in order to allow the patient make the right Decision (Stahl, 2004).
Since Molly’s parents are not around, a surrogate decision maker has the right to speak and make decisions on her behalf. A surrogate or health care proxy is considered an advocate for an incompetent patient such as a child and must make decisions on behalf of the child. Health care proxies are however selected in some order of priority beginning with the clients’ guardians of parents followed by the clients’ spouse of an adult brother or sister of the client. In this case for Molly, the legal requirement in this context will make her aunt legally and also culturally liable as the decision maker who needs to be able to sign the form (Devettere, 1995).
Culturally, it is expected that her Aunt be her guardian as she has been with her in that situation in place of her parents. With her aunt as the decision maker however, she needs to adhere to some general best practice powers and limitations of being a surrogate. For example, she needs to be informed that she has to make substituted judgment in making the decision on behalf of molly and that she should make the decision in the best interests Molly. The health care practitioners should ensure that they help Molly’s aunt understand the situation and what needs tie b done in order to help Molly as well as express to her the risks of the process. it is therefore the legal, ethical and cultural duty of Molly’s aunt to make a decision at the best interest of Molly and that decision would be to sign the consent form before Molly is taken up for surgery. Other cultural issues that may arise in relation to Molly’s aunt being her surrogate is the fact that surrogates use their own values to decide what decision is usually for the benefit and best interest of the patient. Cultural values play a big part in the decision making process and should the surrogate for instance not believe in medicine, she may not agree to sign a consent form Bush, 2007).
References
Bush, S. (2007). Ethical decision making in clinical neuropsychology Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Devettere, R. (1995). Practical decision making in health care ethics cases and concepts Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.
Parker, A., & Fischhoff, B. (n.d.) Decision-making Competence: External Validation Through an Individual-differences Approach. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 1-27
Rikoon, J. (1992). Handling your first health care proxy, living will, and durable power of attorney New York, N.Y. (810 7th Ave., New York 10019): Practicing Law Institute
Stahl, M. (2004) Encyclopedia of health care management Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications
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Tips and Tricks for Literature Searches
Time is a precious commodity, and as a doctoral student you are keenly aware of its value. You are expected to be thorough and exhaustive in your search for academic resources. These expectations don’t only exist so you can avoid duplicating existing research; they also empower and prepare you to contribute to the foundations of thinking and practice in your chosen area of interest. One key to meeting these expectations is to develop proficiency in online searching.
Share your tips and suggestions for finding relevant academic literature. These tips may relate to navigating particular electronic databases, applying general searching techniques, constructing search term queries, broadening or narrowing your initial search results, finding monographs and other resources, or other topics.
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With these thoughts in mind:
Post your two best tips by Day 3, giving priority to suggestions that have not been posted by your colleagues.
SAMPLE ANSWER
Tips and Tricks for Literature Searches
Having the right skills to navigate through databases and search engines in order to come up with relevant literature on a particular is a crucial necessity in developing a quality research. While the internet has a plethora of books, journals, newspapers, reviews, case studies, and even monographs, finding the correct resource that contains the most relevant information to a given topic is a daunting task (Boell, & Cecez-Kecmanovic, 2014). However, there are various tips and tricks that can be applied to ensure this exercise turns out successful.
The first step to getting relevant sources in any search engine or database involves identifying the key search terms, also referred to as the keywords. Eliminating such superficial words as conjunctions, transitional words, and even prepositions will help specify the search results (Sharma, 2013). While searching for sources, it is imperative that one starts with online databases, such as ProQuest, EBSCOhost, Emerald Insight, and Worldcat, among many others. These databases usually contain authentic sources that have been published by authors. To get better results, streamlining search options to peer-reviewed PDF sources may just play the trick, since most of these are journal articles that are current and authentic.
The most common tool that people use to conduct searches is the search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and Bing among others. However, caution should be taken not to over-rely on these engines, since they give duplicate results, as well as those that are not authentic. When such results come up, one should avoid .com sites, YouTube, blogs, and online Wikis. Instead, it would be helpful to do an advanced search, and specify the year range, document type (PDF), and other specifications that differ from one search engine to the other. Summarily, one should look for those search results that capture at least three-quarters of the key search terms.
Report Outline
1. Cover page and Table of Contents – Cover page should include: Title: Strategic Plan, Company Name, Date, Author, Course Name. Table of Contents should include a listing of all of the topics in your strategic plan.
2. Company Description – What is the state of the business today including the company background, products, services, markets serving, key technologies, key manufacturing and operations, financial strength, key partners…etc.
3. Mission and vision statements of Apple company
4. External Audit – Assess the external forces that affect the organization: economic, social, cultural, demographic, environmental, political, governmental, legal, technological and competitive. Use the tools for external audit.
5. Internal Assessment – Assess the interrelationships between departments, marketing, finance/accounting, production/operations, research & development and management information systems. Use the tools for internal assessment (SWOT, Financial ratio analysis, IFE, SWOT strategies, QSPM…..etc)
6. Establish Long Term Objectives. The objectives should provide direction for the organization, be quantifiable, address key external and internal forces and be SMART objectives which are: Specific: The objective tells exactly what, where, and how the problem or need is to be addressed. Measurable: The objective tells exactly how much, how many, and how well the problem/need will be resolved. Action-oriented: The objective uses “activity indicators” to insure that something will be done. As with goal-setting, use action-oriented verbs such as deliver, implement, establish, develop, supply…etc. Realistic: The objective is a result that can be achieved in the time allowed. Time-bound: The objective includes a specific date for it’s achievement.
7. Evaluate and select a strategy or strategies (David, Table 5-4, page 137). Large companies commonly have multiple strategies.
8. Implementation Plan – Develop for the selected strategy or strategies
9. Conclusions and Recommendations
10. References and Appendix
Strategic planning is the process of defining the strategies of a company and how they can be used to promote the attainment of competitive advantages (Erica, 2012). Such planning helps direct the decision making process regarding allocation of resources among other control and management mechanisms. The company in focus is Apple Company Inc. which is a renowned multinational company. In particular, strategy formation at Apple Company could involve setting goals and mobilizing resources and labor towards executing the set goals and objective. The senior management is charged with the role of strategic planning in most organizations. Strategies can be categorized into two; intended strategies and emergent activities. Formulating strategies for Apple Company takes the form of a cohesive and comprehensive analysis that entails synthesizing strategic thinking into planning activities.
1. Company Description
Apple Company is a multinational corporation based in the United States. It’s headquarter is in California. It is specialized in the development, designing, marketing and selling of consumer electronics, online services, personal computers and computer software. The company has managed to create its market niche by producing a dominant hardware which is used in the Mac product line such as iPod media players, iPad table computers and iPhone smartphones. The software used to run the Mac hardware is known as the iOS operating systems and the OS X (David, 2007). The company was founded by three principles; Steve Jobs, Ronald Wayne and Steve Wozniak in the year 1976. The company then became incorporated into Apple Computer, Inc. in 1977 and later renamed to Apple Company Inc. in 2007. The new name reflected the companies shift in focus to produce a diversified line of consumer electronics. Currently, the company ranks as the second largest in the IT industry. This rank comes after Samsung Electronics which has been ranked as the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer.
Apple sales it products via an online store as well as its chain retail stores. Its other products are sold by direct sales force, resellers, value added resellers and third party wholesalers (David, 2007). These products include Macintosh, iPods, iPhones and other compatible hardware products such as storage devices, printers, watches, branded television sets, headphones, speakers among other computer peripherals and accessories. The online services provided by Apple Company include iTunes Store, iCloud as well as an App Store. Apple also manufacturers digital contents which are sold through iTunes Store. These services include software programs which are sold through the Apple App Store to its diverse groups of consumers. The iCloud online service has been helpful in synchronizing a wide range of data such as contacts, email, documents, calendars and photos. The iCloud also offers backup storage for iOS.
Apple has specialized in segmenting, creating market niches and penetrating market segments. The company has created a blue ocean for its products since, in spite of the high prices, the company has managed to retain its customers who range from small and mid-sized businesses, individual consumers, educational institutions, government agencies, creative customers and enterprises. Apple Company Inc. serves multinational customers through its 425 chains of retail stores which are strategically located in 14 countries. The supply chain is facilitated by other independent sellers. The latest technologies by Apple Company Inc. include the iOS 8 which has more than 4000 APIs that lets developers improve the capabilities and features of applications. The technology enables a deeper integration of iOS thus enabling extended functionality. The technology has facilitated game development. The iCloud for developer’s technology has leveraged the full power of building applications through the cloud kit framework. The developers can now securely and easily store and retrieve essential data on their applications from an online database.
Manufacturing and operations at Apple Inc. are highly innovative thus leading to the production of innovative products which move through the fast product life-cycle associated with the IT industry. The company promotes its products through spectacular promotions and marketing campaigns. The products are of high quality thus they are charged at a premium price. Apple Company Inc. has the largest market capitalization estimated at $446 billion. Because of its financial strength, the company has 75,800 full time employees globally and it enjoyed an annual revenues of $170 billion in 2013. The company is ranked in the top ten of the Fortune 500 companies. Another ranking by the Inter-brand Best Global Brand have reported that Apple is the most valuable brand in the world with a value of $118.9 billion. Apple’s key partners include social networking sites developers and programmers such as Facebook and LinkedIn. These companies have been essential in partnering with Apple in marketing its products because the company pre-install these applications in their electronic gadgets such as the iPhones. The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has been a confidential key partner for Apple Company since it shares with it important data on the A7 system on chip technology (SoC).
Over an extended period of time, Apple Inc. has appreciated that its growth and development would be equally dependent on the input of its key partners which include AT&T. This company is the closest partner to Apple since it is the sole carrier of iPhones. The partnership deal begun in 2007 it lasted till 2011 when Verizon begun competing it by selling iPhone 4s. Verizon Communications is another major business partner. It is the largest telecommunication carrier in the US and it has participated in the launch of the iPhones. The Verizon provides a CDMA network. The other partner is Foxconn Technology Group which is a leading electronic manufacturer globally. It is also the largest exporter of electronics in China. It is the company that assemblers the hardware for Apple in its plants in Taiwan and China. TPK is another vital partner as it deals in the supply of touch-panels across the world. It is the largest supplier of touch panels for the iPhones and the iPads. It is reported that approximately 75% of TPK’s revenues came from its partnership with Apple. The Quanta Computer Company is another key partner as it manufacturers the MacBook and iMac product lines for Apple. The partnership between the Taiwan based Quanta Computers and Apple dates back to 1998. Quanta is among the leading notebook manufacturers across the world as it supplies brands such as Gateway and Hewlett-Packard.
2. Mission and vision statements of Apple Company
The management at Apple Company have not set out a clear and elaborate mission and vision statement. Nonetheless, the company has shown signs that its mission statement is either dynamic or that it is embedded into the hearts of its employees and the other stakeholders. Accordingly the most suitable mission statement has to entail such rubrics associated with a strong believe that the company is focused on revolutionizing the world by offering quality products through innovation, research and development (Erica, 2012). The management has to show its commitment towards customer satisfaction by providing simple products which are not complex to the end users. Another pertinent statement to be included in the Apple mission statement would be the company’s strong believe that it has to make a contribution towards bettering humanity by carefully selecting its market segments and creating niches. This objective can enable directing resources towards products and market that offer most profits while promoting investing into projects that are meaningful to the stakeholders. For the work teams, the company believes in cross-pollination and deep collaboration that will allow the company to be creative and innovative. The groups and work teams have to be seamlessly integrated so as to help them acquire basic virtues that will propel the company into attaining the company’s vision. The vision of Apple Company can therefore be focused on continuously investing into innovations that will transform human life while making the company a center of excellence and global market leadership in the electronic and IT industries. Both the mission and vision statement will second the Apple Company Inc. slogan which states that an apple a day keeps the doctor away.
3. External Audit
An external audit of Apple Company’s Inc. can be facilitated by the use of a PESTEL analysis. This term is an abbreviation for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal factors. It describes a strategic framework which can be used by a company to analyze its macro-environmental factors by scanning the environment. This analysis will be helpful in understanding market growth factors and thus contribute towards formulating a viable research strategic plan.
Political factors determine the degree of government intervention in the growth and development of the economy. The government through its policies and regulations have impacted on decisions made by the management at Apple. For instance, since 2005, the company has expanded its market segments outside the United States thus selling most of its products outside the USA. The countries that account for most of its sales include China, Ireland, Czech Republic and Korea. The global market place is diverse with developing and developed countries. These governments impact on the sales volume of products through taxation, tariffs and quotas so as to achieve a Balance of Payment (BOP) (David, 2007). In the event that Apple disregards these international rules and those set by the US government, then it will have a hard time marketing its products.
Economic factors have impacted on the decision making process at Apple Inc. This is because global factors such as economic growth, inflation rate, exchange rates and interest rates impact how a business operates. Economic situations such as recession and bloom could impact on the sales made on Apple as a company. The products produced by Apple are mostly viewed as luxuries thus an increase inflation could result into low sales volumes. This is because of the increase in unemployment rates which will reduce disposable income thus lowering the buyer’s propensity to purchase. Economic factors can affect Apple either negatively or positively.
Social-cultural factors describe the living patterns and values of the global consumers of Apple electronic products and services. Social factors impact on customer preferences, income groups, and perception and life priorities towards purchasing Apple products. Whereas other social factors such as fashion, social class and peer pressure could drive people into purchasing Apple products, the same forces could make people value other products instead of Apple’s (David, 2007). The company has managed to associate itself with quality, reliability and innovation. The consumers are also aware that Apple Inc. is an expensive brand. Social factors are synonymous with cultural aspects such as population growth rate, age, demographics and distribution of people. These factors collectively impact the company’s positioning of its products and creation of niches.
Technological factors are determined by the ability of Apple to manufacture and design highly innovative and differentiated products through research and development. So far, Apple Inc. has managed to win over more customers because of its unique products. The IT industry is competitive based on the ability for a firm to be innovative in creating appeal through appearance and product features (David, 2007). Legal factors describe the global laws governing the manufacture of electronic products by companies such as Apple Inc. The company has benefited from laws allowing for sub-contracting of countries with cheap labor such as Korea, and China. As a result, the company has managed to create a competitive advantage due to its low costs of production. Environmental factors are determined by the geographic location of a country since it has an impact on the climatic changes and apparently, this forms the bulk of environmental influence on trade and consumption trends. These factors include the climate, weather and geographic location. This factor mostly affects farming and agri-businesses thus it does not influence much of the operations at Apple Company.
4. Internal Assessment
An internal audit for Apple Company entails the use of strategic management and planning tools such as Financial Ratios, IFE, QSPM and SWOT analysis. SWOT analysis is an abbreviation for the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. In terms of strengths, Apple Company has for a long time been associated with innovations. The history of the company dates back to a visionary leader; Steve Jobs who had an inert passion for developing new technologies. Steve jobs created this competence by introducing a research and development department which worked hand in hand with the other departments. The specific contributions of these departments include the management information systems department which was vigil in analyzing the IT trends among key rivals such as Samsung and Nokia. The second department was finances and accounts department which coordinated the allocation of resources towards research and development. The marketing department contributed towards innovation by collecting statistics on marketing trends and the consumer wants thus the research and development department used the information in connecting the product design to future customer wants. The production and operations department was upfront in designing new technologies so as to maximize on the returns by reducing cost of resources. The production unit was essential in ensuring that the new technologies adopted matched the political legal requirements set by the government.
As a result, the cutting edge innovations have been seen in the launch of the iPhone, the iPad and other devices. This has made innovation a hallmark for the company which strives to improve its previous models of phones as seen in the recently launched iPhone 6. These innovations include a wider display size, an upgrade of the iOS operating system and other hardware. They have also designed an iWatch which is a novel offering in its product line. The other innovations which will likely improve the company’s sales include the launch of the iPad Air 2, iPad Pro, new MacBook and iPad Mini 3. These innovations form part of the strategic planning process since they have contributed towards competitive advantages and increased sales which has earned Apple Company an increase in their market share (Lorenzen, 2006). The second strength is associated with the finances of the company. As it has been reported by the finance department which helps the other departments in budgeting and resource allocation, the company has had a positive cash-flow since its inception. The company currently has an asset base of $38 billion and an additional $127 billion in long term securities. Because of this financial endowment, the company can decide to use acquisition strategies so as to leverage itself against competitors. An example is the recent decision by the company to purchase Beats Electronics at a cost of $3 billion. With the purchase, the company has widened its capital returns program. Financial capabilities also mean that the company is better placed to advertise and market its products. The marketing strategy is often a collaboration between the finance department together with the sales and marketing department. For instance, during the fiscal 2013, Apple spent $1.1 billion on advertising budgets.
Apple Company has in the past experienced weaknesses such as premium pricing. The company’s products are among the priciest computing devices in the market. The marketing department targets a market niche dominated by luxurious buyers. Because of this marketing strategy, the company has failed to penetrate developing markets where companies such as Tecno and Huawei have dominated because of their low priced telecommunication gadgets. The luxury positioning of the product has also rendered Apple to price competition in developed markets such as South Korea where Samsung and China’s Xiaomi have significantly increased their market share. The second weakness is associated with the iPad product line which in spite of previous successes has lost out on its former market share. The shipment of iPads fell by 9% in the fiscal 2013. This signifies that Apple managed to sell only 13.4 million units in Europe and U.S. Most of the sales were made in the BRIC countries. The iPad has in the recent past suffered stiff competition and the growing number of manufacturers of tablets such as Google’s android powered tablets which retail at a much lower price. It is projected that the sluggishness of the market towards the iPad is likely to persist unless the company does something about its pricing strategies so as to fit into the developing countries and other oversea markets. The other strategic move towards solving this two problems is the need to partner with companies such as IBM. The two companies are reputable thus it would be prudent if their partnered towards developing more superior applications for the iPhones and iPads.
Apple could embrace strategies aimed at increasing its opportunities by growing its market share growth. Given the fact that Apple has been losing its market to Samsung due to intensive rivalry, the marketing department can still work together with the operations department to redesign their marketing strategies so as to increase the market share. Apple holds 20% of the global tablet/PC market share. On an overall scale, it ranks higher than Samsung and Lenovo. According to the projections made by the marketing department, the company is expecting a growth in its market share in 2014 especially after the launch of iPhone 6 and an increase in marketing activities in China and Pacific regions. It is further expected that the penetration of the iPhones into the BRIC geographies will contribute towards creating opportunities for the company. This is because Apple has made contracts with influential wireless carriers in the local target countries thus increasing the customer segments. Its most promising agreements was that with China mobile which is expected to increase the exposure of Apple’s products to the more that 760 million subscribers of the huge network. The second opportunity arises from the purchase of Beats Electronics. By purchasing this Beats, Apple proved that mergers and acquisitions was a strategic option into increasing a company’s competitive advantages. The deal which was completed in August 2014 opens up new opportunities for Apple Company. The acquired company will boost the iTunes product line including the radio services. The same company will also help Apple in developing its iWatch among other wearable audio devices. There is also the opportunity of talent infusion from music industry icons and managers such as Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine who have been the creative managers for the Beats Electronics.
Competition has been the biggest threat to Apple Company. Technology is faced passed and because of this the electronics industry as well as the IT industry are very elusive. The product cycle for these industries moves fast from the introduction, growth up to the maturity stages. This rapid growth into maturity and decline phases have intensified competition since the companies that are better positioned at making innovations have in the past used innovations to win over customers from competitors. According to the Porters generic analysis, it is also made evident that the premium pricing makes it hard for Apple to compete in some markets which are dominated by low-cost rivals as it is the case in China, India and most African countries. The second threat results from gross margin pressures stemming from intensive competition. A loss in the pricing power, rising costs of production and product shortages have also impacted on the company especially in the past years where at times demand has exceeded supply leading to shortages. According to the SWOT analysis of Apple Companyi, which presents an interplay between the various departments; operations, marketing, finance, research & development departments, development and management information systems department and their contribution towards the advancement of the internal audit at Apple Company, it is highly likely that the strengths and opportunities presented for the company far much outweigh the weaknesses and the threats. The overall results reflect on the company’s ability to grow its dividends, improve its product quality through more innovations and increase its returns and market share through aggressive marketing.
5. Establish Long Term Objectives
Just like any other company that is guided by a mission and a vision statement, Apple is looking forward to establishing formidable strategies that will see it thought turbulent financial times. The most preferable strategies begin acknowledging the fact that Apple as a company is looking towards introducing new products and services as part of its diversification plan. The introduction of these products and services triggers a thorough analysis of the pricing strategies implemented at the company. Product pricing determines the ability of a product to be accepted by the customers. For instance, the launch of the iWatch by Apple has to conform to the customers’ expectations of the prevailing market prices by competitors such as Samsung Galaxy Gear, Qualcomm Toq and Sony Smart-Watch (Boundless, 2014). The Moto 360 smart watch stands out as the most dominant rival for the iWatch. When considering the pricing for the smart-watches, Apple has to consider cost based pricing which is computed using the formulae;
Cost + Fixed profit percentage = Selling price.
Alternatively, the company could decide on using competition based pricing, value-based pricing, or demand based pricing. Given the intensity of competition in the smart watch market, it is financially feasible for Apple to use the competition based pricing but in the event that the company wants to use value based pricing, then it has to consider such factors as the uniqueness of their products and the product features embedded into their hardware system. The software also has to be reliable and seamlessly inter-operable with other iOS 8 devices on the market. Given the fact that the product is at the introduction product life cycle, then its prices have to be low so as to attract customers after which the prices can be adjusted as the product moves to the growth stage and into maturity. According to marketing analysts, when a company is launching new products, it has to consider the best way to capture the market. In order to attract the customers, Apple will have to implement a pricing structure that is transparent in future so as to compete effectively rather than using the current premium pricing strategies.
The second futuristic objective for Apple Company is tied to its need for continuous growth. The IT industry is at its growth life cycle since it is coupled with extensive research, development and innovations. This means that the long term objectives for Apple Company have to promote growth in what is known as a growth strategy. The growth strategy includes improving on the current products while making plans to introduce new products and services for the diverse market segments. Cell phone and computer manufacturing companies are aware of their continuous need to improve on their technologies and this should be the trend at iPhone. It is highly suggested that unlike the current trend where Apple only develops one or two brands of electronics such as the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus launched in 2014, the company could start manufacturing products for the different market segments. This will ensure that the company keeps abreast with the demands posed by the customers. Apple could also venture into upcoming smartphone and computer/PC markets in Africa and Asia such as India so as to explore the market and identify the products that could perform well in such markets. So far it is acknowledged that Apple has managed to implement the product differentiation strategy and it has been a key factor in creating a blue ocean for its products. This is because of the uniqueness in the products coupled with the innovations in hardware and software. This has made the products unique and superior to its competitors. The accessibility of the company’s services has been facilitated by its multiple chain stores strategically located in 14 overseas countries.
6. Evaluate and select a strategy or strategies
The selected strategy that is mostly used by global organizations is the acquisition strategy. Acquisition is defined as the corporate action of buying another company by a more dominant and established company. The process of acquisition mostly begins with the identification of a target company where the parent firm begins by acquiring partial ownership that will enable it to influence policies and decisions. An increase in stake to a percentage exceeding 50 will give the firm control over the target company. This strategy has been found suitable where a company intends to take over an existing company together with its market niche. It is often beneficial where a company weights the cost of expanding on its own as being a more expensive and uncertain strategy than acquiring an already existing business. There are two types of acquisitions and this can either be hostile or friendly. Friendly takeovers occur when a firm expresses and enters into an agreement making it possible for it to be acquired while a hostile acquisition happens when the acquiring firm forcefully takeover the ownership of a target firm by purchasing more than 50% of its stocks and shares. The process of acquisition is often accompanies by a strategic logic which includes the need to expand operations or the market. This strategy could also be driven by the need to eliminate competition especially in duopolistic industries dominated by two firms. All in all, the strategy is aimed at a general goal of value creation. According to an empirical research by David, (2007 backing this strategy, it is observed that companies could decide to acquire another company so as to achieve the following archetypes. First, the acquiring companies have the intent of improving their performance, second, they could be focused on minimizing competition, third, the acquiring company might want to expand on its market by merging its current customer base with the niches created by the target company and fourth, acquisition has the benefit of helping a company to acquire technologies and skills that could have been more expensive to create.
Examples of multinational companies that have been successful using the acquisition strategy include IBM which pursued the strategy by purchasing software firms. This was between the years 2002 and 2009 where it acquired 70 software companies at a cost of $14 billion. The company had made a previous estimation that the acquisitions would bolster its software products thus increasing its revenues by 50% within the first 2 years and a growth margin of 10% in the following three years. In another example drawn from the consumer goods industry, Procter and Gamble after acquiring Gillette created a stronger company that increased its sales volume by merging markets. Their working together enabled them to expand their market with more ease. Another example is where Cisco Systems acquired a broad line networking company so as to gain technological leverage (Boundless, 2014). The acquisition helped Cisco to access internet equipment after it acquired 71 companies at a cost of $650 million and $150 million in 1993 and 2009 respectively.
7. Implementation Plan
As it has been exhibited in the examples listed in the previous section of this paper, Apple Company also has a chance to embrace acquisition as its main business strategy. So far, Apple has made several acquisitions and mergers. According to a statement by the current CEO, Tim Cook, the company’s main goal of acquiring other companies is for it to own the intellectual property because the company always wants to own its production lines. So far, Apple has acquired the PA Semiconductor Technology Company so as to control its team of employees and technologies since the company has been instrumental in developing proprietary chips for the iPads and the iPhones. Apple also acquired Siri, which is a voice recognition business start-up that also owned mapping technologies. This company has formed a basis for Apple Maps. According to the financial reports for fiscal 2013, Apple has $137 billion in cash while other capital has been preserved in marketable securities (Mckeown, 2012). Over the past years, the implementation of acquisition strategies has been seconded by talent acquisition as well as the purchase of patents and novel technologies. The process of acquiring small firms by Apple has been aimed at easing the process of integrating the new products and services into their product line.
8. Conclusions and Recommendations
In conclusion, it is prudent to consider both the internal and external analysis when making decisions about strategies to be implemented by Apple Company. The analysis made in this report identifies that Apple is currently leveraged this gives it a better position to exploit a larger market coupled with its talented employees and financial resources. As a result, if the company refined its acquisition strategies while matching up with pricing strategies and continuous innovations, then the company will sure reach its optimum productivity. This will be evident in its increased market share, which will considerably boost its revenues and earnings. As a result, it is recommended that Apple Company has to invest in diversifying its products and creating market niches that will compete its such as rival. This is to mean that Apple has to use selective pricing in is market segment so as to win over a larger market share.
Phase 2 Research Strategic Plan Project Preparation Work –
You should now have selected the company for your strategic plan, either, Ford Motor Company, Apple or iRobot. Continue your preliminary research on the company by beginning to analyze the external forces that affect the organization: economic, social, cultural, demographic, environmental, political, governmental, legal, technological and competitive. Use the tools for external audit and benchmarking on the company in your strategic plan. – Due in Week 3
An analysis of Apple Company’s Inc. can be facilitated by the use of a PESTEL analysis. This term is an abbreviation for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Ethical and Legal factors. It describes a strategic framework which can be used by a company to analyze its macro-environmental factors by scanning the environment. This analysis will be helpful in understanding market growth factors and thus contribute towards formulating a viable research strategic plan.
Political factors determine the degree of government intervention in the growth and development of the economy. The government through its policies and regulations have impacted on decisions made by the management at Apple. For instance, since 2005, the company has expanded its market segments outside the United States thus selling most of its products outside the USA. The countries that account for most of its sales include China, Ireland, Czech Republic and Korea. The global market place is diverse with developing and developed countries. These governments impact on the sales volume of products through taxation, tariffs and quotas so as to achieve a Balance of Payment (BOP) (David, 2007). In the event that Apple disregards these international rules and those set by the US government, then it will have a hard time marketing its products.
Economic factors have impacted on the decision making process at Apple Inc. This is because global factors such as economic growth, inflation rate, exchange rates and interest rates impact how a business operates. Economic situations such as recession and bloom could impact on the sales made on Apple as a company. The products produced by Apple are mostly viewed as luxuries thus an increase inflation could result into low sales volumes. This is because of the increase in unemployment rates which will reduce disposable income thus lowering the buyer’s propensity to purchase. Economic factors can affect Apple either negatively or positively.
Social-cultural factors describe the living patterns and values of the global consumers of Apple electronic products and services. Social factors impact on customer preferences, income groups, and perception and life priorities towards purchasing Apple products. Whereas other social factors such as fashion, social class and peer pressure could drive people into purchasing Apple products, the same forces could make people value other products instead of Apple’s (David, 2007). The company has managed to associate itself with quality, reliability and innovation. The consumers are also aware that Apple Inc. is an expensive brand. Social factors are synonymous with cultural aspects such as population growth rate, age, demographics and distribution of people. These factors collectively impact the company’s positioning of its products and creation of niches.
Technological factors are determined by the ability of Apple to manufacture and design highly innovative and differentiated products through research and development. So far, Apple Inc. has managed to win over more customers because of its unique products. The IT industry is competitive based on the ability for a firm to be innovative in creating appeal through appearance and product features (David, 2007). Ethical factors are related to the ability for the company to ensure that its products are original, safe, secure and not counterfeited. Ethics has helped in protecting innovations made by Apple thus reducing chances of imitation by other companies. Legal factors describe the global laws governing the manufacture of electronic products by companies such as Apple Inc. The company has benefited from laws allowing for sub-contracting of countries with cheap labor such as Korea, and China. As a result, the company has managed to create a competitive advantage due to its low costs of production.
Reference
David, E. H. (2007). Strategic Management: From Theory to Implementation. New York: Routledge.
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Start preliminary planning for your strategic plan project.
Assignment Description:
Select from the 3 companies Ford Motor Company, Apple or iRobot which company you plan to write your strategic plan for and begin your preliminary research on the company background, products, services, markets serving, key technologies, key manufacturing and operations, financial strength, key partners…etc.
Parameters:
This assignment is worth 75 points.
You are to follow APA formatting and style, and the assignment will be graded following the grading rubric “BU482 Phase 1 and 2 Research Plan Project Work Grading Rubric.“
BU482 Strategic Plan Project Description
The strategic plan project is broken into 4 parts:
Phase 1 Research Strategic Plan Project Preparation Work
Phase 2 Research Strategic Plan Project Preparation Work
Phase 3 Strategic Plan Sections 1- 5
Phase 4 Final Strategic Plan Sections 1-10
Develop a strategic plan for iRobot, Ford or Apple. This should be your writing of a strategic plan for either of these companies and not a copy of their strategic plans. Be creative in your vision for these companies by analyzing the company information provided and using your own research. For example, analyze/develop the mission and vision statement, external and internal forces, long term objectives, desired strategies, management organization/issues, implementation plan/issues and a conclusion. Each of these companies are in dynamic industries undergoing significant changes. For example, Apple is under extreme pressure from Samsung, Google and other Android devices, new tablets and technology, smartphones, cloud computing, sustainability, cost pressures, economic and environmental pressures. Ford is under pressures from the United States and other foreign governmental regulations, zero emission requirements, global competition, product costs, safety technology, satellite systems, intense innovative competitive designs and growth in the emerging markets like India, China and Brazil. iRobot is developing technology that has both military and commercial use, governments are beginning to regulate the use of robots such as drones, robot and computer technology changes quickly and the public is unsure how robots will affect or be a part of their lives. Be creative and develop your strategic plan for one of these fantastic companies. You are to follow the strategic planning process outlined in our textbook shown in (David, Figure 1-1,page 14) and which is highlighted in each chapter of the book but be creative and include sources and information from outside of our test book.
Report Length should be at least 10 pages double spaced (not including the cover page or appendices), 12 point font and following APA 6th Edition writing guidelines.
Phase 1 Research Strategic Plan Project Preparation Work – Select from the 3 companies Ford Motor Company, Apple or iRobot which company you plan to write your strategic plan for and begin your preliminary research on the company background, products, services, markets serving, key technologies, key manufacturing and operations, financial strength, key partners…etc.. – Due in Week 2
Apple Company is a multinational corporation based in the United States. Its headquarter is in California. It is specialized in the development, designing, marketing and selling of consumer electronics, online services, personal computers and computer software. The company has managed to create its market niche by producing a dominant hardware which is used in the Mac product line such as iPod media players, iPad table computers and iPhone smartphones. The software used to run the Mac hardware is known as the iOS operating systems and the OS X (David, 2007). The company was founded by three principles; Steve Jobs, Ronald Wayne and Steve Wozniak in the year 1976. The company then became incorporated into Apple Computer, Inc. in 1977 and later renamed to Apple Company Inc. in 2007. The new name reflected the companies shift in focus to produce a diversified line of consumer electronics. Currently, the company ranks as the second largest in the IT industry. This rank comes after Samsung Electronics which has been ranked as the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer.
Products
Apple sales it products via an online store as well as its chain retail stores. Some of its other products are sold by direct sales force, resellers, value added resellers and third party wholesalers (David, 2007). These products include Macintosh, iPods, iPhones and other compatible hardware products such as storage devices, printers, watches, branded television sets, headphones, speakers among other computer peripherals and accessories.
Services
The online services provided by Apple Company include iTunes Store, iCloud as well as an App Store. Apple also manufacturers digital contents which are sold through iTunes Store. These services include software programs which are sold through the Apple App Store to its diverse groups of consumers. The iCloud online service has been helpful in syncing a wide range of data such as contacts, email, documents, calendars and photos. The iCloud also offers backup storage for iOS.
Customers
Apple has specialized in segmenting, creating market niches and penetrating market segments. The company has created a blue ocean for its products since, in spite of the high prices, the company has managed to retain its customers who range from small and mid-sized businesses, individual consumers, educational institutions, government agencies, creative customers and enterprises.
Markets serving
Apple Company Inc. serves multinational customers through its 425 chains of retail stores which are strategically located in 14 countries. The supply chain is facilitated by other independent sellers.
Key technologies
The latest technologies by Apple Company Inc. include the iOS 8 which has more than 4000 APIs that lets developers improve the capabilities and features of applications. The technology enables a deeper integration of iOS thus enabling extended functionality. The technology has facilitated game development. The iCloud for developer’s technology has leveraged the full power of building applications through the cloud kit framework. The developers can now securely and easily store and retrieve essential data on their applications from an online database.
Key manufacturing and operations
Manufacturing and operations at Apple Inc. are highly innovative thus leading to the production of innovative products which move through the fast product life-cycle associated with the IT industry. The company promotes its products through spectacular promotions and marketing campaigns. The products are of high quality thus they are charged at a premium price.
Financial strength
Apple Company Inc. has the largest market capitalization estimated at $446 billion. Because of its financial strength, the company has 75,800 full time employees globally and it enjoyed an annual revenues of $170 billion in 2013. The company is ranked in the top ten of the Fortune 500 companies. Another ranking by the Inter-brand Best Global Brand have reported that Apple is the most valuable brand in the world with a value of $118.9 billion.
Key partners
Apple’s key partners include social networking sites developers and programmers such as Facebook and LinkedIn. These companies have been essential in partnering with Apple in marketing its products because the company pre-install these applications in their electronic gadgets such as the iPhones. The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has been a confidential key partner for Apple Company since it shares with it important data on the A7 system on chip technology (SoC).
Reference
David, E. H. (2007). Strategic Management: From Theory to Implementation. New York: Routledge.
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Evaluate Rawls’ theory and the other approaches to ethical decision making. Analyze the approach you feel works best in resolving ethical dilemmas. Once you have chosen an approach you feel is best, apply the ethical issue you identified. Assess the resolution your ethical decision-making approach suggests for your issue.
SAMPLE ANSWER
Parameters of Ethical Decision Making
Rawls theory has some insights regarding ethical decision-making. The theory provides recommendations on how to deal with ethical dilemmas. This mainly relies on his principles inscribed in the theory. One of the principles is difference principle that requires social and economic inequalities to be arranged so that they can benefit those who are less least disadvantaged. In simpler terms, differences in social and wealth position are acceptable as long as they can be shown to benefit everyone and, in specific those who have the fewest business advantages (In Christiansen, In Basilgan & IGI Global, 2014). The second principle is known as liberty principle that recommends that each person should have an equal right to as many basic liberties as possible. The environment should also still allow a similar system of liberty for all. This principle guarantees that an individual should process as much liberty as to live and seek chances as is possible, not infringing the liberties and freedoms of others.
According to In Christiansen, In Basilgan & IGI Global (2014), the theory is obviously applicable to ethical matters in the larger health care setting where there are ethical dilemmas between health policy and allocation of resources. These issues can be approached by using Rawls theory from the perceptive of rights and individual liberties. The theory is also applicable in giving patients, patients, and families in health care setting autonomy and obligations to maneuver about ethical dilemmas involving ethical malpractices (In Christiansen, In Basilgan & IGI Global, 2014). These ethical dilemmas include decisions of end of life matters. This is because the theory has a strong emphasis in on moral obligation and the need to mitigate the practical consequences of social and business systems.
