Fiat Failure Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Fiat Failure - Case Study Example Finally this study has particularly identified Fiat's inability to reorganize its internal and external strategic value chain and supply chain management processes to achieve positive synergies related to costs and corresponding benefits. More than a century of operations at Fiat were essentially characterized by typical Italian family business approach. The Agnelli family dynasty has been controlling Fiat ever since its inception and even today the family and its related people have roughly 34% of the shares. The company was growing from strength to strength, diversifying in the process in to one of the biggest European Business Conglomerate (Cammarata, Kurucz, Maj, Pavlovic & Portmann, 2006). Its diversification strategy spread in to a number of unrelated businesses as well. Aircraft manufacturing to pharmaceuticals Fiat spread its organizational umbrella. Currently its mammoth organizational structure has become unwieldy. Fiat has been going through a series of downs and very rare ups for a number of years now (Barry, 2009). The organization's inability to come to terms with the changing patterns of international trade and above all its structural orientation in the rapidly changing external competitive environment was not only flawed but also strategically divergent. It is the latter problem that affected the company much more than any other. The recent efforts to turn around the company financially and operationally have been met with no success because in the first place the company has been relying too much on corporate outcomes related to volume sales and capturing market shares while its smaller rivals have been concentrating on technology related productivity goals to identify niche markets in far corners of the globe(Landmann, Wolters, Bernhart & Harsten, 2000).Despite a growing threat coming from these bigger competitors, Fiat was more or less occupied with fluid external environment that pa rticularly had an impact on new product launches rather than testing the mood of the customer. Fiat's inability to effect internal structural changes along with a focus on the rapidly transient strategic competitive environment has been the main reason for its current debacle. While its competitors concentrated on merger and acquisition (M&A) related synergies, there was very little or no effort by Fiat to integrate its existing scale related advantages in to the existing operational environment (Fiat News, 2009). Thus its strategic market orientation was lacking in many respects. 2. Research aim The research aim of this paper is to establish a series of correlations and regressions

Lessons from The Piano Lesson by August Wilson Essay -- The Piano Less

What should one do with their legacy, and how should it be put to use? In the play â€Å"The Piano Lesson†, the Charles' family faces this question, and struggles to find the answer. The family’s legacy is in the form of a piano. On the piano are carvings of their ancestors. The two main characters that are having a conflict over the piano are Berniece and Boy Willie. Boy Willie wants to sell the piano so he can add the proceeds of the sale to the proceeds of selling watermelon’s and buy some land from â€Å"Sutter†. Berniece doesn’t want to sell the piano because it holds the memories and blood that stains its wood (Gale, 2000, p255). She refuses to play the piano and keeps its history from her daughter in fear of calling up the spirits that might lie within the piano. The main symbol of the play is the 137-year-old piano, an object that holds a key to the family history. It takes on a number of meanings through the course of its life. It was carved to make Miss Ophelia happy, the piano's wooden figures indicate the interchangeable nature of slavery. As Doaker notes, who is Berniece and Boy willie’s uncle, "Now she had her piano and her niggers too." (ACT I, p741) The slave is the master's gift and accessory. The piano â€Å"visibly records the lost lives of Berniece and Boy Willie’s ancestors, and it is the only tangible link remaining between past and present† (Galens 2000). The piano also becomes a symbolic attempt to keep the family together. It is also then the physical record of the family's history. Boy Charles especially understands the carvings as narrative. As Doaker recalls: "†¦say it was the story of our whole family and as long as Sutter had it he had us. Say we was still in slavery." (Act I, p741) It might appear as if Be... ...ing one's legacy is answered so simply. The living draw strength from the ghosts of the past and the ghosts respond to the living because they speak from that very place. Works Cited Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition  © 2007 by Salem Press, Inc. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=MOL9830000328&site=lrc-live SparkNotes Editors. â€Å"SparkNote on The Piano Lesson.† SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. n.d.. Web. 1 Dec. 2014. "The Piano Lesson." Drama for Students. Ed. David M. Galens. Vol. 7. Detroit: Gale, 2000. 243-262. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 7 Dec. 2014. http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CCX2693200025&v=2.1&u=bali98452&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w Wilson, August. â€Å"The Piano Lesson.† Booth, Hunter, and Mays. The Norton Introduction to Literature. Portable ed. New York: Norton, 2006, p716-778.

Effects of Media Globalisation Essay

Summary of the Effects of Media Globalization by Mary Hickman The world, in many ways, has been benefited from media globalization. However, the lurking dark side of media globalization that threatens us, as audiences of the media, has to be acknowledged and cogitated. Undoubtedly, media globalization has transformed our lives in many ways. Friedman (2005) asserted that the seamless information sharing have brought nations closer in the facets of businesses, personal communications and medical industries. Unfortunately, media globalization has brought about many drawbacks to the world. Firstly, it is a question of the motivation behind media corporations. According to Chomsky (1996), profits are the primary motivation behind every multi-national media corporations. Overwhelming media businesses have swallowed the essence of journalism. As a result, media corporations have the ability to manipulate the media, creating their ideal audience of a certain kind. Due to the small pool of competing media corporations, the existing powerful media corporations have been dominating the media content. Through various underhand methods, the media corporations have effectively influenced and gained favor by the government. Friedman acknowledges that American media corporation, as leaders in the media globalization arena, are leading the media world into a dangerous position; posing a great challenge to media liberation. In addition, Siochru (2004) postulated that intervening American media has damaged cultures amongst countries. While the voices of the audiences are suppressed, proliferation of unhealthy media content such as cognitive content of greed has been appalling. Due to the minimum participation of media content from the audiences, we are vulnerable to any form of ideologies that are intentionally displayed by the media monopoly.

The Benefits of Building a Green House on Westerns La...

Presenting the benefits of building a green house facility on Western’s La Crosse campus. First student benefits will be explored ,second the campus’s benefits, and third the environmental benefits will be discussed. Images of the recommended design and a map outlining the proposed location are presented, and the estimated costs of the proposed kit are included as well. This project will have a positive impact including supporting Western’s efforts toward meeting the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations or in other words being sustainable (Western, Web). Introduction . Sustainability and environmental awareness have become topics of increasing importance†¦show more content†¦This project will also enhance our competitive advantage against other campuses that are going green. In addition a green house would expand our growing season being able to grow some of our own produce will give us access to fresh, nutritious, and seasonal produce, as well as plants and flowers during the cold winter months. A study from a top market research company called Heartman Group shows that over Two thirds of all consumers favor locally grown foods and almost 75 percent expressed the desire for wider selection of these products to be more readily available. http://green.nau.edu/docs/Sodexo_Sustainability_Brochure.pdf What is grown could be incorporated into cafeteria, Lunda center, and Western Corner Bistro menu items, used in food labs, and sold at fundraisers. By growing some of our own vegetables and herbs we are able t o reduce the distance our food travels to get to our plate. Rich Pirog of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture reports that the average fresh food item on our dinner table travels 1,500 miles to get there. Buying locally produced food eliminates the need for all that fuel-guzzling transportation http://environment.about.com/od/greenlivingdesign/a/locally_grown.htm. This means that growing some of