Business

Car-sharing service is becoming a growing industry today. With the increasing prices of gasoline as well as other commodities, owning a car becomes more of a luxury. In addition, the pressure that comes from various environmental problems paves the way for the increasing market of the car-sharing service.
One of the companies that cater on this kind of service is Zipcar. This company started in 1999 by two women who believed that car-sharing would significantly contribute to environmental protection. The future of Zipcar is deemed to be promising such that recent business articles have featured the company. Cliffords (2008) article about Zipcar on Inc. Magazine features a detailed review and assessment of the company (Clifford, 2008).  
The purpose of this paper is to present a summary on Cliffords article about Zipcar. It will also analyze the aforementioned based on the information presented in the article. For instance, the strategies utilized by the new CEO of Zipcar will be explained. In addition, it will also evaluate the goals that the new CEO set forth to his managerssubordinatesteam as well as the managers have to meet. Finally, it will also determine whether the companys strategic objectives are realistic in todays environment.  
The Case of Zipcar
Zipcar is increasingly gaining its momentum. In particular, its members already reach as high as 180,000 in over 50 cities. Its yearly revenue is also set at 50 million. The vehicles of Zipcar are kept in various gas stations as well as on parking lots. The customers or the Zipcar members only need to pay an annual fee in order to rent a car by day or by hour. Transactions are done electronically or through online thereby eliminating the process of having to deal with agency personnel and rental counters.
The seven-point strategies implemented by Zipcars new CEO, Scott Griffith include the following- know when to say no and when to say yes first prove it, then fund it sell where your competition wont hand over power, watch ideas fly brand with attitude, and BMWs before you get big, get tech break it down to built it up (Clifford, 2008). These strategies are believed to be the key to the success of the organization.
The first goal of the new CEO for the company is to focus on addressing the problems of the company instead of the concentration on the continuous expansion. Indeed, it is but logical to address even the smallest problems of the company before expanding it. In relation to this, it is found out that highly technological is needed if the company wants to expand and accommodate more customers. 
    The strategic objectives are deemed to be realistic such that, they are able to meet the needs or demands of the todays environment. With all the environmental and economic woes, the idea of car-sharing services is only but suitable on todays society. The emerging needs of the customers are addressed by Zipcar. As what Frankel (2008) points out, the company is able to fulfill the short-term transportation needs of the existing customers (Frankel, 2008). One of the mandates of CEO Griffith to the board is to have a company overhaul. Nonetheless, it retained the youth image of the company. The power of structure and metrics is also reevaluated by Griffith. And by focusing on the market where car-rental companies do not recognize, Zipcar is able to create new target markets. The company was able to prove its point and that funding eventually came in. Even with many offers at hand, Zipcar is careful on choosing its partners and ventures.     
    With this, it is believed that the company is a success and since the marketplace is favoring this industry, greater success is expected of this company. More importantly, one can highly attribute this success to the companys CEO, Scott Griffith. The aggressive but systematic approach to running the company has worked well with the goals and objectives of the organization. 

At the outset, chapter The Quiet Crisis begins with making a point from the loss of our basketball team in the 2004 Olympics Mr. Friedman amazingly connected that event to set straight a very important conception, that even a presumably unconquerable American team can be beaten and therefore so can the indomitable U.S. economy.
The U.S. was once known for its innovation, its ambitious businessmen, the flawless American dream, and of course Hollywood. We still lead the pact in all of these fields, Hollywood is still the best, Bill Gates is still at the top, our innovation and patenting rates are highest, and to some extent the American dream is achievable to many. But the question put forth by the author is not what we are, but rather focuses more on what we used to be and how other countries and foreigners are catching up at an unimaginable speed.
Furthermore, statistics put forth by NFAP further support the authors point, these figures state that more than 65 of prime mathematics students and 60 of prime science students within States are the children of contemporary immigrants. (Anderson, 2004)
Such alarming compilations were put forth by the author to warn its generations to come to be prepared and at their best to shape up a better future and to save our American Dream.

Impact of disproportionate percent of technologically skilled labor in the U.S. versus other nations on the U.S. economy
Mr. Friedman refers to the declining number of American engineering and IT experts as The Numbers Gap. The Number gap occurs when the number of retiring professionals is higher than the rate of new recruits with equivalent expertise or qualifications, such as the case in NASA where many experts face retirement soon and there are not enough recruits to fill the empty positions.
Once this happens, the innovation and research rate will drastically fall and eventually other countries will emerge as leaders in innovation. A lot has changed since after we won the race to moon, even today many youngsters do not consider brave and ambitious people such as Neil Armstrong and Bill Gates as their idols, American children choose people like Eminem and Britney Spears as their idols, rather than brave and ambitious Americans such as Neil Armstrong and Bill Gates who are literally worshipped by foreign children. This concept according to Friedman is the Ambition Gap.
Even though many people lost their jobs in the great depression of the 21st Century, but this was mostly in the case of mid to lower level jobs, which had been outsourced to locations with not only lower cost but higher expertise. What America needs is Americans with a caliber to manage and lead people with mid to low level jobs and not the mid level employees themselves. This is precisely the opposite of what is happening as the number gap and the ambition gap are working hand in hand, instead of leaders we are creating labor.
If this continues we may even witness many more economic downturns in the future, and some even much larger than the 2007 depression. This will be a result of America losing its grip over developing nations and the degradation of its currency. Companies like Microsoft, Google, Dell, and HP would all be replaced by their Chinese versions.
Reflecting the operational functions of U.S. Corporations Their Dependency
As discussed above, U.S. Corporations are largely dependent upon foreign labor, primarily because of 3 factors
Lower costs of product development in foreign (developing) nations
Better work ethic in some foreign nations.
Lack of experts in U.S.
As of today, anything that can be digitized can be and is being outsourced. Although it is predicted that if this continues, the management authority of Americans over these mid-low level digitized jobs will be lost as soon the products will not only be Made in India, but also innovated, designed, and developed in India. And these products will carry a better or equivalent quality, and a much lower price tag than their American competitors.
Some ethical American companies, even though they comprehend this concept, cannot do anything about it unless the American public and government rises up to face the competition, but until then their hands are tied. Other companies just go with the flow and outsource their products to increase their profits or the quality of their products.

Enron was a natural gas pipeline company (Healy 1). From the time of its creation in 1985, it grew to become one of the biggest companies in the United States reporting billions of dollars in revenue and a value of more than sixty billion dollars in 2000 (Ibid.). However, in 2001, Enron filed for bankruptcy. From a multi-billion dollar company Enron suddenly collapsed turning its stocks virtually worthless. This sudden turn of events, led to delving questions involving its financial reporting, accounting methods, and internal control. 
Enrons main business was to transport natural gas through its pipeline that ran 37,000 miles across the United States from natural gas producers to its customers (Ibid.). Due to a passed legislation deregulating the sale of natural gas, Enron was able to sell energy at more than its market value. One side effect of the deregulation was the price volatility of energy. In order to manage this, Enron entered into long-term contracts with its customers, selling natural gas at a fixed-price for the duration of the contract. Enron then used financial derivatives in order to meet its commitment of delivering natural gas to its long-term customers (Ibid. 2).
Enron soon began expanding its business. In 1998, Enron traded coal, water, weather, paper, and pulp (Ibid. 3). The expansion of its business led to a revenue and earnings growth by more than a hundred percent and more than two hundred percent, respectively, in 2000 (Ibid. 3). However, by 2001, Enron was declared bankrupt (Ibid. 11).
One of the causes of Enrons downfall was the method of its financial reporting. Enron simply stretched the limits of accounting (Ibid. 6).
Firstly, Enron adhered to the use of market-to-market accounting. By using the market-to-market accounting, the present-value of the net future cash flows for its long-term contracts were reported as income, and the present value of the costs were reported as expense for the accounting year at the time of the signing of the contracts. The amounts that were reported in its financial reports were based mainly on estimates thus the amounts did not truly reflect the actual revenue and expenses realized by Enron. Under this approach, the actual costs were not properly reported in its income statements (Ibid. 6).
Secondly, the use of Enron of Special Purpose Entities (SPE) also led to its downfall. SPEs were entities created for a specific purpose and funded by independent equity investors and lenders (Ibid. 6). Proper financial reporting required certain rules to be followed to allow companies to determine whether these shell companies were separate entities and should be considered as part of the equity of the sponsor, or part of Enrons equity and be included in its financial statements (Ibid. 6). Normally, to be considered as a separate entity from Enron, the sponsor must have at least three percent debt and equity interests and at least fifty percent controlling financial interest in the SPEs. However, in the case of Enron, for as long as the SPE met the three percent debt-and-equity-interest rule requirement, it would not report as liability in its balance sheet any debt it guaranteed or used as capital for a SPE, particularly Chewco and LJM, thereby, overstating its assets and understating its liabilities (Ibid. 7).
Management policy of providing exorbitant salaries and bonuses also led to the downfall of Enron. For 2000, Enron spent more than seven hundred million dollars in bonuses to its employees (Ibid. 4). These bonuses were based on the annual income reported by the company. Since Enron was not properly reporting its income, it could also be deduced that these bonuses were much higher than the amount that should be properly awarded to its employees (Ibid. 4). Enron likewise paid excessive salaries to its employees and board of directors (Ibid. 8).
The board of directors who were supposed to be responsible for the management of the company failed to prevent the collapse due to the inefficiency of its management. It failed to coordinate with its internal and external audit committees. The board merely relied on inaccurate financial reports of its auditors (Ibid. 8). The audit committee meetings were held sporadically despite the rising questions regarding its accounting practices (Ibid. 8). The board also failed to inform the public of its current financial situation by frequently avoiding questions regarding certain financial matters (Ibid. 10).
On paper, the Code of Ethics of Enron was a good model (Ibid. 6). The employees were required to certify in writing that they did not violate any provision of the code. For the senior managers, board approval was required to suspend the effectively of the code. However, in actual practice, the board transgressed the code of ethics by allowing the circumvention of the accounting rules. It violated some ethical consideration by receiving excessive compensation despite the companys financial hardship. Lastly, by concealing the true financial condition of Enron, the board was successful in deceiving the public and some of its employees regarding the companys condition. These violations eventually led to a billion-dollar companys demise in 2001 (Ibid. 11).

The main attribute that is assigned to the success of any organization apart from the organizations assets are employees. Employees form an important part in the success of an organization. Therefore contemporary organizations are now focusing on selecting the best and efficient employees for supporting the official goals. Tasks are distributed among teams for affective achievement of goals by collaboration of team members. This allows management flexibility to distribute the work and having specialized workforce to handle uncertain situations. Global expansion of markets and penetration of organization in multiple nations has given an edge to address the changing consumer needs and formulate strategies in consideration of organization capabilities.
Globalization leads to restructuring of traditional organizations towards hierarchical arrangements and horizontal differentiation. Innovation based organization is organic in nature whereas repetitive production process of such organization is still mechanistic in nature for efficiency. Management functioning has been formalized to synchronize the error and formulate a set of guidelines decision making assigned to groups and teams. Globally dispersed team members have led to formulation of virtual teams that facilitate the organization to involve the expertise of capable people irrespective of geographical constraints (Bratton  Gold, 2001). Virtual team members perform the tasks from their respective locations by using digital technologies. They communicate with other team member over phone or internet for task management. Virtual team collaboration leads to utilization of advanced technologies for communication and performing of tasks. Therefore, direct communication is not necessary to be present for virtual team member, they may have direct conference meetings depending on tasks requirement for discussion (Bratton  Gold, 2001).
Many multinational organizations offering customized products to customers in diverse markets form virtual teams to manage administrative duties. Organizational management decisions for virtual team formation require the evaluation of environment, market needs, resources availability and market penetration. Virtual teams comprise of employees with extra-ordinary skills and capabilities which gives flexibility to arrange tasks among virtual teams for managerial activities irrespective of geographical boundaries. Employees may exist in different locations and rely on technological advancements responsive decisions require virtual team as part of globally distributed activities (Kimball, 1997). This flexibility gives competitive edge to organization as it can decrease its human capital cost by employing resources effectively while also enhancing inter-organization communication according to changing market needs.
Dell Inc. global expansion success is based on capable employee involvement in corporate decision making and activities. Operational duties that include distribution and sales related tasks allow operational workers to have flexibility in their tasks related decisions. Globalization puts pressure on the organization to address the diverse market issues and which leads to virtual team formation with considerable decision power for administrative issues management (McNamara, 2008). Dell Inc. operations are distributed across the world that requires coordination of activities and proper management of tasks. Strategic business divisions arrangement of Dell Inc. is each assigned with a separate set of activities and products are interlinked to the organizational goals. Such arrangement of decisional power leads to coordination of activities for distributed administrative tasks. Communication of globally distributed employees of Dell Inc. for management of administrative duties would require frequent movement of employees from one destination to another which will add up to the total operational cost whereas considerable important time will be allocated to the journey. Hence virtual team formation for administering the duties will benefit Dell Inc. to achieve desired objectives with competitive advantage over other organizations.

Virtual Team Formation
Virtual teams give advantage to contemporary organization in terms of resource management and access to skilled personnel. People across the world can participate in these teams as an active member being a part of an organization as duties assigned to them. Members may be located at far places from other members of their respective teams. Tasks collaboration and work is carried out by the help of latest internet technology and hence for project based management it is essential to involve professional expertise of people residing in distinct places.
Dell Inc. manages its operations in many countries around the world, locating in different continents, and hence distributes the management responsibilities by assigning objectives to each country division. This leads to a duplication of administrative tasks in each country division and may result in low grade decision making based on limited knowledge of people working at administrative level of company. Therefore, virtual teams are a magnificent solution to the market needs and management of companys administrative responsibilities. Since the tasks assigned to company personnel working at administrative level are distinct and diverse due to association of members with different projects, therefore specialized employees knowledge is distributed over the projects. Teams work on different projects simultaneously such as the latest Dell  Citrix, Dell  VMware, and Dell  Microsoft projects. This strategy head towards transfer of company personnel to different destinations for project management as a result administrative duties of companies that include corporate strategy  affairs, organizational planning, personnel management suffer to some extent.
Therefore to form a virtual team that handle such administrative tasks would require considerable assessment of company resource capabilities, financial position, market need and access to information for goal setting and planning (Kimball, 1997). Technology based organizations are heading towards the management concern of team communication and tasks collaboration for goal accomplishment. Such organizations objectives are based on project and once a project is completed, team members are shuffled to form new teams. Therefore, employees location and adjustability in different environments needs to be considered for formation of virtual team that allows employees to have flexibility in the achievement of their tasks. Employee skills and knowledge must exceed the project requirement to effectively manage the responsibilities assigned to each member of team.
To form a virtual team, first of all administrative tasks and duties should be defined contributing to organizational goals. Tasks based project structure would lead to clarity of goals and hence employeesteam members can have specific direction to lead the tasks with respect to organizational goals and policies. This would lead to planning process of defining goals, objectives, work arrangement and policies for virtual teams. Coordinated support groups would be identified for support of virtual team members at their respective locations. Once all the objectives are set and coordination mechanism has been identified, it would require recruitment and selection of employees dispersed geographically. It would also require recognizing core competencies of people necessary to include them in virtual team in addition to their experience and specialized skills. This process further leads to selection of competent employees to support the organization function as a virtual team member in this case to perform administrative duties for Dell Inc. Virtual team members would be located at diverse locations worldwide and hence they perform their duties by using technological gadgets and equipments (such as computer and digital communicating devices) through a medium (internetvirtual private network) which help them to communicate regularly with other team members by using internet and collaborate prompt decision and actions. Therefore to form virtual team we should consider the availability of above stated equipments to all team members. For Dell Inc. virtual team members can be from any country where they hold capabilities to perform their services for Dell Inc.
 To meet the standards and timeline, communication among team members need to be coordinated by a team leader responsible for the performance of virtual team. This would be achieved based on remuneration planning such as pay for performance. This would enhance the teams performance and capability of team members to perform their duties with diligence. Activitieswork done by the group members will be monitored by the state office of Dell Inc. based on reporting of virtual team leader. In this way I will form virtual team for Dell Inc. that allows flexibility to employees in decision making and authority to manage tasks on their own whereas employee performance will be monitored by an independent unit.
Recruiting and selection of personnel requires analysis of market condition and job needs. To recruit effective people for being a part of virtual team proper applicant pool needs to be generated. Since the team would be required to handle administrative duties of computer based firm therefore people who have expertise of the related field would be recruited. Job requirement follows the administrative capabilities to manage the tasks and coordinate with other members to make appropriate decisions. People who possess excellent knowledge, skills and are working for small IT based firms across the world will be approached for the positions. These people can be easily attracted by paying right amount of remuneration for their services which will enable the organization to create a large pool of recruited applicants. Selection process will further lead to finding the strengths and weaknesses of people that will help to identify the specialized key skills possess by people required to do the job.
In this case approaching such people is controversial towards affecting the organizational functioning. People who are under-rewarded and have unique abilities to serve the computer based firms will be approached by virtual team career opportunity through official website of Dell Inc. Virtual employment opportunity will be publicized through the media channel to reach potential virtual team employees for company. Recruitment of people will be done through process application list of person applying to be a part of virtual team for Dell Computers Inc. This allows the organization to have flexibility of decision and have access to wider range of people irrespective of geographical boundary limitations. Candidates will be required to undergone an assessment online for the position in order to assess the knowledge and capability of an individual. Shortlisted candidates will be required to join an online forum organized by Dell Computers Inc. where they will have discussion with other participating members. Communication will be monitored by the specialized selectors in order to select the effective virtual team members. This would enable the organization to hire suitable candidates in consideration of job profiling and market needs. Virtual team members can communicate and have collaborative decision with each other by using common digital software designed by Dell computers that will be programmed to show current status of tasks and will record the performance of team members to appraise their capabilities and concern shown towards work.

Motivational Factors for Virtual Team Formation
Virtual teams offer benefit to both organization and team members thus contributing towards the success of an organization operating globally and in uncertain environment. This contributes towards the motivational factors necessary to form and manage the virtual teams. Virtual team includes diverse group members having different cultural background and expertise which identify different motivational factor required for each team member. Multiple set of motivational factors would be considered to form a virtual team for Dell Computers Inc for administrative duties.
To derive the human capital towards the virtual team participation would require offering tangible benefits (Bratton  Gold, 2001). Such benefits are recognized at the initial stages of group formation which regulates the participation of people in tasks and exhibit higher level of performance. This include offering higher salary packages to team member comparing to their existing remuneration packages if they are part of any other company but have specialized unique skills required by Dell Inc. to support its administrative duties. To maintain effective communication system technological equipments would be offered to team members at the time of virtual team formation. This would help the company to motivate employees and start building loyalty towards the organizations which will be seen as retention of employees and fulfillment of tasks with dedication. Other tangible benefits include perk benefits offered to employees to increase the performance level while maintaining the objectives of organization.
Employee status inside the organization and image of organization in consumer setting plays a very important role in attracting specialized employees. Employees status inside the organization contributes towards their social status in society and hence affects their performance and need driven factors. Need for power, need for achievement influences the person to indulge in any particular activity (Bratton  Gold, 2001). Similarly, in this case virtual team formation would require addressing these two motivational factors to involve people as a core component of virtual team to support Dell Inc. by performing administrative duties. Team members would be assigned strategic roles to lead the tasks assigned to team from time to time. This would address the need for power motivational factors of individuals as people who are assigned lower grade in the group will dedicate their energies towards achievement of higher roles in the team by giving better performance and results. Signifying the inter-linkages between need for power and achievement people performance and attitude towards tasks responsibilities result in better achievement of objectives.
Clarification of goals and objectives depict the outcome result in favor of the organization. Motivational factors other than above specified which include tasks importance for virtual team members, flexibility of work , adjustment in duties, collaborative approach for decision making, decision making power, team cohesion, and continuity of purpose.  These things will affect the ability of virtual team members to adjust themselves according to the norms of groups and meet the standard of performance required to fulfill the tasks.

Virtual Team Cohesion
Team cohesion for the effective carry out of tasks is essential when members are specialized and have autonomy of decisions and flexibility. Virtual team members have flexibility to perform their duties but require coordination with other team members at some point in time for effective management of tasks and follow up. Essential management rules imply formalizing the behavior and actions of individuals as virtual team members would have expertise in their work for handling administrative duties and would have gone through social specialization. Therefore set of expectations associated with work and decision autonomy complying with group norms will be high for such group members thus team cohesion will be based on behavior and social specialization of team members for effective carrying out of tasks and duties (Dyer et al., 2007). Virtual team formation in consideration of work setting increases the capacity of firm to adjust the tasks and duties for each team member based on capacity of person and resources availability. Dell Inc. deals in continuously reforming and changing technological equipments for manifold business solutions thus team members must have effective communication skills, coordination and unity for the management of duties to manage the administering duties of Dell Inc. to built short term plans and business operations.
The strategy that I will emphasize to increase team cohesion would be to focus on key mediator for the coordination of tasks and communication among team members. Existence of team members in different places of world makes it necessary to have formal communication among team members. Virtual team members must have a proper direct reporting relationship for the clarification of goals and unity purposes. Team cohesion will increase based on the strategies adopted for communication management and task management with concern for social and technical issues to support team performance and coordination (Dyer et al., 2007).  Fundamental concern for team leaders is to synchronize the constructive conflicts for the proper functioning of team that ultimately encourage cohesion among team members autonomy in issues discussion and management of tasks discrete the individual flexibility towards the  team performance. Team spirit building fosters team members to participate in tasks which can be enhanced by defining success criteria.
Each team member must know and understand roles assigned to them so that team members can actively participate in the tasks. Trust among employees will increase team cohesion that will depend on the leader role and other team members preference to support the organizational tasks assigned to the virtual team. To effectively manage the team cohesion team discipline norms would be established highlighting the group expectations and mechanism for the coordination and its mutual importance for participating members and organization. Implied group norms facilitate the functioning of virtual team on the basis of employee specialization. Strategic leadership role will assist the coordination among team members achieved by involvement of all team members in task setting and considerable importance paid to each members suggestions. Continuous innovation in technology requires rapid restructuring of administrative tasks therefore all members need to have contemporary knowledge about the prevailing market conditions, competitors strategy, and effective functioning mechanism (McNamara, 2008). Therefore, offering a flexible environment for work arrangements among virtual team members would strengthen the trust relationships among group members supporting the objective of Dell Inc. Proper feedback channel and patience among employees towards responses will generate cohesive team work towards achievement of organizational goals and fulfillment of tasks.

Virtual Training Program
Effective use of virtual teams is dependant on the designing of strategies for team development and virtual training programs for team members. This enables the organization to overcome weak parts of team development and management with major concern towards increased employee productivity and collaboration towards the goals of an organization. Dell Inc. administrative duties require independent decision making by virtual team members and flexibility to perform tasks. Proper communication among team members with feedback channel helps to facilitate the team functioning and ability to employees to adjust according to shaping of team structure based on industry needs.
Virtual training program helps the firm to facilitate the functioning and productivity of employees. To set up a virtual training program for Dell Inc. virtual team members requires assessment of capabilities of team members and resources available to support the program. Training programs will range in various categories for different proposed outcome that include communication, cultural differentiation understanding for coordination to effectively manage the team process inside virtual team atmosphere. Understanding of diverse backgrounds of team members will support the team members to effectively manage the situations and hence communication will be improvised.
To achieve above stated outcomes I will prefer to choose online virtual training programs for team members to strengthen the team work. An online virtual conversation program will be built up in which each member can independently participate. Main objective of the program will be to streamline the verbal communication among team members. Each member independently will answer to virtual computer program preset verbal questions employee response will be recorded including observing of pitch rate, speed of speech, choosing of words in virtual verbal communication. At the end of simulated computer program figured out results will be shown to participant with suggestion to help participants understand their communication action with other team members.
The next virtual training program will include an online assessment about the contemporary technology related business issue so that employees knowledge level can be tested about the recent market data and prevailing trends. Assessment will include an online test with multiple choice questions with one correct answer that will help team members know their knowledge level in relation to latest market information required to perform the administrative duties for Dell Inc. Questions will be about competitors strategy, new innovative products introduced in market, strategy suitable to manage situation, steps taken by rival company to effectively use resources. Such online assessment will further lead to presentation of problem case to employees each one would be required to submit a solution that will be analyzed by executive managers from different perspectives, as a result outcome will be communicated to the team members and in case shortfalls in solution arise an online direct conversation program (audio and video conference) will be arranged in which senior administrators of Dell Inc. will discuss the issues with team members in order to reform their strategic pattern of thinking.
In addition to above stated training programs digital videos will be uploaded online accessible by all team members as a skill practice technique to help team members analyze their capabilities and improvise skills that needs to be strengthen. This training programs effectiveness is dependant on the capability of team member to grasp the information and understand the differential pattern (Piccoli  Ives, 2000). Lack of direct communication among team members will restrict the direct sharing of issues whereas team leader will need to recommend the coordination and skill development concern among team members to efficiently manage the tasks and its affiliated outcome.

Virtual Team Designing
Virtual team structuring is significant for the effective management of tasks and responsibilities assigned to team members. Dell Inc. has to deal with computer technology therefore its workforce requires more autonomy and flexibility in the arrangement of duties. Provisions for strategies to handle uncertain situations will offer advantage to manage the productivity of employees working for virtual team of Dell Inc. Geographical dispersion of team members and scarce knowledge skills to manage administrative duties emphasize on the integration of processes for achievement of desired goals (McNamara, 2008).
Virtual team designing process to manage functional responsibilities would be tested in a simulated environment to assess the probability of outcome. Team structure would be simple and geographical horizontal differentiated. Reporting process will lack vertical hierarchical structure in virtual team as all people involve in team would have different pace of knowledge. Therefore coordination will be strengthened through horizontal arrangement of tasks and duties with discretionary power to team members under the set of guidelines to regulate their behavior and attitude towards the work setting (Piccoli  Ives, 2000). Team leader would be chosen from the team members based on his independent performance evaluation who will be responsible to coordinate and lead the tasks. Communication will strengthen impacting the productivity of employees positively.
Job designing process would be based on professional bureaucracy that will be characterized by low formalization, low centralization, and high social specialization. This will offer autonomy in decisions and flexibility to employees to perform any particular activity related to duties from their place of convenience (Bratton  Gold, 2001 McNamara, 2008). This virtual team structure would be accompanied by policies of Dell Inc. to regulate the employee behavior and decision within prescribed standards. Coordination of team members with business clients, corporate customers to administrate the duties will be based on virtual communication by such respective clients of Dell Inc. Therefore, Dell Inc. can have opportunity to involve capable employees in their administrative duties if geographical constrains intervenes in selection of person.
Virtual teams would be assigned specific tasks related to their duties team leader as a negotiator and communicator will follow standard procedures to manage the information flow to all or concerned members who are part of virtual team. All team members will have flexibility to coordinate with each other and on regular basis to keep management update about the status of their work. Team leader will have autonomy to discourage the ideas of any team member if majority of team members are not in favor whereas all employees views must have to be considered with respect to its importance for work. Concerning the global differentiation and cultural differences among group members all group members will be required to assess the issue and decision outcome from the perspective of other team members. 
Timeline will be specified for each member to effectively carry out the duties and report to the team leader. If necessary team leader can provide support to team members as and when required. This would enhance the coordination among team members to facilitate the functioning of team. Employees performance will be assessed and rewarded on the basis of fair equal sharing. As team members would be socially specialized in their functional concern therefore less action would be required to manage their behavior because team members already set an expectation level from the duties assigned and its consequences on their goals. Therefore, they show a responsible attitude towards the duties assigned and work responsibilities. This would help to facilitate the information flow among the team and company with substantial impact on functioning of team (Piccoli  Ives, 2000).

Of the leading economic indicators, I believe that the Index of Consumer Expectations, stock markets, manufacturers new orders, consumer goods and materials and building permits and new housing units are the best indicators of the future health of the economy. The Index of Consumer Expectations reflects the consumers feelings or ideas about the future economic situation such as the availability of jobs.  The stock market is an indicator of the volume of money in circulation, as well as the traders confidence in the current stocks in the trading sector. The manufacturers new orders, if consistent for a certain period of time, indicate a boom in the supply and demand chain.   The rise or fall in building and new housing units is likewise a leading economic indicator especially because investors tend to use this as a gauge of the future economic activity. For example, when Dubais economy was booming, buildings and many infrastructures sprouted like mushrooms. In the late quarter of 2008, the construction industry began to decline. This continued as of this time. Finally, Dubai government has begun to publicly admit that an economic downfall has been on the rise. Before that, there was no admission at all that an economic recession was on the rise, despite the fact that construction and real estate companies laying off workers and closing offices and halting construction.
Index of Consumer Expectations as one of the Leading Economic Indicators
The Index of Consumer Expectations reflects how consumers perceive the economic situation, usually within six months. This perception is taken through a survey, usually on about 5,000 respondents. Typical questions include how the respondents perceive the economic situation within the semester, whether it would be stabilized, rise or fall. Another typical question is how the respondents perceive the availability of jobs and even the rise or stability in the current wages. The results of the Index of Consumer Expectations are analyzed and merged with the Index of Consumer Confidence. The data collected are appraised and quantitatively analyzed by businessmen, and used as one of the references for making business or investment decisions. If the Index of Consumer Expectations is high, investors may decide to pursue with a business development project. If the consumers demonstrate pessimistic perception regarding the economy, then investors may decide to forego with business development plans.
The Types of Policies I Would Advocate to Stimulate the US Economy
If I were one of the advisors to the Obama administration, among the economic policies that I would advocate is to promote the export industry. The export system tends to stimulate the production of goods and services, providing more employment and then, increases the buying power of the consumers. Another economic policy which I would advocate is to provide incentives and support to the business investors and manufacturers to enhance and uphold their business infrastructures because this will sustain the business sector in times of recession. Another economic policy which can be advocated is to moderately increase government spending to pump up the economy. In a recession, the consumers spending tends to go down because of the decline in their buying power. This can be compensated for if the government will spend more, but not too much as this will also cause inflation.
My Economic Way of Thinking
I tend to be inclined in the Keynesian economic principle. In this theory, the future of the economy can be predicted by analyzing the consistent direction of the leading indicators. These leading indicators are among the aggregates that build the economy. In our time, we have witnessed enough scenarios that prove how relevant the interplay of economic aggregates is to the future of the economy. We have seen how the housing, real estate and credit crunch provided signs of a forthcoming recession in the United States, as well as many other countries around the world. The paradigm that economic aggregates such as stock market, unemployment, housing and real estate, and manufacturing orders and inventories are not relevant to the economic conditions is no longer viable. As a matter of fact, the business sector, particularly, the investors, view these economic aggregates as the key to making business decisions, For example, whenever the stocks decline, businessmen and investors immediately pull out of business deals related to the  falling stocks. When the export industry in a certain country is on the rise, the economy emerges. This is exemplified by the economic boom that China demonstrated.

According to Grant (2002), a recession is defined as a fall in gross domestic product of an economy over two consecutive quarters and is characterized by a slowdown in business activity, an increase in concerns over job security, slowdown in consumer spending, a fall in consumer confidence and rising unemployment (P.346). A recession may occur due to many reasons but the underlying cause remains a lack of confidence in the economy going forward. This lack of confidence may manifests itself in a fall in aggregate demand and may be due to consumer perception on spending being conservative which starts a chain reaction spilling venom into the minds of business managers as they plan conservatively too followed by concerns over job losses and hence more falls in consumer confidence.

Belief in business cycles is something mandatory for according to Grant (2002), empirical evidence suggests that they do exist (P. 348). The importance of credit to an economic expansion is enormous along with confidence in the prospects of an economy itself. According to Schweser (2009), Savings and investment is an important ingredient in achieving persistent economic growth (P.19). Thus, according to BPP (2008), financial intermediaries like commercial banks, investment banks and mutual funds act as vehicles for connecting those with excess money at hand but no opportunity to spend it with those who do not have money but have opportunities to spend or ideas on how to put the money to better use if they had any (P. 351).

This linkage through the credit mechanism allows the economy to grow as business and consumption opportunities are availed rather than wasted. For example, a factory which borrows money to expand its plant automatically creates direct employment for new workers while at the same time increasing the level of output and hence GDP in the economy. The act of expansion of business opportunities also creates employment in other areas (indirect employment). For example, an expansion at an automobile manufacturing plant would help in job creation in the paint industry. Thus, it can be effectively concluded that the amount of credit off take determines the consumption and investment in an economy, two fundamental factors in the growth of national income. Without credit, the economy would remain a stagnated one, with lots of opportunities and potential for development, but seldom availed.

The Obama administrations economic recovery plan is a two-pronged approach. The first half deals with massive investment in the factors of production, public infrastructure and new technologies to allow the United States to become more competitive and to raise aggregate demand in the economy. These measures aimed at propping up demand will be accompanied by a lax monetary policy with near zero interest rates that would be aimed at encouraging private sector credit off take and unfreezing credit markets. Under this fiscal stimulus plan, 787 billion will be spent to make the U.S economy more competitive and to raise demand.

The second leg of the economic recovery program is to restore confidence in and normalcy to financial markets. This involves a massive program to work with public and private partners and aim to prevent any other major bankruptcies, as was the case with Lehman and to work constructively with financial institutions through monetary and non-monetary measures so that those banks with toxic assets on their balance sheets become more secure and financial markets calm down.

Support for the Obama program is far reaching. If one picks up an economic textbook, the greatest admirer of Obamas policies right now would be Sir John Maynard Keynes, the greatest economist of the 20th century along with Milton Friedman. According to Grant (2002) Keynesian economics holds that recessions involve the private sector lacking confidence in the economy and hence households spend less and factories cut back on production. In such a situation, it is imperative that the government intervenes to spend so that the private sector matches the increase in demand by increasing supply so that overall stability is restored and confidence returns (P. 249).

However, there is ample opposition to the plan too. The size of the fiscal stimulus program coupled with the earlier Troubled Asset Relief Program worth 700B would lead to a huge budget deficit, difficult and costly to finance, exposing the country to a major structural shock going forward. Furthermore, according to Grant (2002), critics of the Keynesian school of thought argue that government intervention would only lead to a departure from the liassez faire principal, leading to inefficiencies creeping into the economy as businesses and corporations increasingly rely on state aid (P. 267).

All in all, the overall atmosphere across the world shows immense support from Obama. On a personal note, although we might differ from his tools at combating this economic downturn, the overall agreement remains that demand has to pick up so that the slide can be reversed. Only time will tell how successful the Obama administration is. I personally believe that the administration is on the right economic policy track.

Globalization and corporate social responsibility
What happens when government control or dominate a notional economy
When the government controls or dominates the national economy, there will not be much growth of the private sector. The people will be dependent entirely on the government for jobs and livelihood. The effect of the free market cannot be seen.
What are the obvious global institutions that have been developed since the Second World War
Some of the global institutions that have been developed after the Second World War are the World Bank, United Nations, UNICEF, World trade organization, WWF etc
What are the benefits and drawbacks of the capitalist economic system
In a capitalist economic system the individuals or businesses are self motivated as they work for profits and the development of many such individuals and businesses results in the development of the whole nation. Another advantage with the capitalist economic system is a free market economy. One of the main disadvantages found with the capitalist economic system is that it is found to increase the disparity between the rich and the poor.
What happens when command economies transform into market economies How is the transition best undertaken
When the command economies transform into market economies, they tend to enter into a growth phase improving the state of their economy. This transition happens when the governments open up their economy through liberalization reforms.
Is there a relationship between open markets and political freedom
Open markets seem to have a relatively higher political freedom. For instance an open market economy like the United States enjoys a relatively higher political freedom as compared to a command economy like China.
What happens when national governments restrict their domestic economies from open participation in (and dependence on) foreign trade
When the national governments restrict their domestic economies from the open participation through the following of policies such as protectionism, their economic growth gets hampered.
What are some of the volatile economic issues that have influenced how and why governments chose one economic philosophy over another
Some economic issues that have influenced the governments in choosing one economic philosophy over the other are wars, bad rule of the emperors (like in case of Russia), a huge gap between the rich and the poor, situations such as social revolutions etc
What has been the impact of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on Development countries
The FDIs into a developing country bring a lot of capital inflows into the economy. This helps in the development of infrastructure in a developing country. This also creates a lot of jobs for the people of the developing nation.
In what way has technology had an impact on the global economy
Technology has drastically altered the way the global economies work. Technology has given rise to outsourcing of non core business processes from the developed countries to the developing countries where the cost of labor is relatively cheaper.

    Sooner Legends Inn is a busy hotel located in the heart of Oklahama in the United Sates. The hotel has a total of 120 guest rooms and 16 suites with memeorable culture of over 3000 Sooner mamorbilia. According to the hotels advertisements, one can have a hot breakfast buffet daily with provision of home-made popcorns and cookies in the afternoon. The Norman award winning restaurant boasts of a warm swimminmg pool, gygmnasuim , sports bar, wireless internet access and a guest laundary. Rooms are well furnished with old yet oustanding furnishes with flat screen TVs, DVD players and 13 pillow top mattresses (Sooner Legends 1).   
    Organisational change is the group of set strategized activities that a company employs in a given timeframe to effect a sustainable market reach program for profitability. Change comes in vartious ways and can either be proactive or reactive according to the organisational setting. Roughly thre are about four main managerial changes that can take place in an organisation. Change in products and services, change in administaration, change in structure of the business strategy and induction of human resource information system. Economic competition in the market place can also force a company to make necessary adjustments in order to achieve the expected profit targets. Therfore, it entails that an organisation that can effectively embrace change has to hold a focused vision that is translated inot a common workplace culture that is reflected everyday from the customer service to the public relations offices (Utah 1).
    The changes am going to illustrate are a case study that are specifically tailored for Sooner Legend in Norman, OK. The Sooner Legend is s tourist averagely rated hotel in the heart of Oklahoma that provides accommodation and restaurant services besides the conferential and catering services. Being a private company most of the financial status of the company is hidden but the quality of services can reflected through the customer reaction and feedback. The main targeted common mistakes that are depicted in the hotels complaints is poor food, fixed rooms (double), card rated payment only, poor delivery of services and poor interpersonal skills in the customer care department. The most notorious department to according to Tripadvisor customer reviews is the accommodation department and specifically booking office that stood out as having some form of authoritarian treatment to customers a customer of customers have complained of cancelled bookings without proper explanation devastating their experiences.
    One specific leisure customer and a couple declared the hotel as serving mediocre food that was sometimes stale and rubbery. Terrible experience appears as a common name for the hotel in many internet website independent reviews to mean that potential customers have are already kept from coming to the hotel. One key business principle is that a customer is never wrong. Another leisure customer complained of a poorly conducted cancellation with reference to Valerie the operator of accommodation communication system. One hurt-team member indicated that he could not recommend the hotel at all to any one still mentioned that the hotel is quite sporting oriented to mean that the culture of the hotel has its roots intact. Therefore there main changes that the organization has to go through in order to break through its financial actualization barriers will include Administrative changes, habits and customer care changes are also necessary so as to keep the customer happy and more than just satisfied.
    Therefore I will apply the Lewins Three-Step Process of organizational change to overcome unnecessary resistance to change (Simmering 1). Notably, people resist change if the there is lack of coercion and poor management. According to Lynco Associates Inc., change happens when each person makes a decision to implement the change. This is a principle of managing change that I will apply in order to effect change in this hotel whose market share is receding due to poor public image. At the core of change is organizational culture that does influence company change success and failures consequently the culture that has to be changes involves the information system adaptations that can enhance quick and easy online placement of an order or booking that cannot be revoked. This comes in as an urgent measure to counter various complains from customers over short notice cancellations of their bookings in order to allow better and known customers who may pay more to accommodate. Managerial strategy will be effectively adjusted to see through the transition period that is mainly made up of three main stages.      
    The hotel need to quickly adopt a reactive change that can serve the new niche of leisure tourists better than it is done today. The promises made to all customers have to be honored in despite the status of the customer so as to promote equality and integration in the customers eyes. Some instances worth of noting is the lie about a war outside swimming pool that is never fully operating as per the advertisement and the free breakfast doing much more harm to the company that the good, marketing strategy needs it was to satisfy.  A proactive change will entail changing of the organizational culture so as to reflect in the advertising channels only the products we offer while endeavoring to develop more product packages that can serve many customers to satisfactory. Appropriately, these old habits of lying to customers have to be unfrozen in all departments so that a new strategy can be introduced to facilitate change and transition.  Change will be effected according to the strategy recommendations. And lastly, the developed and learned change habits must be frozen (refreezing) in order to keep its impacts lasting. The three simple Lewins steps are unfreezing, changing and refreezing.  Unfreezing has to affect the desired state of the organization that needs change (Utah 1). All stages of change have to be monitored via a powerful human resource information system that will enable the hotel company to compile feedback data, do diagnosis with feedback so as to facilitate action in the right direction ad evaluation that is quite necessary so as to implement only desirable change only.
    In the preliminary research into the profound financial crises that is facing the company due to poor strategies I therefore recommend the following urgent measures that if implemented will act as guidance to management of change in the organization.                     The hotel industry is gaining momentum as holidays are considers top company priorities to facilitate motivation and enhance company performance. Therefore the company needs to facilitate an acquisition of a powerful Human Resource information System that will make collection of data easier and feedbacks storage. The package has to be user friendly so as to take care of feasible company tasks. The human resource component of the information system change the hotels marketing, booking and customer based relation. Besides handling payrolls, accepting electronic payments and information dissemination, the HRIS will enhance the development of human resource management and administrative cores leading to achievement of a larger market share and saving time while providing effective and efficient services to the clients.                                                 The free breakfast marketing and advertisement strategy is detrimental affecting the reputation of the company. Many customers have termed the breakfast as below hotel quality level and some have threatened never to come back. Recall that business is all about retaining customers and this could be a killer move that could either save the organization or the worst can take place anytime due to poor publicity. Therefore the company need to either hire or outsource for a qualified public relations services who can handle the management hurdles like bookings and food complains effectively due to the fact that customers taste are varied and dynamic. Therefore, the breakfast will either be suspended or quality will have to be ascertained at all levels. Excellent services leave a positive cognitive and psychological impact on customers and that is the most precious tool to maintain in the business world. Therefore I recommend also that some basic services like microwaves and refrigerators can be provided freely instead of breakfast. This is already taking place in such hotels as La Quinta Inn and Suites thus posing a competition threat and indeed they have already chipped into Sooners market niche with some of our dissatisfied clients complimenting the La Quinta with better room services, beds, better and breakfast (Tripadvisor 1). Therefore the company needs to reshape its room service, revamp the bed even though they look modest the competitor factors are against the modesty display and in need of some extra experience even if it means paying more to access fantastic experience. The market demand requests that the provision of services should impress the cultural factors diversity that are even everlasting that the customer has to come back to experience the same happiness. Subsequently, the change factors dictate the hotel sells happiness and not sadness to the visitors.    
    The customer care department will have to be integrated with a new human resource information system (HRIS) that will enhance timely communication with the customary requests. Acquisition of a robust and dynamic HRIS is a holistic approach to solving the hotels main challenges. Purchase of the HRIS (Immerauf 1) will have freed the hotels total time by almost fifty percent this means that managers will thus able to have much time to take care of basic issues that need attention like food provision, service and attention to customers since clients love to speak to humans rather than robots. Through the initiation of the project, Sooner Legend in Norman will be able to liberate its human resource management to a higher I.T. platform. Some of the functions this system will be able to accomplish in the company include payroll, recruitment, training management, employee information, employee self-service (ESS), compensation,   staff-shifts, e-registration and real-time customer bookings whereby a customer has the virtual key to his room even before arriving at the destination (Immerauf 1). The payroll module can be used to introduce other forms of flexible payment schemes that the world of today accepts instead of the resilient credit card only approach used by the company as the only financial payment option thus restricting the customer base unfavorably. Moreover, the HRIS can be installed in all rooms to facilitate ease and cost-effective communication between the customer and room service departments instead of using the telephone that accumulates bills.
    The HRIS can be incorporated in the on-line ands internet marketing strategies. Presently, designing of packages is still underutilized in the website tools. The company has to rise above the just a Hotel experience and adapt into a destination center that can take advantage of the market place to gain a better capital base. Therefore renovation and expansion programs need to be designed now if the company has a vision to run chains in the whole world. Therefore the Sooner Legends Inn  Suites website should be reflecting a strong and aggressive marketing strategy that can tap into air ticketing, provision of car hire services and organize sightseeing packages that are completely a touch that can only be associates with Sooner Legends Inn  Suites so that the hotel can tap into the Norman Tourism share of tourist. There is need to demonstrate trust to the customers and within the business habitat since Lynco(1) states that, Trust is earned by those who demonstrate consistent behavior and clearly defined values  thus the consistence of the change mechanism that Sooner Legends Inn  Suites adapt and adopt as its culture will need to be frozen again with as a whole system made of individuals who are pro-change. Additionally, expected expansion of the hotel will lead to building of the company reputation-after containing the traffic so that all customers get the services they need at the hotel.
    Sooner Legends Inn  Suites should organize a culture interaction packages that can pull peoples from different backgrounds for a showcase of their culture in return for loyal customers who the company has to maintain at all costs. Therefore the main building structures of the hotel need to be re-vamped to reflect seriousness such that the hotel can move from a simple satisfaction level leisure station to a fully fledged destination centre of excellence. The three main meeting rooms lighting is too plain therefore a lighting technique could be hired to create ambient and warmth reception colors in the psychology if all the visitors. That way Sooner Legends Inn  Suites can cut into the lost business niche due to competition. At the same time, the furniture in the meeting rooms is too simple and common place that the hotel cut a small in the corporate world. Though the hotel is medium in since, it can capitalize on corporate opportunities by inclusion of corporate meeting packages at discounted rates to selected companies like Ford Center, OK Motorsports, Sports Clubs and Parks and Museums (Sooner Legends 1). The company can advertise in these public-domain social areas in order to get closer to the customer as possible.      
    In the light of implementation of all the aforementioned strategies the uncertainty surrounding Sooner Legends Inn  Suites will be eliminated and the company will break from tight and costly programs that are auxiliary to the core business of the hotel.  Consequently, soon the company will be profitable and the stakeholder will consider adjusting the rumination package.  The reactive change will involve the complete revamping of Sooner Legends Inn  Suites to keep in touch with the late developments in technology and change in market tastes (Simmering 1). The decision for change lies in the hands of everyone and the stakeholders have an upper hand over the expansion of the hotel industry. The focus of the change is to facilitate quickly recovery of the Industry from poor public reputation by providing enough rooms in our proposal to expand within a period of three years. In regards to achieving the same, the hotel will have to embrace culture of excellent customer services and training for effective management. Lastly, the paradigm of marketing will has to shift from customer looking for us by displaying cheaper rates (Mahendra 1) and instead get into the market place and get clients to share the new packaged Sooner Legends Inn  Suites.
    In conclusion, the management staff, the administrators, stakeholders and the general management of Sooner Legends Inn  Suites has a task to viable profitability in the implementation of a state of the art human resource system whereby all members of the staff will be trained marketing and interpersonal skills. Appraisals shall be based on performance and delivery tactics deployed in the process of strategy planning, execution and eventual evaluation of the success of each and every plan. 

Marketing strategies play an important role in the overall robustness of a business organization. The primary objective of almost all businesses is to acquire profit. In doing so, business officials and representatives need to do the necessary means and tactics in order to make the product or services that they are offering to the market to be profitable. Marketing strategies makes it possible for the company to properly introduce and entice the possible consumers of their products and services. There are various ways that marketing strategies are applied, it can be seen through the use of print and media advertisements up to the establishment of the overall reputation of the company and the brand of product or service that they are promoting. The vital part of marketing in the success of business organization is given due attention in the book of John Welch entitled The Winning. This book takes into account the various marketing strategies that are employed by successful business organizations as well as the corresponding suggestion to enhance the marketing strategies that are being used. In addition, Welch also give necessary strategies that must be avoided in when it comes to effective and contemporary marketing. In line with this, my job as a sales representative in Abercrombie and Fitch exemplifies the some of the marketing strategies that Welch talks about in his book wherein my work contributes to the success of the marketing strategy of the company.
    In my work in Abercrombie and Fitch as a sales person, it is one of my responsibilities to provide high quality customer assistance. In working at a retail store I have gained realization that customer relations must be uphold. During my first months as a sales person in Abercrombie and Fitch, I have encountered different kinds of individuals. Some people are very approachable and friendly while others tend to be aggressive and argumentative. As a sales person, I had to deal with these kinds of people for I represent the store that I work for. I have to gain my composure every time I encounter individuals who are not very cooperative and do not provide the right type of clothes they want. There are people who keep asking for different clothes or sizes but end up not buying the clothes they have chosen. For I have the responsibility to sell the clothes, I want for people to by the clothes available in the store. However, I often become frustrated when a demanding client does not want to buy clothes. Moreover, I have again strong control of my emotions. Whenever I feel frustrated, I talk to one of my colleagues or go directly to the manager to express my emotion. I feel that through telling my boss how I feel I also gain more confidence and wisdom because he often gave me advice on how to deal with customers. Thus, not only do I learn something for my work, I also gain wisdom to coordinate with other people.
    On the other hand, I see customer relationship as one of the mainly needed concept to acquire more clients. As for my experience as a buyer, I want to go to a store which has friendly and accommodating sales personnel. Therefore, I also apply it in my work. I put my self on the shoes of my clients in order to realize how they feel and what they want. Thus, I have recognized that I need to be the person to assist them through giving them my point of view if needed as well as providing them different clothing options that is available in the store. Moreover, I gain friends and frequent clients due to this type of perspective regarding work.
    Another responsibility that I have in my work is managing floors of the store. This task entails that I have to make sure that all the clothes are properly placed and folded, especially after the customers looks at it or try it on. I also have to restock all the clothes and other merchandise in the store. Some people might think that this kind of job is not really that important because it is only about making sure that the store is organized. However, in reality the organization of the store is a key marketing strategy because it makes the store more conducive and attractive for people to buy the products that they sell. The overall atmosphere in the store should make the customers feel comfortable and at ease. In relation to this, the organization, cleanliness, and overall appeal of the store also contribute to the marketing strategy of the company wherein if the store reflects an air of elegance, the customers will also relate this same characteristic to the product that they are buying, which will influence them to buy it (Welch 170).
    In relation to this, I also noticed that Abercrombie and Fitch also hires employees that are physically fit and have pleasing personality. The company also requires us to look presentable and to wear clothes that come from the store. The management makes sure that the employees they will hire will look good in the clothes of the company. This is a kind of marketing strategy wherein the employees of the store serve as models themselves in order for the customers to see how good the clothes are (Welch 81). The employees function as a walking advertisement, which sends a message that the clothes of Abercrombie and Fitch will make you look good and presentable.  In this sense, the employees does not only function as a customer support by assisting the needs and wants of the clients but they also add to the aesthetic value of the store that further convince the people to buy the products that they are selling. The aforementioned marketing strategies contribute in increasing the clientele of the store, which also means additional profit for the company.
     Accordingly, I had strongly gained a sense of belongingness in the company. Through the help of my manager and his high regard with the mission vision of the company (Welch 61), stating that it wants to provide quality and stylish clothing to their clients. In addition to this, the mission vision of the company is We are committed to providing comfortable and long lasting clothes that look good. Through this, I have gained the realization that people need to notice the clothing styles available in the store. As a sales person, I need to present the uniqueness of the company. Moreover, the concept of relating to the client in an approachable yet exceptional way is very important to get the attention and their interest in the store. Given that there are many competing clothing stores such as Gap, Quick Silver, Banana Republic, Lacoste and the likes, the presentation must be different from the others (Welch 165). Hence, reflecting on the marketing strategy of Abercrombie, hiring of models are sales person are real life examples of how good the clothes in Abercrombie  Fitch.
    Furthermore, I do believe that Abercrombie  Fitch is one of the best stores in the United States because the company is doing its best to provide quality and stylish clothing to people. Thus, the book of Jack Welch had made me realize that the concept of having a certain goal as an employee is important. Given that sales persons are individuals who represent the company, we should be able to present people that Abercrombie  Fitch is unlike any other store. Furthermore, having a strong sense of purpose in the work place is important to address the needs of the clients. Providing them good quality customer service every time they visit the store is an important factor to gain the respect and also the attention of the people in the community.

The Norwegian culture provides many advantages for oil and gas investment on its soil. As a high-technology and intensive capital industry, oil and gas companies need well-educated and disciplined working force, clean and efficient government, law abiding and harmonious society, favorable business atmosphere, safe surroundings with colorful life. Fortunately for energies companies, these beneficial conditions can all be found in Norway.
     First, as individuals, Norwegians appeal very much to oil and gas companies. The literacy rate for both genders is 100 (Norway) partly due to the free public education system. In addition to the high standard of education, Norwegians are well known for their industry, discipline, organization, and creativity. With such working forces, Norway is doing very well economically in recent years, boasting the fifth highest GDP per capita in 2008, 55,600 (Photius). People in Norway are well-informed and connected and have a deep understanding of culture. For example, the majority of Norwegians can communicate in English quite fluently.
     In terms of governmental and social factors, oil and gas companies will also find Norway a very attractive destination. The rule of law, the respect of individuality, the cleanness and efficiency of the government are all significant characteristics of this country, which are typical in the Scandinavian region. Having been part of Denmark and Sweden for a long time in history, Norway naturally establishes a well functioning law system which helps the countrys development. Finally, although a very small country, life in Norway, especially in its capital and other major cities, can be very colorful and entertaining. This is important for maintaining the productivity and morale of the hard working oil and gas company staff.

Star bucks started operations in 1971 with the aim of providing quality coffee to restaurants and bars. However, its whole concept as a supplier changes in 1987 to a coffee bar in which the same coffee beans were now brewed in house to produce world class coffee and pastry for direct sales to consumers. Today, star bucks is one of the largest coffee chains in the world with operations in different geographic regions of the world. The mission and vision statement of the company clarify the goals of the company and reflect its success in the market today. The company had clearly stated that it will provide quality world class coffee by making its name a brand not only in one market but for the entire world (Moe, 2007).
    Moreover, the environmental analysis and opportunities and threats show what more the company can do in its five year plan projected plan. The five year projected plan clearly shows that one and a half year of the initial phase will be spent on the internal development of channels in the organization which will help the company achieve its goals tasks and exploit all the opportunities in the course of five years to reap the desired results as they are given in the appendix.
    Moreover, even if the strategies fail, the company will not lose it all in the first blow, but it will stand a chance to come up with a different strategy and basing its new strategy on the homework that it has already done in the initial one and a half year. The initial one and a half year will never be wasted until and unless the company goes out of business. The research and brainstorming will always be there as an asset for the company.

Mission and vision
Mission
    For every organization, defining a mission statement at the beginning of the business plan and with clear goals and targets is one of the most important factors for the success of the business. The reason is the fact that the mission statement clarifies the purpose that the organization is there for the employees, the stakeholders and the customers for everything that the organization is committed to. With the help of a clear mission and vision statement the company is also able to maintain its focus on the goals and keep its operations and services in line with the goals by providing services and products whose essence reflects what the company promises in the mission and vision statement.
    The mission statement of Starbucks is to provide finest coffee not only in only one market but for the entire world and in this process they promise not to compromise their key principles and commitments in the process of growing from one market to another. this also helps the company in its decision making process and reduces and removes a number of confusions when it comes to specific principles and rules that have been set forth for the operations and management of the company.
    Starbucks follows clear guidelines in order to keep its operations in line with the world-class standards to take its operations around the globe. Also, the guidelines are more connected with the vision of the company however the company has been able to integrate them with the mission statement of the company as well. Six basic principles that the company has set forth for its operations are discussed below
The company is committed to provide a great environment for both the employees and the customers and this will be achieved by two basic factors, respect and dignity, for every employee, stake holder and customer of the company.
Incorporation of diversity into the organization in order to be able to be flexible to different market conditions and decision making situations.
Compliance with the world class standards from the very basic level that is purchase of raw material, roasting of coffee, and ensuring that the coffee being delivery is fresh and as according to the standards that the company promises its customers.
Keeping customers satisfied through enthusiasm and with a great level of involvement and interaction with the customer in order to build relations with the customers for long term vision and mission of the company.
Also, the company is focused with a positive frame of mind for the betterment of the community that it is serving and also the environment that the company is operating in.
Lastly, for the success of every organization, profits are the most important motives therefore, the company is committed to keep its profitability high in order to achieve whatever it has planned.
Vision
    In simple terms, the company aims towards making star bucks a world-class brand which is also one of the most recognized brands around the world. Today, whenever we look at the unique star bucks logo with the lion, we see we instantly recognize that it is the logo of star bucks even if star bucks has not been mentioned with the logo specifically.
    The statement that has been discussed above is a broad statement which tells us where the company wants to see itself in the course of its operations however, the company has to achieve this status after fulfilling the following factors.
    First of all, as the company promises of providing the finest coffee, it actually has to make sure that it does brew the finest coffee in order to fulfill its promises with the customers and encourage repeated visits (Michelli, 2006).
    Secondly, to make the company a world-class brand, the company has to make sure that it has a clear image in the mind of the consumer, the image that is more shining and attracting and the image which will enable the consumer to forget about all other brands whenever it comes to anything related to coffee.
    Thirdly, this is one area where the company lacks in its mission statement. The company has mentioned that it wants to be the world-class recognized brand, but it failed to mention that does it want to be the number one around the world or does it want to be above the majority of the brands that are providing similar services or are in the same line of operations. Moreover, the company also lacks in providing a clear guideline or time frame in which it will accomplish its targets. This is also an important factor because of the fact that the company has to understand that when defining mission and goals, they need to be time bound, they are not supposed to be left on their own to be fulfilled at the right time, but you have to define the right time and then start working for it.

Environmental Volatility Analysis  Current Competitive Position

(Hoovers Online)
    Before, we conduct a complete external environmental analysis we will first try to analyze in brief the companys financial performance along with the competitors of the company over last three years. Above is the chart which compares the stock price of star bucks with the industry average in the sociality eateries industry. We can clearly see the performance of star bucks amongst all others as obviously the company seems to be the defining factor in the industry because of the fact that the industry averages seem to reflect the same trends that we can see in the star bucks stock price fluctuations. Behind this factor, there is one basic reason that is the size of the market share that the company has in the global and local markets as well. The larger the size of the market share, the larger the company grows and the larger stakeholders and shareholders the company will attract. Similarly, any good or bad news with the company will increase or decrease investor confidence in the company and it will subsequently have a direct effect on other companies in the industry. For example, when we saw that star bucks stock prices were increasing, we also saw that a reason behind this was the fact that people were getting more informed and interested in in-house brewing and making of coffee and thus, this trend reflected on all other companies as well and it actually reflected on their stock prices too.
(Hoovers Online)
    Above is the chart in which we will see that the company stock prices are compared with three companies (Wiel, 2008). These companies are New World Coffee Inc, Diedrich Coffee Inc and Green Manhattan Coffee Inc. we see that the stock price of star bucks has been constant and growing steadily for all these years due to the fact that the loyal customers have their utter confidence in the company and that everyone looks at the company for being a reliable venture for investment, however, when we compare the NWCI and DDRX, we see that they are nowhere in the comparison. DDRX tried to compete in the initial stages and plunged over the stock price of star bucks for a little while, but since then we have seen a drop in the stock price of DDRX up to the level near a dollar or so. However, GMCR has shown tremendous results as compared to the star bucks, this is may be because of the market share that it captured from the star bucks however, the stock prices in the recent few years show clearly that the consumer confidence is decreasing as the stock prices are plunging downwards as well. Whereas, star bucks is performing steadily with no drops and steady growth rate.
(Hoovers Online)
    Lastly, when we look at the graph above, we compare the stock prices of star bucks with the industry average in the Dow Jones stock exchange. It is obvious that star bucks are a market leader and thus the consumer confidence and the level of involvement with the investments with the company is highest with the star bucks than any other company. Though a couple of drops in the graph, but still, the company have been able to revive it and still remain at the top.
Environmental Analysis
Opportunities and Threats
Economic Factors
Economic factors are always there in order to make a company successful or to drive it towards failure. The reason is the fact that until and unless the business plan incorporates the economic conditions of the target market and economy, it will not be able to deliver its products that will be able to satisfy their needs, wants and preferences according to the price and dollars they are willing to spend. For example, a branded Gucci store will not be able to operate in the poorest areas of Nigeria or India because of the fact that the economies of these places are not in line with the basic purpose behind the product.
    According to the company sources, the sales of the company have been increased many folds and have reached sales up to 3 billion dollars including the five year projected plan as of now, however, the company does faces some opportunities and threats by repeated openings of stores and concentration of outlets in small areas. One of the problems that have been identified is the cannibalization effect that the company is facing, however, the management believes that as long as this cannibalization is helping to contribute in incremental sales and additional return on investments, this cannibalization will also help in keeping the competition down from competitors as well and thus it is justified.
    Moreover, the product that the company is providing is not a luxury item. The products are in line with the purchasing power of almost all the economies that the company is tapping into and therefore the company looks at it as an advantage towards its mission and vision to make the company as global as possible (Burks, 2009).
Sociological Factors
    We have seen that many companies look at the social factors just on the basis of compatibility with the society and the community they are operating in, but, the principles and strategies of star bucks are somewhat different in this case. It does not only matches its operations with the social environment around it, but, it also has a set of guidelines through which the company itself integrates and indulges in the social life of the consumers to make the consumers feel its presence and also to leave a positive impact on the overall environment.  The guidelines are as follows
The company is focused on sharing information with its parents relating to environmental issues prevailing in the society and trying to overcome them for the betterment of the society.
The company is also determined to come up with solutions that are innovative and flexible and also result in a positive change.
The company is committed to buy sell and use products that are environmentally safe and healthy.
The company has also included the environmental consideration in its list of corporate values.
The company keeps a good track of the performance of all its projects and analyses the costs that it incurs on the society and then makes efforts to reduce or eliminate it as much as it can.
The company believes that it has a number of partners and stakeholders in its operations and thus it needs to take all of them on board in order to make the projects a success. These partners include the
Demographic factors
    The company is also quite concerned about the world statistics of population distribution, and to its amaze and benefit, the target market of the company constitutes the largest percentage of the world percentage. On very large and broad view, we see that the company basically targets in the age group of 15-64. Another thing that the company considers important for designing its products and services is the concentration of ethnic groups in certain areas. US consists of 83 whites and 12 blacks which makes these two groups the most prominent groups that may be targeted in different ways in order to live up to their tastes, perceptions and preferences.
Legal and political forces
    Star bucks has also faced a couple of lawsuits in its course of operations two of which being the major ones related to hourly labor rate and management cases filed by star bucks own employees. Although the company did not bare any liability or responsibility of such cases, still in order to maintain its reputation and keep itself away from legal litigation, the company agreed to agree upon the claims and the requirements put forth by the plaintiffs in order to clear all cases against the company.
    As far as legal issues are concerned, we see that the company imports most of its coffee beans for in-house brewing from other countries which stands tall in front of the company as a threat at all times as any change in import or duty laws can affect the companies procurement. Also, a price increase due to extra duties will increase the price of the products and services provided by the company directly affecting the profits and the customers who will have to think whether to go for the much expensive cup of coffee or pastry or go to another competitor.
Targets for Strategic Improvement or Development
    Our strategic management team has come up with a five year plan which is further distributed into quarters for each year in which we aim towards achieving the following targets
Projected Budget 10,000,000 Projected Sales Increase  300,000,000 (over 5 yr lifetime of strategy)Projected Profit () Increase  175,000,000 (over 5 yr lifetime of strategy)Projected Market Share  Increase  15 (over 5 yr lifetime of strategy)
    These are the targets that will be achieved over the period of five years and different areas, such as budgets, sales, profits and market share will be tapped in their own distinct manner in order to keep up the growth level. An overall increase of 15 per annum is targeted in all the areas and will be spread over the five year plan.
First Year
    If we look at the appendix on page number ____ we will see that the in the first year, we do not see any sales or profits increase in the first quarter. The reason is the fact that the company believes that it will not be able to design or implement its policies in the best possible way until and unless the company bolsters and strengthens its information and research base regarding the target market. If we look at the time line for the first year, we see that in the first quarter, the company will achieve the following targets
Identify target market
Potential Location Specification
Hire Marketing Firm
    Now the three objectives that will be accomplished in the first quarter reflect that the company is basically spending out if its budgets and does not expect a robust response. The reason is that this is just the base level, no policies and strategies are implemented, and rather, this is the design stage in which the company will design its products and the marketing strategies with the help of different outsourced departments and companies (Fellner, 2008).
    The next quarters show that the company is now in the phase of attracting customers as the new locations and target market outlets are now operational with marketing promotions in place and now the company will focus on the following factors to develop the business even more
Joint Partner Identification
Site Selection
Joint Ventures
Contractors
    Now in this stage we see that as the business grows, it cannot grow itself alone, it has to make certain alliances, partnerships and at times acquire companies which used to be suppliers of the company in the initial stage. This is known as vertical or horizontal integration in which the business is now spreading its roots from just an infant to the age of adolescence or teenage.
    The company will now come into contract and partnership with a couple of stakeholders including
Suppliers
Contractors
Designers
Distributors
Information technology companies
Marketing companies
Production and management teams
HR Companies
    This is important because in the initial the company has no expertise in order to take risky and difficult decision such as location and site planning. The company may be able to put forth its requirements but cannot dictate its requirements. Thus, hiring those who are good at it and coming into a partnership with them will actually help the company to come up with a synergy which will reflect the results in the coming three years.
Second Year
    We will start to see considerable sales increases in the third quarter of the second year because of the fact that all the strategies that have been implemented such as marketing and customer awareness will start taking effect and impact on a greater level in the second year. The first year was all invested in building the foundation and in the second quarter, we will now strengthen the customer base.
    In the second third and fourth year, the company has a clear mind and resources for in domestic expansion. The fact is that all the partnerships and alliances have been formulated and all the expertise is available for any expansion with time. All the suppliers, contractors, marketing companies and management and HR personal are available to assist any expansion and the company will be having funds as soon as it expands to another market. The cycle will simply repeat on the entire base that was developed in the first for quarters of the first year.
    However, what will change will be the strategies according to the economic and social situations pertaining to different areas. The factors will be the same, but the strategies will differ from region to regions depending on the tastes, specifications and preferences of the customers.
Third and Fourth Year
    Nonetheless, during the third and fourth year, the company will have to conduct all the information base development and partnerships it made as in the first year once again but this time, it is not going to be for the domestic market, but, as per the vision and mission of the company, the company wants to go global and be recognized on the global front, therefore, the company will actually need a new base for expanding into the international markets. For every new market, the company will need a new base because in a global setting, economic, legal, demographic, cultural and political forces differ on a larger scale. Therefore, when entering into a new market, a new team will have to repeat the entire process and then they will then spend some time investigating the market and in a year and a half start to expect sales increases in the operations.
The fifth year
    The company will now be well settled on the global stage. However, one thing that will enable the company to stay longer and successful on the global stage is the factor of STANDARDIZATION. Until and unless the company keeps its products, services and values standardized on all levels and markets, it will not be able to retain or maintain its essence of service, or the essence of the brand. It will not be able to have a crisp image of its brand throughout the world which is against its mission and vision statement. Therefore, the company will have to have standardized global operations to retain the customer satisfactions and boost their confidence on the service of the company where ever they go and whatever they do. One of the examples of such standardization is McDonalds which has maintained its tastes, products, service and essence through the world and that is one of the reasons why many people use Globalization and McDonaldization interchangeably (Moe, 2007).
Projected Strategies for the Future
    Once the company has established and standardized its operations, it will have to come up with brand extensions. Brand extensions can be in the form of a new target market, a new product under the same name or even a new product with a different name. Introducing variants are also a sort of brand extension but it is more like a part of brand extension rather than brand extension itself.
The company might come up with the following options
Use diversified product and brand offerings  Expand Starbucks presence in growing markets such as To attract at home coffee preparation market.India and Pacific Rim nations by opening new retail stores.Use strong RD capabilities to create newFind joint venture partners and emphasizeProducts that target 18-24 year olds.Licensing agreements to expand in growing markets.Leverage brand equity to create effective marketingIncrease recycling initiatives to conform to regulationscampaigns to stand out from competition, increase and meet demands of increasingly environmentally aware Customer traffic and drive sales.Customer base.Use RD to develop new products, processes and proceduresReorganization to reduce cost and loss of salesThat use resources more efficiently and reduce operating costs.
Projected outcomes and resources have been yearly discussed in the previous section of the report and for further reference we can use the appendix in which they have been classified as market share, projected budget and sales increases.
Corporate Impact or Outcome if Projected Strategy Fails
    The strategy that our team has proposed will actually revive or restart the business from the base level. Therefore, the impact in case of success of the strategy will be seen in all the areas including sales, finances, profits and market share. However, in case the strategy fails, we will see that it will similarly hit all the areas.
    As we have projected that for a year and a half, no additional sales will be generated, we see that this is the phase in which the business will be making heavy investments in building the relationship with all the stake holders and carrying out a number of research projects on which further strategies will base. These investments might not necessarily generate revenues for the business in the short run but these expenses are treated as long term strategies for the building a strong base for the business to expand and stand tall in situations of strong and heavy winds because of external competition.
    Moreover, another aspect that will be greatly hit will be the expansion plans. If the incremental sales are not up to the market to make it feasible for the company to expand internally, then the companys expansion base will exhaust and it wont be able to extend its roots to the international and global markets.
    The costs of the company will rise. There will be huge sunk costs for the company which will go in vain and they will not contribute to any profits or positive cash flows for the company.
    However, the way we have planned out our strategy, we see that there are very less chances for the organization to fail following this strategy. The reason is that we are not taking the company to tap into a target market just like that, but, the reason why we have allocated one and a half year for the company to spread and strengthen its roots internally with its product, management, suppliers and marketing managers is the fact that the company understands the market to the fullest and gives the market the level of standardization and the world class quality that will then be unmatched.
    Even if there are extra ordinary economic conditions which do not allow the consumers to concentrate to this service due to recession and slumps, even then, our team does not thinks that the one and a half year put on to investments, product design, location selection and relationship building will ever go to waste. The reason behind this optimism is the fact that information collection and strategies based on research are also assets for the company. Information market research and strategic partnerships will tend to be helpful for the company when it comes up with a new strategy to cope with different situations. Half the work will already be done the goals will remain the same, only the focus will have to be changed along with the methodology. Otherwise, the same marketing team, the suppliers and the site contractors will remain the same who will be assigned new tasks and directions to work upon (Wiel, 2008).
Conclusion
    Based on the above discussion, we see that the company has a good chance to capture a large market share if it follows the strategy of first building and strengthening itself from the inside and then going out to compete head on with other competitors in the market. The company has the potential and expertise to provide quality products and services and standardization of services will be the key for the companys success in the global arena. The five year plan is as follows in the appendix along with the TWOS table which can be related to the report at several places.