Business

SWOT analysis refers to the identification and analysis of an entitys strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It takes into account the internal and external factors and becomes an integral part of the planning process.

CaNoga is an online retail business that sells a variety of products and services. The most popular amongst them is the online gaming service. A SWOT analysis has been performed on it and is presented as follows

Strengths
Mass spread of the internet in the most remote areas of the world has made it more accessible for the masses. This means that this online retailing business will have adequate exposure and will be available to most people.

Online retailing is much faster and efficient than conventional retailing. It allows consumers to sit at home and make their purchases hence granting them extensive flexibility to use this service at their own convenience.

Since online gaming is the most popular product being sold through this service, it already has a well established demand. This demand is growing exponentially and so far doesnt seem to be in any dangers of being saturated.

Weaknesses
There is high dependency on the internet and prospective consumers who do not have a command over the use of internet may not be able to access this retailing service.

While making purchases from local retailers has no delivery cost, CaNoga charges a shipping delivery cost which is an additional cost over and above the price of the purchases. This could pose to be a great weakness to CaNoga and may even require it to eventually erode its shipping charges although this would put a huge burden of cost on the company.

CaNoga needs to be careful of not adding to many categories to its retailing business as that could contribute to diluting its brand equity and image.

Opportunities
As the use of internet grows wider, the potential and opportunities for online retailing would also be growing with it. This brings more opportunity for the business to flourish and expand.
Since online gaming is its most popular product, CaNoga could work on partnerships with Hollywood in the long run and have a joint venture for these games. This would expand the market for the games extensively and make it more appealing to a wider category of people.

Threats
Since internet businesses are becoming the new fad, they undoubtedly attract competition. Hence CaNoga faces immense competition from websites like Amazon.com, Ebay.com, etc. And these are already established online retailers hence they have already created their value for the consumers. Being a new entrant would mean that CaNoga would have to work twice as hard to attract customers.

Information Technology has been rapidly advancing in the recent few years and is expected to continue to do so. This means that for all we know, 5 years down the road internet may just become a depleted technology. This means that CaNogas existence well into the future will become threatened by technological advancements.

CaNgo conducts a performance appraisal of its employees to be able to establish their contribution and worth to the organization.Issues

The appraisal process of the staff was conducted by the managers of the different departments within the organization. The human resource department developed a standard form for the employees to fill and one for the appraising managers. The methods of appraisal used were performance ranking and paired comparison methods. The paired comparison involved the listing of the various factors in the workplace and scores are awarded. The performance review involved the assessment of workers yield in their specific duties. The actual performance is compared against the expected performance and the deviation is determined. The managers compare the performances of their employees and they are able rank them (Davi, 2009, par. 3-5).

The factors that the managers appraised were

- Quality of work. They consider the employees ability to meet the expected standards and the ability to satisfy our customers. The accuracy of the work done is measured and the effectiveness of the employee. Half of the employees met our quality and some failed to meet it due to their inability to work under pressure and meet deadlines. Our quality assurance department needs to work on this to ensure that we do not compromise our quality (Grote, 1996, p. 36).- Quantity. The levels of production for each employee are measured within a specified period of time. It measures their ability to meet the expected results. Most of the staffs were able to meet expected produce and some even exceeded the targets. Those who exceeded the expected results are the employees who have been in CaNgo for a long period. This was encouraging and we are taking all measures to ensure that employee retention rate is high (US Department of the interior, 2004, p. 6).

- Timeliness. The ability of the workers to meet their deadlines was also measured. Most of them were able to submit their work on time and we came up with a work program to ensure that those who are still slow will get the necessary assistance.

- It was also noted that most of the employees possessed excellent skills in leadership, interpersonal and communication. This shows that our employees have the potential to take up vacant management position that might arise in the future instead of hiring externally.

- The managers who were appraising the employees had been trained on the methods and the standards to use to measure the performance. However, Warren one of my managers rated Nick in a level we did not expect. This was because in the past year, Nick did not meet our expectations in the market research he had been conducting. He consistently gave us bad results and this showed that Warren did not conduct a fair appraisal.

SWOT Analysis
The appraisal and review of our employees needed a swot analysis to ensure that it was correct and the mistakes made would be corrected.

Strengths.
The employees of CaNgo possess quality skills in technical knowledge in their areas of expertise. This is important since the workers feel comfortable in the departments they work because, that is what they are trained to do. The culture in the workplace is also good since we have interaction sessions from time to time. This has simplified the appraisal process since, the relation between the managers and employees is good, and this has also enabled our managers understand the employees better. Since our workforce comprises of young people, the level of energy and the ability to handle pressure is good. The trainings we offer our managers has been useful in the conducting the appraisal and most of them conducted the process in an excellent way. This was important so that we could get a clear picture of the capabilities of the workers (Randall  Katharine, 2010, par. 5).

Weaknesses
One of the major weaknesses facing us is the relationship between our managers and workers. It came to our notice that some are distant relatives. This was noted in the case of Warren and Nick and it could compromise the appraisal procedure. The specialization technique has denied our employees a chance to exploit their talents in other fields. It was noted that some employees have got talent in different departments and they could be useful. The structures in the organization made our appraisal difficult since the departments are so many (Internet Centre for Management and Business Administration, 1999, par. 4).

Opportunities
We could utilize the employees with diverse talents so that they are trained on different fields. This will be useful in the filling of arising vacant positions. The employees who portrayed excellent skills in leadership will be useful in the replacement of the absent managers.

Threats
The competition in the market is worrying and this will be a threat to employee retention. Also, the constant changing technology needs a strong workforce that is easy to train so that, we keep pace with the market conditions. The workload for our workers could compromise the quality of our customer service.

Recommendations
The appraisal conducted was useful in the review of the performance of the employees. This enables us know the potential and capabilities in our workforce.
The workers who were ranked high should receive the incentives according to our incentive scheme.
The best ranked should get promotions chances arising.
 Warren should give a report of his actions.
All the other managers did a great job.
Appraisals should be done on a quarterly basis instead of annually.

Ethical leadership is essential in any organization. An ethical leader will always accept responsibility of his action and try to promote an ethical culture in the organization. Ethics in an organization ensures that the organization is stable where good leader not only preach good morals but also exhibit them. Lack of ethical leadership led to ultimate failure of the organization.

Introduction
Good and ethical leadership is core for the success of any organization. It is human nature to have leadership. A good leadership sets the tone and the rest follows and therefore the leader is responsible for the failure or success of the organization. If a particular organization succeeds, the leadership of the organization is considered successful. Consequently, a failed organization indicates poor leadership. Therefore, although the leaders do not partake directly in the achievement of the organisations goal, they are fully responsible for the outcome. The performance of individual worker in an organization or the overall culture of the organization is determined by how the leaders inspire the workers to take the right action. This paper discuses the importance of ethical leadership in an organization and how the leaders are fully responsible for the failure or success of their organization.

Ethical Leadership  
A leader who is ethical takes the responsibility of the well being of the organization. He is fully aware of the importance of positive relationships between the leadership and the workers in the success of the organization. A good relationship between the leadership and the workers in an organization is based on mutual respect and trust between all the parties involved. This good relationship is the most essential determinant for the success of the organization. An organization where respect and trust does not exist will probably not achieve its goals. Therefore the leadership of any organization should endeavor to ensure that they create the right environment for the growth of a good working environment. Sincerity and respect should be the guiding principle for every ethical leader who aspires to excel in his or her organization. Ethical leader are therefore advised to adopt the act of service and practice servant leadership. For a leader to be effective in his leadership, he should be ready to serve others which is not in any sense an indication of inferiority. Through serving other people in the organization, the leader is able to empower them towards achieving the objectives of the organization by paying more focus on the most appropriate actions. An ethical leader accepts that every one in the organization needs the other and therefore they are all interconnected by the goals of the organization and by serving others the potential of everyone is used for the success of the organization (Berghofer and Schwartz, n d).

An ethical leader has the ability to foster positive relationship between him and the employees as well as between employees which is essential for the success of the organization. To any individual, good working relationship in the workplace is both fulfilling and rewarding. It is the responsibility of the team leader at all levels to promote good relationship between the team members. The only way to promote good relationship in the team is leading by example. In any organization, ethics promote the well being of individuals, the team and the whole organization. An ethical team can only be lead by an ethical leader who promotes mutual respect among the team members. An ethical leader endeavors to maintain a good working relationship between him and the team members, suppliers, customers and contractors at the benefit of the organization. The leader should therefore take responsibility if the relationship between the organization and the suppliers, contractors, customers or even workers is poor. A good relationship between the leader and the workforce translates into a satisfied workforce which in turn will promote the relationship between the workforce and the community. A socially responsible leader will adhere to the ethical principles of the community and improve the reputation of the organization. Bad reputation can be directly attributed to unethical leader in the organization. Ethical leader leads to economic success where the workforce takes their work possessively while the good will of the organization is improved in the community.

In the modern world, the need for more ethical leadership in organization has become inevitable. Todays leaders need to be sensitive to the outcome of their actions. The need for ethics in any organization which is important in maintaining good relationship between the organization and the stakeholders has led to formulation of code of ethics by different organizations. Every group in any organization has principles which guide the activities of the organization. The leader of the group is however the first member of the group. Whether the group follows the ethics or not is the responsibility of the leader. Ethical leaders therefore view the team members as stakeholders in the organization rather than followers. He sees them as people whom they should work together with to attain the common goal. It is the leaders responsibility to ensure that the autonomy of each member of the team is respected if morality has to be maintained (Covey, 1991).

Ethical leadership requires the leader to represent the values and vision of the team and the organization at large. The leaders connect the objectives of the whole organization with the stakeholders and employees and are therefore responsible for the achievement of these objectives. Ethical leaders are a channel of communication where they maintain a mutual understanding between different employees and departments by giving room for individuals opinion and creating a two way conversation. They are aware of the role of a variety of ideas in solving problems related to the goals of the organization.

Ethics in an organization creates stability and ethical leaders must therefore ensure that there are set codes of ethics in his or her organization. To create value in their organization, leaders and managers have struggled, devoting much of their time and energy in ensuring that the principles of the organization are met by trying to lead by example. The concept of ethical leadership has encouraged leaders in many organizations to incorporate their values and principles and be explicit about their ethics. The results of this have been the empowerment of the leaders to live up to the principles and ethics of the organization to set an example. The ethics of the organization are observed if the leader doe not just tell the moral story but also exhibit morals. In many business organizations today, it is not easy for a leader to hide his or her unethical acts as in the political field. Many politicians are unable to live up to their moral stories they give during their campaigns. The case of business leaders preaching water and drinking wine is not common. The fact that in a given organization the leaders are able to follow the code of conduct and exhibit ethical leadership stabilizes the organization. Moreover, the leaders themselves are able to lead morally since unethical leadership has no room in the modern world of business. However, there are various scandals where business leaders have been accused of unethical acts where they are assumed to be fully responsible for their activities. A very good example is the case where several Citygroup executives were fired in 2004 for unethical acts. The executives have accepted the responsibility publicly and apologized to the Japanese. This event was a wake up call for ethical leadership in any organization where any leader is responsible for any decision he or she makes regarding the organization.    

Unethical leadership in an organization may have negative impacts on the performance of the organization. There are many individuals who hold executive positions in large organizations and are unaware of the powers they have to influence the success or failure of the organization. Many of the failures in organizations that have been experienced in the recent past could have been prevented if only there was ethical leadership where all the stakeholders are given opportunities to express their dissatisfaction. Many organization fail because of insensitivity of the leadership which leads to development of unethical culture in the organization (Freeman and Stewart, 2006).

Conclusion
The need to develop ethical leadership in any organization is inevitable. It is important for any leader in an organization that has a code of ethics to develop a culture where the codes are not just a set of rules that should not be broken but an integral part of being a stakeholder in the organization. The leadership should therefore take responsibility of their actions and know that their lack of ethics will result into failure of the organization.

Flexible work team  mass production setting

Introduction
Flexible work team is a program where employees are given the freedom on how to perform their duties (Fink, Knight,  Michaelsen, 2002). The employee determines when to start or end his duties. The conditions put in place offer flexibility in the job place. In some cases, the employer requires the workers to put a certain number of hours in the job. Other examples include freedom in communication within the workplace, sharing of jobs, compressed work weeks, partial retirement and many more. The employees can balance between job, family life and their social life. Organizations with few responsibilities can use this system of operation. Large organizations require a more strategically organized team to perform duties according to the pre-defined rules and regulations (Tayeb, 2005).

Difference between flexible work teams and mass production setting
A mass production setting requires more commitments to the job than in a flexible work team. In a mass production setting, employees specialize in their skills and no work can be shared (Harris, Brewster,  Sparrow, 2004). All employees have specific responsibilities which cannot be shared with others in the team. Time schedules are placed to ensure the deadlines are achieved and no employee should have the freedom to work or leave when heshe wants. Regulations are put in place to avoid uncontrolled performance of duties. Flexible work teams allow the employees to decide on when to start or end job assignments. The basic requirement is working for a given number of hours per day (Fink, Knight,  Michaelsen, 2002). On the other hand, mass production setting gives a scheduled program to be followed. The employees should follow the timetable so as to perform the assigned duties within a specific duration. Employees should be at the job place whether there is work or not (Tayeb, 2005).

Contingency theory of leadership and its application in the two setting
Contingency theory of leadership defines a leader as a person who influences others to contribute to the goals of an organization willingly (Chemers, 1997). The leader uses several strategies to achieve the goals of the organization. In a flexible work team, the leader strives to achieve the goals by giving the freedom to perform their duties. The leader allows the followers to be leaders of themselves. This approach allows invention and innovation and prevents overdependence on the decisions of one person. In the mass production setting, the manager controls everything and the subjects follow the guidelines provided by their leader. This leadership style does not allow employees to make decisions on their own. This system is important in that in large organizations, the employees should be given direction to avoid haphazard activities. The leader aims at giving the best decisions possible to enable proper performance of duties. Decision making is strategically planned to ensure that the interest of all employees is represented (Kramer  Messick, 2005).

Conclusion
Managers should be leaders and should act wisely to ensure the organization achieves its goals. The size of the organization will determine the type of management style to use so as to effectively achieve the pre-defined goals of an organization. Managers should be leaders and should work to ensure that the interests their followers are well attained while maintaining the statutes of the organization. All elements in the internal and external environments should be well coordinated to avoid conflicts.

India today has been profoundly changed by the modern world. In fact investors are looking at India as the net big business and investment giant, like China. Once untouched by tourism, big business, and financial and IT industries, India economy is epanding and booming. As a result, its young people called the young professionals have very different values compared to those of their parents.

For young professionals in India, they have been greatly influenced by the Western affluent lifestyle and have adopted the Western values of aggressiveness, innovativeness, and being achievement oriented. They desire to put up their own business become entrepreneurs. They also want to become executives, to live the posh life. They want to be successful in work or in business, they want to buy cars, apartments, and for them to have plenty of money. They desire achievements in their careers also an easy life in contrast to that of their parents who most of them had endured great hardship in the traditional India with its harsh caste system, and who lived a life of poverty.

The companies and managers in India are attempting to help young professionals achieve their values by providing them with attractive jobs, high salaries and fringe benefits, and promotions as ell as opportunity to travel outside of India. In order to attract the best and the brightest from India young professional workforce, global companies are coming up with innovative hiring strategies that will enable these young employees to perform their best The companies in India are offering short-term management training courses, or mini-MBA program for these young people. Others are giving them free housing and provide them with management coaches and mentors in order that they dont get overwhelmed by life in the world of work. Companies also offer flexible work schedule that will enable them to work at home or out of the office.

There are factors are likely to contribute to job satisfaction and organizational commitment among young professional in India. Organizational commitment is defined as a state in which an employee identifies with a particular organization and its goals and wishes to maintain membership in the organization. On the other hand, job satisfaction pertains to the employees general attitude toward his or her job. For young  professionals in India, they have to be motivated with rewards and promotions for high performance. Because of the technology boom, these young and bright Indian engineers and computer programmers can easily leave their jobs and move on to another which may offer better pay, and greater challenges. Managing a global workforce in India is indeed a challenge to transnational managers. These young Indian hirees are eager, smart, and in a hurry to get rich and be successful.
In terms of having organizational commitment, these young employees most likely will leave the company if they think that they are being short-changed, or being discriminated against, and treated unfairly. It will not be easy for global managers to make them be satisfied with simple tasks. They are the product of global education, of MBA Program from Harvard or Wharton, and thus, they will demand more from their employers in term of salary, and perks.

Organizational culture is the shared set of beliefs, expectations, values, norms, and work routines that influence how members of an organization relate to one another and work together to achieve organizational goals. According to Robbins, organizational culture refer to a system of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes the organization from other organizations. The essence of an organizational structure has seven elements innovation and risk taking, attention to details, people orientation, team orientation aggressiveness and stability.  The kind of organizational culture likely to be especially appealing to these young Indian workforce should be a mix of traditional Indian culture with its rituals, Hinduism, arranged marriages, and the caste system, combined with the modern culture of affluence, regard for individual drive and achievement, and a prosperous life.

Although I value modesty as an integral feature of a balanced, mind, for purposes of this essay I feel compelled to stress and illustrate the unique and precise reasons why I believe that I would be an excellent candidate for admission to the University of Washington.  Unlike other candidates who might merely emphasize what they seek for themselves, I believe that in addition to pursuing my own specific individual goals that I would be able to bring new ideas and a diverse background experience that would benefit other students, my professors, and the classes in which I would enroll.  This is because, as an international student with some experience having already studied in the United States, I have previous academic and cultural experiences in both Honk Kong and Indonesia.  I have therefore a number of diverse experiences in Hong Kongs vibrant trading atmosphere, Indonesias moderate Muslim atmosphere, and most recently in Americas technologically advanced standards of living here in Seattle where I am currently attending community college in North Seattle.  My interests in business and commercial trade have been long-standing interests and I selected and pursued a commerce emphasis during my high school studies.  In addition to pursuing business-related subjects in my formal academic programs of study, I have also consistently sought to supplement my academic studies with practical business experiences in the real world.  To this end, working for my parents company, I gained valuable experience working as an assistant accountant for a company engaged in international business consequently at a comparatively young age I gained much experience dealing with the accounting and financial aspects of both domestic and international business transactions.  This was especially useful as I was able to see how theory learned in the classroom, sometimes rather abstract types of theory, could be applied in the real world.  This is my main reason for applying to the University of Washington more specifically, this program has a faculty which has expertise in international commerce and which is ideally located on the Pacific Rim.  More, the program emphasizes an international business orientation, it seeks to bridge theory and practice, and it acknowledges that business ethics and cultural understandings are quite important in the modern business context.  I believe that my background meshes perfectly and quite harmoniously with these business missions.

In addition, from a personal history perspective, I believe that I would be a valuable addition to the program for several reasons.  As mentioned, I have attended schools in Hong Kong, Indonesia, and the United States here in Seattle.  This has, in turn, necessitated special types of learning and knowledge that contribute to my suitability as a candidate.   I can speak, for example, five languages.  These languages include Cantonese, Chinese, Indonesian, English, and Hokkian.  This allows me, because language incorporates cultural values, to more deeply understand what different people value and how these values are expressed in daily life or even in business contexts.  Some cultures seek consensus as a dominant value whereas others seek advantage.  I believe that I can share these insights with my fellow students and professors that will enliven and provide a richer context to class discussions and analyses.  I am currently finishing my studies at the community college in North Seattle, these studies will conclude in the spring, and I am hoping to enroll at the University of Washington shortly thereafter.

In terms of career goals, I envision both short-term and longer-term career goals.  In the short-term, for instance, my goal is to be an accountant or maybe CPA and help my parents to run the company.  I have grander ambitions, however, in the long term.  The modern world of finance is certainly beset with challenges and opportunities.  To be sure, the are financial imbalances throughout the world and many of these balances have been attributed to the substantive nature of novel financial instruments and some have been attributed to human abuses rather than the inherent fallibility of certain finance instruments and financial principles.  These debates, and the underlying financial bases of these debates, relate specifically to my main research interests.  Specifically, I have been most keenly intrigued by how the evolving and frequently contradictory principles of corporate governance affect finance and how the principles of finance might be better coordinated and clarified through a more cohesive and predictable type of global corporate governance paradigm.  Corporate governance is such an important feature of finance, both in terms of public policy and in terms of substantive and procedural financial issues, because it can provide a more secure and predictable framework within which finance professionals may make decisions and weigh risks more confidently.  Though a sometimes neglected aspect of finance, the public policy and corporate policy issues are quite interesting to me and these are areas of study I would like to pursue in addition to the more specific finance topics and courses.

Finally, on a personal business ethics note, I would like to add that todays interdisciplinary world, in which once unsolvable riddles are being approached and solved in unique ways, illustrates in a superficial manner what educational institutions like the University of Washington have known in a more holistic sense for years more specifically, it is the integration of different types of knowledge that makes communities and the world a more comprehensible and ethical planet to inhabit.  I would bring a firm and well-informed ethical background to the business administration program.

Difference between business model and strategy
Business model is a framework of an organization that mainly aims at increasing the profit of the organization. Strategy is a framework of performance. Hence the goal of both business model and strategy is to take an organization to a much better position than it is presently in. However business model looks at the money aspect of the organization, whereas the strategy looks at the aspect of how to increase the productivity level of the organization and accelerate the satisfaction level of the customers so that the organization has an edge over its competitors. Based on the strategy the business model is designed so that the profit maximization is possible without any hiccups. If there is no strategy, deciding upon the business model is not possible for the managers. Hence strategy precedes a business model in all organizational planning. Strategy is laying down rules and regulations of performance while business model is implementation of those strategies. Business model entails how the strategies are implemented, which strategies are of high priority and when a particular strategy would be implemented so that maximum customer satisfaction is attained.

Difference between business model and revenue model
Business model can be termed as one of the trees while the revenue model can be termed as one of its branches. Business model aims at money making of which there are different paths like advertising, auction, production, mark up, revenue generation etc. Since revenue generation is a part of profit making, just like planning for advertising, production etc. that involves different steps of execution, a model of revenue generation known as revenue model is designed so that the business model is complete in all aspects.