Over View Of Implementing Benchmarking Program In Company Marketing Essay

Over View Of Implementing Benchmarking Program In Company Marketing Essay Benchmarking is one aspect of performance management that is used to check and analysis the activities and elements of any organization. It is used to search for best practices of any activity that organizations needs to develop. Moreover, it is not an independent technique as it is considered to be a natural progression from the implementation of total quality management. Successful organizations assess themselves against the best in their category and benchmarking is used as tool for doing that. Benchmarking Implementation: In order to implement performance management system in an organization it is important to do a benchmarking. As a senior manager in a telecommunication company (Etisalat) I was requested to by the CEO to do a benchmarking program to improve the performance of the company as it is fallen below target. The performance point that I was requested to check is the customer satisfaction that was fallen below the expected target that was set by the companys management based on the latest survey done on the market and decrease in number of subscribers, who moved their service to the other market competitor. The benchmarking process does not vary significantly with the three categories of partners selected: internal organisations, direct competitors, or non-competitors. Therefore I am going to compare the customer satisfaction in the telecom company with Emirates Airlines. The reason why I choose Emirates Airlines is that it is a very large multi-destination flight company with a very large number of passengers. Etisalat was established in 1976 with a low number of landline subscribers and increased to 100 million subscribers in the world. Emirates Airlines established in 1985 with 260,000 passengers that year. The number of passengers increased dramatically to 27 million till March 2010 and 108 world destinations. That shows how customers with the service provided by Emirates Airlines in a short period and while other big airlines are going bankrupt during the world financial crises. The reason why we should go for benchmarking is to improve methodologies that result in high productivity and lower costs. Benchmarking is particularly helpful in validating proposals for change. Moreover, it often results in creative imitation and the adoption of new practices that overcome previous industry barriers. Furthermore, this search for diversity and for innovative breakthroughs applied. There are eight steps in order to do a benchmarking are: Select the subject. Forming the team and the project road map. Performance indicators and drivers. Selecting partner. Data collection. Analysis. Integration and action. Benchmarking process: Select the subject Based on the point highlighted by Etisalats CEO, there is a problem in the customers satisfaction that was targeted this year. Customer satisfaction is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet customer expectation Based on the market survey and problem investigation, we found that problem is due to the following: Quality of service. Customer support. Incident handling. Productivity. Pricing. After investigation and looking at the problem from another angle, we found the reason beyond losing customers satisfaction is concentrating on the development projects and reducing the operational costs in order not to lower down the impact of the world financial crises and compete with the competitor (du) from productivity point of view. In order to solve the problem of losing customer satisfaction, a movement has to be done in order to provide more qualitative after sale service and that can be done by spending more on developing the operational processes and spending more on operations as well as the employees as employees satisfaction is the key towards customers satisfaction. Moreover I am going to concentrate on Etisalat customers satisfaction in the UAE only. Forming the team and the project road map A team needs to be formed and a project road map developed. These are integral activities in the subject selection step. The team that I created includes 5 members are experts and represent the various functions affected by the project. The teams composed of staff personnel who are capable of setting recommendations that meet significant resistance during implementation. Each team member will work on studying the each of the below causes, visit the related sections, highlight the drawbacks and set recommendations for: Quality of service. Customer support. Incident handling. Productivity. Pricing. And I am going to follow-up and manage this project as a team leader. Performance indicators and drivers This part begins with the documentation of processes and practices associated with the subject. The primary goal is to identify the vital few performance indicators that confirm superior performance and to identify those processes and practices that drive performance. This search for cause and effect will be followed by the identification and documentation of internal process variables and attributes. That is a major part that each of the team members will have to take an ownership in order to study each of the processes practices and complete its documentations. Selecting partner The selection of partners often involves the use of external data and information sources. Partners fall into two general categories: other internal units and external organisations. External organisations may include direct competitors; Industry peers that serve a different market; Companies that serve the same market in a related but different industry; Organisations outside my industry that performs similar functions. As I mentioned above, I decided to choose Emirates Airlines, an organization outside telecom industry and serve the same market. Moreover, Emirates has great initiatives to develop its services that are provided to the passengers. Therefore, Emirates Airlines is almost receiving a yearly awards for its services such as best airline from Business Traveller Middle East Awards 2009, Best In-flight Entertainment from Skytrax Airline Excellence Awards 2009, Outstanding Food Service by a Carrier Middle East 2009 from Pax International Magazine Readership Awards, etc. Data collection Data collection can be the most difficult step in the Benchmarking process. The primary objective is to gather information and data to confirm superior performance and to uncover best practices without burdening the partners with long, time-consuming data collection methods. Although data and information are collected in establishing baseline measures and in selecting partners, the majority of the data for most projects are collected in this step. The following table shows a summarized comparison between the points that lower down the customers satisfaction of Etisalat and compare it with Emirates Airlines. Etisalat Emirates Airlines Quality of service Medium High Customer support Low High Incident handling Low High Productivity High High with value added services Pricing Average High Advertisement High for newly released products High Promotions On going On sessions Loyalty program Available Available CRM Low Medium Analysis The objective of the analysis step is to identify the best performing organisation and to determine the reasons for the superior performance. The performance indicators define the benchmark standard and the gaps in performance for each participant. The processes and practices of the best organisation are the benchmark performance drivers that each partner will try to creatively imitate. Identifying this cause and effect relationship between performance drivers and the resultant measures is the most challenging part of benchmarking. When we look at the above comparison table in the data collection part, we can find that there are some differences in the services provided by the two organizations. If we start with the quality of service, we can find that Etisalat is providing medium quality of service. For example, for the old and stable services like mobile service and internet the quality is very good, but if we look at latest services like eLife the quality is very low. While in Emirates Airlines, it is always high even for new destinations. Customers support and incident handling in Etisalat is very low as the customers whenever they want to raise a complaint or have inquiry, mostly they will be forwarded from a section to another or from a call centre number to another without having a single point of contact. Moreover, whenever you dial the call center, you have to wait on the phone for more than 10 minutes till someone pick the phone and register your complaint that if it is required advance troubleshooting, the case will not be solved in less than one day and may continue for a month. On the other hand, Emirates Airlines representatives will answer your inquiries clearly and are very helpful to handle your complaints with ownership. The productivity in Etisalat is very high, however due shortage in advertisement and products information sharing for all the products, most of the products are messed by the customers and even the employees. Moreover, the advertisement done by Etisalat is only for the newly released products. However for Emirates Airlines, it is high as the customers is always loyal to the airline and may keep it as the first choice for travel anywhere and he is always expected to have more value added services in flight entertainment. The prices of Etisalat product are average compared to the quality of service provided to the customers, but the customers will always see it high as the after sale services are low. The prices of Emirates Airlines are high, but the service the passenger is receiving before, during and after the flight is high. The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in Etisalat is very low and only done by sending updates to all customers through email and SMS for the new products. On the other, Emirates Airlines are send a monthly newsletter to all their customers by email, normal postage, to keep them updated with all the changes, offers and new destinations. Sometimes, they are requested to provide a quick feedback on a questionnaire. Integration and action The objectives of the integration and action steps are to obtain organisation buy-in, initiate projects to close gaps and implement plans developed in these projects. So based on the analyses done above the organization has to rectify the problems that leads to losing customers satisfaction. Some of the recommended suggestions are: 1. Encourage Face-to-Face Dealings 2. Respond to Messages Promptly Keep Your Clients Informed 3. Be Friendly and Approachable 4. Have a Clearly Defined Customer Service Policy 5. Attention to Detail 6. Anticipate Your Clients Needs 7. Honor your Promises To be effective, Benchmarking works best in an environment in which teamwork and management support is evident. Teams need to focus on results as measured by performance indicators, but the organisation must change the performance drivers to achieve benchmark standards. Target setting alone, without changes in the organisation culture, other structural factors, processes, and practices, can only bring temporary relief.

Money Laundering Essay -- Business Ethics

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, money laundering is the process by which one conceals the existence, illegal source, or illegal application of income and then disguises that income to make it appear legitimate. Money laundering involves a three step process which includes placement, layering and integration (Albrecht et al, 2009). Placement is the first step and it includes the launderer opening up an account at a bank or some other type of financial business to make deposits with the illegal money. The placement step is often looked at as the most risk taking step because the launderer does not know the reaction of the bank and how they are going to accept a large cash deposit. If the deposit is too large the bank can recognize it and this could be considered a red flag for the bank. The purpose of this step is to avoid the authorities and to remove the money as far away from the source as possible. The second step is called layering. This is where the launderer hides the money by opening up other accounts at other banks and makes transactions between these different accounts sometimes even in different countries. This makes it very hard to track the exact location of the money. The last step is the integration step. The money is finally used out into society and seems to be legal, legit money but it really came from an illegal crime. Theses launderers use the money to buy houses, cars and anything else that is expensive. Now these launderers have lots of money that they have obtained illegally (Albrecht et al, 2009). Money laundering is extremely important because it is not just a crime that was created overnight. This scheme took time and intelligence to be thought out. We are not dealing with dumb pe... ...money laundering? Crime school: money laundering: true crime meets the world of business and finance (pp.21-22). Buffalo, N.Y: Firefly Books. Perez, E., & Mollenkamp, C. (2010, March 18). Wachovia settles money-laundering case. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704059004575128062835484290.html Reuter, P. & Truman, E.M. (2004). The anti-money laundering regime. Chasing dirty money: the fight against money laundering (pp.46-48). Washington, D.C: Institute for International Economics. Statistical data – money laundering investigations. (2011). Retrieved March 20, 2011, from IRS website: http://www.irs.gov/compliance/enforcement/article/0,,id=113002,00.html Woods, B.F., (1998). The money laundering phenomenon. The art and science of money laundering (pp 1-4). Boulder, CO: Paladin Press. Money Laundering Essay -- Business Ethics According to the U.S. Department of Justice, money laundering is the process by which one conceals the existence, illegal source, or illegal application of income and then disguises that income to make it appear legitimate. Money laundering involves a three step process which includes placement, layering and integration (Albrecht et al, 2009). Placement is the first step and it includes the launderer opening up an account at a bank or some other type of financial business to make deposits with the illegal money. The placement step is often looked at as the most risk taking step because the launderer does not know the reaction of the bank and how they are going to accept a large cash deposit. If the deposit is too large the bank can recognize it and this could be considered a red flag for the bank. The purpose of this step is to avoid the authorities and to remove the money as far away from the source as possible. The second step is called layering. This is where the launderer hides the money by opening up other accounts at other banks and makes transactions between these different accounts sometimes even in different countries. This makes it very hard to track the exact location of the money. The last step is the integration step. The money is finally used out into society and seems to be legal, legit money but it really came from an illegal crime. Theses launderers use the money to buy houses, cars and anything else that is expensive. Now these launderers have lots of money that they have obtained illegally (Albrecht et al, 2009). Money laundering is extremely important because it is not just a crime that was created overnight. This scheme took time and intelligence to be thought out. We are not dealing with dumb pe... ...money laundering? Crime school: money laundering: true crime meets the world of business and finance (pp.21-22). Buffalo, N.Y: Firefly Books. Perez, E., & Mollenkamp, C. (2010, March 18). Wachovia settles money-laundering case. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704059004575128062835484290.html Reuter, P. & Truman, E.M. (2004). The anti-money laundering regime. Chasing dirty money: the fight against money laundering (pp.46-48). Washington, D.C: Institute for International Economics. Statistical data – money laundering investigations. (2011). Retrieved March 20, 2011, from IRS website: http://www.irs.gov/compliance/enforcement/article/0,,id=113002,00.html Woods, B.F., (1998). The money laundering phenomenon. The art and science of money laundering (pp 1-4). Boulder, CO: Paladin Press.

Magazines

1. What is the origin of the word `magazine? The etymology of the word ‘magazine’ goes back to Arabic mahazin from the word hazana, which meant to store, French magasin, which meant a storehouse, from Old French magazin (possibly via Old Italian magazzino). As we saw, in both cases the stem store was meant.[1] 2. Name 3 general interest magazines and 3 special interest magazines. General interest magazines are â€Å"Newsweek†, â€Å"People†, and â€Å"the Time†. For special interest magazines I would point out â€Å"Car and Driver†, â€Å"Science Magazine†, â€Å"Molecular Medicine†. 3. What is a muckraker? Name 2 and their most famous stories. is an American English term for one who investigates and exposes issues of corruption that violate widely held values, such as political corruption, corporate crime, child labor, conditions in slums and prisons. The most important muckraker work was Ralf Nader’s Unsafe at Any Speed, which let to stop production of the Chevrolet Corvair in 1965. Wayne Barrett, investigative journalist, senior editor of the Village Voice; wrote on mystique and misdeeds in Rudy Giuliani's conduct as mayor of New York City, Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11 (2006). 4. What is 2nd class postage? Why is it so important to magazines? Second class postage stamp is a low cost solution for the mailing service. It allows full compensation if the product is lost or damaged and allows delivering large magazine sized items, the last advantage is that by second class posting the magazines will be delivered in three days.[2] 5. Think of a particular segment of the mass audience that could be served by a magazine but doesn’t seem to be. Describe the audience and the sort of magazine that would appeal to this collection of readers. On a separate piece of paper, prepare a mock-up of the cover for your new magazine. There is a massive need among people to â€Å"Mind the danger!† I would call my magazine in this way. This would be a magazine which warns people of different dangers in using, e.g. electricity, gas, vehicles, electrical equipment, all types of equipment, devices and materials that may be dangerous for a man, a child, anyone. I suppose that this segment, which is a huge segment and by its nature the magazine would be classified as a â€Å"general [1] http://www.bartleby.com/61/44/M0024400.html [2] http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/content1?catId=400030;mediaId=3500019

Management Consulting Firm Analysis Of Current Issues At...

DVT MANAGEMENT CONSULTING FIRM Analysis of current issues at Kev’s workshop Solutions Van Duc Tran 10/8/2014 Table of Contents I. Executive Summary i II. Identification and analysis of issues at Kev’s workshop 2 i. Problem #1: Miller’s dissatisfaction at the workplace 2 ii. Problem #2: Miller’s complaints about working conditions. 2 iii. Problem #3: Internal conflict between Miller and other co-workers 3 iv. Problem#4: Lack of influence from team leader, Myers 3 v. Problem #5: Poor quality control 4 III. Statements of Key Problems 5 i. Motivation: 5 ii. Leadership: 5 IV. Generation and analysis of possible solutions to fix current key problems: 5 i. Motivation problem: Miller is unmotivated at work. 5 ii. Leadership†¦show more content†¦Key problems are: †¢ Miller is unmotivated at work †¢ Myers doesn’t have the power and suitable leadership style to influence his subordinates. Recommendations are: †¢ Motivating Miller in order to improve his works †¢ Giving Myers the power to influence other employees †¢ Changing the leadership style of Myers The effectiveness of this plan can be evaluated one year after implementation. II. Identification and analysis of issues at Kev’s workshop i. Problem #1: Miller’s dissatisfaction at the workplace The un-official coffee break every day at 10 AM has significant effects in building the relationships between team members at the workshop. Therefore, the fact that Miller was unable to join most of the coffee breaks prevents him from getting to know and forming friendship with other people at the workplace. During the first three week, Miller was only able to attend 1 out of 15 coffee breaks. Even though when he rushed things, he still missed them. This led to two consequences. The first one was decreased level of performance which is the â€Å"faulty gasket†. The second problem is his feeling of â€Å"alienated†, â€Å"dissatisfied†, â€Å"appear to be the slowest† and lack of communication with others. All of these events and symptoms above suggest that the underlying cause of this problem is lack of motivation. Miller needs socialisation at the workshop and respect from his co-workers in order to become satisfied and motivated. These two needs fall into â€Å"Social