Critical Success Factors in Supply Chain Management

Critical Success Factors in Supply Chain Management ABSTRACT In todays turbulent economic environment, firms are striving for ways to achieve competitive advantage. One of the approaches is to manage the entire supply chain to reduce costs and improve performance to create competitive advantage and business success. This dissertation explores and investigates how high technology firms use supply chain management to gain competitive advantage and increase business success. The research objective is to determine the critical success factors in supply chain management at high technology companies. This dissertation provides a theoretical framework to understand a firms performance and argues that supply chain management will help a firm to be competitive and successful. To this end, the critical success factors that make a company more competitive are identified. The research design is based on the established and recommended procedures of multiple case study research methodology; and this methodology is used to gather data from five companies in California, USA. The analysis is based primarily on cross-case analysis for the purpose of theoretical generalization about the research issues. The results identify two clusters of company behavior and characteristics, specifically traditional ‘old style manufacturing companies and progressive manufacturing companies. Each cluster of company behaves differently. At the traditional manufacturing companies, the selection of critical supply chain management factors is internally focused on factors that are manufacturing and quality focused, while at the progressive manufacturing companies the selection of critical supply chain management factors is externally focused on factors that are directed to customers and information systems. There are differences between critical supply chain management factors at high technology companies and benchmark (or commodity) companies that were selected in this study. The benchmark companies select supply chain management factors that focus on customer services and quality. This approach is, possibly, due to the fact that the benchmark companies deal in commodity type products and hence they have to focus on differentiating themselves through strong customer services and quality products. Additionally, with the help of supply chain metrics, financial performance data, and understanding the various companies, it is possible to determine which critical supply chain factors best can contribute to business performance. At the case study companies, an external focus on supply chain management factors such as a strong focus on customer relationship and management, gives better business results. Finally, this study has proposed a novel and new approach to improving customer satisfaction by using QFD methodology to identify performance gaps (and opportunities) from the customers viewpoint in supply chain management. If the companies wish to increase customer satisfaction, they have to use the QFD methodology to identify critical supply chain factors. The reason is primarily because performance gaps derived from customer needs emphasize what the customer wants and that is different from the internal perceptions of a companys managers. The initiatives that provide the greatest opportunity have been identified in this analysis. Overall, these findings can be used by high technology firms to select supply chain strategies that will lead to sustainable competitive advantage and hence improve their brand and business performance. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The genesis of this dissertation was a request from a high technology company to investigate the companys supply chain system and identify factors affecting the successful implementation of supply chain management. This chapter serves as an introduction to the dissertation. It comprises eight sections, which cover the background to the research, objective of the research and the research questions, justification and significance of the research, a brief description of the methodology, an outline of the structure of the study, key definitions, delimitations of this research, and the chapters conclusion. 1.1 Background A firms strategies, innovations, and well-planned activities will lead to sustainable competitive advantage and hence improve its brand and business performance. As firms strive for ways to achieve competitive advantage, they are looking for new ideas and solutions. This dissertation addresses the topic of competitive advantage, reviews how firms attempt to achieve it, and focuses on one aspect of competitive advantage managing the supply chain to increase competitive advantage and business success. The early understanding of competitive advantage is based on Leon Walras (1874, 1984) theory of perfect competition. In perfect competition products are homogenous, consumers and producers have perfect information, prices will reach equilibrium, and as a result profits are zero in the long run. A later approach is the Industrial Organization approach (Tirole, 1988), which argues that success comes from market power and a firms efficiency. However, the proponents of this approach agree that in the long term there would be industry equilibrium and little profit. One of the first researchers to propose a theoretical framework for understanding a firms performance is Michael Porter (1980). He takes a strategic and analytical approach to understanding competitive strategy, and argues that, â€Å"Every firm competing in an industry has a competitive strategy, whether explicit or implicit.† Porter asserts that, except for microeconomic theory, the strategy field and literature had offered few analytical techniques for gaining this understanding. Porter (1980) argues that with the right approach it is possible to break away from the economic equilibrium situation and achieve superior performance. Therefore he proposes a framework for analyzing industries and competitors and describes three generic strategies cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. He postulates that to be successful, the firm has to do well in one or more of these strategies. Porters (1980) ideas and proposals on achieving competitive advantage have influenced many other researchers to propose complementary theories on achieving competitive advantage. All the theories proposed by researchers are supported with examples of winning strategies implemented at renowned companies. The theories include an emphasis on planning (Porter, 1980, 1985), strategic approach (Hamel and Prahalad, 1990, 1998; Porter, 1985, 1990, 1991), marketing strategies (Day, 1994, 1999), value chain management (Porter, 1985), and supply chain management (Christopher, 1998; Poirier, 1999; Tyndall et al., 1998). A theory that has gained momentum in the last few years is the concept of supply chain management. In recent years, there have been numerous advances and developments in supply chain techniques and management. One of the reasons is that as trade barriers drop and markets open, competition has become more intense hence companies need to be more competitive and cost effective. An initiative to help achieve this is a supply chain management program. Supply chain management is the management of upstream and downstream activities, resources, and relationships with suppliers and customers, which is required to deliver products or services. In theory, if this is done well it will lead to competitive advantage through differentiation and lower costs as suggested by Porter (1980). Moreover, some researchers claim that effective supply chain management can reduce costs by several percentage points of revenue (Boyson, et. al, 1999). Furthermore, there has been little verification or research d one on measuring competitive advantage gained through supply chain management. Supply chain management is not a static concept or solution. Instead, new advances and techniques for supply chain management continue to mushroom. This tremendous growth in new ideas and processes is starting to influence and change the business processes and models of companies. Hence companies have many choices in selecting programs in supply chain management. In making their choices, companies need to plan for effective supply chain management, in order to gain competitive advantage. However, to ensure that effective supply chain management can provide business success, this study must determine the critical success factors in supply chain management that can provide competitive advantage. Furthermore, these critical success factors must be identified and conveyed to senior management in firms that want to have an effective supply chain management program. 1.2 Objective of this research The objective of this dissertation is to explore and investigate how firms scope, design, and implement supply chain management in order to gain competitive advantage. Most importantly, this dissertation endeavors to determine the critical success factors in supply chain management that can provide competitive advantage. It also explores and investigates the advances and new ideas in supply chain management and examines how firms scope, design, and implement supply chain management in order to gain competitive advantage. The genesis of this dissertation was a request from a high technology company to investigate the companys supply chain system and propose improvements to help make it more competitive. The company is headquartered in California USA, and this author works for one of the companys business unit as General Manager for Distribution. The request was to investigate the companys supply chain management system and to propose improvements that would make it more competitive This dissertation provides a theoretical framework to understand a firms performance and argues that supply chain management is an approach that will help a firm to be competitive and successful. Furthermore, in using supply chain management, firms are faced with choices on what supply chain techniques and developments to adopt for their businesses. This dissertation wil review the choices that high technology companies have today, and will make recommendations to select the best choices, or critical success factors, based on business and customer needs. Therefore, the research objective is to: Determine the critical success factors in supply chain management at high technology companies. In fulfilling this objective, this dissertation also addresses the following research issues: 1. Are there differences between critical supply chain management factors at various high technology companies? 2. Are there differences between critical supply chain management factors at high technology companies and non high technology (or benchmark commodity) companies? 3. Will a focus on external supply chain management factors give better business results? 4. Are perceived critical gaps (and opportunities) in performance derived from traditional methodology similar to those deployed from customer needs? In this study, the critical success factors to make a company more competitive are identified. To ensure a robust analysis and conclusion, the expectations and perceptions of respondents, involved in this study, are taken into consideration as well as customer requirements. 1.3 Significance of the research There are many theories and empirical studies on competitive advantage. However, the empirical studies, using mathematical models, tend to be limited in scope (Porter, 1991; Buzzel and Gale, 1990), and do not include supply chain management parameters. While there has been much research on activities that can provide competitive advantage, there is little knowledge on the process of selection and impact of supply chain management on the competitive position and business performance of a high technology firm. Firms need to understand how supply chain management can help them achieve competitive advantage. Furthermore, there is an expectation that high technology companies will use leading edge technology and invest heavily in supply chain management. This dissertation makes the following contributions: 1. Fulfils a request from a high technology company: The author of this study works for a high technology company, head-quartered in California USA, and was requested to investigate the companys (business unit) supply chain system and propose improvements to help make it more competitive. 2. Identifies the critical success factors in supply chain management from a high technology companys viewpoint. Often when reviewing critical success factors, only the perception of respondents is taken into account. However, in this analysis both the perceptions and expectations of respondents are taken into consideration. Such an analysis will be more robust and will allow performance gaps to be analyzed and understood. 3. Identifies the critical success factors in supply chain management from customers of high technology companies. To enhance the relevance of the conclusions, customer requirements are also taken into consideration by using the quality function deployment (QFD) methodology and these are compared to the high technology companies performance gaps. Such an analysis will allow performance gaps to be analyzed and understood from the viewpoint of customers of high technology companies. 4. Contributes to the understanding of how high technology companies scope, design, and develop their supply chain management system. 1.4 Research Methodology This study employs the qualitative research process using multiple case studies. There are several reasons for this: Since the focus of this research is on high technology companies operating in California, USA, there is a concern that there will be a small number of companies willing to participate in a large (sample size) quantitative survey. Furthermore face-to-face meetings with respondents can help provide understanding and information on several qualitative areas, such as: reasons for implementing specific supply chain factors (or strategies), customer needs data, and discussions and feedback on the questionnaire. Also, cases can be viewed and studied alone and across cases to provide comparison and contrast and richer details and insights regarding the research issues (Eisenhardt 1989; Stake 1994; Yin 1994). Hence this research will be done via a multiple case study approach using structured interviews with a questionnaire (Yin, 1994).5 1.5 Structure of the dissertation In addition to this introductory chapter, this dissertation consists of four chapters ( 1.1). Chapter 2 reviews the relevant literature, addresses the disciplines under investigation, and provides an overview of competitive advantage. The chapter then provides a detailed review of the current literature and practices of supply chain management. With that as the background, chapter 2 continues into identifying gaps in the literature and provides the rationale for selecting the research topic and issues. Chapter 5Conclusion and opportunities for further researchChapter 1IntroductionChapter 3Research methodologyChapter 2Literature review and research issuesChapter 4Data analysis and interpretationsChapter interpretations Chapter 3 discusses the research methodology used for this study and it includes: the justification of the research methodology, a discussion on preparation of the questionnaire and the data gathering process, the process used for data analysis and determining gaps, the process used to generate recommendations from the data, and concludes with a discussion on the limitations of case study research. Chapter 4 summarizes the data collected from the selected companies and respondents and aims to interpret the data in relation to the research objective. Each of the four research issues is analyzed, interpreted, and the detailed findings are presented. The chapter concludes with a summary of the research findings. Chapter 5 provides a summary of the findings and conclusions of the research objective and issues, discusses the contribution of the research findings to the literature and theory, reviews the implications of the findings, discusses the limitations of the research, and concludes with suggested direction for future research. 1.6 Key definitions Definitions adopted by researchers are often not uniform; hence key terms are defined to establish positions taken for this dissertation (Perry 1998). This will ensure that subsequent research, undertaken at a later stage, will better measure and compare what this dissertation has set out to do. †¢ Logistics: The management and movement of product and services, including storage and warehousing, and their transport via air, land, and water (Coyle, Bardi, and Langley, 1988). †¢ Supply chain: Consists of all inter-linked resources and activities needed to create and deliver products and services to customers (Hakanson, 1999). †¢ Supply chain management: This includes managing supply and demand, sourcing raw materials and parts, manufacturing and assembly, distribution across all channels, and delivery to the customer (Supply Chain Council, 2001). †¢ Supply chain agility or agile supply chain: An agile supply chain is one that is flexible and has a business-wide capability that embraces organizational structures, information systems, and logistics processes. (Christopher, 2000) †¢ Critical success factors (CSF): Critical success factors are those few things that must go well to ensure success for a manager or organization, and therefore may represent those managerial or enterprise areas that must be given continual attention. CSFs include issues vital to an organizations current operating activities and to its future success (Boynton and Zmud, 1984). †¢ Customer relationship management (CRM): CRM is the management of technology, processes, information, and people in order to maximize each customer contact by obtaining a 360-degree view of the customer (Galbreath and Rogers, 1999). †¢ Performance gap: This is a gap between the perceived performance and the expected importance of a factor (in this dissertation it is a supply chain factor). The performance gap provides an indication as to whether executives and managers are successful in translating their vision to their employees and hence such perception may give an indication regarding the degree of employees alignment with the organizations vision. If a factor is critical and has a negative value of factor alignment (perceived performance is less than the expectation), then the organization may have a potential problem with that factor. Information on factor alignment allows executives to develop a strategy to overcome the challenges associated with the gaps between importance and performance. (Martilla and James, 1977). †¢ Quality Function Deployment (QFD): QFD is a comprehensive quality tool that can be used to uncover customers spoken and unspoken needs, and convert these needs to product or service design targets and processes (Akao, 1990). 1.7 Delimitation There are several delimitations in this dissertation. †¢ The theoretical model derived from this dissertation is only applicable to the high technology companies. †¢ The dissertation is focused on companies operating geographically in California, United States of America, where there is a concentration of high technology companies. †¢ This dissertation is an exploratory research and will have to be tested for generalizability in later, more extensive, quantitative research (Perry, 1998). †¢ There is no scientific basis for choosing the number of cases in this dissertation. The number selected is based on the experiences and recommendations of the research and academic community (Eisenhardt, 1989; Perry, 1998). 1.8 Conclusion This chapter provides an overview of the dissertation. The aim, objectives, and justification of the research topic were discussed. The dissertation is an investigation on the impact of a supply chain management system on the competitive position of high technology business firms. It explores and investigates new ideas in supply chain management and examines how high technology firms manage and improve their supply chain management system. Furthermore, this dissertation will analyze the gaps and opportunities for supply chain management in high technology companies and give a set of recommendations. The methodology was briefly described, key definitions were explained, delimitations of this research were addressed, and the structure of the dissertation was outlined. With all the important areas of the research briefly introduced in this chapter, the following four chapters of this dissertation will present detailed description and findings of the research topic. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND RESEARCH ISSUES The previous chapter provided an overview of the dissertation and listed the objective, issues, and significance of the research topic. This chapter reviews the relevant literature and comprises of six sections. The review starts with a discussion on early approaches to understanding a firms performance and its competitive advantage. This is followed by the development of a theoretical framework and a discussion on contemporary approaches to competitive advantage. Next there is a discussion on supply chain management, followed by an overview of advanced supply chain management systems. The last two sections conclude with a discussion on gaps in the literature, identification of areas for further research, and the summary. 2.1 Early approaches to understanding a firms performance and competitive advantage One of the earliest (chronologically) approaches to competitive advantage is the microeconomic approach, or the idea of perfect competition (Walras, 1874, 1969). In perfect competition products are homogenous, consumers and producers have perfect information, prices will reach equilibrium, and as a result profits are negligible or low in the long run. However, according to Gill (1991), such a perfect economy is an abstraction, because there are monopolies, oligopolies, and perfect competition. Furthermore, there are also two kinds of competition: spatial and monopolistic. Spatial differentiation pertains to oligopolistic competition (Hotelling, 1929), and it meets consumers different tastes. Monopolistic competition assumes that small firms produce a variety of differentiated products (Chamberlin, 1933; in Gill, 1991). All these situations allow for profit maximization and higher profits (Gill, 1991). The industrial organization (IO) approach takes a richer approach to understanding a firms successful performance. IO differs from the microeconomic approach by introducing variables that explain real-world economic behavior. In IO, there are two competing hypothesis that lead to higher profits and success market power and a firms efficiency (Scherer, 1990; Tirole, 1988). Nevertheless, the IO approach assumes that markets and firms will reach equilibrium, and in equilibrium profits differences will not exist (Tirole, 1988). Both the microeconomic approach and the industrial organization approach assume that all firms would reach equilibrium and have equal profit and success. However, we know from a daily look at many firms performance on the stock market that profit and performance vary across firms, even when they are in the same business. Eaton and Lipsey (1978) have verified that differences in performance and profit exist between firms. 2.2 Contemporary approaches to achieving competitive advantage 2.2.1 Framework to understanding a firms performance One of the first researchers to propose a theoretical framework for understanding a firms performance is Porter (1980). He takes a strategic and analytical approach to understanding competitive strategy, and argued that, â€Å"Every firm competing in an industry has a competitive strategy, whether explicit or implicit† (Porter, 1980, p. xiii). He proposes a framework for analyzing industries and competitors and describes three generic strategies cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. He postulates that if a firm is able to do well in any of these strategies, it will gain competitive advantage. Porters concept is illustrated in 2-1. Generic Competitive Strategies†¢Overall cost leadership†¢Differentiation†¢FocusCompetitive Advantageof a Firm †¢ Cost leadership requires efficient-scale facilities, pursuit of cost reductions, and cost minimization in all areas of the firm. This will give more profit. †¢ Differentiation of product or service requires industry-wide differentiation, including design and brand image, customer service, and distribution or dealer network. Product or service differentiation will help increase customer loyalty and ensure repurchase. †¢ Focus on markets, buyers, or product lines can maximize profits. The framework, in 2-1, shows that the right strategies can provide competitive advantage. Porter (1985) also argues that competitive advantage come from the many discrete activities a firm performs in designing, producing, marketing, delivering, and supporting its product. Each of these activities contributes to a firms relative cost position and creates a basis for differentiation. This is the value chain, and a firm has to disaggregate its strategically relevant activities in order to understand the behavior of costs and the existing and potential sources of differentiation. A firm gains competitive advantage by performing these strategically important activities cheaper or better than its competitors (Porter, 1985), and this can lead to a higher profit margin. The value chain concept is illustrated in 2-2. Profit Margin Outbound Logistics Manufacturing Operations, and other Internal Processes Inbound Logistics Procurement Human Resource Management Technology Development Firm Infrastructure and Platform Services Customer Service Marketing and Sales Primary Activities Support Activities Supply Chain Approach Strategic Planning Approach Marketing Capabilities Approach The Value Chain and Theoretical Framework to Achieve Competitive Advantage Adapted from Porter (1985) and this literature review. Note 1: Key approaches to competitive advantage are highlighted with underlined Characters Note 2: The definition of supply chain implies all activities necessary to deliver a product (Hakanson, 1999). Therefore sales, marketing, and customer service activities can be construed as part of the supply chain approach shown in the . In this study, sales and marketing processes, such as demand management, order processing, and customer relationship management are included in the internal processes shown in the and in the supply chain literature review. However, sales and marketing activity, such as sales calls, advertising, product positioning, market research, and some post delivery support processes are excluded from supply chain activity. This is consistent with the approach taken by the Supply Chain Council and the SCOR (Supply Chain Operational Reference) model it uses to measure supply chain activity (Supply Chain Council, 2001). 2.2.2 Summary of contemporary approaches to competitive advantage Porters approach presents new thinking to competitive advantage (Rumelt, Schendel, and Teece, 1991) and has influenced other approaches to creating competitive advantage. Many of the other approaches to competitive advantage are summarized in Table 2-1. From the table, it can be seen that all the approaches to increasing competitive advantage, except for the early microeconomic and industrial organization approaches, fit the theoretical framework in 2-2. However, all these approaches to competitive advantage are complementary and not alternatives or conflicting theories they basically propose various segments of the theoretical framework shown in 2-2. The various approaches are discussed very briefly below, but the last approach (in Table 2-1), Supply Chain Management, is discussed in greater detail. 2.2.3 The strategic planning approach In essence, Porters (1980, 1985) approaches are strategic planning approaches, i.e. a firms competitive advantage can be planned for. This includes planning for differentiation in the value chain, low cost leadership, and focus. Nations can also be competitive (Porter, 1990). Nations need four conditions to gain competitive advantage and be successful. The four conditions are: factor conditions (education and skill levels), demand conditions (or market size), related and supporting industries, and company strategy and rivalry (Porter, 1990). Strategy is â€Å"lucky foresight†¦Strategy is always the product of a complex and unexpected interplay between ideas, information, personalities, and desire† according to Hamel (1998). What this implies is that one does not settle for obvious solutions and strategies but should look at alternatives, challenge assumptions, and look at new ways of delivering superior customer value and firm performance. Table 2-1 Summary of early and contemporary approaches to competitive advantage Approach Proponent Main idea/postulate Comments Microeconomic Walras (1874, 1984) Perfect competition results in negligible profits Ideas ignore monopolies, oligopolies, and product differentiation. Profit does vary across firms according to Eaton and Lipsey (1978). Industrial Organization Scherer (1990), Tirole (1988) Success comes from market power and a firms efficiency. All proponents agree that in the long term there will be industry equilibrium and little profit. Porter (1980) Porter (1985) Provides a framework for achieving competitive advantage. Every firm has a generic competitive strategy in cost leadership, market focus, or differentiation. The value chain disaggregates a firm into its strategically relevant activities. A firm gains competitive advantage by performing these important activities better than its competitors. Challenges the stereotype approach of perfect competition and industry equilibrium. Provides a prescriptive approach to achieve competitive advantage, but the ideas and solutions are essentially conceptual. Hamel (1998) Strategy is the product of a complex and unexpected interplay between ideas, information, personalities, and desire. A firm has to seek alternatives and new ways of delivering superior customer value and firm performance. The Strategic Approach and its Variations Value Chain Approach Strategic Approach Resource Based Approach Wernerfelt (1984), Barney (1991), Rumelt, Schendel, and Teece (1991). A firm has to identify specific, or rare, resources that lead to higher profits. Long-term superior performance comes from building product market positions that effectively utilize and maintain these resources. Examples of such resources include customer loyalty, and technological leads. If the resources are unique and difficult to duplicate, then the firm achieves competitive advantage. Table 2-1 (Continued) Summary of early and contemporary approaches to competitive advantage Approach Proponent Main idea/postulate Comments Market Strategy Marketing Capabilities Approach Resource-Advantage Theory Product Differentiation Day (1994,1999), Cool and Dierickx (1989), Aaker (1989), Caves and Ghemawat (1986). Also, Buzzell an Critical Success Factors in Supply Chain Management Critical Success Factors in Supply Chain Management ABSTRACT In todays turbulent economic environment, firms are striving for ways to achieve competitive advantage. One of the approaches is to manage the entire supply chain to reduce costs and improve performance to create competitive advantage and business success. This dissertation explores and investigates how high technology firms use supply chain management to gain competitive advantage and increase business success. The research objective is to determine the critical success factors in supply chain management at high technology companies. This dissertation provides a theoretical framework to understand a firms performance and argues that supply chain management will help a firm to be competitive and successful. To this end, the critical success factors that make a company more competitive are identified. The research design is based on the established and recommended procedures of multiple case study research methodology; and this methodology is used to gather data from five companies in California, USA. The analysis is based primarily on cross-case analysis for the purpose of theoretical generalization about the research issues. The results identify two clusters of company behavior and characteristics, specifically traditional ‘old style manufacturing companies and progressive manufacturing companies. Each cluster of company behaves differently. At the traditional manufacturing companies, the selection of critical supply chain management factors is internally focused on factors that are manufacturing and quality focused, while at the progressive manufacturing companies the selection of critical supply chain management factors is externally focused on factors that are directed to customers and information systems. There are differences between critical supply chain management factors at high technology companies and benchmark (or commodity) companies that were selected in this study. The benchmark companies select supply chain management factors that focus on customer services and quality. This approach is, possibly, due to the fact that the benchmark companies deal in commodity type products and hence they have to focus on differentiating themselves through strong customer services and quality products. Additionally, with the help of supply chain metrics, financial performance data, and understanding the various companies, it is possible to determine which critical supply chain factors best can contribute to business performance. At the case study companies, an external focus on supply chain management factors such as a strong focus on customer relationship and management, gives better business results. Finally, this study has proposed a novel and new approach to improving customer satisfaction by using QFD methodology to identify performance gaps (and opportunities) from the customers viewpoint in supply chain management. If the companies wish to increase customer satisfaction, they have to use the QFD methodology to identify critical supply chain factors. The reason is primarily because performance gaps derived from customer needs emphasize what the customer wants and that is different from the internal perceptions of a companys managers. The initiatives that provide the greatest opportunity have been identified in this analysis. Overall, these findings can be used by high technology firms to select supply chain strategies that will lead to sustainable competitive advantage and hence improve their brand and business performance. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The genesis of this dissertation was a request from a high technology company to investigate the companys supply chain system and identify factors affecting the successful implementation of supply chain management. This chapter serves as an introduction to the dissertation. It comprises eight sections, which cover the background to the research, objective of the research and the research questions, justification and significance of the research, a brief description of the methodology, an outline of the structure of the study, key definitions, delimitations of this research, and the chapters conclusion. 1.1 Background A firms strategies, innovations, and well-planned activities will lead to sustainable competitive advantage and hence improve its brand and business performance. As firms strive for ways to achieve competitive advantage, they are looking for new ideas and solutions. This dissertation addresses the topic of competitive advantage, reviews how firms attempt to achieve it, and focuses on one aspect of competitive advantage managing the supply chain to increase competitive advantage and business success. The early understanding of competitive advantage is based on Leon Walras (1874, 1984) theory of perfect competition. In perfect competition products are homogenous, consumers and producers have perfect information, prices will reach equilibrium, and as a result profits are zero in the long run. A later approach is the Industrial Organization approach (Tirole, 1988), which argues that success comes from market power and a firms efficiency. However, the proponents of this approach agree that in the long term there would be industry equilibrium and little profit. One of the first researchers to propose a theoretical framework for understanding a firms performance is Michael Porter (1980). He takes a strategic and analytical approach to understanding competitive strategy, and argues that, â€Å"Every firm competing in an industry has a competitive strategy, whether explicit or implicit.† Porter asserts that, except for microeconomic theory, the strategy field and literature had offered few analytical techniques for gaining this understanding. Porter (1980) argues that with the right approach it is possible to break away from the economic equilibrium situation and achieve superior performance. Therefore he proposes a framework for analyzing industries and competitors and describes three generic strategies cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. He postulates that to be successful, the firm has to do well in one or more of these strategies. Porters (1980) ideas and proposals on achieving competitive advantage have influenced many other researchers to propose complementary theories on achieving competitive advantage. All the theories proposed by researchers are supported with examples of winning strategies implemented at renowned companies. The theories include an emphasis on planning (Porter, 1980, 1985), strategic approach (Hamel and Prahalad, 1990, 1998; Porter, 1985, 1990, 1991), marketing strategies (Day, 1994, 1999), value chain management (Porter, 1985), and supply chain management (Christopher, 1998; Poirier, 1999; Tyndall et al., 1998). A theory that has gained momentum in the last few years is the concept of supply chain management. In recent years, there have been numerous advances and developments in supply chain techniques and management. One of the reasons is that as trade barriers drop and markets open, competition has become more intense hence companies need to be more competitive and cost effective. An initiative to help achieve this is a supply chain management program. Supply chain management is the management of upstream and downstream activities, resources, and relationships with suppliers and customers, which is required to deliver products or services. In theory, if this is done well it will lead to competitive advantage through differentiation and lower costs as suggested by Porter (1980). Moreover, some researchers claim that effective supply chain management can reduce costs by several percentage points of revenue (Boyson, et. al, 1999). Furthermore, there has been little verification or research d one on measuring competitive advantage gained through supply chain management. Supply chain management is not a static concept or solution. Instead, new advances and techniques for supply chain management continue to mushroom. This tremendous growth in new ideas and processes is starting to influence and change the business processes and models of companies. Hence companies have many choices in selecting programs in supply chain management. In making their choices, companies need to plan for effective supply chain management, in order to gain competitive advantage. However, to ensure that effective supply chain management can provide business success, this study must determine the critical success factors in supply chain management that can provide competitive advantage. Furthermore, these critical success factors must be identified and conveyed to senior management in firms that want to have an effective supply chain management program. 1.2 Objective of this research The objective of this dissertation is to explore and investigate how firms scope, design, and implement supply chain management in order to gain competitive advantage. Most importantly, this dissertation endeavors to determine the critical success factors in supply chain management that can provide competitive advantage. It also explores and investigates the advances and new ideas in supply chain management and examines how firms scope, design, and implement supply chain management in order to gain competitive advantage. The genesis of this dissertation was a request from a high technology company to investigate the companys supply chain system and propose improvements to help make it more competitive. The company is headquartered in California USA, and this author works for one of the companys business unit as General Manager for Distribution. The request was to investigate the companys supply chain management system and to propose improvements that would make it more competitive This dissertation provides a theoretical framework to understand a firms performance and argues that supply chain management is an approach that will help a firm to be competitive and successful. Furthermore, in using supply chain management, firms are faced with choices on what supply chain techniques and developments to adopt for their businesses. This dissertation wil review the choices that high technology companies have today, and will make recommendations to select the best choices, or critical success factors, based on business and customer needs. Therefore, the research objective is to: Determine the critical success factors in supply chain management at high technology companies. In fulfilling this objective, this dissertation also addresses the following research issues: 1. Are there differences between critical supply chain management factors at various high technology companies? 2. Are there differences between critical supply chain management factors at high technology companies and non high technology (or benchmark commodity) companies? 3. Will a focus on external supply chain management factors give better business results? 4. Are perceived critical gaps (and opportunities) in performance derived from traditional methodology similar to those deployed from customer needs? In this study, the critical success factors to make a company more competitive are identified. To ensure a robust analysis and conclusion, the expectations and perceptions of respondents, involved in this study, are taken into consideration as well as customer requirements. 1.3 Significance of the research There are many theories and empirical studies on competitive advantage. However, the empirical studies, using mathematical models, tend to be limited in scope (Porter, 1991; Buzzel and Gale, 1990), and do not include supply chain management parameters. While there has been much research on activities that can provide competitive advantage, there is little knowledge on the process of selection and impact of supply chain management on the competitive position and business performance of a high technology firm. Firms need to understand how supply chain management can help them achieve competitive advantage. Furthermore, there is an expectation that high technology companies will use leading edge technology and invest heavily in supply chain management. This dissertation makes the following contributions: 1. Fulfils a request from a high technology company: The author of this study works for a high technology company, head-quartered in California USA, and was requested to investigate the companys (business unit) supply chain system and propose improvements to help make it more competitive. 2. Identifies the critical success factors in supply chain management from a high technology companys viewpoint. Often when reviewing critical success factors, only the perception of respondents is taken into account. However, in this analysis both the perceptions and expectations of respondents are taken into consideration. Such an analysis will be more robust and will allow performance gaps to be analyzed and understood. 3. Identifies the critical success factors in supply chain management from customers of high technology companies. To enhance the relevance of the conclusions, customer requirements are also taken into consideration by using the quality function deployment (QFD) methodology and these are compared to the high technology companies performance gaps. Such an analysis will allow performance gaps to be analyzed and understood from the viewpoint of customers of high technology companies. 4. Contributes to the understanding of how high technology companies scope, design, and develop their supply chain management system. 1.4 Research Methodology This study employs the qualitative research process using multiple case studies. There are several reasons for this: Since the focus of this research is on high technology companies operating in California, USA, there is a concern that there will be a small number of companies willing to participate in a large (sample size) quantitative survey. Furthermore face-to-face meetings with respondents can help provide understanding and information on several qualitative areas, such as: reasons for implementing specific supply chain factors (or strategies), customer needs data, and discussions and feedback on the questionnaire. Also, cases can be viewed and studied alone and across cases to provide comparison and contrast and richer details and insights regarding the research issues (Eisenhardt 1989; Stake 1994; Yin 1994). Hence this research will be done via a multiple case study approach using structured interviews with a questionnaire (Yin, 1994).5 1.5 Structure of the dissertation In addition to this introductory chapter, this dissertation consists of four chapters ( 1.1). Chapter 2 reviews the relevant literature, addresses the disciplines under investigation, and provides an overview of competitive advantage. The chapter then provides a detailed review of the current literature and practices of supply chain management. With that as the background, chapter 2 continues into identifying gaps in the literature and provides the rationale for selecting the research topic and issues. Chapter 5Conclusion and opportunities for further researchChapter 1IntroductionChapter 3Research methodologyChapter 2Literature review and research issuesChapter 4Data analysis and interpretationsChapter interpretations Chapter 3 discusses the research methodology used for this study and it includes: the justification of the research methodology, a discussion on preparation of the questionnaire and the data gathering process, the process used for data analysis and determining gaps, the process used to generate recommendations from the data, and concludes with a discussion on the limitations of case study research. Chapter 4 summarizes the data collected from the selected companies and respondents and aims to interpret the data in relation to the research objective. Each of the four research issues is analyzed, interpreted, and the detailed findings are presented. The chapter concludes with a summary of the research findings. Chapter 5 provides a summary of the findings and conclusions of the research objective and issues, discusses the contribution of the research findings to the literature and theory, reviews the implications of the findings, discusses the limitations of the research, and concludes with suggested direction for future research. 1.6 Key definitions Definitions adopted by researchers are often not uniform; hence key terms are defined to establish positions taken for this dissertation (Perry 1998). This will ensure that subsequent research, undertaken at a later stage, will better measure and compare what this dissertation has set out to do. †¢ Logistics: The management and movement of product and services, including storage and warehousing, and their transport via air, land, and water (Coyle, Bardi, and Langley, 1988). †¢ Supply chain: Consists of all inter-linked resources and activities needed to create and deliver products and services to customers (Hakanson, 1999). †¢ Supply chain management: This includes managing supply and demand, sourcing raw materials and parts, manufacturing and assembly, distribution across all channels, and delivery to the customer (Supply Chain Council, 2001). †¢ Supply chain agility or agile supply chain: An agile supply chain is one that is flexible and has a business-wide capability that embraces organizational structures, information systems, and logistics processes. (Christopher, 2000) †¢ Critical success factors (CSF): Critical success factors are those few things that must go well to ensure success for a manager or organization, and therefore may represent those managerial or enterprise areas that must be given continual attention. CSFs include issues vital to an organizations current operating activities and to its future success (Boynton and Zmud, 1984). †¢ Customer relationship management (CRM): CRM is the management of technology, processes, information, and people in order to maximize each customer contact by obtaining a 360-degree view of the customer (Galbreath and Rogers, 1999). †¢ Performance gap: This is a gap between the perceived performance and the expected importance of a factor (in this dissertation it is a supply chain factor). The performance gap provides an indication as to whether executives and managers are successful in translating their vision to their employees and hence such perception may give an indication regarding the degree of employees alignment with the organizations vision. If a factor is critical and has a negative value of factor alignment (perceived performance is less than the expectation), then the organization may have a potential problem with that factor. Information on factor alignment allows executives to develop a strategy to overcome the challenges associated with the gaps between importance and performance. (Martilla and James, 1977). †¢ Quality Function Deployment (QFD): QFD is a comprehensive quality tool that can be used to uncover customers spoken and unspoken needs, and convert these needs to product or service design targets and processes (Akao, 1990). 1.7 Delimitation There are several delimitations in this dissertation. †¢ The theoretical model derived from this dissertation is only applicable to the high technology companies. †¢ The dissertation is focused on companies operating geographically in California, United States of America, where there is a concentration of high technology companies. †¢ This dissertation is an exploratory research and will have to be tested for generalizability in later, more extensive, quantitative research (Perry, 1998). †¢ There is no scientific basis for choosing the number of cases in this dissertation. The number selected is based on the experiences and recommendations of the research and academic community (Eisenhardt, 1989; Perry, 1998). 1.8 Conclusion This chapter provides an overview of the dissertation. The aim, objectives, and justification of the research topic were discussed. The dissertation is an investigation on the impact of a supply chain management system on the competitive position of high technology business firms. It explores and investigates new ideas in supply chain management and examines how high technology firms manage and improve their supply chain management system. Furthermore, this dissertation will analyze the gaps and opportunities for supply chain management in high technology companies and give a set of recommendations. The methodology was briefly described, key definitions were explained, delimitations of this research were addressed, and the structure of the dissertation was outlined. With all the important areas of the research briefly introduced in this chapter, the following four chapters of this dissertation will present detailed description and findings of the research topic. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND RESEARCH ISSUES The previous chapter provided an overview of the dissertation and listed the objective, issues, and significance of the research topic. This chapter reviews the relevant literature and comprises of six sections. The review starts with a discussion on early approaches to understanding a firms performance and its competitive advantage. This is followed by the development of a theoretical framework and a discussion on contemporary approaches to competitive advantage. Next there is a discussion on supply chain management, followed by an overview of advanced supply chain management systems. The last two sections conclude with a discussion on gaps in the literature, identification of areas for further research, and the summary. 2.1 Early approaches to understanding a firms performance and competitive advantage One of the earliest (chronologically) approaches to competitive advantage is the microeconomic approach, or the idea of perfect competition (Walras, 1874, 1969). In perfect competition products are homogenous, consumers and producers have perfect information, prices will reach equilibrium, and as a result profits are negligible or low in the long run. However, according to Gill (1991), such a perfect economy is an abstraction, because there are monopolies, oligopolies, and perfect competition. Furthermore, there are also two kinds of competition: spatial and monopolistic. Spatial differentiation pertains to oligopolistic competition (Hotelling, 1929), and it meets consumers different tastes. Monopolistic competition assumes that small firms produce a variety of differentiated products (Chamberlin, 1933; in Gill, 1991). All these situations allow for profit maximization and higher profits (Gill, 1991). The industrial organization (IO) approach takes a richer approach to understanding a firms successful performance. IO differs from the microeconomic approach by introducing variables that explain real-world economic behavior. In IO, there are two competing hypothesis that lead to higher profits and success market power and a firms efficiency (Scherer, 1990; Tirole, 1988). Nevertheless, the IO approach assumes that markets and firms will reach equilibrium, and in equilibrium profits differences will not exist (Tirole, 1988). Both the microeconomic approach and the industrial organization approach assume that all firms would reach equilibrium and have equal profit and success. However, we know from a daily look at many firms performance on the stock market that profit and performance vary across firms, even when they are in the same business. Eaton and Lipsey (1978) have verified that differences in performance and profit exist between firms. 2.2 Contemporary approaches to achieving competitive advantage 2.2.1 Framework to understanding a firms performance One of the first researchers to propose a theoretical framework for understanding a firms performance is Porter (1980). He takes a strategic and analytical approach to understanding competitive strategy, and argued that, â€Å"Every firm competing in an industry has a competitive strategy, whether explicit or implicit† (Porter, 1980, p. xiii). He proposes a framework for analyzing industries and competitors and describes three generic strategies cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. He postulates that if a firm is able to do well in any of these strategies, it will gain competitive advantage. Porters concept is illustrated in 2-1. Generic Competitive Strategies†¢Overall cost leadership†¢Differentiation†¢FocusCompetitive Advantageof a Firm †¢ Cost leadership requires efficient-scale facilities, pursuit of cost reductions, and cost minimization in all areas of the firm. This will give more profit. †¢ Differentiation of product or service requires industry-wide differentiation, including design and brand image, customer service, and distribution or dealer network. Product or service differentiation will help increase customer loyalty and ensure repurchase. †¢ Focus on markets, buyers, or product lines can maximize profits. The framework, in 2-1, shows that the right strategies can provide competitive advantage. Porter (1985) also argues that competitive advantage come from the many discrete activities a firm performs in designing, producing, marketing, delivering, and supporting its product. Each of these activities contributes to a firms relative cost position and creates a basis for differentiation. This is the value chain, and a firm has to disaggregate its strategically relevant activities in order to understand the behavior of costs and the existing and potential sources of differentiation. A firm gains competitive advantage by performing these strategically important activities cheaper or better than its competitors (Porter, 1985), and this can lead to a higher profit margin. The value chain concept is illustrated in 2-2. Profit Margin Outbound Logistics Manufacturing Operations, and other Internal Processes Inbound Logistics Procurement Human Resource Management Technology Development Firm Infrastructure and Platform Services Customer Service Marketing and Sales Primary Activities Support Activities Supply Chain Approach Strategic Planning Approach Marketing Capabilities Approach The Value Chain and Theoretical Framework to Achieve Competitive Advantage Adapted from Porter (1985) and this literature review. Note 1: Key approaches to competitive advantage are highlighted with underlined Characters Note 2: The definition of supply chain implies all activities necessary to deliver a product (Hakanson, 1999). Therefore sales, marketing, and customer service activities can be construed as part of the supply chain approach shown in the . In this study, sales and marketing processes, such as demand management, order processing, and customer relationship management are included in the internal processes shown in the and in the supply chain literature review. However, sales and marketing activity, such as sales calls, advertising, product positioning, market research, and some post delivery support processes are excluded from supply chain activity. This is consistent with the approach taken by the Supply Chain Council and the SCOR (Supply Chain Operational Reference) model it uses to measure supply chain activity (Supply Chain Council, 2001). 2.2.2 Summary of contemporary approaches to competitive advantage Porters approach presents new thinking to competitive advantage (Rumelt, Schendel, and Teece, 1991) and has influenced other approaches to creating competitive advantage. Many of the other approaches to competitive advantage are summarized in Table 2-1. From the table, it can be seen that all the approaches to increasing competitive advantage, except for the early microeconomic and industrial organization approaches, fit the theoretical framework in 2-2. However, all these approaches to competitive advantage are complementary and not alternatives or conflicting theories they basically propose various segments of the theoretical framework shown in 2-2. The various approaches are discussed very briefly below, but the last approach (in Table 2-1), Supply Chain Management, is discussed in greater detail. 2.2.3 The strategic planning approach In essence, Porters (1980, 1985) approaches are strategic planning approaches, i.e. a firms competitive advantage can be planned for. This includes planning for differentiation in the value chain, low cost leadership, and focus. Nations can also be competitive (Porter, 1990). Nations need four conditions to gain competitive advantage and be successful. The four conditions are: factor conditions (education and skill levels), demand conditions (or market size), related and supporting industries, and company strategy and rivalry (Porter, 1990). Strategy is â€Å"lucky foresight†¦Strategy is always the product of a complex and unexpected interplay between ideas, information, personalities, and desire† according to Hamel (1998). What this implies is that one does not settle for obvious solutions and strategies but should look at alternatives, challenge assumptions, and look at new ways of delivering superior customer value and firm performance. Table 2-1 Summary of early and contemporary approaches to competitive advantage Approach Proponent Main idea/postulate Comments Microeconomic Walras (1874, 1984) Perfect competition results in negligible profits Ideas ignore monopolies, oligopolies, and product differentiation. Profit does vary across firms according to Eaton and Lipsey (1978). Industrial Organization Scherer (1990), Tirole (1988) Success comes from market power and a firms efficiency. All proponents agree that in the long term there will be industry equilibrium and little profit. Porter (1980) Porter (1985) Provides a framework for achieving competitive advantage. Every firm has a generic competitive strategy in cost leadership, market focus, or differentiation. The value chain disaggregates a firm into its strategically relevant activities. A firm gains competitive advantage by performing these important activities better than its competitors. Challenges the stereotype approach of perfect competition and industry equilibrium. Provides a prescriptive approach to achieve competitive advantage, but the ideas and solutions are essentially conceptual. Hamel (1998) Strategy is the product of a complex and unexpected interplay between ideas, information, personalities, and desire. A firm has to seek alternatives and new ways of delivering superior customer value and firm performance. The Strategic Approach and its Variations Value Chain Approach Strategic Approach Resource Based Approach Wernerfelt (1984), Barney (1991), Rumelt, Schendel, and Teece (1991). A firm has to identify specific, or rare, resources that lead to higher profits. Long-term superior performance comes from building product market positions that effectively utilize and maintain these resources. Examples of such resources include customer loyalty, and technological leads. If the resources are unique and difficult to duplicate, then the firm achieves competitive advantage. Table 2-1 (Continued) Summary of early and contemporary approaches to competitive advantage Approach Proponent Main idea/postulate Comments Market Strategy Marketing Capabilities Approach Resource-Advantage Theory Product Differentiation Day (1994,1999), Cool and Dierickx (1989), Aaker (1989), Caves and Ghemawat (1986). Also, Buzzell an

Foundation by Isaac Asimov Essay

Foundation is the first novel in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy (later expanded into The Foundation Series). Foundation is a collection of five short stories, which were first published together as a book by Gnome Press in 1951 which, together, form a single plot. Foundation saw multiple publications—it also appeared in 1955 as part of Ace Double D-110 under the title â€Å"The 1,000-Year Plan†. Four of the stories were originally published inAstounding Magazine (with different titles) between 1942 and 1944, and the fifth was added when they first appeared in book form. A further two books of short stories were published shortly after, and decades later, Asimov wrote two further sequel novels and two prequels. Later writers have added authorized tales to the series. The Foundation Series is often regarded as one of Isaac Asimov’s best works, along with his Robot series. Plot summary Foundation tells the story of a group of scientists who seek to preserve knowledge as the civilizations around them begin to regress. The Psychohistorians (0 F.E.) (First published as the book edition in 1951) Set in the year 0 F.E., The Psychohistorians opens on Trantor, the capital of the 12,000-year-old Galactic Empire. Though the empire appears stable and powerful, it is slowly decaying in ways that parallel the decline of the Western Roman Empire. Hari Seldon, a mathematician and psychologist, has developed psychohistory, a new field of science and psychology that equates all possibilities in large societies to mathematics, allowing for the prediction of future events. Using psychohistory, Seldon has discovered the declining nature of the Empire, angering the aristocratic members of the Committee of Public Safety, the de facto rulers of the Empire. The Committee considers Seldon’s views and statements treasonous, and he is arrested along with young mathematician Gaal Dornick, who has arrived on Trantor to meet Seldon. Seldon is tried by the Committee and defends his beliefs, explaining his theories and predictions, including his belief that the Empire will collapse in 500 years and enter a 30,000-year dark age, to the Committee’s members. He informs the Committee that an alternative to this future is attainable, and explains to them that creating a compendium of all human knowledge, the Encyclopedia Galactica, would not avert the inevitable fall of the Empire but would reduce the dark age to one millennium. The skeptical Committee, not wanting to make Seldon a martyr, offers him exile to a remote world, Terminus, with others who could help him create the Encyclopedia. He accepts their offer, prepares for the departure of the â€Å"Encyclopedists† and receives an imperial decree officially acknowledging his actions. The Encyclopedists (50 F.E.) (published May 1942 as â€Å"Foundation†) Set in 50 F.E., The Encyclopedists begins on Terminus, which has no mineral resources but one region suitable for the development of large city, named Terminus City. The colony of professionals, devoted to the creation of the Encyclopedia, is managed by the Board of Trustees of the Encyclopedia Galactica Foundation, composed solely of scientists. The affairs of Terminus City itself are handled by the city’s mayor, Salvor Hardin, who is virtually powerless due to the influence of the Board of Trustees. However, Hardin does not accept the status quo, which he believes puts Terminus in danger of political exploitation by the neighboring prefects of the Empire, which have declared independence and severed contact with Trantor. Hardin, recognizing the imminent downfall of imperial power due to the loss of the Empire’s outermost region, decides that the only way to ensure Terminus’s continued survival is to pit the four neighboring â€Å"kingdoms† against one an other. Hardin manages to avoid an attempt by the Kingdom of Anacreon to establish military bases on Terminus and to take advantage of nuclear power, which Terminus retains but which the Four Kingdoms do not. Hardin succeeds in diverting Anacreon from its initial goal and furthers his goal of the establishment of a stable political system on Terminus. Hardin’s efforts, however, are still resisted by the Board of Trustees and its chairman, Dr. Louis Pirenne. To remove this obstacle, Hardin and his chief advisor, Yohan Lee, plan a coup d’etat designed to remove the Board of Trustees from its politically powerful position on the same day that, in the city’s Time Vault, a holographic recording of Hari Seldon is programmed to play. The recording will contain psychohistoric proof of Hardin’s success or failure; Hardin realizes that his coup is a great gamble due to the possible case that his beliefs are incompatible with Seldon’s original goals. The next day in the Time Vault the holographic video of Hari Seldon appears. He is in his wheelchair and his voice is old and soft. He reveals that the Encyclopedia Galactica is a distraction intended to make the colony’s creation possible. The true purpose of the Foundation is to form one nucleus of a Second Galactic Empire and shorten the predicted period of chaos to a mere thousand years, rather than thirty thousand years. After the video ends, the Board of Trustees admits they were wrong to Hardin and schedule a meeting to discuss their next action. Hardin smiles, knowing they would be giving orders no longer. Out there in Terminus City Yohan Lee’s men were already in control. In two days time Anacreon would be landing in force, but that was fine, in six months they would be giving orders no longer as well. Salvor Hardin had guessed the solution, and as Hari Seldon said, it was obvious. The Mayors (80 F.E.) (published June 1942 as â€Å"Bridle and Saddle†) Set in 80 F.E., three decades after the events of The Encyclopedists, The Mayors is set in a time where the Encyclopedia Foundation’s scientific understanding has given it significant leverage over the Four Kingdoms, though it is still isolated from the Galactic Empire. Exercising its control over the region through an artificial religion, Scientism, the Foundation shares its technology with the Four Kingdoms while referring to it as religious truth. Maintenance technicians comprise Scientism’s priesthood, trained on Terminus. A majority of the priests themselves are unaware of the true importance of their â€Å"religion†, referring to advanced technology as â€Å"holy food†. The religion is not suppressed by the secular elite of the Four Kingdoms, reminscient of Western European rulers of the early medieval period, who use it to consolidate their power over the zealous populaces. Salvor Hardin, as Mayor of Terminus City, is the effective ruler of the Foun dation, and has been reelected as mayor continuously since his political victory over the Encyclopedia Galactica Board of Trustees. However, his influence is suddenly checked by a new political movement led by city councillor Sef Sermak, which encourages direct action against the Four Kingdoms and a cessation of the scientific proselytizing encouraged by Hardin’s administration. The movement, whose followers refer to themselves as Actionists, is wildly popular, and Hardin is unable to appease Sermak and the Actionist leadership. The kingdom that is most concerning to the Actionists is that of Anacreon, ruled by Prince Regent Wienis and his nephew, the teenaged King Lepold I. Wienis plans to overthrow the Foundation’s power by launching a direct military assault against Terminus, making use of an abandoned Imperial space cruiser redesigned by Foundation experts to fit the needs of the elite Anacreonian navy. However, Hardin orders several secret technological devices to be incorporated into the ship’s design prior to its completion. Wienis plans to launch his offensive on the night of his nephew’s coronation as king and sole ruler of Anacreon. Hardin attends the coronation ceremony and is arrested, but has arranged with Anacreonian High Priest Poly Verisof, who is aware of the true nature of Scientism, to foster a popular uprising against Wienis. Convincing the Anacreonian populace that an assault against the Foundation and Terminus is blasphemous, Verisof leads an infuriated mob to the royal palace and surrounds it, demanding Hardin’s release. Meanwhile, the crew of the space cruiser mutinies against its commander, Admiral Prince Lefkin, Wienis’s son. Lefkin confronts the mutineers and, captured, is forced to broadcast a message to Anacreon demanding Wienis’s arrest and threatening a bombardment of the royal palace if that and other demands are not met . Wienis, maddened by his failure, orders Hardin’s execution, but his royal guardsmen refuse to obey him. Attempting and failing, due to a protective energy field, to kill Hardin personally, Wienis commits suicide. Hardin is proven correct again upon his return to Terminus City by another Seldon recording, set to play at this date. Though Actionists continue to hold a significant amount of power, an attempt to impeach the mayor fails and his popularity is renewed among the city’s residents. It is also confirmed by Hari Seldon that the Foundation’s immediate neighbors, the Four Kingdoms, will now be virtually powerless and incapable of resisting Scientism’s advance. The Traders (About 135 F.E.) (published October 1944 as â€Å"The Wedge†) The events of The Traders are set around 135 F.E., at a time during which the Foundation has expanded greatly and has sent out officially sanctioned Traders to exchange technology with neighboring planets for what amounts to greater political and economic power. Master Trader Eskel Gorov, also an agent of the Foundation government, has traveled to the worlds of Askone, where he hopes to trade nucleics. Gorov, however, is met with resistance by Askone’s governing Elders due to traditional taboos that effectively ban advanced technology. Gorov is imprisoned and sentenced to death; the Elders refuse Foundation requests for clemency. Trader Linmar Ponyets is ordered by the Foundation to try and negotiate with the Elders, and travels to the central Askonian planet. Ponyets meets with the Elders’ Grand Master and deduces that, though he is determined to have Gorov executed, he may be willing to exchange the captive for a suitable bribe, which Ponyets realizes would be a sum o f gold. Ponyets clumsily fashions a transmuter that will convert iron into gold. The Grand Master informs Ponyets that others who have attempted this have failed and have been punished with execution for both their attempt and for their failure; Ponyets succeeds and convinces the Grand Master that the gold is appropriate for Askonian religious decoration, which pleases the Elders. Councilor Pherl, the Grand Master’s protà ©gà ©, appears to be wary of Ponyets. Meeting with the Councilor, Ponyets discovers that Pherl is instead quite willing to work with him, if only due to the chances of eventually attaining the Grand Mastership himself. Pherl, from a different ethnic background than traditional Grand Masters and a young man, believes that a stable supply of gold will be able to dramatically increase his power, and Ponyets provides him with the transmuter. It appears that the friendly Pherl will ascend to the Grand Mastership, while Gorov is released quickly. Ponyets discusses his success with Gorov, who criticizes his techniques due to what he perceives as Ponyets’s lack of morality. Ponyets replies by reminding Gorov of an alleged statement made by Salvor Hardin: â€Å"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right!† The Merchant Princes (About 155 F.E.) (published August 1944 as â€Å"The Big and the Little†) Set around 155 F.E., The Merchant Princes takes places against the backdrop of a powerful Foundation, which has subjugated the neighboring Four Kingdoms and expanded its commercial and technological empire throughout numerous stellar systems. However, it continues to meet resistance, and three Foundation vessels have vanished near the planets of the Republic of Korell, a nation suspected of independent technological development. Master Trader Hober Mallow is assigned to deal with Korell and also to investigate their technological developments and find the missing ships. Those who have assigned this mission to Mallow, Foreign Secretary Publius Manlio and the Mayor’s secretary, Jorane Sutt, believe that a â€Å"Seldon Crisis† is underway; they fear that domestic tensions caused by the great autonomy given to Traders and shaky foreign relations may give rise to a nuclear conflict involving the Foundation. Sutt and Manlio, believing that they can weaken the Traders by staging an embarrassing diplomatic incident, plant an agent aboard Mallow’s ship. The agent, a respected Trader, invites a Foundation missionary onto the ship once it reaches Korell. Such missionaries are forbidden to enter Korell, and an angry mob immediately surrounds the ship, demanding the missionary. This rapid response in a remote location arouses Mallow’s suspicions, and Mallow gives the missionary to the mob, despite the frantic intervention of the agent. Later, Mallow meets with Korell’s authoritarian ruler, Commdor Asper Argo, who appears friendly and welcomes Foundation technological gifts. Argo refuses to allow Scientism on Korell, and Mallow agrees not to encourage missionary work in the Republic. Mallow is invited to tour a steel foundry belonging to Korell’s government, where he notes guards carrying atomic handguns. He is surprised to discover that these weapons bear the markings of the Galactic Empire, which the Foundation assumes has fallen by this time. Mallow’s discoveries lead him to believe that the Empire may be attempting to expand into the Periphery again, and has been providing weapons to client states such as Korell. Leaving the Republic and his ship, he journeys alone to the planet Siwenna, which he believes may be the capital of an Imperial province. He finds Siwenna a desolate and sad place, and meets the impoverished patrician Onum Barr in the latter’s isolated mansion, which is slowly crumbling. Barr, a former provincial senator and a leading citizen, had served in the Imperial government on Siwenna during a fairly stable time several decades earlier, before a series of corrupt and ambitious viceroys who each harbored dreams of becoming Emperor. After the previous viceroy rebelled against the Emperor, Barr participated in a revolution that overthrew the viceroy. However, the Imperial fleet also sent to remove the viceroy wanted to conquer a rebellious province even if it was no longer in rebellion, and began a massacre that claimed the lives of all but one of Barr’s children. Mallow is tried for murder upon his return to Terminus, due to turning over the Foundation missionary to the mob. However, he is able to convince the court that the â€Å"missionary† was in fact a Korellian secret policeman who played a part in the conspiracy against the Traders manufactured by Sutt and Manlio. Acquitted, Mallow is received with delight by the population of Terminus, which will almost undoubtedly select him as Mayor in the elections scheduled to take place in the following year. To prepare for the election, Mallow engineers the arrest of Sutt and Manlio, and eventually takes office. However, he is soon faced with tensions between the Foundation and Korell, which declares war on the Foundation, using its powerful Imperial flotilla to attack Foundation ships. Instead of counterattacking, Mallow takes no action, waiting until the lack of Foundation goods forces Korell to surrender.

Health Issues in the Philippines Essay

DOH alarm: HIV cases in first-half 2012 exceed full year of 2010 The number of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) cases during the first half of the year has already surpassed the record for the whole 2010, the Department of Health (DOH) said Friday, underscoring the alarming rise in incidence of the virus that causes the dread disease AIDS. The bulk of the spike was traced to a rise in male-to-male transmission and the sharing of needles among injecting drug users in Cebu province. DOH Assistant Secretary Eric Tayag said for the month of June alone, 295 HIV cases were reported to the department, bringing to 1,600 the total number of cases in the first half of 2012. â€Å"We are halfway now for the year and that’s already more than the 1,591 for the whole year of 2010,† Tayag told reporters. In 2011, HIV cases were 2,349. This brings the total number of HIV cases in the country to 9,964 since 1984 when the DOH started reporting HIV/AIDS cases. Men having sex with men make up 87 percent of HIV transmissions recorded in the first six months of the year, with men aged 20-29 making up most of the cases. While MSM transmission has been the main mode of HIV transmission for a couple of years now, the DOH is particularly alarmed by a dramatic spike of cases involving injecting drug users (IDU) in Cebu City. â€Å"What we’re alarmed about is that for June there were additional cases of injecting drug use or person who inject drugs,† Tayag said. HIV among drug users reached 120 during the first half of the year alone, he added. From 1984 to 2008, there were only 8 HIV cases among drug users. â€Å"You will recall that in 2008 we only had 8 cases, now we have a total of 385 since 1984 when we started reporting HIV,† said Tayag, adding that all 120 HIV cases among IDUs this year were reported in Cebu City. Tayag admitted that HIV monitoring among drug users in Cebu had stopped for awhile, discouraging people who were injecting drugs from submitting themselves for AIDS testing. â€Å"In this period we stopped monitoring HIV among persons who inject drugs in that part of Cebu. For some time there was no fund so when we did a survey we saw that the number of HIV among drug users has increased,† he said. Tayag said unlike other drug users in some parts of the country, injecting drug users in Cebu City use regulated medicines. The virus is spread as they share unclean and contaminated needles. Tayag revealed that the government has started an HIV mapping, where parts of the country are labeled in terms of AIDS risk. Metro Manila, Cebu and Davao are tagged high risk. Read more:  Social Issues in the Philippines

Study Of Bank Alfalah Limited History And Operations Business Essay - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 22 Words: 6471 Downloads: 6 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Business Essay Type Analytical essay Did you like this example? Introduction: Bank Alfalah Limited: Bank Alfalah Limited started it functioning on June 21st, 1992 in the form of public limited company under the Companies Ordinance 1984. Its banking operations started from November 1st, 1997. Since then the bank is engaged in commercial banking and other services relating to banking as defined in the Banking companies ordinance, 1962 of Pakistan. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Study Of Bank Alfalah Limited History And Operations Business Essay" essay for you Create order The Bank is currently operating through various branches in Peshawar and in Pakistan at large. They have also branches in Bahrain, Bangladesh Afghanistan, with the registered office at B.A. Building, I.I.Chundrigar, Karachi. Since the start, as the new identity of H.C.E.B after the privatization in 1997, the management of the bank has adopted strategies and policies to create a different position for the bank in the market place. It became economically stronger with the banking of the Abu Dhabi Group and its driven by the strategic goals set out by its board of management. The Bank has invested in revolutionary technology to have a vast range of products and services. This helps the commitment of Bank Alfalah to a culture of more innovation and seeks out synergies with clients and service providers to ensure undisturbed services to their customers. Bank Alfalah focuses on the requirements of their customers and always try to match them with quality products and service solutio ns. During the past five years, Bank Alfalah has raisen in the market as one of the foremost financial institution in the region endeavoring to meet the needs of tomorrow today. The Name of the Chief Executive of Bank Alfalah is Mr. Sirajuddin Aziz and the Co-Chairman Central Management Committee is Mr. Parvez A. Shahid (Reference: https://www.bankalfalah.com/about/historical_overview.asp) Bank Alfalah vision: To be the premier organization operating locally internationality that provides the complete range of financial services to all segments under one roof. Mission Statement of Bank Alfalah: To develop deliver the most innovative products, manage customer experience, deliver quality services that contributes to brand strength, establishes a competitive advantage and enhances profitability, thus providing value to the stakeholders of the bank. (Reference: https://www.bankalfalah.com/about/historical_overview.asp) Faisal Bank Limited Faysal Bank Limited started its operations in Pakistan on October 3, 1994, in the shape of public limited company under the Companies Ordinance, 1984. The Bank has listed its shares on Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad Stock Exchanges. Since then the Bank is engaged in Commercial, Consumer and Corporate Banking activities. The Bank has a network of 136 branches including 10 Islamic Banking branches and 2 sub-branches. The registered head office of the Bank is situated at Faysal House, ST-02, Shahrah-e-Faisal, Karachi The Pakistan Credit Agency Limited (PACRA) and JCR-VIS Credit Rating Company Limited have fixed the Banks long term rating as AA and short term rating as A1+. Faysal Banks asset in 30th June, 2010 was over Rs. 175 billion; about 3,000 employees are working in the banks with a network of over 135 branches in 38 cities of Pakistan. Currently it is the 12th largest bank in Pakistan by assets. The majority share holding of Faysal Bank is held by I thmaar Bank B.S.C. (Reference: https://www.faysalbank.com/aboutus.html) Faysal Bank Limited Vision: Excellence in all that we do Faysal Bank Mission Statement: Achieve leadership in providing financial services in chosen markets through innovation. Faysal Bank VALUES: Faysal Bank daily code of conduct is exemplified by eight core values: Four threshold values values at the heart of our brand and four differentiator values values that set our brand apart. The president and CEO of Faysal bank is Naved A. Khan while the chairman of Faysal bank is Syed Naseem Ahmad (Reference: https://www.faysalbank.com/visionmissionandvalues.html) Objective of the study: We went to Bank Alfalah and Faysal Bank branches located in Peshawar. We interviewed the HR officers of both banks and some other employees for our HRM assignment and we asked them questions regarding the way they plan Human Resource and their Processes and the way they Recruit new employees for the Bank. Now we are going to apply the information relating to Human Resource planning and Selection and Recruitment Method gain from these two Banks in our HRM assignment. Analyze the need for human resource planning, the information required and the stages involved in this process (P4) Human Resource Planning: Human resource planning refers to as the process of deciding what positions the organization will have to fill and how they are going to fill them (Reference Gary Dessler, page.no.152) Human resource planning is a process conducted by a firm for the future in order to decide how much employees are required by the firm to recruit to cover the post, from warehouse keeper to the CEO. Human resource planning is the most important part of the overall Human Resource strategy. For example a firm wants to enter into a new type of business or market it will have to plan that how much of employees it needs for carrying out those new operations if it wants to achieve success. Process of Human resource Planning: Planning relating to employment is being done on the basis of some basic assumptions. Forecasting techniques like HRP enables a company to generate these assumptions. If a company wants to plan for their employment needs, they basically need to consider three things: Personnel needs (demand) Supply from inside (Current employees) Supply from out side. After doing the analysis of demand and supply then the stage of removing the gape between supply and demand comes Forecasting of personnel needs (Demand): Organizations keep the some factors in mind while forecasting demand. Factors like the objectives of the organization, employees utilization (how much of labor will an organization require for their production or services objectives), the cost of labor, and environmental factor like technology and social norms are important for demand forecasting. There are simple techniques like ratio analysis and time series analysis through which forecasting of demand can be don e. Forecasting of Supply: One important question in this regard is should an organization plan to fill the forecasted positions with employees already working in the organization or by hiring people from outside the organization. There are also some important factors, which a firm must consider while conducting the process of forecasting supply. If a firm is planning to fill the position from within so it must consider factors like employees skills, performance standard, potential trainability, educational base etc. On the other hand, if a firm is planning to recruit people from outside so it should consider factor like skill availability, education and training level of the potential people, competitors activities and paying rate in the markets. Computerized information systems that contain a database of all the employees can be used for forecasting supply from outside. Removing Gap between demand supplies: After doing the demand and supply analysis three situations can arise. Firstly, demand may become equal to supply so no actions are needed in this situation. Secondly, there may be surplus of workers so in such a situation steps like early retirements, limited hiring and reducing the numbers of employees are appropriate. Thirdly, a shortage of employees may arise so in such a situation the process of recruitment and selection should be fastened. (Reference: Gary Dessler,) Apply the concepts of human resource planning and stages involved in this process on the organization under study (M3)? The concept of Human Resource Planning along with the stages involved in its process has been discussed in detail in P4 of this assignment here we will discuss the Human Resource Process in Faysal bank and its advantages for the organization. According to HR officer of Faysal Bank, Human Resource Planning is very important for their Human Resource department. By conducting the analysis they come to know how many employees they have currently and how much they require in the future in order to gain their Human Resource objectives. They analyze Human Resource with the help of time series which mean they give targets to their employees and if they are unable to get those targets in given time with the available staff (Demand) they then analyze the performance of each employee by using their human resource information system (HRIS) that contains the data of the all the employees they foresee the potential trainability, productivity improvement of their current employees. Beside this they hire more employees in order to expand and to get their Human Resource targets. For example if they want to recruit new employees firstly, they look at their current employees, someone with experience, skill, competitive edge over other if there are such employees then they assign them double duties with 50% increase in pay. If there are not such employees available then they find new employees through the reference of their existing employees or friend and family members (Supply of employees from Inside). If they are opening new branch for that purpose they also first look in their current employees to bring employees for them. Faysal Bank Human Resource department do not advertise for the required general posts, they only advertise (Supply from outside) for the post of MTO (Managing Training Officer). Student from high class Universities apply online for this post once a year and normally they accept the qualified student of LUMS, IBA, NUST Universities respectively, f or this post. Objectives of Faysal Bank behind conducting Human resource planning: Objectives of Faysal Bank behind conducting human resource planning are as follow: To fill the desire to look into the future: Organizations like Faysal Bank are growing big and the method of doing business are becoming difficult day by day as a result jobs at Faysal Bank sometimes requires sophisticated experience and skills that cannot easily be found and bought. Secondly it takes time to train and develop employees. Due to these factors Faysal Bank may find it self in a problem if they dont plan their employees properly so for Faysal Bank the desire to look into the future is growing due to factors mention above thats why it is the main objective behind conducting Human Resource Planning.. To exercise control over as many variables as possible which influence business? Businesses are cant forecast their future. Most of the analyst refers Human Resource Planning as an approach to risk management. Faysal Bank also uses Human Resource Planning so that it can practice control over changeable or variable factors like labor turnover, future labor market etc. To cope with employment protection legislation: It is one of the Faysal Bank main objectives behind conducting Human Resource Planning. Legislation (laws) relating to job security and general expectations from Faysal Bank as far as social responsibility is concern makes it difficult for it to simply remove employees. The cost of this for Faysal Bank can be measure in financial terms (cost of employee development etc) as well as loosing its reputation as a secure employer that at times may also harm its business. So Human Resource Planning can help Faysal Bank in dealing with problems like these. To comply with technological changes: Advancement in technology is changing the nature of work as new technologies are emerging in Service Sector. Faysal Bank conducts Human Resource Planning so that technologically competent employees can be hired. For example if it pre-plan to hire fresh IT experts who are able to know that how to use competitors for online payment and receipts along with some accounting skills so it means that Faysal Bank would be having a competitive edge over its competitors. To cope with de-jobbed workers: In Pakistan the pace of jobs is changing the trend of project base work is increasing day by day. So it is one of its core objectives behind conducting Human Resource Planning that proper planning can be done about project base workers. To complete the expansion plans in time: The demands for Banks are increasing day by day. Therefore Faysal Bank has some serious plans to expand its operations. This means that it would need new people for which it conducts human resource planning so that a forecasted demand of human resource can be generated. This will help the organization in hiring the right person for the right job and with in time. Ultimately Faysal Bank will be able to complete its expansion plans in time. Recommend, how the organization can improve their human resource planning to achieve Human Resource goals effectively (D3). The changes and pressures brought in by economic, technological and social factors have forced organizations of all kinds to study the costs and human aspects of labor much more seriously and carefully than ever before. Therefore Faysal bank needs to further improve their Human Resource Planning in order to achieve their HR goals effectively. For improving their Human Resource Planning Faysal Bank need to implement the suggested steps below: They need to accept employees from the most honest and well known reference (Supply of labor from inside). Not from any body because some can be bias in bringing their relative, friends with no educational background and skills in order to improve their Human Resource Planning. They must select the worker (employees) with the required ability and information because it will give spirited edge over competitors since a good quality worker will carry advance service deliverance and hence productive personnel can analyze Human resource wel l. They need to educate their present staff and try to make use of their present staff more by raising their salaries, in this way the present staff can be made knowledgeable and it will also help the Analyzers of HR to measure the performance of their current staff and the required number of staff and skilled they require to hire in order to support the old and hence achieve their HR goals. They need to keep their strategic planning (corporate objectives) in mind while conducting Human resource planning process; this means that the HRP must satisfy the whole objective of the organization. They should actively involve their managers, executives, and line employees during analyzing human resource because they have more inside to the organization. Compare the structured process for recruitment in two organizations and evaluate the methods and media that can be used (P5) Systematic approach to Recruitment Recruitment is the part of the human process concerned with finding the applicants: it is a positive action by management, going into the labor market, communicating opportunities and information, and encouraging applications from suitable candidates. https://www.slideshare.net/harshalsk/recruitment-and-selection Effective recruitment is increasingly important today. Recruitment is a very complex concept it is not a simple process of placing ads or calling employment agencies. The crucial effort in this regard is that recruiting should make sense in terms of your overall corporate strategic plan. Successful results of recruitment depends upon other HR polices so it is very important that recruitment policy should be coherent with your HR policy and also with the overall strategic plans. Recruitment sources (internal and external) Internal sources: Existing employees, rehiring the old employees and succession plan {The ongoing process of systematically identifying assess ing and developing organizational leadership to enhance performance (Gary Dessler, p.no163)} are the internal sources for recruiting employees. External sources: Advertisement, employment agencies, off shoring/outsourcing, college recruiting and employee referrals is the external sources of candidates. Systematic approach to recruitment A systematic approach to recruitment will involve the following steps: A detailed document of human resource planning, which contains anticipated detail of required human resource such as how, much of human resource organization needs to meet it objectives. Job analysis which includes: Job description: a process conducted so that detail information of competent Tasks, duties and standard can be generated. Job specification: a detail statement of the professional qualification and skills required for a job. Job analysis is being conducted so that there is detail information with the organization that helps in hiring the right person for the right Job. An identification of the free posts, by analyzing the human resource plan and job analysis for different branch or department, which has free vacancy, and subsequent, approval or authorization. Seeking approval from that specific department ensures effective, low cost and timely recruitment. Evaluation of the sources of the staff that should be predicted by using forecasting techniques. Internal and external sources should be analyzed in this regard. Preparation and publication of information (giving the jobs description and specification in the media along with other condition). One the application s from the potential candidates are received they can further processed before selecting the candidates. Recruitment approach by Bank Alfalah The overall aim of recruitment process in an organization is to obtain the quantity and quality of candidates required to fulfill the objectives of the organization. The recruitment policy of bank Alfalah is centralized and lower employees have no access to it but it exists in a proper form. The policy manual of Alfalah is also not properly communicated to the lower employees and no one in the lower employees knows that what the overall policies of bank are. When we asked about the policies from the lower employees some of the employees were not clear about the HR policies as they had neither been not communicated, nor seen the policy manual. We asked the HR coordinator about the policy manual, she refused to give it to us saying that its highly confidential. Yet verbally she gave us some idea that what are the steps in recruitment. These steps are as follows. Policy: The recruitment policy of bank Alfalah has the following conditions: If some one is applying from Khyber Pakhtun Khwa he must be domiciled in Khyber Pakhtun Khwa. The required ages for the fresh recruits at start level are between 18-26 The educational qualifications of the employees. Officers (Executive Category) Master Degree /MBA/MCOM (Any recognized University by Federal Govt.) Assistant Officers/below Category B.A./B.Sc (Any recognized Institute by Federal Govt.) Peon and supporting staff / matriculation. Sources of Recruitment (labour pool): Whenever a vacant position is available, the head of department make reviews of the existing personnel and carry out a search within the organization for suitable persons before trying the outside sources. But if a person with the required qualifications for a given job is not available, fresh recruitment is made. Ways of Recruitment: The vacant posts are advertised through the local and national newspapers and applications are invited with the job specification and description showing the job requirements and eligibility. If the staff member knows any eligible person he or she is asked to call him along with his CV. If he meets the job criteria than the bank does not advertise for five or six seats but if the seats are more and time is less than they do advertise. Managers view: The HR coordinator of bank Alfalah told us about the recruitment policy of bank Alfalah according to her they follow the following approach to recruitment: Detailed human resource planning defining what resources the organization needs to meet its objectives. The HR Manager described the duties, responsibilities, objectives, tasks and standards of the job. The HR Manager specified that what type of employees they are looking to perform the job. We provide equal opportunities to all the employees meeting with our criter ia. No gender or racial discrimination is involved. We train our employees after recruitment according to their job and assign them a job or duty. At start we hire our employees on contract basis of one year but if he/she performs well then he/she can be made permanent. Employees view: As we have interviewed some of the employees according to their point of view recruitment policies are very much transparent and fair. As those employees have spent more than three years in bank Alfalah and were satisfied from their manager and from the bank environment. According to them they have submitted their CVs in bank AlFalah and after some time they were called for a written test and than after qualifying the test they were called for interview. Then they were selected and sent for four months training to Lahore where they have their own training academy for fresh employees to train them for such specific job for which they were recruited. Personal analysis: Bank AlFalah is considering well in banking sectors because of their transparent policy which includes recruitment, selection etc. We personally fell well about their policy because the employees which are part of the organization are personally satisfied from their recruitment process. They clearly show the qualities of the personnel, which they required. Because of their good behaviors to the applicants they create a good corporate image on the mind of the applicant. The peoples who are still part of the organization are in favor of their recruitment policy, which helps in creating a good image of the organization of the peoples out side the organization. Recruitment approach by Faysal Bank Whenever there is a resulting demand of recruitment F.B (Faysal bank) there are a few patterns which F.B follows in order to achieve a person for that job, for that reason Faysal bank hires different recruiting agencies ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦ÃƒÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦ÃƒÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦ÃƒÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦ÃƒÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦ÃƒÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦ to conduct the operation of recruiting of the desired vacancy. Similarly when different internees to drop in their C.V (curriculum vitae) so that when ever required they can fetch them for the desired vacancy. Before the recruitment of an employee different aspects are planed to accomplish the finest out of the new recruit so that it can give the best it can to the bank. The objectives which are kept in front before the recruitment are as under: The individuals potential of achieving the objectives which he/she is hired for. The recruit may not get exceeded before the finalization of the desired task. The recruited should have the ability of holding new things when he/she is being skilled. He/she could adopt himself/herself to the changes or innovation in the bank industry. And above all he/she could be reliable so that he/she could keep the business secre t of this financial organization. The individuals who are preferred before the recruitment of the new candidates for the bank are as under. Initially the preference is given to the existence employees if there is any employee who deserves that particular job, or that if a particular person is capable of filling that vacancy, he/she is preferred as to before hiring a new employee. If there is some individual in the Faysal Bank branch who has got the nerve that if he could be trained he can get more skilled and suits that job unoccupied at that time he could be indulged in that particular vacancy. The desired vacancy could be referred to the other braches of the bank, so that if there is any capable employee who can be assigned to that job then he/she will be undertaken. Faysal Bank Relationship Manager View: Mr. Muhammad Yaver Khan Khattak the branch relationship manager Faysal bank Omer Plaza Jehangirabad University Road view over the recruitment policy is that thi s is a very flexible and feasible approach for the employees already working in the bank that if they are given the motivation that if there gets a vacancy in the bank they have got a chance for the promotion for the employee, this end results in the betterment of the organization and the employees start for put in more efforts for the achievement of that desire post. likewise he thinks that if there isnt any one commendable enough for that job, we hire different agencies for the recruitment of the staff of the bank which helps in the time saving of the organization but for the desired quality of the new recruitment the final interview is being conducted by the HR coordinator in the Islamabad brunch. And then the C.V (curriculum vitae) of the candidate is send to the head office in Karachi. Employees view: When we interview Mr.Imran a newly recruit in F.B Omer Plaza Jehangirabad Peshawar, he said that the recruitment policy of Faysal bank is flexible and feasible as that he was doing the internship from the bank and when there was a vacancy they called him if he was willing to do that desired job. Our Personal analysis: In our view Faysal bank has got a very professional approach to the recruitment policy for their bank because their policy of giving the opportunity to the old employees to be upgraded to the new post. Similarly the phenomenon of hiring a recruiting agency is very feasible for the bank and as well as for the new recruit. Evaluate the interview as a selection technique and discuss a range of alternative selection methods available (P6) Interview: Interview is a kind of face to face negotiation between two people for a particular purpose. An interview is a purposeful exchange of ideas, the answering of question and communication between two or more persons. Both Faysal Bank and Bank Alfalah consider interview to be useful for selecting employees. A selection interview is a selection procedure designed to predict future job performance on the basis applicants oral response to oral enquiries. A hiring and selection tool is an aid that helps interviewers focus on key success criteria, compare findings with others more effectively, and develop more rigors in evaluating and scoring candidates. To be effective, the tool must be supported by excellent skills in behaviorally-anchored interviewing. In addition, interviews must be sensitive to various guidelines about the kind of data sought in interviews. The guiding principle is that specific information related to protected classes of individuals or to personal act ivities or principles that are nor related to specific job activities should not be directly questioned. In addition, using these tools and processes provides an excellent opportunity to sell the companys approach to performance excellence, including tools that candidates can use throughout their employment to maximize their own performance. General Process of a selection is as follows: Selection involves number of steps through which the applicants are screened for choosing the most appropriate persons for available posts. The main objective of selection is to choose the right person for the vacant job. The general process of selection is as follows: Checking each applicant against the criteria given in the job advertisement. Short listing of Applicants Notifying Short listed Applicants Conducting Interviews Verifying Credentials Ranking Applicants Reference Checking Writing Selection Report Follow-up procedure for candidates who successfully com pleted the selection procedure Negotiation of terms and conditions of the job. Formulate up a contract or written conditions of jobs. Plan initial orientation for the new employees. Review the applicants list which are not interviewed and putting the potential candidates on cling to for future. Telling the unsuccessful applicants for the desired post. Alternative selection methods available to the Banks Psychological Test: Psychological test is the important technique in selecting personnel, and this is widespread at all levels and periods of life. And it is a measuring device, a yardstick applied in consistent and systematic fashion to measure a sample of behavior? Purpose of Psychological test: Selection: The emphasis is on finding a person with the right qualifications for a particular job. Placement: The importance is depended on employees; the problem is to find the right kind of job for a suitable employee. Characteristics of Psychological t ests: Standardization: It refers to the combination or customary of the conditions and procedures for administer a test. Norms: It refers specifically to the average or performance on the test Reliability: It refers to the regularity of response on a test. There are several methods for determining reliability: Test Retest Method Equivalent-forms Method Split-halves Method Validity: It is one of the most important requirements of any psychological test is that it measures accurately what it is intended to measure. A number of steps are required to establish a testing program: Conducting a job and workers analysis Finding or developing a suitable tests Conducting an item analysis of each question on a test Determining the level of difficulty of each question Establishing the reliability and validity of the test Setting the cut-off scores Types of Psychological test Administration Test: Individual Group Test: Individual test is straig ht to one person at a moment in time, are more precious and hence, are used to slighter degree in industry than a grouping analysis. Speed Power Test: Speed Test: It has a rigid time limit at which spot applicants taking the assessment ought to terminate. Power Test: It has no time limit, examines are permitted as much time as they feel they need to finish the test. Paper and Pencil and Performance Test: Paper Pencil Test: Is a kind of assumption test in which questions are in written structure and the answers are recorded on an answer page. Performance Test: It possibly will take longer to administer than paper pencil test and also may need a candidate testing operation. Objective Subjective score: Objectivity: It is the greater part of the test used for automated selection aims are objective. Subjectivity: In investigation score, as in interview, allows employee prejudices and attribute to enter into the tough circumstances. This can lead to distortion of the evaluation. Behavioral Measure Test: Cognitive Ability: (better known as intelligence tests) is used in individual selection. Intelligence test items relate mostly to educational material such as spelling, reading, or mathematics. Interests: Interest inventories are of greater value in vocational guidance and counseling than in industrial personnel selection. Aptitude Test: It must be created especially to measure the skills required by that job, but there are published tests that measure general aptitudes for mechanical and clerical skills. Motor Ability: Many jobs in industry and the military require a high degree of motor skill involving muscular coordination, finger dexterity, or precise eye hand c oordination. Projective Test: Project test of personality was developed primarily for use in clinical psychology for work with emotionally distributed individuals. Evaluate selection practices and procedures in two organizations comparing these to best practice (P7) Best Practices for selection The selection process is concerned with the securing relevant information regarding the applicant. The selection procedure uses the screening devices so that the most efficient and professional employees should be available to the organization. Following is the process of a selection. Preliminary Interview Selection Tests Employment Interview Reference and Background Analysis Physical Examination Job offer Employment contract Example of the Selection Process Management Assessment HR Assessment HR Screening Management Interviews Job Fit Assessment Resume Review Candidate Sourcing Role Policy Exercise Job Stimulation Assessment Tel. Screening Interview Realistic Job Preview Computer Skills Assessment HIRE HR Interview Selection practices and procedures by Bank Alfalah Limited Policy: The selection procedure in Alfalah bank is based upon eight important principles, namely. Initial screening interview Completion of the application form Employment tests Comprehensive interview Background investigation Medical/physical exam Conditional job offer Permanent job offer The following screening devices are used in the Alfalah bank during the selection process: Selection form: Each applicant is provided a selection form by the Administration department. The application form has to be filled by the applicant in his own handwriting submitted to the administration department before a specific date. The format of the application blank is given in the appendix. In the application, the personal data, educational qualifications and experience etc. of the applicant is give. Test: These applications are scrutinized and the candidates passing through the security are called for a written test. The test s conducted by a Board from the Head Office with the assistance of the Administration department at the concerned stations. The test is held is held is Lahore mostly. Interview: Those qualifying the written test are called for an interview administered by the selection board assisted by the administration department. The interview session is also held in Lahore right after the written test. Physical Examination: There is usually a formal physical examination of the candidates. Another requirement is the submission of a formal Medical Fitness Certificate from a doctor. Approval by the Competent Authority: After going through the whole process of selection, the list of recommended applicants is sent to the competent authority for approval. From component authority we mean the head HR department at Lahore. In above whole process experts from other organization or hired experts may also be involved so only the HR department of bank Alfalah does the approval. Offer of Appointment: After the approval, the Administration Department notifies the decision to the candidates through a letter of appointment. Orientation Period: After appointment, the employees go through an orientation period i.e. Probation, for MBA/MCOM as executive the period is 5 weeks. And for employees of under-officer class, the period is 3-6 months. Confirmation: After successful completion of the probation period, the employees apply for confirmation to a competent authority. Promotion/transfer: A promotion is an upward advancement in the organization to a position, which commands higher opportunities, greater authority, better service conditions and a higher rank. All the promotions in bank Alfalah are made on the basis of merit of each case, and not by the virtue of seniority alone. Transfer to different jobs either to fill definite vacancies or to perform assignments to develop individual are made. The Head office in accordance with the promotion makes promotion and transfer to all categories and grades and transfer polices of bank Alfalah. The Administration department helps in co-ordination these activities of transfer and promotions. Provident fund: Provident fund is given to the employees of bank Alfalah at their retirement. Any employee of bank Alfalah can take the provident fund if he has spent more than three years in the bank because three years are the minimum requirement for provident fund. For provident fund five percent from the whole salary of the employee is deducted and the rest is contributed by the organization. Selection practices and procedures by Faysal Bank After the recruitment procedure is been held by the recruiting agency, a particular number of candidates are being send to the HR coordinator in Islamabad so that their talents could be tested by the Human Resource management department of the Faysal bank. Thereafter interviews are conducted for the satisfaction of the bank for the candidate refereed by the recruiting agency is capable of the desired vacancy. The selection procedure of the bank involves the following steps: First of all an acknowledgement letter is sent to each application subm itted applicants to the recruiting agency hired by the bank, similarly the individual who is already employed and is capable for the vacancy is requested to submit his application as well to the head office as well. Each of the applicants is then set against a certain criteria as given in the job prescriptions. Critical factors may include age, qualification, experience and so on. The applications are then sort out into possible, marginal and unsuitable for the vacancy. The possible are then more closely examined by the recruiting agency. Then the candidate is being analyzed by the HR specialist and also by concerned manager of the branch where the recruit is required. This would be the final examine of the candidate. Thereafter if the candidate is being selected, the job description latter along with the appointment letter is sent to the candidate. Thus a new recruit is employed in the bank. Make an effective judgment about different selection techniques that the organizations undertake (M4) Both banks is using different selection technique such interviewing the applicants, assessing candidate through skills test and knowledge tests before selecting the candidates for the posts available in there organizations. While interviewing the employees and managers of these two banks we took their views regarding the selection techniques they undertake for selecting an appropriate employees we will discuss their view first then we will give our own judgment about the selection procedures of both these Banks. Managers view of Bank Alfalah: Manager has the following views about their selection process: Their selection process is totally centralized and the whole process of selection is carried out by the HR department. The selection procedure is totally transparent and no unfair means are used during selection. Equal opportunities are given to all candidates no gender, racial or religious discrimination. We prefer those candidates who have some job experience about banking system for high jobs if we dont have any eligible person in our organization. People who have more contacts or good PR are preferred because they can bring more investment to the bank. Employees view: Candidates with strong financial backgrounds are more preferred as they can bring more investment. In the same way the candidates who have done their internship in Alfalah are more preferred over other candidates because the management knows their talent from their previous experience. There is no gender discrimination in selection process of AlFalah. According to interviewed employees some of the selection process also involves unfair means which includes favoritism and many other kinds of unfair means. But its selection procedure is still much better then any other private institutions Our Personal view: They are very much conscious about the selection process because human being is the most precious asset of an organization. They try to select those recruits, which are perfect for the job for which they are recruiting to help the upper management to achieve their goals. Their selection policy is very hassle-free which they are following. There is no discrimination in selec tion process they select those peoples, which are according to their need either male or female. They mostly preferred those candidates who can bring high investment because their job is totally monetary. Relationship Managers view of Faysal Bank: Mr. Muhammad Yaver Khan Khattak, the branch relationship manager of Faysal Bank Omer Plaza Jehangirabad University Road Peshawar has a positive view about the selection procedure held for the recruiting of the candidate as he thinks that when an individual is being selected through a proper and clean channel, the new employee gives more then his/her potential to the bank. Similarly, this professional approach to the selection helps in creating more attractive image of the bank to the individual interested in getting a part of Faysal bank. Employees view: Mr. Imran thinks that the selection held through which he is being examined is quite attractive for the new skilled, experienced, qualified and talented individuals who are not selected by the other financial institutions because of bribery, linkage or relationship with the management and he is quite satisfied with the selection procedure. Our Personal Analysis: In our view, the selection procedure followed by the bank really suits the talented individual interested in getting entrance as an employee in the Faysal bank. This portrays a good image of the bank and relates to the quality of selection procedures. Similarly, as we examined Mr. Imrans view gives agrees to our thoughts.