Saturday, December 28, 2019

A Review On Cloud Elasticity For System Performance...

A review on cloud elasticity for system performance improvement and cost reduction Pancham Baruah ME-CN Department of Computer Engineering DY Patil School of Engineering Technology Charoli, Pune - India Abstract: Cloud Computing as a new enterprise model has become popular to provide on-demand services to user as needed. Cloud Computing is essentially powerful computing paradigm to deliver services over the network. Computing at the scale of the Cloud system allows users to access the enormous resources on-demand. However, a user demand on resources can be various in different time and maintaining sufficient resources to meet peak resource requirements all the time can be costly. Therefore, dynamic scalability which can also be called as elasticity is a critical key point to the success of Cloud Computing environment. Dynamic resizing is a feature which allows server to resize the virtual machine to fill the new requirement of resources in a cloud environment. Though there are enormous applications hosted on cloud now a days, but the next big thing which will be focused on will be the elasticity. In this paper, an effort has been put to explain the cloud elasticity concept and how i t will benefit the Cloud implementers in reducing operation cost and also to improve the system’s performance as a whole. Keywords: Elasticity, Scalability, Performance, Cloud, SaaS, Cost effective I. Introduction Cloud computing has become a significant part for many business andShow MoreRelatedImpact Of Technologies On The Economics Of Healthcare1195 Words   |  5 Pagesand the entire health care industry value chain. The two most disruptive technologies of all are cloud computing (Corredor, Martà ­nez, Familiar, 2011) and telemedicine administered remotely over the Internet (Johansson, Wild, 2010). Cloud computing is completely redefining the traditional financing and expensing approaches healthcare providers rely on for funding capital expense (CAPEX) projects. With cloud computing, only the computing resources used for a given healthcare-related task are paid forRead MoreMarketing Plan3452 Words   |  14 Pagesvon Oldenburg -3- Marketing Plan – Sony PlayStation 4 2. Internal analysis We will start with a further review on our company to build a knowledge base by providing several information and analyses in order to understand the following content better. At first, a general overview about the Sony Corporation will be given. It is followed by the SWOT analysis and a short review on the predecessor, the PlayStation 3. 2.1 General Brand awareness †¢ †¢ Place 29 in world-wide brand value rankingRead MoreCloud Computing5889 Words   |  24 PagesWhat’s New About Cloud Computing Security? Yanpei Chen Vern Paxson Randy H. Katz Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences University of California at Berkeley Technical Report No. UCB/EECS-2010-5 http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2010/EECS-2010-5.html January 20, 2010 Copyright  © 2010, by the author(s). All rights reserved. Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies areRead MoreMarketing Plan - Playstation 43832 Words   |  16 PagesAnalysis 2.1 Internal Environment In order to understand the report we will have to build a knowledge base about the company. In this section a general view of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. will be given followed by a SWOT analysis and ending with review on its predecessor PS3. 2.1.1 General Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. is a video game company dedicated in variety of areas in the video game industry, and is a solely owned subsidiary and part of the Consumer Products Services Group of Sony.Read MoreMarketing Plan - Playstation 43825 Words   |  16 PagesAnalysis 2.1 Internal Environment In order to understand the report we will have to build a knowledge base about the company. In this section a general view of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. will be given followed by a SWOT analysis and ending with review on its predecessor PS3. 2.1.1 General Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. is a video game company dedicated in variety of areas in the video game industry, and is a solely owned subsidiary and part of the Consumer Products Services Group of Sony.Read MoreCloud Computing Security67046 Words   |  269 PagesSECURITY GUIDANCE FOR CRITICAL AREAS OF FOCUS IN CLOUD COMPUTING V3.0 SECURITY GUIDANCE FOR CRITICAL AREAS OF FOCUS IN CLOUD COMPUTING V3.0 INTRODUCTION The guidance provided herein is the third version of the Cloud Security Alliance document, â€Å"Security Guidance for Critical Areas of Focus in Cloud Computing,† which was originally released in April 2009. The permanent archive locations for these documents are: http://www.cloudsecurityalliance.org/guidance/csaguide.v3.0.pdf (this document)Read MoreMarketing Literature Review11908 Words   |  48 PagesMarketing Literature Review This section is based on a selection of article abstracts from a comprehensive business literature database. Marketing-related abstracts from over 125 journals (both academic and trade) are reviewed by JM staff. Descriptors for each entry are assigned by JM staff. Each issue of this section represents three months of entries into the database. JM thanks UMI for use of the ABI/INFORM business database. Each entry has an identifying number. Cross-references appear immediatelyRead MoreStrategic Marketing Management337596 Words   |  1351 Pagesanalysis Competitive advantage and the value chain Conducting effective audits Summary 3 Segmental, productivity and ratio analysis 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 3.11 3.12 Learning objectives Introduction The clarification of cost categories Marketing cost analysis: aims and methods An illustration of segmental analysis An alternative approach to segmental analysis Customer profitability analysis Marketing experimentation The nature of productivity The use of ratios Analysing ratios andRead MoreFunctional Approach to Internal Analysis14942 Words   |  60 Pagesthe needs of a client/user in terms of functions and performances expected, instead of focusing on a solution. In other words, the problem is presented without thinking about the solution. To accomplish this, the buyer must identify, sort, characterize and prioritize the needs of a client (internal customer). Functional analysis is the basic tool for Value Management. Value is the ratio between the level of client satisfaction and the relative cost of a product or service. Value Management is a methodRead MoreStrategic Management9967 Words   |  40 Pagesalternative Strategies. 23 Step 9: Recommend Specific Strategies and Long-term Objectives. Show How Much Your Recommendations Will Cost. Clearly Itemize These Costs for Each Projected Year. Compare Your Recommendations to Actual Strategies Planned by the Company 25 9.1 Recommend specific strategies 25 9.2 How much recommendation will cost 26 9.3 Itemize costs projected each year 26 9.4 Compare Recommendation to actual strategies planned by company 27 Step 10: Specify How Your Recommendations

Friday, December 20, 2019

What Makes A Christian - 1971 Words

All individuals are entitled to and subscribe to a different worldview. Although worldviews may overlap in certain aspects, many of them are nothing alike. All throughout time and around the globe, people have continuously held beliefs that varied from others around them and made their group different from the rest, this is part of what makes humans unique and interesting. This fact does not mean that a specific view is more accurate or more pertinent, simply different. While acknowledging that all ideas are not equal, it is also important to note that each human has been made equally and is free to think and choose what to believe as they wish. As a Christian, I acknowledge and truly hold fast to the idea that God the creator of the†¦show more content†¦God is far more powerful than all of the beings which reside on earth combined, for he made them all and knows their inner workings, strengths, and weaknesses. He is aware of what happens in our lives at every moment and is there to guide us and help us through the hard times, constantly teaching us how he would want us to live. He can be anything to anyone in need, he is strong, wise, holy, almighty, loving, and many more aspects that he slowly reveals to us as we believe in him and will continue to reveal when we pass from our earthly bodies to the heavenly forms he has waiting for us in heaven. The whole of the Lord’s creation is all around us, and is composed of the things we see, as well as the things we cannot see (Characteristics of God 2005). God has made the universe, the planets, and the starts, the earth, and everything within it. He created the Earth, the Sun. the entire universe and all that is included within it. The mountains and valleys, the rivers and seas, the animals of the great deep, the birds which fly in the air, and the creatures which roam the planes of the earth are all his creation and all were carefully and lovingly made (Genesis). Humanity While not every human follows the guidance of human nature, we were meant to be kind and thoughtful of others, to treat others as you would like to be treated, and take care of ourselves and those around us. The sinful events that man has

Thursday, December 12, 2019

Critically Assess Whether Strategic Hrm Leads to ‘High Performance’’ free essay sample

Two theoretical perspectives to the Strategic Human Resources Management (SHRM) will be introduced and compared to determine whether they manage to ‘high performance’ or not. First, the Universalist approach is ‘one best way’ of dealing human resource to improve business performance. Second, the Contingency approach is to align HR policies and practices with the details of business strategy to create a positive impact on business. In addition, two examples: a large company and a medium-size company will be used to illustrate both approaches practically. At the same time, there are issues associate with theoretical perspectives that need to be discussed. Such issues are the implementation problems as well as the measurement problems. After all, the question will be answered with analysing all of the above. The advantages and disadvantages of each approach will be identified by gathering views of researchers. To the final stage, both approaches are being recognised if the linkage is existence to ‘high performance’ and to the level of measure that are being noticed. Different approaches to SHRM * Universalist approach A Universalist approach is known as ‘best practice’ human resource management (HRM). This approach describes there is ‘one best way’ to manage people in order to improve organizational performance. It argues that all organizations, regardless of sector, size or country, will benefit from identifying, gaining commitment to and implementing a set of best HRM practices. The job of a researcher is to identify what the practices are, and a job of HR professional to implement them. For example, a research from Delery and Doty (1996) identify certain practices that improve organizational performance. The detailed components are ‘high performance work systems (HPWS)’ Berg (1999); Appelbaum et al (2000), ‘high commitment management’ Walton (1985); Guest (2001a, 2001b) and ‘high involvement management’ Wood (1999a). Another researcher by Jeffrey Pfeffer (1998) identifies that seven universally applicable practices will benefit all firms. The components include: 1) Employment security, 2) Careful hiring, 3) Self-managed teams and decentralized decision-making, 4) Comparatively high compensation, 5) Extensive training, 6) Low status distinctions and barriers, 7) Extensive sharing of financial and performance information. The implication is that when a coherent bundle of HR practices is outlined, the integrated HR practices will impact positively on organizational performance. The ‘best practice’ HRM sees there is ‘one best way’ of managing people and that is appropriate across all circumstances. * Contingency Approach On the other hand, the Contingency approach is known as ‘best-fit’ HRM. It takes account of factors such as organizational size, location, sector, strategy and the nature of work. Baird and Meshoulam’s (1998) model advocates that HRM approaches will differ giving to different life-cycle stages. These life cycle stages ranges from start-up to maturity. While an organization is growing and maturing over time, it becomes gradually complex. Therefore, more sophisticated HR structures and policies are needed. This approach focuses on two types of ‘fit’ and ‘line management integration’. The first type is ‘External fit’ and it is commonly known as ‘vertical fit’. It is in coherence and alignment with business strategy and external market factors. When HR policies and practices are aligned to strategic focus, performance will improve. Porter’s (1985) strategic options on 1) Cost Leadership, 2) Differentiation and Innovation and 3) Focus are adopted. The second type is ‘Internal fit’ and it can also interpret to ‘horizontal fit’. HR policies and practices are all fit together so that they are in coherence. They are also mutually reinforcing and are applied continuously. Jeffrey Pfeffer’s (1998) seven practices are adopted. Lastly, ‘Line management integration’ is when line managers act as a critical character in implementing HRM strategy. Best-fit’ HRM suggests that the best to manage people will vary depending on organizational circumstances, and hence, the link to business strategy is key. Empirical evidence of SHRM model * A large company – Tarmac The UK quarrying company Tarmac has over 12500 employees at present. The operations function is key to overall company’s performance. It needs the support of finance managers, zone managers and H R managers. A finance manager delivers financial and management accounts to contribute the strategic decision-making process by forecasting financial performance. A zone manager manages operational performance. They meet and improve targets for cost, quality, delivery, safety and business ethics shown in key performance indicators (KPIs). Lastly a HR manager ensures business managers apply HR policies and procedures. The company’s goal is to achieve objectives by motivating all individuals working together as one team across the business units and functions. Each objective has its strategies. The followings practices are to achieve ‘Engage employees’ and ‘Act Responsibly’ objectives. Firstly, Tarmac focuses on a high level of employee involvement and encourages high employee commitment to the organization so that workers feel they are trusted and treated in an open and positive attitude. For example, employees regularly discuss with managers about their viewpoints within development teams. This helps workers feel part of the wider team, strengthens employee engagement and commitment to the company. Secondly, team-working practices create a closer supervision and a flat hierarchy. A coaching style manager develops employees to manage themselves rather than to manage each task. Employee’s suggestions are offered, and this contributes to improvements in organizational performance. An example of Tarmac targets and measures a decline in waste. In 2010, eighteen workshop-training sessions were held for all site employees on CO2 awareness and energy. All district managers were involved in the programme. Some external experts from Carbon Trust were also invited to support the rollout of the training programme. As a result, Tarmac gained benefit from 500 energy and CO2 reduction. Overall, Tarmac adopted a high commitment strategy to meet the objectives. Therefore, it improved the company’s performance. * A small-medium size company – i-LEVEL i-Level is one of the most innovative digital media companies and is ranked the ‘Sunday Times 100 best companies to work for’ in 2004. It has a size of workforce of 60 employees. The i-Level company has a high level of financial performance. There was a 33 per cent increase in earnings per annum. Their guiding principles are used as a framework. This is to ensure the internal fit and the external fit of company. The company is at the growing stage which a lot of the recruitment effort is on discovering the potential staff. -Level frequently seeks appropriate employees to be supported to work with the company. To fit HR policies and practices together, i-Level uses physical arrangements to remove top-down hierarchy in order to encourage employees’ participation, communication, creativity, self-managed teams and organisational values. As a result, a complete, open plan office is the environment where employees conduct their normal day-to-day operations. Moreover, i-Level sees pay is significant for performance. 15 per cent of the company’s pre-tax profit is kept for performance bonuses from 2003 to 2004. Meanwhile, the company argues pay is not their primary motivating force. On the other hand, the company aligns with business strategy and external environment by providing training courses for technical skills in media advertising. The company also offers an unusual training budget. There is an annual allowance provided for personal training and development purposes that are no obvious relation with work. The belief is to develop the skills and interests of workers in ways not studied before. This is expected to enhance i-level workers’ innovative thoughts at work through practices outside the company’s work area. To summaries, i-LEVEL achieves competitive advantage through innovation and which competes in very tight labour markets. It adopted Porter’s strategic option of ‘Focus’ and Pfeffer’s 7 practices to enhance the companys performance. Additional issues to reflect * Problems of implementation Line managers are central HRM performers in the organization, and they play a vital role in implementation of HR policies and practices. They influence their team‘s performance in a direct manner. A number of factors account for the line management problem. Firstly, it seems there is devolution to line managers. For instance, line managers do not want the responsibility of being a line manager or do not have enough time to deal with it accurately. They might not have the skills to handle HR issues successfully or are unaware of recent developments in view of HRM. Some managers do not consider a long-term view of the company or are inefficient for making policy in this area. Secondly, McGovern et al (1997), Marchington (2001) and Hutchinson and Purcell (2003) identify there are differences between ‘espoused’ and ‘actual’ policies that are relatively recognized to line managers. For example, some policies are normative rather than positive. Some descriptions of policies and practices are in general terms rather than analytical about actual situations. Hence, managers are unable to implement them specifically to meet the company’s goals. Furthermore, a broader issue, the line manager jobs in firms become progressively complex due to new firms’ structures. For instance, virtual and network companies have less clear line manager characters than the layered hierarchical company. One observable implication is pressure for reducing the size of the HR department. There will be a cut down in numbers of HR professionals. Ultimately, these factors all affect the organizational performance due to unsuccessful implementation of HR policies and practices. * Problems of measurement Fitzgerald (1991) and Neely (1998) stated that performance measurement is a key issue in guaranteeing the effective implementation of a firm’s strategy. However, using inadequate measurements is poor in supporting managements’ business objectives. The followings are the circumstances. Scientists use large-scale data groups made self-completed questionnaires. This will lead to two problems. First of all, there is dependence on one person, to represent the whole group. Secondly, there is dependence on a design of questionnaires. For example, respondents are answering yes or no questions rather than giving thoughts and opinions. This type of questions may generate a less accurate result. Moreover, there is uncertainty of how the data should be gathered, presented and analysed. The major problem is mis-reporting single respondents. Respondents may have limited knowledge of the area and use of policies. Furthermore, the measures of performance commonly take account of the financial performance, whereas there is a few findings focus on the broader issue of employee attitudes and well-being. Equally, there are matters to the range of HR practices. For instance, a report shows statistics of whether a company has self-managed teams, some may look at the proportion of workers running in a self-managed team. Lastly, Atkinson (2005) suggests that the measurement of productivity in the service sector can be exceptionally challenging. It is always easy to get typical, comparable financial statistics. To sum up, the measurement of data are related to the level of relevance to business performance. Critical analysis of the beyond * Best practice Pros amp; Cons Research states there is a positive link between the HR practices and organisational performance. Firstly, Huselid (1995, p. 667) discovered that ‘the degree of returns for investments in High Performance Work Systems is significant’. In fact, ‘A one standard deviation rise in High Performance Work Systems practices is associated with a comparative 7. 5 per cent drop in labour turnover. On ‘per employee’ base, $27,044, $18,641 and $3814 more in sales, more in market value and profits respectively. Secondly, the workplace employee relation survey (Cully et al 1999) indicates that there is 14 per cent of organisations adopted high commitment strategy. In contrast, researcher (Delery 1998) also emphasized ‘deadly’ bund les of practices need to be avoided. For example, it occurs to managers giving reward based on individual performance while they are working as a team. Furthermore, Boxall and Purcell (2003, p. 64) commented while multi-national companies make the effort standardise their practices across nations, national perspective and organisational sectoral perspectives show criticism on the effectiveness of these practices. Marchington and Grulis (2000, p. 1117) argue the most common example is in labour intensive organisations recognise costs are expensive when they use these practices. To summaries the best practice approach, Guest’s (1987) argues that there is no best practice. At the same time, he also suggests a set of best practices such as high commitment management is the route to survival of UK business. This leads to an argument that in order to enhance company performance, managers must alter their HR policies and practices to the framework that is operational. The interpretation comes to ‘best-fit’ approach. * Best-fit Pros amp; Cons Thompson (2000) conducted two studies of firms in the UK aerospace industry. His first study in 1997 showed that with higher levels of value added per worker encourages greater diffusion of innovative working practices with their non-management employees. These organisations are towards to more heavily engaged in specialist production for niche markets and hired technical and professional workers. The second study in 1999 showed evidence that organizations introduced a larger number of high performance work practices had much enhanced business performance. As a result, companies moving from less than five to more than six innovative practices created a 34 per cent increase in value added per worker. On the other hand, Miles and Snow (1984) align suitable managerial types to three genetic strategies of prospector, defender and analyser. If managerial properties and skills are aligned to company strategy, there will be a higher level of link to organisational performance. Thomas and Ramaswamy (1996) offered such support. As a result, performance in aligned firms was statistically excellent. In comparison, (Purcell 1999 p. 35) outlines that a number of successful organisations features that are unable to model. These are the cultural norms that have been developed gradually over a long period associated with accomplishment. It is easy to identify the key factors that drive to success. Especially when the organisations are large and complex. Imaginably the major problem is that many organisations exist inside complex external environments with multiple contingencies that are not to be ignored or recognized. * Comparing both approaches Each approach has advantages evidence and disadvantages evidence. It could be argued that different approaches can apply in different sectors. For example, Guest (2001) advocates that there is the possibility that a high commitment management is most applicable in manufacturing i. e. Tarmac, while strategic choice for fitting with business strategy, is more credible in the service sector i. . i-LEVEL. As a whole, critically discuss the link between SHRM and performance. Evidence from Patterson et al (1997) examined sixty-seven manufacturing businesses in the UK for a period. The outcomes were 19 per cent of profitability and 18 per cent of the variation in productivity could be certified to HRM practices. This demonstrated HRM practices has a positive impact on organisational performance. C onclusion In summary, SHRM consists of a number of practices and is an organization level analysis of how HRM systems impact on performance. Two theoretical perspectives outline different views. The ‘best-practice’ approach defines there is ‘one best way’ of managing people. It is appropriate across all circumstances. Whereas ‘best-fit’ approach terms the best to manage people will change depending on organizational circumstances. It highlights the essence of linking business strategy. Tarmac was used as an example. It applied the ‘best practice’ approach and adopted a high commitment strategy to meet the objectives. Hence Tarmac improved its firm’s performance. I-Level was used an example to describe the competitive advantage the company had achieved through innovation while competing in extremely tight labour market. It adopted Porter’s strategic option of ‘Focus’ and Pfeffer’s 7 practices to enhance the firm’s performance. Empirical evidences show both organisations are successful with adopting different approaches to their specific, targeted firms. These firms had a positive impact on performance. This can be concluded that SHRM has a clear link to business performance practically. In depth, other issues such as implementation and measurement roblems are considered. Problems of implementation affect the organizational performance due to unsuccessful implementation of HR policies and practices in line management. On the other hand, problems of measurement are valued on the basis of how easy and difficult the data is to represent and most importantly the level of relevance to business performance. If the r elevance is slight, it may have little or no impact on business performance. In the final stage of comparing both approaches, many researchers’ point of views is gathered. ‘Best-practice’ approach has advantages and disadvantages. It seems to argue that high commitment management is the route to successful business performance. On the other hand, the advantages and disadvantages of ‘best-fit’ approach suggest that applying this approach can be rigid and inflexibility due exists of complex external environments. Furthermore, in recent arguments, the product labour market seems to be emerged to a new post-industrial age where employers will tend to hire self-employed workers to carry out specific, time-limited projects for companies. This is due to the prediction of radical change. It can lead to a view that ‘best-fit’ approach should to be managed appropriately. This means practices should be adequate in different company’s life-cycle stage and align with different strategies. So that, it can feasibly enhance the organizational performance. Finally, strategic human resources management gives evidences, views, researches and facts to enhance organizational performance. However, the degree of high performance in context varies in different organizations under their circumstances. Hence, it does not necessary impact to ‘high’ performance.

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Strategic Management Enhance Your Companies Productivity

Questions: 1) How would the strategic management model be helpful to you in identifying and securing the most promising position? 2) Critically explain how you might use value chain analysis, resource-based view and SWOT analysis to get a better sense of what might be a firms key building blocks for a successful strategy? 3) Describe two organizations you have been part of based on differences in their organizational cultures? 4) Think about your post graduation job search as a strategic decision. How would the strategic management model be helpful to you in identifying and securing the most promising position? Answers: 1. The business strategies relating to international investments vary from the domestic ones because of many differences within the business environment. Several factors are responsible behind adoption of strategies such as political environment, legal constraints, cultural differences, economic environment, etc. Thus, for any firm that aims at investing abroad needs to make several strategic decisions. The very first decision that a firm must make is regarding the need to expand business abroad or not. The decision is based on several factors like present as well as future opportunities, market opportunities, company resources like competencies, skills, production, financial support, marketing capabilities, key objectives of the firm, etc. Some of the key strategies that would be discussed in terms of competitive strategies of firms aiming at international markets are niche market exporting, licensing as well as contract manufacturing, joint ventures, and wholly owned subsidiaries. Niche market exporting The primary approach of niche market exporting for a specific organization which needs to export is by modifying selective product performance or measurement attributes to special demands of international markets. This is the most traditional mean to enter a new international market. It is referred to as a perfect strategy in the presence on or more of the given conditions size and volume of the international market is not big enough for justifying production within the international market, production cost is quite high in the international market, international market is attributed by problems such as infrastructural, material supplies, etc, political risks in the host country, and lack of interest of the company to continue with the host country to continue long period. Within international licensing, an organization in one country allows another one in another country to utilize its own intellectual property such as trademarks, patents, technology, copyrights or any specific skill. The financial benefit that the licensor enjoys is the royalty that the licensee pays. This strategy enables and organization in one country to get easy access to a firm in a different country with much convenience. On the other hand, management contracting is a strategy that brings supplier together with the package of skills for providing integrated service to customers without any risk or benefit of the ownership. This allows a firm to commercialize present conditions which have been developed with significant investments as well as effect of fluctuations within business volumes may be lessened by hiring experienced personnel. Joint ventures This is the most common strategy to enter the international market. It presents combination of subsets of assets as contributed by business entities for specified business demands. This has specific attributes like all the partners contribute by finance, effort, property, skill, knowledge or any other assets. The partners have joint property interest in all ventures, and they possess the right to share property and right to mutual management of property. Firms that possess long term substantial interest within international market usually create wholly-owned subsidiaries. This provides the firm with full control upon production as well as quality. Such a strategy does not have the risk of growing key competitors unlike that of licensing or contractual manufacturing. If increased capital investment is to be rewarded, organizational managers need to achieve excessive knowledge about the market, the host nations language, and culture and environment. Alterations in standards mandated by foreign regulations can remove a firms protected market niche. This strategy enables and organization in one country to get easy access to a firm in a different country with much convenience. 2. It is important to focus on the analyses on an individual basis for effective usage of those analyses in determining the key strategies for an organization. Firstly, as per the resource-based view of the a firm, it is lot more feasible for exploiting external opportunities by using present opportunities in innovative way instead of acquiring new skills for each opportunity. In this model, resources such as tangible and intangible assets play key role in supporting firms to attain increased organizational performance. For any firm to exceed in the long run, it must leverage its core resources as well as capabilities of establishing differentiation within the marketplace. Effective analysis of resources enables maximization of the resources and elimination of lesser valued ones. Similarly, value chain analyses deals with all profitable activities that a firm engages in, right from inbound logistics, moving through operations, outbound logistics, sales and marketing, and finally serv ice. With this analysis, firms may develop competitive advantage. With controlling costs as well as improvement of efficiency in logistics processes, a firm may be at a better position to earn more profit. Effective marketing and sales lead to increased profits. Potential customer management adds to the business profitability. An optimized value chain serves a business in the best manner. On the other hand, SWOT analysis is a useful framework used to analyze a firms strengths as well as weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This analysis enables a market researcher to emphasize and use strengths, reduce threats, and make the most of the available opportunities. It is greatly useful in effective strategy formulation in a much sophisticated manner. It provides understanding of the key competitors and gives an insight into the approach to craft successful competitive position. The above mentioned analyses majorly focus upon the internal activities. The analyses that would determine the competitive advantages as well as disadvantages of a firm include the following: By analyzing series of internal activities as well as enhancing these to add value to the final product By effective management of available resources, capabilities, and skills, based on the strengths as well as weaknesses of the firm With analysis of the customer needs, how key competitors offer, and ways to satisfy customers in a more effective way By altering the strategic approaches based on the product life cycle, for instance creating awareness within introducing and causing brand awareness in leading to growth By analyzing all available internal sources as well as abilities, and responding effectively to the key threats that enable a firm to develop strategic competitive advantage To sum up, a single building block is deeper insight into the starting position of a firm, how it was created. It is also important to view upon how the future can unfold by means of forecasting. By combination of both the aspects of early initiation and that of future perspective, several alternative ways may be developed and implemented. Once a strategy is selected, the firm needs to create an action plan as well as allocate resources for delivering those. Creation of strategies in the present environment is quite complex, and thorough study and analyses are required before plunging into the action plan. 3. Organizational culture refers to the basic pattern of shared assumptions, beliefs, and values which means the exact way to think of and also act on problems as well as opportunities that an organization faces. This defines what is important and what is not within an organization. It is a common phenomenon that organizations would have different cultures and beliefs. Often organizations differ in the respective cultural content or the relative ordering of beliefs, assumptions, and beliefs. In this context, two organizations can be mentioned of that differ in their organizational cultures. These are Nokia Corp. and Amazon.com. The corporate culture of Nokia is one of the strategic as well as competitive advantages. Its catch phrase Connecting People has been symbolic of its culture that enables defining of the purpose of the available physical facilities. It has built a strong corporate image for itself. It has the utmost potential ability to sustain high product style as well as demonstrating its worldwide technological leader. Nokia prides itself upon four core values as well as principles that places within the heart of its cultural philosophy: customer satisfaction, individual respect, goal achievement, and continuous learning. With creation of opportunities for the fluid exchange of innovative ideas as well as empowerment of employees, clients, suppliers, business partners, and others for developing and also expanding effective relationships. The company had defined a new model not just to assure corporate success, but to manage its needs for corporate real estates. Ever since the beginning of the jou rney, the company had faced the challenge to develop a clear, desirable workplace, along with a design which mirrored the effective culture, vision, and values of the Nokia group. The company had been actively considering the development of a touch-screen smart-phone some few years ago, that may have killed off the iPhone within its very tracks. However, the prevailing culture of avoiding of risk, conservatism, inertia, all acted against the investment. The company emphasizes upon the speed as well as flexibility of its decision-making processes. It is said to be somewhat flat-networked organization with some level of bureaucracy. There is availability of equal opportunities as well as active employee participation. It has been identified from the culture of Nokia Corp that the management is well aware of the fact that one of the key ways to align culture to organizations strategy is by practicing leadership. The leaders at all level must know about the required culture and graduall y set plans to follow those procedures and practices which would reflect the aimed culture. The leaders know the importance to pay close attention to the means and processes of communication. On the other hand, the organizational culture of Amazon.com may be reflected upon to contrast between the two cultures. The leadership principles of Amazon are varied for several reasons. Firstly, these are practically usable. These may be used at most situations of trade-offs, strategic development, and areas to be developed. The culture is quite authentic that leads to its increased growth. One of the key attributes of Amazon.com is customer obsession. Unlike many other companies, the motive to customer satisfaction holds quite true for Amazon, as per the research study. The motive has a real value at Amazon, but not certainly the only one. Another value of the company is ownership that is referred to the idea of not compromising the long-term goals for achieving short-term achievements. By incorporating favorable terms as well as increased use of leverage within the market, the company has been balancing all its long-term benefits towards customers as well as shareholders along wi th quick customer effect. To contrast the organizational cultures amidst the two organizations, Nokia Corp. and that of Amazon.com, it may be identified that since Nokia is a company that has strengthens in the product development, the organizational culture is aligned to the needs of the customer demands and market requirements. With innovative product development, the company aims at achieving strong customer base. On the other hand, in Amazon, the company aims at serving the customers in the best way possible to capture a large target group. The culture is dedicated to understand the customer behavior and that of the ethical aspects of services. The culture at Amazon is much more practically viewed and pursued as compared to that of Nokia. The company Nokia emphasizes upon the speed as well as flexibility of its decision-making processes. It is said to be somewhat flat-networked organization with some level of bureaucracy. However, the motive of customer obsession has a real value at Amazon, but not certai nly the only one. Another value of the company is ownership that is referred to the idea of not compromising the long-term goals for achieving short-term achievements. 4. Strategic management model means the mode or pattern of strategic approach. As per such a model, various steps are designed for achievement of desired objectives of a firm. As mentioned in the given situation of post-graduation job search as a strategic decision, a model of strategic management may be developed for the purpose of job search. It involves formulation as well as implementation of plans of strategic management. In case of my post graduation job search, I need to use a model of strategic management that may be useful for me to secure the most promising position. The strategies would be based on the convenience and feasibility of the access to desired organization. For securing the promising position it is important to compare and contrast personal qualifications, skills and competencies, with that of the organizational requirements and specifications. There are some steps in the development on such a strategic management model, namely: Mission To initiate with the model, the first step is to specify the mission. The mission here is to attain a job after post graduation course. Not only attaining a job, the mission also includes achieving a promising position in the professional field. Objectives The process of post graduation job search has been considered a strategic decision. This strategic decision therefore needs a strategic planning model. The key objective is to seek a job after the post graduation course and also secure a promising position in the professional field. Situation Analysis Once the objectives have been laid clearly, various situations are to be analyzed like that of availabilities of various opportunities at different organizations, job descriptions, and job specifications. This analysis is carried out by either Pest analysis, SWOT analysis to assess the internal as well as external environments of the organizations, related customer and stakeholder information, and also products and services. The acquired information is to be compared with the desired objectives and aims, and then decision is to be taken regarding which organization to join to pursue further accomplishments. Formulation of Strategies Once the organization is decided upon to be pursued, it is important to formulate strategies to access entrance to the specific organization. The strategies would be based on the convenience and feasibility of the access to desired organization. For securing the promising position it is important to compare and contrast personal qualifications, skills and competencies, with that of the organizational requirements and specifications. The post graduation job search seeks to go through a series of steps to approach different organizations of preference. Actions plans are suitable for converting general strategies into desired actions. 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