...Global Business Environment The World Trade Organisation (WTO) It has been suggested that “of all major economic institutions, the WTO has the worst reputation”. Outline the role of the WTO, and explain why it has proved difficult to reach agreement in recent WTO meetings in Doha, Geneva and Hong Kong. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) The WTO was founded in 1995 after the 8 year Uruguay round of talks, and it succeeded the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) created in 1947. Most of the WTO's current work comes from the Uruguay Round of negotiations (1986-1994). Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the WTO has 151 members (as at 27th July 2007), accounting for over 97% of world trade. The organisation is governed by a Ministerial Conference, which meets every two years, a General Council which implements the conference's policy decisions and a director-general appointed by the Ministerial Conference. The World Trade Organization deals with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. The goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business. These agreements are the legal ground-rules for international commerce Global trade deals are negotiated at the Ministerial Conference meetings, which are known as trade rounds and are aimed at reducing barriers for trade. One of the central principles...
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...‘Why I left Goldman Sachs’ by Greg Smith Précis by Pete Laburn Landing a job at Goldman Sachs Greg Smith is a pharmacist’s son from Johannesburg, South Africa, who won a scholarship to Stanford University in America. He grew up in Edenvale, as the eldest of three siblings in a Jewish middle class family, and earned a place among the 32 people, out of the 3000 international students, who applied for a full scholarship to Stanford. Three years later, in 2000, Greg was awarded a summer internship at Goldman Sachs. Of the intern class in any year, only 40% of students would be offered a full time job at Goldman Sachs after the summer. The internship programme was very strenuous and difficult, but showed that the firm took its culture seriously and taught all potential employees about giving clients good service. The internship programme gave students an opportunity to show their merit over a 10 week period as opposed to relying on a 30 minute interview. The firm stressed the importance of giving clients the correct information, not making things up or exaggerating, but being upfront and honest, even when you make a mistake. Teamwork was also highly valued at Goldman Sachs. From Goldman’s first days until 1999 (130 years) it had prided itself on serving as an adviser to its clients, with fiduciary responsibility. A fiduciary stood in a special position of trust and obligation where the client was concerned. This role was applicable when the firm was advising the client about...
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...Primark and Ethical Business Introduction Primark the leading clothing retailer Rapid changes in media, transport and communications technology have made the world economy more interconnected now than in any previous period of history. Nowhere is this more evident than in the world of textile manufacture and clothing distribution. Consumers want fashionable clothes at affordable prices. Much of high street fashion is produced in various countries across the world. Businesses source clothes from countries like India, China, Bangladesh and Turkey because of lower material and labour costs in these countries. In order to meet consumer demand, Primark works with manufacturers around the world. Primark is part of Associated British Foods (ABF), a diversified international food, ingredients and retail group. Primark has almost 200 stores across Ireland, the UK, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and Portugal. Primark’s annual turnover accounts for a significant proportion of ABF”s revenues and profit. Primark’s target customer is fashion-conscious and wants value for money. Primark can offer value for money by: • Sourcing products efficiently • Making clothes with simpler designs • Using local fabrics and trims • Focusing on the most popular sizes • Buying in volume • Not spending heavily on advertising. The largest Primark store is located on Market Street, Manchester, England. Some 100,000 sq ft (9,300 m2) of retail space is spread across its three floors. It took...
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...global airline industry basically comprises of air transport service providers of both passengers and cargo. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the global airline industry has doubled its revenue over the last decade, from US$369 billion in 2004 to a projected US$746 billion in 2014 (PwC, 2015). According to the IBISWorld Industry Report (2015), the global airline industry looks set to increase its revenue growth by 1.2% to $783 billion. In the recent 2015 IATA’s Annual Review, we have witnessed good profit in the global airline industry with a strong net profit of US$16.4 billion in 2014. Through the 1980s and 1990s, the emergence of low-cost carriers (LCC) has a big...
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...CORPORATE ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL MANAGEMENT Unit 46 Assignment Table of Contents Introduction............................................................................................................................ 2 I. The development of global, European and national policies relating to sustainability. 2 1. Changing attitudes of public, politicians and businesses to the environment since 1945 .................................................................................................................................... 2 2. Brundtland definition of ‘sustainable development’ .................................................. 4 3. The international and UK policies to sustainable development since Earth Summit of 1992 ................................................................................................................................ 4 4. Triple bottom line........................................................................................................ 5 II. The commercial case for considering social and environmental matters in business management .......................................................................................................................... 6 1. 2. 3. Stakeholders and how they impact on business policies ........................................... 6 Is adopting CSR policies cost-saving? .......................................................................... 7 Primark Ethical Trading ................................
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...powerful stakeholders. The authors suggest that firms can obtain significant advantages through proactive preparation for major relevant contingencies, and its incorporation into the strategic management process. Originality/value – This paper brings together the debate on the strategic position of crisis management with scenario planning processes to provide a mechanism for designing, evaluating and managing crisis futures. It should prove useful to managers considering the development of crisis management, especially in a strategic context. Keywords Strategic planning, Strategic management Paper type Conceptual paper Strategic management 721 Received May 2005 Revised March 2006 Accepted April 2006 Introduction Crisis management has been a expanding...
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...1 Table of Contents Executive Summary ............................................................................................... 3 Intro ...................................................................................................................... 4 Issues & Outlook Profile ......................................................................................... 6 Mission and Strategy ........................................................................................................................................ 6 Key Issues .............................................................................................................. 8 Slow to Innovate ................................................................................................................................................. 8 PC Market in Decline ........................................................................................................................................ 8 Mobile Device’s Poor Performance ............................................................................................................ 9 The External Environment .................................................................................... 10 PESTEL Analysis ............................................................................
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...Crisis Communication in theory and practice: Analysis of cultural influence, strategy applicability, and stakeholder relevance in Australia and New Zealand Natascha Pancic A thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of International Communication Unitec New Zealand, 2010 ABSTRACT This research project explores crisis communication in theory and practice in Australia and New Zealand with specific focus on cultural influence, strategy applicability, and stakeholder relevance. A mixed-method approach was used to evaluate crisis communication in its theoretical and practical constituents. The research project comprises of the two data collection methods of content analysis and in-depth interviews. The content analysis, the selected method to evaluate the theory, was conducted from published research studies in leading Australian and New Zealand Public Relations and Communication journals, the websites of the PRism journal, the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association (ANZCA), the Public Relations Institutes of Australia (PRIA) and New Zealand (PRINZ), and via the database search platform Ebsco. The content analysis provided information about the number of published articles, leading theoretical models, research methods, and research orientation. The in-depth interviews, the chosen method to investigate the crisis communication practices, were conducted with three Australian and three New Zealand practitioners...
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...ARTICLE 1 The article ‘Lawyer says Virgin Blue displayed ‘unhealthy work culture’ in city office’ by Anthony Marx was published in The Courier-Mail on 14 March 2011. The article details how Virgin Blue allegedly discriminated against two female employees by forcing them to take redundancies after confirming they were pregnant or returning from maternity leave (Marx 2011, p. 1). Subsequently, both employees have initiated legal action against Virgin Blue who ‘has denied any wrongdoing and vowed to fight the claims’ (Marx 2011, p. 2). The article raises three ethical issues. Firstly, it addresses the expectation that businesses should not discriminate against employees on the basis of gender (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell 2009, p. 70). Secondly, it highlights that abusive or intimidating behaviour is not acceptable in the workplace (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell 2009, p. 64). Thirdly, it identifies the role that an effective ethics program can play in avoiding ethical and legal problems (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell 2009, p. 212). Businesses should not discriminate against employees on the basis of gender. Discrimination refers to ‘the making of a difference in particular cases, as in favour of or against a person or thing, especially when arising from prejudice based on race, ethnicity, sex, religion, age etc’ (Discrimination 2011). Virgin Blue allegedly discriminated against Leonie Vandeven by forcing her to take a redundancy package after she confirmed that she was pregnant...
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...History of Bank Banking in the modern sense of the word can be traced to medieval and early Renaissance Italy, to the rich cities in the north like Florence, Venice and Sialkot Genoa. The Bardi and Peruzzi families dominated banking in 14th century Florence, establishing branches in many other parts of Europe.[9] One of the most famous Italian banks was the Medici Bank, set up by Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici in 1397.[10] The earliest known state deposit bank, Banco di San Giorgio (Bank of St. George), was founded in 1407 at Genoa, Italy.[11] Origin of the word The word bank was borrowed in Middle English from Middle French banque, from Old Italian banca, from Old High German banc, bank "bench, counter". Benches were used as desks or exchange counters during the Renaissance by Florentine bankers, who used to make their transactions atop desks covered by green tablecloths.[12] Definition of bank A bank is a financial institution and a financial intermediary that accepts deposits and channels those deposits into lending activities, either directly by loaning or indirectly through capital markets. A bank connects customers that have capital deficits to customers with capital surpluses. Listed Bank operates in Bangladesh Central bank • Bangladesh Bank In 1972 the Government of Bangladesh reorganized the Dhaka branch of the State Bank of Pakistan as the central bank of the country, and named it Bangladesh Bank with retrospective effect from 16 December 1971. State-owned...
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...Cases This collection of contemporary international public relations case studies is an invaluable resource for teachers, researchers and students working in public relations, corporate communications and public affairs, as well as offering practitioners an indepth understanding of the effective use of public relations in a range of organizational contexts. Including cases from the UK, Norway, Sweden, Spain, South Africa, Canada and the USA, with a focus on such global corporations as Shell, BBC America, Worldcom, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Marks & Spencer, it offers important insights into the development of public relations and communications strategies. These include: • • • • • • • • Corporate identity change and management Global reputation management Crisis management in the oil, shipping and tourism industries Developing strategic alliances between voluntary and private sector organizations Public relations support for international branding and market entry The importance of internal communications during international mergers The integration of public relations and marketing communications Business-to-business communication The cases examined in this book demonstrate the breadth of contemporary public relations practice and the increasing importance of the public relations function in both public and private sector organizations worldwide. Danny Moss is Co-Director of the Centre for Corporate and Public Affairs at the Manchester Metropolitan University, and Course...
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...Argentina is an attractive market for winemakers from ‘target-market’ point of view, but it is not a good time to commence exporting to this country. Unfavourable political and economic situation are the strongest factors that influence this decision. High physical, psychic, cultural and linguistic distances from Australia represent additional potential complications. • New Zealand on the other hand offers less opportunity for profits, but being physically, psychically, culturally and linguistically close to Australia, with a favourable applicable tariff rates and historically good relationship, it is a safe option. • American slightly positive GDP growth in the last quarter and some other latest statistics indicate that the worst times relating to world financial crisis is in the past. Nevertheless, world’s economists are prognosticating that long time is needed for full recovery. Some countries are still in recession and Argentina is battling hard to come out as a winner. Higher risks are associated with these hard times, thus a safer option is recommended. • Taking all this into consideration and the facts that Silkwood Wines are inexperienced in exporting and have limited human and financial resources, I recommend New Zealand as the best country for initial entry. With characteristics above described, New Zealand can be regarded as an ‘extension’ of Australian market. It will offer some expansion of production and extra profits, but more importantly experience that Silkwood...
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...formation of two entities: Singapore Airlines and Malaysian Airlines System due to political disagreements between Singapore and Malaysia .However,SIA commence its operation in 1 October 1972 (1972-10-01), and has formed a respectable position in the airline industry ever since. SIA has diversified airline-related businesses, such as aircraft handling and engineering. Its wholly owned subsidiary, SilkAir, manages regional flights to secondary cities with smaller capacity requirements. Subsidiary Singapore Airlines Cargo operates SIA's dedicated freighter fleet, and manages the cargo-hold capacity in SIA's passenger aircraft. On 15 December 2010, Singapore Airlines was announced by the International Air Transport Association as the second largest airline in the world by market capitalisation with a worth of 14 billion US dollars. People often prioritizes Singapore Airlines when they are making choices to travel. They fly one of the youngest fleets in the world to destinations spanning a network spread over six continents. Singapore Airlines has also marked their positions in the airline serving industry as they provide world-class services and they tend to the passengers with their utmost ability, being trained professionally, the airline crew are able to handle the worst of situations in a professional way. Singapore Airlines is also the first airline to introduce the offer of free headsets, a choice of meals and free drinks in the year 1970s. Singapore airlines was the first to...
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...INTRODUCTION Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing the flow of information between an individual or an organization and the public. Public relations may include an organization or individual gaining exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that do not require direct payment. The aim of public relations by a company often is to persuade the public, investors, partners, employees, and other stakeholders to maintain a certain point of view about it, its leadership, products, or of political decisions. Common activities include speaking at conferences, winning industry awards, working with the press, and employee communication. Public relations is thought by many to be propaganda by a different name, ironically, the very term "Public relations" could easily be seen as a public relations ploy to make the idea of propaganda more acceptable. Public Relations is similar to Analyst Relations, Investor Relations and Public Affairs depending on the firm, organization or population it represents. DEFINITIONS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS “Public Relations is the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between on organization and its publics.” - Institute of Public Relations, USA “Public relations is the attempt by information persuasion and adjustment to engineer public support for an activity, cause, movement...
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...Project aims and Objectives This proposal is aimed at providing ways of developing the Major three ‘three’ places which stands of Inspired facilities, Iconic Facilities, and the Protecting Playing Field representing Sports England. The objectives are to be achieved through various strategies depending on each place and the through the market research. The following methods are to be used to develop the above objectives(McLeish, 2011, pg44-65) 1. Event management 2. Opinion pieces 3. Feature articles 4. Journalist briefing 5. Email newsletters 6. Press release 7. Press conference 8. Interviews and editorial contributions Project Deliverables Its mandatory for a company to follow basic rules and techniques of supplier as a way of evaluating better plans for holding an event in a recommended place. The project is to deliver services according to the required specifications in the tender as required by the company(Mcginn, 2008, pp. 110-115). a) Inspired Facilities This involves the availability and the ease of individual as being part of the local community activities and being part of the volunteer groups as a way of improving and developing of clubs, and at the same time modify the non supporting events int o modern sporting facilities(Matthews, 1996, pp. 35-50). b) Iconic Facilities This was developed dependimg on the basis of the London 2012 inspiratioal extract extract as a way of improving the local upcoming teams from the...
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