In 1976, two entrepreneurs, Edward Keogh and Ernie Mayne began making low-cost furniture in a small factory in Brisbane, Australia. In subsequent years it grew into a nation-wide retail chain (over 80 stores) that sells its own low-cost/self-assemble products (desks, beds, chairs etc). However, in the past 3 years growth has slowed and even though EKEM is one of the largest manufacturers of budget furniture in Australia it has continually failed to produce innovative new products. There are currently three plants operating in Australia with the head office in Brisbane. The Brisbane plant is representative of the Sydney and Melbourne operations with each employing around 400 people.

Key Things To Note;
Structure of the company. Very likely to be tall structure since it started from entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship likes to have control, which is evidence by the lack of innovation- it fail to produce innovative new products. Everything must be decided and authorized by the two entrepreneurs.
Three plants operating with head office in Brisbane is another indication of centralized control operation. Span of control is too wide as each plant is employing 400 people. Operations is likely to be bureaucratic in style with lots of red tape, thus stiffing the innovation and response of their operations.

The Board of Directors of the company is currently considering either closing down or moving operations offshore where labour is significantly cheaper. However, the Board would prefer to maintain operations in Australia and are prepared to invest another 12 -18 months before going off-shore and downsizing the Australian workforce. You are employed/contracted by the Board to develop a strategy that would allow them to improve operations and keep the plant open.

Key Things To Note
Their operation expenses must be high because of the wide span of control for each plant. They should do an analysis of their expenses and find out which factors contribute to the most expenses or highest expenses. Looking for off shore cheaper labour is one options but with the culture issues and expatriate relocations, the expenses is not small either. Besides you may have to deal with the tradeoffs such as giving shares to the local government of the country you are going into.
Furniture is a labour intensive industry. Down sizing may not be a good options as you may have to invest in heavy capital machinery to replace the human labour.

On arrival you find the factory itself is in very good condition and while some equipment is outdated for the most part these employees enjoy very good conditions. The current management explains that they have an employee bonus scheme based on group-level performance goals (paid weekly). Although they explain that they take it away (or reduce it) if an employee misbehaves. On the whole the performance management system is unimpressive.

Key points
Look at the motivation scheme and suggest alternative motivational incentive scheme for group. Punishing the whole team because of one employee mistakes may be demotivating in the long run.

The management style of this organisation would best be described as very autocratic. Decisions are highly centralised and employees have very little discretion over their work procedures and processes.

Key Points

Autocratic style has many disadvantages. Name them here and explain why they stifled the innovation part of the company.

The environment is Tayloristic. The management explains this is to ensure reliable product quality and allow them to employ cheaper staff with relatively low-level skills. Consequently, high levels of control are imposed on staff and employees are required to clock in and out of work and are punished (by deduction in bonus) when they are late. Work times are strictly monitored and at the lower levels of employment there is almost no commitment to the organisation and it appears that in general most employees are unsatisfied with their jobs. There are problems of absenteeism, turnover, low productivity, poor quality, and injuries and there have been incidents of employees defacing company equipment. There is constant tension and very little trust between management and line workers.

Key Points
Explain the disadvantages of Taylor principles. Taylorism is a bit outdated in today’s high tech environment. It is good for mass production and where production can be standardized. But furniture industry are now changing to customized needs and preferences and there cannot be standardization in this industry any more if they want to compete globally.

They have to look into the job satisfaction factors. This is again the area of motivation and how to keep the workers committed to the work and company.

You also notice that around the factory people are generally tense and cold, there is a strong sense of resentment and you feel the employees as well as other managers are extremely wary of you.
Key points
There is no team work here at all. Change is not welcome here and the management has not introduce much training courses, otherwise, they would not be like this.

You have also found the structure of the organisation difficult to follow; the organisational chart did not bear much relationship to what happened in the company. There are tight spans of control and 4 levels of management between the CEO and the production workers. Consequently, it was difficult to determine who actually had power. You report directly to the CEO of the plant, however other members of the senior management team also had the expectation you should answer to them. Further, you were finding they expected you to take on responsibilities that were not listed in the job description. When you raised the matter with them, they just laughed it off by saying that was just they way things were done in this part of the company.

Key Points
Structure of the company need to be change or revamped. The support of the top management is important here, without their support, this change cannot occur
You should advocate for a flatter structure with more accountability from each manager. Empowerment must be practiced..

It is not long before you become aware of the dysfunctional politics in the organisation. You are responsible for instigating change in the organisation, but staff members are not directly accountable to you so you were having difficulty gaining their support. Further, as a newcomer, you lack the knowledge and relationship base to integrate yourself into this system that seemed to operate through a great deal of informal reporting.

Key points
No proper induction for new employee. HRM need to be improved.
Need new direction, a vision and mission direction must be implemented throughout the organization. The LMX theory of leadership comes into play. You have to identify the supporters of your ‘in’ group and the key leaders of your oppositions. You need to use the participative style of leadership to get the support of your ‘out’ group in order to make the change a success.

You are required to write a “preliminary” report/memorandum to present to the company’s board of directors and CEO. Your report should outline recommendations that include a specific strategy to manage the necessary change to improve this organisation. The strategy should have a timeline that will show results within 12 months. In “real-time” you have about 3 days to complete the assignment.

Company Policy on Public Relationship with Its Stakeholders
The company’s policy on public relations with its stakeholders is to maintain an environmentally friendly procedures.
To maintain a working relationship with the heads of villages where negotiations and discussions are the means of settling problems.
To participate in economic activities that are beneficial for both parties.
To contribute to society by giving back a proportion of the company’s profit to the surrounding villages.

Corporate Social Responsibility
The role of corporate social responsibility of 888 Plantations Sdn.Bhd is to play a proactive role in the protection of the environment in which it operates. The company has set up an environment protection unit to safe guard the trees, rivers and protected animals in the plantations which it operates. Workers are educated not to kill protected species of animals, birds and fishes in its nearby surrounding. Sewage and waste from the plantations are filtered in a waste management system that ensure the rivers and ponds as well as water catchment areas are unpolluted and free from harmful pesticides or chemicals fertilizers. This is to ensure that the livelihood of the villagers are safeguard and protected.
The company also contribute to the building of school facilities, church and mosques as part of its social participations.

Past incidents and cases of conflicts
Past incidents of road damages, when heavy trucks passing through villages roads have damaged the road to the inconvenience of the villages have resulted in bad relationship between the village heads and the company management. The intrusion of our employees into the society of the villages and upsetting the cultures of the villages have been cases that have yet to be settled.
.............................................................

Introduction
888 Plantations Sdn.Bhd is an oil palm plantation company that has 5000 acres of plantations in the Bintulu and Miri region. Close to its proximity are native villages comprises of Penans, Bidayuhs and Dayaks. The company employs workers from the surrounding villages. Transportations often have to pass through the villages roads. It is a realisation of the company to manage the relationships between the head of villages and the company. In recent years, the management of 888 Plantations Sdn.Bhd have organized activities that involved the participation of the villagers and village heads. It plans to do more and the following report are suggestions of the ways and means which the company can carried out its activities more effectively with the villagers.

Table of Contents Page

Introduction
Company’s Policy on Public Relations
Corporate social responsibility
Past incidents and cases of conflicts
Existing measures in place
Proposals for better relationships with villagers
Benefits and advantages of proposals
Time frame for implementations of proposals
Monitoring measures for effectiveness of proposals
Conclusion
List of References
List of Appendices

Executive summary

This report is a proposal on ways and means of improving the relationships of plantation workers and the villages surrounding the plantations.
The report will discuss past issues of incidents that have resulted in conflicts between plantations workers and villagers. The report will also examine the measures that have been put in place to prevent such conflicts from occurring in the future.
However, it is essential that the plantations management look into a more proactive role of building good public relationships with the villages. In particular, the management should look into ways and means to help the villagers economically and socially. This is an example of a good corporate social responsibility towards society.

Institute of Profession Development

OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

Business Communications
Module 2



Report For

Proposals on How to improve the relationships between plantation workers and the villagers in close proximity of the plantations



A Report Paper

By

Richmand Chong

Submitted: 7th September, 2008
Words:3,000

Letter of Transmittal as part of a report


7th September, 2008
Richmand Chong,
Niosh Centre, Jalan Petanak,
93310 Kuching
Sarawak

The Chief Executive Officer,
888 Plantation Sarawak Bhd,
Bintulu. Sarawak


Dear Sir,

This is a report on a proposal on how to improve the public relationship with the residents of the villages that are close to our plantations. Being sensitive to the cultures of the villagers, it is important that we train our employees to be good corporate citizens. It is equally important that we educate our employees to be sensitive to the values and beliefs of the villagers so that good harmony and peace can be maintained between our employees and the villagers.
This report will outline the cases of conflicts that have occurred in the past. It will also outline the lessons that we have learned and the measures that have been taken to prevent such cases from occurring . The final recommendations are what we want the company to be proactive and to take measures to improve the relationship between our employees and the villagers.
We hope that the management of 888 Plantations Berhad will view these proposals seriously and will give us your blessings to implement the measures that we have proposed.
Yours sincerely,

Richmand Chong

With the increases in oil prices, our transportation costs has also went up. The current increases in fuel has an inflationary effect, resulting in consumer goods being more expensive. Many people who are on fixed salary are finding it difficult to cope with the daily expenses. Many have resorted to using credit cards. Some have resorted to borrowing from banks and other financial institutions. The end results is that many people are going to be caught in these debts and they need some form of debt help. Stress will definitely go up for a lot of people. It is the recognition of this factor that institutions have been set up to assist people in debts. Programs such as debts consolidation is one of them. What is exactly debt consolidation? Debt consolidation help one to gather all the borrowings one has taken up with several institutions and consolidate them into one statement. This way, a total figure can be derived and the grand total can be quite frightening for some. It is the little bit here and there that adds up, which most borrowers forgot to take into account. Once the period is up and it is time to pay back the sum, you will find that these borrowers are in trouble. Debt Consolidation help the borrowers to keep track of what they are paying and how much they should set aside each month to meet the repayments. Debt consolidation also help the financial institutions to enable their clients to stay solvent and not run into bankruptcy.

Both lenders and borrowers will benefit from this debt help given by institutions that offer debt consolidation services. People in desperation of financial help often cannot think rationally and very often get themselves into debts problem. Unless someone offer them debt help, they are going to be in deeper trouble.

The assignment is divided into three tasks:
The first task requires you to:
Use one or more theories or models to analyse an example of managerial behavior on two dimensions, that is, on providing leadership and on motivating others.

In this task, one has to understand the role of managers in organizations. Managers are supposed to get things done through other people. They make decisions, allocate resources and direct the activities of others to achieve the goals of the organizations. The manager's job involves planning, leading, organising and controlling. All managers must do these four functions.

Greetings to all MGT 701.
The powerpoints slides are up in your Blackboard. So please go in and view the ppt and also download the audio for your lectures. In the class, which we only have two hours, we will touch on the issues, especially current issues faced in the real world, which you are supposed to raise on the discussion board. I will highlight some of the issues here that you should seriously think about and discuss them on the board. Remember that you have 30 marks allocation on the board discussion.

The first slide says' The Bottle Neck is at the top of the bottle'. This is a good saying which very few people give much thought to. In an organization, it is the leaders and managers that make decisions, allocation of resources, control etc. If they are not right at the top, things will not get done on time, and efficiently. So what causes problems down in the shopfloor actually starts from the top.

Skills that managers need are basically three: conceptual, human and technical. For managers, technical is the least importance, although managers must know the technical of the core business of the organisation. More importantly are the human and conceptual skills as they are supposed to manage people and strategise the goals of the organizations.

The studying of the behavior of people involved four approaches.
scientific management, human relations approach, contingency approach and culture quality movement. Study all the four approaches and think which is working in Malaysia. Each has their qualities and disadvantages. It is this observations and some thinking that you must do and put them on the board for discussion..

Fashion is a trend and the fashion industry is a big one. People like to wear fashionable clothes to impress, to give one confidence and to build up one’s image or brand. Yet fashion come and go very quickly. But there is big money to be earned in fashion. If you look at the big names such as Tommy Hilfiger, Marc Jacobs, Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Karl Laggerfield, the rewards can be huge, that is if you make it to the big names. It is nice to look at those names, fame and wealth but one has to start somewhere first. For a starter, begin with the fashion school in new york. New York is the fashion center and naturally fashion schools new york are some of the colleges or schools you should look at. New york fashion schools are popular among the students, as this is where the trend is being created, tested and trial out among the big stars. If they like your style and design, you are on the way to big times.

Customers can exert a powerful influence on the level of competition and the power of the customers depend on the following factors:

• When the industry has only a few customers, the influence each customer has or impact on the industry is substantial.
• There are a few customers whose purchasing power in term of quantities, may have a substantial effect on the industry.
• Customers who have a wide ranges of sources for a standard product, will be in a position of power to call the prices from suppliers.
• Customer has access to the industry's costs and level of demand
• Big customer has the resources to take over the suppliers if they want to.
• Customer can switch from one supplier to another easily without much difficulty.

All of the above factors will give the customer the ability to exert great influence on the industry in terms of pricing and product development and to the overall industry's competitive nature.

Kuching City state constituency has been given to the Opposition party already in last year election. For the coming Parliamentary Election, Kuching parliament seat need to be delivered to a BN candidate in order to balance out. Years ago, the formula for voting in Kuching has been this; deliver Parliament seat to DAP while maintaining the state seat to BN. In this way, you get both development and having a voice heard. Now that the formula has been changed, it is essential and crucial to have this Parliamentary seat delivered to a BN candidate in order to have the status quo maintained, so that you have development in Kuching city.
If both state and parliament seats are delivered to the opposition, I think development is going to be somewhat lacking for Kuching people. So wake up, chinese voters! If you want to have a voice and as well development in Kuching, it is time that you maintain the balance this time and it is important that you should deliver the Bandar Kuching seat to Alan Sim. Give this new comer a chance to prove himself in parliament. The old formula needs to be maintained.

Malaysian will be voting on the March 8, 2008 for the 12th Parliamentary Elections. In the state of Sarawak, which saw a few 'hot seats' particularly in the Chinese dominated constituency, there is a bit of concern from both sides. Last week, I went to see one of my former MBA graduates who is a staunch member of SUPP (Sarawak United People's Party). In all these years I have seen the hard work, effort and many hours of sacrifice put in by Mr. Lu Kim Yong. As a Grandfather, he still took up his MBA which he completed a few years ago and make good use of it to raise funds for schools, temples and associations. These are solid performances that cannot be denied or scoff easily, because you see temples being built and standing there, schools being repaired and associations functions being runned. All these cost MONEY and these men and women went out of their way to make it happen. I can appreciate those efforts and can understand their frustrations when they are denied the votes. Now before the March 8, 2008, let us put our thinking caps on and use it really, really well for once and not let the heart rules.
I called this theory 'relations politics', something I learned from 'relations marketing'. Let's take the case, where you are approached by a number of sales people. They are all selling the same product, same quality, same service and same price. Which sales person would you buy from?
You would buy it from the person you know or the sales person who you have relationship with.
Take another example, in the family, would you as head of the family give priority to help your family members or your enemies first? Of course, your own family members.
Right, now, we take the case of the Barisan Nasional. The concept of Barisan Nasional is a family concept, making up of different parties that have agreed to work as a team. This is an eastern value and has proven to be workable and enduring. This is team work versus groups. Groups are being used by the oppositions, which is why they still got problems with the alliance pacts.
Right, we now go back to Bandar Kuching Constituency, which is a straight fights between new comer Alan Sim Yaw Yen (BN) and veteran Chong Chieng Jen(DAP).
Come March 12, 2008, the day SPM and STPM results are released, " who do you go to see for Public Service Department scholarship?" The people in the family of BN or the DAP? Which one do you think will give you a better chance of getting your child the scholarship?
And if your child cannot get a placement in one of the public universities, "who do you see to get your appeal across to?" One of the candidate of BN or the DAP? Which one do you think has more chances of getting your appeal heard? Who do you think has a better relations with the various government department to do the job?
When it comes to creating jobs opportunities, implementing the career open day, career counselling services and matching of skills to the markets, I have seen this being done already for several years by Alan Sim. Now, all these organising takes both money, effort and lots of time, sacrifice which Alan could well used for his own Law firm or for his family. Have you seen Alan gone down to the poor and needy and personally taking it out to go out of the way to help the needy? These are just a few examples of the good deeds.
It is all very well and easy to point out the corruptions of certain politician and say that we need an opposition candidate to debate it out in parliament. There is some truth in that thinking along that line. But it is ethically wrong to fight an innocent candidate who hasn't done any wrong yet and says that, " Hey, I need your seat to shout out at this politician in parliament!". If DAP is really keen to corner this politician and has evidence against him, then take it out in that politician's constituency and present his evidence as well as a police report or ACA complaint. It is ethically wrong to steal someone seat to voice out against another person who is in another constituency. It is sacrifice of the wrong candidate and at the expense of the candidate's supporters. It is sad to see this happening in SUPP constituency. The Chinese doesn't really know and understand what they are doing to themselves. When the Chinese schools don't get funds, the chinese youths don't get employement, the chinese women gets left out, especially single mothers in the entrepreneurship opportunities, who are we going to blame? Are you going to blame Alan Sim who wasn't given a chance or are you going to blame DAP? I think each and everyone of us need to do some deep soul searching and ask ourselves this question, 'Who can do the job better, the people with relations in BN or the opposition?' And will raising issues on who is doing cronyism, corruptions, help my case of putting food on the table for my family, education for my children which I can ill afford, or the health of my old parents? For this coming March 8, 2008. I urge you to vote with your brains, not with your heart, because the heart always has sympathy for the oppositions.

Explain how Michael Porter's Five Forces Model can be applied to examine the competitive environment in the business world.

In the business world, these are groups of organizations that compete directly and indirectly with each other to win orders, sales and market share. The five forces that Michael Porter used as a model to examine or rather explain the logic competition are:

• Threat of new entrants
• Threat of new substitute products or services
• Strength of bargaining power of suppliers
• Strength of bargaining power of customers
• Level of rivalry among existing companies in the industry

Michael Porter's model help in the following way:

• Helps the manager to decide whether his organization should remain in or exit out of the industry.
• Provides a rationale for increasing or decreasing resource commitment
• Help the manager to improve and assess his own organizational competitive position

Wheelen and Hunger (1998) expanded Porter's five forces model with a sixth force, by including the relative power of other stakeholders. These stakeholders may include the government, local communities and environmental groups (NGOs)

Part One

Define the meaning of strategic Management.

Strategic Management is the process through which an organization analyze, learn from their internal and external environments, develop strategic directions and create strategies that will help to achieve established goals and finally to execute those strategies to satisfy all stakeholders (Harrison and St.John, 2002). In strategic management or planning, the different elements do not have to appear in a sequential order. Rather, the different elements can occur in a permutation of sequences or simultaneously. Coulter (1998) states that strategic management is an ongoing and continuous cycle of strategy formulation, implementation and evaluation. The company that can do this continuously in a sustainable manner will be ahead of the competitors. Too often, many companies do not have this sustaining power. Along the way, they sometimes slack and that is when the competitors will overtake them. Toyota corporation is a good example of a company that executes strategic management in a very consistent manner. Dess (2004) defined strategic management as the analysis, decisions and actions that an organization undertakes in order to create and sustain competitive advantage. This definition captures two basic elements of strategic management. The first being that strategic management is concerned with the hierarchy of strategic goals along with the analysis of the internal and external environment of the organization, the decisions to address the question of what industries to compete in and how to compete and the necessary actions or tasks that are needed to implement the strategies. The second element is the essence of strategic management. It concerns the study and analysis of why some companies outperform others.

Casino games used to be for the few elite groups of people. People with certain age, certain amount of money are allowed into casino. In certain countries, casino is considered illegal. For years, casino games are meant for the rich and wealthy which leads to the theory that ‘ the rich gets richer’. With the advent of internet, internet casino is born and is flourishing everywhere without the boundaries restrictions. Casino games are suddenly available online, called virtual casino because there is no physical building. But before you jump into these games, check out the software they are using. Is it tested and audited by independent bodies? Are the games fair? Are the operators responsible people? These are issues you might want to look at on the site before you register with them.

Some online casino offers pretty good offers such as bonuses for players while other offers promotions. Some online casino gives you a trial period to get use to their systems. The games on internet casino are usually of two kinds, pure chance using random numbers or games of skill where you have some control, depending on the skills you have. So why not check it out and see if you can win some cash for this season. But do limit yourself to a budget. That is called responsible gambling. Play for fun and entertainment and you will enjoy it. Take your job or career seriously but never on the casino, but rather use the casino internet games as a way of distressing from your work.

What makes Barrack Obama so charismatic as compared to Hillary Clinton? Definitely not in looks but rather in their manner of speeches. The crowds are drawn in by the fiery speeches of Obama, who is a Harvard graduate of law studies. Everyone can make speeches, especially politician but to make speeches that makes people sit up, that makes people think about what you are saying, is a great skill. Not many politicians can do that and even in the past presidents of America, only a handful have really mastered that skills. I have not really listened to the old ones but the great one like the late Reagan is one fine example of a great orator. I think the next one is Barrack obama and I think he will make a fine President for America. He can captivate the audience with hope. He has great attitude and is matured in his handling of the masses. A great leader is a great actor and a great debater. I think Obama has all these qualities.

You married a wonderful beautiful and well shaped wife. Her beautiful face, hair, skin, body slim figure is what attracted you in the first place. She married you and both of you have a wonderful time together. The next thing that came along is the baby. She gets pregnant and the bulge start to show. Both of you are happy for the baby and starts to prepare all the things for the little one, the bed, the bottles, the diapers, etc.

But the most important thing which the man often forgets is the preventive measure of the stretch marks for his love one, his spouse. Unfortunately, years later when the baby has grown up, the stretch marks still remained on the body of the lovely spouse. The ugly marks remained and would not go away. She lives to regrets it when one day, she found out that he is having affair with more beautiful, stretch marks free, sexy young girls. Your ugly stretch marks is a turn off for him. You have sacrificed so much for him, given him a child or two but in the end, it is the ugly stretch marks that drives him away. Familiar with this scenario? You may laugh but there are many sad cases that really happened. By the time this happened, it is too late.

Ladies and young would be mothers, before the baby comes, take good care of your self also during the pregnancy period. Do not live to regret it later. Get to know that stretch marks will leave permanent ugly scars if you do not take steps to prevent it in the first place. Here are some tips on what you should do during pregnancy.

Get a good reliable stretch marks cream to prevent those ugly stretch marks from developing on your body.

It is crucial during the first trimester that you apply this cream such as revitol stretch mark cream onto the belly area and the sides of the abdomen generously so as to ensure that the skin structure during those times are elastic and well maintained. This will prevent stretch marks from developing on these areas.The application should be daily and should remain there 24 hours.

Take lots of vitamin c which you can get from both fruits and supplements. Vitamin C and antioxidants are important for maintaining the collagen structure of the skin.

Exercise daily to maintain the muscle of the abdomen so that after birth, you body will regain your shape again.

Now, a word about revitol stretch mark cream. Revitol stretch mark cream is 100 per cent natural. That means, there is no artificial chemicals contents inside. The cream contains squalene oil, vitamin E, vitamin A, vitamin D3 , aloe vera and grapefruit seed extracts. It is classic knowledge that the skin needs vitamin E, A and D3. Aloe Vera is the traditional herbs for healing of the skin and has powerful properties for nourishing the skin. These ingredients assist the cells to become more elastic and increase the capacity to be regenerative. The squalene oil not only protects the skin, but also regenerates the damaged cells of your skin. It further strengthens the collagen and elastin found in the lower epidermis with the help of vitamin E and grapefruit seed extract. The absorption of these ingredients or nutrients will help to protect your skin elasticity during the growing months of the baby inside your body. The continuation of this therapy is good even after the birth of the baby as it will continue to strengthen your collagen build up and elasticity of your skin, restoring your beautiful shape.

Remember, that the best time to start this treatment is during the early stages of the pregnancy, not after the pregnancy. Most mothers make the mistake of only starting the application of the stretch marks cream after the pregnancy. It will helps but it takes a very long time as it need time to repair the broken structure of the skin. It is always better to prevent rather than to cure.

I have noticed that among my many successful, high flyers MBA graduates, they have one outstanding trait or character. The attitude of 'push on achieving', a principle which ANU advocates for all their students to adopt. In the face of recession, boom or crisis, the attitude is to 'push on achieving' big or small achievements doesn't matter but the consistency of accomplishing achieving targets, goals and objectives are more important than the quantity.
If you find your life is a bit on the down hill, due to the work place environment or due to the economic situations, take heart, just push on achieving. Masters students never 'give up' and they are trained and taught to see things from a different angle or view.
In times of recession, which is about to come, judging from the symptoms of the US economy, we at ANU look at it as a blessing and a time for us to compete with the ivy league big campus universities. Our free scholarship schemes will propel us ahead for executives and for financially strapped students to adopt our programs in order to get ahead. Indeed, we look forward to the recession and welcome it as it will be very good for us.

The Dissertation Paper

The final dissertation paper in a Master program is often a daunting one for the student. To escape the problems that almost every student will encounter, there is a way to overcome it. Get professional help. Very often the local university supervisor and course coordinator take for granted that students who came this far are in a position to be able to complete their dissertation paper on their own. The truth is that, most students live in fear of their final paper and often are lost half way. Now this can be a thing of the past if you know where to buy an essay online.

Research writing requires a different sort of planning from the normal term papers. It calls for an in-depth knowledge of the subject, the creativity to see the problems from a different angle from the other writers, good writing skills and professionalism in presentation. The process of good dissertations include:

· topic proposal and planning of theoretical framework for your paper

· literature review on the proposed topic

· data collection and database construction

· research design, analysis, and statistics

· educational outcome and findings

· questionnaire development for data gathering

· results presentation and preparation of the final reports.

These are the stages that are required for a good term paper, regardless of whether it a business paper or law term paper. And unless you have someone to guide you through, one can be lost easily. If you are lucky, you might get a good supervisor who will go the extra mile to see you through but in most cases, the time spent with supervisor is rather limited.

Proposing a Topic and Theoretical Framework for your paper

The choice of topic for the research dissertation paper is important. I have always emphasise that students should choose topics that they are familiar with and most importantly, relevant to their work. Topics should be based on the relevant major areas in your study. You should have a major say in the choice of topic when you engage professional help. Once a topic has been proposed, the writers will study the parameter and create an outline of the existing theories that are relevant to your dissertation project This is called planning ahead so that you won’t get into problems later on. Start right first first time and you will have a smooth journey.

Literature Review

By this stage, your writers will examine the literature review that are available and that you have enough review of studies in order to critically examine the area of your topic. This is important for the references as a dissertation paper should have at least 50 list of references including texts and journals.The Literature review is analytical and not descriptive as most students think and will be critical for your research area. The literature review also indicate the areas that are left out by other writers and this is where your paper will fill the gap.

Methodology

Methodology is telling the reader what special tools and strategies did you use for data gathering and analysis. Methodologies include questionnaire development, observations, and interviews, data analysis also covers statistical analysis, semiotic analysis, discourse analysis, and content analysis. This is a very critical area in your research paper because your supervisors will scrutinize this area to make sure that your methodology withstands the most outrageous criticism and your methodology has a well supported rationale for the choice of method for both data analysis and data gathering.Again this is where the experts at professional help comes in to make sure that you are on the right track, using the right methods.

Findings and Discussion

Custom writing will present your findings in bar charts, pie charts as well as tables, all of which will be included in the appendices. The findings and discussion for recommendations or future research is also presented here.

The dissertation paper must have all the academic in text citations and end of text citations using the relevant format such as Harvard referencing. The dissertation should be binded in the university colors and presented in both hard cover and soft copy to the university.

Get out the stress and the headaches of dissertation paper, the professional way.

To all my students who are taking the final examination on the 11th Feb, 2008, one word of advice; Get enough sleep before the examination. There is nothing worst than having a gorgy head before the exam starts. You cannot think properly and if that is the case, how are you going to analyse the question?
Some of you may have problems sleeping on the night before the examination. Here are a few tips to get some sound sleep:
Revised your subject matter well before the examination.
Do not sleep too early either. You will keep on tossing and you will be wide awake worrying that you cannot sleep. Your body has already condition your sleeping habits and changing the time will not help in this manner.
Read something relaxing before your bedtime. It helps you to drowse you off to sleep.
If you still have trouble , try some sleep balm which you can get from the health shop. I always carry one with me whenever I go travelling. A good sleep is most important for a presenter.
Don't have sex the night before the exam. You will be too tired the next day to do anything and that is not good for your paper.

My friends and I used to play snooker and billiards for fun at our local club. Lately, because of the festives, there has been an increase in crowd and the queue is quite long. Even if you manage to get a table, you are only allowed 3 hours and then you have to give up your table for the next team. Finding this rather frustrating, I went to the internet and discover the online snooker, which is great. BilliardMagic is the place to play snooker and billiards. With its 3D environment creation for graphics, playing snooker online is almost as real and given the present circumstances, I think this is the next best thing one can have. Once you have mastered the skills online, you can then moved onto the next level, that is, Billiard tournaments. I think I am going to like this place a lot more but then, don’t just take my word for it. Why not, visit BilliardsMagic yourself and feel it for yourself?

I used to say that ' examinations for MBA' is a waste of time. Why is this so? Firstly, the examination of two hours for a paper is really a test of two things only, not on the competence level of the candidate and yet we are telling students to do competency testing in corporates. First, it is a test of how much can you remember and recall accurately all that you have learned. Secondly, it is a test of how fast can you write them down on the paper. So far, candidates have not been allow to use the laptop or computers to type in their answers just yet. And the truth is that, most of us, as managers are more conversant with PDAs and laptops than with the old fashion of writing.
And the worst thing is that, in that two hours of testing, you are not allowed to consult your texts, or to discuss the issues with others, an unreal situation in today business environment. How is that, if I have a problem to solve, that I cannot refer to my texts or references, or to call my consultants or my subordinates for input to the solving of the issues on hand?
Yet, sad to say, this is still the testing that is being adopted by most universities to 'test the competency level' of the candidates for MBA. Ironic isn't it?

For those who wear prescription glasses, there is good news. One can get really good bargain, such as their Zenni Optical $8 Rx Glasses that you want without having to burn a hole in your pocket.

For some of us, who does follow the trend of fashion, this is good news. I had a look at ZenniOpitical website for a try out. There was a huge range of selection of frames to choose from, in fact so many that I have a hard time finding one. They have single vision lens, sunsensor (photochromic lens), tinted sunglasses, bifocal lens and progressive lens.

For those of you who are on prescription lens, it is good that you get your eyes checked for the latest prescriptions and ask for the slips of the details to be given to you. It is important that you get the latest updates on your prescriptive lens so that online seller can give you the most accurate lens for your reading or seeing. It takes a while to get adjusted to the new lenses.

How is that Best Thing Found: Zenni Optical can sell to you such low prices? Well, the secret is easy. ZenniOptical sell only their own manufactured frames directly to customer. This cuts out the middlemen commissions and with online, there is no huge advertising budget to foot. Oh, by the way, Zenni does sell and shipped internationally. Don't you agree this is a 'Great Discovery: Zenni Optical'?

According to USQ noticeboard, your examiner required that you put in 'introduction' and 'conclusion' in your section 2 case study portion. This called for new twist in your approach to the examination on the Feb 11, 2008. You cannot go directly into the questions anymore. The strategy of tackling paper MGT5000 would be this:
Do section one which consist of 10 multiple choice questions in under 10 minutes.
Next, go to section 3 and complete 2 of the 3 questions, essay type, in just 40 minutes. Each question expects you to give about 10 points covering about 1000 words for each question.
Lastly, then you go to the section 2 for the case study. You have about 60 minutes for this part. On a rough working paper, put down the summary points of all the three questions. To do the introduction, you have to read all the three questions. The introduction in your answer should be a summary of all the questions to the case study. The examiner do not want an introduction to the case as they are well versed with the case themselves, so they do not need you to tell them what is the case about. Rather, they want you to tell them what you are going to cover in your answer, that is the roadsigns to your essay.
Another point to take note of is that they do not want point forms only. They want essay, paragraph. You can put in subheadings (encourage to do so for clear directions to your points) and under each headings, give your explanation, analysis and evidence.
The conclusion should be a summary of all your answers, usually ending with a recommendation.

1. Do not repeat in summary form large pieces of factual information from the case. The instructor has read the case and knows what is going on. Rather, use the information in the case to illustrate your statements, to defend your arguments, or to make salient points. Beyond the brief introduction to the company, you must avoid being descriptive; instead, you must be analytical.

2. Make sure the sections and subsections of your discussion flow logically and smoothly from one to the next. That is, try to build on what has gone before so that the analysis of the case study moves toward a climax. This is particularly important for group analysis, because there is a tendency for people in a group to split up the work and say, "I’ll do the beginning, you take the middle, and I’ll do the end." The result is a choppy, stilted analysis because the parts do not flow from one to the next, and it is obvious to the instructor that no real group work has been done.

3. Avoid grammatical and spelling errors. They make the paper sloppy.

4. In some instances, cases dealing with well-known companies don’t include up-to-date research because it was not available at the time the case was written. If possible, do a search for more information on what has happened to the company in subsequent years. Following are sources of information for performing this search:

The World Wide Web is the place to start your research. Very often you can download copies of a company’s annual report from its Web site, and many companies also keep lists of press releases and articles that have been written about them. Thoroughly search the company’s Web site for information such as the company’s history and performance, and download all relevant information at the beginning of your project.

Compact disk sources such as Lotus One Source and InfoTrac provide an amazing amount of good information, including summaries of recent articles written on specific companies that you can then access in the library.

F&S Predicasts provide a listing on a yearly basis of all the articles written about a particular company. Simply reading the titles gives an indication of what has been happening in the company.

Annual reports on a Form 10-K often provide an organization chart.

Companies themselves provide information if you write and ask for it.

Fortune, Business Week, and Forbes have many articles on companies featured in most cases.

Standard & Poor's industry reports provide detailed information about the competitive conditions facing the company's industry. Be sure to look at this journal.

Poker card game, which was created in the United States in the mid-1900s has evolved into many variations. However, three of the most popular poker variants in casinos and in poker rooms around the world are draw poker, stud poker and community card poker. To play well in poker, one must understand the order of play, details of which hand values are used, the number of betting rounds and what actions are allowed in between rounds.

Would you be interested in a poker calculator that would be able to calculate the odds in the game you are playing and the chances of winning. This Holdem calculator works by detecting the poker room table that was opened on your computer and then instantly attaches itself to your game. Yes, this is possible in an online poker room. This incredible calculator immediately reads all the table parameters, calculates the data and displays all the real-time poker odds, game statistics and information that are needed in your mode. This holdem calculator offers different calculation modes for Play Money, Real Money and Tournament Tables and claim to accommodate 93% of all Poker rooms in the world, so there is every chance that it will fit into yours too.

Often, as part of your course requirements, you will need to present your instructor with a written case analysis. This may be an individual or a group report. Whatever the situation, there are certain guidelines to follow in writing a case analysis that will improve the evaluation your work will receive from your instructor. Before we discuss these guidelines and before you use them, make sure that they do not conflict with any directions your instructor has given you.

The structure of your written report is critical. Generally, if you follow the steps for analysis discussed in the previous section, you already will have a good structure for your written discussion. All reports begin with an introduction to the case. In it you outline briefly what the company does, how it developed historically, what problems it is experiencing, and how you are going to approach the issues in the case write-up. Do this sequentially by writing, for example, "First, we discuss the environment of Company X...Third, we discuss Company X’s business-level strategy... Last, we provide recommendations for turning around Company X’s business."

In the second part of the case write-up, the strategic-analysis section, do the SWOT analysis, analyze and discuss the nature and problems of the company’s business-level and corporate strategy, and then analyze its structure and control systems. Make sure you use plenty of headings and subheadings to structure your analysis. For example, have separate sections on any important conceptual tool you use. Thus, you might have a section on Porter’s five forces model as part of your analysis of the environment. You might offer a separate section on portfolio techniques when analyzing a company’s corporate strategy. Tailor the sections and subsections to the specific issues of importance in the case.

In the third part of the case write-up, present your solutions and recommendations. Be comprehensive, and make sure they are in line with the previous analysis so that the recommendations fit together and move logically from one to the next. The recommendations section is very revealing because, as mentioned earlier, your instructor will have a good idea of how much work you put into the case from the quality of your recommendations.

Following this framework will provide a good structure for most written reports, though obviously it must be shaped to fit the individual case being considered. Some cases are about excellent companies experiencing no problems. In such instances, it is hard to write recommendations. Instead, you can focus on analyzing why the company is doing so well, using that analysis to structure the discussion.

When your friends asked you where did you go for your games and you introduced them to the place, do you get paid for that introduction? Most likely not. Well, the next time you get new partners for your games, get them to register on Vegas online casino. Why? Vegas casino paid you $50 for each friend you introduced to Vegas. And that is easy money because people seldom play by themselves alone. Playing casino games online with friends are more fun. And your friends will love your introduction because you have introduce them to an online casino that has fair gaming system that is audited by leading accounting firms for fairness in random number generation. Their funds are also secured and support is 24 hours 7 days a week.

The lecturer and tutors give you assignments and will evaluate you based on the assignments submitted. This is how you are graded, not on your experience and commonsense of reality. As college student or university undergraduates, you have to follow the system or the rules and regulations. The tutors give you a lot of instructions on how to write your assignment but never really give you a real example. They have no time to do that. They don’t even teach you how to do research, sentences constructions and the correct referencing by showing you real examples.

Want an easy way out? There is an organization called A-Pluss which offers custom writing assistance for students with assignment problems. A-Pluss is a custom writing company that offers professional writing, editing and proofreading services. They can provide custom written essays, term paper writing and research papers for students of all levels.
Their custom written assignments are used by students as a samples for research purposes. These assignments assist students to write their own A+ work. Above all, it is free from plagiarism as each paper is uniquely written for each student. Getting that A+ isn’t that difficult after all.

Assignments for college and universities students are part and parcel of their academic life. Some assignments are based on work place which is more meaningful for the students. They will learn more and reap more benefits from such assignment.
Other types of assignment are purely academic. Good for getting the students to do research and more readings. Unfortunately,most students don't reap much benefits from these types of assignments. However, these are the norms rather than the exception.
I have always advocate that universities should allow input from the local deans, tutors and professors as they are the closest people to the students and they are in the best position to understand what is needed and what is redundant. However, university's system are bureacratic in nature and very conservative in thinking and in action, despite what they are teaching about managing change and adaptability to environment. There is however one university which is different from the others, ANU in Kentucky, which strives for performance for their students. ANU has the lowest fees structure, most flexible modules system and continuous registration to cater to the needs of working professional. For more details, please contact freescholarshipanu@gmail.com.

Thinking of doing business in China where you have the world’s biggest population of 1.3 billion? The potential is attractive but the risks are also very high. First, China laws are quite different and very complex. You will probably need someone who is well versed with china law in china, preferably China Lawyers. Try the China Lawyer Blog which focuses on business law in China. This award winning blog which is also the leading China Law Blog is written by two international lawyers, Dan Harris and Steve Dickinson. Dan Harris is an international lawyer based in the United States while Steve Dickinson is an international lawyer based in China. Learn about China Real Property Law, China new Labour Law, China Traffic Laws and many more about China Law from these two experts. They will assist you to protect your business in China. If you want to do business in China and understand the China Law, consult China Lawyers first.

One of the requirements for international business is the knowledge of business law. This is a subject that is a must for every business students. Global business is a reality. Besides understanding the culture of the country you are entering, understanding the business law of the country is a must. One may not be fluent in the business law but one can get a lot of help from the lawyers practising in the country you are going into. Have your own panel lawyer and if you do any business, make sure you have your lawyers go through the documents properly. You will save yourself a lot of headaches if you take the trouble to bring your lawyer along.

Interested in becoming your own boss? Fed up with working for people? Well, that dream can become a reality if you have the entrepreneurship in you. Now, entrepreneurship is really about taking risks and business is risks, no matter how small.

One of the factors that can cause a business to fail very quickly is the shortage of cash. Many young entrepreneurs started out with very little thought about the cash flow management in their business. What if they have very little savings? Well, they should have planned on where to get their small business financing before they even start their business. And there is one place that they should start with, EZunsecured. As the name suggests, EZ Unsecured does not required collateral, no upfront funding fees for small business loans. If you are in business, you should really check out their site for more information on this small business loan. You may required it as they are really fast with their processing, fast funding and great service support. Do your homework if you want your business to succeed. Be prepared and planned your small business financing well ahead of your needs, not last minute thing.

Leadership in small business is important. A good leader must be able to communicate well with the customers, suppliers and even more importantly, his subordinates in the company. He should lead by example and a team player. As a team leader, he should be skillful in making good decisions, especially in finance decisions. Making sure that the business is not only performing well but financially sound is also the responsibility of the leader. Many would have thought that this is the job of the accountant.Not really, the accountant can assist and advise only.The final decision and policy is still with the leader. So make sure, you have plan and put in place, systems for ensuring that your company is financially sound and that you have plenty of cash to ensure that your company is liquid.

Games are always interesting to people. Young and old will always love games. One of the longest playing game that attracts both male and female is backgammon. In the olden days, one need to get a group of people to play backgammon. But today with the internet, one can play backgammon online. You don’t need to get enough friends to play backgammon. The net provides you tournaments which you can start to play anytime. On such site that offers backgammon online is Gammon –Fortune. The site is user friendly with a free download software for online backgammon. There is also good support with secure line for payment and privacy.

Many graduates did not realise the importance of presentation, whether for their assignment, project or themselves. If they have learned about marketing, communication, branding, they should have realised that presentation is of utmost importance. Unfortunately, many programs were concentrating too much on academic matters at the expense of presentation. If you want to make first impression counts, do your homework on presentation. This means , you blog, your website, your work, your image and everything you do that comes into public view.
In presentation, think of the story line, the target audience, what do they want to see and how can you make it interesting to them. Think in terms of their views and you will do so much better.