Rome wasn’t destroyed in a day! November 13, 2011
Posted by Null in Business, Power & Politics.add a comment
Once upon a time there was a knight whose name was Berlusconi. He had Troy with his hand and was cunning enough to be the king of Rome. He had wins and defeats in his empire and also had sex scandals. To his misfortune, he is kicked from the Roman empire because he sold all the golds to the wicked. Nevertheless, Rome is in trouble now and maybe these are the last days of Pompeii.
The Insider (Whistleblower) October 17, 2009
Posted by Null in Business, Ethics, Movies.Tags: Al Pacino, Russell Crowe, The Insider, Tobacco, Whistleblowing
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The Insider (1999) is a true story based on an Ex-tobacco executive who planned to whistle blow against his company Brown & Williamson. However, going against a tobacco manufacturer is not that easy. There are political pressures, ups and downs, life threats and off course legal concerns.
The film illustrates how tobacco manufacturers are exploiting the consumers by not letting them know what happens next after smoking. In this case an ethically driven generous executive, who belongs to the scientific know how of tobacco manufacturing has planned to raise his voice. He took help from a veteran CBS news reporter to help him file a lawsuit against his ex-employer. Nevertheless, whistle blowing is not that plain and simple especially if the employer is a giant tobacco manufacturer.
The movie also explores ethical issues that underlies within the tobacco industry in general. There are certain laws pertaining to the degrees of murder. Some critics might even believe that this is a planned assassination by the tobacco manufacturers. Anyway the arguments are left to the jurisdiction. Has anything sturdy been done till now to combat against smoking? However, we are aware of the numerous international litigation made against many tobacco companies, but these companies have always survived the great legal campaigns.
Obviously, questions may arise regarding the validity of the statements made by the tobacco executive in 60 minutes. Therefore, if we just look into an organizational perspective, what choices are left with the company? Would you want to feed a Frankenstein who wants to kill you?
Quality or Quantity is always a dillema July 3, 2009
Posted by Null in Business, HRM.Tags: dilemma, performance, Quality, Quantity
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Organizations, or say managers want their employees or workers to be more productive in respect to their outputs. On the other hand, managers also want that you maintain the product quality. This creates a dissonance in employee minds’. What do the manager really want? Is it quality or quantity?
As a generalized fact we are aware that quality does not go well along quanity. For an instance, just think about an accountant who is being given a limited time frame to complete the profit and loss statement. Addionally if the manager demands that there should not be any single mistake in the analysis, that would be a quandary. So what is optimum solution to this problem? Well it depends on the organizational viewpoint. What is performance for the organization? Is it producing more or producing better?
Outsourced July 2, 2009
Posted by Null in Business, Movies.Tags: call center, Cheap labor, Corporate greed, Culture shock, expatriate, Hollywood, learning, movie, Movie review, Outsourcing, perception
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Why do organizations outsource? What happens when work is being outsourced to other countries? How do people of other countries manage those work? Is it that simple to handle a native American customer by an Indian whose culture, language and accent is largely distinct? No, should be the answer.
Outsourced (2007) is a learning based comedy film directed by John Jeffcoat. The major roles played are Josh Hamilton, Ayesha Dharker and Asif Basra.
The film discovers the generic stereotypes that Americans have in regard to Indians. An American sales executive (Todd Anderson) who works for a novelty merchandise company realizes that their entire department has been outsourced to India. Moreover, he was forced to travel to India in order to train the call center employees and as well as to find his replacement. The objectivity of such training by the company was to make sure that an American expatriate teach those Indian call center employees about the American culture, the native American accent and to ensure the minute per incident comes down to 6.
However, things are a bit different on this part of the world and one might easily identify the culture shock that Todd Anderson has faced. His perceptions and attributions were largely incorrect about India. The film has cleverly explored various areas of cultural differences between the two countries. Additionally, many other management issues like corporate greed, outsourcing, job loss, cheap labor, expatriate failure, culture clash, etc has been evident in the film.
GM files bankrupt: The end of the giant GM era June 1, 2009
Posted by Null in Business, News.Tags: Automobile industry, Bankruptcy, Chapter 11, Economic Recession, General Motors, GM, Obama, US
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Source: The New York Times
The US automobile giant GM which was founded in 1908 have just filed bankruptcy. This is definitely a tragic end to a very old business giant. GM brands includes Chevrolet, Hummer, Pontiac, GMC, Cadillac, Holden, Saab, Vauxhall, Opel, Buick, etc. The company fell into a liquidity crisis during the global economic recession and asked for financial assistance from the US federal government.
Today, the US President Obama has said on his speech that GM is a very complex organization with worldwide operations and it would be a reluctant investment on the company not just because it employs many workers but also carries an American pride and provided economic contribution to the US. The governement will provide $30 million after the bankruptcy. GM’s operation in other parts of the world will somehow survive (God knows how). For example, the Canadian government will support the GM Canada; the Australian government will support the GM Holden with financial loans. But I am just wondering, who’s gonna convience the general consumers to purchase a GM auto since the company is bankrupt! As part of the bankruptcy, more 14 plants in the US will shutdown and the company will cut off approximately 21,000 jobs and axe 42% of its dealers.
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