No idea Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

No idea - Essay Example For CPS Energy, industry rivalry and threat from new entrants were critical factors to redefine business model and introduce technology and use of smartphones. It had introduced Megellan program that exploited smartphone and other technology to enhance its operational efficiency. Smartphone helped the large force in the field to remain connected with the corporate offices and site offices so that problems could be easily traced and rectified at shorter time period. It saved lot of time because photos taken from smartphones were immediately sent from site to the engineers at the office who could diagnose issues and suggest remedies. The information was then sent to the field worker who was nearest to the problem site and solve the issue. Moreover, information technology significantly contributed to streamlining various operation processes like inventory, accounts etc. and helped the company to save huge financial expenses. Lloyd construction was relatively small business enterprise which hugely benefitted by using technology like smartphones and computerization of its processes. Coordinating the 100 workers, 30 trucks and more than 400 dumpsters was gigantic task that was made easy through the use of smartphone and technology. The GPS system helped in tracing its fieldworkers and equipment. The workers were trained in using technology and the pilot run helped the company to better manage its operations located at various sites. The smartphones were equipped with e-tracing software and travel data that could show real time position of people and equipment. It considerably reduced the time wastage by field staff and increased work efficiency. It saved nearly 30% fuel cost and about 15% increase in performance which helped it to compete with its rival and new entrants in tough market conditions. I strongly believe that organizational

Globalisation of Consumer Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Globalisation of Consumer Culture - Essay Example Ted Levitt in his article, â€Å"The Globalisation of Markets† states that the needs and desires of people are becoming homogenized as do the tastes and modes of doing business (Mooij, 2000). McLuhan also prophesied that the media would turn the world into a global village. However, Kotler contends that consumers are not rational human beings and in fact markets are becoming more diverse. Thus based on the theories of cultural homogenization, Indigenization, and fetishism and cultural imperialism, this paper aims to evaluate the extent to which globalisation of consumer culture has led to cultural homogenization. Drivers of globalisation Appadurai identifies five global flows that are transforming the nature of society and eroding the barriers between them (Craig & Douglas, 2006). These include mediascapes (flow of imagination and communication), ethnoscapes (flow of tourists, migrants and students), ideoscapes (flow of political ideas and ideologies), technoscapes (flow of te chnology) and finanscapes (flows of capital and money). The collective effort of these five scapes is turning the world into what Tomlinson (1999) describes as â€Å"a single social and cultural setting†; globalisation makes the world a ‘single place’. Tomlinson however, maintains that connectivity still does not extend in any profound way to every single person or place on the planet; social and cultural divisions continue to persist. Globalisation and culture While culture has been defined by Hofstede as the collective programming of the mind that gives rise to set beliefs and patterns of behavior, and thereby distinguishes one group of people from another (Merz, He & Alden, 2008), cultural globalisation is the emergence of a specific set of values and beliefs that are largely shared around the planet (Movius, 2010). Globalisation of media has been held responsible for the globalisation of culture. However, with converging incomes, cultural values and habits ha ve not converged (Mooij, 2000). People would spend their incremental income based on their value pattern – the Americans would buy more cars while the Spanish would spend more on food. This implies that values, beliefs and patterns of behavior have not homogenized; cultural homogenization has not taken place despite converging income. Appadurai (2001) and Tomlinson (1995) believe that globalisation is not just an economic and a political phenomenon; it is also a complex cultural phenomenon. It promises new possibilities but also gives rise to new anxieties that transform social life. However, as global forces begin to penetrate local culture, it could lead to tensions or collisions. Thus the outcome could be displacement of local culture leading to homogenization of culture or it could lead to resistance due to cultural imperialism. Craig and Douglas (2006) emphasize that culture is pervasive and it is the lens through which individuals perceive and interpret phenomena. Howev er, cultures are dynamic and keep evolving over time; hybrid cultures (fusion of two or more cultures resulting in a new cultural element) develop as people travel across borders. Membership in a culture is becoming transitional and deterritorialized (a particular culture is no longer defined in terms of the specific geographic