Ritual Art Celtic Society :: History Religion Religious Essays

Ritual Art Celtic Society Pre-Christian Celtic Society About the pre-Romantic period of Celtic civilization (from the end of the 6th century BCE to some time in the first century CE) there is little written as record of their culture or ritual. We know of there existence through reference by Greek writers to their relation to the source of the Danube and to their being near the Greek colony that became Marseilles. Later writings refer to their rituals and superstitions, which had, as with other uncivilized cultures, played a huge part in the lives of the people. But much interest lies in this culture for those who have heritage in their people and those who are interested in the "pagan" religions that existed before the dominance of Chirtianity. As with most pre-world religion cultures, a belief in magic was a powerful stigma for much of the art and architecture found in the area occupied by the Celts. Artisans of the time recorded the rituals of sacrifice in relief imagery. These practices were performed sometimes by drowning the victims in pots, other times dropping the offered bodies into pits or burning them alive, animals and humans alike, in massive wooden structures in the shape of a figure. Descriptions of these events come mostly from Roman writings, many by Caesar. These writings present a fearful view of these pagan rituals; a fear that is attributed in part to their gruesome nature and in part to the heavily forested landscape in which they took place. This landscape was unlike any land in Roman areas which had been heavily farmed for long periods. Thus the image of the fearful and cruel Celts was created iin the eyes of the Chirstian west. Celtic Mythology and Ritual The mythology of the pagan Celtic tribes lacked the distinct pantheon that cultures similar to the Greeks possessed. Their deities were varied, with only general connections from one area to another. Though some terminology and imagery was evidently borrowed from other cultures, specifically the Aryan and Italic, the Celtic cults remained separate from any other culture in their exact beliefs and ceremonies. Most of the cults' mythologies contained some reference to a union between a God, often referred to as Dagda, meaning the good or all-competent God, and a goddess, referred to as Morrigan, the Demon Queen. This union was the most important focus of ceremony and myth. The recitation of this myth and others was another portion of the ritual practices that Druids performed with the same intent; a show of respect to the gods with the hope of beneficial retribution.

Human Resource Management Essay

Human Resource Management (Fall 2013) MGMT 351 CASE STUDY 2 I Feel Great Les Partain, manager of the training and development department for Gazelle Corporation, was 64 years old and had been with the firm for over 30 years. For the past 12 years he had served as Gazelle’s training and development manager and felt that he had been doing a good job. This belief was supported by the fact that during the last five years he had received excellent performance reports from his boss, LaConya Caesar, HR director. Six months before Les’s birthday, he and LaConya were enjoying a cup of coffee together. â€Å"Les,† said LaConya, â€Å"I know that you’re pleased with the progress our T&D section has made under your leadership. We’re really going to miss you when you retire this year. You’ll certainly live the good life because you’ll receive the maximum retirement benefits. If I can be of any assistance to you in developing the paperwork for your retirement, please let me know.† â€Å"Gee, LaConya,† said Les. â€Å"I really appreciate the good words, but I’ve never felt better in my life, and although our retirement plan is excellent, I figure that I have at least five more good years. There are many other things I would like to do for the department before I retire. I have some excellent employees, and we can get many things done within the next five years.† After finishing their coffee, both returned to their work. As LaConya left, she was thinking, â€Å"My gosh, I had no idea that character intended to hang on. The only reason I gave him those good performance appraisals was to make him feel better before he retired. He was actually only an average worker and I was anxious to move a more aggressive person into that key job. We stand to lose several good people in that department if Les doesn’t leave. From what they tell me, he’s not doing too much of a job.† QUESTIONS 1. From a legal viewpoint, what do you believe LaConya can do regarding this situation? Discuss. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. What actions should LaConya have taken in the past to avoid her current predicament? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Are you doing Hard work or Smart work?

Dr. S. B. Kishor and Swapnil M. BhagatThese days, working smart is a talk of town. If you only work hard, you may not land where you want to be always. If you want to achieve success, you need to work ‘Smart'. So, isn't it important to work hard?A story of two woodcutters arguing which of them will cut more woods during a day is pertinent to explain the above point. First they worked at one speed. But in an hour one of them has heard, that the other one stopped cutting trees. They were working almost synchronously, when the first woodcutter heard that his opponent has stopped again. The first woodcutter continued working, feeling the smell of victory. This lasted all day long. Each hour one of the woodcutters stopped for ten minutes and the other one continued to work. When time expired, the first woodcutter, who worked without any stopping, was absolutely sure that he won the prize. He was very surprised to know that was mistaken. How did that happen? He asked his partner. Each hour I heard that you have stopped the work for ten minutes. How could you cut more trees than I? It's impossible! It is very simple, in fact, answered the second woodcutter. Each hour I stopped the work for ten minutes. And when you were cutting the trees, I sharpened the axe.The gist of above story is simple, smart workers always take small pauses but they use these pauses to sharpen their axes. Working hard and working smart are two different things. Smart work teaches you to be more productive with your time. If you are happy with your current level of success, then smart work will surely allow you the luxury of not having to work as hard as you otherwise would. But if you want to reach the pinnacle of success in your chosen field, then smart work alone won't really help. Many people think that hard work goes largely unnoticed. They believe that unless you are ‘smart' about letting others know that you are working hard, you remain a drudge. They call hard work a kind of drudgery. They are more interested in letting the ‘boss' know that they are working hard.Hard Work is when one does some work dedicatedly. Smart work is when someone does the same amount of work, but faster and more efficiently. You must give it your all from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep. While this is true, it can also be said that someone might be able to do the same amount of work in less amount of time, by working smarter and more efficiently i.e. the most important trait of the smart worker is his ability to do work differently. And working differently means working smart. Rightly said by Shiv Khera:†Winners don't do the different things but they do the things differently.†Smart workers believe in Specific, measurable, attainable, result oriented and time bound work and therefore they are called smart as they believe in doing the things differently as compare to normal approach followed by most. In short, Smart workers use new techniques and tools in order to improve productivity. Many people work hard, but only a few become really successful. This clearly tells that smart work really makes the difference.Smart workers do believe more in creative work. They can manage and handle even the worst situations bravely and always follow never to give up attitude. Hard workers believe in doing their work without any complaints. Smart workers always look at the brighter side of life. Smart workers are experts in managing time. And as someone said rightly that a person, who can manage time, can manage everything very well. Smart workers do create the opportunities not only for themselves but also for the others. Smart workers are innovative and bold. They believe in accepting new challenges and accomplishing the tasks skilfully. Smart workers have control over themselves and so they can control the external world. If you fail to control yourself then you will be controlled by others. One has to be mentally strong enough to control oneself to do this diligently. Hard workers get mentally strong by doing their work regularly and earnestly. Smart workers never wait for the right time to come rather they make the best use of everything at every time. To succeed in life, one has to always keep moving forward. How apt it is to quote Martin Luther King Jr's thought provoking words: â€Å"If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.† Smart workers do follow this mantra of moving forward in spite of all the hurdles they face on their way. This positive attitude of moving forward makes smart workers in real sense smart. If you really want to succeed in life then do not forget that there is no short cut to success. No doubt you will have to be work harder but smart worker is the one who will be able to achieve more within the limited time and resources at his disposal. Few tips to become a smart worker:Have a Definite Goal and Narrow Down on Your Focus until achieved.Have Frequent Appointment within YourselfBuild only on your strength and Work around Your Weaknesses.Go on vacations and Practice giving yourself RewardsDo not procrastinate your responsibilities as every new responsibility gives an insight to do the things in a rejuvenated manner. Start observing the things how people are doing each work and think the way you can have done the same work in a better manner. Create a Good Working Space around You.ConclusionRemember, we can't do smart work without doing hard work at same time. Of course, you have to be ‘Smart' about working hard especially in Corporate life and in all strategic decision making processes, but at the same time one should not also forget the importance of hard work in our life. Just being smart or working smart is only half of the real story. Smart work is about making the right strategy, about following a disciplined work culture. Hard work translates your vision and ideas into results. The fact remains that hard work and smart work must go hand in hand to be successful.Dr. S. B. Kishor ; Swpanil M. BhagatSardar Patel Mahavidyalaya, [email  protected]@gmail.com

Activity Based Management Essay

Activity based management (ABM) is an approach to management that aims to maximize the value adding activities to the customers while minimizing or eliminating non-value adding activities. The objective of ABM is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of an organization in securing its markets. It draws on activity based-costing (ABC) as its major source of information and focuses on managing activities to (1) reduce costs, (2) create performance measures, (3) improve cash flow and quality and, (4) produce enhanced value products in order to improve customer value (Business Dictionary.com). This ABM system’s top priority is in eliminating or improving those activities to increase profitability by seeking out areas where a business is losing money such as the factors which cause activities to be performed or activity cost to change. Undeniably, in order to improve an organization’s work processes and activities to effectively and efficiently meet the rapidly changing environment in this globalisation world, management practices and methods have changed over the last decade and will continue to change in future. THE TRADITIONAL ABSORPTION COSTING is the first system implemented to keep track of the true cost of a product or service. It assigns indirect cost to cost object and uses unsophisticated methods to assign indirect costs. It allocates overheads to production and service departments and uses small number of 2nd stage cost drivers to allocate costs from cost centres or pools to productions or cost objects. This system will only be appropriate when the (i)direct costs were the dominant costs, (ii)indirect costs were relatively small, (iii)information costs are high, (iv)there is a lack of intense global competition and (v)a limited range of products is produced, it might be difficult for every organization to use it. For instance, this system might not be appropriate for companies with complex processes and manufacturing practices. The large increase of indirect and overhead expenses will make the traditional costing method less efficient. Therefore, in 1980s, ACTIVITY-BASED COSTING (ABC) was introduced to overcome these  problems. ABC is a system for managing the organization better. It is a one-off exercise that measures the activities’ cost and performance, resources and the objects which consume them so as to generate more accurate and meaningful information for decision-making. It uses sophisticated or modern methods to assign the indirect costs. This ABC system allocates overheads to each major activity but not to departments and allocates costs to products or cost objects. However, it limits the company to have advantage of the ABC technique. It cannot be used for official record keeping as the IRS and stockholders require the use of traditional methods to create necessary reports for taxes. In another words, companies need to use two different costing methods in order to get the benefit. The system is costly to build, complex to sustain and to modify. Therefore, the emphasis has shifted from ABC to ACTIVITY-BASED MANAGEMENT (ABM) which is also known as ACTIVITY-BASED COST MANAGEMENT (ABCM) later on. ABC is a subset of ABM as the application of ABC evolved from a manufacturing product costing orientation to a management philosophy of activity management applied in industries and organizations (Business Dictionary.com). ABM has grown largely out of the work of the Texas-based Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing-International (CAM-I) (Investopedia). The CAM-I has initiated the development of a comprehensive glossary on ABCM terms by clarifying the significant confusion regarding the semantic and acronym associated with the activity based information (Investopedia). This ABM system makes the cost and operating information useful to improve decision making. Through the ABM analysis process, the management will gain a thorough understanding of its business processes and cost behaviour and management team in the company. In addition, the results of an ABM analysis can help a company generate more accurate budgets and financial forecasts (Investopedia). It gives management insight into the cost structures for making and selling diverse products. In a simplified term, ABC is used to answer the question, â€Å"what do things cost?† and for ABM, a process view is taken to understand factors which cause the costs to occur. This system focuses on the ways to redirect and improve the use of resources, by using  ABC data, to enhance the value created for customers and other stakeholders (Investopedia). These two systems (ABC and ABM) have attracted high levels of interest from both academics and practitioners since its emergence in the late 1980’s. It is mainly due to the significant change in cost management systems they have brought. Due to the lack of pertinence and relevancy of traditional costing that leads to mutual subsidy between products and cost, ABC and ABM are used to enhance or replace the traditional cost calculation methods. For example, ABM approach reports by activities while traditional analysis is by departments; ABM reporting is by sub-activities but traditional is by expense categories and ABM reporting can reports information on activities that are cross departmental boundaries whereas traditional is not allowed(Drury C, 2008). Thus, ABM is concluded to have more meaningful information as it gives more visibility to the cost of undertaking the activities that make up the organization and may raise the issues that are not highlighted in traditional analysis. Most forward-thinking companies have implemented them, or are in the process of doing so as it can be applied to different types of companies, including manufacturers, service providers, non-profits, schools and government agencies (Business Dictionary.com). CONTENTS 1. Features of ABM system _A. STAGES OF IMPLEMENTATION_ In order to implement ABM system, the companies are required to carry out the three out of the four stages in ABC (Drury C, 2008). The steps are listed as below: (i) Identify major activities that result in costs being incurred, The activities are the aggregation of units of work or tasks such as machine  set-up cost, purchasing cost and warehousing cost that use up resources. In order to identify all the activities within the company, activity analysis has to be carried out. The activities chosen must be at a reasonable level of aggregation based on the cost verses benefit criteria. In addition, the activities have to be either influenced by the total cost of activity centre or the ability of a single cost driver to provide a satisfactory determinant of the cost of the activity. (ii) Assign cost centers to each activity, and The companies should not use the arbitrary allocations in assigning the significant proportion of costs to activities as it will reduce the reliability of cost. They have to identify and assign the direct costs to specific activity and assign the indirect costs on cause-and-effect cost drivers. By doing so, the cost incurred on each activity can be determined. (iii) Determine the cost driver for each major activity In this stage, the drivers are called as activity cost drivers. In selecting the cost driver, there are two factors which the companies need to consider. Firstly, the cost driver should provide a good explanation of costs of each activity cost pool. Additionally, the cost driver should be measurable easily, and the data should be easily obtained and be identifiable with products. (The cost driver can be production or service oriented). _B. TWO CATEGORIES OF ABM APPLICATION_ Based on the source adapted by Kaplan & Cooper (1998), this system accomplishes its objectives through two complemetary applications which are the operational ABM (â€Å"Doing things right†) and strategic ABM (â€Å"Doing the right things†). Operational ABM enhances efficiency of operation and asset utilization and lowers costs. Its focus are mainly on doing things right and performing activities more efficiently. Management techniques such as activity  management, business process reengineering, total quality management, and performance measurement are used in the ABM application. As for strategic ABM, it attempts to change the activities demands and boost proï ¬ tability by improving activity efficiency. It focuses on choosing proper activities for the operation, eliminating non-essential activities and selecting the most proï ¬ table customers. Strategic ABM applications use management techniques such as process design, customer proï ¬ tability analysis, and value chain analysis. 2. Comparison between Activity-based management system (ABM) and traditional system ABM focuses on activity performed by business and hence, it views business as a set of linked activity that ultimately adding value to customers. Its goal is to satisfy customer needs while making fewer demands on organizational resources. Hence, ABM could have information of activities such as why activities to be performed, how to perform the activities and how well they are performed. In contrast, traditional system focuses on types of cost from departments. It gives less information to manager for the needs in decision making. ABM is better than traditional system as ABM could provide wider information and information could go deeply and more detailed as needed by the management in decision making. Besides, the ABM system only seeks to use cause-and-effect cost driver which is different than the traditional system. It does not rely on arbitrary allocation bases. As we can see from table 1, the information provided by both systems is about customer order processing. However, these two systems take into account different information while preparing the customer order processing. ABM focuses on information that is relevant in the process of customer ordering while traditional analysis focuses on the types of cost incurred in the customer order processing. ABM ANALYSIS RM Preparing Quotations 100 Receiving Customer Order 280 Expediting 120 Total 500 TRADITIONAL ANALYSIS RM Salaries 110 Telephone bill 170 Depreciation of Asset 120 Total 500 Table 1 In addition, ABM is different from traditional system in terms of the report approach. ABM report is determined by activities while traditional system is determined by departments. It can include crossing departmental boundaries. For instance, material purchasing process might involve not only one department but it includes inventory control department, purchasing department and account payable department. The manager will be able to know how the amount spent (e.g: RM 2000) to be used in purchasing material under ABM system. It may show the relevant information such as inventory reviewing, sending purchase requisition and sending purchase order. The manager will be able to know how purchasing of material works on and what are the reasons of purchase delay as well as how to minimize the cost of purchase. It focuses on information based on activity. As for traditional system, manager can get the information on material purchase which costs for RM2000 only. However, this RM2000 does not comply with the amount of goods order. By looking at one information itself, the reasons of non-compliance cannot be tracked as there is lack of information. Therefore, ABM system is better since it did not focus on information based on cost but it assigns  cost of activities to products according to product’s demand for activities and relies on cost centres and cost drivers that cause activity resource consumption. Other than that, it assigns activity costs to cost objects on basis of cost driver usage and measures resources consumed by cost objects more accurately. In addition, ABM system provides both information from value and non value added activities. As for traditional system, it provides information on value added activity only. Value added activity is an activity that supports primary objective of producing outputs. For instance, activity like colouring adds value to a book. Under value added activity, traditional report will show the amount spent in colouring since it adds usefulness to customers. Customers would likely to buy books with some colouring or some pictures rather than books with only words as it might help them in memorizing and understanding the information stated in the book better. However, if the profit does not increase like what the company expected, manager will be able to trace back the cost incurred by looking at amount spent in colouring – non-value added activity. Hence, non value added activity is important as it may affect the company’s profit. Non value added activity is an activity where an opportunity is available for cost reduction without decreasing product’s service potential to customer such as storing and moving raw materials. Under ABM system, manager will be able to draw attention on this issue and trace back the reasons such as waste in the production. Manager will be able to track the cost which has been wasted in the production by reducing material movement and improving production flow without reducing the value added to customer. In other words, customer can have same quality of products-same kind of books while management could reduce the cost of production. 3. Benefits and Limitations of ABM system One of the benefits of the system is to help the management in decision making. It provides better decision making as the information provided by the ABM system is more useful and reliable. The management can make informed decision about product mix, lines of business, process, product design,  services, capital investment and pricing. For instance, manager will able to make decision on how much capital to invest in new product and what kind of new product to be launched based on information that manager obtains in ABM system. Furthermore, ABM is a system for continuous improvements. The system is not just an accounting tool but it also provides many tools that can enhance organizational performance management. In other words, ABM system provides other information as well (the product mix, customer services, line of business and capital investment) that would be able to help an organization in its future development and improvement. For instance, an organization knows how to serve customer better by looking into information provided in customer services activity. ABM also provides a better understanding of cost driver. It is a factor that affects the costs associated with an activity. Managers apply activity- based management system to the operational activity in order to determine the cost to perform an activity and the cost associated with not performing the activity. Through this activity cost drivers, it seeks to provide an extensive view on the actual costs of an activity. For instances, we can see in the Mason & Cox. In Mason & Cox, they feel that it is expensive to implement the activity-based costing system because it is more complex and expensive to maintain. Nevertheless, ABM seems to be more helpful to them in term of improving the company profitability. For example, saving had been achieved by targeting non-value-added activities. Their real cost driver had been identified so that manager may know what to eliminate. The drop in the price of the high-volume lines had met with customer approval. Furthermore, ABM enables company to monitor and improve quality and delivery customer value by tracking cost driver. The new approach provided timely information about factors that were important to customers and factors that employees could control. There was no doubt that ABM had helped Mason & Cox to improve both profitability and customer value. Besides that, in Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida (BCBSF) needs more sophisticated cost information to make better decision in order to compete in the nature of the health care insurance industry and the need to manage the cost of operation like ways to  allocate administrative cost to the products and services. Hence, BCBSF decided to implement ABM system. ABM helps manager to examine the analysis of value added cost and non-value added costs. A value added cost is the cost of an activity that cannot be eliminated without affecting a product’s value to the customer. Some value added costs are always necessary, as long as the activities that drive such cost are performed efficiently and effectively. For instances, we can truly understand this concept in the Carpenter Company. The senior vice president of sales and marketing said that pillow fall into two distinct segments, the â€Å"commodity† part of the business and value-added line. For the â€Å"commodity† part of the business- consists of polyester-filled pillows which are a normal pillow. Besides that, the â€Å"value-added line†, which features technology-driven fibers and fabrics designed to enhance sleep. As we can see, Carpenter Company had produced variety function of pillow like muscle stress and pain relieve pillow as well as pillow which reduce unnatural awakenings. Today, consumers are better educated about the benefits of various sleep surfaces and they recognize that the role of pillow can play in quality sleep. Although the price for a pillow which features technology-driven fibers and fabrics designed will be expensive but it can help consumer to have a quality sleep. Thus, consumers will not mind to pay more to improve a quality sleep. As a result, we can see that the â€Å"value-added line† may help company to gain profit. In contrast, a non-value added cost is the cost of an activity that cannot be eliminated without diminishing the value. Non-value added cost activities are assumed to be unnecessary as a result it always be minimized like storing and handling inventories; transportation of raw material or partly finished products. If this non-value added costs happened, company may reduce or eliminate it by careful redesign of the operational process. As we can see how Taipei Fubon Bank deals with those non-value added costs in this mature and complex market. Taipei Fubon Bank needs to accurately determine profit and loss data by customer and customer group so that it could help bank to reduce operating costs and increase profit while maintaining it quality of service. Hence, the bank had developed a customer profitability  management (CPM) system that provide thorough information regarding cardholder spending pattern and profitability to build highly targeted marketing and retention program. This system did helped bank to reduce cost by updating timely management report, thus speeding marketing strategy adjustment decision. However, they wanted more information regarding a detailed analysis such as the profitability by card type at the individual customer level. As a result, they entered into the new CPM system by performing an in-depth analysis at the transaction level. The new CPM system contributes to division-wide productivity through the delivery of as-needed reporting to the user custom portal. The reporting may include customer spending habits, customer ranking by demographic criteria or the profitability of co-branded card by service channel. After using this system, Taipei Fubon Bank has significantly improving division profitability and now they can make more faster and accurate decision. In Dow Chemical Company (DCC) which produces chemicals and plastics implement ABM to identify the activities they perform, eliminate non-value-added activities, determine cost drivers, set activity price to charge users and benchmark these price to ensure that they are competitive. While ABM has brought benefits to DCC but also brought many challenges to them. For instances, DCC feels that it is difficult to capture cost driver information without creating additional work. As the activity analysis became more and more detailed, DCC had to justify the complexities in obtaining and processing activity information. Ultimately the company decided that should not break activities down to task level, otherwise the resultant activities were too small and numerous. By comparing with the traditional system, ABM system is more costly. Implementation of ABM system requires many resources such as human resources and time consuming. Different activities require different resources. Data that concerns on major activities must be measured, collected and entered into system. As we can see that Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) feels that ABM system is a timely and costly system. By using ABM system, they need to implement a thorough mapping of all processes, drill down and filtering of all â€Å"relevant† activities, the identification of cost  driver and others are enormous challenges. Thus, this may cause the company to take up much time and resources because this company consists of over 1100 staffs. Furthermore, everyone may have different point of view and searching for different data therefore they need times to eliminate and collect the right data into the right activities. Incorrect data collection and allocation may result to setbacks during the implementation stages and may jeopardize the whole project. Misinterpretation might also happen in ABM system. This is because most of the information is interrelated and ambiguous. For instance, cost assigned to material, products and customer may be relevant and cause the manager to overlook some information. This causes misinterpretation happen and link to the wrong decision making. Wrong decision making may cause some issues happen in the operation such as production delay, over-production and wrong shipping. Reports by using ABM system are suitable for internal users only and cannot report to external users. This is because ABM system has limitations since it does not conform to generally accepted accounting principles (G.A.A.P). Stakeholder might not be able to understand the reports on ABM system and therefore, ABM system is only restricted for internal use. CONCLUSION Previously, company usually apply traditional accounting system to manage the company’s operational activity but this system does not provide more detailed information that needed in this competitive environment. Therefore, managers require better information by developing activity-based management. This approach allow everyone in the organization understand where costs are being incurred, why are they being incurred and how these activities contribute to a higher value added to customers. Moreover, ABC explores to identify activities that can be eliminated or improved. In additional to that, communications will improve and changes are easier to make if company conducts the activity-based approach. In addition to the above purpose, we feel that ABM system may be useful for a company. This is because it not only focuses on the product of a company but also the services and customers of a company. Besides that, it also help company to find out the cause of a problem, action plan for future development as well as evaluation of managers’ or departments’ present performance. In addition to that, it also helps company utilize true cost data which generated through ABC for further improvement in business profitability in the long run. ABM in best practice firm lies at the heart of the decision-support process. Integrating ABM within the total information and management control system of the organization can lead to quantum improvements. Therefore, an organization needs to understand and address the common pitfalls and barriers to success at every stage of implementation. Besides, the ABM system should include and draw on the insights of the people who use it no matter during planning, activity analysis or other so that the implementation will success when the people use the system. Organization should tailor to the unique strategy, structure, capabilities, and needs of the firm so that the implementation will be succeeded. This is because ABM will not look the same in every organization although it is a universally useful concept. Finally, we have an in-depth understanding of ABM during the process of working out this assignment and we found out that activity-based approach has more advantages than disadvantages. We have learned many things like time management and how to get along with our group members. Although we spent much time for discussing the lessons and recommendations, we didn’t have any argument during our discussion and everything went on smoothly. BIBLIOGRAPHY _Advantages, Disadvantages and Limitations of Accounting Based Costing (ABC) System_. (n.d.). Accounting For Management. Retrieved March 9, 2013, from http://accounting4management.com/limitations_of_activity_based_costing.htm Business Dictionary.com. (n.d.). Retrieved February 1, 2013, from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/activity-based-management- ABM.html Cardos,I.R., & Pete,S. 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Retrieved February 23, 2013, from http://bedtimesmagazine.com/2013/01/power-of-pillows/ Implementing Activity-BasedManagement: Avoiding the Pitfalls. (1998) Instituite of Management Accounts. Retrieved March 9, 2013, from http://www.imanet.org/PDFs/Public/Research/SMA/Implementing %20Activity%20Based%20mngt_Avoiding.pdf Investopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved February 1, 2013, from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/abm.asp#axzz2Jng4KVP6 Leo, S. (2010). Taipei Fubon Bank Uses Activity-Based Management to Build Customer Profitability. Retrieved from http://www.b-eye- network.com/view/12857 Managing costs and time for customer value. (n.d). Retrieved from http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/dl/free/0074711903/ 50509/sample_ch15.pdf May & Margaret. ( Jan 1995). Activity-based management accounting. Management Accounting, 73(1),40. Retrieved from Business Source Complete, Pro Quest. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com. Sarkis, Joseph, Meade, Laura, Presley & Adrien. (2006). An activity based management methodology for evaluating business processes for environmental sustainability. Business Process Management Journal, 12(6),751. Retrieved March 8, 2013, from Business Sources Complete, Pro Quest, http://search.proquest.com SAS. (n.d.). Activity-based management. Driving profitable growth through activity- based management. Retrieved March 10, 2012, from http://www.sas.com/solutions/abm/#section=2 Sharman, P.A. (1993). Activity-based management: A growing practice. CMA Magazine, 67(2), 17-22. Retrieved from Business Source Complete, Pro Quest. Retrieved February 30, from http://search.proquest.com

Global Perspectives in Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Global Perspectives in Business - Essay Example It consists on the large household survey, researches, internet approach and cultural dimensions and models like, Hofstede, Trompenaars and Project GLOBE. These three models give us clearance about the cultural difference. This paper is to analyze the business and legal environment within and outside the organization. Introduction Culture is referring to behaviour of human being. Whatever the preferences are, the culture of each country depended on its people who always use to display various colourful customs, traditions, language, and many of which are heavily influenced by foreign customs. Big companies always get chances to work in the entire world to get their products and services more famous and demanded (House, 2004). When a company get to merge with some other international company, or is going to acquisition the company of some other country with different culture, they assume that each person working within the company has the same aim and goal but most of the times they h ad to bear many problems due to cultural diversity. When multiple cultures started work together, they ultimately face a lot of difficulties and problems and communication is one of the biggest problems they can have (Grzyb, 2000). When two or more different cultures works together they find many difficulties and the people of these companies, most of the times, do not feel comfortable with each other and many few people can adopt these differences of culture. Language is the most powerful and professional instrument one needed to work in good and effective way to make his communication understandable. Nevertheless, learning other’s language is not the biggest barrier and one can easily learn the other’s language by spending some time and giving attention (Grzyb, 2000). How Cultures Work Thinking deeply, cultures are a variable or a dynamic set of starting points allow us to respond to the society in particular ways. All of us freely belong to one or more than one cult ures that give us messages about what is normal, appropriate, and expected. When a person from other culture is unable to understand us, it clearly gives us a clue that our cultural expectations are different. What is common to one group may seem strange, counterintuitive, or wrong to another (LeBaron, 2003). Given Case: In given situation, a well known company in Netherlands wants to negotiate with its new subsidiary company in the Singapore. While working in the Singapore, the employee and associated persons of Netherlands can have the following problems due to the cultural diversification: Communication and negotiation Adopting Singapore’s culture Managing work with employee of Singapore These are some of the problems, which they can face due to difference of culture. The difference of culture can be a big reason of conflict (House, 2004). Here are some advices and suggestions, which can help the people of Netherlands to overcome the above-mentioned barriers in the light o f cultural dimension models like Hofstede, Trompenaars and Project GLOBE. Suggestions from five-dimension model Communication: In business, and especially in international business, it is commonly agreed that  communication  is one of the primary and more focused concerns. Good and effective communication is a thing, which can forecast the success of a business (House, 2004). Therefore, for professionals of Netherlands it is necessary to learn the native language of Singapore. All the levels in communication are affected by cultural

Client profile Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Client profile - Assignment Example I will be your primary contact during the time of this engagement. In any event that you have any questions concerning this engagement at any time, you may either contact me directly through my extension or through my email address. I will send to you an approximation of the time and total costs that this engagement may incur, including the expenses and the fees. Kindly note that this information remains only an estimate, and that it may change depending on the complexity of activities done and time taken. I have also attached for your records and information one copy of the interview form. Please notify me immediately in any case that any information therein is incorrect. Mason does not have a pension plan. Julia has a pension plan provided by her employer. 5% of her earnings go the pension plan, and the employer matches her contribution. Julia’s plan has a balanced mandate investment of 50% bonds and 50% equities. Mason is the plan’s beneficiary. Both Mason and Julia are medium risk investors with little knowledge of financial market workings. As such, do not have a complete investment plan. However, with their assets, Mason and Julia have undertaken investments that earn revenue for them. Their investments are low risk and their returns are moderate. The family lives within its means, with the expenses being 39.1% of the family’s total annual income. The amount that this family spends is below the average amount of money spent by households in Canada. In 2014, the average pending for households with children was at $80056 according to Statistics Canada. Mason and Julia’s family spends $50251.2 annually. This ratio shows that the family is prepared to either fund itself or acquire additional funds in case of an emergency. The family has significant savings and sources of funds that will be important in the event of an emergency. These funds include life insurance policies, Julia’s pension scheme and

Business Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Business Analysis - Essay Example The business will use direct and indirect distribution channels. Direct distribution will distribute to specific clients using online selling and telemarketing to consumers, whereas, on the indirect distribution channels, the products will be distributed through retailers and stores to consumers (MAGAZINE, 2012). To ensure that the business penetrates the market, the business will often undertake promotions such as advertisements and sales promotions to inform and remind clients on the fashion trends and the ultimate goods to new and older customers. The business will provide our broad range of customers with fashionable and quality products and by giving opportunities that will help the business increase its sales volume. To ensure that they the business gains a competitive advantage over other clothing lines, the business has to develop a management that will push the business forward to achieving a high range market. The business will also build trust with the customers and make them understand that the clothing products the business offer are reliable for the growing market thus hoping to build on the strengths and to overcome the weaknesses encountered during the business operations (MAGAZINE, 2012). The fashion industry is a drastically changing one, where trends comes and go, therefore, for a business to succeed in the clothing line industry, one must understand the customers and their tastes and preferences. One must possess the ability to predict the fashion trends before they hit the market, also be creative and flexible in all activities of the business. Therefore, one has to develop working functions of the business, to ensure they capture all the activities of the business that will secure its success. Some of the main business functions are found in the different business process developed for daily business operation (BROWN, 2008, p. 53-56). First, the