Failure Analysis Strategy Change Essay Example for Free

Failure Analysis Strategy Change Essay Movies have always been a past time enjoyed by many. As the technology continues to grow, many video stores are going out of business and digital or online movies are rising in popularity. Blockbuster Video and Netflix are businesses that have been affected by these changes. Blockbuster opened in 1985 with the mission statement of â€Å"Our corporate mission is to provide our customers with the most convenient access to media entertainment, including movie and game entertainment delivered through multiple distribution channels such as our stores, by mail, vending and kiosks, online and at home. We believe Blockbuster offers customers a value-prices entertainment experience, combining the broad product depth of a specialty retailer with local neighborhood convenience† (Farfan, 2010). Blockbuster continued with the vision statement of â€Å"At Blockbuster, diversity means valuing differences. It’s corporate value that must be continually developed, embraced, and incorporated into the way we do business† (Farfan, 2010). Blockbuster operated with more than 7,400 stores worldwide and also operated through 1,600 franchise stores. As technology started to change, customers began streaming movies from the Internet as well as using kiosks, such as Redbox, for movie rentals. Competition became a large factor in Blockbuster and the failing of the company, but a large part of the failure was due to manage changes and misunderstanding of the business as a whole (Dunston, 2014). Blockbuster Failure In 2006 and 2007, Blockbuster was approached by the CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings, asking them to acquire Netflix. Hastings knew that Netflix had not formulated a plan to stop Blockbuster from stealing their customers, at the rate of a million per year. Blockbuster decided that the company did not  need Netflix because Blockbuster had a stronger and larger growth, but then a change that was never expected happened. A new CEO was named for Blockbuster after a boardroom dispute. The man appointed CEO didn’t fully understand the business and what Blockbuster needed in order to remain above the competition, especially Netflix. The CEO started changing plans for the company and even pulled out the Internet efforts that had been in place for Blockbuster. Within 18 months, 85% of the capital value of the company had been lost; within in 2 years, it was completely gone (Dunston, 2014). Netflix Netflix views themselves as â€Å"freedom of on-demand and the fun of indulgent viewing† (Netflix, 2014). Netflix also focuses on the convenience of the no-hassle, online cancellation and offer movies and TV series network. Technology and good leadership is how Netflix became the leader in the industry (Halal, 2010). Netflix executives understood that the emerging technology was rapidly changing the delivery of movie rentals. CEO, Hastings, developed â€Å"strategies involving Internet streaming, convenient customer service, and the virtual organization to deliver it cheaply and flawlessly† (Halal, 2010). Another part of Netflix’s technology strategy was to avoid the burden of having to go to a video store for customers. Customer service is key to a successful business, so Hastings used a monthly subscription to allow customers to have access to unlimited rentals, including no late fees. Instead of the hassle of renting movies, the focus is providing convenience. With the mission statement and vision of â€Å" Our core strategy is to grow our streaming subscription business domestically and globally. We are continually improving the customer experience, with a focus on expanding our streaming content, enhancing our user interface and extending our streaming service to even more Internet-connected devices, while staying within the parameters of our consolidated net income and operating segment contribution profit targets,† shows that the company wants the best for the company as well as their customers (Netflix, 2014). NetFlix Organizational Theories In reading many articles online about the success of NETFLIX the two organizational behavior theories that have been seen in this company have been decision-making and system approaches. Netflix’s huge decision to become a virtual DVD rental via online instead of going to actual in-store purchases like Blockbuster, has placed them at the top of the food chain. The technological advances alone for Netflix has change the industry forever, they took the systems approach by understanding the company’s input and output process and integrated the drive in developing new adaptive capacities and innovation. Blockbuster’s organization theory of scientific leadership placed a great deal into how the company ran it’s in store business and how the objectives and decisions were placed within the company. If Blockbuster could focus more on the click feature like how Netflix did, and not dismiss the idea that it would be a revolutionary change in the industry and within Blockbusters stockholders. Roles of Leadership and Management Per Netflix (2014) it has a â€Å"functional organizational structure, which aims at its functions themselves, rather than by customer segments or regions†. They have a CEO; Reed Hastings has 6 departments that have managers within them that run it. The organization beyond those 6 managers is not as structured as the top echelon is, they run their departments as they see fit. The CEO has instilled in their managers the management style of â€Å"Context, not Control† (Siegler), implying that very little control is given to employees, rather employees are held responsible for their actions and are expected to work efficiently and independently. Because of this idealists approach to management and how successful the company has been with it, they have found that they have no need to change their management style yet. Organizational value within Netflix has been on promoting the â€Å"stunning colleagues† (Netflix.com, 2014), and their importance in a great workplace. They have 9 values that they show is priority number 1 at Netflix, â€Å" judgment, impact, curiosity, innovation, courage, passion, honesty and selflessness (Siegler). The basic values that they believe as a company are workplace efficiency, emphasis on effective over effort, management best practices, retention practices, and large emphasis on a large salary, rather than stock options and bonuses. They believe that this  creates an environment that promotes productivity, and efficient work environment, which shows in colleague retention and overall happiness at Netflix. Part 2: Leading Organizational Change As the CEO of Blockbuster it is my responsibility to evaluate the organizations structure as well as the power and political issues within the company. The CEO can be disconnected to what is going on at the operations level of the company if he or she does not put forth the effort to be involved. As the CEO I will be involved in the operations of the company and be a leader employees can look up to. To implement the organizations change I will use a strategy based on John Kotter’s 8 step plan for change. John Kotter’s 8 steps are â€Å"establishing a sense of urgency, forming a powerful guiding coalition, creating a vision, communicating the vision, empowering others to act on the vision, planning for and creating short-term wins, consolidating improvements and producing still more changes, institutionalizing new approaches†(Mintzberg, Lampel, Quinn 2003). As the CEO of blockbuster I see that technology is changing and we must keep up. If we do not keep up with the technological advances we are doomed to fail. I see the company as a technology company and not just a movie rental company. I do not want Blockbuster to just survive, I want Blockbuster to thrive. Blockbuster will start investing in new internet technologies and streaming services. We will align ourselves with major motion picture studios to ensure that we get the newest movies and offer our customers the best services possible. Upper management will actively seek new opportunities and new world markets to expand our services. All employees will be encouraged to provide new ideas and mediocrity will not be accepted. Every aspect of the company will be evaluated and our services will provide our customers with the greatest movie streaming value. Reference Dunston, Dain (2014). When Blockbuster Forgot What Business They Were In. Retrieved from www.daindunston.com Farfan, Barbara (2010). Company Mission Statements – Complete List of World’s Largest Retail Missions. Retrieved from www.retailindustry.about.com Halal, Bill (2010). How Netflix Beat Blockbuster: An Exemplar of Emerging Technologies. Retrieved from www.billhalal.com Mintzberg, H., Lampel, J., Quinn, J. B. (2003). The Strategy Process: Concepts, Contexts, Cases (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Netflix Long Term View (2014). Retrieved from http://ir.netflix.com Netflix Capstone and Final Report (2014). Retrieved on January 7, 2014. http://mgmtclarity.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/capstone_final_report.pdf

Sylvia Plath Essay -- Sylvia Plath Biography Biographies Essays

Sylvia Plath was a gifted writer, poet and verbal artist whose personal anguish and torment visibly manifested itself in her work. Much of her angst stems from her warped relationship with her father. Other factors that influenced her works were her strained views of human sexuality, her sado-masochistic tendencies, self-hatred and her traditional upbringing. She was labeled as a confessional poet and biographical and historical material is absolutely necessary to understand her work. Syliva Plath was born on 27, 1963, in Boston, Massachusetts to Otto Emil Plath and Aurelia Schober. Otto Plath was a professor of biology and German at Boston University. He was of German descent and had emigrated from Grabow when he was fifteen. Her mother was a first generation American; she was born in Boston to Austrian parents. Their common Germanic background indirectly led to their meeting in 1929. Aurelia Schober took a German class taught by Otto Plath. Aurelia was working on a master’s degree in English and German at Bosto n University. Otto Plath was guided by his principles of discipline. Their background was one major source of for Sylvia’s poetic imagery. Sylvia’s brother, Warren, was born on April 27, 1935. After Warren’s birth, the family moved to Winthrop, Massachusetts just east of Boston. Otto’s health began to fail shortly after Warren’s birth. He thought he had cancer as a friend of his, with similar symptoms, had recently lost a battle with lung cancer. â€Å"He refused to seek medical care due to the lack of a cure or effective treatment at that time. In 1940 after suffering ill health for years, Otto was forced to see a doctor for an infection in his foot. The doctor diagnosed the illness Otto has been suffering from as not cancer, but diabetes- -and not do advanced that it threatened his life. Otto’s leg had to be removed in October after he developed gangrene, and he spent the rest of his days in the hospital rapidly declining.† (Nuerotic Poets) Otto Plath died on the night of November 5, 1940. Her fathers’s death scarred her permanently; theirs was an extraordinarily close relationship. In 1942, Aurelia moved the family to Wellesley so that she could return to work despite her own health problems to support her family. Sylvia began writing when she was only five years old. Her first publication was a short couplet she wrote when she was eigh... ...hould be able to control and manipulate experiences even the most terrifying, like madness, being tortured, this sort of experience, and one should be able to manipulate these experiences with an informed and intelligent mind†¦.† (Uroff 37) Plath’s work is valuable for its ability to reach today’s reader, because of its concern with the real problems of our culture. In this age of gender conflicts, broken families, and economic inequities, Plath’s forthright language speaks loudly about the anger of being both betrayed and powerless. She was hailed as literary symbol of the women’s rights movement and a feminist writer of great significance. Sylvia Plath began by creating art that imitated life, but ended when life imitated art. Works Cited Butscher, Edward, ed. with and introduction. Sylvia Plath: the woman and the work. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1977. Plath, Sylvia. The Journals of Sylvia Plath. Ed. Ted Hughes and Frances McCullough. New York: Ballantine Books, 1982. Sylvia Plath. Ed. Brenda C Mondragon. n.d. Web. 18 May 2015. http://www.neuroticpoets.com/plath/ Uroff, Margaret Dickie. Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1979.

Meaning of Life and Success Essay

Success is a person or thing that desired aims and achieves or attains fame or any form of accomplishment which will always make them proud or happy at the end of either the day, month or year. The word success was originated in the mid-16th century from a Latin word successus and a verb succedere meaning come close after. When I hear of the word success there are two things that come in mind, hard work and determination. Hard work is one of the main and most important building blocks in my success foundation. Working hard is one of the best and most accurate ways to think about being successful. Success cannot be earned unless you strive and work hard for it, because it is a word that comes with work and if work is not done then the meaning of the word can’t be accomplished. Like Einstein said â€Å"If A is a success in life then A equals x plus y plus z. work is x; y is play and z is keeping your mouth shut† for instance to me as an athlete working hard and in playing hard rather than running my mouth are the best way of being successful in game point stands in my career. Determination is a very critical and important aspect when it comes to success. To be determined to achieve any goals or aims is a very important choice of being successful. Bertrand 2 Determination can to be physically, spiritually and emotionally which all combines with hard work and if you combine both hard work and determination together you will always get a good result of success. Being successful in life can be one of the precious and happiest moments in life that can last for a long time if and only if you do what is expected of you to keep the success going on. Success can be advantageous in many ways; Accomplishing a goal, moving on to a new goal, brings happiness and fulfillment, set new and personal records, inspire, motivate and give you strengths to aim high and set bigger goals. But it’s not always everybody that’s successful that is happy or satisfied with their success. The isn’t that much difference being successful than being a failure, like the good old quote that say â€Å"the difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength not a lack of knowledge, but rather the a lack in will† this quote is very simple and well understood and the quote’s point is clearly pointed out, which state the main difference between a successful person and others which is the will to be the successful person that they are. To be successful person there should be some sought of guidelines to help you achieve or attain success. Thinking about success also brings about the thought or idea of failure â€Å"In order to success your desire for success should be greater rather than your fear of failure†. An important and inspiring quote as this from one of the favorite, idol and inspiring actor in the movie industry and in the society should and is been considered by a lot of fans to be very important in achieving success rather than having the fear of failure because his path of success has given or got him to where he is at the moment.

The Importance of Credit Risk - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 7 Words: 2160 Downloads: 8 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Argumentative essay Did you like this example? Credit risk implies a potential risk that the counterparty of a loan agreement is likely to fail to meet its obligations as per the original loan agreement, and may eventually default on the obligation. Credit risks can be classified into many forms such as options , equities , mutual funds , bonds , loans and other financial issues as well , which in extensions of guarantees and the settlement of these transactions. (International Auditing Practice Statement 1006 Audits of the Financial Statements of Banks) IS IT Important For the Banks To manage Their Credit Risks ? Risk is always associated with the banking activities, and taking risk is the important part of any banking operation, there is hardly any banking operation without the risk. Most of the bankers are said to be sound when they have a clear overview of what is the amount of risk involved in the current transaction and they make sure that some of the partly earnings are therefore kept for these risks. The granting of any form of credit is the common form for any bank and this risk is very common and this is the source of risks the banks are always exposed to. (Anderson et al, 2001). Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Importance of Credit Risk" essay for you Create order By being exposed to credit risk banks have been faced with a lot of problems. The banks couple of years ago realised that credit risk is important and the banks need to monitor, identify, control and measure it is very significant. Due to this the effective management of credit risk has become a critical component of approaching risk management. This approach will be especially important in terms of the long term success of any bank. Banks now ensure that they have large amount of capital against any form of credit risks so that they can be in a position to adequately tackle any risks which will be incurred. (Bank for International Settlement, 1999) The credit risk is in the entire portfolio of any bank and also the risk which is associated in individual credits or any other transactions have to be managed adequately. It is always a ascertained that the relationship between the credit risk and other forms of risks need be to considered very seriously in to account, in order to Increase shareholder value through value creation, value preservation and value optimization Increase confidence in the market place Alleviate regulatory constraints and distortions (Amitabh Bhargava ICICI, 2000) The Basel II Accord specifies that banks must have new procedures for measuring against credit risks. Advantages and Disadvantages of Credit Risk Management The advantages of Credit risk management include: Credit risk management allows predicting and forecasting and also measuring the potential risk factor in any transaction. The banks management can also make use of certain credit models which can act as a valuable tool which can be used to determine the level of lending measuring the risk. It is always better to have some alternative techniques and strategies for transferring credit, pricing and hedging options. The disadvantages of Credit risk management include: Deciding on how good a risk you are cannot be entirely scientific, so the bank must also use judgments. Cost and Control associated with operating a credit scoring system. With the existence of different models, it?s hard to decide which to use, more often than not, companies will take a one model fits all approach to credit risk, which can result in wrong decisions. How Banks Measure Credit Risk The level of credit risk faced by a bank is provided by the structure of a bank?s credit portfolio. If the portfolio consists of large amount of loans in a certain asset class then this might be an indication of an increased risk. Similarly the presence of complex financial transactions such as lending may also indicate a larger risk. In general a risk always comprises of two kinds: One is risk exposure and the other one is the uncertainty element, and for the credit risk and the credit quality represents the uncertainty element and credit exposure represents risk exposure. Therefore a bank can assess its credit risk by analysing the credit quality of an obligation and its credit exposure. While assessing credit quality and exposure a bank must consider three issues: Probability of default or any sort of possibility whether the other party which is the counter party will default on the obligation either over the life of the obligation over a specific period of time. The exposure of credit or the amount of the outstanding obligation which again depends on the size if there is any case of default. Rate of recovery this is the extent towards which the credit can be recovered through some banking processes like bankruptcy and other proceedings of settlements. In the last decade or so many banks have started to make use of models in order to assess the risks for their credit which they lend. The credit risk models are very complex and include algorithm based methods of assessing credit risk. The aim of such model is to help banks in quantifying, aggregating and managing credit risk. Despite the method the focus of credit risk assessment stays credit quality and risk exposure. Analysis of the Quality of Credit (Credit Quality) Credit quality is a measure of the that counterparties?s ability to perform on that obligation?. (Contingency Analysis, 2003) A bank adopts different approaches for assessing credit quality of considering loans to individuals or businesses. If it is for small businesses then the credit quality will be assessed through a process of credit scoring. This is based on information obtained by the bank about the party who want the loan. The information which is gathered tends to be about annual income, existing debts etc. Credit score is generally calculated by a formula which is applied to the information which is obtained which gives a number based on it the score is generated. The credit score is a highly accurate prediction of how likely the party is to pay bills, the higher the score the better it looks to the bank. (Curry, 2007) However, assessing a large party is based on credit analysis of the loan done by specially designated credit analysts. This just like mention above is base on credit scoring but it involves human judgement. It involves an in depth analysis of various aspect of the party in question including balance sheet, income statement etc. Also assessing the nature of the obligation is taken into account as well. On basis of credit analysis the analyst assigns that party a credit rating. This allows the bank to make decisions regarding credit. A bank can also use credit ratings to measure the share of the borrowers with creditworthiness in its portfolio and get a clear indication of default risk. Measuring Credit Exposure Credit exposure also needs to be taken into account when assessing credit risk or risk exposure. If for example a bank has loaned money to a business, the bank may calculate the credit exposure rate as the outstanding balance on the loan amount. However, in case if the bank by any chance has increased or extended the line of credit but none of the line have been drawn down then the approach will be different. In this case the risk exposure may seem to be nil, but it does not reflect any sort of right by itself to draw down the line of credit. If the firm gets into any financial difficulty it can be expected to draw on the credit line before any bankruptcy. Therefore in this case the bank may consider its credit exposure to be equal to the line of the credit. Credit exposure as a fraction can also be used sometimes to calculate the credit exposure for the total line of credit. (Duffie Singleton, 2003) How Banks Mange Their Credit Risk Credit risk management practices differ from bank to bank. Generally these type of practices are dependent on the type and complexity of the credit activities which are taken by the banks. In recent years banks have been using models for credit risk management. Bank Credit Risk Management Practices: Yesterday and Today The traditional approach to managing credit risk has been based on establishing a limit of credit at various levels for the individual borrowers an sometimes also based on geographical are and industry type. Also collateral and relationship exiting hardly seem adequate to cope with the declining economics of loan markets. (Gontarek, 1999) These limits specify the maximum exposures a bank is willing to take. Until the early 1990?s , credit risk analysis was limited only based on the reviews of the loans of individuals and most of the banks kept the loans on their books for maturity. (Bernanke, 2006) In recent years banking industry has made strides in managing credit risk. Managing the credit risks is the main focus of any banking operation these days and many banking?s are looking now from transaction management to portfolio management. And have slowly changed from monitoring to practising and also predicting their performance. Banks are still holding onto traditional credit risk management tools but these are becoming more and more sophisticated. Various forms of tools and models have been generated to measure and predict the performance and management of portfolio risks which in turn build competitive advantage. Despite the differences in the credit risk management practices the credit risk management in any bank rest on four pillar of: appropriate credit risk environment Sound credit-granting process or criteria that includes a clear indication of the bank?s target market Appropriate credit administration, measurement and monitoring process Adequate controls over credit risk. (Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, 2000) Therefore whether traditional or modern, credit risk management in banks involves reviewing creditworthiness of counterparties, setting credit limits for counterparties, evaluation of credit risk and reporting credit limits and exposures to management. (Caouette et al, 1998) Recent Trends in Credit Risk Management by Banks The credit risk management is undergoing an important change in the banking industry. Banks have clearly indicated that centralization, standardization, consolidation, timeliness, active portfolio management and efficient tools for exposures are the key best practice in credit risk management. (SAS, 2004) A bank in America is considering having efficient tools for ?what if? analysis and tools. Also another bank is focusing on stress testing, concentration risk, macro-hedges and capital market risk management. (SAS, 2004) The majority of the world?s large banks agree that integrating environmental and broader social issues into their core credit risk management process is essential to managing credit risk in the 21stcentury. (Huppman, 2005) Leading banks including Barclays now view that these non traditional issues as real credit risk variables that potentially affect their client?s bottom lines as well as their own. Quantitative models are being used by banks to measure and manage credit risk. Most of the Commercial bankers have started to opt for making use of the credit risk models for their credit options especially with relation to consumer lending and mortgage. These models are known as credit scoring models and were developed for consumer lending. On the other hand it has been a few years ago where the use of these credit risks models have been implemented successfully and are integrated these days with almost every bank to manage their risk. (Bluhm et al , 2003) In 2001, the UK?s biggest mortgage bank, Halifax, developed a forward looking credit risk management strategy which made use of quantitative models for risk management. (Algorithmics Incoporate, 2001) Similarly HSBC serves over 125 million customers worldwide and is the one of the world?s largest banking and financial services organizations. The world largest provider of quantitative credit risk solutions to lenders (Moody?s KMV) have decide to provide HSBC with this, which will provides HSBC a methodology for rapid, accurate measurement and benchmarking of credit risk portfolio. (Vyse, 2006) Role Of Management in Managing Credit Risk The board of directors of a bank approve and review the credit risk strategy and significant credit risk policies of the bank. The bank?s strategy reflects the bank?s tolerance for risk and the level of profitability the bank expects to achieve for incurring credit risks. These days banks establish and enforce internal controls and other practices to ensure that exceptions to policies, procedures and limits are reported in a timely manner to the management. Due to this credit risk is constantly monitored by the management. Innovations in Technology and Credit Risk Management Credit risk management in banks is also getting affected by innovations in technology. Innovations in technology have made significant improvements in bank information systems. This has also been encouraged by Basel II. The improvements in bank information systems has certainly increased the abilities of many banks and their management process to measure and identify and also control the characteristics of any kind of risk. For example ICBC (Industrial and Commercial Bank of China) the credit management computer system was further perfected with risk alert and conversion functions and it performed effective real-time monitoring on the quality and operations of the credit assets. (ICBC, 2001)