Are Technologically Advanced Societies More Advanced Essay

Are Technologically Advanced Societies More Advanced - Essay Example This is to say that such word is susceptible to varying interpretations. In such case, it is contended that the advancement of a community should not be measured by the number of technologies that it has. Rather, it should be determined by considering the whole aspects of society. It is not to be limited to the advantages that new technology has brought to the people. Stated otherwise, the definition of advancement should not be superficial but substantial. A substantial definition is one which involves the consideration of the people’s state of life. This is to say that, as of this moment, the determination of what constitutes progress should involve economic factors. A country’s economy actually reflects its growth and development. Also, in today’s world, the definition of the word progress is often associated to economic terms due to globalization. Advancement and progress are two interchangeable terms. Both of them signify the growth and development of a soci ety. In such case, either of the two words could actually be used to explain the topic of the essay. It is a contention that there is progress if the following factors are present: (1) all the members of the society are experiencing a high standard of living (2) there is full employment and (3) there is good governance. The three factors are actually essential in determining â€Å"progress.†

Organizational Learning and Development - Research report on Essay

Organizational Learning and Development - Research report on CREATIVITY and INNOVATION in an organization - Essay Example A team headed by an HR executive hired for the purpose made a survey on the input and output rendered in the system. To the surprise of all, the team arrived at a finding that the level of creativity before computerisation was relatively high. The fall in creativity lead to nil innovation albeit scores of channels were available to finish the job in no time. The team sample picked a section comprising about thirty employees who gave relatively greater output during the regime of their manual working pattern. The team found that the employees who were new to the use of computers in their work field were over loaded with technical bottle-necks, which they were forced to get redressed with the help of computer engineer on visit to the firm only on call. The types of fall in creativity and the cause were analysed and arrived at a point that the administration in its stubborn ambition of modernisation by computerisation paid very little heed to the human resource and related innovative possibilities. Compulsion to give their output only through computers – hitherto unacquainted -- had formed a sort of psychic inhibition in the minds of the employees, a chunk of who were even mentally forced to quit the job. The team empirically permitted a couple of the employees who were giving much yield in their pre-computer era to have a manual back up and condoned the delay for such additional load of work. In addition they were afforded incentives even for paltry improvements in their technical operations. Over a spell of 90 days the two employees began to excel in computer operations and were willing to work only with computers bidding a bye to traditional type of manual work. Thus freedom in their realm of activities and rewards made employees to come up with a flood of new ideas. Imparting training in the field clubbed with freedom certainly improved the level of creativity and innovation. Creativity although is universally accepted as a needful and useful

Strategic analysis and proposal for IKEA

Strategic analysis and proposal for IKEA The name IKEA comes from the initials of Ingvar Kamprad, I and K, plus the first letters of Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd, which are the names of the farm and village where he grew up. Ingvar kamprad came with a unique idea to offer home furnishing products with good design and lower prices than other competitors. But he didnt want to compromise with the quality. So he used simple cut costing solutions. He tried to find every opportunity to reduce costs. Thats how IKEA concept began. IKEA is a home furnishing company with a fully integrated supply chain, including its own industrial groups Swedwood and Swedspan. The IKEA Group, directly or indirectly, also owns retail centres, always with an IKEA store as unique anchor tenant. The IKEA Group works in four basic areas: range strategy product development, production, supply and retail. The parent company of the IKEA Group of Companies, INGKA Holding B.V., is owned by Stichting INGKA Foundation in the Netherlands. The Stichting INGKA Foundation was established in 1982 by the founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad, to create an ownership structure and organization that stand for independence and taking a longterm approach. It has two purposes to reinvest in the IKEA Group and to fund charity through the Stichting IKEA Foundation. The business idea is focused on the concept of help create a better life everyday life for many people. IKEA is a renowned global home furniture and household products retailer which is privately owned. IKEA was started by Ingvar Kamarad by 1943. Now the company owns more than 300 stores in 35 countries with more than 130,000 workers around the world. The company selling now a day more than 10000 products and the 190 million copies of catalogues distributed around all over the world. We can see how IKEA expanded by having more stores each year. Figure 1: IKEA stores expanding. To offer a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them. That is the business idea of IKEA. This concept of the IKEA is the base of their business operations which includes product designing, manufacturing, transportation, retailing and assembling. When IKEA develop their products, their starting point is the idea that, even with a thin wallet, people can create a beautiful home with well designed, functional, safe and healthy products. To understand the different living situations and needs of people all over the world is the key to success of IKEA. IKEA website had 712 million visitors and 676 million store visitors in 2010. And 197 million copies of catalogue were printed in 29 languages. Total sales in last year 2010 were 23.1 billion Euros as stated in graph and IKEA food services turnover is 1.1 billion Euros. Figure 2: Annual sales in billion Euros. (FY2010) Every single company tries to use unique, distinctive and effective business strategy which will help them to stay in very competitive market and especially in the global market. We will use different tools to provide a strategic analysis of IKEA. The analysis will be use SWOT analysis, Porters five forces model. SWOT analysis: SWOT analysis is strategic planning tool which helps business to focus on key issues. This tool helps to identify and evaluate of the strengths and weakness of a firm internally, threats and opportunities of external environment. Strengths and weakness is such internal aspects of the company which can be controlled. Usually these refer to marketing, finance, and manufacturing. In same way threats and opportunities are external aspects which cant be controlled. These refer to environment, local issue, government policy and others. Strengths Weakness Opportunities Threats Internal External Figure: SWOT analysis. Strengths: IKEA is one the leading strong global brand in household furnitures in its global operation which attracts consumer group and ensure the same quality and range with almost 10000 products in their all 300 worldwide stores. IKEAs interest in how peoples lives at home is the source of all their business. The key to the success of IKEAs business, understanding of peoples different living situation and needs of all people around the world. Their starting point of developing a product is how people can decorate their house with a thin wallet without compromising the quality. IKEA offers a wide range of functional household furniture in a low price that as many people as possible will be able to afford them. IKEA is completely committed to their vision to create a better everyday life for the many people. This commitment even extends to their suppliers. IWAY is the way of purchasing IKEA products. Buying bulk and large volume for long time keeps the price down from suppliers. And suppliers feel secured also. Most of IKEA products come from supplier direct to store. That means low cost and less carbon footprint. Increasing use of renewable and smarter use of raw materials helps them to keep the price low. Customers contribute in keeping low price by collecting, taking home and assemble product by themselves. Initialization of flat packing and easy assembling made it possible. Now a day people can design their kitchen wardrobe and others household furniture themselves by IKEA computerized tools. Opportunities: IKEA states: There is a true business potential for IKEA in providing solutions that enable customers to live a more sustainable life at home. IKEA is developing effective solutions for customers in order to support them recycling or reusing used products, aiming at no products ending up at landfill and the recycled materials used in producing new IKEA products. IKEA Increases use of renewable and smarter use of raw materials helps them to keep the price low. By initialize of flat packing and easy assembling help the customer to take their product home and assemble themselves. These all business policy of IKEA is juts to ensure a quality product in low price but if we look deeply we can see that IKEA using their strengths to take advantages of opportunities. Now a days all over the world everyone is concerning about carbon footprint, greener products, low cost products. IKEA is making best out of these opportunities. Now a day demand is growing for low priced products. Current financial situation made consumers trading down from expensive stores. All most everyone is concerning about carbon footprint. IKEA most of product comes to store direct from supplier by which they gradually phase out wooden pallets and use of the most spaces of transport. Using of less transport which is less carbon emission. They keep redesigning products so that they take less space. This way they save costs and contribute to environment also. Other business may be has to change their business policy because of these global concerning. But IKEA is taking advantages of these opportunities. Weakness: Each single company tries to find out their weakness and try to resolve them. IKEA is a global brand with 300 stores globally. So the size and its scale of global business can be a problem. It could be hard eventually to keep up with their standard and quality. IKEA suppliers are in such country where government doesnt implement the legalization to control working conditions. It can affect business supply chain. On the other hand IKEA need low cost raw materials but good quality for their products. But because of global warming and other financial and environmental issues it could be hard to get the supply. Threats: Emerging a new household company with low price and its own food in the market will be a strong threat for IKEA. Though emerging a new company with such range and scale is not so easy, but by keeping their standard IKEA can held their position. Porters five factors: Porters five factors is a strong analytical tool. It helps us to understand business strength of current competitive situation and the strength of the position we are moving into. The outcome of this framework is five important factors which determine the competitive intensity, as it may in use of when creating strategy, plans or making decisions regarding investment about a business. Figure: Porters Five Forces model. Powers of buyers: IKEA make sure to satisfy their customers in every aspect by providing quality service. IKEA is global brand for household furniture for reasonable prices. The management of IKEA tries to keep the standard globally so their customer is happy about the quality and the prices. Furniture and other household has small alternative and consumers has limited choices which makes IKEA unique in his competitive market. Low price strategy is other way to response buyers needs. Powers of Suppliers: We have to consider power of supplier for our competitive situation. To ensure the quality and low price business policy IKEA must have some supplier who can supply according to the demand. IKEA set some rules for their supplier. IWAY is one of it. All suppliers should follow these set of rules. IKEA get the contracts with supplier for a long time. In this way supplier and IKEA both feel more secured. If something happens with the supplier IKEA also got time for supplement. So in this case supplier got limited powers. Competitive rivalry: IKEAs furniture competitors offer different functionality and design. However, the IKEA still holds the first position in his competitive market through his quality and low price policy in Sweden and globally also. Flat packing policy saved a lot in price and easy for customer to carry out. New entrants: There is less chance to enter

The Public Education System :: Educational Learning Essays

The Public Education System Throughout my experience in the public school system, I have heard the line, â€Å"What do I need to know this for anyway?† about 1,057 times. It is not uncommon to hear students complain about the worth of their education. Regardless, there seems to be a unanimous agreement that the youth needs education to succeed in life. What is education anyway and what does schooling accomplish? In his book, â€Å"A Time to Learn† George Wood provides a definition of education as â€Å"making wise citizens and good neighbors who can think deeply and intelligently about issues of self and society, take care for and respect others, take care of their family needs, and contribute to the welfare of others† (Glickman 48). Is school necessary for developing this type of educated citizen? If not, how is it we measure success and how is school important in attaining that? The purpose of the public school system is to assure every child the natural right to an education. Currently, every state in the nation has laws requiring attendance in school (grades K-12). There are also requirements on what subjects the students must learn. Standardized testing measures every student’s ability in these required subjects and assesses all tests equally. These high-stakes tests are used to determine the student’s achievement and their progression to the next level of schooling. Statistics show that students from underprivileged families have lower test scores and are more likely to drop out then white, middle class students. When I think about it, I recall a line from a rap song about a southern black child’s education in the public school system, â€Å"I’m making 300 on my SAT’s and I am equal†. So then, why are these students, who are equal, performing so poorly in our public schools? To reach a conclusion we must examine the curriculum and standards, and their purpose. The movement toward standardization is mainly concerned with the school district’s responsibility to generate students that are proficient in basic reading, writing and math skills. These skills being the most essential for business transactions, political and professional relations and most every aspect of life in today’s society. The students are assessed indiscriminately by tests structured around what the students are expected to know. The problem is that a student’s test score varies day-to-day.

Education Key to Success Essay

In the 21st century technology should replace traditional teaching methods in order to stimulate student engagement. As social networking becomes more and more famous and teachers have to compete with something they Just don’t have the right tools to fight them with the fight is Just unfair. With all the modern technology that todays students are surrounded with their attention spans have drastically decreased and with entertainment at the touch of a button away from them it becomes very hard to keep a class of 30 students entertained for an hour and as time passes by this will gradually get more and more orse. I am personally a very geeky technical person to me computers are like real life people who talk to you and guide you as long as you ask them right questions. I have started depending so much on computers that whenever I need help rather than asking my teacher I look it up on google because it is so much faster and easier to do but that information is not always true. I think the solution to this problem isn’t to completely get rid of todays teaching methods or not allow students to use their technological devices at all I think the solution is a medium between these two paths o that the teachers have an easier time teaching and students find it more enjoyable to learn education materials. I think todays use of power points in lectures makes it so much more easier for teachers to make their lesson plans and for students to access them later on whenever they need it. But for a couple of years that is where it’s been stuck it power points get more and more fancier but they aren’t necessarily helping the students engage into the material that they are learning in class. I think school district should have a set amount of money put aside for labs and competitions where students can ruly discover their talents. I think science classes in high schools are kind of pointless where students never actually get to experience how it truly feels like to be a scientist that thrill of having succeeded in performing a lab right is Just a fantasy to them which rather than doing it themselves they watch others do in their science class on the projectors. Parent support is also necessary for these type of activities they are always worried about keeping their children safe and not exposing them to dangerous things but the truth of the situation is that the world is unpredictable and hat isn’t necessarily good or bad but they also have to encourage students as well as teachers to be creative with their work. One of the rising problems the education system is facing today is the low standards set in math classes. Students have such a hard time in math today and rather than pushing themselves to try and work harder students take out the easy way and only fulfill the required math classes that they need to take some even avoid taking math classes if possible and pursue careers where they don’t have to do any math at all I am not an expert but Just from personal experience I think math after pre-calculus ust becomes so abstract that I stopped seeing the real life applications of pre- used to love math when I was in elementary and middle school but that all changed once I took pre-calculus what once used to be my best friend was now my sworn enemy I would do anything to avoid doing math homework I understood the concepts that was never the problem but I always knew where it would end everyday me sitting in front of that same smart board everyday seeing the teacher solve problems and asking him every day where in real life I could apply it to use and the answer would always be the same â₠¬Å"Oh you need this for higher level hysics† or â€Å"Oh you use this in engineering† I had grown so bored of these redundant answers that I completely shut myself down in my math class. I knew the math I was learning in class was to be appreciated it was Just ingenious but I never understood its purpose in MY life so I never bothered with it. And I am sure that I am not the only one my friends would complain about the amount of math homework they had to do each day and how much they regretted having taken a math class that year but I think it can all be changed if the students were Just given something more tangible to nderstand not some strange concepts that brilliant mathematicians had worked their lives on using proofs and theorems that I cant even begin to pronounce. Another problem in todays education system is the need for results everyone wants higher test scores no matter what and scientific research has proven that tests don’t necessarily show if you understand the concept or not it’s Just how good of a test taker you are. This is causing a lot of psychological issues in todays students they are all awfully stressed out right before a major exam or test and that stress later on leads to medical conditions. I think we need to rethink our approach to tests they don’t fulfill their purpose yet they are valued so much. I think I might have a simple solution for that problem rather than wasting money on standardized tests schools across the nations should have and end of the year project varying from subject to subject which would actually show how much of the material that they have actually learned and how much of it have they retained. Tests today are Just unfair to most of the kids they are not only timed they are â€Å"State Standardized† so whatever material that your teachers didn’t go over is also put in the test it can result in loss of onfidence early on in the test totally ruining the students test scores. Last but not least the final problem I want to address in this essay is the motivation that the students lack which can either be the result of teaching material or teaching method either way resulting in a loss of years and years of education. Students all around the world already know what they want to become the second they leave high school they have been exposed to all the subjects enough but in U. S we barely scrape the top of the iceberg over 80% of college bound students go undecided into college t isn’t necessarily bad but they waste years doing something that though they liked in high school but end up changing their major I think students can reach their potential faster if the standards in high school are increased every year or so. The more the students are exposed to different kinds of learning materials the easier it is for them to find what they truly like once they leave high school. it is used that might make it look that way but if technology were to combine with education the results would open up unbelievable opportunities for teachers and students.

Building a Bridge to the 18th C

Chapter one and two of the book â€Å"Building a bridge to the 18th Century† by Postman Neil is talking about the progress of man through the time he has inhabited the earth and what has been the catapulting force to great heights that has seen him achieve much in little time.Progress is described as a brainchild of enlightment which then releases vitality and inspiring confidence like the one that is seen in the 18th century. Much of what is seen as great achievement of 20th century is as a result of great work and thinking of people in the middle ages. This then transfers enormous credit to the philosophers and scientists in middle ages for starting the progress back then.The 18th century has been depicted as a period of great thinkers who invented things virtually in all spheres of life and for mankind to progress; the answer does not lie in the future or the current times but going back to that great century.The progress being advocated for is scientific or technological a dvancement which requires no moral authority as opposed to moral progress that can be attributed to enlightment coupled with poetic imagination.The two forms of progress happen concurrently and it is hard to separate them throughout the ages that man has sought to tread in footsteps of enlightment.The idea of rationality, materialism and deconstruction have been discussed at length but not well understood owing to the fact they are mainly articulated from a Christian perspective of philosophers who were mainly Christians.Therefore their fundamental understanding of rationality is through idealism advanced in those times of insurgency and revolt against the orthodox running of the Christian faith. It follows that rationality has radical expression through progress.ReferencePostman, N. (1999). Building a Bridge to the Eighteenth Century: Ideas from the Past That Can Improve Our Future. New York: Alfred A. Knopf Incorporated