Highlights of the Dorian Invasion Into Greece

In about 1100 B.C., a group of men from the North, who spoke Greek invaded the Peloponnese. It is believed that an enemy, Eurystheus of Mycenae, is the leader who invaded The Dorians. The Dorians were considered the people of ancient Greece and received their mythological name from the son of Hellen, Dorus.  Their name also derives from Doris, a small place in the middle of Greece. The origin of the Dorians is not completely certain, though the general belief is that they are from Epirus or Macedonia. According to the ancient Greeks, it is possible there could have been such an invasion. If there was one, it might explain the loss of the Mycenaean civilization. Currently, there is a lack of evidence, despite 200 years worth of research. The Dark Age The end of Mycenaean civilization led to a Dark Age (1200 – 800 B.C.) which we know very little about, apart from archaeology. Specifically, when The Dorians conquered the Minoans and Mycenaean civilizations, The Dark Age emerged. It was the period in which the harder and cheaper metal iron replaced bronze as a material for weapons and farm implements. The Dark Age ended when the Archaic Age began in the 8th century. The Culture of the Dorians The Dorians also brought The Iron Age (1200–1000 B.C.)  with them when the main material to make tools was made out of iron. One of the main materials they created was the iron sword with the intention to slash. It is believed that the Dorians owned land and evolved into aristocrats. This was at the time where monarchy and kings as a form of government were becoming outdated, and land ownership and democracy became a key form of rule. Power and rich architecture were amongst several of the influences from the Dorians. In regions of war, like Sparta, the Dorians made themselves military class and made the original population slaves of agriculture.  In city-states, the Dorians coupled with Greek people for political power and business and also helped influence Greek art, such as through their invention of choral lyrics in the theater. The Descent of the Heracleidae The Dorian Invasion is connected with the return of the sons of Hercules (Heracles), who are known as the Heracleidae.  According to the Heracleidae, the Dorian land was under the ownership of Heracles. This allowed the Herakleids and Dorians to become socially intertwined. While some refer to the events prior to classical Greece as the Dorian Invasion, others have understood it as the Descent of the Heraclidae. There were several tribes amongst The Dorians which included Hylleis,  Pamphyloi, and Dymanes. The legend is that when the Dorians were pushed out of their homeland, the sons of Hercules  eventually inspired the Dorians to battle their enemies in order to take back control of the Peloponnese. The people of Athens were not forced to migrate during this unsettled period, which put them in a unique position among the Greeks.

Descartes Theory Of Reasoning - 1184 Words

After first explaining Antoine Arnauld’s objection to Descartes’ circular reasoning, I will be presenting a response given by Descartes. Then I will attempt to consider, on behalf of Arnauld, if the response is of adequacy, then I shall decide which view offers the best account. I suspect, however, that no matter what kind of response Descartes is to give, nothing will be able to save him from the torment of the so called ‘Cartesian circle’. In objection to Descartes’ reasoning behind his attempt to establish that what is true, is clear and distinct perception, Antoine Arnauld argues his reasoning is circular (Arnauld AT VII 124–125). Before explaining why circularity is evident, I will first consider what Descartes’ ‘truth rule’ really consists of. After establishing ‘cogito ergo sum’, Descartes uses the same logical terminology in which the cogito was established, to attempt to find other truths in the external world (Descartes AT VII 35). However, as there is no causality between cogito and external truths, some further proof is required for Descartes. This is at the point Descartes introduces the argument for Gods existence and hence, we get the truth rule established. He argues that, God exists and is not a deceiver, in which case any clear and distinct ideas must be true (Descartes AT VII 52). This is where the problem of circularity arises, as Descartes assumes the id ea of God to be true because it is innate, clear and distinct, and then sets out to assume otherShow MoreRelatedDescartes Meditation Iii1297 Words   |  6 PagesPhilosophy Descartes tries to prove the existence of God in the third meditation. He does this by coming up with several premises that eventually add up to a solid argument. First, I will explain why Descartes ask the question, does god exist? And why does Descartes think he needs such and argument at this point in the text. Secondly, I will explain, in detail, the arguments that Descartes makes and how he comes to the conclusion that God does exist. Next, I will debate some of Descartes premisesRead MoreEssay on Mediations of First Philosophy by Descartes1296 Words   |  6 PagesMediations of First Philosophy by Descartes In the â€Å"Mediations of First Philosophy† Descartes tries to prove the existence of God in the third meditation. He does this by coming up with several premises that eventually add up to a solid argument. First, I will explain why Descartes ask the question, does god exist? And why does Descartes think he needs such and argument at this point in the text. Secondly, I will explain, in detail, the arguments that Descartes makes and how he comes to the conclusionRead MoreThe Scientific Theory Of Science1489 Words   |  6 Pagesrationality and reasoning. Scientific methods that are used to establish rationality is due to the simple, general and rigorous explanations of the phenomena, (Diamond, 1998). This essay will explore the reasons to the extent of the role of science in reason, displaying perspectives from respected philosophers, politicians and scientists throughout time. Politician rather than scientist, Francis Bacon (1561-1627) was the man who made a revolutionary mark in the scientific world and reasoning, regardlessRead MoreCompare and contrast the significance for psychology of Descartes and Kant1568 Words   |  7 Pagessignificance for psychology of Descartes and Kant Descartes and Kant, both of them are famous philosophers and they are well known for their contributions to philosophy. At the same time, they have great influence on the development of psychology. I am going to compare their significance of psychology. By observing some mechanical things, Descartes had an idea that human and animal work like automata. (Klein, 1970) This idea became a basic concept of Descartes’ theories of the brain and visual perceptionRead More Renà © Descartes Argument on the Existence of God Essay1528 Words   |  7 PagesRenà © Descartes Argument on the Existence of God The problem with Renà © Descartes argument about the existence of God has to do with his rationalist deductive reasoning. Descartes deduces that truth about the existence of God lies within his idea of a perfect God and Gods essence (as a perfect being who must exist in order to be perfect). A rationalist philosopher, Descartes discounts human knowledge as a product of our sensory data (our senses) but supports the epistemological stance thatRead MoreDescartes Second Argument For The Existence Of God1642 Words   |  7 PagesPaper: Descartes’ Second Argument for the Existence of God As with almost all of Descartes inquiries the roots of his second argument for the existence of God begin with his desire to build a foundation of knowledge that he can clearly and distinctly perceive. At the beginning of the third meditation Descartes once again recollects the things that he knows with certainty. The problem arises when he attempts to clearly and distinctly understand truths of arithmetic and geometry. Descartes has enoughRead MoreThe Existence of God1317 Words   |  6 Pagesdevelopment of sciences, we still do not have a definitive answer to the question does God exist? Among many philosophers and scholars who have tried to answer this question, we shall look upon Rene Descartes theory on the existence of God. In terms of believers and non-believers, Descartes would be one of the believers. Before we go any further, we must ponder upon several questions. What is God? Does God exist? If such God does exist, then where does this being come from? Why do believersRead More The Existence Of God Essay1307 Words   |  6 Pagesdevelopment of sciences, we still do not have a definitive answer to the question does God exist? Among many philosophers and scholars who have tried to answer this question, we shall look upon Rene Descartes theory on the existence of God. In terms of believers and non-believers, Descartes would be one of the believers. Before we go any further, we must ponder upon several questions. What is God? Does God exist? If such God does exist, then where does this being come from? Why do believersRead MoreEssay about Rationalism and Empiricism1486 Words   |  6 Pagesphilosophers of epistemology are Rene Descartes and David Hume, the former being a rationalist, and the latter an empiricist. In this paper I will attempt to give an understanding of both rationalism and empiricism, show the ideas and contributions each of the men made to their respective schools, and hopefully give my personal reasoning why one is more true than the other. Rationalism was developed by several important philosophers all around the 17th century. Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibnitz are allRead MoreDescartes Reason Of Knowledge1675 Words   |  7 PagesDescartes Reasons of Knowledge It was once said by Renà © Descartes that, â€Å"if you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.† In other words, when one wants to pursue the knowledge of this world, one must be able to question possibilities before coming to a conclusion. Throughout the Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes discusses his thoughts in a coherent manner. He strongly states that ‘true knowledge’ is gained

Marketing Report Of Coca-Cola Amatil - Click Here to Get Solution

Question: Discuss about the Marketing Report of Coca-Cola Amatil. Answer: Introduction Marketing report provides the effective and necessary information about the entire market of a particular product of an organisation. A potential market report reveals the actual market situation of services or specific products regarding the demand, trend of market structure, price, volume of transaction and the quantity and quality of product (Wedel Kamakura, 2012). In this, present report, the external and internal environment analysis of Coca-Cola Amatil would be thoroughly discussed for further development of the process of production and the basic quality of the ingredients. At the end of this report, there is SWOT analysis that can offer a perfect view about the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threat of Coca-Cola Amatil. Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA) sells non-alcoholic beverages in the region of Asia Pacific and six countries including New Zealand, Australia, Samoa, Papua New Guinea and Fiji. The headquarter of Coca-Cola Amatil is situated in North Sydney of Australia. External analysis Market analysis The current situation of Coca-Cola Amatil in Australia suggests that this beverage company has contributed a weak price since few months, which is a compelling reason to damage the brand image of Coca-Cola Amatil. The management of Coca-Cola Amatil has decided to provide discounts on MT Franklin brand in order to regain the lost situation of this company in various cities of Australia. Coca-Cola Amatil enjoys the Oligopoly market structure as this company encounter very limited competition in the soft drink industry of Australia. Coca-Cola Amatil holds at least 67% market share in the industry in this current year. Within the end of this present year, the management has made effective strategies in order to capture minimum 70% market share after providing a tough competition to its competitor companies, such as PepsiCo and others. Coca-Cola Amatil operates in large scale in the entire market of beverage industry of Australia as this brand has already secured multi-million dollar from its position of constant growth. From the market survey and annual financial chart of Coca-Cola Amatil, it is a clear fact that the folks of Australia prefer this reputed brand only because of their quality and production process of variety of beverages rather than only carbonated drinks. The market of Coca-Cola Amatil is divided into two segments; the first segment includes the health conscious young people, aged in between 20-30 and prefers to drink energy and fruity flavoured drinks. However, the second segment consists of those customers who prefer carbonated soft drinks of Coca-Cola Amatil. No age and gender specification can be mentioned about this particular group and the market is completely divided into the soft drinks lover and non-soft drinks lover. Industry Analysis In order to understand the size, growth and attractiveness of non-alcoholic beverage industry of Australia, Porter's Five Forces can provide a detailed view of the business and the position of Coca-Cola Amatil in the beverage industry. Rivalry among existing company: Coca-Cola Amatil encounters a strong sense of competition among the existence of other enterprises in the beverage industry of Australia such as PepsiCo, Inc. Nestle Waters France and Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Inc. Bargaining power of customers: Tthov et al. (2013) have suggested that as there is a huge availability of non-alcoholic beverages from various companies, therefore, the bargaining power of customers of Coca-Cola Amatil is high rather than other regions throughout the world. Bargaining power of suppliers: The bargaining powers of suppliers are moderate for Coca-Cola Amatil in Australia because of a large number of availability of suppliers for the raw ingredients of this company. Threat of substitute products: The energy drinks, gourmet coffee from various luxurious coffee shops are the substitute products of the carbonated drinks of Coca-Cola Amatil. The inhabitants of Australia prefer flavoured non-alcoholic drinks instead of the aerated beverages of Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA). Threat of new Entrants: In opinion of Hattersley (2013) the potential threat arrives from small companies, which produce less expensive but tasty non-alcoholic beverages to satisfy the customers of Australia. Those companies provide energy drinks and sports drinks are a threat for Coca-Cola Amatil. Competitor analysis In order to retain the standing position in Australian beverages industry, Coca-Cola Amatil has adopted few effective strategies. Kotler competitor classification is an adequate tool for analysing and assessing the level of competition in a particular industry. Following this tool is thorough manner; Coca-Cola Amatil has selected at first the major competitor of it in beverage industry of Australia and has made strategies accordingly. The higher management of this company has chosen the desired goal and choose particular strategies. According to Metzger (2013), the basic aim of this tool is to provide the customers more facilities with the product in less expensive prices for satisfying them. Customer satisfaction is an important factor for any kind of organisation, which determines the level of competition in the industry. Kotler Competitor classification helps Coca-Cola Amatil to know in a detailed manner about the intense level of competition in the non-alcoholic beverage industry of Australia. For instance, the brand image, price, quality of product play a vital role in the retention of customers, and this determines the existence of constant increasing competition in the beverage industry. The major competitors of Coca-Cola Amatil are PepsiCo Inc and Nestle, therefore, Coca-Cola Amatil thoroughly follows the strategies of these two companies in order to understand in a critical manner the reason for popularity in the commercial beverages industry (Carlon, Tran Tran-Nam, 2013). In this continuing year, the financial report has revealed a necessary fact about the position of Coca-Cola Amatil with its competitor companies in the Australian industry of beverages. Every non-alcoholic drink producing company including, tea, coffee, sports and energy drinks followed the traditional models of competitor a nalysis to understand the competitive environment of the industry. Customers analysis Wade (2014) has mentioned that customers analysis helps a company to create an efficient and proper marketing plan according to the demand of its clients. It is a critical portion for identifying the targeted customers of Coca-Cola Amatil in order to ascertain the necessary requirements of the consumers with every specification about the satisfying criteria of them ("Our Brands," 2016). Customer analysis can be determined with a proper segmentation of users, which are very much significant with the fundamental interests, spending habits, gender and age of every customer. Customer analysis is a valuable tool to know in a thorough manner about the proper segmentation of targeted customers of Coca-Cola Amatil in Australia. Customer analysis of this company also helps to manage the suitable relationships in between the organisation and customers and the ultimate key to the opportunities that can curve the success of the enterprise. According to Andini Simatupang (2014), customer analysi s also helps to make an effective marketing plan for the further success of an organisation. Coca-Cola Amatil has engaged various potential managers to make a thorough market research about the commercial beverages industry of Australia and offer a suitable strategy to increase its standing position. Even with the service, quality of the product through an online website can facilitate the loyalty of customers. As cost is a key factor for retaining customers for every organisation, therefore, Coca-Cola Amatil gradually restructure the price of their soft drinks in order to satisfy the customers. The availability of other companies in the commercial beverages industry of Australia are huge, therefore, there are a large scope for the customers to switch over other companies that can offer them tasty soft drinks in less expensive price rather than Coca-Cola Amatil. Macroenvironment PESTLE analysis of Coca-Cola Amatil is suitable enough for determining the external factors that may affect the procedures of production. Political: Instability of the government, corruption and poor economy of Australia has a significant influence on the manufacturing process of Coca-Cola Amatil (Andreyeva et al. 2012). Economical: The economic condition of international level, high ranges of inflation rates of the beverages industry of Australia also influence the business of Coca-Cola Amatil in an excellent manner. This company also tries to deal indirectly with the other bottle organisations of international level. Social: Coca-Cola Amatil is solely concerned with the production of non-alcoholic beverages, which is nutritious as the demand for carbonated drink of this company is rejected, which pull down the sale revenues of Coca-Cola Amatil. Technological: According to Foster (2012) with developed technologies, Coca-Cola Amatil creates a vast range of opportunities in order to produce an entirely new product and make improvements of the carbonated beverages. Legal: Coca-Cola Amatil strictly follows the guidelines, rules and regulations of the government of Australia in order to produce the beverage products with proper-patented procedures. Environmental: Coca-Cola Amatil supports the local, international and national issues that are closely related to the production of carbonated drinks. In order to save the environment, this company monitors and assess every aspect of the manufacture of products. All these above-mentioned external factors are relevant for Coca-Cola Amatil as it directly affects the business and production of this particular company (Kotler, 2012). The microenvironment of an organisation includes various important factors such as the availability of essential resources and the necessary impact of it upon the entire business process and every individual, who are closely associated with the organisation and its every operation for attaining the desired goal of the company. Hamilton (2014) has suggested that the suppliers, customers, customer markets and the marketing intermediaries are an important part of the microenvironment that firmly determines the ultimate success of an organisation. Coca-Cola Amatil always tries to improve skills in order to create perfect and healthy soft drinks for the consumers. This company provides its employees a great workplace to perform in a suitable manner. The significant concentration of the higher management of the company is to maintain the brand image of Coca-Cola Amatil as it strengthens both the position in the beverage industry in Australia and the customer loyalty. It helps to build the relationship more firmly with the consumers. Coca-Cola Amatil enjoys stable, ethical and appropriate suppliers for the raw materials of producing the soft drinks and 24% growth in the industry with profitable sales revenue. However, some microenvironmental factors affect the standardized profit procedures of Coca-Cola Amatil in Australia (Baah Bohaker, 2015). Obesity has become an epidemic in most of the cities of Australia, which is the primary reason that customers are switching to the cheaper alternatives such as sports drinks and energy drinks instead of carbonated drinks from Coca-Cola Amatil. Internal environment Operations In order to attract the health conscious customers of Australia, the higher management of Coca-Cola Amatil has decided to produce some soft drinks without carbon dioxide and without sugar for producing low-calorie drinks. Diet Coke is an innovative creation of this company, which is very much popular among young people and the diet-oriented customers. In future, the management has plan to come up with something more innovative energy drinks in order to give a tough competition to its competitor companies in the commercial beverages industry of Australia. This strategy would help Coca-Cola Amatil to open up the basic range of market in the industry. The leaders of this company are creative enough to plan something completely new for catering the best to the customers. 4Ps are the best way to understand the internal operations of an organisation (Ccamatil.com, 2016). Product Coca-Cola Amatil produces carbonated soft drinks, Coca-Cola Zero, Coca-Cola Life and diet coke. With the potential help of the employees, this company tries to step forward to produce flavoured drinks n future. The present energy product of this company is mother and other non-alcoholic products are Zico and Fruity drink. Price AU$3.35-AU$5 Place In every cities of Australia, the non-alcoholic beverages of Coca-Cola Amatil are available. Coca-Cola Amatil targets the shopping malls, restaurants, food outlets and street side shops. Promotion Coca-Cola Amatil promotes the products mainly through social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snap chat. However, in television and magazines, there are also advertisements for the products of this company, which helps the customers in Australia to know about the newly launched products, outlets and any received awards (Kleemann Murphy-Bokern,2014). Table 1: 4Ps of Coca-Cola Amatil (Source: Freeman et al. 2014) Financials Financial figures from the annual report of Coca Cola Amatil: FY 2015 (in millions $) FY 2014 (in millions $) Revenue 5093.6 4942.8 Gross profit 1901.8 1875.4 Net profit 403.4 272.8 Total cost (4783.5) (4761.2) Total current assets 3128.0 2580.1 Total current liabilities 2001.3 1680.8 Inventories 733.9 686.1 Total assets 6667.4 6057.3 Total fixed cost Financial ratios of Coca Cola Amatil for 2014 and 2015: Financial Ratios 2015 2014 Gross profit ratio 37.33705042 37.94205713 Net profit ratio 7.919742422 5.51913895 Current assets ratio 1.56298406 1.535042837 Quick ratio 1.196272423 1.12684436 Debt ratio 0.300161982 0.277483367 ROI 8.433155639 5.729647988 In the above table, the financial performance of Coca Cola Amatil can be seen for the years 2014 and 2015. If the comparison is made between the financial performance of the company for 2014 and 2015, then it can be said that as per the net profit ratio, the profitability of the company has been improved in 2015 than that if 2014. However, the gross profit ratio of the company has been decreased a bit in 2015. On the other side, the liquidity position of the company was much stable in these two financial years and in 2015, it has improved. The debt ratio of the company has also enhanced, which indicates that the cost of the company has not increased much as compared to the revenue. At the same time, the return on investment of Coca Cola Amatil has increased in 2015 than that is 2014. All of these financial figures indicating that the company has improved its financial performance in 2015, which is good for the future financial years. Calculating the Break-Even point as per the assumptions: Total cost in 2015 $4783.5 millions Assuming 60% of the total cost of the company is fixed cost and rest 40% is variable cost Therefore, total fixed cost = $2870.1 million and total variable cost = $1913.4 million Total revenue for the year = $5093.6 million Assuming total number of units produced = 1000 million Therefore, contribution per unit= ($5093.6 - $1913.4) / 1000 million = $3.180 Therefore, Break Even Point = $2870.1 / $3.180 = 902.54 Product The current products of Coca-Cola Amatil include the carbonated soft drinks, energy drinks and fruity flavoured drinks and specification of the product attributes help the customers to know about every product in a detailed manner before buying any drinks. Every soft drink from Coca-Cola Amatil appears with completely different colour, flavour and taste from the other. Even the quality of the products and service of it are determined by the product attributes (Powell Gard, 2015). The present pricing of every product from Coca-Cola Amatil is not s much expensive. The higher management of this company usually decides the current price of every newly launched product only after a thorough market analyses and research about the product price of the competitor companies. Marketing plan is also created to fix a perfect pricing strategy for every product of Coca-Cola Amatil. This company is tremendously consistent with the pricing policy in order to satisfy the customers to the utmost leve l. SWOT Strengths Weaknesses The brand Coca Cola Amatil enjoys the brand value of AU$ 65,654 billion. This company is known for largest beverage organisation in Australia. Coca-Cola Amatil has a stable platform for advertising, marketing and promoting products (Brownell et al. 2012). The major weakness of this company is to produce carbonated drinks in large number rather than energy drinks. Coca-Cola Amatil lacks the process of diversification. Negative publicity about the carbonated drinks of this company hampers the business. Opportunities Threats The constant growth of drinking beverages is a large opportunity for Coca-Cola Amatil. Young customers prefer fruity drinks and energy drinks of Coca-Cola Amatil. There is a gradual increment of demand of bottled water in Australia, which becomes a potential opportunity for Coca-Cola Amatil. The primary cost of producing the beverages are reducing and it is an important opportunity for the concerned company. In the opinion of Terpstra Verbeeten (2014), the present generation prefers energy and sports drink rather than the carbonated soft drinks, which can generate a significant level of calorie. Coca-Cola Amatil has encountered with a heavy competition in the industry of carbonated drinks. Local brands in Australia provide the customers' more or less same taste of the beverages generated by Coca-Cola Amatil in less high price. The concerned company faces an intense competition from PepsiCo in recent times in various countries of Australia. The increased battle against the epidemic obesity in Australia is also a significant threat for Coca-Cola Amatil. Table 2: SWOT analysis (Source: Hamilton, 2014) The SWOT analysis is an appropriate platform for making a suitable marketing plan for a product. With the effective SWOT analysis, Coca-Cola Amatil can gather relevant information that can help to reach the desired target of the concerned company. References Andini, R. A., Simatupang, T. M. (2014). A process simulation of inventory planning and control for Minute Maid Pulpy at Coca-Cola. International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 17(1), 66-82. Andreyeva, T., Luedicke, J., Henderson, K. E., Tripp, A. S. (2012). Grocery store beverage choices by participants in federal food assistance and nutrition programs. American journal of preventive medicine, 43(4), 411-418. Baah, S., Bohaker, L. (2015). The Coca-Cola Company. Culture, 16, 17. Brownell, K. D., Farley, T., Willett, W. C., Popkin, B. M., Chaloupka, F. J., Thompson, J. W., Ludwig, D. S. (2012). The public health and economic benefits of taxing sugar-sweetened beverages. New England journal of medicine, 361(16), 1599-1605. Carlon, S., Tran, A., Tran-Nam, B. (2013, September). How close are taxable income and accounting profit? An empirical study of large Australian companies. In Australian Tax Forum (Vol. 28, No. 3, pp. 641-677). Ccamatil.com (2016) Health and Safety, Retrieved on: 10 Aug 2016, From: https://www.ccamatil.com/en/our-people-and-careers/health-safety Foster, R. J. (2012). Coca Globalization. John Wiley Sons, Ltd. Freeman, B., Kelly, B., Baur, L., Chapman, K., Chapman, S., Gill, T., King, L. (2014). Digital junk: Food and beverage marketing on Facebook.American journal of public health, 104(12), e56-e64. Hamilton, Margaret. "Drug Policy in Australia, Our Own?." Drug War American Style: The Internationalization of Failed Policy and Its Alternatives(2014): 97. Hattersley, L. (2013). Agri-food system transformations and diet-related chronic disease in Australia: a nutrition-oriented value chain approach.Agriculture and human values, 30(2), 299-309. Kleemann, L., Murphy-Bokern, D. (2014). Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the food sector: Effects of corporate responsibility (No. 1967). Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW). Kotler, P. (2012). Kotler on marketing. Simon and Schuster. Metzger, K. (2014). The Import of Culture? The Coca Cola Company in America and Australia. Our Brands. (2016). Ccamatil.com. Retrieved 11 August 2016, from https://www.ccamatil.com/en/our-businesses-and-brands/our-brands Powell, D., Gard, M. (2015). The governmentality of childhood obesity: Coca-Cola, public health and primary schools. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 36(6), 854-867. Terpstra, M., Verbeeten, F. H. (2014). Customer satisfaction: cost driver or value driver? Empirical evidence from the financial services industry.European Management Journal, 32(3), 499-508. Tthov, ., Hodosy, J., Mettenburg, K., Fbryov, H., Wagnerov, A., Bb kov, J., ... Celec, P. (2013). No harmful effect of different Coca-cola beverages after 6months of intake on rat testes. Food and chemical toxicology, 62, 343-348. Wade, G. (2014). Issues in Australian Foreign Policy January to June 2014.Australian Journal of Politics History, 60(4), 606-620. Wedel, M., Kamakura, W. A. (2012). Market segmentation: Conceptual and methodological foundations (Vol. 8). Springer Science Business Media.

Rondell Data Corporation Essay Example

Rondell Data Corporation Essay Organizational Theory and Design Case Study Analysis Rondell Data Corporation Case Analysis Abstract: The analysis of Rondell Data Corporation situation and discrepancies that were experienced throughout the company life cycle will help understanding the theory and design of organizations . By exploring the background of the problem, organizations functioning, the impact of organizational culture on the strategy and success of the company and problem identification, recommendations can be offered. Proposed solutions to the current discrepancies at Rondell Data Corporation will provide an increased understanding of the role of organizational structure related to the improvement and overall performance of a company. Rondell Data Corporation History: Bob Rondell who was the owner established the Rondell Data Corporation in 1920. The basis for its inception was the invention of several electrical testing devices. In 1947, the company entered into the radio broadcasting equipment market. By the early 1960’s, the company had increased its business to include data transmission equipment. The company had a reputation of being a source of high quality innovative designs and described itself as being able to â€Å"convert problems to solutions† in their sales brochures. By 1978, two major lines were recognized: broadcast equipment and data transmission. Broadcast equipment accounted for 35% of the company sales. Data transmission was also blossoming with increased demand for highly specialized and innovative designs. In 1920 the organization size was not known as it is a new in the market. However, by 1947, Rondell Corporation had reached 100 employees. We will write a custom essay sample on Rondell Data Corporation specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Rondell Data Corporation specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Rondell Data Corporation specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer By 1978, the time of the current dilemma, the employee count had reached to 800. The organizational structure of the Rondell Corporation is fairly flat with few layers for communication to flow. There was a lack of an integrated information structure within the company. An integrated information structure would have facilitated cross communication necessary to achieve the common goal. Key Personnel Bill Hunt, the current President. Bill Hunt has been with the firm since 1946. He was a student of Bob Rondell’s, and joined the company as an engineer. He became the assistant to the president in 1956 and president in 1960. Bill Hunt, along with Ralph Simon, Executive Vice President, holds enough stock to command effective control of the company. Dave Schwab, Production Manager, joined the company in 1955. Upon joining the company, he was instrumental in exposing widespread irregularities in the production and control departments. Following this, Dave was promoted to production manager, and brought in a new group of production specialists to the company. His exact education level is unknown, other than the fact that he does not have a degree. Ed â€Å"doc† Reeves is employed as Director of Research. He joined Rondell in 1960 and worked directly with Bill Hunt in developing major innovations in the data transmission equipment. He became director of research in 1967 and is widely respected in the Company. In fact, he is referred to as a creative genius. In the past, he had been offered the Director of Engineering position, but turned it down. Ron Porter, Vice President of Sales, has been with the company since 1957. Ron has a B. S. in engineering and has always worked in sales. He was made sales manager in 1967 and appointed Vice President of sales in 1974. Frank Forbus is the most recent hire. He joined the company in 1977 as Director of Engineering, replacing an employee who had been dismissed. Frank’s educational background includes a Master’s degree in engineering. His duties include administrative responsibility for research, as well as complete responsibility for engineering services. Prior to coming to Rondell, Frank Forbus worked as the division director of engineering in a large industrial firm. Current Situation Currently, the year is 1978 at the Rondell Data Corporation. There has been a gradual increase in disputes between research, engineering, sales, and production staff over the last 2-3 years. The disputes seem to center on the problem of new product introduction, and are focused on the engineering department. The engineering department is seen as being to blame for the etiology of the problems. The original Director of Engineering had held the position for 30 years. The current Director of Engineering, Frank Forbus, has only been in his position for 8 months. He has identified some communication issues between departments and upper management. In an attempt to rectify the communication problems, Forbus has instituted a new communication strategy with the production manager and the president concerning the latest product, the â€Å"802 Modulator. † During one of the meetings with the president and the production manager, the president interjects that a new â€Å"filtering design† will be added to the product with the expectation that engineering and production will solve any potential delays caused by this revision. Subsequently, the â€Å"802† design is shuttled back and forth between engineering and productionat least 4 times with the result of production staff assigned to another â€Å"rush† job. The company is faced with both internal dissatisfaction of employees and external dissatisfaction of their customers. Structure of the Engineering Function The outdated organizational structure of Rondell Data Corporation has contributed to much of the growing dissatisfaction . The organizational structure at Rondell follows a strictly functional approach. The functional areas are divided as Production, Sales, and Engineering. This model served it well in its beginnings as a small entity at that time. However, as Rondell has experienced major expansion, this structure is now seriously inhibiting Rondells future growth. Relying on personal relations, Rondell lacks the cohesive and clearly organized structure required of a larger company. As the company has grown, the different departments have grown at different rates and interactions have changed disproportionately. The engineering, research and development departments at Rondell are the major casualties of this irregular expansion. Although the overall organization theme at Rondell is along functional lines, engineering services seems to be the exception. Much of its workforce is distributed among the other departments. This distribution of personnel leaves engineering services without a clear mission or purpose and further blurs the lines of authority. The displacement of engineering personnel lacks integration and hinders the engineering services effective interaction and cooperation with other departments. The role of engineering services becomes amorphous and undefined. Ambiguity between Engineering Services Departement and and research role was still a matter of concern. Upper management describes the engineering services department (ESD) as being responsible for maintaining cooperation with other departments, providing services to the development engineers, and freeing more valuable people in research and development (Ramp;D) from essential activities that are diversions from and beneath their main competence. Obviously, Ramp;D is seen as the star of the organization, even though it appears to have the least interaction with the rest of ESD and the organization. The division of the ESD prohibits effective interaction with the other departments. Management had defined the role of engineering services as a cross-disciplinary, cross-functional group acting as the intermediary in allowing the rest of the organization to produce efficiently. However, the clear lack of authority of engineering services has rendered it essentially weakness. Interdepartmental friction arises from too much centralized control and an emphasis on staff positions over line positions. Organizational Culture Rondell corporation has a strong well established culture , but was now being replaced with subcultures. The subculture’s behaviors were incongruent with the overall organization’s previous values. This incongruency gives rise to many conflicts and decreasing productivity of the organization. The Length of employment process was highly valued and in some cases was the basis for selection of key individuals. Informal relationships were the means used to communicate and accomplish the goals of the organization. There was very little formal structure within the company and little respect for the hierarchical structure by most members. Each department was held responsible to take care of its members regardless of the impact on the overall organization. â€Å"For several years, the firm had experienced a steadily increasing number of disputes between research, engineering, sales, and production people† (Seeger, J. , â€Å"Rondell Data Corporation). Each department, using a high external locus of control, found reasons to blame the other departments for Rondell’s decline in profitability. When originally founded in 1920 as Rondell Equipment Co. the organization’s values based on a tradition of â€Å"a long-standing reputation as a source of high-quality, innovative designs† led to an elitist mentality. This Traditional-Elitist model made it hard for the organization to adapt to growth and rapid change. â€Å"The real test of the effectiveness of a corporate culture comes when the organization’s environment changes. Bill Hunt gave little leadership in growing the organization and was not visionary in diagnosing the changes that would besiege Rondell. With the new generation of employees, a more formalized structure was needed. The strong â€Å"family† culture had become dysfunctional, giving way to divergent subcultures. As the differences between the individuals became more and more apparent, the members began to identify more with their own profession or department and less with the organization as a whole. These subcultures began to function as countercultures and pitted one member against the other. Organizational Descrepancies and Changes for Success Rondell has a typical organization by Function. The functional design works for companies with few products because all functions are working toward the same goal; develop, build and ship the product. Additionally, this design is most efficient when departmental tasks are relatively independent of each other. Ideally this design is suited to encourage specialization, but problems develop when people develop tunnel vision and tend to perceive multifunctional problems from the vantage point of their narrow area of expertise. One of the most significant issues facing the Rondell Corporation in relationship to the structure of the company is the fact that the entire performance system enabled, and indeed seemed to encourage, individuals to see their own performance as separable from the enterprise as a whole (Ott, J. 1996). In an organization with many product lines, functionally structured organizations can loose track of the importance of individual products or new product development efforts and fail to provide the functional integration needed. Rondell’s external environment has changed and their product breath has grown to two major lines with an increasing number of order s calling out unique specifications. New product introductions at Rondell require timely, integrated efforts. In the model 802 project, new changes have been introduced by Doc Reeves . However, an integrated team would be better equipped to make such a call versus an individual Director. An integrated team would consist of representation from design, purchasing and manufacturing. Instead, the â€Å"wrong call† made by Doc Reeves has put a heavy workload on Engineering and Drafting employees. Another example of the problems caused by functional design and centralized decision making is Dave Schwab’s Thanksgiving review of the 802 prints. Dave Schwab reviews the prints and makes decisions that are not within his scope. And without involving the concerned parties. Frank Forbus and Engineering Services appear to be taking the brunt of the blame. The actual blame lies within the organizational structure and design of the Rondell Data Corporation and its segregated departments. The organizational culture of Rondell Corporation is one that values age, experience, and seniority. All key management personnel have been with the company over 15 years. There has been minimal turnover, except for the Engineering Department. There have been references made to past failures of personnel, secondary to being â€Å"too young. Maintaining â€Å"family spirit† is important to the company in the sense that a more â€Å"high tech† manner of communication was never implemented, even with the growth of the company over time. Management seems to highly value the â€Å"personal touch† and sees this as the most effective method for communication to facilitate business practices. Since culture is the focus for an organization’s strategies, Frank Forbes failed to see that before he would be able to have any affect on the strategies at Rondell, he would need to change the culture. Frank was not able to empower himself or obtain management’s empowerment to begin the process of changing the culture at Rondell. Formal structures were needed along with a breaking down of the silos that had been formed by the functional groups. For Rondell to improve their productivity and increase their chances of survival in the changing industry, a cross-sectional team model, combining the inputs from sales, research, engineering, and production, would have assisted in enabling Rondell achieving its goals. Because of the centralized and functional scheme, resources are being diverted with engineers being called away to production to deal with problems. Additionally, design needs to be aligned more with sales and with research. Recommendations: The organizational structure of Rondell should be changed to resolve the issues of poor communication and inefficient development processes and forget their past organizational structure. In addition, Rondell needs to find a better way of developing products, communicating information and making timely decisions. It appears that in the short term, a change to a Product Line focused Organization structure would help bring focus to new product development and push down decision making to the people most involved with the product line. A realignment of how people, tasks and tools are assigned to projects or product lines needs to be looked at and rectified. The current centralized management structure is making ineffective decisions and reducing the effectiveness and responsiveness of the company. The company needs to make a shift from vertical decision making to managing cross-departmental work processes. A relationship map for Rondell showing the systems view of the organization, including the customer, product and flow of work will highlight the deficiencies in the organization. In summary, we recommend the following major changes: 1. Retain the services of a qualified consulting team to help the management team. 2. An Organizational Design process should be initiated to determine the best organizational structure for the company. Our assumption is the new organizational structure will be product line focused. 3. A cross-functional approach should be taken to accomplish key company tasks such as new product development. . Decisions be pushed down into cross-functional teams who have the responsibility for delivering a timely, quality and manufacturable product. 5. Teambuilding should be a priority at Roundel with the stoppage of the constant finger. Organizational wide efforts should be made at breaking down functional barriers and creating an environment of team participation and d ecision making. 6. Engineering Services should add a project management function to aid the team in coordination, planning and monitoring project progress.