Corporate Universities\"-Investigation of Their Development

Corporate universities"-investigation of their development internationally in the field/sector of tourism.

In this paper, it will be discussed how corporate universities function internationally and otherwise. From there, their development process of tourism will be discussed and how it is affecting its organized culture. Going public will be addressed as an option in order to improve the development of tour. Finally, this paper will concluded the development has had many successes despite their slow start but will continue to defeat them.

Corporate universities fall under the direction of motivation by the following example, which helps them with the plans with the sector of tourism. "Corporate universities are created for different purposes. Some are developed to bring fresh life to the old training and development department. Others are designed to bring change and embrace a variety of new strategies and initiatives. Still others are meant to sustain a successful and effective culture. Disney University, one of the oldest corporate universities, was created to sustain a culture created by Walt Disney Whatever the reason, the specific role of the corporate university needs to be clarified so the organization recognizes its purpose, mission, vision, values and strategic focus. More importantly, the strategic plan must clearly connect and link to organizational strategy. Sometimes there is confusion as to the products and services provided by a corporate university when compared to other learning units. When there are unclear expectations, roles and objectives, the corporate university is perceived as just another channel for training and not a strategic player in the organization game" (Twelve Success Factors for Corporate Universities). This has affected corporate universities development in tourism.

1.2 Objective

The development of tourism internationally with corporate university has a lot of advantages and disadvantages. "The workshop on Marketing sustainable tourism products: challenges and opportunities was convened in Florence, Italy on 5th November 2004 during the 4th Euromeeting: European Regions, Tourism and Sustainable Development which is organised annually by the Region of Tuscany in collaboration with the Committee of the Regions of the European Union"(Marketing sustainable tourism products). This paper also wants to support the following points in tourism and corporations that have corporate universities.

A distribution channels are key to increase the exposure of sustainable suppliers, and to capitalise on the latent market demand for sustainability by changing behaviour in non-sustainable firms Marketing sustainable tourism products) few channels have high equity, but many of them offer a good cost-benefit ratio, hence efforts are needed to provide opportunities for businesses Marketing sustainable tourism products) policies should encourage industry associations and individual distribution channels to introduce sustainability criteria for their suppliers Marketing sustainable tourism products) stepped approach could first introduce criteria where eco-savings can be made, and where sustainability is part of the quality evident to the client, as well as customer education Marketing sustainable tourism products) destination management organisations and tourist boards are useful to create destination brands and can act as sales portals Marketing sustainable tourism products) certification schemes are increasingly setting standards for tourism firms and providing guidance, but their implementation is not widespread and with low equity and low consumer recognition they are a tool for business to business lobbying Marketing sustainable tourism products) internet retailing has the potential to reach a broader market but for the inexperienced tourism firm much training is needed, with priorities such as managing risk perception of consumers if operating their own website, to possibly paying high commissions for discounted last minute travel sites. Marketing sustainable tourism products)

Chapter 2 Market Analysis

2.1 Background of the tourism sector

In the sector of tourism, Hong Kong is one of the major international financial centre in the world. As at the end of 2005, Hong Kong ranked the 8th by market capitalization among members of the World Federation of Exchanges.

In late 2002, Hong Kong participated in the Financial Sector Assessment Programme (FSAP), a joint International Monetary Fund (IMF)-World Bank initiative designed to promote financial stability and assess compliance with key international codes and standards covering various financial services sectors. The FSAP exercise was concluded in June 2003 with the issuance of a final report, which confirmed that the financial system of Hong Kong is fundamentally sound and that the market infrastructure is robust and efficient" (Hong Kong as an International Financial Centre).

2.2 International

The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (SEHK), operates two markets on which companies may choose to list their shares: the Main Board and the Growth Enterprise Market.

The trading system of the Exchange is an order-driven system. HKEx securities market operates on two trading platforms - the Main Board and the Growth Enterprise Market (GEM). Each trading platform has a different set of requirements. The Main Board is the market for capital growth by established companies that meet profit requirements. Meanwhile, the Growth Enterprise Market provides a fund raising venue for 'high growth, high risk' companies. It promotes the development of technology industries and venture capital investments" (Hong Kong Stock Exchange).

The two markets are of equal standing but have a distinct profile to cater to the different needs of companies. The Main Board is a market for established companies with profitable operating track records. The Growth Enterprise Market (GEM) is a new market established in November 1999 for enterprises from all industries that have growth potential, however do not have a performance track record.

The stock market is an important fund-raising centre for Mainland enterprises. As at end-2003, of the 93 Mainland incorporated enterprises listed outside the Mainland (H shares), 92 were quoted on the SEHK. The daily turnover of these H-shares and red chips accounted for 38.7 per cent of the total market turnover. In 2003, about $50.4 billion was raised in new listings of H-shares and red chips in Hong Kong, accounting for some 85 per cent of the total funds raised in initial public offerings (IPO) on the SEHK. The market capitalisation of H-shares and red chips accounted for about 29 per cent of the total market capitalisation. During 2003, the H-share index surged by 152 per cent. It is expected that Mainland issuers will continue to be a major growth driver of the securities market of Hong Kong in the future" (Hong Kong as an International Financial Centre).

According to the Fact book of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited, a total of 934 listed companies on the Main Board. Fifty-seven Companies newly listed on Main Board in 2005 (9 were H. share companies), raised a total capital of HK$165.0 billion of new capital.

As at the end of 2005, total market capitalization of the Main Board was HK$8,113.3 billion, which is a 22.4% increased when compared with 2004. The average daily turnover of the Main Board in 2005 was Hk$18.2 billion, up 15% from that in 2004. Therefore, the importance of the SEHK cannot be underestimated. Carrying out research in the Hong Kong tourism market increases understanding of the market and also the phenomenon in the market place.

Hong Kong has a well established legal system based on English common law which provides a strong and attractive foundation for companies to raise funds as well as confidence to investors.

Hong Kong's business leaders, unlike many lawyers, so far seem relatively unfazed by the matter. John Chan, the managing director of Kowloon Motor Bus, one of the biggest transportation companies in Hong Kong, said that he viewed the squabble as a matter for politicians, not a threat to the legal system as it applied to business dealings. But legal, financial and political matters are not always so easily compartmentalized. Hong Kong, which was reunited with China in 1997, having been in British hands since 1841, was supposed, under the terms of the handover, to enjoy a high degree of autonomy for the next 50 years. But now, one of the biggest risks for Hong Kong may be institutional paralysis, as short-term leaders grow reluctant to pursue bold policies that could imperil their reappointments. For example, Henry Tang, the financial secretary and a likely candidate this summer or in 2007 to become chief executive, put forward a budget on Wednesday noteworthy for its lack of new policies" (Bradsher, Keith 2005).

Apart from Hong Kong Financial Reporting Standards and International Financial Reporting Standards, SEHK also accepts the use of generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America ("U.S. GAAP") or other accounting standards by companies under certain circumstances.

All companies incorporated in Hong Kong are subject to a statutory audit and there are currently approximately 600,000 such companies with approximately 1000 being listed companies and the rest primarily SMEs. Furthermore, approximately 83% of the accounting firms in Hong Kong are sole practitioners with another 13% having only two partners (this group is hereafter referred to as "sole practitioners and small accounting firms").

It is very common for Hong Kong sole practitioners and small accounting firms to provide both auditing and non-auditing services to the abovementioned SMEs and accordingly, we request the Exposure provides more guidance on safeguards that may be applicable for sole practitioners and the small accounting firms. In summary, we recommend that the IESBA reconsiders the proposals in the Exposure Draft and provides more guidance on safeguards applicable to sole practitioners and small accounting firms to ensure that the benefits of the changes outweigh the costs to SMEs. Under a principle-based approach, there should be safeguards and practical relief for all practitioners rather than rules-based outright prohibitions. The rewrite of this Independence component of the Code is substantially rules-based rather than principles-based. In this regard, we also encourage the IESBA to prioritize the redrafting of the entire Code using a similar drafting convention to that used by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board in its Clarity project" (IESBA Exposure Draft of Sections 290 and 291 of the Code of Ethics on Independence - Proposed Additional Requirements in relation to Internal Audit Services, Relative Size of Fees and Contingent Fees 2007).

There will also be an all-time high in direct air capacity from the important U.S. market, with a total of 35,000 seats to the island each week, a 20% increase when compared to last year. Following the recent "Open Skies" arrangements, Tourism Ireland is working closely with Shannon Development and tourism interests across the Mid West with a view to maximising opportunities for the west coast in 2007 and beyond.Great Britain, our largest and most important source market for tourism to the island of Ireland, has enjoyed continued growth in access capacity in the past few years and now represents over 54% of all air access. Summer 2007 will see a slight softening in capacity, down -1.7%; however, there are still a very healthy 250,000 seats available each week.

Hong Kong boasts sound and solid securities and banking sectors which are supported by a strong trading, clearing and settlement infrastructure. Further, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's U.S. Dollar Clearing System allows local financial institutions to settle U.S. dollar transactions real time in the Asian time zone against the delivery of Hong Kong dollars, instead of 12 hours later in the New York time zone. This reduces the foreign exchange settlement risk caused by the time gap between the settlement of Hong Kong dollars and U.S. dollar.

In the financial markets, clearing and settlement systems refer to the arrangements (not just the machinery) for the clearing and subsequent settlement of transfer of funds or securities between financial institutions. These funds or securities could be denominated in local or foreign currencies and the transfer could take place within the same jurisdiction or across the border. Thus a set of robust and efficient clearing and settlement arrangements is the cornerstone of the financial intermediation activities in an international financial centre (Clearing and Settlement Systems Ordinance 2004).

2.3. Technology

Along with that, in order for corporate universities to develop a successful relationship in the sector tourism, they could use software to keep an eye on the industry by teaching employees how to use it. From there, the technology helps corporations have an insight into tourism by doing the following.

A data, information and technology are open source, rather than hidden under proprietary ownership (the New World of Travel 2.0: Applications of Social Software in the Travel and Tourism Industry, and in Teaching a Sustainable Tourism Course) new applications and web sites are making the global marketplace of ideas and products open to everyone, which is allowing new businesses can be established without the huge start up funds from venture capitalists that were common in the 1990s (the New World of Travel 2.0: Applications of Social Software in the Travel and Tourism Industry, and in Teaching a Sustainable Tourism Course) these new applications and web sites are democratizing the tools of production, enabling greater diversity, allowing more customized streams of information and sales, and fostering the emergence of "a billion niche markets." (the New World of Travel 2.0: Applications of Social Software in the Travel and Tourism Industry, and in Teaching a Sustainable Tourism Course)

In order to develop a strategy in tourism, corporate universities can do the following with the software so the employees can better serve consumers.

Listening to markets and consumers. By providing a public sounding board or forum for consumers of a company's products, a company can demonstrate its transparency and trustworthiness. Businesses need to be open to being trashed by consumers, in order to both learn from them and to build their trust (the New World of Travel 2.0: Applications of Social Software in the Travel and Tourism Industry, and in Teaching a Sustainable Tourism Course).

Creating user communities. Social networks can be created through open source Web sites. Such a Web site would include reasons for people to feel a part of the community of other users. Users would need to feel that they are benefiting from belonging to the website (the New World of Travel 2.0: Applications of Social Software in the Travel and Tourism Industry, and in Teaching a Sustainable Tourism Course).

Creating business alliances. This is similar to creating a user community, but involves a community of businesses who are working together either formally or informally. This approach is also known as the "distributed business" (the New World of Travel 2.0: Applications of Social Software in the Travel and Tourism Industry, and in Teaching a Sustainable Tourism Course).

2.4 Benchmarking

Companies and corporations must research a program prior to implementation to ensure it will be successful, and to determine any potential failures. Companies realize a successful process at another company does not guarantee the program will work in every business model. Research is a diligent and systematic inquiry or investigation into a subject in order to discover or revise facts, theories or applications. Benchmarking is a way to compare how one company does business with another in the same industry. Benchmarking occurs when a company wishes to develop new plans and ideas and wishes to see how other like companies has been successful. Benchmarking requires many hours of research to determine the risks associated with implementing the processes and removes the stigma of "it has always been done this way" while allowing for a variation to problem solving. It uses a review of best practices and though costly, the benefits will outweigh the costs. By using benchmarking practices, companies can implement new and improved business practices and develop plans which will help them succeed. From there, after benchmarking other companies and corporations, corporate universities can get reach new employees and customers for their corporation to develop a successful tourism sector.

After benchmarking Novartis and Genzyme similarities were apparent about the importance of strong, cohesive, high performance teams working hard for the organization, those teams can make the difference between reaching the goals and losing the company and not be that strong for an IPO Offering. Team work in both organizations has allowed them to grow from the ground into well respected billion dollar companies that are serving the community around the world. A strong organizational culture has also been crucial to the success of Novartis and Genzyme; both organizations have merged with smaller companies along their journey and integrated their cultures to create a new stronger culture to guide their employees to success (McShane and Von Glinow, 2004).It is very important for Genzyme and Novartis to enhance the quality of life of their consumers. They have become committed to producing innovative products to provide affordable quality health options to patients. Similarly, the company produced biochemical products to enhance the lives of farmers and produce better and healthier vegetables for the consumers. The scientists at Novartis and Genzyme worked night and day knowing that the executives of their companies cared about their hard work and shared their vision. Emotional intelligence was used by the team of executives in both companies to train their management, knowing how to treat the employees and creating a good working environment for them assures job satisfaction and commitment to the company, which manage a good IPO Offering. (McShane and Von Glinow, 2004).

To satisfy the SEC -- " which acknowledges that the first year was a learning curve and a "substantial" undertaking -- " companies should focus less on their processes and more on what led them to their final compensation decisions, the commission suggests. The SEC's comments to the companies it reviewed range from major changes -- " such as refocus the gist of the CD&a -- " to minor ones, such as increase the font size of a footnote for readability. "We seek... more direct, specific, clear, and understandable disclosure," the SEC wrote. "We believe this will foster enhanced and more informative executive compensation disclosure." Indeed, the SEC commented on companies' methods of benchmarking executive pay with those of peers. The SEC wants companies to specify which companies they are comparing themselves with and what types of compensation are considered in those comparisons. In addition, the commission frowned upon companies that benchmarked compensation based on "a vague or broad range of data" from peers; it wants companies to be more specific about where their own compensation falls in that range" (SEC on Pay Disclosure: Less Conversation, More Analysis 2007).

The SEC also made these observations and recommendations: (SEC on Pay Disclosure: Less Conversation, More Analysis 2007).

The SEC staff issued more comments related to pay-for-performance targets because they didn't understand how companies used those goals or how those targets affect their compensation decisions. If companies think including a specific target could put them at a competitive disadvantage, they should explain why (SEC on Pay Disclosure: Less Conversation, More Analysis 2007).

Companies may find it necessary to include previous years' targets to give their current compensation plans context. In fact, the SEC has asked companies to include prior-year and current-year targets when they indicated that those targets were material to understanding a certain pay package. (SEC on Pay Disclosure: Less Conversation, More Analysis 2007).

Approximately two-thirds of the reviewed companies included charts that weren't required by the SEC rules (SEC on Pay Disclosure: Less Conversation, More Analysis 2007).

2.5 Organizational Cultural

In this situation, the CEO should be aware on how employees should be treated since he should be required to treat employees as a partner in his business. From there, there, he should use Emotional Intelligence, which is a theory that managers and CEO's understand their employees emotions. This helps them to communicate effectively and it makes the employees feel they are on the page. This approach generated loyalty and challenged the employees to make the business a success. Each employee should be offered stock options and given a portion of the profits as an incentive to keep working toward higher customer satisfaction. Motivation and communication are additional ways the CEO could create happy employees. "Corporate universities have advantages in providing basic training courses closely related to the industries or the businesses their companies engage in. Senior managers of the enterprise can offer very good guidance for junior staff" (Corporate University 2007). Challenging employees allows him or her to be creative and generate new ideas or product lines that will increase sales and/or customer satisfaction. Listening to employees opinions is vital to success. The people who work the frontline of any business will have ideas on how to better the processes. Some companies used an approach uncommon to most CEO's; walking around the store to meet and greet the associates and customers. This approach allowed the consumers the opportunity to tell him how well he or she liked the store and offer suggestions for change. The associates liked this approach because it made him an approachable CEO who was willing to listen to employees and customers.

The International Centre for Responsible Tourism (ICRT) at Leeds Metropolitan University is a post-graduate training and research centre. The ICRT has played a leading role in the responsible tourism movement through research and development work with the industry and government, and our students are playing leading roles in this movement.

In this report, it is apparent that the company should use strategic planning in order to deal with the issues since it determines the overall direction and goals of the organization. Consequently, strategic planning influences numerous aspects of the organization, including what, in strategic planning, a) Products and services will be provided by the business and how those products and services will be designed b) Organizational design and roles are needed by the organization. c) Performance goals are established for positions throughout the business. d) Board committees should be developed (in the case of corporations. e) Resources are needed to reach those goals, and consequently, how much money is needed to procure those resources -- ultimately, the goals determine the content of various budgets ("Develop strategic plan" 2007).

Competition from similar products, changing technology and increasing costs all play their part in putting pressure on firms to keep rethinking and expanding. Mergers are more and more frequent and many businesses have expanded to become global organizations. But if growth is sometimes the only option it is also very often a risky one. Expansion demands investment of time, money and people and has to be carefully managed to bring the desired returns. Though there is a way to increase the odds of success: simple and effective communication in all directions. "Organizations are faced with difficult decisions on a daily basis; depending on how they overcome the challenges will determine their success rate. Companies are only as strong as the people they have working for them so in order to come out on top companies must hire the people with the specialties required to accomplish the overall goal" ("ABM" 2007)

The ICRT works with the Federation of Tour Operators on training and curriculum development and has undertaken policy development and training on responsible tourism in destinations in Bhutan, India, South Africa and the Gambia. The course is international and case studies are drawn from four continents - the principles of responsible tourism are as applicable in London as they are in a village in Vietnam. All of the staff are active in research and consultancy and course participants benefit from this cutting-edge knowledge and faculty contacts.

In order to overcome the issues, the CEO needs to consider group thinking and conformity so that everyone can work together. Working on a team can be very rewarding and exciting, but also frustrating if some of the team member are not committed to the team. Building a high performance team requires time, collaboration and most importantly communication. A team is described as a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. Group thinking and conformity focuses on the interpersonal transaction between managers and employee. Leaders are seen as engaging in behaviors that maintain a quality interaction between themselves and followers. The company is lacking group thinking and conformity because no one is willing to work together.

We have over 100 years of experience in the development of future leaders. We offer expert facilitators who are second to none. We flex to meet your preferred style of learning. We capitalize on state-of-the-art instructional technology to provide you with exciting multimedia learning experiences. We promote student-centered classes with interactive, hands-on learning that simulate real-life experiences. We lead classes that are always practical, timely, and relevant" ("Macys").

In order to be an effective company, they have to conform as one so that productivity can be increased to make high profits. This effective form of communication and teamwork allowed people in the park with no problems because the team was organized and knew the proper procedure. A successful team also requires active listening, empathy, and being truly committed. The Vice President of Disney said that, "You must have both passionate and skilled people as part of your team." Balance their strength and weaknesses, he added, "but never lose sight of the audience. Put yourself in their point-of-view." (); Muret, D., 1999).

Employees are upset with the way management is handling business decisions. They feel that they are not being guided properly in order to be a successful employee at the company. This shows that the employees are being told all different things and don't have one strategy that they need to follow. It has been told that they have a big picture that they need to achieve which is customer intimacy. The manager needs to not only formulate a strategy on how to achieve the big picture but also a monthly guide so each employee knows exactly what they need to do to be successful. Once the employees are given this information it is their responsibility to run with it. Macys offers their employees training that empowers them with the skills and tools they need to grow and develop the business. They also have safety policies for their employees because they come first.

When new cast members leave Traditions at Disney's corporate university, they're trained, but the motivation, the desire to perform well on the job, the feeling like you can make a difference is not about people in training, it's about great leadership," says Parker. "My role then becomes how do we train and orient new leadership to create an environment where cast members can have their opinions heard, can feel like they are contributing and can be motivated each day to come in and give us great quality. That becomes the long-term power of the Disney organization: having great leaders who create an environment where people want to do their best. They want to do their job in 90-degree heat and 98-percent humidity, and keep on smiling while they are doing it because they feel like they are adding value and contributing." (Disney corporate).

In order to overcome the issues, the CEO needs to consider group thinking and conformity so that everyone can work together. Group thinking and conformity focuses on the interpersonal transaction between managers and employee. Leaders are seen as engaging in behaviors that maintain a quality interaction between themselves and followers. The company is lacking group thinking and conformity because no one is willing to work together. In order to be an effective company, they have to conform as one so that productivity can be increased to make high profits.

Assess: The first phase of initiating change is to define the starting point. It is important to examine those parts of the business that can be measured (such as quality metrics and revenue figures), but it is also important to take into account those aspects of your culture and values that cannot be easily measured. Getting employees involved at every level is important throughout the change process. However, their involvement at this stage is particularly critical, so that management does not end up subscribing to false beliefs based on strong egos or emotions (Frazee 2004).

Describe the Ideal Outcome: The next step in the process is to describe a vision of the future for the company. Most companies describe their vision in terms of future market share or revenue growth. A vision can be much more powerful for every individual in the organization if it extends beyond such competitive measures. Visions that align with each employee's sense of purpose will begin to bridge the gap between organizational success and employee empowerment (Frazer 2004).

Determine Ways to Achieve the Ideal Outcome: Create several methods for accomplishing your objectives. At this point, do not spend time evaluating each idea, because even bad ideas can generate fantastic ones. Precious little time is spent using our creative selves in the business world. Unleashed creativity and the ability to consider new ideas can result in success stories like eBay, Tivo and Amazon.com (Frazee 2004).

Encourage Debate on Potential Courses of Action: It is paramount at this stage to facilitate a culture of conflict. Each potential course of action should have a number of people working to debate its validity and a number of people communicating the opportunities it presents. Titles should be left at the door so an atmosphere is created where differences of opinion are celebrated (Frazee 2004).

Establish Mechanisms for Measuring and Rewarding Success: In order to execute a plan, you must determine how you will know if you are succeeding. Companies tend to fall into one of two extremes when it comes to measurement. Either they are led by analytical individuals and measure down to the most esoteric of statistics, or else they do not even bother to measure the most fundamental of success metrics. For each of your goals, you should have a clear, yet simple, way of assessing if you are hitting the mark (Frazee 2004).

Create an Implementation Plan: After the healthy debate has taken place and the best ideas have emerged, it is time to create an implementation plan. The plan should consist of goals that are specific, measurable, realistic, have a deadline and establish individual and team ownership and accountability. Each department in the company should set individual plans that align with the overall goals, so that each resource in the company is harmoniously focused on achieving the same overall results (Frazee 2004).

Develop Contingency Plans: Having a solid plan can be a real asset in achieving your goals. However, all too often, things go wrong that were not anticipated during the planning process. Precious time can be lost as a new plan must be created to deal with new obstacles. We have the capacity to predict some of the aspects of our plans that could go wrong and determine ways to handle a change in course down the road. These plans do not have to be as detailed as your implementation plan, but they can serve as a tremendous guide, should things go awry in your initial plans (Frazee 2004).

According to McShane and Von Glinow (2005), organizational culture is a basic pattern of shared values, assumptions and beliefs considered to be the correct way of thinking about and acting on problems and opportunities facing an organization (pg. ____). This change in culture caused panic for employees and the beliefs and attitudes started to change about the future of their company. They were unsure about the future of the company because many employees were reconsidering staying at the company. Overall, the change of environment caused an attitude change for employees in both companies.

Starting in 1927, a professor from Harvard University undertook a series of studies to determine how variations in lighting and humidity produced differing levels of employee productivity in a manufacturing plant. When the light increased, productivity went up. Since rules of effective research dictated testing more than one condition, the experimenters also decreased the intensity of the lights. Again, productivity improved. Similar studies were conducted with humidity and later with psychological aspects, such as group pressure, leadership style and working hours. Regardless of the variable that was manipulated, productivity was shown to increase. The key discovery in this series of studies was not which conditions most maximized productivity. Rather, the studies eventually concluded that the productivity of workers increased simply because the researchers were paying attention to them (and showing interest in them). The insights gained from these studies changed the development of organizational leadership. The researchers learned that productivity could be maximized when employees felt as though their needs were being considered by receiving attention for their work. This phenomenon became known as the Hawthorne Effect. It is as true today as it was during the last century that paying attention to our human assets produces tremendous results (Frazee 2004).

When looking at changing a culture in a company, one can view it as a positive or negative change. The change of culture was negative when the merger did not go as they had planned. Stock dropped and failed to rise after the second quarter and is still struggling to break above the flat-line. They found that to maintain and improve their technology more funds and resources were needed. Also the company lost thousands of customers due to dissatisfaction and the lack of service improvement for existing technology. The change in culture caused the employees more stress then necessary.

Leadership can make or break any company based on their decisions and how they approach the employees they represent. If anyone has seen television in the last eight months they have seen the struggle between management and one of the main employees that they currently employee. There have been many jabs from the CEO of DEI and Dale Earnhardt Jr. that has caused a strain in the relationship and the rest of the employees. Dale Jr. has complained about the lack of involvement or participation of the company's CEO. Rather than keeping the issues in house the CEO and Dale Jr. continued to voice their opinions outwardly. A good manager would have stopped the issue from becoming public because that only creates uncertainty of the future of the company. There will be conflicts between managers and employees but it is up to the manager to correct the actions and resolve the problems.

Almost all organizations possess some aspect of at least one of the detrimental patterns described above. As an organization grows or encounters drastic change, there are bound to be bumps along the road. As learning professionals, we have a strong responsibility to identify problem patterns and to champion more effective patterns of behavior. Too much emphasis on hierarchy can be transformed into an empowered organization with strong leaders. Management teams who rely on power and use fear-based techniques can be transformed into leaders who use positive influence to get initiatives accomplished. A company that constantly fights fires can be transformed into one that focuses on long-term objectives. Even managers who focus more on their own pride than organizational results can be transformed into results-oriented leaders who derive inspiration from others' successes. (Frazee 2004).

Organizational culture is "the basic pattern of shared assumptions, values and beliefs governing the way employees with in an organization think about and act on problems and opportunities" (McShane and Von Glinow, 2005). Organizational structure is "the division of labor and the patterns of coordination, communication, work flow, and formal power that direct organizational activities" (McShane and Von Glinow, 2005). By recognizing and supporting the culture and structure of a company, changes can be successfully made with minimal resistance. In fact, "...some organizational behavior experts conclude that the only way is ensure any lasting change is to align cultural values with those changes" (McShane and Von Glinow, 2005). Another article indicates that the two factors can dramatically affect the success of changes (Johnson-Cramer, Parise and Cross, 2007).

Construction time has been acknowledged by construction researchers and industry practitioners over the past three decades as one of the most important performance criteria of many successful projects. This raises an increasing global concern about benchmarking best practice measures of construction time performance (CTP) for use by clients, consultants and contractors in the construction industry. Previously derived statistical time models were first reviewed in this paper. A questionnaire survey was then undertaken to identify a set of critical factors influencing construction durations of high-rise public housing projects in Hong Kong. Data were gleaned from a representative sample of 56 standard 'Harmony'-type residential blocks via mailed standard questionnaires. Multiple regression exercises were performed to analyse the project data and establish a prediction model. The results suggested that the overall construction duration of such projects could be modelled on the basis of a set of scope factors, construction method and housing scheme chosen. Predicted durations calculated from the developed model were then compared and assessed against actual durations achieved on-site. The concept of CTP index, which represents the predicted durations of individual projects relative to their actual observed durations, was applied as a useful means for evaluating and benchmarking their CTP. Practical applications of the developed model were also explained. Another construction time prediction model is envisaged to be formulated for private sector housing blocks in Hong Kong for local and international comparisons" "(Developing a benchmark model for project construction time performance in Hong Kong 2003).

In the examples of Mitsubishi and Federated Department Stores, both companies have embraced the concept of eminent change. Mitsubishi incorporates change into their culture and emphasizes that change is a good thing. They have seen positive growth as a result. Federated has been acquiring stores all over the country and has had to adapt their culture and structure to accommodate the varying cultures/structures. So far, these companies have been successful in their attempts to utilize culture and structure to facilitate change.

The course is practically orientated and is designed for those who want to make a difference playing their part in improving tourism, whether in the private or public sector. The course attracts young professionals and career change or career development professionals in their thirties and forties. Participants come from the UK, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas and from a wide range of educational and professional backgrounds - some already have a Masters degree, and some come with a rich wealth of practical experience.The course is interdisciplinary and has been designed to train and enable experts in responsible tourism management - the individual courses have been designed to provide a specific range of knowledge and develop particular skills and they fit together to create a unique post graduate training offer (Tourism, conservation and sustainable development).

While conducting benchmarking research, I have found that both Wal-Mart and Publix Pharmacies have similar concerns. Wal-Mart is one of the nation's largest retailing outfitters and in order for them to remain on top they have implemented a $4 dollar generic program that will allow Wal-Mart customers to receive a 30 day supply on over three hundred generic name medications. Wal-Mart hopes to offer an alternative to filling prescriptions at traditional drug stores and while continuing to live up to their motto of everyday low prices. One the other hand Publix which is a retail chain grocery store that is based in the south has gone above the call of duty by offering several antibiotics at no cost to their shoppers. Publix has indicated their program in an attempt to evaluate competition from other chain pharmacies that offer a discounted drug program. Although Publix is not offering the program to increase profits, the company believes that this program will be beneficial to the community which will in turn keep their customers satisfied.

The company has realized that in order for them to remain the leading biotechnology company they will need to look at various ways in increase profit and growth. They hope to maintain a 40% annual growth target. The company will work towards a three-year deadline to have a strategy to realize their growth targets, maintain the competitions and become a public entity.

Benchmarking Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer, they too want the growth and investments to remain the highest entity compared to their competitors. They will also continue to invest in various business and promising technologies and products to strengthen its growth in the industry as well as focused on markets where they are seeing substantial opportunities and increase the customer base.

After benchmarking Novartis and Genzyme similarities were apparent about the importance of strong, cohesive, high performance teams working hard for the organization, those teams can make the difference between reaching the goals and losing the company and not be that strong for an IPO Offering. Team work in both organizations has allowed them to grow from the ground into well respected billion dollar companies that are serving the community around the world. A strong organizational culture has also been crucial to the success of Novartis and Genzyme; both organizations have merged with smaller companies along their journey and integrated their cultures to create a new stronger culture to guide their employees to success (McShane and Von Glinow, 2004).It is very important for Genzyme and Novartis to enhance the quality of life of their consumers. They have become committed to producing innovative products to provide affordable quality health options to patients. Similarly, the company produced biochemical products to enhance the lives of farmers and produce better and healthier vegetables for the consumers. The scientists at Novartis and Genzyme worked night and day knowing that the executives of their companies cared about their hard work and shared their vision. Emotional intelligence was used by the team of executives in both companies to train their management, knowing how to treat the employees and creating a good working environment for them assures job satisfaction and commitment to the company, which manage a good IPO Offering. (McShane and Von Glinow, 2004).

To satisfy the SEC -- " which acknowledges that the first year was a learning curve and a "substantial" undertaking -- " companies should focus less on their processes and more on what led them to their final compensation decisions, the commission suggests. The SEC's comments to the companies it reviewed range from major changes -- " such as refocus the gist of the CD&a -- " to minor ones, such as increase the font size of a footnote for readability. "We seek... more direct, specific, clear, and understandable disclosure," the SEC wrote. "We believe this will foster enhanced and more informative executive compensation disclosure." Indeed, the SEC commented on companies' methods of benchmarking executive pay with those of peers. The SEC wants companies to specify which companies they are comparing themselves with and what types of compensation are considered in those comparisons. In addition, the commission frowned upon companies that benchmarked compensation based on "a vague or broad range of data" from peers; it wants companies to be more specific about where their own compensation falls in that range" (SEC on Pay Disclosure: Less Conversation, More Analysis 2007).

The SEC also made these observations and recommendations: (SEC on Pay Disclosure: Less Conversation, More Analysis 2007).

The SEC staff issued more comments related to pay-for-performance targets because they didn't understand how companies used those goals or how those targets affect their compensation decisions. If companies think including a specific target could put them at a competitive disadvantage, they should explain why (SEC on Pay Disclosure: Less Conversation, More Analysis 2007).

Companies may find it necessary to include previous years' targets to give their current compensation plans context. In fact, the SEC has asked companies to include prior-year and current-year targets when they indicated that those targets were material to understanding a certain pay package. (SEC on Pay Disclosure: Less Conversation, More Analysis 2007).

Approximately two-thirds of the reviewed companies included charts that weren't required by the SEC rules (SEC on Pay Disclosure: Less Conversation, More Analysis 2007).

Gateway Inc. has developed into a Fortune 500 company after undergoing strenuous and complex changes throughout its origin in 1985. Gateway was founded by Mr. Ted Waitt in a farmhouse in Iowa and has always been a customer-based company. Throughout the early and mid-2000s, the company experienced difficulty in finding a steady state operation that would maintain a balanced level of revenue for the organization. The company has recently agreed to be acquired by Acer for approximately $710 million after having achieved a status of being the third largest computer company in the United States.

Approximately three years ago, Gateway gained a new CEO who reorganized the company into a more financially viable company after the company began to experience problems in several areas to include decreased sales and employee retention. Mr. Wayne Inouye took over as the CEO in March, 2004 and realized that the organization required an extensive strategic analysis and structural change. Although the company has recently been identified as being acquired, there are still key benchmarking values and concepts that can be applied strategic alignment and how it relates to the success in an organization's operations and project planning. This synopsis discusses how Gateway's leadership revamped a declining organization in the computer industry by introducing subtle yet significant changes within the organization to more appropriately align the organizational efforts with the planned strategy. As discussed by Gray and Larson, "Strategic management is the process of assessing "what we are" and deciding and implementing "what we intend to be and how we are going to get there."(Gray & Larson, 2006, p. 11).

The new CEO, Mr. Wayne Inouye knows that his first priority as CEO was to make a sound assessment of the organizational efforts, status, and strategy. Mr. Wayne Inouye implemented a series of changes to include laying off select employees to include some management who did not have the desire to remain with the company, while outsourcing an array of components to compensate for this employee layoff offset, as well as streamlining a series of operations. These transformational efforts were required in order to align the company's structure as a key competitor with the overall strategy. Additionally, the CEO knew that the key component of strength within the organization was the valued customer service and clientele relations that were established since the company's origin so improving the employee moral was a critical factor in maintaining this strength. Therefore, the CEO realized that in order to experience continued and improved success within the highly competitive industry, a new plan of employee-based services was required for implementation into the company's operations. The leadership at Gateway all understood that this vision was required for the company's growth and development if it were to stand as any competitor against brand names such as Dell and Compaq due to the current market strains and demands. As the senior vice president for Gateway's professional division mentioned, "We're going to be a credible alternative to Dell in terms of products, price, and our ability to deliver consistently and offer a high-quality product. Again the differentiator is the level of customer service that we offer" (eWeek, 2005).

Gateway's intentions to improve their overall operating capacity were not only to restore and maintain its current customer base, but to also allow a model to facilitate third parties for potential clientele. Although the efforts of Gateway have eventually worn to the current level in which the acquisition has become a realistic solution to the ever fading post recession decrease in sales, the improvements and increase in quarterly profit reports after Mr. Wayne Inouye took over as CEO should certainly be considered for other organizations experiencing strategic realignment and coinciding project management efforts.

Continuing the idea of benchmarking for corporate universities, they can learn from Friar Tucker and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has been known as the largest tire company in the world and has achieved paramount success. However, there have been issues within the company due to its new strategy within their market that coincide with the potential decision-making issues that Friar Tucker International (FTI) is experiencing in regard to how to manage there operational requirements with the recent proposal of creating the new expanded line of services required. Although FTI has already developed the project scopes and elements, the strategic management process can be reviewed with Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company for comparative analysis. The main issue that Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company dealt with was its outsourcing efforts, which occurred in 2002 (Global Logistics & Supply Chain Strategies 2006). Outsourcing and subcontracting was and still is certainly appealing to the company due to the potential increase in profit, cheaper or more efficient labor and efforts to become more global in the tire industry. The decision was made in the company to begin outsourcing operations in the late 1980s however; the company did not consider the impacts of the outsourcing until it became a problem in 2002.

Corporate university education is designed and presented in a variety of formats. Most often, curriculum is designed and presented through satellite communication, web based instruction, virtual reality and/or virtual campuses. Through satellite-based education, employees from different locations can be brought together in real-time to participate in the course at the same time through video conferencing. Web-based learning is conducted via the Internet or through a corporation's Intranet. Meister explains that web-based courses allow corporations to "customize learning experiences for individual needs and preferences, and provide the ability to measure performance"(Meister, 1998, Extending, p. 52). Virtual reality offers simulated training that mimics actual employee job duties, while virtual campuses link each of these media components by computers (Corporate university).

The issue of Goodyear not coordinating these strategic efforts and project management system throughout the entire organization for sales, distribution, and manufacturing resulted in the company experiencing a lack of proper inventory management and began to experience confusion due to all the unbalanced outsourcing efforts. "A project management system provides a framework for launching and implementing project activities within a parent organization." (Gray & Larson, 2006, p. 37). The outsourcing efforts were not an efficiently ran operation due to the lack of proper negations and priorities established. The priorities and guidance from senior level management must be made clear in order to proceed with the decision making process. Furthermore, Goodyear implemented the TQM (total quality management) strategy as the premier functional operation for the company's distribution and manufacturing locations. With this as a priority, the company lost visibility on what was truly occurring in the organization and therefore, experienced a decrease in sales. The overall outcome of the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company strategy management process inevitably led to the realignment of how to outsource properly much of the company's operations. This in turn has led the organization towards regaining its stance as an industry leader.

One of the newest attractions at Walt Disney World has no rides or parades. Instead, the Disney Institute offers guests the opportunity to learn. Guests can choose from a variety of programs designed to stretch the mind as well as the body. The Disney Institute, which opened in March 1996, features more than 60 hands-on programs in television and radio production, animation, gardening and the great outdoors, culinary arts, performing arts, design arts, lifestyles, story arts, sports and fitness, and more (Disney university)

While all entrepreneurs in the United States face challenges in establishing and running private businesses due to bureaucratic obstacles at various levels and corruption, the implementation of going public can be a difficult task for any corporation to face on their own. While looking at both Microsoft/Novell and Disney it was evident that their goals were to make participants more confident in analyzing dynamic situations, goals were effective in professional communication, and more successful in negotiation so that they could be successful in going public. The company could relate to both these companies with their commonalities of needs, perceptions, power, values, and feeling and emotions.

Needs are indispensable to our well-being. Conflicts arise when we ignore others' needs, our own needs or the group's needs. Be cautious not to confuse needs with wants (things we would like, but are not essential). Disney desired a certain amount of cash in order to be able to come forth on their agreement. Microsoft/Novell needed to work together in order to cause growth amongst their companies and save their resources. The company's need is to raise capital by way of going public. The personal differences that they are facing need to be set aside and they need to focus on commonalities in order to achieve the end-state goal.

People construe reality in a different way. Misperceptions or conflicting perceptions may come from others ideas of how they believe things can or could be. The company faced perceptions based upon personal and community ideals. Each individual had their belief in how they felt the company could or could not benefit from moving towards an IPO. Disney's board member Roy Disney didn't feel that Michael Eisner was accomplishing direct goals that the board had placed before him. The deal for Disney to sell to Comcast was short lived as Roy did not feel that Comcast had adequately valued Disney. Did Roy perceive the value of Disney higher than market value because it was started by his family? Was this a personal difference? Microsoft and Novell have always had their differences. They've competed for customers at every level, but for this moment in time they've realized that by putting their differences aside they could accomplish their goals together. The company can definitely utilize placing their perceptions and differences on the table and work things out through communication.

Corporate university organizers must develop a template for how products and services will be designed to achieve university goals. The organization must also select suppliers, consultants, traditional universities and for-profit firms who will act as learning partners, if appropriate. The use of technology and resources to be used by the corporate university must then be determined. Additionally, a measurement system should be developed that will allow the organization to continually monitor its progress against the university's strategic goals. Lastly, the governing body must communicate the vision of the corporate university constantly and consistently. All stakeholders should be made aware of the mission, products and programs that make up their organization's corporate university. (Meister,1998, Ten CORPORATE UNIVERSITY).

People classify and use power is an important control on the number and types of conflicts that occur. This also persuades how conflict is managed. It is important to see how a company management has forced conflict. A situation like this can arise when people try to make others change their actions or to gain an unfair advantage. Disney's board members utilized their power to fight for the resignation of Mr. Eisner. It would ultimately come through courts and the final power laid at the rest of a judge. Microsoft/Novell concurred that their use of power would only detriment their customers and would give rise to dissatisfaction. There hopes were to improve relationships and cause a better support system so that each customer of theirs would benefit from Microsoft and Novell working together. Within the company, the CEO has utilized his corruptive power to force his employees into the IPO. He has made it clear that if an employee does not want to embark in this endeavor he would gladly accept one's resignation. This can cause many reactions of his employees. They may be concerned with how much he values me, my decisions, and my thoughts as his employee.

Serious conflicts arise when people hold irreconcilable differences or when values are not clear. They can also happen when one party refuses to accept the fact that the other party holds something as a value rather than a preference. The company's goal is to raise capital. The CEO and the Board has placed value on going public as this will help them achieve their goal. Negotiation occurs when the management team feels that perhaps this is too big of an endeavor for the company to take on and they begin to underestimate the value that the CEO and Board has placed on attaining this goal within three years. Disney had obligations to fulfill from the sale. They valued the decisions that they had made and outweighed them against Mr. Eisner which cause intense debates on whose analysis was correct. The need for negotiation within this company was apparent and they realized that the satisfaction of both parties was unattainable. As they worked towards satisfying corporate values rather than personal they realized it could result in huge success for both parties. Microsoft/Novell had place values on company success rather than customer success. Each company vied for customer loyalty but could never achieve this goal because of the dissatisfaction that came about from the two companies not working together. The company's management needs to begin placing value within the company itself and remove personal differences. Mr. Ruiz could perhaps utilize better management style and accept the values and questions his employees have about going public. This would cause a team effort and they could push forward through communicating their differences and working them out to achieve the goal of the company.

People tend to let their feelings and emotions become a major control over how they deal with conflict. Conflicts can also occur because people ignore their own or others' feelings and emotions. When conflicts occur people need to set their personal feelings and emotions aside and collectively work together on the issue. The company can use this opportune time to create healthy conflicts. This can lead to growth and innovation, new ways of thinking, and additional management options which results in mutual benefits and strengthens the relationship.

When some of their needs are met it leads to a win-win situation.

In addition to content, GLS provides the technology for a corporation to run its own education initiative. Virtual Corporate Campus Network (VCCN) is a customizable, Internet-based platform that serves as a corporate university portal for content, assessment, administration and management. Anticipating that universities and corporations will be the first to have broadband access, GLS has extensive plans for broadcasting and the convergence of the PC and TV (GlobalLearningSystems.com in acquisition mode to serve the corporate university).

The company can manage their conflicts by utilizing these steps. First, they can analyze the conflict and determine what the real issue is. Determine management strategy and how they can effectively push towards reaching the company goal. Pre-negotiation in terms of placing personal goals, agendas, thought or ideas on the table for discussion. It is necessary for each manager to state how they would like to utilize this experience and to attain the end-state goal. Negotiate differences and arrive at a common ground.

There are a variety of methods in which corporate universities can foster the continuing education of their employees. Jeanne Meister explains to her clients that there are ten primary steps to implementing and sustaining a successful corporate university. First, the executives or top management of an organization must form a governing body for the corporate university, much like that of a traditional university, which will establish and profess the organization's commitment to the program. Secondly, the vision or strategic plan of the corporate university must be crafted; thereby, determining the organization's goals for the program. The organization must then recommend a funding strategy. Most commonly, corporate universities are either funded through corporate allocations or through charges placed on individual business unit budgets. Next the organization must determine its audience or stakeholders who will use the corporate university service. In addition to determining the audience, the organization must also determine how the needs of the audience will be met while continually pursuing the strategic goal of the corporate university" (Meister, 1998, Ten corporate university). Choose alternatives so that they can be tested against the main goal. Post-negotiation, once negotiation is complete, the group will need to implement the decisions made to arrive at the company's goals, and have a successful IPO Offering.

GlobalLearningSystems.com plans an IPO before the end of 2000. Merril Lynch will lead that offering. Private investors include Ron Baily, chairman of Strayer University and Ed Phelps, who built Educational Services International (ESI). Other investors are Irvin Kershner, who directed the Empire Strikes Back among other movies and Richard Rush, whose work includes Stuntman, Freebie and the Bean and Air America. Luskin says that the company strives to bring "Hollywood" production values to corporate and work life learning. The company's current market capitalization is over 60 million, and Luskin says that figure grows with each new merger.(GlobalLearningSystems.com in acquisition mode to serve the corporate university).

When going public, image is everything and because of that there cannot be any conflict within the company. People tend to let their feelings and emotions become a major control over how they deal with conflict. Conflicts can also occur because people ignore their own or others' feelings and emotions. When conflicts occur people need to set their personal feelings and emotions aside and collectively work together on the issue. The company can use this opportune time to create healthy conflicts. This can lead to growth and innovation, new ways of thinking, and additional management options which results in mutual benefits and strengthens the relationship.

When some of their needs are met it leads to a win-win situation.

To be sure, the SEC is being careful in how it guides companies in fulfilling its CD&a requirements. In a speech on Tuesday, John White, director of the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance, emphasized that the rules are principle-based, leaving it up to each company's judgment to decide when a disclosure is materially necessary. "White also declined to pull real-life examples from the companies the SEC reviewed, to discourage firms from churning out "boilerplate" CD&as in next year's disclosures. Instead, he spotlighted what the SEC wants in broad terms. "Focus on how and why you reached the compensation decisions you made in your CD&a," he said. "Don't provide a laundry list of facts. Discuss and analyze the elements of your decision-making" (SEC on Pay Disclosure: Less Conversation, More Analysis 2007).

The company can manage their conflicts by utilizing these steps. First, they can analyze the conflict and determine what the real issue is. Determine management strategy and how they can effectively push towards reaching the company goal. Pre-negotiation in terms of placing personal goals, agendas, thought or ideas on the table for discussion. It is necessary for each manager to state how they would like to utilize this experience and to attain the end-state goal. Negotiate differences and arrive at a common ground.

Choose alternatives so that they can be tested against the main goal. Post-negotiation, once negotiation is complete, the group will need to implement the decisions made to arrive at the company's goal and can go public without any problems, which will help to maintain success from the IPO Offering.

Conflicts have been high since the company announced the company's plan to move towards offering an IPO. The lack of communication between the CEO and his employees has left them confused. There has been no information on what changes the employees are to expect and currently no one has experience with an IPO. The CEO is not handling conflict appropriately and the leadership team has to deal with the consequences. Conflict management is the interventions that alter the level and form of conflict in ways that maximize its benefits and minimize its dysfunctional consequences (McShane & Glinow, 2005, p.5). Dale Earnhardt Jr. And his CEO had issues with each other and instead of handling the problem in house the conflict escalated into the public eye. A good team would stop the issues from becoming public because it only creates uncertainty for the future of the company. The company wants to go public so the issues they are currently having need to be handled in the conference room. The company is already showing signs of problems from the number of resignations that are being presented to the CEO of the company Home Depot manages conflict by hearing out the voices and opinions of their employees and this leaves a leadership team with confidence and sense of value. The company can learn from Home Depot on how to handle conflict, which will lead to a better experience in going public.

Leadership arises in response to a need. Ultimately leadership derives from the uncertainties and dangers built into the human condition. As the author explains it is difficult to generalize about leadership because the conditions that give rise to it vary from situation to situation, and from one historical time to another (Leadership, 2007). The author suggests that effective leadership in a battle situation is likely to be very different from leadership in a high-tech corporate situation. Where as, leadership at the executive level of a firm may be vastly different than effective leadership at the floor level (Leadership, 2007).

A googol is a termed that was first coined by Milton Sirotta is a term that refers to the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros this represents the organization is innate within the corporate structure of Google. Google's corporate goal was to take the vast amounts of information on the web and make it appear as orderly and easy to understand as this numerical explication. Google was a brain child of two graduate students at Stanford; they needed a better way to find information quicker throughout the web. Initial they maxed out their credit cards and started with a couple terabytes of technology and a program called back links.

It was this idea combined with a small demonstration that leads to the first investor of Andy Bechtolsheim. Andy said "Instead of us discussing all the details, why don't I just write you a check?' It was made out to Google Inc. And was for $100k" (Google, 2007). Although at this point Google Inc. did not exist so in 1998 Larry Page and Sergey Brin scrambled to for the corporation, which eventually started with a modest sum of 1 million dollars.

Today this initial investment less than 10 years later represents a multibillion-dollar company with its business literally reaching into outer space. The astronomical growth from a three-person team out of a garage to having the famed Googleplex work center was hard. Their consistent rapid growth left them constantly struggling to fit an ergonomic productive work environment. At one point the small offices became so cramped that one person would have to tuck in his or her chair to allow another to stand. Although this was cramped it bread both "collegiality and an accelerated exchange idea" (Google, 2007). This team effort lead too many minute tweaking of the program and help lead to the growth ideas that made the company it was today. Preserving that culture has been a primary objective of Google for the history of its company. Their future growth relied on keeping this culture while promoting persistent strides forward to lead the growth in technology and other Internet-based fields.

The company's leaders must first realize what category of leadership they are. Not all the team will have the privilege to make the final decision, however each team member will have the pleasure of providing the necessary input needed within their area of expertise the company's effective leadership does not reside in one team member it is determined based on how well the team receives the change from their leaders. The approach the company has taken for their leaders has caused mix emotions, low self-esteem, as well as the thought of leaving the company. In order for the company to implement something new, this team of leaders have to give up their old way of thinking and become open minded to the new. As the company's leaders move into implementing the IPO they will need motivation, a vision for the company, and the empowerment to do what is needed. There is typical resistance to change found within a large corporation with a strong organizational culture. As such, Kurt Lewin's three-step model for successful change was implemented. Lewin's model includes unfreezing the status quo, movement to an new state, and refreezing the new change to make it permanent (Robbins, 2001).

A biotechnology company is looking to make an IPO offering to increase capital. The market is showing a great potential in the field of biotechnology and an IPO offering appears to be a lucrative option. Unfortunately the company does not have the experience or knowledge about IPO offerings and needs to look at other like companies who have made successful IPO offerings and benchmark their practices. Looking at other companies will help the company determine how to structure their organizational culture, utilize talent management and improve their leadership abilities. They can find ways to resolve conflict and build high performance teams. By comparing their problem solutions to other companies who have made IPO offerings, the company can determine the best approach for their offering.

As it has been stated before, the example company entered the biotech industry in 1996 with a groundbreaking technology that eradicated disease in tomatoes and potatoes. The company was able to grow into a $400 million dollar company in eight short years. Recently there has been a growing interest in the biotech industry which has caused the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company to propose a plan to go public with the company within the next three years. In order for the company to achieve this goal they need IPO capital for new development.

The company's organization lacks structure. Organizations should have adaptive cultures so that employees focus on the need for change and support initiatives and leadership that keeps pace with these changes (McShane & Von Glinow, 2005). Merck Pharmaceuticals has a high ethical standard and a culture that values honesty and integrity. This organizational culture is based on the company's desire to promote and produce the best medicines and vaccines available. The company has the desire to continue to produce groundbreaking technology but there is a lack of a winning organizational culture. David M. Cote, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Honeywell stated that creating a common culture and vernacular, a single brand image, and shared processes does a lot to bring Honeywell together with a unified focus on the customer. The company's CEO can learn how to create an organizational culture throughout the company from companies like Merck Pharmaceuticals and Honeywell.

He is not a leader but more of a manager for the company. He lacks transactional leadership skills. Transactional leadership is leadership that helps organizations achieve their current objectives more efficiently, such as linking job performance to value rewards and ensuring that employees have the resources needed to get the job done, which is very important when going public in the United States or even international countries like Hong Kong. Steve Jobs of Apple leads by his ability to judge markets and respond accordingly. The CEO of the company must provide a clear vision of the tasks at hand and communicate clearly and effectively.

The company is lacking direction from its CEO. He has set a plan for the future of the company and he has decided to move forward with the plan whether his senior management team chose to support his decision or not. This attitude that he has shows that he feels as though he is the only one allowed to make decisions for the company; this is a poor use of power. More generally, employees are become less tolerant of legitimate power. They increasingly expect to be involved in decisions rather then be told what to do (McShane & Glinow, 2005).Verizon Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg lead his employees to success by using effective power strategies to get him to reach his expansions of business. Verizon has carefully thought out a plan to bring the company and its employees toward their future endeavors. If Don Ruiz used the strategy of effectively using power as the CEO of Verizon has done the company may be more successful in getting their employees to stand by the company as they move toward IPO and their team members would be more enthusiastic about the direction the company is moving.

The company has many issues that need to be addressed. Leadership and conflict management are two of the main items that need to be corrected. The CEO's senior management team lacks direction and is too involved with their agenda to focus on the tasks at hand. The organizational culture of the company is lax in its current productivity. Some members of the team are more concerned with their research than moving the company forward. Others are too busy finding negative issues to address instead of looking for information needed to make an IPO offering. The company needs to benchmark his practices against other like companies and look for leaders in this market. He can mirror his practices and problem solving solutions to match what has successfully worked for others. Even though the company appears to have a solid approach to making an IPO offering, benchmarking can help them determine if they are truly identify leading edge practices and if their solutions will be a success.

The programs, solutions and services of the corporate university must be aligned with the business. This alignment is developed during the initial analysis leading to the implementation of the learning solution. The analysis ensures that a business need can be met with the solution. Appropriate performance analyses develop the connection between the business need and the learning solution. If this alignment is not made, it is difficult to connect the corporate university to business value and ultimately show the success of the university. Figure 1 shows the sequence of steps in the analysis (Corporate University 2007).

With tourism sector, corporate universities should do the following strategy in order to develop a plan internationally rather it is through an IPO.

Every entity needs marketing and branding for visibility, acceptance and success, and a corporate university is no different (Corporate University 2007).

Marketing communicates the purpose, role, scope and success (Corporate University 2007).

Branding is important so that the internal stakeholders understand what the corporate university represents (Corporate University 2007).

A consistent and subtle approach is needed (Corporate University 2007).

Problems can surface when marketing too much, turning off managers or even participants, or when marketing too little, choosing instead to be the organization's best-kept secret. A balance between the two extremes is necessary (Corporate University 2007).

The tourism and hospitality sectors cannot be seen to be immune to fundamental changes in the orientation of marketing. Innovative experience design will become an increasingly important component of tourism and hospitality firms core capabilities. Those who go beyond service excellence, and market experientially will lead the creation of value in the sector (Title: Tourism and hospitality marketing: fantasy, feeling and fun).

1956-2006

Year ended December

Arrivals

Departures

Short-term (1)(2)

Permanent & long-term (3)

Total (2)

Short-term (1)(2)

Permanent & long-term (4)

Total (2)

Overseas visitors New Zealand residents Overseas visitors New Zealand residents (000)

1956 26.9

1957 29.1

1958 30.8

1959 34.2

1960 39.1

1961 49.0

1962 56.9

1963 65.5

1964 75.9

1965 94.2

1966 108.1

1967 119.5

1968 130.1

1969 148.1

1970 177.6

1971 219.5

1972 242.5

1973 297.6

1974 348.9

1975 377.5

1976 384.0

1977 389.5

1978 407.0

1979 432.4

1980 465.2

1981 478.0

1982 481.7

1983 508.5

1984 567.6

1985 669.6

1986 733.4

1987 844.3

1988 864.9

1989 901.1

1990 976.0

1991 963.5

1992 1,055.7

1993 1,157.0

1994 1,322.6

1995 1,408.8

1996 1,528.7

1997 1,497.2

1998 1,484.7

1999 1,607.5

2000 1,789.1

2001 1,909.8

2002 2,045.0

2003 2,106.2

2004 2,347.7

2005 2,383.0

2006 2,421.6

1) Length of stay or absence of less than 12 months.

2) Data to August 1997 are derived from a sample of arrivals and departures.

3) Includes overseas migrants intending to stay 12 months or more (or permanently), plus New Zealand residents returning after an absence of 12 months or more.

4) Includes New Zealand residents intending to be away for 12 months or more (or permanently), plus overseas visitors departing after a stay of 12 months or more.

Note: Individual figures may not sum to stated totals due to rounding.

Chapter 3 Literature Review

Introduction

In reviewing some literature reviews on corporate universities with their development in the tourism sector and IPO activity, it is obvious that many IPO spectacles are not active. From there, researchers have examined into share allocation issues, which is the most promising area of research in IPOs at the present time. Along with that, some literature reviews discuss that asymmetric information is not the primary driver of many IPO phenomena. Unfortunately, future progress in the literature of discussing corporate universities and IPO offerings will come from non-rational and agency conflict explanations. However, there will be some concrete alternatives that will be balanced out with the truth for the readers (Ritter 2002).

Tourism is currently responsible for the largest, annual human migration in history. This great movement of people has significant positive and negative consequences on nature, societies, cultures and economies. Desired worldwide for its economic benefits, tourism is anticipated to double during the next 20 years, and the multiple consequences of such rapid growth, call for a preventative approach at all strategic and professional levels, in order to avoid negative impacts. Considering mass tourism as a reality of our contemporary life that cannot be neglected by current efforts to endorse sustainable tourism, this paper draws attention to one of its key players -- "the tour operators -- "advancing the proposition that they play significant roles in affecting changes in behaviors and attitudes towards more responsible forms of tourism. Aiming to facilitate a constructive debate on the matter, the article presents a few of the most important arguments that underscore the potential that tour operators' have in promoting sustainable tourism (Impacts and responsibilities for sustainable tourism: a tour operator's perspective).

With these statistics below, it is apparent corporate universities can put their strategic plan into internationally tourism when going public and be very successful. According to the chart by Tourism and Migration 2006, some of these are pivot tables, which allow significantly more information to be efficiently presented to the user than is possible in a standard table. The update does not include commentary or analysis. For some related commentary and analysis, see the External Migration: December 2006-Year Hot Off the Press (Tourism and Migration 2006).

Permanent and Long-term Migration by Citizenship

1971-2006

Arrivals

Departures

Net

New Zealand citizens Non-New Zealand citizens Total New Zealand citizens Non-New Zealand citizens Total New Zealand citizens Non-New Zealand citizens Total Year ended March

1971 12,107

1972 14,102

1973 16,115

1974 16,476

1975 17,103

1976 17,322

1977 15,754

1978 15,700

1979 21,532

Year ended December (1)

1971..

1972..

1973..

1974..

1975..

1976..

1977..

1978..

1979 21,445

1980 24,500

1981 24,755

1982 25,389

1983 24,304

1984 20,156

1985 18,511

1986 21,558

1987 24,539

1988 21,518

1989 24,321

1990 28,981

1991 24,596

1992 22,108

1993 22,584

1994 23,122

1995 23,363

1996 22,830

1997 22,145

1998 21,299

1999 22,551

2000 20,763

2001 23,465

2002 25,417

2003 27,691

2004 25,069

2005 24,165

2006 24,018 58,714 82,732 47,616 20,507 68,123 -23,598 38,207 14,609 (1) Permanent and long-term migration by citizenship is not available for December years prior to 1979.

Symbol:.. figure(s) not available Source: Tourism and Migration 2006,

In a literature review of IPO offerings, it is apparent that Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) of equity securities show underpricing. Due to the IPO offerings, common stock values have a habit of rising drastically from the offer price on the first day of trading.