Senior Management
Essays

With the turn of the 21st century, a dramatic increase is being witnessed in the international flow of labor with repercussion for domestic labor supply and management. The native, racial and émigré mixture of the employees is predominantly important for the workplace. The importance of this domestic cultural multiplicity in the labor force, highlighted by worldwide influences and necessities, has lately encouraged the researchers to focus on the companies' and managers' response to diversity, be it of any form (Watson, Spoonley, & Fitzgerald, 2009).

Alcan's continued revenue growth is the result of the combined success of increasing sales in four main business units, in addition to growth through acquisition. The cumulative effects of these two factors have served to create a profitable business and one where a highly decentralized organizational structure dominates (Chang, Wang, 2011). The catalyst of the organization becoming so decentralized is the continued revenue gains made across four businesses, each competing in market areas that face heavy pricing and commodity-like market conditions. Despite the heavily process-centric based approaches the industry takes to supply chain management, production and distribution, Alcan has been also able to profitably grow sales in the more mature markets they compete in. The senior management and IT departments credit the highly decentralized nature of the enterprise-wide systems that run the company. During the time period of the case, Alcan generated $23.6B in sales in 2006, and has 68,000 employees throughout its global operations that span 61 countries. The four major groups include Primary Metal, Engineered Products, Packaging and Bauxite & Alumina. Each of these business groups have their own Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system and IT infrastructure. They each also have their own maintenance contracts with enterprise software vendors including SAP who the company pays approximately $100M a year in maintenance fees to. There are also the costs of operating over 400 different pricing systems, many of which duplicate functions across divisions as well. The new CIO of the company, Robert Ouellette, enters into a challenging situation and one that will require a completely different IT and organizational structure to succeed. Organizational Environment The Alcan organizational environment is highly decentralized to the point of there being four separate companies in the same corporation, each with its own entire value chain and supporting functions. As with the value chain concept, each of the four divisions has created its own main and supporting functions, and no two business units or divisions are the same. From the initial supply chain management and supplier quality management processes and systems to the supplier qualification, new product development, production and fulfillment including logistics, each business unit is significantly different than the other. When information systems and processes become unique to a given organizational business unit or division, the information and intelligence shared redefines the identity and over time, the core competencies of a business unit (Boh, Yellin, 2007). This is exactly what's happening in the four business units of Alcan during the time period of the case study. The Primary Metal, Engineered Products, Packaging and Bauxite & Alumina have in effect become their own companies, each with its own ERP, Manufacturing Execution System (MES), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and myriad of pricing and distribution systems. The case states that there are over 400 different pricing systems in place across the four business units or divisions. CIO Robert Ouellette and other senior executives see the potential for consolidating all systems together and creating a centralized IT architecture. Creating a highly centralized IT architecture and framework would require the fundamental structure of the company to change significantly. It would also require an entirely new IT architecture, followed by redefinition of processes, systems and procedures throughout the company. As the information platforms or technologies of a business define not only the performance of divisions but the structure and performance of business models over time, Robert Ouellette and his staff must think strategically as to how they will modify the overall organizational structure.

McClelland's needs Based theory identifies three distinct needs and explains how these needs may be able to motivate employees to improved performance at the workplace. The three needs consist of the need for achievement, the need for power, and the need for affiliation. Employees possess each of these needs at varying levels depending on their personality and innate drives. Employees who have a high need for achievement are motivated by the opportunity to prove themselves to be better than their peers by meeting or surpassing performance standards. They are willing to assume personal responsibility for solving problems and making decisions.

¶ … Corporate Philanthropy on the Developjment of Business

Diversity within a workforce is today becoming a global phenomenon, and an organization must be able to recognize it and deal with it in an effective manner if it were to hope to perform well.

¶ … job at Peterson & Co., a local textile manufacturing firm where I was working as data entry operator. We were required to follow the company's policies in all matters and were clearly told that if we did not…

¶ … credit risk faced by Merrill Lynch and the efforts to deal with credit risk management. The routine trading activities by Merrill Lynch includes giving to client's brokerage, dealing, financing and underwriting…

¶ … family-Owned funeral home do to be proactive with regard to safety management?

Enron was the seventh-largest corporation in the world. Enron Company was divided into five distinct parts including; Wholesale Services, Transportation and Distribution, Broadband Services, Retail Energy Services, and…

The trade show industry plays a crucial role in the marketing success of any business firm. At the same time, the trade show industry remains largely ignored in academic research. Germany is the global leader in the trade show industry because of the excellent quality of its infrastructure and professional standards. The strategic location and liberal economic policies of the country also contribute to its sustained success. The trade show industry can support a firm's marketing objectives by providing opportunities to make new customers, explore international markets, promote products and obtain information about competitors. The South Korean trade show industry has also shown growth in recent years because of its economic success after the Asian financial crisis of 1997. It is expected to become one of the leading trade show destinations of the future. As the global trade show industry prepares for growth after the global economic crisis, industry participants are gearing up for intensifying competition between existing players and new entrants from Asia. The emphasis will be on increasing service quality for exhibitors and visitors. At the same time, there are increased opportunities for cooperation among trade show destinations for exchange of exhibitors and visitors.