Comcast Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Comcast - Research Paper Example The company’s growth has considerably increased for the last few years. Secondly, DirecTV is a provider of American direct broadcast satellite service in California. The DirecTV’s satellite service was launched in 1994; it engages in the transmission of digital satellite television and audio mainly in the United States and Latin America. DirecTV had 19.2 million subscribers at the end of 2010. The third organization of choice, The Verizon Communications engages in broadband and telecommunications business globally; it is an element of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Financial position of Comcast While conducting a thorough scrutiny on the financial statements of the Comcast during the past several years, it is clear that the company is rapidly moving towards economic expansion. In 1995, the book value of a company’s share was $8.19 and it reached $15 per share in 2009. It shows that the company could double its price per share during this period of 14 years. An increase in share price is the direct indication of increased market demand for the Comcast’s services. ... It has been identified that Comcast’s net profit margin rose from 4.2% in 1999 to 8.4% in 2009 (Comcast). During this same time span, the firm’s operating margins and return on equity notably improved. Finally, the Comcast’s total selling/general/administrative expenses climbed from $5,075 billion in 2006 to $8,091 billion in 2010 (Comcast). Financial comparison As in the case of Comcast, DirecTV also shows a rampant increase in its total revenues during the last few years. The DirecTV’s total revenue indicates the figure $24,102 billion while it was $21,565 billion in 2009 (DirecTV). In contrast, Verizon’s total revenue faced a decline in 2010; it fell from $107,808 billion in 2009 to $106,565 billion in 2010. As a result, the Verizon also faced a decline in net profit by $2345 billion (Verizon). The Verizon’s financial statement reflects that its economical position is not satisfactory. The company’s net income gradually diminished a nd the Verizon even suffered a net a loss by $2,193 billion in 2008. The poor financial performance of the Verizon Communication in 2008 can be directly attributed to its increased total of selling/general/administrative expenses ($41,517 billion) (Verizon). On the other hand, it seems that the DirecTV reflects a better financial performance during the past several years except in 2009. The DirecTV’s net incomes were $1,420; $1,451; $1,521; $942; and $2,198 billions respectively in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010. Although, the DirecTV struggled with $942 billion net income in 2009, it could effectively resurrect in 2010 by increasing the net income by $1,256 billion (DirecTV). Evidently differences exist in the financial statement composition of these three

Improving Team work and leadership in Infosys

Improving Team work and leadership in Infosys The emergence of the private sector in the economy has created more entrepreneurs especially in the services sector. The ability to manage a complex and diverse workforce is a decisive factor that adds to the competency of the organisation in contemporary work environment .complexity of human behaviour has increased the significance of the organisational behaviour .organisational behaviour is concerned with the study of behaviour of people within the organisational setting which involves the understanding .prediction and control of human behaviour and the factors which involves the performance of people as members of an organisation (Luthans ,F. 1992) . The importance of the human capital in the current working environment has increased the importance of managing people within the organisation. The organisation made up of a large number of individual members and they mostly act in a group or in isolation. They are individually and in a group expected to achieve the organisations obje ctive .any sort of indifference between both can lead to conflict and tension between the individual and the organisation. Importance of defining the organisation Organisation are complex social systems which can be defined and studied in a number of different ways .Morgan identifies different ways of viewing organisations as machines ,brains ,organisms, cultures, political systems ,psychic prisons ,flux and transformation and instruments of domination (Morgan.1986). As a consultant seeking to improve the management of people in a organisation you need to define the nature of the organisation and understand the longer-term goals of the company. Goal setting is important were the organisation evaluates the long term and short term goals of the company. Every employee has to understand and work according to this goal. Infosys is planning to become a $10 billion company in the next 5 years and according to the Founder of Infosys is to be a globally respected corporation that provides best of breed business solutions, leveraging technology, delivered by best in the class people (A.C Fernando 2009). The company driven by the passion to innovate in technology and management practices has grown to become a company spread in 16 countries and 32 sales offices catering to the technological needs of a global community. Value systems in Infosys At stretch its competency beyond the stream of technology Infosys has designed core value systems that define the behaviour within the organisation. (George .W. England 1967) after studying the value system of managers in several American firms commented that the personal belief system of individual managers can make difference to an organisation at large as to how he evaluates information and arrives at a decision. Understanding customer value systems is also important to the success as to understand their consumption patterns and the cultural patterns which shape their consumer behaviour as a individual and as a group. (Craig .j. Thompson Maura .Troester 2002) . The value system of Infosys is designed to achieve long term competencies in the industry. Customer delight: To lead by example and excess customer expectation Leadership example: A constant effort to set standards within the industry in the way they do business and to build motivation within the employees to work towards a goal. Integrity and transparency: To be transparent in dealing with customer and discarding unethical practices within the organisation. The example being one of the few companies following high disclosure norms like making no forward looking statements in the stock market (Business Standard 2010). Fairness: Trying to be objective and delivering on expectations and in the process earning the respect of the clients and the shareholders. Infosys has exceeded the guidance in the current quarter with revenues of more than 5741 crore Indian rupees. When management expectation was 5423 crore (Nirmal Bang 2010). The company constantly tries to innovate in an extremely competitive industry .Infosys has grown to become a company with a market cap of more than 32 billion as of date (rediff .com 2010) emerged from being a small time company in the 90s mainly due to its unique management policies and quality of leadership that helped employees to work as a team and contribute effectively to the organisation. As a publically listed company it sets realistic targets of growth which the employees feel achievable. The competitive nature of the industry and the opening of multiple options for the employees is seen as reasons for the high attrition rates within the industry. For example software sector witnessed high attrition rates in the range of 25 -35% especially in the business process outsourcing industry (shvoong .com 2009) when compared to the manufacturing industry. Improving team work at Infosys The current work environment is less about working individually and more about working in groups .large organisations are characterised by multiple groups and work is more of a group based activity and efficiency of group work is crucial in determining the success of the entire organisation .team work is co-operative effort by a group of people to achieve a common goal. (teamtechnology.co.uk 2009). Team work has shaped our work culture and through the history has lived, loved and worked together in groups.(Baumeister 1995) the organisation culture performance is normally managed and assessed by customer satisfaction and sales growth .as the needs of the business grows and when the organisation becomes bigger it is important to build people management and appraisal systems to assess the success of group work .the most guaranteed way of improving performance is by identifying all aspects of the group behaviour and trying to promote those aspects that significantly create more value for the organisation. The management should encourage innovative ideas that create opportunities for value addition. In instep programme at Infosys is targeted at creating valuable ideas that can drive the organisation forward. (Infosys 2009).it brings the best talents from diverse streams to partner with the organisation develop their employees in enhancing their intellectual faculty. The company can adopt similar polices implemented in Vodafone though Vodafone Malta which facilitates the process of research in the company by promoting employees with a passion to innovate. This has helped to design effective tariff structures within the company and make advanced networking equipment and improve supply chain management.(Vodafone Malta 2009) Research and development is one of the core area where the company tries to achieve competency ,according to estimates around 2.5 % of GDP was spend on RD in the year 2005 (lysander.sourceoecd.org).Especially in areas like pharmaceuticals the abilit y to launch new products is important in defining the success of companies. Considering the benefit of team working and its existence at all levels of the organisation ,every team has to be dealt with in nature of its strategic importance ,the management have more to do with the routine functioning of the company ,strategic planning teams are more involved with shaping the overall longer term strategy of the company. Writing an quote in( management today 2004 ) comparing the organisational behaviour in leading Indian IT companies Peter Drucker commented that Management is a function ,a discipline , a task to be done ,and managers practice this discipline ,carry out functions and discharge these tasks. The study outlining the job of managers stated the prime functions as planning ,organizing ,directing and controlling .the main functions of managers after studying Managers of three organisations were outlined as co-ordination and integration between different layers of employees that functions in the IT industry. Facilitating Group cohesiveness in Infosys Group cohesiveness increases the productivity and motivation to work within a group .according to (Zaccaro etal 1995 ) cohesiveness is described as the degree to which group members and attracted to work together and stay together as a group. The role of first time managers has gone through significant change over the last few years in the company has adopted the Managers in charge (MiCP).where there is an effort to decentralise the .management system and delegating more authority to first time managers. This method initially employed by Japanese producers was found to be cost-effective, more focussed and flexible in contemporary work environment. Research in this stream has proved that this increases more facilitative and empowering type of leadership and is more strategic rather than being functional (Ghobadian etal1998).The success of the team work is depended on how effectively the goals are communicated and defined and the appropriate training that develops the overall capabilit ies of the employees and brings them closer to the organisational goal. Performance management and appraisal Right from the beginning the work of the employees are managed effectively and constantly evolved in the organisation .the peer satisfaction report is the key input were the feedback from the peers are used to generate critical inputs about the employees .the evaluation of the task assigned to the employee forms the key part of the performance appraisal in Infosys .team work are monitored through various developmental stages of team work. The forming stages should be more focussed on giving vision to the group a employees should have good listening skills and build interdependency and form the initial ground rules of team building .storming stage involves initial group debates and expressions of conflict within the group .the group has to be reminded of team mission and goals .in the Norming stage the group need present regular feedback of the team work and has to search for solutions to improve the current performance. The adjourning is common in Projects were they dissolve after ac hieving the mission. In this stage the success of the project need to be studied and how it has contributed to the bottom line of the company. Leadership development in Infosys Pre dominantly there is an effort to acquire a global mindset in the current work environment .global mindset .what exactly is Global Mindset cannot be properly defined and tgere can only be vague be definitions and closest that it can be is the ability of organisations to influence ,groups ,organisations and systems that have less similar intellectual ,social and psychological intelligence .company like Infosys having a global presence and should have a decentralised approach were more authority should be delegated rather than being limited to a core group. Creating future leaders in Infosys Infosys leadership institute in Mysore started in 2002 is a unique venture by the company to train Info scions to face the complex tasks in the constantly changing work environment and bringing a strategic change by instilling leadership qualities. Meeting the financial targets is crucial for a company like Infosys which seeks to achieve financial targets by facilitating the process of corporate learning and coupling the strategic organisation goals with the learning infrastructure targeted to improve financial goals (Thomas Anderson 2009). The company received the corporate excellence Award recently and can be seen as a testimonial to its efforts to bring innovative management practices. Following the several theories in Leadership the company has tried to implement these in the work environment. Generic Group Focus Group Premise Major concerns Great man Trait THEORY Identifying the traits and potential leaders for the future Primary source of leadership effectiveness lay in the personal traits of leaders Does not address on the howdimension of leadership Behavioural Theories What do Leaders do Identify determinants of behaviour of leaders . Does not address the situation, the followers Contingency Theory Interactions between the quality of leaders leaders and the situational factors The appropriate leadership style is dependent on the situation and other factors The categorisation of situations at a meta level Transformational /Theory /Charismatical Leadership INDIVIDUAL AS THE LEADER Leadership is rooted in leaders and is a capability partly inherited and partly acquired/ acquirable Current status Implementing various theories of leadership Using the theories of leadership like Trait theory the management spots future leader by understanding their potential based on their current performance and analysing their traits that can make them future leaders. They company also spots charismatic leaders and promote them to critical positions .this helps them to retain talented leaders who can contribute further to the growth in the future. The leadership development programme has outlined three core areas to develop its competencies they are: Work People Technology (Business line 2002) Using the abilities in technology and the competencies of the human capital and leveraging both effectively and strategically can best define the leadership programme in Infosys. Mentoring new recruits and helping them aligning with the organisational goals helps the company to achieve their project targets much easier. There is an effort to increase the morale is increased by sharing the success with members of the core team and rewarding them with bonuses. Infosys was one of the first companies give away huge benefits With Their ESOP systems. The IC workshops The Infosys cultural workshops is the employee engagement programme in Infosys were there are frequent interactions with employees from different cultural backgrounds working within Infosys .this is intended to foster the spirit of camaraderie and to reinforce a common work culture within the organization. Performance appraisal systems Performance appraisal systems are considers one of the most emotionally charged activities in business to asses ones contribution in business and signals he receive has strong impact on his confidence and future performance (Thompson and Dalton 1970). The Infosys feedback systems are tries to make crucial behavioural interventions in the work place based on the feedback which is formal and informal .these feedbacks are analysed to bring out an effective and workable plan which is suitable for the organisation .one of the things lacking in such an interface is that those who receive negative feedback can be spotted as bad performers and will find it difficult to improve their performance. Conclusions Infosys being a leader in the Indian software industry has always followed a policy of leading by example by setting benchmark in the industry. The succession policy followed by company where the founding members step-down after completing their term and retire after they turn 60 (Associated Press 2006). This helps to develop a spirit of equity within the organisation . the action learning system followed in the company should be address real problems in the company and workable plan has to formulated by setting goals for the future. The 360 -degree feedback should be used effectively by interconnecting between various verticals of the company. the company operates various verticals in like banking ,healthcare and research and product development capabilities in one vertical especially the marketing of one product can be used in other verticals as well , for eg : The success of banking software Finacle (Economic Times 2010)can be of use to other verticals in healthcare and retail and proper feedback can help in leveraging on its success to other verticals. The practices the company currently follows has significantly contribute to the value addition in the company over the years. The ability to maintain the value system and bring suitable improvements can define the team work and leadership in the company. Proactive approach can help the company maintain its current niche in the industry.

My Quality Education Essay -- essays research papers

My Quality Education For years I've heard that in order to succeed one has to receive a quality education. It's kind of funny though, with all the talk about the need for this great quality education nobody ever says exactly what it is. While examining this strange phenomenon I've discovered the basic universal elements of a "quality education". I've also learned that everyone has different standards by which they judge what is and what isn't a quality education, different groups are treated differently, the importance of home education and the effects that my own pursuits of education have had on me. Depending upon who you ask you will almost always receive a different response as to what the qualities of a good education are. However, most will agree that there are four basic elements to a quality education. The first and most important to our survival is the ability to compete in the job market. Without this many, if not all of us would find it impossible to play a significant role in society. Also included, but often ignored element of education is our ability to interact with others. Every day of our lives we will be required to interact with another person or many people. School provides us with the perfect opportunity to learn how to get along with others with minimal conflict. This could perhaps be the single most element of education. Education also provides us with an education of our own cultu...

Giving Someone a Chance Essay

In the short story â€Å"War Party† by Louis L’amour there were many down sides to the story. Many people you can say they are afraid’ scared, or just do not like or want change. In the play Thunder on Sycamore Street by Reginald Rose, some people are not willing to give chance. They just criticize someone based on their past. In the short story â€Å"War Party† and in the play Thunder on Sycamore Street they are alike in many ways because it is all about not seeing how would that person feel and that some people do not care. It is really kind of just about them and them only. Nothing is wrong about being different. It is about whether you will accept it and trying, believing and letting something new into your life. Everyone should be treated the same. In â€Å"War Party† a women named Ma was treated differently because she can speak two languages. In these three quotes it says â€Å"Folks hate something they don’t understand or anything se ems different†, â€Å"We don’t want no Injuns in this outfit!† Mr. White shouted†, ma said â€Å"I am not an Indian, although I should not be ashamed of it if I were. They have many admirable qualities. However, you need worry yourselves no longer, as we part company in the morning. I have no desire to travel further with you.† These quotes represent that a woman is standing up for herself and what she believes in. She will not let someone put her down. One the other hand others are yelling and saying that they do not want someone different from them. They believe It is disrespectful and that Ma might be talking bad about them. In Thunder on Sycamore Street it shows in this quote how a man can b judged based on his past â€Å"Frank Morrison and Charlie Denton have learned that their new neighbor, Joe Blake, is an ex-convict. They persuade the residents of Sycamore Street, including Arthur and Phyilis Hayes, to come together I running the Blake family out of town.† Meaning that because Joe was an ex-prisoner and people are afraid he might do something to harm them. However, people do not understand the fact that he is changing and getting his life back on track. The difference between â€Å"War Party† and Thunder on Sycamore Street is how the main characters have expressed themselves (their actions). In â€Å"War Party†, Ma packed her bags and left to some other place. Although, in Thunder on Sycamore Street, Joe stood his ground and stayed. Everyone expresses themselves differently but it also shows the type of person they are. However, people should not judge them on what they have done unless they are still doing it. People should also respect them and leave them alone. Just give them a chance and may be just may be you might change your mind about them. They are not all bad.

Poem Nettles

When analysing poems ‘Netttles' and ‘born yesterday', both are similar in how they show a parents love and responsibility for a child. While ‘Nettles' highlights the anxieties that a parent has for their child, the latter deals with the hopes a parent can wish upon their child. Both use various language techniques and structure to convey how parents can have different ways of expressing their relationship and love for a child. Born yesterday depicts this love for a newborn baby, but this poem is written in a more hopeful, unconventional manner.The first stanza of Born Yesterday highlights his views of what â€Å"the others*( seeming to mean most people) hope for in a newborn, which comes across as fairly sarcastic and almost as if he despises upon this general opinion of your child having the best things that life can offer. This sarcasm or mocking appears to be shown in the line â€Å"running off a spring of innocence and love†. In the fourth line he uses t he term â€Å"usual stuff , which further highlights this negative opinion as Larkin seems to think they are boring and non-realistic.His love for this baby is comes across in a specific way and is fairly unusual almost as if he is just writing it in hope, for example in the last line of the first stanza â€Å"well, you're a lucky girl† These unconventional aspirations continue into the second and final stanza where he gives a more personal view on how he would like to see this child grow up. Despite the repetition of negatives that he uses such as towards the end its still clear that he cares deeply about this child's future as it is still written with positive hopes.The oxymoron on the third line â€Å"An average of talents†, expresses that someone that is not at rock bottom but still not having many luxuries at the same time can result in the baby having a happy life, and this sums up the overall message that Larkin is getting across to the audience. This can even be seen before on the second line where it could be said to almost be insulting when he says â€Å"may you be ordinary†. Furthermore, he says how he wishes for the baby to not be ugly but immediately following with â€Å"not good-looking†, balancing his wishes in order to reinforce the baby being nothing more but nothing less in life.Repetition in â€Å"unworkable† and â€Å"working† in the eighteenth and nineteenth lines increases the sense that this one thing spreads to disrupt everything else, but also shows the extent of how specific a parent could be in detail about a child. The way in which Larkin writes the poem, particularly in the first stanza when explaining the special hopes for a child that are normal, shows that these things may inevitably and that she may not have much control over living her life, almost the opposite way to how he would like. This tells he understands how complicated a persons dreams for a child can be.The five adjectives i n quick succession towards the later part of the final stanza show how complicated this â€Å"catching of happiness† is. In addition, the rhyming couplet in the last two lines gives these lines more meaning as the repetitive adjectives stay in the readers mind and it leads to an obvious close. The last four lines also tell us that happiness can come in many ways, and that this is what he truly wants for the baby, and this has been his feelings throughout. However these lines do stand out to the more controversial tone of the rest of the poem.With the poem consisting of just two stanzas each makes it very effective by how it gets the idea across of how someones life could plan out so differently, despite how much a person wishes it could plan out. In contrast, Scannal *(poet of Nettles) Nettles takes a simple and common occurance, and thinking about its implications shows various techniqus to show the possibl outcome of a parents protective measures. The poem is only one stanz a with 16 lines and has a strong reguler rhyme scheme. The rhythm gives the poem this organised and at the same time a rigid feel to it.Its possible that the poem consisting of 16 lines is done with intent as a symbol to how long a parent has a bond with a child. It is also reminiscent of a sonnet, often a love poem. The love in this poem is of a father who is trying to protect his son but who realises the futility of this. Every other line rhymes in this poem which has the effect of making the poem seem more intense as the rhyme is not overly obvious. It is also written in the first person which makes it seem so much more personal, â€Å"my son,† â€Å"I saw† and shows Scannal wanting to make the reader sympathies for the child.He reminds us in the last two lines our lives are exposed to physical and negative pain. This Ab Sb cd cd rhyme scheme pattern used throughout to possibly suggest how soldiers march in complete sink and can maintain this synchronisation. The us e of the iambic pentimeter adds tro this structured effect as it uses a 10 syllable limit a line. Line 10 has an extra beat which shows the poets anger at these nettles and really makes it stand out. The use of enjambment in the fourth, fifth and sixth line shows a narrative style and brings out an overall theme of emotion with the use of alliteration.This alliteration can be seen on the 6th line. The bold sound shows the pain that the child is suffering with the term â€Å"tender skin† used as a contrast to the child's vulnerability. The word â€Å"bed† in the first line makes you think about what the nettles represent, and by using words referring to the military, this can be seen by the extended metaphor. These military/army metaphors bring out the nettles spite more vividly, together with his own feelings of anger and aggression. They also make the hurts that are inflicted upon the child sound more severe than they actually are.This demonstrates how a parents love for a child can reach the point of where they exxagerate reality, in order to make us as an audience feel more sypathetic for the person they care moe than anything else about. This is shown when he explains how he â€Å"lit a funeral pyre to burn the fallen dead†, implying that these nettles could be something that could inflict pain upon his son in the future. The sympathetic tone at times shows he is aware of his sons vulnerability once again in the 6th line as the aggressive sound reflect the sharp pains that were experienced.The idea that he knows theres only so much he can do in protection is shown on the second from last line, when he explain how the â€Å"tall recruits† had been â€Å"called up† again. Overall , after analysing both poems, I fell that Nettles is more effective in it showing how relationships are present among families. Through the use of a catalogue of language techniques he manages to get across the emotional and enduring pain that fami ly relationships can bring, and that despite the amount of care one can have for a child, this may not be enough to stop them from meeting issues in their future.