A Comparison of Christian Influence on Beowulf and The...

Christian Influence on Beowulf and The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki In Beowulf the Christian influence is revealed through approximately 70 passages in which the form of expression or the thought suggests Christian usage or doctrine (Blackburn 3); The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki is in its own way infused with Christian values even though it preserves remnants of the cult of Odin. The Christian element seems to be too deeply interwoven in the text of Beowulf for us to suppose that it is due to additions made by scribes at a time when the poem had come to be written down. The Christian element had to be included by the original poet or by minstrels who recited it in later times. The extent to which the Christian element is†¦show more content†¦E. Talbot Donaldson says: â€Å"Yet there is no reference to the New Testament – to Christ and His Sacrifice which are the real bases of Christianity in any intelligible sense of the term.† (Bloom 1). The minstrels who introduced the Christian element probably had but a vague knowledge of Christianity, much of it probably coming from other poets who were Christian, like Caedmon, who is mentioned in Bede’s The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (215-18). Caedmon’s Hymn has but few lines extant: . . . the power of the Creator, the profound mind of the glorious Father, who fashioned the beginning of every wonder, the eternal Lord. For the children of men he made first heaven as a roof, the holy Creator. . . .(Alexander 6) The Christian references in Beowulf include four allusions to Genesis, including the Creation, Cain and Abel and the Flood. There are dozens of references to God in the Christian sense, plus other epithets for God: lord, father, creator, ruler, almighty, ruler of men, ruler of glory, shepherd of glory, king of glory, guider of the heavens, ruler of victories, king of victories (Chadwick 24). While the poet’s reflections and characters’ statements are mostly Christian, the customs and ceremonies, on the other hand, are almost entirely heathen/pagan (Ward v1,ch3,s3,n17): At the beginning of the poem, there is the account of the pagan funeral rites of Scyld

Herman Miller Free Essays

HERMAN MILLER 1. Describe Herman Miller’s strategy. Is there evidence it has produced a competitive advantage and good financial performance? Explain. We will write a custom essay sample on Herman Miller or any similar topic only for you Order Now They focus on a growth strategy, through innovative products and production processes. Reinvention and renewal. They survived the Great Depression and multiple recessions, recovered from the dot-com bust and were able to continue expanding overseas. They adapted to save the company, by introducing new designs. In 1996, Herman Miller began an aggressive drive to reinvent its operations and established a fruitful relationship with the Toyota Supplier Support Center. Unique to the office furniture industry, the relationship enabled the company to adopt and implement world-class, lean manufacturing processes based on the Toyota Production System principles. Through the Herman Miller Production System (HMPS), the company dramatically reduced manufacturing square footage and inventories, cut lead times for standard product from 8 weeks to as little as 10 days, and significantly grew sales and profitability. Another component of the HMPS lean initiative focuses on the company’s people and their development, complementing Herman Miller’s long history of employee participation. Herman Miller believes its success in achieving operational excellence depends on the motivation and thinking of its people to solve problems and drive improvement. -They focus more on high quality products that is why they were not dramatically hit by competition from overseas, also because they were already in some of these markets. They’re manufacturing strategy limited fixed production costs by outsourcing component parts from strategic suppliers, which increased variable nature of its cost structure, which is their competitive advantage, which is reflected in their financial performance, from 2006-2010 their gross profit margin remained relatively constant. Top to bottom it works/ demonstrate their business in their own office. All employees are cross trained. Flexible manufacturing where a production line can do multiple jobs Both differentiation and low cost provider increase their margins . How have the company’s values shaped its strategy and approach to strategy execution? Provide illustrations of how these values are reflected in company policies. They treat all workers as individuals with special talent and potential. They respect all employees, which fuelled the quest to tap the diversity of gifts and skills held by all, in an environment where people felt comfortable taking risks. In 19 50, developed a Scanlon Plan (productivity incentive plan), which reflects values, equity and justice for everyone in the company. Employees felt empowered a new manager took his safety glasses off and an employee yelled at him to put his safety glasses back on. The company’s beliefs were also reinforced through the employee gift committee and environment quality action team, which distributed funds and other resources based on employee involvement. They became a responsible corporate citizen through minimizing their waste which was both environmentally friendly and cost-effective. Shared gains and pains. Top executives took 10% pay cuts consecutively to avoid letting staff go, received less than competing firms top executives, which shows their commitment to the â€Å"team†. They have committees for sharing ideas on improvements and how to increase profitability. Even through project purple, one out 1000 companies would do that, increasing spending for the sake of tomorrow while cutting back to survive today, they worked as a team for a common goal, leadership and decision making was shared within the team and across the organization. Their values carried over to all functional areas of business. 3. What is your evaluation of HMI’s financial performance? How does its performance compare to prior years? the competition? Their financial performance is not bad, considering they were able to recover from many recessions. From 2006-2010 their gross profit margin remained relatively constant, however during hard times when sales dropped by 19% in 08 and 09 current liabilities were a little higher than usual and net profit margins began falling from 7. 6% to 4. 17% and 2. 15% in 2010. Which the whole industry took a hit with external trends on the rise: telecommuting which decreased the need for office equipment for all employees, increase toward ergonomically correct office furniture, competition from overseas cost of raw materials. Revenues are falling 4. Until 2003, HMI offered lifelong employment. How did this practice affect the company’s ability to staff the organization with managers and employees capable of executing the strategy? How did this practice build the organizational capabilities required for successful strategy execution? It enabled them to hire people that had talents and skills that match the needs and wants of the commercial enterprise, they redesigned benefit plans to be more portable, to decrease the cost of changing jobs for employees whose gifts and talents no longer matched customer needs. Its bundled capabilities are yielding a sustainable competitive advantage, by retaining employees. 5. Do non-monetary incentives facilitate strategy execution at HMI? Explain. Yes, it becomes engrained in the employees, part of their values and beliefs. The concierge services’ goal is to provide employees with assistance and help to be successful balancing responsibilities—at work and home. 6. Describe the culture at HMI. Would you characterize HMI’s culture as healthy and largely supportive of good strategy execution? Explain. Yes as, Herman Miller instituted a formal program of participative management. An organization of employee-owners, the company is committed to problem-solving design, uncompromising quality, and customer satisfaction. Herman Miller instituted an employee stock ownership program in 1983. To aid the decision-making process, Herman Miller uses a performance indicator, measurement, and compensation system called â€Å"Economic Value Added†. EVA is an internal measurement of operating and financial performance that is linked to incentive compensation for all employee-owners, allowing the company to shift its focus from budget performance to long-term continuous improvements and the creation of economic value. The result is a highly motivated and business literate workforce that challenges convention and strives to create increasingly greater value for both customers and owners. Every month the company and all employees review performance in terms of EVA, which has proven to be a strong corollary to shareholder value. The responsibility of employee ownership requires capable people to meet high expectations. Herman Miller believes that inclusiveness is critical to the company’s success—today and for the future. 7. What recommendations would you make to Herman Miller’s CEO Brian Walker to improve the company’s current financial performance? Does the company need to radically alter its strategy because of poor economic conditions? Should it improve its approach to implementing the strategy to reduce costs and improve efficiency? Explain. I would recommend maintaining the current strategy of being the most innovative company, however reduce costs and improve efficiency as they did to weather the storm in the previous recession. Open new market by providing products at a lower cost same quality though and target schools hospital and nursing homes. How to cite Herman Miller, Papers

Production and Operations Hawkesbury Cabinets Pty Ltd

Question: Describe about the Production and Operations for Hawkesbury Cabinets Pty Ltd. Answer: Case Study: Hawkesbury Cabinets Pty Ltd Operation management has often proved to be instrumental in helping business enterprises control their production processes, and the fundamental business operations efficiently while guaranteeing their long-term prosperity. If a given business entity duly observes the prescriptions of the principles of operation management, they often find it easy to secure huge profit margins while ducking loopholes and potential risks in the process (Kast Rosenzweig, 2013). Any deflection from these principles has proved costly for the given organizations since in most cases they are forced to close business or rescale in order to survive the market demands. Apparently, Hawkesbury Cabinets Company is accompanied with immense potential to grow but due to a variety of issues, the enterprise is not living up to its bidding. They range from management to the manufacturing process. It is understandable that the pioneers of the business company did not presage its future profile and as a consequence did not install good plans on tapping on the future expansion. Thus the company has found itself in a conundrum on a daily basis since the management is often caught flat foot by the new developments.They are often forced to make required adjustments to rearrange the company set up and restore the equilibrium. They did not establish a neat management framework. The two founders of the organization- Fung and Mei Chen-established the basic functional and production management frameworks at the beginning which often riddled the decision-making process. Initially, it worked well for them since the assumed flat organizational structure enabled them to make decisions relatively quickly. But, they ought to have diversified it with the enterprises expansion so that it can fit the increased demands. It could have enabled the company to easily meet the clients expectations as well as quick adjustment to the daily changing organizational and market trends. The founders of the company did not have a good business plan for both the current and future prospects of the company. Good planning in business operation management provides the roadmap to both the present and future endeavors of a given business entity. According to Stefan Topfer, dividends of good business planning often outweigh the temporary loss of business revenue (Meredith, 2014). All successful businesses attribute their milestone achievements to good planning and due strategizing. The companys owners ought to have envisaged the potential future expansion and employs good strategies to tap on the advantages of the companys expansion. For instance, the company was overwhelmed by the increased patronage and thus introduced the manufacturing of standardized kitchens without visualizing on how to make good use of this opportunity. It forced it to use the same tools and staff to come up with the new product at the same time. They ought to have planned on recruiting new staff and expanding the manufacturing infrastructure to maintain the quality of the products as well as the operation efficiency (Voss, Tsikriktsis Frohlich, 2013). There is also the problem of the manufacturing facilities and space. After realizing the increased expansion and demands of the companys operations, they ought to have established a separate workshop for both products so as to increase the working space. It has subsequently led to the manufacturing process to be grueling and thus decreased efficiency. Consequently, the delivery time was prolonged thus reducing client confidence on the companys services and a palpable waste of resources. Even after renting the neighboring warehouses space could not be enough thus limiting the companys expansion. Such an impact will seriously dent the company reputation if it continues uncontrolled. Poor planning made the company to fail in making decisions regarding priority in its operations since the management was confused on what to prioritize and what not to. For example, the workload significantly increased after the introduction of the builders line of kitchens as a consequence of lack of prior ity in the companys operations. Introducing a new product or service for a manufacturing enterprise is often associated with risks, uncertainties and inconveniences to a given companys business operations (Soteriou, Hadjinicola Patsia, 1999). However with good planning and implementation of the premeditated strategies, this adventure can be very beneficial in the long term. For the case in point, the introduction of the new builders kitchen made it necessary that the company recruits new staff members so as to meet the demands of an enhanced manufacturing process. Also, the financial budget was significantly stretched since an enhanced investment towards funding the increased operations. The space of operations also had to be expanded due the fact that the new product demanded equally the same space as the previous operations. Generally, the whole companys scale of the operation was enhanced thus increased demands. However, this was not the case since the companys administration did not see the necessity to do thi s. Contrary, they felt that they could continue to operate within the same means as they used to do in the past which was a huge disadvantage to the chances of expanding the companys profitability and diversification. Consequently, the companys lead time increased, the workload burgeoned delayed delivery time, as well as the current operations systems pushing manufacturing capacity of the company to the limit. Also, the prevailing layout guaranteed lessor no space for the expansion of the plant. To a great extent, this can be termed as the single biggest undoing of the company since it cannot benefit from the numerous opportunities presented (Meredith Shafer, 2013). Adding a new product line is often viewed as the best way to building sales and moving any business entity forward in a new dimension and direction. According to Khosrow-Pour, having multiple product lines will enable a business that is growing to diversify ways of escaping risks as well as capitalizing on the already well-established name (Coe Weinstock, 2013). For the case of Hawkesbury Cabinets Company, the management may have realized that introducing the production of builders kitchens would be profitable to the business operations. But, this might not be the case in the short term since an increased scale of operation will demand an enhanced financial investment. It will greatly reduce the profit margins since a lot will be dedicated to enhancing and facilitating the new adventure. The company could need to hire new staff and also a big expenditure will be directed towards the purchase of raw materials. Also, a huge percentage of the companys resources will be siphoned off the slower movement of the products which will result in over-extension of the new product to cannibalize the sales (Lu Huang, 2013). However, this product addition will definitely increase the companys customer base in the long term by attracting customers with different tastes and preferences which will amount to huge profit margins. It is due to the market segmentation as well as seasonal sales patterns (Ahire, Landeros Golhar, 2014). This introduction also will help the company wield and edge in the market by presenting different product propositions as opposed to its opponents. Apparently, the company is not late in implementing the recommended changes so as to guarantee long-term profitability and security of its operations since it has not lost its customer base. The nature of the adjustments is radical as it will involve redesigning the majority of the management and production structure so as to accommodate the daily demands of a growing organization. However, they should be carefully tailored to avoid alienation and redundancy. References Ahire, S.L., Landeros, R. Golhar, D.Y. (2014). Production and Operations. From: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1937-5956.1995.tb00057.x/abstract Coe, R. Weinstock, I. (2013). Evaluating the Management Journals: A SecondLook. From: https://www.jstor.org/stable/256053?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Kast, R.E., Rosenzweig, J.E. (2013). Organization and management. from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/255141.pdf?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Lu Huang, L., Song, J., Tong, J. (2013). Supply Chain Planning for Random Demand Surges: Reactive Capacity and Safety Stock. From: https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/msom.2016.0583 Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M. (2013). Operations management for MBAs.Meredith J.(2014).Building operations management theory through case and field research. Journal of operations management. Volume 16, Issue 4, July 1998, Pages 441454From: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0272-6963(98)00023-0 Soteriou, A. C., G. C. Hadjinicola, and K. Patsia, 1999, Assessing Production and Operations Management Related Journals: The European Perspective, Journal of Operations Management, 17(2), 225-239. Voss, C., Tsikriktsis, N. Frohlich, M. (2013). Case research in operations management. From: https://www.feg.unesp.br/~fmarins/seminarios/Material%20de%20Leitura/artigos%20m%E9todos/Estudo%20de%20Caso.pdf