Tektronix Inc Global Erp Implementation Information Technology Essay

Tektronix Inc Global Erp Implementation Information Technology Essay The present business environment is changing dramatically and is mainly characterized by increasing competition, rising customer expectations, expanding markets and shorter product life cycles. This has put tremendous pressure on companies to reduce costs across the value chain and inventory, provide better customer service and reliable delivery dates, improved quality and efficiently manage the demand, production and supply across the globe. In order to remain competitive, in the light of these pressures, firms are exploring different ways of doing business and also realizing the importance to improve their internal processes and practices. It is crucial for organisations to share timely and accurate business information with their customers, suppliers and distributors and in order to meet this objective firms are aggressively using enterprise resources planning (ERP) systems. ERP system provides two main benefits. One, it provides a unified enterprise view of the organization. The entire information from human resources, accounting, finance, sales, inventory, logistics and supply chain management are integrated by ERP. This integration allows firms to respond rapidly to changing market and competitive forces, efficiently manage supply chain and inventory thereby realizing cost savings. Second, the ERP acts as a central information database that allows information to be stored, processed, analyzed and monitored. This prevents information and communications gaps thereby allowing better co-operation and co-ordination across the various departments and functional units in an organization (Umble et al, 2003; Bingi et al, 1999). The ERP system, by providing timely and accurate information, aids in the strategic decision making functions of the top management. Although the ERP system can be considered as one of the strategic tools used by organisations to realize their business goals and objectives, its implementation is a cause for concern. ERP systems are highly complex systems and its implementation is usually a difficult and costly exercise fraught with risks. This essay evaluates the global ERP implementation at Tektronix, a manufacturer of electronic test equipments. The essay begins by briefly outlining the state of affairs at Tektronix prior to ERP implementation and can be considered as driving factors behind the adoption. The implementation has been analyzed in different stages business plan and Vision, requirements analysis, software selection, implementation planning and implementation. Such an approach will provide more clarity about the adoption process, the critical success factors and risk mitigation. NEED FOR CHANGE AT TEKTRONIX Tektronix, in spite of being the world leader in most of the businesses that it was catering to, was limited in terms of flexibility of its operations and growth opportunities. In order to overcome these limitations the top management felt that the organization had to be restructured starting with information technology (IT) infrastructure. The IT infrastructure at Tektronix was a complete mess. They had over 450 legacy systems only in the United States, apart from the systems used in the 60 countries in which they were operating. There was no standardization of these systems or business processes globally. Inventory tracking was a problem and sales order processing had to be carried out multiple times in different systems which resulted in increasing processing time, reduced customer service and order errors. The financial systems were not very efficient with multiple charts of accounts across the company and therefore taking weeks to close the books at the end of the month. It was also challenging to retrieve business performance information such as the profitability with regards to each product or division. It can be inferred from these business challenges that the driving forces for ERP adoption at Tektronix were the need for business process integration, common template for IT, unified enterprise view of informatio n, operational cost savings and increased customer responsiveness. BUSINESS PLAN, VISION, TOP MANAGEMENT SUPPORT AND COMMITMENT One of the most critical success factors for any ERP implementation is the creation of a clear and compelling vision identifying goals and objectives along with their alignment with information systems strategy (Umble et al, 2003; Finney Corbett, 2007). Along with this vision, the business plan should provide the justification for the investment based on reliable data and reasonable assumptions (Nah et al, 2001; Kraemmerand et al, 2003). In case of Tektronix, the vision was provided by the CFO and it stressed on three key aspects -seperablity of business, leveraging shared services and a plain vanilla system, where possible. With regards to ERP investment justification, Tektronix did not spent time carrying out detailed return on investment (ROI) analysis. The decision to adopt ERP system was based on the judgment of few senior managers, in particular the CFO. One of the risks of such an action, and which did occur, is costly implementations. A detailed budgeting and ROI analysis wo uld have put a control on the cash outflow for the implementation. Top management support and commitment is another critical success factor and is required throughout the implementation by way of monitoring progress and providing direction (Murray Coffin, 2001). They play a key role in the allocation of resources apart from legitimizing the new goals, objectives and business process changes. Their support also helps to reduce user resistance which is likely to be present in large transformational projects such as an ERP implementation (Nah et al, 2001; Sumner, 2003). In case of Tektronix there was continuous support and approval from the CFO, divisional heads and senior managers during the project life cycle. REQUIREMENT ANALYSIS Most of the times, the reasons cited for the abandonment of ERP projects is because firms realize, midway, that the new system does not support some of their business processes (Koch et al, 1999). One of the reasons for this is the failure to conduct a detailed requirement analysis prior to ERP adoption. As part of this analysis, functional requirements should depict the various data requirements, process linkages and work flows. In Tektronix implementation, it is clear from the case study that the management had not carried out detailed requirement analysis prior to ERP adoption. Although they managed to have a successful ERP adoption, this was a very risk approach. SOFTWARE SELECTION The software selection process at Tektronix can be analyzed from three key aspects buy-versus-build decision, the software selection process and finally, the single vendor approach to enterprise systems integration. Firms adopting an ERP system face the decision to whether build the system in-house or to purchase packaged software and this depends on a number of factors, one of which is the level of technical expertise and ERP development knowledge existing in-house (Sawyer, 2000). Firms involved in the in-house development of the ERP systems face the risk of cost and schedule overruns and in some cases the end system not meeting the user requirements (Lucas Jr et al, 1988). The decision to go for packaged system, in Tektronix, can be considered to be a wise decision because of two main reasons. Firstly, Tektronix had no experience in developing IS systems. It would not have been possible for them to develop a robust system with the same efficiency as a package software developer, who could leverage from its RD and varied implementation experiences. Secondly, Tektronix did not have the necessary technical skills, which was also evident during the implementation stage. With regards to software selection process, Tektronix spent very little time. The decision to implement Oracle ERP solution was based mainly on the experiences of the CFO and CIO. Very little resources were spent in evaluating the alternatives in terms of features and costs. An ERP system, by default, will impose considerable influence on a firms strategy, organization and culture. Some of the ERP failures can be attributed to the incompatibility that exist between the new systems technical capabilities and needs vis-Ã  -vis the organizations existing business processes (Umble et al, 2003). It is therefore critical that the ERP selection process is conducted with great care. The selection between the single vendor and best of breed approaches to systems integration is debatable. Both the approaches have risks and are considered to be complex with regards to their scale, scope and business process reengineering requirements (Shehab et al, 2004). The best of breed strategy can offer the best functionality for each module, but its implementation is complex because of the need for establishing interfaces between the disparate systems (Bingi et al, 1999; Shehab et al, 2004). The cost and the need for extensive training to maintain these interfaces is also likely to be high (Light et al, 2001). In case of single vendor strategy, it might not have all functionalities but it will easier to implement (Mabert et al, 2001). The other benefits include simplified contracting and relationship management as well as a single point of control for all software related problems (Shehab et al, 2004). Taking into consideration Tektronix growth strategy as well as the scale a nd complexity of the ERP implementation, it can be argued that the single vendor strategy seemed suitable. It mitigated, to a great extent, the integration, maintenance and upgrade related risks likely to be present in multiple package implementations. IMPLEMENTATION PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION An important activity, during implementation planning, which plays a crucial role in the success of an ERP implementation, is the creation of a steering committee consisting of senior management and end users (Somers Nelson, 2004). The role of the steering committee is mainly to determine the project scope and objectives prior to implementation and to ensure adherence to it (Parr Shanks, 2000). In case of Tektronix, the steering committee refined the companys vision and developed the global business model along with business process change and guiding principles in order to provide clear direction for the implementation. The steering committees portrayal of top management support and commitment was also instrumental in overcoming resistances. Effective project organization and management is another critical success factor in the adoption of an ERP (Umble et al, 2003). It is also necessary to ensure that the project team is well balanced consisting of members from different divisions or functional units possessing both business and technical skills (Finney Corbett, 2007). In case of Tektronix ERP implementation, there was an efficient project management team consisting of representatives from different functional and geographical locations. Apart from this, the members had a combination of business and technical skills which made it easy for to identify and resolve issues quickly. In this context it would be appropriate to stress the importance of a project champion; who oversees the entire implementation process, helps to achieve consensus and plays a major role in handling organizational change. This project champion should be a high level executive with transformational leadership qualities and should have the authorit y to set goals and legitimize change (Nah et al, 2001; Ngai et al, 2008). The CFO as a project champion can be considered one of the success factors behind Tektronix implementation. In case of large scale ERP implementations, most companies fall into the trap of a big bang seduction. Introducing the ERP system at one strike can be extremely risky and can affect the success of the project (Vogt, 2002). The overall strategy used by Tektronix for the ERP implementation can be considered to be incremental approach. It was a single change program consisting of several waves or implementations with each implementation lead by a senior executive and addressing change in a particular division or geographic region. Although the different locations were managed independently, they were monitored by a central project team to ensure a timely and smooth change. The advantage of this was that it gave regular feedback regarding the implementation thereby allowing fast corrective measures in case of any deviations, provided vital learnings which could be used in subsequent installations and allowed flexibility in project scheduling. Apart from this, each successful implementati on acted as a proof of concept (Watson Haley, 1998) for the ERP, which helped to keep the team morale high as well as to ensure continued senior management support and commitment. In case of global rollout, again the incremental approach was followed, with the initial implementation being carried out across Europe. This allowed the project team to learn and address majority of the global implementation challenges, which proved beneficial in the subsequent implementations. Although the overall approach was incremental, it was interlaced with big bang approach where possible. The incremental approach helped to overcome the challenges arising from geographical distances and the lack of business synergies that existed between some countries. It was also instrumental in managing the language difficulties that existed in some countries. One of the risk factors associated with an ERP implementation is the failure of adopting company to redesign the business processes to align with the new ERP system. Rather than redesigning, these companies customize the software to fit the existing inefficient business processes, leading to cost overruns, delays and project failures (Sumner, 2003; Ngai et al, 2008; Somers Nelson, 2004; Nah et al, 2001). These risk factors were addressed to great extent in the Tektronix implementation. As part of business process redesign it carried out a number of activities. It standardized the charts-of-accounts, eliminated existing complex transfer pricing practices and changed the financial transaction processes. Apart from this, as part of organizational restructuring all European country managers were removed, English was declared as the single language for business within Tektronix and local business practices were standardized. With regards to customization, Tektronix undertook it mainly be cause of two reasons the differences in business operations between the divisions necessitated it and the Oracle ERP system did not have all the functionality required; a fallout of not carrying out the software/vendor process diligently. Change management programs are an important part of organizational transformation processes such as ERP adoption. Although it is mentioned here under planning and implementation, it is usually initiated at the start of the project and continues throughout the project lifecycle. An enterprise wide ERP implementation such as at Tektronix is likely to cause changes to the organizations culture and structure (Nah et al, 2001). If users are not prepared for such a change, the likely consequences will be user resistance, chaos and denial. To avoid such a situation the users need to be involved during the design and implementation of the ERP system. This should be augmented with education, training and re-skilling, which will help them in understanding the need for change and the associated implications on their job (Umble et al, 2003; Al-Mashari et al, 2003; Kraemmerand et al, 2003). In case of Tektronix, there are indications from the case study that the change management was not handled effectively. One instance was the resistance to change faced during the implementation of Order Management/Accounts Receivable (OMAR) at CPID division and the project team having to reiterate the need for change. Another instance was during the implementation of OMAR at VND division. It was post implementation that VND realized the level of resources and the skill set required. Although VND managed to have a successful implementation, this could have been risky leading to user resistance and chaos. The insufficient training of the end users is considered as one of the risk factors associated with an ERP implementation (Sumner, 2003). Based on the approach of using power or super users, it can be argued that Tektronix followed cascaded training to mitigate the risks arising from insufficient training of end users. The risk arising from the lack of internal expertise, technical and functional, was mitigated by the deployment of external consultants. In order to avoid the risks and surprises arising from the integration of complex business operations with the ERP system, Tektronix pursued a vigorous testing program simulating live work environment. LESSONS LEARNED FROM THIS IMPLEMENTATION There are some key learnings, based on the above evaluation. Firstly, it is necessary to carry out a detailed requirement of analysis prior to an ERP implementation. This will ensure that a proper understanding of existing business process and benefits that can be realized from the adoption of the new system. Secondly, the ROI analysis and budgeting apart from providing the economic justification for the project will also help to control the implementation costs. Third, in case of software/vendor selection sufficient resources must be spent in comparing features and costs between the various alternatives. This can avoid customizations at a later stage. In their article, Umble and Haft (2003) recommends a selection process which includes identification of potential vendors and evaluation criteria, creating the request for proposal, evaluation of the proposals, choosing the vendor/software, negotiation of contract, pre-implementation pilot test and finally, establishing service level a greements. Fourth, the presence of a steering committee consisting of representatives from the senior management and end users along with the appointment of a project champion can have considerable impact on the success of the implementation. Fifth, the lack of business process reengineering coupled with excessive levels of customizations can lead to cost overruns, delays and project failure. Lastly, incremental approach is suitable in the case of large scale ERP implementations as it provides feedbacks and quick gains which acts as a proof of concept along with the learning which can be utilized in subsequent installations. CONCLUSION It is clear that although the implementation at Tektronix was expensive it was a successful implementation. This was due to the presence of a number of critical success factors along with risk mitigation approaches that were followed. The presence of executive sponsorship during the project life cycle, along with a transformation leader such as the CFO as the project champion was critical to the success of this project. In terms of global rollout, avoiding the big bang seduction and following the incremental approach was a wise decision. However, there are few areas such as the requirement analysis, software/vendor selection process and change management where the project team did not carry out detailed analysis or execution. Focus on some of these areas could have made avoided some of the problems that were faced during the implementation. In a nutshell, the successful adoption of ERP at Tektronix helped it to overcome many of the inefficiencies which were present earlier and in the process enabled it to become much more agile and flexible.

International Marketing and Management Essay

1. Preface As the neo-classic theory, the information model (McCracken, 2005) within advertising is based on the idea of homo economicus – the rational human being or the rational consumer. According to this theory the consumers evaluate products on a rational basis and buy the goods which are assessed to optimise their self-interest. Thus the cultural context surrounding the good is not taken into account when planning a branding strategy. This indicates that the consumer at any given time will select a product on the basis of an objective evaluation upon the good’s utility regardless of any other factors. However, how does the information model explain that that the consumer’s actions deviate from what is dictated in the theory and hence that the consumer does not always act rational? Consumers buying patterns and decision making seem to be controlled by other factors than rational evaluations and hence the information model appears to face limitations when trying to give explanation to why expensive branded goods are chosen rather than similar goods without brand value – choices, which are inherently irrational. So what triggers the consumer to make these choices? And if the consumers based their consumption on rationality would some luxury goods not battle to survive in the market place? Therefore, when looking into the specialty coffee1 market it could be argued that the similar cheaper coffee product now supplied by fast food chains such as McDonald’s or Dunkin Donuts, would easily substitute a product such as coffee from Starbucks Corporation2? However, it seems like the consumers act less rationally than predicted by the neo-classic economic theory and thus base their consumption choices on other factors than for instance price – it is not rational to buy a tall lattà © in Starbucks when a product with similar product-property can be bought in McDonald’s for less than half the price, but nevertheless numerous consumers do buy their latte at Starbucks. Then it is arguable that the quality and taste were what differentiated the Starbucks latte from the McDonald’s latte, which would justify the more expensive purchase. But according to specialists the price premium of coffee at Starbucks cannot be justified anymore (Schwaner-Albright, 2008) again indicating that something other than pure information is controlling consumers buying decisions. McCracken (2005) explains these irrational choices with the so-called transformation model, the counterpart of the information model, which operates within another paradigm not explaining consumer choices on the basis of information but on the basis of consumers being surrounded by culture – culture which affects the consumption patterns and that products possess intangible benefits or meanings which can be transferred from the products to the consumer, meanings which the consumers need to construct their identity. For this Speciality coffee: â€Å"Sometimes called â€Å"gourmet† or â€Å"premium† coffee, Specialty Coffees are made from exceptional beans grown only in ideal coffee-producing climates. They tend to feature distinctive flavours, which are shaped by the unique characteristics of the soil that produces them† (SCAA, 2008) Starbucks Corporation will be referred to as Starbucks in the rest of the thesis. Ea Elisabeth Finn Nielsen & Tina Holm Mortensen | The Story of Starbucks reason rational choices are not always made – brands possess intangible meanings which results in consumers making irrational choices based on emotions and feelings and which to some degree may explain the success of the Starbucks until now. 2. Problem Area Investigating the state and direction of Starbucks leaves one with the impression of a very successful company – it is an almost unbelievable success story about the coffee chain and a brand which changed the Americans’ coffee and cafà © culture. Since 1987, when this success story took its departure, Starbucks has attained immense growth results. The coffee shop chain has been growing with more that 20% a year (Bonamici & Fortune, 2004) and in five years the chain almost tripled the number of stores worldwide, from 5,886 in 2002 to 15,011 in 2007 (Harrer, 2008) resulting in an almost global omnipresence (Starbucks, 2008a). Thus, Starbucks is developing rapidly which is reflected in the fact that the chain until last year opens approximately five new stores a day worldwide. According to the corporation, the intention is to let this development continue and the plan is to add approximately 6,500 stores to the total store count by the end of 2011 (Starbucks, 2008b) However, in the media, Starbucks is criticised for this rapid growth and analysts do not seem to doubt that the expansion objective of a total number of 40,000 stores is to stretch the expansion too far, as it is estimated that it might be difficult to maintain a profitable turnover in the long run (Nocera, 2008). Furthermore, if continuing this fast, some analysts expect that the corporation eventually will destroy what they have built up and what have become to be known as their unique characteristics. Hence, analysts believe that Starbucks have lost focus and track of the Starbucks Experience3 which has always been the cornerstone of the corporation (Nocera, 2008). These statements are particularly interesting as Starbucks’ growth rate seems to have been slowing down the past year (Starbucks, 2008d). To this, it is seen how Starbucks is not able to meet the expectations of the market, which is reflected in dropping stock prices in particular, and in the fact that Starbucks struggles to retain the same costumer traffic as before. Starbucks believes that increasing competition from quick-service restaurants, which have started offering coffee and the decrease in the American economy, are the main explanations for Starbucks’ inferior results (Starbucks, 2008c). Naturally, it cannot be rejected that some of Starbucks’ decline is connected to the US economic slowdown as the tendency is seen across the industry, but comparing Starbucks’ stock prices to the overall index, Starbucks has experienced a steeper fall the past year (Factiva, 2008). Therefore, the decline may have other explanations. Although Starbucks is far from economic crisis at this moment, it can be argued that potential crisis are lurking. Starbucks strives to provide customers with a special and theatrical experience in a comfortable and inviting environment when buying their coffee beverage. This is referred to as â€Å"The Starbucks Experience† which will be elaborated on later as the experience comprises of many different factors. Ea Elisabeth Finn Nielsen & Tina Holm Mortensen | The Story of Starbucks Extending the knowledge of the Starbucks Corporation, there is no doubt that the future is challenging to Starbucks, especially since it has been presumed that the golden days of Starbucks is over (Gilbert in Nocera, 2008). In this context, it is essential to be aware of the growing tendency of customers deselecting Starbucks deliberately and especially the growing number of customers actually avoiding Starbucks (Thompson et al., 2006; Thompson and Arsel, 2004). The growing number of customers dissociating themselves from Starbucks, expressing their negative attitudes towards the corporation, cannot be ignored as they can be seen as an expression of Starbucks struggling with the trustworthiness of their brand. 2.1 Branding as the Root Cause Due to the growing dissociation from Starbucks and the questioning of their narratives, we argue that branding can be at the root of the problems Starbucks is facing currently. Thus, Starbucks’ approach to their branding is questioned. The dissociation from Starbucks can furthermore be understood as an expression of Starbucks not delivering what the consumer of today demands – thereby arguing that the Starbucks brand struggles in corresponding with the cultural desires in society. The purpose of the thesis is therefore to investigate how Starbucks has handled their branding and hence narratives. In relation to branding we have come across Holt (2004) and McCracken (1986; 2005) who both take a cultural approach to branding and thus focus on the importance of brands relating to the cultural context. Holt (2004) and McCracken’s (1986; 2005) theories analyse brands attached with meanings which consumers adopt when they buy the brand, thereby the brand’s meanings and values are transferred to the consumer’s identity. Thus, these brands can be characterised as identity brands. Starbucks is identified to be such an identity brand, seeing that customers apply the meanings of Starbucks’ brand in creating themselves (Thompson et al., 2006). Therefore, branding is about creating narratives which correspond with the desired image of the consumers. This requires an understanding of the historical and cultural context. The point is that if the narratives are not continuously related to the changing cultural context, hence the desires of the consumers, the brand will be in trouble as the narratives lose their trustworthiness (Holt, 2004). Based on Holt’s (2004) theory about iconic brands, it can additionally be argued that Starbucks has reached iconic status as they achieved to become a symbol representing the desires of consumer culture when they entered the market. They were able to comply with the subcultural desires of that time, exemplified by the â€Å"bobo-culture†, which will be elaborated on later (Thompson et al., 2006). This may leave one with the impression that Starbucks has pioneered in applying a cultural branding strategy. However, this does not seem to be the case since it is suggested that they do not change in line with the context yet, time after time, they intimate that they pursue an emotional branding strategy (Schultz & Yang, 1997; Michelli, 2006). Consumers’ doubt in Starbucks’ trustworthiness indicates conflicts in the image of Starbucks, and furthermore that the narratives do not correspond with the identity that consumers desire. Ea Elisabeth Finn Nielsen & Tina Holm Mortensen | The Story of Starbucks McCracken (2006) points out that all trends and concepts emerging as cultural innovations over time will be perceived as an ordinary standard; hence they lose what made them distinctive and interesting in the beginning, as well as their initial novelty value This is furthermore an interesting approach to Starbucks’ decline as it may be the case that Starbucks has difficulty in retaining the same position in the mind of the consumers seeing that the concept of specialty coffee might now be perceived as a mainstream concept. The cultural branding approach complies with and overcomes the shortcomings of emotional branding (Holt, 2004) which will be outlined as the branding strategy of Starbucks in the Literature Review. Therefore, the following Literature Review will serve as a justifying foundation for applying a cultural branding approach to the understanding of the Starbucks brand. 3. Literature Review The Starbucks corporation has been discussed in various articles, books, and TV shows and it seems that a large amount of writers have an opinion about the company which they wish to express in one way or another. However, only few articles and books have taken the discussion and analysis about the famous company to an academic level, and quite a few of these apply Starbucks as a case example and hence are not focussed on Starbucks alone. In the following review, we will outline the tendencies towards Starbucks’ branding. We have chosen to include academic research, consultancy work, and more descriptive analyses. We are aware of the fact that in the case of the consultancy literature, it appears to be weaker in its argumentation due to the fact that it is not based on thorough research. However, since only a little literature analyses Starbucks on an academic level, consultancy literature is included to give a more comprehensive image of the branding of Starbucks as it is found to provide a useful insight into how Starbucks have gone about their branding – knowledge which can be applied later in the thesis. Academic research includes, among others, Thompson and Arsel (2004), Thompson et al. (2006), Lyons (2005), Rindova in Lerpold et al. (2007). We define consultancy books as literature written with the purpose of giving the business-world’s suggestions on how to go about branding by applying Starbucks as a prime example. In the Literature Review, they are represented by Michelli (2007) and Scott Bedbury (2002). Lastly, there has been identified descriptive literature upon Starbucks’ branding. This is mainly written by Koehn (2001), Pendergrast (2001) and Luttinger and Dicum (2006), who include Starbucks in the historical context of the specialty coffee sector’s development. In general, it can be argued that the literature found shows an agreement in that Starbucks’ branding strategy is emotional, though some only imply this implicitly. We attempt to identify Ea Elisabeth Finn Nielsen & Tina Holm Mortensen | The Story of Starbucks gaps in the existing literature on which to base our argumentation of choosing a cultural branding approach. Moreover, most of the literature is written with the purpose of explaining Starbucks’ current troubles – therefore the gaps identified should not be seen as a criticism towards the existing literature as it has not been its purpose to analyse Starbucks from a cultural and contextual approach. Moreover, all texts have been composed before the crisis of Starbucks and therefore it seems logical that Starbucks’ poorer performance has not been investigated. Nevertheless, the fact is that only few authors have taken Starbucks’ lack of cultural branding up for evaluation and we will apply knowledge from these authors as foundation for the further research. 3.1 A Holistic Approach Michelli (2007) describes through an internal analysis of the corporation how Starbucks revolutionised the coffee industry, gained high growth rates, and success worldwide. Michelli (2007) points out that the company has followed five principles, and that these have lead directly to their success. The principles are all focused on how the company can differentiate from other coffee shops and, through the principles, create a special coffee experience for the customer. The key to this special experience is to create a connection between the partner4 and the customer and through this connection create a relation that emotionally attaches the customer to the brand. Michelli (2007) does not intend to describe the branding strategy of the company, and the purpose of his book is not to demonstrate the branding of Starbucks, but to develop a generic framework for success by indicating that any company can gain success applying the five principles. However, we argue that Michelli (2007) through the book, although maybe not consciously describes the branding of Starbucks, and that the five principles described in sum, constitute the branding strategy, or at least part of it. Implicitly, it can be argued that the strategy Michelli (2007) is describing is an emotional branding strategy as it is evident that emotions are the pivotal point of the strategy, and thus that the goal is to create an emotional relationship with the customers through the five principles. Thereby, focus seems so be shifted from a product benefit-driven approach to an emotional appeal (Roberts, 2004 in Thompson et al., 2006). What also seems clear is that the five principles shall not be deviated from. This indicates a consistency that is in line with the thoughts of emotional branding. Hence, the principles should be kept consistent in all the brand activities of the company over time. Michelli’s (2007) focus is predominantly internal. It is the CEO, managers, and partners who, from a top-down perspective, deliver the five principles and hence the brand to the customer. As mentioned before, the key is to connect with the customer and create a relationship, which according Onward †¦ Howard P.S. Everything that we do, from this point on (from the most simple and basic), matters. Master the fundamentals. Experience Starbucks Source: http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/pressdesc.asp?id=825

Legality of Income Taxes

The issue regarding the legality of income tax on labor is really a sensational one that it gets my attention right away from the moment I heard other people saying that it is not included in the bounds of our constitution the imposition of the said taxation. In order to verify this claim, I made my own study regarding the legality of the said taxation scheme and I found out that there is no statement on our constitution or in the Internal Revenue Code stating that we are required to pay an income tax from our labor. Therefore, what is the basis of the government officials for charging us income taxes on labor if there is no single statement on our constitution that would supplement the said taxation schemes? With this, I may say, that income tax on labor is illegal for there is no statement in our constitution or even in the Internal Revenue Code saying that we have to pay for our labor. With my position stated above, let me first further elaborate my arguments. According to our constitution, there are only two types of income that is being imposed by our government and they are the direct and indirect income taxes (â€Å"Chapter 1: Constitutional Taxation.† 1). Direct taxes include income taxes on wages and salaries of the citizens. Therefore, income tax on labor is not included in the direct taxes. Moreover, the term â€Å"indirect tax† was not used in the constitution but rather â€Å"any tax that is not direct†. But this â€Å"any tax that is not direct† includes Duties, Imposts and Excises. Once again, income tax on labor is not included into this type of income tax. Either of the said two types of income tax did not even give any possibility that income tax on labor is included into at least one of them. There are really income taxes that are of malicious in nature and that most of us could help but to doubt the credibility of the said tax scheme. As said by Edwin R.A. Seligman, the Supreme Court of the United States has thus held that certain kinds of income taxes are indirect, that certain other kinds of income taxes are direct, and that still other kinds of income taxes are invalid, irrespective of whether they are direct or indirect (2). As for the Internal Revenue Code, there is also vagueness in the definition of what â€Å"income† is. Although it has been cited in the definitions of terms in Title 26 of the Internal Revenue Code, but none of them define the meaning of the term â€Å"income†. On the other hand, there are some legal cases that give their own definition of income as applicable to their situation and period. Like for example the case between Staples and US wherein they define income as tantamount to gain which could also coined as profit based from the 16th Amendment and the Revenue Acts. They made a â€Å"default† definition of income based from the 16th Amendment and Revenue Acts for the purpose of their legal case. Another definition of the term â€Å"income† as based from legal cases would be the case between Conner and the U.S. as well as the case of Oliver and Halstead wherein they made a clarification regarding the difference between profit and wages. It is said that wages cannot be considered as profit within the bounds of law for profit means gains from investment or from business operation (â€Å"What is ‘income’?† 4). Economically, income taxes are being used in order to generate funds to finance the projects and other functions of our government. Without these taxes, there would be no public schools, public hospitals as well as roads and other infrastructures that are of very important towards the attainment of impressive growth for the economy (Moffat 1). Like for instance, the construction of roads which are important for transporting goods from far flung states going to cities and other market areas. Without this roads, transportation costs of producer’s increases and so with the prices of their products. But the question is, are all of the taxes that were paid by the tax payers really go to financing the said functions of the government? According to Grace Commission Report, there are a lot of ways by which tax payers could save around $420 billion over three years without increasing the taxes being collected to them. Moreover, Grace told President Reagan that 1/3 of the taxes that were collected are being wasted and another third are not collected and the remaining third that the government could received are entirely absorbed by the Federal Debt and by Federal Government contributions to transfer payments (â€Å"The people’s income tax guide: Where do your taxes go?† 1). In short, there is no single cent that goes to the funding of government’s functions to the state. The government gets its funds from loans from the IMF. Moreover, the funds being used for schools came from property taxes; funds for roads and bridges came from gas taxes while user fees funds airports, sewer and water systems. In this regard, based from our constitution and from the report of Grace Commission, income tax on labor is illegal since it is not stated in our constitution or any of our laws and to make things worst, the income tax on labor that were collected did no serve it purpose which are being expected by the tax payers to the government. Works Cited â€Å"The people’s income tax guide: Where do your taxes go?† 2003. Truth in Taxation.US. 19 October 2007 â€Å"Chapter 1: Constitutional Taxation.† 2000. Constitutionalincome.com. 19 October 2007 â€Å"What is ‘income’?† June 2007. Outraged.chatblogs.com. 19 October 2007 Moffat, Mike. â€Å"The Effect of Income Taxes on Economic Growth.† 2007. 19 October 2007 Seligman, Edwin R.A. â€Å"The Income Tax Amendment.† 1910. Political Science Quarterly 193, 197. 19 October 2007.

The Nuclear Attack On Nagasaki - 1315 Words

The aim of this historical investigation is explore to what extent, the 1945 nuclear attack on Nagasaki was necessary in ending the Asia - Pacific War; to do this, the military grounds of the nuclear attack on Nagasaki will be examined. In order to analyse this, it is vital to highlight President Truman s official military reasons for using the atomic bomb, why detonating the bomb was preferred to invasion, and why Nagasaki was chosen as a target so soon after the first atomic bomb. With reference to opposing views, it s vital to understand Japan’s perceived ability in warfare, its policies before and after the nuclear attacks and whether or not the bomb considerably affected their surrender. (Stimison. H. 1947) In addition, alternate†¦show more content†¦Subsequent to Germany s surrender in the May of 1945, the weapon came into consideration for ending the Pacific War against Japan. Japan already perceived itself as a defeated nation; early 1945, the U.S. naval blockade had weakened Japan’s trade, food supply and ability to continue fighting. Between July 11-26, the U.S. intercepted Japanese telegraphs expressing a hope to terminate the war with Russia serving to negotiate peace. However, the Potsdam Proclamation issued on July 26, called for the unconditional surrender of Japan with the removal of the emperor. This was rejected as a result of Japan being unwilling to acquiesce its sovereignty, after adopting the policy of fighting within the hope of discouraging the U.S. from invasion till peace was declared. As a result, the U.S. anticipated victory would come at a costly price, and did not want to commit itself to a lengthy war. Truman estimated a potential loss of 500,000 lives; he saw the bombs will completely destroy Japan s power to create war...† (Harry S. Truman, 1945) The Hiroshima attack on August 6th failed to be decisive: Japan did not surrender, nor did it seemed pressured by the nuclear attack, according to the U.S. (Harry S. Truman, 1945) Nagasaki was considered vital, because it was a major harbour, a densely populated area and residential to a lucrative trade industry, namely, Mitsubishi manufacturing company’s; increasing the bomb s harmful