Friday, November 29, 2019
How PG Tripled Its Innovation Success Rate Essay Example
How PG Tripled Its Innovation Success Rate Essay SPOTLIGHT ON PRODUCT INNOVATION Spotlight ARTWORK Josef Schulz, Form #1, 2001 C-print, 120 x 160 cm How PG Tripled Its Innovation Success Rate Inside the companyââ¬â¢s new-growth factory by Bruce Brown and Scott D. Anthony 64 Harvard Business Review June 2011 HBR. ORG Bruce Brown is the chief technology o? cer of Procter Gamble. Scott D. Anthony is the managing director of Innosight. June 2011 Harvard Business Review 65 B SPOTLIGHT ON PRODUCT INNOVATION 66 Harvard Business Review June 2011 BACK IN 2000 the prospects for Procter Gambleââ¬â¢s Tide, the biggest brand in the companyââ¬â¢s fabric and household care division, seemed limited. The laundry detergent had been around for more than 50 years and still dominated its core markets, but it was no longer growing fast enough to support PGââ¬â¢s needs. A decade later Tideââ¬â¢s revenues have nearly doubled, helping push annual division revenues from $12 billion to almost $24 billion. The brand is surging in emerging markets, and its iconic bullââ¬â¢seye logo is turning up on an array of new products and even new businesses, from instant clothes fresheners to neighborhood dry cleaners. This isnââ¬â¢t accidental. Itââ¬â¢s the result of a strategic effort by PG over the past decade to systematize innovation and growth. We will write a custom essay sample on How PG Tripled Its Innovation Success Rate specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on How PG Tripled Its Innovation Success Rate specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on How PG Tripled Its Innovation Success Rate specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer To understand PGââ¬â¢s strategy, we need to go back more than a century to the sources of its inspirationââ¬â Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. In the 1870s Edison created the worldââ¬â¢s first industrial research lab, Menlo Park, which gave rise to the technologies behind the modern electric-power and motion-picture industries. Under his inspired direction, the lab churned out ideas; Edison himself ultimately held more than 1,000 patents. Edison of course understood the importance of mass production, but it was his friend Henry Ford who, decades later, perfected it. In 1910 the Ford Motor Company shifted the production of its famous Model T from the Piquette Avenue Plant, in Detroit, to its new Highland Park complex nearby. Although the assembly line wasnââ¬â¢t a novel concept, Highland Park showed what it was capable of: In four years Ford slashed the time required to build a car from more than 12 hours to just 93 minutes. How could PG marry the creativity of Edisonââ¬â¢s lab with the speed and reliability of Fordââ¬â¢s factory? The answer its leaders devised, a ââ¬Å"new-growth factory,â⬠is still ramping up. But already it has helped the company strengthen both its core businesses and its ability to capture innovative new-growth opportunities. PGââ¬â¢s efforts to systematize the serendipity that so often sparks new-business creation carry important lessons for leaders faced with shrinking product life cycles and increasing global competition. Laying the Foundation Innovation has long been the backbone of PGââ¬â¢s growth. As chairman, president, and CEO Bob McDonald notes, ââ¬Å"We know from our history that while promotions may win quarters, innovation wins decades. The company spends nearly $2 billion annually on RDââ¬âroughly 50% more than its closest competitor, and more than most other competitors combined. Each year it invests at least another $400 million in foundational consumer research to discover opportunities for innovation, conducting some 20,000 studies involving more than 5 million consumers in nearly 100 countries. Odds are that as youââ¬â¢re reading this, PG researchers are in a store somewhere observing shoppers, or even in a consumerââ¬â¢s home. These investments are necessary but not sufficient to achieve PGââ¬â¢s innovation goals. ââ¬Å"People will innovate for financial gain or for competitive advantage, but this can be self-limiting,â⬠McDonald says. ââ¬Å"There needs to be an emotional component as wellââ¬âa source of inspiration that motivates people. â⬠At PG that inspiration lies in a sense of purpose driven from the top downââ¬âthe message that each innovation improves peopleââ¬â¢s lives. At the start of the 2000s only about 15% of PGââ¬â¢s innovations were meeting revenue and profit targets. So the company launched its now well-known Connect + Develop program to bring in outside innovations and built a robust stage-gate process to help manage ideas from inception to launch. (For more on C+D, see Larry Huston and Nabil Sakkab, ââ¬Å"Connect and Develop: Inside Procter Gambleââ¬â¢s New Model for Innovation,â⬠HBR March 2006. ) These actions showed early signs of raising innovation success rates, but it was clear that PG needed more breakthrough innovations. And it had to come up with them as reliably as Fordââ¬â¢s factory had rolled out Model Ts. HOW PG TRIPLED ITS INNOVATION SUCCESS RATE? HBR. ORG Idea in Brief Procter Gamble is a famous innovator. Nonetheless, in the early 2000s only 15% of its innovations were meeting their revenue and pro? t targets. To address this, the company set about building organizational structures to systematize innovation. The resulting new-growth factory includes large newbusiness creation groups, focused project teams, and entrepreneurial guides who help teams rapidly prototype and test new products and business models in the market. The teams follow a step-by-step business development manual and use specialized project and portfolio management tools. Innovation and strategy assessments, once separate, are now combined in revamped executive reviews. PGââ¬â¢s experience suggests six lessons for leaders looking to build new-growth factories: Coordinate the factory with the companyââ¬â¢s core businesses, be a vigilant portfolio manager, start small and grow carefully, create tools for gauging new businesses, make sure the right people are doing the right work, and nurture cross-pollination. ithout a further boost to its organic growth capabilities, the company would still have trouble hitting its targets. PGââ¬â¢s leaders recognized that the kind of growth the company was after couldnââ¬â¢t come from simply doing more of the same. It needed to come up with more breakthrough innovationsââ¬âones that could create completely new markets. And it needed to do this as reliably as Henry Fordââ¬â¢s Highla nd Park factory had rolled out Model Ts. In 2004 Gil Cloyd, then the chief technology officer, and A. G. Lafley, then the CEO, tasked two 30-year PG veterans, John Leikhim and David Goulait, with designing a new-growth factory whose intellectual underpinnings would derive from the Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensenââ¬â¢s disruptive-innovation theory. The basic concept of disruptionââ¬âdriving growth through new offerings that are simpler, more convenient, easier to access, or more affordableââ¬âwas hardly foreign to PG. Many of the companyââ¬â¢s powerhouse brands, including Tide, Crest, Pampers, and Swiffer, had followed disruptive paths. Leikhim and Goulait, with support from other managers, began by holding a two-day workshop for seven new-product-development teams, guided by facilitators from Innosight (a firm Christensen cofounded). The attendees explored how to shake up embedded ways of thinking that can inhibit disruptive approaches. They formulated creative ways to address critical commercial questionsââ¬âfor example, whether demand would be sufficient to warrant a new-product launch. Learning from the workshop helped spur the development of new products, such as the probiotic supplement Align, and also bolstered existing ones, such as Pampers. In the years that followed, Leikhim and Goulait shored up the factoryââ¬â¢s foundation, working with Cloyd and other PG leaders to: Teach senior management and project team members the mind-sets and behaviors that foster disruptive growth. The training, which has changed over time, initially ranged from short modules on topics such as assessing the demand for an early-stage idea to multiday courses in entrepreneurial thinking. Form a group of new-growth-business guides to help teams working on disruptive projects. These experts might, for instance, advise teams to remain small until their projectââ¬â¢s key commercial questions, such as whether consumers would habitually use the new product, have been answered. The guides include several entrepreneurs who have succeededââ¬âand, even more important, failedââ¬âin starting businesses. Develop organizational structures to drive new growth. For example, in a handful of business About the units the company created small groups focused Spotlight Artist Each month we illustrate primarily on new-growth initiatives. The groups our Spotlight package with (which, like the training, have evolved significantly) a series of works from an acaugmented an existing entity, FutureWorks, whose complished artist. We hope charter is to create new brands and business mod- that the lively and cerebral creations of these photograels. Dedicated teams within the groups conducted phers, painters, and instalmarket research, developed technology, created lation artists will infuse our pages with additional energy business plans, and tested assumptions for specific and intelligence and amplify projects. hat are often complex and Produce a process manualââ¬âa step-by-step abstract concepts. This monthââ¬â¢s artist is guide to creating new-growth businesses. The Josef Schulz, a German manual includes overarching principles as well as photographer who often detailed procedures and templates to help teams turns his lens on modern industrial constructs and describe opportunities, identify requirements for digitally strips away de? ning success, monitor progress, make go/no-go decisions, details to render moreand more. abstract, universally relRun demonstration projects to showcase the evant images. In the ? rst step Iââ¬â¢m a photographer emerging factoryââ¬â¢s work. One of these was a line of with his limitations,â⬠he pocket-size products called Swash, which quickly once told an interviewer, refresh clothes: For example, someone whoââ¬â¢s in a ââ¬Å"and then an artist with his freedom of decisions. â⬠hurry can give a not-quite-clean shirt a spray rather View more of the artistââ¬â¢s than putting it through the wash. work at josefschulz. de. June 2011 Harvard Business Review 67 SPOTLIGHT ON PRODUCT INNOVATION Sustaining Commercial Commercial innovations use creative marketing, packaging, and promotional approaches to grow existing o? erings. During the 2010 Winter Olympics, PG ran a series of ads celebrating mothers. The campaign covered 18 brands, was viewed repeatedly by hundreds of millions of consumers, and drove $100 million in revenues. PGââ¬â¢s Four Types of Innovation Sustaining innovations bring incremental improvements to existing products: a little more cleaning power to a laundry detergent, a better ? avor to a toothpaste. These provide what PG calls ââ¬Å"erâ⬠bene? sââ¬âbetter, easier, cheaperââ¬âthat are important to sustaining share among current customers and getting new people to try a product. Sharpening the Focus By 2008 PG had a working prototype of the factory, but the companyââ¬â¢s innovation portfolio was weighed down by a proliferation of small projects. A. G. Lafley charged Bob McDonald (then the COO) and CTO Bruce Brown (a coauthor of this article) to dramatically increase innovation output by focusing the factory on fewer but bigger initiatives. McDonald and Brownââ¬â¢s team drove three critical improvements. First, rather than strictly separating innovations designed to bolster existing product lines from efforts to create new product lines or business models, PG increased its emphasis on an intermediate category: transformational-sustaining innovations, which deliver major new benefits in existing product categories. Consider the Crest brand, the market leader until the late 1990s, when it was usurped by Colgate. Looking for a comeback, in 2000 PG launched a disruptive innovation, Crest Whitestrips, that made teeth whitening at home affordable and easy. In 2006 it introduced Crest Pro-Health, which squeezes half a dozen benefits into one tubeââ¬âthe toothpaste fights cavities, plaque, tartar, stains, gingivitis, and bad breath. In 2010 it rolled out Crest 3D White, a line of advanced oral care products, including one that whitens teeth in two hours. Such efforts helped Crest retake the lead in many markets. Pro-Health and 3D White were both transformational-sustaining innovations, meant to appeal to current consumers while attracting new ones. These sorts of innovations share an mportant trait with market-creating disruptive innovations: They have a high degree of uncertaintyââ¬âsomething the factory is specifically designed to manage. Second, PG strengthened organizational supports for the formation of transformationalsustaining and disruptive businesses. It established several new-business-creation groups, larger in size 68 Harvard Business Review June 2011 and scope than any previous growth-factory team, whose resources a nd management are kept carefully separate from the core business. These groupsââ¬â dedicated teams led by a general managerââ¬âdevelop ideas that cut across multiple businesses, and also pursue entirely new business opportunities. One group covers all of PGââ¬â¢s beauty and personal care businesses; another covers its household care business (the parent unit of the fabric-and-household and the family-and-baby-care divisions); a third, FutureWorks, focuses largely on enabling different business models (it helped guide PGââ¬â¢s recent partnership with the Indian business Healthpoint Services). The new groups supplement (rather than replace) existing supports such as the Corporate Innovation Fund, which provides seed capital to ideas that might otherwise slip through the cracks. PG also created a specialized team called LearningWorks, which helps plan and execute in-market experiments to learn about purchase decisions and postpurchase use. Third, PG revamped its strategy development and review process. Innovation and strategy assessments had historically been handled separately. Now the CEO, CTO, and CFO explicitly link company, business, and innovation strategies. This integration, coupled with new analyses of such issues as competitive factors that could threaten a given business, has surfaced more opportunities for innovation. The process has also prompted examinations of each unitââ¬â¢s ââ¬Å"production schedule,â⬠or pipeline of growth opportunities, to ensure that itââ¬â¢s robust enough to deliver against growth goals for the next seven to 10 years. Evaluations are made of individual business units (feminine care, for example) as well as broad sectors (household care). This revised approach calls for each business unit to determine the mix of innovation types it needs to deliver the required growth. HOW PG TRIPLED ITS INNOVATION SUCCESS RATE? HBR. ORG Transformational-Sustaining Transformational-sustaining innovations reframe existing categories. They typically bring order-of-magnitude improvements and fundamental changes to a business and often lead to breakthroughs in market share, pro? t levels, and consumer acceptance. In 2009 PG introduced the wrinkle-reducing cream Olay Pro-X. Launching a $40-a-bottle product in the depths of a recession might seem a questionable strategy. But PG went ahead because it considered the product a transformational-sustaining innovationââ¬âclinically proven to be as e? ective as its much more expensive prescription counterparts, and superior to the companyââ¬â¢s other antiaging o? erings. The cream and related products generated ? rst-year sales of $50 million in U. S. food retailers and drugstores alone. Disruptive Disruptive innovations represent newto-the-world business opportunities. A company enters entirely new businesses with radically new o? erings, as PG did with Swi? er and Febreze. Running the Factory Letââ¬â¢s return now to Tide, whose dramatic growth highlights the potential of PGââ¬â¢s approach. Over the past decade the brand has launched numerous products and product-line extensions, carved new paths in emerging markets, and tested a promising new business model. If you had looked for Tide in a U. S. supermarket 10 years ago, you would have found, for the most part, ordinary bottles and boxes of detergent. Now youââ¬â¢ll see the Tide name on dozens of products, all with different scents and capabilities. For example, in 2009 PG introduced a line of laundry additives called Tide Stain Release. Within a year, building on 26 patents, it incorporated these additives into a sible to 70% of Indian consumers and has helped to significantly increase Tideââ¬â¢s share in India. More radically, Swash moved the Tide brand out of the laundry room. The line has clear disruptive characteristics: Swash products donââ¬â¢t clean as thoroughly as laundry detergents or remove wrinkles as effectively as professional pressing. But because theyââ¬â¢re quick and easy to use, they offer ââ¬Å"good enoughâ⬠occasional alternatives between washes. Swash took an unconventional path to commercialization. When the products were first sold, in a store near PGââ¬â¢s headquarters in Ohio, they carried a different brand name and had no apparent connection to Tide. After that experiment, PG opened a ââ¬Å"pop upâ⬠Swash store at The Ohio State University. Both Tide Dry Cleaners is a factory innovation that represents an entirely new business model. new detergent, Tide with Acti-Liftââ¬âthe first major redesign of Tideââ¬â¢s liquid laundry detergent in a decade. The productââ¬â¢s launch drove immediate marketshare growth of the Tide brand in the United States. PG has also customized formulations for emerging markets. Ethnographic research showed that about 80% of consumers in India wash their clothes by hand. They had to choose between detergents that were relatively gentle on the skin but not very good at actually cleaning clothes, and more-potent but harsher agents. With the problem clearly identified, in 2009 a team came up with Tide Naturals, which cleaned well without causing irritation. Mindful of the need in emerging markets to provide greater benefit at lower costââ¬âââ¬Å"more for lessâ⬠ââ¬âPG priced Tide Naturals 30% below comparably effective but harsher products. This made the Tide brand accestests helped the company understand how consumers would buy and use the products, which PG then began selling exclusively through Amazon and other online channels. In early 2011 the company ramped down its promotion of Swash, although learning from the effort will inform its work on other disruptive ideas in the clothes-refreshing space. Whereas Swash was a new product line, Tide Dry Cleaners represents an entirely new business model. It started when a team began exploring ways to disrupt the dry-cleaning market, using proprietary technologies and a unique store design grounded in insights about consumersââ¬â¢ frustrations with existing options. Many cleaning establishments are dingy, unfriendly places. Customers have to park, walk, and wait. Often the cleanersââ¬â¢ hours are inconvenient. PGââ¬â¢s alternative: bright, boldly colored cleaners June 2011 Harvard Business Review 69 SPOTLIGHT ON PRODUCT INNOVATION The Factoryââ¬â¢s Consumer Research at Work In October 2010 PG launched the Gillette Guard razor in India, a transformational-sustaining innovation whose strategic intent was simple: to provide a cheaper and e? ective alternative for the hundreds of millions of Indians who use double-edged razors. The companyââ¬â¢s researchers spent thousands of hours in the market to understand these consumersââ¬â¢ needs. They gained important insights by observing men in rural areas who, lacking indoor plumbing, typically shave outdoors using little or no waterââ¬âand donââ¬â¢t shave every day. The single-blade Gillette Guard was thus designed to clean easily, with minimal water, and to manage longer stubble. The initial retail price was 15 rupees (33 cents), with re? ll cartridges for ? ve rupees (11 cents). Early tests showed that consumers preferred the new product to double-edged razors by a six-to-one margin. Its breakthrough performance and a? ordability position it for rapid growth. featuring specialized treatments, drive-through windows, and 24-hour storage lockers to facilitate after-hours drop-off and pickup. Using the new-growth factoryââ¬â¢s process manual, the development team identified key assumptions about the proposed dry cleaners. For example, could the business model generate enough returns to attract store owners willing to pay up to $1 million for franchise rights? In 2009 PGââ¬â¢s guides helped the team open three pilots in Kansas City to try to find out. That year PG also formed Agile Pursuits Franchising, a subsidiary to oversee such efforts, and transferred ownership of the dry-cleaning venture to FutureWorks, whose main mission is to pursue new business models that lie outside PGââ¬â¢s established systems. It remains to be seen how Tide Dry Cleaners will fare, but one promising sign came in 2010, when Andrew Cherng, the founder of the Panda Restaurant Group, announced plans to open 150 franchises in four years. He told BusinessWeek, ââ¬Å"I wasnââ¬â¢t around when McDonaldââ¬â¢s was taking franchisees, [but] Iââ¬â¢m not going to miss this one. â⬠To ensure strategic cohesion and smart resource allocation, Tideââ¬â¢s innovation efforts have been closely coordinated through regular dialogues among several leadersââ¬âCEO McDonald, CTO Brown, the vice-chair of the household business unit, and the president of the fabric care division. Theyââ¬â¢ve also been the focus of discussions at Corporate Innovation Fund meetings and similar reviews. This isnââ¬â¢t just the methodical pursuit of a single innovation. Itââ¬â¢s part of a steady stream of ideas in developmentââ¬âa factory humming with work. and learning, and personally engage. Our journey at PG suggests six lessons for leaders looking to create new-growth factories. 1. Closely coordinate the factory and the core business. Leaders sometimes see efforts to foster new growth as completely distinct from efforts to bolster the core; indeed, many in the innovation community have argued as much for years. Our experience indicates the opposite. First, new-growth efforts depend on a healthy core business. A healthy core produces a cash flow that can be invested in new growth. And weââ¬â¢ve all known times when an ailing core has demanded managementââ¬â¢s full attention; a healthy core frees leaders to think about more-expansive growth initiatives. Second, a core business is rich with capabilities that can support new-growth efforts. Consider PGââ¬â¢s excellent relationships with major retailers. Those relationships are a powerful, hard-to-replicate asset that helps the factory expedite new-growth initiatives. Swiffer wouldnââ¬â¢t be Swiffer without them. Third, some of the tools for managing core effortsââ¬âparticularly those that track a projectââ¬â¢s progressââ¬âare also useful for managing new-growth efforts. And finally, the factoryââ¬â¢s rapid-learning approach often yields insights that can strengthen existing product lines. One of the project teams at the 2004 workshop was seeking to spur conversion in emerging markets from cloth to disposable diapers. Subsequent in-market tests yielded a critical discovery: Babies who wore disposable diapers fell asleep 30% faster and slept 30 minutes longer than babies wearing cloth diapersââ¬âan obvious benefit for infants (and their parents). Advertising campaigns touting this advantage helped make Pampers the number one brand in several emerging markets. 2. Promote a portfolio mind-set. PG communicates to both internal and external stakeholders that it is building a varied portfolio of innovation Lessons for Leaders Efforts to build a new-growth factory in any company will fail unless senior managers create the right organizational structures, provide the proper resources, allow sufficient time for experimentation 70 Harvard Business Review June 2011 HOW PG TRIPLED ITS INNOVATION SUCCESS RATE? HBR. ORG approaches, ranging from sustaining to disruptive ones. See the sidebar ââ¬Å"PGââ¬â¢s Four Types of Innovation. â⬠) It uses a set of master-planning tools to match the pace of innovation to the overall needs of the business. It also deploys portfolio-optimization tools that help managers identify and kill the least-promising programs and nurture the best bets. These tools create projections for every active idea, including estimates of the financial potential and the human and capital investments that will be required. Some ideas are evaluated with classic net-present-value calculations, others with a risk-adjusted real-option approach, and still others with more-qualitative criteria. Although the tools assemble a rank-ordered list of projects, PGââ¬â¢s portfolio management isnââ¬â¢t, at its core, a mechanical exercise; itââ¬â¢s a dialogue about resource allocation and business-growth building blocks. Numerical input informs but doesnââ¬â¢t dictate decisions. A portfolio approach has several benefits. First, it sets up the expectation that different projects will be managed, resourced, and measured in different ways, just as an investor would use different criteria to evaluate an equity investment and a real estate one. Second, because the portfolio consists largely of sustaining and transformational-sustaining efforts, seeing it as a whole highlights the critical importance of these activities, which protect and extend legitimate disagreement about the best way to organize for new growth. Whereas we believe in a factory with relatively strong ties to the core, some advocate a ââ¬Å"skunkworksâ⬠organization. Others argue for ââ¬Å"distinct but linkedâ⬠organizations under an ââ¬Å"ambidextrousâ⬠leader; still others recommend mirroring the structure of a venture capital firm. (PGââ¬â¢s factory uses several organizational approaches. Treating capability development itself as a new-growth innovation lets companies try different approaches and learn what works best for them. A staged approach serves another important purpose: Itââ¬â¢s a built-in reminder that a new-growth factory is not a quick fix. The factory wonââ¬â¢t provide a sudden boost to next quarterââ¬â¢s result s, nor can it instantly rein in an out-of-control core business thatââ¬â¢s veering from crisis to crisis. GILLETTE GUARD After thousands of hours of research in the ? eld, PG learned that a single-blade razor was a cheaper and e? ective alternative to double-edged razors for many consumers in India. CREST 3D WHITE Usurped by Colgate in the late 1990s, Crest has regained the lead in many markets owing to its introduction of several innovative oral care products, including ones that make teeth whitening at home a? ordable and easy. 4. Create new tools for gauging new businesses. Anticipated and nascent markets are notoriously hard to analyze. Detailed follow-up with one of the project teams that attended the pilot workshop showed PG that it needed new tools for this purpose. PG now conducts ââ¬Å"transaction learning experiments,â⬠or TLEs, in which a team ââ¬Å"makes a little and sells a little,â⬠thus letting consumers vote with their wallets. Teams have sold small amounts of products online, at mall kiosks, in pop-up stores, and at amusement parksââ¬âeven in the company store PG now conducts ââ¬Å"transaction learning experiments,â⬠which let consumers vote with their wallets. core businesses. Finally, a portfolio approach helps reinforce the message that any project, particularly a disruptive one, may carry substantial risk and might not deliver commercial resultsââ¬âand thatââ¬â¢s fine, as long as the portfolio accounts for the risk. 3. Start small and grow carefully. Remember how the new-growth factory began: with a simple two-day workshop. It then expanded to small-scale pilots in several business units before becoming a companywide initiative. Staged investment allows for early, rapid revisionââ¬âbefore lines scribbled on a hypothetical organizational chart are engraved in stone. It also provides for targeted experimentation. For example, there is and outside company cafeterias. PG devised a venture capital approach to testing the market for Align, its probiotic supplement, providing seed capital for a controlled pilot. The company has also tested entire business modelsââ¬ârecall the Kansas City pilots of Tide Dry Cleaners. 5. Make sure you have the right people doing the right work. Building the factory forced PG to change the way it staffed certain teams. At any given time the company has hundreds of teams working on various innovation efforts. In the past, most teams consisted mainly of part-time membersââ¬âemployees who had other responsibilities pulling at them. But disruptive and transformational-sustaining efforts June 2011 Harvard Business Review 71 SPOTLIGHT ON PRODUCT INNOVATION HBR. ORG CONNECT WITH THE AUTHORS Do you have questions or comments about this article? The authors will respond to reader feedback at hbr. org. TIDE DRY CLEANERS Still in an early stage, this innovation arose in part from insights about consumersââ¬â¢ frustrations with the dinginess and inconvenience of most existing drycleaning establishments. require undivided attention. (As the old saying goes, nine women canââ¬â¢t make a baby in a month. ) There need to be people who wake up each day and go to sleep each night obsessing about the new business. New-growth teams also need to be small and nimble, and they should include seasoned members. PG found that big teams often bog down because they pursue too many ideas at once, whereas small teams are better able to quickly focus on the mostpromising initiatives. Having several members with substantial innovation experience helps teams confidently make sound judgment calls when data are inconclusive or absent. Finally, building a factory requires a substantial investment in widespread, ongoing training. Changing mind-sets begins, literally, with teaching a new language. Key terms such as ââ¬Å"disruptive innovation,â⬠ââ¬Å"job to be done,â⬠ââ¬Å"business model,â⬠and ââ¬Å"critical assumptionsâ⬠must be clearly and consistently defined. PG reinforces key innovation concepts both at large meetings and at smaller, focused workshops, and in 2007 it established a ââ¬Å"disruptive innovation college. People working on new-growth projects can choose from more than a dozen courses, ranging from basic innovation language to designing and executing a TLE, sketching out a business model, staffing a new-growth team, and identifying a job to be done. 6. Encourage intersections. Successful innovation requires rich cross-pollinat ion both inside and outside the organization. PGââ¬â¢s Connect + Develop program is part of a larger effort to intersect with other disciplines and gain new perspectives. Over the past few years PG has: â⬠¢ Shared people with noncompeting companies. In 2008 PG and Google swapped two dozen employees for a few weeks. PG wanted greater exposure to online models; Google was interested in learning more about how to build brands. â⬠¢ Engaged even more outside innovators. In 2010 PG refreshed its C+D goals. It aims to become the partner of choice for innovation collaboration, and to triple C+Dââ¬â¢s contribution to PGââ¬â¢s innovation development (which would mean deriving $3 billion of the companyââ¬â¢s annual sales growth from outside innovators). It has expanded the program to forge additional connections with government labs, universities, small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, consortia, and venture capital firms. â⬠¢ Brought in outside talent. PG has traditionally promoted from within. But i
Monday, November 25, 2019
Free Essays on General Electric
Research General Electric has expanded on an employee involvement process called quality circles. The name of the program is called Six Sigma. Six Sigma, as well as quality circles, uses statistical techniques to improve quality. A Six Sigma quality level generates less than 3.4 defects per million in the work environment. Improving quality has an inherent effect in that it also improves productivity. Efficiency gains are created because the product or processes do not have to be reworked or redone. These means things are done right the first time and reduce cycle time. General Electric has expanded the Six Sigma program to include the up front engineering process. This allows manufacturing and engineering disciplines" work out on the design of a product. This allows the product to be built without problems. ââ¬Å"From a standing start in 1996, with no financial benefit to the Company, it (Six Sigma) has flourished to the point where it produced more than $2 billion in benefi ts in 1999, with much more to come this decadeâ⬠(p. 5 1999 GE Annual Report). This type of employee involvement reduces rework costs and scrap rates which produces the higher efficiency yields. United is using an employee stock-ownership plan to motivate its employees. The United workers trades pay cuts for stock ownership in the company. This type of employee involvement allows the workers to become part owners in the corporation. United created work team to tackle opportunities. ââ¬Å"Such moves slashed sick time by 17% last year, saving $18.2 million annually.â⬠People who company stock are more willing to participate and have less absenteeism.... Free Essays on General Electric Free Essays on General Electric Research General Electric has expanded on an employee involvement process called quality circles. The name of the program is called Six Sigma. Six Sigma, as well as quality circles, uses statistical techniques to improve quality. A Six Sigma quality level generates less than 3.4 defects per million in the work environment. Improving quality has an inherent effect in that it also improves productivity. Efficiency gains are created because the product or processes do not have to be reworked or redone. These means things are done right the first time and reduce cycle time. General Electric has expanded the Six Sigma program to include the up front engineering process. This allows manufacturing and engineering disciplines" work out on the design of a product. This allows the product to be built without problems. ââ¬Å"From a standing start in 1996, with no financial benefit to the Company, it (Six Sigma) has flourished to the point where it produced more than $2 billion in benefi ts in 1999, with much more to come this decadeâ⬠(p. 5 1999 GE Annual Report). This type of employee involvement reduces rework costs and scrap rates which produces the higher efficiency yields. United is using an employee stock-ownership plan to motivate its employees. The United workers trades pay cuts for stock ownership in the company. This type of employee involvement allows the workers to become part owners in the corporation. United created work team to tackle opportunities. ââ¬Å"Such moves slashed sick time by 17% last year, saving $18.2 million annually.â⬠People who company stock are more willing to participate and have less absenteeism....
Thursday, November 21, 2019
Context paper English 105 Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
Context English 105 - Research Paper Example The centre has proved itself as a sign of prosperity and hope for the locals. Their primary mission is to assist children and families in the areas of Terra haute, ââ¬Å"which is one of the most impoverished areasâ⬠(Goyder par. 2). They serve families who lack education facilities, unemployment, hunger and poverty. The main advantage of their program is that their services are free of cost to all children who walk to them for help. They provide free meals service, educational support, sports training, crisis interventions, computer education etc to the youth, who are in need of assistance. The main purpose of the Ryves Youth Center is ââ¬Å"to address the needs of the youth and to give them a better chance in lifeâ⬠(The White House). The center provides after school services to youth, who lacks provisions at home and they provide free games, homework help, food and care to them. They serve thousands of inner city youth.à Most of these youths do not have guardians to take care of them and these youths belong to below poverty line. ââ¬Å"Approximately 95% of the youths attending Ryves Youth Center live at or below the poverty level and many of them donââ¬â¢t have a permanent home, move frequently throughout the year, or are homelessâ⬠(Ryves Community Optimist Club (RCOC) par. 3). These children lack the advantages that other kids with parents have. Most of the children have experienced or witnessed physical, sexual and emotional abuse, suicidal thoughts, low self esteem and anger control. They are homeless or castaways and majority of those children f eel lost and alone. Ryves Youth Center provides shelter to these kids and takes care of the children like their own kids. They give them guidance and hope for the future. They shape them to be a better person, create a whole new world for them and keep them off the streets. à Education is given top priority in the
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
What do we mean by fair trade Can free trade be fair trade Essay
What do we mean by fair trade Can free trade be fair trade - Essay Example ironmental sustainability, the citification mechanism of producers in exporting countries and certification of products in importing countries and creating awareness of such products among consumers of the developed world (Singh, 2001). On the other hand free trade is a global effort to carry out international trade free of negative protectionist practices such as higher tariffs on imports, subsidies to domestic producers, foreign exchange restrictions, dumping cheaper goods abroad, imposing dubious standards on imports and import substitution by propping up unwieldy domestic industries. Theoretically free trade is based on neoliberal economic principles dating back to Ricardoââ¬â¢s argument on the principle of comparative advantage. Free trade and fair trade arenââ¬â¢t necessarily the same though some of the ultimate outcomes would converge. In fact divergences between the two are many and if free trade were practiced with full force indeed, fair trade would take a back seat. Globalization has been the catch word used by many who advocate free trade. Such people vehemently support all and everything in the name of free trade. On the other hand fair trade is a distant cousin of free trade. An inevitable aspect of this relationship between the two is that the former is marginalized while the latter is well placed at the center of the global market. Fair trade is essentially replete with intricate nuances ranging from market access facilitation processes to marginalized producers to sustainability efforts. Such noble principles need some theoretical and conceptual frameworks to support them though. Free trade theories are many while the principle of comparative advantage is the most predominant among them. The basis on which free trade is advocated by its supporters is determined by a series of arguments which in turn are associated with neoliberal perspectives. In the first place globalization is the logical premise used by supporters of international free trade to
Monday, November 18, 2019
International Perspectives in Childhood Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
International Perspectives in Childhood - Essay Example There could be a number of factors that contribute to this development including political, social and economic factors. UNICIF report card 7(The United Nations Childrenââ¬â¢s Fund, 2007) ranks different dimensions of child care in 21 developed countries including United Kingdom and Sweden. Following is the ranking of both the countries in those dimensions. Dimensions of Child Well-being United Kingdom compared Sweden Dimensions of child well-being Average ranking position (for all 6 dimensions Material well-being Health and safety Educational well-being Family and peer relationships Behaviours and risks Subjective well-being Sweden 5.0 1 1 5 15 1 7 United Kingdom 18.2 18 12 17 21 21 20 Source:( Unicef, 2007) Above figures reflects that United Kingdom stands at 18th no. among all the 21 countries where as Sweden stands 5th. Clearly, Sweden has a developed material and educational system as compare to United Kingdom. In Sweden, all 3, 4 and 5 year olds has the right to pre-schoolin g for 525 hours a year. This is provided in pre-schools and is free of charge for the parents. Further, here parents of the children under one year age have privilege of one year leave.
Saturday, November 16, 2019
Performance Management Purposes and Definitions
Performance Management Purposes and Definitions INTRODUCTION Managing people in organisations is becoming more and more important nowadays so as to produce the best result and achieve efficiency. Therefore employees should be managed efficiently so as to add value in organisations. Performance management is not new, despite the fact that nowadays more emphasis is being laid on it, especially in the public sector. Performance management system is considered as a tool to an organisation. Performance management is a whole work system that begins when a job is defined as needed. It ends when an employee leaves your organisation. The performance management system is a process which increases competence, decreases cost and promotes quality. Performance management is a term borrowed from the management literature. The term performance management was first used in the 1970s, but it did not become a recognised process until the later half of the 1980s (Armstrong Baron, 1998). It has been among the most important and positive developments in the sphere of management in recent years. The meaning of performance management has evolved and continues to evolve. While in the sixties and seventies performance management was often equated to some form of merit-rating, in the eighties and nineties it has been linked to new management paradigms such as Management by Objectives, Performance Appraisal, Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scales and Performance-related Pay. The ultimate competitive asset of any organization is its people (Band et al., 1994), thus organizations should develop employee competencies in a manner aligned with the organizations business goals. This can be achieved through performance management systems (Moullin, 2003), which act as both behavioural change tool and enabler of improved organizational performance through being instrumental in driving change. ORGANIZATION INDIVIDUAL Defines mission, values, strategies and objectives Understands and agrees objectives Define tasks, standards and performance measures Understands and agrees tasks, standards and performance measures Monitors organisational, team and individual performance Monitors own performance Develops team and individual performance Develops own performance Figure 1: The contribution of the organisation and the individual in performance management Performance management therefore aims to emphasize and encourage desired and valued behaviours (Risher, 2003), thus is a key tool of communication and motivation within organizations seeking a competitive edge through strategic change and control. Performance management then becomes a system for translating organizational intention and ambition into action and results delivering a strategic goal, such as behavioural change (Band et al., 1994). References: Band, D.C., Scanlan, G. and Tustin, C.M. (1994), Beyond the bottom line: gainsharing and organizational development, Personnel Review, Vol. 23 No. 8, pp. 17-32. Moullin, M. (2003), Defining performance measurement, Perspectives on Performance, March, p. 3. Risher, H. (2003), Refocusing performance management for high performance, Compensation and Benefits Review, Vol. 35 No. 5, pp. 20-30. DEFINITION OF PMS Fowler (1990) defines performance management as: the organisation of work to achieve the best possible results. From this simple viewpoint, performance management is not a system or technique, it is the totality of the day-to-day activities of all managers. The (then) Institute of Personnel Management (1992) produced a similar definition: A strategy which relates to every activity of the organisation set in the context of its human resources policies, culture, style and communications systems. The nature of the strategy depends on the organisational context and can vary from organisation to organisation. Storey and Sisson (1993) define performance management as: an interlocking set of policies and practices which have as their focus the enhanced achievement of organisational objectives through a concentration on individual performance. Fletcher (1992) provides a more organisational definition of performance management: an approach to creating a shared vision of the purpose and aims of the organisation, helping each individual employee understand and recognise their part in contributing to them, and in so doing manage and enhance the performance of both individuals and the organisation. Performance management systems are defined as: the formal, information-based routines and procedures managers use to maintain or alter patterns in organizational activities (adapted from Simons, 2000). Reference: Simons, R. (2000), Performance Measurement and Control Systems for Implementing Strategy: Text and Cases, Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. Armstrong and Baron (1998): Performance management, in a human resource management (HRM) sense, is the process of delivering sustained success to organizations by improving capabilities of individuals and teams. Armstrong and Baron define performance management as a process which contributes to the effective management of individuals and teams in order to achieve high levels of organisational performance. As such, it establishes shared understanding about what is to be achieved and an approach to leading and developing people which will ensure that it is achieved. They go on to stress that it is a strategy which relates to every activity of the organisation set in the context of its human resource policies, culture, style and communications systems. The nature of the strategy depends on the organisational context and can vary from organisation to organisation. In other words performance management should be: Strategic it is about broader issues and longer-term goals Integrated it should link various aspects of the business, people management, and individuals and teams. It should incorporate: Performance improvement throughout the organisation, for individual, team and organisational effectiveness Development unless there is continuous development of individuals and teams, performance will not improve Managing behaviour ensuring that individuals are encouraged to behave in a way that allows and fosters better working relationships. Armstrong and Baronà stress that at its best performance management is a tool to ensure that managers manage effectively; that they ensure the people or teams they manage: know and understand what is expected of them have the skills and ability to deliver on these expectations are supported by the organisation to develop the capacity to meet these expectations are given feedback on their performance have the opportunity to discuss and contribute to individual and team aims and objectives. It is also about ensuring that managers themselves are aware of the impact of their own behaviour on the people they manage and are encouraged to identify and exhibit positive behaviours. PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT AS AN INTEGRATING PROCESS Performance management is concerned with the interrelated processes of work, management, development and reward. It can become a powerful integrating force, ensuring that these processes are linked together properly as a fundamental part of the human resource management approach which should be practised by every manager in the organisation. CHARACTERISTICS OF PMS Armstrong and Baron (1998) define performance management by eliciting the characteristics of a performance management system, which are as follows: It communicates a vision of its objectives to all its employees. It sets departmental, unit, team, and individual performance targets that are related to wider objectives. It conducts a formal review of progress towards these targets. It uses the review process to identify training, development and reward outcomes. It evaluates the whole process in order to improve effectiveness. It defines a managerial structure to look after all the characteristics above, so that individual staff and managers are assigned specific responsibilities to manage the Performance Management System. Furthermore, a performance management system should have SMART objectives namely; Specific, Measurable, Appropriate, Relevant and Timed. PURPOSES OF PMS Armstrong and Baron (1998, pp. 51-6), Williams (2002, pp. 219-24), Poister (2003, pp. 9-15) and others have noted that organisations introduce performance management and/or measurement for a variety of purposes which might include one or more of the following 17 (the list below is not intended to be exhaustive): (1) to provide information on organisational effectiveness; (2) to provide information on employees effectiveness; (3) to improve organisational effectiveness; (4) to improve employees effectiveness; (5) to provide information on organisational efficiency; (6) to provide information on employees efficiency; (7) to improve organisational efficiency; (8) to improve employees efficiency; (9) to focus employees attention on areas deemed to be of greatest priority; (10) to improve employees levels of motivation; (11) to link employees pay with perceptions of their performance; (12) to improve the quality of employees training and development; (13) to raise levels of employee accountability; (14) to align employees objectives with those of the organisation as a whole; (15) to improve customer service; (16) to facilitate the implementation of an organisations mission and/or strategy; and (17) to act as a lever of change in developing a more performance oriented culture.
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Women in the 1990s Essay -- Essays Papers
Women in the 1990's In todayââ¬â¢s technological society it is hard to imagine that trivial things from the past like discrimination or prejudice are still present, but they are. Yes we still have racism, but for the most part this is only a problem of the less educated and vocal minority. There is a different prejudice that is deep rooted in this land of freedom and prosperity. This prejudice is sexism. The basic definition of sexism is when a person of either sex is discriminated against in any way based on their gender. But history has recorded that men, usual in every society in this world, have always been the dominant sex and women have taken a lower role. This has been especially true in the United States throughout its history. Women always seemed to be the one who took care of the children and home as the men went to work and earned a living. Women do not have the choice to give birth to children, but they should have a choice in whether they are the primary care givers to that child. Betty Friedan, a well-known feminist, writes, ââ¬Å"We are still very mother-centered. Itââ¬â¢s still ââ¬Ëmother, mother, mother,ââ¬â¢ when it really should be ââ¬Ëmother, father, society.ââ¬â¢Ã¢â¬ 1 What she means by this is that society still has not overcome the discriminatory thought that the mother should not work and stay home with the kids. Although this is very deep rooted, women in todayââ¬â¢s society are making advancements, in part because of the efforts of Betty Friedan. Friedan wrote the Feminist Mystique, a book about women's roles in society in the 1950's. This book is often reviered as the most influential piece of women's rights which sparked the movement for change. In 1966, Friedan cofounded a organization called NOW, and was named the presid... ...nt aspects were discussed and brought to the worldââ¬â¢s attention. The attention that it received helped to bring about awareness of womenââ¬â¢s rights all over the world. Not only did it bring about awareness of inequality; it helped to set the standards and goals which they wanted to achieve. They discussed issues ranging from abortion to lesbian right's .3 As you can see, there are many changes being brought about in the 1990ââ¬â¢s to reform the way women are treated and looked upon in a sexist world society ruled by men. Although these groups and individuals have not yet reached their final goal of equality for all, they have got the message out that this is unacceptable. Nothing happens overnight, there are many steps to reform and these groups are on the right path. They are starting to get societies to see that women are human too and they should be treated as equal.
Monday, November 11, 2019
Case Write-Up
In the sense of the promotions, Population Services International distributed to both Raja and Maya $400,000 advertising dollars per year, which was the second largest of all advertisers In Bangladesh. Their approach was to skip the Intermediate level of Influences and go directly to consumers. In this case, It works to sell Raja condoms directly to the market since It's more like a one-time use consumer products. However, it'll be difficult for Maya to build up the brand image since customers perceived Maya as a drug, which will bring more concerns when people try to buy oral contraceptives.Hence, it still needs recommendations from doctors to convey the effectiveness and proper information about the drug. Third, the pricing of Raja and Maya can also be an influence to their performance when compared to their competitors' price. For example, Raja is priced more than competitor Tahiti, which is government sponsored condom manufacturer. The higher price of Raja made a premium image fo r customers to buy the condoms even If the price is higher. On the other hand, however, Maya is priced lower than its competitors, creating a hurting image that for oral medicines, cheaper may mean bad laity.And this situation got worse when it didn't get the recommendations from intermediate level influences. Finally, the distributions for both products were to focus directly to customers. So SSI planned to sell their products via pharmacies, general stores, and pan stores. Nevertheless, the difference in nature of these two products caused deferent performance. For Raja, it's easily to sell their products since men accounted for 80% of the purchasing behaviors of the birth control products.But it became difficult for Maya to have the same efficiency since people till prefer to see a doctors before decide which medicine is safe and reliable, which Is the critical cause for the sluggish sales of Maya. 2) How do you characterize the competitive environment in Bangladesh? That Is, whe n you look at SSI vs.. The other organizations In the space, how do they view each other? How does this differ from the other for-profit contexts we've studied? What might It mean for the strategy? ) Create a marketing plan for Improving sales of Maya Given the analysis that I described before, It Is the difference In nature that causes the difficulty to sell Maya successfully. In order to create a marketing plan for improvement, we need to modify the flaws in the previous one. To begin with I'll suggest to create a new brand. To explain, it's already been perceived by Bangladesh that Maya is a brand that is cheap and mistakenly regarded as an inferior product. Reputation, competing with their main competitors, which are the government sectors and Vast.So my recommendation for the price would be to price their oral contraceptives the same price around their competitors, getting rid of the inferior image of the product. Also, Its important to target their customers not only for males but males as well. The reason for this is because for the buying behaviors of the birth control products, 80% of the purchases were made by men. As a result. They can put more effort to their advertising to educate male customers the effectiveness of their products.Finally, to achieve SKI'S goal, which is to broaden their market share to help control Bangladesh population explosion, they'll need to increase their profit margin to retailers and RPM (Rural Medical Practitioners) in order for them to promote more diligently to the end customers to increase the overall market share. To explain, the profit for retailers now are low due to the low pricing of the Maya. So increasing the price of the product will enable SSI to provide higher profit margin to retailers, incentives them to put more selling effort to sell out new product.For Ramps, they can be critical since they are the one that can reach out to distant area and provide their recommendations to consumers. So including the in termediate level of influences will bring a better communication and education to customers, enabling a better brand perception and awareness of the new products. By providing more profit incentives to RPM, we'll be able to achieve this goal. 4) How will you evaluate your plan? How can you calculate the ROI? The ââ¬Å"lâ⬠is relatively straightforward but how would you go about evaluating the ââ¬Å"R? What challenges do you face in this regard as compared with most of the other cases we've discussed? How would you address it? In order for the plan to be feasible, we'll need to take into account multiple data and information from the current selling circumstance of Maya to make a thorough evaluation. To begin with, I'll conduct surveys to see how people perceive the Brand of Maya to make sure that the issue of he produce is the cheap quality and also to see the why customers are unwilling to try out Maya.Moreover, the COPY (Couple Years Protection) for industry and SMS (The So cial Marketing Project) products from Exhibit 8 is an indicator for us to observe the change of market share and growth rate from 1978 to 1983. And based on the change throughout the years, we can further conclude whether the approach for Maya had problem that need to be addressed. Finally, I'll try to get the distribution data from retailer, wholesaler, and smallholder to see how they sell their products in terms f the sales ranking of the products in the same category.Therefore, by using the data mentioned, we can reconstruct a new marketing plan for the new product and focus more on the culture of Bangladesh in terms of selling birth control products. Given our plan can be successfully implemented, we need to figure the challenge in the long run. And since the project is lunched by a not-for-profit agency, they mainly relied on funding to support their operation. According to the case, the barely earn profit by this product since the profit margin for the product is very low. Cha llenge, use project, longer no fund
Friday, November 8, 2019
Political Terms and Leopard Skin Chief Essays
Political Terms and Leopard Skin Chief Essays Political Terms and Leopard Skin Chief Essay Political Terms and Leopard Skin Chief Essay Discuss the institution of the feud among the Nuer as analyzed by E-P. Why did E-P argue that it played a necessary role in the segmentary political system of the tribe? The institution of the feud among the Nuer as analyzed by Evans Pritchard, is settled by a special person known as a ââ¬Å"leopard skin chiefâ⬠. A ââ¬Å"leopard skin chiefâ⬠, has ritual powers that deal with the Nuer social life and nature, including the power to bless and curse. Only certain lineages have ââ¬Å"leopard skin chiefsâ⬠and not all lineages use their ritual powers. His function is political affairs between political groups which are regulated through him, but he is not a political authority controlling them. For example, when a man has committed murder, he must go to a chief, who cuts his arm so that blood may flow. Until the mark of Cain has been made, the slayer canââ¬â¢t eat or drink. If he fears infliction of punishment, which usually always happens, he stays at the chiefââ¬â¢s home. Within some weeks the chief will bring forth from the slayers kin that they are prepared to pay compensation to avoid a feud and he persuades the dead manââ¬â¢s kin to accept the payment. During that time neither family (group) can eat nor drink from the same vessels as the other. The chief collects the cattle; forty to fifty cattle. The cattle is then taken to the dead mans home, where sacrifices of penitence and cleansing take place. This is the process of settling a feud. He does not judge the case because he does not have the authority to do so. The ââ¬Å"leopard skin chiefâ⬠, forces the kin of the dead to accept with the compensation if they are not willing to he will threatened to curse them. The moral settlement on both sides helps avoid further aggression from the incident. Evans Pritchard believes that we must recognize that feuds are settled more easily in smaller groups. Such as when a man kills a near kinsmen or a close neighbor, the issue is easily settled by compensation. When a homicide occurs within a village general opinion demands an early settlement. When a homicide occurs between primary or secondary sections of a tribe, there is a small chance of an early settlement and also because of distance retaliation is not taken as quickly, so the unsettled feuds build up. Such homicides are usually the result of intertribal fights in which several people are killed. This not only makes the settlement more difficult, but continues tension between the two groups to fight, in which their groups of people become involved. The kinsmen of a dead man are close enough to try to fight a kinsmen of the slayer and far enough from them to allow a temporary problems between the local communities to where they belong. However, their members are, as a rule, closely related by family ties must assist them if there is an open fight. The feud takes on a political feature and expresses the hostility between political segments. Evans Pritchard believed that the balanced hostility of political segments is maintained by the institution of the feud which permits a state of latent hostility between local communities, but allows them to form a larger group. He says that hostility is latent because even when a feud is being acted against there is no attempt to exact punishment, but the kinsmen of the dead may take any opportunity that presents itself to accomplish their purpose; and, also, because even when compensation has been accepted the feud may, in spite of settlement, start up again. The ââ¬Å"leopard-skin chiefâ⬠does not rule or judge, but acts as mediator through communities wanting to end a feud or make peace. The feud, including the role played in it by the chief, is a way by which the political structure maintains itself in the form known to America. ââ¬Å"The leopard-skin chiefâ⬠may also act as mediator in disputes concerning ownership of cattle, and he and the people on both sides may express their opinion on the case. But the chief does not have the authority to force obedience. All he can do is go with the plaintiff and some people of his community to the home of the defendant and to ask him and his kinsmen to discuss the matter. Thatââ¬â¢s only if both sides are willing to handle the situation in a civilized manner. Also, although the chief, after a meeting with the people, can give a decision, his decision is finalized by agreement of the people à à à The Nuer doesnââ¬â¢t have a law. There is no enforcement of governmental power. There are payments considered to someone who has suffered certain harm such as adultery, theft, murder, and fornication. There is no constituted or impartial authority who decides on the rights and wrongs of a dispute. In the Nuer community, if a person has been done wrong by another, they will receive support from there kinsmen and they are prepared to take matters in their own hands, especially, if they live near one another. The usual way of obtaining ones due is to go to the debtors and take his cattle. If the person who owes refuses to go along ith the repayment it could turn into a feud until the point someone could be harmed. How and whether a dispute is settled depends mostly on the people concerned in the kinship and age-set systems and the distance between their communities (tribes). Since the Nuer doesnââ¬â¢t have a government or law. The ââ¬Å"leopard- skin chiefâ⬠is not a political authority, the ââ¬Å"Man of the Cattleâ⬠, totemic specialists, rain-makers , magicians, diviners and others. They have no political function or status, not saying to some people they may be important and feared. The heads of joint families, especially when they are rich in cattle, and have strong qualities seem to uphold importance but like all the other statues they have no power over another. With that being said, every Nuer basically regulates their affairs as they please. No Nuer who has natural gifts or not can be said to have political power or represent it. No local groups, apart from the prophets can be said to symbolize, or represent importance in the community. As Evans Pritchard argued institution of the feud among the Nuer played a necessary role in the segmentary political system of the tribe. As he described and analyzed in the section of the Nuer called ââ¬Å"Political Systemsâ⬠. He talked about the intertribal relations and the relations between tribal segments. Evans Pritchard summarizes how those relations define the Nuer political system. The political system has also been related to environment and their methods of living. We can only say, in conclusion to his observations through his anthropology studies of the Nuer that they were basically perceived as a political structure.
Wednesday, November 6, 2019
Corporal Punishment Essays - Behavior, Human Behavior, Parenting
Corporal Punishment Essays - Behavior, Human Behavior, Parenting Corporal Punishment Corporal Punishment " Children needs Discipline but not hitting" (Walker, n.d,). In this quo te, Walker expresses the idea that e ffective discipline can help children learn how to control their behavior so that they act responsibly to attest to what is wrong and right. This happens not because they are afraid of punishment, but because they are truthful because they think it is a wrong thing to lie. Discipline can also be called corporal punishment which is further define as a punishment meant to cause pain on a person or an intentional infliction of physical pain for a perceived misbeh avior for example spanking. Pinching, sl apping and hitting with objects (Block, 2004) . While corporal punishment is easy to define, it is less easy to justify as the best strategy for disciplining children. It is usually imposed in settings with a significant inequality of power between the people who participate in it. The opposition claims tha t spanking is not good for kids because of its detrimental effects on children. t his claim is supported with the following reasons: It leads to aggression, it affects parent's child relationship, it has its psychological effect, it causes anti- social behavior, lower cognitive abilities, and an increase risk of being abused by their parents. The more children are spanked, the more aggressive and antisocial they were. Children who were spanked are more likely to have mental health problem, problematic relationship with other parents and lower cognitive ability (Kaylor, 2016). Although many people believe that corporal punishment is the most effective form of discipline, in contrast, the use of corporal punishment as means of discipline will result in behavioral disorders as illustrated by: factors that include aggression, antisocial behavior, physical injury, and mental health problems for children. Background Histo rically, it has been reviewed that corporal punishment may lead to adverse child effect (Gershoff, Kaylor tr , 2002). The review showed that spanking was associated with 13 of the 17 outcomes examined , and all showed spanking was linked with several negative developing results for children who had tested corporal punishment including distraction, anti-social behavior, poor academic accomplishment, poor affection, and lack of parent- child warmth and mental health for example hopelessness, depression and others including substances and alcohol abuse. During the nineteenth century, it was argued that corporal punishment should not be used for academic errors and suggested that learning occurred best with encouragement and kindness (Fellenberg, n.d.). for example, during my high school days, I was afraid of my chemistry teacher which lead to my inability to achieve success in that subjec t all because of spanking given to me by the teacher . This is one of the evidence why Disciplinary spanking should be banned, there is no justification for spanking, Corporal punishme nt is ineffective in long term. Spanking is bad for kids and should not be practiced in any form to correct a child's behavioral problem. Supporting Points/ Proof s Factors that leads to Aggression In as much as many people believe that corporal punishment is the most effective form of discipline, but in the other hand, the evidence shows that spanking is not an effective form of discipline because it is psychologically harmful to children. Although spanking can lead to immediate behavior modification, it does result in consequences that exceed more than the benefit s. F or example, spanking a child can cause aggression. Aggression is stimulated by external source, the stimuli being frustration (Dugan,2004 ). A state whereby the child will show violent behavior towards others or readiness to attack or confront. The child displays this behavior because he believes that every conflict is resolved with violence based on his experience. spanking can lead to immediate behavior modification, but the practice loses its effect overtime . child ren should not be spanked all the time to achieve positive result and to avoid behavioral disorder. (Pies,2016). Aggression can be associate d with verbal or physical abuse, therefore spanking should be banned in all settings, including homes. Factors that lead to Anti- Social Behavior Although, the opposition believes in corporal punishment, in contrast , spanking can lead to anti-social behavior which can be as a factor
Monday, November 4, 2019
Are US policies toward the Middle East likely to succeed Discuss with Essay
Are US policies toward the Middle East likely to succeed Discuss with relation to to either democratization or Iran - Essay Example he following will discuss Middle Eastern perceptions of American foreign policy and ask the question, are US policies toward the Middle East likely to succeed? Democracy has been at the forefront of stated American ambitions in the region and the decision by the United States to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein in 2003 was perhaps the most controversial event in recent Middle Eastern history. Seen by many as an attempt by the United States to exert its global hegemony and dispose of a dictator not for the benefit of the Iraqi people, nor due to the supposed cache of weapons of mass destruction, but to obtain access to the vast oil resources of Iraq, this invasion is arguably the most controversial aspect of American foreign policy within the past quarter century. The US invasion of Iraq was controversial for a variety of reasons, the not least of which was the fact that the invasion did not first receive United Nations Security Council approval: an important condition in inte rnational relations which effectively legitimizes decisive political action. Opinion polls, conducted in the Middle East prior to the invasion by both the British Broadcasting Corporation and global pollster Ipsos Reed, effectively demonstrated how different Arab (and Iranian) perceptions of the War were in comparison to those of Americans (who were divided, albeit less opposed, to the invasion). We now turn to an analysis of unilateralism in the 21t century, the driving force of American foreign policy in the Middle East since the attacks of September 11, 2001 (Reynolds 2008). According to Drake University Professor of Politics and International Relations, David Skidmore, American unilateralism developed into an explicit and implicit policy of the present Bush Administration since the aftermath of September 11th 2001. Although the United States, historically committed to multilateralism, collective decision-making and international rules of law, has rejected foreign policy
Saturday, November 2, 2019
Public Law Outline Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words
Public Law - Outline Example The reason is that there are more risks leading to full implications from the unqualified interpretations that pass unnoticed through democratic processes. The absence of mutual language in expressing necessary implication makes the courts have a presumption that the general words have the intent of subjecting meaning to basic rights among individuals. The detention power without seeking trial is one of the legislation that breaches the human rights as granted. Further, rule of law pursues the different forms of equality within legal legislation against the equitable subjection among classes of ordinary law from land administration by ordinary law courts. Irrespective of the lack of well-established definitions, the judiciary and administration are directed by the rule of law. There are elements that are appreciated to be sufficient in the provision of judicial dicta as they show the rule of law as a core definition of the judiciary. The repeated invocation by judges in explaining th e extent of the judicial review jurisdiction is enshrined in respective constitutional documents. The view of the public regarding the application of the rule of law to judicial review matters. Further, the concept also applies to the public interest and the means of legal processes as identified. For instance, the agencies of government have a legitimate claim of majority conception for public interest during the Judiciary prioritizes the identification of endurance and values to protecting all citizens, including minorities.
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