Saturday, January 25, 2020

Motivation to study a Masters degree

Motivation to study a Masters degree I basically belong to India from where I received my secondary education, later on I went on pursue my graduation in the commerce field from Cambridge College, Commercial University, Mumbai. I have done my Masters in Marketing Management from the same University. I have had considerable amount of work experience at prominent organizations. I worked as the Sales Advisor for Marks Spencers for almost two years and moved on to work at Reebok as the Retail Sales Coordinator for an year. Honestly, I believe, studying abroad for an international MBA degree is a greatly satisfying rewarding as someone interested in business of Sales and Marketing. Choosing Bangor University was a choice made on the basis of lot of information and research. My educational advisors helped me choose Bangor as a truly international destination for study purposes, which provides an atmosphere conducive for studying and remarkable living place. As a resourceful, creative and solution-oriented individual I found travelling abroad for my MBA will serve my challenge taking nature. I have been working effectively as a team member with well-known companies and have also acted as team leader as and when opportunity arose. I believe my eight long years of experience in the field of Sales and Marketing with a brief exposure to working in US in the Macys apparel department as the Sales Executive. I have also travelled to Melbourne, Australia to work as a freelancer merchandiser. Coming to UK is not rocket science. After been to US and Australia, UK was an obvious choice to continue with my professional qualification. I strongly believe this venture will be a life-changing experience for I will get to learn the European ways of business and will get an opportunity to interact with local people and people from around the world. Motivation to study in UK is also associated with the reputational factors attached with UKs education system. Most of the countries like US and Australia offer mostly two years rigorous MBA curriculum, whereas UK allowed me with the one year MBA, which was obviously a better choice if I consider my professional experience and life. I could not commit to a two-year program, thus a one-year program was an added advantage for me and one of the strongest reasons to choose UK. While researching about the universities in UK, Bangor University was highly advised by my counsellors back home and I was told it to be one the best educational institutes with a rich history in education. After coming here, I can say they were quite right. With stimulating lectures and vibrant life I can call it a perfect place to live and study. I view the world with a whole new perspective and my thinking about business and culture has been affected profoundly. I am out of my educational comfort zone and am being continuously challenged every day to develop my views and think in new ways. While earlier also I have been in stimulating environments, studying for a postgraduate qualification in UK is an altogether different endeavour. At Bangor University, I will develop my self-reliance and independence and will leverage on my previous professional experience and will mature academically and brighten my career prospects. MBA at Bangor means enrichment on every level. According to a survey by the Institute for the International Education of Students (IES), when asked about personal growth, 98% students agreed that education abroad increased their self-confidence and facilitated maturit y and 97% students revealed it had a lifelong impact on their world view (The London School of Economics and Political Science/LSE). I am here to seek friendship on a greater diversity level. Studying MBA will also enable me to build enduring friendships and developing relationships with people from various countries. I will remain in contact with them even after my education here is completed. Bangor University will provide me with academic benefits through excellent courses and lectures, unavailable at my home country. It will enhance the value of my degree by allowing me to study the subjects with more depth. Studying in UK will make me more aware culturally and I will be able to appreciate the differences in different cultures I have been in. I will be able to understand different people in better ways, thus becoming a part of world that is increasingly becoming more diverse. With this international exposure, I will be able to appraise the different points of view. MBA from Bangor University will definitely be advantageous to my future career as a manager in corporate world. In todays time more and more employ ers are placing great emphasis on the value of adaptability and flexibility. They also seek people who understand different cultures and can effectively communicate with people. It will prove to be of great help while the employers analyse my compatibility for a job as I will be able to demonstrate such skills to the employers. Interpersonal skills are the single most important attribute that the employers consider and I will gain on this front for having both academic and professional experience abroad. Undeniably I sought the international education and experience because they exhibit my own capability and confidence to carry on with it. Bangor University provides very challenging experience; academically, culturally, and socially and is naturally going to provide me an edge over others and help me stand out in the crowd. All the faculty members are internationally oriented and the academic quality is rich. Besides these reasons, the cost of tuition fee and cost of living are also important factors considered for choosing Bangor University. The place is rated extremely safe across the UK. Thus Bangor is my choice for both the teaching reasons and non-teaching reasons, bending towards the quality of faculty and cost of living as the most important reasons. Studying in an international setting at Bangor University with students from around the world will surely provide me with the opportunity to develop my communication skills with individuals from a variety of social and cultural backgrounds. The companies I have previously worked for are multinational companies with offices in various countries of world. This will prepare me for an international work. Considering my past ventures in US and Australia, I possess the experience of dealing with various cultures and this will only foster my value as an individual and an employee. Q. 2. What is your approach to learning? Q.3. What issues do you anticipate in the group work? In higher education, the inclusion of group work has become increasingly important, prominently due to greater significance assumed by skill development, lifelong learning and potential of students as future employees. Group work has wide reached consequences if not carried out with proper execution. It is a widely argued topic in the realm of higher education research literature by the likes of Webb, 1994 and Boud et al., 1999 (Mellor, A. 2009). There are three types of group works as identified by Davis (1993). They are formal learning groups, informal learning groups and study groups. Formal groups are created for accomplishing a particular task which is to be completed within a given period of time is given to them, such as preparing a report on the organizational behaviour and its elements in an MNC. Informal groups (random groups of individuals) are easily identifiable in a class where students discuss various academic (and non-academic) issues and the study groups are formed t o assist the group members during a projects progress. According to Webb, 1994; Gledhill and Smith, 1996, group work is extremely complex and has effects on the students learning mechanism. Before formation of a group, it is important to consider issues such as the right size of group, diversity in a group, balancing the load on different members of a group, preparing students to effectively participate in group work. Knight (2004) has argued that the students prefer being assessed individually rather than in groups. Group work can become more disliked by students in our groups if it involves peer assessment. As argued by Maguire and Edmonson (2001) it can lead to issues such as lack of rational judgement and prejudices. The most common issues that I can anticipate in the group work are trying to control the group or some members, coercing them to support them in every discussion. Mills (2003) also said that the thing students dislike most are poor group dynamics and personality cla shes. There can be an issue of some students who act as obligate parasites by deriving all the advantage without putting any efforts on their own. It discourages other members who actively contribute towards the success of group working. Such students have been called as passengers by Bourner et al. (2001) and Parsons (2002). Whereas, Hand (2001) coined the term freeloader for such students. An effective solution to this problem can be keeping the group size as minimum possible so that the scope of free riding can be minimized. Davis (1993) advised the perfect group size to be between 3 to 4 and no more than 6 to 7. Glebhill and Smith (1996) have discussed the issue of age, gender and qualification difference as the factors affecting the group dynamics, for example a more mature person will think quite differently than a young individual. There can also be a situation where a particular student is undermined by other members, this can seriously hamper his emotional confidence and th is sort of rejection can lead to bigger problems such as group conflict (Chang, 1999). In any group there can be some people who like to be followed and some who just follow without considering the bigger picture. While Thorley and Gregory (1994) believe that groups selected by teachers can be more effective answer to the task or situation, however there is a natural inclination among the students to form self-selected groups on basis such as friendship, ethnic or cultural proximity. This can become problematic in our case, as there are students from around the world. It is not necessary that every individual has made enough friends. Also, if some members are unable to form a group of their choice, they might feel hostile in a group of unknown people. It is not necessary that they will easily adjust in any group. It can not only hamper their participation but can also hurt their emotional well-being (Mellor and Entwistle, 2008). Q.4. How will you attempt to address these? Conclusion I, as an MBA student am looking forward to a rich academic and cultural exposure at Bangor University classrooms. Learning is certainly going to be an area of focus while also looking into the areas that need improvement. Developing personality to a better level will definitely be on top of the list. I am also looking forward to working in groups composed of diverse students. During the one year I have at Bangor, I will ensure I develop my transferrable skills and enhance my employability through the way of developing my leadership, negotiation abilities, decision making and increasing adaptability by fitting myself in different roles as the course progresses.

Friday, January 17, 2020

Samsung Electronics Case Summary

SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS SUMMARY Under Kun Hee Lee’s leadership Samsung has risen to become the world’s leading memory producer for all types of PCs, game players, digital cameras and other electronic equipments. In 1987, Samsung was a â€Å"bit player†, years behind its key Japanese rivals. In 2003 Samsung’s memory division is bigger than that of Japanese rivals in both size & profits. The memory chip industry was expected to face cyclical downturn in 2005 and Samsung survived two previous downturns still some outside believers believed that the Chinese entry would fundamentally change industry conditions in the years ahead.There has been a strong growth in economic importance of Semiconductor industry over the previous five decades. Semiconductor products were classified into two categories; Logic chips and memory chips. Logic chips were used for processing information/ control processes whereas Memory chips were further classified into DRAM (Dynamic Random A ccess Memory), SRAM (Static RAM), & Flash to store information. The case is focused on Global memory chip industry. DRAMs captured over half of the memory chip market in 2003. DRAMs were previously used in PCs, but their share declined from 80% to 67% between 1990 and 2003.Telecom & consumer electronics were growing consumers of DRAMs in 2003. Communications products were expected to grow from 3. 5% to 7. 9% in 2008 while TVs, set-top boxes, game devices such as Play station represented 7% of global market in 2003. In 2003, SRAM, a type of buffer memory which facilitated computer processing & mobile phone functionality, accounted for 10% of the industry sales and Flash memory, used in heavy digital cameras & mobile phones, is a hot growth area and account for 32% of the industry sales. The memory industry contained powerful suppliers and price conscious customers.Over time technology grew more complex and suppliers became more concentrated. Only 2-3 main players dominated the key se gments of equipment market. Suppliers of memory raw materials provided discounts of up to 5% for high-volume buyers. Customers were more fragmented with no single OEM controlling more than 20% of global PC market. Memory represented 4-12% of total PC material cost and 4-7% of mobile phone material cost. There was an intense competition in market but OEM would pay upwards of 1% average premium for a reliable supplier.In 2005 industry faced fierce rivalry and large-scale entry by Chinese firms. Samsung announced a decline in market prices of its cutting edge technological products in late 2004 but Chinese firms competing in older product lines traded off profit margins for market share. Chinese competitors had an easy access to local finance and talented local engineers but it lacked Organizational skills & used older technology. MAJOR COMPETITORS: The major competitors of Samsung in 2005 were: Elpida Memory Inc (Japan): Established as a joint venture between NEC and Hitachi.It produc ed memory products for mobile devices & consumer electronics goods. In 2004, it announced that it would start the construction on its 12 inch water fab production. Hynix Semiconductor, Inc. (S. Korea): founded in 1983 as Hyundai Electronics. It changed is name to separate itself from financially troubled Hyundai Group. During 1996 cyclical downturn the company dramatically increased its capital expenditure but in 1999 when market began to expand Hyundai had no resource to increase its capital expenditure and it ended up in decreasing its capital expenditure.In 1999 Hyundai acquired LG Semiconductor which resulted in more debt burden which together with the next cyclical doenturn brought the company at the verge of collapse in 2001-02. A multibillion-dollar bailout allowed the company to survive. It then entered into a joint venture with ST Electronics. Infineon Technologies AG: Germany-based company which spun off from Siemens. In recent years, it entered into the product purchase & capacity agreement with Taiwan-based DRAM manufacturer, Winbond. It also entered into the joint venture with Nanya Technology to build a new plant in Taiwan.In 2005, it had more than 25 R&D locations around the globe. Micron Technology: It is Idaho-USA based company founded in 1978, Acquired Texas Instruments, plants in Texas, Italy, Japan, &Singapore. It purchased Dominion Semiconductor from Toshiba and is backed by Intel. Nanya Technology Corporation: It is the fifth-largest DRAM, Taiwan based manufacturer. In 1998 it purchased DRAM technology from IBM. Nanya and Infineon formed a joint venture named Inotera producing 256Mbit DRAM starting in June 2004. Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. SMIC): Established in 2000 and headquartered in Shanghai, China. It took designs from other firms and produced chips based on blueprints. In 2003, SMIC signed agreement with Infineon & and later with Elpida to license technology to SMIC in exchange for purchasing rights to much of th e output. It also bought production facility from Motorola. COMPANY OVERVIEW: In 2005 it was the largest conglomerate (called Chaebol) in South Korea. The total net sales of the group had reached $135 billion in 2004. In 2004 the goup had 337 overseas operations in 58 countries and employed 212,000 people worldwide.Three core business sectors were Electronics, Finance, and Trade & Services. Samsung Electronics was established in 1969 to manufacture black-and-white TV sets. At the end of 2004 the company had $78. 5 billion net sales, $66 billion in assets, 113,000 employees. The company brand value increased from $5. 2 billion in 2000 to $12. 6 billion in 2004. In 2005 Samsung consisted of five business divisions: 1) Digital Media – TV, AV, Computers; 2) Telecom; 3) HDTV; 4) Digital Appliances and 5) Semiconductor Business. DEVELOPMENT OF MEMORY BUSINESSKorea’s semiconductor industry started its wafer production in 1974. Kun Hee Lee, third son of Samsung Group’s founder Byung Chull Lee, bought Korea Semiconductor Company, using his own personal savings. Samsung Electronics was a producer of low-end consumer electronics goods. Kun Hee Lee merged the two companies to create global powerhouse. First semiconductor produced was the â€Å"watch chip,† used in wristwatches. From 1983 to 1985, even as global semiconductor market went into a recession & Intel left the DRAM business, Samsung allocated more than $100 million to DRAM development.At that time cost to produce 64K DRAM was $1. 30, market price below $1. 00. in mid 1980s Samsung built its first large manufacturing facility. To accomplish fast-paced construction, a target was set to build 4-kilometer road in 1 day to receive production equipment. Kun Hee Lee was made Chairman when father retired. Since 1992, semiconductors had been South Korea’s largest export. In 2004, exports totaled to $25. 1 billion that is 10. 4% of the country’s export volume. Samsung Group export ed 22% of Korea’s exports.Samsung Group represented 23% of total market value at the Korea Stock Exchange. TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT: To design its first 64K DRAMs in 1980s with outside help the company found Micron in the US which accepted cash payment in exchange for teaching Samsung how to produce 64K DRAMs. To develop ‘frontier’ technology for next generation DRAM, Samsung used internal competition across global R&D sites. The company hired one team composed primarily of Korean-Americans with experience in semiconductor industry and located that team in California.A similar Korean-Americans team was located in S. Korea it was required to compete & collaborate and come up with its own solution. California team won competition for designing 256K DRAM while Korean team won competition for next generation 1Mbit technology. Due to market situations Hitachi took the lead and Samsung came to second Hitachi in the market. Early 1990s, Samsung decided to increase the siz e of wafers used to cut the DRAM chips to eight inches to become number 1 again and they were first to do so.They invested $1 billion towards mastering the new technology and became number 1 again in 1992 and retained leadership for 13 years. PRODUT MIX: In 2003, Samsung offered 1,200 different variations of DRAM products. Products ranged from â€Å"frontier products† (512Mbit DRAM) at the cutting edge of technology to â€Å"legacy products† (64Mbit DRAM). Within each product generation there were â€Å"specialty products† as well. Prices for new-generation products were high for a few quarters before plunging rapidly. â€Å"Legacy† products became high-value niche products.In 2004, Samsung also sought to create some advantages in Flash memory for digital cameras & camera phones. Because market expected to grow at double-digit for another five years in Flash memory while DRAMs would experience a single digit growth and Flash price were high relative to th at of the DRAM. DESIGN AND PRODUCTION: Unlike its competitors, Samsung created new uses for DRAMs. It launched new DRAM products with â€Å"product-specific† applications, for laptops, personal game players etc. Many of them shared a common core design.Even two seemingly different architectures, DDR DRAM & Rambus DRAM shared the same core design. Samsung main R&D facility and fab lines were located at a single site near Seoul whereas, competitors’ facilities were scattered across the globe. The benefit was of collocation and scale of fab which saved them an average of 12% of construction cost. At Samsung’s primary campus, R&D engineers & production engineers lived in the same company-provided housing. Samsung prided itself on the reliability of its products & ability to customize products.But in 1980s & 1990, Samsung was producing poor quality products. Thus in 1994, Lee wrote a book that was delivered to all employees and explained how the Group had lost sight of quality & argued that employees must now think of quality first. The result of this effort was that by the late 1990s, Samsung was routinely winning key industry competitions for reliability and performance. Samsung developed new Flash memory chip for Sony Ericsson & chip customized for Nokia. HUMAN RESOURCE POLICIES: It was considered taboo at Samsung to ask a coworker about his or her university or place of origin.Prospective employees were given aptitude test covering language skills, mathematical knowledge, reasoning, & space perception. As a result of more meritocratic evaluation system, younger, high-potential, English-speaking managers were quickly promoted up the hierarchy. Samsung also place programs to invest in employees’ global business skills. Samsung claimed to have invested more in its employees that any other competitors in this industry. They also hired westerners & other foreign talents. According to the Chairman of the company, â€Å"At Samsung, we rewa rd outstanding performance; we do not punish failure.This is my personal philosophy and belief. † STRATEGIC CHALLENGES: In 2005, company faced new challenges from Chinese entrants who were attacking the DRAM market in the way Samsung did 20 years ago. These Companies were using partnerships with Infineon & Elpida with billions of dollars in outside financing to build state-of-art production facilities. Chinese producers have patience to endure years of losses to gain significant market share. China lacked critical infrastructure for cutting-edge semiconductor industry but the Government s firmly committed to subsidizing all infrastructure needs around Shanghai and Beijing.

Thursday, January 9, 2020

Alzheimers Disease in Older People - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 2 Words: 715 Downloads: 6 Date added: 2019/04/12 Category Medicine Essay Level High school Tags: Alzheimer's Disease Essay Did you like this example? Alzheimers disease a kind of disease that many older people from the age 65 and older gain. This disease will destroy important functions in the brain by neurons dying off. Also, this disorder cannot be cured. Alzheimers disease is also a common cause of dementia, a general term for memory loss. People with this disease also have a hard time communicating or difficulty with learning new things. Signs and symptoms of Alzheimers disease often come in slowly but worsen over time. Symptoms of this disease include memory loss, confusion, and inability to do simple things such as solving a puzzle or adding, loss of recognition of people or objects. You can also get mood swings which include anger and loneliness. Eventually, people may even start to forget family members. When theyre in early stages patients will a have hard time making plans or organizing things thats when they tend to get frustrated. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Alzheimers Disease in Older People" essay for you Create order You cannot diagnose Alzheimers disease until after death. Thats when a doctor can closely examine the brain with a microscope. Theres no specific test that confirms when a person has Alzheimers disease. A doctor might make a judgment about the disease only if they feel like your symptoms or information youre providing can relate to the disease. Doctors nearly determine whether you have dementia and is whether your dementia is due to Alzheimers disease. This disease can be treated but up to this day they have not found a cure. Complications when getting diagnosed with Alzheimers disease is that you commonly have periods of agitation and anxiousness. A loved ones ability to reason and understand certain situations. Bladder and bowels problems are other complications due to Alzheimers disease. A person may no longer recognize the sensation of having to use the bathroom. Some people with this disease can also have depression. Symptoms of depression can be having sleeping problems, change in moods, and difficulty concentrating. Symptoms of depression can be really similar to the general symptoms. Which makes it difficult because you might not be able to determine if the person is experiencing depression or just normal symptoms. When it comes to surgery that involves drilling holes into the skull to implant wires into either side of the brain. People believe that it can treat the disease but still havent proven it. Making sure you ask your doctor what tests or other procedures might youre loved one need could b e important. If I had a patient come to my clinic and explain to me signs and symptoms that they have been having. I would try to get as many details have I possibly can get. If I have a suspicion that I might know whats causing those symptoms. I will go ahead and tell the doctor what my patient has been going through, and what I recommend we should do. I would diffidently support my patient by telling them we are here to help. We would do whatever it takes in order to find out whats going on with them. Usually, when it comes to my personal experience I will always want my nurse/doctor support in whatever the situation is. Seeing that there are trying to help in many ways makes me feel very comfortable. Especially if I know Im scared it might be something bad. If my patient was diagnosed with Alzheimers disease I would try to give my patient as much information as possible. Not just to that person but if my patient is with a family member I would try to give them as much information too. Making s ure I answer all their questions as well. Overall people with Alzheimers disease will have treatment for the rest of their lives. It is important to always see your doctor regularly in case you feel like something is different about you. Getting regularly checkup could be good as well. The family member should give you all the support they can especially when it comes to this disease. You might not know when youre going to get a symptom. It can be very dangerous especially if youre out in a public place or driving. Letting the person with this disease know that they have you fully support could be a good thing that way they dont feel like theyre in it by themselves.

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

The Hunger Games, Divergent And I Am Malala - 1960 Words

The four texts I am studying are Hidden Figures, The Hunger Games, Divergent and I am Malala. These four texts all have strong female protagonists in lead roles. They all face seemingly over-whelming challenges such as racism, sexism, or being an outsider, they overcome them, and as a result, go on to become an inspiration for young girls and women. These women are wired differently compared to other people. They have had traumatic experiences or learnt about what society really is and this has impacted them and how they have tackled the challenged they have faced. Divergent by Veronica Roth is a story about Beatrice (Tris) Prior who lives in a world where she faces the challenge of being an outsider in a society that is†¦show more content†¦Or go to a different faction, and will her life the way she wants. She is scared but knowing that, that’s ok. She learns how to control her fears and not let them control her. When Tris goes into simulation, one of her fears is her killing her family. By facing her fears in the simulation she is able to overcome them and becomes braver and stronger. She finds her identity and finds her ability to be different can’t be controlled. With her confidence growing she finds she is ready to take on more obstacles. Tris teaches us that it is okay to be scared and that we don’t have to be fearless, but that we can learn to control our fear. In the real world most people cling to their fears because facing them seems too hard. Instead, like Tris, we need to learn to climb up that mountain and face them head on. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is another trilogy set in a dystopian world, about how one person who is willing to speak their voice, can be the voice for everyone. The Capitol of Panem controls its 12 districts by forcing them each to select a boy and a girl, called Tributes, to compete in a nationally televised event called the Hunger Games. Every citizen must watch as there youths fight to the death until only one remains. District 12 Tribute Katniss Everdeen has