How to Tell Authentic Coach Handbags From Fake Coach Purses
February 22, 2012 | 
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Online shopping has brought great opportunities to us to be able to buy the items we want and need at a great prices. It is too bad that with all good things people find a way to take advantage of others.
Selling Coach products online is a huge business. If you are looking to purchase a Coach product online, you need to do your homework before making your purchase. You need to be sure the money you are paying is for an authentic Coach purse not a fake coach purse.
Here are some tips to help you buy the real deal.
Tip #1: C Pattern Design
If your purse is the ‘c’ or ‘cc’ style stitching you will be able to use this pattern to inspect for authenticity. Look at the purse to check for the following.
a. The c pattern should go straight up and down.
b. The pattern will be centered on the front and back panel of the purse.
c. The seam will go straight through ‘c’ or ‘cc’ pattern not cutting off letters.
d. Look at a few photos online of the c pattern on the style of purse you are looking to purchase.
There should be a consistency with the pattern.
Tip #2: Leather Label with Serial Number
There is a serial number that exists in the majority of the real Coach purses that begins with ‘No’ that is located on the inside sewn in leather label. On some of the smaller authentic purse sizes there is not a leather tag. These styles would include the clutch, swingback, and the mini. I have also seen fakes that have the sewn in label starting with a No followed by a serial number. However, when you compare the fake label to the real one the quality of leather and imprinting is obvious which is real. The words on the label should also be in all-caps.
Tip #3: Know the Real Deal
I would suggest you visit retailers of real Coach stores to begin to teach yourself what an authentic Coach purse looks and feels like. Pay attention to the look and feel of the leather, lining, zipper, stitching and leather tag. As you become more familiar with the real Coach handbags, you will recognize a fake easier.
Tip #4: Poor Craftsmanship – Leather is Pieced Together
View the stitching on the purse. Stitches that are different in width or have threads coming out of the seam are a great way to spot a knockoff. In a real Coach handbag the stitching is impeccable.
Tip #5: Coach Style
In order to be an authentic Coach handbag it must be a Coach style. This one can be a bit tricky since Coach releases new styles throughout the year. I see the Internet as a great way to help you determine if the style you are looking at is a real style. Ask your question in a forum or blog and learn from others.
Tip #6: Zipper
Inspect the zipper of the purse. On a poor Coach knockoff, you can simply tell the difference by a looking at the zipper. A Coach purse will use a zipper with the engraving ‘YKK.’ Look for the engraving. If you are still not sure, zip the purse a few times to see how smoothly the purse zips.
Tip #7: C not G
I think this one should go without saying but it bears to mention since it must be working on some people. The Coach brand starts with a ‘c’ not a ‘g.’ It is unbelievably silly to me but some Coach knockoffs have the stitching of a ‘g’ or ‘gg’ not a ‘c’ or ‘cc.’
Tip #8: Packaging
I have seen some auctions with pictures of purses with plastic wrapped handles. To my knowledge this would also be a sign of a fake Coach purse.
Tip #9: Read the About Us Section or Seller Info
Retail websites that just do not say which they are selling are normally selling fakes. Read about the retailer. Do a Google search on the retailer to see if people are happy with the service.
If you are looking to buy on ebay, purchase from someone who has a great track record for selling Coach purses. Ebay does not permit sellers to sell fakes and monitors this problem, but sellers can still slip through the cracks.
Do your homework so you can enjoy an authentic Coach purse at a great price. Happy shopping!
Knowledge of Types of Listening – The Key To Understanding and Being Understood
Listening, the most neglected part of communication falls into several categories, the knowledge of which will help you choose the best kind of listening to be an effective communicator. This knowledge distinguishes the effective listeners from ineffective ones besides making one an effective listener.
The degree of attention, the perspective taken into consideration and the objective of listening determine the type of listening one engages in. The various kinds of listening can classified into two broad types: positive and negative. Positive listening benefits the listener, the speaker and society at large. Positive types of listening include sensitive listening, active listening, evaluative listening, relationship listening and appreciative listening. Negative listening is defective and hence does not serve the purpose of one or more of the parties to communication.
The following exhibit gives various kinds of listening.
Passive Listening
In passive listening, nothing of the speaker’s words go into the mind of the listener. The words of the speaker don’t activate the thought process of the listener. But the listeners are physically present though mentally absent. The listener may have decided to ignore the speaker due to either preconceived notion or boring introduction of the listener. The responsibility for this negative kind of listening lies with the speaker who may not have aroused the interest of the listeners.
Marginal Listening
Marginal listening, which is also referred as Selective listening, is a little better than passive listening in that the information of the speaker is listened to in bits and pieces rather than the whole of it. The listener occasionally raises his head to take some information, probably due to its being pleasant to him or agreeable to his existing views. But, he listener may be missing out on the important part of the speaker’s message. This also can be classified under negative kind of listening since the important part of the message is ignored and the benefit of it missed out.
Projective Listening
In this type of listening, the listener takes and absorbs the information in accordance with the listener’s own view or perspective which dominates the perspective of the speaker, even if the speaker’s view is amalgamated into listener’s own. In other words, broader view of the speaker is either ignored or given less predominant place and limited view of the listener retained. This also is classified as negative kind of listening. It is similar to a jaundiced person looking at the world and believing the surroundings as green. The view is far from being true.
Empathic Listening
Empathic listening, which is also known as ‘sensitive listening’ is the opposite of projective listening in that only the speaker’s view is taken predominantly while that of the listener is either completely ignored or given less importance. If a proper balance between two views is struck, it could be classified as positive. Owing to dominance of only speaker’s view, it has to be termed as negative listening and hence needs to be improved. Being too empathetic with others may leave the broader perspective to winds or lead to listener being exploited. But there are some features of this type of listening. They include building of trust, facilitating release of emotions, reducing of tensions, creating of positive climate for negotiations etc. (www.beyondintractability.org/essay/empathic_listening). The listeners must attend, support and empathize with the speaker.
Since empathetic listening build relationships, it can also be called ‘relationship listening’.
Prof. Asha Kaul opines that empathetic listening coupled with active would prove to be the ideal listening wherein the objectives of the message are served the best. (Kaul Asha, Business Communication, Prentice Hall of India, New Delhi, 2004,p.41.)
Anecdote
Practice this for better results
Dick Connor, the mentor of Jeffery P.Davidson, had a nice habit. When the latter used to meet the former for discussion of new articles and key ideas, which used to happen at dining table, the former used to tape-record the discussions.
Dick Connor gave for the first time to Jeffrey the taped cassette, which was recorded by Dick Connor when the discussion on new article and key ideas happened. Dick Connor was wont to tape-record discussions of important meetings. Jeffrey, when he for the first time started listening to the cassette tape, was surprised to get many valuable insights from the listening of tapes which he did not get during the live discussions however attentive he was and however diligently he took notes of the discussions.
In fact, the insights he got while listening to tape were better than those he observed and made notes of during actual discussions. Jeffery felt that note taking should be done after listening to tapes rather than during the discussions.
Davidson P.Jeffrey, How To Get Noticed And Get Ahead In The Business World, Jaico Books, Bombay, 1995, pp-81-82
Active Listening
Active listening can also be referred as ‘attentive listening’ or ‘deliberate listening’.
Active listening takes place when the listener is active, which is born out by active participation of the listener. The listener displays forwarding-bending body posture, seeks clarification, and give feedback. Active listening is a highly involved listening.
The ideal listening takes place when active listening is combined with empathetic listening wherein the views of the both listener and speaker are merged with due balance.
The responsibility for active listening to happen solely lies with the speaker who should be able to generate interest on the topic by proper introduction etc.
Attentive listening requires attention skills, following skills and reflecting skills. (Raman, Meenakshi and Singh, Prakash, Business Communication, Oxford University Press, New Delhi,2006, pp.99-100.) Attentive skills include a posture of involvement, appropriate body motion, proper eye contact and non-distractive environment. Following skills include proper display of interest, proper invitation to the speaker, moderate encouraging nods, infrequent questions and attentive silence. Reflecting skills include paraphrasing, restating the emotions of the speaker, re-expressing the meaning intended by the speaker and stating the summary of the ideas at some intervals.
Evaluative Listening
In evaluative listening, the listener either assesses the value of the message or compares it with what is usually considered the best. He may do this either simultaneously while listening or by stopping for while. Since evaluation takes place in this kind of listening, the listener may decide either to continue listening or turn away from the listening. Alternately, he may engage himself in framing the statement of rebuttal. Hence evaluative listening may lead to either positive or negative outcome depending on the open-mindedness and intellect of the listener.
Fake Listening
The listener pretends to be listening though not listening actually. It is also referred to as Pseudo listening. He uses he bodily posture and fixation of eyes on the speaker to show that he is listening. This aim of such listening is to please either the speaker or the other observers. This is similar to passive listening except that there is no dishonesty on the part of listener in passive listening, whereas, the fake listening is born of dishonesty. This is the most undesirable negative kind of listening.
Informative Listening
Informative listening takes a lot of information with full concentration and thus helps one understand the message being given. Because of intensity of effort in taking most of the information, the message is understood almost close to what is intended. This is the best way to learn and an ideal kind of listening. While imbibing what is given by the teachers or while taking instructions from the superiors or when the subordinate is explaining the problem he is facing, the listener engages himself in informative listening. Informative listening requires a lot of attention.
Informative listening is the first stage of positive listening from which other kinds of listening like attentive listening, evaluative listening, empathic listening etc originate.
Informative listening requires good vocabulary, concentration and memory so as to be effective in achieving its purpose.(Raman, Meenakshi and Singh, Prakash, Business Communication, Oxford University Press, New Delhi,2006, p.98.).
Appreciative Listening
The primary purpose of appreciative listening is to appreciate and thus enjoy the way the message is being given, but not to take the benefit of the content or meaning of the message. Appreciative listening usually takes place while listening to the music or when one enjoys the style of the speaker or other features not related to the content.
The best benefit of appreciative listening is realized depending on three conditions: presentation, perception and previous experience.(Raman, Meenakshi and Singh, Prakash, Business Communication, Oxford University Press, New Delhi,2006, p.101.). Presentation factors include the style, the medium, the setting and personality of the speaker. Secondly, the perception of the listener, which again depends on his attitude and expectations, determines how one appreciates the presentation. Lastly, the previous experience of the listener and his familiarity with the speaker determines whether he would enjoy the presentation or not. Existing positive opinion or familiarity with certain inherent and negligible drawbacks in the presentation may help one appreciate the presentation.
Critical Listening
Informative listening when combined with evaluative listening becomes critical listening.
Critical listening has its value when somebody is soliciting us to buy his product or services. We critically listen when somebody makes unbelievably nice offer or presents a new idea to solve problems. Similarly, we engage ourselves in critical listening when listening to politicians, new paper accounts, presentation of revolutionary ideas towards changing existing policies etc. Aristotle has proposed three precautions to observe to make effective criticism. They are ethos (speaker’s credibility), logos (logical arguments), and pathos (emotional appeals).
Critical thinking leaves one as a highly logical person. But, emotions like faith and ability to see what is not visible like what great business leaders like Ambani, Bill Gates, Narayana Murthy etc saw fall outside the logic, though they are highly essential for big-ticket success. A highly logical person is not emotional and hence remains mediocre all his life.
Discriminative Listening
Discriminative listener is one who is sensitive to the changes in the speaker’s rate, volume, force, pitch and stress on different words or ideas. One who listens attentively or critically or with the intention of evaluation or to appreciate the speaker has to listen discriminatingly.
Discriminative listening requires finest hearing ability shorn of any hearing defects, awareness of nuances of words, awareness of sounds and pronunciations, and ability to sense non-verbal signals from the speaker.
Literal Listening
In literal listening, content only is taken while ignoring the relationship between the facts in the content. Due to this, the meaning of the message is lost.
Understanding the types of listening will prepare one against negative listening. The person who listens in a positive manner is to going to achieve the purpose of such listening.
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The Spirit of Wisdom is the Principal Thing
Proverbs 4:7 says, “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.” Proverbs 2:6 says, “For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.”
Wisdom, as taught in the scriptures, maybe the most neglected truth in our churches today. Wisdom may offer more than we realize. Paul the apostle prayed that we would have a spirit of wisdom. Solomon was the wise king of Israel. Look at all the things that are revealed about wisdom in the book of Proverbs. Jesus is wisdom unto us, and Jesus is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Blessed is the man who finds wisdom. There is so much in the Bible about wisdom! But what is wisdom exactly?
What we need is a good working definition. This is what I have come to learn of wisdom in the sense of application. Wisdom is not knowledge! Wisdom employs, or uses knowledge. Knowledge alone is just information we have gained that has not been put to any practical use. The knowledge of the word of God is good, but we can possess the knowledge of what is written in the Bible, while our personal life doesn’t really change much because we don’t really see how it applies to everyday life.
That was a wise move on your part. Have you ever used, or heard that phrase? That saying reveals wisdom deals with what you do, not just what you know. Wisdom is the ability to apply knowledge effectively to produce good results. As this concerns the knowledge of the things of God, the wisdom of God enables us to apply the knowledge of God effectively to produce good results.
We have a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. This would then mean that we would have not only revelation by the Spirit, but we would also have wisdom by the same Spirit. Through revelation we gain understanding of truth and our knowledge of the things of God increases. Through a spirit of wisdom we are enabled to apply the truths we have learned and as a result we become very fruitful. If I am to know anything about Him, it must be revealed to me. If I am to walk in the light of the knowledge I have, I need His wisdom.
Some of us have been facing situations that need to change. We have prayed, tried to believe, confessed the promises, rebuked the devil, fasted, wept and all but given up. We tried everything we know. We have had revelations from God and we know many things about scripture. Yet for all we know some things just don’t change. You see we are not to just have a spirit of revelation, so we can know truth, we are to have a spirit of wisdom so we can apply truth. When we follow the wisdom the Spirit gives for the things we are facing we will see change, that is for sure.
A spirit of wisdom and revelation means I come alive with wisdom, I come alive with revelation, because it is the Spirit of a thing that makes it alive. We hunger for many things, but is wisdom the principal thing?
Writing Your Job Performance Evaluation Or Self-Appraisal in a Tough Market
In today’s job market we all need to be more proactive in getting ahead. Every year most employers ask their employees to fill out a self evaluation. This article will cover four standard areas of the review process and the steps you need to take to show that you are performing above and beyond your job responsibilities. It allows you to be in the driver’s seat of the review process.
Writing your own review is always a tedious task. The best way to show you are on top of your game is to write your evaluation in “tangible format”. Tangibles are measurable and allow you to show how you are contributing to your employer’s bottom line. Example: Coordinated a project for an account from start to finish which resulted in increased revenue for the division/company of $$$.
Job Responsibilities and Skills
Clearly state all your job responsibilities. List all the things you do every day, from phone calls, emails, budgets, account follow up, computer skills, projects, and include such things as:
Strong communication skills, Ability to multi task, Results oriented, Ability to focus on achieving strategic objectives, Nurturing and instilling confidence in your team members, and Providing support as a manager.
State exactly what you worked on and whether you worked on them by yourself or as part of a team. What are your business strategies within the confines of you position? If you manage or work on a specific account or businesses, are you initiating and developing those businesses / accounts and achieving their demands? If you have a dollar figure include it.
Examples: “I manage a team … I lead the group … I worked with the team … on zxy accounts. I worked on a 50K account, managing the day to day communications.”
Achievements
List major achievements that demonstrate your ability to apply knowledge and utilize skills in performing your job responsibilities. Push the envelope and say what you did as you see it. Be honest but make sure to acknowledge all your accomplishments. Use words like
- Successfully…
- Negotiated…
- Contributed…
- Supported and nurtured
Example: If you actually landed the big account, it is your account. If you worked with a team to land the account, then state that you worked as a team to land the account. Either way it shows that you worked to open a new account. Quantify what it is worth to the company in potential or actual dollars amounts: e.g., “account xyz will generate $$$ in the next year and has a potential to reach $$$ in the next 3 years.”
Maybe your contribution seems small, but you are still contributing to the profitability of the company. If the numbers are down for the year, consider whether you can say they are higher than other departments, other offices, or brands you compete with. There is usually some area or competition that is doing worse.
Overall Performance
Describe areas of strength, growth and those areas that need improvement and or development.
Always list more strengths than areas that need improvement or development. It is a good idea to acknowledge at least one area for development (this enhances credibility), but here is where you can ask for more responsibility and help your boss feel invested in your development. If you want to move up the ladder and you aren’t developing because your boss doesn’t want to spend the time mentoring you or giving you the responsibility, there is a way to make this point positively. You can address it like this:
Strengths: List what you do and feel confident about. Demonstrate your understanding of the market place in which your business operates. Don’t forget the contribution you make to the bottom line, whether by support or direct involvement.
Growth: Take some of your greatest moments from the past year where you have had the opportunity to demonstrate new skills. State strongly that you are up for more in the coming year.
Development: Describe an interest in being more involved in decision making, working closely with supervisors on projects that interest you. Put a shared responsibility for this development on your manager.
Example: I would like to and can develop the following skills … and increase my responsibilities. I am confident I will be able to do this with management’s guidance and when I am given opportunities to participate and contribute in new opportunities.
Summary: State briefly what you have done and can do that enables you to continue to contribute to bottom line growth and generate new business opportunities, demonstrating performance of your job above and beyond of what is expected by you.
Setting goals for the year: This is often not included in a review, so it is something you may need to initiate with your manager. Ask for 4 or 5 goals to be spelled out and weighted. Break it down into the following three points:
- What are the goals
- How can they be achieved
- On a scale of one to a hundred what weight do they have on your job?
If they or their weighting change during the year make sure you and your boss update them. That way you will be able to achieve what is expected of you and you can base next year’s evaluation on these achievements or growths.
Good luck with your evaluation, and remember – there is no harm in self promotion!
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Basic Computer Skills Knowledge For Beginners – 3 Simple Tips to Boost Your Beginners Knowledge Fast
The need for each and everyone in our society today to acquire basic computer knowledge skills cannot be overlooked by anyone in this present day. Every computer beginner is now feeling the need to learn how to use a computer as faster as he or she can possibly afford to. Read on to discover three simple facts to speed up and boost your learning and gaining computer science knowledge skills faster from home.
1) Avoid using beginners’ computer training books to learn about computers.
The use of computer basics training books to learn how to use computers by beginners in this modern world is one of the main reasons why so many people still spend months and even years, just to gain simple PC knowledge skills faster on their own. This system still works but certainly not for any beginner who wants to learn PC skills faster from home without attending beginners training classes.
2) Make use of beginners’ video computer training lessons for learning about computers faster.
The use of PC training videos specifically designed for new computer users to learn how to use a computer is by far, the best way to gain computer knowledge skills faster from home. We all love to watch interesting movies, and we all keep good memories of any particular movie that interests us. So also will the memories of whatever computer science topic we learn while watching our video lessons will ever remain fresh in our minds till a long time to come.
3) Whenever Possible, use only beginners video lessons on DVDs and not on CDs for your studies.
Most people never care to give importance to the use of beginners PC training tutorials recorded on simple DVDs to learn computer basic skills from home. If you truly understand the great impact this simple trick could play with your learning about computers faster on your own, you’ll never have to overlook this particular point. If you choose to use training lessons on DVDs instead of CDs, you can as well watch and learn your basic PC knowledge skills from your home DVD player, while practicing at the same time on your computer (if you have one at home). This is a hidden aspect of learning any new skills faster on your own which most people fail to give much importance.
So in conclusion, if you want to move from a computer beginners training class faster and master all your beginners computer basic knowledge skills in a matter of day, make use of video tutorials preferably on DVDs and not on CDs to learn about computers faster from home. You can easily master all your PC basics in just a matter of days and soonest be the envy of your friends. Good luck with your burning desire to learn and move from your computer beginner class to a semi-professional PC user faster!
IRA Distribution Rules at Death: Critical Knowledge for Good Decisions
The distribution rules required at the death of an IRA owner depend on several things:
1. Did the IRA owner die before or after the “required beginning date”?
2. Who is the beneficiary?
In order to carry out the wishes of the IRA owner, evaluating both practical and estate planning implications of various decisions during the IRA owner’s life is essential. Important choices occur when the IRA owner makes his beneficiary election and, if married, by the spouse after the death of the IRA owner.
If you do not know the rules as they pertain to your choices, you are shooting in the dark. The wrong decision can cost money and likely cause the distribution of your IRA to be different than you would want.
Let’s make sure you know the rules of the game.
The first element is the required beginning date. For traditional IRAs, SEPs, SIMPLEs, this is Aril 1st of the year after turning 70 1/2. This rule does not apply to Roth IRAs, which have rules of their own.
There are several broad categories of beneficiaries:
1. The spouse.
2. A non-spouse beneficiary.
3. No beneficiary.
Let’s take each of these beneficiary elections and see how distributions are treated, depending on whether the IRA owner dies before or after the required beginning date.
The Spouse as Beneficiary
If the spouse is the only beneficiary, he or she can make an election that has a bearing on when the distributions must begin. The election is to treat the owner’s IRA as if it were their own.
Heads up: This election choice is unavailable if a trust is the beneficiary of the IRA, even if the spouse is the only beneficiary of the trust. A rollover may circumvent this problem.
If the IRA owner dies before the required beginning date, the spouse is the only beneficiary and the election made, the required distributions don’t have to begin until the IRA owner would have turned 70 1/2. The spouse would probably elect to apply this rule if the IRA owner was younger.
If the spouse elects not to be treated as the owner, the required minimum distributions (RMD) start right away and are based on the remaining life expectancy of the spouse. When the spouse dies, the distributions continue using the remaining life expectancy of the spouse.
If the IRA owner dies after the required distribution date and the spouse does not make the election, the distribution must be made over the life expectancy of the spouse; however, the life expectancy of the IRA owner can be used any year it is greater. Taking the attained age of the IRA owner at death and looking in a table determines the life expectancy. Then each year you subtract one. The point here is that the spouse needs to make a comparison every year to obtain the longest pay out.
The “takeaway” from this is that knowledge allows for good decisions. The best choice will depend on how old the IRA owner is when they die, the age of the spouse, health status and whether or not there are children or grandchildren to provide for in a distribution.
Non-Spouse Beneficiary
Distributions are required over the remaining life expectancy of the beneficiary if the IRA owner dies before the required beginning date. If there is more than one beneficiary, the oldest is used.
Heads up: Let’s say the IRA owner is a widow age 80. She names her sister, age 82, and her children, ages 55, 58 and 60 as beneficiaries. Her desire to help her sister causes the IRA to be distributed over the remaining life expectancy of an 82 year old–probably much quicker than desired.
If the IRA owner dies after the required beginning date, the distributions must be made over the longer of the remaining life expectancies of the owner or beneficiary.
No Beneficiary
If the IRA owner dies before the required beginning date, the entire IRA account must be paid out over five years.
If death occurs after the required distribution date, distributions simply continue over the remaining life expectancy of the IRA owner.
I think you can see there are a number of scenarios possible. When you combine this with the complexities of the IRA distribution rules, it makes good sense to sit down with your financial planner, tax attorney and accountant and make sure your IRA, SEP or SIMPLE IRA is coordinated with your estate plan and the most probable distribution pattern coincides with your desires.
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Therapeutic Communication in the Nursing Profession
Nursing is a caring profession. It is also a profession that is more and more evidenced based in practice. In as much as the scientific aspects of nursing is increasing due to the complex technological advancement of medicine and the machinery that is used at the patients bedside, the fact remains that the nurse is the first person that the client usually comes in contact with in any emergency or hospital setting.
Having said this, the term, “caring” is an essential emotion that all nurses, for that matter, all individuals in the health profession must possess. With caring comes the trained ability of the nurse to facilitate therapeutic communication. One might ask, what is therapeutic communication? To better answer this question, the term communication should first be defined.
Communication can be defined as “The Process of transmitting messages and interpreting meaning.” (Wilson and others, 1995) With therapeutic communication, the sender, or nurse seeks to illicit a response from the receiver, the patient that is beneficial to the patients mental and physical health. Just as stress has been proven to adversely affect the health of individuals, the therapeutic approach to communication can actually help. In any given situation everyone uses communication.
Everyone has seen the individual that looks like they are either angry, stressed, feeling ill or maybe sad. These emotions are communicated to others not always by words, but by gestures and facial expressions. A nurse must always be aware of these expressions in clients, for these expressions may be the only way that the nurse can tell if there is something else going on that needs their attention. The term given to this type of non-verbal communication is called, meta-communication. In meta-communication, the client may look at their amputated stump and say that it doesn’t really look that bad, while at the same time tears are rolling down from their eyes.
In a case such as this the nurse should stay and further explore how the person actually feels. There are many factors associated with the healing and comforting aspects of therapeutic communication. Circumstances, surroundings, and timing all play a role in the effect of therapeutic communication. If a client is being rushed down for an emergency surgery there might not be time for a bedside conversation, but the holding of a hand could convey much more than words to the client at such a moment.
Ideally, for therapeutic communication to be effective the nurse must be aware of how they appear to the client. If a nurse appears rushed, for example, they are speaking quickly, their countenance looks harried, and they are breathing heavily, their eyes not on the client but perhaps on an intravenous bag on the client in the next bed. In a case like this, there is nothing that this nurse could say to the client in a therapeutic manner that the client would believe. The helping relationship has not been established and therefore therapeutic communication cannot be facilitated. Some of the emotions associated with therapeutic communication include but are not limited to the following: Professionalism, Confidentiality, Courtesy, Trust, Availability, Empathy, and Sympathy. (Potter, Patricia A., Perry, Anne G., Co. 2003, Basic Nursing Essentials for Practice, pg. 123, Mosby)
All of these emotions go into the client nurse relationship, which must be established by the nurse as soon as possible upon first meeting the client. To begin to establish this nurse client relationship, the nurse must assess the overall message that the client is communicating to the nurse, such as fear, pain, sadness, anxiety or apathy. The nurse should be trained in keying into the message that the client is sending. Only then can the nurse determine the best therapeutic approach. Anyone that has to be thrust in to a hospital or emergency room environment has level of anxiety.
This level can go up considerably when the client feels that they have been abandoned or that there is no one there that really cares about how they feel. When a client is the recipient of therapeutic communication from a caring individual, a level of trust is achieved and more than, that the clients entire countenance can change for the better. Their blood pressure, respirations and levels of stress can simultaneously decrease. When this takes place, the management of pain, if any is involved, can be resolved more quickly. The goal for a nurse is to become proficient in the medical
Learn more about nursing education at The NET Study Guide.
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What to Expect on the GED Test – Improving Your Score
Before committing to a GED program, most students and adult learners want to know what to expect on the GED test, and whether the test is harder than the tests and exams they took in high school.
There’s no question about it — the GED test is hard. But according to graduates of the PassGED program, the test isn’t as hard as high school exams since classes focus on essential skills and relevant information. The emphasis of the GED tests is not on memorization, but on thinking skills and the application of practical knowledge.
So what’s the difference? Just consider how standard high school classes and courses work. Over weeks and months, a student covers lots of information and in most cases, must commit most of that information to memory. While quizzes and tests create a grade, and indicate how well a student is progressing through the material, the real test — or most important grade — results from mid-term and final exams. Students who have a tough time with memorization may not test or score well, especially if several weeks or months have passed since the information was covered.
And many students find it hard — or even tedious — to learn and remember information that doesn’t seem important or practical to their lives. For example, a history or social studies test may require that the student remember the date the Declaration of Independence was signed. The correct answer may not seem very relevant to everyday life, but could make the difference between a passing and failing grade.
The General Education Development test measures knowledge differently, and focuses on application skills. Like high school, it requires knowledge of social studies, science, basic algebra and geometry, reading and writing. But it’s not memory of knowledge that the test measures. It’s the use and application of it.
For some people – especially those who have relied on memorization skills in their education, GED testing can seem more difficult than high school. Generally, it’s easier to just memorize information than to know how to use it. For people who haven’t had much experience in making inferences, analyzing data, and making judgments, the GED test can seem difficult. But these skills are skills used everyday — balancing a checkbook, following a recipe … perhaps developing or following a new way of doing things at work. The thinking skills used for these everyday life events are the same ones required to earn the GED credential.
While most people already have these skills and use them daily, it’s important to sharpen them for the test. And some skills may need to be learned, or relearned. By following these four easy steps, a GED candidate can easily gain skills, reduce test difficulty and increase test scores.
1. Understand the Test: Get acquainted with the GED test structure; become more familiar with how test passages and questions are presented and the best way to find the right answer among five multiple-choice options. You’ll also want to review the essay section of the writing test, since your original essay is a major portion of the Language Arts – Writing Test score.
2. Practice First: Take some GED practice tests to gain knowledge of the test and to determine skill weaknesses and strengths. Pre-tests or practice tests can also help you plan a study guide and determine how much time and effort you’ll need to prepare for the GED.
3. Prepare: Enroll in a GED class, a GED study program, basic skills or GED test prep program. Most communities offer free or low-cost programs and classes through local community colleges, universities or high schools. Or you may opt for an online GED program, especially if your schedule, job or family obligations, or even finances make classes difficult. If you’re looking for an online GED program, you’ll want to shop, compare and read the fine print — lots of online companies offer fake diplomas or promise results that they can’t deliver.
4. Get Support: Find a community-based or workplace support group or study group that shares your goals, or an online learning community of GED students and instructors. You’ll get test advice, test-taking tips and learn about resources you’ll likely need. But most importantly, a support group or learning community will offer encouragement from people who want you to achieve your educational and career goals.
Here are some free GED resources for students, adult learners and instructors:
The American Council on Education, the US administrative agency for the GED, provides online information about testing, official test sites, GED scores, example test questions and GED transcripts. The website address for the ACE GED info is http://www.acenet.edu/AM/Template.cfm?Section=GEDTS/
PassGED is an online community with free resources and support for GED students, instructors and programs sponsored by businesses, nonprofits and government. Test advice, study guides, student support, financial aid and n online message board for students and teachers are available. The website is http://www.passGED.com
Ford Motor Company – Case Study
Background (General Facts)
Ford Motors is one of three leading automotive manufacturing companies in the United States. Based in Michigan in 1903 by Henry ford and grew to reach revenue of $150 billion and more than 370,000 employees by 1996 [1]. In the 1970′s, the automobile market for the major auto makers – General Motors (GM), Ford, and Chrysler- was crunched by competition from foreign manufactures such as Toyota and Honda. In 1999, Ford acquired the Swedish Volvo model in an attempt to compete in the foreign market and expand to other regions. Furthermore, Ford launched a full organization re-engineering business process plan called “Ford 2000″ aiming at reestablishing the company’s infrastructure. The process meant reduction in their Vehicle Centers (VCs) to only five covering the operations that spanned 200 countries. It also meant cutting redundancies and requiring Information Technology (IT) to be the driving force and the link between Ford centers worldwide.
In building Ford’s IT infrastructure, the company focused on implementing a setup that supported the TCP/IP communication protocol based on the U.S. department of Defense requirements. At those days, Ford internal network was meant to serve files transfer unlike most companies that used the network mainly for email communications. Throughout the 1990′s, Ford developed a cost effective Global Enterprise Network Integration (GENI) process to link all its locations compromising on the type of the connection and the cabling in favor of full coverage. During the same time, Ford started building its Web Farm, which was basically a set of hardware and software managed by a team for building Ford’s public website. The work started by publishing documents for technical references and moved to more advanced images from a live auto show. As a result, the website received 1 million visits a day in less than 2 years after its official launch. Throughout the end of the 90′s, Ford established its web services by increasing the amount of information published, building more intelligent and standard web application in 12 weeks period, purchasing more Netscape browsers for setup on its users’ machines, and creating a B2B server to allow the suppliers secured access to Ford’s Intranet.
In the path towards service cost reduction and bringing more business through the web, Ford worked closely with its competitors in the U.S. market GM and Chrysler to establish what came to be known as “Automotive Network Exchange” (ANX) certificate. The protocols aimed at providing a unified communications standard through the Internet to enable suppliers to provide common technology for all manufacturers. Moreover, Ford focused on making information on its web site more accessible and useful by deploying a team to manage the process of adding and updating information based on an analysis of how humans deal with information. One final aspect of Fords endeavor was to try to build a model through its infrastructure that benefited from the model implemented by Dell computers to improve their supply chain and delivery process. The direct model would not work well for automotives as it would with computers, as a result Ford worked on its retailing network remodeling and identifying what would eventually give it the extra edge in delivery time.
Enterprise Architecture Issues
Ford’s regional expansion to address the competition for market shares demanded cost management for the infrastructure upgrades
IT infrastructure places limitations on the type of application development based on the platforms
Easy access to information and prompt delivery of vital data to key individuals requires proper knowledge managementOrganizations reengineering and process remodeling is necessary when adapting new technologies to maintain the cost and increase efficiency
Supply chain errors and delays can severely affect the progress of the business and the market value of the corporation
Analysis
Infrastructure Upgrade
Since the inception of the Internet in the 1960′s, much effort has been made in standardizing how computers connect to it. In 1982, the International Organization for Standards (ISO) realized that during that period many ad hoc networking systems were already using the TCP/IP protocol for communications and thus adapted it as a standard in its model for the Internet network [2]. The main driver for IP convergence, at that period, was the growth in data traffic through wide area networks (WANs) established by local companies. Furthermore, in 1991, the Internet was open for commercial use, and that demanded a reduction in the total cost of operating the network to cope with 1 million Internet hosts that materialized in only 1-year time. Telecommunications companies like AT&T understood the potential and worked on standardizing the network offering voice services over IP networks that managed the separation between voice and data transmission [3].
At the same time, Ford had launched its plan to update its infrastructure, and seized the opportunity brought by the global movement of integrating the voice, fax transmission network with data transmission and expanded its WAN to include its offices in Europe and elsewhere. The financial benefits also came from the fact that Ford adapted the TCP/IP protocol from the beginning and made sure that all its technical infrastructure upgrades adhere to the standards. This made the transition of its system to the Internet as cost effective as it could be.
Web Technologies
Intranets employ the hypertext and multimedia technology used on the Internet. Prior to 1989, when Tim burners-Lee invented the Web [4], most applications used standard development languages such as C and C++ to create desktop applications that were proprietary and dependent on the platform. For example, applications running on a command-based operating system such as UNIX would not run under Windows, and those working for PCs might not work on Apple computers and vice versa [5]. The invention of HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language) introduced a new model for applications that conform to the standards provided by a single program, the “Web Browser”. Unlike standard applications, the browser brought a unified interface that had a very fast learning curve. Users seem to require no additional training to work with web browsers. Furthermore, system administrators did not have to spend time installing upgrades on users’ machines, since the Intranet client/server architecture facilitated all the updates through the connection with the web server [6].
Since Ford established its Intranet, it was aiming at building web applications through the initial analysis of “Mosaic”, the early form of web browsers. The technical department at Ford used web languages to create the first web site in 1995. In 1996, the team started building applications making use of the unified “Netscape” browser that was deployed on all machines at the company, and working on a standard template to cut on the development life cycle. There was a substantial cut in training cost due to the user-friendly interface of web applications. Furthermore, the speed of development made vital applications available to different individuals across the company. For example, the B2B site allowed suppliers remote and secured access to various sections of Ford’s Intranet. In addition, the development team created an application as a virtual teardown on Ford’s website where Ford’s engineers could examine parts of competitors’ cars and evaluate any new technologies. The alternative would have been an actual trip to a physical location where Ford tears down cars to examine the parts.
Knowledge Management
While there are many definitions for knowledge, each company might adapt its own based on how it analysis data and information to acquire knowledge. The University of Kentucky, for example, defines knowledge as “a vital organization resource. It is the raw material, work-in process, and finished good of decision-making. Distinct types of knowledge used by decision makers include information, procedures, and heuristics, among others… ” [7].
Organizations go through different activities to manage the amount of information they collect to form the knowledge base of the company. Activities include creating databases of best practices and market intelligence analysis, gathering filtering and classifying data, incorporating knowledge into business applications used by employees, and developing focal points for facilitating knowledge flow and building skills [8].
Ford was excited about the traffic it was receiving on the Web site and everyone was publishing all the material they have on desk on the Intranet. Nevertheless, there was a growing concern about the usability and usefulness of the material people were adding. As a result, Ford created a “Knowledge Domain Team” to build complete information in nine areas that were identified as vital to the business. The process Ford took was based on surveys and specialists input in how people perceive information, and what is considered vital and what is distracting in the structure of Ford’s website. The aim behind the initiative was to reduce the time individuals spent in searching for information through proper indexing of the website content, and making sure that what was important could be accessed in due time, and what is trivial did not overwhelm the researcher with thousands of results.
Business Re-engineering
In the area of organization’s re-engineering process innovation is the set of activities that achieve substantial business improvements. Companies seeking to benefit from process innovation go through the regime of identifying the processes, the factors for change, developing the vision, understanding the current process, and building a prototype for the new organization. History shows that organizations who define their processes properly will not have problems managing the issues and developing the change factors [9]. When introducing technology, business redesign is necessary. The industrial fields have been using Information Technology to remodel processes, control production, and manage material for generations. However, it is only recently that companies recognized that the fusion of IT and business would go beyond automation to fundamentally reshaping how business processes are undertaken [10].
When foreign companies were allowed to compete in the U.S. market, Ford understood that to succeed in business in a competitive arena it needed to implement strategies that competitors find difficult to imitate [11]. As a result, Ford bought Sweden Volvo to enter the European market, and partially owned Mazda to have a competitive edge with Japanese cars1 [12]. To achieve that it re-engineered its production development activities and global corporate organization and processes for dramatic cost reduction. Furthermore, it understood that expansion requires collaboration and alignment, and thus planned to establish the IT infrastructure through a WAN that connected all the offices. In the process of innovation and re-engineering, Ford has set policies to manage the cost of establishing the network, built models for continuous implementation, and organized global meetings to align all parties with the process. Adding to that, when it came to managing the website, Ford facilitated an awareness campaign for all the branches to understand that Ford is using the web to collaborate and research and adapting information technology as a way to maximize its business value. The goal for Ford was to maintain its leadership in the market and to do that in the most efficient and cost effective method that is there.
Supply chain management
Supply chain management (SCM) is about coordinating between suppliers, manufactures, distributors, retailers, and customers [13]. The basic idea that SCM applications revolve around is providing information to all those who are involved in making decisions about the product or goods to manage delivery from the supplier to the consumer [14]. Studies show that reducing errors in supply chain distribution, increases revenue, enhances productivity, and reduces the order-to-fulfillment period [15].
Ford often compared its supply chain process to that of Dell’s, in an attempt to close the gaps in its own process and reach the level of success Dell has reached. The difference in the distribution model between Dell and Ford lies in the middle link of using retail shops. Since Ford cannot skip retail as a focal distribution point, it worked on establishing a network of retail shops that it owned. Ford made sure shops are not affecting each other in terms of sales, and gave them all a standard look and feel to establish itself in the consumer’s market as a prestigious cars sales retail company. Furthermore, extensive re-engineering initiatives were undertaken to enhance Ford external network by eliminating the correlation with smaller suppliers. In that way, Ford made sure that key suppliers have access to forecasting data from customers’ purchasing trends and production information to enable a faster order-to-delivery cycle. Ford vision was to create a model that allowed flexibility, predicable processes and delivered the product at the right time to the right consumer.
Conclusions
Ford is an example of how traditional organizations can mature to adapt what is current and maximizes the business value. The process that Ford went through necessitated the continuous support from management. In addition, it depended on alignment between those involved as a key for success. The correlation was not restricted to internal staff; it extended to cover competitors to reach mutual benefits, to work with suppliers to maintain similar grounds and adequate infrastructure, and to create training programs to educate all on the vision and organization’s objectives.
Ford technical progress came at a time where the Internet was yet to reach its full potential. The introduction of Fiber-optic cables in the late 90′s and the substantial increase in bandwidth would have helped Ford and cut on the cost in endured connecting its own offices. Furthermore, the ISP services that provided hosting servers were limited to only few players, which explained why Ford preferred to manage its own web server and maintain the overhead of the 24 hours uptime and backup.
From this case study, I understood the level of commitment large firms have to maintaining their position in the market. These companies know the revolving nature of business in the sense of how easy it is to fall back if they did not keep up with the change. The Ford process also shows the need for quick and resourceful thinking when faced with situations that might seem to be unfavorable. The way Ford ventured into the foreign market by acquiring local manufacturers was a strategic decision that did not only enabled Ford to merge with different technologies, but it also saved it the additional cost of establishing production centers in Japan and Europe.
Recommendations
Maintaining leadership in the market requires innovative organizations willing to reengineer to succeed.
IT fusion with the business means restructuring and remodeling to understand the role IT would play to meet the business objectives
Planning and modeling is vital when coordinating work with large teams.
Constructing websites is not about content; it is about understanding what adds value and how humans interact with information.
Knowledge management is a plan that companies need to develop as part of their initial business process modeling
It is not wrong for large firms to try to adapt to successful processes implemented by other firms.
References
Robert D. Austin and Mark Cotteleer,”Ford Motor Co.: Maximizing the Business Value of Web Technologies.” Harvard Business Publishing. July 10, 1997. harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b02/en/common/item_detail.jhtml;jsessionid=WDARNHINBSYKSAKRGWCB5VQBKE0YOISW?id=198006 (accessed July 30, 2008).
Computer History Museum, Internet History 80′s. 2006. computerhistory.org/internet_history/internet_history_80s.shtml (accessed July 30, 2008).
Darren Wilksch and Peter Shoubridge, “IP Convergence in Global Telecommunications.” Defense Science & Technology Organization. March 2001. http://www.dsto.defence.gov.au/publications/2400/DSTO-TR-1046.pdf (accessed July 30, 2008).
Computer History Museum, Internet History 80′s.
H. Joseph Wen, “From client/server to intranet.” Information Management & Computer Security (MCB UP Ltd) 6, no. 1 (1998): 15-20.
R. Boutaba, K. El Guemioui, and P. Dini, “An outlook on intranet management.” Communications Magazine (IEEE), October 1997: 92-99.
Joseph M. Firestone, Enterprise Information Portals and Knowledge Management (OXFORD: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2002), 169.
David J. Skyrme, “Knowledge management solutions – the IT contribution.” ACM SIGGROUP Bulletin (ACM) 19, no. 1 (April 1998): 34 – 39, 34.
Thomas H. Davenport, Process Innovation: Reengineering Work Through Information Technology (Watertown,MA: Harvard Business Press, 1993), 28.
Thomas H. Davenport “The New Industrial Engineering: Information Technology and Business Process Redesign.” Sloan Management Review 31, no. 4 (Summer 1990): 11-28, 12
Gary M. Erickson, Robert Jacobson, and Johny K. Johansson, “Competition for market share in the presence of strategic invisible assets: The US automobile market, 1971-1981.” International Journal of Research in Marketing (Elsevier Science) 9, no. 1 (March 1992): 23-37, 23.
Austin and Cotteleer, “Ford Motor ” , 2.
Henk A. Akkermans, et al. “The impact of ERP on supply chain management: Exploratory findings from a European Delphi study.” European Journal of Operational Research 146 (2003): 284-301, 286
Thomas H. Davenport and Jeffrey D. Brooks, “Enterprise systems and the supply chain.” Journal of Enterprise Information Management 17, no. 1 (2004): 8-19, 9.
Kevin B. Hendricks, Vinod R. Singhal, and Jeff K. Stratman. “The impact of enterprise systems on corporate performance:A study of ERP, SCM, and CRM system implementations.” Journal of Operations Management 25, no. 1 (January 2007): 65-82.
The Importance of Entrepreneurs
In the newly-elected New Labour Government which swept into power in 1997, the new mantra for economic renewal emanating from the then Iron Chancellor, Gordon Brown, was one of enterprise, enterprise and even more enterprise, to turn Britain into an economy driven by the entrepreneurial nature of its citizens well-versed in how to make money. In the government white paper, “Our Competitive Future: Building the Knowledge Driven Economy”, the economic aims of the new Labour administration were made absolutely clear: “Entrepreneurship and innovation are central to the creative process in the economy and to promoting growth, increasing productivity and creating jobs. Entrepreneurs sense opportunities and take risks in the face of uncertainty to open new markets, design products and develop innovative processes”.
Nowhere was this zeitgeist more clearly defined than in the advent of the dot.com revolution, with its young instant (New Labour-supporting) paper millionaires using technology to create the companies of tomorrow. The convergence of a new creative and innovative government, combined with the explosion in the possibilities for business and consumer use of the internet, was New Labour’s equivalent of Harold Wilson’s “White Heat of a second industrial revolution” thirty five years earlier. We had a Labour Administration introducing specific policy interventions to encourage enterprising behaviour, including programs for spin-offs within the university sector, financial inducements for entrepreneurs to invest in smaller innovative ventures, and the encouragement of share ownership by employees within smaller firms. This overshadowed anything previously introduced under Howe, Lawson, Lamont or Clarke during the various Conservative budgets of the 1980s and 1990s.
The last few years has seen entrepreneurial behaviour becoming increasingly acceptable within business life in the UK. Today, entrepreneurs are no longer relegated to the caricatures of Mike Baldwin, Arthur Daley and Del-Boy. In enterprising Britain, the majority of school children wish to become an owner-manager at some stage of their lives, dream of fortunes to be made from the Internet and name Richard Branson, the UK’s premier entrepreneurial personality, as the person to whom they aspire.
There was, as there always had been, a suspicion of the term ‘enterprise’, given the long history of exploitation by the entrepreneurs of the slate, iron and coal industries, the legacy of which still lived on in the hearts and minds of many of the population of industrial Britain. The mere association of the term ‘enterprise culture’ with the Thatcher era meant that entrepreneurs, and their development, were anathema to many policy-makers and politicians. However, led by the current Government’s love affair with entrepreneurs, a number of significant events have occurred that have begun to change the previously hostile attitudes towards enterprise.
There was the realization that we could not continue with the policy of concentrating much of our industrial expenditure on attracting inward investment. It has not been the actual policy of inward investment which has been problematic, rather the lack of targeting which meant that new jobs were more important than any other strategic consideration, such as the type of employment created, the sectors attracted, and the future of those industries in a quickly globalising economy.
While our neighbours in Ireland were busy attracting internationally-traded services in the financial and software sectors, we were begging companies in the maturing (and highly competitive) sectors such as automotive and consumer electronics to bring branch plant jobs, then repeated the same mistakes with call-centres. Whilst individuals spinning off from companies such as Microsoft and Intel were creating a vibrant indigenous Irish software sector, assembly workers in the UK continued to, well, assemble. All this while highly skilled (and highly paid workers) within the financial and software sectors in Dublin were demanding better restaurants, shops and leisure facilities, creating countless opportunities for local entrepreneurs.
Although we have previously looked to inward investors as the main source of new jobs, in many other regions the main contribution of the small firm to their economies lies in the creation of new employment opportunities. This began with work by David Birch in the United States during the late 1970s, who demonstrated that large firms, despite their influence on the volume and nature of world trade, could not be regarded as the major source of new jobs. Instead, this role had now fallen to the small firm, with Birch estimating that firms with less than 20 employees had generated 66 per cent of net new jobs in the United States.
At the time, these findings were hard to believe for a number of reasons. They contradicted the assumptions of most businesses and governments during the 1960s and 1970s that healthy big business meant a healthy economy, predominantly because of the assumed efficiency of large firms through the use of economies of scale to keep down costs. As a result, doubts were raised about the policies (pursued by Western governments of all political persuasion) of encouraging mergers between companies to form large corporations, keeping afloat large companies in trouble, and attracting large firms to economically depressed areas, all of which were seen as possibly an expensive and inefficient way of creating employment (although clearly this did not stop such policies being implemented in the UK during the last twenty years).
It was mainly as a result of the Birch study that many governments regarded small firms during the 1980s as the panacea for high unemployment during times of recession. This was illustrated most clearly in the United States: although 34 million jobs were lost in the period 1980 to 1986, 44.7 million new jobs were created, with 32 million of these being generated from the birth of new businesses. During the recessionary period of 1980-82, small firms provided almost all of the new jobs in the US economy.
Similarly, in the European Community, large firms experienced employment loss in nearly every member state, whilst employment by small firms grew considerably. According to data from the European Observatory, SMEs accounted for 68 million jobs in the European Community in 1995, with large firms employing approximately 35 million people. Many of the smaller businesses were set up with the considerable support of governments, which had moved towards abandonment of expensive policies aimed at propping up large firms in industrially depressed areas. Instead, various incentives were being targeted at the small firm sector to encourage new firm formation as the more cost-effective antidote to the shedding of jobs by larger organizations.
Apart from the creation of employment, small firms play another important role by providing a productive outlet for enterprising and independent individuals, some of whom may be frustrated under-achievers in a larger, more controlled environment. Companies as diverse as the Ford Motor Company and Microsoft were started by creative individuals who perceived an opportunity in the market-place and, using a small company as a vehicle for their ideas, grew rapidly into international giants.
Small firms also have close symbiotic relationships with larger companies. Although large firms, through their economies of scale in production and distribution, contribute greatly to a thriving market economy, many of them could not survive without the existence of small companies. As well as selling most of the products made by large manufacturers direct to consumers, small firms provide large businesses with many of the services and supplies they require to run a competitive business. It is estimated that about 500 small suppliers and distributors and about 3000 retailers support each major manufacturing firm in the US. The largest industrial company in the world, General Motors, buys from more than 30,000 suppliers, most of which are small companies, and spends more than half of each sales dollar on purchases from small firm suppliers.
One of the main factors in the remarkable success of Japanese industry over the last decade has been the contribution of small businesses, with the high degree of international competitiveness being achieved through the creation of a strong subcontracting system, which has combined the flexibility of small firms with the economies of scale and market power of larger organisations. Without the close relationship that exists between small subcontractors and the large industrial conglomerates, the Japanese economy would not have progressed to its powerful industrial position today.
Small firms have also become important for technological innovation within developed economies, with research demonstrating their valuable contribution to technological innovation within a number of high technology industrial sectors, usually those characterized by fast changing markets, low capital intensity and small dependence on economies of scale. Such markets are thus better suited to smaller firms, due to the entrepreneurial nature and lack of bureaucracy in decision-making within such organizations. For example, comprehensive research into the relationship between firm size and the level of innovation in the UK has revealed that small firms’ share of innovations had increased by over 50 per cent since 1945 and now accounts for over a quarter of the total number of innovations in the UK.
Moreover, in certain sectors, such as computing services and scientific instruments, their contribution is highly significant, with small companies developing the majority of innovative products and processes. Indeed, within such ‘knowledge-intensive’ sectors of the economy, small firms have accounted for nearly all of the employment growth during the 1980s and 1990s. In addition, a number of studies show that technologically innovative SMEs in the UK have a higher-than-average growth in assets, retained profits and exports, lower closure rates than businesses in other sectors and have demonstrated high degrees of resilience, especially in times of recession.
Clearly, while small firms have been important in the past, this seems set to continue and grow in the future. For example, many of our business and consumer markets have changed to essentially reflect the strengths of smaller firms. In today’s business climate, economies of scale are no longer important as 20th Century standardization has disappeared in favour of 21st century consumer sophistication and business specialization. In many cases, small firms, with faster reaction times and closeness to the market-place, are perfectly placed to deal with an environment where businesses require specialist support and consumers demand customized products and services. Clearly, the age of Ford’s ‘any colour of car as long as it’s black’ has been consigned to the dustbin of industrial history as the small firm, whose decline was forecast only thirty years ago, drives forward today’s economies.
But the short-term nature of much of the funding for business support initiatives without co-ordinated dissemination of best practice, and the fragmentation of business support services with limited entrepreneurial content, means that the time is right for an overall national strategy for entrepreneurship. We sincerely hope that Entrepreneur Secrets will be at the forefront of this strategy.