The collapse of Barings Bank
Mr. Lesson was accused of losing 1.3 billon dollars as a result of a risky derivative investment with the potential of a 27-billon gain. The collapse of Barings Bank in 1995 has been one of the most spectacular events in the banking world in recent years. Banks solvency and liquidity can be significantly threatened if speculative trading in financial derivatives is guided by a lack of adequate internal and external controls. There is evidence that such reasons are responsible for the failure of Barings in February 1995.
Offering stock options to employees
Recently, many multi-national companies, such as Cisco and Yahoo, stimulate the employees’ morale by offering stock options to their employees. Stock option provides a chance for employees to become the shareholders of the company. As the result, the interest and profit of the company is tightly connected with the employees’ interest and income.
PRP contracts
Many firms adopt “Profit-Related-Pay” contracts (PRP contracts) and pay wages at levels that vary with firms’ profits. Many studies suggest that firms adopting PRP contracts show productivity per worker higher than that of their competitors who used more traditional contracts. The reason behind is that PRP contracts greatly change individual workers’ relationships to the firm, connecting their interest with firms’ interest.
The need for communication and coordination
The greater the division of labor in an economy, the greater the need for communication and coordination. This is because increased division of labor entails a larger number of specialized producers, which results in a greater number of disruptions of supply and production.
Hiring applicants with broad background
An employer looking for long-term employees may be better served by hiring applicants with broad background. By way of their more general education, these applicants have acquired a variety of general and transferable skills. They may be more suitable than their business-background colleagues to solve general management problems, deal with business associates from different cultures and view issues at a variety of aspects. In general, the employees with broad background can accustom to changes more quickly than their business-majored colleagues.
Daimler Chrysler
Daimler Chrysler, one of the most successful automobile companies in the world, contributes significantly to the local employment of Stuttgart, Germany.
Philip Morris
Philip Morris, the largest tobacco company in the world, has been sued by government and many other groups for producing products that are harmful to health. The fines and legal fees that have resulted from the legal attacks against the company have cost the company substantial amounts of money.
Bayer
Bayer, one of the largest pharmaceutic companies in the world, announced that the company would cease production of one of its major products, because of the hazardous ingredients it contained. By doing so, the company suffers great loss on profitability, but gains strong public support and understanding, which can contribute to the long-term success of the company.
Mitsubishi Motors
Mitsubishi Motors had concealed significant defects in the break system of Pajero, one of the company’s major products, before apologized to public. Hundreds of car accidents were directly caused by the break error. Thus, the company suffered a great goods return, losing not only the market share but also the confidence of consumers.
Henry Ford
Henry Ford’s factory was so efficient that by 1926 a new “model-T” cost only $310, one-third the price of the original 1908 model.
Toshiba
Discriminating services may cause misunderstanding and unpleasant result. The best example is Toshiba, one of the largest Japanese companies. In 2000, the Company announced that among notebook computers it produced, one model had serious defect. Users in North America could choose either replacements with an upgraded model or full refund. However, no such offer for users in China. Chinese users were outrage at the company’s discrimination and refused to use any of Toshiba’s notebook computers. What the company lost is not only the temporary revenue but also the consumer’s confidence, which contribute to the long-term success of the company.
The goal of private corporation
Compared with government officers, private corporation managers must pay more attention to efficiency and effectiveness of their decisions. Normally, maximizing profitability is not the primary goal of government owned enterprises and governmental planning, so that many unrealistic decisions may be resulted. It is the hidden reason that many government owned enterprises become profitable after the privatizations.
SEGA
Traditionally, the first firm to commercialize a new technology has benefited from unique opportunity to shape product definitions, forcing followers to adapt to a standard or invest in an unproven alternative. Today, however, the largest payoffs may go to companies that lead in developing integrated approaches for successful mass production and distribution. For example, SEGA, producer of Saturn, was the first company to develop home video game machine commercially, but Sony Entertainment INC., producer of Play Station, proved to be more successful at forming strategic alliance with other producers and distributors to manufacture and market its hardware and software. Because consumers had more choices on Play Station’s games, they seldom bought SEGA Saturn. By the end of the 1990’s, Play Station dominated the home video game market while SEGA Saturn was no longer in production.
Financial and Economic Crisis
The financial crash of October 1987 and the Asia Economic Crisis in 1998 demonstrate that the world’s capital markets are more closely integrated than ever before and that events in one part of the global village may be transmitted to the rest of the village—almost instantaneously.
AutomationThe fact that in many corporations employees are being replaced by automated equipment in order to save money does not mean our lives are becoming worse. After all, it is the automation that boosts the industrial revolution, which in turn, creates thousands of hundreds more positions than in the past. If the corporations cannot improve its profitability, many more people will lost their jobs ultimately.
International economic environment
As the economic role of multinational, global corporations expands, the international economic environment will be shaped increasingly not by governments or international institutions, but by the interaction between governments and global corporations.
CSR policy
Traditionally, people think that companies are set up for making profit, not for saving our planet. Today, however, more and more multinational companies adopt the Corporate Social Responsibility Policy (CSR policy). These companies pay more attention to the social problems, from employee minimum wage to environment issues. On the one hand, these companies do not want people to protest in front of the office buildings; on the other hand, a good public image does help the companies promote their products to consumers.
Interview
The interview is an essential part of a successful firing program because with it, job applicants who have personalities that are unsuited to the requirements of the job will be eliminated from consideration.
制度
One need look no further than the collapse of Enron, once the biggest energy firm in America.
Skilling, the former CEO of Enron, encouraged the employees to take action without notifying their bosses. Gradually, the employees tended to be in defiance of the normal company regulations, and could freely, maybe arbitrarily, do as they wished to, leaving the authorities of the managers in the dust. Obviously, when the behaviors of the employees were out of control, the efficiencies of the companies would be lowered.
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