Customer Development Model Understanding Company Building

Customer Development Model Understanding Company Building WHAT IS COMPANY BUILDING?Company building occurs only at the end of the Customer Development model. This is when the business can transition from a startup that is focused on learning and discovery into a fully-fledged business. This business will include formal departments and a scaled business development model. It is only at the end of the Customer Development model when a company can begin to appoint departments that potentially include a Vice President of Sales or a Vice President of Marketing.When these departments have been opened, the executives that lead then can move away from a learning and discovery methodology and towards a mission-oriented method. This mission-oriented method helps the company exploit the information that it validated during the first three steps of the Customer Development model.The reason that company building occurs now is because your startup needs to understand its place among its customer and in its market. If you build your company too quickly, t he end result is often burning through all of your cash. Without cash or the knowledge you would have gained in the first three steps, it is nearly impossible to save your company from self-imposed destruction.To begin to build a company from an organization that is learning about customers and markets into a company that is attracting mainstream customers, you will need to do three things:You will need to begin to build your mainstream customer base that extends beyond the initial early adopters.You will need to ensure that this building also occurs within the company. You need to build the management, organization and company culture to support your new growth.You will need to create departments that are nimble enough to respond quickly to the company’s growth. The goal is to have formal departments that can pivot and turn as quickly as you did during the learning and discovery phases that preceded company building.At the end of the day, company building is only successful if it is consistently flexible. Once it begins drawing in its mainstream customer base, it cannot become complacent. It must remain as flexible and alert as it was before it began to grow.Watch this talk of Steve Blank discussing how to build a company. BUILDING A MAINSTREAM CUSTOMER BASEIt sometimes seems like the only difference between your startup and your competitors established business is revenue. This is not true. Your revenue does not just come from a large number of sales. It comes from understanding your business, marketing and sales strategies within the market context that you operate in.These strategies should all be based on the Market Type that you focused on in customer creation. New market sales growth is distinctively different to sales growth in an existing market. Even when you have moved beyond customers and into the mainstream market, you will still see different rates of adoption because of the nature of the market.As a result, everything you do in this stage depe nds on your market type. The staff you hire and the money you spend will depend on the market you are in. But understanding your market type does not necessarily mean that your work is over.If you followed the model correctly, you determined your market by seeking out early adopters for your product. But the transition between selling to early adopters and selling to a mainstream market is not as fluid as you might assume. There is almost always a gap between the early adopters and the mainstream market. This gap will vary depending on the market type that you are in.BUILDING THE COMPANY’S INFRASTRUCTURE TO SCALEAs sales grow, the company itself will need to grow with it. Growth rarely occurs without change. Two of the most important changes that will occur in the company building phase include a change in the corporate management and corporate culture. There is also change that comes from the creation of functioning departments.The first changes will occur in the corporate manage ment of the company. The management changes should also include a development of company culture. Many startups think of company culture in terms of whether or not they should wear jeans to work. They assume that as they grow, they must then turn into a top-down large scale operation with an execution mindset.This is a problem because it often results in a bureaucracy being established far too early. Just because you are mimicking a large, successful company does not mean that you are one. This is actually dangerous. Imposing this kind of change before a company has grown can actually inhibit its growth. If you tried to do this when you initially started the company, the company would have never been able to get off the ground. The change that occurs here is the change discussed earlier. This is where the company begins to adopt a mission-centric culture.In a mission-centric culture, all of the new leaders and executives that you have appointed must realize that the work is not yet complete. At this point, the mainstream market is still an uncertain place. Focusing on organization over the mission itself can stifle the innovation, creativity and mobility that you need to not just mimic a large business but to become one.The second changes will occur when you create functional departments to support the management. These departments are important because it is important to divide up labor at this point in the company. However, these departments should not just be created because you believe that every good company needs them. At this stage, it is important to create the departments that make the most sense for your business. When you do this, you will help ensure that these departments are not only functional but helpful for your business.THE STAGES BETWEEN A STARTUP AND LARGE COMPANYIn his book, Steve Blank created an outline that described how companies transform from startups to large organizations. There are three primary stages in this outline: Customer De velopment, Company Building and Large Company.Stage One: Customer DevelopmentStage one is the stage where a startup will undertake the first three phases of the Customer Development model: customer discovery, customer validation and customer creation. This stage focuses on both customer development and product development.Stage Two: Company BuildingStage two is the company building phase of the Customer Development model. This is, again, where the company moves form the learning and discovery activities and becomes a mission-centric organization.To make the leap between company building to becoming a large company, you have to maintain the speed you has a startup but with a larger number of staff.In order to do this, the mission of the company must remain clear.This is why installing a top-down management system or a bureaucracy in a company too early can be bad for the company. You can hire as many staff as you can afford. But if they are not all working towards the same goals via the mission, you will struggle to keep your forward motion.You will find that you get bogged down in a process heavy infrastructure instead. Creativity and innovation can be strangled by bureaucracy if you are not careful. This is why you need to make sure that the organization that you have built thus far is justified.Stage Three: Large CompanyThis stage is about building departments. But you need to justify the department’s existence with your mission before you build it. There needs to be a clear and strategic need for a role or department before you add it.Building a large company does not mean that you need to replicate a model. You need to build a company that makes sense for your mission. In this case, your mission serves as your strategy.The difference between a large company and a startup is not bureaucracy. It is process. Many entrepreneurs believe that you do not need a process for innovation or success. But a process is necessary for building a large company.Instead of building a company from a cookie cutter outline, entrepreneurs can build “fast-response” departments. These departments offer a process without the stagnation that becomes characteristic of a tangled bureaucracy or a top-down management system.These “fast-response” departments allow you to keep the speed and agility of your early days. Yet, it still allows you to keep the organization and process that any large company needs.THE FOUR PHASES OF COMPANY BUILDINGAll of what you read so far can be broken down into four succinct phases of company building. Each of these four phases are necessary for the successful transformation of a startup into a large company. It is important to keep both the mission and the process in mind as you move through each of these four steps.Phase One: Reach Out to Your Mainstream CustomersIn the first phase of company building, you are working to adapt from selling only to early adopters to your mainstream customers. You will do this by hiring new sales staff according to the sales growth curve that you are experiencing.You also need to notice the subtle and distinct differences between your early adopters and your mainstream customers.For example, most early adopters want an immediate solution to a difficult problem. They are more often than not looking for a revolutionary solution to their problems. They will be able to withstand minor flaws in the product, as long as it does its job.These early adopters will also rely on other early adopters for advice regarding products and solutions.Mainstream customers, however, are pragmatists. They have a problem. But they do not want to be disrupted by a revolutionary solution. Instead, they look for evolutionary solutions. They do not want minor flaws. They want use to be straightforward, simple and reliable.Mainstream customers rarely have any interest in what early adopters have to say about a product. They want reviews and references from other buyers who are just like them. In o ther words, they want to hear from other pragmatists.Reaching out to your mainstream customers is an essential part of company building. It can be easy to get comfortable with a small group of loyal, early adopters. In fact, it may feel more satisfying to have a small number of customers that you know that you can count on.The problem is that you can and will eventually exhaust this market. It is important to remember that they are visionaries. They are always looking for the next big thing. Holding their attention for very long is a Herculean feat.Adopting your strategy to pull in mainstream customers is an important part not only of company building but of survival. It requires that you take more risks. However, these risks are not as scary as they sound.The far bigger risk is not trying to understand how to reach the main market or, even worse, seeing the main market but neglecting to adopt your sales strategy.Phase Two: Review Your Current Management and Create Your MissionIn th e second phase, you will take a hard look at the staff you have hired thus far. It is important to determine whether the staff you have can grow to scale. This does not mean assessing whether you have enough people, per say. It means that you need to be sure that everyone is working seamlessly on the same mission.This unity is essential for scaling your company. You can hire as many people as you can afford. But if everyone in your company is running in a different direction, they will seriously hinder your growth.This phase requires that you do something that you have rarely done thus far on your journey. In phase two, it is important that you look inward at your company.To do this, you will often ask the board of your company to review both the CEO and the executive staff that you have appointment.What you need to succeed during this phase of your company is not charisma. You need leaders who are pragmatic, resilient and agile. They must be able to see clearly enough to not only c reate a compelling vision but to find their way down a path according to that vision.What distinguishes this revision is not looking at the staff’s track record. This review needs to focus on the future. It must look at what the leaders of the company are capable of in the future.In some cases, past successes actually indicate future failures. It is important to distinguish this before these failures happen.When you know that you have the right people, you can then begin to focus on growing company culture.This culture includes stating your corporate mission which consists of four main elements:Your mission needs to state what your employees are working for.Your mission needs to state what they are supposed to be doing while they are at work.Your mission needs to state how your employees will know that they have succeeded.Your mission needs to describe both your revenue goals and your profit goals.Phase Three: Begin Your Transition to Functioning DepartmentsPhase three allows you to begin to use all of the learning that you did in the first three steps of the Customer Development model. By now, you will know a lot about building repeatable sales. You will also have knowledge about your channel roadmaps.The reason that this stage comes third in the process is because you need good people on your side in order to implement it correctly. You cannot scale without the right people in place.This is where you begin to set up your departments according to your mission statement and your strategy. Remember that having a process and a mission is key for setting up departments. Arbitrary departments waste time and burn money.Before these departments take shape, you must state what these departments do. This means that you need to create and write down goals for each department.A great way to do this is to create another mission statement for each of your departments. These mission statements should complement the overall mission statement. However, they should be finel y adapted to each specific department.You can find some insights on the benefits and how to structure your organisation in the following slides.[slideshare id=12597292doc=strategicorganizationaldesign-120418220355-phpapp02w=710h=500]Phase Four: Maintain Your Moment with Agile DepartmentsIn the last part of company building, you will ensure that everything that you have built thus far is agile, scaled and capable of being a “fast-response” department.There is nothing worse than creating a department that must answer to another department. Especially when the second department must wait for an answer from someone else who makes the “big decision”. This is incredibly dangerous for any company that is trying to grow.This is sometimes referred to as “executive leadership”. Admittedly, this works for some companies. But as a general rule, employees on the ground often make better decisions than executives who are detached from the daily situation on the ground.To combat this, you want to create a culture that is mission oriented. You also want a decentralized management style that does not rely on a seal of approval from the CEO in order to make small decisions.This management style will speed up decision making. In turn, it will allow the company to operate in a “fast-response” and agile manner. These are both of the things that you are working for at this point in your growth.You also want to work on creating a culture that values information gathering and sharing. This culture should naturally also be a culture that promotes leadership.This is because success it not just determined on the information that executives find. You need the whole company to be working for information and solutions.All of this comes down to creating a culture in which people trust each other. The executives must trust their employees in order for employees to trust to executives. It is only when there is mutual trust and cooperation that true leadership can really happen .Finally, you must remember that while the formal learning process is over, you are never really done learning. If you want to continue to grow successfully, learning will be an ongoing process for your company.Staying Alive after Customer DevelopmentThe Customer Development model is a pathway to success for many businesses. But not every business that successfully completes the model manages to see long-term growth or success.To make it out of the Customer Development model alive, you need to remain alert and focused. You need to make sure that your company responds to changes in your market, customer and competition.Companies that become stagnant are companies that fail. Waiting too long can make you irrelevant in your market and can change your customer’s perception. This can be a death sentence in today’s markets. The only thing that is constant in your company should be change and your reaction to change.In order to be successful both in business and in life, entrepreneurs must realize that success is not a condition. Success is a process. Rather than searching for an end point on a map, a successful company will mark milestones along a path that only ends should the company be dissolved.CONCLUSION In the first three steps of the Customer Development model, you focused on learning more about your customers and validating your assumptions. You then learned how to capture some early customers in order to prepare yourself for creating your market and your product demand. All of this was absolutely essential for moving into the final phase of the Customer Development model: company building.Company building is the final step of Blank’s process for a reason. When the majority of businesses begin the company building phase before they have understood their markets and their customers, chaos ensues. This chaos then results in a death spiral for too many startups. Based on Customer Development Model created by Steve BlankIn this article, we explore 1) what company building is, 2) how to build a  mainstream customer base, 3) building companys infrastructure to scale, 4) the stages between a startup and large company,  and 5) the four phases of company building.WHAT IS COMPANY BUILDING?Company building occurs only at the end of the Customer Development model. This is when the business can transition from a startup that is focused on learning and discovery into a fully-fledged business. This business will include formal departments and a scaled business development model. It is only at the end of the Customer Development model when a company can begin to appoint departments that potentially include a Vice President of Sales or a Vice President of Marketing.When these departments have been opened, the executives that lead then can move away from a learning and discovery methodology and towards a mission-oriented method. This mission-oriented meth od helps the company exploit the information that it validated during the first three steps of the Customer Development model.The reason that company building occurs now is because your startup needs to understand its place among its customer and in its market. If you build your company too quickly, the end result is often burning through all of your cash. Without cash or the knowledge you would have gained in the first three steps, it is nearly impossible to save your company from self-imposed destruction.To begin to build a company from an organization that is learning about customers and markets into a company that is attracting mainstream customers, you will need to do three things:You will need to begin to build your mainstream customer base that extends beyond the initial early adopters.You will need to ensure that this building also occurs within the company. You need to build the management, organization and company culture to support your new growth.You will need to create departments that are nimble enough to respond quickly to the company’s growth. The goal is to have formal departments that can pivot and turn as quickly as you did during the learning and discovery phases that preceded company building.At the end of the day, company building is only successful if it is consistently flexible. Once it begins drawing in its mainstream customer base, it cannot become complacent. It must remain as flexible and alert as it was before it began to grow.Watch this talk of Steve Blank discussing how to build a company. BUILDING A MAINSTREAM CUSTOMER BASEIt sometimes seems like the only difference between your startup and your competitors established business is revenue. This is not true. Your revenue does not just come from a large number of sales. It comes from understanding your business, marketing and sales strategies within the market context that you operate in.These strategies should all be based on the Market Type that you focused on in customer crea tion. New market sales growth is distinctively different to sales growth in an existing market. Even when you have moved beyond customers and into the mainstream market, you will still see different rates of adoption because of the nature of the market.As a result, everything you do in this stage depends on your market type. The staff you hire and the money you spend will depend on the market you are in. But understanding your market type does not necessarily mean that your work is over.If you followed the model correctly, you determined your market by seeking out early adopters for your product. But the transition between selling to early adopters and selling to a mainstream market is not as fluid as you might assume. There is almost always a gap between the early adopters and the mainstream market. This gap will vary depending on the market type that you are in.BUILDING THE COMPANY’S INFRASTRUCTURE TO SCALEAs sales grow, the company itself will need to grow with it. Growth rarel y occurs without change. Two of the most important changes that will occur in the company building phase include a change in the corporate management and corporate culture. There is also change that comes from the creation of functioning departments.The first changes will occur in the corporate management of the company. The management changes should also include a development of company culture. Many startups think of company culture in terms of whether or not they should wear jeans to work. They assume that as they grow, they must then turn into a top-down large scale operation with an execution mindset.This is a problem because it often results in a bureaucracy being established far too early. Just because you are mimicking a large, successful company does not mean that you are one. This is actually dangerous. Imposing this kind of change before a company has grown can actually inhibit its growth. If you tried to do this when you initially started the company, the company would h ave never been able to get off the ground. The change that occurs here is the change discussed earlier. This is where the company begins to adopt a mission-centric culture.In a mission-centric culture, all of the new leaders and executives that you have appointed must realize that the work is not yet complete. At this point, the mainstream market is still an uncertain place. Focusing on organization over the mission itself can stifle the innovation, creativity and mobility that you need to not just mimic a large business but to become one.The second changes will occur when you create functional departments to support the management. These departments are important because it is important to divide up labor at this point in the company. However, these departments should not just be created because you believe that every good company needs them. At this stage, it is important to create the departments that make the most sense for your business. When you do this, you will help ensure t hat these departments are not only functional but helpful for your business.THE STAGES BETWEEN A STARTUP AND LARGE COMPANYIn his book, Steve Blank created an outline that described how companies transform from startups to large organizations. There are three primary stages in this outline: Customer Development, Company Building and Large Company.Stage One: Customer DevelopmentStage one is the stage where a startup will undertake the first three phases of the Customer Development model: customer discovery, customer validation and customer creation. This stage focuses on both customer development and product development.Stage Two: Company BuildingStage two is the company building phase of the Customer Development model. This is, again, where the company moves form the learning and discovery activities and becomes a mission-centric organization.To make the leap between company building to becoming a large company, you have to maintain the speed you has a startup but with a larger numbe r of staff.In order to do this, the mission of the company must remain clear.This is why installing a top-down management system or a bureaucracy in a company too early can be bad for the company. You can hire as many staff as you can afford. But if they are not all working towards the same goals via the mission, you will struggle to keep your forward motion.You will find that you get bogged down in a process heavy infrastructure instead. Creativity and innovation can be strangled by bureaucracy if you are not careful. This is why you need to make sure that the organization that you have built thus far is justified.Stage Three: Large CompanyThis stage is about building departments. But you need to justify the department’s existence with your mission before you build it. There needs to be a clear and strategic need for a role or department before you add it.Building a large company does not mean that you need to replicate a model. You need to build a company that makes sense for yo ur mission. In this case, your mission serves as your strategy.The difference between a large company and a startup is not bureaucracy. It is process. Many entrepreneurs believe that you do not need a process for innovation or success. But a process is necessary for building a large company.Instead of building a company from a cookie cutter outline, entrepreneurs can build “fast-response” departments. These departments offer a process without the stagnation that becomes characteristic of a tangled bureaucracy or a top-down management system.These “fast-response” departments allow you to keep the speed and agility of your early days. Yet, it still allows you to keep the organization and process that any large company needs.THE FOUR PHASES OF COMPANY BUILDINGAll of what you read so far can be broken down into four succinct phases of company building. Each of these four phases are necessary for the successful transformation of a startup into a large company. It is important to keep both the mission and the process in mind as you move through each of these four steps.Phase One: Reach Out to Your Mainstream CustomersIn the first phase of company building, you are working to adapt from selling only to early adopters to your mainstream customers. You will do this by hiring new sales staff according to the sales growth curve that you are experiencing.You also need to notice the subtle and distinct differences between your early adopters and your mainstream customers.For example, most early adopters want an immediate solution to a difficult problem. They are more often than not looking for a revolutionary solution to their problems. They will be able to withstand minor flaws in the product, as long as it does its job.These early adopters will also rely on other early adopters for advice regarding products and solutions.Mainstream customers, however, are pragmatists. They have a problem. But they do not want to be disrupted by a revolutionary solution. Instead, they look for evolutionary solutions. They do not want minor flaws. They want use to be straightforward, simple and reliable.Mainstream customers rarely have any interest in what early adopters have to say about a product. They want reviews and references from other buyers who are just like them. In other words, they want to hear from other pragmatists.Reaching out to your mainstream customers is an essential part of company building. It can be easy to get comfortable with a small group of loyal, early adopters. In fact, it may feel more satisfying to have a small number of customers that you know that you can count on.The problem is that you can and will eventually exhaust this market. It is important to remember that they are visionaries. They are always looking for the next big thing. Holding their attention for very long is a Herculean feat.Adopting your strategy to pull in mainstream customers is an important part not only of company building but of survival. It requires that y ou take more risks. However, these risks are not as scary as they sound.The far bigger risk is not trying to understand how to reach the main market or, even worse, seeing the main market but neglecting to adopt your sales strategy.Phase Two: Review Your Current Management and Create Your MissionIn the second phase, you will take a hard look at the staff you have hired thus far. It is important to determine whether the staff you have can grow to scale. This does not mean assessing whether you have enough people, per say. It means that you need to be sure that everyone is working seamlessly on the same mission.This unity is essential for scaling your company. You can hire as many people as you can afford. But if everyone in your company is running in a different direction, they will seriously hinder your growth.This phase requires that you do something that you have rarely done thus far on your journey. In phase two, it is important that you look inward at your company.To do this, yo u will often ask the board of your company to review both the CEO and the executive staff that you have appointment.What you need to succeed during this phase of your company is not charisma. You need leaders who are pragmatic, resilient and agile. They must be able to see clearly enough to not only create a compelling vision but to find their way down a path according to that vision.What distinguishes this revision is not looking at the staff’s track record. This review needs to focus on the future. It must look at what the leaders of the company are capable of in the future.In some cases, past successes actually indicate future failures. It is important to distinguish this before these failures happen.When you know that you have the right people, you can then begin to focus on growing company culture.This culture includes stating your corporate mission which consists of four main elements:Your mission needs to state what your employees are working for.Your mission needs to state what they are supposed to be doing while they are at work.Your mission needs to state how your employees will know that they have succeeded.Your mission needs to describe both your revenue goals and your profit goals.Phase Three: Begin Your Transition to Functioning DepartmentsPhase three allows you to begin to use all of the learning that you did in the first three steps of the Customer Development model. By now, you will know a lot about building repeatable sales. You will also have knowledge about your channel roadmaps.The reason that this stage comes third in the process is because you need good people on your side in order to implement it correctly. You cannot scale without the right people in place.This is where you begin to set up your departments according to your mission statement and your strategy. Remember that having a process and a mission is key for setting up departments. Arbitrary departments waste time and burn money.Before these departments take shape, you must st ate what these departments do. This means that you need to create and write down goals for each department.A great way to do this is to create another mission statement for each of your departments. These mission statements should complement the overall mission statement. However, they should be finely adapted to each specific department.You can find some insights on the benefits and how to structure your organisation in the following slides.[slideshare id=12597292doc=strategicorganizationaldesign-120418220355-phpapp02w=710h=500]Phase Four: Maintain Your Moment with Agile DepartmentsIn the last part of company building, you will ensure that everything that you have built thus far is agile, scaled and capable of being a “fast-response” department.There is nothing worse than creating a department that must answer to another department. Especially when the second department must wait for an answer from someone else who makes the “big decision”. This is incredibly dangerous for any company that is trying to grow.This is sometimes referred to as “executive leadership”. Admittedly, this works for some companies. But as a general rule, employees on the ground often make better decisions than executives who are detached from the daily situation on the ground.To combat this, you want to create a culture that is mission oriented. You also want a decentralized management style that does not rely on a seal of approval from the CEO in order to make small decisions.This management style will speed up decision making. In turn, it will allow the company to operate in a “fast-response” and agile manner. These are both of the things that you are working for at this point in your growth.You also want to work on creating a culture that values information gathering and sharing. This culture should naturally also be a culture that promotes leadership.This is because success it not just determined on the information that executives find. You need the whole company to be working for information and solutions.All of this comes down to creating a culture in which people trust each other. The executives must trust their employees in order for employees to trust to executives. It is only when there is mutual trust and cooperation that true leadership can really happen.Finally, you must remember that while the formal learning process is over, you are never really done learning. If you want to continue to grow successfully, learning will be an ongoing process for your company.Staying Alive after Customer DevelopmentThe Customer Development model is a pathway to success for many businesses. But not every business that successfully completes the model manages to see long-term growth or success.To make it out of the Customer Development model alive, you need to remain alert and focused. You need to make sure that your company responds to changes in your market, customer and competition.Companies that become stagnant are companies that fail. Waiting too l ong can make you irrelevant in your market and can change your customer’s perception. This can be a death sentence in today’s markets. The only thing that is constant in your company should be change and your reaction to change.In order to be successful both in business and in life, entrepreneurs must realize that success is not a condition. Success is a process. Rather than searching for an end point on a map, a successful company will mark milestones along a path that only ends should the company be dissolved.CONCLUSIONCompany building comes at the end of the Customer Development model for a reason. Without all of the information that you have gleaned from the first three phases, company building simply isn’t possible. Trying to create a large organization without a market, customer base, product or a great team will almost always result in the failure of any company.What any entrepreneur can take away from the Customer Development model is that building a business is a proc ess. From beginning to end, you need a process and goals that match each other. Success does not happen in vacuum. It happens to those who methodically seek it, prove it and then continue to seek it once more. To end, you need a process and goals that match each other. Success does not happen in vacuum. It happens to those who methodically seek it, prove it and then continue to seek it once more.

Gym Class - Original Writing - 1938 Words

I tightly gripped the blue, plastic, slippery, twig (hockey stick) in my sweaty, sticky hands when I swung the tiny, orange, plastic puck into the goal. The opposing team’s goalie, with sweat dripping down his face and fear in his eyes, gave me the dirtiest look anyone could have ever imagined. I soon realized, I had just won the hockey game during gym class. All the confused stares and silent but noticeable whispers lead me to question what was all the hot gossip. I achingly trudged down the toxic, smelly stairwell which led me to the reeking, strong smell of sweat in the girl’s locker room. Sounds of giggling, and perfume being spritzed; the loud slamming of lockers as the girls finish changing their clothes, and the horsing around that†¦show more content†¦Gym class would always start with the same routine of changing into different clothes in the locker room, and preparing your mindset to sweat. â€Å"Hannah! Did you by any chance bring an extra pair of gym shorts today?† Kaelyn asked me with a slight look of hope in her eyes. â€Å"No Kaelyn†¦ why would I bring two pairs of gym shorts? It’s not like I’m going to wet myself or anything,† I stated. I crushed her small sense of hope. â€Å"I’m freaking out because I forgot my shorts, and all I have are these black sweatpants that I am currently wearing. I’ll sweat way too much if I wear these for gym! To be honest, I’m already sweating buckets,† said Kaelyn as she was twirling her wavy brunette hair and biting her already short nails nervously. The door keeps frantically slamming shut as the overly hyper girls leave the dull looking locker room. â€Å"Let’s go guys!† shouted a petite, quiet girl. â€Å"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we’re coming Ashlyn.† Kaelyn and I both said as we started moseying towards the door. Everyone else was already up there and waiting to start. â€Å"You, in the red shorts and Reeboks, get up here! And you in the pink and purple horizontal striped shirt and light up Sketchers, you too,† said my gym teacher Mr. Beavers. We hurried to the gym. It was the shy girl’s, Kahri, and outgoing Ben’s turn to lead us in the warm ups for today. Everyone hated the exhausting warm up exercises as they seemed like a waste of time. Somedays the class would participate in exercises fromShow MoreRelatedFirst Quarter Reflection Paper1571 Words   |  7 Pagestried including the best supporting evidence in my writing. In the past, I have had trouble coming up with examples to support my main point. This quarter I tried thinking of more points and picking the best points instead of just the first ones that come to mind. This has proved to be a good strategy with positive results. Overall, I feel that I have become a better writer and more hardworking student this quarter in APLAC because I took writing to another level. 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Agency Information On The Agency - 1572 Words

1. Agency Information: Provide information on the agency (is) or organization(s), to include a. The full name- the name of the agency that I have volunteered for is Good Life Fitness Center. b. Their mandate/mission/goals- At Good Life our purpose is to give every Canadian the opportunity to live a fit and healthy good life. (Good Life Fitness, 2015) c. A description of the services provided – At Good Life Fitness center, they provide a way for members to work on achieving a healthy active life while improving there physical well being. They provide private training for clients as well as they are linked with back in motion physical therapy. They also provide a service for members to be able to work out while having their kid monitored in†¦show more content†¦2. Discussion of your involvement and relationship to the organization Describe the types of activities that you participated in, tasks completed, etc.- While volunteering at good life I was in charge with the help of the other volunteers and paid staff to look after and promote the importance of healthy active living with members children. I helped run games and activities to promote physical activity with the children from ages 6 months to 12 years of age. I was also able to assist with the in take of children and filling out the necessary paper work for the children to be dropped off. I was also in charge of helping clean up and assist in the maintence of the jump room like sweeping and sanitizing toys. While volunteering for Saint Vincent’s place myself and two of my classmates participated in the coldest night of the year. We worked together to raise money for the 5km walk that we participated in. Discuss the value of the volunteer role/activity/event(s) related to the needs of the clients, the mandate of the agency, and the types of services provided. (8 marks) The services that I provided while volunteering for good life were invaluable. At any given night we could have up wards of 10 children ranges from ages 6 months to 12 years of age. They only have one paid staff per night and they rely of the volunteer staff that they have. Many of the members need this service so

Analysis on Eastern European HRM Model Free Essays

Many Western firms are rapidly investing in, or forming joint ventures with, firms in Eastern European countries. Despite the growth in Direct Foreign Investment (DFI) in Eastern Europe, Western managers know relatively little about the Human Resource Management (HRM) practices of these countries. In this paper HRM practices are discussed in Eastern European states, such as Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Russia. We will write a custom essay sample on Analysis on Eastern European HRM Model or any similar topic only for you Order Now Although there are both historical and cultural differences between these countries, these countries will be dealt with together, as they all have numerous elements in common that enable managers or researchers to see them as a whole. The purpose of this paper is to analyze if an Eastern European HRM model can be constructed on the basis of an analysis of Eastern Europe on several areas. First, the environment is analyzed, in which several aspects are covered, such as political context and history. The emphasis lies on culture and (possible) implications for business, and HRM specifically. Secondly, specific Eastern European HR practices are dealt with in chapter three. Here too, several topics are analyzed. In the fourth chapter the implications of EU enlargement are considered in relation to Eastern Europe. As many of these countries are potential candidates for a membership of the EU, the necessary changes and implications are investigated. Based on all the forgoing, an attempt is made to establish an Eastern European HRM model in the fifth chapter. Finally, in chapter six, conclusions are given followed by directions for future research. The analysis of the environmental aspects of Eastern Europe include the following aspects: Looking at Eastern Europe’s history, several main events can be identified that have an impact on today’s business or cultural situation. First, the two World Wars had a major impact on the creation of the political and economic gap between Eastern and Western Europe, especially the Second World War. Eastern Europe came under the influence of the former Soviet Union, which implied that all countries were under direct political, military and economic control resulting in a very centralized economy. This type of economy had a profound impact on the HRM practices that were used in those countries, which is further explained in the next chapter. Secondly, under Gorbatsjov as the president of the former Soviet Union, contact with Western Europe was sought, resulting in the break-up of the Soviet Union and the start of a new era for Eastern Europe. Slowly, but gradually a shift was realized from a central towards a market economy, again with the necessary implications for (HR) management. The qualities that were required by managers of Eastern European enterprises were the ability to bargain, the possession of a network of suppliers and purchasers, and the ability to manipulate production and financial data. This style of management was driven by the response to the allocation of resources by a centralized bureaucracy in which rivalry between enterprises for resources led to unnecessary hoarding of materials. The history of Eastern Europe still impacts today’s business operations. Many personnel directors and executives have their jobs because of Party connections rather than technical expertise. Creativity and original thinking was not encouraged or reinforced under the centralized government control. Top down communication was the norm. Common US practices such as MBO or 360-degree feedback, or Western European structures such as strong employee involvement or self-management work teams will not be easily transferred to the Eastern European work environment. Business practices that stem from political corruption or organized crime activities are still realities and may violate other countries’ laws and ethical norms. Despite the great changes that have occurred in Eastern Europe, western managers must patiently accept these differences and strive to form successful business relationships given environmental and political constraints. As mentioned before, the dominant political system in Eastern Europe was communism. This implied that a lot of the large companies were state-owned and the government heavily influenced trade unions. The view projected to the outside world by communist governments, was that of in a worker’s state, such as the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites, the interest of the workers were as one with the government, because the government was controlled by a dictatorship of the proletariat. The problem with such a unitarist system is that it allows for little realistic criticism that might afford changes and reforms to meet real challenges. In theory trade unions were a separate entity from the Communist Party, but in reality they were often controlled by Party members. This meant that under communism, unemployment was unknown due to manipulation with statistical data and hidden unemployment (a certain job is being done by more people than necessary, just in order to provide more people with a job). The transition from a central to a market economy was initiated together with the transition from a communist to a capitalist political regime, and was started in 1989 after the fall of ‘the iron curtain’. This transition had several consequences. First, due to the hidden unemployment and in an attempt to make organizations more efficient and to cut costs, unemployment rose. Still now a major problem faced by Eastern European countries is persistent structural unemployment. Secondly, after a couple of years a lot of state-owned companies were privatized. In these companies usually an employee culture of the planned economy remained. The educational system has been and still is rather good. An analysis of 256 Russian CEO’s from all over the country, the overwhelming majority (91,4 %) of them had college or graduate degrees. In the Eastern European labor markets a clear emphasis is put on a technical background, more than a formal management education. This was also backed up by the analysis: about 60 % had engineering and other technical backgrounds, whereas only around 20 % had a formal management degree. However, due to this strong emphasis on a technical background, there is a significant shortage of local executive talent. Expatriates remain a key component of the management market – an estimated 25 percent of all managers in Eastern European firms are expatriates. On the other hand, this lack in education is rapidly changing. Also due to the efforts to prepare for EU enlargement, a shift in education is clearly noticeable. More and more professional management studies are initiated and further developed, sometime through the help of an exchange program (for instance CEMS). Therefore, we also see a shift in recruitment: more sophisticated methods of attracting managers – such as the use of university recruiting and executive search – are on the upswing for senior-level managers, gradually replacing newspaper advertising and word-of-mouth. Â   Regarding Eastern European managers, Hofstede hypothesized that they would be characterized by a high power distance (in other words, they would display high tolerance toward inequality in the society and business relationships), high uncertainty avoidance, medium individualism, and low masculinity. As a comparison point, the United States are characterized by a low power distance, high individualism, high masculinity and low uncertainty avoidance. These hypothesizes were further backed up by study performed by Bollinger, who found the exact same results. Analyzing these results, we see that the Eastern European culture differs from Western cultures, depending on what country. For instance Western European countries, such as Germany and the Netherlands have more similarities with this culture than United States culture or Japanese culture. In order to develop and manage adequate HR policies, the factor culture plays an important role in this process. This Eastern European culture is still influenced by the past of communism and central economy. The eastern European business environment is very complex and very different from the western business environment. Despite Eastern Europe’s large consumer base and natural resources, western businesses have not been very eager to invest in these countries on a large scale, such as in China. As knowledge increases about Eastern Europe and its business opportunities, and as countries in this region join the EU, increasing western attention will focus on conducting business in this region. Yet, relatively little has been written to guide western managers in Eastern Europe. The system of Human Resource Management and industrial relations in Eastern Europe has been undergoing enormous change since 1989 and will continue to do so for some time to come. The fundamental problem is the transition from a unitarist system, very tightly controlled by communist governments that influenced every corner of the economy, to a more pluralist system operating in some type of free market. It is obvious to most observers that some form of pluralistic balance needs to be achieved to contain uncontrolled free market forces. At present most Eastern European countries are stuck in the transitional phase between these two states. For instance, work habits have changed dramatically – with 50-hour weeks and taking work home more and more the norm. At the same time, absenteeism is low, indicating a strong commitment to the job. In this chapter the following current Eastern European HR practices are analyzed: recruitment and compensation. Attempts by Eastern European firms to modernize their workforces by recruiting young graduates and contract staff have left older employees on the side. Underqualified graduates and disabled people are also suffering as a result of Eastern Europe’s drive for free-market flexibility. Firms in former socialist nations need to embrace diversity if they are to avoid repeating Western bad employment practices. In comparison to the West, Eastern European HR practices are not mature. Eastern European countries focus more on personnel practices than the integration of HR practices with corporate strategy. At the same time, managerial practices are becoming more westernized – an ‘East Goes West’ trend that is expected to continue. The sleepy, bureaucratic firm of pre-reform days is a thing of the past. On this area we see a dual path. In the lesser-developed Eastern European countries, such as Russia and Rumania, foreign investors usually enjoy special privilege to import whatever materials and products they may need in their operations, and thus are more able to obtain these luxury products than domestic firms. These imports may be used to recruit, retain, and motivate workers. Therefore, western managers accustomed to providing challenging work and learning opportunities to motivate high level employees instead emphasize material over intrinsic rewards due to the lower standard of living in these countries. On the other hand, in the Eastern European countries that have a relatively high standard of living, salary increases for local talent are high – even in the lowest categories (state-owned and manufacturing firms), they have grown by more than 25 percent in a two-year period, and in the new private firms they have nearly doubled. These increasing salaries are dictated by the difficulty in attracting good local managers. In this fluid market, many firms review salaries twice a year or more – and benefits for local managers are approaching the levels of expatriates. But, according to a new EIU report, cash alone is not the key to retention. Staff in crisis-prone countries remains fixated on salaries. But where market economies have been starting to develop, a fair salary will suffice, provided employers deliver on a package of other rewards, incentives and working conditions. Benefits packages vary from country to country, but certain perks have emerged as key motivators across the region: cars and life health insurance. Increasing stress is being laid on enhanced job satisfaction. How to cite Analysis on Eastern European HRM Model, Essay examples

On Literature In Youth free essay sample

I have been passionate about reading since even before I could read. Each evening my dad would open up Treasure Island and let the words flow out. I can scarcely remember an age at which I couldn’t be found up all hours of the night in my bedroom, hiding a book under the covers, straining to make out the words in the darkness. From paper A-Z puppets in kindergarten on, my life has been intimately intertwined with the expansive universes of literature. Reading makes me feel a part of the infinite worlds of imagination and reality, compelling me to live up to my fantasies and embody my aspirations. Books have impacted my life in extreme and eclectic ways. My childhood devotion to nighttime reading earned me 20/200 vision in my left eye, a battle scar that required a sizable Band-Aid: bifocals. I employed my new cast as a weapon to bolster my nocturnal endeavors further. We will write a custom essay sample on On Literature In Youth or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Sometimes I sifted through the encyclopedia, absorbing all the information I could. Books of miscellaneous information were my favorite, informing me of such historical landmarks as the invention of Melba toast and the deaths of the kings of Burma. At the very least they’ve provided me with an unending supply of conversation starters. I have always had a weakness for fantasy. When I was a kid and couldn’t bear the screaming and fighting downstairs, I’d slip away to my bedroom, open up a book and disappear into the world of Ender’s Game or The Lord of the Rings. It gave me solace, a place to hide. When everything else was uncontrollable, books stayed the same. Through all my travels and experiences, I’ve had a book by my side. When I went to performing arts camp, Don Quixote followed in stride. Bluebeard accompanied me to Cape Cod. Through my trip to Romania Nelson Mandela smiled at me from the cover of Long Walk to Freedom. Recently, while searching for Purgatorio to reread, I took a look at my collection. All of my favorites are worn, scribbled in, and some even torn. My copy of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole is held together by duct tape. They’re a bit ragtag, but it got me thinking. An unopened book is useless. I would rather have three books rendered nearly illegible by wear, pages yellowed, spines cracked, than possess the limitless tomes of Alexandria, Congress, and the Forum, all pristine in condition, out on display, never to be opened. A book’s pages are essentially blank until they are read. You must take a book, use it, and make it your own; you must cast it in the shape of your experiences and find its niche within you. From there it expands, opening you up to new universes never before imagined. That is the true magic of reading. My books have taught me to lead a dog-eared life, and that lesson will continue to challenge and guide me through each new page and chapter.

The Simpsons Is One Of Americas Most Popular Television Shows. It Rank

The Simpsons is one of Americas most popular television shows. It ranks as the number one television program for viewers under eighteen years of age. However, the ideals that The Simpsons conveys are not always wholesome, sometimes not even in good taste. It is inevitable that The Simpsons is affecting children. Matt Groening took up drawing to escape from his troubles in 1977. At the time, Groening was working for the L.A. Reader, a free weekly newspaper. He began working on Life in Hell, a humorous comic strip consisting of people with rabbit ears. The L.A. Reader picked up a copy of his comic strip and liked what they saw. Life in Hell gradually became a common comic strip in many free weeklies and college newspapers across the country. It even developed a cult status. (Varhola, 1) Life in Hell drew the attention of James L. Brooks, producer of works such as Taxi, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Terms of Endearment. Brooks originally wanted Groening to make an animated pilot of Life in Hell. Groening chose not to do so in fear of loosing royalties from papers that printed the strip. Groening presented Brooks with an overweight, balding father, a mother with a blue beehive hairdo, and three obnoxious spiky haired children. Groening intended for them to represent the typical American family "who love each other and drive each other crazy". Groening named the characters after his own family. His parents were named Homer and Margaret and he had two younger sisters named Lisa and Maggie. Bart was an anagram for "brat". Groening chose the last name "Simpson" to sound like the typical American family name. (Varhola, 2) Brooks decided to put the 30 or 60 second animations on between skits on The Tracy Ullman Show on the unsuccessful Fox network. Cast members Dan Castellaneta and Julie Kavner did the voices of Homer and Marge. Yeardley Smith (later to star in Herman's Head) did the voice of Lisa. Nancy Cartwright did the voice of Bart. Cartwright previously supplied the voices for many cartoons, including Galaxy High, Fantastic Max, Richie Rich, Snorks, Pound Puppies, My Little Pony, and Glo-Friends. Tracy Ullman later added Cartwright to her cast. (Dale and Trich, 11) Brooks, Groening, and Sam Simon, Tracy Ullman's producer, wanted to turn the Simpson family into their own show. The Fox network was looking for material to appeal to younger viewers. The only show they had that drew a young audience was Married With Children. To Fox's pleasure, The Simpsons saved the network from near failure. (Varhola, 3) On December 17, 1989, The Simpsons got their break. The Christmas special, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" aired. (Dale and Trich, 19) In the episode, Bart got a tattoo, much to Marge's dislike. She quickly spent all of the family's Christmas money to remove Bart's tattoo with a laser. At the same time, Homer, still on his morning coffee break at 4:00 in the afternoon, learns that he will not receive a Christmas bonus. When he learns that Marge is relying on the money for Christmas, he decides that he will do the Christmas shopping for the year. He quickly buys Marge panty hose, Bart paper, Lisa crayons, and Maggie a dog toy. When he realizes that he is not doing very well, he gets a second job as a mall Santa for the extra money. On the way home from work, he steals a Christmas tree. The next day at the mall, Bart sits on his Dad's lap and pulls down his beard. Homer responds by choking Bart and making him help make Christmas better. On Christmas Eve, Homer receives his check, $13.70 for over 40 hours work. Homer takes Bart to the dog track as a final chance for Christmas money. They discovered a gem in the third r ace, Santa's Little Helper. How could this dog loose on Christmas Eve? The odds were 99 to 1, they were going to be rich. Homer put all of his money on Santa's Little Helper, and to his horror, he never even finished. As Homer and Bart were scouring the parking lot for winning tickets into the night, they saw the track manager throw out a

Solar Energy Essays - Energy Conversion, Renewable Energy

Solar Energy Essays - Energy Conversion, Renewable Energy Solar Energy Tran 1 Solar Energy About 47 percent of the energy that the sun releases to the earth actually reaches the ground. About a third is reflected directly back into space by the atmosphere. The time in which solar energy is available, is also the time we least need it least - daytime. Because the sun's energy cannot be stored for use another time, we need to convert the suns energy into an energy that can be stored. One possible method of storing solar energy is by heating water that can be insulated. The water is heated by passing it through hollow panels. Black-coated steal plates are used because dark colors absorb heat more efficiently. However, this method only supplies enough energy for activities such as washing and bathing. The solar panels generate low grade heat, that is, they generate low temperatures for the amount of heat needed in a day. In order to generate high grade heat, intense enough to convert water into high-pressure steam which can then be used to turn electric generators there must be another method. The concentrated beams of sunlight are collected in a device called a solar furnace, which acts on the same principles as a large magnifying glass. The solar furnace takes the sunlight from a large area and by the use of lenses and mirrors can focus the light into a very small area. Very elaborate solar furnaces have machines that angle the mirrors and lenses to the sun all day. This system can provide sizable amounts of electricity and create extremely high temperatures of over 6000 degrees Fahrenheit. Solar energy generators are very clean, little waste is emitted from the generators into the environment. The use of coal, oil and gasoline is a constant drain, economically and environmentally. Will solar energy be the wave of the future? Could the worlds Tran 2 requirement of energy be fulfilled by the powerhouse of our galaxy - the sun? Automobiles in the future will probably run on solar energy, and houses will have solar heaters. Solar cells today are mostly made of silicon, one of the most common elements on Earth. The crystalline silicon solar cell was one of the first types to be developed and it is still the most common type in use today. They do not pollute the atmosphere and they leave behind no harmful waste products. Photovoltaic cells work effectively even in cloudy weather and unlike solar heaters, are more efficient at low temperatures. They do their job silently and there are no moving parts to wear out. It is no wonder that one marvels on how such a device would function. To understand how a solar cell works, it is necessary to go back to some basic atomic concepts. In the simplest model of the atom, electrons orbit a central nucleus, composed of protons and neutrons. Each electron carries one negative charge and each proton one positive charge. Neutrons carry no charge. Every atom has the same number of electrons as there are protons, so, on the whole, it is electrically neutral. The electrons have discrete kinetic energy levels, which increase with the orbital radius. When atoms bond together to form a solid, the electron energy levels merge into bands. In electrical conductors, these bands are continuous but in insulators and semiconductors there is an energy gap, in which no electron orbits can exist, between the inner valence band and outer conduction band [Book 1]. Valence electrons help to bind together the atoms in a solid by orbiting 2 adjacent nuclei, while conduction electrons, being less closely bound to the nuclei, are free to move in response to an applied voltage or electric field. The fewer conduction electrons there are, the higher the electrical resistively of the material. Tran 3 In semiconductors, the materials from which solar sells are made, the energy gap E.g. is fairly small. Because of this, electrons in the valence band can easily be made to jump to the conduction band by the injection of energy, either in the form of heat or light [Book 4]. This explains why the high resistively of semiconductors decreases as the temperature is raised or the material illuminated. The excitation of valence electrons to the conduction band is best accomplished when the semiconductor is in the crystalline state, i.e. when the atoms are arranged in a precise geometrical formation or lattice. At room temperature and low illumination, pure or so-called intrinsic semiconductors have a high resistively. But the