Analyzing Success in the Stories of Martin Dressler and Robert Irwin Essay

When I first read Martin Dressler: The Tale of An American Dreamer, I thought it was a very inspiring book. It talked about the life of an individual whose hardwok and perseverance took him to the top of his dreams. Well, it can be inspiring in some way. Holding to your dreams and trying your best is one of the main themes of the story. However, after I finished the book, I realized that it was not as inspiring as I thought it is. For me, it is now a book that tells something about the bitter side of life and success. It exposes one of the painful things this world is trying to conceal—that success is the golden crown of an empty heart. From the story of Martin Dressler, I realized that success is not as great as what most of us think and dream of. Success is a traitor that kidnaps the people’s opportunities to be happy with the one they love. Once success has kidnapped you, it will ask for your most precious possession—your family—as its ransom. As Martin Dressler moves to the top of his ladder of success, he also moves down to the pit of his decaying family. Following his dreams was indeed an achievement for him, but it was also the same thing that leads him to a miserable family life. In my opinion, most of us share the same situation with Martin Dressler. I, myself, have also experienced to be kidnapped by success. When I started college, which I consider as one of my greatest achievements because not everyone could have the access to good education, I noticed that I was becoming too busy with my studies that I almost forgot to spend some quality time with my family. I got too blinded with the achievement that I was holding with my hand. During that time, I feared that I might lose the chance to be in college if I would not get serious with my schooling. As a result, I spent most of my time inside my room and in the library studying. Until one day, my mother asked me to have a conversation with her. From that, I learned how fast my relationship with them has changed since I went to college. I realized my mistake and from then on, I incorporated good time management to my everyday life. For me, success can never bring danger if one knows how to manage his time well. Success can never betray you if you know how to deal with it. Another thing that I noticed with the character of Martin Dressler is his great ability to make things happen. If examined, he started barely from anything. His perseverance was very admirable, especially during in his time when only the rich people could afford to put up a business like what he had. On my own opinion, though, hardwork and perseverance is not enough. One’s character is not the only thing that matters when following a dream. A person should not think that he can achieve success by relying solely on his own. He should also consider the people around him. Through building good relationships with people, one can have a better reach of his dreams. Everyone of us is a dreamer. Most of our dreams are actually an American dream. To be successful is not bad. To be on top of our achievements is not selfishness. However, I realized that if we let our dreams to be our masters, the more it is hard for us to achieve them. Our dreams are our navigator to the place where we want to be in the future. But they should never be the center of our life for we might miss the real treasure—our family. Meanwhile, another book shares almost the same things of Martin Dressler’s story—Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees, presenting the life of the American installation artist Robert Irwin. Although both characters have opposing personalities and were born in two different time frames, Martin Dressler and Robert Irwin still share the same experiences and philosophy in life. Both of their stories are a representation of a fulfilled dream—Dressler in achieving his dream of becoming a successful businessman, and Irwin in achieving his dream of finding the best field where he excels at. The two biographical writers namely Steven Millhauser and Lawrence Weschler, however, used two different approaches in portraying Dressler and Irwin. Millhauser, in his book The Tale of an American Dreamer, has included not only the beautiful and inspiring aspect of Dressler’s life but also the downside effect of the success he achieved. This was not incorporated by Weschler in presenting the life of Irwin. For me, his book simply narrates how Irwin started to have interest in the field of arts, how he became a painter, how he became inquisitive with his artistic limitations, and how he finally got his way to the field of installation art. Reading the first few pages of the book Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees, I easily got hooked into it. The first part was describing Irwin’s childhood and the people and the kind of environment that mainly influenced him. However, as I continue reading, I felt alienated in the way Weschler describing things on Irwin’s craft. Sometimes, I found myself clueless of what he was narrating. Probably it is because I have no idea at all with some of the jargons in painting and installation art. There were some words that I did not understand and required me to research about them. The book, for me, seems a little bit technical if compared to the book The Tale of an American Dreamer. Analyzing the main character’s life, though, leads me to conclude that his story is nevertheless the same as ours. In some point in our lives, we get confused on which path it is that we really will be taking. Everday, we are confronted with many choices, from the time we awake up to the time we take rest. It then makes me wonder how people make choices, specifically the right ones. What could be their criteria? In my own point of view, people make their choices by selecting the option where they would feel greater happiness or fulfillment. But depending on what kind of person you are, happiness and fulfillment is very subjective. Everyone has his own story when asked about what it is that makes him happy and fulfilled. Eventhough it is hard to agree on such an issue, I think the important thing to remember is that we fully identify and know ourselves. By knowing ourselves means knowing our needs, including our need for happiness. When we recognize this need, then I think it is easier for us to know where we can find happiness. This for me is what the book about Irwin’s life represents. He looked for his happiness by addressing his need to express his thoughts and his self. For me, the works that he did can make him feel that a portion of his self is being fulfilled. Talking about dreams, Dressler and Irwin, for me, are both portrayers of it. However, they represent dreams in two different faces: one is a dream in exchange for something, and two is a dream in search for something. It seems to me that Dressler’s American dream is crueler than Irwin’s dream. Although self- fulfilling, Dressler’s idea of success yields more on the financial aspect as compared to the psychological one that Irwin has. For me, that of Irwin’s is a degree higher than that of Dressler. As a result, both of them gained successes that are in two different aspects, too. What Dressler achieved is a financial success while Irwin attained a more personal one. Works Cited Millhauser, Steven. The Tale of an American Dreamer. New York: Vintage Books, 1997 Weschler, Lawrence. Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees. USA: University of the California Press, 1982

Mob Mentality

Mob mentality, or mob psychology, has been observed in numerous rock concerts and sports events in the United States, which often ends in riots and numerous people trampled to death. These events imply that there are certain influences exerted by a group that affect a person's behavior (Waddington & King, 2005). The effect of these observations is the conduct of many studies and theories in the field of social psychology.As early as 1895, Le Bon, who was writing about crowd psychology, published his work entitled, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind. His work posits that people who form a large crowd lose their conscious personalities, and these are â€Å"replaced by a sinister uncivilised and potentially barbaric ‘collective mind (Waddington & King, 2005).’†The concept of mob psychology is rooted on the idea that the persons involved are burdened with an incapacity for self-control. Thus, these people who are susceptible of being part of the mob easily succumb to pressures, influences, and temptations (Feasibility and Admissibility of Mob Mentality Defenses, 1995).The perceived reason underlying mob mentality is classified into three complementary mechanisms. First among these is anonymity. A person who usually acts as a distinct person is prevented from behaving badly because his actins would be associated with himself alone. However, a person who loses his personality and becomes merely a part of large crowd becomes anonymous, making him feel liberated from personal responsibility from their actions (Waddington & King, 2005).Another mechanism involved in crowd disorder is suggestibility. Le Bon asserts that people in a group become â€Å"less resistant to the ‘hypnotic’ powers of suggestion.† Thus, the mob is compelled into engaging in abnormal and unsavory behavior. This mechanism suggested by Le Bon is built upon by Allport in 1924, who suggested that mob psychology involves â€Å"social facilitation† where by mutual stimulation causes the overriding of customary self-restraint exercised by people in normal circumstances (Waddington & King, 2005).  Finally, there is contagion. This mechanism refers to the fact that the â€Å"†high emotions spread contagiously† as if such effect is inevitable. This leads to the often-observed violent frenzy of mobs (Waddington & King, 2005).Mob mentality is a defense against criminal liability, and is based on psychological theory. In technical terms, it is referred to as Mob Violence Proclivity Syndrome. It belongs to other psychological defenses to criminal liability, such as child sexual abuse syndrome and rape trauma syndrome (Feasibility and Admissibility of Mob Mentality Defenses, 1995).The idea is that group criminal behavior is explained by the tendency of humans to get caught up in the excitement of situations and people such that they are unable to make meaningful, real, and rational decisions about their behavior (Feasibility a nd Admissibility of Mob Mentality Defenses, 1995).The legal community has observed the effects of an understanding of this human behavioral tendency on public policy, the law, and criminal liability. Whereas in the old times, crimes committed by a group had been made graver by the fact that several people participated in the act, nowadays, such fact is used to mitigate criminal liability of the offenders.Thus, the fact that people who merely followed the mob did not have the opportunity to make rational choices about their actions is enough to help them negate or avoid criminal responsibility for their acts (Feasibility and Admissibility of Mob Mentality Defenses, 1995). This particular effect of the psychological concept of mob mentality raises serious concerns on public policy and the law.ReferencesFeasibility and Admissibility of Mob Mentality Defenses. (1995). Harvard Law Review 108(5),   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   1111-1126.Waddington, D. & King, M. (2005). The Diso rderly Crowd: From Classical PsychologicalReductionism to Socio-Contextual Theory – The Impact on Public Order Policing   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Strategies. The Howard Journal 44 (5), 490–503

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Summary

Unhappy Ending I think that the outcome of Ambrose Bierce’s story, â€Å"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,† was credible because Bierce hints that Peyton Farquhar, the main character, is dead throughout his journey. If the reader pays close attention to the story, it becomes obvious that the escape is imagined and he is actually going to be hanged. The first piece of evidence that Farquhar is hallucinating is how unaware he is of his own struggle to free himself underwater.Farquhar states that â€Å"he was not conscious of an effort, but a sharp pain in his wrist [told] him that he was trying to free his hands† suggesting that he isn’t actually aware of his own attempts at escape (Bierce 493). Some may argue that Farquhar wasn’t aware of his effort because he had an adrenaline rush, but the injuries are too close to the injuries of a hanging to be ignored. The second piece of evidence that Farquhar didn’t escape is the pain in his neck and h ead.As he is fighting to get free, Farquhar describes how â€Å"his neck ached horribly; [and] his brain was on fire† (Bierce 494). A person struggling at the end of a hanging rope would experience the same pain. He simply imagines breaking free as he dies, but in reality, the intense pain is caused from the noose tightening and eventually choking Farquhar. His freedom swim is clearly a dying dream. The third piece of evidence that proves that Farquhar imagined his freedom is the unbelievable detailed description of nature.There is no sort of adrenaline rush that could show the â€Å"prismatic colors in all the dewdrops upon a million blades of grass† just for Farquhar (Bierce 494). It is more probable that Farquhar imagined his escape right as he strangled to death. In conclusion, the ending of â€Å"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge† was credible and powerful because it hints to the reader that Farquhar doesn’t survive and merely dreams of the beautiful escape from his horrible fate.

Microeconomic Economic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Microeconomic Economic - Essay Example Prioritizing needs help in determining which needs can be satisfied first within the limited budget by postponing the less important ones. At a national level, the budgeting activities help in putting the government’s revenues into adequate spending areas. These are then broken down into provincial and state budgets making the allocation more precise and directed, increasing the chances of more effective use. The phenomenon of demand and supply and their effect on price determine the feasibility of each transaction in one’s personal life. By understanding the basic laws of demand and supply, I understand that the goods in demand are likely to be high priced when in season and vice versa. This helps me make smarter decisions in the day to day life. For example appliances like air conditioners are likely to be on discounted deals in winters, making it feasible for me to purchase one in winters instead of in summers. Similarly, shopping for jackets in summers helps me save a bundle on shopping for the same apparel in season. When the price affects the demand level, this is known as elastic demand. Similarly the goods whose demand is not affected by slight change in price are called inelastic. In my daily life i come across many goods that I can do without and pursue cheaper alternatives. However, being loyal to a couple of brands, I give price moderate weightage in the whole buying transaction. On the other hand, the evident inflation for necessities reflects the masses helplessness and constant demand no matter how much the prices fluctuate. Opportunity cost refers to the cost of letting one alternative go for the opting of the other. This implies prioritization and weighing the loss against the gain of each alternative. For example, the choice of working professionally instead of studying further or comparing the pros

Critically discuss the work and skills involved in front-line jobs and Essay

Critically discuss the work and skills involved in front-line jobs and the extent to which these skills are controlled - Essay Example They are associated with the daily operations of a company and have direct contact with the money making process of the company. Some examples of front line workers include the assembly worker, bank tellers, and workers servicing in the service industry. Skills of frontline workers are crucial to the success of an organization. Skills in people can be improved upon by imparting training to them. The key concept of skill has been explained in the human capital theory by Schultz. According to the human capital theory, the productivity of workers can increase manifold if they are imparted useful knowledge and skills. This will inevitably lead to increase in their future earnings and future income. This theory rests on the importance of firm-specific training. The paper will focus on skills needed at work in lieu of front line workers. The paper will discuss the work and skills involved in front-line jobs and the extent to which these skills are controlled. Various theories and counter t heories and evidence will be presented from literature to support the argument. The crux of the argument would revolve around the importance of training and using measures like performance appraisals to build on skills needed for front line workers. Skills Skills have been increasingly debated world over. According to many critics this term is very popular amongst most managers, policy makers and academic circles in precarious and amorphous ways to the point that today it comes close to meaning everything yet nothing. Spenners study on skills shows that there used to be a unanimous consensus that skills comprise of two main elements. These are job complexity and job discretion. Job complexity implies the simplicity and difficulty associated with doing a particular job. Task discretion refers to the extent to which decision making power is given to the job holder. Does the worker have enough latitude to choose from a wide range of techniques in solving a problem or does he have to pa ss on the problem to an expert worker or does he have to ask a supervisor?. It is said the greater the latitude the job holder has, the higher skilled is the job. (Tett , 1991) An important aspect of skilled jobs that has been debated over and over again is the proxies which are used to measure skills and the kind of competencies that they measures. The most popular modes of skill assessment have been requirement qualifications and the level of training needed to inculcate those skills. These are partial measures of skill assessment. Skills and their control has often been a crucial aspect of debates in policy circles and academia. These debates have varied from skills related to people working in the manufacturing sector to people associated with the service sector. These could be home care assistants, the nurses, the retail store workers, the call center workers and the job centre work. However work on service sector related skills and has often raised eyebrows by analysts. Some a nalysts feel that the neglect should not be treated as astonishing and shocking as the same principles apply equally from manufacturing related workers to services related workers and from knowledge work to services. (Salgado, 1999) Recently conducted surveys by the Institute of Employment studies and MoRI denote that the major areas of deficiencies in the skills of front line workers are in communication skills. According to the survey, this skill deficiency leaps across the board

Abraham Lincoln's Presidential Election Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Abraham Lincoln's Presidential Election - Essay Example Some critics say that the success was purely due to the clashes occurred in the Democratic Party before the elections. However, many argue by showing statistics that the votes polled for and electoral seats won by Republican Party were much higher than the seats won by other parties jointly. However, all this success was very much based on the campaign run by the Republican Party prior to elections. The Republican Party focused on the campaign in the North only. Several leaflets, posters and published editorials focusing on the story of Lincoln’s life were used in campaign by the Republicans. His nickname ‘Honest Abe’ was also very much used. The main focus, throughout the campaign, was Lincoln’s childhood poverty. This showed that the labor is superior and a poor boy could even work to pave his way to the top of leadership by his efforts. Abraham Lincoln was of the view that the slavery should not be allowed to expand in further states of America. He wanted to put it to end but slowly and through constitutional Reforms. However, his success in 1860 elections was not liked by the Southern states as most of the residents of these states own slaves and they perceived that Republican Party wants to end slavery in America completely. This initiated conflict between North and South America. This eventually resulted in Civil war in America which resulted in bloodshed for a period of 4 years in America.

Employee hand book opinion Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Employee hand book opinion - Coursework Example The book does not cater for circumstances under which the workforce is small in size and the employer is present in the organization and able to convey information across. This kind of information gap raises concern on the reliability of the Handbook as far as its adoption is concerned (Caruth, Caruth, & Pane, 2009). The handbook fails to give an alternative measure to the employees in the event that the organization is caught in cash deficiency such that it may not meet the obligations to pay its workers. This handbook gives limited information on leadership structure of the organization and how it affects how the employees are treated. In most cases, the workplace policies are subjected to progressive changes by successive leadership and this is not well addressed in the Handbook (Caruth, Caruth, & Pane, 2009). Besides, organization culture plays a critical role in employee-employer relations which is evidently not explained clearly in the handbook. Such limited information presents a study challenge to any reader to the handbook. Caruth, D. L., Caruth, G. D., & Pane, S. S. (2009). Staffing the contemporary organization: A guide to planning, recruiting, and selecting for human resource professionals. Westport, Conn: Praeger

Clever Marketing for Luxury Goods in the Fashion Industry Essay

Clever Marketing for Luxury Goods in the Fashion Industry - Essay Example The essay "Clever Marketing for Luxury Goods in the Fashion Industry" concerns the clever fashion marketing. It first looked into the number of years that the number of years by which the latter are working as members of the marketing industry within the luxury fashion industry. Seven respondents (11.7%) reported to have been in the luxury fashion industry for less than five years. Meanwhile, twenty two (36.7%) said that they have been employed by the said industry for five to six years. In the same manner, fifteen (25.0%) noted to have been working in such for seven to ten years. Finally, sixteen (26.7%) said that they are within the luxury fashion industry for more than ten years. Aside from determining the number of years that the respondents have stayed within the luxury fashion industry, the researcher also determined which among of the three groups being studied are they a member of. Since this research is aimed towards ensuring the proper representation of the three groups, tw enty respondents (33.3%) were obtained from each. These results are graphically presented in Table 2. As established in the previous chapters of this study, the era wherein fashion was characterized as super exclusive and could only be afforded by the elite has ended (Agins, 2000). In fact, designers are now taking their cues from consumers from the mainstream and creativity has been channeled to the mass-marketing clothes. As a result, members of the industry were seen to have joined financial groups.

Exploring Learning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Exploring Learning - Essay Example These approaches are important as they give an idea of what different students go through when learning. The approaches have been described by scholars as being able to give a clear distinction between the different learners. Thus, it is mandatory for a teacher to learn and understand these approaches so as to make their students excel and make the most out of themselves (Cooper, 2009). Deep and surface approaches were postulated through in the nineteenth century. These approaches were first carried out by Marton and Saljo in 1976. The two scholars carried a study on a number of students and their learning approach. They gave the sample study a particular task, to read a particular text. After they had all read the text, they were asked questions based on what they had read. The students adopted different methods to understanding the text. Different groups adopted different methods of learning. One group adopted the deep approach and another adopted surface approach of learning. This was evident by how the questions were answered after the students had read the text (Murdoch & Wilson, 2008). In answering the questions, the first group displayed that they had understood fully the text while the second group had a vague understanding of the text. This showed a clear distinction. ... Deep learning approach as the word suggests involves the process of having a critical understanding of what is being taught. The students that fall under this category critically analyze concepts and principles, leading to proper understanding that is used in the long-term. It has been noted that for this approach to work, a student needs to be dedicated for a long time. They need to start reading early in advance so that they can understand better what they need to cover. It is the best method that learners should use (Cooper, 2009). This method ensures that the learning method is effective as learners will have benefitted fully from the learning process. Surface learning approach on the other hand is meant for short term retention of information. It mainly involves memorization of facts. The approach does not promote use of knowledge in the long term. The knowledge or information is only crammed briefly. This particular approach is used normally during examinations, especially when the student is not prepared. They want to quickly learn enough information to help them pass the examination. When the reader has done the examination, he or she usually forgets quickly what they have learnt. This learning approach is not advocated for as students do not grasp the knowledge for long (Jarvis, 2005). There are however some instances where it is embraced. An example is when a person is doing a presentation; it applies once the presentation has been done and in case the idea has been rejected, they can quickly switch to a new idea. The third learning approach is the strategic approach. This method is applied whenever necessary. It is a combination of both methods. However, the learner makes a decision on which method they should apply. This all depends on the

Plastic Innovations Case Material Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Plastic Innovations Case Material - Essay Example A stable attention to new strategy and a very professional innovative staff allow strategy to reach a great qualitative point and to obtain great paybacks in the sector. The operations have supported the innovation strategy enormously by inventions of new technologies and machines. The strategy has changed from production of consumer durable items, toys and component of automotive used in industries to spatulas, pasta strainers, hand whisks and others. This has been enhanced due to change in machines from small plastic moulding machines to 24 large injection-moulding machines. Early 1980s small moulding machines were used for toys and automotive components. This later expanded to enhance production of household items. The market change in 2002 from industrial commodities to household; facilitated strategy enhancement to a greater height. This later facilitated change in expertize as seen in 2006 when a new marketing manager was hired. The Focus and Concept brands were initiated due t o the change in management of marketing director. It also changed the market targets and enhanced profit margin. The market is competitive and thus requires new innovations and ideas to keep up with stiff competition. Similarly, operation to keep up with demands and quality must keep on changing its requirements. Markets do change as consumers frequently change their aspects of environment. Likewise, operational requirements must change to meet or challenge environment change. As markets demands get sophisticated so do operational requirements do. Markets and operations requirements differ in the sense that larger markets mean more and more profit but operational costs go higher as markets expanded. Operation requires experts to implement the desired result or objections of company. Similarly, markets require qualified team to achieve desired results. The demand for idea or concept choice is less predictable that leads to unpredictable changes in schedules and large distraction in the production plan. Frequently longer operation times due to non-optimal changes require a respond to unexpected d emand or an impromptu promotion. Markets requirements in directly affect the operations within the firm. Markets range compels operation team to consistently produce quality products. The planning of the project team is affected by the operations requirements and markets target. The difference from the two must be closely monitored in order for a company to achieve the goals. Operations requirement is monitored by the management to check cost incurred, however markets is a sales team work to ensure the gap is ridged significantly. These disparities also give a planning team hectic time in convincing involved parties. Markets requirement requires aesthetics value added to goods or commodities to increase sale. However; operation does not consider the aesthetics in production only the quality of the work and costs. Competition in a market is a key value for every business, the Focus and concept idea was bore in

Corporate Social Responsibility At New Balance Essay

Corporate Social Responsibility At New Balance - Essay Example An increasing social awareness and concerns also require the corporation to behave more ethically and in an eco-friendly manner. Despite a long history and a strong commitment to the corporate citizenship by the leaders and the employees, the company has some loopholes that must be looked upon to build an effective image of the business as socially respite on the single entity. The given case highlights some important areas that must be focused on in order to build a far-reaching and effective CSR strategy. At the first place, the leadership should incorporate the CSR in company’s formal structure. This can be done by forming a department of corporate responsibility. The department should include a CEO of the company in its executive committee. The Executive committee should also have managers responsible for consumer insights, operations, designs, footwear, apparels and brand management. This would result in increased focus on the company as well as of employees towards social responsibility. Another positive effect would be the formal disclosure of the activities done by the department, internally and externally. Once the department would be made, the other issue can be looked into more deeply. Since the organization is doing extraordinarily good in some areas and facing risks in others, it should concentrate more on the already flourished ones (supply chain management, employee volunteering, community involvement etc.) to be the leader in them. At the same time, the leadership should also take into consideration the risky areas and their efficient management. Both the steps are necessary for the achieving its goal of responsible leadership. It requires an address and concern to the following issues: The first issue that must be addressed by the CSR department is the clear and consistent definition and communication of the organization’s view of responsible leadership.

Cross site scripting Essay Example for Free

Cross site scripting Essay Cross-site scripting is form vulnerability for computer security which mainly occurs in web applications that accept injection of code by web users who happen to be malicious; such users inject the code into various web pages that are used by other web users. The most common codes that are usually injected by malicious web users include scripts of client side and HTML codes. Cross site scripting (XSS) vulnerability which is exploited is usually used by attackers for by passing the certain access controls, a good example of such bypass is a policy of the same origin. XSS originated from the fact that it is possible for a malicious web site to be loaded into another window or frame and then write or read data using java script on other web sites (Rafail, 2001). Cross site scripting vulnerabilities XSS vulnerabilities have been well exploited to come up with very powerful browser exploits and phishing attacks. XSS performed on websites were about eighty percent of all the recorded securities as indicated by the 2007 statistics. In most cases of attack every thing looks to be in order as far as the end users are concerned, but they are finally subjected to access which is not authorized, financial loss and loss of sensitive data (Rafail, 2001). The cross site scripting can be primarily be categorized into two: reflected and stored. But there is another type of cross site scripting which is not widely known, called DOM. The stored refer to those codes that once injected are stored in the target servers permanently. They can remain permanently in the message forum, database comment field, or in the visitor log. The reflected XSS attacks, are the codes which when injected, the web server is reflected off as a search result, an error message or other forms of responses that may include all or some of the input that was sent to the various servers as request in part. Usually the reflected attacks are sent to the victims through other channels such as electronic mail messages, or through other web servers. Once a user is lured into clicking a link which is malicious or is tricked to submit a form which is specially crafted, the code that has been injected travels via the web server which is vulnerable, the reflected attack is in turn sent back to the browser and the code is then executed as if it originated from a valid server (Rafail, 2001). The consequences of cross site scripting attacks are primarily the same regardless of whether they are DOM based, reflected or stored. The main difference the manner in which the pay load enters the server. Cross site scripting is capable of causing various problems to the end users. The problems range in severity, they can cause annoyance to the end users as well as complete loss of accounts. The most serious attacks of XSS result into disclosure of the users information and data thus giving the attacker to actually hijack the session of the user and thus be in a position to comfortably take over the users accounts. The XSS expose the end users to other damaging attacks such as Trojan programs installations, disclosure of files belonging to the end users, redirecting the web user to other sites or pages, or modification of the contents. A cross site scripting vulnerability that allows the attacker to change certain news item or a press release is capable of affecting the stock price of an organization or decreasing the confidence of the consumer. For example a cross site scripting vulnerability on a site of a pharmaceutical can allow the attacker to alter the information of dosage which might result into over or under dosage (Rafail, 2001). Flaws in an XSS are at times very difficult to establish and get rid of them from web applications. In order to find such flaws, the best method to use is performing a review on the security code and also to perform a thorough search in all possible areas where HTTP input request can easily finds its way into output of the HTML. It is very important to note that various tags of HTML tags can be effectively used in transmission of java scripts which are malicious. Nikto, Nesus plus other tools which are currently available in the market can be used in scanning the websites but they are less effective since they are only capable of scratching the surface and are not capable of eliminating all the flaws in the system (Snake, n. d. ). Preventing XSS attacks Once a web site becomes victim of XSS attack the end user is likely too loose a lot of crucial data and information. It is therefore, very important for people to protect themselves against such attacks. One of the best ways of preventing your self of becoming a victim to an XSS attack is failing to respond to a request that is unsolicited by providing your personal details. Such information should not be provided whether it is over the internet or the phone. Users should know that the internet and e-mail pages that are usually used by the XSS attackers look similar to those used by the legitimate institutions and it might be quite hard to distinguish between the two. So if one believes that the contacts could be valid them they should contact the institution in question themselves. They can do so by either visiting the company’s website and instead of using the provided link one should actually type the address or use a page that you might have book marked earlier. One should initiate the contact using the information that you have verified (Naraine, 2009). Conclusion Cross site scripting is a serious fraudulent activity and once one falls prey to it can end up loosing significantly. It is thus good to increase awareness of such vices so that when people are targeted for such acts they can be able to identify them and subsequently be in a good position to protect them. The end users should also do all that is possible in order to conceal their vital information and ensure that it is only given to the relevant authorities when needed. It is also important to keep scanning their system regularly using valid tools. Reference: Naraine, R. (2009): Phishing without bait: The in-session password theft attack, Retrieved on 1st June 2009 from, http://blogs. zdnet. com/security/? p=2390. Rafail, J. (2001): Cross-Site Scripting Vulnerabilities, Retrieved on 1st June 2009 from, http://www. cert. org/archive/pdf/cross_site_scripting. pdf. Snake, R. (n. d. ): XSS (Cross Site Scripting) Cheat Sheet Esp. : for filter evasion, Retrieved on 1st June 2009 from, http://ha. ckers. org/xss. html.

Analysis of Supplier Development Strategies

Analysis of Supplier Development Strategies ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS Any activity undertaken by a buying firm to improve supplier performance, supplier capabilities, or both and to meet the buying firms short and/or long term supply needs can be termed as supplier development activity. A study by the Harvard Business School concluded that a primary reason for declining US competitiveness is that US companies invest less than foreign rivals in intangible investments such as supplier development. Half of the companies fail in this supplier development effort if executed. As supplier development help in increasing competitiveness and is not successful every time if implemented, it is essential to examine supplier development and factors which result towards the success of supplier development. This paper will examine aspects associated with the success of supplier development strategies within different set of industry. This research will put forward a specific set of aspects are significant contributors to supplier development; also this paper will show that some factors of supplier development have significant influence on other factors of supplier development. Data from the population of buyers and suppliers will be collected to test the extent of relationship between significant factors and success of supplier development process. Agreement was noted between dependencies of success of supplier development process on several factors. Recommendations to supply managers and purchasing manager will be provided regarding upper management involvement, enhanced communication with their suppliers, recognition of their suppliers and development of strategic processing instead of reactive processing will be offered. chapter 1 introduction This thesis is a report of ethnographic study of critical factors for supplier development strategies. The study was based primarily upon the survey with supplier development managers and professionals involved in this field. This first chapter of the thesis will discuss the context of the study, intention of the study, describe the importance and will present the overview of the methodology used. Background of Study A global economy is emerging and resources are concentrated on core business rather than the diversification which show the way towards outsourcing. Outsourcing is increased from $91 billion to $416 billion in 20 years (Tunstall, 2002), and it is expected to increase further. In 2009 the value of outsourcing deals in logistics area were projected to $ 80 billion (Hyatt, 2009) which shows the intensity of use of suppliers. Due to this voluminous use of suppliers buying companies have to rely on their suppliers to deliver defect free product in a timely and cost effective manner. To compete in their respective markets, buying firm must ensure that their supplier capability equals the expectations (Krause Ellram, Success factors in supplier development, 1997). When a supplier is incapable of meeting the buying firms need the buying firm has three alternatives: (1) Bring the outsourced item in house and produce it internally, (2) Resource with a more capable supplier, (3) Help improve t he existing suppliers capabilities. All the three strategies can work. (Handfield, Krause, Scannel, Monczka, 2000). Supplier development is defined as Any effort of a buying firm with its supplier to increase the performance and capabilities of the supplier and meet the buying firms supply needs. (Krause Ellram, Critical elements of supplier development, 1997) When the suppliers are innovative and exclusively supplying a product then the supplier development option comes into the picture. When a company is using a supplier, it is necessary to have a good relationship with them. The Harvard research suggested that supplier development started very late in USA but it was started very long ago in the Japan. Toyota, Honda and Nissan implemented these supplier development activities in their plants a long back. Although similar research has been done previously, the theme of research was same but this new research is capable to generate new knowledge , First the populations is different and for the variety of reasons they will be having different opinions and attitudes than the previous cohort . There might be a different type of interaction in between me and those to which will generate the new idea, the sample data is from different set of industry and places so the research context will be totally different from the previous researches. Even the subject might be same but the contextual issues are very different. The Problem Statement Supplier development requires both supplier and buyer to commit their maximum to get the maximum out of the program. Even though both the sides agree that the commitment is required it is not necessary that supplier development program in which they are involved will be successful. In early 90s companies start reducing the number of direct suppliers and began evolving from adversarial relationships to more cooperative ones with the remaining suppliers. (Hartley Choi, 1996), Approximate one-third projects are failed due to suppliers underperformance. So the success in the supplier development is not a foregone conclusion. Supplier development is considered as a long term business strategy and there are various factors which affects this long term strategy. These factors not only affect the end result of supplier development process but also influence each other. This research tried to establish the critical success factors for supplier development and their inter-relationship with ea ch other. Regression models approach helped to develop the interrelationship among critical success factors. Anyone especially supplier development manager and procurement professional can refer the model over the wide range of circumstances and structure. The main objective of the research paper is to create the model for critical success factors for supplier development strategies. Professional Significance Large number of companies does the supplier development and they fail as well at surprising rate. Not all supplier development initiatives are successful in fact, as many as 50% are not successful, due to poor implementation and follow-up. (Handfield R. , 2002) The failed efforts consume tremendous amount of resources over months or even years. As multiple studies have shown over half of the supplier initiatives fails. This failure takes a toll that is not only financial but also psychological. Failure demoralizes employees who have been labored diligently to complete their share of the work. As the supplier development success factors depends on both the parties so a dedicated study is required to find out what factors make the supplier development process a success. In 2000, according to the study 53% of the companies claimed that they are involved in the supplier development program but it was found that only 20% of the companies are contributing for the financial support for the suppliers and only 14% of the companies are putting their employees in the suppliers place for the development purpose. Eleven percentages of the companies are giving the chance to the suppliers to come at the buyers place and learn. Only 11% of the companies are having the formal program for supplier development, others are doing it without any of the formal program. (Anonymous, 2000). It shows that even though companies are involved in supplier development program but not fully implementing in an appropriate way. In General Motors, after implementation of supplier development program supplier productivity was improved 50%, lead time was reduced by 75%, and inventory reduction happened around 70% during their one week workshops. On one project alone, Honda of Americas Best Practices (BP) team reduced a suppliers costs by more than $200,000 per year by changing the layout of a welding process. Furthermore layout change might increase the efficiency of supplier and ultimately give advantage to buying company. (Hartley Choi, 1996). Also one of the purchasing pro for a power tool producer said that in three years of developing suppliers, his company has seen quality rejects fall from 38.4% down to 0.5% while supplier on-time delivery has risen from 76% to 97.5%. Likewise, another proponent of supplier development cites an average supplier quality metric of 98.5% and on-time supplier delivery at 97%. They claimed to have improved quality, response time, prices and cycle time improvements, The VP f or a major California-based computer maker talks about how assistance from his firm allowed one subassembly supplier to ramp up to 50,000 pieces per month in only six weeks. (Anonymous, 2000).Although it took only 6 weeks to ramp up the production but usually supplier development is very time consuming and long process which consumes plenty of resources, so it is very much required to do it correct first time. To get the results mentioned above -$200,000 saving /year it is essential to learn what are the success contributors and failure contributors of supplier development. Overview of Methodology A structured survey questionnaire with five-point Likert scale was developed. Web and email were used to circulate and gather information regarding what group of supplier development professionals thinks about supplier development activities. Survey was divided in 6 small sections and every section was having 3 questions. Total of 20 questions were mailed to random sample of 300 supplier development professionals. The survey solicited about a single instance of supplier development performed by them. Survey was face validated and content validated with the help of thesis chair and committee. Of 300 surveys circulated 50 usable responses were obtained, which provides the perception of large group of supplier development manger regarding the nature of their supplier development project. The responding population represents a wide range of industry types. Also before e-mail survey set of interviews with supplier development managers was conducted. The interview was designed to validate the success factors collected after reviewing literature review and to help focus on reliable, important success factors which have extremely high control on supplier development success. Delimitation The research study was conducted at San Diego State University during the end of the fall semester-2009. This research was limited to supplier development manager who updated their resume on resume bank. This research was limited to professionals in North America continent to reduce cultural differences within the population used in the study. Multiple Regression model was used to prove the interdependency in between critical factors instead structural equation modeling. Survey instrument was developed with the help of existing instruments. This will allow us to compare new results with the old results. This research was limited to 3 questions per factor to keep instrument short. chapter 2 literature review This chapter will review the past researches that serves as the foundation for the thesis report presented. The research papers are basically associated with critical factors associated with success of supplier development. The research paper will present purpose and rationale for writing research paper on supplier development strategies. Following will be the review of literature on Strategic process, Upper management involvement, Supplier recognition, Effective and enhanced communication and commitment of suppliers. The chapter will conclude with a summary of literature. Examples of the key word used while finding the scholar research papers were supplier development, supplier relationship, supplier evaluation, supplier management, supply chain management and buyer-supplier relationship. Combinations of keywords were used to get different research papers. Search engine used during literature search were SDSU library search engine and Google scholar. (Ekholm Pashei, 2009). Past Literature First document application of supplier development comes from Toyota in 1939. Toyota discussed the need of working together with suppliers to improve collective performance. Thereafter in 1963 Nissan implemented first supplier development project, Honda joined the club in 1973 (Monczka, Handfield, Glunipero, Patterson, 2009). It is essential to understand the significance of each factor and the role it plays in supplier development process. Past researches can be categorized in (a) Theoretical, (b) Conceptual, (c) Empirical, (d) Conceptual and Empirical. Table 1 gives the brief of past literature which were identified. Previous to mid 1990s, the supplier development literature consisted mainly of theoretical studies covering cases of several companies and surveys and the purpose was to learn the barriers which comes in the way of supplier development. In 1990s the research moved towards establishing relationship in between various supplier development constructs where in 2000 the re search moved towards influence of supplier development towards innovation and purchasing strategy (Easton, 2000). In todays business increased trend of reliance on supplier is observed. Most of the buying firms need to pursue aggressive strategies in order to increase the future rate of capabilities improvement. (Monnczka, Trent, Callahan, 1993) Having mentioned that supplier is becoming increasingly critical to the competitive success of US firms, there are several reasons behind that. First manufacturers are beginning to focus on their core competencies and areas of technical expertise. Second, developing effective supply base management strategies can help counter the competitive pressures brought about by intense worldwide competition. Third, Suppliers can support directly a firms ability to innovate in the critical areas of product and process technology. Study showed 95% of business unit sample indicated supplier contributions were increasing throughout in terms of importance. There was a 232% increase in people from 1989-1990 who agreed with the statement that suppliers are extremely imp ortant to the achievement of competitive market strategies. More and more people started to outsource and started rely on suppliers. There was a growth of 15% of people from 1991-1992. Furthermore for each sample period, respondent projected and increasing dependency on suppliers for future product technology. More and more companies started to use supplier development process. Some of them are HP, Epson, Apple Computer, 3M, and BMW etc. Strong belief is supplier warrants improvement. If improvement does not occur firms across many industries may lose market share to competitors who are able to maximize supplier performance input. Sample was non random so the result can be generalized. Thus the trend is towards increasing reliance on supplier to help achieve competitive market strategies. This reliance on suppliers and improving their performance was initially documented from Toyota in 1939. Toyota discussed the need of working together with suppliers to improve collective performan ce. Thereafter in 1963 Nissan implemented first supplier development project, Honda joined the club in 1973 (Monczka, Handfield, Glunipero, Patterson, 2009). Supplier development was ubiquitous in Japan and Korea for number of years but less evident in US firms due to perceived lack of instant return on investment allied with setting up resources required to make it successful. Interestingly this practice was recognized early in the 1900 in the US automotive industry when Ford required improving supplier capacity (Krause, Handfield, Tyler, The relationships between supplier development, commitment, social and capital accumulation and performance improvement, 2006). In 1970s other Japanese automakers implemented the system and made their own modification like Honda developed a program called BP (Best practices). Review of case studies by (Sako, 2004) allowed examining differences in between supplier development activity in Toyota, Nissan and Honda. In 1939, Toyota purchasing rules stated that- Toyota suppliers must be treated as a Toyota branches and Toyota must continue to do business with these suppliers without switching to others and also develop the suppliers if required. Toyota bifurcated supplier development activities into TPS (Toyota Production System) and TQC (Total Quality Control). TPS was having different existence from TQC which allowed suppliers to take advantage of continuous improvement. Hyundai also realized that their small suppliers cannot again and again recruit engineers thus they sent engineers from their own shops to improve suppliers productivity. Hyundai do not financially support their suppliers but offer personnel support (Handfield, Krause, Scannel, Monczka, 2000). Nissan also implemented supplier development program which were significantly different from Toyota in the terms of number of point of contacts for suppliers, approach towards sharing the ideas and one to one training strategy during program. Honda and Nissan unified the TPS and TQC offering a single point of contact (Sako, 2004). The common features of the supplier development programs at Honda, Nissan and Toyota are multipl e channels for supplier development to transfer both tacit and explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge is more difficult to accumulate as it needs closer interactions especially face to face with suppliers and more time thus it is difficult to replicate tacit knowledge (Clarke, 2007). In contrast to these companies in Japan, the suppliers in US and Europe distrust the buyers intention and also buyers dont have identical level of authenticity as in Japan to act as trusted well wisher who can suggest their suppliers how they should invest their resources (Sako, 2004). A recent study from Harvard school concluded that primary reason for declining USA competitiveness is that US companies invest less in supplier relations and development thus considering these points from Japan the supplier development was adopted in Eastern countries like UK and USA (Monnczka, Trent, Callahan, 1993). Supplier development activities were transferred to USA as buying firms commissioned their own plants in USA due to government regulations. By 1996 General Motors had completed supplier development projects with over 2000 suppliers and claimed productivity improvements over 50%, lead time reduction of up to 75% and inventory reduction of 70% (Hartley Choi, Supplier development: Customers as a catalyst of process change, 1996), (Clarke, 2007). By 2001 John Deere was involved in 426 different projects with 92 different supplier development engineer and delivering annual saving of $700,000 along with improvements in quality, cost and delivery. By 1994, Allied-Signal expe cted to save up to $300,000 from supplier development activities and also expected for increase in shares price (Monnczka, Trent, Callahan, 1993). At Deere and Delphi, a $100,000 investment in supplier development yields at least three to ten times the original investment (Nelson, Moody, Stegner, 2005). This illustrates that large firms adopted supplier development and it became strategic tool for them to improve quality, reduce cost and improve the delivery. The basic development process started with reduction in supplier base and then developing the remaining suppliers. Also it was adopted in service based companies from product based companies. But more focus was on the product based companies. Service based relies on the competitive pressure of market forces instigate supplier performance to a greater extent than product based firms and that then to use. In UK most companies rationalized or optimized their supple base to include fewer total suppliers. Western countries were no t getting involved in direct supplier development; Japanese companies were successful because they were involved in direct supplier development. Toyota is purchasing product from the same supplier since 1937. GM adopted this strategic supplier development in Europe. Motorola and Ford also adopted similar kind of supplier development Countries and large firms started to realize the benefits of supplier development, they recognized that supplier development must be worth if its emerging everywhere in Japan. From the national perspective, benefits of supplier development were improvement in domestic suppliers, reduction in off shoring and increase in GDP (Krause Ellram, 1997). From the corporate and large firm perspective, supplier development helped in improving quality, reliability and manufacturability of new design. Besides that supplier development also helped in knowledge sharing and improved collaboration. Furthermore responsiveness to customer needs and market dynamics also increased with supplier development (Krause Ellram, 1997). The data gathered with 527 purchasing executives by (Krause D. R., Supplier development: Current practices and outcomes, 1997) revealed that supplier development attributed to timely delivery, completed orders, reduction in defects scrap and reduced order cycle time. Research by (Blonska, Rozemeijer, Wetzels) established that supplier development guide towards getting a preferential buyer status and supplier adaptability. Supplier adaptation is perceived as an attainment of a goal of supplier development aimed at supplier performance improvement (Blonska, Rozemeijer, Wetzels). With help of two in depth case studies (Reed Walsh, 2002) established that supplier development activities enhance technological capabilities in their suppliers. Also some of the firms expected technological improvement should follow from improved business processes. Supplier development also helped in developing mutual trust in between buyers and suppliers (Reed Walsh, 2002). As mentioned earlier this increase in reliance was due to improvement in performance after implementing supplier development program. BMW strives to be 20% above industry average in quality performance. Management believed supplier development made it possible to attain that quality standard and increase in revenue (Rhodes, Warren, Carter, 2006). Also in Honda dramatic improvement was seen in product quality since Honda began to develop suppliers in North America, In 1985 quality level was 7000 parts defective per million and In 1995 quality level was increased to 100 defective parts per million (Berlow, 1995). A team of purchasing professionals from Honda of America worked with 12 stamping suppliers to reduce cost by $4million in six months in 1995 with its supplier development efforts (Berlow, 1995). In the context of supplier development, suppliers and buyers state that they want to practice more supplier development methods to enjoy its benefits but there are myriads of barriers that hinder the effective supplier development strategies. Research by (Lascelles Dale, 1989) utilizing survey responses from UK based suppliers to 3 major customers in automotive industry illustrated that poor communication and feedback, unstructured quality improvement programs, credibility of buyers, misconception regarding purchasing power and supplier satisfaction are the foremost barriers in the supplier development programs. Also in an empirical study with 89 minority goods and service providers (Krause, Ragatz, Hughley, Supplier development from the minority suppliers perspective, 1999) demonstrated that the main barriers towards minority owned supplier development are poor communication, non-profit situation and racial biases. Results also indicated that small minority owned suppliers were le ss positive about supplier development activities as compared to large minority owned suppliers (Novak, 2008). Survey by (Handfield, Krause, Scannel, Monczka, 2000) on supplier development strategies with 84 companies established several other barriers apart from already mentioned that deter supplier development strategies. It includes Lack of supplier commitment, insufficient supplier resources, lack of trust, and poor alignment of organizational cultures, unsupportive upper management and insufficient inducement to suppliers. Research by (McDuffie Helper, 1997) established that supplier development might fail if suppliers are not having a strong identification or if suppliers are not dependent on buyers. It will show the way to break down in learning relationship. Another major barrier towards supplier development program found from research by (Forker, Ruch, Hershauer, 1999) is difference between perceptions of buyer and suppliers about supplier development practices. These di fferences in perception are due to disparity in understanding in preference, intention, and process of supplier development program (Forker, Ruch, Hershauer, 1999). Supplier might agree initially for the proposal but later fail to implement due to difference in understanding. This problem can be cured with the help of clarification of issues. Researchers came up with number of conceptual models for building solutions to overcome these barriers. A ten step generic process model was developed based on the examination of in-depth response to open ended survey questions. Such a model was a step towards strategic supplier development. It was ranging from identification of critical commodities for development to systematically instituting ongoing continuous improvement. The model also suggested proposition that firms competing in markets characterized by high rates of technological changes and high level of competition are more likely to be involved with this model (Krause, Handfield, Scannell, An empirical investigation of supplier development: reactive and strategic processes, 1998). This model was slightly changed by proposition of seven steps generic model (Handfield, Krause, Scannel, Monczka, 2000). Also it was found most organization deployed first three steps but was less successful in deploying later stages. Similar t o previous model a process oriented four step generic supplier development model was proposed. This model was designed to help suppliers sustain and continue the change process and effectively build the capability for improvement within the organization (Hartley Jones, Process oriented supplier development: Building the capability for change, 1997). This model also increases the suppliers capability to act on its own and the improvement effort will continue once the buying firm finishes its activities (Wagner S. M., 2006). Also supplier structure was developed on the basis of specific vendor development strategy. Conceptual link was generated in between generic business unit strategies based on framework proposed by Porter and generic supplier development strategies, in other words linkage between supplier development strategies and company strategies (Chakraborty Philip, 1996). Execution of case study of five firms by (Dunn Young, 2004) results in a process model that enables th e buyers to pinpoint specific areas where improvement is required. Highlighting these small areas can impact on long term strategic supplier development initiatives. A review of the conceptual model and context of supplier development resulted in the identification of several elements that appear to be critical to the success of the supplier development program. These comprise of effective and enhanced communication, supplier commitment, top management involvement, strategic processing and long term commitment and supplier recognition/rewards (Krause Ellram, 1997). Background What is supplier development, why is the supplier development critical, what made this required to study and how the factors might affect the supplier development? Big things happen when you do little things right (Don, 2000). In this case if small generic steps for supplier development are deployed correctly then it can contribute towards success in supplier development. (Handfield, Krause, Scannel, Monczka, 2000) Developed seven step generic process map for set up supplier development activities. These are recognized as (a) Identify critical commodities (b) Identify critical supplies (c) Form a cross functional team (d) Meet with supplier top management (e) Identify key project (f) Define details of agreement and (g) Monitor status and monitor strategies. A discussion of each as follows. Identify critical commodities and suppliers Upper management involvement is vital to assess the relative importance of commodities and services procured by business unit. A corporate level executive committee analyzes the purchasing portfolio developed during strategic process. This analysis is extension of company strategic planning (Handfield, Krause, Scannel, Monczka, 2000). As a result critical commodities are identified and warranted for supplier development activities. Steps adopted here are mainly observed in strategic approach supplier development where in reactive approach respondents skip this step in supplier development process (Krause, Handfield, Scannell, An empirical investigation of supplier development: reactive and strategic processes, 1998). Choosing which supplier to develop is a critical task again because supplier development involves resources such as money and time, thus the decision should be strategic not reactive (Gordon, 2008). (Handfield, Krause, Scannel, Monczka, 2000). Many situations exist which are not mutually exclusive but warrant supplier development. To decide which situation needs supplier development is calculated judgment. Companies have formal supplier measurement system with help of which they assess suppliers performance. If any gap is found in measured and expected results, these suppliers are identified for development process where in reactive approach respondent skip this step in supplier development activities (Krause, Handfield, Scannell, An empirical investigation of supplier development: reactive and strategic processes, 1998). Also buying firm carefully evaluates suppliers quality, volume, delivery cost performance, launch readiness and potential kaizen opportunities to identify a prosp ective supplier development program (Novak, 2008). Hence, Strategic processing and upper management involvement have significant influence on the outcome of this first step of supplier development-identifying critical commodities and suppliers. These two will be among the variable of interest in the research thesis. Form a cross functional team Each firm must develop their suppliers according to their requirement. For example, some firms need managerial assistance and some need technical assistance. Thus it is essential to evaluate each supplier individually to create a plan that benefits both supplier and buyer (Daghfous, Campa, Hamde, 2008). As a result to face this complex challenge of developing dissimilar suppliers, innovative ideas are required to break down knowledge barrier between buyers and suppliers and to facilitate a transition of knowledge transfer from buyers to suppliers, a cross functional team is necessary to form (Blindenbacj-Driessen, 2009). Before approaching suppliers and ask for enhanced performance, it is also important to build up cross functional consensus and build up their own house before expecting commitment from suppliers (Monczka, Handfield, Glunipero, Patterson, 2009). In particular commitment of buyers and strategic approach is essential for buildup of cross functional consensus. Also a b uyer must establish its supply chain strategies and roles of procurement so that the business objectives are clear. Hence, Commitment and strategic process have significant influence on the outcome on creation of cross functional team. Therefore, these two will be among the variable of interest in the research thesis. Meet with supplier top management Upper management involvement again prevails but this time it is of suppliers side. Cross functional team must meet upper management of supplier side and establishes stra Analysis of Supplier Development Strategies Analysis of Supplier Development Strategies ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS Any activity undertaken by a buying firm to improve supplier performance, supplier capabilities, or both and to meet the buying firms short and/or long term supply needs can be termed as supplier development activity. A study by the Harvard Business School concluded that a primary reason for declining US competitiveness is that US companies invest less than foreign rivals in intangible investments such as supplier development. Half of the companies fail in this supplier development effort if executed. As supplier development help in increasing competitiveness and is not successful every time if implemented, it is essential to examine supplier development and factors which result towards the success of supplier development. This paper will examine aspects associated with the success of supplier development strategies within different set of industry. This research will put forward a specific set of aspects are significant contributors to supplier development; also this paper will show that some factors of supplier development have significant influence on other factors of supplier development. Data from the population of buyers and suppliers will be collected to test the extent of relationship between significant factors and success of supplier development process. Agreement was noted between dependencies of success of supplier development process on several factors. Recommendations to supply managers and purchasing manager will be provided regarding upper management involvement, enhanced communication with their suppliers, recognition of their suppliers and development of strategic processing instead of reactive processing will be offered. chapter 1 introduction This thesis is a report of ethnographic study of critical factors for supplier development strategies. The study was based primarily upon the survey with supplier development managers and professionals involved in this field. This first chapter of the thesis will discuss the context of the study, intention of the study, describe the importance and will present the overview of the methodology used. Background of Study A global economy is emerging and resources are concentrated on core business rather than the diversification which show the way towards outsourcing. Outsourcing is increased from $91 billion to $416 billion in 20 years (Tunstall, 2002), and it is expected to increase further. In 2009 the value of outsourcing deals in logistics area were projected to $ 80 billion (Hyatt, 2009) which shows the intensity of use of suppliers. Due to this voluminous use of suppliers buying companies have to rely on their suppliers to deliver defect free product in a timely and cost effective manner. To compete in their respective markets, buying firm must ensure that their supplier capability equals the expectations (Krause Ellram, Success factors in supplier development, 1997). When a supplier is incapable of meeting the buying firms need the buying firm has three alternatives: (1) Bring the outsourced item in house and produce it internally, (2) Resource with a more capable supplier, (3) Help improve t he existing suppliers capabilities. All the three strategies can work. (Handfield, Krause, Scannel, Monczka, 2000). Supplier development is defined as Any effort of a buying firm with its supplier to increase the performance and capabilities of the supplier and meet the buying firms supply needs. (Krause Ellram, Critical elements of supplier development, 1997) When the suppliers are innovative and exclusively supplying a product then the supplier development option comes into the picture. When a company is using a supplier, it is necessary to have a good relationship with them. The Harvard research suggested that supplier development started very late in USA but it was started very long ago in the Japan. Toyota, Honda and Nissan implemented these supplier development activities in their plants a long back. Although similar research has been done previously, the theme of research was same but this new research is capable to generate new knowledge , First the populations is different and for the variety of reasons they will be having different opinions and attitudes than the previous cohort . There might be a different type of interaction in between me and those to which will generate the new idea, the sample data is from different set of industry and places so the research context will be totally different from the previous researches. Even the subject might be same but the contextual issues are very different. The Problem Statement Supplier development requires both supplier and buyer to commit their maximum to get the maximum out of the program. Even though both the sides agree that the commitment is required it is not necessary that supplier development program in which they are involved will be successful. In early 90s companies start reducing the number of direct suppliers and began evolving from adversarial relationships to more cooperative ones with the remaining suppliers. (Hartley Choi, 1996), Approximate one-third projects are failed due to suppliers underperformance. So the success in the supplier development is not a foregone conclusion. Supplier development is considered as a long term business strategy and there are various factors which affects this long term strategy. These factors not only affect the end result of supplier development process but also influence each other. This research tried to establish the critical success factors for supplier development and their inter-relationship with ea ch other. Regression models approach helped to develop the interrelationship among critical success factors. Anyone especially supplier development manager and procurement professional can refer the model over the wide range of circumstances and structure. The main objective of the research paper is to create the model for critical success factors for supplier development strategies. Professional Significance Large number of companies does the supplier development and they fail as well at surprising rate. Not all supplier development initiatives are successful in fact, as many as 50% are not successful, due to poor implementation and follow-up. (Handfield R. , 2002) The failed efforts consume tremendous amount of resources over months or even years. As multiple studies have shown over half of the supplier initiatives fails. This failure takes a toll that is not only financial but also psychological. Failure demoralizes employees who have been labored diligently to complete their share of the work. As the supplier development success factors depends on both the parties so a dedicated study is required to find out what factors make the supplier development process a success. In 2000, according to the study 53% of the companies claimed that they are involved in the supplier development program but it was found that only 20% of the companies are contributing for the financial support for the suppliers and only 14% of the companies are putting their employees in the suppliers place for the development purpose. Eleven percentages of the companies are giving the chance to the suppliers to come at the buyers place and learn. Only 11% of the companies are having the formal program for supplier development, others are doing it without any of the formal program. (Anonymous, 2000). It shows that even though companies are involved in supplier development program but not fully implementing in an appropriate way. In General Motors, after implementation of supplier development program supplier productivity was improved 50%, lead time was reduced by 75%, and inventory reduction happened around 70% during their one week workshops. On one project alone, Honda of Americas Best Practices (BP) team reduced a suppliers costs by more than $200,000 per year by changing the layout of a welding process. Furthermore layout change might increase the efficiency of supplier and ultimately give advantage to buying company. (Hartley Choi, 1996). Also one of the purchasing pro for a power tool producer said that in three years of developing suppliers, his company has seen quality rejects fall from 38.4% down to 0.5% while supplier on-time delivery has risen from 76% to 97.5%. Likewise, another proponent of supplier development cites an average supplier quality metric of 98.5% and on-time supplier delivery at 97%. They claimed to have improved quality, response time, prices and cycle time improvements, The VP f or a major California-based computer maker talks about how assistance from his firm allowed one subassembly supplier to ramp up to 50,000 pieces per month in only six weeks. (Anonymous, 2000).Although it took only 6 weeks to ramp up the production but usually supplier development is very time consuming and long process which consumes plenty of resources, so it is very much required to do it correct first time. To get the results mentioned above -$200,000 saving /year it is essential to learn what are the success contributors and failure contributors of supplier development. Overview of Methodology A structured survey questionnaire with five-point Likert scale was developed. Web and email were used to circulate and gather information regarding what group of supplier development professionals thinks about supplier development activities. Survey was divided in 6 small sections and every section was having 3 questions. Total of 20 questions were mailed to random sample of 300 supplier development professionals. The survey solicited about a single instance of supplier development performed by them. Survey was face validated and content validated with the help of thesis chair and committee. Of 300 surveys circulated 50 usable responses were obtained, which provides the perception of large group of supplier development manger regarding the nature of their supplier development project. The responding population represents a wide range of industry types. Also before e-mail survey set of interviews with supplier development managers was conducted. The interview was designed to validate the success factors collected after reviewing literature review and to help focus on reliable, important success factors which have extremely high control on supplier development success. Delimitation The research study was conducted at San Diego State University during the end of the fall semester-2009. This research was limited to supplier development manager who updated their resume on resume bank. This research was limited to professionals in North America continent to reduce cultural differences within the population used in the study. Multiple Regression model was used to prove the interdependency in between critical factors instead structural equation modeling. Survey instrument was developed with the help of existing instruments. This will allow us to compare new results with the old results. This research was limited to 3 questions per factor to keep instrument short. chapter 2 literature review This chapter will review the past researches that serves as the foundation for the thesis report presented. The research papers are basically associated with critical factors associated with success of supplier development. The research paper will present purpose and rationale for writing research paper on supplier development strategies. Following will be the review of literature on Strategic process, Upper management involvement, Supplier recognition, Effective and enhanced communication and commitment of suppliers. The chapter will conclude with a summary of literature. Examples of the key word used while finding the scholar research papers were supplier development, supplier relationship, supplier evaluation, supplier management, supply chain management and buyer-supplier relationship. Combinations of keywords were used to get different research papers. Search engine used during literature search were SDSU library search engine and Google scholar. (Ekholm Pashei, 2009). Past Literature First document application of supplier development comes from Toyota in 1939. Toyota discussed the need of working together with suppliers to improve collective performance. Thereafter in 1963 Nissan implemented first supplier development project, Honda joined the club in 1973 (Monczka, Handfield, Glunipero, Patterson, 2009). It is essential to understand the significance of each factor and the role it plays in supplier development process. Past researches can be categorized in (a) Theoretical, (b) Conceptual, (c) Empirical, (d) Conceptual and Empirical. Table 1 gives the brief of past literature which were identified. Previous to mid 1990s, the supplier development literature consisted mainly of theoretical studies covering cases of several companies and surveys and the purpose was to learn the barriers which comes in the way of supplier development. In 1990s the research moved towards establishing relationship in between various supplier development constructs where in 2000 the re search moved towards influence of supplier development towards innovation and purchasing strategy (Easton, 2000). In todays business increased trend of reliance on supplier is observed. Most of the buying firms need to pursue aggressive strategies in order to increase the future rate of capabilities improvement. (Monnczka, Trent, Callahan, 1993) Having mentioned that supplier is becoming increasingly critical to the competitive success of US firms, there are several reasons behind that. First manufacturers are beginning to focus on their core competencies and areas of technical expertise. Second, developing effective supply base management strategies can help counter the competitive pressures brought about by intense worldwide competition. Third, Suppliers can support directly a firms ability to innovate in the critical areas of product and process technology. Study showed 95% of business unit sample indicated supplier contributions were increasing throughout in terms of importance. There was a 232% increase in people from 1989-1990 who agreed with the statement that suppliers are extremely imp ortant to the achievement of competitive market strategies. More and more people started to outsource and started rely on suppliers. There was a growth of 15% of people from 1991-1992. Furthermore for each sample period, respondent projected and increasing dependency on suppliers for future product technology. More and more companies started to use supplier development process. Some of them are HP, Epson, Apple Computer, 3M, and BMW etc. Strong belief is supplier warrants improvement. If improvement does not occur firms across many industries may lose market share to competitors who are able to maximize supplier performance input. Sample was non random so the result can be generalized. Thus the trend is towards increasing reliance on supplier to help achieve competitive market strategies. This reliance on suppliers and improving their performance was initially documented from Toyota in 1939. Toyota discussed the need of working together with suppliers to improve collective performan ce. Thereafter in 1963 Nissan implemented first supplier development project, Honda joined the club in 1973 (Monczka, Handfield, Glunipero, Patterson, 2009). Supplier development was ubiquitous in Japan and Korea for number of years but less evident in US firms due to perceived lack of instant return on investment allied with setting up resources required to make it successful. Interestingly this practice was recognized early in the 1900 in the US automotive industry when Ford required improving supplier capacity (Krause, Handfield, Tyler, The relationships between supplier development, commitment, social and capital accumulation and performance improvement, 2006). In 1970s other Japanese automakers implemented the system and made their own modification like Honda developed a program called BP (Best practices). Review of case studies by (Sako, 2004) allowed examining differences in between supplier development activity in Toyota, Nissan and Honda. In 1939, Toyota purchasing rules stated that- Toyota suppliers must be treated as a Toyota branches and Toyota must continue to do business with these suppliers without switching to others and also develop the suppliers if required. Toyota bifurcated supplier development activities into TPS (Toyota Production System) and TQC (Total Quality Control). TPS was having different existence from TQC which allowed suppliers to take advantage of continuous improvement. Hyundai also realized that their small suppliers cannot again and again recruit engineers thus they sent engineers from their own shops to improve suppliers productivity. Hyundai do not financially support their suppliers but offer personnel support (Handfield, Krause, Scannel, Monczka, 2000). Nissan also implemented supplier development program which were significantly different from Toyota in the terms of number of point of contacts for suppliers, approach towards sharing the ideas and one to one training strategy during program. Honda and Nissan unified the TPS and TQC offering a single point of contact (Sako, 2004). The common features of the supplier development programs at Honda, Nissan and Toyota are multipl e channels for supplier development to transfer both tacit and explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge is more difficult to accumulate as it needs closer interactions especially face to face with suppliers and more time thus it is difficult to replicate tacit knowledge (Clarke, 2007). In contrast to these companies in Japan, the suppliers in US and Europe distrust the buyers intention and also buyers dont have identical level of authenticity as in Japan to act as trusted well wisher who can suggest their suppliers how they should invest their resources (Sako, 2004). A recent study from Harvard school concluded that primary reason for declining USA competitiveness is that US companies invest less in supplier relations and development thus considering these points from Japan the supplier development was adopted in Eastern countries like UK and USA (Monnczka, Trent, Callahan, 1993). Supplier development activities were transferred to USA as buying firms commissioned their own plants in USA due to government regulations. By 1996 General Motors had completed supplier development projects with over 2000 suppliers and claimed productivity improvements over 50%, lead time reduction of up to 75% and inventory reduction of 70% (Hartley Choi, Supplier development: Customers as a catalyst of process change, 1996), (Clarke, 2007). By 2001 John Deere was involved in 426 different projects with 92 different supplier development engineer and delivering annual saving of $700,000 along with improvements in quality, cost and delivery. By 1994, Allied-Signal expe cted to save up to $300,000 from supplier development activities and also expected for increase in shares price (Monnczka, Trent, Callahan, 1993). At Deere and Delphi, a $100,000 investment in supplier development yields at least three to ten times the original investment (Nelson, Moody, Stegner, 2005). This illustrates that large firms adopted supplier development and it became strategic tool for them to improve quality, reduce cost and improve the delivery. The basic development process started with reduction in supplier base and then developing the remaining suppliers. Also it was adopted in service based companies from product based companies. But more focus was on the product based companies. Service based relies on the competitive pressure of market forces instigate supplier performance to a greater extent than product based firms and that then to use. In UK most companies rationalized or optimized their supple base to include fewer total suppliers. Western countries were no t getting involved in direct supplier development; Japanese companies were successful because they were involved in direct supplier development. Toyota is purchasing product from the same supplier since 1937. GM adopted this strategic supplier development in Europe. Motorola and Ford also adopted similar kind of supplier development Countries and large firms started to realize the benefits of supplier development, they recognized that supplier development must be worth if its emerging everywhere in Japan. From the national perspective, benefits of supplier development were improvement in domestic suppliers, reduction in off shoring and increase in GDP (Krause Ellram, 1997). From the corporate and large firm perspective, supplier development helped in improving quality, reliability and manufacturability of new design. Besides that supplier development also helped in knowledge sharing and improved collaboration. Furthermore responsiveness to customer needs and market dynamics also increased with supplier development (Krause Ellram, 1997). The data gathered with 527 purchasing executives by (Krause D. R., Supplier development: Current practices and outcomes, 1997) revealed that supplier development attributed to timely delivery, completed orders, reduction in defects scrap and reduced order cycle time. Research by (Blonska, Rozemeijer, Wetzels) established that supplier development guide towards getting a preferential buyer status and supplier adaptability. Supplier adaptation is perceived as an attainment of a goal of supplier development aimed at supplier performance improvement (Blonska, Rozemeijer, Wetzels). With help of two in depth case studies (Reed Walsh, 2002) established that supplier development activities enhance technological capabilities in their suppliers. Also some of the firms expected technological improvement should follow from improved business processes. Supplier development also helped in developing mutual trust in between buyers and suppliers (Reed Walsh, 2002). As mentioned earlier this increase in reliance was due to improvement in performance after implementing supplier development program. BMW strives to be 20% above industry average in quality performance. Management believed supplier development made it possible to attain that quality standard and increase in revenue (Rhodes, Warren, Carter, 2006). Also in Honda dramatic improvement was seen in product quality since Honda began to develop suppliers in North America, In 1985 quality level was 7000 parts defective per million and In 1995 quality level was increased to 100 defective parts per million (Berlow, 1995). A team of purchasing professionals from Honda of America worked with 12 stamping suppliers to reduce cost by $4million in six months in 1995 with its supplier development efforts (Berlow, 1995). In the context of supplier development, suppliers and buyers state that they want to practice more supplier development methods to enjoy its benefits but there are myriads of barriers that hinder the effective supplier development strategies. Research by (Lascelles Dale, 1989) utilizing survey responses from UK based suppliers to 3 major customers in automotive industry illustrated that poor communication and feedback, unstructured quality improvement programs, credibility of buyers, misconception regarding purchasing power and supplier satisfaction are the foremost barriers in the supplier development programs. Also in an empirical study with 89 minority goods and service providers (Krause, Ragatz, Hughley, Supplier development from the minority suppliers perspective, 1999) demonstrated that the main barriers towards minority owned supplier development are poor communication, non-profit situation and racial biases. Results also indicated that small minority owned suppliers were le ss positive about supplier development activities as compared to large minority owned suppliers (Novak, 2008). Survey by (Handfield, Krause, Scannel, Monczka, 2000) on supplier development strategies with 84 companies established several other barriers apart from already mentioned that deter supplier development strategies. It includes Lack of supplier commitment, insufficient supplier resources, lack of trust, and poor alignment of organizational cultures, unsupportive upper management and insufficient inducement to suppliers. Research by (McDuffie Helper, 1997) established that supplier development might fail if suppliers are not having a strong identification or if suppliers are not dependent on buyers. It will show the way to break down in learning relationship. Another major barrier towards supplier development program found from research by (Forker, Ruch, Hershauer, 1999) is difference between perceptions of buyer and suppliers about supplier development practices. These di fferences in perception are due to disparity in understanding in preference, intention, and process of supplier development program (Forker, Ruch, Hershauer, 1999). Supplier might agree initially for the proposal but later fail to implement due to difference in understanding. This problem can be cured with the help of clarification of issues. Researchers came up with number of conceptual models for building solutions to overcome these barriers. A ten step generic process model was developed based on the examination of in-depth response to open ended survey questions. Such a model was a step towards strategic supplier development. It was ranging from identification of critical commodities for development to systematically instituting ongoing continuous improvement. The model also suggested proposition that firms competing in markets characterized by high rates of technological changes and high level of competition are more likely to be involved with this model (Krause, Handfield, Scannell, An empirical investigation of supplier development: reactive and strategic processes, 1998). This model was slightly changed by proposition of seven steps generic model (Handfield, Krause, Scannel, Monczka, 2000). Also it was found most organization deployed first three steps but was less successful in deploying later stages. Similar t o previous model a process oriented four step generic supplier development model was proposed. This model was designed to help suppliers sustain and continue the change process and effectively build the capability for improvement within the organization (Hartley Jones, Process oriented supplier development: Building the capability for change, 1997). This model also increases the suppliers capability to act on its own and the improvement effort will continue once the buying firm finishes its activities (Wagner S. M., 2006). Also supplier structure was developed on the basis of specific vendor development strategy. Conceptual link was generated in between generic business unit strategies based on framework proposed by Porter and generic supplier development strategies, in other words linkage between supplier development strategies and company strategies (Chakraborty Philip, 1996). Execution of case study of five firms by (Dunn Young, 2004) results in a process model that enables th e buyers to pinpoint specific areas where improvement is required. Highlighting these small areas can impact on long term strategic supplier development initiatives. A review of the conceptual model and context of supplier development resulted in the identification of several elements that appear to be critical to the success of the supplier development program. These comprise of effective and enhanced communication, supplier commitment, top management involvement, strategic processing and long term commitment and supplier recognition/rewards (Krause Ellram, 1997). Background What is supplier development, why is the supplier development critical, what made this required to study and how the factors might affect the supplier development? Big things happen when you do little things right (Don, 2000). In this case if small generic steps for supplier development are deployed correctly then it can contribute towards success in supplier development. (Handfield, Krause, Scannel, Monczka, 2000) Developed seven step generic process map for set up supplier development activities. These are recognized as (a) Identify critical commodities (b) Identify critical supplies (c) Form a cross functional team (d) Meet with supplier top management (e) Identify key project (f) Define details of agreement and (g) Monitor status and monitor strategies. A discussion of each as follows. Identify critical commodities and suppliers Upper management involvement is vital to assess the relative importance of commodities and services procured by business unit. A corporate level executive committee analyzes the purchasing portfolio developed during strategic process. This analysis is extension of company strategic planning (Handfield, Krause, Scannel, Monczka, 2000). As a result critical commodities are identified and warranted for supplier development activities. Steps adopted here are mainly observed in strategic approach supplier development where in reactive approach respondents skip this step in supplier development process (Krause, Handfield, Scannell, An empirical investigation of supplier development: reactive and strategic processes, 1998). Choosing which supplier to develop is a critical task again because supplier development involves resources such as money and time, thus the decision should be strategic not reactive (Gordon, 2008). (Handfield, Krause, Scannel, Monczka, 2000). Many situations exist which are not mutually exclusive but warrant supplier development. To decide which situation needs supplier development is calculated judgment. Companies have formal supplier measurement system with help of which they assess suppliers performance. If any gap is found in measured and expected results, these suppliers are identified for development process where in reactive approach respondent skip this step in supplier development activities (Krause, Handfield, Scannell, An empirical investigation of supplier development: reactive and strategic processes, 1998). Also buying firm carefully evaluates suppliers quality, volume, delivery cost performance, launch readiness and potential kaizen opportunities to identify a prosp ective supplier development program (Novak, 2008). Hence, Strategic processing and upper management involvement have significant influence on the outcome of this first step of supplier development-identifying critical commodities and suppliers. These two will be among the variable of interest in the research thesis. Form a cross functional team Each firm must develop their suppliers according to their requirement. For example, some firms need managerial assistance and some need technical assistance. Thus it is essential to evaluate each supplier individually to create a plan that benefits both supplier and buyer (Daghfous, Campa, Hamde, 2008). As a result to face this complex challenge of developing dissimilar suppliers, innovative ideas are required to break down knowledge barrier between buyers and suppliers and to facilitate a transition of knowledge transfer from buyers to suppliers, a cross functional team is necessary to form (Blindenbacj-Driessen, 2009). Before approaching suppliers and ask for enhanced performance, it is also important to build up cross functional consensus and build up their own house before expecting commitment from suppliers (Monczka, Handfield, Glunipero, Patterson, 2009). In particular commitment of buyers and strategic approach is essential for buildup of cross functional consensus. Also a b uyer must establish its supply chain strategies and roles of procurement so that the business objectives are clear. Hence, Commitment and strategic process have significant influence on the outcome on creation of cross functional team. Therefore, these two will be among the variable of interest in the research thesis. Meet with supplier top management Upper management involvement again prevails but this time it is of suppliers side. Cross functional team must meet upper management of supplier side and establishes stra