Friday, March 13, 2020

Haniel Corporate Strategy And Corporate Responsibility Essays

Haniel Corporate Strategy And Corporate Responsibility Essays Haniel Corporate Strategy And Corporate Responsibility Essay Haniel Corporate Strategy And Corporate Responsibility Essay Corporate strategy is an important planning process within a company that links strategies with functions of corporation. Nowadays, social responsibility has developed rapidly and corporations are pressured to do their part in conserving social, economic and environment. Handel is now in the verge of integrating its social responsibilities into its corporate strategies for the group. Part of this process can be derived and analyzed from the case study which I have extracted to explain below. Handel is a family owned international corporation that has an ownership of ever 600 family members. Handel has Strong desire for low risk investment and had been looking for ways to diversify its current portfolio. At present, as a family run company, the family has decided to let outsiders to run the operation in order to be transparent on corporate governance and at the same time maximizing shareholder wealth. I think the management first challenge is to face Handels big group of diverse shareholders. Each shareholder will have different perspectives and references. As Handel employs external managers to run the business, the external team still needs o meet the shareholders demand from the shareholders meeting. Diversity of shareholders maybe resulted in many different objectives the shareholders wanted to deliberate, discuss or to be agreed and carried forward by the management. Sorting out the shareholders need and wants in accordance to priorities is already a huge challenge. : Engaging these shareholders to derive a clear policy on strategies is another challenge. Family members who are shareholders only meet at the shareholder meeting for briefing and finalizing several policies and time factor is the main constraint. Challenge can be observed from financial perspective. Handel commonly gives 25% of the Groups annual net income to family members. Family members are only accepted to sell or transfer Handel shares to each other to maintain the family owned corporation. This clause will under all circumstances plough away certain proportion of the profit from reinvestment in business. This clause also has made the matter worst when financial results showed reduction of profits and cash flow for the last few years. The financial overview as shown in the financial report highlighted poor performance from investments, dividends, profitability and cash flow etc. These challenges also lead to the management to seek diversification of its current projects to cut risks. Diversified and restructured portfolios are the aims given to its management. However, diversification will lead Handel to face another challenge for management as they need to source out for the right investment and business for entire Handel Group. This challenge is made more difficult in the poor global economic performance recently, and Handels team needed to handpick the right company for investment. As Handel now favors more small but innovative company who has yet to make its mark in the market, the worrying question is how many of them can really succeed. Handel is a family owned corporation, so it generally considers as safe investments and the managements have been avoiding venture capitalists. But in doing so, the management needs more attention to divest their investment in smaller investments and extensive monitoring, staffing and meeting may be required. Ill. THE ALIGNMENT OF HANDELS CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY STRATEGY AND CORPORATE STRATEGY Corporate responsibility and sustainability are both important roles for Handel to achieve higher competitive advantages in market. Corporate social responsibility seems a fundamental component of corporate strategy. It reflects that Handel focuses on its stakeholder and strategy. Through Handels survey, corporate social responsibility was regarded as a significant strategy for Handel Group where business life cycle Were observed, divisions played the importance of sustainability leading to an increase of media attention. Besides, Handel has five divisions that have different regional focus, business models and value chains. Each division also has individual corporate responsibility activities. Lately, Handel creates an umbrella function to take into account the new corporate responsibility for combine the adjustment of the business portfolio. The new corporate responsibility is a common corporate responsibility strategy and an explicit framework which can be aligned by adopting a common Handel value. Handel combined corporate strategy with corporate responsibility strategy rooted by Christian ethics and characterized by the representation of the respectable salesman. A common value will help to share common understanding between corporate strategic planning and corporate social responsibility planning. At the end of 2008 Handel created small team at the corporate center to align the corporate strategy with the development of the corporate accessibility strategy. This activity applied triple bottom line on Handels main corporation strategy which wanted the group to look into ups (product, planet and profitability), where product and planet belongs to corporate social responsibility. Handel harmonize the needs of environment, customers and company by applying corporate responsibility to corporate activities along the value chain and beyond the value chain. Handel Group Conference managed the corporate responsibility strategies reflected by the annual top management meeting. Finally, Handel has the Sustainability Council to ensure that corporate responsibility and corporate social responsibility are both aligned and systematically implemented. Handel is also aware of the understanding Of the sustainability strategy which gives benefits for stakeholders in order to align with its corporate strategy in long term goal such as expandable market consumption. IV. MEASURING INDICATOR FOR HANDEL Each division has different structures and roles but divisions can work together to focus on sustainable business. Handels corporate responsibility strategy follows people-planet-profit approach (UP). Therefore, I think this treated can be measured by the criteria of Global Reporting Initiative (GRID). GRID 3. 1 is the current tool for guidelines in preparing the report for sustainability. The criteria of GRID 3. 1 are used to evaluate Handels corporate responsibility strategy performance. I detect the ups strategy above will link to employees (appendix 1), added value chain (appendix 2), innovation (appendix 3) and charitable efforts. According to Labor Practices and Decent Work in GRID 3. 1, Handel improves internal education options introduced by an international management system. This system provides for employee raining (LAB, 10). Environmental and safety standards are also to be raised. Handel identifies potential sources of risk to avoid accidents (49). Next, Handel gives benefits of pensions for employees in order to make a good work-life balance (ALAI). Additionally, environment is an important issue nowadays; therefore, Handel understands to protect resources. The holding company provides a green car policy to reduce CA limitation (KNEE). Employees who take company car not only save money for yearly railways ticket but also contribute to their private pension. Green car policy is friendly tit environment (EN) in order to decrease fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emission (EN 18). Through Handels innovation, it optimizes sustainable balance and business model on service logistics, the recycling of raw materials, expansion of green products and transparency in the supply chain. These innovations support Handel to get customers satisfaction by reducing service trips. Handel also promotes human environmental awareness by recycling scraps. Handel focuses on global technical solutions (I. E. The product category of fish) by working with industry partners to prevent illegal behaviors (I. E. Legal fishing). Besides, Handel has contributions to society and economy (SEC 1 Handel has donations to schools and hospitals (I. E. In Disturb-Router). Handel also provides voluntary social benefits (I. E. Workers housing estate and company health insurance). Furthermore, Handel has collaborations with universities to offer practical courses. Handel suppor ts regional education projects by awarding scholarships (OSI These are some contributions that Handel should sustain these activities to raise its corporate responsibility strategy. Final, Handel should refer on criteria of GRID 3. 1 to enhance corporate sustainability responsibility. V. HANDELS SUSTAINABILITY SCORECARD In 2010, Handel focused on sustainable business associated with MA activities may require to find a new tool to measure sustainability. A new tool should measure whether Handel has fulfilled then necessary criteria Of the UP model. At that time, the project team mentioned a public value scorecard that links UP model into five dimensional frameworks (instrumental, financial, economic, political-social, moral-ethical and hedonistic-aesthetic values). Handel used sustainability scorecard to address internal and external perspectives from different stakeholders. Here, simple questionnaires are provided to stakeholders to collect viewpoints in order to improve environmental sustainability. In addition, sustainability scorecard can measure the value of financial contribution. Handel estimates risks and costs in product lifestyle to eliminate waste in the supply chain. Scorecards are used by employees and customers to evaluate Handels performance footprint. Moreover, sustainability scorecard is a measurable instrument with regard to political, moral, hedonistic and utilitarian aspects. Handel uses scorecards such as surveys, assessment or codes of product to understand social perspectives. Thus, Handel can make suitable decisions with corporate responsibility strategy. Sustainability scorecard is a significant part of corporate social responsibility. In recent years, multinationals and government organizations are using sustainability scorecards to focus on both quality management and environmental change as both are becoming a serious issue. Hence, supplier scorecards have been issuing in accordance with quality management and social compliance. Handel can apply the scorecards as a sustainable tool to achieve community engagement and fair labor practices. The scorecards are seemed to provide feedbacks and can also be used as source for data collection from stakeholders to assess energy use and other emissions. Handels sustainability scorecard is a suitable tool to measure sustainability for elaborate comprehensive corporate strategy. VI. THEORIES ABOUT CORPORATE ATTITUDES TO CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY REPORTING Charles Handy emphasizes two main points concerning environmental and individual well-being. A business not only makes a profit but business is also expected to do something more and better. This activity becomes the actual justification for the business. Next, a company will get worse when it normally considers its employees as costs (not assets). The regularly purpose of a company is trying to minimize costs and grow assets. A good business is a community with a purpose, and a community is not something to be owned. According to Charles Handy. There are a lot of highly skilled employees, so they should be treated as assets. A good business should maintain and attract these employees to raise an efficient performance. Otherwise, Charles handy claimed that employees have contribution in production by their skills whilst stockholders have undistributed investments by their funds. Thus, a company is just fair when it pays dividends for both employees and stockholders. In fact, the company does not pay any dividends for employees and only provides more benefits of dividends for shareowner. A good company should create wealth community in workplaces to improve its performance. The company also base on the individual needs to engage its stakeholders. According to Muhammad Yuans, the purpose of social enterprises is trying to provide social responsibility to poor people who are in need of help, including revision of cheap price goods and services for poor people. A social business does not focus on profit minimization. It just serves products to everyone can use. Social enterprises provide products with cheap price to raise poor people at the bottom of the pyramid. This is also a strategy to branding and increase market consumption behavior (I. E. Deanne provides yogurt in Bangladesh). Besides, a social enterprise can reinvest what it earn in social business to increase facilities in order to provide jobs for employees in where it operates. Hence, poor people can improve their income in order to raise life level. Social business is not charity. It creates a system chain of making profits, reserving and recycling profits respectively to sustain its operation in meeting the objective of social responsibility. From Muhammad Yuans model to Charles Hands model, a corporation needs a social enterprise for balance in order to create new objectives. Social responsibility provides skills to employees organization as well as increases customers.

Saturday, March 7, 2020

ACT in 9th Grade

Should You Start Prepping for the SAT/ACT in 9th Grade SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips "Before anything else, preparation is the key to success." While Alexander Graham Bell may not have been referring specifically to the SAT or ACT, his words ring as true for these tests as for anythingelse. Scoring highly on the SAT/ACT is all about preparation, and luckily you have plenty of time to prepare if you start early. If you haven't started already, let's discuss some reasons why it's useful to start prepping as a freshman and the best ways for doing so. Why Are the SAT and ACT So Important? Most colleges require applicants to send their scores from the SAT or ACT. Colleges consider these two tests equally, so it's up to you to choose and determine which test will better strengthen your overall application. As college admissions get more and more competitive every year (sorry, but it's true!), a strong SAT/ACT score goes a long way toward making your application stand out among the thousands of other applicants. While your curriculum and experiences in schools may differ across the country and the world, the SAT/ACT are meant to test students on an equal playing field. Some schools have adopted test optional and test flexible policies, so you'll eventually want to make sure you're aware of your college's requirements. But it's safe to say the majority of you who are applying to 4-year schools will be taking the SAT or ACT. The SAT is considered to be more of a critical reasoning test that tests yourskills in math, writing, and reading comprehension and analysis. The ACT also has a math, English, and Reading section, but it additionally has a science section.The science section is almost more like critical reading than a science class pop quiz, which I'll explain in more detail below. Both of these tests cover material that you've learned over the years and skills you've developed by 9th grade. Before delving deeper into the content of the tests, let's discuss why test prep is so important for the SAT and ACT . Test Prep and the SAT/ACT While you gain knowledge and develop fundamental skills in and out of school, most students also must do a lot of focused, test-specific preparation to perform well on the SAT/ACT. This is because the tests are unique in the way they time you and ask questions, so you must pair strategy and specific time management skills with your knowledge and understanding. Through practice and studying, you can become familiar with the structure and types of questions in each section, how to best approach them, and what rules of math, grammar, and literary terms will be tested. You can figure out exactly how to read the SAT passages or the ACT passages with time to spare, what approaches will boost your score in math, and what exactly is tested on the ACT science section, to name a few examples. Rome wasn't built in a day, as they say, nor can you become an expert in the SAT or ACT overnight. Freshmangrade is the perfect time to start prepping for the SAT/ACT, reinforcing concepts you need to know, and taking official practice tests. If you're having trouble getting started, remember that you'll be doing Future You a favor. By taking time to prep now and diagnosing exactly where you need to improve, you'll be able to be more relaxed when you're in the thick of college applications and more intensive classes, like honors and AP classes. Junior Year You will really appreciate all the help you can give him/her now! So how can you start to prep? PrepScholar's online program offers customizable test prep that diagnoses your strengths and weaknesses, plans your study schedule, and keeps track of your progress along the way. This means that PrepScholardoesn't assume you're a junior in high school, but meets you atyour level. You can also start with SAT Questions of the Day and ACT Questions of the Day, which are a quick, easy, and convenient way to start getting familiar with the types of questions you'll see on the tests.You can find online sample questions on the College Board and ACT websites, as well as download and print official practice tests for the SAT and ACT. If you start studying now, you'll become an expert on the test by the time you register for your first test date. Not only will SAT/ACT test prep help you score high on these tests, it also will help reinforce what you're learning in school and may help you get better grades in your classes. Let's check out how the tests and your classwork line up. SAT/ACT and What You're Learning In School Even if you are just starting high school, you've already learned a lot of key skills and concepts that will help you on the SAT or ACT. You may not have encountered all the vocabulary or math concepts yet, but you probably know a lot more than you realize. Some students who wait until junior year actually feel like their classes have gotten more advanced than what they see on these tests, and they have to go back and review material from past years. By taking the time to prep now, you can really make sure you've reinforced this knowledge and have a clear sense of how you can apply it to one of the tests. Let's break down exactly what I mean by this in terms of each major subject. First, let's consider math. Math Somestudents have already taken an algebra class by the time they get to 9th grade, or are at least familiar with the related conceptsof a pre-algebra class. Algebra and geometry make up the majority of the math questions on the SAT, as well as on the ACT. The ACT gets a little more advanced by covering some trigonometry. As I mentioned above, some students are already in more advanced math classes by the time they take the SAT or ACT, like in pre-calculus or calculus, and mayhave gotten rusty with their algebra, geometry, and probability. Apart from reinforcing the concepts you already know with SAT/ACT practice problems, you can also get a headstart on 10th and th gradeby introducing yourself to new math concepts. You might find detailed explanations and practice problems that will help you learn these concepts independently of class, which can be especially helpful for students who work well on their own and want to set their own pace. If you're surprised that you already know a good deal of the math you'll need to do well on the SAT/ACT, you might also be intrigued to realize you already have some key reading skills, too. Let's take a look at what reading skills you'll need. Reading While there are some differences between the SAT Reading and the ACT Reading sections, there are more similarities. Both includea series of passages (including one pair), with questions about each, though the exact type of passagesand style of questions varies slightly. The passage-based questions on both tests want to make sure you understand the general purpose of the passage, as well as its tone or style. You'll be asked to interpret a word or phrase in context, along with demonstrating your understanding of details. These are all skills of reading comprehension and analysis that you'll have developed throughout your years of English classes in middle school and 9th grade. Reading comprehension is a skill best developed through reading widely and often. By prepping for the SAT/ACT as a freshman, along with the reading, writing, and analysis you do in your English class, you'll get better and better at these skills. Closely linked to the reading sections are the writing section of the SAT and the English section of the ACT. Writing and Grammar The Writing section of the SAT and English section of the ACT are pretty comparable. Both test your understanding of rules of grammar and syntax. Both also include an optional essay. Just like in your freshman year English classes, these testswant you to understand grammar rules, parts of speech, and sentence structure. The essays should generally take the form of a five-paragraph persuasive essay supported with strong examples. Practicing these in class and through test prep will help you develop your English language and writing skills, just like with reading. One difference with the SAT/ACT essay and essays you write in class might be that you'll be writing for the tests under timed conditions and by hand. Thus you'll have to learn to plan out your essay in just two to three minutes and draft it fast. Practicing this could be another useful tool for helping you become more efficient with the essays you're assigned for class. There are specific strategies you can use to draft high quality essays in a short amount of time that will help you on the SAT/ACT and in class. Test prep for the writing sections could help you score highly, impress your teachers, and save time while still writing thorough, well-developed essays. While the SAT and ACT overlap in terms of math, reading, and writing, there is one major section difference between the two. That difference is the ACT science section. Science Unlike the SAT, the ACT has a science section. Thismight sound like it requires a lot of memorization, but actually the science section is less about straight recall of scientific facts and more about applying scientific skills, like reading charts and graphs and interpreting data. In this sense, the science section is almost more like the reading section than the math section. Having some knowledge of biology, earth sciences, and chemistry is helpful, though, for being familiar with the terminology and having lab skills that you can apply to real data. Since a lot of students take biology with a lab freshman year, you'll probably be in a great position to do well on the ACT science section. Just like with the other sections, test prep on the ACT science can help reinforce what you're learning in class and give you a glimpse intonext year. It will strengthen your skills in the context of the ACT and prevent you from getting rusty and then having to reference back to material that you learned years earlier.You might even find you're ready to take the SAT Subject Test in Biology at the end of your freshman year! As you can see, you're likely already in a good position to handle the SAT/ACT. Prepping can help you do well on the tests and in school. Besides mastering and getting ahead on the content, prepping early also gives you more test dates to choose from. When Should You Take the SAT/ACT? Figuring out your SAT/ACT testing schedule as a freshman will ensure you have plenty of test dates to choose from. Since a lot of colleges superscore your results, or take your highest section scores across all dates you took the tests, some students choose to build up their SAT or ACT scores section by section. You can also usually use Score Choice for the SAT or select which score reports you want to send from the ACT, so you can just send the scores from whichever test date you choose. There are some exceptions, though, so you want to make sure you understand your colleges' policies regarding standardized test scores. One testing schedule that a lot of students use is to take the SAT/ACT once in the fall of junior year, again in the spring, and then a third time if they choose senior year. Some students may take it earlier, like in 10th or even 9th grade, to give themselves more testing opportunities or achieve their scores and be finished with the SAT/ACT before the busy time of junior and senior year. Students almost always improve when they retake the tests, having learned more about time management and gained valuable real test experience. Plus if you prep thoroughly and effectively, you can target your weaknesses and do better the next time. So how can you stick to a prep schedule in 9th grade that will help you score highly on the SAT/ACT? Prepping for the SAT/ACT As a Freshman As you saw above with the SAT and ACT Questions of the Day, a little bit of prep sustained over time can go a long way. You definitely don't have to spend all your time studying for these tests in 9th grade. I would suggest devoting an hour a week to test prep. This is enough to be useful and help you develop a habit, while also being low-key and manageable enough not to put yourself under undue stress or pressure. How can you stick to this? Just like with your homework, the best way to stay organized is to use an assignment notebook or planner to write down your plans, goals, and assignments and keep track of them. Some planners even break your day up hour by hour, so you could devote a specific time to test prep, like every Tuesday from 6 to 7. Making something a regular routine is the best way to remember it and incorporate it into your life. This will help you in all aspects of your academic life, along with setting and working towards your own personal goals. To Sum Up... By prepping early, you'llsee your SAT/ACT scores go up and up. Your effort will pay off in a huge way over time, especially if you maintain test prep as a regular part of your routine. Your motivation and discipline will positively impact other aspects of your high school career, too. Test prep will help you improve your math, reading, writing, and science skills, plus it will aid you when you take thePSAT. You can root out your strengths and weaknesses and figure out what you need to learn and where you shouldput in extra effort. Finally, it will remind you that all of your high school career is important for getting into college and help you start laying the groundwork for your future after graduation. What's Next? What's a good SAT/ACT score for 9th graders? If you're taking the SAT or ACT as a freshman, you can figure out yourtarget scores here. The best way to prep for the SAT is with official College Board SAT questions. Download official SAT practice tests here. If you're taking the ACT, you want to try some sample ACT questions from previously administered tests. You can find printable official ACT tests here. Besides prepping for the SAT/ACT, should you think about taking the PSAT as a freshman? Read about the most important considerations for signing up for the PSAT in 9th grade. Want to learn more about the SAT but tired of reading blog articles? Then you'll love our free, SAT prep livestreams. Designed and led by PrepScholar SAT experts, these live video events are a great resource for students and parents looking to learn more about the SAT and SAT prep. Click on the button below to register for one of our livestreams today!