The forth week

This week’s lecture talked about the Porter’s five forces that helps us to analyse the micro environment. The five forces included the threat of substitutes, the bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, competitive rivalry within the industry and the threat of new entrants.

We are told that the coming examination is not going to be the same as the traditional one, which means it doesn’t only requires us to memorize those theories and definition of the key terms, but only to apply what we learnt to a case study. This also requires students to analyze those cases and apply them into real- life example. This enables students to understand those theories thoroughly as they can learn to apply them to cases. Teacher will show us the case study that maybe an organization or a particular industry. We are also asked to think about how do we succeed in a case study examination.  

We are then asked to apply the things we learnt into a real life example. We are asked to discuss the steel industry. During the lesson, we are required to talk with other classmates to enhance our understanding towards the 5 forces. Before the lesson, I started to prepare this case study. At that time, many questions popped up in my mind. Can competition positively or negatively affect those companies? How can a new entrant survive when there are already many competitors? How can those companies attract consumers when there are more and more entrants? After watching the video, I learnt that competition may not be a harm to companies. Companies are encouraged to improve in different aspects such as their services, features and customers support. However, if companies try to lower the prices of their products so as to attract customers, it may lead to price war and destructive battle.

This week’s lessons allowed me to learn the market structure and strategies of those companies. I learnt that surviving under fierce competition may not be an easy task and companies should change their structure time to time. Non- price competition is required when there are more and more competitors. It is quite interesting that I would like to explore more about it!!!

applying our knowledge into real- life example

This week’s lecture talked about different management approaches, theories and principles introduced by different professionals so as to achieve organization’s objectives and efficiency. Some of those professionals emphasize on theory of bureaucracy, which means having minimal employee discretion, close discipline and supervision; some of them stressed to have limited span of control ;and some of them focused on industrialized and standardized form of mass production for maximum efficiency.

We were asked to make a Prezi poster for introducing the best management approach for the development of Google. As we started surfing the websites and searching information, we found out Google’s working environment and the management style are very different from other companies. It’s really fun working there. The staff are allowed to have a comfortable atmosphere to work. They can enjoy free food and get access to gym facilities all the time during their working time. I spent an hour surfing the net for exploring how wonderful the working environment is with my group mates. This company also allows their staff to develop in personal level. Their working area are not limited to their office, they are allowed to work in outdoor areas. This allows staffs to have a suitable area for them to get rid of their stress and provides suitable areas for them to have inspiration. This boosts their creativity as well. This can in turn bring more profit to the company.

We are told that although what we can see is a best working environment for everyone,  it is actually a commercial- based company and would like to attract those intelligent to work in their companies rather than other competitor, such as Twitter.

This week’s lesson enriched me a lot. I learnt knowledge that couldn’t be found in our reference books. I learnt how to apply the knowledge into real- life examples. Simply memorizing those key terms may not allow us to understand them thoroughly and bringing them into real- life examples. This enables students to understand clearly and have a long-term memory.

Dig into Spaghetti

After attending the lecture, I learnt about the general principles for a good organization’s structure. We learnt the definitions of centralization, decentralization, span of control, chain of command as well as matrix structures. At first, I didn’t really understand what these terms mean, and it is quite hard to understand the definitions of those words. But I started to understand more when teacher discussed with us in small class. Some of our classmates were also confused with those terms. After our teacher’s detailed explanation, we finally understand those meanings. We also discussed about what’s the best structure of an organization. We concluded that best structure is the one achieving its objectives, and having division of work means assigning the right persons for the right job. A good structure will also allow an organization to achieve its highest efficiency.

After realizing the meanings of these terms, we are asked to do a business report to apply what we learnt to real-life example. We picked Samsung to be the organization for exploration. That’s the first time to do a business report and we are not familiar with the format. We tried to study the samples of business report in different websites. Moreover, we were confused that whether Samsung is considered as a “flat” or “tall” structure.  Our teacher then guided us by asking us to compare Samsung with other similar organization such as Apple. It is also said that there’s no definite answer as long as we can explain it well.

We were also asked to conduct a case study as well. It is about an organization called Oticon. It is a typical example of spaghetti organization. It is an organization that allows their members to do their tasks with complete independence without supervision, and members do not have specific job titles. Staff could take on as many different projects as they wanted, and were expected to pick up new skills along the way. We discussed the challenges the organization is facing and the pros and cons of this type of organization.

To sum up, I learnt a lot within this week. Apart from the knowledge that I gained, I also learnt to communicate and cooperate well with my group members.We did quite well in our division of work. There are more and more group projects ahead, so it is really crucial to build up close relationship with group mates. It is really essential to have a good team spirit. Since everyone has ones strengths and weaknesses, a group work can gather up different good ideas. However, if they do not communicate well and compromise, there will be conflicts. Team work spirit is really important!!!

First Week

We attended a lecture and we learnt what is management and organization. Our teacher presented by showing us the Powerpoint. I learnt that management involves different elements, forecasting, planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling. It involves division of labour and people work together to achieve certain goals. Management is important for the development of an organization. Without management, an organization will finally end in chaos and wont be operating successfully and achieve their goals. We also learnt that there are different organizations have different objectives. Some of them aim to earn profits and some of them don’t. Some economic organization may also have social responsibility. This enables them to have a better reputation and gain popularity.

After doing the homework of “what is management” and “what functions do organizations perform”, we are required to have a discussion about these 2 questions. We didn’t perform very well this time as we are still so shy to speak up and present our ideas.  We are also required to reflect on what is our problem and discuss what should we do to make the discussion better. After all, we summed up that eye contact, interaction and the way we respond to others’ ideas are also important to improve the flow of the discussion.

In my past few years, I used to memorize the sample answers or the definition without understanding thoroughly. I usually forgot what I have recited within a short period. However, due to the different teaching style in UK, I start to realize that what really matters is whether we really understand every word. At first, I really don't understand why we are required to define a simple word. I thought it was meaningless and boring. Now I realize the importance of acknowledging every tiny word is a key to let myself be familiarize with everything that are taught. This allows us to have long-term memory. Moreover, I really think having a discussion would allow students to improve their communication skills as well as their understanding towards the topic. A discussion allows students to broaden their horizon since people will present some ideas that you haven’t heard of. It is really a good chance for us to improve ourselves in different aspects.