Strategic Managment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Strategic Managment - Assignment Example It involves the mission, vision and objectives of the company and also the policies and plans that are made to achieve these objectives. Strategic management helps the company to decide about allocating resources and plans in different programs and projects (Sadler, 2003). Our question asks us to discuss and analyse the strategic capabilities of HSBC and Oman International Bank during their merger in Oman. While applying a suitable theory from the strategic management context, we have selected the SWOT analysis framework for the given case study and in the following sections we will be discussing about the various strength, weakness, opportunity and threats aspect of these organizations. HSBC has operated in Oman since 1948 and has decided to merge its Oman branch with Oman international bank. Strategic capability and strength of HSBC in the merger can be stated as the opportunity the bank will get to invest $97.4 million additional capital in a key economy like Oman in gulf. As HSBC is present over there for 60 years in Oman thus they have recognized that this merger as a opportunity which will provide them with lots of opportunities in Oman. On the other side, OIB is the fifth largest bank is Oman who had gross assets of $3.2 billion at the end of December. The strength of the merger with HSBC Oman will provide the company with huge additional capital and the 60 years of operating experience of HSBC and the merger will not effect on the listing of OIB on Muscat Securities Market. The weakness of HSBC Oman before the merger is that HSBC has lack of opportunity and the weakness of OIB is that it is in the fifth position in the country and has lack of potential staffs. This merger will create the largest bank in Oman. Question 2 Identification and Critical evaluation of the change management style that I think is appropriate for the new organization Change management can be defined as an approach which is used in transitioning any team, company or any individual to change it in a desired state. It is a systematic approach which deals with the change from both side of a company and individual. Change management has different aspects which includes adapting the change, controlling change and effecting change (Anderson, 2010). From the aspect of this case, I will like to relate it with the view point of Kurt Lewin’s change management style. The theory is also known as the Unfreeze, Change, Freeze or refreezes (Liu, 2011). Unfreezing stage is the most important stage in change management. It indicates that the company should be ready to change. It involves the understanding regarding changes. The first step involves moving a department or individual or entire business organization towards the motivation that change is necessary to survive in this ever changing competitive environment. The second stage refers to the step towards transition. Because change is not event, it is a everyday process. Transition is the internal movement towards the change. It means the company is unfrozen and moving towards a new form. Strong skills and support is necessary in this stage in the form of training and guiding. Same in case of HSBC bank Oman SOAG, new company needs this change strategy to unfreeze itself to proceed

College is a Waste of Time and Money by Caroline Bird Essay

College is a Waste of Time and Money by Caroline Bird - Essay Example The paper tells that the views and structure of the article â€Å"College is a Waste of Time and Money† by Caroline Bird are truly bound to their senses having conveyed in the author’s statement â€Å"college is the dumbest investment you can make† . That should suffice to proceed without contesting the majority in the general public who would at any time be disposed to argue â€Å"that is downright true and how can a regressed economy running scarce with job creators ever address the fresh yields of the academe, the new brood of the first-time bloodthirsty job hunters?† However, while Bird commits to this type of sentiments in her period which are presently felt as well and expresses sold-out support for the abolition of college, does it ever occur to her to ponder on how the world would look with money-driven human beings who act, talk, treat, and think like some crazy engine for dough all the time? For one, having thought ahead of the possible scenarios with that and what the author would most likely feel about each of them, he is rather afraid of acquiring much trouble in coping with that kind of future Bird insists in her sphere of change and investments. Apparently, she is quite significantly concerned with the keen reality experienced via the inverse proportionality that exists between finishing college and the hard-to-settle issue of unemployment than the core essence of tertiary education itself. Perhaps we ought to guide her perception to veer off at examining and modifying the curriculum instead of rationalizing â€Å"If high-school graduates don’t want to go, or if they don’t want to go right away, they may perceive more clearly than their elders that college is not for them† in a tone of complaint. The concept of further education is never unwise and if our main problem lies on the reluctant attitude of most 18-year-olds toward college, this can be neutralized or put to balance by focusing on the man ner educators are supposed to work on tools or techniques of fostering a stimulating atmosphere for the students. We can opt herein to find hope and realize that exploring beyond the conventional academic realm enables studying individuals to learn the remarkable key to versatile potentials and thereby gain opulent interest on succeeding with the targeted growth in both professional and economic goals as they stay in school prior. Bird primarily communicates her findings that â€Å"A great majority of our nine million college students are not in school because they want to be or because they want to learn – They are there because it has become the thing to do† (1975). Of course, we have widely known the ever-prevailing behavior among youth in transition from secondary level as such since we have gone through the stage and somehow managed to comprehend all the frailties and unpleasant feelings thereof. This we can acknowledge, nevertheless, as a normal phase of life where immaturity inevitably combines with confusion and curiosity due to the so-called ‘identity crisis’ which naturally places a young person to a state of random inquisition, denial, rebellion, and repulsion of moral discipline. Whether in and out of the academe, this condition lives as a fact and may not be prevented from happening so it would be irrational to tolerate the reasoning that college alone is responsible ju st because the 18-year-olds are being forced into a challenge or something they are not prepared yet considering which, they must thus be allowed the freedom to decide for themselves as Bird proposes. After conducting scholarly studies and interviews, Bird is eventually brought to conclude that â€Å"students are sad because they are not needed ... there is no room for so many newly minted 18-year-olds –