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Critical Evaluation Of Corporate Alliances
Critical Evaluation Of Corporate Alliances
Summary
Corporate alliances are mostly a 50/50 bet since only about half of these ventures give returns to partners above the cost of capital. This is very worrying since alliances and partnerships are what many business models are based on. The article points out the reason as to why these alliances fail is the fact that they are traditionally managed and organized. Most alliances are normally defined by service level agreements which mainly identify what is committed to be delivered by each side rather than what they hope to attain from this partnerships. The SLAs put emphasis on the operational performance metrics and not the strategic objectives .the managers of the alliances are not sure whether they stick to the agreement made initially or renegotiate afresh.
The article focusses on Solvay which is ranked among top 40 pharmaceutical companiesthat develops neuroscience, influenzavaccine, cardio-metabolic and pancreatic enzyme products. Sincethe cost of bringing new drug discovery has gone up it has become hard for the organization to capitalize of their research skills. They therefore began their transition by choosing their suppliers Quintiles to perform the initial stages of the trial process. These two companies therefore formed a joint clinical team for every compound so that they can manage strategic and operational aspects when it comes to carrying out the clinical trials. The initial five year contract set up went well. However,there were concerns by Solvay about loss of control since the inhouse activities were outsourced.therefore, the senior executives of the two companies were to endorse and commit to the alliance strategy that included the sharing of risks and profits (Kaplan,Norton,&Rugelsojen, 2013).
Critical evaluation
From the article there are some likely shortfalls within alliance outcomes which were identified. These include putting more focus on the terms in a contract of the alliance as opposed to a joint venture, spending a lot of time in selling the alliance within the organization and not managing the strategy, concentrating on controlling the alliance and getting returns as opposed to the removal of barriers that hinder successfully executing the strategy. These issues as identified by the executives could be addressed through management systems that are based on the balanced scorecard tools. Therefore a scorecard and strategy map is to be used as a framework for the governance system when it comes to monitoring the progress towards goals and creation of incentives for the tow parties in order for them to achieve them (Zaman,&Mavondo, 2010).
It also points out the need to create a committee which will oversee the creation of the map and eventually lead to the governance process. There are also some objectives that the team came up with these are; living the alliance that meant having right leadership,culture, communication, IT, reward and recognition. The next objective is collaboration which entails creating desirable transparency .speed and process innovation is another objective which means that things are done right, leveraging the global expertise and improvement the start up and management studies. Growth is another objective hat involves the creation of the right portfolio of new products; collaborate on the decisions of the development of new compounds, improvement on the investment management. Finally value for both is the last objective. After the objectives are set out clearly the next step is coming up with the alliance strategy map. Whereby, all the company’s strategic goals are brought together so as to illustrate the existing casual linkages. Once the strategic objectives have been sorted into themes and they have been mapped there is need to create metrics which will enable the organization to tract the progress of these objectives. With all these lay out there is also the need to establish the governance that will see all these executed. Therefore critically thinking we can say that all these are important steps when it comes to realizing the success of any strategic alliances that are formed. Thisis because simply forming a strategic alliance is not enough as it mostly leads to their failure. Therefore managers should be keen in realizing the cause of failure and come up with a map and scorecard that will steer the alliance in the right direction.
Analysis
From the article I can say that Solvay relates to the organization that I work at. This is because Adis enterprises producers of plastics. Just like Solvay the organization wanted expand but did not have enough finances to do so. Therefore, the mangers decided to form an alliance with one of the companies that supplied the company with plastics .in the alliance it was stipulated that the supplier would carry out research and development of new types of plastics that they want to introduce. UnlikeSolvay, thealliance that Adis formed was very successful since from the word goes it was started out by creating a map followed by a governance process. Therefore, the alliance formed was successful and both organizations gained greatly from it.
References
Kaplan,R.S,Norton,P.D&Rugelsojen,B.(2013).Managing Alliances with the balanced scorecard.
Zaman,M.&Mavondo,F.(2010)Measuring strategic alliance success:A conceptual framework.Retrieved August 4,2013 from http://www.anzmac.org/conference/2001/anzmac/AUTHORS/pdfs/Zaman.pdfSegil,L.(20O2).5 Key to creating successful strategic alliances.Retrieved August 4,2013 fromhttp://www.forbes.com/2002/07/18/0719alliance.html
Developmental Appropriateness
Developmental Appropriateness
Recognizing a student’s preceding life experience and knowledge contributes to new learnings in the class and helps teachers to build motivation and interest during the introductory lesson. As the curriculum experts, we know that students come to class with plenty of knowledge to share and an overabundance of experience that add to their academic environment. Students are not empty vessels that need to be filled or rather there should be a positive trade-off of experiences and knowledge that promotes growth amongst the entire student in the classroom. Regardless of the objective value of the mathematics curriculum, if the students do not realize how valuable it is, they may not be motivated enough to use up effort. However, if the students see clearly how the curriculum connects to their interest, goals, and concerns, they will be more than willing to value the new curriculum and thus feels motivated to invest their effort and time in it. The critical question that arises that need to be asked when implementing a new curriculum; is what exactly can a new mathematics curriculum stirs interest and motivation to students. When searching answers for this question, we as curriculum implementers need to examine how the curriculum will improve the teaching strategies in the classroom. Look back at the old curriculum; one might see why low-achieving students are jaded in their mathematics classes. Many have had repeated experience to the same fundamental mathematical content for many years in courses by names such as “general math”, “remedial math” or “mathematics application”. The old system has always put emphasize on lower-level computational skills and rote memorization, as opposed to the skills and content as recommended by the Evaluation Standards and NCTM Curriculum. This new curriculum will promote a shift from repetitious drills to a rather open problem solving situation that will enhance promotion of greater conceptual understanding through the testing and making of hypothesis and the communication of maths ideas. Reforms in the content coverage are just one of the many means that this new curriculum advocates for to make mathematics more essentially interesting for students. Current research in the USA also devastatingly supports greater applications of technology in the maths class and the incorporation of mathematics with other subjects. These measures undertaken by this new curriculum will ensure motivation to students and assist them realize and see vital linkages between mathematics and the real world. Integrating technology into 7th grade mathematics curriculum not only enhance the students interest in mathematics but also prepares them for 21st century jobs where technology has become an important feature in real life.
People basically believe that a person is either motivated or not. However, in reality, motivation can change those people that seems to be motivated in everything they undertake have just been successful whenever they try to understand the secrets motivating themselves in a range of tasks and settings. Students who are motivated will make choices that will in the long run help them achieve their preferred outcome. This new maths curriculum will enhance students with proper motivation that will ensure that they maintain they efforts long enough to complete the task. It will allow the students to think deeply about maths course material and engage in more complicated processing so as to truly learn. The nature settings of the students make them know mathematics even before even joining a classroom. This curriculum will use this default knowledge about mathematics as a motivator and means of supporting students in learning and understanding new mathematical concepts. Additionally, this curriculum advocates for Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) which emphasize the autonomy and responsibility of students to take control of their own learning. This is necessary as it will ensure that every student is his or her agent in establishing learning tactics and goals and each student’s perceptions of self and task will influence the quality of learning that ensued. Enthusiasm about the subject content can be contagious and powerful. Even if the students were not initially interested on the subjects, by clearly demonstrating their own enthusiasm, teachers can upgrade students’ curiosity and motivates them to find out what excite them most about the subject (Mathematics). Generally, this curriculum will engage both the students and the instructors so that more motivation towards learning mathematics can be increased.
Professional Development
Many advisory groups and educators give emphasis to high standards as an integral factor in achieving quality education for all students. Due to this fact, schools and district are focusing on developing a high-quality curriculum that is standard based. A very significant starting point for the effort of achieving standard based curriculum is a careful thought through curriculum framework that focus on goals and standards for which the society is willing be part of and to be held responsible. Development of a standard based curriculum need dynamic changes in the on how schools are run and the way teachers teach. Therefore, great care has to be taken to develop capacity for all teachers and to give enough implementation time, evaluation and monitoring of the curriculum. It is of proper knowledge that the curriculum-development process should also advocate for provision for opportunities for reflection and revision. This will ensure that the curriculum undergoes proper updates that will lead to regular improvement. The drive for standards has directed change efforts at all educational levels and has resulted into positive results. In the USA, the standard-based movement is on solid footing and is surely changing the whole perception in regards to teaching and learning in the country. According to the American Federation of Teachers (1999), nearly 3-4 teachers who have managed to work with standard for at least six years are of the agreement that the program has had positive impact on their schools. The first step of incorporating standards into curriculum is to develop a curriculum framework. This can be developed at the state, national or district level. In our case, the curriculum was developed at the district level. Our mandate was therefore to analyze the district standard levels that are available and thereby help in developing a common understanding of the components to be included in the curriculum. To ensure that students achieve content standards, this curriculum will ensure that guidelines for teacher knowledge and understanding are incorporated. These guidelines will provide learning experiences for students, instructional techniques, and specifications about teacher’s content knowledge, recommended activities and recommendations for instructional material. However, much care are taken to ensure that these techniques are viewed as suggested because they may limit teacher’s responsibilities and rights to make educational decisions based on daily needs for the students.
Developmental And Single-Subject Designs
Developmental And Single-Subject Designs
A relevant research topic on the issue would be seeking to understand why some children would show delayed growths in intellectual abilities in comparison to their peers. In such studies, there is the application of two major research designs namely longitudinal and the cross-sectional studies. While on one hand cross-sectional design is a method of comparing the performance of different age groups, longitudinal mode of research seeks to measure the performance of an individual as they progress in life (Shaffer, 2009). To understand the reason as to why certain individual children indicate slower intellectual growth compared to their peers the best method to use would be the longitudinal design. This given the fact that the design will allow the testing of such individuals alongside their peers to determine factors that could affect such differences, it would be the better design.
Considering that different education systems are possible causes, it would be appropriate to ensure that such factors that might alter the outcome are constant among the test subjects. Some practical issues need addressing in the research designs. They include the fact that any system will involve both environmental and biological parameters that will affect the similarities and differences observed in different individuals their age group notwithstanding. Another issue is the common presumption that longitudinal designs always offer accurate results in comparison to the cross-sectional designs (Shaffer, 2009). Cross-sectional design studies indicate that there are cohort differences confounded in the research. Such cohort differences emanate from distinct life contexts and experiences in life. However, given that the best method of understanding the performance of individual over a period is longitudinal, generational cohort differences will not be a major challenge to the hypothetical research process.
Single-subject research is an array of research methods applicable the analysis of behaviors using experiments. Moreover, it is also important in the application of behavioral analysis not only to humans but also to non-human beings. Principal methods contained in the single-subject include alternating treatments, multiple baseline, reversal, and changing criterion (Gast, 2009). Moreover, in the research of verbal behavior the most popular design is the multi-probe research method. Analysis of behavior is normally inductive, data driven, and finally averse to the hypothetico-deductive research. Sustained attention has been a problem in children and studies indicate that it affects the performance trends of youngsters. Children with sustained concentration will perform better in comparison to their counterparts that cannot pay attention for elongated periods. Improving such a condition would be of interest in a bid to improve the attention condition of such clients. The usage of single-subject research will be useful in the determination of the effectiveness of the treatment.
In the single design, there will be the need to indentify the individual participant but an extra participant would also be important (Gast, 2009). The next step will be the description of the setting, the participant, and process. Definition of the dependent variables is also important in the process of the single-subject study. Such variables have to be measurable and possible to define. Moreover, behavioral mechanisms, practice, and intervention define the independent variable in single subject research. Finally, there will be a baseline, which is important in the comparison of the child performance before and after the intervention. Baseline method would be the most appropriate in this study given the need for the comparison the kid’s attention before and after the intervention.
References
Shaffer, D. R. (2009).Developmental Psychology: Childhood and Adolescence. Stamford: Cengage Learning.
Gast D. L. (2009) .Single Subject Research Methodology in Behavioral Sciences. New York: Taylor & Francis.