History And Industry Trends Cisco Systems Inc Commerce Essay

History And Industry Trends Cisco Systems Inc Commerce Essay As a company that started from humble beginnings, Cisco has evolved and grown into the multinational networking and communications giant of today. In 1984, Leonard Bosack and Sandy Lerner, a couple working as computer staff members at Stanford University, created the startup known as Cisco Systems (Cisco systems). The companys first product was a multi-protocol router, which would set the tone for the coming years and helped outline its direction. Although Cisco has indulged in branching of products and dabbled in various market segments, networking primarily routers and switches have remained at its core. Cisco went public on February 16, 1990 and spent the remainder of the 90s ramping up for the Internet age (Cisco systems). It acquired numerous Ethernet and switching companies. By the time the dot-com boom rolled around, Cisco had implanted itself as a world leader: in order for the Internet to grow, many of Ciscos products were crucial to its infrastructure. This foundation-laying ideal positioned the company at the apex of the wave. In the spring of 2000, Cisco became the worlds most valuable company with a market capitalization of over $500 billion. In a move to increase the breadth of the brand and target consumers, Cisco rebranded itself in 2006 (and inclusively shortened its name from Cisco Systems). While primarily a business and enterprise oriented company, Cisco began its new initiative by acquiring home user minded names like Linksys and Flip Video. While the company has achieved phenomenal growth and successes, it is of course not without moments of decline. For example, the aforementioned Flip Video acquisition resulted in a flop, and was subsequently shutdown and dissolved in 2011 (Cisco discontinues flip, 2011). With this, Cisco announced that it would exit aspects of its consumer business which suggests a shift in focus. Once the dot-com boom was over and the bubble burst, Cisco experienced a major downturn and was forced to lay off almost 8000 employees and write down $2 billion in inventory (Fryer, 2008). This demonstrates the volatility of the technology industry and how important it is to forecast new trends. At the helm of the company, CEO John Chambers emphasizes on market transitions, quoting A market transition occurs when there is a subtle but clear disruptive shiftà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ A market transition gives you a glimpse of a new opportunity to take market share or move into new market adjacencies (Fryer, 2008). In the past, most businesses in the industry like Cisco followed market transitions directed by business now the industry has changed to follow consumers. Subtle discrepancies like this can spark differentiation of varying magnitude in order to capture new trends. By utilizing the VRIO framework, we can analyze Ciscos resource endowments and provide further insight on its background and competencies. While the company is differentiated in its products and services, not everyone of its resources is ranked highly on VRIO. Taking the Flip Video example, Cisco only received a temporary competitive advantage from it, and not a sustained one. The reason being, Flip cameras no longer became valuable nor rare. Smartphones were on the rise and contained built-in features that rendered Flip cameras redundant users could share videos and also capture them directly from their cellphones (Cisco discontinues flip, 2011). In comparison, Flip cameras were not perceived to be as valuable versus the time period before smartphones. Given this, these cameras were also not costly to imitate, since competitor manufacturers (market segment-wise) were implementing similar technologies already. By acquiring Flip Video in 2009, Cisco leveraged its business know-how an d infrastructure to demonstrate its capability to capture value. Flip cameras were at one point a popular commodity, but it soon tapered off once the previous 3 criterions of VRIO began to diminish. Once it came to this, Cisco was no longer able to capture its value and thus shutdown Flip. On the other hand, Ciscos router and switch resources provide the company a sustained competitive advantage and maintains high rankings in the VRIO analysis. Taking the Catalyst 6500 switch as an example, which was a key player during the dot-com boom (Cisco systems). Cisco strategically positioned itself with this switch and its other router technologies at this time, because Internet Service Providers necessitated an answer to the growing infrastructure demands. Resources like the 6500 provide Cisco with value. Over the years, Cisco has maintained a high-quality image and people equate its products as such. This increases its perceived value by consumers. For the most part, many of Ciscos resources are considered rare because although there are similar products from different competitors, the numbers are not great. Tying into the aforementioned rarity, due to the complex and continuously evolving nature of these high technologies, they are very costly to imitate. As a firm in general, Cisco has been organized to capture value on many of its products. Juniper Networks is one of Ciscos main competitors, and came out with products that siphoned away 30% of the switching and routing market share. In the end, Cisco was able to edge itself back into the leader seat by innovating and releasing upgrades to existing lines. To expand on Ciscos differentiation strategy and its diverse portfolio of product ranges, 3 market segments are targeted. The primary market for the firm is the corporate market, or large businesses. Cisco sells a multitude of products and services for this segment, ranging from borderless network solutions to collaboration suites like the IP phones and TelePresence video conferencing units (Collaboration products and,). Many of these products are sold to large enterprises like Bank of America, ATT, and General Electric. The contracts Cisco holds with these types of companies create a large bulk of its focus. Referring back to the dot-com boom case, Cisco sold its network solutions to many ISPs and ultimately catalyzed its market capitalization and proliferation to being the worlds most valuable company at the time. Aside from the corporate market, Cisco also offers less intensive and lighter scale solutions for small businesses in order to encompass a more diverse group of consumers. The company offers a variant of its routers and switches that are reduced in size and capabilities, but work for smaller networks. The WebEx web conferencing service is a popular offering (its technology was garnered through an acquisition), which allows users to seamlessly collaborate and share. Although Cisco made an effort to enter the home user market in 2006, with its The Human Network campaign, it is reassessing the scope of this venture (Cisco systems). As shown by Flip, the margins that Cisco requires to operate at a desired efficiency are not as great in the home user segment. Many of the companys pursuits in this area proved to be short-lived. While the TelePresence video conferencing suites originated as a corporate-oriented product, Cisco tried adopting it to the home users by offering Umi (Collaboration products and,). Unfortunately, this effort was not successful as the competition was too great and the offering was not valuable enough to consumers. At its heart, Cisco maintains its competitive advantages primarily through its business and corporate solutions. Macroeconomic Analysis PESTEL A firms macro environment consists of a wide range of political, economic, sociocultural, technological, ecological, and legal (PESTEL) factors that can affect industry and firm performance. These external forces have both domestic and global aspects. (Strategic Management Concept Textbook) Pestel stands for political, economic, sociocultural, technological, environmental and legal issues that the government can act on the Companys decisions or performances. Usually most of the articles from Wall Street Journal can be applied by Pestel Analysis. Political Political consideration that affect service provider and government spending patterns( Annual Report, pg.37) is one of the reason why Cisco believes that their company can be harmed by the economic and political reasons. Economic Cisco System explained how the fluctuation in the future with their stock price could happen due to uncertain global economic environment in their Annual report. They believe there are lots of risks on uncertainty of the global economic environment. As we see in their stock chart that they have had hard time during economic crisis of 2008. Stock analysis is provided under financial analysis section in detail of this report. The explanation about the fluctuations on currency exchange rates which are making negative impact on their financial reports is an example of how the economic changes can affect the companys financial well-being. Despite the fact that reason for this fluctuation is due to big portion of global expanding. However for this problem they found a solution by entering into the foreign exchange forward contracts and by reducing the short term impact on certain foreign currency receivables, payables and investments. (Annual Report, pg.38) Sociocultural Cisco System, the Cisco Foundation, UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women) and the Government of the Jordan helped women in the Jordan to get into technology study and work as IT or ICT- Information Community Technology. In 2001 and 2002 they had a program to let the women in Jordan to be trained and work as much as men. In this sociocultural issue Cisco System had a great job involving in this program. Geographic, social, economic and racial boundaries are eliminated as the program extends to 149 countries with more than 10,000 Academies across the globe. (The Women in Jordan, 2001) So the company extended that program and it affected their social, economic and racial boundaries. Technological Continuity innovation in technology of network industry and uncertainties of the legal issues Cisco depends on the innovation more than the protection needed for their products and services by patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secret marks. Innovation is the key to be successful in the networking industry and Cisco has to rapidly innovate not to get in to the market, but also able to sustain competitive advantage. Environmental Cisco proudly partners with industry-leading companies to provide our customers with highly secure, interoperable smart grid solutions and services. We understand that modernizing the electric utility infrastructure around the world-from generation at a power plant to consumption in a home or business-is a huge undertaking. It requires the skills and expertise of many people to deliver on the promise of a smart grid. (Cisco website) Legal Most of the Ciscos products has software or licensed by the third party. Legally they have been sued several times regarding violation of the federal securities law, waste of corporate asset, unjust enrichment, breach of fiduciary duties, and violation of the California Corporation Code. In addition they also had litigations of ordinary course of business, and intellectual property. They did not able to see any effect financially in their annual report, but it might affect their mission already. That can affect their stocks as well as their financial situations. (Annual Report 126,127) Financial Analysis Stock Stock Performance Graph Analysis (Annual Report page 46) The comparison with Cisco System, SP and SP Information Technology shows us that Cisco has a return of stockholders much lower than compare to SP and SP Information Technology. This Yahoo Finance Chart also shows that Cisco Stock Price had a problem right after 2008 just like other companies due to economic crisis on 2008, and got better later on. All the competitors recovered faster than Cisco after 2009 and continue to get well except HP. As of January 15, 2013 Cisco had a price of $20.98 while Hewlett Packard $16.53, Juniper Network 21.01. Revenue Compare to 2011, 2012 Revenue is increased about 7%. Cisco had 46.1 billion net sales and 12% increase on service revenue. Most of the revenue they received last year was from switching market and NGN Routing. They believe they can increase their revenue since they are into changing their strategies and innovating. Current Asset/ Current Liability Ratio Analysis Cisco has a quick ratio of 2012 3.49%. (61,933 / 17,731 = 3.49) Since it is more than one that means they can pay their current debt easily with their current assets. Since they have good amount of cash equivalency they need to invest more to increase and expand their company. Employees

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. :: essays research papers

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a very important leader of the American Civil Rights movement as well as a Nobel Prize winner. He proved that Civil Disobedience was an effective weapon against depression. King’s challenges to segregation and racial discrimination in the 1950’s and 1960’s helped convince many white Americans to support the cause of Civil Rights in the United States.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Dr. King was born into the American Civil Rights movement in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929. His grandfather was the founder of the Atlanta Chapters of the NAACP, and his father was the Pastor of the Eboniza Baptist Church where he worked as a Civil Rights Leader. Dr. King attended Morehouse College and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in sociology in 1948. Dr. King married Coretta Scott King in 1953. After graduating with honors from Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania in 1951, he went to Boston University where he earned a PHD in Divinity in 1955. After graduating from Boston University, Dr. King became the Pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama where he began the activities that would make him an American Civil Rights Leader.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In many states, African Americans were denied voting rights and access to schools, buses, and other public facilities that were segregated. They were also denied accommodations in hotels that were for whites only. Discrimination was openly practiced and in some places sanctioned by law. Dr. King’s goal was to protest segregation until it was declared unconstitutional. In 1955 Rosa Parks was ordered by a bus driver to give up her seat to a white passenger. When she refused, she was arrested and taken to jail. King started the Boycott of the Montgomery Bus System. In 1956 the Supreme Court declared Segregation Laws unconstitutional which ended Bus Segregation. King learned Civil Disobedience from Gandhi and proved that peaceful non-violent protests, such as marches, boycotts, and sit-ins, were an effective weapon against depression. In 1957 Dr. King and other ministers formed the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) which fought for the Civil Right s of all Americans. In 1959 King returned to Atlanta, Georgia, the headquarters of the SCLC, to assist his dad and work for Civil Rights. In August of 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King gave his â€Å"I Have A Dream† speech during the March on Washington. Later in the spring of 1963 President JFK introduced the Civil Rights Act (the single most important piece of Civil Rights Legislature) which was passed by President Johnson.

Problem Solving & Decision Making Techniques Essay

Over the past nine weeks of working in our home groups, we have entered and exited several problem solving and decision making processes. Although we have produced some good solutions, the overall process could be improved. In order to make our group more successful in implementing our chosen solutions we need to : improve on problem solving and decision making techniques, using discussion questions effectively with consideration of conflict management styles in the group. Applying these principles can help achieve true group consensus and increase the groups productivity. In accordance with the functional theory, five task requirements must be met in order to guarantee success. Our group needs improvement in 3 of 5 of the task requirements: discussing and creating criteria, identifying alternatives, and thoroughly evaluating alternative ( strengths and weaknesses) based on criteria. To refocus the group on improving our execution of the task requirements associated with functional theory, I hypothesize that PMOPS and PERT would be highly effective. PMOPS, acronym for procedural model of problem solving, is a flexible guideline that leads through phases of problem solving process. We must also improve our review process of procedures and proposed final decision. The use of systematic problem solving procedures, like PMOPS, keeps groups of point. This type of procedure makes sure group doesn’t miss any vital steps, which aids in producing effective solutions. As a group we need to create and rank our criteria, based on importance to group members. Clarifying what is important to individual group members fosters group satisfaction and provides insight to personal values. To the identify other alternatives, the use of critical thinking strategies can be effective for example: brainstorming and problem mapping. As we move through the decision making process and begin proposing solutions, a member should be listing all that are discussed. Often there are too many options to be thoroughly discussed due to time constraints. When encountered with the issue of time, narrowing the list of solutions becomes paramount. Some of the solutions may be similar, and therefore can be combined. If combining doesn’t eliminate enough options, we can take a vote on which are most favored. Voting, as a process of elimination, could assist members who are less verbal in stating their opinion (Nancy and  Albert). However, charting pros and cons can be a more effective and objective procees of elimination. All options need to be assessed for meeting out criteria. we seldom establish criteria at the start of a discussion, or follow through with any of the previously mentioned techniques. After selecting a solution we must implement it, preferably in my opinion, using PERT. † Pert helps do this by as king those responsible for implementation to makes a chart showing deadline dates for completion of various tasks and the names of individuals or groups responsible† (Adams, 2012). We can also improve our decision making process by effectively using discussion questions, to unearth true nature of problem/charge. Discussion questions allow the group to locate a solution, for problem, question, or issue, that focuses on what â€Å"should† be done. The use of vague or limiting question s could be stifling production of alternatives. † As an impact variable, the discussion question has a far-reaching effect on the systems throughput process and its subsequent output. We should try to avoid using either-or structure and including answers in questions. This is a manipulative ploy that is often used in our group, especially by me. Also using ambiguous or double-barreled vernacular can mislead or confuse the group. I am also a perpetrator of this, often used to persuade opposing members. Thoroughly discussing the problem also keeps group from becoming solution minded prematurely. My group often does this, jumping headfirst in deciding on a solution. We completely skip evaluating a generating alternatives. This can limit options that may be more beneficial for the group to perform better. PMOPS and other systematic procedures my correct this frequent group behavior. Putting to use the different conflict management styles in the group could possibly aid in our reducing the time used during our decision making process. If we better understand the styles in play we can become more cohesive and increase member involvement. Our group is seemingly fairly cohesive, but lack of member involvement (Albert and Nancy) possibly prove otherwise. Their lack of involvement, avoidance style, limits their input of opinions. So we cannot be absolutely sure where they stand and if they agree with decisions. Christina exhibits some avoidance, as it relates to conflict, and switches to collaborative style to eventually referee lengthy arguments. Mason usually takes on a competitive style, usually arguing adamantly and proposing supportive evidence for his  arguments. When this becomes fleeting, he turns to a more collaborative style to meet his needs. I was observed to be quite competitive until stalemate is reached, and the transition into an accommodating style is used to reach a consensus. I have assessed the problem solving and decision making processes my group most readily uses, as well as flaws in its execution. Our group could really benefit from the use of systematic problem solving procedures like, PMOPS and PERT. Coming to the realization that discussion questions are important, has influenced me to use them in discussion. They are necessary for clarifying the problem and coming up with the best possible solutions. With that being said; understanding and proper application of our conflict management styles will aid in all areas needing improvement. Bibliography Adams , K. , Galanes , G. (2012). Communicating in groups: Applications and skills New York: McGraw-Hill. Larson , C. E. , Lafasto , F. M. J. , (1989). TeamWork: What Must Go Right, What Can Go Wrong. Newbury Park: Sage.

Crime Is An Act Against The Law - 1334 Words

Crime is an act against the law where the consequence of conviction by a court is punishment is a serious one such as imprisonment. The Oxford English Dictionary states that crime is: - â€Å"An act punishable by law, as being forbidden by statute or injurious to the public welfare†¦An evil or injurious act; an offence, a sin†. The government usually set laws that the people must follow, punishment is given for those who lighten those laws. The legal or criminal justice system applies the law and punishes those who break it. Crime is described by Blackburn (1993; p.5) ‘acts attracting legal punishment [†¦] offences against the community’. There is a social shame associate with crime. It is important to note that all breaches of the law are not criminal such as civil offenses and breach of contract. The word ‘crime’ is reserved for the offences that cause harm or injury to the public, individuals or the state. Social, political, financial and emotional conditions influence the definition of crime and how the law is useful. These changes may ban or allow behaviour. The data on crime will have to take this reason into account. The legal definition of crime suggested by Tappan (1947) is agreed by many to be the most precise and clear so far. It states that â€Å"Crime is an intentional act in violation of the criminal law (statutory and case law), committed without defence or excuse, and penalized by the state as a felony or demeanour.† Although, it has also met with criticism from othersShow MoreRelatedHate Crime Essay816 Words   |  4 Pageshate crime became part of the American lexicon in 1985 when it was coined by United States Representatives John Conyers and Mario Biaggi. Although the term hate crime and societal interest in it are relatively recent developments, hate crime has deep historical roots. 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