Management
Essays

Alcan's continued revenue growth is the result of the combined success of increasing sales in four main business units, in addition to growth through acquisition. The cumulative effects of these two factors have served to create a profitable business and one where a highly decentralized organizational structure dominates (Chang, Wang, 2011). The catalyst of the organization becoming so decentralized is the continued revenue gains made across four businesses, each competing in market areas that face heavy pricing and commodity-like market conditions. Despite the heavily process-centric based approaches the industry takes to supply chain management, production and distribution, Alcan has been also able to profitably grow sales in the more mature markets they compete in. The senior management and IT departments credit the highly decentralized nature of the enterprise-wide systems that run the company. During the time period of the case, Alcan generated $23.6B in sales in 2006, and has 68,000 employees throughout its global operations that span 61 countries. The four major groups include Primary Metal, Engineered Products, Packaging and Bauxite & Alumina. Each of these business groups have their own Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system and IT infrastructure. They each also have their own maintenance contracts with enterprise software vendors including SAP who the company pays approximately $100M a year in maintenance fees to. There are also the costs of operating over 400 different pricing systems, many of which duplicate functions across divisions as well. The new CIO of the company, Robert Ouellette, enters into a challenging situation and one that will require a completely different IT and organizational structure to succeed. Organizational Environment The Alcan organizational environment is highly decentralized to the point of there being four separate companies in the same corporation, each with its own entire value chain and supporting functions. As with the value chain concept, each of the four divisions has created its own main and supporting functions, and no two business units or divisions are the same. From the initial supply chain management and supplier quality management processes and systems to the supplier qualification, new product development, production and fulfillment including logistics, each business unit is significantly different than the other. When information systems and processes become unique to a given organizational business unit or division, the information and intelligence shared redefines the identity and over time, the core competencies of a business unit (Boh, Yellin, 2007). This is exactly what's happening in the four business units of Alcan during the time period of the case study. The Primary Metal, Engineered Products, Packaging and Bauxite & Alumina have in effect become their own companies, each with its own ERP, Manufacturing Execution System (MES), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and myriad of pricing and distribution systems. The case states that there are over 400 different pricing systems in place across the four business units or divisions. CIO Robert Ouellette and other senior executives see the potential for consolidating all systems together and creating a centralized IT architecture. Creating a highly centralized IT architecture and framework would require the fundamental structure of the company to change significantly. It would also require an entirely new IT architecture, followed by redefinition of processes, systems and procedures throughout the company. As the information platforms or technologies of a business define not only the performance of divisions but the structure and performance of business models over time, Robert Ouellette and his staff must think strategically as to how they will modify the overall organizational structure.

This article examines the role of the professional nurse as a patient educator in light of the changing health care trends. The main focus of the article is to discuss the social, political, and economic trends and how they impact the role of the nurse in patient education. In addition to being based on various reliable sources in the healthcare field, the paper identifies and analyzes four major issues or trends.

This is a business plan about a retail pharmacy. The plan covers off in its contents all of the following areas of interest: executive summary, organizational structure, marketing plan and financial plan. There is a pro forma income statement included and there is also included in this paper an org chart.

The Federal Government established the National Incident Management System (NIMS) under the Homeland Security Presidential Directive number 5 in February 2003. The territorial, tribal, and local responders have a role to play in managing incidents at their areas of control. The Federal government in cooperation with the states, territories and local authorities polished the integrated system.NIMS have identified a wide variety of Federal Preparedness programs which they availed to responders. Command and Management systems are the command systems of the National Incident Management System.

This paper discusses the additional roles or core competencies of an advanced nurse practitioner. These roles or competencies are as a researcher, collaborator, clinician, consumer advocate, manager of systems, consultant, change agent and leader-skills negotiator. It also discusses how she can improve healthcare delivery and outcomes and how she will implement these additiional roles in her professional development.

Prostate cancer is the most common killer of men older than 75. It has been claiming many lives and wasting those who still survive. This paper discusses its incidence, symptoms, treatments, prognosis and prevention. Peer-reviewed sources discuss erectile dysfunction associated with it; PSA screening, the advisability of surgery, the role of the nurse in the care of patients with this disease, its impact on the spouse, the need for informed decisiona and statistical data in Canada.

Most of the time, it is really not that difficult for some people to easily recognize differences of the other people. Others' working ways can be totally different from one's own. At times they can even be annoying. A lot of the time their subordinates can experience their leaders as very adverse and others can undergo the same leaders one of the best that they have ever seen.

The advent of technology has increased the popularity of database usage in firms, yet the legislation regulating the field has yet to be finalized. The changing nature of the IT sector, coupled with the legislative traits, creates several situations in which the companies find it difficult to comply with the regulations. This paper recognizes some of those difficulties, and also proposes some solutions.

Business strategy is continually evolving as information technology and business process redesign assist in the innovative design of central business .Attempts to get rid of the mainframe and replace it with an all PC network have failed, with systems failed and information was lost or misplaced The revolution of IT and its use in businesses is due to the personal computer and local area network technology. Networking either by Ethernet or LAN technology assisted organizations to improve communication, transmission of reports and messages across the organizational structure

The paper is based on the case study, seeing the forest products company and the trees. The paper responds to the questions asked after the case study. The answers provide more insight into what the case study is demonstrating. The answers provide detailed information regarding the training programs that can be used to manage change in an organization.