ACE 240 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: John D. And Catherine T. Macarthur Foundation, Black Carbon

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aquamarinescorpion485

8 Jun 2015

School

University of Illinois

Department

Agricultural and Consumer Economics

Course

ACE 240

Professor

Stoddard

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Document Summary

While listening to tami bond"s speech today on fire, smoke, time and power i learned a lot of new information about energy and the world. I also was able to hear about her research and some of her findings that she has come across. This speech was eye opening and gave me a new viewpoint on these social issues. The main things that i learned in this speech were how to reduce pollution using different types of energy. The second thing i learned was that household solid fuels make up a lot of out co2 and black carbon particles. In the beginning of tami bond"s speech, she talked to us about how fire equals power and fire is also energy. Fire is the main cause of creating black carbon particles that enter our world. These particles in the smoke that the fire creates changes earths reflectivity and what we can see on earth.

Related Questions

Xerox: Adapting to the Turbulent Marketing Environment Xerox introduced the first plain-paper office copier more than 50 years ago. In the decades that followed, the company that invented photocopying flat-out dominated the industry it had created. The name Xerox became almost generic for copying (as in Xerox this for you). Through the years, Xerox fought off round after round of rivals to stay atop the fiercely competitive copier industry. Through the late 1990s, Xerox's profits and stock price were soaring. Then things went terribly wrong for Xerox. The legendary company's stock and fortunes took a stomach-churning dive. In only 18 months, Xerox lost some $38 billion in market value. Its stock price plunged from almost $70 in 1999 to under $5 by mid-2001. The once-dominant market leader found itself on the brink of bankruptcy. What happened? Blame it on change or rather on Xerox's failure to adapt to its rapidly changing marketing environment. The world was quickly going digital, but Xerox hadn't kept up. In the new digital environment, Xerox customers no longer relied on the company's flagship products' standalone copiers to share information and documents. Rather than pumping out and distributing stacks of black-and-white copies, they created digital documents and shared them electronically. Or they printed out multiple copies on their nearby networked printer. On a broader level, while Xerox was busy perfecting copy machines, customers were looking for more sophisticated document management solutions. They wanted systems that would let them scan documents in Frankfurt, weave them into colorful, customized showpieces in San Francisco, and print them on-demand in London even altering for American spelling. This left Xerox on the edge of financial disaster. We didn't have any cash and few prospects for making an, says current Xerox CEO, Ursula Burns.The one thing you wanted was good and strong leaders that were aligned and could get us through things and we didn't have that. Burns didn't realize it back then, but she would one day lead the company she began working for as a summer intern in 1981. In fact, Burns almost left the company in 2000, but her colleague and friend, Anne Mulcahy, became CEO and convinced her to stay. Burns was named a senior vice president and was then charged with cleaning the house. The Turnaround Begins Task number one: Outsource Xerox's manufacturing. An often criticized and unpopular move, outsourcing was critical to Xerox's cost-saving efforts. Burns oversaw the process in a way that preserved quality while achieving the desired cost benefits. And she did so with the blessing of Xerox's employee union by convincing the union that it was either lose some jobs or have no jobs at all. With the restructuring of manufacturing, in only four years, Xerox's workforce dropped from 100,000 employees to 55,000. Although this and other efforts returned Xerox to profitability within a few years, the bigger question still remained: What business is Xerox really in? To answer this question, Xerox renewed its focus on the customer. Xerox had always focused on copier hardware. But we were being dragged by our customers into managing large, complex business processes for them, says Burns. Before developing new products, Xerox researchers held seemingly endless customer focus groups. Sophie Vandebroek, Xerox's chief technology officer, called this dreaming with the customer. The goal, she argued, was involving [Xerox] experts who know the technology with customers who know the pain points. . . . Ultimately innovation is about delighting the customer. In the process, Xerox discovered that understanding customers is just as important as understanding technology. What Xerox learned is that customers didn't want just copiers; they wanted easier, faster, and less costly ways to share documents and information. As a result, the company had to rethink, redefine, and reinvent itself. Xerox underwent a remarkable transformation. It stopped defining itself as a copier company. In fact, it even stopped making standalone copiers. Instead, Xerox began billing itself as the world's leading document management technology and services enterprise. The company's newly minted mission was to help companies be smarter about their documents. This shift in emphasis created new customer relationships, as well as new competitors. Instead of selling copiers to equipment purchasing managers, Xerox found itself developing and selling document management systems to high-level information technology managers. Instead of competing head-on with copy machine competitors like Sharp, Canon, and Ricoh, Xerox was now squaring off against information technology companies like HP and IBM. Although it encountered many potholes along the way, the company once known as the iconic copier company became increasingly comfortable with its new identity as a document-management company. Building New Strengths Xerox's revenue, profits, and stock price began to show signs of recovery. But before it could declare its troubles over, yet another challenging environmental force arose the Great Recession. The recession severely depressed Xerox's core printing and copying equipment and services business, and the company's sales and the stock price tumbled once again. So in a major move to maintain its transition momentum, Xerox acquired Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), a $6.4 billion information technology (IT) services powerhouse with a foot in the door of seemingly every back office in the world. The expertise, capabilities, and established channels of ACS were just what Xerox needed to take its new business plan to fruition. The synergy between Xerox, ACS, and other acquired companies has resulted in a broad portfolio of customer-focused products, software, and services that help Xerox's customers manage documents and information. In fact, Xerox has introduced more than 130 innovative new products in the past four years. It now offers digital products and systems ranging from network printers and multifunction devices to color printing and publishing systems, digital presses, and book factories. It also offers an impressive array of print management consulting and outsourcing services that help businesses develop online document archives, operating in-house print shops or mailrooms, analyze how employees can most efficiently share documents and knowledge, and build Internet-based processes for personalizing direct mail, invoices, and brochures. These new products have allowed Xerox to supply solutions to clients, not just hardware. For example, Xerox has a new device for insurance company customers, a compact computer with scanning, printing, and Internet capabilities. Instead of relying on the U.S. Postal Service to transport hard copies of claims, these and related documents are scanned on-site, sorted, routed, and put immediately into a workflow system. This isn't just a fancy new gadget for the insurance companies. They are seeing real benefits. Error rates have plummeted along with processing times, and that means increases in revenues and customer satisfaction. Dreaming Beyond Its Boundaries Riding the combination of Xerox's former strengths and its new acquisitions, Burns and the Xerox team now have a utopian image of what lies ahead. They believe the tools and services they offer clients are getting smarter. It's not just processing Medicaid payments, says Stephen Hoover, director of Xerox's research facilities. It's using our social cognition research to add wellness support that helps people better manage conditions like diabetes. Hoover adds that the future may see a new generation of Xerox devices, such as those that can analyze real-time parking and traffic data for municipal customers, allowing them to help citizens locate parking spots or automatically ticket them when they are going too fast. Already, Xerox is market testing parking meters that are capable of calling 911 or taking photos when a button is pushed. Not all products such as these will hit the market, but Xerox now has a model that allows it to dream beyond its known boundaries. In another example of smarter tools for clients, Xerox will soon rollout Ignite, a software and Web-based service that turns its copiers/scanners/printers already in service at schools around the world into paper-grading machines. Previous automated grading technologies (such as Scantron) worked only on multiple-choice responses filled out on special forms. But Ignite will grade work where answers are written in by students even numeric math problems. The real revolutionary potential of Ignite, however, is not just in automated grading, but in taking the results and turning them into Web-accessible data that allow teachers to identify problem areas and make improvements to their techniques. Throughout this corporate metamorphosis, Xerox isn't focused on trying to make better copiers. Rather, it is focused on improving any process that a business or government customer needs to perform and performing it more efficiently. Xerox's new machines have learned to read and understand the documents they scan, reducing complex tasks that once took weeks down to minutes or even seconds. From now on, Xerox wants to be leading global document management and business-process technology and services, provider. With all the dazzling technologies emerging today, Burns acknowledges that the business services industry in which Xerox now operates is decidedly unsexy. But she also points out that these are processes that companies need to run their businesses. They do it as a sideline; it's not their main thing. But running these seemingly mundane business processes is now Xerox's main thing. Xerox provides these basic document and IT services to customers so that customers can focus on what matters most to their real businesses. Xerox's transition is still a work in progress. Over the last four years, the company's revenues are up 47 percent and profits have more than doubled. Its stock price, however, has struggled (it has yet to top $12), a sign that Xerox isn't doing as well as Wall Street thinks it should be. Part of the reason is that Xerox still relies to some extent on its copier and printer products for its success, even with its recent diversification strategy. And just as e-mail and desktop software killed photocopying, smartphones and tablets are killing inkjet and photo printers. But Xerox depends much less on such products than competitors such as Hewlett-Packard and Lexmark International do. Thus, experts predict, Xerox will rebound much more quickly than its rivals. Burns and crew are also confident that as Xerox continues its transition to a solutions provider, the seeds it has planted over the past few years will soon bear fruit. Xerox knows that change and renewal are ongoing and never-ending. The one thing that's predictable about business is that it's fundamentally unpredictable says the company's annual report. Macro forces such as globalization, emerging technologies, and, most recently, depressed financial markets bring new challenges every day to businesses of all sizes. The message is clear. Even the most dominant companies can be vulnerable to the often turbulent and changing marketing environment. Companies that understand and adapt well to their environments can thrive. Those that don't risk their very survival. Questions for discussion:

1. What microenvironmental factors have affected Xerox's performance since the late 1990s?

2. What macroenvironmental factors have affected Xerox's performance during that period?

3. By focusing on the business services industry, has Xerox pursued the best strategy? Why or why not?

4. What alternative strategy might Xerox have pursued following the first signs of declining revenues and profits?

5. Given Xerox's current situation, what recommendations would you make to Burns for the future of Xerox?

maroonskunk617

Case : Multi Projects Inc (Page 452 -454) Successful Project Management 6th Edition (Clements & Gido)

Case Study 1 Multi Projects

Multi Projects, Inc., is a well established consulting firm with 400 employees. It has many projects going on at the same time for various clients. Multi Projects has a good reputation , and nearly 30 percent of its business is from previous clients. It targets growing companies for future business and has been successful in this, too. Because of the growth, things have been quite hectic, with employees trying to keep up with the work, keep old clients satisfied, and bend over backward to accommodate new clients. Multi Projects has been hiring new employees-in fact, it has grown from 300 to 400 employees over the past two years.

Multi Projects has a matrix organizational structure. As new projects come in, a project manager is assigned. One project manager may be assigned to several projects at a time, depending on the sizes of the projects. Projects range in value from $20,000 to $1 million and can be from one month to two years in duration. Most projects are about six months in duration and worth about $60,000 to $80,000. The firm performs a range of consulting services, including market research, manufacturing system design, and executive recruiting. Its clients are medium to large corporations and include banks, manufacturers, and government agencies.

Multi Projects just got a call from Growin Corporation, which wants to go forward with a project that Multi Projects proposed nearly six months ago. Partners at Multi Projects are surprised by the good news. They had thought the project was dead. They are also very interested in carrying out a first project for Growin Corporation because it is a rapidly growing company. Multi Projects sees an opportunity to do several projects with Growin Corporation in the future.

Jeff Armstrong has been assigned as project manager for the Growin Corporation project. He has been with Multi projects far about a year and has been anxious to get a challenging project to manage. He worked on the proposal for the Growin project.

Tyler Bonilla is a senior systems engineer. He has been with Multi Projects eight years. He has an excellent reputation, and previous clients with whom he has worked usually request that he be assigned to their projects. He enjoys his work, even though he is extremely busy. He is currently working full time on a project for Goodold Company, a previous client. Goodold said that one of the reasons it does business with Multi Projects, rather than with another consulting firm, is the great work Tyler does on their projects.

Jennifer Fernandez is the manager of systems engineering. She has been with Multi Projects about 15 years. Tylet reports to Jennifer, but because of his heavy workload and associated travel, he does not get to see Jennifer very often, other than at her monthly staff meetings.

Julie Capriolo is the project manager for the Goodold Company project. She has been with Multi Projects for about two years. Tyler is assigned to her project full time. The project has a tight schedule, and everyone is putting in extra hours . Julie feels a lot of pressure, but she has a good project team--she relies heavily on Tyler. She had heard from a friend who used to work with Jeff that Jeff is very ambitious and will do whatever it takes to make himself look good. This had not been of concern to Julie because she and Jeff have separate projects and do not run into each other very often.

The day Jeff is assigned to be project manager on the Growin Corporation project, he runs into Tyler in the hallway. "We got the Growin project," he tells Tyler.

"Great," responds Tyler.

Jeff continues, "You know, one of the big reasons they gave the project to us rather than another consulting firm is because we promised you'd be the lead systems engineer on the project, Tyler. They were impressed with you when we met with them to present our proposal. When do you think you can start work on the project:"

"Unfortunately, I can't. I'm tied up on the Goodold project, and things are really hectic. I'll be on the project for another four months," says Tyler.

"No way!" exclaims Jeff. "This Growin project is too important to me--I mean, to us. I'll take care of it."

"You'd better talk to Jennifer," Tyler tells him.

Jeff stops by Jennifer's office. She's busy, but he interrupts her. "I gotta have Tyler Bonilla on my Growin project. He wants to work on it, but he said I should talk to you."

"Thats impossible," says Jennifer. "He's assigned to Julie Capriolo's Goodold project for the next four months."

"Julie? Who's she? Never mind. I'll find her and work it out. You probably have somebody else you can assign to her project." replies Jeff, as he quickly bolts out of her office in search of Julie.

"Thats my decision , not yours or Julie's!" shouts Jennifer. But by that time Jeff is gone and does not hear what she says.

Julie is meeting with her project team in the conference room. Jeff knocks on the door and opens it. "Is there a Julie in here?" he asks.

"I am Julie," she responds.

"I need to talk to you ASAP. It's important. Oh, by the way, sorry for interrupting." Looking forward Tyler, who's in the meeting, Jeff says, "Hey, Tyler, catch you later, buddy, after I talk with Julie." Jeff then shuts the door and goes back to his office. Julie is noticeably disturbed at the interruption.

After her meetin, Julie calls Jeff. "This is Julie. What did you want to talk to me about that was so urgent?'

"About reassigning Tyler to my project. He's interested, and I've already talked to Jennifer about it," answers Jeff.

"Thats impossible," declares Julie. "He's critical to the Goodold project."

"Sorry," says Jeff, "but if the Growin project is successful, we'll get more business from them than we ever got form the Goodold Company."

"It's already after 6 o'clock and I have to be out of town for a week, but I'll discuss this with Jennifer as soon as I get back," snaps Julie

"Yeah, sure, whatever," responds Jeff.

The next day Jeff calls a meeting with Jennifer and Tyler. He starts by telling them, "I called this meeting to figure how soon Tyler can begin working on the Growin project and how you [looking at Jennifer] can get somebody to take his palce on what's-her-name's project."

"I think Julie should be here for this discussion," says Jennifer.

"She couldn't make it. Apparently she's out of town for a week, and we need to get going on the Growin project." Jeff tells her. "We need to prepare for a meeting with them next week. Besides, Tyler is the one we're talking about, and he'd rather work on the Growin project. Right, Tyler?'

"Ah, well, now that you have asked, I am getting tired of working on the Goodold projects," replies Tyler. "I'm not learning anything new. I mean, it's okay, but I'd like a change.

Jennifer is astonished. "You never mentioned that to me, Tyler."

Jeff breaks in, "Well, I guess it's settled. Jennifer, you assign somebody else to the Goodold project who'll feel a little more challenged and tell Julie when she gets back. In the meantime, me and my buddy Tyler have got a lot of work to do to look good for our meeting with the Growin people next week."

Evaluate the case and propose a solution. Prioritise the steps to be taken in your approach, be systematic and motivate your assertions.

Total: [100]

scarletgnu53

The Most Stressful Conditions
How can effective choices be made when there is no time, when your employees, your company, and your community are in imminent danger? Decision making under these conditions takes on a different character, as shown in the response of Sidley Austin Brown & Wood to the tragic events of September 11, 2001.
The giant law firm was formed in May 2001 when Brown & Wood merged its Wall Street financial law offices with those of Chicago-based Sidley & Austin, corporate law specialists, creating the nationâs fourth-largest practice, with 1,400 lawyers worldwide. Many of the firmâs lawyers are headquartered in New York City, with 600 formerly housed at 1 World Trade Center on floors 52 to 57 and another 100 seven miles away in midtown Manhattan. On September 11, the first plane struck overhead. Workers noticed the explosionâs tremors and the smell of jet fuel. Director of Administration John Connelly asked workers to evacuate, helping the frightened and confused employees to the stairs. Being unaware of the extent of the danger, Connelly and others went from floor to floor to ensure that everyone was safely out, then left the building just as it collapsed. Only one company employee perished in the attack.
In the aftermath, with damaged facilities and workers in shock, Sidley Austin employees faced the most trying circumstances of their careers. When their attempts to contact the midtown building failed because cell phone towers had been destroyed, many employees walked to the site. At the midtown location, partner Alan S. Weil anticipated the need for additional office space and called his landlord, who granted immediate leases on two floors and also got another law firm to gibe up two newly leased floors. By the end of the day, hundreds of desks, computers, and cell phones were arriving, and contractors were installing computer cables. âItâs just amazing what you can get in New York overnight,â says partner Thomas R. Smith Jr. According to New York writer John Schwartz, âThe normal rules of business engagementâdeliberate negotiation, adversarial wrangling and jockeying for advantageâwere swept away. The infamously in-your-face New York attitude was nowhere to be found.â
The partnershipâs directors were supposed to meet in Los Angeles on September 12 but were stranded elsewhere as airlines ceased operations. The executives used conference call to begin âissue-spotting,â according ti Thomas Cole, partner. He explained, âThe lawyers who assembled that day and in the days thereafter were people who had spent their entire working lives engaged in solving complex problems for clients.
â¦But that was under normal conditions. Would we succeed under the most stressful conditionsâ¦?â Issues involving people, insurance, and communications were complex; for example, the people issue covered such items as payroll continuity, trauma counseling, and safety and security. The organization pulled togetherâstaffers from the Chicago headquarters drove all night to assist. When the firmâs backup data tapes needed transport from a New Jersey warehouse to Chicago, the storage companies offered to have their employees drive overnight because no planes were flying. Dennis J. OâDonovan, head of the firmâs technology section, says, â[Disaster recovery seminars] always prepare you for the worstâpeople not being available, people not being cooperative; the opposite has happened.â
On September 17, firm employees met, and partner Charles W. Douglas told the crowd, âThe assets of the law firm are not the desks in the offices, the woodwork thatâs on the walls or the paintings that are hung in the corridors. The assets of the law firm are its people.â Smith agreed, saying, âBeing able to keep the business going is great, but itâs the people that count.â Employees and partners at Sidley Austin have taken on the added work with few complaints; many say that work is therapeutic. The lawyers have completed many financial deals on time, believing that itâs their patriotic duty to continue working as before. Employees claim that the tragedy drew them closer together, creating intimate friendships. Others are still suffering from stress, and some may choose paid disability leave, Nancy L, Karen, chief information officer, says the firm has learned a lot about crisis conditions. âWe ought to be able to recover in less than a say next time,â she says, adding with a nervous laugh, âGod forbid!â Perhaps Thomas Cole best askedâ¦if the disaster has been a setback to the full realization of the anticipated benefits of our merger. I answer that â[b]because of the way few have risen to this challenge together, the most important yet most elusive goal in any merger integration, namely the creation of a true partnership, occurred overnight.â

References: âAbout Sidley,â âOur Offices,â âOur Practices,â Sidley Austin Brown & Wood website. www.sidley.com

Case Questions
1. Using the rational approach to decision making, describe the ways in which these crisis conditions affected each step of the decision-making process.

2. Based on your answer to question 1, what are some potential problems that firm should be aware of when they must make decisions during a crisis? What are some steps that firms can take to avoid those problems or to minimize their negative impact?

3. Due to the extraordinary circumstances in New York City during and just after September 11, many individuals and firms changed their behavior, acting more altruistically and ethically. In your opinion, why did this occur? Do you think the change is likely to endure for a long time, or is it only temporary?

ACE 240 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: John D. And Catherine T. Macarthur Foundation, Black Carbon

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