Module 2 Discussion 1: Heroic vs Shared Leadership

Posted on September 5, 2017     Leave a Comment

The qualities listed below are just observations and not opinions on right or wrong.  The choice of leadership style always needs to be accessed according to the competence and emotional maturity of the leader and each member of the team. Example leaders can use Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership to manage the team and stick to their core qualities; Vision, communication acumen, innovation, collaboration, integrity and competence.

 

Three Key Characteristics of Heroic (unitary command)

–          In control to take responsibility

–          Organise work according to what has historically been seen as rational and sensible

–          Looked at as someone that can inspire and save the team/organisation.

 

Three Key Characteristics of Post-Heroic or Shared Leadership

–          They have more time for their co-workers and for reflecting on strategy.

–          Two leaders are smarter than one, meaning they have several competencies required for the role.

–          The teams’ interests can be represented at the same time at two different managerial engagements.

–          High risk requires high control. This is especially true in contract management and billing environment where audits of user access, contractual compliance, accounting rules and delegation are required.

 

Four Organisational Advantages of the Unitary Command Perspective

–          A unitary command leader is seen to be a hero that can come save the day, someone that has all the answers.

–          This leader is required at times to inspire and keep the team on the right path working towards a single vision and achievable measurable goals.

–          The unitary leader is someone that is held accountable. This means there is someone who has authority and responsibility to make decisions and ensure success.

–          This leader is easily identified by the press and can be sold to the public as hero. What makes a team succeed video (Insider, 2016)

 

 

Four Organisational Advantages of the Shared Leadership Perspective

–          There is less vulnerability in case of a leaders’ absence of resignation.

–          There is lower risk for sub optimal solutions if the leadership is truly shared by the management team.

–          There is less stress on the leadership and young ambitious employees can be retained.

–          Shared leadership allows for sustainable leadership and injection of new ideas which can be further improved by having a diversified team.

 

 

Insider, T. (2016). How Google builds the perfect team.

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xpme.tv used by La Trobe University – case study

Posted on July 3, 2016     Leave a Comment

Assignment 2

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Milan Pintar

94568830

2016-BUO5ENP(OL-TS4)

La Trobe Business School

La Trobe University

3 July 2016

Words

3000

 

 

 

 

Part A: Introduction to the business venture

Explanation of the business venture La Trobe University could enter into

Maximum mark7

This is an exciting new combination of programs used to combining education, streaming and investments to help support sustainable business ventures.

Idea is made up of the following programs:

• La Trobe Angels
• Crowd funding using Paypal micro investments
• La Trobe Incubator Program
• strawpoll.me survey
• xpme.tv streaming service

The combination is an angel investment and crowd funding program supported by La Trobe University, La Trobe’s industry partners and the students all enabled by xpme.tv

According to (Ratten 2016), “A business model articulates the logic and provides data and other evidence that demonstrates how a business creates and delivers value to customers. It also outlines the architecture of revenues, costs, and profits associated with the business enterprise delivering that value. Companies can adopt business models pioneered in one space into another.” This is essentially saying you don’t need to reinvent the wheel just apply its success to other areas.

 

According to Ratten (2016) lecture notes a business idea should have the following details considered in figure 1.

 

Figure 1 Business idea modelling in lecture notes in week 4 (Ratten 2016)

 

The Value proposition is a product and a service that will be offered by La Trobe University to its stakeholders. The university has the following stakeholders; students, potential students, teachers, the public and industry partners. The proposed business idea is to offer all stakeholders access to a service called “La Trobe Angels”. This service would give industry partners and students’ the opportunities to assess entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial ideas that both stakeholders can gain from. The idea would also allow investors from anywhere around the world to invest. To support this service La Trobe will create mandatory requirements for entrepreneurs participate in short classes as part of the “La Trobe incubator” service. This service should be opened to all so that potential students and teachers can also take part and present to La Trobe Angels and global community watching and ready to crowd fund. The key uniqueness to this idea is to broadcast the angels service over an interactive streaming service called xpme.tv, which stands for “experience me tv”. Xpme.tv service has a business model based on the success of twitch.tv which has made the e-sport industry the success what it is today. The models elements that made twitch.tv successful can have been applied to xpme.tv and can be used for La Trobe Angels. An important element of the model is to survey the viewers watching the stream using a service like http://www.strawpoll.me/. Investors can be Angels or they can also be the viewers watching the stream using paypal for payment as a crowd funding support of any of the ideas presenting in the program.

With xpme.tv and surveys to help the angels and crowd, the target beneficiaries can reach anywhere there is internet connection that supports at least 140kbps to 4K internet speeds which can be provided handled by 2G, 3G and wifi wireless networks giving access to third world countries. This aligns to La Trobe’s 2013 to 2017 strategic plan to increase students from 26000 to 33000 and to expand into regional Victoria and Asia-Pacific, the service gives the university reach across the whole world, something that has never been done before by a university.

To support the students the university can offer mandatory lectures delivered via LMS and xpme.tv with tests provided to subscribers to that channel while the channel is in a subscriber only mode.

Potential partnership with the government via https://www.business.gov.au/assistance can also help students and potential students gain funding support for this ideas. Revenue can be raise from sponsors, investors, government and student applications. To generate further revenue, the streaming service can play advertising from sponsors either provided by the university or by xpme.tv. This helps build the sponsors as well and La Trobe Universities brand name.

La Trobe can run a front office that coordinates applications and makes sure students and potential students complete mandatory programs during the incubator sessions, the front office sets up the channels and groups the students with investors that might be interested in their ideas. The back office follows up with preparing session times for the xpme.tv show, sets up incubator classes both in person and over xpme.tv so that the teachers and students can meet and learn. The back office offers the support networks to students from partners and the government and assesses and approved candidates that will be allowed to present to the La Trobe Angels. The back office setups up all the on the program dates. Broadcasting xpme.tv is responsible for providing the streaming user experience, it takes revenue from ads and subscriptions but only to cover costs plus 9%.

Below in figure 2 is an example of the broadcaster view and functionality using an iphone.

 

Figure 2 xpme.tv broadcaster functionality

 

 

Here is the interface for strawpoll.me where questions can be asked to the viewers of the La Trobe Angels channel on xpme.tv

Figure 3 Survey using strawpoll.me

 

 

 

Part B: Business venture analysis

Discussion of how La Trobe can leverage its assets to link with community and existing businesses in Melbourne

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La Trobe university can leverage its assets both internally and with the external community. The following tutorial classes can be run in an incubator held by the university in preparation for presenting to the La Trobe Angels;

• Intellectual property protection copyright and patents,
• Business plan tutorial class,
• PESTEL analysis (http://pestleanalysis.com/what-is-pestle-analysis/),
• Finance and triple bottom line accounting using GRI standards,
• Understanding sustainability and United Nations 2030 agenda for sustainable development, (http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/70/1&Lang=E) ,
• How to get government grants and support via https://www.business.gov.au/assistance,
• Understanding how to sell your idea by aligning your innovation to community and business partner strategic plans.

La Trobe Angel program is public and can be viewed but both investors and the public over xpme.tv. Xpme.tv can be viewed over mobile smart phones or the internet and streamed to a TV. Viewers can watch and interact via chat, they can participate in surveys that are linked but the moderator. Only moderators and broadcasters can post links. Businesses and audiences can watch and participate globally and xpme.tv analytics can break down geographic locations of the audience and strawpoll.me can breakdown geographic locations of survey results.

On the xpme.tv channel page these details can be listed:

• Industry angels and their backgrounds including advertising their current businesses
• La Trobe Industry partners can be found here: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/business/about/services-to-business/industry-partners and to contact the partners the contacts can be connected with your business via http://www.latrobe.edu.au/business/about/services-to-business/contact-us
• La Trobe university has a program called work integrated learning (WIL) http://www.latrobe.edu.au/partnerships/wil, quote regarding success:

Any organisation would benefit from participating in WIL, with the introduction of fresh ideas, enthusiasm and talent. We had a project waiting and WIL was the impetus to get it started. Our student has grabbed the project and run with it… she has been an absolute delight with her positivity and ideas.

Gail Baker, Director of Studies, ALTEC

Management discipline

• Links to La Trobe incubator classes
• Links to Register and idea for the next La Trobe Angels sessions

 

Description of market opportunities for this entrepreneurial based venture

Maximum mark5

The market opportunity for La Trobe having La Trobe Angels, La Trobe incubator, xpme.tv streaming and surveys can be modelled using Chesbrough (2010) nine point decomposition of a business model.

Figure 4 Chesbrough (2010) shows the 9 point decomposition of a business model

 

From this the market idea starts at the partner network. Students needs to assess their idea with the help of the incubator and see what partner networks that can get support from including but not exclusive to understanding the Angels they will be presenting to. The audience of xpme.tv means that there might be hidden angels willing to partner. The experience gained by La Trobe students both on campus and remote should be on building a sustainable business. For the partner assessment the students need to understand the strategic plan of possible partners in the industry they are trying to get support from. They also should try to align to the government grant programs and try to get funding and finally they should try to align to the United Nations 2030 agenda for sustainable development below:

Sustainable Development Goals (United Nations 2015)

Goal 1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere

Goal 2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

Goal 3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

Goal 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

Goal 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Goal 6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

Goal 7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

Goal 8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Goal 9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

Goal 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries

Goal 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Goal 12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

Goal 13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts*

Goal 14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

Goal 15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

Goal 16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels

Goal 17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development

 

The university should create a forum in LMS and in person to help the students with the key activities; assessment of key resources example, marketing, developers, finance officer with forecasts and break even analysis, business law, media communication and planning, science agriculture and engineering, information technology and health provided by the La Trobe WIL partner program. The value proposition should then be made to the angels.

In regards to this idea, the university would have to prepare classes for the incubator program and setup student presentations then approach their partners in the industry to attend the La Trobe Angels sessions after getting them to sign agreements on advertising, revenue sharing or finder fees. The broadcast will be run as a service by xpme.tv but advertising should be partnered with La Trobe and its partners.

Analysis of relationship between business venture and La Trobe University’s mission and values

Maximum mark5

La Trobe has the following strategic plan in figure 5.

Figure 5 Future Ready: Strategic Plan 2013–2017 for La Trobe University

 

• Research Focus Areas
  • Before presenting to investors La Trobe has an opportunity to support the students by providing an incubator program. A requirement for students and potential students top present to investors is to attend the incubator sessions where the university and other students can suggest support networks provided by the university and its WIL partner networks http://www.latrobe.edu.au/partnerships/wil. The university can support the entrepreneur with how to protect intellectual property, use the universities research and development to support the entrepreneur’s idea.
• La Trobe Framework
  • The university has five strategies in its framework; Hallmark Program, Essentials, Learning Enrichment, Design for Learning and Radical Learning Project.  The focus is on innovative sustainable thinking and being a good global citizen. These ideas have been covered by La Trobe Angels and xpme.tv by properly educating students in during the incubator program before they present. This reimagines the way students learn and evolves the education system so that anyone has the opportunity have access to learn to start a sustainable business and investors have a way for paying for the idea.
• Communities and Partners Strategy:
  • The xpme.tv solution allows La Trobe to reach all communities listed in the strategic plan. This includes Asia-Pacific. Some of La Trobe’s current partners are http://www.latrobe.edu.au/business/about/services-to-business/industry-partners but this will be sure to grow as audiences grow when watching xpme.tv
• Future Ready Staff:
  • The La Trobe Angels program and streaming service will bring in revenue and attention and will likely attract the best teachers and researchers so they can contribute to changing the world for a better place
• La Trobe values are:
  • Take a world view; pursue ideas and excellence with energy; treat people with respect and work together; are open, friendly and honest; hold ourselves accountable for making great things happen.

The La Trobe incubator program, La Trobe Angels program, paypal accessibility and micro payments for crowd funding, use of an online polling service (example strawpoll.me) and use of xpme.tv broadcasting service to create a great experience for everyone can support La Trobe’s strategic plan and the universities values.

 

Part C: Resource Analysis

Identifies the resources needed for the business venture

Maximum mark4

 

Figure 4 Sosna et al. Learning and Business Model Innovation Process (2010)

 

Sosna et al. (2010) explains the four stage process of developing a successful business model through sustainable value creation. This model helps us understand what resources are needed for this business venture.

Stage 1: Initial business model design and test

Xpme.tv streaming model is new but is taken from the already successful twitch.tv streaming service. It has been assessed intrapreneurially within large telecoms companies but for the solution to be realised without the overhead of political and delegation authority of a large company it was taken back as an entrepreneurial venture with partnerships in New York City and Mumbai to build the cloud based solution. Cloud has meant that most of the development and recruitment to build the service has been handled by the partner. La Trobe would need to organise subjects and a time table then approach industry partners and then advertise to students. A test of the critical to success xpme.tv streaming service would need to be conducted.

Stage 2: Business model development

After the Angels and incubator subjects have been created but La Trobe, the streaming channel page would need to be created and a demonstration made to La Trobe sponsoring stakeholder(s). After approval of the format and agenda a final time line would need to be set. The time lines would have to take into account preparing students, advertising, approaching and organising angels.

Stage 3: Scale up with suitable business model

Execute the first event and learn lessons afterward. The event can be run any time and from experience from twitch.tv the more often the higher the channel following.

Stage 4: Sustained growth through org wide learning

For sustainable growth promotion is key including advertising and word of mouth. Staff, students, viewers and angels can all register via xpme.tv and sessions can be announced notifying all followers of the channel. Bank accounts would need to be setup and a revenue contract signed between all parties.

Identifies advantages and disadvantages of the entrepreneurial based venture

Maximum mark5

Advantage:

Other services have tried to copy twitch.tv and compete with them in the gaming industry space, this includes a youtube gaming failed attempt late 2015. The first move maker has the advantage because of two factors, firstly having the right combinations of features in the service and secondly the community being accustomed to your services features and therefore not wanting to move to another service. This is similar to customers not wanting to change between apples and googles phone ecosystems. There is no example of a successful streaming broadcast service similar to twitch.tv and there are currently no options other than periscope and meerkat but these services only stream and chat at a basic level and are not suitable for supporting La Trobe Angels.

Disadvantages:

PESTLE Risks:

• Political
  • There is no influence from government needed to help sustain this business venture. Revenue from industry sponsorship, advertising, enrolment fees, subscription to vote, crowd funding micro investment and success from a finder’s fee agreement will support the idea financially.
• Economic
  • Economy change is a risk that is mitigated by the size of the audience when broadcasting over xpme.tv. The economy can impact confidence from angels in some industries but that is mitigated but other growing industries and crowd funded micro investments.
• Social
  • This is the highest risk. People watching La Trobe Angels must not take get a negative impression or the service and the Universities values.
• Technological
  • tv is internet based and has servers all over the world but unpredicted growth can cause congestion on the bandwidth or the servers themselves. Mitigation but limiting numbers of viewers to not impact the viewers that get on might need to be applied. Further investment in expanding the infrastructure would be needed but this is a good problem to have and quick to solve.
• Legal
  • Legal intellectual property (IP) and international protection will require expert legal advice in some cases. At the extreme some countries consumer laws or IP protection laws may be insufficient and La Trobe may have to limit access to those countries to protect students and investors.
• Environmental
  • There is no impact on the environment from streaming, voting and investing in ideas. There might be entrepreneurial/intrapreneurial innovations that have negative environmental impacts but that would need to be assessed on a per case bases.

There is always a risk of losing key resources.

These are the key resources below:

• tv service
  • Page setup team
  • Contract management
• La Trobe staff
  • Lecturers in core subjects’ students require to present at xpme.tv session
  • Front office staff and core competence to organise and contact stakeholders
  • Back office staff and core competence required to prepare the program made up for angels, students and staff.
  • Presenter to run the La Trobe Angels show
  • Event management
  • Accounting
  • Human resource management
  • Marketing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Teece, D.J (2010) Business Models, Business Strategy and Innovation. Long Range Planning, Volume 43, Issues 2–3, April–June 2010, Pages 172–194,

http://www.sciencedirect.com.ez.library.latrobe.edu.au/science/article/pii/S002463010900051X

Sosna Marc, Rosa Nelly T., S Ramakrishna Velamuri (2010) Business Model Innovation through Trial-and-Error Learning, Volume 43, Issues 2–3, April–June 2010, Pp 383- 407 http://www.sciencedirect.com.ez.library.latrobe.edu.au/science/article/pii/S0024630110000099

Christoph Zott, Raphael Amit (2010), Business Model Design: An Activity System Perspective, Long Range Planning, Volume 43, Issues 2–3, April–June 2010, Pages 216–226,

http://www.sciencedirect.com.ez.library.latrobe.edu.au/science/article/pii/S0024630109000533

Chesbrough Henry (2010), Business Model Innovation: Opportunities and Barriers, Long Range Planning, Volume 43, Issues 2–3, April–June 2010, Pages 354–363, http://www.sciencedirect.com.ez.library.latrobe.edu.au/science/article/pii/S0024630109000569

 

Ratten, Dr Vanessa 2016, ‘Module 4 – eBook 3 What’s Your Business Recipe?’,  lecture note, viewed 27 June 2016, https://lms.latrobe.edu.au/mod/book/view.php?id=2013491&chapterid=129465

United Nations, 25 September 2015, Resolution adopted by the General Assembly,” Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/70/1&Lang=E

Future Ready: Strategic Plan 2013–2017, La Trobe University, viewed 1^st July 2017, http://www.latrobe.edu.au/about/downloads/LaTrobe-FutureReadyStrategicPlan-A1poster.pdf

Global Reporting Initiative 2015, Global Reporting Guidelines G4, viewed on 31 January 2016, < https://www.globalreporting.org/Pages/default.aspx>

 

 

 

 

 

Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) explained

Posted on May 8, 2016     Leave a Comment

Gender Diversity Assignment

Posted on January 31, 2016     Leave a Comment

Contents

1.1 Self-reflection. 3

1.2 Short Literature Review on Gender Equality. 5

What do people want?. 5

How to run a Sustainable Business by Dean of Harvard Nitin Nohria. 6

United Nations 2030 Global Sustainability Goals: 7

Goal 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all 7

Goal 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. 9

1.3 Application Exercise. 10

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Triple Bottom Line (TBL) Accounting using Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) (2015) Framework. 10

G4 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines on Diversity: 11

Conclusion. 13

References: 15

 

 

1.1 Self-reflection

 

Upon Request.

1.2 Short Literature Review on Gender Equality

What do people want?

 

According to Workplace Gender Equality Agency (2012), the aim of gender equality in the workplace is to achieve broadly equal outcomes for women and men, not exactly the same outcome for all individuals. To achieve this requires:

• workplaces to provide equal pay for women and men for work of equal or comparable value
• the removal of barriers to the full and equal participation of women in the workforce
• access to all occupations and industries, including leadership roles, for women and men
• elimination of discrimination on the basis of gender, particularly in relation to family and caring responsibilities for both women and men.

Alderfer, (1972) explained how people are motived by three needs; Existence, Relatedness, and Growth. According to workplace gender equality each person in the work place should have equal opportunity to achieve equal outcomes. But is there a difference in what motives genders? And does that reflect negatively in annual reports on gender?  Does having equal numbers of male or female actually discriminate against what people want by forcing them everyone to be the same?

From the motivation mapping worksheet Inglis (2015) listed the following motivations when trying to work out how to motive staff:

• Working conditions
• Salary, incentives, bonuses
• Relationship with workers
• Pride in organisation
• Achievement
• Status
• Recognition
• Responsibility
• Relationship with supervisor (or governance board if it’s a CEO)
• Meaningful work
• Security
• Work/life balance
• Challenging work
• Advancement
• Learning and growth

 

These are the questions each gender should be asked individually and regularly with equal opportunity for all. It is the responsibility of the manager to then meet the business needs to with the aspirations of the individuals irrespective of gender. The business need drive the business cases and opportunities. Culture and therefore gender equality is an important aspect of a successful sustainable business.

How to run a Sustainable Business by Dean of Harvard Nitin Nohria

 

According to Nohria (2003) what really works in achieving better than 90% chance of sustaining superior business performance is having a strong grasp of business basics. The formula is 4+2 where you choose four primary and then two secondary practices

Four primary practices:

• Strategy
• Execution
• Culture
• Structure

Two secondary practices:

• Talent
• Innovation
• Leadership
• Mergers and Partnerships

 

From this list we can clearly see Nohria (2003) has culture as a primary practice needed to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage in the global economy.

Taking culture as seriously as operations is considered important. “but promoting a fun environment isn’t nearly as important as promoting one that champions high-level performance and ethical behaviour”, (Nohria 2003). “Thomas (1992) proposed that managers needed to move beyond affirmative action for racial groups and women if they wanted to achieve competitive advantage.” Kramar (2012).

Culture is communicated down from the CEO and board of directors using company values. Correct values will promote consistent behaviours across the company. Diversity in people will help each part of the company understand of their diverse customer base.

“Managing diversity is an idea whose time has come. More and more corporations and organisations are awakening to the fact that a diverse workforce is not a burden, but their greatest potential strength – when managed properly” (Thomas 1992).

United Nations 2030 Global Sustainability Goals:

According to Sustainable Development United Nations (2015):

Goal 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

Goal 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

 

Goal 4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

4.1 By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes
4.2 By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education
4.3 By 2030, ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university
4.4 By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship
4.5 By 2030, eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations
4.6 By 2030, ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy
4.7 By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development
4.a Build and upgrade education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive and provide safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all
4.b By 2020, substantially expand globally the number of scholarships available to developing countries, in particular least developed countries, small island developing States and African countries, for enrolment in higher education, including vocational training and information and communications technology, technical, engineering and scientific programmes, in developed countries and other developing countries
4.c By 2030, substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation for teacher training in developing countries, especially least developed countries and small island developing States

 

Goal 5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

5.1 End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere
5.2 Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation
5.3 Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation
5.4 Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate
5.5 Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life
5.6 Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and the Beijing Platform for Action and the outcome documents of their review conferences
5.a Undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance and natural resources, in accordance with national laws
5.b Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women
5.c Adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels

 

Diversity management has been seen as part of an organisation’s corporate social responsibility agenda. According to this view, organisations have an obligation to make decisions and implement actions that enhance the welfare of a range of a range of stakeholders in society as well as further the interests of the organisation (Freeman and Velamuri 2006). Kramar (2012)

Porter et al (2002) discusses the importance of competitive advantage and maximising social and economic value creation. Diversity reports signals good business practices to a larger number of investors and customers. “The more tightly corporate philanthropy is aligned with a company’s unique strategy—increasing skills, technology, or infrastructure on which the firm is especially reliant, say, or increasing demand within a specialized segment where the company is strongest—the more disproportionately the company will benefit through enhancing the context.” Porter et el (2002)

1.3 Application Exercise

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Triple Bottom Line (TBL) Accounting using Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) (2015) Framework

The executive level goal is to improve the triple bottom line results of the organisation. In the GRI standard the people aspect specifically reports on diversity and equal opportunity. This insight into the mind of the executives in your organisation can help with getting approval for funding. Middle management needs to be aware that a business case that included hiring staff works towards the TBL targets and also any requests that help that report can be more easily justified but all decisions fundamentally must be based on the economic benefits of any decision. This includes, risk analysis, succession planning and building the organisations core competence. In Amsterdam 18 May, 2016 there will be the fifth GRI Global Conference and it will likely review and assimilate the new UN objectives. Global Reporting Initiative (2015)

 

 

G4 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines on Diversity:

 

Diversity and equal opportunity			Type of data	Reported
LA13	Composition of governance bodies and breakdown of employees per category according to gender, age group, minority group membership, and other indicators of diversity.	The percentage of employees in the gender category (female/male).	quantitative
		The percentage of employees in minority groups.	quantitative
		The percentage of employees by age group (under 30; 30-50; over 50).	quantitative
		The percentage of individuals within the organization’s governance bodies in the gender category (female/male).	quantitative
		The percentage of individuals within the organization’s governance bodies in minority groups.	quantitative
		The percentage of individuals within the organization’s governance bodies by age group (under 30; 30-50; over 50).	quantitative

 

 

“Currently, diversity initiatives’ strongest accomplishment may actually be protecting the organization from litigation — not protecting the interests of underrepresented groups…In order to foster fair, inclusive workplaces, diversity initiatives must incorporate accountability. They must be more than “colorful window dressing” that unintentionally angers a substantial portion of the workforce. Diversity policies must be researched, assessed for effectiveness, and implemented with care so that everyone in the workplace can feel valued and supported.” Tessa et al (2016)

The colourful window dressing is one example of addressing diversity. “Powell (1993) proposed that diversity management referred to the way organisations responded to affirmative action/equal employment opportunity legislation. Organisations could either do nothing, react to the legislation in order to comply or they could be more proactive and take action to manage a diverse workforce for the benefit of the organisation.” Kramar (2012) In Telstra Sustainability report (2015) covers diversity. Regular team meetings cover diversity aspects of the GRI framework. Some of the fun ways to focus on diversity it to focus on the company values and announce customer focused initiatives that include everyone’s.

Telstra has a system called Zings to reward individuals for their achievements and use of company values.  These also put individuals and teams into the quarterly chief operation officer (COO) awards. These Zing awards can be converted to money or gifts and they are announced to the organisation and are something to be proud of. They also indicate to the business that you are a leader and that helps with future promotions.

Implications of that reward and performance management system must be managed correctly. “Organizations typically attempt to achieve diversity through a special program or a series of initiatives. These attempts at creating diversity are often poorly planned and disjointed in their implementation. At best, many of these organizations move to the pluralistic level of diversity development. More minorities are hired and eventually promoted, but they are expected to conform to the majority organizational culture. A truly diverse, multicultural work environment is never realized. These organizations become stuck in the pluralistic stage of development and fail to reap the true competitive rewards of a multicultural workforce […] Finally, the organization must ensure that the changes of the moving stage are institutionalized. This objective is accomplished by aligning the organizational policies, procedures and reward system to perpetuate the new culture” Allen (2001)

“Companies with gender equality perform better

A considerable body of research suggests a link between gender equality and better organisational performance. While there are a range of reasons to explain this link, one factor is that diversity brings together varied perspectives, produces a more holistic analysis of the issues an organisation faces and spurs greater effort, leading to improved decision-making.”  (Workplace Gender Equality Agency  2012)

The Workforce 2000 Report demonstrated that by 2000 the workforce in the United States would be more heterogeneous and the report urged organisations to address workforce diversity if they were going to maintain their success (Kramer 2012).

Here at Telstra, we have five core values:

• Show we care
• Work better; together
• Trust each other to deliver
• Make the complex simple
• Find our courage

Managers need to understand the mind of the investor and global community. The GRI framework is the guideline followed that represents the investor and global community. The united nations also have further guidelines.

Telstra uses top down goals to manage gender diversity. It seems to take the GRI framework and has an objective for hiring based on the objectives for this year’s report but it does not enforce based only on numbers otherwise this would not be a valid business case and would be based only on affirmative action. “A model has been developed which describes four stages of a proactive, positive approach to diversity management. These stages are identified as a Problem-specific Stage, the Integrated Stage which integrates diversity initiatives into a strategic management plan, the Culture Change Stage and the Inclusive Workplace Stage.” Kramar (2011).

Conclusion

 

Gender diversity in Telstra need to be assessed on both an individual basis. Each person should have the same opportunities and selection should be based on merit. Each person may have different objectives at different stages of life including all genders and it is in the manager’s and companies interest to understand and develop the individual’s competence in line with the company’s core competence. According to Kramer (2011) Corporate social responsible (CSR) has can have competitive advantage benefits and it not only to avoid concerns about legal compliance. The United nations met late 2015 and decided on new CSR and global targets for 2030. Cremer (2015) shows the impact of CSR and Volkswagen’s manipulation of CO2 emissions serious financial backlash from governments and customers. The GRI standard is serious the recommendation is that Telstra works toward improving both reporting and actions in their GRI based sustainability report.

 

 

 

References:

Alderfer, C. (1972). Existence, Relatedness, and Growth; Human Needs in Organizational Settings. New York: Free Press.

Allen RS and KA Montgomery, November 2001, Applying an organisational development approach to creating diversity. Organizational Dynamics Vol 30, 149–161. < http://www.sciencedirect.com.ez.library.latrobe.edu.au/science/article/pii/S0090261601000493>

Cremer Andreas, 9 December 2015, VW says CO2 emissions scandal not as bad as feared, Reuters,  http://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-emissions-carbon-idUSKBN0TS12I20151209

Inglis Susan, BUO5MGT Management Fundamentals, 2015, Motivation Mapping Worksheet, La Trobe University

Drucker, P. F. (1994, September). The Theory of Business, Harvard Business Review. Retrieved May 18, 2015, from hbr.org: https://hbr.org/1994/09/the-theory-of-the-business

Global Reporting Initiative 2015, Global Reporting Guidelines G4, viewed on 31 January 2016, < https://www.globalreporting.org/Pages/default.aspx>

Kramar, Robin, 3 February 2012, Diversity management in Australia: a mosaic of concepts, practice and rhetoric. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 50: p245–261 < http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ez.library.latrobe.edu.au/doi/10.1111/j.1744-7941.2011.00010.x/full>

Nitin Nohria, W. J. (2003, July). What Really Works. Harvard Business Review,  https://hbr.org/2003/07/what-really-works

Porter ME and MR Kramer (2003), The competitive advantage of corporate philanthropy, Harvard Business Review. Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation, Boston. https://hbr.org/2002/12/the-competitive-advantage-of-corporate-philanthropy

Sustainable Development United Nations, 25 September 2015 Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, viewed 15 January 2016, https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld

Telstra Sustainability Report, 2015, Community & Environment, viewed 31 January 2016, https://www.telstra.com.au/aboutus/community-environment/reports/sustainability-report/our-people

Tessa L. Dover, Brenda Major, Cheryl R. Kaiser, January 04, 2016, Diversity Policies Rarely Make Companies Fairer, and They Feel Threatening to White Men, HBR, https://hbr.org/2016/01/diversity-policies-dont-help-women-or-minorities-and-they-make-white-men-feel-threatened

Thomas, R. Roosevelt, 1992, Beyond Race and Gender: Unleashing the Power of Your Total Workforce by Managing, American Management Association, New York

Workplace Gender Equality Agency, 2012, About Workplace Gender Equality, Australia, viewed 25 January 2016,  https://www.wgea.gov.au/learn/about-workplace-gender-equality

 

 

 

Ethics and Indigenous Australians

Posted on January 24, 2016     Leave a Comment

Deal All

Some of you may have seen in the news or on social media a protest when it became apparent that a virtual game produced by NIL Entertainment, apparently called on players to ‘kill aboriginals’ A petition was created via Change.org that called for companies such as Amazon and Google to remove the game from their sites. [I signed the petition]

https://www.change.org/p/amazon-killing-indigenous-australians-is-not-a-game

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/people-want-to-ban-a-new-game-where-players-need-to-kill-indigenous-australians-2016-1

Regards,

Robert

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Hi All,

Killing Aborigines does break the guideline, if it was a history lesson instead of a shooting game and it showed the after effects it might be acceptable? Other games are usually fighting for freedom, this games premise is hostile invasions and that should never be approved. The danger is this kind of game could go viral because it’s the outrageousness and I totally agree money talks, Apple and Google should be more responsible.

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/jan/24/stan-grants-speech-on-racism-and-the-australian-dream-goes-viral

BR

Milan

Gender Equality

Posted on January 24, 2016     Leave a Comment

Hi everyone

Again I want to extend my thinking on gender equality, I think gender equality in a workplace depends on country’s education level, law and order, general people’s view on women and workplace rules and regulation structure. All least developed countries have lacks on above criteria that’s why those countries gender equality situation not good.

Thanks everyone,

Saifur

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Dear Saifur

Thank you for the post. It would seem likely that all of the factors you identify may indeed contribute to the gender inequality issue. However, as noted in my earlier post, stage of economic development alone does not appear to be the decisive factor.

Regards,

Robert

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Hi Saifur and Robert,

Saifur, you make excellent points.  I feel like I am uneducated in this area myself, as I am not someone who has travelled to less-developed countries, and understand their economic position.

However, I believe culture has an immense impact on how gender equality is portrayed in countries.  How we are treated within our home has a lot to do with how we treat others.  At hospital recently with my daughter in the emergency room, there was a clearly drug affected mother abusing her child by hitting him.  It was very distressing to watch, the most distressing part of it was that the child did not flinch.  I said to my husband that this child had become immune to this treatment.

I cannot imagine how he feels about women, how we will treat his sisters, and how he will treat his wife when he is a man.  I believe what happens within the walls of the home has the most impact on gender equality.

Elizabeth Broderick makes a fantastic stance on gender equality in that to truly make transformational change, we must engage both the head and the heart.

I am interested in all of your thoughts on this.

Regards,

Marnie

---

Hi

People are creatures of habit. If educated developed countries already have the habit/culture of career building, greed, competitiveness then they are likely to have old gender inequalities. Poor countries also might have inequality for other reasons that give individual a feeling of power. The more we are rewarded with technology and money in western society or whatever gives people the feeling of power, the less likely we are to change how we behave. Education and then informed people changing laws might be the best way to change the culture of gender inequality.

The Dunning-Kruger effect:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

is a cognitive bias in which relatively unskilled persons suffer illusory superiority, mistakenly assessing their ability to be much higher than it really is.  I would hypothesis this is not only an effect on individuals but also effects individuals perceptions of their country. Real data on gender equality is needed but because of peoples need for power if countries conditions change then the interplay of power and greed will make it very difficult to know which direction gender equality will go in.

Again Education and laws seem to be key. Western society has afirmative action but I do not know how far back they are compared to less developed countries. Western society is setup to improve gender equality but other societies might not have affirmative action laws in place to set them on the right path?

BR

Milan

Ethics and Values

Posted on January 13, 2016     Leave a Comment

Question:

“Personal values have no place in business, we must leave them at home.

At work the values of our organisation are the only ones that matter.

Behaving professionally means disregarding our own values at all times.”

Answer:

I would not join a company that does not align with my personal values in the first place.

These are Telstra’s:

1. Show we care
2. Work better;together
3. Trusteach other to deliver
4. Make the complex simple
5. Find our courage

And these are Ericsson my previous employer:

1. Professionalism
2. Respect
3. Perseverance

But in the case that work values were broken for what I initially expected I would have to try to deal with them based on my values and the law. If I cannot realigned to what I believe is right then it is my responsibility to make aware/educate the organisation but I of course have to understand that I might be wrong! Understanding different cultures is key.  An example is the framework like the GRI standards that report on people and environment. It is important for the organisation to contribute to the yearly sustainability report and everyone should be aware of the framework, I can make the organisation aware of this but there are cultural differences on how to get good GRI results with a totally different way of working, example Indonesian employees wait and do everything what their one up manager says, Australian’s are a lot more independent, Chinese are all about the community. Treating people how they expect would help with reducing sick leave etc. Each culture and even team would have their values and it is important to understand what is important to everyone around you and not thing about yourself.

Great Leaders – I chose Steve Jobs

Posted on November 3, 2015     Leave a Comment

Source: Great Leaders – I chose Steve Jobs

Great Leaders – I chose Steve Jobs

Posted on November 3, 2015     1 Comment

Hi All,

I respect Steve Jobs because of his passion for truly making a different in the world. His products and business are thought out carefully to very customer focused, except for itunes, that has always been very clunky.

I believe this is extremely rare to find a leader with the right passion. From BUO5MGT we listed the following motivations when trying to work out how to motive staff (including CEO’s)

• Working conditions
• Salary, incentives, bonuses
• Relationship with workers
• Pride in organisation
• Achievement
• Status
• Recognition
• Responsibility
• Relationship with supervisor (or governance board if it’s a CEO)
• Meaningful work
• Security
• Work/life balance
• Challenging work
• Advancement
• Learning and growth

I believe Steve was one of the leaders with the above in bold motivations.

Steve’s visions came through in his passion and dedication. Sometimes people need to be shocked to get out of their older attitudes, Steve did polarise a lot of people but I believe that is because people do not like change even though it might be for the better. Example, there are cases where NBN is being rolled out to homes with only dial up and the owners don’t want the free boost in speed.

Any board of directors want to make above average returns while not going to jail. Management fears change but so do customers, ie NBN. It’s a complicated situation with early adopters and I understand any change to become main stream needs a lot of marketing and to be mainstream 27% of the customer base needs to accept something for it to reach a tipping point. Steve jobs wasn’t afraid of change and was great at marketing during his key notes and with his innovative apple stores.

Here is a bit of what I have learnt during the MBA:

Great leaders focus on product innovation and marketing to their customers to achieve sustainable above average triple bottom line returns while not going to jail.

Strategic Management – Communication of strategic decisions to two distinct stakeholder groups

Posted on October 25, 2015     Leave a Comment

Communication of Organisation Change to Qantas Board of Directors

• Firstly, lobby each member of the board of directors and send them the full report
• Secondly, lobby each member of the corporate governance and send them the full report
• Third, Send out the following email three days before the next board of directors meeting and make it an agenda item with the chair of the meeting.
• Fourth, at the meeting with the board of directors ask for a vote if you believe you have support during your lobbying otherwise ask for their consideration and vote at the next meeting.

Dear Board of Directors,

Below are the strategic recommendations as of 25^th October, 2015.

The following strategies focus on increasing our core competences to help us achieve sustainable above average returns.

Qantas’ safety record is a competitive advantage that cannot be copied. We have a monopoly on safety and need to leverage this. Qantas must keep its core competence in maintenance and that must be seen in the eyes of our customers.

A marketing campaign focused on safety with Qantas maintenance overseeing all maintenance aspects must be started and conveyed to the public.

Expansion into businesses that are outside our current capabilities should be avoided.

The key to success is to expand our global presence by partnering with Dubai airport only if Qantas marketing its maintenance standards and safety record is approved.

Qantas should offer other airlines including competitors the opportunity to have their aircraft maintained by Qantas safety standards. Any new maintenance work will be done by contractors in Australia under our strict supervision and approval.

Based on EBIT projections, Qantas must continue to support its core competence while reducing costs. International has the highest volatility but also the highest potential for growth and this is all due to Alan Joyce’s recent efforts in keeping to core competence.

Price competition from Emirate Airlines flooding our international routes reduced our international EBIT. To counter this we must market our safety record while we partnering to reduce supply chain costs, at the same time we must keep our core competence in safety that cannot be copied.

Figure 1Annual EBIT by segment (Qantas Airways Ltd 2015a)

Qantas needs to develop core competence in integrating horizontal acquisitions and building a business outside of Australia.  External market trends show growth in Asia and Africa and Qantas needs to be closer to those markets in order to offer new customers its safety record core competence

Regards,

Milan Pintar

Communication of Organisation Change to Qantas Employees

• First, setup a partnership with Dubai airport and the local government ensuring no barriers to entry for advertising and setting up operations.
• Second, Inform the management leadership and make sure they understand the changes and impact including time lines and strategy
• Third, send out an email announcement that includes a link to the intranet home page with the announcement. Include a video explaining the exciting new changes. This should be sent on the same day a new advertising campaign is launched on social media and TV.

Dear Staff,

The executive board of directors and corporate governance are excited to announce the following changes to the business.

We will continue to focus on our core competences and leverage our best in the world safety record. We do not want to lose this strength so we will not only look to keep it but we want to use to as an advantage.

Qantas is started a new marketing campaign showcasing our safety record. We will go further than that and showcase our safety standards. I ask you all to continue working hard in upholding our values and safety standards.

We believe international flights is a growth area and we are looking at expanding to Dubai. This will mean that we will have to setup a hub of operations there. We will continue to do maintenance in Australia but we will market our safety record through are new partnerships. We also have potential new maintenance contracts coming in and will be expanding our maintenance capacity when we maintain other airline aircraft.

Here is a <link> to videos describing the changes.

Here is a <link> to our new advertising videos launching today.

Here is a public <link> to the official investor presentation.

(Example: https://www.qantas.com.au/infodetail/about/investors/investor-day-presentation-2015.pdf)

Please talk to you management team if you have further questions.

Regards,

Milan Pintar

<signoff>

• Fourth, setup regular governance meeting with the different departments to review progress and sentiment. During the meetings reinforce the strategy and ask the management team to provide progress based on forecasted plans.

Justification of Different Communication Approaches

It is important to talk to each of the board individually to get their support. As soon as possible after talking to each member it is crucial to get talk to the corporate governance board members individually because they may push back and block the changes. After the lobbying each person the full report should be sent to them for reference. After a three days before the next governance meeting an email letter should be sent to the board of directors and the agenda should be updated with the chair of the meeting. These steps need to be taken to have better control of the outcome of the meeting and very importantly to give each person a chance to fully understand the recommendations.

The letter to the board should also be printed out and handed to each member during the governance meeting to help them refer to the recommendations. During the meeting the recommendations should be discussed, voted and appropriate due diligence steps taken.

According to Akasha Karia (2014), the core message should be in a power phrase. The core message for Qantas is “we must focus on our core competence and ensure we protect and market our safety record”.

Once the board of directors has approved the changes then a program needs to be setup to communicate the changes to the rest of the business. The managers of each area of the business need to be educated and a plan need to be given to them with regular updates from management on progress. This is to make sure that the plans are executed on time and correctly.

The emailing to staff should include a video presentation located on the home page of the Qantas intranet site. Each executive should also explain the changes to the management teams and direct them to the plan to help management communicate the changes and the timing.

To help with questions a forum on the home page should allow all staff to post questions and the executives should be there to answer. This will help with questions that the management team might not be sure about.

For executives it is important that they see numbers that show above average returns on their investment. They also need to know they will not go to jail if they take the recommended actions. Reliable evidence is very important.

For the corporate governance committee they need to know giving up on dividends they will have improved sustainable future return on the investments. Reliable evidence is very important.

For managers and employees they need to have excellent visual material including clear and actionable plans. Vision and culture if very important.

References

Karia, A., 2014. How to Deliver a Great TED Talk: Presentation Secrets of the World’s Best Speakers (How to Give a TED Talk Book 1). 4 edition ed. s.l.:AkashKaria.com.

Qantas, 2015. Annual Report 2015. [Online]
Available at: http://www.qantas.com.au/infodetail/about/investors/2015AnnualReport.pdf
[Accessed October 2015].

Qantas, 2015. Qantas Investor Day Presentation. [Online]
Available at: https://www.qantas.com.au/infodetail/about/investors/investor-day-presentation-2015.pdf
[Accessed 5th October 2015].