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MBA helped go into detail on what Production manager do. Very informative.

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Posted in Operations Management | Email This Post

The production manager forms a very important and defining part of the organization structure of an engineering company. The responsibilities of a production manager can be summarized as follows.

1) Forecasting the requirements of the production in order to achieve the production target.

2) Making most efficient utilization of the available sources for production.

3) Minimizing 'throughput time' and 'work in process inventory'. This can be achieved by systematic production planning and also by very efficient execution of the plans.

4) One of the most important responsibility of a production manager deals with reducing material handling cost, which generally is achieved by the use of efficient material handling system and also by using plant layouts which must be developed in a proper or correct way.

5) Reducing the quality cost with the help of analysis of non conformances on periodic basis and also by following suitable actions (both corrective and preventive).

6) Building team spirit among the workmen and also motivating by means of personal involvement. This task of motivation can also be achieved by designing and implementing suitable financial incentive schemes.

7) To device accurate methodology involving method study of manufacturing, along with the other engineering economic principles.

8 ) Improving the productivity level of the workers on continuous basis by workmen's training and by bringing into use the standards of the performance derived from work measurement studies etc.

This article has been written by KJ Singh a MBA Graduate from a prestigious Business School In India
Article Published:July 21, 2010

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What is the role of a production manager in Operations Management?

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Posted in Operations Management | Email This Post The production manager forms a very important and defining part of the organization structure of an engineering company. The responsibilities of a production manager can be summarized as follows. 1) Forecasting the requirements of the production in order to achieve the production target.

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YouTube was great for teaching me in a fun way how to identify a Operations management.

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Frankfurt School of Finance & Management

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Prezi was great at helping with Module 8 in showing the relationship between data and information.

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Alexandra Elizondo & Javier Chavez Information

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Describe the relationship between data and information.

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Example This is data unprocessed Our data is being processed and is almost instantly ready for us to recognize and be able to understand it. Output Options Briefly explain various input options, output options, and storage options.

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This image shows the diference between power and control and how to implement them properly.

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Cliff notes was awesome for a quick read on summing up different motivational strategies.

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To some extent, a high level of employee motivation is derived from effective management practices. To develop motivated employees, a manager must treat people

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This article goes over the importance motivation in the workplace.

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Ted talk is a great resource to learn with fun. It went over leadership styles and such.

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The world is full of leadership programs, but the best way to learn how to lead might be right under your nose. In this clear, candid talk, Roselinde Torres describes 25 years observing truly great leaders at work, and shares the three simple but crucial questions would-be company chiefs need to ask to thrive in the future.

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This video helps identify the relationship between leading and managing.

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We write about leading through complex change. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

I am often asked about the difference between "change management" and "change leadership," and whether it's just a matter of semantics. These terms are not interchangeable. The distinction between the two is actually quite significant. Change management, which is the term most everyone uses, refers to a set of basic tools or structures intended to keep any change effort under control. The goal is often to minimize the distractions and impacts of the change. Change leadership, on the other hand, concerns the driving forces, visions and processes that fuel large-scale transformation. In this video, I delve a little deeper into the differences between the two concepts, and highlight why we need more change leadership today.
A full transcription of this video post is below:
There is a difference that is very fundamental, and it's very big, between what is known today as "change management" and what we have been calling for some time "change leadership." The world basically uses change management, which is a set of processes and a set of tools and a set of mechanisms that are designed to make sure that when you do try to make some changes, A, it doesn't get out of control, and B, the number of problems associated with it-you know, rebellion among the ranks, bleeding of cash that you can't afford-doesn't happen. So it is a way of making a big change and keeping it, in a sense, under control. Change leadership is much more associated with putting an engine on the whole change process, and making it go faster, smarter, more efficiently. It's more associated, therefore, with large scale changes. Change management tends to be more associated-at least, when it works well-with smaller changes.

If you look around the world right now and just talk to people, it's not just semantics. Everybody talks about managing change and change management, because that's what they do. If you look at all of the tools, they're trying to push things along, but it's trying to minimize disruptions, i.e., keep things under control. It's trying to make sure change is done efficiently in the sense of you don't go over budget-another control piece. It's done with little change management groups inside corporations, sometimes external consultants that are good at that, training in change management. It's done with task forces that are basically given the whole goal of push this thing along, but keep it under control. It's done with various kinds of relationships that are given names like "executive sponsors," where the executive sponsor watches over this thing to make sure that it proceeds in an orderly way.

And change leadership is just fundamentally different-it's an engine. It's more about urgency. It's more about masses of people who want to make something happen. It's more about big visions. It's more about empowering lots and lots of people. Change leadership has the potential to get things a little bit out of control. You don't have the same degree of making sure that everything happens in a way you want at a time you want when you have the 1,000 horsepower engine. What you want to do, of course, is have a highly skilled driver and a heck of a car, which will make sure your risks are minimum. But it is fundamentally different.

The world, as we all know right now, talks about, thinks about, and does change management. The world, as we all know, doesn't do much change leadership, since change leadership is associated with the bigger leaps that we have to make, associated with windows of opportunity that are coming at us faster, staying open less time, bigger hazards and bullets coming at us faster, so you really have to make a larger leap at a faster speed. Change leadership is going to be the big challenge in the future, and the fact that almost nobody is very good at it is-well, it's obviously a big deal.

John Kotter is the chief innovation officer at Kotter International, a firm that helps leaders accelerate strategy implementation in their organizations. He is also the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School.

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Change Management vs. Change Leadership -- What's the Difference?

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Share to email Share to facebook Share to twitter Share to linkedin Share to google We write about leading through complex change. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I am often asked about the difference between "change management" and "change leadership," and whether it's just a matter of semantics.

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This image shows a basis structure of emotional intelligence.

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This article helps to understand test in employee testing and why they are so important to picking the right contestant.

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Business dictionary helps define performance appraisal.

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Definition of performance appraisal: The process by which a manager or consultant (1) examines and evaluates an employee's work behavior by comparing it with preset standards, (2) documents the results of the comparison, and (3) uses the ...

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This video is fun and shows the how to recruit effectively.

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What is the Hiring Process?

In this lesson, we will explore the recruiting process used by human resource managers to review applications, test and interview candidates, perform reference checks and request health checks.

The hiring process is the process of reviewing applications, selecting the right candidates to interview, testing candidates, choosing between candidates to make the hiring decision and performing various pre-employment tests and checks.

During the hiring process, a human resources manager will use the following steps to determine the best possible fit for the job:

1. Review job applications

2. Test candidates

3. Interview selected candidates

4. Choose candidates based on pre-determined selection criteria

5. Perform background and reference checks

6. Send selected candidates for a health check

The Hiring Process in Action

Bark's Dog Bone Company needed to hire another baker. Mr. Pugsley, human resource manager, received over 200 applications. He knew he had to use a process to select the best possible candidate. But what should he do next?

The first step Mr. Pugsley will take is to review the applications. Application review means reading each application that is received to determine whether the candidate possesses the skills, education, experience or other qualifications needed for the job. Pugsley will then separate those candidates into who will be interviewed and who will be retained on file for a period of time.

Testing candidates will be the next step and generally involves testing candidates for job skills or knowledge to determine whether the candidate is qualified for the position. Tests might include personality tests, skills tests and physical tests. Mr. Pugsley chose several candidates and sent them all for testing. Once he receives the results of the testing, he will narrow down the selection to fewer candidates.

Interviews are scheduled next. An interview is a meeting between the job seeker and the employer to evaluate whether the candidate has the right qualifications for the job. Although testing provided Mr. Pugsley with a good idea of whether the candidates would be right for the job, the face-to-face interview will tell him more about the candidate, like personal hygiene, timeliness and manners. Once the interviews have been completed, candidates will be selected on the basis of the results of the testing and the interview. This step will narrow the pool of candidates down even more. A set of pre-determined criteria is developed and may include skills, knowledge, experience and education.

Choosing a candidate is done by comparing the candidate's qualifications to a pre-determined list of qualifications or criteria necessary to perform the job. Sometimes the candidate selection is done by one person. Sometimes a committee peruses the applications and interview notes and makes the decision. Mr. Pugsley will carefully review his interview notes and test results for all of the candidates and make the final decision.

Once the right candidate is chosen, background checks and reference checks are necessary. Performing background checks generally involves checking a candidate's credit score, criminal record, education record and military record. These checks are done to verify that what a candidate states on his application is actually true and can be verified. If a candidate does not provide truthful information or lies about any of the information he includes in his application, it is generally grounds to rescind the job offer.

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the hiring process: how human resource managers recruit and hire employees - video & lesson transcript | study.com

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The Hiring Process: How Human Resource Managers Recruit and Hire Employees - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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In this lesson, we will explore the recruiting process used by human resource managers to review applications, test and interview candidates, perform reference checks and request health checks. The hiring process is the process of reviewing applications, selecting the right candidates to interview, testing candidates, choosing between candidates to make the hiring decision and performing various pre-employment tests and checks.

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I found out Blog are very informative when getting new ideas.

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If you've heard the term "organizational culture" thrown around and you still don't quite understand what it is or why it's important, you're not alone. It can seem like yet another empty buzzword if you're not familiar with just how important the organizational culture of your workplace really is. However, developing an organizational culture can be crucial in helping people within your workplace work together as a team.

Organizational culture is a bit different than corporate culture, which you can learn more about in Udemy's brand creation course. However, there are a lot of similarities. The organizational culture of a company constitutes a number of different values and attitudes that dictate the way people working for that company act and think, and serves as an important tool in promoting unity and teamwork.

Understanding Organizational Culture

One of the first things you may be wondering is which type of organizational culture is best. There is, in fact, no one type of organizational culture that is better than another. Different types are better for different types of workplaces, different corporate philosophies, and different type of companies.

When starting a business, one of the first things you need to do is decide on the type of organizational culture that you use to make decisions about the way your business is structured and the way that people interact with one another. You can learn more about this and other important details of building a startup in The Ultimate Guide to Startup Business Development.

That being said, let's have a closer look at some basic types of organizational culture that may be utilized within a business, and what makes this distinct types of organizational culture suitable for different purposes. Keep in mind that these are just a handful of the many types of organizational culture out there. These are just examples that have been chosen because of how well they contrast against one another.

The Collaborative Culture

In this type of organizational culture, workers are encouraged to cooperate on projects, both within and outside of their departments. Teamwork is crucial in this type of work environment, and the employees that you hire must be ready and able to cooperate throughout their workdays - individual projects and assignments are relatively rare.

Collaborative cultures can work with many different types of businesses, and are especially great for those that require the combination of many different skills - marketing and advertising agencies are a prime example.

The Controlled Culture

A strictly controlled workplace used to be the ideal in the past, but has fallen out of favor in recent years. However, there are some areas of industry in which a controlled workplace is still crucial to success. In a controlled organizational culture, employees are expected to be punctual and dependable - there is little room for error.

These environments may be highly scheduled and may place high emphasis on things such as cost-effectiveness and high efficiency in all things. Examples of workplaces that may thrive with this type of organizational culture include those in the financial sector or businesses that frequently deal with important, time-sensitive information.

The Competitive Culture

The polar opposite of the cooperative culture, the competitive workplace culture sets up employees against one another and asks them to compete on a day-to-day basis. Goals are crucial in these types of workplaces, and often lead to things such as bonuses. Many competitive workplace cultures may also make use of commission in order to encourage employees to do more within the workplace.

One of the key features of this type of organizational culture is the emphasis that is placed on success - not only on the individual success of each team member, but also on the success of the company as a whole. Sales-oriented businesses usually thrive with these types of cultures.

The Creative Culture

Many people may associate the creative workplace culture primarily with creative enterprises, such as graphic design companies or music production companies. However, many types of businesses can thrive when working with a creative organizational culture that places high emphasis on entrepreneurship and dynamic thought.

The creative workplace culture, while still placing a high emphasis on cooperation, may also allow for more independent projects among its employees. In many cases, employees may have the ability to pitch and pursue their own ideas. The creative organizational culture also emphasizes the importance of taking risks and of being fresh and innovative. These businesses want nothing more than to be the trendsetters in their fields.

Why Varied Organizational Cultures are Important

These organizational cultures are important because they can encourage employees to work in different ways. Sometimes collaboration is more important than competition, and at times strict control is more important than creative freedom. However, no one of these types of organizational cultures is universally better than another.

You can learn more about changing the organizational culture of a business through Udemy. Doing so may be necessary if your current business is facing difficulties, or if you are changing the focus of the business entirely. A course such as Leading Successful Change can also help you use organizational culture to help shape a business and to help it grow and succeed, no matter what industry or field that you are in.

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The Importance of Organizational Culture and What It Is

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If you've heard the term "organizational culture" thrown around and you still don't quite understand what it is or why it's important, you're not alone. It can seem like yet another empty buzzword if you're not familiar with just how important the organizational culture of your workplace really is.

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Study.com has helped tremendously in studying for delegation in management.

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Delegation Defined

Delegation occurs when someone with authority confers upon another person the power to do a particular task. Delegation is usually a one-way street - superiors delegate authority to subordinates. However, ultimate responsibility for task completion usually remains the responsibility of the person who delegated the authority to complete it. For example, if your boss delegates a task to you, she is likely still ultimately responsible for making sure that task is accomplished.

Scalar Chain

No one person can do it all, and many organizational leaders have their hands full - too full. Delegation is basically a way for organizations to distribute the authority to operate to all levels of the organization from the top to the bottom.

This dissemination of authority is known as the scalar principle. This principle states that you must have a clear line of authority running from the top of an organization down to the bottom. This line of authority is often called a scalar chain or chain of command, which is comprised of a series of relationships between a superior and her subordinate, arranged vertically, that allows communications to flow up and down the chain.

Example

So why are scalar chains important for delegation? The scalar chain is made through the use of delegation. Let's use an example to illustrate the point. You are the president of a large manufacturing company. Your job is to implement the strategies and policies given to you by the board of directors and run the day-to-day operations of a company that spans three continents and employs over 25,000 people in over 30 offices around the world.

Since you cannot have yourself cloned, you have to rely upon others. You therefore authorize your vice presidents to handle tasks that relate to their respective departments. They, in turn, will delegate part of those tasks to their subordinates, who will delegate part to their subordinates and so on. You have just created several scalar chains. Moreover, you should now be able to see that delegation involves not only creating a scalar chain but also utilizing division of labor, where each person is delegated specific tasks.

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delegation in management: definition & explanation - video & lesson transcript | study.com

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Delegation in Management: Definition & Explanation - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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Delegation occurs when someone with authority confers upon another person the power to do a particular task. Delegation is usually a one-way street - superiors delegate authority to subordinates. However, ultimate responsibility for task completion usually remains the responsibility of the person who delegated the authority to complete it.

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The article taught and informed me on organizational culture and how to effectively create a organized culture.

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Understanding Organizational Culture

Would you act the same way at a rock concert as you would while watching a symphony orchestra perform? Although there are no written rules that dictate the acceptable way to act at either type of performance, the concert audience will try to make it very clear to you if your behavior does not conform to what they consider to be appropriate.

Would you dress the same way to attend a golf tournament as you would to attend a football game? Although both are sporting events, there are a set of unwritten rules that dictate what is considered to be the acceptable way to dress for each type of event, and the people in attendance will send you signals as to whether or not they think you are dressed appropriately.

At concerts, sporting events, and just about everywhere that people get together, group members convey social expectations by how they dress and act. Newcomers to the group are expected to learn what is acceptable to the group by observing the behavior and dress code of the group members and adapting to the situation accordingly.

Defining Organizational Culture

Organizational culture works a lot like this. Every company has its own unique personality, just like people do. The unique personality of an organization is referred to as its culture. In groups of people who work together, organizational culture is an invisible but powerful force that influences the behavior of the members of that group. So, how do we define organizational culture?

Organizational culture is a system of shared assumptions, values, and beliefs, which governs how people behave in organizations. These shared values have a strong influence on the people in the organization and dictate how they dress, act, and perform their jobs. Every organization develops and maintains a unique culture, which provides guidelines and boundaries for the behavior of the members of the organization. Let's explore what elements make up an organization's culture.

Organizational culture is composed of seven characteristics that range in priority from high to low. Every organization has a distinct value for each of these characteristics, which, when combined, defines the organization's unique culture. Members of organizations make judgments on the value their organization places on these characteristics and then adjust their behavior to match this perceived set of values. Let's examine each of these seven characteristics.

Characteristics of Organizational Culture

The seven characteristics of organizational culture are:

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what is organizational culture? - definition & characteristics - video & lesson transcript | study.com

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What is Organizational Culture? - Definition & Characteristics - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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Would you act the same way at a rock concert as you would while watching a symphony orchestra perform? Although there are no written rules that dictate the acceptable way to act at either type of performance, the concert audience will try to make it very clear to you if your behavior does not conform to what they consider to be appropriate.

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This article stresses the important of accountability in the workforce and how I can apply it to my situation.

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This article teaches how to effectively create a schedule for your employees.

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ERIC - Coordinating and Performing Activities for Employer. Prepare a Day's Schedule. Student Manual and Teacher's Manual., 1977

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Supporting performance objective 11 of the V-TECS (Vocational-Technical Education Consortium of States) Secretarial Catalog, both a set of student materials and an instructor's manual on preparing a day's schedule for an employer are included in this packet. (This packet is the first in a set of four on coordinating and performing activities for employers--CE 016 977-980.)

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I put this cartoon on here because it made me laugh.

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This video teaches you how to use Notebook to organize work to others

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Share a OneNote 2010 notebook with other authors connected through a Web browser. Initiate sharing from the desktop or the browser; set folder permissions; co-author with others in the notebook; and synchronize changes.

Goals

After completing this course you will be able to:

Create a shared notebook from OneNote 2010 or from OneNote Web App, sharing through the OneDrive site.

Set permission level and invite others to work in the notebook.

Co-author in OneNote 2010 and OneNote Web App, synchronizing changes.

Delete a shared notebook.

Before you begin

If you're unfamiliar with OneNote or want to know more about OneNote 2010, see Getting started with OneNote 2010.

Note SkyDrive is now OneDrive, and SkyDrive Pro is now OneDrive for Business. Read more about this change at From SkyDrive to OneDrive.

Download this course

Offline version (56 MB)

Quick reference card

See the quick reference card for a brief, printable reminder of the key points in this course.

See more courses on Microsoft Office Training.

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Share a OneNote 2010 notebook with other authors connected through a Web browser. Initiate sharing from the desktop or the browser; set folder permissions; co-author with others in the notebook; and synchronize changes. After completing this course you will be able to: Create a shared notebook from OneNote 2010 or from OneNote Web App, sharing through the OneDrive site.

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Assigning work to others is essential for a healthy management team. Office helps delicate those task.

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When you put people to work on your project, keep two things in mind:

1. You need to add people to your project schedule before . . .

2. You can assign them to work on tasks.

This difference is a common source of confusion when working with any project management software.

For more articles in this series of project management instructional guides, see The project management road map.

Project management tips before you start . . .

If you're new to project management If you're new to project management, you might realize there's more to worry about than just adding tasks, like how many people to put on them, how to account for people's holidays and vacation time, and how and where to put in personal information like phone numbers, email addresses, and salary information.

Here are tips to get you started.

Learn what types of resources you can assign to tasks After you gather the information you need about project tasks, identify the types of resources you'll need.

People resources These are resources we normally think of as working on tasks. Project managers sometimes call these work resources, as opposed to materials and equipment.

Enterprise resources These resources are work resources managed and shared across an organization. Enterprise resources are used with Project Professional.

Material resources These resources include computers or machinery used to complete work on tasks.

Generic resources These resources specify staffing requirements for tasks and not specific individuals, such as carpenters, or developers.

Consider how the number of resource s changes durations When you put multiple resources on a task, you'd expect the duration of a task to shorten. In many cases, however, adding people to a task can have the opposite effect. It can add extra costs, extra communication, and other inefficiencies. For example, the design for a new toll bridge probably isn't going to go faster if you double the number of architects on the project. Project allows you to control what happens to task durations after you add to tasks.

Consider how a person's capabilities affect task durations A person's experience can directly affect the duration of the task. You might expect a person with five years' experience to complete a task in less time than someone with two.

If you're a seasoned project manager As projects get bigger, there are more things to think about. You now worry about using resources in other departments, hiring vendors, tracking a hundred peoples' work, generating reports for executives, and numerous other complexities you haven't even thought about yet. Fortunately, Microsoft Project has the expert tools you'll need.

Here are a tips to grow your expertise.

Review and refine the duration estimates Use the information that you collect about your current project and similar projects to refine your duration estimates. The accuracy of your estimates for resource requirements (and ultimately project costs) depends largely on the accuracy of your task duration estimates.

Track resource progress Make sure the people on your project send in regular task status updates. The views and reports in Microsoft Project help you not lose track of what everyone is doing.

Identify resource overallocation problems Project can help you identify when people are working on too many tasks at the same time.

Keep an eye on your baselines

Baselines give you a snapshot of your project so that you compare current progress with what you planned at the beginning.

Distribute work by leveling When people are working on too many tasks at the same time, Project can adjust assignments to a more realistic workload. Leveling resource assignments is one way to even out the load.

Export project data to Excel for further analysis Excel can help you when you need further analysis of Project information. For example, you can export task and resource information to Excel for advanced earned value reports, and then display the information using sparklines to see how costs are being spent relative to the amount of work completed.

Train employees with new skills Large organizations invest time and money to train their employees for new skills and for work across diverse environments. Training current employees can be a cost effective way to improve performance than bringing in new people.

Step 1: Add people to your project

Step 2: Assign people and other resources to tasks

Step 3: Manage people and other resources

When your boss asks how your project is doing compared to your original plan, the last thing you want to say is "I don't know." Avoid that by setting a baseline as a snapshot of your original schedule before your project starts.

IM chat with a project team member using Lync

When questions come up about a task, Project now gives you several ways to get instant answers. Hover over a name and click Send an IM to start an instant message session in Lync.

Return to The project management road map

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Project management goal: Add people and assign them to tasks

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When you put people to work on your project, keep two things in mind: You need to add people to your project schedule before . . . You can assign them to work on tasks. This difference is a common source of confusion when working with any project management software.

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This article was huge and helping me understand the risk associated with managing a multinational corporation.

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Managing Risks Associated With a Multinational Corporation

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Like any other business, yours faces many risks when operating as a multinational corporation (MNC). Though some risks are endemic to all firms, organizations operating across national boundaries face additional and unique challenges. Globalization and market liberalization present increased opportunities for growth ...

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This article showed me all the different types of risk involved in International operations.

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It was cool learning about how big McDonald's has become around the world.

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Zhou Xiaobu runs from one end of a table to another, grasping a piece of a jigsaw puzzle her team is assembling as part of a leadership training exercise for McDonald's (MCD) managers. "Go, go, go!" yells their instructor, exhorting them to work for the prize, a box of Danish butter cookies that will go to the first group to build the company's trademark Golden Arches. Above their heads a sign reads: "Learning today, leading tomorrow." The thick green binders stuffed with paperwork on each of the 31 students' desks indicate this is no place for slackers.

Such is the seriousness of purpose found at McDonald's new Hamburger University near Shanghai, where the chain aims to crank out a new generation of leaders to fuel big expansion plans in China. While the 20th-floor training center is no Harvard, landing a spot at the Chinese campus of Hamburger U. (McDonald's has seven worldwide) is actually more difficult than getting into the Ivy League icon. (Less than 1 percent of McDonald's applicants get in, making Harvard's 7 percent acceptance rate look downright welcoming.) Zhou was one of only eight people hired from among 1,000 applicants for a management trainee position in the central Chinese city of Changsha. She then had to compete with 43 other workers at her store to be named first assistant manager, earning her a slot at Hamburger U.

Getting into the school is so competitive because more than 26 percent of China's 6.3 million college graduates were unemployed as of July 1, compared with a 4.2 percent jobless rate for its urban workforce. That has caused grads who wouldn't normally consider a food-service career to give Mickey D's a look. "The main reason McDonald's put up Hamburger University is to professionalize the sector, making it easier to recruit better people," says Joel Silverstein, president of Hong Kong-based consultants East West Hospitality Group.

McDonald's is counting on students schooled in store operations, leadership, and staff management at the Shanghai campus to power its mainland growth. So far it's been outpaced by rival Yum! Brands (YUM), parent of KFC and Pizza Hut. McDonald's operates 1,300 stores in China and aims to have 2,000 by 2013. Yum already has 3,700 in China, where it earned 44 percent of its $1.33 billion operating income in the first three quarters of 2010. An approving Wall Street sent Yum's market value up 40 percent last year, vs. McDonald's 23 percent.

McDonald's plans to raise investment in China by 40 percent this year after boosting such spending by 25 percent in 2010. It opened a record 165 outlets in China last year and plans 1,000 more by the end of 2013. Analysts say the chain can't meet that goal without minting more local managers to run individual stores and chart regional strategy. "They are preparing a base that will allow them to accelerate that rate of expansion," says Peter Jankovskis, co-chief investment officer of OakBrook Investments.

Hamburger U., which will cost McDonald's 150 million yuan ($22.8 million) in the five years through 2014, trained 1,000 of McDonald's almost 70,000 Chinese employees last year, says Susanna Li, its head. An additional 4,000 will attend classes through 2014. "We'll make sure the people pipeline is ready," she says.

The bottom line: McDonald's has big growth plans in China. It has opened a Hamburger University campus there to train managers to run those new stores.

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Hamburger University Shanghai Is Sizzling

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Zhou Xiaobu runs from one end of a table to another, grasping a piece of a jigsaw puzzle her team is assembling as part of a leadership training exercise for McDonald's (MCD) managers. "Go, go, go!"

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These are just some of the multinational corporation that exist that we use every day and dont even realize.

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Pictures like these motivate me for the hope of a better future.

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Diversity is essential for the growth of any successful company.

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Why Diversity Can Backfire On Company Boards

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Too often, efforts to tap into the benefits of diversity in the boardroom can lead to personal battles and inhibited discussions. But there are ways to make it work. The chairman especially needs to be alert to cultural differences that can lead to misunderstandings, introduce new directors in ways that are supportive of their expertise, and be careful not to limit their contributions by pigeonholing or labeling them.

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Debbie stresses the importance of diversity and why its heavily needed in corporate America.

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The Importance of Diversity in the Workplace

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This article on gender diversity helped me to understand the importance of difference and that everyone has a uniqueness that can be used in the work place.

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Dave Cutler for The Chronicle

As more women choose careers in the sciences, the stakes are higher than ever before. Having women in key decision-making positions in the scientific and technological work force is critical to the future of our society. Successful senior female scientists serve as a prime source of leadership for top academic administrative positions.

A more diverse work force in the science, engineering, technology, and mathematics (STEM) fields not only allows women and other members of underrepresented groups to reap the benefits of the relatively high salaries of scientists and engineers. It may also lead to innovations in science and engineering, since people from different backgrounds bring diverse approaches to problem-solving-in the classroom, laboratories, and on the job-that can improve our daily lives.

For example, women, perhaps because of their experience caring for babies and children, have invented technologies useful for child care, such as disposable diapers, folding cribs, and the baby-changing stations found in public bathrooms. Through its gendered-innovations project, the Clayman Institute for Gender Research, at Stanford University, seeks to bring attention to the need for changes in both technology and policy to fit the needs of women, such as a different seat-belt design for pregnant women and a requirement that the new design be tested on pregnant women.

Frequently, designing products or technology for the needs of a particular group viewed as the "other" (or the minority) results in a design that is also better for the "norm." For example, the curb cuts designed for wheelchairs also make it easier for people with strollers or suitcases on wheels to cross the street.

During the past three decades, the overall percentage of women receiving degrees in STEM fields has sharply increased in the United States, but the data mask wide variance among fields. Women now earn more bachelor's and master's degrees, over all, than men do. Since 2000, women have also earned more bachelor's degrees in science (including the social sciences and psychology) and engineering than men. In 2010 they earned 50.3 percent of bachelor's degrees in those fields but only 45.5 percent of master's degrees, according to data from the National Science Foundation. Among U.S. citizens and permanent residents, women earned a majority of the doctorates in nonscience and engineering fields in 2010, but only 41.9 percent of those in science and engineering.

Major gender differences occur across the science disciplines. In short, in many of the social sciences and the life sciences, women have reached parity in the percentages of degrees received. In other areas, such as the geosciences, mathematics, and physical sciences, their percentages continue to increase but have not approached parity. By contrast, in engineering and computer sciences, the percentage of women has reached a plateau or dropped during the past decade. Unfortunately, these STEM areas, particularly computer science and engineering, where women earn fewer than 20 percent of bachelor's degrees, represent some of the fastest-growing sectors of the work force in our increasingly technological society.

Academe continues to improve for women, who represent more than 30 percent of STEM faculty at four-year institutions. Although the percentage drops precipitously at elite research institutions, particularly at the rank of full professor (about 10 percent are women), a 2009 report from the National Academy of Sciences found improving opportunities nationally for women in tenure-track positions at those institutions. Because of Title VII and Title IX, virtually all institutions have articulated policies banning gender discrimination and sexual harassment. Many now have policies that facilitate balancing career and family, during especially crucial life transitions. Although old issues remain with new facets and faces, progress has been made in cultivating female scientists and changing institutional structures.

The importance of women's leadership in science has been especially apparent in such areas as health care: Not until a substantial number of women had entered the professions of biology and medicine were biases from androcentrism exposed. Once the possibility for such bias was discovered, scholars recognized the potential for distortion on a variety of levels of research and theory, including the choice and definition of problems to be studied, the exclusion of females as experimental subjects, bias in the methodology used to collect and interpret data, and bias in theories and conclusions drawn from the data.

That realization uncovered gender bias that had distorted some medical research. For example, women's health had become synonymous with reproductive health and obstetrics-gynecology, which meant that many diseases that occurred in both sexes, such as cardiovascular disease and even breast cancer, had been studied only in men or with a male-as-norm approach. Excessive focus on male research subjects and definition of cardiovascular diseases as "male" led to underdiagnosis and undertreatment of the disease in women.

Studies demonstrated that women were significantly less likely than men to be treated with coronary angioplasty, angiography, or surgery when admitted to a hospital with a diagnosis of myocardial infarction, unstable or stable angina, chronic ischemic heart disease, or chest pain. This significant difference remained even when controlling for such variables as race, age, economic status, and other chronic disease. Similarly, women had angina before myocardial infarction as frequently as, and with more debilitating effects than, men, and yet women were referred for cardiac catheterization only half as often.

Those studies led the late Bernadine Healy, a cardiologist and the first female director of the National Institutes of Health, to characterize the diagnosis of coronary heart disease in women as "the Yentl syndrome": "Once a woman showed that she was just like a man, by having coronary artery disease or a myocardial infarction, then she was treated as a man should be," she wrote in a 1991 article in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The male-as-norm approach in research and diagnosis, unsurprisingly, was translated into bias in treatments for women. Women exhibited higher death rates from angioplasty and coronary bypass surgery because the techniques had been pioneered using male subjects. This provides an important lesson that can be applied to other fields, as increased leadership by women could potentially lead to new breakthroughs and discoveries.

As President Obama has emphasized, to compete in the global market, the United States needs to increase the percentage of Americans graduating from college over all, and the numbers of scientists and engineers. To achieve this, our scientific work force needs to change from being predominantly white and male to reflect the demographics of the population as a whole. Even more than in basic research, applications for technology and inventions depend upon the experiences and ideas of the designers. More women, as well as more diversity in general, in the STEM work force not only helps to guard against bias but may lead to new ideas that will improve life for all of us.

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More Gender Diversity Will Mean Better Science

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As more women choose careers in the sciences, the stakes are higher than ever before. Having women in key decision-making positions in the scientific and technological work force is critical to the future of our society. Successful senior female scientists serve as a prime source of leadership for top academic administrative positions.

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The free management library was a easy to use reference guide when needing to learn about basic management skills.

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Basic Skills in Management and Leadership

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Learn about building basic skills in management and leadership in this topic from the Free Management Library.

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YouTube helped me a lot when I needed explanations for certain subjects. This Management science video helped teach me the concept of management science in more detail.

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Learn more about graduate studies in the field of Management Science.

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This article listed 5 major company's that got it right when it came to effective communication. It described in detail what makes them so effective.

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The growth of the virtual workplace is booming. It's projected that 3.9 million employees will work remotely by 2016, and as a result, how businesses communicate internally is rapidly changing. The most recent advances in technology, video, voice and social media platforms have made enterprise communication increasingly collaborative and social. They have also significantly expanded the market.

The enterprise video conferencing market alone generated $735 million in the second quarter of 2013, a six percent increase from the previous quarter. Companies that offer enterprise communication platforms are capitalizing on this growth and helping virtual employees maintain interactive and open communication that phone lines and email simply can't provide.

Here are five companies that have changed the face of enterprise communication in 2013.
1. Salesforce
Salesforce is leading the way in enterprise cloud services. This $3 billion company has made the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market relevant to businesses of all types and sizes, reshaping enterprise communication in the process.

In 2013, Salesforce launched their Salesforce1 platform, which caters to the growing mobile movement by allowing customers to easily migrate applications to mobile devices. Salesforce also announced a partnership with Hewlett-Packard to develop a "Superpod" that will provide dedicated infrastructure for large customers to run Salesforce in the cloud. This Superpod gives us a glimpse into the future of enterprise cloud services that will offer not only the traditional shared public infrastructure, but also the option of private cloud technologies.

These announcements mean change for enterprise communication as they increase the convenience and accessibility of Saleforce's services while addressing security and regulation concerns.
2. Kaltura
Kaltura continues to blaze the trail as the world's only provider of open-source online video software. With this platform, companies can create their own corporate video channel -- think YouTube -- providing a fun and interactive way to communicate. While videos can be used for internal communication purposes, such as employee training or company-wide announcements, the platform can also be applied to external promotion and marketing strategies.

After experiencing explosive growth in 2012 and 2013, Kaltura recently announced another big change that is sure to impact enterprise communication now and into the future. Its platform will integrate with Cisco's WebEx, an on-demand web conferencing, online meeting, and video conferencing platform. This allows WebEx users access to all of Kaltura's features, including delivery across multiple devices, social media sharing and analytics, creating a more unified process, from video creation to consumption.
3. Voxeo
Voxeo was designed as a solution to the limitations that complicated the use of phone applications for customer service. It has transformed enterprise communication by allowing even small businesses access to the latest standards and technology to improve their customer service.

Specifically, Voxeo has drastically improved caller usability, backend integration and development complexity with its voice-driven platforms, cloud hosting services, and developer solutions. With small businesses growing at double-digit rates over the last 12 months, Voxeo is changing enterprise communication with its platform by making the latest customer service technology accessible to businesses of all types and sizes.
4. TigerText
When it comes to efficient enterprise communication, email is no longer the best answer. Having to wade through hundreds of email messages is time consuming, inconvenient and a potential nightmare for company governance. Especially for the Millennials entering the job market, email is becoming an outdated way to communicate.

TigerText is changing internal business communication and replacing the need for email by providing a tool that allows you to securely message and share files with coworkers from a mobile device, laptop or tablet. Simply put, TigerText facilitates safe and professional communication. Coworkers are instantly connected without needing to exchange personal numbers. Also, messages are encrypted and set to self-destruct after a pre-set period of time.

In 2013, TigerText experienced new growth within the healthcare industry. This was highlighted by its partnership with Startel - the leading provider of unified business communications for contact centers. The integration allows Startel's customers to securely text message colleagues and clients from within the company's software, increasing safety and efficiency. TigerText satisfies HIPAA rules for healthcare answering services, making it a valuable tool to the $3 trillion healthcare industry and numerous other industries, as well.
5. Unify (formerly Siemens Enterprise Communications)
With nearly 170 years of history and experience, Siemens Enterprise Communications has maintained its role as a leader within in the communications software and service industry. Just last month, Siemens announced its new identity as Unify. With a new name and a renewed focus on enterprise communication, Unify has big plans to change the way companies communicate and collaborate.

In June 2013, Unify unveiled Project Ansible, a new communications and collaboration platform that helps employees spend less time orchestrating work and more time doing it. Separate from a device or application, it's described as an "experience" that supports fluid workflow. Project Ansible provides a secure communications platform that pulls together and manages the daily flow of communications into organized conversations. It's compatible across multiple channels, platforms and devices. With 2013 marking the year of a new brand and new product, Unify has set the wheels in motion to transform enterprise communication.

The many benefits of telecommuting -- for both employees and businesses -- is fueling the growth of virtual workplaces and making enterprise communication even more vital. It's estimated that users will spend over $2 trillion per year on content, devices and services to help make their virtual work environment more collaborative and interactive. As technology races to stay ahead of this trend, look for these five companies and others to continue to raise the bar for enterprise communication.
What companies do you feel have transformed enterprise communication in 2013?

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5 Companies That Transformed Enterprise Communication in 2013

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The growth of the virtual workplace is booming. It's projected that 3.9 million employees will work remotely by 2016, and as a result, how businesses communicate internally is rapidly changing. The most recent advances in technology, video, voice and social media platforms have made enterprise communication increasingly collaborative and social.

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This photo helps display and reminds me all the tasks managers have and what it means to manage.