Insurance

In 2009, Vietnam insurance market has a successful year while maintaining the high growth rate (the rate of income/GDP = 2. 3%). General insurance premium revenue in 2009 estimated at about 24,681 billion VND, including sales of non-life insurance premium is estimated at 13,250 billion (up 21% over 2008), sales of life insurance costs estimated at 11,431 billion (up 10. 95% compared to 2008). Even though, insurance market in Vietnam is still facing many challenges. First is the expansion of new markets by exploiting because the traditional market competition is fierce.

Besides that, the financial capacity of insurance companies should be improve in order to retain insurance contract. Foreign competitions were allowed into provision of compulsory insurance products as of January 1 2008, pursuant to the nation’s WTO commitments. Domestic insurance businesses were also struggling to improve training and professionalism of human resources, develop information technology, and improve business practices to better serve clients. B. About Bao Viet and Bao Viet insurance Founded in 1964, the original name is Insurance Company of Vietnam.

At that time, total sales of Bao Viet have reached 78 billion, total assets reached 73 billion, profits were 6. 6 billion Vietnam dong. In 2005, Bao Viet Group was established by Resolution 310 of the Government’s equitization plan. On 15/10/2007, Bao Viet Group completed business Registration Company shares with the participation of strategic partners who is the leading conglomerates in the country (Vinashin) and foreign (HSBC Insurance (Asia – Pacific) Holdings Limited), formed Financial Group – Insurance Vietnam.

With strong financial potential, Security Group Vietnamese have been and will continue to expand the types of business services: Life insurance, Non-life insurance, Securities, Financial investments, Banks and the others businesses (Bao Viet website) Currently, Bao Viet insurance is the biggest provider of life insurance products in Vietnam, holds 34% market share by revenue insurance. Since the early years of opening and development the life insurance market in Vietnam, Bao Viet insurance has made great progress, with nearly 20,000 strong staff and consultants in 60 member companies.

Currently, Bao Viet is the market leader in customer service numbers with a total of nearly 4 million contracts (Bao Viet website) – Owner and shareholder: The owner of Bao Viet insurance is Insurance – Financing Bao Viet Group. Bao Viet is a large company, so they have a lot of shareholder who each own a small part of business. HSBC Insurance – 100% foreign owned subsidiary of Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank (HSBC) has been selected to become the only foreign strategic shareholders Bao Viet with buying rate is 10% of charter capital.

Bao Viet also has a domestic strategic shareholder who is Vinashin, Group of Vietnam Shipbuilding (Huong Ly, 2007) – Managers: is the person who organize, makes decision, control. In this case, Managers of Bao Viet Insurance are the Board of Directors that is the body having full authority to exercise all rights in the name of the Company. The BOD shall make decisions on medium-term plans and strategies, annual business plans.

– Employees: Bao Viet, is the only insurance business in Vietnam has branches all over the country, attracting a large force employees to over 5,000, with about 34,000 dedicated agents, committed to the job spread over all provinces.

– Customer: After nine months of business in 2009, Bao Viet life has received the trust of more than ten thousand new customers across the country, raising total customer numbers to participate in more than 4 million people.

– Community: Along with the deployment of business activities, Bao Vietnam focused and active participation in community social activities, such as participation “Noi vong tay lon 2009” with 25 billion VND to support the poor, donate 500 million VND to the people who affected by the storm 11, etc… At the first, Bao Viet insurance is a total 100% state owning company that has been equitization, in which the State holds 65% charter capital and is also the largest shareholder. After equitization, the company grew bigger and raises competitiveness in domestic and international.

However, there are few problems also, as the State holds the majority of capital, which has created barriers to the development Bao Viet. The reason is the state fixes the salaries of its managers. In 2007, Vietnam joined the WTO, beisdes the positive affects, there can be some challenges for Bao Viet and other insurance companies. Follow commitments, foreign insurance enterprises do not need to set up insurance businesses in Vietnam can also exploit the insurance market in Vietnam. This commitment has strong influence on some types of non-life insurance and limited foreign groups and projects with foreign investment capital in Vietnam.

In 2009, the State management mode is on an improved with the promulgation of “Decree 41 on administrative sanctions in the field of insurance business and a number of other ones” (Lan Huong, 2009). In addition, the government also issued orders to tighten licensing the establishment of insurance enterprises. From there, it will create a more stable environment. According to Trinh Thanh Hoan, Director of insurance Management and Supervision Department, “in 2010 management agencies will continue to improve and promulgate legal documents on the insurance business”.

“In the future, we will offer a minimum fee, no business will be lower than that, that policy ensure no bankruptcy, on the other hand ensure customers’ interests”, Hoan stressed (ATPvietnam, 2010) Economical These are few economic figures in 2009: GDP growth of 5. 2%, on average in the area but is the lowest in a decade. Inflation was maintained at less than double digits, 7%. Poor rate fell 11%, faster than the roadmap commitments to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG). However, because of global economy crisis, insurance industry still suffered losses.

In 2009, the total losses of the overall insurance market are “264 billion, down 105. 9 billion compared with 2008” (ATPvietnam, 2010) Rising interest rates caused many customers want to finish their contract soon to get the money to put into the banks. However, factors of macroeconomic stabilization and recovery in 2010 are the favorable conditions for the insurance industry. Bond market is expected to be active by increasing interest rates. Bao Viet insurance also set a target revenue growth in the original premium of 15% this year compared with 2009, profit before tax 300 billion VND (Van Lam, n.d)

Comments on the accelerated plan of insurance companies after a difficult year, insurance industry experts said that in the current context, if you will not move, you will be setbacks. By 2010, the insurance market would welcome additional participation of a number of new insurance companies, including companies of the leading insurance enterprises of area and the world.

Monetary policy in 2010 will be operating very flexible, ensuring harmonization of goals. If too tight, it would make business difficult, leading to difficult to achieve 6.5% growth and it involves many implications for social security. But if it’s further easing will be hard to ensure targets inflation at 7% a year (Kim Chi, 2009) Social – cultural Currently, the people of Vietnam still mainly use investment forms a “traditional” as savings deposit, real estates, buy gold, hard currency investment capital … other channels such as insurance, bonds, stocks … have not been “activated. ” Vietnamese people are seldom thinking about the risks and did not want compensation from life insurance that they calculate principal factors affecting savings and investment.

Because of cognitive, psychological and consumption as well as saving habits of Vietnamese customers, it also partly affect the life insurance market in Vietnam. Technology Vietnam insurance companies are necessary to apply information technology to enhance business efficiency, especially when the door is immediate integration. Although elements of information technology applications can not play a decisive role to the success or failure of every business, but in the trend of globalization today, if the application of information technology on business activities not make good, it will definitely pull back in compare to competitor.

This may be an indirect factor that businesses fail in the marketplace. In 2003, Bao Vietnam spent about $ 6 million, equivalent to 70% of the company’s profit in 2002, investment in IT (Thanh Tung, 2003). Bao Viet has invested application of information technology in management and business. Bao Viet insurance is the first non-life insurance company builds insurance and accounting management software BVPROP BVACCOUNT.

At the same time they have adopted standard quality management system ISO 9001:2000 that helps tight control of insurance processes and internal controls to ensure quality of service provided to customers and business efficiency (Vinasme, 2009) On February 1st, 2010 in Hanoi, Baoviet Insurance Corporation Vietnam held a ceremony to sign a contract to buy the Insure J software with the joint-alliance contractors Bravura Solutions and SSP. Project implementation is divided into two phases. In the first phase expected to take 14 months and completed in early 2011.

In phase 2, IT experts of the Baoviet Holdings and non-life professionals from Baoviet Insurance Headquarter will deploy the application and training at Baoviet Insurance branches nationwide. b) Porter 5 forces – Threat of new entrants After becoming a member of WTO, since 2008, foreign insurance companies have provided some insurance products across the border into Vietnam. This give the signal an unequal competition for local firms because they can not know information about the “weapons” of abroad opponents while insurance companies are operating in foreign countries know very well Vietnam market.

Under WTO commitments, the following five years after accession, Vietnam will allow branches of foreign insurance companies are operating in Vietnam. Domestic enterprises will hardly compete with foreign enterprises on their financial capabilities as well as their expertise. However, the strength of law is the most important thing for insurance enterprises in Vietnam because the insured will be protected the legitimate rights and interests before the law Vietnam instead of having the barrier of language, lawyers, sources of law and stand trial abroad (Truong Nam, 2009)

– Threat of substitutes (investopia)

This one is pretty straight forward, for there are plenty of substitutes in the insurance industry. Most large insurance companies offer similar suites of services. Whether it is auto, home, commercial, health or life insurance, chances are there are competitors that can offer similar services. Companies focusing on niche areas usually have a competitive advantage. Based on habits and culture of Vietnamese people, there are also other substitutes. Those are savings deposit, real estates, buy gold, hard currency investment capital.

Vietnamese customers prefer those investment methods than buy a insurance contract.

– Power of suppliers 

The suppliers of capital might not pose a big threat, but the threat of suppliers luring away human capital does. A good insurance underwriter has chances to be enticed away by larger companies who looking to move into a particular market.

– Power of buyers

The individual doesn’t pose much of a threat to the insurance industry. Large corporate clients have a lot more bargaining power with insurance companies. Large corporate clients like airlines and tourisms companies pay billions VND a year in premiums.

Insurance companies try extremely hard to get high-margin corporate clients. – Rivalry among competitors The insurance industry is becoming highly competitive. First, there is competition among insurance companies about products, service quality, human resources, distribution channel development and level of information technology applications. Second, there is competition between insurance companies operating in Vietnam with the business of insurance in foreign countries to offer insurance products within the framework agreed in the WTO.

Finally, it is the competition among insurance companies with financial services such as savings deposits, securities, and real estate business. The difference between one domestic insurance company and another is usually not that great. From there, the situation of unfair competition between businesses has raised, such as reduce costs and expand insurance conditions, increase deductions, etc… These actions led to the distortional development of market, loss of business for themselves as well as the consumer market. The fully aware of the nature and impact of unfair competition with Vietnam’s insurance industry is now very necessary.

Airbnb could have implemented a better protection against such incident like “EJ”. They could, (1). Require more complete profiles about the hosts and renters, (2). Prescreen hosts and guests, (3). Provide insurance for hosts and renters, (4). Be less restrictive on hosts when they reject unsuitable renters, (5). Differentiate price charged based on guest’s ratings, (6). Present more sophisticated consumer reviews, (7). Use incentives to encourage reporting of problems.

Instead of being reluctant to comment on the “EJ” incident, Airbnb should have responded much more quickly to the public after the “EJ” incident; apologize via the media to the host “EJ”, announce proper solution to such problems and publish improvements over such safety issues.

-Assume that you were creating a financial model to determine the value of Airbnb (either for a PE firm or if Airbnb was public). What would be the key variables in your model? How would you model incidents like the one with “EJ“. Should you bother? Why or why not? Would the “EJ incident” be a Black Swan?

We would interweave following variables into our financial model regarding the value of Airbnb for a PE firm: (1). General economic condition (GDP): higher revenue stream for Airbnb when economy is sturdy since more percentage of rooms booked are of high quality, as opposed to larger portion of rooms reserved for saving money when economy is weak. (2). Average rent received by Airbnb hosts and current average vacancy rate of residential property, higher vacancy rate lowers the average rents charged by the hosts and therefore less fees collected by Airbnb. (3). Insurance costs, this would change according to previous incidents and corresponding compensations. (4). Operating expenses, including costs of customer service and marketing etc. (5) Proportion of the website traffic that transfers into actual deals.

Since our model incorporates insurance costs that relates to the unexpected incidents like the one with “EJ”, the potential costs of such events has be taken into consideration. However it is still impossible to fully reflect the “EJ” like incidents in the valuation of Airbnb, incidents like or worse than the “EJ” will still probably happen and harm the reputation of Airbnb, and hence diminish the value of Airbnb.

-How would Airbnb’s experience effect your valuation of social media companies?

It is quite hard to measure the companies deemed to be in social networking category, because usually the source of their income is very hard to quantify, and their core businesses could be too innovative to identify and to make valuation based upon peer values. So analysts usually based their valuation of such social media company upon the cash flows provided by the company and do not check the credibility of such figures.

Airbnb’s experience arouse that analysts should check the thoroughness of its business when valuing a company, whether the company has predication and solution of probable shrunken revenue. Besides, the basis of a company’s revenue stream should also be tested for its applicability; what is the true propeller of a company’s business that sustains the life of a company. What is more critical is the manager’s capability of facing unexpected events, how a leader reacts to a disaster also determines whether the firm value falls.

-How do the Gartner metrics work relative to traditional financial metrics?

The Gartner business value model complements rather than competes with the traditional financial metrics, it is an extension to standard precisely defined measures for business value and sits between strategic methodologies and enterprise specific measurement tools and capabilities. Besides choosing among the “collectively exhaustive” and “mutually exclusive” three categories of aggregate measures, companies can also utilize additional internal metrics to tailor the model to their own needs.

Traditional financial metrics have dominate in reporting and measuring business performance for decades, as markets emphasize the achievement in such metrics and financial metrics are used as a comparable basis for executives to judge relative performance in different parts of their business. However, financial metrics failed to reflect how value is created in organizations and compare this consistently across business units. Financial metrics only reflect past performance.

The Gartner metrics are non-financial performance metrics utilized to help organizations identify how their activities impact financial performance. The Gartner metrics standardize the process and benchmark of measuring the real drivers of business value. The model is comprised of three broad aspects: Demand Management, Supply Management, and Support Services. And each of these business aspects is broken down into three aggregate measures.

Wastage within the factory was costing the Company approximately Rs. 100,000 a month. There was widespread differences in individual work standards. Processes were non-standardized resulting in repeated problems. Management made all decisions and cascaded the result down to employees. The top management became concerned about the performance of the factory and they hired Mr. Tanmoy Deb, an OD consultant to study the problem and suggest specific changes to relationships and tasks with the following objectives:

• To review and improve communication systems.
• To restructure the organization and to review teamwork and quality practices.
•  To review leadership issues across all levels.

Mr.Tanmoy Deb carried out discussions, interviews and surveys and made the following observations:

•  There’ and ‘us’ attitude was widely prevalent between head office and factory personnel
•  Production personnel lacked technical skills
•  Factory employees felt alienated from sharing the Company’s success
•  Production systems were adhoc and defective because of frequent variations in standards set
•  Many times raw material was found to be of inferior quality ? rigidly defined job descriptions

1. What in your view are the central human resources issues involved in this case?
2. What strategy should Mr. Tanmoy Deb develop and implement for improving the present system?

Examination Paper of Human Resource Management

XYZ Company is an existing profit making FMCG Company. The company has 600 personnel and has branches all other the country. It has a separate training department with a Training Manager, Mr. A.P. Mohan as its head who is supported by two qualified training officers. Mr. Mohan has been in the company for the last 8 years and is very efficient. Mr. Mohan wants to leave the organization. He is fed up with organizational politics. He is dissatisfied and in fact frustrated. There are several reasons attached to it. First and foremost is that he is not paid adequately despite the fact that he has brought 12% growth in revenue to the company.

Second reason is that he is not consulted and constantly neglected while making decisions on training aspects. Lastly, he considers himself to be a victim of politics played in the organization. Production Manager is constantly hurting him and interferes with the work. Dr. Ashok Sarao, boss of Mr. A.P. Mohan does not want him to leave the organization, as he knows that the effectively will come down if he leaves. Dr. Ashok tries to convince Mohan that he should adjust himself with the environment and also talk of how Mohan is constantly neglected. He talks of how politics is played in the organization and strengths and weaknesses of Mohan but does nothing to convince Mohan. Rather he says that they have to adjust, as they are part of family run business. In this setting, personal equation rather than merit works. Mohan is not convinced, and says he is leaving.

• Why a high performer like Mr. Mohan decided to leave the organization he has been long part of?
• Do you think Mr. A.P. Mohan took the right decision to leave the organization? What Would you have done if you were in his shoes?

This section consists of Applied Theory Questions

• Answer all the questions.
• Each question carries 15 marks.
• Detailed information should form the part of your answer (Word limit 200 to 250 words).

Discuss the basic concept of management development.

1. What is the importance of management development in the changing business?
2. What do mean by Quality of work life? Discuss various methods to improve quality of work life.

This section consists of Multiple choices and Short Notes type questions

• Answer all the questions.
• Part one questions carry 1 mark each & Part Two questions carry 5 marks each.

Workers participation in management decision-making is a highly________ concept.

1. Duplex
2. Complex
3. Simplex
4. None of the above

The origin of industrial relations in India can be traced in to the

1. Second world war
2. First world war
3. Third world war
4. British rule

Under the payment of wages act, 1936, no wages period shall exceed for one

1. Four month
2. Two month
3. One month
4. None of the above

Collective bargaining is the process of bargaining between

1. employees & employer
2. workers & workers
3. employees & employees
4. None of the above

Layoff can also cause a ________

1. Retirement
2. Grievance
3. Conflict
4. None of the above

As per payment of bonus act, accounting year for a company is ________

1. One year
2. Period for which balance sheet is prepared
3. Period for which cash flow is prepared
4. Period for which profit and loss account is prepared

WPM stands for

1. Workers’ Participation in Management
2. Workers’ Payment of Management
3. Well fare Payment of Management
4. None of the above

Causes of Industrial disputes are

1. Economic causes
2. Political causes
3. Technological causes
4. All of the above

Trade unions of workers in an organization formed by workers to protect their

1. Working condition
2. Interest
3. Both a & b
4. None of the above

A grievance causes in any organization are

1. Work environment
2. Supervision
3. Work group
4. All of the above

• What are the basic causes of ‘Grievances’?
• What are the objectives of ‘Industrial Relations’?

Briefly explain the term ‘evolution of Trade unions in India’. Explain the ‘workers’ participation in management’.

This section consists of Caselets

• Answer all the questions.
• Each Caselet carries 20 marks.

Detailed information should form the part of your answer (Word limit 150 to 200 words).

Star Automobiles Ltd. Pimpary is in the field of manufacturing of two wheelers. They manufactureand market mopeds. These are available in the brand names ‘arrow’ and ‘double arrow’ where ‘arrow’ is their traditional product and ‘double arrow’ is the improved version. The company was started about 20 yrs ago. Their product ‘arrow’ enjoys a reasonably good reputation and they were comfortable in the market. However, with the entry of the new generation of fuel-efficient mopeds the company started loosing its market. They immediately started developing the improved ‘double arrow’ but by the time they came out with this new model the competitors had already strengthened their position in the market. The arrow model was still acceptable by a segment of the market as it was cheapest vehicle. ‘Double arrow’ is new generation vehicle. It was costlier than Jet but its performance was much superior. It is compared favorably with the competitors’ products; however it was yet to gain a foot hold in the market.

The company had to refurbish the marketing activities in order to get back their market share. They employed young sales engineer to launch a strong sales drive. Mr. Ramesh Tiwari, Btech and a diploma holder in marketing got selected and was put on the job. Mr. Ramesh Tiwari started well in his new job. He was given a territory to contact the prospective customers’ andto book the orders. The company had introduced a new financial assistance scheme. Under this scheme, buyers were given easy loans. It was particularly advantageous for group booking by employees working in an organization.

Mr. Ramesh Tiwari was able to contact people in different organization, arrange for group bookings and facilitate the loans. His performance was good in the first year and in the second year of his service. The company had its own system of rewarding those whose performance happened to be good. They usually arranged a paid holiday trip for the good performer along with his wife. Mr. Ramesh Tiwari was accordingly informed by the marketing manager to go to Chennai with his wife on company expenses. Mr. Ramesh Tiwari asked him as to how much it would cost to the company.

The marketing manager calculated and told him that it would cost about 8000. He quickly asked him whether he could get that 8000 in cash instead of the trip as he hadbetter plans. The marketing manager countered this saying that it might not be possible to doso. It was not the trading of the company, however he would check with the personnel manager. After a couple of days, Mr. Tiwari was informed that it would not be possible to give him a cash reward. Mr. Tiwari grudgingly went for the trip and returned. On his return, he was heard complaining to one of his colleagues his little daughter was also along with him. The marketing manager and the personnel manager thought he was a bit too fusy about the money and some of his colleagues also thought so. During the subsequent days Mr. Ramesh Tiwari’s performance was not all that satisfactory this showed his lukewarm attitude towards his job and the subordinates.

1. Did the personnel manager handle the issue properly?
2. What is your recommendation to avoid such situations in future?

In 1950, with the enactment of the Insurance Act, Government of India decided to bring all the insurance companies under one umbrella of the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). Despite the monopoly of LIC, the insurance sector was not doing well. Till 1995, only 12% of the country’s people had insurance cover. The need for exploring the insurance market was felt and consequently the Government of India set up the Malhotra Committee. On the basis of their recommendation, Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IRDA) Act was passed in parliament in 2000. This moved allowed the private insurers in the market with the strong foreign partners with 74:26% stakes. XYZ-Moon life was one of the first three private players getting the license to operate in india in the year 2000.

XYZ Moon life Insurance was a joint venture between the XYZ Group and Moon Inc. of US. XYZ started off its operations in 1965, providing finance for industrial development and since then it had diversified in to housing finance, consumer finance, mutual funds and now its latest venture was Life Insurance. Its foreign partner Moon Inc. had its presence in Asia since the past 75 years catering to over 1 million customers across 11Asian countries.

Within a p of two years, twelve private players obtained the license from IRDA.IRDA had provided certain base policies like, Endowment Policies, Money back Policies, Retirement Policies, Team Policies, Whole Life Policies, and Health Policies. They were free to customize their products by adding on the riders. In the year 2003, the company becomes one of the market leaders amongst the private players. Till 2003, total market share of private insurers was about 4%, but Moon Life was performing well and had the market share of about 30% of the private insurance business.

In June 2002, XYZ Moon Life started its operations at Nagpur with one Sales Manager(SM) and ten Development Officers (DO). The role of a DO was to recruit the agents and sell a career to those who have an inclination towards insurance and could work either on part time or full time basis. They were very specific in recruiting the agents, because their contribution directly reflected their performance.

All DOs faced three challenges such as Case Rate (number of policies), case size (amount of premium), and recruitment of advisors by natural market, personal observations, nominators, and centre of influence. Incentive of offered by the company to development officers and agents were based on their performance, which resulted in to internal competition and finally converted into rivalry. In August 2002, a branch manager joined along with one more sales manager and ten development officers. Initially, the branch was performing well and was able to build their image in the local market. As the industry was dynamic in nature, there were frequent opportunities bubbling in the market. In order to capitalize the outside opportunities, one sales manager left the organization in January 2003.

As the sales manager was a real performer, he was able to convince all the good performers at XYZ Moon Life Insurance to join the new company. In april 2004, the company faceda grave problem, when the Branch Manager left the organization for greener pastures. To fill the position, in May 2004, the company appointed a new branch manager, Shashank Malik, and a sales manager, Rohit pandey. The branch manager in his early mthirties had an experience of sales and training of about 12 years and was looking after two branches i.e., Nagpur and Nasik. Malik was given one Assistant Manager and 25 Development Officers. Out of that, ten were reporting to him. He was given the responsibility of handling all the operations and the authority to make all the decisions, while informing the
Branch Manager. Malik opined that the insurance industry is a sunrise industry where manpower plays an important role as the business is based on relationship. He wanted to encourage one-to-one interaction, transparency and discipline in his organization. While managing his team, he wanted his co-workers to analyze themselves i.e., to understand their own strengths and weaknesses. He wanted them to be result-oriented and was willing to extend his full support. Also read Strategic Role of Human Resource Management essay

Finally, he wanted to introduce weekly analysis in his gameplan along with inflow of new blood in his organization. Using his vast experience, he began informal interactions among the employees, by organizing outings and parties, to inculcate the feelings of friendliness and belonging. He wanted to increase the commitment level and integrity of his young dynamic team by facilitating proper channelization of their energy. He believed that proper training could give his team a proper understanding of the business and the dynamics of insurance industry.

1. If you were Malik, what strategies would you adopt to solve the problem?
2. With high employee turnover in insurance industry, how can the company retain a person like Malik?

This section consists of Applied Theory Questions

• Answer all the questions.
• Each question carries 15 marks.
• Detailed information should form the part of your answer (Word limit 200 to 250 words).

1. What are issues in labour policies in India? Comment with relevant justification.
2. Discuss the wage policy in India with reference to detailed evaluation of the act.

Aim

The main aim and objective of the research is to evaluate the judicial measures in terms of statistical representation in the context of arbitration in maritime insurance. It would be determined whether in a case of arbitration the Petitioner or the Defendant holds the stronger ground statistically.

Rationale

The importance of this study lies in the fact that if the assumption is established that in a case of arbitration in maritime insurance any one party enjoys the stronger ground, being a Petitioner or the Defendant, just from being at the position then strategies could be developed in a specific manner. This pre notion strategy would help the parties prepare well in advance and thus justice would be well achieved.

Methodology

Quantitative methods would be more emphasised upon. However, while collecting the interviews of lawyers, Juries, Petitioners and Defendants qualitative methods would be used. (Kar, 229)

Resources

A huge number of materials would be needed as a supporting source to the research. For the purpose it is important to gain access to major libraries. The most important texts in this context would be Berkowitz’s Maritime Insurance and Man, Border’s Insurance: Fire of the Mind and Deb’s Introduction to South African Maritime Insurance: Technology for Mankind. All three of these books are dependable and informative means of supporting and constructing the thesis as they provide a huge amount of data in the parameters of arbitration in maritime insurance. Dev’s Evaluation of Arbitrations, Dos’ Future of Thought Process in Maritime History and Dollard’s Modern Maritime Policies in UK: Looks into Tomorrow are all recent piece of work that details various arbitrations in maritime insurance thus are very important for the research. The same is true for Fletcher’s Maritime Judiciary: Beliefs and Knowledge; Believing and Knowing and

Kar’s History of Legal Applications and Data but they deal with maritime judicial system as a whole. However, insurance is well dealt in these two books thus the arbitration in maritime insurance related chapters provides substantial resources. King’s Legal Fitness Today and Lamb’s Cult to Culture: The Development of Civilization on the Strategic Strata are two books that are invaluable in this context because they provide a huge amount of date on the issue of arbitration in maritime insurance along with in depth analysis of circumstances. Read also research proposal on Forensic Accounting

Timetable

The required timeframe would be 3 months.

Month 1

The entire interviews would be collected and documented.

Month 2

The literature would be evaluated and documented with proper process of archiving techniques. The basic analysis would be done within this period.

Month 3

The total collected documents, interviews, archive and basic analysis would be evaluated and deeply analyzed to render statistical results. Inferences would be made thereupon based on the deductions of the findings. (Lamb, 304)

Statement

This is to certifying that the proposed research project does not incorporate work that has previously been submitted for the award of a degree or diploma.

Bibliography

Berkowitz, L; Maritime Insurance and Man. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press. 2006)

Border, S; Insurance: Fire of the Mind (Wellington: National Book Trust; 2006)

Deb, J; Introduction to South African Maritime Insurance: Technology for Mankind. (Dunedin: ABP Ltd. 2005)

Dev, S; Evaluation of Arbitrations (Dunedin: ABP Ltd. 2006)

Dos, M; Future of Thought Process in Maritime History (Christchurch: Alliance Publications; 2005)

Dollard, John; Modern Maritime Policies in UK: A look into Tomorrow. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press. 2006)

Fletcher, R; Maritime Judiciary: Beliefs and Knowledge; Believing and Knowing. (Mangalore: Howard & Price. 2006)

Kar, P; History of Legal Applications and Data (Kolkata: Dasgupta & Chatterjee 2005)

King, H; Legal Fitness Today (Dunedin: HBT & Brooks Ltd. 2005) pp 126

Lamb, Davis; Cult to Culture: The Development of Civilization on the Strategic Strata. (Wellington: National Book Trust. 2004)

I have been a doctor for two decades now, always ready to aid people who are in need, to heal them in the most impossible way that a man can, to cure others who asked of me over and over in the most isolated provinces in this wounded nation. But all of these can disappear from an instant blink of an eye. The whole nation is desperately in need of healing, to be quite frankly. It is hard to think of a proclamation of Jesus that is harder to understand – or believe – than “blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven’ because truthfully, from where

I am standing, I don’t quite see it at all. Vive seen death in everywhere I go, pre-school children died from being exploded by a bomb of the ABA Safe conflict in Sambaing, a sick mother who died after giving birth to a twin because his husband who happens to be a conductor in a bus company can’t afford a proper three-day meal for the family despite his almost 24- hours shift. And Just like last week, Vive seen a woman who was stabbed by her own sister-in-law out of Jealousy.

I bring this up in the context of considering that poverty is everywhere, that no matter how much we think about the did an Dana’ it won’t bring the Filipino people in good condition. I believe, as a Doctor, health is one of the most important elements in society. It takes a great deal of effort to come up with plans and proposal to keep the nation in balance with health. The President Just stated his State of the Nation a few days back, and it is sad that promoting good health and proposing for cheaper medicines and health benefits doesn’t seem like its included in his flagships.

True, that the administration is still on its process of rehabilitating what was lost in Samara-Letter regions, but in ejaculating all of the medical assistance is by far most unknown in his propaganda. Thankfully enough, we are living by the hands of the foreigners. All of the countless relief’s we received are from all over the world. It is also quite considerate when Peons cabinet members and Local Government Officials are working hard for the safety of everyone, but why it seems that everyone is still coping up with the devastation.

It has almost been a year since it happened, but why are these dreams seems to be washed out by the typhoon? You see, I am Just a Doctor, who can’t even help himself, because I am being dragged y the system and by the looks of it the government can’t even help its people. I wish all those people who made decisions could come down to see what the consequences of their decisions would be like. But really, who are those’ people in the first place? Tobacco executives who market a carcinogenic product? Conglomerate food industries that contribute to obesity (and poor dental health)?

Insurance companies that leveraged debt in credit default swabs and contributed to global inflation? Even if I help myself in building a hospital, do you think the government would support me on that? How would I even know that all of hose pain and effort in helping people would really pay off? No matter how much I think about going abroad and dedicate myself in contributing to the nation’s rising economy (even though it doesn’t seem quite felt), it would reflect on me, and the media will use its persuasive power to kill people like us (doctors, nurses, therapists) like we are the most gruesome professionals in the world.

The clinic that I usually attend to in Panamanian, every time Vive visited it, is about as anti-Aquinas as it gets, so it is hard for me to reconcile the claims that insurance (since when does every Filipino has insurance and I wish everyone can) and co-pays should be under IPPP with the insistence that whatever our misfortunes might be, they are the product of unfair treatment at the hands of power and privileged. In the President’s speech he talked about preparing for future disasters and even focuses on how his administration carry over responsibilities in all of those who are affected.

I was one of the Doctors that immediately went to see how wrecked the place was, but a one single official was never really there to go and look in many far- lung areas. Relief’s were distributed almost three days after that typhoon. There used to be several health centers in Tactical (where I was assigned) but last January, it stretched to the limit. People cannot even walk to the main health center in Tactical. There are trees everywhere and they have essentially been cut off.

We set up in the destroyed former health clinic and received a lot of patients. It was non-stop and people were happy that my team arrived. And in everyday was the same, we went to another remote village and the patients did not stop coming. It is clear that there is a massive need. As a freelance Doctor, I cannot save the whole country, but many people are currently surviving without medical care and we will try to fill that gap until services are restored. Till when can I accept this tragic fact?

Back in Tactical, we are mainly treating respiratory infections, and we’ve also seen some patients with diarrhea. Without proper shelter and being exposed to the elements, a lot of people have colds and fevers, especially the kids. Vive also encountered people who have been affected mentally by the typhoon. They are resent with physical symptoms that you can’t really pinpoint, but often we see that this indicates psychological distress. It’s common to see this after such a traumatic event, so psychological care is in need to.

As I continue my distress over the things I saw back last November when the Typhoon was out in the Philippine Area of Responsibility, I was drawn to more facts about this illness of my country in providing deserved health benefits. Equipment and facilities are still not up to the standard of private institutions. Government hospitals remain largely ill equipped and have offered years due to the decline of government spending on health care. Accessibility to public healthcare still remains a contentious issue, particularly in more rural areas.

Ideally, everyone is entitled to health care through Philately, but the problem still is, some are discouraged to pay for this because they still choose ‘Panamanian Eng than’ over health care and not all medical procedures are covered by the Philately scheme and often the balance for medical expenses is to be paid by the patients. The other day, Budget Secretary Butch Bad presented the 201 5 proposed budget of PA. 06 trillion ($60 billion), 15% higher than the previous year. For health, the government wants a APP. Billion budget for the upgrade of 1,242 bargain (village) health stations, 587 rural health stations, 128 local government unit hospitals, and 1 1 treatment and rehabilitation centers. The government also seeks a PA. 3 billion budget to minimize 2. 2 million children and to provide pneumatically vaccines to 1. 4 million senior citizens and 429,000 infants. Big money is allotted in Health. If only the President would consider this, a plan where he can control the distribution of budget appropriately for everyone.

Although, he dispensed an allotted amount in covering future calamity funds and increase in providing the National Health Insurance Program from APP. 3 billion ($810 million) to APP. 2 billion ($850 million); increase in coverage from 14. 7 million to 15. 4 million beneficiaries, it would be quite enough to sustain what the nation needs, but the big question here is that if the administration can provide this fairly and legitimately. As a Doctor, I am not enraged by how the administration works. I am furious on how they manage everything.

I am not against to those who are now in the position, I believe they are placed there for a reason, a reason that neither of us would know. But to be quite honest, my heart goes to the people who deserved a better life. A life of happiness, stability, and even the most taken for granted acts. I am not taking sides in considering that the Philippines is not a choice anymore; I won’t want to believe that. It is probably one of the reasons why I still keep myself flowing as much as possible, helping those poor; I believe that social protection and social services should be given a much more credit, a bigger perspective to end this misery.

But for now, I’ll keep my hopes up. I will definitely wait for the right time. But I won’t lose my hope in this administration and in this passion in serving others. I challenge the President in helping and promoting us, especially those who are in the medical world, in healing our nation’s wounds. It might be hard, it is not easy, but there’s no need to worry, it will be all well and right, if we all keep ourselves closely knit, together, hand in hand.

Whole Foods Market, Do they practice what they preach? Festus Acha, Jaesang Kim, Wanda Moss, Linda Pressley, Alioune Thiam The Johns Hopkins Carey Business School Management & Organizational Behavior Professor Rick Milter March 22, 2010 Whole Foods Market, Do they practice what they preach? Abstract The purpose of this paper is to show a correlation between what is perceived about Whole Foods Market and what is factual about them. We intend to explore and investigate the following key points such as their mission statement, vision, their strategy for success, and empowerment techniques.

We will look at how they motivate, compete with others, and the type of inspiration used as a whole to promote cohesiveness throughout their business. We want to feel out their communication techniques as well as the emotional intelligence of their employees. It will be an experience to observe their team leadership in action rather than by hearsay. Coaching and mentoring has to be an important function for such a global organization as well as the steps taken for decision making and problem solving.

We have come to realize that change is inevitable in any business and we want to know what their plans for change are and how it will be dealt with. Lastly we take our information collectively and see just how Whole Foods holds up through our audit of their leadership. Our leadership audit of Whole Foods Market, Inc. (WFMI) was based on the following criteria: Mission & Vision Statement (Core Values) Strategy for Success Empowering Employees Motivation & Inspiration Competing without fear Communication Emotional Intelligence Team Leadership Effectiveness

Coaching & Mentoring Problem solving & decision making Organizational Change Overall Management We graded them on a sliding scale of Excellence to Needs Improvement and based on the financial data and management of their competitors such as Kroger’s, Safeway, and Trader Joe’s their score was given based on overall performance in those areas. Their biggest competitor being Trader Joe’s being a privately held company it was difficult to obtain financial information to do an effective comparison. Whole Foods Market has a running history of being a family oriented company.

It is also reported that upper management uses a hands off practice of allowing its employees complete autonomy in decision making regarding the operation of their stores. Based on primary information obtained through observations and interviews at multiple Whole Foods Markets throughout the Maryland area we are able to shed some validity to some of the theories currently circulating. We also have information that may show or allude to controversial information as well. During these interviews we talked with employees and the managers on duty.

What we learned is what people say and what you see may not always be the same. Our secondary information was obtained through reports found through second party interviews, up to date journals and magazines such as Harvard Business Review. Vision & Mission (Core Values) Whole Foods Market came into existence on September 12, 1980. Workers for Whole Foods Market experience this organization as a positive paternalistic organization. It is characterized by very high trust levels, complete autonomy and accompanied by very little uncertainty.

Their vision statement speaks of their objectives and goals reaching beyond a food retailer. It highlights its customer satisfaction, healthy employee environment, profits, investments and stockholders always ending on a positive note. Their mission is to lead by example. Some of their core values are things such as: Ensuring they are selling the best quality all natural and or organic products available for resale. Making sure their customers are always satisfied Support team members Invest in the community and the environment

Great relationships with our suppliers and business partners Whole Foods truly believes in creating wealth through profits and growth for the company and its employees. However, on March 17, 2010 one of our team members Wanda Moss visited the Whole Foods Market located at 1001 Fleet Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21202. Her visit revealed that workers were friendly, outgoing, and very accommodating as she sought out a particular herbal seasoning to use in a seafood casserole. Her curiosity and interest in their herbs and spices made G.

Singh, an employee more relaxed as she divulged her interest in their company for a school project. Ms. Singh has been working for the company for a little over four years she revealed. When questioned about the mission of Whole Foods as it pertained to her store and she replied that they are very good to her and they act as family towards one another. The employee was asked one other question in regards to the company’s position on unionized labor and she replied no one that she knows in her store wants to be in a union and that they like things just fine. Wanda Moss said she felt a defensive spirit as “G” responded.

Nonetheless Ms. Moss continued to check out with her items and thanked the young lady for her time. Whole Food Markets employees are very knowledgeable about the store and its practices almost as if one has to rehearse. We have surmised either these employees are well prepared for inquisitions or the vision or mission statement of Whole Foods is genuine being practiced. We rated them good in their ability to mirror their vision and mission statement. Strategy for Success Which leads us to what is their marketing strategy to remain successful and move forward?

Information obtained from their website suggests that they rigorously will be vigilante assessing their current situations in all aspects of the business in which they operate and examine as to how they can stay the front runner. Part of that plan is to expand geographically in the future and give consideration to altering their product mix to attract more main stream customers. Since they are not really clear on their plan of execution for expansion and innovation in altering their current mix, we rated them average and the need for improvement.

Empowerment Their strategy will lead us to how they intend or are currently empowering their employees and low level managers to remain on the frontline for the business. What was learned is that their empowerment techniques equate to trust all day long. For instance the employees believe that with management placing an immeasurable amount of faith in them, a high value is placed upon them. That same value is transferred to the customers and other stakeholders that help them to remain profitable and a front runner in their field.

Their CEO John Mackey is walking the talk by nurturing from the inside out to enhance the quality of benefits distributed in all of their stores. The empowerment of their employees and or team leaders is unique and inspiring so we rated them excellent in this category. Inspiration Whole Food Market was created by local business people who had the conviction that the natural food industry was ready for bigger stores. They decided to opt for the supermarket format that was hosted by only “half a dozen” stores providing natural food in the United States.

In terms of nutrition, Whole Food Market claims to always look for the “highest quality, least processed, most flavorful and natural food possible”. They believe that their products are the purest within the US and that everything that you can pick up at the store will be healthy. The company also buys from local growers in order to support them and reduce their “carbon footprint”. That way, Whole Food Market is then really “committed to helping take care of the world around [them]” and the “support of organic farming and sustainable agriculture helps protect our planet”.

The company also supports food banks and all sorts of micro lending operations in order to leave something positive to the community. Whole Food Market also believes that its employees make the company. They select them carefully, making sure that their values and the Whole Food market’s values are in sync. The company is trying to create a workplace where employees are pushed to improve and feel respected as well. Motivation Several factors have to be taken into account when assessing the origin of employees’ motivation.

One important factor that motivates employees is that Whole Food Market support “advancement from within”. In other words, they promote their current employees to apply for the higher responsibilities positions. According to Whole Food Market, once an employee has gained valuable knowledge, he may qualify to apply for any available opportunity in the Whole Food stores and facilities. Whole food makes a point to post all the openings for positions “at team leader level or higher” only in their internal job site.

It prevents outsider to access high level responsibilities positions as well as it promotes current employee to expand their product knowledge, develop their skills, enhance their value to the team, and advance inside the company. Another important factor that keeps the employees motivated is the benefit packages provided to them. Fortune Magazine recognized Whole Food Market to be one of the “100 best companies to work for during the last 13 years”. In 2009, Whole Food Market was part of the only 15 companies that would provide 100% coverage on their employees’ health insurance premiums.

Their benefit packages include “health insurance, paid time off, retirement savings and generous store discounts. The company also claims to be unique in the way it allocates benefit packages. Indeed, since every team member is important to the companies, they all get a voice when it comes to the content of their benefit packages. Team members will vote every three years to determine the content of the benefit packages offered by the company. This system results in different benefit packages according to the country or region employees are working in.

The Paid- Time –Off policy, for example, is different depending on where the employee is working. For US employees, the paid time off depends on whether the employee is working full-time or part-time. In Canada paid-time-off depends on the time spent within the company in years, and In the UK, every single employee gets 7 days and the possibility to add an extra day. The last factor (but not least) that we discovered to be pushing employees is the learning experience and the experience itself. Alioune Thiam, one of our team members interviewed a couple of employees at different positions.

When they were asked the question ” what motivates you” one of them spontaneously answered that the learning experience was her principal source of motivation when the other stated that he just love the company and what the company does for the environment. Competition Based on the multiple interviews held with the store managers, Whole Food Market does not consider other giants of the food industry as threatening competitors. They acknowledge that other stores also carry organic food but they are convinced that the high quality standard set is not rivaled.

Employees also mentioned shopping at Whole Food Market as an experience where the customer and the team members are educated. They emphasized a lot about the learning experience that makes them unique and out of reach for other grocery stores. However, according to Hoovers, a business analysis company, Whole Food Market still has dangerous competitors. A business analysis of the Whole Food market shows us that The Kroger is the most important competitors to Whole Food Market closely followed by Safeway and Trader Jo’s.

Even though these stores do not provide only natural, organic, healthy food, they do offer a wide variety of food ranging from organic/natural to less healthy and more commonly found nutrition. Communication Communication is essential in any organization and it would appear that Whole Foods has communication as one of its top priorities. There is great communication among team members as well as the different teams in each store. I visited the Whole Foods store in Mt. Washington and spoke with Joe Young, Associate Customer Service Team Leader regarding how communication. Mr.

Young stated that the employees feel that the communication is very transparent, from team leadership to team members. Any communication from the corporate office in Texas is given to the regional offices. Information is then given to the stores and is disseminated to the team leaders who, in turn, give it to the team members. I asked about feedback from customers. Mr. Young stated that feedback from customers is encouraged. Whenever feedback is received from a customer, it is given to the team leader for whichever section it concerns. The question along with the answer is posted on a bulletin board for customers to see.

This feedback response is usually given within a week. However, some of the research that I have found indicates that team members are not allowed to say anything about working at Whole Foods on social websites, such as Facebook. According to some blogs, John Mackey uses pseudo names to become “friends” with some of his employees on Facebook to keep a tab on what is being said about the company. These employees face repercussions from posting on the website. Communication Grade – Good. There seems to be good multi-directional with team leaders and customers.

However, employees should be able to express themselves constructively through social websites and not feel they will be penalized. Emotional Intelligence Emotional intelligence is defined as an ability to recognize the meanings of emotion and their relationships and to reason and problem-solve on the basis of them. The employees I interview seemed to really enjoy working for Whole Foods. According to Fortune 500 Magazine, Whole Foods is listed as one of the best places to work and has been for the past 10 years. When I visited the Mt. Washington store, the atmosphere had a relaxed feel.

People seemed to enjoy shopping there and the employees were attuned to the customer needs. While I was speaking with Mr. Young, he greeted several customers by name. Mr. Young pointed out the core values of Whole Foods which are listed on huge individual placards in the store. The quality standards were also listed individually on placards. As I stood in line to purchase my items, the cashiers had a great attitude. They also knew customers by name, commented on their purchases – one cashier spoke about the dinner and dessert from purchases of a customer.

I also interview a long-time customer of the store. She stated she could not find anything to say negatively. She recently moved for New Orleans and shopped at those stores as well as the store at Mt. Washington, Maryland. She felt the employees enjoyed working at Whole Foods and would stop whatever they were doing to help customers, even if it meant walking over the whole store to help them find products. She felt that the service and atmosphere of Whole Foods makes customers feel good about what they are buying there. In her opinion, the team members take pride in the products that they sell.

Emotional Intelligence Grade – Excellent Team Leadership & Effectiveness In the textbook The Future of Management, author Gary Hamel describe the type of management of Whole Foods. Each store is considered a team and inside the each store, there are departmental teams. According to my research, this concept seems to work. Leadership decisions are made from the bottom up instead of from the top down, which is the industry norm. Each departmental team has team leaders. It is very intriguing the way team leadership is chosen. The leader of each team is interviewed by a panel.

The panel includes Regional Vice Presidents, various Team Leaders either from the same store or another store in the region, as well as a cross of team members. Mr. Young also said there is no “seniority” when choosing a leader. Leaders are chosen by the panel if they exhibit the ability to lead a team and not by how many years they have been with the company. Mr. Young also stated that when decisions affecting their team members need to be made, all team members are allowed to vote on the changes. For example, when it comes time to choose health care, the team members all vote for their health benefits.

Team Leadership Grade – Excellent Coaching & Mentoring Decision Making The Whole Foods culture is built on decentralized teamwork. Decisions in Whole Foods are not made by upper management but each store has been empowered to make its decisions independent of the other. Critical decisions, such as whom to hire is made by those who will be directly impacted by the consequences of such decisions. Decision making in Whole Foods is made by teams. Each department and its team are responsible for all key operating decisions, including pricing, ordering, staffing, and in-store promotion.

With regards to product selection, team leaders are given the authority to stock products they feel appeal to customers. Stores are encouraged to buy locally as long as the items meet the stringent standards of Whole Foods. With this empowerment given to teams comes accountability, which ensures that associates use their discretionary decision-making power in ways that drive the business forward. Part of Whole Foods’ strategy is to put decision right down to the front lines and hence teams make many important decisions. Problem Solving Teams maintain a culture in which open dialogue and debate is the norm.

This is reinforced by openly addressing behavior that involves excessive criticism or cynicism. Not tolerating such behavior sends a strong signal to the team and sets behavior patterns. Team processes have a profound influence on team effectiveness. Effective processes ensure rigorous and optimal decision-making; generate buy-in from team members, balance the influence each member exerts on the group and minimize interpersonal conflicts while encourage constructive debate. Information and ideas of each team member is properly incorporated into the decision making process.

Whole Foods has multiple processes built into its teams to achieve optimal team functioning. The tight linkage between business intelligence and decision-making authority at Whole Foods ensures that little problems do not have to compound into big problems before action is taken. Organizational Change Whole Foods Market started with a small single store. In 1978, twenty-five year old college dropout John Mackey and twenty-one year old Rene Lawson Hardy opened a small natural foods store, Safer Way, in Austin, in Texas.

Two years later, John and Rene merged Safer Way with Clarksville Natural Grocery and then they opened the original Whole Foods market in 1800. Even though Whole foods Market focused on natural foods, it tried to change structure and management to improve its performance. In 1986, it was first time to purchase an existing store, when Whole foods bought the Bluebonnet Natural Foods Grocery in Dallas and converted it into a Whole Foods Market. After that, Whole Foods not only open new stores but also purchased their competitors in new regions.

Through the expansion program, Whole Food Market reached out to potential customers. Whole Foods Markets launched a private label called Whole Foods. Whole Foods Market tried to find smaller manufacturers who produced quality organic products. The private label encouraged customers to return to Whole Foods Market. Its own Whole Foods brand became the first retailer to maintain a private label line featuring organic food products. In 1996, in order to resemble other Whole foods store, Whole Food Market started to transform the Mrs. Gooch’s stores and made them adopt the Whole Foods Market name.

The change in name caused a 5 to 10 percent sales drop. After that, Whole Foods was more careful about changing the names of acquired stores. To improve productivity, Whole Foods established a centralized purchasing system. By the end of 1997, the system facilitated the company to track product movement and prices. In addition, Whole Foods made a low priced private label, 365. The 365 products were different from the Whole Foods products. The 365 products did not provide organic products, but they were priced about 20 percent cheaper. The 365 products attracted more customers who typically bought groceries.

Moreover, Whole Foods Market has expanded into global market. In 2002, Whole Foods Market expanded into Canada and two year later it entered the United Kingdom. In 2010, Whole Foods employs 53,300people in more than 290 stores in the U. S. , Canada, and the UK. The tenth-largest food and drug store in the U. S. , Whole Foods ranks 324th on the Fortune 500 list, with annual sales of approximately $8 billion. Whole Foods Market has high standards and provides organic and quality foods. In 2003, Whole Foods Market was designated America’s first National Certified Organic Grocer.

Three years earlier, Whole Foods was the first national food retailer to join the USDA advisory board to help increase the U. S. Organic Standards. In 2008, Whole Foods established stricter guidelines to reduce environmental impact and to require vendors to pass a third-party audit. Over the past decade, Whole Foods Market is increasing its reputation with organic, fair-trade, or locally produced food. Even though Whole Foods Market is a huge food store, it is going to change and to pursue what people need. Over the next decade, Whole Foods will offer more resources to emphasize healthful eating.

If Whole Foods Market stops changing, it cannot survive in the food industry. Overall Management Whole Foods Market believes that customer experiences anticipate and predict its business outcomes. Whole Foods Market also knows employee performance has influence on customer experiences. Therefore, Whole Foods Market tries to satisfy its employees by offering adequate compensation program, safe and friendly work environment. These facts are able to motivate and guide employees to increase productivity and effectiveness. Whole Foods Market also makes employees feel like a part of the company.

So every employee takes an important role to achieve its goals and their performances affect directly to the company’s outputs. Especially, Whole Foods Market is a workplace to respect for all individual team members and self-empowerment. At Whole Foods Market, there are five values to affect the employees’ performance outcomes. First, Whole Foods Market believes one of the most important jobs is talking to team members. Whole Foods Market knows what its team leaders say and do affect their team members. If team members cannot trust the leader, they also do not trust the mission of the company.

Each leader represents their teams. Whole Foods Market knows communication is very important. So each leader attempts to share the mission and core values of Whole Foods Market. Also, Whole Foods Market emphasizes a self-directed team structure. It organizes Whole Foods store and company into a variety of teams. In small team organizational structure, every member is vital and important. The contributions of every member make the success of the team. Whole Foods think self-directed teams are the key work unit of the company. So Whole Food pays more attention to each team.

To discuss issues, solve problems and appreciate each others’ contributions, each team meets regularly. Whole Foods Market insists empowerment enhances the effectiveness of teams. When each team is fully empowered to do their work and to fulfill the organization’s mission and values, empowered organizations have great advantage. Empowerment improves creativity and innovation. Whole Foods support individual team members. Next, Whole Foods Market attempts to optimize transparency to all team members because an important element of trust is transparency.

Whole Foods Market allows every team member to access information that affects their jobs and annual individual compensation report. When a company decides to hide some information, the motivation is a lack of trust. Whole Foods is afraid that the information that would cause more harm than good if it was known. However, Whole Foods is willing to take the risk. Without transparency, Whole Foods cannot reach out to high level of organizational trust. Finally, Whole Foods is not able to create high trust organizations without love and care.

We are more likely to look for love and friendship with our families and friends, but not from our work. If the leadership expresses love and care in their actions, then love and care will flourish in the organization. For example, everyone participates in the meeting and gives the opportunity to voluntarily appreciate other members in the group for services. Appreciating team members helps encourage every team member. They want to get involved in their teams and trust each member. As a result, in 2010, Whole Foods ranked 18th on Fortune’s list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For. Appendix Table of opportunities: Table of opportunities: Competitors list: Leadership Audit References Diamond, D. (2009, October 1). Perception Vs. Reality. Progressive Grocer, 88(7), 34. Hamstra, M. (2010, January 1). Mackey No Longer Chairman? Supermarket News, 58(1), 1-7. Hoovers Company Records, 10952. Dow Jones Financial Data on Whole Foods Market. Retrieved March 25, 2010, from http://finance. yahoo. com/q? s=WFMI. Linda Pressley. Whole Foods Market. Mr. Joe Young, Associate Customer Service Team Leader, Whole Foods Store, Mt.

Washington, Maryland. Interviewed on March 23, 2010 Ms. Fay Day, Whole Foods Customer. Interview March 24, 2010. Paskin, J. (2009, February 1). Growth slows, but mackey doesn’t [Keeping employees motivated]. 18, 2, 24-26. Pressley, L. Whole Foods Market Interview. Retrieved from www. discoveryhealth. com. Whole Foods Market. Retrieved from www. wholefoodsmarket. com. http://www. hoovers. com/company/Whole_Foods_Market_Inc/ http://www. hoovers. com/about/100000489-1. html www. marketwatch. com/ http://www. wikinvest. com/stock/Whole_Foods_Market_%28WFMI%29