Research Paper on Banking in Germany

History

German banking is one of the most fragmented in Europe and was represented with a network of public and private banks, the number of which has not significantly changed over the century. The main approach of the banking system is to provide a range of financial and consultation services for the clients. Banks are divided according to their designation into public-sector banks, saving banks (Sparkassen), municipality banks (Landesbanken), credit cooperatives, and private commercial banks. Commercial banks, always being important players in the market, were experiencing exponential growth at the slowdown period entering new markets and becoming global. However, they did not have much concern about the problems in the domestic market.

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The small- and middle-sized firms also known as Mittelstand were the basis for the German economy for the reasons of export sales, workforce employment, technology adancement, tax payments, and outsourcing by the bigger partners. Mittelstand comprised mostly of the privately owned and not listed companies with less than 500 employees and annual revenue up to 50 million Euros. These companies employed 20 million of population in the country bringing approximately half of country's gross value and investments as well as taxable revenues. The strengths of these companies included strong company identity and history, high quality of products and manufacturing processes with continuous research and development, and flexibility for that they were often run by families.

A big portion of Mittelstand companies were dependent on bank credits and loans, amounts of which varied according to the size of the company during 1980-90s. The role of the bank was crucial for many firms. The relationships were established on the basis of client companies needs and usually performed by a single bank on a long-term stable basis. However, the requirements of some companies were served by several banks at a time. The role of the banks also included educational and consulting purposes aimed at the development and improvement of the small and middle-sized businesses in the country.

After the World War II, Germany was divided into two parts, where the Western part managed to create the so-called "economic miracle" - the intensive growth provided by freedoms and security in the market attracting and stimulating emerging businesses, guest workers, political parties, and social organizations. In 1980s, the downturn took place, and the decision to unite Germany in a solid country took place. Several sharp actions were implemented in the economical sector including privatization, borrowing, currency conversion, etc. As a result, unemployment, taxes and emphasis on social benefits made the country, especially its Western part, one of the most expensive and sophisticated in terms of economical structure and regulations. Besides, it also led to budget deficit and increase in public debt. Hiring employees was not profitable anymore, and it made both the workforce and the businesses suffer.

Range of Problems
The problems began after the year 2000. In 2001, many private firms started reporting loses with future forecasts for deterioration. Many firms were not competitive to operate either locally or internationally. The need in increased cash flows was obvious, although the bank loans were not as affordable. Equity levels were already one of the lowest in Europe and the owners had to search for investors in order to survive. Such intentions put many companies to the choice of becoming more transparent, which was a hard step for most of them. Since 2000, entrepreneurship has not been the main issue in sustaining a business in Germany anymore.

Germany, which has been sustaining one of the leadership positions in the world economy, started to lose significantly after 2000 and by 2002 had a negative growth in real GDP resulted in a fail of almost 90% in two years (Fear, 2003). In the period of 2000-2002, Germany reported the lowest performance indicators in economics for the last 20 years by that time. Total public dept increased and other indicators declined even though the export of goods was still improving. An effort to stabilize the situation was accomplished in 2001 when the consumer price index and exporting rose and the public debt was partially diminished. However, the budget balance was not in control anymore and it continued to worsen next year, shows Exhibit 1b Economic Statistics (Fear, 2003).

CreditformAG and Euler & Hermes (Fear, 2003) have been forecasting one of the biggest number of insolvencies in 2003 namely in Germany, which in comparison to France, the leader of the negative rating, did not have such performance for the last ten years: bankruptcy would increase by almost 60% in Germany compared to 1996, the first year mentioned in the exhibit, while in France it was forecasted to decline by 29%.

Big commercial banks were implementing mergers and takeovers against interests of customers, and this resulted in problems with corporate governance of the banks. Gaps in communications between banks and shareholders became wide spread and had to be fixed.

The monetary system should also be subjected to changes and not only because of appreciation of Euro as currency but also because the model showed low efficiency within the contemporary environment. Social life and education were also in trouble. What Germany was about to lose was one of the best European infrastructures in the field of high-tech manufacturing.

The main uncertainty about the banking system in Germany was the concern about the upcoming reforms because provision of none could result even in a bigger slowdown. The world's third largest economic system has not suffered so much for the last half a century.

Search for Solution
In 2001, the Bank of International Settlements proposed the issuance of the revised version of Capital Accord Proposal called Basel II. It was supposed to improve the economical situation in the member countries reviewing three main principles: minimum standard of capital adequacy expressed in more precise risk measurement, improved supervision of credit rating and internal risk-weighting models, and raised transparency of banks based on market value. The purpose of the regulations was to stabilize world’s financial systems.

The main concern for Basel II in the German economy was the influence on the Mittelstand. As primarily considered, the number of small and middle-sized firms could significantly decline due to the higher risks incurred with the implementation of the new Capital Accord Proposal. Basel II would raise the cost of credit for the firms which are the main supporters of the German economy.

Besides, the proposal to include higher credit weight into long-term credits was evaluated as the one making long-term credits for any types of organization unattractive. This also contradicted the German approach of stable relationships between the company and the bank. Emphasis on bank disclosures twice a year was also opposed by the argument that in order to present the report of the operations for the half-a-year period, a bank has to put too much efforts and costs in it. As a consequence, this requirement was supposed to be exaggerated because many banks would not be able to accomplish it. All these reasons led to the intention to reject Basel II in Germany, and Germany was not the only country to complain on too strict and complex regulations, which were supposed to be introduced with the new system.

However, as the time passed and policies were adapted, the German government has examined Basel II once again and found it advantageous for Germany to certain extent. At first, ratings were also observed as an opportunity to develop a future-oriented business and create a strong structure for it. This allowed for strengthening of the private sector of economics in the country. Besides, ratings could serve as early warning systems controlling the relationships between the bank and the client company and stimulate the movement of capital within the country. The prerequisite for this could be the transparency of the market, which would also allow for the growth in financial markets in the following years. At second, new opportunities emerged. Securitization program became possible and moved risks from the banks' balance sheets. At third, the risk weights were altered to more affordable for all types of companies asking for credits. As one can see, it was an important position in the list of regulations, which was adopted only after some period of time, and probably this was the final reason for Germany to approve the new system. Germany has always been known as the native country of many worldwide known private companies of different sizes providing the best products in the global market. Some of them would not probably stand the downturn if the banks did not perform flexible and allow special conditions of issuing loans and credits. Government had a special interest in these companies because they were virtually the main sources of money and financial benefits in the country.

In whole, several actions were recommended within the new system. Companies were encouraged to go public and issue shares as a result. This was supposed to benefit banks at first. Banks could establish diverse strategies in issuing loans and credits for that new system allowed for a certain degree of flexibility. Within the relationship approach to partnership between the bank and the client company banks could select and design the best option for lending depending on the needs, terms, and type of the company. This concerned virtually all types of banks and all companies that were treated as important clients. Taking into consideration the new rating policies, banks could still determine the amount of loans issued. In order to compensate for bad loans, the financial institutions could simply limit their issuing.

Steps to Avoid Downturns in Future
Finally, Basel II with all the original and reinterpreted reforms has been finally adopted in Germany. However, this was not enough for the German banks to prosper and significant changes still had to follow up.

Several actions were proposed for the long run improvement of the financial sphere. At first, governmentally owned structures like saving banks (Sparkassen) and municipality banks (Landesbanken) had to be restructured to be more reactive and responding to the emerging trends in the market with a purpose of sustaining needy business mostly in the private financial sector. At second, creation of a partnership network within the banks could also be viewed as a nice strategy to alert negative processes in German economics. At third, investment banking should pursue target orientation because entrepreneurs and investors were different business categories in Germany, which did not usually have much in common. The concern of each entrepreneur was to keep the type of ownership whenever the attraction of investors would provide considerable changes in the structure in order to let the business survive. Finally, commercial banking could become more concentrated on relationships with clients. Many commercial banks have been intensively expanding globally but have not contributed much to the development and sustaining of national financial system. Such giants as Deutsche Bank or HVB Group could become determinants in the formation or renovation of the financial structure in the country and help many small and medium-sized businesses survive the downturns.

Conclusion
In order to evaluate the relevant effects of new system introduction, few years may not be enough. Within the world economics, different processes are predominant over certain periods of time that is why one can’t definitely outline the exact effects of either upward or downward trends in the financial system. Germany, being one of the world’s most progressive countries in terms of political, economical and social life, showed on its own example that every single factor could be the cause for a sharp shift, which could lead to instability and high level of uncertainty. The role of the government and its cooperation with the private enterprises is extremely important in order to sustain positions and achieve better results because private businesses make up the infrastructure of the country and promote injections of capital in its economics on the regular basis. However, fast reaction to changes is nearly the main determinant of successful operation of either government or national companies.

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Research Paper on Public Relations

Introduction

Whether public relations is a force for good or evil is a subject of heated debates in most Western societies these days. PR practitioners claim that their profession serves the cause of strengthening understanding among different groups in society and reconciliation of conflicting interest.

Cutlip, Center and Broom (1985) believe that “[p]ublic relations helps our complex, pluralistic society to reach decisions and function more effectively by contributing to mutual understanding among groups and institutions. It serves to bring private and public policies into harmony” (p. 5).

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Detractors of PR argue that its techniques are in most cases employed to conceal truth from the general public. As Doorley and Garcia (2007) note, “[s]ome critics of professional communications assert that the very idea of public relations is itself unethical, and use words such as ‘propaganda’ and ‘spin’ to suggest that such activities are inherently misleading” (pp. 38-39). This essay will carefully examine the arguments of both sides in order to reach a conclusion whether PR improves the democratic process or, on the contrary, harms it.

Definitions
First of all, it is necessary to provide a definition of PR, since there is little consensus about what PR actually entails and what its purpose and scope is (Leeper & Leeper 2001). As Freitag and Stokes (2009) inform, “[p]ublic relations scholar Rex Harlow once attempted to collect all published definitions of the term and found more than 500” (p. 4). Many definitions of PR are emotionally loaded and suggestive of a particular point of view on the discipline. For example, defining PR as “the manipulation of public behavior for the benefit of the manipulated publics as well as the sponsoring organizations” (Grunig 1989, p. 18-19) has negative connotations due to its emphasis on manipulation. Therefore, for the purposes of this paper, a more neutral definition shall be adopted. Public relations will be viewed as an attempt to engineer public support for an activity, cause, movement or institution by means of information, persuasion and adjustment (Bernays 1955).

As the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) (2007) informs, PR can be used by a variety of institutions, such as businesses, trade unions, government agencies, voluntary associations, foundations, hospitals, schools, colleges and religious institutions. It is important to note that some researchers believe that corporate public relations and government’s attempts to communicate with the public (sometimes referred to as public affairs) are two distinct fields. As Grunig and Jaatinen (1999) observe, “[p]ublic relations professionals frequently maintain that public relations is different in governmental organizations than in corporations, associations and not-for-profit organizations” (p. 218). While there are indeed significant differences in the ways private companies, government agencies, and not-for-profit organizations communicate with their audiences, PR techniques are used by all of them in a variety of contexts. At the same time, the field of political communications (such as campaign communications or election ads) should be seen as separate from public relations.

There is also a debate whether public relations should be construed narrowly as communication with general pubic or more broadly as communication with key audiences. PRSA (2007) states that PR implies developing relations with employees, customers, local community, shareholders, relevant institutions, and society at large. This essay will adopt this broad view of public relations.

Models of Public Relations
There is little doubt that PR occupies a prominent place in public communication and influences the formation of public opinion. Whether this influence helps or hinders the democratic process depends a lot on how organizations choose to use PR techniques. There is nothing inherent in the discipline that precludes it from being used for promoting worthy or unworthy causes. Yet the belief that each new technology is value free is inaccurate; each emerging discipline or technique is driven by certain needs and aims to achieve certain goals. Therefore, whether PR streamlines or obstructs the democratic process is a legitimate question to ask.

There are several models of PR proposed by Grunig (1989), and each of them suggests a particular evaluation of the usefulness of the discipline. Under the press agentry/publicity model, PR practitioners are viewed as propagandists aiming at maximizing media attention to their organization or cause in every way possible. This model implies one-way communication: an organization sends a message to select audiences though available channels and does not seek information in return through research or other means. For all these reasons, the press agentry/publicity model effectively equates PR with manipulation.

Another model of one-way communication is the public information model. As Sriramesh, Kim and Takasaki (1999) observe, this model implies “using persuasive one-way communication of truthful messages with altruistic motives (unlike the self-serving press agentry model)” (p. 277). They bring the example of public information campaigns building on factual information which is disseminated to change risky behaviors. However, while organizations usually provide accurate information under this model, they often prefer not to disclose negative information (Grunig 1989).

The two-way asymmetrical model relies on feedback from target audiences to design persuasive messages with a view to manipulating the behavior of message recipients. The model is called asymmetrical because information exchange is skewed in favor of the organization. Under this model, the organization does not have to change its behavior in response to public concerns but only to fine-tune the way in which it communicates with its audiences (Grunig 1989).

Finally, the two-way symmetrical model is when PR practitioners work towards a mutually acceptable resolution of problems or misunderstandings using two-way communication. In such a way, interests of both the organization and the public are advanced (Grunig 1989). Therefore, it is possible to conclude that if all organizations practiced the two-way symmetrical model of PR, the image of the discipline would have been much more favorable.

Within the aforementioned broad framework, the role of PR practitioner is conceptualized by Cutlip, Center and Broom (1985). A PR practitioner can be an expert-prescriber, someone who defines a problem and finds a solution to it. He or she can be a communications technician, a person in a non-managerial position whose job is to prepare communications. Also, such a practitioner can be a communications facilitator, a mediator responsible for smooth two-way communication. Finally, a PR person can be a problem-solving process facilitator, in case he or she collaborates with other managers in defining and solving problems.

A fact that is often overlooked is the extent to which the role of a PR person in an organization or even his or her personality influences approaches and techniques that are used. Ryan and Martinson (1984) have discovered that PR practitioners responded differently to same ethical situations, which means that subjectivism is the prevailing moral-ethical theory in public relations. Given the absence of specific guidelines about acceptable or unacceptable behaviors, it is of paramount importance for PR professionals to maintain a high level of personal integrity and exercise discretion.

Stakeholder Analysis
A technique that might be the most appropriate for determining whether PR is a force for good or evil is stakeholder analysis. If PR serves the interests of all parties concerned in a reasonable way, then it should be considered a positive and useful phenomenon.

Business Context
Since PR is most frequently mentioned in the corporate context, the analysis will start with looking at whether PR serves the interests of businesses. As PRSA (2007) observes in its official statement on public relations, one of the functions of PR lies in “[a]nticipating, analyzing and interpreting public opinion, attitudes, and issues that might impact, for good or ill, the operations and plans of the organization” (p. 1). There were many cases when public indignation has brought operation of a company to a complete halt. In most cases, there have been legitimate reasons for such indignation, yet some situations have been the result of a mere lack of communication. PR allows business owners and managers to conduct analysis of possible reactions a new policy or development might cause in their community. On the basis of such knowledge, they can alter or even cancel policies which could have had unfavorable consequences for their company.

Another aspect of corporate PR is the relations between businesses and government. Detractors of PR equate it with lobbying and decry the amount of power industries have over decision-making processes. It is true that organizations exert efforts to influence or change public policy (PRSA 2007). However, it is not necessarily a negative phenomenon. Public policy should be propitious to economic growth, and if a government fails to take into account interests and needs of businesses, economic development is hindered, government’s legitimacy is undermined, and businesses have to look for other, more clandestine, ways of influencing government, such as through personal connections. Thus, open and honest communication between businesses and government is a pre-requisite to economic growth and corruption-free society.

Thus, there are many ways in which PR protects business interests and enables companies to function more efficiently, with the support of general public and in favorable legislative environment. Since the development of private enterprise contributes to the general wellbeing of a society, PR should be seen as a positive phenomenon from this perspective.

Moreover, PR enables companies to publicize their social responsibility initiatives. It is perhaps true that the rationale behind corporate social responsibility is, in most cases, profit maximization through enhanced reputation. Yet if companies opt in favor of “doing well by doing good”, it should only be applauded; in the absence of PR, enterprises would have had much weaker incentives to engage in corporate social responsibility.

Yet another aspect of corporate PR is internal branding. It refers to the steps companies take to communicate effectively with their workforces and market the company’s brand to their employees. As Aurand, Gorchels and Bishop (2005) observe, “[e]mployees who are in consensus with an organization's brand are more likely to act consistently in ways supporting how the organization hopes that external constituencies perceive it and its products/services” (p. 163). Effective internal branding contributes to higher employee morale and job satisfaction, since they believe they are part of a worthy and deserving organization producing quality products or delivering good services.

On the other hand, some commentators lament that PR does not serve the aim of reconciling private and public interests anymore. Increased competition among businesses has led to a situation when PR practitioners form a “part of a company’s sales arm and their job is to get impressions and awareness in traditional and online media. There is utility in this role of PR, but it hardly contributes to mutual understanding among groups and institutions” (Horton 2007, p. 3).

Government Context
Another concerned stakeholder in the discussion of the merits of PR is government. While there has always been an understanding that political parties and leaders should be visible in the media, trying to influence public opinion, the idea that all government agencies, big or small, have to communicate with citizens is relatively new. However, for the past two decades, many e-government initiatives have proven to be an overwhelming success, contributing to greater responsiveness and transparency of governmental agencies. Another interesting aspect that is often overlooked is the use of PR methods in public diplomacy: as the Corporate Watch UK (2003) informs, “hiring of PR agencies to promote a country's image abroad is becoming an indispensable part of modern diplomacy” (“International Public Affairs”, para. 1). Public diplomacy efforts contribute to betterment of relations among peoples of the world and lead to enhanced awareness of different cultures.

Yet as Horton (2007) notes, “with transparency comes criticism that [government] agencies are not moving fast enough, are not equitable in how they operate, are not focused on the problems of constituencies” (p. 3). This might have a bearing on the effectiveness of public institutions that suddenly have to care more about their image than the job they are supposed to be doing. As for its international dimension, public diplomacy, there are worries that flooding markets of developing countries with foreign cultural products might be detrimental to local cultures or that cultural imperialism can disguise itself as public diplomacy.

NGOs
Thirdly, not-for-profit organizations have to be considered in this context. In order to get their message across and recruit supporters for their cause, they need to communicate with a variety of audiences and institutions. On the other hand, NGOs are “are fighting to be heard against millions of other web sites and causes” (Horton 2007, p. 3). If the media landscape is full of messages from various not-for-profits organizations, each promoting their cause, a phenomenon called “compassion fatigue” (Moeller 1999) can develop. The term has been first applied to the viewership of news reports and media images of disasters, wars and hunger in distant lands. However, it can be expanded to include possible audiences’ reaction to a landscape that is too saturated with competing PR messages from NGOs. The reaction might be total indifference.

General Public Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the question whether PR serves the needs and interests of the general public has to be looked into. On the one hand, PR informs the public about what is going on in the government, enterprises and NGOs. Yet there are commentators who are rather concerned that PR diverts attention of media consumers from issues of public importance to causes corporations or other institutions are trying to promote. These concerns are in line with the agenda-setting theory that holds that media “may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about” (Cohen 1963, p. 13).

Conclusion
Overall, it is possible to conclude that there are good reasons to believe that PR a practice that advances societal interests, regardless of whether it is used by private enterprises, governments, or not-for-profit organizations. However, there are legitimate concerns, too. Most of these concerns are associated with instances when PR is misused to mislead public opinion or when increased transparency puts excessive pressure on stakeholders (e.g. cognitive pressure in the context of media consumers or pressure on public organizations diverting their effort from other important tasks).

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This is a free research paper on Public Relations topic. Keep in mind that all free research project samples and research paper examples are taken from open sources – they are plagiarized and cannot be used as your own research project. If you need a qualitative custom research project on Public Relations for college, university, Master's or PhD degree – you are welcome to contact professional research writing company to have your paper written online by academic research writers.
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Hiring Research Paper Writers

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Project Management Research Paper

When starting a new project, a manager needs a list of diverse components that should lead him and his team to success. These components include personnel, resources, data, personal leadership characteristics, and many more. Similar situation appears in the given scenario of new product launch. In order to analyze it objectively, I would like to arrange the facts first.

A manufacturing company is about to use the first mover advantage and expand into a new market with a unique offer. The given project is assigned by the Head of Marketing to the top salesman in the company called Bob. His responsibilities include supervising technical steps in production of the product. The first Bob’s mission is to develop the plan for production and present it to the board of directors. After the presentation to the board, one of its members, the Head Operations Officer, requires Bob to report to him, so that he becomes an intermediary between Bob and the executive board in decision making and expense allocation.

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Some points from the case are already striking:
- Why should the salesman supervise the production process?
- Who gave the power to the Head of Marketing to assign people on global missions?
- Is Bob really acquainted with budgeting and scheduling, and even with the product in whole?
- Whose decision is to make the Head Operations Officer the intermediary to the board of directors?

To observe the situation correctly, I will apply the theory of Project Management and its principles, look at the roles and responsibilities of the participants in the given case, and try to make an adequate conclusion.

Team and Relationships
Every project starts with building a team (Chapman, 2001; Anderson, 2010, p.60). For a new product expansion, such a team could be formed of Marketing department and Sales department. One should not also forget the other departments in terms of a company’s value chain - those responsible for manufacturing, logistics, HR, etc. What we see in the scenario is that the Head of Marketing assigns one of the key employees in Sales to continue with project managing. It is an interesting fact that nothing is said about the interaction between Bob and the Marketing team in terms of the product launch. Supposedly, Bob and the Marketing department work on different goals for the same project. Here is an omission in scenario: communication should occur “both within the team as well as with those affected by the team’s output” (Anderson, 2010, p.60). Bob’s output goes directly to the board of directors. But there is no proof that the board or any of its members, even including the Head Operations Officer, is in charge of what Bob is preparing. The board will supposedly receive the final outcome, and even if the changes take place, the time for their implementation may be lost. When launching a new product, a deadline is an extremely important parameter. Negotiation may take too much time and effort, especially when negotiating sides view the project from different perspectives, or at least having no uniform structure of the project plan that is available to both. The project plan, says Pershing (2006, p.945), should be detailed and precise.

In order to be on time, correspond to expectations, and be aware of possible problems and delays, Chapman (2001) suggests checking the aforementioned parameters with other individuals and groups involved. In the case, it is not mentioned that Bob has ever consulted anyone concerning his work. The first communication appears to be only at the end, when the project is presented to the board. Wideman (2000) suggests on the opposite: “A single channel of communication must exist between the project sponsor and the project team leader for all decision affecting the product of the project”. The sponsor of the product appears to be board, while the leader of the project is Bob. Bob should try to speak with the managers or colleagues responsible for the project as soon as possible, because otherwise the gap of communication may become obvious too late (Williams, 2008, p.14).

Besides, no testing of the project has occurred. In this case, if I were Bob, I would take care not only about the image of the project itself but also about own image as a person and a specialist, because the attitude of the board may be crucial for career growth, job promotions or just lead to penalties or even firing. It is obvious that complex and serious projects not only allow but also require teamwork. “Project management is not personal productivity” (Williams, 2008, p.8). The Head of Marketing may not feel the necessity of working in a team with Bob or assigning some of his employees to help Bob, but Bob should not be too ambitious to handle the project on his own. Such egoistic deeds lead to failures of the project, worsening of company’s image as a result.

Area of Responsibility
A valuable comment on defining the responsibilities is obtained from Chapman (2001). Bob is a salesman employee and his goal is production planning for a new product. Are the duties for the new mission similar to his usual duties at the working place? Supposedly, not. Is it a risk for the success of a huge project? Yes, definitely. I may suppose that Bob is not enough qualified to deal with the launch of a new product taking into consideration his position and area of occupation at the working place.

Planning
Bob’s duties for the assigned project include preparing of the budget and the schedule for the product launch. Budget for the project is built by predicting the allocation of available resources when meeting the project requirements (Umbach, 2009). According to Chapman (2001), the best results are achieved when the authors and developers of the project also participate in preparing a plan. According to the given scenario, only Bob is mentioned as the author of the plan. If Bob does not possess enough information from the departments on the launch of a product, estimates, human resource policies, and a list of other more or less important input data, then his plan is not a sound (Greer, 2009). Team work is a must in such type of projects. Another explanation for this is the Success Principle from the work of Wideman (2000), who says: “There have been many projects that have been ‘On time and within budget’ but the product has not been successful”. Proceeding from a principle of a good team management (Anderson, 2010, p.60), I will suggest that the planning of the given project is also poor.

Process 
R. Max Wideman (2000) outlines the so-called Process Principle. The principle itself concerns the skills widely applied in management and serves best in assigning tasks and responsibilities, managing schedules, controlling expenditures and processing the production steps. In our case, Bob is responsible for the process of production and is in charge of budgeting and scheduling. The primary authority for him is the Head of Marketing, though the roles do not seem here to be adequately delegated. If to observe the launch of a new product as a mission for the whole company, then rather the CEO or exactly the executive board should assign the project group. In the case, there is no mentioning of CEO and the board appears only as evaluators of the project results.

Deadlines 
After all, there is no necessity to stress on the importance of an adequate timing for a project. Greer (2009), Chapman (2001), Wideman (2000), Williams (2008, p.2-3) emphasize on the setting the deadlines which allow brainstorming, coming up with the results and forecasts for the project, and finally testing it. One week, the time frame that Bob had, is far not enough for such a huge project. Analysis usually takes up months, so planning in one week appears to be too compressed. Such spontaneous decisions and compact timings will lead only to the failure of the product launch. Besides, even with an adequate timing, one should never forget about the possible ‘milestones’ which postpone the final outcome (Wideman, 2000).

Interest of the Board 
Anyway, there are certain advantages of assigning Bob for the position of a Project Manager for the new product launch. Being a salesman, he may be the right person to promote and sell the project to the board of directors, who are primarily interested in profit accumulation and maximization but not in the details how the business is supposed to work. One of the principles of Project Management is creation of a project that can be sold (Greer, 2009).

Supposedly, Bob was not assigned occasionally for the project. If the company comes up with a new innovative product, this usually means that the market is ready to obtain it, but the competitors still lack resources and capabilities. If the thorough analysis shows that the project is about to fulfill the need of customers, then the project is worth launching (Greer, 2009; Chapman, 2001).

Reporting
In whole, the idea to report to the Head Operations Officer is ineffective. Operations and project management differ from each other in a way the project is observed, so preparing the project and animating the project are completely diverse missions. “Project management is not operations or service management” (Williams, 2008, p.9).

From the other point of view, the delegation of reporting function may imply the idea of filtering the information before it reaches all the members of the board. The Head Operations Officer can be chosen to sort the information according to the direct needs of the directors so that they can easily access it on the certain basis. This implementation can prove its effectiveness from the structural point of view. The choice then will fall to the Head of Operations lot because the company is the manufacturing one, and many issues depend on the technical facilities and the process establishment. Otherwise, there is no sense to complicate the structure of reporting for the project.

As far as I see, there is no uniformity of a team decision. The question arises: Are the other members of the board aware of the proposition that the Head of Operations made to Bob? If they are, is the proposition really made not in public? If they are not, what goals does the Head Operations Officer pursue? His actions can even contradict the company’s policy and undermine his authority as a consequence. If such things have chance to occur, the new product launch can enter the market with a huge scandal. Anyway, it is hard to call the Head of Operations the one who actively participates in the project on a comparative basis: the managerial authority should be established at the very beginning of the project (Greer, 2009) but not at the moment of the product launch.

To start with a conclusion, I would like to mention that each company has its own way of maintaining tasks, setting objectives, allocating resources, and assigning personnel. It is hard to search for obvious disadvantages in the scenario, as well as to outline strengths which identify the new product launch. Many parameters are still not specified: how the working process is arranged, what environment Bob faces, what his commitment is, and what the commitment of his managers use to be.

In order to succeed in this project, Bob should certainly ask for assistance from most of the departments, especially those dealing with marketing and manufacturing, ask for an extension of the deadline, try to make an appointment with the executive board before presenting the readymade project in order to understand the interest of the directors, work closely to the Head of Operations, negotiate about the time frame for analyzing and testing. Before composing the schedule and the budget, Bob should obtain information about the product, sales estimates, marketing research statistics on the prospective area of the product launch, estimates for the costs of production and distribution, data on plant capacity, etc. It could also help him, if he could get some input data from the board like the spending limit for the project or the expectations of directors.

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Research Paper on General Motors

In early 1993 a scandal erupted, which would have far-reaching effects for the parties involved on a scale so grand that it is still reverberating to this day. Jose Ignacio Lopez de Arriortua, a Spanish executive with General Motors, became embroiled in a scandal that left an already struggling Volkswagen with a $100 million fine, as well as other claims against it. The fiasco started in late 1992, early 1993 when Lopez was working for GM. In the 1980’s Lopez, along with GM CEO Jack Smith, were able to revive its European subsidiary Opel. The economic slump and competition from the Japanese forced it to look for any way to lower costs; this is where Lopez came in. Smith’s decision to bring in Lopez, stemmed from the fact that approximately 70% of GM’s expenses were in purchased goods, services and logistics. Smith knew that Lopez had the abilities to minimize costs, so a new era had begun.

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Lopez was able to cut production costs for GM by approximately four billion dollars in the time he was there. This was a significant amount of money, considering that GM was in financial trouble, and the investors were beginning to worry. His approach was simple. Immediately following his promotion, Lopez effectively, tore-up countless contracts with first-tier and second-tier suppliers. Many of them had contracts with GM for many years, totaling millions upon millions of dollars. He immediately proceeded to renegotiate with the suppliers for significant cost reductions from 20-50%. The ruthlessness of Lopez can be seen in his various handling techniques of the suppliers, with whom GM worked for many years. They had become insignificant to him if they were not willing to play ball. Many times the suppliers were GM subsidiaries, which did not faze Lopez in completely renegotiating the contracts. Those wanting to do business with GM were put through numerous bidding rounds for new contracts. When the various bidding rounds were over, Lopez had the winning bidders lower the prices even more, thus saving GM even more money. Many suppliers began to complain that the prices demanded by Lopez were impossible for them to meet, being that the manufacturing costs were high. In response, Lopez proceeded to bring in efficiency experts to the factories of the manufacturers to show them how to streamline the manufacturing process. When that was complete, he managed to secure long-term contracts that guaranteed price reductions on the part of the suppliers. Unfortunately for GM, Lopez had other intentions in mind, which GM was not ready for. (Youngdahl, 1999)

Lopez’s tactics managed to please investors, and GM started to see significant returns and profits. He became the new strong symbol of GM and showed how things are supposed to be done. Eventually, however, it became known that Lopez was negotiating with Volkswagen, Opel’s rival in the European market. This started to worry the management as well as investors, so in order to save the company from regressing back to its old negative habits, Smith quickly promoted Lopez to keep him on board. Although this pleased Lopez, he made an announcement that he will be leaving GM soon afterwards. After a couple of more back and forths, Lopez left a high-ranking post with GM and went to VW. Soon after a few of his associates followed him to the German automaker with more than just their packed-up offices. It had turned out that Lopez and his associates stole company secrets for GM that were vital for its future plans. Lopez took the plans to VW where he implemented them, like a streamlined, efficient factory in Brazil. Not surprisingly, this infuriated GM and a legal battle ensued. High courts in the United States as well as Germany, made ruling after ruling about the thefts, who’s right, who’s wrong and where does Lopez fit in with all of this. Eventually, VW was forced to pay GM one hundred million dollars and promised to buy parts from it totaling approximately one billion dollars. The legacy, however, left by Lopez at GM resonated thorough the company, even to this day. (Burger, 1993)

Lopez’s plan for GM entailed many complex steps in order to attain the profit margins the company was seeking. He established well-qualified, well-trained and articulate purchasing clones in all business units to implement these practices. Each car model at GM was made from materials that were supplied with extensive price reductions. The lowest unit prices were sought after around the globe by him in order to achieve these goals. He also, did extensive research on the suppliers and their competitors before he did any negotiate. These were necessary steps for him, to restructure the buying mechanisms at GM. When the suppliers were established, Lopez created a plan to manage them that would benefit GM. First, he had the purchasing teams and the corporate commodity councils at GM meet the suppliers. He then, had the supplier’s top and middle management involved in the process, as well as having commitments from them that were not usually made. A supplier was then required to provide detailed information on the cost-profit structure of the products that it proposed to sell to GM. Raw material indexes were not accepted as cost information when suppliers proposed price increases, the cost-profit information was required. In ingenious step was made to buddy-up to the lowest and middle echelons of the suppliers in order to obtain cost-profit and competitor information. He also instructed his employees to be prepared to lie and bluff indirectly and under pressure. He then had them “Destabilize each supplier’s people with many urgent meetings and many demands for information…” and “Set new deadlines for suppliers to meet but defer decisions to increase their anxiety” (Hanan, 1998)

Although Lopez was successful in tackling budget problems head-on by bullying and lying to the suppliers, his tactics were far from ethical. It is unlikely that an executive will be able to get away with the actions that made Lopez so famous today. By departing GM, Lopez created a supply vacuum that had to be filled with new ideas. What Lopez started, however, reverberated throughout the company and its supply chain management ideology. His initiatives helped GM streamline the supply process in such a way that it was still used by the company at the time that Rick Wagoner stepped in to take the reins of GM as its new CEO. A new strategy called the OTD was implemented within the network of the company and stretched throughout the globe. Following on some of Lopez’s principles, it proved successful in cutting costs for the company, at a time when it was again struggling to with rising pension, health care and other burdening costs. This time, the operation was more about the customer than anything else. It was a way to look at a situation from a different angle. As opposed to looking at it as saving money for the company, the program sought to lower costs for the customer in order to attract him to GM’s new models. (Nichols, 2002)

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This is a free research paper on General Motors topic. Keep in mind that all free research project samples and research paper examples are taken from open sources – they are plagiarized and cannot be used as your own research project. If you need a qualitative custom research project on General Motors for college, university, Master's or PhD degree – you are welcome to contact professional research writing company to have your paper written online by academic research writers.
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