British decolonization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

British decolonization - Essay Example The cartoon is striking in that it reduces the geopolitical tension of the Cuban Missile Crisis, where the United States and Soviet Union reached the brink of nuclear war over the stationing of Russian missiles in Cuba, to a bar game or crude, male ego-driven sport. From the Soviet perspective, the Americans had previously stationed nuclear missiles positioned at Russia from similar strategic locations in Europe and Asia. The two countries, in less than 20 years, had built nuclear arsenals hundreds of thousands of times greater than the weapons used to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki. By many scientific estimates, the two countries possessed sufficient nuclear weapon power to destroy the entire earth many times over. Few were completely certain of the effects of nuclear war on a mass scale, but both sides had built the largest, most powerful war machines the world had ever seen, and Khrushchev and Kennedy pursued a policy of brinksmanship to bring the entire global civilization to the th reat of destruction through their two nuclear arsenals. That the two political leaders are reduced to the caricature of a bar-room arm wrestling match represents the anxiety felt by the general populace who were restrained from truly participating in the decision making of the match, but were rather forced into the role of spectators to watch how events unfolded in mass-media and television. The public could only wonder if two human beings, with human emotions and weaknesses, could be trusted to manage the behavior of nations and armies with such a great destructive firepower. The policy of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) was based in the brinksmanship of the political rulers in the cartoon, highlighting the tension of the day in a manner that also illuminates the risk of the human emotions in a centralized leadership command structure. This activity was also depicted in Stanley Kubrick’s classic movie Dr. Strangelove. The brinksmanship ended with the Soviets withdrawing t he nuclear missiles from Cuba in the end to a standoff that had captivated the world as the first and possibly most serious escalation of conflict between superpowers in the Cold War. This cartoon is useful to understand the public opinion of the times, but could be further verified through relations to other news media such as editorials and journalism of the events. Historians Craft Assignment Question 2 Source 2 of 2: An Excerpt from a Political Diary Sunday, November 26, 1967 So this is the end of the second devaluation week and we’re still completely without any central control or decision-taking in this Labour Government. And the chances of getting this as a result of the devaluation are very small indeed. .... the lower the Government plummets the stronger my position grows in my own little corner. Suppose the impossible happened and as a result of the crisis Jim [Callaghan] replaced Harold [Wilson]. That’s not inconceivable when you remember Macmillan replacing Eden after Suez. But it’s something I wouldn’t tolerate because I know the qualities of Mr Callaghan. He’s not an adventurous bold forward-looking Macmillan who could rejuvenate the Party. Right inside he’s a coward with a wonderful outside image and a very likeable personality. ... however, I don’t see the remotest chance of Harold going. It’

The rule in Salomon v Salomon & Co [1897] AC 22 has been described as Assignment - 1

The rule in Salomon v Salomon & Co [1897] AC 22 has been described as one of the corner stones of English Company Law. Discuss the rationale and impact of the decision on company law - Assignment Example Furthermore, through the extension of the advantages of incorporation to small companies, this case of Salomon manages to promote fraud, and the evasion of certain legal obligations. This article explains the impact that Salomon vs. Salomon has had on companies and corporations. On a general perspective, the judgment by the House of Lords was a good decision. This case is recognized all over the world as a good authority, regarding the principle of a corporation being a separate legal entity. Under this case, the House of Lords firmly established that after incorporation, a new and a separate artificial organization comes into existence. Under the law, a company is a distinct person, and it has its own personality, which is separate and independent from the people who created it, invested in it, and those who direct and manage the operations of the company2. From the principles established in this case, the duties and rights of a corporation are different from the duties and rights of the directors, members, or the stakeholders of the corporation. These people are always obscured by the concept of the corporate veil, which normally surrounds the company. A corporate veil refers to a legal concept which is responsible for separating the personality of that of a corporation, from the personality of the shareholders of a corporation. Furthermore, this personality protects the managers and shareholders of a corporation from personal liability of the company’s debts, and any other obligation that the company may face3. However, this protection is not impenetrable or iron clad, and this is mainly because the court can rule that the activities of a company are not conducted as per the provisions of the legislation that guides the operations of a company, or the managers or shareholders of a company were engaged in carrying out illegal a ctivities. Based on these facts, the courts may hold the

The Sony Strategy Failure Management Essay

The Sony Strategy Failure Management Essay Sony is the combination of two word sonus and sonny. The both words sonus and sonny is a latin word. The literal meaning of sonus is sound and, sonic and sonny is little son. Easy to pronounce and read in any language, the name Sony, which has a lively ring to it, fits comfortably with the spirit of freedom and open-mindedness. Since, Sony is the combination of two word sonus and sonny, represents a very small group of young people who have the energy and passion towards unlimited creations and innovative ideas. Sony foundation was started in 1946 when Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita worked together with a small team of obsessive and committed group of employees build Tokyo Tsushin Kenkyujo (Totsuko), or Tokyo Telecommunications Research Institute (billion dollar global conglomerate). In 1958 the company was formally adopted Sony Corporation as its corporate name. The main objective of the company is to design and create innovative products which would benefit the people. Sony a marketplace creator and leader After the World War II, Sony became popular after applying applied transistor technology, which was invented by  Texas Instruments  (TI). The co-founder of the Sony, Akio Morita was always kept looking for technological advancement and for that the company leadership spent countless hours in innovatively thinking about how to apply these advances to improve lives.   With such a passion for creating new markets, Sony was an early creator, and dominator, of what we now call consumer electronics because of the following reasons as given below: Sony improved solid state transistor radios by making good quality sound and also inexpensive to. Sony developed the solid state television by replacing tubes to make TVs more reliable, better working and use less energy. Sony developed the Triniton television tube, which dramatically improved the quality of color (yes Virginia, once TV was all in black white) and enticed an entire generation to switch.   Sony also expanded the size of Trinitron to make larger sets that better fit larger homes. Sony was an early developer of videotape technology, pioneering the market with Betamax before losing a battle with JVC to be the standard (yes Virginia, we once watched movies on tape). Sony pioneered the development of camcorders, for the first time turning parents and everyone into home movie creators. Sony pioneered the development of independent mobile entertainment by creating the walkman, which allowed for the first time people to take their own recorded music with them, via cassette tapes. Sony pioneered the development of compact discs for music, and developed the walkman CD for portable use. Sony gave us the play station, which went far beyond  Nintendo  in creating the products that excited users and made home gaming a market. Very few companies could ever boast a string of such successful products.   A report said that in Sony executives spent 85% of their time on technology, products and new applications/markets, 10% on human resource issues and 5% on finance.   Mr. Morita said that financial results were just those results of doing a good job developing new products and markets.   The origin and impact of Japan Inc on Sony By the middle 1980s, America was panicked over the absolute domination of companies like Sony in product manufacturing.   Not only consumer electronics, but also in automobiles, motorcycles, kitchen electronics, steel and a growing number of markets.   Politicians referred to Japanese competitors, like the wildly successful Sony, as Japan Inc. and discussed how the powerful Japanese Ministry of Trade and Industry (MITI) effectively shuttled resources around to beat American manufacturers.   Even as rising petroleum costs seemed to cripple U.S. companies, Japanese manufacturers were able to turn innovations (often American) into very successful low-cost products growing sales and profits. What went wrong for Sony? In 1950 W. Edward Deming had convinced Japanese leaders to focus, focus on making things better as well as faster and cheaper.   Taking advantage of Japanese post war dependence on foreign capital, and foreign markets, this U.S. citizen directed Japanese industry into an obsession with industrialization as practiced in the 1940s and was credited for creating the rapid massive military equipment build-up that allowed the U.S. to defeat Japan. Unfortunately, this narrow obsession was left Japanese business leaders, by and large, with little skill set for developing and implementing RD, or innovation, in any other area.   As time passed,  Sony felt victim to developing products for manufacturing, rather than pioneering new markets. Sony had ended up in a cost/price/manufacturing war with  Dell, HP, Lenovo and others to make cheaper PCs rather than the exciting products.   Sonys evolved a distinctly industrial strategy, focused on manufacturing and volume, rather than trying to develop uniquely new products that were head-and-shoulders better than competitors. In mobile phones Sony hooked up with, and eventually acquired,  Ericsson.   Again,  no new technology or effort to make a wildly superior mobile device  (like Apple did.)   Instead Sony sought to build volume in order to manufacture more phones and compete on price/features/functions against Nokia, Motorola and Samsung.   Lacking any product or technology advantage, Samsung clobbered Sonys Industrial strategy with lower cost via non-Japanese manufacturing. When Sony updated its competition in home movies by introducing Blu-Ray, the strategy was again an industrial one about how to sell Blu-Ray recorders and players.   Sony didnt sell the Blu-Ray software technology in hopes people would use it.   Instead it kept Blu-Ray proprietary so only Sony could make and sell Blu-Ray products (hardware).   Just as it did in MP3, creating a proprietary version usable only on Sony devices.   In an information economy, this approach didnt fly with consumers, and Blue Ray was a money loser largely irrelevant to the market as was the now-gone Sony MP3 product line. In the case of televisions, Sony was lost the technological advantage it had with Trinitron cathode ray tubes.   In flat screens Sony has applied a predictable, but money losing industrial strategy trying to compete on volume and cost.   Up against competitors sourcing from lower cost labor, and capital, Sony was lost over $10 billion over the last 8 years in televisions.  Sony  hasnt made a profit in 4 consecutive  years, just recently announced it will double its expected  loss  for this year(2012) to$6.4 billion, has only 15% of its capital left as and was  only worth 1/4 of its value 10 years ago. Sonys Leadership was a keen conspirator to the failed strategy Akio Morita was an innovator and new market creator of Sony.   But, Mr. Morita lived through WWII, and developed his business approach before Deming.   Under Mr. Morita, Sony was used the industrial knowledge Deming and his American peers offered to make Sonys products highly competitive against older technologies.   The products led, with industrial-era  tactics  used to lower cost. But after Mr. Morita Sonys other leaders were trained, like American-minted MBAs, to implement industrial strategies.   Their minds put products and new markets, second.   First was a commitment to volume and production regardless of the products or the technology.   The fundamental belief was that if Sony had enough volume, and cut costs low enough, Sony would eventually succeed without any innovation. By 2005 Sony reached the pinnacle of this strategic approach by installing a non-Japanese to run the company.   Sir Howard Stringer made his fame running Sonys American business, where he exemplified industrial strategy by cutting 9,000 of 30,000 U.S. jobs (almost one third.).Mr. Stringer, strategy was not about innovation, technology, products or new markets. Sonys industrial strategy was cost-cut first, products are less meaningful Mr. Stringers industrial strategy was to be obsessive about costs. Where, Mr. Moritas meetings were 85% about innovation and market application. Mr. Stringer brought a modern MBA approach to the Sony business, where numbers especially financial projections came first.   The leadership, and management, at Sony became a model of MBA training post-1960.   Focus on a narrow product set to increase volume, avoid costly development of new technologies in favor of seeking high-volume manufacturing of someone elses technology, reduce product introductions in order to extend product life, tooling amortization and run lengths, and constantly look for new ways to cut costs.   Be zealous about cost cutting, and reward it in meetings and with bonuses. Thus, during his brief tenure in Sony Mr. Stringer will not be known for new products.   Rather, he will be remembered for initiating two waves of layoffs in what was historically a lifetime employment company (and country.)   And now, in a nod to Chairman Stringer the new CEO at Sony has indicated he will  react to ongoing losses by another round of layoffs.   This time estimated to be another 10,000 workers, or 6% of employees.   The new CEO, Mr. Hirai, trained at the hand of Mr. Stringer, demonstrates as he announces ever greater losses that Sony hopes to somehow save its way to prosperity with an Industrial strategy. Since Japanese equity laws are very different that the USA.   Companies often have much higher debt levels.   And companies can even operate with negative equity values which would be technical bankruptcy almost everywhere else.   So it is not likely Sony will fill bankruptcy any time soon, if ever. After 4 years of losses, and entrenched Industrial strategy with MBA-style leadership focused on numbers rather than markets, there was no reason to think the trajectory of sales or profits will change any time soon. As an employee, facing ongoing layoffs why would you wish to work at Sony?   A me too product strategy with little technical innovation that puts all attention on cost reduction would not be a fun place and offers little promotional growth. And for suppliers, it was assured that each and every meeting will be about how to lower price over, and over, and over. Sony was once a company to watch. It was an innovative leader, which pioneered new markets.   Not unlike Apple today.   But with its Industrial strategy and MBA numbers- focused leadership it is now time to say, sayonara.   Sell Sony, there are more interesting companies to watch and more profitable places to invest. Questions: Highlights Sonys industrial strategy? What was the reason for the failure of Blu Ray strategy? What was the threat for employee as well as the supplier? Examine the opinion of both Morita and Stringer?

Political Reform in the Schools of Latvia :: Religion in Education Soviet Union Essays

Political Reform in the Schools of Latvia Cataclysmic events sometimes spur educators to reconsider the role of schools in preparing children for citizenship. In the United States, the Great Depression of the 1930's prompted educators to address the appropriate place of the schools in developing citizens for an industrial democracy. In the tiny Baltic nation of Latvia, the sudden breakup of the Soviet Union caused educators to consider the same questions. A remarkable chain of events at the turn of the last decade raised the Iron Curtain and paved the way for a revival of liberal democracy throughout Eastern Europe after fifty years of dictatorial Soviet communism. In 1992, Latvia followed many of its neighbors in declaring its independence. It then turned to the creation of a new government and developing citizens to ensure its continuation. Religion was to play a prominent role. The Church had traditionally been a significant factor in Latvian political and social life, but the early 1990's saw a new religious force in Eastern Europe. Western missionary organizations were searching for footholds from which to evangelize the newly independent nations of Eastern Europe. Two conflicting goals of this evangelism rapidly surfaced. On the one hand, the Church certainly intended to gain converts to Christianity, but it had a political mission as well. Missionaries and their host governments envisioned Christianity as a vehicle to reinstitute a public morality lost under decades of communist rule. In the minds of many, Christian virtue spread throughout the populace would form a necessary foundation for the growth of liberal democracy. Both the Church and the State targeted the schools as the delivery system for moral instruction. However, this use of the schools put them in the untenable position of serving two masters-the Church and the state, two institut ions whose ideologies and goals are ever at odds. Marxist and Christian Worldviews and Education In "ten days that shook the world" in 1917, Lenin's Bolsheviks co-opted the Russian Revolution and ushered into existence a Marxist government. Fundamental to the implementation of communism in Lenin's view was control of the schools. He declared that "The school must become a weapon of the dictatorship of the proletariat" (in Counts, 1957). Under Lenin's successor, Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union expanded its influence into Eastern Europe. In 1945, the Soviets annexed Latvia and restructured the schools in accordance with Stalin's view that education is ".

Criminal Justice Careers Essay

Abstract This paper reflects about criminal justice careers that will help me get knowledge and get a better idea about the career that I choose. Components of criminal justice: law enforcement, courts, and corrections. A brief description about the career, the requirements, and the hiring criteria the career has. Tell why the position interest me, how does it relate to the career path that I want, and finally what I’m looking for in gaining from the career. Keywords: Crime Scene Investigation (CSI), Parole Agent, and a Court Clerk. Law enforcement: CSI One component of the Criminal Justice career is law enforcement. There are many different kinds of jobs in law enforcement, but the career that got most of my attention was CSI. CSI stands for Crime Scene Investigation. The CSI job is to analyze crimes further. They get to take pictures of the crime scene; they collect evidence that will help them solve what happened on the crime. There job is to solve who committed the crime. The requirements to become a crime scene investigator are; 1. Have a H.S diploma (college degree preferred by some agencies) 2. Valid driver’s license 3. Successful completion of background investigation 4. Law enforcement experience possibly required for position of crime scene investigator (other agencies hire civilian crime scene investigators). (Goodman, & Grimming, 2007) As I was saying before some agencies require that first you have to be a police officer to become a Crime Scene Investigator. When you are a new recruit you must successfully complete a hurdle process, meaning that you have to take different kinds of tests and background checks. For example the agencies will check your criminal record, investigate your background, driving record and credit history. There are also written examinations which show the reading skills and the understandings that you have. This will help the police agency predict and tell who will do well in the police academy. (Peak, 2006) The hiring criteria that exist for this position are that you take a physical agility test, personal interview, character investigation, medical examination and drug screening. The physical agility test is important because you have to be healthy and most importantly you have to be in shape. The reason why the police academy does this is because when you are a police officer you never know what is going to happen. You are going to face a lot of different situations and you are going to have to be able to handle them. First you have to get out of the problem, meaning that you have to run, climb etc. Second resolving the problem, sometimes you are going to struggle with the offender so you probably need to fight. Lastly, you need to remove the problem meaning that it often requires that the officer can carry heavy weights. (Peak, 2006) The personal interview evaluates how the new recruit explains how they will behave in a certain situation and what will they do to solve it. The character investigation involves talking to the applicants past and current friends, teachers, and neighbor just to investigate how they are. Polygraph examination tells whether the applicant is honest. Since the job is stressful the applicant needs to be healthy so they have to make a medical examination and a drug screening. The academy training shapes the officers attitudes. (Peak, 2006) I find this position interesting because as a child, I always wanted to do something related to criminal justice. I didn’t really know what specifically I wanted to do, but I had an idea. Everything started when I was a senior in H.S I was taking a forensic science class and that really got my attention. It was really exciting class, we got to do a lot of projects and we actually dissected a frog and a baby pig. That’s when I started to think about being in the CSI. I love to solve mysteries, I like investigating things. The skills that I have are that I like sketching. For example back when I was in H.S when we used to do crime labs I loved to draw what I saw. The reason why is because that helps me go back and analyze what happened. I  also like investigating: I like to think beyond the things that actually happened. This will really help me in becoming a crime scene investigator because you have to record everything you see and you have to collect evidence. You have to think beyond what you see because you have to try to find the person that did it. The entry level salary range of $30,000- $40,000 depending on the agency. To be honest I don’t really look at it for the money, this is something that I want to do, it what I like. (Goodman, & Grimming, 2007) Corrections: Parole Agent Another component of the Criminal Justice system is corrections. One of the jobs that the correction has is a parole agent. The goal for a parole agent is to protect the public. The responsibility for a parole agent is to assist ex- offenders so that they can adjust to life in a save and free community. They are also responsible to prevent future criminal acts. They help the people become a better person so that they can have a productive and normal live. Parole agents supervise the offenders who had been released from prison. (Careers in criminal, 2006) What the parole agent has to do is that they need to investigate the offender. For example the parole agent investigates the offender’s background so that they can gather information and write reports for the parole board hearings. Parole agents are able to issue arrest, hold, and release orders. They can photograph offender, crime victims or evidence. Parole agents also can perform alcohol and drug testing by observing, collecting and taking urine samples and testifying in courts. (Careers in criminal, 2006) The working conditions for a parole agent are that it requires traveling. They have to provide their own transportation and have to be on 24 hour call. The situation may vary; sometimes the parole agent may be assigned to high crime areas. By being a parole agent you are risking your life because you never know how the people are. They risk violence, vicious animals, visiting unpleasant living conditions. (Careers in criminal, 2006) The qualifications and the job training that you need to be a parole agent are 1. Bachelor’s or associates degree from accredited educational institution 2. Must be able to carry a firearm 3. Valid state driver’s license 4. One or more year experience in criminal justice, correction, law enforcement, social service, or a related field 5. Parole agents may have to acquire and maintain certification in unarmed self- defense, firearms, and pepper spay 6.Background check, drug screening, and or polygraph examination may be required. (Careers in criminal, 2006) I find this position interesting because I like helping people. I think that everybody deserves a second change. People have to learn from there own mistakes so that they will not commit it again. Everybody can be successful in life the only thing is that we have to try. To be honest when I help someone I feel happy because I know I did the right thing. Sometimes you can’t do everything alone so you need a little push. I want to serve the community I want to help people to make the right decision and so that they can become better person. By doing this not only I ‘am helping a person, but I’m also helping the community become a safer place. Court: Court Clerk Court is another component of the criminal justice system. One of the jobs in the court is a court clerk. The court clerk maintains the case records, and prepares statistical reports (secure information for judges). Court clerks are responsible to contact witness, attorneys, and litigants to obtain information for the courts. There are many things that a court clerk has to do. A court clerk may prepare agendas for town or city councils; answer correspondence; keep fiscal records and accounts; record data; collect fees; file documents; retrieve and deliver files and documents to court or appropriate parties and much more. Court clerks are very important because they are responsible for handling the majority of the courts administrative activities. (Careers in criminal, 2006) The qualifications to becoming a court clerk are 1. High school diploma  or GED 2. One or more years of increasingly responsible experience in court administration or other legal field 3. Associate’s or bachelor’s degree in court administration, criminal justice, public administration, or a related field 4. Valid state driver’s license. In order to become a court clerk you are required to have a background check, fingerprinting, and physical examination. You are also required to reside in the jurisdiction of employment. (Careers in criminal, 2006) I find this position interesting because in this career you learn how to be more responsible and organized. This position is very hard because you can’t make mistakes. Everything depends on you. As I always say not everything is easy in life you have to struggle to get what you want. This can relate to my career path because in a court clerk you are also responsible in contacting witness, and attorneys which means that it’s involving a crime or other situations. I’ am never going to give up; I’m always going to give it my all. I know that there are going to be obstacles in life that not everything is going to be easy, but I have to overcome them. Nothing in this life is easy we have to work and struggle to get what we want. Nothing is going to be given to our hands. The best way to ensure my success and become who I want to be is to always keep going no matter what until I reach my goal. Reference: Goodman, D.J, & Grimming, R. (2007). Work in criminal justice an a-z guide to careers. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. Peak, K.J. (2006). Policing america challenges and best practices . Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. Careers in criminal justice. (2006). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Project Management: Project Failures Sydney Opera House

PROJECT MANAGEMENT: PROJECT FAILURES Sydney Opera House CONTENTS Introductionp. 3 Historyp. 3 – 4 Stakeholdersp. 4 – 7 Stakeholder classificationp. 5 Stakeholder Power/Interest Gridp. 7 Causes for project failurep. 8-10 Lack of risk managementp. 9 Unrealistic timescale and Cost escalationp. 10 Recommendationsp. 10 – 14 Risk Managementp. 11 Forecastingp. 11 – 12Stakeholder Engagementp. 12 – 14 Conclusionp. 14 Referencesp. 15 – 16 Introduction For this assignment the project chosen to critically analyse its failure is the Sydney Opera House. Critically analysing its failure and its consequences and identifying bad project management procedures made me look into this project intensively and evaluate it as a project failure with a â€Å"happy end†.This assignment will be divided in three main parts which are History where it will be explained what the Sydney Opera house is and what was the purpose of the project, a Stakeholders section whe re the key stakeholders will be identified and discussed, a Project Failure section identifying what bad management procedures were taken and for last there will be a Recommendations section recommending new procedures to avoid an over budget and over timed project, which this is part of.For the architect – Jorg Utzon – it is his â€Å"masterpiece†, to Australia as a country it is their representative monument as World Heritage (Design5 final report 2010). Although project manager and client are now â€Å"happy† with the final product it can still be considered as a project failure due to a huge overrun budget and over timed project with consequences that are still being repaired, almost 40 years later. History In 2003 Utzon is awarded with the Pritzker, the architecture’s â€Å"Nobel†.It was said of Sydney Opera House (from now on in this assignment also known as ‘SOH’) that it is one of the great iconic buildings of the twenti eth century (Murray, P. 2004). It all started in 1957 when Utzon were chosen to be the architect for this project. Everything was going according with the project but two years after the new elected government (not the one that agreed with Utzon’s project) was getting impatient.More and more companies were being put into the project (in the final more than 165 companies, suppliers included, contributed to this project) and the costs were being added and the new government was pressing Utzon as much as the media trying to cut in costs and speed up the project*. They also decided to change the previous project after its construction as started and now instead of 2 theatre rooms they wanted 4*.Utzon was losing control of the situation and had an undesirable pressure under him. The initial cost was (Aus) 7 million dollars and in the end it has cost (Aus) 102 million dollars and a total of 14 years to be constructed, 6 more than it should be*. The Arup, engineers contracted for th e engineering part stayed until the end of the project but Utzon left in the end , after designing the roof but not concluding.It was hard to keep two of the key stakeholders happy, the minister David Hughes and the SOHEC – Sydney Opera House Executive Committee so he decided to quit blaming the first of lack of cooperation but in fact even the acoustic consultants did not agree between each other (Murray, 2004 :66) and as a result of all these changes of plans and misunderstandings the Sydney Opera House – finished by three local architects – still did not had the proper acoustic, which was the first main factor that lead to a new opera house*.Nowadays the Sydney Opera House is already seen as profitable since its cost was already covered by the revenue made from customers (tourists mainly) but further improvements on accessing conditions were taken. Stakeholders Before going back to the subject it is needed to take into account that a failed project is a proje ct that is cancelled before completion, never implemented, or damaged in some way. Other reasons that why projects fail are an absence of commitment, a bad project organisation and planning, a bad time management, lack of managerial control, extra costs among other problems.Among all these reasons the Stakeholders play a big part in the projects that they are involved and sometimes a project can go wrong depending on decisions taken by these groups. To start this stage of the assignment it is essential to identify the stakeholders – all the users that directly or indirectly affect positively or negatively – the project. (Polychronakis, 2011) The analysis will be assisted from the article â€Å"Toward a theory of a stakeholder identification and salience: Defining the principle of whom and what really counts†, determining which of the stakeholders hold which of its three attributes, one can identify stakeholders.Then Stakeholders can be analysed by its salience. Explaining briefly the three attributes power enables to act despite resistance of others, legitimacy is being seen as acting appropriately within context norms and urgency relates to time sensitivity and importance of the stakeholder (Mitchell 1997). Stakeholder Classification| | Power| Legitimate| Urgent| Type| Stakeholder Classification| | Power| Legitimate| Urgent| Type| | | | | | | NSW Government|   | x| x| x| Definitive| Public Works, David Hughes|   | x|   | x| Dangerous| Utzon|   | x|   | x| Dangerous| Arup|   | x| x|   | Dominant|SOHEC|   | x| x|   | Dominant| Design Team|   |   | x| x| Dependent| Engineer Team|   |   | x| x| Dependent| Consultants |   |   | x| x| Dependent| Suppliers |   |   | x| x| Dependent| Contractor|   |   | x| x| Dependent| Hall, Todd, Littlemore (Three architects hired)|   |   | x| x| Dependent| Construction Workers|   |   | x| x| Dependent| Public/Customers|   |   | x|   | Discretionary| Media|   | x| x  | x| Dangerous| There are 14 main stakeholders: NSW Government – Can be considered the client so its type is definitive, has the power to over ask and the project manager has to show urgency on keeping him happy.David Hughes – Having the role of Public Works minister for the new NSW government he has dealt directly with the project having the power to influence it and as a client’s representative has the same urgency status. Is considered Dangerous because although is not definitive (could be replaced for example) he affects directly the project as client representative (pressuring Utzon till he resigned) Utzon – Being the project manager and architect he presented the project and designed it so he has power on the project itself and on the staff.He has an urgent characteristic because he continuously needs to keep on track of the project’s milestones and delivery dates. Arup – as the engineers company they have some power on the project but no urgency at all since they work when it is told to but is legitimated to act within the norms but couldn’t deliberately change anything and was socially accepted. Is dominant because has a key role in the project. SOHEC – Although it has the power to demand certain characteristics and has legitimacy in the project it doesn’t have big urgency since it isn’t a client but a client’s influencer.Good to keep informed. Working staff (remaining stakeholders) – They don’t have great power but they are dependent on milestones so also they have the urgency to meet expectations. They also have their legitimateness since they depend on each other and need to coordinate their designed areas. Hall, Todd and Littlemore, the three architects that replaced Utzon don’t have any power since everything was planned and they only needed to re-design the roof in a way that could match the foundations.Public/Customers – Since the y are â€Å"watching† delays and over costs being paid from their taxes they are on the legitimate attribute because they are on the â€Å"socially accepted and expected behaviours† side (Mitchell 1997). Media – Has the indirect power of showing a project as a project success or failure. Meets the parameters of the legitimate attribute expecting behaviours and has the urgency of being time sensitive (generating news with the project delay). The main stakeholder was the architect, but Utzon was much more concerned with the design aspect rather than time and  costs objectives, which proved problematic.During the project, Utzon collaborated with Ove Arup, who was in charge of the structure and the engineering while subcontractors were in charge of mechanics, electrics, heating and ventilating, lighting and acoustics. There was no real project manager, but rather collaboration between Utzon and Arup. The other main stakeholder was the client, the state of New Sout h Wales (Australian government). A executive committee was created to provide project supervision but the members had no real technical skills.The government eventually became an obstacle to the project team by inhibiting changes during the progress of the operations  and thus contributed to cost overrun and delays. Finally, the public and media was an indirect stakeholder because they were concerned with the project’s success. Defining INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS. External stakeholders The external stakeholders can be considered as anyone outside the implementing organisations who could be affected by the project’s results.Internal Stakeholders Internal stakeholders are those associated with the process, typically members of the project team or the governance structure. After describing what internal and external stakeholders are, it can be specified what stakeholders need more attention, or in other words, need to be ‘more’ satisfied. It is know n that it’s impossible to keep all the stakeholders happy at the same time so the following picture will show that it was essential to keep NSW government and Mr.David Hughes happy (a reminder to say that the relationship between Utzon and David Hughes wasn’t good). The relationship with Arup should be stronger in order to have a better performance linking ‘departments’. As a result (of not doing it) the roof couldn’t match the foundations created by Arup (the roof was too heavy for the foundation’s material) and the amount of resources would not be so many times recalculated, it would have minimized the time spent and the money wasted. The relation with the media should also be managed better.The relationship between stakeholders was too ‘transparent’ and what was meant to be a huge partner advertising the project ended up pulling down the project in terms of future customer’s point of view (customers would be driven by t he media and associate the Sydney Opera House negatively). Also the relationship with the SOHEC could be better driven since it was the major beneficiated within the project. They did not pay for it (the government did) and they were represented by the ones that would use it the most but what was hope was turned into despair.   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | | POWER|   | Keep| Satisfied|   | Manage| Closely|   |   |   | | | SOHEC|   |   |   | NSW Government |   |   |   | | | Arup|   |   |   | David Hughes |   |   |   | | | Media|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | | |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | | |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | | |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | | |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | | |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | | |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | | |   | Monitor| Only|   |   | Keep| Informed|   |   | | |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | | | Design Team|   |   | Consultants|   |   |   | | Engineer Team|   |   | Suppliers |   |   |   | | |   |   |   |   | Contractor|   |   |   | | |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | | |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | | |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | |   | INTEREST|   | | | |   | Causes for project failure A project is a set of people and other resources temporarily assembled to reach a specified objective, normally with a fixed budget and with a fixed time period. Projects are generally associated with products or procedures that are being done for the first time or with known procedures that are being altered (Graham 1985).Sidney Opera house was meant to be the perfect construction that allied Utzon ’s genius and Arup’s structural expertise (Murray, P. 2004) but it is necessary to accept the fact that neither of them were a project manager, that just in the 70’s started to be another person rather than being an engineer or an architect (the project manager), so Utzon’s management skills were based on experience and knowledge in his sector rather than in project management itself (lack of planning and management skills), which changes perspectives.While Utzon had a masterpiece perspective, Arup had a task perspective. If they were project managers they would be more oriented to fulfil the stakeholder’s perspectives and the â€Å"business by project† perspective where they would focus on project investments and bene? ts, which include project results, project success, strategy, pro? t and bene? ts† (Bjorn Johs. Kolltvei, 2005). Another main point is the fact of the allowance for the project changes at any time. The Sydney Opera hous e was supposed to have 2 rooms but ended up having 4 rooms.So it can show some discrepancy between what was wanted (before and after the new government) and what was delivered. In this project particularly the Government has changed so it is hard to say that is someone’s fault but in fact it had an impact, always asking for changes and putting pressure in Utzon. This shows that the agreements between Utzon and the previous Australian Government did not have strong levels of engament with the internal stakeholders (government, Minister, SOHEC).According to the OGC – the UK Office of Government Commerce, it is essential to have â€Å"clear organisational boundaries† and â€Å"clear governance arrangements to ensure sustainability† and it did not happened in this project, where the pressure was horrendous on Utzon to be used as the responsible for this huge cost and time overrun (and he has his fault because of the massive fail when designing a roof not sust ained by its foundations and lack of cooperation with the Arup resulting on a bad choice of the materials for the roof) but Utzon can’t be blamed by the recurrent changes asked on the entrances (still eing re-arranged) and the halls, which had really poor acoustic quality. The Sydney Opera House was meant to be â€Å"one of the six best opera houses in the world†¦with a fine concert hall with perfect acoustics â€Å"(Murray, P. 2004) But at the same time Peter Murray also states that â€Å"(opera) however, was a minor interest. There were some local groups and the occasional tour from an Italian company but it was it†.This shows that a major stakeholder – the public – was not taken into consideration since the attraction was more international than national, but even there it failed(need to bear in mind that nowadays SOH is more profitable with huge concerts and museum and attraction because it was re-oriented for more than Opera concerts) . The (n ew concept) of the halls were against the musical competition rules (being put side by side) and the acoustic were really poor, so even thou the objectives were delivered they didn’t think properly about its benefits.Nowadays the Sydney Opera House had its changes especially in the access areas, parking and acoustics and now is used for the purpose of concerts and as a museum (tourist attraction). Lack of skills and proven approach to Project management and risk management As it is said, Project management was only developed in the 70’s and 80’s so the experience took place over the project management ‘science’ (not really developed during the 50’s) so it definitely lacked during the process. Error Margins completely wrong, years and millions more were used and that is the biggest signal of a Project that has failed, when its error margins do not apply.Fortunately the SOH was â€Å"re-used† in order to have â€Å"Return on Investmentà ¢â‚¬  but not delivering a project oriented to its benefits is definitely a signal of project failure. The pace of the project did not meet expectations, but those 14 years could have been less. Again the roof was the biggest problem. This has to be related with the lack of processes in place to ensure that all parties have a â€Å"clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities, and a shared understanding of desired outcomes, key terms and deadlines†( Office of Government Commerce, CP0015/01/05).Furthermore the integration of such a big supply chain and still Utzon couldn’t estimate the right amount of the right material for its foundations and roof (10%, 20% more resources on the overall budget is what it should be as part of the total budget and those 20% ‘extra’ would be used for any emergency) shows no scope and interaction with other participants (stakeholders). The entire novel cited before shows lack of understanding. Utzon designed a roof that couldn’t match with Arup’s foundations. Too many â€Å"tiers†, which goes against the prioritisation that is essential in a supply chain.So it crossed over three main causes for a project failure: Cost escalation, time escalation (error margins) and disturbance of the core processes (politics). Unrealistic timescale and Cost escalation? In the case of the Sydney Opera House incomplete plans, drawings and a lack of information about the material and the structure of its now-famous roof all added dramatically to the cost. The estimators (consultants, accountants, auditors) didn't make those errors; other members of the project team did (Utzon, Arup).When the construction started there was no clear  concept of how the roof might be constructed. It’s not that the estimates were wrong; it’s that there was nothing to base the estimates on in the first place. Much of the delay and cost overrun was caused by iteration on roof design and lack of Dat a, eventually landing on a solution that constructed the roof out of interlocking tiles, but this solution was only discovered after a lot of time and effort. PM effort is coordinated to reach a particular goal or perform some speci? c function. The ? eld demonstrates‘‘. . . means-end paradigm with a strong emphasis on discipline, goal seeking and end-item accomplishment’’ (Pollack, J. 2006) – this is why Utzon was a great architect and a bad project manager, because in this particular project he missed all these premises. Because of the time (the 50’s) some major knowledge can’t be used because it is unknown but it can be identified as lack of agile project management, a major failure to engage stakeholders, inappropriate leadership style (Utzon resigned before the project was completed), insufficient procedures (as it was said before relating cost and time escalation).Recommendations Field tells us that â€Å"projects fail too often because the project scope was not fully appreciated and/or user needs not fully understood. † The meaning of a project can be materialized in the Sidney Opera House, but although it was a project, it failed by several reasons. RISK MANAGEMENT The ‘‘. . . traditional thinking behind a project risk management (PRM) framework is essentially centrist, authoritarian. It . . . assumes that the central project manager knows best’’ (Williams 40, p. 219).Williams suggests that in Project Management participation and empowerment may actually increase risk by reducing centralised control. Without an agreement that could make Utzon stick on the project agreed before his risk management couldn’t fit in new perspectives from the client like more rooms (halls). Demanding more and asking to reduce time due to the existent delay that was not expected in Utzon’s margins based on the project’s milestones it shows that the pressure pretending to take power from Utzon (led to his resignation) ‘helped’ to make of this project a failure.So, Risk Management would be one of the main focuses if I was the Project Manager. Achieving milestones, regular monitoring, evaluating and updating risk management plans and risk registers and maintain risk management processes for the duration of the project. FORECASTING ; DEALING WITH EXTERNAL MOTIVES Essentially, projects are like organisations. They have project governance, internal management systems, a number of staff, external stakeholders, an external environment and goals, objectives and deliverables.However, project delivery in the construction industry comes with a higher degree of uncertainty due to Industrial factors, complexity and changing technologies and uniqueness of projects where time, cost and quality need to be managed, sometimes equally, sometimes differently. Time Quality Cost In this particular case I would set up a standard of quality and add 20% margin error on the budget for resources. With a focus on quality I would make sure that the project would stick on the agreed and every change emanded would have a new budget and time escalation so the Government would think twice before demanding. With a focus on quality and the cost already decided (with 20% for resources) the two main problems would be solved (the roof problem and the 50 million (AUS) dollars of cost overrun). Furthermore the time problem would be solved with an exact check point on milestones any delay would be due to external motives like a tropical catastrophe or any alteration decided by the government but they would know in advance the cost and time waste of their decisions straight away instead of ‘just’ demand alterations.STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT Strategic approach Stakeholder Engagement is designed to take account of all the individuals and groups impacted by the proposed change and achieve a deeper understanding of their various interests. So, as a proje ct manager I would make sure that the 6 principles below would be the ‘foundations’ of my relation with the stakeholders. Significance: deal with issues of significance to stakeholders and the agency. Completeness: understand the concerns, views, needs and expectations.Responsiveness: respond coherently and appropriately Communication: open and effective Transparency: clear and agreed information and feedback processes. Collaboration: work to seek mutually beneficial outcomes where feasible. Inclusiveness: recognise, understand and involve stakeholders in the process. Integrity: conduct engagement in a manner that fosters mutual respect and trust. (Australian Handbook for citizenship, Stakeholder Engagement Section, Strategic Policy Group, Implementation and Stakeholder Engagement Branch, 2008).Identifying the project’s stakeholders, assessing them, and determining how they should be managed is a part of that process. When engaging stakeholder it is needed to ide ntify, prioritise, understand and plan communications with stakeholders. When engaging stakeholder it is needed to identify, prioritise, understand and plan communications with stakeholders. The first and second points are already done with the stakeholder identification and classification above and also the Interest/Power grid designed before. As a reminder, Walker states that, 2003, p. 261).Apart from the stakeholder groups identifiable by their more obvious connection with projects there are clear and major groups that are invisible but whose cooperation and support is vital for project success(2003, p. 261) so I would manage my ‘tiers’ (in supply chain for materials) having three (tiers) for different specific materials instead of dealing with hundreds. Understanding stakeholders would be another important thing to start from. Apart from forecasting I believe that is one of the best concepts that have to be incorporated in a project manager preparation to start a pr oject.Asking himself â€Å"what†, â€Å"who†, â€Å"when† is really important and the understanding of the project’s deliverables leads to a better understanding of stakeholder’s needs. That leads to a better collaboration between manager and stakeholders. Mitchell states that â€Å"making collaboration between influential stakeholders and the project manager happen depends on personal behaviour changes by knowledge workers to not only work collaboratively but also to share knowledge. (Mitchell 2002, p. 59). Understanding Stakeholders leads to good communications.Following its key concerns and follow the Power/Interest grid leads to a good understanding between stakeholders and project manager so all the four steps has to be co-related. Conclusion Sydney Opera House is considered a project failure, failing on the time scale and cost overrun and the quality of it is still being refurbished but it is an international attraction and no tourist wants to miss it when they go to Sydney. Utzon delivered his masterpiece but in a project manager’s point of view he had his limitations.Bad forecasting, bad planning skills and lack of stakeholder engagement were the main reasons for this project failure and I would have focused on milestones, identifying stakeholders, prioritising necessities and having a clear cost/time perspective and also having a clear risk assessment. References Mitchell, K. (2002), â€Å"Collaboration and information sharing: an ROI perspective? †, The Public Manager, Vol. 31 No. 1, pp. 59-62 Lock, D. , Project Management, 5th edn. Gower, 1992. Nicholas, J. M. , Management of Business and Engineering Projects. Prentice Hall, 1990.J. K Pinto, J. E Prescot, Variations in critical success factors over the stages in the project life cycle Journal of Management, 14 (1) (1988), pp. 5–18 Kerzner H. , In search of excellence in project management. Journal of Systems Management, 1987, 30–39 Davi d I. Cleland, Lewis R. Ireland (2006). Project Management: Strategic Design And Implementation. 5th edn. McGraw-Hill Professional. pp. 17-35. A RETROSPECTIVE LOOK AT OUR EVOLVING UNDERSTANDING OF PROJECT SUCCESS Kam Jugdev; Ralf Muller Project Management Journal; Dec 2005; 36, 4; ABI/INFORM Global pg. 19 J.N Wright, Time and budget: the twin imperatives of a project sponsor. International Journal of Project Management, 15 3 (1997), pp. 181–186 Peter Murray (2004). The Saga Of Sydney Opera House: The Dramatic Story Of The Design And Construction Of The Icon Of Modern Australia. Bedford Park: Taylor ; Francis. p3-18. Bjorn Johs. Kolltveit et al. , Perspectives on project management, International Journal of Project Management (2006), doi:10. 1016/j. ijproman. 2005. 12. 002 Julien Pollack, The changing paradigms of project management, International Journal of Project Management (2006), doi:10. 016/j. ijproman. 2006. 08. 002 Williams T. Assessing and moving on from the dominant p roject management discourse in the light of project overruns. IEEE Trans Eng Manage 2005;52(4):497 Office of Government Commerce, CP0015/01/05, 2004 Field, Tom. (1997). â€Å"When bad things happen to good projects†, CIO magazine, Oct 15, 1997, Vol. 11, 2; pg. 54, 6 pgs. Lynda Bourne and Derek H. T. Walker Visualising and mapping stakeholder influence RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia (2003) Project Management Lectures from week 2 (1st semester) to week 7 (as of 2nd semester)