Thursday, September 5, 2019

Importance of Information System Auditing

Importance of Information System Auditing Evaluation of Effectiveness of Auditing of Information System within Corporate Governance Structure in the UK business organizations. Abstract This dissertation will research and review the conceptual framework of effectiveness of auditing (internal audit) of information system within the Corporate Governance structure, where information technology is deemed a key to system success or failure. The paper will then aim to focus on case study approach on two industry sectors in UK to explore a within correlation within effectiveness of Audit function and Corporate Governance structure through a lens of clear transparent information flow and system by means of technology innovation through accountability. Introduction The overall focus of this dissertation is around the critically analyzing and evaluation of auditing of information system in corporate governance structure with strategic significance of information and technology. Auditing of information system is sometimes referred as IT auditing that in modern language that states flow of information processes throughout the organization that is integral part of strong and affective corporate governance. Information integrity and disclosure is the key to successful governance. Corporate Governance has accomplished developing acknowledgment in recent years in light of financial reporting scandals, for example, Enron, WorldCom and Parmalat, which lessened trust in the freedom and unwavering quality of the auditing profession involved, as well as the accounting profession and financial markets all in all (Ibrahim El-Sayed Ebaid, 2011). Inside this structure of present day business world, the part of an inner control framework is synergist since it is viewed as a source from which center capacities are given or drawn and are in this way changed into upper hands. Be that as it may, the pivotal part of internal auditing for the business accomplishment, there is no such a review examining the collaboration between internal auditing and corporate governance (Karagiorgos et al., 2010). For the above reasons the motivation behind this research is to focus on the evaluation of effectiveness of Auditing of Information System within Corporate Governance Structure in th e UK business organizations. Auditing is one of the fundamental components for the effective working of the business and makes a difference an association to confront the outer world with exact data on its business and issues identified related to accountability. Initially auditing function was essentially concerned with just the money and finance related issues inside the business that is accounts for the business. Evidently, the income created by the organization and the costs related are the major contributing variables for decision making on the tax and shareholder benefits. Close by, the development of data innovation (IT) and the expansion in people in general awareness has assist heightened the requirement for directing a proficient auditing procedure to give accountability to their business exercises. It is also vital that the corporate governance of an organization is fundamental for the advantage of the partners as well as for the financial dependability in the business showcase and in addition the whole country. This research is aimed to display a critical research and evaluation of effectiveness of Auditing of Information System within Corporate Governance Structure in the UK business organizations. The research will toss light on the different perspectives identify with accomplishing adequacy in through evaluating information system as one of the component of corporate administration and basically investigations of the innovation and technology on information transparency. Aim and Objectives The focal point of this thesis will be to analyze the productivity of auditing of information system framework in the corporate administration among the UK business associations. This will be accomplished by the research on the following aim and objectives. To appraise the phenomenon of corporate governance and its effectiveness for an organization both inside and outside to the business. Critically analyse the role of information and development of information system frameworks within the scope of corporate governance. Research Definition The research will be refined and focused utilizing using secondary information resources only. This is mainly due to the fact that a general public opinion on the auditing of information system may be inappropriate and deficient as the business organizations may not disclose their corporates sensitive information apart from that is published in the annual submissions/report due to data protection and privacy (Leung, P.et al 2004).Thus the investigation through case study will be completely subjective in nature (i.e.) the exploration is based upon the journals and published white papers as opposed to utilizing primary information for measuring the analysis. The contextual critical examination will be led upon the vital energy and banking domains of the UK economy. While a basic investigation on HSBC bank Plc will be displayed under the banking area, National Grid Transco, Plc is the organization in question for the Energy segment of the UK. The contextual investigation on these organizations will give critical insight on the utilization information technology and the organizations endeavor to fulfill viability of effectiveness of auditing of information system related outcomes for corporate governance. Corporate governance context There had been much written and researched about corporate governance, IT audit, and Information system in literatures recently, but most research has been done considering one or two variables from different angles, such as Corporate Governance and Auditing, IT audit and Corporate Governance, Information System and Corporate Governance etc. Less been written from information perspective to explore Information System Audit and Corporate Governance viability specifically by use of technology in modern era of corporate world, that is the fundamental aim of this research. Following literature research explain and explore more about the individual concepts that prove essential ingredients to successful stewardship of the business. According toToffel, M.W. (2006), states that investors expression of need for information relevant to companys economical information is not just raw accounting data but interpretation lying within. He further states that asymmetric information and potentially adverse disclosure prompts a question mark to capabilities of corporate governance structure of companies.Baek et al. (2008) argues further that directors consider that they have disclosed full information that is required, yet most experts and financial specialists assert that they ought to try to do as such. Another aspect of delivery of information through the use of information system is e-commerce that is very popular and proved to be effective communication channel without side world, i.e. stakeholders. Yabing et al., 2010 concluded in his study that there are considerable number of organizations which dont utilize their websites to convey significant financial data to the external stakeholders users. A current review that has an example with 30 traded organizations disclosed that a great deal of organizations utilize their website in inappropriate way, particularly to communicate information considering corporate governance that pose a question to the stewardship of organization as a whole. To overcome this weakness and to mitigate potential risk to corporate governance auditing plays vital role by assessing overall information system of the organization. A vital clarification between governance and administration is made by Bird, F. (2001), states that while managers and officials control, create, monitor and execute business objectives on an everyday basis, directors and other board structures manage overall business strategy, culture and course. He further states that Executives manages organizations by morality of the authority commissioned to them by owners of the organization, hence making a strong contrast between the assorted components of corporate governance and management. Auditing Information System In modern IT era, the audit process quality within the organization have become an integral and fundamental part of corporate governance quality and transparency. As respects to this, the nature of information systems auditing has likewise accepted a parallel to that. The inherent feature of information systems auditing, and the abilities fundamental to do such reviews, ideally require all around substantial norms standards that execute particularly to information systems examination scrutiny. The amalgamation of Information Technology audit, arranging and methodology with corporate governance and the key utilization of data frameworks (IS) have been of topical subject to administration management experts and IT scholars for quite a while. The move of accentuation can be connected to changes in availability and cost execution proportions in innovation/technology. It can likewise be identified with subsequent changes in potential applications. The converging of hardware and interchanges innovations, and the more far reaching utilization of databases, systems, and coordinated frameworks requiring long-term audit and planning viewpoints, addit ionally fortified for powerful arrangement from corporate governance perspective in UK. IT Governance Kingsford, R., Dunn, L. furthermore, Cooper, J. (2003) states that Information Technology governance is referred to as a sub-set of corporate governance. It appears to be logical then that the meaning of corporate governance will give a helpful start off to an investigation of the definition and proper utilization of the term IT governance. One domain is the relatively recent focal point on corporate governance and the other is strategic information systems within the organization. Web, P. Pollard, C., Ridley, G. (2006),  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   Attempting to Define IT Governance:   Wisdom or Folly? Strong governance has for some time been viewed as urgent for improving the long-term value of stakeholders in the organizational domain. In the new innovation driven information age, strengthen corporate governance is considered exceptional best practice and a key segment of market train. Recent demand from stakeholders, shareholders and others owners of business, for more prominent responsibility from corporate board and audit committees that will probably upgrade the nature of corporate stewardship and in the end prompt to more productive capital markets. However, Sarbanes Oxley report in US and the Cadbury Code in the United Kingdom that requires that audit committees adhere to certain professional guidelines rules (e.g., internal controls risk reporting requirements and disclosures), there are few generally acknowledged standards for good governance within the organization. Role of Information in Information System Audit Corporate Governance Ward, J. Peppard, J. (2002) argued that the information systems in a business enterprise not just incorporates the innovation and technology related items additionally those segments of the business that infect process and create yield from the information like the costs, income and purchases. Moreover, they emphasized that the vital utilization of information to encourage effective decision making by the senior administration of the organization, that certainly build the need to distinguish critical information and in addition keep up transparency of the information to furnish independence and accuracy with quality. Information system has seen vital development in each circle of business with the expansion in the competition and innovation technology (IIA, 2004) Christopher Barnatt (2000) contends that the corporate governance in a business organization despite the fact that grasps the reviewing of the fund and income building up a responsibility, predominantly relies on the information that is underlying the income streams or the cost brought about since the financial related measurement by the organization is construct upon the real information with respect to their everyday business. This further makes it clear that information is not just assumes a critical part in dealing with the review auditing information but also a key part in approving the crucial information that is really used to represent the income inside the organization. The above proclamation obviously clarifies that the data innovation (technology) in stepping stone for the business processes and income apart from just the element of client relationship etc. John Ward (2000) argued that the information system in a business domain with reference to corporate governance of the organization gives the underlying contributing milestone to the accountability of income transparency of the overall business. Furthermore, he poses the fact that the likelihood to give false information to cover any major issues inside the business will at the end may influence the corporate governance of the business. It is evident from the argument above that the innovation technology underlying information processing itself required to be formulated and validated in order to approve privacy and to counteract unapproved access to the data. References: Bird, F. (2001), Good governance: A Philosophical discussion of the responsibilities and practices of organizational governors, Canadian Journal of Administrative Studies, No. December,   298-312 Baek, Y.H., Kim, D., Kim, J.W. (2008) Management Earnings Forecasts and Adverse Selection Cost: Good vs Bad News Forecast, International Journal of Accounting and Information Management, Vol. 16, Issue 1, pp. 62-73. Christopher Barnatt, (2000), Management Strategy and Information Technology, Text and Readings, Thomson Business Press Ibrahim El-Sayed Ebaid, (2011) Corporate governance practices and auditors client acceptance decision: empirical evidence from Egypt, Corporate governance, 11(2), pp. 171-183. Institute of Internal Auditors UK, (2004), IT Audit, UK John Ward and Joe Peppard, (2002), Strategic Planning and information Systems, 3rd edition, John Wiley and Sons Karagiorgos, T., Drogalas, G., Tampakoudis, I. and Gotzamanis, Ά¢. (2010) Internal Auditing as an effective tool For Corporate Governance, Journal of Business Mgt, 2(1), International Science Press. Kingsford, R., Dunn, L. and Cooper, J. (2003), Information Systems, Information Technology Governance and Organizational Culture, in 14th Australasian Conference on Information Systems, Perth, Australia. Leung, P., Cooper, B.J. and Robertson, P. (2004) The role of Internal Audit in Corporate Governance and Management, RMIT Publishing, Melbourne. Toffel, M.W. (2006) Resolving Information Asymmetries in Markets: The Role of Certified Management Programs, Working paper, Division of Research, Harvard Business School, Vol. 7. Web, P., Ridley, G., Pollard, C. (2006), Attempting to Define Information Technology Governance:   Wisdom or Folly? 39th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2006, Australia Yabing J, Viju R. and Wullianallur R. (2009), Web-Based Corporate Governance Information Disclosure: An Empirical Investigation Volume 22, Issue 2. 19 pages

Company overview of Tata Motors Limited

Company overview of Tata Motors Limited Tata Motors Limited was founded in 1945 and it is the most successful automobile manufacturing company in India. With Tata Group as its parent company and Ratan Tata as its CEO, Tata Motors has sold almost 6 million vehicles nationally since their first launch in 1954 (Tata Motors, 2010). In expanding their business internationally, Tata Motors has proven that they are qualified as another competitor in automobile industry. Their products are commercial vehicles like buses and trucks, and also passenger cars like Tata Sierra, Tata Estate, Tata India, Tata Nano, Tata Xenon, etc. The company revenue was Rs. 27, 055.57 crores in June 2010 (Tata Motors, 2010). In India, Tata has operations in Jamshedpur, Pune, Lucknow, Patnagar, and Dharwad. Tata Motors was listed in New York Stock Exchange in 2004, followed by open their operations in UK, South Korea, and Spain (Tata Motors, 2010). In 2004, Tata Motors joint venture with Daewoo Commercial Vehicles Company from South Korea and formed Tata Daewoo. Continue one year later they bought Hispano Carrocera, a Spain company and also in 2008, they bought Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford, a UK based automobile company (Tata Motors, 2010). Macro Environment Analysis of the Company In analyzing macro environment of Tata Motors, it is crucial to know the main factors that influence the company when entering business to another country. Political, Economic, Social, and Technological (PEST) analysis is used to dig deeper some external factors which affect business in macro environment. With 4 perspectives in PEST analysis, it will help us to know the host market condition, possible growth, opportunities, decision making, and important steps (Lawson, 2006). III.1. Political-Legal Political is about the condition of politic and security in the domestic market which influence daily activity, including business. Legal is about the bureaucracy or regulation that should be fulfilled when we want to open a business. This is also an important factor because without obeying laws, rules, and regulation in the country, it is almost impossible to establish market there. Tata Motors was established in India, so Tata Motors has to concern on laws, rules, regulation, and political stability in India. But since Tata Motors has many subsidiaries in many countries, Tata Motors has to obey the host countrys laws also. In 2008, Tata Motors bought over Land Rover and Jaguar from Ford Motor. Since then, Tata also has to concern on the UK laws and regulation (Carty, 2008). Moreover, as the first company to be listed in New York Stock Exchange, Tata Motors also has to concern on US politics.. Generally, the political factor in the companys macro environment such as: tax policy, government regulations, and laws. It is famous that India is one of the countries which have a complicated bureaucracy, this is one of the obstacles if establishing business there (Sastry, 2005). Political unstable such as wars or conflicts also cause inflation and may affect oil price in one country. High inflation cause the government has to rise up prices, and oil price is the common price to get raised. And it is automatically the higher price of oil will affect the sales of cars (Wardell, et al., 2008). There were some political conflicts which were faced by Tata Motors recently. In their official website, stated that Ratan Tata (Tata Motors CEO) faced difficulties when he wanted to lauch Tata Nano. They have to deal with some emission norms and regulations in order to produce the cars (Tata Motors, 2010). As been reported on Bloomberg Businessweek in 2008, there was conflicts happened between two political parties when Tata Motors wanted to established their factory in Singur (India) and some protests from the local farmer. The conflict was about the agricultural land which Tata used to build the factory. Finally, Tata Motors had to relocate their factory and lost $100 million for relocation cost and over $ 300 million for investment (Banerjee and Guha, 2010). This problem is to prove that how stable the political situation of the country plays an important role in the companys macro environment. III.2. Economical The condition of economy in recent time or in the future can influence the growth and strategy of the company. This is very important because Tata Motors is a multinational company. Tata Motors has to understand the trend of economic growth in every single country that they do business with. This factor tells about the economical factor that surrounding the company such as: economy fluctuation, monetary and fiscal policy, government spending, unemployment level, interest rate, exchange rate, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, etc. In the domestic market, Tata Motors has to pay attention to the economic condition of India. India is a developing country with GDP per capita = $ 3,200 and $ 3.68 trillion national purchasing power (CIA, 2009). As been affected by the depression of global economic, Indias automobile industry also has to bear the consequences. The increase of material price forced Tata Motors to increase its truck price of 3.5% which lead to decrease in demand (Mapsofindia, 2010). In the international market, Tata Motors aims more to developing countries and middle-class family (Peacock, 2008). Each and every country has their own exchange rate or currency and it keep on changing every time. So for being a multinational company, Tata Motors has to concern in any changing of countries currency, especially US Dollar because Tata Motors also listed in New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, 2010). Inflation is also one of the factors, because it affects the interest rate for doing investment in a country (Russell, 2006). The increase or decrease of Inflation, will lead to a lower or higher interest rate. Looking deep to the economical macro environment may help Tata Motors in price setting, demand, cost, and decisional making in the company. III.3. Socio-Cultural Socio-cultural is focus on the attitude of consumer and employee which also affect the strategy. Strategy planning must follow the development of educational level and social assessment in order to see the influence toward the strategy. Some of the factors are: income distribution, attitude, education, health and wellness, changing life style, and demography. Tata Motors must realize the type of customers in India as its domestic market. The attitude and life style of those customers affect the demand for Tata Motors which also influence its decisional making (Tata Motors, 2009). Indian people are careful with their spending. They do not want to buy thing which is not worth it (Sharma, 2010). They are also usually educated and easy access to information. So, Tata Motors has to look at local perspective to market their product (Deoras, n. d.). Besides that, in doing business in 26 countries with 26 different cultures in each country, Tata Motors has to understand and apply different strategy. For example: Tata Motors cannot apply Indian culture to United Kingdom when they purchased Land Rover and Jaguar from Ford (a UK based company), because each place has their unique demographic. Another example would be: When marketing their product, Tata Motors must know the local demand. India for example, they have pretty low GDP per capita and most of the people prefer small car (Alvares, 2010). So, Tata Nano (one of Tata Motors product, a small car with $2500 price and the world cheapest car) seems fit into the market (Nussbaum, 2008). In 2009, Tata Motors faced culture problem in United States whereby affected the sales of their Jaguar. Many American did not want to buy a famous brand like Jaguar if it is owned by Indian company (Kamath, 2009). In focusing their socio-cultural environment, Tata Motors has Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) team which does social activities, donation, charity and caring the environment (Tata Motors, 2008). III.4. Technological Technological environment could affect raw material, operation, product, and company services. The development of technology can give huge opportunity to increase the product output in the company. Government intervention through tax policy and laws also play important role in the development of technology. The willingness to do innovation and taking risk seems to be the important component in this factor. Technological environment such as: The impact of changes in technology, new invention and development, cost and use of technology, and information technology development. This factor could give a competitive advantage to the company. As one of the giant automobile company, Tata Motors has to adapt and develop their product to the technology. The adaptation is not only in the factory machines but also in the car parts. Tata Motors allocate 2% of their Sales to Research Development Department (Tata Motors, 2010). Now, they are working to make environmental friendly buses such as hydrogen fuel cell buses and hybrid cars (Doggett, 2010). Not only in the real world, but Tata Motors also expand their services through internet. Tata Motors has on Online Booking Services which allow customers who has problem with their car to book date to send their car to their workshop. Now, customer also can purchase Tata Nano through internet, Tata Motors expand their business to e-commerce marketing (Marathe, 2009). III.5. SWOT Analysis of Tata Motors SWOT Analysis is a tool to analyze situation and condition of a business. It shows the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of the business. It is helpful to support the decisional making in the company because this analysis shows the current performance of the company and the possible challenges in the future time (Kern, 2001). And these are the SWOT Analysis of Tata Motors which been described from their official website: III.5.1. Strength: Strong brand image Good management Done many good innovations III.5.2. Weaknesses: The market target mostly is lower level citizen Advertisement and promotion still below other companies III.5.3. Opportunities: The acquisition of Jaguar-Land Rover will give more opportunities to produce different product innovation and aim to luxury market segment. The new Tata Nano as the world cheapest car will bring lots of demands. III.5.4. Threats: The tight competitiveness in automobile industry The high oil price The high price of raw materials The International Consideration As being the largest automobile company in India, Tata Motors knew that they could gain more profit by expanding their market globally. Opening business in some other countries outside their domestic market in India will bring benefit to them to be closer to their customers and reach worldwide market. IV.1. Worldwide Branches Tata Motors was established in 1945; however Tata Motors started expanding their business internationally since 1961, they are doing export with over 80 countries in 5 continents. In 1992 Tata Motors reached Europe market by export (Ibef, 2010). They have operations in: Venezuela, Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Zaire, Tanzania, South Africa, Spain, Italy, United Kingdom, Ukraine, Russia, Chile, Australia, Poland, Turkey, Syria, South Arabia, India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Thailand, Malaysia, and Bangladesh (Tata Motors, 2008). With 23,000 employees worldwide, Tata Motors is the first automobile company to be listed in New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in 2004. In the same year also they bought Daewoo Commercial Vehicles Company, a South Korea truck manufacture. Again Tata Motors expand its wings by buying 21% shares of Hispano Carrocera in 2005, a bus maker from Spain. A year later, they joint venture with Thonburi Automotive Assembly Plant Company from Thailand. Moreover, they also cooperate with Marcopolo, a Brazilian company. Furthermore, in 2008 Tata Motors acquired Jaguar and Land Rover from a UK company, Ford (Tata Motors, 2010). IV.2. Tata Motors Concern toward International Business As one of the big player in automobile business, Tata Motors must concern on many important things such as: environment, politics, and cultures. There is a big issue right now in Tata Motors which is related to their concern toward environment. A big demand for their low cost car Tata Nano will bring even more pollution because it is affordable and every people will buy it (Shivani, 2010). It is a good sign for the company but a bad sign to the earth. To focus into Tata Motors international business, United Kingdom is taken as an example. UK market is favourable for Tata Motors. Some of the advantage that they received by doing business in the UK are: Language; because India used English as their official language and so does UK, Tata Motors sees UK market is potential, UK is more attractive than another country also because they have lower entry barriers and they have a good network for dealer which is very important for Tata Motors (Purcell, 2009). Tata Motors has to concern on UK economic condition too, because it is a main market for Jaguar and Land Rover (Subbu, 2003; David, 2008). It is saver for Tata Motors for doing business in UK because the stability of Pound Sterling and UK is a good place to make Foreign Direct Investment (Invest in the UK, 2010). But overall, Tata Motors has to concern on the tight competitiveness in automobile industry in the UK. Huge brands such as: Toyota, BMW, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, etc, are also big players in the market. Therefore, Tata Motors must keep the strong performance by keep developing new product to attract customers. Also keep good relationship with customers to enhance their loyalty (Nemo, 2010). IV.3. Internationalization Method Tata Motors ways to international business such as: joint-venture, subsidiary, exporting, franchise, and dealer distribution. Tata Motors used Joint-venture or associate companies to touch Europe market (Ibef, 2010). They associated with Hispano Carrocera in Spain and become Tata Hispano. Tata Hispano produces coach, big buses, large cars, and regional transport (Auto, 2009). In 2009 Tata Motors bought 100% stake of this company (Indian Info Tech, 2010). Subsidiary or acquisition means when a company is owned and controlled by its parent company after has been acquired (Lennon, 1999). Tata Motors has 30 subsidiaries and 20 of them are outside of India. They gained almost Rs. 6500 crore revenue from the subsidiaries in 2006 which contributed almost 20% of the group revenue (Tata Sons Ltd, 2007). The most profitable subsidiary is Tata Daewoo Commercial Vehicle (TDCV) in South Korea and Telco Construction Equipment Company (Telcon), cooperate with Hitachi in India (Tata Sons Ltd, 2007). Besides doing joint-venture and subsidiary, Tata Motors also exports some of their products. In 2008, Tata Motors exported more than 33,000 units (Tata Motors, 2009). The exported country is spread in 5 continents and more than 70 countries. In the year 2006, Tata Motors exports reached 11% of its total sales (Onkvisit and Shaw, 2004); they focused in South Africa market in that year and exported almost 33% of the total export (Economic Times, 2006). Tata Motors has franchisees in some countries such as: Kenya, Bangladesh, Senegal, Russia, and Ukraine (Tata Motors, 2010). In addition, they have dealers to distribute their cars to their customers in Venezuela (Tata Sons Ltd, 2010). IV.4. Problem Faced by Tata Motors Even though the field of international business seems fertile, but it has so many obstacles and problems. Tata Motors has to be careful to overcome all the problems. Some of the problems would be: Joint venture problem, decreasing of stock, economic downturn in America and Europe, and last but not least is the tight global competitiveness of automobile company (Menezes, 2005). First, joint venture problem. When Tata Motors took over Jaguar and Land Rover in 2008, both them was doing badly (The Economist, 2009). Jaguar sales dropped to less than 65,000 cars in 2007 while Land Rover turned form favourable to unfavourable because they world demand is changing to environmental friendly cars while Land Rover still producing its spendthrift fuel cars. To overcome these problems, Tata Motors made a careful step by making new car design. Tata Motors came with Jaguar X-type which is better in design and also cheaper. They had a warm response from the market. To maintain it, Tata Motors asked help from Jaguar-Land Rover management to take part in the company. In Land Rover case, Tata built Land Rover LRX which is better in fuel consumption and low emission (Kamath, 2009). Another problem would be the decreasing stock of Tata Motors in 2008. This problem rose because of the $ 3 billion debt that Tata Motors loaned to buy Jaguar-Land Rover which could cause higher interest cost and lower down earnings (Kamath, 2009). This problem also compounded by the global economy crisis. Many Investors afraid that Tata Motorss stock would fall down. The best solution to this problem is to increase sales by making lower cost cars which will attract the customers, also support from Tata Group (its parent company) to help Tata Motors to settle their financial problem first (Krishnamoorthy and Koenig, 2008; Moinansari, 2009). Can be said that Tata Motors enter the global market was not in a right time. When it acquired Jaguar-Land Rover from Ford, American and European markets were in a weak point. The best solution in this condition is to keep the good management between Tata Motors and Jaguar-Land Rover, and also good investment in their product line like the latest Tata Nano which is the world cheapest car to reach every corner market (MBA, 2010). Although Tata Motors is a largest automobile company in India, but it only ranked as the 19th largest manufacture in the world (OICA, 2009). So, to face the competitiveness among the companies, Tata Motors must find a way to attract the market, for example: New product line, Make a low price car with a good quality, maintain their safety level, etc (Horner, 2009). The Future Growth of Business Tata Motors performance is also countable in automobile industry. With Tata Group as its parent company, and Ratan Tata as its CEO, Tata Motors is keep growing and expanding their market. In their official website, stated that the company revenue jumped 30.5% from last year and they got Rs. 2,571 crores of profit (Tata Motors, 2010). It is a positive growth from the company. Ansoff Product-Market Matrix was founded by H. Igor Ansoff in 1957. This marketing tool is used to help company to find the best strategy that should they choose to reach the objectives (Harris, 2000; Botten, 2008). Source: Ansoff 1957 cited in Campbell and Craig, 2005 Output from this Ansoff Matrix is a growing strategies which are appropriate for every part of business. Igor Ansoff stated that there are 4 strategies in Ansoff Matrix, they are: 1). Market Penetration, 2). Product Development, 3). Market Development, and 4). Diversification (Graham and Allan, 2008). V.1. Market Penetration The company is trying to reach the existing market with product that has existed too. This is the safest step because it has lesser risk than any other strategies. Usually, companies use this strategy to attract their competitors customers. Tata Motors used this strategy when they reached UK market by take over Jaguar-Land Rover, Tata Motors did not just concentrate on the new products line that they can produce from the two companies above but instead, Tata Motors still producing Tata Indica in the market (Tata Motors, 2003). V.2. Product Development The company offer new product to the present market. This is an important strategy to give fresh breath to the market. The new product will attract more customers from the existing market. The first product development of Tata Motors was Tata Sierra, their first passanger vehicle. Tata Sierra was marketed in 1991. And that was the first step of Tata Motors to develop their product and future strategy (Tata Motors, 2010). Tata Motors also did product development when they started to produce Tata Nano in 2008, Ratan Tata thought about making the world cheapest car and produced it in the domestic market first, India (Tata Motors, 2009). The strategy was to sell affordable car to the people in the same time, expanding their market. Before that, Tata Motors developed the first mini-truck in India called Tata Ace. Tata Ace came to the market in 2005 and in 2 years time, they have sold 96,000 units of Tata Ace (Tata Motors, 2007). By marketing this product, Tata Motors expand their market to mini-truck segment and become market leader (Thakkar, 2010). As been stated in Businessworld website (2010), Tata Motors is planning to put Rs. 10,000 crore for product development. The investment will be used to cover their debt when purchasing Jaguar-Land Rover, to buy new technologies, and any other improvement. V.3. Market Development Use the present product that belong to the company and offer it to a new market. Many MNE usually use this strategy to reach wider market domestically and internationally. Some examples of market development are: expanding to another country, selling the product to a different market segment, and using the product for different function (Graham and Allan, 2008). Tata Motors has developed their market overseas; they reached South Korea market in 2004, Spain market in 2005, Thailand market in 2006, UK market in 2008, and many more. Tata Motors sells their existing product like buses, trucks, and cars in those markets. Tata Motors is planning to make their market even wider by opening new companies in developing countries such as: Indonesia, Philippines, and Turkey (Tata Motors, 2010). V.4. Diversification This is a strategy whereby the company makes a new product and offers it to the new market. Diversification has higher risk than another strategies because the market and the product is new, but in the other side it could bring more profit to the company as it will bring new customers (Graham and Allan, 2008). Tata Motors diversified their product when they entered UK market and took over Jaguar-Land Rover in 2008 (Rao, 2009). It allowed Tata Motors to produced new products line, for example: Jaguar X-Type and Land Rover LRX (Kamath, 2009). New Venture Tata Motors main target market mostly is developing countries because developing countries seem to have fewer barriers to entry and the market is growing (Wentz, 2007). Tata Motors currently is famous with their Tata Nano, a one-lakh-car which is cheap in price; this car is only cost Rs. 100,000 or $ 2,500 (Tata Motors, 2010), this car really fits for developing countries which have lower GDP per capita, and also Tata Motors produces buses and trucks which is suitable for industrial country. It is proven by how they operate business with Thailand, in 2008, they managed to sell 600 big trucks (HT Media, 2009). To expand Tata Motors market, Indonesia will be chosen. Dilip Chenoy, director of Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) says that Indonesia has a very good market and it is showing an optimistic economy (Reuters, 2009). VI.1. Method of Business Entry The method of business entry that should Tata Motors do is Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). They did the same when they entry Thailand market; Tata Motors joint venture with Thornburi Automotive Assembly. And since Indonesia and Thailand has similar market, it will be good if they find a partner in Indonesia and joint venture with them (Bhattacharya, 2010). FDI has a lot of benefits to both sides. It gives advantage to the host country to develop their economy, enhance the technology, more capital and investment, and new product. To the original firm, it gives opportunity to expand the market, easier marketing process, and surely will bring more profit to the company (Graham and Spaulding, 2005). Indonesia has become target for FDI to so many companies in many countries. Lots of Multi National Enterprise (MNE) planted their business there (Afrida, 2010). Foreign Capital Investment Law No. 1 of 1967, amended by Law No. 11 of 1970 regulates FDI (Expat Association Jakarta, 2010). VI.2. Porters Five Forces Analysis This theory was found by Michael Porter. It is used to analyze competition between industries. It says that a company should not be only competitor oriented but also has a clear market vision, Porter explains that our potential competitors are those infant industries, suppliers, customers and buyers, and substitute product producers. Therefore we have to know 5 forces that determine the character of one industry, they are: The threat of new entrants, Rivalry among existing competitors, The threat of substitute products or services, The bargaining power of buyers, The bargaining power of suppliers (Porter, 1979). Source: Porter 1979 cited in Harvard Business Review, 2008 This theory will help us to understand the Indonesia market for Tata Motors, by using its 5 factors it will be easier to know the market strength and opportunity. First is The threat of new entrants. This force is usually influenced by barriers to entry. For example: laws and regulation, access to materials, tariff, investment cost, etc. The more barriers to entry, the lower the threat of new entrants. Tata Motors must be aware for this threat if they want to come to Indonesia. Indonesias market for Tata Nano seems good because most of the cities in Indonesia are crowded and often jammed so the small and cheap car like Tata Nano will be on demand (Chaudhary, 2009). The new entrants which can give threat for Tata Motors such as: Intelligent Geely, a  £1,500 car by China Geely Automobile (The Economist, 2008) and also Maruti Ritz by Maruti Suzuki (Autocar, 2010). So, Tata Motors must maintain the loyalty of its customers by always giving the best services and always produce not only cheap but also good quality cars. Second is Rivalry among existing competitors. It is the most common thing in business world. If the business has many competitors, it could give disadvantages to the company because they share the same amount of customers (Royer, 2005). Tata Motors will have many competitors in Indonesia, such as: Honda, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Daihatsu, and many more. Each brand has their own competitive advantage, so Tata Motors have to make sure that they are strong enough to enter the market by keep innovate their cars, keep the low price, and promote more (Landge, 2010). Third is The threat of substitute products or services. This theory investigates how many substitutes that the product has in the market. The existence of substitute product will block up the producer freedom for price setting (Morrison, 2008). The high price of oil sometimes lower down the demand for car, especially nowadays when the oil price has reached $87/barrel (OPEC, 2010). People might substitute it with bicycle, motorcycle, or hybrid car which is popular recently. The strategies that Tata Motors should do are produce good quality cars, innovative products, and keep update with latest technology (Humad, 2005). Fourth is The bargaining power of buyers. The more products that the company has will bring a more choices to the buyers which will make their position become stronger. Buyers or customers are the main key for company, because they bring sales and profit (Miles, 1995). The target customer for Tata Nano is moderate to low level because it is affordable. The cheap price will bring positive respond from Indonesia market (OConnor, 2008). And the last one is The bargaining power of suppliers. This explains how important a supplier to a company. If lets say there are only a few suppliers in the market, the material will become rare and the bargaining power for the suppliers will be higher (Peng, 2008). Tata Motors Indonesia will still depend on their suppliers in India, so they need to maintain close relationship to the suppliers especially when the demand increases (Sachin, 2010). Conclusion Tata Motors, India largest automobile company has proven that they are countable in automobile industry. They are successful to reach domestic market and global market. Now, Tata Motors has reached market in 26 countries worldwide, from South America, Africa, Europe, and some part of Asia. This condition forces them to know every single countrys political, economical, socio-cultural and technological issues and operates the business according to that. The headquarters in Mumbai (India) is responsible to balance and to control how the subsidiaries in many countries operate their production because political changing and conflicts always exists. Tata Motors might face many competitors from the whole world, but to stand still and conquer the competitors is by developing products and keep innovating, this will give competitive advantage to Tata Motors. In these 2-3 years time, Tata Motors will invest to enhance their technology and cover their debts. This is a very good action from Tata Motors to show how integrated and strong they are. However, Tata Motorss step is not over yet, they are still expanding the business through many strategies. Developing new products and covering new market will always be their main purpose. Their vision is: Best in the manner in which we operate, best in the products we deliver, and best in our value system and ethics Ratan Tata. Word Count: 4677 words

Company overview of Tata Motors Limited

Company overview of Tata Motors Limited Tata Motors Limited was founded in 1945 and it is the most successful automobile manufacturing company in India. With Tata Group as its parent company and Ratan Tata as its CEO, Tata Motors has sold almost 6 million vehicles nationally since their first launch in 1954 (Tata Motors, 2010). In expanding their business internationally, Tata Motors has proven that they are qualified as another competitor in automobile industry. Their products are commercial vehicles like buses and trucks, and also passenger cars like Tata Sierra, Tata Estate, Tata India, Tata Nano, Tata Xenon, etc. The company revenue was Rs. 27, 055.57 crores in June 2010 (Tata Motors, 2010). In India, Tata has operations in Jamshedpur, Pune, Lucknow, Patnagar, and Dharwad. Tata Motors was listed in New York Stock Exchange in 2004, followed by open their operations in UK, South Korea, and Spain (Tata Motors, 2010). In 2004, Tata Motors joint venture with Daewoo Commercial Vehicles Company from South Korea and formed Tata Daewoo. Continue one year later they bought Hispano Carrocera, a Spain company and also in 2008, they bought Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford, a UK based automobile company (Tata Motors, 2010). Macro Environment Analysis of the Company In analyzing macro environment of Tata Motors, it is crucial to know the main factors that influence the company when entering business to another country. Political, Economic, Social, and Technological (PEST) analysis is used to dig deeper some external factors which affect business in macro environment. With 4 perspectives in PEST analysis, it will help us to know the host market condition, possible growth, opportunities, decision making, and important steps (Lawson, 2006). III.1. Political-Legal Political is about the condition of politic and security in the domestic market which influence daily activity, including business. Legal is about the bureaucracy or regulation that should be fulfilled when we want to open a business. This is also an important factor because without obeying laws, rules, and regulation in the country, it is almost impossible to establish market there. Tata Motors was established in India, so Tata Motors has to concern on laws, rules, regulation, and political stability in India. But since Tata Motors has many subsidiaries in many countries, Tata Motors has to obey the host countrys laws also. In 2008, Tata Motors bought over Land Rover and Jaguar from Ford Motor. Since then, Tata also has to concern on the UK laws and regulation (Carty, 2008). Moreover, as the first company to be listed in New York Stock Exchange, Tata Motors also has to concern on US politics.. Generally, the political factor in the companys macro environment such as: tax policy, government regulations, and laws. It is famous that India is one of the countries which have a complicated bureaucracy, this is one of the obstacles if establishing business there (Sastry, 2005). Political unstable such as wars or conflicts also cause inflation and may affect oil price in one country. High inflation cause the government has to rise up prices, and oil price is the common price to get raised. And it is automatically the higher price of oil will affect the sales of cars (Wardell, et al., 2008). There were some political conflicts which were faced by Tata Motors recently. In their official website, stated that Ratan Tata (Tata Motors CEO) faced difficulties when he wanted to lauch Tata Nano. They have to deal with some emission norms and regulations in order to produce the cars (Tata Motors, 2010). As been reported on Bloomberg Businessweek in 2008, there was conflicts happened between two political parties when Tata Motors wanted to established their factory in Singur (India) and some protests from the local farmer. The conflict was about the agricultural land which Tata used to build the factory. Finally, Tata Motors had to relocate their factory and lost $100 million for relocation cost and over $ 300 million for investment (Banerjee and Guha, 2010). This problem is to prove that how stable the political situation of the country plays an important role in the companys macro environment. III.2. Economical The condition of economy in recent time or in the future can influence the growth and strategy of the company. This is very important because Tata Motors is a multinational company. Tata Motors has to understand the trend of economic growth in every single country that they do business with. This factor tells about the economical factor that surrounding the company such as: economy fluctuation, monetary and fiscal policy, government spending, unemployment level, interest rate, exchange rate, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, etc. In the domestic market, Tata Motors has to pay attention to the economic condition of India. India is a developing country with GDP per capita = $ 3,200 and $ 3.68 trillion national purchasing power (CIA, 2009). As been affected by the depression of global economic, Indias automobile industry also has to bear the consequences. The increase of material price forced Tata Motors to increase its truck price of 3.5% which lead to decrease in demand (Mapsofindia, 2010). In the international market, Tata Motors aims more to developing countries and middle-class family (Peacock, 2008). Each and every country has their own exchange rate or currency and it keep on changing every time. So for being a multinational company, Tata Motors has to concern in any changing of countries currency, especially US Dollar because Tata Motors also listed in New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, 2010). Inflation is also one of the factors, because it affects the interest rate for doing investment in a country (Russell, 2006). The increase or decrease of Inflation, will lead to a lower or higher interest rate. Looking deep to the economical macro environment may help Tata Motors in price setting, demand, cost, and decisional making in the company. III.3. Socio-Cultural Socio-cultural is focus on the attitude of consumer and employee which also affect the strategy. Strategy planning must follow the development of educational level and social assessment in order to see the influence toward the strategy. Some of the factors are: income distribution, attitude, education, health and wellness, changing life style, and demography. Tata Motors must realize the type of customers in India as its domestic market. The attitude and life style of those customers affect the demand for Tata Motors which also influence its decisional making (Tata Motors, 2009). Indian people are careful with their spending. They do not want to buy thing which is not worth it (Sharma, 2010). They are also usually educated and easy access to information. So, Tata Motors has to look at local perspective to market their product (Deoras, n. d.). Besides that, in doing business in 26 countries with 26 different cultures in each country, Tata Motors has to understand and apply different strategy. For example: Tata Motors cannot apply Indian culture to United Kingdom when they purchased Land Rover and Jaguar from Ford (a UK based company), because each place has their unique demographic. Another example would be: When marketing their product, Tata Motors must know the local demand. India for example, they have pretty low GDP per capita and most of the people prefer small car (Alvares, 2010). So, Tata Nano (one of Tata Motors product, a small car with $2500 price and the world cheapest car) seems fit into the market (Nussbaum, 2008). In 2009, Tata Motors faced culture problem in United States whereby affected the sales of their Jaguar. Many American did not want to buy a famous brand like Jaguar if it is owned by Indian company (Kamath, 2009). In focusing their socio-cultural environment, Tata Motors has Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) team which does social activities, donation, charity and caring the environment (Tata Motors, 2008). III.4. Technological Technological environment could affect raw material, operation, product, and company services. The development of technology can give huge opportunity to increase the product output in the company. Government intervention through tax policy and laws also play important role in the development of technology. The willingness to do innovation and taking risk seems to be the important component in this factor. Technological environment such as: The impact of changes in technology, new invention and development, cost and use of technology, and information technology development. This factor could give a competitive advantage to the company. As one of the giant automobile company, Tata Motors has to adapt and develop their product to the technology. The adaptation is not only in the factory machines but also in the car parts. Tata Motors allocate 2% of their Sales to Research Development Department (Tata Motors, 2010). Now, they are working to make environmental friendly buses such as hydrogen fuel cell buses and hybrid cars (Doggett, 2010). Not only in the real world, but Tata Motors also expand their services through internet. Tata Motors has on Online Booking Services which allow customers who has problem with their car to book date to send their car to their workshop. Now, customer also can purchase Tata Nano through internet, Tata Motors expand their business to e-commerce marketing (Marathe, 2009). III.5. SWOT Analysis of Tata Motors SWOT Analysis is a tool to analyze situation and condition of a business. It shows the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of the business. It is helpful to support the decisional making in the company because this analysis shows the current performance of the company and the possible challenges in the future time (Kern, 2001). And these are the SWOT Analysis of Tata Motors which been described from their official website: III.5.1. Strength: Strong brand image Good management Done many good innovations III.5.2. Weaknesses: The market target mostly is lower level citizen Advertisement and promotion still below other companies III.5.3. Opportunities: The acquisition of Jaguar-Land Rover will give more opportunities to produce different product innovation and aim to luxury market segment. The new Tata Nano as the world cheapest car will bring lots of demands. III.5.4. Threats: The tight competitiveness in automobile industry The high oil price The high price of raw materials The International Consideration As being the largest automobile company in India, Tata Motors knew that they could gain more profit by expanding their market globally. Opening business in some other countries outside their domestic market in India will bring benefit to them to be closer to their customers and reach worldwide market. IV.1. Worldwide Branches Tata Motors was established in 1945; however Tata Motors started expanding their business internationally since 1961, they are doing export with over 80 countries in 5 continents. In 1992 Tata Motors reached Europe market by export (Ibef, 2010). They have operations in: Venezuela, Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Zaire, Tanzania, South Africa, Spain, Italy, United Kingdom, Ukraine, Russia, Chile, Australia, Poland, Turkey, Syria, South Arabia, India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Thailand, Malaysia, and Bangladesh (Tata Motors, 2008). With 23,000 employees worldwide, Tata Motors is the first automobile company to be listed in New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in 2004. In the same year also they bought Daewoo Commercial Vehicles Company, a South Korea truck manufacture. Again Tata Motors expand its wings by buying 21% shares of Hispano Carrocera in 2005, a bus maker from Spain. A year later, they joint venture with Thonburi Automotive Assembly Plant Company from Thailand. Moreover, they also cooperate with Marcopolo, a Brazilian company. Furthermore, in 2008 Tata Motors acquired Jaguar and Land Rover from a UK company, Ford (Tata Motors, 2010). IV.2. Tata Motors Concern toward International Business As one of the big player in automobile business, Tata Motors must concern on many important things such as: environment, politics, and cultures. There is a big issue right now in Tata Motors which is related to their concern toward environment. A big demand for their low cost car Tata Nano will bring even more pollution because it is affordable and every people will buy it (Shivani, 2010). It is a good sign for the company but a bad sign to the earth. To focus into Tata Motors international business, United Kingdom is taken as an example. UK market is favourable for Tata Motors. Some of the advantage that they received by doing business in the UK are: Language; because India used English as their official language and so does UK, Tata Motors sees UK market is potential, UK is more attractive than another country also because they have lower entry barriers and they have a good network for dealer which is very important for Tata Motors (Purcell, 2009). Tata Motors has to concern on UK economic condition too, because it is a main market for Jaguar and Land Rover (Subbu, 2003; David, 2008). It is saver for Tata Motors for doing business in UK because the stability of Pound Sterling and UK is a good place to make Foreign Direct Investment (Invest in the UK, 2010). But overall, Tata Motors has to concern on the tight competitiveness in automobile industry in the UK. Huge brands such as: Toyota, BMW, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, etc, are also big players in the market. Therefore, Tata Motors must keep the strong performance by keep developing new product to attract customers. Also keep good relationship with customers to enhance their loyalty (Nemo, 2010). IV.3. Internationalization Method Tata Motors ways to international business such as: joint-venture, subsidiary, exporting, franchise, and dealer distribution. Tata Motors used Joint-venture or associate companies to touch Europe market (Ibef, 2010). They associated with Hispano Carrocera in Spain and become Tata Hispano. Tata Hispano produces coach, big buses, large cars, and regional transport (Auto, 2009). In 2009 Tata Motors bought 100% stake of this company (Indian Info Tech, 2010). Subsidiary or acquisition means when a company is owned and controlled by its parent company after has been acquired (Lennon, 1999). Tata Motors has 30 subsidiaries and 20 of them are outside of India. They gained almost Rs. 6500 crore revenue from the subsidiaries in 2006 which contributed almost 20% of the group revenue (Tata Sons Ltd, 2007). The most profitable subsidiary is Tata Daewoo Commercial Vehicle (TDCV) in South Korea and Telco Construction Equipment Company (Telcon), cooperate with Hitachi in India (Tata Sons Ltd, 2007). Besides doing joint-venture and subsidiary, Tata Motors also exports some of their products. In 2008, Tata Motors exported more than 33,000 units (Tata Motors, 2009). The exported country is spread in 5 continents and more than 70 countries. In the year 2006, Tata Motors exports reached 11% of its total sales (Onkvisit and Shaw, 2004); they focused in South Africa market in that year and exported almost 33% of the total export (Economic Times, 2006). Tata Motors has franchisees in some countries such as: Kenya, Bangladesh, Senegal, Russia, and Ukraine (Tata Motors, 2010). In addition, they have dealers to distribute their cars to their customers in Venezuela (Tata Sons Ltd, 2010). IV.4. Problem Faced by Tata Motors Even though the field of international business seems fertile, but it has so many obstacles and problems. Tata Motors has to be careful to overcome all the problems. Some of the problems would be: Joint venture problem, decreasing of stock, economic downturn in America and Europe, and last but not least is the tight global competitiveness of automobile company (Menezes, 2005). First, joint venture problem. When Tata Motors took over Jaguar and Land Rover in 2008, both them was doing badly (The Economist, 2009). Jaguar sales dropped to less than 65,000 cars in 2007 while Land Rover turned form favourable to unfavourable because they world demand is changing to environmental friendly cars while Land Rover still producing its spendthrift fuel cars. To overcome these problems, Tata Motors made a careful step by making new car design. Tata Motors came with Jaguar X-type which is better in design and also cheaper. They had a warm response from the market. To maintain it, Tata Motors asked help from Jaguar-Land Rover management to take part in the company. In Land Rover case, Tata built Land Rover LRX which is better in fuel consumption and low emission (Kamath, 2009). Another problem would be the decreasing stock of Tata Motors in 2008. This problem rose because of the $ 3 billion debt that Tata Motors loaned to buy Jaguar-Land Rover which could cause higher interest cost and lower down earnings (Kamath, 2009). This problem also compounded by the global economy crisis. Many Investors afraid that Tata Motorss stock would fall down. The best solution to this problem is to increase sales by making lower cost cars which will attract the customers, also support from Tata Group (its parent company) to help Tata Motors to settle their financial problem first (Krishnamoorthy and Koenig, 2008; Moinansari, 2009). Can be said that Tata Motors enter the global market was not in a right time. When it acquired Jaguar-Land Rover from Ford, American and European markets were in a weak point. The best solution in this condition is to keep the good management between Tata Motors and Jaguar-Land Rover, and also good investment in their product line like the latest Tata Nano which is the world cheapest car to reach every corner market (MBA, 2010). Although Tata Motors is a largest automobile company in India, but it only ranked as the 19th largest manufacture in the world (OICA, 2009). So, to face the competitiveness among the companies, Tata Motors must find a way to attract the market, for example: New product line, Make a low price car with a good quality, maintain their safety level, etc (Horner, 2009). The Future Growth of Business Tata Motors performance is also countable in automobile industry. With Tata Group as its parent company, and Ratan Tata as its CEO, Tata Motors is keep growing and expanding their market. In their official website, stated that the company revenue jumped 30.5% from last year and they got Rs. 2,571 crores of profit (Tata Motors, 2010). It is a positive growth from the company. Ansoff Product-Market Matrix was founded by H. Igor Ansoff in 1957. This marketing tool is used to help company to find the best strategy that should they choose to reach the objectives (Harris, 2000; Botten, 2008). Source: Ansoff 1957 cited in Campbell and Craig, 2005 Output from this Ansoff Matrix is a growing strategies which are appropriate for every part of business. Igor Ansoff stated that there are 4 strategies in Ansoff Matrix, they are: 1). Market Penetration, 2). Product Development, 3). Market Development, and 4). Diversification (Graham and Allan, 2008). V.1. Market Penetration The company is trying to reach the existing market with product that has existed too. This is the safest step because it has lesser risk than any other strategies. Usually, companies use this strategy to attract their competitors customers. Tata Motors used this strategy when they reached UK market by take over Jaguar-Land Rover, Tata Motors did not just concentrate on the new products line that they can produce from the two companies above but instead, Tata Motors still producing Tata Indica in the market (Tata Motors, 2003). V.2. Product Development The company offer new product to the present market. This is an important strategy to give fresh breath to the market. The new product will attract more customers from the existing market. The first product development of Tata Motors was Tata Sierra, their first passanger vehicle. Tata Sierra was marketed in 1991. And that was the first step of Tata Motors to develop their product and future strategy (Tata Motors, 2010). Tata Motors also did product development when they started to produce Tata Nano in 2008, Ratan Tata thought about making the world cheapest car and produced it in the domestic market first, India (Tata Motors, 2009). The strategy was to sell affordable car to the people in the same time, expanding their market. Before that, Tata Motors developed the first mini-truck in India called Tata Ace. Tata Ace came to the market in 2005 and in 2 years time, they have sold 96,000 units of Tata Ace (Tata Motors, 2007). By marketing this product, Tata Motors expand their market to mini-truck segment and become market leader (Thakkar, 2010). As been stated in Businessworld website (2010), Tata Motors is planning to put Rs. 10,000 crore for product development. The investment will be used to cover their debt when purchasing Jaguar-Land Rover, to buy new technologies, and any other improvement. V.3. Market Development Use the present product that belong to the company and offer it to a new market. Many MNE usually use this strategy to reach wider market domestically and internationally. Some examples of market development are: expanding to another country, selling the product to a different market segment, and using the product for different function (Graham and Allan, 2008). Tata Motors has developed their market overseas; they reached South Korea market in 2004, Spain market in 2005, Thailand market in 2006, UK market in 2008, and many more. Tata Motors sells their existing product like buses, trucks, and cars in those markets. Tata Motors is planning to make their market even wider by opening new companies in developing countries such as: Indonesia, Philippines, and Turkey (Tata Motors, 2010). V.4. Diversification This is a strategy whereby the company makes a new product and offers it to the new market. Diversification has higher risk than another strategies because the market and the product is new, but in the other side it could bring more profit to the company as it will bring new customers (Graham and Allan, 2008). Tata Motors diversified their product when they entered UK market and took over Jaguar-Land Rover in 2008 (Rao, 2009). It allowed Tata Motors to produced new products line, for example: Jaguar X-Type and Land Rover LRX (Kamath, 2009). New Venture Tata Motors main target market mostly is developing countries because developing countries seem to have fewer barriers to entry and the market is growing (Wentz, 2007). Tata Motors currently is famous with their Tata Nano, a one-lakh-car which is cheap in price; this car is only cost Rs. 100,000 or $ 2,500 (Tata Motors, 2010), this car really fits for developing countries which have lower GDP per capita, and also Tata Motors produces buses and trucks which is suitable for industrial country. It is proven by how they operate business with Thailand, in 2008, they managed to sell 600 big trucks (HT Media, 2009). To expand Tata Motors market, Indonesia will be chosen. Dilip Chenoy, director of Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) says that Indonesia has a very good market and it is showing an optimistic economy (Reuters, 2009). VI.1. Method of Business Entry The method of business entry that should Tata Motors do is Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). They did the same when they entry Thailand market; Tata Motors joint venture with Thornburi Automotive Assembly. And since Indonesia and Thailand has similar market, it will be good if they find a partner in Indonesia and joint venture with them (Bhattacharya, 2010). FDI has a lot of benefits to both sides. It gives advantage to the host country to develop their economy, enhance the technology, more capital and investment, and new product. To the original firm, it gives opportunity to expand the market, easier marketing process, and surely will bring more profit to the company (Graham and Spaulding, 2005). Indonesia has become target for FDI to so many companies in many countries. Lots of Multi National Enterprise (MNE) planted their business there (Afrida, 2010). Foreign Capital Investment Law No. 1 of 1967, amended by Law No. 11 of 1970 regulates FDI (Expat Association Jakarta, 2010). VI.2. Porters Five Forces Analysis This theory was found by Michael Porter. It is used to analyze competition between industries. It says that a company should not be only competitor oriented but also has a clear market vision, Porter explains that our potential competitors are those infant industries, suppliers, customers and buyers, and substitute product producers. Therefore we have to know 5 forces that determine the character of one industry, they are: The threat of new entrants, Rivalry among existing competitors, The threat of substitute products or services, The bargaining power of buyers, The bargaining power of suppliers (Porter, 1979). Source: Porter 1979 cited in Harvard Business Review, 2008 This theory will help us to understand the Indonesia market for Tata Motors, by using its 5 factors it will be easier to know the market strength and opportunity. First is The threat of new entrants. This force is usually influenced by barriers to entry. For example: laws and regulation, access to materials, tariff, investment cost, etc. The more barriers to entry, the lower the threat of new entrants. Tata Motors must be aware for this threat if they want to come to Indonesia. Indonesias market for Tata Nano seems good because most of the cities in Indonesia are crowded and often jammed so the small and cheap car like Tata Nano will be on demand (Chaudhary, 2009). The new entrants which can give threat for Tata Motors such as: Intelligent Geely, a  £1,500 car by China Geely Automobile (The Economist, 2008) and also Maruti Ritz by Maruti Suzuki (Autocar, 2010). So, Tata Motors must maintain the loyalty of its customers by always giving the best services and always produce not only cheap but also good quality cars. Second is Rivalry among existing competitors. It is the most common thing in business world. If the business has many competitors, it could give disadvantages to the company because they share the same amount of customers (Royer, 2005). Tata Motors will have many competitors in Indonesia, such as: Honda, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Daihatsu, and many more. Each brand has their own competitive advantage, so Tata Motors have to make sure that they are strong enough to enter the market by keep innovate their cars, keep the low price, and promote more (Landge, 2010). Third is The threat of substitute products or services. This theory investigates how many substitutes that the product has in the market. The existence of substitute product will block up the producer freedom for price setting (Morrison, 2008). The high price of oil sometimes lower down the demand for car, especially nowadays when the oil price has reached $87/barrel (OPEC, 2010). People might substitute it with bicycle, motorcycle, or hybrid car which is popular recently. The strategies that Tata Motors should do are produce good quality cars, innovative products, and keep update with latest technology (Humad, 2005). Fourth is The bargaining power of buyers. The more products that the company has will bring a more choices to the buyers which will make their position become stronger. Buyers or customers are the main key for company, because they bring sales and profit (Miles, 1995). The target customer for Tata Nano is moderate to low level because it is affordable. The cheap price will bring positive respond from Indonesia market (OConnor, 2008). And the last one is The bargaining power of suppliers. This explains how important a supplier to a company. If lets say there are only a few suppliers in the market, the material will become rare and the bargaining power for the suppliers will be higher (Peng, 2008). Tata Motors Indonesia will still depend on their suppliers in India, so they need to maintain close relationship to the suppliers especially when the demand increases (Sachin, 2010). Conclusion Tata Motors, India largest automobile company has proven that they are countable in automobile industry. They are successful to reach domestic market and global market. Now, Tata Motors has reached market in 26 countries worldwide, from South America, Africa, Europe, and some part of Asia. This condition forces them to know every single countrys political, economical, socio-cultural and technological issues and operates the business according to that. The headquarters in Mumbai (India) is responsible to balance and to control how the subsidiaries in many countries operate their production because political changing and conflicts always exists. Tata Motors might face many competitors from the whole world, but to stand still and conquer the competitors is by developing products and keep innovating, this will give competitive advantage to Tata Motors. In these 2-3 years time, Tata Motors will invest to enhance their technology and cover their debts. This is a very good action from Tata Motors to show how integrated and strong they are. However, Tata Motorss step is not over yet, they are still expanding the business through many strategies. Developing new products and covering new market will always be their main purpose. Their vision is: Best in the manner in which we operate, best in the products we deliver, and best in our value system and ethics Ratan Tata. Word Count: 4677 words

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

The Future Of Intelligence :: essays research papers

An argument between two scientists ,one of them wanting to alter ageing in humans ,and generating life into a controlled environment: A* well, that was in 2000 wasn’t it? But they could not see this happening †¦it was debated, but legalized in 2004. But this is outrageous. C* I haven’t slept for the last 89 hours†¦and I don’t feel numb†¦ A* But how long will it go on ? Will there be any more children ? Would any one want them? Will it end? People may live but will the earth live as long as them†¦.? C* That is true†¦the people will live as long as they desire. They will die only when they wish to ,by damaging their own organs and not replacing or implanting newly made ones into themselves . Children will come only when anyone wants them. The idea of marriage will be lost as any person will be able to create for himself , what I would call a ‘sex object’ which could be a person of desired characteristics based on the desire of the user. the user will then be able to program his own psyche to develop varied sexual interest after introspective moments where he studies his requirements and selects his mood. He will be able to accelerate the growth of this object to feed his hunger If he does change this desire , his earlier sexual interests will be wiped out of his memory ,thus rejuvenating him and urging him to carry on . this would cause a large portion of people to become anti-social and they will draw into reticence . But then , they will be those who will program their minds to make them want to convince people that they should live in harmony and coexist together. They will form societies preaching the lack of communication amongst each other. These societies will have leaders who will play the same role that the pope did in 2000 ,when dolly was cloned . Thus, at the organisational level , life on eath will be same as what it was in 2000 ,or for that matter in any age you wish to consider . A* But then , what reason will people have to live ? What purpose will they define ? C* You cannot imagine this society with same intent as that which was there in earlier years. People will bear relatively same feeling but will have different forms of expression .

Tuesday, September 3, 2019

American Counter Culture Essay -- Hippies Essays Papers

American Counter Culture The Counter Culture Life in America has been molded by many factors including those of the hippie movement in the Sixties. With the development of new technology, a war against Communism, and an internal war against racial injustice, a change in America was sure to happen. As the children of the baby boom became young adults, they found far more discontent with the world around them. This lead to a subculture labeled as hippies, that as time went one merged into a mass society all its own. These people were upset about a war in Vietnam, skeptical of the present government and its associated authority, and searching for a place to free themselves from society’s current norms, bringing the style they are known for today. "Eve of destruction; no satisfaction†¦and a third motif went rippling through the baby-boom culture: adhesive love" (Gitlin 200). The freedom they found came with the help of drugs. Marijuana evolved from its "black and Hispanic, jazz-minded enclaves to the outlying zones of the white middle class young" (Gitlin 200). This new drug allowed a person to open their mind to new understandings and philosophies. But it wasn’t just marijuana that opened the minds of the youth; a new drug known as LSD came into existence: Depending on who was doing the talking, [LSD] is an intellectual tool to explore psychic ‘inner space,’ a new source of kicks for thrill seekers, the sacramental substance of a far-out mystical movement- or the latest and most frightening addiction to the list of mind drugs now available in the pill society being fashioned by pharmacology (Clark 59). With politicians and law enforcement officers looking on the drug as a danger to society, many expert chemists "set up underground laboratories and fabricated potent and pure LSD†¦kept their prices down, gave out plenty of free sa mples, and fancied themselves dispensers of miracles at the service of a new age" (Gitlin 214). It wasn’t just the youth in America who was using these drugs. A statistic from 1967 states that "more American troops in Vietnam were arrested for smoking marijuana than for any other major crime" (Steinbeck 97). The amazing statistic wasn’t the amount of soldiers smoking marijuana; it was the amount of soldiers America was sending over to fight a war that nobody understood. Between 1965 and 1967, troops "doubled and redoubled and ... ... Reagan thought of the hippies as someone who "dresses like Tarzan, has hair like Jane, and smells like Cheetah" (qtd. in Gitlin 217). But with or without such outside influences, the hippies continued to pursue their "make love not war" and "free love" attitudes. No movement in our history defines a cultural change more accurately than the hippie movement in the 60’s. They had their own laws, music, clothes, and writings. The view of what a society should be was a common one to all hippies. Their ideas were big all throughout the late Sixties and early Seventies, and there is still a large hippie population in America today. Works Cited Clark, M. "LSD and the Drugs of the Mind." Newsweek 9 May 1966: 59-64. Country Joe and the Fish. Woodstock. Saugerties, N.Y. June 1969. Gitlin, Todd. The Sixties. New York: Bantam Books, 1987. Hendrix, Jimi. "If 6 Was 9." Axis: Bold As Love. MCA Records. 1987. Rubin, Jerry. We Are Everywhere. New York: Harper and Row, 1971. Steinbeck, John IV. Marihuana Reconsidered. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1971. Sutton, H. "Summer Days in Psychedelphia." Saturday Review 19 Aug. 1967: 36+. "Youth Question the War." Time 6 Jan. 1967:22. American Counter Culture Essay -- Hippies Essays Papers American Counter Culture The Counter Culture Life in America has been molded by many factors including those of the hippie movement in the Sixties. With the development of new technology, a war against Communism, and an internal war against racial injustice, a change in America was sure to happen. As the children of the baby boom became young adults, they found far more discontent with the world around them. This lead to a subculture labeled as hippies, that as time went one merged into a mass society all its own. These people were upset about a war in Vietnam, skeptical of the present government and its associated authority, and searching for a place to free themselves from society’s current norms, bringing the style they are known for today. "Eve of destruction; no satisfaction†¦and a third motif went rippling through the baby-boom culture: adhesive love" (Gitlin 200). The freedom they found came with the help of drugs. Marijuana evolved from its "black and Hispanic, jazz-minded enclaves to the outlying zones of the white middle class young" (Gitlin 200). This new drug allowed a person to open their mind to new understandings and philosophies. But it wasn’t just marijuana that opened the minds of the youth; a new drug known as LSD came into existence: Depending on who was doing the talking, [LSD] is an intellectual tool to explore psychic ‘inner space,’ a new source of kicks for thrill seekers, the sacramental substance of a far-out mystical movement- or the latest and most frightening addiction to the list of mind drugs now available in the pill society being fashioned by pharmacology (Clark 59). With politicians and law enforcement officers looking on the drug as a danger to society, many expert chemists "set up underground laboratories and fabricated potent and pure LSD†¦kept their prices down, gave out plenty of free sa mples, and fancied themselves dispensers of miracles at the service of a new age" (Gitlin 214). It wasn’t just the youth in America who was using these drugs. A statistic from 1967 states that "more American troops in Vietnam were arrested for smoking marijuana than for any other major crime" (Steinbeck 97). The amazing statistic wasn’t the amount of soldiers smoking marijuana; it was the amount of soldiers America was sending over to fight a war that nobody understood. Between 1965 and 1967, troops "doubled and redoubled and ... ... Reagan thought of the hippies as someone who "dresses like Tarzan, has hair like Jane, and smells like Cheetah" (qtd. in Gitlin 217). But with or without such outside influences, the hippies continued to pursue their "make love not war" and "free love" attitudes. No movement in our history defines a cultural change more accurately than the hippie movement in the 60’s. They had their own laws, music, clothes, and writings. The view of what a society should be was a common one to all hippies. Their ideas were big all throughout the late Sixties and early Seventies, and there is still a large hippie population in America today. Works Cited Clark, M. "LSD and the Drugs of the Mind." Newsweek 9 May 1966: 59-64. Country Joe and the Fish. Woodstock. Saugerties, N.Y. June 1969. Gitlin, Todd. The Sixties. New York: Bantam Books, 1987. Hendrix, Jimi. "If 6 Was 9." Axis: Bold As Love. MCA Records. 1987. Rubin, Jerry. We Are Everywhere. New York: Harper and Row, 1971. Steinbeck, John IV. Marihuana Reconsidered. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1971. Sutton, H. "Summer Days in Psychedelphia." Saturday Review 19 Aug. 1967: 36+. "Youth Question the War." Time 6 Jan. 1967:22.

Monday, September 2, 2019

Competitive Strategy and Competitive Advantages Essay

1- Innovation is important because it allows differentiation from competitors, manufacturing is easier and more flexible, the bar for competition is raised, and there is greater market segmentation. 2- Some advantages of technological innovation are: a wider range of products and services can be delivered to people, GDP has increased, people can communicate in every part of the world, the production of food has become more efficient, and it has yield medical treatments to improve medical conditions. The quality of life has improved. It has created new knowledge to solve practical problems. Disadvantages include: harmful pollution to surrounding communities, erosion from fishing and agricultural technologies, elimination of natural habitats, genetic modification, and antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria. 3- Many innovations projects fail to generate an economic return because it takes a long time to research and develop the innovation. Once this product comes out on the market, it has already become obsolete because a new technology is already being researched as technology is constantly changing. Also, clear strategies are not developed by a firm and poor management of the innovation occurs. Chpt 2 – Sources of Innovation 1(a) Advantages of individuals as innovators: deep understanding of their unmet needs and the incentive to find ways to fulfill them, users have no initial intention to profit from their inventions, new industries can be created. A disadvantage include lack of entrepreneurial traits. 1(b) Advantages of firms as innovators include alliances with stakeholders, absorptive capacity is built via the firm’s in-house R&D. A disadvantage is when firms collaborate with complementors, the firms produce a range of goods and the line between the firm and the complementors becomes blurred. 1(c) Advantages of universities: staff is encouraged to engage in research that may lead to innovations. If an invention is commercialized, the income is shared with the individual inventor. The disadvantage to this is the university has the sole discretion to commercialize the invention and not the inventor. 1(d) Advantages of government institutions as innovators include: the government grants innovative small businesses funding, it develops science parks and incubators. The disadvantage to this is, since the government support so much R&D and funds firms, the government spends less money on R&D as the years passes. 1(e) Non profit organizations perform their own research and development activities and also fund the development efforts of others. 2- Traits include: unconventional thinking, analytic skills, articulation of ideas, self- efficacy, tolerance for ambiguity, and a willingness to to overcome obstacles and take reasonable risks. These traits do not necessarily lead to successful inventions because the inventor may know too little or too much about the field. Also, at times the inventor may not have enough support to think creatively. 3- Firms can look at where individuals have worked before and what they have invented/created. Their past background can indicate they have potential to be more creative. 4- If a firm’s culture, structure, routines, etc supports creativity, then it can perhaps encourage creativity in individuals. These things can inspire an individual to be creative because they are being supported by their employer. Google supports creativity; the firm allows employees to have their own creative workspaces and also gives them the employees great independence. This inspires creativity. 5- Collaborative research develops relationships and networks where people can share information, resources, and ideas to develop something that is innovative. Results can be achieved better this way rather than individually. Chpt 3- Types and Patterns of Innovation 1- Some reasons are: R&D costs can be very high, the innovation can probably take years to develop, technology performance can decrease fast depending on how much effort was put into it, the new technology is threatened by discontinuous technologies, the market for the technology is not large enough, people are unwilling to adopt to the new technology, the technology does not fit in with the firm’s current abilities, and products and services relating to the new technology may be unreliable and/or expensive. 2- Well developed firms are likely to adopt to new technologies instead of developing them because new technologies does not have a dominant design. Established firms are very familiar with the dominant design and do not experiment with new technologies. Instead, the established firms focuses on new knowledge/understanding of existing technologies. It tries to improve products and make production more efficient. New entrants are eager to experiment with new technologies because they are introducing something new into the market; they can perhaps build on that to develop market share. 3- The invention of a laptop with Internet is a radical innovation. It is portable, users can access internet on the go without wires, and work can be done from anywhere. The laptop is competence enhancing as it has built the way for other technologies (e.g. tablets). 4- S-Curve technology improvement: in the early stages, the technology is not understood and effort is put into understanding the technology, when the understanding of the technology is better, improvements are accelerated. The technology begins to gain legitimacy, more improvements are made and the performance begins to increase rapidly. When the limits if the technology is reached, diminishing returns is seen. S-Curve technology diffusion: the adoption of a new technology is slow initially because people are unfamiliar with it. As the technology is better understood, it is utilized by the mass market. When the market has become saturated, the rate if new adoptions declines. 5- Customers are slow to adopt new technologies if there is no trend or demand in the market; technology changes everyday, thus improvements are faster and customers may or may no know about technological trends. If a firm develops a technology beyond the current state of the market need, it has a high competitive advantage, considered innovative ( the firm can build on this) and profit can be made. However, if there is no demand for this technology and the firm cannot penetrate the market, the firm’s costs can become very high and it will lose profit. 6- Short technology cycles: IT, software, social networking, engineering, food, music Long technology cycles: medical, auto, energy, finance, Factors: customer needs, demand, competition, markets, R&D, government, laws Chpt 4- Standards Battles and Design Dominance 1- Sources: learning effects- the more a technology is used, the better it is understood and the more efficient and effective it becomes. Performance is increased and costs are reduced because of these factors. Network externalities- the value/benefit of a good increases because other users in large numbers utilize this particular good. 2- Industries with increasing returns to adoption: Internet software/services, e-commerce, banking, security systems, social networking 3- Increase R&D research, patents, market the properly, hire the best and the brightest from all over the world, increase the industry standard and absorptive capacity, develop more complementary technologies. 4- Network externalities and the stand alone functionality 5- Consumers: yes; they can rely on one firm for the technology because the standard is high and the product is good Competitor: no; they do not have the market share, customers, or profit Complementors: yes; more profit and customers

Sunday, September 1, 2019

The Media Violence Debate

THE MEDIA VIOLENCE DEBATE Introduction Television and video games are favorite ways teenagers spend their leisure hours. Parents and teens themselves have wondered about their effects because of numerous concerns raised with regards to the negative influences that these form of entertainment bring. Many of today’s children grow up with a television at home or even in their own rooms and there have been studies dedicated to the analysis of their impact of a young child growing up to adolescence. Young children are heavily influenced by television and video games, many of which are educational.While there are fun educational shows and games that benefit educational development for young children, the choice of video games and television shows are different when they grow up to be teenagers. This is when the problem begins. The negative influences of television and video games are aplenty. Flipping through the channels would surely show situations of violence, sex scenes and expl icit conversations, alcohol and drug use, cursing and verbal obscenities, bad body image reflections, and more.Visiting a games arcade would not only hurt one’s ears because of the noise of gunshots and obscene shouts from the games played, but also expose one to bloody and highly violent ways of killing people. These situations can affect teenagers differently. With some good things that can be learned from many television shows (documentaries and educational shows, for example) and video games (motor skills development), the negative effects of these forms of media outweighs the positive ones. This paper aims at discussing the effects of media particularly on the debate that has been going on with the ill-effects of media violence.Moreover, it provides a bird’s eye view and analysis on the influences of media violence especially on children. Relevant Research and Authors Featured in The Guardian on June 2001, Rushdie's â€Å"Reality TV: A Dearth of Talent and the De ath of Morality† has caught the attention of many moralists who agree on Rushdie's idea and views on the prevalence and existence of reality TV today. Rushdie has presented so many points in his essay that I fully agree on. First, reality television shows are hard to avoid. Their ratings are a proof how people patronize these kinds of shows.Look how many millions of texters would send in their votes for their favorite â€Å"American Idol. † The success of many reality shows in the 1990's made way for networks to think of more programs – the weirder, the better because people had the tendency to watch reality programs that exude the abnormal. Moreover, these reality shows that feature people who have no talent at all, such as MTV’s hit Jersey Shore, contrast to wholesome programs in the past and yes, some modern ones, that showcase celebrities with real talents or programs that are worth our precious time.Marshall McLuhan is not known by many but to those w ho are into the field of media, he is considered to be the first father and leading prophet of the electronic age. This Canadian born writer and critic wrote mostly on the topic of understanding the effects of technology as it is related to the popular culture and how this affected and influenced man and its relationship to one another and to the community as a whole.The phrase â€Å"the medium is the message† was started by McLuhan and stood to mean the form of a medium is embedded in the message itself thereby forming a correlation on how any message is being understood thus influencing change as time goes by. McLuhan (1964) asserts that â€Å"that a medium affects the society in which it plays a role not only by the content delivered over the medium, but by the characteristics of the medium itself. † Furthermore, he emphasizes that any newspaper article or television program does not have any content at all unless the people or the society reacts to them.The message s that are presented by oral, print and electronic media are still depending how it would influence the society as a whole and a person in particular. How the contents or messages come through changes the attitude of the viewers or readers. The messages that each kind of media exposes are dependent on person’s view. He compares movies and television in their manner of viewing and content saying that the visual presentation presents different types of influences. Media as a vessel of influential messages is an essential point to consider to every person who is into the broadcast and print industry.Video Games Violence Video games are a lucrative business anywhere in the world today, claiming US$ 10 billion in sales in the United States alone in one year. However, with this increasing sales come serious concerns about their effects on players, especially teenagers. Researches have been conducted to show the effects of video games on teenagers. Results prove that there is indeed a high possibility and likelihood of aggressive and violent behaviors to be manifested in some adolescents who frequently play violent video games.With these findings, public policy options for limiting distribution of these kind of games are being created; however, the creation and spread of more video games seem too many too stop. In 2006, the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) reported their findings on studies conducted on teenagers who play violent games. These young adolescents show long-lasting effects of abnormal brain functions which include intense emotional arousals and a decrease in their concentration, control, and focus. Television ViolenceAs a child becomes a teenager, his/her hours in front of the television lessens because socialization outdoors, demands of schoolwork, and the lure of other media forms (music, video games, computers, and the Internet) would take a huge percentage of idle time. Watching television is considered to be a relaxing activity wh ich needs less concentration. Rehnstrand (2005) writes that teenagers tend to watch television when they have nothing to do. Yet, even if time spent watching television lessens during these years, parents still have to know what their children are watchingTelevision in moderation is not bad at all. In fact, pre-schoolers can start learning through educational shows, grade school children can learn from nature shows, and adults can be informed with current news. Television can be a source of entertainment as well. However, with the good things, disadvantages cannot be negated. Studies show that teenagers who spend more than four hours daily in front of the television become overweight. They become either more aggressive or become too fearful. Moreover, teenagers develop gender stereotyping and vices from many shows.Direct Effects of Media Violence Researches and studies by professionals in the field of health and psychology have revealed that exposure to media portrayals of violence increases aggressive behavior not only in children but adolescents and adults as well. Reports by mental health institutes state that television, movie, music, the Internet, videogames and printed materials contribute to aggressive behaviors of individuals who are exposed to them. The violence depicted in them is considered risk factors to the developing child, adolescents and to the stability of their families.Individuals who are exposed to media violence often see the world as a sinister place as depicted by television programs. Even cartoon programs for kids are found to contain violence indirectly through their dialogues and actions. Kamalipour et al (2001) stated that with the advent of videocassette sales and rentals, pay-per-view TV, cable TV, videogames, and online interactive media, many more children and adolescents have greater access to media with violent content than had ever been available in previous decades.These depictions make young viewers numb to the ill-effects of violence, aggression, and develop in them fear. Recommendations of Filter Models for Television and Video Games Filtering is a way for parents or others who object to violence in mass media to control what is being viewed and played in their homes. However, it is also categorized by some as censorship. Censorship is an essential and expected element of how people interact instead of cultivating a negative and separate interruption in the regular flow of communication.The major problem centers on where to identify between what is acceptable and which is not, or who is approved and on what criteria to follow. Technology has come up with many types of filtering models, all with one purpose: to opt out parts of a movie or TV program or video game that is not positive for children and teenagers especially. V-chip is used for television receivers that block programs and intended for parents' use for their children . Another is ClearPlay which provides families the choice to watch movie s with less graphic violence, nudity, explicit sex, and profanity.Parental controls and guidance are still deemed to be the best models in filtering violence and other undesirable parts of media. Self-control and discipline are also considered to be essential values that one should have to be able to practice responsibility over the violence depicted different ways. Stimulating or â€Å"Cue† Theories Tate and McConnell (2001) mention about the cue theory, which stated that when angry people are exposed to television or games violence,  those portrayals signal to them to behave aggressively.The elements in the portrayal (guns, particular kinds of characters, etc. ) serve as cues. When these cues are later encountered in real life, viewers are reminded of the  violence, and this reminder increases the likelihood that they will behave aggressively. Viewers who identify with the aggressor in the media  will be more likely to aggress in real life when presented with a simila r situation to that of the media aggressor. And when  the media portray violence as having successful outcome, viewers are more likely to be cued to try aggression as a strategy in real life.Catharsis Hypothesis This hypothesis states that â€Å"If you buy a punching bag, or release your aggression by playing Quake, or by screaming, then you will be less violent and aggressive in day-to-day life, having released your aggression. † According to Greenfield (1984), â€Å"many professionals on this field begged to disagree to this as there are other hypotheses that negate  its formation. However, research testing this catharsis hypothesis found that children who are subjected to media violence showed more overt aggression that analysts blame on lowered inhibitions.More researches show that most deadly effect of media violence is making people numb to the real violence in life. Cultivation Hypothesis The cultivation hypothesis was an approach developed by Professor George Ger bner who used ‘Cultural Indicators' to study whether and how watching television or playing video games may influence viewers' ideas of what the everyday world is like. Theorists assert that television and video games has long term effects  that are  indirect but significant. Gerbner further argues in his theory that television is responsible for shaping viewer's concepts and ideas of social reality.In addition, this theory proposes that mass media is a vital socializing agent that make television watchers believe in the version of reality that it exhibits. Observational Learning This particular theory asserts study findings that exposure to media violence through television, the Internet, and video games greatly influence teenagers’ aggressive behavior. Young children tend to imitate and follow what they see and hear and this theory becomes accurate in their limitations concerning media violence. In addition, it proposes that media violence provides children ideas and views of a world that is really bad and hostile in reality.Considering gender issues when talking about media violence is a serious task that many media watchers are identifying. However, there are also issues that media violence that depicts women has just the same effects of media violence as a whole. Feminists view this differently since they adhere to the fact that there is a grave impact of the degree of media violence if it consists of women issues. Media Influence Media is known to be one source of a steady hindrance in the communication among families, individuals, and society in general.It has played a significant role in shaping and portraying opinions and viewpoints of the public, forming a bond between the nations to the people while reproducing the total image of society. Criticisms as early as the middle of the 20th century suggested that media was able to lessen and restrict a person’s capacity to think and act independently. Occasionally, this is because o f the influence suggestive of the many telescreens and printed writings. The media has indeed a very clear social and cultural effect upon society.This is can be explained upon their capacity to span and touch a huge audience with a strong and influential message. Marshall McLuhan (1964) says â€Å"the medium is the message† as a tool of expounding how the distribution of a message can almost always be more vital than the content of the message itself. It is by the convincing power of media like television, radio, and print that messages span their target audiences. Television and radio broadcasting, for example, have a huge volume of control over what the public watches and hears and the frequency they are viewed.This is an important aspect of traditional media that is challenged by changing the way the audience participates. The Internet today also has made a space for more mixture of opinions in the political, social, and cultural realms and an increased level of participa tion as well. Media Violence in Reality TV The reinvention of reality TV into a more horrible genre is proven by how such sports documentaries are programmed. Sometimes, some programs get too out of bound when the life of participants is being put out for the sake of fun.And it is gruesome how these participants are willing to risk their lives for the money at stake and maybe a shot at stardom, if lucky. In the past decade, we have witnessed how television drama has turned from wholesome to violent and sexually explicit. Moreover, the comedy is becoming worse with puns obviously intended (Halloran, 1975). Along with this, reality TV has turned into a genre that many critics of media assert showcases more violence, more competition, more hurtful episodes, more vanity, and more sexuality as a version of reality.All these are offered to an audience who are willing to gobble these all up. It is a reality as well that many people enjoy reality TV shows as evidenced with the constant rati ngs that show business is doing well. The reasons behind this loyal patronage of reality shows are because people tend to identify themselves with the participants, they enjoy the competition, they are thrilled with the drama that are spiced in these shows (Earles et al, 2002). For the producing networks, it is not at all a sweat to get participants who are willing to undergo such rigid or too easy tasks.The lure of money and instant fame is too tempting to pass. Reality TV shows abound because of the pull it has on the audience share. However, many analysts agree that these kinds of shows that are being aired nowadays are getting ethically and morally questionable – compared to the reality TV series that were harmless and outright wholesome. Furthermore, reality TV shows clearly idolize and worship superficial human aspects like body and facial beauty. This becomes a very bad example for the youth who make up a big bulk of the audience share.Reports say that 3 out of 4 teena gers have reality shows as their favorite TV shows (Rushdie, 2001). Is reality television altering our values in a negative way or is just a reflection of already existing values? Definitely these shows generally impacts audiences in a negative way. In fairness for those shows who do not intend to exude negativism, they still do so. Although subtle or subconsciously, these shows are to blame for the erosion of ethics and morals especially among the young audiences who also enjoy the competition and vanity being portrayed in many of these types of programs.Parental guidance cannot seem to curtail such viewings and minors are taking a peek and sample of the â€Å"badness† involved reality shows. Yes, they entertain audiences because the plots excite the viewers. Remember that real people are writing the scripts and thinking of the plots. The production team is further made of real people. Therefore it follows that the values of the creators are shown, directly or indirectly, in their programs. Graphic Novels as an Agent of Media Violence The American comic book took shape in the late 1930s with the introduction of Superman and then Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain America and more.Arriving at the end of the Depression and ruing the first few weeks of World War II, comics provided cheap, thrilling entertainment that appealed to both the young and the soldiers (Rehnstrand, 2005). Comic books became a very influential and popular element of the entertainment world. As the medium progressed, it embraced a wide variety of genres like romance, horror, crime, science fiction, war, humor and adventure. Comic book sales soared up after World War II but suffered a setback in the mid-fifties brought about by anti-comic book hysteria.The Comic Books Authority whipped up a lot of no-noes on the plots and illustrations. The medium rebounded back in the 1960's this time with a brand new style of comic story telling. The late 1960's brought about the start of today's graphi c novels which disregards the restrictions of the Comic code? More and more content was created and marketed as graphic  novels. 1986 was a breakthrough year when two critically acclaimed bestselling books were published as graphic novels: Maus, and Watchmen. The late nineties introduced Manga, a type of graphic novel from Japan that was accepted warmly in the United States.Today, like their counterpart in prose, graphic novels cover every conceivable genre including fiction, biography, history, journalism, education, crime, horror, fantasy, romance, adventure, memoir, humor, politics, and many more. After a century of growth, the comics that once started for amusement in newspapers have matured and are beginning to enjoy a place in the literary world. Conclusion Television and video games can be good sources of education and entertainment for anybody at any age or gender. However, teenage is considered to be a crucial age when an individual is quite adamant to become an adult or remain a child.The influence of media on teenagers has resulted on many emotional, social, and psychological dilemmas. Studies and research have been dedicated to analyzing the effect of media, particularly television and video games on teenagers. According to Rhenstrand (2005), playing video games is known to heighten the aggressive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors of teenagers. Video games can be more harmful than violent television shows or movies since they are more interactive, requiring the player to identify with the aggressive character.Some scientific studies state that the fewer teenagers play video games or watch television, the less aggressive they are. Attention has been centered on the concern of television and video games’ portrayal of violence, vices (smoking, drugs, and alcohol), and sex. With violence, television is passing the viewing of hurting and killing while video games needs the active participation of players. It is recommended that more research wo uld be conducted on the behavioral outcomes of interactions on violence and sex in video games and the implications of passive participation of teenagers while watching television.However, there should be careful and strict guidelines that the viewing public should follow in order to ensure that their influences would be beneficial, especially for the young viewers. The influence is so great that it has made changes in the way people act and think. These media forms are here to stay, for sure. Let us just hope that it will be innovated to be used as an instrument of change for the better and not for worse. References Earles KA, R Alexander, M Johnson, J Liverpool, and M McGhee. 2002. Media influences on children and adolescents: violence and sex†. Journal of the National Medical Association. 94 (9): 797-801. Greenfield, Patricia Marks. 1984. Mind and media: the effects of television, video games, and computers. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. Halloran JD. 1975. â₠¬Å"The Mass Media and Violence. † Forensic Science. 5. 3: 209-17. Kamalipour, Yahya R. , and Kuldip R. Rampal. 2001. Media, Sex, Violence, and Drugs in the Global Village. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. McLuhan, M. 1964.Understanding media; The extensions of man. New York: McGraw-Hill. Rehnstrand, R. 2005. The longitudional effects of media violence (television and video games) on violence in children into adulthood.Starred paper (M. S. )–St. Cloud State University. Rushdie, Salman. 2001. Reality TV: A Dearth of Talent and the Death of Morality. The Guardian. Tate, E. and McConnell, K. 2001. The mass media and violence from McKie, Craig and Benjamin Singer, (eds. ) Communications in Canada Society, 5th edition. Toronto: Thompson Educational (TEP)