The Natural History Museum in London from 19th Century to Modernity Essay - 1

The Natural History Museum in London from 19th Century to Modernity - Essay Example Alfred Waterhouse changed the design from Renaissance to German Romanesque, which came to be known as the Waterhouse building up to today. This is an analytical survey at the museum’s space in relation to its interior, creator and the 19Th century society. The space inside the museum is extensive with beautifully decorated ceiling panels displaying pictures of plants from all over the world. The museum has extensive halls that house different departments within the museum. The entrance to the museum is located between two towers representing the Victorian style of architecture. There are rounded arches, made of bricks, and layered with terracotta. This design was inspired by the basalt columns at Fingals cave in western Scotland. Inside the entrance, there is a large hall with a grand staircase that leads up to the second floor that houses the galleries. Albert Waterhouse’s artistic mind made him leave the bare iron and glass exposed to express the beauty of the building materials. The outer design comprising of terracotta was both for aesthetic purpose and practical reasons (Anderson, 2004 p5). The blue colour, of the terracotta designed in relief, portrays different plants and animals as well as offering protection from the c haracteristic Victorian acidic smog. The halls in the museum are high ceilinged creating a comfortable ambience for visitors. High above the halls, there is an exhibition of sorts in the form of panels that depict various species of plants from around the world. The painted panels, on the ceiling, are in dark shades, which make the ceiling appear lower than it is. This makes a person feel intimate with the room; the vast spaces do not overwhelm people. The lighting in the museum is cleverly done so as not cause reflective glares when viewing the exhibits. The light emanates from hidden lighting sources on the walls and panels for effect and for protecting the exhibits from

Strategic management assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Strategic management assignment - Essay Example Now-a-days the organizations are bringing rapid, volatile and discontinuous changes. It makes strategic management more multifaceted and challenging. There are two principal drivers that influence the nature of competitors’ background. These will help the organizations to adopt and maintain that change. Technology and global economy are two important drivers of businesses. Therefore, substantial changes in these drivers can affect the strategic management process of an organization. Several models can help the CEOs to respond to the discontinuous changes. The combination of those two change approaches is suitable for the transformation of the organizations. This approach is considered as holistic approach. This holistic approach will help to produce effective flexibility to the businesses to counter the uncertain situations. It is necessary to have a strategic change plan that can be learned in order to relieve the fear of this change among the employees. Critical learning is indispensable. It will help to create a knowledge based work environment of understanding the critical problems. Moreover, transfer of knowledge will help to enhance the decision making ability in a situation of sudden change. Rapid, Volatile and Discontinuous Change Rapid and volatile organizational change is an intentional and structured approach that helps to transit the employees, groups and organizations from a current position to a significant future position. On the other hand, discontinuous change can be defined as sudden, unintentional and non-incremental change that threatens the power structure and existing traditional authority (Hubbard, 2004). The organizations implement rapid and volatile changing process to improve the internal structure of an organization. This process helps the management of the organization to capitalize on the potential opportunities and to meet with the changing customer demand rapidly by effective redesigning of product and services (Foster & Br owne, 1996). On the other hand, the objective of the discontinuous change process is to identify and rectify the current organizational problems. The organizations implement this change to establish new strategies to improve the organizational performance. Leading organizations around the globe are trying to capitalize on the potential opportunities by implementing these changes. Moreover, continuous changes in the organization required for any changes in external environmental factors help the organization to maintain a healthy work environment and achieve competence in the industry. It is important for the information managers to review the environmental factors and identify the current trends. This strategic audit planning will help the organizations to understand the external and internal information services (Sutton, 1999). PEST analysis is a common tool that helps the organization to assess the external factors, such as political, social, technological and economical changes. Another important common strategic audit tool is SWOT analysis. It helps the organization to assess the internal factors. This SWOT analysis considers internal strengths, weaknesses and external opportunities and threats. Following is the strategic management model that used to assess the role, impact and implication of rapid, volatile and discontinuous organizational change. An important principle of strategic managem

SABMiller Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

SABMiller - Essay Example While the company itself is in those who consume its products do not know many instances, its brands are quite popular among the consumers. In many of the African nations, in which it has businesses, the brands under SABMiller are often the most popular. SABMiller is a company that has throughout its history, displayed a high capacity for being able to manage and develop its brands to a high quality level that many of its rivals have rarely been able to match. This skilful management of its brands in different countries has enabled the company to become highly successful, as those who work for it receive a high level of training to ensure that the quality of its products is retained. The wide range of products that this company produces means that it has to hire and maintain a large workforce in order to be able to function effectively. Unlike other companies, SABMiller has since its founding, been extremely careful with the management of its staff, not only because of the need to ma ke profit continuously, but also to further the good reputation that the company has always had. Because of the skill that SABMiller has been able to display in the production of its products in diverse countries, it has been able to achieve success on the international scene where other companies take years to achieve the same. One would claim that SABMiller’s success is based not only on the quality of the company’s products, but also on the strategies that it has been able to implement to make its operations successful. This company was founded as South African Breweries towards the end of the 19th century in South Africa, and for many years afterwards, the functions of this company were restricted to Southern Africa. This is because of the fact that this company had established an overriding position in the southern African market. However, in 1990 this company decided to venture into the European market, and in 1999, it managed to get listed in the London Stock Ex change, with the intention of raising enough capital to make acquisitions. It is in 2002 that the company was able to acquire Miller Brewing Company in North America, and with this acquisition, the company chose to change its name to SABMiller (Hobday, 2002). A series of hostile takeovers in Latin America and Europe saw the swift growth of the company, and this eventually brought it to its status as the second largest brewer in the world (Bruss 2002, p.10). The company’s innovation has ensured that it has remained at the top of the world’s brewing industry and an example that can be given of this innovation, is the recent introduction of Impala Cervejas, the first cassava beer that has been produced for commercial purposes in Africa (Appropriate Technology 2012, p.23). This company has about 70000 employees all over the world and its operations have, according to its 2012 records, it managed to bring in revenue of just over 21 billion dollars (Buck 2012, p.49). In Afri ca, the activities of SABMiller are conducted in 15 countries, all of which are in the Sub-Saharan region. This company has been dominant in the region for many years and because of this, its brands are well known by the people. The large customer base of SABMiller’s products has ensured that the company has been successful in the region and has creates a loyal market for its products (Peaple, 2012). A further 21 countries in Africa are enclosed all the way through a strategic alliance with the Castel group which has ensured that SABMiller has become the largest brewer in Africa, by market share, a feat that has not been achieved by any other brewing company on the continent. In addition to the brewing activities of SABMiller in Africa, it is under license from Coca-Cola to bottle soft drinks on behalf of the latter

Economic Indicators Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Economic Indicators - Essay Example The major pro cyclic economic indicators are GDP, Interest rates, Investment, Inflation, Labor etc. While the main counter cyclic economic indicators are Unemployment, International Trade, and Federal Finances etc. The Gross Domestic Product is one of the most significant direct indicators in the economy. It is vital to monitor the growth rate of the GDP. Any deviation from the range tends to have a significant impact on the economy. An increase in the growth rate above the general level may lead to high inflation and poor performance in the rate of growth leads to a recession. Interest Rate is a pro cyclic or direct economic indicator. They are used to manage the booms and slumps in the business cycle and finely tune it. The interest rates fall in recessions and they rise in inflationary periods. International trade is the swapping of goods and services between countries, which tends to have countercyclical nature. When an economy is prospering and experiencing an economic boom then people choose to spend a bigger part of their income on imported and local goods and services, however, exports donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t have such alterations. This in turn upsets the balance of trade, as net exports are negative, which results in more being imported and less being exported. Whereas, when an economy is in a slump, people tend to spend less on imported goods and services and just focus on the basic necessities. This encourages more goods and services to be exported and has a favorable impact on the balance of trade as less is being imported.