What Challenges Do You Think the Company Faced in Changing Theculture Essay Example

What Challenges Do You Think the Company Faced in Changing Theculture? Paper What challenges do you think the company faced in changing theculture? Every organization has a culture which is a set of beliefs, values andstandard that set the quality for how employees are to act, how work is to bedone, and what image to represent to the world. The Ritz-Carlton has a strong culture whereas others are less welldefined. Ritz-Carlton motto â€Å"We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladiesand Gentlemen. According to Simon Cooper, the President and Chief  Operating Officer of Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC, they chose the mottobecause they don’t want their employees to think of themselves as a servile;their employees might not have the wealth, knowledge or education of their  guest but they do have the same values. Cooper added culture keeps thecompany functioning at high levels, while keeping it profitable and enabling itto win awards; Ritz-Carlton culture is about the relentless and unremittingdesire to deliver world class service. However, Ritz-Carlton may be faced asubstantial challenges if the culture has change. Here are some of thechallenges: Research When corporate culture no longer supports the business strategy, change isneeded. Ritz-Carlton may needs to do a lot of research to find out why exactlyculture change is necessary for them. Besides of that, they also need to avoidthe negative effect which may affect employees’ job performance. Employment Employees might affected by the change of the culture. For instance, their  employees might not be work efficiently and may have a negative attitude. We will write a custom essay sample on What Challenges Do You Think the Company Faced in Changing Theculture? specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on What Challenges Do You Think the Company Faced in Changing Theculture? specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on What Challenges Do You Think the Company Faced in Changing Theculture? specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Furthermore, employees afraid that they might have to do things that theyhave never done before or even lose the jobs because of the culture changewhich is the most powerful restraining force. Ritz-Carlton does not ‘hire’employees; they ‘select’ new members for the Ritz-Carlton team. Ritz-Carltonselects candidates by looking at their attitudes and values, instead of skillsand experience. If candidates have years of experience but do not fit in withthe strong service culture, they are simply not selected. Organizational Performance Organizational performance mainly affected by its culture, so there isnecessary to change when the culture is no longer support the businessstrategy. Before doing so, Ritz-Carlton should analyse, identify and developthe organisations capacity for changing the culture to prevent the possibility of  image spoiled. [pic][pic][pic] [pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic] Period of Time Changing of organisational culture is an on-going and never ending processwhich may take years of time to implement and feel the full benefits. Therefore, changing the culture may be tedious for Ritz-Carlton. What is the Ritz-Carlton doing to maintain this new culture? Company culture plays an important role in maintaining a cultivatingenvironment for employees which in turn helps company to be at lead in their  businesses. As a company grow, its cultural values are refined andstrengthened. Every organization has its own unique culture or value set. Theculture of the organization is typically created unconsciously, based on thevalues of the top management or the founders of an organization. According to Cooper, a great employee culture comes from their ladiesand gentlemen as they call their employees, being fully engaged in Ritz-Carlton business. One of the things they try to do is to marry-up their guestengagement and employee engagement which mean they searching for andfinding the evidence that a great employee results in a great guestexperience. To maintain this new culture, Ritz-Carlton has empowered their  employees. There are a few of strategies that Ritz-Carlton used to maintainthis new culture: Living the Service Values Every manager and front line employee will carries a trifold pocket card thatbears the title ‘Gold Standards’ but is referred to as the ‘Credo Card’. The‘Credo Card’ stated of 12 service value guidelines which intended to helpthem in create the mystique to attract luxury travellers. The Ritz-Carlton is notalone in create the rules and guidelines to keep employees focused oncompany values, however the Ritz-Carlton does stand apart in how itreinforces the values with every employees, every day. Define and Refine This principle is emphasizes the importance of defining the experience youwant customer to have with your employees and explores how to refine theexperience based on what is relevant to your customers. Each day every Ritz-Carlton around the world, employees from each department will gather tohave 15 minutes of meeting known as ‘line-up’. This daily line-up is to reviewthe guest experience, resolve issues, and discuss the way to improve theservice. Rewards Ritz-Carlton motivating and rewarding their employees, who have exceededtheir expectations, surpassed the highest goal with The Ritz-Carlton IncentiveAwards. Furthermore, managers give out the Gold Standard Coupons tothose employees who are ‘caught’ meeting the hotel standards for quality. These coupons can be exchanged for weekend accommodations at the hotel [pic][pic][pic][pic] [pic][pic] or merchandise in the hotel’s gift shop. Every quarter, a Five-Star EmployeeAward is granted; with the winner receiving a five-night stay for two at a Ritz-Carlton anywhere in the world, along with round-trip tickets for two andUS$500 allowance. Empowered through Trust The Ritz-Carlton trusts their employees and provides them a better workplaceso that they come to work with a smiley face and provide excellent customer  service. Deliver WOW Stories have the power which motivate, influence and reinforce the company’svision, culture and values. In the line-up, someone will read the ‘WOW’ storiesof the day. The same story is shared across hotels in 21 countries, for  example a housekeeper will hear the same story as a waiter in Hong Kong. ? There is one family staying at the Ritz-Carlton of Bali, had carried aspecialized eggs and milk for their son who suffered from foodallergies. Upon arrival, they found that the eggs had broken and themilk had soured. Managers and dining staff searched the town butcould not find the appropriate items. However, the executive chef  remembered that there is a stall in Singapore which selling theproducts. So he called his mother-in-law, asked her to buy the productsand fly to Bali to deliver to them, which she willing to do. In the above case, the Bali is intended to reinforce the service values of No. 7which is â€Å"use team work to meet individual needs of our guest†. Provide Training Employees who join Ritz-Carlton will have two days of nothing but trainingabout Ritz-Carlton. Employees will have two days of orientation whichincludes meals and restaurants and training in meeting rooms, they aretreated like a guest. After that, they will receive 30 days of training from acertified trainer from the department. On day 21, new employees are asked togive the management feedback on how they can improve their trainingprogram for future training and recertification. Additionally, every employeewill get a minimum 130 hours of training every year which spans training for  their department, company culture, language and computer skills. Besides of  that, every employee will also go through annual recertification after they passwritten test, role play and interviews on culture and skill.

Latin Words and Expressions in English

Latin Words and Expressions in English Why Learn About Latin Words and Expressions in English?: Some excellent reasons you might want to know more about Latin words and expressions in English are: Youre studying for a vocabulary/admissions test.Youre a non-native English speaker puzzled by the vocabulary.Youre developing a character for a novel.You need a new word for a specific technical purpose.You are a stickler for language purity and dont want to create a hybrid word inadvertently. [See this polyamory t-shirt for more information.] The Latin Connection With English: Its confusing to hear that English doesnt come from Latin because there are so many Latin words and expressions in English, but vocabulary is not enough to make one language the daughter language of another. Romance languages, including French, Italian, and Spanish, come from Latin, an important sub-branch of the Italic branch of the Indo-European tree. The Romance languages are sometimes called daughter languages of Latin. English is a Germanic language, not a Romance or Italic language. The Germanic languages are on a different branch from the Italic. Just because our English language doesnt come from Latin doesnt mean all our words have a Germanic origin. Clearly, some words and expressions are Latin, like ad hoc. Others, e.g., habitat, circulate so freely that were not aware theyre Latin. Some came into English when Francophone Normans invaded Britain in 1066. Others, borrowed from Latin, have been modified. Latin TranslationA Biography of LatinThe Spread of LatinIndo-European Languages Latin Words in English: There are many Latin words in English. Some are more obvious than others because they are italicized. Others are used with nothing to set them apart as imported from Latin. You may not even be aware theyre Latin, like veto or etc. Latin Words in EnglishMore Latin Words in EnglishLatin Adjectives in EnglishLatin and Greek Geometry TermsLatin Religious Words in English Latin Words Incorporated in English Words: In addition to what we call borrowing (although there is no plan to return the borrowed words), Latin is used to form English words. Often English words contain a Latin word as a prefix. These Latin words are most often Latin prepositions. Many Latin words come into English with the preposition already attached to the verb. Sometimes the ending is changed to suit the needs of English; for instance, the verb may be converted to a noun. English Words With Latin PrepositionsGreek and Latin Prefixes and Suffixes For English WordsLatin Color WordsBorrowed Words Latin Sayings in English: Some of these sayings are familiar in translation; others in their original Latin (or Greek). Most of them are profound and worth remembering (in either the classical or modern language). Latin Sayings in EnglishAncient Proverbs in Pictures More - Words and Ideas: Words and Ideas, edited by William J. Dominik, contains word-building techniques for those who want to learn how to combine bits of Latin or Greek to form proper words in English or for those interested in the meaning of those word components. Latin Grammar in English: Since English doesnt come from Latin it follows that the internal structure or grammar of English is different from Latin. But English grammar as it is taught in classes on grammar is based on Latin grammar. As a result, some official rules make limited or no sense. One that is familiar, in its violation, from the Star Trek series, is the rule against a split infinitive. The Star Trek sentence contains the split infinitive to boldly go. Such a construction simply cant happen in Latin, but is obviously easy to do in English, and it works. See William Harris on how we wound up with the Latin grammar albatross.

Vanity Presses

Vanity Presses The world would be glorious indeed if authors could write then hand off the manuscript to an entity that published the book, put it out there, and made it sell. Wed come up from our deep mental state of storytelling, occasionally check on statistics, cash the checks, and create to our hearts content. We wouldnt have to do social media every day. No speaking in public. No guest blogging. No shaking hands with bookstore owners or cold-calling book clubs in hopes of being selected for one of its 2016 choices. But an author isnt allowed to just write. He is if he doesnt care how many books sell, but if he isnt writing to be read, why is he writing at all? Here lately, Ive had a rash of requests from frustrated new authors. Way more than usual. They state they have a publisher who believes in their work, and for their investment of $3,000, $4,000, even $9,000, their book would be everywhere . . . even on Amazon! So, lets define a vanity press for those of you who are not sure how to avoid these people who will take your money and not care whether you sold your first child into slavery to do it. 1) They offer an entire turnkey program so you dont have to worry . . . for a four-figure fee. 2) They try to sell you a marketing package. Sorry, but you are the marketer. And bookstores know these vanity presses and dont want to read those pretty marketing publications that supposedly go out to an eager world of book buyers. 3) The price on your book is higher than the norm. How do you know this? Because you have done your homework and look in the bookstores or on Amazon to see what the norm is. Twenty dollars for a romance paperback isnt the norm. 4) They offer payment plans. 5) Their websites talk more about how to publish than about the books that have been highly successful. Their business is selling publishing packages, not books, unless they are selling those books to hungry authors. The reader is not the focus of their business. Most of you know to avoid vanity presses. There are too many other ways to publish in which you have more control and make far more money, but like anything in publishing, you have to do the promotion. If you write a book for family and friends and dont care about how books are made or sold, then vanity press publishing might be the answer. But the next time you are in the bookstore, take a list of vanity presses with you . . . and let me know how many of their books you see on the shelves.

The Influence of Globalization as Exampled through the Silk Road Essay

The Influence of Globalization as Exampled through the Silk Road - Essay Example The roads also provided routes for conquest and violence, reorganizing boundaries. While there was a brief period of conquest such as the Mongolian invasion, during the 13th century the majority of exchange along the Silk Road was peaceful. The Silk Road provided a pathway for journeys that can be compared to today’s globalization as the distribution of information and commerce becomes a part of a system of interactions between nations. The Silk Road was the method of creating international trade before the notion of sea travel took over as a means towards expanding resource opportunities. Through international trade, a population has the potential to acquire luxury items from a distance through trade with other centers of population. The Silk Road created a connection between nations, spanning Europe in the Mediterranean Sea area, through Persia and into China and Korea, and then down into the Java area, back through India, Arabia, down to Somalia, and then back up through Eg ypt, using water routes that were not too far from destinations and the shoreline. Christian discusses the vast number of roles, such as teachers, pilgrims as well as merchants that occurred through the existence of the large numbers of trade opportunities within the ancient and medieval worlds. The trade routes provided for a complete and complex world that interconnected the African and Asian worlds with Europe, creating a great deal of technological development and influence.1 Despite modern contexts of understanding about the divisions between the West and the East, with a disconnected idea about Africa as a part of the development of Western society, these trade routes created deep influences and a great amount of world development that would eventually affect the New World as it was developed in the second millennia. Palmyra and Petra, as an example, were centers of art which flowed into the lower regions of Europe, influencing the development of artistic motifs in the West. A s well, the concept of coins for trade was developed in Anatolia, which spread through the Silk Road worlds, including the Mediterranean. There were a great number of types of items that were traded along these routes of trade, but the reason that they were called the ‘Silk Road’ is because of the rich resources of silk that were available. Silk was developed at a very early time period within Asia and became a highly valued commodity for trade. Patterned silks are available from the regions of Persia and India from the 6th century, located in tombs that archaeologists have retrieved and been able to examine for the methods of weaving. Chinese silks are not readily available for modern study and are known primarily through literary referencing from that time period.2 Many of the problems with studying the ancient world is that so much is dependent upon reports, rather than through physical and tangible evidence. Because many nations appeared to have mastered the creatio n of silk fabric after the 6th century, it is likely that increases in trade occurred after that time, allowing samples and the technology to be transferred throughout the region.3 There are a great number of examples that explain the value of silk. There is little evidence that India held it as a valued commodity, but a great number of examples that show that China believed it to have great value. Xinru

Deliberate and Emergent Strategies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Deliberate and Emergent Strategies - Essay Example he business, emergent strategies are formed with the inherent belief that things will change in an unexpected manner and therefore, any strategy formed is destined to fail. Comparing the two, emergent strategy is more realistic and conservative compared to the deliberate strategy, which is more optimistic and long-sighted. The fact that emergent strategy provides a relatively pessimistic view of realization of the plans does not mean that planning is inherently purposeless. Instead, emergent strategy encourages the parties involved in strategic planning to prioritize their efforts and focus upon achievement of the short-term goals rather than the long-term goals as the future is uncertain. Emergent strategies might help with a future planning process by identifying milestones in the near future, and working out ways to achieve them. The potential consequences of ignoring emergent strategies would be misuse and wastage of time, efforts, and resources. The strategic plans that took so much time and effort making might never realize and even worse, the short-term plans or intermediate milestones would not be

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Computer Science Essay

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Computer Science Essay Electronic mail as known as email is a function of sending and received message over the internet. Basically, protocol is a standard method use by sender or recipient to transmit information. It can also be explain by to deal with email, sender or recipient must access to mail server by a mail client to exchange information by using variety of protocol such as SMTP, POP and MIME. 1.2 Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) SMTP is only use to send email, but not received email. SMTP provides a set of code that allow server to break up the email message to different parts of categories that can understand by the server and Its a kind of simplify the communication between server and email. For users, they can see the interface of their email software when writing an email message, but once the message has been send out on the internet, everything is change into string of text that can understand by the server. This string of text is separated by numbers and code words that used to identify the purpose of each section and SMTP provides these codes to let email server understand what they means. SMTP also can set up communication rules between the servers. For example, server can identify themselves and will announce what communication they are trying to perform and the other server will authorize and identify the operation, if something went wrong, the receiving server may reply an error message. The greater advantages of SMTP are simplicity and trustworthy. SMTP provides the simplest form of sending an email address between various computer and network. Users only need to enter recipients email address and type in email message to send and the email will go through a simple process from the SMTP to exchange server for the recipients computer. Since the SMTP is simple, email message can be sent quickly and easily. In addition, SMTP is trustworthy because when the outgoing message is not successfully sent, SMTP will keep trying to re-send the same email message until its successful. Since SMTP was created in the early of 1980s. SMTP was build according to basic concept of server communication, because of that SMTP consists of several disadvantages. In those days, Internet was only use by very close community that generally trusted each other, that cause SMTP has lax security holes. For example, it is easy to send email message with fake sender address. This also cause many email-based viruses spread over the internet. Although there have been improve has been made, but it can still cause problems. Most servers these days actually use an updated version of SMTP called Extended Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (ESMTP) that allow to sends pictures or music file through their email program. 1.3 Post Office Protocol (POP) Post Office Protocol (POP) is used to retrieve email from a central base where the email stored and designed to support offline email processing. When the email is delivered to the server, a remote email client will periodically download the messages from the server and filter them into appropriate users folder. Once the email has been received from the client, the message will be permanently deleted from the email server. One of the advantages of POP is once the email message is sent to the client, the message can be read immediately whether user is connected to the internet or not. Furthermore, POP is a very popular email protocol that all email clients can support it. There is a disadvantage of POP is inadequate for the mobile user. Because of email message is downloaded to recipient PC, the user will only able to access the message from one PC. According to this, POP may cause hazel and inconvenient for user to read message only from one PC. Diagram 1: POP email system 1.4 Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) MIME allows user to transfer image, sound, and program as non-text email format attachment in email across the internet. MIME was introduced to improve SMTP in order to send message other than ASCII characters through web client and web server. Now, MIME provides the following extension to email: Non-text attachment such as video, images, audios and other multimedia messages. Send multiple objects within a single message. Write header information in non-ASCII character sets. Write text with unlimited length. Character sets other than US-ACSII. Nowadays, almost every mail is transmitted using MIME format through SMTP. Content type that defined by MIME also benefits Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and other communication protocol in email transmission function. As MIME can support character sets other than 7-bit ASCII, languages based on other alphabets can be display correctly presented in a basic email. In turn, SMTP that only support 7-bit ASCII has the limit of languages display that only suitable for writing in English and other small number of language. Moreover, MIME allows user to send other type of information such as images, sounds videos and software program which was not possible to do so in earlier time. In additional, to identify the true nature of a file that is being used in transmission, MIME provides header information to client who received the transmission and selects the protocol to transmit data according to the header. Furthermore, to ensure non-text attachments will be transferred successfully with maximum protection, MIME used Base64 encoding to encode the non-text information into text when email transfer. Overall, these all explain the advantages of MIME bring to email user nowadays. Not surprisingly, there have been a numbers or disadvantage of MIME. For example, the encoding process of MIME may somehow increase the complexity of gateways because a 7-bit world has to encode 8-bit message. Furthermore, a multipart message could lead to passing same data to decode several time. Nevertheless, it now has to pass only the lower-level parts to encode rather than whole message to reduce troublesome. 2.0 How to apply the SMTP and MIME with ASP.NET 2.1 Requirements to use SMTP and MIME The following is the requirements to develop ASP.NET applications. The .NET Framework 2.0 A code-authoring environment A web server, such as Internet Information Services (IIS), and permission to write files to web server. To send email using SMTP server, fsocketopen function need to be enabled. Furthermore, Outgoing Traffic to port 25 by default or whichever port that use to connect to SMTP server must be allowed. Lastly, there must be a valid SMTP server to send email. If one of the above is not successful, errors message such as No connection, Unauthorized and Timed Out will be displayed. REQUIREMENT OF MIME 2.2 Steps on how to create apply and configure SMTP and MIME in ASP.NET project. 2.2.1 SMTP Open up the default.aspx code window from the project, and examine the code used to send an email. Include three imports in default.aspx to run the project and send email message. The application uses the System.Net.Mail libraries to format and send STMP based email message. Declare the variables used to contain information used in sending email. Code send buttons Click event handler, this handler capture users inputs from the page and assign to related variables, then format the message using the variable content. Server and port setting are extracted from the AppSettings contain in web.config file.

Lenovo Case Analysis Essay

Competing at a global scale requires profound brand equity. Lenovo is a well-known brand in China (as Legend) but it cannot become a global technology giant like Dell or Hewlett-Packard, by merely acquiring the Personal Systems Division of IBM, whose products are popular across the world. Normally, the key challenge in establishing global brands lies in devising the manner in which a company can position its brands in customers’ mindsets, while taking into account global competition that comes from national and international suppliers (Wright, Millman & Martin, 2007, p. 139). Lenovo has to engage in intelligent marketing to attract consumers and make itself a force to reckon with in the global personal computer industry. According to the case study, the global PC industry is highly competitive with the leading performers being Dell, HP, Lenovo and its IBM acquisition, and Acer and Fujistu-Siemens among other corporations and vendors locked in tight competition (Quelch & Knoop, 2006, p. 2-3). Therefore, Lenovo has a daunting task to create brand equity to thrive at a global scale. The Key Issues The issue that Lenovo is principally dealing with is how it can effectively enter into the global market, where it is not only struggling against the competition, but is also dogged by an incredulous market. On the surface, the deal between Lenovo and IBM seems to give the former a platform for success due to the complementary nature of the operations of the two firms and because the deal facilitates the expansion of Lenovo’s operations from China and Asia to over 138 countries in the world, where IBM is established (Quelch & Knoop, 2006, p. 6). However, in a marketing research that the company conducts among 4,000 IBM customers, the concerns raised are that the innovation, quality, and service and support are going to be negatively impacted by the takeover of IBM brands by Lenovo (Quelch & Knoop, 2006, p. 9). The grievances held by the consumers are a major undoing to Lenovo’s attempts to create strong brand equity. The criticism shows that the customers harbor negative brand knowledge about Lenovo. Brand knowledge consists of brand awareness and brand image (Wright et al., 2007, p. 140).  Normally, brand knowledge determines the directions that the brand takes and, in turn, this influences the decision that marketers take in creating a brand promise, which entails informing the public about the positive essence of the brand and its purpose (Kotler, 2012, p. 115). The competition must be addressed seriously through a brand promise, with strong product dimensions. A brand’s dimensions differentiate an offering from other offerings that are aimed at satisfying the same need by either emphasizing on product performance by introducing functional, rational, or tangible differences or by emphasizing the symbolic, emotional, or intangible factors (Kotler, 2012, p. 114). Lenovo has the chance to utilize the brand equity creation process that emphasizes on the product performance in the phase of introducing itself into the global market, while intending to rely on the latter dimension in the long run. Brand equity is created by thoroughly satisfying the presence, relevance, performance, advantage, and bonding dimensions, in an increasing order of importance (Kotler, 2012, p. 116). Profound consumer loyalty is achieved after the firm attains a market share. Companies acquire a share of the heart and a share of the mind of customers by being authentic and genuine, aspects, which lead to higher, market share and profitability (Kotler, 2012, p. 135). As much as the chief marketing officer of Lenovo states that branding is a business issue rather than a marketing issue, the brand is a matter of the perception created by product’s substance and marketers’ efforts. Alternative Courses of Action The courses of action that can be taken by Lenovo include establishing a master brand, a house of brands, synergy approach, or the strategy referred commonly as Lexus/Toyota. First, the master brand strategy can be useful for creating a brand equity for Lenovo on a worldwide scale, but there are fears that the ThinkPad influence may be lost if this strategy is adopted. Second, the house of brands approach can enable the firm to establish many brands at once, but it is expensive to market the different brands. Third, the synergy approach will let the company have Lenovo as a master brand, while the ThinkPad shall be regarded as a superior sub-brand. Fourth, under the Toyota/Lexus strategy, a premium line of ThinkPad brands are established alongside basic Lenovo brands (Quelch & Knoop, 2006, p. 9). Evaluation of  the Alternative Courses of Action The course of action that the company should choose has to address the global market conditions, while also upholding Lenovo’s desire to compete internationally. To gauge the conditions in this market environment, the company engages in extensive marketing research. The research comes in handy in helping the company to make well-informed decisions, to understand the marketplace, and most importantly, to learn about customer satisfaction and the value of goods on offer. In addition, the advantages of the primary data collected are that the respondents pinpoint their challenges concerning the use of personal computers in business, give voice to current concerns, and enable the firm to gauge the needs in different nations. The master brand option is challenging to Lenovo since the market regards it as untrustworthy. The high level of dishonesty with which Chinese firms are regarded in the rest of the world is a major detractor to the success of this strategy (Quelch & Knoop, 2006, p. 8). If this approach is chosen, building favorable brand knowledge would not be an easy thing for Lenovo, in spite of having the reputable ThinkPad brand at its disposal. The ThinkPad acquisition doubtlessly makes Lenovo have a comparative advantage in the global scope. The ThinkPad has already won a lot of accolades for design and engineering innovations since it was introduced in 1992, with some of its superior qualities being power, portability, and wireless networking (Quelch & Knoop, 2006, p. 6). The marketers in Lenovo must therefore create positive brand knowledge if they choose this option. Failure to achieve this means that even the premium ThinkPad brand shall be thought of as an inferior product by consumers. The house of brands option would make the company incur a lot of expenses in the marketing function, without necessarily achieving the desirable sales of any of the brands. The company’s CMO concedes that this strategy cannot succeed since the company had limited resources at the time (Quelch & Knoop, 2006, p. 9). House-of-brands has brands that are independent, which are somewhat endorsed by the organizational brand (Rajagopal & Sanchez, 2004, p. 238). However, the reputation of the Lenovo as an organization in the international market is not favorable at this juncture hence it cannot promote brands effectively. The synergy approach, which entails a master brand getting recognition  partially due to a superior sub-brand, would require investments to jointly build the Lenovo and the ThinkPad brands (Quelch & Knoop, 2006, p. 9). The ThinkPad sub-brand would be expected to be a co-driver in the success of Lenovo. The shortcoming of this approach is that the association might taint the image of the prestigious brand if the brands do not have comparable qualities (Aaker & Joachimsthaler, 2000, p. 15). Clearly, ruining of the ThinkPad brand will certainly end up undoing the entry of Lenovo into the global market. The Toyota/Lexus strategy will force Lenovo to establish luxury and mass market brands separately. This strategy will entail implementation of dissociated brands, with each expected to perform well within its segment. However, under the global environment into which the firm is entering, creation of a mass product is not feasible. The use of PCs has become ubiquitous and consumers are looking for enhanced innovation, better quality and reliability, tighter security, and better design (Quelch & Knoop, 2006, p. 10). To offer customers the desired product, the firm was supposed to invest in enhancing computer products, rather than producing low quality cheap products. As a result, this strategy can make the company lose its core business. After considering all the branding strategy options, Lenovo managers should appropriately consider the category membership under competitive frame of reference. Category membership refers to the products with which a brand competes and which are close substitutes to it (Kotler, 2012, p. 130). The managers should to establish points of differences that would make the company have a competitive edge. At the present, Lenovo pursues a legacy of customer focus, innovation, and dependability (Quelch & Knoop, 2006, p. 7). These aspects have a potential of making make the products it offers distinctive and superior in comparison to competitors in the global market. The focus of the company should be on long-term holistic performance of its products. A well established brand value drives brand loyalty among customers, making the company to enjoy security of demand, making it hard for new competitors to enter the market, and making the customers willing to pay a higher prices for the offering (Kotler, 2012, p. 114). The Best Course of Action According to the facts presented in the case, the adoption of Lenovo as a master brand is the best course of action. Though this alternative is risky,  it is worthy because of the ultimate good image it would create for all the brands on offer at a global scale. Making Lenovo a master brand helps to make the core products of the company to the entire world. Master or family branding is where a family brand is associated with several brand extensions. The use of the company’s brand name across the entire products’ range lowers development costs and boosts sales if the corporate image is associated with innovativeness, expertise, and reliability, which are factors that influence consumer evaluations directly (Kotler, 2012, p. 123). The company actually chooses to use this strategy with great level of ingenuity. The first global advertising campaign is signed off with â€Å"ThinkPad,† the second campaign emphasizes that Lenovo is doing better than IBM by improving the ThinkPad, while the third campaign stresses that the Lenovo master brand represents innovation (Quelch & Knoop, 2006, p. 10). Introduction of brand extension is facilitated under the master brand. New products that are introduced as brand extensions often succeed because the customers’ expectations of the new product are based on their knowledge about the parent brand and how relevant they find the information (Kotler, 2012, p. 123). Any product sold under an umbrella of a brand name develops an identity out of the customers’ perceptions of the product, the marketing activity, word-of-mouth marketing, and the individual psychological set of customers (Wright, et al., 2007, p. 140). In effect, corporate brand endorsement in the international markets reassures consumers and is an integrating force, which unifies different brand identities on a global scale (Rajagopal & Sanchez, 2004, 246). Assurance that consumers benefit from the product is vital for successful marketing. Moreover, brand equity is leveraged in a new context if the master brand makes the product more appealing to customers and its positive associations are relevant and appropriate (Aaker & Joachimsthaler, 2000, p. 18). With the master brand strategy in place, continuous success of the Lenovo brand and its extensions is guaranteed. References Aaker, D. A. & Joachimsthaler, E. (2000). The brand relationship spectrum: The key to the brand architecture challenge. California Management Review, 42(4), 8-23. Kotler, Philip. (2012). A Framework for Marketing Management, P. Kotler and K. L. Keller (Ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson education Inc. Quelch, J. & Knoop, C. (2006). Lenovo: Building a global brand. Harvard Business School. Rajagopal & Sanchez, R. (2004). Conceptual analysis of brand architecture and relationships within product categories. Brand Management, 11(3), 233–247. Wright, L. T. Millman, C. & Martin, L. M. (2007). Research issues in building brand equity and global brands in the pc market. Journal of Marketing Management, 23(1-2), 137-155.