Theme Of Sexism In The Thousand And One Nights - 1579 Words

The book, The Thousand and One Nights, is an intriguing story. It has one overarching story with several other stories being told by the various characters of the main storyline. However, behind this main story arc and the several other minor story arcs, lies a common theme, sexism. Several of the male characters in The Thousand and One Nights display their sexism in the way they act and think, and even the main female character of the story, Shahrazad, on the surface level, encourages this way of thinking through her storytelling to King Shahrayar. One would think that given Shahrazad’s relations with the king, she would try in someway to dissuade the misogynistic king from his line of thinking. However, while appealing to the king’s†¦show more content†¦It is important to consider the following: Why exactly does King Shahrayar hold the views of women that he does? His sexist views actually stem from his brother, Shahzaman. While Shahzaman was preparing for hi s journey to visit his brother, he walked in on his wife engaging in sexual intercourse with a kitchen boy. This threw Shahzaman into a rage and he ended up killing his wife and the boy. He states the following, â€Å"I am still here, and this is what she has done when I was barely outside the city. How will it be and what will happen behind my back when I go to visit my brother in India? No. Women are not to be trusted† (Heller-Roazen, 6). Shahzaman can be seen here placing this mistrust that came from his wife onto all women. This is an extremely dangerous to do because it becomes the reason for why King Shahrayar ends up killing a myriad of women after the discovery of his own wife’s adultery. The king follows in his brother’s line of thinking when he says, â€Å"‘O God, O God! There is no power and no strength, save in God the Almighty, the Magnificent. ‘Great is a women’s cunning’† (Heller-Roazen, 11). King Shahrayar also pl aces a negative view onto all women, and this is where his misogyny begins. He places this view that all women and cunning and tricksters, and to ensure that he is never tricked again, he kills every woman that he sleeps with after just one night. The whole kingdom is made alert to what the king is doingShow MoreRelatedSummary of the Merchant and the Demon from the Arabian Nights641 Words   |  3 Pagesï » ¿The first nights story in Arabian Nights is that of the Merchant and the Demon. Told by Shahrazad, the story offers a remarkable parallel to her own situation as she faces immanent death. Thus, the story of the Merchant and the Demon is told as a parable within the frame story, presenting a poignant analogy for Shahrazads own situation. The Merchant and the Demon is a short tale but one filled with themes such as power, guilt, justice, and moral responsibility. Through the clever analogy withRead MoreDiscrimination Is A Dominant Theme Within The Film Of Kill A Mockingbird By H arper Lee1342 Words   |  6 Pageswith expectations and roles that are placed on woman. Finally, the coloured community within the town are segregated and treated unequal to those of whites. Through the elements of social, gender, and racial prejudice, discrimination is a dominant theme within To Kill a Mockingbird. Social discrimination is commonplace, the act of the high class poorly treating the lower class, or alienating those who are different. This attitude and deed are widespread throughout the novel in several ways. 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Advantages and Disadvantages of Privatisation 2 - 4553 Words

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF PRIVATISATION Contents 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1 2.0 ADVANTAGES OF PUBLIC SECTOR PRIVATISATION 2 2.1 Improving Efficiencies 2 2.2 Reduction in Government Cost and Spending 3 2.3 Focusing on Core Competences 3 2.4 Streamlining Businesses to Allow Productive Job Creations 4 2.5 Obtaining Goal Congruences 4 2.6 Effective Utilization of Taxpayers’ Money 5 2.7 Generate Income Tax Revenue 5 2.8 Improving Government Financing 6 2.9 Reorganisation or Restructuring Government Systems and Performance Measures 7 3.0 DISADVANTAGES OF PUBLIC SECTOR PRIVATISATION 7 3.1 Possible Control of Foreign Entity on National Interests 7 3.2 Monopoly Risks 8 3.3 Management Incompetencies 8 3.4†¦show more content†¦We find that the privatized firms improve productive efficiency by increasing their capital and decreasing their labor endowment. At a first examination, privatization also seems to improve allocative efficiency, as prices fall after privatization. But this effect disappears when we control for changes in market structure using a measure for market concentration– the Herfindahl Index. Hence, while private ownership has a robust positive effect on productive efficiency, whether gains in productivity will be passed on to consumers in the form of lower prices will depend on the market structure ensuing from privatization. Since we have pre and post privatization data for all the cement plants which were once public, we are able to avoid the endogeneity problem associated with sample selection which has been a problem for earlier research. Our results withstand various robustness checks addressing other possible problems associated with sample selection and unobserved heterogeneity. 2.2 Reduction in Government Cost and Spending Certain public sector, government agencies or entities may not perform effectively hence contribute adverse financially towards government revenue. 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Business Management Danone free essay sample

Being a leader in these 4 segments corresponding to the heavy trends of consumption and deriving more than 50% of its turnover from developing countries have helped the Group to secure a 6,9 % growth in 2010 despite the down turn of world economy. It is obvious that to be able to be successful on these highly competitive markets, a company owes to apply a good strategy. The group is also supported by an effective communication and by a strong involvement in Research and development where they spend 1% of their global turn over. But above all these, with its fast development in emerging countries often through joint ventures and its switch in 2007 of 40% of its activities from biscuits to baby and clinical food, what has been critical to insure its success through these drastic changes has been the management of the group under the strong leadership of Franck Riboud who succeeded, as chairman and CEO of DANONE, to his father Antoine in 1996. Through this study, we shall show how DANONE possesses a real identity very present in its management and organization and that this cultural model, initiated since the early 70’s by Antoine Riboud and enhanced by Frank Riboud, has been key to the Group success. - LITERATURE REVIEW * SWOT analysis â€Å"A strategic planning tool that includes external and internal factors and is utilized by businesses and other organizations to ensure that there is a clear objective defined for the project or venture, and that all factors related to the effort – positive and negative – are identified and addressed. (Tatum, 2010) The SWOT’s process involves four areas of consideration: * Strengths: characteristics of the business or team that give it an advantage over others in the industry. * Weaknesses: are characteristics that place the firm at a disadvantage relative to others. * Opportunities: external chances to make greater sales or profits in the environment. * Thr eats: external elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the business. Identification of SWOTs is essential because subsequent steps in the process of planning for achievement of the selected objective may be derived from the SWOTs. External factors According to David Buchanan and Andrzej Huczynski (5th edition), external factors of a business organization include: * Macro-environment factors (PESTLE analysis): â€Å"identifying the Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Ecological factors affecting an organization. † * Micro-environment factors (Porter’s â€Å"Five Forces†): * Competitive rivalry * Threat of new entry * Buyer power * Threat of substitution * Supplier power * Organizational structures Based again on David Buchanan and Andrzej Huczynski (5th edition), organizational structure is: â€Å"The format system of task and reporting relationships that controls, coordinates and motivates employees so that they work together to achieve organizational goals. † The purpose of organization structure is, first, to divide up organizational activities and allocate them to sub-units and, second, to co-ordinate and control theses activities so that they achieve the aims of the organization. * Hofstede’s Theory Hofstede’s research gives us insights into other cultures so that we can be more effective when interacting with people in other countries. As it was clearly defined at Alan Godsave’s lecture (2011), Hofestede’s cultural dimensions are: * Individualism: People look after selves and immediate family only. * Masculinity: dominant social values are success, money, and things. * Power distance: Less powerful members accept that power is distributed unequally. * Uncertainty avoidance: people feel threatened by ambiguous situations; create beliefs/institutions to avoid such situations. * Time and Relationship dimensions. Cultural Elements According to Bauer and Erdogan (2009):  «Ã‚  Culture can be understood in terms of seven different culture dimensions, depending on what is most emphasized within the organization. For example, innovative cultures are flexible and adaptable, and they experiment with new ideas, while stable cultures are predictable, rule-oriented, an d bureaucratic. Strong cultures can be an asset or a liability for an organization but can be challenging to change. Organizations may have subcultures and countercultures, which can be challenging to manage.  » Culture dimensions (the organization culture profile): Innovative * Aggressive * Outcome-oriented * Stable * People-oriented * Team-oriented * Detail-oriented * Motivation â€Å"The cognitive, decision-making process through which goal-directed behaviour is initiated, energized, and directed and maintained. †(David Buchanan and Andrzej Huczynski, 5th edition) Motivation can be regarded as a broad concept, which includes preferences for particular outcomes, strength of effort (half-hearted or enthusiastic) and persistence (in the face of barriers). These are the factors that we have to understand in order to explain our motivation and behaviour. These are the factors that a manager has to appreciate in order to motivate employees to behave in organizationally desirable ways. - ANALYSIS I – STRATEGIC ANALYSIS 1 – DANONE’S INDUSTRY History, according to DANONE official website, www. danone. fr The original company bearing the corporate name was founded in 1919 by Isaac Carasso in Barcelona (Spain) as a small factory producing yoghurt initially sold in Pharmacy. The factory was named Danone, a Catalan diminutive of the name of his first son. Ten years later, the first French factory was built. In 1967, Danone merged with Gervais, the leading fresh cheese producer in France and became Gervais Danone. Another branch of Group Danone descended from industrial glassmaker BSN, which was founded by the family of Antoine Riboud. He transformed BSN into one of Europes leading food groups in the 1970s through a series of acquisitions and mergers, including the 1973 merger with Gervais Danone. The acquisitions initially took the shape of vertical integration, acquiring brewer Kronenbourg and Evian mineral water that were the glassmakers largest customers. In 1973, the company merged with Gervais Danone and began to expand internationally. In 1979, the company abandoned glassmaking. In 1987, Gervais Danone acquired European biscuit manufacturer General Biscuit, owners of the LU brand, and, in 1989, it bought out the European biscuit operations of Nabisco. In 1994, BSN changed its name to Groupe Danone, adopting the name of the group’s best-known international brand. Franck Riboud succeeded his father, Antoine, as the companys chairman and CEO in 1996. Under Riboud junior, the company continued to pursue its focus on three product groups (dairy, beverages, and cereals) and divested itself of several activities, which had become non-core. From 1999 to 2006, the group sold its glass-containers business, its European and Chinese beer activities, its Italian cheese and meat businesses, and its sauces business. Despite these divestitures, Danone continues to expand internationally in its 3 core business units, emphasising health and well-being products. In July 2007, it was announced that Danone had reached agreement with Kraft to sell its biscuits division, including the LU and Prince brands. Also in July 2007 Danone bought the Dutch baby food and clinical nutrition company Numico creating the worlds second largest manufacturer of baby food. Facts 2010 Sales: 17 080 million euros Operational profit: 2 578 million euros. Employees: 101 000 Factories: 159 World Ranking in the food industry: 5th CAC 40 (Paris stock exchange) ranking in capitalization: 9th Activities, Brands (DANONE official data and information, available at www. danone. com) Fresh dairy products: with 20 % of the world market (35 % in certain countries) and a presence in about forty countries, Danone is the leader on this market. This activity, representing 57 % of the turnover of the Group, recorded an increase of 6,5 % in 2010. The strategy of the Group within the world market of the dairy products is to lean on innovations products centred on helping your health and on local adaptation of its brands. Main brands: Danone, first world mark with Danone, Actimel, Activia, Danonino (Small Gervais in Fruits), Vitalinea (Taillefine, Vitasnella or Ser in some countries), Danacol, Gervita and Dany. Packaged waters: This activity, representing 17 % of the turnover of the Group, recorded an increase of 5,3 % in 2010. Main brands: Evian (world 1st bottled water), Volvic, Aqua, Bonafont and Font Vella Baby food: This activity, representing 20 % of the turnover of the Group, recorded an increase of 8,9 % in 2010. Main brands: Bledina, Gallia, Nutricia, Nutrini, Milupa, Cowamp;Gate, Bebiko. Clinical nutrition: this last pole, representing 6% of the turnover, recorded a 9% increase in 2010. Main brands: Nutricia, fortimel, Nutrison http://danone10. danone. com/vignettes/fr/html_danone10/docs/Principaux_indicateurs_2010 _FR. pdf 2 – SWOT ANALYSIS * INTERNAL * STRENGTHS Promotion * A brand more than a company Legitimacy to impose its products. * Master in marketing (copied by Unilever and Nestle). Take advantage of a strong image as specialist of food with health connotation. The group strengthen its scientific credibility by clinical studies (DANONE institute). * Derive World fame, thanks to Evian, the world famous brand of water. Price * Capacity to impose its prices thanks to its notoriety and its image. * Possibility of imposing high prices with regard to the market health connotation. Distribution Notoriety Allows a referencing in all distribution channels. The standardization / globalization of its products allows to answer at universal needs, optimizing their global distribution. Margin of important negotiation market share and spectacular notoriety. Model geographically well balanced with half of the turnover in emerging countries, 10% in the USA and the rest in Western Europe. Po ssibility of self-financing in the case of new subsidiaries important financial capacities. Product * Strong capacities of innovation all over the world. * Adaptation to foreign consumer habits. * Benefit from an excellent mastering of its businesses specificity know how to make. * Have at the same time a portfolio of international brands and very robust local positions. Strong trust and loyalty of the consumers to products (due to the quality control). Organization * Benefit from a healthy financial structure and a good level of internal growth. * Unique flexible decentralised organisation * The most powerful food Group in the sector of the health. * Intensification of the strategy of growth. * Have competitive advantages (brands, distribution network) unique in 2 businesses (Water, Dairy products). * WEAKNESSES Promotion * Sued for misleading advertising. Price * Increase of the level of the prices due to high cost price of raw packaging materials. Place * The policy of standardization of products makes potentially difficult taking into account the sociocultural differences or the taste differences of the various populations. Product * The policy of standardization is a barrier to operate adjustments produced according to the evolutions of markets or the changes of trend. * The globalization is a difficulty to take into account the strategies of differentiations of the competitors, in particular at the level of a specific country. * The brands are the main asset of the company. Organization * DANONE’s model may be difficult to be accepted over corporate culture and differences of management in various countries. * Difficulties to integrate exogenous elements into its culture. * EXTERNAL * OPPORTUNITIES Offer Opportunities of external growth through Potential foreign partners seduced by: * The respect and the conservation of the partner’s corporate culture * The understanding of his culture before a proposition of common projects * The cultural footbridges in favour of ideas and knowledge sharing. The quality of the industrial and marketing know-how facilitate the co-branding with the other brands on the other markets. Demand Expanding market (convenience goods). A large number of countries remain to be converted to fresh dairy products as well as bottled water (developing countries). Even in times of crisis the most basic needs of consumers is food. Influences * Healthy food became a major subject and is widely followed and supported by th e consumers and the legislation (preventive campaigns against the obesity). * THREATS Offer * Strong direct competition by hard discounters and store brands. Strong competition in the field of the water PepsiCo (Aquafina) and Nestle (Perrier). * Inflationary environment of dairy products. * Increasing Costs of the communications often involving to part from certain brands. * Anchored in a very competitive system link to the expansion of its market. Demand * Versatility of the demand linked to the diversity of the offer on the food market. Influences * Governmental campaigns concerning the health potential problem of excessive consumption of fresh dairy product. 3 – EXPLORING NEW OPPORTUNITIES * According to le Figaro website (www. efigaro. fr), since August 2011 DANONE is experimenting its own â€Å"fast food† restaurant and corners in France under the name â€Å"Danone bar† to sale yogurts. If it works the model could be duplicated first in various cities in Fr ance and then major cities in other countries where the dairy product are consumed essentially at home and not outside. (Please, see picture N °2) * Based on web and luxe website (www. webandluxe. com), Evian is also experimenting home delivery in Paris, based on the fact that some customers are reluctant to buy themselves bottle water packs because of their weight. If it works this idea could also be duplicated in major cities. Furthermore Evian claims that it will help with its carbon print as these deliveries are made with electrical cars. * Evian has also opened a new website, (www. myevian. com), were customers can buy customized bottles with their name or a specific date/event engraved with laser on the bottle. (Please, see picture N °3) * Savia, a new range of soy-based milk and yogurts, made its debut in southern Europe in 2009, and in France Taillefine, the brand that invented light dairy products, launched a new line of fruit desserts in partnership with Andros, a leading fruit processor. www. danone. fr) II – ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS 1 – EXTERNAL FACTORS * PESTEL ANALYSIS We redacted this part of the work based on external factors’literrature review. * Political factors. Up to now there are four types of political factors potentially affecting Danone: * The â€Å"Danone† Amendment that the french governmen t passed in 2005 to protect the group and its minority shareholders from a rumoured take over by PepsiCo * The potential threat of an increase in customs taxes between Europe, Asia (most of all china), and NAFTA due to the world economic crisis. Increased Government campaign for public health against obesity will be likely to increase the group sales. * Change in the European Union agricultural subsidies will affect strongly the milk producers thus having a strong impact on the European business of Danone. * Economic factors. * Rate of exchange of Euro versus Yuan and Dollar may play a role in the sales of European made products elsewhere but through joint ventures in a number of countries, this risk/opportunity is downsized for the group. * General slow down of world economy but so far the group has a growth higher than the world average. Increased demand of better food product in Asia, India and Brazil with the average standard of living increasing have a positive impact. * Increa se price of raw materials, due to tightening of supply vs. demand, such as plastic, will have a strong impact on packaging cost  which represents a significant part of the product cost in bottled water: the growth of water revenues in 2010 was lower than the growth in quantities because of this factor. * Social factors. * Except for Africa the world population is ageing, this will have a potential positive impact on the demand for healthy food (activia and in the richest countries for clinical food but it twill impact adversely the infant food segment. * On the long run this may also have an impact on the workforce but for the next decade Danone work force is relatively young. * Increased awareness of the population of all ages to the positive or negative health effect of food. * Increased demand for fair trade may increase the price Danone has to pay to milk producer in non-or poorly regulated areas like Africa. * Technological factors: New biotechnologies, molecules or proteines may increase the credibility and effectiveness of cosmetic and health food thus giving an edge to Danone which has focussed its strategy on these segment since much more time than its main competitors and have the research facilities to do so. * Environmental factors: * The growing scarcity of good drinkable water may increase the sales of the water division, as it has already been the case in some countries like Spain. Greater requirements for recycling of plastic packaging and lowering carbon print may lead to the need of a change in Danone’s packaging and distribution. They have already thought about it through home delivery of water and reutilisation of empty bottle as mentioned before. * Legal factors: * The recent case of Danone being sued for misleading advertising on the supposed health benefit of some of its products (Actimel) may have further implications and force it to change substantially its line of communication. 2 – DANONE’S ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE A structure is all the functions and the relations determining formally the missions and the functions which every unit of the organization has to achieve and the modes of collaboration between these units (STRATEGOR, 1993) HIERARCHY SYSTEM Danone organization is built in a way to increase flexibility and efficiency, optimize integration of employees in the group and facilitate functional, geographical and cultural synergies. It is basically a division type organization. (Please, see picture 4) In the classification of international groups introduced by Howard Perlmutter, Da none is a geocentric firm: An equal sharing of power and responsibility between headquarters and subsidiary; senior management promoted according to ability rather than nationality; subsidiaries that share worldwide objectives with managers focusing beyond national market interests. In Danone the benefits of cultural diversity, such as knowledge of local customers and business practices, are harnessed for the good of the firm as a whole. Local divisions must identify aspects of diversity that are most important to them and their operations and take the lead in expressing and managing these differences. Discussion, interaction, cross-divisional teamwork and job rotation, support, awareness, and understanding go alongside training programs, language courses, and cultural assimilation. It is typically a  «Ã‚  think globally, act locally  Ã‚ » company. * DANONE’S LOCATION IN ACCORDANCE WITH HOFSTEDE’S THEORY * Individualism: This dimension is certainly medium-low in Danone. People are expected to do cross-divisional teamwork and loyalty to the group rather than individuals is highly valued. In return each division and functions know that they can count on the others when facing a problem. * Masculinity: This is a dimension were the cultural aspect of France and Danone’s CEO personalities have plaid an important part in Danone’s culture. The score of France and in general Latin countries is not very high. Furthermore the fact that an important part of the business is now done in developing countries where this dimension is low have reinforced this aspect. So we would say that Danone is certainly more â€Å"feminine†. This could explain also that so far the US is not one of Danone’s main markets because of its strong masculinity cultural component. * Power distance: Like most international group with a divisional type organization, power distance is relatively low to medium. Inequalities among people will tend to be minimised, decentralisation of activities is important, subordinates expect to be consulted by superiors, and privileges and status symbols are less evident. However it is also * Uncertainty avoidance: Being a group dealing with the food market, the standardization of products, brands, common values world wide are a way to avoid as much as possible uncertainty. On the other hand the Group has to adapt permanently to external elements as we will see in the Pestel analysis so from our point of view, uncertainty avoidance dimension is medium to high. Time and Relationship dimensions. According to Frank Riboud and Myriam Cohen-Welgryn (2011), Danone is looking at the long term:   Ã¢â‚¬Å"A company cannot succeed in the long run if it turns its back on the society it is a part of, if it only looks to its short-term economic gain. †. Their strategic move in 2007 when they sold the world N ° 2 biscuit division in exchange of infant and clin ical food brand is certainly a proof of that. On the other hand Danone is a company strongly engaged in the immediate social wellness of its employee and countries where they have factories. All this cultural and strategic aspect of the Group was well summarized by Antoine Riboud in the 90’s: â€Å"The most successful companies are the ones who think simultaneously about the technological change, the contents of the work and the change of the internal social connections in the company. † 3 – HOME COUNTRY’S CULTURE IMPACT * DETERMINING ELEMENTS OF DANONE’S CULTURE First of all DANONE is a multinational group which wants to share and transmit it own values in all countries where it’s implanted. Based on DANONE official website (www. danone. om), DANONE has four important values that have to be passed on through their products and their commitments all over the world: * The openness: this value includes various notions such as the open-mindedness, the curiosity and valuing diversity. * The enthusiasm: It symbolizes the desire and capacity to take risks and explore new, not to mention the conviction to surpass oneself and to take som e pleasure by working. * The humanism: DANONE wants to accentuate the fact that the group pays attention to the safety of people and products. Likewise it is environmentally friendly. * The proximity: The group pay attention to their customers. Indeed it’s essential for DANONE to be tuned into the expectations but also the complaints of these customers. In addition as DANONE is a French company there are other values, which come from its home country’s culture: First the idea to have a well-balanced diet by eating products of good qualities and with good taste is an important cultural subject for a large number of Frenchs. There is a growing awareness that a bad diet has direct consequences on people’s health, but also major economic consequences in terms of public health costs. Second French have a big craze for the environmentally policy. Indeed since a few years the sustainable development and the ecology are very present notions in the life of everyone. So DANONE tries to convey these same notions through their products as well as within their advertisements all over the world. All these notions are at the core of DANONE’s mission. * CULTURE IMPACT ON EACH OTHER The four core values and the French influence described here above are a frame in which the team of each division and each country where DANONE is present, have to adapt taking into consideration to their own cultural specificity as mentioned before. In fact it is perfectly in line with the openness value so the model is not rigid. When DANONE wants to open a new market in a country which culture is quite different from its own, they usually do so by incorporating joint venture with strong national partners like they did in Russia (10% of their sales in 2010) or China. The only core value, which they consider as non-negotiable, is humanism. So DANONE is typically a  «Ã‚  think globally, act locally  Ã‚ » company. 4 – DANONE’S MOTIVATIONAL SYSTEM * COMPANY’S MOTIVATIONAL ELEMENTS We know that a growing gap between the aspiration of the employees and the practices of companies is source of additional costs and loss of performance. That is why, to DANONE, the motivation of the employees is an imperative condition of the company’s growth. The group DANONE often insists on the need of permanent growth to preserve its leaders place on the market. This growth requires consistently an outstanding performance, which supposes that the company can lean on committed employees. Consequently, DANONE insure on a regular basis that the 3 main conditions for optimum employee’s commitment are fulfilled: The company is in sync with its culture and its values He is proud to belong to a leading group; He is certain that his employer assumes the development of his skills. To strengthen the motivation of the employees and their commitment, the group DANONE tries to establish, on a regular basis, a correlation between the practices of management and the growth of th e units. To do it, regular questionnaires are submitted to the managers and DANONE, from time to time, widen these survey to its thousands employees. More concretely the group DANONE insists more particularly on the autonomy and the sharing between employees: We rely on the autonomy of management of our subsidiaries and what we call the networking attitude. It means that, when an employee meets a problem, he has to have the reflex not to turn around towards his boss, but rather to exchange with his counterpart, wherever he turns out to be in the world, to find the solution. We forged a series of tools to share the knowledge and exchange good practises for the specialists of every domain (finances, human resources, industry, marketers). † (Franck Mougin’s interview, 2006, available at www. lexpress. fr) ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE’S EFFICIENCY Since 2002 DANONE’s HR, supported by Frank Riboud, has developed several tools to increase efficiency of the organizat ion, based on the fact that they are too  «Ã‚  small  Ã‚ » compared with their competitors Nestle or PepsiCo to  «Ã‚  reinvent the wheel  Ã‚ ». So they have started knowledge â€Å"marketplaces† and â€Å"sharing networks†Ã¢â‚¬â€to help employees connect with each other and share good practices horizontally rather than relying on hierarchical lines of communication. In 10 years DANONE employees shared almost 1000 good practices with colleagues. The Networking Attitude had made practical information accessible to about 70% of the more than 9,000 DANONE managers around the world. Best of all these programs, which are conducted within the timeframe of more formal meetings, incurred very little cost and were considered highly successful by 90 % of general managers, according to an internal survey. The HR top management worked also on â€Å"co-building events† where employees from different units within DANONE networked with the goal of creating new practices or products rather than sharing existing ones. http://www. duperrin. com/2008/04/21/comment-danone-fait-de-sa-culture-un-levier-de-performance/) These programs didn’t fit in so easily. They required lots of energy and preparation from HR and took time to be accepted in some part of the world where discussing serious business issue with lower rank colleagues or wearing costumes- as it was recommended during marketplace events- was contrary to local culture. Des pite these first reluctances it does work and the most obvious result is that DANONE start launching new products 3 times faster than its competitors. Franck MOUGIN amp; Benedikt BENENAT/avril 2005/ Danone se raconte des histoires, une version latine du knowledge management/http://www. ecole. org) - CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS Frank Riboud, CEO Danone said: â€Å"At Danone we don’t talk about strategy, we react to the context around us. For me, it’s like a Lego box that you buy for your children. They start to play, trying to find a way to build the image on the Lego box. At the end of the day, they give up, throw out the box, and put the pieces away. The next weekend you put all the Lego pieces on the floor and then the strategy starts. They try to imagine something. Not what was on the box, but what they have in their heads. That is strategy at Danone for me: It’s Lego. † (Harvard business school, 2008) Since he took over in 1996, he did three very smart things. First, he directed to company’s focus towards health and nutrition. Second, he turned a Western European company into an international organization with operations worldwide. And third, he changed how the organization was managed. He created the expression â€Å"jeu de jambe†, or footwork, which perfectly describes Danone’s approach to dealing with many issues in a flexible way. With its focus on nutrition and promoting health through four product divisions, Danone appeared to have a clear strategy for the new century. As CEO, Riboud’s larger vision extended beyond ordinary customer segments to include promoting health to people throughout the world. In 2011 he acknowledges his father’s, Antoine, vision when he said in 1972 in front of a number of CEO of the biggest French companies: Conduisons nos entreprises autant avec le coeur qu’avec la tete et n’oublions pas que si les ressources d’energie de la Terre ont des limites, celles de l’homme sont infinies s’il se sent motive. Let’s manage our companies as much with our heart as with our brain and let’s not forget that if earth resources are limited, the man’s one are infinite if he feels motivated. We believe that Antoine and Frank Riboud leadership and vision and their unique management way have leaded the Group to its success. - BIBLIOGR APHY Books: David Buchanan and Andrzej Huczynski (2004) Organizational Behaviour. (5th Ed. ) FT Prentice Hall. D. Buchanan A. Huczynski (2010) Organizational Behaviour. 7th Ed. ) FT Prentice Hall. Bauer and Erdogan (2009) Organizational Behaviour. FT Paperback. | Internet sources (International and French sources): Tatum, M. (2010). What is SWOT Analysis? Available at: http://www. wisegeek. com/what-is-swot-analysis. htm (Accessed: 10 November 2011) DANONE (2011). Our company. Available at: http://www. danone. com/en/company/introduction. html (Accessed: 10 November 2011) Groupe DANONE (2011). Historical background. Available at: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Groupe_Danone (Accessed: 10 November 2011) L’Ecole de Paris du management (2005) – Danone se raconte des histoires, une version latine du Knowledge management Franck Mougin interview. Available at: http://ecole. org/seminaires/FS1/SEM190/VA010405. pdf/view (Accessed: 12 November 2011) LEXPRESS. fr (2006). Donner du sens au travail. Available at: http://www. lexpress. fr/emploi-carriere/laquo-donner-du-sens-au-travail-raquo_479442. html (Accessed: 15 November 2011) LEFIGARO. fr – Economie (2011). Danone s’essaie au bar a yaourt. Available at: http://www. lefigaro. r/societes/2011/07/14/04015-20110714ARTFIG00454-danone-s-essaie-a-la-restauration-rapide. php (Accessed: 13 November 2011) Le Journal du Net (2010). DANONE. Available at: http://www. journaldunet. com/danone/ (Accessed: 13 November 2011) Web amp; Luxe – digital luxury magazine (2010). Myevian. com: la personalisation est aussi chez Evian. Available at: http://www. webandluxe. com/08/2010/myevian-com-la-personnalisation-est-aussi-chez-evian/ (Accessed: 13 November 2011) Bloc-Notes de Bertrand Duperrin (2008). Comment DANONE fait de sa culture un levier de performance. Available at: http://www. duperrin. com/2008/04/21/comment-danone-fait-de-sa-culture-un-levier-de-performance/ (Accessed: 14 November 2011) - APPENDICES Picture 1: The first yogurt Danone with a porcelain package sold in chemists in 1928 (Available at: http://tourisme. bienpublic. com/90-ans-de-Danone-les-8-yaourts-qui. html) Picture 2: The first Danone bar opened in august 2011 in a shopping mall near Paris. (Available at: http://www. lefigaro. fr/societes/2011/07/14/04015-20110714ARTFIG00454-danone-s