Intellectual Property and Leadership - Assignment Example

?SUMMARY OF TOPICS SUMMARY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Intellectual property is something which is ified as creation of the mind. Examples of the intellectual property are inventions, artistic work, designs and symbols etc. Intellectual property of an organization is protected using the patents, copy rights, trademarks and the trade secrets. Patents: These are awarded to the new and useful ideas which include inventions and innovative designs. The patent remains with the person for 20 years from the date of filing. Patents are subject to certain applications like the international PCT and the foreign patents. For patenting the object it is essential that the product is analyzed for utility, enable the product for use by others, check novelty of the product that whether it is unique or not and the invention must be non-obvious. Copy right: It is awarded to original work or authorship. The entitlement remains to the author for life or for 70 years. For acquiring copy rights it is essential that the product is registered. Trademark: It identifies the source of the goods or services till the date it is used in commerce. It is subject to federal registration. Trade secret: valuable information which the organization seeks to protect till the time the information may be considered valuable. Information like ingredients of the product is considered as the trade secret. It is essential for the organizations to protect their intellectual property and that sensitive trade related information is not disclosed. Patenting of the intellectual property protects the research investment and channelizes the reach of the markets. This requires appropriate documentation and recording for managing the intellectual property in the most effective manner. SUMMARY 2: INTERNATIONAL ISSUES IN ENGINEERING The changing time has encouraged globalization. Businesses operating in the global markets require taking decisions and assessing the challenges. The businesses are engaging in diverse work settings for profit maximization. International trade is being promoted widely for encouraging the following, Mercantilism: It is economic growth and development of the economy by increasing the exports and reducing the imports. Comparative advantage: Acquire gains from the trade of the products with which the organization is efficient. Competitive advantage: Businesses strive to acquire advantage by utilizing all the factors and resources available to the organization. Generally: Utilizing all the factors such as resources, technology and the exchange rate. International finance includes buying of a countries currency for the utilization of goods and services. This requires determination of exchange rate which is price of the currency of one country traded with the other. The gold exchange standards also have an impact on the value of the currency. The depreciation and appreciation of home country’s currency is subject t various different economic factors. Contractual arrangements are made between business and the economies for their interest which attracts foreign direct investments. Analyzing the international issues requires assessing the political risk. Firms enter in the international markets for becoming competitive and profitable. This requires analyzing all the risk factors which are global specific country specific and firm specific. Then further the strategies are designed which help the firms in overcoming the challenges associated to dealing with the risk. The factors like political violence and international terrorism enable the organizations in forming appropriate strategies which helps it in protecting and defending its integral values. SUMMARY 3: LEADERSHIP Management of the organization requires coordinating the goal s of the employees for accomplishing the desired goals and objectives of the organization. The management is required to plan, organize, staff, lead, direct and control an organization. For this the management must possess skill sets which include political, conceptual, interpersonal, diagnostic and technical skills. For appropriate management the organizations require leaders with possess traits such as integrity, strategy development, relationship management skills, teamwork, decision making etc. There are certain distinguishing factors between the managers and leaders. A manager executes and directs the employees whereas a leader develops strategies on the basis of a vision. Leader focuses on developing strategies which motivate the employees in dealing with competitors. They also share and direct the subordinates in a direction and engage the superiors with a plan which requires constant sharing. A leader sets benchmark and aims to stabilize the future using those benchmarks. A leader deploys the strategies in such a way that the customers feel connected and develop a sense of connection with the organization. A manager only manages the risk whereas a leader makes evaluation and takes speculated risk which ensures benefit for the organization. All these horizons which are set strengthen the stability and ensure that the organization will excel on the path of accomplishing its goals. SUMMARY 4: PROJECT MANAGEMENT PART 1 A project is a unique task which has been allotted for delivering specific targets on a specific date. It is a temporary process with fixed goals and targets. The scope specification and the budget of the project are already allocated beforehand. It requires planning, organizing, staffing, designing and controlling of the project for the completion of the task in a specific time frame. The process of completion of the project and incorporating all the characteristics is called project management. The project managers must possess the traits such as the following which is doing more work with lesser resources, achieving targets using smart practices rather than hard work and spend less time and make more money. Practically all the people are project managers even if they are unaware of the fact. There are three constraints which the project managers are required to accomplish. These constraints are time, money and performance. Using this practice the organization succeeds in meeting with the expectations, in the appropriate time and under the allocated budget. The managers must understand the importance of mitigating the risk and they must stay proactive so that a plan can be formed to meet the contingencies. This will help the organization in developing the short and long term goals. Focusing on risk through appropriate utilization of time is an essential practice. The environment of the project is broader than the entire scope of the business. Managing the entire project lifecycle is essential for completion of the project. Synchronizing the activities appropriately in the implementation and the termination phase are essential for managing and maintaining all the activities. The efforts and the cost of the project require that scope of the project is managed. SUMMARY 5: PROJECT MANAGEMENT PART 2 The second portion of the project management specifies the measures which are associated with project planning and the control cycle. It is essential that for implementation of the project high quality proposals are prepared. It is a presentation of securing new businesses, avoiding waste of time and presenting the companies capabilities. For success of the project it is essential that the right proposal is accepted by the company. A strategic approach must be developed for allocation of the resources and completing the task accordingly. While preparing a proposal for a project it is essential that the audience is considered, goals and objectives of the project are clearly specified. The political issues and risk allocation must be carefully catered. A proposal is a projection of the project and it requires completing a series of tasks for the successful completion of the proposal. Selecting the team and considering the bidding option for decision making is essential for summarizing the data and identifying the objectives. The project proposal must be designed for addressing functional and detailed specifications. This requires political, economic and technical consideration. The analysis of the proposal must also include the stake holder analysis for risk identification and crisis management. The strategy required for the project requires allocation of time and materials, firm fixed price, cost plus fixed fee and time and material not to exceed. It is also essential that the message of the contract is clear and all the processes are defined. All this is essential for managing the time for completion of the project. Proper formation of teams under appropriate leadership is also essential for effective accomplishment of the projects. A proper leader must have the risk taking capabilities, mental toughness, superior communication skills and a thrust of going an extra mile for the organization. All these factors associate with the motivation of the teams. SUMMARY 6: QUALITY CONTROL/ASSURANCE The summarized discussion represents the importance of processes, applying TQM, quality systems and other process control tools. A business process is a combination of all the tasks associated for completion of a specific task or the process. This requires completion of three processes which are management process, operational process and supporting processes. The processes are important because they provide a set of instructions for completing the task. Many organizations have applied the scientific management and quality management processes for the completion of the allocated tasks. The Total Quality Management (TQM) and several other quality systems are applied for managing the operations. Documenting the performance of the quality systems is essential for managing the systems. The quality systems are subject to compliance of the processes. The organizations which succeed in managing the processes are awarded with the Deming prize, Malcolm Baldridge, EFQM and Shingo. The quality system require being aware and prepared for understanding the industry impact. This shows the importance of process controls and assesses several problem solving tools. For effective application of the process control it is important that several different tools are used. Statistical tools include the processes such as cause and effect, Pareto charts, Histograms, Scatter diagrams etc. The process capability indexes and the process capability ratios must be used for appropriate application. The quality control process is about plan, do, check and act. The Japanese 6 “S” technology is about the behavior of the employee in terms of safety, environment and operating procedures. The ‘5 why’ Japanese technique is used for reaching to root cause of the problem. For overcoming the quality challenges it is essential that the top management understands the problems and commits to solving them with appropriate leadership. All these factors are important for understanding the importance of quality control. SUMMARY 7: RISK ANALYSIS The study of various kinds of uncertainties and risk which are encountered in business, engineering and formation of public policy is called risk analysis. Risk managers are allocated for mitigating and hedging the risk. Certain institutions like the banks and financial institutions are constantly assessing the risks. The risk managers constantly try quantifying risk. The formation of mathematical models for risk analysis and controlling the impact of uncertainty in different environments is called quantitative risk analysis. Several simulated models for risk management have been formed. These are based on trial based methods and statistical techniques. Simulation software’s formed for risk analysis is the Frontline System, Risk Solver Platform etc. The random sampling Monte Carlo method is used for conducting a risk based analysis. There are various other methods which may be used for the calculation of risk. The structure of risk analysis includes risk assessment, risk management and risk communication. Risk assessment includes hazards identification, and characterization in terms of risk. Risk management includes evaluating and assessing the situation and implements the remedial measures. All these factors require appropriate communication strategies. Risk analysis is used by the organizations for overcoming certain different kinds of contingencies. The probabilistic risk assessment methods are used for different kinds of sciences and engineering. It is the measure used for evaluating the risk for detrimental outcomes of activities or outcomes. Risk is calculated in terms of magnitude/severity and likely hood/probability. This method is associated to the occurrence of differing consequences. Application of risk analysis measures improves the outcomes of the business. SUMMARY 8: SALES/BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT This topic identifies the significance of managing marketing, business development and sales. It is important for the businesses to completely understand the development of a market strategy by understanding the scope of the business. Using these technique branding and the business planning activity are essential. All this is associated with the pricing strategy which the businesses adapt to. If all the operations of the businesses are significantly managed then customer satisfaction can be acquired. The negotiation of the business deals requires planning activities and designing of internal sales activities. Designing a business plan requires establishing appropriate action plans which align the customer support teams including the R&D planning. The business plans talk about the profit, growth and acquiring a market share which shapes the revenue growth and product plan of the organization. The organizations which accomplish their goals and targets ensure that their employees are aligned to the organizational goals and objectives. The organizations consider allocating the specific sales processes which are needed. The main objective of marketing is satisfying the customer needs and offers them services which generate opportunities for the business. The businesses must focus on the value propositions which may describe the quantifiable businesses. This helps the organization in acquiring cost advantage which makes the organization more profitable. Organizations strive for developing value for the customers which ultimately increases the sales of the organization. Developing the value propositions also improve the operational excellence of the organizations. SUMMARY 9: THEORY OF CONSTRAINTS Theory of constraint is a style of thinking which is useful for the understanding of complex problems. It helps in resource allocation and appropriate decision making. All the concepts of this process rely on intuition rather than speculated analysis. It provides an overview of the system which leads to optimization. Theory of constraint is also considered as an intuition based focusing process. It eases solving of the problems and suggests application of the unconventional ways. TOC is important for engineers and managers who understand the problems and make decisions allocating the resources. The traditional analysis and problem solving tools are often considered as being misleading. The benefits of using the theory of constraint is that it reduces the lead time, cycle time and inventory levels. This improves the performance and meeting of the targets and it also increases the revenues. There are three main types of constraints which are the physical, market and the policy constraints. The policy constraints are further subdivided into mindset constraints, measures constraints and methods constraints. While applying the theory of constraints it is essential that the goals of the organization and the purpose for designing the systems are appropriately designed. Removing all the bottlenecks and maximizing the net profits are the only aims of the process. During the application of the theory of constraint it is essential that attempts are made for identifying the constraints and focus entire attention on that area. This theory can b applied on all the functions analyzing the metrics. The main objective of the course can be segmented as understanding the importance of recognizing the constraints and understand any changes which are made on those constraints. Read More