Company overview and market analysis for Audi

Company overview and market analysis for Audi Audi, this Germany brand was found by August Horch in 1899. Since this motor company established, Audi has been designing and manufacturing Audi cars in innovation and future conception. Today, Audi has became one of the three German super automobile manufacturers which producing the full range models, from economical, sport, luxury and sport utility vehicle. In the latest Audi annual report, the total revenue has reached to 29.8 billion euros with profits 1.35 billion euros by the end of 2009. What is more, Audis sales have increased significantly from 653,000 to 1,003,000 between 2000 and 2008, especially in the Middle East market and Chinese market. For example, Chinese government has agreed to purchase Audi car for officials in long term. Furthermore, Audi just launched the new supermini A1, the four door coupe A7 and the new generation flagship A8. In this essay, argument will be made that this German producer how to remain competitiveness under this changing environment. Audi C ompany and Audis P.E.S.T.E.L analysis will be covered by this German strong brand. A8 Revolution To compete against with the other two German brands Mercedes and BMW in the upscale markets, Audi has introduced the flagship model A8 in 1994. With the first vehicle using aluminum space frame technology and luxurious equipment, A8 gained considerable market share in the global executive luxury car field. The second generation of A8 launched in the end of 2002, Audis engineers met the development trend of automobile, taking a brand new A8 with new engine technology and longer wheelbase to customers. The successful sales of Audi A8 did not discontinue, Audi aims to be the number one in selling luxury car with introducing the third generation A8 in 2010. Audi has been designing and producing A8 for 16 years, the experience for making luxury car is a great treasure in this German automaker. P.E.S.T.E.L. Analysis Political Since the last century, Germany is famous for making cars, such as, Mercedes, Audi and BMW; Porsche and Volkswagen. German government also encourages these motor producers showing the Germany made car to the customers from all over the world. Audi set the headquarters in Ingolstadt and have a strong human resource with over 60,000 staff from different nationality. With the Audis global strategy implementation, this German auto manufacturer has established several large plants in different countries. Hungary and China are good examples. Economic In 2008, the global economy recession spread over the world. Fortunately, the global economy is being recovery from the end of 2009, even though some countries are still facing credit crunch, such as Ireland; but most governments from different countries had confidence to making peoples life better. For example, in Germany, government spent billions supporting and encouraging German families to purchase; in UK, government also gave benefits, which means people get extra ¿Ã‚ ¡2,000 from the current car with more than 10 year life time when exchanging a new car in a dealer. According to the Audi statistics, sales of new car have increased sharply from 2009 to 2010 in the European and North American markets. What is more, Middle East and China are still the large demand group; For example, Audi has delivered 108,000 cars to China in the first three months, compared with the total sells 705,000 cars at the same period. Social Audi is a large car manufacturer in the world, the social impact is inevitable, this German giant owns over 60,000 staff in the world, and which means Audi support more than 60,000 families every year. In this aspect, Audi has been improving the workshop condition to satisfy employees, and Audi also offer successes of creating exceptional cars when employees join the group. Manufacturing perfect cars needs large quantity qualified material, Audi have established several partnership with suppliers. Due to the economy recession, consumers are willing to choose the fuel efficiency car instead of buying the big engine SUV; Audi remained the price for customer, but added more technology into the car. Technological Technology development is the key feature of Audi Company; Audi is best known of its permanent four wheel drive system, called QUATTRO. Today, Quattro is widely used in most Audi model, and offering drivers more safety and pleasure in any situations. In China, the heavy snow spread over the southern part at the winter of 2008, compared with Audis successful performance on snowy road, the competitor Mercedes realized it is the right time to fit the four wheel drive system into saloon and sport car. In comfort aspect, Audi introduced air adapted suspension; this equipment could adjust suspension in order to achieve best performance on different road condition. In 2010, the new Audi A8 is equipped with the 8 speed transmission which offers the soft and quick acceleration in order to achieve fuel efficiency. Audi also cooperated with Italian super car Lamborghini to achieve sport value. For example, the S8 and RS model are equipped with Lamborghinis engine and transmission system. Environmental Audi paid more attention in corporate social responsibility .It is inevitable for Audi not polluting the environment, because it is a manufacturer. Audi promises to minimize the environmental impacts. In these 20 years, Audi spent billions in researching the efficiency engine; the new generation engine means more horsepower but little emissions. For example, the new TDI diesel engine has already meet the future European 5 emission standard. Furthermore, Audi announced car emissions will be cut further 20% by 2012. That is how this German maker leads the environmental car market. Legal Germany government set a group of legislation in order to protect road users safety and environment. Crash standard and European car emission limits are good examples. 4. A8: The upscale target market Audis flagship A8 L W12 takes driving to a whole new level of luxury. This is true, even though car makers and customers are paying more attention in fuel efficiency car markets on todays environmental condition, but every famous brand is still proud of their flagship, like Birkin handbag of Hermes. Flying used to be a pleasurable experience for most businessmen, especially for the fist class ticket. Cars can not fly, but Audis engineer made the dream become true. The new generation A8 providing exceptional and efficient luxury transport for passengers. A8 means technology, comfort and luxury, especially from Germany. Audis most important features, aluminium body depends on Audi Space Frame, permanent four-wheel drive Quattro and air adaptive suspension. Since the first A8 was produced in 1994, A8 has firmly established Audi name in the luxury car market. According to the research, over half of luxury cars are produced by the German super three, almost 300,000 luxury cars delivered to customers worldwide each year; in addition, around 70% of these luxury saloon are sold to outside west Europe, especially for North American market and Middle East. The luxury car market was not influenced by the economic recession; the demand for luxury cars has increased for many years, especially for the new arrivals. Audi gained highly reputation from A8s loyalty customers in these years from all over the world, due to the changing group of luxury car buyers, the percentage of 30 to 40 years olds buyers increased sharply in this ten years. Audi are also willing to these potential buyers. Changing Ages is an important factor for luxury car segmentation; emotional factor could also influence customers decision. For example, luxury car is a symbol for peoples status orientation; what is more, the luxury car always understands the fashion, trend and design. Audi A8 is the best choice for the experienced loyalty buyers and potential group customers. Overall, this new generation flagship will take more market share to Audi in the luxury market. Recommendations The 21st century is also a technology era; Audi should continue spending billions and billions in innovation in order to achieve the mass markets. Secondly, climate change is a key issue in todays world; Audi should pay more attention to social responsibility. Cutting emissions and materials recycling are good examples. Thirdly, due to the large increase demands from Asian market, Audi should enlarge its volume to satisfy this potential region, especially for the tier 2 and tier 3 cities of these countries. At last, the advertisement campaign is more and more important for car companies, Audi should design different type visual advertisement for marketing. In my personal experience, sitting in a silver Audi car with bright red from dashboard, just illustrate the meaning of an Audi car: machine with blood. Conclusions With 100 years experiences constructing motor machines, Audi became one of the most famous car manufacturer brands in the world. Audi car is illustrated by design, safety, comfort and sport. What is more, this German automaker giant achieved large market share and highly reputation from the whole world; Audi also established the products portfolio in order to meet different customers needs. For example, A4 and A6 are popular in the European market; the sales of large SUV Q7 and luxury A8 achieved considerable performance in the North American market. Furthermore, due to the scarce of resources and climate change, Audi realized it is important to decrease the environmental impacts during the operation. Like the new generation of Audis flagship A8, taking Audi to a new level of luxury; Audi company will take transportation into a new milestone.

customer cargo from HCM to Singapore

customer cargo from HCM to Singapore In our company, the operations manager and his decisions are of special importance. Our activities are involved in logistics with special services on transportation and warehouse distribution. Therefore, the operation decisions must be accurate, timely, and workable. Four major decision responsibilities of the operations management are process, capacity, quality, and inventory. The operations management is not only affect to production, but impact to quality and revenue also. When we received a booking to ship the customer cargo from HCM to Singapore, the operations manager would have to calculate the maximum container that could be loaded on the vessel. The volume of cargo must conform to ship capacity and safety regulations. The operations decision will give marketing the quote to canvas the cargo and guide to the port for loading schedule. Therefore, the operations manager will have the responsibility for the volume and quantity of cargo directly. Any cargo cutting, due to a mista ke of the operations manager will reduce the freight and company revenue. In our business, it is very important to ensure the time departure, vessel speed, and estimated time of arrival (ETA). These elements will affect the quality service and the operations managers have responsibility to maintain all things as fixed schedule. In logistics sectors, the operations manager must be familiar with all other sections and can watch the company picture in general. Otherwise, he must communicate with the marketing manager and the chief of financial well. The right operations decision is first condition for our company to get the revenue. Nghe Ä Ãƒ ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚ c ngà ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚ ¯ à ¢m Tà ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚ « Ä‘ià ¡Ã‚ »Ã†â€™n Xem tà ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚ « Ä‘ià ¡Ã‚ »Ã†â€™n chi tià ¡Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¿t Question II: Explain the information conveyed by various elements in the house of quality. Personalize your answer to your own work experience. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) has been developed in Japan in the late 1960s and was been applied at the Kobe/Japan shipyard of Mitsubishi Heavy Industry in 1972. Then, Toyota had developed this application as a table with a roof. The shape of this table is similar as a house and is named the house of quality. The house of quality is developed a method of quality control ensure that customer requirements on products are satisfied before creating it. For example, we want to produce a kind of labor uniform clothing for workers in northern Vietnam. First of all, we must have information about what customers need in the product characteristics. In the north, the weather is cold, rainy in winter, so the characteristics of the product must be waterproof, warm enough etc. The requirements of customers for a product like bricks to build up the wall of the house. If we have enough bricks, full of information about customer attributes, we can develop a high house. The customer attributes are the first and most important of the matrix in the house of quality. This information is collected through communication with customers, interviews and research results. Customers are encouraged to describe what they need and any possible issues with their products. A list of requirements gathered will be put into the house of quality. The body of the house and the quality can be very time consuming to complete. Its purpose is to transfer customer requirements into technical specifications of the product. A described by Schroder, Goldenstein Rungtusanatham (2010), the next step of building house is translate the customer attribute in to Engineering Characteristic (Ecs) (p.49). With customer requirements, the Ecs must consider the existing textile equipment, machinery, and technology to produce it and estimate the unit price. When the customers requirements meet the manufacturers cable, we will complete the roof of the house. Otherwise, this house must be b uilt on a foundation of information on existing products on the market of the competitor. Without evaluation on the strengths and weaknesses of the product, and lack of information about the competitors product, the manufacturer may have not good product, like building houses without foundations. In our company, the building quality homes, quality control is target to improving matters in the production process, then towards the final product with the highest customer satisfaction. Question III: Can one apply the concepts such as Plant-within-a-plant (PWP), Mass Customization, etc. to Service Operations? Provide a discussion of the response as it relates to your own work experience or company. The services cover a wide range, but all types of services can be grouped into 3 types: Explicit service (tangible service), implicit service (intangible service) and facilitating goods. In general, service operations may include one, two or three types of the above services. Because, a service sector has owned product, concepts such as Plant-within-a-plant (PWP), Mass Customization can apply to service operations. Plant-Within a-Plan (PWP) is a term to demonstrate the focus operation. The company with PWP will focus on one or several specific product manufacture. Although these goods are processed in same factory, each product or product lines will be fabricated separately from others. PWP and focus operations can use the service sector also. The operations manager can assign and allocate different types of services to different divisions, and different facilities. For a transportation service in our company, we can divide into domestic service and international service. Because the requirement for overseas transport is higher and need more document than domestic, the service level is quite different and should be separate. Schrode (2010) interpreted that mass customization is a strategy to provide products in lot sizes of one in high volume (p.75). Mass customization in service can provide a large service product at customer specific requirement. The weekly transport service between HCMC and Singapore is a mass service, but we can customize for small requirement, even less than one container. Applying the concepts of Plant-within-a-plant (PWP), mass customization to service operations are complicated duties, but they will enhance the service quality. Question IV: Hayes and Wheelwright argued that it is profitable for firms to operate along the diagonal of the product-process matrix. Justify the reasons surrounding their argument. Can you think of situations wherein firms could move away from the diagonal and yet remain profitable? The product-process matrix is a table showing the relationship between product (type, volume etc) and scale of production (process, equipment etc). This matrix was developed by Mr. Hayes and Mr. Wheelwright in 1979. In this matrix, we can see how each typical product will correspond to a ranging of processes from the project to the continuous process. The companies with low volume for each goods, not specialization, wide range of products, usually organized in job shops. Otherwise, the company has high volume; high standardization must organize as an assembly line or continuous process. In general, a company must have position in diagonal of this matrix will have proper organization structure, working processes, production management conform to scale of production and types of products. In the case, if a company is out of this diagonal line, their business procedure may be broken, and conflicts will arise between products and production management. For example, when a company has large order for a product, but the company did not have modern assembly lines, no proper equipment and still use job shop, they will use more labor. This will inevitably lead to price the product high, will not deliver on time, and will be difficult to manage throughput, profits will not be maintained. Usually, in the development period, sometime the company is not on this diagonal. The product and process did not change simultaneously. Sometimes, a company has not enough machinery or an assembly line to produce a large volume. Otherwise, sometimes, the company invested modern assembly line but can not fabricate so much because of market redundancy. However, in the long-term, the company will maintain the balance and stay on this diagonal. A long side of the diagonal of product process matrix, a high volume, larger scale product, it means that revenue will increase. If the company manages the process well, workers will increase productivity, reduce unit cost, and the company in the diagonal of product process matrix will obtain more profit. Question V: Question V: What are the five essential elements of lean thinking? In your own words, provide a road map for implementing lean thinking in a manufacturing or service operations of your choice. In order to get practice on operation management, we visited a shoe manufacture last week. We found that the lean thinking has applied in many assembly lines of the manufactures. We can recognize all of the five essential elements of lean thinking as follows: Specify exactly what creates value: The steps of the quality house were done to ensure that all customer requirements on each samples shoe had been detailed and all give certain value for users. The first element has been carried by the designers and the RD division Improve the value stream: this element of lean thinking has applied on shoe assembly lines. From beginning step to cutting material to end, where the shoes had completed, we can not see any unnecessary movements. Design the flow to avoid waste: it is easy to recognize that there is no inventory and waiting time in the shoe assembly lines. Right after the cover sheet of shoe is completed, they will be move to other step without delay and inventory. Produce only what the customer pulls: the push mentality typically was replaced by pulls. After the customer confirms their order, shoess material will be ex-store and the shoe assembly line will start. The third element will reduce the cost, and inventory for company. Strive for perfection: every six months, the manufactures evaluates all processes and make adjustments accordingly. We had an interview with an operation manager and understand that they implement the lean systems with 6 specific steps. All of steps will are carried out by two groups. A team work of lean implements will be set up. This team includes experts from some relative divisions. They will review all documents, and procedure to find out what the customer actually needs; builds up a procedure for production; construct a value stream map and use it to eliminate waste; and follow pull demand from the customer. After group one completes their duties, the necessary changes will be applied in one assembly and will repeat the cycle on another process. This duty will be conducted by not lean team, but all operation team leader and workers. Question VI: Question VI: Describe what Business Process Re-engineering is and what is involved in such an undertaking. Also, discuss when it should be used, how it might benefit to a business, and indicate any cautions with regards to its use. Give an example related to your work experience or readings. After 10 year of sustained development, our company is facing some big problems. There is an overlapping of functions, excess personnel, in-accurate reports, and it is difficult to control costs, although the director had adjusted the plan and gave a warning to some relative divisions. However, there was not much result. The sales volume continued down and expenses were still increased. In that situation, our chairman conducted a revolution with big change. He declared that the company will be rethinking and radical redesign of business [or organizational] processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service and speed. I understand that he will perform a Business process reengineering (BPR). In the past, leaders of enterprises have re-structured their company at their way without applying modern theory and useful research. In the early 1990s Michael Hammer and James Champy has issued their best-selling book, Reengineering the Corporation. In that book, the BPR was detailed in some specific areas. In general, the workflow and business process must be analyzed and redesigned within that company. Companies may centralize or decentralize the function division as marketing, operations, and finance according to their new organization chart. Companies can follow four principal which Schrode (2010) summaries as that organize around outcomes, not tasks, have the people who do the work, process their own information, put the decision point where work is performed and build control into the process and eliminate unnecessary steps in the process (p 123, 124). After 2 year implements of BPR, although our company was downsized, the sale volume increase and earn more revenue. The profit and return on investment has improved dramatically. Question VII: The definition of quality management has evolved from quality by inspection towards delivering competitive advantage to the firm. Briefly discuss these and other definitions of quality management. About 20 years ago, Vietnamese enterprises had not applied ISO 9000 standards in production and business activities yet. In that period, quality management simply meant that a checking or an inspection to find the defect product. The Vietnamese concept of KCS ( Kiem tra chat luong San pham check product quality) is quite common. Most plants have KCS division. This term is quite close to the traditions meaning of the quality management in 1900, when quality management means that inspection. Inspection is just a check product in the last stage of the process. It does not detect and prevent the mistake and defect in the production process. During improvement on company management, the quality method had an upgrade also. By the 1960s, the quality management had developed a new step to cover multiple departments between enterprises. These activities involved the designing, manufacturing and testing of the final product. The term of quality management refered to all activities and division function and included quality planning, quality control, quality improvement and quality assurance. Nowadays, the quality management has been upgraded to a new step. The new concept is Total Quality Management (TQM). TQM is a management method based on long-term success by focusing on customer satisfaction. All member of a Nghe TQM organization has reasonability to improving processes, products, services, and the culture in their work. So, quality management is towards delivering competitive advantage to the firm Question VIII: Name the seven tools of quality that are typically used in a manufacturing process. Can all these tools be applied to service operations? Suggest some possible service operations scenarios wherein we could apply all/some of these tools. Some decades ago, Japanese companies had used some tools for quality control. Day by day, they had been developing the seven tools of quality control. The seven tools are listed by Schroder (2010) as flow charts, check sheet, histogram, pareto diagrams, cause and -effect diagrams, control charts (p.195). In service operations, all services have been ensured of their quality also. Therefore, the managers need useful tools to control the quality. Depending on the kind of service, such as tangible service, intangible service or facilitating goods, some these tools can be used accordingly. All seven tools can be applied on facilitating goods such as restaurants, repair workshops etc. Some intangible services can select other tools. However, I suppose that the Pareto diagram can be used for all service operations. The Pareto theory will help us to concentrate to most important problem. The Pareto diagram can be build to demonstrate any factors with ratio, which impact the outcome. To resolve that problem, the cause and effect diagram (fishbone diagram) can be applied for all companies regardless production or service. In my experience in warehouse service, the team leaders of a facility often use the check sheet. They have to collect daily data and consolidate them in a tabular form in order to follow the working process, im-ex warehouse, and other movement between those facilities. Otherwise, the histograms tool is useful to valuate and audit after long time operation.

Pet Microchips :: Animal Microchip Implant

Pet Microchips Many families have had the agonizing experience of losing their beloved pets. Lost dogs, puppies, and cats end up in shelters around the country with no way of contacting an owner. State wide license laws are supposed to aide in returning lost dogs to their owners, but in many cases these laws do not end up working. Many individuals do not follow the law close enough, do not have enough money to pay for a license, or dogs lose their collars or tags. Other families tattoo their dogs, but few shelters make the effort to find such a marking. Identifying microchips implanted just under the skin of a pet are a possible solution to prevent a family pet from being lost forever. There are fewer problems with this microchip identification system in comparison to the traditional laws. One issue is that some of the chips are becoming unable to be read by a shelter without a universal scanner, and shelters do not necessarily have the technology to scan some of the newer chips. Even though there are set backs, the microchips are becoming an increasingly popular technology to aid in locating your lost pet. The microchip is a tiny transponder the size of a grain of uncooked rice. The chip is a permanent radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip implanted under the dog's skin that can be read by a chip scanner or wand. Implantation is done with an injector that places the chip under the loose skin over the dog's shoulder. This is a quick and easy process that can be done by all veterinarians provided they have the right technology to do so. The chip identification number is stored in a tiny transponder that can be read through the dog's skin by a scanner emitting low-frequency radio waves (Woolf 1). The frequency is picked up by a tiny antenna in the transponder, and the number is retrieved, decoded, and displayed in the scanner readout window. The radio waves use a frequency much lower than AM broadcast stations use, and they must be approved by the Federal Communications Commission before they can be marketed (Woolf 1). The chip, antenna, and capacitor are encased in a tiny glass tub e. The tube is composed of soda lime glass, which is known for compatibility with living tissue. The glass is hermetically sealed to keep moisture out. Microchips implanted in 2003 or earlier are generally readable by most shelters and veterinarians, but microchips that came into use in late 2003 are generally not readable by most shelters and veterinarians because the chips require different scanning technology (Common Questions).

television :: essays research papers

Television was not invented by a single inventor, instead many people working together and alone, contributed to the evolution of TV. 1831: Joseph Henry's and Michael Faraday's work with electromagnetism makes possible the era of electronic communication to begin. 1862: Abbe Giovanna Caselli invents his "pantelegraph" and becomes the first person to transmit a still image over wires. 1873: Scientists May and Smith experiment with selenium and light, this opens the door for inventors to transform images into electronic signals. 1876: Boston civil servant George Carey was thinking about complete television systems and in 1877 he put forward drawings for what he called a "selenium camera" that would allow people to "see by electricity." Eugen Goldstein coins the term "cathode rays" to describe the light emitted when an electric current was forced through a vacuum tube. Late 1870's: Scientists and engineers like Paiva, Figuier, and Senlecq were suggesting alternative designs for "telectroscopes." 1880: Inventors like Bell and Edison theorize about telephone devices that transmit image as well as sound. Bell's photophone used light to transmit sound and he wanted to advance his device for image sending. George Carey builds a rudimentary system with light-sensitive cells. 1881: Sheldon Bidwell experiments with telephotography, another photophone. 1884: Paul Nipkow sends images over wires using a rotating metal disk technology calling it the "electric telescope" with 18 lines of resolution. 1900: At the World's Fair in Paris, the 1st International Congress of Electricity was held, where Russian, Constantin Perskyi made the first known use of the word "television." Soon after, the momentum shifted from ideas and discussions to physical development of TV systems. Two paths were followed: Mechanical television - based on Nipkow's rotating disks, and Electronic television - based on the cathode ray tube work done independently in 1907 by English inventor A.A. Campbell-Swinton and Russian scientist Boris Rosing. 1906: Lee de Forest invents the "Audion" vacuum tube that proved essential to electronics. The Audion was the first tube with the ablity to amplify signals. Boris Rosing combines Nipkow's disk and a cathode ray tube and builds the first working mechanical TV system. 1907: Campbell Swinton and Boris Rosing suggest using cathode ray tubes to transmit images - independent of each other, they both develop electronic scanning methods of reproducing images. American Charles Jenkins and Scotsman John Baird followed the mechanical model while Philo Farnsworth, working independently in San Francisco, and Russian à ©migrà © Vladimir Zworkin, working for Westinghouse and later RCA, advanced the electronic model.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief Essay -- mytholog

My original thought when comparing Percy Jackson and the Olympians: the Lightning Thief the movie and Classical mythology was that there would be many more references to the myth of Perceus than any other myth throughout the movie in its entirety. That’s where I was wrong. After watching the movie again and researching the different hero myths my opinion has changed. My new thoughts are that the movie is not influenced by the myth of Perceus any more than other hero myths. The movie ties together many different heroes’ stories and mixes them together to make a wonderful story about a young boy. The movie was based on a book series written by Rick Riordan. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: the Lightning Thief the movie is about a young boy who has just discovered that he is a demi-god Percy Jackson. His father is Poseidon and his mother has been keeping it from him for many years. There is a lightning bolt that is stolen from Zeus on Mt. Olympus and Zeus believes that Percy has stolen it and demands its return by the summer solstice. In the mean time Percy gets attacked by multiple magical and mythological beings. There is a camp that demi-gods are safe from these things which is where Percy’s mother and his protector, Grover, take him to. This is where Percy’s journey begins. After a few days of being at the camp he realizes what he has to do. His mother was taken by Hades to the underworld and Percy has to save her all while trying to prove to Zeus that he did not steal the Lighting bolt. This is the true start to Percy’s quest. He made a few friends in the camp and they agreed to go on this journey with him. Those accompanying him were his protector Grover and Athena’s daughter Annabeth. They also get some helpful tools fro... ...but they also believe that it is influenced by current day books such as Harry Potter more than Greek myth. Even though the movie and book may be influenced by these pop culture books that is to say that those books are not influenced by Greek myth. There are influences of mythology all through the world and most things in the world are influenced by mythology in some way. References "Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2013. . Siegel, Dr. Janice. "Dr. J's Illustrated Lectures." Dr. J's Illustrated Lectures. Dr. Janice Siegel, 26 Nov. 2005. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. . "Camp Half-Blood Wiki." Wikia. Wiki, n.d. Web. 5 Dec. 2013. .

Physical development Essay

Throughout this coursework I will be writing about different life-stages of my chosen celebrity. My chosen celebrity is Michael Jackson. I will start with physical development and go through intellectual, emotional and social developments. Physical development Infancy At around THE AGE OF 3 months time baby Michael will be able to sit supported by their carers. This develops up to the age of 6 months the where the infant will be able to sit unsupported for a few minutes, turn their head and roll over. At about 9 months the infant will be able to sit for about 10 minutes, and roll and crawl around. At the age of 1, Michael will be to sit unsupported and go to a sitting position by himself. He will also be able to crawl fast and stand by holding onto something. At about 15 months the infant will be able to walk around briefly and crawl stairs or crawl onto different objects. At about 2 years he will be able to walk and walk UP AND down from THE stairs AND RUN on their own because their leg muscles will have grown a little bit. He will be able to walk fully unsupported. At the age of 3 he will be able to run around, throw and catch objects because he will have developed their reactions. Childhood At DURING childhood, Michael will not have fully grown their body, they will still have small parts of their body to fully grow. At this stage Michael will be able to ride bicycles and run and skip. His muscles will also develop; therefore they will be able to hit with bats and catch easier. In addition, at this stage the children may slightly start their puberty and show some signs. Adolescence At this stage, Michael will start to go through puberty. There will be massive changes on their bodies. For girls, they will start develop their breasts and grow pubic hair under armpits and around private parts. The girls hips will also start to widen. At later stage girls will have their periods, which meanS that they can start to have babies. For boys, they will grow more muscles and grow pubic hair around their armpits and around their penis. The boys testicles and penis will also grow larger, and boy will start to produce sperm. Boys can realize this by having wet dreams. One of the biggest developments in boys is that their voice will break, BY Their voice will start becomING deeper and their voice box grows. Adulthood At this stage Michael will be fully mature and grown. Usually adults gain weight at this stage normally because of their inactivity in sports. Men will ALSO be able to produce sperm until they are ABOUT 80 years old, however this varies on different people. For women they will stop having period at around the age of 45-55 AND THEY WILL START MENOPAUSE, which means they can’t have babies anymore. Some women will start TO feel some sense of loss when this occurs. Later adulthood At this stage Michaels body will start to become weaker. Some major changes will occur to peoples bodies. One of the most obvious changes is wrinkles. Michael will start have lots of wrinkles around their face and body. Another change is Michael’s hair. Some PEOPLE will start to get white or grey hair, but more often people lose their hair and start to become bald. Bones will start to become much weaker and easier to break if there is an accident especially women’s. Most people will start find it hard to breath because their hearts and lungs becomes weaker and less efficient. Another major change is that people’s sight starts to weaken. They will find it hard to see stuff from close range and far range. In addition, they will find it hard to hear stuff as their hearing will become weaker too. Another physical change in later adult hood is that joints become stiffer, old people will find it hard to move around due to this. As sense of balance reduc es more old people uses a stick to help them balance and walk. Intellectual development Language development At around 3 months old Michael will be able to make some noises because they will have learnt how to control their muscles used with giving speech. At around 12 months Michael will start making noises made by the parents or carers. For example, if the carer says â€Å"mommy MAMA†, the infant will repeat the carer and say â€Å"mommy MAMA†. At around the age of 2 Michael will be able to put two words together and make a two word speech. At the age of 3 children will start to make sentences to communicate with their parents. For example they can say â€Å"I want to go out† but their sentences might be hard to understand. At the age of 5 and above, children will be able to make clear sentences which could be understood by anyone and use adult grammar. Infancy and childhood At birth babies are born with senses. They will only be able to sense different objects. Babies are also born with reflexes. These reflexes will help to feed, for example, sucking reflexes to feed them self. These reflexes will lead to â€Å"motor actions† which controls the baby’s body muscles automatically. At this stage the babies thinking will be limited. Piaget states that babies will not be able to memories and think about the world until they are 18 months old. At the age of 2 Piaget believes that children will not be able to think logically, however the children will be able to make noises or use words to communicate but they still won’t understand it logically. At around the age of 5 children will be able to start thinking logically. Children will also understand different concepts. For example, the concept of colors, numbers and sizes. The child will also start learning whets right and wrong. At this stage children will also join school and meet new people. For this reason they will begin to learn new vocabulary because they will listen to other children in their class and therefore they will start to learn new words. They will be able to see stuff from someone else point of view and start to be able to solve problems on their own. Adolescence At early adolescence TEENAGERS will start to think in different ways. They will understand harder concepts and solve COMPLEX problems easier. They will also be able to blend different information from different sources. This means that they will be able to solve problems in their head without actually seeing them. Adulthood At this stage most people will find jobs and new careers. Due to this, adults will start to learn new skills such as effective communication skills. In addition, adults will start to live independently, which means that they will have to learn the skills of cooking and managing their homes. This will prepare them for children and marriage. Most adults will get under pressure at this stage therefore their thinking time will become a lot slower. But because of their experience they will find it easier to solve their problems Later adulthood At this stage Michael will find it hard to remembering things. Especially if they are under pressure. Their reaction time will also become slower. However, because of their past experience in life, they will be able to make better decisions than younger people. In addition at this stage Michael will start to get ready for retirement. Emotional developments Infancy 0-3 years When a baby is born they need to build an attachment with their carer. Bowlby argued that infants will have an automatic need to form attachment with their carer. This quality will have future affect on the child’s emotional developments. However Ainsworth argues that the quality of the attachment will affect the assumptions people make about their life and others. This means that infants with a good quality of attachment will be able to cope with stress and uncertainty in life whereas infants with insecure attachment will have a reduced ability to cope with stress and events in life. Later on during infancy, in about 6 months infants will be shy of strangers. at about 2 years, they will show jealousy with peers and siblings, they will not be able to control their emotions. At the age of 3 they will start to control their emotions better and not as jealous of other children. Childhood 4-9 years At this stage Michael become much better at controlling their emotions. They will learn how to express their emotions differently in different situations. Children will mostly depend on their carers and family. As children grow older they will meet new people and teachers. Their relationship between their teachers and friends will have affect on their self-confidence. For example, if a child gets bullied in school, their self confidence will be low whereas if they are popular in school it will have a positive affect on them and have a high self confidence. Adolescence 10-18 years At adolescence Michaels hormones change and therefore they will have different emotions. People will be excited one minute and depressed the next. Families and carers will find difficult to cope with these mood swings. This is usually because they are going through puberty. At this stage people also try to discover who they actually are and try to create an identity for themselves. Teenagers usually do this by having ideas of politics or religion, or by smoking or drinking. Erikson a famous psychologist has created an identity theory which states that in order for a person to feel fully secure when they work with others or having sexual attachments, they will need to have a clear understanding of their identity and they should fully understand who they are. This will be a very stressful time for teenagers and their development of their identity will have affect on their self-esteem. Adulthood 19-65 years During this life stage Michael will have to be more independent and self-reliant. At this stage Michael start living with their partners and this will take a high level of emotional maturity which some may struggle. People who struggle with this usually break up their relationships. Michael have to adapt with their partners and their own emotions and control them and respond in an accurate way. Erikson argues that the key task of early adulthood was learning to cope with emotional attachment to a sexual partner. This means that Michael must ensure that they do not become emotionally isolated and not being too self-centered. At later point of this stage adults will start having children. This means that adults have to accept new responsibilities. Having children will cause lots of stress because children are very demanding. Adults will have to be very emotionally mature to cope with this. Later adulthood 65+ At later adulthood Michaels emotions will become fully mature. You may experience some difficulties as you may suffer from bereavement and there not able to control your emotions. Because of retirement you will have more free time, therefore you will be able to spend more time with your family and friends and share emotions. Social developments Infancy 0-3 years At these stage infants usually start to interact with their carers. Once they are 2 months old they will start to smile. At 3 months they will start to make some responsive behavior when adults talk. This means that they are trying to respond when adults are talking to them. At around 5 months old, they will start to become scared and shy of strangers. They will be able to tell the difference between familiar and unfamiliar people. At around 2 years old, they become interested in playing with other children and start to slowly play alongside other children but still not interact with them. At about 2  ½ years, they might join other children for a few minutes but then play alone for the rest of the time as the child do not know how to share toys and playthings. At 3 years old they will be able to play with other children as they now have learnt how to share they toys, and they will also be able to stay away from their parents for few hours. Childhood 4-9 years At this stage Michael has formed a strong attachment with their carers and have learned all the social behaviors within their family. Michael will now be able to understand the emotions and feelings of others. He can be separated from their carers for long time without stressing. At about 5 years old children will start to socialize a lot more. He will for the first time join school and meet many new children. Due to this, he will start to learn the rules of fairness in different games. He will also learn how to co-operate with other children and they tend to choose their friends. They usually bond with friends who like and agree with each other. At about 7 years children start to understand the differences between sexes. Due to this they usually play with the same sex and are shy of opposite sex. This usually continues until adolescence. Adolescence 10-18 years At adolescence Michael will usually become independent from their parents. Friends become more important than family and parents. It becomes important to fit in with other groups. For this reason at this stage Michael usually tend to copy others styles and the way they dress to fit in groups. In early stages of adolescence teenagers usually do different activities in groups. Therefore, teenagers test drugs and alcohol as an experiment. In later stages of adolescence teenagers become more interested in opposite sex and usually start a sexual relationship with the opposite sex as an experiment. Overall adolescence will be a struggling time because teenagers goes through puberty however, in this life stage they will get prepared towards the adulthood as in this stage teenagers test everything such as sexual relationships. Adulthood 19-65 years In adulthood Michael have to make their most important decision in their life. Most of the people choose their forever partner this stage and marriage takes place. However, this happens at later stage of adulthood. At early adulthood friendship will still remain important but employment and work will take place. Therefore Michael may not be able to socialize as much as they could in adolescence. People start to work at this stage and become totally independent from parents. Parents will start to realize that their child will have to take care of them self from now on. Michael now also have to separate relationships. For example they will have formal relationship in work with colleagues and informal relationship with friends and older friends. Socializing with friends will decrease constantly throughout the adulthood. People socialize less once they have married and have children. The responsibility will be higher and people tend to spend more time with their own family and children. Due to this people may experience pressure during their adulthood. Later Adulthood 65+ At this stage, most people retire because the retirement age is 65 years old. This means that during this life stage Michael will have much free time therefore socialize more. Most people usually spend more time doing their hobbies and interests and some spends more time with their family. However, this all depends on the level of income. If Michael has more income, he will be able to enjoy his hobbies and travel around, whereas if you have low income you will not be able to do all those stuff. During retirement people children may live on their own with their own family, therefore older people might feel isolated and unneeded, however they may enjoy having their grandchildren and enjoying time with them. In addition, some people may suffer from bereavement of close friends or partners therefore they will have to get used to socialize in a smaller circle.

Portfolio Management of Research Projects Essay

1 Introduction More and more, organizations rely on research projects in order to stay updated on new technologies, processes and practices on their fields. Through them, they remain ahead in the competition and sustain their competitive advantages. This is specially the case for organizations that are on the top of their industry and which other organizations follow closely to benchmark their strategic moves. This seems applicable for private organizations, however research and development also plays a big role in public organizations. In the last few decades there has been an increased belief that organized research and development could stimulate economic growth and contribute to improving economic welfare. Given this, governments provide research and development (R&D) funding in order to promote scientific and technological development. With the increased need for production of scientific and technological knowledge in the public sector, there has been an increase in R&D activities performed by private organizations in order to match these production needs. Whether they are of a public or private nature, organizations rely on projects as means to deliver results. This derives in the tendency to engage in several projects simultaneously. Organizations group these projects in portfolios which should be managed in order to decide its composition and strategic moves. This managerial task is known as Portfolio Management which applied to R&D projects is defined as:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"a dynamic decision process, whereby a business’s list of active new product (and R&D) projects is constantly updated and revised. In this process, new projects are evaluated, selected, and prioritized; existing projects may be accelerated, killed, or deprioritized,; and resources are allocated an reallocated to the active projects. The portfolio decision process is characterized by uncertain and changing information, dynamic opportunities, multiple goals and strategic considerations, interdependence among projects, and multiple decision-makers and locations† (Cooper, Edgett, & Kleinschmidt, 2001). Portfolio Management of Research Projects in the Public and Private Sectors The aim of the present thesis is to gain a better understanding on how this process is applied in both a public and a private setting. The thesis work focuses on the analysis of one public organization and two private organizations. While the sample may not be representative to completely understand the behaviour of organizations and their portfolio management, it provides an opportunity to model the process in these settings. The project is lead through a series of iterative literature review supported by interviews and document analysis. The research questions represent the point of reference to start the research. This project is approached with an open mind, which allows re-evaluating the initial assumptions of the thesis and gives flexibility to the researcher. A more in-depth description of the  methodology followed in this report can be found in the fourth chapter of this project. The motivation behind this master thesis developed from previous studies on project management of research projects. During these studies a less known topic came up: portfolio management of research projects. It appeared that, while it was a less known topic, it was not of less importance. Through discussions with professionals from both research institutions and industrial organizations, it became evident the relevance of the topic. I was motivated by this relevancy which is present in both the public and private sectors. 2 Trondheim, NTNU MSc in Project Management, Thesis 2 Problem Formulation This master thesis aims to present a description and comparison of the process of portfolio management of research projects undertaken in a public and a private organization. The major focus in this regard is to identify the commonalities and differences of the organizations’ practices with respect to portfolio management and obtain a better understanding on how the process works in both organizations. This understanding and thesis will hopefully be helpful for organizations that seriously consider R&D and for researches who will work on this topic in the future. There may be several research questions that can be studied in connection with portfolio management of research projects. I choose to consider some important research questions within the scope of this master thesis. The research questions are presented and explained below. 2.1 Research Questions The focus of the investigation behind this project is based on the following  questions: How do organizations perform the portfolio management process? How do organizations select which research projects should make up their company’s project portfolio? How do public and private organizations define success in research projects? What drives the difference across firms, if any? 3 Portfolio Management of Research Projects in the Public and Private Sectors The model is based on my assumption that organizational strategy plays a major role in the way an organization proceeds to lead the activities associated with managing its portfolio of research projects, which in turn have the main purpose of generating knowledge and possibly bring competitive advantages to the organization. Based on this understanding the research approach, as will be explained in a later section, was developed in order to study to what extent the model reflects reality. Though the terms strategy and knowledge are not explicitly mentioned in the research questions, both terms are underlying aspects that reflect on the research questions and hence this study. The research questions and research model are connected to each other and complement each other in such a way to highlight the topic this thesis. 2.3 Importance of Thesis As part of a previous project for the Specialization Course of the Master in Project Management at NTNU, I got acquainted with the challenges and  uncertainties associated with research projects. During the research phase and in discussions with interviewees from research institutions and industrial organizations, peers and professors it became evident that one area of interest in R&D for those developing in the R&D environment is the one related to portfolio management of such projects. While portfolio management is an important topic in the literature of Project Management, there are fewer investigations that link this topic with specifically research projects. This may be because only recently the interest in research projects has been growing and this discipline is now seen as a potential tool for business success and competitive advantage. It became clear that organizations rely more on projects as a means to deliver results. Organizations arrange projects in portfolios according to their goals and strategy. Research projects, which may be among the projects in the portfolio or be the sole elements of the portfolio as will be explained later, help organizations keep updated in new technologies, methodologies, processes, etc. However, in private organizations investing in Research projects, whether internally or externally obtained, may seem as an unnecessary expenditure given the focus on day to day processes. On the other hand, there are public 4 Trondheim, NTNU MSc in Project Management, Thesis  organizations specifically dedicated to generate or fund research projects in order to generate knowledge and development of public interest.  Either way, both private and public organizations that wish to remain competitive have a tendency to undertake research projects. The nature of both organizations may lead to different approaches on how to manage their portfolios. This could develop into managerial activities that while work on one setting may not be useful on the other and vice versa. Getting to understand how these managerial activities are performed in the public and  private settings can give future researchers and organizations interested in R&D projects an insight on some of the current practices in these settings. 2.4 Research Approach Once the importance of the topic was clarified the topic was better delimited through literature review and brief discussions with academics and professionals knowledgeable in the area. Literature review includes basic theory of portfolio management, research projects, portfolio management of research projects. Furthermore I used theories on portfolio evaluation and selection and tools and techniques for portfolio management. This general literature provides a framework within which I could look at and describe portfolio management of research projects. Portfolio management of research projects can be seen in two ways. One is when a company has a portfolio that includes all types of projects (IT, construction, R&D, etc.) and makes selection, resource allocation or termination decisions considering all of these projects. I will call this a Mixed Project Portfolio (Figure 2: Project portfolio), where Project (P) 1, 2†¦ N, coexist with Research Project (RP) 1, 2†¦ N. Figure 2: Project portfolio consisting of mixed projects The other way of looking at portfolio management of research projects can be when a company either undertakes only research projects or they simply manage them Yolanda Yebra Aguado 5 Portfolio Management of Research Projects in the Public and Private Sectors  independently of the projects which support day to day activities (IT, procurement, etc.) In this case, it is possible to talk about a Portfolio of Research Projects (Figure 3: Portfolio of research projects), in which activities of portfolio management are done only considering the interdependencies of research projects within the portfolio. Figure 3: Portfolio of research projects For purposes of this project, the focus is on this second way of looking at portfolio management, where the organizations’ portfolio consists only of research projects; hence the context of this study. This research study is based on an iterative process – a learning cycle – which helped refine the course of the study and further investigation. Based on this an interview guide was created; this interview represents the basis for the qualitative approach in this paper. The interview, as it will be explained later, is a semi-structured interview allowing the researcher to address the issue with an open mind as well as giving the opportunity to direct the interview in the desired direction or adding relevant topics. In addition to the interviews, document analysis is also used to support the topic. The analysis of the document is done adhering to the same premises and perspective of the interviews with the aim of finding important and relevant information. This process helped create a framework within which it was possible to operate in a flexible manner. Through this, the research questions were refined and fine-tuned in order to emphasise the main elements of the research topic. To complete the research, I present an analysis of the findings. Whenever comparisons are possible, they will be presented. Finally conclusions that resulted from the analysis will be drawn. Further information on the methodology followed for this project is explained in the following chapters. 6 Trondheim, NTNU MSc in Project Management, Thesis 2.5 Scope and Limitations The major limitation associated with this project comes from the amount of time dedicated to the investigation. The project is developed during the spring semester of 2011 as a master thesis for the Project Management program. Due to this time limitation, the number of cases to be analysed will be limited to three organizations. Though the sample may not be representative to fully understand the behaviour of organizations and their portfolio management, it provides an opportunity to look at some kind of pattern in organizations’ practices with respect to portfolio management of research projects. Furthermore, this thesis can be used as a base for further research in the matter; a stepping stone to go further. In the cases where specific literature regarding research and development projects was hard to find or of no access, general literature on portfolio management and project management is used as a source to discuss relevant issues. The same applies to models and tools consulted on the matter. Regardless of these limitations, I believe that a better understanding on the topic will be possible through this study to reach conclusions and provide a base or reference for academics, practitioners as well as general public who are interested in the topic. 3 Theoretical Background This chapter presents the theoretical background of the report. To begin  with, the concepts associated with the main topic Portfolio Management of Research Projects (PMRP) are presented. The objective of this is to get acquainted with them, to have a better understanding of what is discussed by different authors and to choose specific definitions to work with. Once the main topics and definitions are introduced, three main concepts related to PMRP are presented. The first one is the influence of Strategy in PMRP and why organizations choose to rely on strategy to support it. The next section deals with the Selection process and presents some methods and criteria for project evaluation and selection suggested by the literature available. The third concept is project Success, which is explored from an overall project management perspective and more particularly from a public and private organization perspective. The concept of success is looked at in order to understand what organizations perceive as successful and how it impacts their business in future strategy, project selection and other areas. 9 Portfolio Management of Research Projects in the Public and Private Sectors 3.1 Basic concepts of the Portfolio Management of Research Projects This section presents the definitions of the basic concepts associated with the report. First, I begin by briefly introducing the evolution of research and development projects and their nature. Next, the definition of portfolio management is presented. After these two presentations, other relevant topics are described. Finally the main topic of the research, portfolio management of Research projects, is introduced. 3.1.1 Research and Development Projects: a Private and Public Approach David et al. (2000) present a very comprehensive analysis of the development of R&D research in the US. According to the authors the end of the 19th century marked the beginning of organized research and development activities upon  the productive resources for societies. Since then, the percentage of national gross product directed by both private and public organizations towards increasing the scientific and technological knowledge has increased. The same study claims that during the 1930s, the  Ã¢â‚¬Å"total R&D expenditures in countries such as the US, the UK and Japan remained in the range between two-thirds and one-quarter of one percentage point of their respective national product figures.† (David, Hall, & Toole, 2000). Since then there was an increased belief that organized research and development could stimulate economic growth and contribute to improving economic welfare, which led governments to create public institutions supporting civilian science and engineering. This gave way to an expansion of government agency research programs in non-defence as well as military technologies, and established models for the performance of governmentfunded R&D by private sector contractors. With the increased need for public production of scientific and technological knowledge, there was an increase in R&D activities performed by private organizations in order to match this production needs. This is given that technology is the most crucial factor for the progress of a nation’s economic development and living standards (Chang & Hsu, 1997). In order to promote scientific and technological development, governments provide R&D funding. As a result, support for selective development of specific industries is provided through direct, project-oriented subsidies. Government policy concentrates resources on long-term R&D problems and on expensive basic research that could not be undertaken by industry. Whether they are of a public or private nature, organizations rely on projects as means to deliver results; this tends organizations to engage in several projects at a time. The nature of these projects varies from  marketing to IT, environmental issues, procurement, new product development and research and development (R&D). More and more, organizations rely on research projects (R&D, new product development, innovation) in order to stay updated on new technologies, processes and practices on their fields. This is how they remain ahead in the competition and sustain their competitive advantages. This is specially the case for organizations that are on the top of their industry and that influence other organizations to follow them closely to benchmark their strategic moves. In order to maintain competitive advantage, organizations need to develop successful product and process innovation (Archer & Ghasemzadeh, 1999; Mikkola, 2001) for what they turn to R&D projects to achieve this. However R&D projects have a very particular nature. Research projects are characterized for being associated with a high degree of uncertainty and unpredictability (Balachandra, K, & Pearson, 1996). Therefore, large scale R&D projects require large budgets and high risk and long term programs (Chang & Hsu, 1997). This is mostly due to the fact that the outcome of a research project, such as knowledge generation, is intangible and hard to measure through standard project evaluation. 3.1.2 Portfolio Management Given the importance of developing research projects, organizations are faced with the task of conforming portfolios of projects. For practical purposes, this report considers project portfolio as: â€Å"a group of projects that are carried out under the sponsorship and /or management of a particular organization† (Archer & Ghasemzadeh, 1999). The task of selecting which projects should be a part of the company’s project portfolio is an important activity in many organizations. It is presented in the following definition. Portfolio Management is defined as the strategic choices, resource allocation, project selection and balance of the pool of projects available for organizations to undertake (Cooper, Edgett, & Kleinschmidt, 2001; Linton D. & Walsh T., 2002; Wang & Hwang, 2005). However this activity is not an easy one to do. Managers find challenges in deciding which projects to undertake, how to allocate resources to them through their whole life cycle and how to balance the portfolio once projects are completed or have to be terminated. Project Portfolio Management (PPM) is a critical task in company performance. Some key questions to be considered before deciding to do project portfolio management are known as â€Å"Five Ws and One H† (The Enterprise Portfolio Management Council, 2009): Who can use the PPM process? Everyone from Chief executives, heads of department, managers, supervisors, portfolio, project and program managers, to systems engineers. What should PPM be used for? To manage multiple projects, programs, assets, software applications, resource allocation, products.  When should PPM be used? When there is more than one project or program or decisions must be taken when it comes to proposal ideas competing for a slot in the portfolio, whether projects or programs should go forward or terminated, resource allocation, strategic changes, mergers, acquisitions or joint ventures to mention some. Where is PPM used? In both profit and non-profit organizations, government agencies, universities, investment firms.  Why should PPM be used? To ensure that projects and programs are aligned with strategies, goals and business objectives, to communicate project and program details, to manage projects and programs as a whole. PPM is a holistic, systems approach to business projects. How to decide whether to use PPM or not? Conversations and discussions between executives, managers, project and program managers and experts are encouraged in order to assess the situation and define the business case. Screening, Selecting and Prioritization Reprioritiza tion of projects Allocation and reallocation of resources according to priority Figure 5 Managerial activities related to PPM, based on (Blichfeldt & Eskerod, 2007) p. 358. Literature on PPM has widely focused on these managerial activities of project screening, selection, prioritization, balancing and resource allocation, while most recently focus has shifted to actual day to day management of the portfolio. Theories and literature have gone from focusing on tools, techniques and methods to a more managerial approach of how the activity is actually done. Thus, this thesis studies documented techniques and methods PPM, but keeps in sight the importance of the actual activities undertaken by the institutions. 3.1.3 Portfolio Management of Research Projects Global market changes and the interest of business organizations to remain ahead of their industry, tend organizations to rethink their competitive  strategy more often than before. Firms that cannot supply innovative products faster than competitor, lose competitiveness. R&D projects are used as a source of strategy, because they help target the increasing complexity demanded by shorter life cycles of products and services that wish to remain ahead and up to date (Mikkola, 2001). Most importantly, organizations have an increasing interest in evaluating their R&D projects from a portfolio’s perspective; in which project selection, resource allocation and balancing remain the main activities to be performed. According to McNally (2007), managing R&D is considered as one of the three core business processes.  Perhaps the most comprehensive definition of Portfolio Management of Research Projects, and the one to be considered for this thesis, is given by Cooper, et al. (2001). The authors describe the term as: â€Å"a dynamic decision process, whereby a business’s list of active new product (and R&D) projects is constantly updated and revised. In this process, new projects are evaluated, selected, and prioritized; existing projects may be accelerated, killed, or deprioritized,; and resources are allocated and reallocated to the active projects. The portfolio decision process is characterized by uncertain and changing information, dynamic opportunities, multiple goals and strategic considerations, interdependence among projects, and multiple decision-makers and locations.† This is an important and critical task to be undertaken because it requires a considerable amount of human resources and opportunity costs incurred as projects go from the selection phase to the implementation. At the same time this is a difficult task because decision makers have to work relatively fast with little reliable and highly changing information. Therefore the selection and development of successful innovations has a high degree of risk associated with it (Nesse & Velde, 2010). In order to manage portfolios of research projects, organizations rely on different tools or techniques. Literature (Wang & Hwang, 2005) points that R&D portfolio decisions are hard to take given the nature of R&D projects and environment. On the one hand, R&D projects have long lead times, and on the other hand, market and technology are so dynamic that it makes information for portfolio management seem unavailable and unreliable. All organizations that wish to engage in R&D are faced with the problem of managing the portfolio of research projects, where projects have to fight for a limited pool of resources. At the same time project selection becomes a complicated task because the decision maker has to determine which new proposals should be funded, which existing projects should be continued and to what extent a resource should be involved in the selected project of the portfolio (Chien, 2002).