Dear Reader,
I
had to merge two different discussions together. One focused on my IR
and another focusing on Vita's IR. Luckily Vita also joined into my
discussion making this merger easier to handle than if another student
joined in.
First I present you the DQ followed by Noriko's and my discussion about English acquisition and globalization before the discussion is merged with Vita's IR and my response to her thread as well as her response to mine.
Thanks for your interest and any feedback you might leave.
Next week I'll post the Week 2 DQ and IRs I will have participated in.
Enjoy!;)
Regards,
El Tanoderno
Week 01 Discussion Question
In preparation for this week’s Discussion, be sure to review the
PDF, “Sample outline discussion interaction,” in the Weekly Readings.
By Saturday: In an approximately 250-350 word response, address the following issues / questions:
Based on what you have learned this week about the online classroom and your overall understanding of the masters programme, identify and describe a strategic issue such as an economic downturn; an innovation or product development; a company merger; or a future growth in your field of study or professional area. Focus on how the issue is impacting your organisation or one in which you have previously worked (If you are not currently working, focus on an organisation that you are familiar with). What impact is this issue having on the organisation and how might it relate to organisation and structure? Is this issue impacting on the global community?
From your master’s programme structure, which module do you believe will give you the best insight into your current field? How might that module improve your professional performance? To conclude your posting, share a description of why you are completing this program of study.
By Wednesday: Post 3 to 5 responses to your colleagues by:
Please submit your initial response through the Turnitin submission link below in addition to posting it to the Discussion Board.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello Noriko,
Now
nearly half of Japanese companies planning new hiring require
applicants to be "business English users" - a big rise from 16 percent
in July 2009” (Mariko,2011)
By Saturday: In an approximately 250-350 word response, address the following issues / questions:
Based on what you have learned this week about the online classroom and your overall understanding of the masters programme, identify and describe a strategic issue such as an economic downturn; an innovation or product development; a company merger; or a future growth in your field of study or professional area. Focus on how the issue is impacting your organisation or one in which you have previously worked (If you are not currently working, focus on an organisation that you are familiar with). What impact is this issue having on the organisation and how might it relate to organisation and structure? Is this issue impacting on the global community?
From your master’s programme structure, which module do you believe will give you the best insight into your current field? How might that module improve your professional performance? To conclude your posting, share a description of why you are completing this program of study.
By Wednesday: Post 3 to 5 responses to your colleagues by:
- Asking insightful questions
- Offering contributions based upon the literature and your prior experience
- Extending the Discussion into new but relevant areas
- Modeling or promoting critical reflection
Please submit your initial response through the Turnitin submission link below in addition to posting it to the Discussion Board.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DQ: Initial Response Week 1 – The potential rise in demand of Native English
Teachers (NETs) at Private Institutions in Korea due to New Government
Implementations
As of this year the Korean Ministry of
Science, Technology and Education will implement a new admissions procedure for
high school students to enter Korean universities known as The National English
Ability Test or NEAT (Lee, 2011).
NEAT is also to replace the English section
of the current College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) as the latter only tests
reading and listening skills, whereas NEAT will cover all aspects including
speaking skills (Lee, 2011), making it harder to enter university.
Furthermore, the Seoul Metropolitan Office
of Education alone, as well as the surrounding areas, has introduced
budget-cuts for NETs at middle schools this year, especially in high schools where
the budget dropped from W33.6 billion (US$29million) in 2011 to W29.2 billion (US$25million)
for this year (Yun, 2011).
NEAT is to be fully implemented into
universities nationally by 2016 (Na, 2011).
Combining these four factors will most
likely produce the following results:
- An increasing annual demand in NETs at private institutes due to the lack of NETs in schools, especially high schools as budgets become smaller over the years.
- Higher salary for experienced and qualified NETs as quality will be prioritized.
- Institutes will have to appoint head teachers in order to manage teachers’ responsibilities and to simplify leadership hence overall organization.
- Institutes will have a chance to expand and open new academies if quality and organization is prioritized.
In one sentence, the future looks very
promising for private English institutes due to the government’s newest
implementations.
In regards to the master’s programme
structure, I believe that the Managing Finance module will have the greatest
effect on my personal performance, as the financial aspects aren’t often taken
into consideration when coming to marketing decisions. Therefore being able to
fuse those two together will produce a far more transient and aware decision-making.
To conclude, I have chosen this programme to
use my prior experience along with the knowledge and tools I will gain to join
one of the major Korean conglomerates and become a Regional Specialist for
Brazil or Europe.
References:
Lee Jae Hoon (2011) Universities to add National English Ability Test to admissions
[Online] Seoul: The Hankyoreh. Available from:
http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/480053.html
(Accessed: 7 January 2012)
Lee Sun Young (2011) New English test plan faces backlash [Online] Seoul: The Korea
Herald. Available from:
http://educationinkorea.blogspot.com/2011/05/new-english-test-plan-faces-backlash.html
(Accessed: 7 January 2012)
Yun Suh Young (2011) No budget cut for foreign teachers at elementary schools [Online]
Seoul: The Korea Times. Available from:
(Accessed: 7 January 2012)
Na Jeong Ju (2011) Scoring system operator to be picked [Online] Seoul: The Korea
Times. Available from:
(Accessed: 7 January 2012)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello Andrew
I would like to response to your interesting posting.
As
globalization growing up rapidly, Communication skills in English are
more required in any sector. I believe that the education of English in
Japan isn’t strategic for the globalization. I still have a difficulty
with verbal communication in English even having a long learning. For
example, I would just show you my personal episode at the class of
Junior high school. The English teacher required us to hold a piece of
paper on our mouth and speak the word “Apple” for practicing voice
training for one hour. She required us to blow up the paper for P sound
for the correct pronunciation many times.
And
the first English sentence on the text book was “This is a pen.” I have
never had an opportunity to use this sentence in the real world.
Of
course, Education of English has been better than my age but I still
find that many in young generation has a difficulty with speaking
English while they are good at reading and writing.
I
address that monoculture countries such as Korean and Japan needs more
NETs and the opportunity to interact with foreign people.
I
quote that a Japanese Internet shopping operator Rakuten,Inc. surprised
the public by announcing it will make English its official language by
2012.All internal meetings will be English and President has said board
members who cannot speak English by the deadline will be
fired.(Minoru,2010,p.1)
Since
the domestic market has been shrinking because of economic recession,
Firms are looking to expand overseas. Communication skills in English
are more required than ever. For this reason I favor Korean’s new
Government Implementations in Education sector.
Reference list:
Minoru, M. (2010) ‘Rakuten forces all workers to speak English by 2012’,August Vol.3,p.1.
The Japan times. The University times [Online]
Available at:
( Accessed :08 January 2011)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you for your interest in my post.
Drawing from your response I imagine that in terms of English education Korea
and Japan share similar problems with potentially similar roots.
Regarding student’s English speaking levels
in Korea, I find the root of the problem composes of the following:
- In my experience, Korean public school teachers as well as those at private institutes generally lack the verbal as well as grammatical skills to teach English. Some of these can’t even speak themselves and just follow the material.
- As the Korean government tries to cut down on costs, as stated in my initial post, the majority of NETs employed by the government as well as at private institutes have little teaching experience in order to cut labour costs. This directly undermines the teaching quality nationwide.
- NETs who come over to teach English constantly change work place or leave the country after 2 years, a year or even 6months, therefore students aren’t provided with a permanent NET that will help improve the quality over a long period of time.
Considering the above, the new implementations
of the Korean government should help in prioritizing first of all the quality
of NETs as well as indirectly cause private institutes to revise their
employment strategy.
Adopting a Japanese strategy such as The
Japan Exchange and Teaching programme (JET), where the application procedure
takes a year (compared to a month in Korea) as NETs are assessed on their
qualifications and interest in Japan before being hired, would benefit Korea in
the long run as such a selective process would ensure NETs’ commitment as well
as suitability, hence improving Korea’s globalization by raising student’s
overall performance.
In regards to Rakuten, it is essentially a
good idea but in my opinion Hiroshi Mikitani should implement this strategy to
globalize in a more gradual manner over a longer time span, i.e. 4 years, as
key agents within the organization would be able to set an example and allow
the rest enough time to follow suit. What is your opinion on that?
Links of possible interest:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Very interesting, Noriko! Are you saying that no
other company in Japan has English as an official
language? Best, Dr. L.
other company in Japan has English as an official
language? Best, Dr. L.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Dr. Lapkoff and Andrew
Rakuten’s
case is still rare except the foreign-financed companies in Japan then
Mikitani’s announcement was broadcast on TV or newspaper in 2011.
But
“ Rakuten's decision triggered a shock-wave that's extended to many
other companies, especially manufacturers, because they too are under
pressure to expand outside a shrinking home market said Yuriko
Tsurumaki, a Recruit Agent spokeswoman.
I
have an experience of working in Japan and NZ. The big difference is
that Japanese films tend to hire younger people and train them to have
royalty to the company while NZ firms recruit highly experienced staff
for ready to use. The age limits of permanent employees are usually
strict at the employment in Japan while the inexperienced young people
have a difficulty with getting a job in NZ.
If
this phenomenon like Rakuten is expanding, Japanese films need to
change the management of recruitment from conventional management.
I
suppose that it is a big challenge for Rakuten. Mikitani is a drastic
and unique and charismatic CEO who was graduated from the Business
School of Harvard University. But “some critics pointed out Mikitani’s
own shortcomings in the language.”( Japan Today,2012)
I
think that the success in Economics of Japan was not by language but
technology and business in the past but as thinking of fears of other
developing country like BRICS and rapid globalization, language is the
new factor of business success.
Reference list:
Ｍariko,K. (2011) ‘Fear for jobs ignites ”English crisis” in Japan’, 22 September, REUTERS [Online].
Available at:
( Accessed :09 January 2011)
Japan Today (2012)’Rakuten’s decision on English not welcomed by everyone’, 19 July, Japan news and discussion [Online].
Available at:
( Accessed :09 January 2011)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Noriko,
I agree with you. I also believe that
language acquisition is one of the newest and most important factors for any
company to be successful on an international scale. Especially a G7 country,
such as Japan, whose first language isn’t English will have to globalize at a
faster pace, due to the ever increasing pressure of BRICS as their combined GDP
has the potential to overtake G7’s by 2032 (O’Neill & Stupnytska, 2009, p.3).
Also, according to O’Neill & Stupnytska (2009), China is predicted to overtake
the US, the World’s current leading economy, by 2027. In less than 15 years,
the importance of English as the primary lingua franca for business transactions
will therefore have decreased as Mandarin will undoubtedly become an ace for
any serious international player.
In any case, the importance of such
strategic globalization advancements such as Hiroshi Mikitani has implemented, although
in a very drastic manner, are of the upmost importance in order to compete on a
global scale over the next two decisive decades. As stated by Roberts (2007), ‘Globalization is one such change: Lowering
barriers to trade and investment and increased ease of communication,
traveling, and shipping across borders mean that companies have new
opportunities to expand internationally and can grow by increasing their
geography without increasing the scope of products or services they offer.’
A Japanese Product Manager visiting a plant
in China can directly inspect the manufacturing process and thus gain control
of the manufacturing and shipping process and any issues that may arise simply
by effectively communicating in Mandarin. After inspection, he has now to ship
the products to the US, and by knowing English as well, he can now take care of
the logistics without a middleman or extra costs. By increasing the company’s
geography and by means of effective direct communication through travelling, the
company managed to be in direct control of the business transactions saving
time and money in the process.
Therefore acquiring any language, say
English or Mandarin, will in turn benefit and help globalization of any company
by gaining more control through effective communication alone.
References:
O’Neill, J. & Stupnytska, A. (2009) The Long-Term Outlook for the BRICs and N-11
Post Crisis [Online] New York: Goldman Sachs. Available from: http://www2.goldmansachs.com/our-thinking/brics/brics-at-8/brics-the-long-term-outlook.pdf
(Accessed 10 January 2012)
Roberts, J. (2004) The modern firm: organizational design for performance and growth. Oxford:
Oxford University Press (p.230)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I would like to address the issue of technology and innovation as a
strategically important point for the development of my organisation and
my professional development in this organisation.
Winfield, Bishop and Porter (2004, p. 519) describe advances in technology as 'inherently beneficial, or at least essential to remain competitive'. The role of innovation has proven vital through various examples of how a single idea or new technology became a turning point for many companies. This creates a great challenge for companies that prefer relying on existing technology rather than trying to develop new technology.
The management at all times needs to be aware of and continually trained on technologically-justified resource allocation. For example, the company I work in reduced manufacturing resources by using the third-party electronic manufacturing services and contractually managing manufacturing process on the spot. This freed up resources for design and development creating a ratio of 80% for design engineering and 20% for operation management. In my experience, this is a general trend for many electronics companies in the industry.
Technology and innovation in my organisation are largely driven by marketing. The core value of marketing specialists in this respect is to drive ideas based on a research, an insight or market trends into technological applications and manage the process along. Marketing specialists may not necessarily know technology in detail, but they absolutely need to understand the market needs and the areas this technology may be applied in.
In my M.Sc. course in Global Marketing, I am particularly looking forward to the New Media & Social Network Marketing module, however, I strongly believe that all eight modules I take will be equally beneficial to me. I am relatively fresh to this area (2.5 years in marketing and customer support) and have many theoretical perspectives to focus on. This programme will no doubt be a valuable addition to my professional development now and in the future.
Vita
Reference list:
Winfield, P. W., Bishop, R. and Porter, K. (2004) Core Management for HR Students and Practitioners. 2nd edn. Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Vita,
I concord with you that Marketing specialists
shouldn’t have to know the ins and outs of a product in regards to technology,
but none the less knowing your product down to its components would be of great
advantage in recognizing the various applications of said technology and in turn
allow to fully comprehend market needs thus identifying high-potential market
opportunities.
Having an understanding and awareness of
other factors in decision-making as a modern marketing specialist such as the
financial aspects when allocating resources will allow ultimately coming to decisions
that will benefit the entire organization.
For example, marketing and finance
specialist should work closer together to come to a better understanding as
well as try and understand each other better from the start. As Peter Hatherly,
CFO (Chief Financial Officer) at Accantia said according to Young (2008), 'Yes, the marketing director has to
understand the numbers, but the FD must also understand strategic marketing.'
Could you elaborate on how technology and
innovation in your organization are largely driven by marketing in order to
gain a better understanding?
Regards,
Andrew
Reference:
Young, R. (2008) When finance met marketing [Online] London: ACCA. Available from: http://www.acca.co.uk/members/publications/accounting_business/archive/2008/april/3085101
(Accessed 10 January 2012)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Andrew,
Thank you for your comment. I totally agree, this is indeed
important to have a thorough understanding of the product or service that you
provide or market. Nevertheless, a combination of an excellent technical and
marketing specialist in one person is rather rare, at least to my experience in
this field so far. This would usually be specialists with technical background and
substantial marketing training and experience.
Let me explain a bit further my point about marketing and
technology and innovation. Being a consumer electronics supplier, my company
has several types of clientele, including larger vendors in the same market
segment, operators, distributors etc. Not all these customers would come
forward asking for a product based on specific characteristics. Many on the
contrary will expect the supplier to provide a technical proposal that would
then fit into their own market segment. This literally makes marketing stay on
the edge of technology and innovation at all times, foreseeing what the new
features the users would want (or need) to be developed next. As a quick
example, our marketing pushed hard to have the second generation of TV signal
broadcast technology to be developed early and on the company cost, when there
was no sign that this technology standard will be adopted. And when European governments
one by one started enforce this standard to operators, we already had an “off-the-shelf”
solution which allowed us to acquire several new customers and opened up new
markets, leaving many larger competitors behind. This has also been possible
due to proper resource allocation. Therefore, marketing did a good job
foreseeing demand for this solution and cooperating internally with management
and finance.
Best Regards,
Vita
Dear Andrew, Noriko,
Following your interesting discussion of aspects
of English in S Korea and Japan, may I draw a parallel by using the
example of the English level among non-English major specialists in China. The
quality of English teaching and the overall knowledge of English are far from
being perfect in China, too. This directly affects employers who do not always
get what they expect hiring newly graduated specialists.
English test is core part of the National Higher Education Entrance Examination (the "gaokao") – the
complex high school exam perquisite to college entrance. After this, English hours
are also included into non-English major student syllabus at the universities.
Ultimately, all college students must pass the College English Test (CET) Band 1-6
(in reality, Band 4 or 6) to graduate. As a result, preparation for this test
takes most of their efforts during their study time.
400 million Chinese are reported to have studied English in
the past 30 years (Li and Hu, 2011), however, the actual abilities to speak and
write English of those students who passed CET-4 (the minimum required to lend
a job in most Chinese companies) are not impressive. If there is an English
test during a job interview, the applicants will probably be lucky to impress
the employers trying hard to speak or write English, but would not always
reveal comprehension once hired. In a company that uses English on a daily
basis, it is more practical to hire Hong Kong residents or overseas Chinese to
receive an employee with good level of both English and Mandarin. Some
companies, including mine, arrange English trainings and invite English native
speakers to train their staff - something the employers should have already had as a package when hiring. This diminishes significance of all
the time spent at school and college studying English and reflects growing importance of
revision of teaching methods and practices in Chinese educational
institutions.
Vita
Reference list:
Li, Y. and Hu, Y. (2011) ‘English teaching gets lost in
translation’ China Daily, 11 November
[Online]. Available at: http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-11/11/content_14077692.htm
(Accessed: 11 January 2012).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Vita,
First of all, thank you for elaborating on your
initial post. I have a far better understanding now how technology and
innovation in your organization is driven by marketing. It also supported my
point by demonstrating that a company’s specialists should work close together
as well as knowing one’s product thoroughly in order to develop and change one’s
product according to customers’ current and future needs.
According to my father, who worked for IBM,
3M and other major companies, a strategy most companies within the technology
industry adopt is to develop a product at different stages. Let’s say the organization
developed and improved said product three times, but even though they could
sell the most improved version or model of said product, they will put the
least improved of the three out in the market first. This approach creates a
buffer in order to invest more time into product development and securing one’s
place in the market on a long term basis by distributing said product’s
versions tactically. Another advantage of this strategy is in case a competitor
brings out a model that may challenge your market share of said product which
you may counter said challenge then by releasing the second or third version of
your product if deemed necessary and whichever of the two suffices.
Second of all, thank you for sharing your
knowledge on the situation
regarding English acquisition in China. It seems that there is a trend to
globalize in all three countries although lacking a concrete strategy to successfully
achieve this goal in a time-effective and realistic manner. Of course it’s not
an issue that may have a single or universal solution as with each country a
different strategy is probably needed as well as what may work for one company
might not necessarily work for another.
What I believe can be done though, is to come to a
solution that may work universally at the core but is easily modified to suit
the need of each country and with further manipulation for each company in each
country respectively.
Regards,
Andrew
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Very well researched post, Andrew. Thanks!
Best, Dr. L.
Best, Dr. L.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stay tuned for next week's DQ! ~ 
No comments:
Post a Comment