Management
Pixar Animation Studio has been categorized as an advancing small business. It is a computer animation studio that is located in California, United States. Pixar’s competitive advantage is based on its effectiveness in the operations management which includes improvement of the external and the internal systems, technologies and resource that deliver and create the company’s services and products. The far reaching coordination of Pixar management and its employees has greatly contributed to the success of the firm and this has been the reason as to why the company has continued to be listed among the 100 best small companies. Pixar put in place a creative department to be involved in every project that the company is to undertake. Pixar uses functional structure where the functional sectors of the firm perform specialized tasks. This type of structure has been chosen by the company for the reasons that it leads to operational efficiencies and specialization results in fast operations while still maintaining the quality of the product.
Cox Petroleum Transport Company is carrier-company that specializes in the transportation of petroleum products. Its central dispatch team is situated in Bakersfield and it has been categorized as a medium business. The company provides its services in the western United State in products such as hauling gasoline, jet fuel, diesel fuel, fuel oils, lube oils and crude oil. Cox Petroleum Transport was founded in the year 1971 and is locally owned. Its fleet has grown to more that 80 well-maintained and modern Freightliner trucks. The company has seven terminals that are situated throughout Southern and Central California. It operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and its work force is dedicated to ensuring that deliveries are made on time and there is maximum customer satisfaction. The company utilizes the World Wide Web as a way of providing direct access services for its customers, employees and suppliers. Cox Petroleum Transport Company uses the divisional structure which is also referred to as a product structure. Each division is concerned with transporting a specific type of product and it has gone a little more further to structure its operations to specific geographical regions. The divisional structure was chosen by the company because it allows for flexibility and it enables its workers to give its customers accurate services.
Siemens is a multinational company that has its headquarters in Munich Germany. It is categorized as large business and is the biggest Europe’s electrical and electronics engineering company. Siemens Company can be said to be a company that is integrated with technology carrying out its activities in the such fields as energy, industries and healthcare. The company is divided into six major divisions: Siemens IT Solutions, Industry, Energy, Healthcare, Equity Investments and Services such as The Siemens Financial Services. The companies does employ about 360,000 workers in almost 190 countries and in the 2011, the company recorded a revenue of 71 bn Euros. Siemens is listed in the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and also in the New York Stock Exchange from March 12, 2001. The organization structure of Siemens as of 1st October 2011 is as follows:
The Industry Sector which is headed by Siegfried Fusswurm and comprises of three departments: Drive Technologies, Industry Automation and Customer services
The Energy Sector which is headed by Michael Sub and comprises of 6 divisions: Wind Power, Fossil Power Generation, Energy Service, Oil & Gas, Solar & Hydro and Power Transmission.
The Healthcare Sector headed by Hermann Requardt and with 4 divisions: Clinical Product, Diagnostics, Imaging & Therapy Systems and Customer Solutions.
The Infrastructure & Cities Sector headed by Roland Busch and which has 6 divisions: Mobility & Logistics, Rail Systems, Low and Medium Voltage, OSRAM and Building Technologies.
When changing from tall traditional divisional structures to modern flat function based structure, it is very important that the managers identify their roles and boundaries in handling the day to day activities so as to avoid confusion and collision amongst the workers.
Interpersonal Communication is the communication that takes place between two or more individuals in an organization. Interpersonal communication and information management is crucial for healthy working relationship in any organization. The managers who are responsive and sensitive to their communication with the employees do encourage development of loyal and trusting relationships. Information management helps any organization to make accurate decisions and also based on facts. In future, MA’s for small businesses such as Pixar will be required to have skills in computers to be able to make animations for the company. In medium businesses such as Cox Petroleum Transport, the MA’s will be required to have skills in using the World Wide Web so as to link the customers with the products. In Large businesses such as Siemens, MA’s will be required to have computer knowledge as computers have proven very essential in carrying out researches for most companies and computers skills are vital.
Work Cited
J., Hempel. "SFGate Home Today's Chronicle." Pixar University (2003).
R., Lowson. "The New Competitive Advantage." Strategic Operations Management (2002).
Sander, Birgit. "Multinational's strategy to investment." Siemens (2008).
