by Leung Man-Wai, Dannie. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-70). / ABSTRACT --- p.i / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.ii / Chapter / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter II. --- METHODOLOGY --- p.5 / Chapter III. --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.7 / Reengineering --- p.7 / What is Reengineering? --- p.7 / Approaches to Reengineering --- p.10 / The Role of Management in Reengineering --- p.11 / Why Reengineering Project Failed and Succeeded? --- p.13 / Relationship Between Reengineering and Information Technology --- p.14 / Human Dimensions in Reengineering --- p.16 / The Concept of Selling Chain Management --- p.18 / Chapter IV. --- REENGINEERING THE SELLING CHAIN AT DATA GENERAL CORPORATION --- p.20 / Company Background --- p.20 / Call to Action --- p.21 / The Reengineering Competency Group --- p.22 / Reengineer the Selling Chain --- p.24 / Problems Before Reengineering --- p.24 / Three Phases of Reengineering --- p.27 / Redesign Concepts Applied --- p.37 / The Lessons Learnt --- p.38 / The Reengineered Data General --- p.42 / Critical Success Factors of Data General Reengineering --- p.42 / Chapter V. --- TECHNOLOGY-ENABLED SELLING --- p.45 / Aligning Technology-Enabled Selling with Selling Chain Management --- p.45 / What Is Technology-Enabled Selling? --- p.46 / The Impact of the Sales Organization on SCM --- p.46 / A Transition in Customer Relationships --- p.47 / Moving the Decision Point --- p.47 / Fact-Based Presentation --- p.48 / Optimizing the Selling Chain and Maximizing Profit --- p.49 / The Building Blocks of Technology-Enabled Selling --- p.49 / Opportunity Management System --- p.49 / Marketing Information System --- p.50 / Sales Configuration System --- p.51 / Sales Order Management System --- p.53 / The Interactive Selling System --- p.53 / Which Building Block Should be Implemented First? --- p.54 / Leveraging the Benefits of Technology-Enabled Selling --- p.55 / Avoiding the Cost-Reduction Pitfall --- p.55 / Understand the Market Force --- p.56 / Demonstrating Customer Value --- p.57 / Selling Models Consideration --- p.58 / Chapter VI. --- REDESIGNING DATA GENERAL'S SELLING CHAIN IN ASIA --- p.62 / Chapter VII. --- CONCLUSION --- p.67 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.68

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf [105]).

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1995. / "31 December 1993." Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Samancor Chrome is an integrated ferrochrome producer with an estimated annual ferrochrome capacity of 1.26 million tons, or approximately twenty-five per cent of total Western world capacity in 1997. A decline in commodity pricing and other factors prompted Samancor to initiate a business process reengineering (BPR) programme facilitated by McKinsey and Company in the Chrome Alloys Division in 1997. The process however, met with considerable resistance from the Unions within Samancor Chrome, although several strategies were employed to promote acceptance of the process. The technical report assesses the effect of strategies utilised to lessen resistance to change during the business process reengineering programme initiated in Samancor Chrome. The assessment reviewed strategies given in relevant literature to lessen resistance to business reengineering processes and considered the applicability of such strategies within the context of Samancor Chrome. Research data was obtained through semi-structured interviews with Samancor Chrome senior management. The research showed that Samancor Chrome had formulated a communication and a participation strategy in preparation of the BPR programme. The strategies were the only acceptance strategies suggested by McKinsey and Company in their role as the BPR consultants. The context provided by the literature research showed that the participation strategy and the formulation of the communication strategy were inappropriate within the organisational context of Samancor Chrome. Conclusions regarding the situational validity of the strategies were supported by the failure of the strategies to reduce resistance against the BPR programme. A negotiation strategy was ultimately used as an acceptance strategy during the BPR programme, and contextual analysis showed the strategy to be appropriate although only partially effective as implementation was still delayed. Interpretative analysis of the research data indicated that a change management strategy for future BPR initiatives should rather contain elements of education, communication, retrenchment avoidance measures and consultation or negotiation within a management led, top-down approach. Management should drive the BPR process in an emphatic manner, with the programme execution and implementation being completed within a four to six month short time frame. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Samancor Chroom is 'n ge-integreerde ferrochroom produsent met 'n geskatte kapasiteit van 1.26 miljoen ton per annum, of ongeveer vyf en twintig persent van die totale Westerse wêreld kapasiteit in 1997. 'n Reële verlaging in kommoditeits pryse sowel as ander faktore het daartoe gelei dat Samancor Chroom in 1997 'n besigheids proses herontwerp oefening onder leiding van McKinsey and Company in die Chroom Allooi Divisie geinisieer het. Die proses is egter deur die Unies binne Samancor weerstaan, alhoewel verskeie strategieë gebruik was om aanvaarding van die proses te bewerkstellig. Die tegniese verslag evalueer die effektiwiteit van die strategieë wat toegepas was om weerstand teen verandering tydens die besigheids proses herontwerp (BPH) in Samancor Chroom te verminder. Die evaluasie neem ook strategieë vanuit toepaslike literatuur om weerstand tydens besigheids proses herontwerp programme te verminder in ag, en oorweeg die toepaslikheid van die strategieë in die konteks van Samancor Chroom. Navorsings inligting is ingesamel deur semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude met Samancor senior bestuurs personeel. Die navorsing dui daarop dat Samancor Chroom kommunikasie en deelnemenings strategieë in voorbereiding vir die BPH program ontwikkel het. Die strategieë was ook die enigste strategieë wat deur McKinsey and Company in hul rol as BPH konsultante voorgestel was. Die konteks deur die literatuur studie geskep, het aangedui dat die deelnemings strategie sowel as die formulering van die kommunikasie strategie onvanpas was binne die organisatoriese konteks van Samancor Chroom. Gevolgtrekkings aangaande die situasionele validiteit van die strategieë was ondersteun deur die faling van die strategieë om weerstand teen die BPH program te verminder. 'n Onderhandelings strategie is uiteindelik as 'n aanvaardings strategie tydens die BPH program toegepas, en konteks analise dui die strategie as toepaslik aan alhoewel slegs gedeeltelik suksesvol, aangesien die program implementasie vertraag was. Interpretiewe analise van die navorsings inligting dui aan dat 'n veranderings strategie vir toekomstige BPH initiatiewe elemente van opleiding, kommunikasie, inkorting vermyding maatreëls en konsultasie of onderhandeling binne 'n bestuurs gedrewe program benadering moet bevat. Die program moet sonder vertraging gedryf word, met program voltooing en implementering tussen vier tot ses maande.

This thesis will analyze how the United States Navy's Information Professional (IP) Community is currently managing the Continuing Education Unit (CEU) Program, propose and develop a technical solution that could be implemented by Commander, Naval Network Warfare Command (NETWARCOM) to minimize the current management challenge. The IP Community has a fiscal year requirement to obtain a certain number of CEUs. The process of tracking these CEUs is currently manually performed using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. This thesis examines the feasibility and effectiveness of redesigning the CEU tracking process in light of modern Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) methodologies that incorporate contemporary information technology. The "AS-IS" process is identified using the Knowledge-Value Added (KVA) and cost methodologies and modeled using Microsoft Visio software tool to identify pertinent redesign recommendations. From those recommendations, a "TO-BE" process is determined and a web-based prototype system, Reengineered Continuing Education Unit Tracking Tool, is developed using basic tools such as Microsoft Access and Dream Weaver Active Server Pages (ASP) to demonstrate the viability, value and efficiency added to implementing the necessary functionality. The benefits of replacing the current manual system with a web-based system are, reduced manpower hours, increased accuracy, and consistency in the process.

In essay 1 (Investment bank role in acquisition of private targets), using a sample of private targets from January 1992 to December 2010, I find that special information asymmetry when bidders prusue private targets alters the factors used by bidders and targets to decide whether to hire an investment bank.... It appears that the investment bank has a significant impact on the outcome of the acquisition of a private target. In essay 2 (Investment bank role in asset sell-off transactions), I also find that special information asymmetry when a buyer pursues divested assets alters the factors used by the buyer and seller to decide whether to hire an investment bank. ...I find that when the seller empoloys an investment bank, the increase in unsystematic and total risk of the buyer is greater than in cases when the seller does not use an investment bank. / by Kien Cao. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

by Wong Wing Nin. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 45). / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iv / Chapter / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Overview --- p.1 / Project Plan --- p.3 / Chapter II. --- THE OLD SEAGRAM MIS ORGANIZATION --- p.4 / Company Profile --- p.4 / Driving Force behind the Change --- p.5 / The Old MIS Structure --- p.6 / Chapter III. --- ORGANIZATION THEORY REVIEW --- p.9 / Organization Change Factors --- p.9 / Readiness of Change --- p.11 / Resistance of Change --- p.11 / Overcoming the Change --- p.13 / Structural Cybernetics --- p.14 / Principal of Organization Design --- p.16 / Functional Building Block --- p.17 / Dynamic Teamwork --- p.18 / Implementation Process --- p.22 / Chapter IV. --- THE NEW SEAGRAM MIS ORGANIZATION --- p.25 / Global Planning - Regional Implementation --- p.25 / Specialization - No Rainbow --- p.26 / No Redundancy or Gap - Clear Boundary --- p.26 / Network Organization --- p.27 / Dynamic Teamwork --- p.29 / Chapter V. --- EMPLOYEE OPINION FEEDBACK --- p.31 / High Staff Turnover --- p.32 / Top Management View --- p.32 / MIS Internal View --- p.33 / Customer View --- p.35 / Summary --- p.36 / Chapter VI. --- SUGGESTION FOR IMPROVEMENT --- p.38 / Open Communication --- p.38 / Clear Definition of Job Role --- p.39 / Education and Training --- p.39 / Consolidate Ambiguous Function --- p.40 / Chapter VII. --- CONCLUSION --- p.41 / Chapter APPENDIX - --- INTERVIEW OUTLINE --- p.43 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.44

Organisations have processes to manage their business activities, often referred to as business processes. In today’s competitive global economy, automation of processes with appropriate technology is advantageous. However, the paradox of processes automation is the continuous evolution and change that occurs in business processes. As the business processes evolve and change, the underpinning automated systems need to reflect those changes. Even after a decade of research in the areas of business process automation (BPA) and business process evolution management (BPEM), organisations still find it challenging to manage evolution of automated processes. Therefore, this thesis finds answers to the question of “How can business process evolutions be accurately and effectively reflected in already implemented web-based workflow systems?” In order to provide a holistic solution to the above research question, this research introduces a framework named paradigm of process automation – PoPA framework and discusses its role in managing process evolution. This framework embodies a business process at four levels as pragmatic, semantic, syntactic, and implementation. Each of these levels deals with a distinctive representation of a business process. For example, the pragmatic level represents the contextual artefact elements such as Acts, policies, organisational structures, rules, and guidelines; that define a process, and the syntactic level denotes the models created for the purposes of automation. When a change takes place in any one of the levels of the PoPA framework, it creates a propagating impact on elements in the above-mentioned four levels. This propagation of impact takes place due to constraints, associations, dependencies (CAD) among elements within and across the levels (intra and inter-level CAD). When analysing intra and inter-level CAD most correlations are found to be hierarchical; therefore, a relational database structure is appropriate to capture these hierarchical associations. However, operational processes at the semantic level have complex associations, which are not hierarchical. Therefore, this research proposes to use Kleene Algebra with Test (KAT) for representing CAD at the semantic level. Propagating impact does not exclusively depend on inter and intra-level CAD, but is also closely associated with the nature of evolution. Depending on the nature of evolution, the propagating impact can be categorised as direct, indirect, secondary, and non-cautionary (DISN) impact. These DISN impacts suggest the severity of the propagating impact. The core contribution of this research is the Process Evolution and Change Impact Analysis (PECIA) Model, which enables the management of process evolution accurately and effectively in automated systems. In this research, a process automation project named Online Courses Approval System (OCAS) is used as an exploratory case study. The practical utility of the PECIA Model is validated using evolution scenarios of OCAS and epistemic utility is analysed based on a study of the literature. Amidst a plethora of literature on BPA and BPEM, this research is significant due to the following theoretical contributions that facilitate in managing automated processes in tandem with organisational process evolution: ���� PECIA Model holistically captures inter and intra-level CAD of process elements facilitating the propagating impact analysis within and across the four levels of the PoPA framework. • A novel use of KAT to capture CAD among process elements cohesively and completely into linear expressions, in order to analyse the impact propagation. • An algorithm that analyses KAT expressions of a process, to locate DISN impacts so that evolutions can be carried out accurately and effectively. The future works that arise from this work are manifold. These may include improving the use of the PECIA Model as a corporate process knowledge repository, and exploring possible other uses of the PECIA Model and KAT based process expressions. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The focus of this study is to consider the concept of ?improvisation? as a business process used by small businesses when faced with unanticipated events. Although the business news and literature is dominated by the activities of big businesses, there is little disagreement among researchers and business commentators about the role that small businesses plays in contributing to the economic activity of Australia. The contribution that small businesses make to the economy includes job creation, competitive power, economic growth and innovation. Furthermore, there is evidence that a flourishing small business sector can assist with creating and maintaining political and social stability. It is widely acknowledged that businesses are operating in a turbulent, unstable and at times chaotic commercial environment. Many business operators are spending increasing amounts of their time responding to unanticipated events in circumstances where there is little or no time to plan solutions or build up resources. There has been little research into how small businesses respond to such unanticipated events. A review of previous literature showed that business operators were likely to respond to unanticipated events in one of three ways; they either ignored the event, undertook planning or they improvised. The term 'improvisation' in this context was used to reflect either the time convergence between the realisation of a solution and its implementation or the application of selected resources for purposes other than that for which they were intended. A model of the process of improvisation was developed using the elements previously described in previous studies. The model falls into three parts; pre-improvisation, improvisation and post-improvisation. The methodology used was a qualitative process consisting of a semi-structured interviews with twenty-nine owners of small-business start-up firms, to explore their experiences with dealing with unanticipated events and to try to establish the nature of the improvisational process. It was important for the participants to tell their stories of improvisation and for the researcher to reflect their experiences in relation to the model of improvisation. The data collected provided greater insight into the process of improvisation and a refined model evolved which better represents the experience of participants. The study confirmed that small businesses do at times, use improvisation to respond to unanticipated events. Consequently, this study has made a significant contribution to the field by extending on the work undertaken to date and by the development of a model that more comprehensively represents the process of an improvisational response to an unanticipated event, in the context of small business.

Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2005.