It Governance Danone Essays

It Governance Danone Essays It Governance Danone Essay It Governance Danone Essay DANONE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE Analyze DANONE’S corporate governance strategy in the three major areas of â€Å"effective IT governance mechanisms† Mechanisms that facilitate decision making: First of all, Information Technology (IT) governance means the decision rights and accountability framework for encouraging desirable behavior in the use of IT. In recent times, IT governance has become critical for ensuring that IT-related decisions match company-wide objectives; particularly with the development of various tools in the IT area. Good IT governance makes companies more successful by establishing coordinated mechanisms that link objectives to measurable goals. According to the article â€Å"Recipe for Good IT Governance†, there are five types of decisions companies can go through: 1. IT principles decisions dictating the role of IT in the enterprise 2. IT architecture decisions on technical choices and directions 3. IT infrastructure decisions on the delivery of shared IT services 4. Business application requirements decisions for each project 5. IT investment and prioritization decisions Before Analyzing Danone’s corporate governance strategy, one should look on to the â€Å"Effective IT Governance Mechanisms† which are categorized into three areas and scored on a 1 to 5 scale, 1 being highly ineffective and 5 being highly effective: Effective IT Governance Mechanisms To have good governance in terms of information, a company needs to: first, limit the number of decision-making structures and give clear responsibilities for each type of IT decision to individuals who can accept accountability for the outcomes of those decisions. Second, they should create overlapping responsibilities for IT decisions to ensure cross-coordination. Finally, senior management should be involved in major IT decisions since they establish strategic direction and define desirable behavior for the management and use of IT. To look at DANONE as a company, it has a unique way of operation, which gives the organization its value, separated from other globally operating companies and it can be largely characterized as openness, idea-sharing, and team spirit, with a goal to maximize employee involvement. It also operates in regional levels along with product categories, in contrast to other global companies which usually have very structured centralized systems. Managerial community and PO (People and Organization) are two models that show the uniqueness of DANONE’s operation and enable the company to work in a much decentralized manner, easily interacting with diverse departments of the network system. By having the flexible, decentralized system, the company becomes able to adapt to local changes-surrounding environments. DANONE has also introduced web 2. 0 to accelerate decision-making. Web 2. refers to web applications which facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design and collaboration on the World Wide Web and in the case of DANONE it includes blogs, video chat and wiki. Finally, the company has a â€Å"Biological company model†. It emphasizes innovation and thus includes frequent workshops. The company also implemented tools such as SAP and ERP which stands for Systems Applications and Products, and Enterprise Resource Planning respectively. To emphasize the ‘network’ they also have a ‘market place’ which is a management tool for sharing and exchanging ideas.

Where Whales Have Hair and How Its Used

Where Whales Have Hair and How It's Used Whales are mammals, and one of the characteristics common to all mammals is the presence of hair. We all know that whales arent furry creatures, so where do whales have hair? Whales Do Have Hair While its not immediately obvious, whales do have hair.  There are over 80 species of whales, and hair is only visible in some of these species. In some adult whales, you cant see hair at all, as some species only have hair when they are fetuses in the womb. Where Is Hair in Whales? First, lets look at baleen whales. Most of the baleen  whales have hair follicles if not visible hair. The location of the hair follicles is similar to the whiskers in terrestrial mammals. They are found along the jawline on the upper and lower jaw, on the chin, along the midline on top of the head, and sometimes along the blowhole. Baleen whales known to have hair follicles as adults include  humpback, fin, sei,  right,  and  bowhead  whales. Depending on the species, the whale may have 30 to 100 hairs, and there are usually more on the upper jaw than the lower jaw.   Of these species, the hair follicles are probably most visible in the humpback whale, which  has golf ball-sized bumps on its head, called tubercles, which house the hairs. Within each of these bumps, called tubercles, there is a hair follicle. The toothed whales, or odontocetes, are a different story. Most of these whales lose their hair shortly after birth. Before theyre born, they have some hairs on the sides of their rostrum or snout. One species, though, has visible hairs as an adult. This is the  Amazon river dolphin or boto, which has stiff hairs on its beak. These hairs are thought to add to the botos ability to find food on muddy lake and river bottoms. If you want to get technical, this whale doesnt quite count as marine life, as it lives in fresh water. Hairlike Baleen Baleen whales  also have hairlike structures in their mouth called baleen, which is made of keratin, a protein that is also found in hair and nails. How Is the Hair Used? Whales have blubber to keep them warm, so they dont need fur coats. Having hairless bodies also helps whales release heat more easily into the water when they need to. So, why do they need hair? Scientists have several theories on the purpose of the hair. Since there are lots of nerves in and around the hair follicles, they are likely used to sense something. What that is, we dont know. Perhaps they can use them to sense prey - some scientists have suggested that prey may brush against the hairs, and allow the whale to determine when it has found a high enough prey density to begin feeding (if enough fish bump against the hairs it must be time to open up and eat). Some think that the hairs may be used to detect changes in water currents or turbulence. It is also thought that the hairs may have a social function, perhaps being used in social situations, by calves communicating a need to nurse, or perhaps in sexual situations. Sources Goldbogen, J.A., Calambokidis, J., Croll, D.A., Harvey, J.T., Newton, K.M., Oleson, E.M., Schorr, G., and R.E. Shadwick. 2008. Foraging behavior of humpback whales: kinematic and respiratory patterns suggest a high cost for a lunge. J Exp Biol 211, 3712-3719.Mead, J.G. and J.P. Gold. 2002. Whales and Dolphins in Question. Smithsonian Institution Press. 200pp.Mercado, E. 2014. Tubercles: What Sense Is There? Aquatic Mammals (Online).Reidenberg, J.S. and J.T. Laitman. 2002. Prenatal Development in Cetaceans.  In Perrin, W.F., Wursig, B. and J.G.M. Thewissen. Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals. Academic Press. 1414pp.Yochem, P.K. and B.S. Stewart. 2002. Hair and Fur.  In  Perrin, W.F., Wursig, B. and J.G.M. Thewissen. Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals. Academic Press. 1414pp.