The Corporation

Corporations are no longer just independent companies or invisible beings of the society, they have become individuals that must be treated with the same or almost the same rights than the humans, why? … Corporations are able to make the same things that an individuals can, the can buy and sell properties; they can make loans, sign contracts and even commit crimes.



However, it is important to note that corporations, in most of the cases do not act alone, therefore it is important to seek human makers who made decisions. Thus, the problem must be attacked in two lines, the corporation as an entity that can be loaded with legal implications, and as a living person in most cases making it directs the company. A distinctive line must be drawn at a point that marks the extent of the operations of the company itself, legal sanctions must be present. In the first instance be human blame, then you must punish the company.

The International Organization for Migration

The International Organization for Migration is an intergovernmental organization created with the objective of providing secure and reliable services for the migrants that require international assistance in migration. Since the creation of this organization, it’s been seeking to protect and search for the effective respect of the Human Rights of Migrants.
The IOM works in a base of for grand areas of migration management:


Source: IOM online webpage

The IOM has various functions, in which the IOM & Gender issues can be found. One of the main issues involved is the encouragement of women by enhancing gender balance in terms of treatment to these people and supporting the development of women within the organization, whether is personal, social or economical. A program I found worth of bringing into this topic is “Migrant women for development in Africa”, because it acknowledges the importance of women in the development of the area, encouraging them to be successful entrepreneurs and help avoiding discrimination because of status. The WMIDA supports African women migrants that moved to Italy and are interested in setting up business in their home countries by making Joint Ventures with Italian Companies. For further information, please read the following 7-page article Call for Proposals, which may be very helpful both for our information and the IOM’s research development. Link: http://www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/site/myjahiasite/shared/shared/mainsite/microsites/mida/call_for_proposals_en.pdf

I also found this interesting and fun to watch video, I’d like everyone to watch it, and it is really interesting. It’s an animation of a metaphor of migration, in which the migrants try to find in several tries the correct way to migrate to another place. It caused a bit of an impact in me and I think it is worth sharing.



Bibliography
www.iom.int
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isxhSsCNTUI

Mergers and Acquisitions

First of all, we need a definition of these two trendy moves in the business world of today. A merger, according to what Business Link Government webpage from the UK says, is “A merger is when you integrate your business with another and share control of the combined businesses with the other owner(s)” (BSL, N/A). In easy words, it is when two companies become one in all meanings, for example Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham.

And an acquisition is, as stated by the Business Link, is “An acquisition is when you buy another business and end up controlling it” (BSL, N/A). To put this in easier words is harder than to understand that definition. In some cases, acquisitions can be friendly or not, it depends if the company bought expresses its desire to be bought or not, which is not the majority of the cases.

My case study, for matters of the task, is one that I found very interesting. This article says that the rumors of the famous de-merger of Air India and Indian Airlines are fake and no more than just rumors. The ministry of civil aviation said that “The merger was a carefully thought-out process and a collective decision of all agencies of the government. We have no move afoot for the Air India-Indian Airlines demerger (…)”.
This is an interesting article I decided to share with everybody.
At last but not least, here’s a News Video from an Indian news program called 24x7. This video shows the main points within the merger when it was made.

You can find a good example of this subject in the following video:


Bibliography
Mergers and Acquisitions http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?topicId=1074407579
Air India and Indian Airlines merger case http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/business/air-india-indian-airlines-merger-to-stay-lead_100310655.html
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIMFEPhetd4

Ubuntu philosophy as a tool in Management

“I am who I am because of who we all are” (translation by Leymah Gbowee) is the famous phrase that expresses the strong relationship and dependence every one of us has with each other. This sentence is the basic principle that defines a humanist philosophy called Ubuntu. Main premises of this philosophy are:

· Extended family is important: " I belong, Therefore I am"

· Decisions by consensus

· Social Harmony is important

· Rewards are shared as well as suffering

Due to the great importance this way of thinking attributes to maintaining relationships, people believing this have great respect for the ones surrounding them, as well as their family and friends, thinking of everyone as a big organization that could not work without these good beliefs.

In seeing the importance of this concept in the African culture, The Ubuntu Mission was created in order to lead a way to leaders in business to keep in mind the importance of this issue and make them commit greatly to trust and understand others. As said before, this is an important issue that should be taken into account when managing people within an organization. This could be a common answer where the problem in an organization is not well spotted and the managing of relationships between individuals is not of main importance.

Video:

Bibliography:

Mangaliso, Mzamo (2003). Building competitive advantage from Ubuntu.

Putoobundo. Online http://putoubuntu.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/wallpapers-ubuntu/