Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Henry Tam and the MGI Team Essay Example

Henry Tam and the MGI Team Essay Example Henry Tam and the MGI Team Paper Henry Tam and the MGI Team Paper Sash was a MBA87 graduate from HOBS and had business experience but not in music industry. However, Igor and Roman were musicians with creative instinct. They came up with the idea of a CD-ROOM music game and believed that crisis-stricken music industry would be hungry for this innovative product and could finance them for further development of Megs music substitution technology. By the start of 2002, the founders felt the need of outside assistance to develop their vision into a viable business plan and sought to execute it wrought HOBS Business Plan Contest. Henry and Dana, both a second-year MBA participant from HOBS appreciated the idea and joined MGM team to prepare a business plan for the contest with this product. Henry, an American and business development and media experienced guy, was frustrated with the worst job market at that point of time but anxious and enthusiastic to test his abilities and participate in contest along with MGM. Dana had an experience in media and investment banking. Sashs unconventional background with no major accomplishment and lack of experience in the USIA industry made Henry and Dana pigeonhole him as a challenge in team. Two more members-Alex, with an idea of music industry and its operations assumed the role of a music industry consultant within the team and Dave, with Software Development experience and MIT graduate student- joined the team later on. The team was, no doubt, dynamic but conflicted as well due to differences within the team as rooted in national or ethnic origins, cultural differences and completely different backgrounds. Allegiances had cropped up mainly around HOBS versus the Russians and there was a clash between he creative impulse of the musicians and pragmatic approach of the HOBS students. Team members attributed the clash to the lack Of leadership, role conflicts and personality conflicts among the members. As a result, progress on the business plan had been very slow. The team could not agree on the target market of the product. Henry and Dana supported to gain a foothold in the education market. However, founders were more fascinated towards a bigger entertainment market With the business plan due in three weeks, challenge was to pull the team together and salvage the situation. 51 page PROBLEM STATEMENT How to make this group Of talented and motivated individuals work effectively as a team and use their potential to prepare the business plan? OPTIONS 1) Operating solely under the guidance of HOBS alumni with experience in similar industry 2) Hiring a team manager with good interpersonal and leadership skills 3) Creating functional structure within the team working under one nominated leader CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION OF OPTIONS 2) 3) 4) 5) Mission and Vision clarity Resolution to the interpersonal and role conflicts within the team Long-term strategy Feasibility to meet the deadline for B-plan contest Cost-effectiveness of the option EVALUATION OF OPTION S Options Hiring a Team Expertise Manager NO Yes No Maybe Criteria Mission Vision Clarity Interpersonal Role Conflict Resolution Long-term Strategy Meeting Deadline for B-Plan Contest Cost-Effectiveness of the Option Functional Units Asking Alumni operating under a Team Leader 61 page C] Operating solely under the guidance of HAS alumni with experience in similar industry An HOBS alumni may be willing to help Henry and Dana who were student at that time and suggest marketing strategy for the product to resolve Mis confusion related to target market. Hence, it is a cost-effective option and will ensure to meet deadlines as well if Alumni with relevant is willing to coordinate. C] However, this will not necessarily ensure resolution to the role conflicts as well as interpersonal conflicts within the team. They will continue to exist until all members share a common vision and are directed by a leader. Hence, it will neither be a longtime strategy nor lead to a common vision which are very crucial to sustain in longer. Hiring a team manager with good interpersonal and leadership skills A team manager with effective interpersonal and leadership skills will prove to be worth for solving the interpersonal conflicts within the team and make role clarifications as per the individual talent. Together under his supervision, team can reach a common vision and mission statement and stand united to implement a longtime strategy and prepare a business plan on time. However, hiring an external agency will lead to extra recruitment costs which wont be possible to MGM to arrange for in such a financially-doomed condition. C] Create functional units within the team working under one nominated deader C Resorting to the functional structure will effectively solve the team conflicts because as per the case facts, currently everyone was serving as facilitator, moderator, task manager, and strategy thinker. Hence, it will be effective to clarify on the roles and responsibilities of individuals so that they specialize in their area of expertise. Leader will ensure that all the functional departments share a common vision and mission and work in coordination with other departments and stay motivated and prove to be productive from long-term strategy perspective. This is also a cost-effective option but its scope depends on how well the team goes through formal stages of team development like forming, morning, storming and performing RECOMMENDATION As per the analysis and evaluation of available options against criteria parameters, it appears that creating a functional structure within the team and nominating a leader from within the team may prove to be effective to resolve current issues within the team as well as result-oriented. 71 page ACTION PLAN Form a stable team after having gone through formal stages of team development I. E. , forming, morning, storming and performing. It will help the team identify a leader and common goals and objectives and avoid conflicts within the team at performing stage. Leader will assume the responsibilities of establishing a shared vision and mission among the team members and motivating them and resolving conflicts arising out of the diverse team. A functional structure should be created assigning technical job to Dave, Research Development to Igor and Roman, Marketing role to Sash, Business plan preparation, Strategy formulation and implementation role to Henry and Dana. Leadership role can be assigned to Dana or Henry (judgment based on case facts.

Sunday, March 1, 2020

Definition and Examples of Constructed Languages

Definition and Examples of Constructed Languages Definition A constructed language is a  languagesuch as Esperanto,  Klingon, and Dothrakithat has been consciously created by an individual or group. A person who creates a language is known as a conlanger. The term constructed language was coined by linguist Otto Jespersen in An International Language, 1928. Also known as a  conlang, planned language, glossopoeia, artificial language, auxiliary language, and ideal language. The grammar, phonology, and vocabulary of a constructed (or planned) language may be derived from one or more natural languages or created from scratch. In terms of the number of speakers of a constructed language, the most successful is Esperanto, created in the late-19th century by Polish ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof. According to the Guinness Book of World Records (2006), the worlds largest fictional language is Klingon (the  constructed language  spoken by the Klingons  in the  Star Trek  movies, books, and television programs). See Examples and Observations below. Also see: Anti-LanguageBasic EnglishLingua FrancaWhat Is Language?Where Does Language Come From? Examples and Observations A standard international language should not only be simple, regular, and logical, but also rich and creative. Richness is a difficult and subjective concept. . . . The supposed inferiority of a constructed language to a national one on the score of richness of connotation is, of course, no criticism of the idea of a constructed language. All that the criticism means is that the constructed language has not been in long-continued use.(Edward Sapir, The Function of an International Auxiliary Language. Psyche, 1931)The traditional hypothesis has been that because a constructed language is the language of no nation or ethnic group, it would be free of the political problems that all natural languages bring with them. Esperanto materials frequently claim (incorrectly) that this is true of Esperanto. A distinction is usually made between auxiliary languages (auxlangs), designed with international communication as a deliberate goal, and conlangs, usually constructed for other purposes. (Th e Elvish languages showcased by Tolkein in his epic Lord of the Rings and the Klingon language constructed by linguist Mark Okrand for the Star Trek television series are conlangs rather than auxlangs.)(Suzette Haden Elgin, The Language Imperative. Basic Books, 2000) Attitudes Toward Esperanto- As of 2004, the number of speakers of Esperanto is unknown, but variously estimated as between one or two hundred thousand and several million. . . .It   must be emphasized that Esperanto is a real language, both spoken and written, successfully used as a means of communication between people who have no other common language. . . .The traditional aim of the Esperanto movement is the adoption of Esperanto as the L2 [second language] for all mankind.(J.C. Wells, Esperanto.  Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World, ed. by Keith Brown and Sarah Ogilvie. Elsevier, 2009)- There is little doubt that, foremost among constructed languages though it is, Esperanto has notparticularly in recent timescaptured a sufficient amount of general attention to become the functioning worldwide auxiliary its proponents wish. One rough distinction seems to be between those who, while not necessarily wholly unsympathetic to the idea of constructed languages, neverthel ess perceive fatal flaws, and those who see Esperantists (and other constructed-language apologists) more or less as cranks and faddists.(John Edwards and Lynn MacPherson, View of Constructed Languages, With Special Reference to Esperanto: An Experimental Study. Esperanto, Interlinguistics, and Planned Language, ed. by Humphrey Tonkin. University Press of America, 1997) The Klingon Language- Klingon  is a  constructed language  tied to a fictional context,  rather than a constructed language like Esperanto . . . or a reconstructed one like Modern Hebrew . . . intended for use among speakers in everyday circumstances. . . .Klingon is a language devised for the Klingons, a fictional race of humanoids sometimes allied with but more often in conflict with members of the United Federation of Planets in Star Trek movies, television programmes, video games, and novels.(Michael Adams,  From Elvish to Klingon: Exploring Invented Languages. Oxford University Press, 2011)- [T]he first thing to say about the Klingon language is that it is a language. It has nouns and verbs, the nouns distributed syntactically as subjects and objects. Its particular distribution of constituents is extremely rare but not unheard of on Earth.(David Samuels, Alien Tongues.  E.T. Culture: Anthropology in Outerspaces, ed. by  Debbora Battaglia. Duke University Press, 2 005) The Dothraki Language Created for HBO’s Game Of ThronesMy goal, from the very beginning, was to create a language that looked and felt like the small number of snippets present in the books. There wasn’t much to work with (about 30 words, most of them namesand male names, at that), but there was enough to suggest the beginnings of a grammar (for example, there is strong evidence of noun-adjective order, as opposed to the adjective-noun order found in English). . . .After I settled on a sound system, I extrapolated a morphological system. Some elements had to be maintained (for example, in the books, we see dothraki for the people [plural], Vaes Dothrak for the Dothraki city, and dothrae meaning rides. This suggests that /-k/, /-i/ and /-e/ are somehow involved in the paradigm for the stem dothra-), but for the most part, I was free to run wild. After I had a fairly stable morphology (verbal paradigm, case paradigm, and derivational morphology, in particular), I se t to work on the best part: creating vocabulary.(David J. Peterson, interviewed by Dave Banks in Creating Language for HBO’s Game Of Thrones. GeekDad blog at Wired.com, Aug. 25, 2010) The Lighter Side of Constructed LanguagesI speak Esperanto like a native.(Spike Milligan)