Big Dig

A stakeholder is a person, group, or organization that has a direct or indirect stake in an organization because it can be affected by the organization’s actions, objectives, and policies. In a business, there are many people and organizations who are able to support and have responsibility to keep the business survive. Stakeholders are one of them. They are people who have an interest in the activities of a firm or business, however, they do not have to own any finance in that business. There are two types of stakeholders –Internal and External stakeholders.The external stakeholders in construction project are: Local, and National authorities and government, Social organizations, Political organization, Local communities, the General public, Environmentalists, Interests groups, Real estate owners, Nearby residents, Trade and industry, Social Services (schools, Hospitals etc. ), Media, anyone else who believes he or she has a stake in the project. Internal stakeholders are: Project owners, Client organization, Project Management team, Customer user, Suppliers contractors’ subcontractors, Employee, Financiers, and Creditors.Major stakeholders for the big dig project are: the Massachusetts Highway Department, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority (MTA), the Metropolitan Highway System (MHS), Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff (B/PB), and the General public. The main direct stakeholders who are benefiting from the completion of the project are the Boston commuters. The main objective of the Big Dig project is relieving highway traffic congestion, reducing traffic jams in Downtown Boston, and decreasing the accident rate. The elevated Central Artery had been designed to carry up to 75,000 vehicles per day when it opened in 1959.However, the size of traffic continued to increase, with traffic mounting to 200,000 vehicles per day, and approximately 190,000 of those going over the Charles River crossing in the 1990s. The two tunnels under Boston Harbor b etween downtown Boston and East Boston/Logan Airport were facing the same problem. The accidents were concentrated around exits from the elevated highway onto local streets in downtown Boston, and this was linked to the lack of an ‘Inner Belt’ highway that was supposed to complete the Central Artery design.Such an Inner Belt was never built because of community opposition to the construction of an additional highway, which would have required displacing thousands of residents and businesses. Through the years, it became clear that without major improvements to the Central Artery and the harbor crossings, the congestion was only going to get worse. The annual costs from this congestion were significant, including wasted fuel from idling due to still traffic and related deficiencies to air quality, as well as charges for delayed deliveries.All of these were estimated to cost $500 million per year. In addition, Boston's North End and Waterfront neighborhoods were cut off f rom the downtown, limiting these areas' ability to participate in the city's economic life. The success factors are the contributions made by the management towards a successful project. These can be classified into five groups as follows: †¢The project manager: Having a project manager is not going to guarantee the success of a project. The person needs to have an array of skills under his arm to use during the project.He must guide the rest of the team to successfully complete all the objectives. †¢The project team: Project managers are very lucky if they have the option to choose their project team. More often, their team is inherited to the project from various sectors of the organization. The team needs to consist of variety of skills and experience. Collectively as a team, success is easy to achieve with proper guidance. All members of the project team must be committed to the success of the project and the overall mission of the company. Project: The scope and timel ine of the project are crucial. For example, if a project is urgent, the critical factor in that case is time. †¢The organization: Top management support is the principal success factor for many independent research groups. The organization needs to provide support to both the project manager and the project team. †¢External environment: External environment can be the political, economic, socio-culture and technological context in which the project is executed.Factors like the weather, work accidents or the government’s favorable or unfavorable legislation can affect the project in all of its phases. External constraints should not affect the project. Back up plans need to be in place in case daily tasks cannot be carried by the team. Yes, the project is successful. The economic impacts of the projects are as follows: †¢There has been approximately 62% improvement in the traffic flow, which exceeded project expectations. †¢A 12 percent reduction in citywi de carbon monoxide levels was achieved. Improvements and substantial reductions in traffic delay is providing approximately $168 million annually in time and cost-saving for travelers. †¢Average travel times from the I-90/I-93 interchange to Logan Airport during peak periods have decreased between 42% and 74%, depending on direction and time of day. †¢Average afternoon peak hour northbound travel time on I-93 through downtown has dropped from 19. 5 minutes to 2. 8 minutes. †¢The opening of the I-90 connector to Logan International Airport has added 800,000 residents to the 1. million who can access the airport within a 40-minute drive of their home. Overall, the project is successful as can be seen from the above economic impacts of the project. The major objective to relief the traffic has been successful and there is a much better traffic flow now. This project gives us a good idea about the success criteria used here and gives us a practical example of the required contributions by the management and employees to make the project successful.

Remedies and Replacements of Trustees Case Study

Remedies and Replacements of Trustees - Case Study Example A variant of this type of trust is an accumulation and maintenance trust, which is also termed as a grandchildren's trust. Its use is to benefit a particular child or children who are under a specified age, when they become entitled to the income by right and frequently to the capital also. The trust deed, at times will give the trustees certain discretionary powers permitting them to decide as to which of the beneficiaries will receive the income or capital of the trust. The trust deed generally gives clear instructions as to the trustees' administrative powers for routinely dealing with trust property. In our case, since, the trust deed is silent with regard to the administrative powers of the Trust the law will take its own course for proper administration of the trust. Seven years ago, Cathy took 50,000 from the trust and used it on a new kitchen and a conservatory. If the trustee becomes bankrupt or dies, or the trustee transfers assets in breach of trust then the beneficiaries have the right to claim their equitable ownership of the trust assets against the trustee's trustee in bankruptcy in other words the individual appointed by the court who takes charge of a bankrupt person's assets, or his personal representative on death, or the transferee of trust assets transferred in breach of trust. Two of Georgina's grandchildren who were alive at her death, namely Estelle, now aged 21 years and Peter, now aged 23 years came to know that the Trust property was misappropriated by Cathy. Since, seven years ago Estelle and Peter were minors and also they came to know about this fraud o nly recently, the limitation for claiming their rights begins from the day from which they came to know about this fraud. Hence, they can proceed against Cathy's court appointed trustee in order to recover 50,000. In Barnes v Addy, it was held that a third party may be liable as constructive trustee if it "receives and becomes chargeable with some part of the trust property" , this is known as the first limb or knowing receipt or where they "assist with knowledge in a dishonest and fraudulent design on the part of the trustees", this is termed as the second limb or knowing assistance; which held that tracing, may provide a proprietary remedy to the plaintiff along with the personal liability of the defendant including return of property (Barnes v Addy, 1874). The beneficiaries' interest in the trust money binds not only Cathy but also her successors in title, including volunteers who either receive trust property or its traceable proceeds. Hence the trust amounts paid to Bob by Cathy can be fully recovered at the suit of the beneficiaries. The remedy available to Estelle and Peter is that they can move the court to transfer the Tippit shares, in which Bob had invested their trust money, and hand over the painting for value to them. Bob invested the amount of 40,000, which was given by Cathy under the pretext that she had won the amount in a lottery. Bob added 20,000 of his money to the bank account without knowing the fraud committed by Cathy. Since he is an innocent third party his liability is limited to the amounts given to him by Cathy. In 2004 Bob withdrew 20,000 and bought a painting whose value is 5,000 at present. In respect of this painting the law will keep track of its value

Evils of the Grand Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Evils of the Grand Theory - Essay Example The field of international relations should give little focus on the grand theory and rather focus on the dependency on the mid level theories.Categorical work is self-imposed as there is always labeling of work, connecting it to the individual who did what kind of work. Political scientists, start to link others to a certain tradition and be blamed of any poor research on a certain tradition. Here the political scientists cite the same sources in all research traditions and allocate similar works in their courses. Such works are read as a representation of the assumptions of the examination traditions and convey their meaning and the information to junior scholars. These works serves the reason to orient debates in the field. The evil in this issue is that the research traditions developed may be different from what the author might have intended to say. This is because they loss delicacy and quality of the information the themes portray in certain books or writings (Pearlman, 2013) . For the purposes of self-identification and the rise in the professional’s ability to be noticed, new incentives that are tilted to emerging approaches lead to formation of evils. This is because associations for scholars with common ground that is intended to bring a unified outcome, breeds a force for diversity of traditions and ideas. Even though, the existence of diverse traditions is not negative, as portrayed by the above pathologies, when joined to the next pathologies they hinder research for the political scientists.

Competitive Marketing Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Competitive Marketing Strategy - Essay Example Mitchell and Butler focus mainly on increasing its food line and succeeded at increasing the market share. However the profit resulted from increasing market share and sales amounts are loss in the operation of the company. Diversification strategy is producing good results, but there are several segments where the group is over optimistic and produces over capacity. I believe that the diversification strategy, which is intended to receive gain from many segments, could present a future problem. Corporate strategy of expanding brand lines is proven to be working properly up to today. However, enhanced management capabilities to handle problems of strategic alliances should be developed in order to maintain cooperation and harmony among existing brands. Therefore, the key strengths for Mitchell and Butler in restaurant industry in the U.K. are its diversification strategy and segmental focus. In addition the company is also able to increase market share in certain segments. The company has realized the importance of addressing various customers' demands that I believe will help the company to sustain in today's fierce competition in restaurant business in the U.K. The company says that it will continue to evolve and develop its pubs and restaurants outlets in order to meet the needs and tastes of the British public while strengthening its position as the UK's leading managed pub operator. II.1.2 Weaknesses The major weakness of Mitchell and Butler is the inability of the company to turn the valuable brand equity of Mitchell and Butler into efficient financial performance. I think the cause of the inefficiency in the company is its unplanned diversification strategy. Compares to five major competitors as mentioned above, I can see that its competitors have ability to make profit from its operation. II.1.3 Opportunities There are several factors that influence an opportunities of a business. They include following items: 1. Customers' Confidence 2. Demographic trends 3. European Presence Concerning the issue on operator of pubs and restaurants' business, I see that Mitchell & Butler has great opportunities in providing the business since dance music based nightclubs have been around for approximately twenty years [and still become a profitable business to conduct]. II.1.4 Threats In addition to strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities; I found that Mitchell & Butler also faces potential threats as following: 1. Volatility of Demand Pub and restaurant still becomes attractive business. However, there are times when the would be a shifting from attending Mitchell & Butler-typed business to another hanging out places like cafes. 2. Strong Competition Despite being defined as specialized sector of the leisure services, the pub and restaurant industry is in direct competition with other hospitality services like hotels that also have their own pubs and restaurants. II.2 PEST II.2.1 Political PEST Analysis is a way of dividing the factors influencing businesses into four different groups. The first is Political factors. Political situations have a huge impact on business regulation. The stability of the political environment, international trade agreements, religion, cultural

STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS - Essay Example Basically, the acronym SWOT stands for strengths (S), weaknesses (W) which are internal factors while on the other hand the external environmental factors are regarded as either opportunities (O) or threats (T). SWOT analysis is based on the assumption that an effective strategy derives from a good fit between an organisation’s resource capabilities and its external situation (Thompson & Strickland 2001 as cited in Rossouw & Kruger 2003:17). In this case, a good fit will mean that the weaknesses of an organisation and the threats of the environment are minimised while the organisation makes the best of the strengths within it and the opportunities in the environment. The major strength for Etihad Airways is that it has skilled employees who come from diverse cultural backgrounds. It is imperative that the organisation should harness on this strength since it is concerned with expanding its operations to different geographical locations. Employees with a diverse cultural background can positively respond to the needs and interests of those who also hail from different parts of the globe where they also have their own cultural values. The other strength is that Etihad has got an already established market especially in the United Arab Emirates and this gives it a competitive advantage in that it only seeks to strengthen its operations from an already established market. Penetrating new markets will not be that challenging given that this is an established entity in the airline industry. However, noble as the idea of expansion may sound, the main weakness confronting Etihad Airways is that it often does not have enough working capital to meet its requirements. In order to avoid the competitors to gain an advantage, Etihad ought to improve on creating enough capital in order to sustain its initiative to expand its operations. New planes would need to be bought so as to effectively increase route utility which is

Company Analysis on eFax Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Company Analysis on eFax - Essay Example The objective of the company was to turn every fax machine virtually into an internet-on-ramp. The company provided millions of professionals a revolution in their document communications reducing the clutter of paper work and making faxing easy and accessible (Business Wire). eFax.com was the first company to provide such a free unlimited Internet service which had set a new standard because of the easiness to use technology involving fax - to - email delivery. The free service by the company was intended to unite 500 million global users of fax with approximately 100 million users of email. eFax.com was a breakthrough of web services and this paper brings out an analysis of the company eFax including its evolution and the final takeover by J2 Global. The company was utilizing its digital messaging technology for Internet applications. This included the use of Hotsend software, introduced in December 1998, and he M900e MFP which came to the market in January 1999. On February 8, 1999 the company changed its name from JetFax Inc to eFax.com and made the announcement of its eFax service, the first free fax to email service. eFax.com Inc was formerly known, as JetFax Inc was a leading provider of internet document communications solutions. ... The MFP market consists of office equipments that combine the print, fax, copy and scan functions in a single machine. The company had built up its product of eFax.com basing on this strong technology emphasizing the internet applications for the domestic transmission and software expertise. SWOT Analysis The SWOT analysis reflects the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats relating to the operation of eFax.com. Strengths Unique product line that covered business related associations and also the company is the first one to introduce efax kind of a product Free eFax service attracted more number of online customers increasing the advertisement revenue Combination of embedded system technology and connected software enhanced the utility of the products and services offered with scope for further technological improvements The company has a wider and prominent customer base Weaknesses The company had several products with misplaced focus on marketing The currency and other associated risks with the business in foreign countries increased the currency risk and other losses associated with the foreign exchange transactions The changes in technology entailed more expenditure towards research and development Opportunities The technological advancement provides scope for the development of newer and improved products and services including VoIP and other voice communication products The products are capable of being marketed internationally which increases the scope for the increased revenues Combining the embedded technology system software with the latest technological advancements make the application of the services easier

Tools That Monitor Truck Drivers Essay Example for Free

Tools That Monitor Truck Drivers Essay How to Monitor Truck Drivers Trucks and drivers represent a considerable cost for firms, therefore, a firm should use tools to monitor the behavior of its truck driver to ensure that 1- Drivers are following regulations to minimize risks and cost. 2- Reduces or eliminates fatigue-related injuries and fatalities. 3- Reduces accidents and equipment damage. Copilot A low cost driver drowsy driver monitor, Copilot, is one of such tools mentioned early. The Copilot consists of a digital camera integrated with a low-cost digital signal processor (DSP). The Copilot is a functionally enhanced version of a previous monitor that has been successfully used in a variety of research projects in simulators and in over-the-road vehicles (). The Copilot measures slow eyelid closures as represented by PERCLOS (Percent Eyelid Closure). PERCLOS is defined as the proportion of time that a subjects eyes are closed over a specified period. PERCLOS has been separately validated in two independent laboratories as an accurate predictor of performance degradation in sleep- deprived subjects. The current driver interface is based on recent experimental results that drowsiness feedback can reduce drowsiness and improve driver performance for sleep deprived truck drivers operating a truck simulator. DSS System ÂÆ'The DSS system works most of the time for most operators ÂÆ' Provides â€Å"virtual† driving buddy for the operator ÂÆ' Can provide site supervision near real-time notice of potential fatigued operators ÂÆ'Highly effective if used with supervisor intervention procedure ÂÆ'The communications plan about the technology and how it will be used is critical ÂÆ' Complete management support and ownership of the process (from the mine manager to front-line supervisor) ÂÆ' Consequences are clearly defined; do what you say you are going to do ÂÆ' Listen to complaints and fix issues/problems early ÂÆ' Site champions required Accelerometers and pressure transducers, mounted in suspension components, can be used to monitor the ride of haulage trucks. Presently, it is difficult to tell what caused a jolt to the truck using either pressure or acceleration data alone. When information from a global positioning system (GPS) is recorded at the same time as shock pressures or acceleration data, the exact location of an event can be determined. Mine management can then determine what caused the jolt to the truck. † NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) is investigating how the work environment of haulage truck drivers can be improved. The US Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) notes that, between 1986 and 1995, 60% of the back injuries were to haulage truck drivers in metal/non-metal surface mining. Personnel from Phelps Dodge suggested that combining acceleration data with information obtained from a GPS could generate results with a variety of uses. Therefore, researchers at the Spokane Research Laboratory (SRL) began investigating how to tie acceleration and GPS data together. It was originally thought that this tool would be used primarily for road and truck maintenance. However, as research progressed, it became apparent that it would also be useful in providing feedback about equipment operations and identifying unusual causes of jolting. A data collection system that ties acceleration and GPS location data has been successfully demonstrated at a cooperating mine. A variety of applications are possible. Using plotting software, the person reviewing the data produced can see the acceleration history of the truck, much like an infrared camera can display the thermal signature of a moving object. Sophisticated hardware and software monitors very low-level accelerations and increases functionality. Severe jolts can be monitored by using inexpensive hardware and software. GPS-based location intelligence technology deliver exception control and visibility over entire truck GPS fleet, eliminating out of route miles, reducing fuel consumption, automating compliance and improving your bottom line. These truck GPS combined capabilities resolve a rogue’s gallery of fleetwide problems: excessive fuel costs, unnecessary timecard disputes, error-prone manual HOS reporting, and inefficient fuel tax accounting and compliance paperwork. GPS users report an average 15% to 30% lower fuel consumption, 15% less overtime, 12% less unauthorized vehicle use and 12% higher productivity. Driver monitoring tool detects driver workload and stress levels It’s a Tool which monitors driver’s state with camera and seat sensor and alarms if the driver becomes too distracted. Key benefits: Operator vigilance – supervise the machine operator sleepiness and distraction level Traffic safety – advice a driver to adapt his/her driving style to avoid safety risks Green driving – assist a driver to save fuel and reduce carbon dioxide emissions