Analysis of the steel production company POSCO

Analysis of the steel production company POSCO 1. Introduction The project that started with a few people at the city of Pohang at the East coast of Korea has today grown to the company that most of us knows as POSCO. Today POSCO is not only among the top steelmakers in the world in terms production, but also in terms of technology has the company captured one of the leading positions. More specifically the company is today the third biggest steelmaker in terms of production, and has earlier figured as number before different mergers and acquisitions changed this status. POSCO has succeeded by constantly investing in new production facilities and new technologies. This is underlined by their slogan: â€Å"Resources are limited; Creativity is unlimited†. POSCO was founded in cooperation with the Korean government, which wished to create a local supply of steel. Thus, POSCO has always been highly dependant on the Korean market and the Korean government. Even today this dependence is preserved, emphasized by POSCO having 72% of their sales in Korea (Business and Company Resource Center, 2010). However POSCO is also starting to position themselves at the global market, where the patterns of competition is completely different than the ones at their home market. This paper will examine the position of POSCO at the Korean market as well as the global market, and what kind of possibilities and challenges they are facing in order to prosper. The role of technology development plays a crucial role in this matter. Despite being an old and established industry, steel production is highly dependant on the development of technology, especially in terms of new processes of production. The paper should therefore also take into consideration how POSCO will succeed in further improving their technological competencies in order to stay competitive. The structure of the paper will be as follows: After the introduction some theoretical considerations in relation to the paper will be provided. Second, a presentation of POSCO, including its historical development as well as a short presentation of steelmaking will be provided. Third, the competitive market of the steel industry that POSCO are acting in will be analysed through the model, Porter’s five forces. After this, the technological development within POSCO will be described and analysed. At last, the future challenges in terms of technology strategy and the possibilities improving their position in the market will be analysed. These will be complemented by some specific recommendations on how to prosper. 2. Theoretical Considerations This study will consist of a business strategic part as well as a technology strategic part. The aim of the paper is to explain how the technology strategy of POSCO can be utilized in order to carry out the business strategy of the company, ultimately leading to a sustainable competitive advantage. At the business strategy level this paper seeks to combine the market-based view (Porter, 1980) and the reso urce-based view (Barney, 1991; Prahalad & Hamel, 1990). The paper adopts an outward-in perspective, starting out by analysing the current market situation of POSCO. For this purpose a Porter’s five forces model is used. By making this analysis it becomes visible what kind of position POSCO holds in their current competitive environment, and how they can eventually use their internal resources, more specifically technologies, to obtain a more favourable position relative to their nearest competitors. The resource-based view is not applied in the same systematic way, but rather as a mean to understanding the importance of technology development for the overall resources of the company.

Chinese and Filipino American History in America Essay

Chinese and Filipino American History in America - Essay Example Both Chinese and Filipino immigrants followed different paths but faced similar hardships when coming to America. They also had their own unique experiences. Chinese sailors arrived in Hawaii in 1778 where many settled and married Hawaiian women. Immigration continued into the 19th and 20th century as additional Chinese and Filipino workers were brought in to work on the sugar and pineapple plantations. The mid-1800s saw a surge in Asian immigration as many were brought in to work in California. Along with this surge in Asian immigration came a growing discrimination, anti-Chinese activism, and a fear called yellow peril. A relatively large group of Chinese came to the United States beginning in 1849, the start of the California gold rush. They stayed on and increased in numbers to work on the Transcontinental Railroad. Their work ethic is best described by Mary Cone writing in 1876 when she says they were, "[...] far more earnest and faithful than any other miners. [...] [T]hey enjoy the universal reputation of conscientious fidelity" (as cited in Mary Cone, 2003). However, when the economy faltered in 1870 the loss of jobs and competition for scarce jobs brought, "dislike and even racial suspicion and hatred. Such feelings were accompanied by anti-Chinese riots and pressure, especially in California, for the exclusion of Chinese immigrants from the United States" (Chinese immigration, 2004). During this period, a political party called The Workingman's Party was started in San Francisco with the slogan, "The Chinese Must Go" (The workingmen's party). This political pressure resulted in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which virtually ended Chinese immigration for over a century. With the loss of employment and mounting discrimination, the Chinese moved to a safe sanctuary in San Francisco that would later become known as Chinatown. In this neighborhood, they were able to provide a close knit social structure and offer community support to families and each other. It also allowed them to organize into a political faction that opposed anti-Chinese laws. Here, the Chinese community has maintained the Chinese values and cultural traditions and has developed a thriving Asian-American community inside San Francisco. Though the Filipinos took a different route to their American destination, their experiences and challenges were similar to the Chinese. The first permanent settlement of Filipinos was in the marshlands of Louisiana in 1763 as sailors escaped Spanish ships to escape their brutal treatment (Claudio-Perez, 1998). Steady immigration continued into the west coast throughout the 19th century, but the largest wave came between 1924 and 1935 when more than 100,000 Filipinos flooded into America to work in the booming agricultural business (Asian Pacific American studies, 2005). Filipinos settled mostly in large West Coast cities such as San Francisco and Seattle where the ships from Manila would land (Bautista, 2002). Most of them worked in the fields of California and Washington harvesting seasonal crops. In general, they were a migrant group that followed the crops through the seasons, and only settled for short periods in near ghetto conditions of 'Little Manilas". During the season, the population of the Little Manila in Seattle would shrink to a few hundred people, but in the winter it would be home for 3,500 occupants (Bautista, 2002). Here they would be located near the center of vice and entertainment. Because

Poverty in the United States Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Poverty in the United States - Research Paper Example He cited the example of children, who have been raised in underprivileged environment, faces noticeable shortcomings in terms of cognition, academic achievements and emotional wellbeing. Poor individuals, he says have a lower mortality rates and unhealthy lifestyles, they have small opportunity of good education and an unstable family background. He is of the opinion that declining levels of poverty results in enhancement of healthy economy as it increases the purchasing power of the masses which in return boosts the economic growth and living standards. Also, he states, poverty provokes social disorder and sets the stage for criminal acts and furthermore, it reduces public confidence in the constitution (2-3). It is important to note, however, that poverty has always remained existent in the world since its inception, the unequal distribution of resources, social ostracism, inequality in justice and the accumulation of wealth within a few have been characteristics of mostly all huma n settlements. Lawson and Lawson shares that a basic diet consisting of the required amount of calories, shelter and clothing is the need of the humanity, they further elaborate that poverty varies from time to time and to location, as the dietary standards and conditions of clothing and shelter changes, therefore, the parameters of poverty in the United States is completely different from that of poverty in Somalia (15). In the seventeenth century, the English government wanted to relief themselves of their poor population and convicts, and was of the intention to unload them in the new land, the Americas. A company called the Virginia Company, chartered by King James I, financed the transportation costs in return for labor; many convicts migrated (Axelrod 10). Axelrod further states that for some of these new colonizers, the risk paid off and they were employed as contracted laborers, finished their period of service and became freed farmer, but others found barren land and broken promises in the new land. Reef describes the conditions of these free indentured servants, she says, it was a matter of great hardship for them to move up from being the most underprivileged society since they lacked the necessary resources, it is estimated, she revealed, that a mere tenth of indentured servants became wealthy farmers, another tenth artisans and the rest, if their death did not occur, became labored workers or nomads, who roamed from cities to cities in the quest for food, employment and change of fortune (4). According to Lawson and Lawson, the Industrialization began in America at the end of eighteenth and the beginning of nineteenth century and accompanied some very drastic changes in the American society. They argue that even though, the industrialization era brought about greater productivity and capital to the nation, but it also invited poverty and rendered a number of people homeless. They stated that the increasing population of emigrants from Europe who s ettled in America, increased competition in terms of employment and accommodation amongst the colonizers; this led to increased form of demarcation in relation to race, ethnicity, class and poverty (17). Reef reveals that between the period of August 1619 to January 1808, when the act of importing slaved to the United States became illegal, the traders, smuggled about 400,000 African