Introduction
The purpose of this video business report is to present the issues that affect operations of Computer Science Corporation (CSC), a company that is based in Australia. The report is based on an interview with Michael Horton, the vice president for natural resources department in the company.
CSC falls under the industry of information technology and is one of the best companies within the industry. The report outlines the issues surrounding CSC in the industry and presents the causes of these issues within the company.
Issues
There are a number of issues that are evident from the interview with Michael Horton. The first issue is the peculiarity of the company: this refers to the aspects that make CSC different from other companies within the industry. The second issue is the uncertainty and ambiguities that arise in the information technology industry.1 The third issue is about individual output and teamwork performance.
These issues describe why some works are fit only for individual tasks while others do teamwork better. The fourth issue involves the aspect of competition within the industry. Competition is important in the industry as it helps to improve the company’s performance.2 The last issue is about the changes that occur within the industry. Such changes are important as they make the industries embrace technological advancements.3
Causes of the Issues
The first issue, the differential aspect of CSC, is caused by a number of factors, including the presence of a complex information technology, which helps the company’s management to enjoy the benefits of large-scale economies. The differential aspect is also caused by the management’s urge to deliver unique IT solutions to its customers.4
The second issue, uncertainties and ambiguities within the IT industry, arises from the attempt by some companies to find markets with lower competition for them to be the dominants in their respective industries. These uncertainties are also caused by the attempt by the firms to sell their products through a cost proposition instead of using a value oriented approach.5
The issue of individual tasks and teamwork are determined by the nature of the work in the company. There are a number of jobs that require concentration of an individual, which can be lost when employees work in a team. However, all the jobs in the long run are said to be completed by a team since individuals definitely need the support of their colleagues.6
The aspect of teamwork is closely related to competition, which is another issue altogether. The competition that is witnessed by CSC is caused by firms such as IBM and HP that also operate in the industry. CSC and these firms mostly compete through price wars and product differentiation where every firm struggles to set the lowest prices for its products. The firms also struggle to bring unique products into the market.7
The last issue that is evident in the operations of CSC is the changes that occur in the IT industry time after time. It is evident from the interview that there are several IT related projects in Australia that need to be executed.
However, there is less manpower to carry out the execution; consequently, the IT experts have to develop other ways to deal with the shortage.8 The other causes of the changes being witnessed in the industry are environmental factors, poor mining of resources such as oil and gas, and poor mechanisms of controlling environmental problems.9
Bibliography
Graffin, Ricky, and Gregory Moorehead. Organisational Behaviour: Managing People and Organisations. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2010.
Hunter, William. Recent Advances and Issues In Environmental Science. Point Pleasant, NJ: Academic Press, 2012.
Shelly, Gary, and Misty Vermaat. Discovering Computers: Fundamentals. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning, 2008.
Footnotes
1 Gary Shelly and Misty Vermaat, Discovering Computers: Fundamentals (Boston, MA: Cengage Learning, 2008), 443.
2 Ricky Graffin and Gregory Moorehead, Organisational Behaviour: Managing People and Organisations (Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2010), 57.
3 William Hunter, Recent Advances and Issues in Environmental Science (Point Pleasant, NJ: Academic Press, 2012), 253.
4 Shelly and Vermaat, Discovering Computers, 445.
5 Ibid., 447.
6 Graffin and Moorehead, Organisational Behaviour, 57.
7 Ibid., 59.
8 Hunter, Recent Advances and Issues, 254.
9 Ibid., 258.