Strategy, Information Systems (IS) and Knowledge Management Essay

Strategy, Information Systems (IS) and Knowledge Management - Essay Example However, it is crucial to understand why competitive advantage is of significant value. The paramount reason is that it allows a business to hold a superior status in the market. Having a dominant position implies that a business can have cost leadership, where it dictates the prices of products by partnering with suppliers in a monopoly-like manner. This is not sustainable over the long run; subsequently, business must create unique value around their products to draw out the largest market share. Hence there arises two ways of gaining competitive advantage, through cost or through differentiation. Either way, a business should seek this as it allows creation of profits that exceed their competitors. These excess profits in turn, can be used to further market the business by promoting its products and services, and boosting its image. In addition, the business can set aside money for continual assessment of its strategies, which involves research that ensures it is always up-to-date with trends within the industry (Worth, 2009). One of the core competencies that all businesses have or can easily acquire is information. Businesses need to create an environment that allows for dynamic use of information, to maintain high levels of performance, continuous growth and facilitate approaching of beneficial risks. To achieve these results from information effectively, there needs to be a shift in thinking from the traditional perspective to a dynamic one. Organizations need to think about information in three different ways, in order to leverage information systems to gain competitive advantage. These are recognizing the various sources of information within a business, acknowledging the purposefulness of a well-informed business solution and going over the overall IT situation to ensure it supports the business needs as and when they occur (Hurwitz and Kaufman, 2007). Recognizing the various sources of information involves looking at non-traditional sources of inform ation, in the sense of original point. That is, managers should seek information from emails, custom applications and reports as opposed to conventional sources such as content management systems e.g. ERM and customer databases. Of significance with this aspect is that quality of information will be high, and decision-makers can make timely decisions as they will recognize this information and act on it prudently. Managers should not ignore these sources as gaining competitive advantage necessitates leveraging all kinds of relevant information, as this will enable establishment of sustainable strategies (Hurwitz and Kaufman, 2007). Acknowledging purposefulness of a well-informed business solution is reliant on the infrastructure currently adopted by business. This means that a business solution will have a certain modularity and level of flexibility depending on the structures and systems in place. Modularity and flexibility implies that linkages between rigid information systems an d structures, and applications can be adjusted to meet the changing needs of a business as dictated by the environment. An effective business solution should unify the metadata such that for instance; characteristics that describe how to locate, access and utilize data will be maintained. Essentially, all relevant informat

Individual project Drugs Abuse Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Individual project Drugs Abuse - Essay Example The psychological reasons for drug addiction might include the notion that some people want to find the state of unconsciousness in order not to think about current problems, some drug addicts started using drugs for medical purposes and reached the condition of not being able to control their desires (this type of addiction is neither sociological not psychological), some people, both youth and adults, use the drugs because they are able to change the way the person feels (it is especially common when the person does not want to have that feeling), some of the artists are heavy drug addicts because they believe that drugs are able to cause the creative process. In my opinion, the sociological and psychological causes of drug addiction are interrelated and cannot be perceived separately. For example, the young man from the poor district, whose friends are all drug addicts and spent their time robbing and stealing from others in order to get some money to buy more drugs is very likely to become drug addicts as well. Both sociological and psychological causes are present here: sociological are poverty, absence of employment, peer pressure, the unawareness about how to live differently; the psychological are undesired to be different, â€Å"everybody around does it why should I be different†, â€Å"I want to be one of them† and similar thoughts. Thus, both explanations supplement each other. For example, some of the drug addictions are caused by the social forums when some of the rituals include chemical use to evoke the â€Å"happy moments† and some of the religions incorporate the usage of the mind-altering chemicals. The drugs can heighten the desires and give the false sense of power and fearlessness. Thus, people who are really shy in the normal life can become very aggressive when addicted to drugs. Drugs show the bad side of the human soul and create the perfect condition for criminal