Avon Guiding Coalition essays

Avon Guiding Coalition essays The change event for Avon Products, Inc. has been identified as transforming product ordering in the United States from a disjointed, multi-stage process which currently includes orders by mail, fax, phone, or internet to a strictly internet online order system. The transformed system will be completely functional by March 2006. To accomplish this task, a powerful guiding coalition will be necessary. The dictionary description of guiding is "one who shows the way by leading or directing" and coalition is "an alliance or union, especially a temporary one". The business environment at this time is rapidly changing. As such, to succeed, businesses must recognize that large-scale changes will only be possible as a result of new strategies, reengineering, restructuring, mergers, acquisisitions, downsizing, new products or new market development (Kotter, p 56, 1996). It is necessary to have a coalition with strong, credible leadership to be highly effective in this type of business climate. It must be strong one with the right composition, level of trust, and shared objective. Building such a team is always an essential part of the early stages of any effort to restructure, reengineer, or retool a set of strategies" (Kotter, p 52, 1996). Significant change, such as the one proposed for Avon, will certain ly require an alliance of strong leaders for the transformation to not only occur, but to have long term success. The steps to putting together the guiding coalition will include: 1) having enough key players on board, including mainline managers; 2) having coalition members with expertise so that informed, intelligent decisions are made; 3) having coalition members with credibility so pronouncements will be taken seriously by all employees; and 4) having coalition members that are proven leaders. John P. Kotter cites that major transformations are often associated with one highly visible individual" (p. ...

Make a Fake Neon Sign Using Fluorescence

Make a Fake Neon Sign Using Fluorescence Do you love the look of neon signs, but want an inexpensive alternative that you can customize to say whatever you want? You can make a fake neon sign using fluorescence to make inexpensive common materials glow. Fake Neon Sign Materials You only need a few basic materials for this project. Flexible plastic tubing (usually sold as aquarium tubing)Glue gunCardboard or other stiff backing for your signFluorescent highlighter pen or laundry detergentWaterBlack light Make the Fake Neon The plastic tubing will glow blue under a black light, so technically this project will work if you simply form a sign with the tubing and illuminate it with a black light (ultraviolet lamp). However, youll get a much brighter glow if you fill the tubing with a fluorescent liquid, such as a small amount of laundry detergent dissolved in water (bright blue) or a fluorescent highlighter ink pad in water (available in various colors). Tip: A lot of highlighter pens called fluorescent markers arent actually fluorescent. Write a quick note on paper and shine a black light on it to determine whether or not the ink fluoresces. Yellow almost always glows. Blue rarely does. Make the Sign Design Practice forming the word you want on your sign so that you can get an idea of how much tubing will be required.Cut the tubing somewhat longer than what you think you will need.Fill the plastic tubing with your fake neon. Put one end of the tubing into the fluorescent liquid and raise it higher than the other end of the tubing. Place the lower end of the tubing into a cup so you wont have a big mess. Let gravity pull the liquid down the tube.When the tubing is filled with liquid, seal its ends with beads of hot glue. Allow the glue to cool before proceeding to make sure you have a good seal on your neon.Apply hot glue to stick the tubing to the backing you have selected. Form the word for your sign. If you are making a sign that uses multiple words, you will need separate tubes for each word.If you have excess tubing, carefully cut the end and seal it with hot glue.Illuminate the sign by turning on a black light. A fluorescent light fixture will provide some glow, but for a bright ne on appearance, use a black light.