Effective management of an organization – large, small, or anywhere in between – is no easy feat. Whether a small nonprofit or a global conglomerate, the principles of successful management are similar: the firm must effectively organize and control basic components of staff, materials, methods, money and markets, and also provide direction, coordination, and leadership, so as to achieve the goals of the organization. Of course, larger organizations must operate on a different scale than smaller firms, but the foundations of effective managerial organization and structure remain the same. There are several different approaches to how a company chooses to organize itself, and within each a multitude of variations and facets that help …show more content…
It has since expanded operations within all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands and Guam), all ten provinces of Canada, as well as Mexico. The company is the largest in the home improvement sector, well ahead of its nearest competitor, Lowe’s. The company has enjoyed a largely positive public image and has remained on a continual trajectory towards growth and profitability since its inception.
However, in early September, The Home Depot found itself making headlines for a lack of effective control measures when its credit card security was breached. On September 2nd, a reporter from Krebs on Security noticed that a trove of purported stolen data had appeared on black market sites known for selling hacked credit and debit card data. Home Depot quickly responded to the report, saying it was investigating the claims. By September 8th, Home Depot had confirmed the data breach and issued a statement offering credit monitoring to any customer who used a credit or debit card at a Home Depot store from April onward.
It is true that there are certain things that cannot be planned for. Many external factors - natural disasters, economic crashes, political unrest – cannot be controlled, regardless of the strength of a company’s organizational structure. Thieves intent on accessing valuable consumer data are constantly devising ways to penetrate virtual security measures. Staying ahead of criminals has
Recommendations for managers who demand to be leaders are to appearance compassion. To be a leader a person needs to see the world as an opportunity to change. They need to accept the employees ' dilemmas. Respect the assessment of the advisers and accomplish decisions that will be acceptable not only for them but the
Structure is the basis through which an organization seeks to create control the direction of an organization. This is completed through clear definitions of the allocation of work, differentiation, and the coordination of having those responsibilities working together towards the efforts of the organization, integration (Bolman & Deal, 1993, pp). Through these methods, the organization is able to devise a division of labor that collaborates to bring about the missions and goals of an organization. The structure that comes about from this can be varied in their rigidness and flexibility it allows, and to an extent this is a great contribution to its success.
Lowe’s Home Improvement is one of the two largest home improvement stores in the United States. The company initially began in 1946 in Willsboro, North Carolina, but has now become international, with stores in Mexico and Canada (Lowe 's Companies, Inc., 2015; Flavelle, 2007). The store initially began as a small hometown hardware store until a new owner envisioned a more focused product selection, home improvement, and eliminated wholesalers to deal with the product manufactures directly. While that narrow product line has continued to be the focus of the company you can now find over 40,000 products in the stores, the ability to order hundreds of thousands more through special order or a Lowe’s affiliate, and over 50 professional installation services available (Lowe 's Companies, Inc., 2015). As of 2014 the company had over 1,800 store and had revenues exceeding $56 million dollars (Lowe 's Companies, Inc., 2014).
On September 8th, 2014, Home Depot claimed that they had experienced a data breach that impacted its payment card system. In order to enter one of Home Depot’s vendor environments, the hackers stole third-party vendor login credentials by using phishing emails. Then they acquired an elevated right that allowed them to penetrate Home Depot’s computer network and install a unique and custom-built malware on the company’s self-checkout systems in the U.S. and Canada. The malware was able to evade detection by antivirus software over five months and to steal 56 million credit and debit card details as well as 53 million email addresses, making it one of the biggest breaches in 2014.
Cyber criminals armed with custom-built malware stole an estimated 56 million debit and credit card numbers from Home Depot customers between April and September 2014. This is largest retail card breach on record.
Home depot the perennial home improvement giant occupies three top 5 categories in the retail business. Home depot is the number 1 home improvement retailer and the 4th largest retailer in the U.S. they also are considered the 5th largest retailer in the world (Home Depot, 2015). To view the magnitude of Home Depot’s presence they are considered the “The Company is already the largest home improvement retailer in Mexico, in addition to the U.S. The Home Depot entered Canada in 1994 and Mexico in 2001 through a combination of acquisitions and organic growth” (Home Depot, 2015). Their approach to marketing is through market dominance where competitive pricing is their motto.
While all of these technologies have enabled exciting changes and opportunities for businesses, they have also created a unique set of challenges for business managers. Chief among all concerns about technology is the issue of information security. It seems to be almost a weekly occurrence to see a news article about yet another breach of security and loss of sensitive data. Many people will remember high profile data breaches from companies such as T.J Maxx, Boston Market, Sports Authority, and OfficeMax. In the case of T.J. Maxx, a data breach resulted in the loss of more than 45 million credit and debit card numbers. In many of these incidents, the root cause is a lack of adequate security practices within the company. The same technologies that enable managers can also be used against them. Because of this, businesses must take appropriate steps to ensure their data remains secure and their communications remain
The Home Depot data breaches exposed volumes of credit/debit card data causing consumer heartbreak and costly retailer ramifications. Reports identify that The Home Depot breach began at the end of April and continued for four months before being discovered. During those four months cardholder data moved inside The Home Depot IT infrastructure and was transferred outside the company without anyone noticing. If simple change and configuration auditing software had been in place, these malicious activities and security violations could have been detected very early on, which would have saved Home Depot millions. Former employees claim that they had warned the company about the risk of a cyber attack dating back to 2008, and the company was slow
The cost of computer crime to business in the United States has ascended to $67 billion as per the 2005 FBI Computer Crime Survey. Not a day passes by that a PC security adventure or fraud plan stands out as truly newsworthy. The effect too little and medium measured organizations is gigantic. These organizations have minimal measure of assets to use to shield against programmer assaults and they endure a percentage of the biggest net economic effects when defrauded by an assault. The uplifting news is that there are some basic things an entrepreneur can do to extraordinarily decrease the threats of being exploited by a data security failure. Instruction and attention to the most predominant threats to business data and regularly misused security holes can rapidly close the way to a security occurrence. Pretty much as with conventional robbery attempts, the computer anti-socials will first search for the easy way out when attempting to soften up to a
When it comes to fundamental challenges that organizations face in general in regard to protecting organizational assets and information it becomes overlooked. Eliminating threats is impossible, so protecting against them without disrupting business innovation and growth is a top management issue. Cybersecurity the protection of valuable intellectual property and business information in digital form against theft and misuse, one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation (Michael Riley). Being prepared to protect assets and information is a much difficult task for businesses.
Today business is moving faster than it ever has before. With the Internet and e-commerce, even brick and mortar businesses are now open twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week. However, there are security threats that linger with this new age of business that need to be mitigated. According to a survey by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and Symantec, a company that offers security solutions, seventy-seven percent of small businesses believe that they will not fall victim to security issues (Symantec, 2012). Even more alarming is that the survey found that eighty-three percent of these businesses did not have any form of security plan.
Supporting Ideas A paradigm is a basic assumption about reality. Therefore, paradigms determine what is considered to be a "fact", and what can be disregarded with impunity. Prior to the 1980s, the following management paradigms held: 1. Only businesses are concerned with management philosophies and practices. 2. There is only one right way to manage people. 3. There is only one correct organizational structure. 4. Managers focus solely on internal issues. Since the 1980s, however, the paradigm, the underlying assumptions of management has changed considerably. The old paradigms have actually become obstacles, and they must be replaced. The new emerging paradigms of management are: 1. Management practice does not just apply to businesses. It is valuable in any and all organizations. At the beginning of the last century, almost everyone was engaged in economic activities to survive. In the next century, however, more and more people will move into nonprofit social activities. It is in this area that systematic, principle-based management can produce impressive results. 2. There is no "right" or "wrong" organizational structure. The object is to develop a structure that fits the task. History has shown there is no "right" or "wrong" way to structure an organization. Instead, the structure should be viewed simply as a tool for enhancing productivity -- and whatever enhances productivity and builds on strengths
Similar to the previous concepts and components of organizational structure, the principles of effective management have progressed since early management theories into many approaches that both share similar characteristics and vary in many ways. One of the most significant changes from early approaches can be attributed to the total quality management theory (TQM) developed by W. Edward Deming, which emphasized the idea of continuous improvements in every aspect of an organization (CSU Global, 2015). Notions such as the adoption of new philosophies, supervisor assistance, and the elimination of boundaries and numerical standards are all attributes stemming from the TQM approach that remains alive in many organizations today (CSU Global, 2015). However, there remains components of the TQM system that do not apply to every management approach but are useful in the examination into the similarities and differences between the many management theories.
Evaluating the importance of management and integrity as essential elements to the success of a company