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Case Study 2018 Zoltan Ind Assignment 9 1

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The Keyboard Company

Essay by Dazzie   •  May 15, 2019  •  Case Study  •  1,477 Words (6 Pages)  •  1,273 Views

Essay Preview: The Keyboard Company

• Medium sized manufacturing firm
• Supplies computer keyboard to many National Computer Manufactures
• Company has experienced rapid growth
• Moving towards advanced electronics
• John Zoltan is the president of the company
• He recently attended a university seminar and is now impressed
• Brought in the professor from the seminar as a consultant.
• At one meeting Zoltan has now deceided to achive organisational excellence that Zoltan has desired for his company. He decieded to start and OD consulting group
• John ran an advertisement in the wall street Journal.
• He and the professor slected four young MBA and one young internal person from HR and they were called the OD.

Problems and underlying causes:

Leadership of John Zoltan:  John only attended an executive seminar and has decided to achieve organisational excellence. In order to manage organisations in the fourth industrial revolution, the integrative implementation link between corporate strategy, business strategy and operations strategy. (Steyn & Schmikl: page1). John had not looked back at the company strategy or even consulted with the other stake holders, and took it upon himself to run an advertisement in the “Wall Street Journal” and appoint 4 MBA graduates. According to (Steyn & Schmikl: page 20) “The leadership process consists of the vision and mission, organisational culture, relationships and chaos.”

Although John vision for the company was good, he failed to direct and inspire his subordinates and obtain followers commitment. (Steyn & Schmikl: page 22). “Industry 4.0 management functions requires spending more time on employee and management selection and the job matching processes. Industry 4.0 management functions: (Steyn & Schmikl: page 57)

Silent Killers of Strategy Implementation and learning (Steyn & Schmikl:page 236) and the highly prevalent barriers as follows:

• An ineffective senior management team: Zoltan only recruitment 1 member from his current workforce in order to develop the OD and rather employed 4 other new recruitments and the professor whom he had only meet for the first time at the seminar.
• Top-down or laissez-faire senior management style
• Poor vertical communication-most of the staff in the organisation were not even aware of what was going on.
• Unclear strategy and conflicting priorities
• Poor co-ordination across functions, business,or borders: Intially the OD team held weekly meetings with Zoltan, thereafter the team saw less of Zoltan.
• Inadequate down –the line leadership skills and development.

Organisational Culture and Climate:

Staff motivation results from positive organisational climate according to (Steyn & Schmikl: page 42. It is evident from the case study that the staff are not motivated as indicated by the comments “Zoltan could take the job and shove it” Also indicated in the case study that Kay and Pete said that they were going to resign from the company. From the case study it is evident that there is np trust amongst employer and employee’s, when the OD group decided to hold the company wide training program at an offsite location. It evident is the diversity of dress, when the OD group meet with employess, they should have been seen as once voice with one dress code. There are no rules regarding dress code within the organisation. As indicated when Pete,George and Bill were more conformational in approach. The key charateritics lacking(Steyn&Schmikl:page42,43), autonomy,cohesion,fairness,innovation,pressure,support,recognition and trust.

To summarise, the following leadership behaviour elements are of utmost importance:

✓  It is imperative that leaders provide proper strategic direction to individuals

and teams in order to establish a clear focus on what needs to be achieved operationally.

✓  A major motivational component is for leaders to build trust with individuals

✓  At the same time leaders must provide encouragement and give assignments

to team members that are challenging and grant them with opportunities for

growth, learning, and innovation.

✓  Realistic performance expectations must be clearly defined by leaders, followed

by honest appraisals of individuals and teams. Trust must be promoted

and confidence instilled amongst team members.

✓  Team-based creativity and innovation must be encouraged to promote free

expression of ideas amongst employees.

✓  It is important that leaders are fair to all employees , and give recognition

where it is deserved.

✓  Since team spirit is a crucial requirements for success, leaders must focus on

building cohesion amongst team members.

✓   Non-beneficial change must be prevented at all cost since it puts pressure on

individuals and team members team members, resulting in demotivation.

✓   Empowerment and involvement must be encouraged to promote decentralised

decision-making, responsibility, and accountability that lead to a high degree of

autonomy in teams.

According to (Steyn & Schmikl:page 53,54) A breakdown of trust has a negative effect on oral informal communication in the

organisation, and impedes the flow of information so vital for managerial decisionmaking.

A negative organisational climate leads to poor job satisfaction, job

involvement and organisational commitment , with dire consequences. One can

conclude that organisational improvement is impossible where a poor organisational

climate prevails. The authors’ practical experience with transformation and change

programmes has proved that transforming the behaviours of executive leaders,

managers and employees, is the most difficult task. People’s attitudes and behaviours

Employee Engagement :  John has alienated his employees by taking it upon himself to hire the professor and the MBA graduates. The houses path –gaol Theory dictates 4 leaders’ styles. Participative leadership: consulting with subordinates and considering their ideas when making decisions and achievement-oriented leadership-encouraging subordinate/employee to perform at their best by setting for them challenges, goals ((Steyn & Schmikl:page38,page 39)

Managing Organisational Performance

MANAGING ORGANISATIONAL PERFORMANCE Managing Organisational performance Managing Organisational performance Introduction The main purpose of this paper is to make a case analysis of a firm named “The keyboard company”. In this case study different problems of the keyboard company are analyzed and then proper recommendations are to be given to the company. Company Overview Keyboard Company is a company that deals in selling out the keyboards. The company has experienced a tremendous growth in the past because of the excellent management policies of its president John Zoltan. Case Background The company's president John Zoltan felt that he should introduce an Organisational Development (OD) Group. In order to implement this idea he hired 4 to 5 young MBA and placed them as members of OD Group under the human resource vice president. These young professionals were so talented and were motivated for their work. In order to achieve the aim of Mr. Zoltan, the members worked day and night and kept working. They used to share their ideas and expertise and based on the mutual discussion, they used to make a rationale decision. Problems in the Case and Underlying Causes The main problem in the case is the conflict. As we see that the members of the Group were of different natures and they were not ready to work in a team. Two of the members were sharp and they believed in making abrupt decisions but the other two were the believers of working slow and imposing slow decisions. Due to all this issue, the training programs were not properly implemented and the company could not get the actual result as expected. The main causes of such problems are the conflict in teams. All organizations, from the most complex to the simplest, have a system of conflict management. Conflicts and how they are managed are at the heart of our ...

Managing Organisational C...

Managing Organisational Change, Managing O ...

Analysis Between Individu...

Analysis Between Individual Performance Managemen ...

The Use Of Organizational...

Deploying, performance enhancing changes and ...

People Management

With this Special Research Forum on People Manage ...

Organisational Performance

Performance management is defined as the proc ...

The QWERTY keyboard from the perspective of the Collingridge dilemma: lessons for co-construction of human-technology

• Published: 07 October 2022
• Volume 39 , pages 1229–1241, ( 2024 )

Cite this article

• Mahdi Kafaee   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9250-3366 1 ,
• Elahe Daviran 1 &
• Mostafa Taqavi 2  

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According to the Collingridge dilemma, technology is easy to control when its consequences are not yet manifest; once they appear, the technology is difficult to control. This article examines the development of keyboard layout design from the perspective of the Collingridge dilemma. For this purpose, unlike related studies that focus on a limited period of time, the history of keyboard development is explored from the invention of the typewriter and the QWERTY to brain–computer interfaces. Today, there is no mechanical problem of the typewriter for which the QWERTY was designed. On the other hand, better layouts have been designed for various situations so far, that can be easily implemented especially on virtual keyboards, but QWERTY has not been replaced. The present study shows how various factors as heterogeneous engineering have shaped QWERTY, prevented the prevalence of superior layouts, and led to Lock-in. Then, unlike other studies related to the Collingridge dilemma, which provide a qualitative description of it, a quantitative description is proposed that helps to better understand the Collingridge dilemma and Lock-in. Finally, the case study of the QWERTY keyboard illustrates that the theory of human-technology co-construction can provide a more comprehensive explanation of technology development, while the Collingridge dilemma can better provide some details of technology development.

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• Artificial Intelligence

Some scholars insist that the QWERTY keyboard layout is not optimal due to path dependence and lock-in (David 1985 ; Arthur 1989 ). Some scholars, studying competing with its most important alternative, believe that QWERTY was a rational choice (Liebowitz and Margolis 1990 ; Liebowitz and Margolis 2012 ; Kay 2013 ). Some believed that the market always manages to solve the QWERTY problem (Hossain and Morgan 2009 ). Others distinguished and formulated related types of dynamic processes including path-dependent processes (Jackson and Kollman 2012 ; Dolfsma and Leydesdorff 2009 ). Also, subsequent efforts have been made to find an intermediate solution between the two extremes: path dependence is a myth and path dependence has vast implications (Vergne 2013 ).

Later with the advent of the computer age, various types of the QWERTY keyboard were developed (Moore and Swales 2011 ; Tyneski and Griffin 2006 ). Among them, QWERTZ in Central Europe, AZERTY in France, and QZERTY in Italy can be mentioned. But these keyboards have limited use.

Recent advances have been made in BCIs that transfer information to the computer simply by imagining the handwriting. This will remove the keyboards, either virtual or physical (Willett et al. 2021 ).

The term QWERTY effect is also used in other senses (see e.g. Vergne 2013 ; Hossain and Morgan 2009 ; Moro 2011 ).

For more information on lock-in types and typical mechanisms, see Kotilainen et al. ( 2019 ).

As already mentioned in two places in the text (competition between Dvorak and QWERTY, and competition between Linotype and QWERTY), there can be cases where the lock-in is chosen deliberately and consciously.

Everyday cyborgs are “persons with replacements and augmentations ranging from the simple to the extraordinarily complex, for example, artificial joint replacements, implanted devices such as pacemakers and the total artificial heart, and limb prostheses” (Quigley and Ayihongbe 2018 ). We are “cyborgs not in the merely superficial sense of combining flesh and wires but in the more profound sense of being human-technology symbionts: thinking and reasoning systems whose minds and selves are spread across biological brain and nonbiological circuitry” (Clark 2003 ).

This paper focuses on the explanation of lock-in and its prediction, and escaping lock-in is beyond the scope of this study. For the latter, see Cowan and Hultén ( 1996 ), and Kotilainen et al. ( 2019 ).

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Kafaee, M., Daviran, E. & Taqavi, M. The QWERTY keyboard from the perspective of the Collingridge dilemma: lessons for co-construction of human-technology. AI & Soc 39 , 1229–1241 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-022-01573-1

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How Did Mpox Become a Global Emergency? What’s Next?

The virus is evolving, and the newest version spreads more often through heterosexual populations. Sweden reported the first case outside Africa.

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Apoorva Mandavilli covered the 2022 mpox outbreak and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Faced once again with a rapidly spreading epidemic of mpox, the World Health Organization on Wednesday declared a global health emergency. The last time the W.H.O. made that call was in 2022, when the disease was still called monkeypox.

Ultimately the outbreak affected nearly 100,000 people worldwide, primarily gay and bisexual men, including more than 32,000 in the United States.

The W.H.O.’s decision this time was prompted by an escalating crisis of mpox concentrated in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It recently spread to a dozen other African countries. If it is not contained, the virus again may rampage all over the world, experts warned.

On Thursday, Sweden reported the first case of a deadlier form of mpox outside Africa , in a person who had traveled to the continent. “Occasional imported cases like the current one may continue to occur,” the country’s public health agency warned.

“There’s a need for concerted effort by all stakeholders, not only in Africa, but everywhere else,” Dr. Dimie Ogoina, a Nigerian scientist and chair of the W.H.O.’s mpox emergency committee, said on Wednesday.

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Embracing Gen AI at Work

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The skills you need to succeed in the era of large language models

Today artificial intelligence can be harnessed by nearly anyone, using commands in everyday language instead of code. Soon it will transform more than 40% of all work activity, according to the authors’ research. In this new era of collaboration between humans and machines, the ability to leverage AI effectively will be critical to your professional success.

This article describes the three kinds of “fusion skills” you need to get the best results from gen AI. Intelligent interrogation involves instructing large language models to perform in ways that generate better outcomes—by, say, breaking processes down into steps or visualizing multiple potential paths to a solution. Judgment integration is about incorporating expert and ethical human discernment to make AI’s output more trustworthy, reliable, and accurate. It entails augmenting a model’s training sources with authoritative knowledge bases when necessary, keeping biases out of prompts, ensuring the privacy of any data used by the models, and scrutinizing suspect output. With reciprocal apprenticing, you tailor gen AI to your company’s specific business context by including rich organizational data and know-how into the commands you give it. As you become better at doing that, you yourself learn how to train the AI to tackle more-sophisticated challenges.

The AI revolution is already here. Learning these three skills will prepare you to thrive in it.

Generative artificial intelligence is expected to radically transform all kinds of jobs over the next few years. No longer the exclusive purview of technologists, AI can now be put to work by nearly anyone, using commands in everyday language instead of code. According to our research, most business functions and more than 40% of all U.S. work activity can be augmented, automated, or reinvented with gen AI. The changes are expected to have the largest impact on the legal, banking, insurance, and capital-market sectors—followed by retail, travel, health, and energy.

• H. James Wilson is the global managing director of technology research and thought leadership at Accenture Research. He is the coauthor, with Paul R. Daugherty, of Human + Machine: Reimagining Work in the Age of AI, New and Expanded Edition (HBR Press, 2024). hjameswilson
• Paul R. Daugherty is Accenture’s chief technology and innovation officer. He is the coauthor, with H. James Wilson, of Human + Machine: Reimagining Work in the Age of AI, New and Expanded Edition (HBR Press, 2024). pauldaugh

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Shiny objects: Insurance productivity in an era of AI and automation

The emergence of AI and generative AI (gen AI) has brought new energy to the age-old conversation about productivity. In this episode of the McKinsey on Insurance podcast, McKinsey senior partner Jörg Mußhoff  sits down with partners Elena Pizzocaro and Selim Sulos to discuss why revisiting insurance productivity is at the top of CEOs’ agendas, how the most successful transformations use an end-to-end redesign approach, and why CEOs shouldn’t get distracted by the novelty of AI when traditional tools could encourage growth. The following transcript has been edited for clarity.

Jörg Mußhoff: Many companies across industries are looking into not only how to unleash the power of AI and automation but also how to enhance new forms of productivity. Selim, why is revisiting insurance productivity important?

Selim Sulos: Productivity is not new to insurance. Most companies have explored productivity at different points over the past ten years, but after the height of COVID-19, the insurance world was introduced to a new paradigm, with inflation increasing the cost of claims and rising interest rates stagnating growth, which doubly impacted some insurance carriers. [To make up for these interferences], productivity has become the number one or number two topic on a CEO’s desk.

Elena Pizzocaro: Technology offers plenty of opportunities [to improve productivity]. Think about automation and AI, which are constantly reaching new frontiers. The expectation is that nearly 50 percent of manual activities could potentially disappear thanks to gen AI alone. 1 “ The economic potential of generative AI: The next productivity frontier ,” McKinsey, June 13, 2023. That creates the perfect storm of need and opportunity.

Selim Sulos: There’s one more thing that I should add: top-level tech natives are also contributing to [the importance of productivity]. Everyone, especially those in North America, reads about what’s happening in the big tech companies of the world. Productivity in the tech paradigm is super relevant. I often hear questions like, “What can we learn from big companies that have large tech talent?” That’s another consideration that is impacting CEOs’ agendas.

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Jörg Mußhoff: Can both of you give us a peek into the machine? How are insurance companies across the globe addressing the topic of driving productivity? What do you consider to be the best approaches?

Elena Pizzocaro: The most successful transformations adopt an approach that moves productivity forward while taking advantage of the best technology. Companies are rethinking these end-to-end journeys using what we call “the unconstrained reimagination of core processes.” At the same time, they combine this approach with the most classical techniques, such as performance management, that are the backbone of sustaining impact over time. They create a view of future journeys while setting the trajectory for the unit costs necessary to achieve it and—in the best circumstances—are disciplined in monitoring the progress toward this curve.

Selim Sulos: There is a fine balance between the new productivity paradigm related to the end-to-end path versus the traditional approaches to performance management. Case in point: some midsize insurance carriers that have capital constraints, especially in this environment, need to use some of these traditional methods to capture the necessary resources for investing in the end-to-end journey. Otherwise, it can be costly, depending on how they tackle it in the early investment stage. Therefore, it is critical to keep new and traditional approaches top of mind and sequence them based on where you are in your journey.

Jörg Mußhoff: Many insurance carriers ask about how these approaches are different now than in the past. What would you emphasize there?

Selim Sulos: Redesigning some of the end-to-end components is just the beginning. You also have to think about the entire technology pipeline that serves those components and potentially your data pipeline. If you do that right, you won’t need the amount of reporting or data cleaning that you do today, and people will be working much more effectively. At the same time, your cost paradigm will improve, and you’ll get a much cleaner stack to work on while improving your customer experience. If you create that seamless flow, you can be more intentional about how and where you are using AI and gen AI to unlock productivity. We often see people trying to use gen AI components to drive savings first, but if your processes are not good enough, then it’s just going to create a rule check.

Jörg Mußhoff: That’s a good link. There’s a lot of hype about AI, and especially gen AI, but clients want to know what’s underneath it. Could you describe how we see AI as an enabler and what we see as the most relevant developments?

Elena Pizzocaro: Gen AI is considered one of the key enablers for a true step change in productivity. In the past 18 months, we’ve had a number of conversations focused on the potential of gen AI. We’ve observed that AI in general and gen AI more specifically might have an impact of 40 to 50 percent on the productivity of a single process. This could look like automating single tasks or, probably the most common application, assisting the user in the completion of an activity. This is beneficial not only in terms of increasing the outputs but also in improving the experience of the worker. This can be applied to the entire value chain, both for core processes and support functions.

Selim Sulos: To build on that, there are a couple of things in the call center space that excite me, especially in the servicing space and insurance. The application of gen AI for smart routing and suggesting the next-best action to reps is something that was recently tested and is being used across multiple insurance carriers. What excites me is the next layer: some folks are using gen AI to create content, curate content, and educate people. Take life insurance, for example: an article about why customers should buy life insurance that used to take two months can now happen in a week with gen AI.

I would also highlight the modernization of legacy tech. Gen AI can convert legacy code into new code, which provides companies with a more modern, nimble stack for a fraction of the cost. These are all practical ideas that, especially in the context of financial services and insurance, excite us tremendously.

The potential for reducing the technology debt is something that can enable further growth and even produce a quantum leap in productivity itself. Elena Pizzocaro

Elena Pizzocaro: The potential for reducing the technology debt is also something that can enable further growth and even produce a quantum leap in productivity itself. Other promising areas alongside the core processes are, for example, underwriting or claims. Take commercial underwriting, an area that is considered an ivory tower of human knowledge: gen AI can assist people with these special capabilities so they can perform them better, faster, and more accurately. Ultimately, it will improve the experience for the end customer.

Jörg Mußhoff: What you’ve described are companies that are really changing the game, which is also something we’ve observed across industries. And while it will take time to improve the process of an entire institution, the potential is huge. What have you learned? What are your dos and don’ts?

Elena Pizzocaro: Pay attention to change management. Transforming core processes is not just a matter of transforming the process per se; it’s also about changing the way people work with the new technology you apply—the new gen AI use case or process redesign you might implement. You need to put effort into change management as your organization transforms.

Selim Sulos: In the context of productivity, don’t focus on the shiny object in front of you. I have seen people devise many use cases for improving productivity by applying gen AI. The reality is that although these use cases are brilliant, if you don’t have the right processes to support them, you just create more hurdles and complexity in the system. Then people start questioning whether the technology is right, whether the solution is right, or whether folks are headed in the right direction. This kind of doubt undercuts the whole notion of productivity, and you lose it from the get-go. So be thoughtful when you consider where the organization needs to go and what building blocks you need to put in place first. Then you can leverage some of these shiny objects to bolster your productivity.

Elena Pizzocaro is a partner in McKinsey’s Milan office, Jörg Mußhoff is a senior partner in the Berlin office, and Selim Sulos is a partner in the New York office.

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Governance by design: three case studies on privacy, security and grc.

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Jimmie founded JLEE with the mission to "Enhance life for all through innovative, disruptive technologies." Learn more at jlee.com .

The software, IT, network and cloud industries have undergone evolutionary change for years. We have outpaced any expectation of usage and application of the original foundation of the internet and networks. Thus, we have been playing catch-up to build tools, policies, awareness and services to provide privacy, security and GRC (governance, risk and compliance) to aging technologies awaiting replacement, transformation and modernization.

Here are three case studies on strategies to apply governance by design, starting with privacy, security and GRC for every product.

Scenario 1: Brand-New Startup Beginning From Scratch

The core decision point is to understand which industry and what data access and computing are required.

Starting with a no-code or low-code front end makes the most sense. A CRM application may be best if there is a high touch with customers or clients, as startups often have more extended trial periods.

If possible, focus on one country to start and build in privacy and GRC up front. Review and outline compliance and regulation requirements and confirm architecture can be adjusted to meet them without expending energy to comply.

Security is simple if most of your product can be contained within the chosen no-code/low-code platform or CRM. Only use approved integrations by OEMs if possible. Minimize the sensitive data from customers initially and avoid any PII, PCI or HIPAA data by using integrations with other platforms that already maintain compliance, especially payment processors.

Scenario 2: New Product Innovation To Drive Revenue For A Growth Stage Or Emerging Company

Larger Fortune 500 companies will likely already have most of the infrastructure required. The challenge may be that the NPI requires mostly modern technologies, and the infrastructure in place may not be readily compatible. Here, the core is to build the proof of concept and alpha product with current technologies within the lab or development environment.

Partnerships, relationships, leadership and trust are essential in this scenario when working cross-functionally. Empathy, support and offering a temporary headcount may be tools to accelerate the other departments' projects, which most often have out-prioritized the updates and transformation required for the new product.

Here, network, security and privacy segmentation will be the foundation of the GRC plan for this area. Compliance with current strategy and architectures is required.

Your North Stars are highlighting and identifying when this new NPI and core infrastructure merge. Mapping expected cost reductions and revenue generation to the infrastructure merge plan presents the baseline for conversations, cross-functional strategy planning and, ultimately, budget approval.

Scenario 3: Finding Alignment In A Fortune 500 Or Fortune 1000 With Tech Debt And Competing Priorities

Similar in many ways to the NPI scenario, this one carries much more risk and requires more empathy, relationship building, trust and leadership up front.

The highest priority as a director or executive coming into a new role in a Fortune 500 is to quickly establish yourself as a strong listener, partner and trust builder. The more understanding you have of the company’s mission, vision, strategy and roadmap, the better.

Often, pushing disruptive innovation and NPI is a core competency aligned and assigned to specific departments with their strategy, roadmap and vision. At this stage, the initiatives in sight have often been investigated, researched, estimated, reviewed and prioritized out of current scope. Going in, you are likely pushing a large, heavy object uphill.

This is where understanding the priorities of your peer organizations and what it means for company growth, market share and overall evolution is vital.

Map the company’s priorities against your peer organization’s priorities, then the intersections of the new product. Estimate risk reduction, cost reduction, revenue growth, security, privacy and GRC enhancements for the new product. Then, scale the benefits of the security, privacy and GRC company-wide. Be sure to calculate risk based on current events and case studies for financial impact.

The financial impact is best framed with a few variables: current laws and regulations (especially those the company is not compliant with); the amount of fines, the diversion of company resources from strategic goals due to those fines and the consequential damage to the brand, with case studies on lost revenue for multiple years; loss of customer trust; and loss of market share with current examples on if any regained their previous hold on the market.

With this information, build a document or slides featuring high-level data. Make primary use of white space for a clean and visually appealing layout. Provide detailed information as a supplementary backup to support the main content.

Final Thoughts

Advocating for GRC can be a costly endeavor. Most often, it is a cost reduction once implemented properly with automation. With the proper use of AI and assisted platforms, the continual improvement and enhancement of privacy, security and GRC is more achievable now than ever. It is vital for growth-stage, emerging and Fortune 500 companies to build trust, relationships and partnerships cross-functionally early. For those in roles for many years, it may be too late. So, a strategic hire with personality, empathy, patience and relationship building can be your front-person agent for change.

In all cases, governance by design takes humility, patience and iterations. The greater the prep, the greater the implementation and adherence to policies and regulations, and the tighter security and privacy for all.

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The Keyboard Company Case Study

Autor: Jannisthomas   •  October 19, 2018  •  2,175 Words (9 Pages)  •  1,483 Views

- No leadership support and strategy

In The Keyboard Company case, Zoltan did not consult with top management in the company. He consulted and made decisions to start the internal OD group with a professor who he met at a seminar. Due to the fact that Zoltan did not consult with top management when starting the OD consulting group, there is no awareness and commitment to the change. This also means that the OD team does not have support from management. It is the top management that examines both the business and organizational strategies. On the business side they will review or, if necessary, develop a mission statement, strategic intent, long range objectives and critical success factors. On the organizational side, they will review and/or develop their vision of the future, shared organizational values and guiding and operating principles. Senior leadership also establishes a general framework for the redesign process that includes allocation of resources, time deadlines and other parameters they want to guide the project.

- No acceptance of the OD team

There is no acceptance of the OD team by the employees at the Keyboard Company. This could be due to the fact that Zoltan did not consult with top management before starting the internal OD consulting team. Before embarking on a redesign effort it is necessary that the sponsor of the project and senior leadership understand and be committed to the process. This step involves educating senior leadership about high performance work systems, the transformation model, the change process and needs driving organizational change. It is imperative that this group understand and be willing to commit fully the time and resources to the change effort.

For the success of a transformation project, there is need to sell the change ideas to top management and show the importance of the project. By doing so the project objectives are known by everyone and ensures acceptance of an OD team.

- Preferential treatment of OD team members by Zoltan

Zoltan shows that he prefers to deal with . This could probably be because these two are the most experienced of the OD team members. However this makes all the other team members feel isolated and they were considering resigning. The cause for this might be that the way they recruited the OD team members.

- There is division of thoughts within the OD team

The OD team members dress differently, this reflects the differences in the way they think and in the way they want to implement the transformation.

- No communication links

Zoltan attended a university seminar and subsequently brought in the professor as a consultant which resulted in the two of them appointing the OD group. All this was done without the consultation of Zoltan’s vice Presidents for them to assist and also for them to understand the potential benefits of the initiative. This explains why some of them found the exercise to be a waste of time. The OD group itself had no communication protocol that defined the manner in which the communicated their progress and requirements to the company. As such they all started competing for individual direct access to Zoltan which clearly demoralised some of the team members.

- Leadership style is not participative

The president himself drove the transformation initiative without any support. Although he should have been the custodian of the initiative, he should have had a large enough team comprising of his managers to provide a support structure. Inclusion of the top management would have removed any ill-feelings against the OD group amongst them.

- No objectives and goals for the OD team

- There is no budget

Because of the manner in which Zoltan appointed the OD group i.e without the participation of his top managers, no budget proposal was done to cater for the OD group. This resulted in the managers having to shoulder the cost as over-heads on their individual budgets. This further increased the managers’ animosity towards the OD group. The management should have agreed beforehand and taken the OD as a project, agreed on the structure the OD group would fall on and allocated a separate budget accordingly.

- It is not clear to the OD team as to who the customer is i.e. Zoltan or the organisation

After forming of the OD group, John Zoltan does not allude or communicate with the team who the main beneficiary/customer of the project they were carrying out. This gave the team the impression that the project belonged to John Zoltan. Further confusion reigns in when John Zoltan’s absence at the OD team’s meetings is being felt. The team is left in a limbo, as it does not have proper guidelines to satisfy customer requirements. Failure to provide a free-flow of information and good communication thwart trust in an organisation and this problem is attributable to behavioural strategy which is synonymous with leadership’s failure to appreciate the basic tenets of project management.

- There are no clear roles and responsibilities in the OD team

John Zoltan forms the OD team but fails define each member’s roles and responsibilities for accountability. The team does not have a team leader or contact person; instead the President himself shoulders all the responsibilities. In project management or any set-up team members must be assigned roles that are supported by their natural strengths- in relation to knowledge, skills and attitude. Individuals have unique cognitive, conative and emotional potential, which should have been assessed during the selection process. Zoltan’s behaviour exposes an inept leadership style that does not value proper organograms with well-defined reporting/accountability and communication structures.

- Composition of the OD group is not cross functional

The team is not a representation of the Keyboard Company in lieu of the functional departments. The dictates of project management stipulate that human resources should be recruited from the supporting functional departments (horizontal system that cuts across boundaries). This notion culminates in synergy, builds sound cross-functional relationships, trust and ownership of a project. To avert this structural strategy problem, John Zoltan should have enlisted the services of a qualified and experienced programme management

Case Study: How to Balance Breastfeeding and Toddler Meltdowns

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A Global Pharma Company Accelerated Its Response Process to Regulatory Authority Questions

A global Pharma company can quickly process large volumes of Regulatory questions and scale up information extraction using Ontotext's AI-powered semantic similarity search offering

• Decrease response time for Regulatory Authorities questions from 2 days to less than 1 hour
• Increased efficiency by providing full access to a comprehensive collection of Q&As
• Improved user experience and confidence in accuracy

A global Pharma company selected Ontotext to create a smart industry-specific solution for processing large volumes of diverse questions from Regulatory Authorities delivering answers in a quicker response process .

Although the company had amassed a large archive of questions answered previously, the existing solution could not handle this process efficiently. The different formats and the various document management platforms that had stored the Q&As over the years made it very difficult to reuse the company’s knowledge. Even when answering repetitive and very often identical questions about the same product, company analysts regularly had to spend days searching for the answers.

The Challenge

One of the main challenges for the Pharma company was that the system being used was based on conventional search technologies and most of their documents were in an unsearchable PDF format. Complicating this further, these documents were not indexed and the provided metadata was fragmentary and of poor quality.

Another difficulty was that to find relevant documents, the analysts had to write a series of complicated queries, trying to match keywords from the new question to keywords from existing documents containing answers. This was a complex, iterative process of figuring out how to make the right level of query specificity, in order to yield meaningful results.

During this process, the analysts had to review long lists of results, weed out duplications and unrelated items, and determine which (if any) of the documents would best serve their purposes. This method was time-consuming and required years of expert knowledge, which also made onboarding of new employees a demanding task.

The Solution – KG-powered Semantic Similarity Search

Ontotext’s smart semantic similarity search solution enables the Pharma company to quickly process large volumes of Regulatory questions and scale information extraction.

The solution ingests the various documents from the company’s archive and automatically extracts and categorizes Q&A pairs. The content of questions is semantically indexed, so that the system can compare new questions to all previous ones, even when formulated differently (from a partial inversion or deletion to more significant alterations).

The processed data is used for building a knowledge graph that represents the relations between the different elements of the document. Empowered by this knowledge graph, Ontotext’s GraphDB’s semantic text similarity  search is used to match words that co-occur with other words in the same context. (For example, even when “cancer” and “metastasis” appear in different texts, they can still be matched as semantically related.)

Finally, Ontotext’s solution returns the top 10 most similar Q&A pairs from the archive, so now company analysts only need to review them and, if necessary, make modifications before sending their answer. They can also increase the weight of specific terms within a query to the system (to focus, for example, on the safety aspect of a question) and narrow down the results even more.

Business Benefits

• Full access to a comprehensive collection of Q&As
• Easier to identify similar questions and their relevant answers
• Ability to reuse the company’s knowledge by simply copying and pasting answers from previous questions
• Responding much faster to questions – from 2 days to less than 1 hour

Why Choose Ontotext?

With Ontotext’s smart semantic similarity search solution, the Pharma company analysts can increase their efficiency, cut on time and resources, and stay in compliance.

Ontotext’s solution was built for a specific Pharma Regulatory problem, but the functionality is applicable to all types of domains as it is based on generic technology.

Contact us if you think this case resembles your particular needs.

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Ergonomics in The Workplace Case Study Compilation

How the Goldtouch Standard Keyboard can be a Profit Center for your Business

Find all the case studies in our full compilation PDF .

Repetitive Stress Injuries (RSI’s) are affecting an increasingly larger percentage of the workforce. RSI injuries can range from minor discomfort, tingling fingers, sore wrists, stiff neck and tennis elbow to serious disabilities and everything in between. RSI has become a significant cost of doing business and a diverse range of companies representative of a broad base of industries are confronting the root of the problem by implementing preventative repetitive stress initiatives.

The results of some of these initiatives, as discussed in this paper, are very compelling and the companies involved represent today’s leaders in this field. As will be discussed in this paper, the heart of the solution to RSI related issues is in the selection of the right tools for work; specifically, the keyboard. Study after study will demonstrate that the adjustable, split keyboard design is at the center of the solution.

It will also be shown that the Goldtouch keyboard design has shown to be superior to its competitors in test after test, not only in reducing the causes of RSI, but also in increasing employee overall productivity.

Key Points:

• 25% of all office worker are effected to some extent by RSI and for every one case reported there are thirteen cases not reported (as reported by the state of Connecticut)
• Users who work on a computer as little as 20 minutes per day may experience injury
• 60% cost reduction in direct workers compensation cost with RSI intervention
• 50% of their employees who had previously experienced RSI discomfort showed reduced discomfort after intervention
• Independent studies have consistently demonstrated Goldtouch keyboards are superior over competitive products in reducing the risks of repetitive stress injuries
• Independent studies have shown that the design of Goldtouch keyboards have over time increased employee productivity
• Independent studies have also shown that the design of the Goldtouch is intuitive enough that users can adapt to it more quickly with less of a learning curve than other alternative or fixed split designs.
• The return on investment supports a convincing argument of the economic value of ergonomic interventions
• The Regulatory Environment is becoming more involved in the solution and demanding a more proactive approach to the problem

Direct workers’ compensation costs in the United States for ergonomics-related injuries are estimated at $30.9 billion, according to the 2008 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index. The Index captures only the direct worker’s compensation costs of these disabling injuries. When indirect costs are considered, which are estimated by experts to be anywhere from two to five times direct costs, the true cost to USA businesses is at $61.8 to $154.5 billion.

• Case Studies
• Chevron Texaco – Repetitive Stress Injury Prevention (RSIP) Plan
• Texaco Belgium – Replace Standard Keyboards with Ergonomic Keyboards
• San Jose University – Ergonomic Keyboard Research Study
• Blue Cross Blue Shield – Overall Evaluation of Keyboard Preferences

Find more case studies in our full report PDF .

To learn more about Goldtouch solutions and how easy they can be deployed at your organization, contact the Goldtouch Enterprise Team . Quantity discount programs are available.

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Create and view your own custom mechanical keyboards here!

Choosing a Set of Mechanical Keyboard Keycaps

Learn about the different types of keycap materials, shapes and manufacturers.

How To Choose The Right DIY Kit For Building Your Mechanical Keyboard

We discuss the most important decision points when purchasing the backbone of any mechanical keyboard, the board / DIY Kit. Covers important considerations and sizes.

The Beginner's Guide To Mechanical Keyboard Switches

This guide explains the differnt kinds of mechanical keyboard switches, the pros and cons of each one, and popular models.

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Concept to Manufacture High Quality Front Panel Audio Decoder

• Application

Interactive exhibits/Museums/Visitor Centres Adding Audio interaction for user interfaces Help Menus Pre defined warning messages Audio demonstration equipment

If your project has limited visual I/O or processing, this solution can enable high quality audio to be generated from easily accessed . Mp3 files stored on an SD card. The DSP hardware processing the c ompressed audio files in real time, while freeing the control processor for other tasks. As files are stored on a standard SD card, generating/editing/updating (for instance for other language variants) is a straightforward task. Development is speeded up using this proven hardware which has been through CE certification. manufactured in groups of 4.

The PCB measures 80x42mm and can be rear mounted to a custom front panel membrane keyboard PCB (type up to 9 keys and up to 5 LED indicators).

Project Background:

• Approach for minimum time to Production

MKC started to source components at the initial hardware design stage to ensure that no long lead time components were being designed in. By coordinating the manufacturing phase whilst product development was underway we were able to deliver productio hardware at the 12 week deadline.

• Technicalities

Our solution uses a high-performance, low-power DSP based system capable of reading and decoding the .MP3 input dat astream at high bitrates. Using an 18-bit over sampling, multi-bit, sigmadelta digital to analog convertor at the output stage ensures a high quality stereo audio output with no phase error between L/R channels.

Software controlled volume levels for L & R outputs is supported if needed.

An Atmel AVR single chip processor takes care of the user keypad inputs, LED indicators on the front panel, control of the decoder and output audio signal routing to one of 2 stereo outputs.

Source files are encoded in Mp3 format (up to 320k bit rate), Also supported: WMA, AAC, AAC+, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC and MIDI A Standard size SD card socket fitted on the PCB, supporting FAT16* (*NTSC file format not supported).

2x Stereo 3.5mm jack sockets for A + B audio output 2,1mm power jack for 5v power Header for ISP and serial downloading of code (processor & DSP) Power requirement – 5v D.C (An on board regulator provides the 4 different voltage rails required and a voltage monitor ensures that the unit will always reset reliably after a power rail interruption).

Information provided as an example only, most solutions are custom designed for your application so please get in touch for more in depth technical information or a quotation for a particular project.

Concept to Manufacture PCB Based Membrane Keyboard

PCB Based Membrane Keyboard

MKC were approached by one of the UKs leading marine searchlight manufacturers to produce their next generation interface.

The assembly would be fitted within commercial and naval bridge consoles and through close collaboration at the design stage MKC were able to offer practical solutions to key customer requirements.

The project required full concept, development and prototyping prior to MKC being awarded the contract for volume manufacture.

Key requirements:

Backlighting for key location in a darkened bridge environment

• Our Solution:

Customised RGB LED light tile set with light emission controlled by the customers hardware. Designed to fit around board furniture and mechanical components in order to best use the available land on the PCB. Further enhancements to the light effect were achieved by adding selected tinting and secret-til-lit prints to the graphic overlay.

Variable temperature and UV Resistance

Our solution:

MKC recommended Autotype XE to manufacture the graphic overlay. Autotype XE is a polyester substrate with embedded chemical additives which provide resistance in hostile environments.

This offers a longer life expectancy for the product and reduces the likelihood of failure in the field.

Ruggedised for operator and environment

PCB based membrane keyboard acting as both a backplate and providing land for electronic & mechanical components. Rim embossed key locations fitted with 350gram operational force tactile domes allow for location with finger and positive response once actuated.

Concept to Manufacture PCB Membrane Keypad & Enclosure

MKC were approached by one of the UKs leading Audio Visual manufacturers to develop and produce a modular interface solution incorporating custom HMI Keypad, ElectroniCase Enclosure and On board Electronics, supplied fully assembled within an 8 working week deadline.

From the customer:Installation and commissioning within project deadline.

From MKC: Software, Hardware, concept,prototype, volume production, assembly, supply within project deadline.

In house Technical expertise allowed us to carry out the development of the three key pre-manufacturing processes (Membrane Keypad, Enclosure, Electronics) simultaneously to provide a rapid prototype turnaround and so we could identify any faults and make improvements prior to moving to volume manufacture.

Working with our partners Electronicase and by utilising our own flexible assembly facilities and supporting supply chain we were able to better our customers delivery requirements.

Find out more about how MKC and Electronicase can help you.

Please contact our Sales Team on +44(0)1329 281 091 or e-mail  [email protected]

tel: +44 (0)1329 281 091

fax: +44 (0)1329 281 104

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Case Study: Acoustic Keyboard Emanations

L. Zhuang, F. Zhou, and J. D. Tygar. “Case Study: Acoustic Keyboard Emanations.” In Phishing and Countermeasures: Understanding the Increasing Problem of Electronic Identity Theft , eds. M. Jakobsson and S. Myers. Wiley-Interscience, 2007, pp. 221-240.

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Download Case Study Industry: Medical Check out our problem/ solution use study with Ball State(2015)

Download Case Study Industry: Medical Review what Ball State experts say about cleaning and disinfecting for viruses and bacteria.

Would you like to see how iKey created solutions for companies and organizations in your industry? Simply submit your email to read more. Check back often for new case studies and customer testimonials.

Today’s customer case stories include:

Solution: iKey DU-5K-OEM Keyboard Industry: Food Manufacturing Read more about this large project for employee use kiosks across the globe at Nestle offices. iKey’s keyboards were part of a solution to accept employee enrollment in health benefits with the goals of convenience and significant labor cost savings.

Solution: iKey DP-860 Keyboard Industry: Retail and Wholesale Find out how iKey’s rugged keyboards were used for outdoor vendors at the Netherlands’ famous Dutch Flower Market. The need for coffee-proof, water-proof, and soda-proof keyboards was real and urgent.

Solution: iKey BT-80-TP Keyboards and 13.3” Displays Industry: Transportation/ Fleet Read about this huge installation project with Mobile Mounting Solutions, the leader in mounting systems for computer peripherals in the US. Find out how iKey’s rugged keyboards were customized for a large railway company, for use in 700+ utility service trucks which service the railroad.

Solution: iKey Keyboards: DU-5K, SL-91 and DP-860 Industry: Industrial manufacturing Read about this interesting project for Sherwin Williams’ paint plants, where the client uses multiple iKey keyboards in different areas of their Chicago facility. Each keyboard has specific features that Sherwin Williams needs in that department…

Solution: iKey SL-80-FSR and DP-860 Keyboards Industry: Military Find out about a military project with our client, Amphenol. This particular case needed compact and rugged, needed low cost, and included a foreign language overlay…

WHAT OUR CUSTOMERS ARE SAYING

“The fact that iKey’s products are without parallel in our industry makes providing them to our customers a must, and iKey’s professional, friendly staff makes ordering them a pleasure.”

“They have prompt response time and accurate delivery expectations, ensuring a seamless business transaction our customers can appreciate. iKey’s medical keyboards are a perfect fit for our target market.”

“As an iKey reseller in Germany and Europe, iKey’s diverse portfolio of rugged keyboards and monitors perfectly meets our customers’ needs.”

“As a system house and as an integrator of defense rugged computing solutions, Computech International (CTI) is seeking for the best of breed parts and accessories to integrate within its solutions. We found iKey products to meet our and our customers’ quality and performance requirements. We integrated hundreds of iKey rugged keyboards within the Israel Police cars to work with the Panasonic FZ-G1 Toughpad. We also integrated the iKey keyboard within a Rugged Vehicle Dock (RVD) for armored military platforms that we designed and build for the Panasonic FZ-G1 Toughpad for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). When we need to choose a rugged keyboard for our solutions, iKey is our favorite choice.”

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