How small firms differ from large businesses

How small firms differ from large businesses Penrose (1959) stated that small and large firms are as fundamentally different from each other as a caterpillar is from a butterfly; they identify those characteristics of the small firm, other than size, which distinguish it from the larger enterprise. Thus, while creating, establishing and running a small business, these characteristics will influence the small business owners approaches and management style compared to large ones. Wynarczyk et al (1993) argue that there are three central respects in which small firms are different to large firms: Uncertainty The first key area of differences is uncertainty. With regard to uncertainty, three dimensions have been identified: The first uncertainty is the lack of market power, Thus, when creating and establishing a small business, the owner should have a clearer approach of the lack of market power as an external uncertainty. This associates small businesses as the price-taker as they have no power to set prices, as the threats of new entrants is high. However, it can be argued that it depends on what type of small businesses does the owner want to create, establish and run. For instance, focusing on niche markets with good customer-engagement approach, such as a small holiday agency, will make small businesses to have an influence in setting their prices. Hence, small businesses have to seek to compete in other ways such as service, quality, and timeliness. In contrast, large businesses are the price-maker due to high market power; this has to be used carefully to avoid attracting the attention of competition authorities. So, market prices are strongly influenced by large businesses that, through scale economies, should be able to set low prices. The marketing approach would be to use an integrated communication mix such as, mass advertising and PR, as their financial resources allow them to do so. Thus, the competitive focus of small and large businesses is likely to differ sharply. The second source of uncertainty for small firms is their limited customer and product base. A classic example is where small firms simply act as subcontractors to larger firms. Such firms are open to subcontractor vulnerability (Lyons and Bailey, 1993), which is created not only by dependence on dominant customers, but also upon the extent to which output is specialised to particular customers. The smaller firm clearly perceives to be more vulnerable than the larger firm and acts accordingly (Lyons and Bailey, 1993). The third uncertainty relates to the much greater diversity of objectives of the owners of small firms, compared with large firms. Many small business owners seek only to obtain a minimum level of income rather than maximising sales or profits (Storey 1994). Small business owners do not have to concern themselves with reporting their actions to external shareholders and so performance monitoring effectively do not exist. For a small firm, the relationship between the business and the owner is very much closer than it is between the shareholder and the large firm, and so the motivation of the owner of the small firm is a key influence upon the small firm performance (Storey, 1994). Large firm emphasises the importance of control. The central issue is how the owners of the business ensure that the managers of the business act in their interest, and how senior managers exert control over more junior managers. This form of internal conflict is largely absent in small firms (Storey, 1994) where ownership and control are located in the hands of a few people or even a single individual, thus, while running a small business, the owner will adopt a more dynamic and organic management style. In contrast, large businesses are more likely to suffer from internal uncertainty, defined by Curran and Blackburn (2001), as an inability to deliver a product or service consistently throughout the organisation. Much managerial time in large businesses is devoted to address this issue with therefore formality and procedures implemented. Hence, the large businesses tend to have a bureaucratic management style with formal control over performance. Innovation A second key area of difference between small and large firms is their approach to innovation. The role small firms play in innovation relates to their niche role where: it is the ability of the small firm to provide something marginally different, in terms of product or service, which distinguishes it from the more standardised product or service provided by the larger firm (Storey, 1994: 11-12). Small firms are more likely to introduce fundamentally new innovations than larger firms, a feature often attributed to small firms having less commitment to existing practices and products (Pavitt et al. 1987). However, Schumpeter (1934) has provided empirical evidence that large businesses use static measures, and are more innovative than smaller businesses. This is because most small businesses do not set out to be innovative: at best, their key innovation is just to enter a given market. Furthermore, Van Praag and Versloot (2007) stated that small businesses are likely to commercialise innovations but less likely to adopt innovations. However, large businesses innovation capitalise on heavy expenditure on formal research and development. While most small businesses do not innovate, and many fewer undertake formal research and development, those that do are able to bring ideas to the marketplace quickly if they are able to access suitable funding. Evolution The third area of difference between small and large firms is the greater likelihood of evolution and change in the smaller firm (Storey, 1994). Small firms that become larger undergo a number of stage changes which influence the approaches and style of management as well as the structure of the organisation (Scott and Bruce, 1987) than is the case for larger firms (Storey, 1994). Thus, creating, establishing and running a new small business has different approaches, management styles and skills learn through experience, at different stages of the small business development. Churchill and Lewis (1983) summarised the Five Stages of Small Business Growth stating that small businesses have varied management styles and approaches according to the stage the small business is in. For example, being at the existence stage (creating and establishing), the owner has direct supervision management style; his major strategy approach would be to stay alive, thus, there would be no formal systems to follow. Figure : source http://www.tameer.org.pk/images/The_Five_Stages_Of_Small_Business_Growth.pdf [accessed on 17/11/2010] However, not all small businesses grow; some of them fail to survive due to the lack of environmental scanning; finance or planning. Moreover, Hakim (1989), in her survey of approximately 750,000 UK businesses, 55 per cent had no plans for growth, at a time when the economy was growing. The finding was clearly influenced by business size, with 60 per cent of businesses with fewer than 3 workers having no growth aspirations, compared with only 2 per cent of those with 25-49 employees. Hence, the smaller the operational size of the business the less likely it is to seek to increase its scale or growth. Skills Required to Create, Establish and Run a Small Business A skill is simply a knowledge which is demonstrated by action. It is an ability to perform in a certain way. The Five-Must Skills Requires when creating; establishing and running the Small Business Planning skills Personal skills and characteristics Sales and marketing skills Accounting and financial skills Administrative skills These are the basic skills necessary to enable the small business owner to start, develop, finance, and market his small business. Apart from all these skills mentioned, other important skills are needed to run a business mainly: leadership skills; human skills; conceptual skills and technical skills. Planning skills Creating a new business is the pre-start-up phase where planning skills are very important. While creating the business, an appropriate business plan is required which explain the business concept and model (Justin et al 2002). The business plan will require the owner or shareholder to have an organisation-wide approach skill as it consists of the business model, financial, marketing and operational management plan. The approaches towards the business plan in small and large businesses differ. According to (Bridge et al. 1998), the preparation of business plan may be unsuitable for small businesses due to the dynamic changes in the environment. Small business has a more tactical approach to planning as they concentrate on the survival and stability strategy at the creating and establishing stage and an emergent strategy at the running stage In addition, Paul D. Hannon and Andrew Atherton (1997) developed a model of planning in the journal of small firm success and show that there is a critical relationship between planning in small business and strategic awareness capability which lead to the small business success known as the successful orienteer. Nevertheless, this is not always the case for small business owner to be a successful orienteer due to the internal and external factors affecting them. However, in large businesses, they have a strategic (long term vision) approach as regard to their business plan. They emphasised the corporate level of strategy (Philip S, 2003) which aim for the stability and growth. The corporate strategy seek to grow the business by implementing long term marketing strategies (the Ansoff Matrix) and also to achieve higher profitability, sales revenue and to have better competitive advantages over its rivals. Figure : Ansoff Matrix (2007 When creating; establishing and running a small business time management skills are also essential. The small owner should be able to create a work life balance. Small business owner may spend too much time at work. Moreover, their main motivation is their income to satisfy their family needs, thus, they should make effective decisions to balance their business life with their personal life. Figure : The business/Personal overlap In contrast, large businesses have an effective time management skills, due to formal procedures of meeting deadlines and being compliance with legal proceedings. Personal skills In the early stages of business development, the personal characteristics and skills of the small business owner will influence the management style of the business. Thus, the individual attributes influence the skills of the owner which shapes the leadership outcomes. General cognitive ability Motivation Personality Individual attributes Problem solving skills Social judgement skills Knowledge Competencies Leadership outcomes Effective problem solving Performance Table : the three components of the skills model pg. 41 According to Lundberg (1985), the personal skills and characteristics such as problem-solver, determination, self-discipline, analytical skills, good judgement of characters and so on, motivate the small business owner to create and establish and also run his business successfully, and as Birley (1996) mentioned à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.The owner perceives the business as an extension of his or her personality, intricately bound with family needs and desires. However, many small businesses fail compare to large businesses because they run their business as an extension of their personality. For example, if the small business owner is introvert, quite assertive, make his own decision rather than consulting subordinates or explore the external environment, he/she is more prone to adopt the closed and indirect management style rather than open and direct management style (David A 1993) which may result in failure. The self-motivating skills and aspirations of small business owners are also different from those who operate large businesses. Miner (1997) concluded that small business owners are motivated by their performance, independence, status and family needs. Gray (2002); Hart and Oulton (1996), some are lifestyle owners of small businesses whose object is primarily to obtain a comfortable living for themselves, it may be a hobby that generate incomes or to pass on their business to family members. In contrast, a minority may wish to grow their business rapidly. However, owners or shareholders of large businesses seek to maximise the value of the company. The task management is to achieve this maximisation of shareholders value by seeking profit maximisation and continuous growth and expansion. In addition, the management style will be mostly influenced by the organisational culture, which consists of six elements according to Johnson and Scholes (1992). Figure : Johnson Cultural Web (1992) Networking skills including interpersonal skills are also important. Networks can be defined as: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ a firms set of relationships with other organisations (Perez and Sanchez 2002:261). In essence, what Birley (2002) suggests is that individuals use their networks to gain legitimation and resources for their established business. Without the benefit of such support, the implication is that many new established (start-up) businesses would be stillborn. The social network approach differ from the way small businesses use it compared to large ones in order to support the development of their business. Small businesses uses the support of its family, limited customers base and other owners of small businesses to develop the establish organisation whereas, large businesses use a pool of social network (stakeholders). Thus, Birley states the credibility is lower in small businesses, than in large businesses due to the lack of market power and sources of funds to satisfy the suppliers and customers. Figure : The credibility cycle (Sue Birley and David Norburn, 1976) Sales and Marketing skills The business should create awareness of his product or service and distinguish them from their competitors by effective marketing skills. The business then needs to be able to convert interest into cash! This is where sales, oral communication, negotiation skills and interpersonal skills come in. Thus, the small business owner should rely on their effective sales and marketing skills to maintain and acquire good customer relationship. For example, identify the sales opportunity, be confident to handle objection and negotiate to reach win-win situation (Fred E, 1987). In large business, lot of finances are put towards sales and marketing. In addition, specialist sales and marketing manager, with high competence, expertise and knowledge, are those who deal with different sales and marketing techniques to be implemented in order to have good customer relationship and expand their product/market portfolio. Besides, in large businesses, brand positioning plays a big role in their marketing strategy. Shocker et al. (1994) and Hatten and Schendel (1977) reveals that in large businesses, brand can be a positive factor influencing sales. It provides the customer with the awareness leading to confidence and ultimately loyalty. They also showed that small businesses such as hairdresser; pubs, corner shops etc., have no brand value, apart from some local loyalty. Thus, protecting a positive brand image is vital for large businesses. Accounting and Financial skills When creating, establishing and running a small business, the most important skill that the owner should possess is the financial skill. To implement the business idea, source of finance is required to start-up and run the establishment. Financial skills include: planning annual budget; cash flow forecast, effective management of the cash cycle; avoid overtrading and the profit and loss account should be analysed. In small businesses the owner has hands-on skills, thus, such financial skills are needed to survive and remain in existence. However, large businesses are in better advantage as they not only have specialist financial analysts to analyse their accounts and prepare their budgets, but the banks and building societies also help them. In addition, Ang (1991), conducted empirical evidence and stated that small businesses are funded primarily from the owners savings and retained profits and the use of external equity is rare. Small businesses pay higher interest rates on borrowed funds than large businesses, which have a wide choice of sources of finance. Thus, the small businesses faces lots of financial difficulties as mentioned in the figure below. Figure : The Financial Skills face by Small Business Owners by Jonathan Tucker and Jonathan Lean -2003 Administrative skills Administrative skills include a wide range of organisational and technical skills from planning, organising, scheduling and to staffing. Thus, a small business owner should possess administrative skills, such as good filing procedure for the billings, invoices and so. In contrast, large businesses normally have the finance to invest in latest technology in order to manage their administrative skills. Key Differences in Running Small businesses and Large Businesses: Skills; Approaches and Management style The management styles are distinctive ways of making decisions and relating to subordinates. Different management styles can be used dependent on the culture of the business, the nature of the task, the nature of the workforce and the personality and skills of the owners or leaders. As discussed in the essay, the small business owners skills are more or less the same as the entrepreneurial skills, they adopt an adaptive and organic management style whereas large businesses ownership skills are more predictive and mechanist which relate to their autocratic management style. Figure : Differences between the small business management skills and management style compared to large ones (Beaven and Jenning- 1995) However, stating that large businesses have a more autocratic management style due to its bureaucratic organisational structure, is too generalised, ignoring the fact that the management styles and the relative importance of the skills (technical; decision-making and interpersonal skills) varies within the level of management. Management level Primary Management Skills needed Primary Management Functions Performed Management or leadership styles Top Decision-Making and Interpersonal skills Planning and Organising Participative leadership style Middle Balance of Interpersonal; Technical; and Decision-Making skills Balance of all five functions (Planning; Organising; Controlling; staffing and Leading) Balance of autocratic; democratic and paternalistic as result to circumstances First-Line Technical and Interpersonal Skills leading and controlling Balance of democratic and autocratic as result to circumstances Table : Skill needed; Function performed and Management styles used at different management levels. Source: lassier (2002) In addition, the culture prevails in the organisation will shape the organisational structure. Nowadays, many large businesses, such as BQ are concentrating in developing a flat structure, with more flexibility. Besides, approaches and management styles changes according to circumstances and objectives. Skills can quickly become obsolete if owners or shareholders are not constantly updating them. Thus, training and development and knowledge management of the owners and employees are very crucial. In small businesses, owners management style will be influenced by their skills and characteristics, thus, stating that due to informal control and undifferentiated roles, the small businesses have an organic or flatter structure due to fewer tiers is not always the case. Some small businesses fail as some owners are autocratic as they want things to be done their way and are often the one who makes decisions without consulting the employees and analysing the external environment. The table below will provide evidences of the key differences between small and large businesses as regard to the running of the business which will influence the owners skills, approaches and management style. Aspect (Evidence) Small Business Large Business What difference does it make? Strategy (Man et al. 2002; Rangone 1999) Has to be flexible since it lacks the opportunity to reap scale economies. So, more likely to develop an emergent strategy The large business will seek to exploit its price advantages, and advantage obtained by heavy investment in people, fixed assets or research and development The development of new markets and particular new industries has often been pioneered by smaller businesses. Once, those industries have become established, average business size increases because economies of scale become important Political influence (Dannreuther 1999) The individual small business, acting alone, will have minimal impact on government. Large businesses are widely consulted by governments, even at the early stage when legislation is considered. Large businesses have considerable power and can influence the formulation of government policy. If legislation. However, large businesses argue that, whilst they comply fully with legislation, smaller businesses can avoid enforcement by avoiding the scrutiny of government. Wages and benefits for workers (Brown et al. 1990; Troske, 1999) Small businesses generally pay lower wages and provide fewer fringe benefits Larger businesses pay higher wages and provide more fringe benefits Large and small businesses hire different types of worker. The small business worker is more likely to be either old or young, attracted by a team ethnic and less likely to have formal qualifications. Human resources (Vickers et al. 2005; Forth et al. 2006) At their best, small businesses provide a happy environment in which to work. At, their worst, they can be unsafe, exploitative, working environments. Large businesses are more likely to attract prime age workers, with formal qualifications, and those seeking a career. Overall, job satisfaction appears to be higher in small than in large businesses. Large business workers are likely to receive a higher remuneration package but small business workers may derive greater satisfaction from flexibility and sense of teamwork. Training and Recruitment (Carroll et al. 1999; Storey 2005) Small businesses provide less training and recruit new staff through informal channels. Large businesses are much more likely to provide formal training and use formal channels to recruit new staff. Small businesses, because they emphasise the use of informal procedures, are viewed by some as backward. But this is to misunderstand the motivations and constraints of small business owners. What is less clear is whether small businesses provide more informal training than large ones. Competitive advantages (Jennings and Breaver 1997) Flexible, responsive to the customer. Able to undertake investment and provide a more comprehensive service. Large businesses can reap scale economies, so they are more likely to be able to compete on price. They are also able to supply a wider range of liked services, avoiding the need for customers to have to shop around. Table : The key differences between small and large businesses; Source: Storey and Greene (2010) Conclusion Thus, creating, establishing and running a small business does require some of the skills as operating large ones, but the approaches and management styles will be different to large and small businesses due to their differences in characteristics and the different factors affecting them internally and externally. Besides, the small business owners do have different goals, plan, skills and approaches. For example, a small business owner has undifferentiated roles, thus need to have a hand-on skills to promote diversity and flexibility. However, it was also mentioned that skills and management style varies upon the levels of management and also people are different individuals who use different management styles according to the circumstances and objectives. The key advantage of the small business is that while the external uncertainty they experienced are greater than large businesses, they experienced less internal uncertainties due to their close control over the business. In addition, small businesses see themselves as customer focused, placing emphasis on service. However, generalisation is untrue: that all small businesses have lack of market power and do not grow. For example, the crematorium, a small business was able to exert real market power over a competitor. We should not forget as well that skills; approaches and management style of small businesses would be different to large businesses because small businesses tend to be higher in the risk of failure. The main reasons are normally lack of contingency plans, poor risk assessment done and lack of leadership style. This is why small businesses concentrate on cash rather than profit (Birley, 1992).

The Realm of Desire and Dream: Brazil and its Self-Constructing Middle Class of the 1980s, 1990s and Today :: Essays Papers

The Realm of Desire and Dream: Brazil and its Self-Constructing Middle Class of the 1980s, 1990s and Today The discourse of self-definition in Brazil is based on perceptions of economic success, material value and social prestige. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, there was a general scramble to reconstruct individual identity in social success and achievement. â€Å"Assertions of moral and cultural (class and racial) superiority† make up the discourses of national and regional identity, while simultaneously setting up the social building blocks of discrimination and stratification (25). Through the strange consumption of not only goods, but the commodification of experiences, the Brazilian middle class sought to redefine their lives and social status, and ultimately create a world that thrives on social division and prejudice. In Maureen O’Doughterty’s Consumption Intensified, â€Å"the dual vision† of the â€Å"immediate reality of crisis and the desired reality of the First World† is shown to have shaped middle class consciousness and desire, and further deepen the marks of division within this â€Å"heterogeneous† middle class (O’Doughterty 15, 5). â€Å"Transnational consumption, in the form of travel experiences, especially to Disney World, and consumption of imported goods† is a surprising social construction of value and rank, and expresses the influence of a foreign ideal on Brazilian social identity (23). Sustained comfortable living, and superiority over another class of people, was desperately appealing to many Brazilian families in the throes of the economic crisis, as demonstrated by the commodification of a Disney experience in the United States through bought and displayed goods, and the suggestion of expense that goes with it. The suggestion of expense and wealth throughout the crisis shaped the new concept of a Brazilian middle class â€Å"character,† a quality of living that could not be removed by an instable economy and loss of existing values. The presentation and propagation of this â€Å"character† was an extension of the old lush life prior to the crisis, and a dogged determination to hold to â€Å"traditional values.† Throughout the economic crisis, the middle class wanted to be perceived as continuing to enjoy â€Å"lush private space where elevated social status is proclaimed, cared for, and safeguarded† (O’Doughterty 9). Yet the â€Å"sense of past and hopes were contradicted by the experience of inflation crisis,† and a new social construction of reality emerged that was tangible in all its effects and efforts (O’Doughterty 9). The act of consuming goods itself is political, and â€Å"consumption is central to middle-class self-definition, not only in prosperity, as has more usually been shown but in any and all circumstances, even in recession† (O’Doughterty 11).

How to Increase Graduate Employability at a University

4390228000 Research Report Student Name: Majed M Almalki Student ID: 3622608 Class: L7-1906 December 2017 Teachers:Rosie Paspaliaris and Tammy Tan-58367329120Abstract The employment rate amongst university graduates is a real concern for most universities around the world. The purpose of the research report, which was commissioned by the Careers Department at a university is to identify the best approaches to increase their students' employability skills before joining the workplace. The findings suggest that while universities have the most responsibility to prepare their students for the marketplace, employers have to play their essential role to engage them with the real work environment. There are many kinds of approaches a university can use, and research shows they can be divided into work-integrated learning, career guidance and critical soft skills that are required in the workplace. It is recommended that the Careers Department starts implementing these approaches through including work-based classes in the students' curriculum, inviting experts and employers to enable students to select the right track and embedding soft skills in the students' curriculum.1IntroductionThe Careers Department at a university has a duty to prepare their students well to join the marketplace. However, they are concerned that they are not helping their students with required skills and essential knowledge to improve their employability chances. This report, requested by the director of the Careers Department at a university in Australia, describes the most effective and efficient approaches in order to make recommendations that can be used to improve graduates' ability to feel confident in the workplace.  FindingsThere are a number of approaches that various stakeholders can use to improve the employability rates of graduates in Australia. The identified findings fall under work-i ntegrated learning (Jackson 2015), the importance of choosing the right discipline for the future career (Kinash et al. 2017), and critical soft skills (Meeks 2017).Work-integrated Learning (WIL)WIL enables graduates to increase their employability by boosting their confidence in their workplace capabilities and giving them exposure to enable them to understand the required industry standards (Jackson 2015). Gamble, Patrick and Peach (cited in Jackson 2015) claim that WIL is important in enabling graduates to gain a better appreciation of how the world of work is like. It combines traditional learning as well as other forms of exposure which may include: job placements, field work, job shadowing, and internships (Treuer et al. cited in Jackson 2015). This combination serves an essential role of ensuring that students are able to transfer the skills they learned in the college to the workplace (Crebert et al. cited in Jackson 2015). Jackson (2015) claims that WIL prepares graduates for their future careers by fostering their professionalism, ability to communicate effectively, think critically, and solve problems (Coll et al. cited in Jackson 2015). In one of the studies conducted in 2012 involving 131 undergraduates who had completed a work placement, it was noted that some students experienced difficulties such as stress, inadequacy and anxious when applying what they had learned in the classroom to the marketplace (Jackson 2015). Students who were on a work placement for the first time had to learn how to manage themselves, communicate effectively to a public audience, and use technology. As such, work placement was the best experience that could prepare them adequately for joining the workplace (Jackson 2015).Choosing the Right DisciplineChoosing the right discipline increases the student's chances of getting a targeted job in the future (Kinash et al. 2017). Students who choose the relevant career path while in college increase the chances of achieving their future careers (Kinash et al. 2017). In a survey that was conducted on 28 graduates and 22 university students, it was noted that most students made random degree choices without having a specific career goal (Kinash et al. 2017). This could explain why some students felt there was disconnect between the career industry and the degree courses they were pursuing (Kinash et al. 2017). Many students remained hesitant about their career options from the time they joined universities to the point of graduation (Kinash et al. 2017). In addition, it was noted that students are most likely to make career goals after they have graduated (Kinash et al. 2017). Some of them are unhappy in their careers because possibly universities do not support their career decision-making. It is important to note that most students may not have had exposure to career services prior joining the university, which affects the choices they make (Kinash et al. 2017).  Developing Critical Soft SkillsEmbedding soft skills in the university curriculum ensures students to develop important soft skills, which can improve graduate employability rate. Employers value individuals with soft skills because they are ‘easier to work with and relate better to clients, ultimately driving business outcomes' (Deloitte Access Economics 2017). Although a degree is an important item when searching for employment, most degrees tend to focus on equipping students with hard skills while ignoring the soft skills (Meeks 2017). This leads to a situation where a substantial number of graduates' lack important soft skills that are necessary for a better performance in the workplace (Meeks 2017). As Figure 1 shows, the most demanded soft skills across all industries. Figure 1: Adapted from Workible (cited in Deloitte Access Economics 2017)3 ConclusionThe research has shown that there are a variety of approaches to boost the graduate employability. These approaches, which consist of WIL, career guidance and developing critical soft skills can be implemented by the Careers Department at a university with cooperation with other stakeholders, so that students feel well-equipped with the essential experience and skills to be successful in the marketplace.  RecommendationsEstablishing work-based environmentBecause there is an obvious lack of work experience among graduates, work-based classes might be included in students' curriculum to prepare them adequately for employment. At the same time, they may partner with other organizations, such as companies, to give students the opportunity to get internships and work placements. Offering career guidanceThe Careers Department might offer career support to all their students. This can be implemented by inviting employers and experts to run some workshops to share their experiences to enable students to choose the right courses that will make them realize their career goals. Including soft skillsSoft skills need to be embedded in the students' curriculum to ensure that they get both hard and soft skills. This will help the Careers Department to improve their graduates' employability because most employers want graduates who have soft skills.Reference ListDeloitte Access Economics 2017,  Soft skills for business success, Company report, DeloitteAccess Economics, viewed 25 November 2017, ; https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/economics/articles/soft-skills-business-success.html ;Deloitte Access Economics 2017,  Soft skills for business success, Company report, Deloitte AccessEconomics, viewed 25 November 2017,https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/economics/articles/soft-skills-business-success.html ;.Jackson, D 2015, ‘Employability skill developme nt in work-integrated learning: Barriers and best practice'. Studies in Higher Education, vol. 40, no. 2, pp.350-367, viewed 25 November 2017, RMIT Library.Kinash, S, Crane, L, Capper, J, Young, M,Stark, A 2017, ‘When do university students and graduates know what careers they want: A research-derived framework', Journal of Teaching andLearning for Graduate Employability, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 3-21, viewed 25 November 2017, RMIT Library.Meeks, G 2017, ‘Critical soft skills to achieve success in the workplace', viewed 30 November2017,https://search proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/docview/1950281403/previewPDF/D2798047B2094522PQ/8?accountid=13552 ;, ProQuest Library.

Tips for Scanning Restoring Digital Photos

Do you have old faded or torn photos that youd like to give a facelift? Have you been meaning to take that box of old photos from Grandma and scan them? Learning to create and edit digital photos is fairly easy and very worthwhile. Digitally restored photos can be used to create digital scrapbooks, post to websites, share through email, and print for gift-giving or display. You dont have to be a technology whiz or a graphic designer to become proficient at photo restoration, but you will need a computer, a scanner, and a good (not necessarily expensive) graphics program. Scanning Tips for Digital Photos Check your photos for dirt, lint, or smudges. Gently remove surface dust and dirt with a soft brush or lint-free photo  wipe. Canned air, available at most office supply stores, helps to blast away dust and lint from photographic slides but is not recommended for heirloom print photos.Check the scanner glass for lint, hair, fingerprints, or smudges. Use a lint-free pad or wipe to thoroughly clean the glass (basically anything that is sold as safe for cleaning camera lenses will also work for your scanner). Household glass cleaner can be used to clean your scanner glass, as long as youre careful to spray it directly on the cloth before wiping, not directly on the glass surface. When using your scanner or handling photographs, it is best to wear clean white cotton gloves (available from photo stores and hardware stores) to avoid leaving fingerprints on your scanner or photos.Specify the type of scan. If youre scanning photos, you have a basic choice of color photo vs. black and white . When scanning family photos, it is usually best to scan in color, even if the source photo is black and white. Youll have more manipulation options, and you can change a color photo to black and white (grayscale), but not the other way around.Determine the best scan resolution to assure the quality of your digital photos. The optimal resolution depends on how the image will be printed, saved, or displayed. A good rule of thumb is to scan your photos at a minimum of 300 dpi (dots per inch) to assure decent quality for enhancement and restoration techniques. Its even better to do 600 dpi or greater if you plan to eventually store these photos on CD or DVD, and have space on your computer hard drive to handle such large images.Carefully position your photo on the scanner face down on the glass, just like on a photocopy machine. Then hit prescan or preview. The scanner will take a quick pass of the image and display a rough version on your screen. Check to see that its straight, that no part of the photo has been cut off, and that the photo appears free of dust and lint.Crop the previewed image to include only the original photo. For archival purposes, do not crop only a portion of the photo at this point (you can do that later if you want a cropped photo for a specific purpose). However, you should make sure that all you are scanning is the actual photograph. (Some scanners and software will do this step for you automatically.)Avoid corrections while scanning. After scanning, youll be able to edit the image in a graphics software program which offers much more control. The order of steps should be: scan a basic image, save it, play with it.Check your file size before scanning. Youll want to make sure the chosen resolution you wont create a photo that is so large it will crash your computer. Some computers have enough free memory to handle 34MB photo files, and some dont. If the file size is going to be larger than you thought, then adjust the scan resolution ac cordingly before making the file scan.Scan the original image. This shouldnt take too long, but it could take a few minutes if youre scanning at a very high resolution. Take a quick bathroom break, or get your next photo ready for scanning. Saving Editing Your Digital Photos Now that youve got your photo scanned in, its time to save it to your hard drive. Be sure to choose an archival method and select a good photo-editing program. Storage Tips for Digital Photos Choose your file type. The best file type for scanning and saving archival photos is TIF (Tagged Image Format), the undisputed leader when the best quality is required. The popular JPG (JPEG) file format is nice because its compression algorithm creates smaller file sizes, making it the most popular photo format for web pages and file sharing. However, the compression that creates the small files also causes some quality loss. This loss of image quality is small, but becomes important when dealing with digital images that you plan to modify and re-save (something that you are likely to do when restoring damaged or faded photographs) because the loss of image quality compounds itself at each saving of the file. Bottom line—unless space on your computers hard  drive is at a real premium, stick with TIF when scanning and saving digital photos.Save an archive copy of the original photo in TIF format. You can then place it in a special folder on your hard  drive or copy to CD o r DVD. Resist the urge to edit this original photo, no matter how bad it looks. The purpose of this copy is to preserve, as closely as possible, the original photograph in a digital format—a format that, hopefully, will outlast the original print photo.Make a copy of your scanned photo to work on. Use the copy instead of manipulating your original scan. Save it with a different filename (i.e., you can use the original file name with -edited on the end) to help prevent accidentally overwriting the original as you work on editing the photo. Choosing a Graphics Software Program The key to good digital photos is selecting a good graphics software program. If you dont have photo editing software yet, there are a lot of good options available—ranging from free photo editors to beginner photo editors, to advanced photo editing software. For photo restoration, a mid-range graphics software program offers the best balance of function and price. Step-by-Step Photo Repair and Restoration Now that youve done all the tedious work of scanning and saving your photos as digital images, its time to get started with the fun part—photo retouching! Pictures with stains, creases, and tears may have character, but they arent as pretty for framing or photo projects. These photo editing tips will help make your old pictures album-ready. Editing Tips for Digital Photos Open your photo editing software and select the photo. Be sure that it is a copy and not your original digital image. (This way you can always start over if you make a mistake.)Crop your photo using the crop tool. This is good to do in cases where there is a mat or extra wasted space in the photo. Depending upon your purpose, you may also wish to use the crop tool to cut out the background or focus in on a particular person. Since you have saved a copy of the original photo, you dont have to worry about losing important historical details by getting a bit creative with cropping.Fix photo flaws including rips, tears, creases, spots, and smudges, with a variety of handy fix-it tools.Creases, Tears, Spots, Smudges: Most image-editing programs have a cloning or copying tool to help fix photo flaws by filling them in with patches from similar areas in the picture. If the area is large, you may wish to zoom in on the area a bit before applying the cloning tool. The best alternative in low -budget photo editing software is usually the smudge tool.Dust, Speckles, Scratches: Set Radius and Threshold settings at their lowest settings and then slowly increase the Radius until you find the lowest setting that will rid your image of the dust or scratches. However, since that makes your whole image look blurry, you should then bring the Threshold setting way up and then slowly lower it until you find the highest setting that still removes dust and scratches from your photo. Check the results carefully—sometimes this process ends up removing eyelashes and other important content that mimic scratches. Many graphics programs also have a global dust/speckles filter, which looks for spots that differ from their neighboring pixels in color or brightness. It then blurs the surrounding pixels to cover the offending ones. If you only have a few large specks, then zoom in on them and edit the offending pixels by hand with a paint, smudge, or cloning tool.Bye, Bye Red Eye: You can remove that annoying effect in your photos with automatic red-eye removal, or with the pencil and paintbrush found in most photo-editing software. Sometimes an automatic Red-eye Removal tool will change the original eye color. If in doubt, check with someone who has knowledge of the persons eye color.Correct the color and contrast. You may find that many of your old photos have faded, darkened, or become discolored with age. With the help of your digital photo-editing software, you can easily repair and restore these photographs to their former glory.Brightness: Lighten up a dark photo with the brightness adjustment. If its too light, you can darken it a bit.Contrast: Best used in conjunction with Brightness, this feature adjusts the overall contrast—bringing out features in pictures that are mostly middle tones (grays with no true blacks and whites).Saturation: Use the Saturation tool to help turn back the clock on faded photos—giving photos more richness and dept h.Sepia-tones: If you want to give your color or black-and-white photo an antique look, then use your photo-editing software to create a duotone (two-color picture). If your original photo is color, youll first have to convert it to greyscale. Then select duotone and choose your two colors (brown shades are the most common for this effect).Sharpen: Use this to add focus to a blurry photo as the final step before saving. Enhancing Your Digital Photos If you have plans to use your newly-edited digital photos in a scrapbook, slideshow, or another digital project, then you may wish to jazz them up with colorization, captions, airbrushing, or vignettes. Enhancement Tips for Digital Photos ColorizationHave you ever wondered how your 19th-century great, great-grandfather may have looked in color? Or perhaps you want to see how that old black-and-white photo would look with a few touches of color—a pink bow here and a blue dress there. If your photo-editor is fairly full-featured, its easy to find out! Begin with a black-and-white photo.Using a Selection tool Lasso), select an area of the image that you wish to add color to. The Magic Wand can also be used for this step, but it requires a bit of technical knowledge and practice to use with black-and-white photos.Once the area is selected, go to the tint or color-balance controls and alter the color level values.Experiment until you get the desired effect.Repeat these steps for each area of the picture you wish to colorize.Colorizing photos can get a lot fancier than what weve detailed above, with techniques such as channel-splitting and transparent layers, plus tips for using the Magic Wand for selecting photo areas. Adding Captions If youve spent any time going through an ancestors collection of largely unlabeled photos, youll understand why we say that you owe it to your descendants (and other relatives) to properly label all of your digital photos. Many photo-editors offer a caption option which allows you to actually embed a caption within the header of JPEG or TIFF format files (known as the ITPC standard), allowing it to be transferred directly with the picture, and be read by the majority of graphics software programs. Other photo information that can be embedded with this method includes keywords, copyright info, and URL data. Most of this info, with the exception of the caption in some photo software, is not displayed with the photo but is stored with it and can be accessed under the photos properties by almost any user. If your photo editing software supports this feature, it can usually be found under Add Caption or File - Info. Check your help file for details. Creating Vignettes Many old photos have soft-edged borders, called vignettes. If your photos dont, its an easy effect to add. The classic vignette shape is an oval, but you can get creative and use other shapes such as rectangles, hearts, and stars. Or you can create a free-hand vignette, following the irregular outline of the subject—as in a portrait.Select an image with plenty of background around the subject. You need this to allow room for effective fading. Use the Selection tool in the shape of your choice (rectangular, oval, etc.), adding the feather option to feather the edges of your selection by 20 to 40 pixels (experiment to find the amount of fading which looks best for your photo). Then drag out the selection until you encompass the area you want to start the blend. The line at the edge of your selection will eventually be at the midway point of your faded edges (in other words, pixels on both sides of the line youve created will be feathered). Use can also use the Lasso selection tool if you wish to create an irregular border. Under the Selection menu choose Invert. This will move the selected area to the background (the part you wish to remove). Then select delete to cut this remaining background from the picture. Some photo-editing programs offer an easy one-click option for adding vignette borders, as well as other fancy frames and borders. Using these strategies, you can save family photographic heirlooms and create a historical record that can be shared digitally and in print.