Vector Aeromotive Corporation (Vector) is in the business of designing and manufacturing exotic sports cars. It was the only U.S. based manufacture of these specialty cars and had fierce competition from the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini. Vector tried to create a competitive advantage by blending aerospace technology and automobile technology using only the finest technology available in the United States. In the beginning the company was started as a privately funded limited partnership by Gerry Wiegert and in November of 1988 it completed its Initial Public Offering. Upon its incorporation, Vector had a board of directors made up of three individuals, with Mr. Wiegert as the board chairman and president. As time passed the board of directors would grow by two members, one was appointed by Mr. Wiegert and another by a big investor. Vector’s board of directors was tasked to create long term success for the corporation for the benefit of shareholders. This basic fiduciary duty is composed of four elements: 1.Duty of Care – obligation to make/delegate decision in an informed way, 2. Duty of Loyalty – obligation to advance corporate over personal interests, 3. Duty of Good Faith – obligation to be faithful and devoted to the interest of the company and its shareholders, and 4. Duty not to Waste – obligation to avoid deliberate destruction of shareholder value. But not everyone on the board was willing to play by these rules.
To understand what went wrong at Vector Aeromotive Corporation we have to understand what the purpose of the board of directors is. The board of directors at any organization has very defined roles and responsibilities within the business organization. Recruiting, supervising, retaining, evaluating a...
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... then have a cohesive organization that is competitive force in its market.
With Mr. Wiegert running the show, Vector is going to fail. The board needs to remove him or move him to more of “product advisory” role. Only then will Vector have a chance to compete in the well-established exotic car market. There is no cookie cutter template for having an effective board. But a successful organization will have corporate governance in place that will utilize a combination of hard components, like robust structures, clear roles and responsibilities, and rigorous processes and administration with soft components, like board members with the right competencies to address the organization’s short term and long term issues. In the end this will establish a culture of dynamic discussion and effective decision making by the entire board.
Activity #1 FLIGHT A kid named Zits who lives in Seattle, is only fifteen years old. He’s tall, skinny, ugly, and sometimes mean. He also has forty-seven zits and that’s where he gets his name from. Zits is Irish, Indian and is a foster child.
In doing this they should also be able to detail how their performance is monitored and evaluated. This principle is the basis of corporate structure and accountability. JB Hi-Fi details the roles and responsibilities of its board in the board charter. In section 3.1c it states, that the board is responsible for selecting, appointing and planning for the successor of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) (JB Hi-Fi 2010).
It is the responsibility of the board of directors to select a qualified Executive Director for the organization. The board is responsible for determining the salary of the director as well as evaluating the director’s performance. The executive director acts as the liaison between the organization and the board and ideally keeps them informed on various legal, financial, planning, and policy, personnel issues. It is crucial to the organization’s success to have a healthy balance between guidance and supervision between the director and the board.
necessitating a high AOA is the most likely situation to cause a low-speed Mach buffet. The situation that increases, the angle of attack, the speed of the airflow over the wing, and chances of Mach buffet are (FAA, 2008):
All you need to know about the role physics plays in the flight of an aircraft.
The Board of Directors is consisted of 11 members: James M. Elliot, the Chairman of the Board, 3 inside members and 7 outside members. The economy is stable and profitable, but that also means a lot of competition in the market. This poses a great opportunity for the company to grow and gain more of the market share. The only foreseeable real threat that the company will face is new competitors in the market.
Ralph Nader, Mark Green and Joel Seligman, in an excerpt from Taming the Giant Corporation (1976, found in Honest Work by Ciulla, Martin and Solomon), take the current role of the company board of directors and suggest changes that should be made to make the board to be efficient. They claim the current makeup of the board does not necessarily do justice to the company because “in nearly every large American business…there exists a management autocracy” (Nader, Green and Seligman, 1976, p.570). The main resolution they present is to make the board more democratic with the betterment of the company as its first priority. Currently the board no longer oversees operations, or elects top company executives and they are no longer involved in the business operations to the extent they should be. Nadar, Green and Seligman argue that that all of these things need to be changed. For a corporation so large to be successful there must be separation of powers just as there is in any current government system ( p.571). They claim this is the only and best way to success (Nader, Green and Seligman, 1976, p.570-571).
“Aerodynamics is not a black art revealed only to a chosen few by some great god of flight. It can be understood by almost anyone, if properly explained. It can become interesting or even downright fascinating.” (Smith, 1992, p. xiii) Not only can aerodynamics become interesting, it can become and incredibly useful tool for making decisions. Aerodynamics can get complicated and involved, but so can mathematics. I have never heard somebody refuse to learn addition and subtraction simply because advanced differential calculus was too complicated. Likewise, the minutia of aerodynamics do not need to be understood in order for the science to be a useful tool. The four forces of flight, based on laws discovered by scientists, are perhaps the most basic building blocks of aerodynamics in aviation. (Kershner, 2003) Understanding these principles and how they interact with each other can help those in the aviation field make decisions and perform their jobs.
He also thought it would provide an interesting challenge that would expand his experience and networks. His current business, Dryden Corporation, was in good shape and didn’t require a lot of time from him. However, he didn’t continue talking with Sam, John, or anyone else on the board because of time constraints. I think that is where Jack failed his due diligence. Even though he did ask for a description of the board’s committees and found meaningful information, he should have asked Sam and John more questions. New candidates considered for the board should also make sure that no conflicts of interest exist. There is a slight one as Dryden Corporation is a competitor with Mega Corporation. However, the board has talked it through and decided that it won’t pose a
The book Flight written by Sherman Alexie is about a 15 year old part Native American
Imagine two US Air Force Jets with controls not responding, they are heading right for each other, the pilots don’t have enough time to eject, there’s a mid-air explosion, and the needless death of American servicemen. About one fifth of peacetime fighter losses during the past few years were due to loss of control. Now imagine that the US has been developing the technology to prevent this for the last decade, but due to budget problems this technology was never installed on our fighters. I’m talking about a Thrust Vectoring. This engineering term describes the use of an engines nozzle to direct the force coming from a jet engine in different directions other then straight out the back. Besides tragic, needless deaths, this technology has a military significance for front line fighter jets. With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Americans have seen the devastating power of our Air Force on Countries without a serious Air Defense network, like Israel or Great Britain. These are countries with not just a Surface to Air Missile (SAM) threat, but an Air Force that can rival ours in its current state. Thrust Vectoring is the technology that will make our fighter jets true rulers of the air, not just on bombing runs, but air-to-air combat, better know as “Dog Fighting”.
Harley Davidson’s remarkable success and turnaround from a company nearing extinction to a business model of success (James & Graham, 2004; Johan Van & Brian, 2000; Teerlink & Ozley, 2000) is secured by the environment developed at Harley-Davidson through the organizational changes led by former CEO Rich Teerlink. Mr. Teerlink fundamentally changed the structure of Harley-Davidson from a command and control, top down leadership company to one of collaborative organizational design (Teerlink & Ozley, 2000). This paper will describe the organizational structure at Harley-Davidson, how the organizational structure evolved, evaluate how the structure responds to environmental factors, and conclude with this authors opinion on efficacy. The organizational structural change at Harley-Davidson resurrected an American icon to a global leader in motorcycle manufacturing.
The board of directors has both executive and non executive directors. Executive directors have both executive and board duties to perform while non executive directors have only board responsibilities. Therefore both types of directors vary in the responsibilities and authority they have in the company affairs. Thus the non executive directors devote very little time to company affairs ( only attend board meetings, committee meetings of which they are members or sometimes pay a visit to the company premises for getting knowledge of how things are done).
.... It is the directors’ responsibility to identify potential risks that the company is likely to face or risks already faced by the company. This is basically to prevent such risk to arise again that may negatively affect the company’s operation. By identifying the risks, it allows the company to prepare step by step solutions to prevent or overcome such risk beforehand. It also allows company to take control of risks before risks affect the company seriously.
The role of the board: unlocking the potential. (n.d.). (DRAFT). Retrieved December 8, 2013, from http://www.ey.com/US/en/Services/Strategic-Growth-Markets/Strategic-Growth-Forum-Agenda-EVTD-USDD-97KR7Z?CMPNID=SGF2013_US_Insights_Audit_Committee_Track1_Board_Recap