Quality Management in Business Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Quality Management in Business - Assignment Example The group has a net operating cash flow of  £125.5 million. In the year 2014, Zizzi managed to sell products worth  £594.7 million. Depicting a 5.6% increase in total sales from the previous year. Zizzi’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization accumulated to  £119.1 million. There have been significant improvements in food perceptions among Zizzi customers according to The Big Restaurant survey in 2014. Zizzi restaurant is ISO certified (Woodhouse, 2014). I. Understanding the various quality management strategies/techniques that are suitable for commercial operations Zizzi restaurant is perceived to offer services of high quality. Zizzi demonstrates quality by striving to provide the best possible services to its customers. This is offered by Zizzi’s highly trained and talented chefs who cook very delicious Italian and local meals. The design of every restaurant is performed by local artists to ensure the restaurant entails local people’s tastes and preferences. The restaurant utilizes the following dimensions when measuring the quality of services to its customers (McCormick, 2002):  · Features – Zizzi examines the features of different dishes offered in its menu to measure the quality of the services it provides. Dish features include special recipes desserts and spices.  · Performance – The restaurant also scrutinizes financial reports to assess the quality of service it offers. The Increase in total sales indicates a rise in the quality of service provided. Alternatively, a decrease in total sales will imply a reduction in quality.

Historical reference to U.S. counter-terrorism practices, and how Essay

Historical reference to U.S. counter-terrorism practices, and how these practices have been developed - Essay Example Two sections, besides the introductory one, deal with key issues in crafting the US counterterrorism strategies, while the third section lays a particular emphasis on the current approach to countering acts of terror and terrorist networks. Thus, the final section discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the present-day US counterterrorism policy and draws a conclusion about its effectiveness. Introduction As a general rule, terrorism is unsusceptible to exact definition insofar as certain interpretations could justify violence, especially actions conducted under the banner of politics, which is otherwise unacceptable (White, 2012). Thus, as White (2012) states, terrorism denotes different things to different people, being called either revolutionary war or crime in one or another period of history. On the other hand, according to White (2012), terrorism itself, along with the counter-terrorist responses, are practices that have always been in transition; while Ambassador Michael Sh eehan (retd) points out that terrorism is both provoked and sustained by technological progress, development and, perhaps most notably, globalization (Alexander & Kraft, 2008). In that regard, the smaller the world has become, the more capable terrorists would appear – whether in terms of communication, travel, funding, or weaponry (Alexander & Kraft, 2008). The advent of global-oriented terrorism in the 1990s, being represented first and foremost by Islamic Jihad- and al-Qaeda-led activities worldwide, appears a powerful argument in favor of that statement (Anderson and Sloan, 2009). In his foreword to Evolution of US Counterterrorism Policy, Ambassador Sheehan (retd) concluded that the US counterterrorism policies generally present a perspective on the evolution of terrorism itself (Alexander & Kraft, 2008). Being largely preoccupied with traditional interstate conflict and counterinsurgency, the US national security establishment first recognized the terrorist threat in th e early 1970s; while the increasing frequency, considerably extended reach and magnified lethality of terrorist attacks in the 1980s and 1990s up to the post 9/11 era, firmly shifted the focus of attention on terrorism in order to become US national security policy’s top priority (Sheehan in Alexander & Kraft, 2008). Correspondingly, the US counter-terrorist responses and tactics reflected the growing complexity of terrorist threat worldwide, including weapons of mass destruction, cyber-terrorism, etc. (Lia, 2003). The Times of Blissful Ignorance There have been numerous acts of terrorism across the world in modern times, but the United States became a prime terrorist target as late as the 1980s; until then, the term terrorism had been applied to various groups, including revolutionaries, anarchists, nationalists and violent left-wing activists, who mainly targeted European citizens and governments (White, 2012). As the meaning of terrorism fluctuated over time, the forms of terrorist activity also fluctuated between group violence, rioting and guerilla warfare (White, 2012). In turn, the tactics employed by terrorist organizations varied from kidnapping to assassinations and bombings, including suicide ones. The attack on the