Packing is the end of production and the start of ...

Section A – This ONE question is compulsory and MUST be attempted

Introduction

Rudos is a densely populated, industrialised country with an extensive railway network developed in the nineteenth century. This railway network (totalling 6,000 kilometres), together with the trains that ran on it, was nationalised in 1968 and so became wholly owned by the government. By 2004, RudosRail, the government-owned rail company, was one of the ten largest employers in the country. However, in that year, the general election was won by the Party for National Reconstruction (PNR) with a manifesto that promised the privatisation of many of the large publicly-owned organisations, including RudosRail. The PNR argued that there had been a lack of investment in the railway under public ownership and that the absence of competition had meant that ticket prices and costs (particularly labour costs) were too high for the taxpayer to continue subsidising it. The combination of high ticket prices and large public subsidies was very unpopular. As a result the government split the railway network into eight sections (or franchises) and invited private sector bids for each of these eight franchises. Each franchise was for ten years and was for the trains, tracks and infrastructure of each section. Each franchise would be awarded to the highest bidder.

The East Rudos franchise, one of the eight franchises, was awarded to Great Eastern Trains (GET), a company specifically set up to bid for the franchise by former members of RudosRail’s management. It was the only independent company to win a franchise. The other seven franchises were awarded to companies who were subsidiaries of global transport groups and, initially, were largely financed through investment from the parent companies. In contrast, GET was primarily financed through loans from the government-owned Bank of Rudos. The ten-year franchise started in 2006. GET is an unquoted company, owned by its management team.

GET – the early years

The first three years of the GET franchise were extremely successful, both in terms of profits and passenger satisfaction. This was partly due to government subsidies to help ease the transition of the network from public to private ownership. However, it was also due to the skill and knowledge of the management team. This team already had significant operating experience (gained with RudosRail) and they adapted quickly to the new private sector model. GET was the most profitable of the new franchises and it was held up as an example of successful privatisation. Its investment in new trains and excellent reliability record meant that it quickly built up a well-respected image and brand. GET uses a series of television advertisements to promote its services. These feature an old lady arriving at various stations and texting her family that she has ‘arrived safe & on time!’ In a recent consumer survey these advertisements were rated as both memorable and effective.

In the newly privatised rail system many passenger journeys crossed franchise boundaries, so that a journey often involved the use of two or more franchise operators. GET developed an innovative booking and payment system that also automatically reallocated revenue from fares between franchise holders. It also allowed Internet booking and gave discounts for early booking. This system was so successful that GET now uses the system to process the bookings of three of the other franchise operators. GET is paid on a transaction basis for the bookings that it processes on behalf of these other franchisees.

The fourth and fifth years of GET’s operation were not as successful. No government subsidies were paid in those years and economic problems in the country led to a fall in passenger numbers. Financial information for GET for 2010 is provided in Figure 1. Figure 2 provides data for the rail industry as a whole in Rudos.

Figure 1: Selected information for GET in 2010

Extract from the statement of financial position: All financial figures in $m

Extract from the statement of comprehensive income

All financial figures in $m

Figure 2: Financial information for the Rudos rail industry as a whole

Current position

Despite the apparent success of GET, there has been considerable criticism of the overall privatisation of the railway. Much of this criticism is concentrated in two of the geographical areas where the franchisees have struggled to provide an efficient and economic service. The government has appointed auditors who are reviewing the operation of these two franchises and a government minister has stated that ‘terminating the franchise and opening it up to re-bidding has not been ruled out as an option’. A major rail accident in Rudos (with many fatalities) has also led to concerns about safety and led to new legislation being enacted. Further safety legislation is expected concerning the relaying of track and all franchisees will be expected to implement the requirements immediately.

In 2009, the PNR was returned to power, but with a reduced majority. The leader of the main opposition party originally suggested that the railways might be re-nationalised if he were to gain power. However, he has since moderated his view, although he suggests that ‘they should return a significant percentage of their profits to the taxpayer’. Road transport has also suffered under the PNR government, with many of the roads in the country heavily congested. Fuel costs have increased to reflect increasing scarcity, causing many companies to face spiralling transport and storage costs. For the first time in the country’s history, an ecology (green) party has won seats in government, capitalising on the growth of the ‘green consumer’, particularly in urban areas.

International rail developments

The pioneering privatisation initiatives in Rudos have been observed by other countries and many have adopted similar policies. Recently, the Republic of Raziackstan announced that it intended to privatise its railway network. Raziackstan is approximately five hours’ flying time from Rudos and is part of the former eastern trading bloc. It is a country where there is currently very little health and safety legislation. Although there is also little employment legislation, public service jobs are traditionally viewed as safe, and employees perceive that a ‘railway job is a job for life’. At present the railway network, which is 1,500 kilometres long, employs 8,000 employees generating revenues of $180,000,000. The country itself still has a limited technological and financial infrastructure, with only an estimated 20% of the population having access to the Internet. However, all political parties are united in their desire to privatise the railways so that money can be invested elsewhere in the country, for example, for providing better health care.

Because of the poor condition of the railway, the proposal is to retain and upgrade the rail tracks under public ownership. However, the trains and infrastructure, such as stations, will be privatised. The government is looking for letters of intent from private companies who are willing to take over the complete network (excluding the tracks).

A stipulation of the contract is that the bidder should have a significant industrial presence in the country. For some time GET has been interested in acquiring the company that undertakes most of the track and train maintenance in Raziackstan. This company SOFR (SOciety Fabrication de Raziackstan) was established in 1919 and has a long tradition of engineering. GET has used the company to refurbish some of its equipment and they have been delighted with the results.

The board of GET now senses a great opportunity. It would like to combine the speedy acquisition of SOFR with a bid to run the rail network in Raziackstan. In fact, early informal indications from the Raziackstan government suggest that the bid will be successful if SOFR has been acquired by GET as no other prospective bidders for the network have yet come forward.

Required:

(a) Using appropriate models and frameworks, analyse GET’s current strategic position from both an internal and external perspective. (20 marks)

(b) GET’s proposed strategy is firstly to acquire SOFR and then the franchise to run the rail network of Raziackstan. You have been asked to provide an independent assessment of this proposed strategy.

Write a report evaluating GET’s proposed strategy. (16 marks)

Professional marks will be awarded in part (b) for appropriate structure, style. and fluency of the report. (4 marks)

(c) Critical Success Factors (CSFs) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are important business concepts in the context of franchising rail services.

Explain and discuss these concepts in the context of GET and the rail industry. (10 marks)

The nature of language is the nature of human thought and human action, for language is no more nor less than the tool of both of these aspects of human nature. A word is either the shadow of an act or of an idea. Verbal sounds have no meaning themselves. They【M1】______ are the channels, the medium for the expression or communication of【M2】______ that which lay outside of themselves. Plato has made clear to us how【M3】______ easy it is to deceive ourselves with words, to labor under an impression that just because we can utter a sound we also necessarily know that we are talking about Words may be empty vessels and pour out【M4】______ no more than hollow sounds. We find it simple to define some words and extremely difficult to define others words. The reason is that the【M5】______ definition of a word is the experience of records. Hence the definiteness【M6】______ of a definition of a word is in proportion at the vividness of the【M7】______ experience, its meaning. We readily define chair because of our frequent experience with the object which the sound is a symbol.【M8】______ We define it in terms of our experience like an object to sit ia But a【M9】______ definition of terms like "truth", or "virtue", or "honesty", or "beauty" is a most severe trial because of the haziness or complete lack for【M10】______ experiences of this nature. What, then, is the source of the meaning of words? What is the relationship between words, things, and actions?

【M1】

The key benefit of ( )is that it provides guidance and direction on how the project costs will be managed throughout the project.

A.Plan Cost Management

B.Control Cost

C.Estimate Cost

D.Determine Budget

A network administrator is troubleshooting the OSPF configuration of routers R1 and R2.The routers cannot establish an adjacency relationship on their common Ethernet link.The graphic shows the output of the show ip ospf interface e0 command for routers R1 and R2.Based on the information in the graphic,what is the cause of this problem?（）

A.The OSPF area is not configured properly.

B.The priority on R1 should be set higher.

C.The cost on R1 should be set higher.

D.The hello and dead timers are not configured properly.

E.A backup designated router needs to be added to the network.

F.The OSPF process ID numbers must match.

Passage two

Reading is thought to be a kind of conversation between the reader and the text. The reader puts questions, as it were, to the text and gels answers. In the light of these he puts further questions, and so on. For most of the time this “conversation” goes on below the level of consciousness. At times, however, we become aware of it. This is usually when we arc running into difficulties, when mismatch is occurring between expectations and meaning. When successful matching is being experienced, our questioning of the text continues at the unconscious level.

Different people converse with the text differently. Some stay very close to the words on the page, others take off imaginatively from the words, interpreting, criticizing, analyzing and examining. The former represents a kind of comprehension which is written in the text. The latter represents higher levels of comprehension. The balance between these is important, especially for advanced readers.

There is another conversation which from our point of view is equally important, and that is to do not with what is read but with how it is read. We call this a “process”conversation as opposed to a “content” conversation. It is concerned not with meaning but with the strategies we employ in reading. If we are an advanced reader our ability to hold a process conversation with a text is usually pretty well developed. Not so our ability to hold a content conversation. It is precisely this kind of conversation that is of importance when we are seeking to develop our reading to meet the new demands being placed upon us by studying at a higher level.

According to the author, when will our reading become conscious?

A.When the readers expectations match with what is said in the text.

B.When the reader has trouble understanding what the author says.

C.When the reader asks tough questions and gets proper answers.

D.When the reader understands a text with no difficulties.

At a lower level of comprehension, readers tend to_____.A.read a text slowly and carefully

B.read without thinking hard

C.interpret a text in their own way

D.focus on the meaning of words only

A “process” conversation has to do with____ .A.the application of reading strategies

B.matching our expectations with the meaning of a text

C.the development of our ability to check the details

D.determining the main idea of a text

According to the passage, it is of great importance for readers at a higher level to maintain a balance between_____.A.conscious and unconscious levels of comprehension

B.the reader's expectations and the meaning of a text

C.lower and higher levels of comprehension

D.interpreting and criticizing a text

请帮忙给出每个问题的正确答案和分析，谢谢！

A、Bibliographic information.

B、A summary of the text.

C、Background information.

D、A brief overview of the review.

You are steaming in a westerly direction along the Gulf Coast．You see ahead of you a lighted buoy showing a red isophase light．Which action should you take ________．

A.Alter course to port and leave the buoy to starboard

B.Alter course to starboard and leave the buoy to port

C.Alter course and leave the buoy near by on either side

D.Alter course and pass the buoy well-off on either side