GUM industries (1985) Sdn. Bhd.- the Totoya crisis

This case on strategy presents an opportunity for post-graduate and final year undergraduate students to try their hands at crisis management. It provides critical information on the organization’s internal and external environment and highlights issues that require their immediate attention. To emulate reality, a sense of urgency has been written into the case. This case has a moderate level of difficulty. The case may also be used to teach marketing, especially in terms of value creation along the supply chain, from suppliers to end consumers

The New Norms of Cosmetic Surgery among Youth in Malaysia

Aesthetics is a complex concept that makes it hard for humans to define beauty. Beauty is a relative term and varies from person to person. The desire to be beautiful is natural among most human beings nowadays. The main objective to conduct this research was to study the views of cosmetic surgery among youth in Malaysia. The specific objectives were to explore the causes that drive youth to undergo cosmetic surgery, to find out the physical and psychological effects on youth who underwent cosmetic surgery and to analyze the acceptance of cosmetic surgery as a common norm and an accepted form of self-improvement. This research focused on youth who underwent cosmetic surgery, between the ages of 15 to 40 years olds in Malaysia. The qualitative method chosen for this research was faceto-face interviews on four respondents using open-ended questions to obtain real data. This study informed about diverse perspectives of beauty which were held by different people from various backgrounds. The factors that influence youth were to enhance their appearance encountering the criticisms from public and to boost their confidence. However, the effects of doing so could be devastating as the risks are unpredictable. It is recommended that future research on this topic may include more respondents of diverse ages especially older men and women to find the extent of the factors

Baseline characteristics of participants in the Pre-Diabetes Interventions and Continued Tracking to Ease-out Diabetes (Pre-DICTED) Program

OBJECTIVE: The Pre-Diabetes Interventions and Continued Tracking to Ease-out Diabetes (Pre-DICTED) Program is a diabetes prevention trial comparing the diabetes conversion rate at 3 years between the intervention group, which receives the incentivized lifestyle intervention program with stepwise addition of metformin, and the control group, which receives the standard of care. We describe the baseline characteristics and compare Pre-DICTED participants with other diabetes prevention trials cohort. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Participants were aged between 21 and 64 years, overweight (body mass index (BMI) ≥23.0 kg/m2), and had pre-diabetes (impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and/or impaired glucose tolerance (IGT)). RESULTS: A total of 751 participants (53.1% women) were randomized. At baseline, mean (SD) age was 52.5 (8.5) years and mean BMI (SD) was 29.0 (4.6) kg/m2. Twenty-three per cent had both IFG and IGT, 63.9% had isolated IGT, and 13.3% had isolated IFG. Ethnic Asian Indian participants were more likely to report a family history of diabetes and had a higher waist circumference, compared with Chinese and Malay participants. Women were less likely than men to meet the physical activity recommendations (≥150 min of moderate-intensity physical activity per week), and dietary intake varied with both sex and ethnicity. Compared with other Asian diabetes prevention studies, the Pre-DICTED cohort had a higher mean age and BMI. CONCLUSION: The Pre-DICTED cohort represents subjects at high risk of diabetes conversion. The study will evaluate the effectiveness of a community-based incentivized lifestyle intervention program in an urban Asian context.Peer reviewe

Cost-effectiveness of different human papillomavirus vaccines in Singapore

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines are widely available and there have been studies exploring their potential clinical impact and cost-effectiveness. However, few studies have compared the cost-effectiveness among the 2 main vaccines available - a bivalent vaccine against HPV 16/18, and a quadrivalent vaccine against 6/11/16/18. We explore the cost-effectiveness of these two HPV vaccines in tropical Singapore.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We developed a Markov state-transition model to represent the natural history of cervical cancer to predict HPV infection, cancer incidence, mortality, and costs. Cytologic screening and treatment of different outcomes of HPV infection were incorporated. Vaccination was provided to a cohort of 12-year old females in Singapore, followed up until death. Based on available vaccines on the market, the bivalent vaccine had increased effectiveness against a wider range of HPV types, while the quadrivalent vaccine had effectiveness against genital warts. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICER) compared vaccination to no-vaccination, and between the two vaccines. Sensitivity analyses explored differences in vaccine effectiveness and uptake, and other key input parameters.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>For the no vaccination scenario, 229 cervical cancer cases occurred over the cohort's lifetime. The total discounted cost per individual due to HPV infection was SGD$275 with 28.54 discounted life-years. With 100$12,866 per life-year saved. For the bivalent vaccine, 197 cancers were prevented with an ICER of $12,827 per life-year saved. Comparing the bivalent to the quadrivalent vaccine, the ICER was$12,488 per life-year saved. However, the cost per QALY saved for the quadrivalent vaccine compared to no vaccine was $9,071, while it was$10,392 for the bivalent vaccine, with the quadrivalent vaccine dominating the bivalent vaccine due to the additional QALY effect from reduction in genital warts. The overall outcomes were most sensitive to vaccine cost and coverage.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>HPV vaccination is a cost-effective strategy, and should be considered a possible strategy to reduce the impact of HPV infection.</p

Developing a roadmapping system for knowledge management in an organisation

This study aims to develop a roadmapping system that can be used as a knowledge management tool for any organization. The study employed a structured action research to test the implementation of the proposed roadmapping system in a real industrial environment. An internal facilitator collected data through a clinical inquiry approach. The output is a roadmapping system for knowledge management for an organisation, which enhances strategic capability. It also helps to capture and handle the complexities of business strategies in a simple way or that is easy to understand. The proposed roadmapping system was only tested on one firm. Pending further research, these findings should not be generalised. The proposed roadmapping system improves the capability of an organisation to plan and implement its strategies. The proposed system can be used for strategic planning and knowledge management - it allows managers to "kill two birds with one stone." Unlike conventional technology roadmapping (TRM) research that focuses more on the hard aspects of technical and economic elements, this study explores the soft aspects of knowledge management for improving the strategic capability of an organisation. This research has extended the traditional boundary of TRM to include effective information systems

Developing a SWOT roadmapping technique for managing strategy, operations, and technology interfaces

This paper reports a research on developing a SWOT roadmapping technique for managing strategy, operations, and technology of a firm. The technique has incorporated the concepts of technology roadmapping, strategic charting, and SWOT to help managers in developing strategic plans and capabilities that support business requirement. In order to operationalise the technique, it was tested in two laboratory experiments and four companies. The results show mixed opinions of positive and negative feedbacks from the respondents. The findings of this research are of interest of many academics and managers. The implications of the findings to both theory and practice are discussed

Roadmaps for e-technology management

This research aims to study the use of roadmaps in e-Technology management. e-Technology is becoming increasingly important in the new technological age. The effective management of e-Technology is the concern of many managers today. Many managers require appropriate methods or systems such as a roadmap, which can support the development and implementation of integrated strategic business, product and technology plans. Roadmaps have been widely used in industry. However, roadmaps consist of various types of format and use in different ways by many firms. The diverse ways of roadmap construction may be due to a lack of clear and accepted standards or formats for managers. This paper illustrates how roadmaps are use for e-Technology management in a firm. The firm has adopted roadmaps for analysing their R&D, technology, product and marketing plans. The paper has discovered many useful insights into managing e-Technology with roadmaps. The paper concludes with discussing implications to managers and academics

Kawa model on mental health, sports and physical performance: A mini review

Successful sports performance is characterized by psychological, physical, technical, and tactical factors. Of these factors, the psychological factor is typically ignored despite contributing more than 50% toward success in sporting performance. This review aimed to introduce the Kawa model as a new methodology to promote sports and physical performance through developing mental health ability. The Kawa model is developed by occupational therapists and used to promote mental health ability in individuals by enabling self-awareness of their difficulties and exploring possible solutions. It consists of the following five elements: water, river banks, rocks, driftwood, and space. This research would further explore the usage of the Kawa model in addressing various psychological issues and how these improvements can enhance sports and physical performance. The literature search was performed by using Google Scholar, PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus as a database with specific keywords. In conclusion, this research provides an overview of the potential for the use of the Kawa model in promoting mental health ability included self-awareness, self-understanding, goal-setting, self-efficacy, stress and anxiety control for sports and physical performance and lays the foundation for future research in this area

The New Norms of Cosmetic Surgery among Youth in Malaysia

Aesthetics is a complex concept that makes it hard for humans to define beauty. Beauty is a relative term and varies from person to person. The desire to be beautiful is natural among most human beings nowadays. The main objective to conduct this research was to study the views of cosmetic surgery among youth in Malaysia. The specific objectives were to explore the causes that drive youth to undergo cosmetic surgery, to find out the physical and psychological effects on youth who underwent cosmetic surgery and to analyse the acceptance of cosmetic surgery as a common norm and an accepted form of self-improvement. This research focused on youth who underwent cosmetic surgery, between the ages of 15 to 40 years olds in Malaysia. The qualitative method chosen for this research was face-to-face interviews on four respondents using open-ended questions to obtain real data. This study informed about diverse perspectives of beauty which were held by different people from various backgrounds. The factors that influence youth were mainly to enhance their appearance encountering the criticisms from public and to boost their confidence. However, the effects of doing so could be devastating as the risks are unpredictable. It is recommended that future research on this topic may include more respondents of diverse ages especially older men and women to find the extent of the factors