Saatchi Nine

Saatchi Gallery is now hosting an Art Showdown, which is an online competitive event that allows artists to upload images of their work and make them available to an online voting audience. Those who would like to enter must be registered members of Saatchi online or of the Stuart Artist group. However, registration is easy, free, and readily available on the site. Once registered, Showdown accepts one image from each artist every period beginning on Monday at 9 a. m. until the following Sunday evening at 6 p. m. —a one-week period. During the time the work is uploaded to the site, all visitors will be free to view and vote on the quality of the work. Each visitor is permitted only one vote for each work, but may vote on as many works as is preferred. The voting is done on a scale of one (1) to ten (10). Once the scores are tallied for the first week in each period, the two artists with the highest scores are given the chance to compete against each other for additional votes for the period of another week. These two remaining artists go head to head, vying for a chance to enter for the final prize of   1000. The competition continues for twelve rounds, after each of which, one winner is selected. The final knock out round has the twelve finalists going head to head in a bid for the ?1000 prize, yet Saatchi’s support does not end there. This coveted prize will not be the only benefit of the competition, as the runner up is also granted the sum of ?750. And even further benefits exist, as all the artists who enter gain the exposure that comes with having your work viewed on the site that welcomes thousands of visitors on a regular basis. Street Art The Saatchi Art Gallery caters to artists of all kinds, and evidence of this exists in its commitment to the work of street artists. The gallery accepts work from a wide range of non-traditional artists, such as tattoo and graffiti artists, mural painters, performers, and others who discover unknown or unrecognized pieces. Saatchi allows these artists to upload their work in the form of photos or even videos—any or all the methods that capture the true essence of the meaning and conceptualization they would like to convey. The use of the video-upload feature is particularly convenient for performing artists, who are also encouraged to promote their work on the Saatchi Gallery Site. This features is open even to street dancers, many of whom the gallery recognises as having attained a remarkable level of proficiency at their art despite the lack of formal training. Artists ready to upload are encouraged to register on the site for a free membership, which gives them all the privileges that Saatchi members worldwide possess. However, those who prefer to are also allowed to register as visitors and still gain the benefit of having their works displayed on the international artistic website. When art files are uploaded, visitors to the site are able not only to view the works, but also to select their ten favourites, which are ultimately showcased in a special area on the site. The exposure that this Saatchi Gallery facility affords to young street artists is immeasurable, as the gallery makes these works available to millions of viewers around the world. This considerably broadens the artistic scope of these street artists and ultimately brightens their prospects. Photography The Saatchi Gallery’s artistic versatility dictates its open attitude toward art, and this attitude is present in its welcoming posture toward the work of photographers around the world. The gallery opens its doors to photographers who have been widely unrecognised in their circles and provides a source of promotion and exposure to these young, talented persons. This offer is inclusive of photo artists from countries all around the world. At Saatchi Online, artistic photographers are encouraged to upload their photographs and place them on display for the millions of potential art enthusiasts on the internet. Images must be uploaded as jpg files and the sizes of these files should be below 2MB. This opportunity given free of charge by Saatchi not only allows these photographers to increase their standing as renowned artists, but it also allows them to enter into the professional artistic realm by making (or arranging for) commission-free online sales. Photographers are also free to create their own profile package online. Therefore, not only do viewers and potential buyers get the chance to review a wide range of their works (as many as eight pieces are accepted), but they are also able to offer the public significant information about themselves and their art. In addition to the services mentioned, Saatchi also allows the photographers to get messages from those interested in their art—such as viewers, fellow photographers, and even potential buyers. Therefore, this improves the artists’ ability to network in this scene where fellow artists, a potential source of inspiration, may be difficult to find. The Saatchi service to photographers may therefore be considered an ultimate method of artist promotion. Museum Saatchi Gallery represents the one of the world’s most modern museums of art and is a refreshing addition as one that was made specifically for those who enjoy art in all its styles and types. It caters to the desires and needs of a wide range of art lovers, from students needing to be exposed to the different genres represented in art to young artists needing a place to exhibit their work. It aids in the development of young talent and deepens (formal and informal) students’ appreciation of the contemporary aesthetic depicted in the work and ideologies of contemporary artists. Yet, the museum also extends its influence and aid into the realm of non-traditional art, such as fashion designing and the performing arts. In fact, these artists are supported not just in procuring them an audience for their work, but also in facilitating the purchase of art pieces via the Saatchi interface, which eliminates the middle-man and renders the compensation over to the appropriate artist commission free. The resources available on the Saatchi website are many, as it houses the Stuart Museum that is specifically designated for student artists or recent graduates as a place where they are free to upload their work for public viewing, critiquing, and feedback. Saatchi Gallery’s gift to the artistic public is valuable in that it offers a new generation of artists and art lovers access to the cutting edge of creativity. However, it allows for the personal and professional growth of the young artist too, by giving them the opportunity to interact with the public in colloquy, conference, as well as business settings. Therefore, through the resources provided by this gallery, students become more cultured in their exposure to contemporary art, and young creative people gain valuable, professional skills that will last them a lifetime. Colleges and universities will find the Saatchi Gallery a very valuable resource to boost the appreciation and renown of their art, fashion and performing arts departments. Saatchi caters to these institutions on an international scale, and provides them the impetus and exposure they need in order to present their departments to the public as a progressive arm of the institution. The Saatchi Gallery caters specifically to the effort to market these institutions by welcoming posts and sample work from the students and faculty, allowing these parties to showcase their work on the internationally recognised website. Representatives of each university are empowered to upload material in the form of photos, videos or scanned art work to the site as a method of drawing attention to the abilities of their students and the expertise of the faculty that grooms them. On the Saatchi Gallery website, colleges and universities have the freedom to highlight the achievements of their faculty members as well as the unique talents of their students. Yet they may also offer descriptions of their artistic programs, give information about their institutions’ location, and even provide links to their websites. The gallery is a supreme marketing tool because it provides a hub to which thousands of prospective students (and other persons interested in art) come to do research and locate educational institutions in which they may be groomed in the arts. It also provides critics with a method of gauging the artistic talents of a wide range of students without the need to travel, and therefore may afford your institution the recognition it would not otherwise have had. It also gives colleges and universities the chance of being recognised in an international gallery without incurring any expenses—as registration on the Saatchi Gallery’s site is always free of charge. Gallery The Saatchi Gallery is an international collection of the works by artists ranging from amateur to professional levels, and it is an indispensable resource both to the user who is serious about the study of art and to the casual art lover. To the serious student of the arts, it provides a wealth of information about contemporary art techniques, artists, and the direction in which art is and has been moving. The gallery hosts the work of hundreds of artists in and around the United Kingdom as well as across the world. It especially caters to the works of new artists and of those seasoned artists whose works have gained little or no attention in the past, providing insight into their techniques and inspirations. Ultimately, as a result of their exhibition of their work in the Saatchi Gallery, many of these new artists are offered the opportunity to conduct showings in galleries locally or internationally. The gallery’s new home, located at (PLACE ADDRESS HERE) is of a stylish and modern architectural design that heralds the museum-quality work of the artists hosted within. This twenty-year-old gallery has grown over the years to accommodate approximately 600,000 annual visitors and 1000 annual school visits. It collaborates with the media to facilitate and host a wide variety of shows that put even more effort into showcasing the work of these talented artists. These shows have benefited from the input of such media houses as The Evening Standard, The Observer, and Time Out. This has led to a vast increase in the viewing audience in Britain, around Europe, and even to increases in international visits. This is the kind of public awareness for which Saatchi regularly campaigns on behalf of the artists whose works are hosted within the gallery. It represents a truly contemporary, businesslike, and professional approach to art promotion that brings artists and viewers together in a productive fashion. Galleries The resource that the Saatchi Gallery provides to other art galleries around the world is invaluable. To those who own galleries and are highly interested in the contemporary art scene, the Saatchi Gallery provides the exposure and the information necessary to create and maintain a high profile gallery. Rather than compete with galleries around the world, Saatchi collaborates with them to provide them with international recognition on the global art market. The gallery allows other gallery directors to provide information about their art shop on the Saatchi website and also to provide links to their galleries via the Saatchi website. Since Saatchi caters to a growing international viewing audience of potentially millions of persons, all those viewers immediately become potential clients of the galleries that choose to be hosted on the Saatchi site. Saatchi hosts links to the most prestigious galleries around the world, and facilitates the creation of sub-galleries for schools, colleges, and other artistic institutions. In fact, it caters to a wide variety of schools (primary to university level) and to the public at large, so that its collection is the largest available on the internet. Being a gallery itself, Saatchi also hosts the works of individual artists. The Stuart Museum, for instance, is a gallery hosted under the aegis of the Saatchi brand, which houses the work of students and recent graduates of artistic colleges and universities. Plus, Saatchi takes it one step further than brick-and-mortar art galleries by allowing artists to sell their work online free of commission. The gallery is therefore a large and all-inclusive contemporary art hub that provides the viewing public with a link to the widest variety of art and art galleries that currently exists on the internet. Chat Live Interaction becomes easier now on the Saatchi Gallery website, as the site’s interface allows for real-time conversation between artists and their viewers. Saatchi uses an instant messaging feature that facilitates interaction between art lovers and their favourite artists through its Chat Live feature, and this occurs in a manner that encourages the artistic collaboration of the art community. Artists from a variety of backgrounds and even in different nations can meet one-on-one with those persons who appreciate their work and gain live feedback and critiques of their art. The Chat Live feature also allows for discussion of artistic themes that have the potential to lead to a deeper public understanding of the concepts embedded within the works of art displayed in the Saatchi online gallery. Saatchi even allows group chats, and access to the chat feature and chat rooms can be obtained via a very brief registration formality accessible at http://www. aatchi-gallery. co. uk/chatlive/. This Chat Live feature is useful beyond its ability to bring art lovers together for leisure and collaborative purposes. It also presents a valuable marketing tool to those persons who want to gain direct and specific feedback concerning the interests of real people who love and follow art. Representatives of galleries and museums may register or sign in as guests to gain access to the ideas a nd suggestions of the large viewing and membership audience on the Saatchi website. They may also use the resource to plan and promote artistic events. Members of the press or other interested persons may also sign in to conduct formal or informal interviews of artists in an effort to promote the love and continued creation of art as a whole. The endless possibilities that exist with this invaluable Chat Live tool made available on the Saatchi website will no doubt facilitate the production of beautiful art for future generations. Portfolio The Saatchi Gallery online portfolio is a special resource provided to schools at the primary and high levels that are interested in boosting the confidence and promoting the talents of their artistically inclined students. The art teacher or the school’s artistic representative is given the opportunity to create detailed profiles for their schools and thereby to promote the artistic endeavours of the school as evidence of the school’s diverse educational curriculum. Along with the school’s profile, the portfolio allows institution representatives to call attention to the work of its talented students by uploading samples of these works along with biographical profiles of the students responsible for the pieces. The institutions are also encouraged to upload notices and descriptions of upcoming and past artistic events that demonstrate the school’s commitment to the arts. The Saatchi Portfolio is therefore a strong marketing tool that promotes the educational institution on a grand artistic scale. However, the Saatchi Gallery goes further to promote and encourage the talent of these young and promising artists. It puts on regular competitions that generate prizes of great value to the future career of these individuals. Winners and runners up are given cash for use in purchasing art supplies, including computers, to enhance their potential as artists. The winning schools are also given monetary compensation to be used to equip their art departments, making them more conducive to the learning and practice of art. The Saatchi portfolio resource is performed as a community service gesture whose purpose is to return benefits to the institutions that gave many successful artists support in the past. The Portfolio also exists to secure the future of art by encouraging the youth in artistic endeavours.

Aaron Zuniga-Bennett Essay

In the early 1980s, the American people elected Ronald Reagan as President of the United States of America. Many people claim that Reagan was one of the greatest presidents of all time, while others believe that the country would have been much better off had Reagan never been elected. Regardless of their political preferences, it is undeniable that Ronald Reagan changed the world in the 1980s and his work as president will be forever remembered in the countless books of history. Ronald Reagan ran as a Republican and was the absolute spirit of a conservative. He worked to bring forth the ideal of conservatism in America and successfully captured and isolated that belief in the presidency. As president, Reagan worked to bring the ideal of American exceptionalism back to the country, to set the economy on the right track, and to end the Communist threat that had been present since the end of World War II. For all practical purposes, Ronald Reagan was a president who accomplished more t han he set forth to do and did so famously; some would say infamously. Nonetheless, Reagan accomplished more in his eight year presidency than most presidents of the 20th Century. He is widely hailed as the man who ended the Cold War and will forever be remembered as the man who led to the conservative resurgence in America. He was a man of profound ability and charm and America is better off for having Reagan as the Commander-in-Chief during the latter portion of the 20th Century. Ronald Reagan was born on February 6, 1911 in Tampico, Illinois. His mother, Nelle, was a homemaker; and his father, Jack, was a traveling salesman (Ronald Reagan). The Reagan family moved often as Jack searched throughout the state for work and Ronald Reagan grew up in a very poor family. Despite the hardships his family encountered, Reagan graduated from high school in Dixon, Illinois and earned a football scholarship to attend Eureka College (Reagan, â€Å"American Life† 43). After graduating from Eureka, Reagan pursued a career in Hollywood where he starred in over fifty movies and eventually became the president of the Screen Actors Guild. As president of the Screen Acto rs Guild, Reagan worked to remove all suspected Communists from Hollywood; all the while encouraging conservative values in the liberal slanted film industry. In 1964, the former actor, Ronald  Reagan, delivered a nationally televised political speech on behalf of conservative presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. The speech became one of Reagan’s most fundamental speeches that completely changed his life. In his speech, Reagan presented the country with his ideals of a perfect country, supported by his conservative values. He also spoke about how America needs a strong national defense, a reduction of taxes, and the need to defeat the Communist threat in the Soviet Union. He also stated, â€Å"We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope for man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness† (Reagan, â€Å"Speaking† 36). After his speech, Reagan was approached by many influential Republicans who urged him to run for Governor of California. His speech, on behalf of Barry Goldwater became one of his greatest triumphs. Reagan initially refused when he was asked to run for governor; nevertheless, many influential Republicans got together and formed a fundraising group called â€Å"Friends of Reagan.† They raise d a great deal of money and in 1966; Reagan defeated the needed Democrat Governor of California (What Would Reagan Do?). At that moment, his political career began and in 1981, Reagan assumed the role as President of the United States of America. Throughout his presidency, Reagan set America on a course to defeat the Communist threat in the Soviet Union, to boost military funding, to cut taxes, and to return optimism to the American people. Reagan worked relentlessly to accomplish his goals and in the process changed the world. Many of his critics view the 1980s as a decade of unmitigated wealth and greed; and they praise Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev for ending the Cold War. From the beginning of his presidency, Ronald Reagan worked to end the Cold War, not to appease the Soviets. Former presidents had worked to open relations with the Soviet Union. President Nixon had formed compromise and Carter worked to appease the Communists. However, â€Å"Reagan rejected Communism, dà ©tente, and containment, and set us on a course to win – not manage – the Cold War†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (The Great One). Reagan met several times with General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union, and together they worked to compromise and create treaties that would eliminate the threat of short range nuclear weapons. Many of the meetings with Gorbachev were productive, yet Reagan’s ideal of foreign policy was not as clearly defined as many of his critics may have wished.  The Reagan Administration dealt with foreign policy on the manner of â€Å"Peace through Strength,† they worked to isolate any world menace and to direct all immediate attention to that threat. This ideal of foreign policy worked to threaten the Soviet Union and to make them aware that any danger they may pose would be dealt with in a quick and decisive manner. In 1983, Reagan ordered the United States Marines to invade Grenada. A coup d’à ©tat was taking place and a revolutionary group was trying to take control of the government to align with the Marxist Soviet Union (Reagan, â€Å"American Lifeà ¢â‚¬  449). Although the troops were only in Grenada for a short period of time, they did suppress the threat of a Communist uprising and Reagan shocked the world with his tough stance on global threats. During his presidency, Reagan increased federal defense spending by 35 percent and began building nuclear weapons at an unprecedented rate (Ronald Reagan). In 1986, one American serviceman was killed in a bombing in Berlin that injured 63 other members of the American military. It became evident within hours that the terrorist attack had been planned and carried out by Mu’ammar Qadhafi, the leader of Libya. Reagan was quick to order an air raid on key ground targets in Libya. The strike was a success and many important buildings were destroyed. Reagan addressed the nation shortly after the air raid and made several comments that were illustrative of his firm stance against terrorist actions. He said, â€Å"When our citizens are abused or attacked anywhere in this world†¦ we will respond so long as I’m in this Oval Office,† and to terrorist leaders around the world he said, â€Å"He [Qadhafi] counted on America to be passive. He counted wrong† (Reagan, â€Å"Speaking† 288). With that speech, Reagan imposed his views upon the world and he let the country know that he would not succumb to any foreign national threat. For all practical purposes, nearly all of the military actions of the 1980s were directed in some manner towards the Soviet Union. The preemptive attacks on Grenada and Libya were used as threats against the Soviet Union and were meant to be symbolic of the fact that America would not hesitate to act. Reagan used his strong military presence as a threat against the Soviets and many of Reagan’s naysayers still believe he used force in a manner contradictory to the astute power of the President of the United States. However, the Reagan Administration used their military ability to inflict fear into all Communist threats worldwide. The political  philosopher, Niccolo Machiavelli, speaks of powerful leaders, he writes, â€Å"†¦it is much safer to be feared than loved†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Machiavelli 66). Therefore, regardless of what criticizers may say, it would seem that Reagan’s use of military force throughout the world was effective and that Gorbachev feared his American equivalent. Reagan used his superiority to his advantage when he met with Gorbachev to discuss the reduction of nuclear missiles. During the 1980s, Reagan increased the defense spending more than any president had done before; it was a part of his â€Å"Peace through Strength† foreign policy. During this time, the production of nuclear missiles surged and the United States found itself in a mini-arms race with the Soviet Union. In principle, the Reagan Administration outspent the Soviets in defense and nuclear weapon production. In an effort to compete, the Soviets bankrupted themselves and had no choice but to dismiss their Marxist values. Between the years of 1985 and 1988, Reagan met with General Secretary Gorbachev four times; in Switzerland, Iceland, Washington D.C., and Moscow (Reagan, â€Å"American Life† 545). The meetings between the two world leaders were dramatic and Reagan walked out of the meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland after Gorbachev failed compromise. The tensions were high during all of the meetings and many people feared that any mistake could lead to an immediate nuclear Armageddon. Fortunately, no nuclear weapons were launched and the Reagan Administration triumphed over the Soviet Union. In 1987, Reagan visited East Berlin and spoke at the Brandenburg Gate. During his speech, he called for an end to Communism and a strengthening of individual liberty. His speech as the Brandenburg Gate is often viewed as one of the most successful speeches of his presidency. While speaking to a crowd of thousands, Reagan said to the General Secretary of the Soviet Union, â€Å"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall† (Reagan, â€Å"Speaking† 352). Two years later, the Soviet Union agreed to tear down the Berlin Wall and within the year, Communist nations around Europe began to crumble. Many Democrats in Congress and the mainstream media admired Gorbachev for bringing peace to European countries; they praised Gorbachev for surrenderin g and for keeping the warmongering Ronald Reagan from leading the country on the road to a nuclear war. Many Americans who opposed the Reagan Administration were more than happy to give the credit to the Soviet Union; they believed Reagan was  too overpowering and heartless to have been so successful. Nevertheless, conservative talk show host, Rush Limbaugh writes, â€Å"The end of the Cold War and the defeat of Communism in the Soviet Union was a clear victory for American values, for the American way of life, for the republican, democratic, free-marked ideals of the United States of America† (Limbaugh â€Å"Ought to Be† 230). Therefore, it would seem that Reagan played a major role in bringing an end to the 40 year Cold War. Regardless of the beliefs and values one holds, Ronald Reagan ended the Cold War and suppressed the Communist threat worldwide. He changed the world! Although his greatest success may have been bringing closure to the Cold War, Reagan also accomplished a great deal in the United States of America. When he left office in 1989, the economy was breaking records and benefitting from the longest period of peacetime prosperity without recession or depression (Ronald Reagan). People were making money in America and thanks to Reagan’s tax cuts; they were able to keep more of what they earned. The Reagan Administration began an economic policy that became identified as â€Å"Reaganomics† or trickle-down economics. Reaganomics was the belief that tax cuts for the rich, middle class, and poor would work to stimulate the economy. If the rich had more money, they would create more businesses and opportunity, the middle class would then be able to become business owners, and higher the poor. It is a social hierarchy of job creation and the nation experienced 96 months of peacetime economic growth (Limbaugh, â€Å"Told You So† 122). In 1990, George H.W. Bush disbanded the policy of Reaganomics and the 96 months of economic growth ended almost immediately. Many historians , to this day, view the 1980s as a decade of greed where the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. They also discredit the policy of Reaganomics because they do not believe the rich paid their fair share of taxes. However, economic figures are illustrative of how much the rich truly pay in taxes. It seems that the top 1% of income earners pay nearly 40% of all federal income taxes in the United States (What Would Reagan Do?). Therefore, even if the 1980s were deemed as a decade of greed, it would seem that greed is good. Reagan worked to reduce onerous taxes in order to return the wealth to its rightful owners, the workers. The Reagan Administration did not hand out money; rather, they let people keep more of what they had already earned. In return, consumerism rose and the money was  immediately deposited back into the national economy. Therefore, it would seem that the tax cuts and policy of Reaganomics worked very well in the 1980s; the economic growth experienced in that decade has yet to be matched. Regardless of one’s political affiliation, it is undeniable that tax cuts work and the economic policy of the Regan Administration should be implemented into our system now, during th e present economic crisis. The implementation of tax cuts, both on income and corporations, provided working class Americans with the incentive to work and to achieve. No longer were people afraid of earning; the tax cuts prevented hard working Americans from being punished with difficult and total taxation. This era of economic growth restored a feeling of optimism in America, especially after the failures of the Carter Administration and the record setting unemployment rate of the late 1970s. Ronald Reagan’s policies, both foreign and domestic, made people proud to be Americans once again. During the 1980s, Americans were not being villainized and condemned, they were being praised. Reagan restored the feeling of confidence in America and brought forth a generation of strong, nationalistic Americans. Ronald Reagan was a success as President of the United States, not only because of his charisma and communication skills, nor simply because of his policies. Ronald Reagan was a success because the American people loved him. In 1984, during his campaign for a second term, the electorate illustrated their reverie for him and he won in the large st landslide victory ever recorded. He was unanimously re-elected in 49 of the 50 states (What Would Reagan Do?). His unprecedented victory astonished the world and many of his political detractors wondered how he could be so popular. Once again, the political philosopher Machiavelli offers insight into how a person should be a successful leader. Machiavelli wrote in 1513, â€Å"†¦he should inspire his citizens to follow their pursuits quietly, in trade and in agriculture and in every other pursuit of men, so that one person does not fear to adorn his possessions for fear that they be taken away from him, and another to open up a trade for fear of taxes† (Machiavelli 91). In essence, Reagan accomplished all of these aforementioned goals during his presidency. His policy of a strong national defense worked to make people feel comfortable and unafraid of a Communist attack, and his policy of Reaganomics allowed people to become entrepreneurs without a fear of being taxed out of  business. For all practical purposes, Reagan epitomized the values of a good leader as prescribed by Niccolo Machiavelli; he restored the power and the faith to the people while simultaneously ruling under the facade of being a decisive and fearful leader when handling foreign threats. In the end, it is apparent that Ronald Reagan accomplished a great deal during his administration. His most important accomplishments stem from restoring optimism in Americans, the total growth of economic prosperity, and bringing an end to the Cold War. Many of his political opponents still work to destroy the successes of his administration and they blame him for being too demanding and too dangerous. They thought his actions during the 1980s were detrimental to the growth and prosperity of America. On January 11, 1989, during his farewell address to the nation, he said, â€Å"My friends: We did it. We weren’t just marking time. We made a difference. We made the city stronger. We made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all† (Reagan, â€Å"Speaking† 418). The Reagan Administration was one of growth and success. During his presidency, he changed America, let alone the world, for the better. He had done what no president before him could, he set the nation on a course for unprecedented economic growth, and he led to the downfall of Communism and the Cold War. His opponents viewed him as a failure; however, his policies greatly impacted the world. If Ronald Reagan were alive today, he would still be the last best hope for this country. Reference Coulter, Ann. What Would Reagan Do?. http://anncoulter.com/cgi-local/article.cgi?article=77. 21 September 2005. Web. 4 April 2014. Limbaugh, Rush. See, I Told You So. New York: Pocket Star Books, 1993. Limbaugh, Rush. â€Å"The Great One.† National Review 28 June 2004: 36. Academic OneFile. Web. 7. April 2014. Limbaugh, Rush. The Way Things Ought to Be. New York: Pocket Books, 1992. Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1998. Reagan, Ronald. An American Life. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990. Reagan, Ronald. Speaking My Mind. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989 â€Å"Ronald Reagan.† http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/ronaldreagan. Web. 7 April 2014.

Review of Part 3 of Omnivore’s Dilemma

Review of Part 3 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma ENGL-135 Advanced Composition Professor Edmondson William McGuire In Part 3, Chapters 15, 16, and 17 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan explores looking foraging for different foods, the ethics of hunting animals and harvesting the meat from them, and giving a brief look into what brought about the paradox of The Omnivore’s Dilemma.Chapters 15, 16, and 17 bring up a lot of good points about foraging and hunting and Pollan provides through detail and research on the topics, but upon reading these chapters you find it lacking content that will keep you engaged and the material can be pretty dry at times while you get a little bit of disorganization from random topics. Chapter 15 of Omnivore's Dilemma was a short chapter on how Pollan is preparing to make a meal from all of the foraging groups. Fruits, vegetables, fungi, and meat were the components that made up this meal, he wanted to find and gather enough from eac h group to make his first.Pollan had just moved to California, so his unfamiliarity with the area was a disadvantage, so he decided to hire a companion to help him on his quest. Chapter 16 takes the reader to a different venue, Pollan discusses the beginnings of The Omnivore’s Dilemma through a research paper that was written in 1976 by Paul Rozin and titled The Selection of Foods by Rats, Humans, and Other Animals. Pollan expresses how similar we are to rats that we are omnivores, but unlike rats, we have lost our instinct of choosing food and follow advertisements as our guide.He then goes on to suggest that the problems stem from capitalistic gains and the pursuit of revenue. In chapter 17 we are taken back to Pollan on his foraging quest he started in chapter 15. This chapter looks more at the ethics of hunting and eating animals that are not processed in processing plants like we are so use to seeing. Pollan brings up reasoning on why he is a meat eater and battles with the struggle on if eating meat at a steakhouse is morally right and ethical. He goes into detail about the way the animal lived and if the animal had a long, happy, humane life.The author concludes that if we look away from how the animal goes from being on the farm to a freezer in the supermarket then people turn vegetarian and if we can’t look away then we have to find a way to accept it and determine if the animal endured a lifetime of suffering. Part 3 in the book meets two out of the three common expectations and displays some strong descriptive wording to give you a sense of imagery when you read certain parts of the book as well as give you a good understanding on the point he is trying to get across.An example of one of the statements that he uses to paint a picture for you and try to bring you there is â€Å"I began to notice things. I noticed the soft yellow globes of chamomile edging the path I hiked most afternoons, and spotted clumps of miner’s lettuce of f in the shade (Claytonia, a succulent coin-shaped green I had once grown in my Connecticut garden) and wild mustard out in the sun. (Angelo called it rapini, and said the young leaves were delicious sauteed in olive oil and garlic. ) There were blackberries in flower and the occasional edible bird: a few quail, a pair of doves. (Pollan, pg. 285) Another strength in this book is the subject matter that pertains to what the author is trying to convey to the reader, Pollan is trying to show the readers that the way we use to obtain and eat food is ever changing and will continue to change and we are easy to influence as it pertains to our diets, he does well in keeping to the theme of his book. The weaknesses of Part 3 cover two of the three common expectations and they are the lack of engagement for the reader and the order in which the subject matter is presented.This book is not tailored for someone who loves to read fantasy or action, something that will leave you hanging on the e dge of your seat wanting more. Instead what you get is someone detailing his experiences and research that supports a lot of his ideas, ethics of eating animals, and corn sex, alas no explosions or protagonist/antagonist struggle. I found myself dozing off a few times feeling like I was in an agriculture lecture or biology class.The subject matter is laid out well in some parts of the book, but Pollan jumps around a lot with the material, for instance, in chapter 15 he is foraging for food then chapter 16 is about a research article that gave him inspiration to write The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and then chapter 17 is about his moral conflict of eating steak at a steakhouse and whether or not the animal had to suffer to get to his plate. I think the book needs some improvement in this regard so the author is not jumping to different topics at random.In The Omnivore’s Dilemma, the author Michael Pollan is somewhat successful in satisfying the common expectations for the chap ters I have read, one of the expectations is both a strength and a weakness for this part of the book. I think that the book as a whole does not satisfy the common expectations with the big one being engagement, there will be people who are interested in this book but it is only a small facet of the readers out there today. The book does deliver on the use of imagery and the subject matter stays on topic most of the time and supports his ideas and theories.Later on in part 3 in the next three chapters he goes on the hunt and he elaborates on the history of pigs that are not native to California and his feelings after the kill. He then finds some wild mushrooms to pair with the meat he has acquired from harvesting the pig and talks about his adventures trying to find non-poisonous mushrooms; and the final chapter presents the author preparing the meal with all of the components he has foraged for and harvested. Works Cited Pollan, M. (2006). The Omnivore's Dilemma. New York, New York : Penguin Books.

RISK VERSUS REWARD OF NUCLEAR POWER Research Paper

RISK VERSUS REWARD OF NUCLEAR POWER - Research Paper Example But there are many drawbacks and negativities associated with nuclear power as well (In Foreman et al 1970; Miller et al 2011). The advent of nuclear power brought with it many advantages. Nuclear power can be used for the production of different forms of energy and electricity production is one of its major uses. Nuclear energy production provides for economic benefits as it serves as a competitor for other energy producing resources. This results in an overall lower cost of energy for consumers. It has environmental benefits as it does not release gases which result from the burning of fossil fuels and hence it protects the environment. Furthermore, the usage of nuclear power can assist in the conservation of fossil fuels whose reserves are depleting at a very fast pace (In Foreman et al 1970; Miller et al 2011). Nuclear power has proved to be very helpful but this source of energy has its own disadvantages. The energy that is produced from nuclear power plants is less and the cost of the building of the nuclear power plants is very high. Another major drawback is the waste products that are released from these nuclear power plants. These wastes are toxic and radioactive and the dumping of these wastes is a very complicated issue. This is owing to the fact that leakage from dumping sites can result in land and water pollution which can have serious consequences. Nuclear power has also been responsible for the production of nuclear weapons which can prove to be very dangerous for the human race. The last risk associated with nuclear power plants is the accidents that may occur in these plants and result in the production of toxic substances into the environment (Miller et al 2011). The severity of the nuclear power plant accidents can be accessed with the impact of the Chernobyl disaster that took place in the year 1986 in Ukraine. A nuclear power plant disrupted and there was radioactive

CLOUD COMPUTING Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

CLOUD COMPUTING - Research Paper Example SQL injection or cross site scripting vulnerabilities have a high probability, as Google docs are one of the victims of them (Singh & Sharma, 2011). Moreover, threat of phishing is also always available, as automated emails and messages on cloud based applications can steal passwords, personal credentials and other personal information. Organization’s authentication and authorization policy do not addresses cloud security issues. In spite of having several security controls integrated within the cloud based applications, only a password is required to breach into the cloud based application. One of the recent security breaches of exploiting secure passwords that is called as Twitter gate (Singh & Sharma, 2011). Moreover, virtual machines on a single physical machine are shared with multiple instances. Every instance is connected to the Internet or virtual tunnels. This concludes, if a single machine is compromised, all the instances available in that machine are also compromis ed. In addition, risk of data corruption or storage that may not limited to memory storage, random access memory storage is also in the scope of cloud computing vulnerabilities (Singh & Sharma, 2011). 2 Cloud Computing Storage Issues The storage of cloud computing requires a lot of space, in fact humongous data centers where data is collected and managed. These data centers pose several threats and security risk that may impact these data storage machines. The threat may be from a professional hacker and also in the form of the cloud provider itself, if data is not adequately dealt with. A minor security incident or misconfiguration can lead to a system failure or unavailability. (OGIGAU-NEAMTIU, 2012) Moreover, another security breach occurred in 2009, password of an employee working on Twitter was hacked that resulted in breaching the email security questions page that was located in the Google apps account (Talbot 2010). In relation to that, one more incident occurred when data w as erased from one million T-mobile smart phones due to a server failure that was managing the data of these smart phones (Talbot 2010).As Peter Mell, who is a team lead of cloud security team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) says, public cloud computing models are more vulnerable to threats, as every customer has access to a broad range of services and levels. Therefore, if any one of the services is breached, they gain access to all the data. As cloud-computing usage is increasing with its connection to the public through an Internet, new opportunities also originate for hackers, cyber terrorists, viruses and worms. These threats will increase and focus on cloud computing enables services and applications for stealing classified data, denial of service attacks on data centers etc. ‘Google apps’ is the major player in the market for providing ‘SaaS’, it was attacked and hacked. The report from cyber forensics indicated that the attacks were originated from China (Bisong & Rahman, 2011). The security and privacy in cloud computing are associated with data storage and data protection. Moreover, monitoring the utilization of resources available on the cloud by the service providers is also included. In order to secure the data in the cloud, it can be stored internally in the organization’s premises. (Talbot, 2012) Moreover, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) in the US and Data Protection directives along with the EU are only two compliances from many other compliance concerns

Inportance of HR Policy and Other Factors in Employee Engagement Essay

Inportance of HR Policy and Other Factors in Employee Engagement - Essay Example The findings of this research will provide insight of Human Resource (HR) department that has earned a fundamental status in any organization in the recent history. It facilitates the formation of an effective infrastructure in which employees can excel and achieve goals in accordance with the vision of the company. HR functions encompass the art of providing an environment for the managers such that they are able to engage their employees and achieve desired results. Alfres, Truss, Soane, Rees and Gatenby defined employee engagement as the presence and active participation of the employee in the happenings of the organization, alongside maintaining effective and meaningful relations with the colleagues. Lockwood stated that the employees who possess greater levels of commitment with the organization tend to perform 20% better than the others and there are 87% less chances of them leaving the organization. Therefore, it can be said that better organizational results can be linked to greater employee engagement. A performance driven environment that is fuelled by competent employees is achieved by the presence of effective HR policies. Humane, flexible and clear HR policies ensure a fair and amiable working environment that helps to engage employees by protecting their rights and interests. However, the formulation of valuable HR policies is not the only factor that is used to attain employee engagement in the organization.... Figure 2: Managers’ practices influence the level of employee engagement and ultimately the business results (Vance, 2006) Alfres, Truss, Soane, Rees, and Gatenby (2010) considered the following factors to bear great relevance when employees rate their line managers; communication, trust and level of fairness. Along these lines, the managers are expected to assign tasks in a fair manner in accordance with the skills and expertise of the employees. The employees expect clear and unambiguous guidelines from their managers so that the employees can direct their efforts in a consistent direction and produce results according to the expectations of the managers. Vance (2006) discussed the job characteristics model from the 1970s that increased the attention on the relation of job design with job satisfaction. This model promotes the consideration of the following aspects; skill variety, clear identification of task, relevance of task, independence to perform the task and feedback o f the performance. Line managers are also responsible for ensuring that the efforts of the employees are rewarded in an according manner. 2.2 Team Cohesiveness and Mutual Support Mutual understanding and cohesiveness are important traits of any team since these factors work towards the enhancement of employee engagement. Albercht (2010) stated that exchange of knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) helps the employees to improve their work performance and stay directed towards the achievement of the goals of the team. Mutual support promotes an amiable environment in the team which develops personal relations within team members; such relations provide the feeling of belonging to a specific establishment.

More perfect union speech Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

More perfect union speech - Essay Example The problem was first caused by the white race subgroup in the United States as against other racial subgroups, especially the African-American subgroup. No matter what side it is, having and spreading resentments does not help alleviate conflicts and sharp differences. Anger and resentment does not solve any problem. In fact, sentiments and notions of anger and resentment add more fuel for problems to escalate. Anger and resentment only encourage animosity and division among people and groups. Conflicts arise when anger gets in the way of better judgment, and clouds rationality and logic. The world is already rife with too many prejudicial tendencies by groups that espouse ambivalent notions. Even religious leaders are guilty of preaching such messages, basing their sermons and teachings on personal beliefs and experiences. In relation to that part of his speech, Obama quoted William Faulkner by saying that, â€Å"the past isnt dead and buried. In fact, it isnt even past". What Obama is trying to say is that issues of the past regarding race relations are still ongoing, and have never been put to rest. This was especially visible and expected during Obama’s campaign for presidency, in which the likeliness of him winning the post was unexpected. Take into consideration the fact that all the United States presidents before Obama were Caucasians. This implies that American society still considers race as a factor and issue in national decisions. That being the case, the question that arises is whether a trans-racial society is possible and desirable in the United States. It is possible for such a society to exist, but only if the people learn and are educated to see society and state beyond the differences of race. There needs to be a change in cultural awareness, which plays a significant role in social activities. Differences in

Answer 4 questions on childhood & adult hunger & malnutrition in Essay

Answer 4 questions on childhood & adult hunger & malnutrition in developed and developing countries - Essay Example in scarcity of food products due to an unsustainable consumption that leads to cases of child and adult hunger in both developing and developed countries (Holtz, 2008). Another cause of child and adult hunger is global warming that has led to the changes in the weather patterns. Global warming has resulted in drying up of fertile land because of the minimal rain experienced that cannot sustain the crops and animals. Malnutrition is experienced as the people can’t eat a quality diet that will be good for their health (Holtz, 2008). One of the remedies to the child and adult hunger in both developed and developing countries is to have equality in healthcare system. This means that the health care system should be accessed for treatment and prevention services in both rural and urban populations. The healthcare system to have equality should also be affordable to the general public to avoid limiting those that have no income. (Holtz, 2008). Another remedy is environmental protection that involves conserving of natural recourses such as forests. The emissions of poisonous gases by industries should also be controlled by setting up laws that will minimize the environmental pollution in the urban cities (Holtz, 2008). The human right â€Å"Freedom from Hunger† is proclaimed in various constitutions worldwide as article 25. It articulates that every individual has the right to access a standard level of living in terms of food, shelter, clothing and health care. The right to food is recognized in general and in specific terms in the international law. That is why the World Food Program (WFP) was established by the UN to undertake humanitarian aid in alignment to the world hunger. This also led to the Freedom from Hunger Campaign that involved the cooperation of governments, NGOs and international organizations (Holtz, 2008). I agree with the human right of â€Å"Freedom from Hunger† as statistics have shown that 13 to 18 million people annually die of starvation and

Fs3010c Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Fs3010c - Essay Example Financial institutions with significantly larger subprime mortgage portfolios therefore faced difficult situations in managing the losses and consequently went out of business owing to large losses sustained as a result of mass scale defaults by subprime borrowers. There are various reasons as to why financial institutions failed and consensus have now emerged that it was the failure of financial regulatory system of developed countries that resulted into the excessive risk taking by financial institutions. This excess risk taking therefore resulted into the failure of some financial institutions. What is also critical is the fact that systematic failure of financial institutions created negative impact on the economy and system as a whole experienced bank runs also. Northern Rock was one of the glaring examples of the failure of financial institution resulted due to imprudent risk management policies and practices. This paper will therefore provide an in-depth overview of the failure of Northern Rock and whether it was due to failure of regulatory agencies? It is generally believed that the financial crisis started as a result of subprime borrowers who failed to pay on their obligations when they became due. Subprime borrowers are those borrowers who normally do not fall into the acceptable category of borrowers due to their poor credit history. However, subprime borrowers also offer an opportunity to financial institutions to earn higher returns because of their high risk and most of the financial institutions jumped on this opportunity and started to lend in subprime market extensively. Most financial institutions however, also securitized their mortgage portfolios including subprime portfolios in order to recoup their liquidity drained as a result of lending to subprime borrowers. Most of financial institutions however, found themselves in trapped in this complex web as their repayment capacity against mortgage baked securities was

Explain why the open war Essay Example for Free

Explain why the open war Essay World War 1 had begun in August with both sides certain that their sudden attacks with cavalry and infantry would create a war of rapid movement, which would bring them a swift victory. The ending of this possibility and build up towards a stationary war of fixed entrenchment was not only due to the failure of the Schlieffen Plan and Plan XVII, but the problems in communications, problems faced through tactics and strategies and the role of the commanders throughout the planning and progression of the war. The possibility of further outflanking movements was gone. The initially hastily constructed trenches of the allied forcers took on a more permanent look as two massive armies consisting of over 4 million men faced each other over 800 kilometres of continuous trench lines from the coast of Belgium to the Swiss border. For the next four years, the rival commanders struggled and blundered in an attempt to find a way to break the stalemate, which had emerged by the end of 1914. In order to break the stalemate there were two major offensives remembered from 1916, which both failed but were attempts none the less. Both sides had become aware that it was easier to hold a defensive position than it was to launch an offensive. However, this did not stop them, launching repeated disastrous offensives, relying on weight of men, artillery and supplies to crumble the opposition through attrition and each side endeavored to weaken the other. The generals decided only a big push would be able to break through the enemy lines and restart the war of rapid movement. This was not achieved until the attrition of 1915-18 finally weakened the German lines in mid-1918. The Schlieffen Plan, originally devised by Alfred von Schlieffen, the then German Army Chief of Staff, in 1905, was the German Plan which would they would implement to avoid a war on two fronts. Schlieffen argued that France had to be defeated as soon as possible in the event of a great European War. If that were to happen, Schlieffen realised that Russia and France would be unwilling to continue fighting. In addition, Schlieffen estimated that it would take Russia six weeks to mobilise her forces in preparation for war against them. Thus, he reasoned that Germany would have six weeks in which to defeat France and surrender. On August 2nd 1914 the Schlieffen Plan was put into effect and the German Army began its advance upon France through Belgium. The delicate plan was upset with the early arrival of the British Expeditionary Force under Sir John French, significant resistance by the Belgian Army, resistance of the Belgians and the early arrival of Russian Forces. The German implementations and strategies relied too heavily on the Schlieffen Plan itself. The plan greatly depended on speed and movement, the strict deadline of 42 days was impractical, this unreasonable goal was pushed further away from the Germans. General von Moltke did not follow through the original Schlieffen Plan; instead, he had shifted the numbers of the planned armies and therefore altered the balance for the plan to work. All these events led up to the Battle of the Marne, the first major battle on the Western Front. The French Allied victory at this battle marked the failure of the Schlieffen Plan, and the death of any German hope for a quick decisive victory. The German forces were not only to blame for the reason of stationary war during 1914, the problems with the French Plan XVII also contributed to the fact.

Management and company overview of easyjet

Management and company overview of easyjet EasyJet has make the most of successful marketing strategies through the a range of channels available, in order to set up and uphold a control position in the low-cost airline industry. One of the great business success stories of the past five years has been the launch of the easyJet airline company (Dixon, 2000). To make easy our analysis of this purpose, we not only researched EasyJet and its marketing operation adopted over the years, but also identified the main strategies used by the other leading competitors. EasyJet has frequently tried to identify itself to its customer base as the best form of budget travel in Europe. The company known the demand for this form of travel and its marketing strategies have been first and foremost geared around providing more efficient, low-cost flights, at the same time as maintaining as a high a quality of service as possible. Easy Jet needs to concentrate on maintaining its established market leadership.Miles and Snows theory of the Four Business Strategies would suggest easy Jet should move towards being an Analyser from a Prospector. To enhancing their market power both long and short-term ,Easy Jet should look to move into newer mediums for advertising, primarily using television broadcasting. Easy jet need to keep on designing new ways advancing to other ways of its competence and mobilizing within their wide employee base. Easy Jet need to further consider and by fomenting such other dimensions of this business, will help out maintain another key element which still, other rivals fail to be familiar with. Easy jet should keep on hold Its new style of advertising which can be with the help out of its existing customers. That can make things easy for Easy Jet to get to know who are the customers that are brand loyal and can use them for their advertising by providing some special offers and discounts to them. INTRODUCTION Easy Jest airline is one of the best budget or low price airline, which offer cheap flight to an increasing number of destinations around the world. It was established in 1995. It was launched by the son of Greek Shipping tycoon Stelios Haji-loannou who came to England in 1984, with two leased Boeing 737-200 aircraft. EasyJets base in London was low-rent Luton Airport, formerly used only by charter operations. (A large part of easyJets strategy was the use of secondary airports, but not as out-of-the-way as those served by the Irish discount carrier Ryanair.) Easy Jet first linked London with Glasgow (beginning November 10, 1995) and Edinburgh (two weeks later) via two leased planes. Aberdeen was added in January 1996. Answers.com In the beginning booking was by telephone only, Stelios Haji-loannou used to hate the internet and says that The Internet is for nerds, it will never make money for my business!. From this small beginning Easy jet grew rapidly, In August 1999, the site counted for 38% of tickets sales or over 135,000 seats. Stelios Haji-loannou was suggested by Russell Sheffield of Tableau one of the Easy jets design and adverting agencies in December 1997, that he should consider carrying out tests a website for direct bookings. On the other hand East jets marketing director and business manager; they saw the probable and approved a website specific phone number advertised on the site can be used to trace the volume of users on the site. Haji-loannous saw the results and change his mind, and Easy Jet commissioned Tableau as partners to develop as e-commerce website capable of offering real time online booking from April 1998. In 1998 Haji-loannou invested a total of $90 million in the company, which had ordered a dozen new Boeing 737s worth  £500 million. Online booking were handled by Tableau. Over 75% of its sales are sold directly though the website. The results have been quick and sustainable growth in the face of firm competition from the big companies. It has broken the mould assumed for low-cost airlines, operation a modern and expanding fleet intensively on competitive routes. Easy Jet strategies are bold and adventurous rather than risky. The Company takes few real risks, as it applies sound business principles at the same time as carefully exploring the market. SITUATION ANALYSIS SWOT analysis is a tool for inspecting an organization and its environment. It is the first stage of planning and helps out marketers to focus on key issues. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Strengths: characteristics of the business or team that give it an advantage over others in the industry. Weaknesses: are characteristics that place the firm at a disadvantage relative to others. Opportunities: external chances to make greater sales or profits in the environment. Threats: external elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the business. Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors. Opportunities and threats are external factors. Its o goal is to identify the project its internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieve that goal. SWOT analysis may be incorporated into the strategic planning model. Strategic planning has been the subject of much research. It is specific helpful in identifying area for development. SWOT analysis of Easy Jet Strengths The corporate culture at Easy Jet is that of informality and adaptability. The company favors a flat hierarchy whereby the management work closely with those below them in the chain of command. Employees are given responsibility to make decisions themselves. This empowerment is not only eliminates wasteful layers, ensures any situation is dealt with as quickly base possible but is also thought to increase employee motivation. WriteWork.com Essays and writing guides for students n.d Strength Financial growth was solid in Easy Jet, In 2005 Profit was improved by 9.1% over the previous years and the total amount before tax was  £67.6. Number of passenger increased by 21.4% to 29.6% million and revenue raised per sear by 78 pence to  £38.66. The brand name is strong It built its name on the back of the founder Mr. Stelios Haji-Loannou. It bright orange airlines and online booking system which lead to the strap line, The Company has become media friendly and identical with low cost travel. Easy Jet airlines strategy paying attention Focus on our customers, Own our markets and Reduce costs, which has remained strong. Easy Jet presents an online promotion alert which is e-mailed to existing customers and contact on the companys database. Easy Jet runs a fast and competent service with an average turnaround time of 30 minutes or below. This makes possible for them to preserve a reliable and hassle free service to their passengers. Weakness Domestic air travel is a tremendously competitive industry with Easy Jets main competitors being Jet2, BMI Baby, Ryan Air plus a host of smaller independent competitors. These external competitive forces can confine and shape pricing policy on some of Easy Jets less profitable routes as they search for to compete with their competitors. The other important thing which Easy Jet can be its weakness is that they do not offer the service of free food on longer flights of more than two hours. Opportunities Possible opening of options routes to main cities in Europe. A key route could be from Dublin to the UK, as this has a large potential for travelers going to soccer matches in the UK and new links into corporate flyers to and from the UK. Updated versions of the fly on the wall documentaries would provide the brand with more coverage and publicity. Offering of free refreshments and food on flights with a travel time more than two hours, this would offer an extra advantage and comfort to passengers making their experience with Easy Jet all the more comfortable and enjoyable. Threat Pricing is very threat to Easy Jet Company because competitors flying the same routes compete very competitively on price forcing pressure on margin on more popular flights and time slots. Economic slump may lead to reduce in casual flyers and corporate travel as companies seek to limit what they see as unnecessary expenses and in turn make less business trips. Outside market forces can have a major impact on Easy Jets business, Example; the rising cost of oil can have a major impact on running costs putting major pressure on the profitability of less popular routes and time slots. PEST analysis is very important that an organization considers its environment before beginning the marketing process. In fact, environmental analysis should be continuous and feed all aspects of planning. The organizations marketing environment is made up from PEST analysis, the acronym PEST stands for Political, Economic, Social, and Technological it is used to describe a framework for the analysis of the micro environmental factors Political factors are how and to what level a government interfere in the economy. Particularly, political factors take in areas such as tax policy, labor law, environmental law, trade restrictions, tariffs, and political stability. Political factors may also include goods and services which the government wants to provide or be provided advantages and those that the government does not want to be provided disadvantages. In addition, governments have vast influence on the health, education, and infrastructure of a nation. Economic factors on Easy Jet include economic growth, interest rates, exchange rates and the inflation rate. These factors have main collision on how businesses function and make decisions. For example, interest rates affect a firms cost of capital and therefore to what extent a business grows and expands. Exchange rates affect the costs of exporting goods and the supply and price of imported goods in an economy Social factors include the cultural aspects and include health consciousness, population growth rate, age distribution, career attitudes and emphasis on safety. Movements in social factors affect the demand for a companys products and how that company operates. For example, an aging population may entail a smaller and less-willing workforce , thus increasing the cost of labor. In addition, Easy Jet Company may change various management strategies to adapt to these social trends. Technological factors include technological aspects such as, automation, technology motivation and the rate of technological change. They can decide obstruction to entry, minimum efficient production level and influence outsourcing decisions. Additionally, technological shifts can affect costs, quality, and lead to innovation. Environmental factors include ecological and environmental aspects such as weather, climate, and climate change, which may especially have an effect on industries such as tourism, farming, and insurance. Additionally, growing awareness of the potential impacts of climate change is affecting how companies operate and the products they offer, both creating new markets and moving back or destroying existing ones. Legal factors include discrimination law, consumer law, antitrust law, employment law, and health and safety law. These factors can affect how a company operates, its costs, and the demand for its products. Segmental analysis: The geographical analysis of turnover is as follows: Area 2001 2000 Within United Kingdom 86,545 73,008 Between United Kingdom rest of Europe 244,764 177,141 Within rest of Europe 25,550 13,545 Financial analysis: eMARKETING STRATEGY A strategy is long term plan of action aimed at achieving a particular result. Plans pass on to the instantaneous actions taken to implement a strategy. Strategy also can be defined as the first step to implement in the planning. eMarketing is the procedure of marketing a brand using the Internet. Whether the business is purely an online entity or a traditional business taking its first cautious steps into the digital realm, the marketers team will guide in formulating the most suitable Internet marketing strategy to accomplish the business objectives. Importance of developing an effective e-marketing strategy is indicated by Michael Porter (2001) who has said: The key question is not whether to deploy Internet technology companies have no choice if they want to stay competitive but how to deploy it. Strategy Competitive strategy is at the heart of the field of strategic management.Easy Jet ran its first Internet only promotion in a newspaper in The Times in February 1999, with remarkable results. Easy Jets early marketing strategy was based on making flying as affordable as a pair of jeans and urged travelers to cut out the travel agent. Its early promotion consisted of little more than the airlines telephone booking number painted in bright orange on the side of its aircraft. The scalability of the Internet help out deal with demand since everyone was directed to the web site rather than the company needing to employ an extra 250 telephone operators. Though, risk management did occur with a micro site built for Times readers (www.times.easyjet.com) to keep away from putting a damage on easy Jets main site. Flight promotions are intended to avoid attracting people who had fly with Easy Jet, so advance booking schemes are proposed to attain that. Book in advance for cheap seats The basic principle is that the cheapest seats are sold first, but the approaches to give way management do differ between the airlines. Easy Jet almost completely first-come, first-served, with few special offers or sales. Figure. 1 Showing Booking in Advance Thirty Percent of seats were sold online, with the rest of transaction being completed by phone, 13,000 orders were taken over the Internet in the first day alone with over 15,000 people on the site at one point. This plan made Easy Jet make more profit, five week later after the promotion Easy jet. Promotion offered cheap flights to a choice of all Easy jet destinations when 18 tokens were collected. Seats were sold during the promotion and Easy Jet got more than  £2m. Stelios Haji-loannou uses the website as a PR tool, he uses its nearness to keep newspapers informed about new promotions and offers by phoning and e-mailing journalists and pass on them to the website rather than faxing. The website was used as an aggressive tool in what is very competitive marketplace The essential components to re-think to Stelios Haji-loannou traditional views of marketing to face up the new challenges he face. The model acts as a checklist that advises us to confront the need for:- VALUE STRATEGY A logical and customer focused offer of better value to each of his customers in the terms that matter to them. MARKET STRATEGY A clear balanced strategic pathway to market that take advantage of learning and intellect capabilities to make better market choices, clarify value propositions, and to identify the relationship network to be managed in the process of going to market. INTERNET STRATEGY Developing and Integrating the potential of the Web in changing buyer and sellers relationships, offering multiple channel capabilities and developing new business models. PROCESS STRATEGY Designing and managing clear and focused process of decisions making in creating and delivering of value to customers CHANGE STRATEGY A reliable and effective approach to making things happen in the Easy Jet Company, to deliver maintainable competitive advantage and better-quality performance through the flawless delivery of value to customers Easy Jet protect its strategy, pointing out that all decisions have been made by the full board with agreement, where necessary, from shareholders. The agreement should keep growth at 7.5% this will enable Easy Jet to boost its share of the European short-haul market from the current 7% to around 10%.The board of EasyJet is also committed to ensuring that the company achieves a proper financial return on its capital and therefore has set a target of 15% return on equity. An Important strategic implication for Easy Jet is that while its current pricing strategy is optimal given its size, it would not be optimal for airline to offer such low initial prices were it to add substantial capacity to any given route. This would be the challenge for a firm that has built up expectations among customers as as airline with a great value proposition for those willing to buy early. Value Proposition The Value proposition cencept is an integral part of the business model tool that hold a set of elements and their relationships and allows expressing the business logic of a specific firm. It can be understood as the statements of benefits that are delivered by the solid to its external population. In spite of opposing opinions concerning what factors make firms successful, differentiation and focus are two normally accepted principles that bring about effective strategies and many strategy frameworks. The mixture of benefits offered to customers. Easy Jet operates very cheaply which enables them to offer customers convenience, reliability and great service. It propose cheap flights to convenient European destinations and also gives other related services. Easy Jet apply a direct services business model. The model reaches buyers and sellers directly thereby squeezing the distribution channel and improving efficiency. The reduced expenditure allows Easy Jet to offers a cluster of benefits to customers. Easy Jets value proposition can be summarized by value for money, convenience and excellent customer service. The basic assumption is that every business transaction can be broken down to five major value attributes:- PRICE Cost of goods and services PRODUCT Goods and services purchased ACCESS How consumers obtain goods SERVICES How consumers feel about the suppliers as a result of commercial transaction. EXPERIENCE How consumers feel about themselves as a result of goods and services. Easy jet Value proposition has has been to offer cheap, punctual, safe, no trappings method of travel to people who generally paid out of their own pockets. By remaining a low cost carrieer, customer belief were minimal and as a result brand new planes with the best pilots and punctual flights was clearly successfull in satisfaction the customer, as proof but the high number of repeat fliers. Easy Jets competitive advantage is largely sustainable due to its fast speed of growth and its offer to quickly achieve the benefits of operating at the most favourable scale for greater profitability. Implementation Creating new core and extendd value for customers The capability to bring interactivity and more detailed information through the internet are key to enhacing the extended product offering online. Product selection tools can help match product to customer. The Internet also gives great opportunities to get closer to the customer. The modest feedback button can offer a revelation amount of information. Better still, by analysing consumer e-mail queries from the Internet and other channels, companies can offer best product information.Easy Jet has a detailed sed of frequently asked questions that are compiled from analysis of the hundreds of thousands of questions received online.Improvement of a clear customer value proposition is now an essential part of customer centric marketing, customer relationship management and branding. Easy jet planned to implement the project internally, but the decided that they need a strategic implementation partner with experience of the target solution technology stack. Balancing online and offline promotion methods Easy jet have the promotion method, it is its first internet only promotion in a newspaper in The Times. The use of online and offline promotion. Online promotion method such as search engine registration and banner advertising often take prominence when discussing methods of traffic building, offline promotion using deferent communications tools such as advertising and PR delivery by traditional media such as TV, Radio and Print on order to deliver visitors to an online presence. The passengers online experience strengthens confidence in the booking process. A five step move towards is taken, allowing the passenger to exit at any time. The booking form remembers essential passenger information, so irritating towards the inside of basic details is not necessary if passengers want to try-out with dates and times. Once a passenger has booked their ticket for the first time, they can directly influence the ticket price, and choices are offered to them that are not available elsewhere. As a result, there seems little doubt that easy Jets customers enjoy their online experience, so ensuring that they come back regularly and often. Implementation Impact of strategy having upon the performance of the business The website was designed in such a way that it was easier for the customers to navigate and very simple design. Their new idea in the site design was introducing the games such as BAs losses and Battle with Swissair. These created a curious in the customers to checkup with the site. Also the winners were given prizes in the form of free air tickets, thus increasing the sales by involving the customers themselves. The most important strategy was to make everything easier for their customers. Easy prefix had been added where, easyEverything means, the separate internet cafe which allowed the customers to browse free though the Easy jet site. Some of the strategies which still followed by the easy jet make the customer remember of their service and name of easy jet even in offline, that is even at the street. The major value produced by this site was that it is well integrated within the business itself. That is the changes or any new destinations, everything were immediately updated in the website, once they were fed into the information system of the company. As soon as they have implemented the new system of marketing technique, that is through the internet, their sales rise significantly. This new marketing system facilitate them to lessen the running costs, which is very important to any company. Since their costs were reduced, they were able to offer their customers a discount of à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬1. Easy Jet company it is also easier for them to determine how much tickets got booked with the help of their website. This was possible with the help of the special telephone number on the site. It was in fact, their six months target was reached just in six weeks. Also, one great benefit they found out with the help of the easy Jets website was, almost everyone who called booked their tickets, opposite to the phone line where only one caller out of the six callers booked their ticket. Easy Jets website sales was rising, at one point they reached the level such that two-fifths of the business was generated through the website. Then they took this task to in house maintenance itself rather than outsourcing as a result the cost was reduced further. Newspaper was their first major promotion of their site was. Mainly they used The Times. This brought a very remarkable result. Where on the first day itself 20,000 tickets were sold out. As a result they used the offline advertising to promote their online ticket bookings. Legal and ethical issues When using the Internet and E-Commerce it is important to remember that there are many legal and ethical issues to be considered. Legal Issues When starting a business on the Web, there are significant legal issue to consider. Making evaluation about legal matter is about how comfortable you are with risk. If you make huge revenue with a high risk business, you could come to a decision that the money is worth the risk, or you might prefer to do it for a short period of time, collect your money and get out. This is just because there is risk does mean that it is not a good business for you. Everything in life has risks and your business is no exception. Consideration for legal and ethical matter with regard to the gathering, processing, distributing and use of information on the internet is now becoming very important. As the technology raise the relationship between the society and politics also increases. Ethical and legal decisions are therefore becoming very important to balance the needs and rights of everyone. Legal issue than can be considered are:- Where things really happen ? How should the transaction be authenticated ? How to determine the minors when making e-transaction ? Who are behind the screen ? Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace ? How can we solve the jurisdiction problem in dispute settlement ? Which Legal System will apply ? Do we have Cyber laws that protect on-line consumer ? Legal issues can be as follows:- Copyright Violation Watch out for this particular crime of sites that copy your website text legal issues or name while trying to pledge off some other item they are selling. It is provided for both the published and unpublished works. It is important when obtaining content for the Easy Jet site and in the protection of the sites content. The owner of a copyright can have the exclusive right:- To copy the work To modify the work To distribute the work To perform the work publicity To display the work publicity Trade mark It is the ownership of intellectual properties that identifies goods or services. In internet trademark is mainly used in naming the domains. A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, which identifies and distinguishes the source of particular goods. A service mark is the same as a trademark, except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. Ethical Issues E-commerce businesses which are entering in the world will be facing a new set of ethical challenges. It is easy for businesses to become sidetracked in the technical challenges of operating in this way and to pay little attention to the ethical implications. Ethical Issues can be as follows:- Advertising And Keywords Scams Unethical spyware/adware companies are promoting themselves as: get to the top of Google, Yahoo, and MSN search guaranteed for your keywords. These companies are using the term Search Engine Data Merging. Spyware and adware is installed on some users computers then they sell keywords to professionals for thousands of dollars a year. This is a huge money making scam. Identity Theft Internet Fraud Identity theft is a main problem of which have been there for long time in many situation. Be cautious, that this issue is related to online B2C ethical business issues and legal issues. Domain Name Registration Issues and Scams Domain name registration is another area online where ethics have been thrown out. Without doubt there are some gray areas for someone to be registering a domain name that is close to some other corporate identitys name. Other than that, many of these individuals and corporations that register domain names in the same country and other countries that are near to, or similar to the spellings of others, are registering the names to violate upon the trademarks and brands of other corporations and organizations. CONCLUSION The main objective of this document is to know what are the strategies followed by the Easy jet to achieve the top position in the low cost carrier in Europe. One of the great business success stories of the past five years has been the launch of the easy Jet airline company (Dixon, 2000). Easy jet has been able to be successful in this industry due to its ground-breaking. And in order to remain in this position in the following years also it has to be more and more inventive. Because in this modern world the competition is becoming heavier and heavier. This is the world of survival of the fittest. Easy Jet has continuously tried to identify itself to its consumer base as the best form of budget travel in Europe. The company known as the demand for this form of travel and its marketing strategies have been first and foremost geared around providing more efficient, low-cost flights, at the same time as maintaining as a high a quality of service as possible. Through their clear, effective website, they have strived to make it increasingly easy for customers to deal with the company, whereas strategically positioning their advertising to be directed at the market served. Policies for expansion have been the driving force behind easy Jets important growth and have enabled them to get rid of key competitor from the industry. Nevertheless, with the emergence of new, strong competitors in the industry and the increasing demand for low-cost travel, it is evident that easy Jet must remain inventive in its marketing and assign enough resources to make safe a long-term position as the market leader.

Strategic business management

Strategic business management Introduction: Strategic business management has its roots in the thinking of the workforce; strategic thinking can no longer become a textual presence of words in the notebooks. The training programs and the meeting conducted at the sense of urgency do not mean that a company is on the right path. In the competitive era the stability of the market is doubted. Even though experts and analysts say the market is recovering from the slow down, the psychological impact that has changed the attitude of people had to be recovered, and it will take time on the long run. In this research of study certain tools and business strategies are used that exemplifies the impact that change bring in and how the company needs to manage the change. Resistance to chance would occur in the initial stages. The source of information that is used in this assignment. Comprises secondary data s by means of white papers, journals, magazines and case studies of the company were also used. The analysis part of this assignment includes the interpretation of psychological attitudes that exists when a change is implemented. And when a company decides to grow itself strategically impacts would be demographics and all the functional areas of the management such as production, operations, finance, human resource, marketing etc But all the outcomes of the results purely rely on the workforce and their attitude. The nature of the research is descriptive as the assignment examines the existing affairs of the company. And it also includes the Expost Facto method in sourcing of the datas. COMPANIES TAKEN IN TO CONSIDERATION FOR THE ASSIGNMENT: In this assignment as per the instructions laid down, as a must I have taken in to account the strategies and the process of International Business Machines one of the pioneers in information technology and computer hardware. And for the optional choice of opting the other company o have taken HONDA The power of Dreams, the reason I chose was personal and I always have a craze on the engine and the models of Honda. At the other end, Honda is known for its expansion and diversification in the recent past as they also pioneer in Intellectual Property Rights in getting the patent rights for their designs of engines. As this assignment needs a wide discussion on the change management I opted for Honda that has a strong workforce. TASK I SOURCES OF CHANGE AND ITS IMPACT CHANGE IS THE ONLY THING THAT CANNOT BE CHANGED without change it will be boredom for human beings and also for other living things. Liberalization, privatization and globalization all these have enhanced the frequency of occurrence of change. Competition exists everywhere smart people are defined by the way they adopt to change. Since the cultural impact plays a role in managing the change, traditional philosophy in the flow of communication in the management also defines the future. Information technology has created resistance to change, especially for the tradional and the baby boomers. As these generations of workforce stick on to the routine work and resist change. Not to blame them but its the responsibility for the management to sort out such things without dissatisfying. SOURCES OF CHANGE IN AN ORGANIZATION: PEST AND ITS ROLE ON CHANGE: Most of us would wonder the relation between a change and the PEST. _ SHAPE * MERGEFORMAT ____ POLITICAL: Legislative norms to be abided by the companies on the run might create a change in any of the management process. For example, few of the acts that had come in to enforcement like Paternity act and more had to be implemented by the human resource department. But the intentional movement and implications that are laid down by the ruling party should be abided by a company. This involves sudden change in the norms and the standard operating procedures followed by a company. But when again another party comes to ruling in the next 5 years another set of implications will be laid down at this time when a company is undergoing expansion it will face lot of resistance at this juncture. SOCIO CULTURAL: The employment opportunity that prevails in the current scenario is the worst of all times. The impact of the slowdown has thrown its roots psychologically in the mindset of the people and thus it has an impact on the productivity too. And the socio cultural patterns might also reflect on this as companies like Honda, IBM have a diversified workforce problems might arise when downsizing is done. The life style choices of the employees coming from various origins might also be reason to accept or refuse a change when a company diversifies its portfolio. And the cultural fit of new hires is also a subset that falls under this. TECHNOLOGICAL: Technological boom has helped the companies to automate work up to a great extent and the impact of the emerging technologies might have the urge to bring about a change in the organization. Internet intranet, remote and Tele Commuting has helped the workforce to balance their work and life. In order to beat the rivals and compete with them the Research and Development department has the key role and its is more or less dependent on the information technology. Change might also be viewed especially in this area. The transfer of technology when a company is in an expansion mode might also cause change and bring about problems. ECONOMICAL When a company is undergoing change either it is in an expansion mode the existing business cycle stage has its part for sure. Companies like HONDA, IBM are in the matured stage and so these factors contribute to the decisions that they take to opt for diversification. Pink slips and the unemployment rates along with the inflation and the growth rate have gone down. The U.S mortgage loan i.e., the sub prime crises has also hit the other markets and this is because of the reason the impact of globalization. The Labour costs and the availability of the manpower vs. the vacancies are also to be considered as these might force to bring about a change in an organization. TASK II INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES AND ITS CHANGE (STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT) International Business Machines pioneering in hardware, software and also in IT service this baby was born in the year 1896. Herman Hollerith being the founder he maintains about 398,455 employees globally. With enormous diversifications across the world it has one if the best strategic team that opens its ears across the changes form time to time. Recession is said to occur recently, but IBM had learnt on how to cope up the changes that occurs due to recession. In the late 1986, IBM faced a recession this is sadi to be one of the worst time the company had faced but to be http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1075217,00.html http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1075217,00. (date:21-12-09, time: 3.35p.m) IBM The recession in 1986: In 1986, the IBM has slum down its market capability. Since 1981, the sales have slipped about 35% to 29%. It has sales around 3 million in personal computer in the year 1981. The market has continuously slipped in the year of 1986. The profit has comes down as 4% and the sales also move slowly. The market share ranges as 133% to 125% in a week. 9,370 computers are launched for the customer during the period of 1986. But it is inefficient to transport the computers to other branches. The customer should not wait till the computer reach to them. Only Loyal customer may wait for that. The IBM has decreased the retail sales during this period and they sales to the NYNEY, the New York based company. The recession was followed by the launch of nearly 9370 computers in the market. In this case the value chain got struck as the lead time to reach the customers got delayed. The primary stream of the value chain was good still the secondary chain including the retailers, dealers was having some problem. This might be because of the mass production that the company was in to. This led to dissatisfaction among the new customers as the word of mouth turned bad and at the other end the loyal customers might also get dissatisfied. And this led to a decision of destructing the sales that IBM was handing over to retail sales. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1075217,00.html (date:22-12-09, time: 5.15p.m) The EXIM norms that were laid down at south Korea and Japan led to imports at low tariffs and the logistics returns were not goods the other end the rivals were opting for smart thinking with the emergence of laptops and mini computers the rivals were capturing the market share and at the end of the day IBM was forced to push down the selling of computers. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-158239452.html (date:23-12-09, time: 3.45p.m) DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS: In the case of IBM the fame that it had in its own origin was relatively high. It is very usual that the local market and the perceptions among the retailers and the customers would be positive. And at the other end, the corporate social responsibility that IBM has served to the origin would also serve as a catalyst for further prospects in the same region. And when it comes to the products competitive strength even though the value chain of IBM has proved to be poor, the product fitness is said to be quiet good an even it could be considered as a competitive edge. INFERENCE: The marketing strategies of IBM solely rely on the 4Ps Product, Price, Promotion, and Place. Hence, the inference from the analysis is that the competitors for IBM is more and even in the period of 1987, besides the decline they have grabbed lot of eco friendly awards for ensuring the hazardous wastes to be low. And to the surprise, IBM made it to a percentage of 96% which none of them scored. And the recent initiative that IBM had made in the name of GO GREEN IBM, in which when a project head shouts GO Green all the employees under his belt switches off the monitor they by reducing the green house gas content to the maximum. Coming to the market growth IBM is making ways to expand its market to a greater extent in the presence of competitors the strategies should be focusing on converting the strength at ease by making use of the opportunities. And also the intelligence team and the Research and development team should keep itself updated right starting from the job cuts and the cos t cutting impacts and its relation with the consumer behavior. IBM goes Green Business Week,29/12/09,06.00.p.m IBM IN THE EXPANSION MODE: The strategic team consisting of around 6-8 people in the IBM strategic department devised a growth strategy for expanding its services in all directions. At this juncture the management was much more concerned about ensuring the following things: Setting up a new R D plant in the areas to be diversified. The workforce at these places might consist of experts and also few people with a diversified mixture. The expansion should ensure that the resources by all means should be utilized effectively and efficiently. No room for psychological deviations should exist at the time of expansion. Headhunting a competent workforce candidates from the rivals at the area where the company is expanding After considering the golden rules IBM decided to sketch the road map for calking out the expansion. At the time of expansion IBM was concerned about achieving the growth by means of hike in sales, profits, assets and also the stake holder satisfaction by enhancing the value of returns. Cost cutting at the same of expansion was also a challenge that was hiding behind. Implementation of Total quality Management tools such as 6 sigma, 5S were the areas where IBM ensured perfection. For this a team of quality circles were also appointed and expenses over the Training and development were turning high but they were continuing it expecting Return on Investment through Proper Reinforcement that as possible only when IBM provides a conducive climate for working. This task was then focused towards the Human Resource Department. Several research and surveys were conducted to measure the existing working climate at IBM plants and necessary changes were also made to ensure the reinforcement is witnessed VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL GROWTH PLANS OF IBM Soon after the plans got devised IBM started working at full phase, it was concentrating on enhancing the value chain in the secondary stream especially in the distributors and suppliers (retailers)and at the recent statistics IBM has gone for serving the customers at the door step. The use if SAP by means if ERP made the suppliers and the retailers to get connected directly. ERP VERTICAL GROWTH OF IBM: The need of Enterprise Resource planning across the service points was very high. IBM understood this and soon it acted on the opportunity. The extent of interaction went to such a level where the suppliers could place an order from the desktop of their service point to the production plant. This growth base was not easy as the implementation of ERP brought about psychological barriers. ERP implementation and Change Management: Both the backward and the forward integration was possible was IBM on the use of ERP. Still, resistance to change occurred at IBM and the company was pushed to the process of managing change. IBM CHANGE MANGEMENT STRATEGY THE LEWINS 3 STEP MODEL: IBM was in the process of managing the resistance to change that raised in the diversification of the plants as well as the implementation of ERP. UNFREEZING: IBM mad the communication transparent and so it also conveyed the plans for the growth in the individual career growth plan and devised ways to unfreeze the change. MOVEMENT: IBM ensured that the new state will reach soon and it also happened as per the devised plan. REFREEZING: IBM ensured the HR practice and the climate after their companies expansion at different areas did not affect the emotional quotient of the employees. Counseling and work life policies were also designed and certain fringe benefits also were provided Horizontal Growth: IBM also moved through the phase of horizontal growth and the acquisitions with the other companies like TOKYO OKHLOA and KOGYO CO LTD turned to be one of the successful strategic alliances by means of working through low consumption of solar energy. Diversification @ IBM: IBM devised new product lines and perfect products with the help of research and development dept .The diversification was a combination of both concentric as well as conglomerate. As the first involved in enhancing the production process with marketing strategies through the sales force and the later involved the merger in to the solar business industry. The new products at IBM after the year 1986 and the recent collaboration with LENOVO has also paved way for the emergence of laptops and other devices. IBM now is trying to capture the market where it has been lagging earlier the restructuring process at IBM under the guidance of CEO Louis U. Gerstner who rearranged the brand and the logos and also incorporated the GO GREEN. TASK III An international company and pioneer in manufacturing of engines. Equal competitor for the German automobile companies when no one dreamt of it this company right now stands as a leader in the automobile industry. The company surprised the customers and delighted them by selling its product CIVIC HYBRID. Yes of course its HONDA THE POWER OF DREAMS. These dreams were made true when a simple mechanic named Soichiro Honda founded the company in the year 1940 at Japan. Incepting with a normal 50 cc bike Honda has now emerged as the core competitor for the rivals. http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Honda-Passenger-Car-Industry/206913 http://www.1stgencivic.org/(date: 23-12-09, time: 5.45p.m) THE DOWNFALL OF HONDA: When we are asked to comment about HONDA we would say its leading company in the automobile industry, but the fact is like any other company Honda also faced a downturn and this was said to happen when the company failed to invest actual funds in to Research and development at the right time. This paved advantage to its competitors like Toyota and Nissan. As Honda was keen in designing the engine it failed to take in to account the customer perceptions and taste of the customers in other countries. Later, the company decided to opt for a strategic alliance to enhance the productivity and to capture the market share in the other countries other than its origin. When Hondas strategic alliance team was analyzing on which of the action to select it went for a mutual beneficial consortium with DONGFEN a Chinese company as this resulting in capturing of markets with cost cutting in the process that minimized waste of time and resource at certain levels. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/6259440/Hondas-UK-plant-is- leading-the-car-industrys-revival.html(date:24-12-09, time: 6.21p.m) OTHER ALLIANCES: Honda did not stop with a mutual consortium it also decided to take along step of opting for a Joint Venture with Siel Siddhartha and it produced nearly 38,849 and nearly 15.5 million engines and this decision turned to be one of the most important moves that actually leveraged the financial risk of Honda. Honda also opted for a joint venture with siel followed by a value chain partnership which actually has now made Honda to be one of the pioneers in automobile manufacturing with one of the best in class total quality management and it has now captured the customers and had made them to be at the top of ladder of loyalty. Thus these strategic alliances with the other companies by means of value chain partnerships and joint ventures followed by a mutual consortium. The following were the pros that Honda acquired because of the strategic alliance. Research and development team got stronger and the company was able to make focus on a specific target of customers that also paved way to a decline in the risk that is to be bared individually rather it turned to be mutual risk and profit sharing decision. Thus by holding hands through strategic alliance Honda was able to strengthen its base and acquire more of the market. http://www.myautoupdater.com/a29182-world-class-honda-car-parts-sold.cfm(date:24 -12-09, time: 5.35p.m) TASK IV ASSESSMENT OF RISK INVOLVED IN RUNNING A NBFC BUSINESS Risk is there everywhere, with out proper assessment of risk even a traditional company would collapse in a short span of time. Risk management has been given more importance in the field of non banking financial corporation. The recent slow down that has rooted out from the sub prime crises has made all the industry to rethink of its strategies in opening and sustaining in the existing market. The initial investments that is required to run the business is relatively high. Some of the risk factors are discussed below: The nature of the financial product might not be very attractive as the rivals will be more in number. Finding out the small gap in this segment would be the challenge. The negative of financing would be the competition that the company would face form the banking industry as customers are more aware of the shortcomings in this regard. In the team of marketing the attrition rate has witnessed to be very high amidst the financial crises. The fancy incentives are not stable and so the income and the job security are also not constant. The marketing department would sell of the loans to the consumers but the problem rises when the collection team keeps on insisting the customers to repay the amount when fails leads to loss in the concern. The present rates that is prescribed by the government of u,k to run a business related to non banking financial industry is quiet tough to maintain. And moreover the issues of the corporate governance and the disclosure of the financial statements are the issues. The policies are now made stringent rather it was lenient those days that led to the recession. The task of processing the loan for a new commercial vehicle becomes an important risk factor as the appraisal of the customer and his pay back ability could fail at any time and more over the loss incurred in case of the customer failing to repay the amount is relatively high than in that of refinancing. RECOMMENDATIONS: The recommendations that I would put forward in this issue would be to follow the risk management and assessment tools usage and also the use of porters competitive strategy would be an optimal solution for the NBFC business. Cost Leadership: The NBFC is a service oriented sector and so the cost would be much more on the interest rates and the IRR value that the company would yield on the long run. The implications that are laid down by the government should be followed strictly. And also the mortgage loans would have an impact. Differentiation: In order to differentiate the products the NBFC industry is all complicated with lot of products and the mode reaching the customers and converting them in to a loyal customer by offering special loans based on the track records would be the solution on this function. Cost Focus: Nothing much on the cost focus is needed provided the interest rates are low. The above strategies would find out an optimal solution for the business to run successfully. Sekaran Uma, Strategic Management, published by Tata Mc Graw Hill, 2005(date: 23-12-09, time: 6.14p.m) BIBLIOGRALPHY: Mcshane L. Steven VonGlinow Ann Mary Sharma R. Radha, Organizational Behaviour, Published by Tata McGraw Hill, 2006 (date: 22-12-09) Robbins Stephen P, Organisational Behaviour, 12th Edition, published by Prentice Hall Pvt. 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