Key Dimensions of National Culture in Saudi Arabia using Hofstede Research Paper

Key Dimensions of National Culture in Saudi Arabia using Hofstede Model - Research Paper Example Uncertainty Avoidance The day to day business of Saudi Arabia is also greatly influenced by Islamic principles; which we will analyze in the light of Hofstede model. Geert Hofstede used 5 dimensions to analyze the culture of various countries; these dimensions being power distance individualism, masculinity/femininity, uncertainty avoidance and long term orientation. Hofstede analysis for Saudi Arabia validates that their Muslim faith plays a significant role in people’s lives. (Hofstede, 1980) Their business culture puts a great emphasise on personal relationships between business associates. The Saudis prefer to do business with their family members, friends or those they are quiet familiar with. This shows that they like to be in their comfort zones, and do not trust people easily while doing business. Saudis like to have rigid codes of belief and behaviors and are intolerant of unorthodox behavior and ideas. For example, they do not approve of any unislamic habits or behav iors like drinking alcohol, eating pork, womenizing, gambling etc. This also gives an insight on the uncertainty avoidance of Saudis, which is 80 and it indicates that they prefer to avoid uncertainty in life. While doing business with familiar people, they can avoid the risk of working with someone entirely new. They have strict islamic punishments for theft, rape, murder and other crimes to put an iron hand on criminals. They have conservative dress codes in business and do not approve of modern attires. They are very risk averse in nature and avoid changes. By having rigid codes of conducts, laws, regulations, and rules they ensure that there is least amount of uncertainty and the unexpected do not happen. Power distance Saudi Arabia works in a high power distance community. Power is distributed ineuqally and there are vertical organizational structure. (Doing business in Saudi Arabia, online) Saudia is one of the few countries in the world, where the greatest power lies in the r oyal palace. Their king has the most authority in the country. Their score of 95 (Hofstede, 1980) on power distance indicates that the people accept their strict hierarichal model and do not object the unequal distribution of power. The power is usually central and most decisions are made at the top level, which are then filtered down with clear and exact directions to subordinates. The subordinates are much less empowered as compared to other cultures, and they do not have authority to make decisions. This shows their tendency to stick to tradional values and unacceptibility for modern menthods of business and governance. Collectivistic Society Saudis muslim faith compels them to stick to their families. A great emphasize on the family values is given in islam. Saudis value their families and friends, and deem them to be the most important aspects of their lives. Their decisions are largely influenced by the social setting they live in, and the responsibilities they have as family members. With a score of 25, they are very collectivistic society. They are driven by long term commitments in the form of groups. These groups consists of family, extended family and friends. Because of their muslim faith, loyalty and strong relationships with their family and friends is very important. As Islam considers all muslims as brothers and sisters, Saudis are very committed towards their fellow muslims. Maculinity Goverened by their faith, women are given great respect

Reflective journal as an appendix to the report of case study Essay

Reflective journal as an appendix to the report of case study - Essay Example d)., p. 32-37; Learning module 8: Using a reflective journal n. d., p. 1). Through writing an academic reflective journal, a student is able to monitor personal skills and experiences, which are necessary for academic development as well as growth in career development. Moreover, the reflective journal is effective in analyzing skills developed through academic practices such as the research studies. The case study analysis assignment have been very instrumental in practicing classroom learning outcomes in an academic exercise, I sought to carry out an analysis of human resource management practices within a manufacturing industry that has operation sites within various nations: a multinational. This therefore necessitated wide reading in existing literature on management practices as well as the effectiveness and efficiency of the company in the capacity of production. The case study involved collection of data from the respective company, analyzing and interpreting the findings of the study for possible recommendations to the company as well as for subsequent research studies. Data collection methods employed included the survey method by use of questionnaires as well as through interview methods. Besides employing qualitative analysis tools, the study adopted the quantitative methods for the findings analysis. The case study therefore required interplay of competencies in fields of data collection, literature review as well as in data analysis. Interpretation tools were also very necessary for the success and effectiveness of the research study case. I. Description: The course of the case study involved activities, which were prerequisite to the success of the study (Boss et al., 2007, p. 1-2). Moreover, besides reading while conducting the literature review, I collected analytical data through interviews as well as survey methods. I also carried out an analysis of the data collected through statistical quantitative methods and through qualitative deductive methods (Ortlipp, 2008, p. 695). The analysis also entailed critical thinking in utilizing statistical knowledge for interpreting and making deductions from the outcomes gotten. II. Interpretation: The main reason for carrying out the case study was as a requirement or part of testing curriculum, for the business course undertaken as part of my undergraduate studies. This case study became very important for learning outside classroom and for utilizing the skills learnt within the classroom context. I learnt new ways of conducting research studies as well as for studying. Online research skills were among the new insights that were acquired through the study. Moreover, designing questionnaires and conducting pretests and actual data collection were other skills that were developed besides the classroom experience in drafting questionnaires. This experience and learning insights became fundamental in complementing the classroom experience where it served as a practice session. The ex perience gave me a strong sense of competitiveness in carrying out research studies and incorporating the classroom experience for the corporate work. This research study affirmed my feelings in competitive learning through giving me a chance to exercise learnt skill for

Fatigue Cracking of Pavement

Fatigue Cracking of Pavement Introduction to fatigue cracking of pavement Fatigue or alligator cracking is the most common type of pavement distress, it is infact the major one. This is the type of distress in which series of interconnected cracks appears due to the fatigue failure of the HMA surface when the pavement experience repeated traffic loading. These type of cracks later allow moisture infiltration into the pavement, the road surface gradually gets more rough, the infiltrated moisture then again accelerate the existing cracking which in worst case may end up being a small to large sized pothole. In other words, as the traffic loads get repeated on the pavement, fatigue cracking starts to initiate at the bottom of the flexible layer, which accounts for the tensile strains at the bottom of the HMA layer (Huang 1993).   Researchers suggested that, for the M-E structural design process of pavement, this tensile strength must be kept in limit in order to check against fatigue cracking (Shook,1982). Figure 1: Schematic diagram of Fatigue Craking Mechanism in Pavement Cross Section (Priest et al., 2006) Apart from the repeated stresses incurred upon the pavement surface, fatigue cracking may take place due to aging, temperature changes or inadequate drainage. The effects of these factors are really complicated which my lead to undesirable changes to asphalt, associated with the poor durability properties of the HMA layer. (Finn 1967). Though due to previous research, it was believed that, most of the cracks initiates at the bottom and then make its way to the top of the asphalt layer, which is also termed as bottom up fatigue cracking, recent studies shows that, in most cases, cracks initiates at the pavement surface on the wheel path and then make its way down to the bottom (Myers and Roque, 2001). Federal Highway Administrations Distress Identification Manual for the Long-Term Pavement Performance Program mentioned about three levels of severity for fatigue cracking, which are high severity fatigue cracking, moderate severity fatigue cracking and low severity fatigue cracking. High severity fatigue cracking is the ultimate stage of fatigue cracking. When the pavement has been stressed to the limit of its fatigue life, it is no longer attractive and is barely functional. This stage is called high severity of fatigue cracking. In this case, the cracks are formed in large areas and there are several pieces of loose surface asphalt. Pavement in this condition needs repair immediately. Moderate severity fatigue cracking is the stage when distinguished the arrival of connecting cracks are well recognized. The cracks tends to increase gradually and lower layers of road materials become evident. Heavy traffic load usually break the surface asphalt layer in pieces. Low severity fatigue cracking usually indicates an area of asphalt having only small cracks with very few or none of them connecting to display the zig zag alligator type shape. Also the cracks are not evidently removing lower layers of the road materials. (Miller, 2003) Figure 2: Fatigue Cracking in Pavement (Priest et al., 2006) Over the years, the researchers are trying to come up with a simple and standard fatigue testing procedure as till this date, there is no such standard test for fatigue cracking, as different states are evaluating performance against fatigue cracking differently. Tangella et el (1990), came up with an equation to measure the fatigue life, which also accounts for the varying temperature and loading frequency. Nf= k1 (1/ÃŽÂ µt)^k2 (1/E)k3 Where, Nf= Number of load cycles until fatigue failure ÃŽÂ µt= Applied horizontal tensile strain E= HMA mixture stiffness K1,k2,k3= Regression constant In their study, they emphasized on the flexural fatigue test, diametral fatigue, and tests employing fracture mechanics principals, as the most promising test procedures to characterize fatigue cracking. Later till this period, there are different test procedures such as, Overlay (OL) test, Indirect Tension (IDT) test, Direct Tension (DT) test, Semicircular Bending (SCB) test, are most commonly used to categorize fatigue cracking in the lab. In addition, comparison with the observed result with the field cores is also important. Hajj et al. (2005) emphasized on the mechanistic analysis to understand the interaction between structure, stiffness, and laboratory testing so that a balance can be made for the given field and traffic conditions on a per-project basis. They concluded that, as the field pavement has stiffer structure which will generate lower strains under traffic therefore a longer fatigue life will be observed in the field. Therefore, an overall study is required to charac terize fatigue cracking of the pavement. References: Huang, Yang H. Pavement Analysis and Design New Jersey: Prentice Hall,1993 Shook, J.F., F.N. Finn, M.W. Witczak, and C.L. Monismith. Thickness Design of  Asphalt Pavements The Asphalt Institute Method, Proceedings, 5th International  Conference on the Structural Design of Asphalt Pavements, Vol.1, The Netherlands,  1982, pp. 17-44. Miller J.S., Bellinger W.Y. Distress Identification Manual for the Long-Term Pavement Performance Program (Fourth Revised Edition), Technical Research Report FHWA-RD-03-031. Federal Highway Administration 6300 Georgetown Pike McLean, VA 22101-2296, 2003. Priest A.L. Timm D.H. Methodology And Calibration Of Fatigue Transfer Functions For Mechanistic-Empirical Flexible Pavement Design, NCAT Report 06-03. National Center for Asphalt Technology, Auburn University, Alabama, 2006. Tangella, R., J. Craus, J. A. Deacon, and C. L. Monismith. Summary Report on Fatigue Response of Asphalt Mixtures. TM-UCB-A-003A-89-3, SHRP Project A-003-A. University of California, Berkeley: Institute of Transportation Studies, 1990 Hajj, E. Y., P. E. Sebaalay, and D. Weitzel. Fatigue Characteristics of Superpave and  Hveem Mixtures. Journal of Transportation Engineering, ASCE , 2005, pp. 302-10.

God Chosen Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  God’s chosen examples. When God calls you must answer, my Baptist preacher bellows from his pulpit. Everyone has a purpose on this earth, but God has chosen a special few to help him carry out his divine plan, he continues. Countless Sunday mornings I spent listening to my pastor preaching about man’s encounters with God. He explains the significance of the encounters to the people of antiquity and he even relates the encounters to our every day lives. If one has met with God and seen His glory he is truly blessed. My pastor is correct no man has walked away from an encounter with God without being blessed, or the experience altering his life. Each divine experience occurs under very different circumstances, but all of them end with man having a better understanding of his purpose on this earth. The character could wrestle with the Lord and demand a blessing, like Jacob, or like Moses he could have been drawn to God by his own curiosity. The Lord came to Elijah when he was at the lowest point of his life and he wanted nothing more than to die, and He blessed him. Isaiah volunteered to help God to teach to the people of Israel, and the Lord blessed Isaiah for his enthusiasm. Job’s encounter with God is a combination of each of the above experiences. His experience exemplifies the individual relationship with God. The encounters with God may appear to be similar and indeed they do have common elements, but there is an important difference in the way God selects each character to fulfill his mission. In the early encounters, God selects the individuals. He calls and they answer. Towards the end the accounts however, the characters go in search for God’s blessing, unlike their early counterparts they demand or challenge God and their enthusiasm is rewarded. The different episodes show the gradual change between God and humanity. Throughout the accounts in the Bible God has loses favor with man, and this loss of favor is due chiefly to man’s failure to obey God ’s laws. God’s selection of His chosen people reflects clearly God’s love for the early patriarchs. God did love the later characters, but towards the end of the accounts God loses a tremendous amount of faith in humanity. Nonetheless the God does bless all whom He encounters, and His presence to each character help... ...ion of how an individual could find favor in God. The answer was even if one has nothing and can not stand on your own have faith in God and He will prevail. Job’s story gave individuals hope, because even if God was angry with the group one might be saved if he lived right and had faith. The story summed up the tenacious attitude of Jacob, the curiosity of Moses, the downtrodden sprit of Elijah and the humility of Isaiah. The story of Job was an every man story, because it combined tenants, which all men could relate to their lives. God blesses all everyone who recognizes and accepts His power. From Job’s story humanity is given guidelines to follow in order to be blessed by God. Jacob and Moses’ stories demonstrate God’s earlier position on the condition of humanity, and later character’s stories depict how the relationship disappears over time. After the story of Isaiah, man feels abandoned and all hope seems lost. However, the prophecy of the Messiah by of Isaiah and Job rejuvenates the hope of continuity for humanity. A promise, which was given to man a long time ago, but due to his disobedience over time man, has lost the essential tenants to uphold his end of the bargain.

Carter Case Essay

1) First, how would you recommend we go about reducing the turnover in our stores? Turnover is a problem that is likely to be present in any low payed, low skilled job. Carter Cleaning can directly effect this turnover rate in a positive way through some guidance. Some great incentive for people to stay with a business is by providing opportunities for advancement. This could be practiced by Carter Cleaning by offering management positions to people who have been working with the organization and fit the criteria. Also, they could offer incentives such as discount dry cleaning for the employees families as incentive to stay. Another way to reduce turnover is to provide a functional, employee engaged, and cheerful work environment. Making the workplace an enjoyable experience for employees is a huge part in getting them to stay with the company. TLNT suggests, †create meaningful employee experiences,† to help reduce turnover. Finally they can also provide very flexible work schedules, so that people have a greater comfort and freedom to work when they would like. The Wall Street Journal suggests, â€Å"Pay attention to employees’ personal needs and offer more flexibility where you can,† in order to reduce turnover. Another angel of attacking the turnover problem is by having a good hiring process. Hiring good fits for a job is important in keeping them active in the business. This can be done as Heathfield argues in about.com by, â€Å"Select the right people in the first place through behavior-based testing and competency screening.† If Carter Cleaning implements these suggestions a decrease in turnover can definitely be expected. 2) Provide a detailed list of recommendations concerning how we should go about increasing our pool of acceptable job applicants so we no longer face the need to hire almost anyone who walks in the door. Many ideas come straight out of my Human Resource Management text book to answer this question. An important place to start would be forecasting workforce and turnover for the business. This can be done by viewing statistical data over the past years. That way the company knows when they are likely to need new hires. The second thing that should be done is an increased applicant pool. This can be obtained in several ways. First, I would create interest in working at the business by promoting its job strengths in the local areas. They could promote themselves as a pleasant place to work, or a flexible place to work. This can be done by bulletins, web advertisements, and window signs. A strong and good brand will attract more people to want to work and apply to Carters Cleaning Company,â€Å"†¦should build its brand or reputation amongst potential applicants† (Dessler, 114). Also, let applicants know of any benefits for working with the company, and promoting the possibility of advancement from within. This will draw initial interest to the company. The company must exist on the internet, â€Å"For most employers and for most jobs, Internet-based recruiting is by far the recruiting source of choice† (Dessler, 116). This makes it easy for interested parties to apply to the company. Creation of an effective and easy to use application for both the web and walk-ins is crucial. This will provide an easy selection process for Carter Cleaning, and less hassle for interested parties. These promotions must be effectively placed throughout the web to attract the correct type of people that would be interested in this kind of job. This can be done by utilizing social media such as facebook, myspace, and linkedIn. These pages can be â€Å"crawled† virtually to find possible applicants based on a number of related items such as location, interest, and education. To even further increase the applications, referrals are very effective. Jennifer should post new job â€Å"†¦openings and requests for referrals on [the company’s] website, bulletin board, and/or wallboards† (Dessler, 125). Employee referrals typically â€Å"†¦provide accurate information about the job applicants they refer†¦,† which will make it easier to find qualified applicants to fill opened positions with qualified employees that will most likely stay at the company over six months (Dessler, 125). Finally, there needs to be a place to record applications for future use. This could either be done on a computer or physical files. The basic way of solving this problem is to keep job interest high by promotions, and possible hires close at hand with the use of application records. References Experiencing Employee Turnover – More Tips to Reduce Employee Turnover How to Reduce Employee Turnover – Management – WSJ.com 10 Tips For Reducing Employee Turnover Dessler, G. (2014). Fundamentals of human resource management (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

B2B Report

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The report will firstly analyze the external audit of Processed Food & Food Service and Confectionery & Bakery industries, which consist of two parts – market analysis and customer analysis. From these two parts, the opportunities and threats of the suppliers in these industries, especially DKSH, will be outlined. In the market analysis, business environment, the market and competitors will be examined respectively.Particularly, the opportunities about the increase in demand or a good signal of industrial development will be explained in social factors, economic factors and industry part; these factors will give general information about Vietnam young population and their Western culture receptivity, which will easily increase the demand in such industry.On the other hand, legal factor will threaten DKSH due to the strict requirement in canned food industry that the firm needs to take caution in order to adapt to new regulation; while the economic factors onc e again strengthen the opportunity from social factors due to the increase in GDP growth and income. However, the inflation rate should also be considered because it could cause the inconstant demand and be difficult to forecast future demand in the future. The market part also gives some general information about the size based on the value of packaged food industry around US$12. billion in 2011 with the prediction of 4. 2% growth rate in next two years, which promises the development of these two clusters in the near future. Secondly, customer analysis is divided into two main features, which are current customers and potential customers. In current customer analysis, the report will give the information about each cluster’s market share of the top companies holding the highest percentage; Masan in sauce market, Acecook in instant noodles market, and Kinh Do in confectionery & bakery market.Then, more details information about these current customers will be examined in ter m of sales, their expectation such as building up deeper relationship with their multinational suppliers, and difficulty such as high input cost. After that, potential customer part is analyzed based on proposed potential customer list; this part contains some companies regard to Lien Hoa, Hieu Cau Den in processed food; and Huu Nghi and Hai Ha in bakery and confectionery. Especially, some reasons will be given based on the research and analysis about these companies in order to prove that they re ideally potential customers of DKSH. Thirdly, the internal audit is conducted to give the brief idea about the company; DKSH sales structures are activated in product and geographically based, and the strengths of the company about qualified staffed and good value added service are figured out in resources and marketing mix management part. From industry and customer analysis, the SWOT gives the summary of company strengths and weakness; and opportunities and threats in graph illustration form. Next, the marketing plan is proposed in order to give the best fit with the SWOT.The marketing objective that applied SMART approach will aim to increase the demand, brand awareness as well as the way to approach to potential customers with the specific point of time which is from 1st October 2012 to 1st April 2013. Then, the implementation plans relied on marketing mix, including direct marketing, personal selling and sale promotion will be planned specifically. To give more visual prospect about the marketing plan, the marketing program gives detail schedule as an action plan; and finally the performance evaluation will give some idea about how to evaluate the success of this marketing plan.Contents I. Introduction5 II. External Audit6 A. Market Analysis6 1. Business Environment6 2. The Market8 3. Competitors10 B. Customer Analysis11 1. General Information11 2. Current Customers13 3. Potential Customers17 III. Internal Audit23 A. Company Analysis23 1. Sales23 2. Management o f marketing mix23 3. Resources23 IV. SWOT25 A. Strengths25 B. Opportunities25 V. Marketing Objectives26 VI. Implementation Plans26 VII. Marketing Program27 A. Direct Marketing27 1. Telephone Marketing27 2. Email Marketing27 B. Personal Selling29 C.Sales Promotion29 D. Action Plan29 VIII. Performance Evaluation31 IX. Conclusion32 X. Appendix33 A. Potential Customer List33 B. Mapping Itinerary37 1. Southern37 2. Northern40 XI. Reference41 * Introduction DKSH is one of leading companies in market expansion services that has been established in 1865 and exist for 150 years in Asia. Thus, â€Å"Think Asia, Think DKSH† is recognized as company's slogan and that could tell how successful DKSH is in Asia. With a strong financial performance that has increased rapidly from 2002 to 2011 that exceed 8. % in net sales, DKSH becomes a strongest successful market leader recently. Obviously, its objectives are to help firms to grow their business in new and existing market by supplying know ledge, advice, relationship to reach each individual's goal, expand company's revenue opportunities and increase their market shares by making sure that their client's products are always visible on the shelves at all times. DKSH's business units are divided into 4 main business lines: Food ; Beverage (F;B), Personal Care, Pharmaceuticals and Specialty Chemicals.In fact, this report is going to analyze on 2 small clusters: Confectionary ; Bakery, and Processed Food which included in F;B industry in order to help DKSH to remain on the existing market and expand their business to the new market. To be more specific, integrated marketing communication tools that are direct marketing (telephone ; email), personal selling and sales promotion (trade promotion) will be applied to support push strategy in order to approach to potential customers. External Audit Market Analysis Business EnvironmentSocial Factors According to General Statistics Office (2010), Vietnam population in 2010 is aro und 88 millions with 51. 9% of this figure is younger than 30. Hence, it could become an opportunity for confectionery and processed food markets in increasing demand for consuming these kinds of product due to the receptivity of young population as well as the influence of Western culture. For this reason, suppliers of ingredients for these products can potentially enhance the number of customers as well as their sales in Vietnam market.Legal Factor According to Civil Law Network (2010), the ministry has implemented a new regulation for food safety, and requires all enterprises in food industry to strictly comply with the law of standard safety food. To be more specific, the Government encourages food manufactures in using high quality ingredients and adding more nutrition in their products. Moreover, they also require the manufactures in focusing on managing the supply of ingredients from upstream.Consequently, it could be the threat for food manufacturing companies to manage and have a specialized knowledge about supplied ingredients and their suppliers are expected to invest more in innovating their products in order to meet the regulation and more persuasive for the manufacturing firms to use their products. Furthermore, the regulation for environmental friendly packaging in food service also stricter (Civil Law Network 2010). Thus, it requires food service suppliers to put more effort in investing new or innovating current kinds of packaging that could adapt to environment issues.Economic factors In 2010, Vietnam’s GDP growth rate was 5. 83% (tradingeconomics. com 2012), hence the monthly average income per capital had increased to 39. 4% compared to 2008 and was estimated to be 1,387 thousand VND. As the result, this increase in income have gradually shifted Vietnamese consumers in premium segments such as sweet, ice cream or cakes and consumers also have higher requirements of diverse tastes, food quality, and nutrition for package food and also bakery (Vietnam package food, 2011).It is the good opportunities for supplying companies to catch up with these trends by developing current and new ingredients in respond with these market trends. However, the significant influence of the inflation rate cannot be denied. Based on tradingeconomics. com data, the Vietnam inflation rate in the third quarter in 2011 was around 22. 42% whish was the highest rate in Asia (bbc. co. uk). Hence, the demand in food market had declined in this period; therefore, manufactures can be threatened in forecasting future demand due to some unpredictable economic factors.Consequently, the suppliers are also affected by that because it could be difficult for them to rank the potentiality of their customers in near future. The Market In the report â€Å"Newzealand Trade;Enterprise† (2011), the author states that the value of packaged food industry in Vietnam was approximatelyUS$13. 3 billion in 2011 with the average growth rate at 4. 2% in the next two year. In addition, based on General Statistics Office website (2011), the value of confectionery sales is predicted to increase to US$ 471. 6 million at the end of 2012 and this figure is going to increase more than 10% each year for the next four years. These numbers indicate that there is a very highly potential demand for confectionery and processed food industry. * Competitors Connell Brothers, DKSH and Brenntag have been ranked as top 10 leading chemical distributors in Asia in 2011. Specifically, they all operate in Vietnam and engage in many types of industries such as food ; beverage, personal care, specialty chemicals, and pharmaceutical industry.As shown in the graph, it can be seen that DKSH has much less sales as well as power compared to Connell Brothers in the global market in 2011. At the meantime, the sale of DKSH and Brenntag is slightly different. Therefore, DKSH is required to put more efforts to gain its market share globally in order to build further di stance with Brenntag and shorten the distance with Connell Brothers. Customer Analysis General Information First of all, the paper is going to show some figures related to market share of some leading firms in Vietnam (2011) for two industries: processed food and bakery.For processed food market, market share of sauce and instant noodles have been displayed; while in bakery industry, confectionery and biscuit market have been demonstrated. Market Share- Processed Food (Source: Euro Monitor International) Sauce market For the diagram above, it shows that Masan owns comparatively larger market share than any other firms in such market. But since the portion of â€Å"others† still has 25% of the marker share, it is believed that some potential customers in this category can be found. Instant noodles marketThe major key player in this industry is Acecook, with 51% of market share while the other firms are holding less than 20% respectively. The report selects Masan food as an ins tance to explore knowledge under current customer analysis. Market Share – Bakery (Source: Euro Monitor International) Confectionery market Confectionery market is diverse, with many firms hold similar portion of shares. Among them, Kinh Do takes the 1st place in the market, follow by Huu Nghi and Hai Ha. The 2nd and 3rd key players in the market can be the potential customers for DKSH.Further information related will be given below in â€Å"Potential customer†. Biscuit market There are mainly two key players in the market, Kinh Do and Kraft Food, while each of other firms retain from 4~11% as their market share in the biscuit industry. Due to Kinh Do has an outstanding performance on the market share, the report will take it as a specimen in analyzing current customers. Current Customers There are many customers that DKSH is currently having connection with, including both local and foreign firms.The paper will choose one customer from each cluster, Masan Food and Kin h Do, to analysis the position of it through searching on background information, sales performance, and then raise opportunity and threat. Masan Food (Processed food) Mason Food is belonged to Masan Group, a firm that specialized on Techcombank financial services. After years of operation, Mason Food has become leading brand of processed food market in Vietnam, which has dominance on market share in some product categories. The product range includes fish sauce, soy sauce, instant noodles (74%, 78%, 14% of the market respectively) and other kinds of product.Sales Performance (Source: Business Monitor International ) Opportunity Despite Masan Group is established as a local enterprise, it recently decides to build a relationship of acquisition with Nuiphao Mining Joint Venture Company Ltd, becoming one of the largest private sector resources companies (Masan Group Investor Update n,d). Cooperating with local or foreign investment is an opportunity for firm to receive more capital to invest in its operations. Due to DKSH is a multinational firms already, the business is expected to be enrich by cooperating with local firms in other industries to expand the operation range.Threat As a processed food manufacturer, Masan Food faces a problem that sometimes the price for raw materials is fluctuating(Business Monitor International, 2012). For the earning benefit point of view, Masan Food should pass the costs from consumers, but that can threaten the chance of losing customers. To illustrate, the FMCG industry is a price sensitive environment that contains many brands at similar level. If one brand’s price is higher result from increasing costs to reflect its margin, customers can easily choose another brand because the switching cost is low.Volatile input costs can be a threat to the food manufacturer because the manufacturer needs to choose whether to burden itself or to pass on customers. Same story is applicable in DKSH’s case, if the input price h as a significant increase, DKSH has to decide whether to bear the costs or compensate from its customers; both decisions are having certain drawbacks needed to be considered. Sales Breakdown (Source: hsc company update) Kinh Do Corporation (Bakery and Confectionery) Kinh Do is a local brand that established in 1993, which is one of the largest food producers in Vietnam nowadays.The core business of the firm is food related products: confectionery (cakes, candies), beverage (water, juice) and dairy products. Kinh Do also involved in some other industries such as real estate and grocery retailing. The brand creates a good image that allows them to gain certain customer awareness and even awarded as top ten of Vietnam’s best brands (Ha 2011). Sales Performance (Source: Business Monitor International) Opportunity As indicated before in the report, health awareness has raised from customers when they purchasing confectionery product.Consequently, higher level of quality is require d from food manufacturer in order to satisfy customers. As showed from annual report, Kinh Do provides best materials in manufacturing their products, aim to satisfy its customers in a better extent. Indeed, sellers should be responsible to meet the requirement when there is a concern about product’s specification such as â€Å"health† mentioned above. Without doubt, they can gain more recognition if they can achieve the condition. DKSH is getting involved in this health concerned manufacturing process due to it is one of sellers of Kinh Do.If DKSH can attain the requirement, which it already does, it is expected that the buyers will be satisfied, and they are willing to create more opportunities to corporate with DKSH in the future. Threat Kinh Do depends largely on the domestic market but that makes the company fragile with the fluctuating customer demand (Business Monitor International, 2012). Actually, change in customers’ preference can affect organizationa l demand in both positive and negative ways, but here it seems more likely to be threat from the view of the Kinh Do.Because local buyers are the main sources of generating sales, if the number of them is not stable, firm’s overall performance will obviously be affected. Likewise, inquiry that DKSH received from food manufacturers is affected by customer’s demand. If the perception of buyers is low, sellers will gain lesser results from the declining demand, and vice versa. Being instable with the demand can be interpreted as the firm is actually dependent by the market trend. In this case, DKSH has no control over the changing demand; therefore it can be a threat. Sales Breakdown (Source: hsc company update)Potential Customers Apart from keeping relationship with current customers, exploring new customers is also important for a business. To give our more precise information, the report lists four potential customers from the two clusters, with background information, product range and reason why it is recommended as being â€Å"potential†. Detail contacts of other potential customers can be founded in appendix. Lien Hoa (Processed food) Lien Hoa was established since 2008, by Thierrty Pham, an industrialist who has more than 15 years’ experience in the industry.The firm operates following European standard to ensure the quality of the products. As mentioned from the official website, Lien Hoa has signed exclusive contract with other brands such as Uni-President and Siam Brothers to be its business partners. Moreover, the products of Lien Hoa are widely distributed with supermarkets like Giant, Metro and Big C (Lien Hoa, 2011). Reason Although the brand is new compares to some other existing sellers in the market, it is expected to grow due to qualified and experienced methodology used by the firm.Furthermore, the brand has shown its ambition to boost the market by cooperating with well-known brands like Uni-President. Product rang e Hieu Cau Den Sausage (Processed food) It is a sub branch of Black Bride Food from Taiwan. The brand mainly offer traditional Taiwanese dished rice dumplings, meat floss, and some products commonly seen in Vietnam such as sausage and dumplings. The brand is also an importer for some food and beverage from Taiwan. Even though the brand is not as famous as other brands in the existing market, it is quite popular among the Taiwanese because the products fit their taste better.Reason Situation is slightly different compares to dealing with other brands in this case because the brand is not really concentrating on mass market but more likely on niche market, for Taiwanese currently. Becoming the supplier of it creates an opportunity to enhance brand awareness towards foreign consumers. Moreover, the location is in the same district with DKSH, and therefore it will be easier for DKSH to access. Product range Huu Nghi (Bakery and Confectionery) Huu Nghi is known as a noticeable confection ery brand in Vietnam since 1950’s. is having more than 120,000 retailers throughout Vietnam. Similar to other brands in confectionery industry, the brand holds eligible qualifications as criteria to control fabric of the products. The business expands its relation across the nation to many countries: United States, Japan and Singapore. In addition, Huu Nghi also exploits the business to agricultural products such as pepper and corn (Huu Nghi, 2011). Reason The firm possesses proficient knowledge in trading with businesses across the country, thus, it is foreseeable that their experience can abound the business prospects.Also, as DKSH is a multi-national enterprise, Huu Nghi can understand the operation or regulations better result from their sophisticate. Product range Hai Ha (Bakery and Confectionery) Hai Ha Confectionery Joint Stock Company (HaiHaCo) has set up for more than 40 years and turns it status from public to private in 2003, aiming to provide qualified products to serve its customers. With advanced technology, Hai Ha can utilize its equipment plus the specialists to maximize its effort to engage in confectionery industry.Consumers of Hai Ha choose it as â€Å"Vietnam high-quality goods† for continuous 13 years (Hai Ha, 2011). Reason Apart from dominant brands like Kinh Do, Bibica and Kraft, Hai Ha ranked as 4th in market share of both confectionery and biscuit sector in Vietnam. It can be a great opportunity if DKSH can work with them as a seller due to Hai Ha’s high portion of sales caused by variety products. Product range Sales performance (Source: hsc company update) Internal Audit Company Analysis Sales DKSH has structured its sales force by product based, in which different sales team will be organized based on business lines.This method has created the strength for sales team as it can offer professional and skillful staffs with deep knowledge about their products. Face to face communication facilitates the interaction w ith customers by allowing them to question and negotiate directly, and thus lead to the opportunity to build long-term relationship. Additionally, to ensure the effectiveness of sale team, DKSH also divides its sales force based on geography, in which each sales team will be located and responsible for different areas across Vietnam.Management of marketing mix The annual report of DKSH claimed that DKSH will work with its customers to understand their needs, and then provide customized solutions to them. This is indicated that they are achieving cooperation relationship, which integrated into NPD (new product development) and new resolutions. Moreover, in order to strengthen their relationship, DKSH has provided customers the access to knowledge, advice, relationship, and logistics. At the mean time, DKSH ensures that the customers’ products will successfully grasp the right market.This is shown that there is a chance to build long-term collaborative relationships between the m. If this relationship remains well, then there will be potential to create long term alliances – to build specialist knowledge or strategic partnerships. Resources Due to the world wide sourcing network in more than 70 markets and the expertise in each cluster, DKSH is very confident in providing any needed ingredients for its customers. Moreover, for highly applicable purpose, research and analysis service can also help customers in creating and developing new or customized product ideas.Obviously, this is also one of DKSH strengths as it helps customers to be able to sustain in their market and differentiate their product offerings over competitors. DKSH has applied SalesForce. com as its own tool to manage sale teams. It allows each individual sales person to organize the new, potential and current customer’s information and the managers then can look at the working process of their inferiors. Moreover, DKSH can also translate all customer data to up date informat ion in timely manner. Another strength of DKSH is that it can efficiently manage its distribution channel.To allocate the channel tasks, the firm needs to achieve four main factors regarding reduce complexity, increase value, transaction efficiency and service quality. DKSH has industry expertise and offer â€Å"comprehensive Market Expansion Services†; therefore the firm can help its customers to reduce the number of separate exchange that they need to take place in order to collect different ingredients that are needed for their production. The firm does not only provide materials to manufactures but it also provides the concepts and formulations that go with these materials.For this reason, understanding what customers expect is one of the necessary key that takes part in DKSH’s success; therefore value is added in each process. Moreover, DKSH offers the whole supply chain management; hence its customers can be beneficial in getting lower operational costs and also in increasing the value. Non-stop in innovating the new sources or materials to meeting customer’s needs for their own application or market trend is one of the advantage that illustrates for DKSH’s good service quality.Furthermore, the organization also have good after sales services such as monitoring of technical staff at customer site, order processing and warranty timely delivery. SWOT Strengths DKSH recruits experienced staff and professions in the field, the prominent knowledge level can be a base for providing stronger technical support. Instead of only supplying for ingredients, DKSH offers formulation description discussion with customers to understand them better for value-added services. With this tradition, DKSH can set up a long term relationship with its customers. DKSH offers â€Å"comprehensive market expansion service†.This benefits customers by reducing the number of exchanging points to go through. Consequently, operating and transaction cost s can be lessen. Opportunities Purchasing power of customers in Vietnam is enhanced caused by an increase in GDP; they have better earning to make purchase and thus greater demand of luxury food items can results. It is expected that lifestyle of young population in Vietnam will differ from Generation X, preferring more ready meal like confectionery products and processed food. Hence, a growth in demand is foreseeable. Marketing Objectives Objectives of the marketing plan will be outlined based on SMART approach.Firstly, the new potential customer list which does not include in DKSH’s current customer list helps DKSH to expand its customer database in its internal network regard to salesforce. com. Secondly, the direct marketing such as telephone and email marketing plan will be proposed from 1st October 2012 to 8th March 2013 in order to approach the potential customer list step by step and enhance the brand awareness in both current and potential customers. It will be able to achieve 40% of number of potential customers who are willing to answer through phone call or email.Thirdly, personal selling plan is applied from 15th October 2012 to 31st October 2012 to achieve the remained number of potential customer from above step; hence the sales of the company is estimated to increase by 30%. This plan will be conducted according to the mapping itinerary which helps the sale team easily to visit customer based on the efficient action plan. Finally, sales promotion program is planned as the boom strategy in order to help DKSH easier to create the demand among potential customers that applied in direct marketing and personal selling plan.Implementation Plans The most appropriate B2B marketing communication strategy that should be used to approach to potential customers as well as make them become DKSH’s â€Å"current† customers is push strategy. Specifically, direct marketing, personal selling, and trade promotions will be used by DKSH to make its potential customers aware of its products and create demands, as well as to maintain and strengthen relationships with the current customers. Marketing Program Direct Marketing Telephone Marketing Potential customersIn direct marketing, telephone marketing should be used to directly communicate with these potential customers; DKSH should come up with the calling schedule, which indicates the number of sales people and the number of manufacturers (potential customers) need to be contacted in each region in one day. To illustrate, there are around 60 potential customers founded by the research team; DKSH can assign its sales people to make the call to 10 manufacturers in one day. This means DKSH will reach all 60 manufacturers within 6 days.In order to save customers’ time and the company’s costs, the sales persons should not introduce too much about DKSH’s history and its achievements via telephone. Instead, they should go straight to the core information su ch as types of products or ingredients that the customer needs, the price, and what DKSH can do for them. Moreover, the good point of this strategy is that it offers two-way communication and thus allows customers to question directly. For this reason, it is very important for DKSH to assign skillful spoken sales people to this project. Current customersIn addition, it is also important to schedule the calls to current customers in order to inform them about DKSH’s new products or ingredients, promotions, as well as to remain relationships with them. To illustrate, DKSH now has totally 105 current customers for food ; bakery cluster; assume that it will call to 10 customers in 1 day, so it will finish calling to all 105 customers within 11 days. It is recommended that DKSH should make this calling schedule every six months; at the beginning of each month for the current customers in order to keep frequent contact with them to update their latest situation and their new demand s.Email Marketing Potential customers As mentioned above, telephone marketing is used for the purpose of reaching potential customers by going straight to the core issue and providing them the core information. Therefore, other general information such as company’s background, history, achievements, number of skillful staff and techniques, and types of business lines will not be discussed in detail via telephone marketing. For this reason, it will be a good idea to email this information to DKSH’s potential customers so that they can have a clearer sight about DKSH.It is recommended that DKSH should email to the potential customers that it cannot successfully reach in telephone marketing for once a month to remind them and make them aware of DKSH products; it should do this at the beginning of each month. Current customers In telephone marketing, the sales people will inform the current customers about new products or ingredients, and the promotions. Then, in the email marketing, these sales people will email to the customers the related information in detail, such as the price table that indicates the price of each type of new product.Obviously, this tool is faster and incurs lower costs compared to other tools. Moreover, it tends to be more convenient to the customers compared to the telephone marketing. To illustrate, some contacted customers are so busy that they cannot listen too much what DKSH sales people want to tell them. In this case, email will be a better choice. As mentioned above, DKSH should make calling to the current customers every 6 months to frequently update their new demands.Simultaneously, DKSH should also try to come up with new products every 6 months to help its current customers to sustain in the competitive market as well as to retain them. Then, the sales people will email this related information in details to these customers; also do this for every 6 months, and at the beginning of each month. Personal Selling In pe rsonal selling, sales representatives of DKSH will be assigned face-to-face to these potential manufacturers in each region; these manufacturers (potential customers) are those that DKSH cannot catch in direct marketing.The number of sales representatives will be decided relying on the number of manufacturers in a particular region. To be more specific, DKSH can go to visit 4 manufacturers in 1 day; keeping doing this until it can catch up all of the potential customers that left in direct marketing. The main task of these representatives is to try to understand customers’ purchasing criteria as well as to provide brief information about DKSH’s main industries and products in order to increase the product awareness. Moreover, it is important to emphasize the benefits that DKSH can bring to them. Sales PromotionIn trade promotions, the telephone marketers and sales representatives should emphasize that DKSH will offer lower prices (5% discount) compared to the market pr ice to its potential customers for their first purchases; this means the more they purchase, the more discount they can get. Therefore, it will be the incentive for these customers, and this type of promotion will be applied to the potential manufacturers in all regions. Action Plan Task| Timeline| | 1st October – 31th December 2012| | W1| W2| W3| W4| W5| W6| W7| W8| W9| W10| W11| W12| Telephone Mkt| | | | | | | | | | | | |Email Mkt| | | | | | | | | | | | | Personal Selling| | | | | | | | | | | | | Sales Promotion| | | | | | | | | | | | | | Timeline| | 1st January – 1st April 2013| | W13| W14| W15| W16| W17| W18| W19| W20| W21| W22| W23| W24| Telephone Mkt| | | | | | | | | | | | | Email Mkt| | | | | | | | | | | | | Personal Selling| | | | | | | | | | | | | Sales Promotion| | | | | | | | | | | | | Performance Evaluation | Objective| Strategies| Evaluation| 1| Increase Brand Awareness| * Telephone * Email * Personal Selling| * Numbers of customer who are willing to answe r a call and give helpful information. Numbers of customer who reply email and make a request for further discussion. * Numbers of customer who are willing to interact with sell person and distribute in the conversation. | 2| Increase Sale| * Personal Selling * Sale Promotion| * Numbers of customer who accept to make a contract with DKSH in supplying necessary ingredients. | 3| Create Demand | * Sale Promotion| * Number of customers who firstly have no demand in finding new suppliers but changing later due to competitive proposed price. Conclusion In this report, the general information about Processed Food ; Food Service and Confectionery ; Bakery clusters will be analyzed in order to outline the SWOT analysis for DKSH. Additionally, Push strategy will be applied to reach 60 potential customers. Specifically, integrated marketing communication tools such as direct marketing (telephone and email marketing), personal selling and trade promotions will be used to support the push strat egy to approach to the potential customers.At the same time, these tools can help to retain and strengthen relationships with the current customers. Appendix Potential Customer List Mapping Itinerary Southern Northern Reference 1. ‘DKSH seeks a boost in Asia’ 2012, ICIS news, posted 13th August, viewed 1st September 2012, ;https://docs. google. com/a/rmit. edu. vn/viewer? a=v;pid=gmail;attid=0. 1;thid=1392e4d1b429e96b;mt=application/pdf;url=https://mail. google. com/mail/u/0/? ui%3D2%26ik%3D0e4ae12cf9%26view%3Datt%26th%3D1392e4d1b429e96b%26attid%3D0. %26disp%3Dsafe%26zw;sig=AHIEtbQnvWZ6Rh09SpbtN_3J-u-kBRPiKg; 2. Agri-Food Canada 2011, Package Food in Vietnam, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, viewed 14 August 2012, ; http://www. gov. mb. ca/agriculture/statistics/agri-food/vietnam_packaged_food_en. pdf; 3. BBC 2011 â€Å"Vietnam Inflation Rate Hits 13. 9%†, BBC, 22 March 2011,viewed 15 August 2012, ; http://www. bbc. co. uk/news/business-12845809; 4. Brenntag Asi a Pacific 2012, Brenntag Vietnam Co Ltd, viewed 28th August 2012, ;http://www. brenntag-asiapacific. com/en/pages/Brenntag_Asia_Pacific/Lo

Free Essays on Universal Discoveries

Patricia Smith’s â€Å"What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl (For Those of You Who Aren’t)† is a poem about a young, black girl growing up. This poem describes what it is like for a young girl who is discovering different things going on with her body. This black girl in the poem is 9 years old and in her pre-puberty stage of life. She feels â€Å"like [she’s] not finished† (Smith, 766). She feels out of place because she is in between the stages of being a child and becoming a young adult. She also â€Å"[finds] a disturbance at [her] chest† (766). At the age of 9, I was in the 4th grade. All of my friends were beginning to wear training bras and I was still without enough breasts to fill one. I did not understand that everyone’s body changes differently until then. I felt like I did not belong. She â€Å"[drops] food coloring in [her] eyes to make them blue and †¦ [pops] a bleached white mophead over the kinks of [her] hair† because she wants to have that all-American look of blond hair and blue eyes (766). My cousins and I would pretend we had long hair by putting my daddy’s long T-shirts on our heads and letting them hang down our backs. We would pretend we were the cast of â€Å"Saved by the Bell† because of the long pretty hair all the girls had. We would â€Å"[primp] in front of mirrors that [denied our reflections]† the same way she would (766). What we would see in the mirror and what we were pretending to be were two completely different things. We were definitely trying to be something we were not, as was the girl in the poem. As she gets older and develops more, young men start to notice her and she does â€Å"not [know] what to do with the whistles† (767). As my cousins and I grew older, we were the same way. We would walk to the park and young men would be playing basketball there. They would notice us and try to strike up conversations. We would blush and grin from ear to ear. We never â€Å"[jump... Free Essays on Universal Discoveries Free Essays on Universal Discoveries Patricia Smith’s â€Å"What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl (For Those of You Who Aren’t)† is a poem about a young, black girl growing up. This poem describes what it is like for a young girl who is discovering different things going on with her body. This black girl in the poem is 9 years old and in her pre-puberty stage of life. She feels â€Å"like [she’s] not finished† (Smith, 766). She feels out of place because she is in between the stages of being a child and becoming a young adult. She also â€Å"[finds] a disturbance at [her] chest† (766). At the age of 9, I was in the 4th grade. All of my friends were beginning to wear training bras and I was still without enough breasts to fill one. I did not understand that everyone’s body changes differently until then. I felt like I did not belong. She â€Å"[drops] food coloring in [her] eyes to make them blue and †¦ [pops] a bleached white mophead over the kinks of [her] hair† because she wants to have that all-American look of blond hair and blue eyes (766). My cousins and I would pretend we had long hair by putting my daddy’s long T-shirts on our heads and letting them hang down our backs. We would pretend we were the cast of â€Å"Saved by the Bell† because of the long pretty hair all the girls had. We would â€Å"[primp] in front of mirrors that [denied our reflections]† the same way she would (766). What we would see in the mirror and what we were pretending to be were two completely different things. We were definitely trying to be something we were not, as was the girl in the poem. As she gets older and develops more, young men start to notice her and she does â€Å"not [know] what to do with the whistles† (767). As my cousins and I grew older, we were the same way. We would walk to the park and young men would be playing basketball there. They would notice us and try to strike up conversations. We would blush and grin from ear to ear. We never â€Å"[jump...

How does Shakespeare engage the audience in Ac 4, Scene 1 of Othello Essays

How does Shakespeare engage the audience in Ac 4, Scene 1 of Othello Essays How does Shakespeare engage the audience in Ac 4, Scene 1 of Othello Essay How does Shakespeare engage the audience in Ac 4, Scene 1 of Othello Essay This scene Act 4, scene 1- reinforced the purpose of the play; jealousy. Act 3 finishes very uneasy. Desdemona has now recognised her husband is jealous even though she never gave him cause, she has never realised that the handkerchief is missing and is causing Othello to become angrier. Desdemonas response to this shows the wide-awake, down-to-earth realism about human affairs of which she has already given evidence. It is clear that something of her sense of the absolute and unique nature of their love has been diminished. The spring of the tragedy is now wound up to its tightest and all we can do is be helpless as it unwinds with irresistible and utterly destructive momentum. Shakespeare uses many different themes through the play, one of them being racism. This is a topic brought up many times in the play. Racism is one of the reasons that Iago dislikes Othello, referring him as an old black ram! This shows how jealous Iago is and how false his portrayal of Othello actually is. Iago commands Othellos imagination, conjuring up distressing images of infidelity early in the scene. Iago plays devils advocate by saying be naked in bed with her friend. He suggests Desdemonas honour -like her handkerchief- is hers to give away as she chooses. Othello, however, is incapable now of perceiving the physical existence of it with the guilty that Iago has steepened. Without even needing to think, he predictably says that the handkerchief is a sign of Desdemonas honour. Iago obliquely applies with his literalistic characteristic. Her honour is an essence thats not seen: They have it very oft that have it not But for the handkerchief- Othello evidentially didnt need to be reminded. You know this from the quote I would most gladly have forgotten it! Despite trying to forget it, he clearly cant banish it from his thoughts. Othello speaks disjointedly and distractedly he is barely in control of his own senses. He contradicts himself throughout this from the earlier line, to be once in doubt is once to be resolved. Othello is desperate to find out that the truth between doubt and certainty. Hes stuck between longing and loathing Desdemona. His convulsion is the physical expression of his inner torment. It is ironic that Iago calls his poisoness influence, medicine. (Line 45, Act 4, scene 1) It seems cruel that Iago should tell Othello to bear your fortune like a man (line 61) while at the same time torturing him with thoughts who make other men cuckolds every night. Iago knows that Othello will begin to lose his huge pride and make this idea endurable. His promise to be, most cunning in my patience (line 91) is alarming; Othello also intends to be most bloody in the same line. Could this be a sign of him moving closer to the atrocity of the final act? We might also view his striking of Desdemona as a prelude to the physical violence that is to occur later in the play. Between the lines of 90-97, you see that Iago jokes about Biancas fondness for Cassio, proving that Iago is rather heartless. It is a creature that dotes on Cassio. Like many times before, the theme of animals is brought in. I think this means that they use the idea of use and abuse as if theyre treating her as if she has no feelings herself. However, the Elizabethan audience werent the slightest bit bothered by this. They saw prostitution and such a common thing that would happen quite a lot. Othello would never get much sympathy from the audience because of racial circumstances. The audience were often white and catholic which was everything the Moor was not. Othello was black and was most likely to be Muslim. Most of the sympathy would fall on Desdemona throughout the play. The dramatic effect of Othellos many asides could elevate the scene to become farcical. Iago and Cassio represent soldiers poorly throughout this scene. This could be because soldiers seem to know exactly what they want, whereas they do not. Theyre also made out to be very crude and disrespectful towards women. This was how they were viewed in line 16 as well. The most low and rough joined the army. This is a theme mentioned throughout the play. In scene 4, on line 145 onwards it mentions the handkerchief again. This, is Othellos eyes is evidence that Desdemona committed adultery. In Othellos eyes, there is only black and white. There are no suspicions but only obvious convictions. After Bianca throws down the handkerchief in front of Othello, Othello says the line, By heaven, that should be my handkerchief! (Line 154) This sounds like an anguished cry of recognition escaping from Othello as the fateful handkerchief appears again. Iago is anxious to get rid of Cassio in case he says anything that might reveal that it is Bianca that he had been talking about before she had entered. Lot of Biancas lines and verses are very bland and not poetic. I think Shakespeare wrote like this so Bianca appears low class because shes a prostitute. I think this is a good idea. It reminds the reader about the character attitude and personality. On line 161, an anxious mood is created. I may chance to see you, for I would very fain speak with you. Othello needs no more persuading now. The only question running through his mind is How? Iago doesnt reply and this enrages Othello even more. There are opposing feelings portrayed in line 182. I do but say what she is. So delicate with her needle. This is a memory of Desdemona before she poisoned his thoughts. The line the pity of it, Iago has an effect on the audience. By the use of the word pity it makes the reader feel sorry for him. This is a good technique. Catholics around in the Elizabethan time considered adultery a massive sin. They felt if you committed adultery youd go to hell and burn. They felt it was against the 10 commandments.

The Top 7 Conservative States in the U.S.

The Top 7 Conservative States in the U.S. While there are plenty of red and red-leaning states in the U.S., a few are known for being especially conservative, including Tennessee, Louisiana, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Texas. These states share many similarities: low taxes, low unemployment rates, limited business regulations, and right-to-work legislation (which bans union security agreements, thereby weakening the power of unions). Each state also has a history of conservative leadership and a culture that reflects traditional conservative values. Key Takeaways: The Most Conservative States The most conservative states in the U.S. are known for their low tax rates and limited business regulations. Other hallmarks of conservative states include low union membership, limited gun laws, and high religious participation. In Wyoming, 59 percent of residents identify as Republican or Republican-leaning, making the state (by this metric) the most conservative in the U.S. Tennessee Nina Dietzel/Getty Images Tennessee has no state income tax and some of the lowest property taxes in the nation. The state offsets these low taxes with higher sales taxes, and as a result, a significant percentage of Tennessees taxes are actually paid by nonresidents. Memphis, Nashville, and Knoxville are all popular tourist areas that help bring in out-of-state dollars. Tennessee is also a right-to-work state, and as of 2018, only 5.7 percent of its workers are members of a union. The state is known for its conservative culture, with 42 percent of residents identifying as conservative (the national average is 36 percent) and 49 percent identifying as very religious. Louisiana Kylie McLaughlin/Getty Images The Pelican State has low personal income taxes and sales taxes, making it a popular state for small business owners. Like Tennessee, Louisiana is a right-to-work state with low union membership. As of 2018, the state unemployment rate was 4.7 percent, slightly higher than the national average. Louisiana has been a popular state for conservative initiatives such as education reform and business deregulation. Politically, the state leans to the right, with 45 percent of residents identifying as conservative and only 17 percent identifying as liberal. Louisiana also has very limited gun laws; it allows open carry without a permit and does not require handguns or long guns to be registered with the state. Wyoming grandriver/Getty Images By polling alone, Wyoming is the most conservative state in the nation, with 59 percent of residents identifying as Republican or Republican-leaning. Like other conservative states, it has very low tax rates across the board, and close to 70 percent of Wyomings revenue comes from nonresidents through sales taxes. The states economy is driven by oil and natural gas production, and the people consistently elect staunch conservatives to send to Washington. (One of the states current representatives, John Barrasso, is considered one of the most conservative in the Senate.) Conservatives also love this state is because of the popularity of hunting- a $300 million industry that brings in plenty of out-of-state dollars. Low population density is also a draw for conservatives who prefer rural culture. South Dakota    South Dakota has no state income taxes or inheritance taxes, giving it the lowest per capita state tax rate in the country. The sales tax rate is only 4.5 percent. Electorally, the state has been moving to the right over the last few decades. In 2004, conservative John Thune upset Democratic Minority Leader Tom Daschle, taking one of the states Senate seats. Thune won reelection in 2010 and 2016. Very few of the states residents identify as liberal- only 16 percent- while 41 percent identify as conservative. State politics are largely controlled by Republicans, and South Dakota has not elected a Democrat as governor since 1974. Business regulations in the state are very limited; in 2012, South Dakota ranked second on the Tax Foundations list of the most business-friendly states. Texas    Like the other states on this list, Texas is known as a business-friendly environment (it gets a Top 10 ranking from the Tax Foundation). A large part of the economy is devoted to oil and natural gas production, which has increased under the states conservative leadership. Of the residents, 42 percent identify as conservative and only 18 percent as liberal. Texas has not voted for a Democrat for president since 1976 when Jimmy Carter won a narrow victory over Gerald Ford. In 2012, voters in the state delivered a big win for conservatism in the U.S. Senate by propelling Ted Cruz- a champion of government deregulation and a flat tax- to an easy victory. Texas has also produced such conservative leaders as George W. Bush, Phil Gramm, and Rick Perry. North Dakota   RiverNorthPhotography/Getty Images Like its neighbor to the south, North Dakota has relatively low taxes, and the Tax Foundation rates the state as the 20th most business friendly. North Dakota has been very conservative since its inception when businessman John Miller was elected governor in 1889. The Republican Party has dominated the states politics for more than half a century; the last Democratic governor was George A. Sinner, who served from 1985 to 1992. Residents are overwhelmingly conservative. According to a 2017 Gallup report, only Wyoming is more right-leaning. Mississippi Geoff Eccles/Getty Images Mississippi is known for its deeply religious, conservative culture. Polling shows that conservative views, including opposition to same-sex marriage, are even more common here than in other parts of the Deep South. Political opposition to social welfare has driven the state to cut entitlement programs such as Medicaid and food stamps; nevertheless, the state is one of the top recipients of federal aid. Mississippians are highly religious, with 74 percent of residents describing their faith as very important and another 15 percent as somewhat important. About half of residents attend religious services at least once a week, and three-quarters report that they pray daily. Since 1976, when the state voted for Jimmy Carter, Mississippi has not chosen a Democrat for president.

Student Suicide Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Student Suicide - Assignment Example The purpose of this paper is to particularly shed light on student suicide in a school setting. School counselors have received significant blame for the upsurge of suicide cases and this paper explains their role in preventing suicides and the dilemmas that they encounter in their line of work as they seek to find amicable solutions in light of all legal and ethical requirements. The Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting among other staggering occurrences in schools across the nation serve as clear indicators of the psychological distress that is present across students in different institutions (Taub, 2013). Statistics indicate that more students die from suicide in colleges than from alcohol related accidents (Lamis, 2011). As of 2004 Alaska stood as the highest ranking in student suicide with more recent statistics indicating a steady increase in suicides across various states (Appendix A). More female students contemplate suicide in comparison to their male counterparts with a s tatistic of 17.4% showing just how serious the matter is (Lamis, 2011). These statistics bring out the importance of enforcing structures within learning institutions that nip the problem in the bud by allowing early intervention by well trained counselors. However, this is not the full solution; in order to ensure effective solving of the matter, it is necessary to assess the various dilemmas that these counselors are faced with in their practice, and how best they can go about their work in ensuring efficacious handling of various cases. Counselors are guided by various rules and regulations that are aimed and ensuring effective service to all. They are required to ensure confidentiality at all times, they must observe rules and regulations maximize benefit and allow only the most unavailable harm to clients (beneficence and non- malfeasance), they must ensure that they in no way neglect the needs of their clients and that their dealings with clients adhere to justice and fidelity guidelines. Expectedly, the task is quite challenging as counselors are forced to balance legal and ethical requirement of their patients with their preferences and prejudices in order to work out a balanced practice that effectively serves the need of the clients while protecting practitioners from legal liability. Other than legal concerns, counselors are also forced to assess institutional policies and community norms in their decision making (Whitaker & Slimak, 1990). The most serious liabilities that counselors are forced to address result from legal action initiated by clients who feel that their rights have been violated in light of the provisions of the counseling process. Of these, the most common involve violations of privacy (Whitaker & Slimak, 1990). In cases where counselors feel that they have justifiable cause to infer that students under their assessment are likely to kill themselves, they are required to report their concerns to the students’ guardians and l ocal authorities. Often, students initiate legal action on the ground of a confidentiality breach. In ensuring non-malfeasance and beneficence, counselors are required to apply their best judgment. This entails assessing the seriousness of a student’s proclamation and intent. If a counselor concludes that a student’s condition is potent enough to result in attempted suicide, he/she is required to take the necessary actions to inform guardians and other authorities’ e.g. Local psychiatric officers (Taub, 2013). In the event that the counselor’s conclusions are not accurate, various privileges and rights are broken. These include provisions for

Relationship Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Relationship Marketing - Essay Example To keep the relationship alive, relationship marketing becomes essential. This does not mean that the company should be ‘best friends’ with the client, rather it signifies the idea that a company should use a marketing system in which the marketing stress is placed on creating a long term relationship with customers which comes with the promise of repeat business rather than individual sales (Stone & Woodcock, 1995). This process involves a perceptive understanding of the client’s needs as the customers go through their lifecycle with the company and the satisfaction of those needs as the customer experiences them. Relationship marketing is based on the concepts of marketing but it uses cross functional teams that cut across various departments in a company to provide excellent and complete services to the clients. Rather than have the client go to different locations to get the pricing, service, promotions and other elements of the marketing mix, the entire marketing process can be handled by a team which comprises of various members of the company to provide multiple points of contact for customer groups (Peck et. al., 1999). Therefore relationship marketing is also considered to be a system which is similar to customer relationship management. This is done because the focus is on satisfying the needs of the customer rather than the needs of the company. In such a process, the product and the product lifecycle take differing positions of importance since different types and elements of marketing must be used as the customer and the product itself goes through various phases of maturity. Since the topic of relationship marketing is quite vast, it has been successfully applied to everything from consumable food items (Normandy & Sanders, 2004) to high end luxury cars (Stone et. al. 1996). While a chocolate might have a smaller life as a product, a good car remains with the buyer for several years if not several

Samsung Group (FINAL) Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Samsung Group (FINAL) - Assignment Example Data Collection Method 8 Data collection process for the project 8 G. References 10 A. Background & Rationale Profile of the Organization Samsung is one of the leading electronic organizations around the globe. The organization introduced huge range of products in global market. Therefore, it is easy and convenient to conduct a research study on Samsung. This study will highlight various aspects of Samsung Electronics’ global value chain. Samsung Group is a South Korea based multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Seoul. The organization was founded in the year 1938 by Lee Byung-Chul (Peng, 2012). Over the next few decades the organization diversified into textiles, food processing, retail, securities and insurance industries. Electronic goods, semi conductors and mobile phones are Samsung’s key sources of income for the company (Chang, 2011). In terms of revenue, Samsung was recognized as the largest information technology company in the year 2012. In addit ion, Samsung Heavy Industries was considered the second largest shipbuilder around the globe measured by 2010 revenue. Presently the organization has more than 1000 business entities around the globe. ... This report will focus on two divisions of Samsung Electronics, such as connected media development and mobile media. The study will outline the innovation opportunities for the global organizations by determining the entry points in the organizational structure of Samsung Electronics. Moreover, the study will reveal how the global organizations can engage themselves in several stages of the value chain of Samsung Electronics. B. Research Need and Importance Management Problems Samsung has faced several problems regarding excessive localization. Huge localization had resulted more decentralized structure. It was very disappointing for Samsung group. The global operation of Samsung was not profitable at one point of time. In the year 1998, the organization closed down its few of the electronics factories due to lack of adequate decision making process of regional headquarters (Chang, 2011). Moreover, the organization implemented integration strategy for its employees, but the employee s of Samsung Group rejected this integration strategy. Moreover, the organization faced several labor problems in China. Negative publicity in the blogging community created huge challenge for Samsung in the year 2012. Samsung group is one of the leading mobile phone manufacturers in the world. An ongoing copyright dispute with Apple Inc. over some smart phone technologies affected the brand image of Samsung Group. The organization faced several legal and ethical issues due to the inadequate working condition in the Chinese manufacturing plants. Marketing Research Problems Marketing research activity is time consuming and expensive. Therefore, it is important for the organization to do effective real time research. However, Samsung group has identified

Martin Luther and the German Reformation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Martin Luther and the German Reformation - Essay Example d Though both these extracts logically defy the papal authority and power, yet the â€Å"Address to German Nobility† is more sonorous in tone and diction, and sarcastically condemns the ways adopted and observed by the clergy, in comparison with the :Captivity of the Church.† e Since Luther witnessed the division of the Christian community into the clergy, the nobility and the peasantry, where the former two groups were exploiting the later, so declaring every Christian was extremely essential to eliminate class discrimination from the religion. (Answers): 2 a By justification, Luther simply means the criteria applied by the pope and priests to estimate the character and deeds of ordinary Christians, though Luther views it as entirely a private subject. b Luther symbolises belief with tree, and actions with fruit. He simply states that if belief is at right direction, then actions will also be accurate. However, the Church vehemently looks for good deeds to please the Lo rd, which is in contrast to the Lutheran teachings. c Luther has selected trees and fruits in order to explain the intention and action. He supports faith in comparison to acts, and views faith far more sublime than behaviour. Trees are symbol of origin, while fruit represents actions, so Luther applies these concepts to clarify his point. d Since explaining different things with the help of examples, symbols and signs is helpful in making things clear, Luther’s straightforward and logical description is certainly convincing. e Every religion has described some specific code of life to lead a pious life, and if we revolt against the religious laws by observing the behaviour of our own choice, it will harm and hurt others physically and sentimentally. Consequently, Luther’s good work notion will also endanger law and order situation. (Answers): 3 a Since Christians have taken oath of doing good with the fellow-beings, killing and hurting others comes under the definitio n of forfeiting one’s body and soul. b The ruler’s not tolerating the Gospel even means that even a ruler is going against the Biblical teachings; he should not be attacked, revolted or killed. c Luther views slandering of God’s holy name as the most obnoxious act, which has been turned down with greatest displeasure by him. d Luther preaches the subjects to be loyal and obedient to the rulers at any cast, as it is the essential element of Christ’s teachings. Similarly, the rulers should be kind and sympathetic to the people to please the Lord. Somehow, he lays stress on the subjects to remain complying to the commands and orders of the rulers. e The tone of these extracts appears to be sad, gloomy and distressing, as Luther condemns the desecration of churches and monasteries, as well as the burning and killing of the fellow-beings. TASK-II: The present paper aims to analyse two 20th century secondary sources related to Luther’s reformation moveme nt launched in Germany during the early years of 16th century. These include â€Å"Luther’s Teachings – Luther and the German Reformation 1517-1555† by Keith Randell (1989) and â€Å"Progress of Reform-The Protestant Reformation in Europe† by Andrew Johnston (1991). Both these sources are secondary in nature, where Randell’s article has been created for Catholic priests and religious circles only, while the

Pedophiles and Lack of Harsher Punishment Essay - 1

Pedophiles and Lack of Harsher Punishment - Essay Example Thus, for most people, the term pedophilia is not a legal term but a diagnostic one. Prosecutors and law enforcement in cases involving computers frequently use the word pedophilia (Borgeson and Kuehnle, 2010). Hall and Hall (2007) state that pedophilia is a clinical diagnosis generally made by a psychologist or psychiatrist. It is neither a legal nor criminal term like forcible sexual offense, and legal term id generally used in criminal statistics. There are laws that govern acts committed by pedophiles. One such law is the Megan’s law. However, it is difficult to estimate how the Megan’s law affects pedophiles. The definition of the term pedophilia does not allow the determination of whether the pedophilic individual is a sexual offender (a child molester) or not. It is important to note that not all pedophilic individuals are child molesters. An individual with any paraphilia condition can be legally involved in it through masturbation and fantasizing (Borgeson and Kuehnle, 2010). Punishments given to those who commit pedophilia usually vary. There are states where the punishment is harsher compared to other states. In regard to punishment, there is an ongoing debate on whether the punishment for those committing sexual assault crimes should be made harsher or not. However, majority of the people are of the opinion that harsher or tougher laws will reduce the occurrence of these crimes (CQ Press, 2006). Thus, punishments for those who have committed pedophilic crimes should be made harsher. Harsher punishment will reduce the rate of pedophilic crimes. The aim of this study is to evaluate the form of punishment given to sexual offenders such as pedophilic individuals and propose the punishments to be harsher or tougher. As stated before, experts are of the opinion that harsher punishment will reduce the incidences of sexual crimes. In some states, there are tests done to ascertain if the individual has really reformed before release from prison . In Texas, sixteen months before the release of an offender, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice can have the individual evaluated to know whether he is an SVP (sexually violent predator). If the individual is found to be an SVP, then he is eligible for treatment as an outpatient sex offender upon his release (Garib, 2011). The study is of great significance because the majority of the sex offenders are treated with blanket punishment, thus, they cause collateral consequences which develop more risk to the entire public (Hiller, 2011). Failure to treat pedophilic individuals and their release back to the society defeat the whole purpose of child protection. Despite the fact that experts are advocating for harsher punishments, there is a need for an individual to be treated before he is released to the society. This makes sure that the individual is fully reformed after he has served his sentence in prison and the risk of children being harmed is reduced. Literature Review A pe dophile and a child molester have been often confused by child abuse professionals, the media, and the general public. They regard pedophiles as all individuals who sexually victimize children. However, there is no uniform definition of the word pedophile. It is important to note that pedophilia is a psychiatric diagnosis done only by qualified psychiatrists or psychologists. Not all child molesters are

LETTER OF LEGAL ADVICE Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

LETTER OF LEGAL ADVICE - Essay Example Moreover, it also puts forward some of the legal advices that are needed to be considered in order have a lawful advantage in this corrupted era. Acceptance is an expression or implication of undertaking something, which is being offered. In legal terms, acceptance of a contract is an expression or the willingness by an individual or a party undertaking the contract that is being offered by ran offerer. In this regard, one party accepts the terms and conditions of a contract or deal as stated by the other (Krol, 1993). To begin with, ‘Conditional Acceptance’, is a form of contractual acceptance where the acceptance is made on the account of fulfilment of certain conditions. Elaborately, the party who accepts the offer of contract considers the same only if certain conditions lay down by the acceptor are fulfilled by the party who offered the contract (Meena, 2008). This is evident from the fact of Malago Pty Ltd v AW Ellis Engineering Pty Ltd [2012] NSWCA 227, where a prominent depiction of the conditional acceptance was observed. The Head of the Agreement in this case proposed a condition of compelling the total water surface to the respondent. The decisions by the court were that both the parties should consider the surrounding circumstances. The court also rejected the agreement due to the lack of formalities. The court further, implemented that a conditional acceptance needs to have the formal guidelines and also requires considering the surrounding circumstances. From the case, i t can be learnt that for any firm to have legal advantages in the contracts, adequate formalities and official procedures should be considered. Therefore, from the case analysis it can be stated that to have an effective conditional acceptance, a company should meet all the legal requirements amid the parties (Allens, 2012). Furthermore, there are witnesses in case of people accepting the offer of caution money of rent, only if

Pedophiles and Lack of Harsher Punishment Essay - 1

Pedophiles and Lack of Harsher Punishment - Essay Example Thus, for most people, the term pedophilia is not a legal term but a diagnostic one. Prosecutors and law enforcement in cases involving computers frequently use the word pedophilia (Borgeson and Kuehnle, 2010). Hall and Hall (2007) state that pedophilia is a clinical diagnosis generally made by a psychologist or psychiatrist. It is neither a legal nor criminal term like forcible sexual offense, and legal term id generally used in criminal statistics. There are laws that govern acts committed by pedophiles. One such law is the Megan’s law. However, it is difficult to estimate how the Megan’s law affects pedophiles. The definition of the term pedophilia does not allow the determination of whether the pedophilic individual is a sexual offender (a child molester) or not. It is important to note that not all pedophilic individuals are child molesters. An individual with any paraphilia condition can be legally involved in it through masturbation and fantasizing (Borgeson and Kuehnle, 2010). Punishments given to those who commit pedophilia usually vary. There are states where the punishment is harsher compared to other states. In regard to punishment, there is an ongoing debate on whether the punishment for those committing sexual assault crimes should be made harsher or not. However, majority of the people are of the opinion that harsher or tougher laws will reduce the occurrence of these crimes (CQ Press, 2006). Thus, punishments for those who have committed pedophilic crimes should be made harsher. Harsher punishment will reduce the rate of pedophilic crimes. The aim of this study is to evaluate the form of punishment given to sexual offenders such as pedophilic individuals and propose the punishments to be harsher or tougher. As stated before, experts are of the opinion that harsher punishment will reduce the incidences of sexual crimes. In some states, there are tests done to ascertain if the individual has really reformed before release from prison . In Texas, sixteen months before the release of an offender, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice can have the individual evaluated to know whether he is an SVP (sexually violent predator). If the individual is found to be an SVP, then he is eligible for treatment as an outpatient sex offender upon his release (Garib, 2011). The study is of great significance because the majority of the sex offenders are treated with blanket punishment, thus, they cause collateral consequences which develop more risk to the entire public (Hiller, 2011). Failure to treat pedophilic individuals and their release back to the society defeat the whole purpose of child protection. Despite the fact that experts are advocating for harsher punishments, there is a need for an individual to be treated before he is released to the society. This makes sure that the individual is fully reformed after he has served his sentence in prison and the risk of children being harmed is reduced. Literature Review A pe dophile and a child molester have been often confused by child abuse professionals, the media, and the general public. They regard pedophiles as all individuals who sexually victimize children. However, there is no uniform definition of the word pedophile. It is important to note that pedophilia is a psychiatric diagnosis done only by qualified psychiatrists or psychologists. Not all child molesters are

The Satire Behind A Brave New World Essay Example for Free

The Satire Behind A Brave New World Essay In the book A Brave New World, is it possible to say that the author Aldous Huxley conveys the idea that the book is a satire rather than a blue print for a perfect society? This is a controversial question, which may only be answered after analyzing many aspects of the book. For example, Huxley not only uses many exaggerations throughout the narrative and various language resources but he also uses irony to create a satirical and entertaining story. The author uses satire throughout the novel, when approaching certain subjects as, materialism, replacement of love by promiscuity and forgetting about the importance of poetry and literature. Satire is used by Huxley when describing how people in the brave new world believe that ending is better than mending. In other words, you should never allow something you possess to be old and out of date. Instead you should replace them constantly to the new and latest product available. He also shows how people are induced to buy more and more with the constant use of propaganda. This may be seen as ironic to the reader as people always try to save the most money as possible in our present world, while in the brave new world people believe that you should always be spending money on as most activity and consumptions as possible. This creates a contrast to the world in which we are living in. In the beginning of the novel we are introduced to the promiscuity and the lack of commitment in the lives of the characters. What is seen in the story is that the reason for sexual relations with another human being is only for pleasure and not for conceiving a child and that it is better for a woman to be as most promiscuous as possible and be with as many men, opposing our knowledge, that a woman should marry and be faithful to one man only. This may be seen as a satire because it contradicts the knowledge that human beings have had so far .In the book characters such as Lenina and Fanny are constantly discussing the subject of sexual relations showing how their ideas in relation to men contradict todays thoughts, making this a very interesting and unique aspect of the book. Another very amusing aspect of the book is that people living in the brave new world believe that reading is a waste of time and it is seen as an insult a person who believes that poetry and literature (Shakespeares plays for example) should be valued. I believe this adds to the irony of the narrative because nowadays people value more and more learning about poetry, literature and art, and the history behind it. So when reading the novel, it is very interesting to see how Huxley portrays these opposing ideas found in the hypothetical perfect world he created. He shows how the people in the Brave New World are not interested in old things, they are however interested in seeing new and superficial movies with no significant meaning behind them. I believe that these aspects of the narrative were approached and developed in such ironic and satirical way; to allow the reader to reflect on what was the authors intention was when doing so. I believe Huxleys intention was to show how the idea of Utopia may be so aspired and worshiped by humans; however it may not be so perfect after all. Even though in the brave new world people are always happy, they dont experience feelings of love and even though they have the power to consume products in such great amounts, they are not allowed to the power of freedom. The author approaches these subjects throughout the novel in such way that it is amusing and entertaining to the reader, making him want to read more and discover more unique aspects attributed to the characters and the narrative created by Huxley.

Data Mining Techniques in Airline Industry

Data Mining Techniques in Airline Industry Purpose and Scope All around the world, the airline industry could be described in few words, which is intensely competitive and dynamic. The airline industry generates billions of dollars every year but still has a cumulative profit margin of less than 1%1. Many Airlines are trying to recover from deep debt. The reasons for these are multifold- fuel prices, high cyclicality and seasonality, fierce competition, high fixed costs and many other issues related to security and passengers safety. To ensure for the best economic outcome, Airline companies are trying with their most creative asset data. Data used in conjunction with data mining techniques allows comprehensive intelligent management and decision-making system. Achieving these benefits in a timely and intelligent manner may help in resulting lower operating costs, better customer service, market competitiveness, increased profit margin and shareholder value gain. This purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the applications of data mining techniques on multiple aspects of airline business. For example, to predict the number of domestic and international airline passengers from a specific city/airport, to dynamically price the tickets depending on seasonality and demand, to explore the frequent flyer database to prepare for CRM implementation, to makes the operational decisions about catering, personnel, and gate traffic flow, to assist the security agencies for secure and safe flights for the passenger specially after 9/11 incident. Predict the Number of Passenger by applying Data Mining Technique Forecasting is critical to any business for planning and revenue management, especially in the Airline industry, where a lot of planning is required to buy/lease new aircrafts, to hire crew members, to find the new slots in busy airports and to get the approvals from many aviation authorities. In the case of Air travel, lot of seasonality and cyclicality involved. Passengers are more likely to fly to some destinations based on the time of the year. Business travelers are likely to travel weekdays than weekends. Early morning and evening flights are desired by business travelers who want to accomplish a days work at their destination and return the same day. To forecast the number of passenger, artificial neural network (ANN) can be used. The purpose of a neural network is to learn to recognize patterns in a given data. Once the neural network has been trained on samples of the given data, it can make predictions by detecting similar patterns in future data. The growth factors which might influence the air travel demand depend on several things. Mauro Calvano2 in his study of transport Canada aviation forecast 2002-2016 considered 12 major socio-economic factors as follows: GDP Personal Disposable income Adult Populations US economic Outlook Airline Yield Fleet/route structure/Average Aircraft Size Passenger Load factors Labor cost and productivity Fuel cost/Fuel efficiency Airline cost other than Fuel and Labor Passenger Traffic Allocation Assumptions New technology Factors 1 to 5 are related demand side of the forecast Factors 6 to 10 are related to operations and supply side Factors 10 and 11 represent the structural changes This historical data is called the estimation set. A fraction of the overall available data is reserved for validating the accuracy of the developed forecast model. This reserved data set is called the forecasting set because no information contained in it is used in any form during the development of the forecast model. The data in the forecasting set are used for testing the true extrapolative properties of the developed forecast model. The estimation set is further divided into a training set and a testing set. Information in the training set is used directly for the determination of the forecast model, whereas information in the testing set is used indirectly for the same purpose. Figure1: Forecasting Process Model For a given ANN architecture and a training set, the basic mechanism behind most supervised learning rules is the updating of the weights and the bias terms, until the mean squared error (MSE) between the output predicted by the network and the desired output (the target) is less than a pre-specified tolerance. Neural networks are can be represented as layers of functional nodes. The most general form of a neural network model used in forecasting can be written as: Y = F [H1 (x), H2 (x), à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. , Hn (x)]+ u Where, Y is a dependent or output variable, X is a set of input/ influencing variables, F Hs are network functions, and u is a model error. This input layer is connected to a hidden layer. Hs are the hidden layer nodes and represents different nonlinear functions. Each node in a layer receives its input from the preceding layer through link which has weights assigned, which get adjusted using an appropriate learning algorithm and the information contained in the training set. Figure2: ANN Architecture Abdullah Omer BaFail3 did the study to forecast the number of airline passenger in Saudi Arabia. He selected the most influencing factors to forecast the number of domestic passengers in the different cities of Saudi Arabia. For Dhahran he selected factors like: Oil gross domestic product for last 6 years, private non-oil gross domestic product, Import of goods and services for last 10 years, and population size for last 2 years. The domestic and international actual and forecasted number of passengers for the city of Dhahran for the years 1993 through 1998 is shown below. Forecasts underestimated the actual travel. The Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) for domestic travel is about 10%, while for international travel is about 3%. Figure3: Forecasting results from Abdullah Omer BaFail3 The take away from the Abdullah Omer BaFail3 for me is that the efficient forecasting model can be invented using ANN if we using the right influencing indicators. In this study some indicators which influence are oil gross domestic product and per capita income in the domestic and international sectors. In view of the fluctuating nature of the passenger usage of airline services in Saudi Arabia, certain suggestions were made. Most of these recommendations were in order to improve the flexibility of the system to the fluctuations in demand and supply. Hub and spike model was also suggested as solutions in certain sectors to increase the flexibility in adjusting their capacity allocations across markets as new information about demand conditions become available. Application of Data Mining technique to predict the Airline Passengers No-show Rates Airlines overbook the flights based on the expectation that some percentage of booked passengers will not show for each flight. Accurate forecasts of the expected number of no-shows for each flight can increase airline revenue by reducing the number of perishable seats (empty seats that might otherwise have been sold) and the number of involuntary denied boardings at the departure gate. Typically, the simplest way is to go for average no-show rates of historically similar flights, without the use of passenger-specific information. Lawernce, Hong, Cherrier4 in their research paper predicted the no-show rates using specific information on the individual passengers booked on each flight. The Airlines offer multiple fares in different booking class. The number of seats allocated to each booking class is driven by demand for each class, such that revenue is maximized. For example, few seats can be kept on hold for the last-minute travelers with high fares and number of seats sold in lower-fare classes earlier in the booking process. Terms and conditions of cancellation and no-show also vary in each class. The no-shows results in lost revenue if the flight departs with empty seats that might otherwise have been sold. Near accurate forecasts of the expected number of no-shows for each flight are very much desirable because the under-prediction of no-shows leads to loss of potential revenue from empty seats, while over-prediction can produce a significant cost penalty associated with denied boardings at the departure gate and also create customer dissatisfaction. In the simplest model, the overbooking limit is taken as the capacity plus the estimated number of no-shows. Bookings are offered up to this level. No-shows numbers are predicted using time-series methods such as taking the seasonally weighted moving average of no-shows for previous instances of the same flight. Figure4: No-show trend over days to departure Source: Lawernce, Hong, Cherrier4 The simple model does not take account of specific characteristics of the passengers. Lawernce, Hong, Cherrier4 in his study used classification method, similarly Kalka and Weber5 at Lufthansa used induction trees to compute passenger-level no-show probabilities, and compared their accuracy with conventional, historical-based methods. I tried to summarize Lawernce, Hong, Cherrier4 approach and results briefly below. Whenever a ticket is booked the Passenger Name Records (PNRs) is generated and all the passenger information is recorded. The PNR data includes, for each passenger, specifics of all flights in the itinerary, the booking class, and passenger specific information such as frequent-flier membership, ticketing status, and the agent or channel through which the booking originated. Each PNR is also specified whether the passenger was a no-show for the specified flight. In the simplest model the mean no-show rate over a group of similar historical flights is computed. The mean in turn used to predict the number of no-shows over all booking classes. The passenger-level model given by can be implemented using any classification method capable of generating the normalized probabilities. The PNR records are partitioned into segments, and separate predictive models are developed for each segment. In the passenger-level modeling we characterize each using the PNR details. Let Xi; i = 1à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦..I denote I features associated with each passenger. Combining all features yields the feature vector X = [X1à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Xi ] Each passenger, n = 1à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.N, booked on flight m is represented by the vector of feature values xmn = [xmn, 1à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ xmn, ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. xmn, I ] We know the predicted no-show rate from the historical model; it is assumed the passenger inherits the no-show rate. The passenger level predictive model is then stated as follows: given a set of class labels cmn a set of feature vectors xmn and a cabin level historical prediction  µmhist predict the output class of passenger n on flight m: P(C = cmn |  µmhist , X= xmn ) We are specifically interested in the no-show probability, cmn = NS, and write this probability in the simplified form P(NS |  µmhist , xmn ) The number of no-shows in the cabin is estimated as à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ P(NS |  µmhist , xmn ) The summing of probabilities for each passenger in the cabin, gives no-show rate for the cabin. An analogous approach can also be used to predict no-show rates at the fare-class level. Lawernce, Hong, Cherrier4 compare results computed using the historical, passenger-level, and cabin-level models. The models were built using approximately 880,000 PNRs booked on 10,931 flights, and evaluated against 374,900 PNRs booked on 4088 flights. The figure shows a conventional lift curve computed using the three different implementations of the passenger-level model. Figure 5: Gain Charts Source: Lawernce, Hong, Cherrier4 Each point on the lift curve shows the fraction of actual no-shows observed in a sample of PNRs selected in order of decreasing no-show probability. The diagonal line shows the baseline case in which it is assumed that the probabilities are drawn from a random distribution. The three implementations of the passenger-level model identify approximately 52% of the actual no-shows in the first 10% of the sorted PNRs. This is one of the way the Airlines can incorporate data mining models incorporating specific information on individual passengers can produce more accurate predictions of no-show rates than conventional, historical based, statistical methods. Application of Data Mining technique to Strategies Customer Relationship Management In the current time most of the industries using frequency marketing programs as a strategy for retaining customer loyalty in the form of points, miles, dollars, beans and so on. Airlines are a big fan of this Kingfishers Kingmiles, Jet Airways Jet Privilege, American Airlines AAdvantage, Japan Airlines Mileage Bank, KrisFlyer Miles etc. they all seemed to have carved their own identities. Frequent Flyer Program presents an invaluable opportunity to gather customer information. It helps to understand the behavioral patterns, unveil new opportunities, customer acquisition and retention opportunities. This helps Airlines to identify the most valuable and the appropriate strategies to use in developing one-to-one relationships with these customers. The objective of data mining application over the frequent flyer customer data could be many, but ideally it is as follows: Customer segmentation Customer satisfaction analysis Customer activity analysis Customer retention analysis Some of the examples in each category are: Classify the customers into groups based on sectors most frequently flown, class, period of year, time of the day, purpose of the trip. Which types of customers are more valuable? Do most valuable customers receive the value for money? What are the attributes and characteristics of the most valuable customer segments? What type of campaign is appropriate for best use of resources? What are the opportunities to up-selling and cross-selling, for example hotel booking, upgrade to next class, credit card, etc. Design packages or grouping of services Customer acquisition. Yoon6 designed a database knowledge discovery process consisting of five steps: selecting application domain, target data selection, pre-processing data, extracting knowledge, and interpretation and evaluation. This study refers to the Yoon process to deal with three mining phases, including the pre-process, data-mining, and interpretation phases for airlines, as illustrated in figure below. Figure 6: database knowledge discovery process Source: Yoon6 Some straightforward solution can be implemented that can also be scaled-up in future like K-means, Kohonen self-organizing networks and classification trees. In the case of K-means algorithm, it is applied on customer data, assigning each to the closest existing cluster center. The K- means model is run with different cluster number until K-means clusters are well separated. In the case of classification trees (C5.0), we derive a simple rule set to uniquely classify the complete database. Again, we have to generate the attributes, resulting from the sequence of flight segments. The accuracy of the forecast for each segment is provided by balancing the training set according to equally sized clusters. We regulate the number of subsequent rules, while determining a minimal numbers of records given within each subgroup. Maalouf and Mansour7 did the study based on 1,322,409 customer activities transactions and 79,782 passengers for a period of 6 years. They prepared Data based on Z-Score Normalization and ran the multiple queries and transformed the data to create the clustering input records. They used K-means and O-Cluster algorithms. The result generated by clustering provides customer segmentation with respect to important dimensions of customers needs and value. The table below is the result is a summary of the profile produced by k-means clustering that includes: revenue mileage, number of services used, and customer membership period. Figure 7: Clustering result on Airline Customer Data Source: Maalouf and Mansour7 The results generated by k-means clustering are used as a basis for the association rules algorithm. Two different scenarios have been applied. The first scenario is based on Financial, Flight, and Hotel activities with 1,896 records. The second scenario is based on the flight activities especially the sectors, with 1,867 records. Figure 8: Association rules for best customer activities Source: Maalouf and Mansour7 Some of the take way from Meatloaf and Mansour7 study. Clustering using k-means algorithm generated 9 different clusters with specific profile for each one. From the cluster analysis it can be found which are the best customer clusters (higher mileage per passenger) than other clusters. Need a retention strategy for these clusters. Cross Selling strategies can be formulated between the clusters (for example between: 15 and 11; 13 and 17 because they are close in services value. The cluster analysis provides an opportunity for the airline to produce more revenue from a customer. For example, the airline could apply an up-selling strategy by selling a higher fare seat depending on the clusters. From the cluster analysis Airline may adopt an enhanced strategy for customers in clusters in order to increase services usage and revenue mileage per passenger. Plan for marketing campaign or special offers by analysis through association rules, for example, the customers using the Flight and Financial services never use the Hotel Services and the customers using the Flight and Hotel services never use the Financial Services. By analyzing the services used in different clusters, Airline can characterize services integration. It enables the airline to serve a customer the way the customer wants to be served. Application of Data Mining Application technique to understand the Impacts of Severe Weather Severe weather has major impacts on the air traffic and flight delays. Appropriate proactive strategies for different severe-weather days may result in improvement of delays and cancellations. Thus, understanding en-route weather impacts on flight performance is an important step for improving flight performance. Zohreh and Jianping8 in their study proposed a framework for data mining approach to analysis of weather impacts on Airspace system performance. This approach consists of three phases: data preparation, feature extraction, and data mining. The data preparation phase includes the usual process of selection of data sources, data integration, and data formatting. Figure 9: Framework proposed by Zohreh and Jianping8 He used three data sources: Airline Service Quality Performance (ASQP), Enhanced Traffic Management System (ETMS), and National Convective Weather Forecast (NCWF) supplied by National Center for Atmospheric Research. He used NCWF data from April through September 2000 to represent the severe weather season. These data-sets included the scheduled and actual departure and arrival times of each flight of ten reporting airlines, tail number, wheels off/on times, taxi times, cancellation and diversion information, planned departure and arrival times, actual departure and arrival times, planned flight routes, actual flight routes, and cancellations, flight frequencies between two airports, intended flight routes between two airports, flight delays, flight cancellations, and flight diversions. The image segmentation phase resulted in a set of severe-weather regions. Then for each of these regions, a set of weather features and a set of air traffic features are extracted. A day is described by a set of severe-weather regions, each having a number of weather and traffic features. As a result of this study it was found that there is strong correlation of blocked flights, #of bad weather regions, bad weather airports, blocked distance, bad weather longitude, by pass distance, bad weather latitude, # of bad weather pixels with flight performance. Similarly the clustering algorithms (like K-means) can be applied. The expectation is that the same clusters have similar weather impacts on flight performance. Zohreh and Jianping8 generated clusters for the entire airspace It was found that a cluster with worse weather almost always had bad performance. The clusters with large percentage of blocked flights, bypass distance, and blocked distance had a worse performance. These results were promising and showed that days in a cluster have similar weather impacts on flight performance Other data mining approach which can be applied is Classifications. Application of Classification can help us discover the patterns/rules that have significant impact on the flight performance. Discovered rules may be used to predict if a day is a good or a bad performance day based on its weather. For example Rule for Good: if %BlockedFlights and BypassDistance then Good (n, prob) There can be different ways where we can apply data mining approach to analysis of weather impact on airline performance. It seems to be that results obtained from clustering and classifications were very meaningful for airline and passengers to plan ahead. Application of Data Mining techniques to ensure safety and security of Airlines passenger The reaction of the terrorist attack on 26/9 and 11/9 resultant in increase Security at airports: It ends up allowing only ticketed passengers past the security gates, screen carry-on luggage more carefully for possible weapons. The question is whether these steps could have avoided the attacks, the people involved in the attack had legitimate tickets, and carrying box cutters and razor blades (like in any other normal person would do). The uncommon was the combination of their characteristics, like none were U.S. citizens, all had lived in the U.S. for some period of time, all had connections to a particular foreign country, all had purchased one-way tickets at the gate with cash. With the amount of data available about the passenger during ticketing, the can be reviewed to characterize relevant available passenger information. Given a passengers name, address, and a contact phone number, various data bases (public or private) can identify the social security number (SSN), from which much information will be readily available (credit history, police record, education, employment, age, gender, etc.). Since there is large number of characteristics available on both individual passengers, it will be important to identifying signals within the natural variability or noise. If predicted wrong, this may lead to either falsely detaining an innocent passenger or failing to detain a plane that carries a terrorist. The airlines already collect much data on various flights. When the data come in the form of multiple characteristics on a single item, exploratory tools for multivariate data can be applied, such as classification, regression trees, multivariate adaptive regression splines/trees. The security of the air transportation can be improved substantially through modern, intelligent use of pattern recognition techniques applied to large linked databases. Similarly Data mining techniques can be used for the Safety of the passenger. An air safety office plays a key role in ensuring that an aviation organization operates in a safe manner. Currently, Aviation Safety offices collect and analyze the incident reports by a combination of manual and automated methods.. Data analysis is done by safety officers who are very familiar with the domain. With Data mining one can find interesting and useful information hidden in the data that might not be found by simply tracking and querying the data, or even by using more sophisticated query and reporting tools. In a study done by Zohreh Nazeri, Eric Bloedorn, Paul Ostwald10 it was found that finding associations and distribution patterns in the data, bring important inside. The other finding is Linking the incident reports to other sources of safety related data, such as aircraft maintenance and weather data, could help finding better causal relationships. SumMRry Business Intelligence through efficient and appropriate Data mining application can be very useful in the Airline industry. The Appropriate action plans from the data mining analysis can result in improved customer service, help generating considerable financial lift and set the future strategy.