Current business issue reflective paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Current business issue reflective paper - Essay Example Uncertainty is a subjective phenomenon unlike risk whose probabilities are known (Phillip & Patrick, 2013). Bronwynne, et al., 2005 pointed out that uncertainty involves events in which risk cannot be predicted. When one is anticipating some kind of risk, they tend to be cautious. Thus, risk is complicated and rational, but uncertainty is complex and extra rational. In risk, there are knowable options, steps and opportunities, but uncertainty involves a multiple interactive unknowns (Bronwynne, et al., 2005). Uncertainty may relate to profitability, government policies and regulations, investment, demand, cost, pricing and production. Uncertainty in business tends to be an obstacle in decision making. In order to effectively deal with the issue of uncertainty in business, leaders must possess good leadership characteristics. In relation to dealing with uncertainties leaders are classified into three categories; head only- these leaders rely only on analytical tools to make quick deci sions and thus are not able to balance paradoxes in today’s ambiguous world. Heart only- these leaders are able to establish a strategy through being open to a wide range of opinions. This may hinder them from identifying future trends. Guts only- these leaders believe in their instincts. ... It is advisable to prepare for multiple outcomes other than predicting only one outcome. This is of great help to a business because the planned for outcome may fail to happen and instead another one occurs which had been predicted and planned for, this helps the business leader to be always on their toes and ready for any eventualities (McLoughlin & Aaker, 2010). It also saves the business owner the loss of resources in terms of finances and time. Business leaders should have the knowledge to identify and rely on the predictable elements of the situation. Some situations can be predicted, and this could be of great help to the businesses because one is almost sure that a certain eventuality will occurs and hence proper strategies are put in place to deal with such eventualities (Bronwynne, et al., 2005). Therefore in order to be able to identify the predictable element, one should be very alert and understand their business trends fully. If for example the problem is a natural calam ity like flood, one can predict at what time of the year the floods are experienced. In order to effectively deal with uncertainties in business, it is vital to be agile and to respond quickly to any occurrences. Once an undesirable occurrence befalls the business, leaders should be aware, listen and detect occurrences as they happen. They should adopt the ‘detect and respond’ mechanism in order to effectively tackle the problem. They should also empower and mobilize their people to act fast and decisively. However, this requires managerial and leadership skills. For example, if the uncertainty befalls an organization, the manager should be in a position to

Participants in Construction Projects

Participants in Construction Projects A construction project is a task undertaken in the production of construction products. The term project in this context is being used for the total activity from inception to commissioning and occupation, involving an agreed and planned objective and total input of specialist participants and their interrelationships. It is a temporary non-recurrent activity that is started, implemented, evaluated and terminated. This activity is undertaken in response to demand (direct, derived, individual or collective) for construction activity. Moreover, the activity is complex and, hence, necessitates the input of large numbers of participants with different disciplines to carry out the separate but interrelated functions of design, engineering, costing, pricing, and production. The participants who are engaged to work on the project are mainly unaccustomed to working with each other and, hence, projects activity imposes a special demand on team building and motivation. In addition, every parti cipant should be made aware of all the governing conditions, objectives, responsibilities, relationship and basic parameters of the construction project. Construction projects vary considerably in size and complexity. Moreover, generally complex projects tend to be large amount of service element. This complexity poses major problems of bounded rationality, risks and uncertainty. Project Participants The participants to construction project procurement are the client (who is the initiator), the multi-disciplinary construction consultants (who act as the clients professional advisers) and the building contractor (who constructs the building). Together, this group of participants takes on and manages sequence of distinct but unrelated activities of the construction process from beginning to the end. A construction project, to all intents and purposes, is the production of capital goods and, like any other capital investment, involves careful planning and decision making. Construction projects generally are complex and composed of many activities. It is this complexity that calls for the input proposals of designers, contractors, suppliers and statutory authorities for their production. Although thee procurement method adopted may vary the relationship of the participants, there will always be a proposer (client), designer (architect/engineer), construction team (builder), statutory authorities (gas, electricity, fire and water) and area local authority. A. The Client The client is the key to the whole construction production process from inception to completion and at times to post-occupancy maintenance. Without the client there would be no construction project. Construction industry clients either identify user potential or create the need for the facilities and raise the necessary financial resources for their creation. They initiate the construction process by commissioning various construction professional to build to specific requirement. During the design and construction phases, the client directly or indirectly monitors progress, time, cost, and quality objectives and sanctions any necessary major variations to the design. Finally, on completion, it is the client who either disposes of the product at the marketplace or takes occupation and bears the repairs and maintenance cost of his/her investment. Therefore, the construction industry looks to many clients for work and, generally, these may be classified as public sector clients or clients from the private sector. A1. Public sector client These are public authorities whose operations are governed generally by Acts of Parliament. They act as agents for the central government who exercise control over their capital building programmes and expenditure. The key public sector clients for the UK construction industry are: Central government department, who are responsible for their own programme of construction on projects. Local authorities, who are responsible for the provision of housing, school, libraries, swimming pool, halls, sports centers and the like. Some health authorities, which are responsible for hospital buildings. Public corporations (e.g. British Rail and Air Transport boards), who are responsible for the provision of buildings and other construction products for their own use. A2. Private sector client These are private companies that build for leasing, renting, sale or own occupation. The central government only exercises a limited amount of control over their operations (e.g. planning controls for proposed development). The private sector clients for the construction industry are many and may be classified as follows: Multi-national companies (e.g. Ford, Cadburys. ICI and Esso) who construct factories, production plants, offices and distribution depots for their own use. National companies (e.g. Tesco, Sainsburys and Woolworths) who construct buildings for their own use in warehousing and retail. Local property development companies, who construct offices, factories, shops and houses speculatively for hire, lease or sale. Private clients, who construct new buildings, or extent, refurbish or repair the existing building for own occupation, letting, leasing or sale. B. Consultant office (The Design Team) All the developing design stage it is imperative that architectural design and details are well integrated with those of structural, mechanical and electrical engineers. The architect as the design team leader is responsible for design integration. And all the design team members are playing the important role during the design stage. B1.The Architect Traditionally, the design function in the construction process is the responsibility of an architect who is a professionally qualified person whose role is to interpret the clients project requirements into a specific design or scheme. Design is taken to include appearance composition, proportion, structure, function and economy of product, but in addition the architect performs the function of obtaining planning permission for the scheme. In most times, too, the architect supervises and organizes the entire construction process, starting with consulting with the client and ending with commissioning. As an established practice, the architect plays the leading role in the construction process. He or she collects, coordinates, controls and disseminates project information to all project participants. As a project team leader, the architect performs various functions in all stages of construction process, which includes: Ascertaining, interpreting and formulating the clients requirement into an understandable project brief. Designing a building to meet the clients requirement and constraints imposed by such factors as statutory obligations, technical feasibility, environmental standards, site conditions and cost. Bringing together a team of construction professionals such as the quantity surveyor, structural engineer and service engineer to give expert guidance on specific points of the clients construction project. Assessing clients cost limit and timescale, and specifying the type and grade of materials/components for use on the construction project. Preparing production information for pricing and construction and inviting tenders from building contractors. Supervising the construction on sire, constantly keeping client informed of the projects progress and issuing production instructions as and when required. Keeping the client informed of the status of the projects cost and advising ion when payment should be made or withheld. Advising on the conduct of the project generally and resolving all contractual disputes between client and the building contractor. Issuing the certificate of completion, the certificate of making good defects and the final certificate for payment. Generally, the architect acts as an agent for all purposes relating to designing, obtaining tenders for and superintending the construction work for whish he or she has been commissioned. To be able to perform above function efficiently, the architect must process, among other things, the attributes of foresight, an understanding of construction materials, communicating and coordinating abilities, essential design skills and an ability to design within a set budget. B2. Engineers B2a. The Structural Engineer The structural engineer acts as an advisor to the architect on all structural problems such as stability of the structure, suitability of materials proposed, structural feasibility of the proposed design and sizes of structural members for a construction project. Normally, the structural design engineer submits his/her various structural calculations to the area local authority for approval at the same time as the architect submits his/her drawings for building regulations approval. In addition, the structural engineer performs structural design and supervises his or her specialist area of the construction project during production on site. B2b. The Services Engineers Like the structural engineer, the services engineers (plumbing, electrical, heating and ventilating, air conditioning, sanitation, lifts and escalators and so on) contribute to the building design process to ensure that thermal and visual comfort are achieved effectively. For this reason, they analyze the clients requirement and priorities and advise the architect on the most appropriate design solution. They prepare diagrams of their proposals or services layout of the proposed construction project on the separate drawings and the architect includes these in the tender drawings sent out to contractors for competitive bidding. Once the services engineers have made their contributions to the design, they ensure that their contributions have been correctly interpreted, installed and commissioned. Where services engineers design layout causes any structural problems, the advice of the structural engineer is sought. There is also a need for the architect to coordinate the route of pipes, cables and ducts for various services on the project. The duties and responsibilities of the structural and services engineer include the following: Providing specialist advice and assisting in the design of the construction project within the scope of their respective specialist field. Producing calculations or other relevant data to assist in the design, cost planning, and the assessment of suitability of materials/components and the like. Supervising their respective specialist fields of the project and modifying or redesigning work whenever required. B3. The Quantity Surveyor The quantity surveyor is responsible for the study of the economies and financial implications of a construction project and, hence, he or she would be the appropriate construction professional to advise client/architect on matters relating to the economies and cost of a proposed construction project. Traditionally, quantity surveyors organize themselves into small practices; however, many are now to be found in contracting and client organizations. Those in private practice are mostly chosen and appointed by clients on the recommendation of an architect. As cost is one of the deciding factors in most construction projects, the quantity surveyor is brought in at the earliest opportunity to advise the client or architect on the cost of various schemes proposed. The quantity surveyor is also able to perform several functions on construction projects, and these may be summarized as follows: Preparation of preliminary cost advice and approximate estimating. Preparation of cost plan and carrying out cost studies (investment appraisal, life cycle costing and the like). Preparation of contract documentation for contractor selection and construction project administration. Evaluation of contractors tenders received with documentations for acceptance or rejection. Preparation of cash flow forecasts and institution of post-contract cost monitoring/reporting mechanisms. Valuation of variations that arise as the works proceed and preparation of interim valuations at regular intervals. Preparation of periodic cost report for the architect or client. Preparation and agreement of final account with the contractor. Evaluation and settlement of contractors claim for direct loss and/or expenses. Settlement of contractual disputes. C. The contractor The production aspects of construction projects are undertaken by building contractors who are essentially commercial companies that contract to construct development projects. Although many major contracting establishments are able to undertake both design and production work, their primary function is to build and to organize their considerable resources basically as a manufacturing organization. Duties and responsibilities of the contractor commence upon invitation to tender and include the following: Carrying out a full site investigation prior to submission of tender to ensure that the bid includes all the cost of contractual risks and problems. Submitting priced bills of quantities for examination and/or correction of any errors when required by the architect. Planning and programming the works and reprogramming thereafter whenever unforeseen events frustrate the program. Controlling directly employed operatives, sub-contractors, suppliers, materials and plant for the execution of the project to programme and cost. Coordinating efforts of all operatives and ensuring that the completed works comply with the contract specification and are also to the satisfaction of the architect. Notifying the architect of information requirements, delays to the construction programme, discrepancy between contract documents, direct loss and/or expense sustained and so on. Paying the wages of directly employed operatives, sub-contractors and suppliers in time to avoid conflicts over payment. Supplying all the information required by the clients professional advisers for the proper administration of the works. Taking steps to carry out the contractors obligations to rectify all defects on completion of the works. Providing post-occupancy repair and maintenance service if so required by the client.

Negative Impact of God on the Minds of David Hume, Christopher Smart, a

Negative Impact of God on the Minds of David Hume, Christopher Smart, and William Cowper David Hume was one of the most influential writers and philosophers of his time. Hume was the second son of Joseph Hume, laird of Ninewells, a small estate in Berwickshire. He was born and raised in Edinburgh, and studied law at Edinburgh University. He left the University without taking a degree with him, however. He spent the next three years living at his fathers, occupying his time primarily with reading and pondering ideas, later to be used in his works. In 1773 Hume traveled to France, making his way to La Fleche on the Loire. He attended Jesuit college while abroad, and was greatly stimulated by history. While in La Fleche, he began his renown A Treatise of Human Understanding. The first two volumes were published in 1739, and the concluding volume in 1740. His work was published anonymously, and subsequently attracted little attention. While in France, Hume became good friends with a number of well known men. Voltaire, Diderot, and d’Alembert were friends of his that had great influence on his writings and ideas. Several of his works include, The History of Great Britain, and Four Dissertations which contained The Natural History of Religion, Of the Passions, Of Tragedy, and Of the Standard of Taste (Stapleton 1757). Two Essays (1777) contained Of Suicide and Of the Immortality of the Soul. David Hume explores the issue of what exactly comprises the â€Å"self†. Hume states in his Treatise of Human Nature that ...when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never can catch my... ...Literature. Vol.1. Ed. Rossi, Patricia. Addison Wesley Educational Publishers Inc. New York: Copyright 1999. 2655-57. Hume, David. â€Å"A Treatise of Human Nature:The Mind as Theater†. Longman Anthology of British Literature. Vol.1. Ed. Rossi, Patricia. Addison Wesley Educational Publishers Inc. New York: Copyright 1999. 2644-47. Hume, David. â€Å"An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: Of Miracles†. Longman Anthology of British Literature. Vol.1. Ed. Rossi, Patricia. Addison Wesley Educational Publishers Inc. New York: Copyright 1999. 2647-50. Jenkins, John. Understanding Hume. Edinburgh University Press. Lanham, Maryland: Copyright 1992. Smart, Christopher. â€Å"Jubilante Agno†. Longman Anthology of British Literature. Vol.1. Ed. Rossi, Patricia. Addison Wesley Educational Publishers Inc. New York: Copyright 1999. 2650-53

Thomas Cook Analysis Swot

The company was founded by Thomas Cook, a cabinet-maker, in 1841 to carry temperance supporters by railway between the cities of Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Birmingham. [6] In 1851, the founder arranged transport to the Great Exhibition of 1851. [6] He organised his first tours to Europe in 1855 and to the United States in 1865. [6] In 1865, the founder's son John Mason Cook began working for the company full time. In 1871, he became a partner, and the name of the company was changed to Thomas Cook and Son. [7] In 1884, John Mason Cook attempted to relieve General Gordon from Khartoum. 6] In 1924, the company was renamed to Thomas Cook & Son Ltd. , after acquiring a limited liability status. [7] In 1928, the business was sold to the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits et des Grandes Express Europeens, operator of the Orient Express. In 1948, it was acquired by Britain's mainline railway companies. [6] It was then bought by a consortium of Midland Bank, Trusthouse Forte and the Automobile Association in 1972 and by WestLB in 1995. [6] In 1999, it merged with Carlson Leisure. [6] In 2000, the company sold off its worldwide foreign exchange business to Travelex to concentrate on tours and holidays. 8] After the market depression, particularly following the 2001 September 11 attacks, the company started a disinvestment programme, disposing of subsidiaries and business ventures. In 2002, the company was acquired by C&N Touristic AG, a German group, who in turn changed its own name to Thomas Cook AG. [9] On 21 December 2005, Thomas Cook AG sold off Thomas Cook International Markets, a venture which includes 60% of the stake in Thomas Cook India Ltd to Dubai Financial LLC, a part of the Dubai Investment Group (DIG) which manages the financial and real estate interests of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai. 10] Then in 2006 Dubai Financial LLC acquired a license to use the Thomas Cook name in the Middle East. [11] Thomas Cook Middle East consists of the Middle East region, which has experienced a boom in travel and tourism, especially in places like Dubai, Qatar, Oman and so on. Also in 2006 Thomas Cook Canada was sold to Transat A. T. marking Thomas Cook's exit from the North American market. [12] In 2006, Thomas Cook AG became wholly owned by KarstadtQuelle. [13] In July 2010, Thomas Cook Group buys German tourism company Oger Tours, which was owned by Vural Oger. edit] MyTravel Group PLC Further information: MyTravel Group The company was founded by David Crossland in 1972 when he purchased a series of small travel agencies in Lancashire, United Kingdom. [14] The company began operating package holidays and launched its own in-house charter airline operating under the Airtours brand in the early 1980s. In 1996, Airtours purchased Scandinavian Leisure Group (SLG) including award winning tour operators such as Ving and airline Premiair. In the late 1990s, Airtours formed the North American Leisure Group, which operated several airlines and cruise lines from its offices in Canada and California, including Sunquest Air, Sunquest West and several others. [16] Thomas Cook Airlines Airbus A320-200 In 2002, Airtours Group PLC rebranded under the new company-wide banner of MyTravel Group PLC. [17] This included a name change for Airtours International and Premiair to MyTravel Airways. Shops throughout Northern Europe were rebranded to MyTravel however UK retail outlets remained under the banner of Going Places. The company ran into financial difficulties in 2004 and needed to implement a debt-for-equity swap in order to restore its profitability. [18] [edit] Post-merger The merger between Thomas Cook and MyTravel was completed in June 2007. [4] On March 6, 2008, the company bought back its licence to operate the Thomas Cook Brand in the Middle East and Asia from The Dubai Investment Group for an amount estimated to be around 249 million euros. [19] The company took over Preston-based Gold Medal International, owner of NetFlights, in a deal worth ? 87 million in December 2008.

Unit 14 – Describe the Role of Two Other Professionals

E8 describe the role of two other professionals who support the needs of children with special needs and their families The other two professionals who support the needs of children with special needs and their families are Speech therapist: Speech therapists are other professionals who work closely with parents, carers and other professionals such as teachers, nurses, occupational therapists and doctor’s in order to improve the speech and language problem of the children. Evaluation by a certified speech-language pathologist can help determine if your child is having difficulties. Speech-language therapy is the treatment for most kids with speech and/or language disorders. † (Speech Language Therapy, 2012) The major roles of a speech therapist are to identify children’s developmental speech and communication problems. They access in treating problems that are caused due to cleft palate or disorders and implementing and revising treatment programmes.They also supp ort children by working one to one with them, calculating the children’s progress and most importantly maintaining confidentiality. Lastly, speech therapists support the families of children with special needs by making them aware of the problem, giving them information, referring them to specialists and informing them regarding their children’s progress. Physiotherapist: Physiotherapists are other professionals who help treat people of all ages with physical problems caused by illness accident or ageing, for example: low muscle tone, posture etc.Physiotherapists support children with special needs by evaluating the problems of the child’s problem, improving their breathing to avoid any malfunction, helps slow down the bad effects that are caused by disease and teach the children various exercises for their bodies. â€Å"Physiotherapists are probably the best known of the therapists who work with children with special needs. They use exercises to help their pat ients gain and keep the best possible use of their bodies. (A Special Child in The Family, 2012) Physiotherapists also support the families by providing information about their children and also teaching them various exercises that they could do at home with their children. They also support by giving them information about how to handle their children, for example: how to lift things without straining your back. http://www. specialchild. co. uk/therapists. htm http://kidshealth. org/parent/system/ill/speech_therapy. html

Facts About Milk and Whats Wrong With Milk

Facts About Milk and Whats Wrong With Milk It may be difficult to understand, at first, why vegans abstain from drinking milk. It’s supposedly wholesome and healthy, and if the advertising is to be believed, comes from â€Å"happy cows.† If you look beyond the image and examine the facts, you’ll find that the objections range from animal rights to the environment to health concerns. Animal Rights Because cows are sentient and capable of suffering and feeling pain, they have a right to be free of use and abuse by human. No matter how well the animal is cared for, taking breast milk from another animal violates that right to be free, even if cows were allowed to live out their lives on idyllic green pastures. Factory Farming Many believe that drinking milk is fine as long as the cows are treated humanely, but modern factory farming practices mean that cows do not live out their lives on idyllic green pastures. Gone are the days when farmhands just used their hands and a milk pail. Cows are now milked with milking machines, which cause mastitis. They are artificially inseminated as soon as they are old enough to become pregnant, give birth and produce milk. After two cycles of pregnancy and birth, when they are about four or five years old, they are slaughtered because they are considered â€Å"spent† and no longer profitable. When they are sent to slaughter, approximately 10% of them are so weak, they cannot stand on their own. These cows would normally live about 25 years. Cows today are also bred and raised to produce more milk than in past decades. PETA explains: On any given day, there are more than 8 million cows on U.S. dairy farms- about 14 million fewer than there were in 1950. Yet milk production has continued to increase, from 116 billion pounds of milk per year in 1950 to 170 billion pounds in 2004.(6,7) Normally, these animals would produce only enough milk to meet the needs of their calves (around 16 pounds per day), but genetic manipulation, antibiotics, and hormones are used to force each cow to produce more than 18,000 pounds of milk each year (an average of 50 pounds per day). Part of the increased milk production is due to breeding, and part of it is due to unnatural husbandry practices, such as feeding meat to the cows and giving rBGH to cows. Environment Animal agriculture is a very inefficient use of resources and is damaging to the environment. Water, fertilizer, pesticides and land are required to grow crops to feed to cows. Energy is needed to harvest the crops, turn the crops into feed, and then transport the feed to farms. The cows must also be given water to drink. The waste and methane from factory farms are also an environmental hazard. The US Environmental Protection Agency states, â€Å"In the U.S., cattle emit about 5.5 million metric tons of methane per year into the atmosphere, accounting for 20% of U.S. methane emissions.† Veal Another concern is veal. Approximately three quarters of the calves born in the dairy industry are turned into veal, because they are not needed or useful for milk production, and are the wrong breed of cattle for beef production. What About â€Å"Happy Cows†? Even on farms where the cows are not constantly confined, the female cows are slaughtered when their milk production drops and three-quarters of the calves are turned into veal. Don’t We Need Milk? Milk is not necessary for human health, and may be a health risk. Except for domesticated animals to whom we feed milk, humans are the only species that drinks the breast milk of another species, and the only species that continues to drink breast milk into adulthood. Furthermore, dairy consumption raises certain health concerns, such as cancer, heart disease, hormones and contaminants.

Free Essays on Brain Influence

Brain Influence I. Introduction. In choosing this book I discovered many interesting elements that caught my attention. Primarily it was the idea that this book â€Å"Your Brain at Work,† by Dr. Margaret A. Golton set the stage by addressing the psychological and mechanical processes the brain controls, by which personality and characters are formed. Secondly, I choose this book because I presumed discovering a clearer understanding about the self, mind, and its structure, content and function as it pertains to my psychological development. II. Summary. From the beginning of the book the author governs her thoughts and explanations consistently with the idea of the BONN approach as it relates to the development and dynamics of the brain. What is unique about the BONN approach to psychological development is that its not concerned with the past history, or special environment, but rather emphasizes the life experience for being the main contributor and common denominator to psychological development. First, the author begins addressing the brain and its organizational profile. With a very concise methodology Golton describes the dimensions of the brain and how the separate are inter-connected. She mentions that the brain has a core which, Lee Morton calls the â€Å"homunculus,† even though many psychologists, biologists, and scientists all together often call this aspect of the brain the â€Å"prenucleus.† Golton states, â€Å"that the prenucleus† transcends the historical idea of the brain and is of tremendous importance as it contributes to brain functioning† . It is the decision-making element of the mind, which has tremendous impact on the morals, precedence, and ambitions that govern a person’s life. For this is the platform where the author pronounces her ideas and facts in determining how the human personality is developed, and how the mysteries of brain activity and its intricacies is the sole reasoning for why e... Free Essays on Brain Influence Free Essays on Brain Influence Brain Influence I. Introduction. In choosing this book I discovered many interesting elements that caught my attention. Primarily it was the idea that this book â€Å"Your Brain at Work,† by Dr. Margaret A. Golton set the stage by addressing the psychological and mechanical processes the brain controls, by which personality and characters are formed. Secondly, I choose this book because I presumed discovering a clearer understanding about the self, mind, and its structure, content and function as it pertains to my psychological development. II. Summary. From the beginning of the book the author governs her thoughts and explanations consistently with the idea of the BONN approach as it relates to the development and dynamics of the brain. What is unique about the BONN approach to psychological development is that its not concerned with the past history, or special environment, but rather emphasizes the life experience for being the main contributor and common denominator to psychological development. First, the author begins addressing the brain and its organizational profile. With a very concise methodology Golton describes the dimensions of the brain and how the separate are inter-connected. She mentions that the brain has a core which, Lee Morton calls the â€Å"homunculus,† even though many psychologists, biologists, and scientists all together often call this aspect of the brain the â€Å"prenucleus.† Golton states, â€Å"that the prenucleus† transcends the historical idea of the brain and is of tremendous importance as it contributes to brain functioning† . It is the decision-making element of the mind, which has tremendous impact on the morals, precedence, and ambitions that govern a person’s life. For this is the platform where the author pronounces her ideas and facts in determining how the human personality is developed, and how the mysteries of brain activity and its intricacies is the sole reasoning for why e...

Indiscreet and Indiscrete - Commonly Confused Words

Indiscreet and Indiscrete - Commonly Confused Words The homophones indiscreet and indiscrete are not synonyms. Indiscreet is the more common word. Indiscrete is a technical term primarily used in scientific writing. The adjective indiscreet means imprudent, lacking good judgment, or carelessly talkative. The noun forms of indiscreet  are  indiscreetness  and  indiscretion. The adjective indiscrete means not separated into distinct parts. The noun form of indiscrete is indiscreteness. See also: Discreet and Discrete Examples The lawyers indiscreet remarks to the media provoked an angry response from the judge. Dr. John Watson: One word, Sherlock! That is all I would have needed! One word to let me know that you were alive!Sherlock Holmes: Ive nearly been in contact so many times, but I worried that, you know, you might say something indiscreet.Dr. John Watson: What?Sherlock Holmes: Oh, you know, let the cat out of the bag.(Martin Freeman and  Benedict Cumberbatch in The Empty Hearse. Sherlock, 2014) The indiscrete nucleus does not have a nuclear membrane and is therefore not separate from the cytoplasm. Practice(a) Questions are never _____; answers sometimes are.(Oscar Wilde, An  Ideal Husband)(b) Topology aims to formalize some continuous, _____ features of space. Answers to Practice Exercises Glossary of Usage: Index of Commonly Confused Words200 Homonyms, Homophones, and Homographs Answers to Practice Exercises: Indiscreet and Indiscrete (a) Questions are never indiscreet; answers sometimes are.(Oscar Wilde,  An  Ideal Husband)  (b) Topology aims to formalize some continuous, indiscrete features of space. Glossary of Usage: Index of Commonly Confused Words

Marketing Management Class Discussion wk6 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Marketing Management Class Discussion wk6 - Essay Example The other partner is viewed as an outsider and will have to spend more if they are to operate in the market. However, these disputes can be resolved by conciliation between the business partners or an agreement between the countries so that they provide favorable trading terms to the affected parties. Nevertheless, there must be a mutual agreement between the two nations if investments are to increase in the future. By an outsider partnering a local company, they increase the level of investment and improve productivity of the country. This investment creates more jobs to the population and helps the economy to grow (Cravens, & Piercy, 2008). Hence, the host nation will benefit more even if it is indirectly. Thus, they should provide the other partner with equal rights so that they share costs and profits equally. They will be motivated and increase their bilateral ties that are beneficial in the

Ethical manner Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Ethical manner - Research Paper Example s of administration, which focus on individual employees and understanding of their behaviours before employment of strategies that are specific to such behaviours and thus effective in enhancing sustainable organizational development. One of the unethical issues that exist yet avoidable in the article is carelessness in the presentation of the work. The authors show negligence and make careless errors especially in terms of grammatical arrangements and issues of punctuation. On the other hand, subjectivity is an avoidable unethical issue in the research. As such, it is important for the researchers to be objective by avoiding any form of bias in the design of the study, data analysis, interpretation of data, and personal decisions (Resnik, 2011). It is also important to disclose any financial or personal interests to avoid negative influences of such aspects on the research process or findings. One of the parties that are likely to face injury in the study is the employees within the hotels. As such, since the study reviews the behaviour of these employees and their effect on organizational success, in response to the management, the exposure of identities of some of the employees that are believed to be negatively responding to management in their performance may risk dismissal from their jobs. On the other hand, some of the managers that may be marked as using poor management skills by the study may ruin their reputation especially before the organizations’ governing bodies and thus affect their relationships with top most management and even the employees. Carelessness in the presentation of data could lead to poor interpretation of the data and thus alter the initial intention of the study (Resnik, 2011). This could lead to initiation of interventions in the wrong variables. In addition, careless presentation of data could lead to questioning of the credibility of the paper, an aspect that would lead to neglecting of the content of the study by all

Collection Planning and Strategies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Collection Planning and Strategies - Essay Example The subsequent steps in the hierarchy include tactical objective, tactical task and measure of performance. Resources are allocated based on the tactical tasks that contribute to the overall performance of the organization (Clark & Cook, 2008). The strategy-to task management serves in other settings and conforms to vision, objective, planning and performance assessment. Firms initially appointed functional managers in their executive teams with an aim of centralizing decisions regarding their functions.However their functions have changed with time, especially in the US. Their newly acquired roles include co-ordination of activities throughout the business unit to aid collection. Secondly, they take part in strategic decision making of the organization together with the CEO with the aim of realizing synergy and efficiency in the organization. Thirdly, they take part in staff management. They organize seminars and workshops where knowledge is imparted on workers. They also assess and review performances of individual workers. Fourthly, they offer expert opinions in their various departments. The functional managers also train other employees on practical skills regarding their

Article critique Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Critique - Article Example The article also explores that how parents can lead an influential role in shaping the knowledge of their children regarding sex education without embarrassing them. The article provides an in-depth analysis of parents’ role in this regard after interviewing them. Also, it describes that which gender of the parent can be influential. Parents can play the role of educators in informing their children from the harms of early sex activities. The author has tried to explore the fact that how parents can help their children in acquiring the first hand knowledge related to sex education from home and how they can improve their idea and concepts related to this topic. The author of the article has emphasized on the role and participation of the parents as educators in this article. The article explores that there are majority of children who face problems discussing anything related to sex with their parents due to embarrassment. According to Walker (2001) about 72% of the teenagers feel embarrassed talking about sex with their fathers and 43% of the teenagers feel embarrassment from their mothers. The author further explains that majority of the parents favor providing sex education at school. I agree with the author that majority of the teenagers feel uncomfortable discussing such an issue with their parents but at school, there has to be a certain age limit for the students as well as the information related to sex and o ther relationships has to be in a limit. The writer further tells the reader that discussing sex with parents won’t increase the probability of children’s engagement into this but; I believe that parents can provide limited information to them however; curiosity can be the factor in triggering the urge to know what happens in real. The author needs to find out how it can be preventable more thoroughly. I agree to the author’s findings that mothers can

Discuss Steps The U.S Government can take to reduce oil consumption in Research Paper

Discuss Steps The U.S Government can take to reduce oil consumption in the United States - Research Paper Example The United States is a highly developed country and also a high consumer of petroleum and allied products to meet its energy requirements. The major sectors that use these products are transportation on land, air and sea, heating of buildings, various manufacturing industries, domestic appliances such as lawn movers, generators, etc. Traditionally since colonization of the continent, the US has been dependent on Natural non-renewable resources such wood, coal, natural gas, petroleum, etc. The volume of consumption as varied over time, being high in the earlier decades due to various reasons such as perceived abundance, comparatively less efficient machines, automobiles, etc., affordability and a lifestyle that did not lay the required emphasis on judicial use of these resources with the idea of conservation, impact on environment, etc. largely due to ignorance and poor awareness of such issues. Before we look at the methods for energy conservation, let us briefly understand the various sectors that are consumers of energy. (Overview, U.S. EIA, 2012) The different sectors that are essential consumers of power and fuel are Industrial, Transport, Business & Commercial and Domestic sectors. In the light of the above, we will now explore and discuss the various alternatives especially in the Natural and Renewable energy sources and also enumerate the various ways in which energy consumption itself (irrespective of the source) can be reduced in the larger interest of minimizing the global impact on the environment, its harmful effects and resultant climate change. (Cleetus, R. et.al., 2009; Greene, D.L., 2011) The United States is by far the largest consumer of oil in the world at 20.6 million barrels per day (EIA, 2007), 60 per cent of which is imported. Of this, two-thirds is consumed by the Transport sector and ~44% by other

Chose one of them Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Chose one of them - Article Example In writing this, the author has ended up comparing apples to oranges to form a path of discovery. Later in the passage, the author admits to the limitations offered by stone tools in order to discover more about human origins. There the author relates that our pens, markers and personal digital assistants would be able to reveal little about us except that we write. In stating this, he is absolutely right. Stone tools can only indicate that human beings were using tools to achieve certain ends. Further down the line, the author has expressed sentimentally that recent investigation proves that stone tools can offer only limited insight into human evolution. However, the author seems disappointed in such an argument because he holds initially that stone tools offer sizable insight into human evolution. Given that this text is an academic investigation, it hardly makes any sense for the author to display his personal sentiments in order to deliver a point of view held by certain profess ionals. This text is also differentiated because the author has modified an excerpt from C. S. Lewis’ novella The Screwtape Letters. The modified text is satirical and has been used rather injudiciously to criticise fellow archaeologists and their unsound professional practices.

Discuss Steps The U.S Government can take to reduce oil consumption in Research Paper

Discuss Steps The U.S Government can take to reduce oil consumption in the United States - Research Paper Example The United States is a highly developed country and also a high consumer of petroleum and allied products to meet its energy requirements. The major sectors that use these products are transportation on land, air and sea, heating of buildings, various manufacturing industries, domestic appliances such as lawn movers, generators, etc. Traditionally since colonization of the continent, the US has been dependent on Natural non-renewable resources such wood, coal, natural gas, petroleum, etc. The volume of consumption as varied over time, being high in the earlier decades due to various reasons such as perceived abundance, comparatively less efficient machines, automobiles, etc., affordability and a lifestyle that did not lay the required emphasis on judicial use of these resources with the idea of conservation, impact on environment, etc. largely due to ignorance and poor awareness of such issues. Before we look at the methods for energy conservation, let us briefly understand the various sectors that are consumers of energy. (Overview, U.S. EIA, 2012) The different sectors that are essential consumers of power and fuel are Industrial, Transport, Business & Commercial and Domestic sectors. In the light of the above, we will now explore and discuss the various alternatives especially in the Natural and Renewable energy sources and also enumerate the various ways in which energy consumption itself (irrespective of the source) can be reduced in the larger interest of minimizing the global impact on the environment, its harmful effects and resultant climate change. (Cleetus, R. et.al., 2009; Greene, D.L., 2011) The United States is by far the largest consumer of oil in the world at 20.6 million barrels per day (EIA, 2007), 60 per cent of which is imported. Of this, two-thirds is consumed by the Transport sector and ~44% by other

All information is in the document, Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

All information is in the document, - Essay Example the main features in the film is that is characteristic of an urban setting is the firearms that are used in the action and bloodshed combats in the plot of the film. In a rural Asian setting, the main weapon to combat enemies was the sword. This is what is used in most Asian action traditional movies and the martial arts of Tai Kwando are employed. In this film however, modern firearms with live bullets are used in the action scenes. These are cocked and fired by pulling the trigger which gives the film an all modern aura. Another element of modern setting in the film was depicted with the occupation of Sung Tse-Ho. Ho’s principle job was printing and distributing fake bank notes of the US dollars. The fact that printing in itself was done is a very modern element. Traditionally primitive forms of writing were the only forms of permanently inscribing information on a piece. The bank notes also implied that the main form of exchanging goods and services or for trading was monetary which is different from the traditional barter trading system. In addition to that it depicts the presence banks in the film setting which are only characteristic of modern settings. Very few rural settings have a bank anywhere in the vicinity. This made a great impact in the lives of the dwellers and visitors of the area. They got to enjoy the services associated with banking such as borrowing of loans, keeping money safely in a personal account, saving money through savings accounts that earn interest and the like. T he dwellers and visitors also got job employments that are associated with banks such as being bank tellers, being bank watchmen and women and being cleaners. The younger brother of Ho, Kit, aspired to be a policeman. This is an influence that he got as a dweller of an urban setting. Policemen are a typical feature of an urban setting. They mascaraed the streets in their uniforms with some even holding gins or pistols. These are likely to look cool for a young man

Theory Mild Steel Material

Theory Mild Steel Material Mild steel or so-called carbon steel was the most common  types of steel  being used nowadays in almost all forms of industrial applications and industrial manufacturing. Basically, it refers to a group of low carbon steel with relatively low tensile strength, malleable and cheap which consist the maximum composition of Carbon between 0.15% to 0.3%. Furthermore its surface hardness can be increased through carburizing. Apart from the cheapest types of steel, it was widely used in every type of product created from  steel because of its weldability, good strength and hardness and although it has the tendency to rust, it is very durable to build materials. Plus, it had the ability to be be magnetized and used in almost any project that requires a lot number of metal. 2.1.2 Types of Mild Steel There were many types of Mild Steel that had been discovered until recently, among them were A36, High Strength Low Alloy (HSLA) Steel, Abrasion Resistant (AR), Pressure Vessel Quality (PVQ), 4140, 8620 ,1045,1018 and Free Machine Steel (FM 45). The most popular mild steel specification for carbon steel is A36 which normally comes in shapes of plates and bars for bolted and welded construction. High Strength Low Alloy (HSLA) Steel usually contain more than 15% composition of carbon and it is stronger than any ordinary plain carbon steels. HSLA normally comes in the appearance of Corten and Exten material. They are widely used in cars, cranes, bridges and other structures to handle stress at low temperatures. Abrasion Resistant (AR) is commonly used in truck and hopper bodies, shoots, and wear as it is a very hard mild steel that is abrasion or wear resistant. While for the Pressure Vessel Quality (PVQ), because of its properties which are high strength and low weight mild steel it wa s commonly used in earth moving, transport equipment such as booms, buckets, and pressure vessels. Among the example of PVQ are A514 and T1. 4140 and 8620 perform well under high heat, heavy load wear-resistant material and was used for dyes and molds. 1045 is a standard mild steel which is more durable than A36 though it is harder to machine and weld. It is commonly used for axles, bolts, connecting rods, hydraulic rams and etc. 1018 is the most frequently available of the cold-rolled steels and chemically similar to A36. It come generally in round rod, square bar and rectangle bar. It have good edges such as strength, ductility and ease of machining. Last but not least, Free Machine Steel (FM 45) is a mild steel that has average durability in strength and easy to machine. 2.1.3 Mechanical Properties of Mild Steel In materials science, the strength phrase can be assumed as a high resistance to breakage. Mild steel was well known because of its high resistance to breakage and therefore its mechanical properties can be considered as very strong due to the low amount of carbon it contains. Mild Steel also was recognized as having a high tensile and impact strength compared to the High Carbon Steel due to the fact that it can be easily malleable even when in cold. Another distinguished differences of mechanical properties between high carbon steel and Mild Steel was mild steel bends or deforms if being subjected under stress while a high carbon steels usually shatter or crack. This cause Mild Steel was widely preferred in the construction area in the interest of its weldability, machiniability, malleablility and high strength. As a result of its high strength and easy to malleable, the former is actually quite soft which cause its easy to machine and welding both to itself or to other types of ste el. Nevertheless, the former cannot be hardened through heat treatment processes unlike the latter. Mild steel usually contains few other alloying elements other than Carbon to give them certain desirable mechanical properties. For example, lets take a look at 1018, a common type of mild steel. 1018 contains an approximately 0.6%-0.9% Manganese (Mn), 0.04% Phosphorus and 0.05% Sulphur. Varying these chemicals will affects certain properties such as corrosion resistance and strength. For instance, Phosphorus, Sulphur and Silicon are undesirable and can be considered as trace elements as they have negative impacts on the steel due to their bad effects on the steel and its properties. The reason why Phosphorus is consider as a trace element because it affects primarily the ductility and the toughness of steel mostly when the steel is in the quenched and tempered conditions. In fact, the Phosphorus has a tendency to react with the iron to form a compound known as ironphosphide (Fe3P) which has the particularity of being brittle. Hence, phosphorus renders steel less tough and ductile wh ile it increases brittleness. While for the Sulphur which also was a trace element, it has a great tendency to segregate (that is to isolate itself in the structure). It also reacts with iron to form iron sulphide which produces red or hot-shortness, since the low melting eutectic forms a network around the grains so that these hold but loosely together, and the grain boundaries may easily break up during hotforming. So, from here we can see that Sulphur plays a great role in the decline ability of steel such as weldability, impact, toughness and the ductility of the steel. Carbon is an element whose presence is imperative in all steel. Indeed, carbon is the principle hardening element of steel. That is, this alloying element determines the level of hardness or strength that can be attained by quenching. Furthermore, carbon is essential for the formation of cementite (as well as other carbides) and of pearlite, spheridite, bainite, and iron-carbon martensite, with martensite being the hardest of the microstructures. Carbon is also responsible for increase in tensile strength, hardness, resistance to wear and abrasion. However, when present in high quantities it affects the ductility, the toughness and the machinability of steel. Whereas element like Carbon and Manganese are desireable as it can enhanced the properties of steel. First, lets observe Carbon element. Carbon is an element whose presence is imperative in all steel. Indeed, carbon is the principle hardening element of steel. That means that the alloying element determines the level of hardness or strength that can be attained by quenching. Furthermore, carbon is essential for the formation of cementite (as well as other carbides) and not to mention pearlite, spheridite,bainite, and iron-carbon martensite, with martensite being the hardest of the microstructures. Carbon is also responsible for the increase in tensile strength, hardness,resistance to wear and abrasion. However, when present in high quantities it will affects the ductility, the toughness and the machinability of steel. Same as Carbon, Manganese also contributes greatly towards increasing strength and hardness, but to a less extent than carbon. To be more precise, the degree to which manganese increases hardness and strength is dependent upon the Carbon content of the steel. In fact, manganese contributes to the increasing the strength of the ferrite, and also toward increasing the hardness of penetration of steel in the quench by decreasing the critical quenching speed. Moreover, still consisting of a considerable amount of manganese can be quenched in oil rather than in water, and are therefore less susceptible to cracking because of reduction in the shock of the quenching. In addition, the latter enhance the tensile strength, the hardness, the harden ability, the resistance to wear and it also increase the rate of carbon penetrating in the coefficient of thermal expansion of steel whereas it is detrimental to both thermal and electrical conductivity. 2.1.4 Application of Mild Steel Nowadays, every objects that are fabricated of  steel  are using  mild  steel type of material which includes automobile chassis, motorcycle frames and most cookware product. Due to its poor corrosion-resistance, it must be painted or protected and sealed in order to prevent rust from damaging it. A light coat of oil or grease is able to seal this  steel  and aid in rust control.Unlike high-carbon  steel,  mild  steel  is easily welded. The properties of the  steel  allow the electrical current to travel through the metal without distorting the makeup of the material. Some types of high-carbon  steel such as stainless  steel, require special techniques in order to properly weld the material. Being less brittle than high-carbon steels, the  mild  variant is able to flex and give in construction projects where a higher-carbon version could simply break. Most of the pipeline in the world is created using  mild  steel. This allows the pipe to not only be easily welded into place, but also lets the pipeline flex and avoid cracking and breaking under pressure. The corrosive properties of the  steel  pipeline mean that it must be properly sealed through painting or a process often used on pipelines that involves wrapping the pipe with a corrosive-resistant material.Often in very cold climates, a warming type of insulating material is wrapped around the pipeline. This material helps keep the cold inside the pipe running smoothly. The wrap also prevents the soft  mild  pipe  steel  from becoming brittle and cracking. The constant expansion and shrinkage due to cold and warmth cycling in the pipe could create structural integrity problems, but these are held in check by the insulating wrap. On a much smaller scale, household pipes can be prevented from becoming cold and breaking by the use of electrical heating tape. 2.2 Theory Test 2.2.1 Tensile Test A  tensile test, also known as tension test is the most fundamental type of mechanical test one can perform on the material. This tests are simple, relatively inexpensive, and fully standardized. By pulling on something, one will determine how the material will react to forces being applied in tension. As the material is being pulled, one will find its strength along with how much it will elongate. The objective of conducting Tensile test until the material breaks or rupture is to obtain a complete tensile profile. A curve will result showing how it reacted to the forces being applied. The point of failure is of much interest and is typically called the Ultimate Strength or UTS on the Stress vs Strain diagram. The total of 4 samples of mild steel plate were prepared for this test purposed where all the samples were machined following the standardized dimension given. Stress vs Strain Diagram 2.2.2 Hardness Test Rockwell hardness testing is a general method for measuring the bulk hardness of metallic and polymer materials. Although hardness testing does not give a direct measurement of any performance properties, hardness correlates with strength, wear resistance, and other properties. Hardness testing is widely used for material evaluation due to its simplicity and low cost relative to direct measurement of many properties. This method consists of indenting the test material with a diamond cone or hardened steel ball indenter. Only 1 samples of mild steel material plate was prepared for this type of test as this test only required 1 samples indent 10 data on that 1 samples. 2.2.3 Impact Test The impact properties of samples were measured using the standardized dimension from the strength lab that had been acquired from the lab technician. Then the samples that had complete the machining process will have to undergo two test which are Charpy test and Izod test. These two test were meant to measure the the amount of  energy absorbed by a material during  fracture. This absorbed energy is a measure of a given materials notch  toughness  and acts as a tool to study temperature-dependent ductile-brittle transition. The only distinctive differences between the charpy and izod lies in the way that the specimen are supported in the apparatus machine. 2.2.4 Microstructure Observation In Microstructure observation, the samples of mild steel plate will be observed under the microscope in order to monitor the microstructure of the specimen. Before the observation start, the sample will have to be prepared by first grinding the sample with grit sand paper starting from 240, 320, 400, 600 and lastly 1200. After that the sample will be polished by using either powder or paste depend on which is more suitable. Only after all these process were done we can start observe the microstructure under the microscope starting from 5x, 10x, 20x, 40x, 50x and etc.

Anne Bradstreet :: essays research papers

Oh God Help Me   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The poem For Deliverance from a Fever is a beautiful poem by Anne Bradstreet. The use of rhyme and rhythm throughout this poem depicts to me that Anne had an exceptional understanding of poetry and how to write poetry. Anne uses a great array of words to make the poem more appealing to not only the reader but also herself. This finely written poem portrays to me that Anne was a very spiritual women but maybe had doubts about everything going on around her. The course of this paper will iterate what the poem For Deliverance from a Fever by Anne Bradstreet means to me. I believe that Anne Bradstreet’s main purpose in writing this poem was not for the entertainment of readers, but for her to escape the oppression of women in the Puritan times. My reasoning behind this hypothesis being that this whole poem is just a prayer to God to rid her of the sickness, which ailed her. Why would Anne Bradstreet write this poem? I believe that Anne was writing this poetry as a rebellious effort to illustrate that women are just as talented as men, if not more talented. Every other line of this poem is a rhyme, if Anne was just writing her prayer down for her pleasure I believe she would have not put so much time and effort into finding the â€Å"perfect word† to rhyme with the previous line, if she had not meant this poem to be a demonstration that women can and will become un-oppressed one day. I believe one main purpose of this poem to show women that they should be able to express their ideas and feelings. This poem is not only a prayer to God to heal her unhealthy body, but it is thanking God for helping her in the past. In lines twenty-one and twenty-two, Anne writes, â€Å"Thou heard’st, Thy rod Thou didst remove And spared my body frail† (Bradstreet 277), These two lines, among other Anne Bradstreet poems, tells me that Anne was not a selfish women, she knew that she must thank God for what he has done for her in order for him to help her again. Anne was a very considerate person she was always looking out for others, mainly her children and husband. Toward the end this poem Anne Bradstreet is giving glory to God. She is thanking him for not only curing her illness at that time, but also thanking him for helping her with everything else that goes on in her life.

The Interaction Between Body and Writing :: Teaching Writing

The Interaction Between Body and Writing My first text for this assignment was this haiku: thank god for spring in Ypsi; makes it easier to get out of bed. It seemed appropriate to the task of attempting to write in English without using any technology, as the haiku form is traditionally concerned with the natural world. I envisioned the grass and earth on my property, newly bared to the sun again after the snows, and the letter-making materials available on the site. I could hear my paper unfolding in my head; since the point of the project was to come to terms with the bonded nature of language to technology in writing, I could see whole paragraphs about my use of found sticks and mud as well as bits of discarded junk that my landlord had left lying around since last fall. My argument would be that the use of materials that had originated from the natural world and been manipulated by technology that were now returning to their natural home symbolized the interwoven relationships between thought and feeling and action that is written communication. I had some lovely big ideas. But then I started wandering around in my head a little bit, and some interesting questions came up. Having grown up in ballet and still acting in the world to some extent as a dancer, I wondered if dance is also a technology in the same way that the alphabet and writing are. It seems to me that social dance, while it does serve the purpose of communication to some extent, has no articulated 'alphabet' of signifiers that compare to words and letters. Dance forms like ballet and flamenco, however, most definitely do. For the trained dancer and the educated audience member, ballet is a system of movement with numerous gestures, movements and shapes that signify specific meanings. The manner in which dance is formed, however, via the body of the 'author,' doesn't perform the same separating function that Walter Ong claims writing does in his essay Writing is a Technology that Restructures Thought. The technology of dance is contained within the author, but the technology of writing is e xternal to the author. While writing "promotes 'objectivity'" by distancing the performer from his/her ideas via performance (326), dance to some extent preserves the unity of thought/emotion and the thinker. With my confidence shored up by Naomi Baron's discussion of the

Chemalite Inc.

CHEMALITE, INC.   Financial Report| Period of January, 2003 1 to June 30, 2003 Financial report of Chemalite, Inc. for six months period ended June 30, 2003 is to include cash transaction, income statement and balance sheet. This report will also to include comment on Chemalite, Inc’s actual loss for the period. | In early 2003, Chemalite, Inc. was established by Bennett Alexander to market his invention, Chemalite,. During the first six months, Chemalite, Inc. was preparing for initial production and was still not ready for commercial phase. Chemalite, Inc. as setting up the plant by procuring needed legal entity, place, equipment and inventories. From those preparation activities, Chemalite, Inc. ’s summary of the cash for six months ended June 30, 2003 is: Chemalite, IncCash on June 30, 2003| $ 230,000 | By analyzing income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement of Chemalite, Inc for period of first half of 2003, we find that the actual loss of Chemalite, Inc in that period is $7,500. This means that Mr. Larson’s comment on Chemalite’s loss of $145,000 is wrong, he calculated only cash position from January 2003 to June 2003, and he did not calculate other assets like patent, equipment and inventories. His comment is misleading and can influence other shareholders. My suggestion for Mr. Alexander is to do damage control by presenting this report to other shareholders.

7-Eleven Company Essay

The Opportunities: Like many others companies, 7-Eleven also has lot of opportunities. The opportunity in this company is fresh food provided. Every morning, fresh meal will be available at 7-Eleven store for people to take away and get a quick breakfast. (Paradise, 2014) Next, the appearance of freebies and discounts is also opportunity in this company. Discounts are gives depends on what its business partners offer. Sometimes when it comes to certain seasons, 7-Eleven will has it own attraction as it is giving out freebies to customer when they purchase certain amount. It is because the new trend is increasing among the customers that they like freebies and discounts. Even it is not what they need it or whether they want to use these freebies after, they still want to have it. (Paradise, 2014) Besides, the opportunity in this company is not many convenient stores open 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Therefore, 7-Eleven is one of the store that people can stop by in the middle of the night only to g et whatever they need. (Paradise, 2014) COMPETITOR ANALYSIS: 99 Speedmart 7-Eleven KK Mart Number of outlets nationwide450 Outlets nationwide1,497 Outlets nationwide62 Outlets nationwide Operating hours10 a.m. – 10 p.m.24 Hours 24 Hours   Products availableGroceries & freshmartGroceries, fresh foods, ATM and photocopying services.Groceries, fresh foods, ATM and photocopying services. Benefits to customerTrolley providedPoints by business partnersNone Freebies and DiscountNoneFreebies based on seasons & Discount depends on business partnersNone 99 Speedmart is a rapid growing convenient store chain which was founded in 1987 by Mr. Lee Thiam Wah who is the director of the company itself. More than 450 outlets nationwide, 99 Speedmart keep expanding the business and  also struggling to be top in the market. 99 Speedmart also provides same product like 7-Eleven only without services like ATM machine and also bills payment. 99 Speedmart provides trolley services for its customers. (99 Speedmart, 2014) While another competitor is KK Mart which is under KK Group founded in year 2001, comes with the desire of becoming a household name throughout Malaysia and beyond the shores. Founded by Dato’ Dr Chai Kee Kan also known as KK Chai, KK Mart has over 62 outlets nationwide and keeps expanding. KK Mart also operates 24 hours everyday which make it a good competitor to 7-Eleven. (KK Group, 2014) From the table above, we can compare how good is each of the convenient store. 7-Eleven is considered as the best and stronger convenient store company in the market. 7-Eleven has the most outlets nationwide which makes it is the easiest to find by customers anywhere they are. Besides 7-Eleven operates 24 hours which in case of emergency it can be very useful to customers. Futhermore, 7-Eleven sells products and even services which make it has lot of variety to customers. Even when customers purchase products at 7-Eleven, they can get points when they are the member of 7-Eleven’s business partners. Lastly, 7-Eleven do provides discounts and freebies based on offerings and seasons. MARKETING MIX: †¢Marketing mix means focus on the product, pricing, placement, promotion, people, process and physical evidence. †¢Marketing strategies consist customer orientation, input, and accessibility in the struggle to the be the leader of the market. †¢After the business manage to find the key factor, analyzed the market, target segment and understanding the demands, every business or every company needs to come up with formula to accelerate the growth and progress of the company. †¢For which 7-Eleven uses 7P’s of marketing mix such as: – Product – Price – Place – Promotion – People – Process – Physical Evidence Product Strategies: Every day, products available only at 7-Eleven ® bring millions of loyal customers through franchisees’ doors. A leader in bringing fresh items into the convenience space, 7-Eleven delivers fresh sandwiches, salads, fruits and pastries daily. 7-Eleven also has a full line of 7-Select ® private label products, which offer customers food items they love at low everyday prices. And of course, no one can forget about 7-Eleven’s legendary, iconic products, like the Slurpee ® drink, Big Gulp ® drink and famous coffee. When buying products, 7-Eleven aims to be the first to have great new items, get the best products in the category, be the only retailer to carry certain products 7-Eleven has new item introductions weekly, and continuously reinvests in product development. Vast Buying Power, Great Margins 7-Eleven buys for more than 6,700 stores in the U.S. alone. This buying power helps 7-Eleven negotiate favorable pricing and terms that let franchisees offer products to customers at great prices while retaining maximum profit margins. ( franchise.7-eleven.com,2014) Pricing Strategies: Convenient stores compete with each other in coffee price, fountain drinks price, and other private-owned products price. Prices for items that the stores buy from vendors are not significantly different. Due to it is the top company, 7-eleven prices its private label products relatively high compare to other convenient stores. In addition, the company has the potential to set high price for the items that other convenient stores do not carry. (klse.i3investor.2014) Placement Strategies: 7-Eleven pioneered the convenience store in 1927 at Southland Ice Company in Dallas, Texas. In 1954, the company opened a store outside of the state of Texas. 7-Eleven then expanded internationally when it opened stores in Mexico in 1971. In the same year, the company targeted England and Scotland as its first entry in European market. Three years later, 7-Eleven opened the first store in Japan. Then after years of growing its stores internationally, 7-Eleven international open its 25,000th store in 2006. In 2009, 7-Eleven has more than 35,000 stores in at least 18 countries worldwide, with its largest market in Japan, the United States, Canada, Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Thailand (businesstoday, 2014) Promotion Strategy: Recently, 7-Eleven started to add a bonus for everyone entering the 7-Eleven Day instant win game on the Slurpee website. After entering the instant win game, they will receive a code and website link to urchase $7.11 lawn tickets for concerts at select Live Nation venues across the country. In addition, 7-Eleven made collectible slurpee cups and slurpee straws featuring Domo & quot the fuzzy brown creature with a trademark enigmatic open-mouth expression that is taking 7-Eleven store by storm this fall & quot. 7-elevent also Domo-nized its food and beverages, such as the Big Bite and hot dog. Energy drink. CEO Rich Collins of Big Tent Entertainment, the marketing and licensing company for Domo, cmmented & quot because Domo has such a hugely devoted, cult-like following among kids, teens and young adults, we believe he’s a perfect match for 7-Eleven and its iconic Slurpee brand & quot (afrbiz.2014). People Strategy: People are an essential ingredient in service provision; recruiting and training the right staff is required to create a competitive advantage. Customers make judgments about service provision and delivery based on the people representing your organisation. This is because people are one of the few elements of the service that customers can see and interact with. The praise received by the volunteers (games makers) for the London 2012  Olympics and Paralympics demonstrates the powerful effect people can create during service delivery. Staff require appropriate interpersonal skills, aptititude, and service knowledge in order to deliver a quality service. In the UK many organisations apply for the â€Å"Investors in People† Accreditation to demonstrate that they train their staff to prescribed standards and best practices. http://www.learnmarketing.net/servicemarketingmix.htm Process Strategy: Because of the 7-Eleven franchise cost, many small business owners need to look for help with funding. Many companies don’t offer financing. Instead, they may recommend a company already familiar with its business practices to help you gain the financing you need to initiate your franchise application. This company does offer new franchise owners financing up to 65 percent. This financing covers only the initial franchise fee. As you complete your independent research, you’ll be able to determine if the 7-Eleven franchise cost is worth the risk. Meet with your personal financial adviser to see if you’re financially able to make this large of an investment. Once you start the application process, it doesn’t take long before your store will be up and running. In fact, the company says it can take less than 120 days to move through the nine-step application process. (business.answer.2014) Physical Evidence Strategy: Physical evidence is about where the service is being delivered from. It is particularly relevant to retailers operating out of shops. This element of the marketing mix will distinguish a company from its competitors. Physical evidence can be used to charge a premium price for a service and establish a positive experience. For example all hotels provide a bed to sleep on but one of the things affecting the price charged, is the condition of the room (physical evidence) holding the bed. Customers will make judgments about the organisation based on the physical evidence. For example if you walk into a restaurant you expect a clean and friendly environment, if the restaurant is smelly or dirty, customers are likely to walk out. This is before they have even received the service. http://www.learnmarketing.net/servicemarketingmix.htm CONCLUSION: Marketing strategies applied by 7-Eleven clearly gives the all the information that is necessary for the growth and development of a business The strategies that are implemented by 7-Eleven consist many basic essentials features like innovative ideas, market research, customers views, forecasting consumers demand, organizing and planning. In this modern world, the demand for goods such as groceries are increasing at an alarming rate because it is a daily needs products that customers will always buy and buy everyday. Most of the companies carry different types of marketing strategies in order to serve their customers in a more efficient and better ways than their competitors as they want their business to be stable in the market and can survive for such a long term. Reference Available at: http://www.7eleven.com.my/html/default.aspx?ID=2&PID=12 [Accessed 17 September2014]. Available at: http://www.99speedmart.com.my/history.htm [Accessed 17 September 2014]. Available at: http://kkgroup.my/KKGroup/ [Accessed 18 September 2014]. Available at: http://www.managementparadise.com/forums/principles-management-p-o-m/208076-swot-analysis-7-eleven.html [Accessed 20 September 2014]. Available at: http://franchise.7-eleven.com/franchise/product-strategy [Accessed 21September 2014] Available at: http://klse.i3investor.com/blogs/ipo/52090.jsp [Accessed 22 September 2014] Available at: http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/london-business-school-case-study-on-7-eleven/1/194769.html [Accessed 22 September 2014] Available at: http://www.afrbiz.com.au/case-studies/7-eleven-revitalising-the-slurpee-brand/Page-6.html [Accessed 22 September 2014] Available at: http://business.answers.com/franchise/exploring-the-7-eleven-franchise-process [Accessed 22 September 2014]

Hardware and Software Used in Public Bank

Public Bank is currently the largest domestic bank in Malaysia by shareholders’ funds. It is well-known in 1966 by its founder and chairman, Tan Sri Dato Sri Dr Teh Hong Piow. The bank was planned on the Malaysia Stock Exchange in 1967. The Public Bank Group employs more than 14,000 people, with in Hong Kong and China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Sri Lanka. Public Bank is one of the most competent banks as reflected by its low cost to revenue ratio in Malaysia.The Public Bank Group has established a strong potential of delivering remarkably high rates of organic growth in its centre business. Over the years, the Public Bank Group has been part of physically powerful catalysts to support Malaysia economic growth. From the start of this, Public Bank has form itself into a strong and successful financial institution, contribution wide range of competitive and innovative products and solutions to meet its customers’ needs. Public Bank is the most recognized brand in the Mal aysia financial services manufacturing for its strong brand guarantee.Public Bank Berhad is occupied in commercial banking, investment banking, financing and Islamic banking business, stock-broking, provision of related financial services, management of unit trust funds and sale of trust units, underwriting of insurance, and investment holding. Complemented by business banking services, Public Bank is a market leader in consumer banking and retail commercial lending to SMEs in Malaysia. The company operates six segments. Hire purchase operations are focused on the stipulation of passenger vehicle financing to all levels of customers.Retail operations focus on producing products and providing services to each and every customer. The Company operates six segments. Hire purchase operations are focused on the provision of passenger vehicle financing to all levels of customers. Retail operations focus on providing products and services to individual customers and small-and medium-sized e nterprises. Corporate lending operations cater to the funding needs of corporate customers. Treasury and capital market operations is involved in trading in treasury related products and services. Investment banking operations caters to the business needs of corporate customers.Fund management operations consist of sale of trust units and the management of unit trust funds. Others refer to non-core operations, such as property holding. 2. 0 Types of contemporary information systems in Public Bank 2. 1 Customer Relationship Management System Introduction Customer Relationship Management System or usually known as CRM is one of the system used in Pubic Bank Berhad. CRM is a type of software application which used organized customer demographic, account and transactional information to obtain a better understanding of customer’s banking and financing needs, relationships and financial behavior..CRM helps improve the quality of customer relationships and offers opportunities to e xtend and cement the customer’s relationship with the Public Bank Group and improve on the company’s customer cross-selling ratio. Hardware and Software requirements To install the CRM system, there are some requirements need to be fulfill before proceed to the installment of the system. Of course beside of the basic hardware requirement such as mouse, keyboard, and monitor, it still need some more powerful hardware tools.First and the most important it should has a processor which is at least more than dual 1. 8 GHz Pentium Xeon to keep the server is usable. Using a lower-grade of processor with CRM system will caused server to freeze. Then, it should has a Random Access Memory (RAM) with at least 1 GB which gives its CRM program enough extra headroom to operate on its most basic level. For a better stability, run CRM on a system with 2 GB of memory or more. For the disk space requirement, it should have 400MB or more free space on the hard disk before installing CRM. Last one is the operating system and IIS.CRM need Windows Server 2003 SP2 or Windows Server 2008 in order to operate the CRM system. Along with operating system, Internet Information Services(IIS) version 6. 0 or 7. 0 need to be installed. While for software requirement, first it need a network interface card(NIC) to allows a client computer to connect to the central location where the CRM applications is located. Besides that, it need network protocol to allow two or more computers to communicate. The most common protocol is TCP/IP protocol which is also used to connect to the Internet. Functions and Core activities performedThere are several functions of CRM in Public Bank Berhad which may deal with every different department in the company. 1. Significance -CRM should serve as the method used by Public Bank to gain insight into their existing and future customer base. It allows them to measure the amount of customer business that already exists along with the product and service s that need to be offered in order to retain customers. 2. Function -The function contained within the CRM system must allow Public Bank to formulate its overall marketing and business strategy plan.This function is based upon calculations performed by the CRM platform that produces profitability by asset and liability type followed by the complete drill down to all basic components such as profitability from deposits and loans. 3. Features -CRM platform should be available to all marketing staff, management and any other sales related area of Public Bank. The monitor screens for these staff members should indicate customers by bank officer, business transactions, total and itemized profitability, contact information and customer profile data.It should also provide â€Å"what-if† scenarios that allow marketing staff the opportunity to develop personalized business plans for each customer. 4. Considerations -The CRM system of Public Bank must be constantly monitored for proper coding, subiness types; income and cost allocations along with rate analysis. CRM system must be updated and changed for the inclusion of a new business line along with all the associated information necessary for functionality. Advantages and Disadvantages There are a lot of advantages of using CRM in banking industry such as Public Bank Berhad.By using CRM, Public Bank can increase their revenue and profitability where bankers can easily see what products is currently used by customers, what products they are eligible for and what additional benefits should be added into the product or service. Besides, it also can improved customer service when CRM give proactive banks access to technology that helped them improve customer retention by using customer feedback to offer conveniences like ATMs and online banking. Next is the highly target marketing. With the captured data from their customer profile and ransactions, bankers are able to better identify target markets or rank custome rs according to lifetime expected value and then tailor the promotional campaigns to individuals. However, disadvantages of CRM will occurred on the same time. CRM is not always profitable so that Public Bank will need to pay a high cost for the continual maintenance or setup of its server which will takes up company resources. In addition, Public Bank need to hire professionals to train their employees in group in order to provide training for their employees.This may takes away time for productivity because most CRMs have specialized functions for managers and executives. Besides that, implementation of CRM may face overhead problem where Public Bank need to pay an amount of money to the software developers whenever a new version of software was applied to their CRM. Lastly is the integration problem faced by CRM because if a certain CRM system is not compatible with Public Bank’s other system such as email or accounting systems, the CRM system will not be effective. Implem entation ChallengesPublic Bank Berhad should consider of lease the CRM system from outside vendors as it may keep their database organized and updated. Customers trend keeps changing from time to time so they may not captured the trends if their CRM systems is not updated with the latest software or facilities and worse it may lead to lose to compete in the market where many of their customers start on choosing other company. 1. One of the biggest challenges facing by Public Bank to implement CRM is the cost associated with purchasing, installing and training employees to use new software.However, properly implemented of CRM will eventually show a good return on performance of the bank. 2. CRM-centric businesses focus on placing customers and their satisfaction before Public Bank and it is typically very complex and span multiple departments. This means that most employees must go through some sort of training to adopt with the system. 3. In-House CRM software will be more effective than supported system CRM but In-House CRM will be much more difficult to implement.Public Bank should consider supported system which means outsourced to another company in order to help them implement CRM effectively. Supported systems typically less costly to implement because it is not as effective as In-House solutions. Security Issues Possible security attacks in a CRM system are: 1. Denial of service (DOS) is a type of attacked in system where it attacked the system and make it unavailable to customers. Some of the possible attackers are angry customers, script kiddies, formal employees, and the competitors. 2.Intrusion of sales automation systems and customer database. Sales Automation systems normally have numerous information about customer so it may effort risk from potential attackers to break into the systems and steal the customer information. 3. Identity theft is a type of crime where someone uses your personal information without your permission to commit fraud or o ther crimes. 4. Malware attacks. Malware includes viruses and worms where their attacks can cause the damage on DOS, hardware and loss of data. 2. 2 Database Management System IntroductionA Database Management System is also known as DBMS is one of the software application used in Public Bank Berhad. A DBMS is best described as a collection of programs that manage the database structure and that control shared access to the data in the database It is a program that lets one or more computer users in the bank to create and access data from a same database. DBMS may use a variety of database models such as relational model or non-relational model. It also can be thought as a â€Å"file manager† that manages data in databases rather than files in file systems.A DBMS provides facilities for controlling data access, enforcing data integrity and maintaining database security as well. Hardware and Software requirements For hardware requirement of DMBS, it needs a basic 32-bits or a 64-bits operating system in order to implement the software. The minimum CPU speed for a DBMS is 1GHz per server but it is recommended to apply a 2GHz, multi-core for each server. Minimum RAM requirement before implement DBMS is 512MB per server. However, for multiple databases which is more than 100GB,it is recommended to apply 4GB for each server. While in disk ubsystem, it must at least enable SCSI or SATA hard disks or SSD which provides minimum 7200 rpm. For a better or high speed database, a SDD or high-speed HDD arrays will be more suitable for the system. Functions and Core activities performed Generally, there are several functions of DBMS in Public Bank which is:1. Support Concurrent Updates -Concurrent updates occur when multiple users make updates to the database simultaneously. So it is important for Public Bank’s database management to ensures that updates are made correctly and the end result is accurate to avoid lost of data or inaccurate data stored. . Recove ry of data -In the event of catastrophe occurs, DBMS of Public Bank can provide ways to recover a database so that data is not permanently lost. If the database is destroyed or damaged in any way, DBMS will able to recover the correct state of database by making a regular backups of information. So in the event of a disaster occurs, the database can be restored to the state that it was last at prior to backup. 3. Able to update and retrieve data -This is a fundamental component of DBMS and essential to database management.Updating data in database includes adding new records, deleting existing records and changing information within a record. Advantages and Disadvantages There are several advantages of DBMS in Public Bank and the first will be storing lots of data in one place. By using DBMS, Public Bank can store a large amount of important and sometimes some confidential information such as pay records and personal details in a database. Besides that, security of data also a major issue where Public Bank will able to keep confidential information, passwords and restricted that data only available for certain high-level employees.Next is a fast query where employees of Public Bank can searched for data by just key in certain keywords and thus will enable all the relevant information to appear on the screen immediately. Lastly is ability to share by more than 2 users. With DBMS, employees of Public Bank will not faced network jammed because the database or the same data can be accessed by multiple users at the same time. While there are some disadvantages of DBMS too which is complexity and costs. The control and administration of DBMS are challenging and hiring administrators who are specialized database experts is also expensive.Secondly, confidentiality, privacy and security risk is another main issue because when information is accessed remotely, the possibilities of information disclosure and leakage are greater than with conventional data processing syst em. Last disadvantage of DBMS is data quality and data integrity risk where when databases are accessed and used by multiple users, it will increase the risks of potential damage to the data. Users who are not database experts may try to update or append data to the database will caused damage of data too. Implementation challengesPublic Bank Berhad should rent or lease the DBMS system from other vendors or outsourced it since managing or build a internal database is much more complex and it take a lot of costs. So they may hire other vendors especially some professional in managing database system in order to help them in the process. Then, the benefits of rent the database from other vendors is the company just need to pay for the amount they used or some maintenance fees. When there is some latest software published, they also may immediately change for it after their license for the system had expired.In addition, they also may just add on extra space for the storage of data by just pay for some extra costs. There are several issues faced when DBMS is implemented: 1. Primary VS Secondary memory -Before a DBMS is implemented, Public Bank should consider whether which memory they would like to use whether a primary memory or secondary memory for a more effective processing. Primary memory is fast and has a low latency but it is non-persistent and its size may be smaller than data size. Secondary memory is opposite in each case.2. Recovery The transaction in Public Bank may face failure or the system also could fail, so implementation of DBMS must be able to recover as much data as possible and it must never leave a transaction â€Å"half done† so it should restore all the data to consistent state. 3. Query processing -The DBMS must able to translate the query into relational algebra (RA) expressions because it likely to be more efficient and indirectly this will minimize the size of intermediate relations. It also must provide different algorithms for each RA operation.Then cost is estimated using statistical information from the database catalog and the cheapest queries should be chosen. Security Issues After DBMS is implemented in the company, it may face some threats to their database which caused loss of integrity, lost of availability and loss of confidentiality. To protect database against these types of threats, Public Bank may 4 methods to encounter the threats which the first one is access control where user accounts and passwords to control login process by DBMS is created.Next is inference control and it controlled the access to statistical database which is used to provide statistical information or summaries of values based on various criteria. The 3rd is flow control. Flow Control is a type of security way which prevents information from flowing in such a way to reaches unauthorized users. The last security method is encryption used to protect sensitive data that is being transmitted via some type of communication network.The data is encoded using encoding algorithm and only authorized users are given decoding or decrypting algorithm or keys to decipher the data. . 3 Enterprise Resourse Planning System Introduction Enterprise Resource Planning systems or ERP are software modules that handle the core functions of a business enterprise which integrates all department is the business including planning, human resource and finance and marketing. In Public Bank, ERP is used to integrate all networks from different department into a single central database for a better data transfer. Public Bank use ERP systems to maximize resources improve customer and vendor relationships and empower decision made.With the implementation of ERP system, the process of the bank will be faster and more effective. Hardware and Software requirements Hardware requirements to install a ERP is it must has a CPU which is running Intel Pentium III 500 MHz or above and minimum hard disk space needed is 30 GB. For RAM, it mu st at least has 256 MB but 512 MB RAM is recommended for a better performance. The PC must ensure it has a CDROM if the ERP system is installing from a CD and at least it has Intel Compatible Ethernet Card for the NIC. While for software requirements, the PC must has at least Windows NT Server 4. or Windows NT Server Pack 6. 0. Then,it needs a internet browser which is at least Internet Explorer 5. 0 or above.Besides that, it also need at least Microsoft SQL Server which is 7. 0 or above. Functions and Core activities performed There are several functions of ERP in Public Bank: 1. Central Database -A central database is essential for an efficient ERP system because it allow for visibility between operating divisions and help improve business processes in multiple departments. All departments in Public Bank may use the same input format so no time is waste in transferring and translating information. . Human Capital Management -ERP software allows Public Bank to manage their employee s more effectively or track their employee’s progress. This means employees can be better awarded for good performance and employees with potential can be targeted for additional training. It also helps to ensure the goals of employees are in alignment with the goals of Public Bank. 3. Operations Management -The operations management provides managers with the capability to manage procurement and logistics, resulting in efficient flow of materials.Managers of Public Bank use this automated process in real time to control the product development and manufacturing life cycles. Indirectly, this will helps them to cut the costs. 4. Performance Measurement -It provides real-time measurements and metrics that assist managers in understanding the business and making decisions. Business monitors key performance indicators (KPIs) are used to measure against expected performance such as employee turnover rate. Using ERP, it can integrate this with other business process such as plannin g, forecasting and budgeting. Advantages and DisadvantagesThere are some advantages of ERP in Public Bank and the most important is integration. By using ERP, all the business departments can be integrating into a single and cohesive platform. In addition to synchronization of work flow, ERP also provide a clearer overview of enterprise functioning and quicker performance. Secondly, ERP help to reduced operation costs because the system facilitate faster information flow between departments and offices so it will help employees to work faster, save valuable time and reduce operational costs. Another advantage of using ERP is data benefits.ERP has ability to streamline data so it reduces redundancy of similar data from different departments. All data is linked to each other and stored in a database so the data will only updated with accurate information and the data from a central database is accessible to multiple departments so it increased information processing time and allowed m anagers to obtain critical information quicker with a better accuracy. Last advantages is aid strategic planning decisions. ERP systems allow Public Bank to access data in real time and due to this it allow them to become more nimble and align it process and operations with their organization goals.So they can quickly captured the situations and come out with a proper solutions to overcome it. Implementation Challenges For ERP system, Public Bank should just purchased or buy the system once they have confirmed or identified that the system chosen is totally meet their requirement. It is because if the company had purchased an effective ERP system for their company, they do not need to pay large amount of money for the new training of their staff or employees and the costs for the purchase of new system. If the company purchased the system, they will only need to pay a little amount of money for the maintenance of the system.Besides that, if the company choose to implement new ERP sy stem, it will take a long period for their employees to adopt with the new system . Indirectly, this will reduce the productivity of the employees and wasted the resources of the company. Several issues need to be concerned before implementation of ERP: 1. Resistance to change -Adoption with ERP system is a major issue before the system is implemented because many units or divisions in Public Bank may resist to ERP due to insufficient guidelines or explanations from top management.If the benefits of ERP are not explained well, the recipients may resist and slow down the successful adoption of the system or refuse to use it correctly. 2. Training -Usually ERP errors result from improper user training. Public Bank should consider provide adequate time to thoroughly train the users because if without a proper training, they might often find themselves struggling to get proper materials. 3. System selection -There are many types of ERP system from different vendors so Public Bank should choose ERP systems base on functionality, scope, price and ease of use of the ERP.If the company fail to address these issues during selection of ERP system, they may face multiple challenges before, during and after the system was purchased. Security Issues There are a lot of issues about the security in ERP systems which include theft, damage, copying, unauthorized access to information, natural disasters and sabotage. But most common forms of security threat to ERP systems are from computer technology which is tapping or hacking. Public Bank may used security controls where authorized user need to log in with a secure username and password he may use the system.Besides that, they can limit a user’s accessibility into a certain level only so employees are only able to find some data regarding to their departments. Then, data encryption also can be used where it limits someone’s ability to export the database. Audit logs is build in ERP systems to track individual tr ansactions or changes in the system but it only provide a little detail about the relevance of the transaction. However, most of the organizations do not configure their ERP system to maintain audit logs because they are concerned about performance, degradation and they think they don’t need it. . 0 Porter’s Five Forces Analysis The Porter’s Five Forces illustrates how the competitive environment in the industry impacted by five forces.These forces are Threat of potential competitors, the intensity competition among existing firms, the power of suppliers, the power of the customers and the easiness of changing to substitute products. Porter’s five forces tool helps understand where power lies in business situation and it is useful, because helps understand clearly about the strength of current competitive position and the strength of a position that need considering to move into.Public Bank has used this porter’s competitive model to developed comp etitive strategies and enhanced performance by using information systems. Next, information systems that used by Public Bank are Customer Relationship Management System, Enterprise Resource Planning and Database Management System. 3. 1 The Power of Customers The power of customers is one of the forces of Porter’s Five Forces. It’s refers to the ability of customers can exert on businesses to get them to provide higher quality products, better customer service, and lower prices. The power of customers is one of the forces that shape the competitive structure of an industry.For example, Public Bank is one of the banks that faced these forces. Customers switching their loans and investment from one commercial bank to another, because banking industry is provide service and customer does not require to pay any large amount of costs. So, when the number of suppliers of investment banking services increase, the bargaining power of customers also increased. Besides that, cust omer power become high also because substitutes are available, threat of backward integration is high and costs switching are low.Porter’s five forces can solve by using information system. Appendix 1) Information system that can solved bargaining power of customer is Customer Relationship Management System (CRM). CRM is a technology and best tool use to analysis customer desires and needs from the firm, it is also a database created for the different type of customer information which helps to have a competitive advantage with others firm. Based on staff opinion, CRM collected and stored customer information to information and business strategy use. CRM helps Public Bank to attract new customer because they can identify what customer needs and wants.Besides that, they also can help bank having a good relationship with profitable customers because they produces efficiency operation compares to others firm. CRM is a unique strategy use to differentiate with competitors, they u sed by the firm for segmentation customers and to concentrate on retaining profitable and valuable customer. CRM store all the details of the customer what they buy and when they buy, so it’s can help reorganize customer details and help Public Bank to satisfaction customer by availability, quality, presentation, image, value for money and fulfill the expectation of customers.In addition, CRM provide staff with the information and processes necessary to know their customers, understand and identify the customer needs and effectively build relationships between the firm and its customer base as a distribution partners. Public Bank use CRM software to help them manage their customer relationship and build customer loyalty to their bank. Next, Public Bank also use Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) to helps managed the important parts of business. ERP software applications can be used to manage product planning, parts purchasing, inventories, interacting with suppliers, provide customer service and tracking order.ERP application modules help Public bank manage their finance department, human resources department and also including manufacturing, sales and marketing. Based on staff opinion, ERP help to shares the data flow from one department to another department across the organization. Besides that, ERP also manage the information flow from organization to the connection with outsiders. For example, customer may get their money from ATM from one bank to another or they get money from other bank use different debit card or credit card. ERP help manage all the money flow and transfer the data to the organization.In addition, ERP system deal with customers as well as other people, they attempt to cover all the basic operations of any given organization and government. Moreover, ERP is easier to use and enables organization get better understanding their business and standardize business process. ERP help organization to attract customer because they manage all information and data systematically and efficiently, this give a nice impression to customers. Database Management System (DBMS) is software system uses a standard method to cataloging, retrieving, and running queries on data.DBMS manages incoming data, organizes it and provides ways for the data to be modified or extracted by organization. Public Bank use this software system to manage large structure sets of persistent data, offering hoc query facilities to customers. DBMS help Public Bank manage their customer data and make staff easier to find the information when they needed. This saved a lot of time and cost to the organization and customers. Besides that, its gives a good impression to customer and make them more confidence to the organization and build a customer loyalty.DBMS also accept the requests for data from the application program and instructs the operating system to transfer the appropriate data. When DBMS used, information systems can be changed easily as the organization required to change. DBMS is design to help organization record the data into different types and related to each others. This makes transaction processing more efficiently and systematically. 3. 2 The Power of Suppliers A bank has three suppliers of its products; it is depositors, the credit market and the central bank.Suppliers is very important and powerful to an organization, in banking industry they provide bonds, and certificate to sell to the bank and bank will sell those things to customers. Without suppliers, organization can’t function well, when supplier less and they provide limit action to the industry then power of supplier will be high and powerful. Large clients, corporation, government agencies are offered packages of services in market orientation in management. The central bank is effectively resources of last resort, its supply liquidity banking system in virtually unlimited quantities at a reasonable cost.Information system can help bank to en hance their performance and run the process effectively. Public bank used CRM to maintain a good relationship with their potential suppliers. They understand anticipate and respond to the needs of an organization to help grow relationship. CRM ensuring the correct people in place, with the correct skills to deliver outstanding personal service and establishing clear material service that supplier need. Based on staff opinion, CRM help organization having a good relationship with supplier can make all things become easier.Staff can easily prove the document from supplier and also can pass the document to customer in short time. This saved cost and time because shorten transaction processing time. Besides CRM, ERP is also a important system to enhance relationship with suppliers. ERP is a set of software application to the organization, its help standardize business processes necessary effectively plan and control. So, supplier can develop their plan and process about the product thro ugh ERP and ERP and shares the information flow inside the organization.By using ERP, banker and supplier can clearly classify information that they need and use for forecasting for their future plan. Moreover, Public bank also use DBMS to enhance their performance in banking industry. By using DBMS, organization can classify their data one by one because DBMS function is determine all the information from various departments and put in different type of document. In addition, DBMS help organization identify what investment should invest and identify federal investment bonds, bills, and short term federal bonds. DBMS is important for organization to interacting with suppliers and customers. .3 Threat of New Entrants Threat of new entrants is a factor that leads to increase the number of competitors in an industry. New entrants is competitive because they having the same activities and business in same market. Normally when one industry making high profit will attract new entrants to compete, when new entrants keep increasing, it’s will causes some firm lose and they will exit in that industry. So, to keep the organization increase profit steadily, organization must have a unique characteristic to attract customers and also have a good relationship with customers.But in banking industry, probability threat of new entrants is less because want enter bank industry is not a easy way. They need a lot of board of director and required a lot of capital. In addition, opening a bank not only need to check by government and also need having license and fulfill all the federal and state regulations. Opening a new bank also need to face changing of technology, strategic planning and expertise problems. Besides that, opening a new bank need a lot of money to buy advanced information system to help bank make transaction process and keep all the data.For example, bank use CRM to maintain the relationship with customers, ERP help manager to planning and forecast and DB MS help bank manage all the data flow from one department to another department. 3. 4 Threat of Substitute Products In the banking industry, they are no real threat of substitute products because all bank are having the same services such as investment, loan and deposit. But based on other view, threat of substitute like non-financial competitors is one of the reasons that faced by bank.Substitute product are the natural of industry competition, they involved the same function of the product that the industry already produces. For example, loan and mortgage is not much different, both is because customers want money and make an investment. In the banking sector, there have several products at the same time, so it counted as substitutes products. For example if someone is looking for a travelers check and that could not be provided, so it might decide to telegraphic transfer. Information system can help to enhance their performance to the threat of substitute products.Information sys tem can help bank solved the threat of substitute. Like CRM, its can help bank have a good relationship and the customers confidence with that bank. With this, banker offer bonds, mutual fund and stock to customer and they will more accept what they prefer because they trust that bank. Main purpose of CRM is help bank to attract new customers, having a good and healthy relationship with profitable customers. Besides that, CRM also increase efficiency process and help to gain competitive advantage over the banking industry. Not only CRM help to solved threat of substitute product, ERP also help a lot in managing the planning.ERP help integrate all departments and functions across a company onto a single computer that can serve all those different department particulars need. ERP help differentiate different type of product and make compare to another products to make a analysis. Its help customer more clear and understand about the product they interest. 3. 5 Competitive Rivalry Amon g An Industry Banking industry is a highly competitive industry. Financial services industry has been around for hundred years and everyone need to save money, make investment and loan the capital.Bank offers lower financing, higher rates, investment services and greater conveniences than their rivals. Rivals always compete by using advertising, introduce new products, more attractive customer services and warranties to enhance their standing and market share in specific industry. Rivalry will causes factors like equally balanced companies, slow growth within an industry, high fixed cost, lack of product differentiation, overcapacity and price-cutting, diverse competitors, high-stakes investment, and the high risk of industry exit.So, bank need to use information system to solve the rivalry problems. Same as ention before, CRM, ERP and DBMS can help bank to compete with rivalry. There not only can help bank gain competitive advantage and also help increase profit and process efficie ncy. CRM helps Public Bank to attract new customer because they can identify what customer needs and wants. Besides that, they also can help bank having a good relationship with profitable customers because they produces efficiency operation compares to others firm. CRM is a unique strategy use to differentiate with competitors, they used by the firm for segmentation customers and to concentrate on retaining profitable and valuable customer.ERP help to shares the data flow from one department to another department across the organization. ERP also manage the information flow from organization to the connection with outsiders and help manager planning and forecasting. While DBMS manages incoming data, organizes it and provides ways for the data to be modified or extracted by organization. Public Bank use this software system to manage large structure sets of persistent data, offering hoc query facilities to customers. DBMS help Public Bank manage their customer data and make staff ea sier to find the information when they needed.4. Strategic System Analysis 4. 1 Structure of Industry and firm location The Public Bank is one of the banks that using a lot of technology and also strategy in order to outstanding in the financial industry. Public bank used business strategy like multiple delivery channels to better serve its large customer base of individuals and business enterprises. The Group has also enhanced its internet banking and mobile banking services and they will continue to tap on its large sales and marketing force and strategic alliance with key partners to deliver high value products and services to its customers.This is one of the reasons why the Public Bank can stand a chance to be one of the leaders in financial industry. Nowadays, the customers more prefer choose the bank that offer several types of the loan and facilities in order to fulfill their needs in any financial problem. Nowadays, there many financial institutions on the market and all of them also come out with a lot of excellent services and products in order to retain their position in the market. So, Public Bank eventually cannot be avoided, will with face a lot of rival banks such as Maybank, CIMB, Hong Leong Bank, UOB and others.Public Bank and their competitors are competing with each other in a similar market, similar products and services such as home loan, credit card, insurance and investment funds. The corporate structure of Public Bank is unique in the financial industry since its structure is regionally decentralized. The corporate structure is generally separated into two parts that is Malaysian companies and Overseas & Offshore companies. For Malaysian companies it mainly focus on financial business such as Islamic banking, Family Takaful, Trustee services, investment banking, sales and management of Unit Trust, Leasing & Factoring and Property holding.On the other hand, for Overseas and Offshore Companies they usually handle business like investment & property holding, stock &share broking, deposit-taking & finance, securities dealing and underwriting, offshore banking and last but not least offshore trust company. Public Bank have many branches throughout Malaysia and also overseas such as Hong Kong, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, China and Sri Lanka. The location of Public Bank is headquartered at 27th floor of Menara Public Bank, 146 Jalan Ampang, 50450 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is located at the capital of Malaysia. 4. 2 Value chainsThe idea of value chain was first came up by Michael Porter (1985) to depict how customer value accumulates along a chain of activities that lead to an end product or service. Porter describes the value chain as the internal processes or activities a company perform â€Å"to design, produce, market, deliver and support its product. † He describes the value chain into three categories which are: business, firm and industry. (Appendix 2) In the financial market now, the customer are more prefer to choose buy goods and services from the bank that are more worth trusted and excellent in service and product provide.As a result, Public bank are aiming this kind of behavior and provide much type of products such as loan, deposit, investment, cards, ATM and insurance to fulfill the needs of the customer. Furthermore, Public bank also focuses in adding in more value with the customers by providing nice services to them. Firstly, Public bank had offer a time saving and more convenience way for their customer to do any transaction businesses that is ATM machine and online banking.For example, there many places in Malaysia are full of ATM machines that offer by Public bank, whether in the bank branches, shopping mall and even inside the school. It gives people to either deposit the money or withdraw money in faster way. Besides ATM machine, online banking also helps customer save a lot of time too. Customers no longer need to step out of their house to settle any transaction at the bank anymore. Next, with its strong customer service culture, the Public bank continues to maintain its superior delivery standards which have been benchmarked against international ISO standards.Public Bank also remains the first and the only bank in Malaysia which has attained bank-wide ISO 9001:2000 certifications for customer service at the front office of its branches and bank-wide loan delivery service. Public bank makes sure that whenever there is a customer walks into any of their branches, customer can expect consistent superior delivery standards that match the best in the world. Furthermore, Public bank also valuing by provided the financial management education to their customers. The purpose is to let them learn how to manage their financial future and make money management more interesting and easy to understand.This help in response to consumers struggling to find relevant, easy to understand and trustworthy financial information and advice. Besides that, Public bank also introducing PB Sharelink for customer learn how to invest. It is a product specifically designed to assist clients with their share trading and margin financing needs on the Malaysia Securities Exchange Bhd (MSEB). It offers the maximum purchasing power through leveraging against existing funds or collateral to enable customers to purchase and invest in shares to capitalize on any emerging opportunities in the stock market. 4. 3 Alignment of IT with Business Strategies and GoalsUntil fairly recently, the traditional role reserved for IT has been fairly subservient in business planning. IT was been merely an implementation tool, not only involved in shaping strategy but also created opportunities as well as a market channels to the new business. IT plays an important role in developing the long-term business strategy. So, organization needs to ensure their IT and business strategy functions are completely synchronized towards their business goals. Previously we have mentioned th at Public bank more focus in business strategy and goals in managing the structure and also valuing the relationship with the customer.In addition, Public bank also utilize the technology in the strategy in order to make their strategy can be perform in faster and efficient way. The international goal of Public bank is â€Å"to sustain the position of being the most efficient, profitable and respected premier financial institution in Malaysia. † Therefore, through the product innovation provide by Public bank, the aligned IT with their business strategies and goals is gradually achieved. The use of Automated Teller Machine (ATM) was one of the technology instruments which help to improve the number of Public bank card user.This is because the transactions are processed in less than a single second which is very convenience and time saving to the cardholder. Besides, it also allowed the cardholder make their fund transaction at any time and place since the ATM provides 24 hour s of the transaction service throughout countries. 5. 0 Conclusion As a conclusion, the implementation of IT has successfully driven the global economy by connecting all the cards, acceptance locations, ATMs and financial institutions around the world to help Public bank become one of the successful bank in financial industry.As a leader in financial service industry, Public bank not only need to focus on how to improve their sales of product and services offered by them but they also need to find out what are the changes out of its company, in order to avoid being eliminate by their rivals as well as the world. So, through the Porter five forces analysis, Public bank can enhance their strength so they can create more market opportunity for themselves and be prepared with their weakness and threat, treat those weakness and threat as a challenge for their company.Besides that, the top management needs to hire a strong and experienced project manager to ensure that the implementation of system will run smoothly. By using advance of technologies, the customer feels more confident with the product and services of the ING Insurance Bhd. Finally, Public bank can become a successful leader in the financial service industry because of the 3 system used, that is Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Database Management System (DBMS) and Customer Relationship System (CRM).