The Airline Industry

One of the major industries affected by the September 11 attacks had been the airline industry. Aside from security improvements were put in place as a response to the hijacking of four commercial aircraft, the industry as a whole lost a total of $42 billion from 2001 to 2005.The president of the Air Transport Association has called the current situation of the airline industry as a â€Å"perfect storm of adversity†. Two of the largest commercial carriers are currently under bankruptcy protection and two others have gone in and out of bankruptcy court in the years after 9/11.These losses could be attributed to lower passenger traffic in the wake of the terrorist attacks. The price for jet fuel has also been rising since 2001 which adds to the costs incurred by the carriers.   Jet fuel price in 2006 was up 168% from pre-2001 levels (Isidore, 2006).While the US air industry is slowing down, there has been an increase in global air passenger numbers. Most of these increases are coming from developing economies in Asia and Europe.Airlines in Asia grew at a rate of 20% annually while airlines in the middle east grew 11%. Similarly, air routes linking the US with Asia and Europe are also expected to see an increase in passengers (Shriner, 1994).Demand and Supply ElasticityWhile these changes could be directly attributed to the 2001 attacks and their repercussions, some changes in the airline industry has emanated from the industry itself. The older legacy airlines had to face numerous new entries in the form of low cost, low frills carriers.These new low cost carriers have kept the price of airlines travel low over the past few years. Passengers now had more choices and as a result, total air traffic had been increasing while average fares have not kept pace. Legacy airlines with larger operational costs could not compete with the lower fares.As a result, they had to streamline their operations by cutting excess manpower and retiring older, less fuel efficie nt aircraft in their fleets. The fleets of the legacy carriers have shrunk by 23% since 2001 and their workforce has dropped 38% during the same amount of time (Isidore, 2006).The proliferation of low cost carriers since 2001 has essentially increased the price elasticity of demand for air travel. While all airlines serve the same purpose – air travel – each airline can still be differentiated from one another.Low cost carriers may not offer the same kind of quality service found in legacy carriers. In effect, when passengers book a flight, they are choosing between goods from airline A, airline B etc. Since passengers have more choices due to the introduction of low cost carriers, their substitution between airlines has become easier.This relatively high elasticity is reflected in the increasing passenger counts at a relatively constant fare (price) schedule.Externalities of the Airline IndustryAirlines, whether legacy or low cost are now keen on improving their fuel efficiency due to the rising costs of jet fuel. Fuel costs account for 10-12% of annual airline operating costs. One way that airlines are trying to improve fuel efficiency is by retiring older aircraft with poor fuel efficiency (May, 2003).One industry that is intrinsically linked with the airline industry is the aircraft manufacturing industry. The US is a world leader in aircraft manufacturing with US aircraft manufacturers delivering 71% of new aircraft in the early years of the 1990s.Even with the boom in airline travel in the developing world, US airlines still account for roughly 25% of aircraft orders from US aircraft manufacturers like Boeing and McDonnell Douglas   (Shriner, 1994). Clearly, an increase in income by the airline industry will translate to more orders of aircraft. In that case, the airline industry exerts positive externalities on the aircraft manufacturing industry.The positive externalities do not end with increased production by US jet manufacturers. As airlines keep pushing for more fuel efficient and modern aircraft, they are providing an incentive for technology development in the aircraft sector.The increasing prices for jet fuel are even pushing this new technology development even further in the direction of making air travel more fuel efficient. An example of such technology development is in the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft which is due to enter service next year.Being made out of composite materials, it is much lighter and thus uses up 20% less fuel than similarly sized jets. An offshoot of using composite materials is a more comfortable flight experience as the cabin air does not need to be so dry (humidity causes metal to corrode) and the air pressure can be made much higher in order to make breathing easier.The use of metal precluded using higher cabin pressure as it may accelerate metal fatigue (The Economist, 2007). It is important to note that this externality does not end at Boeing. Advances that Boeing are ma king are sometimes tied to and sometimes preceded by fundamental R&D performed at universities (Shriner, 1994).We can therefore see how the airline industry promotes R&D and helps maintain the dominance of the US in aircraft technology.Even though new aircraft like the Dreamliner might reduce fuel consumption, it still does not change the fact that the airline industry has a huge externality in the form of pollution. Aviation is responsible for 2% of anthropogenic carbon dioxide production. Aircraft also release other noxious gases such as nitrogen oxides, soot and water vapor.However, the polluting effects of airlines are magnified since these gases are released directly into the upper atmosphere where they form condensation trails and cirrus clouds. The fact that air pollution from aircraft is released at a high altitude may have the effect of double the same amount of carbon dioxide released at ground level (The Economist, 2007).

EU and NAFTA: On Human Rights Essay

The European Union (EU) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has had several initiatives that address human rights issues. These initiatives obligate and mandate its signatories and the member states to follow particular rules regarding human rights. In terms of influence, varying levels of success can be noted. The human right action done by both organizations is notable, although the level of success is arguable, as there are criticisms to implementation and scope of these programs. Also, there are still existing issues on human rights that has yet been addressed and influenced by these international organizations. European Union The European Union has human rights as one of its priorities, as it conducts dialogues and coordinates with other countries and international organization. In fact, the EU has institutionalized the focus and prioritization of the issue by establishing the European Court of Human Rights which was founded as product of the European Convention on Human Rights. This court has resolved some very notable cases, and until now serves as a mechanism and agency to promote human rights and prosecute its violators. The Human Rights Watch notes however that some anti-terrorism strategies has resulted in some human rights violations in the EU, as laws protecting human rights have been weakened. Also, the EU policy on migration and refugees altogether prevents asylum seekers and refugees, even deporting them back to the home country. This is a strong indication that the EU has not perfected its human rights strategy by neglecting these issues, even detaining migrants, as Human Rights Watch notes. Individual EU members also committed human rights violations with regards to the policy of refugees and migration. The NAFTA has had initiatives and agreements that address some human rights concerns, but it has gathered criticisms on its inability to effectively implement the provisions. Also, the need to balance trade and human rights is emphasized as one of the lacking values of the organization. Some human rights initiative of the NAFTA has proven to be not very successful; as impressive as the texts of the agreement are, the implementation falls short of expectations and has had disappointing results. For instance the Human Rights Watch notes that the NAFTA Labor Accord was ineffective, and that its results should serve as lesson for future trade agreements. This labor accord – the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation – was supposed to harmonize trade relations and labor rights, but this agreement has not elicited any results. Labor rights protection should be part and parcel of any trade agreement, but not one of the complaints of abuse and injustice has been addressed by the NAFTA initiative. The FIDH Report on the effects on human rights of the NAFTA also notes that although the organization promoted stronger economic links between United States and Mexico, it has essentially dismantled Mexico’s agricultural industry and made it dependent on the US. This has impacted negatively on the situation of Mexico, with increased poverty as result of NAFTA initiatives. Labor law reforms, as was mentioned above, also have to be considered to prevent abuse of human rights. Conclusion The European Union and the North American Free Trade Agreement are not devoid of concern for human rights issues, but the existing and past initiatives has to be reinforced in order to effectively influence its member states and the human rights situation.

Karim rashid Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Karim rashid - Research Paper Example Karim Rashid is a designer by profession whose current base is New York where he owns a design studio. He deals in all the above mentioned designs and is a world renowned figure for that. In this field of design the basic rules that govern it are quite liberal as the art industry is. It is the artist who comes up with the designs that suit the images or messages that they wish to relay. The rules and regulations that govern art as are not as strict like those that govern the sciences. Karim Rashid actually has a degree in Industrial Design which set pace for his success in the designing industry. He is an Egyptian from Cairo where he was born in 1960 (Karim Rashid. 2010). In course of his work Rashid has come up with over 3000 designs in total and has scooped over 300 designer awards world over under different design categories that he is involved in as mentioned earlier. Some of the awards he has won are in relation to interior designs of restaurants like Marimoto, Semiramis hotel among others. He has also had awards from exhibitions for Audi Company and Deutsche Bank. Although the industry is tough in terms of securing clients, Rashid has been able to plough a good number of them and in fact of high caliber and stature. Example of his clients are Audi, Korea, Axe Lab, USA, Casamania, Italy, Cysone, Peru, Cupid Jewels, Singapore among others which are giants in their own right within the sector they operate in, in their respective countries. This is another indication of how huge a designer he is on international terms (Karim Rashid. 2010). Currently the designer is working on a various projects that he intends to showcase in the coming Milan Furniture Fair. In this collection he intends to bring on board bathrooms for Axia, Caleido and Hellos, a Corian conceptual house, Dibi doors among other related furniture and interior design items. He is also working on a sex-toy shop in Berlin which shall be owned by Fun Factory. He says that

RE-WRITE Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

RE-WRITE - Essay Example The usual assumption is that ambient noise is isotropic (equal on all directions). This is commonly considered in sonar equations. We therefore attempt to reduce the effective noise level by utilising of the directional capabilities of the hydrophone (NL-DI). However, in deep waters the sea surface is considerably the principal source of ambient noise. It these areas the ambient level is not truly isotropic. Conversely, in shallow waters ambient noise is essentially isotropic due to reflections from the sea floor (Davidson, 2006). The features of the parametric approach are best illustrated on an example taken from a hypothetical sonar application. The approach was to apply time-frequency circumstances for detection. The detection conditions are simply: The second level, in particular, enables signal detection of a very low false alarm rate on narrow-band sonar signals. It acts as a narrow band pass filter at the input of detection algorithm, which efficiently eliminates out-of-band noise. Figure 1 shows a 50 kHz sonar return from shallow water. Simulated water-depth is 3 m. the transmit pulse has a duration of 0.4 Ms. The noise is of uniform distribution restricted to the signal band. Signal to noise ratio (S/N) is 20 dB while the signal’s full waveform was digitised at the rate of 1 MHz. Only the envelope of the signal is shown in Figure 1. Without any further processing, the echo time series, which consists of 1000 sample, is now submitted to the detection algorithm. While the parametric model is calculated for every sample, the spectrum from 48 kHz to 52 kHz is computed for every 10th interval. The 4 kHz band is evaluated at 200 frequencies with a resolution of 20 Hz. A three dimensional view of the sonogram (Figure 2) may illustrate how well the spectral peaks in the sonar return are defined in a time-frequency representation. The algorithm is very fast and real time processing capable. It does not require that the

The Impact Of Economic Globalization In The World Dissertation

The Impact Of Economic Globalization In The World - Dissertation Example According to Plato’s The Republic the primary purpose for the inception of society is the recognition of human insufficiency. This is based on the acknowledgment that a single person can perform better if the person focuses on performing functions of which the individual is highly efficient. From this perspective, Plato stipulated that specialization and the sharing of necessary skills are fundamental for the inception of society and its growth and development. Fast-tracking in the present, countries around the globe recognize the significance and necessity of being integrated into the global market for economic, social, and political development of particular countries. The participation in the global market of countries is made possible by the reality of globalization. Globalisation is not a contemporary development. In fact, it has been the long part of human history. However, contemporary connotation and implication of globalization are unique in the contemporary period ba sed on the supposition that it has the widest reach and implication (Haase, 2012Soomro et al., 2011). This means that the impact of globalization permeates all facets of global society transforming the dynamics of both local and international transactions (Gruber, 2011). As such, economic globalization serves as the fundamental framework paving for all the other changes to transpire. 1.1.Background of the Study Globalisation has been approached and defined in various ways (Suarez-Orozco and Qin-Hilliard, 2004).

Managing Workplace Diversity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Managing Workplace Diversity - Essay Example Also there is apprehension about the fact organisations will be confronting with the problems of utilising the human potential completely from them. This calls for the need for managing the diverse workplace. It is believed that organisations not able to manage diversity are unable to utilise the full potential of their workforce. Moreover this makes their survival difficult and creates an extremely complex business condition under which the company is not able to grow at its full potential (Wentling, n.d.). Numerous researches have been going on around the world to study the trend and status of the diversity initiatives taking place in workplaces. The project presents the major findings from the researches. This includes the various barriers in working within diversity and also includes the reasons for the implementation of the diverse strategies or the effective initiatives. The main purpose of the project is to bring forth the impact of cultural diversity in organisations. In this regard, it presents secondary data on cultural diversity. Cultural diversity may give rise to mis-communications and eventually lower the effectiveness of the groups in the organisation. Examining the selective factors like cultural diversity from among a wide diversity climate is the prime concern of the project. The project presents the trends in such diversities and how the subject has evoked special interest among human resource professionals in organisations. In this regards, the present challenges and benefits that organisations enjoy are presented. Special emphasis has been provided to the management of workplace diversity and the way in which they can be implemented in organisations. Workplace diversity has been especially emphasised with regards to the hospitals in UK. Finally the project ends with the presentation of the recommendations of the management and implementation of a diverse workplace culture. Conceptual Framework of the subject Workplace Diversity Extensive re search has been conducted by experts across the world which has brought out the meaning and definition of diversity. Diversity includes everybody and this is the reason why it must be given value. Different employees bring along with them the differences to the place of work, which includes the group identity differences as well. Organisations have tried using this diversity for accomplishing both individual and organisation goals. However, there are instances where organisations have demonstrated biasness towards particular groups. There have been efforts for removing such biasness (Wentling, n.d.). Diversity in the workplace refers to the various differences arising among people in organisations. Diversity may include race, gender, age, personality, ethnic group, cognitive style, tenure, education, organisational function, background etc. Out of the above aspects of diversity the project aims to emphasise on the cultural and ethnic diversity in organisations. The cultural or ethni c heritage carried by an individual determines the extent to which he or she identifies himself or herself with the group he works with.

Humor in Edgar Allan Poes Some Words With a Mummy Essay

Humor in Edgar Allan Poes Some Words With a Mummy - Essay Example A symposium having wearied him into a drowsy headache, the narrator resolves to go to bed early with "just a mouthful of supper." The 'mouthful' proves a gargantuan one, consisting of four or five pounds of Welsh rabbit and at least five bottles of Brown Stout. The narrator drolly insists that after this "frugal meal" he went to bed hoping to sleep till noon the next day. Quite apart from the intention of entertaining the reader with his wit, the narrator probably also wishes to suggest that the ensuing story could have been a dream engendered by the extraordinary evening meal and his state of unusual weariness. The narrator wittily complains that ere he had completed his "third snore" he was awakened by the doorbell and was given an urgent message from his friend Dr Ponnonner. The doctor had secured permission from the Directors of the City Museum to open and examine a mummy, and he invited his friend to the examination at eleven, that evening at his house. Excited and ecstatic, "overthrowing all in my way", dressing himself "with a rapidity truly marvellous", the narrator set off, at the top of his speed, to the doctor's. An eager party of scientists and historians standing around Dr Ponnonner's dining table, on which the mummy had been placed, eagerly awaited the narrator. The outer box was opened to reveal hieroglyphical characters-probably the mummy's name. The narrator records, tongue-in-cheek, that these were translated by Mr Gliddon to represent the word "Allamistakeo." Not one of the assembled party of scholars comments on the humor of this appellation. The narrator, however, seems confident that the lay reader of his story will get the joke, for he does not make the mistake of underscoring the obvious. This is, doubtless, a dig at the blinkered vision of the new trend of specialist scholars. The puerility of the scholars is again highlighted in their idiotic experiment of introducing electrical current to the mummy's body ("about one-tenth in earnest and nine-tenths in jest") and their fright at the first unexpected reaction to it. The narrator calls attention to the fact that the mummy's wide-open eyes were now half- closed. He was not alarmed by this occurrence, he says, but he admits that were it not for the five bottles of Brown stout he had consumed, he "might have been a little nervous." As for his scholarly friends, they really made no attempt at concealing the downright fright which possessed them. Doctor Ponnonner was a man to be pitied. Mr. Gliddon, by some peculiar process, rendered himself invisible. Mr. Silk Buckingham, I fancy, will scarcely be so bold as to deny that he made his way, upon all fours, under the table. With all the stupidity of scholarship, they continue their juvenile researches after the initial shock. They now apply the electric current to the great toe of the mummy's right foot. The mummy's immediate reflex bestowed a sturdy kick on Dr Ponnonner, "discharging that gentleman, like an arrow from a catapult, through a window into the street below." The doctor's friends mournfully go down to collect his "mangled remains" but Ponnonner himself rushing up "in an unaccountable hurry, brimful of the most ardent philosophy", meets them on the way, eager as ever to continue the experiment. Dr Ponnonner now takes

Film Critique on the movie Gladiator (Russell Crow) Essay

Film Critique on the movie Gladiator (Russell Crow) - Essay Example The film Gladiator was a hit at the box office fetching largely positive reviews. However, Elvis Mitchell from The New York Times did see the movie in a negative light and commented eloquently about the film as â€Å"grandiose and silly† (Mitchell, 2000). Nevertheless, the audiences and the fraternity completely disagreed with the cynical critic, and the picture won five Academy Awards at the 73rd Academy Awards including the Best Actor award for Russell Crowe in the leading role and Best Picture award, which was definitely a note of acceptance and accrediting for the entire crew and cast. Apart from captivating an adventurous life of a historical hero, for which the American audience have always shown a special fascination, the film had stolen the show for its â€Å"appealing plot, with distinctive characters, inspired acting, breathtaking cinematography, and a haunting musical score,† as Emily Albu very rightly commented in her epoch making essay â€Å"Gladiator at t he Millennium† (Albu, 2008, p. 185). ... The Final Critique: Gladiator Story Line Plot structure, narrative framework or the screenplay of a film, by whatever name it is called, mostly forms the basic ingredients enabling the success of a film. The narrative framework of a film therefore cannot be undermined at all. The film Gladiator is the brain child of David Franzoni, John Logan, and William Nicholson. The film Gladiator is conceived keeping in mind the 180 AD Rome; the film tries to admit historical personages. The presence of the historical figure such as Marcus Aurelius, who was an emperor-philosopher, and his son Commodus indicates much of the sources drawn from the history. However, it is evident that when the plot of the film Gladiator is judged on a comprehensive scale, it is inferred very easily that the film is a loose adaptation of the history and cannot be treated as a direct conversion of chronicle into drama. The plot of the film is tremendously fictional. Moreover, as the history of Rome or, on the contrar y, any ancient history bases upon the quest for power and throne, the elements of politics, romance, drama, emotion, and action become quite inherent in the stories developed keeping the ancient empires and their stories in the backdrop. The story of the Gladiator revolves around the protagonist of the story, Maximus Decimus Berilius, played by Russell Crowe. Maximus is one of the finest generals of the emperor and is the deserving candidate for the throne. Nevertheless, before the official succession, Commodus played by Joaquin Phoenix brutally murders his father and takes the position of his father and complete control over his throne ordering

Leadership by Lee Cockrell Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Leadership by Lee Cockrell - Essay Example The essay "Leadership by Lee Cockrell" analyzes the Lee Cockrell's smart decisions that led him to the success. Lee Cockrell has started his career as a banquet waiter at the Hilton and climbed the ladder of organizational leadership one by one. Before becoming the Vice President of Walt Disney, he worked in various positions such as beverage controller at the Waldorf-Astoria, a manager at Marriot etc. In other words, Lee Cockrell’s primary functional areas were service sector. Since he started his career from the lowest level, he knows the psychology of all types of employees. It should be noted that most of the current managers know nothing about the needs of the employees since they don’t have such working experience. Lee Cockrell had all types of experiences during his tenure of employments and therefore he knows the needs of the employees better than others. The three major challenges faced by Lee Cockrell in running Walt Disney were; keeping up with the changes happening in the service sector, risks developed by the replication of products and services and the increased competition in the service sector. Products and services can easily be replicated. So if your company’s competitive advantage is based on products and services alone, you are at risk. But if it’s based upon products, services, and quality service, then you’ll have a competitive advantage that’s very difficult to match. And you can get quality service only by creating a caring, respectful, people-cantered culture within your company.

Transforming Nursing Education Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Transforming Nursing Education - Assignment Example Rideout (2000) argues that to educate means to instill intellectual, moral and social instructions in pupils; to train or instruct purposely. Thus, nursing education in the current century must embrace a model of education which integrates moral reasoning and ethical values with technical expertise. Competitive nursing education should produce graduate nurses that are able to ask and seek to answer the questions that these challenges pose for their patients, their communities, their profession and their own lives (Rideout, 2000). Such a model will adequately prepare graduates to face their challenges head on, put their knowledge into action to enable their patients and communities to move to health and healing, and enable the profession to grow and mature. The profession of nursing in the United States is at a significant moment. In fact, the last national nursing study took place almost forty years ago, and profound changes have occurred since then. The profession has realized chang es in science, technology and patient activism. Consequently, these changes have a massive impact on nursing education. Moreover, the responsibilities of nurses continue to expand. Nurses now do most bedside monitoring, make almost all home visits, assist and teach ageing patients to manage multiple chronic illnesses, and deliver much of everyday primary care (Benner et al, 2009). Nurses ensure patient safety while handling a wide array of intrusive technologies where the margin of error is exceptionally narrow, and they do so in increasingly complex, hazardous environments. Currently, nurses administer care in widely diverse settings. These include acute hospital bedside care, ambulatory settings, school and community nursing care centers and nursing care homes for the elderly and technologically dependent patients. Nursing education should prepare nurses so that they can practice safely, accurately, and compassionately in spite of the challenges posed by rapid changes in the U.S h ealthcare system. When they enter into practice, they should show flexibility in adapting to any site of practice which might range from the less complex school nursing to extensive nursing care in sophisticated hospital departments. To practice safely and effectively, today’s nurses’ must be in command of nursing knowledge and science; from normal pathological physiology, to genomics, pharmacology, biochemical implications of laboratory medicine for patents’ therapies, the physiology of respiration in the lungs, cellular transport of oxygen in critical patients and so on. Furthermore, they need to understand the human experience of illness and the usual growth and development. Nurses often receive invitations to perform highly skilled technical, scientific and rational work. Thus, they have to utilize various skills drawn from nursing science, natural physics, biological sciences; not to forget the social sciences and humanities. Current healthcare institutions encounter numerous challenges when training professional nurses and medical practitioners. Therefore, a competent nurse poses an exceptional command of extensive skills and knowledge and shows deep commitment to each patient’s best interests. Because no simple characterization of Registered Nurse (RN) roles is possible, nursing education faces immense challenges in preparing its students. Both the costs and tasks of preparing all round

Literature Review Celebrity Chef Essay Example for Free

Literature Review Celebrity Chef Essay This review should bring all relevant facts about the subject and facilitate practitioners and highlight areas for further research. In short celebrity endorsement is about endorsing products with the help from a celebrity. Consumer association towards a celebrity endorsed produced increases their purchase intention as many see the celebrity as a role model. However, it is important that the consumer can identify with the celebrity and that the celebrity? s image fits with the produced he or she endorses, only then will celebrity backing be an effective advertising strategy. . 2. Background and Definition Nowadays, celebrities are used in advertising in almost every context. Athletes such as Michael Ballack (Adidas) or Tiger Woods (Rolex) or models such as Cindy Crawford (Omega) or Heidi Klum (Katjes) endorse several products. These celebrities act as a spokesperson in order to advertise and promote products (Kambitsis et al. , 2002). Celebrities can create more positive responses towards advertising and greater purchase intentions than non-celebrity endorsers (Byrne et al. , 2003). Using celebrity as an endorser for a given product can either be positive or negative for a company/brand. A campaign that turned out successfully was the campaign with Jamie Oliver as an endorser for the supermarket chain J. Sainsbury. The successful format of the TV production â€Å"The naked chef† provided an ideal platform to use for the advertising campaign within a context relevant for J. Sainsbury? s desire (Byrne, 2003). An example of a campaign that did not turn out successful was when J. Sainsbury used the actor John Cleese in the â€Å"value to shout about† campaign in 1998. Employees and customers alike felt that Cleese was not the right personality to personify the supermarkets quality image (Whitehead, 2003). In the literature there are two different definitions of celebrity endorsers used. The definitions used are: â€Å"A celebrity endorser is an individual who is known to the public (actor, sports figure, entertainer, etc. ) for his or her achievements in areas other than that of the product class endorsed†. (Friedman, 1979, p. 63) â€Å"Any individual who enjoys public recognition and who uses the recognition on behalf of a consumer good by appearing with it in an advertisement†. McCracken, 1989, p. 310) In other words these definitions says that an individual who is known to the public in different ways. The individual is famous and utilizes his or her publicity to advertise a product that does not have anything to do with the individual fame. I consider McCracken? s definition as the most informative one as it is short and concise. The definition gives a clear view of what a celebrity endorser is. Previous studies have been done on consumers? response to celebrity endorsement in advertising. Results of these studies show that celebrities make advertising believable and enhance message recall. Furthermore, when celebrities are recognized with brand names, it creates a positive attitude toward the brand and a distinct personality for the endorsed brand. In the following chapter the method used for this review will be introduced. The chapter will start with how a literature review is defined, followed by the literature search, method problems and quality standards. 2. 1. Definition of literature review Conducting a literature review is about understanding a topic that has already been addressed, how it has been researched by other authors, and what the key issues are (Hart, 1998). According to the author Chris Hart (1998) the definition of a literature review is the selection of available documents; both published and unpublished (in my review I will only study published academic documents), on the topic, which contains information, ideas, data and evidence written from a particular standpoint. 2. 2. Literature search, methodology used When searching for articles I used the databases Emerald, Ebsco and ProQuest. These databases were used because of the highest ranked journals in the field of marketing were listed there. I used the article Journal quality list (2008) issued by Harzading. com, research in international and cross-cultural management. High ranked journals increase the validity of the thesis, as validity is defined as â€Å"The ability of a scale or measuring instruments to measure what is intended to be measured†(Zinkmund, 2000). I also tried to find books relevant to the topic by using the library here at Les Roches International School of Hotel management as well as the library database google. scholar. . 3. Description of sub-topics Purchase intentions: Describes what impact the celebrity endorser has on the consumers purchase intentions. A consumer is more likely to purchase complex or expensive products which are endorsed by celebrities rather than by non-celebrities. Daneshvary and Schwer (2000) point purchase intention as an environment of associations between endo rsement and consumer, depending if the consumer can identify with that association and purpose. Consumers? association to celebrity endorsement/endorser: How consumers associate/have a connection towards the celebrity endorsement/endorser. If a company want a consumer to associate to an endorsed product it is important to choose an endorser who uses the product and where that use is a reflection of professional expertise (Daneshvary and Schwer, 2000). A formula 1 driver endorsing helmets is good, while a tennis player endorsing car polish is less good (ibid). Consumers? attitudes towards the endorser: The consumers? often have a positive attitude towards the product and the celebrity, despite the fact, that it is well known, that the endorser earned a lot when promoting the product (Cronley et al. 1999). Effectiveness of celebrity endorsement/endorsers: How effective is the usage of celebrity endorsement. It is, most likely, more effective to use celebrity endorsement constantly to increase the strength of the link between the celebrity and the endorsed brand. It is also more effective to use a celebrity who is not associated with another product (Till, 1998). Positive/negative effects of celebrity endorsement: the usa ge of celebrity endorsement can be both positive and /or negative, which can influence the company / brand in the end. For example, using celebrities can be very costly; also, celebrities might switch to a competitor, which would then increase the risk of a negative impact (Agrawal and Kamakura, 1995). However, in can be said that celebrities in advertising are widely spread and persistent and the marketing executives continue to utilize celebrity endorsement as an advertising strategy (ibid). Profitability of celebrity endorsement: The use of celebrity endorsement will hopefully lead to increased profitability. A study indicates that there is a positive impact of celebrity endorsement on the expected future profits, which recommends marketing managers to use celebrity endorsers in their advertising campaigns (Agrawal and Kamakura, 1995). Friedman/Friedman (1979)Does effectiveness of celebrity endorsement depend on the product? Interviews with 360 house wives Celebrity endorsements are not effective for all products Till (1998)What are the effects of celebrities endorsing more than 1 product? Case study with 99 students, who were shown different advertisings using the same celebrity endorserThe use of the same celebrity endorser to advertise for various products has got a negative impact on the efficiency of the ad, the product and the endorser. Atkin / Block (1983)Is celebrity endorsement effective in advertising and how does it influence customer purchase intentionsExperiment with 196 test persons, where each participant was shown 3 versions of an ad. Each version featuring a celebrity endorser and a non-celebrity. Advertising using celebrity endorsement is under special conditions more effective than using non-celebrities. Choi et al. (2005)How can celebrities be used successfully in advertising? How effective is the recall-value and the emotional response to celebrity advertising? Experiment with different groups of test persons. Advertising with celebrities is more effective than using non-celebrities under special conditions. Sanbonmatsu / Kardes (1988)How does the credibility of a celebrity affect the consumer purchasing intention? Interviews with 542 persons. Consumer purchasing intentions are more effected using celebrities than using non-celebrities. Tripp et al. (1994) How do consumers judge the celebrity endorsement, the ad and the brand, if the celebrity endorses various products? What are the effects on purchasing behaviour? First Study: interviews with 461 students. Second Study: Interview with 10 test persons. Simultaneous advertising trough the same celebrity has a negative effect on the ad, the product and the celebrity. Agrawal/Kamakura (1996)Which economical effects on advertising are there when using celebrities? Event-Study in regards to the effects on share prices trough the announcement of celebrity endorsementCelebrity endorsement can have a positive and a negative effect on share prices. Agrawal/Kamakura (1995)Can a single celebrity have a positive effect on the company? s value? Analysis of the share price of a company after announcing a celebrity endorserCelebrity endorsement can have a positive and a negative effect on share prices. Charbonneau / Garland (2005)How does a company find the right celebrity endorser for its products? Which criteria should be considered? Questionnaires: 414 marketing managers at 148 advertising companies.

Life without computers

Life without computers Nowadays, we cannot imagine our life without computers and the fact is that they have become so important that nothing can replace them. They seem to be everywhere today. Since 1948 when the first real computer has been invented our life has changed so much that we can call it real digital revolution. First computers differed from todays ones. They were so huge that they occupied whole rooms or buildings being relatively slow. They were not faster than modern simple watches or calculators. Nowadays they are also used by scientist and they may also be as huge as the old ones but they are millions times faster. They can perform many complex operations simultaneously and scientist practically cant do without them. Thanks to them people has access to enormous amount of information. Gathering data has never been more simple than now. They are not only used in laboratories but also in factories to control production. Sometimes it is computers who manufacture other computers. But not only in science and industry computers are being used. Thanks to them modern medicine can diagnose diseases faster and more thoroughly. Also in banking system computers have become irreplaceable. They control ATMs, all data is stored on special hard disks and paper isnt used in accountancy any more. Furthermore, architects, designers and engineers cant imagine their work without computers. This machines are really everywhere and we depend on them also in such fields as criminology. They help police to solve crimes and collect evidence. Moreover, computers are wide-spread in education. Except their classic tasks such as administration and accountancy they are used in process of learning. Firstly, they store enormous amount of data which helps students to gain an information. Secondly, thanks to special teaching techniques and programs they improve ours skills of concentration and assimilation of knowledge. They have become so popular that not knowing how to use them means to be illiterate. Of course except this superb features there is also dark side of computer technology because every invention brigs us not only benefits but also threats. HARDWARE Our PC (Personal Computer) is a system, consisting of many components. Some of those components, like Windows and all your other programs, are software. The stuff you can actually see and touch, and would likely break if you threw it out a fifth-story window, is hardware. The system unit is the actual computer; everything else is called a peripheral device. Your computers system unit probably has at least one floppy disk drive, and one CD or DVD drive, into which you can insert floppy disks and CDs. Theres another disk drive, called the hard disk inside the system unit. You cant remove that disk, or even see it. But its there. And everything thats currently in your computer is actually stored on that hard disk. (We know this because there is no place else inside the computer where you can store information). The floppy drive and CD drive are often referred to as drives with removable media or removable drives for short, because you can remove whatever disk is currently in the drive, and replace it with another. Your computers hard disk can store as much information as tens of thousands of floppy disks, so dont worry about running out of space on your hard disk any time soon. As a rule, you want to store everything you create or download on your hard d isk. Use the floppy disks and CDs to send copies of files through the mail, or to make backup copies of important items. RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY (RAM) Theres too much stuff on your computers hard disk to use it all at the same time. During the average session sitting at the computer, youll probably use only a small amount of all thats available. The stuff youre working with at any given moment is stored in random access memory (often abbreviated RAM, and often called simply memory). The advantage using RAM to store whatever youre working on at the moment is that RAM is very fast. Much faster than any disk. For you, fast translates to less time waiting and more time being productive. So if RAM is so fast, why not put everything in it? Why have a hard disk at all? The answer to that lies in the fact that RAM is volatile. As soon as the computer is shut off, whether intentionally or by an accidental power outage, every thing in RAM disappears, just as quickly as a light bulb goes out when the plug is pulled. So you dont want to rely on RAM to hold everything. A disk, on the other hand, holds its information whether the power is on or off. THE HARD DISC All of the information thats in your computer, so to speak, is stored on your computers hard disk. You never see that actual hard disk because its sealed inside a special housing and needs to stay that way. Unlike RAM, which is volatile, the hard disk can hold information forever with or without electricity. Most modern hard disks have tens of billions of bytes of storage space on them. Which, in English, means that you can create, save, and download files for months or years without using up all the storage space it provides. In the unlikely event that you do manage to fill up your hard disk, Windows will start showing a little message on the screen that reads You are running low on disk space well in advance of any problems. In fact, if that message appears, it wont until youre down to about 800 MB of free space. And 800 MB of empty space is equal to about 600 blank floppy disks. Thats still plenty of room. SCSI SCSI is a type of interface used for computer components such as hard drives, optical drives, scanners and tape drives . It is a competing technology to standard IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics). While the less expensive IDE technology is built into motherboards, SCSI is a technology that must be added by purchasing a SCSI controller. The SCSI card fits into an internal PCI slot. SCSI devices are then connected to this card. SCSI devices, particularly hard drives, are designed to be used 24/7 in addressing the needs of the server market. For this reason, SCSI drives are usually made to higher standards and carry longer warranties than IDE drives of comparable capacity. However, the added speed and quality come at a price. SCSI components are significantly more expensive than their IDE cousins. THE MOUSE Obviously you know how to use your mouse, since you must have used it to get here. But lets take a look at the facts and buzzwords anyway. Your mouse probably has at least two buttons on it. The button on the left is called the primary mouse button, the button on the right is called the secondary mouse button or just the right mouse button. Ill just refer to them as the left and right mouse buttons. Many mice have a small wheel between the two mouse buttons. THE KEYBOARD Like the mouse, the keyboard is a means of interacting with your computer. You really only need to use the keyboard when youre typing text. Most of the keys on the keyboard are laid out like the keys on a typewriter. But there are some special keys like Esc (Escape), Ctrl (Control), and Alt (Alternate). There are also some keys across the top of the keyboard labeled F1, F2, F3, and so forth. Those are called the function keys, and the exact role they play depends on which program you happen to be using at the moment. Most keyboards also have a numeric keypad with the keys laid out like the keys on a typical adding machine. If youre accustomed to using an adding machine, you might want to use the numeric keypad, rather than the numbers across the top of the keyboard, to type numbers. It doesnt really matter which keys you use. The numeric keypad is just there as a convenience to people who are accustomed to adding machines. Most keyboards also contain a set of navigation keys. You can use the navigation keys to move around around through text on the screen. The navigation keys wont move the mouse pointer. Only the mouse moves the mouse pointer. On smaller keyboards where space is limited, such as on a notebook computer, the navigation keys and numeric keypad might be one in the same. There will be a Num Lock key on the keypad. When the Num Lock key is on, the numeric keypad keys type numbers. When the Num Lock key is off, the navigation keys come into play. The Num Lock key acts as a toggle. Which is to say, when you tap it, it switches to the opposite state. For example, if Num Lock is on, tapping that key turns it off. If Num Lock is off, tapping that key turns Num Lock on. INTERFACE CONTROLLERS Interface controllers (parallel, serial, USB, Firewire) to connect the computer to external peripheral devices such as printers or scanners. GRAFICS Graphics controller that produces the output for the monitor. The term computer graphics includes almost everything on computers that is not text or sound. Today almost every computer can do some graphics, and people have even come to expect to control their computer through icons and pictures rather than just by typing. Computer graphics as drawing pictures on computers, also called rendering. The pictures can be photographs, drawings, movies or simulations pictures of things which do not yet exist and maybe could never exist. Or they may be pictures from places we cannot see directly, such as medical images from inside your body. SOFTWARE Software is a generic term for organized collections of computer data and instructions, often broken into two major categories: system software that provides the basic non-task-specific functions of the computer and application software which is used by users to accomplish specific tasks. System software is responsible for controlling, integrating and managing the individual hardware components of a computer system so that other software and the users of the system see it as a functional unit without having to be concerned with the low-level details such as transferring data from memory to disk, or rendering text onto a display. Generally, system software consists of an operating system and some fundamental utilities such as disk formatters, file managers, display managers, text editors, user authentication (login) and management tools, and networking and device control software. Application software, on the other hand, is used to accomplish specific tasks other than just running the computer system. Application software may consist of a single program, such as an image viewer; a small collection of programs (often called a software package) that work closely together to accomplish a task, such as a spreadsheet or text processing system; a larger collection (often called a software suite) of related but independent programs and packages that have a common user interface or shared data format, such as Microsoft Office, which consists of closely integrated word processor, spreadsheet, database, etc.; or a software system, such as a database management system, which is a collection of fundamental programs that may provide some service to a variety of other independent applications. Software is created with programming languages and related utilities, which may come in several of the above forms: single programs like script interpreters, packages containing a compiler, linker, and other tools; and large suites (often called Integrated Development Environments) that include editors, debuggers, and other tools for multiple languages.

Discuss Woolf Reforms Effect On Civil Justice Law Essay

Discuss Woolf Reforms Effect On Civil Justice Law Essay This essay will seek to analyse the Woolf Reforms and in that context will evaluate the overall qualitative impact that they have had on the Civil Justice system. The essay will discuss the background in which Woolf Reforms were passed, the Woolf Reforms, Impact/intention of the reforms, Objective analysis based on criticism (positives and negatives) and finally the essay will conclude by analysing whether the Woolf Reform has actually succeeded in its definitive goal of reducing cost and delay. Background In 1995 there was a survey carried out by National Consumer Council  [1]  which found that 3 out of 4 people who are involved in serious legal disputes were dissatisfied with the civil justice system. It was found that of the 1,019 respondents, 77 percent believed that the system was too slow, 74 per cent stated that the system was too complicated and 73 per cent said that it was unwelcoming and outdated.  [2]   A cursory look at history reveals that Pre-Trial process has been the subject matter of numerous reports and inquiries. Since 1968 there has been the Winn Committee  [3]  , the Cantley Committee  [4]  , the massive Civil Justice review 1985-1988  [5]  and the Heilbron-Hodge Working party jointly set up by the Bar and the Law Society  [6]  . These are outside the purview of this Essay as the new system of Civil procedure took effect on the basis of the recommendations made by Lord Woolf in his June 1995 Interim Report  [7]  and his July Final report, both of which are entitled Access to Justice  [8]  . Senior members of judiciary have always boldly defended the significance of civil justice and were concerned about the degradation and the problems inflicting the civil justice system  [9]  . Genn further stated that he was aware of the sorry state of the civil courts  [10]  . It was in this background of continuous criticism that the previous Conservative Government appointed Lord Woolf to carry out a far reaching review and overhaul the civil justice system. His inquiry is the 63rd such review in the past 100 years  [11]  . The 3 perennial problems of cost, delay and complexity have plagued the civil justice system for ages and it was these ills that the Woolf reforms sought to redress  [12]  . Indeed, the whole ethos of civil justice is bound to fail if litigation which in itself is a costly affair cannot provide timely, less expensive and simple justice. Lord Woolf wanted to eliminate the defects in the civil justice system which were identified as being: too expensive, too slow, lacking equality between powerful and wealthy litigants and under-resourced litigants, too uncertain in terms of the length and cost of litigation, too fragmented and too adversarial  [13]  . Therefore it was in this light that in March 1994, the Lord Chancellor set up the Woolf enquiry whereby ways of reducing delays and improving accessibility of civil proceedings, and of reducing their cost were to be found  [14]  . On 26th April 1999 New Civil Procedure Rules and the accompanying Practice Directions came into force. These rules constitute the most fundamental reform of the civil justice system in the 20th century, introducing the main recommendations of Lord Woolfs final report. He described his proposals as providing A new landscape for civil justice for the 21st century  [15]  . Woolf Reforms- The need for reform The whole ethos of the Woolf reforms is woven around avoiding litigation and promoting settlement between parties  [16]  . While it shall be analysed in detail whether the much needed reforms fulfilled their purpose or not, it can be stated in the affirmative that the Reforms were very well received by various quarters of the legal profession  [17]  . However, the reforms have not escaped criticism and one of their outspoken critics is Michael Zander. The inquiry by Woolf published its final report in 1996 and thereafter the proposals resulted in the Civil Procedure Act 1997 and the Civil Procedure Rules 1998, which are the same  [18]  for the County court and High Court. It needs to be clarified here that the changes sought by Woolf Reforms bear effect primarily through the Civil Procedure Act 1997 and the CPR 1998, although these have been supplemented by new practice directions and pre-action protocols  [19]  . Lord Woolf, when he began his examination of the Civil law process identified diverse problems  [20]  . His interim report of June 1995 sates that the key problems facing civil justice today are cost, delay and complexity, these three are interrelated and stem from the uncontrolled nature of the litigation process. In particular there is no judicial responsibility for managing individual cases or for the overall assessment of the civil courts  [21]  . Heilbron Hodge, who called for a radical appraisal of the approach to civil litigation form all its participants, paved the way for Woolf report and accompanying reforms . It was forewarned  [22]  by Lord Woolf that without effective judicial control the adversarial process of the civil courts was likely to degenerate into an environment in which the litigation process is too often seen as a battlefield where no rules apply immediate effect of which would be disproportionate expense and unpredictable delay  [23]  . Being conscious of all these problems, Lord Woolf envisaged a New Landscape for Civil justice which included: Litigation will be avoided wherever possible, litigation will be less adversarial and more co operative, Litigation will be less complex, the timescale of litigation will be shorter and more certain, the cost of litigation will be more affordable, more predictable, and more proportionate to the value and complexity of individual cases, parties of limited financial means will be able to conduct litigation on a more equal footing, there will be clear lines of judicial and administrative responsibility for the civil justice system, Judges will be deployed effectively so that they can manage litigation in accordance with the new rules and protocols, the civil justice system will be responsive to the needs of litigants.  [24]   For paucity of space I shall be discussing the main reforms that have an immediate effect on cost and delay: Pre-Action protocol, Part 36, Judicial Case Management and ADR. These were the brainchild of Lord Woolf, in this context I will compare Judicial Statistics as regards the impact of these reforms and will also evaluate the criticisms meted out to these reforms from various quadrants. The proposed objective of all these reforms was to encourage settlement, avoid litigation, encourage parties to be less adversarial, more cooperative, reduce complexity of litigation, reduce delay, and reduce cost.  [25]  It is but utmost important to discuss the reforms to see whether these objectives have been met or not. Pre-action Protocols The idea was pioneered by Lord Woolf and can be considered as one of the most important innovations of the Woolf Reforms. Pre-action Protocols focus on the conduct of parties in the pre litigation stage which will be taken into account by the courts both during the case and also towards the end when the final decision regarding allocation of costs is taken. Pre-action protocols serves an effective means to this end as they are accompanied by the practice directions which describe their chief objective as encouraging exchange of early and full information about the prospective claim, avoiding litigation by promoting settlement and where litigation emerges as the last resort, to support its efficient management  [26]  . It was stated by Lord Woolf in the Final report on Access to Justice (1996) that Pre-action protocols are intended to build on and increase the benefits of early but well informed settlements  [27]  .Clearly one can say that if parties know everything before han d, it does promote a healthy environment by way of co-operation and the civil litigation process can be avoided. There have been 9 pre-action protocols produced so far covering vast areas of practice such as personal injury, medical negligence and housing  [28]  . By 2003 they also existed for construction and engineering, defamation, professional negligence and judicial review. The purpose of these protocols was to  [29]  set down pre-court procedures, encourage good communication and early settlement. Further these protocols cast a duty on the claimant to give the defendant details of the claim and on the other hand the defendant must respond to these claims within a stricter period of time. The protocols state that the key documents on which the partys case wholly rests must be disclosed at an early stage. Both the defendant and the claimant must agree on the use of an expert witness where relevant. If the parties fail to comply with these pre-action protocols the immediate result is penalty whereby the party at fault must pay some or all costs of the proceedings.  [30]  Claims however, should not be issued until at least three months after the initial letter of claim wherein the claimant has written to the prospective defendant disclosing his claim  [31]  . Evaluation/impact of the protocols will be carried out in the next section but it should be mentioned here that although pre action protocols may be expensive and can lead to front loading of costs in cases which would settle without them, they might be able to prevent the unnecessary costs of issuing proceedings and listing for hearing in the same cases. Another benefit that follows from the protocols could be that they might give the parties a healthy nudge towards Alternative Dispute Resolution  [32]  . Part 36: An Innovative Approach The Woolf Reforms instituted Part 36 which provides greater incentives for the parties to settle their differences mutually. Under Part 36 procedures exist for either party to make an offer to settle their disputes and these were significantly revised with effect from 6th April 2007. Now a part 36 offer can be made before the proceedings start as well as in the appeal proceedings. In this regard Offeror refers to the party making the offer and the Offeree is the one receiving it. Upon acceptance of an offer by the claimant a duty is cast on the defendant to pay the sum offered within 14 days, failure to do so would allow the claimant to enter judgement. Also, any pre- action offer to settle while making an order for costs will be taken into consideration by courts. A side refusing it will be treated less generously and this usually applies to offers which are open to the other side for at least 21 days after the date they were made. Lord Woolf suggested that for a settlement offer to qualify as an offer under Part 36 it must be made in writing with the intention to have the consequences of part 36. As regards Defendant making the offer, a period of not less than 21 days must be specified whereby the defendants liability for claimants will be established if the offer is accepted. Under the revised Part 36 however, any offer may be withdrawn after the expiry of the relevant period, as defined in Rule 36.3.1.c, without the courts permission  [33]  . Michael Zander states that when the defendant pays a sum of money into the court account as an offer of settlement, the case would end upon acceptance of the money. However if the offer is refused by the claimant, the defendant can still increase his payment-in. Upon further refusal the case will go to trial and the outcome will be determined by the court. If the Claimant does not recover more than the amount paid in, the court will order him to pay the cost of both sides from the date of payment-in. It would be worth mentioning Calderbank letters here because technically the system applies only to cases which concerned damages or other money claims whereas under these letters if the defendant makes an offer of settlement without prejudice save as to costs it would virtually be treated by the courts in the same way as if it was payment into court. Pre -CPR this rule 36 was applied inflexibly. Post 1999 the courts are able to mitigate the harshness of the traditional rule where the cl aimant was automatically ordered to pay the cost of both the sides upon failure to secure more than the amount paid in by the defendant. New rules now provide for the Claimants offer, which was considered to be a big change. For money claims Part 36 payments apply, however, where the claim is not monetary, the defendant can still make a part 36 offer (as opposed to part 36 payment) and thereafter the same basic rules shall apply. However the courts discretion  [34]  applies. All in all allowing the claimant to make an offer of settlement under the CPR has proved to be a welcome step  [35]  . The analysis of Part 36 will be discussed in the next section. Judicial Case Management: Striking a balance This is the most significant innovation as it was perceived by Lord Woolf that case control by judiciary, rather then leaving the conduct of the case to the parties, will bring the cases to trial quickly and efficiently  [36]  . It can be seen that the litigants in this new system will have much less control over the pace of the case than in the past. As the case is now subject to a timetable, parties will not be able to draw out proceedings and cause delays. A positive duty is cast on the court which means  [37]  : Civil Procedure Rules 1.4(1) encouraging parties to co-operate with each other in conduct of the proceedings, identifying the issues at an early stage, encouraging parties to use ADR, helping parties to settle whole or part of the case. Under the CPR Cases must be assigned to 1 of the 3 tracks: small claims, fast track or multi-track, each having its own separate regime depending primarily on the financial value of claim  [38]  . Limit for small claims cases is  £5,000 except for personal injury and housing cases where it is  £1000. Proportionate procedure is followed where straight forward claims with a financial value of not more than  £5,000 can be decided without needing substantial pre hearing preparation or formalities of substantial trial and also without incurring large legal costs  [39]  . These procedure under small claims are controlled by district judges on informal basis  [40]  . Cases involving amounts between  £5,000-15,000 are dealt here unless they are deemed unsuitable. The fast track procedure incorporates a set timetable of no more than 30 weeks to trial, limited pre-trial procedures, trials restricted to no more than 3 hours (which was further extended to 5 hours), restrictions on oral evidence form experts and recovery of standard fixed costs  [41]  . Cases involving amounts exceeding the fast track limit or cases with lesser amounts which are considered complex or to o important for small claims or fast track cases are dealt with here  [42]  . Evaluation of the impact of judicial case management on reduction in cost, delay and complexity will follow in the next section. ADR, though not part of the traditional Court system, has been brought in connection through the CPR. Lord Woolf in his Final Report urged that people should be told and encouraged to resort to a growing number of grievance procedures, or the ADR before taking up legal proceedings. These ADR feature prominently in the rules and CPR 1.4(1)  [43]  states that the court must further the overriding objective by actively managing cases. However, Lord Woolf commented that ADR cannot be imposed compulsorily on parties at dispute in civil litigation  [44]  . There are no complex court procedures to be adhered to while using ADR and also it saves a lot of time and avoids ever escalating litigation costs. Experts evidence was another area with which Lord Woolf was concerned. It was contended by him that expert evidence was a major cause because of which excessive expense, delay (in some cases) and complexity increased. He wanted to do away with the system where both the parties could appoint their own experts, rather he envisaged a single expert who would owe his allegiance to the court rather than to the parties. Given the criticism of his proposal he admitted that though a significant shift towards single experts is not immediately possible, nevertheless it was possible to initiate a shift in that direction  [45]  . Impact/Evaluation of the Reforms Before evaluating the reforms it may be stated in the affirmative that the Overriding Objective of the new CPR was to enable the courts to deal justly with the cases. CPR rule 1.1(1) reads: These rules are a new procedural code with the overriding objective of enabling the court to deal with cases justly  [46]  . The combined effect of the major reforms was to avoid parties going to litigation and to promote settlement. This merit analysis based on empirical data wherein the major focus is to evaluate reduction in cost and delay. Early evidence reveals success on the part of these radical changes as, there was 25 % reduction in the number of cases issued in the county courts in May August 1999 which in comparison to the same period in the previous year was much less. This further fell to 23 % by the end of January 2000. Lord Phillip stated that the reforms have proved to be effective in changing the whole ethos of litigation but litigation itself is still expensive. It was commented by Gary slapper et al that overall reforms can be seen as a triumphant step in the right direction as larger proportion of society is able to achieve greater access to justice especially when the issues at dispute are relatively small and can be dealt with quickly and cheaply in the small claims track. However, t he reforms do not fare that well where complex commercial disputes are concerned.  [47]   As a result of the reforms many positive changes have occurred, the culture has become less adversarial, there is better exchange of information between the parties before the start of litigation and settlement now focuses on the substantive issues in the case  [48]  . Cards on table culture, as it can be called, is a major factor leading to settlement. Communication and exchange of information at an early stage always help  [49]  . Furthermore, claimant offers under Part 36 were praised as claimants could now obtain a response from the defendant and defendants also benefitted from them as they could set upper limits to the bargaining. Protocols, by focussing on formulating clear ground rules on the basis of which claims are formulated and responded to, encouraged parties to focus their minds on the key issues at an early stage  [50]  . File survey undertaken by Goreily et al revealed that median time in case of medical report to settlement had fallen from 170 days pre Wo olf to 123 days post-Woolf, thereby reflecting that settlement has become quicker  [51]  . In case of large claims which were subject to court timetables, solicitors thought the speed has become quicker. As regards cost it was acknowledged that costs increased because of front-loading as now more work is required to be done during the initial stages  [52]  . Evidence regarding protocols suggested that it had some impact in reducing costs as earlier exchange of information could lead to speedier settlements because both sides become aware of the issues much sooner. Case management evaluation however, received a mixed response. Experience in relation to High Court Masters in London was perceived as positive and leading to a greater incentive to reach agreement before hearing. However, outside London the experiences were not that positive  [53]  . Judicial statistics reveal that the number of claims have fallen to less than 1,90,000 in 2005 as compared to 2,20,000 in 1998. All this has happened since the coming into force of the Woolf reforms, though favourable economic climate may also account for this  [54]  . Cases have diverted from being litigated in the courts as a result of the use of pre-action protocols and claimant offers under part 36 which encourage pre-trial settlements, causative effect being that only 8% of cases which are listed for trial settle during the course of trial and 70% settle much earlier. This is suggestive of the fact that the reforms have been a positive step towards out-of-court settlements which have the advantage of providing a quick/speedy end to the dispute coupled with a reduction in costs  [55]  . First evaluation of the new Civil Procedure Rules by the Government  [56]  indicated the overall benefits of reforms whereby it was stated that cases are settling much earlier and not at the courts doorstep. Litigation is regarded as the last resort by lawyers and clients who now make greater use of ADR. Pre-action protocols were believed to be a success. All these findings are further supported by the latest research  [57]  into the civil justice system  [58]  . A major official study published by the institute of Civil Justice at the Rand Corporation in California (Kakalik et al, 1996) looked into the effect of American Civil Justice Reform Act 1990 based on a survey of 10,000 cases. And found that early use of Judicial case management can yield reductions of one and a half or 2 months to resolve cases that would otherwise last at least 9 months. Discovery timetables further reduce time to disposition and also the number of hours spent by a lawyer working on the case. However one drawback is that case management will ultimately lead to an approximately 20 hour increase in lawyers work overall  [59]  . Only 2 proper research studies on the impact of Woolf reforms have been there so far. The first one was carried out for the Civil Justice council and the Law Society (Goreily et al.)  [60]  on pre -action behaviour. The second for Department of constitutional affairs by Professors Peysner and Seneviratne  [61]  dealt with the case management  [62]  . It was contended on the basis of this second research that protocols generate co-operation, and help prepare cases in a organised way and also discussed widespread employment of single joint experts and that days of hired guns are over.  [63]  . It is important here to mention the benefits accruing as a result of the Woolf Reforms which have been validated from a variety of sources  [64]  : Culture seems to be less adversarial which reflects a better future, Pre action protocols have received laudable applause, Part 36 offers and payments seem to promote healthy settlement, single joint experts seem to work better in contrast to views of critics. Judicial Statistics reveal that average waiting time in county courts from issue of claim to trial has reduced form 85 weeks in 1998 to 52 weeks in 2005  [65]  . Analysing Statistics from Department of constitutional affairs, Reynolds Porter Chamberlin (RPC) a large city law firm found that in the first year of the reforms there was a 41.3 % drop in cases being litigated and in the following 5 years(in 2005) it further declined to a drop of 1.7%  [66]  . District Judge Terence John being sceptical however, stated that the reforms have changed the civil legal world for better and are here to stay. He further observed that 70 % of the claims are being dealt through the small claims track and 20 % through the fast track; all this makes recourse to justice realistic  [67]  . Also Judge Charles Harris QC commented, trials are held pretty briskly as a result of case management which restricts incompetent litigators to prolong the case.  [68]   Criticism A major criticism of the Woolf reforms was mounted by Zander who opined that there is immense pressure  [69]  on parties to enter settlement once the case begins. Empirical evidence suggests that it is not necessary that pre-trial hearing will reduce cost and delay  [70]  . Further report by T. Goreily et al suggests that overall time before and after reforms have remained the same  [71]  . (However it may be stated, further empirical data on delay as a result of reforms a

The Moral Difference between Animals and Humans Essay -- Morals Ethics

The Moral Difference between Animals and Humans A moral issue is generally considered to be one which arises from the need to take another person's interests into consideration. However, by saying another person's interests this seems to rule out the interests of animals from the moral debate. Although many people do value animals, there are still others who consider animals as no more than a source of food. It could be argued that our primary moral obligations towards those people who value animals includes secondary obligations towards the animals they value. The problem then is that we have no secondary obligations towards those animals which are not valued by people. Consequently those animals would have no moral rights. Despite that argument we still feel that it is morally wrong to inflict certain actions, such as torture, on animals. We should, therefore, consider the possibility that animals do have moral rights. If we change the initial statement to read 'a moral issue is one which arises from the need to take another liv ing being's interests into consideration' we can then consider what gives a living being moral rights, and what moral difference there is between animals and humans. The interests of others may range from simple hobbies to caring for the sick. Obviously these interests have differing levels of moral importance. Although there are a number of moral principles that we could use as examples, let us consider two which are most relevant to animals and humans. They are, the right to individual freedom, and the right not to suffer harm from another. Humans expect these rights from each other, but do not necessarily grant them to animals. What is it then that gives humans these rights but not animals? Lan... ...a danger. But the animal's actions do not immediately change from watching to attacking. Instead, the bear moves from a state of watching to one of preparing for attack and displays this change in the form of prowling. During that process the bear is making a judgment which is displayed by either attacking or not attacking depending on whether or not I pose a danger. By not attacking, the bear is displaying consideration for an other which is a basic form of moral judgment. It could, therefore, be argued that to the extent that certain animals display similar behaviour they then deserve moral consideration from us. Bibliography Dennett, Daniel C. Brainchildren (Penguin, 1998) Essay 24 Klempner, G. Reason, Values and Conduct Unit 13 Raphael, D.D. Moral Philosophy (2nd edn OUP 1994) Sprigge, T.L.S. The Rational Foundation of Ethics (Routledge 1990)

Cold Mountain: Frasiers Archetypal Journey Essay -- essays research pa

The archetype of the journey is seen in Charles Frazier’s novel Cold Mountain, most clearly through experience Inman has wandering back to Cold Mountain. The journey archetype sends the hero in search of some truth to restore order and harmony to the land. The journey often includes the series of trials and tribulations the hero faces along the way. Usually the hero descends into a real or psychological hell and is forced to discover the blackest truths. Once the hero is at his lowest level, he must accept personal responsibility to return to the world of the living. Inman’s trip fits this description very well in some ways and not in others. It could be said that Inman’s search for truth is his desire to be back home. He has been disillusioned by the war. He saw horrible scenes daily and fought for his life. By coming home to Ada and his mundane life is a welcome constant for him in a world he has recently determined to be wild. He believed that once he had rea ched his destination, order in his personal world and soul could begin to return to normal. In accordance with the definitions of the archetype journey, Inman goes through a great deal angst and tribulations. He has practically starved many times, been mugged, and fired upon. This strife is culminated when he his betrayed and shanghaied, marched nearly to death, then shot and left for dead. He is buried with a thin layer of dirt in a mass grave, and spends half a day under ground with the dead. This is his low point, his personal hell. At this point he even considers not uncovering himself and allowing the easy death to occur. For such a logical and even headed man this is particularly extreme thought. But he eventually finds the will power to hoist himself out of the grave to once again take up road. Finally he gets to the house and restores order to his metaphysical kingdom, coming to terms with many of his thoughts. Ada goes through a more mental archetypal journey. She has to fi nd manageable independence, an aspect development of which she had always been deprived. Her low point was at the beginning of the book when she realized that she no longer had the money that once had enabled a work-free life style. At the beginning, she has no idea what to do or what she even wants. Once Ruby comes, she begins to come to important self-realization about the pettiness of her past life and how she is no lon... ... the greatest foils to each other. When one reads of Ruby’s extreme incredible work ethic and practicality in every matter, even towards bird-watching (she uses migratory patterns to plant seasonally), one understands that she has lived in harsh conditions and foolishness was not an option. Once contrasted with her father and his physically unproductive lifestyle, one may come to view her as a calculating robot. On the other hand, Stobrod may look as though he has a far worse work ethic than he actually does wen contrasted against his daughter. Similarly, this was the dynamic of Ada’s relationship to Ruby when Ruby was first introduced. Inman, the rational, moral, and selfless farmer boy and Veasy, the lecherous, self-centered preacher serve as foil to one another. When the pair is together Inman seems so strait laced and moral, thinking every aspect out well in advance, then taking the most sensible route. Veasy on the other hand is made to look even more of a lech erous buffoon, when he, who has just had relations with Laura Foster, solicits the massive Tildy for sex in the tavern while Inman, the lonely former-soldier who has not been with woman for a long time remains celibate.

Stress and Anger Essay -- Stress Anger Psychology Essays

Stress and Anger Stress and Anger have always been related with each other. There have been countless studies, even more theories, about stress and anger and how they relate. But, no matter how many studies are conducted, there will always be the questions about whether or not stress and anger are related. But, I am here to provide the facts on both stress and anger, and then allow you, as the reader, to determine the relationship, because all-in-all, I feel that stress and anger can and cant be related, depending on the circumstance. If psychologists completely understood how stress and fears developed, we would know how to produce and reduce a phobia or an anxiety state. We don't. There seems to be a wide variety of life experiences which result in some form of stress, fear, anxiety, or psychosomatic illness. It would be convenient if life were simpler but it isn't. Perhaps a summary will help you review the ways you might become stressed and anxious Changes, such as sudden trauma, several big crises, or many small daily hassles, cause stress. Intense stress years earlier, especially in childhood, can predispose us to over-react to current stress. Events, such as barriers and conflicts that prevent the changes and goals we want, create stress. Having little control over our lives, e.g. being "on the assembly line" instead of the boss, contrary to popular belief, often increases stress and illness. Many environmental factors, including excessive or impossible demands, noise, boring or lonely work, stupid rules, unpleasant people, etc., cause stress. Conflicts in our interpersonal relationships cause stress directly and can eventually cause anxieties and emotional disorders. The human body has different ways of responding to stress; one quick responding nerve-hormonal system involving adrenaline, another long-lasting system involving cortisol, and perhaps others. These systems not only determine the intensity of our anxiety reactions but also our attitudes, energy level, depression, and physical health after the stressful events are over. As individuals, our nervous systems differ; however, according to Richard Dienstbier at the University of Nebraska, we may be able to modify our unique physiological reactions by learning coping skills. The genetic, constitutional, and intrauterine factors influence stress. Some of us may have been born "nerv... ...nd anti-social behavior. It is also known that a viral infection, called rabies, causes violent behavior. About 90% of women report being irritable before menstruation. Furthermore, 50% of all crimes by women in prison occurred during their menstrual period or premenstrual period. By chance only 29% of crimes would have occurred during those eight days. Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) increases during the premenstrual period and it causes irritability. In all of these possibilities--instinct, heredity, hormones, or brain dysfunction--the aggression occurs without apparent provocation from the environment (although there is almost always a "target"). According to some of these theories, the need or urge to be aggressive is boiling within each of us and seeks opportunities to express itself. There is also clear evidence that alcohol consumption and hotter temperatures release aggression, but no one thinks there is something in alcohol or heat that generates meanness. The socialization process, i.e. becoming a mature person, involves taming these destructive, savage, self-serving urges that probably helped us humans survive one million years ago but threatens our survival today.

Computer Security Incident Response Team Essay

In the last decade, more and more companies have started to look into e-commerce to connect them to the infinite world of global suppliers, partners, consumers and much more. This boom in technology has placed multiple assets are risk from a security stand point allowing hackers/crakers and anyone on the internet to gain access to these network and gain information or try to jeopardize business to a point where it stand stills. Increase in Denial of service attacks, child pornography, virus/worms and other tools used by individuals to destroy data has lead to law enforcement and media to look into why and how these security breaches are conducted and what new statutory laws are needed to stop this from happening. According to CSI computer crime and security Survey 2007, the average annual loss reported by security breach has shot up to $350,424 from 168,000 the previous year. To add to this, more and more organizations are reporting computer intrusions to law enforcement which inclined to 29 percent compared to 25 percent the year before. 1] To be successful in respond to an incident, there are a few things that need to be followed: 1. Minimize the number of severity of security incidents. 2. Assemble the core computer security Incident Response Team (CSIRT). 3. Define an incident response plan. 4. Contain the damage and minimize risk. [3] How to minimize the number of severity and security incidents: It is impossible to prevent all security related incidents, but there are things that can be done to minimize the impact of such incidents: †¢Establishing and enforcing security policies and procedures. Gaining support from Management in both enforcing security policies and handling incidents. Accessing vulnerabilities on the environment on regular basis including regular audits. †¢Checking all devices on certain time frames to make sure that all the updates were performed. †¢Establishing security policies for both end users and security personal and asking for security clearance each and every time an access is granted. †¢Posting banners and reminders for responsibilities and restriction of use of applications, and other systems on the network. †¢Implementing secure password polices thought the network. Checking log files on regular basics and monitoring traffic. †¢Verifying backups are done on regular basics and maintained in an appropriate manner. This would also include the new email backup policy laws. †¢Create Computer Security Response Team (CSIRT) [3] Security threat is the same for both large, small, and government organizations and therefore it is important that regardless of what the company has for its security measures, it also ha s a written document that establishes guidelines for incident response. Incident respond planning is a set of guidelines that document on security incident handling and communication efforts. This plan is activated when an incident that could impact the company’s ability to function is established. Computer Security Incident Response Plan (CSIRP) should contain the following: 1. Mission: Things the response team will be responsible for, including how to handle incidents as they happen and what steps are necessary to minimize the impact of such incidents. 2. Scope: this would define, who is responsible for which area of security, it can include things like application, network(s), employees, communication both internally and to the public and much more. . Information flow: How information will be handled in case of an emergency and how it will be reported to the appropriate authority, pubic, media and internal employees. 4. Services provided: This document should contain all the services that are either provided to the users or services that are used or bought from other vendors including testing, education, service provider issues to name a few. [2] The CSIRT team must contain several members including a Team leader which will monitor changes in individual’s actives and responsibility of reviewing actions. An Incident Lead, that will be dedicated as the owner of set of incidents and will be responsible for speaking to anyone outside the team while and corresponding changes and updates. A group of individual’s part of the CISRT team called members will be responsible to handle responsibility of the incident and will monitor different areas of the company. Other members of this team should include Legal help, public relations officers, contractors and other member of management both from business and IT that can help during security breaches. If an Incident has occurred, it is important to classify this as an incident severity. Most companies use between Severity 1-5. 1 being the highest and 5 being the research phase where no system or user’s are affected. For most system anything under Severity 3 is not a major impact of the system but if there is a system wide issue that requires immediate attention, a severity 1 or 2 would fall under the category of Incident response procedure and set up a high alert. The cost of an incident can be very high, depending on the loss of data, therefore identifying the risk and all the real threat fall under this category. Once the incident has been identified it should go into the assessment phase, where it should be determined if the system can be bought back up again and how much damage is done. If the business is impacted assessment should be done. The assessment includes forensic investigation usually involving a team of expert that look into the how many computer were affected, what kind of information was stolen or changed, entry level of attacks, potential damage done by incident, recovery process and the best way to assess this from happening again. The next phase of this is containment, which is the assessment of damage and isolation of other systems that can also be compromised including network. Backup of the system in the current state should be done at this time for further forensic investigation. Analyzing of log files and uncovering systems that were used like firewalls, routers should be identified. Any modification of files including dos, exe should also be carried out in this phase. Once all this is done, the next step is Recovery. Recovery is restoring clean data back the system so it can perform is function as required. After installing last good backup, it is important to test the system before putting this in production again. Further surveillance of network and application should be set in place as intruders might try this again. Every company today, weather small or big needs an incident response unity to defend itself against predators on the web. The government agencies has set some rules and regulations on such standards and are required that company follow these standards to avoid further disruption of the service. This becomes even more critical for companies that play important place in the economy like credit card, health, insurance and much more. Several regional companies today can help plan CSIRP plan that provide help creating a team of individuals that can act fast in such situations. The implementation of such plan cost less in the long run, when compared to companies that don’t have such response plan and loose data that is critical to their survival.

Bsnl Change Management Strategy

BSNL competitive portfolio & Change Management M Ramesh, [email  protected] com Synopsis: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. formed on 1st October „2000, is one of the largest & leading public sector units providing comprehensive range of telecom services in India. They operate under 13 different brands. Their customer base as on July 31, 2011 was at 95. 14 Million. BSNL has an installed Network in the country comprising about 43. 74 million line basic telephone capacity, 8. 83 million WLL capacity, 72. 60 million GSM capacity, 37,885 fixed exchanges, 68,162 GSM BTSs, 12,071 CDMA Towers, 197 Satellite Stations, 6,86,644 RKm. f OFC, 50,430 RKm. of microwave network connecting 623 districts, 7330 cities/towns & 5. 8 lakhs villages. However, with such a large base, excellent brand recall, political backing and huge workforce, the company has not been doing well and in fact has reported a loss in the previous financial year. BSNL had reported the highest net profit of over Rs10,000 crore in 2005-06 but since then its profits have been falling. The losses have more than tripled to about Rs. 6,000 crores during 2010-11 mainly due to hefty outgo for employees' salary and expenses borne by the PSU for procuring 3G and BWA spectrum. The company had registered a net loss of Rs. 1,823 crores during 2009-10. The total revenues of the company also declined to Rs 28,876 crore during the current year, down nearly 10% from Rs 32,072 crore in the previous financial year. Recipient of the Golden Eagle award in 2004 & 2005 for the most trusted brand in telecom sector, BSNL is today struggling to retain its identity. This article aims are preparing a competitive strategy for BSNL and select suitable competitive portfolio so that the company can emerge out of the crisis it is in. Further, the change management strategy that has to be adopted in order to implement the changes in the organisation is given in this section. 1. Competitive Strategy and suitable corporate portfolio: Before we embark upon suggesting a suitable corporate portfolio, it is important to analyse the current the functioning and management of BSNL. a) No doubt that its presence and reach across the country is its biggest strength. Established offices in all the metros, A, B & C class cities, and installations and offices in the remotest parts of the nation, especially J, North East is a strength they can easily exploit on their road to recovery. ) Long serving employees and excellent knowledge of the market, customers, tacit knowledge base of BSNL is unique. They are different from the competition since customers view BSNL as a 2|Page state run firm and profit not being the only motive, would be willing to trust them more than other competitors. c) Even today, they rule the land line conne ctions and command a market share of over 65% of the customer base and any of the revival and restructuring plans for BSNL has to pass through this channel. ) BSNL, being a completely government owned organisation, they can use their political affiliations to change the rules of the market, create entry barriers for competition, and lobby for influencing the market to leverage their strengths, policies that give them an edge, and those which do not violate TRAI and other fair trade practices, can be adopted. While we discuss the selection of suitable portfolio from the competitive strategies, apart from the strengths of BSNL highlighted above, it is important that the crucial questions of what can be done that is not being done at BSNL is pondered. Some of the questions that we have to ask and find answers that hold key to developing a competitive strategy and designing a suitable portfolio are: 1. BSNL has a vision ‘To become the largest Telecom Service provider in South East Asia’. For this it is important to understand the parameter for being the largest. Is it revenue, Av. Revenue per User, profit, subscribers, Network (no of exchanges, BTS etc)? Clarity in purpose and vision is essential to developing a suitable competitive strategy. 2. Is the mission aligned with its current position? Has it redefined its mission from a state run entity, interested in nation development to a corporate that has to deliver to its owners and stake holders? 3. What are the investments that have been made or planned to be made, in order to provide world class State-of-art technology telecom services on demand at affordable price and to provide world class telecom infrastructure to develop country's economy. 4. What has been done towards continuous innovation in product and delivery of services with the appropriate pricing is the key strategy for developing the trust in customer so that he keeps his loyalty with BSNL. . BSNL can target to acquire more than 50% of new acquisitions while maintaining existing clientele. How will this be done? 6. Today landline base is reducing across the globe, BSNL, to be a Significant Market Power (SMP), must increase it base to over 80%. 7. Ultimately it is the quality, customer care, and timely availability apart from price, which will matter. What are the actions being taken towards these critical success factors? 8. Can’t there be just one brand i. e. BSNL? Has there ever been an examination of their revenue break-up? Currently there are 13 brands that have to be developed and positioned. |Page 9. There are certain distinctions that BSNL has, like being awarded the most trusted telecom brand in year 2003 & 2004. They received the Golden Peacock award for Best Corporate Social responsibility. How can these be leveraged? 10. There are over one-lakh retailers, 1000 franchisees, 3300 CSCs, 36000 exchanges and still BSNL is not visible like others? Why can’t the space and people be utilized? 11. How to leverage the franchisee and STD-PCO strengths? Can these outlets be their core strength? 12. Why are the recharge coupons, India Telephone Cards are in shortage when there is no capacity constraint? Is it bad inventory & supply chain management, or bad franchisee management? 13. Are there targets for the recharge coupons just like DELs & CellOne? Why can? t the huge network of franchises be leveraged for better customer care and improve collection efficiency? 14. With competition heating up, gone are the days when customers deposited money with BSNL in advance for connections and security money for value added services. There are no fixed deposits; and the working capital and other funds requirements have to be met from operating revenues. What is the plan to improve collections, realize bills early, not on the last day of payment and reduce bad debts? 15. In line with the market needs, does BSNL have a 24X7 culture in their organization, though operation and maintenance are provided on 24X7 basis? What about provisioning customer care and marketing on 24X7 basis? Competitive strategy: Pricing: On the pricing front, BSNL does not have a choice but to follow the market trend. They can only bundle the packages in such a manner that the premium services bring more revenue. Focus must not be on reducing charges, but upgrading each customer by RS 20 – RS 50 by offering them more add on relevant services. It is usually much easier to sell additional things to existing customers than to add new customer, and the customer base of BSNL is quite huge and substantive for this model. Differentiation: In order to differentiate itself from competition, BSNL Business development units have to be given the task to develop and nurture long-term relations with corporate houses. MoUs have to be signed for bulk bills, One-point payments for multiple service locations. Setting up Key Account Manager servicing different corporate and key accounts and offering single window approach to resolve all issues and prevent any unwanted issues. Focus: BSNL has a strong hold on land line telephones, an important requirement for ADSL connections. There are huge benefits of ADSL over Wi-Fi & is very cost effective way to access Internet. BSNL is in a 4|Page unique position to leverage this advantage and its revenues, customer base and profitability can improve multi-fold if it can capitalise on this one aspect alone. Merging government telecom companies ITI and MTNL with state-run BSNL is one of the options. This will give them a great advantage in terms of increased customer base, implementing change management and brining in changes and most importantly economy of scale, power of bargaining. Hybrid: In order to be more competitive in the present market BSNL must not only differentiate itself from competition, give a good and attractive price and have a focussed approach. The competitive strategy recommended is: Focus on improving ADSL services at attractive rates to households and offices, bundle it with land line connections and mobile connections. Offer central point billing PAN India. For e. g. If a corporate company has branch and regional network, they must have the option of consolidated billing when they want and where they want to the level of Head office control they want to implement. BSNL can also offer special rates and Closed User Group (CUG) for government sector and earn huge revenues, since this segment is very price sensitive and is a very high volume user segment. More aggressive media campaign focussed on the strategically selected segments will help BSNL increase its customer base. A change in its staff attitude making them focussed on customers rather than systems and procedures, fast and efficient decision making with empowered employees. Continuity in supply chains, procuring of quality equipment and products must be focussed on. After defence and railways, BSNL is the country’s largest landholder. Its properties span 3,500 towns across India worth thousands of crores, making it the largest state-owned companies in terms of land assets. A turn around policy of BSNL should have this huge source of revenue at its core. 2. Change management strategy to enable it turnaround. No change in BSNL can happen and can be implemented without change of mindset in addition to the skills of marketing & sales. In this regards it is important to note that a research paper submitted by Vishwakarma Institute of Management, Pune in July 2010 after conducting a survey in BSNL concluded 5|Page that â€Å"the introduction of change seems to be managed effectively in the organisation with proper care and commitment and was agreed by the respondent BSNL employees with a mean 1. 022. The change is introduced by the consent of top management. To keep up the pace with the dynamic environment the management encourages change by explaining and ensuring the minimization of adverse effects, and put efforts to convert employee resistance into the acceptance. Employees were found to be change oriented, as they have continuous learning attitude to keep match with the future organizational requirements. Respondents? shows resistance change in some issues due to some security and personal reasons, which can be taken care by proper change management initiatives†. BSNL must focus on improving its quality of employees and skilled manpower? They must focus the organizational setup more suitable for better results? The staff expense to revenue ratio could be a good indicator. Today, more than 47% of the revenue goes to paying salaries to employees and this is the first aspect of change that must be introduced. The decision making process must be based on scientific analysis of the precious customer data they already have such as calling pattern, payment habits, usage profile etc. Increased number of surveys, customer research and systematic and periodical analysis of Net growth in mobile and churn is to be conducted? Steps must be implemented to reduce the churn? Acquisition cost is usually said to be 5-8 times the retention cost, and hence BSNL must focus on retention of customers. Management must not threaten the employees, they have been long serving and loyal and at the same time demanding. The management should involve the employees in strategy and decision making and should help them to open their minds and apply it to improve the quality of service, network, and expansion of network in time; utilising and selling the products before the technology becomes obsolete (like WIMAX). Considering the current scenario a Revolutionary change is required in BSNL and they should modify their competitive strategy quickly in order to survive in the hyper competitive telecom market in India. If one has to apply the McKinsey 7S framework for the change management process in BSNL, it would be as under: 1. Strategic: BSNL has to revisit its mission and evolve competitive strategies that are in line with the market dominant position that they want to be, exploiting their current strength of market leadership in land line connections. All their activities must be reoriented towards this change of positioning. |Page 2. Substance: BSNL needs to revamp its board and its top management, to be more customer and market oriented, dynamic and profit driven. Culturally, it is established that BSNL is employees are open to adopting change and hence management should provide necessary training to ensure that the process of cultural change is deployed quickly across all levels. 3. Scale: Considering the strengths of BSNL presence and reach of BSNL, scale is never an issue. What the organisation needs today is not infusion of new technology or resources; it is reorientation of the employees and a cultural change. Retrenching employees is not the first and only option available. 4. Scope: Undoubtedly the scope of the change must involve all levels of the organisation and across all regions. BSNL is a homogeneous entity and changes at one level or within certain geography is not possible to implement. Certainly, depending upon the local customer bases, working conditions and cultural differences, adaptations can be allowed, but the change itself, must be pan organisation. 5. Speed: Communications, ICT, and internet industry relies on speed and there is no room for laggards in this. BSNL must implement change management as swiftly as possible. . Sequence: Since BSNL s confronted with many an issues to handle, the best place to start would be internal employee attitude and cultural change and external – customer satisfaction focus. If carefully and rapidly implemented, these two will have a cascading effect on other areas such as revenues, cash flows, asset management and so on that will t urn around the organisation. 7. Style: BSNL has the baggage of being a government owned company and attitude of staff cannot be changed overnight. Unions are strong and public opinion can be made and tarnished by the correct or wrong handling of union issues. Change management in BSNL has to carefully crafted and cannot be dictated or thrust upon. The style has to be one of collaborative effort and everyone involved must be clear with what is expected of them and how it impacts others, his / her results and overall company. Conclusion: BSNL is at cross roads of its existence. The need to refine its competitive strategy and implement change management has never been more urgent than it is today. If BSNL has to survive the tough market conditions, the change management process must be initiated immediately and aligned with the competitive strategies that must be reworked. |Page BIBLIOGRAPHY: ? ? ? ? ? Marketing strategies of BSNL by GS Grover, NK Srivastava, & Sunil Kumar http://www. bsnl. in http://www. business-standard. com/india/index2. php http://www. moneycontrol. com/company-article/bharatsancharnigam/news/BSN http://www. moneycontrol. com/news/business/bsnls-loss-triples-to-rs-6000-cr3g-bwaoutgo_588976. html ? ? http://www. cellular -news. com/tags/bsnl/ Organisation Culture- A Case Study of BSNL LIMITED, Mrs. G. Nagamani, Prof. G. Krishna Mohan, http://www. vim. ac. in/UploadImages/Attachments/G. %20Nagamani%20&% 20G. % 20Krishna%20Mohan. pdf 8|Page