Amazon in E-Commerce

Question 1: How has Amazon.com and their use of internet changed the retailing industry? Give examples. Answer: 1 Amazon.com has revolutionized the selling and purchasing of all products over the internet. It started with selling books over the internet and progressed in selling almost all consumer goods within a short span of time. Its engineering and quality principals make sure that all the various standard compliances are met and justified for improving the system behavior for its customers. Customers have now moved from the brick and mortars model, a traditional model for purchase of products, to the click and mortars model for ease of access, anytime anywhere access, take part in auctions and avail several promotion offers and gifts. The very perspective towards retail buying has been changed by Amazon.com. The virtual store concept is quite likely followed by many retailers after the success of Amazon.com and they have created a benchmark for its products and selling models define the very success over the long period since its inception. Question 2: Comparisons have been made by giant bookstore retailer Barnes & Nobles and Amazon.com. Barnes and Noble operate dozens of bookstores in many local communities. Yet Amazon.com’s reach goes anywhere and everywhere with the Web. What, in your opinion, should Barnes and Nobles do to compete with Amazon.com? Answer 2: Barnes and Nobles must identify the very future requirements for its physical bookstores and come up with â€Å"click and mortars† model for fetching the right customer focus and model. Identifying the competition around and the changing outlook of the customers towards decision making for purchasing products is the greatest differentiator for change. The decision making for taking the business of Barnes & Nobles over the internet would make sure that all the various present disadvantages would be capitalized upon. The brand mark of Barnes & Nobles makes sure that every activity towards the envelopment of skyrocketing technologies would develop into a mammoth in promoting its success and growth. Only setting up the website is not enough. The representation model, sound engineering techniques, quality standards and affiliation techniques makes sure that its representation over the internet is strong and makes a presence really promising. Question 3: In order to more quickly realize and sustain its profitability should Amazon.com have remained a solely clicks based e-business (without warehouses) selling only books? Why or why not? Answer 3: Amazon’s decision to cater to several products would definitely move its primary base of selling books to other products. This is a sort of erosion of its primary brand which it created for selling books. The very brand creation and sustenance for selling books online had created a larger market share for book selling. The various bookstores at that time were in greater risk concerning their sales as Amazon grew in its market share for selling books. It was a brand which no one could deny. Its decision towards clicks business for selling other products over books makes sure that monopoly was broken to some extent and other small to medium sellers in the market found opportunity to make some business. These created a balanced view for existence in the marketplace allowing every dimension of sellers and customers to interact for good. Another reason for making the right move is for long term business continuity and spreading its wing to several other products which did not make it to the internet in that era. Amazon’s decision to be clicks based business must be changed into â€Å"clicks and mortars† business model for improving its supply chain by making it efficient and effective. The effective supply chain would cut down extra costs of transportation and shipping and would in turn create trust for its safety and quality policies. Warehouses would make sure that timely delivery of products can be made at lesser costs, which otherwise would create a sense of misunderstanding and evolve privacy and security aspects to a larger scale. Question 4: How can Amazon.com complete Bezos’s vision? What do they need to do to individualize their services to 25 million customers? Answer: 4 Amazon.com must fetch the customers according to their tastes and product liking. The following can be the various options that can be exercised: Provide a survey with questionnaires of what is important, how it can be bettered, what else is desired and so on. The survey questions would serve quite helpful in fetching the right suggestion from its customers to in turn get them everything they desire. The adoption of B2B and C2C model where various sellers and buyers can meet for selling the products of their choice. This would help users to customize according to their preferences so that more number of customers is fetched for purpose. The customer logs must be duly analyzed for fetching the right decision and data mining approaches to the vast data can be devised for getting the facts out for better customization of products and services. Request boxes and techniques must be presented so that in case a customer fails to find exactly what he desires, he can make a request for the new product. This would help to fetch the needs in micro detail for better capturing of the customer base. The above approaches would enhance Bezos’s vision to cater to individual needs and demands. Amazon is a virtual reseller, one of the main new intermediaries (Sarkar, 1996.) They are an electronic-commerce only intermediary; business and customer relationship management (CRM) is conducted purely via their website; a virtual marketplace with no direct contact between buyers and sellers. Amazon have created a virtualized value system through their accelerated ordering, delivery and payment of goods and services, while reducing operating and inventory costs associated with traditional bricks and mortar stores. This model demands a change to bring every buyer and seller to meet for catering individualized services. References Sarkar, M., Butler, B. & Steinfield, C. (1996) Intermediaries & Cybermediaries.      

Balance Sheet And Market Value

The most notable thing in the table presented above is the disparity between the actual market value and what is reported in ARC’s balance sheet. The balance sheet funding totaled to $1. 465 billion while the market value ballooned reaching $2, 390 billion. When compared, the difference is a staggering $20 million indicating that ARC owes more to its financiers than what it actually claims. The source of this huge difference is the disparity between the balance sheet amount of long-term debt and its market value. The company does not trade its bond so the yield is compared with companies issuing the same bonds.When converted to its present value, the book value is significantly lower than the market value. Another is the amount of stockholder’s equity. It should be noted that in reality, more funds are generated from the sale of stocks than their attributed value in the company’s books. The difference in the numbers has several implications when the capital struc ture of the company is considered. Two specific financial ratios are often computed in order to look at the risk entailed by a business organization—the debt ratio and the long term debt to equity. The debt ratio looks at the portion of the company’s asset which is financed by creditors.Accordingly, it â€Å"gives an idea to the leverage of the company along with the potential risks the company faces in terms of its debt-load† (Debt Ratio 2007). When computed using the balance sheet figures, ARC has a debt ratio of 68%. On the other hand, when market value is utilized the figure shrinks to 67%. This implies that 67-68% of ARC’s assets are financed by its creditors. In the industry as a whole, a higher debt ratio is an indication of higher financial risk because debt is often perceived as riskier method of financing. Thus, when market value is used, ARC has the chance of showing a better credit standing.The disparity is small but not insignificant. It shou ld be noted that investors often look at the credit exposure of the company by looking at the debt ratio. A small percentage can spell a huge difference when investors are making their choice. The debt to equity ratio on the other hand shows the proportion of creditors share to equity holders in the company’s resources. Accordingly, â€Å"A high debt/equity ratio generally means that a company has been aggressive in financing its growth with debt which can result in volatile earnings as a result of the additional interest expense† (Debt to Equity Ratio 2007).Using the balance sheet data, ARC’s debt to equity ratio is 2. 16 while market shows a lower 1. 98. Both of this data shows that ARC’s debt is much greater than its equity account. For the balance sheet data, every dollar in ARC’s equity is matched by a corresponding $2. 16 in total debt. On the other hand, market value data shows that every dollar of equity only has a corresponding 1. 98 debt. In general, the computed ratios show the high exposure of the company to financial risk.It should be noted that debt entails the payment of interest at regular intervals and face value (Keown et al 2005). References â€Å"Debt Ratio,† 2007, Investopedia. com. Retrieved 06 December 2007, from http://www. investopedia. com/terms/d/debtratio. asp â€Å"Debt to Equity Ratio,† 2007, Investopedia. com. Retrieved 06 December 2007, from http://www. investopedia. com/terms/d/debtequityratio. asp Keown, A. J. , Martin, J. D. , Petty, J. W. , and Scott Jr. , D. F, 2005, Financial Management principles and applications, Pearson/Prentice Hall International Edition, 10th Edition.

Mt459: Consumer Behavior Unit 3 Assignment

Do you think that it was a good segmentation for M&M’s to develop a new version targeting adults? In observing how M&M’s have changed over time from the addition of peanut butter and almonds to the changing of colors and sizes I think that was a great segmentation strategy to develop a new version targeting adults. The new line of M&M’s is 55 percent larger in size and they come in colors that are appealing to adults in its design (Schiffman & Kanuk, 2007).According to spokeswoman Joan Buyce of Masterfoods USA this creation is designed with adults in mind and â€Å"It broadens our portfolio so there's something for everyone† (M&M's get mega-sized, 2012, p. 1). Buyce also states that the new M&M's are available in milk chocolate as well as peanut varieties and come with an adult-oriented color scheme which includes teal, beige, gold, maroon, brown and blue-gray (M&M's get mega-sized, 2012).Due to the new line of M&M’s including aspects that target ad ults I think that it is a great segmentation strategy because appealing aspects are included in the development of the new version. Discuss three basic types of research of design (exploratory, descriptive and casual). The three basic types of designs are exploratory, descriptive and casual research. In the explorative research there is systematic and flexible and allows the researcher to investigate desires (Marketing Research Design, 2012).Explorative research is also most commonly unstructured, informal research that is undertaken to gain background information about the general nature of the research problem (Marketing Research Design, 2012). While descriptive research describes and measure marketing phenomena at a point in time (Marketing Research Design, 2012). This type of research is classified as a cross sectional study, because it is a one-time measurement, which is established in market research, outnumbering longitudinal studies and casual studies (Marketing Research Des ign, 2012).Casual research is performed to determine causality or to make â€Å"if-then† statements (Marketing Research Design, 2012, p. 1). This type of research uses one or more independent variables as well as the guidance of addition intervening variables (Marketing Research Design, 2012). The exploratory, descriptive and casual research mechanisms include different variables, features and methods that can be implemented in designs to make the outcomes both profitable and successful. Discuss use of research design for each method.Uses of exploratory, descriptive and casual research can be implemented in many different methods. Explorative research design is utilized to gain background information when the problem has not been clearly formulated (Marketing Research Design, 2012). This type of research is also used to define terms and concepts in addition to clarifying problems and hypotheses which allows the researcher to define the problem more precisely and to generate a hypothesis for the upcoming study (Marketing Research Design, 2012).Establishing research priorities is also used in exploratory research to prioritize research topics in order of importance, especially when it is faced with conducting several research studies (Marketing Research Design, 2012). While the uses of descriptive research is an experiment because it is defined as manipulating an independent variable to see how it affects a dependent variable, while also controlling the effects of additional extraneous variables (Marketing Research Design, 2012).The types of experiments that are utilized in description research are laboratory and field experiments in addition to test marketing (Marketing Research Design, 2012). Casual research is used to measure what impact a specific change will have on the existing norms and allows market researchers to predict hypothetical scenarios (Marketing Research Design, 2012). Methods that are used in casual research design are scientific and co ntrolled experimentation, or cause and effect experiments which it ensures that any difference in the outcome is due to different treatments of the variable under the study (Schiffman & Kanuk, 2007).When implementing uses of exploratory, descriptive and casual research it is important to utilize the appropriate method for the classification of research in order to receive successful results. Differentiate appropriate research design methods to use in consumer habits analysis. The appropriate research design methods are used in consumer habits analysis to understand which variables are the cause and which variables are the effect the aspects. This process is performed to determine the nature of the relationship between the causal variables, the effect to be predicted, and methods that are used (Perner, 2010).Businesses study how the consumers feel and think about options that are available about different products or brands which are consumer habits to enhance their market strategy ( Perner, 2010). The market research is necessary to ensure that we provide the desires of the customer and not our desires for the customer (Perner, 2010). There are two research design methods to analyze consumer behavior which are the primary and secondary research methods (Perner, 2010). Primary research is called research at first hand because it is the research that is designed and conducted by you (Perner, 2010).Secondary research is the research that is driven from previous information which is considered to be a by- product of primary research (Perner, 2010). This type of research involves using information that other people have already formulated (Perner, 2010). Overall, the difference between the types of research is that primary research is driven by collecting original information while secondary research is a finished product that is developed from primary research. ? ReferencesM&M's get mega-sized. (2012). Cable News Network. Retrieved from http://money. cnn. com/2005/ 08/04/news/funny/m_and_ms/ Marketing Research Design. (2012). SlideShare Inc. Retrieved from: http://www. slideshare. net/nbairstow/marketing-research-design Perner, L. (2010). Consumer Behavior: The Psychology of Marketing. Lars Perner. Retrieved from: http://www. consumerpsychologist. com/ Schiffman, L. & Kanuk, L. (2007). Consumer Behavior 9th Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ, Pearson Education, Inc.

College Admission Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

College Admission - Essay Example So at the ripe age of six, I began with what would become a life-long pursuit of trying to be the best soccer player I could be. I tried my luck at baseball one year but found it too unexciting and dry. I also tried a year of football in order to meet my father’s wish for me to become as good a football player as he was, but it just was not meant to be. Soccer, it was! And I remember the awkwardness of stumbling onto the field as a young child. But I persevered and showed up for every practice determined to be the best player I could be. My parents have been super supportive of my soccer career and have taken me to those ungodly 8 am games to sometimes traveling hours to play in a tournament. One can say we made it a family affair. After many years of playing for our local recreational league I decided to try out for my high school soccer team. I was pretty confident knowing I would make a great addition to the team. After all I have been playing soccer longer than most of my team mates trying out. However what I did not count on was my lack of preparation. I had spent most of summer that year at home playing a lot of video games and hanging out with friends while my friends were preparing for soccer tryouts. My Dad strongly encouraged me to join the cross country team so I would be conditioned and get in shape for tryouts but I ignored his advice. So there I was again, staring at the list. How could this have happened? In the words of Abraham Lincoln, â€Å"My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure†. I can assure you that I was not content with my failure that day. Success for me is defined as preparation, commitment and motivation to achieve my goals. I hope to apply this valuable lesson to my college experience. I know there will be successes as well as a few failures but as long as I remember that there is always something to be learned by both. May be I will not

Ecological - City Sprawl field trip Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ecological - City Sprawl field trip - Essay Example As will be seen in this brief essay, economic development need not always engender all of these negative attributes; however, re-purposing a site oftentimes has many negative effects (although oftentimes less negative than allowing the site to remain in use). Accordingly, this brief essay will consider but a few of these factors with relation to the field trip that was engaged upon by our class outing to the Millbrook Marsh site earlier in the semester. The site itself was formerly a farm. When individuals consider a farm they oftentimes wrongfully assume that such a â€Å"natural† business endeavor will likely engender few if any ecological impacts. However, this is far from the truth. High levels of bio-waste associated with animal waste and/or improperly disposed of chemical or pesticide waste can severely damage the ecology of a region for many years to come. With respect to the Millbrook Marsh field trip, the farm itself was originally reclaimed from a wetlands area that included multiple smaller wetlands that were built over and covered so as to provide suitable farming land. As was often the case prior to a more full and complete understanding of the environmental impacts associated with wetland destruction, wetlands were oftentimes viewed as wasted land that could and should be reclaimed in order to serve a more useful purpose; in this case – to provide the community with additional arable land. Upon disuse of the farm, the community leaders and civic entities responsible for parks and recreation decided to reclaim the wetlands which had been destroyed in order to provide but a positive environmental impact to the region as well as provide the community with an additional park within the region. Accordingly, a centrally designed plan was created to reclaim the wetland and provide a park and a location for environmental

Slavery and Race in the USA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Slavery and Race in the USA - Essay Example 'Racism' started its origin from the field of sports when baseball distinguished between two teams, 'blacks' and 'whites'. The teams used to show sense of honour when the communities to which they represented, win. It was due to the separate block of black institutions that caused feelings of a separate 'race' among black Americans. Kelly & Lewis (2000) writes that it was the utmost efforts of those segregated institutions to exclude black community from every walk of American life including education, jobs, civil services etc. Even the situation got worse when in many cases it was observed that African Americans started paying heavy taxes and duties in order to acquire public facilities which were free of cost for Americans, hence the Great War was an eye opening occurrence for blacks, after which they realised to be a separate identity from that of whites, and that whites never accepted them. The main reason was the 'stamp' of slavery on blacks, for which the whites still considere d them as slaves. World War I where on one hand infused the spirit of 'democracy' among African Americans, on the other hand it remain failed to cope up with the segregated units, which started building among blacks and whites. Blacks possessed the view, which negated the presence of any skin colour, so they expected whites to behave with them in accordance with equality and justice. Hence the new understanding of social relations of the world war rights era authorised African Americans thereby giving new dimensions of race, class and ethnicity. Worst situations were created after Afro- Americans started getting urbanised. After the new perception which whites taught the blacks, blacks considered white Americans to be their worst opponents, which would never turn into their allies. The main reason behind such attitude was the experience of blacks which majority acquired. Collins (2004) writes that blacks were directly or indirectly affected by the racial discrimination identified by whites. World War I infused a new seed of hatred that strengthened the bond of 'racial discrimination' among the whites and blacks. In 1930s racial discrimination went on its peak after blacks joined umpteen gangs who used to create violence among those areas influenced by whites' majority. According to Collins (2004) 1 "African Americans were often accused of the crime of raping White women which resulted in lynching". (Collins, 2004, p. 222) Such violent acts gave rise to many civil rights organisations like NAACP (National Association for Advancement of Colored People) and National Urban League, which worked, for the rights of black communities. Harlem Renaissance Among the major problems created by World War was the urbanisation of African Americans due to the isolation they were confronted to. This isolation created classes among various black groups. The whites already did the segregation, now the rest of the task was carried out by black ghettos. Urbanisation increased the emergence of a gay, lesbian, and bisexual presence within urban African American communities. (Collins,

Strategic Managemet of Human Resources Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Strategic Managemet of Human Resources - Essay Example Its mission seeks to propel the organization as the global leader in innovation of the best products and services. In order to realize its full potential, Microsoft employs the best talent and its chairman Bill Gates upholds that talent utilization and innovation are essential if success is to be attained in the globally competitive environment. As such, the corporation adopts flexible and dynamic human resource strategies and policies to ensure it retains its global competitiveness, diversity and inclusion. Microsoft corporation strategic management of human resources Introduction The current business state refers to how the key functions of an organization (Microsoft); including messaging systems are currently attaining or tying to achieve the organization’s business goals. The current business state is the starting point in determining what needs to adjust in order to obtain to the desired business state. In order to propel the business to the desired levels, it is essentia l to understand the business model or models that an enterprise uses. It is also essential to evaluate the current business model and any other model that a corporation plans to implement in the future. Businesses usually look at projects of major impacts like Microsoft’s Exchange Server 2007 infrastructure design project as an opportunity to shift their model or strategy. An enterprise also uses a major project to enhance its position in the industry or change its internal operations. The current state of the Microsoft Corporation in terms of external influences (pestle) Microsoft is making changes to its current business model, embracing radical, inventive and new thinking, assimilating other companies and technologies in its domains. Microsoft is currently pursuing yahoo to enhance its competitive merit in the search business. The corporation has also joined other companies in dominating the market for cloud computing. Cloud computing is a domain that entails a centralized storage and information processing. The shift towards cloud computing could lessen the role of desktop computers and the servers and other equipments run by numerous corporations. The current strategic approach entails diversification through acquisition of complementary businesses that could be future rivals. It also shifts its marketing focus to tangle with Google over the search engine issue. However, Google and yahoo are some of the competitors to the Microsoft’s internet explorer (IE) (Hill & Jones, 2012, p 36). Microsoft is under external influence by the government to do certain activities following a suit by the Europe union. The U.S department of justice ordered that consumers ought to have a choice on what Windows features are obligatory in any fitting of the operating system. Furthermore, Microsoft has to reveal certain facts to third party developers to make software that better fits with Windows. In terms of external business; Microsoft faces a serious threat on its monopolistic practices as other players like the IBM Corporation and the Sun Microsystems seek protection from the European Union. These complementary corporations exert external pressure on Microsoft, which sometimes results in financial costs. For instance, Microsoft was fined $613 million in 2008

Literature review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Literature review - Essay Example However, careful consideration of the research works of Vlachos (2008) and Weir (2002) reveals the fact that very few researchers ever succeeded in establishing clear route map for addressing the question â€Å"How HRM can direct performance in service driven organization?† It is evident from the above discussion that significant amount of argument exists among scholars regarding role of HRM in improving performance in service organization. Therefore, the study will try to dig deep on the topic â€Å"Establishing Equilibrium between HRM Power Index and Organizational Performance in Banking Service Industry† with the help of existing literature in order to understand whether HRM power indexes play significant role in improving service organizational performance or not? Banking sector has been selected as representative of service industry in this literature review. 2.0 Key Discussion 2.1 HRM Power Index and Organizational Performance Guthrie, Spell and Nyamori (2002), Hu ang (2001) and Gollan (2005) defined HRM power indexes as the different role performed by the human resource departments such as training and development, performance measurement, recruitment etc which can influence operational performance of organizations. Taking help of the research works of Bae and Lawler (2000) and Collins and Smith (2006) reveals the fact that high-involvement HRM practices accompanied by selective staffing, performance management, employee empowerment and extensive training might develop the employees to handle grater work responsibilities and increase sustainability in organizational environment. Although, these scholars identified four HRM power indexes such as performance management, employee empowerment, selective staffing and extensive training but these scholars never tried to highlight how HRM practices can improve organizational performance. In such context, Snape and Redman (2010) and Sun, Aryee and Law (2007) argued that organizational performance is a multidimensional term which can be effected by strategic initiatives and operational activities of companies. These scholars also argued that HRM might be used to increase employee productivity but organizational performance can not only be driven by employee productivity. In such context, Wall and Wood (2005) and Collins and Smith (2006) found it very difficult to link the integration of HRM, power indexes with the financial performance improvement in companies. Let’s take example of Company A which is performing well in terms of increase in financial revenue or capex building but it will be very difficult to separate the role of HRM in improving overall performance of the company because vertical integration of supply chain activities, business strategies, technology implementation and many others might have influence the performance. While conducting research on Arabian countries, Al-Hamadi, Budhwar and Shipton (2007) and Budhwar, Al-Yahmadi and Debrah (2002) found that there are organizations which not even consider HRM as the important vertical in improving performance of the organization. These scholars also pointed out that in case of service organization, employees frequently interact with customers and poorly managed employees might not be able to

CIS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

CIS - Essay Example The practical case problem presented is that of a software corporation called Virtusa which released a software program application for its client. In this case scenario, the Phase Forward circumstance use of the software failed within a few days and the program subsequently did not work according to the end user (clients) requirements expectations of the software. The software program had to undergo some additional inspection as the resultant outcome of the failure through delivering the entire requirements and expectations analysis of the software program end user. 5. A sort key defines the sort order for one or more components related to a specific field; the field would make a good candidate for a sort key because it is can be used to categorize order student information in the database according to registration numbers. Tchier, Fairouz, Latifa Ben Arfa Rabai, and Ali Mili. "Putting engineering into software engineering: Upholding software engineering principles in the classroom."  Computers in Human Behavior  48 (2015):

Computers Are an Important Part of Most People’s Everyday Lives Essay Example for Free

Computers Are an Important Part of Most People’s Everyday Lives Essay Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Nowadays, computers are an important part of most people’s everyday lives. This change has improved the way people live. By advances in the technology, especially invention of computers, human beings can do their works much easier than the past. They have improved the way of our lives (life) dramatically. The number of advantages that computers can bring us is very much so that its disadvantages can be ignored (Advantages of using computers are so much that disadvantages could be ignored). Cases such as save (saving) time or facilitate (facilitating) job and affairs and improve(ing) our communications are my reasons which will be illustrated in details as following. To begin with, by using of computers we can save the time (more time). In todays’ community, it is told that time is money. With the huge advancements in technology, people’s life has more (become) complicated as it seems. Each of us hasn’t enough time to do all works on time (No one has enough time to do everything on time). The advent of computers in our lives(life), we can save time and do a big part of works more efficiently. For example, instead of going to shop and buying cloths, I (you) can buy it from my home by going to its website and even I (you) have this chance to see which cloth is the top-selling. (or) As an another example, I(you) can choose my (you) favorite five-star restaurant or hotel a couple of weeks before my(your) trip to a certain place. hat shows that I can better manage my affairs(It shows that people can better manage their life and schedule everything). The last example is that I even can control my home or personal room by using of my workplace’s computer (The last example is that home or personal room can be controlled or and monitored by using of a computer in workplace). These examples show computers have revolutionized our lifestyle. The last but not the least, computers improved our social behaviors. For the very first time in the history, Social networks and websites have given this opportunity to people to find friends and know people they never met before. Nowadays, there are a few internet-organizations by which we can find our future wife. It shows that computers even affect our lives (life) emotionally. To take these into consideration, I can confidently draw the conclusion that there are a lot of advantages which computers donate us such as finding new friends or saving the valuable time so that its drawbacks can be ignored.

To what extent is Marxism still relevant today

To what extent is Marxism still relevant today In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activitysociety regulates production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic. (Marx/Engels The German Ideology) I love talking and thinking about politics and to imagine a better society, where I can reflect on what to write in my essays, but the quality of these activities would change very much, if one was not forced to do it, to pass exams, to get a degree, and eventually to find a job to survive in the capitalist society. Everyone knows the difference between self-fulfilling activity and the obligation of wage labour, what we normally call work. When we are looking at the quotation above, we see that Marxism is rather a social utopia than a political program. The utopia of a society without exploitation of people by people, a society where concurrence is abolished and the voluntary cooperation of men and women is the motor of production. The precondition for this view is the idea, that the individual is a social being and for that reason must be analysed in its social and historical context and that is continually in development. The fundamental difference in the history of political thought between the left wing and the right wing is based on the view of the human being. Hobbes for example describes the condition of archaic societies as a bellum omnium contra omnes2, that is why the main fear of men comes from its similars so to protect people from people, there is the need of a strong state and law and order. You ca not change mankind, there is no development There were always these two views of humans that built the basics of ideologies and it seems to be more a matter of belief than a fact that you can prove. In the last decades we experienced a dominance of what I call new liberal thinking, conservative think tanks began to describe human behaviour with the rules of the neo classical school of economics, that sees the person as a advantage maximising individual, all aspects of life are tried to explain as economic behaviour. In 1989 the concurrent system to capitalism lost its last battle of the cold war; the right celebrated the victory of capitalism and liberal democracy and the left was paralysed. The well-known Francis Fukuyama described the End of history as the end point of mankindà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ²s ideological evolution and the universalisation of Western liberal democracy. (National Interest, 1989, 16) In the same article Fukuyama says that it will be a sad time, because there is not going to be any ideological struggle any more, idealism would be replaced by economic calculations, the endless solving of technical problems environmental concerns and the satisfaction of sophisticated consumer needs. The right wing ´s argument against Marxism today is the breakdown of communism and the dark sides of the soviet system, although we know from an Marxist point of view, that the system in Russia had not anything to do with the ideal and the utopia of Marxism. It was state capitalism without any form of democracy that failed because of social movements in Eastern Europe, for example Solidarinosc in Poland. The problem is that left wing intellectuals fell into agony after 1989 because they shared the feeling that capitalism had won and the world is bad, many of them stopped to think about alternatives and lost their utopia, went fishing, or some orthodox ones lost their belief and became new liberals, others searched for third ways. The dominance of new liberalism also colonised the social democracy, for example the words of the social democratic Austrian chancellor, who said in the eighties, that somebody who has visions needs a doctor. The theory of the third way left the road of Marxism as a result of 1989 and is defined by Anthony Giddens as a way between old social democracy and new liberalism. The question is: is the third way a road that leads to nowhere? It is very likely so because there is no final perspective. I would explain it rather as a parking lot of conservative and liberal political ideas, than as a way. Ten years after the transition in the east we are facing a growing social movement with a big scepticism about the economic globalisation, more and more people experience the negative effects of capitalism and more and more people are claiming for alternatives. Social utopias are still relevant because naturally an other system comes to your mind, when you are not satisfied, even if they are only wishes sort of dreams, the next step is the thinking process to realise your dreams. You cannot kill utopias. Marxism is still relevant as an utopia to reach a society of free and equal. The function of ideologies is to conquer the minds, because the actions of people are led from their view of the world and their wishes. Ideology only has an influence on a personality if there is a belief in it. The task of the academic left (if there is still one) today is to win back the hegemony at the battlefield of ideas. 2. Marxism as an instrument of critique I think it is incontestable that Marxism is still relevant as a critique of capitalism the state and liberal democracy. Marxism is a child of the Industrial Revolution and was born as a reaction to the bad effects of proletarianisation, dependency on wage labour, the new mode of production, which caused hunger and oppression. The theory that the development of the capitalist system, with a growing number of wage labourers leads more or less automatically to a revolution forgot, that capitalism was able to react to social and economic changes very fast. So the ruling class understood how to bring more and more wage employees on their side (ex. white collar employees). Nevertheless a big majority in Europe has to live with their income through wage labour, and when we look to a world perspective, we find a massive proletarianisation in the world. (compare Callinocos, 1992, p. 113), In a world perspective we also see growing differences between the south and the north, which makes Marxà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ²s theory in a global perspective very plausible. Globalised capitalism with its new liberal face, hasnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ²t found an answer to the exploitation of nature and the growing social inequalities. The waste of resources and the economic crisis canà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ²t be abolished through capitalism. The principle of profit is the principle of exploitation. The regular breakdowns of the stock markets with their destructive effects on states, is a good example. Marx knew that the state couldnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ²t be neutral, because the state represents the interests of the ruling classes and the owners of the resources, thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ²s why liberal democracy could not be a real democracy, it leads to a passive citizenery in the 1988 presidential elections in the US, upper-income electors were twice as likely to vote as lower income electors: the displacement of parliamentary institutions by unelected centres of power [.]; structural constraints on the piecemeal transformation of capitalism it was above all the massive flight of capital from France which forced the Mitterand administration to abandon the program of reforms on which it was elected in 1981. (Callinicos, 1992, p. 109) Variables like class, gender and income are very important for a sociological description of the society, the marxist point of view, played always an important role for class analyses and the question, who has the power in a society, who owns the production means and so on. 3. Marxism as an alternative First we have to define our aims even if they are utopian, first we have to know what we want, then we can search for ways to reach our aims. We will see that there are many ways that lead in the same direction, so the main difference between Marxists, are the means they are using. Marx conceived the post capitalist future as an association of all workers, an association in which freedom and equality were combined through (1) the democratic regulation of society; (2) the end of politics; (3) the planned use of resources; (4) efficient production; and (5) greater leisure. (Held, 1999, p. 147) These are the aims shared by all Marxists to overcome capitalism, to abolish the state and the power and to introduce democratic self-government. What they all have in common is the utopia. The differences between them are the way to come closer to these aims. Libertarian Marxists reject all forms of compromises with organisations of the capitalist society, authoritarian leadership, division of labour. They refuse party organisation. They believe that progress can only be made with democratically organised mass movements. Pluralists are using the institutional framework of the liberal democracy to win control of the state for restructuring it. They believe in the necessity of party organisation, using power to abolish it and extension of participation. Many social democratic parties, some communist parties come from this tradition, green movements can be subsumed under this category too. The orthodox Marxist branch belief in a strong party organisation with professional leadership and cadre discipline, but rejects compromises with the capitalist democracy, which only represents the interests of the capital. (compare Held, 1999, p. 148 150) So Marxists are fighting in many places, in parliaments (pluralists), in basic movements (libertarians), in hidden places (planning the revolution), but they all meet on big demonstrations against globalisation. They donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ²t like each other, but every branch plays its role. The orthodox Marxists lost influence, but the forces of the traditional democratic left in the parliaments could come closer to libertarians, because of the growing movement against new liberalism. In the so-called civil society we will find libertarian Marxists. The main difference between these two factions is the question of reform or revolution. Pluralists wanted to get control of the state to transform capitalism, but they became part of the state and of the capitalist system, many lost their ideologies (Third Way), but there are still some left in the institutions. They won ´t bring innovation, what they could remobilize is a strong democratic, anti capitalist basic movement, that is inspired by libertarian Marxist ideas. If this movement is strong enough, it could be the beginning of a new age of a sustainable transformation of capitalism to something different, what seems not realistic at the moment, but who knows. In any case the libertarian branch with its allies in the civil society could wake up the old pluralists in the parliaments and party machines to start a new offensive against new liberalism, to improve democracy, to concentrate on redistribution and to get back or defend important public resources and so on. My theory is, that social movements are a motor of reform, even if they don`t manage to bring revolutionary changes. Marxism always was a threat for the capitalism, that forced capitalism to adapt, but not the theory brought a welfare state or socialist elements to capitalist states, it were always the social movements in connection with the utopia that brought the change. I believe that Marxism is an alternative, because of the weak sides of capitalism and liberal democracy, the exploitation of humans and the nature, the waste of resources and the social inequality, but as long as we don`t have Marxism as an practical alternative, it has three functions: As an utopia it shows us an aim a direction, as an analysing method helps it to show us the contradictions of capitalism and it is a threat for the free market system and liberal democracy, that could lead to an permanent reform of the system. Perhaps we need no revolution. Perhaps capitalism will reform as long as it turns into a communist society, and if not, the revolution will come, Marx said. Bibliographie Callinicos, A: The Revenge of History: Marxism and the East European Revolutions (Polity Press, Cambridge, 1992). Duncan, G.: Democratic theory and practice (University Press, Cambridge, 1983) Held, D.: Models of Democracy (Blackwell, Cambridge, 1999) chapter 4. Levin, M: Marxism and Democratic theory in Duncan, g. 1983. Journals: Booth, W.J.: Making Sense of Marx concept of Communism (1989, Political Theory, 17/2). Fukujama, F.: The End of History? (1989, National Interest, 16) Halliday, F.: An Encounter with Francis Fukuyama (1992, New Left Review No. 193). Milibald, R.: Fukuyama and the socialist Alternative (1992, New Left Review No. 193) Milibald, R.: The Plausability of Socialism (1994, New Left Review No. 206). Pierson, C.: Democracy, Markets and Capital: Are there Necessary Economic Limits to Democracy? (1992, Political Studies, Special Issue). Rustin, M.: No Exit from Capitalism? (1992, New Left Review No. 193). 1 Utopos means nowhere, a place that doesnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ²t exist; an utopia is the birth of a wish. 2 War between all

Importance and role of accounting

Importance and role of accounting Accounting 601 assignment Accounting is the management of money and money is an important part of that business. Accounting is mainly preparation of financial statement and involve with transaction, budgeting and Cost controlling. According to Cote(2007), it is process of measuring the amount of money, analysing results, understanding them and make decision better. A proper accounting system is an essential to any business in order to manage its businesses running successfully. For any successful business, the main obligation is to maximise profits , minimize any loss and at the same time maintain its position as a responsible entity within the society. Coltman(1989) said , cost control system is simply an accounting oriented information system. However, the cost control system differs from the accounting system and this system allows management to see what is happening to cost, so that rational decision can be made, and necessary action implemented to correct undesirable situation. Accounting is a language o f money by measuring cost control within the hospitality can industry through labour, food and beverage, energy cost control. Coltman(1989) said that labour is a major cost that arising from the high employee turnover; it is a hidden cost that affecting on productivity, workplace efficiency. There are major reasons that causes staff turnover including most of hospitality workplaces do not pay well and workers work under wage rate, work load, poor training and lack of company benefit (Coltman1989). Industry expert’s Soltani, Lai, Paul Liao (2009) stated that service industry continuous dealing with customers so that labour flexibility is prime need to securing the high labour turnover cost .There are possibilities to reduce turnover with better choice of an integrated HR strategy that address the goal of the organisation which are managing employee’s attribute, work schedule, encourage staff to do teamwork, provide adequate training, monitoring their performance report as well as motivate staff by giving incentives (Soltani, Lai, Paul Liao 2009). Also, industries have to hiring right person at the right place according to skill required. However, most of the Australian hotel industries are continues pay for high labour turnover cost (Davidson, Timo Wang 2010). Moreover, many hospitality industries within Canada are adopted the innovative technology including electronic check-in, guest can make reservation, paying bills by using mobile devices these technology provide high quality and speed service in physical environment without labour cost (Jayawardena,Lawlor Grieco 2013). Serlen, Bruce (2014), founded that traditional twenty-four hours room service is very expensive that increase labour cost .and decrease productivity. Whereas, most of full-service hotel are moving away from traditional room service to advance technology which is help to control the labour cost for example, The Hilton, Grand Hyatt in New York. Move rover, Serlen, Bruce (2014), said that advance technology brings many aspects in the hotel industry in particular guest were looking applications to order room service from iPad and smartphone which is cost effective and eliminate the order taking position from the entity for instance, in Hilton New York, operate a successful upscale grab and go market. However, hotelier expert said that customers still demanding the traditional room service approach because they expected the personalised service as they paid to hotel and they do not expect robotic service delivery within this industry (Serlen, Bruce, 2014). Coltman,(1989) stated that most visible cost in the hospitality industry is the food and beverages. Food is a vital element of the hospitality industries. The main function of food and beverage department is to control the cost and improve hotel, restaurant profitability through the adequate selection of supplier, stock control, implementing standardize recipe, developing innovative food service system may prevent from wastage and overproduction in the operation also portion control concern about the more quality prevention activities such as quality audits, menu design reviews, quality training and supplier evaluation. However, there are several reasons that hotels unnecessary suffer wastage of food which is significant cost for industry such as poor stock rotation, store items in inappropriate temperature and poor portion control may lead to food wastage (Colman, 1989). According to, Vaughn, Raab, Nelson Harrah (2010) identification Las Vegas hospitality industry’s revenue had fall due to increase food prices from 2006 to 2007; the food and beverage department has challenged to increase productivity and reduce the cost, waste and inefficient operation. Therefore, industries in Las Vegas supported kitchen to focus on specific production, expensive menu and portion of menu items and applied activity –based costing (ABC) method for the production control and this method can be used to eliminate the monthly allocation for all kitchen production (Vaughn, Raab, Nelson Harrah, 2010). Noone Coulter (2012) said that, many hospitality industries or restaurant are familiar with technological system to controlling on food cost such as point of sale system, self- service kiosk and efficient cooking equipment and inventory management system ( perpetual inventory card). These technological solutions are help to maintain product quality and standard that keeping the cost down by speed of service and order taking for example, in U.S quick service restaurant w ere facing challenges just as rising operating cost but they applying automation system in back of house particular in kitchen such as deep fryer with an auto lift, commercial oven and dual gill which lead to reduce the cooking time and keep consistency in food preparation. As result, quick service restaurants was achieving highly efficiency, high quality and improvement in performance by adopting the technology system in the restaurant (Noone Coulter2012) Furthermore, Ninemeier (2001) saying that beverage cost control system maintaining standard by using standard beverage recipe including taste and appearance, specify ingredients, garnish and drink size. Then portion control tool help to standardise the drink such as shot glasses, jiggers and automated beverage system that is dispense measuring quantities of alcoholic beverages. Also, Ninemeier (2001) stated that cash handling procedure handle by bartender; is a responsible person for holding cash and bar inventory. Additionally, Borchgrevink Anchill (,2003) explain that spillage and theft are caused by dishonest worker within the industries as result hospitality industry do not make any profit. Therefore, hotels installed computerised beverage control system provides financial date as well as consistency, quality and speed. As an important aspect of service oriented industry; hotel manager has to provide food and beverage training to staff that build the awareness of food cost, food quality and knowledge about the portion control method ( Borchgrevink Anchill ,2003). Energy cost control is a crucial factor within the hospitality industry. In service industries major energy consuming elements is air conditioning; energy can be saved by adjusting the air conditioning by having large windows and ventilation allows natural lighting and installed high quality insulation it approach to reduce cost and save energy. As per the research of Nizic,Karanovic Ivanovic (2008) in order to control energy consumption maximum hotels industry applied an intelligent room system, particular in hotel Sol Garden Istra . This system integrated energy and water consumption control as well as heating-cooling control and efficiency and Sol Garden Istra have great achievement by using intelligent room system ,thermal insulation of the hotel as well as carefully selection of lighting management and equipment, provide training to staff to increase their environmental awareness as result (Nizic, Karanovic ,Ivanovic 2008). In addition, Holiday Inn, Hilton, and Marriott also im plemented an energy efficient lighting program, and install an intelligent room system technology (Nizic ,Karanovic , Ivanovic 2008). Furthermore, Stipanuk (2001) stated that sustainability is critically business issue that is an essential requirement for the hospitality industry; hospitality expert encouraging sustainability because there are significant financial benefits for example changing lighting blub that use less energy and bathroom fixtures that limit water flow. Followed by, Stipanuk.(2001) founded that Bass hotel (Inter-Continental properties) had support the energy saving program by develop specific tactics to reduce the energy cost and usage. Inter-Continental has developed several step to sustain the energy such as outsource the laundry ,centralize the operation, install switched in convenient location, Install flow controllers for showers and aerators for sink faucets also place proper lighting and intelligent room system and roof insulation. As result, the 467 key Inter-Continental London has been saving 47 per cent in gas consumption and 22 per cent saving in electricity consumption and the 844 ro om hotel Inter-Continental Chicago has been reaping an annual energy cost saving of $250000 (Stipanuk,D.,2001). So that, government are offering award for industries that adopt energy saving initiatives as well as grant benefits are available for establishment who participate in the recycling programs or using sustainable energy source (Stipanuk, 2001). To conclude that, accounting is a mainly preparation of financial statement involve with transaction, budgeting and Cost controlling. It is process of measuring the amount of money, analysing the results, understanding them and make decision better. Accounting is a language of money by measuring cost control within the hospitality can industry through labour, food and beverage, energy cost control. By applying these measuring tools; hotel owners and managers have the information they need to optimize performance in every operational area, from food and beverage department labour control and energy control. They can reduce expenses, make profit and accommodate guests . Reference List: Borchgrevink, C, Anchill, D, 2003,’Beverage control system and the guest’s perspective: Standardisation and value,’ Journal of Hospitality Lesuire Marketing ,vol.10(1/2), pp.151-160,viewed 6th May2014,Ebscohost database. Coltman,M 1989,Cost control for the hospitality industry,2nd edn, Van Nostand Reinhold, New York. Cote,R 2007, Accounting for hospitality managers, 5th edn, American Hotel Lodging Educational institute,Lansing,Michigan Davidson,M, Timo,N, Wang,Y, 2010, ‘How much does labour turnover cost?: A case study of Australian four- and five –star hotels’ ,International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, vol.22, no.4,pp.451-466,viewed 6th May 2014 Emerald database. Jayawardena,C, Lawlor,F, Grieco,J, Savard, M, Tarnowski,M, 2013, ‘Challenges and innovations in hotel operation in Caada’,World wide Hospitality Theme, vol.5,no.2,pp177-189,viewed 6 May2014 Emerld database. Ninemeier,J 2001,Planning and control for food and beverag operaions, 5th edn, Educational institute of America hotel and Lodging Association, Michigan. Nizic, M, Karanovic, G, Ivanovic,S, 2008,’ Imprtance of intelligent rooms for energy saving in the hotel industries,’ Tourism and Hospitality Management,’ vol.14, no.2,pp.323-336,viewed 5th May2014 Ebscohost database. Noone,B, Coulter, R, 2012, ‘Applying modern robotics technologies to demand prediction and production management in the Quick service restaurant sector,’Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, vol.53, no.2, pp.122-133, viewd 7th May2014 Sage database. Serlen, Bruce,2014,’Room service evolves to fit guest needs,’ Hotel Management ,vol.229, no.1,pp.1-60.3p.,viewed 8th May2014 Ebscohost database. Soltani, E, Lai, P, Paul, P, Liao,Y,2009,’The triangular supply chain relationship: labour dispatch agencies, hospitality sector flexible workers: The Taiwan experience,’ The Service Industries Journal, vol.29,no.10,pp.1317-1339,viewed 7May2014 Ebscohost database. Stipanuk,D, 2001, ‘Energy management in 2001 and beyond: Operational option that reduce use and cost,’ Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, vol.42, pp.57-71,viewed 5th May2014 Sage database. Vaughn, P, Raab, C, Nelson, K, Harrah, W, 2010,’The application of activity-based costing to a support Kichen in a Las Vegas casino,’ International Journal of Contemorary Hospitlaity Management,vol.22, no.7, pp.1033-1047,viewed 7th May2014 Emerald database. [Type text]Page 1

Moving through Works by Artists :: Maya Angelou Literature Education Essays

Moving through Works by Artists A high school student walks into class on a Monday morning and his or her instructor informs the class that for the next couple of weeks, they will be studying poetry with works by Emily Dickinson, Percy Bysshe Shelly, William Shakespeare, and the like. Automatically, the students in the English classroom are intimidated; the teacher walks through the rows of chairs, dispensing dense packets of poetic literature containing intimidating stanzas and heroic couplets. One student peers at the first page and raises her hand in puzzling frustration, â€Å"This isn’t even in English.† â€Å"Oh, I peg your pardon, but it is, Miss Smith. What you are looking at is Middle English, and this writing preceded those who are the great poets of today.† The students look at each other with boredom and disgust, and blankets of indifference soon roll over their countenances. Though there was the opportunity to share a great style of English literature with the students, the teacher has lost them before the potentially intriguing lesson even started. The above illustration is arguably an experience that many high school students have when encountering poetry; my experience was much similar to this one and because of it, I learned to fear and loathe poetry altogether. Many English teachers approach poetry in an old-fashioned manner that sends their students running into the halls screaming with their hands covering their ears. The manner in which poetry is taught and the content that is covered has the potential to enlighten learners or turn them off from the type of literary work completely. Who is to say that Dickinson and Shakespeare and the rest of those who are considered to be â€Å"the greats† by most faculties are the only ones who have written good poetry? Does a poet have to be buried six feet under in order for their works to be noteworthy? This curriculum stands to teach students about poetry, poets and their respective works, by authors whose writings are relevant to the experiences shared by students of this age group. Sentiments of uncertainty, love, and new beginnings are expressed by numerous artists of the contemporary and modern American genres that are just as powerful as works by those who fall into the classical timeline; this is by no means to say that artists like Longfellow do not have the ability to reach the young generations of today.

Mother-daughter Relationships Essay -- Mother-Daughter Relationships

The relationship between parents and their children is one of the most basic human interactions. Mothers and daughters provide both physical and emotional care for their young sons and daughters. In the process, parents will instill children with family values and goals, while teaching them the accepted norms and values of society. This is done in hope that parents will one day see their own children become mature adults, with their own goals and purposes in life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Mother-daughter relationships can be complex, but also filled with compassion and love. Mothers and daughters often seem farther away from each other than they really are. Usually when a girl goes through adolescence, the relationship between her and her mother begin to change in many different ways, but can grow at the same time. Even though the wars between a mother and daughter can ravage a relationship, they can easily be recognized earlier enough to keep a relationship from severing the ties that a mother and daughter have with one another.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Adolescence... a time of seemingly more freedom, junior high to high school, football games, dances, parties, going out for pizza, dating, driving, a later curfew, going to the mall, and talking on the phone almost non stop. Many mothers rarely see their daughters during these times. With all the time she begins to spend with her friends, it seems as if the major issues constantly being discussed are bedtimes, clothing and chores. #Girls are growing up and it may seem as if their mothers are being needed less, but they are needed, just in a different way. When I was beginning to enter adolescence, I wasn’t completely separated from my mother, but I could feel it was beginning to happen. My sister Erin, who is now 21 felt the same way. #â€Å"When I was younger, between 14-18 I separated form my mother and it almost felt like I was completely separated from her.† Even though girls may feel like they are farther away from their mothers that they could ever get, it is not the end of the world. Most girls are close to their mothers when they are young, and many return to that closeness as adults. But few girls manage to stay close to their mothers during junior high and high school. I have realized that before I entered into high school, my mother and I had a close relationship. I was the exception of most girls my age and many of them seemed jealou... ... from knowing that they see them. Every daughter and mother love each other but it’s when a daughter can say I really like my mother and when a mother feels the same way, that one knows the relationship has succeeded. Bibliography http://www.ag.uiuc.edu/~vista/pdf_pubs/GATEWAY4.PDF. Web 20 April, 2015. Bauch, P. A., Vietze, P., & Morris, V. (1973). What makes the difference in parental participation? Childhood Education, 50, 47-53. http://www.ag.uiuc.edu/~vista/pdf_pubs/GATEWAY4.PDF. Web 20 April, 2015. http://www.knowledgetree.com/parents.htm. Web 7 April, 2015. Hickman, C. W., Greenwood, G. E., & Miller, M. D. (1995). High school parent involvement: Relationships with achievement, grade level, SES, and gender. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 28, 125-134. http://www.knowledgetree.com/parents.htm. Web 3 April, 2015. Reynolds, Cathy. Personal Interview. Web 4 April, 2015. Reynolds, Erin. Personal Interview. Web 6 April, 2015. Reynolds, Jason. Personal Interview. Web 8 April, 2015. Troll, Lillian E. "Family-Embedded vs. Family Deprived Oldest-Old: A Study of Contrasts." International Journal of Aging and Human Development

Unified Threat Management System

`Unified Threat Management System’s What is Unified Threat Management System? Unified threat management system is the emerging trend in the network security market. Utm appliances have evolved from traditional firewall/VPN products into the solution with many additional capabilities . i. e Spam blocking, Gateway antivirus, Spyware Prevention, Intrusion prevention, URL filtering. (guard, n. d. ) All these functions were previously provided and handled by multiple systems.UTM systems also provide integrated management, monitoring and logging capabilities to streamline deployment and maintenance. How Unified Threat Management Systems works? Unified Threat Management eliminates the need for machine to machine protection. It is the combination of multiple security features integrated into one single hardware platform. Therefore offering layers of security features within a corporations network. The Machines UTM Machine is what provides multiple solutions to an entire network of mac hines.It works off the assumption that blended threats cannot be abated under one solution alone. Even with the use of multiple solutions there seems left a hole within the security of the network. When there is the use of multiple different solutions there seems a confusion as well as the need for updates and monitoring of several different brands of security measures which lead to problems within an organization. With the introduction of Unified Threat Management in 2004, this idea was taken and turned into one system solution for businesses on the small to medium level.The idea of this solution was to take the need for multiple brands of solutions and combine it into a multilayer solution for the security needs of an organization. (jaringankita, 2012) Data Security services in cloud computing is still mystery for the customers although service providers have implemented all standard technologies that you can imagine: state ful inspection firewalls, Intrusion Detection and Prevent ion devices, Web services firewalls, Application firewalls, Spam filters, Antivirus, Anti-Spyware, Gateway Level File Inspections, etc.But customers are not able to specifically identify the controls applicable on their files/folders because they do not know the physical location of them (as you must be knowing, files get distributed into multiple virtual machines spread across multiple data centres). In this context, a new concept is evolving. It is called â€Å"Unified Threat Management System (UTM System)†.In UTM, a separate service provider builds a lot of controls for the customers that can be shared through â€Å"subscription model† (similar to the cloud computing model) and can assure security for the customer’s assets by seamlessly integrating their UTM solutions with the Cloud hosting service providers. The customer just needs to buy a leased line connection to the UTM provider and will get all the controls applicable on their hosted environments Curren tly, cloud computing service providers are operating in three different modes – Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).However, a fourth mode is emerging rapidly to provide security solutions on cloud computing infrastructures – Unified Threat Management as a Service (UTMaaS). Unified threat management (UTM) service for cloud hosting users is a rapidly emerging concept in which, the security controls for the end users are managed by a third party, that allow the user sessions from thousands of clients through their systems and ensure optimum protection and personalization.Their services span from network security controls to application security controls. Cloud hosting customers may need a Leased Circuit Connection to the UTM provider, that serves as a backhaul connection to the Cloud Hosting provider with appropriate peering between the security controls and the infrastructure maintained by the cloud provider and the corresponding client environment for the customers. (etcoindia, 2012) Works Cited etcoindia, 2012. cademic research on new challenging in it. [Online] Available at: http://etcoindia. blogspot. com/ [Accessed 15 November 2012]. guard, w. , n. d. unified threat management system. [Online] Available at: http://www. watchguard. com/why/utm. asp [Accessed 21 November 2012]. jaringankita, 2012. knowing unified managemnet system. [Online] Available at: http://www. jaringankita. com/blog/knowing-unified-threat-management-utm [Accessed 21 November 2012].

Knowing and Knowledge Essay

Of Mary TMCCA Patterns of Knowing and Knowledge It is suggested that there are five patterns of knowing and knowledge in nursing. A nurse must develop and balance all of these patterns of knowledge in order to be effective. As in all of nursing, nurses refine these patterns with experience and reflection throughout his or her career. This knowledge is interrelated, interdependent and overlapping. Nurse, as any other profession develop their own pattern of knowledge as part of their profession, nursing being a unique profession with a unique pattern of knowledge because it requires intellectual knowledge, technical skill and is considered an art (Rutty, J. E. 1998). The first pattern of knowledge is emancipatory knowledge. This concept challenges the nurse to recognize the sometimes-subtle social and political ramifications influencing his or her practice and patient care. The nurse must first recognize that something is wrong, and then have the courage to meet the challenge to attempt to change the status quo (Chinn & Kramer, 2011). Hegemony is the ability of a certain group or dominant class to influence or control another population or group and influence them to accept their view. The hospital environment and relationships within them can be considered hegemonic, therefore, nurses learn early in their education that is conflict is common between hierarchies within institutions. Nurses learn early in their careers that hegemony can cause disharmony in their practice (Clare, 1993). In order to utilize this practice or pattern of knowing the nurse must question not only what is wrong with the picture but also who is benefiting from the status quo. It is assumed that the disadvantaged population or individual is not free to choose from the options that more advantage persons would be able to choose. The nurse must ask critical questions such as what is wrong with this picture and who is benefiting by keeping the status quo (Chinn & Kramer, 2011). Ethical knowledge in nursing has to do with doing no harm and doing what is right. Ethics asks what is right and who is responsible? Nurses are challenges daily in clarifying their values and exploring their alternatives when ethical dilemma’s occur in practice. Various techniques that can be utilized for this process, however the nurse must be aware that this process is likely to be emotionally charged, as it will challenge his or her deeply held values and belief system. The nurse must also explore other avenues of resolution to the problem from the viewpoint of facts and logic. The use of an ethical decision tree is often useful when making an ethical decision, as it add clarity to the situation. Ethical knowledge in nursing operates within fundamental principal and codes. These include such principles of autonomy and benevolence. These are guides to our practice of what the right thing to do (Chinn & Kramer, 2011). Griepp’s model of ethical decision making suggests that the nurse has personal belief systems and values however through education and knowledge development has the ability to change his or her beliefs or values. The nurse has the responsibility to always be aware of outside influences on his or her decision-making and carry out right behavior and knowledge (Griepp, 1992). Ethical and Moral Comportment is a term that refers to how nurses or individual behaves or acts morally relative to what they know ethically. This requires the nurse to integrate all patterns of knowledge into the decision-making process. Ethics being the knowledge of what is right, morality being the behavior or heart of what is right and is based on values. An individual has moral integrity when they behave in a manner that is consistent with their ethics. When nurses are unable or unwilling to maintain moral integrity they get moral distress. There are four types common ethical perspective in nursing. Teleology refers to what is right produces good. This concept often refers to the justification for the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Deontology refers to the principle that what is right may not necessarily produce a good outcome. When this principle is followed, it may be the right thing to do in the circumstance, but may cause harm. These two principles are often in conflict. The principle of relativism suggests that what is right in one culture or society may be different on another. This suggest that depending on time and place in history, what is right may change. Virtue ethics suggests that the person involved is important in the decision- making. The character and values or virtues of the person determines the ethical decisions made. The definition of virtue can be troubling when utilizing this principle, especially when referring to nurses as it is comprised of a high percentage of women, whose virtues tend to be obedience, submissiveness and self-sacrificing (Chinn & Kramer, 2011). Personal knowledge is the most difficult knowledge for nurses to describe and develop as it takes much introspection, interaction and experience. It is complex and unique to each person yet fundamentally one of the most important patterns of knowing (Rutty, 1998). Personal knowing is rooted in the central questions of; do I know what I do? And Do I do what I know? This concept is spiritual in nature as ones values, attitude and hopes are linked to what they know about themselves and how they view the world, joy and suffering, realities, and how each person learns to be authentic and genuine. Personal knowledge is guided and learned by self-reflection, personal stories and being ones genuine self. The creative process of opening and centering guides it. This process allows the nurse to be present fully with other individuals, and develop the strength and character to be authentic and genuine with others. This allows the nurse to give meaning to the experiences he or she has lived (Chinn & Kramer, 2011). Once knowledge is obtained, it becomes personal knowledge; this is part of our humanness. At times, the nurse must become uncomfortable in order to seek out personal knowledge as he or she explores and reflects (Sweeney, 1994). Personal knowing is how a nurse just knows something is about to happen or about a situation or another person. Personal knowing is the experience of the situation without conscious reason (Chinn & Kramer, 2011). Personal knowing is what leads the nurse to intuitive thinking. He or she cannot tell you why she has this feeling that this will happen, he or she just knows (Sweeney, 1994). When the nurse has a strong sense of personal knowing it is empowering and gives the nurse a sense of community. The nurse values human life more fully and is more giving to others as he or she is more authentic and genuine both with him or herself and with others as they must attempt to view the perception of others (Chinn & Kramer, 2011). Aesthetic knowledge is the art of nursing and how nurses find meaning and significance in each situation. This pattern of knowledge provides the nurse with insight into the human condition. This insight gives the nurse appreciation and inspiration for the practice of nursing. This pattern of knowing and insight allows the nurse to know the unique meaning to unique situations and transform problematic situations into therapeutic situations instantaneously. As in other patterns of knowing this pattern utilizes creativity by the nurse. The nurse must envision the possibility of the best outcome for a given situation and design through experience of past knowledge and present relationship and state as the situation takes place. This must integrate all patterns of knowing in order to be effective. While this is underemphasized in nursing practice, it is and integral part of nursing history. It is the heart of nursing excellence as it embodies mind, body and spirit to form the art and caring of nursing. This pattern of knowing takes discipline on the part of the nurse, as he or she must rehearse situations in advance (Chinn & Kramer, 2011). This pattern of knowing requires the nurse to be fully engaged and he or she must interpret each situation by looking beyond what is happening at the moment and envisioning various possibilities. One cannot fully explain in the form of language the art of nursing, however the nurse shows the art through interactions and skills (Mantzorou & Mastrogiannis, 2011). This pattern of knowing requires the nurse to know what it means to experience health as well as illness. Synchronous movements with ones language are important in this knowledge. The art of body language and touch is embodied with language skills. Eye contact, touch, facial expressions, tone and language skills are all important. When the nurse’s body language and tone matches what he or she is saying and he or she engages in therapeutic touch, language skills and body language skills a therapeutic environment is created. This therapeutic environment translates to aesthetic nursing (Chinn & Kramer, 2011). Empiric knowledge can be viewed as the science of nursing. This is the knowledge that is based on the senses. What can the nurse see, hear, touch, smell and possibly taste. They are the facts, figures, graphs, descriptions, and predictive relationships. Empirics can be validated and are viewed the same by all individuals, they are concrete (Mantzorou & Mastrogiannis, 2011). This being said, there are several dimensions to empiric knowledge as one must define the conceptual meaning of any given word or concept as it may have different meaning dependent on culture, the situation it is used, or past experience of the person imagining that word. Some concepts are based n continuums. The concepts of cardio-vascular health can be defined in many ways along the continuum. It would need to be more specifically defined along the continuum in order to be valid and clarifies an empiric concept. This creates identifies assumptions, clarifies context for theories, and designs relationship statements. Empiric theory can be defined in a number of ways. Chinn and Kramer (2011) describe empiric theory as â€Å"A creative and rigorous structuring of ideas that projects a tentative, purposeful and systematic view of phenomena†. This process requires creativity, rigor, structure, purpose and tentativeness on the part of the nurse (Chinn & Kramer, 2011). The fundamental concept of the servant leadership is relationship. One must have relationship with self and with others. This relationship relates to nursing as relationships and personal knowledge and self-reflection is an integral function of all patterns of knowledge. Listening, self- awareness, empathy, foresight and personal and professional growth all contribute to healing of self and others by a servant leader.

Final research HND Business Essay

By The Name Allah the Most Merciful and Almighty Executive Summary Of Research on Basant or Spring Festival Event for the research was decided as â€Å"Basant or Spring Festival Lahore†. Basant was started 1300-1400 hundred century. But in near past the event was become controversial. Some religious activist called it Hinduism while some people in taking lead in kite-flying start taking lives of people and this activity was banned. Its was business event too and contributing national income. Was a beneficial for hotel and food industry etc. Our research was too found out the reasons for banning it. The beneficiaries of the festival and out put from the event and Myths regarding the events as well as give some recommendation. For the purpose a detailed proposal were made and presented to supervisor after approval of the proposal. Work was started on research. Literature was reviewed for facts finding. A questionnaire were made and distributed in 500 people and collected, interviews were conducted from different stake holders and other techniques of data collection were applied. Data were organized and presented in percentage and graphically. Analysis was made. The research findings were that basant or spring festival is better business activity accepted people of the country and encouraged by the business community. Basant has nothing with religion. It is celebrated with seasonal change. Some religious groups are against it because of the immoral & un-ethical musical and dance shows during the festival. Some people use alcohol in public places and commit crime these should be stopped. Kite-flying with harmful wires should be banned as it takes lives as well as damages electricity lines etc. The events mainly benefits hotel, food, garments, transport, music, traitor industry and overall positively affect the market of Lahore. Government can provide better law & order situation too public and Lahore is feasible in security prospective for spring festival. Literature Review Of Basant or Spring Festival Basant is centuries old cultural festival of Punjab. It was started in 1300-1400 century. But in near past got controversial as the some religious groups called it sign of Hinduism and show zero tolerance over it. According to Dr. B. S. Nijjar’s book, â€Å"Punjab under the Later Mughals†. According to him, when Zakariya Khan (1707-1759) was the governor of Punjab, a Hindu of Sialkot, by the name of Hakeekat Rai Bakhmal Puri spoke words of disrespect for the Prophet Muhammad (saw) and his daughter Fatima (ra). He was arrested and sent to Lahore to await trial. The non-Muslim population was stirred to request Zakariya Khan to lift the death sentence given to Hakeekat Rai but he did not accede to their request. Eventually the death penalty was carried out and the entire non-Muslim population went into mourning. As a tribute to his memory, a prosperous Hindu, Kalu Ram initiated the Basant ‘mela’ in (Marrhi) Kot Khwaja Saeed (Khoje Shahi) in Lahore. (This place is now known as Baway di marrhi. ) It is the last stop on the route of Wagon no. 60 from Bhati Gate. Dr. B. S. Nijjar states on Page no. 279 of his book that the Basant ‘mela’ is celebrated in memory of Hakeekat Rai. Another myth about Basant is â€Å"It is said that Nizamuddin Auliya had no children. He had adopted his nephew who died at the age of 20. Amir Khusro tried to cheer the bereaved Nizamuddin, but in vain. One day while Amir Khusro was walking in the fields, he saw some young women dressed in yellow clothes and celebrating Basant. Khusro donned a yellow ghagra ad covered himself with a chunni and sang the qawwali — Sakal basant aayo ri. Seeing he dressed in yellow clothes, Nizamuddin became cheerful. † But majority of the society consider all the as myth and has opinion that It is a seasonal festival of indo-Pak and has no religious aspects. It is celebrated at spring on starting of winter on fourth or fifth day of lunar month (Magh). Yellow is mainly used for basant as its is narrated for wheat row and mustard blossoms in the seasons. Yellow color is considered as the color of Spring. Yellow outfits are worn in these days mostly. In pre-partition India Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs all celebrated Basant. Basant festivals held in all major cities of Punjab. Yellow clothes were worn; men wore yellow turbans and women yellow dupattas and saris. It was common to sway swings among Hindu, Muslim and Sikh women together and Basant’s traditional songs were sung that reflected the liveliness and romance of life in Punjab. Kite flying was common but on a small scale with decency. Kite flying is also part of the festival. Most of kite flyers are illiterate and labor class. They mostly use unethical ways for winning kites competition which leads to deaths of valuable lives. This factor decrease the color of this great festival from last 50 Years and the slogan is shouting Celebrate Basant- but don’t snatch away lives. Gallup Pakistan Survey: Basant as Business activity Basant is high appreciated business activity as people from the whole country rush towards Lahore and hotel industry , food industry , music and other tourism industry boost up with the festival. It is highly encouraged by business community of Lahore. According to a survey 11% of the whole year business is three days of basant in Hotel and Food industry. Same effects brought on other industries. Research Back Ground In our country every business activity is banned due to some accident or religious pressure groups same controversy is with spring or Basant festival. I want to find out the financial benefits from this type of festival and the aim of pressure groups. As part of the academic requirement, in the Higher National Diploma program in IPS, Peshawar; for completing diploma of Business Studies the students are required to write a eport for each one of their core units, this one being Research Project. This subject gives us an opportunity to learn how we can write a detailed research report in a given word limit on a business organization. Our choice of Topic will be Basant Festival or Spring Festival Lahore. In the research we will address the questions 1. Effects of Spring Festival on Business Community of Lahore. 2. Finding financial beneficiary of Spring Festival Lahore. 3. Finding good and bad of Basant or Spring Festival. 4. Are Basant Festival suits our Law and Order situation? 5. Why our Religious activists are against the Festival? 6. How much basant Festival contributing to which industry and National Income. Data Collection Primary Data: For the purpose of collection of primary Data, Spring Festival was observed. Interviews were arranged with different community members and life class as well as with Business community of Lahore. Hotel Managers, Restaurant owners, Visitors were also interviewed. For the same purpose a Questionnaire were also made and distributed in different groups of community as well as to religious groups. Collect back and analyzed. Secondary Data: Secondary data collection were made trough news paper , magazine and mainly from internet sources , where we found that government banned kite flying not the Festival while Religious groups pretending it as Hinduism but Business community appreciate it. Research Methodology We have used different methodologies for our report taught in the course book. During This report, we used both the primary as well as the secondary data. Major sources are primary data and some of it is secondary date sources. Most of information will be through personal observations and interviews. Other information was gathered through mystery shopping during the visit to the different Areas of Lahore During Spring Festival. Additional will be through questionnaires and surveys, brochures studies, telephonic interviews, newspaper, magazines and Internet sites search.. The major aim of this report was to study the about Festival as Business activity. Research techniques and Results Observation: A visit were made to Lahore during Basant Festival and observed the event 3 days. It was noticed that people of the country and business community Lahore really encourage the festival. But some citizen has the view that kite-flying should be minus from the festival as it take many lives every year and damage government property as people use harmful wires for kite-flying. Some religious groups are against it and want to ban dance parties and music shows in the festival. But large number of people supports it. Interviews: Interviews from different from different groups of community were made including government officials. Hotel Industry stakeholders, Food Industry Stake Holders, visitors and Religious groups. Interview questions were mainly same as questionnaire and including some general discussion. 50 people were taken interview including students, business man, government officials, religious activists and other community members. The questions ; result of the interview was as below. Results and Graphical Representation of Interviews: Q. 1: Are You in the favor of Basant or Spring Festival in Pakistan? Result: YES was the answer of 80% people and NO was the answer of 20% people. Graphical Representation: Q. 2: Basant Festival has any relation with religion? Result: Yes was the answer of 20% people and No was the answer of 70% while 10% people said that they don’t know about the Issue. Graphical Representation: Q. 3: Basant Festival Effects on Business Community of Lahore. Result: NAGATIVE was the answer of 8% while POSITIVE was the answer of 92%. Graphical Representation: Q. 4: Is Basant Festival suits our Law and Order situation in Lahore? Result: YES was the answer of 60% people and NO was the answer of 30% while 10% people said that they don’t know. Graphical Representation: Q. 5: Basant Festival Favor National Income? Result: 87% People answered as YES and 11% as NO while 2% has no comments. Graphical Representation:. Positives of Basant are more heavy than negative? Result: YES was the Answer of 78% People while NO was the answer 22% People during interviews. Graphical Representation: Q. 7: Kite Flying Should is banned? Result: YES was the answer of 67% People while NO was the answer of 20% and 13% People has no comments on the question. Graphical Representation: Q. 8: Basant Festival Should is kept Banned? Result: YES was the answer of 20% while 80% was NO. Graphical Representation: Questionnaire: Questionnaire was used to for distance stake holders. They people who were not easily reachable. Result of Question Number 7: YES: 66% NO: 34% Graphical Representation: Result of Question Number 8: YES : 20% NO : 80% Graphical Representation: Internet Search: Internet Search was used as Secondary data findings. We found some writings on Basant and Spring Festival and analyzed accordingly. These writings has two stories about basant one supporting the festival as cultural festival and No relation with Hinduism while the other showing it has extreme hindu festival and against the religious values of Muslims. While most of writings shows it a healthy financial activity with some bad strings attached with it as it make many damages to human lives , electricity lines etc in regard of kite-flying and moral ; ethical values in Music and Dance parties. Findings Basant or Spring Festival is acceptable to majority with some changes. Law and Order situation is better in Lahore for Festival. Kite-Flying Should is kept banned. Religious groups are extreme against it and called it Hinduism. Government is ready to allow it in business aspect. Moral ; Ethical Values should follow. Hotel and Food industry mainly is the beneficiary of the festival. Youngsters are the main supporters of the festival. Most of supporters are Muslim. It is given out put financial growth of the country. It’s an organized festival after Eid. Analysis After that data was organized and analyzed with different techniques of Data Analysis. Mainly the pie chart and Bar Chart method were used for Data Analysis. And result was produced for implementation. All the data formats and findings Shows that all stakeholders are in the favor of Basant or spring festival in Lahore as healthy business activity with some changes is the format of Festival. Mainly Hotel and food industry is beneficiary of the festival while Music, film and traitor industry also earning good from this festival. Garments and Fashion is industry is the indirect beneficiary of the event. Transporters, SME’s and general labor and working also get good benefits from the festival. Conclusion ; Recommendations Basant or Spring Festival is healthy Business activity. Government should allow the Basant or Spring Festival as per demand of Business community and higher percentage of public. Kite-Flying should ban or allowed outside of walled city. Better security should be provided. Religious groups should convince and their guanine demands should be fulfilled. Harmful wire should completely ban from manufacturing. Un-ethical and Immoral acts should be discouraged. People from other parts of the country should be properly entertained to encourage the business. Proper promotion and Public Awareness campaign should be initiated to guide the people from stopping bad of Basant. Spring Festival and other Festival should be celebrated as it warm up different businesses.

Porter 5 Forces Analysis Essay

Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis of the Retail Banking Industry in Australia Retail banking can be defined as an industry where financial institutions offer mass market banking in which individual customers use local branches of larger commercial banks. Services offered include savings and checking accounts, mortgages, personal loans, debit/credit cards. Retail banking aims to be the one-stop shop for as many financial services as possible on behalf of retail clients. Some retail banks have even made a push into investment services such as wealth management, brokerage accounts, private banking and retirement planning. While some of these ancillary services are outsourced to third parties, they often intertwine with core retail banking accounts like checking and savings to allow for easier transfers and maintenance. When applying the Porter Five Forces in analysing industry competitiveness and how it relates to the retail banking industry, the following outcomes have been found. Threat of new entrants Current Rating – (Low) – Future Rating – (Med) It would be very difficult without the access to large capital for the average person/company/organisation to start up a bank. However with the popularity of Credit Unions, Building societies and the evolution of the internet, there are many traditional banking services such as providing mortgages, car loans, paying bills, on which online entrepreneurs can enter this market segment (www.billbuddy.com.au OR Aus POST). Banks would be fearful of losing part of their traditional revenue raising, because it is a good source of fee-based revenue. Another threat to traditional banking is companies offering other financial services. What would it take for an insurance company to start offering mortgage and loan services? Not much. Also, when applying the threat of entry formula to a regional bank, there is a huge possibility that one of the big 4 entering the market will annihilate it. Competitive Rivalry Current rating – (Low) – Future Rating – (Low) When analysing the competitive rivalry of the big 4 banks, (ANZ, Westpac, Commonwealth and NAB), we quickly realise that the Aus retail banking industry is dominated by these banks and it is not very competitive. The products they offer are very similar, interest rates are very close and all of them have ATM’s everywhere. The financial services industry has been around for hundreds of years and just about everyone who needs banking services already has them. Because of this, banks must attempt to lure clients away from competitor banks. They do this by offering lower financing, preferred rates, investment services and access to cash almost 24/7. The banking sector is in a race to see who can offer both the best and fastest services. In the long run, we’re likely to see more consolidation in the banking industry. Larger banks would prefer to take over or buy a large stake in other financial service providers (Commonwealth & Aussie), (Commonwealth & Bank West) and (Westpac & BOM). The Main threat to the big 4 would be small & foreign banks trying to gain market share. However, the big 4 have 83% of the mortgage market share compared to 11.5% of the small banks and 5.3% of the foreign owned banks*. So there is a lot of ground to make up. *Source – Aus Banking Industry Report, Page 14 (May 2011). Threat of Substitutes Current rating – (Med) – Future Rating – (High) There are some substitutes in the banking industry. Banks offer a suite of services over and above taking deposits and lending money, but whether it is insurance, mutual funds or fixed income securities, chances are there is a non-retail banking financial services company that can offer similar services. On the lending side of the business, banks are seeing competition rise from unconventional companies. An example of this would be car manufacturers financing customers by offering 0% financing, why would anyone want to get a car loan from the bank and pay up to 10% interest? Suppliers – Relative Bargaining Power Current rating – (Low) – Future Rating – (Low) The suppliers of capital might not pose a big threat especially when the banks viability was/is guaranteed by the federal government during the height of the GFC. On the labour side, the threat of union interruptions is very low to non-existent. The banks have been quite clever in moving a lot of the front line staff offshore though call centres to ensure that the labour supply is cheap and sustained. This is further supported by the huge uptake of online banking by customers. Buyer – Relative Bargaining Power Current rating – (Low) – Future Rating – (Low) The individual doesn’t pose much of a threat to the banking industry, but one major factor affecting the power of buyers is relatively high switching costs. If a person has a mortgage, car loan, credit card, checking account and mutual funds with one particular bank, it can be extremely tough for that person to switch to another bank. In an attempt to lure in customers, banks try to lower the price of switching, but many people would still rather stick with their current bank. On the other hand, large corporate clients have banks wrapped around their little fingers. Financial institutions by offering better exchange rates, more services, and exposure to foreign capital markets – work extremely hard to get high margin corporate clients. Industry Attractiveness One can conclude based on the outcomes of this analysis, that the retail banking industry would be a very difficult and an unattractive market to be considered by a potential competitor. More particularly for the following reasons; * The large market share of the big 4 banks (who pretty much have the market sawn up), * New loan application numbers have retracted significantly and have not rebounded since the GFC, * the need to have access to large amounts of capital,  * low margins by lower interest rates, * high borrowing cost, * Non-traditional lenders such as car manufactures offering extremely low finance rates, * With all these factors in mind, the barriers to entry are quite high.