The Ethics Of A Business - 1513 Words

Some themes I picked out from attending college surprisingly are not scholastic but more practical: the great importance of hard work, how to fail and not be a sore loser, having passion for what you do, and giving back to the community. Working hard has always been a principle that I have felt strongly about. Growing up, my parents had chores for me and my siblings whether it was vacuuming the living room, cleaning the bathroom or washing the dishes. We were expected to work hard daily to maintain the cleanliness of the house. I mention that because for this project I intend to examine the leadership in a business I would like to own, a daycare center. Owning a business allows individuals to take a sense of pride in their job,†¦show more content†¦55). These daycare and childcare organizations are intended to make the lives of working parents easier and less stressful. By far one of the hardest choices working parents must make is deciding who to choose as a caretaker for t heir children while they are at work. Whereas some parents have the ability to ask a family member to watch their children or stay home and care for their children, this is not a viable option for many. When a parent does decide to return to work they often look for strong qualifications, first aid training, valid licensure, and development programs in child care providers. Deciding on a child care agency or child care provider that is safe and nurturing is not an easy decision, nor is it to be taken lightly. Child-care providers must provide safety and as much support for the children as possible (Argyle, 1997 pg. 10). In the United States it can be agreed that there are lots of parents who need to work around the clock to carve out a living for their families. As such, the need for someone to care for their children while working is paramount. There will always be the need to have children at a daycare center. Moreover, there is no indication that the daycare center trade will plunge anytime soon there is always a boom in this business all year round. Positioning and location, as is always the case for determining the amount of customers that patronize a business isShow MoreRelatedBusiness Ethics : Ethics And Business943 Words   |  4 Pagesdiscussions in Business is Ethics. Some people believe that the decisions businesses make in interest of the business has no place in ethics and that they are essentially amoral. These businesses believe that their main objective is to simply make a profit and that it does not affect the success of the business. Whereas some businesses believe that they have to take ethics into consideration, in order for their business to be a success. Richard T. De George (1999) states that ethics and business do notRead MoreThe Ethics Of Business Ethics1471 Words   |  6 PagesReview Nowadays, the concern for business ethics is growing rapidly in the business community around the world. Business ethics are focused on the judgment of decisions taken by managers and their behaviors. The issue regarding these judgments is the norms and cultures that shape these judgments. Business ethics are concerned about the issue, how will the issue be solved and how will it move ahead along the transition analysis as well (Carroll, 2014). Business ethics can be addressed at differentRead MoreEthics And Ethics Of Business Ethics1304 Words   |  6 PagesBusiness Ethics Varun Shah University of Texas at Dallas Business Ethics Morals are a crucial part of life. Without having principles one would never be able to distinguish the right from wrong and good from evil. Just as it applies to life in general, ethics is an integral part of doing business as well. When we here the term Business Ethics in our work place, we usually do not take it seriously and brush it off saying ‘it’s just a simple set of basic rules like not cheating and so on’. ThisRead MoreEthics And Ethics Of Business Ethics1624 Words   |  7 Pagesinvestors losing their retirement accounts and many employees lost their jobs (Accounting-Degree.org, 2015). Crane and Matten (2010) argue â€Å"After all, despite many years of business ethics being researched and taught in colleges and universities, ethics problems persist and the public remains sceptical of the ethics of business†. The big problem we face is that ethical standards are declining because of insider trading of stocks and bonds, bribery, falsifying docume nts, deceptive advertising, defectiveRead MoreThe Ethics Of Business Ethics Essay1097 Words   |  5 PagesResource A discusses how ethics is crucial in business. There are three key ideas used to understand this. Firstly, making ethically wrong decisions tend to cause more upset than other general mistakes as purposeful unethical actions are not as easily forgiven or forgotten. Secondly, ethics provides businesses with a broader understanding of everything to do with their business. Business ethics is effectively just business it its larger human context. Thirdly, being unethical can tarnish the publicRead MoreThe Ethics Of Business Ethics1064 Words   |  5 Pages　　　　Business Ethics Ethics can be viewed as the rules and values that determine goals and actions people should follow when dealing with other human beings. However, business ethics can be defined as moral principles of a business. It examines moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment. Generally, it has both normative and descriptive dimensions. Organization practice and career specialization are regarded as normative whereas academics attempting to understand business behaviourRead MoreThe Ethics Of Business Ethics757 Words   |  4 Pagesdeciding what to do in certain situations, ethics is what guides an individual to act in a way that is good, or right. Those involved in business settings apply ethics to business situations, known as business ethics. It is expected of businesses, small and large, to follow business ethics. There is a particular framework businesses are to follow. However, the reoccurring news headlines of poor business ethics prove differently. Poor busine ss ethics include bribery, corporate accounting scandalsRead MoreEthics And Ethics Of Business Ethics1200 Words   |  5 PagesEthics meaning in simple way for average person is what is right from wrong. According to Chris MacDonald (2010)† Ethics† can be defined as the critical, structured examinations of how we should behave - in particular, how we should constrain the pursuit of self-interest when our actions affect others. â€Å"Business ethics is the applied ethics discipline that address the moral features of commercial activity (Business ethics, 2008).Working in ethical way in business has a lot of benefits which can attractRead MoreThe Ethics Of The Business Ethics1431 Words   |  6 Pages BUSINESS ETHICS INTRODUCTION:- Presentation Ethics are exceptionally regular and essential good esteem that helps us to take the right choice where we think that it hard to pick between our own advantages and the correct thing to do. We are going to talk about three sections of morals Behavioral morals, Bounded ethicality and last one is irreconcilable situation. As from the names of these parts of morals, its verging on clarifying the significance of it. It clarifies why great individualsRead MoreThe Ethics Of Business Ethics1349 Words   |  6 PagesBusiness ethics can be defined as the critical examination of how people and institutions should behave in the world of commerce. There are many subcategories that we may look into when speaking of business ethics, in this essay I will be writing about advertising ethics. Advertising is practically unavoidable in today s world, we see it in the streets, shops, magazines, television, on the internet, hear it on the radio. In this essay I will describe two ethical iss ues in advertising, show why business

Comparing the Beloved in Shakespeares Sonnet 20 and...

Comparing the Beloved in Shakespeares Sonnet 20 and Sonnet 130 In the hands of a master such as Shakespeare, the conventions of the sonnet form are manipulated and transformed into something unique and originally emphasized. Both sonnets in one way or another subvert the conventions of the base Petrarchan sonnet; though they are about love, the traditional topic of sonnets, whilst in Sonnet 20 the object of desire is unattainable and there is no evidence of the level of affection being requited, the target is male, and the target of the poets affections in Sonnet 130 is the poetic voices current mistress. It also seems important to note that love in neither of these cases is of the generic youthful female Aryan stereotype, and†¦show more content†¦The poetic voices mistress is of nature; no supernal gifts are hers. It is even strongly indicated that she is beneath the highest forms of beauty nature has to offer (her eyes are nothing like the sun, coral is far more red than her lips, no roses see I in her cheeks.) But this is to stray be yond the confines of the original subject, the rest of the verse argues, because the love the voice has for its lover is as rare as any other; beauty does not have to draw such clichà ©d parallels with nature to be thought of in the mind of a lover as surpassing everything around it. In reference to this repeated theme, in the introduction to the Penguin Classics printing of the Sonnets (though in reference specifically to sonnet 84), editor John Kerrigan concludes: Which hyperbolic poet, Shakespeare asks, which most-sayer, can exceed this sublime truism, that you alone are you. For you comprise the only things which, in honesty, you can be compared with. This sonnet serves to invoke a strong sense of realism in love, arguing that as strong an intensity of emotion as may be held, may be held, without the need for delusions of grandeur, taking the view that trying to reconcile two essentially different and diverse things as equal is to do true justice to neither. The beloved in this case thus represents more the need for a character developed to challenge stereotype than an actual real-life woman,

Midwifery Women and Newborn Drug and Alcohol Service

Question: Discuss about the Midwiferyfor Women and Newborn Drug and Alcohol Service. Answer: Introduction The Women and Newborn Drug and alcohol service referred as (WANDAS), is a midwifery services offered to maternity care for the women who are dealing with problems of alcohol as well as other drug abuse at the tertiary maternity facility in Western part of Australia (OConnor, Lewis, McLaurin Barnett, 2015). The purpose of the study was to assess the antenatal, intrapartum and the neonatal outcomes of women that had Hepatitis C (HCV) and they were part of WANDAS services in between 2009 and 2012. Design of the Project This research used information, which has been acquired from the records of midwifery account. The researcher used the univariate assessment between the women that were HCV positive and those who were regarded not positive was not performed (OConnor, Lewis, McLaurin Barnett, 2015). The type of multivariable, which was used, was logistical regression to help examine the concurrent components that were related to being HCV positive, along with the opiate user. Findings The results showed that the occurrence of the HCV cohort was 37%. This comparison to those that were HCV negative, and these results were far more positive especially to much older people (OConnor, Lewis, McLaurin Barnett, 2015). Additionally, there was absolutely no intrapartum capabilities that were found to be vital at the level of multivariate, which was related to individual HCV positive and opiate user. Nevertheless, there have been difficulty that were mentioned with couple of neonatal. The limitation of this study Limitation of the study was the present information on the prevalence of the drug addiction is limited. Research has found out aspects such as stigma and the consequences, which are associated to using of the drugs, could avert the users to not divulge their addition and all information. Conclusion In the investigations, it highlighted the intricacy for caring the women who are expectant and are HCV positive. The outcomes additionally pointed out that the pregnant women who were AOD users were at a high risk on their health. The ramifications of the outcomes enhances on our comprehension of the obstetric along with the midwifery problems, which are related to the caring for the women who are expectant, who are HCV positive. These individuals therefore should obtain treatment from a specialist team as well as multi-disciplinary team who have the required skills for such cases. Reference OConnor, A., Lewis, L., McLaurin, R., Barnett, L. (2015). Maternal and neonatal outcomes of Hepatitis C positive women attending a midwifery led drug and alcohol service: A West Australian perspective. Midwifery, 31(8), 793-797.

Theodore Roosevelt Honors Leadership Program - Essay free essay sample

Cultural diversity has brought competition in many work places. The Theodore Roosevelt Honors Leadership Program will help me gain a competitive edge over many people at my work place because I will be well groomed with principles of entrepreneurship, management and leadership skills. I also want to join the Theodore Roosevelt Honors Leadership Program because it will help me become a good leader in my community and for the country as a whole. Since the program offers academically challenging courses, I will be forced to give out my best in all my endeavours. I will also learn to be a decent and law-abiding student because I will be expected to set good examples for others to emulate. One great thing I like about the Theodore Roosevelt Honors Leadership Program is its student-driven nature. This will instil teamwork spirit and collaborative problem-solving techniques within the members of the program because we will often work together as a team. We will write a custom essay sample on Theodore Roosevelt Honors Leadership Program Essay or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page I am not just joining the TR program only to gets its benefits. In all modesty, motivational speaking comes naturally to me. And oratory is second nature to me. I will use these talents that I have to motivate my fellow members of the program as well as other mates so as to encourage everyone to put up their best in the program. As humans we always need to be encouraged and motivated so that we can keep on doing our best. I have the aim to organise motivational seminars to constantly remind students of our ambitions and mission in school. I take pride in knowing that I will soon experience the Theodore Roosevelt Honors Leadership Program firsthand. I have every reason to spend my next four years at DSU

iPad 2.0 could herald the paperless office (at last) - Emphasis

iPad 2.0 could herald the paperless office (at last) iPad 2.0 could herald the paperless office (at last) Printer manufacturers must be getting a bit twitchy about the iPad. Or if theyre not, they should be because it could well make a serious dent in their profits, writes Rob Ashton. Generally, Im in the pro camp when it comes to technology. Ive bought a fair few examples over the years. And although I discarded some once the novelty wore off, others became an integral part of my life. The iPhone could have been invented just for me. I realise that not everyones like this. And even I admit that modern technology is often no substitute for more traditional devices. But in business, technology tends to be adopted wholesale when theres a sound financial reason for doing so. And thats why I think we might see a dramatic reduction not just in paper usage but in printer-toner sales in the next few years. It wasnt so long ago that we used to send documents to each other in the internal mail. Now were much more likely to email them. Yet most people still tend to print them out to read them. Despite the cost and the terrible waste of paper, we still like flipping through the real thing. But the business world may not be far behind the newspaper industry in seeking to cut the use of paper. This is because there are huge potential cost savings to be made if technologists could produce a way of reading onscreen that more people would accept. Influential technology blog Silicon Alley claimed last year that printing the New York Times costs twice as much as sending every subscriber an Amazon Kindle e-book reader on which to read the electronic version. Now universities in the US are experimenting with delivering textbooks this way. Just before the iPads launch, the technology was already there for acceptable forms of electronic reading. The worlds biggest technology show in Las Vegas earlier this year was awash with electronic alternatives to paper. Electronic paper or e-paper, as its inevitably being dubbed, helps overcome objections from people who prefer the look and feel of real paper rather than a chunky electronic device. And documents displayed in this way should be much easier to proofread. But problems with lighting mean that, at present, electronic paper can display only black and white images, as can e-book readers such as the Kindle. Such technology relies on electronically magnetised ink, which also needs good lighting conditions to be readable. The iPads colour screen and LED back-lighting get round these problems. And while some have commented that these cause eyestrain, ophthalmologists have disputed this. Whats more, the iPad electronically reproduces the action of flipping through a document, bringing the experience a step closer to the real thing but without the waste of printing. If the iPhone is anything to go by, it will probably be the second-generation iPads that truly find popular appeal, once Apple have ironed out any post-launch teething problems. But whether e-ink, iPad or iPad 2.0 wins the day, the paperless office may at last be just around the corner. iPad 2.0 could herald the paperless office (at last) iPad 2.0 could herald the paperless office (at last) Printer manufacturers must be getting a bit twitchy about the iPad. Or if theyre not, they should be because it could well make a serious dent in their profits, writes Rob Ashton. Generally, Im in the pro camp when it comes to technology. Ive bought a fair few examples over the years. And although I discarded some once the novelty wore off, others became an integral part of my life. The iPhone could have been invented just for me. I realise that not everyones like this. And even I admit that modern technology is often no substitute for more traditional devices. But in business, technology tends to be adopted wholesale when theres a sound financial reason for doing so. And thats why I think we might see a dramatic reduction not just in paper usage but in printer-toner sales in the next few years. It wasnt so long ago that we used to send documents to each other in the internal mail. Now were much more likely to email them. Yet most people still tend to print them out to read them. Despite the cost and the terrible waste of paper, we still like flipping through the real thing. But the business world may not be far behind the newspaper industry in seeking to cut the use of paper. This is because there are huge potential cost savings to be made if technologists could produce a way of reading onscreen that more people would accept. Influential technology blog Silicon Alley claimed last year that printing the New York Times costs twice as much as sending every subscriber an Amazon Kindle e-book reader on which to read the electronic version. Now universities in the US are experimenting with delivering textbooks this way. Just before the iPads launch, the technology was already there for acceptable forms of electronic reading. The worlds biggest technology show in Las Vegas earlier this year was awash with electronic alternatives to paper. Electronic paper or e-paper, as its inevitably being dubbed, helps overcome objections from people who prefer the look and feel of real paper rather than a chunky electronic device. And documents displayed in this way should be much easier to proofread. But problems with lighting mean that, at present, electronic paper can display only black and white images, as can e-book readers such as the Kindle. Such technology relies on electronically magnetised ink, which also needs good lighting conditions to be readable. The iPads colour screen and LED back-lighting get round these problems. And while some have commented that these cause eyestrain, ophthalmologists have disputed this. Whats more, the iPad electronically reproduces the action of flipping through a document, bringing the experience a step closer to the real thing but without the waste of printing. If the iPhone is anything to go by, it will probably be the second-generation iPads that truly find popular appeal, once Apple have ironed out any post-launch teething problems. But whether e-ink, iPad or iPad 2.0 wins the day, the paperless office may at last be just around the corner.

Choose the best online nursing degree for you

Choose the best online nursing degree for you Are you looking to become a nurse? If so, then congratulations- nursing can be an incredibly rewarding career choice, with lots of options and opportunities available depending on what you’re interested in and where you see your career path heading. Sounds great, right? Sure, but if you’re at the very beginning of your journey to become a nurse, you likely have a more immediate question- how do I choose a nursing degree program that’s right for me?The good news is that it’s easier than ever to incorporate continuing your education and pursuing a degree with everything else you have going on in your life- the number of high quality online nursing degree programs- which typically offer more convenience and flexibility than traditional nursing degree programs- has exploded in recent years and continues to grow. For some, the hardest part in the face of so many choices is to make the right decision. Fear not- use the following information to choose an online n ursing degree program that’s perfect for you.U.S. News World Report recently published an article on how to choose an online nursing bachelor’s program, which features helpful questions you can ask yourself in order to arrive at the right decision. The following key categories will help you arrive at a choice that makes the most sense for you.RequirementsBefore you make a decision regarding an online nursing degree program, you should know what the basic requirements are for admission- and if you meet them. When you’re considering a program, make sure you meet the education and accreditation requirements, including relevant completed coursework, experience, testing, and licensure. Programs may vary, so don’t blindly assume that what works for one program will suffice for all. Bottom line- when you’re choosing an online nursing degree program, you’re going to have to do your homework.CostFor most people, this is a key consideration- how much does the program cost to complete? Often, you can find this information online, but sometimes you may have to contact a school/program directly in order to get complete and accurate information. When contacting the school directly you can also learn about what financial aid options might be available to you. It’s important that you have the full story regarding what a program will cost for you to finish in order to avoid any surprises later on.LocationAnother important issue is location, which might sound strange considering that we’re discussing online degree programs. That said, many programs are hybrid (or blended) programs, which consist of both online and classroom-based coursework. This stands to reason, as nursing is a hands-on profession and some topics and skills are best covered in face-to-face classes. When deciding which program you should pursue, make sure that the online vs. in-class aspects of the program make sense for you.TimelineTime- it’s a p recious commodity that often comes in a too-limited supply in our busy lives. Therefore, you need to make sure that the program you choose to pursue includes options for a complete timeline that makes sense, given your schedule. Some programs are rigid regarding the amount of time you can take to complete all of the required coursework; other programs are more flexible. Make sure that the program you ultimately choose allows you to complete coursework at a pace that works for you.Pursuing an online nursing degree program can be a great career move, but be sure to choose wisely. Use the information provided here to choose a program that meets all of your specific needs.

Business Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Business - Personal Statement Example ven in cities, people have entrepreneurial ideas and may have finances for establishing businesses but organizing resources into a sustainable organization is a challenge. Human resource management is the most significant of the challenge as most organizations lack skills on essential aspects of the management branch. Understanding the need for effectiveness in recruitment, selection, training, development, and retention of employees, for overcoming these challenges, has therefore influenced my interest in human resource management for competence that I can use in my business and to help other organizations. Interaction with one of my cousins is another motivation into business school. His life demonstrates success, not only in his career, but also in his social and political initiatives. He has been able to attract and retain high profile friends, who are also an asset during his moments of need. In addition, he easily influences people around him into his development initiatives an d he attributes the potentials to his competence in management. My passion in business has existed since my childhood. I admired business people and as a child, would simulate running a shop, and even befriended a shop owner for an experience of occasionally helping in his shop. This modeled my academic interest and I was biased towards business education and mathematics. I maintained focus in the two subjects and excelled in them, a factor that develops my confidence into business school because of significant background information. My career and academic goals also support my choice for a course in business school. I plan to establish and run a Human Resource Management Consultancy firm and to be a part time lecturer in the same field, and a human resource management course will establish a basis for my future academic pursuits into the goals. Social entrepreneurship is my other objective that has influenced my desire to join business school. My experience with my family and with

Resentment and the Genealogy of Morals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5500 words

Resentment and the Genealogy of Morals - Essay Example This essay discusses that the concept proves crucial to the sociological and cultural dynamic that pervades modernity. The consequences of this "feeling" are nefarious and multi-faceted. One such consequence allows confidence men or con artists to gain significant leverage and traction in contemporary society. In order to explicate this condition in society, this paper will first examine the theoretical features of slave morality and ressentiment as outlined by Nietzsche. Next, an inquiry into how these phenomena manifest itself in society in such a way to promulgate the appearance of such individuals and the reasons for their success. To this end, a presentation of Herman Melville's work, The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade will be presented in order elucidate the types and operating structures of con artists and confidence games. In conjunction, it will be important to discuss what archetypes Nietzsche defines such as the "Priest," the "Philosopher" and the "Artist" in reference to con artists while simultaneously highlighting the features of the con artists' mark, which will be shown to be the herd. In doing so this paper will show that the techniques con artists deploy in order to become effective are not significantly different from those deployed by Nietzsche's archetypes. It is understood that Nietzsche's genealogical method has been incisively criticized; nevertheless, Nietzsche's program does offer a worthwhile perspective in which to analyze the interplay between the con and the mark. One might question the leveraging of a fictional text, Melville's in order to explicate a real cultural phenomenon, the existence of con artists. Nietzsche's arguments as they are presented offer a mytho-tectonic analysis of the semiotic manifestation of the Slave and Master moralities. Insofar that these manifestations have occurred in society is without doubt; however, the true affectivity of the symbols lies in their ability to manipulate and massage the consciousnesses of individuals in that society and nowhere is the documentation that symbolic manipulation more evident than in the literary efforts of humanity. He articulates more fully the characteristics of Slave and Master Moralities in his work Beyond Good and Evil. They both revolve around their respective abilities to "will to power," this creative/destructive force which drives all human activity. Slave morality and the concept of morality must be understood broadly here to include all kinds of human activity, represent the behaviors of those who are unable to will their own desires directly and must "get around" as it were through subversion and cunning. The essence of Master morality is nobility. Actions are judged by their value or non-value for the master himself. In slave morality, actions are judged by their intention, namely their intention to harm or not harm the slave.

Marginal Concept Essay Example for Free

Marginal Concept Essay Some land might be very good for producing certain crops rich in nutrients and easy to access and work. This land is likely to be used first for any cultivation because the relationship between the cost of producing the crop and the return gained from selling it will be highest. However, land that is not so good will be taken into cultivation if certain conditions allow. These conditions could be a rise in the price of the crop concerned or a means of either reducing the cost of producing the crop (perhaps through a greater understanding of how to maximize crop yield). Alternatively, it could be through some technological development that raises productivity (output per acre) or yield (for example, through breeding, selection and genetic modification). The capital cost of exploiting this resource is very high and at the margin is only worth investment if the return from one extra barrel of oil is greater than the cost of extracting it. The cost of exploiting the oil sands is relatively high. The separation of the oil from the sand is capital intensive, and then there have to be refineries that will process the oil into its constituent parts. Added to this is the cost of reclaiming the land and replanting it. Oil prices are determined by an international market. The demand for oil has been rising in recent years. There is, at the moment, plenty of oil available but the ability of the world to extract oil and to process it is where the problem lies. At present, we simply do not have the processing capacity to refine oil to keep up with the rising demand, which is why the price has risen so dramatically. (There are other reasons, of course concern over Middle East politics, the turmoil throughout the Middle East†¦etc).As the price rises, marginal oil reserves those that exist but are relatively expensive to exploit become viable. It is certainly the case that non-renewable resources remain exactly that non-renewable but as technology develops and as resources become more scarce in relation to demand, the market will lead companies to look to exploit resources that may have been considered impossible to extract or which were simply too costly to produce. It is all down to decisions at the margin. Questions 1. Most of Europe’s coal mines have closed down. There are still large reserves of coal available. Under what circumstances would you envisage businesses opening up coal mines and exploiting these resources? 2. Discuss the relevance of marginal concepts to the destruction of the rain forest. 3. How might an understanding of marginal concepts help to establish strategies to conserve as opposed to destroying natural resources?

Breast Implants, Breast Augmentation, and American Culture Essay

Breast Implants, Breast Augmentation, and American Culture Breast augmentation is rapidly becoming a common procedure among women in the United States. Shows detailing the surgery on TV station such as MTV and VH1 show mothers and their daughters getting implants together and teenage girls thrilled with their new 34-D chests. What most of these shows don't mention are the possible risks and painful recovery that come with the procedure. That breast implants are becoming more and more an accepted part of popular culture raises several questions. Are implants as safe and easy as they seem? Are women getting implants because they expect them to radically change their lives? More importantly, does our culture really believe that breast implants somehow improve a woman's quality of life? There are two kinds of breast implants. Silicone implants, currently under review for re-approval by the FDA, consist of a silicone pouch filled with a silicone gel. Saline implants, currently the only implants available unless a woman is part of a medical trial, are simply a silicone pouch that is filled with saline solution once it is implanted in the woman ((1)). The risks associated with both kinds of implant include implant rupture, capsular contraction (where the scar tissue around the implant tightens), calcium deposits in the tissue surrounding the implant, infection, hematoma, delayed wound healing, a possible atrophy of breast tissue and an increased difficulty for medical professionals when reading mammograms ((2)). Rupture and capsular contraction are fairly common with both kinds of implant, and require that the patient undergo surgery to correct the problem. In fact, about 20% of women who sought breast implants for augmentation,... ...srisks.php 6)FDA Advisor: Ignore Breast Implant Vote, Details the concerns that the FDA advisory board chair has about silicon implants. http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/11/05/breast.implants.ap/index.html 7)Suicide Risk May Be Lower Than Expected, from the American Society For Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. http://www.asaps.org/press/news-psyc-08.asp 8)Silicone Breast Implants Redux http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2003-10-03-breast-implants_x.htm 9)Silicone Breast Implants Could Make a Comeback After FDA Hearings, Talks about the rise in the number of breast augmentation surgeries. https://registration.mercurynews.com/reg/login.do?url=http://www.mercurynews.com%2Fmld%2Fkentucky%2Fnews%2Fnation%2F7002595.htm 10)Breast Enhancement For the Modern Woman, Article written by a plastic surgery http://www.breastimplants411.com/articles/modern_woman.htm

Starbucks Corporate Analysis

Mr†¦ Smith Cutbacks is one of America's true success stories and a wonder of today's corporate world. A brand known throughout the world, Cutbacks is a beacon for coffee lovers everywhere. The coffee house phenomenon that started as a dream to come up with the best coffees, best customer service and best coffee experience any coffee lover would appreciate. Cutbacks started as a coffee roasting company with a single store in Seattle Washington, and has come to be one of the most successful companies in the world serving millions.Since its inception in 1971, Cutbacks has been a model for what many aspire to but often come up short. The following is a brief overview of the company's finances, including a comparative and ratio analysis to measure profitability and liquidity. Current Ratio Current ratio Is a common financial ratio to measure the liquidity of a corporation. The short term ability Is measured, of a company to pay the maturing obligations, and meet unexpected need for c ash (Skies, Kismet, , 2011). Current assets divided by current liabilities is the current ratio formula.Between working UAPITA and current assets, current assets is the more dependable formula (Skies, Kismet, , 2011). Two companies may have very similar working capital and yet have drastically different current ratios. For every dollar of the current ratio, depicts how much current assets, per that dollar the company has (Soles, Kismet, , 201 1 The negative fact of the current ratio is that It doesn't explain where the asset is. It can be a large portion in inventory which is not the same as having a complete asset.A dollar in inventory does not pay as quickly as a dollar in ash. Cutbacks current assets are 1 1 ,516. 7 (In millions), and the liabilities is 7,034. 4 (Cutbacks, 2013). The current ratio is 1. 63, for every dollar the asset is 1. 63 for the corporation. Return on Assets This ratio Illustrates how effective management Is at generating profit from the company's assets. Re turn on assets is calculated by dividing net income over total assets and multiplying that figure by 100. Net income and total assets data can be found on the balance sheet from a biblically traded companies ASK report.Return n assets when simplified shows how many additional dollars the company assists generate. Cutbacks return on asset figure Is . 45673. Meaning each dollar in asset generates roughly $. 45 of Income In 2013. By this figure Cutbacks management did a Commonly referred to as return on net worth, this ratio illustrates profitability by how well a company increases the value of common stock holder investments. These increases are typically re-invested in the company or paid in dividends. To calculate ROE net income is divided by common share holder equity and multiplied by 100.Cutbacks ROE figure for 2013 is $1 . 17350. For each dollar invested by common stock holders Cutbacks generates Just over $1. 17. In 2012 the ROE ratio was a whopping $26. 59. A sharp drop in equ ity and an equally staggering increase in liabilities in 2013 lead to both profitability figures to be very low by historical and industry standards for Cutbacks. It would be safe to say that if these events occurred during the start up phase off business they likely would not survive. Inventory Turnover Inventory turnover is an important part of any business.This information illustrates how much capital the company has used in comparison to how much inventory it has sold. Company leaders use this information to make financial decisions. This concept is condensed by Jon Scribbled on Indistinguishableness. Com as â€Å"The inventory turnover rate measures the number of times you have turned your inventory during the past 12 months† (Scribbled, 2014). The formula for the turnover ratio is the cost of goods sold divided by the average inventory. The Cutbacks company leaders use this information as well.

Marketing Plan for Sierra Nevada Brewery

The purpose of this document is to create a marketing plan for Sierra Nevada Brewery (SNB); specifically, developing a plan to expand the product line depth by launching a new product variation that incorporates Sierra Nevada’s traditional ale, with the flavor of blackberry. First, objectives are clearly established, followed by a situational analysis using a SWOT protocol. A market analysis is performed based upon the STP procedure, which directly leads to the marketing strategy. Financial projections are provided, along with strategy to implement the marketing plan, which leads to the final segment; evaluation and control metrics, which will be used to analyze the efficiency and effectiveness of the marketing plan.SNB is a financially strong company, as represented by research and their ranking as the #2 producer of craft beer in the United States. They have positioned themselves as being an elite craft beer producer by using high-quality ingredients, producing esteemed beer s, being socially responsible and ethical, and focusing on a niche market. The need and desire to be innovative, in conjunction with SNB’s goal to have a brewery on the East Coast in order to enhance their supply chain management, led to the proposal to introduce the of Blackberry Ale; their first flavored ale. Since SNB has effectively marketed all of their beers, adding the Blackberry Ale followed a similar strategy.The target consumers are educated, middle-to-upper-middle class professional men that refer to themselves as beer connoisseurs, and revere artisanal brewing. Blackberry Ale will be packaged and marketed as a premier craft beer and placed in urban areas with an upscale atmosphere. Pricing will be set competitively at $9.59 for a 6-pack of 12oz bottles. Based upon research, trends, and SNB’s history, the  recommendation is for SNB to launch Blackberry Ale in the first quarter of 2014, mirroring the grand opening of the new East Coast brewery in North Caro lina. Blackberry Ale is expected to increase SNB’s profitability and value; thereby, helping to continue the increasing strength of the SNB family brand. Marketing Plan for Sierra Nevada BreweryCompany OverviewSierra Nevada Brewery (SNB) was officially founded in 1979, in Chico, California. This small, college-town, located 90 miles north of Sacramento, sits at the foot of the Sierra Nevada foothills, for which the brewery is named after. What makes this brewery unique is its history. Ken Grossman, the founder and master brewer of SNB, started experimenting with homebrew in 1970, under the tutelage of his friend’s father; this is where his passion for brewing beer began to flourish.In 1976, Ken partnered up with Paul Camusi to take home brewing to a higher level. Since hops were scarce for home brewers in the 1970’s, Ken traveled to Yakima, Washington, to obtain whole-cone Cascade hops, which produce a citrus-pine flavor and aroma that makes SNB distinct. SNB is renowned for its illustrious beers, specifically for the hop-forward brewing method, which adds distinctive flavors and aromas to the beers. As the demand for SNB’s esteemed beers rapidly began to outpace supply, Ken expanded into a local warehouse, brewing out of defunct stainless steel tanks that he recovered from dairy farms in California and Oregon. Since 1980, SNB has continued to expand and capture a larger portion of the market share.Objectives and GoalsSNB wants to provide high quality beer to consumers throughout the United States; furthermore, they want to introduce new specialty products, such as flavored beers. With the determination and resources that SNB possesses, they have positioned themselves into becoming the top-rated premium brewery in the U.S. According to McCurry (2012), â€Å"Sierra Nevada is the No. 2 U.S. craft brewer in terms of sales behind Sam Adams. It plans to have an initial capacity of 300,000 barrels and will employ 90† (para. 2). An increasing demand for SNB beer in the Eastern U.S., combined with additional transportation costs has necessitated the establishment of an East Coast brewery.A major objective of SNB is to build a brewery on the East coast,  allowing them to efficiently market their premium beers to include all states east of the Mississippi River, while adding value to the overall organization. McCurry goes on to state: For a decade, Sierra Nevada served eastern markets very efficiently, using a lot of piggyback rail with refrigerated containers. Bottle-aged beer has to be refrigerated, and it's expensive to run across the country, but the company did it very successfully. As the market grew in the East and capacity constraints started to be reached in Chico, it became obvious that what is needed is a new brewery and it should be built in the East to address cost and service issues. (para. 9)The addition of an East coast brewery should strategically position SNB above Sam Adams, therefore claimin g the number one spot in craft beers, and further increasing the SNB brand. Specifically, the objective is to expand their product line and break into the growing flavored ale market. Situational AnalysisSNB holds a relatively strong position in the beer industry. Their strengths are perhaps the organization’s greatest asset. SNB’s state of the art, on-site R&D Department, has positioned them to be an elite brewery, by providing pristine and innovative beers. This allows them to differentiate themselves from competitors. â€Å"The investment in the science of brewing made Sierra Nevada widely regarded as one of the most sophisticated research and quality focused breweries in the world† (Sierra Nevada, 2013, para. 23). Additionally, SNB prides itself as being a progressive-green and socially responsible company; the nation’s largest private solar array provides 1.5 megawatts of electricity, while the on-site auditorium houses community events.Strengths Wea knesses Opportunities Threats On-site R&D #2 craft brewery Expand to the East coast where SNB has a small presence. Intense competition from other craft breweries Strong brand name Small company; limited resources for promotions and advertising Enhance supply chain management Anti-drinking campaigns Green and socially responsible; sustainability One manufacturing location Growing preference of consumers for higher quality craft beers and flavored ales. Health concerns of consumers about beer consumptionOne key element that adds value to SNB is Ken Grossman’s continuous concern for the environment and the community: Their installation of four 250-watt co-generation fuel cells earned them a visit from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. They have long had the first largest private installation of solar panels in the nation. They engage in heat recovery, CO2 recovery, water recycling, bought their own cows to eat their spent grains, and they don’t believe in buying carbon off sets.And now, they have a new composting system—all presented with â€Å"again, it’s not the greatest ROI† from Grossman, â€Å"but it’s the way we want to do things around here, it’s part of our story.† (Chang, 2010, para. 4) SNB sets the bar high for organizations in being ethically and socially responsible. Although SNB can save money by cutting corners, they continue to take the high road and focus on the well-being of the community, as well as the environment.Market AnalysisCurrent trends and data indicate craft breweries are gaining market strength. The long term dominance by large beer manufactures is declining. According to Ciccone (2012), â€Å"In 2011, all top 25 craft breweries experienced increases in revenues. Craft breweries recorded 15 percent growth in volume of barrels shipped, compared to a 1.5 percent decrease in the beer industry overall† (para. 2). SNB received second place honors during 2011 in Best-Selling Craft Beers. #2 – Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.Location: Chico, Calif. Barrels Sold in 2011: 858,000 — 9.2 percent increase since 2010 Popular Brands: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Ovila Abbey AlesJulia Herz, Craft Beer Program Director for the Brewers Association, stated,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"A light American lager no longer satisfies every taste. Americans have developed a discerning palate, so if it's not world class quality, it won't survive† (Ciccone, 2012, para. 3). The market for craft beers is growing, and SNB is positioning itself to dominate the craft beer market. SNB’s strength is becoming more apparent, as they continue to gain market share every year. Clarke (2012) stated that a 2011 study indicated craft beer grew by 16.3%, the largest growth by any beer category; furthermore, 11% of craft beer’s growth arose from new drinkers in 2010, compared to an astounding 46% in 2011. An import element for SNB to consider it that Millennials account for 46% of new craft b eer drinkers.The market for craft beer continues to grow at a rapid rate; additionally, all of this growth is occurring during difficult economic times. The overall success of SNB can largely be attributed to its marketing strategy. They segmented the market by focusing on beer drinkers in the U.S. market. SNB further segmented the market down to craft beer consumers. The craft beer segment does not include low-income, uneducated, party-oriented beer drinkers. SNB targets male craft beer consumers, as marketing strategies have indicated that targeting woman can have an adverse effect. Clarke (2012) goes on to say that women are apt to project contemptuous ridicule towards beers that are marketed as being women-friendly, especially if the beer is specifically targeted to them.Specifically, SNB targets College educated, middle-to-upper-middle class professional men, ages 21-44 years old that refer to themselves as beer connoisseurs, and revere artisanal brewing. â€Å"By volume, 80% of craft beer was enjoyed by white (non-Hispanic) consumers, over half of them in the 21-44 year age bracket. More than 75% earned at least $50,000/year, and 43% were college-educated Craft beer connoisseurs, as they prefer to be called, savor the distinctive taste and aroma of craft beers† (Clarke, 2012, para. 6). With the target consumer being established, SNB can effectively position themselves.Craft beer connoisseurs are already aware of the prestigious SNB image; therefore, positioning the new craft beer innovation will ensure that consumers perceive the product as a premier, black berry-flavored craft beer, created for the affluent craft beer connoisseur. Marketing StrategySNB’s product, a blackberry flavored ale, is the first flavored beer that  they will produce. â€Å"There are a lot of new flavors out there, and beer drinkers are willing to try brands they haven't tried before because they trust the category, Gatza says.† (McCurry, 2012, para. 62). By offering flavored ale, SNB strategically appeals to its current consumer based, as these consumers will want to try the latest creation, while increasing market penetration by acquiring new consumers who are intrigued by the new product and want to try it.The new product is Blackberry Ale; an amber colored light ale with the subtle flavor and deep notes of blackberry. This premier brew will be packaged in dark glass bottles. Tastings (n.d.) emphatically encourage the use of dark glass bottles, as they inhibit the photochemical effect produced by daylight, specifically, the ultraviolet spectrum, which can create â€Å"off flavors† and degrade the freshness of the beer. Additionally, twist-off crowns don’t protect beer against oxidation as well as pry-off crowns; therefore Blackberry Ale will include pry-off crowns. An adhesive label, containing product information and displaying the illustrious SNB logo, will be applied to each bottle. Finally, the label will display t he brand-Sierra Nevada Blackberry Ale; thereby, using a family name brand strategy. Distribution StrategyBlackberry Ale will be distributed strategically through select retailers as to protect SNB’s premier image, while increasing market penetration: Taprooms Upscale restaurants High-end bars and clubs Gourmet specialty stores Beer and wine bistros Prosperous grocery storesIndirect distribution using established partnerships will facilitate the placement of Blackberry Ale into the selected retailers. This link provides a list of all established distributor partnerships throughout the U.S.: http://www.sierranevada.com/distributors/ Pricing StrategySNB’s price will reflect a premium price as their products are known for being high-quality and in accordance to the product positioning. They already benefit from having an effective pricing strategy; therefore, Blackberry Ale will be priced in-line with SNB’s current beers that are  already on the market, while bein g competitively priced with SNB’s strongest craft beer competition, Sam Adams Blackberry Witbier. Therefore the price for Blackberry Ale will be set at $9.59 for a six pack of 12oz bottles.Promotion StrategyIn order to promote the latest addition to the Sierra Nevada line, a multitude of media and promotions will be used to facilitate the product’s introduction into the market: Advertising PromotionSocial media including Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and Google+ Advertising in key magazines: The Beer Connoisseur, DRAFT, Ale Street News, Northwest Brewing News, The Celebrator Beer News, Great Lakes Brewing News, Yankee Brew News, Brew Your Own, Beer Advocate , Ask Men, Maxim, Esquire, GQ, Details, and Sports Illustrated Sales PromotionFree 4oz sample coupons (limited time only-90 days)Free 4oz samples when product is only available on-tap (limited time only) $2.00 off introductory coupons (expires after 90 days)Buy 3, get 1 free (buy any 6-pack of SNB beer, get 1 free 6- pack of Blackberry Ale-90 day promotion) All promotions will terminate after 90 days of product introduction to assess the effectiveness of the promotions and determine future courses of action. Financial ProjectionsThe chart below, provided by the Brewers Association, clearly illustrates the continuous growth of the craft beer industry. Based upon research and the strong financial position of SNB, adding the Blackberry Ale brand to the organization can only increase the profitability and value of the organization. Each time SNB has added depth to the Sierra Nevada line, the company has only prospered financially, and in terms of gaining exposure, which adds value to the organization. Additionally, the community has benefited from SNB’s success, as SNB has been proven to be a strong player in social responsibility.SNB anticipates the production of a new, East Coast brewery in 2014, will support its objectives, and while increasing the profitability of the organization. The ad dition of a second brewery strategically adds value to  the organization as it enhances supply chain management, increases awareness, while potentially doubling production and capacity. it is estimated that after introduction sales of Blackberry will grow, reaching 1% of SNB beer sales after 1 year. Blackberry Ale is expected to break even and become a profitable product, based on expected sales and costs of introduction into the market. Implementation PlanBlackberry Ale has already passed all necessary guidelines established by SNB. As the fourth quarter quickly approaches, SNB will continue its successful strategy of producing Celebration Ale; a highly demanded brand that is synonymous with the holiday season. SNB is fearful that launching Blackberry Ale during this time would conflict with the established and successful release of the seasonal Celebration Ale; therefore, the launch of Blackberry Ale into the market is planned to coincide with the grand opening of the new brewer y, under construction in North Carolina, which is the first quarter of 2014.Evaluation Metrics and ControlSNB has determined it will analyze the addition of Blackberry Ale, ninety days after the launch of the product into the market. All introductory promotions will terminate after ninety days to access the future profitability of adding flavored ale to the brand line. Additionally, Blackberry Ale will be analyzed again each month, for the next three months to determine how the new product sales without added promotions. After six months, a thorough analysis focusing on sales, market share, brand recognition and profitability will be used as evaluation metrics, to determine the profitability, and future of Blackberry Ale.

Classical History

Sappho - Greek Poet in Ancient / Classical History Basic Data on Sappho: The dates of Sappho or Psappho are not known. She is thought to have been born around 610 B.C. and to have died in about 570. This was the period of the sages Thales, considered, by Aristotle, the founder of natural philosophers, and Solon, the lawgiver of Athens. In Rome, it was the time of the legendary kings. [See Timeline.] Sappho is thought to have come from Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sapphos Poetry: Playing with the available meters, Sappho wrote moving lyric poetry. A poetic meter was named in honor of her. Sappho wrote odes to the goddesses, especially Aphrodite the subject of Sapphos complete surviving mode, and love poetry, including the wedding genre (epithalamia), using vernacular and epic vocabulary. She also wrote about herself, her womens community, and her times. Her writing about her times was very different from her contemporary Alcaeus, whose poetry was more political. Transmission of Sapphos Poetry: Although we do not know how Sapphos poetry was transmitted, by the Hellenistic Era when Alexander the Great (d. 323 B.C.) had brought Greek culture from Egypt to the Indus River, Sapphos poetry was published. Along with the writing of other lyric poets, Sapphos poetry was categorized metrically. By the Middle Ages most of Sapphos poetry was lost, and so today there are only parts of four poems. Only one of them is complete. There are also fragments of her poetry, including 63 complete, single lines and perhaps 264 fragments. The fourth poem is a recent discovery from rolls of papyrus in Cologne University. Legends About Sapphos Life: There is a legend that Sappho leaped to her death as the result of a failed love affair with a man named Phaon. This is probably untrue. Sappho is usually counted  as a lesbian the very word coming from the island where Sappho lived, and Sapphos poetry clearly shows that she loved some of the women of her community, whether or not the passion was expressed sexually. Sappho may have been married to a wealthy man named Cercylas. Established Facts About Sappho: Larichus and Charaxus were Sapphos brothers. She also had a daughter named Cleis or Claà ¯s. In the community of women in which Sappho participated and taught, singing, poetry, and dance played a big part. Earthly Muse: An elegiac poet of the first century B.C. named Antipater of Thessalonica cataloged the most respected women poets and called them the nine earthly muses. Sappho was one of these earthly muses. Sappho is on the list of Most Important People to Know in Ancient History.

The Freelance Writing Course Is Live †Enroll Today!

The Freelance Writing Course Is Live – Enroll Today! The Freelance Writing Course Is Live Enroll Today! The Freelance Writing Course Is Live Enroll Today! By Daniel Scocco The day has finally come. Our Freelance Writing Course is live, and you can enroll today. It runs for six weeks (this being the first one), covering a wide range of topics related to freelance writing on the Internet. If you like to write and want to explore the  possibility  of making money by doing it online, we recommend that you check the course out. Go to the official page, where you can get all the details and enroll. Over 700 students took the course in previous editions, and the feedback we got was terrific. Below, youll find what some of those students had to say about the course: I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed the online course. I have been researching content on how to establish a freelance writing career since earlier this year and your course provided information that I just havent been able to find anywhere else. Thanks for taking the time to develop this in a straightforward and manageable fashion. (Yvonne Smith, United States) What you supplied has far exceeded my expectations, both in content and value for money. I congratulate you on a job well done. (Margaret Huggins, Australia) I really enjoyed the course. The lessons were well structured and had realistic yet challenging objectives to meet, and this helped me absorb the content of the lessons. There is a lot to pack into six weeks, but I view the course as a much longer-term investment in helping me establish a writing career and brand to help with my overall success. (Ian Greaves, United States) Your course is amazing. What I have learned so far has been very helpful, and I have looked ahead at what is still there, and I am amazed at the depth of knowledge you have given me. The downloadable books are a big bonus. I know this course will be the best help I could ever find to becoming a freelance writer. (Janie Fletcher, United States) Enrollment will close this Friday, June 8, so you have only 72 hours to join. (The small registration window is to make sure students will follow the course at the same pace, since we have a private forum where they can ask questions and interact with other members.) Visit the official page, where youll find all the details (e.g., course structure, price, bonuses). Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Freelance Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Direct and Indirect ObjectsDifference between "Pressing" and "Ironing"40 Words Beginning with "Para-"

Comparison of todays sport with the characteristics of sport in past Essay

Comparison of todays sport with the characteristics of sport in past times suggests why sport is such a major cultural force both then and now - Essay Example The time period of 1890 till 1920 is marked as progressive era in the history of USA. This was the period when industrialization flourished in the country. However because of industrialization the workload of factories as well as industries also increased which affected the social life of workers of USA. They did not find much time for their extra curricular activities. Owners of industries put their pressures on employees to increase their productivity at any cost (Quandt iii). There were many sports which were played during progressive era. However boxing was one of the most popular games played during that period. There were many people who were interested in this sport. USA’s Black Afro-Americans in particular were very fond of boxing. Jack Johnson the first Black American who achieved heavy weight title also belonged from progressive era of American History. Politics of reach also came into play when White Americans observed that Black people were going to rule on boxing in future. Since Blacks were not recognized as first class citizens in progressive era that is the reason why majority of the conflicts in the sports also arrive because white people often hesitate to play against the people of color. Progressive era is also among one such period where Black American came in positive news in American Press. In USA boxing was mostly played by working class of that time which was sponsored by upper class of the society (Hartmann-Tews and Pfister i ii). Besides boxing baseball was also one of the games which were introduced in progressive era. The introduction of baseball was facilitated by Young Women Christian Association. Football was also among one of the popular sports of that time. It was considered as a college sport, however during this era, football also made its way to schools as well. Soccer, hockey, baseball and boxing all have had their best players in that era. Women also had a major contribution in the development of sports. There

Can socialism be achieved within a capitalist society Essay

Can socialism be achieved within a capitalist society - Essay Example The forces of demand, supply and availability of goods determine prices. As a result, there exists a huge gap between individuals in possession of capital and the ones without. Under capitalism, the government has little control over labour forces (Wu, 2002, p. 56; Yunker, 2009, p. 56). Although socialism idea was noble, its enforcement in a modern capitalist society can prove to be retrogressive rather that progressive (Hancke?, Martin, and Mark, 2007, p. 34). The introduction of socialist elements would prove inefficient and wasteful in a capitalist economy. This owes to the difficulties that arise in the organization of production by socialists. Moreover, socialists remain vague on the manner in which the system should be effectively integrated without harming the more stable capitalist form of governance. Gross misconceptions and indolence of the masses about the intentions of socialism also threaten its practicality (Hancke? et al., 2007, p. 58). In effect, this would challenge the scientific thought of rational conduct over life, which promotes rational economic calculations. Socialism would fail to address scarcity, an economic problem, if introduced in a capitalist society. Scarcity stems from the unlimited wants versus limited resources to meet them. Capitalism solves this problem through the theory of value, which asserts that an individual can only chose a good whose value is appeasing. Preference therefore sets the platform for monetary valuations and prices. Socialists do not value pricing or the determination of prices by economic agents. Without prices, valuations of goods and services would not adequately support satisfaction of wants through expending acquired incomes from specialized division of labour (Watson, and Hassett, 2008, p. 121). Socialism, through its limitation of the absence of fluctuating prices and free markets, would undermine proper use of resources in a capitalist society. It is nearly impossible to imagine a successful societ y that prevents free expression of preferences through a pool of prices. Random and frequent valuations of a resource through the forces of supply and demand are the only sure way of determining whether it is being used effectively to meet human wants. It would be impossible for socialist ideas like these to thrive in a highly competitive capitalist society where only the strong survive (Yunker, 2009, p. 112). While competitiveness in a capitalist society drives civilization, socialist ideas would lead to slow growth. This is because decision making and planning become centralized with bureaucracy standing in the way of development and growth. There is also the aspect of collective effort rather than personal challenge that leaves the society exposed to inefficiency and laxity. There is no place for laxity in a capitalist society as everyone is encouraged to work hard to attain personal development, which often reflects in the overall performance of the economy. Socialists cannot gu arantee adequate service to consumers while maximizing profits compared to capitalists. This efficiency arises from the promotion of private ownership of factors of production, which socialists oppose (Lawler III, 2009, p. 6). Freedom by private owners like proprietors and entrepreneurs to acquire and dispose property sets them on the path to determining true prices that reflect market forces of demand and supply. Through such freedom to calculate and

Key Success Factors for luxury good industry Assignment

Key Success Factors for luxury good industry - Assignment Example Many people, therefore, buy brand names for class and the luxurious experience associated with the brand. In the Coach case, the strategy to diffuse in all markets was to ensure that their products were of a world class level; hence, attracting all sorts of individuals. Even the middle class people want to feel a sense of luxury, hence the need to have a product whose brand is recognized as it gives them a sense of belonging (Okonkwo & Palgrave Connect, 2007). A well-recognized and respected brand positively affects the industry by increasing sales; hence, economic growth, not only in the countries that have been outsourced for manufacturing, but also in other parts of the world as most people prefer a recognized brand. The strategic implication of a well-recognized and well-respectable brand is the growth of the industry. Secondly, there is the aspect of expertise in a particular field in the Coach case, it is the expertise in the luxury industry. Appointing a person in the luxury industry who has the expertise on the market and design is very important as they help in coming up with new and innovative products that are fast moving. This is a key success factor, because today’s consumers are appealed by fast moving products in the market, regardless of whether the quality of the material used is expensive or not. In the Coach’s case, after they realized their products were not moving they employed Reed Krakoff as the new creative director. His idea was that the products in the luxury industry should be based on market research rather than the designer’s instincts. This factor affects the industry by creating a competitive advantage and when it comes to strategic implication it ensures that the luxury industry stays on top as it gives it customer’s goods that are satisfacto ry. The third factor is the aspect of national or global distribution capabilities. It is an imperative or key success factor, because without the right mode

Indian Premier League Marketing Case Study

Indian Premier League Marketing Case Study Cricket is just one of those many sports which was conceived by the English and perfected by the world; the Indian Premier League is just an extension of this phenomenon. The Twenty 20 format was invented in England in 2003 but it really took off when the master strategist that is Lalit Modi took it upon himself to take this format a step higher into crickets first franchise based sports event. In late June 2007 Lalit Modi who was then Vice-President of the Board of Cricket Control for India spoke to Andrew Wildblood of the International Management Group (IMG), a company with a vast experience in the whole area of sports management. IMG and Lalit Modi then sat down to discuss this model and finally came up with the idea that is the IPL in its current format. The idea behind creating city based teams was based on the model present in sports in US and UK. IMG designed the IPL after an intensive study of the primary sporting leagues around the world such as the NHL, NBA, NFL and EPL. They examined the theoretical models and also the result and impact of each of these leagues before arriving at the final blueprint. As in most other areas, there were at least as many learnings from the shortcomings and weaknesses as there were in the strengths and benefits mapped to the individual market contexts. What has finally emerged as the IPL design is one that has been meticulously refined to work for cricket.The league structure has been modeled so as to flourish in the uniquely Indian context, and drive the development of grassroots talent in Indian cricket. The idea had all the ingredients to be a success. The best cricket players of the world, fans from around the world and a dollop of glamour due to the presence of Bollywood celebrities, corporates and Indian politicos. The IPL was the first of its kind sports extravaganza of its kind, prior to this India has been fed a steady diet of 50 overs and test cricket. This kind of model which is common in the west but a first of its kind in India provided many new avenues for all the stakeholders. The grand old game of Cricket has undergone several makeovers in its history. Test cricket was followed by 60 over one dayers which later became 50 overs. The all white strip of the 70s gave way to the colored clothing and day-night matches of the Kerry Packer era. The Twenty 20 format which originated in England was devised to bring back the crowds in English County Cricket. The game in England was going through a major crisis and the introduction of T20 was instrumental in bringing a much needed dose of excitement in the game. Once again English were left to marvel as the sport they had created in their own backyard was spun into the Great Indian Tamasha by Lalit Modi and his comrades. Commercialization of IPL: Indian Premier League (IPL) has defined a new set of paradigm to do business in the Indian landscape. This was bound to happen someday, looking at the craze for the cricket in this country. IPL is not a yet another cricket extravaganza but an event where money is spun around with many different angles and huge stakes are involved in it. IPL has corporatized cricket in a unique way. It has added a new dimension of marketing and branding the sport in India. IPL is a business which has big economy of scale. India has seen the success of different businesses and the organizations or entrepreneurs running them and now it is the turn of IPL. Overall IPL itself has become a big brand under the leadership of Top management and it is a matter of interest that how it has been done as compared to the failure of its rival league ICL. The Value Positioning of IPL is Fast and Quick Entertainment Which has its own pros and cons according to the test and 50-50 Over Cricket Fraternity. The Making of the Franchises: The biggest USP of the Indian Premier League is that, here the teams are run and managed by various corporate houses or Bollywood celebrities. The owners of the teams went through a bidding procedure to buy the teams and after that, the cricketers were also put up forauction. The managements of the teams took part in the auction and bid for their desired cricketers, with a view to make their team the strongest one among all others. Cricketers from around the world, including the Indian cricketers were put up for auction. The BCCI actually followed the format of England`s most popular football event, the Barclays English Premier League (EPL) for governing the rules and regulations of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Right from the ownership of the franchises to the games themselves, IPL saw an exciting cocktail of Cricket, Bollywood and Business Barons. The people involved in buying these franchises were the whos who of Bollywood and Indian Business Houses.The winning  bidders  for the eight  franchises  were declared on 24 January 2008.   The total base price for the auction was US $400 million but the auction went on to fetch US $723.59 million.On March 21, 2010,  Pune  and  Kochi  were unveiled as the two new franchises for the fourth edition of the Indian Premier League. The base price this time around was $225 million. While Pune was bought by Sahara Adventure Sports Group for $370 million, the Kochi franchise was bought by Rendezvous Sports World Limited for $333.3 million. The process was to have been completed on March 7 but was postponed by two weeks after many bidders and the  BCCI  objected to stiff financial clauses. The second franchise auction fetched total $703 million. This auction brought a lot of attention towards the IPL for the alleged involvement of Union Cabinet Minister ShashiTharoor . His involvement in trying to tip the scales in the favor of a particular consortium created much furore in the media Open Auction for Individual Players: Highest bidder becomes the buyer. Each player has a base annual fee which is on a pro-rata basis depending on his availability. Each IPL franchise has a max limit to spend on bidding for players. Franchise Owner(s) Captain Price (USD) Price (Rupees) Mumbai Indians Mukesh Ambani  (Reliance Industries) Sachin Tendulkar $ 112.9 m Rs. 441 Cr Royal Challengers Bangalore Vijay Mallya  (UB Group) Anil Kumble $ 111.6  m Rs. 440 Cr Deccan  Chargers Deccan Chronicle  (Venkat Ram Reddy) Adam Gilchrist $ 107.0   m Rs. 422 Cr Chennai Super Kings India Cements  (N.Srinivasan) Mahendra Singh Dhoni $ 91.90 m Rs. 359 Cr Delhi Daredevils GMR Group( G.M Rao) Gautam Gambhir $ 84.0 m Rs. 331 Cr Kings XI Punjab Ness Wadia  (Bombay Dyeing),  Priety Zinta, Mohit Burman (Dabur) and Karan Paul (Apeejay Surendera Group) Kumar Sangakkara $ 76.0 m Rs. 300 Cr Kolkata Knight Riders Red Chillies Entertainment  (Shahrukh Khan,  Gauri Khan,  Juhi Chawlaand  Jai Mehta) Saurav Ganguly $ 75.1 m Rs. 296 Cr Rajasthan Royals Emerging Media (Lachlan Murdoch, A.R Jha and Suresh Chellaram), Ultra tech cements, Shilpa Shetty, Raj Kundra Shane Warne $ 67.0 m Rs. 264 Cr Pune Sahara Adventure Sports Group TBD $ 370 m Rs. 1702 Cr Kochi Rendezvous Sports World Limited TBD $ 333.3 m Rs. 1533 Cr Economics of IPL Television rights and sponsorships: The IPL is predicted to bring the BCCI income of approximately  US$1.6 billion, over a period of five to ten years. All of these revenues are directed to a central pool, 40% of which will go to IPL itself, 54% to franchisees and 6% as prize money. The money will be distributed in these proportions until 2017, after which the share of IPL will be 50%, franchisees 45% and prize money 5%. The IPL signed up  Kingfisher Airlines  as the official umpire partner for the series in a  Rs.  106 crore (1.06 billion) deal. This deal sees the Kingfisher Airlines brand on all umpires uniforms and also on the giant screens during  third umpire  decisions Television rights: On 15 January 2008 it was announced that a consortium consisting of  Indias  Sony Entertainment Television  network and  Singapore-based  World Sport Group  secured the global broadcasting rights of the Indian Premier League.  The record deal has duration of ten years at a cost of US $1.026 billion. As part of the deal, the consortium will pay the BCCI US $918 million for the television broadcast rights and US $108 million for the promotion of the tournament.  Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  This deal was challenged in the Bombay High Court by IPL, and got the ruling on its side. After losing the battle in court,  Sony Entertainment Television  signed a new contract with BCCI with  Sony Entertainment Television  paying a staggering  Rs.  8700 crores for 10 years. Sony-WSG then re-sold parts of the broadcasting rights geographically to other companies. Below is a summary of the broadcasting rights around the world. On 4 March 2010 ITV announced it had secured the United Kingdom television rights for the 2010 Indian Premier League. ITV will televise 59 of the 60 IPL matches on its ITV4 free to air channel. Sony charges Rs 4-5 lakh per 10 seconds, (top soaps charge Rs 1.5 lakh per 10 seconds). According to Television Audience Measurement (TAM), the average Television Rating Points (TRP) of the first 14 matches in Season 1 was 4.97; in Season 2 it was 4.52, and in Season 3 its grown to 4.69. If IPL-1 reached 77 million people in the first 14 matches, IPL-2 went to 96 million and IPL-3 is at 108 million. The ratings have also raised team earnings. Winning Bidder Regional Broadcast Rights Sony/World Sport Group Global Rights,  India ONE HD Free-to-air HD and SD television in  Australia. Owned by Network TEN. Sky Network Television New Zealand  broadcast rights PCCW Hong Kong  broadcast rights, broadcast on Now Sports. StarHub Singapore  broadcast rights, broadcast on Cricket Extra. Astro Malaysia  broadcast rights on Astro Box Office Sport. SuperSport South Africa,  Central Africa  and  Nigeria  broadcast rights. Arab Digital Distribution Middle East  broadcast rights on ADDs  CricOne. Broadcast to  United Arab Emirates,   Bahrain,   Iran,   Iraq,  Jordan,  Kuwait,  Lebanon,   Oman,  Qatar,   Palestine,  Saudi Arabia,  Syria,  Turkey, Algeria,  Morocco,  Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan,  Libya  and  Nigeria. GEO Super Pakistan  broadcast rights Willow TV Rights to distribute on  television,  radio,  broadband  and  Internet, for the IPL in North America. DirecTV United States  Exclusive broadcast rights on Cricket Ticket. Asian Television Network Canadian  broadcast rights. Aired on Pay-per-view channel. Aired on  XM Radios ATN-Asian Radio  as well. Sports Max Caribbean  broadcast rights. ITV United Kingdom  broadcast rights, broadcast on  ITV4. Sponsorships: Indias biggest property developer  DLF Group  paid US$50 million to be the title sponsor of the tournament for 5 years from 2008 to 2013.Other five-year sponsorship agreements include a deal with motorcycle maker Hero Honda worth $22.5-million, one with PepsiCo worth $12.5-million, and a deal with beer and airline conglomerate Kingfisher at $26.5-million. Revenue and Profits: The UK-based brand consultancy, Brand Finance, has valued the IPL at $4.13 billion in 2010.  It was valued at U$2.01 billion in 2009 by the same consultancy. There are disputed figures for the profitability of the teams. One analyst said that four teams out of the eight made a profit in 2009.]While the London Times said that all but  Kings XI Punjab  made a profit. In 2010, the IPL expects to have 80 official merchandising deals. It has signed a deal with  Swiss  watchmaker Bandelier to make official watches for the IPL. Official IPL applications: DCI Mobile Studios (A division of Dot Com Infoway Limited), in conjunction with Sigma Ventures of  Singapore, have jointly acquired the rights to be the exclusive Mobile Application partner and rights holder for the Indian Premier League cricket matches worldwide for the next 8 years (including the 2017 season). Recently, they have released the IPL T20 Mobile applications for  iPhone,  Nokia  Smartphonesand  Blackberry  devices. Soon it will be made available across all other major Mobile platforms including the  Android,  Windows Mobile,  Palm   others. How Does IPL make Money? Auction of broadcasting rights. Title sponsorship and corporate sponsorship. Sale of Tickets (20% allocated to IPL). Auction of Franchisee rights. Official Umpires sponsorships. How is the Income Distributed? Share of the broadcasting money with franchisees. Share of the sponsorship money with franchisees. Share of ticket money with franchisees. Inauguration expenses. Prize Money. Sources of Income for an IPL Franchise (ROI) Share in revenue from the broadcasting rights. Share in the sponsorship money. Share in revenue from the sale of tickets. Revenue from In-stadium Advertising. Sale of Players to other franchise. Revenue from own sponsorship and corporate sponsorship. How is the franchise income distributed? Franchisee fees: 10% of the total franchisee costs every year to IPL. Players cost. Match fees and Inauguration expenses. Rent of Stadium. Marketing and promotional cost. Fees for coaches, physiotherapists and other members. Administrative cost. Franchisees can earn profit in IPL as Team owners get 80% of broadcast revenues, 60% of sponsorship revenues, 100% of team sponsorship revenues, 80% of ticket revenues, 87.5% of all merchandising revenues, and 100% of all hospitality revenues. Brand Finance, which came out with IPL brands latest valuation at $ 4.13 billion, said that the brand alone has risen significantly, providing tremendous economic value to its owner, BCCI. Although the English Premier League is valued much higher at $12 billion, the IPLs valuation has risen above $4 billion in just three years, Brand Finance pointed out. Indian Premier League would generate revenue of $1 billion this season, thanks to huge fan following across the globe, attracting a large number of advertisers. Indian Premier Leagues brand value has more than doubled to $4.13 billion (over Rs 18,000 crores), while Chennai Super Kings has emerged the most valued franchise this year, says a study. Ranked fourth last year, Chennai Super Kings led by MS Dhoni has moved to number one with a valuation of $48.4 million, followed by Shahrukh Khan-owned Kolkata Knight Riders ($46 million) and Shilpa Shettys Rajasthan Royals ($45.2 million). The valuation of teams pale in comparison to the IPL brand itself, which has more than doubled from last years $2.01 billion. The individual franchisees have also seen a fair amount of uplift in value since last year. Vijay Mallya-promoted Royal Challengers Bangalore is ranked fourth this year with a valuation of $41.9 million and is followed by Nita Ambani-owned Mumbai Indians ($40.8 million), Delhi Daredevils ($40.5 million), Kings XI Punjab ($36.1 million) and Hyderabad Deccan Chargers at the bottom with a valuation of $34.4 million. Consider this. Chelsea, one of the wealthiest, most powerful football clubs in Europe the Premiership giants, who were bought by Russian oligarch Roman Abrahmovic for  £140 million (Rs 966 crores) in one of the most high-profile takeovers in international sport in 2003, would appear a mid-table struggler if compared to the  £246.35 million (Rs 1,702 crores) Sahara splashed out to buy the Pune team. While it is almost certain that Rendezvous Sports pumping in money for a Kochi-based T20 franchise sounds the death knell for Keralas traditional favorite, football, at Rs 1,533 crores, the cricketing venture heads both Chelsea and Liverpool, which was taken over by US ice-hockey team owners George Gillett and Tom Hicks for  £219m (Rs 1,511 crores) in February 2007. It should be noted that seven seasons ago, the Russian oligarch was paying the amount he did for an established brand, one that was almost a century old, while the Indians paid these astronomical sums merely to gain entry into what is still a fledgling venture, which recently began only its third season. THIRD SEASON VALUATION: The crowds are swelling, with experts estimating a 25 per cent jump in gate money. In Season 1, higher-end ticket sellers like the Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils earned Rs 15 crore each. Gate money for bigger franchises could hit Rs 20 crore this season. The gross revenues from gate money, television advertising and sponsorships on an IPL double-header day, industry experts say, could touch Rs 40 crore. Marketing Strategy: IPL The DLF Indian premier league is a concept sell. It is clearly observed that IPL is a perfect example of controversy marketing Strategies: Auctioning the franchisees. Auctioning the players participating in the IPL tournament. Advertisements on various TV and radio channels. Cheerleaders were one of the most important thing that is talked about, foreign girls attracted huge crowd. Worldwide telecast. Locations: the venue chosen for the cricket matches was a strategic choice of places which are named after franchisees, which helped attract people. Conflicts with some media partners and some other cricket boards again demanded the attention of people. Timing: IPL has shown its strategic application of intellect by choosing the evening time for the matches, which made people watch game comfortably. ICL: the rival ICL had been one of the reasons for the publicity and emergence of IPL. People started comparing the IPL ICL that caused the huge publicity for the IPL Opening ceremony gala, Live Concerts. Franchises taken by film stars like Shahrukh Khan, Pretty Zinta and JuhiChawlaetc are the center for attraction, which made some Bollywood stars come for the game. Use of models and Bollywood stars for anchoring and promotion of teams like Akshay Kumar for Delhi daredevils, Shahrukh khan for Kolkata Knight Riders. The commentators were not less than PROs, use of phrases that pleased sponsors and made them pay more. Example: for every six it was a DLF Maximum, for every special moment it was city moment of success. Advantages and Disadvantages Players: Advantages Disadvantages Earn at least Rs 80 Lakhs ($200000) or more per season on average. Due to the tight schedule of international cricket, Chances of injury lowers the tenure of career. Bonuses and Prize Money from Team owners. Neglecting other forms of cricket A great stage to show case skills and compete with the best in the world. Fast game. Stamina and patience to build an innings and bowl tirelessly to get wickets is lost. The top 4 highest earning international cricketers are Indians, with the captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, leading the way with annual earnings estimated at US$10m, Tendulkar at US$8m, Yuvraj and Dravid earning in excess of US$5m. Franchise: Advantages Disadvantages Using the cricket property to promote other businesses. Financial Loss if the IPL fails to take off. Prize money if the team wins. Franchises Pays the team and financial costs i.e. Cost of acquisition. They earn from the share in revenue from IPL. Promotional expenses have to be paid by franchises. They also pay the franchisee fee e.g. RCB has to pay $11.16m p.a. for 10 years. Sponsors: Advantages Disadvantages Spot rate charged from advertisers of IPL. Spot Rate may go down if any IPL season is not a blockbuster. Improves customer base. Too much reputation at stake tied to the fortunes of the franchise teams as a whole. Sponsors get branding and recognition. BCCI: Advantages Disadvantages The BCCI makes good money solely from the sale of TV rights, promotion and franchises. May forget to put efforts to promote other forms of cricket Domestic and Test Cricket. Got a great source of revenue. Viewers: Advantages Disadvantages Unlimited Masti and entertainment. Chances of family fights over Channel viewer ship. A great arsenal to make the case strong against the Saas Bahu fans in the family. Capital costs in terms of additional investment in television sets. A very good reason to increase productivity in office Return home by 8 pm.

The NASW Position Statement on Gays and Lesbians and the Students Persp

There are many issues that interfere with the health and happiness of those within the Gay and Lesbian community. The National Association Position Statement on Gays and Lesbians is as attempt to abolish such issues within the social work practice. One place that individuals of any sexual orientation practice should feel safe is with those who have chosen the field of social work as a means to helping the oppressed. Social workers must be aware of their own personal beliefs and values when it comes to the fear of and the misrepresentation of working with this divers group. The consequences of not dealing with such issues and may have a latent manifest in dealing with the Gay and Lesbian population, and if not addressed prior to working in this field, maybe devastating to a client. After reviewing the NASW’s Position Statement of Gays and Lesbians, I found that â€Å"NASW supports laws and rights as it pertains to the rights of gays, lesbians, bisexual, and transgender or the LGBT (NASW, 2004).† Moreover, the position statement identifies that homosexuals should be seen as equals and be given the right to such issues as same-sex marriages, adoptions, joint tax returns, shared health insurance, parenting, and bereavement leaves. As social workers we should not try to change a person’s beliefs about their sexual orientation in anyway, but seek to gain education concerning human sexuality, human sexual development, and a high degree of comfort and communication skills when responding to such issues (Haldman, 1994). Before I penetrate any further into this paper, I would like to point out that it is important for people (especially social workers), to know what the meaning of heterosexism is to truly understand the concept of the NASW... ...eflects my own views and experiences concerning LGBT group as it relates to the NASW position on Gays and Lesbian. It is because I am a social work student that I celebrate and support this statement. Works Cited Hacker. 2011. in Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved May 8, 2011, from http://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/hacker National Association of Social Workers. (1999). Code of ethics of the National Association of Social Workers. Washington, DC: Author. National Association of Social Workers. (2003). Lesbian, gay, and bisexual issues. Social work speaks: National Association of Social Workers policy statements, 2003–2006 (6th ed., pp. 224–235). Washington, DC: NASW Press. Walter R. Schumm 2010: The Other Story about Same Sex Parenting, www. schumm@ksu.edu, Retrieved March 4, 2012 www.eReference.com/reference/dictionary/entry/heterosexism

E Business at Cisco Essay

Introduction Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells networking equipments around the globe which is considered as the giant in networking. Cisco headquarters locate in San Jose, California, United States. Cisco hardware, software, and service offerings are used to create the Internet solutions that make these networks possible, giving individuals, companies, and countries easy access to information anywhere, at any time. Cisco has pioneered the use of the Internet in its own business practice and offers consulting services based on its experience to help other organizations around the world. Cisco was founded in 1984 by Leonard Bosack and Sandy Lerner, a married couple who worked as computer operations staff members at Stanford University. Richard Troiano joined later with them. The stock was added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average on June 8, 2009, and is also included in the S&P 500 Index, the Russell 1000 Index, NASDAQ 100 Index and the Russell 1000 Growth Stock Index. John Chambers is the current Chairman and CEO of the Cisco. Company revenue was US$ 46.061 billion in 2012, while its operating income was US$ 10.065 billion. Net income US$ 8.041 billion 2012 while it has US$ 91.759 billion 2012 of total assetsand total equity of US$ 51.301 billion in 2012. E – Business Innovation at Cisco Cisco’s e-business innovation has begun in early 1990s. Cisco’s annual revenues increased from $1.5 million to $340 million in 1992. Their market share rose from 50% to 85%. It was a big challenge to meet the high demands generated by rapid growth of their sales. In order to serve their customers they had to †¢Hired engineers as quickly as possible, growing the engineering staff at over 160% per year. †¢Extended telephone support hours. †¢Invested in a system to prioritize calls. †¢Built the technology to remotely diagnose problems customers had with their products. †¢Offered training courses and consultations services to customers. During early 1990s companies invest a fixed portion of their annual budget on IT. It was 0.75% in Cisco 1993. In 1994 board of directors approved to invest on implementing $15 million Oracle ERP system. It was 2.5 % of 1993 revenues and more than 3 times the previous year’s IT budget. Company also approved total budget exceed $100 million to upgrade IT in the company. That upgrade integrated all of Cisco’s systems, and provided the company with a centralized information source. Cisco tried to use information technology to overcome the issues involve with high demand. It launched an official Internet site Cisco.com, primarily dedicated to company and product information as a result of that in 1991. It also launched the Cisco Connection Online for Cisco’s customers, which include a Technical Assistance Center where customers could easily solve their technical problems, and a list of product faults and remedies for faults. It also set up electronic bulletin boards. These initiatives forced online technical assistance which simplifies the burden on Cisco’s engineers and customer service representatives. Customers could download software updates, check manuals and email Cisco employees with questions by the 1993. Cisco E-Business Models Cisco involve in Business-to-Business (B2B) e-commerce as well as the Business-to-Consumer (C2C) e-commerce. B2B Businesses can gain significant financial returns, can attract and retain customers, reduce their expenses and uplift their reputation, brand name and corporate identity with favorable return on investment with the use of the Internet and e-business strategies. It helps to increase employee productivity, support for decision-making etc†¦ B2B facilitate electronic transactions to happen between businesses. The Internet and business’s dependency on other businesses for their supplies, utilities, and services has enhanced the popularity of B2B e-commerce. Extranets are the most commonly used for B2B operations in recent time. Extranet can be consist of at least 2 intranet or more than that. B2B e-commerce allows dynamic interaction between business partners. Cisco uses extranet with their Web based EDI to coordinate among their suppliers and manufactures via the Cisco Supplier Connection (CSC) which was formally known as manufacturing Connection Online. CSC was launched in June 1998. Registered users can access this through the Cisco website. CSC has integrated Cisco’s first-tier suppliers such as Ariba, Great Plains, J.D. Edwards, Lawson, NetObjects, NetSales, OneCore, PeopleSoft, QuickMarketing, and Works.com to Cisco’s ERP order fulfillment systems and inventory databases. This provides Cisco the opportunity to respond to their customer requests in real time. Orders are check with Cisco’s current production schedule, and at the same time their first-tier suppliers get inform of any deviations from production forecasts by automatic postings on the extranet as soon as a customer place an order. Suppliers can respond immediately to requests for supplies since they get informed real time with actual orders. Since Cisco is keeps inventories CSC also keep track on inventories and transfer inventory between different manufacturers to respond to component shortages. Other than that all the purchase orders and invoices are processed electronically with the help of CSC. Cisco uses their CSC at new product introduction processes as well. It helps to share information between engineering, procurement, manufacturing, and marketing sections in each sub processes such as design, prototyping, ramp-up, quality assurance and product specification. Overall cycle time to market new products gets reduce due to this collaboration. Cisco also developed a system for automatically testing products to ensure they were up to Cisco’s specifications and ready ship. If there are failures in an assembly line or auto test, Cisco get alert immediately by the manufacture. This prevent whole batch of products get affected by a common fault. FedEx, Cisco’s shipping partner get automatically alert as soon as order ready for shipment. Then the order assign a shipping number, pick up at the manufacturer, and deliver by FedEx to the customer. Direct fulfillment is also a part of Cisco’s B2B e-commerce. It automates all the required information in-order to support direct shipping of products which are configured by suppliers, directly to customers without going through Cisco. Cisco’s B2B processes also uses Dynamic replenishment, which allows market demand information to flow directly to manufactures without any delays. B2C Cisco is not a company which implemented B2B e-commerce, they are also practicing B2C e commerce as well. They have implemented Cisco Connection Online (CCO) in-order to handle the B2B and B2C e-commerce activities. In early ages customers had to talk with a sales rep if they wanted to buy something. Due to the mistakes by sales reps and complexity of product line only about 75% of orders were entered correctly. Other 25% had to be re-entered. Cisco has introduced their e-commerce site as a solution for this. Cisco was able sold $75 million worth of products on the Internet within first 4 months. Cisco was able to overcome the issue of 25% error rate in customer orders with the introduction of their website. 27% of all orders were placed using the Internet in 1997. It was said that there were 70,000 registered users in that time and they were accessing website 700,000 times per month. This not only minimizes the error s in customer orders but also it helped Cisco to save $150 million per year by delivering technical support through the website. It increases Cisco’s customer satisfaction ratings and Cisco’s productivity was improving rapidly. Cisco upgrades their CCO regularly with the help of consulted groups known as Internet Commerce Advisory Boards (ICABs), it consist both Cisco employees as well as their customers. This is also use to do global market researches. Cisco provided localization to their first few page levels of their website since August 2000. All prices were quoted in the appropriate currency, based on an accurate exchange rate with the localization. Cisco Connection Online – CCO CCO is a portal. It consist information in Cisco’s ERP systems, databases, legacy systems, and client-server systems. CCO connects with Cisco’s extranets which they are using for their suppliers and partners. This consist of 5 modules 1.Market Place 2.Technical assistance and software library 3.Customer service 4.Internetworking Product Center 5.Cisco supplier connection (CSC) Market Place is the front-end virtual shopping center describe in above, where customers can purchase items online. It also includes equipment configuration details, prices of products and purchase requisition tools. Customers can use purchase requisition tools if they want to take print out for submission of company purchase orders. Resellers and distributors are also using this module to place their orders online. Technical assistance and software library consist of an open forum which enables customers and business partners to get online answers to their technical questions. Users also can download driver updates and utility software through this. It also includes tools provide technical assistance to identify issues in Cisco equipments and take needed preventative or repair measures. Cisco was able to save millions of dollars spending on CD burning and shipments with the introduction of software library. Technical assistance forum led users to post their questions and search for answers, interact with networking experts who are willing to offer their help. This simply creates a virtual community of technical experts and it led Cisco’s experts only to focus on critical and urgent issues. Customer service provides non-technical assistance to consumers who are looking for details like product status, price catalog, latest releases, and their service order status. Internetworking Product Center is an application use for handle order processing. This can advise users if there is any missing information in product configuration when users are placing their orders online. Therefore reworking is minimized. Since this application connects with Cisco’s order management system to its scheduling system, customers and partners can access information about the current status of their orders. E-Business Types at Cisco Cisco has implemented more than one business types in their online presence. Cisco successfully running store-front model as well as the portal model through their web presence. Other than the above 2 models they also implemented B2B e commerce and EDI as a part of their E-Business initiative since early 1990s. Store-Front Model This is the most popular e-business model in the current context. It allows users or consumers to do their shopping online without going to a physical shop. According to the statistics about 60% of the internet users involve in online shopping activities. This model allows merchants to sell their products on the Web. Online transaction processing, security, online payment, information storage should be mainly considerable factors in this model. Cisco’s storefront model include †¢Online catalog of their products †¢Order processing system †¢Secure payment system †¢Timely order fulfillment system This allows Cisco to conduct their business 24 by 7 in 365 days of the year. A shopping cart allows Cisco to display photos and descriptions their products by category (routers, switches, servers, etc†¦). Consumers are allow to browse through those categories and its’ items then selects items that they want to buy and puts them in their cart. Consumers can the check out what they have selected and those orders are sent to Cisco. (90% of these orders are directly sends to Cisco’s suppliers. Orders are process in just in time based.) According to the Cisco CEO nearly 90 % of orders placed on Cisco’s website, the Cisco Connection Online (CCO), and nearly 80% of all products were built and shipped from a supply partner, without Cisco ever physically taking possession. This shows how Cisco has utilized their e-business strategies in-order to give a better customer satisfaction. Portal Model Cisco portal model provide their consumers the chance to find almost everything relate to internetworking. Cisco provides a vertical portal. It consist information from simple switches to Data Center Management and Automation, from Routing Services to Data Center and Virtualization Services, from home consumers to ISPs. It also consists of all the information relates to examinations conduct by Cisco such as CCNA, CCNP etc†¦ EDI – Electronic data Interchange Cisco handles B2B e-commerce via the applications which are implemented for its consumers. These solutions allow Cisco to sell its’ products and services and manage their customer and supplier/partner relationships over the Internet. Cisco use their e-business strategies as a model of how to use the Internet as co-operation tool to increase the productivity and efficiency of a company by utilizing and transforming their manual process with the help of information technology. As mentioned early customers can browse product specifications and make orders via Cisco.com. That information then directed Cisco’s suppliers without any intervention of Cisco. Products are produce only after they are ordered (just in time). Therefore the amount to spend on warehouses to store products is very much little. Cisco doesn’t like to obtain many B2B relationships with the technology and the infrastructure that they work, because they consider suppliers as a time and labor intensive expense to them. Cisco has created the demand for products that can ease and speed up B2B transactions with the implementation of their Global Network Business model. Cisco tried to cut down almost all the intermediaries in-order to increase their profit margins as well as to get competitive advantages with introduce of Electronic Data Interchange in 1997. EDI helped Cisco to †¢Gained real-time access to its supplier information. †¢Experienced lower business costs in processing orders (an estimated $46 per order). †¢Improved the productivity of its employees involved in purchasing (78% increase). †¢Reduced overall order cycle time. Cisco saved $250 million per year in business expenses through their new e-business initiatives in 1997. E-Business Categories at Cisco We can categories Cisco’s e-business initiatives under few main categories. e – Procurement, e – HR, e – SCM. E – SCM All the internal information systems of Cisco can be access by all the suppliers and other partners who are in Cisco’s supply chain. This system can be identified as a distributed knowledge management system since the employees have the same access rights to information as Cisco employees. Cisco was able to integrate all collective capabilities of supply chain partners and integrates all supply chain activities with this system. This system standardizes and streamlines all the internal processes with Cisco Employee Connection (CEC). It also streamlines external processes by seamless integration with suppliers and customers in terms of Manufacture Connection Online (MCO) and Cisco Connection Online. Materials and inventory position, product availability, price information, purchase orders and changes, vendor receipt/acceptance, Invoice payments and status reporting information are all visible among partners, including design-related information and sales forecasts. Since lack of mutual trust and unwillingness to share information among the partners appear to be the greatest obstacles in the way of e-collaboration, Cisco formed strategic alliances and long-term partnerships with their suppliers and customers, based on mutual trust and win-win strategy. e- HR with Cisco Employee Connection CEC was initially launched in 1995 and it was designed to store company information. But when HR department was in trouble with handling a various HR tasks manually, Cisco tried to move their HR processes to the CEC. As a result of that Cisco successfully launched expense reporting system first. With the success of that sub system Cisco started to digitize all their HR activities. CEC provides details and many interactive tools which can be use to facilities, travel arrangements, technical documentation, human resources, training, sales and marketing, and financial matters. Other than the standard categories like products, business functions, and company and employee information, CEC also provide some other categories for specific tasks. One category is for their new recruitments. It provides details about the company and also it consists of frequently asked questions. Professional staff category provides job-specific tools relating to sales, engineering, management, and system engin eering. Cisco’s Customer Base In early ages Cisco sold router products to corporations for corporate LANs and WANs. But with the rapid growth of the Internet since mid of 1990s, Internet service providers (ISPs) became an important market for the Cisco. Due to the technological advancements in the telecommunication industry, data and voice networks has gained speed. Therefore local exchange carriers and traditional telephone companies also become important segment in Cisco’s customer base. In the present company have differentiate its customers into four major segments those are 1.Enterprises. 2.Service providers. 3.Small/medium-sized businesses. 4.Home consumers. All categories of customers having their own complex challenges, when it comes to implement and maintain global data networks, since the technology that they are dealing with rapidly change over the time. Charles Giancarlo says that â€Å"it takes an unusual level of dedication, effort, and focus from both sides in order to build some of these networks. Both sides must make an inordinate investment in order to be first to market.† When it comes to service providers or the corporate market Cisco deals with consumers who know what to do and how to do. Therefore Cisco can’t manage them as normal home consumers. These relationships are more complex that normal consumer relationships. They decide from where to buy equipment based not only the quality of the products but also factors such as companies who are willing to supply their financing and other services. Sometimes they consider firms who are assisting them in dealing with government to acquire rights of way for wiring. Therefore Cisco started to consultative, partnering role with Telco customers. Cisco trying to assists them with everything. It spread from networking products and installation to financing, support services, even up-to business-model planning. It is not enough to merely offer them a new service that can enhance quality on their network. Cisco must also advise them on how best to profit from it. Strengths / Positive Aspects When it comes to the discussion of the positive aspects of the E business module, it can be accomplished after analyzing these three types. The benefits of e-commerce can be seen to affect three major stakeholders’ organizations, consumers and society. Cisco market place became that an international marketplace without any influence, single physical marketplace located in a geographical area has now become a borderless marketplace including national and international markets. By becoming e-commerce enabled, businesses now have access to people all around the world. In consequence all e-commerce businesses of Cisco have become effective multinational companies. Operational cost saving is a big advantage because of this. The cost of creating, processing, circulating, storing and retrieving paper-based information has reduced. E-commerce has transformed the way consumers buy goods and services. The pull-type processing allows for products and services to be customized to the cust omer’s wants. Enables reduced inventories and overheads by facilitating ‘pull’-type supply chain management this is structured on collecting the customer order and then delivering through JIT (just-in-time) manufacturing. This is particularly valuable for companies in the high technology sector, where stocks of components held could quickly become obsolete within months. No more 24-hour-time constraints. Businesses can be contacted by or contact customers or suppliers at any time. Consumers can gain access to the websites on anytime, 24 in 7.Makes it possible for customers to shop or conduct other transactions 24 hours a day, all year round from practically any location. Checking balances, making payments, obtaining status and other details are some important characteristics which we can see because of using this kind of E business module, but also an international selection of suppliers, Price comparisons can be done. Customers can ‘shop’ around the world and conduct comparisons either directly by browsing different sites, or by visiting a single site where price ranges are aggregated from a number of providers and compared. Delivery processes can be improved. An environment of competition where significant discounts can be founder value added, as different retailers vie for customers. It also allows many individual customers to aggregate their orders together into a single order presented to wholesalers or manufacturers and obtain a more competitive price. This system enables more adaptive enough working practices, which enhances the quality of life for a whole host of people in society, enabling them to work from home. Not only is this more effortless and offers happier and less stressful working environments, it also potentially reduces environmental pollution as fewer people have to travel to do their ordering and other stuff. Enables people in developing countries and rural areas to enjoy and access products, services, information and other people which otherwise would not be so easily available to them. It encourages delivery of public services. When we analyze about the strengths thoroughly, and when we consider it as organization vise that site saved Cisco time and reduced the need to hire. Customers welcomed the opportunity to browse a website and solve problems on their own rather than dialing into a busy support line. Seeing the cost advantage of selling online Cisco began to provide its network products for sale on its websites and web sales grew rapidly until they accounted for the majority of Cisco’s sale. Cisco also began to look for other ways to take advantage of its website. The sales force complained that they were always asked by customers to perform routine tasks, such as re-printing a customer invoice. Cisco widened the online offerings and allowed customers to reprint invoices, ch eck the status of service orders, and even maintain and price products. In addition to making life easier for customers, Cisco employees were able to escape much data entry. Cisco soon made much more customer information available online by linking customers to the Oracle ERP system. The IT department of Cisco began to investigation with other ways to leverage the power of the Internet. The department’s efforts guided to three separate Internet initiatives: Cisco Connection Online (CCO, for customers), Cisco Employee Connection (CEC), and Manufacturing Connection Online (MCO). In those days, customers still had to talk with a sales rep whenever they wanted to make an order. In part due to the complexity of Cisco’s product or service line (all orders were in importance custom orders), only 75 percent of orders were entered correctly; the remaining 25 percent had to be re-entered. As a result, Cisco started to consider about how it could use technology to improve the purchasing procedure. An e-commerce site was completed and launched in July 1996. The site was simple but advanced enough to ensure products were precisely set up. As a result, Cisco was able to drop its customer-order error rate from 25 percent to 1 percent. Even though Cisco believed that the site was not as user-friendly as it could be, 60 percent of Cisco’s technical support was now delivered automatically via the web, Cisco’s customer satisfaction ratings were rising, and Cisco’s productivity was improving considerably as was their customers. The Cisco Employee Connection (CEC) was Cisco’s intranet site. Initially, it was deliberate to hold company info and act as an internal newsletter. It consisted only of a bulletin board of information, simple search engines, and email. But as the CCO grew in popularity and function not long after, the team tried to update the process of expense settlement. The team faced many challenging technical problems, such as linking expense app rovals with the American Express corporate card systems, and was met with significant internal resistance to change. Senior executives, who were responsible for approvals, demanded that any new system prove easier to use than the old paper-based system. Consequently, many approvals were eliminated. Cisco’s software engineers were forced to design the program internally because there were no regular programs that could handle the task. They succeeded. Cisco employees were able to submit expenses online and get refunded by direct deposit within a few days. Cisco’s Manufacturing Connection Online (MCO) was crucial in allowing Cisco to grow. Just as Cisco had problems hiring enough engineers and customer service reps, it also had long been affected by problems expanding its manufacturing operations quickly enough to meet the surging demand for its products. Faced with a choice of restricting growth or outsourcing manufacturing, Cisco chose to outsource. Originally, Cisco outsourced only a portion of the manufacturing process. Cisco still warehoused components and performed final assembly and testing before shipping finished goods to its customers. Soon, however, in order to cut costs and improve delivery times, Cisco wanted deeper relationships with its partners. They asked partners to incorporate their IT systems with it. The result was an automated order fulfillment system known as the Manufacturer’s Connection Online (MCO). The MCO allowed Cisco’s partners direct access to customer information, sales projections, and product specifications. Partners could also alert Cisco to work stoppages, part shortages, and other issues. Once a customer placed an order on the Cisco.com site, the manufacturing partner was immediately notified electronically. The manufacturer’s network immediately transmitted the order to the actual assembly line. Later, Cisco developed a system for automatically testing products to ensure they were up to Cisco’s specifications and ready to ship without the product ever leaving their manufacturing partner’s premises. Once an order was ready for shipment, Federal Express, Cisco’s shipping partner, was automatically notified, the order was assigned a shipping number, picked up at the manufacturer, and delivered by Federal Express to the customer. In the event of an assembly line problem or auto test concern, the manufacturer immediately alerted Cisco through the MCO, which then alerted the customer. Because the MCO and the CCO were integrated, customers could check on their order’s status at any time. In addition to the Cisco Connection Online, the Cisco Employee Connection, and the Manufacturing Connection Online Cisco’s accounting and HR departments featured an amazing level of automation. Cisco executives could view up-to-the-minute sales figures from around the world at any time. Additionally, Cisco was able to close its books within a day. Automated functions within HR included the capability to accept job requests online and to review and sort applicants by crucial variables, such as skill level or former employer. Flexibility was as critical as functionality to Cisco’s e-business systems. These all the capabilities are rewarded to the Cisco because of the E-business module. Weaknesses / Negative Aspects There was much hype surrounding the Internet and e-commerce over the last few years of the twentieth century. Much of it promoted the Internet and e-commerce as the solution for all ills, which raises the question. Limitations of e-commerce to organizations Lack of sufficient system security, reliability, standards and communication protocols, and security holes in software. It leads to confidential client information growing to be available to all. Rapidly evolving and changing technology, so there is always a sense of trying to ‘catch up’ and not be left behind. The simplicity with which business models can be copied and emulated over the Internet increases that pressure and curtails longer-term competitive advantage. Facing increased competition from both national and international competitors often leads to price wars and subsequent unsustainable losses for the organization. There is no real control of data that is collected over the Web or Internet. Data protection laws are not universal and so websites hosted in different countries may or may not have laws which protect privacy of personal data. Physical contact and relationships are replaced by electronic processes. Customers are unable to touch and feel goods being sold on-line or determine voices and reactions of human beings. There is no good faith between the two parties, because they are bonding with faceless computers. As people become more used to communicating electronically there could be an erosion of personal and social skills which might eventually be detrimental to the world we live in where people are more comfortable interacting with a screen than face to face. There is a possible threat that there will be enhance in the social divide between technological haves and not’s. So people who do not have technical skills become unable to secure better-paid jobs and could form an underclass with potentially dangerous implications for social stability. When we turn towards the Cisco, while the decentralized system, combined with an emphasis on staying close to the customer, had been incredibly successful for Cisco so far, it was not without problems. First, as the company grew, it became more complex, and the advancement process became more puzzled. Much of the organization was impacted when new initiatives were introduced. A major challenge was simply staying connected maintaining employees throughout the organization cognizant of current initiatives and the significance of those initiatives. In addition, it was corporate for different business units to follow initiatives that were substantially the same. Conflicts or duplications often had to be resolved by the IT department as various endeavors were implemented on Cisco’s website. There were also questions about the types of initiatives produced under the decentralized system. Because they were often influenced by customer feedback, these initiatives tended to be of the incremental, short-term variety. It was not clear how much effort was being devoted to creating true breakthrough approaches, nor was the appropriate level of effort clear. Moreover, it was becoming clear that there were opportunities to co-develop, co-design, and co engineer new e-business processes with external organizations, including clients and partners, but it was not clear exactly how to approach these possibilities or how to make them routine. Opportunities Traditional supply chains which are involving in product development, production, distribution, and sales cycles are not capable of dealing with dynamic customer demand in the current context. Businesses need to run parallel activities and higher level of flexibility in their operations in order to co-up with the rapid changes in demand. Procurement, inventory management, production and distribution are getting affected due to this nature. Businesses can accommodate e-business models deal with those demands. Cisco is also using the e-business to handle parallel activities in order to archive their business targets. 1. Cisco TAC service This is an online service, where users with a valid service contract can, get Cisco’s engineering services by describe their issues and attach files to the service request, and those requests will route the appropriate engineer as soon as possible. Users can get the help of tools that are available on Cisco.com in order to do these requests. In this way Cisco is able to manage their support calls and cases very quickly. Cisco TAC engineers are attending to the case very quickly and they even login to the faulty device using Cisco WEBEX sessions in critical issues. Cisco provides their warranty items in least amount of time to make sure the zero down time of the network. Customer satisfaction is main advantage of this service, reputation of Cisco networks are increased due to this process. By using these kinds of techniques Cisco makes their tasks very easy to manage. Cisco has great opportunity to attract more consumers and retain their existing consumers with the help of this kind of services. 2. New inventions Early 2006 Cisco introduced new product called Cisco TelePresence which has the ability to communicate with the broader community of Cisco TelePresence users with Life-size, high-definition video and CD-quality audio in a premium room environment using Collaborative tools such as presentation sharing and high-definition document cameras Services available by the hour in easily accessible public business-class locations. Recently Cisco introduced new data center family switches named as â€Å"Cisco nexus† in 2008 which will meet customer demands for next-generation mission-critical data centers. The Cisco Nexus 7000 Series, the flagship data center-class switching platform combining Ethernet, IP, and storage capabilities across one unified network fabric. Also nexus family virtual switches were introduced by Cisco to enhance the network virtualization. â€Å"Nexus 1000 V† is a virtual switch that can be used to control the data traffic among virtual machines in a data ce nter environment. Cisco nexus, Virtual switches, Cisco Techwise TV, Datacenters and clouds Virtualization, Virtual desktop infrastructure are some of the new areas that Cisco working in these days. Cisco has very good opportunity to have very good market share and profit through their new products. Ability of expand Cisco’s business in vertical and horizontal is one of Cisco’s biggest opportunities. Cisco already created the need for networking solutions to the world. They can continue on that way. They have the opportunity to introduce a complete network solution, with all the network equipments and software that need. Cisco has the ability to offer a much wider range of products since they have already acquired lot of network equipment companies. Cisco also can involve in data mining. The amount of data in the world is exploding. As more data becomes available, the ability to handle them in fast and efficient manner is so much important. Therefore Cisco can use do research work on how to use their network infrastructure to utilize that. Demand for the Cloud Computing is another opportunity. Since it is relatively new dimension and not that much competitors in that arena Cisco can play a big role in that segment. Wi-Fi Home Calling Mobile phones, Mobile Broadband are some other areas where Cisco has opportunities to increase their current market share as well as to capture new market segments. Threats Though Cisco dominates the router market, if they does not consider about the competitors they may lose the market, because small companies can take over a specific niche market. Keep implementing many changes to the Cisco e-business infrastructure is another treat. Employees, suppliers take considerable time period to get use to the new systems. Therefore if changes are happening quite often then people may get fed up with those changes since they have to adopt their work according to the new systems. Cisco’s high dependability on their suppliers is another treat. If one or many suppliers get refuse to supply the products due to some reasons then Cisco can’t deal with the demand, since more than 90% of the orders are directly fulfill by the suppliers without intervention of Cisco. Some other treats are †¢Cost of managing highly interconnected complex systems, software systems and managing customer centers/call centers is very much high. †¢Separate partnerships for borderless networking, data center and virtualization and collaboration can leads to disputation. †¢Since Cisco doesn’t sell directly to end customer, they cannot contact Cisco directly. This may leads to customer dissatisfaction. Recommendations Cisco is highly depend on their e-business strategies that are been implemented since last two decades. Those initiatives lead Cisco towards being the giant in internetworking industry. Company has automated almost all their processes with the help of IT. This is very effective and efficient in terms of time saving and cost reduction but on the other hand Cisco will be in trouble, if some issues occur in their systems. Therefore they should have alternative methods to continue their businesses even in that kind of scenario. In general it is very hard to think of alternatives when everything works smoothly enough with the power of IT, but with the rapid growth of security vulnerabilities in the internet, it is always nice to have at least a single way to continue the business processes without getting affect by those vulnerabilities. In 2001 Cisco’s stock price collapse dramatically. They lost nearly $400 billion in market value. There was lot of arguments about the company’s management, and of the inability of its information systems to anticipate and respond more effectively. An information system is only as good as the data entered into it, and if the people gathering the information fail to pick up on market signals or are unwilling to be the bearers of bad news, then the system won’t provide the warning signs that might mitigate the impacts of a major market shift. Therefore Cisco must implement a way to respond to the market changes very quickly, unless they may lose their market. Cisco’s competitors such as 3Com, AT&T provide interfaces to connect their equipments with the 3rd party vendors. But some of the Cisco equipments can’t connect like that with the 3rd party vendors. This is a drawback for them. There is a possibility of consumers may turn to some other tools due to that. Therefore Cisco should provide the facility to their equipments to interface with other vendorâ €™s. Another thing that Cisco can do is provide facility to directly communicate with Tellab’s devices. At the moment Cisco nodes can’t directly communicate with Tellab’s nodes without in-between bridge because auto generate magic numbers aren’t matching. Consumers need to have a more than average networking and technical knowledge in order to implement Cisco systems, unlike other vendors’ network equipments. Consumers who are not having appropriate knowledge about the implementation and maintenance should get help from others when they are dealing with Cisco products. This may leads consumers to go for other vendors who are producing products which can be use much easier than Cisco products. Therefore Cisco must provide easy configurations for their products or they should assist their consumers free of charge in those incidents. Then Cisco can retain their existing customers and customers will not get frustrated when working with their products. One of the main concerns is that Cisco doesn’t sell their products directly to the home users. If a home user wants to buy a Cisco product he/she must contact a Cisco partner and get the product through that partner. This should be changed. Cisco must provide all direct buying facility to all of its’ consumers, not only for the B2B consumers. Cisco can enhance their online presence in order to serve home consumers so they can directly buy Cisco products through their website. Cisco can get more sales by direct sales to home consumers since direct sales leads Cisco to promote their new products to those consumers through online marketing and promotion campaigns. They can also motivate their sales partners to attract more consumers by providing special discounts schemas for partners who are bringing more sales to the company. If we consider about Cisco’s website it has some issues in search facility. Most users are unable to search what they want through the provid ed search functionality in the website. Cisco should carefully study about what users really searching for in their website. Then company should upgrade or rework on their search functionality so user can experience more accurate search results. Cisco doesn’t provide support for the products that they no longer produce. They only provide support until after 1 year they stop the production. In networks 1 year old equipment is almost like a new product. Normally standard network equipment can be use for about 3 – 5 years. Therefore consumers who are having relatively new products can’t get Cisco support when they are having issues in their products. Sometimes Cisco completely stops support for some business units. Then consumers who are belongs to that unit will not get any patches, updates or technical assistance. If Cisco can provide patches, updates and technical assistance to all their products without eliminating any products or business units that would make consumers to believe that they are always look after by Cisco. Therefore consumers’ perception about the company will grow. Another major issue with Cisco products is that existing Cisco products can’t be upgrade easily. Consumers have to consider about various factors when they want to upgrade their existing equipments. They can’t easily replace existing node with another node. If they do so whole system can get affected due to compatibility issues. Most of the times if a network consist of Cisco equipments and there is an issue in single point it simply can’t be replaced by another same type product from another vendor. Users always have to replace it by a Cisco product. It is true that it brings sales to Cisco but on the other hand users may get fed up. Sometimes users may want to replace some nodes with some other vendors’ products due to some reasons. Therefore Cisco must think about that kind of incidents and provide necessary solutions. Cisco always tries to go with their proprietary protocols rather than open standards. This leads collision in communication between thei r products and other products. Since Cisco is not the one and only player in the network industry, Cisco should provide their consumers the facility to connect Cisco equipments with any other products without compatibility issues. This can be achieved by in lining Cisco products with open standards. The alternative to the current decentralized system was some sort of centralized organization that focused on innovation. But there were any number of ways in which the charter of this new organization could be configured. What specific activities would it be responsible for? Who would staff it? How would it be funded? How would it be evaluated? Could it be configured in such a way that efficiencies and elusive â€Å"white space† opportunities were captured without destroying the innovative spirit at Cisco or its decentralized culture? Losing either could outweigh any benefits of centralization. Cisco can consider about a Technology Research and Training Team that can study about emerging technologies and keeps business managers informed of what would soon be possible.