Distinctive Human Resource Are What Firms Need Essay Example for Free

Distinctive Human Resource Are What Firms Need Essay Introduction Benchmarking is a crucial management tool that guides the stakeholders on the overall performance of the organization as well as mobilizing the employees on a continuous improvement of the organisation’s environmental and social performance. Bench marking is considered to have an impact when the results of the organization performance are immediate (Vorhies and Morgan, 2005). It is essential to recognize that benchmarking and the transfer of the best industry practices are supposed to help an organization in the long run through maximum utilization of the available resources and filling in the gaps associated with an organization poor performance (Drew, 1995). The notion of a single best practice may be overstated. Distinctive human resource practices help to create unique competencies that differentiate products and services and drive competitiveness in organizations. People management practices are the drivers of efforts to create distinctive competencies and, in turn, business strategies. There are various human resource management models that have been used by companies to benchmark and stay competitive in the turbulent business environment and they include the Industrial Organization Model and McKenzie’s 7s Strategy which include shared values, structure, strategy, systems, style, staff and skills. Shared Values Shared values are commonly held beliefs, mindsets, and assumptions that shape how an organization behaves and its corporate culture. Shared values are what engender trust. They are an interconnecting centre of the 7Ss model. Values are the identity by which a company is known throughout its business areas, what the organization stands for and what it believes in, it central beliefs and attitudes. These values must be explicitly stated as both corporate objectives and individual values. Structure Structure is the organizational chart and associated information that shows who reports to whom and how tasks are both divided up and integrated. In other words, structures describe the hierarchy of authority and accountability in an organization, the way the organizations units relate to each other: centralized, functional divisions (top-down); decentralized (the trend in larger organizations); matrix, network, holding among others. These relationships are frequently diagrammed in organizational charts. Most organizations use some mix of structures: pyramidal, matrix or networked ones to accomplish their goals. Strategy Strategies are plans an organization formulates to reach identified goals, and a set of decisions and actions aimed at gaining a sustainable advantage over the competition. Systems Systems define the flow of activities involved in the daily operation of business, including its core processes and its support systems. They refer to the procedures, processes and routines that are used to manage the organization and characterize how important work is to be done. Style Style refers to the cultural style of the organization, how key managers behave in achieving the organization’s goals, how managers collectively spend their time and attention, and how they use symbolic behaviour. How management acts is more important that what management says. Staff Staff refers to the number and types of personnel within the organization and how companies develop employees and shape basic values. Skills Skills refer to the dominant distinctive capabilities and competencies of the personnel or of the organization as a whole. Industrial Organization (I/O) Model The external environment is primary determinant of the organizational strategy rather than internal decisions of managers. The environment presents threats and opportunities all competing to have equal access to resources. Resources are highly mobile between firms. Organizational success is achieved by offering goods and services at lower costs than competitors. Professional sports 49ers †¢ The 49ers have succeeded by using a strategy of long-term player development by recruiting through college drafts rather than trades. This helps the team cement loyalty to the club by the players. Raiders †¢ The Raiders scoop up talented players who fail or do not fit in elsewhere. The club reinforces its strategy through autocracy where the members are not supposed to participate in decision making. The system of the club embraces outside recruit of experienced players. Retailing: Sales as the Service Sears †¢ The Sears selection system requires extensive training. The style keeps track of employee attitude and morale through employee surveys, pay programs to match other retail business through industrial organization model. Nordstrom †¢ The Nordstrom structure of hiring is decentralized and uses no formal selection tests. There are continuous stream of programs to motivate employees with very little attention paid to the staffs in terms of training and commissions when retailing. †¢ The link between employees and product market strategy is sometimes less direct in services, but there are still relationships between the way employees are managed, the competencies employees help produce, and the way companies compete. Professional Service Firms; Information and Advice as the Product Boston Consulting Group (BCG) †¢ The style of BCG is to hire the best undergraduate and MBA students to work for them. †¢ The firm’s system requires rigorous selection procedures and through industrial organization Model provides exceptional compensation to the employees as compared to other organizations. †¢ The firm develops its staff through formal training. †¢ BCG shared value approach expects each team to come up with innovative ways to reinforce its entrepreneurial culture. McKinsey †¢ The professional firm develops its distinctive capabilities through on-campus recruiting and employee skills and development through extensive training model. †¢ The firm’s strategy lies in providing clients with consistent services. The core competency is also consistent with the products and the techniques of the company. Business Schools Harvard Business †¢ The business school staff development represents internal skills development. The school hires employees and turns them into experts. †¢ The business school invests a lot on employee development through the staff model. Wharton School †¢ The school recruitment strategy model relies on external environment to recruit its employees from a network of academicians. †¢ The system model that is used to make the institution maintain a competitive edge in the market is by hiring employees with superior technical skills and by making use of its outside market. Financial Services Chubb †¢ The insurance firm success is based on its shared value model of becoming the insurance of choice. †¢ The firm makes substantial staff investment through its recruitment, intensive training and testing before hiring. American International Group (AIG) †¢ The success of the insurance firm is through its industrial orientation strategy model where the company identifies new areas of business, creates new products, and benefits from the first mover advantage as a result of exploiting the market. †¢ The company’s competencies are its ability to respond to the turbulent business environment. †¢ The company hires from its competitors and invests less on staff development. The Shipping Business FedEx †¢ The shipping business has a strategy model of empowering its employees in the implementation of its vision. †¢ First service company to win the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award †¢ Intensive orientation program for staff development. †¢ One hub at FedEx meant that there were fewer coordination problems, allowing for autonomy and participation through it structural model. †¢ This model highly enhances loyalty in employees. UPS †¢ The orientation of the company structure model takes an autocratic approach where the employees have no direct say over work organization matters. †¢ Company standards for each task through its shared value model. †¢ Pays the highest wages and benefits in the industry (Industrial Organization Model). †¢ Productivity of UPS’s drivers is about three times higher than that at FedEx due to its high compensation. †¢ UPS’s business demands a level of coordination that is incompatible with individual employee involvement and a â€Å"high commitment† approach through it structural model. Food and Beverages Coke †¢ Coke builds on employee skills and hangs on them through staff development model. †¢ Coke hires college graduates with little or corporate experience and provides intensive training. †¢ There is promotion and seniority based salary incentives. †¢ Decision making is centralized Pepsi †¢ The company relies on employees’ innovativeness to identify market niches †¢ Pepsi hires employees with experience and advanced technical skills through industrial organization model. †¢ Decision making is decentralized. †¢ Employees have little job security. †¢ Less loyal employees. References Drew, S. A. W. (1995). Strategic Benchmarking: Innovation Practices in Financial Institutions. International Journal of Bank Marketing 13 (1),4-16. Vorhies, D. W., Morgan, N. A. (2005). Benchmarking Marketing Capabilities for Sustainable Competitive Advantage. Journal of Marketing 69 (January Issue), 80–94.

The results of technological innovation

The results of technological innovation Executive Summary: The purpose of writing this report was to examine the results of technological innovation in an organization. The major findings in this report indicate that technological innovation is necessary in every organization for the betterment of the same itself. Here in this report the study has been made on the Barclays Banks PINsentry device. Nevertheless the complete research is on this particular innovation of the bank. But there is some discussion about the technological innovations and its advantages and disadvantages in the former part of the report to clear the concept of technological innovation to every individual reader. Later as the report progresses towards the body there lies a short discussion about the role of manager in an organization towards the technological innovation. And just following to this there is a short description about banking industry, as it is the indirect base of the report and the topic. Later on we can see a discussion about the technological innovation of Barclays Bank i.e. the PINsentry device. Continuation to the PINsentry, there are the advantages and disadvantages of this new invention. And in the ending part of the report there is a spotlight show on the benefits which the Barclays Bank got due to the innovation. As problems are part of every innovation, so does the PINsentry device had, which are mentioned just followed to the benefits. As we proceed to the end of the report there lays the conclusion about the report. And in the end lays the bibliography about the sources of the complete report. Introduction: In this present fast and rapid changing world it is necessary for every organization to come up with innovation. Whether it is an innovation in organization culture or it is in the field of technology, it is necessary to keep innovating new ideas and technologies in order to survive. A technological innovation takes place when there is a need of a new product as per the requirement of the specified market. A technological innovation heralds the organization and helps it enhance efficiently. What is technological innovation? Any improvement in present technology or an invention of any new technology is called technological innovation. Technology is an instrument provided by science which enormously enhances it powers, as Albert Einstein did with his innovations. An innovation is a tool with which technology flourishes. Basically both innovation and technology are complementary to each other. Advantages and disadvantages: The world today has changed a lot with the aid of technology. Those things which were once done manually have not turn computerized. Almost everything is a click ahead. Every innovation has advantages as well as disadvantages. But on most of the cases advantages covers the part of disadvantages. Technological innovation also has some advantages and disadvantages too. Few of them are mentioned below: Advantages: Globalization: New technologies have bind world very close. The businesses have come under one system i.e. online to a greater extent. The linguistic and geographical boundaries have been removed by means of innovative technologies. Cost effectiveness: Since the business has become online the costs for running a business have been reduced to a large extent for many organizations. The machines have replaced human. Communication: With the advent of new technologies communication has become very easy, fast and cheap. E.g. -Mobile, internet etc. 24/7: Organizations have switched to online business with the help of new technologies, hence globally. This feature has increased the flexibility of business and has helped to grow and earn faster. Job opportunities: With the evolution of new technologies the scope of employment has also raised. Every new technology requires specialized skilled person to work on them. Disadvantages: Scope of unemployment: With the innovation of new technologies, the business has become more streamlined which has led to job reduction of staff, downsizing of organizations and outsourcing in other countries. This has created unemployment at lower and middle level of many organizations. Dominant culture: Since the world has become a global village, the culture is being dominated by the strong one. For example,>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.> Lack of security: As the technologies have made communication easier and faster but the level of security has been endangered too. Examples email hacking, Role of manager to support innovative technology: Every industry comprises of many competitors. So it is the key responsibility of the manager to support the new technology in order to make it efficient and effective. Everything to support the innovation is to be done by the manager itself. The role of manager in support of innovation is as follows: Mentor: One of the key roles of the manager for the organization is to act as a mentor. As the word mentor itself suggests about the duty of manager. The manager has to adopt every individual idea about the new innovation and have to make sure that the organization achieves its complete goal through full potentials. Identifying strengths and weakness: Again the manager has to sort out the strengths and weakness of the new technology brought in an organization. By capitalizing on strengths the manager has to flourish the new technology and then put a check on weakness and eliminate it for making the innovation successful. Right timing: A right vision about when the innovation should be brought into the market to attain best results is of utmost importance. Because that only will decide the success or failure of new innovation. Reviewing concepts: Reviewing the concepts about the new technology and the figure out how it relates to the organization culture and working and how it can enhance the organizations efforts in the field of new technology. The Banking Industry: The Banking industry is one the most simple and reliable business which takes deposits from the customers at a lower rate of interests and lends them into the market at a higher rate of interest. The technology played a great role in the development of banking industry. With the help of new technologies the banking industry has transformed from being manual to automatic or computerized systems. Banks have now become global. Due to the innovation in technology banking services became available 24 hours every day for the whole year comprising of 365 days. The banking industry regularly comes up with new innovative technologies in order to make banking more easy, convenient, safe and faster. It is due to the help of new and improved technologies that the business is carried on globally with the help of banking industry. Earlier a person had to wait for days and months to make a transaction in other country. But now with these new technologies it is very simple and fast to make a transac tion in any part of world in a fraction of second. Let us cite an example of a particular bank, in order to explain the innovative technology in the banking industry. And what effects and changes it brought to the industry with its new innovative product or services. The bank which we are taking into example to explain the innovative technology and its effect on the organization is the Barclays Bank. Barclays Bank: It is a British financial service being operated worldwide in different countries. According to Forbes Global 2000, Barclays is the 25th largest company in the world. And it is one of the major banks in the UK. The bank has got two major clusters; Global retail banking and corporate and investment and wealth management. Though Barclays have many other constituents as well like Barclays private equity, Barclays Cards etc. Being such a big organization, it has to keep innovating new technologies to become unique in the market. Though there were many innovative systems being introduced by Barclays in recent years. But the most remarkable and latest is the PINsentry, a device/system which regulates online banking and keeps the interest of its customers secured and safe from frauds. Barclayss PINsentry: PINsentry is a device developed by the Barclays Bank in order to prevent fraudulent in online banking. The device is a two factor authentication security system. The PINsentry device has a small LCD, 4 main buttons and a number pad. Barclayss online banking has always been highly secured but the invention and introduction of PINsentry has added up an additional level of security. The use of this system is very easy and quick. The PINsentry is a type of card reader which generates codes for login which are based on the last four digits of your customers card. Every time when one has to login, it generates a new code. All a person needs to do is insert the card in the device and enter the secret pin number on its number pads to generate a new code. Basically the PINsentry i.e. the card reader reads the card details and generates a new code accordingly for login. It then generates an eight digit code for using online banking. The PINsentry device needs to follow certain steps in order to get started and use it every time. All you have to do is get the Barclays card, PINsentry device and 12 digit online banking membership number. After having these entire things, a customer has to get registered online for PINsentry. And it is ready to use. Advantages of PINsentry: The PINsentry added a numerous numbers of advantages to the customers of Barclays. Some of them are mentioned as below: Easy and quick in use. Safe and secured online banking. Hassel free service. Additional level of security with no frauds. Privacy of customers. Smart technology in modern times. Disadvantages of PINsentry: Though every technology has advantages but it always have some set back too. They are as follows: Inconvenient to carry device everywhere. After every 90 seconds the device turns off. Problems in using overseas. Time consuming process. The card gets locked if incorrect pin is entered thrice. These were the advantages and disadvantages of PINsentry of Barclays. Irrespective the disadvantages, the new technology have been liked by the customers and have been accepted widely all over. The Barclays says that till date there has been no frauds occurred with usage of PINsentry. The bank gained distinct recognition in the industry with the introduction of this technology. Benifits to Barclays: A distinct recognition was achieved by Barclays in the industry with PINsentry. A combat in frauds made common people have more faith in Barclays. A growth in customer is achieved because of new technology. Increased market goodwill. Online usage growth. Wide acceptance by customers. Problems faced by Barclays: Irrespective of having so many benefits, Barclays faced many problems too with PINsentry. Problems with the device were found with many customers. It became difficult for them to access online banking. The device was not accepted in every country. So it was difficult when customer were overseas. The PINsentry implemented security on own banking, but it is the same like a normal card when used on other sites. Safety only for debit card users. Inconvenience faced by customers forced them to switch over to other banks. Though the device faced complication and few problems but it is still in use and people find it worth and good are still accepting it. The Barclays also took certain measures to overcome these problems and on the major front the benefits of PINsentry cannot be overlooked. Conclusion: It is worth to mention that PINsentry by Barclays brought a new technology in banking industry. And it is worth appreciating. Everything coin has two sides, like wise every innovation has both advantages and disadvantages too. Though it can be said PINsentry had quite a few negative remarks, but the positive remarks are far important and appreciable which cannot be overlook. So personally I would say that the PINsentry device has a greater importance for online banking even if it adds an extra step to access but it is all for self security. And as far as we all know, everybody in this world could spare a few minutes for their own security rather than being unsecured even when you have the technology. Bibliography: C. J. Touhill, Gregory J. Touhill, Thomas A. ORiordan (2008), Commercialization of innovative technology, John Wiley Sons Inc., New Jersey, Ch. .16, 17. John Howell (2005), The management of innovation and technology, Sage Publications, Cornwall, Ch- 1. http://www.eoearth.org/article/Technological_innovation http://www.slideshare.net/jamilkhatib/technology-and-innovation-management-1186056

BBC Adaptation to Convergence

BBC Adaptation to Convergence Examine and evaluate how one media organisation has adapted to convergence: BBC. Across the media, many media organizations have responded and adapted to convergence through welcoming multi-media platforms to help with spreading their content. In this essay I will be discussing how the BBC has adapted to convergence and the outcome of it all. What is convergence? Convergence is when different of forms of media platforms come together to make a huge multi-platform to give the ability to distribute content to many people. Convergence has become both technological as well as social, the audiences play such an important role in making sure that content is distributed widely across the different platforms. The World Wide Web has been one of the most important contributors to the huge phenomenon of media convergence. Over time it has developed so much that is has allowed a huge range of media related platforms such as video, print and audio to be accessible and available from anywhere. The internet has definitely changed a lot about the way that audiences now absorb and access all this information. Moreover, one main aspect of convergence which has become really popular is mobile. It has allowed any information to reach the hands of anyone using a handheld mobile which has internet on it. For example, many companies and organizations such as the BBC and Channel 4 News have started to change the way that they present their content, making sure that they use short and straight to the point headlines which is directed to audiences who are always on the go. This is simply because companies want to make sure that their content is accessible anywhere and at any time to make sure they keep aud ience satisfaction rates high, as well as making sure that audiences are always up to date with headline news that is happening all over the world. However, one thing which has helped things go further is obviously the internet. The internet has allowed the use of visual clips and images to act as the story teller of most of the headlines. Most websites that people visit using their mobiles, the BBC being one of them, they use photographs to tell the story of certain events. The photos usually have a small caption under them to briefly explain the picture, however, the image is the one that does most of the story telling. Photographs are a benefit for audiences who use handheld devices and smart phones because it allows them to see the image clearer and get a feel of what they are going to read about rather than reading through several lines. Also, looking at the videography side, most websites now allow audiences to watch a live stream of the channel. This makes sure that more audiences are able to view the content of the BBC anywhere. The news organizations are not the only ones to take advantage of this, radio stations as wel l as social networking sites have too. Another company which uses convergence in this way is YouTube. YouTube is known to be a huge media platform in which people are able to upload videos accessible to millions of people all around the world. The BBC has a channel on YouTube which uploads videos of headline news for people that have missed the live stream and want to watch it again. This is another example of convergence. Development of multi-media platforms. In order for the BBC to gain full benefits of adapting to convergence, they have to take the advantage of migrating to multi-media platforms. For example, a famous strategy used by the UK television industry is called (360 degree commissioning). This is simply at the early stage of getting all the content together and making sure that there is a potential consumer value, once this is agreed on, the television industries return all the content to their audiences through a variety of media platforms, for example, mobile, online and so on. Another strategy used by television industries is the simple and basic use of websites and many other digital platforms to help put themselves out there. The main question to ask is if media industries are benefitting from being able to spread their content across various platforms. To dissect this question, it is best to look into the development of convergence and to look at audience feedback after convergence was used by the media industry. The benefits of convergence and how the BBC have adapted to it. The clear and obvious benefits of multi-media platforms are simply economic, it helps various companies and organizations in their content being distributed to so many audiences and making sure that the content is consumed across these platforms. Another main benefit is popularity. Organizations depend a lot of multi-platforms to make sure that the name of their company and their credibility is maintained. Considering that so many people now days have smart phones and have easy access to the internet on the go, it is easy for companies to make sure they are recognized through apps, websites etc†¦ The BBC uses multi-media platforms in the sense that they have apps in mobile phones that people can access so easily, they have made mobile friendly websites as well as making it possible for people to get notifications of any news that has just taken place. This is a great example of how the BBC uses convergence to their advantage. Another way in which the BBC uses convergence is through the huge development of devices such as media players and mobiles. The development of these digital platforms, with the internet being the main principle, it means that it has become so easy for content that the BBC has produced to be circulated and consumed by audiences all over the world. With the growth of social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, this makes it even easier for audiences to access information about the BBC and all the news that is up to date. The BBC have both an official twitter account as well as a Facebook account to make sure they are reached by as many people as possible . Mass audiences are able to be reached easier by all these big industries through the use of convergence. Through digitization, it has been very easy to reformat content from several media platforms therefore creating a better economic advantage for industries. The creation of multimedia platforms has allowed a great amount of digital distribution, therefore, more audiences can access a variety of content on the internet. This creates a huge knowledgeable platform for industries because people will know who they are simply because they are able to access their content on the go. An example which shows how the BBC have adapted to convergence is the availability of the BBC iPlayer. The BBC iPlayer is a service that allows audiences to catch up with any content they have missed. The BBC iPlayer was launched and made available to the public in 2007. Since then, it has become very popular and is used a lot by viewers. Another example of convergence of the BBC is simply television. All the adverts that people see on their TVs’ now days all involve social networking in one way or another. Nearly every industry whether it be news or music, they all have some sort of social networking account in which all their audiences/fans, can keep up with all the industries information or simply content they have missed. Furthermore, a key example of how the BBC have adapted to convergence in through the creation of their BBC radio station. By introducing BBC radio, the corporation has undoubtedly increased their audiences in terms of numbers, particularly to include those who are unable to view the television live stream because they are always on the move, as well as those from different socio-economic backgrounds (i.e. lower class families.) Disadvantages of convergence. Another disadvantage of convergence for companies such as the BBC would be cost-effectiveness. This simply means that providing their services and content through different mediums would incur extra costs for the corporation therefore potentially harming their profit margins. Many organizations and companies such as the BBC struggle a lot in making any revenue from putting their content on the internet. Considering that many broadband companies have emerged in recent years, it has made it even easier for people to undertake illegal streaming therefore creating a threat to most television companies and their economy. Moreover, the whole idea of being able to access any content from any industry on the internet has made it economically difficult for companies such as the BBC. The internet has made it hard to place payment schemes on mainstream information. Many of these disadvantages have been discussed in Rupert Murdoch’s article about the newspaper industry and how newspaper organizations should start putting payment schemes in order to gain some sort of revenue from their content. What the BBC could do better. When discussing convergence and how the BBC adapted to it, there are a few improvements that the BBC could make to maximise their potential ratings. A step that the BBC could prosper to take would be payment schemes. This would allow the organization to charge viewers for a service that gives them the option to watch content that they have already missed through the live stream. In doing this, the BBC as an organization would increase their revenue allowing them to expand and offer further content to audiences. Nonetheless, this is merely a suggestion and one of many paths the BBC could take to exploit the use of convergence. Conclusion. Many companies if not most, have thought of going ahead with digitalization initiatives. All industries now have websites and several marketing techniques that do not include social media. Social media is obviously known to be a very important component of any marketing technique, however, digitalization must go further than just social media. Digitalization has changed so fast in such a small period of time that it is believed that in years to come, it will be deemed as a usual strategy to use when thinking about your company. This is critical in order for companies such as the BBC to make sure they are ahead of everyone else and that they are able to learn new things from digitalization. Considering that most things have now become digital, it is clear to see that the world is changing rapidly because of this. It is important for popular companies like the BBC to support the means of digitalization and to accept that it is of a benefit than it is a setback. Saying this, some organi zations may feel that the digital scheme may not work for them, therefore it is smart to check the overall capability of it all before applying the strategy. Overall, the BBC has gained more than it has lost through adapting to convergence because the company now has such a huge platform for people to interact and share their content worldwide and make sure they are recognized by many people. Referencing. unknown. (2011). what is media convergence. Available: https://mconvergence.wordpress.com/about/. Last accessed 02 may 2015. Sanaz Fallahkhair. (unknown). An architecture for iTV and mobile phone based interactive language.. Media convergence. 1 (1), 1-6. Robin Foster Tom Broughton. (2012). PSB prominence in a converged media world. A changing world. 1 (1), 11-19. Henry Jenkins (2004). The cultural logic of media convergence. 7th ed. London New Dehli: SAGE Publications. 34-40. Dwyer, Tim (2010). Media convergence:. United Kingdom: McGraw-Hill education. 24-30. Julia Knight. (2015). The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. Convergence. 21 (1), 1. S Chakaveh. (2007). Media covergence, an introduction. Available: http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-540-73110-8_88. Last accessed 28 Apr 2015. Christy Belden. (2011). Media convergence: Media and marketing. Available: http://www.slideshare.net/cbelden/media-convergence-7376828. Last accessed 28 Apr 2015. Mathew Buckland. (2007). Convergence in the media. Available: http://www.slideshare.net/matthewbuckland/media-convergence?related=1. Last accessed 01 May 2015. Unknown (unknown). Media covergence and the transformed media environment. Australia: unknown. 67-74. H Jenkins, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide (2006), 18 ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã¢â‚¬â€œ19.

walmart :: essays research papers

Relationship Marketing King Wal-Mart Still No. 1 The economists are still telling us how bad the U.S. economy is, but don't say anything about the bad economy to your local Wal-Mart greeter. His or her employer just witnessed revenues grow by 12 percent in 2002, to $246.5 billion. He or she will probably proudly let you know that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was just ranked number one—again—by Fortune magazine, leading the top 500 corporations for a second year in a row. How do they do it? Sam Walton's 1992 book Made In America has all the details, but let me sum up: Wal-Mart knows relationship marketing. Rule No. 8 of "Sam's Rules for Building A Business" holds the secret to this winning formula of success. He says, "Let them (your customer) know you appreciate them." So what has Wal-Mart done to show that they appreciate their customers? They use one-to-one relationship marketing tactics, executed by the famous Wal-Mart greeter. The Wal-Mart greeting was the original method used by the giant retailer to show customers that they are appreciated. A greeter at the door thanks customers for coming in, assists with a shopping cart, and provides a "goodbye thank you" upon departing the store. The friendly senior citizen dressed in the blue vest conveys warmth and personality to every guest entering or exiting a Wal-Mart store. So why don't others adopt this simple marketing tactic? Some do. Meijer retail stores also use greeters; many restaurants, hotels and other businesses do the same. But most don't—because relationship marketing is not as simple as it seems. It takes a type of commitment different than traditional marketing. Relationship Marketing Has 4 Key Components: It has to be personalized. Personalization can come in the form of a highly targeted direct mail piece, a phone call or email. Obviously the handshake and a smile illustrated by Wal-Mart greeters also work well in personalizing the relationship. It has to be targeted. Wal-Mart invests money in maintaining relationships with existing customers. By targeting this group, Wal-Mart establishes long-term relationships with their most loyal shoppers. Targeting customers through programs that reward loyalty can result in big returns over the life of the customer. It has to be meaningful. Your marketing message has to connect in an emotional way to establish a lasting relationship. If the Wal-Mart greeter did not look you in the eye while saying "hello," the greeting would not have a lasting impact.

King Phillip And Puwblo Revolt:compare And Contrast Essay -- essays re

5 years and nearly an entire continent separated King Philip’s war from the great pueblo revolt. Compare and contrast the causes and consequences of these 2 conflicts. The Great Pueblo revolt of 1680 all started with the droughts of 1660 when the Southwest had severe drought that brought famine and disease. During this, hungry Apaches who couldn’t find food on plains attacked the pueblos. This angered the people on the pueblos, but there new leader Pope’, a mysterious medicine doctor, tried to keep the Indian beliefs around and resisted the Christian religion. The Spaniards hated this, so they captured his older brother. This enraged Pope’ against the Spaniards so he held meetings to tell everybody that the Spaniards must leave. The Spaniards found out about this and arrested Pope, publicly flogged him and released him back to the pueblos. When he was captured, the pueblo people set fires in the Indian villages in New Mexico. To take care of the fires, the Spaniards sent troops to halt the ritual of setting the fires by pueblo people, and they arrested all of the medicine doctors, killing several of them. The people believed th at the doctors protected them from evil, so all of the pueblo towns wanted to unite against the Spaniards. The group from the pueblos went to the governor of Santa Fe and told him that if the doctors that were imprisoned weren’t released by sundown, all of the Spaniards in New Mexico would be killed. They released the prisoners because the Indians outnumber the Spaniards by a huge amount.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hate and anger was spreading throughout the pueblos concerning the Spaniards power in New Mexico. There was a small skirmish in Santa Fe that the Indians won, but Pope said they needed more than that. He wanted Indian organization, leadership, and a magic spark with which to set the country aflame. He traveled to each pueblo and won their loyalty during secret meetings he held. He wanted each pueblo to strengthen the courage of their Indians by cleansing the ranks of informers. He suspected his son-in-law as being as a spy for the Spaniards, so they killed him. The Spaniards found out about this and went looking for Pope, but he hid in the Taos Pueblo.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In midsummer 1680, Pope said the time was now for a revolt. Pope used his mystical powers to summon 3 native Gods to his secret chamber.... ...n’t find any alliances. Phillip attacked anyway, starting King Phillip’s War. After the attack, the Nipmucks and the Mohicans joined him by burning several English cities.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In spring 1676, Phillip attacked Massachusetts and lower Rhode Island. All of the Indians from Phillip’s tribe were helping him, except for the praying Indians who were on the English side. Phillip relocated all of the praying Indians to Dear Island, while he continued his conquest.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Alderman, one of the praying Indians, knew of Phillips whereabouts and told the English where he was. The English killed Phillip and let Alderman keep Phillip’s hand in a bucket of rum so he could show everybody. His head was severed and placed in a cage in Plymouth for everybody to see.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The war resulted in 1/6th of the entire white population was killed, a cost of 90,000 pounds of sterling, and 25 English towns abandoned or destroyed. The fighting continued until 1678, when only 6 Indian villages remained in Maine, with only praying Indians surviving. The wars also freed up a lot of land for English Settlements.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

Arachne EC

Earache From Ovoid's Metamorphoses, Earache remains a relevant myth in all its forms. The Myth of Earache provides both a spiritual almost religious moral baseline as well as an origin for a common household creature. In the myth, Earache- a talented weaver, challenges the weaving skills of Palls (also known as Athena). Intrigued, Athena weaves her tapestry and â€Å"Earache weaves hers in reply'. (Book VI: 103-128, http:// Ovid. Lib. Virginia. Due/trans/Metamorphose. HTML). Even Athena has to admit that Earache is the greatest weaver and in anger ruins her tapestry.Earache in shame kills resell, and is resurrected by Athena to live her life as a spider so that she can continue to weave. (Book VI: 129-145) This myth serves several purposes specifically to Greek culture. Firstly, it reminds those who revere the Greek Gods; that they are not only all powerful but that they have the same nature as humans do. Athena is human in the sense that she is jealous of the work of Earache. She t hen returns from Jealousy to show Earache compassion and love by resurrecting her to weave forever. In a religious way is an example of the condemnation of suicide within organized religion.All religions address suicide differently, but nevertheless it is addressed. The other common theme being that those within religious stories that choose to challenge a God/ Goddess in any way, never come out triumphant. It reminds those reading that the Gods are all powerful and always will be. This myth also creates an origin story for the word â€Å"arachnid† for spiders, a household creature. This helps the myth survive and makes it relevant to cultures across the world including my own, linking something that everyone knows, and everyone has seen to an origin and a person.Suddenly, those scary eight-legged little monsters are a piece of a woman's soul. They weave for the woman that bore them. When a small child is about to squash the spider and their loved one stops them and tells the m the story of Earache. The creature that Earache is turned into, directly reflects her as a woman. Firstly, the talented weaver is resurrected as a creature that weaves to survive. Secondly, after she has hung herself to end her life, she is turned into a creature that hangs onto the material that extends her life. She must now live from the art that caused her to take her own life.Besides teaching readers an example of hubris, the story teaches the importance of not boasting. When Athena is warned of the young woman's challenge, she gives her a last chance to learn some humility. The woman continues to boast and ignores the ominous warning. The practical piece of this myth is that it would be, could be told to children because it teaches so many warnings. It is fairly easy to imagine the matriarch or patriarch of the family sitting down the small proud child and telling them the story of Earache, and letting their eyes brighten as they relate and understand the story in all its po wer and meaning.The reason most myths and stories remain in a culture is usually centric to religion. Nearly every culture on the planet has some form of organized religion. The reason that stories linked to religion carry on, opposed to others is that they draw people together. These ideologies are passed among family members, on through generations and create links between families. This is part of the reason that other stories, not religiously based do not survive. They remain in families, changing over time, never chronicled and decomposing slowly over time.Build a big enough religious following and your stories will live forever. I find many of these stories including Earache's fascinating but slightly dramatic. Killing yourself over a ripped tapestry is a bit over the top. The phrase â€Å"crying over spilt milk† comes to mind. I understand the stories purpose as a lesson but wonder whether there wasn't a less severe way to get the point across. This specific story will live on because its namesake creatures are a household critter. I wonder if people see spiders and think â€Å"if only Earache wouldn't have challenged Athena.

AT&T Wireless Case Essay

1. [10 points] Describe the cost behavior in the wireless industry. What are the implications of this cost behavior for cost-volume-profit (CVP) relationships? Cost behavior is how a company’s costs change given a change in that company’s activities. Variable costs are costs that change proportionately with the changes in a company’s activities. In contrast, the costs that do not change with a change in a company’s activities are known as fixed costs. In the case of AT&T, costs are focused primarily into the fixed category. This means that as the company’s activities shift, its costs remain relatively unchanged. This combination of high fixed costs and low cost variable costs gives AT&T and the rest of the industry a large amount of operating leverage. The high operating leverage of AT&T means that the company utilizes a higher risk strategy which leads to higher profits as volumes increase. Essentially, as long as AT&T maintains a volume that covers at least its fixed costs, any additional volume translates into profit. This works both ways however, if volume decreases below the threshold for covering fix ed costs then every decrease in volume yields proportionately equal losses. According to the case, there is little cost associated with text messaging. The case states that text messaging has an incredibly low variable cost, estimated at only a few cents per text. So basically, once AT&T has covered the cost of the required infrastructure to facilitate text messages, any revenues garnered from text message and virtually pure profit. 2. [5 points] What are the key cost drivers? Can a cost driver be used to continually raise prices? A cost driver is the root cause of why a cost occurs. For AT&T and the wireless industry there are several cost drivers. The most obvious ones in this case would be the number of texts sent per minute and the number of customers handled by the carrier. However, there are many more. These include the number of cell towers in the area and the amount of database  storage needed for handle the messages. In addition, individual cell phone plans and how many devices that are currently handled by a carrier in a given area are cost drivers. The primary cost driver used for the purpose of determining costs in this case is the amount of texts per minute. In this case, with its high fixed costs and low variable costs, any given change in volume will have little effect on costs. So, for AT&T, the cost drivers are unlikely to raise prices. However, this is not the case for all industries. If a company has high variable prices and low fixed prices we would expect the opposite. 3. [15 points] What does it cost AT&T to send a text message?[Consider costs of the channel, billing cost, storage cost] Based on this cost, what is AT&T’s profit margin as a percentage of its short message service (SMS) text messaging business? [Consider per-use pricing and package pricing] The case states that the average cost per voice minute is $0.07. From this the case determines that the equivalent amount of texts that can be sent, given the data transmission rates, is eighty-one. Thus the cost per text can be calculated as: $0.07 / 81 = $0.0008641 per text This, however, is not the total cost of a text. We must also factor in the costs of billing, databases, and storage. The case estimates the cost of billing at twice that of the wireless costs. Therefore we calculate the cost of billing as: $0.0008641 x 2 = $0.0017283 per text Database costs are estimated to be $10 million and AT&T is expected to carry 1% of the 3.5 trillion in world traffic. Knowing this we calculate the cost of storage as: $10 million / ( 3.5 trillion x .01) = $10 million / 35 billion = $.0002857  per text The cost of storage is assumed to be negligible in the case. However, I felt that it would still be interesting to calculate the cost. The case states the cost of storage to be $1,000 per terabyte and that worldwide traffic requires 1,343 terabytes of storage. Given that AT&T carries only 1% of the traffic storage costs can be calculated as: ($1,000 x (1343 Tb x .01) / 35 billion = $13,430 / 35 billion = $0.0000003837 The combined cost of sending a text is thus: $0.0008641 + $0.0017283 + $0.0002857 + $0.0000003737 = $0.002878 To calculate the profit margin, we simply divide gross profit by total revenue. We will take into account the profit margins for three of AT&T’s data plans. The per message plan which charge $0.20 per text, the $5.00 for 200 messages plan, and the $15 for 1500 messages plan. Per message plan: ($0.20 – $0.002878) / $0.20 = 98.56% $5 plan: (($5.00 / 200) – $0.002878) / ($5.00 / 200) = 88.49% $15 plan: (($15.00 / 1500) – $0.002878) / ($15.00 / 1500) = 71.22% 4. [5 points] How strong a relationship should exist between the price charged to a customer for a good or service and the cost of providing that good or service? Explain. It depends largely on the profit goals of any given company and can vary wildly depending on a number of factors such as whether a company is nonprofit or not. In the case of AT&T, the price should at least cover the cost of the product in order for the company to break even. Any amount greater than that will translate into profits. AT&T should price their products based on the supply and demand of the given products. For text messaging, the demand is massive and AT&T gauges their prices accordingly. However, I feel that a degree of morality should be taken into account. I know that in the business world morality is generally ignored in search of profits. But with text messaging, they are metaphorically printing money for themselves. The cost of sending a text message is infinitesimal compared to what they charge their customers. The sad truth is that as long as we remain willing to pay their price for the service they will continue to charge it. 5. [5 points] Why is the price that AT&T charges to transmit a kilobyte of data via text message so much higher than the price charged to transmit a kilobyte of data via a Smartphone? The price of text messaging is higher than simply transmitting data by smartphone largely because of supply and demand. The wireless industry prices their products based on demand. Currently, the demand for text messaging is high and still growing. Because of this prices remain high. Perhaps if the average consumer was more aware of the cost of texting this would change their preferences and cause the price to ultimately drop. Texts are not the only source of revenue for the wireless industry. For example, the industry also experiences revenues from sales of devices such as cell phones. The industry prices their devices in order to compete with others in the industry and this leads to low prices in the device market. The revenue from texts is used to offset the loss of potential revenues in the device market. 6. [10 points] What should the management of wireless firms seek to do now? Wireless firms should seek to improve their infrastructure to increase the capacity and efficiency of their networks. This would allow the firms to handle a larger amount of data and improved rates. This would, in turn, increase the amount of customers that the firms could service and would increase the firm’s revenues. In the case of the wireless industry, an increase in revenues would likely lead to proportionately large increases in profits. The most efficient ways to improve the wireless infrastructure is to add additional towers and storage capabilities. According to the PCIA, revisions in networking policies would also help to achieve this goal. By  allowing the wireless industry access to existing support structures such as towers, buildings, water tanks, and utility poles, the need for constructing expensive cell towers could be eliminated. In fact, the new generation of antenna systems no longer require the construction of older cell towers and are designed to be at tached to the previously mentioned pre-existing support structures.