The Threat of Fraud Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

The Threat of Fraud - Assignment Example This causes considerable losses to companies and executives. Identity theft can be managed by ensuring stronger internal control and monitoring systems such as using the RCSA, encrypting sensitive data, and obtaining insurance for the executives. A workshop organized to sensitize executives on fraud would include a participatory and self-assessment session to monitor uptake of information by attendants.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Identity theft refers to the act of stealing or gaining another person’s identifying and personal information such as a social security number or credit card numbers by unauthorized means and using or having the intention to use the information fraudulently (van der Meulen, 2011). The first step in protecting executives would be to get insurance in the director and officer insurance form to cover against loss of wealth and associated assets. An executives signature can, for example, be used to fraudulently get a binding agreement with the company, which would be detrimental to the company such as using the executive’s identity to access credit lines, which are not approved. The company would need to ensure it and its and executives are under the Merchant Risk Council which is a group of over 7 800 merchants, financial institutions, law enforcement agencies and vendors who work together to enhance cyber frauds, for example, fi nancial institutions would have to call the company before processing a credit card application. Of course, improving cybersecurity at the business would be a viable step. Cybercrime occurs when three principal factors are present; opportunity, rationalization, and pressure as the fraud triangle shows.

Mm578 Consumer Behavior Course Project Explanation Essay Example for Free

Mm578 Consumer Behavior Course Project Explanation Essay To help you create a graduate-level submission, the following additional insights are provided to help you learn and to facilitate a high quality written submission. You are asked to choose a consumer product or service about which you either know something or on which you can find good research. You may use either a product/service with which you are actively involved in your business or one from another business. This project supports all of the Terminal Course Objectives in the course. This assignment is due on Sunday of Week SEVEN via the Dropbox. No late papers will be accepted. You are to create a thorough, tightly focused Marketing Strategy that focuses on consumer behavior for either a product or a service. To help you in the process, Appendix B is available on page 738 of our course text. The sections below that are highlighted in BLUE text are found in Appendix B. The insights provided in Appendix B should be very helpful as you assess your paper’s intended content. Those sections not highlighted receive this instructor’s additional perspectives in the â€Å"Additional Instructions† area. Develop a tightly focused, strategically-oriented paper. I will be seeking your depth and breadth of your findings and arguments that communicate via your logical, business-oriented writing that you are a thinking, educated, marketer. As you create your paper, please NUMBER each section so that I can easily determine on which one of the seven (7) sections you are writing. You want to demonstrate in-depth critical thinking, provide examples, and support your assertions with legitimate scholarly resources. Use APA citations each and any time that you have referenced scholarly content. NOTE: Wikipedia. com or Answers. com or other similar â€Å"general go-to-us-for-a-fast-answer† websites are not considered scholarly resources. Please do not use these. Demonstrate scholarly research that utilizes respected resources that identify the subject-matter-expert by name. NOTE: No more than 25-30% of your Course Project should come from external sources. Although this is a research paper, I am more interested in learning YOUR perspectives, based on your analysis. After all, this is a paper that YOU are writing. All assignments are submitted to Turnitin. comâ„ ¢ to ensure originality of work. Thus at least 70%+ of your paper’s content comes from your fingertips and demonstrates your synthesis of content reviewed, your critical analysis, critical thinking, and application of key concepts that you have learned from our MM578 textbook. Papers that are a collection of cobbled-together snippets from other websites will not earn a passing grade and when minimal adult learner synthesis and minimal original content is apparent. Your Course Project asks you to utilize the following seven topics as headings for clarity, as well as subtopics as subheadings. Please clearly label each Heading and Subheading in your paper. Headings and SubheadingsAdditional Instructions 1: Market Analysis †¢Company †¢Customers †¢Competitors †¢Conditions Market Analysis (continued)Utilize concepts from your MM522 Marketing Management course and Chapter ONE of our MM578 Consumer Behavior etext book to complete this section. Describe your Company and your Customers.

Cause and Effect Essay †The Causes of Divorce :: Expository Cause Effect Essays

Cause and Effect Essay – The Causes of Divorce From the past to present, people all over the world have determined to live together, which is called â€Å"get marriage† in another word, so that they depend on for living each other. Nevertheless, some couples are unable to maintain their relationship; therefore they choose divorce, which is one of the solutions to cope with problems between husband and wife. Furthermore, most people think carefully before they get marriage. However, the divorce rates trend to continually increase nowadays, thus it might be argued that divorces can be taken place easier than the past. There are three main causes of divorce: changing woman’s roles, stress in modern living and lack of communication, which are highlighted below. The first significant cause of recent rise in the rates of divorce is that women completely change in roles. In the past, men have to earn whole money to afford the expense of family, whereas woman only do housework, hence women have no money leading to depend on husbands’ money. Because of these situations, it is too difficult for most women to separate from their husbands. Nonetheless, these situations entirely change nowadays. The equality between men and women in roles are very clear at the moment, thus women can work outside to earn money, while men share the household tasks such as cooking, cleaning, washing as well as caring for children. It can be clearly seen that women are independent from money as they can earn money by themselves to support their living cost. Accordingly, the divorce rates recently rise. Another cause to confirm the recent increase in divorce rates is stress in modern living. Many people, who live in globalisation, have considerable pressures to earn money. It can be obviously seen that the stress has occurred since they are children. For instance, in Thailand, students generally want to go to famous school so that they take advantage to go to well-known universities. Studying in celebrated universities mostly causes having a good opportunity to find a job or earn a lot of money. This circumstance not only happens in Thailand, but also occurs in many countries. Some people are laid off from their companies; consequently the stress occurs in their family, which leads to divorce. Some families can earn money, but inadequate for covering their expenses, therefore it is easy to think about divorce. Nevertheless, the rates of unemployment trend to continually increase as a result the divorce rates can also rise.

Who is to blame Essay -- essays research papers

Who Is To Blame? â€Å"Frankenstein†, one of the key texts in modern literature, was written by Mary Shelley in 1818 when she was only 21. The novel was first published anonymously, and the author was only later revealed to be Shelley. When she republished the book in 1831, with changes to the story, Shelley had finally answered the question she had been asked several times: how could such a young girl write about such horrible things? Her answer describes her literary sources, as well as a disturbing dream that was the kernel of inspiration for the story. â€Å"Frankenstein† is a tale about a man named Victor Frankenstein who creates life out of ‘raw materials’. As the story unfolds, the creature comes to life and ends up, out of revenge, killing several members of Frankenstein’s family. Although ...

Germany was to blame for the outbreak of the First World War Essay

Germany was to blame for the outbreak of the First World War do you agree? I do not agree fully that the Germans were to blame for the outbreak of war. German intentions were not to start a war, however there are a few events where they unintentionally helped to escalate the situation. There is no doubt that they did help to escalate the situation between Serbia and Austro Hungary. In this essay I will be arguing that Germans did not cause the outbreak of the war. I will be doing this by discussing the blank cheque, the Schlieffen plan, the September programme, the actions of the Kaiser and the actions of Bethmann Hollweg. Many historians argue that because Germany pre-planed for war that when the chance of war arose they obviously provoked it. The evidence for this argument is the Schlieffen plan, it was a military strategy devised in 1882 as a means of coping with a two front war. Some people argue that the Schlieffen plan is the first traceable reason why the war started. However this is hardly true the Schlieffen plan was drawn up because of the increasing pressure Germany was under because of the triple Entente. Germany was after all geographically in bad position on one side they had France and on the other Russia, to make this situation worse France and Russia were allied. Therefore it is not surprising that a plan was created in case a war with the both countries was to occur. A war such as this would have to be fought on two fronts so to be able to fight a war like this on side would have to be disabled quickly. The German’s plans to get to Paris in 6 weeks is seen to be an aggressive tactic that is why some people see the Schlieffen plan as a plan to expand Germany if war was to break out. It is clear this is not the case, the Schlieffen plan was a defensive strategy designed to help Germany to come with a war on two fronts. The Schlieffen plan can hardly be seen as the Germans planning for war because other nations had simial plans such as Russia who had to stick to their plans so completely that hey had to declare war on Germany. An argument has been put forward that Germany declaring war on France is proof that the Schlieffen plan was a form of expansion for Germany and that that it was not a defensive plan. However this is hardly true, Germany declared war on France because Russia had declared war on them and Russia and France were allies. So to Germany I was natural that France would join the war because of the alliance system. Russia also did the same when the Tsar was told that he could not mobilise against Austria alone because the plans were for a war with Austria and Russia. The September programme drawn up by the chancellor of Germany, Bethmann Hollweg is seen as another piece of evidence suggesting that Germany had planned the war. The September programme was a document that set out Germany’s war aims, including a list of territorial acquisitions. This is seen to be incriminating because it was written so soon after war broke out. However Bethmann Hollweg was under a lot of pressure from military who needed to know their objectives. It should also be considered that the German army had been mobilised for a few months so plans for the army had to be drawn up. Some people argue that because the September programme was released so quickly that these objectives must have been premeditated. This is not completely true, it was important for the germens to think quickly what they were going to have to achieve in the war after all they were fighting on two fronts. Some of the objective might have been premeditated but these were probably defensive ones thought up long ago. It is clear to see that Bethmann Hollweg was caught between the Kaiser and Moltke. Bethmann Hollweg’s behaviour is often criticized during the July crisis. It is Bethmann Hollweg’s actions that are used as the argument against him. However what he did can be seen as a gamble that went horribly wrong. Bethmann was not consulted on the blank cheque but did back it. Some people argue that Bethmann wanted to manipulate Russia into mobilising against Germany so they didn’t look as if they started the war. This is untrue because instead Bethmann thought that he could keep the Balkan war localized. The evidence for this argument is that Bethmann thought that Russia would not help Serbia if a war happened because the Tsar would not lend his support to royal assassins. Bethmann also felt that Russia was not military or financially ready for a war. Germany’s mobilisation against Russia was only meant to deter Russia from war not to provoke them into war that is where Bethmann’s gamble failed. The blank cheque is seen as confirming Germany’s guilt in starting the First World War. The blank cheque is another example of a mistake made by Germany. The Kaiser gave unconditional support to Austria, this was done because Germany felt isolated by the triple entente and wanted to make it clear to Austria that their alliance was strong. However as professor Rohl argues the Kaiser was a very unstable man. There is a lot of evidence to support this argument such as when the Kaiser decided to change is mind about the blank cheque but then was convinced by his wife to â€Å"be a man†. The Kaiser was heavily influenced by others and there are many examples, such as the first Moroccan crisis where he was pushed by Bulow and Holstein into provoking the French. The blank cheque is greatly misunderstood the vague phasing used is open to interpretation. The historian Gerhard Ritter argues â€Å"that Germany sought to deter Russia from war, not to provoke conflict with her†. The blank cheque like the September programme is seen as evidence that Germany had wanted a war for some time but really they have both been misinterpreted. The real nation that was to blame for the outbreak of war was Austro-Hungary who even after finding no evidence that linked the assassins to any terror groups in Serbia and after Serbia agreed to their ultimatum still invaded their country. This is really the behaviour of a nation with war on their agenda. Austro-Hungary it can be said had to avenge the death of Franz Ferdinand. Russia too could have avoided war but much like the Kaiser the Tsar kept on changing his mind. In conclusion from the evidence above it can be seen that everyone muddled into war and that no one power is to blame. The September programme and the Schlieffen plan which are seen to highlight German guilt, do not and are actually defensive precautions not premeditated plans for war. Bethmann Hollweg and the Kaiser both were trying to achieve the same objective but were both communicating very well. The nations involved in the July crisis can be blamed for standing by their alliances instead of sorting out the situation. Germany did contribute to the mix up between nations in the Balkans and for inciting Austro-Hungary however they are not ultimately to blame for the outbreak of war.

Stretegic Managemeny Vodafone Essays

Stretegic Managemeny Vodafone Essays Stretegic Managemeny Vodafone Essay Stretegic Managemeny Vodafone Essay Mobile operators are gaining the first mover advantage that enables them successfully to improve top line and build customer loyalty when they create innovative and differentiated products and services and launch them quicker than other competitors.In a fierce competitive mobile telecommunications market, gaining and maintaining cost and operational efficiency relatively has a great impact on bottom line improvements. These operators can capitalize on IT capabilities to gain and maintain competitive advantages and improve both top line and bottom line to achieve their strategies and objectives. Vodafone Group is the world? s largest mobile operator to provide a total of 333 million subscribers with its products and services globally.The Group has a better understanding of the strategic values of IT as a source of competitive advantages to continuously improve both top line and bottom line in order to achieve its organizational strategies. To improve top line, Vodafone Group has continuously developed and launched new differentiated products and services beyond traditional voice and simple data services to improve customer experience and build customer loyalty while adapting the advanced technologies faster than its competitors, optimizing entire value chains and redefining industry, and focusing on the Group Technology activities.To improve bottom line, Vodafone Group has implemented its strategic initiative, „One Vodafone? program, which transforms 16 operating companies into a united operation to achieve streamlined cost effective and efficient organization. Vodafone Group has embedded IT sharing, outsourcing, and centralization and consolidation strategies in order to achieve the objectives of One Vodafone program. Radio access network are shared with Orange, IT application development and maintenance are outsourced to IBM and EDS, and supply chain management function and data centers are centralized and consolidated.Vodafone Group has developed group-wide strategy that is associated with its better understanding of the importance of the customer experience to its business success. The Group standardized on Siebel CRM platforms globally to gain a 360 degree view of customers, and measure and manage customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, revenue assurance, revenue growth and profitability. Vodafone Group have been committed to helping all employees reach their full potential through ongoing training and development while Vodafone Group has embraced diverse workforce and created a leaner and agile structure with clear accountabilities.Vodafone Group capitalizes on IT capabilities to enable all employees to have access to a Learning Academy to deliver the one-stop shop for all learning and development solutions. IT definitely plays a decisive role in Vodafone Group as a critical enabler to gain and maintain competitive advantages and to perform its business operations more efficiently and effectively. Understanding the values of IT is essential for people in Vodafone Group in order to successfully achieve organizational strategies and objectives. iii I.Introduction The mobile telecommunications industry is one of the fastest growing sectors around the globe. Mobile operators are still able to gain the first mover advantage that enables them successfully to improve top line and build customer loyalty when they create innovative and differentiate d products and services and launch them quicker than other competitors. In a fierce competitive mobile telecommunications market, gaining and maintaining cost and operational efficiency relatively has a great impact on bottom line improvements.These operators can capitalize on IT capabilities to gain and maintain competitive advantages and improve both top line and bottom line in order to achieve their strategies and objectives. Vodafone Group Plc, which was established in 1982, is the world? s largest mobile operator that manages ultra large-scale mobile networks in 25 countries and has a presence through partnerships in another 39 countries. Based on the registered customers of mobile telecommunications ventures in which it had ownership interests at that date, the Group had 333 million customers (Vodafone, 2010).Vodafone Group is one of the most influential companies in mobile telecommunications industry and now attempting to move into the fixed voice and broadband markets. The o perator has a better understanding of the strategic values of information technology (IT) as a source of competitive advantages and has capitalized on IT capabilities to expand its marketplace more globally, and create and launch innovative and differentiated products and services like Vodafone 360 and Cloud Services more rapidly than other mobile operators in order to improve top line.Vodafone Group strategically shares with or outsources some business activities to third partied, and centralize and consolidate other activities, which each group company had previously managed in each country, to Vodafone Group, in order to significantly gain and maintain cost and operational efficiency in order to improve bottom line.IT definitely plays a decisive role in Vodafone Group. The objective of this paper is to analyze the IT management strategies, tools, initiatives and transitional planning in Vodafone Group to ensure that the operator capitalizes on IT capabilities effectively and effi ciently to achieve their organizational strategies and objectives. 1 II.Building a learning organization and a professional intellect Vodafone Group has embraced diverse workforce and offers equal opportunities for all aspects of employment and advancement, regardless of race, nationality, sex, age, marital status, disability, religious or political belief, to understand expectations of its diverse customers around the globe and have required skills and competences to create and launch the innovative and differentiated products and services that Vodafone Group meets its customers? equirements. Vodafone Group created a leaner and agile structure with clear accountabilities in 2009 to accommodate rapid growth. Three regions, including Europe, Africa and Central Europe, and Asia Pacific and Middle East, were created and each regional CEO was appointed. Along with the group-wide organizational restructuring efforts, several centralization initiatives have been accelerated, including sup ply chain, product development, IT and network programs, and terminal procurement.As the result, approximately 1,900 jobs were eliminated but the overall number of employees grew 9% because of rapid growth in emerging markers and business acquisitions. Although organizational structure has been continuously improved in response to market environmental changes, Vodafone Group has been committed to helping all employees reach their full potential through ongoing training and development. In the 2009 financial year, Vodafone provided an aggregate of 230,000 days of training, an average of three days per employee, and this training program was extended to all employees via an online interactive course that has been translated into 11 languages and rolled out to 18 countries (Vodafone, 2009, p. 18). Vodafone Group capitalizes on IT capabilities to support its one-stop shop for all learning and development solutions that enable all employees to have access to a self-service development po rtal and Learning Academy on its intranet to develop required skills and competences.The self-service portal is fully integrated for reporting and analysis purposes. Online „Source a Course? application incorporates a wide range of training options across multiple categories that all employees are able to individually select, and also provides them with opportunities to source a course if their specific training requirements are not on the system. 2 III. Taking advantage of Customer Relationship Management tools Vodafone Group has developed the group-wide strategy that is associated with its better understanding of the importance of the customer experience to its business success.Delivering value-added products and services that can meet individual customer needs and widen the scope of its relationship with its customers are essential to reshape its competitive environment. Vodafone Group has standardized on Siebel CRM platforms across three geographies to collect, analyze and share customer information across multi-channels, including customer service agents, sales and marketing teams, to gain a 360 degree view of customers, and measure and manage customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, revenue assurance, revenue growth and profitability.Employees in Vodafone Group have access to a centralized repository for customer information in the systems. Siebel CRM systems have helped Vodafone Group optimize upselling and cross-selling opportunities to grow revenues more quickly, predictably and profitably, and also significantly reduce the time to create and execute precisely targeted customer retention and acquisition while improving its ability to measure marketing return on investment.The systems also encourage Vodafone Group to improve productivity of customer care organizations by automating previous complicated workflow and reducing the time it takes to respond to answers, and Vodafone Group has gained significant cost savings. The customer experience is assessed by Vodafone Group through customer surveys, repairs and returns, mystery shops and written complaints but its challenges in existing Siebel CRM systems is to completely implement revenue assurance, churn and win-back functions from the viewpoint of a customer-centric imension. Revenue Assurance (RA) is a vital requirement in any telecommunications operators to reduce and prevent revenue leakage that is identified as a uncontrolled costs derived from network provisioning, CDR and mediation errors, billing and interconnect inconsistencies, loss of data and corrupted files, fragmented support systems, incoherent databases, and manual or ill defined business processes (TeleManagement Forum, 2009, p. 5). Donaldson and O?Toole (2007) argued that Telco may be losing 1-30% of revenues owing to leakage, and a failure to take into account the CRM dimension of RA is very costly for the firm (p. 144). RA is typically embraced in the concept of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) but the billing department in Vodafone Group has been responsible for RA activities and a customer-centric dimension to RA is missing in the CRM systems. Churn management is also another vital requirement in any operators in line with each operator? specific customer retention strategies, and promotions and campaigns. The difficulty in implementing churn management is that key performance indicators of predictive churn are little available in a relationship context and as a part of the CRM systems. Finally, win-back is the effort an organization expands to win back (or recapture) customer? s goodwill once it has been lost due to service failure (Donaldson and O? Toole, 2007, p. 146). Vodafone Group has not implemented it from the standpoint of a customer-centric dimension yet. IV. Building competitive advantages 4. 1 Top Line Improvements Vodafone Group has definitely had better understanding of the strategic values of IT to gain and maintain competitive advantages from the viewpoint o f both top line and bottom line improvements. To improve top line, general telecommunication operators consider IT as sources of innovative and differentiated products and services that they create and launch globally in a timely manner.Vodafone Group has not used the cheaper price than other competitors to attract new customers and retain existing customers to become the largest or the second largest mobile operator in the most markets the Group has ever entered but it has focused on creating and launching new value-added services that entice new customers. Arun Sarin, the former CEO of Vodafone Group stated (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson, 2008, p. 340). We have rededicated ourselves to delighting our customers because we believe this is the foundation for our continued success.We recognize that every customer interaction provides another opportunity to win loyalty and that? s why we continue to raise standards on the quality of customer case in our call centers and our stores and th e quality of our networks. Key to delighting our customers is our ability to deliver superior voice and data services according to differing customer needs. The choice of right IT at right time is necessary to drive current and future returns and intellectual capital that articulate and structure all the stakeholders? alues, and Vodafone Group? s three key strategic IT initiatives have been sources of competitive advantages to improve top line. 4. 1. 1 Agility to adapt the advanced technologies Telecommunication operators? agility to adapt the advanced technologies has a great impact on innovative and differentiated products and services, including the converged services of network data, services data and customer data available to improve customer experience in response to the changing customer needs and market environment.Saxtoft (2008) argued that competitive advantages in the future convergent communications industry will be based on the organizational ability of communications service providers to utilize the specific mix of network data, services data and customer data available to each of the players in the market (p. 71). Vodafone? s ability to adapt new IT continuously ensures that their customers are able to stay connected to the people and the information that are central to their lives – via voice, text, instant messaging, e-mail, music, communities, news, and applications both social and work related – whenever, wherever (Read, 2009, p. 2). Vodafone Group thus created Vodafone 360, Vodafone Vorteil, and Cloud Computing services and the Group in turn can greatly improve customer experience, and eventually gain and maintain its competitive advantages. Along with increasing bandwidth demands and a data dominated traffic mix, the ability to optimize its network capacity according to the differentiated products and services has been essential in improving quality of services for these services. 4 Vodafone launched „Vodafone 360? a s uite of new Internet services for the mobile and PC that gather all of customer? s friends, communities, entertainment and personal favorites. Vodafone 360 encompass a universal contacts address book „Vodafone People? that automatically synchronize all contacts from a customer phone, Facebook, Windows Live Messenger, and Google Talk, and an online content and data management tool. Vodafone 360 brought together many existing Vodafone mobile Internet initiatives under a common and intuitive service umbrella.Vodafone 360 represents the new service standard to take everything back in Vodafone and superimpose proprietary ownership over all service aspects while dispelling the notion that mobile operators are unable to response to the full force of the innovation that Apple iPhone brought to market. This is the first time a mobile operator has created an experience which can compete against the iPhone standard of excellence and superior user interface.Vodafone is now attempting to m ove into the fixed voice and broadband markets and has either acquired fixed Internet Service Providers in some countries or formed partnerships in the other countries where acquisitions are not feasible or not cost efficient. The previously pure mobile operator is now following a total communications strategy which includes mobile (cellular), broadband (fixed) and wireless; it has been offering combined services, with fixed, mobile and broadband services under a single bill (Mavrakis and Saddi, 2009, p. 42). Vodafone Germany launched a new multi-service discount service, „Vodafone Vorteil? for customers who purchase a bundle of fixed and mobile services in 2009. The service offered discounts at maximum EUR 20 a month for various combination of service in Germany in response to market environmental changes that loyalty discounts are coming to the fore as a key competitive advantage in the recent economic recession in Germany. Vodafone Vorteil customers also benefit from a 24 h our, door-to-door mobile phone replacement service and free 24-by-7 customer support hotline, and a 25% new handset discount. Cloud Computing has become popular in the telecommunications industry all over the world.It is a large-scale distributed computing paradigm that is driven by economies of scale, in which a pool of abstracted, virtualized, dynamically-scalable, managed computing power, storage, platforms, and services are delivered on demand to external customers over the Internet, and has become the hottest technology in IT (Jaatun, 2009, p. 559). Vodafone Group announced a strategic partnership with Decho Corporation to deliver a series of „Could Services? for both enterprise and consumer markets. The first service to emerge across the Vodafone Group footprint is the „Vodafone PC Backup? ervice that enables customers to save personal data from the PC to a remotely hosted site. They are able to view and share the data from their account through the web browser of their PC while reducing the need to transfer the data from one device to others. None of Vodafone? s key Tier 1 competitors has launched free PC backup and online storage aggressively with consumer mobile broadband services and Vodafone Group is relatively staking leadership in consumer Cloud Service provision. Emma (2009) argued that A Vodafone-branded PC backup service promises powerful value-added differentiation for the operator? mobile and fixed broadband portfolio across its key European markers by year-end (p. 1). Vodafone Group can continuously maintain its competitive advantages while launching a series of Cloud Services faster than other competitors, in addition to existing PC backup and online storage services. 5 4. 1. 2 Optimizing entire value chains and redefining industry Optimizing entire value chains beyond Vodafone Group and its traditional suppliers, and redefining industry are identified as sources of competitive advantages to create and launch innovative and diff erentiated products and services.The telecommunications industry is confronted with unprecedented challenges in breaking down traditional industry boundaries and redefining industry in response to changing market environment while the Internet companies such as Google, eBay and Yahoo have demonstrated business models that enable third parties to develop new services by combining existing services to increase the value of the traditional and original services. Service providers are no longer limited to the traditional voice and simple data services but are comprised of content, application, and other service providers.To compete against these new service providers, an effective service delivery framework is essential, to deliver and maintain differentiated services beyond traditional boundaries, achieve time to market, and conclude business agreements among all stakeholders. Vodafone Group started implementing Service Delivery Platform (SDP) in 2002 that is an infrastructure for serv ice delivery to be provided for technically enabling business to engage in business transaction (Filipe and Cordeiro, 2009, p. 21) to effectively deliver „Vodafone Live? ervice in a timely manner. Its multimedia portal was marketed extensively in the traditional media. SDP supported application development consistency and a multi-lateral settlements model to enable all stakeholders to add values to deliver the services to get paid. Vodafone Live used a home-built SDP to launch its offering back in 2002, a product that provides an integrated service across handsets, networks, content and services, and also includes video content, music downloads and games (Greene and Hayes, 2007, p. ). Subsequently, Service Delivery Framework (SDF), indeed different from SDP, was defined by TeleManagement Forum (TM Forum). SDF weaves together various Service Delivery Platforms (SDPs, IMS, IPTV, etc) offered by equipment vendors and their allied software vendors to allow uniform management of se rvices, easy to align with each Service Provider business model (TM Forum, 2008, p. 20). Vodafone was the first mobile operator in the UK to offer a portable laptop with built –in broadband in the business sector in 2005.In 2008, the launch of the Dell mobile laptop with integrated mobile broadband moved portable computing into the consumer market. Vodafone? s strategy differs from the other mobile operators in the UK and the operator ensures that the embedded route meets end users? aspirations in both business and consumer market. Vodafone has a deal with Dell whereby the vendor offers customers buying netbooks and notebooks via its website the option to include a 3G HSPA mobile broadband module in their devices, and to be contacted by Vodafone to receive a SIM card and the mobile broadband service (Roberts, Mavrakis and Jesty, 2009, p. 70). Betavine and the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL) are two API initiatives in Vodafone Group. Betavine is a research and development project t o create values around Vodafone? s network. Subsequently, Vodafone Group started the JIL initiative with its partners to use open APIs and widgets to address the commercial environment. Web 2. 0 technologies were considered as the fundamental enabler to broaden service choice for Vodafone? s customers and Vodafone Group decided to create a service innovation website „Betavine? in 2007.Betavine provided Web 2. 0 tools and resources so that developers can use to create innovative mobile services and get 6 feedback from the Betavine developer community. Its main objective was to stimulate the number of applications available for all mobile phones by providing an operator and technology agnostic development environment, and Betavine has clocked up more than 180 applications developed using the site across a range of categories, including games, utilities, mobile health, and recipes (Mendyk, 2009, p. 29).More than 1,000 registered users are collaborating on software development, an d Betavine has enables Vodafone Group to learn much more from its service incubation platform, both about Web 2. 0 technology and its development models, and about the types of mobile application that people want to create and which applications are essential in the current market environment. Vodafone? s product groups are hoping that through the Betavine initiative, they will gain access to „killer? applications that can be turned into massmarket products (Mendyk, 2009, p. 29).Subsequently, Vodafone Group has made a commitment to provide a group wide network API that encourages developers to access Vodafone? s customers. Vodafone enables developers to use its direct billing capabilities to permit customers to pay for services through Vodafone accounts rather than credit card payment (Mottishaw, 2009, p. 52) because a simple payment model has a great impact on customers? choice of services. In 2008, Vodafone, China Mobile, Softbank and Verizon Wireless announced the JIL initi ative to have common APIs and development environment.Vodafone Group launched the „App Store? that encapsulated widgets from JIL that run in any devices and use the operator? s billing mechanisms to charge users directly. The combined customer base of JIL members exposes applications to a potential 1 billion end users, by far the largest addressable market for any application stores in the market today. JIL is working closely with several industry standards bodies, including GSMA, OMTP and W3C, to encourage developers to use network enablers to enrich their applications.JIL has launched a web site to provide the developers with service development kit (SDK) and device API information to develop applications for specific handsets. 4. 1. 3 Group Technology Vodafone Group? s has driven the Group Technology initiatives that have managed and controlled group-wide projects to orchestrate the move toward significant coordination and identify and disseminate best practices to focus on expansion of service capacity while replicating business models across a number of countries and maintaining cost efficiency.Vodafone Group created two central functions, Group Marketing (to drive revenue growth), and Group Technology and Business Integration (to drive cost and scale benefits, and thy purpose of Group Technology will be to lead the implementation of standardized architecture for business process, information technology and network systems (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson, 2008, p. 345). The initiatives have supported the third generation (3G) network rollout, the enhancement and expansion of Vodafone Live service to Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and then UK, and the development of Vodafone Group? business offering on a global basis. Vodafone Group has benefited from the effective and efficient Group Technology initiative. First, Vodafone Group is given more strategic option for marketing and sales of its products and services. Second , the time-to-market becomes shorter by consolidating its development resources and sharing the solutions. Finally, cost reduction arises from avoiding multiple development 7 resources and environments and from consolidating demand according to the collaborative IT solutions fro building IT platforms.Buchta, Eul and Croonenberg (2009) argued that A correspondingly worldwide uniform IT architecture with worldwide uniform business process is the prerequisite, for example, for developing the advantages of a global customer management from uniform coordination and universal organizations – with the lowest possible level of country-specific individuality (p. 73). 4. 2. Bottom Line Improvements On the other hands, Vodafone Group has capitalized on IT capabilities to implement its strategic initiative, „One Vodafone? rogram, which transforms 16 operating companies into a united operation to achieve streamlined cost effective and efficient group. Vodafone Group has embedded IT sharing, outsourcing, and centralization and consolidation strategies in order to achieve the objectives of the program. Radio access network are shared with the other mobile operator, Orange, IT application development and maintenance are outsourced to IT outsourcing vendors, IBM and EDS, and supply chain management function and European data centers are centralized and consolidated to Vodafone Group.One Vodafone program is analyzed in depth in Chapter V. 8 V. Using IT initiatives to transform the operator 5. 1. One Vodafone The „One Vodafone? program was focused on key initiatives to integrate business activities to leverage economies of scale and scope of Vodafone group to transform the Group into a streamlined, cost-effective and efficient organization while standardizing designs and processes, reducing duplication, centralizing and consolidating certain functions and sharing best practices across operating companies.The program was targeted at achieving ? 2. 5 billion of annual pretax operating free cash flow improvements in Vodafone Group? s controlled mobile business by the end of March 2008. Alan Harper, Group Strategy and New Business Director, explained that all our marketing efforts, branding and product development are centralized, technology is standardized, network design (switching, radio) are coordinated, and knowledge is shared via the HQ, HR, strategy, and marketing departments (Hitt, Ireland, and Hoskisson, 2008, p. 42). The program was not just an integration of a few functions and countries but a strategic transformation that Vodafone Group transformed 16 core independent national operating companies which had diverse people and markets into a united operation with a high degree of similarity with regard to product, brand, position, advertising strategy, personality, packaging, and look and feel (McLoughlin and Aaker, 2010, p. 251) in order to achieve significant economies of scale and scope.It was definitely supposed to be one of th e most difficult challenges for Vodafone Group but the transformation strategy has already resulted in significant cost savings as well as innovative market strategies, more competitive and differentiated pricing, and leading product and service offering (Booz Allen, 2006). Vodafone Group predominantly embedded IT sharing, outsourcing, and centralization and consolidation strategies to achieve the objectives of One Vodafone program that transform multiple operating companies around the globe in Vodafone Group into a streamlined, costeffective and efficient organization.Vodafone Group adopted NetCo and ServCo business model in the One Vodafone program. ServCo is mandated to provide services over the telecommunications network on the same terms as other service providers while NetCo is tasked with managing the telecommunications network backbone (Orbicom, 2007, p. 211). Network, IT application development and maintenance, and supply chain and data centers were considered as NetCo that Vodafone Group needed to pursue scalability globally to achieve the lowest unit cost.Sales, marketing and customer management were relatively considered as ServCo that Vodafone Group needed to achieve customer focus locally to improve customer experience and build customer loyalty. As a consequence, Vodafone identified key imperatives in One Vodafone program. Radio access network are shared with Orange globally, and IT application development and maintenance are outsourced to IBM and EDS, and supply chain management function and European data centers are centralized and consolidated to Vodafone Group.On the other hand, sales, marketing and customer management are relatively operated and managed by each local operating company. 9 5. 2. Network Sharing with Orange There are a number of different levels of network sharing deals and the most fundamental scopes involve the use of common sites and towers around the globe. Complete network sharing deals are also popular in some countries and these involve the building of a single network to lease its capacity between two or more licensed mobile operators.Some of network sharing deals involve radio access network that two or more mobile operators jointly deploy and own access network. In the UK, India and some other countries, network sharing deals have been actively encouraged by the government, and independent infrastructure companies have been established by two or more operators. Vodafone and Orange have established their network joint venture in the UK to deploy and own their combined radio network. Their initial scope was limited to 3G network and Vodafone and Orange planed to expand the scope to their 2G network infrastructure as well.Their objective to establish the network sharing joint venture was to gain cost and operational efficiency to deploy new 3G mobile internet access service. The radio access network includes mast, antenna, sites, site support cabinet and power supply as well as antennae, combiners and transmission links, Nodes B (3G), BTS (2G) and the radio network controllers which are linked to the core network, and they are expected to expand their existing network sharing deals to includes the costs of engineering, maintenance, and technology, in a move which is expected to save Vodafone (and Orange presumably) around US$1. 5 billion a year (Cellular-news, 2009). During fiscal year 2009, Vodafone Group announced a number of significant sharing deals in Germany, Spain, Ireland, UK and India. 5. 3. IT Outsourcing to IBM and EDS Outsourcing refers to the use of external organizations to perform some business activities that were previously accomplished in-house and outsourcing is becoming more acceptable and widespread in the telecommunications industry. Telecommunications operators re-evaluate their core business and create added values in a fierce competitive market.The two different activities are identified as non-core business activities that some mobile operators have mainly transferred to outsourcing vendors: (1) IT services including IT infrastructure, desktop and servers, BSS (Business Support Systems), software development and implementation, and deployment of new IT services, and (2) network operations and management including network planning, site acquisition and civil works, installation, network integration, network optimization and upgrade, fault management, performance management, configuration management, OSS (Operations Supp

Free Essays on Hinuism Vs Budhism

Hinduism vs. Buddhism Hinduism and Buddhism are two very major religions. They share very many similarities and differences. Although Buddhism has a whole new meaning without gods, it is based on Hinduism. Hinduism is the oldest known religion and is very rich with literally hundreds of gods, symbolist rituals and beliefs. It is believed to have been established around 1500 B.C. but no one person founded Hinduism as it evolved over a long period of time. Buddhism on the other hand has a definite founder, Siddhartha Gautama who is otherwise known as the Buddha or Enlightened One who lived from 565 to 483 B.C. Both these religions originated in India. Siddhartha Gautama was a Hindu who found Hindu theology lacking and after years of searching for truth created a religion now known as Buddhism. Because of these basic similarities, the two religions have much in common, but in the same light they are very different. The concept of a god or gods in Buddhism is almost void and therefore in the eyes of some not even a religion. Hindus have many gods governing different aspects of Hindu life. The three main gods in Hinduism are Vishnu who is the sustainer; Brahma is the creator and Shiv! a the destroyer, commonly referred to as Trimuti. Most Hindu gods are associated with animals and therefore Hindus feel that being a vegetarian is vital. Cows are sacred in Hinduism and are worshipped as the divine mother, making eating beef taboo. Buddhism involves meditation and prayer. In Buddhism, one must understand the four noble truths and accordingly follow the Eightfold path that describes the ways in which one must live. Hindu scriptures advocate the pursuit of many goals in ones life including righteous living, wealth, prosperity, love and happiness. The ultimate goal is to achieve Nirvana. There are many similarities and differences between Hinduism and Buddhism. In Buddhism the place of women is an inferior one that stems from traditio... Free Essays on Hinuism Vs Budhism Free Essays on Hinuism Vs Budhism Hinduism vs. Buddhism Hinduism and Buddhism are two very major religions. They share very many similarities and differences. Although Buddhism has a whole new meaning without gods, it is based on Hinduism. Hinduism is the oldest known religion and is very rich with literally hundreds of gods, symbolist rituals and beliefs. It is believed to have been established around 1500 B.C. but no one person founded Hinduism as it evolved over a long period of time. Buddhism on the other hand has a definite founder, Siddhartha Gautama who is otherwise known as the Buddha or Enlightened One who lived from 565 to 483 B.C. Both these religions originated in India. Siddhartha Gautama was a Hindu who found Hindu theology lacking and after years of searching for truth created a religion now known as Buddhism. Because of these basic similarities, the two religions have much in common, but in the same light they are very different. The concept of a god or gods in Buddhism is almost void and therefore in the eyes of some not even a religion. Hindus have many gods governing different aspects of Hindu life. The three main gods in Hinduism are Vishnu who is the sustainer; Brahma is the creator and Shiv! a the destroyer, commonly referred to as Trimuti. Most Hindu gods are associated with animals and therefore Hindus feel that being a vegetarian is vital. Cows are sacred in Hinduism and are worshipped as the divine mother, making eating beef taboo. Buddhism involves meditation and prayer. In Buddhism, one must understand the four noble truths and accordingly follow the Eightfold path that describes the ways in which one must live. Hindu scriptures advocate the pursuit of many goals in ones life including righteous living, wealth, prosperity, love and happiness. The ultimate goal is to achieve Nirvana. There are many similarities and differences between Hinduism and Buddhism. In Buddhism the place of women is an inferior one that stems from traditio...

Marie Sklodowska Curie - 1867 to 1934

Marie Sklodowska Curie - 1867 to 1934 Marie Curie is best known for discovering radium, yet she achieved many more accomplishments. Here is a brief biography of her claim to fame. Born November 7, 1867Warsaw, Poland Died July 4, 1934Sancellemoz, France Claim to Fame Radioactivity Research Notable Awards Nobel Prize in Physics (1903) [together with Henri Becquerel and her husband, Pierre Curie]Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1911) Summary of Accomplishments Marie Curie pioneered radioactivity research, She was the first two-time Nobel laureate and the only person to win the award in two different sciences (Linus Pauling won Chemistry and Peace). She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. Marie Curie was the first female professor at the Sorbonne. More About Maria Sklodowska-Curie or Marie Curie Maria Sklodowska was the daughter of Polish schoolteachers. She took work as a teacher after her father lost his savings through a bad investment. She also participated in the nationalist â€Å"free university,† in which she read in Polish to women workers. She worked as a governess in Poland to support her older sister in Paris and eventually joined them there. She met and married Pierre Curie while she was studying science at the Sorbonne. They studied radioactive materials, particularly the ore pitchblende. On December 26, 1898, the Curies announced the existence of an unknown radioactive substance found in pitchblende that was more radioactive than uranium. Over the course of several years, Marie and Pierre processed tons of pitchblende, progressively concentrating the radioactive substances and eventually isolating the chloride salts (radium chloride was isolated on April 20, 1902). They discovered two new chemical elements. Polonium was named for Curies native country, Poland, and radium was named for its intense radioactivity. In 1903, Pierre Curie, Marie Curie, and Henri Becquerel were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel. This made Curie the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize. In 1911 Marie Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, in recognition of her services to the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element. The Curies did not patent the radium isolation process, choosing to let the scientific community freely continue research. Marie Curie died from aplastic anemia, almost certainly from unshielded exposure to hard radiation.

Balance of Payments and Exchange Rates Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Balance of Payments and Exchange Rates - Essay Example The balance of payments comprises all of the economic transactions between members of one country and members of all other countries. This includes any trade of goods and services, investments, payments and loans. The balance of payments is made up of several accounts. The current account includes goods trade, services trade, income and transfers of ownership. The capital account includes transfers of assets and acquisitions. The financial account is made up of direct investments into the country, portfolio investments, and various investments. In order to balance out the current and financial accounts should offset each other (Moffett, Stonehill, Eiteman 2006, 73). When there is more money coming in than going out balance of payments will be in surplus, and when more money has gone out than come in there will be a deficit. This is what can affect exchange rates as we will see below. Exchange rates are the value of one country's currency in relation to that of another country's currency. In other words how much is your unit of currency worth in another country's unit of currency. Exchange rates reflect the supply and demand for a country's currency in the world market. However some governments, depending on their monetary policy, may seek to ensure their currency has a certain value in the market. A country with a fixed exchange rate policy maintains a set level for their currency by using reserves to either buy up excess currency so flood the market with currency when there is a demand. Floating exchange rate countries let the market determine their exchange rate; this is normally done by a country with a strong economy. A country operating on a managed float uses factors such as interest rates in order to influence the price or their currency in the market and keep it around a certain level. A government's monetary policy can influence the effect that balance of payments has on exchange rates. Linkages There are significant links between a country's balance of payments and exchange rates. As Layton, Robinson and Tucker (2005, 56) point out "Each transaction recorded in the balance of payments requires an exchange of one country's currency for that of another." The level of a country's exchange rate has an impact on the balance of payments and vice versa. Surplus in the balance of payments usually means that the demand for a country's currency is greater than supply; on the other hand a deficit in balance of payments indicates there is too much of a country's currency in the market. How significant an impact depends on a country's exchange rate regime (Moffett, Stonehill, Eiteman 2006,

Correctional Educational Programmes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Correctional Educational Programmes - Essay Example Louis Theroux identifies them as child molesters. Traditionally, incarcerated population has among the lowest levels of educational attainment and literacy in any society. There is an argument in correctional literature that correctional education programmes can break the cycle of reincarceration by providing prisoners with an opportunity to gain skills that are practical in the workplace and the community. From the critical perspective, correctional education programmes act as agents of social change. If they are effective, the programmes can greatly assist inmates with overcoming social pathologies often found in many of the communities in which they come from. There are many barriers that prevent adequate expansion of corrections education programmes. Budget cuts, high staffing costs, programme staff cuts, and poor accountability are just a few (Coley and Barton, 85). A major barrier also rests in ideological views of the role of the criminal justice system. This has resulted in a great divide in ideology: those who favor prison rehabilitation and those who favor punitive measures. Skeptics of rehabilitation often claim that research thus far fails to portray a strong link between educational programmes and post release outcomes. On the other hand, proponents of educational programmes claim that there is an inherent value in educating prisoners, and that the benefits of an education will be realized by inmates upon release and obtainment of work (Coley and Barton, 89). Education in prisons provides many unique advantages to both inmates and prisons. For example, prison education programmes provide an opportunity for the facility to keep inmates occupied and engaged. These programmes also foster improving individual skills by socializing inmates with other inmates and teachers (Mentor, 115). All of these factors can contribute to better levels of order and security within the facility. On the outside, prison education programmes are empirically linked to reduced recidivism rates, and enhanced opportunities to acquire work upon release. Given thousands of inmates are released from prison annually, the role of prison education programmes in reducing recidivism rates and improving social conditions is a vital component of the reentry process (Mentor,

Globalization for the Arab Countries Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Globalization for the Arab Countries - Essay Example Then in 1973, "King Faisal of Saudi Arabia cuts off his country's oil exports to the United States, triggering an oil crisis, long lines at the gas pumps and a recession." (Newton, p 53) Globalization is typically defined as a shift from internal local human societies (including financial, politics and religions) to linking distant communities of people and levels of industry, expanding them across regions and continents - in other words removing boundaries from the world. Globalization can reduce the deficiencies of third world countries with technological advances and with equal allocation of resources. An advantage to globalization is the lowering of trade barriers, for example, the reduction of export tariffs to the developing countries charged by industrialized nations. The lowering of the trade barriers then allow the developing countries to also move towards industrialization with the realized gains. Globalization is also said to liberalize countries with less than democratic political processes, for example, the member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Organization according to the theory of globalization One might argue that the GCC is a regional rather than a global organization, but they formed together because of globalization. They wish to base their common goal on the creed of Islam, believing they have a common destiny. However, it is notable that Yemen, Jordan, Iraq and Iran are not included in the regional organization. Saudi Arabia was the primary in setting up the Gulf Cooperation Council in 1981. Other members are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Gulf Cooperation Council aims to coordinate resistance to outside intervention in the Gulf. Progress towards economic integration has been slow during the 1980s economic downturn in the region. The presidency of the Gulf Cooperation Council rotates yearly among members. Council headquarters are in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The Gulf Cooperation Council was initially formed in response to the out break of the Iran-Iraq war. ("Gulf Cooperation Council - GCC.") During that time and after the 1973 Oil Em bargoes it has been estimated that the population of the GCC is about 35 percent expatriates from the surrounding countries. (IOM, LAS 2004). The practice of globalization theory will lead countries to gain of knowledge even if the theory turns out wrong for them. It can also be used to rule out non-working solutions to diagnose and treat economic events. Liberalism of culture, religion, language by GCC Liberalism ('liberate') is opening up the local cultures, religions and languages (internal human societies) to compatibility with global cultures, religions and languages (distant across regions and even continents). In fact, one might say that liberalism wants to synthesize all of the local areas of

E-commerce A-level Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 16250 words

E-commerce A-level - Coursework Example E-commerce comprises purchasing and selling goods and services in the WWW, and for many companies this is their regular business but extended into the online space, and therefore apart from buying and selling, important are the issuer of money transfers, security, and other aspects of online interaction between companies, customers, suppliers, retailers, middlemen, etc. All in all, in a broad sense, e-commerce denotes all kinds of commercial relations that are connected with setting home-based and international deals in the web: trade mission, factoring, designing, consulting, investment contracts, leasing, engineering, insurance, sale and purchase contracts, bank services, and many other forms of industrial and business cooperation. E-commerce allows to ensure that the businesses be ready to face the new challenges, one of the most important being business globalization. The emergence and development of the IT make it possible for the international businesses to reach out for their customers even in the remotest areas of the world. Conducting business in cyberspace is a way to save money, but surely that is not the only advantage. The rise of e-business has unquestionably changed shopping patterns, forcing retailers to redefine their roles to ensure their place in the market. The variety of goods available to customers at a click of a button and the added benefit of allowing them to shop whenever it's convenient for them, and not during set 'operating hours' has in effect placed the customers in charge. For the companies, the spread of e-commerce marked the necessity to implement into their business model constant interaction with the customers, which is a must for the firms that want to keep up with the consumers' demands, and attract and retail more loyal customers. The Internet is a genuinely new communicational environment, and therefore traditional marketing techniques cannot generally be applied to e-commerce. In the process of studying the marketing model that uses 'traditional' information media for PR, brand promotion and advertising, it was revealed that the use of e-commerce makes it possible for the customers to make decisions independently, and therefore there is a dramatic shift for the consumers from being a rather passive auditorium (as with the traditional marketing) to a powerful force able to influence the companies' activity significantly. Therefore, it is not sufficient for the companies to apply the already existing marketing principles to their e-commerce, as the new Internet environment presupposes the development of principally new approaches to sales, accounting, advertising, dealing with customers, and many other aspects of business activity. In e-commerce, customers play a much more active role in the process of marketing, as they are the bearers of information valuable for the companies. The overall aim of this research is to explore what 'forces' are at work when consumers shop online in the clothing retail. The research will be carried out in the women online clothing retail market, primarily because of the huge investment in the clothing market by both online and traditional retailers, (www.brandrepublic.com) It will comprise two principal elements, a literature search, and an analysis of four retailer websites, two of them are purely online

Coursework Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 3

Coursework - Essay Example Cotton was far from the only good that was being manufactured in droves, it was however, seen as the â€Å"pacemaker of industrial change† (Hobsbon, ,p. 34). Industrialization became the reason many settlements were created, those same settlements can be seen as large urban cities today. Industries owned by the working class became more prominent, along with all kinds of other factories. Cotton industry subsequently went onto grow into diversity. There were silk products, wool came into view and the domestic cotton industry got a boom during the 1700 when a ban was placed on imports. By 1770 over 90 per cent of all cotton exports were being fed to the colonial markets that existed under the British rule. While it was planted outside of Europe, the production took place inside it and hence the profits went to them as well. Technology also advanced and machinery was upgraded, things like weaving came into play as the situation changed. Several small changes are what collectively made up the industrial revolution. Hobson attributed the advances during the industrial revolution in part to the slavery, colonialism and the hold Europe had over the world. 3.1 This was one of the first results I found when I googled the key words: industrial revolution. The search engine for google is extremely efficient and turned over around 6,580,000 hits in 0.38 seconds only. The results ranged from simple web pages, to book results on books.google.com and simple articles and papers other students had done on the subject. The search engine page at first glance seemed to be a miracle because of the amount of material it provided. Google.com as a search engine was very effective at bringing out results but the relevancy of these results is what I have issues with. You can find just about anything you want to find through google.com but you need to spend a good amount of time getting to the link that’s

E-commerce A-level Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 16250 words

E-commerce A-level - Coursework Example E-commerce comprises purchasing and selling goods and services in the WWW, and for many companies this is their regular business but extended into the online space, and therefore apart from buying and selling, important are the issuer of money transfers, security, and other aspects of online interaction between companies, customers, suppliers, retailers, middlemen, etc. All in all, in a broad sense, e-commerce denotes all kinds of commercial relations that are connected with setting home-based and international deals in the web: trade mission, factoring, designing, consulting, investment contracts, leasing, engineering, insurance, sale and purchase contracts, bank services, and many other forms of industrial and business cooperation. E-commerce allows to ensure that the businesses be ready to face the new challenges, one of the most important being business globalization. The emergence and development of the IT make it possible for the international businesses to reach out for their customers even in the remotest areas of the world. Conducting business in cyberspace is a way to save money, but surely that is not the only advantage. The rise of e-business has unquestionably changed shopping patterns, forcing retailers to redefine their roles to ensure their place in the market. The variety of goods available to customers at a click of a button and the added benefit of allowing them to shop whenever it's convenient for them, and not during set 'operating hours' has in effect placed the customers in charge. For the companies, the spread of e-commerce marked the necessity to implement into their business model constant interaction with the customers, which is a must for the firms that want to keep up with the consumers' demands, and attract and retail more loyal customers. The Internet is a genuinely new communicational environment, and therefore traditional marketing techniques cannot generally be applied to e-commerce. In the process of studying the marketing model that uses 'traditional' information media for PR, brand promotion and advertising, it was revealed that the use of e-commerce makes it possible for the customers to make decisions independently, and therefore there is a dramatic shift for the consumers from being a rather passive auditorium (as with the traditional marketing) to a powerful force able to influence the companies' activity significantly. Therefore, it is not sufficient for the companies to apply the already existing marketing principles to their e-commerce, as the new Internet environment presupposes the development of principally new approaches to sales, accounting, advertising, dealing with customers, and many other aspects of business activity. In e-commerce, customers play a much more active role in the process of marketing, as they are the bearers of information valuable for the companies. The overall aim of this research is to explore what 'forces' are at work when consumers shop online in the clothing retail. The research will be carried out in the women online clothing retail market, primarily because of the huge investment in the clothing market by both online and traditional retailers, (www.brandrepublic.com) It will comprise two principal elements, a literature search, and an analysis of four retailer websites, two of them are purely online

Zara IT for Fast Fashion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Zara IT for Fast Fashion - Essay Example The case study "Zara IT for Fast Fashion" indicates that the company relies on an outdated operating system for the store terminals and lacks readily available network across all the stores. The dilemma that the management is grappling with is determining whether they should upgrade the present system and loose the reliability that characterises the current system or proceed with the current DOS-based system that is devoid of compatibility to the future improvements. The case study focuses on Zara, the largest retail chain for Inditex, Spanish retail giant, and the manner in which it has been successful due to its flexibility, excellent fashions and application of a simple business model (McAfee, Dessain and Sjoman, 2007). The head of the IT department in the company, Salgado, is grappling with a dilemma on whether to upgrade the IT capabilities and infrastructure for the retailers or retain the current system. The case study indicates that the company relies on an outdated operating system (OS) for the store terminals and lacks readily available network across all the stores. The Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-DOS) seems to be working well as no major challenges have been witnessed in the course of its long time use. One of the major concerns expressed by Salgado in the long run is that Zara Point of Sale (POS) is running on MS-DOS that is not supported by Microsoft Inc. According to Capell (2008), DOS has been replaced by Windows since 2001, the same time that Microsoft Inc stopped supporting DOS.

Chinese Business Essay Example for Free

Chinese Business Essay Introduction It is often argued that when business persons of different cultures negotiate commercial deals, there is bound to be a culture clash. I disagree with this view. It is true that cultural differences influence business negotiations but with the appropriate approach to deal with the differences, culture clash is to be least expected in any business negotiations, especially with the Chinese. As Sun Tzu would advised in his book The Art of War â€Å"Know your enemy and know yourself and you will win all battles† (Sun Tzu 1913). According to Newstrom and Davis (2002) there are many striking differences across countries, just as there are some surprising similarities. Clearly, residents of each country have their own preferences for clothes, food, recreation, and housing. In his research about national cultures of sixty countries, Hofstede (1993) revealed that cultures differ in five key factors namely, individualism/collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity/femininity, and time orientation. Among these factors, the Chinese have the culture that value clarity and have the kind of orientation that accent values such as necessity of preparing for the future, the value of thrift and savings, and the merits of persistence. Literatures on different cultures also classify China as high-context culture which tends to emphasize personal relations, place value on trust, focus on non-verbal cues, and accent the need to attend to social needs before business matters (Newstrom and Davis 2002). Culture is very important in certain country such as China. Huntinghon (2000) as cited by Fellner (2008) defined culture as the values, attitudes, beliefs, and underlying assumptions prevalent among people in a society. He stressed that culture is dynamic, interactive, and synergistic, and intermixes with all the elements of the society such as business and economic development (Huntinghon 2000; Fellner 2008). Huiping (2009) stated in her article entitled Understanding Chinese culture leads to business success with China’s growing significance as an economic superpower  understanding the Chinese psyche becomes very helpful and useful in business negotiations management of supplier relations and many other business situations. As emphasized by Uthaisangchai (n. d. ), Chinese history and culture has impact on the way they do business and each of the many elements of the Chinese culture has a role to play in today Chinese business world. In Hofstede’s (1980) theory of individualism-collectivism as cited by Jones (2009), the individualism and collectivism dimensions differs on the degree a culture is committed to an in-group such as extended family, company or village. In the individualistic society, people are less attached to an in-group (that is, people are more self-centered and in pursuit of their own self-interests). Meanwhile in the collectivist society, people are more attached to an in-group, that is the interests of the in-group come first. Jones (2009) also noted from Hofstede and Bond (1988) that such value of collectivism likely stems from a deep rooted, ingrained culture based on the traditional philosophy of Confucianism. Uthaisangchai (n.d,) gave emphasis of the teachings of Confucius in the development of the culture of Chinese. In the article entitled Connecting Confucianism, Communism and the Chinese Culture of Commerce, Keller and Kronstedt (2005) explained that Confucianism is a very important component of the Chinese culture. â€Å"In a Confucian society, everyone has a role to play, and the key relationship is built around the family†¦ Chinese cultures value family connections and protecting relationships (saving face). Developing ‘family-like’ relationships takes time and patience, not merely a contractual deal based solely on money. If one has to do business in a Chinese culture, it is critical to understand and respect Confucian values† (Keller and Kronstedt 2005). Keller and Kronstedt (2005) further emphasized the significance of connections-Guanxi. In Confusian-based society like China, guanxi or proper connections are more crucial than price, product, place, etc. According to Jones (2009), China is known for being loyal to their in-group’ and favoring them in business related decision. As given emphasis by Li (2008) as cited by Jones (2009), understanding the guanxi is critical for conducting business in China and it involves cultivating trust, credibility and reciprocity. One way to understand cultural differences is through the concepts of high-context culture and low-context culture. The notion of ‘context’ can be understood as the social environment in which a business transaction takes place. Edward T. Hall’s theory of high- and low-context culture explains the powerful effect culture has on communication. The countries classified as high-context cultures include China, Korea, Japan, Middle East, Africa, Italy and South America in which people are characterized as collectivists, relational, contemplative and intuitive. This implies that the people in these societies put emphasis on good relationship between members of the society. In relation to business transactions, the development of trust is a very important step. Hall (1976) argued that the people in high-context cultures prefer harmony in group and agreement for the achievement of individual members; also individuals make decisions based on their feelings or intuition. The theory further emphasized that individuals focus on non-verbal cues, that is, words are not so significant in communication as compared to context; rather, more is given emphasis on context which include facial expression, tone of voice of the speaker, posture, gestures, and family history and status of the individual. The communication in the high-context culture is depicted as formal and indirect, which suggests that flowery humility, flowery language, and apologies that are often too elaborated are common. Also, communicators in this type of culture do not depend on language precision and legal documents. Meanwhile, the countries classified as having low-context culture include Germany, North America, Finland, Canada, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden are linear, logical, action-oriented, and individualistic. Individuals in the low-context countries value facts, logic and they prefer directness. Finding solutions to problems involves identifying and enumerating all the facts and evaluating each of the options. Also, each decision is based on facts; more often each discussion ends with an action. Communicators in this type of culture are anticipated to be concise, straightforward, and efficient in conveying the action that is expected. According to Hall (1976), communicators have to be precise in the words used in communicating to be absolutely understood. All negotiations are always concluded with definite contracts. Summing up the differences, on the one hand, high-context cultures tend to emphasize personal relations, place high value on trust, focus on nonverbal cues, and accent the need to attend to social needs before business matters. On the other hand, low-context cultures tend to interpret cues more literally. Individuals tend to rely on written rules and legal documents, conduct business first, and value expertise and performance. With these classifications of cultures, it is apparent that when Americans negotiate with Chinese, a failure in negotiation if not a culture is more likely if the former group is not familiar with the latter. As noted by Minor and Lamberton (2010) from an interview with intercultural communication expert ray Ruiz: â€Å"Countries in Latin American and Asia value the building of relationships, but each in their own unique way. Before traveling to another country, I would recommend reading appropriate materials and speaking with foreign nationals residing in the U. S. in regards to the customs and business practices in their country of origin. I would also suggest that, once in a foreign country, it is important to observe your host’s mannerisms and responses and respectfully respond in a like manner. Be well versed on acceptable and unacceptable behaviors. For example, when in Asia, do compliment and share your impressions of their country. Do not decline any food or drink because this is viewed as an insult. In Latin America, do begin all meetings with friendly conversation regarding family or other social topics. Do not begin a meeting delving directly into the business objective. The lesson many American business people fail to learn is that â€Å"it is all in the relationships† (Minor Lamberton 2010). In his article Doing Business In and With China: The risks are great, but so are the rewards, Atkinson (2004) noted from Stephen Nelson, the partner and co-head of the China practice group for the Hong Kong-based law firm Baker McKenzie, that when acquiring businesses in China, it is important to realize that there are perceived cultural differences. One of the important lessons in making business in China is that foreigners simply cannot enter a venture in China with only a cursory understanding of its terms and conditions. Atkinson (2004) cited an example of a US company that recently decided to make an investment in China by setting up a joint company through its Hong Kong manufacturing agent. The US company sent over $3 million worth of equipment, then came to us with documentation written in Chinese and asked ‘Can you look at this and tell us whether we really own 50 percent of this company? ’ Akgunes et al (2012) identified several points to consider for successful negotiations. According to Zhao (2000) as cited by Akgunes et al (2012), negotiations become successful when the participating parties are cooperative with one another; this can be done by applying the cooperative Confucian tactics. Also, for a western company like a US company, such company has to show that they have government support which is an indication that they are reliable, stable and credible to do business with. According to Fang (2006) as noted by Akgunes (2012), trust will lead to much better performance and being patient will be more beneficial to you than any other attribute you might possess. Bredin (1998) as cited by Akgunes (2012) also suggested that a foreign business negotiator should not give in to pressure from superiors to hurry up and complete the deal because can cause problems because the Chinese are not greatly concerned with the time dimension. There are companies that also failed to successfully negotiate business deals with the Chinese. According to Fang (2006) as cited by Akgunes (2012), the most common reason for failure is that the Chinese firm lacks the funds to go through with a deal. Also, sending a low-ranking employee to make the negotiation will be viewed as very impolite and the Chinese may find it insulting and insincere, in this case failure is also almost certain. Moreover, it is important to note from Sebenius (2002) as cited by Akgunes (2012) that Chinese law says that one cannot leave a contract unless both sides approve dissolution. Fang (2006) as cited by Akgunes et al (2012) also emphasized that Failure to say no to a Chinese negotiator who is using a Sun Tzu-like strategy could be detrimental to the deal, but on the other hand, saying â€Å"no† to a Confucian gentleman could cause a loss of face. This also will be very harmful, if not fatal, to a successful deal. The Chinese have regional areas just like the United States and there are very different cultures, traditions and sometimes languages in these regions. Not acknowledging these regions can cause you to have limited success in one area and a complete failure in another (Fang 2006; Akgunes 2012). Conclusion In conclusion, like what Sun Tzu have said in his book The Art of War â€Å"Know your enemy and know yourself and you will win all battles† (Sun Tzu 1913). This means that for companies to be successful in making business deals, having the capital is not enough to close a business deal. Knowledge and understanding of the culture of the prospect business partner is very important. Other than this, Sebenius (2002) emphasized that culturl allegiances are often not as simple as they appear. Designing the right strategy and tactics in reaching the right people, with the right arguments, will result to a sustainable deal. References Fellner, Amira 2008, ‘Role of Culture in Economic Development: Case Study of China and Latin America’, Graduate School Theses, University of South Florisa Schoalr Commons, viewed from http://scholarcommons. usf. edu/cgi/viewcontent. cgi? article=1235context=etd Hall, Edward 1976, Beyond Culture. Hofstede, Geert 1993, ‘Cultural Constraints in Management Theories’, Academy of Management Executive, pp. 81-94. Jones, Gwen 2009, ‘Differences in the Perceptions of Unethical Workplace Behaviors among Chinese and American Business Professionals, Competition Forum, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 473-480. Keller, G. Kronstedt C. 2005, ‘Connecting Confucianism, Communicsm, and the Chinese Culture of Commerce’. Journal of Language for International Business, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 60-75. Minor, Leslie Lamberton, Lowell 2010, ‘High-Context Low-Context Cultures’, viewed from http://www.cascadebusnews. com/business-tips/networking/154-high-context-a-low-context-cultures. Newstrom, JW. Davis, K. 2002, Organizational Behavior: Human Behavior at Work, McGraw-Hill Sun Tzu 1913, The Art of War. Uthaisangchai, Prasong (n. d. ), ‘The Importance of Understanding Chinese Culture’, viewed form http://www. bangkokbank. com/download/Week%2012%20Culture%20intro. pdf Huiping, Iler 2009, ‘Understanding Chinese Culture Leads to Business Success, Canadian HR Report, vol. 22, no. 12, pp. 18.

Dangers of Dual Relationships in Therapy

Dangers of Dual Relationships in Therapy Often, people who seek the help of a therapist are vulnerable in a number of ways, and the unique relationship of client and therapist is built on a great deal of trust and openness where a number of issues are exposed. This situation can often leave a patient or client feeling more vulnerable than ever before, and depression, anxiety, and other mental health concerns can easily cloud a clients judgment. Because the client-therapist relationship is a relationship of power, it is more important than ever that therapists do not give into seduction or sexual attraction that may exist for a client, and that sexual relationships with clients and patients not be allowed to develop. Although some studies have been done on the existence of client therapist sexual relationships, it is evident that many of the results of these surveys are unreliable due to the nature of the situation. Even when confidentiality is assured, many therapists are fearful of the repercussions of being exposed and are reluctant to divulge such information. Still, these studies confirm that sexual relationships still often do occur between therapists and clients, more frequently in male practitioners than females. Furthermore, these studies have also revealed that these kinds of relationships can be further detrimental to clients and patients who seek the help of professional therapists. Sexual relationships between counselors and clients has existed probably since the beginning of time, being noted as far back as the fifth century B.C., when the Hippocratic Oath originated, stating, â€Å"In every house where I come, I will enter only for the good of my patients, keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing and all seduction, and especially from the pleasures of love with women and men.† However, recent studies and even court cases have confirmed that this phenomenon continues and in many cases, is further detrimental to the mental health of the clients who enter into these types of relationships. For clients who are dealing with issues related to domestic violence, abuse, rape, or incest, the abuse of trust and power that occurs with sexual client-therapist relationships can increase feelings of trauma and psychological distress, often triggering symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Even in clients who are not dealing with these kinds of issues, increased depression and anxiety can occur, and a patient who has been involved in a sexual relationship with a therapist is often more likely to attempt suicide and further resistant to additional treatment. Also, studies have revealed that sexual relationships between therapists and patients are frequently associated with cognitive dysfunction, feelings of emptiness and isolation, an impaired ability to trust, increased feelings of guilt, confusion regarding boundaries, and suppression of anger. Although these types of symptoms are not noted in every client who has been involved in a sexual relationship with a therapist, many of these symptoms were seen as common in clients who had engaged in this type of relationship. In short, therapy is the most successful when boundaries and trust of the client are not violated and a professional relationship is maintained, and in nearly every jurisdiction, it is the responsibility of the therapist to maintain this professional relationship. In fact, the legal consequences for therapists who do enter into a sexual relationship with a client can be severe in many states. In order for therapists and other mental health professionals to maintain their professional licenses, most states not only mandate that there be no sexual relationships with clients, but also that there is no sexual relationship with a former client as well. While in some states the requirement is that the client has not been a patient for at least two years, in others the guidelines stipulate at least five years. In addition, the mental health professional may be obligated to prove that the relationship is not exploitative in nature and that the client is fully capable of making their own decisions regarding the relationship. For therapists and mental health professionals who do engage in a sexual relationship with a client, the penalties can be severe. Not only can a therapist lose their professional license for such acts if the relationship is discovered, but they can also be sued for malpractice and violation of trust in many instances. Maintaining a professional relationship at all times is not only in the best interest of the client and their mental well-being, but also in the best interest of the practitioner and their professional reputation.

Muslims, Jews, and Christians Must Embrace Each Other Essay -- Philoso

Muslims, Jews, and Christians Must Embrace Each Other From the dawn of creation, God has been and will always be the central foundation of life. God created man to worship Him, but throughout the ages men have gone their separate ways to create different ways to worship God. From this separation many different religions have formed. Each distinct religion has various forms of beliefs. Although Islam, Judaism, and Christianity established their roots in God, each religion differs in living out their faith and in their own way discriminates against people with different beliefs from their own. Muslims, along with non-Arabs, practice the religion of Islam. Muslims believe that â€Å"Islam has always been the only acceptable religion in the sight of God† (Squires). Muslims feel as if their religion is the only real religion; â€Å"anyone who submits completely to God and worships Him alone is a Muslimâ€Å" (Squires). Muslims also believe that their religion is one of peace, so they try and convert many people to Islam. One aspect of the Islamic religion deals with salvation. Muslims accept that a person is saved through their works. Some of their works include â€Å"offering prayers five times a day, giving alms, and making a pilgrimage to Mecca at least one in their lifetime† (Best). Muslims hold on to their faith in that if they accomplish these different works, they will be saved and go to heaven. But, by any chance that they live an indifferent life, Muslims can receive an â€Å"automatic ticket to heaven by killing an infidel, someone who will not convert to Islam† (Best). The Islamic religion believes that Almighty God, or Allah, shows grace through saving sinners, and through Allah’s grace a sinner may find his... .... â€Å"Young Goodman Brown.† Making Literature Matter: An Anthology for Readers and Writers. Ed. John Schilb and John Clifford. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2000. 1086-95. Hooks, Dr. Steve. Personal interview. 25 April 2003. Life Application Bible. King James Version. Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1988. Rahman, Fazlur. â€Å"Islam: An Overview.† The Encyclopedia of Religion, 1987. Robertson, Pat. Are God and Allah the Same? The 700 Club. 27 April 2003 . ----. Why Jews Don’t Accept Jesus: A Look At History. The 700 Club. 27 April 2003 . Scott, Delaware Walter. Christianity and the Jew. Cincinnati: The Standard Publishing Co., 1914. Squires, Robert. Introduction to Islam. Muslim Answers. 2000 .

Pablo Picasso :: essays research papers

Pablo Diego Jose Santiago Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Crispin Cripiano de los Remedios Cipriano de Santisima Trinidad Ruiz Blasco y Picasso Lopez, or more commonly known as Pablo Picasso, the twenteith century's most famous artist. He created more than twenty thousand paintings. Of his most famous artworks are " Guernica", Les Demoiselles d' Avignon", and his many, many cubist style paintings that he created. At the age of twenty, he began to sign his paintings with just his mother's maiden name of Picasso. In the fall of 1901 he begins the Blue Period until he begins painting with more red colors in 1904 which is the start of the Rose Period. In the winter of 1908 he and Georges Braque become close friends and his work with analytical cubism turns into synthetic cubism. Picasso also began, as a section of cubism, to add bits of string and other materials to his work. By doing so, he was the inventor of the modern day collage. He also made his first important sale of art to Ambroise Vollard, who he also painted a portrait of in a cubism style. In 1906 he began to paint in the style of cubism that changed the entire form of modern art. He was merely 26 years old at the time. Pablo Picasso was born on the twenty-fifth of May, in October of 1881. He was born and raised in Malaga, Spain. He also had two sisters, Lola and Conchita. Conchita died when she was eight. His father was also an artist, and as Pablo grew up, he saw a prodigious amount of talent in Pablo. Not soon after, he began teaching Pablo all he knew about art and painting. At the age of ten, his family moved to northern Spain and he took an entrance examination for the Instituto de Guarda. He is one of the very few to have finished within 1 day, further proving his abilities. He studied at the Institute for 2 years before his family moved to Barcelona. There, he took classes at La Lonja and The Barcelona Academy of Art. After that he went to the Royal Academy in Madrid, but only finished one year of study there. As his life progressed he moved to Paris, France, where many of the most renowned artists, authors and sculptors lived. During his life Picasso held many mistresses. He married two of them and had four separate children

People Commit Crime for Selfish Reason Essay

Last week, when I was on the way to school and suddenly I heard a girl screaming for help. Then, I straight away went to look for her. I was shocked when I witnessed a girl was being robbed by a man. This gave me a whole idea of crime awareness which is alarming in the country. In this modernization and globalization era, people go against the laws to commit the immoral activities such as kidnapping, murdering and drug dealing because they are self-centered and they do not care about others’ feelings. Thus, do you think it is right to commit crime for selfish reasons? In my opinion, I totally agree that people commit crime for selfish reason or for their own benefits because they are craving for money, want to fulfill their lust or jealousy and to survive in their life. First, I would like to highlight that people commit crime for selfish reasons because they craving for money. In this rat race society, people tend to commit crimes to get more money because they want to increase the standard of their living such as having a luxurious life. Unfortunately, some people can make it but some people fail. If they cannot make it plus they are uneducated or with low paid salary, they will tend to commit crimes such as embezzlement and bribery. This is due to the reason, people will be looked up by others based on their well off appearance, for instance, luxurious car and branded bags will upgrade their status. Consequently, if they are having strong desire to have more money, they will tend to go against the laws and get involved in many illegal activities like robbery. Besides, they do not care about others and they just want to get more money to enjoy their luxurious life. In brief, commiting crimes for money is a selfish action. Another point that I would like to highlight in this phenomenan of people commiting crime for selfish reason is because they want to fulfill their lust or jealousy. If people are feeling very lonely and they have strong desire to do some immoral activities such as sexual harrasment towards a girl by force. For example, when men see sexy and attractive girls walking on the pathway, they are being tempted and this will urge them to harrass those girls. This is because they want to vent their emotion and fulfill their lust and they do not care about others’ feelings. Besides, people tend to commit crimes to fulfill their lust such as raping or killing people for excitement. If people are emotionally sick or pervert and get involved in triangle love such as when two girls are in love with the same guy, both of them might feel jealous with each other and end up with fighting. If this matter turns serious, it might also end up with a murder case. The girl is willing to murder the other girl, so that she can own the guy all for herself. Hence, commiting crimes for fulfilling their lust or jealousy is a self-centered action. Last but not least, I would like to highlight that people commit crime for their own benefits because they want to survive in their life. Without any educational background, they could not get a proper job to sustain a living in the high cost standard in the city. As a result, this will lead them to commit crimes such as kidnapping and robbery to survive. Besides, they need food, shelter and other physical needs of life that lead them to commit crime for their own survival. Thus, they care less about the cosequences of their action and even ignore the pain of the victims from the actions that they have done. Other than that, some people are lazy to work for their life and always think about to go for an easy way so that they will tend to commit crimes for their self-centered reasons for instance stealing, break-in houses and car thieves. Therefore, commiting crimes for survival in their life is a selfish action. In conclusion, I restate my stand that people commit crimes for their own purposes. Their selfish action is due to craving for money, fulfilling their lust or jealousy and surviving in their life. All of these are also not a good excuse for commiting crimes and these problems have to be resolved as soon as possible which needs the co-operation between the government and citizen of Malaysia.