Marketing Philosophy Essay

Efforts of reviewing and modelling marketing elements, concepts and philosophical attitudes were numerous and effective. But with new challenges causing hurdles in making marketing function more effective on macro- and micro- level of the economy, a revision of marketing philosophy is always at place. Elements of marketing philosophy Dibb and Simkin (2004)| Lancaster and Reynolds (2005)| Blythe (2005)| Drummond and Ensor (2005)| Morgan (1996)| 1. Production orientation 2. Financial orientation 3. Sales orientation 4. Marketing orientation 5. Customer orientation 6. Competitor orientation 7. Interfunctional Coordination| 1. Production orientation 2. Sales orientation 3. Marketing Orientation| 1. Production orientation 2. Product orientation 3. Sales orientation 4. Customer orientation 5. Societal marketing 6. Relationship Marketing| 1. Production orientation 2. Product orientation 3. Sales orientation 4. Financial orientation 5. Marketing Orientation| 1. Cost philosophy 2. Product philosophy 3. Production philosophy 4. Sales philosophy 5. Erratic philosophy 6. Marketing philosophy 7. Social marketing philosophy| As indicated in Table 1, authors tend to use various terms for the elements of marketing philosophy: a) ‘orientation’ (Dibb and Simkin, 2004; Lancaster and Reynolds, 2005; Blythe, 2005; Drummond and Ensor, 2005); b) ‘philosophy’ (Morgan, 1996); c) ‘concept’ (Kotler and Armstrong, 2008). Even the Lithuanian authors, who wrote the first university book on marketing, professors Pranulis, Pajuodis, Virvilaite and Urbonavicius (1999, 2000 and 2008) have used the Lithuanian counterpart word ‘orientation’. Following this broad tendency of the term ‘orientation’ usage, here, in this article, the choice of the ‘orientation’ term will be applied. The renowned American professors Kotler and Armstrong (2008, pp.9-12) indicated that their choice of marketing management orientations were as follows: * the production concept, * the product concept, * the selling concept, * the marketing concept. * the societal marketing concept. A similar opinion was expressed by a group of Lithuanian marketing professors, where they classified marketing orientations as follows (Pranulis et al., 1999, 2000): a) production orientation, b) product orientation, c) selling orientation, d) marketing orientation; e) socialethical marketing orientation. Because of the difficulty of incorporating all the various facets of marketing into a single definition, Lancaster and Reynolds (2005) distinguished features of the subject in the following statements (Lancaster and Reynolds, 2005, p.16): †¢ â€Å"Marketing is dynamic and operational, requiring action as well as planning. †¢ Marketing requires an improved form of business organisation, although this on its own is not enough. †¢ Marketing is an important functional area of management, often based in a single physical location. More importantly, it is an overall business philosophy that should be adopted by everybody in the entire organisation. †¢ The marketing concept states that the identification, satisfaction and retention of customers is the key to long-term survival and prosperity. †¢ Marketing involves planning and control. †¢ The principle of marketing states that all business decisions should be made with primary consideration of customer requirements. †¢ Marketing focuses attention from production towards the needs and wants of the market place. †¢ Marketing is concerned with obtaining value from the market by offering items of value to the market. It does this by producing goods and services that satisfy the genuine needs and wants of specifically defined target markets. †¢ The distinguishing feature of a marketing orientated organisation is the way in which it strives to provide customer satisfaction as a way of achieving its own business objectives.† The author of the article proposes the following perception on the classification of marketing orientations, which constitute the marketing philosophy essence: 1) the production orientation, 2) the product orientation, 3) the financial orientation, 4) the selling orientation, 5) the marketing orientation, 6) the market orientation (which extends to internal and external orientations), 7) the social-ethical marketing orientation, 8) the holistic marketing orientation (which extends to internal marketing orientation, integrated marketing orientation, social marketing orientation relationship marketing orientation). The holistic marketing concept was proposed by Kotler and Keller (2007) but it was not mentioned or wider discussed in the textbook of Principles of Marketing (Kotler and Armstrong, 2008), but introduced in their co-operative book on Marketing Management (2007). For this reason, it is viable to include this new orientation in the proposed model (Figure 3), as it integrated at least four other sub-orientations: a) internal marketing orientation, b) integrated marketing orientation, c) social marketing orientation and d) relationship marketing orientation. Internal marketing orientation will be directly dealing with a Marketing Department within an organisation. It will directly subordinate to the senior management level and other organisational department, emphasising the organisational culture and micro-climate, suitable for effective work and success factors in marketing performance. Integrated marketing orientation would focus towards integrated marketing communications, the cost-effective selection of marketing channels and integrated development of products and services within the scope, demand and challenges of the national and international markets. Social marketing orientation would be focusing on the concept of societal marketing proposed by Kotler and Armstrong (2008), where the basic societal marketing triangle is based on the well-being of the community, incorporating the corporate social responsibility of companies and non-profit organisations, legal issues and environmental protection issues, which altogether streamline the sustainable development of the economy and consumption patterns. Relationship marketing orientation would be concerned with fostering the customercompany relationship with consumers, offering value added products and services. This orientation will also foster the company-partner company (B2B) relationship, seeking trust and reliability in partner selection process and its maintenance for coming years. Therefore, marketing channels should be effectively developed to reduce costs and enhance profitability ratios for all three market participants: a) producers, b) distributors and sellers, c) consumers. The market orientation is proposed to be grouped as internal and external orientations. Though Narver and Slater (1990) proposed a model that identified the components of market orientation as: †¢ Customer orientation, which incorporates customers’ perceptions and understanding by customers’ creating value, offering cost-effective solutions to satisfy their needs. †¢ Competitor orientation emphasises one of the marketing’s functions, i.e., to seek competitive advantage in the market. Competitor analysis, performed in various techniques (e.g. PESTED analysis, Porter’s forces analysis, Boston matrix analysis, etc.), gives a company tools to objectively evaluate competitors’ capabilities and results on the market. †¢ Organizational culture if analysed on an individual basis could be either included into market orientation factor or in the holistic marketing orientation, depending how integrative the marketing philosophy is on an organisational level. Organisational culture should support customer service and customer relationship development throughemployee performance prism. †¢ Interfunctional coordination should focus on the interaction between internal functional areas of the organization which best serve customer need and satisfaction, which in other cases would correspond to the relationship marketing orientation (Kotler and Keller, 2007). †¢ Long-term focus would incorporate the consideration of how the above can be sustained, and financially viable, over the long term. In this paper the proposition by Drummond et al (2000) is closer to the author’s perception of market orientation, therefore the constituent parts of the market orientation are considered to be the balance between: a) External market orientation: customers, competitors and other external stakeholders. b) Internal market orientation: employees and other internal stakeholders. Marketing Orientation The term marketing is used extensively in modern life. If you stop someone in the street and ask them what it means, they will probably use words like â€Å"advertising†, â€Å"market research† and† a modern word for selling†. In fact, marketing is a lot more than just selling, advertising and research, although all of these functions are important aspects of marketing. The Chartered Lrstitute of Marketing in the UK defines marketing as follows: â€Å"Marketing is the management process which identifies, anticipates, and supplies customer requirements efficiently and profitably†. So what is marketing orientation? In the next sections we shall explore this. First we will consider what it means for an organisation to adopt a marketing-based business philosophy. We shall then consider the evolution of the marketing concept and look at how marketing orientation has influenced organizational structures in business. An Overview of a Marketing-based Business Philosophy The points below describe marketing and its role in a marketing based business philosophy. We shall then go on to consider a marketing-based philosophy in more detail. * Marketing is a management process, and the support of management for the marketing concept is a key element in its success. Today, a company has to be marketing orientated if it is to be successful. * Marketing is involved with identifying customer requirements – usually with market research. * We have to consider current needs and anticipate the requirements of the customer in the future. This requires planning – a very important aspect of the marketing process. The satisfaction of the needs will require the supplier to provide benefits – the right market offering at the right place at the right time. * Truly market-driven companies adopt strategic level marketing, where marketing has a key role in defining the long-term objectives and mission of the company. In this way, a strategic framework is established whereby the customer is placed at the centre of the organisation’s activities. * Marketing is not just for profit-making companies. Marketing is for any organisation that has customers, and that includes charities and government bodies. Very many selling jobs in fact are in non-profit-making organisations, although very often the people who have those jobs would not think of themselves as salespeople! Marketing is a business philosophy, the process responsible for anticipating, identifying and satisfying customer current and future needs. The marketing philosophy developed out of the need by producer manufacturers, whose focus was on efficient production, to compete more effectively in their markets. They turned their attention away from mass production at lowest unit cost to try to anticipate the specific needs of customers and produce products/services whose benefits would satisfy those needs. Marketing is sometimes referred to as a ‘pull strategy’. The principle is that we understand customer needs and produce products or services, which meet those needs through specific benefits. Customers will want to purchase products or services, which they perceive as meeting their needs and wants. Literature review on marketing challenges in the new millennium The precondition, which fostered to review the challenges for the marketing in the new millennium, was the statements in various forms and shapes, which appeared during the past decade in text books, social networks, media and social forums. The selection of disturbing statements were selected and presented here for the discussion. The biased perception of marketing functions and orientations at the dawn of the new millennium is not compelling. Traditional (conventional) marketing is visualised as a dead function, notwithstanding the critics of modern marketing practice. The critics bring up the issues of lost customers, mass marketing and viral marketing. Therefore, a more fundamental change for marketing is at stake – towards a more personal touch in the field, as well emphasised by Spellings (2009). Boynett and Boynett (2003) in their book on â€Å"The Guru Guideâ„ ¢ to Marketing: A Concise Guide to the Best Ideas from Today’s Top Marketers† have also identified a number of citations, which question the future of marketing and its conventional functionality. It is apparent that marketing is becoming a multi-disciplinary theory, which inevitably incorporates postmodern aspects of the markets and consumption patterns and consumer behaviour. Selected statements on the death of traditional marketing in the new millennium Authors/sources| Statements| Boyett and Boyett (2003, p.1)| Death-of-marketing gurus rationalize their hyperbole by explaining that marketing is in the throes of fundamental change.| World of DTC Marketing (2008)| Conventional marketing is dead†¦| Bishop (2009)| Marketing is dead; long live marketing: Attracting consumers in the post-mass marketing era| Big Marketing Ideas (2009)| The reason we say viral marketing is dead is not because content no longer spreads in the same way – quite the contrary. But the idea that you could create a flash game or a funny video and expect it to get a million hits and downloads within a week is now patently naà ¯ve. | Wymore (2009)| Forget direct mail, television advertising, and other mass media marketing. They just don’t work anymore. Traditional marketing is dead. In other words, these marketing chestnuts simply don’t stand out in today’s noisy media market.| Spellings (2009)| â€Å"Mass Marketing is Dead. Make Way For Personal Marketing†: The days of mass marketing are coming to an end as we enter a new era of personal marketing. Personal marketing will require more work, more preparation, and smarter implementation, but the rewards will be vastly better than the mass marketing approach.| Selected marketing challenges in the new millennium Sutton and Klein (2003)| Blythe (2005)| Kashani (2005)| Brown (2008)| Kotler and Armstrong (2008)| Bishop (2009)| †¢ Increasing market complexity †¢ Accelerating demand for speed to market †¢ Growing need to capture marketing knowledge †¢ Increasing availability of innovative marketing technologies †¢ Escalating demand for marketing efficiency and effectiveness| †¢ Relationship marketing development †¢ Service quality enhancement †¢ Internet marketing development †¢ Marketing ethics †¢ Marketing strategy revisited| †¢ Commoditisation (change in technologies, more informed customer, more intense competition) †¢ Consolidation(mergers & acquisitions) †¢ Power shift †¢ Margin erosion †¢ Value focus| Postmodern challenges: †¢ Hyperreality †¢ Fragmentation †¢ Reversed production and consumption †¢ Decentred subjects †¢ Juxtaposition of opposites| †¢ The new digital age †¢ Rapid globalisation †¢ The call for more ethics and social responsibility †¢ Growth of non-profit marketing| †¢ Aggressive innovations †¢ Building a strong value proposition †¢ Engagement and connection to the customer †¢ Delivering customer experiences at or above expectations| It could be generalised that marketing in the 21st century presents many new postmodern challenges (see Table 3): †¢ shrinking markets, which in effect implies fragmentation and decentralised subjects (Brown, 2008), followed by increasing market complexity (Sutton and Klein, 2003) and market globalisation (Kotler and Armstrong, 2008); †¢ green issues (Blythe, 2005), more marketing ethics (Blythe, 2005; Kotler and Armstrong, 2008) and social responsibility (Kotler and Armstrong, 2008); †¢ marketing strategy revisited (Blythe, 2005) through accelerating the demand for marketing efficiency and effectiveness (Sutton and Klein, 2003) and speed to market (Sutton and Klein, 2003), and aggressive innovations (Bishop, 2009); †¢ advancements in technologies in the digital age (Kotler and Armstrong, 2008), including Internet, commoditisation (Kashani, 2005), communications (Bishop, 2009), internet marketing development (Blythe, 2005), increasing availability of innovative marketing technologies (Sutton and Klein, 2003); †¢ engagement and connection to the customer (Bishop, 2009), through service quality enhancement (Blythe, 2005), delivering customer experiences at or above expectations (Bishop, 2009), rapidly changing public attitudes towards consumption (Sutton and Klein, 2003); †¢ building a strong value proposition (Bishop, 2009) through growing need to capture marketing knowledge (Sutton and Klein, 2003), power shift (Kashani, 2005) and reversed production and consumption (Brown, 2008). Therefore, marketers are facing the re-evaluation of marketing strategy, applying new tools and sophisticated techniques in the new millennium, where changes are of a constant nature. â€Å"Ultimately, the firms who take the greatest care of their customers’ interests are the ones most likely to maintain their competitive edge in a cut-throat world† (Blythe, 2005 p.332). The case of coffee bars: applying marketing orientations and marketing challenges in the new millennium. In practice, each company selects business and marketing philosophy which suits it best. The decision depends on the company’s type, size, products and services it produces, distributes and sells and etc. In order to apply marketing orientations and marketing challenges to a practical situation, two companies in coffee bars sector: a) an international company STARBUCKS (the USA) and b) a national company COFFEE INN (Lithuania). Their briefs and marketing philosophies will be discussed bellow. The case of Starbucks (the USA) Probably one of the most famous brands in the United States and now in the whole world, reflecting the specific lifestyle of the few generations, is definitely Starbucks. Starbucks is the largest coffee-house company in the world, offering a wide range of various coffees, hot and cold coffee and non-coffee drinks, sandwiches and sweet snacks. Founded in 1979, only as a coffee bean retailer Starbucks became a coffee-house selling coffee drinks as well as beans, when its present headmaster Howard Schultz came in and bought the company from its former owners in 1987. Since then, an extraordinary quick expansion in the Unites States, and from 1996 in the whole world, has begun. Now, Starbucks owns approximately 16 000 stores in the world and announces about opening 900 new stores outside United States in 2009 (on the other hand, Starbucks is closing the same amount of stores in the United States) (www.strabucks.com). It is obvious, that such a big success would be impossible without well selected and formulated marketing philosophy. As one of the most innovative companies in the world Starbucks has chosen social-ethical marketing orientation and declares care for the environment and common wealth as well as for people. The main idea of their philosophy is defined in the Starbucks mission statement. Starbucks has two mission statements which are placed in the official company’s website : „To inspire and nurture human spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighbourhood at a timeâ€Å" and „Starbucks is committed to a role of environmental leadership in all facets of our businessâ€Å" (www.strabucks.com). Social-ethical marketing orientation is getting a trendy buzz word, as environmental and ecological problems are on the increase. Some years ago Starbucks was criticised for wasting resources by using paper and plastic cups, for wasting water and even funding Israel army (Vitkus, 2009). Now this company is shown as the best example of environmental friendly business in the business schools around the world. Starbucks announces its corporate social responsibility Annual reports for the public; here the company describes their attention to the employees, customers and the environment, manifesting marketing orientation, marketorientation and holistic marketing orientation. They started to use cups from recycled paper or biodegradable plastic. Social responsibility is also emphasised in their coffee-bars’ design, posters and various promotional campaigns (the integrated marketing sub-orientation in the holistic marketing orientation). According to Pranulis et al (2008), the main idea of marketing orientation is to create the circle of loyal clients rather than one-time buyers. Starbucks could be called a champion in this field too. The chairman of Starbucks Howard Schultz explains, that a person gets more than just coffee when he/she visits Starbucks – „he gets great people, first-rate music and a comfortable and upbeat meeting place† (www.strabucks.com). That’s why people all around the world are willing to pay for coffee more than in other coffee-bars – they buy and experience, not a drink (the selling orientation). According to Howard Schultz, Starbucks build personal relationships with each of their customers (this implies the relationship marketing sub-orientation in the holistic marketing orientation). Even the waiters at Starbucks are called baristas to make them feel exceptional and proud about their workplace, not to feel just simple service workers (internal marketing sub-orientation in the holistic marketing orientation). Another core element of marketing concept (Pranulis et al., 2008, Kotler and Keller, 2007) is to appeal to customers’ needs. Starbucks does everything to achieve its costumers’ satisfaction. They were the first who offered free internet at their coffee-bars and started to open the stores 10 minutes before the actual opening time just to make customers always feel welcome and happy. Viral marketing has also become one of the most important features of Starbucks‘. You can hardly find and advertisement in any newspaper or marketplace, but they build extremely strong relationships by using social networks, internet and mouth-to-mouth marketing, which means Starbucks meets the marketing challenges of a) the digital age, b) value proposition, c) connecting to customers, d) corporate social responsibility, e) green issues and f) overall revised marketing strategy, g) market shrinking factors (as Starbucks was forced to close down 600 coffee-bars in the USA during the economic slowdown (Milasius, 2008)). The case of Coffee Inn (Lithuania) The other company selected for a comparative study is a national company, located only in Lithuania. Coffee Inn is a coffee-bars’ chain opened a few years ago in Vilnius, the capital city of the country. Started from just one coffee-bar, Coffee Inn now owns 7 coffee-bars in Vilnius and one in Kaunas in 2007 (Vaitiekuniene, 2007). At first, Coffee Inn came into the market with the same concept as Starbucks did. It sells coffee and various coffee drinks, served in paper cups, sandwiches and desserts in small, cosy coffee-bars, located in the city centre. The main difference between Starbucks and Coffee Inn is that Starbucks is a big global company (the globalisation challenge) and can afford applying social-ethical marketing orientation, while Coffee Inn is still too small to afford huge investments for various socialprojects and campaigns and it has chosen the marketing orientation. However, Coffee Inn expands constantly, therefore, sooner or later this company will also apply social-ethical marketing oreintation (now Coffee Inn supports various cultural festivals, such as cultural night TebÃ… «nie naktis, or Street music day, not financially, but by helping to promote them, or by prolonging their opening hours during these festivals). The main idea, the co-owner of Coffee Inn Nidas Kiuberis explains, is that they sell a feeling of pleasure rather than just a cup of coffee (Obcarskaite, 2009). It seems extremely similar to Starbucks idea. The waiters are called baristas too, Coffee Inn also offers free internet access and their menu is quite similar to Starbucks one. Lithuanians sometimes even claim that Coffee Inn tries to copy Starbucks. On the other hand, there are a lot of cafeterias offering similar facilities (e.g., Vero Cafe, Double Coffee and etc.), and Coffee Inn is not an exception. However, Coffee Inn is a lot smaller as coffee-bars’ chain than Starbucks and for this reason it is much easier to control it. Being small enables Coffee Inn to be more flexible and to react to customers’ demands and wants quicker and to create new demands and wants at the same time (marketing orientation). Coffee Inn constantly offers new drinks, snacks and other features (product orientation). They were one of the first who invited customers to come together with their pets, set free book collection and invited everyone to come to read or to donate a book (the communication challenge). While talking about customers’ loyalty, new technologies play an important part here too (the technological challenge): Coffee Inn keeps exceptionally close relationships with its customers using Facebook social network, writing the blog and honestly replying to all the letters and comments. The co-owner Nidas Kiuberis maintains the Coffee Inn blog himself – this is very important, as customers notice, that director of the company itself pays attention to their opinion (Milasius, 2008). Nidas Kiuberis explains, they are following â€Å"guerilla marketing† ideas, because it is the best solution for a small business without large budget, where creativity and energy are the most important things (Obcarskaite, 2009). â€Å"Viral marketing and personal blog writing costs nothing and gives better results, than advertisement on TV – your loyalty for customers loyalty, these are the things every company seeks, especially in a crisis time† (Obcarskaite, 2009). As a result, Coffee Inn has created a steady circle of loyal customers, who are indifferent to similar competitors, such as Vero Cafe, offers. The Evolution of the Marketing Concept Marketing is basically about anticipating and serving customer needs, but where does the concept come from? In fact, even though the term â€Å"marketing† quite modern, the idea of customer orientation is as old as trade itself. For example, if we looked at a pre-Industrial Revolution village, we would see a number of trades-people such as the blacksmith at work. These people provided the villagers with what they wanted. There was no question of producing large volumes of goods and assuming that people would take them. Everything was made to order – the customer had needs and the supplier met them. Conclusions In the changing market environment with changing customer behaviour and seeking business opportunities, companies face marketing challenges on a daily basis. In the process of theoretical research, a modified model of marketing orientations, which form the marketing philosophy, was proposed, comprising eight major orientations, where market orientation and the holistic marketing orientation are split into further sub-orientations. The other task for the author was to review and structure marketing challenges in the new millennium and test these issues in two cases of coffee-bars sector on international (Starbucks) and national (Coffee Inn in Lithuania) markets. Starbucks and Coffee Inn both follow similar marketing orientations. Starbucks follows social-ethical marketing orientation as a basis of business, while Coffee Inn is being still guided by the marketing orientation. Both companies sell an experience, rather than just coffee and image is very important for the customers of these companies as they are mainly young people (20-40 years of age, Miksys, 2008). Both companies use viral marketing techniques, though Coffee Inn can create closer relationships with its customers, because it is able to react to changes quicker. Loyal customers could be called the biggest strength and competitive advantage of these companies as they do not compete on price, just by creating exceptional atmosphere.

An Evaluation of the Relevance and Utility of Lean Manufacturing Approach to the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain

Principles of Lean manufacturing in supply chain management Lean thinking is a concept that describes a production philosophy aiming for progressive elimination of waste whist safeguarding the critical value (Ende 2011). According to (Sople 2012: 113), the principles of Lean manufacturing are â€Å"customer value, value stream analysis, demand pull, continuous flow, and waste elimination.† The purpose of a Lean supply chain network is to bring the lowest cost in differential customer value, which can be met through collaborative priorities in demand, real-time information on markets, and logistics delivery efficiencies, to name a few. The concept of networks of supply chain partners suggests that the success of companies is through their constant origination from new networks of supply chain partners in order to meet certain objectives. As a general rule, these constantly developing networks can act in response to the dynamic characteristic of customer demand (Sople 2012). The manufacturing function must not be the only domain to whic h Lean principles must be applied. Rather, it must also be applied across organisations in the supply chain to decrease the wastes usually associated with supply chain operations. The full benefit of Lean manufacturing and supply chain management necessitates that the scope of Lean implementations must go beyond a single function and must be structured as a part of managing relationships with customers and suppliers (Lambert 2008). It may therefore be analysed that with the adoption of Lean techniques, the management is tasked to align corporate activities with Lean manufacturing in supply chain management across organisational functions. Lean thinking also allows the organisation to direct business relationships with customers and suppliers. Application of Lean Principles Lean thinking is apparently applicable to pharmaceutical development and manufacturing (Wigglesworth and Wood, 2012). Lambert (2008) states that whilst the various material flows as well as flows of goods and information are the focus of Lean supply chain operations, Lean application to the management of supply chains is further from the physical flows of inventory. It also takes account of the entirety of the business relationship amongst firms. When a firm applies Lean manufacturing concepts to its supply chain management, it begins to focus on value drivers; revenue development; asset efficiency, and reductions in cost, inventory, and working capital. All of these are apparently beneficial to an organisation. Applying Lean thinking to supply chain management is very likely since both of them share commonalities, such as long-term perspectives, value and customer creation; systems view; and structured business relationships;amongst others (Lambert 2008). These commonalities indicate how much Lean thinking and supply chain management lend to each other. Based on this, one can conclude that Lean approaches are aligned to supply chain management and that the two are generally not in contrast with each other. Potential advantages of Lean approach to managing quality and efficiency in the pharmaceutical industry One of the potential advantages of Lean approach in the pharmaceutical industry is the reduction of cost of goods in pharmaceutical development and manufacturing. The implementation of Lean thinking can be carried out by developing workflows and infrastructures to reduce inventories (Ende 2011), which are in fact a target of quality and efficiency efforts within pharmaceutical companies. The concept of continuous manufacturing in pharmaceutical companies deals with the challenge of overproduction, which leads to surplus inventory and longer cycle teams. These are the focus of efficiency on which pharmaceutical companies must be engaged. Its significance is seen in the fact that excess inventory is considered the greatest waste because it brings upon itself certain costs related to the management, storage, and transport of inventories adding to the waste (Schneider 2010). Therefore, when Lean techniques are used, such wastes are reduced, if not totally eliminated within the pharmaceu tical firm. Novartis and H. Lundbeck case studies Novartis is one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical firms (Abreau 2013). The upstream part of its supply chain indicates flow of information and full visibility. Novartis uses product-to-demand technique based on demand, whereby its daily variable demand stream is integrated to production (AMR Research 2006). Between its levels of supply chain are limited visibility and flow of information (Abreau 2013). Despite being ranked number 2 behind Pfizer in cost of goods sold in 2006, Novartis decided to take on Lean principles and become the â€Å"Toyota of pharmaceuticals.† Using Lean principles, the company is focused on reducing its cycle time to 70 per cent and reducing spending by 40 per cent, as well as pursuing continuous manufacturing with raw materials going in one end of the chain and finished products coming out the other (AMR Research 2007). Along with this is the reengineering of every process and role, leveraging information technology, and setting up process-oriented teams in the absence of first-line supervisors so that personnel would report directly to one team leader (Shanley 2004). Here, one can see the application of Lean techniques to Novartis’ supply chain, thereby helping the company to improve its internal processes and eliminate waste. Lundbeck, on the other hand, is an international pharmaceutical firm that began its Lean adoption in 2005. The company went through certain phases in its Lean adoption, such as building consensus in the management group and running a range of Lean events and building a culture around these events. In the first phase, Lundbeck implemented 40 Lean events assisted by external experts, followed by 70 to 80 Lean events each year, with all personnel in the supply chain being involved (Simpler Consulting 2010). Through its adoption of Lean principles in its supply chain, the company was able to cut costs by 25 per cent. Workflow analysis within the organisation is also aided by video cameras, which leads to further improvements. Part of its Lean techniques adoption is the use of large bags instead of small box packaging, which reduced production delays from four hours to only an hour (Miller 2012). Is Lean appropriate to the pharmaceutical supply chain? Yes, Lean techniques are appropriate to the pharmaceutical supply chain. Despite Lean thinking’s origination from Toyota manufacturing, its adoption is still suitable to the pharmaceutical industry. In fact, its applicability is seen in the number of pharmaceutical companies that continue to adopt Lean manufacturing techniques. Although many of these techniques cannot be taken on to the more complex pharmaceutical manufacturing plants, their adoption mirrors the pursuit of increased optimisation (Shanley 200). Boyer and Verma (2010) surmise that whilst the original focus of developing Lean thinking is the manufacture of automobiles, it can still be applied to other industries. This is because Lean approach is more than a set of techniques but is a mindset for all personnel and managers who are focused on waste elimination and reduction of variability in the entirety of the business process. The advantage of Lean’s adoption in the pharmaceutical industry is the ability of pharmaceutical companies to experience logical rhythm through the supply chain. With the Lean enterprise, adaptive supply chain is carried out, causing the whole organisation to possess real-time process visualisation (Hafeli 2006). Argument for agility in the pharmaceutical supply chain Pharmaceutical companies are inclined to be bureaucratic, which results in several wastes in internal processes. With the application of Lean principles, pharmaceutical companies are able to strengthen their relative agility (Radeka 2013). This would mean that despite the relative limitation of the application of Lean principles in the pharmaceutical supply chain as pointed by WCI Consulting Limited (2011), the result is still improved agility in the supply chain. Apparently, the need for agility in supply chain management is founded on decreasing product life cycles and demand patterns of increasingly volatile markets. Sweeney (2009) points out that Lean is not enough, that agility in supply chain is required because of emphasis on speed, with time being a major competitive weapon. This argument is reasonable given the rapidly changing market in which pharmaceutical companies operate. However, as emphasised above, Lean thinking is also applicable to the pharmaceutical industry. An argument arising about the adoption of Lean thinking in the pharmaceutical industry is the risk that goes with it. Such adoption is said to put the supply chain to increased vulnerability to disruptions and unpredictable events due to lack of slack on which to withdraw. With Lean techniques making the supply chain vulnerable, a question that may come up is whether this would mean Lean is not suitable at all. The answer is pharmaceutical companies can apply Lean techniques to cut costs and adopt agility in order to obtain supply chain resilience, as pointed out by WCI Consulting Limited (2011). Conclusion This paper provides a critical analysis of the relevance and utility of Lean techniques in the pharmaceutical supply chain. Lean thinking allows the elimination of wastes and cost reduction in pharmaceutical companies. Lean supply chain considers the entirety of the business relationship amongst firms. Reduced costs of goods and reduced inventories are the potential advantages of Lean approach in the pharmaceutical industry. Novartis and Lundbeck case studies provide an example where Lean techniques and supply chain management become integrated. Despite the effectiveness of agility in supply chain management, Lean cannot be set aside as a valuable tool. References Abreau, P. E. M. (2013) An ANP Model to Support Decision-Making in a Portuguese Pharmaceutical Supply Chain. Reterived on March 22, 2014 from http://run.unl.pt/bitstream/10362/10724/1/Abreu_2013.pdf AMR Research (2006) Supply Chain Saves the World. US: AMR Research, Inc. AMR Research (2007) Risk!: Navigating an Uncertain World. US: AMR Research Inc. Boyer, K. and Verma, R. (2010) Operations and Supply Chain Management for the 21st Century. First Edition. Mason, OH: South-Western, Cengage Learning. Ende, D. J. (2011) Chemical Engineering in the Pharmaceutical Industry: RD to Manufacturing. New Jersey: John Wiley Sons. Hafeli, R. (2006) Enabling Lean and Compliant Manufacturing at Novartis with SAP. Denver: SAP Adaptive Manufacturing Summit, September 28. Lambert, D. M. (2008) Supply Chain Management: Processes, Partnerships, Performance. Sarasota, FL: Supply Chain Management Institute. Miller, G. (2012) Lean Earns Lundbeck Big Prize, Cost Cuts. Retrieved on March 22, 2014 from http://www.fiercepharmamanufacturing.com/story/lean-earns-lundbeck-big-prize-cost-cuts/2012-01-18 Radeka, K. (2013) The Mastery of Innovation: A Field Guide to Lean Product Development. NW: CRC Press. Schneider, O. (2010) Adding Enterprise Value: Mitigating Investment Decision Risks by Assessing the Economic Value of Supply Chain Initiatives. Zurich: vdf Hochshulverlag AG Shanley, A. (2004) Novartis Goes Lean. Retrieved on March 22, 2014 from http://www.pharmamanufacturing.com/articles/2004/111/ Simpler Consulting (2010) Lean Management of the Pharmaceutical Sector Brings Increased Efficiency and Improved Quality While Increasing Profits. Retrieved on March 22, 2014 from http://www.simpler.com/success-stories/Lundbeck_Case-Study.pdf Sople, V. V. (2012) Supply Chain Management: Text and Cases. New Delhi: Dorling Kindersley Pvt. Ltd. Sweeney, E. (2009) Lean, Agile and Resilient Pharmaceutical Supply Chains: Jargon or ActionIrish Pharmachem Buyers Guide (September), 38-39. WCI Consulting Limited (2011) Keeping the Supply Chain Agile. Retrieved on March 22, 2014 from http://www.wcigroup.com/Nostrapharmus/Keeping%20the%20supply%20chain%20agile.pdf Wigglesworth, M. and Wood, T. (2012) Management of Chemical and Biological Samples for Screening Applications. Germany: Wiley-VCH Verlag Co. An Evaluation of the Relevance and Utility of Lean Manufacturing Approach to the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Principles of Lean manufacturing in supply chain management Lean thinking is a concept that describes a production philosophy aiming for progressive elimination of waste whist safeguarding the critical value (Ende 2011). According to (Sople 2012: 113), the principles of Lean manufacturing are â€Å"customer value, value stream analysis, demand pull, continuous flow, and waste elimination.† The purpose of a Lean supply chain network is to bring the lowest cost in differential customer value, which can be met through collaborative priorities in demand, real-time information on markets, and logistics delivery efficiencies, to name a few. The concept of networks of supply chain partners suggests that the success of companies is through their constant origination from new networks of supply chain partners in order to meet certain objectives. As a general rule, these constantly developing networks can act in response to the dynamic characteristic of customer demand (Sople 2012). The manufacturing function must not be the only domain to whic h Lean principles must be applied. Rather, it must also be applied across organisations in the supply chain to decrease the wastes usually associated with supply chain operations. The full benefit of Lean manufacturing and supply chain management necessitates that the scope of Lean implementations must go beyond a single function and must be structured as a part of managing relationships with customers and suppliers (Lambert 2008). It may therefore be analysed that with the adoption of Lean techniques, the management is tasked to align corporate activities with Lean manufacturing in supply chain management across organisational functions. Lean thinking also allows the organisation to direct business relationships with customers and suppliers. Application of Lean Principles Lean thinking is apparently applicable to pharmaceutical development and manufacturing (Wigglesworth and Wood, 2012). Lambert (2008) states that whilst the various material flows as well as flows of goods and information are the focus of Lean supply chain operations, Lean application to the management of supply chains is further from the physical flows of inventory. It also takes account of the entirety of the business relationship amongst firms. When a firm applies Lean manufacturing concepts to its supply chain management, it begins to focus on value drivers; revenue development; asset efficiency, and reductions in cost, inventory, and working capital. All of these are apparently beneficial to an organisation. Applying Lean thinking to supply chain management is very likely since both of them share commonalities, such as long-term perspectives, value and customer creation; systems view; and structured business relationships;amongst others (Lambert 2008). These commonalities indicate how much Lean thinking and supply chain management lend to each other. Based on this, one can conclude that Lean approaches are aligned to supply chain management and that the two are generally not in contrast with each other. Potential advantages of Lean approach to managing quality and efficiency in the pharmaceutical industry One of the potential advantages of Lean approach in the pharmaceutical industry is the reduction of cost of goods in pharmaceutical development and manufacturing. The implementation of Lean thinking can be carried out by developing workflows and infrastructures to reduce inventories (Ende 2011), which are in fact a target of quality and efficiency efforts within pharmaceutical companies. The concept of continuous manufacturing in pharmaceutical companies deals with the challenge of overproduction, which leads to surplus inventory and longer cycle teams. These are the focus of efficiency on which pharmaceutical companies must be engaged. Its significance is seen in the fact that excess inventory is considered the greatest waste because it brings upon itself certain costs related to the management, storage, and transport of inventories adding to the waste (Schneider 2010). Therefore, when Lean techniques are used, such wastes are reduced, if not totally eliminated within the pharmaceu tical firm. Novartis and H. Lundbeck case studies Novartis is one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical firms (Abreau 2013). The upstream part of its supply chain indicates flow of information and full visibility. Novartis uses product-to-demand technique based on demand, whereby its daily variable demand stream is integrated to production (AMR Research 2006). Between its levels of supply chain are limited visibility and flow of information (Abreau 2013). Despite being ranked number 2 behind Pfizer in cost of goods sold in 2006, Novartis decided to take on Lean principles and become the â€Å"Toyota of pharmaceuticals.† Using Lean principles, the company is focused on reducing its cycle time to 70 per cent and reducing spending by 40 per cent, as well as pursuing continuous manufacturing with raw materials going in one end of the chain and finished products coming out the other (AMR Research 2007). Along with this is the reengineering of every process and role, leveraging information technology, and setting up process-oriented teams in the absence of first-line supervisors so that personnel would report directly to one team leader (Shanley 2004). Here, one can see the application of Lean techniques to Novartis’ supply chain, thereby helping the company to improve its internal processes and eliminate waste. Lundbeck, on the other hand, is an international pharmaceutical firm that began its Lean adoption in 2005. The company went through certain phases in its Lean adoption, such as building consensus in the management group and running a range of Lean events and building a culture around these events. In the first phase, Lundbeck implemented 40 Lean events assisted by external experts, followed by 70 to 80 Lean events each year, with all personnel in the supply chain being involved (Simpler Consulting 2010). Through its adoption of Lean principles in its supply chain, the company was able to cut costs by 25 per cent. Workflow analysis within the organisation is also aided by video cameras, which leads to further improvements. Part of its Lean techniques adoption is the use of large bags instead of small box packaging, which reduced production delays from four hours to only an hour (Miller 2012). Is Lean appropriate to the pharmaceutical supply chain? Yes, Lean techniques are appropriate to the pharmaceutical supply chain. Despite Lean thinking’s origination from Toyota manufacturing, its adoption is still suitable to the pharmaceutical industry. In fact, its applicability is seen in the number of pharmaceutical companies that continue to adopt Lean manufacturing techniques. Although many of these techniques cannot be taken on to the more complex pharmaceutical manufacturing plants, their adoption mirrors the pursuit of increased optimisation (Shanley 200). Boyer and Verma (2010) surmise that whilst the original focus of developing Lean thinking is the manufacture of automobiles, it can still be applied to other industries. This is because Lean approach is more than a set of techniques but is a mindset for all personnel and managers who are focused on waste elimination and reduction of variability in the entirety of the business process. The advantage of Lean’s adoption in the pharmaceutical industry is the ability of pharmaceutical companies to experience logical rhythm through the supply chain. With the Lean enterprise, adaptive supply chain is carried out, causing the whole organisation to possess real-time process visualisation (Hafeli 2006). Argument for agility in the pharmaceutical supply chain Pharmaceutical companies are inclined to be bureaucratic, which results in several wastes in internal processes. With the application of Lean principles, pharmaceutical companies are able to strengthen their relative agility (Radeka 2013). This would mean that despite the relative limitation of the application of Lean principles in the pharmaceutical supply chain as pointed by WCI Consulting Limited (2011), the result is still improved agility in the supply chain. Apparently, the need for agility in supply chain management is founded on decreasing product life cycles and demand patterns of increasingly volatile markets. Sweeney (2009) points out that Lean is not enough, that agility in supply chain is required because of emphasis on speed, with time being a major competitive weapon. This argument is reasonable given the rapidly changing market in which pharmaceutical companies operate. However, as emphasised above, Lean thinking is also applicable to the pharmaceutical industry. An argument arising about the adoption of Lean thinking in the pharmaceutical industry is the risk that goes with it. Such adoption is said to put the supply chain to increased vulnerability to disruptions and unpredictable events due to lack of slack on which to withdraw. With Lean techniques making the supply chain vulnerable, a question that may come up is whether this would mean Lean is not suitable at all. The answer is pharmaceutical companies can apply Lean techniques to cut costs and adopt agility in order to obtain supply chain resilience, as pointed out by WCI Consulting Limited (2011). Conclusion This paper provides a critical analysis of the relevance and utility of Lean techniques in the pharmaceutical supply chain. Lean thinking allows the elimination of wastes and cost reduction in pharmaceutical companies. Lean supply chain considers the entirety of the business relationship amongst firms. Reduced costs of goods and reduced inventories are the potential advantages of Lean approach in the pharmaceutical industry. Novartis and Lundbeck case studies provide an example where Lean techniques and supply chain management become integrated. Despite the effectiveness of agility in supply chain management, Lean cannot be set aside as a valuable tool. References Abreau, P. E. M. (2013) An ANP Model to Support Decision-Making in a Portuguese Pharmaceutical Supply Chain. Reterived on March 22, 2014 from http://run.unl.pt/bitstream/10362/10724/1/Abreu_2013.pdf AMR Research (2006) Supply Chain Saves the World. US: AMR Research, Inc. AMR Research (2007) Risk!: Navigating an Uncertain World. US: AMR Research Inc. Boyer, K. and Verma, R. (2010) Operations and Supply Chain Management for the 21st Century. First Edition. Mason, OH: South-Western, Cengage Learning. Ende, D. J. (2011) Chemical Engineering in the Pharmaceutical Industry: RD to Manufacturing. New Jersey: John Wiley Sons. Hafeli, R. (2006) Enabling Lean and Compliant Manufacturing at Novartis with SAP. Denver: SAP Adaptive Manufacturing Summit, September 28. Lambert, D. M. (2008) Supply Chain Management: Processes, Partnerships, Performance. Sarasota, FL: Supply Chain Management Institute. Miller, G. (2012) Lean Earns Lundbeck Big Prize, Cost Cuts. Retrieved on March 22, 2014 from http://www.fiercepharmamanufacturing.com/story/lean-earns-lundbeck-big-prize-cost-cuts/2012-01-18 Radeka, K. (2013) The Mastery of Innovation: A Field Guide to Lean Product Development. NW: CRC Press. Schneider, O. (2010) Adding Enterprise Value: Mitigating Investment Decision Risks by Assessing the Economic Value of Supply Chain Initiatives. Zurich: vdf Hochshulverlag AG Shanley, A. (2004) Novartis Goes Lean. Retrieved on March 22, 2014 from http://www.pharmamanufacturing.com/articles/2004/111/ Simpler Consulting (2010) Lean Management of the Pharmaceutical Sector Brings Increased Efficiency and Improved Quality While Increasing Profits. Retrieved on March 22, 2014 from http://www.simpler.com/success-stories/Lundbeck_Case-Study.pdf Sople, V. V. (2012) Supply Chain Management: Text and Cases. New Delhi: Dorling Kindersley Pvt. Ltd. Sweeney, E. (2009) Lean, Agile and Resilient Pharmaceutical Supply Chains: Jargon or ActionIrish Pharmachem Buyers Guide (September), 38-39. WCI Consulting Limited (2011) Keeping the Supply Chain Agile. Retrieved on March 22, 2014 from http://www.wcigroup.com/Nostrapharmus/Keeping%20the%20supply%20chain%20agile.pdf Wigglesworth, M. and Wood, T. (2012) Management of Chemical and Biological Samples for Screening Applications. Germany: Wiley-VCH Verlag Co.

GM Acquiring Ford Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

GM Acquiring Ford - Research Paper Example General Motors Company is a classic car manufacturing brand present in US since 1931. The brand is popular with its classic distinctions in both car and truck sections. Its network is present worldwide, covering Europe, Africa and United States. It is one of the leading competitors of Ford Corporation since 1980s, when both brands introduced new classic models into the market regions (Salamie & Stansell, 2006). With such massive global network of automobile, Ford Corporation has been facing a lot of challenges in its internal divisions (New York Times, 2012). Alan Mulally the CEO of the company has talked about several challenges the company has faced in the recent times, which if it gets merged with any company like General Motors, will add several risk factors in the organization system (New York Times, 2012). It has been seen in recent years that Ford Corporation is facing big time challenges in both American and European markets, while GM decisively focusing on the European section because of its fallback in the Central Europe since 2008, will expect Ford Corporation to support its European region (New York Times, 2012). If Ford gets merged with General motors, probable chance is that it invites uncertainties of General Motors prevailing in the European market. (New York Times, 2012) According to New York Times, due to lack of efficiency and operation, GM has lost its entire position in the Central Europe market segment. The company has received big time debts and bankruptcy cases which has deprived company’s dominating position in the Central Europe. More investments are made on the European side as the formal CEO Rick Wagoner of the company suggested restructuring of the company in that region. On this node if Ford gets along with such present situation of General Motors, it will have to invite challenges of European market carrying risk of sales regression, brand devaluation or deflation of the brand culture. According to New York Times (2012), Ford

Introduction of the role of CSR in oil industry , focusing on British Term Paper

Introduction of the role of CSR in oil industry , focusing on British petroleum - Term Paper Example Oil firms generate a lot of controversy through environmental damage, and therefore, CSR is one of the key approaches to managing negative perceptions of oil firms and the oil industry. British petroleum firms have accepted that the public views them with suspicion and scepticism, so the best way to change this is to use CSR. British petroleum firms like Royal Dutch Shell and British Petroleum PLC have managed to significantly enhance their brand image by sponsoring community programs and actively participating in community benefit activities. According to Frynas (2009:34), the two companies spend a significant share of their profits on improving lives in communities across the world. They have especially been active in academics, providing annual scholarships to bright and needy students who are often hired by the companies later. These are just some of the CSR activities a select few of British petroleum firms engage in. So far, results show that efforts are effective, helping to cultivate trust and good perception of the

Creating A Safe Environment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Creating A Safe Environment - Assignment Example In addition, game is a kind of peculiar way of the social experience assimilation. Game forms and develops all aspects of the childs personality, preparing child’s psyche to the transition to a new, higher stage of development. Plot-role-playing games, or in other words, games that are created by the children themselves, take a special place in the activities of preschool children. During such games children reproduce in the roles all the things that they see around them in the life of adults. In the game the child begins to feel like a member of the team, it can fairly evaluate the actions and deeds of his comrades and his own (Strauman†Raymond, Lie, and Kempf†Berkseth 257). 1. The main content of the game is the actions with objects. They are carried out in sequence, but this sequence is often violated. The chain of actions is the plot itself. Children like to play with adults, while independent game is short. Typically, the stimulus is an occurrence of the game or toy item that was previously used in other game. 2. The main content of the game - is the subject of the actions. These actions are deployed more fully and consistently in accordance with the role, which is already indicated by the word. Procedure becomes the rule. The same game can be repeated many times. Toys are not pre-selected, but the children often use the same - favorite toys. Into the game can already be involved 2-3 children. 3. The main content of the game - is the action with objects. However, they are complemented by actions aimed at establishing a variety of contacts with partners in the game. Roles are clearly defined and distributed before the game. Toys and objects are selected (usually during the game), in accordance with the role. The logic, the nature of actions and their direction is determined by the role. It has become the main rule. 4. The main content of the game - a reflection of adult relationships and interactions with each other. Subjects

Using a UK retailer of your own choice, assess their Own Brand Essay

Using a UK retailer of your own choice, assess their Own Brand strategy - Essay Example The retail business is highly related to the perception and preference of customers. Sainsbury’s in order to develop its brand strategies has become completely customer oriented and has adopted strategies accordingly. The market share of Sainsbury’s in the year 2011 first quarter is estimated to be around 16.5 percent (Shannon, 2011). The market position of Sainsbury’s is quite strong in London as well as South East. It is observed that the retail branding is generally a customer oriented approach. The five major areas where Sainsbury’s has recognised growth were ‘great food at great prices’, ‘greater number of complimentary food chain’, ‘reaching maximum customers by means of extra channels’ and ‘increasing the space of supermarket’ along with ‘active property management’. These strategies have helped the retail store to sustain itself in the third position. Sainsbury’s possesses two formats of stores namely traditional super market stores and convenience stores (Li, 2008). The retail business strategy is different from the strategies of other businesses. In this paper, the brand strategy in retail sector has been discussed. The paper seeks to discuss about the brand strategy of Sainsbury’s. The brand strategy developed by the company in their retail business enables it to acquire more customer loyalty and this aspect has been highlighted in the paper. The importance of this strategy in fulfilling the need and expectation of customers has also been included in the paper. The paper also comprises of the relationship between services of the company and the need of customers. 2.0 Retail Branding The retail branding is considered as a well known concept in present scenario. The business in retail industry is growing rapidly and generating more chains of businesses. The branding of retailers is different from other product brands. The retail branding is genera lly ‘multi-sensory’ and it is developed by focusing on the knowledge of consumers. The brand image is adopted in different ways in this type of business. In the retail outlets there are various attributes that act as persuading factors for consumers such as quality of products, brands that are sold, services, appearance of store, the price level, behaviour as well as service of employees among others (Ailawadi & Keller, 2004). The business of retail industry is based on their adaptation towards the trends of society as well as taste of customers for new products. This adaptation generally influences more consumers. There is a chance of retail business to be eliminated from the society if it is incapable to fulfil the requirement of market. In this type of business, major focus is provided towards the customers as they are directly linked to the product of the stores (Mansoory & Mehra, 2010). 3.0 Strategy of Sainsbury’s The brand of Sainsbury’s was essentia lly developed with an intention to provide customers with healthy, fresh, secure and delicious foods. The company has focused towards various approaches before adopting strategies. Their main focus has been on quality, fair price, fresh food, innovative food and other product lines. Based on these aspects, the company developed its strategies to fulfil customers’ expectation (J-Sainsbury, 2010). The strategy of the company is principally based on the five areas and based on this strategy, brand image is developed. It also provides emphasis on the five selected strategies so as to enhance their business and retain customers (J-Sainsbury, 2010). In the first strategy of ‘great food at fair price’ the company has an intention to provide healthy, fresh, safe and tasty food and thus it has continued to make innovation in their product. These innovative products facilitate them to be a leader in delivering the quality products at fair prices (J Sainsbury Plc, 2011). Th e main focus in this strategy is to provide extreme importance on

Scientific Research and Prosperity of the United States Essay

Scientific Research and Prosperity of the United States - Essay Example If provided an opportunity, such people often lead the nation in scientific research. Archimedes ran naked on the streets of ancient Saracuse directly from the bathtub, crying "Eureka! I have found it!" This discovery from the bathtub points out the importance of pure scientific temper in research. Archimedes had the problem in his inquisitive mind even while he was taking a bath and when he found that with deeper immersion of his body into the water equal volume of water is being displaced out; he found a way to measure the volume. Werner Von Braun said1, "Basic research is what I am doing when I don't know what I am doing." Scientific reasoning, by definition, involves both conceptual understanding and inquiry skills2. The scientific thinking and reasoning skills thus required to be developed in children at an early age, which requires the adequate support from the respective governments and the society. Today we are in the midst of IT revolution and United States is a leading econ omy enjoying the fruits of such a revolution. Had there been no pure scientific temper, we might not be having the computer around us. Developing an interest for scientific research and scientific temper requires encouragement from the government and other concerned organizations, which in turn leads to the economic growth of the country. Expressing his concern at the diminishing interest for formal education, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said3 that Americans' lack of skills is holding back economic growth. Taking cognizance of the shortfall in scientific temper, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) has drawn plans to network such training and education with Information technology tools. The Federation has been working towards bringing scientists and technologists from a range of disciplines together to work out a collaborative effort in the field of education and workplace training. Federation has in fact underlined the need for appropriate new uses of science and technology for individuals, in the increasingly diverse society, to impart the requisite quality education and training. These efforts are an indication towards the crucial importance of development of a scientific temper. In fact pure science does not bind an individual to the field of science only; it has the ability to percolate down to any field which has relevance for the individual and the human society in general. Be it the complex calculations for a mathematician, trying out new forecasting techniques for an economist, managing natural disasters, developing a new machine for the production unit, space exploration, trying out a new medicine, making a new game for the kids etc. what is common to all these fields is science and the scientific temper. Now a days, the human genome project is being taken up by the scientific community in a big way. Though there are arguments for and against the project, but the project is certain to solve some of the mysteries of

International Business Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

International Business - Research Paper Example Introduction Vodafone Group Plc is the world’s leading mobile network operator which has deep roots in ‘Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and the United States (Vodafone). The British multinational mobile network operator has subsidiaries over 25 countries. According to the reports, it has developed a network of approximately 341 million customers by March 31, 2010. The company has great interests in India and Australia as these countries hold a potential market for the growth of mobile network operators. The statistical data show that Vodafone serves 106.34 million customers in India, which constitute one third of their total customers. The Vodafone Group started its operations in India in 1994 through its Indian subsidiary Vodafone Essar. Vodafone Hutchison Australia is the Australian subsidiary of Vodafone group and they actively started operations in Australia in 1993. Vodafone claims that they have a wide network of 4.031 million customers across Austral ia (Facts & Figures). Company outline The mission statement of the company reads like this; â€Å"We will be the communications leader in an increasingly connected world† (Vodafone). The company gives great emphasis on product strategy. After selecting a particular segment for the product launching, the company designs a big project for influencing the customers of the targeted area. The Vodafone largely employs media advertisements by which they try to communicate unique benefits of the brands with the public. The wide range of advertisements help people to assess various services offered by the Vodafone and thereby they can differentiate the company’s products from that of its competitors. Likewise, the Vodafone group keeps some distinctive features in their distribution strategy also. The Vodafone Group has recently announced their plan to reorganize the activities of six service providers into another three new businesses. This reorganization intends to specificall y concentrate on various market sectors such as corporate customers, small businesses, and the consumer. These different groups would have different needs and it would be possible to meet their varied needs efficiently only if the company has concentrated on specific sectors. Vodafone’s theory in pricing process is that it should be ‘affordable to all’; but at the same time they do not compromise with product quality. Global business environment The rapid technological developments in telecommunication field have encouraged the entrance of large number of new service providers into the market. Although Vodafone is one of the world’s leading companies, it faces intense competition in India and Australia. In India, there are too many competitive service operators such as BSNL, Reliance, and Airtel. However, the Vodafone Group could establish their position in Indian telecommunication market through the application of a wide variety of promotional techniques. Similarly, an extreme competitive environment exists in Australia also in the field of mobile network service providers. The business graph of Vodafone Australia indicates its fascinating growth during the last couple of years. In order to overcome the complexity of cut-throat competition, the Vodafone practices the method of target marketing. They maintain separate team of researchers in order to valuate the potentials and threats of a selected

THe Role of Women in the World Essay Example for Free

THe Role of Women in the World Essay The development of a country is very dependent on the roles and freedom that women receive. The gender role do vary geographically between More Developed countries (MDCs) and less developed countries(LDC’s). In less developed countries women take on lower roles, and lower stand in the social class. But geographically, in MDCs women have power and can have higher jobs. This gap is the piece that need to be studied to fully comprehend the changing of the role between the men and the women. One way the role of women is changing through the world is the women are gaining empowerment. Because of this, they are starting to hold high respectable jobs. This empowerment is a huge change because instead of women doing minuscule jobs as done before, the women are in office and leading countries. This is change because originally the men held these jobs. Because countries are developing and as countries developed thee status of women increases, the change can over all be described as countries becoming more developed. Over all in the world, the trend is found when countries allow the women rights, there country develops. Another way how the role of women is changing is women are now starting to become more educated. Read more:Â  Women Role in Modern Society This is a big role change because women have always had very few people of their gender in school. This is primarily because of their role has been to work at home and take care of all the minuscule jobs around the house. As their country develops, the role has changed and now they can obtain an education and have more freedom. One example of a less developed countries stats of men to women in school is In Arab states, they have 73 males but only 51 females. This shows that as countries develop they will have more equality between men and women in schools. There role of women has changed dramatically. The world trend for the development of a country is characterized by how women are treated and their roles in society. Gender related Development index is another tool used to explain that the roles are changing. This index compiles of economic indications of gender differences, social indications of gender difference, and demography indication of genetic differences, This index shows how the role has changed because this directly corresponds to woman empowerment. This empowerment allows women to get educated rather than do mine minuscular jobs, and to take office or to undertake the jobs that men once only had.

Will The Internet Drown The Travel Agents Tourism Essay

Will The Internet Drown The Travel Agents Tourism Essay November 2009, Budget travel the largest tour operator in Ireland ceased trading and closed the remaining 17 of total 31 retail shops. The company was established in May 1975 and had a 30% share of the market. The internet is a tidal waveà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. It will wash over the computer industry and many others, drowning those who dont learn to swim in its waves. (Bill Gates, 1995) Travel agents used to be the purchase channel between the travellers and the suppliers; now travellers can bypass the travel agents and purchase directly from the suppliers by using the internet. Will the internet drown the travel agents, like Bill Gates predicted, or will they learn to swim in its waves? A lot of research in this area has focused on how travellers and suppliers use the internet to eliminate the middle man, this research examines how travel agents are evolving and surviving this disintermediation. This dissertation is important to the middle men (the travel agents) and will examine what future, if any, they have and what form that future will take. Also this is important to future researchers, due to the lack of recent research literatures on this topic. Background to Study Currently travellers demand more and higher quality travel services, products, information and value for their money. The internet serves as a new form of communication and distribution channel for the traveller and travel service suppliers. It enables tourism suppliers to improve their competitiveness and performance, by cutting out the middle man, bringing more profit to the tourism suppliers and allowing suppliers to provide lower fare to the travellers. Before the internet, travellers had to book though travel agents. These bookings typically consisted of a large range of bundled products; each of the products within the booking was presented to the traveller in a sequential fashion. For example, the start of the trip would almost certainly consist of a flight product; at the destination airport the traveller would possibly collect their hire car and they would then go on to their pre-booked hotel. The industry relies on linking various products from various sources at specific times and locations to create a coherent package or product for the traveller. As Longhi (2008) stated, the value chain of the travel and tourism industry could traditionally be split into five main types of actors or participants (Figure 1): Figure 1 The Travel and Tourism Industry Supplier Chain Suppliers GDS Tour operators Travel agents Traveller Suppliers and service providers. Global Distribution Systems (GDS), such as Galileo, Sabre and Amadeus, used for reservations, information search, client management and reporting. Tour operators, who bundle the tourism products from suppliers. Travel agencies, which distribute the different products from services providers and tour operators to the consumer. Travellers, the actual customers. In contrast to the traditional model above, the internet provides a way for tourism suppliers to sell their products globally to potential travellers. For these suppliers, this model represents lower distribution costs, access to a much larger market and therefore higher potential revenues. For travellers, it represents an ability to communicate directly with tourism suppliers and to purchase what they wish when they wish to; with no recourse to a middleman. To some researchers, online booking sites significantly reduce the importance of travel agencies, a trend that could ultimately result in the permanent removal of travel agents from the supplier chain (Barnett and Standing, 2001). However, Palmer and McCole (1999) argue that travel agencies provide personal information and advice to traveller and that this is their key strength. There has been a significant amount of research on how the internet has changed the way travellers purchase products, but very little has been conducted on how the internet impacts the intermediaries travel agents. With the trend towards disintermediation, the elimination of the middle men between the suppliers and the consumers, travel agents would seem to be facing extinction. Bennett(1992) claims that changes to information technology in the travel industry over the past few years have worked primarily in favour of the suppliers and at the expense of the travel agents. Caywood, Loverseed and Murray (1999) support this view and suggest that these changes are aimed at encouraging travellers to bypass travel agents altogether. It is certainly undeniable that the internet is providing the means for suppliers and consumers to communicate directly. Figures available from the Irish Central Statistic Office indicate that over the past 4 years, the number of travellers booking online has increased dramatically and, by the same token, the number booking through travel agents has substantially decreased. Number of Trips by Irish Residents (Thousand) Travel Agent Internet 2006 1729 5510 2009 1046 7496 Despite these statistics, travel agents still exist within the marketplace. The fact that they are still here means that they are somehow managing to compete with the internet. A number of arguments have been put forward to suggest why travel agents are still surviving and also what they need to do to continue to compete and flourish. Lowerngart and Reichal (1998) claim that there are opportunities available to travel agents provided they focus on specific markets and specialise their activities. Waksberg (1997) argued that travel agents should move from a focus on transaction processing to the provision of consultative services. Lovelock (1992) claims that travel agents will need to expand their advisory function and concentrate on the provision of information and details that are not available to the traveller through the internet. Beirne (1999) suggests that travel agents should become consumer advocates, finding the best deals for the traveller. The Research Questions The primary research objective is to recognize how the internet is changing the travel industry and what strategies or techniques travel agents are adopting to evolve and sustain their positions. The key research question maybe posed as How does the internet impact travel agents? From the key question than expand to sub questions as following: How has the internet changed the business of travel agents? What threats does the internet present for travel agents? How are travel agents using the internet to run and improve their businesses? In what ways are travel agents competing with online travel providers? How will travel agents utilize the internet in the future to enhance their business operations and increase their profits? Timeframe of the Study The study was conducted over a nine months period from December 2010 to August 2010. The initial proposal was established during December to February, when the research topic was decided. The main body of work commenced in March 2010. Roadmap of Chapters The dissertation is split in to five major chapters followed by reference, bibliography and appendices. A summary of the subsequent chapters is outlined below: Chapter 2 contains a brief history of travel reservation system, as well as a discussion on existing research in the area and predictions concerning the future of travel agents. Chapter 3 discusses what methodological approach has been taken, the methods used to design and develop the research instruments, detailing the rationale for selection of the focus group, interview and online survey questions. Chapter 4 contains analysis on the primary secondary data and the findings. Chapter 5 presents the conclusion of the research and future work needed in this area. Chapter 2 literature review 2.1 Introduction November 2009, Budget travel the largest tour operator in Ireland ceased trading and closed the remaining 17 of total 31 retail shops. The company was established in May 1975 and had a 30% share of the market. This chapter sets out to examine how travel agents operated before the widespread use of the internet. It contrasts this historic, or traditional, mode of operation with the way that they operate today; placing particular emphasis on how the internet has directly impacted travel agents in the modern marketplace. There is a lack of recent and current research on this very specific topic, as a result most articles cited within this chapter are quite old. However, the lack of pertinent articles is also indicative of the importance of this research. This chapter draws on selected research identified during the literature review. It outlines the relationship between the internet and travel agents and it is from this literature review that the research questions for this dissitation emerged. 2.2 Exploratory Research A list of relevant articles and other sources were initially established through searches in selected computer science, communications and social sciences databases. Additional articles were found by following references from the initial list to their sources. The following databases were searched for the keywords Travel agents, Internet vs. Travel agents, Reservation system, Distribution channel, Tourism and travel, Information system, survival of the middle man and travel agency. Electronic journals http://atoz.ebsco.com IEEE Online Journal Index http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/periodicals.jsp Stella catalogue http://stella.catalogue.tcd.ie/iii/encore/home?lang=eng Science Direct http://www.sciencedirect.com Emerald http://www.emeraldinsight.com.elib.tcd.ie/ SAGE Journals Online http://online.sagepub.com.elib.tcd.ie ISI Web of knowledge http://apps.isiknowledge.com.elib.tcd.ie Google Scholar http://scholar.google.com Fig 2 Selected database table 2.3 History Any discussion on the history of the travel industry is necessarily complicated by large scale conflicts or wars. These are events which profoundly restrict any and all international travel, effectively shutting down the travel industry. For this reason, this document will consider the history of travel industry from the late 1940s onwards. Events prior to this are outside of the scope of this research. During the period under discussion, the late 1940s, travellers were few and fares were tightly regulated. The customer would telephone the travel agent, giving them details of the required travel arrangements. The agents would then call or telex the suppliers, on receiving these details the supplier would store them on a reservation card and then file that card. The number of air travellers steadily increased during the late 1940s and 1950s, in response to this; the airline schedules grew more complex. The existing simplistic system of booking travel products had to evolve to meet the increased size and complexity of the travel marketplace. In 1959, IBM developed a Computer Reservation System (CRS, also known as a Global Distribution System (GDS)) called Semi-Automatic Business Research Environment (SABRE). Initially developed for American Airlines, it was an answer to the problem of how to scale the reservation process to match the increased demand for travel. By 1964 it was the largest civil data processing system in the world (DUNCAN G.1995). Other airlines followed suit and introduced their own CRS or GDS systems. To book an air itinerary, travel agents had to call a reservation agent within the specific airline; the airline reservation agent would then make the flight reservation though a GDS terminal. The travel agent would then book any other additional travel products, such as hotel accommodation or a rental car, again using the telephone. This process created constrain on the travel agents, so they began pushing for a system that could automate their side of the process. In 1976 all airlines start grant travel agents access to their reservation system, allow agents to book ticket through their systems directly. At the same time in the UK , British Airways, British Caledonian and CCL launched Travicom, the worlds first multi-access reservation system, it has 49 airlines subscribing to it, it enable the travel agents and airlines communicate via a common distribution language and networks. From its success Travicom start implement similar system in different country, later when British Airline chose to participate in the development of the Galileo system ; Travicom changed its trading name to Galileo UK and a migration process was put in place to move agencies from Travicom to Galileo (B. Schmid, 1994). By the end of the 1990s there are nine major GDS of which 6 are still been used today. The GDS allow travel agent to a ccess its data using a terminal window through the network. Now travel agents can book flights directly with the GDS, they quickly realised that the computer terminals they are using everyday could be a convenient tool for booking other services as well. The GDS soon realised to fulfil the travel agents requirements; they need to add booking capabilities for rent cars, accommodations and other travel products (HSMAI Marketing Review, 1996). Finally travel agents can now book itinerary though one source within a network. When the internet becomes more and more popular, airlines and travel agents like other corporations start to use internet to improve their business. All GDSs can now be accessed through internet, travel agents can simply log on to the GDSs website to make search and reservation, most of the communications are done by email, the internet allows the travel agents operate more efficient. It also enables airlines to discard paper tickets, allow travellers to check in online, and travel agents will no longer has to worry about if the paper ticket will not reach the traveller on time. At the same time the internet also enable the traveller to book trips bypass the travel agents (Jo Cheyne et. Al, 2005). 2.3 Existing research of internet and travel agents Examining the key findings of some of the major studies on the relationship between the internet and travel agents. 2.3.1 The advent of the internet and disintermediation in the travel industry The internet has changed the traditional distribution channels; various studies have shown how well the internet is suited to the travel and tourism industry (Buhalis and Licate, 2002; Chirstian, 2001). With advent of the internet, suppliers can provide information on their products online, timely, up to date, to the travellers to assist their decision making. This , in turn, necessitates the balancing of perishable tourism products and changeable tourist demand, furthermore, the tourism industry is diversified, with a plethora of different suppliers that operate independently, even as tourists expect travelling to be complete experience. The resolve this mismatch, the internet offers an effective means for developing a single and sustainable electronic infrastructure for information gathering and business transactions for both travellers and suppliers. A natural outcome of this is that the suppliers can carry out one-to one marketing and mass customization. In other words, travel su pplier an now understand each customers needs, and therefore target each customer individually and deliver tailor-made products. More importantly, travel suppliers can understand how to deliver information and sell their products and services to customers directly through their website (Law, 2002). Travel services and product suppliers see the internet as an opportunity to save money on distribution costs. Inkpen (1998) stated that the internet allows the suppliers to sell their product directly to the travellers, bring them a significant cost savings. As Law (2000) contends that the internet allows the tourism suppliers to control and update their service remotely with electric speed, reaching global travellers anywhere, anytime. The benefits of an online website bring lower distribution cost, higher profit, and larger share of the market to the tourism suppliers. For the travellers, the internet allows them to bypass the travel agents, book directly with the chosen suppliers anytime, anywhere (Olmeda and Sheldon, 2001). The suppliers can reach the travellers directly, which allow suppliers reduce cost on distribution channel, hence cheaper price are offered to the travellers, this seems like a Win-Win situation for the travellers and the suppliers, which bring uncertainty to the future of the travel agents. 2.3.2 Advantage of the internet for travellers Jo Cheyne et al (2006) attested that travel agents are the key intermediary between travel suppliers and travellers; with the advent of the internet travellers and suppliers could interact directly, internet offer more information then travel agents and often provide cheaper price. Long (2000) summaries it in 4 points: The internet provide convenient and instant access for availability enquiries and bookings at times when consumers want o research and purchase travel Ability to access easily information that is detailed and also up to date, helping decision making. A cost advantage in purchasing travel online as results of the market becoming more competitive, as well as the ability for consumers to take advantage of substantial online discounts that cannot be obtained via any other traditional distribution channels and possible cost advantages for consumers as result of decreased distribution cost Avoid travel agent fees and charges. 2.3.3 Disadvantage of the internet for consumers Lang (2000) also identified the disadvantages that stop customers purchase online: Difficulty in finding the website and information they require Time consuming Online security issues Information overload Lack of trust in the technology Lack of human interaction Standing and Vasudanvan (1999) indicated that some researchers are mainly focusing on the impact of internet and threats of disintermediation, there are very littler work carried out on the strategies travel agents has adopted and the internet marketing models they are using. A large survey of Australian travel agencies website has been carried out, the findings shows that the major of agencies use internet as a yellow pages or online holiday brochure, a small percentage of websites allow the travellers to make booking, around half of the website capture the data on the travellers, but only few captured the traveller email address. The paper also suggested that travel agents should use internet as a marketing tool. 2.3.2 Implications of the internet for travel agents The internet has changed the traditional distribution channels; customers can buy products directly from the suppliers anytime anywhere. Travel services and product suppliers see the internet as an opportunity to save money on distribution costs. Inkpen (1998) stated that the internet allows the suppliers to sell their product directly to the travellers, bring them a significant cost savings. As Law (2000) contends that the internet allows the tourism suppliers to control and update their service remotely with electric speed, reaching global travellers anywhere, anytime. The benefits of an online website bring lower distribution cost, higher profit, and larger share of the market to the tourism suppliers. For the travellers, the internet allows them to bypass the travel agents, book directly with the chosen suppliers anytime, anywhere (Olmeda and Sheldon, 2001). The suppliers can reach the travellers directly, which allow suppliers reduce cost on distribution channel, hence cheaper p rice are offered to the travellers, this seems like a Win-Win situation for the travellers and the suppliers, which bring uncertainty to the future of the travel agents. Lawton and Weaver (2009) did in-depth interviews with 19 owners of successful US-based travel agencies, the paper did SWOT analysis over the 19 travel agencies, and identified that the negative public perceptions of travel agencies is the main external threat. 2.3.2 Demands for travel agents One of the most recent study on this topic, tried to identify the tourist perceptions of the potential for the elimination of travel agencies in the presence of the internet. Law et al (2004) conducted a questionnaire on selected experienced travellers, who had visited at least one travel Web site were asked to participate. The answers of 413 travellers on preference on book through internet-based or traditional distribution channels were analysed. The results show that travellers still ask travel agents for advice and their professional services. The paper proposed that from the findings both online and travel agents can coexist in the future. This is probably the most cited recent piece of research on the relationship between travel agents and internet, although some of its findings have subsequently been contested, it must still be regarded as one of the seminal works in the area. Jo Cheyne et al (2006) attested that travel agents are the key intermediary between travel suppliers and travellers; with the advent of the internet travellers and suppliers could interact directly. Main finding was the factors that influence travellers choices on using a travel agent or the internet when booking an over sea holiday, the factors are: services reliability, managing complex itinerary, guarantee, attractive deal and payment security. 2.3.2 The changing roles of travel agents Lowerngart and Reichal (1998) claim that there are opportunities available to travel agents provided they focus on specific markets and specialise their activities. Waksberg (1997) argued that travel agents should move from a focus on transaction processing to the provision of consultative services. Lovelock (1992) claims that travel agents will need to expand their advisory function and concentrate on the provision of information and details that are not available to the traveller through the internet. Beirne (1999) suggests that travel agents should become consumer advocates, finding the best deals for the traveller. Michael Bloch and Arie Segev (1997) has contend travel agents should adopt the IKEA concept, the Swedish furniture giant transformed from a traditional store to a family destinations, with restaurant, kids play ground ,etc. Travel agents can do the same, with each area set to different destinations, or type of travel products. Each area has an information point, that t ravel agents could provide information on the particular destinations, supported by video clips of the main attractions. The experience of shopping might be the only thing that internet could not replicate. 2.3.5 Importance of internet technology for travel agents Barnett and Standing (2000) have identified two major threats that the internet has on the traditional travel agents; they are disintermediation of retail agencies by the product suppliers, and the emergence of new online intermediaries. It argues that the traditional travel agents are not aligned with the demand of new travel economy, travel agents has to establish web present. Standing and Vasudanvan (1999) indicated that some researchers are mainly focusing on the impact of internet and threats of disintermediation, there are very littler work carried out on the strategies travel agents has adopted and the internet marketing models they are using. A large survey of Australian travel agencies website has been carried out, the findings shows that the major of agencies use internet as a yellow pages or online holiday brochure, a small percentage of websites allow the travellers to make booking, around half of the website capture the data on the travellers, but only few captured the traveller email address. The paper also suggested that travel agents should use internet as a marketing tool. 2.5 Research questions and objectives

Difficult People Essay -- essays research papers

Difficult People Analysis 1. In the beginning-part plot outline, Pyotr is a frustrated youth who strives to balance his financial expenditures to that of the amount of his father's low income. The effort to consume father's pension for Pyotr's schooling creates a serious doubt to the financial security of every member in household. Pyotr's father is a disappointment to the family, his anti-social behavior has subdued the family into a state of fear and panic at the harsh tone of his voice. In the middle-part plot outline, Pyotr now fantasizes about the possibility's of leaving the farm and walking the eighty miles North to Moscow. He would establish a capacity for impunity to the family's grief of a missing son. Pyotr will be inspired by a sole motivation, the relentless three day walk to Moscow. The journey will submit a stream of inevitable consequences as a cause of starvation, frostbite and fatigue, the ability to overcome this torment to the physical appearance would only better saturate the mental ability for perseverance and determination to reach the destination. The final logic of plot that must be explained at the end of the story is Pyotr's confrontation with his guilt-ridden, contemptuous father before he leaves for Moscow. The intent to reconcile father's financial loss is expressed through Pyotr's coaxing rhetoric and judgemental approach to his father's daily attitude at the table. Finally, the room is brightly lit, not by the family's ability to regroup--their affections were a bonfire now--but by a single, dazzling beam of sympathy to Pyotr, when his father says "Good-bye...the money is on the round table." 2. The main conflict of this story is a result of the family's financial status. Father's greed, low income, and Pyotr's frustration are key points to the main conflict. The conflict has plagued Pyotr most, the hallucination of abandoning his family is the main conflict in the story. 3. The nature of conflict is most likely the man vs self "setting". As oppose to a man vs man/machine/nature alternative, man striving ag... ...her's abuse. Pyotr adds depth and perception to the story, he has nothing but contempt for his father's attitude. Stagnation in a family built to destruct, Pyotr must leave the house. 10. The tone of voice is eqaully balanced between Pyotr and his father. The mother has little or nothing to say during a mealtime argument. When Pyotr's mother tells her husband "(Pyotr)... must have money for the journey" the argument sets place and very soon Pyotr's father is screaming "Take everything!...Take it all!...Strangle me!" The ability to immediately subdue the conflict by acknowledging the personal fault of sparking the financial debate goes unnoticed. 11. The dialogue delivers reality to the domestic situation. Pyotr begins "I used to be able to put up with such scenes...but now I have got out of the way of it!" Pyotr's father retorts "...Do you know what you cost me, you scoundrel? I'll turn you out!" This is the most effective scene in the story because Pyotr's father delivers the threat, his wife and daughter bear witness to the intimidation that is aroused by Pyotr's need for money.

Free Software - the Definition :: Definition Free Software Essays

Free Software - the Definition Free in Free Software is referring to freedom, not price. Having been used in this meaning since the 80s, the first documented complete definition appears to be the GNU's Bulletin, vol. 1 no. 6 , published January 1989. In particular, four freedoms define Free Software: [1] The freedom to run the program, for any purpose. Placing restrictions on the use of Free Software, such as time (``30 days trial period'', ``license expires January 1st, 2004''), purpose (``permission granted for research and non-commercial use'') or an arbitrary limitation of geographic area (``must not be used in country X'') makes a program non-free. The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs. Placing legal or practical restrictions on the comprehension or modification of a program, such as mandatory purchase of special licenses, signing of a Non-Disclosure-Agreement (NDA) or - for programming languages that have multiple forms or representation - making the preferred human way of comprehending and editing a program (``source code'') inaccessible also makes it proprietary (non-free). Without the freedom to modify a program, people will remain at the mercy of a single vendor. The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor. Software can be copied/distributed at virtually no cost. If you are not allowed to give a program to a person in need, that makes a program non-free. This can be done for a charge, if you so choose. The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits. Not everyone is an equally good programmer in all fields. Some people don't know how to program at all. This freedom allows those who do not have the time or skills to solve a problem to indirectly access the freedom to modify. This can be done for a charge. These freedoms are rights, not obligations, although respecting these freedoms for society may at times oblige the individual. Any person can choose to not make use of them, but may also choose to make use of all of them. In particular, it should be understood that Free Software does not exclude commercial use. If a program fails to allow commercial use and commercial distribution, it is not Free Software. Indeed a growing number of companies base their business model completely or at least partially on Free Software, including some of the largest proprietary software vendors.