Customer Relationship Management and Support Related Cost

1. Discuss briefly the factors that drove Harrah’s customer relationship strategy. 2. Discuss briefly the integration between Harrah's patron database and the marketing workbench. 3. Discuss briefly whether Harrah’s business and IT strategies were aligned, and what factors contributed to or detracted from achieving alignment. 4. Does Harrah's have a sustainable competitive advantage? Can other companies duplicate what Harrah's has done? 5. What are the lessons you learn from the experiences at Harrah’s that can benefit other companies embarking on a customer relationship management initiative?In Old costing system , material realted overhead cost was divided into 3 categories1)Material related 2)Production related 3)Support relatedThe support related cost were allocated based on sum of direct material , direct labor costs , material overhead and production overhead. Compared to old costing system, in PROKASTA 2 additional cost pools (Order processing and special components related cost) to allocated support related costs. This strategy was in line with management belief that support cost was more driven by number of orders of motors and number of special components required to process the order instead of machine hours and labor hours required to process the orderWith PROKASTA , the cost of base motor and cost of custom component using old costing system but support related cost pool (pre-PROKASTA) unit cost . Then PROKASTA cost elements were then added. It allowed the firm to relate cost and product mix strategy With new costing system , firm was able to determine proper cost of each order and the profitability of the order it received. Based on the PROKASTA the manager were able to identify which orders were profitable and which were not . It also allowed to determine price at which motors were transferred from EMW toto the sales Division3.Do you agree with Siemens’s decision to set up both sales and EMW as profit Centre? What are the cost and benefits?Siemens was a decentralised organisation with 7 major groups and 5 corporate divisions. The firm is required to identify the profitability of each and every division to evaluate peromonce and make proper divsions. So in this regards it makes sense to set up both sales and EMW as profit centreBenefits : 1)Decisions are better and more timely because of the manager’s proximity to local conditions 2)Managers will have more control over resultsCosts: 1)Insufficient information available to top management; increased costs of obtaining detailed information. 2)Lack of coordination among managers in different parts of the organization.4.Do transfer pricing system make sense? Why do you think so? Yes , I think transfer pricing makes sense. †¢Transfer pricing will help Generate separate profit figures for each division and thereby evaluate the performance of each division separately. †¢Transfer prices make managers aware of the value that goods and servi ces have for other segments of the firm and will help in determining sales and pricing decisions †¢It will also affect the allocation of an organization’s resources

Project Management-Transformational Corporate Strategy Essay

Overview of the case study The business environment is very competitive. Consequently, companies need to offer customers proficient and reliable service. If they do not, customers will switch to more consumer efficient companies. Furthermore, as companies grow in size, it becomes harder to keep track of the growing amount of sales and customer information. If a company does a poor job by not focusing and maintaining customer satisfaction, it can result in problems for both the company and the consumer. This study will focus on the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, more commonly known as 3M, and how it empowered its employees, improved its growth rate, customer service and sales by introducing a new approach to growth. This study also provides critical interrogation on the approaches and strategies applied by Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company in its efforts to turn around the company after the loss of profit despite the reputable strong tradition of innovation culture. Firstly, the study provides critical elements of innovative methods applied in order to exploit the profitable gains from the excellent research practise. This is done by explicating innovation process that has been applied at the 3M Company  leading to innovative strategic thinking coupled with the work done on the ground. It then identifies the curative recommendations in addressing the major problems that have been identified throughout the case. The fundamental problem of the 3M Company was the inability to exploit profitable improvements by exploiting its excellent and reliable research practice to the advantage of the company. Consequently, the company could not diversify its products in relation to the demands of the fast changing and sophisticated markets at a worldwide level. The company needed to embark on a major example change without compromising its excellent research tradition but to seek turn around strategies in order to maximise its profits. Recommendations and conclusions are clearly defined and they reveal what the author thinks about being an innovative leader who is able to support employees’ in their new ideas by implementing the company culture which is supportive to all of them to produce successful projects. QUESTION 1: What are the main elements of the innovative process at 3M? Is it possible and desirable for other companies to emulate them? â€Å"Richard Lynch defines Innovation as the generation and exploitation of new ideas. Furthermore it also provides organisations with the ammunition to move ahead of the competition. He states that innovation can deliver three priceless asserts to strategic management: 1. Substantial future growth 2. Competitive advantage 3. Ability to leapfrog major competition, even dominant competitors The innovative process at 3M has usually been a focus area for the top management. The company adopted a get out of the away approach towards the product developers in return worked accordingly towards innovation, together with technicians each team had a process engineer to ensure that the product was efficiently made. ï  ¶ The whole team did not face any risk if the product has failed. ï  ¶ The product developers should pay visits in the factories and workplaces to talk to the workers to get ideas for products. ï  ¶ The developers were not given the share of product royalties as the company believed that innovation was driven by sheer love of it. But the developers were encouraged by various means like rewards for innovation and grants for innovative projects. ï  ¶ There was also a dual ladder approach that provided the senior technical persons with great career opportunities to advance without switching over to management. Some of the elements of an innovative process at 3M is a free frame, people are able, capable and freed from any restrictions. Nevertheless someone should judge, review the Innovation Process. Stage stones should be set up otherwise it is no real process. Furthermore the consistency and the success factor should beat a specific period extremely revised and reconsidered regarding implement capability. In today’s competitive industry, cost plays a big role. Innovation is perhaps one of the most words that are over used in the business world today, and some of the organisations blow the innovation trumpet preach but don’t necessarily practice. But there are organisations like 3M that do practice innovation which gives hope to the organisation as they are using innovation in their daily lives through ground breaking products & services which made the company to be in the top ten of Fortune magazine’s most admired US Company. 3M Company sticks to its innovation, If we take a step back from the Innovation process, for the process to be successful it needs an environment to encourage Innovation, below are the points of what the environment characteristics needs to be: ï  ¶ Organizations eager to take measured risks. ï  ¶Ã‚  Business leaders being able to understand technology and the application of it. ï  ¶ An organization that is exposed to change. ï  ¶Ã‚  An organization that is brave enough to see beyond the financial benefits is not made visible that quickly. ï  ¶ Processes and structures to encourage brave thinking business leaders that are able to see what tomorrow will look like The Innovation Process: (Tidd et al., 2005). States that â€Å"the ability to manage the innovation process is an essential competence of any organization, but members must first understand the workings of the process to be successful† Figure 1.1 Adapted from: O’Sullivan (Innovation Process) – 5/29/2008 â€Å"O, Sullivan further explains that† Idea generation The first stage in this perspective of the innovation process relates to the creative activity of generating an opportunistic idea. This stage involves the continuous scanning of the internal and external environment for threats and opportunities that might be developed into an innovation by the organization. This stage involves mining the sources of innovation for new ideas and evaluating solutions to identified problems. An organizational culture that encourages creativity and empowerment can significantly support this phase of the process; this is exactly the similar culture that functional at 3M Company. The input typically stems from a technical insight into a product or process. This is evident in the case of 3M, when Fry had an idea of taking a peelable  adhesive that had been developed some year’s earlier at the 3M research laboratories and spreading it to marketers, it is further mentioned in the case study that it worked well. Opportunity Recognition The second stage of the process is opportunity recognition, in which the opportunity of developing the idea into a new product, process, or service is assessed and evaluated relative to other opportunities. This phase of the process involves deciding which innovative ideas will be pursued by the organization and which are deemed outside its interest. The undertaking of innovative actions is both expensive and resource intensive for any organization, and even large organizations such as 3M. Development If an opportunity is recognized as appropriate for the organization, then the idea moves to a new stage where it can be developed further. This phase involves the development of the idea or solution into a potential innovation that is ready for launch to its internal or external market. The development of an innovation can be highly resource intensive for any organization. It also applies to Fry when his ideas worked well and requested permission to develop the product commercially and he was given an opportunity to develop a manufacturing process. Realization This phase of the innovation process relates to the launch to the market, which is where the customer makes the final evaluation of the innovation. Understanding customer needs is essential to ensure that the eventual offering to the market meets these needs. Competitive Advantage: A superiority gained by an organisation when it can provide the same value as its competitors but at a lower price, or can charge higher prices by providing greater value through differentiation which results from matching  core competencies to the opportunities. They had strong innovation and research foundation at 3M Company that has ability of adaptability, although they experienced loss before but they managed to turn around the situation. It appears that they do not have a competitor in the world with the same level as they are. Instead, there appears to be several competitors in each sector or industry in which 3M offers its products and services. Frequently, as companies grow, they tend to become more bureaucratic and less able to adapt to changes in the market or industry. To conclude I would say that 3M Company’s existing controls are very good and support their strategy. However, they should also incorporate the other missing controls to ensure greater innovation power and profitability. Looking at today’s Industries and competitions amongst them, in my opinion ,I would suggest other company’s follow the steps of 3M, the have made some mistakes but were able to turn around the situation due to their elements of innovation process. QUESTION 2: What do you think of Six Sigma? Can other companies do the same? Firstly Six Sigma is defined as a â€Å"program that is used to improve processes within the organization be it in manufacturing or production processes. Six Sigma is usually prepared at defining goals and problems, measuring existing data and processes, analysing problems and goals, improving processes or tasks and controlling how the problems will be resolved in the future. According to the research I have identified three traits from Six Sigma† I.  The advantages ï  ¶ The benefits of Six Sigma contain the improvement and development of operating processes to ensure quicker response time, quality products and services and better monitoring of performance and work outputs, which I think it is the best approach to growth for 3M since they have dropped their sales. ï  ¶ This type of an approach or model surely and possibly saved 3M Company to come up with the said results and benefits because it provides a formula in which an existing processes is checked for consistency, efficiency and effectiveness, if it fails to measure to the existing industry standards it is revised and redesigned to match the best practices . I would advise other companies to do the same because it is the model that guides the company. II.  The costs ï  ¶ The Six Sigma model also ensures that costs will be dropped because there will be limited time spent in the process and more time to work on the actual tasks which is already handy at 3M. ï  ¶ It appears time its cost is huge and that an organization has to appoint or hire a person that would guide and train top management and middle management in the principles of Six Sigma which is wise for all the companies like 3M than running their businesses at a lot, dropping sale, losing profit. ï  ¶ Furthermore Six Sigma will also empower the employees to gain knowledge as it is the model that will require trainings, yes it will be costly but with productive results at the end. III.  The risks ï  ¶ Six Sigma might also have its own risks, some organisations might not be patient but looking at its approach, it had a positive impact on the 3M Company; it also developed leadership skills and focused on customer satisfaction. Furthermore, even though the approach does wonders in the company, not all  companies of the 3M embraces Six Sigma some of these reasons are very costly training of human force, only applies to the manufacturing industry, and it is just a trend. Other companies might think that, main issue that have to challenge with is if the Six Sigma really benefits the company or  it cost the company to sacrifice the innovative and creative culture for the sake of continuous improvement of products to satisfy the customers and accelerate the financial performance. Nevertheless it proven worth it by 3M because of the rescue it has done to the company while it was falling behind. Organisational Culture: In terms of its organization culture, 3M’s Company culture is promoted to be freedom and full of excitement and anticipation. Employees enjoy being heroes. 3M Company is being innovative in its cultures and company growth, so the focus needs to be on how innovation in 3M, including working cultures and people management etc. can be replicated and benefits different areas in our daily applications Goldman, Maritz, Nienaber, Pretorius, Priilaid and Willliams (2010:94) referring to Roger Harrison’s model of organisational culture mentions that â€Å"it has various attributes with four types of culture that could be easily observed at 3M Company although one called power culture seemed to be more dominant than others. Goldman et al., (2010:95) continue their notion by saying that a person whose personality is suitable for the culture of the organisation will be more likely to succeed than the person who does not naturally fit within the organisation’s culture. The table below reveals all these cultures and their attributes. Culture Attributes Achievement culture Competence, growth, success and distinction Power culture Strength, direction, decisiveness, determination Role culture Structure, order, stability, control Support culture Relationships, mutuality, service, integration Figure 2.1: Adapted from: Goldman et al., (2010:95). Organisational cultures and their attributes. This case study has stressed some of the key activities and principles that contribute to 3M Company’s performance. Most of these are not new and are certainly used by other companies. In 3M Company’s case they may be summarized as an effective company culture that nurtures innovation and a range of management techniques and strategies that together have delivered long-term success. Most of companies pay lip service to the organisation values and practice set out in this case study. There is evidence that 3M Company supports these words with actions. 3M Company hire good people and trust them; this will bring about innovation and excellent performance. 3M Company ensured that introducing Six Sigma is a good move than at other companies. Moreover, the success of the approach is due to the continual reinforcement of its objectives. Indeed, also the performance of individuals is partly judged on whether they are able to achieve the objective. Marketing pull and Marketing push technology According to Lynch (2009:283) market pull is one of the principal sources of innovation which is customer needs analysis. Baker in Lynch (2009:293) emphasize by suggesting that innovation takes place when companies identify new market opportunities and this is how 3M Company attempted to employ market pull by introducing Six Sigma and this exposes that they had ability for creating innovation. The 3M Company business area was completely different from what Six Sigma specialised on so they were necessary forced to encourage creativity, develop leadership skills, customer satisfaction, and exploration and focus where new ideas can come from a wide variety of sources. According to Lynch (2009:283) Technology Push is technology development analysis whereby other industries are being surveyed for their technology developments and assessment of their relevance to its own. 3M Company joined forces with external companies as mentioned above in trying to introduce new approach to growth and link the internally controlled culture of technology push even though they assumed that it was market pull. Their main challenge at 3M Company is that they need to know what technologies to push so that they do not dissolve their establishments. The diagram below illustrates how the two sources of innovation should be exploited by organisation without distinction. Figure 2.2 Adapted from Lynch (2009:283) Two major drives of innovation. QUESTION 3: To what extent, if at all, does innovation matter in setting the purpose of an organisation? Yes innovation does matter in this case because; many organizations invest in innovation in order to change. Organizations put aside a percentage of turnovers to change products, processes, and services. In particular, the  objectives should be achieved because of this investment. Yet, a very large amount of innovation activities does not meet these objectives. The motives behind failure provides clue regarding how to avoid such failure in the future. In this case study the process by which the companies should apply innovation has been examined. It has been examined by making sure that employee understands the process by which innovation takes place in the work place and then improving. In this case study 3M organizations has tried to lower their innovation failure rates and move faster with the process of growth as mentioned previously above about Six Sigma, the approach to growth. Looking at the process of innovation from idea generation, through evaluation, and on to realization, you will also find customers who become evaluators of the success of an  innovation in the company and by concluding there is also key ways to improve the ability of the company or organisation by monitoring the following innovation processes: ï  ¶ Goals, Actions, Teams, Results. Goals of Innovation The principal goals required by an organization in return for this investment vary between organizations. The following have been found across a large number of manufacturing and service organizations and ranked in order of popularity, with the first goal being common to most organizations (European Commission, 1996): ï  ¶ Improved quality ï  ¶ Creation of new markets ï  ¶ Extension of the product range ï  ¶ Reduced labour costs ï  ¶ Improved production processes ï  ¶ Reduced material ï  ¶ Reduced environmental damage ï  ¶ Replacement of products or services ï  ¶ Reduced energy consumption ï  ¶ Conformance to regulations Following are the critical factors that managing technical innovation in 3M Company: a) Organization culture b) Communication and c) Management The causes of failure can vary widely depending on the individual innovation. Some causes will be external to the organization and outside its influence of control. Others will be internal and ultimately within the control of the organization. Some of the more common causes of failure in organizations can be distilled into the following five types (O’Sullivan, 2002): ï  ¶ Poor goal definition It means that organizations find it difficult to define their goals. Poor goal definition requires that organizations decide on appropriate goals for their environment and define these goals in terms that are understandable to everyone involved in the innovation process. ï  ¶ Poor alignment of actions to goals Means that organizations find it difficult to continuously link the ideas and projects they are pursuing with their goals. This is perhaps even more acute if goals are difficult to define in the first place. It also influences effective management of the portfolios of projects that the organization is undertaking to ensure they are balanced appropriately. ï  ¶ Poor participation in teams It refers to the behaviour of individuals and teams, latent knowledge of the organization, and the particular skills of individuals to contribute to the achievement of innovation. It also refers to the payment and reward systems that link individuals to goals. ï  ¶ The poor monitoring of results It refers to sharing of the status of goals, actions, and teams involved in the innovation process within the innovation team and its main stakeholders. ï  ¶ Poor communication and sense of community It relate to ineffective channels of communication and collaboration that constrain knowledge sharing and the ability of employees to participate as a broader community in the innovation process and make informed decisions when needed. Steyn, Schmikl and van Dyk (2010:66) state that knowledge delivers sustainable competitive advantage as illustrated below Leading to> Resulting to> Increased revenue Knowledge creation Technology development Experimental and emergent purpose Innovation Enhanced value added Stronger sustainable competitiveadvantage Figure 3.1: Adapted from Lynch 2009:261- An emergent approach to purpose According to Palmer and Kaplan (2007:2) Strategic Innovation is the creation of growth strategies, new product categories, services or business models that change the game and generate significant new value for consumers, customers and the corporation. According to Lynch (2009:282) innovation is the generation and exploitation of new ideas. This has helped the 3M Company to gain strength in applying lessons learnt from previous experiences like the one of losing the sales and profit. This has made them to be able to deliver what refers to as the priceless assets to strategic management such as the following: ï  ¶ Substantial future growth: The process of improving some measure of the organisation’s success which can be achieved either by boosting the top line or revenue of the business with greater product sales or service income. 3M Company able to restructure by introducing the approach to growth. ï  ¶ Ability to leapfrog major competition, even dominant competitors: Ability to conquer competition focusing on extensive promotions to highlight the distinctive benefits or features of products. 3M Company had employees who are strong in making sales and come up with high successful product â€Å"Post-it notes†. In terms of the competition, it started internally. â€Å"Every company seeks the keys to innovation, but few find them. Over the decades, 3M learned how to be innovative and today the company uses that skill to great competitive advantage.† — Jerry I. Porras, Co-author, Built to Last â€Å"Innovation is more than just a bright idea; it is an idea that gets implemented and has a real impact. In other words, somebody has to make it happen.† — Ernest Gundling, Author, The 3M Way to Innovation: Balancing People and Profit 2.  CONCLUSION It is advisable that, organisation should have its own database in order to fix or limit the problems in the company rather than running at a loss. 3M Company created their database and spent about $20 million, it in an integrated database, which stores information on customers, products, sales, inventory, and finance from all divisions and geographies. If all the organisations of the same nature can follow what 3M Company did, access can be gained to the database through a user-friendly website. Strong search which bring together related products and services from across the entire 3M Company can be easily accessed. Personnel and partners can also access latest information on product prices, availability, specifications and reviews of customer accounts. â€Å"The profitability of customers and products and the performance of partners can also be analysed across the entire company allowing better allocation of company resources. This allows 3M Company to take advantage of market opp ortunities and cross-selling opportunities and at the same time meet and customize the needs of customer segments. â€Å"(Some of the information is adapted from Harvard Business Review) 3.  BIBLIOGRAPHY ï  ¶ Ernest Gundling, Author, The 3M Way to Innovation: Balancing People and Profit ï  ¶ (European Commission, 1996): Goal Innovation ï  ¶ Goldman, G., Maritz, R., Nienaber, H., Pretorius, M., Priilaid,D. & Williams, D.2010.Strategic Management: Supplement for Southern Africa. (1st Edition) South Africa: Pearson Education. ï  ¶ Havard Business Review. Vol 75 (6): 102-103 ï  ¶ Jerry I. Porras, Co-author, Built to Last ï  ¶ Lynch, R. 2009. Strategic Management. (5th Edition). England; Pearson Education Limited. ï  ¶ McQuarrie, E.F. 1993. Customer visits. Building a better market focus. California: SAGE Publication. ï  ¶ O’Sullivan (Innovation Process) – 5/29/2008

Crusades

Crusades refers to a series of religious-based wars among the Jews, European Christians, and the Muslims, primarily initiated to exercise full control over certain places which were considered sacred by both religious groups. It is mostly held in places regarded as holy such as the Mecca, Churches and the Erected tents in the streets (Hindley 81). Basically, the major concerns of crusades were to promote the culture of peace, love and unity among the people, respect for one's life, transformation and shaping of the people's moral way of life and to preach salvation to both Christians and Non-Christians. It is organized and presided over by Bishops, Prophets, Priests, and Clerics etc. It involved shouting of certain spiritual messages along the corridors and preaching of the coming of the Messiah. Through crusades, Christians were urged to change their ways of life, repent their sins and turn away from their wrong deeds. However, the crusade aspect has been covered broadly by various historical writers. This paper, therefore, seeks to examine the various significant approaches employed by different writers on the subject matter, the difference in their points of views as well as the factors that might have led to their different thoughts. The origin of crusade can be traced far back in the year 1095 during the Urban II's preaching. Frank the Monk, a French writer, attended the council of Clermont and witnessed the first crusade which occurred in 1107 titled â€Å"The Deeds of the Franks† (Riley-Smith 82). The council was presided over by Pope Urban II and other Bishops in an open field due to a large number of people who could hardly fit in any of the buildings. Most approaches used by the writers include converging the people and encouraging them to fasten their spirits and have faith in God. They condemned the inhuman and hostility of landowners who killed innocent Christian lives and held some in captives (Rubenstein 109). Guibert of Nogent, on the other hand, argued that not unless the time of the nation is fulfilled, the city of Jerusalem will be destroyed by the people. He clarified further that, according to the Lord's gospel, only those who will carry their cross and follow Jesus will remain to be worthy. On the other hand, Albert of Aache, Rosenfeld, among others disagrees with their French counterparts over the preaching aspect of the crusade. Instead, they strongly advocated for Peter the Hermit, who was believed to be the inventor of the crusades. Peter the Hermit, was not pleased with the criminal acts and wicked deeds of the Christians in church. He knew it was wrong to still church offerings (Rubin 98). He knew such acts were filthy before the lord and was against all other immoral deeds. He was then sent on a mission by God to preach repentance message to the people before the coming of the lord. However, it is evident that the writers used different approaches in developing their crusade chronicles. Some of the factors that contributed to their difference in approaches include the background, scramble for holy land and other socio-cultural factors such as their religions. In conclusion, the use of crusades has become more common in the recent past. It has provided a platform through which the word of God can be preached to many in an open place with an aim of transforming people spiritually and building their faith in God. In the ancient past, various historical writers have channeled their significant approaches on crusades in which they have also differed in their thoughts on some points. Factors behind their disagreement include the religious issues, their backgrounds, and acquisition of certain portions of land regarded as holy.

How to Use Marketing Strategy to Improve Sunform Supermarket's Dissertation

How to Use Marketing Strategy to Improve Sunform Supermarket's Performance - Dissertation Example This essay stresses that a business should first focus its attention on nurturing, retaining and growing its existing customers before planning to spend more on new customers. Satisfying existing customers is critical in order to enhance its sales. To achieve this objective, it should understand its customer psychology to gain knowledge of what they want and how they want it. only then it will be able to deliver the most value point to its customers. This paper makes a conclusion that Since it is not practical to deliver the same product to all the customers belonging to different groups, it is better to divide the market into different segments, then evaluate each segment’s attractiveness, select target segment having more profit potential, identify positioning concept for each target and then effectively communicate and deliver the chosen positioning concept to target customers. This will create an image for the business in the minds of customers, which in turn will grant it market ownership in the future. After segmenting and targeting the largest customer group, Marketing Mix should be used to improve its performance and customer satisfaction level. By strategically applying the product, place, price and promotion tactics into the business, and by communicating effectively those promotions, it can influence customer’s choice and reach its ultimate goal of increased sales followed by high profits.

Becoming an Intellectual Craftsman Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Becoming an Intellectual Craftsman - Essay Example The intellectual craftsman trusts their imagination, memory, and experience to craft an idea that will resonate through a targeted audience. A fundamental principle of the intellectual craftsman is that they are always functioning as craftsmen. Every waking experience contributes to their well of knowledge and catalogue of ideas. They do not simply work as scholars; they are thinkers that do not separate their craft from their life. They continually strive to gain new experience that they can add to their breadth of knowledge, while not yet being aware of how today's most trivial experience may contribute to tomorrow's groundbreaking truth. The intellectual craftsman trusts this knowledge, as it is the most important component of any truly original intellectual thought. Storing this knowledge for later use is all just a part of the craft. Becoming an intellectual craftsman begins with the amassing and storing of these thoughts, ideas, and experiences. They are stored as materials in the tools of the intellectual trade such as notes, journals, diagrams, and the most trusted corners of the academic mind. Once the intellectual craftsman has gathered their materials and tools it is time to assemble, disassemble, and reassemble them into a concrete set of ideas that have form and substance. Here is where the craftsman separates themselves from the technician. Becoming an intellectual craftsman demands trusting your imagination enough to stretch its limits and examine the subtle connections that bind your experiences into a cohesive unit. Developing the art, or the craftsmanship, is really just a matter of letting the imagination run free. The craftsman differs from the technician as the craftsman assumes the risk of imagination. As the imagination runs free, ideas combine, reinforce, invert, and create new strains of thinking. They form building blocks of ever-larger concepts until the idea becomes prioritized as a set of questions that need to be answered. The academician has expanded their imagination and constructed unique concepts and viewpoints out of the basic material of experie nce. They have become an intellectual craftsman. Just as a cabinetmaker needs a building to practice their trade on, the intellectual need an audience to ply their craft. Left alone, ideas are nothingness. Ideas only come alive and take form when they are shared with an appreciative audience that can understand the nuance and rigor involved in the process. This demands that the intellectual craftsman becomes a communicator. Becoming a communicator of academic ideas requires putting complex ideas and concepts into a language that conveys the meaning, while still remaining understandable by the intended audience. One does not become an intellectual craftsman by communicating with pseudo-scientific hyperbole that is designed to shade the meaning and mask the truth from the audience. Becoming an intellectual craftsman is learning the language of their peers and applying it wisely and with restraint. In conclusion, intellectuals create a piece of work through the systematic application of the process of craftsmanship. The process begins by gaining the materials and methods that are everywhere all around us. Becoming an intellectual craftsman means learning to recognize the importance of every experience and every idea without

Policy and planning tourism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Policy and planning tourism - Essay Example Here, we will examine the manner in which the Ministry of Trade and Information Singapore formulates certain economic strategy and the manner in which they are in compliance with the basic economic management philosophy of free market economy and outward oriented economic policies. Accordingly, this paper will also delve into the manner the tourism policies have been formulated so that they comply with the economic strategies to attain robust economic growth in the nation. Contents Abstract 2 Introduction 4 Formulating Economic Policies for Singapore 4 Current Economic Management Philosophy 6 Tourism policy instruments 7 Conclusion 11 Reference 12 Introduction The Ministry of Trade and Industry Singapore helps in directing policy formulation with reference to developing industry and trade in Singapore. Its mission is to enhance economic growth and help in creating more job opportunities so as to attain enhanced living standards (MTI, 2013). Formulating Economic Policies for Singapore The Ministry of Trade and Industry Singapore formulates certain strategies which drives economic growth. The Economic Strategies Committee of MTI Singapore, came up with several strategies to boost economic growth in the year 2010. ... This may be possible only if productivity increases. For this, the economic policy focussed on productivity – based growth. They realised the need to deepen expertise and skills so as to strengthen each sector and drive economic growth. The strategies formulated needed to focus Singaporeans to spend more time on business activities and tasks. High rate of competency and knowhow is required for conducting high skilled tasks and provide excellent service to customers and enable organizations to innovate, change and align strategy and structures with changing market situations (Economic Strategies Committee Report, 2010). A significant goal of strategizing and implementing government policy is by promoting industrialization. Industrialization is a tool which developing nations like Singapore use to attain augmented economic growth and thereby attain the privilege enjoyed by developed countries (Goh, 2005). Accordingly, the economic strategy has been formulated which supports and promotes innovation and drives growth. The policy formulation were made keeping in mind to aid the international community by striving to decrease carbon emissions. A corporate social responsibility perspective was also considered while formulating the economic strategies in Singapore. Corporate social responsibility is a global topic and may be used in diverse manners in diverse nations. Also the nation has less of corruption and nepotism which further helps in driving growth. The incorporation of corporate social responsibility in various business enterprises has been a critical factor while considering strategy formulation for economic policies in Singapore. The trade practices including imports and exports and foreign direct investment in

Describing the American system of slavery Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Describing the American system of slavery - Essay Example In order to exemplify on the various factors of slavery, it is imperative to focus on two points of view. The purpose for this project is to investigate the things that can be learnt from Jefferson’s and Jacob’s sentiments on the issue of slavery. Several things can be learnt about slavery from Jefferson’s point of view. For instance, the core aim of having slaves was to exploit them in all spheres of life, that is, economically, politically and socially (Jefferson and Nicholas, 493). Slaves were used to clear vast tracts of land and do all other activities pertaining farming. Unfortunately, they never benefited from any proceeds from farming. Most slaves were blacks and the whites had negative feeling towards them. The whites viewed the blacks as a desperate and inferior race that had no future. In fact, the whites saw very many features that differentiated them from the blacks, for instance, body, color, complexion, hair and many others. The blacks were preferred since they were less prone to diseases compared to the whites or other races. The blacks were brave and could work for long hours without getting tired. In addition, the blacks were considered stronger than other races and, therefore, could engage in hard labor without much complains. Some white scholars argue that the blacks have the same memory as that of the whites but when it comes to thinking and imaginations, they are very inferior. The whites believe that the blacks have hundreds of miles to cover as far as the music and entertainment industries are concerned. Their creativity and ability to harmonize different melodies to produce rich contents are yet to improve. The slaves are associated with all evil activates including theft and prostitution. Some whites argue that, due to the poverty experienced in most African countries, the incidents of theft among Africans must remain high. During

Micromint micropayment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Micromint micropayment - Essay Example The scrip ensures there is a permanent relationship between the customer and the vendor. This according to Rivest (1997, p. 45), is inconvenience for a vendor. To perform each transaction, the consumer goes to the broker for exchange of the vendor scrip. In spite of the security features of Millicent System; it is still exposed to cyber crimes. Future systems ought to be improved using public keys for encryption. This can protect sensitive information from reaching intruders. Additionally, network security techniques ought to be applied to eliminate the risk of man-in-the-middle attack. Glassman, S., Manasse, M., Abadi, M., Gauthier, P & Sobalvarro, P 2013, â€Å"The MilliCent Protocol for Inexpensive Electronic Commerce†, Fourth International World Wide Web Conference, Darmstadt, Germany. Rivest, R 1997, â€Å"Electronic Lottery Tickets as Micropayments†, in R. Hirschfeld (Ed.), Financial Crypography: First International Conference (FC ‘97), Anguilla, British West Indies, Feb. 24-28, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Vol. 1318, pp. 307-314). Yacobi, Y 1997, â€Å"On the Continuum Between On-line and Off-line E-cash Systems†, in R. Hirschfeld (Ed.), Financial Cryptography: First International Conference (FC ’97), Anguilla, British West Indies, February 24-28, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Vol. 1318, pp.

How cloud computing will affect businesses Research Paper

How cloud computing will affect businesses - Research Paper Example Cloud Computing is a term that has gained popularity within last couple of years. Figure 1 shows the trends in the usage various computing terms, the figure is indicative of the fact that the terms like grid computing and distributed computing are dropping in usage where as from 2008 onwards the term cloud computing has picked up at an exponential rate. Cloud computing has been defined as â€Å"†¦.a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet. These services are broadly divided into three categories: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)†¦.† (Search Cloud Computing). The term Cloud is a metaphor of Internet as Internet it is represented as a cloud in schematics and diagrams Figure 1. Trends of usage of term Cloud Computing. Cloud computing has numerous benefits and these beneficiaries not only include the users but also the companies. Cloud computing is beginning to change the way businesses are done. The following are the key benefits of cloud computing: Cloud Computing enables the users to access information (files and data) remotely, that is from their home or office, during working hours or even beyond working hours. Cloud computing is relatively cheaper with respect to the resources, for smaller companies and companies in resource limited settings cloud computing provides low cost solutions because these users need not procure expensive software and hardware. The companies just need to pay for the services and infrastructure when it is required, thereby reducing the costs. Since cloud computing is all about online or virtual resources, resources like storage space etc. for the companies into cloud-based services is limitless. Monthly subscription fee takes care of the growing needs of the companies . In other words, cloud computing offers such advantages capable of posting the companies, those adopt cloud computing, in all together a different league because the scales and economics are a class apart. Figure 2. Pros and Cons of Cloud Computing (Source: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Hinchcliffe) Although cloud computing presents numerous benefits, quite like any other entity or technology, cloud computing has its share of shortcomings. These include concerns like the additional costs for transfer of data; lack of control over security, reliability of the hardware where the data and applications reside, because the hardware and software etc. are owned by third party; since cloud computing is a service oriented technology, quality of service of each vendor can vary, hence this technology can not be considered to be free from qualitative aspects like, security issues, etc. Figure 2 gives an idea of the pros and cons of