Challenges of Knowing Yourself and the Quesr for Happiness

CHALLENGES OF KNOWING YOURSELF AND THE QUEST FOR HAPPINESS R. Priyadarshini (MBA FINAL year) [email  protected] com Contact no. 9677216300 Dept. of Management Studies, University of Madras INTRODUCTION: â€Å"The world is so unhappy because it is ignorant of the true self. Man’s real nature is happiness. Happiness is inborn in the true self. Man’s search for happiness is an unconscious search for his true self. The true self is imperishable; therefore, when a man finds it, he finds a happiness which does not come to an end. † Mankind is united in conviction that happiness is a very desirable state. Every person, consciously or unconsciously, are motivated in all we do by our need for happiness. Being happy and peaceful is considered the ultimate aspect of a successful life, but it is really the most fundamental aspect of life. The level of happiness may vary from person to person, but what all people are aiming for is to feel happy. We chase money, health, growth, fame, power, property and relationships, not for their own sake but for the satisfaction they promise. The creation of empires and civilizations, the discovery of continents, the waging of wars, the whole ebb and flow of history is a graphic portrait of man's ceaseless quest for happiness. QUEST FOR HAPPINESS: The quest for happiness is endless and bounds no place and time. The level of man’s longing for happiness becomes higher and higher as the standard of living also increases. The first step towards happiness leads to another step, and then to another until a progression of steps is made transgressing the three dimensions of time – the past, the present, and the future. Happiness is parallel to contentment based on dictionary. Man has never been content all his life. His success for having attained a particular end always paves way to the urge to meet a higher end. Epicurus, an Athenian philosopher, suggested that in order for man to achieve happiness, he should give up all the complexities of life, like wealth, desire, fame and power, and go back to basics when the things that only matter are those necessary for pure biological subsistence, friends, freedom and analyzed life. It is hard to persuade a common man to renounce life’s worldly pleasures. If man will relinquish his desire to aspire for the better, progress will be hampered and everything will be doomed in complete stagnation. The nature of desire makes the acquisition of happiness impossible. Man desires, he obtains and get satisfied, then he desires something else and begin a new pursuit. This is a cycle to which every man is subjected. For every man to remain healthy, productive and sane, he must continue the never ending quest of happiness. KNOWING ONESELF: â€Å"Know thyself means this, that you get acquainted with what you know, and what you can do† Says meander. When a person knows who they are, and clearly understands what they want, then they have a much better chance of discovering how to reach their own success, happiness and personal fulfillment. To be successful one need to deeply know what he really likes, what he genuinely does not like, what he is good at and what he is not good at. If these questions are answered about oneself and decisions are made then naturally success is followed by happiness. This fills everyone with much bliss, calmness and also improves people mindset, as well as their relationships and connections with others. Knowing oneself will enable them to develop their full potential and be happy, contented and fulfilled. Whether their idea and understanding of success is fulfillment in business, friendship, love, sports, a blend of all these or another thing altogether, knowing oneself and working on change for the better will enable them to achieve their goals. Then indeed, when they reach their goals, they will turn out to be a much happier person. And that is real success in its truest sense. The only way to bring your best self to work and life is to know oneself well. CHALLENGES IN KNOWING ONESELF: â€Å"Knowing the other and knowing oneself, in one hundred battles no danger. Not knowing the other and knowing oneself, one victory for one loss. Not knowing the other and not knowing oneself, in every battle certain defeat. † Man tends to be blind to his own faults and weaknesses and so never fix the problems that keep him from greater success. He should begin by identifying the barriers. If one knows oneself, barriers can be overcome. Bror Carlson says, â€Å"A problem that is located and identified is already half solved. By understanding the nature of the problem, we are well on the way to greater self-mastery and personal success. IGNORANCE: Seventy-five percent of the high school students who will enter the workforce have no idea what the term ‘inflation' means. Sixty-six percent cannot tell you what profits are. And 55% of our young people have no understanding of what a ‘government budget deficit' is. This is due to the lack of devoting time to gain knowledge though the person is very much capable. There are many internal and external causes for ignorance; Lack of self interest, motivation, and wrong assessment of oneself. All these contribute towards internal causes and external causes are due to family pressure, lack of time management or even financial barriers. PERSONALITY TRAITS: Personality traits are fixed at a young age, Hence external factors like upbringing environment plays a major role in determining the personality. Since most organizational leaders are not on a rigorous program of self-mastery, they exhibit these same traits throughout their life. If one is strong on self-esteem and self-improvement, these traits would support the drive toward self-mastery. But other traits such as self-destruction, elf-indulgence and self-pity would have the opposite effect. It is beauty that captures your attention and personality which captures your heart. EGO DEFENSE MECHANISMS: â€Å"The nice thing about egotists is that they don't talk about other people. † Lucille S. Harper The Ego is subject to a number of self-deceptions preventing self-mastery. Sigmund Freud many years ago observed that t he Ego is a fragile entity requiring protection from anxiety. Typically it manifests as some type of stressful emotional state such as fear, guilt, embarrassment, anger, frustration. Even the little things in life can activate an Ego defense mechanism. A frown from a superior, criticism from the colleague, getting angry at the person who bumped into you is a few examples. Sadly, once these mechanisms are engaged, the mind does not properly process the information it receives. NEGATIVE SELF-TALK: Thoughts have a great impact on the emotions, feelings or states of mind that operate at any given moment of time. For example, the person who thinks, â€Å"I'm not happy,† typically feels that way. Studies say those who have emotional problems engage in negative self-talk about 50 percent of the time. For some reason, few people admit that they talk to themselves or understand the critical nature of this internal dialogue. HABITUATION AND HABIT FORMATION: Habituated thinking patterns develop like certain streets in Boston. In the older parts of the city, the streets follow the paths used by long dead cows to get between barn and pasture. The issue here is that we tend to get â€Å"stuck† in a set of behaviors and patterns of thought that do not support our pursuit of worldly success or self-mastery. Habits start developing at a young age, and continue to build on them as a person become older. Sometime negative habits are recognised, but the person may feel like they are a part of who they are, so they hold on to them. There are also some individuals who seem to be in denial and do not seem to recognize their negative habits at all. If one pay close attention to oneself as it relates to our everyday lives and our dealings with others, we will likely find habits that we need to change. HOMEOSTASIS: â€Å"The mind acts like a rubber band that when stretched, tends to snap back to the way it was. † It's hard to build new mental or behavioral habits–and extremely difficult to stop an old habit and substitute a new one. This means that one-time bursts of motivation tend to produce little lasting effect. It's safe to assume that new changes will be resisted by the motivational forces supporting the status quo (homeostasis). ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT: Many powerful leaders have immature Egos. Arrested development essentially means that Ego growth has stopped prematurely. There are many symptoms one can experience. One symptom of this immaturity is the leader who cannot control their emotions. Another is a boss who blames others while failing to look at their own personal contribution to the problem. A third symptom is someone with high IQ but low emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is said to be a ladder comprising self awareness, self management, social awareness and relationship management at each level. EMOTIONS: The study found that 26% of new hires fail because they can't accept feedback, 23% because they're unable to understand and manage emotions, 17% because they lack the necessary motivation to excel, 15% because they have the wrong temperament for the job, and only 11% because they lack the necessary technical skills. This aspect deals with people who fail on managing their emotions. There is another aspect to these emotions where on the journey of discovering the real self many fail to trust their emotions. These people have very high chances of failing at a job in the long run. At a particular point of time they lose their passion for the job and business. The intensity which they once had is lost. They do not think through their heart, hence in the long run they lose passion for what they work or do. Analysis and logic are part of decision making process but what ignites an individual to take action is said to be emotions. COGNITIVE DISSONANCE: John Tierney, International Herald Tribune says that for half a century, social psychologists have been trying to figure out the human gift for rationalizing irrational behavior. Why did we evolve with brains that salute our shrewdness for buying the neon yellow car with bad gas mileage? Cognitive dissonance commonly operates as an unconscious mechanism and so it is difficult to detect. It is associated with buyers remorse and purchasers regret when it comes to making important purchases. More importantly, it provides insight into why man takes pride in his stupid decisions. OVERCOMING BARRIERS / CREATING A CHANGE: Recognizing is the first step to making changes. Then an action plan is required to overcome these barriers. Each of these action plans are clearly explained as follows. †¢ Being a creature of habit and automatic thinking is dangerous in a world of constant change. Identify the bad habits. Notice the patterns. Listening to the things other people say to about oneself. They may say the same negative things. These feedbacks can be used as a fuel to work on becoming a better person. A journal of the behaviors can be maintained that a person desire to change. Write down the efforts made and results obtained. This would motivate the person to continue to work on changing other things. †¢ By discovering oneself, personal interests and what the person is capable of ignorance can be eliminated. This self discovery can be followed by the following action plan. ? Expanding knowledge ? Killing ego ? Never say die attitude †¢ Analyzing one’s personality over the entire lifetime is necessary to determine the personality trait they belong to. A common mistake people make is analyzing oneself based on the present and this can be down right misleading. In Myer Brigg’s a person may type himself according to his inferior function. A normally calm person would see himself anxious and reactive under high degree of stress. This can be overcome by looking at oneself throughout his life and notice what it has in common. [pic] †¢ Negative self talk can be overcome by developing positive thinking and attitude. The following action plan would overcome negative attitude overtime. ? Stop talking, start writing- Instead of talking about one’s problems write it down and make a note of the cause for the problem. ? Commit oneself to thinking about the life they actually want and start visualizing it. ? Savor each moment Exercise gratitude ? Do not waste time dwelling on the past ? Keep a sense of humor. ? Belief that can change one’s life †¢ In order to overcome ego of oneself, the person must be brutally honest to himself, willingness to accept change. A self monitor must be installed in their mind that constantly analysis their activities. They can also ask their friends to monitor them and provide feedback. CONCLUSION: â€Å"I am what I am† To know oneself, will be an invitation as well as a challenge. It is an invitation to look deeply into oneself and to learn how gifted they are. It is a challenge to make a personal decision to enhance these gifts and do something about the short comings. Love, understand and appreciate the real self rather than seeking for the ideal self and thus true happiness is obtained. True happiness is a spontaneous feeling of inner peace, joy and contentment which is the result of introspection a person turn within and establish contact with inner nature. REFERENCES: 1. â€Å"Twelve Psychological Barriers To Self-Actualization and Personal Success† By Murray Johannsen. 2. â€Å"Positive Thinking – Your 7 Step Action Plan By Jinger Jarrett 3. â€Å"Knowing yourself well† by Donna P. Lendzyk

Philosophy of life: wisdom and meaning of life Essay

Good afternoon Dear Audience, today I am here to speak about something we are all going through. But first of all, let me start with some questions. I am sure that we all tried to find the answers to them at least once in a lifetime. Do you know what is Time? Or What is Space? Maybe you know what is Conscience? Or what is a Dream? Is there Heaven? or Hell? How can we live without knowing whether we are the ones to choose our own paths? And are we sure that we really Live? So many questions remain unanswered. And all these issues and many many others are in a constant connection with our Lives. Life is something we are all here going through and this is exactly the thing I would like to talk about today. There are a lot of technical definitions for the word Life, but can we really fit the whole meaning of this word in a sentence from the dictionaries, most of which claim that Life is the aspect of existence that processes, acts, reacts, evaluates, and evolves through reproduction and metabolism. But what is life really about, if anything? Basically, scientists, today are contemplating about 2 possible theories. That life is either a meaningless accident arising from the laws of physics operating in a meaningless universe, or it is a ‘step’ in a so-called planned ‘experiment’. I say ‘step’, for this, cannot be the end. The current state of life is yet too unstable and undeveloped for it to be the end. And I say ‘experiment’ since the evolutionary nature of life suggests that its future is unknown. If therefore the universe itself has a purpose, it seems most likely to be to explore what the outcome of the evolutionary experiment would be. And here comes the question of what kind of the outcome will we eventually acquire. In our contemporary world, we all get to listen to scientific debates on how, when and where life will come to an end. However, questions remain which may never be resolved. In this vacuum, philosophers and religious thinkers have attempted to give meaning to life by suggesting goals: Plato suggested the acquisition of knowledge, Aristotle to practice virtue, and the Stoics, mental fortitude and self-control. Today’s philosophers echo the existentialist view that life is full of absurdity, although they also tell us that we must put meaning into life by making our own values in an indifferent world. But if life is just a journey from womb to tomb, will such ‘meaning’ be sufficient to allow the traveler at journey’s end to feel that it was worthwhile? The worthwhile journey, the Beginning, and the End, Birth and Death, talking about Life I can not skip on talking about Time. All animals except humans live in a continual present, with no sense of the temporal distinctions of past, present, and future. Our consciousness of time is, therefore, one of the most important distinguishing features of humankind. It comes as no surprise, then, that from time immemorial, philosophers, teachers, and theologians have speculated on the true nature of time. Does time have a substance and, if so, what is it made of? How do we know that time really exists? Does time have a beginning and an end? There is a general agreement among philosophers that time is continuous and that it has an intrinsic direction or order. There is also a more or less general agreement that it is objective, rather than subjective or dependent on its being consciously experienced, and also that so many different physical processes bear consistent time relations to each other . However, even given that, many differing opinions and approaches to what time actually is have been put forward over the centuries. Presently, most websites and books on the subject begin with a candid admission that time is a curious and slippery concept which continues to defy definitive explanation despite hundreds, even thousands, of years of trying. We are told that time is â€Å"enigmatic† and â€Å"ineffable†, but that does not help us much in our search for the true nature of time. Nearly two and a half thousand years ago, Aristotle contended that â€Å"time is the most unknown of all unknown things†, and arguably not much has changed since then. Despite the fact that we don’t know exactly what time is, we still try to develop and move forward. Throughout my entire speech, I’ve been constantly repeating one word. â€Å"WE†. Just 2 letters. Do you know what they mean, since I don’t? We call ourselves Human beings. And, actually, being a human today does not necessarily mean being humane, being able to read or write, being able to work and provide yourself with everything that is needed. Generally speaking, the main features that distinguish us from animals are our abilities to think unconventionally, speak multiple languages, develop all-around spheres, from literature to sciences, from arts to business, and ,of course, we are different, since we believe in more than what we see and we hope for more than what we possess. Lately, I’ve been thinking about our Lives a lot, and I couldn’t resist the desire to share my thoughts with you, which, of course, are backed up by the scientific facts and evidence. While thinking about it, I’ve listened to myself carefully and eventually noticed that inexplicable voice speaking from within. Most of the time we don’t pay enough heed towards this part of our being., however, it should not be taken for granted. Some call it inner voice, others prefer to call it conscience. This is the reason, employed in questions of right and wrong. It is that within a man which approves or condemns his actions. The inner voice is a principle without which a man falls easily into temp ­tation, and every temptation succumbed to means degradation of his best instincts. He feels that he is no longer the same, but something weaker, something polluted, and the secret uneasiness and self-reproach which pursue him are the biting of conscience. Even though this voice should evoke all the notions of what is right and what is wrong there are some whose ideas of justice and injustice are so perverted that even the most wicked actions bring no remorse and at times even win their approval. Principles are not born in a man but are the result of training and association. It should be the endeavor of all of us, so that when temptation comes we will not fall, but resist it, and with every victory strengthen our character until we grow into noble, firm and self-reliant people. So, wherever you go and whatever you do your inner voice is always there, whispering the right answer. From time everlasting, we’ve always been trying to find the answers to as many questions as possible. We come up with the possible explanations, however, there is no-one out there to say that we are moving in a right direction. Who knows, maybe we are just fooling ourselves, and while, relying on our own science, we try to explain the inexplicable, we are increasingly driving ourselves into the jungles, from which, one day, we will not be able to find a way out. Just look at all the global conspiracy theories, most of which seem not only inconceivable but totally delirious. Let me name couple of them in order for you to have a comprehensive picture of what I am actually talking about. The water fluoridation theory, for instance, claims that the water we drink actually contains fluorite, which allegedly brainwashes the entire population of the Earth and makes us susceptible to inculcation. Or the other theory which states that the Moon does not exist, since it’s a hologram put there by someone unknown. And finally, the theory which assures us that lizard people, also known as ‘reptilians’ run the world. What the believers actually propose is that the top echelon of our government is actually controlled by shape-shifting reptilian aliens, who have been lording power over humans to turn them into mindless slaves for their own purposes. I can not deny the fact that hundreds of conspiracy theories look like the ravings of a madman, however, how can we be so sure that all of these bizarre guesses come from nowhere? How can we be so sure about something yet unknown? We have to set priorities for ourselves. This is all about our Lives, not anyone else’s. In today’s ruthless world you either live in lies and ignorance, or you leave your carefree life behind and go search for the Truth. Life is just a wink of an eye if one thinks of eternity. It’s fast and it’s short but it’s worth every single second since it can not be bought, it can not be changed nor can it be returned, ever. And in order to make your Life a worthwhile journey, be sure to rejoice in every single day as if it is the last one you have. Thank You for Your attention!

Roman Catholic Church

For the full-scale of culture application to business environment cognitive competencies, this assignment will discuss the culture characteristics, analyses the culture for business operation, study the culture synthesis, and then give recommendations according to the applications of business environment in particular. According the requirement of this assignment, I have chosen the country of Italy to complete the tasks of this assignment. 2. The Background of Italy To understand the culture of Italy better, this part is to introduce the source of the Italy background in details.Thus, this part will illustrate the language, education, religion, social structure, political, and economic philosophy of Italy. 2. 1 Languages of Italy Italian is the official language in Italy. Never the less, the 96% of the native Italians speak Italian. For these partial of native Italians, their main mother tongue are including German, Catalan, Greek, French, Slovenian, Albanian, Corsican, Cambrian, Bav arian, Waller and Croatian. However, half of the total Italian population speak their mother tongue, called regional dialects (quintessential. Co. K, 2014). According to the history records and the geography of Italy, these regional dialects major are including Sicilian, Venetian, Freudian, Neapolitan, Melamine, Sardinian, Clinician, Algerian, and Piedmont. Italy is a free state to educate all nationalities in Italy. For those 3 years old children in Italy, they can start their kindergarten education. According to the European education standards, the children aged 5- 5. 5 years old in Italy are allowed to start their primary school education for 5 years without of examination requirement.They must start their First Grade Secondary School education for 3 years when they are aged 11 to 14, after they past all of the exams, they are allowed to start their Second Grade Secondary School (High School) education, which requires students to pass all of their exams before their graduation, and they will obtain a diploma certificate within 3-5 years according to different faculty requirements (understandingly. Mom, 2014). 2. 3 Religion of Italy According to the source of the Italy history, the main religion of Italy is Roman Catholicism. The Roman Catholicism centre is in the Vatican City, and the pope also stays in it.Islam is the second religion in Italy sources from the immigrants of due to the only few Jews left after the War II (Kim, 2014). 2. 4 Social Structure of Italy In Italy, family is the most valuable social structure, because family can stabilize their family members by supporting each other with emotion and finance. In north of Italy, only the nuclear family stay together normally. But in the south of Italy, the extended family usually stay together. According to the main Roman Catholic religion, you can see the Catholic churches are more than any other country.The religion is high in Italy, and you can see them in many lobbies and buildings, and you will find people's names, trade, and profession are in particular patron saint. The church proclaims transparent hierarchy to Italy. Expect is provided to older people, successful businessman, and well-connected people (quintessential. Co. UK, 2014). 2. 5 Political Ideology of Italy Italy is a republic country since June 1946, voted by plebiscites. Its constitution was created in 1948. The president of Italy take turns to select by the elections of Italians ( inconsiderableness. Com, 2014) 2. Economic Ideology of Italy After the postwar, Italy concentrates to rebuild its economy successfully from being an integral member of NATO & Joining the European Economic Community. However, the left-wing Red Brigades destroyed the stability of Italy from 1970 to the early 1980. Later on, the governments of â€Å"Revolving door† managed Italy an unstable polity from 1980-1990. In Jan 1999, Treasury Secretary Carlo Clamps permitted Italy currency (infeasible. Mom, 2014). Nowadays, the economi cs of Italy is diversified by many industries, and the well-developed industrial in the north are most held by private companies (internationalization. Mom, 2014). Although Italy has experienced the global crisis in 2008, but Italy GAP of Italy increased from IIS$1737. 8 billion in 2004 to US $1982. 94 billion Gag 2014(Satanist. Com, 2014). This part is to analyses the Italy culture from its history and geography. 3. 1 History of Italy To know the history of Italy is to know the culture root of Italy. Basically, Italy has a long history with a solid culture foundation. The historical record of Italy has been started by Indo-European immigrants since 2000 B. C. To 1000 B. C. In its 3rd century B. C. Romans has overthrown Indo-European and dominated the civilization of Etruscan to Italy and with the Rome leadership control until the 4th & 5th centuries A. D. After that, the barbarian has taken the Western Roman Empire. From that time on, many other ethnic groups contended to fragmente d polity for a few centuries. But during this period of 13th to the 16th century, it has made Italy a cultural center for the Western world. Rome Empire has enthroned Italy for total about 22 centuries in its history, which has covered the most of the Italy history (infeasible. Com, 2014).The territories of Sardinia, Naples, and Milan were given to Austria after the Spanish Succession War in the year of 1713, but Austria lost some these territories in the year of 1735. After a few decades in the year 1800, Mr.. Napoleon finally unified Italy and declared himself as the Italy king in 1805. However, he did not last long. After 10 years, Austria dominated its power into a disunited Italy again in the Congress of Vienna. Italians are not convinced by the Austria control and always try to uprisings, but unsuccessfully destroyed by the Austria armies in the year of 1820, 1821, and 1831.As know as the brilliant liberal nationalist, Mr.. Giuseppe Amazing formed the Regiments, which is the f oundation of Italy unity. After that, the patriots of Italy gave the leadership hope on Mr.. Count Camille Did Cavort from the House of Savoy in Sardinia, and who finally united Italy in 1852. He brought his armies to help England and France in the Crimean War from 1853 to 1856. He gains the Lombardy territories in 1859 due to supporting to France in the war to against Austria. In the year of 1860, Sardinia was enlarged by the territories of Roman, Tuscany and Pram from the plebiscite voting.In the same year, Sardinia was enlarged by the territories of Sicily & Naples from Mr.. Giuseppe Garibaldi triumphant return war. In the year of 1861, Italian people finally claimed Victor Emmanuel II to be the king of Italy. In 1886, Venetian attached. On the 20th September 1870, the papal of Rome announced Italy is a unified peninsula which is independent nation under one constitutional monarchy (infeasible. Com, 2014). In the World War l, Italy declared its neutrality. Italy went to the war w ith Allies in 1915 and gained some lands, but Italy put it as the postwar settlement.To rescue Italy from Bolshevism, the dissatisfied Italians were introduced to Fascist Party by a socialist called Mr.. Mussolini in 1919. Mr.. Mussolini conquered Rome and being the prime minister on 28th October 1922. He is the dictator of Italy. In 1935, he attacked Ethiopia for annexation. In 1936, he allied with Doll Hitler in Rome. However, Allies invaded Italy in 1943. The time Mussolini lost dictatorship, and the Fascist Partisans killed him on 28th April 1945. Italy entered a war to attack Germany in 1943. Italians plebiscite voted to have a republic nation in June 1946.According to the peace treaty on 1 5th September 1947, Italian declared to return the lands to Greece and France originally. In 1954, Italy received Tries area west (a 90-square-mile zone) from Yugoslav (infeasible. Com, 2014). Nowadays, Italy is a stable country to build internal business. 3. 2 Geography of Italy According t o the world map segment, the geography of Italy is a unified peninsula country in the south of Europe, and it looks like a boot in the world map (infeasible. Com, 2014). The neighbor countries of Italy are surrounded by Andorra,Monaco, France, Switzerland, Slovenia, Croatia, Albania and Greece. The total size of cities are including Rome, Milan, Naples, Turin, Palermo and Genoa (worldpopulationreview. Com, 2014). Whereby, Rome is the capital city of Italy. From those researches, Italy is one of the countries to do international business with whole of the Europe countries. 4. Recommendation for doing Global Business in Italy This part will give the recommendations for doing business in Italy according to its culture of history, geography, language, education, religion, social structure, political, and economic philosophy. 4.Respect Different cultural customs Although, it is 96% of them are native Italians and speak Italian, but they may have different mother tongue or dialect and cul ture customs. Therefore, we have to respect each of them accordingly. To an international business, knowing the local culture is as knowing the needs of the local people. If you can provide the thing to that area's people, you will have business opportunity. 4. 2 Well-managed Cross Culture Management There are cultural conflicts between cultures. Therefore, international businessmen need to understand the difference and culture conflicts between each of them.Hence, the cross culture management needs to be created and studied by businessman and his staffs. Because you will have contact with local staff and customers, developing a well-managed cross culture management will help the stabilization of the employees and increase your business market share. 4. 3 Follow the religion characteristics of Roman Catholic As we know that the Roman Catholic is one of the largest and biggest religion in Italy, and Italy is the culture centre of Europe. To follow the Roman Catholic characteristics i s one of the best and fastest ways to fit into global international business to the local ND the whole Europe.If you can put your business to fit into the Roman Catholic quickly, your business can be accepted by the Roman Catholics easily. According to the culture study and analysis, I have understood the Italy culture differences to do global business. Therefore, I have learnt the repetitions of respecting the Italians. I have acknowledged the cultural intelligence is one of the important factors to bring the successful international business. This essay have gone through the characteristics of languages of Italy, Roman Catholic church Although it is true that some claim that the Crusades were initially launched to help seal the rift between Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christianity, there were essential differences between Christianity in Byzantium and Roman Catholicism that was developing independently. In fact, there were also strained tensions because of a history of the Roman Catholic church claiming wide swaths of territory from the other side through forged documents (Riley-Smith) which purported to claim a lot of Byzantium’s land for the Pope.Political, religious and cultural-economic conditions in the Arab world of the European Middle Ages were superior to those of Europe. The Moors had a history of expansionism into Europe at this point, and the culture of the Islamic world was much more advanced, especially in terms of mathematics, astronomy, and architecture (Allen and Amt).This is also exemplified in the historical clashes between Christianity and Islam, which are portrayed by the author as wor king within different paradigms of involvement in acquired territories throughout the history of the medieval Crusades, the rise of European imperialism, and the present state of affairs. When Urban put out the call to the Crusade, many people signed up. Some signed from a sense of religious duty. At the time, there was a great deal of stagnancy in the social system of feudal Europe too, without a lot of social mobility.The Crusades were an opportunity for some who signed up to improve their social status, political status, and even religious status. There was a lot of diversity among those who responded to Urban’s rousing call.   When interacting with the native populations of the Islamic world of the time, the Christian crusaders acted in different means and capacities, forming alliances with some, and utterly destroying and ransacking others. One interesting interaction was that of the rise of bartering between the Christians and native populations.During this time there was a sort of cultural bartering when the Europeans gave elements of their culture to more Eastern cultures and took some of the elements of the Eastern cultures and made them their own. One of these elements that the Europeans took was the concept of mercantile trading (Madden). Mercantile trading, as opposed to local trading, was more lucrative. There was a lot of anti-Semitism, fear and persecution in the era of the Crusades. Western Christians viewed Jews as another race, not quite human.Jews became aware of the Christians in many cases through persecution, and reacted accordingly. Perspectives of the Crusades varied between those involved in different capacities. Some undoubtedly felt cheated. Arabs generally felt surprised that Jerusalem fell and shocked at the invaders’ manners. Jews felt persecuted and threatened. There was a lot of stereotyping involved on all sides. The new Frankish territories of Outremer reflected their origins in the West in many ways, perhaps t he most obvious of which were cultural and architectural.Of course, with culture being transplanted to another area, there are also elements of hybrid nature to consider, with the Crusaders wanting to approximate new societies distinct from the communities from which they came, but in many cases succeeded in creating a sort of fusion culture based on elements taken from Western impetus and useful other elements in the new environment. REFERENCE Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Crusades a History (second edition) J. Allen & Emilie Amt, The Crusades: A Reader Thomas F. Madden, The Crusades: The Essential Readings

The Vietnam War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

The Vietnam War - Essay Example It was an expensive war in terms of men, material, and armaments, with consequent long-lasting damage to the environment due to the use of defoliants to deprive the enemy of forest cover which was well-suited in guerrilla war. This was the only war that America lost. This paper is a re-examination of perhaps one of the reasons why America lost in Vietnam due to the ROE and grossly inflated body counts (Moss, 2010, p. 383). Discussion The Cold War started during the term of Pres. Dwight Eisenhower as a competition of two contrasting ideologies – democracy (and capitalism) against communism (and central planning). American involvement in Vietnam was initially kept secret and utilized military advisers without any direct fighting by American soldiers. However, things soon got out of hand and escalated to the point that thousands of American soldiers were eventually involved and fighting a war many had thought is not America's war but a war between the Vietnamese people themselves . Former Pres. John F. Kennedy was against direct American involvement, but when his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, became the president, the full-scale war began. Assumptions – one of the most controversial aspects of the Vietnam War was a concept known as rules of engagement (ROE). This particular set of rules placed several constraints on many soldiers fighting the enemy; it is like fighting a boxing match with one hand tied behind the back. In essence, the ROE required American soldiers to observe rules of conduct when fighting in order to comply with international humanitarian laws pertaining to combat. This includes the idea of avoiding collateral damage or, in plain language, civilian casualties. When this is enforced, it is a difficult job of fighting the Vietcong because these guerrilla warriors hide among the people. It frustrated a lot of American soldiers that they cannot go after their enemy hiding in the populace. Individual soldier (infantry in the field) â€⠀œ the ROE prevents him from pursuing enemies in the heat of battle, enemies who retreat and hide in the village. This was one source of great frustration in which an enemy could have been neutralized or captured but the ROE does not allow it. This same enemy survives for another day and could possibly be able to kill him tomorrow. The ROE put unnecessary limits when prosecuting a war that was unconventional in its nature. Battalion commander – his primary concern is carrying out his orders, which are almost always mission-specific in terms of objectives – for example, attacking an identified enemy area. This ROE ensured that discipline is always maintained despite the chaos on the battleground and kept in touch with the higher-ups in the chain of command. ROE focused the battalion commander on his mission order and nothing more than that; there was hardly any room for discretion. Division commander – the ROE reminded the commander of the larger objectives of it s war in Vietnam, especially of the political aspects of the effect of warfare on the local populace. It put him on the defensive at times, because the Vietnamese people could be offended. Gen. William Westmoreland – as the direct overall commander of the entire theater of a war, it was incumbent on him to ensure victory. However, despite superiority in war materials, it was a war that was bound to be lost,

Critically consider to what extent this offers a mutual gains approach Essay

Critically consider to what extent this offers a mutual gains approach to people management - Essay Example The flexibility of approach and perspectives to change become high point that hugely helps to meet the challenges of time. The innovative measures and incentive driven tools that are linked to the performance are increasingly being used as vital elements of business strategy. Scholars assert that performance management is strategic tool or process that motivates workforce for optimal performance (Bloisi, 2007; Armstrong and Baron, 2005). Apart from incentives, commitment to work and loyalty towards employers is considerably increased when the employees are provided scope of enhancing their professional skills and competencies through in-house training and development. Financial and emotional security, job satisfaction etc are factors that promote trust building and induce high performance and retention of employees. Hence, HPWP not only benefits employees but also the employers as they are able to retain high performing human capital that significantly influences the revenues. Most importantly, they are able to maintain their competitive advantage through hard times as HPWP provides organization with fl exible approach and innovative performance related measures to meet contemporary challenges for optimal performance. (words:

Mills Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Mills Paper - Essay Example The subject has widespread causes, which may range from sexual abuse and trafficking to deprivation of basic rights like education. The condition of women in most of the countries worldwide is pathetic and the surveys conducted worldwide supports the view. Their own family members, referring to honor killings, murder Five thousand women every year. Trafficking of women and even girls below the age of maturity is widespread in all countries of the world. The girl children are susceptible to sexual abuse. Violence against women results in serious health concerns and consequences leading to injuries and death. In the less developed countries, women do not have access to basic rights of education and health. The violence may be at a personal level or at a social level. In the social level, the women are at risk in countries where the women do not have respect in the society and there is general autonomy of the male community. (WHO). The malpractices harm the dignity and pride of the women, which may have serious consequences in the social life. Though the women have made tremendous progress in the economic fields in the developed countries, their condition in the developing and the underdeveloped countries is poor. They still lie at the bottom of the social structure and their importance in the society is much lesser than that of the men. This paper deals in this socially relevant issue and tries to find out the personal and public issues of the violence. The paper also points out the solutions to the problem and underlines the methods of addressing the situation depending on the nature of the issues. The personal and public matters of trouble depend on the outlook. For example, if we take the institution of marriage, there may be certain amount of indifferences between the husband and wife. This is the personal view of the trouble. However, if the amount of divorces and separations increase to a certain extent,

Response Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Response Paper - Essay Example Boswell appreciates the fact that Addison is able to propagate his sentiments and preference to his reader’s minds without them perceiving the influence. Johnson â€Å"writes like a teacher† (11.9): Boswell recognizes the authority and firmness that is reflected in Johnson’s work. The readers of the two authors have completely different experiences; Johnson’s readers are captivated from the start, his firm and commanding eloquence inspire his readers and they admire him for that. On the other hand, for Addison’s first time readers, his work provokes a feeling of aggression from him but once the reader indulges more into his work they become captivated. , â€Å"like a liquor of more body, seems too strong at first† (11.16), Boswell does not clearly say if any of the two is a better other but he recognizes and appreciates how readers are satisfied with their work. â€Å"so much do they captivate the ear, and seize upon attention†

Social Psychology Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Social Psychology - Assignment Example Consequently, I seldom participated in get together or other social activities conducted within school premises by my class-fellows. It is therefore, the boys and girls considered me as a very temperamental, unpredictable and arrogant person. One of my girl class-fellows, called Sandy, was very naughty and lively student. She looked like a tom-boy, and participated in sports and games, and every mischief observed by the naughty students. She did not like such a book worm like me, and always displayed her disliking for too much study and no play in quite an innocent mode. She cited psychological causes that led humans towards isolation and described the reasons behind leading the lonely life. â€Å"Lonely people have an intense longing to be needed and wanted by someone else. Some people suffer from loneliness from time to time, and for some it’s a daily way of life. Most lonely people wear the affects of it on their face with a sad continence or a dejected look.† (Nicel y, 2008: 1) But it was not the case actually; rather, I wanted to spend most of my time in the world of literature, colors and imagination. I even had no care regarding the views my class-mates maintained about me. Time was passing with its usual flow, and everything appeared to be routine matter. Then one day one single event made revolutionary changes in my life. It was a pleasant April morning, when the speech contest was going to be held at school level. One student from 7th to 10th grade could participate in the contest. I was one of the spectators, when I found my class-teacher in a perplexed state. On enquiry, I came to know that the contester from our class was absent from the school and there was no one to represent our class. Since everyone knew that I had vast knowledge of almost all topics, the teacher requested me to represent the class. After little hesitation, I stepped forward and spoke at

Business Management Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Business Management - Term Paper Example But how is this done? Research reveals that employees may be motivated in a number of ways. One such is through recognition and reward as noted in the article Leadership Coaching: Employee Motivation Rewards In The Workplace. The article was written on August 15, 2012 by Mike Krutza and Jodi Wiff. It attempts to bring out the importance of employee motivation and what managers need to do in order to ensure that employees under them are motivated. One of the strategies identified by Krutza and Wiff is that managers must learn to praise and reward the deserving. They note that giving credit to teammates is very important. In this regard, they argue that a manager who gives spotlight on a coworker who is doing a fabulous job will most likely be recognized by the management. As such, they advice that a manager should ensure that an informal employee recognition award is established, which he would be comfortable creating, and overseeing, as well. The article also suggests that taking an initiative to develop an employee award system, is good since it also help the manager keep his job. The reason being, it shows that the manager cares about his teammates and the value put on team. In addition, they point out that for the manager to appear self-confident before his seniors, he should also praise his teammates for a job well done. Several management approaches have been developed that can be used to explain why this is so. The approaches include classical, behavioral, quantitative and contemporary. The objective of this paper is to relate the article â€Å"Leadership Coaching: Employee Motivation Rewards in the Workplace† to these approaches classical, behavioral, quantitative and contemporary. It will also relate the article to the organization structure of a company or business. Classical Principle The classical school of thought is based on managing the organization and workers more effectively, and falls under different groups: scientific, administrative a nd bureaucratic management. Scientific management is based on a number of principles such as the application of scientific methods to work in order to come up with the best way of accomplishing a given task in an organization. This implies that failure to establish the best way of accomplishing the organizations task is may lead to managers using actions which are inconsistent with the overall organizational goals (Griffin 16). Scientific management under classical school of thought suggests that employees should be carefully hired based on their qualifications and trained to do their jobs more effectively and efficiently (Griffin 14). Hiring of qualified and competent workers minimizes labor turnover within an organization and contributes to better work and ethics. Despite the fact that employees may be qualified, some may not be up to the task. Therefore, to ensure that employees are motivated, a manager would still have to organize for an award scheme for those to does their work better according to Krutza and Wiff (par. 1). This will increase the overall performance of the organization, thereby making the manager be recognized by top management as an important person in the organization which they cannot afford to loose. Scientific management principle also proposes that there should be genuine cooperation between management and workers based on mutual self-interest (Griffin 16). This aspect relates quite well with the article as the authors point out that the reward

Friction. Lab report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Friction. - Lab Report Example Record the load and the hanger’s weight and repeat this procedure placing masses of 200, 400, 600, 800, and 1000 g successively on top of the wood block. Turn the wood block on its side and repeat former task with a mass of 400 g on top of the block then turn the same block with the largest contact surface with the plane and place 400 g on top of the block, gradually increasing the load on the hanger until the block just starts to move. Set up the board as an inclined plane and place the wood block on the plane with its largest surface in contact, and gradually tip the plane up until the block just starts to slide down. Results: Coefficient of Kinetic Friction (based on the graph) = 0.323 ÃŽ ¼k = 0.307 (procedure 4) ; ÃŽ ¼s = 0.3710 (procedure 6) ÃŽ ¼s = 0.4073 (procedure 5) ; ÃŽ ¼k = 0.3575 (procedure 7) Applications: The concept may be applied by an engineer or specialist who needs to know the type/ property, mass of material, and angles of impending motion suitable for use in problems where friction is a significant factor in design and construction. Calculations (1) Using MS Excel, Based on this, ?k = 0.323 (2) Using the data of Procedure 4: total normal force = 6.388 N and friction force = 1.962 N and since fk = ?k * FN then, ?k = 1.962 N / 6.388 N ---? ?k = 0.307 (3) From the data of Procedure 5: ?s = force to start moving the block / total normal force Trial 1: ?s = 2.7468 N / 6.389 N ---? ?s = 0.4299 Trial 2: ?s = 2.354 N / 6.389 N ---? ?s = 0.3684 Trial 3: ?s = 2.707 N / 6.389 N ---? ?s = 0.4237 Average value (?s) = (0.4299 + 0.3684 + 0.4237) / 3 = 0.4073 Deviation (trial 1) = 0.4299 - 0.4073 = 0.0226 , |0.0226| = 0.226 Deviation (trial 2) = 0.3684 - 0.4073 = -0.0389 , |-0.0389| = 0.0389 Deviation (trial 3) = 0.4237 - 0.4073 = 0.0164 , |0.0164| = 0.0164 (4) From the data of Procedure 6: ?s = tan (?max) Trial 1: ?s = tan (19Â °) ---? ?s = 0.3443 Trial 2: ?s = tan (23Â °) ---? ?s = 0.4245 Trial 3: ?s = tan (19Â °) ---? ?s = 0.3443 Averaage value (?s) = (0.3443 + 0.4245 + 0.3443) / 3 = 0.3710 Deviation (trial 1) = 0.3443 - 0.3710 = -0.0267 , |-0.0267| = 0.0267 Deviation (trial 2) = 0.4245 - 0.3710 = 0.0535 , |0.0535| = 0.0535 Deviation (trial 3) = 0.3443 - 0.3710 = -0.0267 , |-0.0267| = 0.0267 Difference between two values of ?s = 0.4073 - 0.3710 = 0.0363 (5) From the data of Procedure 7: ?s = tan (?max) Trial 1: ?s = tan (21Â °) ---? ?s = 0.3839 Trial 2: ?s = tan (19Â °) ---? ?s = 0.3443 Trial 3: ?s = tan (19Â °) ---? ?s = 0.3443 Averaage value (?s) = (0.3839 + 0.3443 + 0.3443) / 3 = 0.3575 Deviation (trial 1) = 0.3839 - 0.3575 = 0.0264 , |0.0264| = 0.0264 Deviation (trial 2) = 0.3443 - 0.3575 = -0.0132 , |-0.0132| = 0.0132 Deviation (trial 3) = 0.3443 - 0.3575 = -0.0132 , |-0.0132| = 0.0132 Questions & Answers (1) Explain in your own words why it is necessary that the block move at constant velocity in Procedures 2 – 4. The block must move in constant velocity so that no acceleration occurs which would create a net force that would affect determination of normal force and friction. (2) (a) How does the coefficient of friction depend upon the normal force between the surfaces in contact? (b) How does it depend upon the area of the surfaces in contact? The coefficient of friction decreases with increasing normal force between the surfaces of contact. However, coefficient of friction does not depend upon the contact surface area because in the experiment, values of normal forces stay the same while the force to keep the block moving uniformly does not differ much between that of the flat position and the

Fieldwork report Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Fieldwork report - Personal Statement Example While reporting this session, I will also examine these aspects. Being a senior registered nurse in a Hong Kong Hospital, it is part of my duty to teach the fellow nurses and nursing students. In my work as an infectious disease nurse, coming across patients with infection is a daily routine, but as a nurse, I must be able to follow the hospital guidelines regarding infection containment. There are certain theoretical principles that guide these infection prevention policies, and isolation is one of them. Like every hospital, our hospital also sends suspected patients to isolation so spread of a particular infection and related contagious disease is prevented (Hospital Authority, 2006). There are certain places where such a patient is to be restricted during the span of the disease, and once the patient is no longer contagious, the patients is discharged to a step-down unit. The relevance of these guidelines are to be understood by the students and nurses, so they can follow the hospital guidelines accurately based on their understanding on the t opic (Preventing Transmission). After I was entrusted to conduct a teaching session, I made thorough preparation to design the course content, the audiovisual aids, and hand out questionnaire to assess knowledge of the participants at the end of the session. The date of my session was scheduled to be on September 18, 2008. Report on the Session The session was held on September 18, 2008, in the hospital lecture theater. It was a well illuminated, spacious sound-proof room with state of the art and comfortable seating arrangement. There was a modern public address system, and the teacher is supposed to talk through it. The audiovisual head sets were available for each student, but since the group was large, all new headsets could not be arranged for all. At the end and also in the feedback form, quite a few of the students complained about disturbed hearing, and sometimes, they could not even follow the lecture (Bahn, D., 2001). There was a podium, where I was standing and talking, and the podium had been structured in such a manner that all students can have an equal view. There was computer set up in the room, an internet connection, and the computer was connected to an LCD projector. The functions of these were checked and rechecked before the session began so technical failure does not happen. I must accept that once on the podium, I was feeling a little shaky, by voice was dry, and was perplexed for a moment or two, not able to pick my words. However, I was careful to demonstrate openness of my personality, and in the introduction while setting my topic, I made it clear that we shall learn together. This broke the ice, and a healthy learning environment was set up immediately (Bastable, S., 2003). I also informed that whenever they think they are having difficulty following, they are welcome to stop me and ask questions, and I would heartily entertain them. I also mentioned that there are time constraints in the programme, and they should not ask anything unnecessary or irrelevant during the session. At the end of the s

Universe in 1850-1914 Essay Example for Free

Universe in 1850-1914 Essay Science in the period of the later half of the 19th century to the early years of 20th provides a rather busy picture for the scientific community in identifying the extent of the universe. In the previous generations, the universe was perceived to be an only small patch of space occupied by some considerable amount of celestial bodies. However, due to the expansion of industrialism and technology in the West, more and more aspects of the true beginnings and characteristics of the universe were uncovered. With the use of instruments, science was able to reveal that the actual composition of the universe is not merely influenced by planets and stars. There are other materials in various elemental forms which can be found in the vast space. Also, theories were formulated about the true nature of the start of the universe itself which is in direct contrast to the previous generations of â€Å"materialism† which asserts that the universe has â€Å"always† existed (Koestler, 2003). The materialism approach was definitely put into fiction in this era. The more modern approach of science about the universe was deeply presented by the Big Bang and Relativity theories in the early 20th century. In terms of the philosophy about humanity’s true significance in the universe, many scientists believed that human existence is just another segment of the evolutionary line of events. The philosophy of the same scientific community between late 1800 and early 1900 provided a rather radical approach in presenting that there is a certain design pattern which allowed humans and other biological entities to exist. The design is not a correspondence to the true goal of the creation of the universe rather; it is a design which would permit life to exist. The previously accepted Darwinian approach was considered as just the supporting fact to this philosophy. References Koesteler, A. 2003. A Century of Discoveries in Physics. Retrieved November 8 2007 from http://www. creationofuniverse. com/html/materialism. html.

Chocolate Processing Is A Long History Industry

Chocolate Processing Is A Long History Industry Chocolate processing is a long history industry in global and since it been discovered in the mid 1600, the passion for cocoa grew. When Joseph Fry Son discovered a way to make the first modern chocolate bar, its become favourite for sweet and dessert lovers. Since the demand increasing substantially, lots of large chocolate company established in the international market such as Cadbury, Ferrero roce, Hersheys and their brands are strong identified by consumers. Therefore chocolate industry is a high rivalry global market and it is crucial for Cocoa Boutique to plan appropriate strategic to modify the structure and competitive dynamics to gain an advantageous position. Prior to strategy planning, Cocoa boutique required understanding the internal and external environment and its position within the industry by using business strategy tools such as SWOT analysis, PEST analysis, and value chain analysis. 2.0 SWOT analysis of Cocoa Boutique SWOT analysis model is the most common using tool by large organization whereas it is stand for strength, weakness, opportunity and threat of the firm or industry. Through SWOT analysis, managers can better understanding its organizations position within the industry and planning appropriate strategy to achieve its mission and goals. Strength Although the rivalry is fierce, chocolate making in Malaysia is quite unique because almost chocolates products imported from western company. This given an opportunity for Cocoa Boutique to establish their local chocolates making company to build brand identify among local citizens. Through effectiveness marketing direct, Cocoa Boutique established their seventh outlets in Eastern Malaysia to satisfy the demand increase dramatically from chocolate lovers. Owing to a small organization, the structure of Cocoa Boutique is easily to manage and control hereby reduces the administration and operation expenses as well as overall costs. Further, Cocoa Boutique also gain benefit cheaper cost of material because Malaysia is a place which rich with natural resources like fruits that widely use to process different chocolates taste. Weakness Since they are lots of large international chocolate company in the market, as a small company it is difficult for Cocoa Boutique to entry because they had build strong identify toward customers. Again, chocolate is a snack that different people has different flavor taste and thus whose customers loyal to their flavor brand chocolate would not easily change to the other brand. To gain strong brand identify and loyal customers, Cocoa Boutique facing financial problem in advertisement and distribution because this required a large sum to be able to compete with other international chocolate company. Further, some of the international brands who achieved the benefits of economic of scale enable to sell their chocolate products in a competitive price. For example, Cadbury who achieve high productivity and lower the cost per unit lead them sell their confectionaries at the lower price and become the price leader in the market. Opportunity Since Malaysia is a tropical country which is rich with tropical fruit such as mango, durian, and papaya, hereby create an opportunity for Cocoa Boutique to research and develop in the chocolate product mixed of variety fruits. Through developing creation and innovation, Cocoa Boutique launched new chocolate product by mixed tropical fruit into chocolate as their unique product to maximize customers satisfaction and pursue as the local market leader. As example, to date Cocoa Boutique is the one and only chocolate house that came up with distinctive Durian Chocolate which had been awarded as The Most Innovation Chocolate Product 2004 by the Malaysian Cocoa Board. Strategically, the ingredients which produced by local are cheap and easily to access directly lower the cost of distribution as well as research and development expenses however setting a higher selling price because of its unique. The increasing demands from customers create motivation for Cocoa Boutique to establish their seventh outlets in Sabah, Eastern Malaysia which is one of the famous tourist attractions. Chance comes from own efforts. In continuous development, Cocoa Boutique seeking opportunity likes establish outlets in other area or expected alliances with potential company to expand its business scope. Threats Although the sweetness of chocolates attracts many people, the growing of health concern stick the passion of chocolate products. According to a health research, chocolate is such a food contributing to diseases like obesity, blood pressure, and diabetes. Chocolate contains high sugar, fat and caloric may have negative effect on health especially those chocoholic inheritances with these kinds of disease. However, this threat changes to an opportunity for Cocoa Boutique to make special less sugar chocolate to satisfy customers need. Price is one of the most important elements in strategy planning. Those large chocolate company gain benefit from economic of scale able to sell their products with lower price threatens Cocoa Boutique adjusted their product price to adopt the market trend and result in less profit. PEST framework of Cocoa Boutique The external environment consists of variables that are outside the organization and not typically within the short-run control of top management. Opportunity and Threats are components of external environment which influence the success or failure of strategy. PEST framework provides an analysis of possible influences of the broad marco-environment of an organization. PEST stands for Political, Economic, Social, and Technological. Political The political issue of Malaysia is stable although it made up of variety races. As a policy to improve economic, Government offer substitute and appeal local citizens to start up their own business and this policy had lead many small businesses been established including Cocoa Boutique. Cocoa Boutique takes advantage from political factor when launched its chocolate product range of local tropical fruit. According to the Minister of Tourism, these products are in line with governments vision of providing visitors something unique, a distinct element that cannot be found elsewhere. For instance Durian Chocolate, which is unique and only produced by Malaysia. The local fruits used in making chocolate would help increase demand for local fruits, and resulting in agriculture development such as economic spin-offs for Malaysian fruit growers and local farmers so that they can enjoy the benefits generated by tourism industry. Economic Chocolate product is such a luxury item where people would purchase it when they are with stable-income. Suppose the global economic crisis, people would have less money to spend on luxury items however save their money to buy necessary item such as rice and daily accessories. Again, as outline that many global chocolate manufacturers gain their benefit from economic of scale can setting their product price lower and relatively such a small business Cocoa Boutique failing to compete in price war. Customers who are in middle or low income group would prefer buying the global brand chocolate because of cheaper and believed high quality. Sosiocultural Malaysia is a combination of variety race country giving opportunity for Cocoa boutique earn profit by develop differ range of chocolate products to adopt different cultural customers. As example, Malay people prefer the rich taste of coconut, Cocoa Boutique launched coconut flavor chocolate to satisfy Malay group. People lifestyle considered as a key element in food processing industry. Todays people emphasis on diet or lose weight and healthy lifestyle as a barrier to food industry especially those sweeten snack like chocolate. Many chocolate manufacturers shift to adopt the market trend by concentrate on dark chocolate or low sugar chocolate products which believed would help to prevent from heart disease and cancer. Technological Using technological in process manufacturing would result in cost efficiency and gain competitive advantage in the market. Even though Cocoa Boutique is a small company, its chocolate cooking equipments are standardizing such as using specific machine in the process of chocolate making. Handmade chocolate becomes unique and interesting in this century because the trend of technological world. Strategically, Cocoa Boutique launched ready- handmade chocolate as this may attract many people and can selling with a higher price because of its unique. 4.0 Value Chain Analysis of Cocoa Boutique The internal environment of a corporation consists of variables (Strengths and Weaknesses) that are within the organization itself and are not usually within the short-run control of top management. Despite external influencers, company should analysis those internal factors that are most likely to affect the implementation of the present and future strategic decisions. Strengths and weaknesses are such impacts of the structure of internal environment within the company. Value chain analysis, as proposed by Michael Porter, is a way of examining the nature and extent of the synergies that do or do not exist between the internal activities of a corporation. Its comprising the activities within and around the organization, they are design, produce, packaging of the products and distributing, marketing and sales the products to customer. Differences among competitor value chains are a key source of competitive advantage. Cocoa Boutique using the lowest cost material to make innovation chocolate product such as local tropical fruit chocolate product range. The fruits supplied by local farmers are cheaper however the product able to sell with a good price because of its unique design. Effective value chain occurred when the entire stakeholders value maximized. In the part of advertisement and distribution channel, Cocoa Boutique maintain long term bond with their stakeholders such as tourism agencies and taxi drivers by offered sales commission to motive t hem bring customers or tourists into Cocoa Boutiques concept stores. Customers can visit and purchase such special and quality chocolates with acceptable price meanwhile maximize the value of the tourism agencies and increase profit to the shareholders. Cocoa Boutique only distributes and sells their chocolate products to its seven outlets. This may reduce distribution costs but as such weakness of Cocoa Boutique which limited its market share and the possible profitable in the future. 5.0 Cocoa Boutiques strategy formulation Strategy formulation is the development of long-range plans for the effective management of environmental opportunities and threats, in light of corporate strengths and weaknesses. It includes defining the corporate mission, specifying achievable objectives, developing strategies, and setting policy guidelines. A corporations strategy formulation takes place at corporate-level, business-level and functional-level. Corporate-level strategy of Cocoa Boutique The corporate-level strategy should be defined the organizations purpose and the lines of businesses in which it plans to operate, thus providing the overarching direction for the organization. Many organizations begin their growth and development with a corporate-level strategy aimed at concentrating resources in one business or industry in order to develop a strong competitive position within that industry. Since Cocoa Boutique established in year 2003, they merely concentrate their business growth and performance in chocolate industry within these seven years evidence that they applied directional strategy approach into their business. They develop long term into high quality chocolate processing and chocolate house concept store to provide special products range to customers and build their brand identify in Malaysias market. Since the substantial increase in customers demand when they established the first outlet, they recognized the potential of local chocolate market and strat egically applied horizontal growth approach where expand their business into other geographic location and increasing the range of product and service to their current market. For instance, the high volume sale of Gourmet chocolate in Sabah motivate Cocoa Boutique to develop a wide range of Gourmet chocolate to satisfy the particular customers need. Cocoa Boutique would not wait for lunch but strive to meet opportunities from the competitive environment. Next step to expand their business, they committed a joint venture agreement with a local corporation so called Genting Strawberry Leisure Farm who engages in tourist attraction development. Though the agreement, they alliance aims to acquire substantial revenues by create a diversity theme park for customers to have not merely an experiential but learning journey. In brief, the strategy marked out by Cocoa Boutique clearly orientating their corporations vision of continuous growing and developing creation and innovation to maximize their revenues in local chocolate retail market. Business-level strategy of Cocoa Boutique A business level strategy is the blueprint that should enable an organization to leverage its resources, so that it can differentiate itself from the competition within a particular line of business. Companies struggle in planning strategy in order to obtain competitive advantage and then gain superior profits from the strategy they designed. Michael Porter has proposed three generic strategies that provide a good starting point for strategic thinking; they are overall cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. Considering the rivalry in chocolate industry is fierce, small companies are unable to lead a stand in the market unless they target on the right market segment with the right products. Accordingly, Cocoa Boutique used focused differentiation strategy in chocolate industry which serving only one segment of overall market and trying to be the most differentiated organization serving that segment. Unlike other chocolate retailers who sells and distributes their confectionary products on the shelves of minimarket, supermarket or hypermarket, Cocoa Boutique focused on performance in travel retail. Based on the potential tourism industry of Malaysia, they pursuing a niche strategy in focusing on travelers, who are stable income, may come from local and foreign country and main purpose to visit and on the other hand purchase some native products, gifts or souvenirs. As stated that chocolate house concept store is rarely in Malaysia, and to date there are just two companies running this conceptual store, one is Cocoa Boutique and another is Beryls Chocolate retailer. To adopt their targeted customers segment, Cocoa Boutique launched handmade chocolate which is another selling point apart from Durian chocolate. The chocolate made with different shapes like the chocolate model design of Twin Towel doubtlessly suit the tourists need and demand. Due to run a focused on a niche market segment, Cocoa Boutique sells their products price higher than the market brand such as Cadburys and Nestle. In general, the strategy formulated by Cocoa Boutique is directly and simply within an undersized coverage yet is potentially in the future, especially in their business-level strategy planning. In the market of Malaysia, chocolate products can be seen in anywhere and they are usually Cadburys, Ferrero, Mars, Snickers, and other international brands. Almost of them develop in diversity market with the competitive advantage of economic of scale and well known in the line of international. In accordance with the outlined SWOT analysis, Cocoa Boutique recognized their weakness of limited finance as well as low reputation and hence wisely develops differentiation strategy in specific market segment in order to acquire higher profit with premium price. This strategy effectively decreases the scope of competition environment and evaded the intense price war with existing chocolate retailers. Their effort in business-level strategy also access to strategic alliances in corporate-level. Cons idered Genting Strawberry Leisure Farm is a potential travel attraction that might complement their strengths and offset their weaknesses, the joint-venture strategy allows Cocoa Boutique to obtain a greater sales impact at less cost. 6.0 Strategy implementation of Cocoa Boutique An idea is nothing until it becomes an action. Even the best conceived strategies are of little value if they are not implemented effectively. It should be noted that the plan for implementing a strategy might require radical design of organizational structure, the development of new control system, well skilled in handling human resources by develop strategic leadership. Cocoa Boutique who is the small enterprise gains the benefit in implementing their conceived strategies because the small fields of organization structure simplify their operation. Operations Decision of Cocoa Boutique Location is such key success in tourism industry and strategically, Cocoa boutique allocated its outlets nearby or within the tourist attraction. For instance, the latest Cocoa Boutique outlet has been established in Sabah, which is the famous vacationland in East of Malaysia. In order to gain competitive advantage, Cocoa Boutique develops appropriate operations decision to implement the strategy and ensure all the resources are used efficiently. Considered travel trade is depend on seasonality of demand, the inventory planning and control should be well- handle to avoid the problem of whether inefficient to meet customers demand or over- order during the peak season. From processing cocoa to chocolate products, Cocoa Boutique decides how much material or ingredients should be ordered and determines the production quantity because food products may have expired date and the expensive costs to storage them with low temperature. A range of customers demand analysis is needed to prevent the food perish and suffer lose from seasonal discount. Quality control is the key role in operating food processing companies because the food is directly influencing the customers perspective and even their healthy. Poor quality control of food and beverage would significant result a companys reputation and vicious aftermaths like involving in lawsuit. To ensure the quality and delicious of chocolates, all the Cocoa Boutique products are produced by using 100% pure cocoa butter in authentic Belgium recipe following Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and stringent quality control that complies with the international standard of hygiene. Cocoa Boutique to build reliability has offer live chocolate making show to customers to indicate their professional chocolate making procedure. In the part of service quality performance, they allocate employees at every corner of specific products range to provide free taste testing and reliable sales advice to customers. The information system of Cocoa Boutique not merely worked in the part of financial and human resource management, but also the key role in implementing their business level strategy. Regarding in the aspect of tourism, customers would not come themselves unless they heard about the tourist attraction from fellows, advertisement from newspaper and radio, or joining a tour group. Hence, it is imperative to develop in advertisement and distribution channel in order to build reputation among customers. To gain competitive advantage, Cocoa Boutique promotes their attraction by building long term relationship with travel agencies. They allocate vouchers and brochures to travel agencies for customers convenience and offered forty percent of commission for travel agencies, bus and taxi drivers to motive them brin g customers to visit their shops. To satisfy these important stakeholders, the commissions from the total purchase of the customers bring by them can be obtain immediately after the customers checked-out. That is to say, a computer information system is imperative to record all the details of the tour guides and drivers including their codes and the commissions they collected based on the total purchase of customers they bring. Conversely, the low service quality of commission checking would result in loss confident among tour guides toward the company and the likelihood of being boycott by them. There is a manager allocated in each branch of Cocoa Boutique to responsible for the commission-pay system and tour guides service control. To maintain long term relationship, managers would send information about the total commission collected to each tour guides and drivers once a month though e-mail or SMS. Human resource management Effective strategy implementation should occur when the people required to take action to this end are motivated to do so. Employees are the key role of sale achievement in Cocoa Boutique because they using direct sale approach to persuade customers purchase their products. Consider chocolates is perishable and have limited life shelf, employees must struggle to sell out the products in advance. Thus, developing motivation strategy is required to increase employees willingness to hard sale the products and enhance their job satisfaction. Cocoa Boutique uses the performance-pay approach to motive their employees. The idea is employees paid a base salary, however is eligible for additional compensation based on achieving certain pre-approved tasks or goals. For instance, Cocoa Boutique had setting target revenue of incoming Chinese New Year holiday, the entire workforce of the branch will be rewarded bonus suppose they reach the target. The key of success is the managers who wisely dev elop leadership in the team or branch to build a healthy workforce and thus improve cooperation among employees. In other words, performance-pay plan make it clear to managers what should be pay prior attention because they would get even more compensation. Cocoa Boutique also concern in training and development to ensure their employees is skillful to sell their products and provide appropriate advice to customers. They applied on the job training by admit employees to learn job tasks by actually performing them. This method, in somehow has effectively reduce the cost of expenditure in formal training and bring the training meaning to both employees and organization. Marketing Strategy Marketing strategy is about the approach to deliver companys products and services to satisfy customers. Wrong decision in marketing would affect success or failure of strategy implementation. Likewise, marketing plan would be determined base on the companys mission. Cocoa Boutique engage in pursuing market leader in chocolate manufacturer and retail which catering for travel trade. They merely concentrate on their performance in tourist market segment by developing four Ps, which consisting product, price, place, and promotion. The Implication of Four Ps in Cocoa Boutique Place always the first consideration in developing marketing strategy. Before even starting a business, companies need to assess their own core competencies and then evaluate the place that will complement them in business line, geographic positions, or competencies. Strategically, Cocoa Boutique and its outlets are located in the place that is accessibility, visibility and mainly catering for travel trade, for example some of them are located in the Malaysia Tourism Centre and Genting Highlands, which is an international tourist attraction. Cocoa Boutique continuous research and develop in products creation and innovation to become the leader in chocolate processing industry. To date, they offered variety of products range to meet different customers need and want, they including tropical fruit chocolate, gourmet chocolates, healthy range, and so on. Among the various chocolate flavor, Durian chocolate is the unique and best recommendation products because of the selling point of Malaysias symbolic. Others, the healthy chocolate range is even catching on the trend of healthy lifestyle in todays world. They promote this range of product by using slogan Sugar free pleasure without the guilt to attract those chocoholics struggling between health an d delicious. In the consideration of Malaysia is an Islamic country, Cocoa Boutiques chocolate product also complying with Halal requirement to encourage Muslims consumption. In fact, the price of products and services in travel trade are usually higher than the market because they serving on stable or high income group. However, Cocoa Boutique set their chocolate products price higher than the available in common market because of the quality of their chocolate and provides well services to increase customers value. Even they pursuing premium price in their marketing strategy, they have launched a Super Value package to adopt different customers demand. Travel trade is deeply depending on seasonal demand, therefore Cocoa Boutique design different promotion to different special day. For instance, they launched new packaging in Valentine day as the ideal gifts for couples. Environmental protection issue becomes popular in this contemporary since the global temperature again hit the peak in this summer. Most of the country had implemented zero plastic policy to reduce pollution and recently Malaysia started implements this policy too. Cocoa Boutique takes t he chance to offer free reusable bag for customers who purchase their chocolate products as a way to promote their products. In consideration of cost efficiency, the reusable bags are made in China due to the low cost and acceptable quality. Despite a compliment marketing strategy is non-executable without develop appropriate marketing skills. Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) is a concept of marketing communication planning that recognizes the added value of a comprehensive plan. IMC can produce stronger message consistency and greater sales impact. Most of the large organizations engage in improved integrated offering by acquire promotion agencies, public relations firms, package design consultancies, web site developers, and direct mail houses. Cocoa Boutique promotes their attractiveness by take part in Tourism Malaysia Promotion Board created by Malaysia Ministry of Cultural, Art and Tourism. Furthermore, they organized public relations activities in order to build good reputation and well-known brand in the segment of tourists. Even a small company, they hired package design consultancies and web site develops in the way to improve their business visibility, build brand identify and customer loyalty and fina lly result in increase sales. Strategic leadership A key strategic role of managers is to provide strategic leadership for their subordinates. Hereinbefore all strategies would not implement successfully without leading by an effective leader. Take a place of managers of Cocoa Boutique is vital to develop leadership characteristics such as emotional intelligence and empowerment. Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to recognize and manage emotion. A leader who is high degree of EQ understands his role in the organization and ability to control them mood and drive subordinates motivation to complete different job tasks. Meanwhile, they also develop empathy and social skill to build good relationship with the employees and help to earn loyalty from employees. Considering Malaysia built up with various racial, the workforce of Cocoa Boutique likely consists by different culture and religion. Managers should well handle in conflicts settlement and strive to maintain harmony in the workforce. Managers may develop mentoring by alloca tes the experienced employee even themselves to coach new employee to build good attitude and behavior modeling in the branch on the other hand increase communication among them. When employees seek some one as the model in the organization, they willing to pursue the goals and commit high loyalty to the career. Empowering subordinates or employees to make decisions is a good motivational tool. Such employees involve in decision making would increase their job enrichment and satisfaction and thus enhance their motivation to perform better. There is high empowering in Cocoa Boutique where managers need the opinions and suggestions from employees regarding the customers perspective and value to their products. The employees opinions sometimes helpful in research and development of new products which likely match customers need and want. Others, Cocoa Boutique also give high authorize to each branch managers to manage the operation as long as they keep their performance in sales and services quality. 7.0 Conclusion In general, the strategic formulated by Cocoa Boutique is only present on the travel trade and implemented by simply managing people, develop marketing purpose and operating management to satisfy all the stakeholders of the organization, such as shareholder, employees, and the agents involving in travel trade. A strategic that focuses on specific market is rather good because concentrates on single business definitely easy to manage and control, yet, the business scope is limited and pin down the potential profits in other markets. In continuous develop in local market, Cocoa Boutique should expand their business scope to increase awareness among customers to their brand and impact on sales.

The Outsourcing Fundamentals For Dell Computers

The Outsourcing Fundamentals For Dell Computers Dell is one of the leading PC manufacturers in the world. Its business strategy involves outsourcing a number of its operations such as sales order processing, distribution, after sales service. The focus of this report will be to critically evaluate and analyse one such outsourcing project of Dell of its technical support which was considered a failure. There are a number of reasons why Dell chose to outsource its technical support call centre. The main reason for doing so is that Dell saw this part of its operations as non core. It decided to outsource in order to concentrate on its core business processes which were manufacturing and design. The cost savings that an outsourcing deal offered also was a major factor in it doing so. Other factors such as to gain accesses to world class facilities , to share the risk involved, to accelerate redesign engineering process were also critical. After having decided to outsource a deal with Stream Global Services was struck. Stream took its call centre in India to operate the entire tech support of Northern America. After the first term of the contract the deal was called off and Dell decided to back source the tech support from Stream and bring it back in-house. The report analysis the key issues for the failure of this deal. One of the most important issues that resulted in the failure of this outsourcing deal is the drop in quality of service. After initial period the quality of service provided by Stream went down considerably which resulted in unsatisfied customer and complaints. This resulted in fall of sales and loss of market share. Other issues such as loss of control over the operations and loss of tacit knowledge, unable to meet the customer demand due to large increase in customer base, loss of intellectual property, lack of expertise too played a critical factor in its failure. The tip of the iceberg came when n egotiating a contract extension and Stream demanding more, which lead to Dell calling off the whole deal. Critical analysis shows that tech support may be a core competence of Dell, which they had to retain more control over. The possible recommendations are to offshore the call centre to a cost efficient location rather than outsource it. Put in a confidentiality agreement in place in order to protect from loss in intellectual property. Negotiate smaller lengths of contract and to choose quality over price as main criteria while evaluating vendors for outsourcing in the future. Contents 3 Introduction 4 Why Outsource 5 Non core function 5 Gain Access to World-Class Capabilities 6 Cost Saving 6 Accelerate Reengineering Benefits 6 Share Risks 6 Redirect Resources to more Strategic Activities 7 The Stream Story 7 What went wrong 8 Quality of Service 8 Loss of Control 8 Viability of Service Provider 8 Relative Size of Customer 8 The Issue of Trust 9 Lack of Expertise 9 Hidden and Uncertain Costs 9 Tip of the Iceberg 9 Conclusion Recommendation 10 1 . Offshore not out-source : 10 2. Confidentiality Agreements: 11 3. Quality over price: 11 4. Short term contracts : 11 References 12 Appendix 13 Appendix I 14 Sales of Dell from 1999- 2007 14 Appendix II 14 Market Share of PC Manufacturers 14 Introduction Dell is a multinational computer company which has managed to stay in the first place of computer system sales for over a decade. Ranked in the top 50 among the Fortune 500, Dell offers a range of IT products and services, including hardware, software, consulting services, support services, and managed services. Dell employs more than 100,000 employees at services, manufacturing, and design locations around the world. Its strong and revolutionized strategy of direct selling computers to the customers increased its success in the computer companies field providing it with a competitive advantage. Dell was founded in 1984 by Michael Dell a 19-year old teenager and it was named as PCs Limited. Starting with a capital of $1000 and the aim of selling IBM PC-compatible computers he managed to establish Dell as one of the most worldwide successful and profitable companies only after the first years of its function. The first year gross revenues amounted to $6 million. In 1985 Dell introduce d the first computer of its own design- the Turbo PC. In 1988 the company made its initial public offering at $8.50 a share and was renamed to Dell Computer Corporation.    By 1990 it had been expanded in 12 different countries. Six years later(1996), Dell began selling computers via its web site and offered online technical support at the same time and by the 1997 Dell was one of the top five computer makers in the world. As one of the worlds leading direct computer systems companies and a premier supplier of technology for the Internet infrastructure, Dells competitive advantage is its direct customer focus. Constant interaction with its customers online and via the telephone gives Dell the ability to understand unique computing needs that drive individual and enterprise productivity. Even though growth rates for the computer industry are expected to be less than previous years, Dell can still successfully operate, enjoying healthy sustainable profits. With its unique operation strategy and reduced inventory levels gives Dell a competitive edge over its rivals. Dell chooses to outsource a whole bunch of its processes of its operations. Right from most of its production line to sales order processing to distribution to after sales service. Outsourcing allows companies to focus on broader business issues while having operational details assumed by an outside expert. The main focus of this report will be around the outsourcing of its call centre for the technical support. Why Outsource The reasons why Dell chose to outsource its technical support are as follows: Non core function The main reason for its choosing to outsource this aspect of its operations is that Dell saw the technical support operation as not part of its core competence. A core competence provides a competitive advantage through being competitively unique and making a contribution to customer value or cost (Prahalad Hamel, 1990). Long Vickers-Koch (1995) expand the idea of core competences to core capabilities. They distinguish these two by noting that competencies relate to the skills, knowledge, and technological know-how that give a special advantage at specific points of the value chain, which, in combination with the strategic processes that link the chain together, form core capabilities, (p. 12). Dell clearly identified techincal support or the call centre as a non core part of its operations. They saw themselves as clearly being a computer manufacturer who sold customised computers to the users directly and chose to concentrate on this aspect of its business which turned out to be a mistake, we will look at why this was the case in the later part of this report. Gain Access to World-Class Capabilities By the very nature of their specialization, outsourcing providers bring extensive world-class resources to meeting the needs of their customers. Dell wanted to fully utilise this specialization that many of the outsourcing vendors had to offer. Partnering with an organization with world-class capabilities would offer access to new technology, tools and techniques that the Dell may not have possessed more structured methodologies, procedures and documentation; and a competitive advantage through expanded skills. Cost Saving Cost implications are critical factor for any company when it chooses to outsource and Dell being no different. The single most important tactical reason for outsourcing is to reduce or control operating costs. Access to an outside providers lower cost structure is one of the most compelling benefits of outsourcing. The overall operating cost of the tech support would be significantly lower if the project was off shored to a more cost efficient location. Although cost benefits would not be realised in the immediate future but over the long run it promised huge cost savings. Accelerate Reengineering Benefits Outsourcing is often a by-product of another powerful management tool; business process reengineering. It allows an organization to immediately realize the anticipated benefits of reengineering by having an outside organization one that is already reengineered to world-class standards process. Dell wanted to utilise the reengineered business process of the vendor to the fullest. Share Risks There are tremendous risks associated with the investments an organization makes in information technology like a call centre. Dell believed that by outsourcing they would become more flexible, more dynamic and adaptable to meet changing opportunities. This would reduce the risk both financially and strategically in the long term. Redirect Resources to more Strategic Activities Every organization has limits on the resources available to it. Outsourcing permits the redirection of resources from non-core activities toward activities that provide a greater return in serving the customer. Dell clearly saw tech support as its non- core activity and hence thought of outsourcing as a way to redirect its resources and attention to its core business activities like manufacturing and direct sales. The Stream Story After having decided to outsource the tech support and after careful vendor evaluation the eventual order for the outsourcing deal was struck with Stream Global Services. Stream was a business process outsource (BPO) provider specializing in customer relationship management services including sales, customer care and technical support services. Tech support for the entire North America was shifted to Stream located in Mumbai, India. The contract signed was relatively short term which needed evaluation in 4 years. Although, the initial few years of the contract was a success and the company started reaping benefits from sales and profit generation. In 2007 the sales growth started to take a downward turn. Dell started to lose its market share and HP had taken over the market as the premier brand. (Refer Appendix). While there were several factors in the downturn of the companys fortunes, the outsourcing deal with Dell was also said to be a reason. After four years into the deal and wh en the time for evaluation and re contracting came along Dell decided not continue its relationship with Stream and the outsourcing deal went bust. There were several reasons for the failure of this particular deal. What went wrong Quality of Service One of the main reasons for unsuccessful deal was that the quality of service that Stream was offering gradually went down. As with any outsourcing deal the vendor tends to provide high quality service to begin with but over a period of time this quality tends to drop due to several reasons. The average time per call went up, there was more waiting time etc. Dell started to receive a lot of complaints from unsatisfied customers, which was bad for the image of the company. Their competitors started offering better after sales services and Dell started to develop this reputation of having bad customer service. This resulted in sales dropping and Dell loosing market share. Loss of Control The main business strategy of Dell was that it sold computers directly to customers. It is paramount for Dell to know the needs of its customers. After having outsourced its tech support they started to lose control over this aspect. The market and customer demands are constantly changing and its critical for Dell to always be in close conjunction with these changes. Customer feedback is a medium through which they can keep track of the changing needs, but because tech support was outsourced they realised they did not have the control over feedback like they wanted. Viability of Service Provider Dell realised that Stream were not offering the services that was agreed upon. But due to flaws in the contract it was very difficult for them to make any headway into this matter. They realised that Stream did not have the technical proficiency that they had claimed to have had, thus resulting in lower service levels. Relative Size of Customer As the sales of the company grew there were greater customers needing technical assistance. This meant that there was a huge influx of customers for Stream which they did not have the capacity to handle at that time. This resulted in service levels dropping and quality going down. The Issue of Trust Intellectual property became a key issue as well. Stream at the same time were providing services to other computer manufacturers and IT companies which were if not direct but in direct competition with Dell. Hence, confidentiality became an issue with this relationship. Lack of Expertise Dell realised that Stream lacked the technical expertise that they expected. This was but natural as Dell was the experts in designing and manufacturing the computers and they had the technical knowhow of the product. Even with extensive training Stream could not fully gain the technical expertise possessed by Dell. Hidden and Uncertain Costs As in any outsourcing deal the uncertain costs and the hidden cost are always the main reason why any deal is called off. The outsourcer in this case Dell realised that there was a lot hidden costs that was involved in the deal and thus the overall cost benefits they had expected would not be realised. Tip of the Iceberg The final nail in the coffin of the deal came when the time for re-contracting had come along. As in many of the outsourcing cases the bargaining power of the vendor increases as the years go by. Stream had the knowledge that it had the upper hand when it came down to the bargaining power and demanded more money. Dell realised this and decided to bail out of the contract extension. It was a bold decision on the part of Dell because in-sourcing or back sourcing always is a tough task for any company as knowledge transfers becomes a critical issue. Never the less the decision to bring back its technical support in-house was made. After a couple of years Dell again outsourced its tech support but after having the experience of a failed deal they were more careful with this deal. Conclusion Recommendation The first and the foremost function of any company when deciding to outsource should be to evaluate its core competence. As mentioned above core competence gives a competitive edge over the competition. Clearly the technical support for Dell computers is a core function. The main reason for this being that as we saw that the sales started to drop and one of the reasons being the poor quality of customer service. After sales service is an order winner for most computer manufacturers as most of the customer choose to buy a certain brand based on the after sales support that they offer. Based on this analysis the following recommendations can be given. All recommendations given analysis its benefits and its limitations. 1 . Offshore not out-source : Dell should look to offshore the tech support part of its operations rather than outsource. This means that they should retain control of the operation but try and move it offshore for a cheaper alternative. India, Philippines etc are cheaper alternatives that should be considered for future operations. Benefits: They will retain much more control of the operations thus retaining the tacit knowledge and be in close contact with its customers. They will retain their core competence and will not end up losing their competitive edge. Limitations: Initial capital for this is very large. Another limitation is that as in the case with outsourcing the overall cost of operations is not significantly low .This is because with a outsourcing vendor the cost can be reduced by means of economies of scale. Dell will not have this luxury and hence the cost as compared to outsourcing will be relatively high. 2. Confidentiality Agreements: In order to safeguard the intellectual property of the company, some sort of confidentiality agreement needs to be made between Dell and the vendor. Benefits: The core competence of the company will not be shared with its rivals and Dell will not lose its competitive edge. Limitations : It is very difficult to negotiate such kind of contracts with any vendor and such agreement and at times do not hold much value in certain situations and countries. 3. Quality over price: When evaluating a vendor quality and not price should be the foremost criteria. The capacity of the vendor to offer a certain kind of service should be looked upon first. Most outsourcing deals are looked at from a cost point of view and quality gets overlooked. Benefits : Improved quality standards. The vendor will have means to cope with the change in customer quantity and demand. There will be less unsatisfied customers thus enhancing the reputations of the company which is diminishing quickly for its poor customer service. Limitations: Price goes up. Quality always comes at a price and better quality means paying more for such services. These vendors will not be able to meet the price standards of the cheaper vendor which will very often be the case. 4. Short term contracts : Dell should look at signing short term deals with the outsourcing vendors. Ideally the length of the contract should be 2 -3 years after which it should be evaluated. Benefits: Gives Dell more flexibility and opportunity to evaluate the situation of the deal. If Dell feels that the service levels are not up to the mark then it will give them an opportunity to re negotiate. It will put the bargaining power in the hands of Dell. Limitations: The problem with negotiating short term contracts with vendors is that quite often they try and increase their price as they are not guaranteed return on their investment. So they try and increase their profit margins so that they can compensate it for the short length of the contract. References Christensen, Clayton M. (2001), The Past and Future of Competitive Advantage, Sloan Management Review, 42 (Winter), 105-109.   J. Barthelemy, The seven deadly sins of outsourcing,  Academy of Management Executive  17  (2003) (2), pp. 87-97. Magretta J. 1998. The power of virtual integration: an interview with Dell Computers Michael Dell. Har-vard Business Review 76(2): 72-84. Long, C., Vickers-Koch, M. (1995), Using core capabilities to create competitive advantage,  Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 24 No.1, pp.6-20. Prahalad, C. K., G. Hamel. 1990. The core competence of the organization. Harvard Business Review. May-June. Quinn, J. 2000. Outsourcing innovation: The new en-gine of growth. Sloan Management Review, 41(4): 13-29. Quinn, J. Strategic Outsourcing: Leveraging Knowledge Capabilities, Sloan Management Review (40:4), 1999, pp. 9-21.s Willcocks L. Fitzgerald G., Feeny D., (1995). Outsourcing IT: The Strategic Implications, Long Range Planning, 28, 5.