Bankruptcy of Businesses Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4750 words

Bankruptcy of Businesses - Research Paper Example In such cases, when businesses run out of cash and are unable to cope with their debts and costs, they may be declared bankrupt or may declare bankruptcy themselves (White, 2011). This is a very crucial time for a business and is a state of emergency for their debtors as they may be unable to recover most of their debts. Such situations ruin a business’s reputation, their chances of gaining future credit, and their chances at being able to survive in the market. However, bankruptcy is an ever-increasing phenomenon for most new businesses and many older businesses as well (White, 2011). There may be several reasons for a firm to go bankrupt, which include overspending, high advantage on loans, losses in business, mismanagement, and sudden economic disasters, which may completely change a business’s circumstances. Hence, when debtors provide businesses with loans they usually make a point to see whether the business is highly leveraged and how much earning potential the b usiness has before they grant the loan (White, 2011). Accordingly, when a business declares bankruptcy, several legal issues involved must be settled before a business can go into proper liquidation. The proper legal definition of bankruptcy and the legal implications that businesses must face before/ during their bankruptcy stage will be discussed in detail. The psychology of the management of businesses that are going through the stages of bankruptcy will be explained within the paper and the history of bankruptcy of businesses and the situations that prevailed will be discussed. The paper will continue to discuss the possible causes of bankruptcy, how they affect the businesses in question, and the way such situations can be prevented. The paper will conclude with an analysis of the future prospects of businesses that suffer from such circumstances and provide possible means of improving the situation (Vinten, 2002). BANKRUPTCY The legal and appropriate definition of bankruptcy i n the case of businesses or corporations is when a business is unable to repay its outstanding debts and thus files a petition in order to reduce the amount owed or remunerate its creditors by paying off a portion of their debts and putting their business into a state of liquidation (Vinten, 2002). The common proceedings for filing bankruptcy usually begin with the filing of a petition by the debtor in which the business shows its financial position and proves that it does not have enough cash nor sources of finance to repay its creditors. In this situation, the businesses assets are usually evaluated to determine their saleable value and then their assets are liquefied in order to be sold or auctioned. The money obtained from this sell-off is then given to the creditors in return for the debt that the debtor owes them as a full settlement of the debt. The amount paid to the creditor may be less than what the creditor has paid to the business initially. However, the creditor will ha ve to settle for a portion of the debt owed to them in the situation of bankruptcy as the business has officially shown that they do not have the ability to

Time Capsule Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Time Capsule Assignment - Essay Example The Baroque time capsule, on the other hand, will contain objects of a far different type. The items in this time capsule will reflect an intellectual and an artistic time period in which classical forms were ignored or developed in important ways. The symmetry of the Renaissance, in many different fields, was supplanted by artistic endeavors characterized by a lack of symmetry, by an insertion of figurative rather than literal forms, and by a more emotional and colorful intellectual background (Wellek, 1946). Understanding the nature of the Renaissance is critical in this endeavor; it is critical because the Baroque, being a break from this intellectual tradition, cannot be understood in isolation. From a visual perspective, using art as an example, it would be wise to consider representative paintings such as The School of Athens by Raphael and the Vitruvian Man by Leonardo DaVinchi. These works are both illustrative and representative because they identify classical sources as inspirations and because they are used in such a way as to encourage future learning and development. This time period is hardly anti-learning; quite the contrary, the intellectuals simply chose to rely for political and social reasons on generally accepted classical forms and modes of inquiry. In the field of music, representative samples would include Ludwig Senfl's work, which maintained classical beats and patterns, and Johannes Lupi's work, which used repetition and imitation to distinguish his compositions rather than variations of style or structure. Representative drawings in the field of architecture, based on a revival of classical designs borrowed from classical Greek and Roman ideals, would be similar to those drawings and plans used to construct the Tempio de Visa in Rome and the Palazzo Farnese in Rome. Renaissance architecture is characterized by columns and pilasters, arches, and a very specific fitting together of pieces in a symmetrical and well-patterned way. The precision is apparent. Finally, in the fields of literature and philosophy, two representative samples would be The Divine Comedy by Dante and Utopia by Sir Thomas More. Classical sources, as with Dante, were used as foundations upon which to explore questions of religious faith, science, and philosophy more generally. In short, in all of these fields, the Renaissance is characterized by a heavy reliance upon classical sources, upon a preoccupation with symmetry and precision, and by repetitions rather than deviations. 1.2 Guidelines: Baroque Time Capsule As a preliminary matter, art provides a helpful introduction to the Baroque period; this is because art illustrates the departure from strict classical forms. Two highly representative paintings would be Adoration by Peter Paul and Aeneas Fleeing Burning Troy by Federico Barocci. Rather than employing the strict symmetry and compartmentalization of Renaissance painters such as Raphael, these paintings are characterized by overflowing colors, bodies and objects which merge rather than remaining separate, and which display a much

Assessing The Marketing Plan Of Accenture Commerce Essay

Assessing The Marketing Plan Of Accenture Commerce Essay Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. It boasts of a unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the worlds most successful companies,. The main aim of the company is to collaborate with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. Thus this company is a good company for study. Here I am analyzing their market strategy and how they could increase their customer base round the world. Keller, K (1998) Competitor Analysis One of the major competitors of Accenture is IBM company. The financial and company statistic of both have been compared below. Both are into similar business and specially compete in the area of consultancy to key corporate clients. DIRECT COMPETITOR COMPARISON ACN Pvt1 Pvt2 IBM Industry Market Cap: 27.28B N/A N/A 167.26B 111.07M Employ ­ees: 176,000 N/A N/A 410,830 810 Rev. Growth (ttm): -11.20% N/A N/A 0.80% 16.10% Revenue (ttm): 22.45B N/A N/A 95.76B 192.40M Gross Margin (ttm): 30.01% N/A N/A 45.73% 36.21% EBITDA (ttm): 3.32B N/A N/A 23.66B 12.47M Oper. Margins (ttm): 12.59% N/A N/A 19.49% 6.97% Net Income (ttm): 1.55B N/A N/A 13.43B N/A EPS (ttm): 2.375 N/A N/A 10.009 0.12 PE (ttm): 18.03 N/A N/A 12.86 18.81 PEG (ttm): 1.16 N/A N/A 1.3 1.06 PS (ttm): 1.22 N/A N/A 1.75 0.83 Pvt1= Deloitte Consulting LLP(privately held) Pvt2= HP Enterprise Services(privately held) IBM= International Business Machines Corp. Industry= Management Services Direct customer contact has made Accenture one of the most successful companies of the1990s Accenture is following the strategy of what called Direct business Model. The meaning of their model is -It is actually get to have a relationship with the customer, and that creates valuable information, which, in turn, allows them to leverage their relationships with both supplier and customers. Along with that information with technology, and they have the infrastructure to revolutionize the fundamental business models of major global components. Keller, K (1998) Accenture competitive strategies are speed to market; superior customer services; a dynamic commitment to producing consistently high quality, custom-made systems that provide the highest performance and the relevant technology to their customers; and an early exploitation of the Internet. The companys extraordinary growth and profitability en route to becoming the second largest consultants in the world. Accenture used different marketing strategies to sell there services around the world making them the most successful company in the world. Through its build-to-order manufacturing capability, Accenture has been able to cut many of the risks of the business. The company can persists on lower inventories and take advantage of price cuts more quickly than competitors. Selling service directly to customers also reduces costs by eliminating dealer markup. Brooks, I and Weatherston, J. (1997) Market Analysis Accentures pinnacle to market leadership is the result of a persistent focus on delivering the best customer experience by straight away selling products and services online and through catalogs.They put a great deal of emphasis on understanding what drives the customer satisfaction, whether it was response times on the telephone, quality of products, valuable features, or the ease of experience in using the product. Engaging the entire company from service providing to sales to support staff in the process of understanding customer requirements became is a constant focus of management, energy, training, and employee education.Accenture Computer Corp. has used the Internet to trim costs and boost sales, both of which were becoming increasingly difficult to do in the saturated consultancy market of the late 1990s. It made possible for customers who previously had placed custom orders via the telephone to place them on Accentures Web site. Customers selected configuration options, ge t price quotes, and order both single and multiple systems. The site also allowed purchasers to view their order status, and it offered support services to Accenture owners. Given below is how Accenture has been operating in the market in the year 2009 . Environmental Analysis Accenture helps organizations create and implement breakthrough operational and transformational solutions. This is critical for any company today. There are many environmental factors which become crucial in the environment in which Accenture is operating. The economical environment has a crucial impact on consumer behaviour. This factor becomes all the more relevant t in the recession period. Security of a good job and a regular income to spend on goods are factors that effect consumer behaviour. Marketing and advertising do influence consumers in helping them to purchase a particular product or service. Brassington, F and Pettitt, S, (2000), Peoples social class will also effect their behaviour. The role of society is critical. Be it the profession based influence like Actors, Doctors, engineers, low grade staff, and mothers and fathers also effect the purchase decision. Also being parents affects consumers buying habits based on the age of the children, the nature of job .Say if you are a highly paid official you could buy consultancy more easily than a lower class of corporate consumer. Also many other characters influence the consumer buying decision. The persons personality be it extrovert (out going and spends on luxury and fun) and introvert traits (keeps to themselves and purchases with online or mail order) again has an impact on the types of purchases made. Brassington, F and Pettitt, S, (2000), Customer Analysis One study which is vital when studying the consumers of Accenture are the reference groups in the corporate clientele. Reference groups are close groups of people consumers may look up towards to that have an impact on consumer behaviour. They could be celebrities like Brad Pitt or your immediate family members. Other influential people like Opinion leaders are those people that you look up to as you honor their views and judgments and these views may impact consumer decisions. Also the type of consumer need of Accenture consumers can be explained by the motivation theory of Maslow. Abraham Maslow hierarchy of needs theory was targeted to explain what motivated individuals in life to achieve. This was explained in the form of a hierarchy. He explains that consumers aim to meet basic psychological needs of hunger and thirst. When this has been fulfilled they then go up to the next stage of the hierarchy, safety needs, here their key needs are job security ,home security and the emphasis that an income will be available to them regularly. Booms, B.H. and Bitner, M.J. (1981) Social needs come in the third level of the hierarchy, the need to attachment to someone ,to be loved is a normal human desire and people do work for this belonging. Esteem need is the ext in the hierarchy and means the need for status and recognition among peers in the society, status of people, the recognition to have a good job title and be known are all needs that add to the symbol of status. Self-actualization or the realization that an individual has reached his potential in life is the top most in the need pyramid. The need of self-actualisation is critical to the individual, as he only know when he has reached the point of self-fulfillment. This concept helps an Accenture trying to sell a product or service to a consumer. it is known to all that marketing is about fulfilling needs and providing benefits, Maslows need concept suggests that needs differ as move along our path of striving for self-actualisation. Accenture customers are also looking for the status and self esteem need to be fulfilled among the higher class purchasing services . Maslows concept is useful for firms as it helps to understand and work for consumer needs and wants. Internal Analysis Accentures corporate philosophy is elite and quite different from many a companies. The same has helped it form a goodwill among prospective customers. Below are the core elements of the Soul of Accenture as they state their corporate culture summary heading: Customers: They believe in creating loyal customers by providing a superior experience at a great value. They are committed to direct relationships, providing the best products and services based on standards-based technology, and outperforming the competition with value and a superior customer experience. Blythe, J. (2001) The Accenture Team: They believe our continued success lies in teamwork and the opportunity each team member has to learn, develop and grow. They are committed to being a meritocracy, and to developing, retaining and attracting the best people, reflective of our worldwide marketplace. Direct Relationships: They believe in being direct in all they do. They are committed to behaving ethically; responding to customer needs in a timely and reasonable manner; fostering open communications and building effective relationships with customers, partners, suppliers and each other; and operating without inefficient hierarchy and bureaucracy. Global Citizenship: Booms, B.H. and Bitner, M.J. (1981) They believe in participating responsibly in the global marketplace. They are committed to understanding and respecting the laws, values and cultures wherever they do business; profitably growing in all markets; promoting a healthy business climate globally; and contributing positively in every community they call home, both personally and organizationally. Winning: They have a passion for winning in everything they do. They are committed to operational excellence, superior customer experience, leading in the global markets they serve, being known as a great company and great place to work, and providing superior shareholder value over time. Blythe, J. (2001) (Source Accenture.com) SWOT analysis: Strengths: One of the best consultancy providers.  Ã‚      It has been more than fifty years in the market.    A wide range of coverage in corporate clientele areas..     Promotions are very strong and effective Weakness: Pricing is a little high Has a premium range of services Customers service is to be worked upon Opportunities: Wide world wide coverage . USP is the hold of loyal consumers Provide new services for new corporate companies Growing consultancy services Prominence in the mind of the key consumers Recovery from recession of the customers. Baker, M. (2000) Threats:   Ã‚   Recession, has decrease disposable income in people Other competitors like IBM. Changing mindset of customers Lack of loyalty of brand among this segment consumers. Marketing Plan Phase 2 (Objectives and Strategy Development) : Executive Summary The strategic management literature is far from clear in explaining how firms choose to formulate strategy and implement it. Indeed, there are many different schools of strategic management that help to explain the manner in which firms engage in strategic decision-making and action. These include the design, planning, positioning, learning, entrepreneurial, cognitive, power, and cultural school, to name just a few. There is no right school of strategic management that should be followed, but different firms tend to subscribe to different schools depending on the industry in which they compete and the nature of the firm. The planning school is appropriate for such firms because of the nature of the industry in which they compete. At the same time, significant investments are required to back up any strategic or tactical decision made by such companies. In addition, the futures of the consultancy companies are highly changeable and unknown, with factors such as prices fluctuating grea tly. As a result, these firms tend to adopt principals from the planning school of strategy because these help the firm to focus on the external environment in which it competes and devising strategies based on such an environment. As such, when examining what guides the strategy of a firm like Accenture, it is also important to examine the school of strategic management that best explains its choice of strategy. In Accentures case, this is the positioning school, as discussed next. Brassington Frances and Pettitt Stephen (2006) Marketing Objectives The positioning school of strategic management views the strategy process as an analytical one in nature . Whilst many scholars have written about this school, the dominant proponent has been Porter (1980, 1985). In this regard, the purpose of firm strategy is to establish a position within the industry that is profitable. According to Porter (1980, 1985) this requires a firm to examine the industry within which it competes in terms of the five forces: the intensity of the rivalry amongst competing firms, the threat of substitute products and services, the threat of new entrants, and the relative bargaining power of buyers and suppliers. On this basis, it is possible for firms to select on of three generic strategies overall low cost, differentiation or focus that help it to capitalise on a position within the industry that provides for above-average industry profitability. In order to know which of these strategies is the most appropriate for a firm, it is necessary to look at its various parts. In this respect, taking a broader and deeper picture of the firm is important in understanding the context within which it competes because as Porter (1980, 1985) notes: competitive advantage cannot be understood by looking at a firm as a whole. It stems from the many discrete activities a firm performs in designing, producing, marketing, delivering, and supporting its product . As such, the value chain is an important way of assessing the Accenture primary activities its inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and service as well as its support activities firm infrastructure, human resources management, technology development, and procurement and assess areas of independence and mutual dependence. Accenture is a low cost provider, but also manages to use its design of the supply chain to provide a differentiated offering. The estimated earning od Accenture as doen by analyst has been shown in the table below: Earnings Est Current Qtr Feb-10 Next Qtr May-10 Current Year Aug-10 Next Year Aug-11 Avg. Estimate 0.61 0.71 2.70 3.01 No. of Analysts 19 18 21 20 Low Estimate 0.59 0.67 2.61 2.78 High Estimate 0.68 0.75 2.79 3.26 Year Ago EPS 0.63 0.68 2.68 2.70 Targeting and Positioning Segmentation: Accenture concentrating on upper-end customers. They have different segments and different USPs. While there are many possible avenues to exploit in terms of sales opportunities for these companies, the market is highly segmented in such a way that it is important for Accenture to engage in target marketing. This is the point where the particular companies must decide whether they will individually follow a niche market or a full-line strategy. Accenture thus caters to a vast market that too individually. Brassington Frances and Pettitt Stephen (2006) Branding: Accenture is a well known brand. Although its sales have been falling but it has been one of the key players in the consultancy market. Its name and use of service is associated with many a known names in its market. It is the leading brand in the world, with a focus on performance and international presence. Positioning analysis: Accenture sees positioning as a key factor in growing the brand in developing markets of Asia like China, Korea, and Malaysia. Moreover, Accenture already had marketing tie-ups in Asian market segments. Competition: While Accenture build product lines and marketing campaigns the major competition is from IBM. Thus the promotion strategies of these two companies being similar, the joint advertising and promotion cost are sure to be reduced as of their independent cost. They can target a wide range of segments which includes consultancy and solutions for the corporate client. While both these brands make use of a differentiation strategy to attract its customers, IBM concentrates its efforts on a broad cost strategy approach. The differentiation strategy of the Accenture can be seen in action by examining the various productions of this company.  In looking towards the future, the company seems to place into a position to steadily increase its market share and brand value to better compete in the consultancy business and to help in transformations of clients. Hoyer, W.D. and MacInnis, D.J. (2001) Segmentation: Accenture can now really focus on premium service full of design and innovation-the kind of service people with too much money like to buy. Accenture have their own USPs. Growth Strategies (if the objectives set refer to growth/improvement of current position) BCG analysis Here I would say that Accenture is in the cash cow position. Thus it should now harvest its product that is the Accenture company should now stop investing money in mass promotions of Accenture and wait for the right time for the market to take up dynamism. Hoyer, W.D. and MacInnis, D.J. (2001) Thus it is suggested that Accenture should not just get back and wait for this cash cow to give returns. It has been listed as a cash cow because the amount of revenue which can come from this product is now saturates. Another strategy that it can follow is that it should make this brand and launch it in the Asian market where recession hasnt taken such a big toll. There it can be launched as a question mark and will need high amount of promotions and distribution to be established in a new country. This is a strategy that Accenture should take on to survive in a global market like that of today. This is by far the only way in which it can cover up the market saturation the company has reached at present. Ansoffs Matrix:   According to the Ansoffs Matrix there are four major strategies that Accenture can follow. However the strategy that is recommended is Product /service development. This strategy is recommended for Accenture as they have still got basic problems with their product that is differentiation form competitors.. This is to be improved. Aaker, D and Joachimsthaler, E (2000) Innovation in technology needs to be added to these products to bring in more business in the current markets. Global Customer wants value for money that is cheaper prices and good quality. Also in this field new technology and luring the customer with the same is very important a suggested to Accenture. PESTLE Analysis PESTLE Analysis or survey of the marketing environment include history of firm, macro/micro factors that are relevant including a stakeholder analysis . It is critical to understand the toothpaste too through these points of strategy. This classification distinguishes between: Political factors. These refer to government policy such as the degree of intervention in the economy. What goods and services does a government want to provide? The liberalization by the government has of course helped out the business in consultancy companies to survive in recession too. Economic factors. These include interest rates, taxation changes, economic growth, inflation and exchange rates. These include higher interest rates may deter investment because it costs more a strong currency may make exporting more difficult because it may raise the price in terms of foreign currency inflation may provoke higher wage demands from employees and raise costs higher national income growth may boost demand for a firms products It is seen in recession times that many delegate have been shown the pink slip.. But the same phenomenon has also lead those who could start purchasing this product to deter and not buy it due to the conservative nature that has seeped in the consumer after recession round the world specially to the consultancy business sector.. Social factors. Changes in social trends can impact on the demand for a firms products and the availability and willingness of individuals to work. For example the consumer of the Accenture service may vary form one country to another. Technological factors: new technologies create new products and new processes. Online shopping, bar coding and computer aided design are all improvements to the way we do business as a result of better technology. As far as Accenture is concerned, it will have to incorporate these in its portfolio of services too for the ease of the customers. Environmental factors: environmental factors include the weather and climate change. Changes in temperature can impact on many industries including farming, tourism and FMCG. With major climate changes occurring due to global warming and with greater environmental awareness this external factor is becoming a significant issue for firms to consider. Legal factors: these are related to the legal environment in which firms operate. In recent years world has been many significant legal changes that have affected firms behaviour. Legal changes in a country can affect a firms costs (e.g. if new systems and procedures have to be developed) and demand (e.g. if the law affects the likelihood of customers buying the good or using the service).Thus the same are critical in the analysis of Accenture. Aaker, David and Joachimsthaler, E. (1999). Selection of Competitive Advantage As far as the competitive advantages is concerned Accenture has to work on the following areas in 2010 The company is loosing its growth in the market The company is apprehensive to spread to other countries The stress of the company has always been consultancy no other service The company has priced its product at a very high price as compared to the near competitors. Also the fact that competitors like IBM are present in the market ,it becomes all the more important to bring up a very strong competitive advantages. Accenture should do this by a good supply chain management across the world. Understanding the strategic choices of Accenture is important in supply chain management (SCM) because it helps to establish the focus on the companys activities. Indeed, SCM reflects the management of the interconnections of organizations that relate to each other through upstream and downstream linkages between the processes that produce value to the ultimate consumer in the form of products and services. SCM is a critical component of this. Through SCM Accenture can examine ways of being more efficient, especially for an overall low cost strategy, and well as adding more value to end customers, important for a differentiated strategy. In the case of Accenture that adopt an overall low cost strategy, the goal is to increase sales volume whilst also reducing unit costs because this helps to improve the margin achieved by the firm. Over time, a firm can capitalise on economic of scale through investment in infrastructure, as well as learning curve effects and perhaps more effective purchasing decisions, supply chain efficiencies and better logistics management. When adopting such a strategy, it may also be pertinent to not simply optimise individual links within the supply chain, but examine how efficiencies can be made across the supply network since it can easily be possible for a distant supplier in the supply network to disrupt the entire supply chain . Nonetheless, many efficiencies are likely to be found in the immed iate supply chain because the firm has greater control over this part of the supply network . Marketing Mix Programme As far as the pricing of Accenture is concerned ,it is little on the premium side. As compared to IBM it should reduce its prizing to competitive level. Whilst controlling costs is still important, focus is placed on the Accenture intangible assets and its ability to leverage these within the value chain. Product wise Accenture has a good range of services to offer backed up by a good customer care. More so it could forward integrate to technology making in various fields to expand business and profits. In the case of Accenture pursuing a differentiated strategy, these aim to focus on those aspects of their products or service provision that add most value in the eyes of the consumer. A critical component of this strategy is to understand which parts of the supply network should be kept in-house and which should be outsourced, or perhaps even acquired. In-house activities are those that add greatest value to the firm and where its has particular competence, whilst the outsourcing of supply chain activities should take place for more peripheral activities within a Accenture value chain. In reality, just as Accenture do not always follow one of the three generic strategies, but a hybrid corporate strategy, so should they look for a hybrid approach to business. The key point, however, is that there is alignment between Accenture corporate strategy and its marketing mix approach Theory building in MARKETING MIX based strategic research has focused on two areas: international marketing mix management (MARKETING MIX) and decision-making in stock management. MARKETING MIX research has focused on the potentially virtuous and vicious cycles that are evident in Accenture . The overall analysis of this is that Accenture were generally facing reinforcing loops that led to either successful or unsuccessful MARKETING MIX. One of the major issues in MARKETING MIX is service management, with the general problem that individuals do not understand the feedback mechanisms that lead to failure in the marketing system. Accenture tend to focus on inventory management, demand amplification, marketing mix re-engineering, and marketing mix design .This work is particularly appropriate to the bullwhip effect and the marketing mix redesign that has been taking place at Accenture . The notion of the bullwhip effect in marketing mix which is followed by Accenture came from work by Procter Gamble, a fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) company that had a large, complex international marketing mix. During the process of managing their marketing mix, the company noticed that as information went up the marketing mix, the distortion of that information increased. The market negative effect is the term used to describe this effect. It results from a lack of synchronization between members of a marketing mix, which is amplified the greater the number of members and the larger the number of defaults in the slae system linkages through which information passes. The problems that Accenture face is that since supply characteristics do not match demand characteristics, inventory starts to accumulate at the different stages of the marketing mix. Accenture is striving with the problem of delivery and supply and demand mismatch since 2004. Marketing mix management is the oversig ht of materials, information, and finances as they move in a process from supplier to manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer. A marketing mix is the group of organizations, people, technology, information and resources consisted in transferring the product or good from the producer to the end consumer.. Supply chain helps in the marketing mix in moving the raw material to the manufacturer , the final good or ready product to the wholesaler and from their to the consumer.. It is important to have glance at the component of the marketing mix management to understand the relevance of integration planning and management of the same. . There are six key elements of the company that are critical to any business: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Production à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Supply à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Inventory à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Location à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Transportation, and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Information. Accenture try to deal with the dangers of the marketing defaults through the forecasting of demand. This is important because demand is rarely stable. Such variability often means that Accenture need to keep a degree of safety stock; effectively an inventory buffer. The further up the supply chain towards raw material producer, the greater the observed demand, and therefore the greater the safety stock that is required. When demand rises in a given period, downstream suppliers increase their orders, whilst during falling demand, the converse occurs. Since fluctuations in demand are more pronounced up the supply chain, this increases the size of the oscillations faced through the supply chain. This is something that Accenture has to manage. No consumer should go unattended. There are a number of factors that contribute to the negative marketing mix effect. First, forecast errors can easily occur simply because Accenture are unaware how demand many change over time. Even for goods that have a common demand pattern there can be instances where demand suddenly changes because of unknown factors. Second, there can be an overreaction to backlogs in supply of service by the company. In the diagram below of the companys supply chain; the arrows are for supplier-relationship management, internal SCM and customer-relationship management . A supply chain starts with ecological and biological regulation of natural resources. This is then taken on to supply of raw material, many production links before one moves to several layers of storage facilities of various size and remote geographical locations. Then on it finally reaches the consumer. Here the service to be delivered although is the price which also has to be followed up for customer care after sale. Thus this as a whole can improve the sales of the company to bring in an effective marketing mix strategy for Accenture.

The Feminine in William Butler Yeats Poetry Essay -- Poems Women femi

The Feminine in William Butler Yeats' Poetry William Butler Yeats had a long history of involvement with women. He was deeply affected by all types of women; from love interests with Mrs. Olivia Shakespear, Maud Gonne and her adopted daughter Iseult, to a partnership and friendship with Lady Gregory, to marriage with Georgie Hyde-Lees, and finally the birth of his own daughter Anne Yeats. These relationships are reflected in his poetry on many different and multi-layered levels. The mentions of women in his work gives the readers some historical content as well as show the development of his feminine idea. As different as his many relationships with women were, so was his reflection of them in his writing. Yeats took people he knew and transformed them into images and patterns of order (Unterecker 12). In this case, it is important to notice Yeats's use of biography within his poetry. In 1889, Yeats was introduced to Maud Gonne who became a central part of his life and major theme in his work. She was an adamant Irish nationalist and a beautiful woman to Yeats. He pursued her much of his life, only to be rejected repeatedly by her. In 1894 he met Mrs. Olivia Shakespear whom he regarded as a confidant, despite their short affair. Yeats found friendship and maternal caring in Lady Gregory. "She became for him an image of aristocratic courtesy" (Untereker 14). Yeats spent time at her estate, Coole Park, and traveled often with Lady Gregory and her son Robert. He became director of Abbey Theatre with Lady Gregory in 1906. In 1911 he met George Hyde-Lees and due to the encouragement of Mrs. Shakespear and Lady Gregory he proposes. Yeats married Georgia Hyde-Lees and on February 2 4, 1919 their daughter Anne was bo... ...ess. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Jeffares, Norman A. A New Commentary on the Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1984. Keane, Patrick J. Yeats, Joyce, Ireland, and the Myth of the Devouring Female. MO: University of Missouri Press, 1988. Kline, Gloria C. The Last Courtly Lover: Yeats and the Idea of Woman. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1983. Stubbings, Diane. Anglo-Irish Modernism and the Maternal: From Yeats to Joyce. New York: Palgrave, 2000. Unterecker, John. A Reader's Guide to William Butler Yeats. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1996. Whitaker, Thomas R. Swan and Shadow: Yeats's Dialogue with History. Durham, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1964. Yeats, W.B. The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats. Ed. Richard J. Finneran. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.

Family Essay Essay

Bridge to Wiseman’s Cove – Freedom Essay by Callum Powell 8A The phrase to â€Å"set himself free† is used a lot throughout a bridge to Wiseman’s cove, whether it is to do with family issues or just common everyday tasks. Carl is constantly trying to let himself free and sometimes succeeds but other times doesn’t. Some examples are that if he’ll see his mother or every stop looking after his little brother Harley. Throughout â€Å"A bridge Wisemans cove† he goes through a mental journey facing evil family member (usually Beryl) and friends. An example of setting himself free is at the end of the novel where throughout the book where he has been looking after Harley, feeding him, caring for him and most importantly keeping him out of trouble. Such as when Harley is caught stealing from the local store, by the time he gets back to Aunt Beryl’s house she lashes out and threatens to kick Harley out but Carl intervenes and give Beryl some of the money that Sarah gave him earlier on in the book so that she can be kind to Harley. So by the end of the book when Harley moves in with the Duncan’s. Carl feels a sense of relief and freedom, because he no longer has the responsibility for Harley and he no longer has to worry about him. â€Å"â€Å"When Beryl chains Harley up, Carl finds the courage to confront her at the bowls club where she has been all day playing the pokies. If you’d stayed with him, kept an eye on him, if you cared about him, he wouldn’t get into trouble. † This is another part of the book where Carl â€Å"sets himself free† he finally sets free how much he despises aunt Beryl, she has been mean and cruel to them and trying to find any reason to kick them out. So this is when Carl sets free how he feels and puts his foot down. Another example of setting himself free is also at the end of the book when Carl finds out that whilst on her way home from her ‘holiday’ Kerry died in a bus crash. â€Å"Carl Matt opened up too, letting go and feeling a freedom flood into him †¦ he knew at last that he was alive to feel it† (page 241) this moment was probably one of the biggest revelations for Carl as he finally felt the sense of freedom as he was always wondering when his mum would return or if she would return. So when he finally finds out that his mother had died of course he felt sad and depressed but at the same time he felt closure and freedom as he didn’t have to worry about her or didn’t have to always be thinking of if she will come and pick him up. This is a very important part of the novel as the premise of the book is based on family and love but Carl and Harley don’t have either all they have is each other so when they find out their mum is dead it hits them hard but also sets them free. One last example of letting himself free is whilst Carl is working at Skips barge. Because working on the barge helps Carl get away from all his troubles and more importantly the people that don’t accept him such as Beryl. Whilst working on the barge Carl finds the freedom to try a lot of new things. â€Å"You love that barge, don’t you, Carl? †¦You’re the best thing that could have happened. † Finally people were starting to notice Carl, then he had the freedom to show himself. Throughout the book he was shown as a very shy, lonely and awkward kid who didn’t know many people and didn’t really talk or try to communicate with them. â€Å"Carl shared in†¦the freedom of the bird itself. Elation, freedom. He felt them both† (page 158) in some sense Carl wished that he was the bird so that he could fly away from all of his problems ad just leave them all behind. Although Carl keeps working at the barge by the end of the book he still senses a feel of freedom being away from everyone and having somewhere just to relax and forget all of your troubles. To conclude Carl found many ways to find freedom whether it was mental or emotional freedom. The ways he exampled freedom in the text were standing up to Aunt Beryl for Harleys sack, working at the local barge and finally he having the freedom to stop worrying about is mother as he didn’t know she died on her way back home. So by the end of the novel Carl found the freedom for a lot of things and didn’t regret any of the decisions he made.

Claudius Speech †Hamlet Essay

Claudius, the former ruler, husband of his sister and brother of the recently perished king gives a speech at the beginning of Act I. II of Hamlet. Shakespeare’s use of literary devices allows the reader to comprehend the intentions behind Claudius’s figurative language within his coronation speech. The opening scene in Hamlet portrays Denmark to currently be critically unstable and with militaristic chaos; however, in Claudius’s speech he disposes that idea and conveys confidence in the stability of the nation. This chronological set up introduces the theme of appearance vs.  reality as Claudius efforts to manipulate the kingdom into trusting that he has everything under control is carried mischievously yet successfully throughout his speech. Aware of the presence of the rightful king, young Hamlet, Claudius commences his speech with an ambiguous line that strikes the attention of Hamlet. Once he is aware of young Hamlet’s attention, he continues to approach the courthouse. He seemingly shows a state of grief as he acknowledges his dead brother. â€Å" My dear brother’s death† the use of alliteration makes us aware that Claudius has used that line several times before in order to show a sign of loss. He wants to appear that has suffered too from this death, he mentions that â€Å" the memory be green† this metaphor is placed to represent the idea that the memory is fresh and it has not been long since he perished, while also leaving a gruesome image of the old kings decomposing body. His first use of anti-thesis is then exposed in line 6, when he mentions â€Å" the wisest sorrows† in that line he is understanding those in grief but reminding them to think of themselves and the future of Denmark instead. After respectfully mentioning the death of Hamlet, and expressing his condolence to the kingdom he deceitfully moves on to the second important announcement: his wedding. Uneasy, Claudius is trying to go about his speech like a metaphorical obstacle course hoping there is no interference or opposition, while still being able to appear as confident. Efficaciously, he presents his marriage â€Å" Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen, Th’ imperial jointress to this warlike state. † Using the state of war as his alaby to the marriage of his brother’s wife he is able to convince the courthouse that it is for the greater good and that his actions are a form of self-sacrifice for the nation. Continuing to justify his marriage as a cause and affect matrimony instead of acts of incest he mentions the â€Å" mirth in funeral † and â€Å"dirge in marriage†. This literary device is important within his speech because it is his second antithesis, and a paradoxical clause. In this he is suggesting that he brought happiness to this sad event for the benefit of his people. â€Å"In equal scale, weighing delight and dole† Claudius is trying to banish the aura of unsteadiness and declares balance. He makes up for the sorrow of his dead brother, by marrying his sister. Even though it is an obvious unusual event, Claudius reflects enough confidence as king and successfully manages avoid any opposition. A good strategy used was his the frequent use of â€Å" we†. This indicated that the king was not only speaking for himself, but he was speaking for everyone like a good statesman would. In reality however, he was doing so to make everyone aware that it was of â€Å" better wisdoms† to agree with him, and that those with worst wisdoms would not face good consequences. Claudius gently expresses his supreme control over Denmark and threatens anyone who dares oppose him in a non-aggressive way. He later finalizes the topic of marriage by dismissing the awkward topic of the table like a typical political â€Å" For all, our thanks† As king, Claudius then addresses the issues with Norway. Assertively, he informs the kingdom of his plan of action. He repeats the line â€Å" dear brother’s death† giving it little sentimental value. He then quickly states that Norway believes that Denmark is â€Å" disjoint and out of frame. † He assures the courthouse that the case is not so, and that they will successfully deal with Fortibras. The irony behind that is that Denmark is weak, regardless of what Claudius wants his people to believe. In order to seem like a man of action Claudius puts his future plan forward â€Å" Thus much the business is we have here writ to Norway, uncle of young Fortibras. † By doing that he convinces many that he is a potent king. Writing to Norway makes him seem like he is aware of what he is doing and that the nation does not need to worry. To complement his assurance he appoints two messengers to deliver a letter, this is significantly important because his objective is to prove to the court that he trusts his officials, ironically thought, he is purposely sending two people incase of a betrayal. Claudius’s speech had a successful outcome. He was able to gently hide his inner insecurities and expose himself as a good statesman and valiant leader. His word usage was essential to the deliverance of his speech as it allowed him to get his awkward points across like unusual marriage to his sister. His use of antithesis did make the reader question the sincerity of his grief, but it did not seem to affect the opinion of the courthouse. He showed clear superiority over everyone within the courthouse, especially Hamlet, while making himself clear that he would not tolerate any disagreement of his coronation. Most importantly, he put an action plan forward and proved himself as king.

How to Expand Your Organic Growth on Facebook and Twitter for Free

How to Expand Your Organic Growth on Facebook and Twitter for Free When it comes to social media, every brand wants in on the action. It’s no secret that social media marketing works only if a brand actually has fans or followers. Amassing a respectable audience on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ (is that still a thing?), Linkedin, Instagram or any of the other platform du jour  is tough. Many brands and small businesses want their social media presence to be organic, meaning no money invested. Having a good, or great, social media presence can help any   business grow like wildflowers. But, this will only happen after it develops a large following and then works consistently to engage, educate, and cultivate this audience. Brands want the growth and audience, but aren’t willing to pay for it. Seems like a catch 22. Can a brand simply grow their social audience organically?   Is that even possible in today’s pay-to-play landscape? Here are some metrics. Here’s a 10 step recipe for growing an organic audience on Facebook and TwitterHow to Get 129% Organic Growth on Twitter and 239% on Facebook With 100% Organic Tactics No, this isn’t a fairytale in the land of make believe that is social media. It’s actually the metrics after recently (within past two months) concluding a relationship with one of my first social media clients ever. The client, let’s call them DFX (name changed), works in the financial sector so the competition is high, with tight regulations in terms of release of specific information, and it just so happens to be that within this aspect of the industry, some brands are known for tactics that fall within the â€Å"grey area† of digital marketing. After closing up with the DFX, it’s pretty clear that brands can still boost their audience even without investing money. Will it take time and effort? Absolutely, but the euphoria of surviving numerous Facebook algorithms and outperforming your competition is worth it all. Trust me, I’ve been there. So, how did they succeed in growing organically?   Here’s a 10 step recipe for growing an organic audience on Facebook and Twitter (and it even worked a bit on Google Plus too). Here’s a 10 step recipe for growing an organic audience on Facebook and TwitterKnow the Fundamentals to Grow a Social Media Audience the Right Way Organic growth is based on three fundamentals: Consistency Knowledge Being real (authenticity) Brands must be consistent. If any brand attempts to implement any of these strategies for even a month and then gives up, I guarantee that they will fail. Social media is a long-term game. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Limited on time? No problem, just pick a few of the strategies and be relentless in executing them. Brands must know their audience (we all know what happens when we assume things about people)? Understand their patterns, their preferences, their input. Social media is always about being real. There’s no room for bots, auto responders, auto DM’s, and egg heads. It’s about conversation. Organic growth on social media is just as much about knowing, educating and maintaining current followers as it is about gaining new ones. Recommended Reading: The Six Types of Social Media Content That Will Give You the Greatest Value With that introduction, here’s how DFX grew their social media audience organically (all images and screenshots of content are used with permission). With this information in hand, any brand can launch an organic growth campaign. Recommended Reading: Facebook Marketing Strategy: Why You Need One (And How to Build It) 1. Perform a Social Media Audit After vowing to embrace the fundamentals, an important step in growth is to first assess what’s been done. Conduct a social media audit of your existing process, strategy, and flow. Calendar of content: Yes, this is number one on an audit. Without a content calendar that stresses consistency, valuable brand focused and industry relevant content the entire social media and digital effort will be sloppy. Audience mapping: Identify leaders, influencers, and key figures in the space. Content should be shaped and guided by the conversations of these industry figures. Focus the brands engagement efforts and optimize content to this audience. Additionally, the content style of others in your space should offer insight into what resonates with the readers. Timing: Content should be posted at optimal times based on the highest concentration of readers. The easiest method to start an audit about timing is to use Facebook Insights   which will highlight the trends. Frequency of content sharing and use of hashtags: Posting content at the right time is one aspect of timing. The frequency of sharing relevant content to these audiences is also important. It does take a bit of trial and error. Using hashtags can also boost reach of your content. How often is content posted? When are hashtags, if at all, used? How many hashtags? Image Quality: Unfortunately, this is a problem that many brands confront (more about this later). This should be as important as the rest of your content. Is the image shareable? Will it look right when shared across digital channels? Has it been tagged on the CMS backend? Word Choice: Brands often auto share their content without being mindful of what will actually engage their readers. Engagement vs Automation: Every brand schedules content. Automation helps, but it can’t replace human interaction and engagement. How often is content scheduled and pushed out and how often does the brand engage with its users, those who share its content? After conducting a detailed, unbiased, social audit it’s time to move on to the fun part: successful organic growth. Note: The above audit served as the ongoing reference point for the DFX social team to refine and revise its strategy. Any brand can use this audit style. 2. Build Out Your Content Calendar In order for a brand to truly grow its organic audience and, by default, its reach, it needs to be strategic about its posting of content. Creating a proper schedule that drills down to the topics, the word choice, timing, style on each social platform, what call-to-action (only one per post please), awareness of important calendar dates within the industry or relevant holidays, will focus all marketing and communication efforts. Synchronizing these efforts is the most important. Why? Knowing these critical pieces of information eases the entire flow of content to be a deliberate process. A complete content calendar spans over a few months and includes all of the postings and themes that will be focused on during this time frame. The calendar should be amenable to change, as trends shift and brands need to modify accordingly. A calendar should not only include campaign themes, but also any events, sponsorships or webinars. offers a very detailed content calendar  for free. A content calendar should not only include campaign themes, but also any events, sponsorships or...3. Try Reverse-Engineering Hashtags For several clients, I’ve found that the best way to identify which content should be posted on what days, was to reverse engineer the calendar based on hashtags. How can hashtags define an entire content calendar? Hashtags simply let a brand associate their content, tweets, or posts with a larger conversation on a global scale? Yes, global. So a brand can easily grow their page by using a hashtag? Yes!   It's like adding keywords to your message to make it globally searchable. Which hashtags are right for your brand? Use Hashtagify to identify the relevance of a specific hashtag and other relevant ones associated to the main one. Once identified, brands can then leverage this information for competitive research, content curation, and influencer mapping. Every industry has hashtags. Remember, they’re like keywords. Recommended Reading: How to Use Hashtags Effectively Without Being Annoying 4. Search For Relevant Twitter Chats Once a brand has mapped the right hashtags, go one step further by searching for relevant Twitter chats. These weekly or bi-weekly online conversations on Twitter are a secret way to grow an organic audience. Use the Twubs  to search the extensive calendar for relevant conversations: Access a global network of relevant people, engage in meaningful conversations within its industry, and identify active users all organically. For the sake of example, a company working in the travel industry. Every Tuesday, there is a conversation called #ttot, travel talk on Twitter. On this day, travel professionals from around the world engage in industry related conversations. Why not leverage this to grow your audience? Bam! Your brand has just created its content bible by reverse engineering a content schedule framed around relevant conversations, industry topics, and optimal engagement.Tuesdays are now set in terms of branded content. Continuing with the travel theme, any destination is rich with history. Why not use the popular #TBT (throw back Thursday) to highlight the changing landscape of a location over time?! With two days of content framed around hashtags, the rest of the week should be much easier to plug in. Recommended Reading: 30 Social Media Engagement Tactics That Will Boost Shares And Conversions 5. Know that Timing is Everything Once you know what to post, now it’s time to determine when to post it. Organic growth starts with knowing when your brand’s audience is online. Timing for each platform does vary. We even wrote a post the best times to post on each platform, which digs deep into the topic of timing content for optimal viewing. For a day-to-day analysis, conducted extensive research  on optimizing the timing of content for best engagement. For DFX, Sundays, an otherwise slow time in the trading/ financial sector, was a chance for the brand to offer valuable information that is relevant to the upcoming week. It was also a time to highlight some key figures and personalities in the industry. Get more social media engagement by offering valuable content during off-peak times.Why? By offering valuable content on a slow day, DFX positioned itself as an active participant in the online conversation. It also presented itself as community-minded brand since every week the content on Sundays was focused around other brands. The proactive content and engagement approach, during an otherwise quiet time in the industry, significantly grew the brand’s organic audience. 6. Get Your Frequency Dialed In Once your brand knows when to post the content for optimal viewing, now the question is how often should a brand post its content. Guy Kawasaki is famous for his unique social media content strategy, sharing the exact content four times a day, eight hours apart. Why? Simply stated, why get 600 views when you can get 2400 by sharing it multiple times? Besides, if your audience sees your content more than once then they’re probably sitting in front of their computer for way too long. Recommended Reading: How Often to Post on Social Media [Proven Research From 10 Studies] A twist on the Guy Kawasaki method, which has helped many clients, is to share the same piece of content on Twitter four to six times a day and on Facebook two to three times a day, but each time either the image or the content (not the link) varies. How does a brand repurpose its content for multiple sharing throughout the day? Think about each blog post as a newspaper article. Every article has multiple angles that may interest a reader. Why not offer them as ‘new’ content options? Here’s a sample of the same link being shared three times in one day. This link got over 120 views in one day. When it comes to social media success, timing is everything.7. Understand Audience Mapping Organic growth on social media can be as simple as mapping your target audiences. Start by telling BuzzSumo  the category of content that best suits your brand, BuzzSumo will produce a list of the most influential people in the space, it will also share a list of content pieces that have performed extremely well. This makes your job a whole lot easier. If you have a BuzzSumo subscription, start by logging in. Then, select Influencers: Next, enter a keyword related to your industry, and click Search: Now, start following these people: For DFX, we mapped over 3,000 influencers and brands that we’d like to work with and engage in meaningful conversations (more on that later). 3,000. It took a long time to map them but the ROI was impressive. Once a respectable list is generated, sort each member of the audience, especially competition, by their social following. Next, is to follow these brands on Twitter and Facebook who share content that resonates with your brand profile. What will most likely happen is that top ones will rise to the top. Use their metrics as a benchmark. At DFX, we followed them across social channels, like Facebook Pages to watch, signed up to their newsletters, and subscribed to their RSS feeds. Watch your competition's Facebook pages, get their newsletters, and subscribe to their RSS feeds.Use a service like Nuzzel to do scour the internet of your main audience and their best performing content. They will email the most-shared content from your audience. If the list of influencers is really good, then the results will be super relevant, making organic growth a cinch. Guess what? Your brand has just mapped the right people and now it also knows what content is doing well. Once you know what’s doing well and what others are writing about, wouldn’t it make sense to add some value to the conversation by writing a content piece about the topic and mention these people?! Of course it would! Then, post the content and tag these brands. Unique, valuable content, targeted to your audience, and garnered by the leaders of your space. Organic growth was never so easy. Want to take the audience mapping to the next level? Create an interview series with these influencers as the guest contributors offering their thoughts on the industry and their vision on certain topics. Influencer marketing does work (for proof, here’s how Huawei rocked  their influencer marketing efforts). Now it’s your turn to share it and engage these people. Recommended Reading: How to Find Your Target Audience to Create the Best Content That Connects 8. Automate Content Unless your brand is Superman, there’s never enough time in the day to post content around the clock. Automation helps with making social media growth more efficient and effective. It’s not intended to be the only form of social media. Automation is half of the solution. Care to guess the other? Yup, engagement. See number 6. Once a brand understands that automation and real conversations are both  important, that real organic growth can take place. Looking for automation tools? Here’s a list of 9 social media management tools  that cross all platforms. Recommended Reading: Best Time Scheduling is the Easy Way to Get More Engagement [New Feature] 9. Engage Your Audience Social media is a behavioral shift. It’s not a broadcast platform. Engaging an audience and a community is one of the toughest aspects of social media marketing. Finding the right balance between branded content and audience generated content is not easy. For every brand it will vary.   For some it can be funny pictures, memes, videos, gif’s, or a white paper. Once a brand does have a following it means engaging, supporting and sharing their content, responding to their comments, and helping them if necessary. Social media is a behavioral shift. It's not a broadcast platform.How do you get more people talking about and interacting with your brand on social media? Stop talking about your brand! Yup, that’s right. Avoid being overtly promotional. The more narrative based content or industry related content and interesting pieces of information that aren’t brand focused will show the community how real the brand is. It may sound counterintuitive but it works. Want to engage an audience? Find a conference. No brands don’t have to attend every industry conference. Why not use the conference specific hashtag (there’s that reverse engineering thing again) as a means to engage in conversations?! Here’s a targeted conversation with a global influencer from DFX before a conference: Look at that! The brand engaged in a meaningful way and landed a meeting (face-to face) and took the conversation offline. 10. Take it Offline That’s right, one of the best ways of growing an organic social audience is to find ways to take it offline. That could be a phone call, a webinar, a meeting at a conference (via the hashtag), or webinar.   Bridge the online offline gap and a put a face to the brand. Make it happen. Tweeting and posting can be done all day, but until a real connection is made, the deal won’t be sealed. one of the best ways of growing an organic social audience is to find ways to take it offline.11. Aesthetics is Everything Visuals can make the entire difference in organic growth. It can boost brand visibility while supporting all digital efforts.   With such a cluttered social space, high quality, attractive visuals make a brand memorable. Visual content is easier for humans to process and is an easy way to generate more views, click throughs and followers. Rather than just use the same text, or the default image that comes up when putting a link to Facebook or Google Plus, why not be creative? Recommended Reading: How to Design Blog Graphics With Free Tools Consistent style of content and embedding of images that are high quality and relevant can make all the difference in organic growth and brand awareness. Social media marketing is a marathon. It will take time. The best metric of success in social media is the quality (not quantity) of your networks. Any brand that approaches social media from an organic perspective, the quality of their community will be a natural progression of the effort put in.

Lois Duncan essays

Lois Duncan essays Lois Duncan is the author of over 40 books, ranging from children's picture books to adult novels, but she is best known for her young adult suspense novels such as Killing Mr. Griffen and her newest book Gallows Hill. Many of these have been chosen as ALA "Best Books for Young Adults" and Jr. Library Guild Selections, and they have won Young Readers Awards in 16 states and three foreign countries. In 1992, Duncan had recieved the Margaret A. Edwards Award, presented by the School Library Journal and the Young Adult Library Services Association, to honor a living author for a distinguished body of adolescent literature. Lois Duncan grew up in Sarasota, Florida. From early childhood, she knew she wanted to be a writer. At the age of ten she submitted her first story to a magazine and at thirteen she made her first sale. Throughout her high school years she wrote regularly for young people's publications, mostly Seventeen Magazine. In 1962, Lois Duncan taught for the Journalism Department at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She also continued writing for different magazines. Over 300 of her articles and short stories appeared in magazines such as Ladies Home Journal, McCalls, Redbook, Good Housekeeping, and Readers Digest. Also, for a number of years she was a contributing editor for Womens Day magazine. Who Killed My Daughter? is the most difficult book Lois Duncan ever had to write. It is the true story of her search to find the truth behind the murder of her eighteen-year-old daughter, Kaitlyn, who was the youngest of her five children. The book has been featured on different TV shows such as Good Morning, America, Larry King Live, Unsolved Mysteries, and most recently, Inside Edition. The book was originally written for adults but it has been named a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year"...

Capital Budgeting Of New Heritage Doll Company †Free Samples

The report is about New Heritage Doll Company which started its operations in the year 1985. The company has three segments i.e. retailing, production and licensing. Among the three the production segment is the most asset rich of all. The sale composition of the company comprised of 75% sales to the retailing segment of the company and the rest 25% came from manufacturing private label goods. Currently the Vice President of the company Emily Harris has been faced with the challenge of evaluating two proposals i.e. Match my Doll Clothing Line Expansion and Design your Own Doll[1]. In order to ascertain which proposal has to be selected Emily has to present her choice coupled with detailed analysis of the reasons for not choosing the other one. This would require assessment of both financial and non-financial aspects of the project’s future performance and profitability. Every project proposal shows some kind of symptoms of failure or problems. These symptoms prove to be the nerves of the future performance appraisal of the project. Careful study of these symptoms can help Emily decide the project that has to put forward for acceptance. The symptoms showed by the two proposals ae as follows: The brand manager Marcy McAdams is hurrying into the implementation and execution of the project. The project also requires huge amount of marketing and R&D outlay which suggests that the project has inherent risk of unacceptance in case it is executed without proper research and development and intensive marketing.  Ã‚  Ã‚   In this proposal the symptoms showed include complete change in the technological outlay of the organisation, webhosting capacity and immense modification will be needed in respect of third party service agreements entered into by the company. The root cause behind the symptoms help in realisation of the challenges in the implementation of the proposed project from the point of view of the profitability and various other factors.   The root causes of the problems of the proposals are as follows: In this case the implementation has to happen very quickly because of the changing trends in the tastes and preferences of the children. The immense marketing has to be undertaken in order to stay ahead of the competitors as this is easier proposal from the point of execution as it doesn’t require heavy capital expenditure in terms of new machinery or technology etc[2]. The company is not fully unaware about the execution of the proposal as it has already been executed in a smaller previously by the company. The reason for the complete change in the technological outlay is because the changes made by the customer as per his desires to the doll are dependent upon how well the software is designed. The webhosting capacity has to be increased as it must be accessible to every customer whenever they want. A large number of customers may log in at the same time which might cause technical problems in the future. This is one of the major and basic requirements of the proposal. This can prove to be a major deterrent in terms of the flexibility of the organisation in response to the changes taking place in the technological field. From the quantitative analysis conducted it is seen that the net present value of the Match my doll proposal is way higher than that of the Design my doll. This objectively suggests the choice to be made in terms of the profitability of the business. The management should proceed with the first proposal[3]. While conducting the quantitative analysis due consideration has been given on the various factors like the working capital requirement of the proposal, the capital expenditure of the project and the projected operating profits from the project in the future. The calculation of NPV, IRR, Payback period and profitability are provided in the Appendix. The decision for the best investment project have been made after factoring in all the relevant calculations. Based on the calculations it can be said that the Match My Doll proposal is the best available option for the company. In order to conduct the qualitative analysis the requirements of both the proposals must be understood objectively. The first proposal requires huge marketing for its success. But, it must be kept in mind that one of the variant of the design my doll is already time tested in the past when it consisted of the some accessories for the warm weather. This shows that the project despite not much requirement for changing the operational structure of the organisation can prove to be successful. On the other hand design my doll requires complete change of the operational structure of the organisation especially in the field of technology used by it[4]. The fixed cost per unit of the products thus produced by the entity will rise along with the complexity of the manufacturing process. The proposal not only requires the company to change its way of operation but also requires it to take the risk of losing its loyal old customers and in addition to that it will be compelled to charge higher pr ice from its customers. It is recommended that the first proposal is accepted due to profitability as well as organisational reasons. The second proposal cannot be selected because its net present value of inflows is significantly lower than the first proposal and also it demands immense amount of organisational change both in the field of capital expenditure and the technological requirement. Almazan, Andres, Zhaohui Chen, and Sheridan Titman. "Firm Investment and Stakeholder Choices: A Top?Down Theory of Capital Budgeting."  The Journal of Finance  (2017). Burns, Richard, and Joe Walker. "Capital budgeting surveys: the future is now." (2015). Chittenden, Francis, and Mohsen Derregia. "Uncertainty, irreversibility and the use of ‘rules of thumb’in capital budgeting."  The British   Accounting Review  47, no. 3 (2015): 225-236. Johnson, Nicole Bastian, and Thomas Pfeiffer. "Capital budgeting and divisional performance measurement."  Foundations and Trends ® in   Accounting 10, no. 1 (2016): 1-100.

Soccer and American Football Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Soccer and American Football - Essay Example Football now reflects the basic, underlying cultural dynamics of contemporary America. Football is urban, it uses "educated" players, it is complex, specialized, violent and sexy. In football every second counts, as it does in America, where "time is money." These changes line up with the values people find in football. Baseball became irrelevant. Soccer provides people with an opportunity to let off steam, to get rid of tensions, to have pleasure. Thesis Soccer and the American football have many similarities in main rules and traditions which make both of them very popular among youth. Both soccer and American football are favorite games of millions of people which bring satisfaction and raises team spirit. Like American football, soccer is an organized game that has become institutionalized. Soccer and American football are amazing: energetic and vigorous games. Soccer and American football are based on competition between two teams which involve 11 players each. In both cases, the aim of the game is score. In soccer, t he main equipment is a ball and goals. The soccer and American football ball has two-toned, black and white, markings. Thus, American football is ruled by six-tackle rule while soccer is subjected to the Laws of the Games. At the beginning of the game, players kick off a coin. During this time, all players are on their own side of the field. The traditional shape of the field is about 100 yards in length and 50 yards wide. A field for American football has 360 by 160 feet There are boundary lines surround the field considered part of the filed. Th is differed from not taking the game seriously, in that it involved, not a transformation of the game itself, but rather an alternative to the game that was defined as providing greater enjoyment than what would have otherwise occurred. Soccer game lasts for 90 minutes. Also, American football has four 15 minutes quarters (Goldblatt 76). In soccer and American football, players pay the main attention to team strategy and the configuration of players around the point of action. Usually, players try to concentrate upon the position of attackers in relation to the defense and overall the success of each attacks. Each time the cross occurred, a player crossed the area in front the defense. During this game, the important step is possession of the ball which switches back and forth between the teams. I a team several times lost possession when they made a bad pass, sent the ball out of bounds. When possession of the ball changed from a team to the other, the attacking team became the defense, and a team became the offense. Because this happens very frequently during a game, it is important for team to make the transition quickly. Players of both teams wear uniforms. Still, American football has special numbers for all positions, so it is easy to understand the role of each player: e.g. 1-9 are used for quarterbacks, kicke rs, and punters (MacCambridge 87). The end of the game is usually vigorous marked by competition and desire to win. Furthermore, soccer almost invariably involved competition;

SAINT AUGUSTINE'S CONFESSION Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

SAINT AUGUSTINE'S CONFESSION - Essay Example First, Monica’s outstanding obedience wife to her husband influenced Augustines conversion. In addition, Monica introduced her son to Ambrose, who would later baptize him. Finally, Monica compelled and encouraged Augustine to attend school that shaped his life and would later be a priest. Augustine’s strong conviction to the Christian world originated Monica. Initially, both Patricius, (Augustines father) and Augustine were non-convert and finally got saved through the influence of Monica. Monica prayed to God on behalf of her husband’s soul and Augustine. â€Å"With a pure heart and faith in you she even more lovingly travailed in labor for my eternal salvation.†1 Augustine wonders how his parents lived harmoniously with each other saves to Monica. Monica was a God fearing individual and served her husband as her lord with care to her children. Her marvelous traits inform Augustine’s strong need for conversion. She is, therefore, significantly inspirational to Augustine making him grow as a God fearing individual hence his conversion to Christianity. Monica instills good morals to her son based on how she cared for her family, husband and merciful manner she submitted to serve God. From the assertions of Augustine, â€Å"When I was a boy, I had heard about eternal life promised to us through the humility of our Lord God. Coming down to our pride, and I was already sighed with the sigh of the cross and seasoned with salt from the time I came from my mother’s womb.†2 From here, we realize that it was the mother that firstly drew Augustine’s attentions towards the Lord. Monica became so amiable to Augustine’s father and vowed never to have a quarrel with her husband. Augustine also asserts that, ‘she anxiously labored to convince me that you, my God, were my father rather than he, and in this endeavor you helped her to gain victory over her husband.†3 From this quote, it is justified that Monica was

Death Penalty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Death Penalty - Essay Example Our main points for the abolition of the death penalty are morality and technicality. The original arguments for capital punishment does not anymore apply but are outdated – deterrence, retribution, etc. The teachings of the Bible – the Old and the New Testaments – tell us one important aspect of creation: protect life and do not allow vengeance. God did not kill Cain for killing his own brother Abel but instead sent him on exile and put a mark on him so that no one would kill him. A passage in the Bible of states: ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’. This teaching does not mean taking the life of a murderer or someone who has committed a heinous crime, but it means limiting the retribution for an offense. When Jesus was presented the woman accused of adultery, he did not condemn the woman but told those present â€Å"to cast the first stone†, which means we should not condemn anyone but allow a sinner to reform. Another argument is the ground of technicality. The criminal justice system, a human system, is flawed. I mean, it is not always perfect despite all the bright, legal minds the world has ever produced. Rulings are not perfect. The Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty violated the Eight and Fourteenth Amendments. Then in another ruling in 1976, Gregg v. Georgia, the Court again contradicted itself by ruling that the death penalty per se was not unconstitutional. (Bedau 2005, p. 23) In Furman, it was ruled that some state statutes were unconstitutional, which allowed that death penalty statutes had to be rewritten. Advocates of the death penalty began proposing new laws for capital punishment. In other words, advocates of the death penalty interpreted this as an opportunity to write new laws so that there would be no more doubts of retaining the death penalty. It was reported that there were 35 states that rewrote their

Report about Communication Law Case Comparison Essay

Report about Communication Law Case Comparison - Essay Example v. Sullivan, 1964). The text in the end, appealed for funds for purposes such as the â€Å"support of the student movement, the struggle for the right-to-vote, and the legal defense of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. against a perjury indictment (New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 1964). Respondent contended that although the statements do not mention the respondent by name, the word ‘police’ referred to him as he supervised the Police Department, and hence being accused of those alleged in the advertisement (New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 1964). He further claimed that the rest of the paragraph referred to the police (New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 1964). It was found that some of the statements were not accurate descriptions of events, which happened in Montgomery (New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 1964). The jury were under instructions by the trial judge upon presentation of the case, that the statements made were â€Å"libelous per se and were not privileged,† and hence the petitioners may be held liable if found to have published the advertisement and if the â€Å"statements were made of and concerning respondent,† (New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 1964). Being libelous per se, the judge cited that â€Å"falsity and malice are presumed from the bare fact of their publication,† (New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 1964). He added that general damages are presumed, hence, â€Å"need not be alleged or proved,† and that the jury may award punitive damages even though there is no showing of the amount of actual damages (New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 1964). The decision also failed to charge to the jury that there must be malice or â€Å"actual intent to harm or gross negligence and recklessness† and did not distinguish between compensatory and punitive damages (New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 1964). These rulings and instructions were sustained by the Supreme Court of Alabama in all

The roles of pubic relations in crisis managment Essay

The roles of pubic relations in crisis managment - Essay Example The aim of nurturing public relations is to develop rapport with the public and by making them understand the organization and what its doing (Felea, 2004). Experts in public relation use all typology of communication with the public, as represented by personalities who are imbued with institutional and organizational identity (Felea, 2004). This process is deemed significant to avoid or wane down the opposition of employer and employees, in case of labor dispute, or probably to reduce panic in the market in the case of financial crisis. In international relations, countries diplomatically develop public relations to ensure that social acceptability and to maintain social peace while engendering cooperation and collaboration on social policy or agenda (Felea, 2004). This is also true in market relations to ascertain efficiency on commercial firm’s services and to maintain connections with its clients while on business operation (Felea, 2004). Thus, in commerce, a company would use advertisements and other related propaganda to better its relations with the public, its â€Å"goods suppliers, services providers, labour suppliers, clients, competitors, public organisms (Felea, 2004, p. 1).† Media is an instrument or tool for public relations. Companies relate with media to promote their products and to explicate its business operation and its campaign or probably to promote their activities relating to corporate social responsibility. With globalization taking the market’s core, modern commerce necessitates media in social networking, including the explication of its definitional struggle in the interface of science and policy for the market. David (1999) for instance explicates the significant effort done my farming industry in explaining to the public cattle disease bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow. By doing so, the company is able

Death Penalty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Death Penalty - Essay Example Our main points for the abolition of the death penalty are morality and technicality. The original arguments for capital punishment does not anymore apply but are outdated – deterrence, retribution, etc. The teachings of the Bible – the Old and the New Testaments – tell us one important aspect of creation: protect life and do not allow vengeance. God did not kill Cain for killing his own brother Abel but instead sent him on exile and put a mark on him so that no one would kill him. A passage in the Bible of states: ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’. This teaching does not mean taking the life of a murderer or someone who has committed a heinous crime, but it means limiting the retribution for an offense. When Jesus was presented the woman accused of adultery, he did not condemn the woman but told those present â€Å"to cast the first stone†, which means we should not condemn anyone but allow a sinner to reform. Another argument is the ground of technicality. The criminal justice system, a human system, is flawed. I mean, it is not always perfect despite all the bright, legal minds the world has ever produced. Rulings are not perfect. The Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty violated the Eight and Fourteenth Amendments. Then in another ruling in 1976, Gregg v. Georgia, the Court again contradicted itself by ruling that the death penalty per se was not unconstitutional. (Bedau 2005, p. 23) In Furman, it was ruled that some state statutes were unconstitutional, which allowed that death penalty statutes had to be rewritten. Advocates of the death penalty began proposing new laws for capital punishment. In other words, advocates of the death penalty interpreted this as an opportunity to write new laws so that there would be no more doubts of retaining the death penalty. It was reported that there were 35 states that rewrote their

The roles of pubic relations in crisis managment Essay

The roles of pubic relations in crisis managment - Essay Example The aim of nurturing public relations is to develop rapport with the public and by making them understand the organization and what its doing (Felea, 2004). Experts in public relation use all typology of communication with the public, as represented by personalities who are imbued with institutional and organizational identity (Felea, 2004). This process is deemed significant to avoid or wane down the opposition of employer and employees, in case of labor dispute, or probably to reduce panic in the market in the case of financial crisis. In international relations, countries diplomatically develop public relations to ensure that social acceptability and to maintain social peace while engendering cooperation and collaboration on social policy or agenda (Felea, 2004). This is also true in market relations to ascertain efficiency on commercial firm’s services and to maintain connections with its clients while on business operation (Felea, 2004). Thus, in commerce, a company would use advertisements and other related propaganda to better its relations with the public, its â€Å"goods suppliers, services providers, labour suppliers, clients, competitors, public organisms (Felea, 2004, p. 1).† Media is an instrument or tool for public relations. Companies relate with media to promote their products and to explicate its business operation and its campaign or probably to promote their activities relating to corporate social responsibility. With globalization taking the market’s core, modern commerce necessitates media in social networking, including the explication of its definitional struggle in the interface of science and policy for the market. David (1999) for instance explicates the significant effort done my farming industry in explaining to the public cattle disease bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow. By doing so, the company is able

“The Unknown Citizen” by W. H. Auden Essay Example for Free

â€Å"The Unknown Citizen† by W. H. Auden Essay â€Å"The Unknown Citizen† by W. H. Auden is a compelling piece of poetry that is multi-layered in thought. While it is poignant, it is also replete with tension. I have therefore decided to give three responses/presentations to this poem in the following executions: a) An MTV, b) A piece of Installation Art, and c) A Short Story. We shall tackle these one by one in the following paragraphs.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Although the poem was written in the late 1930’s, much of its message still resonates today especially now that we are faced with technology that enables the quick transfer of information throughout the world. To be able to reach a broad audience, I thought of coming up with an MTV as a presentation because this medium is vastly appreciated by a wide spectrum of people. The MTV will have an instrumental piece of music as background. I am quite inclined to use 1920’s jazz as the musical genre a la the musical score for the movie ‘Chicago’ – mainly because jazz especially of this era reflects the moods, emotions, thoughts, etc. of the working class.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The MTV’s visuals will consist of fast cuts of real people in real time doing a variety of daily chores/work. I would like to get visuals of factory workers at an industrial plant, rank and file employees at a Fortune 500 company, pedestrians at a busy street in a big city, etc. These visuals will be interspersed or dissolved on a background of a clock whose hour and second hands are rotating rapidly. This visual juxtaposition I think would be effective in imparting the message that we, as a workforce, have become slaves in the highly industrialized world.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The second presentation I would like to propose is an Installation Art. The installation will compose of different objects, articles of clothing, supplies, etc. that I will gather from different people and/or areas of work. These objects will be arranged at random to form a sculpture-like piece that can stand on its own. The objects then will be ‘washed’ with a gray paint or metallic finish. The rationale for this presentation is to link or remind the audience of everyday objects that we take for granted but are part of our daily life. Objects that will remind us of our daily grind or the ennui we experience at work. The finishing of the installation in gray or metallic color will further enhance the ‘coldness’ or routine nature of ‘The Unknown Citizen’. The tactile nature of the installation will hopefully entice the audience to take a closer look at the piece of art. Also, copies of Auden’s poem may be strewn on the floor of the exhibition area where this installation will take place.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The third response will be a short story that will basically deal with a man’s isolation from the world at large. Just like in the poem the main character in the story will be nameless, the readers however, will be able to get to know this ‘man’ by way of the descriptive manner that it will be written as well as the dialogue that will be included. The setting of the short story will be in contemporary times set in Middle America. I see the main character as a white male in his thirties, married with children. His wife is also a working mother. The isolation the main character feels will stem from his routine at the workplace, his ever-widening gap with his wife due to less time spent together as both are working, and his alienation from his teenage children who are caught up in a world of their own.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The man’s catharsis will take form of his resignation from his work and goes on a long trip, alone, into the countryside in search of a connection with his past and a better understanding of his future. How the short story will end I still have to think about – however I will try to remain as true to Auden’s tone and intent as he wrote ‘The Unknown Citizen’.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Out of these three responses I hope to finally choose one with the following criteria in mind:   financial constraints in undergoing the project, feasibility in terms of time and resources, overall impact on the intended target audience. On the whole, I believe these three responses will best communicate Auden’s poem on a more contemporary manner. While art mirrors life, great art transcends time and space. The truths Auden spoke of during his lifetime still ring true today and will continue to impact the future generations to come.

Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) Structure

Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) Structure 2.0 OVERVIEW OF LAHORE ELECTRIC SUPPLY COMPANY (LESCO) PAKISTAN 2.1 History The electricity supply service in Pakistan, initially, was undertaken by different agencies, both in public and private sectors in different areas. In order to provide for the unified and coordinated development of the water and power resources, Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) was created through WAPDA Act, 1958. In 1994, Government of Pakistan approved the strategic plan of restructuring and privatization of power sector. As a result, power wing of WAPDA was unbundled into twelve companies for generation, transmission and distribution of electricity. Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) was formed in March, 1998 with the aim of commercialization and eventually privatization. 2.2 Region-wise Segmentation LESCO holds the Distribution license from National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) to supply electricity in the areas that covers Civil Districts of Lahore, Kasur, Okara and Sheikupura. It serves over 2,000,000 customers 24 hours a day, 365 days per annum. In order to provide un-interrupted electric supply and quality service to customers, LESCO has divided its jurisdictional area into six distribution operation Circles. 2.3 Organizational Structure According to Balle, M (1996) organizations represent systems, not just structures. They are composed of interdependent people who rely on another for work-someone starts it, someone delivers it to the customer- for relationships and for self-realization. Likewise, in LESCO Superintending Engineer looks after the affairs of the whole Circle as being an incharge through functional/administrative control over various Divisional and Sub-Divisional Engineers including their liaisoning offices (WAPDA, 2000). However, Figure 1 shows the organizational structure of LESCO as being the focus of this study. 3.0 A SUMMARIZED VIEW OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN LESCO As, defined in the mission statement of LESCO that the primary goal is to supply the un-interrupted electricity and quality services to all category of consumers at the minimum possible cost (Mission, 2009). Keeping in view the mission statement, major milestone was set for LESCO Main Computer Centre to computerize electricity billing and collection procedures, which was met through in house development of billing and collection software. A brief note on each of these systems is as follows: 3.1 General Description of Billing System Meter reading and billing are carried out over all available days in a month in a complete cycle process in order to provide service to different categories of customers. Meter reading lists are prepared in advance by LESCO Main Computer Centre Lahore and its sub-centre at Sheikupura, which provide services to Sheikupura Circle only. They are sent to the liaison Divisional Office that is Revenue Office, who arranges for meter readings to be entered on the lists by the meter reading staff in the Sub- Divisional Office, follow up meter readings are prepared manually in Sub-Divisions. After entry of the readings, the meter reading lists are returned to the Revenue Office where the control records over the computer billing are maintained. After entry in the Revenue Office computer Records the meter reading lists are collected together in a batch file for each sub-division. The batch files are then passed to the LESCO Computer Centres on a storage device for further processing. Consumerâ €™s bills are prepared in the Computer Centres and sent to the Revenue Office for distribution to consumers through Bill Distributors, who are under the control of Sub-Divisional Officer (WAPDA, 2000). Figure 2 shows the block diagram of the system. Figure 2— Block Diagram of Billing System Director Customer Services Billing Schedule Computer Centres VAX 4000Server/VMS/COBOL Revenue Office (Computer Section) Printed Reading Lists and other reports Batch files alongiwth updated Meter Reading lists Sub-Divisional Office Printed Reading Lists and other Reports Manually updated Meter Reading Lists MIS Reports Source: Developed for this report The following reports, lists and notices are also forwarded by the Computer Centres to Divisional and Sub-Divisional Engineers for taking appropriate decision/action (WAPDA, 2000): Customers’ assessment list showing the charges on each bill along with running total and also the total number of consumers connected, temporarily disconnected and with equipment removed in each batch. Disconnection notices, which are sent to the consumers, who have not paid their bills by due date. Each Month Computer Centre prepares analysis of energy sales by Tariffs for each feeder, each Sub-Division and Division and analysis of outstanding debts showing arrears by Tariffs and age. Feeder wise line losses for reach Sub-Division 3.2 General Description of Collection System Customers pay their current bills, Demand Notices for new electricity connections and reconnection fee for restoration of disconnected supply to the specified banks and post offices. The bank/post office receives the bill or Demand Notice, enters the receipt on the Banks scroll, and retains the counterfoil. Banks daily sends a copy of bank scroll and counterfoils to the Revenue Office. The Revenue Office Accounts section checks the bill counterfoils to the bank scroll for any discrepancy/error. The scrolls and counterfoils are then sent daily to the LESCO Computer Centres and where each consumer’s payment is processed by the Computer into the Consumers ledger database. The Computer supplies a total of cash posted to each billing batch and total of unidentified cash, new connection/ reconnection fees and other receipts, to reconcile with the total of all bank scroll for each Division. However, in the event of difference not being discovered during this check Computer Centres wi ll process the amount shown on the counterfoils and return the scroll to the Revenue Office for re-checking and verification. Moreover, the bank branch remit the amounts collected to collection account in their local head offices as designated by LESCO and send a copy of the bank statement to the Revenue Office indicating total money received during the week and money remitted to the Head Office Collection Account each week and at the end of each month. The Revenue Office Account Section reconciles the bank statement with the report forwarded by the Computer Centre and sends a copy of reconciliation to the LESCO’s Finance Director (WAPDA, 2000). 3.3 Recent Improvements in the Payment Channels of Collection System Electricity bill payment was very tedious task as customers had to stand outside banks for an extended period of time due to manual procedures of payment. Also, there were issues such as bank timings and delays in remittance processing. Realizing the need to resolve the quality of service to customers, Chief Executive Officer LESCO decided to explore the payment channels. LESCO Computer Centre took the initiative and proposed a plan for starting e-service and printing of machine readable electricity bills. Accordingly, the system was formally launched from March, 1995. At present, 355 branches in LESCO are equipped with this system collecting about 25% of bills. However, the bills are paid at designated bank branches, post office and retail stores as usual, but with a technical difference. The bills are scanned by the cashier using a barcode scanner just like a retail store cashier does for grocery items. With a single scan, all the information encoded in the barcode is instantly tra nsferred to the software. In this way, bank cashiers can generate daily/monthly scrolls and collection summary (Collection, 2009). Figure 3 shows the cashier user-interface of the cash collection software. Also, the customer can deposit electricity bill using LESCO’s website, wherein he/she is required to login by providing his/her unique electricity bill reference number. Thereafter, s/he will enter the debit/credit card information for making the payment, which is then referred to the Card Processor for verification and charging. If the card got validated the amount will be credited to the consumer account and transaction will be committed to the database. And online receipt is provided to the consumer for printing(Collection, 2009). Figure 4 shows the network diagram of current collection system. As, depicted in Figure 4 the collection data from Banks is transferred to online servers on daily basis using a simple internet connection. Alternatively, if no internet connection is available a collection file may be generated and carried on a portable media. Hence, the billing data is uploaded to the online server whenever it experiences any change. Customers are able to access true online web-based services at the company website, which includes the following: Viewing monthly bills Printing duplicate bills Payment Consumption Payment history Account Status 3.4 Payroll Information System Payroll of various departments of LESCO is prepared by the Computer Centre on monthly basis. Master files for officers and staff are maintained separately. Data relating to each employee of a particular department is stored on respective master file. The Payroll Master File contains one record for each employee. The main attributes of payroll data are: Department Code Employee Code Processing Code Name Designation Station Code Pay Account Head Conveyance Allowance Medial Allowance code Income Tax Deduction Union Fund Deduction GPF Number GPF Deduction voluntary contribution National Tax Number Type of Advance Total Amount of Advance Bank Branch Code Bank Account Type The records in the File are maintained sequentially (Sorted on Department Code and Employee Code). Data is received from various departments on prescribed Performas by the coordination section of Computer Centre. The Data coded in these Performas can be New Addition of an employee’s payroll data, a Change in an existing record or deletion of an existing record. Figure 5 shows the Data Flow diagram of the Payroll System. Emp. File Pay Rates Employee Validation Check Compute Gross Produce Cheque Compute. Net Pay Determine Deductions Tax Table Personal Data Account Rerecord Payments and Deductions S.S Data Figure 5— Data Flow Diagram of Payroll System Source: Courtesy of MIS Department, LESCO Data is entered into the Computer through the Entry Machines by the Key Punch Operator. After Entry an edit List is prepared through edit listing program. This List is thoroughly checked by the Data Coordinators with the actual data on input Performas and the punching or coding errors are removed. Any change, addition of new record or deletion of existing record is intimated by the concerned department to Computer Centre on prescribed Performas. Using this data, Master files of officers and staff are updated. After updation, different types of output reports are prepared, which includes: Payroll Listing Listing of different types of schedules Account Head wise Summary Pay Slips Bank Summary Etc Reports are sent to respective departments after through checking. Also, every year in the first week of December when Payroll processing for the month of November has been completed the annual increments are assigned to the Pay of each employee in accordance their respective scale of pay. A Pay Fixation list is prepared prior to the running of Pay Increment step which shows Current Basic Pay with the addition of one increment. This department wise list is sent to each department for checking verification. If any department wants to hold the increment of an employee then the action is taken accordingly. 3.5 Management Reporting Systems At LESCO Computer headquarter; two Alpha 2100 computers equipped with Alpha processors have been installed. These computers are being optimally utilized to assist in timely analysis, generating vital information for the top management. For instance, division-wise computerized receivables reporting and monitoring system providing twenty different arrears analysis reports have been expanded to provide tariff wise information as well. These reports have also been further extended to support monitoring at the sub division level. Moreover, Performance data monitoring report reflecting various types of billing, consumers’ statistics and line losses monitoring system (Technology, 2009). 4.0 CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS EMPLOYED BY LESCO Information System (IS) is defined as an organized combination of people, hardware, software, communications networks, and data resources that stores and retrieves, transforms, and disseminates information in an organization. Importance of information management is highlighted by the fact that in addition to capital, labor and land, primary factors of production also include material, energy and information. As, the world is making a rapid transition from an industrial society to a service-driven economy, information is becoming the catalyst for economic development and change. In view of above, it may be argued that effective Information Systems play a vital and expanding role in business activities, practices and processes. Furthermore, business professionals rely on variety of information systems that uses various Information Technologies, which refers to the various software and hardware components necessary for the system to operate(). In short, computer-based-information system s use the following technologies:- Computer hardware technologies Computer software technologies Telecommunications network technologies Data resource management technologies Moreover, rapid advances in Information Technology (IT) are likely to result in shifts away from traditional role for both the IT professional and the Information users. A new generation of skilled users will participate in the development of mission critical applications and the IT department will move from a centralized repository and control of information into the business function areas as client-server technologies replacing main frames. the 21st century Chief Information Officer (CIO ) will be expected to enhance the value of information at multiple points along the value chain and his/her responsibility will extend far beyond the traditional boundaries of the IT department. Indeed, the CIO will be required to exercise leadership across the width and breadth of the enterprise. From the forgoing discussion, it can fairly be deduced that the role of IT department has moved from one of technical implementation to strategic planning and from reactive support of business to driving innovation and competitive advantage. There is natural decay of business processes over a period of time because systems are designed years ago when both the organization and available technology were very different from today. Likewise, if Billing System of LESCO is analyzed from today’s technology perspective then it has become a legacy system and no more delivering optimal performance and quality service to its internal/external customers due to manual procedures involved. Site-visit reading of residential power , water, and gas meters is a tedious, inconvenient and prone to human error. Moreover, it is not always guaranteed that the consumer will be present when utility personnel visit to read meter readings. It is possible in such case that utility personnel will estimate consumption inaccurately, which later may lead to consumer dissatisfaction. The recent advances in metering technology, mobile networks, and internet services have resulted in the proposal and development of measurement techniques, billing, and energy management systems. As, many utilities are implementing automated meter reading (AMR) systems. In addition to meter reading, AMR can be used in the power restoration process. While others have advanced the concept of AMR systems by proposing potential metering communication services using the wireless mobile public networks for measuring and billing system. 5.0 IT Technology Deployed by LESCO Hardware Components LESCO is using VAX 4000 minicomputers (midrange) for centralized processing of data in various Information Systems. Experts believe that many midrange and mainframe systems have become obsolete by the power and versatility of client/server networks composed of microcomputers and servers. Others industry experts have predicted that the emergence of network computers the on internet and intranets will replace many personal computers, especially in large corporations (). Software technologies Most the software packages for the Information Systems as described above are developed in COBOL structured language. However, modern applications are built in using Object Oriented languages such as Java, C++, and VB.Net etc. Network Technologies As shown in Figure 4, In LESCO mainframe-based network with many end user terminals are deployed for centralized processing of data, which has recently been linked with Application and Online Web server for handling payment channels of customers. Moreover, in Billing and Collection System batch files created in Revenue Office Computer Section are delivered by special messengers on a portable media to LESCO Computer Centers for centralized processing. However, wireless Wide Area Networks (WAN) can be used alongwith client/server technology to handle the geographically distant processing and network communications. Database Technologies LESCO has designed its database structures in COBOL language, which is a traditional flat file system. As, there are many anomalies associated related to management of flat file such as redundancy of data, complex operations for retrieval of reports, more storage, time and cost etc. Whereas, modern Database Management Systems based on relational and object oriented techniques are very efficient and free from such complexities and errors. 6.0 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Integration of IT and Customer Service E-service provides a unique opportunity for businesses to offer new models for service design strategies and new service development. While e-service has rewritten many of the rules of customer engagement, it has not fundamentally changed the fact that a key component of service delivery is building and maintaining strong customer relationships. What is important therefore, in adopting IT-based computer based customer service functions, is ensuring that the technology used, enhances rather than undermines the relationship between the customer and the company. The interface between customer and company is critical. With specific reference to web-sties, Meister et al (2000), point out that one of the major challenges of e-service is balancing the greater customization, which typically results in more complex Web sites, with a simple, accessible and easy to use Web interface. Also, the companies that keep track of customer’s individual preferences keep up with market trends, supp ly products, services and information anytime, anywhere, and provide customer services tailored to individual needs. And so, Internet technologies can make customers the focal point of customer relationship management (CRM). Today many companies are implementing customer relationship management (CRM) business initiatives and information systems as part of customer focused strategy to improve their chances for success in the contemporary business environment. CRM that uses IT to integrates and automates many of the customer-serving processes in sales, marketing, and customer services, push the company ahead in competition with other competitors. Furthermore, CRM systems include a family of software modules that provides the tools that enable a business and its employees to provide fast, convenient, dependable and consistent service to its customers. E-Service in LESCO A review of the e-service started by LESCO to facilitate the customers regarding electricity bill payment and other allied services reveals that LESCO is at an early stage in the development and implementation of a complete e-service strategy. However, they have taken a radical step to improve the bill payment channels in order to improve the customer services in this respect. As, it has already been discussed that computer based information systems rely on Information Technology. Therefore, a time to time up gradation of the technology employed by LESCO in Information Systems is essential to keep pace with the rapidly changing IT environment. 7.0 REFERENCES Khuller, A., 2006. Quarterly Newsletter of the Sari/Energy Small Grants Program with Support from USAID. Vol. X, April 2006 Available at: http: //www.sari-energy.org/PageFiles/WhatWeDo/SmallGrants/ newsletter.asp [Cited: 13 July, 2009] Segmentation, 2009. 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