How to successfully execute business negotiations in Iran Essay

How to successfully execute business negotiations in Iran - Essay Example As a means of communication, shaking hands is the first gesture of recognition when meeting someone. As far as the opposite gender is concerned, a male has to wait to see if the female is extending her hands. If she does not, then a simple nod with a smile is considered as a polite gesture. Doing business in Iran requires the individual to be mindful of the culture and communication that prevails in the country. They are expected to dress conservatively yet smartly. Female alongside wearing a conservative dress, will have to cover their hair with a scarf (Circles of excellence, 2010). 2. Cultural Dimensions 2.1. High Context vs. Low Context Apparently, Iran can be associated with following a ‘high context’ culture of communication. The aspect that puts them into this category is their usage of flowery language and linguistic ability. According to Bar (2004, p. 27), â€Å"Iranians accord great import to the context of communication.† This holds true not only in cas e of communication with each other, but also in case of communicating with foreigners. However, the foreigners arguably may not be sensitive to majority of the contextual implications that are being shared via the communication. In certain aspects, the culture in Iran can be associated with low contextual dimension. They are pragmatic and considerate of force ratios. However, it does not surpass rational considerations. The considerations regarding confidence building, hardly ever bend over to the practical goal. 2.2 Cultural Gender Roles There are different expectations and roles for men and women in Iran. The society as well as the culture requires men and women to portray or rather demonstrate their characteristic in a way that is expected from them. Women have to portray preservation, modesty and dedication towards their home and family, whereas men demonstrate the reputation of their family through work. This kind of behavior is associated with the kind of upbringing that they have had. It is a norm in the Iranian society to maximize gender role differences and discrimination. It has been witnessed that there is no strong desire among the authorities to change this perception. This has been the tradition of the country for a long time (Dastmalchian, Javidan and Alam, 2001). 2.3 Religion and Business Majority of Iranians describe themselves as religious, thereby stating that their beliefs play a crucial role in their way of living as well as conducting business. Religion has some sorts of influence in the way business is done in the country. Religion does not only involve worship and ritual, but they also outline moral principles stating how true believers should be living their lives. The impact of religion on business induces honesty, loyalty as well as justice. This highlights how religion and business is associated to each other in a country like, Iran (Miller and Ewest, 2013). 2.4. Taboo Mannerisms: What Not To Do To make appointments a month before t he actual date of meeting and confirming the same a week before. Thus, avoiding any confusion. To not be late in attending those meetings. To have all business cards and materials translated into Persian (Farsi). To not be impatient as business negotiations often take quite a long time (Vayama, 2013). 3. Business Structures 3.1 Developing Relationships

Hamlet Questions Answered Essay Example for Free

Hamlet Questions Answered Essay Question 1: Laertes and Polonius provide several explanations of their reasons for Ophelia to stop seeing Hamlet. Both their opinions appear to be unreasonable, which is evident through their oppressive and restrictive attitudes. Laertes believes Ophelia is beneath Hamlet on social level, therefore he voices that the prince’s, â€Å"choice must be circumscribed.† This is unreasonable as Laertes is diminishing Ophelia’s confidence by referring to the fact that Hamlet’s partner will be chosen for him, and Ophelia would not fit this role, or be considered for it. Laertes continues to refer to Hamlet in a negative matter, stating that his, â€Å"love,† is, â€Å"not permanent,† and, â€Å"the perfume and suppliance of a minute,† meaning it is brief, and temporary. Polonius also presents unreasonable arguments as to why Ophelia should stop seeing Hamlet. The hypocritical nature of Polonius is evident through his commands to Ophelia: â€Å"To thine own self be true,† which is later followed by, â€Å"you’ll tender me a fool.† It is clear that Polonius is only concerned with sculpting Ophelia to act a specific way to ensure that his own reputation is not tainted. Polonius states, â€Å"give every man thine ear, but few thy voice.† This also acts as a contrast to the previous statement, as Ophelia cannot be true to herself if she has to, â€Å"reserve,† her true self. Evidently, Polonius offers an unreasonable opinion to encourage the discontinuation of Ophelia’s relationship with Hamlet. Question 3: Both soliloquies voiced by Hamlet contain similar ideas and concepts, which are crucial to understanding the nature of his character. The two soliloquies present Hamlet as an isolated figure, which is seen by the language such as, â€Å"and thy commandment all alone shall live,† and, â€Å"break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.† These statements express the mental anguish Hamlet is experiencing in his, â€Å"distracted globe,† a metaphor for his scattered thoughts. The soliloquies also contain elements of hatred towards women. For Hamlet it particularly involves his mother, however he generalises his statement by voicing, â€Å"frailty, thy name is woman!† This is continued in his second soliloquy where Hamlet states, â€Å"O most pernicious woman!† Evidently Hamlet struggles to respect the role of women and the mannerisms of his mother, whom he refers to as a, â€Å"beast,† who married Claudius at a, â€Å"wicked,† speed. Question 6: Hamlet gives signs for potential madness in his first soliloquy, where he desires to commit suicide if it were not for the fact t hat â€Å"God† is, â€Å"’gainst self slaughter.† He refers to his hatred towards the world and it’s, â€Å"weary, stale, and unprofitable,† atmosphere. The negativity towards the nature of the world expressed by Hamlet provides a possible reason as to why he often isolates himself. Isolation is a dynamic that ultimately lead to madness, which is eventually what occurs with Hamlet. Furthermore, the audience obtains an indication of Hamlet’s potential for madness in the scene where he tells Horatio and Marcellus to, â€Å"swear,† their silence in relation to the ghost. Hamlet explains that he will put on an, â€Å"antic disposition,† which means he will, behave in a strange manner. The irony in this statement is that Hamlet does in fact go mad, and he announces this to Horatio and Marcellus as a means of giving himself permission to act, â€Å"out of joint.† Question 7: Claudius attempts to win over Denmark with his charming and manipulative behaviour, which is seen in the irony of his words: â€Å"Our dear brother’s death, the memory be green.† Claudius associates the death of his brother with new life and growth, so when the audience becomes aware of the, â€Å"unnatural,† and, â€Å"foul,† murder he committed, we are confronted with his wickedness. To establish his popularity Claudius repeatedly uses language that signifies national unity such as the, â€Å"jointress of this warlike state,† and â€Å"our heartsour whole kingdom.† This conscious work displayed by Claudius demonstrates his methodology in having Denmark view him as a compassionate and practical King. Question 8: There is a reference to the fact that Denmark is a Catholic country when the ghost states that he was, â€Å"cut off even in the blossoms of my sin/Unhousel’d, disappointed, unaneled;/no reckoning made† This provides evidence for Catholicism as the apparition was not able to confess his sins (died without the Last Rites). A second reference which expresses Denmark as a Catholic country is shown when Hamlet remarks, â€Å"O, that this too too solid flesh would melt/Thaw and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d/ His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter.† This excerpt indicates that Hamlet wished to commit suicide, but cannot as it is considered wrong in the eyes of God, therefore he would not be able to forgive himself in the afterlife. This is why Hamlet wishes he could, â€Å"melt,† which would save him from the guilt he would feel due to self-slaughter. Question 9: There are significant differences between the previous King Hamlet and King Claudius. The audience is given evidence that Old King Hamlet was a respectable and genuine leader through Prince Hamlet’s remark, â€Å"So excellent a king†¦so loving† It is clear the King Hamlet was honest and caring in all his actions; this contrasts with King Claudius’ character, who is scheming and power-hungry, so much so that he murdered his own brother, which he concealed due to his deceptive personality. King Hamlet tackled foreign policies openly and was so good a leader that he defeated Old Fortinbras, which had him take his land for the people of Denmark. King Claudius acts in a less honourable manner, where he leads Denmark on the basis of impressions, similar to politicians as seen in the modern age.

Types of Logistics Strategies

Types of Logistics Strategies Logistics Logistics is the art and science of managing and controlling the flow of goods, energy, information and other resources like products, services, and people, from the source of production to the marketplace. It is difficult to accomplish any marketing or manufacturing without logistical support. It involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, and packaging. The operating responsibility of logistics is the geographical repositioning of raw materials, work in process, and finished inventories where required at the lowest cost possible. 1- Overwiew of Logistics The word of logistics originates from the ancient Greek logos (), which means ratio, word, calculation, reason, speech, oration. Logistics as a concept is considered to evolve from the militarys need to supply themselves as they moved from their base to a forward position. In ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine empires, there were military officers with the title Logistikas who were responsible for financial and supply distribution matters. The Oxford English dictionary defines logistics as: The branch of military science having to do with procuring, maintaining and transporting material, personnel and facilities.Another dictionary definition is: The time related positioning of resources. As such, logistics is commonly seen as a branch of engineering which creates people systems rather than machine systems. Military logistics In military logistics, experts manage how and when to move resources to the places they are needed. In military science, maintaining ones supply lines while disrupting those of the enemy is a crucial-some would say the most crucial-element of military strategy, since an armed force without food, fuel and ammunition is defenseless. The Iraq war was a dramatic example of the importance of logistics. It had become very necessary for the US and its allies to move huge amounts of men, materials and equipment over great distances. Led by Lieutenant General William Pagonis, Logistics was successfully used for this movement. The defeat of the British in the American War of Independence, and the defeat of Rommel in World War II, have been largely attributed to logistical failure. The historical leaders Hannibal Barca and Alexander the Great are considered to have been logistical geniuses. 1. Logistics Management Logistics Management is that part of the supply chain which plans, implements and controls the efficient, effective forward and reverse flow and storage of goods, services and related information between the point of origin and the point of consumption in order to meet customers requirements. Business logistics Logistics as a business concept evolved only in the 1950s. This was mainly due to the increasing complexity of supplying ones business with materials and shipping out products in an increasingly globalized supply chain, calling for experts in the field who are called Supply Chain Logisticians. This can be defined as having the right item in the right quantity at the right time for the right price and is the science of process and incorporates all industry sectors. The goal of logistic work is to manage the fruition of project life cycles, supply chains and resultant efficiencies. In business, logistics may have either internal focus(inbound logistics), or external focus (outbound logistics) covering the flow and storage of materials from point of origin to point of consumption (see supply chain management). The main functions of a logistics manager include Inventory Management, purchasing, transport, warehousing, and the organizing and planning of these activities. Logistics managers combine a general knowledge of each of these functions so that there is a coordination of resources in an organization. There are two fundamentally different forms of logistics. One optimizes a steady flow of material through a network of transport links and storage nodes. The other coordinates a sequence of resources to carry out some project. Logistics as a concept is considered to evolve from the militarys need to supply themselves as they moved from their base to a forward position. In ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine empires, there were military officers with the title Log istikas who were responsible for financial and supply distribution matters. Production logistics The term is used for describing logistic processes within an industry. The purpose of production logistics is to ensure that each machine and workstation is being fed with the right product in the right quantity and quality at the right point in time. The issue is not the transportation itself, but to streamline and control the flow through the value adding processes and eliminate non-value adding ones. Production logistics can be applied in existing as well as new plants. Manufacturing in an existing plant is a constantly changing process. Machines are exchanged and new ones added, which gives the opportunity to improve the production logistics system accordingly. Production logistics provides the means to achieve customer response and capital efficiency 2. Commercial vehicle operation Commercial Vehicle Operations is an application of Intelligent Transportation Systems for trucks. A typical system would be purchased by the managers of a trucking company. It would have a satellite navigation system, a small computer and a digital radio in each truck. Every fifteen minutes the computer transmits where the truck has been. The digital radio service forwards the data to the central office of the trucking company. A computer system in the central office manages the fleet in real time under control of a team of dispatchers. In this way, the central office knows where its trucks are. The company tracks individual loads by using barcoded containers and pallets to track loads combined into a larger container. To minimize handling-expense, damage and waste of vehicle capacity, optimal-sized pallets are often constructed at distribution points to go to particular destinations. A good load-tracking system will help deliver more than 95% of its loads via truck, on planned schedules. If a truck gets off its route, or is delayed, the truck can be diverted to a better route, or urgent loads that are likely to be late can be diverted to air freight. This allows a trucking company to deliver a true premium service at only slightly higher cost. The best proprietary systems, such as the one operated by FedEx, achieve better than 99.999% on-time delivery. Load-tracking systems use queuing theory, linear programming and minimum spanning tree logic to predict and improve arrival times. The exact means of combining these are usually secret recipes deeply hidden in the software. The basic scheme is that hypothetical routes are constructed by combining road segments, and then poor ones are eliminated using linear programming. The controlled routes allow a truck to avoid heavy traffic caused by rush-hour, accidents or road-work. Increasingly, governments are providing digital notification when roadways are known to have reduced capacity. A good system lets the computer, dispatcher and driver collaborate on finding a good route, or a method to move the load. One special value is that the computer can automatically eliminate routes over roads that cannot take the weight of the truck, or that have overhead obstructions. Usually, the drivers log into the system. The system helps remind a driver to rest. Rested drivers operate the truck more skillfully and safely. When these systems were first introduced, some drivers resisted them, viewing them as a way for management to spy on the driver. A well-managed intelligent transportation system provides drivers with huge amounts of help. It gives them a view of their own load and the network of roadways. Components of CVO include: Fleet Administration Freight Administration Electronic Clearance Commercial Vehicle Administrative Processes International Border Crossing Clearance Weigh-In-Motion (WIM) Roadside CVO Safety On-Board Safety Monitoring CVO Fleet Maintenance Hazardous Material Planning and Incident Response Freight In-Transit Monitoring Freight Terminal Management 3. CONTAINERIZATION Containerization is a system of intermodal freight transport cargo transport using standard ISO containers (known as Shipping Containers or Isotainers) that can be loaded and sealed intact onto container ships, railroad cars, planes, and trucks. Containerization is also the term given to the process of determining the best carton, box or pallet to be used to ship a single item or number of items. ISO Container dimensions and payloads There are five common standard lengths, 20-ft (6.1 m), 40-ft (12.2 m), 45-ft (13.7 m), 48-ft (14.6 m), and 53-ft (16.2 m). United States domestic standard containers are generally 48-ft and 53-ft (rail and truck). Container capacity is measured in twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU, or sometimes teu). A twenty-foot equivalent unit is a measure of containerized cargo capacity equal to one standard 20 ft (length) Ãâ€" 8 ft (width) Ãâ€" 8 ft 6 in (height) container. In metric units this is 6.10 m (length) Ãâ€" 2.44 m (width) Ãâ€" 2.59 m (height), or approximately 38.5 m ³. These sell at about US$2,500 in China, the biggest manufacturer. Most containers today are of the 40-ft (12.2 m) variety and are known as 40-foot containers. This is equivalent to 2 TEU. 45-foot (13.7 m) containers are also designated 2 TEU. Two TEU are equivalent to one forty-foot equivalent unit (FEU). High cube containers have a height of 9 ft 6 in (2.9m), while half-height containers, used for heavy loads, have a height of 4 ft 3 in (1.3 m). When converting containers to TEUs, the height of the containers typically is not considered. The use of US measurements to describe container size (TEU, FEU) despite the fact the rest of the world uses the metric system reflects the fact that US shipping companies played a major part in the development of containers. The overwhelming need to have a standard size for containers, in order that they fit all ships, cranes, and trucks, and the length of time that the current container sizes have been in use, makes changing to an even metric size impractical. The maximum gross mass for a 20-ft dry cargo container is 24,000 kg, and for a 40-ft, (inc. the 2.87 m (9 ft 5 in) high cube container), it is 30,480 kg. Allowing for the tare mass of the container, the maximum payload mass is there reduced to approx. 21,600 kg for 20-ft, and 26,500 kg for 40-ft containers. Shipping Container History A container ship being loaded by a portainer crane in Copenhagen Harbour. Twistlocks which capture and constrain containers. Forklifts designed to handle containers have similar devices. A container freight train in the UK. Containers produced a huge reduction in port handling costs, contributing significantly to lower freight charges and, in turn, boosting trade flows. Almost every manufactured product humans consume spends some time in a container. Containerization is an important element of the innovations in logistics that revolutionized freight handling in the 20th century. Efforts to ship cargo in containers date to the 19th century. By the 1920s, railroads on several continents were carrying containers that could be transferred to trucks or ships, but these containers were invariably small by todays standards. From 1926 to 1947, the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railway carried motor carrier vehicles and shippers vehicles loaded on flatcars between Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois. Beginning in 1929, Seatrain Lines carried railroad boxcars on its sea vessels to transport goods between New York and Cuba. In the mid-1930s, the Chicago Great Western Railway and then the New Haven Railroad began piggy-back service (transporting highway freight trailers on flatcars) limited to their own railroads. By 1953, the CBQ, the Chicago and Eastern Illinois and the Southern Pacific railroads had joined the innovation. Most cars were surplus flatcars equipped with new decks. By 1955, an additional 25 railroads had begun some form of piggy-back trailer s ervice. The first vessels purpose-built to carry containers began operation in Denmark in 1951. Ships began carrying containers between Seattle and Alaska in 1951. The worlds first truly intermodal container system used purpose-built container ship the Clifford J. Rodgers built in Montreal in 1955 and owned by the White Pass and Yukon Route. Its first trip carried 600 containers between North Vancouver, British Columbia and Skagway, Alaska on November 26, 1955; in Skagway, the containers were unloaded to purpose-built railroad cars for transport north to the Yukon, in the first intermodal service using trucks, ships and railroad cars. Southbound containers were loaded by shippers in the Yukon, moved by truck, rail, ship and truck to their consignees, without opening. This first intermodal system operated from November 1955 for many years. A converted container used as an office at a building site. The widespread use of ISO standard containers has driven modifications in other freight-moving standards, gradually forcing removable truck bodies or swap bodies into the standard sizes and shapes (though without the strength needed to be stacked), and changing completely the worldwide use of freight pallets that fit into ISO containers or into commercial vehicles. Improved cargo security is also an important benefit of containerization. The cargo is not visible to the casual viewer and thus is less likely to be stolen and the doors of the containers are generally sealed so that tampering is more evident. This has reduced the falling off the truck syndrome that long plagued the shipping industry. Use of the same basic sizes of containers across the globe has lessened the problems caused by incompatible rail gauge sizes in different countries. The majority of the rail networks in the world operate on a 1,435mm (4ft 8 ½in) gauge track known as standard gauge but many countries like Russia, Finland and Spain use broader gauges while other many countries in Africa and South America use narrower gauges on their networks. The use of container trains in all these countries makes trans-shipment between different gauge trains easier, with automatic or semi-automatic equipment. Some of the largest global companies containerizing containers today are Patrick Global Shipping, Bowen Exports and Theiler Sons Goods, LLC. Loss at sea of ISO Containers Containers occasionally fall from the ships that carry them, something that occurs an estimated 2,000 to 10,000 times each year. For instance, on November 30, 2006, a container washed ashore on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, along with thousands of bags of its cargo of tortilla chips. Containers lost at sea do not necessarily sink, but seldom float very high out of the water, making them a shipping hazard that is difficult to detect. Freight from lost containers has provided oceanographers with unexpected opportunities to track global ocean currents. Double-stack containerization A Railroad car with a 20 tank container and a conventional 20 container. Most flatcars cannot carry more than one standard 40 foot container, but if the rail line has been built with sufficient vertical clearance, a well car can accept a container and still leave enough clearance for another container on top. This usually precludes operation of double-stacked wagons on lines with overhead electric wiring (exception: Betuweroute). Double stacking has been used in North America since American President Lines introduced this double stack principle under the name of Stacktrain rail service in 1984. It saved shippers money and now accounts for almost 70 percent of intermodal freight transport shipments in the United States, in part due to the generous vertical clearances used by US railroads ISO Container types Various container types are available for different needs General purpose dry van for boxes, cartons, cases, sacks, bales, pallets, drums in standard, high or half height High cube palletwide containers for europallet compatibility Temperature controlled from -25 °c to +25 °c reefer Open top bulktainers for bulk minerals, heavy machinery Open side for loading oversize pallet Flushfolding flat-rack containers for heavy and bulky semi-finished goods, out of gauge cargo Platform or bolster for barrels and drums, crates, cable drums, out of gauge cargo, machinery, and processed timber Ventilated containers for organic products requiring ventilation Tank containers for bulk liquids and dangerous goods Rolling floor for difficult to handle cargo Determining the best carton, box or pallet While the creation of the best container for shipping of newly created product is called Containerization, the term also applies to determining the right box and the best placement inside that box in order fulfillment. This may be planned by software modules in a warehouse management system. This optimization software calculates the best spatial position of each item withing such constraints as stackability and crush resistance 4. CROSS DOCKING Cross-docking is a practice in logistics of unloading materials from an incoming semi-trailer truck or rail car and loading these materials in outbound trailers or rail cars, with little or no storage in between. This may be done to change type of conveyance, or to sort material intended for different destinations, or to combine material from different origins. Cross docking is used to decrease inventory storage by streamlining the flow between the supplier and the manufacturer. Typical applications Hub and spoke arrangements, where materials are brought in to one central location and then sorted for delivery to a variety of destinations Consolidation arrangements, where a variety of smaller shipments are combined into one larger shipment for economy of transport Deconsolidation arrangements, where large shipments (e.g. railcar lots) are broken down into smaller lots for ease of delivery. Factors influencing the use of cross-docks Customer and supplier geography particularly when a single corporate customer has many multiple branches or using points Freight costs for the commodities being transported Cost of inventory in transit Complexity of loads Handling methods Logistics software integration between supplier(s), vendor, and shipper 5 .DISTRIBUTION Distribution is one of the four aspects of marketing. A distributor is the middleman between the manufacturer and retailer. After a product is manufactured it is typically shipped (and usually sold) to a distributor. The distributor then sells the product to retailers or customers. The other three parts of the marketing mix are product management, pricing, and promotion. Traditionally, distribution has been seen as dealing with logistics: how to get the product or service to the customer. It must answer questions such as: Should the product be sold through a retailer? Should the product be distributed through wholesale? Should multi-level marketing channels be used? How long should the channel be (how many members)? Where should the product or service be available? When should the product or service be available? Should distribution be exclusive, selective or extensive? Who should control the channel (referred to as the channel captain)? Should channel relationships be informal or contractual? Should channel members share advertising (referred to as co-op ads)? Should electronic methods of distribution be used? Are there physical distribution and logistical issues to deal with? What will it cost to keep an inventory of products on store shelves and in channel warehouses (referred to as filling the pipeline)? The distribution channel Channels A number of alternate channels of distribution may be available: Selling direct, such as via mail order, Internet and telephone sales Agent, who typically sells direct on behalf of the producer Distributor (also called wholesaler), who sells to retailers Retailer (also called dealer), who sells to end customers Advertisement typically used for consumption goods Distribution channels may not be restricted to physical products alone. They may be just as important for moving a service from producer to consumer in certain sectors, since both direct and indirect channels may be used. Hotels, for example, may sell their services (typically rooms) directly or through travel agents, tour operators, airlines, tourist boards, centralized reservation systems, etc. There have also been some innovations in the distribution of services. For example, there has been an increase in franchising and in rental services the latter offering anything from televisions through tools. There has also been some evidence of service integration, with services linking together, particularly in the travel and tourism sectors. For example, links now exist between airlines, hotels and car rental services. In addition, there has been a significant increase in retail outlets for the service sector. Outlets such as estate agencies and building society offices are crowding out traditional grocers from major shopping areas.. Channel members Distribution channels can thus have a number of levels. Kotler defined the simplest level, that of direct contact with no intermediaries involved, as the zero-level channel. The next level, the one-level channel, features just one intermediary; in consumer goods a retailer, for industrial goods a distributor, say. In small markets (such as small countries) it is practical to reach the whole market using just one- and zero-level channels. In large markets (such as larger countries) a second level, a wholesaler for example, is now mainly used to extend distribution to the large number of small, neighbourhood retailers In Japan the chain of distribution is often complex and further levels are used, even for the simplest . Channel structure To the various `levels of distribution, which they refer to as the `channel length, Lancaster and Massingham also added another structural element, the relationship between its members: Conventional or free-flow This is the usual, widely recognized, channel with a range of `middle-men passing the goods on to the end-user. Single transaction A temporary `channel may be set up for one transaction; for example, the sale of property or a specific civil engineering project. This does not share many characteristics with other channel transactions, each one being unique. Vertical marketing system (VMS) In this form, the elements of distribution are integrated. The internal market Many of the marketing principles and techniques which are applied to the external customers of an organization can be just as effectively applied to each subsidiarys, or each departments, internal customers. In some parts of certain organizations this may in fact be formalized, as goods are transferred between separate parts of the organization at a `transfer price. To all intents and purposes, with the possible exception of the pricing mechanism itself, this process can and should be viewed as a normal buyer-seller relationship. Less obvious, but just as practical, is the use of `marketing by service and administrative departments; to optimize their contribution to their `customers (the rest of the organization in general, and those parts of it which deal directly with them in particular). In all of this, the lessons of the non-profit organizations, in dealing with their clients, offer a very useful parallel. Channel Decisions Channel strategy Product (or service)CostConsumer location Channel management The channel decision is very important. In theory at least, there is a form of trade-off: the cost of using intermediaries to achieve wider distribution is supposedly lower. Indeed, most consumer goods manufacturers could never justify the cost of selling direct to their consumers, except by mail order. In practice, if the producer is large enough, the use of intermediaries (particularly at the agent and wholesaler level) can sometimes cost more than going direct. Many of the theoretical arguments about channels therefore revolve around cost. On the other hand, most of the practical decisions are concerned with control of the consumer. The small company has no alternative but to use intermediaries, often several layers of them, but large companies do have the choice. However, many suppliers seem to assume that once their product has been sold into the channel, into the beginning of the distribution chain, their job is finished. Yet that distribution chain is merely assuming a part of the suppliers responsibility; and, if he has any aspirations to be market-oriented, his job should really be extended to managing, albeit very indirectly, all the processes involved in that chain, until the product or service arrives with the end-user. This may involve a number of decisions on the part of the supplier: Channel membership Channel motivation Monitoring and managing channels Channel membership Intensive distribution Where the majority of resellers stock the `product (with convenience products, for example, and particularly the brand leaders in consumer goods markets) price competition may be evident. Selective distribution This is the normal pattern (in both consumer and industrial markets) where `suitable resellers stock the product. Exclusive distribution Only specially selected resellers (typically only one per geographical area) are allowed to sell the `product. Channel motivation It is difficult enough to motivate direct employees to provide the necessary sales and service support. Motivating the owners and employees of the independent organizations in a distribution chain requires even greater effort. There are many devices for achieving such motivation. Perhaps the most usual is `bribery: the supplier offers a better margin, to tempt the owners in the channel to push the product rather than its competitors; or a competition is offered to the distributors sales personnel, so that they are tempted to push the product. At the other end of the spectrum is the almost symbiotic relationship that the all too rare supplier in the computer field develops with its agents; where the agents personnel, support as well as sales, are trained to almost the same standard as the suppliers own staff. Monitoring and managing channels In much the same way that the organizations own sales and distribution activities need to be monitored and managed, so will those of the distribution chain. In practice, of course, many organizations use a mix of different channels; in particular, they may complement a direct salesforce, calling on the larger accounts, with agents, covering the smaller customers and prospects. Vertical marketing This relatively recent development integrates the channel with the original supplier producer, wholesalers and retailers working in one unified system. This may arise because one member of the chain owns the other elements (often called `corporate systems integration); a supplier owning its own retail outlets, this being forward integration. It is perhaps more likely that a retailer will own its own suppliers, this being backward integration. (For example, MFI, the furniture retailer, owns Hygena which makes its kitchen and bedroom units.) The integration can also be by franchise (such as that offered by McDonalds hamburgers and Benetton clothes) or simple co-operation (in the way that Marks Spencer co-operates with its suppliers). Alternative approaches are `contractual systems, often led by a wholesale or retail co-operative, and `administered marketing systems where one (dominant) member of the distribution chain uses its position to co-ordinate the other members activities. This has traditionally been the form led by manufacturers. The intention of vertical marketing is to give all those involved (and particularly the supplier at one end, and the retailer at the other) control over the distribution chain. This removes one set of variables from the marketing equations. Other research indicates that vertical integration is a strategy which is best pursued at the mature stage of the market (or product). At earlier stages it can actually reduce profits. It is arguable that it also diverts attention from the real business of the organization. Suppliers rarely excel in retail operations and, in theory, retailers should focus on their sales outlets rather than on manufacturing facilities ( Marks Spencer, for example, very deliberately provides considerable amounts of technical assistance to its suppliers, but does not own them). Horizontal marketing A rather less frequent example of new approaches to channels is where two or more non-competing organizations agree on a joint venture a joint marketing operation because it is beyond the capacity of each individual organization alone. In general, this is less likely to revolve around marketing synergy. LOGISTICS IN FOOD DISTRIBUTION Food distribution, a method of distributing (or transporting) food from one place to another, is a very important factor in public nutrition. Where it breaks down, famine, malnutrition or illness can occur. During some periods of Ancient Rome, food distribution occurred with the policy of giving free bread to its citizens under the provision of a common good. There are three main components of food distribution: Transport infrastructure, such as roads, vehicles, rail transport, airports, and ports. Food handling technology and regulation, such as refrigeration, and storage, warehousing. Adequate source and supply logistics, based on demand and need. Information logistics In general, it is exactly logistics of information. The field of information logistics aims at developing concepts, technologies and applications for need-oriented information supply. Information-on-demand services are a typical application area for information logistics, as they have to fulfil user needs with respect to content, location, time and quality Information Logistics consists of two words information and logistics. Information can mean a lot of things, but usually is text (syntax with a semantic meaning) and logistics which is the transportation of sth from point A to point B. In a simplified sense is a newsletter information logistics, also an e-mail or even the ordinary mail you receive. Information logistics is concerned with the supply of information to individuals and Types of Logistics Strategies Types of Logistics Strategies Logistics Logistics is the art and science of managing and controlling the flow of goods, energy, information and other resources like products, services, and people, from the source of production to the marketplace. It is difficult to accomplish any marketing or manufacturing without logistical support. It involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, and packaging. The operating responsibility of logistics is the geographical repositioning of raw materials, work in process, and finished inventories where required at the lowest cost possible. 1- Overwiew of Logistics The word of logistics originates from the ancient Greek logos (), which means ratio, word, calculation, reason, speech, oration. Logistics as a concept is considered to evolve from the militarys need to supply themselves as they moved from their base to a forward position. In ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine empires, there were military officers with the title Logistikas who were responsible for financial and supply distribution matters. The Oxford English dictionary defines logistics as: The branch of military science having to do with procuring, maintaining and transporting material, personnel and facilities.Another dictionary definition is: The time related positioning of resources. As such, logistics is commonly seen as a branch of engineering which creates people systems rather than machine systems. Military logistics In military logistics, experts manage how and when to move resources to the places they are needed. In military science, maintaining ones supply lines while disrupting those of the enemy is a crucial-some would say the most crucial-element of military strategy, since an armed force without food, fuel and ammunition is defenseless. The Iraq war was a dramatic example of the importance of logistics. It had become very necessary for the US and its allies to move huge amounts of men, materials and equipment over great distances. Led by Lieutenant General William Pagonis, Logistics was successfully used for this movement. The defeat of the British in the American War of Independence, and the defeat of Rommel in World War II, have been largely attributed to logistical failure. The historical leaders Hannibal Barca and Alexander the Great are considered to have been logistical geniuses. 1. Logistics Management Logistics Management is that part of the supply chain which plans, implements and controls the efficient, effective forward and reverse flow and storage of goods, services and related information between the point of origin and the point of consumption in order to meet customers requirements. Business logistics Logistics as a business concept evolved only in the 1950s. This was mainly due to the increasing complexity of supplying ones business with materials and shipping out products in an increasingly globalized supply chain, calling for experts in the field who are called Supply Chain Logisticians. This can be defined as having the right item in the right quantity at the right time for the right price and is the science of process and incorporates all industry sectors. The goal of logistic work is to manage the fruition of project life cycles, supply chains and resultant efficiencies. In business, logistics may have either internal focus(inbound logistics), or external focus (outbound logistics) covering the flow and storage of materials from point of origin to point of consumption (see supply chain management). The main functions of a logistics manager include Inventory Management, purchasing, transport, warehousing, and the organizing and planning of these activities. Logistics managers combine a general knowledge of each of these functions so that there is a coordination of resources in an organization. There are two fundamentally different forms of logistics. One optimizes a steady flow of material through a network of transport links and storage nodes. The other coordinates a sequence of resources to carry out some project. Logistics as a concept is considered to evolve from the militarys need to supply themselves as they moved from their base to a forward position. In ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine empires, there were military officers with the title Log istikas who were responsible for financial and supply distribution matters. Production logistics The term is used for describing logistic processes within an industry. The purpose of production logistics is to ensure that each machine and workstation is being fed with the right product in the right quantity and quality at the right point in time. The issue is not the transportation itself, but to streamline and control the flow through the value adding processes and eliminate non-value adding ones. Production logistics can be applied in existing as well as new plants. Manufacturing in an existing plant is a constantly changing process. Machines are exchanged and new ones added, which gives the opportunity to improve the production logistics system accordingly. Production logistics provides the means to achieve customer response and capital efficiency 2. Commercial vehicle operation Commercial Vehicle Operations is an application of Intelligent Transportation Systems for trucks. A typical system would be purchased by the managers of a trucking company. It would have a satellite navigation system, a small computer and a digital radio in each truck. Every fifteen minutes the computer transmits where the truck has been. The digital radio service forwards the data to the central office of the trucking company. A computer system in the central office manages the fleet in real time under control of a team of dispatchers. In this way, the central office knows where its trucks are. The company tracks individual loads by using barcoded containers and pallets to track loads combined into a larger container. To minimize handling-expense, damage and waste of vehicle capacity, optimal-sized pallets are often constructed at distribution points to go to particular destinations. A good load-tracking system will help deliver more than 95% of its loads via truck, on planned schedules. If a truck gets off its route, or is delayed, the truck can be diverted to a better route, or urgent loads that are likely to be late can be diverted to air freight. This allows a trucking company to deliver a true premium service at only slightly higher cost. The best proprietary systems, such as the one operated by FedEx, achieve better than 99.999% on-time delivery. Load-tracking systems use queuing theory, linear programming and minimum spanning tree logic to predict and improve arrival times. The exact means of combining these are usually secret recipes deeply hidden in the software. The basic scheme is that hypothetical routes are constructed by combining road segments, and then poor ones are eliminated using linear programming. The controlled routes allow a truck to avoid heavy traffic caused by rush-hour, accidents or road-work. Increasingly, governments are providing digital notification when roadways are known to have reduced capacity. A good system lets the computer, dispatcher and driver collaborate on finding a good route, or a method to move the load. One special value is that the computer can automatically eliminate routes over roads that cannot take the weight of the truck, or that have overhead obstructions. Usually, the drivers log into the system. The system helps remind a driver to rest. Rested drivers operate the truck more skillfully and safely. When these systems were first introduced, some drivers resisted them, viewing them as a way for management to spy on the driver. A well-managed intelligent transportation system provides drivers with huge amounts of help. It gives them a view of their own load and the network of roadways. Components of CVO include: Fleet Administration Freight Administration Electronic Clearance Commercial Vehicle Administrative Processes International Border Crossing Clearance Weigh-In-Motion (WIM) Roadside CVO Safety On-Board Safety Monitoring CVO Fleet Maintenance Hazardous Material Planning and Incident Response Freight In-Transit Monitoring Freight Terminal Management 3. CONTAINERIZATION Containerization is a system of intermodal freight transport cargo transport using standard ISO containers (known as Shipping Containers or Isotainers) that can be loaded and sealed intact onto container ships, railroad cars, planes, and trucks. Containerization is also the term given to the process of determining the best carton, box or pallet to be used to ship a single item or number of items. ISO Container dimensions and payloads There are five common standard lengths, 20-ft (6.1 m), 40-ft (12.2 m), 45-ft (13.7 m), 48-ft (14.6 m), and 53-ft (16.2 m). United States domestic standard containers are generally 48-ft and 53-ft (rail and truck). Container capacity is measured in twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU, or sometimes teu). A twenty-foot equivalent unit is a measure of containerized cargo capacity equal to one standard 20 ft (length) Ãâ€" 8 ft (width) Ãâ€" 8 ft 6 in (height) container. In metric units this is 6.10 m (length) Ãâ€" 2.44 m (width) Ãâ€" 2.59 m (height), or approximately 38.5 m ³. These sell at about US$2,500 in China, the biggest manufacturer. Most containers today are of the 40-ft (12.2 m) variety and are known as 40-foot containers. This is equivalent to 2 TEU. 45-foot (13.7 m) containers are also designated 2 TEU. Two TEU are equivalent to one forty-foot equivalent unit (FEU). High cube containers have a height of 9 ft 6 in (2.9m), while half-height containers, used for heavy loads, have a height of 4 ft 3 in (1.3 m). When converting containers to TEUs, the height of the containers typically is not considered. The use of US measurements to describe container size (TEU, FEU) despite the fact the rest of the world uses the metric system reflects the fact that US shipping companies played a major part in the development of containers. The overwhelming need to have a standard size for containers, in order that they fit all ships, cranes, and trucks, and the length of time that the current container sizes have been in use, makes changing to an even metric size impractical. The maximum gross mass for a 20-ft dry cargo container is 24,000 kg, and for a 40-ft, (inc. the 2.87 m (9 ft 5 in) high cube container), it is 30,480 kg. Allowing for the tare mass of the container, the maximum payload mass is there reduced to approx. 21,600 kg for 20-ft, and 26,500 kg for 40-ft containers. Shipping Container History A container ship being loaded by a portainer crane in Copenhagen Harbour. Twistlocks which capture and constrain containers. Forklifts designed to handle containers have similar devices. A container freight train in the UK. Containers produced a huge reduction in port handling costs, contributing significantly to lower freight charges and, in turn, boosting trade flows. Almost every manufactured product humans consume spends some time in a container. Containerization is an important element of the innovations in logistics that revolutionized freight handling in the 20th century. Efforts to ship cargo in containers date to the 19th century. By the 1920s, railroads on several continents were carrying containers that could be transferred to trucks or ships, but these containers were invariably small by todays standards. From 1926 to 1947, the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railway carried motor carrier vehicles and shippers vehicles loaded on flatcars between Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois. Beginning in 1929, Seatrain Lines carried railroad boxcars on its sea vessels to transport goods between New York and Cuba. In the mid-1930s, the Chicago Great Western Railway and then the New Haven Railroad began piggy-back service (transporting highway freight trailers on flatcars) limited to their own railroads. By 1953, the CBQ, the Chicago and Eastern Illinois and the Southern Pacific railroads had joined the innovation. Most cars were surplus flatcars equipped with new decks. By 1955, an additional 25 railroads had begun some form of piggy-back trailer s ervice. The first vessels purpose-built to carry containers began operation in Denmark in 1951. Ships began carrying containers between Seattle and Alaska in 1951. The worlds first truly intermodal container system used purpose-built container ship the Clifford J. Rodgers built in Montreal in 1955 and owned by the White Pass and Yukon Route. Its first trip carried 600 containers between North Vancouver, British Columbia and Skagway, Alaska on November 26, 1955; in Skagway, the containers were unloaded to purpose-built railroad cars for transport north to the Yukon, in the first intermodal service using trucks, ships and railroad cars. Southbound containers were loaded by shippers in the Yukon, moved by truck, rail, ship and truck to their consignees, without opening. This first intermodal system operated from November 1955 for many years. A converted container used as an office at a building site. The widespread use of ISO standard containers has driven modifications in other freight-moving standards, gradually forcing removable truck bodies or swap bodies into the standard sizes and shapes (though without the strength needed to be stacked), and changing completely the worldwide use of freight pallets that fit into ISO containers or into commercial vehicles. Improved cargo security is also an important benefit of containerization. The cargo is not visible to the casual viewer and thus is less likely to be stolen and the doors of the containers are generally sealed so that tampering is more evident. This has reduced the falling off the truck syndrome that long plagued the shipping industry. Use of the same basic sizes of containers across the globe has lessened the problems caused by incompatible rail gauge sizes in different countries. The majority of the rail networks in the world operate on a 1,435mm (4ft 8 ½in) gauge track known as standard gauge but many countries like Russia, Finland and Spain use broader gauges while other many countries in Africa and South America use narrower gauges on their networks. The use of container trains in all these countries makes trans-shipment between different gauge trains easier, with automatic or semi-automatic equipment. Some of the largest global companies containerizing containers today are Patrick Global Shipping, Bowen Exports and Theiler Sons Goods, LLC. Loss at sea of ISO Containers Containers occasionally fall from the ships that carry them, something that occurs an estimated 2,000 to 10,000 times each year. For instance, on November 30, 2006, a container washed ashore on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, along with thousands of bags of its cargo of tortilla chips. Containers lost at sea do not necessarily sink, but seldom float very high out of the water, making them a shipping hazard that is difficult to detect. Freight from lost containers has provided oceanographers with unexpected opportunities to track global ocean currents. Double-stack containerization A Railroad car with a 20 tank container and a conventional 20 container. Most flatcars cannot carry more than one standard 40 foot container, but if the rail line has been built with sufficient vertical clearance, a well car can accept a container and still leave enough clearance for another container on top. This usually precludes operation of double-stacked wagons on lines with overhead electric wiring (exception: Betuweroute). Double stacking has been used in North America since American President Lines introduced this double stack principle under the name of Stacktrain rail service in 1984. It saved shippers money and now accounts for almost 70 percent of intermodal freight transport shipments in the United States, in part due to the generous vertical clearances used by US railroads ISO Container types Various container types are available for different needs General purpose dry van for boxes, cartons, cases, sacks, bales, pallets, drums in standard, high or half height High cube palletwide containers for europallet compatibility Temperature controlled from -25 °c to +25 °c reefer Open top bulktainers for bulk minerals, heavy machinery Open side for loading oversize pallet Flushfolding flat-rack containers for heavy and bulky semi-finished goods, out of gauge cargo Platform or bolster for barrels and drums, crates, cable drums, out of gauge cargo, machinery, and processed timber Ventilated containers for organic products requiring ventilation Tank containers for bulk liquids and dangerous goods Rolling floor for difficult to handle cargo Determining the best carton, box or pallet While the creation of the best container for shipping of newly created product is called Containerization, the term also applies to determining the right box and the best placement inside that box in order fulfillment. This may be planned by software modules in a warehouse management system. This optimization software calculates the best spatial position of each item withing such constraints as stackability and crush resistance 4. CROSS DOCKING Cross-docking is a practice in logistics of unloading materials from an incoming semi-trailer truck or rail car and loading these materials in outbound trailers or rail cars, with little or no storage in between. This may be done to change type of conveyance, or to sort material intended for different destinations, or to combine material from different origins. Cross docking is used to decrease inventory storage by streamlining the flow between the supplier and the manufacturer. Typical applications Hub and spoke arrangements, where materials are brought in to one central location and then sorted for delivery to a variety of destinations Consolidation arrangements, where a variety of smaller shipments are combined into one larger shipment for economy of transport Deconsolidation arrangements, where large shipments (e.g. railcar lots) are broken down into smaller lots for ease of delivery. Factors influencing the use of cross-docks Customer and supplier geography particularly when a single corporate customer has many multiple branches or using points Freight costs for the commodities being transported Cost of inventory in transit Complexity of loads Handling methods Logistics software integration between supplier(s), vendor, and shipper 5 .DISTRIBUTION Distribution is one of the four aspects of marketing. A distributor is the middleman between the manufacturer and retailer. After a product is manufactured it is typically shipped (and usually sold) to a distributor. The distributor then sells the product to retailers or customers. The other three parts of the marketing mix are product management, pricing, and promotion. Traditionally, distribution has been seen as dealing with logistics: how to get the product or service to the customer. It must answer questions such as: Should the product be sold through a retailer? Should the product be distributed through wholesale? Should multi-level marketing channels be used? How long should the channel be (how many members)? Where should the product or service be available? When should the product or service be available? Should distribution be exclusive, selective or extensive? Who should control the channel (referred to as the channel captain)? Should channel relationships be informal or contractual? Should channel members share advertising (referred to as co-op ads)? Should electronic methods of distribution be used? Are there physical distribution and logistical issues to deal with? What will it cost to keep an inventory of products on store shelves and in channel warehouses (referred to as filling the pipeline)? The distribution channel Channels A number of alternate channels of distribution may be available: Selling direct, such as via mail order, Internet and telephone sales Agent, who typically sells direct on behalf of the producer Distributor (also called wholesaler), who sells to retailers Retailer (also called dealer), who sells to end customers Advertisement typically used for consumption goods Distribution channels may not be restricted to physical products alone. They may be just as important for moving a service from producer to consumer in certain sectors, since both direct and indirect channels may be used. Hotels, for example, may sell their services (typically rooms) directly or through travel agents, tour operators, airlines, tourist boards, centralized reservation systems, etc. There have also been some innovations in the distribution of services. For example, there has been an increase in franchising and in rental services the latter offering anything from televisions through tools. There has also been some evidence of service integration, with services linking together, particularly in the travel and tourism sectors. For example, links now exist between airlines, hotels and car rental services. In addition, there has been a significant increase in retail outlets for the service sector. Outlets such as estate agencies and building society offices are crowding out traditional grocers from major shopping areas.. Channel members Distribution channels can thus have a number of levels. Kotler defined the simplest level, that of direct contact with no intermediaries involved, as the zero-level channel. The next level, the one-level channel, features just one intermediary; in consumer goods a retailer, for industrial goods a distributor, say. In small markets (such as small countries) it is practical to reach the whole market using just one- and zero-level channels. In large markets (such as larger countries) a second level, a wholesaler for example, is now mainly used to extend distribution to the large number of small, neighbourhood retailers In Japan the chain of distribution is often complex and further levels are used, even for the simplest . Channel structure To the various `levels of distribution, which they refer to as the `channel length, Lancaster and Massingham also added another structural element, the relationship between its members: Conventional or free-flow This is the usual, widely recognized, channel with a range of `middle-men passing the goods on to the end-user. Single transaction A temporary `channel may be set up for one transaction; for example, the sale of property or a specific civil engineering project. This does not share many characteristics with other channel transactions, each one being unique. Vertical marketing system (VMS) In this form, the elements of distribution are integrated. The internal market Many of the marketing principles and techniques which are applied to the external customers of an organization can be just as effectively applied to each subsidiarys, or each departments, internal customers. In some parts of certain organizations this may in fact be formalized, as goods are transferred between separate parts of the organization at a `transfer price. To all intents and purposes, with the possible exception of the pricing mechanism itself, this process can and should be viewed as a normal buyer-seller relationship. Less obvious, but just as practical, is the use of `marketing by service and administrative departments; to optimize their contribution to their `customers (the rest of the organization in general, and those parts of it which deal directly with them in particular). In all of this, the lessons of the non-profit organizations, in dealing with their clients, offer a very useful parallel. Channel Decisions Channel strategy Product (or service)CostConsumer location Channel management The channel decision is very important. In theory at least, there is a form of trade-off: the cost of using intermediaries to achieve wider distribution is supposedly lower. Indeed, most consumer goods manufacturers could never justify the cost of selling direct to their consumers, except by mail order. In practice, if the producer is large enough, the use of intermediaries (particularly at the agent and wholesaler level) can sometimes cost more than going direct. Many of the theoretical arguments about channels therefore revolve around cost. On the other hand, most of the practical decisions are concerned with control of the consumer. The small company has no alternative but to use intermediaries, often several layers of them, but large companies do have the choice. However, many suppliers seem to assume that once their product has been sold into the channel, into the beginning of the distribution chain, their job is finished. Yet that distribution chain is merely assuming a part of the suppliers responsibility; and, if he has any aspirations to be market-oriented, his job should really be extended to managing, albeit very indirectly, all the processes involved in that chain, until the product or service arrives with the end-user. This may involve a number of decisions on the part of the supplier: Channel membership Channel motivation Monitoring and managing channels Channel membership Intensive distribution Where the majority of resellers stock the `product (with convenience products, for example, and particularly the brand leaders in consumer goods markets) price competition may be evident. Selective distribution This is the normal pattern (in both consumer and industrial markets) where `suitable resellers stock the product. Exclusive distribution Only specially selected resellers (typically only one per geographical area) are allowed to sell the `product. Channel motivation It is difficult enough to motivate direct employees to provide the necessary sales and service support. Motivating the owners and employees of the independent organizations in a distribution chain requires even greater effort. There are many devices for achieving such motivation. Perhaps the most usual is `bribery: the supplier offers a better margin, to tempt the owners in the channel to push the product rather than its competitors; or a competition is offered to the distributors sales personnel, so that they are tempted to push the product. At the other end of the spectrum is the almost symbiotic relationship that the all too rare supplier in the computer field develops with its agents; where the agents personnel, support as well as sales, are trained to almost the same standard as the suppliers own staff. Monitoring and managing channels In much the same way that the organizations own sales and distribution activities need to be monitored and managed, so will those of the distribution chain. In practice, of course, many organizations use a mix of different channels; in particular, they may complement a direct salesforce, calling on the larger accounts, with agents, covering the smaller customers and prospects. Vertical marketing This relatively recent development integrates the channel with the original supplier producer, wholesalers and retailers working in one unified system. This may arise because one member of the chain owns the other elements (often called `corporate systems integration); a supplier owning its own retail outlets, this being forward integration. It is perhaps more likely that a retailer will own its own suppliers, this being backward integration. (For example, MFI, the furniture retailer, owns Hygena which makes its kitchen and bedroom units.) The integration can also be by franchise (such as that offered by McDonalds hamburgers and Benetton clothes) or simple co-operation (in the way that Marks Spencer co-operates with its suppliers). Alternative approaches are `contractual systems, often led by a wholesale or retail co-operative, and `administered marketing systems where one (dominant) member of the distribution chain uses its position to co-ordinate the other members activities. This has traditionally been the form led by manufacturers. The intention of vertical marketing is to give all those involved (and particularly the supplier at one end, and the retailer at the other) control over the distribution chain. This removes one set of variables from the marketing equations. Other research indicates that vertical integration is a strategy which is best pursued at the mature stage of the market (or product). At earlier stages it can actually reduce profits. It is arguable that it also diverts attention from the real business of the organization. Suppliers rarely excel in retail operations and, in theory, retailers should focus on their sales outlets rather than on manufacturing facilities ( Marks Spencer, for example, very deliberately provides considerable amounts of technical assistance to its suppliers, but does not own them). Horizontal marketing A rather less frequent example of new approaches to channels is where two or more non-competing organizations agree on a joint venture a joint marketing operation because it is beyond the capacity of each individual organization alone. In general, this is less likely to revolve around marketing synergy. LOGISTICS IN FOOD DISTRIBUTION Food distribution, a method of distributing (or transporting) food from one place to another, is a very important factor in public nutrition. Where it breaks down, famine, malnutrition or illness can occur. During some periods of Ancient Rome, food distribution occurred with the policy of giving free bread to its citizens under the provision of a common good. There are three main components of food distribution: Transport infrastructure, such as roads, vehicles, rail transport, airports, and ports. Food handling technology and regulation, such as refrigeration, and storage, warehousing. Adequate source and supply logistics, based on demand and need. Information logistics In general, it is exactly logistics of information. The field of information logistics aims at developing concepts, technologies and applications for need-oriented information supply. Information-on-demand services are a typical application area for information logistics, as they have to fulfil user needs with respect to content, location, time and quality Information Logistics consists of two words information and logistics. Information can mean a lot of things, but usually is text (syntax with a semantic meaning) and logistics which is the transportation of sth from point A to point B. In a simplified sense is a newsletter information logistics, also an e-mail or even the ordinary mail you receive. Information logistics is concerned with the supply of information to individuals and

Across the Barricades is a novel written by Joan Lingard. Essay

Across the Barricades is a novel written by Joan Lingard. Across The Barricades 'Across the Barricades' is a novel written by Joan Lingard. It is set in the Belfast area in the 1970's. Catholics want Ireland to be all together and one country while Protestants want The Northern Ireland to stay part of Britain. The plot is about 'The Troubles' and a Protestant girl in love with a Catholic boy. Sadie (Protestant) and Kevin (Catholic) are separated by the divide. They meet (they used to know each other a while ago) and become close. This upsets their families and friends because they are from different sides of the divide. Kevin and Sadie get threats and Kevin gets beaten up as a result of this. Sadie know Mr Blake from high school. When Kevin goes to see Sadie, Mr Blake sees that Kevin is in need and so takes Sadie and Kevin to his house. After some time, Mr Blake gets too involved and so gets threats, nearly killed in a car and eventually killed by a petrol bomb. Kevin and Sadie become sick of Belfast and the violence and so leave. Kevin and Sadie realize that 'The Troubles' aren't going to go away and that there's no hope for change in the future. In this paragraph the importance of the characters will be discussed. Kevin McCoy is Catholic and works in Mr Kelly's scrapyard. Kate Kelly likes Kevin but Kevin loves Sadie. "Kate tried to cling to Kevin but most of the time she irritated him". Kate thus tries to get Kevin into trouble by telling the police about Brian's gun. "Underneath was a rifle and several rounds of ammunition. Brian wanted Kevin to rebel against the Protestants and use the gun but Kevin had rejected his thoughts. Brian then hid the gun in Mr Kelly's scrapyard. Kevin is then blamed f... ...escribes the violence. "There were disturbances in the night. Sound of gunfire, rumble of cars, shouting in the distance, flicker of flames against the night sky". This is a good example of imagery. I think the author is trying to imply that 'The Troubles' are not going to go away but will get worse by the language she uses to describe the areas and the activities. There are constant bombings and Mr Blake dies. Catholics and Protestants just send a bomb back every time something happens. Just now the violence has got worse, Joan Lingard was right! I don't think that the violence is going to get better because the deaths are constant as well as the trouble, people are trying to follow their beliefs by killing other people. There is always going to be the divide. Kevin and Sadie were right to leave, they realized that 'The Troubles' were getting worse.

Conflict resolution Essay

Portfolio is a collection of evidence, usually in written form that presents personal and professional development, by providing critical analysis of its contents (McMullen, et. al., 2003). A portfolio captures learning from experience, enables to measure learning, acts as a tool for reflective thinking, illustrates critical analytical skills and evidence of self-directed learning and provides a collection of detailed evidence of a person’s competence (Gray, et. al., 2004). For Dewey, reflective thinking consisted of two parts: a state of doubt and a search to resolve that doubt. Thus, constructing a portfolio is an act of revealing one’s beliefs. At the heart of portfolio development is purposeful choice making (Davis, et. al., 1997). This portfolio has been written as a part of the Post Graduate diploma in neonatal intensive Care nursing. The author will begin by providing an overview of reflection and mention the models used to guide this process. For the purpose of reflection the essay shall be written in the first person. I will reflect on one specific incident that I encountered in my experience as a neonatal nurse in one of the maternity hospitals which, I will analyse and discuss how it affected my practice. I will conclude by summarising my thoughts and reflections. For the purpose of data protection I have used pseudonyms when referring to those involved in the incident Agent-Based Manufacturing and Control Systems: New Agile Manufacturing Solutions for Achieving Peak Performance Massimo Paolucci and Roberto Sacile ISBN: 1574443364 Curing the Patch Management Headache Felicia M. Nicastro ISBN: 0849328543 Cyber Crime Investigator’s Field Guide, Second Edition Bruce Middleton ISBN: 0849327687 Disassembly Modeling for Assembly, Maintenance, Reuse and Recycling A. J. D. Lambert and Surendra M. Gupta ISBN: 1574443348 The Ethical Hack: A Framework for Business Value Penetration Testing James S. Tiller ISBN: 084931609X Fundamentals of DSL Technology Philip Golden, Herve Dedieu, and Krista Jacobsen ISBN: 0849319137 The HIPAA Program Reference Handbook Ross Leo ISBN: 0849322111 Implementing the IT Balanced Scorecard: Aligning IT with Corporate Strategy Jessica Keyes ISBN: 0849326214 Information Security Fundamentals Thomas R. Peltier, Justin Peltier, and John A. Blackley ISBN: 0849319579 Information Security Management Handbook, Fifth Edition, Volume 2 Harold F. Tipton and Micki Krause ISBN: 0849332109 Introduction to Management of Reverse Logistics and Closed Loop Supply Chain Processes Donald F. Blumberg ISBN: 1574443607 Maximizing ROI on Software Development Vijay Sikka ISBN: 0849323126 Mobile Computing Handbook Imad Mahgoub and Mohammad Ilyas ISBN: 0849319714 MPLS for Metropolitan Area Networks Nam-Kee Tan ISBN: 084932212X Multimedia Security Handbook Borko Furht and Darko Kirovski ISBN: 0849327733 Network Design: Management and Technical Perspectives, Second Edition Teresa C. Piliouras ISBN: 0849316081 Network Security Technologies, Second Edition Kwok T. Fung ISBN: 0849330270 Outsourcing Software Development Offshore: Making It Work Tandy Gold ISBN: 0849319439 Quality Management Systems: A Handbook for Product Development Organizations Vivek Nanda ISBN: 1574443526 A Practical Guide to Security Assessments Sudhanshu Kairab ISBN: 0849317061 Agent-Based Manufacturing and Control Systems: New Agile Manufacturing Solutions for Achieving Peak Performance Massimo Paolucci and Roberto Sacile ISBN: 1574443364 Curing the Patch Management Headache Felicia M. Nicastro ISBN: 0849328543 Cyber Crime Investigator’s Field Guide, Second Edition Bruce Middleton ISBN: 0849327687 Disassembly Modeling for Assembly, Maintenance, Reuse and Recycling A. J. D. Lambert and Surendra M. Gupta ISBN: 1574443348 The Ethical Hack: A Framework for Business Value Penetration Testing James S. Tiller ISBN: 084931609X Fundamentals of DSL Technology Philip Golden, Herve Dedieu, and Krista Jacobsen ISBN: 0849319137 The HIPAA Program Reference Handbook Ross Leo ISBN: 0849322111 Implementing the IT Balanced Scorecard: Aligning IT with Corporate Strategy Jessica Keyes ISBN: 0849326214 Information Security Fundamentals Thomas R. Peltier, Justin Peltier, and John A. Blackley ISBN: 0849319579 Information Security Management Handbook, Fifth Edition, Volume 2 Harold F. Tipton and Micki Krause ISBN: 0849332109 Introduction to Management of Reverse Logistics and Closed Loop Supply Chain Processes Donald F. Blumberg ISBN: 1574443607 Maximizing ROI on Software Development Vijay Sikka ISBN: 0849323126 Mobile Computing Handbook Imad Mahgoub and Mohammad Ilyas ISBN: 0849319714 MPLS for Metropolitan Area Networks Nam-Kee Tan ISBN: 084932212X Multimedia Security Handbook Borko Furht and Darko Kirovski ISBN: 0849327733 Network Design: Management and Technical Perspectives, Second Edition Teresa C. Piliouras ISBN: 0849316081 Network Security Technologies, Second Edition Kwok T. Fung ISBN: 0849330270 Outsourcing Software Development Offshore: Making It Work Tandy Gold ISBN: 0849319439 Quality Management Systems: A Handbook for Product Development Organizations Vivek Nanda ISBN: 1574443526 A Practical Guide to Security Assessments Sudhanshu Kairab ISBN: 0849317061

The kitchen, a realist text is written by Arnold Wesker, a naturalistic writer Essays

The kitchen, a realist text is written by Arnold Wesker, a naturalistic writer Essays The kitchen, a realist text is written by Arnold Wesker, a naturalistic writer Essay The kitchen, a realist text is written by Arnold Wesker, a naturalistic writer Essay Essay Topic: Literature The kitchen, a realist text is written by Arnold Wesker, a naturalistic writer. These terms have been used for many years now in conjunction with theatre. Their meanings have changed and very easily overlap with each other, just as the above quotes suggest; because of this the task of performing in the form of realism as opposed to naturalism is impossible. This suggests that in performance there is a real possibility of creating the desired effect without having to justify whether it is naturalistic or indeed realistic. Performing a section of the kitchen requires at least a basic understanding of these terms. Arnold Wesker gives a lengthy explanation of what he wants to see on stage, he goes to great detail to explain his restaurant and the people in it: The quality of food here is not so important as the speed with which it is served (Wesker 1960). Wesker continues to give character notes on each of his main 15 characters that are also accompanied by specific actions for many of them. Now directors, especially in the ever more contemporary theatre world we live in, will be tempted to ignore or change these notes to create their own aesthetic on stage. For me this would be criminal. When experimenting with the actions each character is given, by means of mime, possible cooking methods are extremely difficult to generate especially differentiating between actions. Extra research is needed to look at exactly how each dish is made in a real kitchen. Once we as performers have our own certain routines set out it is clear we need the correct amount of space to operate correctly. At this point we were fitted into positions within a given set. Already there is a performance in itself without even speaking a word of Weskers text, there were 6 people on stage miming actions with 3 others (the waitresses) coming in and out and occasionally tangling with these procedures. What are being produced are individual movements that form a type of group dance, the collaboration of the individuals fit together perfectly. Now does this portray a real life kitchen or is this just a version Weskers imaginary kitchen? Take a still position in a restaurants kitchen anywhere in Great Britain or of Europe, take away the sound of voice or music, take away even the food, what you are left with is of course a wonderful sequence of movements. In each kitchen there is a negotiating of space where usually several cooks and chefs work in restricted areas. Wesker in his directions creates the bones of a kitchen, from then on it is just building on that. John Dexter directed this for the Royal Court Theatre 1961 like a superb juggler, he keeps a huge cast weaving, reacting, colliding, in a faultless choreography. (Bernard Levin 1961). This is what we wanted to aspire to. The character notes become important in the next stage of our process. We down sized the cast and set because we did not have enough performers. Down staging the set as well was simply to attempt to keep with the atmosphere of a space challenged kitchen. We each had a main character to reference to. Ones who had particular accents were perfor med with an accent nearest to it. I played Peter boisterous, aggressive, too merry, and yet good-natured, I tried to perform exactly these qualities. Now this was obviously to become part of the routine of the cooking that was already fixed in my mind. This where a problem lies, a performer must show a character whilst still performing in this dance like sequence. Thankfully Peters character holds what I took as a get out clause by this I mean Peters forced laugh, pronounced Hya hya hya. (Wesker, A. 1961) This outrageous character trait allowed me to cover up any slip of technique in either showing the character or miming the cooking. It was so idiosyncratic that it would become normal to the kitchen and the spectators also. Peter sings a song also that is said to have a maniacal tone which is part of the whole kitchen atmosphere. Maniacal is something that is a clear desire for Wesker in this play. The popular representation of chefs and cooks even now is that they are all slightly insane and putting them in a kitchen excites this factor. Wesker even makes testimony to this within the text of the kitchen when Dimitri comments: Listen, you put a man in the plate room all day what else there is for him to do he wants to fight. As a performer this theme is certainly achievable just by use of voice. Varying a regular pace and volume level is just two ways in which to change the way lines are said to sound more crazy. However this we found was no where near enough to produce an atmosphere that was right for this performance. We looked at everything the pace of the movements, the sounds that are created through mime. We even added to mime real cooking utensils; this gave another variable that could be affected. The final performance consisted of these utensils that acted as an instrument that could be manipulated to yield a more rampant effect. The bashing of a saucepan with a wooden spoon holds a certain quality that can be used to build a beat. We had already decided to use a tape recording of an oven fumigator to set a permanent noise that would indeed be heard in a real kitchen. Dexter used similar techniques in his direction of the play. So now we have a background buzz that is a constant burden to performers and audience alike, we have an instrumental effect with the use of empty utensils and we have also got a movement sequence that involves the whole cast working as one. An explanation of a realist text would seemingly be nothing like the previous sentence but as the process of rehearsing The Kitchen it is clear that this is a quite intelligible way to go about it. Despite all the rehearsal techniques indicating a contemporary dance to unorthodox instruments, a bit like a performance of Stomp, the aesthetic on stage was clearly natural to us. We felt the general look was of a kitchen in full flow. We had the power to change the intensity and lunacy of the action and could therefore play with it to fit in line with the text. The only free space in his kitchen is at the very front of the stage this is where they come if they want to talk. Anyone speaking to them from the back of the kitchen has to shout Bamber Gascoigne talks here about another production of The Kitchen but is very relevant to our own production. There is a clear one-conversation-at-a-time problem that has to be addressed when introducing the text to the movement. The oven sounds drow ned out mumbling or whisper as in a real kitchen, so we did this and it looked normal. This is not a usual concept in theatre and yet was very effective in this production. The only clear speech an audience should here is the written text and that is achievable by using the space front stage as a conversation area just as Gascoigne points out but also to incorporate more of the shouted conversation. The kitchen area of a restaurant is full of shouting and cursing, orders are lost and this causes stress. As a group this is the most exciting point we investigated in performance. Wesker says The whole tempo of work is speeded up suddenly this is what we chose to look at. We began with the mild argument between Peter and his illegitimate girlfriend Monique at the end of part one and continued through the rush of orders. Of course Monique and Peter began front stage so they could be heard and seen clearly, this is an important part of the weak storyline that The Kitchen has. Most of what we see in terms of a story is where Monique and Peter are flirting or arguing. The rest of the plot seems to consist of work related talk. Whilst the exchange goes on we were keen to make sure the rest of the kitchen continued work as normal. The cooks continued their sequence and the isolated conversation was highlighted purely because it was away from the general flow of energy. As they rejoin the rest of the kitchen the energy increases very quickly, the change is instigated by our three waitresses. They are on their toes and shouting out orders which of course the cooks have to respond to vocally and physically. There were high intensity moments, for instance: Violet: Ive never worked like this before, never never. Peter: Too old, too old my sweetheart. Go home old woman for the young this work go home. At this point we used our performance time to show a rehearsal technique, and carried on performing but as improvisation reacting to waitress orders. The more orders the faster and more frantic it got. The Kitchen is a text that is as much a compositional piece as an accurate representation of a fully operational kitchen and we tried to show this. The characters and their personal description given by Wesker is important but not nearly as much as his comments and detailing of atmosphere and general running of the Trivoli restaurant. Obviously what our group created was working progress and to improve it would be to add more detail and choreography to everything including set and character exchanges. Our task was to create a realist performance, A play should be written in which people arrive, go away, have dinner, talk about the weather, play cards. Life must be exactly as it is and people as they are. (Chekhov, A. ). The problems we occurred are summed up with Weskers comment: the artist is dealing with what is absurd in reality in a naturalistic form (Wesker, A. 1965)

What extent do the news media fulfil Habermas definition of the public sphere Essays

What extent do the news media fulfil Habermas definition of the public sphere Essays What extent do the news media fulfil Habermas definition of the public sphere Essay What extent do the news media fulfil Habermas definition of the public sphere Essay The concept of the public sphere has had a long tradition, both in philosophy and also social sciences. The main understanding of the term is based on the work of the German sociologist Jurgen Habermas, whom provided a comprehensive analysis of the nature of the public sphere and also its historic transformations. Habermas defines ldquo;the public sphere as the network for communication and points of view, the streams of communication are, in the process, filtered and synthesised in such a way that they coalesce into bundles of topically specified public opinionsrdquo;. The public sphere is situated between households and the state. It is a space where free and equal citizens come together and share their opinions and information and also discuss their common concerns. Habermasrsquo;s social theory is interpreted as moving over the years from a Hegelian Marxist orientation to a sort of Kantian orientation, thought not without truth; this view underestimates the unity in his intellectual project. Kant occupies a central place as the theorist who offered the fullest articulation of the ideal of the bourgeois public sphere. However, in this public sphere practical reason was institutionalized through norms of reasoned conversations in which arguments or traditions were to be decisive. Even though, Habermas rejects Kantianrsquo;s theories, and its collary historical exaltation of philosophy as arbiter and foundation of all science and culture. In his current work he argues that something remains crucial from the Kantian view of modernity. nbsp;The notion of the public sphere is at the centre of participatory approaches to democracy. The public sphere is the arena where citizens come together and exchange opinions regarding public affairs, discuss and therefore form a public opinion. This arena can be a specified place where citizens gather for instance, town halls where they meet and deliberate these issues they feel needs looking into. This can also be a communication infrastru cture through which citizens send and receive information and their opinions. The public sphere can also be good governance, and without a good public sphere, government officials cannot be held accountable for their actions and citizens will not be able to assert any influence over political decisions. Moreover, the idea of a public sphere is normative since it is an ideal of good and accountable governance. Some historical roots of the public sphere will include the ancient Greeks where citizens directly participated in political discussions. The public life was tied to a specific local where their citizens will discuss and exchange their opinions on certain issues. European monarchies where the royal court was the public sphere and only the king would determine what should be said in public. Today, the public sphere is even more strongly tied to the media; it is also defined in relation to the mass media, since the mass media permits the circulation of information and also offers the conditions were forums can function. Internet and The Public Sphere; the internet is the single most important communication breakthrough of the latter half of the last century. It has revolutionalised how individuals communicate, access information including the mass media and how they respond to and comment on social and political issues. It has been argued that the internet facilitated the philosopher Jurgen Habermas. The internet is singularly the most important development in contemporary communication, which has produced a global public sphere. Every individual has direct access to global forums where they are capable of expressing their personal opinions and arguments without mediation or censorship. nbsp;Facebook and a vast number of blogs, chat rooms and discussion boards could fulfil the conditions of a public sphere as a forum for rational and critical debates. One of the theoretical perspectives is that Habermas argues that publicness or publicity of representation was not constituted as a social realm that is a public sphere; rather it was a status attribute. nbsp;Representation in the sense in which the members of a national assembly represent a nation. (Habermas, 1962). nbsp;Habermas goes on to argue that European society in the Middle Ages showed no indication of a public sphere as a unique realm distinct from a private sphere, and each stratum of power acted as mere spectators of the authority greater than theirs However, changes in the Europersquo;s political structure in the eighteenth century largely embodied in capitalist modes of production and the enlightenment philosophy culminated in the collapse of feudalism heralding the entry of the bourgeois into the centre stage. Whereas the feudal system which made no differences between the state and the society, private and public, the new social order defined the boundaries of state and private lives. More accurately a bourgeois public sphere where members of a property owning, educated reading public were engaged in rational debates on issues primarily relating to politics and literature (Habermas, 1989). Furthermore the bourgeois public sphere worn once again through structural and economic changes paving the way for what Habermas calls the modern mass society of the social welfare state, were critical debates the life blood of the public sphere has been replaced by leisure. In order words the state and society have become in twined into each otherrsquo;s sphere. Horkheimer and Adorno both argue that the change is the direct result of the mass produced, and the mechanically reproduce culture, which have been manufactures through structural changes in cultural industries. Horkheimer and Adorno suggest that the man with leisure have to accept that the cultural manufacturers offer him (Horkheimer and Adorno, 1995). Horkheimer and Adorno views are simply based on Marxist arguments which suggest the ideas of a ruling class are in every period the ruling ideas (Marx and Engels, 1976). These arguments suggest that the class which controls the means of material production also would control the means of mental production therefore the ideas of those who lack the means of production are subjected to it. Another sociologist called Antonio Gramsci argued the social groups attain hegemony; this is the dominance by inducing consent of the majority of the subaltern classes, the classes in the subordinate political position within a given social theatre. Horkheimer and Adornorsquo;s views on contemporary culture suggest the cultural industries treatment of culture as commodity and the mass media as a product filtered and packaged for customers based on the market statistics. This has created a media culture where every individual response has been carefully planned by the cultural manufacturers, since as this limits the possibility for any critical though outside of a prearranged equation. The contribution of cultural manufacturers including advertising and also public relations. Habermas arguments have manifested into refeudalisation of the public sphere, where the people in the public have been reduced to the status of spectators whilst the expert opinions have taken over the true public opinions. Every aspect of culture has been subjected to commercial imperatives of advertising entertainment and public relations and also the mass media to such an extent that any attempts of even creating the illusion of a public sphere by the mass media continue to be governed by bottom lined finances, therefore failing to conform to the broadest notions of public opinion in the public sphere. Moreover, public opinions published in mainstream media continue to be influenced by a series of commercial needs from availability of column space to consideration of possible increases to circulation figures. The internet is a freely accessible medium of mass communication; it has been introduced to this heavily commercialised theatre of mass communication and sparking great expectations in the publicrsquo;s minds that support the reinvigoration of the public sphere. Furthermore, it also should be stressed that while mass media have largely failed to create a public sphere, mass in itself at times play a very significant role in gaining and retaining democracy in numerous political threatens. It can also be argued that the internetrsquo;s potential in creating the public sphere can be and has to be harnessed by the public intellectuals, if the internet is to fulfil its potential as a forum for public spheres, this arguments can be presented in spite of the risk of over generalization as need for cyber analogues with the cafes and taverns which brought the intellectuals together, however creating an environment favourable for the sharing of ideas and hence the nourishment of a public sphere.

Business Intelligence Plan Essays

Business Intelligence Plan Essays Business Intelligence Plan Essay Business Intelligence Plan Essay Business Intelligence Plan Executive Summary The purpose of this report is to explain the importance of Business Intelligence and all of its components for implementation into the business structure. During the recent years obtaining useful information in real time has become something that is extremely important, if not even a critical, factor of success for companies. The time managers have available for use in making business decisions has been reduced dramatically. Competitive pressures are now requiring that businesses make intelligent decisions based on their incoming business data, and these decisions ust be made immediately (Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing, 2005, p. 5; Hocevar Jaklic, 2010, p. 91). Businesses are looking at tools that will enable them to keep up with technology and its swift movement throughout the business environment. The tool that will enable those managers to do this is called business intelligence. Due to the swift pace of todays business environment, these systems of business intelligence have become an almost indispensable part of the success of many organizations. With the aid of business intelligence, managers are able to fficiently and effectively detect important trends, analyze the behavior of customers and facilitate expedient decision-making (Hocevar Jaklic, 2010, p. 91). Business Intelligence is defined as a broad concept which includes the appropriate orientation of the entire organization. It deals with the acquisition, management and analysis of large amounts of data about business partners, products, services, customers and suppliers, activities and transactions between them (Lu Zhou, 2000, p. 3; Hocevar Jaklic, 2010, p. 92). The implementation plan provided will allow the stakeholders to nalyze the many different ways in which business intelligence will help the company grow. In this implementation there are several different structures that will assist the company with business intelligence. Areas covered will include a comprehensive review ot Business Intelligence, data sources and characteristics in the organization, data governance and quality overview, the selection of a data mining vendor, business analytics summary along with the selected vendor, Bl service provider value and provider selection, and lastly a business dashboard with the vendor comparison. Introduction to Business Intelligence According to Skriletz (2002) reviewing the principles behind Bl best practices and technology innovations reveals some interesting points about managing Bl strategically. The principles are to: Create stability in the basic structures of data fundamental for providing Bl and running the business. Ensure that each data element stands on its own as a fact or attribute. Keep an enterprise-wide focus, not a departmental, regional or other category focus. Make Bl not simply the analytical report, but the information a manager or executive needs in order to make an informed decision. Use several different Bl technologies that play well together. The organizational roles that will benefit from business intelligence (81) would be marketing managers, medical professionals, Logistic managers, campaign managers, HR managers, and also office managers. When effectively integrated into processes, Bl can help an organization meet mission-critical goals such as improving sales results, growing customer satisfaction, workflow processes, advancing corporate goals including sustainability management, cultivating return on investment, and saving lives (Felix, 2009). A component of Bl would be Data. This component is considered to be one of the key components of business intelligence. When implementing business strategies an important component most times is the data. Data is always created in order to derive at business decisions that are being made. The source of the data will also be extremely important and will aid in understanding trends and issues that exists for the business. Another component is the data quality. This is an essential component of Bl for arriving at valid business decisions. Similar data can be stored in multiple repositories within a single business; one example would be he inventory of items for sale. When considering data sources, it is important to understand if there is a recognized authoritative source for a specific type of data. In many enterprises, the data required for making business decisions is created by wide ranging applications, perhaps from separate lines of business (Theme 1). Bl systems today have the capacity to work with numerous types of data such as numerical or non-numerical data. The quality ot this data is as important as any other data. The difference in the level of data quality is one of the many factors that ay explain why some organizations are successful with their Bl initiative while some are not so successful (Isik, 0. , Jones, M. C. , Sidoroya, A. 2011). Component three is Data Analytics. This component is used for the analysis of data. Data analytics refers to the business intelligence technologies that are grounded for the most part in data mining and statistical analysis. Due to the success that has been achieved overall by the data mining and statistical analysis community, data analytics continues to be an active area of research (Hsinchun, Chiang, Storey, 2012). Data analytics are tructured in statistical theories and models, multivariate statistical analysis. It also covers other analytical techniques such as regression, factor analysis, clustering, and discriminant analysis that have been used and have been successful in innumerable business applications (Hsinchun, Chiang, Storey, 2012). Also, in order to create a Business Intelligence environment you would need to build an analytical data warehouse for managers. In many institutions, the most important decision metrics are calculated based on information obtained from numerous systems (Mircea Andreescu, 2009). An industry that could and probably does benefit from the application of business intelligence would be Industrial-organizational (1/0) Psychology. Psychological research is riddled with data that is essential to the outcome of the research being done. Data analytics and data quality is essential to research. In doing research there is much value that can be derived from the use of business intelligence. Because one of the components is data analytics this adds direct value to the research. Research is a compilation of data that is used for validating theories. Industrial-organizational psychologists help companies bring bout compliance and raise employees productivity in the workplace. They will also focus on the operation and design of organizations (Feldman, 2013). The scientific method in psychology require that the approach used by psychologists to systematically acquire knowledge and understanding about behavior and other phenomena of interest is done in a way that can be explained, seen, and proven with more accuracy (Feldman, 2013). The potential value that could be derived from its use is that you can achieve valid data, as well as being able to use the statistical data that s derived using methods such as factor analysis, clustering, and regression in a way that aids in achieving reliable data. For instance, if they are doing research on emotional intelligence because of using data quality and data analytics researchers may be able to find out how to have increased efficiency in communication that will lead to the resulting ability to establish mutually beneficial working relationships (Bennett, 2009). Business Intelligence adds value to the data that is being gathered by providing the 1/0 psychologists with a tool for providing the companies that they re working for researched data and valuable information that can aid in the enhancement of employee/employer relationships. It can also lead to improved decision making for the companies also. In the next section of this paper we will be discussing the data sources and also characteristics in the organization. This section will give some clarity on data and how it is used in Business Intelligence. Data Sources and Characteristics in the Organization The Term big data has emerged to describe the growth ot data along with systems and technology required to leverage it. As with many new technologies, the term has yet to be universally defined, but generally speaking, big data represents data sets such as structured and unstructured data that can no longer be easily managed or analyzed with traditional or common data management tools, methods and infrastructures (Rogers, 2011). Even today, the scope of big data is growing so rapidly. It is growing beyond niche sources to include sensor and machine data, transactional data, metadata, social network data and consumer authored information (Rogers, 2011). There is a lot of room for research opportunities that xists for Business Intelligence. It can be used for managing semi-structured information (Negash, 2004). Data Sources Structured data is going to be produced by a generally large amount of information that includes a vast amount of raw data. Structured data is anything that has an enforced composition to the atomic data types. Structured data is going to be managed by technology and it allows for querying and reporting against predetermined data types and understood relationships (Weglarz, 2004). Structured data typically resides in databases. Such data is organized into tables with columns nd rows of defined data types; relationships between various data fields and tables are clearly defined. Some of the most common are relational database management systems (RDBMS) that are capable of handling large volumes of data such as Oracle, IBM DB2, MS SQL Server, Sybase, and Teradata (Brannon, 2010). Unstructured data is going to consists of any data that is stored in an unstructured format at an atomic level. That is, in the unstructured content, there is a no conceptual definition and no data type definition in textual documents, a word is simply a word (Weglarz, 2004). Unstructured data is going to reside outside of structured databases. This data includes electronic documents, PowerPoint presentations, spreadsheets, email, images, schedules, IM logs, and Multimedia files, etc. This data will also usually reside on individual computers or on file servers (Brannon, 2010). HR Data Sources Human Resource (HR) collects and utilizes data as a direct result of their daily activities. They utilize unstructured data at a high volume and also have a high volume of structured data that they have to handle. They are collecting data on prospective employees, current employees, and even former employees. Information such as payroll, hours worked, vacation time, sick time, days absent, performance evaluations, pay grade, raises, age, date of birth, start date, end date, Job title, etc. need to be input and stored into a myriad of spreadsheets that exists within a database that is designated for that specific information. This activity of collecting information and inputting information leads to high volumes of workflows and massive amounts of related data (PemmaraJu, 2007). As HR is called on as a partner in corporate decision making, it must first began by taking inventory of what is being easured and how. HR first needs to make sure the right applications and technologies are in place. Even though human resource information systems are increasingly implemented, if the proper tools are not available to access the data in a meaningful way, the data collected is of little use. An abundance of data should never be confused with implementing true workforce analytics (PemmaraJu, 2007). Importance of Data Characteristics Business intelligence can attord an organization wit n the means to an end. There is so much data that needs to be taken into account when conducting business that it is rucial that a business has a way in which to maintain all information needed. When using Bl data characteristics will aid in the success of Bl. When making decisions in regards to business matters data characteristics will weigh heavily on the outcome of the decision. Having sound and effective data is going to be imperative. According to Sauter (2011, p. 3) good decision making means we are informed and have relevant and appropriate information on which to base our choices among alternatives. Data Characteristics Relevance One characteristic is the relevance of the data. Relevance of the data can be defined s a function of the choices and alternatives available to the decision makers (Sauter, 2011, p. 78). Relevance is going to be of value to the HR department because of the amount of information that they will have stored on each employee. Maintaining only needed information according to relevance is going to be essential to quality, timeliness, and storage space. Reliability Many will assume that the data is correct if they are included in the database; designers therefore need to ensure that they are accurate. They should always verify the input of the data and the integrity of the database (Sauter, 2011, p. 0). The value of data reliability is that there is time saved on time being spent with the periodical reports (report collecting, diverse consolidations and adjustments, reducing the amount of time spent on repetitive activities, reducing the part played by the IT department in generating reports in favor of the end-user and , the most important thing, reducing the time for decision making (Luminita Magdalena, 2009). Understandability According to Sauter (2011, p. 76) if decision makers cannot understand what is in the database and if the database lends itself to perceptual errors then the decision akers cannot use it effectively. The key is going to be simplifying the representation in the database without losing the meaning of the data. The value that this will add to HR is that it will save time when they are attempting to make decisions when hiring, firing and going over information that is being used for assessments and benefits. Summary These data sources and characteristics can provide the HR industry with tools that will assist them in effectively using Business Intelligence. Because there are many different sources and characteristics it is essential that businesses know the value of having this information. There is so much information out there and so much information and data that we have to rely on. The importance of data and its structure should always be utilized with reverence to the business. Protection from too much information and providing access to useful data without overwhelming or misleading is going to be a valuable asset to any business (Sauter, 2011, p. 85). Having useful information is key to helping the decision makers make sound decisions for the business. This next section will discuss data governance and quality overview. The importance of both will be seen in this section providing the rganization with valuable information in regards to this area of Business Intelligence. Data Governance and Quality ta governance will assist the company in ascertaining power over now intormation is handled. This will give assurance to those within the organization that the company is being managed in the proper manner when it comes to processing and handling information. When data governance is incorporated into the business process the company can better monitor issues. Data governance is also about teamwork and helping those within the company to work together in a more consistent and orderly method. According to Sarsfield, (2009, p. 153) the choice about data governance is one about hearing the voices of your people within the organization. The sound of bad harmonization and discord can be heard loudly in companies that dont listen to it. Its only when you harmonize the voices of technologists, executives and business teams that it allows you to product a beautiful song; one that can bring your company teamwork, strategic direction and profit. Data governance is going to be important to the existence of the company. It is going to help the company more effectively manage our data and treat it like the valuable nterprise asset it is. In all actuality effective data governance isnt going to be Just about data at all. Its also about changing how the company views its data (Griffin, 2011, p. 11-12). Data governance will assist with the guarantee that our data can be trusted and that people can be made accountable for any adverse event that happens because of poor data quality. It is about the company putting people in charge of fixing and preventing issues with data, so that the enterprise can become more efficient (Sarsfield, 2009, p. 38). Having said that governance of company stakeholders will be essential to the company and its goals. In order to effectively implement governance there needs to be a governance team in place. One critical step in establishing a data governance program is identifying the owner of each type of data. Once you can link data quality to the processes and people that generate the data, you can get accountability for on-going maintenance (Badrakhan, 2010, p. 36). Organizational Roles The organization roles will include a cross-functional team along with the Board of Directors, CEO/President, COO, VP Finance and Operations, and a chief data office (CDO). Board of Directors The role of the board should be set down in the organization by-laws. So too must the policies and procedures be established and documented. These will differ between organizations, but it is important that all board members be informed of their expected roles and responsibilities at the beginning of their term. CEO/President The CEOs main duty is setting strategy and vision. The CEO ultimately sets the direction of the organization. The CEO decides, sets budgets, forms partnerships, and hires a team to steer the company accordingly. COO Through a respectful, constructive and energetic style, guided by the objectives of company, the COO provides the leadership, management and vision ecessary to ensure that the company has the proper operational controls, administrative and reporting procedures, and people systems in place to effectively grow the organization and to ensure financial strength and operating efficiency (www. shrm. org). VP Finance and Operations In this role the VP Finance and Operations will advise the president and other key members of senior management on financial planning, budgeting, cash flow, investment priorities, and policy matters. They will also serve as the management liaison to the board and audit committee, while continuing to ettectively communicate and present critical financial matters at elect board of directors and committee meetings (www. bridgespan. org). The CDO or equivalent position should have real accountability and may exist at either or both of the group and the divisional levels depending on the culture and strength of the bonds between the business units. There will also be principles set forth and they will become the key performance indicators (KPIs). The role and the budgets should include an element expressed in terms of the selected information currencies. Apart from the authority that the role needs to carry though a senior executive reporting ine, the office of the CDO should have direct accountability to the board and specifically the audit subcommittee or its equivalent (Hillard, 2010, p. 24). Data governance for the stakeholders can lead to effective compliance with government regulation, improved customer satisfaction, improved market position, cost reduction, improved business intelligence reporting, and the ability to respond faster to business change (Waddington, 2010, p. 5). Data quality is going to be an essential aspect of data governance; therefore the company is going to need to place a great amount of emphasis on measuring data quality. Success in a Business Intelligence environment will require that people in the organization and the team trust the results they receive. This can only be accomplished if the data meets quality expectations set forth by the data governance team and it is clearly understood by the business and its community (Geiger, 2010, p. 37). A detriment of poor data quality might be when information is put into the computer by someone for the purpose of obtaining a number that provides them with how much to charge someone for something like insurance. If the age is incorrect then that could cause the rates to be ither higher or lower because age is an important part of the quoting process. So for instance if someone was to put 21 instead of 41 in the system for the persons age that could cause their rates to go up because of the level of experience that is sometimes equated to the age. Not knowing that there is an error in the data could cause the company to lose business because the person feels that the quote is too high. Data governance will provide standards that will be set forth in regards to the data quality. There are going to be three key elements that exist for data quality measurements. They should be applied to the data residing in the database. They are completeness, compliance, and accuracy. The completeness measure provides a count of how many records in a data set are missing one or more details. The compliance counts the records that fail to meet business rules on each record. The accuracy measure estimates using statistical and other techniques whether there are likely to be errors in the data set (Hilliard, 2010, p. 160). These elements will aid in assisting the team with data governance. The goal of data governance is not Just to clarify who owns data but also to optimize its value. The data itself is merely the means to the desired end of improved business performance. Accordingly, the responsibility for data governance efforts should fall at least as much on the business as it does on IT?and preferably more (wmw. nformatica. com). Data governance will provide the business with proper guidelines in order to effectually operate. Data governance is also key to providing sufficient data quality. The implementation of data governance through business intelligence will ultimately provide the company with a tool to monitor and sustain efficient data quality. The next section will iscuss data mining and also obtain a choice tor a vendor that will provide the organization with what it needs in order to effectively launch a successful Bl implementation. Data Mining Data Mining is considered to be a deeper search in the source data. It is also known as knowledge discovery in large databases. It is very a very powerful instrument that can often be used to extract useful information. Many times the knowledge can be considered to be previously unknown valid and the same time operational. The extracted knowledge has to be translated and applied in reality. Data Mining is going o be different from some of the other data processing for data analysis, such as data query, reports, OLAP etc. Information obtained through Data Mining techniques can be predictive or descriptive. Predictive information is used to describe an event, such as the possibility of fraud (Emil Claudia, 2010, p. 806). Given a data set, the data mining process is going to start off with elementary data analysis. It will allow the analyst to understand the characteristic of the attributes of the data set (dependency, ranges, max, min, count, average, standard deviation, quartiles, outliers, etc. ). The data set is then going to be divided into a training set and a testing and validation data set (holdout). The training data set is used to build the mining structure and associated mining models. If a model is valid and its accuracy is acceptable, it is then used for prediction Oafar, 2010, p. 17). Data mining is also a valuable tool in decision report and uses algorithms and statistics to analyze large data sets. Data mining is going to connect data to the business practice. It can also be used in business to understand customers. Data mining is going to measure what the business knows and what they should know. Data Mining has proven to be highly effective in addressing business problems. By taking advantage of the information treasures in a data mine companies are able to fit pieces of information together to solve their most challenging business puzzles and those of their clients. If you use data mining to support business planning and decision making you are able to put together the vast amount of data in order to see the big picture (Mehok, 2013, p. 83). The two data mining vendors to choose from are Weka (Pentaho) and RapidMining. Both will offer some great qualities that will only add to the success of the rganization. RapidMining The first vendor is RapidMining. RapidMining is a product of Rapid-I. Rapid-I offers software and services for business analytics. The company was founded in 2006, and is headquartered in Dortmund, Germany. It has been in development since 2001. The company has more than 30 partners on all continents, 3 million production downloads, more than 35,000 production deployments and more than 400 customers in more than 40 countries (rapid-i. om). RapidMining is data mining software that offers a complete package to its users. The software is easy to use and install. Installation usually takes about five minutes. It is considered open source software. It is one of the most comprehensive data mining solutions that offer data integration, transformation, and modeling methods. It is a complete business intelligence solution. RapidMiner is a complete business analytics workbench with strong foc us on data mining, text mining, and predictive analytics. It uses a wide variety of descriptive and predictive techniques to give you the insight to make profitable decisions. There are no software license fees and it offers flexible and affordable support options. Fast development is available even when highly complex data mining processes exist. RapidMiner also offers guaranteed operational reliability. RapidMining offers one tool for all task involved allowing the processes to interact with one another and be transformed for integration with a few clicks ( rapid-i. com). Some of the mining methods offered are stream mining, In-database-mining, and Radoop. For stream mining instead of holding complete data sets in the memory, only parts of the data are taken through an analysis process and the part results aggregated in suitable location later on. Instead of taking the data to the algorithm n-database-mining supports taking the algorithms to the data. Radoop is the worlds first graphical connection of Hadoop for the handling of big data analytics, meaning that even terabytes and petabytes of data can be transformed and analyzed (www. Rapid-l. om) Weka (Pentaho) The second vendor is Weka. Weka was originally created in 1993 at the University of Waikato in New Zealand and was available on sourceforge. net since 2000. The Weka project was established by the University of Waikato as a platform for the research and testing of advanced machine learning techniques. Since that time, Weka has eveloped a large and loyal following in both academic and industry c ircles, and has been downloaded more than 600, 000 times (www. pentaho. com). Sometime in 2006 Pentaho Corp. , acquired the Weka open source data mining project. Pentaho is considered to be one of the worlds largest open source business intelligence suites out there. Weka is currently widely used as a great tool for data mining. It has what they call an open source code and it can be used for machine learning and it can also be used for mining large datasets. Machine learning algorithms will aid in finding significant consistencies in large data sets. Weka is easy to use and easily accessible. Weka is considered open source software and it is issued under the GNU General Public License. Organizations use Wekas data mining tools to understand relationships between internal factors like price, product placement, or staff skills as well as external factors like economic indicators, competition, and target market demographics; analyze the impact of potential changes to critical business metrics like sales volumes, customer loyalty, and profitability; and perform business-critical calculations such as market-basket analysis, customer segmentation, pricing ptimization and fraud detection (www. pentaho. com). Weka (Waikato Environment for Knowledge Analysis) is an ensemble of data mining algorithms written in Java. These algorithms can either be applied directly to a dataset using the Weka explorer or called from your own modified Java code. It contains tools for data pre-processing, classification, regression, clustering, association rules, and visualization and can be used to develop new machine learning schemes (NA, Weka, 2010). The main point of integration between WEKA and the Pentaho platform is with Pentaho Data Integration PDI), also known as the Kettle proJect4. PDI is a streaming, engine driven ETL tool. Its rich set of extract and transform operations, combined with support for a large variety of databases, are a natural complement to WEKAS data filters. PDI can easily export data sets in WEKAS native ARFF format to be used immediately for model creation (Hall, M. , Frank, E. , Holmes, G. , Pfahringer, B. , Reutemann, P. , Willten, nd). Vendor Choice The suggested data mining vendor choice is Weka (Pentaho). This would be a great vendor to use tor our organization because ot what it otters in i s sottware. It offers an extensive amount of features and we can expect that any data sets used we will receive a thorough and extensive mining process that will assist the business in looking at customer loyalty, items being used by customer, customer concerns, along with monetary values. All features of business intelligence will be supported including web services, workflow integration, security, auditing, scheduling, navigation, portal integration, workbench-based designer and administration tools Oira. pentaho. com). Business Analytics Summary and Vendor Selection Companies are increasingly delivering value through business analytics (BA), which includes the people, processes and technologies that turn data into the insights that drive business decision and actions. Organizations with enterprise BA capabilities establish a sound foundation of high-quality, usable and integrated data. Business users identify insights from the data, make decisions and solve important business problems, thereby triggering actions that generate a wide range of tangible and intangible business value (Wixom, Yen, Relich, 2013, p. 11). Some vendors that utilize business analytics are SAS and Oracle. Both vendors supply a product that provides businesses with valuable tools that will assist them with queries, reporting and advanced analytics software. Business analytics is the most advanced component of business intelligence. Having an analytic capability will enable fact- based decisions using quantitative models. These models will ultimately draw on statistical and quantitative analysis of large data repositories. An analytic capability is especially critical in healthcare because lives are at stake and there is intense pressure to reduce costs and improve efficiency (Ghost Scott, 2011). An analytic apability drives fact-based management decisions and actions with extensive use of data, statistical and quantitative analysis, explanatory and predictive models [Davenport and Harris, 2007]. Success with advanced analytics is highly dependent on the quality and completeness of the data subject to analysis, as well as the sophistication of the algorithms and models on which analyses depend [Adams et al. 2010]. The availability of high quality data and technology needs to be coupled with organizational routines and individual skills for an analytic capability (Shanks et al. , 2010; Ghost Scott, 2011). There are some key components to todays business analytics solutions they are data and text mining, Data visualization, Forecasting, Operations Research and Analysis, Quality improvement, and Statist ical analysis. Data and text mining is one that e