Educational Service Journal Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Educational Service Journal - Assignment Example The Floor was dusty, and the walls were made of mud. In my class, I did not have students with a special need but nearly all the students were communicating in the mother tongue. The school students had a unique culture of punishing students, for example, if a student made noise in class; he was to carry a pan having all the utensils in and run all around the field five times. This culture did not value all students, and I was of a different race I would not be comfortable in the school. During classes and on playgrounds, students divided themselves basing on their cultures. Yes, in peers there was a bigger discrimination rate, and if anything that will bring them is done then they will interact. The Parent Teacher Association (PTA) meeting are held, and parents are involved and shown how their children are stuck in cultural values. The school at large struggles with the eradication of culture by mingling the students in class and within the playgrounds among the varying cultural disposition. This attempt by the school has helped much because there was a smaller cultural difference in the whole school. In any normal class, boys get boredom faster they seem not to corporate anymore compared to their colleagues; girls. When it reaches that point, I let them go and play for some minutes. Girls do cooperate actively with each fully. Girls are hyperactive, and whenever any question is asked, they are the first to answer and when given an assignment they finish in time. Boys and girls do not play together; they stay separate and play separately. With time, this trend will change when they have reached certain age levels. Equality is a uniform factor, so when dealing with either boys or girls, dealing with them in the same discipline should apply to treatment, treat them equally without any favor. The school culture and the official curriculum do not promote cultural awareness.  

e-Learning systems Essay Example for Free

e-Learning systems Essay Online learning or e-Learning refers to the application of electronic technology for the delivery of instructional content or knowledge domains. Beamish et al. defines e-Learning as: â€Å". . . a wide set of applications and processes allied to training and learning that includes computer-based learning, online learning, virtual classrooms and digital collaboration. These services can be delivered by a variety of electronic media, including the intranet, internet, interactive TV and satellite † Despite the great flexibility and wide range of tools that e-Learning provides to imparting education, the implementation of such can be a complicated and complex undertaking. Likewise, online learning it can be a frustrating task for both the students and the teachers alike. A number of personal barriers affect students and teachers alike in any online learning system. Personal Barriers of Students The nature of the course content is greatly affected by the technology that is within the access of the students. Students may simply not have the required bandwidth to access high-end multimedia content. The course designer has to tailor the contents to suit the technology availability of the students. This is especially true of e-Learning courses catering to international students scattered all over the world. Due to the limits that technology brings, it is but inevitable that the universities and schools have several restrictions for the students that is conveyed to them during the admission process. In fact, many universities take special care to ensure prior to registration that their respective e-Learning course content is accessible to the students. â€Å"Technical infrastructure deficiencies on the student side can impede course activities, especially in an online distance-learning environment† (Arabasz 42). The proficiency level of the student in using ICT tools would enhance or undermine his e-Learning experience to a great extent. In the international context it would be unwise to expect uniform familiarity with ICT usage. A student, previously not exposed to ICT, will therefore not only have to handle the course requirements, but will also have to acquire the necessary skills in ICT to pursue the course effectively. From the learner perspective, literacy and IT skills, aptitude for self-direction, confidence, and motivation in participating in the online courses have also been identified as potential barriers to effective online learning (Australian Institute for Social Research 15). The factor that students have to study alone in an e-Learning system has caused certain issues to arise. Many perceive this isolation as disadvantageous to the development of e-Learning systems for higher education. Brouner and Flowers even suggested that the lack of human interactions due to the technology introduced into higher education would have to be compensated by increased human contact . The e-Learning environment lacks the discipline and time regulations imposed on students in conventional education. This requires students to be more motivated, better time managers and more attentive during e-Learning sessions.

The issues facing corporate social responsibility

The issues facing corporate social responsibility Corporate Social Responsibility is a universal concept that represents the good, desirable business behaviour. It transmit to what extent it is judge morally or ethically good for CSR. Corporate Social Responsibility is a standard of corporate behaviour which is socially broad in its behaviour(Carroll,1999).Corporate Social Responsibility is also define as the company`s Voluntary/discretionary relationship with its societal and community stakeholders(Woddock,2004).In other words Corporate Social Responsibility is a commitment to improve social well being through proper judgment of business practices and contribution of corporate resources(Nanc Lee and Philip Kotler, 2005). Introduction: Its is a concept where organisations consider the interests of the society by having the knowledge and responsibility of the force of their activities on customers, employees, shareholders, communities and the environment in all aspects of their operations(D Wood, 1991). This requirement is seen to extend beyond the legal responsibility to comply with legislation and sees organizations freely taking more steps to enhance the quality of life for their employees and their families on the other side they are also doing community and society work in large scale. Growth and Analysis of Corporate Social Responsibility : Business ethics is that form of Applied ethics that examines the ethical progress and principles of any business that can arise unfortunately in a business. In this 21st century businesses are getting more and more advance as by adapting the Corporate Social Responsibility in their business and its is increasing day by day hence providing more ethical businesses processes. All together, more force is applied on industries for bringing improvement in there business ethics through there new public laws (e.g Higher road tax for vehicles that produces higher-emission on roads). Business ethics has both normative and descriptive effect. As a commercial practice and a career specialization, the field is primarily normative. In academia descriptive approaches are also taken. The Business progress and work done shows range and quantity of business ethical issues describes the ways in which business is professed to be at non positive value with non-economic social principles. For Example : Now a days a lot of commercial and non commercial websites rely on commitment for promoting non-economical social principles under the range of headings like ethics codes, social responsibility charters. In some cases organisation and corporations again consider there main values and principles in the view of business ethical considerations. e.g BP`s beyond petroleum environment angle.Corporations reconsider their core values in view of business ethical considerations like BPs beyond petroleum environmental angle. Corporate Social Responsibility become common in 1970s but is was really condensed. Marks Spencer is also using Corporate Social Responsibility in the community with the help of building a trade network with the community by providing sold fair pricing in purchases. Corporate Social Responsibility Risk in Implementing : Risk management is the main element of any business that involves risk strategies. Reputations that take years to build up can be washed out in hours through activities such as fraud scandals activities. These occurrences can also draw unwanted attention from governments, courts etc. Developing a pure culture of doing the correct thing at the right time in the corporation can limit these risks. Difference Between Brand : In fully jam-packed marketplaces companies do there best for a unique selling objective which separate them from competitive minds. Corporate Social Responsibility can play a vital role in developing consumer satisfaction based on their ethical values( Paluszek, John (April 6-7,2005). Some big brands like The Body Shop and American Apparel (Dr. Tantillo`s Marketing Doctor Blog, March 28 2008) have build on ethical values. Service organisations can also take benefit from developing there reputation for there honour and best practice, so all the businesses have to have responsible for their environment. Corporate Social Responsibility Effects Negative Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) or commercial citizenship entails companies behaving in a socially liable manner, and dealing with other business corporation which also do the same . As the public sector and businesses are getting aware of Corporate Social Responsibility CSR, they take care of taking corporate social responsibility into consideration when planning for future out comes to become a socially responsible, otherwise the business has to face wrong feedback in the shape of company getting effected . Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility on Public : Companies that are appeared to be socially responsible by showing environment saving or environmental sustainability on the same side doing immoral , illegal socially irresponsible activity in a terrific message for the stake holders and the consumers and investors. This type of activity effect the credibility and image of the company and damage its image in the market. Bad Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) or commercial citizenship entails companies behaving in a socially liable manner, and dealing with other business corporation which also do the same . As the public sector and businesses are getting aware of Corporate Social Responsibility, they take care of taking corporate social responsibility into consideration when planning for future out comes to become a socially responsible, otherwise the business has to face wrong feedback in the shape of company getting effected . Negative Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility on Publicity : Companies that are appeared to be socially responsible by showing environment saving or environmental sustainability on the same side doing immoral , illegal socially irresponsible activity in a terrific message for the stake holders and the consumers and investors. This type of activity effect the credibility and image of the company and damage its image in the market. For Example: Bad implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility can ruin the image of the company like Enron the Texan energy company. Its a natural gas company, in the year 2001 it got collapsed under a huge debt as at previously it was the largest accounting firm. Enron was the best at corporate patronage and has given in millions in charity to different charity organizations and also won awards for its corporate social responsibility work, but in year 2001 Enron got collapsed miserably because of bad debt and the main person responsible for this cause who made this giant fraud was Jeffrey Skilling and he got jailed for 24 years for this .The articles about Enron stated the backlash for its activity(Adam Lashinsky, New York Times, November 2001). Legal Troubles Lead by Bad Corporate Social Responsibility: Companies and businesses that are involve in wrong irresponsible social activities also pay a high price for its activities. The best example for this is the Exxon Valdez tanker incident in Prince William Sound, near the coast of Alaska on March 24 1989 is the most memorable incident in corporate social responsibility, as this incident had created a bad image of the company by spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil in Prince William Sound and damaging the wildlife and fishing industry as a result Exxon Valdez has to pay $4.84 billion for clearing them selves from this Scandal( National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, March 24 1989) Long Term Effects of Wrong CSR on Brand and Its Reputation Building a brand is a long term effort which takes years to build up but by a single mistake done my wrong corporate social responsibility strategy can ruin companies reputation its image, it can never be able to shake off the ill effects bad corporate social responsibility that has on the brand and reputation. The report developed on corporate social responsibility by Tsinghua University indicates that in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) describes that after taking interviews form 68% of the consumers said that they will not buy products of those companies who has bad corporate social responsibility performance. This practice is also same in automotive companies with 62.9% of costumers saying that they will not buy automobiles from companies with bad CSR performance(Tsinghua University). As there is a relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility performance in the eyes of consumers and the effect it has on the strength of a company`s brand that it will do little good to the company then, to hurt its already build brand with poor choice in corporate social responsibility Risk in implementing Corporate Social Responsibility : Managing risk is the main part of many corporate strategies. Reputations that take decades to build up can be cleaned out in hours through incidents such as corruption scandals or environmental activities. These occurrences can also draw unwanted attention from regulators, governments, courts etc. Building a genuine culture of doing the right thing within a corporation can offset these risks(Kytle Beth, Paramveer Singh, 2005, Corporate Social Responsibility as Risk Management A Model for Multinationals). Corporate Social Responsibility from a Business Point of view : Its is very obvious that in Businesses that are running today have Corporate Social Responsibility is tangled in many multinational organizations planning process. The reasons that work behind social responsibility towards human environmental responsibilities is still unknown as weather they are based on genuine interest or on hidden motives. Organizations are basically entities that are developing and manufacturing products to make profits to gratify there shareholders (Prof Malloy 1959). As Milton Friedman believes, there is no place for Social responsibility as a business function. However a business still comprises people those posses both the humanistic and naturalistic view points. The humanistic view is that a deteriorating environment and planet is of no relevance in sustaining human life let alone a business. The naturalistic view is where we draw the line between exploiting our natural resources and destroying our fauna and flora for the sake of profiteering and sustainability (Grace and Cohen 2005,144). The need to create an ideal scenario that is praetor efficient may be the main reasons such mediators are there to adjudicate. Influence from the population, government and competitors are possible forces that can destabilize an organization should its motives or unethical processes become clear. Legal structures in place, are created to ensure international borders are not left exposed to multimillion dollar organizations self interest. Stringent laws and penalties are governed by legal bodies such as the International Court of Justice that are capable of sanctioning non abiding organizations (ICJ 2007). CSR has been an issue of some debate. There are some people who claim that Corporate Social Responsibility cherry-picks the good activities a company is involved with and ignores the others, thus greenwashing their image as a socially or environmentally responsible company. There are some other people who argue that it inhibits free markets. Borderline Organization Motive : CSR will attribute other business motives, which the companies would dispute. For example, some believe that CSR programmes are often undertaken in an effort to distract the public from the ethical questions posed by their core operations. Some that have been accused of this motivation include British American Tobacco (BAT),(Friends of the Earth, 2005) which produces major CSR reports and the petroleum giant BP which is well known for its high achievements in advertising profile advertising promotion on environmental awareness as part of it operations. Opponent who believe that CSR is self interested: The dispute is that the reason corporations put in place social projects is for the commercial benefit they see in raising their reputation with the public or with government. They suggest a number of reasons why self-interested corporations, solely seeking to maximize profits are unable to advance the interests of society as a whole. They would point to examples where companies have spent a lot of time promoting CSR policies and commitment to Sustainable Development on the one hand, whilst damaging revelations about business practices emerge on the other. For example the McDonalds Corporation has been criticized by CSR campaigners for unethical business practices, and was the subject of a decision by Justice Roger Bell in the McLibel case (which upheld some of these claims, regarding mistreatment of workers, misleading advertising, and unnecessary cruelty to animals). Similarly Shell has a much publicized CSR policy and was a pioneer in triple bottom line reporting, but was involved in 2004(Shell, 2004) in a scandal over the misreporting of its oil reserves which seriously damaged its reputation and led to charges of hypocrisy. Since this has happened the Shell Foundation has become involved in many projects across the world, including a partnership with Marks and Spencer (UK) in three flower and fruit growing communities across Africa. These arguments usually suggest that stronger governments and international laws rather than intentional measures are necessary to ensure that companies behave in a socially responsible manner. Other views from this perspective include: Corporations really care little for the welfare of workers or the environment, and given the opportunity will move production to sweatshops in less well regulated countries. Companies do not pay the full costs of their impact. For example the costs of cleaning pollution often fall on society in general. As a result profits of corporations are enhanced at the expense of social or ecological welfare. Benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility: Social responsibility of a business refers to what the business does, over and above the statutory requirement, for the benefit of the society. The term corporate citizenship is also commonly used to refer to the moral obligations of the business to the society. This implies that just as individuals, corporates are also integral part of the society and their behaviour shall be guided by certain social norms. The operations of business enterprises affect a wide spectrum. The resources they make use of are limited to those of the proprietors and the impact of their operations is felt also by many a people who are in no way connected with the enterprise. Benefit of Corporate Social Responsibility in Businesses: If the corporation or business want to be socially responsible it is not necessary that good business tactics make the business good in its practices. CSR has some effects that directly relates to economics of the company, they are customers, public relations, shareholders and employees. If it is applied into the business plan, Corporate Social Responsibility has some benefit which relates to companies. Getting the right to operate by stakeholders: Some industries like mining industries requires a licence to operate because of some allegations of environmental factors that are to be get by certain authorities and as well as from the community, because there operation can effect the community near by .If this requirement is not fulfilled then they have to face some concequences in operating the industry. Brand value and its reputation: Business values are important company`s social, ethical and environmental performance because of its globalization, mobility and advancement in customers and suppliers ideas in the competitive market, to develop themselves to compete with the competitors, by keeping in mind that Brand name is also growing and getting importance, as the main worth of any company is its brand name . Enhanced efficiency in Operations: Corporate Social Responsibility plays a vital role in corporate sector with result in enhancing the efficiency in the operations of the company, e.g improving the efficiency in energy and natural resources, reducing the waste like proper handling of waste materials. Better recruitment improves the business and its life style, that will result in less absentees from office and increase the employees performance which result in company`s saving for example companies that provide relaxing and free from stress environment to its employees will result in employee performance enhancement and increase in production line. There is a study conducted by some of the large employers (Medstat Group, American Productivity and quality Center, 2009) got and idea that if health services can be provided to employees of the company then their productivity and efficiency will increase towards that company and will decrease the amount employees getting absentees from work and production. Customer Satisfaction and Sales: A research was done on corporate social responsibility regarding sale and customer satisfaction done by Millennium Poll(Millennium Poll, Dec 1999)that it interviewed approx 25000 people from near 23 countries which want to contribute to the society rather than only making profits by business have to first impress in need and wants of the customers by giving them quality, price, taste, and appearance and availability of their required product or services. To Attract and Preserve the quality of Employees performance: A research done by a UK consulting firm Stanton Marris (Stanton Marris, research) from top most employees of 24 well known companies shows that employers status and reputation is very important when an individual accepts a job offer, and nearly six percent of employees suggest that company`s commitment is more important while looking for job in any field as a skill worker these are the essential part of job search. Market and product development with corporate social responsibility: Cooperation with the help of local communities coutures products and services in the local markets. Like IBM Cooperation its a giant in its field, I had partnership with the community which produced six new products for the market and got nearly 15 applications for patent in year 2000(IBM Corporation, 2000). CSR as a conflict between Shareholders: In Corporate social Responsibility there are two type of share holders one is insiders who are connected with the firm and completely rely on firm`s conditions and the other type of share holders are institutions or small investors which are not connected or rely on any other party. Affiliated owners are those who`s identity and reputation is related and linked with the firm, while on the other hand non affiliated owners are those who hold the shares of the firm but their holding did not effect the portfolio and also not to the firm. If the benefits are considered then insiders affiliated shareholders gain a great benefit from the firm high corporate social responsibility, they bear the cost from being associated with for and shown to be irresponsible. Insider group consist of two major subgroups that are managers and non managers. It is very difficult to understand that which group will gain more by having socially responsible firm, but it is said that both the insider groups care for the firms rating and performance. For example, consider the following three individuals: Steven Jobs, the CEO of Apple Computer, Warren Buffet, a large blockholder and a director of The Coca-Cola Company, and Roy Disney, a director of The Walt Disney Company. We argue first that all three of these individuals (Jobs = a manager; Buffet and Disney =non-managers) are strongly affiliated with their corresponding firm, and further, that these individuals should gain from the fact that their firms have a high CSR rating more than a 5 diversified shareholder such as Fidelity, whose reputation is not affected by the social rating of one single firm in its portfolio. In what follows, we explore how this potential conflict may be affected by different attributes of the firm, namely, a firms ownership and capital structure. In addition, we discuss how free cash flow and other governance issues may affect the conflict. Corporate Social Responsibility Examples: BG INDIA LTD Natural gas is becoming the fuel of choice in a world increasingly concerned with the environmental impact of its energy consumption and India is no exception. Demand for natural gas in India is expected to more than double over the next two decades, rising to 13,700 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) by 2025 With its natural gas industry expertise, BG India is well placed to make a significant contribution to the countrys future energy needs. 1995: Formation of Mahanagar Gas Ltd: joint venture with the Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) 1997 : BG acquires majority interest in Gujarat Gas Company Limited 2000 : GGCL commissions 73 km Hazira-Ankleshwar transmission pipeline 2002 : BG acquires 30% interest in Panna, Mukta and Tapti fields BG Indias exploration and production assets include a 30 per cent interest in the Taptigas field and the Panna/Mukta oil and gas fields. Significant investment is planned forfurther development in the fields. BG India has a 65.12 per cent controlling stake in Gujarat Gas Company Limited, which supplies natural gas to the cities of Ankleshwar, Bharuch and Surat in south Gujarat. BGIndia also has a 49.75 per cent stake in Mahanagar Gas Limited, which is developing anatural gas distribution system in Mumbai. Both companies deliver piped natural gas todomestic, commercial and industrial customers as well as compressed natural gas (CNG)for natural gas vehicles. BG India is part of BG Group, a leading international energy company that has expertise across the spectrum of the natural gas chain. India is one of BG Groups six core geographic areas of operation. BG India is responsible for managing and developing the upstream and downstream interests of the Group in the country. BG India has been patron of St Teresas Special School, Santa Cruz, which is for differently challenged children. The company provides support for training materials. According to the information provided by the administration people at St Teresas Special School, BG India provided financial support to the school once and that was almost two years ago. Since then, there has been no contact regarding this subject on their part. When asked about the policies to approach the company for donations and other voluntary forms of support, the staff member informed us that the company delays the matter for a couple of months every time they do so. The company claims that Corporate Responsibility (CR) remains a top priority at BG India, based on a recognition that the company has a duty to act responsibly both towards its employees and the wider community in which it operates. BG India mainly contributes to society in several ways: delivering gas to markets; providing energy and infrastructure to support development; creating and sustaining jobs in local economies; and through taxes and duties paid. These benefits are enhanced by the companys CR strategy, which not only ensures that it behaves in a socially responsible manner, but also makes a positive and meaningful contribution to community development. Tata Tea Tata Tea has launched a unique Presently Tata Tea is running its campaign on motivating Indians to vote in elections. It has launched a website to help voters in registering them into voter list Dr. Reddys Foundation This foundation is Founded by Dr. K Anji Reddy in 1996 and it is involved in promoting PPP models connecting life, learning and livelihood and it defines the real causes of poverty improvement. It helps to empower people to support there livelihoods and responding to the society.Dr. Reddys is one pharmaceutical company that has evolved from a social initiation backdrop into a corporate giant. CSR rating agency Karmayoga states that Dr. Reddys Lupin Laboratories are the only two pharmaceutical companies that are making genuine efforts for the society. The company continuously tries to meet societys expectations by developing innovative medicines that enable people to live longer and healthier lives . To facilitate policy development, implementation and communication, a cross-functional team was established at the beginning of 2002 to ensure a comprehensive and coordinated approach. The team is made up of representatives from the key business areas who ensure that policies are in place and mechanisms exist for their implementation and monitoring. They also contribute to reporting progress through this report and in other ways, for example through conference presentations and on companys website. CONCLUSION A business with fewer stakeholders to satisfy, their greatest concern appears to be their customers and their own ability to satisfy the demand for products effectively. Businesses are demonstrating that well managed corporate responsibility actually supports business objectives, especially amongst large corporate where improved compliance, reputation and relationships has been shown to increase shareholder value and profitability. For privately held businesses, the pressure to act can stem from the demands of the supply chain, with large multinationals increasingly demanding that suppliers conform to ethical business practices.Incorporating corporate responsibility into a businesss core strategy can also enhance its attractiveness as an employer.

Economic Development Essay -- essays research papers fc

Location Bangladesh is located in South Asia and shares borders with India to the west, the north and the east. To the southeast lies Burma. The southern shores are washed by the Bay of Bengal. Bangladesh occupies a fertile delta created by two of Asia's largest river systems, the Ganges and the Brahmiputra. Politics Bangladesh is one of the youngest nations in Asia. Until two and a half decades ago, it formed the eastern half of Pakistan; the western half lay over 2,000 km away, on the other side of India. In 1971, Pakistan's army attempted to subdue an East Pakistani movement for regional autonomy which led to a bloody civil war. India joined the war in early December of that year and, later that month, Bangladesh became an independent nation. A parliamentary democracy was established and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman came to power. Mujib was assassinated in August 1975 during a military coup. Afterwards Bangladesh went through a turbulent period characterized by a series of military coups. The last military ruler Gen. Hussain Mohammad Ershad, ruled for nine years, eventually toppled by a civilian movement in December 1990. Elections were held in 1991 under a neutral government and Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) became the country's first elected Prime Minister in 16 years. In the parliamentary election held in June 1996, the Awami League, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's daughter Sheikh Hasina, came to power. The Awami League won 51 percent of seats in parliament; trailing behind the Awami League were the BNP with nearly 36 per cent of the seats and Hussain Mohammad Ershand's Jatiyo Party with 10 per cent. The rest of the seats were won by other small parties and individual candidates. The Bangladeshi parliament has a single legislative chamber with 330 members. Three hundred members are directly elected on the basis of adult franchise while 30 women members are elected indirectly. Bangladesh has emerged as a leader of the movement of developing countries. The country maintains close ties with Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries, which employ large numbers of Bangladeshi workers. Relations with India have improved considerably due to the pragmatic approach taken by the current government. More recently, an influx of Burmese Muslim refugees across the Southeastern border has created tensions with the Burmese authorities. T... ...1980). BRAC: Who Gets What and Why: Resources Allocation in a Bangladesh Village. (Dhaka, 1979). M. Cain, "Risk Insurance: Perspectives on Fertility and Agrarian Change in India and Bangladesh," Population and Development Review, Vol. 7, No. 3, September 1981, S. 435-474 Samiul Hasan et al., "Voluntary Organizations in Bangladesh: A Profile," Environment and Urbanization, Vol. 4, No. 2, 1992. Harrison, Paul. Inside the Third World. London, England: Penguin Group. 1988. Ehrhardt, Roger. Canadian Development Assistance to Bangladesh. Ottawa, Canada: The North-South Institute. Published in 1983. â€Å"US Bangladesh Sign PL 480 Agreement†. US Department of State Dispatch. Mar23, 1992, Vol.3 Issue 12, p232, 1/3p. Online. EBSCOhost. â€Å"Grameen approach to development in Bangladesh: An Overview†. Contemporary South Asia, Jul96, Vol.5 Issue 2, p207, 8p. Online. EBSCOhost. â€Å"A tale of two sisters: Two Decades of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Bangladesh†. Contemporary South Asia, Jul96, Vol.5 Issue 2, p149, 24p. Online. EBSCOhost. â€Å"Bangladesh- General Information.† The World Factbook. World Wide Web. www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/.html

Electronic media and education Essay

Electronic media is continuously expanding and is now to the degree where it has become a part of everyone’s life, not just in the Western world, it is starting to take hold worldwide.To define electronic media, it is a type of media that reserves and disperses electrical information through sources such as television, radio, and computers. Companies advertise to make consumers acquainted with the products or services provided and the only better way of performing this is through advertising on electronic media. Thus this essay will discuss the benefits and drawbacks of advertising through electronic media. To commence with, the major drawback of advertising through electronic media is that in the marketplace sometimes, electronic advertisement method convey a negative implication. Internet users typically find the ads unwelcomed to their online experience. Text ad and banners frequently are placed in the center of content, which obstructs the reader. The user cannot view the whole page as pop – ads appear over content, thus causing them to remove the ads. Audiences are so deluged with spam email and banner ads that they have begun to ignore electronic advertising just as much as ads on traditional media. Furthermore, advertising through electronic media has another stumbling block in its path. Electronic media is rather recent in comparison to print media and traditional broadcast but despite the ability to accumulate data and track users its prime technique for dispatching electronic advertisements remains evasive. To avoid pop-ups in the mid – the 1990s, these ads were disinclined. Currently, firms attempt to seize attention with richer media implements. A common example would be streaming audio and video advertisements. Financing money in media with insufficient years of knowledge and research is a challenge faced by them. Moreover, advertising through electronic media is high-priced and does not guarantee results. This advertising is acquired by an enterprise and stationed on the World Wide Web in key spots. For example, an electronic advertisement for air conditioning equipment may pop up alongside searches for air conditioning installation firms. For per click, it is paid in a click-through advertisement. Plus, the advertisement placing business sustains a levy when someone views the ad by clicking on it and the user is taken to the business website. People access these advertisements for free, even if they are not actually interested in buying the services or products. Clicking on these ads can be costly without a promise of a sale. Furthermore, viewers accessing a page with click-through advertisements click on the ads only 1 or 2 percent. Therefore, if just clicking on the ad is paid, it can result in a huge waste of money. On the other hand, there are also some benefits of advertising through electronic media. The Internet’s tremendous reach can enable promoters to contact altogether a larger number of individuals than traditional advertising media at a small amount of the cost. Electronic advertising is perfect for organizations with a national or worldwide target market and extensive scale appropriation capacities. When in doubt, the more individuals the business serves, the most cost-proficient electronic advertising can be. This can likewise be more focused than some customary media, guaranteeing that all the messages are seen by the most pertinent groups of audiences. As indicated by an article distributed in the New York Times, 96.7 percent of American families possess TVs. This adds up to more than 300 million individuals who approach the ads. Furthermore, advertising through electronic media offers the best creative opportunity among the traditional media. It has visual components like print and sound like radio, yet it likewise has dynamic development. Promoters frequently attempt to tell stories inside their advertisements that affect the group of audiences. Innovativeness can give more meaning intending to a brand past its basic product. For example, with TV, you can target passionate associations, consolidate characters that the audience can identify with and offer multi-tangible interest. To add on, advertising through electronic media empowers advertisers to be open for business all day and all night without stressing over store opening hours or additional time installments for staff. It has a benefit of 24/7 availability. Offering advertisements on the electronic media is likewise convenient for customers. They can browse the advertisement whenever makes them free to do.

Italian Book Club Linguality - Parallel Text

Italian Book Club Linguality - Parallel Text Reading Italian literature can be demanding for non-native speakers. Frequently referring to a dictionary becomes tedious, and, unless you wear blinders, resorting to the parallel-text version (Italian and English side-by-side) of a particular work becomes an exercise in futility as you try to avert your eyes from the English translation. With the constant safety net of an English translation just a glance away, its difficult to commit your brain to the exclusive task of absorbing Italian. Fortunately, theres a new way to read recently published Italian fiction and nonfiction almost as effortlessly as reading books in English- the Linguality Italian Book Club. Italian Literature? Ma, Oui!Linguality, based in Cambridge, MA, was founded by a team with extensive experience in foreign-language publishing, university teaching, and pedagogical research. Linguality’s French Book Club debuted in 2007 and quickly earned accolades from readers and language experts alike. Six times a year, contemporary French books are republished with an English introduction, extensive English glossaries, and author interviews in French on audio CD. Given the success of that venture, the company decided to branch out, and launched an Italian Book Club. No Dictionary RequiredThe innovation in Lingualitys Italian Book Club series is the format. The original foreign-language text is placed on every right-hand page, and an extensive English glossary, on the opposite page, allows readers to see the definition of bolded words in context. When the first selection was released, Walter Veltroni, renowned Italian author, journalist, former Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage, and former mayor of Rome, proclaimed that: Its the literary equivalent of a subtitled movie! In fact, the glossary entries act more like turbocharged subtitles, boosting readers comprehension and vocabulary. Typically there are over 2,000 entries per book defining every difficult word and expression, eliminating the need for a dictionary. As Lingualitys publisher, Wes Green, says: ...a non-fluent speaker doesnt need a complete translation...or a dictionary. He or she just opens the book and starts reading in the foreign language. Italian Book Club Membership Has PrivilegesAnother advantage of the Linguality Italian Book Club is that all books are complete, unedited texts- the original version that native Italians read too. Subscribers also receive an audio CD with a 30- to 45-minute conversation in Italian with the author, including a transcript with glossary of the dialogue as an appendix in the book. The publisher recommends that readers have completed the equivalent of two years of college Italian. While each title is amply annotated, beginners may still find it difficult to contend with the texts. With their specially annotated editions of Italian books, the Linguality Italian Book Club offers a unique method for those looking to dramatically improve their Italian language skills. Instead of waiting for the English version of a popular Italian book (few foreign-language titles are ever translated into English anyway), Italian language learners can take off the blinders and read the original without having to resort to the dictionary. Italian Book ListA subscription to Lingualitys Italian Book Club includes six hard-bound books with author interviews on CD. Titles in the series include: Va dove ti porta il cuore (Follow Your Heart) by Susanna Tamaro La scoperta dellalba (The Discovery of the Dawn) by Walter Veltroni Mamma Mia! by Fabrizio Blini Nel momento (In an Instant) by Andrea De Carlo LOrda (The Hoard) by Gian Antonio Stella Il buio e il miele (The Darkness and the Honey) by Giovanni Arpino

Virtual Controversies essays

Virtual Controversies essays It was once forcasted that computers in the future would weigh no more than 1.5 tons. Of course, in todays technologically savvy times, its a common occurrence to see people holding their computers in their lap, or even in their hand. Theres no doubt about it: the computer already plays an important role in our lives and that role is likely to expand as more advancements are made. However, new innovations mean new controversies. The Internet, for example, has transformed the way people communicate, conduct business, learn, and entertain themselves. With a simple click of the mouse key, one can do things that were thought science fiction just a few decades ago. For all the benefits associated with the Internet, the presence of pornography, hate groups, and other distasteful topics has lead to a nationwide debate on first amendment rights and censorship. The goal for the Internet should not be total freedom for unsavory groups to deliver their message to whomever they can, but a balance between the freedom of those who want this material and the freedom of those who When President Clinton signed the Communication Decency Act into law on February 8, 1996, he effectively approved the largest alteration of national communication laws in 62 years. In order to elicit a response from web creators who published indecent sites, the bill instituted criminal penalties. However, the emphasis in the bill was on decency and not obscenity- which had long been established as the method to determine what was supported by the first amendment and what was not. The CDA was eventually overthrown in Reno vs. ACLU because of the unconstitutionality vague wording and the noted importance in keeping the Internet a hospital arena for free expression and speech. In 1998, another piece of legislation was approved called the Child Online Protection Act, or ...

German Numbers and Counting From 0 to 20

German Numbers and Counting From 0 to 20 Learning numbers or counting in German  is not difficult, but true mastery of numbers, in any language, takes time. It is fairly easy to learn to rattle off the numbers - eins, zwei, drei... and so forth. However, most of the time numbers are used in more practical ways: in telephone numbers, in math problems, in prices, for addresses, etc. Also, because you have already internalized the numbers in English or another first language, there can be the same kind of interference that happens with other vocabulary. So, do learn to say the numbers, but also try these exercises to see if you really know how to deal with them. If someone tells you a phone number in German, can you write it down? Can you do simple addition or subtraction in German?   Die Zahlen 0 to 10 0 null 6 sechs 1 eins 7 sieben 2 zwei * 8 acht 3 drei 9 neun 4 vier 10 zehn 5 fà ¼nf * Often zwo is used to avoidconfusion with drei Die Zahlen 11 to 20 11 elf 16 sechzehn 12 zwà ¶lf 17 siebzehn 13 dreizehn 18 achtzehn 14 vierzehn 19 neunzehn 15 fà ¼nfzehn 20 zwanzig ÃÅ"bung 7A  (Exercise 7A) Mathe  - Write out the answer to the following math problems in German.Note: in German is plus (PLOOHS); - is minus (MEEN-OOS). 1.  zwei fà ¼nf   ________________ 2.  zwà ¶lf - zwei   ________________ 3.  drei neun   _________________ 4.  vier - vier   _________________ 5.  eins sechs   _________________ 6.  dreizehn - zwei   _________________ 7.  sieben elf   _________________ ÃÅ"bung 7B  (Exercise 7B) Diktat  (Dictation) - Write out the following phone numbers as numerals.  Example: null, vier; zwà ¶lf, vierzehn, zwanzig 04 12 14 20 (German phone numbers are often printed/written in groups of two-number pairs.) 1.  null, zwo; zwà ¶lf, elf, zwanzig   ______________ 2.  neunzehn; null, fà ¼nf; sechzehn,   ______________ 3.  null, acht; zwà ¶lf, elf, zwanzig   ______________ 4.  null, drei; vier, sieben; achtzehn, zwanzig   ______________ 5.  dreizehn, zwà ¶lf, zehn, vierzehn   ______________

Psychologists and Jury Selection Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Psychologists and Jury Selection - Term Paper Example The researcher states that in case such as Bruno Hauptmann, there could be strong public mood against the accused which could influence the jury to convict the innocent. Here, the jurists’ personality characteristics and traits might play an important role. In a media intensity society, it is particularly true as it often wages psychological wars to mobilize public opinion over what it considers as truth. The trial of O. J. Simpson was characterized by ‘continued media interest and public fascination with his actions and statements. The belief that â€Å"he got away with murder† even led to proposals to reform and restrict the jury system’. The certainty necessary to punish nay accused could be accumulated by the jurists based on their prejudices and worldview. Most importantly, according to Greene et.al, ‘truth is elusive, and in the legal system, all truth seekers are subject to human error, even though the system seems to assume that they approach infallibility. The failure to achieve perfection in our decision making will become evident as the steps in the trial process are reviewed’. Jury sentiments are directly a product of jurists’ opinions, attitudes and beliefs. Attorneys have two options for selecting new juries. First of all, a panel of prospective jurors need to be identified which is known as venire. Secondly, ‘a process known as voir dire is employed to question and select the eventual jurors’. It involves every jurist telling truth about himself/herself. This process naturally involves elimination as the jurists who hold biases over a particular case are dismissed from the trial. Only the ones who hold a free mind and free from limitations are selected. There is a difference between judges’ decisions and Juries’ decisions. It has been found that â€Å"citizens believe a jury decision offers more procedural fairness (greater thoroughness, better representation of the commun ity, fewer personal biases affecting decisions) than a decision by a judge†. Jury sentiments are the major cause for the discrepancies in the judicial verdicts. In their famous survey, ‘Kalven and Zeisel, after reviewing the multitude of discrepancies, used this term to cover all trials in which, in the judge’s view, the jury’s verdict was detrimentally determined by factors beyond the evidence and the law’. Especially in victimless crimes, there could a stronger tendency for sentiments towards the culprit. In some cases, if the case gets more social importance through media intervention, the number of jurists may be relatively high. It is very difficult even to keep the jury selection procedure just as it would involve discrimination against minority religions, races, nationalities and other cognizable groups.

Comparative paper between Socrates and Thomas More trials; Essay

Comparative paper between Socrates and Thomas More trials; - Essay Example This goes against the conscience of many, but the law permits it hence it takes a lot of courage to follow conscience and go against the requirement. Looking at such circumstances one quickly reflects to Saint Thomas More and Socrates. It compels one to dig deep to the cause of their deaths. However, there are several similarities and differences as to what they stood for and how the society perceived them. It is important to note that the comparison between Socrates and Thomas More trials should begin with a brief introduction of the two individuals and a brief background of what transpired during the two trials. Similarly, the similarities and differences will be clear after a thorough analysis of the two scenarios. However, this will be in line with consciousness, belief and religion. Additionally, how these elements are brought out in each case, the similarities and differences or how they were manifested in each trial. Socrates has always been perceived as a wise individual; in fact, he has been considered the face of humanity. However, he created a major impact in the society as a virtuous man due to his high level of education at the time (Arendt and Baehr 397). He was a pagan and sought deeper and true religion beyond the Greek religion; he did not believe much in religion and the worship of gods. The fact that Socrates was a philosopher made him question everything including religion. At that time, most people worshipped gods but he did not believe in them. Nevertheless people treated him with a lot of respect even the learned also acknowledged him. In the ancient days religion played a very critical role in the society. Those who did not follow religion were strongly condemned hence due to this pressure most people worshiped gods. In 406B.C, at the age of sixty-three, he became a member of the by then well-known sub-council called

Differentiate between neligence, intentional and constitutional torts Essay

Differentiate between neligence, intentional and constitutional torts. What act(s) can cause a tort liability - Essay Example For example: an employee of the criminal justice department conducted his duties without making sure that others are not harmed by his means of conducting duty, due to this others may have been inflicted with harm or injury, thus the official is held responsible for conducted his duties in a negligent manner. Criminal justice officers experience intentional torts when they indulge knowingly and freely indulge in activities due to which citizens or other individuals of a society may be harmed (Vaughn, 1999). For example: a police officer uses coercive methods to obtain a confession from a suspect, due to his act the suspect gets badly injured, the police official is held responsible for using coercion and the confession obtained from the suspect might not be used as evidence in the court of law. A criminal justice employee may be held responsible in a case of constitutional tort if he fails to conduct his duties in accordance to the constitution of the country (Carlson, 1985, p.342). For example: if a police official makes an arrest and forgets to read the Miranda rights to the suspect, the police official may be held responsible for acting according the constitution and the suspect may be free to leave as his Miranda rights were not read to him (Peak, 2011, p.281). Various activities conducted by the officials of the criminal justice system lead to tort liability, these activities includes: negligent behaviour, wrongful charges for arrest, breach of right of privacy, upholding information and evidence, and coercive interrogation. When an official of the criminal justice system is said to have acted in a negligent manner, he is said to have not exercised his duty of due care (Peak, 2011, p.341). This means that while conducting his duties, an official has not ensured to eradicate practices and procedures that may harm an individual and that are foreseen. Therefore a police official has to exercise his duty of care while conducting his

La ci darem la mano a song fro the opera Don Giovanni Essay

La ci darem la mano a song fro the opera Don Giovanni - Essay Example The rhythm of this duet is very much like a sophisticated minuet, and in listening, we can imagine the coquettish movements of the female dancers. Mozart established a mood of gaiety and tryst with the accelerating tempo of the duet, even though this scene follows directly on the off stage rape of another young woman by Don Giovanni (Don Juan). The music requires a strong baritone for the male part and a female voice of strong timbre without losing the light quality required by the part of Zerlina, who may be strong and certainly quite excitable, but not â€Å"girlish†, as Zerlina, though somewhat innocent, is certainly a woman. The melody begins on a lower register and rises in pitch to add excitement. It is structured like a finely choreographed mating dance. The strong baritone opens with a gentle invitation. Zerlina’s reply is finished off with a lovely broken chord to the higher register and then tempered with a gentle melodic finish. The bridge is a quickening exchange that picks up the tempo and includes a triple reputation for punctuation. As the tempo accelerates the singers overlap each other until they reach a climax in the music together. Once Zerlina becomes interested in Don Giovanni’s proposition, she almost turns the tables on him, quite insistent, and each phrase near the end falls in pitch and gathers strength. The trills repeat and become a melodic harmony, followed by short phrases in accelerating tempo. The vocal trills get faster and the final phrase rises and falls quickly in a musical orgasm of wonder harmony. This is definitely one of the finest duets ever written. It almost defies classification, due to the mixture of styles and the catchy tunefulness of the melody. Some critics point out the differences in class among the characters and cite this as the reason for Mozart’s almost fusion opera. â€Å"When we moved to the lower class characters, especially Zerlina and Masetto, we noted some

Analysis of Pre-school in Three Cultures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Analysis of Pre-school in Three Cultures - Essay Example Teacher and students repeat the date, day and whether aloud which gives them knowledge of their surroundings and time. Thus most of the time a child is doing something himself to learn and practice a new idea which helps to mature his mental modals about various real life phenomena. There is a 120 minute academic session with very little explicit academic instructions and children are supposed to learn by practice. The teacher encourages the children involvement in non-academic activities like singing, telling jokes and stories during these academic sessions. After lunch break the children are allowed to play all around the school where they learn through mutual interaction and cooperation. Teacher encourages unattended mutual resolution of disputes among children which instigate problem solving behavior among children. The teachers at Japanese pre-school have strong believe that problem solving and dispute resolutions, and empathy are important skills that a child learns through ear ly childhood fighting and interaction with other children. Thus finding a solution himself is constructive for his learning experience. Origami, a Japanese art of making shapes by folding paper is yet another way of constructive learning at pre-schools. Children learn the persistence when they encounter problems, cooperate with each other. According to teachers origami is an important tool in constructive learning. At Dong-feng pre-school and day care center in China, the principal thinks that it is good for children as they learn to interact with each other. In classrooms there are several activities like children sing songs and match wooden elements with drawing on a page. At Saint Timothy in Honolulu Hawaii children come and have free play before the school formally starts. The school... This paper stresses that behaviorism aims to bring measureable positive changes in children behaviors through practice and learning. Behavioral disobedience or rudeness are difficult to control and require a lot more methodical approach to address the actual issue behind any such behavioral problem. You may teach them to obey through self example of doing something good and polite repetition of tasks you designed to inculcate some basic learning outcomes in the children. The authos declares that a disciplined and self controlled behavior may help children to learn the skills of self control and disciple in the process. If child has some dispute with other child at play or learning area the American teacher encourage children to express their grievances instead hitting or entangling with each other. While in Japanese teacher encourages mutual resolution of disputes thus instigate problem solving behavior among children. This report makes a conclusion that constructive and behavioral techniques and methodologies in three countries best suit to their cultures. The approaches are hard learned and time tested therefore, more often than not any change is resisted strictly. However, in changing environment of modern societies these methods and techniques are required to be reviewed and revisited constantly to bring about the changes that may help to instigate more practical and applicable approaches towards inculcating constructiveness and behavioral upholding of the children. The best approach is to let children learn through personal experience and a display of exemplary behavior.

INTERCULTURAL RESEARCH PROJECT Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

INTERCULTURAL PROJECT - Research Paper Example Similarly, culture consists of other components such as language, values, as well as symbols. Alternatively, these components of culture play a critical role in changing the perceptions of people in terms of their dress code, mode of communication and habits such as eating and working methods among others. In addition, religious beliefs and ethnic patterns of certain culture affect food preparation, as well as their eating mode. There are different effects of culture in eating habits. For example, in the western nations thinness and significance of shape is given high priority in term of maintaining low weight. This is caused by the emergence of popular culture especially in advertising, movies, magazines, books and magazines in which slim people are depicted as happy and contented with life. Additionally, most cultures believe in a change in diet when an individual is sick. Furthermore, in the African culture children are not allowed to eat with adults. On that note, certain meals are a preserve for elder people and the others for women and children. Similarly, there are certain foodstuffs that are eaten according to gender in African societies (Anderson, 2005). For instance, in the traditional African societies, women were not permitted to consume proteins such as chicken, eggs, and meat. However, this was healthy for pregnant women as they were forbidden from eating carbohydrates such bananas and potatoe s because of health effects upon the unborn baby. Therefore, such cultural effects in eating are what results to various eating difficulties such as bulimia nervosa, anorexia athletica, and orthorexia to obesity among others. That brings us to the next thesis: There are several cultural effects resulting to an eating disorder such as obesity. For example, in the Mauritania, overweight shape is respected and girls are given food by force until they attain the obese

La ci darem la mano a song fro the opera Don Giovanni Essay

La ci darem la mano a song fro the opera Don Giovanni - Essay Example The rhythm of this duet is very much like a sophisticated minuet, and in listening, we can imagine the coquettish movements of the female dancers. Mozart established a mood of gaiety and tryst with the accelerating tempo of the duet, even though this scene follows directly on the off stage rape of another young woman by Don Giovanni (Don Juan). The music requires a strong baritone for the male part and a female voice of strong timbre without losing the light quality required by the part of Zerlina, who may be strong and certainly quite excitable, but not â€Å"girlish†, as Zerlina, though somewhat innocent, is certainly a woman. The melody begins on a lower register and rises in pitch to add excitement. It is structured like a finely choreographed mating dance. The strong baritone opens with a gentle invitation. Zerlina’s reply is finished off with a lovely broken chord to the higher register and then tempered with a gentle melodic finish. The bridge is a quickening exchange that picks up the tempo and includes a triple reputation for punctuation. As the tempo accelerates the singers overlap each other until they reach a climax in the music together. Once Zerlina becomes interested in Don Giovanni’s proposition, she almost turns the tables on him, quite insistent, and each phrase near the end falls in pitch and gathers strength. The trills repeat and become a melodic harmony, followed by short phrases in accelerating tempo. The vocal trills get faster and the final phrase rises and falls quickly in a musical orgasm of wonder harmony. This is definitely one of the finest duets ever written. It almost defies classification, due to the mixture of styles and the catchy tunefulness of the melody. Some critics point out the differences in class among the characters and cite this as the reason for Mozart’s almost fusion opera. â€Å"When we moved to the lower class characters, especially Zerlina and Masetto, we noted some

INTERCULTURAL RESEARCH PROJECT Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

INTERCULTURAL PROJECT - Research Paper Example Similarly, culture consists of other components such as language, values, as well as symbols. Alternatively, these components of culture play a critical role in changing the perceptions of people in terms of their dress code, mode of communication and habits such as eating and working methods among others. In addition, religious beliefs and ethnic patterns of certain culture affect food preparation, as well as their eating mode. There are different effects of culture in eating habits. For example, in the western nations thinness and significance of shape is given high priority in term of maintaining low weight. This is caused by the emergence of popular culture especially in advertising, movies, magazines, books and magazines in which slim people are depicted as happy and contented with life. Additionally, most cultures believe in a change in diet when an individual is sick. Furthermore, in the African culture children are not allowed to eat with adults. On that note, certain meals are a preserve for elder people and the others for women and children. Similarly, there are certain foodstuffs that are eaten according to gender in African societies (Anderson, 2005). For instance, in the traditional African societies, women were not permitted to consume proteins such as chicken, eggs, and meat. However, this was healthy for pregnant women as they were forbidden from eating carbohydrates such bananas and potatoe s because of health effects upon the unborn baby. Therefore, such cultural effects in eating are what results to various eating difficulties such as bulimia nervosa, anorexia athletica, and orthorexia to obesity among others. That brings us to the next thesis: There are several cultural effects resulting to an eating disorder such as obesity. For example, in the Mauritania, overweight shape is respected and girls are given food by force until they attain the obese

Marketing Segmentation Essay Example for Free

Marketing Segmentation Essay Market segmentation is the process of dividing up a market into more-or-less homogenous subsets for which it is possible to create different value propositions. At the end of the process the company can decide which segment(s) it wants to serve. If it chooses, each segment can be served with a different value proposition and managed in a different way. Market segmentation processes can be used during CPM for two main purposes. They can be used to segment potential markets to identify which customers to acquire, and to cluster current customers with a view to offering differentiated value propositions supported by different relationship management strategies. In this discussion we’ll focus on the application of market segmentation processes to identify which customers to acquire. What distinguishes market segmentation for this CRM purpose is its very clear focus on customer value. The outcome of the process should be the identification of the value potential of each identified segment. Companies will want to identify and target customers that can generate profit in the future: these will be those customers that the company and its network are better placed to serve and satisfy than their competitors. Market segmentation in many companies is highly intuitive. The marketing team will develop profiles of customer groups based upon their insight and experience. This is then used to guide the development of marketing strategies across the segments. In a CRM context, market segmentation is highly data dependent. The data might be generated internally or sourced externally. Internal data from marketing, sales and finance records are ofte n enhanced with additional data from external sources such as marketing research companies, partner organizations in the company’s network and data specialists (see Figure 5.2 ). The market segmentation process can be broken down into a number of steps: 1. identify the business you are in 2. identify relevant segmentation variables 3. analyse the market using these variables 4. assess the value of the market segments 5. select target market(s) to serve. Sales forecasting: Slide #6 (p. 136-8) The second discipline that can be used for CPM is sales forecasting. One major issue commonly facing companies that conduct CPM is that the data available for clustering customers takes a historical or, at best, present day view. The data identifies those customers who have been, or presently are, important for sales, profit or other strategic reasons. If management believes the future will be the same as the past, this presents no problem. However, if the business environment is changeable, this does present a problem. Because CPMs goal is to identify those customers that will be strategically important in the future, sales forecasting can be a useful discipline. Sales forecasting, some pessimists argue, is a waste of time, because the business environment is rapidly changing and unpredictable. Major world events such as terrorist attacks, war, drought and market-based changes, such as new products from competitors or high visibility promotional campaigns, can make any sales forecas ts invalid. There are a number of sales forecasting techniques that can be applied, providing useful information for CPM. These techniques, which fall into three major groups, are appropriate for different circumstances. ââ€"  qualitative methods: customer surveys sales team estimates ââ€"  time-series methods: moving average exponential smoothing time-series decomposition ââ€"  causal methods: leading indicators regression models. Qualitative methods are probably the most widely used forecasting methods. Customer surveys ask consumers or purchasing officers to give an opinion on what they are likely to buy in the forecasting period. This makes sense when customers forward-plan their purchasing. Data can be obtained by inserting a question into a customer satisfaction survey. For example, ‘In the next six months are you likely to buy more, the same or less from us than in the  current period? ’ And, ‘If more, or less, what volume do you expect to buy from us? ’ Sometimes, third party organizations such as industry associations or trans-industry groups such as the Chamber of Commerce or the Institute of Directors collect data that indicate future buying intentions or proxies for intention, such as business confidence. Sales team estimates can be useful when salespeople have built close relationships with their customers. A key account management team might be well placed to generate s everal individual forecasts from the team membership. These can be averaged or weighted in some way that reflects the estimator’s closeness to the customer. Account managers for Dyno Nobel, a supplier of commercial explosives for the mining and quarrying industries, are so close to their customers that they are able to forecast sales two to three years ahead. Operational CRM systems support the qualitative sales forecasting methods, in particular sales team estimates. The CRM system takes into account the value of the sale, the probability of closing the sale and the anticipated period to closure. Many CRM systems also allow management to adjust the estimates of their sales team members, to allow for overly optimistic or pessimistic salespeople. Time-series approaches take historical data and extrapolate them forward in a linear or curvilinear trend. This approach makes sense when there are historical sales data, and the assumption can be safely made that the future will reflect the past. The moving average method is the simplest of these. This takes sales in a number of previous periods and averages them. The averaging process reduces o r eliminates random variation. The moving average is computed on successive periods of data, moving on one period at a time, as in Figure 5.10 . Moving averages based on different periods can be calculated on historic data to generate an accurate method. A variation is to weight the more recent periods more heavily. The rationale is that more recent periods are better predictors. In producing  an estimate for year 2009 in Figure 5.10 , one could weight the previous four years’ sales performance by 0.4, 0.3, 0.2, and 0.1, respectively, to reach an estimate. This would generate a forecast of 5461. This approach is called exponential smoothing. The decomposition method is applied when there is evidence of cyclical or seasonal patterns in the historical data. The method attempts to separate out four components of the time series: trend factor,  cyclical factor, seasonal factor and random factor. The trend factor is the longterm direction of the trend after the other three elements are removed. The cyclical factor represents regular long-term recurrent influences on sales; seasonal influences generally occur within annual cycles. It is sometimes possible to predict sales using leading indicators. A leading indicator is some contemporary activity or event that indicates that another activity or event will happen in the future. At a macro level, for example, housing starts are good predictors of future sales of kitchen furniture. At a micro level, when a credit card customer calls into a contact centre to ask about the current rate of interest, this is a strong indicator that the customer will switch to another supplier in the future. Regression models work by employing data on a number of predictor variables to estimate future demand. The variable being predicted is called the dependent variable; the variables being used as predictors are called independent variables. For example, if you wanted to predict demand for cars (the dependent variable) you might use data on population size, average disposable income, average car price for the category being predicted and average fuel price (the independent variables). The regression equation can be tested and validated on historical data before being adopted. New predictor variables can be substituted or added to see if they improve the accuracy of the forecast. This can be a useful approach for predicting demand from a segment. Activity-Based Costing: Slide #7 (p. 138-40) Customer Acquisition costs Terms of Trade Customer service costs Working capital costs Activity-based costing The third discipline that is useful for CPM is activity-based costing. Many companies, particularly those in a B2B context, can trace revenues to customers. In a B2C environment, it is usually only possible to trace revenues to identifiable customers if the company operates a billing system requiring customer details, or a membership scheme such as a customer club, store-card or a loyalty programme. In a B2B context, revenues can be tracked in the sales and accounts databases. Costs are an entirely different matter. Because the goal of CPM is to cluster customers according to their strategic value, it is desirable to be able to identify which customers are, or will be, profitable. Clearly, if a company is to understand customer profitability, it has to be able to trace costs, as well as revenues, to customers. Costs do vary from customer to customer. Some customers are very costly to acquire and serve, others are not. There can be considerable variance across the customer base within several categories of cost: ââ€"  customer acquisition costs : some customers require considerable sales effort to move them from prospect to fi rst-time customer status: more sales calls, visits to reference customer sites, free samples, engineering advice, guarantees that switching costs will be met by the vendor ââ€"  terms of trade : price discounts, advertising and promotion support, slotting allowances (cash paid to retailers for shelf space), extended invoice due dates ââ€"  customer service costs : han dling queries, claims and complaints, demands on salespeople and contact centre, small order sizes, high order frequency, just-in-time delivery, part load shipments, breaking bulk for delivery to multiple sites ââ€"  working capital costs : carrying inventory for the customer, cost of credit. Traditional product-based or general ledger costing systems do not provide this type of detail, and do not enable companies to estimate customer profitability. Product costing systems track material, labour and energy costs to products, often comparing actual to standard costs. They do not, however, cover the customer-facing activities of marketing, sales and service. General ledger costing systems do track costs across all parts of the business, but are normally too highly aggregated to establish which customers or segments are responsible for generating those costs. Activity-based costing (ABC) is an approach to costing that splits costs into two groups: volume-based costs and order-related costs. Volume based (product-related) costs are variable against the size of the order, but fixed per unit for any order and any customer. Material and direct labour costs are examples. Order-related (customer-related) costs vary according to the product and process requirements of each particular customer. Imagine two retail customers, each purchasing the same volumes of product from a manufacturer. Customer 1 makes no product or process demands. The sales revenue is $5000; the gross margin for the vendor is $1000. Customer 2 is a different story: customized  product, special overprinted outer packaging, just-in-time delivery to three sites, provision of point-of-sale material, sale or return conditions and discounted price. Not only that, but Customer 2 spends a lot of time agreeing these terms and conditions with a salesperson who has had to call three times before closing the sale. The sales revenue is $5000, but after accounting for product and process costs to meet the demands of this particular customer, the margin retained by the vendor is $250. Other things being equal, Customer 1 is four times as valuable as Customer 2. Whereas conventional cost accounti ng practices report what was spent, ABC reports what the money was spent doing. Whereas the conventional general ledger approach to costing identifies resource costs such as payroll, equipment and materials, the ABC approach shows what was being done when these costs were incurred. Figure 5.11 shows how an ABC view of costs in an insurance company’s claims processing department gives an entirely different picture to the traditional view. ABC gives the manager of the claims-processing department a much clearer idea of which activities create cost. The next question from a CPM perspective is ‘ which customers create the activity? ’ Put another way, which customers are the cost drivers? If you were to examine the activity cost item ‘ Analyse claims: $121 000 ’ , and find that 80 per cent of the claims were made by drivers under the age of 20, you’d have a clear understanding of the customer group that was creating that activity cost for the business. CRM needs ABC because of its overriding goal of generating profitable relationships with customers. Unless there is a costing system in place to trace costs to customers, CRM will find it very difficult to deliver on a promise of improved customer profitability. Overall, ABC serves customer portfolio management in a number of ways: 1. when combined with revenue figures, it tells you the absolute and relative levels of profit generated by eac h customer, segment or cohort 2. it guides you towards actions that can be taken to return customers to profit 3. it helps prioritize and direct customer acquisition, retention and development strategies 4. it helps establish whether customization and other forms of value creation for customers pay off. ABC sometimes justifies management’s confidence in the Pareto principle, otherwise known as the 80:20 rule. This rule suggests that  80 per cent of profits come from 20 per cent of customers. ABC tells you which customers fall into the important 20 per cent. Research generally supports the 80: 0 rule. For example, one report from Coopers and Lybrand found that, in the retail industry, the top 4 per cent of customers account for 29 per cent of profits, the next 26 per cent of customers account for 55 per cent of profits and the remaining 70 per cent account for only 16 per cent of profits. Lifetime Value Estimation: Slide# 8 (p. 141-2) The fourth discipline that can be used for CPM is customer lifetime value (LTV) estimation, which was first introduced in Chapter 2. LTV is measured by computing the present day value of all net margins (gross margins less cost-to-serve) earned from a relationship with a customer, segment or cohort. LTV estimates provide important insights that guide companies in their customer management strategies. Clearly, companies want to protect and ring-fence their relationships with customers, segments or cohorts that will generate significant amounts of profit. Sunil Gupta and Donald Lehmann suggest that customer lifetime value can be computed as follows: Application of this formula means that you do not have to estimate customer tenure. As customer retention rate rises there is an automatic lift in customer tenure, as shown in Table 2.2 in Chapter 2. This formula can be adjusted to consider change in both future margins and retention rates either up or down, as described in Gupta and Lehmann’s book Managing Customers as Investments. The table can be used to assess the impact of a number of customer management strategies: what would be the impact of reducing cost-toserve by shifting customers to low-cost self-serve channels? What would be the result of cross-selling higher margin products? What would be the outcome of a loyalty programme designed to increase retention rate from 80 to 82 per cent? An important additional benefit of this LTV calculation is that it enables you to estimate a company’s value. For example, it has been computed that the LTV of the average US-based American Airlines customer is $166.94. American Airlines has 43.7 million such customers, yielding an estimated company value of $7.3 billion. Roland Rust and his co-researchers noted that, given the absence of international  passengers and freight considerations from this computation, it was remarkably close to the company’s market capitalization at the time their research was undertaken. Clustering (144): slide #9 Clustering techniques are used to find naturally occurring groupings within a dataset. As applied to customer data, these techniques generally function as follows: 1. Each customer is allocated to just one group. The customer possesses attributes that are more closely associated with that group than any other group. 2. Each group is relatively homogenous. 3. The groups collectively are very different from each other. In other words, clustering techniques generally try to maximize both within-group homogeneity and between-group heterogeneity. There are a number of clustering techniques, including CART (classification and regression trees) and CHAID (chi-square automatic interaction detection).7 Once statistically homogenous clusters have been formed they need to be interpreted. CRM strategists are often interested in the future behaviours of a customer: segment, cohort or individual. Customers ’ potential value is determined by their propensity to buy products in the future. Data miners can build predictive models by examining patterns and relationships within historic data. Predictive models can be generated to identify: 1. Which customer, segment or cohort is most likely to buy a given product? 2. Which customers are likely to default on payment? 3. Which customers are most likely to defect (churn)? Data analysts scour historic data looking for predictor and outcome variables. Then a model is built and validated on these historic data. When the model seems to work well on the historic data, it is run on contemporary data, where the predictor data are known but the outcome data are not. This is known as ‘ scoring ’ . Scores are answers to questions such as the propensity-to-buy, default and churn questions listed above. Predictive modelling is based on three assumptions, each of which may be true to a greater or lesser extent: 1. The past is a good predictor of the future †¦ BUT this may not be true. Sales of many products are cyclical or seasonal. Others have fashion or fad lifecycles. 2. The data are available †¦ BUT this may not be true. Data used to train the model may no longer be collected. Data may be too costly to collect, or may be in the wrong format. 3. Customer-related databases contain what you want to predict †¦ BUT this may not be true. The data may not be available. If you want to predict which customers are most likely to buy mortgage protection insurance, and you only have data on life policies, you will not be able to answer the question. Two tools that are used for predicting future behaviours are decision trees and neural networks. Decision trees (145): slide #9 Decision trees are so called because the graphical model output has the appearance of a branch structure. Decision trees work by analyzing a dataset to find the independent variable that, when used to split the population, results in nodes that are most different from each other with respect to the variable you are tying to predict. Figure 5.12 contains a set of data about five customers and their credit risk profile. We want to use the data in four of the fi ve columns to predict the risk rating in the fifth column. A decision tree can be constructed for this purpose. In decision tree analysis, Risk is in the ‘ dependent ’ column. This is also known as the target variable. The other four columns are independent columns. It is unlikely that the customer’s name is a predictor of Risk, so we will use the three other pieces of data as independent variables: debt, income and marital status. In the example, each of these is a simple categorical item, each of which only has two possible values (high or low; yes or no). The data from Figure 5.12 are represented in a different form in Figure 5.13 , in a way which lets you see which independent variable is best at predicting risk. As you examine the data, you will see that the best split is income (four instances highlighted in bold on the diagonal: two high income/good risk plus two low income/poor risk). Debt and marital status each s core three on their diagonals. Once a node is split, the same process is performed on each successive node, either until no further splits are possible or until you have reached a managerially useful model. The graphical output of this decision tree analysis is shown in Figure 5.14 . Each box is a node. Nodes are linked by branches. The top node is the root node. The data from the root node is split into two groups based on income. The right-hand, low income box, does not split any further because both low income customers are classified as poor credit risks. The left-hand, high-income box does split further, into married and not married customers. Neither of these split further because the one unmarried customer is a poor credit risk and the two remaining married customers are good credit risks. As a result of this process the company knows that customers who have the lowest credit risk will be high income and married. They will also note that debt, one of the variables inserted into the training model, did not perform well. It is not a predictor of creditworthiness. Decision trees that work with categorical data such as these are known as classification trees. When decision trees are applied to continuous data they are known as regression trees. Neural Networks (147): slide #9 Neural networks are another way of fitting a model to existing data for prediction purposes. The expression ‘ neural network ’ has its origins in the work of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Researchers in this field have tried to learn from the natural neural networks of living creatures. Neural networks can produce excellent predictions from large and complex datasets containing hundreds of interactive predictor variables, but the neural networks are neither easy to understand nor straightforward to use. Neural networks represent complex mathematical equations, with many summations, exponential functions and parameters. Like decision trees and clustering techniques, neural networks need to be trained to recognize patterns on sample datasets. Once trained, they can be used to predict customer behaviour from new data. They work well when there are many potential predictor variables, some of which are redundant. Case 5.2 Customer portfolio management at Tesco Tesco, the largest and most successful supermarket chain in the UK, has developed a CRM strategy that is the envy of many of its competitors. Principally a food retailer in a mature market that has grown little in the  last 20 years, Tesco realized that the only route to growth was taking market share from competitors. Consequently, the development of a CRM strategy was seen as imperative. In developing its CRM strategy, Tesco first analysed its customer base. It found that the top 100 customers were worth the same as the bottom 4000. It also found that the bottom 25 per cent of customers represented only 2 per cent of sales, and that the top 5 per cent of customers were responsible for 20 per cent of sales. The results of this analysis were used to segment Tesco’s customers and to develop its successful loyalty programmes. SWOT and PESTE (p. 154-5): slide# 10 SWOT is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. SWOT analysis explores the internal environment (S and W) and the external environment (O and T) of a strategic business unit. The internal (SW) audit looks for strengths and weaknesses in the business functions of sales, marketing, manufacturing or operations, finance and people management. It then looks cross-functionally for strengths and weaknesses in, for example, cross-functional processes (such as new product development) and organizational culture. The external (OT) audit analyses the macro- and micro-environments in which the customer operates. The macro-environment includes a number of broad conditions that might impact on a company. These conditions are identified by a PESTE analysis. PESTE is an acronym for political, economic, social, technological and environmental conditions. An analysis would try to pick out major conditions that impact on a business, as illustrated below: political environment : demand for international air travel contracted as worldwide political stability was reduced after September 11, 2001 economic environment : demand for mortgages falls when the economy enters recession. social environment : as a population ages, demand for healthcare and residential homes increase technological environment : as more households become owners of computers, demand for Internet banking increases environmental conditions : as customers become  more concerned about environmental quality, demand for more energy efficient products increases. The micro environmental part of the external (OT) audit examines relationships between a company and its immediate external stakeholders: customers, suppliers, business partners and investors. A CRM-oriented SWOT analysis would be searching for customers or potential customers that emerge well from the analysis. Th ese would be customers that: 1. possess relevant strengths to exploit the opportunities open to them 2. are overcoming weaknesses by partnering with other organizations to take advantage of opportunities 3. are investing in turning around the company to exploit the opportunities 4. are responding to external threats in their current markets by exploiting their strengths for diversification. Five forces The five-forces analysis was developed by Michael Porter. 17 He claimed that the profitability of an industry, as measured by its return on capital employed relative to its cost of capital, was determined by five sources of competitive pressure. These five sources include three horizontal and two vertical conditions. The horizontal conditions are: competition within the established businesses in the market competition from potential new entrants competition from potential substitutes. The vertical conditions reflect supply and demand chain considerations: the bargaining power of buyers  the bargaining power of suppliers.  Porter’s basic premise is that competitors in an industry will be more profitable if these five conditions are benign. For example, if buyers are very powerful, they can demand high levels of service and low prices, thus negatively influencing the profitability of the supplier. However, if barriers to entry are high, say because of large capital requirements or dominance of the market by very powerful brands, then current players will be relatively immune from new entrants and enjoy the possibility of better profits. Why would a CRM-strategist be interested in a five-forces evaluation of customers? Fundamentally, a financially healthy customer offers better potential for a supplier than a customer in financial  distress. The analysis points to different CRM solutions: 1. Customers in a profitable industry are more likely to be stable for the near-term, and are better placed to invest in opportunities for the future. They therefore have stronger value potential. These are customers with whom a supplier would want to build an exclusive and well-protected relationship. 2. Customers in a stressed industry might be looking for reduced cost inputs from its suppliers, or for other ways that they can add value to their offer to their own customers. A CRM-oriented supplier would be trying to find ways to serve this customer more effectively, perhaps by stripping out elements of the value proposition that are not critical, or by adding elements that enable the customer to compete more strongly. Strategically Significant Customers (157) slide #11 The goal of this entire analytical process is to cluster customers into groups so that differentiated value propositions and relationship management strategies can be applied. One outcome will be the identification of customers that will be strategically significant for the company’s future. We call these strategically significant customers (SSCs). There are several classes of SSC, as follows: 1. High future lifetime value customers : these customers will contribute significantly to the company’s profitability in the future. 2. High volume customers : these customers might not generate much profit, but they are strategically significant because of their absorption of fixed costs, and the economies of scale they generate to keep unit costs low. 3. Benchmark customers : these are customers that other customers follow. For example, Nippon Conlux supplies the hardware and software for Coca Cola’s vending operation. While they might not make much margin from that rela tionship, it has allowed them to gain access to many other markets. ‘ If we are good enough for Coke, we are good enough for you ’ , is the implied promise. Some IT companies create ‘ reference sites ’ at some of their more demanding customers. 4. Inspirations : these are customers who bring about improvement in the supplier’s business. They may identify new applications for a product, product improvements, or opportunities for cost reductions. They may complain loudly and make unreasonable demands, but in doing so, force change for the better. 5. Door  openers : these are customers that allow the supplier to gain access to a new market. This may be done for no initial profit, but with a view to proving credentials for further expansion. This may be particularly important if crossing cultural boundaries, say between west and east. One company, a Scandinavian processor of timber, has identified five major customer groups that are strategically signi ficant, as in Figure 5.22 . The Seven Core Customer Management Strategies (158-9) slide # 12 This sort of analysis pays off when it helps companies develop and implement differentiated CRM strategies for clusters of customers in the portfolio. There are several core customer management strategies: 1. Protect the relationship : this makes sense when the customer is strategically significant and attractive to competitors. We discuss the creation of exit barriers in our review of customer retention strategies in Chapter 9. 2. Re-engineer the relationship : in this case, the customer is currently unprofitable or less profitable than desired. However, the customer could be converted to profit if costs were trimmed from the relationship. This might mean reducing or automating service levels, or servicing customers through lower cost channels. In the banking industry, transaction processing costs, as a multiple of online processing costs are as follows. If Internet transaction processing has a unit cost of 1, an in-bank teller transaction costs 120 units, an ATM transaction costs 40, telephone costs 30 and PC banking costs 20. In other words, it is 120 times more expensive to conduct an in-bank transaction than the identical online transaction. Cost-reduction programmes have motivated banks to migrate their customers, or at least some segments of customers, to other lower cost channels. An Australian electricity company has found that its average annual margin per customer is $60. It costs $13 to serve a c ustomer who pays by credit card, but only 64 cents to service a direct debit customer. Each customer moved to the lower cost channel therefore produces a transaction cost saving of more than $12, which increases the average customer value by 20 per cent. Re-engineering a relationship requires a clear understanding of the activities that create costs in the relationship (see Case 5.3). 3. Enhance the relationship : like  the strategy above, the goal is to migrate the customer up the value ladder. In this case it is done not by re-engineering the relationship, but by increasing your share of customer spend on the category, and by identifying up-selling and cross-selling opportunities. 4. Harvest the relationship : when your share of wallet is stable, and you do not want to invest more resources in customer development, you may feel that the customer has reached maximum value. Under these conditions you may wish to harvest, that is, optimize cash flow from the customer with a view to using the cash generated to develop other customers. This may be particularly appealing if the customer is in a declining market, has a high cost-to-serve or has a high propensity-to-switch to competitors. 5. End the relationship : sacking customers is ge nerally anathema to sales and marketing people. However, when the customer shows no sign of making a significant contribution in the future it may be the best option.You can read about strategies for sacking customers in Chapter 9. 6. Win back the customer : sometimes customers take some or all of their business to other suppliers. If they are not strategically signifi cant, it may make sense to let them go. However, when the customer is important, you may need to develop and implement win back strategies. The starting point must be to understand why they took their business away. 7. Start a relationship : you’ve identified a prospect as having potential strategic significance for the future. You need to develop an acquisition plan to recruit the customer onto the value ladder. You can read about customer acquisition strategies in Chapter 8.