Developing countries in the Asia Essay

An important trend occurring in the world economy is the process of globalization. Globalization is the progressive integration between national economies and the breaking down of barriers between trade and financial flows around the world, which will eventually lead to the emergence of a single world market. Globalization has affected many different nations in different ways, depending on their degree of development and extent to which they are open to the flows of the world economy. China, which is one of the developing countries, is said to be the next economic super power. Many guru economists such as Lawrence Summers predict that in the opening decades of the 21st century, china will match the US and Japanese economies. China currently ranks seventh strongest economy on a global scale. China’s economic success has not been confined to raw economic growth, especially with a huge trade surplus of over 40 billion according to world guide from 1998. China has an annual per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $750. Today China would have to be the most alluring country. Globalisation has many impacts on developing countries; these include growth, employment, poverty, women and finance. These will be assessed below. It is striking that global GDP growth has been slower than in previous decades since 1990, the period in which globalization has been most pronounced. This contrasts with predictions of the growth-enhancing impact of globalization. Growth is unevenly distributed among developing countries in the Asia – pacific region. In terms of per capita income growth, only 16 developing countries grew at more than 3 per cent per annum between 1985 and 2000. Some 55 developing countries grew at less than 2 per cent per annum, including 23 that suffered negative growth. The income gap between the richest and poorest countries increased significantly. This uneven pattern of growth is shaping a new global economic geography The most striking change is the rapid economic growth in China over the last two decades, together with a more gradual but significant improvement in the  economic growth performance of India. These two countries together account for more than one-  third of the world’s population. The surges in growth means more consumers that need goods and services. These needs appear because of the increase in per capita income of developing countries. Basically, globalization in developing countries makes the need for more globalization. ILO estimates that the unemployment has been increasing substantially over the last decade in the Asia – pacific region. Unemployment rates increased since 1990 in the developing countries of South-East Asia and East Asia. Causes include the financial crisis (due to globalization) at the end of the 1990s. In some major countries, unemployment rates declined after the crisis but not to pre-crisis levels. Self-employment, which indicates the informal economy, increased in all developing regions, except for East and South-East Asia. Employment performance was mixed in industrialized countries. Over the last decade unemployment increased in Japan but sharply declined in some European economies and UK. Income inequality increased in some industrialized countries, while decreasing in developing countries. Earnings increased sharply of the top 1 per cent of income earners in the US, UK and Canada. In the United States, the share of this group reached 17 per cent of gross income in 2000, a level last seen in the 1920s. Causes include high compensation paid by MNEs, the development of new businesses with a global reach. It is an error to attribute all positive or negative outcomes to globalization. Domestic structural factors are also critical, including  inequality in the income distribution and the quality of governance. The impact of globalization on poverty is difficult to assess. Most developing countries have seen greater income inequality but how far globalization can be blamed remains an open question. The number of people living in absolute poverty worldwide has declined significantly from 1,237 million in 1990 to 1,100 million in 2000 but most of the improvement was in China and India, which house 38 per cent of the world’s population. In China alone the number of people living in poverty declined from 361 million to 204 million. In the developing countries of Central Asia, poverty has increased by 8 million; globalization and regional factors were key factors. While reduction is world poverty deserves celebration, it is of little consolation to those outside the few beneficiary countries. Real social costs may occur even if aggregate indicators of unemployment and poverty do not deteriorate. Those indicators may mask the increased† churning† in labor markets and movements in and out of poverty. Perceptions of the social impacts of globalization are colored by direct experience of job or income losses, regardless of the overall picture. The mixed pictures of economic performance, employment, inequality and poverty make it extremely difficult to generalize about the impacts of globalization. Observed outcomes reflect the combined results of a complex of factors of which globalization, however broadly defined, is but one. In the developing countries, the social cost of globalization has fallen disproportionately on women. Many have been adversely affected both absolutely and in relation to men. For instance, trade liberalization has allowed the import of subsidized agricultural products and consumer goods that have wiped out the livelihoods of women producers. The increased entry of foreign firms often displaces farming women from their land or out-competes them for raw materials essential to their productive activities. Women producers also face formidable barriers to entry into new economic activities generated by globalization. This is often because of biases, either against women directly or against the micro- and small enterprise sector in which they predominate. For instance, women own less than 2 per cent of land worldwide and receive less than 10  per cent of credit. Women have also been more adversely affected than men during the  increasing number of financial crises generated by globalization and more disadvantaged  by cuts in social protection.  For many other women with some education and skills, globalization has resulted in an  improvement in their economic and social status. They include the millions of women  workers absorbed into the global production system.  This wage employment gave them higher incomes than in their previous situations, which  were either poorness and unstableness in the existence of an informal economy. Wage employment also gave these women greater potential economic independence and often raised their social status within oppressive societies. On capital account liberalization, agreement is emerging that growth benefits  are small. The potential benefits of access to financial markets are often reduced or negated by instability in countries with poorly regulated financial systems. The prominence of short-term speculative capital flows is a basic structural flaw in the system. Such flows do not contribute to productive investment and place constraints to development policy. In some cases, financial openness has led to misallocation of resources and increased the real cost of capital. The misallocation arises when information failures lead foreign lenders to finance unsound investments. The real cost of capital increases when governments raise interest rates to maintain exchange rate stability. Financial openness limits counter cyclical macro-economic policy because countries have to surrender independence over either exchange rate or economic policy. Maintaining a fixed exchange rate implies forgoing the freedom to fix domestic interest rates, while control over the latter can only be regained by allowing the exchange rate to float. Globalization also affects public finances. In both developing and industrialized countries the average level of corporate tax fell. The top marginal tax rate on personal income declined in the vast majority of countries as well, both high- and low-income, often substantially. So basically, globalization affects finances. Changes in tax rates do not necessarily reduce tax revenues since lower tax rates can also help to reduce tax evasion and increase production incentives. But tax systems may become less progressive and place more burden on labor, which is not mobile like companies and rich individuals. General Motors Asia Pacific has assembly facilities and sales operations in 15 countries in the Asia Pacific region. Manufacturing and assembly operations are in Australia, China, Indonesia, India, Korea and Thailand. China, Thailand and India are few of the developing countries with General  motors manufacturing factories within them. These factories offer substantial work opportunities to unemployed people, so it benefits unemployment rates. Examples of other transnational corporations are Nike and McDonald’s; corporations like these contribute greatly to globalization in developing countries. McDonald’s is one of the most criticized companies by antiglobalists who reproach corporation’s low wages, advertising practices, involvement in deforestation, harvesting of animals, and promotion of junk food and an unhealthy diet. Nike is another company that is getting globalize and is also often the target of antiglobalists’ demonstrations. According to human rights activists, Nike factory workers in developing countries as in China are paid $1.25 a day while working eight to fifteen hours a day. Human rights activists argue that, Nike is undermining human dignity for a profit. You may survive on $1.25 a day, but you cannot live and maintain your dignity. All of there criticisms contribute to globalization. Developing countries have imposed a few ways to reduce/increase the impacts of globalisation. In a positive view, to increase the impacts, lets look at China, has a very large and growing population, and not all the people who live there are employed, so a TNC like General Motors will be urged by the country to build more factories as it fixes the problem of unemployment. Countries who are against globalisation have got laws and regulations, human rights against TNC’s – so people don’t be used as cheap labour like Nike and McDonalds have done, which was also mentioned above. As seen above, there are negative and positive impacts of globalisation on developing countries. Transnational corporations also contribute to globalisation in both negative and positive ways. Countries do things in their power to increase the positive impacts and to decrease the negative  impacts.

Ethics †Accountant Essay

?List 3 lessons about ethics from this article. 1. The first one is the most powerful lesson learned from practicing ethical conduct during Boisjoly’s 27-year engineering career in the aerospace industry, is that them, as individuals, become the result-ant sum of each ethical confrontational event as experienced from the beginning of their careers. 2. The second lesson is what he learned was to never delay informing superiors of bad news so he could protect his integrity with peers. 3. The third lesson is the continuous lesson learned from these personal experiences, is that the good guys can win. Even though we lose, we also have an influence in the outcome of the war. Which of the lessons listed above are relevant to someone entering the accounting profession? In my point of view, the third lesson, which talked about the good guys can win, is relevant to someone entering the accounting profession. The ‘Voice Choice’ is similar with accounting profession, because we need to assist on the truth. In this lesson also mentions accountability was usually applied to kill the messenger bringing the bad news, rather than punish the wrongdoer. In the accounting profession, the responsibility is also need to display the information not to punish someone. Therefore, these lessons help the author learned some ideas. Moreover, this idea could help him fit in the accounting profession. Boisjoly cites the following three types of behavior that are used by those confronted with an ethical dilemma: Exit, Voice, and Loyalty. Develop a hypothetical case involving external reporting that would cause an accountant (either a corporate accountant or an auditor) to choose between those three types of behavior. Here I will create a hypothetical case, and this case involves external reporting that will cause an accountant. This story was happened in China. A company has three accountants. They are Lily, Sam and Jack. For the record, this company just changed the manger. The manger wants to fire some employees who are not qualified with their stations. Moreover, the supervisor of accounting is available now. The three accountants do not worry about get fired, but all of them want to strive for the accounting supervisor. Therefore, they tried to do well on their own jobs, paid more attention to themselves’ personal image and interpersonal relationship. One day, the manager took some blank notes to Sam’s office, because he wanted to submit an expenses account. However, Sam refused the manger’s requirement because the blank notes were break rules. Then the manger went to Lily’s office, and asked for the same thing. The difference is Lily wanted to ingratiate the manager, so she reimbursed to the manger. Another day, the manger did the same thing to Jack. Jack let the manager go back to office at first, and he would send these notes back to manager’s office later. After that, he returned back the blank notes, and he did not approve the requirement. One week later, Lily was fired, Sam was still there, and Jack became the accountant supervisor. Someone asked manger why, the manager answered that â€Å"we cannot hire a person who do not follow the principles, We should reuse the people who either follow the principle or the way of methods. † Based on this story, we analyze Lily is related to ‘Loyalty’, Sam is related to the ‘Voice†, because he stands up for ethical principles.

GRRRLZ Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

GRRRLZ - Essay Example The first performance, which was silent, represented the daily morning routine of the girls. It was the most successful scene in my opinion because all actors were together on the stage and each was focusing solely on the acting without paying any attention to the audience. Each actor had their own performance which they focused on. This ensured that the fourth wall between the characters and the audience remained intact. On the other hand, the most unsuccessful part of the performance in my opinion was scene #21, Las Hermanas. There were a lot of chatting at the beginning of this performance and I felt slightly bored by the long lines that the actors read. I think One of the major reasons why I felt bored was because the rest of the performances were short and had music, sound effects and dancing to complement them, whereas this performance was not only long, but merely featured actors reading their lines. I think that the actors worked well together, the performances were fluid, and the monologues and dancing were performed superbly. For example, performance #10, Ode to Daffiness, had the actors dancing and performing in sync. The singing and dancing were completely in sync with the music and were executed beautifully. All the actors were well casted and were perfect for their roles, however, I liked one actor in all her performances: the actress who played Natalie. I thought she acted, danced and sang superbly. What is more, she was very versatile: in performance #4, God’s Girls, she was acting the part of a young girl with another actor playing her sister. They were talking about lying and faith. Natalie was perfect in her portrayal of a young girl. Her way of talking with her sister as a child was very well acted. She even changed her voice during the performance, along with shouting and jumping around like a child. The actors changed their characters between each performance smoothly. I have not been witness to performances where the actors

Jean Jacques Rousseau Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Jean Jacques Rousseau - Essay Example This consent of the public is critically important for welfare of a society because this consent is directly related to a low rate of crime, violence, and chaos. In order to avoid drastic consequences and to preserve the supremacy of the state over the individuals, many philosophers made great contributions to raising awareness about the social contract. This very riveting concept picked momentum due to monumental works introduced by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. This essay is primarily based on scrutinizing the highly memorable book written by Rousseau in 1762 which is called â€Å"The Social Contract† (TSC). Following discussion will include a comprehensive analysis of this concept which was rigorously popularized by Rousseau in his book. The essay will try to explore what exactly Rousseau means by the term â€Å"Social contract† and what is the nature of its relationship with politics. Rousseau was well-aware of the value added by civil freedom to virtuous performance in life, so he indefinitely stressed on replacing personal freedom with civil freedom. He suggested that civil undertakings or obligations without a social contract are bound to be considered tyrannical (Rousseau 2004, p. 195). But, a social contract motivates the entire community to compel a defiant person to abide by the general will. Rousseau was of the view that this sort of community behaviour adds immense strength to mind and character. It was never his intention to push people into slavery because in TSC, he does not urge his audience to completely sacrifice their physical freedom. Rather, he stresses that the social order is in fact a way of preserving natural freedom. Rousseau is highly conscious of the fact that excess of everything is bad. There is an extent to which physical freedom should be sacrificed in order to be admitted into a civil society and become a full and

History US Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

History US - Essay Example By 1939, the US unemployment still exceeded 20%. The New Deal also raised taxes such that entrepreneurs became discouraged from investing more. As such, the New Deal failed to end the Great Economic Depression. When World War II started, America hesitated to join until 1942, when about 12 million soldiers were sent overseas to fight alongside the allies to defeat Adolf Hitler. Back home in the US, about 15 million people were employed in the manufacturing of military weapons, machines and equipment. Folsom (2010) and Bohanon (2012) agree that this is the most significant moment of the New Deal because it created more jobs than ever. Many Americans got employed either in the army or the military industry. This again provided an opportunity for production to increase in the US, hence boost the economy. Unfortunately, the produced weapons were not being used by civilians at home. They were sent overseas to be used in the war field. Even the soldiers themselves could not eat weapons. They needed bread, homes and sustainable jobs. On the other hand, taxes were still high such that what people earned could not suffice. As such, life still remained miserable and the quest to end the Economic Depr ession was far from reality. According to Folsom (2010), towards the end of the war, in 1944, President Roosevelt started preparing for the post war economic recovery. He drew his vision but died six months before the war ended and before he could implement his post-war America agenda. His successor, Harry Truman, wanted Roosevelt’s agenda implemented but the opposition (Congress) refused vehemently and opted for the opposite. Finally they agreed to totally deviate from the New Deal and adopt a totally new Recovery plan which included the following: no federal program for health care, no full-employment act; only limited federal housing; and no increase in minimum wage or social security benefits. Instead, the

Election Program Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Election Program - Case Study Example Any good candidate would. However Edwards is "is running for president to build One America" ( http://johnedwards.com/issues) and with an issued that is so likely to divide American, I think it would be a tough issue for him to decide one. And rightly so. The problems in American are huge. Especially with the buyer of the airport being from the Middle East, the situation becomes even more complex. There are still many Americans today who hold out racial hatred against any people from that region, and I can see already the protests coming from such people about selling over the airport to them. Especially sense the American concern for air security is already so high; I think many problems would come from the selling of the airport. However, the poll numbers show that 59 percent of people support the idea, and Edwards is a man of the people after all. In theory, it would be best for Edwards to support the idea on the campaign trail. This could work in his favor, as it would bring 59 percent of the public opinion under his belt, and it would work great for his every man image, and his idea of standing up to the old corrupt government as a person of the people. On Edward's own site is a quote about his ideas for the power of public government: ""With his One Democracy Initiative, Edwards has demonstrated that he will take on the dominance of corporate lobbyists to be the leader of something we lack today in Washington: a powerful 'lobby for the public good.' His vision for government reform, like many other issues, is charting a way to reclaim the soul and values of our party and of the country" ( http://johnedwards.com/issues/govt-reform), and his support of this plan would only straighten this platform of his. Problems further arise with the issue of this plan getting through the House and the Senate. If Edwards supports the plan and upsets his own party to much, he could loose the nomination. If he upsets the other side to much, he could find it very difficult to work with the House and the Senate if and when he becomes President. However, it would look really good to all the people of American if Edwards stood up to the House and the Senate on the platform that a majority of people support this bill, and that he did as well, further rallying his cause as a president for the people. Running for President, Edward also had to keep in mind the other half of Americans that don't support the idea as well. Maybe it wouldn't be the best bet for Edwards to come out and publicly support this idea, as it could cost him almost 50 percent of the popular vote on the election. And in a crucial election like this, every and any vote counts, and losing that much popular opinion might not work in his favor. It would be a tough decision for anyone to make, however I believe it would be in Edwards best interest to support the popular opinion and support the plan. This way, he can further build upon his platform as a people's man, and can also stand up to the government, which would really rally the people to his cause. It might upset some people on the other side however, and that is to be taken into consideration, but I feel that it would do more positive for his Presidential campaign that it would do to hurt it. It

(The Roar of the Tiger Mom) Synthesis Assignment

(The Roar of the Tiger Mom) Synthesis - Assignment Example Therefore, the competitiveness of children is by far determined by whether the child is from the western or from the Chinese culture, and what competitiveness means in those cultural contexts. Thus, this synthesis seeks to digest the various tenets of making children competitive in the future, through taking an account of different approaches that are applicable. Different approaches to parenting represented by the western and the Chinese Models Parenting approaches define the competiveness of children in the future. The approaches of parenting can simply be defined as either the Chinese model, or the western model. The western model of parenting is open and free-range, where the parents allow their children to make some of the crucial choices in their lives, especially regarding their academic interests and the professions they would like to take (Behrens & Rosen, 2013). Therefore, according to the western model of parenting, children are allowed to see learning as fun, while avoidi ng stressing academic success upon the children, since â€Å"Western parents are extremely anxious about their children’s self-esteem† p144. ... r children’s academic performance, through instilling on them a culture of academic pursuit that is almost free of other educational activities, such as games and drama (Behrens & Rosen, 2013). Thus, Hanna Rosin, in her article, â€Å"Mother inferior† observes that â€Å"many American parents will read The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, and feel somewhat defensive and regretful† p148. Chinese parents spend most of their time imploring their children to pursue academic excellence, which is then used as a measure of successful parenting in the Chinese culture. According to this model, whenever a child is not performing exemplarily in academics, then, definitely the parent has failed in his/her role of parenting. However, it is the Chinese mothers who play a great role in the education of their children, since the academic success of a child is used to measure the successful parenting of a Chinese mother (Behrens & Rosen, 2013). The most interesting aspect is that ; the Chinese mothers have developed strict guidelines on how their children should behave, in terms of what they should pursue and what they should engage in, in the course of their learning. While the Chinese parents may spend up to 10 times of their time engaging their children in academics, the western parents allows their children more free time, for which they can use in sports and games The Chinese applies the philosophy that â€Å"nothing is fun, until you are good at it† p143. Further, the Chinese parents apply the adage that to be good at something, one has to work, and children do not like working. Therefore, if a child has to become successful in anything, it is the duty of the parent to ensure that children are involved in working for what they are interested in. However, in denouncing this view,

The Discord of Relativism in Relation to Universal Wrongs Essay

The Discord of Relativism in Relation to Universal Wrongs - Essay Example But ultimately there are conduct and actions that are acceptable or at the very least inoffensive and which holds in it a universal truth of applicability. In a directly inverse rationalization of the same concept, there are things that are inherently wrong no matter which corner of the world the same is committed. Lenn Goodman in â€Å"Some Moral Minima† exemplified on the assumption that there are inherently wrong things that would never pass any test of appropriateness. This assertion was based on four instances Goodman relates as ‘Deserts’ or expressions which distinguish human beings. His discourse on the verity of this proposition revolved around 1. genocide and induced famine, 2. terrorism and other acts such as hostage taking, 3. slavery, incest and polygamy and 4. rape and clitoridectomy or the removal of a female’s pleasure organ. The author recognizes the commonality among the enlisted illustration of wrongful acts because â€Å"All the wrongs m y proposed norms speak against drag with them some violation of the truth. Not that truth is somehow the arch-imperative from which all others rise, as if by deduction. But the linkage does suggest a way of looking at (or looking for) key moral norms† (Goodman, 2010, p.92). Essentially this argument is in direct contradiction to relativism which suggests that what constitutes right and wrong is dependent upon every culture, person or society. This truly is an appealing take on ethical perspectives because it creates a very wide ground to exonerate wrongful acts as long as they are permitted at any one exception. It qualifiedly extinguishes the distinction between right and wrong whenever relativism is accurately applied. â€Å"This approach seems to allow us to avoid having to defend ethical claims that can be difficult to defend; however, others maintain that relativism has certain crippling problems† (Mosser, 2010, p.11). The adherence to relativism would render the a rgument of Goodman devoid of any merit in the same way that Goodman’s proposition is in direct contradiction to relativism. Goodman did make a direct mention of relativism as the same was inevitable due to the conflict between the concepts. There are cultural and individual distinctions which qualify and fundamentally affect the customs of normal life. But emphasis was divulged in that people can deliberately perplex every given situation to distort the same through the simplistic reasoning that is anchored in relativism. There are objective values that are to be upheld above all others. This is not to say that they are absolutely unjustified but that they are not to be used indiscriminately. The opposition to relativism in the essay was delved into with Goodman’s suggestion that polygamy is among those that are simply wrong. â€Å"Relativists will say that romantic love and companionate marriage are recent inventions, culture-bound and fraught with troubles of their own†¦ But to say that an institution has a history or cultural setting does not imply that any alternative to it is equally humane† (2010, p.91). This is among the arguments that I do agree with. Yes, it may be true that divorce does occur and it is virtually available in all countries, but this does not in any way lessen the value given to marriage by any culture. There are different rituals that occur and the celebration of which vary accordingly but this only goes to show that the same is given much import. Polygamy is even perhaps among the reasons which perpetuate the truth in why Goodman states

Revenue and Mitigation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Revenue and Mitigation - Essay Example Apparently, there are advantages and disadvantages associated with donations to the police and they must be weighed effectively, in order to determine the best possible option for effective community policing. One of the principal advantages is that donations can provide the extra revenue needed to fight crime. Further, the sponsorship drives can be used as platforms to enhance community awareness about the crime prevention projects and initiatives that the police are undertaking. Donations can also provide law enforcers with additional opportunities to interrelate with members of the public at social events. Disadvantageous implications of donations to the police include the donors thinking that they would get preferential treatment in case they break the law. In worst case scenarios, donation could distort priorities of the police, since they might feel obliged to serve donors first (Hess and Orthmann 492-493). Nonetheless, the pros of donations outweigh the cons, and the latter can be overcome with proper regulations in place. It would be possible to capitalize on the public’s good will, while upholding transparency of donations or sponsorship. For this reason, the police department is inviting community groups, councils and businesses to invest in its projects and initiatives, so as to establish a safer environment for all. The department guarantees that financial assistance received will aid in building and strengthening links with all stakeholders to facilitate crime reporting and prevention. Further, sponsorship will clearly align with the police force’s objectives of supporting cost effective measures to reduce crime. The force will uphold absolute integrity in all its dealings, in a setting of heightened accountability and scrutiny from the public. Members of any community have a significant role to play in prevention or coping with events that pose danger to their welfare or that of people close to them. Majority of hazard management

Interviewing Excercises Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Interviewing Excercises - Essay Example The report further points to mounting debts whose growth rate has exceeded concurrent growth rates in revenue, total financial resources and enrolment, and where the debt per student exceeded financial resources per student. The report further predict continued financial difficulties for the public colleges but expects the public universities to raise tuition and fees so as to bridge the revenue gaps occasioned by cuts in state support, weakened endowments and higher expenses generated by growing enrolment. However, the reports indicate that the public colleges have remained liquid and able to meet their current liability on short notice, but the private universities had a stronger liquidity than similarly rated public universities. Exercise 3. 1. Mary said to Tom, â€Å"put the book down and pay for my coffee.† 2. Tom replied, â€Å"Absolutely no. Pay for yourself.† 3. â€Å"The computer has revolutionized education,† stated John Thompson. 4. â€Å"I spilled co ffee all over my keyboard,† Taylor cried. 5. ... Mr. Allen, who is tall and muscular, dropped out of high school to join the military at the age of 18 years. After joining military, he deployed to Okinawa for two week training and thereafter deployed to Vietnam at the height of the war. He admits having killed many Vietnamese soldiers and watching others die, in the 13 months that he spent in the Vietnamese jungle. He is now a vocal proponent of peace in the world and a prominent critic of waging war. His advice to the students is to â€Å"understand the importance of creating a world of peace and nonviolence†. He laments the military’s use of an aggressive approach, to recruit young men and women. â€Å"Nowadays we have allowed the military to go into our junior high schools and or high schools, and they have programs, ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corps) programs for the young high school and junior high school students,† He says, â€Å"When I was a child that did not happen; you had to go to the recruiter ’s office†. He categorically stated that such aggressive recruiting do not offer the young high school kids a chance to look at what their options in life are. â€Å"Military presence in our schools has convinced many children that the military is a good thing†. He asserts that military training changes the mind of the young recruits. Marine Corps, he says, trained to kill. The first thing that the trainers do is to remove â€Å"your civilian life from you† by getting rid of one’s civilian way of thinking. â€Å"In the military there’s no thinking. You are trained to follow orders. You do not ask any questions.† he says. He opines that it is easier to do this to young high school kids who have no idea of what they want to do with

Fifth Element of Game Theory Essay Example for Free

Fifth Element of Game Theory Essay As each of the competing companies watchfully study the moves made by the others in the same industry they all belong to, they sometimes end up deciding to just do the best they can to win the biggest share in the market – without spending more time focusing of the others. This direction, when taken by the industry players, results to the occurrence of â€Å"Nash equilibrium. † (Economics 11th Edition by Richard G. Lipsey Paul N. Courant, UK: HarperCollins College Publishers, 1996) The above graph illustrates the Nash equilibrium and the optimum result that it leads to (Osborne, An Introduction to Game Theory). As opposed to how badly things may end up for the competing players, Nash equilibrium brings in profitable results for everybody. As opposed to getting stuck with the â€Å"prisoner’s dilemma† or the â€Å"pride game†, companies in this scenario have individually opted to stick to the strategies that they believe will work and will hand them the market dominance that will secure their place as the industry leader. Effects of Equilibrium Equilibrium brings balance to the economy – whether long- or short-lived. As a temporary phase that may or may not be maintained, equilibrium occurs when there is no tendency for change in the decisions of the economic entities regarding their products and services, the price and volume that they will supply, and the demand segment that they will target. (Lipsey Courant 510) Equilibrium comes in different forms as prevailing circumstances vary. â€Å"In the macroeconomic goods market, equilibrium occurs when planned aggregate expenditure is equal to aggregate output. † Thus, the volume that the suppliers has made available in the market is the same volume that buyers will actually buy. Meanwhile, equilibrium in the financial markets is attained when the supply of money is equal to the demand for money (Case Fair 67). In this setting, qualified borrowers find that there are loans that they can avail. In the same setting, financial institutions are able to use in their operations the idle cash in their coffers – they issue loans to maximize their income from lending activities. Equilibrium has been thoroughly explored as a concept and has been attributed with all kinds of applications arising from distinct circumstances and conclusions. It is not surprising that there evolved a specialized branch of game theory called â€Å"General Equilibrium Theory† which is widely used in analyzing the public and private sectors of the economy. (David Levine website) Freddie Mac in the Game Theory Freddie Mac never had to ward off many competitors in the industry. As one of the two giants –the other one being Fannie Mae – serving the country’s secondary mortgage market, the gaming area has turned out to be definitely spacious. Indeed, there is the entire USA as the territory to be serviced and there come the banks to take care of dealing with them – then there come Freddie Mac, Fanny Mae and Ginny to pour in the needed financial resources. With Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae issuing or guaranteeing a total of $5. 4 trillion in outstanding mortgage debt, these two companies practically make up the entire mortgage industry. Furthermore, they are equipped with all the needed ammunition for winning: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have indisputable strong points. Due to the implied backing of the United States government, they enjoy virtually unlimited access to the capital markets at funding costs that are below market. They pay no local taxes, only national. Each has enjoyed tremendous growth and profitability. As the biggest issuers of mortgage-backed securities and corporate securities in the world, the biggest buyers and hedgers of the securities in the world, and, not least, the source of liquidity for more than 75% of conventional and conforming home mortgages extended in this country, it could be argued that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are about as central to the American capital markets as the Treasury Department. (Annaly webstie) (Source: World Socialist website) Indeed, with their coveted roles as providers of a continuing supply of money for the banking institutions engaged in retail lending to the multitudes, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae own the game. As competitors offering the same products and services, enjoying the same rare privileges and dealing with the same clients, Freddie Mac and Fannie May have consistently been like identical twins – though Fannie May turns out to be decades older than Freddie Mac. With each one of them keen on beating the other, the strategies and packages they resorted to turned out to work for both of them, at least during the booming growth years of the industry. Consistent with the Nash equilibrium concept, a report that came out in the Spring of 2002 showed that fully one-half of 2002’s 1. 2% gain in real GDP growth was brought on by the housing activities across the country. (Annaly website) Freddie Mac and Fannie May have been playing the Nash Equilibrium game. In such a game as theirs, â€Å"players play the best they can given their beliefs, and they have learned all there is to learn about their opponent’s play† (David Levine website). Works Cited Osborne, Martin. An Introduction to Game Theory. Oxford University Press, 2002. Lipsey, Richard Courant, Paul. Economics 11th Edition. New York: HarperCollins College Publishers, 1996. Case, Karl Fair, Ray. Principles of Economics 8th Edition. Prentice Hall, 2007. Levine, David. What is Game Theory? Department of Economic, UCLA. 29 October 2008 http://levine. sscnet. ucla. edu/general/whatis. htm#General%20equilibrium%20theory Annaly. com Website. FAQs on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, 29 October 2008 http://www. annaly. com/ie/ffmfaq. html World Socialist Web Site. The Importance of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. 29 October 2008 http://www. wsws. org/articles/2008/jul2008/debt-j25. shtml

Workforce Obsolescence

Workforce Obsolescence The loss of critical skills, i.e., the disappearance of non-replaceable workforce, is a problem faced by many product sectors tasked with supporting critical systems. This problem is common for organizations that must manage the DMSMS-type obsolescence problems for hardware, software and materials discussed in the other chapters of this book. For some products, the loss of worker skills and experience can be mitigated by simply adjusting hiring rates and instituting training of younger workers, however, in other sectors experience can be very difficult to replace. This chapter focuses on the loss of critical skills that are either non-replaceable or take prohibitively long times to reconstitute. 13.1 Defining Workforce Obsolescence Mismatches between the skills possessed by the workforce and the skills needed by employers create a number of issues that complicate the long-term manufacturing and sustainment of systems. These mismatches have been classified into the following three general categories: skills obsolescence, skill shortage, and critical skills loss. Skills obsolescence (also referred to as human capital obsolescence) describes situations in which workers lack the skills needed to either become employed or remain employed, (De Grip and Van Loo, 2002). This often includes the segment of the workforce that have skills, but those skills are obsolete requiring retraining of the worker. Where obsolete skills refer to skills that are no longer needed. Skill shortage describes situations where there are insufficient available skill competences to fill the needs of an organization, e.g., (Green et al., 1998). Skills shortage articulates the need to identify, train and retain the workforce to fill current and expected future skill needs. Skills shortage has many causes including the speed of technology advancement, e.g., (Duan et al., 2002), training and education gaps (Skinner et al., 2004), and can also be the result of an organizations inability or failure to protect its core skill competencies over long periods of time or during economic downturns (Melymuka, 2002). Critical skills loss is relevant to this book and is the focus of this chapter. Critical skills loss refers to the loss of skills that either cannot be replaced or require a prohibitively long time to reconstitute, (Sandborn and Prabhakar, 2015). In this case reconstitution of the skills may require many years if possible at all. Critical skills loss is a special case of organizational forgetting, i.e., the loss of knowledge gained through learning-by-doing. Organizational forgetting can be caused by labor turnover, periods of inactivity, and/or failure of an organization to institutionalize tacit knowledge (Brsanko et al., 2010). Critical skills loss is a permanent and involuntary form of organizational forgetting that may be unrecoverable. Critical skills loss (in the context of legacy system support) is the result of long-term (20+ years) of workforce attrition where highly-skilled workers retire without a sufficient number of younger workers to learn their skills and take their p lace.[1] Critical skills loss is not necessarily the result of poor planning or lack of foresight (and although activity is light, it is not nonexistent); rather it is an inevitable outcome of the organizations dependence on a highly-specialized highly-critical skill set for which there is small, but non-zero, demand, (Sandborn and Prabhakar, 2015). It should be stressed that critical skills loss is a long-term phenomenon it occurs gradually over 20+ years, i.e., over the span of several generations of management coupled with mergers, acquisitions, and product line changes, critical skills often diffuse and eventually disappear. In the context of this book, the salient issue that defines workforce obsolescence for legacy mission-, infrastructure-, and safety-critical systems is critical skills loss. 13.2 How Critical Skills Loss Impacts Systems and Where it Comes From Critical skills loss is rarely a problem in high-volume low-skill manufacturing applications, e.g., assembly-line workers. For these applications, an appropriate workforce nearly always exists or can be readily constructed through training programs. However, managing human skills obsolescence is becoming a significant problem for organizations tasked with supporting legacy systems. These support organizations need to be able to understand, forecast and manage a highly-specialized workforce with potentially irreplaceable skill sets. The system support and management challenges created by the loss of critical human skills have been reported in many industry sectors including: healthcare (Waldman, 2004), nuclear power (Nuclear Workforce Planning, 2008), aerospace (Testimony of Elliot Pulham, 2002), and other enterprises(Leibold and Voelpel, 2002). In the IT industry, the shortage of mainframe application programmers experienced in legacy applications is very problematic, (Goodridge and McGee, 2002) and (Hilson, 2001); in this case the necessary skills are no longer being taught because demand has dropped and younger workers interests are elsewhere. The loss of critical skills is most troublesome for organizations that must provide long-term support for legacy systems. For example, for defense systems, the loss of critical skills is potentially devastating: Even a 1-year delay in funding for CVN-76 [aircraft carrier] will result in the loss of critical skills which will take up to 5 years to reconstitute through ne w hires and training. A longer delay could cause a permanent loss in the skills necessary to maintain our carrier force. (Congressional Record, 1994). The causes of critical skills loss include: education and training declines (e.g., universities no longer educate engineers in the programming languages that are used in many legacy systems, (Shead, 2013); younger workers may perceive that certain occupations are in decline, e.g., nuclear power (Nuclear Workforce Planning, 2008) and are therefore discouraged from entering them; similarly younger workers may perceive certain occupations as not cutting-edge and therefore not enter them (Ahrens et al., 1995) (Adolph, 1996); younger workers may leave jobs supporting legacy systems to pursue other positions that appear to be more lucrative and exciting (Figure 13-2 in Section 13.3.3 shows an exit age distribution for a legacy control system); the shrinkage of feeder occupations, e.g., historically the U.S. Navy has provided highly-skilled workers to the nuclear power industry (Nuclear Workforce Planning, 2008); older workers protecting their jobs by not passing knowledge along to younger workers, e.g., (AndolÃ…Â ¡ek, 2011); and fundamental differences between young and old workers regarding job perceptions (i.e., social and cultural influences) (Goodridge and McGee, 2002). 13.3 Quantifying the Impact of Critical Skills Loss Critical skills loss impacts the sustainment of mission-, infrastructure- and safety-critical systems. As the human capital that possesses the skills to support a system shrinks, the time that the system is down (non-operational) when the system requires support will increase. Downtime increases lead to increased business interrupt time, which results in a loss of revenue for manufacturing systems. Increases in downtime in the transportation, defense and service industries decreases system availability, which can lead to a loss of revenue, safety compromises, property damage, and loss of life (e.g., emergency vehicle unavailability). In this section, we briefly review the applicability of some existing models to quantifying the impact of critical skills loss and then describe one modeling approach that estimates the financial impact of the problem. 13.3.1 Existing Approaches Nearly all of the existing modeling and quantitative treatments address the problem of skills obsolescence, which is a different problem than the critical skills loss problem addressed in this chapter. Most skills obsolescence treatments assume that workers skills become outdated or are otherwise no longer useful, possibly as a result of automation and other advances in technology. These works focus on the mitigation of skill decay in a workforce over time. The only existing work applicable to critical skills loss focuses on knowledge preservation, i.e., the capture of non-replenishable knowledge, (Joe and Yoong, 2004) (Hailey and Hailey). Some applicable work has also been done on retirement wave planning (Friel, 2002); however, this work focuses on head count rather than skill content. The modeling performed by Bohlander and Snell (2010) addresses a situation that is similar to critical skills loss, however, worker attrition and the costs associated the unavailability of the workers is not considered. In Bordoloi (1999), a model for different skill level workers that enter and exit a company is developed; the model takes into account the rate at which the company gains and loses workers. However, the model in(Bordoloi, 1999) does not estimate workers experience as a function of time and therefore does not determine the impact of critical skills loss on supporting systems. In the planning model developed by Huang et al.(2009) the goal is the determination of an ideal hiring rate using differing worker skill levels. While this model uses workforce simulation and determines the ideal hiring rate, the model does not take into account the costs incurred by the unavailability of workers. The basis for most workforce planning models is the physical sum of people employed, (Holt, 2011). However, the model developed by Holt, however, does not consider the aging of individual workers over time. There are models that have some applicability to critical skills loss in the maintenance workforce planning literature, e.g., (Koochaki et al., 2013) (Martorell et al., 2010) (Ait-Kaki, et al. 2011) and (Ahire et al., 2000). These models focus on optimizing maintenance scheduling and resource allocation. Maintenance policies have the goal of maximizing plant or process line availability while concurrently minimizing cost through the timely presence (and appropriate skill set) of maintenance workers. Koochaki et al., 2013) points out that maintenance workers are usually highly skilled and therefore difficult to recruit and that the efficient and effective use of a scarce maintenance workforce is very important. The model in (Koochaki et al., 2013) addresses the impact of limited ma intenance workers (i.e., maintenance resource constraints) on the grouping of maintenance activities while comparing age-based replacement and condition-based maintenance (CBM). In (Ahire et al., 2000), the makespan (which is the total length of the schedule) is minimized for a groups of preventive maintenance tasks constrained by workforce availability. Other papers treat the influence of CBM on maintenance scheduling and workforce planning, for examples see (Koochaki et al., 2013) and the references contained therein. In general these references focus on the determination of the optimum size maintenance workforce. 13.3.2 Modeling Human Skills Loss A detailed model for the loss of non-replinishable maintenance resources has been developed in (Sandborn and Prabhakar, 2015) and (Sandborn and Williams, 2016). The technical development of the model is briefly summarized here, see (Sandborn and Prabhakar, 2015) and (Sandborn and Williams, 2016) for more detail. The model uses historical workforce data to forecast the size and experience of the workforce pool as a function of time. The workforce experience pool is then used to determine the cost of supporting (sustaining) a system as a function of time. The model was created to address the questions: what will todays skills pool look like in the future? and what impact will the future skills pool have on the organizations ability to continue to support the system? A key assumption in this model is that sufficient experience exists today to adequately support the system, and we wish to forecast the future workforce skills pools experience relative to todays skills pool. The model has four primary inputs: a current age distribution (fC), a hiring age distribution (fH), an exit age distribution (fL) and the hiring rate (H). Assuming a stationary analysis, the distribution of exit ages (fL) and the distribution of hiring ages (fH) and are constant. This does not mean that the same number of people are hired each year, but rather that the hired peoples ages are always distributed equivalently. The same assumption is made for fL. The distribution of current ages (fC) is used as an initial condition. To assess workforce pool size and experience over time, we must project the experience of the workers in the pool into the future. This projection starts with the initial conditions in the pool and accounts for age related loss and subsequent hiring. The level of experience within the skills pool changes over time and can be determined from: 1) the new hires added to the skills pool; 2) the attrition (loss) rate of skilled workers; and 3) the varying skill levels of the workers in the pool and how those skill levels (experience) increase as workers remain in the pool. The net frequency of people in the pool of age a during year i relative to year 0 is given by, (13-1) where, i is the number of years from the start of the analysis, a is age, and Hi is the fraction of new hires per year (fraction of the pool size at the start of the analysis period i = 0). The first term in the brackets in Equation 13-1 is the current workforce pool size (relative to year 0), the second term in the brackets in Equation 13-1 is the number of new hires (relative to year 0), and the multiplier accounts for the retention rate. Note, Equation 13-1 assumes that the hiring rate, Hi is the same for all ages, a. The initial condition for the model is that the fraction of people of age a relative to year 0 in year 0 is given by,. The cumulative net frequency of people in the skills pool, NNET, in year i is determined by summing Ni(a) over all the ages (y = youngest to r = retirement), (13-2) Calculating the size of the workforce pool (head count) over time is necessary but not sufficient to capture an organizations future ability to support a system because workers have different levels of experience. Because of the varying experience, not all workers provide an equivalent level of value to the support of the system. In this model, experience is defined as the length of time that a worker has spent in a particular position. The cumulative experience in the workforce pool in year i, Ei, is calculated using, (13-3) where, RE and IE map age to the experience measured in years (RE and IE are determined using a parametric model from actual data). Note, while experience has the units of time, Ei, which is used in this model, represents the cumulative experience relative to the initial condition. The time to perform maintenance in year i is found from the cumulative experience using, (13-4) where, is the time to perform a maintenance activity with a skills pool having E0 experience at i = 0. In Equation 13-4 the time required to perform maintenance increases as experience decreases due to the following factors: 1) less-experienced workers require more time to perform maintenance (learning curve effects), and/or 2) if the pool of workers capable of performing the required maintenance task shrinks, appropriate workers may not be available at every site and may have to travel from a different location, which takes time. The most significant impact of the loss of critical human skills for legacy systems is the ability to perform system support (corrective maintenance) in a timely manner. Corrective maintenance costs consist of: spare parts, labor, downtime, overhead, consumables/handling, and equipment/facilities. When a corrective maintenance event occurs, the cost of performing the required maintenance action is, (13-5) where is the fraction of the maintenance events of severity level j that result in a business interrupt, is the cost of replacement parts (if replacement parts are needed) in year i,is the cost of labor (per unit time) in year i (with appropriate overhead applied), and is the cost of business interrupt (per unit time) in year i. , and are assumed to be discounted using an appropriate discount rate. 13.3.3 Example System Support Case Study A detailed case study was previously published in (Sandborn and Prabhakar, 2015) and (Sandborn and Williams, 2016). In this section we only provide a few highlights from that case study. The case study considered the support of a legacy control system for a chemical product manufacturing company (the system was originally developed and deployed in the 1970s) and has over 2000 instances (plants) installed and currently operating and supported worldwide. In this case, because the process line availability is very important, unscheduled downtime cannot be tolerated. The model overviewed in Section 13.3.2 requires three distribution inputs: the current age distribution (fC), the distribution of hiring age (fH) and the distribution of exit age (fL). Two of these distribution inputs are readily available from organizations field data: the hiring age (fH) and a current age distribution (fC), Figure 13-1. The current age distribution (in Figure 13-1b) has a mode of 55 years, which is very close to the early retirement age in the organization, thereby demonstrating the issue that this chapter is focused on. The exit age distribution (fL) shown in Figure 13-2 for this case study was synthesized using the distributions for fH(a) and fC(a) in Figure 13-1 along with the assumption of a stationary process. Figure 13-2 is a bathtub curve. It indicates that workers either exit early or exit late (but few exit between ages 45 and 60. The younger workers exit because they are changing jobs within the company. The company modeled in this case study, has had difficulty retaining young workers (engineers) to support the legacy system. The younger engineers have a tendency to relocate to other job opportunities within the company that they perceive as having better long-term career prospects. Above age 60 the workers are retiring. Figure 13-2 supports the critical skills loss observation made in Section 13.2 that younger workers leave legacy system support jobs (presumably for other positions). The number of workers (pool size) is shown in Figures 13-1 and 13-2, but the experience contained within the pool is not reflected in these distributions. To get from pool size to the workforce pool experience, the mapping from age to applicable experience is needed. The parameters for the mapping function in Equation 13-3 were generated from the years of experience (on the control system) and the years of service to the company. The net pool size (number of workers) over time as a fraction of the pool size in 2010, NNET, is shown in Figure 13-3a. Figure 13-3b shows the experience relative to 2010, and Figure 13-3c shows the average age of the workers in the pool. The results in Figure 13-3 assume no hiring, H = 0. Figures 13-3a and 13-3b indicate that although a 10% drop in head count occurs in the first 6 years, the experience remains approximately constant (existing workers are gaining enough on-the-job experience to offset the drop in head count). After 2016, the experience drops as the oldest and most experienced workers leave and are not being sufficiently replenished. Assuming that the lost skills are replenishable (they are not for the real company treated in this case study), we can estimate what the future hiring rate, Hi, would have to be to preserve the initial level of experience, E0, in the skills pool. Equation 13-1 is used to determine the annual hiring rate, Hi, that is required to replenish the cumulative experience lost as a result of attrition and retirement. Figure 13-4 shows results for hiring rate, Hi, relative to the initial pool size P0as a function of the number of years from the start of the analysis. Figure 13-4 shows that no hiring is required in the first five years (we are not allowing hiring to drop below 0, a hiring rate below 0 would reflect a layoff situation). A hiring rate of over 6% is required starting in 2017 for 9 years and then settles to 2-5% for all the years thereafter. When H is greater than zero in (4), the hiring rate is applied to the entire hiring age distribution, fH. The required hiring rate solved for in Figure 13-4 accounts for both the time required for new workers to learn the skills necessary to support the system and the exit age distribution in Figure 13-1. Figure 13-5 shows the annual cost of supporting the legacy control system through year 2040 (all 2000+ instances of the system are costed here). The cost modeling is performed using a stochastic discrete-event simulator that samples time-to-failure distributions for the components of the control system to obtain maintenance events (determining the maintenance event dates and the components that need replacement). Subsystem-specific (and severity category specific[2]) failure distributions are sampled to obtain failure dates for the system. At each maintenance event, maintenance resources are drawn and a cost is estimated using Equation 13-5. Most of the maintenance events do not result in business interrupt time because they only impact one of the two parallel control systems and = 0, however, a small fraction (the most severe events) result in dual control system failures where > 0. The risk of dual failures and the resulting business interrupt is captured by the differing severit y categories. The specific data associated with the system count, the subsystem/severity category reliabilities, and the cost of business interrupt time is proprietary to the customer and therefore not included here. For this case study, was determined to be 0.54, meaning that when the number of people in the pool drops below 54% of the number that are in the pool initially (in 2010), the extra maintenance time penalty (modeled by (15)) is applied. Figure 13-5 shows two support cost results. The results demonstrate that there is minimal effect of skills loss prior to 2030. In year 2028 existing lifetime buys of spares parts (hardware) start to run out resulting in the cost step between 2028 and 2030. We obtain the lower curve in Figure 13-5 when there is no skills loss, Ei/E0 = 1 for all i in Equation 13-4. In this case there is still an annual cost increase caused by part obsolescence that is mitigated via lifetime buys of parts (these buys commit significant capital to the pre-purchase of spare parts and long-term holding costs). The higher cost curve in Figure 13-5 is the case where no replenishment of lost skills is possible (H = 0), this is close to reality for the company considered in this case study. 13.4 Discussion Workforce planning means ensuring that you have the right number of people, with the right skills sets, in the right jobs, at the right time. This chapter presents a model that enables workforce planning in cases where the workforce is non-replenishable. The model developed estimates both the number of skilled employees (workforce pool size) and the cumulative experience in the workforce pool. This information is used to determine the resources available to maintain a system as a function of time. Cumulative experience dictates the time (and the resultant cost) required for workers to perform the maintenance activities necessary to support the system. Because of the prohibitively large cost of legacy system replacement, these systems are rarely replaced unless a catastrophic failure occurs or their support costs become impractical. The model can potentially be used by companies to support the development of business cases for system replacement, see (Sandborn and Prabhakar, 2015). Numerous important assumptions were made in the development of the model. In the solution presented here, we assume that years on the job is the only way workers can gain experience. We have not accounted for methods that could be used to accelerate the rate at which workers become more experienced, e.g., capturing older workers knowledge in knowledge bases [29,30] could accelerate experience. We have performed a discrete-time analysis because the input data that was available to us only exists annually. A continuous-time solution could also be developed, but one must be careful to match the model to the form of the input data. There are several indirect consequences of the loss of critical skills that we have not addressed, and which would be challenging to quantify in terms of cost. The workers that are maintaining systems (particularly engineers) are likely to be performing other beneficial tasks in addition to corrective maintenance. Besides corrective maintenance, they may also perform: preventative maintenance, projects intended to upgrade the reliability and/or performance of the system, and knowledge transfer activities. As workforce resources decrease, it is reasonable to assume that all tasks, except corrective maintenance, would decrease. Even if sufficient resources remain available for corrective maintenance tasks, an inability to perform the other tasks that the engineers might do results in a loss of: maintenance efficiency improvements, system reliability improvements that could decrease future maintenance requirements, and system performance. Further, if the job satisfaction amongst the eng ineers that are forced to only perform maintenance decreases then their retention may be negatively impacted. There are other factors that may modify the case study presented herein. These factors include location (culture certainly impacts the likelihood that highly-skilled workers remain in system support jobs), gender, the product sector, etc. These effects could be analyzed with the presented in this chapter model if sufficient data existed. [1] For many types of legacy systems, 5 or more years of on-the-job experience may be required to become competent. [2] The level of maintenance required (which dictates the maintenance resources required) and the degree of business interrupt associated with the maintenance event are governed by the severity categories. See From (Sandborn and Williams, 2016) for details.

Product Life Cycle Of Cadbury Dairy Milk

Product Life Cycle Of Cadbury Dairy Milk Cadbury chocolates was started in Birmingham in 1824 by John Cadbury. Chocolate in those days was a very elitist product. Cadbury Dairy Milk came up with the mix of milk and chocolate tray which is pretty much how the product still is. There has been no drastic change in the recipe of the product but the packaging and the representation and prominence of the glass and half of milk logo has changed over a period of time. Cadbury India began its operations in 1948 by importing chocolates and then re-packing them before distribution in the Indian market. Today, Cadbury has five company-owned manufacturing facilities at Thane, Induri (Pune) and Malanpur (Gwalior), Bangalore and Baddi (Himachal Pradesh) and 4 sales offices (New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkota and Chennai). Its corporate office is in Mumbai.Worldwide, (http://www.iloveindia.com/economy-of-india/top-50-companies/cadbury-india.html) A Timeline: 1904   A new recipe is perfected by George Cadbury for milk chocolate. 1905   Cadbury launches Dairy Milk onto the market a new milk chocolate that contains far more milk than anything previously tasted and with a unique creamy taste. 1913   Dairy Milk becomes Cadburys best selling line. Mid 1920s   Dairy Milk becomes UK brand leader a position it still enjoys today. 1928   Fruit Nut is introduced as a variation of Dairy Milk. The glass and a half advertising slogan is introduced. 1933   WholeNut is added to the Dairy Milk family. 1948   Cadbury Dairy Milk is sold in India 1998   Dairy Milk is re-launched with the new and modern pack design, but its recipe and unique taste are still very similar to the original recipe. 2005   Cadbury Dairy Milk celebrates its 100th birthday. (http://www.innovation.cadbury.com/allaboutus/ourbrands/featurebrands/Pages/CadburyDairyMilk2.aspx?TabIndex=1) Brand Identity : Kapferers model Stage in the Product Life Cycle Cadbury Dairy Milk is in the maturity stage of the product Life cycle. It currently has a market share of 70% in the chocolate market and is way ahead of its competitors. There is a high degree of brand awareness. The colour purple and the glass and half full logo is amongst the most recognised logos and the association of the two with Cadbury Dairy Milk is synonymous. Market Scenario/Challenges According to AC Nielson study of 2007: Facts Figures The Indian Chocolate market is estimated to beat around 1500crores. It is growing at the rate of 18-20% per annum With 72% of the market share in India, Cadbury is the market leader. Companies The 2 main competitors in the Indian market that Cadbury faces any competition from are Nestle and Amul. There are several new and local brands like Candico, Sweet World etc. which are trying to make its presence felt. Consumer Trends The Mithaai or sweet has been the tradition in India so far. Chocolates are noow trying to break into that league and hence faces stiff competition more from this product category than its immediate competitors. Chocolates are more of an impulse buy. Consumers are preferring chocolates to Mithaai because of proper packaging, longer shelf life, mid-range pricing and convenience. Consumers have started showing interest in not just milk chocolates but other varieties like Dark Chocolate etc. One of the major challenges that Cadbury Dairy Milk faces is a decline in sales due to new variants being introduced in the market by other brands which could result in the product moving from maturity to decline stage. Another major challenge comes from a different product category altogether which is the Indian Sweets or Mithaai. Steps taken by brand at each stage- at a communication and product level Introduction Cadbury Dairy Milk advertising has always depicted a rich tapestry of human emotions and relationships. In the 1980s, it was positioned as the perfect expression of love, captured in memorable copy: sometimes Cadbury can say it better than words. During the early1990s, Cadbury Dairy Milk emphasised its international identity, communicating that it was the real taste of chocolate. In 1994 came the path-breaking real taste of life campaign. The ad featuring a woman running on the cricket field celebrating the victory is still strongly etched in our mind even today. This campaign created a dramatic shift in the way chocolates were perceived. Cadbury Dairy Milk has increasingly become trapped as a reward or bribe for children and this campaign unshackled the brand by re-positioning it to the free-child in every adult. Cadbury Dairy Milk redefined itself as the perfect expression of spontaneous, shared good feelings, providing the real taste of life experience. The strategy paid off: Bran d Cadbury grew by over 50% in sales volumes. (Super brands) Growth Then in 1998, the next stage of growth for the brand dealt with popularising consumption in a social context, especially in more traditional settings like weddings. With the campaign Khaanein waallon ko khaanein ka bahana chahiye featuring Cyrus Broacha, Cadbury Dairy Milk aimed to substantially increase penetration levels. The campaign was launched in tandem with the award winning Kuchh khaas haicampaign and the media strategy was to let the two co-exist towards a common vision: A Cadbury in every pocket. The brand penetrated into smaller towns and sales volumes grew by 40% (Source: Internal Sales Data). (Super brands) Crisis Management The worm controversy resulted in Cadburys brand image taking a beating. They had to recall a batch of chocolates. Instead of taking any short term measures, Cadbury used this opportunity to take action and rebuild the trust of people. They launched a project Vishwas which educated retailers and wholesalers on storage and other aspects apart from educating consumers. The other major step was to change the packaging. The companys repackaging exercise, which used a combination of packaging technologies, was unprecedented in the category. With the redesigned packaging in place, the company decided to communicate the measures it had taken to safeguard quality standards. To add credibility to its pitch, Cadbury took recourse to Amitabh Bachchans deep baritone. This was the first time that a celebrity was used to endorse Cadbury Dairy Milk. The commercial did wonders to consumer confidence. A series of ads with Bachchan including Pappu Paas ho Gaya to Miss Palampur brought back the lost credibility of the people. With Bachchan they also launched their new positioning of Kuch Meetha Ho Jaaye bringing in the tradition of celebrating a joyous occasion in India with sweets and now Cadbury Dairy Milk in particular. Maturity The focus for a period shifted to taking the concept of Kuch Meetha Ho Jaaye further. The Pehli Tareekh Hai campaigns talked about the importance of having Dairy Milk and celebrating on getting your pay on pay-day. The ads had a very retro-feel to it and did click with the audience. But, it is the recent string of Shubh Aarambh ads that have brought back the old charm of Cadbury Dairy Milk with its very interesting insight of mixing the traditional with the new age. Summary Cadbury Dairy Milk has adapted itself to the Indian market quite impressively. From making a sweet eating nation to switch to chocolates to becoming the market leader, Cadbury Dairy Milk has done it all because of the emotional connect it established with the consumers. Its communication also always focused on the emotional aspects and feelings of life apart from spontaneity. Its communication has always showcased its values and personality. In my opinion, the Kuch Meetha Ho Jaaye concept is a goldmine which can be used in a variety of ways in a country like India.

Zero Tolerance Essay -- School System Education Discipline Essays

Zero Tolerance   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are many disciplinary actions that have been used and are still in use in order to deal with problems in the school system today. However, it seems that zero tolerance is now the most widely used and most controversial policy that has came into effect. Zero tolerance means absolutely no mercy for students when accused of doing something wrong. This policy leaves no room at all for error. These cases are not judged for their individual qualities. They are all treated the same regardless of the circumstances.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When zero tolerance is thought of, it seems like a very practical way of dealing with the problems that we face everyday in the school system. However, we then have to ask ourselves if it is fair to give all â€Å"offenders† of a crime the same punishment without looking at the circumstances of each case. There have been many cases of zero tolerance use that shows just how unfair this policy is. An example of the misuse of zero tolerance is this; a student was kicked out of school for writing a paper that involved guns. This paper said nothing about harming anyone but the student was still kicked out. Is this to say that by having the word â€Å"gun† in my paper that I will be kicked out of school too?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Zero Tolerance has a very good literal appeal. Parents and some students alike are happy to have this disciplinary action. However, zero tolerance would not have stopped the school shootings that have recently plagued the country. A recent po...

The Role of Education in Shaws Pygmalion and Russells Educating Rita :: Comparison Compare Contrast Essays

The Role of Education in Shaw's Pygmalion and Russell's Educating Rita    Both plays show that education can be used as a tool for emancipating working class individuals. Both Eliza and Rita get uprooted and have to give up personal features. Language is linked up with identity and both find a new identity through education. Rita is treated in the way according to her language. Yet pure language training doesn't transform her character and identity profoundly. Her change is simply external. Rita, on the other hand, keeps her way of speaking but develops her character and reaches personal independence. She has been internally changed because of literature. By comparing both plays, we see that education requires both language training and knowledge of literature.    Eliza's transformation demonstrates that social distinctions such as accents are artificial and suggest that class barriers can be overcome by language training. It becomes questionable however if language reveals or forms one's character. Eliza's outcry at the end of the play denies this idea. Yet she understands herself better. Education is connected with social progress. Eliza's problems show that language alone provides only a superficial transformation. She lacks education to become fully integrated. By this, Shaw illustrates the impossibility of moving classes in those days.    Eliza's never thought about becoming educated herself. Rita, on the contrary, wants to use education as a means of complete change, as the means by which people develop their potential. She succeeds in leaving her working class environment behind. Is education only liberating? As Rita adopts a new culture and becomes alienated, she might be regarded as limited, just like Frank, who has no understanding for people of a different class.

Touching Wedding Speech from the Father of the Bride -- Wedding Toasts

Touching Wedding Speech from the Father of the Bride (to the crowd) As Father of the Bride, I am honored to be the first to speak this evening. I would like to begin by welcoming each and every one of you on this joyous occasion. It is good to see so many friends and family here today to help celebrate Paula and Manson’s wedding. I would also like to remember those who have meant so much to our family, but could not be here today. (to Manson) At this time, I would like to take this opportunity to formally and wholeheartedly welcome Manson into our family. I hope that we will get to know you better in the coming months and years. (to the crowd) It is about this time in every wedding that the bride begins thinking, â€Å"oh-my-gosh, what is daddy going to say?† â€Å"Is he goin...

Murder in Cathedral Essay

T.S.ELIOT is one of the great drametists in English literary worlde. From his literature, we can feel the great aesthetic pleasure. I have studied various plays included in my course. But â€Å"murder in cathedral† really different in them. It has its own greatness and the literary heights. Poetic form Eliot felt, is the most apt form of expression in the theatre. In his view, Ibsen, Stirnberg, and Chekhov were the limits of prose. In contrast to them are Yeats and Hofmannsthal who kept alive the ancient and traditionally affinity between drama and poetry. â€Å"Doctor Faustus†, â€Å"Pygmalion†, â€Å"The Alchmeist†, â€Å"the playboy of the western world†, â€Å"look back in anger† and other plays which are in my course have different style, diction, story, language and all the literary things. But â€Å"murder in cathedral† has the strength that it is the great poetic drama written by Eliot. It is the great play as a poetic drama. In â€Å"the music of poetry† (1942) Eliot acknowledges his bias in favour of the poetry to which he was indebted as a poet, and says that the music of poetry is not independent of the meaning. The meaning of poetry is sometimes beyond the poet’s intentions. He saw possibilities of theme recurrence and transitions in poetry as in music, and thought the concert hall more likely to quicken poetry them the opera house. He said that without poets of unusual sensibility and command of language, culture will deteriorate â€Å"poetry and drama† is notable for the retrospective attention. Eliot gives to his own development as a playwright, he finds that he has been writing variations on the theme of poetic drama throughout his career. For Eliot the highest aim of poetic drama is to bring us to the border of those feelings which are expressible only in music, without leaving the everyday world of dramatic action. â€Å"look back in anger† was considered a revolutionary Play but it has no element of poetic drama. Ben Jonson’s â€Å"The Alchemist† has the great touch of great characterization and language but it has not the simplicity and continuous development of the story like â€Å"Murder In The Cathedral†. â€Å"Doctor Faustus† is a tragic drama but as a poetic drama â€Å"Murder In The Cathedral† has its own class in drama. â€Å"Pygmalion† is primerarly a play about speech and phonetics, but related to it are Shaw’s social concerns. Eliot was accurately aware of the fact that his play was to be performed like Greek tragedy. T.S.Eliot’s essays on drama can be devided in to three parts; first, the Elizabathen essaya which discuss the criteria for drama. Second his assessment of the situation in contemporary theatre and ideal of poetic drama. Eliot’s statement about his ideal of poetic drama are rarely useful for the critic and the writers. He was has own thoughts different from others on poetic drama. So, his drama â€Å"Murder in Cathedral† has all the poetic element on which Eliot gave statements and thoughts. He creats the different way for poetic drama in English literature. While advocating the need for a poetic drama in modern times, Eliot stated that â€Å" a new dramatic literature can not come about until audience and producers can help poets write for the theatre.† He thought about the future of poetic drama that time, we can believe that â€Å"Murder In Cathedral† is Eliot’s most successful integration of his dramatic theories. No doubt, there are many great plays in English literature but â€Å"Murder in Cathedral† is special for the readers.

Describe the Initiatives Which Influence

E6- Describe the initiatives which influence the provision of challenging environments for children (5 marks) There are different types of international, national and local initiatives which influence the provision of challenging environments for children. An example of an initiative is the Forest Schools. ‘A Forest School is an innovative educational approach to outdoor play and learning’ http://www. forestschools. om/what-happens-at-a-forest-school/ Forest schools can influence the provision of a challenging environment, as the teachers can take the children in small groups every week to the local woods to have a better understanding of the outdoor environment and it’s linked to the curriculum. By doing this it enables children to be able to be in a safe environment when exploring and having adventures so they can see what things they can do when they go into the woods next time.It can also help children with problems such as language problems as this allows the m to speak about the experience they are having which can then be taken to the classroom and then it could be turned into a story to help the child. When going into the woods it helps to cater the behaviour for the problem children and it also teaches children when they can and can’t mess around.It also focuses on the fundamental aspect of the Forest School innovation educational approach. The Forest School provides ways for meeting learning objectives while developing practical life skills and encouraging child-initiated learning, which is observed and assessed. Lots of young children prefer to be outside than in the classroom environment because they can find it more exciting and they might pay more attention. Word Count- 240

Home Depot Employee Benefits Essay

The first case is against an employee Gunderson working at JMI agency owned by Brown Corporation. It is filed by Brown on account of the defendant’s violation of the employee agreement by joining a competing company after working there continuously for seven months and soliciting and servicing Brown’s customers and disclosing confidential information. The summary judgment was made in favor of the defendant because an employment of seven months is not enough under Illinois law to support the limiting agreement. (Findlaw, 2008) The second case is against an employee Robert M. Bono working at Chicago Transit Board who was discharged from his job on account of misconduct by calling a customer while working though his job duties did not require calling any customers. The call was personal and social in nature involving a sexual joke. The court affirmed the decision of Chicago Transit Board as being reasonable and appropriate. (Findlaw, 2008) Issues:Â  The issue being discussed in the first case is the claim by the parent company of breach of contract by the employee. But since the employment period of Gunderson was only seven months so according to Illinois law no charges can be made against him In the second case, the issue discussed is of an employee misbehaving with a customer on telephone and making personal use of the phone though he is not allowed to do so. Therefore, he dismissed by the company. Implications for Home Depot:Â  At Home Depot, each employee should be clearly told of his/her duties and the consequences of not acting accordingly. Secondly, the employee contract at Home Depot should specify clearly all the terms and conditions specially the time period after which he can be accused of the violation of the contract. Conclusion: Through the analysis of the above cases, I learned that minor mistakes by an employee can result into big troubles and court procedures. Therefore, one should remain cautious every time while working on his job.

Moliere the Misanthrope

The Misanthrope Moliere’s play The Misanthrope is a comedy that represents social satire, satirizing the conventions of the society which Moliere lived in and observed. Perhaps the character of Alceste best demonstrates the elements of comedy and tragedy that co-exist in Moliere’s play. Alceste, after all, realizes his jealous nature makes him a comic figure. In fact, humankind’s tragedy as expressed by Moliere is that it cannot admit how funny, hypocritical, and ironic most of its actions and views are.Because of this, Moliere’s play is much more comedy than tragedy. Alceste represents an â€Å"everyman† of his social milieu and culture in Moliere’s perception. He would like to be honest but knows he lives in a social system that is dishonest. Alceste chastises Philinte because of his hypocritical behavior toward strangers, who he hugs and professes great love for but then reverses his position the minute they are gone. As Alceste tells him, â€Å"Once the man’s back is turned, you cease to love him, / And speak with absolute indifference of him! By God, I say it’s base and scandalous / To falsify the heart’s affections thus; / If I caught myself behaving in such a way, / I’d hang myself for shame, without delay† (Moliere 17). While the above treatment of one’s fellow man may seem tragic, Moliere seems to be suggesting in a humorous way that all humans are often guilty of such behavior. In fact, it is Alceste’s failures to recognize his own foibles that makes him so comical and his reaction to others hypocritical. Alceste is indignant and humorless with others like Oronte, who writes a poem about his beloved Celimene.He fails to realize his jealousy makes him just as guilty of treating others poorly as does Philinte’s hypocrisy. He is a jealous lover. He is a jealous friend. And he is hard on all those around him but himself. Moliere is maintaining this lack of se lf-perception may be man’s tragedy but from it springs much of the humor and comedy in life. We see this humor when Alceste maintains he would get rid of all those who wooed Celimene were he his beloved, â€Å"Were I this lady, I would soon get rid / Of lovers who approved of all I did, / And by their slack indulgence and applause / Endorsed my follies and excused my flaws† (Moliere 68).In essence, Alceste endorses his own follies and excuses his own flaws. In conclusion, though there are definitely tragic elements that co-exist with the satire and comedy in Moliere’s The Misanthrope, overall the play is much more of a humorous and funny comedy than it is tragic. Though lack of insight and self-perception may be a tragic condition of humankind, Moliere sees much more humor and comedy stemming from it.Work Cited Moliere, Jean Baptiste. The Misanthrope and Tartuffe. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1965.

Academic Writing Skills Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Academic Writing Skills - Essay Example Albeit, what are these skills and how to use them correctly? The question is under discussion of this essay. Academic writing considers being an outcome of a process containing investigation on some topic together with a diligent deliberation on it. The principal purpose of this process is to demonstrate the standpoint on a given theme that readers will admit credible and well-done. The task of writer is to research the theme which is reinforced by some objective confirmations and logical evidences (Chin, Reid, Wray and Yamasaki, 2013). All facts which writer use are to be supported by scientific researches or other authentic sources. First and foremost writer should master reading and researching skills. Any research starts with the literature outlook and scientific work diagnoses. As Chin, Reid, Wray and Yamasaki (2013) mention, writer gains better understanding of the topic through exploration complicated and intricate literature. A good example of academic writing goes through proper comprehension in the sphere of work. It is evident that if a writer is not competent in the material, one just does not know what to write. Moreover, an exploration literature should be veracious and solid. Some unknown or fictitious sources never make success in your occupation and never execute your paper felicitous. Leki (2008) argues that in is highly important for writer to exploit various sources for their opinion maintained. Besides, these bases should be critically analyzed. Competent writer never take some literature and simply retell it. Only through relevant filtration and pertinent selection of materials writer can achieve advancement in their cup of tea. Critical thinking is also a substantial factor which presupposes writer’s objective position and logical synopsis on the topic. One more important issue which is specified by Soles (2010) based on that fact that academic

Gender and the Workforce Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Gender and the Workforce - Essay Example Gender and the Workforce In the following paragraphs an attempt has been made to analyze the unequal distribution of labor between the genders associated with unemployment, wage gaps and workplace discrimination that are at a much aggravated level in UK than in US, though the socio-economic implications are more or less the same. Workplace discrimination is more pronounced in UK than in the US, where gender segregation in profession is attributed to the preferences of women for more flexible female dominated sectors. In US occupational segregation is somewhat countered by gender crossovers in professions, which is not a common trend in UK. Thus, the origins for such gender based disparity are evidently distinct due to the subtle socio-cultural differences between the workforces of two countries. This interplay between gender and the workforce largely regulates the fulcrum of the eternal demand - supply balance in the labor market, thereby assisting in the economic growth of a country. An unequal distribution of workforces due to differences in gender issues is liable to create disparity in employment standards leading to professional inactivity in the society. This does have serious implications in the demand aspect of the contemporary labor market, which can further be aggravated under the present recessionary conditions. The paper aims to focus on this grave situation resulting from a widespread economic inequality due to gender bias.The participation and wage gap based on gender differences are seen to adverse effects on the overall socio-economic balance of US and UK that are prone to inflict projected imbalances in a global scale. In view of the present job market perturbations, there is indeed a need for making a firm stand on a much stabler platform with newer princip les, rectified vision and modern outlook through legislation, organization, litigation and proper evaluation to generate employments based on the facets of equality. The question of gender is an important aspect of any structured analysis determined to feature the socio-economic condition of a system. By system we indicate the interdependent circle of people and institutions defining a state, or a commune, or even the existing global setting. The social distinction based on class, gender, race and other pertinent strata are regulated as per the directives of the system ultimately defining its manifesto leading to far fetched effects having socio-economic implications. Differences in gender result in a disparity in the levels of socio-economic utilization and employment benefits in a functional system. As a matter of fact, the question of gender gap on the state of employment has been dealt in a number of popular literary sources. The main issues that need to be addressed are the effects of the division of labor between sexes, the implication of gender based discrimination on wages and the consequences occupational segregation based on gender dist inction. But the effect of gender bias on unemployment is an issue that has been singled out in most contemporary arguments. Let us start our argument with a hard fact - the Labor Statistics Bureau in US created more than 8.3 million allocations for employment since August 2003 out of which almost 1.5 million jobs created over the next one year ceased to exist. (Associated Content, 2008) The picture has not much improved since then and more jobs are going into oblivion with each passing day.

Effective Leaders Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Effective Leaders - Essay Example To lead, you require some qualities such as strength of mind, the eagerness to determine, defy the class quo, proceed for what you accepted as true, hazard, negative responses, rise up against power, and modify. To make my opinion more clear and effective I would describe the difference between Managerial work and leadership. Managerial work is a division of leadership abilities. It is often heard that people try to divide them that they are leaders, but not managers. But the people who use to say this are usually incorrect while it appears to attracting the supporters which formulates it hard to judge them as victorious leaders. A leader is somebody who does things perfectly and who knows where to go. Where as managerial work is how to do things perfectly and how they really get there. A student of a college or school who makes a group of friends together to go to picnic, so he is acting not just as a leader, but as well as a manager. Someone who wants to be a leader, but does not want to do with managerial work is a self-indulgent. Leadership and managerial work always collaborate in order give an efficient result. Straightforwardly, managerial work is the procedure of describing and calculating the success. A leader is the one who places the idea, describes victory, and verifies the capacity of success will be extra efficient than the similar leader who wishes to place the idea but declines to accept any effort in the managerial area. Therefore, effective leader is a person who controls and makes an impact on people. Every person owns leadership potential. Effective Leadership is not restricted to group decision-making or high flier. Effective Leadership can, and frequently does, 'appear from inside. Every person of your Land concern group is a helper. Helpers are not essential to do something. They are stimulated to accomplish things. Motivation can appear firstly from the wish to improve the surroundings or make better farm production, however it requires be continuously revitalization, and communicating. That is where effective leadership enters. To be an effective leader one should have make up hisher mind and set tasks, it will assist to decide what the followers desire to get. It might be up to the Leader to begin this procedure, but it is much simple to guide a group when a leader suggests where the group wishes to move. To make the leadership more effective leaders have to observe their group members. The most excellent technique to do this is by starting discussions and after that paying attention to the group. By listening, Leader will observe regarding their benefit and find out ways so that they can be more concerned in the group. They should converse evidently and normally. Explain their group aims and ethics, and keep distributing their ideas with their workers. Effective Leaders always engage workers in arranging goals. They give many advices on how can they move toward the tasks. Leaders have to give their workers few responsibilities and authority and guide them. Effective Leaders have to be liable on their selves. Establish a consultative board or managerial team to support them to make better planned decisions and the team could give them opinion on their own work. Effective leaders should be honest with their work and expand faith to their workers. That will help leaders to be dependable and make the company stronger. To be an effective

Direct and e-Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Direct and e-Marketing - Essay Example One of the basic principles of the Direct Marketing is usage of a database for storing personal customer data and their purchase history. Roll notes that fundamental benefit to the business is that you are able to treat your existing customers in a different way to new prospects and thus create loyalty and maximize profitability. (Roll 2003) So the main purpose of the Direct and e-Marketing for Les Cadeaux Gourmets is to carry out an active strategy and to get more sales from the returned customers. Customer lifetime value (also variously referred to as lifetime customer value or just lifetime value, and abbreviated CLV, LCV, or LTV) is a marketing metric that projects the value of a customer over the entire history of that customer's relationship with a company. Use of customer lifetime value as a marketing metric tends to place greater emphasis on customer service and long-term customer satisfaction, rather than on maximizing short-term sales. (Wikipedia). As Les Cadeaux Gourmets spend some money for advertisement to attract a number of customers, it would be unreasoned to loose them. Calculating customer lifetime value will help company to know exactly how much each customer is worth in dollar terms and therefore exactly how much a marketing department should be willing to spend to acquire each customer. Thus it would be possible to range customers from the most profitable to the least ones and to concentrate the company's efforts on the most profitable customers. Use of customer lifetime value can also help to predict what customers will buy over years. For example, if Mary Smith buys a toy for a 4-year baby in 2005, she will probably order a toy for a 5-year baby in 2006. If Mr. Jones buys bath & body care pieces in March three years in a row, it's possible to make a conclusion that he makes presents for the birthday of his wife and send offering with new products to him in the next March. So Les Cadeaux Gourmets should truck its customers' purchases and use them for planning its advertising campaign. Also the company should monitor customers' responses over time for as long as the relationship with them lasts. Geodemographic profiling uses detailed information based on postcode to match differing lifestyle profiles to the customer database. Postcodes do not resolve down to individual addresses but provide pretty good targeting. Les Cadeaux Gourmets can use geodemographic division of customers into some categories and then offer its goods to each specific category. For example, customers ranking by nationality allows taking into consideration national traditions. Les Cadeaux Gourmets can congratulate customers from Israel with Hanukah, customers from the Middle East with Ramadan and wish other customers Merry Christmas. As a result of this national-specific proposals could be sent to each category. Use of external database with information about postcodes and countries also allows choosing seasonal proposals: in winter there is cold in the US and hot in Australia. Les Cadeaux Gourmets can use this information for advertising of clothes and other season-specific goods. Special databases cover such categories as consumer expenditure, crime statistics, business and employment, and many others. One of the more powerful special databases is called a segmentation system. A segmentation system is useful because it allows users to add another dimension by displaying lifestyle clusters