Lecture Notes Beowulf Essay

Genre A heroic folk epic rooted in the oral tradition of the Anglo Saxons, Beowulf is an anonymous poem committed to paper by an unknown Christian monk in 1000 Common Era, some 300 years after it was first composed. The manuscript is part of a document known as Cotton Vitellus A housed in a British Library. Beowulf belongs to the epic genre of long, narrative poems dealing with heroic deeds against a background of war and the supernatural and themes of grandeur and significance. Full of legendary myths and somber, elegiac cadences, it has been composed in the Anglo Saxon vernacular and can be classed amongst other great epics such as the Illiad, Odyssey, Aenied and Paradise Lost to name a few. The name Beowulf is a kenning, Bee-Hunter reflecting the warrior heritage of the central character Basic Plot The poem is eponymously named for its hero Bewoulf, a great warrior and later King, who sets out to rescue King Hrothgar and his people from the monster Grendel. During the course of the poem, we see Beowulf slaying first Grendel and then his revenge seeking mother. Beowulf’s final conflict takes place with the Dragon angered by the plundering of the treasure it is guarding. Structure of the Poem There are three prevailing views as to the structure of the poem: -the structure is defined by the three increasingly difficult conflicts Beowulf faces -the structure can also be viewed in terms of kingship for instance, young Beowulf and old Beowulf with a different set of problems to be faced during each phase -the structure is that of interlacing of memories with narratives of present, a cyclical process of action, memory and reflection Background Although the poem is rooted in the Anglo Saxon as well as early Christian traditions, it reflects two distinct value systems frequently at odds with each other. For instance, in line with its Anglo-Saxon origins, the poem celebrates the Germanic heroic code, which, exemplifying the pagan warrior culture, lays stress upon family ties, genealogy, immortality through fame and revenge for wrongs done to one’s kith and kin. It values ancestral heritage and individual reputation. Christianity, on the other hand, believes in immortality in terms of the afterlife and teaches that vengeance is best left to God. Bewoulf and Grendel Bewoulf is not just a warrior and king. He also serves as a cultural ideal and as an incarnation of Anglo Saxon values and beliefs. The ‘Cain-descended’ Grendel, with his innate desire to tear asunder whatever has integrity, represents chaos and disorder, in contrast to Bewoulf, who represents order and cosmos. Grendel is the ultimate exile. Unferth Unferth acts as a foil to Beowulf by accentuating through contrast the character of the latter. He redeems his earlier verbal taunting (flyting) of Beowulf by offering him his sword in a later conflict. Literary devices/techniques Litotes-understatement e. g, ‘Cain had no pleasure from that find’ Kenning-metaphorical descriptions combining two words to offer evocative alternative to original Caesura-a pause in the line of a poem Alliteration- In language, alliteration refers to the repetition of a particular sound in the first syllables of a series of words or phrases.

Manufacturing System

A&A Toy Manufacturing Company Introduction Observed that the flow of information and logistics management between the client A&A Toy Manufacturing Company and its partners are not yet optimal, it is decided to recommend some information software to the client. As the company still adopting manual accounting system, it caused messy collection of financial and accounting data and human errors. The above problems would be burdens that affect managers’ decision making. In the hope of solving these problems an Accounting Information System (AIS) would be recommend to A&A Toy Manufacturing Company.The client has few employees, so it does not hold a well-structured system to management the employees. The following problems were observed: incomplete labor record, overlapped job duties and difficulties in calculating MPF. To improve human resource management of the client, a Human Resources Management System (HRIS) would be recommended. As the company is not using a well Logistic Infor mation System (LIS), the schedule of importing raw materials is messy; communication with customers is also poor. It is decided to recommend a Logistic Information System to tackle the problems stated above.The lack of Manufacturing Information System (MFIS) created difficulties like volume of inventory has not clearly stated and a scheduled operation is unable to run. A manufacturing information system can hopefully solve the difficulties. It is going to recommend Accounting Information System (AIS), Human Resources Management System (HRIS), Logistic Information System (LIS) and Manufacturing Information System (MFIS) for A&A Toy Manufacturing Company to improve their daily operation. Methods used to tackle the project Firstly, we drafted a project outline by brainstorming.Secondly, we discussed on the type of product that the manufacturing company produced. Thirdly, according to the nature of toy manufacturing company, we picked 4 information systems which benefit for the operatio n of the business. Based on the toy manufacturing company, we have to state what problems that a toy manufacturing company always faced. Lastly, we have to find the information on the selected 4 information systems that helps to tackle the above problems. In the process of doing the project, we faced a lot of difficulties. Then we sought help from our lecturer. So, the project can be finished on time.Our group found a lot of relevant information on the Internet, especially from wiki. Abundant of information are provided to be reference for our project. Logistic Information System (LIS) The logistics Information System is the system managing and controlling information handling processes optimally with respect to flow time and capacity, storage, distribution and presentation in such a way that it contributes to company results in concurrence with the costs of capturing like creation, searching and maintenance. The Logistics Information System is made up of the following information s ystems: * Sales Information System Purchasing Information System * Inventory Controlling * Shop Floor Information System * Plant Maintenance Information System * Quality Management Information System Function of Logistic Information System (LIS) * Correct information product at the accurate point of time * Correct format / quality * Create planning data * Provide an easy-to-use planning functions to support forecasting function * Plan, control, and monitor business events at different stages in the decision-making process * Flexible tools for collecting, aggregating and analyzing data from the operative applications Situation:A&A Toy Manufacturing Company has faced several problems nowadays. It has a poor management in logistic. First, the schedule of importing raw materials is messy. The company does not have a well-organized to manage the inventory stock. It is time-consuming and inefficient for the production line to spend large amount of time in making phone calls to confirm the arriving times of the raw materials. The arriving time is unclear and inaccurate. It is difficult for the company to have an accurate schedule to finish output in production stage under this situation.Secondly, the company does not have well-communicate with customers. They have not set up an accurate date and time to deliver finish goods to customers. It may have to delay or reschedule in the transaction. Therefore, customers always ask about this. It is ineffective and increases the cost to communicate with them. Overall, the logistic management of planning, organization and control of goods and material in A&A Toy Manufacturing Company are chaotic. Logistics information system is needed to solve problem that the company has. Application:Under the situation of the company, Logistics information system is important for achieving the efficiency and effectiveness. First, using information technology in Logistics information systems can well connect with consumers and suppliers. Time cost is decrease by communicate via Email or websites. The date and time for the raw material arrived and deliver product are more accurate than before. It reduces the redundancy of the transaction. Second, it reduces the requirements of inventory and human resources by enabling requirements planning.Logistics Data Warehouse is using for manage the inventory. It is clear and organizes for the company to update and group relevant data. Human resources reduce and bring effective to the company to make the decision. Third, delivery the finish goods to customers are effective by using logistics information system. The transportation of products improves because the company can plan the routes before they send the product to customers. The routes will be simplify and delivery conveniently. The transportation cost decrease.Fourth, it helps to enlarge scales of business through logistics information system. The manufacturing company is clearer idea about storage of raw materials and finis h goods, it is easily to order raw materials from suppliers or deliver finish goods to customers in a right time. They have a good management in inventory. It helps enlarge capacity of receiving order or storage. Software 1. Logistics Information Management System Features * Dispatch container * Invoicing * Driver and owner operator payments * By move or hourly * Driver profile * Trailer and Truck information Easy data search and retrieval: Invoices, containers, bookings, receipts, payments and vendors * Generate Reports: A/R / Invoicing / A/P / Truck / Trailer / Customer 2. Customs Intelligenceâ„ ¢ Features * Handles commercial and casual imports. * External document management * Client management and billing * Design your own reports Criteria| Logistics Information Management System (LIMS)| Customs Intelligenceâ„ ¢| Preference| User-friendly | Fair| Fair| Fair| Mobile Access| No| Yes| Customs Intelligenceâ„ ¢| Cost| CAD $1500| CAD $ 1699. 95| LIMS| Support after sales| Ye s| Yes| Fair|RFID| Yes| No| LIMS| By comparing the above criteria, Logistics Information Management System would be recommended. Firstly, both of the system is using graphical user interface (GUI), employees can easily pick up the new system. In case, encountered any problems both of the systems have supporting team to help the employees. The systems have a fair performance on the user-friendly aspect. Secondly, only Customs Intelligenceâ„ ¢ provided the mobile access function to keep check the inventories location, the predicted time of arriving. LIMS and only perform this function on computers.Thirdly, the RFID tags, only LIMS supported RFID tags to manage the inventory that in the warehouse. With RFID technology it can easily locate the location of the stocks in the warehouse and know the quantity of the stocks. It would be helpful to the business. To conclude, LIMS is cheaper and offered RFID technology, which is a useful tool. Although it does not preform mobile access funct ion, it is not a must to have it. Employees can also know the raw materials location and predicted arrival time from computers. It is enough to fix the messy of making phone calls all the time to know the rrival time. LIMS would be recommended as it can fix the company’s obstacles and have an RFID function which can further help the business to improve. Accounting Information System (FIS) Accounting Information System is a system of collection, storage and processing of financial and accounting data. An accounting Information system is a computer-based method. The resulting financial reports are useful for the internal management and external parties such as investor. It benefits the management to make decision. Functions of Financial Information System (FIS) Collects relevant financial and accounting data * Stores the financial and accounting data * Transfers the financial and accounting data into information, such as financial reports * Provides information to financial exe cutives * Provides timely financial information Situation After working with different functional units of A&A Toy Manufacturing Company for a while, I have observed that the company still adopting manual accounting system. This creates abundant of problems. Firstly, manual accounting system leads to the messy collection of financial and accounting data from different departments.With lots of missing data and the mistakes made by the accountants, it produces incomplete and inaccurate financial reports to the management. Secondly, manual accounting system leads to the wasting time in processing the data into information. After collection of data, the accountants have to record those transactions in to ledger by hand. It is really time consuming. Some of the final financial reports may be out of dated for decision making. Thirdly, the management make decision depends heavily on the financial reports produced by the accountants.As the incomplete and inaccurate provided to management, t he management will make a wrong decision. To conclude, manual accounting system produces incomplete, inaccurate and out of dated financial reports. The process of processing the financial and accounting data into information is messy and time consuming. Application Applying computerize accounting information system can help to improve the financial operation of the company. It brings several advantages to the company. Firstly, computerize accounting information system is automate and streamline reporting. The accountants just have to input the necessary data into the software.It will generate those requested accurate financial reports automatically by the accountants. Secondly, computerize accounting information system can generate financial reports automatically. So it is less time consuming. The accountants no need to record each transaction. The financial reports must be timely as the computerize system can generate reports in fast rate. Thirdly, computerize accounting informatio n system can generate timely, accurate, relevant, integrated financial. It can avoid human mistakes. Therefore, the management can make the correct decision for the business.Fourthly, computerize accounting information system can store the past data and reports. So the data and reports will be more organized and tidy. The probability of losing data will become low. To conclude, computerize accounting information system benefits the operation of business. It is less time consuming in generating timely, accurate, relevant, integrated financial reports in a short period. So, the financial and accounting data can be more organized and tidy. It monitors the cash flow closely in the company. Also, those qualified reports can truly reflect the profitability and liquidity of the company.The management can make the best decision. Software 1. Front Accounting Features: Advanced GST (VAT) handling * several GST (VAT) definitions with GST (VAT) groups * definition of GST (VAT) included * GST (V AT) can be selected on per customer, supplier or item level advanced GST (VAT) inquiry and report showing details and outputs/inputs. Full currency support * historical currency rates * Multi-currency bank accounts, customers and suppliers. 2. Intuit QuickBooks Features: * Allow multiple users to work off the same, up-to-date QuickBooks company file at the same time. Create professional-looking invoices and forms * Customize contact information fields in the Customer, Vendor, Employee Centers * Downloading transactions from financial institution Criteria| FrontAccounting| Intuit QuickBooks| Preference| User-friendly | Fair| Good| Intuit QuickBooks| Mobile Access| No| Online access(extra cost needed)| Intuit QuickBooks| Multiple user | No| Yes| Intuit QuickBooks| Cost| None| USD $199. 96| FrontAccounting| Updating| Yes| Yes| Fair| Support after sales| No| Yes (Extra Charges needed)| Intuit QuickBooks| By comparing the above criteria, Intuit QuickBooks would be recommended.Firstly, as A&A Toy Manufacturing Company is using manual accounting system, a user-friendly system is needed for employees start to pick up. Intuit QuickBooks is more user-friendly than FrontAccounting as it uses graphical user interface (GUI). Employees can get used to the new system soon. Moreover, if the employees encounter any problem, they can seek help from the Intuit hotline. While FrontAccounting just provided some common Q&A sections on the web, it is not specific even cannot help the employee. It would be a waste of human resource.Thirdly, as the managers or the owners may need to preform decision making outside the office, it would be better to have mobile accessing function for their convenience. Intuit QuickBooks provided this function while FrontAccounting does not. Although extra charges are needed for this function, managers could still have the right to consider use it or not. Fourthly, employees may need to access to the same document at one time, Intuit QuickBooks can suppo rt multiple users to work on the same time. It would be more convenient for the employee.Time would be wasted if the employees need to do the job one by one. Fifthly, both of the software have updating to introduce new functions of fix some bugs. They have fair performance on this criterion. Sixthly, FrontAccounting is free of charge, while Intuit QuickBooks cost almost USD$200, it is expensive to the A&A Toy Manufacturing Company. However good AIS could help the company a lot in saving cost and present accurate information for decision making purpose. As, the performance of Intuit QuickBooks is better than FrontAccounting and the cost is for permanent use, thus it is still worthy.To conclude, Intuit QuickBooks would be recommended to A&A Toy Manufacturing Company. Manufacturing Information System (MFIS) Manufacturing Information System is a computer-based system that works in conjunction with other functional information systems to support the firm’s management in solving pr oblems that relate to manufacturing the firm’s products. Manufacturing information provide services to support the manufacturing function, such as the inventory control and order processing for the company. The company may benefit by reducing the manufacturing costs, increasing products quality, and improving inventory decisions.Functions of Manufacturing Information System * Manages manufacturing resources * Enhances the availability of information * Collects and organizes manufacturing quality data in a straight-forward manner * Support inventory decision-making Situation After working with different functional units of A&A Toy Manufacturing Company, our team found that the company was operating with poor information and logistics management. Firstly, without a suitable manufacturing information system, the volume of inventory has not clearly stated during the daily operation.The staffs have to use extra time and manpower to check-up the inventory stock. In case, the staffs of production lines have to check that regularly, this may lower the efficiency since it wasted a lot of company’s resources. Secondly, the company cannot run a scheduled operation since the delivery of raw materials is not on-time. Moreover, the company does not have any concept on managing the manufacturing resources; as a result, the late delivery of raw materials may lead to poor shipment arrangement and customers-relation.Also, the above actions may delay the manufacturing processing, and lower the effectiveness. Application For the suitable manufacturing information system used by the A&A Toy Manufacturing Company, it may turns into conceptual and strategic tool for competitive advantage. Firstly, a manufacturing information system may help in organizing to resources’ data, such as the inventory stock. The system may help the company to keep track on the resources’ states and adjust the internal settings automatically. The usage of the report and control system of manufacturing information system is sophisticated.These kind of high-tech system can reduce the manpower wasted and duplicated use of resources; it may achieves maximum efficiency with minimum error. Secondly, the manufacturing information system includes managing the raw materials needed to be used. A good manufacturing information system can help in arranging the delivery of stocks and the processing tasks. Thus, the system may enhances the effectiveness in terms of ensure to do the processing tasks on-schedule and use the materials with high attainment. Software | Manufacturing Information System (Erp) Software|Company name| Softcore Infotech Private Limited| Features| * Auto Production Planning & Purchase Order prepared based on delivery date while considering available raw & finished stocks. * Production inspection * Final inspection of finished good| As A&A Toy Manufacturing Company doesn’t has a suitable manufacturing information system, the staffs have to us e extra time and manpower to check-up the inventory stock and lower the efficiency because of wasted a lot of company’s resources, we suggest the Manufacturing Information System (Erp) Software.Manufacturing Information System (Erp) Software offers auto Production Planning & Purchase Order prepared based on delivery date while considering available raw and finished stocks, it can help to reduce the manpower to check-up the inventory stocks. Besides, it also can help to enhance their shipment arrangement and customers-relation. Manufacturing Information System (Erp) Software also offers product and final goods inspection, to help A&A to control the quality of the raw and finished stocks. Human Resource Information System (HRIS)Human Resource Information System enables users to perform standard reporting from all Human Resource areas and process personal information, it provided information that helps decision makers define their own report quickly and efficiently. Functions of Human Resource Information System * Manage all employee information * Report and analysis of employee information * Developing online data bases of employee information * Benefits administration (enrollment, status changes, personal information updating) * Developing online searchable data bases of applicant resumes * Training record maintenance SituationA&A Toy Manufacturing Company with the small scale of operation and few of employees, all the information of labor only recorded by the application form individually so there is no complete labor record. This policy caused different management problems of the company: Firstly, without complete labor record, it is difficult for the company to specify labor’s strength and abilities. As a result, the supervisors cannot allocate the most suitable workers to carry out specific job duties. Secondly, as the company didn’t clearly give any instructions to labor that they have to do of their positions. So, their job duties may be overlapped.For instance, both salespersons and customer services need to answer lots of queries from their customers regarding the shipment arrangement, delivery status as well as warranty issues of their finished products. It will lower the efficiency of division of labor. Thirdly, with incomplete labor record, the company cannot recruit qualified candidates to satisfy the need of labor force in different departments. Fourthly, the calculation of Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes (MPF) of labor will be messy, the company cannot certainly calculate accumulate mandatory provident fund of each labor without complete labor record.Application of Human Resource Information System Firstly, Human Resource Information System helps the company to manage and record all employees’ information, Manager can clearly know all the information of labor including their strength, abilities and training record from the Human Resource Information System. Secondly, in order to give instructions to labor, they can have a clearer idea what to do of their positions; manager can offer different jobs according to their strength and abilities. Thus, it can avoid the problem of overlapping job duties. Thirdly, company can develop online database of employees’ information and nline searchable database of applicant resumes, so that the manager can review all the records easily. With online searchable database of applicant resumes, the company can easily search for the qualified candidates from received application form to satisfy the shortage of labor force in different departments. Fourthly, Human Resource Information System can be reconfigured to suit for different kinds of payroll, the system can record their payroll automatically with flexible payroll adjustment, the company can accurately calculate accumulate Mandatory Provident Fund of labor. Software Microsoft Office Access| BambooHR| Cost| * A one-time payment, $139. 99| * Monthly payment * Depends on the number of employees| User-friendly| * Involves graphical user interfaces(GUI)| * Involves tools (e. g. Power Edit)| Update frequency| * Constantly update| * Constantly update| Security| * Fair| * Fair| As a small-sized company, cost is one of the main concerns. To choose the proper system for the human resource information system, we prefer the Microsoft Office Access. Firstly, BambooHR costs monthly and the price is based on the number of labors.As a company with the small scale of operation, although A&A Toy Manufacturing Company only has a few of employees, monthly cost is a liability to them. MS Access only costs $139. 99 and for permanent use, it will reduce the burden of the company on the system. Secondly, MS Access and BambooHR are fair in the user-friendly section, but BambooHR involves some tools for the users to use easily, but they are only helpful in editing and filling the data in it after setting up the database. MS Access involves the graphical user interfaces (GUI), it can he lp the managers to set up the database of the employees easily.Besides, A&A is the company with the small scale of operation and few of employees, it may not have the senior programmers, MS Access offers many features for junior programmers, it is easy to use for A&A. Lastly, BambooHR and MS Access have fair performance on the update frequency and the security, two of these systems constantly update to meet customers’ needs and make the system more efficiency. Because of all the people are concerned about the security of the information systems, include the HRIS, two of these systems have a fair performance in security.For example, they use the firewall to protect the information in the database, and use some software to protect the information when they are in the backup process, such as SSL. To conclude, we suggest A&A Toy Manufacturing Company to use Microsoft Office Access as their human resource information system. Conclusion To conclude, we suggested four types of infor mation system for A&A Toy Manufacturing Company to use and help them to improve their existing state. We recommended Logistic Information System (LIS), Accounting Information System (AIS), Human Resource Information System (HRIS) and Manufacturing Information System(MFIS).Firstly, for Logistic Information System, we recommended A&A to use Logistics Information Management System (LIMS) to help to solve the exist problems such as reduces the requirements of inventory and human resources. LIMS supported RFID tags that can easily locate the location of the stocks in the warehouse and know the quantity of the stocks. Employees can also know the raw materials location and predicted arrival time from computers, it can help to decrease the human resource needed of the inventory management and making calls. Secondly, for Accounting Information System, we suggested Intuit QuickBooks.It uses graphical user interface (GUI) to help the employees to pick up the system easily. Besides, Intuit Quic kBooks can support multiple users to work on the same time, it would be more convenient for the employees to access to the same document at one time. Use computerize accounting information system instead of manual accounting system can reduce the probabilities of error and help the managers to make the best decisions to the company. Thirdly, for Human Resource Information System, we recommended Microsoft Office Access. Access only costs $139. 9 and for permanent use, it will reduce the burden of the company on the system. It also involves the graphical user interfaces (GUI), it can help the managers to set up the database of the employees easily. It can help the manager to manage the data of employees more convenient and efficiency. The managers can clearly know all the strength, abilities and training record of labor from the system and avoid the problem of overlapping job duties. Fourthly, for the manufacturing information system, we recommended Manufacturing Information System (E rp) Software. A&A can use this software to solve their problem.It offers auto Production Planning & Purchase Order prepared, it helps A&A to reduce the manpower to check-up the inventory stocks and enhance their shipment arrangement and enhance customers-relation. In addition, it also provides the product and final goods inspection, it can help the managers to control the quality of the raw and finished stocks. The above information systems with software can help to solve the difficulties. It helps to enhance the management in different departments to be optimal. Our team believes that those software can enhance the profitability in a foreseeable future.

Some commentators have argued that the credit crunch has resulted in a Essay

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Ghetto cityscap by Camilo Jose Vergara - Essay Example As such, the dilemma on this situation has not been resolved. â€Å"Dismissing the value of information received through sight, taste, and smell, or through the emotional overtones in an informant’s voice, or from the sensation of moving through the spaces studied, has led to the creation of constructs without character, individuality, or a sense of place (Vergara 715).† Together with the transformation of the society, ghettos have also gone through changes in order to cope with the environment. Their adaptation and change come in diverse characteristics for which are significant in understanding their need in order to solve this social problem. â€Å"Yet today’s ghettos are diverse, rich in public and private responses to the environment, in expressions of cultural identity, and in reminders of history. These communities are uncharted territory; to be understood, their forms need to be identified, described, inventoried, and mapped (Vergara 715).† With this, Vergara identified three types of ghettos of the American cities – the green ghettos, institutional ghettos and the new immigrant ghettos. Green ghettos are those who live at the ‘leftovers’ part of the society. They live in the suburbs where there are only abandoned establishments for which wild animals and humans have learned to co-exist. What is left in thes e suburbs are non-valuable land filled no other than grasses and ruined and abandoned buildings, ignored by the government. On the other hand, the large and expensive regions of the city are also occupied by ghettos. They who live in this side of the city are identified by Vergara as the institutional ghettos. Financed by the government, they are but the weakest and the most vulnerable members of the society. Identified through their lack of money and home, this group in the society is at the same time those who are being treated for addiction, diseases and

FirstGroup plc Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

FirstGroup plc - Essay Example As of 2009, the group earned the annualized net profit of around 6 billion pounds, which is a growth of around 31.4% from what the company earned last year. Similarly, this group has remained unaffected by current global economic backdrop, which is an amazing achievement by the company. In the future, the group also wants to maintain its market leader position and wants to expand its operation to the global market. The company wants to develop a new business plan which should not in any way ignore the aspiration of stakeholders. Stakeholders can be any group or an individual that has a stake in the organization's performance. In simple words, any one within or outside the organization who is affected by the decision taken by the business is known as stakeholder. First Group's stakeholders are its shareholders, employees, government, customers and its board of directors. According to Richard Daft, shareholders are those people who own the business and have invested the money in the business. So they would like the business to make decisions which are going to increase its profitability and lead to rapid growth of the business. Similarly, First Group's decisions are also going to affect its employees, in some way or the other. First Group PLC's decision to downsize can result in loss of job for some of these employees. First Group PLC's working policies and pay-rate is another factor that is goi ng to affect the employees. Government might be interest in the decision taken by First Group PLC because if it earns good profit, it will result in revenue for the government in the form of taxes. Similarly, government will want First Group PLC to flourish not only because it will result in revenue collection for the government, but also because it will provide employment opportunities in the economy. Customer will affected by the pricing decisions of First Group PLC. Board of Director will be interested in growth decision of the business because their salaries may be dependent on the size of the business. So they would like the owners to plough back earned profit back into the business for the purpose of expansion and this could lead to conflict of interest between various groups of Stakeholders. (Daft, 1997) Business aim is the future-vision of the business, which can be anything that the business wants to achieve in the future or the reason behind its existence. The major aim of First Group PLC is the transforming the way people travel and changing their perception about the public transport by providing people with safety and luxury and in doing so becoming the leading company of the world. In general terms, Business objective is a business strategic position that it is trying to achieve through its activities and policies. If we look at the business objective of First Group plc, we can say that it is aiming toward higher market share by offering distinct services like safety travel and other features which are not present in conventional transport companies. Another business objective of First Group PLC is rapid growth and in doing so, it is increasing the value of investments of its shareholder by increasing the market-price of the company's stock. Many businesses carry out SWOT analysis to focus on the internal strengths and

Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 34

Essay Example Their movement is by hopping making them the largest animals to use such a locomotive mode. For them to hop properly they have long hide legs that make long jumps. At times they use their tails and the fore limbs to do crawl walking. They can reach a top speed of 70 kilometres per hour and when using moderate speed of e.g. 40 km/hr, they can go up to 2 kilometres (Judith 8 – 22). These animals have a pouch that they use in carrying their young ones for a period of about nine months. Kangaroos are of different types and they live in different habitats. There are the eastern gray ones that live in the east of Australia. They are particularly the heaviest and are mostly seen at night more than they are during the day. There is the red type that is found in almost all parts of Australia making it the most widely known. The other type is the ones in the west of Australia that are also gray (Knox 42 – 100). They are however smaller than their eastern counterparts and they are notably loud, slim and have males that have a distinct odour. They are therefore unique animals that need to be well taken care of especially their habitats. Civil rights in the USA and especially rights in reference to black people were the major centres of concern for Martin Luther King, Jr. (Kirk 2005). He is known to have championed the rights and freedom of the black people in the United States. he started his education in Georgia and after high school he went ahead to attain a Bachelor of Arts degree from a college where his father and grandfather also went through; Morehouse College in 1948. Luther later went to study theology for three years and later went to Boston University for a doctorate which saw him awarded a degree in 1955. Luther by 1955 had become a top official of the NAACP; an association that had been formed to champion the rights and freedoms of coloured people. He played a key role in the bus boycott that went for 382 days and that saw the segregation rule

Pride and Prejudice Essay Example for Free

Pride and Prejudice Essay The novel Pride and Prejudice was written during the middle of the Romantic period in western literature, but it is itself rather uncharacteristic of other fictional works of the period. Unlike the great Romantic novels and poems of the period, which usually praised youthful passions, Austens work minimizes them. Austens works are models of restraint. Instead of the wild force of nature, Austen concentrates on family life in small English towns. Instead of rampant emotionalism Austen emphasizes a balance between reason and emotion. Instead of suicide and unrequited love, Austen offers elopement and marriage. â€Å"Austen’s prime theme of marriage is far from trivial† (Walder 1996, p. 52) as it is considered today as marriage was an important issue in Austen’s time and it was the only time when a woman had the freedom to get upward socio-economic mobility [though some critics thinks that she considers that considering money as the criterion for marriage is highly terrible. (Collins p. 161)] This extract explains this correlation between socio-economic status and marriage. Irony or the contrast between the expected and the actual is the chief literary device Austen uses to comment on the manners of English gentry in Pride and Prejudice. Her irony takes different forms for different. Another stylistic feature that one can observe in this extract in general and throughout novel in particular is her formal style. Perhaps the first thing about Jane Austens style that strikes the reader is its formality by modern standards. This is a characteristic of her time, and of the outlook she shared. The decorum of her prose represents a disciplined habit of mind and a disciplined attitude towards life. But the formality has about it nothing of the pomp us or verbose. On the contrary one of the chief qualities of her narrative style is precision, lucidity, and economy. With these is combined a habitual tone of irony. The irony is the cutting edge, as it was an instrument of moral perception which was Jane Austens sensibility. Mr. Collins speaks about his conception of a true marriage. He takes the conventional notions about marriage of true minds where partners have similar dispositions and ideas about life in general. Mr. Collins philosophy of marriage reminds Charlotte’s reminds Charlotte’s matrimonial ideology as she also consider the harmony of characters and minds as the ultimate source of matrimonial bliss and place no importance to money or fortune. She says in Chapter 6; â€Å"Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other, or ever so similar before-hand, it does not advance their felicity in the least. They always contrive to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have their share of vexation; and it is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life. Mr. Collins also suffers from the same fictitious idealism like Charlotte. That’s the reason he says; â€Å"My dear Charlotte and I have but one mind and one way of thinking. There is in everything a most remarkable resemblance of character and ideas between us. We seem to have been designed for each other. † (Chapter XXXV) Furthermore, he longs for same matrimonial felicity for Elizabeth in her married life without knowing what is her ideals of marriage and what she wants to be come out of marriage. Jane Austin has beautifully employed irony as Mr. Collins wishes something for Elizabeth that she does not like. Furthermore, Jane Austin juxtaposes this conception of matrimonial bliss with his own conception of marriage and its preconditions that prevail throughout the novel. Jane Austin has Marxian conception of marriage and she considers wealth and socio-economic well-being as the foremost pre-condition of marriage. For the author, in the persona of Mr. Bennets daughter Elizabeth, however, irony is potent toy and a defensive weapon in the war against stupidity. The author uses Elizabeth to skewer self-important characters such as Mr. Collins and Mrs. Bennet. Yet Elizabeth is also blind to her own character faults, and her very blindness is another example of Austens use of irony. In her misunderstandings with Darcy, she (who is blind to her own pride in her ability to read character) accuses him false and excessive pride, while he (who is prejudiced against people with less money than he has) accuses her of prejudice. The rest of the episode shows the haughtiness and pomposity of Mr. Collins. Mr. Collins is a type of character that Jane Austin uses to highlight the posing and pretensions of English society of the time and the vain self-importance of an individual. His acquisition of fortune by chance to get an approval of Lady Catherine de Bourgh has made him to think of himself in higher terms and opinion. All his haughtiness and snobbery in the extract is a manifestation of this high opinion of his own self. His high opinion of Charlotte is also a product of this imagined high placement in society. He earns a handsome income and owns a house, so he requires a wife at this stage that can enrich his own fortune. Here Jane Austin elaborates the interrelation of marriage and money. If Mr. Collins would not have owned a house and would not have made a good fortune by chance, he would never think of having marriage. So he imagined conception of marriage as a bond between tow souls that are alike in their dispositions and character, seems only a caprice of imagination only. Establishing a correlation between marriage and social status is an important theme of Austen in this extract. Jane Austen also makes her reader see the correlation in the light of her contemporary social conventions. Earlier in the novel, when Elizabeth refuses the proposal of Mr Collins, he is unwilling to accept it. It was highly improbable that a woman of Elizabeth’ social status would reject the proposal of a well-off person. His self-importance is another factor that contributes toward his un-acceptance if her refusal. He disapprove of Elizabeth’s social status in these words that Elizabeth’s portion is unhappily so small that it will in all likelihood undo the effects of [her] loveliness and amiable qualifications†. His social status reassures himself by saying that; â€Å"you are not serious in your rejection of me, I shall chuse to attribute it to your wish of increasing my love by suspense, according to the usual practice of elegant females. There is a dichotomy of Elizabeth’s refusal to Mr. Collin and her manifestation as an ideal woman of Austen who thinks marriage in terms of money. Walder (1996) has rightly pointed out; â€Å"In a social world where only possibility of movement in a women’s life was through marriage, choice of partner was as serious a business as choice of career was for a man. † Seen in this light, Elizabeth’s refusal of Mr. Collins is as brave an act as that of a young man who refuses to enter the family firm. † (Walder, 52) Jane Austen used Elizabeth as her mouth-piece to ridicule the fictitious idealism of various characters throughout the novel. In this case, Elizabeth does not directly say any word about Mr. Collins viewpoints but only show her contempt by feeling sorry for â€Å"Poor Charlotte† but she revisits her thought about her and says that she is not innocent as she herself has decided to marry Collins and choose a pretentious society. Jane Austen reflects here that if someone is placed in this situation, then it is tragic but someone has consciously decided to go for a vain marriage proposal, he ore she should be fully responsible for it. So it was Charlotte own disposition rather than chance that her placed her in that situation. But when Elizabeth herself refuses the proposal of Mr. Collins, she was also caught in fictitious idealism. She is of the view that as her father is a gentleman; she is on equal terms with Darcy and Bingleys. (Brooke, 1999. p. 158) Jane Austen beautifully shows her fictitious idealism as well. Jane Elizabeth also shows, through the character of Maria, the vainglory of English gentry. Unlike Elizabeth, Maria is amazed and amused by the social decorum. She was still startled at the nine dinners at Rosings and several teas. This extract further another aspect of Jane Austens art i. e. handling of dialogue. She had a remarkable ear, and must have been a shrewd observer of mannerism in speech. The speech of her characters is always consonant with their personalities yet it never approaches caricature. In the extract, Mr. Collins dialogues are true reflection of his personality yet it does not portray him as a caricature. Maria’s dialogues are equally expressive of her self and her tender age. So this extract and other textual examples from Pride and Prejudice clearly manifest that Jane Austen has skillfully conveyed her basic theme of money and marriage through her subtle style. She does not waste her words and there is uncommon clarity with economy in her art. References Austen, Hane. (2006). Pride and Orejudice. New York: Poenguin Classic. Brooke, C. (1999). Jane Austen: Illusion and reality. Rochester, NY: D. S. Brewer. Walder, D. (1996). The realist novel. Approaching literature. London: Routledge.

Vulnerability in Cloud Computing Essay Example for Free

Vulnerability in Cloud Computing Essay Abstract— Cloud computing has been developed to reduce IT expenses and to provide agile IT services to individual users as well as organizations. It moves computing and data away from desktop and portable PCs into large data centers. This technology gives the opportunity for more innovation in lightweight smart devices and it forms an innovative method of performing business. Cloud computing depends on the internet as a medium for users to access the required services at any time on pay-per-use pattern. However this technology is still in its initial stages of development, as it suffers from threats and vulnerabilities that prevent the users from trusting it. Various be rainy as well, in other words this technology is not trustworthy as it is affected with threats and vulnerabilities. We have termed a cloud with threats and vulnerabilities as a stormy cloud. Based on Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) and our research, we have identified top seven threats and vulnerabilities that are the causes behind the creation of a stormy cloud [1]. The identified threats and vulnerabilities are ranked from top to bottom as shown in Fig.1. malicious activities from illegal users have threatened this technology such as data misuse, inflexible access control and limited monitoring. The occurrence of these threats may result into damaging or illegal access of critical and confidential data of users. This research paper describes the characteristics (threats, vulnerabilities) associated with a stormy cloud. Keywords- Illegal access, Threats, Vulnerabilities I.INTRODUCTION The traditional era of computing involves the use of software, hardware and storage to achieve the required computational service whereas cloud computing has isolated the services from resources (networks, storage, servers). The required services are provided to the users by utilizing the resources of provider. Users are no longer required to purchase hardware, software or to manage storages. Due the evolution of this technology users are required to pay for cloud services on consumption basis. New cloud based business models are being discussed, defined, and implemented as solutions in form of on-demand services that allows businesses to enhance their efficiency and scalability. Success or failure of this technology relies on users’ trust whether the service provided is reliable, available and secure. Considering the benefits of cloud computing various organizations are moving towards IT solutions that are based on cloud however, before starting the journey to cloud, organizations must considers the possible threats and vulnerabilities that may convert their dreams of enhancing scalability and saving management cost into a nightmare of data loss and misuse. The users must consider that cloud can Figure 1. Characteristics of stormy cloud. In order to create awareness and protect the cloud users from adopting a stormy cloud, we are describing the impacts of threats and vulnerabilities in cloud computing so that organizations or users can adopt this technology with trust and from a trusted provider who has the powerful and trusted security polices as well as efficient techniques for securing the users’ data on cloud. II.CLOUD COMPUTING THREATS As we already mentioned, there are several significant threats that should be considered before adopting the paradigm of cloud computing, these threats are discribed as follows : A. Abuse and Nefarious Use of Cloud Cloud providers facilitate the users with various types of services including unlimited bandwidth and storage capacity. Some cloud service providers offer free limited trial periods that gives an opportunity for hackers to access the cloud immorally, their impact includes decoding and cracking of passwords, launching potential attack points and executing malicious commands. Spammers, malicious code authors and other cybercriminals can conduct their activities with relative impunity, as cloud service providers are targeted for their weak registration systems and limited fraud detection capabilities. For example some cybercriminals use rich content applications such as flash files that enable them to hide their malicious code and utilize users’ browsers to install malware [1]. B. Insecure Interfaces and APIs Cloud users are using software interfaces and APIs to access and manage the cloud services. These APIs need to be secured because they play an integral part during provisioning, management, orchestration and monitoring of the processes running in a cloud environment. The security and availability of cloud services is dependent upon the security of these APIs so they should include features of authentication, access control, encryption and activity monitoring. APIs must be designed to protect against both accidental and malicious attempts to avoid threats. If cloud service provider relies on weak set of APIs, variety of security issues will be raised related to confidentiality, integrity, availability and accountability such as malicious or unidentified access, API dependencies, limited monitoring/logging capabilities, inflexible access controls, anonymous access, reusable tokens/passwords and improper authorizations[1]. C.Malicious Insider Insider attacks can be performed by malicious employees at the provider’s or user’s site. Malicious insider can steal the confidential data of cloud users. This threat can break the trust of cloud users on provider. A malicious insider can easily obtain passwords, cryptographic keys and files. These attacks may involve various types of fraud, damage or theft of information and misuse of IT resources. The threat of malicious attacks has increased due to lack of transparency in cloud provider’s processes and procedures [2]. It means that a provider may not reveal how employees are granted access and how this access is monitored or how reports as well as policy compliances are analyzed. Additionally, users have little visibility about the hiring practices of their provider that could open the door for an adversary, hackers or other cloud intruders to steal confidential information or to take control over the cloud. The level of access granted could enable attackers to collect confidential data or to gain complete control over the cloud services with little or no risk of detection. Malicious insider attacks can damage the financial value as well as brand reputation of an organization. D. Virtualized Technology Due to the cloud virtualization, cloud providers are residing the user’s applications on virtual machines (VMs) within a shared infrastructure. The VMs are virtualized based on the physical hardware of cloud provider. In order to maintain the security of users, providers are isolating the VMs from each other so if any of them is malicious, it will not affect the other VMs under the same provider. The VMs are managed by hypervisor in order to provide virtual memory as well as CPU scheduling policies to VMs. As the hypervisor is main source of managing a virtualized cloud platform, hackers are targeting it to access the VMs and the physical hardware, because hypervisor resides between VMs and hardware [3], so attack on hypervisor can damage the VMs and hardware. Strong isolation should be employed to ensure that VMs are not able to impact or access the operations of other users running under the same cloud service provider. Several vendors such as Xen and KVM are providing strong security mechanisms of securing the cloud hypervisors, but still it is identified that sometimes security of VMs is compromised. E. Data Loss or Leakage Data loss can occur due to operational failures, unreliable data storage and inconsistent use of encryption keys. Operational failure refers to deletion or alteration of records without a backup of the original content that can take place intentionally or unintentionally. Unreliable data storage refers to saving of data on unreliable media that will be unrecoverable if data is lost [4]. The inconsistent use of encryption keys will result into loss and unauthorized accesses of data by illegal users that will lead to the destruction of sensitive and confidential information. Example of data loss is Twitter hacks. The online accounts of Twitter accessed by hackers and their numerous sensitive corporate documents were stolen. These documents were housed in Googles online web office service Google Docs. Although Google was not the one to be blamed for security break-in as the security of documents from twitter was not efficient enough. Instead, the entire company data was only one password crack away from discovery [5]. It’s clear from this example that data loss or leakage can damage one’s brand, reputation and cause a loss that may significantly impact employee, partner and users’ morale as well as trust. Loss of core intellectual property can have competitive and financial implications beside the compliance violations and legal consequences. F.Account or Service Hijacking Account or service hijacking refers to unauthorized access gained by attackers to control the users’ accounts, such as phishing, fraud and exploitation of software vulnerabilities. For example if an attacker gains access to users’ credentials, they can spy on their activities/transactions, manipulate their data, return falsified information and redirect them to illegitimate sites [6]. Users’ account or service instances may become a new base for the attackers who can leverage the cloud service providers’ reputation by launching subsequent attacks. With stolen credentials, attackers can often access critical areas of deployed cloud computing services, allowing them to compromise the confidentiality, integrity and availability of those services. Authentication and authorization through the use of roles and password protecting is a common way to maintain access control when using web-browsers to access cloud computing systems. However, this method is not suff icient enough to secure sensitive and critical data. G.Unknown Risk Profile It is important for the users to know software versions, security practices, code updates and intrusion attempts. While adopting cloud computing services, these features and functionality may be well advertised but what about the details orcompliance ofthe internal security procedures, configuration hardening, patching, auditing and logging. Users must be clarified how and where their data and related logs are stored. However, there is no clear answer that leaves users with an unknown risk profile that may include serious threats [1]. the VM within the virtualized cloud environment.VM escape is a vulnerability that enables a guest-level VM to attack its host. Under this vulnerability an attacker runs code on a VM that allows an OS running within it to break out and interact directly with the hypervisor as shown in Fig.2 [8]. III.CLOUD COMPUTING VULNERABILITIES There are several significant vulnerabilities that should be considered when an organization is ready to move their critical applications and data to a cloud compuitng environment, these vulnerabilities are discribed as follows : A. Session Riding and Hijacking Session hijacking refers to use of a valid session key to gain unauthorized access for the information or services residing on a computer system, it also refers to theft of a cookie used to authenticate a user to a remote server and it is relevant to web application technologies weaknesses in the web application structure at their disposal that gives the chance to hackers in order to accomplish a wide variety of malicious activities. While session riding refers to the hackers sending commands to a web application on behalf of the targeted user by just sending that user an email or tricking the user into visiting a specially crafted website. Session riding deletes user data, executes online transactions like bids or orders, sends spam to an intranet system via internet and changes system as well as network configurations or even opens the firewall [12]. However, the web technologies evolution and refinement also brings new techniques that compromise sensitive data, provide access to theoretically secure networks and pose threats to the daily operation of online businesses. B. Virtual Machine Escape Cloud computing servers use the same OS, enterprise and web applications as localized VMs and physical servers. The ability for an attacker or malware to remotely exploit vulnerabilities in these systems and applications is a significant threat to virtualized cloud computing environments [7]. In addition, co-location of multiple VMs increases the attack surface and risk of VM-to-VM compromise. Intrusion detection and prevention systems need to be able to detect malicious activity at VM level, regardless of the location of Figure 2. VM Escape. It allows the attacker to access the host OS and all other VMs running on that particular host. Hypervisors and VM’s complexity may cause an increase threat to attack surface that weakens security such as paging, check pointing and migration of VMs [8]. C. Reliability and Availability of Service In terms of reliability and availability, cloud computing is not a perfect technology. For-example in February 2008, Amazons Web Service (Amazons-S3) cloud storage infrastructure went down for several hours, causing data loss and access issues with multiple Web 2.0 services. With more services being built on top of cloud computing infrastructures, an outage orfailure can create a domino effect by taking down large amounts of Internet based services and applications which raise several questions such as in cases of failure, what forms of settlement exist for stakeholders? What is the responsibility of cloud providers? What will be appropriate procedures to overcome these issues? [9]. D. Insecure Cryptography Attackers’ can decode any cryptographic mechanism or algorithm as main methods to hack them are discovered. It’s common to find crucial flaws in cryptographic algorithm implementations, which can twist strong encryption into weak encryption or sometimes no encryption at all. For example in cloud virtualization providers uses virtualization software to partition servers into images that are provided to the users as on-demand services [10]. Although utilization of those VMs into cloud providers data centres provides more flexible and efficient setup than traditional servers but they dont have enough access to generate random numbers needed to properly encrypt data. This is one of the fundamental problems of cryptography. How do computers produce truly random numbers that cant be guessed or replicated? In PCs, OS typically monitors users mouse movements and key strokes to gather random bits of data that are collected in a so-called Entropy Pool (a set of unpredictable numbers that encryption software automatically pulls to generate random encryption passkeys). In servers, one that dont have access to a keyboard or mouse, random numbers are also pulled from the unpredictable movements of the computers hard drive. VMs that act as physical machines but are simulated with software have fewer sources of entropy. For example Linux-based VMs, gather random numbers only from the exact millisecond time on their internal clocks and that is not enough to generate strong keys for encryption [11]. E. Data Protection and Portability Although the cloud services are offered based on a contract among client and a provider but what will happen when the contract is terminated and client doesn’t wants to continue anymore. The question is, will the sensitive data of client be deleted or misused by the provider. Secondly if the provider went out of business due to any reason, what will happen to the services and data of the client? Will the provider handout the data of client to some other provider, if yes, will client trust the new provider? Considering these questions we can say that data protection and portability remains as one of main weaknesses of cloud computing. F. Vendor Lock-in This vulnerability occurs due to immature providers and new business models which raise the risk of failure and going out of the business. Lock-in, makes a client dependent on a provider for products and services so they will be unable to deal with another provider without substantial switching costs. Clients must be sure of their potential provider prior to provider selection process. Lack of standards may also lock-in the clients with only one provider. Due to heterogeneous standards and policies settled by each provider, clients are not able to easily migrate from one provider to another even though they want to do so [13]. G. Internet Dependency Cloud computing is an internet dependent technology where users are accessing the services via web browser. What if internet is not available or service is down, what will happen to users systems and operations that are very critical and need to run 24 hours such as Healthcare and Banking systems. In some Asian and African underdeveloped countries where service of internet is not considered as reliable enough, will organizations adopt this paradigm to move their significant systems on cloud? IV.CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK In this research paper we have discussed the characteristics of a stormy cloud that contains threats and vulnerabilities. Cloud computing has a dynamic nature that is flexible, scalable and multi-shared with high capacity that gives an innovative shape of carrying out business [14]. However, beside these benefits there are seven deadly threats and vulnerabilities encountered in this technology. Therefore, we believe there is still tremendous opportunity for researchers to make revolutionary contributions in this field and bring significant impact of their development to the industry. There is need to develop and design in-depth security techniques and policies in terms of people, processes and technology. By considering the contributions from several IT industries worldwide, it’s obvious that cloud computing will be one of the leading strategic and innovative technologies in the near future. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The glory of accomplishing this research paper goes to our parents for their moral support. We are also thankful to our supervisor for encouraging us to write this research journal. Finally, we are thankful to IJAEST for assisting us to review this journal and providing us timely response. REFERENCES [1]CSA, â€Å"Security Guidance for Critical Areas of Focus in Cloud Computing V2.1† Cloud Security Alliance, 2009, [Online], Available: https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/topthreats/csathreats.v1.0.pdf, [Accessed: 08-July-2011]. [2]E., Mathisen, â€Å"Security challenges and solutions in cloud computing,† in Digital Ecosystems and Technologies Conference (DEST), 2011 Proceedings of the 5th IEEE International Conference on, 2011, pp. 208-212. [3]Wei Chen, Hongyi Lu, Li Shen, Zhiying Wang, Nong Xiao, and Dan Chen, â€Å"A Novel Hardware Assisted Full Virtualization Technique,† in Young Computer Scientists, 2008. ICYCS 2008. The 9th International Conference for, 2008, pp. 1292-1297. [4]S. Farrell, â€Å"Portable Storage and Data Loss,† Internet Computing, IEEE, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 90-93, 2008. [5]R., Trope, C., Ray, â€Å"The Real Realities of Cloud Computing: Ethical Issues for Lawyers, Law Firms, and Judges â€Å", [Online], Available: http://ftp.documation.com/references/ABA10a/PDfs/3_1.pdf , 2009, [Accessed: 15-Jul-2011]. [6]Karthick Ramachandran, Thomas Margoni and Mark Perry, â€Å"Clarifying Privacy in the Clouds† in CYBERLAWS 2011 : The Second International Conference on Technical and Legal Aspects of the e- Society, IARIA,2011. [7]S., Subashini, V. Kavitha. â€Å"A survey on security issues in service delivery models of cloud computing†. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, vo l.34, pp.1-11, 2011. [8]Trend Micro, â€Å"Making Virtual Machines Cloud-Ready†, [Online], Available: http://www.whitestratus.com/docs/making-vms-cloud ready.pdf. A Trend Micro White Paper, 2009 [Accessed: 16-Jul-2011]. [9]J., Grimes, P., Jaeger, J., Lin, â€Å"Weathering the Storm: The Policy Implications of Cloud Computing† [Online], Availablehttp://ischools.org/images/iConferences/CloudAbstract13109F INAL.pdf , [Accessed: 19-Jul-2011]. [10] B. Grobauer, T. Walloschek, and E. Stocker, â€Å"Understanding Cloud Computing Vulnerabilities,† Security Privacy, IEEE, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 50-57, 2011. [11] A., Greenberg, â€Å"Why Cloud Computing Needs More Chaos† [Online], Available:http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/30/cloud-computing- security-technology-cio-network-cloud-computing.html, 2009, [Accessed: 20-Jul-2011]. [12] T. Schreiber, â€Å"Session Riding a Widespread Vulnerability in Todays Web Applications† [Online], Available: http://www.securenet.de/papers/Session_Riding.pdf, white paper, 2004. [Accessed: 20-Jul-2011]. [13] G., Petri, â€Å"Vendor Lock-in and Cloud computing†, [Online], Available: http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/node/1465147 , 2010, [Accessed: 23-Jul-2011].

Culture and Expectations: Building Customers

Culture and Expectations: Building Customers Culture is one of the concept that occur from many different factors also most of authors from many different fields are examine culture and cultural factors for making analysis of human characteristics. I am going to analyse cultural factors deeply for understanding international marketing better. Also I will focus on how Cultural factors affects to marketing policies and I will try to explain each factors with some relevant examples. Cultural differences how can affect social expenditures at abroad and how can international marketers market their goods and services at abroad perfectly Culture plays a vital role in expectations building of customers and helps in determining the alleged way of customers regarding service delivery (Tansik and Chase 1988, cited by Mattila 1999, p.02) It is very hard to defined culture but simply culture shows all people of one nation or societies Identities. Everybody in those societies is give similar reactions for similar situations. Also different group of society gives different reaction for the same situation. If I want to explain culture in one sentence that culture is similarities of differentiations. People who live in America can laugh to Japanese people because of their life style or Japanese people can think the same think for Americans and may be they can say how crazy they are because of their cultures or life styles. For example American people like big, smart, fast and comfortable cars but Japanese people do not drive such noisy, fast, big and bombastic cars Culture is so important for marketers and especially for international marketers. The way for success at international marketing goes from culture. Good marketers try to understand people who live at their target market and after they introduce their goods and services with the reasonable best methods. Otherwise no body expect from Japanese marketers to sell their cars to American people with successfully. I am saying successfully because those little people did it. They are one of the best car sellers in the world with their own brand. That brand name is Toyota. Maybe 50 years ago any one from America thought to use Japanese cars or even they could not think if Japans can manufacture cars. I am going to give detailed information about Toyota and their marketing strategies at the next part of my assignment but before I want to focus on Culture and factors of cultures for understanding differentiations among the nations. I believe that work will be very useful for new international ma rketers International Marketing Marketing the goods and services to other nations named as international marketing. World is globalising and competition among the firms are growing. Most of companies which win this competition are becoming Global Firms and they are serving everywhere in the earth and those companies are marketing their goods and services like in their home country. What are the difficulties of international marketing? I will try to answer this question in this section of my assignment. According to Usiner (1996) the main difficulty of international marketing must be Cultural differences. If Usiner and other authors are right at their this view I should looked what kind of elements are shapes humans life Elements of Culture Language Religion Values and Attitudes Manners and Customs Material Elements Aesthetics Education Social Institutions Language: Language is the key element for entering the new market or selling new products in the target markets because it is very important to introduce the goods and services at in a foreign country. Language not only meaning a verbal language for an international marketer also language contains everything about those people who using it. Toyota is a Japanese brand but in the earth everybody knows Toyota is the biggest Automotive Brand and people from Africa to America trust this name. Mainly Japanese people speak Japanese but wherever if Toyota manufacture or market their products, They start to communicate with those people, We are understanding this from Toyota`s corona models history at America. Toyota corona was totally responding American society`s requirements. Religion: Religions are affects humans life styles and their culture. Religion can be used as a gun for marketers but I do not recommend it. A good marketer should respect religions if they want to be successful and also they should be careful about using harmful or racist approaches for religions and their followers at every time. When I looked at the graphics below it can be helpful to understand importance of respect religions at all time. Christianity: 2.1 billion Islam: 1.5 billion Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist:1.1 Million Hinduism: 900 million Chinese traditional religion: 394 million Buddhism: 376 million May be it can be hard to understand importance of marketing strategies according to member of religions but when we looked at food and beverage sector it going to be easy to realize. Moslem nations do not purchase haram (forbidden by Islam) foods and beverages, Hindu nations generally become vegetarian because of their religion. Such a important differences have have to be considered by international marketers. Also I can imagine If Toyota made any advertisements which may annoy one of the members of religion; those people would definitely protest the Toyota forever. Values and Attitudes Values are the basic notion/convictions of what is right and wrong and values are fairly stable over time. Notional disagreement is a gap between two values or among values and behaviors. Attitudes are feelings and tempers that affect behavior and may change frequently. According to definition values and attitudes are just a concept and those are about personal feelings and treatments. And generally people meet under the similar feelings and treatments. Because of this meeting Values and attitudes are very important at shaping the cultural differences among the nations. The most difficult thing in the earth might be changing ideas. No one can accept cross ideas easily. Because of this situation international marketers have to debate values and attitudes while they are marketing their products and services at abroad. According to Toyota Production System (TPS): the lean management: the key managerial values and attitudes needed to sustain continuous improvement in the long run. The core management principles are articulated around the twin pillars of Continuous Improvement and Respect for People. Manners and Customs: The biggest differentiation of manners from religions that Manners are formed by people but religions ruled by God. Manners can change by the time but both religions and manners ask people to be good. Manners are accepted by one group of people. If in that group somebody does not follow the rules of manners others can think about him or her bad thinks but nobody judge them. Customs are only treatments that become habitats with repeating actions by the time. Customs can be good customs or bad customs but manners always ask for to be good. Manners and customs are used together because these words are shapes culture of small nations and big countries Material Elements: When you analyze a countrys material culture you need to look at two things: (1) its level of technological ability and (2) its economics, or how people use their abilities and the benefits achieved. http://www.suite101.com/lesson.cfm/16618/106/5 Material elements are about if the target country is using enough technology or not. Because power of technology gives people some extra abilities and this abilities helps to change life styles. International marketers have to understand their target markets` technological superiorities because this power can affect marketing strategies. Aesthetics: Aesthetics is a combination of feeling about beauty. But beauty is not the same for everybody. Aesthetics is generalisation of beauty. For example looking, smelling, tasting, touching and feeling are sensible with sense organs. And sense organs give good or bad reactions according to feelings and aesthetics occur with those good feelings. If Group of people feel good things and give similar reaction for the same situations that affects those people`s cultures at the end. Importance of aesthetics for marketers, they have to market their goods and services to their target markets according to those nations beauty and aesthetics comprehensions Education: The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think-rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with the thoughts of other men. Bill Beattie http://www.teachersmind.com/education.htm Education is very important for international marketer. Because advertisement and such informative works for success in the business are have to prepare according to education level of target markets. People have to understand easily what we are serving or who we are with simple words or figures. At the low educational level countries visual advertisements must prefer rather than destined advertisements Social Institutions: A complex of positions, roles, norms and values lodged in particular types of social structures and organizing relatively stable patterns of human activity with respect to fundamental problems in producing life-sustaining resources, in reproducing individuals, and in sustaining viable societal structures within a given environment. (Turner 1997: 6) Social intuitions are has some structural differences from country to country for example, education systems do not have to be the same at every country or police and military can have different roles for make lives easier. Professional International marketers can easily aware of differentiations among the nations and so they can have advantages on marketing their goods and services at abroad. Part B Introduction At the second part of this assignment I am going to analyze Cateora and Ghauri`s statement about importance of experience at marketing. Why experienced marketers can be more successful then inexperienced marketers on marketing their goods or services? Cateora and Ghauri believe that most of inexperienced marketers fall in mistakes at aspect of cultures. I have already survey elements of culture at first part of this assignment Language, Religion, Values and Attitudes, Manners and Customs, Material Elements, Aesthetics, Education and Social Institutions are all defined at Part A. These elements are the central core part of cultures and culture are shaped by those elements. Every nation has their own cultural aspects but international marketer have to look those aspects very carefully. Sometimes those cultural elements can seen similar at different nations and because of those similarities international marketers can fail at those failure. Author is describing that failure as illusion. If I give an example, language: Language is a subject with language people can communicate but it does not mean learning foreign languages for understanding people better. Communication mean is not only talking and making agreements for international marketers also a good international marketer should understand him or her target market correctly. For e xample English is a Language Americans, Australians, British and many other nations speak English and most of international agreements made in English language. But many time Americans get difficulties to understand British. Similar situations occur at some Turkish speaker countries as well. For example Turkey Turks many times have understanding difficulties to Azeri or Cyprus Turks` speaking languages in fact all Turks speak Turkish Languages. Experience is jump to business in this kind of cases and those people short the understanding problems easily because they know from their experience that when Cyprus Turk says are you complete Experienced people who know Cyprus culture understand what is the meaning of are you complete and says I am fine thank you. But inexperienced people about Cyprus culture only struggle with the meanings of the words Today Toyota is one of the biggest worldwide company and Toyota marketers are marketing their product all over the world as they learn from Edward Demings at the end of World War 2. Yes you heard the real American name in Japan. Edward Demings was one of the most important managers of Toyota. He introduce to America to Toyota cars as better cars then original American cars. He was an American and he was knowing very well what Americans like or hate. And he had checked detailed at American market for improve Toyota`s specialties. This principle of learning very well of the target markets` demand and needs always became Toyota`s business strategy and so after all this studied Toyota call this studies as kaizen or continuous development all the world accepted Toyota as a world brand. Toyota always tries to learn and improve them from production to marketing process at everywhere. Conclusion From part A I have analyze culture and elements of culture for international marketing and I saw that differences growths competitions among nations or marketers. Today our world is globalizing and cultural differences are become determinant factors at business life. Language, Religion, Values and Attitudes, Manners and Customs, Material Elements, Aesthetics, Education and Social Institutions are some of most relevant factors in the earth and those elements shapes culture. International marketers should be careful when they are preparing marketing policies for different cultures From part B I have analyze importance of experience factor at marketing. Cultural factors very important at marketing and marketers should analyze cultural differences perfectly but how much if a marketer from different culture think he or she knows everything about his or her target market, he or she can fail at very simple mistakes. But to be experienced is always gives better change to be successful at marketing. Also I have learnt in the second part about key man of Toyota who made Toyota a world brand. Every marketer should respect that man and at least have to read his business strategies if they want to gain experiences quick

The Human Brain Vs. The Computer :: essays research papers

The Human Brain vs. the Computer   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Over the millennia, Man has come up with countless inventions, each more ingenious than the last. However, only now, as the computer arises that mankind's sentience itself is threatened. Ridiculous, some may cry, but I say look about you! The computer has already begun to hold sway over so many of the vital functions that man has prided himself upon before. Our lives are now dependent upon the computer and what it tells you. Even now, I type this essay upon a computer, fully trusting that it will produce a result far superior to what I can manage with my own to hands and little else.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It has been commonly said that the computer can never replace the human brain, for it is humans that created them. Is this a good reason why the computer must be inferior to humans? Is it always true that the object cannot surpass its creator? How can this be true? Even if we just focus on a single creation of man, say the subject of this essay, the computer, there are many ways in which the computer has the edge over man. Let us start with basic calculation. The computer has the capability to evaluate problems that man can hardly even imagine, let alone approach. Even if a man can calculate the same problems as a computer, the computer can do it far faster than he can possibly achieve. Let us go one step further. Say this man can calculate as fast as a computer, can he, as the computer can, achieve a 100% rate of accuracy in his calculation? Why do we now go over the human data entry into a computer when a mistake is noticed instead of checking the computer? It is because computers now possess the ability to hold no error in its operation, where mankind has not advanced in this area in any noticeable margin. Why do you think the words 'human error' and 'to err is human' have become so popular in recent years? It is because the failings of the human race are becoming more and more exposed as the computer advances and becomes more and more omnipotent.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Perhaps the computer is not truly a competitor with the human brain but rather its ideal. After all, the computer is far superior to the human brain in those aspects where the brain is weakest. It is perhaps the attempt of the human brain to attain perfection after realising its own weaknesses. If you think about it carefully, do those who use the computer not use it supplement

Inflation and Its Effects on Investment Essay -- Finance Financial Eco

Inflation and Its Effects on Investment For world economic markets, inflation is a fairly new experience as for much of the pre-twentieth century there had been little upward pressure on prices due to gold and other metallic standards. These backed currencies limited governments’ abilities to create new money. So at the end of the gold standard strong political pressures often caused governments to issue more money increasing the money supply and therefor the price level. Inflation reflects a situation where the demand for goods and services exceeds their supply in the economy(Hall, 1982). Its causes could be triggered by the private sector and the government spending more than their revenues, or by shortfalls in output. Price increases could also be triggered by increases in costs of production. For instance increases in prices of imported raw materials will cause inflation if not managed. Whatever the initial cause, inflation will not persist unless accompanied by sustained increase in money supply. In this sense, inflation is a monetary phenomenon. But what effect does inflation have on the economy and on investment in particular? Inflation causes many distortions in the economy. It hurts people who are retired and living on a fixed income. When prices rise these consumers cannot buy as much as they could previously. This discourages savings due to the fact that the money is worth more presently than in the future. This expectation reduces economic growth because the economy needs a certain level of savings to finance investments which boosts economic growth. Also, inflation makes it harder for businesses to plan for the future. It is very difficult to decide how much to produce, because businesses can... ...hem to make financial decisions. If people cannot trust money then they are less likely to engage in business relationships. This results in lower investment, production and less socially positive interactions. Among other effects, people may start to attempt to trade by other, less efficient, means in order to avoid the unpredictable price levels due to inflation. Bibliography Blume, Marshall. Inflation and Capital Markets. Ballinger, Cambridge, 1978. Hall, Robert ed. Inflation, Causes and Effects. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1982. Hellerstein, Rebecca. â€Å"The Impact of Inflation,† Regional Review, Winter 1997, Vol. 7, No. 1. Massimo, Caruso. â€Å"Investment and the Persistence of Price Uncertainty,† Research in economics, Vol. 55, June 2001. Morley, Samuel. The economics of Inflation. Dryden Press, Hinsdale, Ill., 1971.

Mandarin Oriental Hotel Case Study Essay -- Business Management Studi

The company Established in Hong Kong in 1963, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group is and international hotel investment and management group operating ten hotels in the Asia-Pacific region. The company manages each of these hotels and has significant ownership interests in all but Mandarin Oriental, San Francisco and the Phuket Yacht Club Hotel and Beach Resort, Thailand. Mandarin Oriental’s overall corporate quality goal is to achieve a level of excellence that sets the group apart from all of its competitors in the eyes of customers, investors and staff. In order to achieve this level of excellence it strives for total customer satisfaction in its service delivery, and to consistently be a leader in the industry in terms of profitability and the creation of a rewarding working environment for all of its staff. The Mandarin Oriental Hotel has, from its creation, received recognition for providing a level of products and services of the highest quality. While traditions of consistent quality service delivery are practiced at each of the hotels, the challenge to the Group is to develop an ongoing corporate culture of quality service drawing upon the strengths of each individual hotel. At the beginning of 1993, the company introduced a new Group Mission Statement that has been rolled out to every member of staff through personal presentations by the Managing Director at every hotel and corporate office. This Mission Statement has been published in English, Chinese, Thai and Indonesian, and serves as a model in that it conveys guidelines and criteria that can be used by hoteliers who wish to monitor and evaluate their own leadership and quality improvement efforts. Mission Statement The company Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group is a leader in the hotel industry, owning and operation some of the world’s finest de luxe and first class hotels. The mission Their mission is to completely delight and satisfy our guests. They are committed to making a difference every day; continually getting better to keep us the best. The guiding principles Delighting their guests They will strive to understand our client and guest needs by listening to their requirements and responding in a competent, accurate and timely fashion. They will design and deliver our services and products to address their needs. In fact, the MOG a... ...he same as those employed to build their business, they are tied to each other. They are currently developing a Group-wide Guest History network whereby the â€Å"history† of a customer of any one hotel can be accessed by any other hotel so that preferences are immediately responded to even if it is the customer’s first use of a new hotel. When this is in place, a customer of Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong who prefers a particular type of beverage will find it waiting for him upon arrival at The Oriental, Bangkok. They follow up their customers with a personalized written response to every comment card or letter received and recently have begun telephoning customers for follow up. In every case they strive to let the customers know that they appreciate their comments; that their experiences are important to them; that they want to address the specific instance generating the comment; that they want them to be satisfied and, finally, if appropriate, they explain the change that will be made in their processes to assure achievement of better customer satisfaction in the future. (Go, F.M and Pine, R.(1995). Globalization Strategy in the Hotel Industry. Routledge)