Role of Private Universities in Bangladesh Higher Education

Role of Private Universities in Bangladesh Higher Education Role of Private Universities in the Higher Education of Bangladesh: A Case Study on USTC from Strategic Marketing Perspective Abstract The true growth of an economy depends on the development of a nation and its citizens as human resources and higher education plays an inevitable role in such context. Bangladesh is also not an exception to this. At present there are more than 52 private universities in the country. Therefore, now what matters in this connection is not the number but the quality. A good university must ensure quality education for its students. But to be an international standard institution of higher education it is not an easy job for a university. USTC is such a university that has already established itself as a leading private university in Bangladesh with international reputation for excellence. In a decade, it has achieved excellence in education in different disciplines through its dynamic and effective academic leadership. Due to stiff competition in the education sector in Bangladesh, private universities need to prove their quality and should develop constructive and effective marketing pr ograms and strategies for the purpose of survival as well as expansion.. Marketing products and marketing services are different. Some principles are the same, but marketing educational services need to consider many additional factors, changing the emphasis in some areas. It is not appropriate to use a products model for services marketing, as many of the additional concepts and principles, only applicable to marketing educational services, may be ignored or forgotten. This is because a strategic marketing approach has been followed to reveal the real scenario and condition in one hand and suggest the appropriate marketing strategies on the other hand. It is important for USTC to incorporate business acumen and marketing without delay. USTC is beginning to experience the reality of the world of business and finance and, as the competition increases, the aspects such as formulating marketing planning in an appropriate and scientific manner, marketing the right educational services b y the USTC, marketing of the USTC must be to the correct customers in the most appropriate places, the price of the educational packages should be right, marketing of USTC should be undertaken at the most effective time, etc., need to be ensured for timely consideration. This research paper examines the present situation of the USTC with a realistic evaluation of SWOT analysis aiming to develop constructive and effective educational service marketing plans, programs and strategies through the careful application and evaluation of strategic models and matrixes. This paper also includes key points which are based upon sound experience. There is a brief outline of the changes in the education sector within the last ten years, which have resulted in the need for realistic marketing. The models used here include Ansoff’s Matrix, Boston Consulting Group’s Matrix and SWOT Analysis to make the strategic marketing plans, programs and strategies suggested for the private univers ity industry in general and the USTC in particular more pragmatic and focused. 1. Introduction Distinguished economists and scientists have alluded to the importance of the growth of human knowledge through formal educational processes that plays significant role in the development of the economy of Bangladesh. Education is, of course, an investment for the future. A country that deliberately devotes a pro-portion of its resources for education and to improve the skills and abilities of its young people expects to see change in its economic and social performance in the years ahead. Education is seen as the essential factor for rapid economic growth and formal education controlled by the state as the indispensable instrument for improving the productive capacities of a population. Education or human resource development is termed as a powerful tool in achieving the economic development by providing the people with the necessary skills upon which development depends on. It spreads opportunity and creates hope, having a leveling and equalizing effect on society and creating a new class of persons owing their position to education and ability rather than birth. Actually, the purpose of education is to bring economic, social, political, cultural development and also mental, environmental, physical development of human being. It bring changes in human behavior and social mobility. It is the best investment for human being. The public sector institutions of the country are in utter disarray. Regularly increasing demand and inadequate facilities, and additionally the absence of conducive atmosphere in the campuses are driving away large number of students every year to our neighboring country and elsewhere. And, of course, those who can afford are going, and the rest leave their future on to their lucks. In such a frustrating situation, creating private sector facilities, under the provision of the Private University Act-1992, has brought a great relief for the students and their parents or guardians. Traditionally there has been little competition within higher education systems and it is believed that more intense competition between similar institutions for faculty, students, and resources will help improve standards by rewarding merit and performance. Competition also generally promotes beneficial innovations and overall quality improvements. It is also important to note that competition is exceedingly difficult to achieve through central decree, but requires a high degree of autonomy for academic institutions, allowing them to exploit their strength and overcome weaknesses. Adequate market information is also essential; without it, institutions will continue to thrive even when are weak. Service markets, and in particular educational provider markets, have changed significantly in the last 15 years in Bangladesh. Education providers in Bangladesh face intense competition and must, therefore, take a vigorous approach to marketing. As the importance of higher education increase s more and more, it becomes absolutely essential to formulate its overall objectives and goals, content, organization and strategies etc. It is important to integrate marketing into the everyday business of education provision, although marketing is frequently seen as difficult by education providers in Bangladesh. One of the first actions for any education provider in Bangladesh is to define the term ‘marketing’. Faltermeyer (1994) suggests that many people, involved in the role of marketing, are not only unable to define the term, but generally regard ‘selling’ as being the same as marketing. Leppard and McDonald (1991) suggest that the organizations which attempt to subscribe to a full marketing process will be further along the pathway of evolutionary development, in terms of likely success for the education provider. It is important to remember that, although an education provider may have a marketing consultant, leader and/or co-coordinator, marketing is part of the role of all staffs employed in the organization (academic institution). If the USTC intends to be successful, and remain so in the competitive market, it needs to develop its marketing strategy carefully. When customers (students) begin to realize that other organizations (private universities) are ab le to deliver high quality courses at prices (tuition fees and other charges) lower than those of the USTC, business will be lost. It is, therefore, vital for everyone in the private university industry in general and USTC in particular to possess and implement the marketing philosophy in their areas of concentration and to be student centric. 2. Review of Literature The positive role of private Universities in the higher education in Bangladesh is now undeniable (Siddique 2005). The epoch-making Private University Act was passed in 1992. To meet the increasing demand for higher education and develop skilled, efficient and competent manpower the then Government felt the need for establishing private universities and approved the Private University Act 1992. Islam S. (2003) states that education was seen as the essential factors for rapid economic growth and formal education controlled by the state, as the indispensable instrument for improving the production capacities of a population. Most countries of the world are now facing the dilemmas of having to satisfy the need of the increased demand for education (Islam S. 2003). Higher education system needs to be flexible if they are to be the most effective (Muzaffar A.T. and Khan A.H. 2004). Education systems need to be able to adapt quickly to changing enrolment levels, to the rise and fall of dif ferent fields of study and to changes in the mix of skills demanded in the labor market. Muzaffar and Khan (2004) also argued that open systems are more likely to keep pace with significant external changes. Field (1991) indicated that the marketplace philosophy will be a necessity in education. Matin M.A. (2003) mentioned that still there is the necessity of many more private universities in the country, but they must not be allowed to grow in an unplanned way’. It should be noted here that all the private universities operating in Bangladesh must take into account ethical considerations when developing their marketing plans and programs. Education providers provide various services to the students (customers) and they need to apply marketing tools and techniques at various levels. According to Kotler (1991) services marketing is ‘ any act of performance that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of any thing’ However as Kotler goes on to argue, no product is sold within the market place without an element of ‘service’ which may comprise a major part of the actual offer. Giles (1990) suggests t hat in market economy countries, the service sector has increased more than other industries. Stanton (1978) and Cannon (1986) indicate that the service is the central point of any marketing, i.e. the precise ‘product’ that the business is selling. There is, therefore, a wide variety of definitions. Stanton (1981) omits areas, such as credit facilities, from his definition. However, education providers may include credit facilities as an optional strategy to boost their uniqueness and the range of benefits that they can offer to the customer (student). An important point that needs recognition is that, if an organization wishes to be ‘market driven, it must be close to the customer. To do this effectively, it must adopt the principles of marketing. Levitt (1960) argues that satisfying the needs of the customer will create a cyclical process, which will generate further demand for the courses on offer. This parallels the Donabedian (1966) cycle of quality: product-process-outcome and, indeed, the work by Gronoroos (1984), who identified that there were three dimensions of service quality: outcome-process-perception. Both Lovelock (1984) and Bateson (1989) contend that marketing services in the not-for-profit sectors and marketing services in the profit sector are substantially different, in that the objectives of the organizations will produce marketing programmes which are manifestly diverse. Services are identified by four characteristics that differential them from products. Zeithaml et al (1990) and Beaven and Scotti (1990 ) identified these characteristics as (a) intangibility (b) perishability (c) inseparability and (d) heterogeneity. Some authors consider a fifth characteristic, the issue of ‘ownership’ (Lovelock, 1984; Cowell, 1991). Many leading authors suggest that there are limited applications for using a traditional marketing model for services (Shostack, 1977; Gronroos, 1978; Lovelock, 1981). They argue that the models, or tools, used for products cannot be simply transferred to services. Octon (1983) states that to define a not for profit sector organization is rather difficult, and such departments within universities need to make a profit in order to remain viable. With the ever increasing demands on the Universities budgets, cost effectiveness is clearly on the agenda. 3. Rationale of the Study In the business strategy of any service provider organization, be it profit related or a not-for-profit sector organization, there are fundamental requirements. The USTC must develop an effective marketing strategy so that its objectives are clearly focused and the customer segmentation it intends to serve is appropriately identified. Within this ‘marketing strategy’ or ‘marketing plan’, the organization should be able to define its competitive edge, i.e. what advantages it has over its competitors. This marketing plan will also act as a set of sales forecasts and a budget by providing a solid framework for the marketing activities of the USTC. To adopt such a strategy means that the personnel required to develop marketing plans based on the expert knowledge and experience regarding the market issues, such as the competition, the customers and the best way to provide and consolidate the niche in the market that has been recognized. Unfortunately, as educatio n providers in Bangladesh move into the business arena, there is tendency to believe that no additional guidance or support is required to undertake this co-ordination and lead in marketing. This may then lead to marketing being conceived as a separate function, which has nothing to do with the achievement of the corporate business strategy and therefore, the mission statement. Moreover it is assumed that present marketing strategies of USTC is not up to the mark to gain competitive advantages in the very dynamic and challenging market. Considering the present condition and the importance of marketing this paper will emphasize on the development of a service centric comprehensive and constructive strategic marketing approach, policies and active plans. 4. Objectives of the Study The objective of the paper is to bring into focus the marketing issues that need to be taken into account by the private universities in general and the USTC in particular. It will investigate the prevailing marketing system, as employed by the USTC and how to utilize the strengths and opportunities and deal with the recent problems related to marketing and business. 5. Scope of the Study The present study is confined to the review of the present condition and formulation of a marketing plan for the USTC. The study will not be limited to the present data alone. The future growth of the USTC will be given due consideration. The limit of the future growth of the study will be decided by mutual agreement between USTC and the management of research team. Although the USTC is facing problem from the various types of management, administration and marketing issues, this paper will concentrate only on the strategic issues of educational service marketing. The study area will be limited within Chittagong and Dhaka. However, the study will include all the faculties and departments of the USTC to make the study more pragmatic and focused. 6. Methodology of the Study The study is based on both the primary and secondary data for an in-depth survey of various departments of the USTC. A sampling plan and questionnaire have been prepared for the collection of the primary data. Secondary data available in the various research reports and the data base of the USTC have also been considered. Questionnaires have been distributed to the randomly selected students, officers, teachers, administrator and other important stakeholders of the USTC. Interview of intellectuals, people from various professions will help evaluating their opinions on problem that they face in the USTC and other private universities in Bangladesh. The students under a course work assignment have been divided as field workers into a number of groups to visit various departments and faculties for collecting and recording the opinions of the concerned and evaluating their operations and marketing functions. In the study to develop effective and comprehensive marketing programs and strat egies, the BGC Model, Anosoff’s Matrix, and SWOT Analysis have been conducted. 7. Scenario of Higher Education in Bangladesh Most of the higher education providing institutions in the developing world are in the public sector. They are built, financed and staffed by the government. Since about 1950 there has been a rapid acceleration in the rate of growth of demand for educational services at all levels, the most notable at the level of higher education in the college and university level. In Bangladesh the demand for educational services started increasing since early 80s. As per Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, in 1992 the number of medical colleges, engineering colleges and universities were 17 (Govt. 13, Non Govt-4), all Govt. and 17 (Govt. 11. non govt. 6) respectively. But only a small percentage of these students gets the opportunity for higher education in the country. Besides, vast majority of those having higher education cannot find job opportunity. These clearly indicate the discrepancy between the need and the resources. This is not the whole truth. The education offered today is vastly non-pr oductive. Hence, the existing educational system has produced a large population of educated unemployed. It is now an admitted fact that no Government can employ all educated people both in the developing and the developed countries. While a country needs a large number of technically qualified persons in the various fields, the number of this group is far too small to satisfy the need of the country. This is applicable for all branches of technical education e.g. medical, engineering, agricultural, pharmaceutical, business studies. In fact in all technical branches need many more qualified personnel than are available today. And yet avenues for education in these specific fields are limited. As a result, the number of Bangladeshi students studying abroad is almost three times more than the number studying in all our Universities, Engineering and Medical Colleges. These are the rich and the privileged groups. They do not suffer the consequences and in fact they take it as a pride to send their boys and girls for studies abroad. Not even for moment they think how much they are depriving the country of the hard earned foreign exchange and degrading the prestige of the nation in the eyes of the outside world. What is even more important is that the outcomes of such ventures are nothing less than fatal for the country. Most of these students who are trained abroad are a great loss for the nation and some of them even hesitate to identify themselves as Bangladeshis. Bringing up in a different cultural environment where family link is too loose and the religious bondage is very weak it is rather too much to think of bringing them back to their homeland. 8. Background of the USTC The journey of USTC began on May 13, 1989 with the establishment of the Institute of Applied Health Sciences (IAHS) along with 42 students. It continued to function as an Institute under the University of Chittagong. The University of Science and Technology Chittagong (USTC) was established as a full-fledged Private University soon after the Private University Act 1992 came into force when IAHS became its constituent body. The Janasheba Foundation was its sponsoring organization and National Professor Dr. Nurul Islam was appointed as the Founder Vice Chancellor of the USTC by the Chancellor of the University and the President of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. Since then USTC started functioning with two faculties, namely, the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Basic Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences. The MBBS and B. Pharm (Hon.) Programs are offered by these two faculties. These two faculties have been doing more than expectations and it is a matter of pride that t he USTC has almost 33% foreign students today. The USTC has opened up a new horizon for the business community of the country by launching a new faculty entitled â€Å"The Faculty of Business Administration† which is indeed, another bold step by the USTC in fulfilling its mission of expansion of higher education through private initiative. Another Faculty entitled ‘Faculty of Science. Engineering and Technology (Department of Computer Science and Engineering) has been functioning with encouraging response from the students. As global economies and communities in transition continue to present new challenges to solve, the necessity of lifelong learning continues to grow. Considering this USTC started operating in Bangladesh to develop unique and innovative programs, to provide learners of Bangladesh with new skills and capabilities and to tap into the emerging knowledge of our complex and changing world. The USTC is significantly able to maintain international linkages as well and it also remains solely dedicated to placing knowledge in the hands and minds of the learners. Sources of Fund and Janasheba Foundation Over and above the donations received from some philanthropists and the Anwara – Nur Welfare Trust, obligatory contribution by the guardians for the development activities in addition to admission fees have been the financial resources of the institution so far. In order to safeguard the interest and protect the project, the need for establishing a trust (Foundation) was keenly felt. Janasheba Foundation was thus formed and registered with the Societies Act XXI of 1860 in 1991 with National Professor (Dr) N. Islam as its Founder – Chairman. Activities of the Foundation include Community Health, Social Welfare and Technical Education. The USTC is thus a logical outcome of this program. IAHS/USTC in International Forum IAHS became reputedly known at International level because of its Founder-Chairman the renowned National Professor Dr. Nurul Islam. In 1978 there was a major International Conference at Almaata which recommended expansion of Community Based Medical Education. The Coordinator of this effort was an organization in the Netherlands namely University of Limberg Mastrichtt City. It formed a Network of Community Based Educational Institutions for Health Science (in short Network). This Network was recognized by WHO and it was engaged in speedy expansion of Community Based Medical Education in the East and the West. The then Secretary – General of this Network Dr. Jacobus M. Gritt invited proposed IAHS to join the Network in October 1985 after hearing about the proposed IAHS activities and programmes from Dr. Nurul Islam Dr. Islam promptly submitted an application of membership on behalf of IAHS to the authorities of the Network. In 1986 the executive Committee of the Network granted Associate Membership to IAHS. That membership prompted the actual establishment of IAHS with the crowned success. In September 1987 Dr. Nurul Islam being invited by the Network attended its conference in Patia (Thailand) and took the opportunity to evaluate the experience of different countries in community based medial education. In 1990 from October 7 to 12 this Network held its â€Å"Second International Symposium on Problem Based Learning†. In this conference Prof. Nurul Islam joined along with one teacher and two students from IAHS. Present Status of USTC Located at the picturesque site near Foy’s Lake, the USTC has opened up a new horizon for the quality medical, pharmaceutical, business and modern technology education in the country. The primary objectives of establishing USTC are to improve the quality and standard of education in Science and Technology with special emphasis on medical, pharmaceutical and social sciences. It also aims at developing human resources at home and in the developing countries with special emphasis on the South-East Asia. The USTC is now operating through four faculties which are (i) the Faculty of Medicine (ii) the Faculty of Basic Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences (iii) the Faculty of Business Administration and (iv) the Faculty of Modern Science and Technology. The number of students of the USTC is more than 1500 of which more than 350 are from abroad including nationals of India, Jordan, Nepal, Malaysia, Norway, Pakistan, Palestine, Sri Lanka, KSA, Sadan and UAE. The teacher – student ratio is 1:8 on an average. The courses offered in the USTC are MBBS, B. Pharm., B.Sc. in Computer Science and Technology and BBA. After passing the final MBBS examination, the doctors get provisional registration with the Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council (BMDC) to take part in one year internship training as intern. After satisfactory completion of the training, they get permanent registration with the BMDC. Having had the privilege of establishing the university with IAHS as its first institute, the USTC did not have much difficulty in expanding its infrastructure. USTC is the first among the private universities which has it own infrastructure facilities including academic building, 250 bed hospital, large ad modern central library with a modern auditorium and two residential halls of which one is for female and the other for male. Female students reside in Gulmeher Hall and foreign students are accommodated in Sayedur Rahman International Hall. The hospital titled Bangabandhu Memorial Hospital is going to be extended into and another 500-bed Unit-II medical complex. Construction work is going to start a second campus of USTC in Dhaka. Side by side within a short time two post graduate programs, MBA and Family Medicine Diploma are now running in the Dhaka Campus. The academic plan of USTC is based on UGC approved courses and curriculum in which lectures are supplemented by tutorials, demonstrations and practical laboratory assignments. Sufficient lecture halls, tutorial rooms and laboratory facilities are available for all departments. The hospital is recognized by the Bangladesh College of Physicians and Surgeons to offer postgraduate training in Medicine, Surgery, Pediatrics and Pathology. Existing laboratory facilities are as per requirement of the BMDC and are now being expanded for OPD and indoor patients. USTC has academic partnership programmes with several foreign institutions. The USTC central library is going to be the largest medical library in Bangladesh with more than five thousand books, four thousand journals, and other resource materials. A newsletter is published from the library containing news about the university activities and useful information for the general practitioners in easily understandable way for health educati on. The focus of USTC education is its MBBS degree which lays emphasis on community exposure from the very beginning. The purpose is to produce physicians capable of working in a rural setup with limited facilities in different social environments. This helps in the growth of leadership among the trainees. The MBBS degree is recognized by the Government of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council, World Health Organization, General Medical Council of Great Britain, Ireland Medical Council, etc. USTC is a member of the International Network of Community Oriented Health Sciences, Maastricht, the Netherlands. And the B. Pharm. Degree is recognized by the Bangladesh Pharmacy Council. The present status and golden success of USTC is achieved by the members of the institution, under the strong leadership of Prof. (Dr) N. Islam. At present the USTC is a dynamic private university of further and higher education set on an exciting global expansion. It gives the students not only the opportunity to attain an internationally recognized degree but also to grow a knowledgeable and competent individual. This is because students study in a multi-cultural environment and get the chance to have a one-to-one professional relationship with the lecturers and management as a whole. Choosing the USTC today will definitely make the student a better person tomorrow. Since 1992 thousands of students have successfully taken the programs of USTC and utilized their qualifications to reach the highest levels in their chosen professions. A qualification gained through the USTC is a key to a successful and exciting future. 9. Findings It has been revealed from the study that the journey of the private university industry in Bangladesh is now going through the growth phase of its life cycle. So, a substantial amount of work is required to be done. However, the following points may be considered worthwhile for the successful performance of this industry in Bangladesh. 9.1 To cope with the societal needs and therefore, to become a center of excellence for medicine, hospitality management, business management, marketing, information technology, shipping and the other related fields in the education sectors, a number of creative leaders among the academicians and administrators of the private industry in general and the USTC in particular have to be developed who will actively contribute to learning and creation of knowledge. 9.2 USTC is a truly international institution of higher learning, attracting students from many different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. USTC reflects the needs of the global economy and world for well-trained professionals, able to speak English and one or more other languages with a solid International education combined with an international cultural background. Such graduates of USTC have excellent prospects of employment in the reputed companies in the various professions like Doctors, Executives, Pharmacists, Academician, IT Professional and many other professions. Prof. N. Islam wants to ensure that the USTC leading and representing the private university industry will make a significant contribution towards better international understanding by educating students in an international environment and preparing them for international careers. 9.3 The need of the individual student is taken very seriously and every effort is made to create a positive learning environment. Most of the USTC Professors have, in addition to their distinguished academic background, practical professional experience in their areas of concentration. Prof. (Dr) N. Islam is committed that the USTC will not only train and prepare students thoroughly for their future professional tasks, and give them a sound educational background but also will consciously prepare them for their future leadership role. This is achieved not only through special courses and seminars on leadership, but also is emphasized in the context of regular coursework. The faculties and administration of USTC are committed to the goal that students become imbued with the entrepreneurial spirit. At USTC the leader wants to prepare each student to take initiative and venture out on his or her own. The educational effort at USTC puts special emphasis on developing international and c ross cultural competencies through acquiring foreign language skills. 9.4 To improve the quality and standard of education in Science and Technology USTC has given special emphasis on the development of sound Computer, Medical, Pharmaceutical and Social Sciences Programs and courses. 9.5 To become a truly international institution attracting students from all cultural and ethnic backgrounds, USTC has already established alliance with the various associations and social institutions of the South-East Asia region and the Middle East. 9.6 All the students both national and international get benefited from the professionalism, knowledge and expertise of the faculty members and administrators of USTC. 9.7 To draw more attention from the students and the society USTC accepts the transfer of credits of the equivalent courses or programs of the UGC recognized universities. 9.8 In its all degree programs USTC has included a wide range of subjects which will familiarize the students with th

Development of Geographic Information System

Development of Geographic Information System CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM A geographic information system helps to create maps, integrate information, visualize scenarios, present powerful ideas and develop effective solutions. GIS can be used in wide areas for the purpose of decision making. This technique used in many areas such as traffic measurement, asset management and weather forecasting. A geographic information system helps to analyze large quantity of data within a single database according to their location. GIS is used for providing information about disaster and will manage huge level of data for vulnerability and hazard management. GIS is well developed and successful tool that is applicable in disaster refinement and forecasting. Weather forecasts cover large regions and weather status may change every minute during the natural disaster. Weather forecasting, disaster management and warning are also major service provided by GIS. GPS is integration of software and hardware components that used in mobile phones for tracking the location. GPS is an very robust and easy to handle. GPS is an real time positioning information that provides highly accurate geographic reference in dependent of time and weather. Spatial database stores a huge amount of space-related information such as maps, medical imaging data, pre-processed remote sensing data, and VLSI chip layout data. Geospatial data is the data that relates to the geographic location of features that mainly required for GIS. Spatial data that show where the feature is there and attribute data provide information about the feature .The amount of Geospatial data will be collected in disaster refinement and forecast system is also increasing exponentially. The complexity of spatial database isthat it is not possible to analyze and collect data completely. 1.2 GEOGRAPHIC MAPS Two dimensional graphic representation of earth surface. The sizes of geographic objects on a map smaller than size in reality. Google map isa free web mapping and location basedservice. Google service provider providesa free web APIfor using the Google map web interface. Interactive web mapping services and resource management services have been introduced as an extension to a conventional GIS system. Integration of web mapping service and geographic resource has recently attracted more attention. The service providers manage and maintain all the services by API. Google API services are free at present. But some API services have only limited usage. People want the services for usage have to register their own details and purpose of usage. The registered users are permitted to add labels on a web page to request the service providers and access their service to gather the resource of Geo-information. When the developer request exceeds for some resources, the application is blocked b y service providers and it is put in waiting to be confirmed. Finally, it will be approved. People (developers) are interested to use Google map in their application have to apply for a Google map key. After applying the Google map key then developers can use or insert Google map to their own application. Google map provides control and options to use mapping service as per user’s request. Google map service provider, have some policies that have to be satisfied by the developer as per the need of the application. The developers should provide the purpose of map usage in their application and their professional details for avoiding illegal usage of the map. GEOMETRIC PROBLEM Computational Geometry is one that describes the studies of data structure and algorithm for Geometric problems. Geometric Algorithm used to solve Geometric Problems such as Range Searching, Point Location. Nearest Neighbor and Ray Tracing. Spatial data mining denotes the spatial relationships, extraction of knowledge, or other interesting patterns that are not clearly stored in spatial data sets. Spatial data are mainly required for GIS whose information is related to geographic locations. The amount of spatial data that can be collected in such systems is also increasing exponentially. The complexity of the data found in these databases means that it is not possible for humans completely to analyze the data being collected. Spatial database is one of large database that manage multidimensional objects such as lines, points etc. Spatial partitioning is a step to define, generate and represent partitioned data. Spatial Data is partitioned based on spatial attribute. Spatial data is partitioned as tree and recursive subdivision of space. KD tree algorithm is used for spatial partitioning. The purpose is to hierarchically decompose space into small number of cells, such that no two cells contain too many objects. Fast way to access any input object is by its position. Algorithm construct kd tree by partitioning point set recursively along different dimensions. Space partitioning is the process of dividing a space into two or more disjoint subsets. Space- partitioning means that divide large regions into several small regions. Then the partitioning technique applied to small regions recursively. These regions are organized into a tree called as spatial-partitioning tree. Cluster analysis or clustering is the task of grouping a set of objects, that objects will be similar means they are in the same group or otherwise in different group. To build a hierarchy of clusters called hierarchical cluster analysis. Nearest Neighbor technique is simple and efficient that based on the structure of data. Various techniques available for solving the nearest neighbor problems. K-Nearest Neighbor is simple and fast technique deals with large data samples that use the nearest neighbor rule. Ball Tree K-Nearest Neighbor deal with high dimensional data to improve speed to find K-Nearest Neighbor to perform Geometric learning tasks. Quad tree is partition the space into two dimensions that means root node partitioned exactly into four children. Octree is data structure that partition space into three dimension space such as recursively subdivides space into eight octants. R Tree is one of spatial indexing technique that indexing multi dimensional information such as geo graphical coordinates that store geometric objects and also used for spatial access methods. R+ Tree differ from R Tree that avoids overlapping of coordinates. R* Tree is robust and efficient technique used to structure geometric objects. 1.4 WETHER FORECASTING Weather conditions have increased the demand for decision support systems to include true forecasts. Weather forecasts cover large regions and weather status may change every few minutes the effectiveness in human life to know what will happen for unpredictable situations and events. weather forecasting and warning are also major service provided by GIS. The emergence of smart phones has led to the proliferation of a variety of innovative data-driven mobile applications. One useful application is location based mobile weather forecasting which provides minute-to-minute forecasts. After around to staring at temperatures, reading reviews, and watching weather alerts roll in, that this Weather offers the most straightforward approach to presenting weather data on an Android Smartphone. Though it sounds complicated, it’s all about how much weather you want and how often, which is pretty easy to figure out. No two people experience and appreciate weather the same way, and most Andr oid device owners have different styles of customizing their phones. So picking just one Android weather app for everyone just isn’t going to fly. weather forecast and disaster refinement forecast is assessed which involves weather related data such as temperature, air pressure, rainfall, solar radiation,relative humidity, wind speed, sea level pressure, ground level pressure and their location related latitude and longitude. A major part of cyclone disaster refinement and weather forecasting are the severe weather alerts and advisories to people that severe or hazardous weather is expected. 1.5 CYCLONE DISASTER Natural disastersmakeextreme weather changes in earth surface that givelotsof losses and damages to valuable goods, buildings, andthat result in death or injury to humans. Cyclone is one of natural disaster that makes the area of closed, circular fluid motion rotating in the same direction as the earth. Cyclonic circulations mostly appear in an large scale that are centered on low atmospheric pressured areas. Cyclone disaster may cause severe weather events and problems that create wind speed more than 200 km/hour and sea waves as high as a few metres. Cyclone disaster makes severe weather changes that damage property and disturb the daily lives. The main objective of cyclone disaster refinement and forecast system is to monitor the changes and refine the complicated disaster occurrence as accurately as possible. Cyclone disaster refinement and forecast system have two aspects: Monitoring the situation and recording the real weather changes and any chance for the disaster such as a cyclone.Other is occurrence prediction ofcycloneand causesof cyclone disaster. In this system, we are going to find out any possibilities of cyclone and due to any weather changes by real-time Geospatial data collection. In this system, API services for collecting live data from service providers such as Google, yahoo are used. The resource integration may use own API for integration of useful resources. Service providers observe every Geospatialchangethrough satellite and gather weather data. To prevent the damages to forecasting the upcoming disaster related updates frequently. 1.6 FUZZY LOGIC BASED MODEL Fuzzy Logic can mimics a person would make decisions about anything such as forecasting. Both expert knowledge and past data can be used to develop the forecasting system. Fuzzy Logic provides a simple way to arrive at a definite conclusion based upon imprecise, noisy or missing input information. It has an ability to explain the results and it can be coupled with other technologies such as neural networks to develop powerful systems. Fuzzy results depend on the initial data or the knowledge. The fuzzy concept means set their range or values that can vary according to the conditions, instead of being fixed once and for all. Actually the fuzzy has semantics, but they defined as per the specification, including a definition of the conditions in which they are operationalized. The reasoning of fuzzy logic have only two values that as true and false values which may incomplete or ambiguous, Fuzzy logic able to process this situation and to provide approximate solution. To design this fuzzy system, that define the rule that satisfied the rule that equals the range means that specified as input and output data. They collect data to make dataset based on their existing one to form the range that will make some rules. The fuzzy inference system can be described in the five steps: Fuzzifying Input Applying Fuzzy Operators Applying the Implication Process Aggregating All Outputs Defuzzifying The aim of the work, is collecting geospatialdata and integrating the geographic resource and then passed to the algorithm of nearest neighbor change in cities are found and the climate will visualize it on Android Smartphone via Google map. The Google map is input to the system. This work is organized as follows. Section 2 gives the review of previous work onthe weather data collection, Algorithm for findingnearest neighbors, Natural disaster rating and forecasting. Section 3 describes the problem statement of the existing work. Section 4 and 5 elaborates proposed methods and analysis and the discussion about testing our work is noted in Section 6. Section 7 presents implementations and conclusions of the work is noted in section 8.

Is the Shroud of Turin Authentic? Essay -- Religion, Jesus, Resurrecti

The Shroud of Turin is probably one of the most unusual, profound, studied artifacts in the world. The Shroud is a linen cloth that contains the image of what appears to be a crucified man. Many people have speculated that it is the burial cloth of Jesus, while others speculate that it is an artistic painting. Over the years many test and studies have been conducted to prove once and for all if the Shroud of Turin is authentic or fake. Let’s look at different perspectives and outcomes of the testing and you decide for yourself what you think to be true. One study believes that the Shroud could be evidence of the resurrection of Jesus. It is believed that the linen cloth contains areas that coincide with the wounds Jesus is said to have incurred according to the Bible during his crucifixion. The patterns have a distinctive resemblance to where each cut, bruise, and punishment inflicted upon Jesus would have left on his body. (Thomsen, Science News) Some scientists are even saying that the image on the cloth is from a scorch or possible burn of some kind. However, they seem to think it is from a form of projection, because no contact was actually made to the cloth. (Thomsen, Science News) How can that even be possible? Scientist can’t explain that reasoning, so if it can’t be explained does that mean it didn’t happen? To those who feel everything needs proof or reasoning, yes, but to those who trust in faith and certain religious belief, anything is possible. The earliest documentation we have tells us that the mystery began in 1389. A Bishop by the name of Pierre d’ Areis wrote a letter to the pope of that era accusing a knight by the name of Geoffray II of placing a cloth in the church claiming it to be the original cloth us... ...hentic or not. I don’t believe that it’s a painting of any kind, but I’m still not convinced that it was the burial cloth of Christ. I do believe there was a resurrection and that Jesus suffered at the hands of those who set out to crucify him. I believe he was tortured, beaten, scourged, nailed, and speared through the side. However, even with my belief I’m not truly convinced that there’s enough factual evidence to say that the Shroud was that used to wrap Jesus. I’m no scientist by any means of the word. There is a lot of evidence that proves it could be authentic, but there’s not enough to prove without a shadow of doubt in my own eyes that is the case. To be completely honest we may never know if the Shroud of Turin is authentic, but we’ve made it this far without knowing. Does it really make a difference one way or the other to know? To me the answer is no.

Freedom and Servitude in Shakespeares The Tempest Essay -- The Tempes

Freedom and Servitude in Shakespeare's The Tempest What is slavery? Is it an institution? A mental state? A physical state? Is it human nature? Or is, â€Å"†¦slavery is†¦an inherent, natural and eternal inheritance of a large portion of the human race† (Ruskin 307). Whether or not any one of these options is true, the fact remains that each says something about humanity. Therefore, when a play like The Tempest comes along, centering on the themes of freedom and servitude, one must look for the commentary that is thereby produced, keeping in mind that Shakespeare rarely lacked commentary. Of course, in Shakespeare’s way, there are several characters introduced within this theme. Hence, I pose the question: Who is the slave? Granted, all may embody different aspects of slavery, making â€Å"each character† the answer; but individually, each character still gives its own consideration to the topic. Following are the different possibilities of characters posing as the slave, leading to a discu ssion of freedom and servitude that is implied as a result. I will be relating the climate of slavery depicted in the play with other cultures, purely to give a frame of reference based on the general knowledge we have, given society’s history of slavery. ARIEL (since the character is gender non-specific, I will refer to him/her as â€Å"it† or â€Å"the spirit†) One of the spirits that Prospero has control over, Ariel, would be an assumed representative of servitude. The spirit’s role throughout the play is centered on the obeying of the orders that Prospero puts forth to be carried out. Ariel does have an apparent loyalty and respect for Prospero, though, which makes it easy for him to manipulate the spirit. He was, of course, the... ...n.htm. Gervinus, G.G. "The Tempest." The Shakespeare Criticism Volume 8. Gale Research Inc., Detroit. 1989: 304-307. Greenblatt, Stephen. Introduction to the Tempest. The Norton Shakespeare. New York: W.W. Norton and Co. 1997: 3047-3053 James, D.G. (Excerpt from a series of lectures delivered in 1965 at University College, London.) The Shakespeare Criticism Volume 8. Gale Research Inc., Detroit. 1989: 429-434. Knight, G. Wilson. "The Crown of Life." The Shakespeare Criticism Volume 8. Gale Research Inc. Detroit. 1989: 364. Ruskin, John. The Shakespeare Criticism Volume 8. Gale Research Inc., Detroit. 1989: 307. Shakespeare, William. "The Tempest." The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1997: 3055-3106. Takaki, Ronald. A Different Mirror. Little Brown and Company, Boston. 1993: 191. Freedom and Servitude in Shakespeare's The Tempest Essay -- The Tempes Freedom and Servitude in Shakespeare's The Tempest What is slavery? Is it an institution? A mental state? A physical state? Is it human nature? Or is, â€Å"†¦slavery is†¦an inherent, natural and eternal inheritance of a large portion of the human race† (Ruskin 307). Whether or not any one of these options is true, the fact remains that each says something about humanity. Therefore, when a play like The Tempest comes along, centering on the themes of freedom and servitude, one must look for the commentary that is thereby produced, keeping in mind that Shakespeare rarely lacked commentary. Of course, in Shakespeare’s way, there are several characters introduced within this theme. Hence, I pose the question: Who is the slave? Granted, all may embody different aspects of slavery, making â€Å"each character† the answer; but individually, each character still gives its own consideration to the topic. Following are the different possibilities of characters posing as the slave, leading to a discu ssion of freedom and servitude that is implied as a result. I will be relating the climate of slavery depicted in the play with other cultures, purely to give a frame of reference based on the general knowledge we have, given society’s history of slavery. ARIEL (since the character is gender non-specific, I will refer to him/her as â€Å"it† or â€Å"the spirit†) One of the spirits that Prospero has control over, Ariel, would be an assumed representative of servitude. The spirit’s role throughout the play is centered on the obeying of the orders that Prospero puts forth to be carried out. Ariel does have an apparent loyalty and respect for Prospero, though, which makes it easy for him to manipulate the spirit. He was, of course, the... ...n.htm. Gervinus, G.G. "The Tempest." The Shakespeare Criticism Volume 8. Gale Research Inc., Detroit. 1989: 304-307. Greenblatt, Stephen. Introduction to the Tempest. The Norton Shakespeare. New York: W.W. Norton and Co. 1997: 3047-3053 James, D.G. (Excerpt from a series of lectures delivered in 1965 at University College, London.) The Shakespeare Criticism Volume 8. Gale Research Inc., Detroit. 1989: 429-434. Knight, G. Wilson. "The Crown of Life." The Shakespeare Criticism Volume 8. Gale Research Inc. Detroit. 1989: 364. Ruskin, John. The Shakespeare Criticism Volume 8. Gale Research Inc., Detroit. 1989: 307. Shakespeare, William. "The Tempest." The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1997: 3055-3106. Takaki, Ronald. A Different Mirror. Little Brown and Company, Boston. 1993: 191.

Investigating Cameron Balloons Essay

Cameron Balloons The first business I have chosen is Cameron Balloons. I have chosen this business because it seems interesting to me about investigating a hot air balloon manufacturer. Activity Cameron Balloons manufacture Hot Air Balloons, Inflatables and also Airships, which are also known as Blimps. Cameron Balloons are also known for their special shaped balloons, which they created. Cameron Balloons have diversified into making medical products for hospitals and nursing homes. Jim Howard from Cameron Balloons and surgeon Harry Espiner teamed up to make Espiner Medical Products Ltd, which were supplied with materials by Cameron Balloons. One of their medical products is called ‘Laparoscopic Sacs’, or ‘Lap Sacs’ in short. They help with tissue retrieval. They also produce hyperslide transfer sheets which easily help transfer patients from wheel chairs to beds. This means that Cameron Balloons operates in the secondary sector, because they do not get raw materials themselves, but they manufacture the materials and sell them. They have also diversified into making medical products and supply hospitals. Other businesses in this sector include: * Aerospace manufacturing * Car manufacturing * Clothing industry * Electronics * Engineering * Energy industries * Metalworking * Software engineering * Telecommunications Industry * Tobacco industry * The main customers involved with Cameron balloons would be hot air ballooners * The main competitors involved would be other hot air balloons manufacturers (See D1 – Cameron Balloons External Influences – Business Competitors for a list of cameron balloons’ worldwide competitors) * Cameron balloons only used to make hot air balloons just like any ordinary balloon manufacturer. In 1975, Cameron balloons began making special shaped balloons. Cameron balloons have also recently began making medical products * When Cameron balloons began making special shaped balloons, they became the biggest manufacturers of hot air balloons. They also expanded by diversifying into making medical products Location Cameron balloons’ location is in St. Johns Street in Bedminister, which is in Bristol. It has many travel links (for different common types of transport) and also has many points of interest nearby. Cameron balloons have chosen a good place for the business because: * There are many transport links close to the Cameron Balloons site. Lots of major roads, including the A38 and the A4, are close to the site, Bristol Airport is 9 kilometres away along the A38, the rail station next to the site, and the M32 is 5 kilometers away. These links are important for Cameron Balloons’ suppliers, customers and staff. Good rail links mean that heavy equipment and supplies can be brought in easily; good road and rail links give employees easy access to the site. Bristol’s air and sea links are also important as more than 80% of Cameron Balloons’ output is exported. * The site in Bedminster is large enough to allow the business to expand when it needs more space. * Cameron Balloons need employees with convenient access for them to get to work. It also needed a certain amount of experts in the aeronautical industry, which was quite simple as the airport was so close to the site. * Because Cameron Balloons is one of the biggest and best ballooning companies, the reputation of it helped to attract both skilled employees and new customers. * Because there are many points of interest nearby, it should be easy to find the location of the business It was a coincidence that the location of Cameron balloons was in Bristol, as this was where Don Cameron first started his business as a sole trader. Here is a map of Cameron Balloons’ location along with a smaller map showing the main roads: Here is another map showing areas of points of interest and travel links: Ownership Cameron Balloons is a private limited company (Ltd.). When Don started the business, he was a sole trader. Owners usually make their businesses private limited companies because there are more advantages than disadvantages. The advantages and disadvantages of a private limited company are: Advantages Disadvantages Protection of Limited liablilty Profits have to be shared out amongst a potentially larger number of people Owner isn’t personally responsible for companies debts No benefit from scale economies (e.g. bulk buying, cheaper borrowing e.t.c.) If business name is licensed, it cant be duplicated by someone else Owner is accountable to shareholders for the operation and profitability of the company More capital can be raised as no limit on number of shareholders Detailed legal procedures must be followed to set up the business – consuming time and money Cheap and easy to set up If the owner has to sell any of his shareholding, he could lose his business Owner is major shareholder Financial information can be inspected by any member of the public once filed with the registrar, including competitiors Owner can raise money from friends and family Owner can sell the business if he wants to Control of company cannot be lost to outsiders – shares only sold if all shareholders agree Easier to borrow money The business will continue to run even one of the owners dies, shares being transferred to another owner Aims & Objectives The main aims of Cameron Balloons are: * To make a profit * To expand * To be the biggest balloon manufacturers * To make 500 balloons in a year and hit a turnover of à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½10,000,000 * To improve the efficiency of their balloons to help improve performance and care for the environment * To provide hospitals with medical products to help patients There are objectives for each aim. Cameron Balloons are a successful company, so they don’t have to worry about surviving at the present time unless they get hard competition from another business and start making losses, so the business mainly focuses on making a profit. They are currently aiming to make 500 balloons a year and hit a turnover of à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½10,000,000, which is about à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½3,000,000 more than what they made in 1996. They want to make more sales than their competitors, and they have currently achieved this by manufacturing special shaped balloons. They are always trying to make a new special shape or improve the performance of their current balloons Cameron Balloons are an expanding company. They have diversified into producing medical products for hospitals. Marketed by Espiner Medical Products, Cameron Balloons have been producing ‘lapsacs’ which helps in tissue retrieval in operations. They also produce ‘Hyperslide’ patient transfer sheets, which are made from balloon fabric. The surface has no friction which helps to easily move patients from wheelchairs to beds. This could help Cameron Balloons as well as hospitals as Cameron Balloons can use their own balloon fabric, and if they have spare or scrap fabric after making balloons, they can make use of it, make profit and make less waste, which is good for the business, hospitals and the environment. Cameron Balloons wanted to become the largest balloon manufacturer in the world, which soon turned into a success after producing the first special shaped balloons. The first special shape balloon was built in 1975 and the company has produced more than 400 designs, including Disney’s Fantasia castle, a dragon, a space shuttle, several cows and numerous cans, houses and bottles. Cameron balloons always need to keep checking whether they are meeting their objectives. Only then will they be able to meet their aims. A way to help to check if Cameron ballons are meeting their objectives is by having objectives which are measurable. For example, if an objective of Cameron balloons is to make 40 balloons per month, then they can see after each month whether they are meeting their objective or not. If they are not meeting their objective, then they will know that they won’t meet their aim unless they make more balloons next month until they reach their objective and account for the previous month. But if an objective of Cameron balloons is to make more balloons than their competitor each month, then if they are meeting their objective, they still might not be successful. This is because even though Cameron balloons is ahead of their competitor, Cameron balloons won’t be making many balloons if their competitor is failing. Richer Sounds The second business I have chosen is Richer Sounds. I have chosen this business because I already have some knowledge about the business. Activity Richer Sounds sell entertainment systems. They sell their goods in three ways, which are from the stores directly, by mail order and over the internet. They had tried to diversify into selling telephones, musical equipment and videos. However, these were all unsuccessful. Richer Sounds is in the tertiary sector because it gets supplied by products but Richer Sounds don’t make the products themselves. Other businesses in this sector include: * Franchising * Restaurants * News media * Hotels * Consulting * Hospitals * Waste disposal * Real estate * Personal services * Business services * richer sounds’ main customers could be anyone as most people buy what richer sounds sell * richer sounds have lots of competitors. a competitor of richer sounds could be a retailer of anything that richer sounds sells. The main competitors could be the ones that are close to richer sounds. Richer sounds still have to keep in mind about other competitiors as well as lots of businesses sell their stock online. * Richer sounds have tried to diversify into selling other equipment, but failed, so they stay as a specialist of what they always sell * Because richer sounds hasn’t changed and stays as a specialist of certain equipment, it means they can provide better, specialist customer service, which is one of their main qualities Location Richer Sounds have 44 stores nationwide. Their first store was opened at London bridge walk in 1978 because Julian Richer was working in that area and bought the shop. After that, a store was opened in Stockport because people from Manchester were going to the London store, so if they made a store closer to them, it would mean less hassle for more people and more profit for Richer Sounds. Their main warehouse is in Lancashire. It has more than 74,000 sq ft of storage space. The products get distributed to all the stores or customers who bought something from Richer Sounds from the internet. The distribution director is Solomon Essah Essel. He and the employees that work with him are responsible for the storage and distribution of the goods in the warehouse. The warehouse is in a good location as it is near central England, and because richer sounds is a nationwide company, it means that the shops and customers can be supplied with not much hassle. It also has good travel links to hel p with delivering. Ownership Richer Sounds is an unlisted public limited company (Plc.). They became a public limited company so they could get limited liability benefits, so Julian Richer doesn’t become personally liable for the companies debts. But they do not put their shares on the stock market. This is because they do not need to get additional capital by giving their business away to people outside the business. The advantages and disadvantages of a Plc. are listed below: Advantages Disadvantages Same as Ltd. Expensive set up cost of all forms of business organisation considered Increased potential for raising finance by share issues or through other financial investors Due to public transfer of shares, more open to hostile takeover bids Due to size they can gain from Economies of Scale Tighter levels of regulation The Plc. can use its power/size to dominate a market, (e.g. purchasing competitors) Public ownership by minority shareholders does not provide them as owners with any real control of the business Large Plc.’s may suffer from diseconomies of scale By having limited liablility, the owner’s personal possessions (e.g. his/her house, car e.t.c.) can’t be taken to repay for the business’s debts. Many owners prefer choosing this type of liability. There is also unlimited liability. This can apply to sole traders, small businesses e.t.c. their personal posessions can be taken from them if their business gets into debt. Aims & Objectives Richer Sounds have aims and objectives to help keep the business moving forward. This is why they have a mission statement, which is shown below: RICHER SOUNDS MISSION STATEMENT 1. To provide second to none service and value for money for our customers. 2. To provide ourselves with secure well paid jobs working in a stimulating and equal opportunities environment. 3. To be profitable to ensure our long term growth and survival. Richer Sounds have many aims. The main one is to provide good customer service and provide good value products. Richer Sounds aim to reward employees and to be equal with everyone. Another main aim is to make a profit, which is the same with all profit making organisations. Richer Sounds don’t just pay salaries. They like it, and are generous in giving it. They also have bonus schemes for employees. Julian Richer, the chairman and David Robinson, the group managing director decide on ten goals for the business for the next 12 months which they want to achieve. One of Richer Sounds objectives is to keep the business fun. This keeps employees motivated and makes them work to their full potential. They also want to continually improve on customer service and produce new services. They also change the business to help it work more efficiently. Employees also get the chance to submit suggestions to richer sounds and they also get rewarded for it. Richer sounds also provide services for homeless people, by having touch screens available to them to help them find places where they can stay. Richer sounds need to make sure their objectives are measurable. For example, if richer sounds aim to get a certain amount of profit by the end of the year, then their objectives could be to get a certain amount of profit by the end of the month. This can help them to keep track and to help them see if they need to work harder or if they need to set a higher aim. A2 Activity One of the main differences between Cameron Balloons and Richer Sounds is that Cameron Balloons is a manufacturing company and Richer Sounds is a retailing company. Cameron Balloons also managed to successfully diversify into manufacturing medical products. Richer Sounds, however, tried to diversify into making telephones, musical equipment and videos, but failed. Location Cameron Balloons is situated in Bristol. It is good for this type of business because it has good transport links and it exports products as well, so it has a good location for doing business internationally. However, it isn’t a that much of a good position for doing business nationally, although it does have good road links. So overall, it does have a good location. The warehouse for Richer Sounds is located in Lancashire, which is a good position as it is near the midlands. It doesn’t do business internationally so they have chosen a very good position for the warehouse. It is also good to have the warehouse to be situated there because they deliver to stores all over England so it would be best to have the warehouse near the midlands. Ownership Cameron Balloons is a private limited company. The advantages and disadvantages for a Ltd. company are: Advantages Disadvantages Protection of Limited liablilty Profits have to be shared out amongst a potentially larger number of people Owner isn’t personally responsible for companies debts No benefit from scale economies (e.g. bulk buying, cheaper borrowing e.t.c.) If business name is licensed, it cant be duplicated by someone else Owner is accountable to shareholders for the operation and profitability of the company More capital can be raised as no limit on number of shareholders Detailed legal procedures must be followed to set up the business – consuming time and money Cheap and easy to set up If the owner has to sell any of his shareholding, he could lose his business Owner is major sharholder Financial information can be inspected by any member of the public once filed with the registrar, including competitiors Owner can raise money from friends and family Owner can sell the business if he wants to Control of company cannot be lost to outsiders – shares only sold if all shareholders agree Easier to borrow money The business will continue to run even one of the owners dies, shares being transferred to another owner Richer Sounds is an unlisted Public limited company. The advantages and disadvantages for a Plc. are: Advantages Disadvantages Same as Ltd. Expensive set up cost of all forms of business organisation considered Increased potential for raising finance by share issues or through other financial investors Due to public transfer of shares, more open to hostile takeover bids Due to size they can gain from Economies of Scale Tighter levels of regulation The Plc. can use its power/size to dominate a market, (e.g. purchasing competitors) Public ownership by minority shareholders does not provide them as owners with any real control of the business Large Plc.’s may suffer from diseconomies of scale The boxes in underlined italics do not apply to Richer Sounds as Richer Sounds is an unlisted public limited company Aims & Objectives Cameron Balloons’ main three aims are: * To survive or make a profit * To expand * To be the biggest balloon manufacturers Richer Sounds’ main three aims are: * To provide second to none service and value for money for their customers * To provide themselves with secure well paid jobs working in a stimulating and equal opportunities environment * To be profitable to ensure their long term growth and survival Richer Sounds make it easy for people to understand their aims and objectives because they have a mission statement. Cameron Balloons do not have a mission statement. A3 Activity Cameron Balloons have expanded by diversification into making medical products. They could also diversify again using their materials to make something else. Richer Sounds could keep trying to diversify until they manage to successfully diversify into doing something. It could benefit them just like it benefits Cameron Balloons. I think the main reason why it is easier for Cameron Balloons to diversify is that Cameron Balloons is a manufacturer, and Richer Sounds is a retailer. Location Cameron Balloons have expanded their business by diversification into medical products. They could also expand by opening a new site. This will double the amount of products they sell. They could also open it in the north since their current site is in the south. This will make it easier for national deliveries. Just like what Cameron Balloons can do, Richer Sounds could make another warehouse as it could be hard and complicated for them to distribute goods to 45 stores. As their warehouse is situated in the midlands, they could have their next warehouse in the north or south, the busiest area would be a suitable location. Ownership Cameron Balloons could become a plc as there are less major disadvantages. I think Richer Sounds shouldn’t change their type of ownership but keep it as it is because they don’t want anyone to buy their shares and because of this, they have less disadvantages as a plc., and would be better off as a plc Aims & Objectives The only similarity between Cameron Balloons’ main three aims and Richer Sounds’ main three aims is to make a profit, as they are both profit making organisations. From the other two aims, Cameron Balloons only focuses on the success of the business. However, Richer Sounds focuses on the wellbeing of the employees and the satisfaction of their customers. Both of the businesses need to have a mix of the aims. Cameron Balloons need to think more about the employees and their customers and Richer Sounds need to think about how the business could improve in the long term. B1 I will be describing three functional areas at Richer Sounds. The three functional areas I will be describing are: * Store Operations * Marketing * Customer Service Store Operations The head of the store operations is John Clayton, the operation and training director. He gets help from employees working in operations, distribution, the store service and repairs, stock control and Hi-Fi Direct. Some of the responsibilities of store operations are: * Setting each store’s budget * Checking that all the stores achieve their targets and taking action if targets aren’t being met * Communicating with stores * Deciding the minimum staffing level * Sorting out any problems with employees * Sorting out any other problems * Checking orders of stock * Organising store visits * Checking that store managers undertake health and safety risk assessments * Helping store managers and employees * Making stores suitable for the area that they are in. Marketing The marketing director is Claudia Vernon. The things that she does with the employees under her control do can be split into 4 main categories. These are: * Marketing * Design * Point of sale * Their website Customer Service John Clayton is the director of customer service, who is also the operations and training director. These are some of the things they have for customer service: * Knowledgeable and friendly staff * A national call centre * A corporate sales section * Mail order and web sales * An order line for free catalogues * Specialist customer service staff * A service and repairs section * Well laid out, welcoming stores with easy access * Demonstration rooms * Pets welcome policy * Competitive prices * 100% satisfaction guaranteed or money back * New products by known manufacturers * Full access to technical back-up and spare parts * Computerised stock control system * Web access in stores * Part-exchange scheme * A clear product key code * All repairs covered by a three month warranty * Till receipt customer questionnaire * Informative in-store catalogues * Free seasonal refreshments * Free delivery scheme * Mystery shopper scheme B2 How the three functional areas work together to support the business Operations keep everything organised and under control so there are no problems. This can help the other functional areas work better. The marketing area will be able to do its bit easier as the stock order has been checked and they know what they have to sell. The customer service area will then begin and they will try to help the customer as much as possible and resolve any problems. Example 1 (Operations) Operations organise visits to the stores to make sure everything is in order. If a store isn’t visited then something could happen without operations knowing. If an employee in the marketing department has an argument with another employee from the customer service department, and if the operations department does not sort this out, then both of the employees could be slacking on their jobs. If they slack on their jobs then the marketing department won’t be able to reach its targets. The customer service could also be a failure which would harm the business more as it involves interacting people from outside the business. This could cause losses in the store as less people could be going to it. The store may then close down. This would all be because the operations didn’t do their job properly. Example 2 (Marketing) Marketing is split up into 4 groups. If one of these areas doesn’t perform well, then that could affect the other groups and could affect the whole marketing area. The operations will have to sort this out as if it isn’t sorted out, then more work will be put on the customer service area, and if they can’t handle it, then the store could close down as above. Example 3 (Customer Service) If the customer service area isn’t performing well, then this could have a major impact on the business. This is because the employees are interacting with people from outside of the business. The business could lose a lot of customers in a short amount of time if customer service isn’t good as customers wouldn’t like the service and would stop going there and wouldn’t recommend others to go there. This could also make the store close down. If any store is disliked for some reason, then it could affect other Richer Sounds stores as well because they will be losing their reputation. B3 Richer Sounds’ main three aims are: * To provide second to none service and value for money for their customers * To provide themselves with secure well paid jobs working in a stimulating and equal opportunities environment * To be profitable to ensure their long term growth and survival How the functional areas work together to achieve the aims Aim 1 – To provide second to none service and value for money for their customers The operations area keeps things organised and make sure that stores aren’t performing less than expected. They also keep in contact with stores and the stock/prices of products are sorted and organised for the stores. Depending on the location of a store, it will be customised to adapt to the environment it is in. Any problems with store managers or employees will get sorted out. This makes things easier for the marketing area. The marketing area tries to make products sell by advertising, making them look attractive e.t.c. The customer service area tries to keep the customer satisfied. Aim 2 – To provide themselves with secure well paid jobs working in a stimulating and equal opportunities environment The operations area makes the jobs easier for the marketing area and the customer service area. They sort out any problems with store managers or employees. They set budgets for stores so they can sell products, but not buy too much. They make sure that the stores are achieving their targets, otherwise something will be done about it. They keep in contact regularly with stores and also visit them. The market area tries to make products sell and want the business to be successful. The customer service area tries to satisfy the customers so the business has an increase in their reputation. Aim 3 – To be profitable to ensure their long term growth and survival The operations area sorts and organises stock/prices of products are for the stores. Setting a budget for each store can help make a profit as well as preventing a loss. Setting targets for each store makes the employees work to their potential. Advice to store managers or employees can help a lot as it could get rid of a major problem, which could help the store improve. The market area tries to make products sell as much as they can. The customer service area try to keep customers satisfied as much as they can. C1 Richer Sounds do not call their employees by ‘staff’ or ’employees’. i think they do this because they want everyone to feel equal as much as they can, and not treat them like slaves. Also, instead of saying ‘head office’ they say ‘central office’ because ‘head office’ makes it sound more important to the others. Even though ‘central office’ makes it sound more important aswell, it is better than saying ‘head office’. Richer Sounds also use the term ‘career key timer (CKT)’ instead of ‘part-time’ as ‘part-time’ could make the part-tme employees think that they are only partly involved in the business. Instead of approaching customers by saying ‘can I help you?’ the employees use a better way which is by offering the customers a free cup of coffee or ice lolly. This is a good way to appraoch a customer as the customer will be happy that they are receiving free refreshments and at the same time can get help if they need it. Some different types of communication are: * Writing a letter * Recording a message * Reports * E-mail * Fax * Phonecall * Posting information on the internet * Meetings * Surveys * Face to face * Oral/Written feedback An example of written communication The employees are given the directors’ home numbers. This is because if they have a complaint then they can talk directly so the problem gets sorted out quickly. This helps the employees have private conversations aswell, which is why this method would be used for any problems or complaints. This also shows that the employees are trusted with these numbers and that they wont misuse them or give them out to any unknown person. An example of oral communication Meetings gather people together so that they can talk face to face and elaborate on any issues. This is an effective way of communication as more than just one person is bieng communicated, which saves time. People can also debate and have problems sorted out quickly ad effectiveley. How ICT is used to communicate and operate ICT is used in a variety of ways. Some of them are: * Customer service. This includes staying in contact with the customer until they are satisfied, helping them with product issues such as insurance, product support e.t.c. * Posting information on the internet, which could be on their website for customers, or other sites for others to see * Sending e-mails to people. Sometimes, this would be easier than going to meet the person as they could be a long distance away, or they may need to know the information as soon as possible. * Sending and sharing files with others. This saves time as people know where all the shared files are, and people don’t need to bother others for information * Having a network for ease of access for employees inside the business * Advertising * Organising products, prices, quantities e.t.c. More than one department is needed to sort these things out, so it is important that they keep in regular contact with each other * Support (this includes people from inside the business and outside the business). This also ranges from different types of communication, but ICT can be used a lot. Employees could help others who are facing a problem with ICT, they can sort out problems within the business and also outside the business C2 The functional areas need to keep in contact with each other and so do the staff inside a functional area for the business to avoid any problems.Examples of how communications methods are used inside a functional area include: * Employees could phone each other for convienece if they are a fair distance away * Someone may need to show a report to the other employees to help with improving the functional area * Someone may need to send an e-mail to another employee for privacy, or for more convinience * A meeting could be held for more convienience as instead of explaining the same thing to each employee repeatedly, it can just be explained once to all the employees together. This will also allow the employees to show their opinions regarding what is being said * Talking face to face can be useful for people talking in private, or if people arent far away so it would be easier to talk to them This is effective enough to run the functional area but it can be improved. Examples of how communications methods are used between functional areas include: * A manager could write a letter to another manager of a functional area * Julian Richer records a message weekly which all the managers can hear * Someone may need to show a report to others to help with improving the functional areas * Someone may need to send an e-mail to another employee for privacy, or for more convinience * A Fax could also be sent for the same reason as an e-mail * Employees could phone each other for convienece if they are a fair distance away The business needs to keep in contact with its customers and the other businesses it is involved with. Communcications methods used outside the business include: * An employee could write a letter to a customer for customer service * An e-mail could also be sent to a customer or another business such as a supplier * Phonecalls could be made to customers and other businesses for customer service or to sort out transactions e.g. with suppliers * Posting information on the internet may be useful for anyone. However, this can be a bad thing as rival businesses can find out about Richer Sounds and improve their own business * Surveys can be given to customers so Richer Sounds know where to improve on thei customer service * Talking face to face can help with transactions and helping customers * Advertising shows customers attractive products and prices. But this can also help rival businesses to improve on their advertising to get more customers aswell C3 Improvements which could be made to communications inside functional areas may include: * Being connected to a network so that people can stay communicated with each other and share files more easily Improvements which could be made to communications between functional areas may include: * Being connected to a network so that people can stay communicated with each other and share files more easily * Having surveys between employees to help improve on functional areas * To have a chat area for Richer Sounds’ employees only, so that they can all stay conneced to each other and help each other with problems within the business Improvments which could be made to communications outside the business may include: * Feedback. If Richer Sounds do this then they will know how to improve on their services * Having a chat area in which Richer Sounds’ customers and employees can have general conversations. This could be done by allowing people to register onto the Richer Sounds site and having an available chat area D1 Cameron Balloons External Influences Business Competitors Cameron balloons have worldwide competitors. This is because they are a large company, exports goods to customers abroad and they also have a partner in the United States, which is called Cameron Balloons US. Here is a list of some of the competitors of Cameron balloons Europe – UK Lindstrand Rest Of Europe – Excluding UK Ballonbau Worner Balony Kubicek Ultramagic Balloons US Aerostar Avian Balloon Corporation Firefly Balloons Head Balloons Australasia Kavanagh Balloons Germany Schroder As I have shown above, Cameron balloons has about nine competitors. However, Cameron balloons is a very successful company so it is hard for some companies to compete with Cameron balloons. This can narrow the list of competitors down for Cameron balloons. So Cameron balloons’ main competitors are: * Lindstrand * Ultramagic Balloons * Aerostar * Schroder Economic Conditions * Changes in interest rates * Changes in exchange rates * Inflation * The amount of unemployment * Changes in government tax Environmental Constraints * Noise Pollution * Air Pollution * Waste Pollution * Global Warming Richer Sounds External Influences Business Competitors Richer sounds have many competitors. This is because they have a large amount of products with different manufacturers. They sell products from approximately 140 different manufacturers and also sell approximately 50 different types of products. This means that their list of competitors would be very big. Although richer sounds have many competitors, they still have an advantage over some of their competitors. This is because richer sounds are specialists in certain equipment. Economic Conditions * Changes in interest rates * Changes in exchange rates * Inflation * The amount of unemployment * Changes in government tax Environmental Constraints * Noise Pollution * Waste Pollution * Global Warming * Waste Electricity D2 + D3 Impact Of Changes In External Influences To Cameron Balloons And What Is Done About It Business Competitors Cameron balloons is a very successful company and is about twice as big as its main competitor. It has also diversified into making medical products. So there isn’t much to worry about unless the competitor starts to rapidly gain more profits and expand. Economic Conditions * If interest rates go higher, and if Cameron balloons make a loan, then they will have to pay more back to the financiers. This would put them in a big dilemma if they stopped making profits. So if interest rates go lower, then that would be the best time to make a loan * If exchange rates change, then this can affect Cameron balloons depending on whether the pound is stronger or cheaper. For example, if the pound is stronger than the dollar, then the prices of imports from America will be cheaper and the prices of exports will be more expensive to American customers. But if the pound is weaker than the dollar, then imports from America will be more expensive, and exports will be cheaper to American customers. So Cameron balloons will benefit more if the pound is stronger. This is because they order materials in the UK, so there is no need for imports, but if they did import, then it would be cheap, and also, when they export, they would get more money from their customers * Inflation will mean that Cameron balloons will have to pay more for materials and will have to sell their products at more expensive prices if they want to keep getting the same amount of profit * An increase in government tax would mean that Cameron balloons would have to pay more for materials and so they would have to sell their products at more expensive prices if they want to keep getting the same amount of profit * If there is a large amount of unemployment, then Cameron balloons can let go of the employees that aren’t doing their job properly, and they could get better employees. They could also make new jobs to make space for more employees. If there is a low amount of unemployment, then Cameron balloons will have to hold onto their employees and will have to train them if necessary, which will mean that it will cost time and money Environmental Constraints * Cameron balloons don’t have to worry much about the amount of noise pollution as they have a large site and the equipment they use isn’t very noisy * Air Pollution isn’t a major factor for manufacturing the balloons but Cameron balloons have to make sure that their balloons work properly and don’t cause too much air pollution when in use * Cameron balloons have come across a solution to lower the amount of waste pollution. Using their balloon fabric, they produce medical products. They could use their scrap or leftover fabric for this so they have less waste and, at the same time, more profit * Because Cameron balloons are manufacturers, they have to make sure that they don’t contribute too much to global warming Impact Of Changes In External Influences To Richer Sounds And What Is Done About It Business Competitors If one of richer sounds’ competitors cuts prices on their products then richer sounds will cut their price as they monitor competitor’s prices. They also offer a price reduction on any product if a customer finds the same product cheaper at a different store. I think it may be hard for richer sounds to do this as they will have to constantly find cheaper suppliers otherwise they may end up with losses that could end up in bankruptcy. Economic Conditions * If interest rates go higher, and if richer sounds make a loan, then they will have to pay more back to the financiers. This would put them in a big dilemma if they stopped making profits. So if interest rates go lower, then that would be the best time to make a loan * Exchange rates don’t affect richer sounds as they are only a national company * Inflation will mean that richer sounds will have to pay more for supplies and will have to sell their products at more expensive prices if they want to keep getting the same amount profit * An increase in government tax would mean that richer sounds would have to pay more for supplies and so they would have to sell their products at more expensive prices if they want to keep getting the same amount of profit * If there is a large amount of unemployment, then richer sounds can let go of the employees that aren’t doing their job properly, and they could get better employees. They could also make new jobs to make space for more employees. If there is a low amount of unemployment, then richer sounds will have to hold onto their employees and will have to train them if necessary, which will mean that it will cost time and money Environmental Constraints * Richer sounds don’t allow any sound systems to be played in the store as someone could be affected and may complain or leave the store. This doesn’t just include customers, as employees could be affected as well. People with hearing disabilities could also be affected. That is why if a customer wants to listen to a sound system, they have to go to a demonstration room, which is sound proof, to listen to it. Richer sounds help to protect peoples hearing by having warnings in their stores and also by selling ear-plugs. * Richer sounds also try to keep waste pollution low. They accept old sound systems as part exchanges for their products. This helps keeping customers’ waste low as well as putting the systems to good use. Cardboard and wood which aren’t needed are recycled * Lights, heating and all equipment are turned off at the end of the day so richer sounds don’t contribute much towards global warming * Electric forklift trucks are used at the warehouse to prevent air pollution

Prejudice Can Be Hurtful and Destructive Example.

ROBERT KENNEDY COLLEGE – UNIVERSITY OF CUMBRIA| ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIORS | MID-TERM ASSIGNMENT| 2/18/2013 | Question 1 Understanding Human Behavior is critical to organizations – discuss the benefits of self evaluation/self assessment as it related to leaders today. Self-evaluation or â€Å"self-leadership† (Runn, 2011) forms a critical part of a leaders repertoire and some key blocks of the foundation for this persons leadership. If someone can ultimately say that they fully understand themselves, they will find it much easier to understand others around them.Self-evaluation is an ongoing activity that leaders must use to identify their strength and weakness to work towards of improvement. Kaplan (Kaplan, Robert S. ;, 2007) in his experience has learned that the key characteristic of highly successful leaders is not that they figure out how to always stay on course, but that they recognize a deteriorating situation and get back on track as quick as possible. Sel f-assessment and self-evaluation help managers and leader to get back on track working of the weak area and empowering their strength.Leader often lack to receive feedback, therefore they must find way to evaluate themselves. Holmes (Holmes, 2012) identifies nine areas that a leader should focus and they are critical of a high performance work environment and enables people to perform at their best. The areas are: 1. Providing direction 2. Problem solving/Decision making 3. Support/Reliability 4. Team involvement and Communication 5. Recognition 6. Interpersonal skills 7. Culture building 8. Coach/influencer 9. Personal Power These areas are fundamental in achieving the good results, establish vision and communicate it to the subordinate.In an organization vision and goal are sat and when they are not correctly communicated subordinate becomes demotivated and uncommitted. A leader should always communicate effectively his and organizational vision, give feedback and have continuous coaching. Kaplan (Kaplan, Robert S. ;, 2007) argues that leaders often fail to coach employees in a direct and timely fashion and, instead wait until the year-end review. Leader avoiding coaching and giving effective feedback can have unpleasant surprise and can undermine effective professional development.Robbins & Judge (2010) argue asking whether it is actually possible for individuals to be their own leader. Coveys, in his book the 7 habits of highly effective people, describe the way people can improve their actions to be highly successful. Leaders needs to have a high emotional intelligence and Goleman (Goleman, 2000) defines the emotional intelligence has the ability to manage ourselves and our relationship effectively. In my experience, we often don’t lead but we manage and being driven focusing on the say-to-day jobs.When I was assigned to a project my priority were to have the work done and pushing on subordinates to obtain the results without clearly envision and c oaching them. Being involved in day to day activity, leaders are managed by these activities often becoming the subordinate of their subordinate as explain in monkey management instead of delegating responsibilities. In today organization, leaders are coping with fast changes and they need to adapt and apply them. Self-assessment will drive them to be open to change and also evaluate their weakness to be successful.Most of the Fortune 500 has been implementing the self-assessment and evaluation. The question is the efficacy of the self-assessment and self-evaluation. It is a personal change and often leader are not open to it. Knowing the personal weakness helps in making a paradigm shift but these changes are hard to be applied because they require going out of the comfort zone. People resist changes and struggle with this idea, especially when they are having low esteem, un-secureness. They see these weakness has negative and instead of working out to improve and motivate themselv es in improving.In the history, these factors have been used in the wrong way and against the person. In today organization, these concepts have been changing and researchers have showed the importance of identify and work to improve them but if they resist this change process; they will continue having the same problem. The Leadership Steps Assessment (LSA) (Clawson & McNay, 2000)discusses the importance of identifying six leadership ability, as also discussed above. One of ability is to clarify their own center.Clawson define that clarity of core values is a key leadership characteristic, because if one is not internally clear about priorities, what it is good to do, what it is ethically acceptable, the influence of others may sway one’s behavior away from achieving one’s goals or from ethical means of achieving them. Covey identifies these activities as Emotional Bank Account individual creates in others. If we are not able to recognize our values or we focus in oth er value like money, success that are Personality Characteristic instead of Character values we are easily influenced by them.In conclusion, today leadership must focus on their strength and weakness evaluating themselves and training in improving the Emotional Intelligence. Self-assessment is an on-going process to achieve high successful result that will benefit companies but at the same time work environments. Researches have analyzed many data in different company size. These researchers have identified that leaders being self-aware, self-confident have reduced turn-over, created healthier environment and got from subordinate to work at their max performance.Self-assessment has given to leaders’ better vision and focuses more on organizational goals. They have been improving empathy and coaching of the staffs being accepted as great leader. Whenever we understand ourselves, we are able to share idea and let others accept the changes without many resistance and we create f ollowers. These are beneficial on personal and organizational level. By understanding themselves, they are creating a stable base to work from, and also helping others understand themselves. This is where the significant benefit will arise from.It is not from one leader, but from the vision and leadership they share, and openly distribute among their peers and subordinates. By allowing individuals all around them to gain the same understanding we are forming a cluster of stability, strength, drive, passion and most importantly a culture which feeds on the outcomes. Question 2 Prejudice can be hurtful and destructive – discuss how you can personally reduce prejudice in your workplace – please provide an example. Allport (Allport, 1991) define prejudice as an antipathy based on faulty and inflexible generalization.It may be felt or expressed. It may be directed toward a group or an individual of that group. Clawson (Clawson & Bryan, 1990) affirm Prejudice revolve around strong feelings; prejudices thrive in the context of the past and begin to wilt in the light of new and broader experience. Avoiding address prejudice it’s to ignore a significant factor in the organization’s chance for success. Banaji (Banaji, et al. , 2003) argue that prejudice arises from the ordinary and unconscious tendency to make associations; it is distinct from conscious forms of prejudice, such as overt racism or sexism.Banaji (Banaji, et al. , 2003) identify the prejudice in: * Implicit Prejudice: bias that emerges from unconscious beliefs * In-group favoritism: bias that favor your group * Over-claiming credit: bias that favors you Human are not free from prejudice and they are built during the life. The prejudice is created by the environment, media, parents therefore everybody is biased against a group, developed some stereotyping and difficulties in judging other and make decision that are driven by unconscious biases.These flawed judgments are ethically problematic and undermine managers’ fundamental work to recruit and retain superior talent, boost the performance of individuals and teams, and collaborate effectively with partners (Banaji, et al. , 2003). To reduce biases and prejudice organization must develop strategic learning program that partially helps but especially they must work in favor of prejudice elimination. Prejudice against a group can be removed coaching and mentoring people to work together to better know each other and removing the biases.About prejudice I can give some example from my experience in organization where I worked. When I joined an Italian retail company I was not well accepted by the supervisor and my colleagues. Surely because of my nationality. As Benaji identify, I was victim of an in-group and unconscious bias. There were commenting and talking at my back of what I can contribute with the company, some were curious if I have knowledge appropriate to work in the company so they were keep on asking all about me.Being categorized as part of a group that in majority was making low qualification works, the first year I really had hard time and I had to work more than others to demonstrate my knowledge, skills and remove the prejudice. Besides, I developed a strategy to share more work and project with the colleagues showing them other way to achieve the result and improve the outcome and allow the organization to increase them revenue. In one of the project, I lead and liaised with a Chinese company to get a partnership contract.In that situation, I started highlighting the cultural difference and gathering facts of biases that my colleague were having. Showing them that their beliefs were not true and they were having unconscious biases brought them to see the difference and deal with the biases. In that case making them aware of unconscious biases and beliefs brought them to act in different way and also let them understand the reason of past failure on dealing with Chinese company. In conclusion people are born without biases and prejudice but during the life we develop them based on the environment we are exposed.Prejudices are not easy to be eradicated but an organization must will to change and integrate diversity and remove the prejudice. Bibliography Allport, G. , 1991. The nature of prejudice. Political Psycology, Volume 12, pp. 125-157. Banaji, M. R. , Bazerman, M. H. & Chugh, D. , 2003. How (Un)Ethical Are You?. Harvard Business Review, Issue R0312D, pp. 97-106. Clawson, J. G. & Bryan, S. , 1990. Prejudice in Organizations. university of Virginia Dareen Business Publication, Issue UVA-OB-0381. Clawson, J. & McNay, E. , 2000. Leadership Steps Assessment (LSA). Darden, Issue Rev. 11/01. Goleman, D. , 2000.Leadership That Gets Results. Harvard Business Review, Volume R0024, pp. 78-90. Holmes, S. , 2012. Leadership and Motivation Training. [Online] Available at: http://www. leadership-and-motivation-training. com/leadership-self-assessment . html [Accessed 12 February 2013]. Kaplan, Robert S. ;, 2007. What to ask the person in the mirror. Harvard Business Review. Oncken, W. & Wass, D. , 1999. Management Time – Who's Got the Monkey. Harvard Business Review, Volume 11. Runn, G. , 2011. Self Evaluation in Leadership. [Online] Available at: http://garyrunn. com/2011/08/17/self-evaluation-inleadership/ [Accessed 15 2 2013].