Explore the significance of the past in the play “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” by Eugene O’Neill Essay

At the very start of Long Day’s Journey Into Night, O’Neill sets the scene for the theme of the past being integral to the play directly with the dedication to the love and tenderness of his wife – â€Å"†¦ which gave me the faith in love that enabled me to face my dead at last and write this play – write it with deep pity and understanding and forgiveness for all of the four haunted Tyrones.† This admittance that the play was written as a sort of autobiography, a partial re- telling of O’Neill’s personal history, means that it seems almost intrinsically connected to the past right from the beginning, the intimation from the author being that he wrote it as a form of catharsis in order to deal with the real events from his own life. Consequently the theme of the past is introduced before even the first Act has begun. The idea that he is ‘facing his dead’ is a particularly apt one as at the time of writing the play, the people upon whom its characters are based – O’Neill’s family – had all passed away some years before. His father, mother and elder brother Jamie are all portrayed in the same roles in the play as they had in real life, and with similar histories. The only alteration is that instead of the middle son being named Edmund, O’Neill changes the baby’s name to his own, and calls it Eugene, having the fictional Edmund take the place of himself within the family. The main way in which the characters seem constantly to trap themselves in the past is through their constant blaming of the present upon past events. There is nothing in the present to which they do not attribute any blame, and none of them in any way seem to blame themselves for what has happened to them, preferring instead to blame each other. Consequently none of their conversations can be held without somehow referring to the past, as it is the past upon which they have built their relationships with each other. The relationship between Tyrone and Jamie for example is one in which Jamie blames Tyrone for his miserliness with his money, which he believes is what led to his mother’s addiction to morphine, and her recent unhappiness which caused her to return to the drug. Tyrone blames his son for being an â€Å"evil-minded loafer†, and says thats’notes he is responsible both for making nothing of his own life, and also for leading Edmund astray. In fact, the blame for these character defects does not lie within Tyrone or Jamie as personalities, but rather with the circumstances which caused these traits. For Jamie, his alcoholism and cynicism are largely to do with his discovery of his mother’s drug addiction when he was younger – it is made clear that prior to this discovery, Jamie was talented and enthusiastic, excelling at school and clearly liked by many people. He himself admits that the event had a large bearing on his life in just the same way that he has resorted to alcohol in order to purge himself of the same sort of knowledge about Edmund – â€Å"Christ, I’d never dreamed before that any women but whores took dope! And then this stuff of you getting consumption. It’s got me licked†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . Jamie’s cynicism clearly did not exist before he discovered that his mother used morphine, or at least not to the same degree, the fact that he’d ‘never dreamed’ of the idea effective in suggesting how completely distant it was from his mind – and therefore how different his mind must have been from its present s tate of suspicion. The circumstance precipitating Tyrone’s miserliness were similarly ones which he himself did not contrive – when he was only ten years old, his father abandoned the family and Tyrone was forced to go and find work, living a large part of his life in poverty. It is this which has made him so conservative with his money, and reluctant to expend more than is absolutely necessary, preferring to invest it in property, which he believes is the best way to keep it safe. The power of money over him is made particularly clear when the audience are told that, despite his obvious love of acting, he chose financial success over furthering his career, thereby ruining his chances of achieving his ultimate goals. This culture of blame without moving on from it, or attempting to understand the source of it is one of the key factors in preventing the family from escaping from their past – rather every event in the present is related back to some previous action or accusation, without any hope of ever resolving it. This is encapsulated in Mary’s comment â€Å"It’s wrong to blame your brother. He can’t help being what the past has made him. Any more than your father can. Or you. Or I.† – the idea that the whole family has been moulded by past events and cannots’notes move on from them permeates every conversation, as they each hold the other somehow responsible for what has occurred – and because they believe that they themselves should not be blamed for what they did, none of them will accept their portion of the responsibility, nor learn from what has happened. Throughout the play we see the same basic errors happening time and time again – the nature of the tendency of each character to continually place blame for the present on something which another did in the past means that the occurrences of the past are constantly being bought forward into the present, and because no character will accept their blame, there seems to be no way to move forward into a future which is not largely concerned with what has happened before. What this ultimately leads to is a past which is largely cyclical. As no character will relinquish their grip on the past and what has happened before, by accepting blame from it, or learning from it, the same problems and occurrences repeat themselves. For example, Mary resumes taking her morphine, just as she had done before, and despite seeing the same signs leading up to it as before, the family, with the exception of Jamie, remain blind to it for some time. Tyrone is continually cheated out of money by McGuire, whose questionable skills as a property realtor hardly ever yield any profit to Tyrone himself – and yet he does not learn from his past either, and continues to do the same thing at no gain to himself. Their sheer inability to take anything from the past, or to leave it alone, means that nothing in the play is occurring for the first time – in a way, everything about the present in which the Tyrones are living is also the past. A quote from Mary – â€Å"The past is the present, isn’t it? It’s the future, too†¦Ã¢â‚¬  – is particularly fitting to explain the way in which they are living. The structure of the novel echoes this confusion of times – the play occurs all in the space of one day, and yet it deals with the problems both of the future and of the forty or so years previous. This idea that everything is simply a recurrence of something which has happened before -and what will continue to happen for the rest of time- is analogous to the title, in that everything could simply have happened in one â€Å"Long Day†, with the past, present and future simply merging into one twenty-four hour time periods’notes Living one’s life trapped in a repeating cycle of the past is not particularly conducive to being happy, as there is no real hope to look forward to when you are simply repeating the same things over and over again- as Jamie says, â€Å"†¦ weary roads is right. Get you nowhere fast. That’s where I’ve got-nowhere. Where everyone lands in the end, even if most of the suckers won’t admit it†, and so all of the characters have devised their own way of ‘escaping’, which controls the way in which they act throughout the play. For Jamie, the feeling that he hasn’t actually achieved anything because he has never been able to move on is something that he only finally admits to when drunk, but which reveals the sense of hopelessness he feels from being stuck in a loop. Slightly later in the play he confides to Edmund â€Å"I’d begun to hope, if she’d beaten the game, I could, too†¦Ã¢â‚¬  – his hope that his mother had shrugged off her addiction, and that the future would no longer be a repetition of the past had been very important to him, as it offered a way out. However, that hope disappeared, and he resorted back to his usual escape of drinking alcohol, which is what he does for most of the duration of the play. Tyrone also drinks in order to escape the past, although unlike Jamie he also attempts to escape the repetition of the past by denying the fact that it is being repeated – he refuses to recognise Mary’s symptoms until they are undeniably obvious, preferring to believe her lies rather than admit to what is going on. In that respect, he is unlike Jamie, whose cynicism prevents him from being able to overlook things as he chooses. Mary, however, does not attempt to escape the past in the same way that Jamie and Tyrone do, but prefers, though the use of morphine, to escape the present and return to the happiest phase of her life, during the early years of her marriage to Tyrone and her time at the convent, playing the piano. Reminders of the present, such as her hands, which have become unsightly due to rheumatoid arthritis, appal her, and as the play progresses and the morphine takes her over more and more, she regresses further and further back into the past. Her reaction to this re-living of the past is to attempt to return to her favoured part of it. Edmund’s attempt to escape the past is most notable in that at one point, he actually did succeed – during his time sailing, he says that he â€Å"became drunk withs’notes the beauty and the singing rhythm of it, and for a moment I lost myself – actually lost my life. I was set free!†. The idea that he became ‘drunk’ with it alludes to Tyrone and Jamie’s drunken attempts to escape the past, although where they used alcohol, it seems that he used nature – he continues to refer to other occasions when he has felt free in a similar way, and all of them took place in a natural setting. For an audience, this liberation and sense of the natural world starkly contrasts with the three rooms and claustrophobic conversation in which the play is set, and so it is an excellent way to illustrate the total freedom which Edmund has attained. Edmund attempts to recreate this sensation by trying to express it through the use of poetry – however, he says that he will never truly be able to express it how he would like to, saying that even what he just said was just ‘stammering’. â€Å"Stammering is the native eloquence of us fog people†, is the way in which Edmund describes his inability to describe the feeling – this reference to fog people is particularly interesting as throughout the play, the fog is almost a symbol of the past. As the day wears on, the fog returns to cloud over the landscape around them, and so Mary’s illness returns to cloud over the present and send her further back into the past. This pathetic fallacy of the weather responding to Mary’s haziness in her own mind is also effective in creating the sense of claustrophobia which comes from being trapped in the same circumstances over and over again – just as the fog can be very claustrophobic and hide everything else from view, so the past traps the family in and prevents them from seeing the present clearly. Edmund also suggests in that quote that the whole family are ‘native’ fog people – almost that there is something about the way in which they live which they cannot help, but which they are genetically programmed to do. This is curious because it is perhaps the most impartial opinion expressed by one of the characters, and entirely without blame on any one of them. This perceptiveness of Edmund and the ability to reflect ‘from a distance’ on what is going on is perhaps due to the fact that he is acting as the author’s representation of himself. Another role of the past in the play is that it motivates the creation of an atmosphere of censorship and non-admittance. The audience is slow to find out s’notes about the exact nature of Mary’s illness, for example, because the characters do not want to talk about the worse aspects of what happened before, and so as a topic of conversation it is forbidden by unvoiced consent until eventually Jamie faces up to the fact that she seems to be returning to her old condition. This state of affairs seems to have come about as a form of resistance – as if by not speaking about something, they will somehow avoid it happening again and be able to continue as normal. Similarly Mary and Edmund attempt to pretend, to varying degrees, that his illness is other than it is – Mary by calling it a cold and dismissing it, and Edmund to a lesser extent by calling it Malaria, which is more easily cursed, and continuing to drink as if he were not at risk of damaging his healt h. It is clear that the family refuse to talk about quite a number of incidents and feelings – things which only really come out when they are under the effect of either alcohol or morphine – such as the death of Eugene and Mary’s incident on the dock in her nightgown, because such events unlock emotions and feelings which they have hidden in order to protect each other. Mary doesn’t talk about how she blames Jamie for giving Eugene the measles, or how she blames Edmund for her drug addiction when she is in her right state of mind, because she realises that those aspects of the past are too hurtful. Tyrone attempts to prevent her from continuing to speak of them when she does begin, in case one of the boys should hear. Although the past is virtually all that is discussed, there are certain sections of it which the family attempt to bury behind them. The main occurrence of the play is the return of Mary’s ‘illness’ – her return to taking morphine, and other than this very little else actually physically happens to any of the characters during the play. That her illness is actually characterised by a return to the past is particularly important as regards the past as a theme behind the play. It is quite clear to the audience that what Mary is experiencing – this return to her past – is an actual physical illness, and that something is definitely wrong with her mind. This leads to the consideration that the whole family’s return to the past could also be deemed an ‘illness’, and without the presence of Mary’s actual illness it would not be as easy to see that the frame of mind in which the Tyrones live is somehow unhealthy. Mary’s s’notes regression into her past also serves to reveal a great deal of truths about the other characters in the play and what had happened to them before, as well as a number of the deeper-held secrets which the family usually did not discuss, such as Eugene’s death and where the blame for it lies. That the rest of the family seem ashamed that Mary would make such an accusation and blame it on her mental instability, when they are perfectly happy to blame and accuse each other all the time is rather ironic, and so Mary’s illness serves to highlight the problems with the rest of the family and the way in which they function. In terms of the message of the play, and what the audience take away with them, it seems that the past is also of significance, in that the play is something of a warning as to what the consequences might be if people never moved on. Of course, it is therefore quite appropriate that O’Neill wrote it as a part of his own moving on, and his own way of putting the past behind him. The ending of the play is almost anticlimactic in that it just finishes, with no conclusion or rounding-off of the story – simply that the end of the day has been reached, and this too mirrors the idea that there is no end and therefore no past when the past is relived as if it is the present and the future, too. Of all the themes in the play, the past is by far the most significant of them all, not least because the author wrote it as a semi-autobiographical work. It is the driving force behind the way the characters act, the way they interact and the way in which the atmosphere deteriorates from a rather hopeful one at the beginning of the play into one rather devoid of hope at the end, as the ‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night’ is completed, with Mary fully under the influence of the morphine and the other characters having apparently given up on her salvation and also their own conversation. The feeling of being trapped in the past – what O’Neill was attempting to get rid of by ‘facing his dead’ and writing it all down as a work of fiction – dominates the atmosphere of the play, without which the power of the piece would be lost.

The Impact of Globalization and the Internet Presents Real

The topic of globalization has become a hotly contested debate over the past two decades. Indeed, the increased integration of international economies have led to costs to some and benefits to others. These costs and benefits are a result of three effects of globalization, that is, expanded markets, cheaper resources or a combination of the two. Firstly, from the business perspective, one effect of globalization is that of expanded markets. This means that a business that had previously only sold its goods domestically can start selling products to other countries and this can increase their profit potential.Secondly, another consequence of bilateral trade agreements is the access to cheaper resources. Until the start of the 1990's, the People's Republic of China was largely closed off to the rest of the world. Many companies in the United States produced their goods either domestically or in areas with slightly less expensive labor. When China opened its market to the rest of the wo rld, however, American companies were able to take advantage of the far cheaper labor.This is known as outsourcing. Cheaper labor contributes to cheaper costs, which in turn contributes to larger profits. Sometimes, but not always, this may also mean cheaper products and services. Finally, International development, as a consequence of globalization, arises out of a combination of both expanded markets as well as cheaper resources. A prime example of this is India. Before the late 90s, the information technology sector in India was largely in its infancy stage.However, coupled with an educated yet inexpensive workforce, foreign companies were able to start subsidiaries of high tech activities in cities like Bangalore. This technological know-how spread to local firms, who in turn grew as a result of expanded markets both in India as well as the rest of the world. More and more organizations are getting hooked into the Internet. They use the Internet to promote and sell their product s and services, provide customer support, deliver training, and share corporate information with clients, employees, and customers.Businesses have found that the Internet is a powerful tool to help keep their employees and customers connected. In Vietnam, many organizations know to take advantages of globalization and internet to manage their operations. However, to survive in a competitive environment, they must understand in depth the strategic planning with the support of two above factors. Strategic planning is an organization’s process of defining its strategy , or direction, and making decision on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy.In order to determine the direction of the organization, it is necessary to understand its current position and the possible avenues through which it can pursue a particular course of action. Generally, strategic planning deals with at least one of three key questions: 1. â€Å"What do we do? † 2. â€Å"For whom do we do it? † 3. â€Å"How do we excel? † With the aid of Internet, firms can use high technology to access the external situation analysis, supplier markets and labor markets. In addition, they can easily find the database of competitors on the internet to design the attractive policy and prices for their own companies.References list: Wheelen, T. L. , & Hunger, J. D. (2012). Concepts in strategic management and business policy (13th ed. ). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Myatt, M. (2011). The impact of globalization on business. Retrieved from: http://www. n2growth. com/blog/the-impact-of-globalization-on-business/ Green , J. (2011). How Does Globalization Affect an Organization's Business Approach? Retrieved from: http://smallbusiness. chron. com/globalization-affect-organizations-business-approach-20077. html

Barbara Norris: Leading Change in the General Surgery Unit Essay

Barbara Norris facing many difficulties. The GSU which she lead is currently short-staffed and does not perform as she expected. Her staffs have low morale and low motivation to do their daily job. On top of that, there is a cultural issue where confrontation, blaming, and favoritism are typical in her unit. She also facing a budget problem where overtime has been eliminated due to cost cutting measure implemented on the hospital. The budget cut make it difficult to Barbara to allocate a right personnel in case of some staff take a personal or vacation leave. In many cases, she has to rely on nurses from general float pool to cover the staff on leave, but this often lead to negative effect to her staff dynamics because the substitute nurses is not familiar with the GSU. There are three broad problem Barbara has to solve: lack of collaboration and teamwork, staff conflict either within her unit or within the hospital, and lack of transparent performance appraisal procedures. All of this three issues need to be address simultaneously to ensure that the unit perform as Barbara expected. It is evident that there is conflict between junior nurses, senior nurses, and PCAS’s which lead to ineffective collaboration among them. Junior nurses feels like the don’t belong to the team and they don’t get positive feedback from senior nurses. On the other hand, senior nurses feels that many junior nurses and PCA’s are incompetent and feel overwhelmed to support them. To solve this issues, Barbara need to redefine a clear role among the nurses and make sure that the role is properly understood by all her staff. In redefining the role, she must include advice from her staff to ensure that the role definition fit within her unit. She also need to develop a transparent communication mechanism to solve any role discrepancy within her unit. To address the performance appraisal issues, Barbara needs to start creating a transparent review process. Although she still facing a budget constraint, she can utilize non-monetary approach to reward her staff. This can be in form of formal recognition in staff meeting or announcement of monthly best-staff. Although it would not directly impacted to her staff salary, it can be a great motivational tools for the junior staff to feel recognized. Barbara should also make a system where senior nurses can have a positive feedback in performance review by helping a junior nurses. Whenever possible, Barbara should persuade the hospital director to increase her unit budget.If approved, she could make a proper  adjustment to the staff salary and position based on their previous performance.

Central Bank for GCC Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Central Bank for GCC - Research Paper Example International financial crisis in the recent years calls for monetary integration and regional cooperation of the countries for efficiently dealing with the crises and protecting the interests of the member countries. The monetary policies of a central bank plays pivotal role in regulating interest rates and inflation in the countries with a view to ensure economic growth. The monetary policies of a central bank have impact on various economic factors such as employment, liquidity in the system and stability of the currencies. Central bank proposed for the GCC countries aims at financial stability in the GCC countries with a view to reorient the strategies of the group countries in response to the dynamic international economic situation and to promote economic cooperation among the group countries. Therefore, the structure of the central bank should be designed to achieve these objectives in relation to the group countries. ... Under the monetary policies of GCC central bank, stability in exchange rate could be achieved. The member countries of GCC peg their currencies to USD and their interest rates are fixed based on the changes interest rates in US. Adjustments in interest rates in sync with US policy might have negative impacts on domestic economies of the GCC countries. Currency unification is expected to delink pegging of GCC currencies to USD. The member countries are not yet prepared for monetary union. There are differences in economic fundamentals among the countries. Trading and transactions within the region is very limited, and the countries are mostly dependent on oil exports. Lack of efforts towards economic integration and institutional development are the important drawbacks. The differences in the economic policies followed by the GCC countries would make the unification process difficult. Three different methods used to test the GCC economies by Abu-Bader and Abu-Qarn (2006), the Structur al VAR, co-integration tests and common business cycles provide no support for establishing a monetary union (AlKholifey & Alreshan, p. 19). They also observed ‘that neither AD nor AS shocks are symmetrical between the GCC countries and the selected European countries’ (p. 20) while AD refers to Aggregate Demand and AS, Aggregate Supply. Structure of the suggested Central Bank for GCC Monetary union in GCC can stimulate uniformity in macroeconomic policies within the union and inter alia improve investment options and allocation of resources within the region. Fundamental factor involved in establishing central bank or monetary union is convergence of monetary, fiscal and structural policies of the member countries. According to Sturm and Siegfried (2005, p. 63), ‘monetary union

Business Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 8

Business Law - Essay Example It is an association of two or more people carrying on a business for profit. Maximum number of partner is 20 but in case of bank, it is only 10. There must be an agreement written or oral. As same as sole proprietorship, partnership has unlimited liability which means the partners are personally liable to pay off the debt if the business is not capable to do so. Limited Partnership: A limited partnership is one in which one ore more but not all partners have limited liability. There must be at least one general partner whose liability will be unlimited to pay all debts of the firm. This type of organization is best for funding a business. As per wiseGEEK.com, the limited partner generally has limited or no managerial authority. (wiseGEEK). To obtain a status of a limited partnership, the partners must get it registered with the registrar of partnership. It must also be kept in mind that a limited partner cannot withdraw any amount of his capital. If he does so, he will stay liable for the debts up to his original contribution of capital. C-Corporation: It is also called Traditional Corporation. A C-company is a legal form of business entity. Corporation is best for establishing a business on a large scale. It has no limit for number of shareholders even foreign citizens. It has limited liability which means shareholders are not personally liable to pay off company’s debt. Tax is imposed twice; first on the profit of the company and then on the dividends of the shareholders. In addition to this, corporation tax is paid regularly. A corporation may be a Public Limited or Private Limited. In Public Limited, shares are offered for sale to general public and have no limit to the maximum number of share holders. In Private Limited, shares are not sold to general public and the maximum number of shareholders is 50. Issuing prospect and obtaining commencement certificate are not necessary for a Public Limited but mandatory for Private

The Worn Path, and In Exile Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Worn Path, and In Exile - Essay Example That may be correct on the off chance that we dont think about the rich imageries, topics, and different issues. The story was composed and initially distributed in 1941 in Atlantic Weekly; in this way, we can accept that the story happened in that year. That same year, as we all know, the world entered into the World War II. In spite of the overall uproar and clash, Phoenix Jacksons life was stamped with peace and effortlessness. She appeared to be not to give a second thought of the progressing World War that was then happening; rather, her life appeared to spin around her grandson whom, as should be obvious, she adored to such an extent. The story likewise discusses neediness. The year 1941 was not just stamped by the begin of the Second World War additionally of neediness that was an actuality to a lot of people especially to blacks and to the individuals from the rustic Southwest where Mississippi is spotted. We can likewise accept that, at her age, Phoenix Jackson may have been conceived in the time of American servitude of the blacks. An alternate indication of neediness is the means by which Phoenix Jackson was depict as wearing red teases her hair and a smock made structure sugar sacks. The orderly at the facility likewise ordered Phoenix Jacksons case as "philanthropy" when she saw her coming into the center and when she gave Phoenix Jackson the solution. The story additionally introduces the inconspicuous bigotry that blacks accept from the whites. In spite of the fact that in the whole story, we cant read anything that recommends fanaticism around the Phoenix Jackson, there are scenes where we can deduce that the whites treated her in such a deigning way. In section 45, we can read the white seekers comments "I know you old minorities individuals. His utilization of the expression hued is one of the unpretentious ways

Leaders are always accountable for failures or lack of achievement of Essay

Leaders are always accountable for failures or lack of achievement of their group - Essay Example a leader might suggest some ideas regarding the execution of a certain goal but the final decision comes from the leader after he has weighed all the pros and cons of a certain matter. The team members are dependant on the leader for instructions. Baerga (2008) states that it is very unusual for a project would result in failure in a matter of a day or two. It takes a number of elements and factors that direct the projects towards failures. It is primarily the job of a leader to monitor everything regularly to ensure that the project does not head towards failure. We shall be analyzing the role of a leader in an organization to further explain and justify the notion that leaders are responsible for all failure outcomes. Lash (2007) explains that there are many authoritative figures in an organizational setup; however the true description of a leader can fit the role of a team leader or product manager. We shall be analyzing different phases of a project in which the team leader will be seen responsible for any failure. When a company is contacted for some project, the top management of that organization will contact the team leader of the concerned team. Heldman (2002) defines that it is the job of the team leader to analyze the requirements of the client and judge if those requirements are feasible or not. There might be different types of feasibility analysis that he might perform: Bryce (2008) explains that the team leader should be able to identify if the scope of the project is achievable or if the client requires an unattainable result. This is the first step at which he shall be primarily responsible for the success or the failure of the project. If the team leader accepts an unachievable task then there are great chances that the project will fail. In this regard, it is best to contact the client and negotiate or discuss his demands. Bryce (2008) also states that the team leader is also responsible to judge if his team is technically capable of

Media & Media Costs in Russia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Media & Media Costs in Russia - Essay Example Recently they have been known to show the kind of damage that can be caused by the vodka drink (Elder par. 1 ). For my target market, the television media would be more appropriate since it is still the most popular information source (TMFAR par. 3). The average cost of media has increased with the print media at a cost of 72.64 billion rubles. However, these have been raised by the introduction of internet services and social media in the country. It is because they have turned into remarkably significant fast and reliable communication tools with which information reaches a wide range of people within a short period. Nonetheless, owing to its accessibility the television still holds the first position while the internet comes third (Arapova par. 8). The means used in promotions and advertising are equally competitive with the television being the main advertising media used to reach the target market. Besides this, the sales promotions that are customarily used in Russia mainly include the internet. Most people in Russia are beginning to use the internet for different reasons (TMFAR par. 1-5). Arapova, Galina. Media freedom in the Russian regions? You must be joking†¦. Retrieved 21 March from Open democracy Russian

The pianist of willesden lane Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

The pianist of willesden lane - Movie Review Example This is exactly same to Jura’s days in London. The director’s message in the play is how music communicates the past and more so the feeling of dismay. Over and above, the information extends to show how great music can cheer someones sad, hard and lonely moment just like the one Jura found herself. This essay analyzes the impact of music in solving various societal ups and downs. In many approaches, the simple behaves of Golabek being seated at the Steinway keyboard that Royal George Live theater is an ideal declaration of the play's main message. This is enough to create the oral cavity area drop wondering about how the world can frustrate. By viewing, this middle-aged lady's arms proceed with service of the development of wonderful songs, the forfeit of her grandma and grandpa are made reveal. Nazis being successful neither in eliminating these close relatives nor its achieved art, did not deter the inheritance of the skill by the next generation. Finally, the Nazi r egime passes and The piano enjoying continues. It is all set out before attendance in the most instantaneous, theatrical way (Golabek 23-30). One of the main themes on how music solves a societal problem is on the reduction of diseases related to boredom. Notably, hard economic moments have compelled people to spend more time working to bridge their problems. As a result, they spend several hours behind closed office doors. This is not healthy for the brain since it tends to be overworked. Additionally, the boredom comes in, and it can reduce the productivity of an individual. To solve this, contemporary offices are fitted with music system where employees at wish can listen during work. Notably, this has created stronger unity in open layout offices because at some point employee are attracted in discussing the music. As a matter of facts, this was eminent at some point where the audience joined in the singing (Golabek 43-57). Another theme that is communicated by the music is pass ion. Passion can be for someone or something. In this case, Juras’ passion was to become a prominent pianist, which was supported by her family. The parent made sure she was far away from timid Nazi’s regime through the Kinder transport program. In real life situations, super achievers have made it with the guidance of passion. For instance, Mandela’s passion to liberate his countrymen made him fear nothing including twenty seven years jail term. The outcome of his dedication was freedom to South Africans. Another case is eminent in sports. Diego Maridona had a passion for football. His passion for the game made him rose to become one of the best world players at some point in his career. He did all within his ability to emerge the best by even scoring a world cup championship goal by hand. It, therefore, is clear that passion should drive every undertaking (Golabek 134-146). The framed picture hung in the blue stage during the play depicts the theme of the hist orical moment. They emphasize that the occurrence was back in gone days. In the picture, it is seen that there is some audience listening to a performance in some old school fashion wears. The instrumentals in the big oval frame are old times instruments. Another theme depicted by the dim stage setup is the struggle. This is true because, at some point, the light goes out completely. Light is a symbol of good things because through it safely is assured. Therefore,

Consulting Skills Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Consulting Skills - Essay Example In some cases, the businesses require the support of internal as well as external consultants. External consultants that are hired by the organizations and businesses usually are expected to have a wide range of skills regarding consultancy (Kipping 1997). External consultants work on individual basis as well as for consultancy firms. Consulting party can be defined as an organization or a person who is involved in planning procedures in relation to federal undertaking. A federal undertaking can be explained as a project that is facilitated by federal participation in terms of support, allowance or authority (What is meant by the term â€Å"consulting parties?†). A consultant is an individual who is involved in solving or analyzing a problem of a client. A consultancy is the organization involved in it. A management-consulting firm usually deals with the problems associated with one organization, customer problems, employee problems, expansion of a firm, market studies related with economic, political, demographic and sociological changes etc (Alvesson and Johansson 2002). A simple model of a consultancy practice is as follows, (Markham 2004, p.12). According to this model, the consultants have to deal with the whole infrastructure of an organization, which is linked to clients, leadership and intellectual property. For any kinds of decision taking in relation to clients, leadership or intellectual property, the consultants’ assistance is acquired for enabling the infrastructure to operate successfully. Consultancy is a wide field that needs experience and skill in order to facilitate people with relevant knowledge concerning clients and their day-to-day business tasks. From a domestic to global expansion, an organization is required to consult its human resource department because the human resource department keeps the accountability of provision of a suitable plan, recommendations and information for the business expansion needs. The

Teacher Education Essay Example for Free

Teacher Education Essay A teacher is someone whose job is to teach especially in a school whether it is a secondary school, primary school or even kindergarten. Every teacher should have their qualification in order to be a teacher in a school. So, I think that a kindergarten teacher should have at least a basic degree to qualify them to be a good kindergarten teacher. Why kindergarten teacher should have a basic degree? There are several reasons why kindergarten teachers need a basic degree which is to ensure the children get a good early education, the teachers can provide good teaching skills and to increase the competition among the university students nowadays. Teachers with a basic degree will ensure the children get a good early education. As we all know, world nowadays needs people with high level of education and to fulfill this mission, we need a teachers with wide knowledges and experiences which is a graduated students with basic degree can provide. . Besides, the children are like a white and blank cloth so it is teachers and parents who will colour them. The teachers with a basic degree have good enough knowledge to teach their students and they can provide correct and good education for the kids thus producing good generation for the future. The kindergarten teachers with a basic degree also can provide a good teaching skill for the students. At the university, the students are well teached with the ways to provide good study environment, good teaching skills and various styles to comfort the students. So, the teachers can teach the kids in a proper way ensuring they get a good education and the teachers can provide a good and enjoyful environment for the children to study well thus producing excellent and intelligent students. As we know, the children are very active so we need an enjoyful and bright environment to comfort them. The needs for kindergarten teachers to have at least a basic degree can increase the competition among the university students nowadays. The rate of failure rate among the students in the university nowadays is increasing so the increase of qualification in order to get a job will ensure the students to study hard to achieve good results when they graduated. This will  increase the level of education in our country thus producing good image for the country. In conclusion, the kindergarten teachers should have at least a basic degree to make sure the children get a well early educat

Case Management Essay Example for Free

Case Management Essay Workflow, Business Process Management and the management of Unstructured Documents Plethora of unstructured documents such as text documents, spreadsheets, images, XML components, videos, podcasts, email messages that exists around in a large enterprise and it represents the enterprise’s information assets. The problem is that in today’s competitive environment there is an ever increasing generation and use of unstructured electronic documents. It has become highly imperative that there has to be an enterprise wide lifecycle management of these documents which can enable the workers to access the documents in a relative business context. Many product companies and experts dealing in the area of content management and business process management have proposed that a semantic relation is to be derived between documents and business domain. Thus, the semantic network that eventually gets formed will result in efficient search and filtering of these unstructured documents. Types of data: Structured and unstructured data People use and create unstructured data on daily basis. Although they may not be aware, people create, store, retrieve unstructured data in the form of emails, word documents, excel spreadsheets and other forms. The unstructured content has no data type as such so it requires human intervention to tag the data with some relevant keywords and meta tags so that it can be read by machines and applications. Structured data is also being used by people and such data is easily managed by technology being allowed for querying and reporting as the data type is predetermined and relationships are explicit. There are two categories of unstructured data: 1) Bitmap Objects: Images, videos, audio and other non-language based files 2) Textual Objects: Word documents, Spreadsheets, Emails and other written or printed language documents Most of these object types can’t be tapped easily to extract relevant information by technology or methodology as technology today can only address textual objects. With the advent of technologies like Enterprise Content Management (ECM), it has become possible to address unstructured data. Data mining and other analysis tools exist to query and analyze structured data. However, the challenge remains in bringing both the worlds of structured and unstructured data together. Once when they are brought together is when the most value can be derived and gained but this is where the highest level of challenge exists. Few challenges are listed below: 1) Irrespective of having the data in a word document format it may not be consumable from a semantic level perspective 2) A compatible technology may not be able to give insight in to the context of the information unless it is read 3) The way we interpret is largely subjective Organizational Challenges Today the organizations are inherently complex in structure and the departments are loosely connected while they work in isolation. They only come together when there is a need which leads to an internally disconnected approach. These large organizations need to be responsive to the customer and market needs. In order to be responsive they need to be agile and flexible when it comes to leveraging their matrix management structure as a whole. This can pose some long term as well as short term challenges. The path to overcome these challenges is to have follow business process which entail the entire organizations. In most organizations, wherever the business processes exist they tend to be isolated to a specific department and are usually manual. This leads to manifestation of various management and operational challenges. Some of the consequences that come up due to these challenges are listed below: 1) Due to inaccurate and untimely information generated as a result of isolated units of an organization, it becomes difficult for management and employees to take correct decisions 2) As information may not be aligned to business context or a business process it may lead to inconsistent decisions 3) Broken or incomplete workflows lead to generation of inconsistent and poor information 4) IT systems may act as inhibitors even if they support business processes when they lack system integration that would hide a single view of the information 5) Strict business rules, policies and procedures can lead to delay in fetching important information Organization and business process alignment These hurdles and challenges which the organization faces are due to factors such as inflexible procedures, legacy infrastructure, orthodox management which include: 1) Manual approach even when business processes and frameworks exist 2) IT enablers found in departments and functional silos making information sharing and gathering labour intensive and tedious 3) IT and other infrastructure is maintained centrally which may not provide quick solutions and service to meet the requirement of internal users 4) As organization is dependent on vendors or contractors for maintenance, support and development of IT and other infrastructure it raises issues of managing changes by themselves. Organizations need to orient themselves around process rather than functionally. They have the necessary infrastructure and technology in place but the challenge is to align all of it together using business processes. Aligning the organization to business processes and automating the same will help in solving decision making bottlenecks and will integrate functions, departments, core systems to deliver measurable business value. As of now most of the organizations, have IT infrastructure which comprise of applications that address each department separately. These departments may have business processes that cater to the purpose of the department specific function but this may lead to creation of unstructured and structured data in isolation from other departments defeating the purpose of one goal of the organization. Due to lack of integration between department’s applications and business processes it leads to creation of islands of redundant information for each department. Knowing that there is duplicate information across various applications residing in various departments there will be multiple points of integration which makes it even more complicated. There is a requirement of point to point integration to resolve this. This increases business risk, delivery costs and it becomes even more important to retain existing talent who can handle the data and information well. IT challenge On drilling down, the problem of not being able to use unstructured data along with structured data semantically whilst the data is specific to each department’s function and not business process of the organization is a challenge for the IT support department of organizations. Integration of silo applications and automated business processes across departments with respect to the overall business context pose many intricacies which makes it is a very challenging and a costly exercise for the IT function. Few of the reasons are listed below: 1) Laborious task to integrate a variety of business processes and applications 2) Changes in particular to each function may become difficult to replicate across the organization each time 3) Data across functions can’t be normalized due to existence of data in multiple format 4) Data inconsistencies due to unavailability of an information master leads to dependency on data stored on spreadsheets These kind of challenges have typically no end so a comprehensive solution has to be worked out which is robust and serves the goal of the organization by delivering value flawlessly. Workflow Model, Business Process Management (BPM) and Enterprise Content Management (ECM) It is Workflow Automation and a Business Process Management System that will solve the business and technical problems that have been described in this paper so far. A workflow model is automation or a semi-automation of business processes. On the other hand Business Process Management is a method for managing the workflow model while continuously evaluating its performance and closing the feedback loop. Business processes form the nervous system of an organization or an enterprise. Business Process Management (BPM) is a discipline that empowers an organization to analyze, automate, re-design, streamline, monitor and improve business process while providing end to end visibility and control from technology to people. An organization has numerous business processes which take place every now and then. They may be simple or complex and may rely on unstructured data. For e. g. Banks have a business process to process the fresh loans application, local retailer has a business process to order new inventory and more. Business processes are the means which enable people, system and information to work simultaneously in order to meet organizations’ goals. However, it is not as easy as it sounds. Consider an example where in an insurance company the claim officials need digital photos to process a claim, customer representative need customer records and statements, accounts personnel need invoice approvals to disburse the required amount. To address such multi dimensional situation companies are resorting to capabilities of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) which is Business Process Management (BPM) to integrate, optimize, and automate processes and information. This solution enables organizations to make timely and accurate decisions. Together BPM and ECM businesses are able to deal with explosion of business related content which in turn helps them in becoming nimble and agile. Primarily, there are three changes that drive the need for businesses to become nimble and agile. They are: 1) Creation of islands of business relevant content internal and external to the organization 2) High maintenance cost of information created and stored by disparate sources 3) Incremental strain on IT to meet core business requirements while driving process innovation In response to these needs ECM and BPM enable organizations with the following: 1) Empower all employees to develop process centric solution 2) Quickly synchronize information from disparate internal as well external data sources 3) Couple processes and content to meet business requirements Businesses today need to use the content that is available across the business processes rather than letting it remain restricted under applications specific to a department or a function. Holistically, the content needs to be put to use for a greater benefit and a better ROI. Management of Unstructured Documents ECM has become one of the major software category post consolidation of various solutions like Document Management, Document Imaging, Web Content Management, Digital Asset Management while collaborating with BPM. It shouldn’t be treated as only a software category but can be primarily looked at as a strategy to manage all unstructured information – images, web content, media assets and records. Secondly, its job is to ensure that the content is put to use by the business users as per the business processes. The ECM solutions available today are built to support today’s dynamic requirements of the organization. They are scalable and high on performance when it comes to handling islands of new content and information with respect to complex business processes. Their design is such that they can integrate any kind of unstructured information with business processes and provide features such as process modelling, analytic capabilities, simulation and activity monitoring. They are also capable to handle process exceptions and can respond to demands for content from associates or customers. It is deduced that ECM as a technology and as a strategy enable information management professionals to manage the unstructured information in the organization to reduce risk, improve productivity in order to bring customer delight. Market Overview Organizations are increasingly adopting ECM to manage the increasing volume and growing diversity of unstructured content which now represents around 80% of the information residing in the enterprise. The opportunity identified is to devote similar rigor to unstructured data as being given to structured data. The market for ECM registered a double digit growth between the year 2004 to 2007 but it slowed down to single digit in 2008 primarily due to recessionary conditions. As per data gathered by Gartner, around $3. 3bn was collected as license and maintenance revenue for ECM. The ECM market has forecasted compounded annual growth rate of 9. 5% through till 2013. It is expected that the revenue generated from ECM markets worldwide would exceed $5. 1bn by 2013. The ECM market has seen major consolidation between the periods of 2003 to 2007. Large players such as IBM, Oracle, EMC have been acquiring companies to capitalize in this space. For example, EMC went on spree acquiring Legato, Document, Captiva and Document Sciences. Autonomy acquired Interwoven and Open Text purchased Vignette to become the largest independent vendors in this space competing directly with Microsoft’s Sharepoint. Market Drivers In spite of the recession which forced businesses to refrain from technology spending, the ECM market remained insulated from it for the following reasons: 1) Increase in volume and complexity of content is the reason for concern and investments in ECM henceforth 2) Pricing pressure from open-source vendors stimulating higher demand 3) It targets the overall ROI of the organization As there is a need to manage risks that come along with tonnes of paper and vast variety of digital content, a focus has been brought on governance and content rationalization. Vendors are addressing this by providing different stakeholders or customers with products that serve their purpose while keeping in mind the overall business processes of the organization. Recognizing this focus area many enterprises have become conscious about the lifecycle, access management, availability and cost of the content. There has been a slowdown in the ECM market due to the recessionary climate as it made the decision makers cautious about investments. In a research conducted by Gartner it was noticed that during this period companies have started looking for a thorough business case and ROI justifications for any kind of technology expenditure. However this could also turn out to be positive for the ECM market as these are the times when the organizations will realize the benefits of ECM solutions and frameworks. Conclusion Business Process Management and Workflow are not about moving documents across departments. It is about aligning businesses to their core processes and they provide the catalyst to exploit knowledge base to provide improved customer service. Thus, help in delivering measurable bottom line benefits in variety of business cases. List of References Toby Bell, Karen M. Shegda, Mark R. Gilbert, Kenneth Chin, Mick MacComascaigh. ( October, 2009), Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Content Management http://www. gartner. com/technology/media-products/reprints/microsoft/vol10/article3/article3.html, Gartner Hakan Akbas (August 2009), Consolidation in the Enterprise Content Management Industry Who Will Be Next Autonomy or Open Text? http://www. cmswire. com/cms/enterprise-cms/consolidation-in-the-enterprise-content-management-industry-who-will-be-next-autonomy-or-open-text-part-i-005174. php, Cmswire Icon Resources and technologies ( 2007), Document/Business Process Management http://www. iconresources. com/new/irt_bps. html Hinnerk Brugmann, ConSense: Management of unstructured Documents using semantic Meta-Information http://www.wi2. uni-erlangen. de/index. php? id=consense PNMSOFT, Sequence and Sharepoint, http://www. pnmsoft. com/sharepoint_workflow_integration. aspx PNMSOFT, SEQUENCE BPM workflow software platform, http://www. pnmsoft. com/sequence_bpm_workflow. aspx Rivet Logic Corporation (October 2008), Enterprise Content Management 2. 0: The Case for an Open Source Approach http://viewer. bitpipe. com/viewer/viewDocument. do? accessId=12186060, Bitpipe Research Kyle McNabb (March 2008), Enterprise Content Management http://www. forrester.com/rb/Research/topic_overview_enterprise_content_management/q/id/40327/t/2, Forrester Research Ann All (March 2010), Case Management Is Step Forward in BPM Evolution , http://www. itbusinessedge. com/cm/community/features/interviews/blog/case-management-is-step-forward-in-bpm-evolution/? cs=39882page=2 Strategy Partners (2003), Business Process Management and Workflow, http://www. aiim. org. uk/download_files/aiimuserguides/5_BPM_and_Workflow. pdf, AIIM International – ECM Association Barclay T. Blair (October 2004), An Enterprise Content Management Primer, The Information Management Journal

History About The Internet Banking Marketing Essay

History About The Internet Banking Marketing Essay As we all know Internet Banking is becoming popular in every part of the world and Mauritius comprises of one those countries where Internet Banking is being adopted by many people. So we will study the factors that influence the implementation of Internet Banking for the situation of the developing Mauritian economy. The frequently used services by Mauritians are inter account transfer, payment to other personal account, transfer to credit card account, and recharge mobile among others. The Banking Industry is likely to be the principal actor in E-business. Banks have acknowledged an internet presence with numerous aims and most of them are using the internet as a new distributing system. In Mauritius there have been some specific problems that are limiting the e banking adoption they are mainly attitude towards technology, security and privacy concern, trust in banking firms, the e-banking culture, and skills and penetration. E-banking will flourish if the main structures, especial ly the payment of bill are handling well. The banks have already started to focus on increasing and refining E-banking services as they have started to work together with various usefulness companies to enable customer to perform numerous functions online. Keywords: e-banking services, banks, Mauritius, effectiveness, challenges INTRODUCTION A feature of the banking industry across the world has been that is progressively becoming turbulent and viable, categorized by an increasing development towards internalization, mergers, takeovers and alliance of the banking industry. Pikkarainen, Pikkarainen, Karjaluoto, and Pahnila, (2004, p. 224) defines internet banking as an internet portal, through which customers can use different kinds of banking services ranging from bill payment to making investments. Apart from removal of cash, internet banking allows its customer to have access to nearly any kind of banking operation at the click of a mouse. Banks have tried to build customer satisfaction through the delivery of better products and services and at the same time to lessen the operating cost. Thus the world of banking industry has been constantly transforming and with the arrival of technological developments, mainly in the area of telecommunications and information technology, one of the latest revolution that took birth, and quite unavoidably has been the internet banking. Most people have heard of e-banking but they have not tried it as for them it. Many people still pay their bills by mail and deposit checks at banks much of the way almost every people do including our parents. Individuals might shop online for loans, insurance and may other things but when the time reaches to commit themselves they will be more at ease and secure to go at their banks. Online banking is not out to alter your money habits. Instead, it uses todays computer technology to give you the opportunity of avoiding the time-consuming, paper-based aspects of traditional banking in order to be able to manage your finances more rapidly and professionally. The appearance of the Internet and the popularity of personal computers offered both a chance and a test for the banking industry.it has been for years, financial institutions have used influential computer networks to mechanize millions of daily dealing. Today, often the onl y paper record is the customers receipt when the sale is done. At the present customers are connected to the Internet via personal computers, banks envision similar economic advantages by adapting those similar internal electronic processes to home-based use. Most banks view e banking as an authoritative value added tool to be able to attract and preserve new customers though by using the help to eradicate expensive paper handling and teller contact in an progressively viable banking environment Evolution of E-Banking Over a last few decades, technology had drastically affected the banking industry which gave rise to a new concept called E-Banking. E-Banking became popular in late 80s where the system could be accessed with phone lines. But nowadays with computers and internet, E-banking continued to grow. Online Banking was first adopted in New York in 1981 where the major banks like Citibank, Chase and others provided home banking services by making use of a system called videotext. Stanford Federal Credit Union was the first service provider of internet banking in October 1994. The use of E-Banking business is advantageous for both business and stakeholders. They can access the service 24-hour and retrieve any information easily. Moreover, it is affordable for both large and small companies. In addition, it has created new way of marketing the financial services and share mutual support and guidance within a virtual community (Barnatt 1998). But on the other side, there are dangers and disadvantages of E-Banking prevailing. It can be seen that the system available for accessing the services may be discouraging because of poor control in many cases. There is always the threat of hackers whatever the level of security is (Souflis 2002). Furthermore, there is no direct contact with customers and banks (Baldock 1997; Danial 1999; Ramsay and Smith 1999). It can be seen that whatever be the challenges faced by E-Banking, still there are new entrants providing the above services worldwide and they are trying to manage that effectively. Internet Banking around the World In Europeans countries, online banking has been adopted differently. It was seen that most banks which were of medium size made use of internet banking at the very start. However, when comparing the respond rate of North Europe from that of South, it could be deduced that the Northern Europeans adopted online banking at a quicker pace. In early times E-Banking was dependent on the level of education and in some parts of Europe there was highly educated people compared to other parts. Reaching 2008, around 60% of households had started using E-Banking. In USA, banks had lagged behind to adopt internet banking at the very start but slowly they did catch up. The banks like Bank of America, Citibank and Wells Fargo were the main banks providing online banking and they were the mega banks in USA. They had dominated the internet banking field for quite some time. Nowadays, there is 80% of credit unions offering this facility and they have around 6,300 members in this sector. It can be seen that in the American countries, banks make use of internet banking as a business strategy to increase market share rather than making profits. In the study carried out by Capgemini, Unicredit Group and European Financial Management and Marketing association, it was deduced that most banks made use of internet banking as a strategy aiming to attract more clients by offering lower price for products and services. But, it was not advantageous for all banks in all countries. For e.g. In Russia, providing internet banking facilities to its customers was very expensive. This has caused an impact on their market share as clients were unable to benefit from lower prices and moved to other means where costs were low. In Romania, E-banking was introduced in 1996, by a foreign bank followed by local banks in 1998 and 1999. Many people did not have internet connection at that time and the target customers were mostly companies. In 2003, there was 18, 000 users of internet banking which gradually increased to 200,000 in 2006. In the year 2007, internet banking completely entered the main stream in Romania. In May 2007, a study was conducted on internet banking services which considered 5 banks in the Romanian Banking sector which were the Bankpost, B.R.D, Banca, Transilvania, HVB Tiriac, Raiffeisen Bank. The usability study looks into accounts of those customers who were computer literate and had at least one card to be used online. It was concluded that customers were more conscious about security and risks involved in E-banking rather than the benefits that were provided. But, today in Romania, people are more conscious about the opportunities that E-banking provides and they want to switch to these services as fast as possible. It can also be seen that youngsters are more interested in using all these services especially in the modern times. E- Banking allows customers to do almost everything without having to go in any branch of their banks. It offers a range of advantages and they are mainly the same around all countries and they are:- Informational: They provide clients with information about the products and services offered by banks which are free of cost. Communication: clients can get information about their accounts and can update their profiles as they can get access to the banks main system. Transactional: Customers can pay their bills, transfer money, make loan application without any inconvenience of going to bank, waiting for their turn and complete their transactions. Time is also saved. Moreover, with E-banking, banks can target customers of other countries not necessarily the home countries. In this technological age organizations around the world are making extensive efforts to cope with the evolving business environment. Increases in domestic and global competition, are causing markets to add pressures on the organizations to come up with effective responses to survive and succeed. Ease in the international trade barriers, economic globalization, globalization and deregulation are major challenges that organizations in developing and newly industrialized economies such as India. To be able to respond to the changes in the external environment effectively, companies are using information technology (IT) as a tool to improve their productivity and competitiveness. Over the last decades India has been one of the fastest economies to adopt information technology, in particularly due to its capability to offer software solutions to organizations across the world. This comparative advantage has enabled India to provide remarkable impetus to their domestic banking industry to present latest advances in technology, especially in the internet banking and e-commerce arenas. (kannabiran, narayan, 2005). Banking industry in India does not contrast much from other industries in terms of facing constantly changing market conditions and leverages. IT is basically used for competitive advantage purposes. In todays global context, IT has become an imperative for organizations to remain competitive and grow effectively. Even if the technological advances around the world had been quite fast over the past years, the process was relatively slow in India. The emergence of new private banks in India changed the entire scenario drastically since these banks business model evolved around IT. As a result IT became an important strategic necessity for banks in the industry to remain competitive. Prior to the 1990s IT was used to automate the back offices of banks. From then on IT has been deployed in different types of back-office and customer interface activities. From technological perspective, Indian banks found it difficult to adopt information technology both as a strategic tool and as an operational necessity. The first challenge had been the availability of comprehensive and centralized banking application that could cope with the various operational requirements and controls that could be adapted to the Indian banking environment. The second challenge was the difficulty to set up a strong communication network connecting the branches of the bank to the data center hosting the core banking applications. With the expansion of internet usage, e-banking is one of the most revolutionized components in this new eras economic growth. E-banking is somehow said to the most powerful value-added tool to attract new customers and retain existing ones. Proliferation of internet and computer usage has only caused the electronic banking delivery to become ideal and to meet customer expectations. This has been the result of the adoption of internet banking by Malaysian banks. Malaysia has endeavored to develop its e-commerce significantly. Banking organizations in Malaysia are offering online transactional services for its customers via banking services. In Iran, Amin Sulaiman et al. (2005) conclude that the adopters perceive e-banking to be an easy and convenient way and carry out their E-banking transactions either from their homes or office, also, the age, income and job positions held influence E-banking adoption. Higher adoption was seen amongst younger persons, persons with high salaries and those holding higher positions. The introduction of internet banking has only brought up the concept of Anytime Anywhere Banking. Banks have been spending lots on the technological wave of internet banking. It has also discouraged physical transactions by simply levying additional charges at the physical branches. Due to high investments in technology and its adoption by numerous banks, the internet banking sector has known tremendous growth. From the Asian experience, it is clear that Internet Banking is here to stay and is a key channel to acquire and service customers. Since 2006, internet banking has increased by more than 45.4million in the Asia Pacific regions. In markets like Korea and Singapore, over 10% of their population makes use of the Internet banking facilities. Even though these markets are a long ahead of India both in terms of internet penetration and on-line banking services, we should not forget that India has very big potentials and is a world in itself. India is speeding to catch up with its other Asian counterparts. Mauritian Context With the trend of globalization all around the world, it is almost difficult for a country whether big or small, developed or developing to remain separated from what is happening around. For a country like Mauritius, which is one of the promising emerging markets, such separation is almost impossible, more specifically in the information Technology area. Information Technology has reduced in size the world, and as a result, time and distance is of no importance. In the current global context, information Technology is of great importance for organization to remain competitive and to grow (Uppal and Chawla, 2008). The concept of banking in Mauritius has drastically changed where technology is the most predominating factor which has helped banks to have new products and services in order to win the competitive market. Before the electronic era, the entire banking in Mauritius was conducted manually and very little through computers, but today almost every transaction is done electroni cally. Long ago in Mauritius, banks conducted their activities mainly in the banks itself, that is if customers had to make any transactions or have recourse to any services offered by banks, they had to go to the banks in order to be able to conclude their transactions. But, many changes have occurred in the global business environment in the last decade of the 20th century, among which is electronic commerce, or trade of products and services through internet and telecommunication networks (kalakota whinstone, 1997). Nevertheless, the effect of electronic commerce has been more obvious in the banking and financial services industry in contrast to other industries (Bughin, 2004; eMarketer, 2000). The adoption of technology by the banking industry in many countries around the world has been at a very high level. But the process in Mauritius has been slow over the last several years. It got off to a slow start and only picked up momentum in the 1975s. Information Technology was mainly emplo yed to automate the back-office and customer-interface activities of banking. It was only in the year 1997 that internet banking really becomes in operation. It is a relatively recent phenomenon in Mauritius (Padachi et al, 2007). This was mainly due to a relatively good quality infrastructure with respect to communication, internet facilities available to almost every citizen of Mauritius and has the highest education attainment as well. In 1997, out of the 11 banks in Mauritius, only 4 of them, namely the Mauritius Commercial Bank, the State Commercial Bank, Banque de Mascareignes and Barclays were offering internet banking facilities (Padachi et al, 2007). But today almost every bank in Mauritius is offering e-banking services. Some of the e-banking services banks in Mauritius are offering are: mobile banking, electronic bill presentment and payment, fund transfer between a customer account to another customers account or to any banks, loan application and transaction, receiving or checking bank statement online, Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) and many othe rs. In the next paragraph, we will study the e-banking services in more details. E-Banking services The e-banking services that the Mauritian banks offer are as follow: Mobile banking Mobile banking is a term used to perform balance account transactions, balance checks, payments etc. via a mobile device such as mobile phone  or Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). Mobile banking today is most often performed via SMS or the  Mobile Internet. There is also the recharge of mobile phones where a customer can recharge his mobiles credit anytime and anywhere. You just have to send a text to recharge your mobile or to check your bank balance wherever you are1. Electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP) This service facilitates payment of electricity, telephone bills, insurance premium bills and many others by allowing its customers to electronically settle payments of goods and services. Customers and billing companies can use the phone or the internet to make payments as well as having access to their billing information where the company bills its customer and receives the payment electronically. EBPP can provide significant savings to traditional print mail billing and payment remittance, and also causes significant reduction in the use of paper. The customer does not have to pay their bills in person, delegating it to the bank and as such saves time for the customer2. 1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/mobile-banking 2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBPP Fund transfer Customers can transfer any amount from his own checking or savings account to another customers account of the same or any other banks. They can transfer funds in any banks in Mauritius and also overseas. As such, it allows customers to use this service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week as compared to traditional fund transfer. It offers greater security as no tangible cash is involved. This service also provides a fast and perpetual connection with the bank1. Loan application and transaction Nowadays customers no longer have to wait long time in queues for a loan application. They can simply apply for a loan online. They only have to sign in to have access to the online services and enter the sum of money which they want to receive as loan. The customer is either notified by mail or by telephone and the notification is faster than traditional loan application. Checking and receiving bank statement online. The customer just has to enter his PIN number in order to check his or her bank statement online. It is a flexible and convenient service where the customers can have access to their bank statements anywhere in the world, whether its at home or at work even if the bank is closed. It also eliminates paper processing. Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) 1http://www.hsbc.co.mu/1/2/personal/Personal-bankingATM is a device that allows the banks customer to have access to financial transactions in a public space without the help of a bank teller. On the ATM, the customer is identified by inserting his ATM card that contains a unique card number and some security information. The customer just has to enter his PIN to have access to his bank account in order to make cash withdrawals and to check his account balance. Thus customers saves time as they do not have to make queues for withdrawal of their money in banks and also, the speed of transaction is faster than the traditional banking channel. They can also withdraw money anytime they want (Salami). Challenges Over the past few years, numerous financial bodies have launched e-banking over the Internet. Given the necessities of matching marginal gains versus marginal costs, measuring the effectiveness of market growth along definite scopes and segments, and determining whether the new technology would be recognized, it is authoritative that this result is frequently re-evaluated. Commercial banks face substantial tests on both the supply side and demand side, allied in specific with race, product-service excellence and diversity, cost effectiveness, transaction security, and demographic alteration (Zigi Liao and M.T Cheung). Despite that information technology has enormously improved operating efficiency in the banking sector, it has also weakened the banks information system. The negative effects on online banking are very few but have a significant impact on customer satisfaction. Customer who lacks computer skills and is not at ease in using the internet may find it difficult to navigate and learn how to use online services thus causing frustration. Forgery is another challenge concerning e-banking as there are some proxy websites or fraud, which can hack information which a person entered when doing a transaction and exploit it unfairly. Therefore, people may lose their money without realizing it and by the time they are aware, they have already make huge losses. Matila and Matila(2005) ascertained that security impedes the adoption of e-banking. As such, customer loses the banks confidence. Customer confidence is another barrier towards the adoption of e-banking as lack of trust may prevent customers from using electronic channel (Steward, 1999). Another challenge of e- banking is that it takes time to get the Internet account started, as it needs a lot of paper work. Some people evade using Internet banking services as they find it hard to comprehend how it works. Also, the fact that an incorrect click can cause financial losses may be a preventive. Internet banking can also pose difficultly, then if the network crashes in ones area this may originate into trouble, if the person has to do an essential deal. Furthermore, Clerk and Mills (1993) implies that some customers will prefer face-to-face interaction by establishing personal contact with the bank who want social and psychological benefits, thus detrimental to e-banking. One very common challenge of e-banking is when a person has a difficultly or a query. In traditional banking, if someone is in difficulty, he can go to an employee of the bank to solve it. But, in the case of e-banking, he will find himself making infinite calls to the customer service department. Another problem encountered by a customer is where he is put on hold or his phone call is passed from one employee to another thus annoying the customer. Access to internet is one of the major barriers for e-banking. E-banking services is determined by the number of people having access to internet and also the cost of internet connection(Li and Worthington,2004; Sonail and Shanmugham, 2003). Age is another factor that affects the adoption of e-banking. Elderly people are more reluctant to use e-banking services as compared to younger generation. As pointed out by Oumlil and Williams(2001), mature banking customers are not innovators of new technologies, but are rather reluctant or are small in number towards adoption of new services. Though, e-banking has certain challenges, one can gain of its customer-friendly services, if one is cautious and careful. One should never give away his password to any unknown person and to make the experience of Internet banking an easy process and must use sites that are familiar and reliable.

How reliable a narrator do you think Nick is based on what you have Ess

How reliable a narrator do you think Nick is based on what you have read in chapters 1 and 2 Throughout the opening of the book we meet Nick Carroway and he exposes many strengths How reliable a narrator do you think Nick is based on what you have read in chapters 1 and 2 Throughout the opening of the book we meet Nick Carroway and he exposes many strengths and weaknesses as the narrator of the book â€Å"Great Gatsby†. In this essay I will explore what contributes to him being reliable as well as his drawbacks as the narrator. Nick is never directly involved in any of the events. He only ever observes what is going on and this leads to a very unbiased outlook on the events. If Nick was more involved he may not give the reader such a clear outlook on the story line. This also suggests Nick is possibly not used to being in social situations, like at Gatsby’s house party, and this could hinder his interpretations of the events. Nick continues to contradict himself throughout the first two chapters. He ironically claims ‘I’m inclined to reserve all judgements,’ yet...

The Age of the Global Interactive Agency Essay -- Business, Technology

It was only a matter of time before the fledgling web design firms and online advertising agencies that were spawned in the late 1990s grew and coalesced into mature national companies. Now, these companies have grown too large for a single country and the age of the global interactive agency is upon us. Led by companies such as 7 Strategy, a combination of design, e-commerce, database management and a host of other marketing and technical skills are combined under one roof to provide companies from around the world with multi-national exposure on the Internet. In a unique twist, 7 Strategy has several main offices. One is dedicated to Europe, one to the Far East and one each for the Eastern and Western halves of the United States. While each office is responsible for a certain section of the world, all of their clients have access to the full breadth and range of 7 Strategy’s marketing experience and technical expertise. When asked about their success, Director of Client Services, Chase Welles, states, matter-of-factly, â€Å"It’s our ability to integrate a uniform, company-wide, back-end database and e-commerce platform with various front end designs customized to regional marketplaces that differentiates us from less well-diversified interactive organizations.† He then pauses to take a breath. This statement is rather sweeping and encompasses quite a broad swathe of technological know how and marketing expertise. Indeed, these abilities that do not seem to be in short supply at 7 Strategy. Founded in 2001, this company has never been a boutique design firm. Instead, they have focused on offering their business clients a full range of interactive marketing products that can achieve real and measurable business growth. Chief ... ...e implementation of 7 Strategy as the company has experienced significant annual growth since its inception. 7 strategy has engineered some remarkable success stories throughout its history. They have created search engine optimizations that have produced results on the first page of the Google search engine. They have also crafted award winning website designs for clients in North America, Europe and Asia. Despite these successes, the management and team at 7 Strategy would argue that, most importantly, they have delivered significant and measurable increases in the business metrics that are most important to their clients. In short, years of focused research and practical strategy testing are combined by 7 Strategy with extremely talented and innovative designers and engineers to produce highly functional and exceptionally attractive interactive experiences.

Hermes :: essays research papers fc

The fleet-footed messenger with wings on his heels and cap symbolizes fast delivery. However, Hermes was neither originally winged nor a messenger - that role was reserved for the rainbow goddess Iris (Medusa's cousin and the daughter of Thaumys and Elektra). Hermes was, instead, clever, tricky, a thief, and, with his awakening or sleep conferring wand (rhabdos), the original sandman whose descendants include a major Greek hero and a noisy, fun-loving god. Before Zeus married Hera, Maia (a daughter of the second generation Titan Atlas, who was a son of the Titan Iapetos and Okeanos' daughter Klymene) bore him a son, Hermes. Like Heracels, Hermes showed amazing skill in early years. He escaped his cradle, wandered outside, and walked from Mt. Cyllene to Pieria where he found Apollo's cattle. His natural character was to steal them. He even had a smart plan. First, he padded their feet to soften the sound, and then he drove fifty of them backwards in order to confuse search. He stopped at the Alpheios River to make the first sacrifice to the gods. To do so, he had to invent fire, or at least how to fire up it. Then he selected two of Apollo's herd, and after killing them, divided each into six parts to keep in touch with the twelve Olympians. There were, at the time, only eleven. The remaining part was for him. After completing his new ceremony, Hermes went back home. On his way, he found a tortoise that he took inside his house. Using leather strips from Apollo's herd as string, he created the first lyre. He was playing the new musical instrument when Apollo found him. Noticing the material of the string, Apollo was angry with Hermes for stealing his cattle and smart enough not to believe Hermes when he protested his innocence. Bringing together seemed impossible until the father of both gods stepped in. To make amends, Hermes gave his half-brother the tortoise shell lyre. Later, Hermes and Apollo made another exchange. Apollo gave his half-brother the Caduceus in exchange for a flute Hermes invented. Zeus realized he had to keep his smart, cattle-rustling son out of mischief, so he put him to work as god of trade and business. He gave him power over birds of sign, dogs, boars, flocks of sheep, and lions. He provided him with golden sandals, and made him messenger (angelos) to Hades.

Food Justice Essay

Walking into the lecture I had no clue what food justice meant. If anything, I figured the lecture had to do with justice for fair trade for farmers or the justice in regulation of genetically modified foods. Instead it turned out to be justice that seeks to ensure that the risk associated with growing, producing, transporting, distributing, eating, access to food is shared by everyone fairly. After Professor Kieth Pezzoli gave a little explanation about food justice and its purpose I began to see the â€Å"background stuff† that goes on to get my food on my plate. I was beginning to see that the food that gets into my stomach has probably traveled to more places around the US than I will ever be. What was really interesting was learning that food that gets cultivated here will be shipped up north or elsewhere to be processed and then shipped back to California. In addition, all the traveling that my food not only waste time but also is detrimental to the environment due to the pollution caused by the vehicles that ship my food all around to be processed. Even though my food travels thousands of miles before it reaches me Professor Brad Werner made an interesting point in that we may never notice this process because of modern advancement in transportation and communication. The ability to easily receive my food is due to all the technology we have and having this ease of purchasing food is known as a low friction transaction. On the other hand, when it is difficult to purchase food due to varying factors this is known as a high friction transaction. Lastly Professor Jericho Burg demonstrated how the problems we face with food justice here in the states stretches far beyond our borders due to the excess food we give out to other countries in famine through food aid. Like many things good intentions sometimes have negative effects and there needs to be a re-evaluation and reform on the system we currently use to help others including ourselves.

Bank Reconciliation Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan – The Bank Reconciliation Statement General Objectives: Students will:1. Account for differences between the cash book and bank statement balances. 2. Construct a bank reconciliation statement using the adjusted trial balance.Specific Objectives: Students will: Cognitive:1. Demonstrate knowledge of the concept of reconciling bank statements. 2. Explain the reasons as to why your cash book and bank statement may not balance. Psychomotor: 1. Construct a bank reconciliation statement using the adjusted cash book balance. Affective: 1.Value the importance of preparing a bank reconciliation statement. Prior Knowledge: Students have a clear understanding of: 1. The two column cash book. Lesson 1 – Bank Reconciliation Statement| TIME(minutes)| ELEMENTS| METHOD| CONTENT| TEACHER ACTIVITIES| STUDENT’S ACTIVITIES| TEACHER – LEARNING RESOURCES| EVALUATION| | Set Induction/Introduction| -| – Scenario| -Discussion| -Listening- Responding| | – Formative Questioning| | | | Objectives| Sharing the Specific Objectives | | | | | Presentation 1| -| – Reasons for the difference in the bank statement and our cash book. -Questioning- Providing information-Explaining| -Listening- Responding| – Chart- Whiteboard- Whiteboard markers| – Formative Questioning| | Summary 1| Review of Presentation 1| -| Questioning| – Responding| | – Formative Questioning| | Presentation 2| -| – Definition of terms| -Providing information-Explaining| -Listening- Responding| – Chart- Whiteboard- Whiteboard markers| – Formative Questioning| | Summary 2| Review of Presentation 2| -| -Questioning| – Responding| | – Formative Questioning| | Presentation 3| | – Illustration of an example| -Providing information-Explaining| -Listening- Responding| – Chart-Whiteboard- Whiteboard markers| – Formative Questioning| | Summary 3| Review of Presentation 3| -| -Questioning| – Responding| | – Formative Questioning| | Evaluation| -| – Students will complete prepared worksheet| -Observation| – Working| – Whiteboard- Whiteboard markers| – Summative| | Conclusion| Correction of exercise | -| – Providing feedback| -Providing Answers| – Student’s work| -| | Closure| -| – The teacher will review and recap the lesson and then dismiss the class. | – Dismissing of students. | -| -| -| Lesson Notes Set InductionEdward Cullen from the movie Twilight has a bank account and money to manage. You will learn to check his monthly account statement and help him make sure his bank balance is correct. This will help him to make sure that he has enough money for his date with Bella this weekend. This will help you in your own life with your own banking responsibilities. A bank statement is a detailed record of the checking account from the bank. The bank statement balance is the amount of money left in the account per bank’s records. The check book balance is the amount of money left in the account per depositor’s records.All banks use computers to prepare bank statements. Data about all checks paid and all deposits received are entered into the computer in order to keep the depositor’s account up-to-date. All of the data that is stored in the computer is printed out on the bank statement. There will usually be differences between the check book balance and the bank statement balance. In this lesson, you will begin to learn how to explain these differences by preparing a bank reconciliation statement. This statement is used to bring the check book and the bank statement balance s into agreement.Presentation 1The teacher will now explain the reasons for the difference in the bank statement and the cash book. Which are as follows:Un-presented chequesDishonoured chequesDirect debitsStanding ordersBank giro creditPresentation 2The teacher gives a brief explanation on the meaning of these items, and why they may cause the bank statement and bank account balances to differ.Presentation 3The teacher demonstrates a scenario where the cash book bank balance and the bank statement balance differ.CASH BOOK DATE| PARTICULARS| AMOUNT| DATE| PARTICULARS| AMOUNT| 2011| | $| 2011| | $|Dec 1| Balance b/f| 250| Dec 5| J. Gordon| 65| Dec 20| P. Thomas| 100| Dec 27| K. Hughes| 175| Dec 28| D. Jones| 190| Dec 31| Balance c/d| 300| | | 540| | | 540| 2012| | | | | | Jan 1| Balance b/d| 300| | | | Bank Statement 2011| Particulars| Withdrawals| Deposits| Balance| | | $| $| $| Dec 1| Balance b/f| | | 250| Dec 8| 10625| 65| | 185| Dec 21| Deposit| | 100| 285| Dec 28| Deposit| | 190| 475| Dec 29| 10626| 175| | 300| Dec 30| Bank Giro credit: P. Smith| | 70| 370| Dec 31| Bank charges| 50| | 320| | | | | | It is now possible to see that the two items not shown in our cash book are: Bank Giro credit; P.Smith $70 P. Smith had paid us $70, but instead of paying us by cheque he paid directly into the bank. We did not know of this until we received the bank statement. Bank charges $50 The bank had charged us $50 for keeping our bank account and all the work connected with it. Instead of notifying us they have simply taken out the money out of our bank account. The balance in our cash book was $300, whereas our bank statement shows a balance of $320. To prove that although the balances differ they can be â€Å"reconciled† with each other, a bank reconciliation statement will be drawn up.As we have now identified the items missing from our cash book we can now complete writing it up as follows. Bank Reconciliation Statement as at 31 December 2011 Balance as per ca sh book $300 Add: Bank Giro credit $70 $370 Less: Bank charges $50 Balance as per bank statement $320 The completed cash book would now look as follows:CASH BOOK DATE| PARTICULARS| AMOUNT| DATE| PARTICULARS| AMOUNT| 2011| | $| 2011| | $|Dec 1| Balance b/f| 250| Dec 5| J. Gordon| 65| Dec 20| P. Thomas| 100| Dec 27| K. Hughes| 175| Dec 28| D. Jones| 190| Dec 31| Bank charges| 50| Dec 30| P. Smith| 70| Dec 31| Balance c/d| 320| | | 610| | | 610| 2012| | | | | | Jan 1| Balance b/d| 320| | | | | | | | | | Evaluation: The teacher would present each student with a practise exercise on prepaid expense accounts scenarios. During this time the teacher would walk around the classroom observing the student’s responses and offering assistance were needed.

Porter Airlines Swot Analysis Essay

TCAA (Billy Bishop City Airport) – The location of this airport, combined with the TCAA/Porter strategic partnership offered significant advantages to Porter. Owning airport infrastructure allowed Porter to better handle operational coast and better control the customer experience. Fleet – Only using a single aircraft (Bombardier Q400 with 35%) resulted in cost savings in maintenance, training, employee pay rate and airport fees. Amenities – In flight and airport value-added services fortify Porter’s brand help attract target market. Weakness Brand Awareness in America – Porter’s international strength lies in Canadian customers flying to the U.S. It is much more costly to attract American passengers heading to Canada. Developing awareness in the U.S. could be very costly. No U.S. customs pre-clearance – passengers must pass through customs upon arrival. This can cause delays and inconvenience to customers. Opportunities Customer Loyalty – The highly flexible fare structure Porter offers to customers is very appealing to business travelers who need to travel on short notice and often rearrange their travel plans. Porter also offers the VIPorter customer reward program. Free travel is very appealing to frequent travelers. Corporate Focus – Combine with large companies whose employees travel frequently. Offer these companies a reduced price and high frequency of flights based on certain popular business routes. Threats Competition – Air Canada has sufficient market share to attempt to undercut Porter and push it out of the market by using very low prices and frequent –flyer programs much like they did against City Express in the early 1990’s. Generating Capital – Growth requires enormous capital in the Airline industry. As a private company, Porter’s financial performance is unknown. This could make it very difficult to raise capital without releasing important performance information. Air Canada Law Suit – A federal court is to rule on whether or not Jazz was pushed off of the Island Unfairly. If Jazz is permitted to return to the island they could compete directly with Porter and will likely undercut Porter as they did with City Express.