India Post Strategy

Term Project ? Table of Contents Operations Constraints Matrix3 Flexibility3 Cost5 Quality7 Structural Decisions7 Capacity7 Facilities8 Process Technology9 Sourcing and Vertical Integration10 Infrastructural Decisions12 Operations Constraints Matrix Flexibility is about the operation being able to change what it does quickly. How quickly can the organization change the mix of products and services it is offering to the customer? Changing consumer tastes affects demand levels and the product range desired.For an organization to stay competitive, it needs to be able to respond to these changes with flexibility. †¢Can the organization react to demand changes and increase or decrease the volume of output in response? †¢Is a wide range of products or services on offer? Can the organization bring new product/service designs to market quickly so it is in a position to meet changing customer needs? Providing flexibility in delivery options, both the manner and the timing give an op portunity for differentiation. In case of Indian Postal Service, they are high on flexibility parameter.The range of products / services for Indian Post suits to people from all economic level, almost all customers can avail all the services of India Post in all location. India Post postal services are under two heads, Mail services and Premium Services. Mail Services LetterThe communication is enclosed in an envelope and addressed Inland letter cardCommunication is contained on a sheet of paper with prescribed size & folding, for transmission within India only. Post cardOpen communication on a card of prescribed size. Available in two varieties: Single & reply post card. Post cards are for transmission within India only.Printed Post cardPost cards containing communication recorded by printing, cyclostyling or by any other mechanical process are classified as ‘Printed Post Cards'. Printed matter includes printed pictures also. Blind literature packetPapers of any kind, periodi cals and books impressed in â€Å"Braille† or other special type for the use of blind are allowed to be transmitted by post as Blind literature packets. ParcelAnything can be sent in a parcel excepting articles whose transmission is prohibited. RegistrationThe postal article that is registered is given identification and is recorded at every stage of handling.Letters, letter cards, Book and Pattern Packets, Parcels, News papers prepaid with postage may be registered for transmission at any post office. The registered postal article is delivered specifically to the addressee. VPL/VPPThe Value Payable Letter or Value Payable Parcel is paid for at the time of receipt. Premium Services Speed PostSpeed Post is market leader in domestic express industry, for providing time-bound and express delivery of letters ’ documents and parcels across the nation and around the world Express ParcelExpress Parcel Post is an ideal service for sending the parcels up to 35 kg within India.I t is fast and reliable, provides door-to-door convenience and pick-up from customer’s premises service. Business PBusiness Post is a one-stop shop service to manage entire mail-out process. It provides cost-effective and professional mailing services, including printing, collating, inserting, sealing, and addressing to meet specific business needs. Media PostMedia Post is an innovative and effective vehicle for Brand and Marketing Managers to communicate their corporate message across the nation.Greeting PostGreeting Post is an innovative product of India Post comprises of a card with envelop with pre-printed postage stamp upon the envelope. It used to express yourself perfectly on every occasion, festival or event. Logistics PostLogistics Post caters to any demand for moving goods, parcels and consignments in terms of delivery deadline and quality of service. It offers the possibility of monitoring the delivery progress at all times. Comparison with the other players in Post al / Courier service India PostDTDC CourierBluedart CourierNo fixed delivery time guaranteeService include next business day delivery guaranteeService include next business day delivery guarantee Media post offer advertisement opportunity to marketing managerDedicated for courier and parcel delivery, no specific service like advertising Dedicated for courier and parcel delivery, no specific service like advertising Wide reach within India, specifically high penetration in rural IndiaWide reach but rural penetration is not as deep as India PostWide reach but rural penetration is not as deep as India Post Offers registered post service, where consignment is handed over to only specific addressee General service, and couriers can be received by any individual within corporation / homeGeneral service, and couriers can be received by any individual within corporation / home Consignment tracking is limited to premium products deliveryConsignment tracking facility is available for all kind s of deliveriesConsignment tracking facility is available for all kinds of deliveries Prices band is high and weight range starts from as minimum as 25gms for deliveryPrice band is narrow and weight range starts usually from 500gmsPrice band is narrow and weight range starts usually from 500gms Single delivery timing, no customized service as customer requires, although service for guaranteed timely delivery availableConsignment delivery can be defined by customers with a minimum duration of Next business day 1030AM within same time zone Consignment delivery can be defined by customers with a minimum duration of Next business day 1030AM within same time zone No special facility for weekends like Saturday or SundaySpecial pick up facility for Saturday and delivery on SundayNo specific delivery facility for weekends Proof of delivery is claimable on paid basisProof of delivery is visible online for freeProof of delivery is visible online for free Greeting card delivery, special printe d card delivery service No special greeting card delivery service at presentNo special greeting card delivery service at present Freight on delivery service available business Freight on delivery service available business Freight on delivery service available business International deliveries service available with maximum eight of 100kgInternational deliveries service available with maximum weight of 10000kgInternational deliveries service available with maximum weight of 100kg No packing, box packaging service, pick up service available on paid basisProvide packing, loading, box packaging service, free pick up serviceProvide packing box, box packaging services, free pick up service Cost is the last objective to be discussed but clearly not the least. For organizations that have adopted a low cost strategy it is the most important objective. The lower the cost of producing the goods the lower price that can be offered to customers, which in turn will boost sales and profits. Even organizations that seek to gain their competitive advantage through differentiation are keen to lower their cost basis because that will lead to improvements in profit levels. To be able to deliver a cost advantage an organization has to analyze where operation costs are incurred.When considering a service industry, like hospitals, the biggest cost element will be staff costs, then facility and technology costs followed by bought-in materials and services. Many costs in a hospital operation are fixed and will not vary according to the number of patients treated. That is to say those facilities like beds, operating theatres or laboratories are as expensive as are the highly specialized staff. These are all needed to be available if not all of the time, then most of it. That obviously has cost implications. Generally, the level of costs depends on the volume and variety of output and how variable is demand. Variety of outputs leads to greater levels of complexity and therefore increas ed costs. Cost is dependent on the other performance objectives.Improvements in each of the other four will lead to cost reductions. The relative priority of the performance objectives is determined by the demands of customers and the actions of competitors. Making these decisions on priorities links back to the statement in the strategy of what business the organization is in and who are its customers. Selling to customers who insist on error-free products requires the organization to concentrate on its quality performance. Consumer segments that are looking for low-priced products or services will lead the organization to emphasize its cost performance. In case of India Post, reaching to the mass is part of their mission.They operate at locations where, revenues do not even cover 15% of expenses. They have more than 89% of their offices in rural areas, where the cost of operation is usually higher than revenues. Even the post office in urban areas, the target given is to earn a pr ofit of 5% beyond their operating cost. India Post caters primarily in rural areas and therefore its emphasis on offering very low / economical prices to customer irrespective of their operating cost. Private postal service agencies have their motive of earning profit from business, therefore they highly emphasize on providing value service to their customers. They focus on limited services designed to fulfill general need of customers.Their service portfolio is transforming from delight services to order winning services. They emphasize on excelling in providing order winner services and compete in limited range of services. Pricing offered by India Post: India post premier service of simple post card is in no comparison with any other service agency. It is most cost effective way of mail hitherto in India. Apart from post cards, letters, India Post offers standard fixed rates for all customers depending on distance (irrespective of place of origin or destination). Speed Post: Weig htLocal (within municipal limits)Upto 200 Kms201 to 1000 Kms1001 to 2000 KmsAbove 2000 Kms Up to 50 gramsINR 15INR 35INR 35INR 35INR 35 1 grams to 200 gramsINR 25INR 35INR 40INR 60INR 70 201 grams to 500 gramsINR 30INR 50INR 60INR 80INR 90 Additional 0. 5 kg or part thereofINR 10INR 15INR 30INR 40INR 50 Express Parcel Post: WeightLocal (within municipaI limits)Upto 500 Kms. 501 to 1000 Kms. 1001 to 2000 Kms. Above 2000 Kms. Up to 2kg3550607090 Additional 1kg or part thereof58122535 India Post does not offer the air-mail service for domestic deliveries, whereas private players like Bluedart, DTDC, and Firstflight etc have the air mail service that offers next day delivery guarantee. Therefore, the prices of services offered by different agencies can be compared on the surface mode. Cost of parcel up to 500gms 500gmsIndia PostBluedartDTDC ithin city30200 Ambala50200 Amritsar60200 Mumbai80200 Calicut90210 Cost of parcel up to 10kg 10kgIndia PostBluedartDTDC within city75250 Ludhiana114 250 Ahmadabad156290 Mumbai270290 Calicut370290 India post is more cost effective and economical than other private players. It is high on providing cost effective services to its customer than its competitors. Due to its pan India reach, and easy access in rural areas, other private players cannot compete in cost factor. Quality, whether you are running a hospital or a retail superstore, is about doing things right so that error-free goods and services are delivered that are fit for their purpose.Quality encompasses both the quality of the design of the product in terms of aesthetics, reliability and performance and the quality of the process that delivers the product or service. Quality of delivery process has direct impact on costs and dependability. Quality is a major source of customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Poor quality products or poor quality of service are likely to put the customer off returning, leading to future lost sales. For service sector like postal / couri er service, the primary quality factors can be following: †¢Ease of accessibility – availability, easy reach †¢Customer focus – language, service, waiting time Reliability of service design – useful for customer, trust on the service †¢Conformance to specifications – delivery on time as committed, rates as specified, influence to change or modify requisite service †¢High delivery performance – delivery at the right place, right time, right person Speed Speed is all about how long customers wait before receiving their service. Addressing the speed objective requires the organization to pay attention to the cycle time involved in their new product development. An organization also has to pay attention to its scheduling and capacity planning as well as inventory management to be able to deliver on the speed objective. Reducing inventory will also impact on obtaining a cost advantage. Speed is an important factor considering that a lot of parcels are required to reach on time and are often related to business.As such, almost all the courier services have a special service catering to this constraint. In case of India Post, .No. Services/TransactionSuccess IndicatorsService StandardsUnit AService Standards of various services for Departmental Post Offices 1MailsTime from posting / booking to delivery†¢ Excludes day of posting, holidays and Sundays. †¢ Maximum time. †¢ Articles posted before cut off time. Unit in Days /Minutes etc. 1. 2Delivery of First class mail i. e. , letters, postcards, Inland letter cards, etc. Local* and between Metro Cities** * Local – within Municipal City limits ** Metro- Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. 2Days Rest of India4-6 1. 3Delivery of : †¢ Registered / Insured articles Express Parcel Post †¢ Second Class Mails i. e. Parcels, Book Packets, Registered Newspapers, etc. Local* and between Metro Cities** * Local – withi n Municipal City limits ** Metro- Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. 3Days Rest of India5-7 1. 4Delivery of Speed Post articlesLocal* and between Metro Cities** * Local – within Municipal City limits ** Metro- Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. 2Days Rest of India4-6 1. 5International EMS articles†¢ All International Mail articles are subject to customs examination. †¢ Period for customs examination/detention is not included in the service standards. 4-10DaysDTDC on the other hand provides a lot of services catering to this need which is case specific: DTDC Domestic2-7 daysNormal deliveries (city specific) Value added service (Speed)Days to deliverSpecifications DTDC PlusAssured Next business day delivery†¢To metros and major cities in India Prime Time Plus (PTP) PTP 10. 30 and PTP 12. 00 within the next possible business day†¢Time-critical Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Customer (B2C) Segments. â⠂¬ ¢From select origins to select pin codes at Metro locations. DTDC Blueassured second business day delivery†¢To places far and wide across the country In addition to it, DTDC provides money bank guarantee in case a delivery is not made on time on its Value added services. Blue dart Dart Surfaceline2-7 daysDistance specific Premium ServicesDart Apex1-2 daysFor commercial shipments Domestic PriorityNext dayFor time-critical parcels DP 10. 30 and DP 12. 00Time specific, within a day Blue dart, like DTDC provides money back guarantee in case a delivery is not made on time on its premium services. As such, Speed of India post is comparable to most of its competitors as far as value based services are concerned. Though, at few places delivery is guaranteed the very next day and before a specific time, which is not provided by India post. Some services like Air to Air which ask customers to collect the post from the Airport for a faster delivery is provided by some of its competitor s.Also, unlike DTDC and Blue Dart do not provide money back guarantee on a delay though they provide money back guarantee if a parcel is lost or damaged. This feature allows other players to create a better perception among consumers with respect to speed. Dependability Dependability is, of course, about consistency. An organization’s processes have to be geared up to consistently meeting a promised delivery time for a product or service. Customers are unlikely to be satisfied by an increase in delivery speed if it is not matched by consistent performance. This will require that an organization has systems in place to identify problems early and be flexible enough in its planning to be able to move to a plan B as necessary. The dependability of India post is an issue.Though its registered post is known for dependability in terms of security and handling, but the consistency in speed is still a concern in terms of dependability. The targeted dependability of 95% deliveries on time is far from the reality. Though a lot of premium services are delivered on time, but the general posts are often delayed or sometimes are even lost. When talked to an employee working in India Post, Dependability came out as one of the major reasons why people prefer high priced courier services provided by competitors over India Post. Structural Decisions An effective operations organization is one that meets the need of strategic business units competitive strategy.Therefore, once the type of differentiation has been specified , management must ensure that its operations organization is configured and managed in such a way that there is no one best way for dealing with any business problem – whether one is making, delivering, or selling a service, designing a management information / quality system, or measuring performance. In every situation, one must make choices that reflect one’s context, goals, resources and personnel. Translating the business strategy int o appropriate tangibles and intangibles involves different structural and infrastructural decisions and tradeoffs. The structural and infrastructural decisions in service industry are derived from manufacturing operations. Structural decisions address all the issues that are relevant to Capacity, Facilities, Process Technology and Sourcing (vertical integration). CapacityCapacity management is defined as â€Å"ensuring a service has the capability to meet the demand experiences, like wise capacity management is a response to demand†. Service delivery process depends on three basic factors to achieve the expected output: 1. Service load that illustrates the variety of service being offered, the variation of demand and the management of demand 2. Capacity task that illustrates forecasting methods, scheduling, bottleneck management, prioritizing and altering capacity that are used to manage capacity task successfully 3. Capacity leakage, in other words the degree that there are quality failures, scheduling losses, labor lateness, labor underperformance and changeovers FacilitiesFacility network is the configuration of an operating network in allocating various service centers and contact points. In Mail Service industry, facility is the reach of agency to the customers at different location and various services that can be offered in that service center keeping in mind the objectives and goals of company. India Post has one of the objectives as â€Å"To provide basic postal facilities, i. e. , collection and delivery of mails, within easy reach (1. 5 kms) of all people and businesses. This is to be achieved through opening of more post offices, relocation of existing post offices, giving out franchisees to individuals, shops, institutions, self-help groups, etc. In order to achieve this objective, they constantly thrive to open new service centers at desirable places and shutoff from redundant locations. Apart from post offices, there are approximately 5. 7 lacs letterboxes, processed by network of Mail Offices and conveyed by rail, road, and airlines all over the country to reach the customers. Postal operations at the post office counter encompass the entire gamut of basic postal service that include sale of stamps, booking of registered articles, insured articles, value payable articles, booking of parcels and other banking transaction. Below data shows the penetration of India Post in rural and urban segment. Year2011201020092008Urban13904089. 78%13918289. 81%13914489. 76%12548980. 94% Rural1582610. 22%1579710. 19%1587110. 24%2954619. 06% Total154866100. 00%154979100. 00%155015100. 00%155035100. 00% State wise presence of post offices in India: Andaman102Dadar and Nagar Haveli39J&K1656 Andhra Pradesh16152Daman & Diu20Jharkhand3092 Arunachal Pradesh295Delhi531Karnataka9761 Assam4023Goa263Kerala5054 Bihar9015Gujarat8934Lakhasdweep10 Chandigarh51Haryana2662MP8031 Chattisgarh3119Himachal Pradesh2778Maharashtra12490 Manipur697Rajasth an10338 Meghalaya475Sikkim209 Mizoram409Tamilnadu11897 Nagaland328Tripura710 Orissa8192U. P. 17584 Pondicherry91Uttarakhand2719 Punjab3842W. B. 8700Each facility center in the network is independent in itself, thereby satisfying the condition of Horizontal Networks, but each central / metro / common facility center is dependent on the traffic / mail at other service centers also, thereby working as Mixed Network Structures. India post has about 387 mail offices to process the mails through its network and conveyed by rail, road, and airlines all over the country. Facility decision in mail service sector includes the office layout, customer support, guidance, and customer interface with employees, basic facilities for employees and services available. India Post is oldest mail service in India and some of the offices of India Post are very old.The ambience, infrastructure, facilities is not comparable to private agency offices, which are equipped with modern infrastructure and facili ties. â€Å"Project Arrow† is a step toward modernization of post offices. It focuses on creating conducive and friendly work environment for staff and customers, information technology enabled services and improving the quality of core business services, primarily focusing in rural areas. It has been implemented in more than 15000 post offices and more post offices are in process of implementation. In comparison to private service providers, India Post has maximum reach, are available at the last mile. Private agencies are working for profit maximization therefore they operate in limited space, and their presence is imited to metro cities and some critical business locations. Due to limited offices and service centers, they have made their offices IT enabled and customer friendly. Process Technology The meaning of the process technology lies behind the meaning of focus. Well-managed service organizations are characterized by a high degree of focus. Better focusing such as th e utilization of classification schemes, refers to †¢to delivery systems that allow customers to have high contact with the system †¢easy segregation / sorting of mails †¢ease of tracking †¢improving the quality of delivery †¢connection of various location with centralized database †¢management information system and database maintenanceAutomation and information technology leads to cost savings, consistent and reliable services, it helps to increases the availability of a service operations and the speed of service delivery process that helps in marketing and customer benefits. In mail service, the level of automation depends on amount of load, types of services, quantity of parcels, cost, and risk appetite of the company. For India Post, the scope of Automation and upgradation in process technology can be defined in many areas: †¢Computerized booking of mails and parcels †¢Segregation / sorting of mail according to destination through bar co de scanner †¢RFID technology to track the consignment location in real time †¢Hand held devices to confirm the delivery status on real time basis †¢Centralized data management Automatic loading of mails in the Transporting Mode †¢Automatic packing of goods and mail to utilize as full load (except in case of lower quantity) †¢Connectivity of all facility centers to check the system information in real time †¢Advance booking and pick up parcel †¢Centralized database to better control the address database of customers India Post is lagging in automation of its process. It has implemented barcode technology in most of its services, but it is not fully supported by its aging staff. Most of the post offices in the rural areas are manually functioning. Many post offices, Mail offices, Administrative offices are not yet computerized.Automatic letter sorting machine is under installation in four metropolitan cities of India, which can increase the sorting s peed to approx. 35000 per hour. In addition, Mixed Mail sorting machine are also under process of implementation to sort large size letters, parcels/packets to the speed of about 16000 per hour. These machines will help to automate the process with better speed, quality and efficiency. As compared to private mail service providers, most of the offices are fully computerized, with full system integration with centralized server. Their offices are connected with real time information system and the core business functions are controlled through IT. Sourcing and Vertical IntegrationSourcing is an important structural aspect of an operations organizations encompasses decision regarding how much of the total work required to create and deliver its services will be done internally and how much can be outsourced from outside organizations. In service industry, outsourcing can reduce the cost of operation. Strategic control in the operation decides the level of outsourcing in mail service. India Post is operating under huge geographical exposure. As a part of its public service, it has to reach to the last consumer in the map. Establishing self-employed service centers at all operating location is costly proposition, therefore to maintain the presence and cost effectiveness it has to outsource some of its activities in the extreme areas of operation. Apart from its front office activities, India Post has scope for outsourcing at almost every stage of operation. Post office maintenance at certain location as per India Post terms and Condition †¢Transportation of dak / mail by road, rail and air through third party agency rather than self procuring the trucks and loaders †¢Deploying a local team for post office maintenance at distant location, but centralized control through district head or regional head post office †¢Dealership and franchise network apart from regular staff †¢Liaison with government organizations and PSU’s to deliver all the mails of govt. institutions through India Post Front office counter franchise India post has a franchise scheme that offers various products and services in urban and upcoming urban areas.Basic features of the Urban franchise model: †¢It provides only counter services, delivery and transmission lies with India post. †¢Provision of services under franchise across the counter for a minimum defined time schedule with flexibility to work round the clock Products and services offered †¢Sale of Stamps and stationery †¢Booking registered articles, speed post articles, money orders, e-post etc. †¢Functioning as an agent for PLI and provide related after sales service, including collection of premia (subject to fulfillment of criteria for PLI agents). †¢Marketing products for which the Department has a corporate agency or tie-up and provide related follow up services (subject to agreement with the other organizations involved). Providing retail and bill/tax/fin e collection/payment services of the Department (Subject to agreement with the other organizations involved) †¢Facilitating the provision of e-governance and citizen-centric services (subject to agreement with the other organizations involved) †¢Any other service introduced by the Department in future through its outlets which is considered amenable to the franchisee model. (subject to agreement with the other organizations involved) Transportation Service The transportation of mail is through various modes 1. By hand 2. Surface line, road transport 3. Surface line, rail transport 4. Air line, Plane transport India Post has manages mail transportation with their own facilities as well as third party service providers. India post has huge employee base to deliver the post by hand to the recipients, but for the transportation on surface and air, it has its own vehicles and also arrangements with third party logistics vendors.Air transport – international deliveries, I ndia Post has tie-up with premier DHL logistics Mail Motor Services (MMS) – For transmission of mail between mail offices and post offices between cities, India Post has its own fleet of 1282 vehicles, full-fledged maintenance workshop facilities Rail transport – for long distance transmission of mails, India Post has tie-up with Indian Railways Scope for Sourcing 1. Road transportation – India post can outsource the transmission of mails between cities and reduce the load of maintenance and fixed fleet expenses, third party service dedicated to India Post can help in focusing on timely delivery and maintenance of quality service. It offload the risk of transportation, maintenance expenses, buying-selling of vehicles etc 2. Franchise for rural areas – India Post franchise scheme is primarily for Urban Areas where the post office is justified but cannot be opened.For India Post, the focus of expanding the reach should be associated with cost factor. As in urban areas, the cost of opening a post office would be high. Similarly, operating cost in the far distant rural areas will also be high. In order to minimize the cost of operation, India Post can outsource some of its urban offices, and similarly rural office, where the cost of operation for local would be lesser than setting up self-employed service centers. 3. Long-term contracts with Customers – India Post can leverage on its wide presence, and govt. institution tag for getting long-term contracts with other govt. institutions and PSUs for delivery of all mails through India Post.This will ensure dedicated source of Income for India Post, and beyond that, it will be a great financial assistance to serve the rural areas. Infrastructural Decisions A company’s operations infrastructure is composed of its policies and systems governing a number of activities, from capital budgeting and equipment selection to organizational structure. Each of these systems often has rep ercussions and implications for other infrastructural and structural elements. Resource allocation and capital budgeting systems Human Resource systems India Post has workforce, which is old aged, there has been no fresh recruitment in India Post from many years for junior and senior level management positions.In the present system, where consumer are growing at fast pace, and the technology and information system is growing in the industry, there is need of well-informed and responsive workforce that can understand the existing IT and customers need. Due to aging workforce, computer literacy among the employees is not at par and training and development of employees has taken a back step in the policies of India Post. Although, India Post organizes many training program for its middle / senior level management employees but due to aging factor, the life expectancy in the organization as well the contribution in the organization is limited. Work Planning and Control systems Quality systemsThe quality system has been focused upon by India post since 2005-06. With the prioritization of computerization in 2006-07 for the development of India post, the Government has laid focus on improving service levels and to enable electronic networking of about 1, 30,000 rural Post Offices. Recently, A Plan costing Rs. 1877. 2 Crores has been formulated to computerize the Post Offices in Rural areas to further improvise on this front. Project Arrow was launched in April 2008. The project envisages up gradation of Post Offices in urban and rural areas both in terms of upgrading and enhancing the quality of service in â€Å"core areas† and improving their â€Å"look and feel†.The project aims at creating a conducive and friendly work environment both for the staff and the customers visiting the Post Offices, providing all IT enabled services through secure connectivity, improving the service quality levels in the core business areas e. g. Mail delivery, Remittance s both electronic and manual and Postal Savings schemes. The â€Å"Look and Feel† activity focuses on improvement in Branding, Information Technology, Human Resource and Infrastructure. Based on the audit report of Project Arrow conducted over 50 post offices of 10 states: 1. In terms of Performance on Mail Delivery, Registered letter performances were 99 %, where as the figures for Ordinary mail varied between 94 to 100%. For Speed post it ranged between 98 to 99 %. 2.In terms of time taken for delivery of letters, post offices scored between 90 to 92% during the 3 rounds of Audit though a higher score was expected. Till June 2012, the Project has been implemented in respect of monitoring of core areas in more than 15,500 Post Offices and â€Å"Look and Feel† has been improved in 1,530 Post Offices. The Government has recently started a new Automated Mail Processing Centre (AMPC) in Delhi on August 20, 2012 to improve mail quality with next-generation sorting centres and to modernize the mail processing operations at India Post. The new letter sorting machine can sort 35,000 letters per hour, while the mixed mail sorter can process 20,000 letters, packets and small parcels an hour.The automated sorting systems should â€Å"considerably† improve sorting errors and improve the quality of mail services, the government said, with the new mixed mail sorter scanning tracking barcodes automatically as items are being sorted. Processing efficiency should also improve because mail can be sorted in a single run, while manual sorting had required a second stage of sorting. As per an interview given by Siemens, the developer of AMPC, to the media; â€Å"The automation route will â€Å"significantly† reduce processing time and save â€Å"considerable† cost for the Indian postal department. Handwriting or language is no longer a barrier as the special IVR by Siemens can read various scripts e. g. Greek, Cyrilic, Arabic, Chinese, English, Hindi.For the postal centers at Delhi and Kolkata, this machine will be able to read English and Hindi and as a result will enable Department of Post to provide better and more efficient services with hig h level of productivity† . From quality aspects as such, the ministry is taking measures like the introduction of AMPC and Project Arrow to improvise the quality. Still, a lot of rural villages are not computerized and timely delivery of mails has been a major issue. Also, the technologies like AMPC need to reach out to more major cities for further reducing the cost and improve service levels. The Government provides money bank guarantee of Rs 500 on damage or loss of any parcel but no specifications regarding this are provided.As such, a lot of people prefer other courier services to send valuable or important mails/parcels. Measurement and reward systems One of the major problems with India post is the undefined promotion structure. The employees are bound for a fixed pay and no variable pay/ Incentives are provided. The promotion is based on experience rather than utility/ quality and irrespective of poor showing at work, job security is provided which makes the system lazy. Frequent transfer of employees and low growth potential for an individual are few other concerns which needs to be addressed upon along with a continuous feedback system of employees. Product and process development systemsIndia Post although the oldest and most significant player in mail service but with time the competitors has taken a lead and the social obligation of India Post has put them in back step in process development, improvement and fast implementation. The project team for process improvisation works on the guidelines given by the members after approval for the Ministry of Telecommunications and IT, larger projects has to get the approval from the ministry before commencement. Organization structure The organization structure of India Post is a complex organizati on structure (Exhibit 1). It has many vertical layers and simultaneously horizontal divisions. India Post is a government body, therefore the bureaucratic organization structure is inevitable, it has members deputed by Govt. of India as well as personnel that are recruited by India Post itself.Due to various business dimensions (postal mail service, PF fund, MNREGA fund, Bank, Finance, Forex etc) of India Post, each business vertical is treated as separate business unit and therefore makes the structure more complex. The organization structure is a centralized, and bureaucratic, power to take decision lies with the senior management and staff is primarily to do the regular business / operational activities. Operations Strategy for India Post Considering, the fact that India post is the Govt. institutional body and their prime focus is to serve the mass market by offering its services at lowest possible rates with high quality and good speed.In addition, India Post desires to be self -sustaining organization, it involves trade-offs between operation strategy matrix parameters (Price, Quality, Dependability, Flexibility and Speed). They can make their product primarily in two segments: 1. Business Mails2. General Mails General Mails – it is for mass market focusing on public, for cost sensitive customers (primarily poor people), delivery of mails to any location with a specified time delivery. Business Mails – it is specialized service, other than just sending mails (other than General Mails), the prices should be competitive with other private players, delivery time specified, service customization as required by the customers. E. g. speed post, registered post, logistics, parcels and box parcel etc. Exhibit 1 : Organization Structure, India Post

Analysis Of Poes The Cask Of Amontillado - 741 Words

Poe’s 1846 work, â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado,† details the manipulative and vengeful actions of the narrator, Montresor, including luring his victim, Fortunato, into his family catacombs with alcohol in order to bury him alive. Poe reflects his foster father as the murderer of the story, and shows the sardonicism of his life through dramatic and verbal irony. When Poe was in school, his foster mother died. She instructed her husband to wait until Poe returned home before her burial, but John Allan disregarded this and buried her before Poe returned. Although the real-life event is not as literal as Poe describes in his work, both his foster mother and Fortunato are prematurely buried. The exaggeration of his foster mother’s death is shown†¦show more content†¦However, Montresor never states what Fortunato did to offend him, alerting the reader to question if Montresor is simply imagining the thought himself, showing the signs of a mentally unstable per son. Here, Montresor represents Poe’s foster father, as both commit a sin out of vengeance – Montresor murders Fortunato, and Allan disobeys the wishes of his late wife. By portraying his foster father as the murderer, Poe portrays him as evil and mentally unstable. In a way, this can also be seen as Poe’s revenge against his father. Additionally, Fortunato trusts the narrator (motivated by the promise of alcohol) even though there are foreboding presages of his coming misfortune. On the contrary, Poe did not trust his foster father’s judgement, leading to conflict between the two. At the end of Poe’s work, Fortunato begins to express his panic, when the alcohol wears off and he realizes his demise, as heard by Montresor: â€Å"I heard the furious vibrations of the chain [†¦] a succession of loud and shrill screams, bursting suddenly from the throat of the chained form, seemed to thrust me violently back† (Poe â€Å"The Cask of Amontil lado†). Despite hearing the tormented cries of his victim, Montresor continues his actions determinedly, and justifies his sickened heart with the â€Å"dampness of the catacombs† (Poe â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado†). The narrator’s lack of sympathy relates to Allan’s disownment of his son. Allan neverShow MoreRelated Poes The Cask of Amontillado: A Psychological Analysis of Characters1226 Words   |  5 PagesPoes The Cask of Amontillado: A Psychological Analysis of Characters Widely regarded as E. A. Poes finest story, The Cask of Amontillado depicts a deed so horrific that for many it defines evil. Edmund Clarence Stedman said of Poes writings: He strove by a kind of divination to put his hand upon the links of mind and matter, and reach the hiding-places of the soul. Even though 20th century theories of psychology would not be formulated until many years after Poes death, he neverthelessRead MoreAnalysis Of Edgar Allan Poes The Cask Of Amontillado772 Words   |  4 Pagesor feeling. His use of dialogue can be found in â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† when he writes; Nitre? he asked, at length.Nitre, I replied. How long have you had that cough? (Poe 43-44).This use of dialogue shows that Poe uses it to add detail about how the Montresor was trying to convince Nitre that he was sick. By convincing him of this through dialogue, Poe adds plot on how he will get Nitre to come with him. Also in â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado†, Poe writes â€Å"T hese vaults, he said, are extensiveRead MoreAnalysis Of Edgar Allen Poes The Cask Of Amontillado968 Words   |  4 Pagesdownfall. In Edgar Allen Poe’s â€Å"the Cask of Amontillado,† Fortunato’s pride and his self-proclaimed â€Å"connoisseurship of wine,† ultimately leads him to his death (Poe 1). The imagery used by Poe truly shows the contrast and the outward struggle between Montresor, the narrator, and Fortunato, the victim. The dark setting of the play foreshadows the dark fate that awaits Fortunato. The jester outfit that the victim dons contrasts the darkness around him. In ‘The Cask of Amontillado,† Poe uses vivid imageryRead MoreEdgar Allan Poe s The Cask Of Amontillado1232 Words   |  5 PagesPoe’s Irony To develop the analytical paper about the text â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† by Edgar Allan Poe, some sources will be used to support the thesis statement, which is â€Å"The author uses irony in the text to illustrate the murder of Fortunado by Montresor, who seeks salvation through death†. Also, there is going to be an analysis on the irony found in the text in relation with the story. To support this thesis, I am going to use some examples from some sources such as â€Å"Literary analysis: IronyRead MoreThe Cask Of Amontillado By Edgar Allan Poe1575 Words   |  7 Pages â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado.† Montresor plots and kills an unwary friend/foe during carnival time for motives that are unclear. The author of this tale, Edgar Allan Poe, influenced by his somewhat tragic life and one of the most influential Gothic writers, uses symbolism and irony to show the multitude of complicated motives of the narrator in his famous horror story. Upon examining Edgar Allan Poe’s life, one is not surprised that he chooses to write such gloomy and sinister stories. Poe’s life isRead MoreThe Cask of Amontialldo1026 Words   |  5 PagesNever Have Too Much Pride The insult had been done, and Montresor was out for revenge on Fortunato. Not a soul but Montresor knew what the insult may have been, but this is what makes the short story â€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† by Edgar Allan Poe. The story is about a man, Montresor, who receives a wine that Fortunato, the wine expert, is looking for. During a carnival, Montresor persuades Fortunato to take him to his personal wine cellars, located in the catacombs. Fortunato became impaired, MontresorRead MoreRole of Realism in Edagar Allan Poe ´s The Tell Tale Heart and The Cask of Amortillado1014 Words   |  5 Pagesâ€Å"The Cask of Amontillado† written by Edgar Allan Poe are dark short stories relevant to murder, revenge, and mystery. Poe writes both stories in a Gothic style in order to deal with ideas of realism. One may ask were the murders and punishments justifiable in either short story? One may also ask did Poe accurately depict realism in each story? Realism, defined as a t echnique in literature that accurately represents everyday life, is questioned in Poe’s works: â€Å"The Tell Tale Heart† and â€Å"The Cask ofRead MoreFor the Love of God, Poe! Essay1359 Words   |  6 PagesIt is not at all surprising that so many of Edgar Allan Poe’s works explore such themes as death, eyes, the power of the dead over the power of the living, retribution, the human conscience, and especially death and murder. From his disturbingly morbid short story â€Å"The Telltale Heart† to the mysteriously supernatural poem â€Å"The Raven†, Poe’s tales are a direct byproduct of the mayhem experienced in his life, as well as his (arguably) psychologically-tormented mind. Though all of this author’s piecesRead MoreCritical Interpretations of The Cask of Amontillado Essay1314 Words   |  6 Pagesquot;The Cask of Amontilladoquot;: Critical Interpretations Among Poes most intriguing tales is quot;The Cask of Amontillado,quot; first published in Godeys Ladys Book in November of 1847. A surface reading of that story reveals only a simple description by Montresor (the narrator) of how he kills another man who was called, ironically, Fortunato. Montresor exploits Fortunatos vanity concerning the connoiseurship of wine; specifically, Montresor pretends to want a wine cask of Amontillado verifiedRead MoreLiterary Analysis Of The Cask Of Amontillado 1493 Words   |  6 PagesBrooke Womack Literary Analysis Paper Into to Literature: American I Dr. Julia Pond 12 October 2017 The Cask of Amontillado The Cask of Amontillado is a tale of terror written by Edgar Allen Poe. This short story is from the point of view from Montresor’s memory. The setting of this story is in a small unnamed European city, at a local carnival and then at the catacombs under Montresor’s home, around duck. The brief synopsis of this story is about the revenge that the Montresor, the antagonist

Optimization Technique For Feature Selection And...

Optimization Technique for Feature Selection and Classification Using Support Vector Machine Abstract— Classification problems often have a large number of features in the data sets, but only some of them are useful for classification. Data Mining Performance gets reduced by Irrelevant and redundant features. Feature selection aims to choose a small number of relevant features to achieve similar or even better classification performance than using all features. It has two main objectives are maximizing the classification performance and minimizing the number of features. Moreover, the existing feature selection algorithms treat the task as a single objective problem. Selecting attribute is done by the combination of attribute evaluator and search method using WEKA Machine Learning Tool. We compare SVM classification algorithm to automatically classify the data using selected features with different standard dataset. Index Terms— Data Mining, Kernel methods, Support Vector Machine, WEKA, Classification. . —————————— ï  µ —————————— 1 INTRODUCTION S upport Vector Machine (SVM) was first described in 1992, introduced by Boser, Guyon, and Vapnik. Support vector machines (SVMs) are a set of related supervised learning methods used for classification and regression [1]. They belong to a family of linear classifiers. In other words, Support Vector Machine (SVM) is a tool of classification andShow MoreRelatedDetection Ratio Of Cyber Attack Detection2009 Words   |  9 Pagesthe Detection Ratio of Cyber Attack Using Feature Reduction Based on Support Vector Machine and Glowworm Optimization Abstract— The swarm intelligence plays vital role in feature reduction process in cyber-attack detection. The family of swarm intelligence gives bucket of algorithm for the processing of feature reduction such as ant colony optimization, particle swarm optimization and many more. In family of swarm new algorithm is called glowworm optimization algorithm based on the concept of luciferinRead MoreA Research Study On Machine Learning Community, The Decision Tree Algorithms, Quinlan s Id3 And Its Successor Essay1462 Words   |  6 Pages J. Ross Quinlan. In machine learning community, the decision tree algorithms, Quinlan’s ID3 and its successor C4.5: Programs for machine learning are probably the most popular. The various issues related to decision tree are discussed from the initial state of building a tree to methods of pruning, converting trees into rules and handling other problems such as missing attribute values. Apart from that, Quinlan discusses limitatio ns of programs for machine learning, such as its bias inRead MoreImplementation Of The Machine Learning Classifier For Anomaly Detection1486 Words   |  6 Pages\chapter{Implementation} Implementation of the machine learning classifier for anomaly detection involves using some libraries which help to execute the different steps to classify data and perform analysis. In the next section the detailed implementation of this project will be discussed. \section{Dataset selection} This was the most important part of the entire project and consumed a lot of time. Selecting a suitable database to perform the desired type of analysis was a very difficult task asRead MorePhysics Of Theoretical And Applied Information Technology5766 Words   |  24 PagesJournal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology 10th May 2016. Vol.87. No.1  © 2005 - 2016 JATIT LLS. All rights reserved. ISSN: 1992-8645 www.jatit.org E-ISSN: 1817-3195 1 A COMPUTATIONAL HYBRID MODEL WITH TWO LEVEL CLASSIFICATION USING SVM AND NEURAL NETWORK FOR PREDICTING THE DIABETES DISEASE 1NASIB SINGH GILL, 2 POOJA MITTAL 1 Professor, Department of Computer Science Applications, Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Haryana, India 2 Assistant Professor, Department of ComputerRead MoreApplication Of Ai Technologies And The Treatment Of Cancer1865 Words   |  8 PagesIntroduction Machine learning (ML) employs techniques/algorithms that seek to predict the future based on the data from the past, thus it learns from the available datasets using two phases – a) approximation of the unknown dependencies b) by means of estimated dependencies predicting new output. Such ability goes a long way in analyzing large data sets that may have complex or noisy datasets such as proteomic or genetic datasets. Machine learning utilizes statistics, probabilities and optimization toolsRead MoreDetection Using Principle Component Analysis And Case Based Reasoning With Support Vector Machine2147 Words   |  9 PagesSplice site detection using principle component analysis and case based reasoning with support vector machine Srabanti Maji*1 and Haripada Bhunia2 1 Computer Science Department Sri Guru Harkrishan College of Management and Technology, Raipur, Bahadurgarh; Dist: Patiala,Punjab, India 2 Department of Chemical Engineering Thapar University, Patiala-147004, India *Address Correspondence to this author at Dr. Srabanti Maji Computer Science Department, Sri Guru Harkrishan College of ManagementRead MoreAnalysis Of Malignant Brain Cancer1389 Words   |  6 Pagessurgically destroyed completely, and they seldom grow back. There are many popular classification and clustering algorithms used for predicting the diseases from Images Figure 1.1. Figure 1.1 MRI Tumor Images The goal of clustering a medical image is to simplify the representation of an image into a meaningful image and make it easier to analyze. Several Clustering and Classification algorithms are aimed at enhancing the Prediction accuracy of diagnosis Process in detectingRead MoreSearch Based Software Engineering : Using Traditional Techniques1258 Words   |  6 PagesNow-a-days optimization and testing in software engineering using traditional techniques has become a tedious task. In order to fasten this process, search based-software engineering (SBSE) techniques are introduced to solve real world large scale problems efficiently. SBSE techniques consisting of several algorithms can be implemented throughout the software development life cycle in order to deliver a more reliable product. This paper reviews the application of five major SBSE methods and the issuesRead MoreNatural Language Processing ( Nlp )7704 Words   |  31 PagesLanguage Processing (NLP) deals with actual text el ement processing. The text element is transformed into machine format by NLP. Artificial Intelligence (AI) uses information provided by the NLP and applies a lot of maths to determine whether something is positive or negative. Several methods exist to determine an author’s view on a topic from natural language textual information. Some form of machine learning approach is employed and which has varying degree of effectiveness. One of the types of naturalRead MoreBreast Cancer : A Leading Cause Of Death And Major Health Problem2774 Words   |  12 Pagesearly diagnoses can help stop the cancer from spreading to other parts of the body and also reduce breast cancer deaths. Breast tumors can be either â€Å"benign† (non-cancerous) or â€Å"malignant† (cancerous) and the type of the tumor can be identified by using the Tumor, Nodes and Metastasis (TNM) staging system and the disease stage can range from stage I to stage IV. In the stage 0 (carcinoma in situ), there is a high probability of developing invasive form of cancer in a short period of time. This staging

Cultural Issues Of International Business - 1821 Words

Culture can be defined as â€Å"the sum total of the beliefs, rules, techniques, institutions, and artefacts that characterize human populations† (Ball et al, 1999 p.258). Sociologist generally talk about a socialization process – referring to the influence of social groups upon an individual, and the interaction of that individual with other members of society. Key elements of culture include language, religion, values, attitudes, customs and norms of a group or society. Cultural issues present a significant challenge to businesses; particularly international businesses. This is because businesses involve people. Every business employs people, sells to people, buys from people, and is owned and regulated by people. International people involve people from different national cultures - these cultures affect every aspect of business functions, including but not limited to: recruiting and managing a workforce, marketing and distribution, purchasing of raw materials, deali ng with regulators, and securing funds. The challenges that cultural issues present to international business is that of creating and nurturing cultural awareness; identifying and understanding the dynamics of culture; recognizing behavioural patterns and practices that affect the business; and coming up with strategies for dealing with cultural differences. Cultural awareness can be described as awareness of the various norms, practices, and other cultural variables of a country. This is an important aspect toShow MoreRelatedCross Cultural Issues in International Business2688 Words   |  11 PagesFestivals of Fiji 4 Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna Day 4 The Lovo Feast 4 Culture 5 The Three Cultures Model 5 Cultural Frameworks and Dimensions 6 Hofstede 6 Trompenaars Hampden-Turner 7 Hall 8 The Johari Window 9 GLOBE Research 10 Comparison of Cultural Frameworks and Dimensions 11 Management Approach 12 Conclusion Recommendation 13 APPENDIX A 14 References BibliographyRead MoreThe Impact Of Culture On International Marketing Communication1486 Words   |  6 PagesSUMMARY Cultural factors have long been known to impact the communication and success capability of competition in conducting worldwide business. The objective of this report is to recognize the importance of cultural factors occurring in marketing communications. Therefore, it discusses the following: †¢ Key issues in cross-cultural marketing communication which shows identifying the cultural factors to support marketing communication in the proposed markets and pre-requisites for cross-cultural communicationRead MoreCultural Environment Of International Business Essay1327 Words   |  6 Pages Cultural Environment of International Business Vanda Mallo Keiser University â€Æ' Abstract Understanding the management role relative to cultural influences is critical for today’s managers who want to interact proficiently across borders. One important concept which provides insight into the idea of intercultural aptitude is the notion of â€Å"mindfulness† or the ability to interact with others from different cultures. 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Bibliography Executive Summary This paper is a report on cross-cultural management, with the issues related to cross-cultural management being discussed in the paper. Additionally, the report has produced the future way of cross-cultural management, including how it can be improved in offices relying much on this strategic approach. â€Æ' Diversity of Cross-Cultural Management Introduction Read MoreInternational Human Resource Management : Understanding The Cultural Environment1257 Words   |  6 Pagesmore critical for international Human Resource Management: understanding the cultural environment or understanding the political and legal environment? Why? Include key terms and concepts from the textbook. While there are many various global issues that affect the International Human Resource Management to run efficiently, there are two key concepts that play a major role in understanding how to approach them with cohesive and a well coherent strategy; they are the International Human RecourseRead MoreAnalysis: The Benefits and Challenges of Improving Intercultural Communication912 Words   |  4 Pages Okoro and Thomas (2012) have written an analysis of the benefits and challenges of improving intercultural communication in international business. Their article functions as an overview of some key issues, and is fairly well-researched, but ultimately treads no new ground. The article first outlines the case for improved intercultural communication, noting that business is becoming increasingly globalized. 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From your research you are required to put together a research report document which can be used to assist businesses who are considering trading internationally. Your work should be a result of your own independent research and contain references throughout

Non governmental organizations Free Essays

Non-government organizations are organizations that are not controlled by government and are non profit making. Their purpose is to provide a service or object in which they are formed for they offer social welfare services to workers and communities in which they operate they play a major role in the society because they determine family structures, family relation and also the education system that would produce effective man power for them and others. NGO, s has control over political power nationality and even power over borders. We will write a custom essay sample on Non governmental organizations or any similar topic only for you Order Now (Steve. Witt. (2005) They also contribute to the needs of the poor, deals with issues of the religion in a given area and hence impact heavily on the attitude and values that a given community adapts to. NGO, s helps in the contribution of the humanitarian affairs that serve the communities interests. NGO, s also deals with national and multilateral policy making and even local actions, .NGO, s provides employment to the citizens and assist in matters of dividing international authority, help to research, assess, report and publicize details on behalf of those accountable to them. (K.Rodman, (1998). They also deal with stability and security issues. Most non-government doesn’t depend heavily on the government for funding but the government may assist them partially with funds. They thus do not involve government representative within their organization and they also don’t involve them in their decision making process. AREAS OF INEFFECTIVENESS, UNACCOUTABILITY AND   Ã‚  Ã‚   ELITIST NATURE OF NGO, S Non-governmental organizations are supposed to be effective on their objectives and also accountable to those they serve. However, this non government organization have increasingly failed by being unaccountable to those they are supposed to work for, they have continually been ineffective in their performance and they have adapted to elitist nature whereby they segregate themselves from others and only work for their own selfish interest and for the interest of those whose status they consider important to their affairs and has influential power that makes them be treated preferentially this attitude can be termed as a mechanism of elite capture. (Steve. Witt. (2005) â™ « The ineffectiveness, the unaccountability and the elitist nature of NGO, s is evident among much renowned organization and this can be seen to be true when one assesses their performance with regard to the current debate on good governance and civil society. (K.Rodman, (1998). Roles of good governance The current debate on good governance and civil society emphasizes on peace building, democratization, quality leadership, responsibility and proper civil institutions. NGO, s should assist in helping in peace building in countries in which they are situated, they should be involved in the resolving existing issues in the country for example by  Ã‚   helping to find solutions to a countries conflicting issues when they arise, mediating disputing groups when there are ethnic tensions caused by political instability, coming up with measures that will reduce tribalism, nepotism and corruption, help in recovering the economy when the country is experiencing economic depression, assisting the needy   in their surrounding environment for example when natural disaster arise such as flood, earthquake ,terrorist attacks among others, Stabilizing political turmoil being experienced in that particular country and many other issues. (K.Rodman, (1998). However, the current non-government organization do not engage themselves with this issues on the contrary instead of doing this, the NGO, s have left this in the ruin of government and civil societies. Non-governmental organizations have also in some instances contributed to peace downfall by supporting one side of the worrying groups rather than being neutral. They tend to favor that group that have influential power and assumes those who are less powerful. This has made them to be unaccountable and untrustworthy and cannot be depended upon by both the government and the members of the societies who would have otherwise depended on them. The management allows political influences when making decisions which imposes a negative impact to all the organization stakeholders and employees who oppose the decision on the basis that they are not consulted and. this causes conflicts, lots of job turn over, redundancy and withdrawal and this leads to job inefficiency. (K.Rodman, (1998). They have been ineffective with regards to matters of enhancing democratization. This is because they have indulged in politics funding complains and supporting certain politicians who have influence upon them and this has contributed heavily in the reduction of democracy as they do not play their role as pressure group to pressurize the government to observe democracy. Non governmental organization have also been ineffective to help in matters of maturation of nation’s policy and economy other than participating in development and transformations, this organizations involve in the achievement of their own interest that is; what will benefit them other than what will be beneficial to all who are accountable to them, they pursue their own goals without incorporating the objectives of government and civil societies and this leads to lack of goals commonality hence retarding the government policies such as poverty and illiteracy eradication. Leadership Leadership and quality management are important for any country or institution to have good governance. Non governmental organization are poorly managed because of lack of qualified staff because the recruitment of workforce is based not on technical competence and merit, but on favoritism and thus the management have no proper management skills, the employees under such management thus work with a lot of skepticism and heavy opposition and most of them resist changes and all the rules that the management enforces and this leads to difficulties in implementation of proper practices, policies and procedures that are fundamental in developing strategies that ensures that organizations objectives are met. (K.Rodman, (1998). This also has led to poor selection of policies and allocation of resources. The leadership style in current non-governmental organization is that of authoritative and bureaucratic which ignores human elements due to impersonality of interpersonal relations. This style of leadership imposes rules, norms and procedures to be followed. The leaders make decisions and demands everyone to follow, they do not allow the other members of staff to be involved when making decisions and they harshly react when the rules they enforces are not properly followed this causes slow development, work delays, inefficiency and frustrations to citizens, employees and any other stakeholders and this reduces the effectiveness of NGO, s as a whole. (Carrie Meyer, (1999), Corruption eradication is a key issue in good governance especially in Africa. . NGO, s are faced with issues of corruption where they demands bribery to assist in matters they were supposed to deliver to the citizens without demanding any form of payment and this makes them unaccountable to those who rightfully depended on their services. (sH.Englund, (2004) There’s also a lot of misappropriation of funds and lack of proper fund management. This causes inadequate funding leading to shortage of resources to implement their policies and this can also eventually lead to the liquidation of the organization. When organization funds are mismanaged it causes serious implications, which makes the organization unaccountable and inefficient, which leads them to a step back to transparency and accountability. This vice has passed on to civil societies and government at large. Environmental issues NGO, s engages in activities that are harmful to the surrounding environment. This is by social unethical and unaccountable activities. For example, they may engage in activities that involves emissions of exhaustive gases that pollute the environment or even have technological machinery that produce disturbing noises around the environment they are situated in. They often do not take   proper measures and responsibility   to eradicate this implication arguing that since they are a non profit making organizations, members of the communities should take care of their environment and the fact that they are in needs of the organizations   services   they should allow them to deliver them respectfully without dealing with environmental issues. This causes negative impacts to the community and it has hampered the life of the society and animals especially where there is water and air pollution. They can be termed as negligence of the virtue of accountability to the society.( K.Rodman, (1998). NGO, s has turned into a mechanism of elite capture. They tend to involve only the elite in formulation of their policies. (H.Englund, (2004) There is lack of representation of civil society as a whole and the marginalized social movements are sidelined. Regional consultative of African non-governmental organizations, s and civil society organization lay foundation for the governance forum stressed on role of women in leadership. It has been observed that there is evident gender inequality within these organizations. Few non government organizations in Africa have observed this as few women are employed or hold decision making positions in management of NGO, s. the elites in NGO, s have various skills that they can utilize in government running but they are trapped in the NGO, s. in addition, instead of involving the locals to do various jobs they subcontract them. (Carrie Meyer, (1999), NGO, s has been ineffective because of selective area of operations. They concentrate in certain areas than the others. This makes those sidelined areas not to enjoy their operations. The NGO, s may not operate in certain areas that have poor infrastructure, lack of effective communications and lack of technology. This has led to unequal distribution of resources. The NGO, s have not helped in establishment of proper running civil institutions and instead they leave this role to the government   Conclusion In order to ensures that non-governmental organizations work effectively and successfully there is need to ensure that there is interactions of workers, formal and informal groups, government itself and any other influential factors to the organization. Democratic involvement by this organization should be considered as it is equally and critically important in enhancing the effectiveness of this organization. (Carrie Meyer, (1999),   They should be committed to implement their services to all interested stakeholders successfully. They should also avoid favoritism and avoid authoritative leadership and adapt to other ways of leading that will bring about motivation and morale of workers in the organization. Non governmental organizations should also ensure that they take responsibility and take the necessary actions required of them when their activities imposes harm to the surrounding environment. (Steve. Witt. (2005) They should also ensure that all non-governmental organizations are effective, efficient and accountable and are not expressed as mechanism of elitist capture. References: l   Steve. Witt. (2005). Changing roles of NGO, s in the creation. l   Sangeeta Kamat. (2002), development hegemony, American university press l   Carrie Meyer, (1999), The economics and politics of NGO, s in Latin American; praeger publisher. l   Maha abreirahman, (2004), the politics of NGO, s in Egypt; the American university press 5H.Teegen(2003) international NGO, s as global institution; Journals of international management l   K.Rodman, (1998). Think globally; vol 12 l   Daniel .a. Bell and Jean Marc (2004) university press l   H.Englund, (2004), prisoners of freedom; human rights and Africa poor. l   S, Goonahlak, (2006). Journal, foreign funded l   Lyal.s.Sunga, (2003), NGO, s involvement in international human rights monitoring How to cite Non governmental organizations, Essay examples

Lifestyle Influence of Consumer Behavior †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Lifestyle Influence of Consumer Behavior. Answer: Introduction Consumer behaviour is influenced by many factors, which plays an important role in the governance of final purchasing. The different kinds of consumers have different kinds of buying habits and behaviours. The behaviour in generally is influenced by many factors such as needs, feelings and the barriers to buy products. These factors are highly important for multinational companies as they use this strategy as their weapon to penetrate deep into the customers minds (Ammi, 2013). The chosen organization for this assignment is Woolworths Supermarkets. The chosen organization is necessary to understand the importance of a customer journey map, which these organizations use as their marketing strategies. They use these strategies to mould the perception of the customers into their favour. The main purpose of this assignment is to understand the behaviour of customers with the help of some important theories and concepts behind the consumer perception of buying. Reflection of buying behaviour Before I did not know anything about the customer journey map to a shop, I did not care that much on my entire journey to the shopping. However, I had also gone through the stages, which plays an important role in constructing the customer journey to a shop. The customer journey map has immensely helped in understanding the real psychology behind the buying behaviour of consumers. I initially did not have any idea of a structure that works behind the decision-making before the purchasing of a product. However, the customer journey map have made me realized that even I used to undergo some kinds of processing before the final execution of the busying takes place. The customer journey to buying has helped in analyzing my own perceptions while going for the shopping. Based on all the perceptions, which I am able to derive with the help of a customer journey, following are some of my perceptions that I make before making the final purchasing (Belk, Askegaard Scott, 2012): I generally select my preferable locations or malls before going out for a shopping The preferred location might be because of the branding values or the availability of the malls to my living destination When I opt out for a particular mall, I generally think that there would be high range of products, which are not feasible to my pocketing values I usually have my own perceptions that I would stick to my pocketing values; however, sometimes I find this difficult to be persistent with my thoughts Once I step into the market, my perceptions is changed accordingly by looking onto the available range of products and their marketing styles I am usually being attracted towards the highly designated products However, the shopping does happen in a series of confusion and making of decisions I sometimes throng towards a particular product because that particular product raise my desire; however, all of a sudden I am landed to the ground when I look into the price tagging This is something very strange part of my behaviour that even make myself confuse on how I am behaving like this However, I entirely enjoy the sort of behaviours, which I have regarding the buying of products One more interesting part of my buying behaviours is the presence of less affirmation on my decision, which a good salesperson can anytime use to their benefits This has happened to me in past that I was not interested towards a product however, the intense convincing power of the salesperson did actually made me shop of the particular product I am very fascinated towards good products but I am very choosy also when it comes to the product pricing Some of the consumer behaviour related concepts are very relevant to my characteristic, which is reflected on my way of shopping and the desire to initiate a shopping. Some of the behavioural traits for the shopping may include such as following (Goldsmith, 2016): Disposition of goods to the garbage Usage of experiences to enhance the buying practices Decision making in the influence of several factors that also include salespersons selling skills Changing attitudes with respect to the shopping environment majorly influenced by high-end class standard of the shopping malls These are some of the buying behavioural traits, which have helped me immensely in constructing my own buying behaviour (Griskevicius Kenrick, 2013). The lens of consumer behaviour theory Different brands use different theories and models to change or actually inspire the perspectives of buyers for earning a high rate of revenues from the shoppers. Following are some of the theories, which marketers of todays world use it to perfection to mould the buying behaviour of customers (Haghshenas et al., 2013): Martin Fishbein and Icek Ajzen postulated the theory in the year 1960s. The concept behind the postulation of the theory was the decision-making skills of the consumers, which they develop quite before they move to the shopping. According to this theory, consumers are acting as rational actors who actually make their decisions based on their own interest (Juster, 2015). Abraham Maslow postulated the theory in the year 1943, which emphasize the importance of needs fulfilment for people. It includes five stages, which states the different level of needs that common people requires in specific. The five stages of needs are such as physiological needs, safety, love, esteem and self-actualization. These are some of the needs of a common people, which they look for being motivated. Different marketers use these five stages very effectively in attracting the perceptions of consumers (Kahle Chiagouris, 2014). Hawkins Stern did believe and argue the traditional form of making of buying behaviours. Hawkins Stern argued that the traditional form of making decisions could be made adjoined to the creation of impulse in average number of customers with the help of external attracting agents. External influencing agents can be anything such as salesperson skills. Marketers use this form of skills to mould the perception and buying decisions of average number of customers (Kardes, Cronley Cline, 2014). Overview of Consumer research on different theories The above-mentioned theories for buying behaviour of consumers do very well hold their own ground in the perception of consumers for buying. The observation made on the personal traits for the shopping and on those who are related to one by means of friendships or some blood relations, the variations of decision making for shopping can well be seen. In most of the cases, shoppers have their mindset for a particular product or a brand, which they never change under any circumstances (Katiyar Katiyar, 2014). However, some are there who are motivated to do shopping by means of several things such as buying traits of some other peoples in contact. They used to have initially no such intentions for buying the particular product; however, they do so after observing the buying reasons of their close ones. The reasons actually excite their feeling towards the shopping. The feeling and the desire actually do shape such peoples mind, which result in shopping the product despite having no such prior intentions for that (Lantos, 2015). Other kinds of shoppers are also observed at the market place, which neither had any prior intentions for the shopping nor are they influenced by any others shopping traits. However, they are influenced by some external factors such as effective moulding skills of salespersons. Nevertheless, the conversion rate is comparatively lower than that of traditional customers. From the perspectives of organizations, it is important that they receive all kinds of customers to their market place, as every single customer is an asset (Mullen Johnson, 2013). Today in the modern era of business, shopping malls or supermarkets often include variety of brands for a particular product to provide customers a wide range of options. This is the one implication of consumer behaviour, which different companies use to mould the perceptions and buying behaviours of customers to earn the maximum benefits. Offering a single brand for a particular group of product is not a healthy selection for holding their nerves (Oliver, 2014). The modern era of shopping has made this a compulsory strategy for numerous of multinational companies to offer wide range of brands. Moreover, modern day customers prefer to compare the offerings of different products for its pricing, affordability and quality. These are some of the factors, which dictate the customers for making decisions on product selection. In other words, this is nothing but the manipulation of customers mind by offering comparable products. This is nothing but the creation of impulse in customers for buying the products, which is indeed the adherence to one of the mentioned theories of buying behaviour. This is because that they have all the brands available at one place, hence, they need not to go anywhere else for the purchasing of products of their choices (Rani, 2014). The above diagram clearly illustrates the phenomena of consumer behaviour. It shows the modelling of consumer behaviour, which happens in a collection of three stages such as strategy making by the firm, understanding the market place reactions and then analyzing the consumer behaviour. This is extremely helpful in redesigning the strategies for affecting the buying behaviours of the customers based on the collected data on the buying nature of consumers. Relevance of the mentioned theories The above-mentioned theories are very much relevant to my personal trait for buying, which I had mentioned in the reflection section. The mentioned theories are not entirely related to my personal buying behaviour. However, some of the theories are strongly relevant to my personal trait. Theories on personal needs and impulse creation are very much related to my characteristic of buying. I normally plan for shopping when there is a need for some product. I even make my own decisions about the products and the brands; however, I find it difficult to stick to the set plan. This is because of the fact that the external environment of the shopping malls of my choices often attracts me towards those products, which I had not planned before. I am never fixed at one product (Safi Ramay, 2013). For example, once I went to the mall for buying a Samsung Smartphone. I even planned for my shopping quite prior to my visit to the mall, which I did at home by searching the best phone of my needs a t the Google platform. However, once I stepped into the mall, I just found myself undecided on the products, as there were wide ranges of products of other brands. Most interestingly, the other brands were best in features than the one I anticipated. However, even after that, I was undecided and did not have any intention to change my selection, as those products were slightly higher than my budget. Nevertheless, one of the salesperson approached to me and started convincing me towards some other product such as Sony. The salesperson made me realized that the offer is not a waste if I spent a few higher. The salesperson did actually change my perception and created an impulse towards the Sony Smartphone. I finally landed up shopping the Sony Smartphone, which I had never thought before. The example very well explains the fact that my perception of shopping and the relevant buying behaviour is very much influenced by some of the established theories on the buying behaviour of consume rs (Solomon, 2014). Implications of consumer behaviour on Woolworths Different supermarkets have different strategies to cope with the varied range of buying behaviours of different consumers. This is because of the fact that different supermarket brands use different strategies to attract the perception of customers. In addition to this, different supermarket uses a very similar strategy, which is as the following: This is how every supermarket chains strategise the selling of their products. Woolworths along with Coles form the duopoly in the Australian Retail market. Woolworths is specialized in different kinds of groceries items. Apart from that, it is also engaged in selling several kinds of magazines, stationary items and DVDs. It is the largest supermarket chains in Australia. It has well studied the buying nature of consumers and the effective forces behind the making of decisions. This is because of the fact that Woolworths are now considering on its new strategy, which states that low prices, always. This just shows the strategy making of the Australias largest supermarket chain. They understand the importance of consumer behaviour, which is because of the fact that they quickly scuffle from their existing strategy to the most effective strategy. The declining sales of Woolworths in the year 2015 have forced them to change their existing strategies to retain their existing customer bas e and to add more customers that are new. This in other words explains the implications of consumer buying behaviour, which force the leading brands to reshape their existing strategies (Van Raaij, van Veldhoven Wrneryd, 2013). The changes of existing strategy can be anything ranging from the reduction of product pricing to its quality enhancement. Another strategy, which Woolworths does make, is the offering of discounted pricings on the multiple unites of the same product. These all strategies used by Woolworths simple goes on telling a fact that different leading brands are worried of changing consumer behaviour. The varied range of different perceptions and buying behaviour of customers do influence the strategy making of such companies. Indeed, it is influenced differently at the different stages of their business just to match up with their changing behaviours (Cameron, 2017). Woolworths is one of the most renowned names in the Australian retailing market; however, consumer behaviour has even not left them apart from being influenced. This is one such fact, which strongly governs the fact that consumer buying behaviour does affect the business of leading brands and its different stakeholders (Vidyavathi, 2012). On a same note, Woolworths did force its suppliers to reduce the costs of raw materials to be cost-effective in terms of manufacturing of the products. Woolworths being one of the leading supermarket chains in Australia doe very well explain the dominion power of consumer behaviour. Moreover, consumer behaviour is a challenge for the companies and for its marketing teams, which construct the customer journey map to support their companies having effective control on customers perceptions (Zinkan, 2012). Conclusion Consumer behaviour is one factor, which has challenged the strategy making of many leading companies in past and continued to do so in the present as it is evident from the example of Woolworths. The company has considered different kinds of strategies in past, which it again reconsidered in the year 2015 for meeting with the changed behaviour of customers. The highly incremented ranges of differing consumer behaviours and the elevating market competition in between different companies have posed ample pressures on the strategic management team. This is for such treasons that company such as Woolworths are considering relevant changes in their strategies tom match up with the changing customers perceptions. References Ammi, C. (Ed.). (2013).Global consumer behavior. John Wiley Sons. Belk, R. W., Askegaard, S., Scott, L. (Eds.). (2012).Research in consumer behavior. Emerald Group Publishing. Cameron, N. (2017). Woolworths details 3-year strategy to become customer centric. 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An empirical study of Indian consumer buying behavior of FMCG products (with special reference of bathing soap).International Journal of Management and Commerce Innovations,2(1), 211-217. Lantos, G. P. (2015).Consumer behavior in action: Real-life applications for marketing managers. Routledge. Mullen, B., Johnson, C. (2013).The psychology of consumer behavior. Psychology Press. Oliver, R. L. (2014).Satisfaction: A behavioral perspective on the consumer. Routledge. Rani, P. (2014). Factors influencing consumer behaviour.International Journal of Current Research and Academic Review,2(9), 52-61. Rios, M. C., McConnell, C. R., Brue, S. L. (2013).Economics: Principles, problems, and policies. McGraw-Hill. Safi, A., Ramay, M. I. (2013). Corporate social responsibility and consumer behavior: a study from Pakistan.Information Management and Business Review,5(4), 194-202. Solomon, M. R. (2014).Consumer behavior: Buying, having, and being(Vol. 10). Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Van Raaij, W. F., van Veldhoven, G. M., Wrneryd, K. E. (Eds.). (2013).Handbook of economic psychology. Springer Science Business Media. Vidyavathi, K. (2012). Consumer Lifestyle Influence of Consumer Behavior with reference to automobile industry in Chennai.Zenith International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, II (4), 37-50. Zinkan, G. (Ed.). (2012).Advertising research: The internet, consumer behavior, and strategy. Marketing Classics Press.

What Happened free essay sample

I lay down looking at my ceiling,talking to myself, and notice how The value for something we once cherished can be lost and forgotten over time. Everyone has something to value. I value technology, history, and patience. Most people are not like me and I am aware of that, but in todays society we need to value our history a bit more for our futures sake. If value is something we base a majority of our standards on, then what is happening to the present and what will happen to the future generations. We do not even take the time to address that fact that times are changing, so where does that leave us? Media has influenced us in many ways, but the way we use this technology can bring our values to a lower standard.The thought that run through my head can be described in three simple words, lack of participation. We will write a custom essay sample on What Happened? or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Nowadays instead of hip new games that disappear within the year, we need to focus and involve ourselves around politics and news in order to stay aware, stay alert, and develop our nation in a more unifying way. We hold the power, yet we choose unwisely to act upon it by simple gestures such as not voting, not taking the time to understand the laws thats are being enforced, or even worse not being aware that this is our nation and we choose who runs it for us. Our values are being diminished because of the lack of participation. If you think about it, just about everything we have been exposed to has foreshadowed our future. For example, ever witness one of those coaches that lets his or her favorite players of the hook and not pushes them beyond their limits. How about those teachers that let you take the whole year on one assignment you end up losing after day one. It is people like these that have lost their value, so now they do not wish to pass it on. Now do you see the problem that as time passes on, things change, moral values lost, and history becomes your caregiver. In some cases, it is situations like these that develops the responsibility in yourself and others; however, being a student is recalicent I have to admit but what we lack is votive. A desire in going after the task we have yet to accomplish. Natural rights, Consent of governed, Limited government; does any of this ring a bell? All these concepts excited back in the 1800’s to 1900’s that basically state, â€Å"we are the best and we do the best for our country†.These concepts added value to our choices, but are now being forgotten due to the new ideas of technology, that on some occasions can be rendered useful to societies â€Å"younger crowd†with its use of social media allowing us, total access to the news on the streets from around the globe at anytime and anyplace. Media has its ups and downs, but its effecting the way we see our society and thats the problem.