Hiring Manager Essays

Hiring Manager Essays Hiring Manager Essay Hiring Manager Essay As a goal-oriented research professional with an A.M. degree in Regional Studies from Harvard University, I have developed a strong interest in the consulting industry and in particular am very impressed with Bain’s results-based business approach and corporate culture of apprenticeship for young professionals. Thus, I would like to apply for a position as Associate Consultant. I am certain that upon your review of my qualifications you will find that I will be a valuable asset to your company. With over seven years of academic and professional exposure, living in and conducting interdisciplinary academic work on China, India, the US, Russia and Central Asia, and currently holding responsibilities working in a multinational corporate environment in Hong Kong, I have accumulated extensive knowledge of language, culture, politics, economics and business practices across several countries and regions, developed excellent skills in critical thinking, quantitative and qualitative research, and effective multilingual communication, and obtained abilities to work efficiently with diverse individuals, create strong rapport with clients, and successfully manage multiple tasks in demanding environments. I am an initiative-driven team player with a multilateral focus fortified by a global perspective. Particulars of my qualifications are on the attached resume. Excellent references can be provided upon your request. I am available to discuss the details of my application with you through an interview.

How to Save Money in College 12 Expert Tips

How to Save Money in College 12 Expert Tips SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips You probably already know that college costs can be pretty intimidating. If you’re on a budget when it comes to paying for your degree (and most people are), knowing how to save money in collegecan make a big difference. Here, I’ll talk a little bit about what college expenses you should be prepared forso that you have a better idea of what to expect. Then, I’ll discuss strategies for saving money before you get there, in addition to strategies for saving as a college student. Let’s get started! How Much Does College Even Cost? Before we get into strategies for how to save money in college, let’s talk a bit about what an undergraduate degreeactually costsfor students in the US. First, some key terms: Cost of Attendance (CoA) -Total amount of money it costs for an average student to attend a particular school for one year. This figure includes everything you could think of: tuition, room, board, transportation, books, personal expenses, etc. You could also call this a school’s â€Å"sticker price† - it’s what a student would pay if she didn’t get one dollar of financial aid.Keep in mind this is an average figure - if a student lives especially far from the school and pays more in transportation cost, for example, his CoA might be higher. Net Price - Total amount of money a student actually pays to attend a particular school for one year. This is what you actually pay out of pocket, after accounting for grants and scholarships.Put simply, Net Price = Cost of Attendance - (Grants Scholarships). This figure matters way more than a school’s CoA because it’s what you actually have to budget for. The lower your Net Price, the better off you’ll be. When students first start research on college expenses, they tend to look at the CoA, or the sticker price. This isn’t necessarily a bad place to start, but a more sophisticated way of looking at prospective schools is to consider your likely Net Price instead of the schools’ CoA. This information will be important when we get into cost-saving strategies. Facts and Figures Now that we’ve gotten that background info out of the way, we can talk about what the current college cost landscape looks like. All the prices in this section are sticker prices, or what costs that make up a school's CoA (so, not the average student's Net Price - don't freak out yet). The biggest expenses you’ll need to consider are tuition fees and room board. Average Tuition Fees For the 2014-2015 academic year, average tuition fee costs were†¦ $31,231 at private colleges $9,139 for state residents at public colleges $22,958 for out-of-state residents at public colleges Average Room Board For the 2014-2015 academic year, average room board costs were†¦ $,188 at private 4-year colleges $9,804 at public 4-year colleges You’ll have to account for some other minor expenses as well - these costs will depend on more variable factors. For more detailed information about expenses, check out our complete guide to college costs. These expenses can be really overwhelming for one year, never mindfor four. The good news is that there are a lot of things you can do to increase your available income and decrease your expenses, both before and during college. 4 Ways to Save Before You Get to College As with most things, saving for college is easier if yougive yourself more time to get started. The earlier you start budgeting for college expenses, the better. More time means more opportunities to tackle and plan for large expenses in your future. There are two main ways you can deal with these big costs: You can work on increasing your income/available cash You can work on decreasing your expenses Both strategies effectively do the same thing. In order to be most effective, you should concentrate on both increasing income and decreasing expenses.Here are the best ways to do that before you matriculate: Increase Your Income #1: Apply for Scholarships There are so many private scholarship programs available, from small local awards to huge national and even international competitions. Scholarships can be based on any number of criteria: financial need, academic merit, sports performance, volunteer work, ethnic background, professional interests, and more. Half the work is finding scholarships that would be a good fit for you. It’s great to apply for those well-known national scholarships (like the McDonald’s, Gates Millennium, and Coca-Cola awards), but they tend to be very competitive, so it’s smart to have backups in place. Look for local or state scholarships (like the Florida Bright Futures scholarship), or for scholarships that match your unique interests and background. Start by checking out our guides to scholarships for high school juniors and seniors. Do your own research by googling any important descriptors - like your location, interests, or sport of choice - + â€Å"scholarship.† #2: Get a High School Job This might be the most obvious way to increase your income before you leave for college. The tough part is figuring out whether a job is right for you - you don’t want to sacrifice your grades or extracurriculars, especially because high school jobs aren’t likely to pay very much. Learn more about figuring out whether getting a job learn more about whether a job might be a good fit for you (link out - should you get a job) If you work full-time during the summers, you can get both professional experience AND a more substantial paycheck to save up for college e.g. If you work full time at $9/hr for eight weeks, that comes to $2880 (before tax). That could cover your personal and textbook expenses for a whole year if you budget carefully Decrease Your Expenses #3: Apply to the Right Schools Different schools will be able to offer you different sized financial aid packages. If you’re strategic about where you apply to school, you’ll do yourself a favor by reducing your costs right off the bat. If you’re applying to public schools, you should focus on those located in your home state. Public school tuitions are often much higher for out-of-state residents. (There may be exceptions to this rule if you think you'd qualify for high amounts of merit aid). Know what schools offer the best aid, whether it’s need-based or merit-based. Even though a school’s sticker price might be high - private schools often have higher CoAs - you might end up with a better Net Price if the school has generous financial aid policies. The most important thing to remember is that CoA isn't very helpful when it comes to choosing cost-effective schools. What you should care about is your estimated Net Price at a particular school. Spend some time doing Net Price calculations (it’s easy - get more info in our article on college costs) to figure out which schools may offer you the best out-of-pocket price. #4: Focus on Your Grades and Test Scores One of the best ways to get a good Net Price is to get into a school that offers generous financial aid, as I mentioned above. So what types of schools give students the best Net Prices? Well, schools that offer generous financial aid are often well-ranked private schools (they tend to offer a lot of need-based aid), or private schools that are trying to attract more competitive students (they tend to offer a lot of merit-based aid). In-state public schools also tend to be affordable for state residents. If your grades and ACT/SAT scores wererelatively high for a particular school, chances are good that you would: Get accepted to the school Be offered need-based financial aid (if any was available) Qualify for merit-based aid (if any was available) You may also qualify for merit scholarships if you were recruitedfor a particular sport. You can see how you stack up to other applicants and calculate your chances for admission for almost any school. All you have to do is Google "PrepScholar [school name] admissions" for more information. 7 Ways to Save Money inCollege I do not recommend saving money by using a belt instead of a backpack. Once you get to college, you’ll have a lot on your plate - classes, friends, extracurricular activities, and more. Managing your finances and saving money should become a part of your daily routine if you want to be successful in the long run. These next strategies will help you manage your income and spending on a daily basis once you’re a student. While you’re reading, think of other ways you can increase your income and decrease your expenses. Increase Your Income #1: Keep Applying for Scholarships As you hone your academic and professional interests, you may be able to find scholarships or grants that are a good fit for yourgoals. You don’t have to be a high school student in order to qualify for many scholarships (the Tylenol scholarship is a good example of this). Check with your academic department and/or career center for more information about possible scholarship awards. Also, Google is your friend!Use both general and specific search terms to catch as many award options as possible (e.g. "healthcare scholarships" versus "dental school scholarships for women"). #2: Get a Job On Campus Campus jobs are great options for college students, especially for those who have work study awards. They’re often conveniently located, pay better than jobs available to high school students, offer better personal and professional connections, and align better with future career goals. If you work 15 hours/week at $10/hr for two 20-week semesters, you’d make $6,000 per year. You could obviously make way more than that if you work during summers or long breaks. For more information, check out or guide to on-campus jobs (coming soon). Decrease Your Expenses #3: Make (and Stick to) a Budget This approach might take some trial and error, but it's totally worth it in the end. Start by thinking - realistically - about how much money you spend each month in different categories (e.g. food, transportation, clothing, personal grooming, entertainment, etc.).Add all of these expenses to come up with a total amount. If this total amount is more than your expected monthly income, start cutting non-necessities from your budget. Read more about crafting a budget on a strict income. Ultimately, budgets only work if you adhere to them. You can manually tally the amount of money you spend each month, but that can get pretty tedious. Free money management tools like Mint can help streamline the process and help you be more successful in saving money. #4: Be Smart About Your Textbook Purchases The average student spends about $1,200 a year on textbooks- yikes. The good news isthere are a lot of things you can do to try to keep your textbook costs well below this average: Shop around - don’t just buy what’s available at your campus bookstore. Check prices on Amazon to see if it’s cheaper to order online. Buy your textbooks used, either from campus bookstores, online, or from a friend or classmate. Take advantage of textbook rentals if they’re offered at your school. Sell books back to the bookstore (or online via Amazon) if you won't be using them again. Alternatively, you can sell to classmates who need to take the class after you're done. Don’t buy books at all! See if they’re offered at the library, and if so, if it’ll be hard to get your hands on them(this can be the case if all your classmates have the same idea). If there’s too much competition for books at the library, it’s better to just buy or rent. #5: Look at Your Rooming Options Living on-campus can sometimes be more expensive than living off-campus, especially in areas where the average cost of living is pretty low. If it’s an option, consider looking at alternative housing options where you can split rent with a bunch of other students. Don’t forget to take other possible expense increases - like paying more for food and transportation- into account when calculating off-campus saving options. #6: Take Advantage of the Summer There are a lot of ways to use the summer months to your financial advantage. If you’re living off campus and are committed to paying rent through the summer (i.e. if you’ve signed a lease), you’ll want to make sure you take advantage of that housing: If you'll be staying somewhere else for the summer, try to find someone to sublet. Students taking summer courses often need short-term housing options. Alternatively, stay in your housing for the summer to take summer classes yourself. By earning extra credits, you can possibly graduate earlier. If you live on campus and have to figure out housing plans for the summer, look into programs that might give you subsidized or free room and board. Summer RA jobs might be a good place to start. #7: Seek Out Student Discounts On and around college campuses, restaurants and retail stores often offer small student discounts to college kids who have their IDs handy. A 10% discount is pretty standard - helpful, but not necessarily huge. You can also check out this list of national retailers and restaurants that offer special deals to college students. This tiponly works if you’re sticking to a budget, as outlined above. Discounts can sometimes entice people to spend money they wouldn't usually spend, so only seek out deals you would purchase anyways. Student discounts are great .. as long as you don't turn into this lady and buy everything you see on sale. Final Points Thinking about saving money over the course of four years is overwhelming, to say the least. Although it'll help to have the above strategies for how to save money in college - especially as you make big financial decisions - it's OKto take things one day at a time. To be honest, the big financial decisions are going to be the ones that affect your finances the most. If you make prudent decisions when it comes tochoosing your school, housing option, and food plans, it'll be much easier to budget for those day-to-day expenses. Finally, just because you're a college student on a limited budget doesn't mean you can't spend money on anything fun. As long as you don't go overboard (and you stick to a budget, asI mentioned earlier), it's OKto indulge in small treatslike a movie, a new sweater, or a night out with friends. Don't forget to budget for college experiences like these! What's Next? Making smart financial decisions before and during college is important when it comes to your financial future. If you want to be even more prepared to tackle your education expenses, check out our complete guide to paying for college - it'll cover some bigger points about how to budget for the next four years. If you anticipate that covering all your expenses will be an issue, you should read our post on how to get student loans. But don't take out any more loans than you have to - see if you can get scholarship awards to help with those costs! Start with our lists of the top scholarships for high school juniors and seniors. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Managing Human Resources in Contemporary Organisations Essay

Managing Human Resources in Contemporary Organisations - Essay Example Organizations have adopted various strategies and approaches with the aim of overcoming the increasing challenges, as well as meeting or exceeding the set organizational goals and objectives (Redman & Wilkinson, 2009, p. 14). The shift from traditional personnel management to human resource management is one such example of how organizations adopt new approaches and strategies in a bid to increase their competitiveness and improve their performance (Martin-Alcazar, et al., 2012, p. 512). There has been an argument among management practitioners that the traditional personnel management is outdated and that organizations need to adopt a human resource management approach, in order to achieve their goals and objectives in the increasingly challenging business environment (Durovic, 2012, p. 83). This essay will, therefore, discuss whether organizations need to adopt human resource management approach in replacing traditional personnel management that is deemed to be outdated. ... Specifically, personnel management is majorly administrative record-keeping function that seeks to create and maintain employment conditions and terms that are equitable (Legge, 2004, p. 55). On the other hand, the human resource management aims at integrating the functions of traditional personnel management to corporate strategies and goals, as well as performing additional people-centered organizational developmental activities. Basically, it can be seen that the significant differences between these two approaches are in terms of application, approach, and scope (Tripathi, 2002, p. 33). As has been mentioned, personnel management is the traditional approach, while the human resource management is the modern approach. In other words, personnel management preceded human resource management (Storey, 2007, p. 97). The origins of personnel management can be traced to the welfare tradition in the post World War One period where more focus was put on meeting the basic needs of the emplo yees. As the dynamics in relations between management and trade unions changed, the responsibilities of personnel management grew beyond welfare to include areas such as effective personnel and industrial relations administration. Personnel management approach put more emphasis on the formulating and monitoring procedures and rules conformance (Torrington et al, 2002, p. 29). Over the last three decades, there were changes in the business environment that wERE brought about by increasing competition and developments in technology. As a result, customers began to have widened choices which prompted companies to keep innovating and providing the kind of

Reflective paper in PALLIATIVE CARE 260 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Reflective paper in PALLIATIVE CARE 260 - Essay Example The pain that the patient was going through usually brought in him feelings of depression and hopelessness, especially with the realization that chances of survival were slim. The patient had decided to make an end of life plan in the last 6 months of the 45th year, which doctors had assured him would not end before he died. For sure, he died in the 5th month. The end of life plans included a will, which he gave me to give his son after he completed high school. To him, I was more understanding than his 16 year old son who had lost his mother in a tragic road accident. He was the only child in the family and my uncle felt that he could be spoiled if he was exposed to the wealth before completion of his final year in high school. Care was provided for the patient to improve his quality of life and also ensure that it would be prolonged to last at least six months from the date that the doctors diagnosed him with terminal illness. Counselors from the local health center used to visit the patient’s home once per week to comfort him regarding the possibility of his life being prolonged despite the illness. Sometimes the local preacher who worked hand in hand with the healthcare professionals would accompany them to provide spiritual nourishment to the patient. The patient used to sigh with relief every time the group visited the home. He asserted that he felt taken care of and never suffered from rejection. The care that he received was similar to the palliative care that Lee et al. (2002) argued is significant for a society that has value for its members. According to him, people need to be encouraged even if it is known that there are slim chances for survival. The trauma of being aware that the day of dying is nearing may lead to stress and fear especially during the night when everybody else retires to sleep. Loneliness engulfs the ailing person and the fact that the exact time he/she will die is not known generates anxiety and feelings of

Parliamentary reforms in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Essay Example for Free

Parliamentary reforms in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Essay How far would you agree that fear of popular hostility was the main reason why governments enacted parliamentary reforms in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries? The reform movement first started to achieve mass support in the 1760s; during the years of the French Revolution it even appealed to the members of the anti-reform Whig party but as war with France started, the authorities feared revolution as had happened in France and so used repressive measures in a bid to stamp out these new ideas. It was in 1815 however that the reform movement began to become more significant when widespread unemployment attracted the masses to the idea of reform. But as conditions improved during the 1820s the pressure for reform decreased as Cobbett said, I defy you to agitate a man on a full stomach. The reform movement was not unified nor was it on a national scale. There were different groups urging for changes the most extensive of these were the radicals, such men as Robert Paine. They campaigned for universal male suffrage, annual parliaments, equal electoral districts, a secret ballot, the payment of MPs and the abolition of property qualifications for MPs. There were some more radical that others however and along with little agreement on what should be the best policy of reform they had little success on parliament. There were also calls for reform from more moderate radicals and members of the Whigs that called for measures for more limited reform such as disfranchising the worst of the rotten boroughs and giving representation to larger towns. The lack of reform prior to the 1832 Act can be explained by the lack of unity of the reformers and their less that significant support in the country but more importantly the Tories anti-reform majority in parliament and the small number of pro-reform Whigs and radicals. The economic slump of 1829 and an increase in poor harvests caused unemployment and distress for many working class families and thus made them more susceptible to reformist ideology. This period saw the reform movement revived by such radicals as Cobbett and Hunt; the BPU, a reform organisation was also founded by Thomas Attwood which provided a pressure group aligning the lower and middle class people this provided the opportunity for others to be created throughout the country during 1829-30 with the middle and working classes increasingly cooperating together; the combination of the two provided a class alliance that the Tories were fearful of. The death of the pro-Tory King George IV necessitated a general election in which the Tories majority was heavily reduced and the continuation of Wellingtons government became uncertain with the increase of Whig seats. This was due to the pro-reform attitude of the country especially within the counties and open boroughs. The election saw the return of Henry Brougham in a seat for Yorkshire; he was more popular in the country than any Whig leader and had promised to initiate parliamentary reform. With the reform movements continued support, other agitation began to emerge in the country. The Swing Riots of Southern England involved burning hayricks and breaking machinery which they blamed for reducing employment for farm workers. Although easily suppressed, the Whigs, worried of unrest and encouraged by the Tory decline, announced their intention to introduce reform legislation in the Commons; Wellington however continually expressed his belief that the existing system possessed the full and entire confidence of the country. In November 1830 the defeat of the Tory government in the Commons brought an end to their 20 years of rule. This opened the door to the Whigs who had already expressed intention in reforming parliament who formed a minority government. The Whigs aim of producing this legislation was a measure large enough to satisfy public opinion but to also provide resistance to further innovation and to uphold the authority of the Aristocracy and the existing Whig government. Although they wanted to remove the most blatant abuses, they were heavily concerned with preserving as much as possible the social and political status quo. Their strategy was to remedy the grievances of the middle classes thereby gaining their support and dividing the middle-working class alliance of the reform movement which posed huge problems for the government of left unresolved. The Bill made no concessions to the radicals and working classes meaning that post-reform agitation would almost certainly continue. During the Bills progression through parliament, agitation continued. Political unions organised demonstrations, riots occurred in Nottingham and Bristol and further violence seemed possible. This extra-parliamentary agitation only strengthened the Whig governments determination in passing the Bill. When King William IV refused to create more Whig peers to carry the Bill through the Lords, Grey resigned and Wellington took office again. This resulted in the Days of May where nationwide protests and demonstrations made some fearful of revolution; reformers also threatened an economic crisis by withdrawing gold from the banks to stop the Duke, go for gold. With Wellingtons failure at forming a government, and the huge public opinion in favour of reform, the King had no choice but to create these necessary peers the Tory majority in the House of Lords however conceded and the Bill was passed. It can therefore be seen that although reform was intended by the Whigs, there was still fear of an uprising that could have swayed members votes, especially in the Commons. Further parliamentary reform was inevitable the Whigs had recognised the huge public opinion in favour of reform and were now in a majority in the House of Commons. Lord Althorp even warned Grey in 1833 that without popular measures, the Reform Act will lead to revolution. It is therefore clear that the fear of uprisings was still apparent to many even after the Act was passed. Although the next Reform Act wasnt passed until 1867, there was still popular agitation in the country. This especially came from the Chartist movement whose demands would have essentially made Britain into a democracy; their demands were however ignored by parliament largely based on the fact that anti-reformer Palmerston was in charge for much of the period between the Acts. With an increasing number of reform legislation being passed both social and economic the country was becoming more democratic and with this came factors in determining parliamentary reform. As well as radical demands for reform continuing, a new factor of party political opportunism was also present it was in the Conservative parties own interests to pass the Second Reform Act. As had happened prior to the 1832 Act, 1866 saw economic problems which increased social discontent and fuelled the calls for reform this is evident in the huge surge of membership to the Reform Union and Reform League. In 1866 both organisations one middle class, the other working started working together, creating the same threat that the Tories had feared back in 1830. It was the Liberal party that introduced the first Bill to parliament, with them seeing the opportunity in enfranchising selective members of working class who were already in favour of the party. The radicals backed the Bill but believed that the measure was too limited; many right-wing Liberals however thought the opposite that the Bill would enfranchise too many of the working class. The Conservatives saw the opportunity of the split ideology and the Liberal party and worked with the right-wingers in defeating the Bill in June of 1866; the Liberal government resigned, giving way to a minority Conservative administration. Despite his own parties opposition to reform, Disraeli introduced his own reform Bill based purely on self-interests in gaining the support of the proposed boroughs to be enfranchised. Moreover, Disraeli also claimed that he intended to destroy the present agitation in the country. As well as party political interests, agitation was still ongoing with radicals and organisations pushing for reform. A peaceful demonstration by the Reform League in London had erupted in violence in July 1966; this, along with further riots, convinced many MPs on the need for reform. Disraelis Bill introduced in March 1867 was more moderate than the Liberal one before it, with the intention that those who opposed the last Bill will accept this one. Rather than it being defeated, Disraeli was willing to make the Bill even more radical than the one prior it was their certainty that redistributing seats would return a Conservative majority that made members within the party support the Bill, along with the radical MPs. It can therefore be seen that self-interests of parties was the main factor in bringing about the Second Reform Act rather than agitation in the country, which was the case during the 1830s. Calls for a secret ballot had been apparent since the late eighteenth century, it was even considered during the Reform Bill in 1831. It wasnt however agitation that led to the Ballot Act of 1872, it was the election of 1868. Violence, corruption and intimidation had occurred as in every election prior but what was surprising was the publicity the election received with journalists commenting on the extent to which violence was a factor. The government set up a committee in 1870 to look into this with their report favouring a system of secret voting. Although the Conservatives apposed such a measure, they saw the opportunity in getting radical support so pushed ahead with the Bill. Intimidation still continued even with an increased electorate and secret voting it simply meant that candidates had to spend more to win over the voters. Secret voting did however mean that voters would not necessarily vote for the candidate they had received money from; this, along with radical calls for reform, urged governments of the time to act. The 1883 Corrupt and Illegal Practices Act passed with both Conservative and Liberal support it limited the expenditure of elections (fell by three-quarters in the 1885 election) and in turn reduced corruption and violence. It was parties interests saving them the huge expense of elections that again prevailed over agitation to pass reform. After the 1867 Act, most politicians had accepted that further parliamentary reform was inevitable, even if they didnt support it. It was therefore important to ensure that reform was in the parties interests, as had occurred in 1867. It was again party self-interests that determined the Third Reform Act Gladstone agreed to support moderate reform believing he would gain popularity in the country. A Liberal Bill was introduced in 1884 with the Conservative majority of the House of Lords, led by Salisbury, believing that although an extension of the county franchise would be beneficial to the Liberals, a redistribution of seats would prevent them from gaining a sufficient majority. By this time conflict had reappeared again, not regarding reform but the abolition of the House of Lords. The riots that followed were not on the same level as in 1832 and the government had little to worry about. There was no significant extra-parliamentary pressure for reform, it was the parties acting in self-interest for themselves in trying to pass the Bill that really counted. A compromise was finally reached the Arlington Street compact in which both parties got what they wanted the Liberals an extension of the franchise and the Conservatives the redistribution of seats. With each successive Act making the House of Commons more democratic, the House of Lords remained essentially aristocratic, with many radicals proposing the upper House be reformed. There were repeated calls for the House to be abolished, especially during the Liberals Home Rule Bill, which was thrown out by the Lords. The election of 1906 produced a Liberal majority of over 200 seats, with the Lords still a Conservative stronghold poised to block key Liberal measures in the following years. The Parliament Bill was introduced in 1910, but the Lords were reluctant to pass such a measure that would removed their power of veto. Liberal Prime Minister Asquith therefore urged the King to create more peers to secure a Liberal majority insisting that there was a serious state of unrest among the middle classes that could lead to harming the crown. The Bill was reintroduced to Parliament with the House of Lords finally accepting the proposals in August 1911 rather then see the House swamped by Liberal peers. The 1911 Parliament Act can therefore be seen as very little to do with agitation in the country and more of the fact of the increasing hostility between the Liberal government and the Conservation Lords. Although the electoral system was now more representative of the people than ever before, there were still huge numbers of people who were denied the vote women for example made up half of the population but still had no proper political voice. The system was therefore still criticised, with the Liberal party calling for further reform including manhood suffrage and the abolition of plural voting. It was from the womens suffrage movement that significant pressure on parliament after 1885 emerged. Parliament found it increasingly difficult to ignore calls for reform from organisations such as the National Union of Womens Suffrage and the Womens Social and Political Union, both of which held demonstrations and were increasing in popularity. They began more militant activities including vandalism and attacks on MPs which only helped to alienate potential supporters, it was in fact the more moderate groups that found the greater success. Once again it came down to party politics with the Liberal party in 1905 believing that enfranchising women on the same basis as men would create a majority middle-class, who were more than likely to vote Conservative. The reform movement virtually disappeared during the outbreak of the war, which reinforces the claim that the Fourth Reform Act passed in 1918 was a result of the parties, and not extra-parliamentary pressure. The Liberals and Labour both supported universal male suffrage by now, with the Conservatives apposing the idea at first but hoping such enfranchised men would vote Conservative. Women were also partly included in the act not because of suffragette pressure, but because before the war a majority of MPs favoured extending the vote to them as long as it was in their parties interests. It can therefore be seen that virtually no agitation or pressure was put on parliament during the time leading up to the 1918 Act, it was simply due to the self-interests of the parties with each benefiting from a particular aspect of the Bill.

Critique of the Movie Educating Rita Essay -- Movies Film Educating Ri

Critique of the Movie Educating Rita Director: Lewis Gilbert Screenwriter: Willy Russell Released: 1983 With Julie Walters, Michael Caine, and others Rita (Julie Walters) is a twenty-six years old hairdresser from Liverpool who has decided to get an education. Not the sort of education that would get her just a better job or more pay, but an education that would open up for her a whole new world--a liberal education. Rita wants to be a different person, and live an altogether different sort of life than she has lived so far. She enrolls in the Open University, a government program that allows non-traditional students to get the kind of higher education that used to be reserved more or less for the offspring of the upper classes, and mainly for male students at that. "Educating Rita" describes the trials and transformations that the young hairdresser has to go through to develop from a person with hardly any formal schooling at all into a student who passes her university exams with ease and distinction. In the course of telling this story, the film also suggests what the essence of a liberal education may be. The story is presented in the form of a comedy, a comedy that revolves around the personal and pedagogical relationship between Rita and her main teacher, Dr. Frank Bryant (Michael Caine). Frank Bryant teaches comparative literature, and it is his job to prepare Rita for her exams. Unfortunately, Frank Bryant has lost all enthusiasm for his academic field and its related teaching duties. He loathes most of his regular students, and the main function of the rows of classical works that still fill the bookshelves in his office is to hide the whiskey bottles without which he is not able to get through the day and the semesters anymore. When he teaches his regular classes he is frequently drunk, and in response to a student's complaint that students are not learning much about literature in Bryant's class, the burned-out teacher gruffly advises: "Look, the sun is shining, and you're young. What are you doing in here? Why don't you all go out and do something? Why don't you go and make lo ve--or something?" Frank Bryant is a disenchanted intellectual who has no real use anymore for literature, culture, or the life of the mind. Introducing working people in particular to the world of higher education seems utterly pointless to him. When he find... ... having overcome the limitations of her old world through education, and by recognizing the limitations of what she has acquired at the University, she finds herself in the same situation as Frank: in some sort of existential Australia where "everything is only just starting." She has choices to make, and it is her having grown beyond old forms of life that gives her the freedom to make these choices. This in the end is the essence of her education, and the essence of any liberal education as such: the knowledge-based ability to step back from all form of life, the capability to deliberate freely, and then to embark on a course of action that does not grow out of established patterns and unexamined impulses, but out of critical reflection and informed decisions. What Rita thanks Frank for at the end, and what has made him a "good teacher" during all her trials, is that he has helped her to get into this position: "You have given me a choice." Education, in other words, is liberat ion. It is the emancipation of a person from a state of being a mere extension of a given environment to an active agent who can choose who she or he will be: a potential creator of his or her own world.

Coulomb’s Law Essay

ABSTRACT Performing this experimentation will allow one to investigate the relationship quantitative relationship between the electrostatic force and the distance between charged objects. First a simply observation was made of the electrical forces on two pieces of tape taking note of their attraction and repulsion. This same phenomenon was observed in the experimentation of two charged spheres. Furthermore the we used this experimentation to determine the magnitude of the electrical force between charged objects through video analysis. Derived from our data we have resulted that the forced acting is dependent upon the distance for the forces to act at an exponential rate of .04microcoulombs. OBJECTIVE We will note coulombs law by observing examination of forces in static equilibrium to determine the magnitude of the electrical force between charged objects. PROCEDURE Using the Logger Pro we track the electrostatic force between two charged spheres and the magnitude generated by the repulsion. RESULTS Data was not signed but sent to Doctor Wijesinghe upon completion in lab with analysis of results found. Synopsis sent was agreed to by all lab members. DATA ANLYSIS From the data gather we seen that the force generated increases exponentially at rate of 0.04microcoulombs. The intial data was to dissect the distance the spheres moved due the forces acting upon them in by allowing X to be the hanging sphere and X2 to be the probing sphere in a distance field in of 1m. To calculate this value the following equations were used: Fe=Kq1xq2/r2 Abs(X)-Abs(X2)= CC Fe=mg sin∂ sin∂=x/l Fe=mgx/l DISCUSSION The force will be dependent upon the sizes of the charges, and their separation. In fact the force follows an inverse square law, and is very similar in form to Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation. It is known as Coulomb’s law. The form is exactly the same as Newton’s law of universal gravitation; in particular, it is an inverse-square law. This force can be attractive or repulsive. The magnitude of the force can be calculated by this equation, and the direction should be obvious from the signs of the interacting charges. (Actually, if you include the signs of the charges in the equation, then whenever you get a negative answer for the force, there is an attraction, whereas a positive answer indicates repulsion).Although the law is formulated for point charges, it works equally well for spherically symmetric charge distributions. In the case of a sphere of charge, calculations are done assuming all the charge is at the centre of the sphere. In all realistic cases, the electric force between 2 charges objects absolutely dwarfs the gravitational force between them.

My Left Foot Review Essay

My Left Foot Film Review My Left foot is the true story of a young boy called Christy Brown, played by Hugh O’Connor and Daniel Day-Lewis, Christy is born into a poor working class family in Dublin, Ireland, with a physically disabling condition known as cerebral palsy. Considered a vegetable and using his only functional limb(his left foot) Christy becomes a very successful writer and artist with the help of his strong willed mother and teacher. I personally really enjoyed this ? lm, I liked the way it was set in Ireland during a time where religion ruled society. Almost every family in Ireland had their lives run in the way of the church, the cardinal sins were almost like laws, and were obeyed better than real laws. We see this when christys mother ? nds the ‘un-godly’ magazine under Christy in his wheel barrow. Society was set in stone and nobody tried to better themselves. The son’s and daughters of every family followed in their fathers or mothers footsteps. Everybody had their place in society the upper class lived to work, so as to make themselves richer and richer where as the lower class worked to live, so they could get by in life. Christy however was an acception to this, he bettered him self in society by becoming an achieved artist and writer, and this allowed him to break the mould and become something nobody thought he could ever be. I found my Left Foot quite inspiring because of Christys achievements, it shows that theres always a way to be something that you want to be even if the odds aren’t in your favor! It also shows that if someone beleves in you, you can go very far in life, just like christys mother beleived in him when nobody else did. I loved Daniel Day-Lewis in this movie because of his spectacular interpretation of the disease cerebral palsy, as you can imagine playing the role of a handicapped man must have been quite challenging but Lewis managed to pull it off. My only dislike about the ? lm is that I felt it was a ? lm that I could only watch once, because the ? lm deals with such a serious matter I feel that its not something Id want to view again. I thought the setting, along with the costumes and props were very accurate in picturing life in the 1930’s and 40’s, the houses and neighbour-hood was exactly what you would expect it to be like as well as the opinion and beleifs of the community.

Draft Corporate It Strategies in the Global Business Environment (1) Essay Example

Draft Corporate It Strategies in the Global Business Environment (1) Essay Example Draft Corporate It Strategies in the Global Business Environment (1) Essay Draft Corporate It Strategies in the Global Business Environment (1) Essay Technology In The Global Environment Topic: Corporate IT Strategies in the Global Business Environment Professor: Dr. Ata Doven * Globalization * Competitive Environment * Developing a Global Strategy * Toyota Global IT Strategy * Sanwa Bank and Citigroup IT Strategy Multinational enterprises (MNEs) are the key drivers of globalization, as they foster increased economic interdependence among national markets. The ultimate test to assess whether these MNEs are global themselves is their actual penetration level of markets across the globe, especially in the broad ‘triad’ markets of NAFTA, the European Union and Asia. Yet, data on the activities of the 500 largest MNEs reveal that very few are successful globally. For 320 of the 380 firms for which geographic sales data are available, an average of 80. 3%of total sales are in their home region of the triad. This means that many of the worlds largest firms are not global but regionally based, in terms of breadth and depth of market coverage. Globalization, in terms of a balanced geographic distribution of sales across the triad, thus reflects a special, and rather unusual, outcome of doing international business (IB). The regional concentration of sales has important implications for various strands of mainstream IB research, as well as for the broader managerial debate on the design of optimal strategies and governance structures for MNEs. GLOBALIZATION: Globalization refers to the process of integration across societies and economies. The phenomenon encompasses the flow of products, services, labor, finance, information, and ideas moving across national borders. The frequency and intensity of the flows relate to the upward or downward direction of globalization as a trend. There is a popular notion that there has been an increase of globalization since the early 1980s. However, a comparison of the period between 1870 and 1914 to the post-World War II era indicates a greater degree of globalization in the earlier part of the century than the latter half. This is true in regards to international trade growth and capital flows, as well as migration of people to America. If a perspective starts after 1945- at the start of the Cold War- globalization is a growing trend with a predominance of global economic integration that leads to greater interdependence among nations. Between 1990 and 2001, total output of export and import of goods as a proportion of GDP rose from 32. 3 percent to 37. 9 percent in developed countries and 33. 8 percent to 48. 9 percent for low- to middle-income countries. From 1990 to 2003, international trade export rose by $3. 4 to $7. 3 trillion. RATIONALE A primary economic rationale for globalization is reducing barriers to trade for the enrichment of all societies. The greater good would be served by leveraging comparative advantages for production and trade that are impeded by regulatory barriers between sovereignty entities. In other words, the betterment of societies through free trade for everyone is possible as long as each one has the freedom to produce with a comparative advantage and engage in exchanges with others. This economic rationale for global integration depends on supporting factors to facilitate the process. The factors include advances in transportation, communication, and technology to provide the necessary conduits for global economic integration. While these factors are necessary, they are not sufficient. Collaboration with political will through international relations is required to leverage the potential of the supporting factors. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Globalization from 1870 to 1914 came to an end with the World War I as various countries pursued isolationism and protectionism agendas through various treaties- the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918), the Treaty of Versailles (1918), the Treaty of St. Germain (1919), and the Treaty of Trianon (1920). U. S. trade policies- the Tariff acts of 1921, 1922, 1924, 1926, and the Smooth Hawley Tariffs of 1930- raised barriers to trade. These events contributed to the implosion of globalization for more than forty years. Toward the end of World War II, forty-four countries met in an effort to re-establish international trade. The milestone is referred to as Bretton Woods, named after the New Hampshire country inn where the meeting was held. Results of Bretton Woods included the creation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and subsequently, the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). In 1948 the International Trade Organization (ITO) was established as an agency of the United Nations, with fifty member countries and the Havana Charter to facilitate international trade but it failed. As a result, GATT rose to fill the void as a channel for multilateral trade negotiations and recognition of Most Favored Nation status that applied the same trading conditions between members that applied to other trading partners with most favored partner standing. GATT involved a number of different multilateral rounds of trade negotiations to reduce trade barriers and facilitate international trade. In the first round, the twenty-three founding members of GATT agreed to 45,000 tariff concessions affecting 20 percent of international trade worth $10 billion. Many of GATTs trade rules were drawn from the ITO charter. Subsequent trade rounds involved more members and additional issues, but the basic foundation of GATT remained the same. In the second round, the Kennedy Round of the mid-1960s, the focus continued with tariff reductions. In the third round, the Tokyo Round (1973–1979), 102 countries participated to reform the trading system, resulting in tariff on manufactured products reduced to 4. 7 percent from a high of 40 percent at the inception of GATT. Important issues revolved around anti-dumping measures, and subsidies and countervailing measures. The reduction of trade barriers enabled about an average of 8 percent growth of world trade per year in the 1950s and 1960s. In the fourth round, the Uruguay Round (1986 to 1993), 125 countries participated to develop a more comprehensive system. On April 15, 1995, in Marrakesh, Morocco, a deal was signed to create the World Trade Organization (WTO), which replaced GATT with a permanent institution that required a full and permanent commitment. The WTO encompasses trade in goods, services, and intellectual property related to trade with a more efficient dispute settlement system. COMPLEXITIES AND CONTROVERSIES: The increase of globalization surfaced many complex and controversial issues as economies and societies became more interdependent with greater frequency of interactions between one another. A number of important trends make up globalization including: (1) location of integration activities; (2) impact upon poorer societies; (3) flow of capital; (4) migration of labor and work; (5) diffusion of technology; (6) sustainability of the natural environment; (7) reconfiguration of cultural dynamics; and (8) development of organizational strategies for global competition. Expansion of MNCs in the 1990s encompassed highly skilled workers, service work, and global virtual teams. Firms started to outsource information technology (IT) functions as early as the 1970s, but a major wave of outsourcing started in 1989 with the shortage of skilled IT workers in developed countries. At the same time, the trend of shifting work around the globe to leverage the different time zones began with the financial industrys ability to shift trading between the various stock exchanges in New York, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, and London. Technological innovations in computers and the internet enabled other industries, such as software engineering, data transcription, and customer service centers to also shift work around the globe. Higher education and high-skill health care jobs are also embarking on global outsourcing. In 2001, outsourcing expenditures amounted to $3. 7 trillion and the estimation for 2003 is $5. 1 trillion. The impact of global outsourcing is not just a relocation of jobs, but also a dampening of employee compensation levels in more developed economies. For example, in 2000, salaries for senior software engineers were as high as $130K, but dropped to about $100K at the end of 2002; and entry-level computer help-desk staff salaries dropped from about $55K to $35K. For IT vendor firms in countries like India, IT engineering jobs command a premium Indian salary that is at a fraction of their U. S. counterparts. In sum, migration of labor and work create complex globalization dynamics. For a company to make profit, it requires its reach more customers . In other words it requires to expand its customers base. It has to enter the global market. To enter a global market for expansion certain issues at regional level should be considered. These include understanding the geographic scope of the industry and structure analysis. Geographic scope of industry In the international context it is necessary to define the geographic scope of the industry and those factors that may change the scope of the industry. The factors that shape the internationalization of the industry include: Market similarity Scale/scope comparative advantage Regulation Market stability: The upper vertical dimension is the market condition, whether the market is effectively one or several geographically defined segments because of similarities or dissimilarities in taste, requirements, communication channels etc. Within the same region the market conditions are similar than other regions. Scale/scope: The left horizontal dimension refers to the sources of increasing returns to scale in production process. Businesses in close proximity have the advantage of increasing economies of scale in production of process in companies in same region. Comparative advantage: The right horizontal scale refers to comparative or competitive advantage of a particular location. These include dynamic changes resulting from experience especially in periods of significant technology change. Regulation: The lower vertical dimension refers to regulation intervention that limits the geographic scope of the industry such as tariffs and non-tariffs to trade and limits on cross border investment. A bigger diamond on globalization map may indicate that the industry is more receptive to global competition pressure. Application to sample of industries: Market similarity Commercial aircraft Soft drink Scale/scope comparative advantage Regulation The commercial aircraft industry is more global in terms of sales by virtue of market integration and, large scale economies and knowledge advantage. Soft drinks are smaller on these dimensions. Industry structure analysis The competitive forces in an industry determines the degree of inflow of investment ,return to free market and thus the ability of firm to sustain above average returns. Michael porter described five forces to analyze the industry structure. The five competitive forces- entry, threat of substitution, bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, and rivalry among current competitors shows the high level of competition . All five competitive forces jointly determine the intensity of industry competition and profitability and strongest forces or force governing and crucial in strategy formulation. For example, even a company with strong market position in an industry where potential entrants are no threat will earn low returns if it has a superior, lower cost substitute. Even with no substitute and blocked entry intense rivalry among competitors will limit the returns. New Market Entrants * entry ease/barriers * geographical factors * incumbents resistance * new entrant strategy * routes to market The underlying structure of an industry reflected in terms of forces should be distinguished from many factors that can affect the profitability and competition. Each firm has its weaknesses and strengths in its industry structure. A number of technical and economical characteristics of an industry are important for the strength of these forces. Buyer Power * buyer choice * buyers size/number * change cost/frequency * product/service importance * volumes, JIT scheduling Competitive Rivalry * number and size of firms * industry size and trends * fixed v variable cost bases * product/service ranges * differentiation, strategy Supplier Power * brand reputation * geographical coverage * product/service level quality relationships with customers * bidding processes/capabilities Product and Technology Development * alternatives price/quality * market distribution changes * fashion and trends * legislative effects Supplier Power Any business requires inputs- labor, parts, raw materials, and services. The costs of inputs have a significant effect on company’s profitability. The strength of suppliers determines the whether the cost would be hig h or low. Suppliers have the most power when: The input(s) are available only from a small number of suppliers. For example, if you are making computers and need microprocessors, you will have little or no bargaining power with Intel, the world’s dominant supplier. The inputs are unique, making it costly to switch suppliers. If you use a certain enzyme in a food manufacturing process, changing to another supplier may require you to change your entire manufacturing process. This may be very costly to you, thus you will have less bargaining power with your supplier. If input purchases don’t represent a significant portion of the supplier’s business. If the supplier does not have dependency then there is less power to negotiate and vice-versa. For example,. Wal-Mart has significant negotiating power over its suppliers because it is such a large percentage of suppliers’ business. Suppliers can sell directly to customers.. For example, a manufacturer could open its own retail outlet and compete against you. Difficult to switch to another supplier. Lack of knowledge of supplier’s market. There will be little information about market demand, prices, and supplier’s costs. Reducing the Bargaining Power of Suppliers Most businesses don’t have the resources to produce their own inputs. If you are in this position, then you might consider forming a partnership with your supplier. This can result in a more even distribution of power. For instance, Dell Computer uses partnering with its components suppliers as a key strategy to be the low-cost/high-quality leader in the market. This can be mutually beneficial for both supplier and buyer if they can: Reduce inventory costs by providing just-in-time deliveries, Enhance the value of goods and services supplied by making effective use of information about customer needs and preferences, and Speed the adoption of new technologies. Another option may be to increase your power by forming a buying group of small producers to buy as one large-volume customer. If you have the resources, you may choose to integrate back and produce your own inputs by purchasing Bargaining Power of Buyers Buyers have more power when: Industry has many small companies supplying the product and buyers are few and large. For example, there is little negotiating power if several competing companies are trying to sell similar products to one large buyer. The products represent a relatively large expense for customers. Customers may not price shop for a quart of oil, but they will price shop if purchasing a new vehicle. Threat of entry Success may inspire others to enter the business as a competitor. The threat of new entrants is the possibility that new firms will enter the industry. New entrants bring a desire to gain market share and often have significant resources. Their presence may force prices down and put pressure on profits. Analyzing the threat of new entrants involves examining the barriers to entry and the expected reactions of existing firms to a new competitor. Barriers to entry: 1. The costs and/or legal requirements needed to enter a market. These barriers protect the companies already in business by being a hurdle to those trying to enter the market. In addition to up-front barriers, a new competitor may inspire established companies to react with tactics to deter entry, such as lowering prices or forming partnerships. The chance of reaction is high in markets where firms have a history of retaliation, excess cash, are committed to the industry or the industry has slow growth. . Unique Barriers Entry barriers are unique for each industry and situation, and can change over time. a). Well established brand names and fully differentiated products,: as a potential market entrant it will require an expensive marketing campaign to introduce new products. Barriers to entry are usually higher for companies involved in manufacturing than for companies that provide a service because there is often a significant expense in setting up a production f acility. b). Regulatory. To produce organic food there is a three-year wait before land may be certified. During the waiting period, producers must raise the crop as organic, but may not market it as organic until the three-year â€Å"cleansing process† of the land is completed. Overcoming barriers to entry may involve expending significant resources over an extended period of time. Industries based on patentable technology may require an especially long-term commitment, with years of research and testing, before products can be introduced and compete. Factors Affecting the Threat of New Entrants The threat of new entrants is greatest when: Processes are not protected by regulations or patents. In contrast, when licenses and permits are required to do business, such as with the liquor industry, existing firms enjoy some protection from new entrants. Customers have little brand loyalty. Without strong brand loyalty, a potential competitor has to spend little to overcome the advertising and service programs of existing firms and is more likely to enter the industry. Start-up costs are low for new businesses entering the industry. The less commitment needed in advertising, research and development, and capital assets, the greater the chance of new entrants to the industry. The products provided are not unique. When the products are commodities and the assets used to produce them are common, firms are more willing to enter an industry because they know they can easily liquidate their inventory and assets if the venture fails. Switch ing costs are low. In situations where customers do not face significant one-time costs from switching suppliers, it is more attractive for new firms to enter the industry and lures the customers away from their previous suppliers. The production process is easily learned. Competitors are attracted to an industry where the production process is easily learned. Access to inputs is easy. Entry by new firms is easier when established firms do not have favorable access to raw materials, locations, or government subsidies. Reducing the Threat of New Entrants Enhancing marketing/brand image, utilizing patents, and creating alliances with associated products can minimize the threat of new entrants. Setting a price that earns positive but not excessive profits could lessen the threat of new entry in your industry. Threat of Substitutes Products from one business can be replaced by products from another. If a commodity product is undifferentiated, customers can easily switch away from product to a competitor’s product with few consequences. In contrast , there may be a distinct penalty for switching if product is unique or essential. Factors Affecting the Threat of Substitution Substitutes are a greater threat when: Product doesn’t offer any real benefit compared to other products. It is easy for customers to switch. Customers have little loyalty. Reducing the Threat of Substitutes Staying closely in tune with customer preferences and differentiating product by branding. Rivalry among Competitors Companies in an industry are mutually dependent; actions by one company usually invite competitive retaliation. Rivalry among competitors is often the strongest of the five competitive forces, but can vary widely among industries. This measures the degree of competition between existing firms. Rivalries can occur on various levels. In some industries, rivalries are centered on price competition- especially companies that sell commodities such as paper, gasoline, or plywood. In other industries, competition may be about offering customers the most attractive combination of performance features, introducing new products, offering more after-sale services or warranties, or creating a stronger brand image than competitors. In some cases the presence of more rivals can actually be a positive- for instance in a shopping area, where attracting customers may hinge on having enough stores and attractions to make it a worthwhile stop. Rivalry will be higher if: * There are a large number of similar sized firms (rather than a few dominant firms) all competing with each other for customers * The costs of leaving the industry are high e. g. because of high levels of investment. This means that existing firms will fight hard to survive because they cannot easily transfer their resources elsewhere * The level of capacity utilization. If there are high levels of capacity being underutilized the existing firms will be very competitive to try and win sales to boost their own demand * The market is shrinking so firms are fighting for their share of falling sales * There is little brand loyalty so customer are likely to switch easily between products Developing a Global Strategy The first approach is the top-down approach. It treats sourcing as strategy and integrates the business’s strategic plans with its sourcing plans. The second approach discussed is the bottom-up approach. This approach, building upon the idea of zero-based sourcing, is a methodology for identifying those areas of the business that are least likely to be providing unique competitive advantage when done internally. Both approaches work and can be used simultaneously. And two other important management ideas. The first is that of an outsourcing framework. The outsourcing framework provides a structure for mapping the activities of an organization so that they can be consistently examined from a sourcing perspective, whether that perspective is the top-down approach, the bottom-up approach, or both. The other key idea introduced is the often overlooked opportunity for creating competitive advantage through unique ways an organization combines its internal and external sources. Top-Down Approach Strategy is essential to the success of any organization. It answers the critical questions about what’s happening in the environment and marketplaces the organization serves, how it makes a unique and competitively viable difference in serving the needs of the customers in those markets, and how it allocates and invests its resources toward the achievement of those ends . any organizations view sourcing as an operational decision made only in response to the business’s strategy. Sourcing as strategy suggests that, instead, outsourcing is an integral part of the development of that strategy; that an organization’s sourcing decisions are essential to its ability to create competitive advantage. This changes when in the strategic process the question of the sources of c ompetitive advantage gets asked and answered. Sourcing as strategy is, then, a top-down approach to identifying the sources of competitive advantage- both internal and external- and then ensuring that the organization’s investment and execution plans are aligned with this strategy. Instead of positioning business process outsourcing as an outcome of the organization’s investment decisions, sourcing as strategy positions it as an essential driver of those decisions. The first step of the process is to segment the organization’s marketplace. This segmentation is typically done by identifying the combinations of customers served and the products and services with which they are served. These groups may then be further broken down by geographies or other delineations unique to the markets that the organization operates in or intends to operate in. When complete, this segmentation may result in as little as two or as many as dozens of segments. The identification of these segments is the essential first step in developing the organization’s strategy and is the basis for all the steps that follow. The second step is to project the changes in these segments over the planning period. Typically, this planning period can be no more than two to three years. This shortened strategic planning time frame is a direct result of the hyper-competitive environment. It is also a key reason that internal investments, which typically require much longer periods to achieve a full return, can no longer, be the default option for organizations. The potential changes in the environment are looked at in terms of projected changes in society, business, and their overall structures; changes in the customers themselves, including their needs, preferences, and financial situations; and, of course, changes in technology and its potential impact on all of the other factors being considered. There need not be only one projection. Scenario planning can be used to describe more than one possible future along with the unique characteristics and probabilities of each. The third step is to assess each of the segments in terms of their over- all size and growth. Just as importantly, each segment must be looked at in terms of the current competitors, likely future competitors, and how each competitor may fair in terms of its market share. The fourth step is to decide, based on the opportunity available to the organization, which segments to pursue and what it will take to dominate in each. The former means selecting those segments that are most attractive in terms of growth and opportunity. The latter means deciding what competitive advantages the organization needs to have in order to not only successfully compete, but to move itself toward a position of leadership. These needed competitive advantages should be stated in specific, measurable terms. If cost is an element of advantage, then what cost points does the organization need to hit to be uccessful? If differentiation is the road to dominance, then specifically what will that differentiation be? Will it be design, features, performance, quality, ease of use? Prestige, speed, customer service, guarantees, or other characteristics? And, how are they to be objectively measured? At the end of step four, the organization has created a list of market segments it desires to serve and what it believes is needed to compete and win in those segments. The fifth step, source, is then the essential link between the market-facing side of the organization’s strategy and the sourcing side. It is the mapping of the required competitive advantages across the operational activities of the business to determine where and how each advantage will be created. Some of these competitive advantages may be found in the organization’s internal operations, but others are just as likely to be sourced through external relationships, while still others may come from unique ways the organization blends its internal and external sources. All other activities- those that need to be done and done well but offer little or no opportunity for creating a competitive advantage- are nonstrategic and should be sourced at the operational level on a purely competition-driven basis. Sourcing as strategy is a senior- level executive process, competing nonstrategic, commodity activities is an operational-level process. The sixth step is to forecast the business outcomes from these decisions about segments and sources of competitive advantage. For commercial organizations, this forecast is in terms of revenue, costs, profit, and other key financial indicators. For noncommercial enterprises, these outcomes may be forecasted in different terms, such as budget targets and the number of constituents served. This is the process of taking the strategic plan and turning it into a set of forecasted outcomes. This can be expected to create a slight Iterative loop where the segments served and sources of competitive advantage get adjusted to bring the forecasts in line with intended outcomes. The seventh and last step of the top-down process is to invest in execution. This means allocating all the forms of investments available to the organization: its capital, its operating funds, its people, and its intellectual properties. This alignment- this fit, if you will- between the organization’s strategic plan and its execution plan is the essential step in transforming strategy into action. This seven-step process makes sourcing an integral part of strategic planning. It expands the view of the sources of competitive advantage available to an organization, thereby enabling it to better compete in the market segments it chooses to pursue. It also elevates the organization’s outside relationships so that the ones that contribute competitive advantage are treated as an integral part of the organization’s strategic planning process and as part of its network of strategic assets. The top-down approach also requires that the strategic plans of the organization and of its key outside sources be connected. The result is a weaving together of a network of relationships at the highest levels of the organization. Bottom-Up Approach The bottom-up approach does not mean that decisions are made at lower levels of management. What it does mean is that the process used for identifying outsourcing opportunities focuses on selecting activities that do not contribute a unique competitive advantage, and then competing these commodity-type activities against the marketplace of providers. It represents a zero-based sourcing approach where all areas that do not deliver a unique competitive advantage are evaluated from a competitive sourcing perspective. Since they were first introduced by the author in 1996, the following three questions have been used by hundreds of organizations to determine the areas of the business that are least likely to deliver a unique competitive advantage: 1. If starting from scratch today, would we really build the capability inside? 2. Are we so good at it that others would hire us to do it for them? . Is this an area of the business from which our future leaders will come? If the answer is yes to all three questions, then the activity is either a source of unique competitive advantage or close enough to one to remain internally sourced until evaluated from a more strategic, top-down perspective. If the answer is no to any of the three, then looking at what the marketplace of external service providers has to offer is appropriate. The first question of the three-question test captures the essence of zero-based sourcing. It asks what the organization would do if it was being formed today. Would it invest in creating the capability internally or would its leaders’ first inclination be to look for sources available in the external marketplace? It also tests the organization’s existing sourcing choices against what new competitors entering its marketplace are doing. Are new competitors also building this capability for themselves, thereby validating its unique? contribution or suggesting that adequate external sources are not available, or are they acquiring the capability from the outside and then focusing heir internal investments elsewhere ? The importance of this single question in properly shaping a company’s investment decisions has recently been revalidated by the venture capital market. Many venture capital firms now require that companies they plan to invest in externally source all of their non-differentiating functions, such as finance, accounting, human resources, and ba sic information technology services. The second question gets at the very heart of organizational hubris. Successful organizations are, often because of their very success, filled with a belief that because they are successful, they must be good at everything they do, and that the unique ways they do things directly contribute to that success. This belief is often reflected in statements such as â€Å"we are different† or â€Å"we are unique. † One great way to challenge this hubris is to simply ask if other companies would hire yours to perform that internal function for them. Could your company sell this activity as a service in an open, competitive marketplace? Could it successfully compete against the marketplace of service providers that do it for a living? Would another company hire yours to process its receivables, payables, or payroll? Is there a marketplace for your organization’s real estate portfolio management services? Are your assembly and test capabilities markedly superior to the norm for the industry? Are they superior to the top companies that perform that work for your competitors? Finally, the third questions establishes just how valued the skills needed to perform the activity are to the organization. Are they the skills that are so highly prized that they are reflected in the knowledge- and experience- set of the company’s top leaders? In its chief executive officer? Activities that are based on highly valued skills naturally receive the lion’s share of internal funding for their development and support. The people in those areas are likely to be able to see a career path leading to the company’s corner office. The organization is likely to be attracting the best and brightest in those fields. Whereas the top-down approach examines sourcing as a contributor to competitive advantage, the bottom-up approach sets out to separate the areas that the organization is performing internally more out of habit than out of need. It results in the creation of a list of activities that should at least be tested more thoroughly as potential areas for improved performance through business process outsourcing. As pointed out earlier, the bottom-up and the top-down approaches are not mutually exclusive. The bottom-up approach can be used to quickly move the organization in the direction of better leveraging its assets through outside relationships. The top-down approach can be used to turn sourcing into a competitive advantage. Toyota Corporation IT Strategy Mr. Hiroshi Okuda, chairman of Toyota, Speech When the Ground Rules Change (as he titled a 1998 speech at the Yale School of Management), and the implications that has for Toyota and the global automobile industry. He sees three watersheds in the history of the automobile industry. Each time, a new business model changed the ground rules for the industry. Each time, the new model seemed invincible. And each time, it gave way to changing circumstances and a new business model. Our old business model is breaking down for four main reasons. One, we need to decentralize our manufacturing and RD activities. Two, the product and process paradigms that Henry Ford established are themselves breaking down. Three, information technology is transforming the inner workings of the automobile. It is also transforming the way we develop and make and sell our products. And four, the changing product paradigm and the growing role of information technology will open our industry to a vast array of competitors. Gone are the glory days of the early 1980s when any Japanese car could sell in the U. S. market at a premium. A strong yen, the collapse of Japans bubble economy, and a depressed Japanese auto market significantly changed the industrys structure, and now only Toyota and Honda remain as independent Japanese producers. Toyotas response is a strategy that, in the next two decades, will have significant impact on the global industry and on transportation and logistics generally, and will ensure the companys position as the industry leader. Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) ITS is a concept being pursued in several venues rather than a well-defined term. However defined, it has two principal components: an onboard system for managing the car and an external traffic management system. In its ultimate form, which requires both components, actual driving is automated: the driver becomes a navigator, and then only to the extent of entering a destination or indicating the desire to pull over at a rest stop. There are many features that partially automate driving or provide navigational assistance short of this, and all can be termed aspects of ITS. As part of a larger strategy, Toyota has been developing a packaged system for each of the two principal components. In Japan ITS is organized around VERTIS (Vehicle, Road, and Traffic Intelligence Society), an organization set up by the government, companies, and universities in 1994. In 1996 Japan passed a Transportation Efficiency Act. Similar legislation was passed in the United States in 1991- the Intelligent Systems Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA)- allocating $60 million a year for six years. The idea was that each country would do R;D and system research, then meet and exchange information on the status of their projects. The acts cover more than just ITS, but most government involvement relates to ITS. ITS Strategy Toyota has been exploring the development and use of ITS since the mid-1970s (that is, from just after the first oil crisis). Hidekazu Ohe, manager of Toyotas ITS project, has worked on the system since its inception. However, it is only since the mid-1990s that ITS has become an actual part of its commercial products. As of 1998 Toyota had spent over $1 billion on the project (more recent data have not been released). By 2015, it expects the Japanese market for ITS-related products and services to exceed ? 60 trillion, with the rest of the worldwide market even larger. Toyota wants to establish a transportation infrastructure through which the highway can sense and communicate with each vehicle. It will then be easier to introduce more advanced functions as they are developed or as permission to use them is obtained from governments. In 1993 Toyota summarized its evolving smart car approach as responding to the needs of our information-oriented society in which automobiles are now increasingly equipped with navigation systems and sophisticated communication devices. Cars are gradually becoming intelligent vehicles. Toyota is developing and introducing car electronics to enhance communication between people, automobiles, and society. To make this vision a reality, the company has divided ITS into five basic work areas. By coordinating and managing the interactive relationships among them, Toyota intends to achieve growth and development as a total mobility company. The first area is the intelligent car, a vehicle that incorporates sophisticated an d complex systems and functions. These include the onboard computer, sensors, and other elements that control the cars various functions. It thus supports, and is the foundation for, the other areas. Second is multimedia for the vehicle- the Internet on Wheels, which represents a new arena for mobile communications. The third area covers support facilities that will achieve smoother traffic flow by coordinating vehicles and the transportation infrastructure. Fourth is business and organizational logistics, where Toyota will work with other firms to develop a comprehensive set of tools that will support more efficient transportation of goods and services through improved utilization of the existing road system. In the fifth area, new or radically improved transport, Toyota will work to develop transport systems for the next generation. Matsushita and NEC are involved in building the electronics and computer systems for the project, including the navigation system that is part of the onboard computer. Nomura Research Institute and Mitsubishi Research Institute are involved in software development. Reflecting the importance of communications to ITS, Toyota had an ownership interest in IDC Telecommunications (the company was purchased by Cable and Wireless in 2000). CW will continue IDCs support of Motorolas cellular system in Japan. Toyota also invested in telecom provider DDI (now part of KDDI, having merged with IDO and KDD in December 1999. ) Navigation Systems Japan has a high-level navigation system developed by the auto industry with Japans Vehicle Information and Communication System (VICS), a public corporation. Planning began in 1990, and the system was introduced in 1996 in the countrys three principal metropolitan areas: Tokyo-Yokohama, Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe, and Nagoya. Since early 2000 all of Japan has been included. The government allocated ? 370 billion for infrastructure investment. Traffic data obtained from the national and local police go to VICS for editing and are relayed to appropriately equipped cars. Toyota has been a leader in navigational systems from the beginning, with a 45% share of the 2 million systems in 1997. By April 2000 the market had grown to 5 million units, and most new cars in Japan come with the capability. During 1999, Toyota and its partners launched a second-generation system that added visual data on gas stations, convenience stores, and other facility ocations to the traffic and weather data. Called nav, it is a subscription service. An option, MONET, can arrange road service, supply data on events, make restaurant reservations, and the like. Nav also can be combined with a cellular phone that gives audio information in addition to the visual display. VICS buys software and hardware from Toyota and its corporate partners. Toyota sells the hardware for this system both in its new cars and on a dealer-installed basis. An affiliate, Toyota Media Station, provides the interactive MONET service. Toyota has formed e-plat, a joint venture with NTT Data, an affiliate of the dominant telecom provider. The company makes the multimedia kiosks that are being installed in many convenience stores (FamilyMart in particular, but not 7-Eleven, which is working with its traditional IT suppliers, NEC and NRI. The hardware is compatible with Toyotas navigation system, so that cars will be able to communicate with the kiosks to order and pay for concert tickets, make hotel reservations, and the like. Toyotas proprietary system for Japan is called Nihon ITS. Several other automakers license it for use on their vehicles. In 2000–01 Toyota introduced a next-generation system in Japan with features such as two-way communications. Initially this is for automatic toll collection, but it can be extended to include automatic account debiting for parking, gas, and roadside services. These capabilities require only a one-way system (such as EZ-Pass, which is used for tolls in the United States), but Toyota sees an advantage to going directly to a two-way system- if only to provide a larger market for two-way services when they are introduced. With a system working in Japan, Toyota plans to proceed outside Japan. To that end, it has joined General Motors North American geo positioning consortium. Daimler-Chryslers ITGS was the first sophisticated navigation system in operation, but Toyota believes it and Japan lead in developing and selling such systems. Comparable systems in the United States have at least two web sites: smartTrek. org and smarttraveler. com. Separate from purely navigational aids, Help me or emergency call systems are offered by Opel, Volkswagen, and DaimlerChrysler in Europe, and by Ford and General Motors (Northstar) in the United States. However, these systems do not have the customer-oriented features of Japans version, nor are they building the basis for a full-fledged ITS using a multiple-function, two-way road communication system. With an installed base of 5 million units, Japan is clearly the global leader. Staying Ahead To maintain its lead in navigation systems and ITS, Toyota is working hard on three major pieces of ITS: an Internet application package, the onboard computers operating system, and the hardware in the car. The project team is pursuing two major avenues in their approach to globalizing ITS. One involves discussions under International Standards Organization for harmonization of traffic information control interfaces. This initiative is composed of 15 working groups, and Japan is pushing to get a single international standard in cooperation with ITS America and Europes ERITCO, which are the equivalents of VICS. The other avenue is a more flexible approach, because there are differences between countries on whether a real-time system such as Japans or a request version such as in the United States is the more appropriate. The U. S. ituation is complicated by the fact that traffic- and automobile-related issues are handled primarily by states rather than the federal government. Toyota therefore is designing its system and introduction strategy to work even if there are multiple standards. This is similar to Nokias approach to developing a phone that can be adapted easily to different technical and regulatory environments (chapter 11). Toyota believes that if it has a syste m that works and can be introduced anywhere, it has a good chance of becoming the de facto global standard, which is a key part of Toyotas long-term strategy. Onboard Computer In current vehicles, each feature has its own controller. Thus, brakes are controlled separately from fuel injection, and the navigation system, telephone, and radio also have their own controllers. If the car is going to be controlled as a whole, there needs to be a single computer directly managing all aspects of the vehicle. Under Toyotas ITS, there would be a single computer for the vehicle, directly linked to the servos that monitor and control the vehicles various functions. It also will have the capability of displaying information to the driver and passengers. Nippon Denso will manufacture the onboard computer to Toyotas specifications, and Higashi Fuji is working with Toyota to develop the software to manage the car and communicate via the Internet. Toyota is building the controllers (two-way communications system) that will line the highways. In developing the operating systems, Toyota has borrowed from existing systems. However, it is modifying them to make its own proprietary systems, based on its knowledge of the car in terms of both mechanics and electronics. The highway operating system will be externally based- supported and controlled by an Internet platform that Toyota is developing. It will communicate with the onboard computer, which has its own operating system, to run the car. The two operating systems are linked and integrated so that the information the highway provides ultimately controls the cars movement. Toyota has found few people in Japan able to develop such software, so once it had developed the basic idea of what it needed, it went elsewhere in Asia and to the United States to get the programs coded. Toyota believes its competitors are significantly behind in developing onboard computers and Internet-based control and communication systems, with Daimler-Chrysler the closest. Automated Driving The technology for automated driving exists and is being used. An automatic driver system is being piloted in Australia and another in Essen, Germany. These cities have built dedicated roadways for buses driven automatically. Called dual-mode buses, when they need to be driven off the special road, a human operator takes control, as on a normal bus. Toyota is involved in the Australia project; DaimlerChrysler, in the German one. Toyota calls its version an intelligent multimode transit system (IMTS) that combines the advantages of trains and buses. IMTS includes the platooning of commercial vehicles. That is, the system allows trucks to safely follow each other much more closely than would otherwise be the case. ) Package delivery service Yamato Transport is said to be ready to use the technology for its intercity trucks once it is available in Japan. Widespread implementation of automated driving requires construction of infrastructure and, particularly for indivi dual drivers, settling of legal questions. These will take several more years . Toyota sees ITS allowing an intelligent parking lot that provides data on parking availability, guides vehicles to spaces, and collects fees automatically. A system in Vienna reports the number of spaces available in nearby garages on streetside display panels, but has no interactive features. ) While waiting for automated driving, Toyota will continue development of features that are entirely onboard the vehicle, such as automatic sensing and adjustment for distance between cars using radar. These are part of its Advanced Cruise-Assist Highway Systems program. IT at Toyota Better communication, improved plant productivity, and increased client satisfaction (that is, better quality at a lower price) are the objectives when Toyota selects, develops, and implements IT. As Kensuke Nagane, head of the IT planning group, explains, the purpose of IT is not to change the system or operation strategy, which works very well, but to enhance them. IT Philosophy The basic IT strategy is to use systems to enhance existing strategies and organizational structures. Behind this is the companys core philosophy: Since its establishment, Toyotas principle has been to strive constantly to build better products at lesser costs. To this end, Toyota has developed its own unique production method. This system is based on the idea of just in time, the idea of Toyota Founder Kiichiro Toyoda. This system also seeks to thoroughly eliminate all sorts of waste in order to reduce prime costs. Toyota also places a maximum value on the human element, allowing an individual worker to employ his capabilities to the fullest through participation in the productive management, and improvement of his given job and its environment. With the motto Good Thinking, Good Products, each individual worker is making his best effort to assure Toyotas customers the highest quality product, with an understanding that it is in his work process that quality is built in (quoted from the companys booklet Opening the Window, p. 3). Toyota shares common IT approaches with other leading software users. They include the creation of large proprietary interactive databases that promote automatic feedback between various stages of the design, order, production, delivery, and service process. Indeed, this kind of iterative routine is fundamental to its smart design and production strategy, and its Level 3 I T approach. Management recognizes that better cycle times between order and delivery reduce costs and improve forecasts. Similarly, more rapid design cycles mean quicker incorporation of new technologies. Customer satisfaction is improved hrough more timely completion of the sales process and constant product enhancement. This outlook helped Toyota become firmly established in the late 1970s as the worlds most efficient and lowest-cost producer of high-quality automobiles. Toyota has taken the lead in extending the lean production paradigm for automobiles into totally integrated management (TIM). Although it is unusual for the leader of one production revolution to lead the next, as indicated by Chairman Okuda at the start of this chapter, Toyota has clearly recognized the need for change and the role of IT in generating this new development. The companys TIM approach, using its new smart cars combined with its smart design and smart-production scheduling, has significantly improved productivity and market advantage through its monitoring, controlling, and linking of every aspect of producing and delivering vehicles and after-sales service. IT Structure Toyotas basic information system is a three-tier mainframe system involving hundreds of millions of lines of code, similar to most other large Japanese companies. The mainframes control the approximately 1000 servers, which control the networking system and communicate with the plants, with their equipment, and with dealers and suppliers. The mainframes schedule production and JIT delivery, as well as track orders. There are some 3000 CAD/CAM terminals. The company put a PC on the desk of every office worker in 1996, about 30,000 altogether, and networked them into the overall system. PC use has reduced paper use. Because it is a real-time, on-line system, it has been totally integrated with Toyotas business operations, as is true for most large Japanese firms. It is completely managed and maintained by Toyotas internal systems group, with internal communication through its own fiber-optic system and with customized middleware providing the interface between users within the company. Overseas operations have their own systems. These are not integrated extensively with the system in Japan, but they are networked for exchanging data on distribution and the total global supply chain in a preprogrammed format. This means, for example, that Toyota in Japan can send information to its U. S. dealer network regarding delivery of specific vehicles. Toyota also can send parts orders to overseas suppliers. Ultimately, the company may divide IT into inside and outside Japan systems. Already, for example, Toyota uses almost 100% Hewlett-Packard hardware outside Japan, whereas inside Japan it does not use much HP equipment. Globalization is one area the IT planning group is working on, because it is often a problem getting domestic and overseas systems to communicate, especially in places where the communication infrastructure is weak. Sourcing Software Software selection is very pragmatic. It depends on the softwares cost versus its contribution to increasing the overall value of the car, or to reducing the cost of designing and producing a car. Decisions to develop in-house or to buy are made case by case, based on experience. This is the same routine Toyota uses to decide between designing-in and ordering customized or standard parts for a car. It also is the decision process that led it to reduce fat design (the number of option choices Toyota allows a customer for items such as steering wheels) when it discovered replacement part inventories were becoming too high. Therefore, it represents Toyotas normal strategic routine for introducing new technologies and innovations, whether organizationally or in the car. Except for the operating systems, Toyota has generally developed its own software and IT systems, and outsourcing has not been considered a real option, except to captive subsidiaries and for components that then typically are customized. This is because software is recognized as an integral element within an overall management strategy, and as such must be controlled directly by the company. Generally, integration is done by first assessing the possible business uses of the software or IT within the organization, its operations, or its products, with particular focus placed on ITs role in enhancing Toyotas ability to develop, produce, sell, and service different types of vehicles. Toyotas overseas operations are independent with respect to their IT systems, although Toyota is introducing a global standard for at least some software. Overseas factories are more likely to use packages for office support, but the systems that run the factories are basically the same as those used in Japan, which means they are company-developed. Toyota decided in the late 1990s to reorganize its software development. As part of this, it spun out five software development subsidiaries, all Toyota majority-owned. The other owners mostly are Toyota-related companies or key suppliers to the venture. Buying New Systems Toyota has bought new PC hardware and software every five to six years, even though new versions are available much more frequently. This is in keeping with Toyotas philosophy of using the simplest way to achieve an objective, and to implement what works. This schedule allows it to get the functionality it wants, without so much time lost to retraining and transferring data. The PCs, which use a Japanese version of Windows, are primarily for e-mail and word processing; most workers do not use the features added in upgraded software. This approach reduces costs: a new PC plus software runs $2000 in direct costs. With 30,000 PCs, that is a $60 million purchase decision. The IT planning group estimates that the total all-in cost of a new PC system- including system integration, training, and support- is almost $7000 per PC, raising the total corporate expenditure to some $200 million. That said, if an employee needs an upgrade or a special computer, the request is evaluated on its merits. The cycle for workstations and CAD/CAM systems needed for design and engineering is much faster, though still driven by the engineering groups actual requirements. Such changes require the IT group to work closely with Toyotas parts suppliers to ensure compatibility, so that design and engineering data can be easily exchanged. Toyotas production IT group meets regularly with the makers of its computers. For mainframes these are Fujitsu and IBM. For backup support, fault-tolerant computers from Tandem (bought by Compaq in August 1997) are used. Sun, Hewlett-Packard, and Compaq (as the June 1998 buyer of DEC) supply CAD/CAM and engineering workstations. The IT planning group sees no reason to switch from UNIX, but would consider alternatives if UNIX ceases to meet Toyotas needs. PCs are from IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Compaq. International Retail Banking- Sanwa Bank and Citigroup Overview Citicorp is in the forefront of technology in electronic banking and is testing the limits of regulation. It  instills fear in the hearts of competitors. That observation was made by Value Line  in September 1985, and  it  remains true today of its successor, Citigroup. ITs role in consumer banking is the focus of this example, looking specifically at Citigroups international retail banking and at Sanwa Banks retail banking strategies in Japan. Sanwa, now part of the UFJ Group and Financial One alliance, has been the acknowledged domestic leader in using  IT  to  achieve  an  advantage  in Japanese consumer banking. It  is the domestic leader because Citibank is the overall leader internationally, including among international banks in Japan. Citis drive  to  build market share in Japan receives special attention because  it  is  an  excellent example of  how  Citi is using  IT  to  exploit and enhance its advantages in a large and rapidly changing financial services market outside the United States. Japan is Citis highest growth consumer-market segment, with core income increasing 66% in 2000, compared  to  22% for the overall global consumer segment. The number of accounts jumped 85% from 1998  to  2000, going from 1. million  to  over 2. 8 million. Sanwa Bank Sanwa Bank is combining  IT  and a life-cycle approach  to  customers in managing and navigating the competitive pressures of the Big Bang and the even bigger loan-loss problems. However, as a diversified bank with a long tradition of serving corporate clients,  it  is not relying solely on retail banking for survival. Sanwa Bank Ltd. became part of the UFJ Group with Tokai Bank and Toyo Trust effective 1 April 2001. On 15 January 2002,  it  merged with Tokai Bank. The umbrella company is UFJ Holdings Inc. UFJ stands for United Financial of Japan. ) Before becoming part of UFJ, Sanwa was one of Japans  leading  city banks, ranking sixth in assets during the 1990s. Based in Osaka,  it  was formed in 1933 by merger. Tokai was created by the 1941 merger of three Nagoya banks. Neither was part of a prewar  zaibatsu. Not only have Japanese banks been consolidating, they have been affiliating with established  firms  in other market segments  to  offer one-stop shopping. In July 1999, Sanwa agreed with five other  firms  to  form  an  alliance in the retail market and asset management segments. Others have joined since, with several of the brokerage  firms  merging  to create Tsubasa Securities Co. Called Financial One, the Alliance for the Future,  it  includes  firms  from life insurance, property and casualty insurance, securities, trust services, and banking. The goal is  to  have more regular customers with the alliance each are utilizing the services of several alliance members. Sanwa has about 17 million retail and consumer loan accounts (March 2000). Consumer lending of ? 5. 9 trillion was about 24% of total domestic loans outstanding. The majority is for housing. In July 2001 the three UFJ Group members announced that in January 2002 they would completely merge their credit card operations. With 6. 3 million customers,  it will be the third largest issuer in Japan. Global Retail Banking IT Strategy The strategy Sanwa developed is continuing  to  be implemented by UFJ. This is  to  create a competitive  advantage  with what Sanwa calls continuous relationship marketing. This involves emphasizing  IT  and automated branches  to  deliver  an  expanding range of services related  to  Sanwas life-cycle determination of its customers requirements. Because the retail market is less volatile and lower risk than traditional business lending or other banking areas such as derivatives, achieving a strong position can be very beneficial  to  Sanwas, and UFJs, future growth. Success depends on  how  well Sanwa addresses two elements that connect its retail banking infrastructure with its  IT-intensive retail marketing strategy. These are the appropriate stage in a customers life cycle  to  start marketing a product and the most effective way  to  market and deliver a product or service. To  address the former, Sanwas detailed evaluation of Japanese consumers patterns of personal development requires collecting, managing, and analyzing substantial amounts of data. The second related and central concern is for the bank  to  use  IT  to  control the costs of meeting the identified demands. This includes the expense of developing new customers, products, and services, and of delivering a service or product  to  a particular market segment. Sanwas approach  to  addressing these issues has been  to  develop a matrix that identifies different customer groups and their banking needs according  to  current lifestyles. It  cross-matches this with a set of products for which  it  carefully controls costs. The costs and returns are closely analyzed in terms of the two major ways Sanwa can deliver products and services. One way is traditional full-service branches. The other is electronically, via the telephone, mobile phones, the Internet, ATMs, credit cards, mail, and convenience stores. ATMs and automated branches are system-intensive and thus are subject  to  user-base economics. That means their success can create a beneficial loop. The traditional way is expensive. It  is particularly costly relative  to  the potential returns from new customer segments such as young people just starting careers. Yet, Sanwa recognizes  it  is very important  to  capture these people as clients, because this segment is the fastest-growing retail banking market in Japan. Further, as these individuals progress through their lives, their economic needs and earning power will grow, and they will become more profitable customers for financial products ranging from mortgages  to retirement products. Target Market Sanwas main target is the mass of middle-class consumers, especially those  it  can reach electronically and through direct marketing campaigns. Within that group, its focus is those in their twenties and thirties,  to  whom  it  offers  a particular set of products such as ATMs, credit cards, and telephonic banking. To  those in their forties and fifties who have married,  it  wants  to  expand loans for housing, childrens e