Office Depots E

Table of Contents Office depot operating environment Office Depot’s Changing Environment Organizational changes Re-engineering the business process Conclusion Reference List Footnotes Office depot operating environment Office depot deals with sales of office furniture, computers and their software. It also gives services such as printing photocopying, mailing services and reproduction of documents. Customers of office depot range from small business enterprises to individuals not disregarding large business establishments1.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Office Depot’s E-Commerce Evolution specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More It accomplishes its sale via more than 1000 established office stores, direct mails, B2B e-commerce, through forces of sales and internet sites. â€Å"Office depot operates under Deport ® the office place ®, Viking office products ®, Viking direct ®, and for 4sure.com brand names† (Lee 2006, 143). It started in Florida with its first branch located in Fort Lauderdale in 19862. Later years since then saw it expand even into the international markets like Israel, Columbia and Canada. It also merged with other market stationary leaders like â€Å"Wilson stationary and printing company and Eastman office Products Corporation with a consequence of their acquisition in 1994. The growth was later escalated by merging of office deport with Viking conferring it with tag of leading provider in products and services for offices after staples. The operating environment for office depot is characterized by competition in market share, product lines and technological deployment in execution of the business activities and managerial organization. Office Depot’s Changing Environment The incredible growth of office depot demanded ardent changes in the manner in which it handled its business matters. As result in 1998, â€Å"office deport began to leverage e-commerce aggressively, launching the first of number of new websites, www.officedepot.com† (Lee 2006, 143). Furthermore, in 1999 it opened its very first United Kingdom e-commerce site in Europe: www.viking-direct.co.uk3. This accomplishment saw it expand both the magnitude and range of products offered to the customers. The step-down of David Fuente as the CEO in 2000 welcomed attempts to make office depot a subtle shopping, investing and working place under the captainship of Nelson as the new CEO4. The new CEO facilitated incorporation of new mechanisms to increase the depots retail and international market share. One of such attempts was to deploy e-commerce marketing strategies immensely.  The changes to shift from the conventional marketing strategies, were no choice for office depot since its competitors both small sized and large sized had already adopted the e-commerce techniques.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we c an help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The technique provided their customers with modest of shopping under one stop for various range of products. The changes sort by the office depot were thus driven by the intension to keep at pace with competitors since the competitors changes amicably threatened to erode off the office depot’s market share. E-commerce also â€Å"was rapidly shifting the balance of powers among competitive forces in the office supplies industry† (Lee 2006, 144). Following the launch of e-commerce by one of the office depot’s competitor: office max, in 1995, office depot felt that it was being left behind in the adoption of e- commerce, something that was expected to in a blast alter the traditional marketing strategies especially the moment the customers becomes accustomed to online sales mythology. Despite the fact that office depot had a better opportunity to thrive well in the office supplies market since it de alt with standardized products, entry of small sized business such as â€Å"Opivotal.com and buy online.com† (Lee 2006, 144) which relied on e-retailing technology, â€Å" had entered or were planning to enter into office depot’s supplies market† (Lee 2006, p.12). A way out to counter the competitors attempts was warranting. Office depot wanted to achieve the goal of fighting its competitors on its own after the 1997 failure of the proposed merger between it and staples because, if the merger proposal were passed, it would have become uncompetitive with repercussions of rising market prices5. The objective of merger was to cease out small competitors such as Wal-Mart and K-Mart. Particularly office depot wanted to â€Å"make customers so satisfied with their online shopping experience that they would not bother looking elsewhere on the internet to save a few pennies (Lee 2006, 147). To achieve this goal the office depot contemplated employing B2B e- commerce an d B2C e- commerce online trading technologies. Berkman (2001) noted that office depot participated in an â€Å"experiment initiated by MIT in which a group of MIT’s suppliers would build website that MIT would make purchases from† (20). This involvement resulted to the evolution of office depot e-commerce. The first strategy was to make an introduction of â€Å"B2B e-commerce for large corporate customers† (Berkman 2001, 145) followed by introducing B2C e-commerce to cater for small business and individual customers in 1997. The selection criteria were based on the possibility of â€Å"reduction in cost of labor due to streamlined internal process and improvement of information system integration† (Lee 2006, 145). The task was not all that simple and required expertise knowhow and therefore a committee that worked closely with analysts of the industry was born.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Office Depot’s E-Commerce Evoluti on specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In as much B2B e-commerce was an opportunity that office depot could not have afforded to let loose, on the other hand the committee saw the relevance of B2C e-commerce. Lee (1998) notes that â€Å"the committee believed that the benefits of B2C e- commerce could be both strategic and operational: low order processing costs, brand recognition, business efficient and foster economies of scale† (p.146). As result, January 1998, saw office depot launch B2C e- commerce, which according to Bill Seltzer had incredible room for development due to the office depot’s possession of infrastructure and cute distribution networks. To avoid replication of the challenge encountered by predecessor in the deployment of e- commerce, office depot sorted to benchmarking its operational platform to come up with an optimal platform that offsets the challenges of its competitor’s organizational infras tructure. Organizational changes Adequate evidence unveiled that settling on misguided e-commerce organizational structure had unbearable consequences of revisions as portrayed by K-Mart’s spin-off structure and Wal-Mart’s attempts to establish an â€Å"integration of the physical store and the e-commerce entities† (Boyler and Olson 2002, 489). In the light of the need to keep off the expressive e–commerce organizational structures and its associated protocols, office depot deserved to make a change from the traditional approaches in the technology’s platform organization6. â€Å"Office deport created an online division that could leverage its internal resources to the largest extent7† (Lee 2006, 146) since according to Landau (2002) it â€Å"viewed e-commerce as a backbone of the company’s supply chain† (59). The online division had the merit of allowing the company to celebrate advantages of the strategy such as making it eas y to coordinate channels, technological resources sharing and an opportunity to exploit employment of assets deemed as complementary. This was particularly necessary considering the company’s extensive market coverage and the numerous products it handled. Re-engineering the business process Amongst the goals of office depot in 2001 was to search for mechanisms for expansion of e-commerce business. Bruce Nelson considered â€Å"investments in emerging e-commerce technologies, strategic partnerships, and business process re-engineering† (Carr 2001, para.8) as some strategies that were coherent with the company’s technological strategies, which could help it, realize the 2001 noble goal. On the other hand, Bill Selzer, considered re engineering as the company’s website as the way out to solve the problems engulfing the company in 2001. There was need to fast track changes in the company’s vast store, invoices, outstanding bills and ever-increasing vol umes of transactions among others.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Re engineering the downstream chain of supplies was challenging since, â€Å" the purchase orders received from corporate customers differed in format, requiring complicated transformations and manual intervention to convert every purchase order into formats compatible with office depot’s internal system† (Lee 2006, 147). The outcomes were amicable with a significant reduction in the transaction times, hence quickening data organization and delivery at incredibly lower costs. Conclusion Office depot depicts a company that strives to survive in an environment dominated by stiff competition. Its strategies of survival includes; merging, change and adoption of new technologies such e-commerce. It also embraces strategic alliances and re-engineering of technology, which has already been incorporated in their business as attempts to make it more competitive8. The benchmarking strategy was particularly great since it saw the company come up with a better methodology to handl e it challenges and hence overcome tests of times gone through by its competitors who used a different approach. Office depot could have improved its costs reduction strategies. One way to do this is reducing the vast number of products they handle in their sores by concentrating on the products that have high turnover and those that move fast. Consequently, substantial saving on space requirements could be achieved. The move could also help in reducing the number of traffic flowing into their e-commerce system and hence relieving the company substantially the cost of re-engineering. Reference List Berkman, Edward T. Clicklayer. CIO Magazine 3 (2001): 92-100. Boyler, Keith K., Olson, Jim R. â€Å"Drivers of the internet purchasing success.†Ã‚  Production and Operations Management 11.4 (2002): 480-498. Carr, David F. Case 007: office Depot-Making Liquid Code. Accessed from http//www.baselinemag.com Landau, Michael D. â€Å"Sweet revenge.† Chief Executive 178 (2002): 58 -62 Lee, Insten H. Cases on Electronic Commerce. Office depot’s E-Commerce evolution 2  (2006): 142-150. Footnotes 1 It is an all-round body that accommodates all classes of business people, both large and small 2 Since 1986, the office depot has grown significantly based on the changes that have taken place in the management, skilled man-power as well as the onset of technology 3 This qualifies as the implementation which contributed the most concerning the growth of the office depot 4 The removal of the former CEO, though highly resisted, marked the dawn of a new era in the world of the office depot 5 The issue of merger has been proposed by many governments as well as organizations as a solution to the many problems they experience. However, they seem to know little concerning the repercussions that come as a result for instance influencing competition negatively as the case stands in the office depot 6 The change of the office depot from a traditional based to a technol ogical oriented organization explains the evident radical shift in its performance 7 Its mode of operation, structure and any other relevant information concerning the office depot was made available over the internet hence increasing its fame as well as popularity via this online strategy 8 Businesses that have tapped the vast inventions brought about by technology perform better compared to those that rely on the traditional methods for their operation. Office depot is technology oriented and hence the evident recommendable performance This essay on Office Depot’s E-Commerce Evolution was written and submitted by user Niko Bonner to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Free Essays on A Circus Surrounded By Death

In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, he creates different scenes that contrast the previous scene. One of these contrasts occurs in 5.1, in the graveyard. The common reader has preconceived perceptions of a graveyard. Those opinions consist of mostly unpleasant thoughts and images. Before the graveyard, Shakespeare created a dramatic scene which consisted of Queen Gertrude telling Laertes that his sister, Ophelia had drowned. Gertrude says, â€Å"One woe doth tread upon another’s heel, / So fast they follow. Your sister’s drown’d Laertes† (4.7.163-164). Shakespeare has created a somber mood already which adds to 5.1 right off by talking about a graveyard. However, it is at this point that Shakespeare twists the play’s mood. Act five, scene one, opens with two â€Å"gravediggers† who are considered â€Å"clowns.† The purpose of these characters is to act as a comic relief. This is necessary after the tension of Ophelia’s death and the tone of most of the play. Just a few lines before, Queen Gertrude gave a very depressing image of Ophelia, â€Å"When down her weedy trophies and herself / Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide, / And mermaid-like awhile they bore her up† (4.7.174-176). Right after the reader reads this image, the play moves to â€Å"clowns† digging a grave. They go back-and-forth discussing why the corpse is being given a â€Å"Christian Burial.† The â€Å"clowns† chatter amongst each other about the situation, â€Å"Is she to be buried in Christian burial when / she willfully seeks her own salvation? / I tell thee she is, therefore make her grave / straight. The crowner hath sate on her and finds it Christian burial† (5. 1.1-5). The chit-chat about something that meant so much to another person previously, creates a little humor for the reader. It makes the reader lighten up about something that was formerly so dramatic. The â€Å"clowns† continue to talk to each other, still pondering why she was receivi... Free Essays on A Circus Surrounded By Death Free Essays on A Circus Surrounded By Death In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, he creates different scenes that contrast the previous scene. One of these contrasts occurs in 5.1, in the graveyard. The common reader has preconceived perceptions of a graveyard. Those opinions consist of mostly unpleasant thoughts and images. Before the graveyard, Shakespeare created a dramatic scene which consisted of Queen Gertrude telling Laertes that his sister, Ophelia had drowned. Gertrude says, â€Å"One woe doth tread upon another’s heel, / So fast they follow. Your sister’s drown’d Laertes† (4.7.163-164). Shakespeare has created a somber mood already which adds to 5.1 right off by talking about a graveyard. However, it is at this point that Shakespeare twists the play’s mood. Act five, scene one, opens with two â€Å"gravediggers† who are considered â€Å"clowns.† The purpose of these characters is to act as a comic relief. This is necessary after the tension of Ophelia’s death and the tone of most of the play. Just a few lines before, Queen Gertrude gave a very depressing image of Ophelia, â€Å"When down her weedy trophies and herself / Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide, / And mermaid-like awhile they bore her up† (4.7.174-176). Right after the reader reads this image, the play moves to â€Å"clowns† digging a grave. They go back-and-forth discussing why the corpse is being given a â€Å"Christian Burial.† The â€Å"clowns† chatter amongst each other about the situation, â€Å"Is she to be buried in Christian burial when / she willfully seeks her own salvation? / I tell thee she is, therefore make her grave / straight. The crowner hath sate on her and finds it Christian burial† (5 .1.1-5). The chit-chat about something that meant so much to another person previously, creates a little humor for the reader. It makes the reader lighten up about something that was formerly so dramatic. The â€Å"clowns† continue to talk to each other, still pondering why she was receivi...

Resource Project (Motivation) Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 7250 words

Resource Project (Motivation) - Assignment Example Carrefour is listed as the Europe’s leading retailer and the second-largest in the world followed by Wal-Mart. It was selected for this study because of its success and achievements in the world retail industry. In fact, more than 10 million customers annually visit Carrefour stores and 25,000 suppliers provide fresh food, grocery and other items such as small house-hold goods, textiles, home appliances (photo equipment, DVDs, sound and multimedia equipment) to these stores. Annual net sales at Carrefour amounts approximately 76,789million Euros of which forty-six percentage, proportion is generated in France and the rest from abroad. Fournier, Badin and Defforey founded Carrefour in France in 1959 with the purpose of â€Å"creating, acquiring and operating, in France and abroad, stores for the sale of all items, products, food and merchandise and, secondarily, providing within the said stores all services that may be of interest to the customers† (Carrefour 2012 p.272) . Now Carrefour is a multi-format, multi-channel and multi-local group, comprising of 9,994 stores in thirty three different countries in the Europe, America, Middle-East and Asia. Employee motivation is viewed traditionally as the â€Å"struggle to get more for less† because more the performance of individual employees, less the cost of salaries for the company (Perry & Porter 1982). Cutting down the number of employees however helped sustain some businesses during the last economic recession. It suggests the importance of improving the workforce productivity rather than hiring new labour. In a study conducted in Germany revealed the economic recession in 2009 affected employment in many companies. Some employers had modified employees’ working conditions and pay in addition to the employment levels and staffing measures. Example, 67% of respondents in metalworking and electrical industry, 53% of respondents in chemical industry, 47% of respondents in financial

Describing and Applying victimization theory Research Paper

Describing and Applying victimization theory - Research Paper Example Cohen and Felson proposed Routine Activity Theory of Victimization and mainly focused on predatory crime. Crime is described in this theory as an act of taking or damaging property belonging to another person. Crime, as perceived in this theory, posits three characteristics; a motivated offender, target, and absence of guardianship. For any crime to occur, the motivated offender must make contact with the victim or the target. Other intervening variables include the absence of persons or conditions that could intervene between the two (Wilcox, 2010). In this theory, the first variable-the motivated offender- is given. According to proponents of this theory, proper understanding of crime must focus on other elements other than the motivation of the offender. Cohen and Felson use the example of increasing levels of disposable income in the early 1960 due to increased number of couples working. The need for leisure creates the need for families to buy electronics and other household appliances. These developments increased chances for burglary as most people never stayed at home to guard these appliances Wilcox, 2010). Theories of victimization have been applied in a number situations such as sex crime, stalking, and property crime among others. The underlying principle in the examples listed is that the offender and the victim must be within the same physical area to produce an elevated risk of victimization. In the wake of the current technological development especially in the use of the internet, the elements of crime in the Lifestyle-routine theory such as guardianship, proximity to potential offenders and exposure creates endless opportunities for cyberspace victimization. The approach adopted by this theory is that physical interaction increases opportunities for victimization in space and time. The cyberspace victimization, however, do not require the offender and the victim to interact physically in space and time. The application of

Organizational Behavior and its Impact on Corporate America Research Paper

Organizational Behavior and its Impact on Corporate America - Research Paper Example By adding more emphasis on interpersonal communication and communication clarity, The Home Depot serves as a benchmark for other industries in similar markets. Organizational Behavior and its Impact on Corporate America Introduction When assessing an organizational environment worthy of being declared a leader in positive organizational behavior, no example is more relevant than The Home Depot. The Home Depot ranked #29 in the Fortune 100 list of best companies due to its commitment to customer service excellence, employee participation schemes, and a variety of reward programs that foster collaboration, motivation, and commitment from its many employees and managers. In 2010, The Home Depot earned $6.6 billion in revenues (CNN Money, 2011), due to its reputation as a service leader and the ability to foster harmonious work teams dedicated to meeting the mission and vision of the organization.     These factors include the establishment of multiple reward schemes, improving inter personal communications and clarity between many different ranks of authority, setting corporate social responsibility efforts, and providing ample feedback systems to give recognition to employees who succeed and meet corporate goals. Important Elements of Organizational Behavior In order to gain employee and management commitment, it is first necessary to establish team membership, something especially true at The Home Depot whose cornerstone is employee involvement and participation. â€Å"For a team to develop, its members must want to belong to the team and come to identify with the team† (Bushe & Coetzer, 2007, p.185). When new employees enter the organization, they come into employment with their own personal need, goals, and ambitions, thus effective leadership must work diligently to bring employees and managers into the team fold by creating a new social identity. â€Å"People strongly identified with a group can even be willing to sacrifice personal needs for the betterment of the group† (Bush & Coetzer, p.186). This is the foundation of The Home Depot’s employment strategies: To ensure commitment and a transformation from pre-existing values to employees who are committed to meeting Home Depot’s mission and goal for excellence in service delivery. Group affiliation is crucial to success in profit and service delivery at Home Depot since service is the foundation of its core values of business operations. Gaining commitment related to teamworking is necessary in an environment where customers are considered the most important resource to corporate success and the business must rely on direct employee/customer interventions in order to generate higher sales volumes and satisfy customers of widely different socio-economic demographics. Building team focus is the most primary organizational behavior at The Home Depot that continues to lead to its position as a market leader in its industry. How is this accomplished in the or ganization? The first step is to ensure that there is a perception of inclusion and affiliation.  Ã‚  

Cognizant Company Analysis

Cognizant Company Analysis Introduction: Cognizant is leading With 50 global delivery centers and approximately over 64,000 associates, cognizant combine a unique onsite/offshore delivery model infused by a distinct culture of customer satisfaction. A member of the NASDAQ-100 Index and SP 500 Index, Cognizant is a Forbes Global 2000 company and a member of the Fortune 1000 and is ranked among the top information technology companies in Business Weeks, Hot Growth and Top 50 Performers listings. Cognizant is the pioneer in Offshore Outsourcing. They bring their clients the economic advantages, with the industry experience and the local expertise. Today, Cognizants clients are benefiting from 4th Generation services. Operating as their technology partner, Cognizant provides the expertise to help Cognizants clients realize their objectives. 4th Generation Offshore Outsourcing provides seamless integration between the customer and Cognizant. Cognizant go far beyond the established onsite/offshore model by offering in-depth local consulting presence, onsite teams focused on the customers business applications, and the management depth that partners closely with cognizant clients. The business culture is either India-centric or exclusively Cognizant in style, striking the best balance of all the offshore firms. Most of cognizant management team has extensive US or European experience, and understands cognizant clients culture. In India, Cognizant is considered a local player with a very strong reputation for excellence. Clients benefit from cognizant non-hierarchical, responsive can-do approach to business. Cognizant has deep technology expertise across a wide range of competencies. Technology competency and the quality of cognizant people are the highest-rated attributes in cognizant Customer Satisfaction Survey. Cognizant brings a strong project culture to every engagement. They did not start as a staffing company, but instead as the development arm of Dun Bradstreet. Their development heritage has given us an edge on delivering larger, complex, end-to-end projects. Their project expertise is reflected in a strong methodology and the development and use of cognizant proprietary tools. They track the progress of projects and programs with eCockpit, the proprietary engagement management tool that is available to all of cognizant clients. ECockpit provides a graphic representation of project-related status, such as productivity, effort, cash flow, and defects density. It also looks at personal metrics such as targets and individual progress. Key Points Cognizants single-minded passion: Dedicating cognizant global reorganization, industry intelligence and systems expertise to working with cognizant clients to make their businesses stronger. Cognizant is leading the market from the last few years.89% of clients rate overall cognizant Customer Experience as â€Å"Much Better, Better or About the Same as Competition†. Cognizants growth record in ‘07 to 08 was amazing. That was Employee growth was +11.4%, Revenues with +32% and the net income +23% (GAAP) systematically nurtured Growth. Cognizant is the only major offshore company organized around verticals and horizontals rather than just regions and development centers. With the deep domain expertise in key verticals and large-scale horizontal solution, the highly project-oriented firm that can take complete responsibility for large development and integration projects, and for delivering bottom line results from application management. Cognizant having a strong track record of successfully executing very large scale, complex, transformational development and integration projects offshore. These are the kinds of projects that have not been traditionally considered off-shore. Cognizant has deep technology expertise across a wide range of competencies. Technology competency and the quality of cognizant people are the highest-rated attributes in cognizant Customer Satisfaction Survey. Cognizant has a blue chip client base with many industry leaders that cognizant are proud to partner with and to contribute to the growth of their businesses. The clients go to extensive lengths to serve as references and champions of cognizant growth and innovation. Their client testimonials say Cognizant people go to extraordinary lengths to solve problems, or just help out. Cognizant people model attracts talented, highly motivated, client- focused individuals with a can-do attitude. Cognizant never had a termination for project failure or for non-performance. This fact is reinforced by all of cognizant customers in the annual customer satisfaction survey conducted by a third-party. The flexibility, responsiveness, ownership and the assurance that they will never let you down is core to cognizant delivery model. Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. NASDAQ, a leading provider of custom software development, integration and management services, employees are the most satisfied among Indian IT services companies. Cognizant has always been committed to providing the most interesting projects and the best possible training and career development opportunities. The quality of the people that cognizant attracts, and Cognizants superior ability to develop cognizant associates will remain a strong competitive edge as the demand for IT professional worldwide continues to increase. The Info pulse acquisition allows Cognizant to better serve customers in the Benelux region by adding local client partners, industry expertise, and local language capability. The acquisition further strengthens Cognizants industry leading 4th generation offshore delivery model, which has senior executives based close to clients in the US and Europe who are tightly integrated with a robust SEI CMMI Level 5 offshore capability. Customers in banking and financial services have been among the first European companies to adopt a large scale offshore strategy, and Info pulse helps Cognizant furth er strengthen its position in this vertical. This acquisition will help cognizant current customers because they will get large scale offshore capabilities as cognizant as industry specific IT services, which has for several years leveraged offshore development in Eastern Europe. Cognizant has a strong track record in the financial sector and also values customer focus, has very high customer satisfaction, and a culture that provides an excellent balance between business and technology. Perspective: A public company has two key responsibilities to its shareholders, value creation and transparency. At Cognizant, transparency is essential to cognizant business. Especially in uncertain times, it builds trust between a company and its shareholders. And cognizant believe transparency is the best way to recognize long-term investment in the company. In an uncertain economy it is even more critical that cognizant provide you with key information about cognizant corporate governance policies. These policies provide a frame work for the proper operation of cognizant company, consistent with cognizant shareholders best interests and the requirements of the law. Ensuring that Cognizants financial results fairly reflect the results of cognizant operations is of paramount importance to the company and to cognizant investors. Cognizant have made the decision to provide cognizant shareholders and investors additional information to clarify cognizant policies, processes and controls to avoid un certainty for shareholders and investors. Cognizants management has always assumed full accountability for maintaining Compliance with cognizant established financial accounting policies and for reporting cognizant results with objectivity and the highest degree of integrity. It is critical for investors and other users of the Consolidated Financial Statements to have confidence that the financial information that cognizant provide is timely, complete, relevant and accurate. Management is responsible for the fair presentation of Cognizants Consolidated Financial Statements, prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), and has full responsibility to their integrity and accuracy. Management, with oversight by Cognizants Board of Directors, has established and maintains a strong ethical climate so that cognizant affairs are conducted to the highest standards of personal and corporate conduct. Management also has established an effective system of interna l controls. Cognizants policies and practices reflect corporate governance initiatives that are compliant with the listing requirements NASDAQ and the corporate governance requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley. Cognizant are committed to rigorously and diligently exercising cognizant oversight responsibilities, maintaining the highest standards of integrity and principles of ethics, and exceeding the corporate governance requirements. Level 1 Analysis: Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) is a global information technology services and consulting company with headquarters in Teaneck, New Jersey, United States and with significant operations in Chennai, India. Cognizant has been named to the 2009 Fortune 100 Fastest-Growing Companies List for the seventh consecutive year. Cognizant has also been named to the Fortune 1000 and Forbes Global 2000 lists for 2009. It has consistently ranked among the fastest growing companies including the 2009 Business week 50 list of the top-performing U.S. companies, the Business week Hottest Tech Companies 2009, and the Forbes Fast Tech 2009 list of 25 Fastest Growing Technology Companies In America. Even though it is headquartered in New Jersey, USA, most of Cognizants employees are based in India. It has offices in Chennai, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Gurgaon, Kochi and Budapest since 2008, development centers in Shanghai, Buenos Aires and Amsterdam. Cognizant has over 64,000 emplo yees. Cognizant Coimbatore center became the first company in the world to be certified for CMMI-Level5 per the latest model. Cognizant is among the top 10 companies receiving H-1B visas to bring foreign workers to the United States. The company recognizes the risk this poses to their business model. In a November 2008 SEC 10-Q filing, the company said Cognizant future success will depend on cognizant ability to attract and retain employees with technical and project management skills from developing countries, especially India. The vast majority of cognizant IT professionals in the United States and in Europe are Indian nationals. The ability of Indian nationals to work in the United States and Europe depends on their ability and cognizant ability to obtain the necessary visas and work permits. the company has been increasing its U.S. work force. In August 2009, the company announced plans to hire 100 people in Phoenix. Cognizant has seen year-over-year revenue growth of 32% in cal endar year 2008, from $2.13 billion to $2.81 billion (USD). This growth has been realized across all the industries Cognizant serves including financial services, healthcare, retail, manufacturing and logistics. After the close of trading on 16 November 2006, Cognizant moved from the mid cap SP 400 to the SP 500. Cognizant operates in the IT services, business process outsourcing and consulting domains. Its primary competitors are Accenture, IBM, Capgemini, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Wipro. Other competitors include IT services companies such as Computer Sciences Corporation, Perot Systems, Mahindra Satyam and HCL Technologies. Competitors in the Business Process Outsourcing space include Genpact and MphasiS (a division of EDS) (As of Wikipedia) Research Findings: As a pioneer in the field of outsourcing information technology work to India, Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. has done famouslyand so have its shareholders. A $10,000 investment made in the stock in early 2001 would be worth more than $120,000 today. After soaring another 38% so far this year, though, the Teaneck, N.J.-based companys shares are due for a leveling off. Investors would be wise to pass them by. At a closing price of $69.25, the stock is trading at 51 times its per-share earnings over the last 12 months. That amounts to a huge premium over India-based outsourcing companies Wipro, which trades at a multiple of 37 times earnings, and Infosys Technologies, which trades at 42 times earnings. In Historically, Cognizant has earned its fat premium because of its superior management and its distinct model. Unlike IT outsourcing firms that are based in India, Cognizant has several thousand staff members here who work directly with U.S. clients in their offices. Those on-sit e staffers are backed up by an army of 23,000 employees in India who develop software for clients including major banks, health care companies, manufacturers and retailers. But Cognizants on-shore/off-shore niche is under threat as more multinational consulting firms follow the companys lead. In March, IBM announced it would open a new software development. (Tom Fredrickson, New York Business, 2006) Level 2 Analysis: The Companys principal services include technology strategy consulting; complex systems development; enterprise software package implementation and maintenance; data warehousing and business intelligence; application testing; application maintenance; infrastructure management, and vertically-oriented business process outsourcing (V-BPO). The Company operates in focused business segments: Financial Services, Healthcare, Manufacturing/Retail/Logistics and Other, which includes communications, media and information services and high technology. In September 2009, the Company announced the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Pepper cognizant advisors; the IT consulting services division of Pepper cognizant consulting. Financial Services During the year ended December 31, 2008, the Companys Financial Services business segment represented approximately 45.6% of its total revenues. This business segment provides services to its customers operating in the industries, such as capital markets, banking and insurance. Cognizant focuses on the needs of dealers, asset management firms, depositories, clearing organizations and exchanges. The Company focuses on retail and commercial banks, and diversified financial enterprises. Cognizant assists these clients in such areas as consumer lending, cards and payments, wholesale banking, risk management, investment management, corporate services and retail banking. It assists with the needs of property and casualty insurers, life insurers, reinsurance firms and insurance brokers. The Company focuses on such areas as business acquisition, policy administration, claims processing, management reporting, regulatory compliance and reinsurance. In 2008, its other business segment represented approximately 14.2% of its total revenues. The Companys communications industry practice serves communications service providers, equipment vendors and software vendors. Some of its solutions include supply chain management solutions, from pre-press to material procurement, circulation, logistics and vendor management; business solutions covering advertising management, online media and e-business; workflow automation covering the product development process for broadcasters; spot ad buying systems covering agency of record, traffic management, post-buy analysis and financial management; digital asset management (DAM) and digital rights management (DRM), and operational systems, including ad sales, studio management, outsourcing billing and payments, along with content management and delivery. Its high technology segment is an independent software vendor (ISVs) and online service provider. (According to NASDAC) Conclusion: Cognizant develops every application, cognizant embrace every challenge, investment in every new resource, recommendation cognizant make is dedicated to a goal: Making their customers businesses stronger by empowering them to be more responsive to their customers and to the competitive environment. Cognizant achieve this by focusing on the intersection of their clients emerging needs and the acceleration of business and technological change. Cognizant commitment to innovation keeps them focused on the future and being ready at every level to service change. Cognizant Technology solutions present financial growth is strong. If we observe their annual report we will find that they operate a profitable business. 50% per share have grown up for earnings and revenues, where we can find a major growth. References: http://www.cognizant.com/html/home.asp http://www.cognizant.com/html/content/aboutus/Cognizant_Q2_2009_Corporate_Fact_Sheet.pdf http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-17675300_ITM http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/companyProfile?symbol=CTSH.O.

Journey to the Center of the Earth :: essays research papers

The book A Journey to the Center of the Earth, by Jules Verne is a well-written and easy to read book most of the time. In my essay I’m going to give a description of the books events. The book starts with Professor Hardwigg finding a scrap of paper that says its possible to get to the center of the earth and decides to take the journey. Hardwigg insists that Harry, his nephew, come with him on the journey. After they got the supplies, they start their journey for Mt. Sneffels in Iceland, the spot where they can get to the center of the earth. They travel up the mountain and find the opining were they start their journey. At the bottom of the shaft they find four paths that they can take and the Professor chooses one but it’s a dead end they select a different route. They soon discover water, which they vary much need from the lack of. Later they find a well-like shaft where they go farther below the surface of the earth. Continuing to descend Harry goes ahead of the others and it soon lost. He retraces his steps but becomes even more lost. After being lost for days Harry finds his Uncle. Later they discover the Central Sea, an underground body of water. Exp loring the area around the sea, the travelers find huge mushrooms, bones of mastodons and other evidence of plant and animal life. The Professor decides that they must cross the ocean to continue further so they make a raft. Days later two huge monsters surface and almost sink the raft. Continuing on, the three spot what they think is another giant monster but discover it is an island that they start to travel to later a storm hits that almost sinks their raft and the storm carries them back to the shores from were they started but farther along the coast then before. The Professor and Harry finds huge shells and a field of bones and even a human skull. Then they wondered if humans ever lived beneath the earth. They spotted gigantic animals and even a tall human being. Afraid they would get hurt they started back towards the raft. While they were going back Harry spotted a tunnel and inside the initials A.S are carved into it, Arne Saknussemm had been there before them, they also discovered that the tunnel is blocked.

Lead 200

November 19, 2012| Martin Luther King Jr. | Leader Assessment| | | Dawan Robinson Leadership 200 Dawan Robinson November 19, 2012 LEAD 200 Martin Luther King Jr. ’s Biography Martin Luther King Jr. was born January 15, 1929 and passed away April 4, 1968 in Atlanta, Georgia. He faced many challenges during the Civil Rights movement. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assaulted several times by people on the streets. He received hundreds of phone calls, and letters, which was threatening to kill him. During the movement Martin Luther King Jr. had been arrested more than twenty times.One of the most famous threats was made on Martin Luther King Jr. was on January 30th, 1956. A bomb was thrown into Martin Luther King Jr. ’s house, fortunately nobody was seriously injured. Almost everywhere he went he was harassed. In 1964 he was harassed by a group of black Muslims, they threw stones at him in the streets. On the other hand, in 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Chr istian Leadership Conference, which was a organization made to provide new leadership for the now growing civil rights movement. The ideals for this organization he got from Christianity and its effective methods came from Gandhi.From the time he was elected the president of Southern Christian Leadership until the time he passed he traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, going to speak wherever there was injustice, protest, and action. Also, in that time he wrote five books as well as a lot of articles. In these years, he led a big protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that grabbed the attention of the entire world, which gave what he called a union of sense of right and wrong. Martin Luther King Jr. ’s Impact Martin Luther King impacted everyone through a nonviolent protest.He showed love, faith, determination and fearless representation. He didn’t only fight for equal rights but what most people fail to realize is that he was fighting agai nst poverty by recommending that we stop the war in Vietnam and use all of that money to lift our economy so there would be a chance for young Americans of all colors and ages to capture the dream. My personal opinion I felt that when he started speaking out against the war in Vietnam his life was in serious danger. His idea to stop the war and use that money to pull people out of poverty scared the United States government.Martin Luther king demonstrates everything that is good in America. His actions showed that one man or woman can impact the country with a simple message of peace and love through a single nonviolent protest. I would say that Martin Luther King impacted America by teaching us that it’s wrong to discriminate against people. Also, that all people have the right to go to the same school, the same church, and the same restaurants. He fought for the right of his people to be considered equal with each race. What made him stand out to me is that he was a nonviol ent person.He didn't believe in using violence to reach his goal. Many decades later after Martin Luther King Jr. was gunned down on a motel balcony in Memphis, Tenn. , he is still viewed mainly as the black leader of a movement for black equality. Martin Luther King Jr. is remembered as an inspirational speaker, whose leadership came from speechmaking. Speeches like the ‘I Have a Dream' speech at the civil rights march in Washington in August 1963 stimulated people of all races. Martin Luther King Jr. ’s Leadership When people think of Martin Luther King Jr. , they think of a great leader.I think that Martin Luther King’s famous â€Å"I have a Dream† speech shows just what kind of leader he was. He was a man who was very effective at what he did. Martin Luther King Jr. was described by some as having a unique way of getting people to work together rather than fight. Most average leaders will only focus on results, and that would be all. Good leaders focus on the behaviors that will get the results and great leaders focus on the emotions that will drive these behaviors. When thinking of being a great leader you have to be a visionary and be sure to follow that vision.This was back at a time when African Americans had to sit on designated seats on the bus, until King dreamed that America would rise above color. The ability to dream and follow his vision is a powerful characteristic and history shows that some of the great leaders were even greater visionaries. If Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t dream of equal civic rights, we wouldn’t be living in a society where cultural differences are celebrated. Martin Luther King Jr. was a leader who had a lot of self-doubt, and who was aware of his own limitations and his weaknesses.Sometimes he was hesitant to take on the responsibilities that were put on him. For example, during the Montgomery bus boycott, he was worried about the threats to his family. He was more feared rather th an confident and secure in his leadership role. Martin Luther King Jr. ’s ability to deliver a public speech showed his strong leadership, in which that's how he got so many supporters. He was able to persuade thousands of people to believe what he believed in. People began to trust in him and to me that's the number one thing you need as a good leader, the trust of your followers.Nobody wants a modest leader when it comes to getting what they want. Determination and confidence is what made him a fearless leader, who jumped right into the problem and made people love him for his courage to stand up and take on the leadership role. It is recognized that Martin Luther King Jr. ’s leadership styles has proven him to be one of the greatest leaders. Almost in every big city in the United States there is a street or school named after him. This shows how greatly his achievements are misunderstood and most of them are found in black neighborhoods.Throughout this analysis I wi ll be discussing the different variety styles of leadership theories that Martin Luther King Jr. used. He used theories such as, path-goal theory, situational theory, and the servant leadership theory. Path-Goal Theory Defined In addition, when it comes to the path-goal theory it is described to be a leadership concept that the subordinates accept a leader's behavior only so far as they view it as causing an immediate or future benefit. Therefore, a leader's main function is to clear a path to the realization of the ubordinates' goals. They have to decide the behavior patterns that are most relevant in helping the subordinates get what they want. Path-goal theory is used by almost every successful leader. Martin Luther King used path-goal theory, which is designed to show how leaders can help subordinates along the path to their goals by choosing specific behaviors that are best fit to the subordinates needs and to the situation in which subordinates are working. Martin Luther King was a great leader because he was able to direct and motivate subordinates.In my opinion to be a good path-goal leader, a leader has to be focused on being instructive, supportive, participative, and achievement. The leader should be able to adapt and realize what motivates the subordinate. If a subordinate needs to have control on a project, the leader should be participative and provide involvement. On the other hand, if a subordinate has a need for involvement, the leader should be supportive and provide nurturance. The path-goal theory is important because it allows the leader to see what behaviors will affect the subordinate positively and negatively.This theory allows the leader to change their leadership style based on the subordinates’ personality. Martin Luther King wanted people to think differently. I believe that because he wanted people to think differently, helped him remove obstacles for subordinates. It challenged people to make a difference. Most leaders want ed people to do exactly what they’re told, but Martin Luther King wanted people to think outside the box and think differently. Martin Luther King also gave support for subordinates. He supported new ideas that the subordinates came up with and this also helped make things happen, like equality throughout the world.Situational Leadership Theory Defined When viewing the situational leadership theory, it describes this leadership style as belief that effective leadership requires flexibility in leadership styles depending on the situation. In other words, the leader has to adjust his style to fit the development level of the followers he is trying to influence. With situational leadership, it is up to the leader to change his style, not the follower to adapt to the leader’s style. This leadership style may change continually to meet the desires of others in the organization based on the situation. Martin Luther King Jr. s great with using situational leadership. When a d ecision is needed, an effective leader doesn’t just fall into one style, such as using transactional or transformational styles. There are different causes that affect situational decisions, which include the motivation and the ability of the followers. Which, this is affected by causes within the particular situation. With situational leadership, the relationship between the followers and the leader may be another factor that affects leader behavior as much as it does follower behavior in different situations. Martin Luther King Jr. s observation of his followers and the situation will have an affect on what they do rather than the truth of the situation. His perception of his self and other factors such as stress and mood will also change the leaders' behavior in different situations. I believe Martin Luther King follows the situational approach of leadership because he has the ability to adapt to the variety of followers and environments as well as opposing attitudes. I al so believe he was mostly using the coaching style. He was a very supportive person, but at the same time he directed people with his speeches on the direction people needed to go.When looking at the styles approach, I believe he was really relationship oriented. To me this means that he had a lot of concern for the people. When seeing the skills model, motivation was one of the keys to his individual attribute. He had the dream that inspired everybody. He was also great with problem-solving skills and social judgment skills. He was able to get all these people to work with him and follow him to pursue his dream. He was great at adapting to different situations when doing his speeches. He got the vibe from the audiences and adapted from them.He observed his followers and grabbed their attention by relating to the situation at hand, Servant Leadership Defined Servant leadership stresses the importance of the role a leader plays as the factor of the resources of a organization, and tea ches leaders to serve others while still achieving the goals that are set. A servant leader is a servant first, who has responsibility to be in the world, so he contributes to the well-being of people and the community. A servant leader looks to the desires of the people and asks his self how he can help them to solve problems and promote personal development.He puts his main focus on people, because only content and motivated people are able to reach their targets and to achieve the set expectations. Martin Luther King followed the servant leadership theory because he was a servant first who contributed to the well-being of people and the community. He had the ability to be inspired and also inspire his followers. To me Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the most inspirational and influential leaders in recent history. He actually preached and practiced servant-leadership.During a time when fear and segregation took over his country, he picked forgiveness and compromise instead of ge tting revenge and retaliating. He was a representative of positive change, trying to heal a country that was in a bad situation and had people that showed prejudice, hatred, and discrimination. Martin Luther King took on a different approach than what others would do, instead of hating the people who disliked him; he chose to love them instead. He insisted Americans to stop judging and start understanding each other. Like most great leaders, he used his words to empower, heal, and reunite people.A lot can be learned in his â€Å"I have a dream† speech, when relating to servant leadership. I would say Martin Luther King used servant leadership because when he was faced with a problem, he looked for solutions that would benefit everyone, not just him. When something went wrong, he would take the blame. When things went well, he shared the credit with others. He told everyone the same story, even when it was difficult. He knew that he didn't have all the answers, so he looked fo r advice from others. He worked hard and inspired others to do the same as well. Martin Luther King, Jr. is a great example of a servant leader.His life shows the great power of servant leadership to totally change an entire nation. Conclusion In conclusion, Martin Luther King, Jr. accomplished many great things during his life. He has impacted my life deeply. If it were not for him, there would be lots of racism in my school. If this happened, there would be too much attention given to misbehaved students and not enough to my education. When I grow up I want to follow in his footsteps. Just like my hero Martin Luther King, I want to win a Nobel Prize. That would be my greatest accomplishment. Luckily, we had Martin Luther King, Jr. to put an end to racism.There is still some racism, but with Martin Luther King Jr. ‘s words in our heart, we can stop whatever racism there is left. Dr. Martin Luther King delivered the speech many wished they could have written and he inspired li ves others were not able to. He also changed the way of thinking of those who were unaware before his â€Å"I Have a Dream† speech. He definitely made a difference, and continues to inspire people, not only for standing up to everyone and anyone but because he fought through obstacles put in his way and never backing down, and always believing he would accomplish his goal until turning his dream into a reality.Work Cited * Donald T. Phillips. â€Å"Martin Luther King, Jr. On Leadership† Inspiration and Wisdom for Challenging Times. January 1999. New York, New York. * Keith, Kent M. â€Å"The Case for Servant Leadership† Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, 2008. Westfield, IN. * Huggins, Nathan Irvin. â€Å"The Journal of American History† Martin Luther King Jr. Charisma and Leadership. Vol. 74. No. 2. September 1987. Pp. 477-481. Mississippi Valley.

The 9 Worst Mistakes You Can Ever Make at Work

The 9 Worst Mistakes You Can Ever Make at Work Getting a reputation as someone who’s unprofessional is a kiss of death in any workplace. The minute coworkers (or, even worse, your manager) lose respect for you, the game is over. While you may still have a job, you’ll be surrounded by people who don’t trust you- an unpleasant experience for everyone involved. Here are some key mistakes to avoid if you want to remain at the top of your work game.1. BackstabbingIt may seem like a snide word behind the scenes is more efficient than a confrontation, but it will ultimately affect your reputation more than the colleague you made look bad. Don’t go over someone’s head to solve a problem. Instead, communicate and try to find a resolution that will make everyone happy.2. GossipingIt’s one thing to share information or backstory, but you’ll develop bad word of mouth if you’re constantly engaged in spreading negative rumors about other people. If it’s not constructive or producti ve, keep it to yourself- or share it with your boss if it’s serious enough that you need to speak up, but be accountable.3. Taking Credit for Someone Else’s WorkThis is just slimy- don’t steal ideals or misrepresent your work. Doing so will also make you look ineffective. If you had your own ideas, you wouldn’t need to steal, right?4. Emotional HijackingAlso known as losing your s#$@, a meltdown that involves yelling, throwing, verbal outbursts or making people cry is a fast way to destroy your credibility- or build a whole new credibility as a toddler who throws tantrums. Maintain your self control. Act like an adult. Whoever you blow up at doesn’t look as bad as you do.5. Announcing That You Hate Your JobIf it’s true, start job hunting and put on a good face so they’ll recommend you to your next employer. If it’s not, suck it up and look for ways to spread positivity at work!6. BraggingBe a pro; take your accomplishments in s tride. It’ll impress your friends and intimidate your rivals. Act like success is something you see every day and hardly notice any more, even (especially) if it isn’t true.7. LyingYou may want to protect yourself or someone else, but as soon as you start lying it’s a matter of time until you get caught! Even if it’s a small, unrelated lie, it can damage your relationships at work and your professional career.8. Smelly FoodTreat yourself to a lunch hour away from the office if you can’t resist your Indian leftovers or a Brussels sprout sandwich every day. Don’t sit in the break room- or worse, at your desk!- pretending nobody can smell what you brought from home. It’s distracting and takes forever to dissipate.9. Burning BridgesI still think fondly of the boss who laid me off, even 6 years later, because she made an effort to reach out to me afterwards, followed through on recommendations, and stayed in touch until I landed on my feet . She taught me how to handle even tough goodbyes- you also never know when you might need a connection made.On Mobile? Please Sign In Here to View Your Job Matches

Passage to India essays

Passage to India essays In E.M. Forsters novel A Passage to India, characters often seem grouped into one of two opposing camps: Anglo-Indian or native Indian. All the traditional stereotypes apply, and the reader is hard pressed to separate the character from his or her racial and ethnic background. Without his Britishness, for instance, Ronny disappears. However, a few characters are developed to the point that they transcend these categories, and must be viewed as people in their own right. Perhaps the most interesting of these is Mrs. Moore. Not only do ethnic boundaries not usually apply to her, but these divisions often blur in her case. Mrs. Moore straddles the line between conventional East and West in a number of different ways, and in some cases leaves both behind completely. From her very first appearance in the book, Mrs. Moore is an atypical Westerner. The only impressions of Anglos that the reader has yet gathered are the complaints of Hamidullah and his friends at the dinner party, Major Callendars abrupt summons of Dr. Aziz and the rudeness of Mrs. Callendar and Mrs. Lesley. Mrs. Moore materializes from nothing in the dark mosque, an apparition in a place where no whites ever bother to visit. She has respected the native customs by removing her shoes, and startles both Dr. Aziz and the reader by calmly explaining God is here (20). Right from her introduction, she is clearly not the average Englishwoman, and goes on to have a meaningful conversation with Aziz. Her considerate behavior might at first appear to be mere ignorance of local standards or inexperience in India, but in her subsequent conversations, Mrs. Moore demonstrates that she holds an entirely different view on life than Ronny and the other Anglos, or even Adela. For her, God is lov e, and people have been put on this earth in order to be pleasant to each other (51). There is no nonsense about following ...

Zeus Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Zeus - Essay Example Zeus’s most ancient shrine is located at Olympia. This shrine is known for its oracles. It is the place where people celebrated the Olympic Games every four years, in his honor. The Nemean games that are held at Nemea are also dedicated to him. Hesiod does not represent Zeus as it is in the Greek mythology. According to Hesiod he is the son of Cronus. He is the sponsor of justice and the one who has crushed the titans and has successfully imposed new laws and order on the earth. While according to Aeschylus, Zeus is on the business to impose change and give the full responsibility in the hand of the men. Whereas according to Ovid Zeus he was the one who introduced seasons so that men may learn art and agriculture. Hera has been represented the goddess of feminism by many mythologists. She is the typical representation of womanhood as she represents that what exactly happens to women in the world where her powers are not being appreciated. A world where men want to be authoritative; however if women act the same way they are called greedy. She was represented in this way so that a link can be drawn between her and the suffering of the women today(HERA: Great Mother Goddess). Zeus’s rule is represented by Hesiod as both legislative and cosmic; however as long as he remains legislative his rule may be limited cosmically only for the human beings. The rule of Zeus was more of human than cosmic and therefore it failed to meet the cosmic demand. He used his power to threaten the people and other powerful beings. He was the god of the skies and had his control over the thunder. His short tempered nature has often forced him to use his power for destructive purposes. His enormous power and his control on the sky was the threat in itself for his enemies; however Zeus himself is seen breaking the conventional laws at times(Clay). Zeus is a supreme God, he mates with a number of

Event membership cshemes and whether thry promote customer loyalty Essay

Event membership cshemes and whether thry promote customer loyalty - Essay Example In many cases, the event is itself the product, such as cultural events and the like. The principle, however, is the same, that is, to trigger the curiosity of new customers as well as nurture a stronger relationship with the regular customers in order to court their loyalty. In trying to keep customers loyal, companies have come up with membership schemes by which a customer is â€Å"bound,† in a way, to keep coming back. By â€Å"bound† it is meant that the customer is given an incentive or reward for staying as a member and continuing to avail of the products and services of the company. In 2001, Hayes and Slater conducted a study of cultural organizations. Their aim was to arrive at a typology of the common-interest groups of people who have naturally gathered together and, after the passage of some time, became â€Å"clubs†, then â€Å"membership schemes†. (They are also known by other names like friends’ schemes, societies, and associations). The study of such typologies was considered by the authors to be useful to practitioners. It will help them in the design and evolution of membership schemes for many different purposes. This is especially for the hosting of events and exhibits, in order to make sure there is enough people in the audience. According to the authors, there are four general types of membership schemes: the friends’ scheme, the social club group, the public members’ scheme, and the integrated membership scheme. There are many factors that influence how membership schemes developed. The most important factor is the strong competition that grew between rival organizations, and a lessening of revenues available for funding. For these companies, management found out that the only way to ensure survival was by adopting an entrepreneurial style, which meant earning income in an