The Long Road to Graduate School :: Graduate Admissions Essays

The Long Road to Graduate School In his poem, The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost wrote, "Two roads diverge in the woods, and I took the one least traveled by/ And that has made all the difference." In this poem, the narrator had a choice of two roads. However, I've discovered that life is a little more complicated. Sometimes the path we embark on is not always the one we choose. Sometimes we are pushed or pulled in certain directions and we have to react to our environment. My path to a college education has been filled with bumps, potholes, detours and roadblocks. The signs often read "yield" and "do not enter." The path has not always been clear, but I've kept my eyes opened, focused on the road ahead, and the experience has made all the difference. During my freshman year in high school, my mother remarried and I had to move from Colorado to Kentucky. One year later, we relocated back to Colorado after they divorced. During my junior year in high school, my mother remarried again and I had to change schools again, although we remained in Colorado. Thus, I did not have a sense of continuity during high school and although I recognized that my path would lead me to college, I was not ready to commit myself to school full time. Instead I went to work full time as a grocery clerk and worked my way up to assistant manager. I then moved into customer service work and finally fell into an advertising manager position. I took several night courses during this period until I was ready to commit to school full time. Although I could have continued with work, I knew that it was not what I wanted to do and once I committed myself to attending school and realized that I wanted to study Sociology, I have proven myself to be an above ave rage student. This past year, I earned all "A"s in my courses.

Difficult Transition Essay

Q1.Identify different several concepts and characteristics from the field of organisational behaviour that this case illustrates. The Organizational Behaviour between the two firms were very different and identifiable. Tony Stark started working at O’Grady and things had been great there. The firm made sure that people who worked there, their personal goals be met and broadened their perspective towards work thereafter. O’Grady was a decentralized firm giving everybody a chance to grow and feel like a part of the firm as their opinion would be incorporated while the managers did decision making. The surroundings were very friendly and socially psychological. There was a lot of freedom given to the workers in terms of the work they did. The firm practiced managing workforce diversity. Tony Stark had a sense of job satisfaction and would have continued working there if the firm did not shut down. Now if we look on to the firm that Tony Stark had to take up after the closure of O’Grady was the Reece Enterprise. This firm had an entirely different way of operation. There was reward based on how long they had been there and played the politics. Top managers only were concerned about the work being complete and not how it was done or who did a good job. Even though Reece was a much more organized and structured organization, it still failed to be practicing a decentralisation. There was a requirement of three signatures from the higher authority without which any decision making would not have proceeded and therefore made the entire process really slow as reaching the top managers wasn’t easily accessible and interoffice memos had very low priority. The environment among the workers wasn’t very pleasing either. They did not accept anyone new which was appointed at the same stature. This not only was ignorant but also very demeaning. Tony Stark regretted accepting the offer without researching about the firm. Q2.what advice can you give tony? How would this advice be supported or tempered by behavioral concepts and processes? Tony Stark could look for another job and perhaps this time research about the company and then join it or he could make a difference in the firm he was working and bring about a change. Changing working situations in such a huge firm is very difficult but its not impossible. He probably is not the only one facing the problem. There might be a few others and would join him to help him take the decision of change. This change could be bought about by effectively talking to the high authority. Letting them know that people don’t have a job satisfaction nor are they excited about the work, which would eventually lead to the downfall of the firm and further shut down. This could be avoided if decision making was made more efficient and incorporative. If there was an introduction to a suggestion box or if any other form of easy communication with higher authority, making the work more target attached. Q3. Is it possible to find an ‘ideal’ place to work? Explain. It is not easy to find an ‘ideal’ work place or maybe possible. You have to make a place ideal according to your goals and perspective. The definition of ideal will vary from person to person. It may mean friendly environment for someone and work oriented for the other. It may be too philosophical but that’s how human behaviour works. Its unpredictable. It will vary from person to person. Humanized Robots Q1.How successful do you think helen bower’s new plan will be ? Helen Bower was a young lady who had a very different way of running the business as compared to her father from whom she inherited it. She was a very business oriented woman. She knew where she wanted her company to be in the next few years. She knew her competitors and was aware of the market conditions. The problems that came along with the way she handled business was workers  not being satisfied or involved in the process. She treated them like hired help or rather as machines, who were paid to work for her. She paid them average wages and expected them to work to their full capacity and produce as much as they could. She didn’t think of herself as a leader but as a boss. She was interested in the profit and not sharing the profit among the workers who made her earn that profit. This sort of behaviour led to marginal changes in production and the growth of the corporation. To understand the reason as to why the company wasn’t growing enough she hired a consultant. He carefully researched the organization and recommended to go back to his fathers way of supervision which she thought was ‘humanistic nonsense’. She took steps that she thought were the best for the company from her point of view and announced a 10 percent cut for those who failed to increase their productivity. She did not realise that this would worsen the condition. Workers might start a protest or even worse quit. Worker satisfaction should be the utmost priority of any company or firm. Q2.What challenges does helen confront? Helen was a very straight forward person. She knew what she was doing and knew what steps would help her company grow. She never treated the people working for her as humans. Since she was paying them the average wage she thought she was doing more than enough for them. But she had to realise that at the end of the day they also had some desires to fulfil and a family back home. They needed to be paid more than average and treated more than as merely machines. Her behaviour towards workers led to problems. She had to face challenges like keeping them motivated to work, reach the target, retain in the competitive market. Q3. If you were helen’s consultant, what would you advice her to do? If I was Helen’s consultant I would have advised her to change the way she approaches her target. She has to not only focus on the global market but also the work that’s being conducted in her business. She needs to built a more systematic way of functioning in which workers also have a say. They need to be heard and given a choice to voice their opinion. It should be like how the government works- Democratically. Being like Hitler would only help you keep power in your hands but not earn respect from people. As a consultant I would also advise her to be like her father just as the consultant in the case study does. Maybe that path would lead to a slow growth of the company but it will be an everlasting growth. A growth with very strong pillars. Also being a businesswoman and always thinking about workers well being would also lead to too much pampering of the workers. They should be handled with a lot of attention. They need to be focused on the targets and help you reach the productivity with low cost. They should be understanding enough.

Airasia’s Logistic and Channel Management

As Airasia’s vision is to be the largest low cost airline in Asia, our proposal might be a useful tool for Airasia to achieve their vision. The goal of our proposal is to decrease the operational cost of Airasia to attain cost efficiencies and provided the public with a lowest cost so that â€Å"Now everyone can fly† with Airasia. Objective of this proposal is to develop e-Supply Chain Management to attain a much lower operation cost for Airasia in the coming year. In this proposal, we will discuss about; 1.Analyze of the factors contributing to enable e-SCM for Airasia, 2. Create an appropriate implementation plans to develop e-SCM, 3. Discuss the environmental factors that will affect the implementation, 4. Determine which department will e-SCM help the most, 5. Show the benefit of e-SCM to Airasia and stakeholders and 6. Suggestion for how to further improve the e-SCM. Overview of the company (Airasia, 2010) Now everyone can fly, this slogan held in every Malaysianâ €™s mind deeply. Airasia was an Asia’s leading airline with a dream of making flying possible for everyone.The vision of Airasia is to be the largest low cost airline in Asia and serving the 3 billion people who are currently underserved with poor connectivity and high fares. The mission of Airasia included; †¢ To be the best company to work for whereby employees are treated as part of a big family †¢ Create a globally recognized ASEAN brand †¢ To attain the lowest cost so that everyone can fly with Airasia †¢ Maintain the highest quality product embracing technology to reduce coast and enhance service levels There are 6 main values that Airasia focused in to attain the lowest cost.The strategies used were; ? Safety first o Partnering with GE Engine Services the world’s most renowned maintenance providers and complying with the world airline operations. o GE Engine Services began servicing jet aircraft engines over 50 years ago. o Provide large or small jet engines for commercial or military aircraft as well as engines for marine and industrial applications (Breaking Travel News, 2002). ? Hight Aircraft Utilisation o Implementing the regions fastest turnaround time at only 25 minutes, assuring lower costs and higher productivity. Low Fare, No Frills o Providing guests with the choice of customizing services without compromising on quality and services.  Example services provided food ; beverage, merchandise, excite, baggage supersize, pick a seat, premium service or corporate booking. ? Streamline Operations o Making sure the process are as simple as possible. o Example online ticket booking. ? Lean Distribution System o Offering a wide and innovative range of distribution channels to make booking and traveling easier. Strategy of distribution like call centre, sales office ; airport sales counter, authorized travel agents, mobile booking or online. ? Point to Point Network o Applying the point-to-point network keeps ope ration simple and cost low Analyze Airasia’s Annual Report According to Airasia’s Five-Year Financial Highlights from 2006 until 2009, Airasia’s revenue is increasing steadily. Unfortunately, in year 2008 is having loss around RM497 million. This is because their operating expenses (-RM3,207 million) had exceeded their revenue (RM2,955 million).From the report, year 2008 Airasia had huge amount of air craft fuel expenses (-RM1,390 million) and derivatives (-RM679 million) on operational cost compare with years 2009 –RM928 million and RM22 million. Due to the fuel expenses and derivatives, it causes Airasia making loss in year 2008 (Airasia Berhad, 2010). From the balance sheet, we can know that net current asset of year 2008 and year 2009 was increasing from RM163 million to RM511 million. It is because of non-current assets and current assets increased and current liabilities decreased.On non-current liabilities, borrowings of RM6,068 million in year 200 8 and RM7,068 million in year 2009 (Airasia Berhad, 2010). |Key Ratios (YE 31 Dec) |2008 |2009 | |Revenue growth (%) |n/a |8. 4 | |EBITDA growth (%) |n/a |86. | |Pretax margins (%) |(15. 3) |16. 8 | |Net profit margins (%) |(15. 4) |16. 3 | |Interest cover (x) |1. 6 |2. 1 | |Effective tax rate (%) |n/a |3. | |Net dividend payout (%) |n/a |0. 0 | |Debtors turnover (days) |91 |88 | |Stock turnover (days) |4 |3 | |Creditors turnover (days) |149 |127 | Adapted]From: Chew. B, 2010. Comparing with Malaysia Airlines, Malaysia Airlines have more revenue compare with Airasia but their profit after tax are around the same figure, which are RM493 million in year 2009, RM245 million in year 2008, RM853 million in year 2007, RM133 million loss in year 2006 and RM1,251 million lose in year 2005. Although Airasia revenue lower than Malaysia Airlines around RM8,442 million but Airasia can gain the profit like Malaysia Airlines. In conclusion, the strategies used by Airasia are very successful (Mala ysia Airlines, 2010).Compare Airasia with Malaysia airlines |2009 |Airasia |Malaysia Airlines |Differences in % | |Revenue |RM3,133 million |RM11,574 million |269. 42% | |Net profit after tax |RM506 million |RM493 million |-2. 57% | |Passengers carried |14,253 million |6,549 million |-54. 5% | |Fuel Expenses |RM927 million |RM3,497 million |277. 24% | |Net Current Asset |RM511 million |RM3,023 million |491. 59% | Balance Sheet Ratio for year 2009 |Ratio |Formula |Airasia |Malaysia Airlines | |Current |CA/CL |1. |0. 86 | |Quick |(Cash+AR)/CL |0. 86 |0. 74 | |Net Margin |NPAT/Sales |16. 2 |0. 04 | |Operating Margin |Operating profit/Sales |0. 15 |-0. 06 | |Return On Assets |NPAT/T. Assets |0. 04 |0. 6 | |Return On Investment |NPAT/Net Worth |0. 19 |0. 66 | The factors contributing to e- enable SCM in Airasia The invention of internet has greatly influence the traditional supply chain management in the world. Many company realize the benefits of apply IT into their supply chain managem ent. Internet has provided a great opportunity for company to share and access information faster and increase the productivity and efficiency of the supply chain performance.Other than that, e-enabled SCM lead to deduct the cost and add extra value for the company. Those enabling software like CRM, ERP and EDI which can help in make improvement on the integration with its buyers, sellers, suppliers and partners. Rapid changing of technology forcing the companies must plan to change their business strategy in order to understand consumer behavior and fulfill their needs. Due to the inefficiencies of the traditional supply chain management, many company decided to acquiring e-SCM are aim to better manage their supply chain flow to ensure it is operating smoothly.E-SCM is taking advantage in coordinate the cooperation with suppliers. E-commerce allow the seller promote and sell their products and services through the internet. Some of the buyers today prefer to search, buy, compare or book the products and services on the internet. Since the consumer behavior has changed, all of the companies are forcing to change their supply chain processes to adopt the new channel to meet the customer expectations. Thus, the supply chain needs to be different with the traditional channel.Airasia can provide customers booking flight ticket via internet (Gimenez et al. , 2003). Information sharing is a crucial part in supply chain management. Traditional supply chain management provided limited information flow among the employees, customers or the suppliers. That is higher cost and time consuming to get the information and it will cause the company can’t make a good decision. Therefore, internet provided a chance for company to share and access the real time information among its partners to ensure effective.Extranet can build a network to link the company and the partners together and granted to share and access information faster. Therefore, company can easily get the urgent information instantly in low cost. It can make a big improvement in enhancing the integration company with its suppliers. Other than that, an intranet can send and accept the documents through electronic media among the firms. In addition, internet is a high speed medium where can reach global. Internet can help the Company connect with their foreign partners in a minute for business information, discussion and proceed to procurement decision.It can know as e-procurement, example, Airasia can order the air bus spare part via internet (Gimenez et al. , 2003). Knowledge sharing, in the database management is not only offer precious information, there are also including planning, analyze the result and transfer and transform into meaningful information and share with business partners . Company can get the data with just a few clicks and help them to make a better decision for their business. That is providing big advantages to the company where is cost saving and improve the e fficiency of their business decision.Example, Airasia can collect their sales data and analyze it into meaningful information in order to respond to customer needs and demands and react quickly to the market. It can also use to forecast the company sales, so, the company can make decision to improve their sales (Gimenez et al. , 2003). One of the factors e-enabled supply chain management is it can design an effective supply chain to strive for effective collaboration and integration with suppliers and customers, increase the competitive advantages in the intense competition environment, improve the operational process, and gain a long-term benefit.Even though internet is an inexpensive and faster way to obtain the useful information to assist the company to improve the supply chain management, company has to design a good supply chain structure to make the supply chain flow more effective. The better of the supply chain design, the more benefits company can gain from it. Intense com petition today has forcing the company to do better always in order to survive in the market. Internet has offering the company a chance to design a better supply chain to enhance its supply chain performance by adding new functions to achieve the company objectives (Gimenez et al. 2003). Implementation plans to strategize an e-SCM In competitive environment today, internet technology provided strong tools to strengthen the company’s electronic supply chain management. If the company can carry out an appropriate implement planning, it would lead to obtain a competitive edge. A poor planning may cause supply chain produce the poor result like low quality, poor services and higher cost. Initially, the company must clarify the supply chain goals to indentify which goals are going to set to get best effect in the business.Competitive level, distribution, production, financial and customers needs need to be concern to assure the new supply chain able to achieve company goals and f ulfill customers’ need. Outsourcing can be more suitable because operating a new supply chain is costly. After that, conduct a supply chain readiness audit to analyze the business. To understand the existing company core and capabilities priority. How the company is going to respond with high demand, global reach? It such as an evaluation of business before a new supply chain is implementing.Next step is developing a business case, the top management should develop a business case that understands electronic supply chain can increase the performances of business and it would improve the customer satisfaction, supplier integration and cost effectiveness. To make a better business case can help in achieve company’s mission and objectives. Fourth step is establishing a supply chain coordination unit. Establish a skillful e-SCM team to implement and coordinate the supply chain.The team is to make sure the supply chain is operating under a smoothness condition, reduce the c ost, facilitate business performance and increase customer satisfaction. Training has to give out to improve the SCM team skill, knowledge and leadership (Kalakota et al, 2001). Next, begin supplier integration. Business partners are the important part in the supply chain to help the company to achieve their new business projects or objectives. Electronic supply chain will be inefficient if without any supplier support.Develop a performance score card to evaluate the performance of new supply chain. Reengineering might need when there have problems occur or something is going wrong. Penalties and performance reward may place into the measurement as incentives to drive e-SCM efficiency. The following step is always educate, educate, educate the members who are involve in the supply chain management by provide training, education, mentoring to the members to get the newest knowledge and information to perform well. At the final step, company has to learn to manage failure.Not every sy stem will always implementing smoothly, failure will lead into inefficiencies and influence the company daily operations. Thus, company must able to cope with the failure, understand the problem and learn from the failure and make improvement on it to prevent the problems occur again (Kalakota et al, 2001). Airasia is using Low Cost Carrier (LCC) business strategy to operate their business and transform supply chain management to electronic. Airsia is going to adopt several systems to support the e-SCM to operate smoothly.All of the systems are operating to achieve the business goals by cost effective of the operation (ERP and CRS) and maximize the revenue (YMS). Airasia attempts to integrate information technology with current supply chain management to carry out some planning and strategy that is implementing effectively to support and develop their business to coordinate their daily operation, integration and communication (Kho, 2005 and Wong, 2009). Advanced Planning and Schedul ing (APS) is introduced to improve the internal operational process and achieving low cost business strategy.In airline industry, complex network, huge daily operation and a lots of external factor that will influence the operational performance like bad weather. In order to be successfully implementing a good supply chain, Airasia can use APS to become a core of their supply chain to deal with the customer and supplier requirements. A series of effective functions will provide by APS to support Airasia in their daily operational activities. There are supplier portals, it will provide some useful information for Airasia to help them avoid from any system error such as order processing.APS also assist in inventory planning and maintenance management. APS is ability to integrate Airasia, its maintenance supplier, GE aviation, and other suppliers to manage the inventory such as spare part to check resource availability and place order priority to prevent out of maintenance stock and se t a maintenance schedule to ensure the aircraft is in a safety condition all the time. Route profitability analysis is conducting to set and plan an efficient route in order to save cost and increase revenue (Kho, 2005 and Wong, 2009).Computer Reservation System (CRS) is an integrated web-based inventory and reservation system including call center, airport departure control function, internet and others. Airasia is going to use e-commerce to facilitate the online reservation and purchase e-ticket process. Intermediary had eliminated in this process. Airasia will offer 24 hours per day and 7 days a week for real time transaction that enable local and global customers to book the ticket anytime. The system software will provide data in online booking and categorize stored, update automatically and help in scheduling flight activities.This is also cost effective by less depend on human resource for data entry. Therefore, Airasia can fully utilize the available of vast booking informat ion where bring customers to the website to minimize the unsold seat and maximize their sales. The comprehensive information is available by the supply chain system on the internet for customer to view, search and compare with others companies before they decide to purchase in terms of service, price or flight time.CRS has provided convenient for the company to maximize their sales to meet customers’ needs (Kho et al, 2005 and Wong, 2009). Beside that, Airasia had decided to acquire a Wireless Delivery System (WDS) to provide convenient to the customer so they able to book ticket through their mobile phone while increasing Airasia sales (Kho et al, 2005 and Wong, 2009). ERP is application software integrated with its company system that helps the company to manage the operational activities effectively and efficiency.Airasia can implement ERP system which is a system that will focus on company daily operations and help in save operational cost, maintain integrity, speed up re porting and increase efficiency of the operational performance and better manage its electronic supply chain (Kho et al, 2005 and Wong, 2009). Yield Revenue System (YMS) used to aid in understand, react and anticipated the buyer behavior to enhance the company revenue. The system can effectively result in optimize the Airasia’s flight ticket price and maximize the company expected revenue. Example, seat price is available by different level in the different time.A ticket booking at a later time may be charge a higher price than an earlier booking. Other than that, the system will help the company adjust the ticket price when there have high demand in that destination. YMS is obtaining advantages in charge a lower price to maximize the revenue and adjust the price into higher price when the peak time through the demand forecast. In this case, Airasia can fully understand their consumer behavior and implementing the effective strategy to achieve their revenue objectives (Kho et al, 2005 and Wong, 2009). ECRM is a system software use to build a long term relationship with the customers.Many companies are plan to cut customer service cost while improve customer satisfaction. ECRM is providing extra advantages compare with offline CRM. Airasia will use ECRM to manage the complaints from the customers through the call center and solve the customer problem and question by FAQs with further customer service support line on the Airasia homepage. Besides that, ECRM also provide convenience for customer to check in through the internet and mobile phone. ECRM can help the Airasia indentify the frequent customer and reward them through reward program like frequently flyer program.Email notification may be send to the customers to inform them about the promotion information (Wong, 2009). Environmental factors that may affect the implementation of e-SCM in AirAsia External factors Sociological Social environment includes the cultures, customs, mores, values and demogr aphic characteristic of the society in which an organization functions. Social processes also determine the goods and services, as well as the standards of business conduct, that a society is likely to value and accept. (Smith, 2010) In Malaysia, most of the population is educated and 65. % of Malaysians use internet (Internet World Statistic, 2010). This eases the process of implement e-SCM. When suppliers, customers and employees of Airasia are educated and able to operate a computer, it will be very easy for them to understand the concept of e-SCM, accept and use it. Therefore, the learning cost of Airasia’s e-SCM can be lower down. However, Airasia’s supplier have different values in implementing e-SCM. They may refuse to share actual data with other companies due to lack of trust (Scalet, 2001). This caused a barrier while implementing e-SCM.Political The political environment reflects the relationship between business and government, usually in the form of govern ment regulation of business (Smith, 2010). Political factors such as labour laws, tax, trade policy, and political stability defines what Airasia can and cannot do while implementing e-SCM. During year 2009, the Prime Minister, Abdullah Badawi was set to step down in March 2009. This caused political uncertainty. This issue may lead to difficulties in setting rules or changing any structure in Airasia in order to implement e-SCM.Besides, Airasia also operate in other countries, many laws will be different compare to Malaysia. So Airasia will face another issue while implement e-SCM. Economic Economic environment refers to relevant conditions that exist in the economic system in which a company operates. Those factors in economic environment are interest rates, exchange rate, economic growth, inflation rate and others (Smith, 2010). For example, the rising of oil and arousal of low-cost competitors like Firefly will affect Airasia’s operating cost.They will influence the profi ts and availability of funds and cause implication on implementation of e-SCM (Yahoo! Answer, 2010). When Airasia is lack of fund, there will also lack of employees training cost on e-SCM and implementation cost. A Thai individual holds 1%, Airasia holds 49% and Shin Corporation hold 50% of Thai Airasia. Shin Corporation was owned by previous Thailand prime minister and it has strong financial strength to support Airasia to implement technology such as e-SCM (International Transport Workers' Federation, 2007). TechnologicalTechnological environment includes human knowledge, work methods, physical equipment, electronics and telecommunication and various processing systems which used to perform business activities. (Wong, 2009) Technology nowadays helps a lot in e-SCM. The main technology that affects implementation of e-SCM is Internet. It is serving as a medium for information access, transmission and sharing among suppliers, Airasia and its customers. Apart from that, with the aids of other technologies like intranet, extranet, e-mail, online conferencing, and others, all the supply chain partners ofAirasia can easily communicate and collaborate. Speed of information flow faster through Airasia to its customers or supplier. The other technology platform is Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP) and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). These technologies have stimulated implementation of e-SCM. Internal factors Human Resource When Airasia implement e-SCM strategy, every process, goal or system must be carry out by employees. Thus Airasia need to provide training to its employee, development, restructure and compensate in order to support e-SCM process. However, some employees may resist to change.Airasia must be award or compensate them so that implementation goes smoothly (Lancaster, 2006). Financial Resource Financial is critical factors that affect e-SCM. Without enough funds and capital, e-SCM cannot be implementing because e-SCM needs huge fund to carry out. Although Airasia is suffering loss during year 2009, Airasia can raise its fund to implement e-SCM by selling its share or capital restructure (Whitley, 2009). Physical Resource The infrastructure needed to be carry out e-SCM are corporate portals, workflow system and tools, EDI, intranet, extranet and others groupware tools.Airasia should gets all infrastructure ready to implement e-SCM. Organizational structure A flattened organization structure can easier to accept, adapt and implement new technologies or strategies (Pearlson, 2006). However, board of directors of AirAsia is too narrow, decision making will be too shallow (Onwutalobi, 2008). When implement e-SCM, decision making need to be fast, effective and efficient. Area that e-SCM help most in Airasia E-SCM helps Airasia a lot in this airline competitive industry and one of the ost significant advantages are reduced manifest preparation time, reduced paperwork handling time, reduced time in communicating with up- and do wn-stream intermodal partners and reduced load transference times between intermodal partners One of the significant e-SCM for an aviation company is the Computer Reservation System (CRS). Online sales through this system captured more than 50 percent of Airasia’s revenue (Corporate website, 2005). The system can also detect the frequent flyers and rewards them accordingly to create higher customer retention rate and lead to a better stage of relationship marketing with the customers.The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) process provides the structure for how relationship with the customer is develop and maintained (Croxton et al. , 2001). CRM can be a system linked together with the CRS in order to obtain the customer description and reservation description to provide them with full range of customer service including the FAQ questions in it. Besides that, Distributed Database System (DDS) is also a core element in this successful Airasia in the airline industry. If Air asia tend to expand to a wider range of market share, a geographically dispersed database can be used to plan its flight schedule carefully.Another element is that Wireless Delivery System (WDS) for the ease of their customers to browse company website details and place their reservation using their mobile phone. Airasia practices online booking if the customers tend to save money for lower price when they purchase their ticket online. The complexity of managing the flexible price can be carrying out using Yield Revenue System (YRS). Airasia can price accordingly by referring to the demand of the flight and pick the best price for Airasia’s yield revenue.Demand driven resource planning and employee scheduling is crucial to the success of all aviation service providers and Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) can help Airasia in the dynamic airline environment. Crew scheduling, fleet management, gate and check-in desk planning and the ground crew planning is a crucial part f or the company to overcome the increasing operating costs. Benefits of e-SCM to AirAsia, suppliers, and consumers The common model of e-commerce supply chain system transaction view is shown as below; company, suppliers and consumers are all linked throughout the whole transaction.So, as Airasia applies e-SCM, besides benefit to Airasia, it also benefits to suppliers and consumers (Hultkrantz et al. , 2001). [pic] Company Airasia can use the computer network to operate its businesses as one of the e-SCM strategies. Airasia’s can introduce booking air ticket through the online website which is assisted Air Asia transformed towards a more well-established communication media which is available 24/7. As the forecast, there will about 40% total revenue can be gain via the Internet transactions.It is because of Airasia can take the advantage of B2B marketplaces to forecast the demand for their services and, using differentiation pricing strategy to attract more customers and gain more market share by implementing the Yield Revenue System (YMS). In addition, the e-CRM in e-SCM allows Airasia to provide personalized service and one-to-one relationships between merchants and consumers. The ERP system had speed up reporting and increase efficiency of the operational performance which will directly increase the satisfaction of customers towards the services quality provided by Airasia.At the end, Airasia can enhancing relationship with both existing and potential customers and also the suppliers since the communication became a straightforward task. Besides that, Airasia can cost saving through the Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) which improved the internal operational process and achieving low cost business strategy. The company can also saves on the cost to operating and managing the bricks and mortar outlets and able to reach national markets without any efforts on developing a physical distribution network.Then, Airasia can reduce the cost of sales com mission of the middleman, which is the travel agent. So, as a conclusion, if Airasia adopted e-SCM, the company can streamline and restructure the services provided to its customers, developing new markets, and thus creating innovative business opportunities to its customers and suppliers. Suppliers [pic] Due to the supplier’s view of e-commerce supply chain, they concern on the process of buy and fulfillment, ship and logistics and fleet management (Hultkrantz et al. , 2001).The suppliers of Airasia can strengthen their forecasting ability, meet and exceed Airasia’s demands by offering the right promotion of products and services at the right time, as well as align their production schedules based on their manufacturing capacity and inventory management is improved because of the efficient information exchange, inventory visibility and transactions through the EDI system. So, the supplier can minimize ordering, handling and other costs and avoid from the bull-whip eff ect which may cause them profit loss from the surplus of the stocks or failed to gain more profit because of the shortage of stocks.In addition, the supplier can increase its reputation by meeting the needs and demands from the customers. Consumers The customer’s view point towards the e-SCM can be represented simply, as the figure below (Hultkrantz et al. , 2001). [pic] The e-SCM delivers value across Airasia customers’ supply chain allow customers make quicker and better decisions because the information about inventory visibility and transactions.Airasia customers can compare the pricing and the quality of services provided by Airasia and the others competitors on Internet. Besides that, the e-SCM automating the e-procurement function, simplified purchasing processes which benefits Airasia in lower their transaction costs and overhead. Since the expenses or costs of Airasia reduced, they may able to lower down the pricing but maintaining the same quality of services , which is also considered as benefit to customers. Customers get the same quality of services but with a lower pay.Through Computer Reservation System (CRS), Airasia can launch the ticketless system which the customer of Airasia has the opportunity in doing the booking and purchasing process at anytime, anywhere as customer preferences. Once the customer booking completed, Airasia will provide customer with a program which include customer booking number, payment and travel details. So, the ordering and settlement process had simplified and more convenient to customers during they check in by just mentioning the booking number and must present identification card (IC) or passport of customer for identification purposes.Recommendation and improvement on e-SCM The constantly changing external environments which faced by the organization or company nowadays cause the Airasia have to always ensure that its own internal resources and capabilities are sufficient enough to meet or exceed the needs of the external environment. So, the e-SCM system that Airasia executed need to always keep up-to-date to meet the needs of the external environments. Besides that, in order to survive in the air flight services industry, Airasia also need to always undertake an analysis about their external and internal environment.The e-SCM system plays an important role in this process because the visible of information about the supplier side and customers’ side is useful in the analysis. So, e-SCM system needs to be improved by reducing the degree of error happened and increase the accuracy and reliability of the data flow within the supply chain flow. Since Airasia still receiving a lot complaint from customers on their service, such as the flight delays, or being charged for a lot of things and also customers is not allowed to change flight or get any refund from Airasia if they couldn’t make it.So, Airasia can improve the e-SCM through the Balance Score Card (BSC) whi ch helps in the improvement of the internal and external communications, and monitor the organization performance based on financial perspective, internal business process perspective, learning and growth perspective and also customer perspective. So, by measuring the quality management and customer satisfaction index, Airasia could further improve the e-SCM based on the feedbacks from the customers and the measurement of the performance. On the other hand, Airasia can also further improve the e-SCM in the collaboration area.There are several unexpected events are converging. Therefore, company can increases the number of platforms, packages and more advanced technologies to do the filtering tasks which only permit meaningful collaboration from sharing data and information, to developing customer reward programs and joint forecasts.ReferencesThe Breaking News (2002), AirAsia ; GE Engine Services Sign Major Engine Maintenance Agreement Worth Over US$20 Million, Breaking Travel News. Available from: – http://www. breakingtravelnews. com/news/article/btn40003248  [Accessed 3 July 2010] Airasia (2010).

Imagery of Disgust Vulnerability and Separation

Imagery of Disgust, Vulnerability, and Separation Frederick Douglass once said, â€Å"If there is no struggle, there is no progress. † If there was any one person who experienced this first-hand, it would be Frederick Douglass. In his narrative, Douglass writes of many struggles faced by slaves during their confinement to slavery and the progress that came from them. When writing of these struggles, Douglass uses many rhetorical strategies in order to persuade the reader into thinking a particular way about slavery. A particular strategy which Douglass uses is imagery.Imagery, the use of vivid or figurative language to represent objects, actions, or ideas, is frequently used in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass uses imagery order to persuade the reader to stop slavery. Frederick Douglass uses imagery in his narrative in order to cause the reader to develop disgust for actions taken upon slaves by the ir masters. Slaves were terribly treated by their slave masters during slavery. Many times, Slaves were whipped and punished for no reason.Slave whipping could have been done merely out of displeasure to the master or for taking too much food during the evening meal. In order to portray this message, Douglass uses imagery when writing about the beatings and whippings of his aunt. Mr. Plummer, the overseer of Captain Anthony’s plantation, is said to have taken great pleasure in whipping a slave. Frederick Douglass writes, in the beginning of the narrative, that he awoke many times by the â€Å"heart-rending shrieks† of his own aunt who Mr. Plummer would â€Å"tie up a joist, and whip upon [Frederick’s aunt’s] naked back till she was literally covered with blood. Douglass 3)† The reader is captured by the gruesome imagery which Douglass illustrates in portraying the scenes of a slave-whipping. Writing of these events paints a clearer picture in which the reader is able to learn the true and uncensored events which took place during slavery. This particular picture painted by Frederick Douglass creates a heart-wrenching scene that the reader is able to picture within the mind. This imagery allows the reader to picture the abhorring treatment which slave masters inflicted upon slaves.This causes the reader to think down upon slavery when this type of imagery is brought to the mind. The reader is then more likely to want to put a stop to such an image. Frederick Douglass uses imagery once again in order to depict the vulnerability faced by slaves during slavery. Vulnerability is the act of being susceptible or unprotected to physical or emotional injury. Vulnerability was one of the biggest difficulties faced by slaves during slavery. Frederick Douglass uses imagery in his narrative to depict vulnerability when writing of Master Andrew’s constant whipping of slaves.Douglass writes that Master Douglass â€Å"took [Frederick ’s] little brother by the throat, threw him on the ground, and with the heel of his boot stamped upon his head until the blood gushed from his nose and ears. (Douglass 28)† When describing this scene, Douglass causes the reader to paint an especially gory picture with the mind. This is a very bold picture in which the reader is able to form from the description given by Douglass. When the reader imagines a small boy, beaten and frail, with blood gushing from inside the body to the outside, it causes them to want to help the young boy and save him from his vulnerability to the slave master.Frederick Douglass also would have wanted to help his brother. However, Frederick Douglass watched as his vulnerable little brother was whipped and Frederick was able to do nothing about it. Vulnerability is able to be depicted from both the standpoint of Douglass and his little brother because both were confined by helplessness. This inclines the reader to help this situation of vulne rability and put an end to it. Imagery also is used by Douglass to depict the separation among slave family members. Slaves were bought out by masters during slavery.However, they were not often bought in ‘family packages’. This means that many marriages and siblings could be easily separated. Frederick Douglass uses imagery when writing his mother, Harriet Bailey. In the beginning of the narrative, Douglass writes that he and his mother were separated when he was an infant and scarcely saw her four or five times in the entirety of his life (Douglass 2). Douglass goes on to explain that when he heard of his mother’s death, it was if he had just heard that a stranger passed. He was calloused towards the hearing of her death.This imagery of separation between Frederick as a young child and his mother paints a dismal picture for the reader. When writing that he was separated from his mother as a infant, Frederick Douglass gives the reader a picture of a baby being t aken from its mother without consultation. Mothers are often seen as those who possess the skills and needs necessary to care for a young child. When stripped of these needs, the child suffers. Douglass uses this imagery in order to capture the reader’s sympathy for separation of the mother and child in hope to incline them to put a stop to it and slavery.Imagery was a key which Frederick Douglass used in order to persuade his readers to think down upon slavery. It is important for readers to picture these scenes so that they will know the true events which took place during slavery. The harsh actions of slave maters, the vulnerability of slaves, and the separation of slaves are only a few horrible events which happened during slavery. Certain events grip the mind and hearts of readers to capture what they believe is to be wrong. Frederick Douglass believed slavery to be wrong. Imagery helped Douglass to portray this message in a way that could help the readers relate to the story.

Bench mark assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Bench mark assignment - Essay Example However, the bacteria spreads faster and affects the internal systems such as the lungs. The major symptoms of the disease include tiredness, weight loss, stubborn and chronic coughs, night sweats and loss of appetite (Harvard University, 2010). Also, people with tuberculosis may have heavy sputum. An infection of the lungs makes breathing difficult, and a patient produces amphoric sounds when breathing. Tuberculosis is a highly infectious disease. It is spread through air. Individuals near an infected person are at a high risk of being infected. Normally, the bacteria are suspended in body fluid droplets suspended in the air when an infected person coughs, spit or sneezes. As such, any person who breathes that contaminated air is at a high risk of getting the disease. People at high risk include friends, family members, and health workers. Tuberculosis bacteria are highly resistant to medication. As such, it is important to detect the virus at early stages of infection. The treatment is done after a successful diagnosis that involves a test on the sputum, skin, and chest x-ray. Treatment depends on whether a person has only an infection or has active TB bacteria. Infected person may be treated using simple preventative drugs such as Isoniazid. However, advanced TB requires complex treatment. According to WHO, active cases of TB requires specialized drugs like Ethambutol, Pyrazinamide, Isoniazid and Rifampicin (2009). Tuberculosis medications are supposed to be taken accurately lest the bacteria becomes resistant to treatment. Tuberculosis is among the most deadly illnesses in the world and affects 2.3 billion people in the world (CDC). According to the American lung association, the threat of tuberculosis has been falling steadily from the 1990s (lung.org). In America, total deaths arising from the sickness has tumbled. In addition, most of the fresh infections are arising from immigrants. In fact, immigrant infections comprise 62% of total infections in the

Project Management Systems Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Project Management Systems - Research Paper Example A project manager is a person who is responsible for carrying out all the tasks and operations that are included in project management. In simple words, both the success and failure of a project centralizes on the project manager’s shoulders (Haughey, 2009; Grembergen, 2002, p. 89; Hallows, 1998, p. 4). This paper presents a detailed analysis of roles and responsibilities that a project manager carries out. The purpose of this research is to analyze the impact of project manager’s performance on a project. This paper will also outline some examples of bad project management. Project management is a systematic way to scheduling and managing project activities and resources from beginning to end. Additionally, these project activities are divided into five phases, first phase is the initiation, the second is planning, the third phase is executing, fourth is controlling, and last phase is the completion or termination of the project. In addition, these phases of project management can be used in approximately any kind of project, since their purpose is to organize the different processes of project development. The fundamental reason for starting a project is to achieve particular objectives. In other words, the purpose of managing the processes as a project is to put attention on the jobs and control for the accomplishment of the objectives on small group or an individual. Additionally, a project is normally a temporary endeavor encompassing a lot of interconnected operations or processes, assigned a considerable cost, and continuing for a few weeks or, m onths, or years. However, the management of a project is a complex and challenging task and the roles of project managers vary with the project requirements (TechTarget, 2008; Meredith & Mantel, 2006, p. 13; Turban, Leidner, McLean, & Wetherbe, 2005, p. 309). The

How native American were treated Personal Statement

How native American were treated - Personal Statement Example rrently is not much different from how they were treated centuries ago except that discrimination is more discreet now, but every bit as alive as it was back in the day. I feel that the presentation had so many different aspects which are worth discussing and exploring further in detail. It challenged many conventional beliefs in an attempt to expose the reality. For example, the presenter asserted that Christopher Columbus should not be considered a noble figure because of his questionable reputation. This was a big blow to me because great reverence and prestige has always been associated with the name of Columbus. It is widely believed that he was the first ever person to discover the Americas laying foundation for what was to become the United States of America. In contrast to this conventional idea, the presentation accused Columbus of tyranny, imprisonment, lying, and terrorism. It was claimed that on grounds of bad reputation of Christopher Columbus, the Native Americans do not acknowledge and celebrate the Columbus Day. Only the Natives are familiar with the real story of Christopher Columbus and how he played a role in persecuting and elimi nating millions of native people. This real story is masked and decorated with fake embellishments to mislead people and make them believe in the nobleness of whites. This tradition of eliminating the voice of the Natives has survived over the years despite changing times. The presentation was delivered in an attempt to get the voice of the Natives registered and spread awareness about reality. When Christopher Columbus first landed in America, he encountered the Natives. He wrongly began to call them Indians like other Spanish people. This term is still used for the Natives despite the fact that they find it highly offensive. Also, as a way to pay respect to the Natives’ account, people in America should begin to acknowledge this reality that Columbus was not the first European explorer to set foot here. The