Jack: Straight From The Gut by John F. Welch, Jr. Essay

Overview: An autobiography, Jack: Straight From The Gut provides John F. Welch, Jr. the opportunity to guide us through not only his time spent as Chairman and CEO during a forty-one year career with General Electric (GE), but also his early years, and his family life outside of GE. From his days as a first grader growing up in Salem, Massachusetts playing gin with his beloved mother, to his welcoming of Jeff Immelt as his successor as CEO, Welch describes in fast moving detail his thoughts, feelings, wins, and losses, all in chronological order. As a child Welch respected and admired his father, but cherished his mother and maintained a bond with her that he references long after her death in 1965. She imparted him with enormous self-confidence and leadership skills that he developed early and kept with him through high school, his undergraduate years at the University of Massachusetts, graduate school at the University of Illinois, and ultimately throughout his time with GE. As Welch describes his GE career, he conveys many of the characteristics that led to him become CEO. Most notably, he credits his energy, passion, and integrity for his success and emphatically emphasizes that other leaders must search for those same values when building teams and cultivating talent. Along the way Welch highlights his many victories but gives equal time to his mistakes. Above all he notes â€Å"people† as the defining factor in success or failure. â€Å"In fact, GE’s all about finding and building great people, no matter where they come from. I’m over the top on lots of issues, but none comes as close to the passion I have for making people GE’s core competency.†1 Review: A quick search under â€Å"Jack Welch† on Amazon.com shows eleven different book titles, all of which, in one form or another, spread the wisdom of a man regarded widely as America’s most admired business leader. From that, one might surmise that Jack: Straight From The Gut would follow the recipe for discussion on such GE tenets as: Six Sigma, boundarlyess culture, and globalization. However, though he does spend considerable time on these standard topics, he provides much more in the way of underlying reasons for the success of these programs, and for their derivation. Unlike other books written about Welch, he wrote this one largely by himself and I found it extremely interesting compared to some of the previous efforts of authors trying to capture the essence of both Welch and GE. Of particular interest was Welch’s detailed analysis of Reg Jones’ selection process in 1980 that led to Welch succeeding him as CEO, versus Welch’s own selection process nearly twenty years later for his own replacement. Welch describes in game-like fashion his position of underdog against eight other GE executives under consideration for the job. â€Å"We were all working our butts off trying to differentiate ourselves.†2 Welch ultimately wins the game but vows to himself to select his successor in a different and more fair way, if at all possible. He would get that chance in a process he began in 1994 when he asked his VP for executive development to put together a list of attributes for the â€Å"ideal CEO†3 â€Å"The specs were filled with skills and characteristics you’d want: integrity/values, experience, vision, leadership, edge, stature, fairness, and enery/balance/courage.† 4 Those that filled this criteria totaled 23, but were whittled down to eight serious candidates by 1998. In 2000 Welch formally announced the three final candidates, but took an unprecedented bold step in naming each of their replacements. This ensured that GE would lose two top executives after naming one to become the new CEO, but was done to provide the new leader 100% confidence that he was in charge and would have no reason to have to look over his shoulder. I found the process that named Jeff Immelt CEO and the one that selected Welch in 1980 both fascinating. Welch delivers his message in a confident and candid manner as one might expect, but quite self-effacing at times which may surprise some readers. He certainly takes credit for, and celebrates victories, but gave equal time in the book, if not more, to his mistakes. As a recent book review in The Wall Street Journal indicates, â€Å"He lacks standard-issue pomposity and makes plenty of jokes at his own expense.†5 From relaying a time early in his career when his new car had a hose spring a leak and ruin his suit and the paint on the car, to bigger mistakes such as the well publicized perceived failure of GE’s Kidder Peabody unit, Welch maintains an air of humility and self deprecation throughout the book. Takeaways: As an employee of GE’s medical division, I enjoy reading about Welch and have read a few other books about him. However, none captivated me as this one did. I expected to find it interesting but had no idea how much so until only a few pages into it. Learning about the boy, the student, the engineer, and the leader who would transform an already successful company into arguably the best company in the world was very entertaining. For me, working in the GE culture and experiencing it as I have over the past four years gives me a tremendous sense of pride. I understand Welch’s vision well when he speaks of, â€Å"the four Es of GE leadership: very high energy levels, the ability to energize others around common goals, the edge to make tough yes-and-no decisions, and finally, the ability to consistently execute and deliver on their promises.†6 I understand what he looks for and strive hard to emulate that image. In my opinion, hearing his basis and rationale for creating this culture further enhances people’s abilities to thrive in it. My final takeaway involves that of integrity. Welch begins and ends the book with this theme and mentions it many times throughout. I’ve heard him mention it many times previously, but he drives it home with such passion and conviction here in his memoirs. â€Å"I never had two agendas. There was only one way-the straight way.†7 With no regrets and apologies to none, the business world certainly has not heard the last of Jack Welch. Endnotes 1. Jack Welch and John A. Byrne, Jack: Straight From The Gut (New York: Warner Business Books, 2001), 156. 2. Ibid., 79. 3. Ibid., 409. 4. Ibid. 5. Holman W. Jenkins Jr., â€Å"Life According To Jack Welch,† The Wall Street Journal, 21 September 2001, sec.W, p. 12. 6. Welch, 158. 7. Ibid., 381. Bibliography â€Å"Life According To Jack Welch.† The Wall Street Journal, 21 September 2001, sec. W, p. 1. Welch, Jack, and John A. Byrne. Jack: Straight From The Gut. New York: Warner Business Books, 2001.

My school Essay

I,________,have been a part of the _________School District my entire life. For me school has been a mixture of emotions. Some years I loved school and learning and other years I hated school and felt as if I would never amount to anything. The movie Stand and Deliver made me wonder how much better of a student I could have been if all my teachers cared as much as Mr. Escalante. In elementary school I had mixed emotions. I loved school up until about 3rd grade but then I started to hate school. It became harder for me to get good grades and I  felt dumb. Many of my teachers also had my sister, who was an A+ student so they would always make statement about how I should follow in her footsteps and such. But I was never as smart as her or good at school like she was. Once I was in the 3rd grade I began to struggle with all subjects except reading, once this struggle began I started to care less about school and grades. Middle school is where things began to turn around for me. In the 6th grade I had Mr. Pollock as one of my teachers. He was the most caring teacher I have ever had,  he showed me I could do anything I put my mind too and he pushed me to succeed the way Mr. Escalante pushed his students. In the movie Mr. Escalante says â€Å"Students will rise to the level of expectations† and this is exactly what my teacher did to me, he set the expectations high and then pushed me to exceed them. High school was another good experience. I always was a â€Å"teacher’s pet† and got good grades without really trying. I never studied while in high school and was very involved in extracurricular activities. This was good for me then but has caused me problems now. Now that I am in college and have to study and really work hard I don’t do as good as I would like. In my opinion my past schooling has set me up to fail in college. Even though I was taught the things I needed to be taught. I didn’t learn to push myself. I got by either just barely or passing with flying colors†¦ I, Thanh Nguyen, I have been grown up in Vietnam, so I went to elementary, middle, high school there. And the education is a lots harder here in States. For me school has been a mixture of emotions. Some years I loved school and learning and other years I hated school and felt as if I would never amount to anything. In elementary school I had mixed emotions. I loved school up until about 5rd grade but then I started to hate school In my opinion my past schooling has set me up to fail in college. Even though I was taught the things I needed to be taught. I didn’t learn to push myself. I got by either just barely or passing with flying colors†¦

New Cultural Experience Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

New Cultural Experience - Essay Example India is a democratic and secular country. It is the second most populous country in the world and people of several religions live there. India is a Hindu majority country, and Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jain, are minority in this country. I have had a worthwhile experience of staying in India and take part in the rich cultural heritage of the country. Overview of experience A short or long stay in a foreign country in the midst of a new culture might be exhilarating and personally rewarding. Personally, I feel that this experience is highly intellectually stimulating. According to my opinion, a stay in a foreign country is not free of undesirable experiences. However, both pleasant and awkward incidents together make the experience intellectually stimulating. A person learns to accept new things and adapt into new circumstances. In this section I shall explain my experience as a minority in India. Types of experience vary according to the period of time spent in the cou ntry and the level of adaptability of the visitor (UNESCO, 2003). Visiting a country as a part of foreign trip implies a short stay, mainly for the purpose of visiting different sites and shopping. However, I have stayed in India for a period of five years for the purpose of making an in depth study of the Hindu religion. ... Participation in cultural activities Traditional dinner I personally prefer taking part in the activities of the country that I visit. Therefore, I made a prior research about the traditional activities, festivals and games that are popular in India. I had stayed in the house of a Hindu family in Kolkata. The family is well known as a well to do family in the city. They are quite modern and have liberal views about the world. Yet, I noticed on the first dinner with the family that the members dearly hold certain traditional norms. Some of these norms are very similar to the Catholic norms, while others were unknown to me before I visited India. During my stay I took part in a traditional dinner with my host family at their ancestral home in Kolkata. It was the annual meeting of all the members of the family. There were specific Bengali dishes that are favored by the Bengalis. Among other food, fish was one of the main ingredients. There were various preparations of fish, starting fro m fry, to curry to even a sweet preparation called ‘chutney’. Bengalis consider fish as a part of their traditional diet. I did not have a taste for fish before I ate Bengali food. Initially, I faced problems with fish since it has a typically strong smell. But, very soon I adapted with the culture of having fish in the main course in both lunch and dinner. Analysis During my stay I have mixed with the people of the country with the desire of in-taking a rich essence of their culture, faith, religion, environmental concern, food habits, sports and other activities. Went new to a country, it seems confusing to identify these norms or follow them as an outsider. However, the key

Critical assesment of geochemistry and geophysics Essay

Critical assesment of geochemistry and geophysics - Essay Example It is mostly the remnants that have been buried by layers soil and rocks that have higher chances of being preserved. This is because the exposed cultural remnants may be displaced by anthropogenic or environmental factors (Blofeld J. 2004 p.71). The buried remains are usually covered with sediments accretion from water and wind erosion or natural processes such as earthquakes, mud flows and earth quakes. Some old structures may also be buried when new ones are built on top of them. The buried remains are effectively explored through geophysical and geochemical prospecting. These methods are efficient in detecting the invisible characteristics of the remains. The devices used in are significant in distinguishing between relics, which is significant in tracing human remains. The two techniques were developed in a bid to increase professionalism in archeology. The use of geophysics is an effective way of detecting deviations in the magnetic field of the earth through the use of magnetometers. These magnetic fields emanate from artifacts of iron metal as well as structures that were made of stone. Together with these techniques, devices that measure electrical resistance of the soil are also used (Bose R. N. 2005 pp.56-57). Geophysical and geochemical prospecting are two major techniques that have been widely employed. The two techniques are significant in the identification of human activities that exist as remains buried under the earth surface. The characteristics of the remains are analyzed by an expert who establishes whether they represent human activities or natural factors. The archeological site of Apamee was investigated with the use of the two techniques. They have enhanced the understanding of this archeological site. In the United Kingdom, the two techniques have been applied in many archeological surveys (Braithwaite, R. 2001 pp. 121-123). Fluxgate gradiometers are the most commonly used for surveying due to the fact that they are affordable for

The personal and professional characteristics of a successful global Research Paper

The personal and professional characteristics of a successful global leader - Research Paper Example er and professional skills are necessary to become a successful global leader, why one person can easily become a leader while another faces a lot of difficulties. This paper examines the researches of many scientists and professors who made a great contribution in the world leadership. Numerous studies have been conducted on various facets of global leadership, focusing on different knowledge and skills. Nowadays, many people dream about successful leadership and being at the top. Some of them are convinced that an authoritative leader has to be only smart; others disagree, considering leader as a person who is not only knowledgeable, but also has various skills and ample experience. In modern life, the concepts of leader and success have become synonyms. Every person who made a decision to begin the path to success has to turn into the leader himself or herself at the beginning of this way and realize who exactly is a leader. Without this, any undertaking will come to an end with failure. However, global leader is a person who can take a reasonable view of the international situations and successfully provide the management of people who are dissimilar to the leader and from one another and have different cultural backgrounds, with diverse legislative structure a nd economic systems. Caligiuri, Welch, Achua, Spreitzer, McCall, Mahone, Lussier give a clear stand what is the leadership and who is a leader. To understand how to become a leader and what to do for that it is necessary to learn all their opinions and suggestions. It is a big responsibility to assume the leadership and guide people in fact rather than in word. A successful global leader has many targets. Global leaders are defined as executives who are in jobs with some international scope. Global leaders expand business into foreign markets, conceive strategies on global basis, manage and motivate. (Spreitzer, McCall, & Mahoney, 1997). A global leader works with people all around the world. First of

Tesla and Alternating Current Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Tesla and Alternating Current - Term Paper Example Nikola Tesla arrived in the United States in 1884 as a great admirer of Thomas Edison and eventually found employment to redesign dynamos intended to generate direct current electricity for Edison's company. Very early on, however, Tesla became convinced that alternating current was superior to the means that Edison was spending his time trying to perfect. Edison's response was that Tesla was wasting his time and talent because he considered alternating current to be far too dangerous for public consumption, especially in comparison to direct current. Edison tried to convince Tesla that the danger inherent in alternating current had to do with the potential for high voltage wires to come loose and act almost as a lightning strike, killing a person on impact. After spending several months working long hours for Edison, Tesla eventually made the decision to strike out on his own in search of financial backing to continue developing alternating current. ... The primary backer of Tesla was George Westinghouse. Westinghouse was fascinating with Tesla's ideas and even more fascinated with the idea of actually buying exclusive rights to Tesla's patents. With one million of Westinghouse's dollars pumped into his research, Tesla was ready to reveal the potential of alternating current. The Chicago World's Fair of 1893 gave Tesla his opportunity to prove to the world the superiority of his theories. Every single exhibit using electricity on display at the World's Fair was generated with alternating current. The path to Tesla's revelation of how much better alternating current was than direct current was not easy since Thomas Edison put was willing to put 98% of his perspiration not into any aspiration to improve direct current but rather into inhumane experiments designed to frighten the public away from Tesla's work. Edison's attempts to discredit the validity of alternating current included the public execution of a variety of elephants (Silverberg 239). Despite repeated attempts by Edison to convince the public that alternating current was dangerous, it was the fact that Tesla was right and Edison was wrong about the superiority of alternating current over direct current that allowed Tesla to pull off that rarest of accomplishments: besting Thomas Edison. The real turning point in the war of the currents took place at the honeymoon capital of America, Niagara Falls. Using Tesla's alternating current system, Westinghouse was awarded the contrast to generate power at Niagara Falls. Tesla faced considered opposition and doubt as to his system's ability to generate the amount of

Economic Activity of the Saudi Aramco Company, as a Monopoly Essay

Economic Activity of the Saudi Aramco Company, as a Monopoly - Essay Example i Aramco is probably one of the largest monopolies of the world with significant influence over OPEC - the largest cartel of Oil producing countries to decide upon the production as well as pricing of oil products in the world. The total reserves of Saudi Aramco are over 250 billion barrels covering a total area of more than 249 trillion ft. (ArabianBusiness.com). The company is not only operating in the land area of the Saudi Arabia but it has also complete rights over the waters in Arabian Gulf and Red Sea. What is most important is the fact that despite being a monopoly, it is considered as one of the most efficient and finely run organizations in the world with revenues in billions of dollar. The next section will discuss what are some of the characteristics which categorize Saudi Aramco as one of the largest monopolies of the world. How Saudi Aramco is a Monopoly Single Seller One of the strongest characteristics of monopoly is the fact that it comprises of only one seller and whole industry comprises of only one player in the market. In monopoly, the single seller provides the whole supply in the market. Saudi Aramco is the only seller in Saudi Arabia which has the exclusive rights over the supply of oil and related products in local market as well as international market. Unique Product In economics, a unique product is one which does not have any close substitute for the products and services produced by the monopoly. The uniqueness of the product therefore not only provides no competition to the monopoly thus giving it an absolute control over the supply of particular good or service produced by the firm. Though there are substitutes of oil i.e. ethanol, biodiesel but they are still in the initial stages and the commercial production of such products are...This essay critically analyzes the activity of Saudi Aramco, one of the largest oil producing companies in the world, which is controlled by Saudi Government, besides discussing how government can block the emergence of private monopolies. Monopoly, in economics, is a market arrangement in which an individual or enterprise wield sufficient control over deciding the supply side of producing any good or service. Monopolist is the lone seller of a product or service as in monopoly; the entry into the market is restricted due to artificial as well as natural trade barriers. Governments, often, are behind the creation of monopolies in order to control the production as well as prices of certain products or services such as utilities and other products of strategic nature. Saudi Aramco is the largest oil companies in the world which produces, manufactures, markets oil and natural gas products all over the world. Being the largest, it is also considered as one of the strategic assets of Saudi Arabia as it works under the protection of Saudi Arabian government and is considered as a monopoly over the oil in Saudi Arabia. Besides operating as a single operator within country, it also operates the largest oil field in the world. Governments often do not allow private monopolies because of the fears that the social costs of allowing such monopolies may increase. Saudi Aramco is a private monopoly and it could increase the prices of oil to a level where it may no longer remain within the budget constraints of a consumer.

Regulation of cancer cell proliferation using siRNA tchnology Research Paper - 2

Regulation of cancer cell proliferation using siRNA tchnology - Research Paper Example The cancer stem cells are connected to maintain the unlimited and self-renewal growth capabilities of cancer while only consist of a small potion of the tumor. Consequently, cancer stem cells could be responsible for tumor progression, metastasis, and drug/treatment resistance development. Other studies have proved that small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) play a big on what genes are expressed or not expressed through gene silencing capabilities. Excitingly, siRNAs might provide some new perception into the complexities of cancer. These siRNA molecules could hold a huge potential therapeutically in the fight against cancer. This paper, discuses the functions of siRNAs and cancer stem cells and explain the link between these 2 topics. The paper also present methods to employ in current and forthcoming research to study the topics and expound upon different molecular therapy options that may have implications in altering cancer stem cells dysregulation and fighting

World War I Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

World War I - Essay Example The rise of pan-Slavism and consequent rise of German nationalism also played a great role in enhancing the war combined with imperialism and militarism (Sammis, 2002). The American government first remained neutral until 1917 when it entered the war due to pressure from the German military that were sinking ships on Britain waters. The American President Woodrow Wilson was very instrumental in ending the war in 1918, and in designing the Treaty of Versailles as well as forming the League of Nations. The paper will discuss the events that led to the war and the events that followed. European nations before the war employed imperialist policy. According to Spielvogel (2009) by 19th century, Britain had 5 continents while France occupied large areas of Africa. The Britain and France occupied huge tracts of land hence creating rivalry with German which began to scramble for the remaining parts of Africa. The colonizers were undergoing a period of industrialization hence saw the new colo nies as a source of labor and market for finished goods. Imperialism created a lot of rivalry and tension among nations as they competed for power. Most of the colonized people were under the power of colonizers and followed the rules of the colonizing state. However, the Slavic states yearned for freedom from the controlling states. They formed a cultural and political movement in the 19th century known as pan-Slavism which united all the Slavic. The movement got support from Russia whose main aim was to extend its rule over Slavic people (Stone, 2009). The nations also felt threatened by their counterparts hence wanted to unite their people so that in case of war, the states would fight against a common enemy. The attack on German speaking central Europe by France in Napoleonic wars instilled a sense of nationalism (Sammis, 2002). Bismarck had the idea of uniting Germany but Austria which had much power was resistant. Bismarck used diplomacy to create an atmosphere for war between Austria and Prussia and reinforced Prussian army so as to defeat Austria thereby relinquishing its position to Prussia. France was unhappy with the defeat hence waged war on Prussia but had no allies as opposed to Prussia which was supported by all German states. France was defeated and lost two provinces Alsace and Lorraine to Germany hence tension between the two nations (Stone, 2009). German was unified in 1871 under Prussian rule with Wilhelm as the new emperor. Austria began concentrating on the Balkans hence forming the Austro-Hungarian Monarch. The Balkan war in 1912-1913 saw their freedom from Turkish control but a conflict of interest by Russia and Austro-Hungary. The nations in order to outdo each other and in preparation for war engaged in arms race and gave the army and military a lot of power in controlling government policy. Spielvogel (2009, p.534) notes that the European military machines had doubled in size between 1890 and 1914. The German empire led by Bismarck e ngaged in massive shipbuilding in order to produce large naval fleet than Britain. In 1914, Britain had 49 battleships while German had 29 (Duffy, 2009). New highly destructive weapons such as; submarines, tanks, and poison gas were made which worsened the war. The readiness for war culminated into alliances. Various alliances were formed by the powers to help each other in case of war and to protect themselves from potential threats. Heyman (1997) observes that the prime ministers, foreign ministers and military leaders were crucial in the formation and dissolution of alliances. For example,

Aggregate Demand and Supply Models Essay Example for Free

Aggregate Demand and Supply Models Essay As it stands currently the existing effect of the economic factors on aggregate demand and supply are: unemployment, consumer income, and interest rates. In this paper we identify the existing effect of the economic factors on aggregate demand and supply. The American people have little to no income when unemployed, this in turn causes a decrease in demand for the economy. This type of event causes the aggregate demand to curve to the left. One of the main reasons unemployment remains high to this day is the lack of demand. A shortfall in aggregate demand is precisely the type of issue that can be addressed by monetary policy, however, to do so we need continuous monetary stimulus to progress toward maximum employment stability. The crash of the housing market has set tremendous limitation on consumer and their spending. Sternness on behalf of the government to a certain extent has decreased aggregate demand during this recovery period. These actions have directly impacted growth. What this means to us is that lower government spending and higher taxes call for disposable income for consumers, work for government contractors diminishing, and a decrease in government payroll. Another factor that has had great effect and impact are the levels of uncertainty. The events leading to this state have yet to be resolved which in turn have caused a lack of willingness and confidence within consumers. In the beginning the levels of uncertainty reflected the force of influence the recession had on us as consumers . This is something that had not been experienced in several years which made it difficult for us to handle or even find a way to get by in a more successful demeanor. After extensive research and analysis it is safe to say the supply-side considerations explain some of the rise in unemployment, which once again confirm the lack of demand as well as the fact that the economy is suffering first and foremost of a weak demand rather than a shortage of supply. References Williams, J. C. (2013, February 25). The Economy and Fed Policy: Follow the Demand. Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Retrieved from http://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/publications/economic-letter/2013/february/economy-fed-policy-follow-demand/ Thoma, M. (2012, March 28). Demand, not supply, is restraining the economy. CBS News. Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505123_162-57405230/demand-not-supply-is-restraining-the-economy/

UK Housing Shortage Strategies

UK Housing Shortage Strategies What Can the Government Do to Solve the Housing Shortage in the UK? Abstract The price of homes in the United Kingdom has doubled over the past ten years and house building is at the lowest level since 1924. It has been estimated that Britain is likely to be heading for a shortage of about a million homes by the year 2022. In a nation in which as many as 70 % of adult citizens have been accustomed to owning their own home, with amongst the highest rates of home ownership in Europe, the shortage of affordable homes is causing bitterness and frustration as wages and salary earners grapple with the dilemma of reconciling their earnings with their capacity for taking out a mortgage for a home. The record values that have been set in the property market have also had an influence on those who are renting or are otherwise disadvantaged. Although it has been predicted that the property market is likely to bust in a few years, the government has been blamed for having a cumbersome planning permission process, not releasing sufficient land for new housing and for doin g precious little to intervene in the market for affordable homes. Although attitudes have changed in Europe and the state is now considered to be the enabler rather then a provider, perhaps it is possible for the government, which must also protect the broader national interest, to do more to assist during such hard times. This dissertation presents a discussion about what the government in the United Kingdom can do to solve the housing shortage in the country. Contents (Jump to) Chapter 1 – Introduction Chapter 2 – Literature Review Chapter 3 – Methodology Chapter 4 – Results, Analysis and Discussion Chapter 5 – Conclusion and Recommendations Bibliography/References Chapter 1 – Introduction Although Britain has experienced housing shortages before, e.g. at the end of the Second Great War, the reasons for such shortages were rather obvious and easy to understand as compared to the reasons for the housing shortage today which is causing serious inconvenience to citizens (Bond, 1996, Pp. 49), (Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, 2003, Pp. 1) and (The Sunday Times, 2003, â€Å"Why arent our builders building?†). In a nation in which citizens are accustomed to owning their own homes, with home ownership rates of about 70 %, working people are baffled and frustrated with the hefty mortgages that make it impossible for them to even make a deposit for a modest flat (Stephens, 2006, Pp. 4) and (The Sunday Times, 2003, â€Å"Why arent our builders building?†). The government has been accused of slow planning and the prices of abodes have been soaring by as much as 68 % in one year alone. The housing shortage is not only making life very difficult for the disadvantaged in the community, but it is also becoming a problem for employers who cannot recruit key personnel because those who are found to be suitable find it difficult to relocate, as a result of the widening gaps between house prices and disposable incomes (Local Government Association, 2006, Pp. 1 – 5). Not only is the housing situation causing alarm today, but forecasts for the future indicate that the situation is unlikely to improve, with Britain heading for a shortage of a million homes by 2022 (Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2006, â€Å"Shortage of homes over next 20 years threatens deepening housing crisis†). Even rural areas are facing a housing crisis (Best, 2006, Pp. 6 – 27). Figure 1, which is presented below illustrates the problem. Surveys indicate that citizens believe that affordability is the major problem and not the shortage of housing (Platt, 2004, Chapter 5). Although land has been considered to be a scarce and valuable resource which needs to be judiciously allocated for a variety of uses, it appears that the government has preferred to take a path that permits private investors, real estate agents and property developers to play with the market and create shortages, while making huge profits (The Sunday Times, 2003, â€Å"Why arent our builders building?†). It is possible that a zeal for the dismantling of the welfare state and let the market decide attitude may have permitted developers and investors to place themselves in a position to control the market. The role of the state in the housing markets of Europe has changed from one of being a provider to that of being an enabler and all governments in Western Europe now have a distinctly more â€Å"support the market† attitude with surren der of housing to the market (Doherty, 2005, Pp. 6). However, the real estate market of today is one in which information is readily and rapidly available to developers and real estate agents through the internet, making it possible for them to present a united front on home prices and buyers are being asked for huge amounts no matter where they look. Although it is not possible for a government to dictate to anyone what they should ask for a property that they own, it is possible that a desire to deregulate everything may have resulted in the government loosing control and disadvantaging the ordinary people, while those who are associated with the property and housing market enjoy record profits (Dixon, 1998, Pp. 1 – 10), (Dixon, 2005, Section 3) and (Bond, 1996, Chapter 2). The property market and the selling of real estate or homes is certainly not what it used to be and property websites now display property prices for the global market. Investment in the UK property orig inating from outside UK has certainly been greater then similar investment in any other European country as is evidenced from the statistics presented in figure 2 below and overseas investors do enjoy some preferential treatment over local investors (Callender, 2004, Pp. 75 – 83). However, it has been stated that investment from overseas is not the main threat facing the UK property market and problems lie within the domestic property market (Dixon, 2000, Pp. 119). The previous assertion obviously implies that the foreign investment that is made in the UK property market is also something which is needed for the benefit of the UK and its citizens. It is, therefore, likely to be easy for property developers as well as real estate agents to develop loose cartels to seek profits from the domestic buyer and to present a united front in regard to prices for homes. Keeping these prices high will certainly benefit property agents and developers, while playing havoc with the common m an. In view of the fact that the housing shortage is having a profound impact on the manner in which ordinary people live out their lives in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, it is worth investigating what, if anything, can the government do to alleviate the shortage of affordable housing in the United Kingdom. This dissertation presents a discussion about what the government in the United Kingdom can do to help resolve the housing crisis in the country. The next chapter presents a literature review for the topic of discussion. Chapter 2 – Literature Review Although it is possible for a government to encourage home buyers by trying to provide financial instruments that will provide special assistance with savings that are to be used for the purchase of a home, the rates at which home prices have increased will tend to indicate that it is important to release more land for housing and to do this in a manner that will make it impossible for property developers or estate agents not to exploit the situation for generating huge profits by market manipulation (Song, 2005, Pp. 2 – 18) and (Friends of the Earth, 2004, Pp. 4). A certain level of evidence exists about property developers and estate agents having tried to profit from housing markets in the United Kingdom as should be obvious from figure 2, which is presented below (Callender, 2004, Pp. 75 – 83). Although offering those who are saving to build a home special savings schemes that are tax free and which offer high interest rates or government contributions along with di fferent types of mortgage, home equity or rental insurance programs can assist, all these schemes are likely to be useless if market manipulation continues to increase home prices rapidly. However, the task of controlling real – estate markets in a country that accepts free markets and the right to trade in order to gain is not an easy one. Coupled with the release of more land for housing, it is important that better and cheaper designs based on rapid – build technologies or high rise construction should be developed and a coherent national housing policy be implemented (Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, 2003, Pp. 1 4). However, this will mean that the government has to be willing to intervene in the name of social welfare in an era when the Barker Report has been urging deregulation (Friends of the Earth, 2004, Pp. 1 10). Even if land is released to developers and the public at relatively low prices, it is entirely possible that the price of this newl y released land will increase dramatically as a result of market forces which are being manipulated by developers and investors, unless special care is taken to ensure that the land and the homes on the land are released to those who are in genuine need of an abode. In addition to asking the government to release more land, it has also been proposed that government be lobbied for additional funds for social housing, improved delivery through quick decision making and planning as well as for working closely with the construction sector (Tempany, 2004, Pp. 1 – 5). Quick decisions on planning permissions with government private partnership in developments, better licensing requirements for those associated with the real – estate markets and a more through scrutiny of those who are to be granted permission to develop land are measures that can have an impact (Mayor of London, 2006, Pp. 15 – 34). However, it has to be understood that the land which is released by the government for housing is a natural asset of the United Kingdom which may also be useful for feeding the nation, maintaining its environment and for many other useful purposes. Thus, it is also important that decisions about the release of more land for housing be ca refully considered. Researchers have suggested that the British Town and Country Planning System excludes every price signal or economic indicator in land – use planning and decision making (Cheshire, 2003, Pp. 1 – 5). It has been proposed that premium on land prices at zone borders should be taken into consideration when granting development permissions and if the land prices exceeded a certain threshold, then investors should be sure that planning permission will be granted. However, this approach alone will not prevent any market manipulation aimed at profiteering or increasing land prices and additional regulation is likely to be needed to encourage individuals or families to own homes for personal or family use only with an aim towards discouraging the use of residential property for speculation aimed at generating profits. Although the management pundits are calling for deregulation, it is likely to be appropriate for the government to take a more direct approach towards housing, as it did for employment, by having government owned real – estate dealers and property developers who compete with licensed private sector operators to try an maintain some standards and ethics in the property market. Encouraging high – rise developments and limiting the housing land area which can be owned by a single owner with details of land and owner statistics being maintained in a database will ensure that more judicious allocation of land and housing is possible (Kristensen, 2004, Pp. 5 – 10). Tax interventions can be designed to make the ownership of a large number of residential properties by a single legal entity unattractive and it is desirable to ensure that a market is created in which home ownership is recognised as a human need, but profiteering is discouraged. Although, the previously mentioned assertions go against the British character and appear to be more communist in nature, they serve to illustrate the difficulties associated with land marke ts and land – market regulation. It is desirable that the government encourage further research on the regulation of land and property markets in the United Kingdom (Cheshire, 2004, Pp. 2 – 22). Land for housing is a national resource which should be used for the benefit of a maximum number of citizens, with the government being responsible for its judicious distribution and utilisation. However, this will mean that a change in thinking may well be required. Analysts are already predicting that housing prices in the UK will fall in the next few years and the real – estate as well as the housing markets have exhibited a cyclical behaviour in response to economic activity (Money Week, 2007, â€Å"Are UK house prices about to fall?†) and (Baum, 1999, Pp. 1 – 11). Thus, it is possible for the government to adjust monitory policy in order to influence the housing market, but the problem with such adjustments is that the impact tends to be broader then that on housing. It has been said that a fall in the UK interest rates of 1.5 % has the capacity to turn the booming property market into a bust (Leach, 2000, Pp. 25). However, it has to be realised that the high prices that are being asked for property and housing in prime locations, such as those in the city of London will not be influenced much by what the government does, because it is not possible to construct more homes on real estate that is owned by the wealthy class es who reside in prime locations. The only way to expand in such prime locations is to go vertically upwards and this is what is being done in London and other cities (Baxter, 2005, Pp. 3 – 9). Everyone wants to live in a prime location, but those who are the new rich only end up making those who own property in prime locations to pay more for owning such property by increasing property values which are then taxed at higher rates. Thus, it is unlikely that the housing shortage in the UK will be solved by just releasing more land, because most people will still like to own an abode in a decent or preferably prime location. The decision to own a home at a place is not just influenced by the fact that a shelter is needed, but the amenities, facilities and the economic activity in the neighbourhood are also important considerations that influence the decision. Thus, it is important that government try to influence development in areas that have been neglected so that they become attractive and efforts should be made to provide for economic activity in such areas so that individuals will want to move into these areas. Hence, the development of new housing estates is something that cannot be considered in isolation and a complete development package is often required. Local authorities and government are willing to make more efforts to try and rejuvenate city areas that have been neglected and which offer some potential for housing development, but a lot of funds are often required. This means that innovative arrangements for financing such developments will have to be made (Tuffrey, 2004, Pp. 11 – 17). A discussion about market – oriented land – use planning has been presented in (Lind, 2002, Pp. 2 – 11). It has been found that the social dimensions associated with land – use planning is now increasingly being enforced by the global market. However, it is possible for the government to encourage increased financial innovation in the property markets and to empower the local governments. Britain has been lagging behind North America in financial innovation associated with property and the traditional model is still preferred (Lizieri, 2002, Pp. 1 – 10). It is possible that some relaxation in the rules which have been imposed by the United Kingdom Treasury can have an impact on the ability of the local governments to arrive at better arrangements with the developers. The nature of the planning permission process in the United Kingdom is encouraging the relatively large developers, with a better ability to manipulate the market, to remain in the mark et, while driving out the smaller operators (Coiacetto, 2006, Pp. 20). The larger developers are more able to control the supply of housing and thus home prices. Some problems also appear to present themselves with the methods that are being used for property valuation and brokers as well as borrowers do try to influence property valuation (Crosby, 2000, Pp. 5) and (McAllister, 2006, Pp. 5 – 6). Unfortunately, buyers, sellers and lenders as well as borrowers try to influence valuations, but the price of property is influenced by supply and demand along with the ability of a buyer to pay and the ability of a seller to hold on to the property. However, more thought needs to be given about how government can assist in the development of a truly efficient market and reduce the ability of cartels to squeeze supply and to manipulate the market. Thus better regulation and standards associated with the buying and selling of housing can be attempted to be developed along with more eff icient markets. It has been recognised that the current UK system of controlling development does give rise to some problems and the government has been deliberating and consulting in order to try and improve the processes (Allmendinger, 2006, Pp. 5 – 8). Table 1, which has been presented below provides a summary of the status quo about the current UK system. However, although the issue of rapidly improving the supply of land for new housing development is an important one, other approaches to improve the housing market and for the control of greed are also worthy of consideration when thinking about solutions to a complex situation. Thus, a multifaceted approach will have to be taken, with the forces in the market interacting in order to find a balance. A discussion about the evolution of land administration systems in Common Law countries has been presented in (Ting, 1999, Pp. 1 – 14). This paper suggests that the relationship between humankind and land has always been a dynamic one and the direction of such dynamism is dependant on the priorities that are established by a society. It has been asserted in the previously mentioned paper that the state has a duty to promote efficient land markets and the environmentally sustainable use of land through the development of legal framework that balances the need for construction with the needs for the environment, while minimizing risk and diversifying land use. It is also stated that state cannot abandon regulation and that regulation should be designed to fit the shifting demands of the economy as well as a nation’s institutional capacity. It is the parliament in the United Kingdom and the Sovereign who are more responsible then anyone else for â€Å"establishing the pri orities of a society†. While Britons are accustomed to living in relatively palatial homes, the Japanese or the Singaporeans have to make do with living in compact high rise flats because of a shortage of land. Plenty of land is available in the United Kingdom, but this does not mean that the government can continue to release land for housing without any regard for future generations, environment and the utility of land as well as the dangers of market manipulation once land has been released into the hands of self interested business people. Perhaps one of the reasons why the government is acting rather slowly is to give free markets a chance to work along with the property cycles so that optimal solutions do present themselves. After all, if excessively high prices are being asked for, then individuals will not be able to pay and market adjustments will be forced to occur. Alternatively, perhaps individuals can start to live in compact high rise buildings or other novel des igns. Decisions that are ultimately made by the parliament will determine the nature of land market in the UK, the type of housing that UK citizens will live in and type of property portfolio that can be afforded. However, when markets are in transition as a result of greed, it takes time for a balance to be achieved and it is necessary to consider a complex set of regulatory measures to maintain harmony. Thus, it is likely that the government will act in the most appropriate manner when those who are in a position to establish societal priorities have decided that the nation, as distinct from the profiteers, is likely to gain the most. The next chapter of this dissertation presents a discussion about the methodology of research for this dissertation. Chapter 3 – Methodology When researching a new topic or tackling a research problem, it is always necessary to benefit from the experiences of other scholars, researchers or investigators who may have pondered on similar issues, as their experience can certainly benefit the investigator in reaching appropriate conclusions and in gaining insights into the problem. The basic technique for the research that was undertaken for this dissertation involved finding suitable published literature through library database searches and internet searches to access journal articles, research papers, published books, research reports and project reports that were related to the subject of the dissertation. This literature was then reviewed in order to extract relevant themes which could possibly assist in the investigation that was being conducted for the dissertation. Research as a whole is a complex and sophisticated field which contributes to knowledge as a whole. The research process results in the generation of a theory, the testing of a hypothesis or theory or both. Currently, there are two traditions of research which have developed along with their terminology, methods and techniques and these traditions have been referred to by different researchers with different names such as qualitative or quantitative traditions in research, humanistic and scie ntific traditions or the positivist and phenomenological traditions of research. The differing names refer to the same distinctions in the processes of conducting research. On the one hand, the qualitative tradition consists of case study methods, ethnography and historical as well as action research and on the other hand we have the quantitative tradition that consists of methodologies such as survey research, experimental and quasi-experimental research as well as research after the occurrence of a factual event (Collins, 1999, Chapters 1 – 3) and (Marshall, 1999, Chapters 1 – 4). It is possible to express facts as objective reality which can be expressed as quantities. This forms the basis of the positivist tradition of research which is quantitative research and relies on numbers, measurements and experiments to derive numerical relationships under conditions of controlled behaviour that can be manipulated. The phenomenological tradition attempts to describe and understand reality which is set in perceptions with narratives and observations being used to focus on understanding and meaning to yield knowledge and understanding (Collins, 1999, Chapters 1 – 3) and (Marshall, 1999, Chapters 1 – 4). Generalization of situations and settings, understanding of events and why they occur as well as predictions are some of the results of the research process. There is a difference between explanation and understanding that develops as a result of seeing things happen, after reasons have been fitted into patterns and deductions can be made from other known truths. There is a requirement for elements being investigated to be related to other elements and the overall picture forms into a unified model with the unification forming the explanation. Thus, there is an explanation for something when it can be understood. Understanding requires the use of rich descriptions and formation of relationships between different parts. This fitting together of things is what is known as the pattern model and the understanding of patterns is the result of research of a qualitative tradition. This form of research is aided by review of literature. In the quantitative method of research, the more basic facts or laws are used to determine what is to be explained and a deductive model is constructed (Collins, 1999, Chapters 1 – 3) and (Marshall, 1999, Chapters 1 – 4). There is a distinction between prediction and generalization. It is possible to deduce an unknown part of a pattern from a known part and, therefore, the symmetry of prediction and deduction uses the deductive model. In some areas, generalizations tend to be complex with there being a great deal of conflict and scrutiny (Collins, 1999, Chapters 1 – 3) and (Marshall, 1999, Chapters 1 – 4). Qualitative research is, therefore, more appropriate for the development of complex interrelationships in the more natural or real life situations with a possibility of using this methodology of research to test theories which have already been developed. The qualitative and quantitative methods of research often work together and quantitative research can be used to further test theories which have been developed using qualitative research and qualitative research can be used to further explain the results of quantitative investigations. Qualitative methods are, therefore, useful for rich descriptions of issues being studied with hopes of achieving better understandings with predictions not being the main aim and generalisations taking the form of natural generalisation (Collins, 1999, Chapters 1 – 3) and (Marshall, 1999, Chapters 1 – 4). A case study may be described as an investigation of a singular nature emphasizing on the individual, group, event or culture. Case studies may involve both quantitative as well as qualitative elements but the studies result in a characteristic wholeness without any loose collection of facts and traits. Case studies build upon concepts, structures and promote understanding with the researchers looking for systematic connections, observable behaviours, causes and speculations. The case study deals with a full body of evidence and this methodology has been found to be of use when questions are being asked about situations or events over which the researchers do not have any control. Case studies are also guided by underlying theories, hypothesis and assumptions but construction of conceptual framework, theory building and conceptual structure are important aims of conducting case studies. Studies of specific issues in a number of settings are referred to as multi-site case studies and such studies can strengthen the ability to generalize while remaining on the more qualitative side and maintaining in-depth description and consideration (Collins, 1999, Chapters 1 – 3) and (Marshall, 1999, Chapters 1 – 4). In this dissertation, the challenges associated with the housing market in the United Kingdom in an era of free trade and globalisation are explored mostly through a process of literature review because this is the most appropriate approach for the subject matter that is being examined. Getting a feel for a market usually involves collecting data from the market, which can be very large, looking at statistics, government regulations, consumer opinion and also seeking the opinion of those who have already dealt with the market. However, because the market is so very large, it is difficult for a single researcher to try and attempt to gather raw data that can be processed to provide market information and thus, the task is likely to benefit from the i nformation gathering efforts of large institutions or corporate research offices that do publish reports about markets and market related information. It was felt that the qualitative research methodology is in fact the appropriate one for investigating the topic of dissertation because a reasonable amount of published research material is available on the topic of discussion. The qualitative research methodology consists of the literature review which has attempted to capture important themes from published literature related to the shortage of affordable housing in the United Kingdom. A quantitative approach involving collecting of new data about the housing situation in the UK is likely to be difficult because statistics related to housing, housing policy, land utilisation and allocation policy etc is likely to be difficult to collect for a single researcher. However, data and statistics that are available in published form can be of use in the research. Thus, the research methods that were used for this dissertation consisted of basically finding suitable literature related to the topic of research and then examining this liter ature through a process of literature review in order to present the salient points about the challenges involved with providing those who live in the UK with affordable housing. Suitable literature was selected through a process of library database search, internet search engine search and an examination of the articles as well as research papers which had been presented in journals related to housing, public policy and real estate management etc. Published material that was available from reputed universities and research institutes was also considered in an attempt to gather new ideas and insights related to the topic of discussion. A literature review for the topic of discussion has already been presented along with all the important themes that are to be found and the next two chapters of the dissertation present a discussion about what could be gathered about the topic of discussion and the conclusions that were able to be reached. Chapter 4 – Results, Analysis and Discussion From what has been previously presented, it is obvious that the supply of new homes in the United Kingdom is stagnant and prices are at an all time high. Although the supply of new land and the quick processing of planning permissions are likely to be important in alleviating the situation, the housing market is complex, with large developers and investors being able to take advantage of the situation to manipulate prices by presenting a united front on home prices. In some prime property locations it is no longer possible to provide more land for construction of new homes and in such places the only way to go when constructing is vertically upwards. Because of the fact that better facilities and employment or business opportunities are available at prime locations and owning property at such locations is considered to be prestigious, those who own property that is located in prime locations do not want to let go and the newly rich only make it more expensive for them to live there b y contributing to price increases, taxes and property values. Such price increases also encourage home price escalations at other locations. Thus, the government will not only be required to increase the supply of land for new homes, but also to have a bal

feminaw Feminist Reading of Kate Chopins The Awakening Essay examples

A Feminist Reading of The Awakening The Awakening is not new to me. However, in the class when I read it before the instructor refused to entertain a feminist criticism. The theory presented was that Edna knew what kind of man she was marrying and all these things she went through: her friendship with Madame Reisz leaving the house, entertaining her friends at the party, her situation with Robert and Arobin were all selfish efforts toward the ultimate freedom which is death. I feel Chopin faults Leonce as much as Edna for Edna's problems. He is a cold fish. He is controlling and he puts on a show for friends and neighbors "proving" he is a model husband which he is not. He is Creole and I think Edna, being as reserve as she is, is not the best mate for him. He possibly needs an outwardly passionate woman to keep him interested and alive as a husband. For a Creole he is reserve and he does not know how to respond to Edna's reserve. By the end of chapter V we know the Pontelliers have problems and we know Robert is sympathetic towards Edna merely because she is a woman and he likes women. We have also seen the "ideal" woman in the person of Madame Ragtignolle. Chapter VI is very different. Chopin lets us know that Edna has begun to realize her world and its relationships are less than desirable. She and Leonce don't have a happy, fulfilling marriage. She is not the mother-earth type and can not appreciate her children. Although, some of the problem here is because Leonce undermines her mothering efforts and has done so from the beginning. His mother epitomizes motherhood and no one can measure up. I doubt she would have been a demonstrative mother but she would have been a loving one. The last paragraph of Ch... ... the very end of the story just before Edna enters the ocean for the last time End watches the coast. There is no living thing all along the beach, but there is a bird, a wild free bird, with a broken wing who †was beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water .† Even the wild birds need support. End had no support, just like this bird and her fate is the same â€Å"down, down into the water.†I’m hung up on the lack of communication between Edna and Leonce. I wonder if Leonce has a comparable story of misery. In the first several chapters Edna says four lines and they are in response to someone or something else. They are not ideas originating with her. Leonce’s words to Edna are aimed at control. He goes off to the hotel and says he’ll be back whenever This leaves her waiting for his next move, his next demand (request).

The Virtue and Vice of Reason in Mores Utopia Essay -- Thomas More Ut

The Virtue and Vice of Reason in  More's Utopia   When reason permeates society, it does not necessarily imply greater happiness. When brought to the point of rationalization, or when there are errors in the analysis used in reasoning, reason tends to have adverse effects. On the other hand, when analysis is well thought out, and the correct conclusions are drawn, reason can have an overwhelmingly positive effect on a society. Many may think that Sir Thomas More's Utopia infers that reason must be the foundation, and even the preoccupation, of any perfect society. In fact, according to Dr. Evans, More's contemporaries had no doubt that More was attempting to depict a perfect society, one firmly based upon the precepts of reason. However, More injects several major flaws in the Utopian system, which subverts the possibility of that society being truly ideal. In his attempt to expose the inherent limitations of reason, More presents us with the Utopian society, which both benefits and loses from reason in their handling of material we alth, religious toleration, and respect for human life. More uses the Utopians' total rejection of material wealth to present the possibility of reason overcoming petty greed. The Utopians' realization that material wealth has little value is, at least on face, one of the higher pinnacles of their civilization. As Raphael says, "Nor can they understand how a totally useless substance like gold should now, all over the world, be considered far more important than human beings . . ." (89). With this statement, Raphael is pointing out one of the great flaws of any capitalistic society, that human beings often pursue gold and riches at the expense of human dignity and morality. Some human beings, ... ...posing ideas within it, Thomas More is not only exposing the limits of reason, but he is encouraging intellectual discourse and diversity of opinions. He is challenging individuals and society as a whole to not accept the so-called "perfect society," but to think about the consequences that would occur if a Utopian system were to be adopted. Yet he presents to us the notion that even reason has its limitations and is only as good as the person who analyzes the situation. There is no perfect society, no perfect individual, and certainly no Utopia, but that does not mean that we should not strive toward that end. When we use reason, a perfect state of society, or a perfect individual is by no means guaranteed, but at least it's a step in the right direction. Works Cited: More, Thomas. Utopia, ed. And trans. HVS Ogden. AHM Publishing Corporation, Illinois, 1949.

Organizational Plans Essay

Many organizations design and implement plans that are put into action to ensure that each department of a company is running as efficiently and as effectively as possible. There are three main plans that organizations use to assist managers with the tasks of achieving their goals; strategic planning, tactical planning, and operational planning. Strategic planning is the broad overview of goals and strategies made by top-level management, which are set for the long-term future. Tactical planning is taking these long-term goals and breaking them down into more specific and direct objectives. â€Å"Operational planning identifies the specific procedures and processes required at lower levels of the organization.† (Bateman & Snell, 2011). All three of these planning procedures are crucial in the success of an organized and successful company. In addition, a business might want to set up a contingency plan. A contingency plan will come into action if any of the prior plans should fail. If we take a look at Subaru of America, we can see that their structure depends on these three organizational plans. This vast of an organization needs as much planning as possible because there is such a variety of departments and management alike, there need to be plans set in place so that the company can operate as one complete unit. Using the strategic plan, Subaru of America is able to let its top-level managers make decisions for future business. Using the tactical plan, the strategic plan is broke down between departments and has specific goals and deadlines. These goals are then passed onto floor managers who in turn put the goals and strategies into action. These goals can either be â€Å"single-use,† or on going day-to-day tasks. References Bateman, T. S., & Snell, S. A. (2011). Management: Leading & collaborating in a competitive world (9th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin

Evaluating E-Commerce Strategy Development within Organisations Essay

Background The news about the â€Å"New Economy† has triggered many entrepreneurial ventures to exploit on the electronic commerce (e-commerce) opportunities. Ventures such as Amazon and eBay have received significant media attention and investor optimism about the potential of e-commerce. Now that the smoke has settled, both management and academic research have become interested on the impact of e-commerce on those companies that have supplemented their brick-and-mortar outlets with e-commerce initiatives. Several researches have emerged on effect of e-commerce on organisational strategy. Tapscott et al (1998) discusses the organisational changes created by B2B e-commerce and the benefits of deploying e-commerce within the organisation. O’Connell (2000) discusses the effect of e-commerce in the organisational structure in light of the resource-based view and transaction cost theory. E-commerce has been seen as improving efficiency, communication and lowering costs across business processes (O’Connell, 2000; Krovi et al., 2003; Garicano and Kaplan, 2001). In addition, researches have also shown the influence of e-commerce on brand management. Wind & Mahajan (2001). discuss how the competitive environment is changing with the increasing number of Internet users and how the new technology is redefining the marketplace. The research presented a conceptual framework delineating the drivers and outcomes of marketing strategy in the context of competing in both physical and electronic marketplace. Part of the emergence of electronic marketplace is the ability of organisations to offer highly customized products to consumers, and the capability to build and to manage customer relationships (Brown, 2000). The aim of the research is to investigate the way in which an organisation develops its electronic commerce strategy over time in light of existing strategic approaches and development found within related literature. The research particularly looks into Marks & Spencer e-commerce strategy as the case study for the research. The research looks into how Marks & Spencer has developed and implemented its e-commerce strategy. Drawing from strategic management theories, the research specifically focuses on the how an e-commerce strategy is grounded on reducing transaction cost within the organisation and across the value chain. Furthermore, the research also looks into the importance of relationship marketing and how e-commerce is providing organisations with the necessary technology to achieve seamless exchange of information and reduced costs. Strategically, the adoption of e-commerce within an organisation hinges on these two important strategic management theories. In addition, the research is confined within the business-to-consumer (B2C) market, since business-to-business (B2B) relations are frequently characterized by a small number of customers and a strong emphasis on personal contacts between customers and salespeople as their means of marketing communication. Therefore, the research focuses on how consumers view their shopping experience within an e-commerce site, particularly Marks & Spencer. The Overview of the Study   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The remainder of this study is as following statement:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Chapter 2, Literature Review, will provide a concise concept and explanation of electronic commerce within retail organisation. The review of related literature discusses the concept and application areas of e-commerce within organisation. The review will also tackle the important strategic management concepts such as transaction cost theory and relationship marketing and how e-commerce is enabling organisations achieve increased efficiency, improved communication, and lower costs across its value chain. Chapter 3, Methodology, will describe the research design of this study. The research design of this study is empirical research method using secondary data for quantitative analysis. Chapter 4, Results, will demonstrate the results of this study.   At first, the descriptive statistical data such as maximum, minimum and mean, on the consumer’s perspective on the different service attributes of e-commerce site for Marks and Spencer. Chapter 5, Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations, the â€Å"Summary† section will first provide a comprehensive summary of the major findings of this study. The â€Å"Conclusion† section will highlight the implications of the research findings. Finally, â€Å"Recommendations† will be proposed to help companies to utilize the importance of electronic commerce in their strategic assessment.   In next chapter, related researches in electronic commerce will be reviewed CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW Electronic Commerce According to the International Engineering Forum, e-commerce is â€Å"an emerging model of new selling and merchandising tools in which buyers are able to participate in all phases of a purchase decision, while stepping through those processes electronically rather than in a physical store or by phone (with a physical catalog). (online International Engineering Forum)† E-commerce enables a customer to access product information, select items to purchase, purchase items securely and have the purchase settled financially.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   While the notion of e-commerce as the ability of organisations or a person to sell over the Internet is very popular, the research paper will adopt the definition of Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD). E-commerce can be defined as â€Å"the total of all applications that pertain to online communications and transaction (OECD, 2000).† The definition better suit our purpose of discussing e-commerce in the context of strategic management. The research views e-commerce holistically, which encompasses the communication between organisations and customer over the Internet, the completion of one-time or on-going online transactions, and e-CRM systems.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The emergence of e-commerce in the retail sector is one of the most widely adopted and anticipated development in the industry. Following the success of Amazon, many brick-and-mortar retailers jumped into the dot com bandwagon and established their online presence in the World Wide Web. Many have adopted e-commerce capabilities out of a fear of falling behind competitors or as a result of the general momentum to expand the use of an existing Internet presence. Nonetheless, the main value proposition for organisations adopting an online presence is the prospect of increasing revenue from new markets and using a lower-cost, electronic-distribution channel (online International Engineering Forum).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   With a strong demand from organisations in creating an online presence, internet service providers (ISPs) have begun to offer electronic-commerce hosting services. ISPs often position as a outsourced service provider of the customers’ electronic-commerce capabilities, managing the networking and server aspects of the initiatives. Such services are important consideration for the roll-out e-commerce sites as it allows organisations to leverage on the expertise of ISPs and allows organisations to concentrate on their core businesses (online International Engineering Forum).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   From the customer’s perspective, the main benefit of an e-commerce system is the convenience it brings to consumers, who are constrained by busy schedule and numerous activities. The e-commerce system enables a customer to locate and purchase a desired good or service over the Internet when the customer is ready to make the purchase. Its function is synonymous to a virtual store (online International Engineering Forum).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   From the merchant’s perspective, the e-commerce system enables the organisation to take advantage of the strengths of online store and increase revenues. One of the key benefits of implementing an online store is the capability to cover greater market reach and a complementary distribution channel to its existing brick-and-mortar stores. However, in order to effectively implement an e-commerce strategy, the e-commerce system must recreate or utilize existing data and business processes. The merchant must recreate the same shopping experience in its online store providing in-store assistance, secure payment process, catalogs and prices about the products and services, inventory management, and transaction capabilities (including credit authorization, tax computation, financial settlement, and shipping) (online International Engineering Forum).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Furthermore, e-commerce not only allows merchants to take advantage of market reach, but it also enables merchants to redefine and enhance an enterprise’s brand strength, customer-service capability, and supply-chain efficiency. An e-commerce site is one of the areas of an enterprise infrastructure that is open to customers via the Web, but it is linked with other information system of the enterprise value chain (online International Engineering Forum).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In implementing an e-commerce site, provision of the basic system requires an Internet connection, a Web-application server and e-commerce application software, and a personal computer for the shopper. Figure 1 illustrates the basic economic drivers and application requirements of an e-commerce marketplace. On the buyers side, consumers are driven to the online retail store through advertisements, interesting features, needed information, and directory. On the sellers side, merchants are driven to the online space because of its ease of entry, increasing website traffic, ability to sell and integrate marketing messages (online International Engineering Forum). Figure 1. Business Drivers in e-commerce strategy E-Commerce Strategies and Business Drivers A number of initiatives implemented within an organisation are driven by a market need. All industries are characterized by trends and new developments that gradually or speedily produce changes important enough to require a strategic response from participating firms. The popular hypothesis about industries going through a life cycle helps explain industry changes but is still incomplete (Porter, 1980 p. 157-162). The life-cycle stages are strongly keyed to changes in the overall industry growth rate (which is why such terms as rapid growth, early maturity, saturation, and decline are used to describe the stages). Yet there are more causes of industry change than an industry’s position in the life cycle (Porter, 1980 p. 157-162). While it is important to judge what growth stage an industry is in, there’s more analytical value in identifying the specific factors causing fundamental industry and competitive adjustments. Industry and competitive conditions change because forces are in motion that create incentives and pressures for change (Porter, 1980 p. 162). The most dominant forces are called driving forces because they have the biggest influence on what kinds of changes will take place in the industry’s structure and competitive environment. The Internet and e-commerce opportunities are unquestionably spawning a sweeping business revolution that altered industry boundaries, opens up all kinds of new business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) market opportunities and threats, sparks competition from new and entirely different breed of enterprises and mandates fundamental changes in business practices (Thompson and Strickland 2001).   In his book The Business of E-Commerce: From Corporate Strategy to Technology, Paul May discusses four business drivers for adopting an e-commerce strategy. First, organisations have the compulsion to catch up with competitors or to gain competitive advantage by being early adopters of the new technology. Organisation’s constant pursuit to gain competitive edge in the marketplace is a primary concern and part of a survival component in the business strategy. Second, organisations need to develop a credible e-commerce channel from its current online portfolio. Third, organisations are constantly looking for ways to reduce cost and increase efficiency within its value chain. E-commerce can be a creative force in delivering reduced transaction cost, increased communication and coordination, and improve business processes. Fourth, e-commerce enables organisations to improve its value chain by creating strategic supplier partnership and delivering customized customer solutions. It allows organisations improve business’ infrastructural capabilities to play as an extended enterprise and not merely a single business entity delivering greater value to its customers (May, 2000). Each of these drivers can be harnessed as a propulsive force for the business, rather than a deflective or immobilizing one (May, 2000). Application areas of E-commerce Six key emerging application areas in electronic commerce can be identified. It can be organized into two important domains: business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B). The application areas include categories in consumer retailing to real-time business-to-business collaboration (May, 2000).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Retailers were the first adopters of the business-to-consumer e-commerce. Retailers found selling products and services online as a promising channel of distribution for its products and reaching new markets. Nonetheless, B2C e-commerce is now more diversified and classified into three application areas which include retail, auction, and advice (May, 2000). The three application areas of B2C e-commerce are retail, auctions, and advice. Although each has its own distinguishing characteristics, and dynamics, a consistent theme underlies the development of all three. This is the increasing â€Å"busy-ness† of consumer lifestyles: the extension from work life into private life of a culture of ever-decreasing time-frames and ever-increasing obligations. Lack of time and complexity of choice drive the growth of products and services in each of these areas (May, 2000). Business-to-consumer is a term that stresses the direction of delivery: B2C e-commerce is supposedly something done by business to consumers. Yet this domain is founded on intense customer focus. Insight into the conflicting desires and pressures affecting consumers is a powerful ally in building successful strategies in this highly competitive area (May, 2000). Business-to-business, on the other hand, is the umbrella term used to refer to transactions between businesses conducted online, and the business networks and supply chains that make these transactions possible. While B2B activity has always, taken place, the Internet brings with it a new framework, B2B companies no longer need to depend on the traditional one-to-one model for business transactions (Michel, 2003). Procurement, inventory exchange, and real-time collaboration are relatively obscure categories of application, which have the potential to flip many businesses inside-out. Procurement introduces process improvements in the buying functions of organisations and also points the way to a more competitive environment in inter-company trading. Inventory exchange introduces the mechanism of the market to smooth out supply and demand inefficiencies across entire value chain, potentially lowers transaction and carrying costs, and focuses on improving exchange of supplier information. Real-time collaboration allows organisations to cooperate as fluid colonies of actors, undermining the stability of companies who prefer hands-off relationships or who prefer their reality-checks to be presented monthly (May, 2000). e-Commerce application in Retail Industry Retailers are now increasingly adopting electronic commerce as another distribution means of selling products and services. Online channels have also proved increasingly popular amongst retail companies within other formats such as hypermarkets or catalog retailers, who have attempted to expand into the sector to escape from stale growth within their respective markets (Datamonitor 2006). Datamonitor estimates the global Internet retail sector valued at $656.4 billion in 2005, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30.3% over the 2001-2005 period. The estimate is based on the total revenues generated through the sale of retail goods via online channels, valued at retail selling price, with any currency conversions calculated using constant 2005 annual average exchange rates (Datamonitor 2006). With the number of Internet users increasing exponentially year-on-year, the industry has experienced strong global growth within the global Internet retail sector. Much of the demand for online purchases is due to the escalating number of working mothers and time-starved consumers who are conveniently seeking ways of shopping without the hassle of driving to a retail store and falling in-line (Datamonitor 2006). At present, drugs and health & beauty aids are the sector’s most lucrative segment in 2005, accounting for a total of $154 billion in total revenues or 23.5% of the retail sector’s total value. Computer, hardware, software, and supplies contributed significant revenues in 2005, generating $114.9 billion in revenues or 17.5% of the sector’s total value (Datamonitor, 2006).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   While analyst do not see a similar spectacular growth in the global Internet retail industry, experts still is optimistic the pace of revenue expansion for the next four years. Industry experts project to the expansion of industry to remain strong valuing the industry at $1.169 trillion by 2010. This translates to 12.2% CAGR over the 2005-2010 period (Datamonitor, 2006).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In terms of revenues generated per region, Datamonitor reports that Europe has the largest market share in the global Internet retail sector with 44.4% of total value, followed by the United States and the Asia Pacific with 22.5% and 21.7% respectively (Datamonitor, 2006).

Conference Management

Abstract This project aims to create a common platform for organizing activities of conference. The conference management system will manage the abstracts and research papers submitted by scholars, reviewing them, and accepting or rejecting them. This will greatly reduce the costs and efforts of the conference managers and authors where they can directly interact through internet. Currently there is a need for such a conference management system, where research conferences relating to different fields can be managed by single application. This application can host any number of conferences and large number of paper can be submitted.The environment created would enhance the usability of conference’s thereby facilitating the researcher’s to submit their papers easily and making organizers to manage the research’s by forwarding it to the jury and taking their reviews. This would reduce a lot of effort. It would also eliminate the need to have expertise on employing people for managing all such activities. It would smooth the progress of conference management and all the activities will take place in well-defined manner. Table of Contents Page No. RecommendationI Dissertation Approval Sheet II Candidate DeclarationIIIAcknowledgementIV AbstractV Chapter 1 Introduction 1. 1 Overview and issues involved01 1. 2 Problem definition 01 1. 3Problem Solution 01 Chapter-2 Literature Survey 2. 1 Methodology 03 2. 2 Technologies and tools 04 Chapter-3 Requirements gathering 3. 1 Software requirements 08 3. 2 Hardware requirements 98 3. 3 Use case model 10 Chapter-4 Analysis 4. 1 Sequence diagrams 18 4. 2 Activity diagrams 22 Chapter-5 Design 5. 1 Technology selection 25 5. 2 Database design 28 5. 3 Implementation details Chapter-6 Testing 6. 1Test case and design30 6. 2Testing methods and strategies31Conclusion 37 Bibliography38 Chapter-1 Introduction This conference management tool aims at improving the conference management practices and reduces the burd en on the part of organizers, and provides the technical solution for the research paper submission and reviews. 1. 1 Overview and Issues Involved There are large numbers of conferences being taking place at different locations all over the world, we have seen researchers and eminent educationist submit their research papers at these conferences, they generally have to send the research paper through post and it takes a lot of time.This project is focused towards developing a management system that will cater to the needs of the conference organizers. 1. 2 Problem Definition In the present scenario, the conference organizers face a lot of problems in coordinating various activities that are associated with conference. This increases a lot of effort and needs a lot of expertise and large numbers of people are required to manage all the process. This definitely is not an easy task. There is a lot of trouble involved in submitting a research paper to a conference and then sending it to a jury, for review and their comments.To speed up this process of conference management was our main focus in this project. 1. 3 Problem Solution This project will be a fine demonstration of efficient use of technology and engineering in the web- application development field. This will cut down the organizing and maintenance cost of conference’s and will also reduce the efforts of author to send their research papers through post. This is done through creation of a conference management application that would assist the organizers to run their conference effectively.Our software product ‘conference management system’ is designed and developed to provide the rigid solution for the handling of conferences. We have designed an interface that will provide the platform for the researchers and educationist to submit their research papers online and it will be forwarded to jury for their review and comments. The system will help the user’s to create new confere nce by providing the information of the conference and the request will be forwarded to the administrator for validation.The administrator can accept or reject the conference request and he will have to authority to delete the author if he is found doing illegal activity on the system. The chair of the conference will add the program committee members to review the papers submitted in that conference. The chair can check the details of the paper submitted in the conference installed by him. The program committee member will be reviewing the conference for which he is selected by the chair to review the conference. The program committee can download the research paper for reading it so it can be reviewed in a better manner. . 1 Methodology To operate this software in a best possible way, the user should have some knowledge of accessing internet and navigating the internet through any browser. He should be aware of how conferences are hosted and the working of organization that hostâ €™s the conference i. e. from submitting of paper, forwarding it to the jury, and then finalizing selected research papers. 1 System Interfaces As our system is completely an independent system in itself thus it does not require any external API or any interface for interaction with any other system.It only interacts with the administrator and author’s, but not with any other software component. 2 Interfaces Our system will interact with the user only through the well defined graphical user interface. Client server architecture will be required for supporting the application. Client Server Architecture A server is anything that has some resource that can be shared. There are Computer servers, which provide computing power; print servers, which manage a collection of printers; disk servers, which provide networked disk space; and web servers, which store web pages.A client is simply any other entity that wants to gain access to a particular server. The interaction between client and server is just like the interaction between a lamp and an electrical socket. The power grid of the house is the server, and the lamp is a power client. The server is a permanently available resource, while the client is free to â€Å"unplug† after it is has been served. [pic] Fig 2. 1 Client-Server Architecture 2. 2 Technologies and Tools NetBeans NetBeans refer to both a platform framework for java desktop applications,and an integrated development environment(IDE).The NetBeans IDE is written in Java and can run anywhere a compatible JVM is installed, including Windows, Mac OS, Linux, etc. The NetBeans platform allows application to be developed from a set of modular software components called modules. The NetBeans Platform is a reusable framework for simplifying the development of Java Swing desktop applications. Among the features of the platform are: †¢ User interface management (e. g. menus, toolbars) †¢ User settings management †¢ Storage manag ement (saving and loading any kind of data) †¢ Window management Wizard framework (supports step-by-step dialogs) †¢ NetBeans Visual Library †¢ Integrated development Tools Adobe Dreamweaver Adobe Dreamweaver is the industry-leading web authoring and editing software that provides both visual and code-level capabilities for creating standards-based websites and designs for the desktop, smart phones, tablets, and other devices. It is a site building and publishing tool appropriate for intermediate to advanced users that allows you to create graphical interface and built-in advanced design and coding features.It enables use of basic JavaScript without any coding knowledge. Integrating features of Adobe Dreamweaver are amazing; it integrates with Adobe’s Spry Ajax framework and that makes an easy access to dynamically-generated content and interfaces. Adobe Dreamweaver is also integrated with Adobe Flash Professional, Fireworks, Photoshop Extended; this lessens th e amount of stages for making projects. Adobe Dreamweaver supports leading web development technologies such as HTML, XHTML, CSS, XML, JavaScript, Ajax, PHP, Adobe ColdFusion software, which make designing and development really magical.Powerful CSS tools do not need separate utilities, and reduce the need to manually edit CSS code in designing and developing websites. Adobe Dreamweaver is the best application for extension developers and web designers who design and put up websites. MySQL Mysql is a relational database management system (RDBMS) that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. The SQL phrase stands for Structured Query Language. Free-software-open source projects that require a full-featured database management system often use MySQL.For commercial use, several paid editions are available, and offer additional functionality. Uses MySQL is a popular choice of database for use in web applications, and is a central component of the widely use d LAMP web application software stack—LAMP is an acronym for â€Å"Linux, Apache, MySQL and Perl/PHP/Python†. MySQL is used in some of the most frequently visited web sites on the Internet, including Flickr. com, Nokia. com, YouTube and as previously mentioned, Wikipedia, Google and Facebook. Glass Fish Server: Glassfish is an open source application server project led by Sun Microsystems for the Java EE platform.The proprietary version is called Sun GlassFish Enterprise Server. Glassfish is free software. The latest version of GlassFish released is v3. 1. Other Java EE application servers: †¢ JBoss AS †¢ WebSphere AS †¢ WebLogic Server †¢ Apache Geronimo MODULE-2 †¢ JDBC/ODBC: ODBC  (Open Database Connectivity) is a standard software interface for accessing database management systems (DBMS). The designers of ODBC aimed to make it independent of  programming languages, database systems, and  operating systems. Thus, any application can u se ODBC to query data from a database, regardless of the platform it is on or DBMS it uses.ODBC accomplishes platform and language independence by using an  ODBC driver  as a translation layer between the application and the DBMS. The application thus only needs to know ODBC syntax, and the driver can then pass the query to the DBMS in its native format, returning the data in a format the application can understand. Java DataBase Connectivity, commonly referred to as  JDBC, is an  API  for the  Java programming language  that defines how a client may access a  database. It provides methods for querying and updating data in a database. JDBC is oriented towards relational databases.A JDBC-to-ODBC  bridge enables connections to any ODBC-accessible data source in the  JVM  host environment. JDBC allows multiple implementations to exist and be used by the same application. The API provides a mechanism for dynamically loading the correct Java packages and registering them with the JDBC Driver Manager. The Driver Manager is used as a connection factory for creating JDBC connections. JDBC connections support creating and executing statements. These may be update statements such as  SQL’s CREATE, INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE, or they may be query statements such as SELECT. †¢ MySql †¢ Tomcat Server.Rational Rose Model Rational rose is an object oriented Unified Modeling Language (UML) software design tool intended for visual modeling and component construction of enterprise level software applications. Rose facilitates object-oriented analysis design, better known for OOAD. In fact, Rose is an acronym for Rational Object Oriented Software Engineering. The great things about Rose is that it allows analysts, engineers, writers and project managers to create, view, manipulate modeling elements in a Unified Modeling Language (UML) across the entire enterprise, using one tool and one language.The tool’s true value is that it expo ses software development problems early on in the development life cycle, helping you manage everything from straight forward projects to more complex software solutions. Basically, Rose supports use-case driven object modeling. Chapter-3 Requirement Gathering 3. 1 Software Requirements Functional Requirements |SRS 001 |Add new author |This system shall be able to add new users with valid email-id. | |SRS 002 |Install Conference |Conference management system shall provide users to add new conferences. |SRS 003 |Submit a paper |Authors can submit their papers in already existing validated conferences. | |SRS 004 |Conference validation by administrator |All the conferences are validated by administrators so as to avoid any unauthorized| | | |researches. | |SRS 005 |Program committee selection by Chair |Eminent program committee is selected by chair so as to provide best expertise and | | | |best research papers are selected. |SRS 006 |Paper selection by Program committee |The program committee can select the papers which he wants to review. | |SRS 007 |Upload review |The program committee member can upload his review for selected papers. | |SRS 008 |Mail to Authors and PC member |The chair can send mail from time to time to program committee member and author. | |SRS 009 |Paper download |The program committee can download the paper for further reading. |SRS 009 |Review form download |The program committee can download the review form for making reviews. | |SRS 011 |User feedback |User’s valuable feedback provides us a constant motivation of improvement. | Table 3. 1 Showing Functional Requirements Non-functional Requirements |SRS012 |Access Permission |The conference management system shall have several types of access permissions. For instance, | | | |the administrator is shall be able to validate conference requests and delete the author.At | | | |the same time, authors shall have restricted access to already submitted research papers. | |SRS013 |Mainta inability |The system shall provide the capability to backup the database and it is very easy to maintain | | | |and work on. | |SRS014 |Reliability |The system shall be available all the time, only a internet connectivity is required. |SRS015 |Flexibility |The conference management system shall be flexible and adaptable due to future plans of | | | |expanding the system. | Table 3. 2 Showing Non-Functional Requirements Development End †¢ Operating System (Windows, Mac OS, Linux) †¢ Java Development Kit (JDK) 5 or above †¢ HTML editor (Macromedia Dreamweaver 8) Client End †¢ Internet connection. †¢ A java enabled browser. 3. 2 Hardware Requirements Development End †¢ 500Mhz Intel Pentium-III or higher processor †¢ An Internet connection †¢ 512 MB RAM 600 MB of free hard-drive space, for each platform downloaded into the SDK, an additional 100MB is needed. Client End †¢ 500 MHz Pentium III processor above. †¢ 2 GB hard disk and 256 MB of RAM. †¢ An internet enabled device. †¢ Web Browser installed operating system. 3. 3 Use Case Model In this project, the analysis and design is used as a technique to conduct a research into conference management system. Design is completely based on definition of problem and the knowledge based construct. The use-case diagram which clearly depicts how this system behaves is constructed. End users can easily circumspect the operations carried out.Also the relationship between various elements is visible and the constraints are easily identified. [pic] Fig 1. 1 Use case for Author. [pic] Fig 1. 2 Use case diagram for Program committee member. [pic] Fig 1. 3 Use case diagram for Editor [pic] Fig 1. 4 Use case diagram for Administrator Use Case Description 3. 3. 1 UC01: Login 3. 3. 1. 1 Description:The user logs in the web site. 3. 3. 1. 2 Flow of events:User opens the login page; enter his id and password, and clicks on login button. 3. 3. 1. 2. 1 Alternative Flows: N. A. 3. 3. 1. 3 Special requirements:N. A. 3. 3. 1. Preconditions:The user must have registered him before with the web site and should hold a valid account. 3. 3. 1. 5 Post conditions: The user gets access to the site. 3. 3. 1. 6 Extension point:N. A. 3. 3. 2 UC02: Sign Up 3. 3. 2. 1 Description:The user registers him by entering his details. An account is made where his profile information is maintained. 3. 3. 2. 2 Flow of events Entering all the fields and then clicking on submit button. 3. 3. 2. 2. 1 Alternative Flows: N. A. 3. 3. 2. 3 Special requirements: N. A. 3. 3. 2. 4 Preconditions: The user should have a valid email account.The mandatory fields should not be left empty. 3. 3. 2. 5 Post conditions:The user has a valid account on the website. 3. 3. 2. 6 Extension point:N. A. 3. 3. 3 UC03: Install a Conference 3. 3. 3. 1 Description: The author can create a new conference. 3. 3. 3. 2 Flow of events: Users logs in, and then go to chooses create conference option and enters the co nference details and submits his request. 3. 3. 3. 2. 1 Alternative Flows: N. A. 3. 3. 3. 3 Special requirements:N. A. 3. 3. 3. 4 Preconditions: The user must have a valid account on the web site. 3. 3. 3. Post conditions: The request for a new conference is submitted. 3. 3. 3. 6 Extension point: N. A. 3. 3. 4 UC04: Submit Paper 3. 3. 4. 1 Description: The author can submit his research paper on the existing conferences. 3. 3. 4. 2 Flow of events: Author logs in, and then goes to chooses submit conference option and enters the research paper details and submits his paper. 3. 3. 4. 2. 1 Alternative Flows: N. A. 3. 3. 4. 3 Special requirements:The author must have a valid research paper. 3. 3. 4. 4 Preconditions: The author must have a valid account on the web site. . 3. 4. 5 Post conditions: The author’s research paper is submitted and will be forwarded to jury for review. 3. 3. 4. 6 Extension point: N. A. 3. 3. 5 UC05: Edit Profile 3. 3. 5. 1 Description:The user can access h is own profile information. He can either view or edit the profile. 3. 3. 5. 2 Flow of events: Users logs in, and then goes to My-Account section to view and edit his profile information. 3. 3. 5. 2. 1 Alternative Flows: N. A. 3. 3. 5. 3 Special requirements: 3. 3. 5. 4 Preconditions: The user must have a valid account on the website. 3. 3. . 5 Post conditions: The profile information is updated. 3. 3. 5. 6 Extension point:N. A. 3. 3. 6 UC06: Validate Conference 3. 3. 6. 1 Description: The administrator can validate the conference requests. 3. 3. 6. 2 Flow of events The administrator logs in and then goes to selects the validate conference option, then selects the conference requests which is to be validated. 3. 3. 6. 2. 1 Alternative Flows: N. A. 3. 3. 6. 3 Special requirements: N. A. 3. 3. 6. 4 Preconditions:The administrator must hold a valid account and must be properly logged in. . 3. 6. 5 Post condition: The selected conferences are validated. 3. 3. 6. 6 Extension point:N. A. 3. 3. 7 UC07: Add PC member 3. 3. 7. 1 Description: The chair has the right to invite the PC member to review the paper for a particular conference. 3. 3. 7. 2 Flow of events The author has to change his role from author to chair, then select the conference for which he wants to invite the PC member. 3. 3. 7. 2. 1 Alternative Flows: N. A. 3. 3. 7. 3 Special requirements: The author has to change his role from author to chair to be able to add 3. 3. . 4 Preconditions:The author is properly logged in and changes his role from author to editor. 3. 3. 7. 5 Post condition: The PC member is invited to review the paper for a particular conference. 3. 3. 7. 6 Extension point:N. A. 3. 3. 8 UC08: Review the paper 3. 3. 8. 1 Description: The PC member can review the paper for which chair has invited him. 3. 3. 8. 2 Flow of events The author will have to first change his role to PC member, then select the conference which he wants to review and then select the research paper for which he wants to write review.The PC member posts his review for that paper. 3. 3. 8. 2. 1 Alternative Flows: N. A. 3. 3. 8. 3 Special requirements: The author must be added by chair as a PC member for that conference. 3. 3. 8. 4 Preconditions:The PC member should be added by program chair to review that conference, and he should have changed his role from author to PC member. 3. 3. 8. 5 Post condition: The author posts the review of the paper. 3. 3. 8. 6 Extension point:N. A. 3. 3. 9 UC09: Download Paper 3. 3. 9. 1 Description: The PC member can download the research paper. 3. 3. 9. Flow of events The author changes his role from author to PC member, selects the conference and particular research paper, then downloads the paper. 3. 3. 9. 2. 1 Alternative Flows: N. A. 3. 3. 9. 3 Special requirements: The author must be added by chair as a PC member for that conference. 3. 3. 9. 4 Preconditions:The PC member should be added by program chair to review that conference, and he should have changed his role from author to PC member. 3. 3. 9. 5 Post condition: The PC member downloads the paper. 3. 3. 9. 6 Extension point:N. A. 3. 3. 10 UC010: View Paper Details 3. 3. 10. Description: The PC member can check the details of the research paper. 3. 3. 10. 2 Flow of events The author changes his role from author to PC member, selects the conference and particular research paper, then views the detail of paper. 3. 3. 10. 2. 1 Alternative Flows: N. A. 3. 3. 10. 3 Special requirements: The author must be added by chair as a PC member for that conference. 3. 3. 10. 4 Preconditions:The PC member should be added by program chair to review that conference, and he should have changed his role from author to PC member. 3. 3. 10. 5 Post condition: The PC member check the details of paper. 3. 3. 0. 6 Extension point:N. A. 3. 3. 8 UC11: Delete Author 3. 3. 11. 1 Description: The administrator can delete any author if he does any illegal activity. 3. 3. 11. 2 Flow of events The administrator logs i n and selects the author to be deleted. 3. 3. 11. 2. 1 Alternative Flows: N. A. 3. 3. 11. 3 Special requirements: N. A. 3. 3. 11. 4 Preconditions:The administrator must hold a valid account and must be properly logged in. 3. 3. 11. 5 Post condition: The author is deleted from the system. 3. 3. 11. 6 Extension point:N. A. 3. 3. 12 UC12: Logout 3. 3. 12. 1 Description: The administrator can delete the author. . 3. 12. 2 Flow of events The administrator logs in and selects the logout option and administrator is logged out. 3. 3. 12. 2. 1 Alternative Flows: N. A. 3. 3. 12. 3 Special requirements: N. A. 3. 3. 12. 4 Preconditions:The administrator must hold a valid account and must be properly logged in. 3. 3. 12. 5 Post condition: The author is logged out from administrator page. 3. 3. 12. 6 Extension point:N. A. Chapter-4 Analysis 4. 1 Sequence Diagram A sequence diagram is an interaction diagram in UML that emphasizes the time ordering of the messages. It shows how processes operate on e with another and in what order.It shows parallel vertical lines as different processes or objects that live simultaneously, and horizontal arrows as the messages exchanged between them, in the order in which they occur. The boxes across the top of the diagram represent the use cases, objects, classes, or actors. The dashed lines hanging from the boxes are called object lifelines, representing the life span of the object during the scenario being modeled. The long, thin boxes on the lifelines are activation boxes, also called method-invocation boxes, which indicate processing is being performed by the target object/class to fulfill a message.Messages are indicated on UML sequence diagrams as labeled arrows, when the source and target of a message is an object or class the label is the signature of the method invoked in response to the message. Return values are optionally indicated using a dashed arrow with a label indicating the return value. [pic] Fig 4. 1 Sequence Diagram for Lo gin [pic] Fig 4. 2 Sequence Diagram for Sign Up [pic] Fig 4. 3 Sequence Diagram for My-Account Section [pic] Fig 4. 4 Sequence Diagram for Paper Submission [pic] Fig 4. 5 Sequence Diagram for Conference validation [pic] Fig 4. 6 Sequence Diagram to add PC member. [pic] Fig 4. Sequence Diagram to write review for a paper. [pic] Fig 4. 8 Sequence Diagram to check submission details of a conference. 4. 2 Activity Diagram An Activity Diagram is essentially a flow chart showing flow of control from activity to activity. They are used to model the dynamic aspects of as system. They can also be used to model the flow of an object as it moves from state to state at different points in the flow of control. Activity diagrams commonly contain fork start & end symbol. [pic] Fig 4. 7 Activity diagram for Author [pic] Fig. 4. 8 Activity diagram for administrator Chapter-5 Design 5. 1 Technology SelectionWe are a part of a rapidly changing software industry. New and better software’s are cr eated every day. The main purpose of the software is to provide comfort to its users and also to the other developers. Java Java Platform, Standard Edition or Java SE is a widely used platform for programming in the Java language. It is the Java Platform used to deploy portable applications for general use. In practical terms, Java SE consists of a virtual machine, which must be used to run Java programs, together with a set of libraries needed to allow the use of file systems, networks, graphical interfaces, and so on, from within those programs.Java Development Kit jdk 1_5_0 it has been by far the most widely used Java SDK Sun contributed the source code to the OpenJDK. The Java Development Kit (JDK) is a Sun Microsystems product aimed at Java developers. Since the introduction of Java, it has been by far the most widely used Java Software Development Kit. A Java Development Kit (JDK) is a program development environment for writing Java applets and applications.It consists of a r untime environment that â€Å"sits on top† of the operating system layer as well as the tools and programming that developers need to compile, debug, and run applets and applications written in the Java language. A JVM can also execute byte code compiled from programming languages other than Java. Java was conceived with the concept of WORA: â€Å"write once, run anywhere†. This is done using the Java Virtual Machine. The JVM is the environment in which Java programs execute. It is software that is implemented on non-virtual hardware and on standard operating systems.JVM is a crucial component of the Java platform, and because JVMs are available for many hardware and software platforms, Java can be both middleware and a platform in its own right, hence the trademark write once, run anywhere. The use of the same byte code for all platforms allows Java to be described as â€Å"compile once, run anywhere†, as opposed to â€Å"write once, compile anywhere†, w hich describes cross-platform compiled languages. A JVM also enables such features as automated exception handling, which provides â€Å"root-cause† debugging information for every software error (exception), independent of the source code.A JVM is distributed along with a set of standard class libraries that implement the Java application programming interface (API). Appropriate APIs bundled together form the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Java's execution environment is termed the Java Runtime Environment, or JRE. Programs intended to run on a JVM must be compiled into a standardized portable binary format, which typically comes in the form of . class files. A program may consist of many classes in different files. For easier distribution of large programs, multiple class files may be packaged together in a . jar file. JSP and ServletsA servlet is a Java programming language class used to extend the capabilities of servers that host applications accessed via a request-resp onse programming model. Although servlets can respond to any type of request, they are commonly used to extend the applications hosted by Web servers. To deploy and run, the Apache Tomcat Server may be used. It is an open source servlet container developed by the Apache Software Foundation (ASF). Tomcat implements the Java Servlet and the Java Server Pages (JSP) specifications from Sun Microsystems, and provides a â€Å"pure Java† HTTP web server environment for Java code to run.Java Server Pages  (JSP) is a  Java  technology that helps  software developers  serve  dynamically generated web pages  based on HTML,  XML, or other document types. JSP may be viewed as a high-level abstraction of  Java servlets. JSP pages are loaded in the server and are operated from a structured special installed Java server packet called a Java EE Web Application, often packaged as a  . war  or  . ear  file archive. JSP allows Java code and certain pre-defined actions t o be interleaved with static web markup content, with the resulting page being compiled and executed on the server to deliver an HTML or XML document.The compiled pages and any dependent Java libraries use Java byte code rather than a native software format, and must therefore be executed within a  Java virtual machine  (JVM) that integrates with the host  operating system  to provide an abstract platform-neutral environment. MySQL as a backend Features of MySQL 1. Speed: Of course, the speed at which a server side program runs depends primarily on the server hardware. Given that the server hardware is optimal, MySQL runs very fast. It supports clustered servers for demanding applications. 2. Ease of use: MySQL is a high-performance, relatively simple database system.From the beginning, MySQL has typically been configured, monitored, and managed from the command line. However, several MySQL graphical interfaces are available as described below: †¢ MySQL Administrator: T his tool makes it possible for administrators to set up, evaluate, and tune their MySQL database server. This is intended as a replacement for mysqladmin. †¢ MySQL Query Browser: Provides database developers and operators with a graphical database operation interface. It is especially useful for seeing multiple query plans and result sets in a single user interface. Configuration Wizard: Administrators can choose from a predefined list of optimal settings, or create their own. †¢ MySQL System Tray: Provides Windows-based administrators a single view of their MySQL instance, including the ability to start and stop their database servers. 3. Cost: MySQL is available free of cost. MySQL is a â€Å"Open Source† database. MySQL is part of LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP / Perl / Python) environemtn, a fast growing open source enterprise software stack. More and more companies are using LAMP as an alternative to expensive proprietary oftware stacks because of its lower co st, reliability, and documentation. 4. Query Language Support: MySQL understands standards based SQL (Structured Query Language). 5. Capability: Many clients can connect to the server at the same time. Clients can use multiple database simultaneously. You can access MySQL using several interfaces such as command-line clients, Web browsers. 6. Connectivity and security: MySQL is fully networked, and database can be accessed from anywhere on the Internet, so you can share your data with anyone, anywhere.The connectivity could be achieved with Windows programs by using ODBC drivers. By using the ODBC connector to MySQL, any ODBC-aware client application (for example, Microsoft Office, report writers, Visual Basic) can connect to MySQL. 7. Portability: MySQL runs on many varieties of UNIX, as well as on other non-UNIX systems, such as Windows and OS/2. MySQL runs on hardware from home PCs to high-end server. MySQL can be installed on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Red Hat Fedora Linux , Debian Linux, and others. We have maintained our database in MySQL that involves maintenance of information. 5. Database Design It is defined as â€Å"centralized repository of information about data such as meaning, relationships to other data, origin, usage, and format†. Our data dictionary is designed in order to fulfill: †¢ A document describing a database or collection of databases †¢ An integral component of a DBMS that is required to determine its structure †¢ A piece of middleware that extends or supplants the native data dictionary of a DBMS. The most challenging phase of the system life cycle is system design. The term design describes a final system and the process by which it is developed.It refers to the technical specifications that will be applied in implementing the candidate system. It also includes the construction of programs and program testing. System design is a solution, a â€Å"how to† approach the creation of a new system. This important phase is composed of several steps. It provides understanding and procedural details necessary for implementing the system recommended in the feasibility study. Emphasis is on translating the performance requirements into design specifications. The first step is to determine how the output is to be produced and in what format.Samples of the output and input are also presented. Second, input data and master files (database) have to be designed to meet the requirements of the proposed output. The operational (processing) phases are handled through program construction and testing, including a list of programs needed to meet the systems objectives and to complete documentation. Finally, details related to justification of the system and an estimate of the impact of the candidate system on the user and the organization are documented and evaluated by management as a step toward implementation.The design approach that was suited for the project turned out to be object-oriented design. It creates a representation of the real world problem domain & maps it into a solution domain that is software. Unlike other methods, object-oriented design results in a design that interconnects data objects(data items) & processing operations in a way that modularizes information & processing , rather than processing alone. E-R diagrams represent the schemas or the overall organization of the system. In order to begin constructing the basic model, the modeler must analyze the information gathered during the requirement analysis for the purpose of: classifying data objects as either entities or attributes, ? identifying and defining relationships between entities, ? naming and defining identified entities, attributes, and relationships, ? documenting this information in the data document. ? Finally draw its ER diagram. To accomplish these goals the modeler must analyze narratives from users, notes from meeting, policy and procedure documents, and, if lucky, design document s from the current information system. [pic] Fig 5. 1 Enhanced Entity-Relationship diagram. Chapter 6 Testing 6. Test Case and Design Software testing is a critical element of software quality assurance and the ultimate review of specification, design and code generation . Testing of the software leads to uncovering of errors in the software and reveal that whether software is functional and performance requirement are met. Testing also provides a good indication of software reliability as software quality as a whole. The result of different phases are evaluated and then compared with the expected results. If the errors are uncovered they are debugged and corrected.A strategy approach to software testing has the generic characteristics: †¢ Testing begins at the module level and works outwards towards the integration of the entire computer based system. †¢ Different testing techniques are appropriate at different point of time. †¢ Testing and debugging are different ac tivities, but debugging must be accommodating in the testing strategy. †¢ A strategy for the software testing must be accommodate low level tests that are necessary to verify that a small source code segment is performing correctly according to the customers requirement and that of developers expectations.Testing Objectives †¢ Testing is a process of executing a program with the intent of finding an error. †¢ A good test case is one which has a high probability of finding an as yet undiscovered error. †¢ A successful test is one that uncovers an as yet undiscovered error. †¢ Our objective is to design tests that systematically uncover different classes of errors and to do so with minimum amount of time and effort. Testing Principles: †¢ All tests should be traceable to customer requirements. †¢ Tests should be planned long before testing begins. The Pareto principle applies to software testing. †¢ Testing should begin â€Å"in the small† and progress towards testing â€Å"in the large†. †¢ Exhaustive testing is not possible. †¢ To be most effective, testing should be conducted by an independent third party. 6. 2 Testing Methods and Strategies: Any engineered product can be tested in one of two ways: White-Box Testing: Knowing the internal workings of a product, tests can be conducted to ensure that the internal operation performs according to specification and all internal components have been adequately exercised.For testing our project, we have used the Black-Box testing methods, and a short description of this testing method follows: Black-Box Testing: Black box testing, also called â€Å"Behavioral testing†, focuses on the functional Requirements of the software. It enables the software engineer to derive sets of input conditions that will fully exercise all functional requirements for a program. It is a complementary approach to â€Å"White-Box testing† that is likely to uncover a different class of errors. Black Box testing attempts to find errors in the following categories: †¢ Incorrect or missing functions Interface errors †¢ Errors in data structures †¢ Behavior or performance errors †¢ Initialization and termination errors. Snapshots for Test cases: [pic] Fig 6. 2. 1 Snapshot for login Test Cases Description: following testing checks the authenticity of the end-user. Test 01 : Test case for successful Login Login ID: pushpendra Password: blackboard System Output: Successful Login Test 02 : Test case for incorrect password Login ID: pushpendra Password: chalk System Output: Incorrect user-id or Password [pic] Fig 6. 2. 2 Snapshot for conference installation Test CasesDescription: this lets you install a new conference. Test 01 Conference name: International conference on environmental studies Conference acronym: ICES Email: [email  protected] com City: Indore Country: India Your role: chair Research area: environmental Any other information: Send request System output: conference successfully installed. [pic] Fig 6. 2. 3 Snapshot for paper submission Test Cases Description: this lets you submit your research paper in your desired conference. Test 01: Name: mohit maheshwari E-mail: mohit. [email  protected] om Country: India Organization: Accenture India Title: cloud computing Abstract: benefits of new cloud computing Keyword: ACC Paper: paper1. pdf Browse System output: new paper successfully submitted. [pic] Fig 6. 2. 4 Snapshot for changing role Test Cases Description: this lets you change the role as per as requirement. Test 01: Present role: Author Change role New role: Chair System output: Your role successfully changed. [pic] Fig 6. 2. 5 Snapshot for updating profile Test Cases Description: this lets you update your personal information.Test 01: Name : ankit jain Contact number: 9407217505 E mail: [email  protected] com Organization: Microsoft India Country: India Password: anjtdf Change password: fhdfioh Submit System output: your profile successfully updated. [pic] Fig 6. 2. 6 Snapshot for review of the paper Test Cases Description: this lets you review the form previously submitted by you. Test 01: ID : 412 Author: mohit jain Review rating: 4. 5 Comment: it was very innovative. Submit System output: your form has been successfully reviewed. Conclusion Software’s are making everyday life of humans being easier & faster.This type web-application shows â€Å"How we can solve management problem? † Hence, software is managing the record & database in behalf of humans. After completion of this website, authors and administrator can now access the conference’s and can submit the research paper of their interest field. It is aimed at improving the infrastructure of the conference organizer’s by providing authors an opportunity to submit their papers. Thus it can manage the entire conference process related to paper submission, jury selection, and paper review, under the complete control of the administrator.In our project, we have used Mysql RDBMS for the creation, maintenance and use of the database. The user interface is designed using Java servlets, JSP using Netbeans IDE. We have defined two users for this system, author and administrator, each with their own access and rights and activities. This project allowed us to interact with JSP and servlets. We explored java database connectivity and also became familiar with requirements of a conference management system. BIBLIOGRAPHY/REFRENCES 7. 1 BOOKS REFERED The following books were used extensively for the project development and implementation. . â€Å"The Complete Reference Java2† Tata McGraw-Hill publishing Company Limited. By- Herbert Schildt. 2. The Complete Reference to JAVA SERVER PAGES 3. Head First – Java Servlets 4. Software Engineering Pearson edition By Ian SommerVille 5. Database Management System by Ivan Bayross 7. 2 WEBSITES REFERED †¢ http:// www. google. com †¢ http://www. wikipedia. com †¢ http://www. w3schools. com/css/css_examples. asp †¢ http://www. w3schools. com/js/default. asp †¢ http://www. jsptut. com/ †¢ http://www. roseindia. net/jsp/jsp. htm