Challenges that Walmart and M&S Face Term Paper

Challenges that Walmart and M&S Face - Term Paper Example Walmart is a multinational corporation of the US that operates a large chain of discounted departmental stores. Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart opened its first store in 1962 with a discounting model of retailing. Walmart has expanded and has its presence globally (Walmart, 2011). Michael Mark and Thomas Spencer jointly opened the Marks and Spencer store in the UK, popularly known as M&S, in 1894. M&S operates several retail shops in the UK and is present in other nations as well (Marks & Spencer plc, 2011). Walmart has been able to grow internationally and operate in several countries. There were various challenges present from the diverse forces of the business environment. However, they have been successful in establishing its brand and its presence all over the world. Similarly, M&S grew big with a lot of challenges and created its brand image globally. Both companies operate globally and are also well-known to be the largest retail chains in the world (North Dakota State Univ ersity, 2003). The success of Walmart was its strategy of business operations. They based the operations on web-based application to support their motto of ‘everyday low pricing’ and enhance the satisfaction level of customers (North Dakota State University, 2003). The low pricing strategy and satisfaction level of customers were the major guiding principles of Walmart for their success. They are still following this concept with their existing products and new innovative ideas as well (North Dakota State University, 2003). The success of M&S was because of the innovative development of their knitwear in the UK market. It led to a significant change in the textile industry of the market. During the nineteenth century the market was dominated by the wholesalers, but in the twentieth century, the retail industry started to rule the market. M&S’s innovative idea of product development made the brand international (Riello, 2003). Both Walmart and M&S have been succes sful in their host country first and then as they grew, they became international by opening different stores at several locations of the world. M&S and Walmart are in a similar industry and operate in the international market. Their global presence has made them face global challenges in recent times. The pressures of the international market upon the two are similar in nature as the overall retail industry faces similar challenges. The chief challenge that both M&S and Walmart are facing is that of customer retention. Retention of the customers both in the domestic and the international market has been the biggest challenge. In recent times, the intense competition for retaining and acquiring customers has become the chief challenge and an important objective of the retailers.

To What Extent Have UNHCR's RSD Procedures been an Effective and Fair Essay

To What Extent Have UNHCR's RSD Procedures been an Effective and Fair Tool in the Refugee Decision-making Process - Essay Example The United Nations High Commission on Refugees is reposed with the dual task of both ensuring the protection of refugees and reducing their vulnerabilities, whilst at the same time being charged with the role of refugee decision-maker in Refugee Status Determination (RSD) procedures, when individual States renege on this role. This duality of roles – protector and decision-maker – has been theorized to lead to quantifiable adverse effects on the refugees themselves. This is particularly problematic in light of the particular vulnerabilities that refugees already face, simply by being refugees. According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union: Refugees have been the targets of violent attacks and intimidation, largely because they were perceived as â€Å"different† from the communities in which they had temporarily settled. Tensions between refugees and local populations have erupted when refugees were seen as competitors for natural and economic resources. Armed combat ants have been allowed to mingle freely with--and intimidate with seeming impunity--the civilians who sought safety in refugee camps and settlements. And, increasingly, governments have resorted to detention of illegal entrants, including women and children, many of whom are seeking asylum. Given this, it is imperative to craft an international legal framework that ensures an adequate standard of protection for the refugees. Indeed, the trend must be to heighten protections and reduce impediments to the full exercise of their rights. If the legal regime that covers refugee protection and selection results in outcomes that are contrary to the interests of refugees, then indeed it must be subjected to critical examination. II. Statement of Aims This paper intends to conduct an exploratory analysis on whether the existing legal framework that grants the dual mandate of the UNHCR and sets down its RSD procedures has led to inequitable outcomes for the refugees. By â€Å"inequitableâ₠¬ , this paper means either of two things (1) that, as a result of the legal framework, an individual that would otherwise have been granted refugee status under a more liberal contemplation, would be denied such status; (2) an individual granted refugee status would be given less protections than would otherwise have granted under a more liberal contemplation. Is the UNHCR deviating from its palliative protective role, and transforming into a refugee problem solver for the individual states, or even worse, as an enforcement mechanism for donor states’ policies of containment and exclusion? This preliminary proposal aims to analyze in depth the accountability of UNHCR’s RSD practices and the ethical issues arising from its additional role as one of the largest refugee decision-makers in the world. III. Research question and hypothesis This paper is guided by the following research question: To what extent have the UNHCR’s RSD procedures been an effective and fa ir tool in the refugee decision-making process, considering its dual role as a refugee protector and refugee decision-maker? To this end, the following sub-questions are likewise proposed: a. What are the concrete areas of tension between the UNHCR’s role as a refugee protector, and its role as decision-maker? b. What, if any, are the gaps in the RSD procedures, examined vis a vis the mandate of the UNHCR and existing International Law and International Humanitarian Law Conventions? c. Using as basis

Marketing Plan for Shiseido Essay Example for Free

Marketing Plan for Shiseido Essay One hundred and forty years ago, Arinobu Fukuhara built on his experience working as chief pharmacist at a navy hospital to establish Shiseido, Japan’s first Western-style pharmacy in the Ginza district of Tokyo. Concerned about the inferior medications then available to the public, he aspired to separate medical care and pharmaceutical dispensing in Japan. Shiseido’s first president, Shinzo Fukuhara, led Shiseido into the cosmetics business in 1897. The only cosmetics sold in Japan at that time, powder and lipstick, were simply for altering appearance. Dissatisfied with the status quo, Shiseido brought a fresh perspective to cosmetics (n.d.). They formulated their products like pharmaceuticals because they strongly believed that the true value of cosmetics was in achieving healthy, beautiful skin. Based on this belief, Shiseido has developed with an unwavering philosophical commitment to high quality, innovation and authentic value. Millions of people have come to know and trust the Shiseido name as a result. The origin of the company name â€Å"Shiseido† is a passage from the Chinese classic, I Ching (The Book of Changes): â€Å"praise the virtues of the great Earth, which nurtures new life and brings forth new values.† Shiseido puts the intent of this passage into practice by discovering and creating new value. This is our founding spirit, and it continues unbroken as Our Mission, Shiseido’s raison d’à ªtre (Annual report 2012). Having started out as a pharmacy, it wasn’t until 1915 that Shiseido changed direction and committed to the cosmetics industry. The move was masterminded by Shinzo Fukuhara, the third son of Arinobu Fukuhara and the company’s first president. †¨ An experienced photographer, Shinzo Fukuhara combined artistry with high quality manufacturing, underpinned by the very latest in research and development, to establish Shiseido as a unique presence in the cosmetics industry (n.d.). The beginnings of Shiseido’s corporate philosophy As part of the transition from a family business to a more corporate setup, in 1921 Shiseido set out Shiseido’s Five Principles as the foundation of its corporate philosophy and activities as a company. These went on to form the basis of Shiseido’s Corporate Philosophy in 1989. Having undergone a number of changes since then, this finally evolved into, a new corporate philosophy reflecting the Shiseido Group’s internat ional operations and diverse brand portfolio, in 2011. Establishing a global production network With production facilities already up and running in areas such as North America and Taiwan, as well as in Japan, in 1991 Shiseido opened its first production facility in Europe, thereby establishing a truly global production network. Operations later got underway at a factory in Beijing in 1993 as Shiseido made its first steps towards expanding operations in the Chinese market. In 2010, the company commenced operations at a factory in Vietnam, as part of a concerted effort to tap into new growth in the so-called â€Å"masstige† market (n.d.). Reviewing a description of the market including the economic system to be targeted in this marketing plan, it has been found that Thai woman are interested in new products to whiten their intimate areas. Fair skin is a symbol of opportunity, success and status. There are already skin-whitening pills and diet supplements claiming to pick up where the cosmetics leave off. But this is the first time that a vaginal whitening wash has hit the Thai market (Hodal, 2012). Asian skin ages different than others, instead of Asians being concerned with fine lines and wrinkles, Asians worry about dark spots. Using pale Korean and Japanese pop stars as illustrations, Thai womens magazines are full of fair-skinned Asians promoting products that promise to whiten, lighten and boost the complexion, with slogans such as Show off your aura and Get to know the miracle of white skin. Fair-skinned actors and singers dominate the media nearly all over the Asia-Pacific region, where the skin-lightening indu stry is expected to reach $2bn this year with the fastest growing markets in China and India (Hodal, 2012). Shiseido has been at the forefront of skin-brightening research since launching the lotion Hydrogen Peroxide Cucumber in 1917 (Annual report 2012). They have developed about one-third of the active skin-brightening ingredients used in Japanese cosmetics. Shiseido is concentrating on aging research so that people can grow older beautifully. There are three key aspects in conducting research: functionality that creates healthy, beautiful skin; sensitivity and sensations such as pleasant usability, scent, color and beauty methods; and most important, safety that allows consumers to use their products worry free. In Thailand, Shiseido needs to grow existing products and embrace its brand value. They need to use the foundation they have built to generate solid growth in Thailand. Shiseido will continue to shift through fundamental reforms in order to invest for growth, and will implement fresh initiatives. According to their website, Shiseido has always embraced innovation, progress and challenge. The only way that Shiseido can evolve is by integrating its growing strengths to continuously create new and richer value in new markets. They should see the Asian culture as a future growth driver, and should therefore put their focus on commercials and in-store visuals to build the reputation of the Shiseido brand. They should also consider focusing on local customer needs, promote seasonal cosmetic changes and realize their customers purchasing behavior. People use the Internet to acquire information by themselves and comparison shop beyond category boundaries (Annual report 2012). Shiseido needs to recognize and accommodate to these major changes in the market by taking on the challenge of a new business model that could increases regular users of products by bringing together their existing store-based sales with business and direct marketing using the Internet. I want Shiseido to build direct relationships with customers and use them to steadily deliver the value they generate. I would also like to see Shiseido grow from the cosmetics business by providing total beauty solutions. The key to success for Shiseido lies in offering a suite of products targeted at a wide range of customers, but with special emphasis on the growing luxury and natural sector. There are several reasons behind the growth in high-end cosmetics: the expansion of new markets in Russia and Asia; changing social norms that make the wearing of makeup more acceptable; celebrity worship; promotion within fashion magazines; improvements in the technology that creates makeup; the influence of mass retailers that can offer lower prices, and raising affluence. As makeup becomes less expensive, better and more accessible, more women have moved away from older brands of makeup and skincare in search of higher-quality new products and more exclusivity. Works Cited (n.d.). Retrieved from http://group.shiseido.com/company/info/index.htmlThere are no sources in the current document. Annual report 2012. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://group.shiseido.com/ir/library/annual/pdf/2012/anu00001.pdf Hodal, K. (2012, 11 23). Thailands skin-whitening craze reaches womans intimate areas. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/23/thailand-vaginal-whitening-wash

Analysis Of Luxury Hotel Emirate Palace

Analysis Of Luxury Hotel Emirate Palace Introduction The Emirate palace is the most luxurious hotel in Abu Dhabi being the second seven star hotel of the world. Construction of the hotel is done with the maximum possible standards of comfort and luxury. It is built in 1000 hectares of beautiful landscapes. Infrastructure of the hotel is highly commendable with all the facilities. It has 20 different places for culinary delights, vast parking place, 2 helipads, 300 rooms, 90 suits, 48 conference rooms, and a huge conference centre. The level of various services provided by the hotel is of very high quality. (Minghetti., 2003) Some of the major services in the hotel industry are the customer services, room services, layout services, quality services etc. These services hold a great importance in the hospitality industry and even more for a hotel like Emirate Palace. Providing good customer services in the hotel industry is the most critical objective to remain competitive and profitable in the long run of the business. Customer service is a very significant facet of the hospitality industry. Customers of hotels need the employees to fulfill their various requirements and thus keep on interacting with them all the time during their stay in the hotel. (Fitzsimmons., 1999) Tourism is an important sector of the UAE and thus the hospitality and tourism industry is flourishing and competitive there. There are a large number of hotels in Abu Dhabi which fulfils all the requirements of location, accommodation and budget of the customers. To gain a competitive edge in the market it is advisable for a hotel to work rigorously for the improvement of the customer services. Providing exceptional customer service is a very critical issue for the hospitality industry. Customers of hotels expect a good level of service from the hotel employees and if not provided than they may often feel dissatisfied but if they are given better service than the expectations they can be made feel special and important for the hotel and can make sure that during the next visit in the city they will stay in the same hotel. The main objective of good customer service is bringing the customers back. This can be done if the level of service provided to the customer is good enough to sat isfy him so that he should a spread a positive feedback about the hotel that will attract more customers to the hotel. The main focus of customer services is the customer satisfaction to gain retention by making strong and long term relations. (Dominici., 2010) Following figure show the service blueprint of a luxury hotel: Mission and Vision of Emirate Palace The mission of the hotel is to provide clients the most exclusive and unique experiences. The strategic vision of the Emirate Palace is to serve as a worlds most luxurious hotel and leisure destination and to lead the industry. Another vision of the hotel is to contribute in making Abu Dhabi the centre of cultural activities of the Middle East and Emirate Palace a milestone in the country which can host any prestigious sporting event in Abu Dhabi. Customer Services in Emirate Palace Following are the main customer services offered in the Emirate Palace: Hotel Reservations Emirate Palace has a very nice facility to make reservations in the hotel. It has an online reservation portal where customer can make advance bookings for their stay in the hotel. Customer can also check the status of availability of rooms on the future dates when he wants to visit the hotel. Many online payment options are available on the website for the convenience of the customer to choose payment option which suits them the most. Reservation portal also gives many offers on the advance booking of rooms. (Dhabi.) Meetings and Conferences The Emirate Palace has 48 conference rooms, a large conference centre, a ballroom with a capacity of 2400 guests, a huge auditorium able to accommodate 1100 seats. These meeting and conference halls are best suitable for a gathering of 1000 people or a private confidential meeting of 10 people. The conference rooms have projectors, LCD screens, microphones, Wi-Fi data system and audio and video conference system preinstalled. (Dhabi.) Guest Relations Emirate Palace used to provide high level of customer service to the guests of the hotels. It is one of the most superior hotels in the world so the list of the hotel guests is also very exclusive. After getting pampered with the world class customer service the customers are welcomed to provide an honest feedback about their stay in the hotel. This feedback is helpful in maintaining long term relationship with the customers. (Dhabi.) Membership The hotel provides the facility of membership with the group. This membership facility is very useful in case of urgent bookings in the hotel. Members of the hotel are the customers who used to visit the hotel more often. This facility is the benefit of the long term relationship between the hotel and its customers. The members of the hotel are given priority in case of unavailability of enough vacancies in the hotel. Comments/Suggestions Collecting feedback from the customers is a critical issue for providing the best customer services in the industry. Words from the customers are very important for the hotel. These feedbacks are used to improve the quality of service if needed. Transit Visas for UAE UAE is the main place of attraction for the tourists all around the globe. Tourism is an important industry in the UAE and people used to visit UAE both for work and fun. The hotel helps its customers to provide transit visas for the UAE during their stay in the country. Acquiring visas is the most time consuming task for a visit in a foreign country. This herculean task is made easy for the customers by the Emirate Palace by providing them the transit visas for the UAE. The Emirate Palace get transit visas of 14 days issued for the customers within 7 working days. (Transit Visas for the United Arab Emirates) Events Calendar Schedule of the coming events in Abu Dhabi, UAE and Emirate Palace is available on the website of the hotel. This information can be very helpful for the customers of the hotel to make reservation accordingly if they want to attend a certain event in the hotel. The event calendar is used for getting information about the latest events going to be held at the hotel. (Dhabi.) IT Butler Service Till now the Emirate Palace used to provide a personal butler for every room and suite but now the butler service has taken a step ahead and the hotel is providing an IT butler for private consultation. This IT butler service is 247 facilities for IT assistance and support of the customer. Emirate Palace is used to host many conferences and workshops for many IT companies. Online Printing In case a customer needs printed copy of some of his document then he does not have to go to a printer to get his document printed. The Emirate Palace provides the service of online printing. The customer has to upload the electronic copy of the document on the web portal of the hotel and order it for printing. Nominal charges are applicable on printing of documents. This service adds value to the customer services provided by the hotel. (Dhabi.) Leisure Healthcare The hotel has unlimited leisure and recreational facilities available. The hotel has health spa, fitness suites, energy zone, tennis and paddle programs for health and fitness of the customers. Many water sports activities are facilitated by the hotel where the customers can enjoy the thrill of the open sea. Sarab Land is a children playground well equipped with slides and swings and many child activities organized by the beach club. (Dhabi.) Analysis of Customer Service Operations in Emirate Palace Service operation management is all bout the process by which organization produce services which are useful for the customer. Operation management takes care of managing the process of production of services. The process of transformation of input resources in the output of services is called an operation. (JPC Media LLC ) The operation process of transforming inputs into outputs certainly adds some value (apart from the cost of input) to the final product or service which is called the value added to the service. The Emirate Palace provides a very high level of service to its customer. This level of service can be produced only if the organization incorporates a service operation management which keeps a watch on the process of production of services. Various customer services in the Emirate Palace are discussed above and here these services are being analyzed on the framework of service operation management. (JPC Media LLC ) Hotel Reservation In the Emirate Palace the hotel reservation system is a customer service. In the operation of this service the inputs given are the web portal for the reservation system where the queries for the availability of rooms on are asked, and information (like number of rooms, number of guests, adults or children, date of reservation) from the customer is also required. Another input is the payment options for the advance booking. The transformation process of this service includes the changes in the database of the hotel reservation system. The database provides the results of the queries made by customer regarding the vacancy of room on the given date. The process of reservation also includes the transaction of amount for the reservation made in the hotel. Output from the transformation process is the customer service for making advance reservations in the hotel. The process provides information about the availability of rooms or suites on the particular date when customer wants it. The process also provides the information about all the types of rooms and suites in the hotel, their specifications, facilities in the rooms, and charges of the rooms. Using this information customer can choose the type of room and services they need. After making the payments for the reservation customer can get his room booked in the hotel on the desired date. (JPC Media LLC ) Meetings Conferences The Emirate Palace is one of the best venues for government conference and summits. Meetings and conferences of many multinational companies are arranged at the conference rooms and auditorium of the hotel. The input in the operation of this facility are the space of the meeting rooms, gadgets like the LCDs, microphones, projectors, other services like, Wi-Fi internet, audio or video conferencing systems. These additional services act as input of this customer service. Another input is the piece of information provided by the customer about his requirements of the meeting or conference rooms. Transformation process of the above input gadgets and services into the desired output of the service include a few steps. Conference rooms or auditorium are booked for various purposes. So first of all the requirements of the customer are studied and an estimation of the budget is given to the customer. If the customer needs any changes then the budget is revised otherwise next step that is installation of the extra facilities like Wi-Fi, projectors, LCDs are done in conference rooms and the rooms are ready and well furnished for the meetings going to held there. Successful business meetings and government conferences and summits without any disturbance or interrupt due to some missing equipment or service are the output of this service operation. Satisfied customer is the intangible and most important outcome from the operation. (JPC Media LLC ) Guest Relations Emirate Palace is one of the few hotels which provide seven star facilities to its customers. So the list of guests of the hotel becomes very exclusive as many government official, Hollywood stars, and sports star used to visit the hotel. The input in the service operation is the guests and the employees of the hotel. The process of the operation involves the interaction between the customers and the employees of the hotel. Guests used to keep on communicating with the hotel staff during all the hours of the day and the response of the staff plays a crucial role in the process of transforming inputs in the desired output. The hotel staff is well trained in the field of hospitality and fulfills all the needs of the guests of the hotel. The output of this service operation is the long term relationship with the customers. A happy guest with the facilities of the hotel will give a positive feedback of the customer services of the hotel. Apart from the positive feedback another important output will be the next stay of the guest in the hotel. Managing healthy and long term relations with the guests is important in the retention of the customers. (JPC Media LLC ) Transit Visas for UAE Emirate Palace helps its customers in getting the temporary tourist visas of the UAE. Input for the service operation is the customers documents, and charges of the visa. These are the requirements for getting the transit visa for UAE for the customers of Emirate Palace. The process of the service operation involves many steps as it has to go through a government protocol which is a bit time consuming but less than what it takes to get a transit visa directly from UAE embassy. Processing of the visa application takes at least 7 working days. The issuance of visas is under control of the Immigration department of Abu Dhabi. Transit visa valid for 14 days from the day of arrival in UAE is the output of the transformation process. A scanned copy on the mail of the customer is sent as soon as the visa is approved. The customer can receive the original copy of the visa from the Immigration office at the UAE airport. (Transit Visas for the United Arab Emirates) IT Butler Service Personal butler service for each room is being provided by many hotels and is not enough for the Emirate Palace so has decided providing a perfect hospitality service according to day todays requirements of the customers. Input in this service is the employee of the hotel who is well trained in the hospitality business and in IT skills as well. The process of service operation is the training of the staff for the role of IT butler. They are trained to solve IT related problems of the customers. Solution of the IT issues of the customers is the output of the operation. The IT butler helps the customers in setting up their office network, companys VPN, or any handy issue with some technical tool or application. The IT butler is available 247 for the service of the customers. Analysis of Supply Chain Management Precisely speaking Supply Chain Management is a set of approaches utilized to efficiently integrate suppliers, manufacturers, warehouses, and stores, so that merchandise is produced at the right quantity, to the right location and at the right time, minimizing the cost and improving the service quality. This definition of Supply Chain Management depicts that each and every facility plays an important role in making the product according to customers requirement. The supply chain in the hotel industry is used to provide the best service in the industry to the customers. The Supply chain of the Emirate Palace is designed with a certain objective of each link in the chain. Designing the right service for the customer with flexibility should be delivered to the customer in appropriate quantity, at the right time when he customer really needs it should be provided at the minimal cost. (Supply Chain Management) In the Emirate Palace various decisions are made at times at different levels of management for the advancement in the customer services. Long term decisions are made at the strategic level. Issues like ambience of the rooms and suites, type of customer services etc are decided at the strategic level. Decisions regarding the customer services like what services to provide, how to provide, what should be cost of a particular service etc are taken at this level. Medium term decisions like the menu of the week, theme of a particular party, other offer on services, duty of the hotel staff etc are taken at this level of the chain. The operational level is to take day to day decisions like the attire of the staff, celebrity guest of the day etc. There is a very thin line between the functions of tactical and operational level. Inventory management and Customer service hold a trade off with each other. If the hotel staff start being very rigid with their inventory management system then they will not be able to provide the level of customer service they are providing currently. The Emirate Palace provides a very high level of customer services which will not be possible if the hotel management is more concerned about the stocks in the inventory rather than the customer satisfaction. (Supply Chain Management) Electronic Operations at Emirate Palace The Emirate Palace provides many services to the customer. These services are the measure of customer satisfaction with the hotel. The hotel Management use to manage most of their tasks using technologically advanced resources these operations are also called electronic operations. The major electronic operations of the hotel are the following: (Minghetti., 2003) Reservation System The Reservation System of the hotel is completely web based. A web portal is provided for the customers to check the availability of rooms on particular dates and make reservations if available. There the customers can also look at the images of the different types of rooms and suites of the hotel and choose one of them for their stay in the hotel. Payments are also done online via credit card and many other payment options. The payment link is provided extra web security for security reasons of the customers. Overall the reservation system of the Emirate Palace is a value added service operation of the hotel. Online Printing There is another facility of online printing provided for the customers of the hotel. This facility can be availed by a customer if he has a meeting early in the morning and he needs hard copies of some of his documents of which he has electronic copy. Customer can go to the website of the hotel and click on the link of online printing. Now he can upload the soft copy of his document and order it for printing. The print outs cost nominal printing charges. (Transit Visas for the United Arab Emirates) ATMs The electronic operations of the Emirate Palace include all the electronic services provided by the hotel. There are three ATM machines in the hotel from where customers can make transactions in case if they need cash amount. Internet Facility The Emirate Palace also provides internet facilities to the customers. All the rooms and suites have a Wi-Fi internet connection of 20 mbps. This complementary line is spread in all parts of the hotel. On special demand of the customers a broad line of 80 mbps Wi-Fi internet connection is provided which has additional charges. SWOT Analysis of the Emirate Palace Strengths Exclusive service and features and high brand value. Patronage of the high profile clients thus maintained profits. Weaknesses Extremely heavy cost of rooms so 50% rooms vacant every year. Exclusive and the quality service cost very high. Opportunities Reduction in prices may attract more guests. Threats Another 5 star hotel Burj-Al-Arab is a major competitor. Profits might get reduced because of the global economic melt down. Business Process Map of the Emirate Palace Business process mapping is a methodology to improve the performance and efficiency of the organization by improving the process steps in the delivery of product or service. The business process of the delivery of customer services in the Emirate Palace is depicted in the figure below: (Business Process Modeling) Customer Order for Service Apologize for delay and ask for time. Deliver Service to customer Update Service customer Database Database Service booked for the customer Yes Forward order to Inventory Management No Check time to make available Available? Processing order Check Availability The notations of the various figures are different in the above flow chart of the business process of the. Decision point Activities Actions Events Service Quality Management Quality of the service is the ability of satisfying customer needs and meets his expectations consistently. It is the duty of the hotel staff and employees to provide the level of service which is up to the mark or even better than their expectations. The Emirate Palace is a seven star hotel so the quantity of customer service will be obviously large. But the quality of service they provide should be tested on various dimensions. (Dominici., 2010) Dimensions of Quality The dimensions of quality are: Performance: The services provided by the hotel are very exclusive. The innovation tem of the hotel has worked hard to provide the customers with the unique customer services. Aesthetics: Customer services provided by the Emirate Palace are very lucrative and well designed. The reservation system of the hotel is very user friendly i.e. any newbie can use the portal and book a room for him. Special Features: Each and every customer service of the Emirate Palace has certain unique and special feature in it. Like most seven star hotels provide a private butler for every room and suites. But the Emirate Palace is providing a private IT butler for every room and suite. The job of this butler will be to help the customers with the IT related problems. Conformance: All the customer services of the Emirate Palace are up to the mark of the expectations of the customer. Reliability: The consistent performance of certain customer services in the Emirate Palace is doubtful. Like the IT butler service. (Dominici., 2010) Durability: The services offered by the hotel seem to have a long useful life. All the services provided to the customers today will be also are needed by the future customers of the hotel. The following figure shows the Gap Model of the Service Quality Total Cost of Quality Failure Cost: This cost of quality is the cost of defective and faulty parts of service. The failure cost of quality of the customer services will be high for the hotel. This cost is further classified in two types: Internal Failure Cost: This is he cost when the fault in the service is detected before the launch of the service. Some employees of the hotel must have gone under training of IT skills for doing the job of IT butler. External Failure Cost: All the cost incurred to determine and repair the fault of the service which is detected after it is offered to the customer. Appraisal Cost: This is the cost paid to ensure that the quality of service is maintained during the use of it. Like the cost of maintenance of the database of the hotel reservation system because if the database or the system crashes then one of the most important customer service of the hotel will be finished. Prevention Cost: This cost is paid for the training planning of total quality, customer satisfaction, and quality improvement costs so that defect can be prevented. A separate team of innovation and customer service is always working for the improvement in the current services and remove the faults if any. The Emirate Palace has received the Environment Management System ISO 14001: 2004 Certification of Hospitality Services. Recommendations Suggestions The Emirate Palace provides a wide range of customer services to its guests. Most of these services are value added and costs pretty high for the hotel. The reservation system of the hotel is a wonderful customer services but there are some improvements required in the system so that it can be more valuable for the customers. Reservations made on the web portal cannot be withdrawn later if the customer has any case of urgency. Full amount of the payment is forfeited by the hotel. If a customer has booked a room advance in 1 month but on the day of reservation he got stuck with some important work than the instead of forfeiting the whole amount a particular percentage of the payment should be deducted and the rest should be transferred back. The process of providing transit visas of the UAE is a bit time consuming so the hotel management must try to reduce the time taken in the process. Conclusions The Emirate Palace is one of the worlds few seven star hotels providing excellent level of customer services. These customer services are produced by passing through various processes of service development. Operation management, process design, service supply chain strategies, and service quality management. All these frameworks and tools are helpful for the improvement of services. Developing a service involves 3 phase of giving input, process transformation, and obtaining output. Each service is the output if this process. This objective behind these high levels of services is customer satisfaction. In the hospitality industry the guests should be treated to make hem feel special. Every customer has a certain level of expectations from the service provider and if the service provided does not live up to the expectations of the customer then the customer will never come back to buy the service again. But a satisfied customer is always necessary for spreading the word of mouth about the quality of service of the business. So an organization must always vigorously strive to provide customer services to the guests so that they get satisfied and give a positive feedback of the organization.

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Prof. D. Wallace Kristian Papa Final Essay – 1 William Wells Brown & Frederick Douglass During the beginning of XVII century slaves narratives started to take another meaning. They were no longer writing just about their sufferings and how bad were their mistress. At this period we notice that famous narrative writers such as, Frederic Douglas and William Wells Brown, were focusing their writings on the importance of literacy. Their narratives are important for the fact that, now they want to make slaves to reflect about their situation. Later we are going to see how both of them, in a way, connect literacy with freedom. â€Å"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.†(Douglass, ***) This was the importance that Douglass gave to literacy. He thinks that now it’s the time when slaves should react. He sees as no other way to save their souls and lives, but to stand against their slaveholders for their rights. He reminds them that: â€Å"I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs† and â€Å"Without a struggle, there can be no progress.† (Douglass, ***) Adding this thoughts and actions to his narrative he prays also for the other slaves, so they will find the force to escape as Douglass did. We can see this call for freedom that should come from within the slave society, also in Wells Brown. "The last struggle for our rights, the battle for our civilization, is entirely with ourselves." (William Wells Brown, ***) The same as Douglass he points out that the problem is no more in the white society. The problem is that slaves are doing nothing to help themselves. On Wells Brown writing we can see also the fear that he feels when he argues that his people, along with their nation, are losi... ...nterpret Douglass stamen as a fear that whites felt. They felt fear from literacy. Somehow they see literacy as the rising of slaves and the ruining of whites. They saw literacy as the bridge that was destroyed from slave-owners in order to fit slaves in that category. They were afraid that literacy will bring freedom to slaves. In conclusion I would like mention the importance of literacy. We have seen that, that period, literacy was important in different ways. Literacy helped slaves to show to the world their sufferings, mistreatment and how they rights were taken away. Through their narratives they were able to start the â€Å"Abolitionist move† that was against slavery. Literacy, helped also in the conquest of slaves freedom. Through literacy they understood their rights and they saw that the gap that separated slaves form a free man was exactly, Literacy.

Opening up the Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Essay -- Enviro

Opening up the Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Many preconceived notions exist in the realm of environmental policy. Decisions are constantly made that effect human health or environmental integrity in order to reap great economic benefits for the many. Often these choices compromise the role of human beings as environmental stewards of the planet. It is my attempt in this paper to outline the development of a very controversial part of the proposed comprehensive energy policy: the opening of the Alaskan Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling. I will introduce the case by offering some background of the situation followed by an analysis of pertinent economic, ethical, social, and ecological issues. I will present the actors and their respective positions and investigate how they interacted with the rules, regulations, and laws that govern the policy. I will finally discuss what the potential alternatives are and what lessons are being learned. Background The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge of Northeastern Alaska, which stretches for 20 million acres across a fragile tundra landscape, is home to over 350 (nearly extinct) musk ox and 180 bird species, which migrate from even Argentina or Chile. It is the largest Polar Bear denning area in the United States, offers calving ground for the 129,000-member herd of Porcupine Caribou, and supports among the largest populations of grizzly bears, wolves and moose (Student Pirg’s 2001). It remains one of the most pristine areas on the planet and is especially sensitive to environmental pollution due to the slow growth rate of the ecosystem. The Refuge was first established in 1952 in a joint effort between biologist Lowell Summer and National Park Servi... ...Washington. Murphy, Kim. In Alaska, the Hunt for Oil, Gas only Begins at Wildlife Refuge; Energy: High Prices, Pro-Business Government Fuel the Drive for Drilling Activists are Gearing Up. Los Angeles Times February 6, 2001. Nuclear Energy Institute. URL: http://www.nei.org/ Student PIRG’s. Save America’s Arctic. www.pirg.org/enviro/arctic/index.html Time Magazine. How Much is Under the Tundra? Time Inc. 2/19/2001, Vol. 157 Issue 7. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 2001. Potential impacts of proposed oil and gas development on the Arctic Refuge’s coastal plain: Historical overview and issues of concern. Web page of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Fairbanks, Alaska. 17 January 2001. http://arctic.fws.gov/issues1.html Verhovek, Sam Howe. Drill, Say Alaskans, Who Know Their Pockets Are Lined With Oil. New York Times: Anchorage. March 15, 2001.

Critical Review of Theory-Maternal Role Attainment Essay

Mercer’s (1984) Maternal Role Attainment (MRA) theory was built upon Rubin’s (1967) earlier work on attainment of the maternal role. Maternal role attainment is defined as â€Å"a process in which the mother achieves competence in the role and integrates the mothering behaviors into her established role set, so that she is comfortable in her identity as a mother† (Mercer, 1984, p. 198). Mercer has extensively studied the process of MRA with a focus on mothers of normal newborns. Purpose of Article According to Miles, Holditch-Davis, Burchinal, and Brunssen, (2011), one of the purposes of their study was to identify the most important maternal and infant behaviors in measuring the components of MRA in mothers of medically fragile infants. Another purpose was to examine the impact of specific maternal and infant qualities on the components of MRA over the first year of life (Miles et al., 2011). Finally the authors hoped to â€Å"contribute to nursing science about MRA with this rare population of infants† (Miles et al., 2011, p. 21) as there has been little research regarding the process of MRA in mothers of medically fragile infants. Critical Elements of the Theory The authors assumed that maternal identity would be delayed because of difficulty in taking on parental roles with infants requiring high levels of care (Miles et al., 2011). They also surmised that maternal presence would decresase as the infants became older and health increased (Miles et al., 2011). And finally competence would increase as the mother learned how to meet the health-related needs of her infant and was able to participate more fully in care activities (Miles et al., 2011). The assumptions regarding presence and competence were proven correct according to study results; however, maternal identity was not delayed in the study participants. The major concepts related to this study include maternal identity, maternal competence and maternal presence. The authors identified characteristics of the infant system as functional maturity and severity of the child’s illness. Characteristics of the maternal system included illness-related distress, satisfaction with family, marital status, educational level, and ethnicity (Miles et al., 2011). Characteristics of the infant and maternal  systems impact mother-infant interactions. According to the study, maternal identity was influenced only by worry. Maternal presence was only influenced by infant alertness. However maternal competence was related to infant alertness, parental role alteration stress during hospitalization, education and marital status (Miles et al., 2011). Referents include maternal confidence in role, the amount of participation in care activities for the infant, physical closeness to the infant, the quality of care given and interaction with the infant. Theoretical Definitions and Empirical Referents Maternal identity is defined by the authors as â€Å"the mothers’ perceptions and feelings of self as the mother of her infant† (Miles et al., 2011, p. 22). The authors defined maternal competence as â€Å"the quality of her parental caregiving and interaction† and maternal presence as â€Å"the amount of caregiving and physical closeness displayed with or felt towards her infant† (Miles et al., 2011, p. 22). Empirical referents include Maternal Identity Scale: Critically ill infant (MIS), Maternal interview rating, naturalistic observations of mother-infant interactions and the home observation for measurement of the home environment (HOME) (Miles et al., 2011). References Mercer, R. T. (1984). The process of maternal role attainment over the first year. Nursing Research, 34, 198-204. Miles, M. S., Holditch-Davis, D., Burchinal, M. R., & Brunssen, S. (2011). Maternal role attainment with medically fragile infants: Part 1. Measurement and correlates during the first year of life. Research in Nursing & Health, 34, 20-34. Rubin, R. (1967). Attainment of the maternal role: Part 1. Processes. Nursing Research, 16, 237-245. Rubin, R. (1967). Attainment of the maternal role Part 2. Models and refferants. Nursing Research, 16, 342-351.