Capstone Project Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Capstone Project - Research Paper Example However while eBay is a consumer-to-consumer trade platform, Amazon.com relies mainly on the producer-to-consumer trade model and also offers many own products and services. The other two main competitors for Amazon.com from the books/publications field and the multimedia provision field are Barnes & Noble and Netflix respectively. The company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington and employs more than a hundred thousand people. The company was founded by Jeff Bezos who remains its chairman, president and chief executive officer. Vision and Mission The self-stated mission of the company is to â€Å"be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavour to offer its customers the lowest possible prices.† And while there is no articulate vision, given by the shareholders or founder of the company, to be followed by the staff, there are several references in the official publically available d ocuments of the company to the drive towards technological innovation. There is no doubt that of all the businesses aiming or claiming to provide customers a wide variety of choice of products or services, Amazon.com, the world’s largest online retailer, is the truest to its mission statement. While it started off as an online bookstore, Amazon.com soon started offering multimedia products such as videos, films and music and later on got into the markets of various consumer products such as software, video games, electrical appliances, garments, cutlery, decoration items, sports goods and eatables etc. In the present day, Amazon.com offers many products and services of its own such as the market leading e-book reader (Kindle) and cloud networking services. The focus on customary offerings of Amazon.com can also be realized by the fact that the company operates specialized websites in Japan, Canada, United States, India, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Mexico, France, Australi a, Brazil, China and Spain and has plans for such websites in Sweden, Holland and Poland as well. E-commerce is a an extension of physical trade over the internet and e-commerce companies such as Amazon.com do not reflect the kind of technological innovation that is generally appreciated of a web-based enterprise such as an internet social network. That is because the focus is still on trading of tangible goods and hence the trading represents the area of business rather than technology or the internet which is just a conduit for the trade. Neither Amazon.com’s strategies nor its staff are known to be technologically advanced or innovative in the contemporary sense. Similarly while the focus on low pricing is highlighted by the mission statement of Amazon.com, just as it is in the written objectives of innumerable businesses, there is no special initiative that offers a cost advantage to customers or targets the lower classes of consumers other than the need-based policy of c ompetitive pricing. There is however a recently launched program that incorporates the ideas of both innovation and financial advantage for the customers called the â€Å"Subscribe & Save† program. The subscription offered by the program is open to consumers in most of Amazon.com’s operating regions and includes all household and other bulk-purchasable goods. Through this program consumers are offered up to a fifteen percent discount and free

Evaluate the current Talent Management (TM) strategy at any well-known Essay

Evaluate the current Talent Management (TM) strategy at any well-known organization in Saudi Arabia - Essay Example These efforts are increasingly being directed towards growth of the companies along with the growth of the individuals. Today the same emphasis is provided by organisations to each phase of an individual employee continuum with the employment of such strategies that identifies high performing employees and providing them with greater opportunities for growth through career planning. Moreover, greater importance has also been generated towards the overall development of employees over long terms and towards their assistance for reaching their career goals and objectives. Organisations have shown their belief towards the development of a fulfilling and happy employee (Mabry, 2001, p.55). This has been achieved through recruitment, on boarding, developing career paths, and development of succession planning. The aim is to develop a happy and satisfied employee who would eventually be able to attain a high customer satisfaction and which would eventually result in adding to the organisat ion’s bottom line. ... Talent management encompasses the complete employee life cycle, starting from recruitment, managing performance, competency development, redeployment, succession planning, training, leanings management, career development, and finally employee retention and engagement (Davis, 2007, p.74). The present project aims to discuss and evaluate the talent management strategy undertaken in Saudi Aramco. It would emphasise on the various ways in which the company has been trying to attract and retain and develop the talents. It also presents an assessment of the effectiveness of the strategy in the present organisational context. The talent management strategy is prescribed for the organisation only after making a thorough study of organisation. It presents such strategies for implementation based on the identified talent gaps. The initiatives would be directed towards retaining the high performers in the core and strategic roles. The most promising challenge confronting the human resource pro fessionals in the organisation would be implementing the strategy successfully. Saudi Aramco- About the Company Saudi Aramco is a state owned oil company in Saudi Arabia which is a completely integrated and global petroleum organisation. The company has evolved as a leader in the production, exploration, shipping, refining, distribution and marketing of petroleum in the world. The company manages reserves of crude oil amounting to 260.1 barrel. The fourth largest gas reserves in the globe, is also managed by the company, which amounts for a volume of 275.2 trillion cubic feet (Saudi Aramco, 2011, p.2). The company is committed to deliver the most reliable supply of petroleum and petroleum

Internet Censorship in the United Arab Emirates Essay

Internet Censorship in the United Arab Emirates - Essay Example This essay tells that internet censorship also allows the control of ideas and information within the Internet, some countries such as those within the United Arab Emirates does control the information over some of the internet connected computers. It is a form of â€Å"total internet censorship,† the concept is, however, difficult to implement due to the improvement and the continuous distribution of internet technology. Generally, the concept of internet censorship involves the limiting of information that can be accessed on the Internet for a particular set of reasons; the concept involves the suppression of assessing and publishing content online. This, in turn, means that censorship involves blocking the information at the time of publishing the information or controlling sites designed to inhibit the access of the online information. The concept at times involves a form of deceitful techniques, in these instances, the government blocks the information and at the same tim e lead the public into believing that the concept is not applied. In most cases, the application of the concept involves issuing fake ISP which provides a â€Å"not found† error message when the internet user requests to access the page. In most cases people tend to ignore the administrative control of online information, however, in the concept of internet censorship, the administrative body (the government) possesses the power to block the reception of specific information and the reception of certain sites. Some of the most prominent countries which adapt to the concept include North Korea, Vietnam, China, Burma, and Saudi Arabia (as per the Paris government organization), however, even with the known countries, other countries adapt to the concept with the belief that the concept is beneficial to the whole country. Internet censorship acts as a regulatory necessity which aims at ‘protecting’ against larger issues within the society, those that oppose the conc ept believe that the authoritative control within the concept imposes the basic rights and also infringes the freedom of the press.

Competitive Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Competitive Strategy - Essay Example The offshoot is that film companies or online retail sites such as Amazon.com can afford to analyze each consumer data and provide specific services and product characteristics that meet his profile requirements. The processes involved take a few seconds to finish due to the sheer speed of today's broadband technology. The data generated by Internet technology allows movie distributors to tailor their offerings according to several variables such as the demand, the availability, popularity, and other factors that are revealed in the individual client data. It has become easier, hence, for film companies to introduce price formation, price differentiation and price bundling (Meier and Stormer 2009, 21). The efficacy of the Internet as a film-selling platform is underscored by the research that found about 121 million Internet users per month streamed or downloaded video in the United States back in 2007 and that this was expected to swell to 165 million by 2011 (Plunkett 2009). Anothe r important dimension to e-commerce is the benefit brought about by the digitalization of films. As films are compressed into digital files, Internet users can download them easily besides buying hard copies such as those in DVD and Blu-ray formats. As a result film distributors can now offer different products and could package films either for sale, for rent or for subscription (OPEC 2009, 45).

Communication Competency Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Communication Competency - Case Study Example The researcher states that role conflict is an emergent issue in this case. The fact that Chris has a role to deliver goods to the customer, something that he has failed to achieve, brings to the surface the conflict in role execution. The interpersonal conflict is taken out of control as the manager seems not to be keen on hearing what Chris had to say on the issue at hand. Chris has a role to deliver goods to customers within a specified time. Chris is also charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the supplied services or goods meet client needs. Chris is thus in a conflict as it arose in this case. Chris made an attempt to meet client demands within the specified time. In this process, Chris compromised on the quality of services. Role ambiguity is captured by the fact that Chris is supposed to beat both the dateline and the quality mark. Equally, the manager has a role to ensure that all clients receive quality services and all his members of staff execute their duties as expected. Chris was also reliant on other people’s actions as there was group work. Lee seems to be quite personal as he refuses to listen to the kind of explanation that Chris offers. This is a pointer to personal issues that may be underlying their relationship. Chris employs the use of interpersonal compromising conflict style to strike an understanding with the manager. Lee comes up as an ineffective manager in this case. As a manager, he is supposed to provide good leadership. He wants to super-impose his views on his members of staff. He also pays little attention to details. This may be the primary reason why Chris hurriedly shudders and decides to take the manager’s side. By rubbishing important suggestions, it is clear that the manager is not up to the task.

Human Resource Manager Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Human Resource Manager - Assignment Example pments in the field of Human Resource (HR), the companies emphasised the need of investing sufficient amount of funds in creation of a workforce that will allow it to maintain its edge in the industry (Truss & Gill, 2009). It is generally believed that personnel management and HRM are similar concepts and there is a minor difference between the two. On the other hand, the proponents of HRM are of the viewpoint that the role of HRM has widened by a considerable extent and it covers a wide range of aspects that were overlooked by personnel managers (`Marchington, 2008). Human Resource Management is given its due respect and importance in firms which was not the case usually observed under the role of personnel management. Generally, personnel management is referred to the set of activities that concern the workforce such as staffing, contractual obligations, payroll and various administrative responsibilities; it shows that it was more concerned with managing people as compared to the resources. On the other hand, HRM takes a holistic approach by ensuring that there is a proper fit and alignment between the organisation’s objectives and its long-term performance. In HRM, the employees are given utmost attention so that their goals are aligned with the business objectives; both people and resources are efficiently utilised (Armstrong, 2006). The personnel management is concerned more with meeting day-to-day activities and focuses on meeting the employees’ current needs. Whereas, in HRM, the main focus is on the employees’ long-term needs and providing them the opportunities to develop their skills and competencies so that they can be proactive and handle their responsibilities properly. In personnel management, employees were considered as a cost but in HRM, employees are valued as vital assets of the company (Srivastava, 2010). Since HRM takes into account all the mandatory aspects required by the organisations to enhance their performance in the market and

Retention Strategy in GENBAND company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Retention Strategy in GENBAND company - Essay Example GENBANDCARE The technical support provided by GENBAND Care is of extreme quality. For best solutions, GENBAND Care provides timely updates, intense SLA which is inclusive of 24*7*365 help as well as timely releases of software so as to ensure that the client’s network remains current and displays best performance. By providing the customers with greatest up-time, GENBAND Care makes sure that the customers enjoy uninterrupted revenue and the customers of the customers are provided with emergency services. In as many as 80 per cent of the cases, GENBAND provides the clients with effective actions of recovery in no more than 14 minutes. This makes the GENBAND’s emergency services and tendency of restoration among the best all over the world. In addition to the conventional features, GENBAND Care provides the clients with a service of software updates which covers up to 6000 elements worldwide. GENBAND offers comprehensive maintenance for hardware which is inclusive of serv ices for the repair of hardware along with managed spares programs that offer altering Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with a view to providing the clients with accurate responsiveness. GENBAND also provides post-disaster recovery services in emergency. This service is quite unique in that it allows access to GENBAND’s resources for emergency recovery and pre-emergency planning when a disaster takes place. Primary Portfolio Factors They include: 24*7*365 technical assistance for emergency Regular updates for software Hardware maintenance and repair Help desk for disasters Subscription of software Managed spares Advanced Services The portfolio of Advanced Services in GENBAND offers creative and value-added skills that are directed at promoting and improving GENBAND’s solution abilities with the help of optimization, integration and adjustment. GENBAND retains a team of experienced and well-trained professionals that are always available to assist the clients in streamli ning the multimedia services, reducing the cost of operation, enhancing the performance of network from one end to another, and thus increase client’s retention and satisfaction. The provisioning solution GENBAND offers manages more than 2500 switches that include both non-GENBAND and GENBAND ones. The provisioning solution also assists the carriers in solving and automating various tasks of configuration and provisioning on daily basis. GENBAND enables its clients minimize the time of recovery, support expenses and eradicate useless truck rolls with the help of its ticketing and testing solution which encapsulates more than 30 million lines. The Audit and Optimization services of GENBAND are meant to assist the clients in making estimates about the performance of their network and switch close to real time, thus developing a way to ensure proactive arrangement as well as optimization. The services of Revenue Assurance provided by GENBAND align the information regarding confi guration and billing and make it accurate, thus reducing the expenses for carriers and enhancing their revenues. Re-skinning of soft customers and their customization are two very important factors of the capability of GENBAND’s advanced services. Primary Portfolio Factors Provisions of service and product Access care Optimization of capacity, performance and