Best Buy

1. The key factors that lead to Best Buy's success include: Growth in the consumer electronics retail sector and the internet boom: Constant growth in the demand for consumer electronics has grown over the previous decades which has supported Best Buy's successful turnout into the top consumer electronics store. The internet also played a significant role in increasing the sales of Best Buy as it had already ramped up its computer product offerings prior to 1995.The internet boom positively affected the consumer electronics industry in general. Knowledgeable sales staff: Best Buy's salespeople did not work on commission which helped creating a low pressure shopping experience for the customers and built a consumer friendly environment. This also lead Best Buy to attract a well read sales force which would guide the customers to make the choices more customized to themselves and helped the buyers in decision making.Also merchandise was arranged by brand name instead of by price range. Both of these were unusual practices in the superstore industry but worked well for Best Buy. Focus on customer service (Geek Squad): Best Buy's belief in offering outstanding customer service through product warranties, personal services and at-home delivery helped Best Buy to differentiate itself from other competitors in the space. This also helped Best Buy in gaining trust and building a strong customer base.Acquisition of the Geek Squad to service computers 24Ãâ€"7 differentiated Best Buy as an excellent product and service provider. Customer-Centricity: Target market segmentation by Best Buy's Customer-Centric approach and extensive research and analysis of its customer base helps Best Buy in configuring its stores and training its work force to cater to the individual needs of its market segments which encourages customers to revisit for multiple purchases.Also the approach to customize the store at times in terms of some local requirements helps Best Buy in increasing its sales significantly. Risks going forward include increased competition from other retailers and wholesalers like Wal-Mart , Costco, Target etc who also have a very strong distribution network and customer base. Best Buy has to decide whether to spend money on its sales force and customization strategies or to compete in terms of price with these other retailers especially in this low margin growing industry.Best Buy also has to decide to enhance its online sales and product offerings in order to compete with the like of Amazon and Ebay in the online electronic sales market which is growing rapidly. Stores like Wal-Mart are growing tremendously fast in the retail segment and Best Buy has to compete with them in terms of opening new retail outlets as well. Another important risk Best Buy faces is investing in the international markets looking at the current economic scenario or to maintain strong hold in the local US market. . Looking forward Best Buy can compete against Wal-Mart and online companies in the following ways: Continuing to differentiate itself as an excellent customer oriented business Best Buy offers the latest technologies at its stores and to attract and hold customers who are technology savvy it is essential for Best Buy to dwell on its approach of customer service because in the space of advanced technology, nothing can replace the in store experience of actually interacting with knowledgeable salespersons.Developing the online product offerings: Best Buy must also focus a little more on its online business in order to avoid being overtaken by Amazon and Ebay which are growing their business extensively. In order to keep up to its customer oriented approach, Best Buy must offer more detailed view of its product offerings than any other online competitor. It must increase its online product offering to a wider range and variety of products to grow in the online segment. Increase international presence:At the moment, Best Buy is majorly dependen t on the local US market. The international markets are growing fast and competitors like Wal-Mart are growing their business wide, therefore Best Buy must increase its international presence quickly to avoid losing out to its competitors in the international markets and also in order to hedge the risk of being completely dependent on the US market. Also labor expenses being less in a number of international markets, Best Buy can afford to maintain its excellent customer service and enhance its brand value.SWOT Analysis for reference: Internal| Strengths| Weaknesses| 1. Strong market presence 2. Knowledgeable workforce 3. High quality technical support service 4. Strong financial performance 5. Financial resources to spend money on advertising ; promotion, introducing new products. 6. Increased market share and strong brand presence. | 1. Low margins 2. High dependence on local (U. S) market. 3. High costs of maintaining stores and employees. | External| Opportunities| Threats| . Gr owing global computer and electronics retail sector 2. Customer centric operating model 3. Expansion in the international consumer electronics retail market. 4. Strong private brand potential. 5. Failure of competitors like Circuit City ; CompUSA has opened gates to improve market share. 6. Online sales| 1. Rising competition from lower price outlets like Wal-Mart and Costco. 2. Online competitors like Amazon, Ebay. 3. Economic slowdown 4. Rising labor wages|

Electronic Communications Essay

As time goes by, the world is changing rapidly; so are its people and the technology itself. Technology brings about a lot of amendments in people’s life. It is getting more advanced from day to day especially when it comes to Information Technology or in this case; electronic communications. Back then, mailing was seemingly to be one of the most vital ways of communication especially for the world communication. In contrast, nowadays people are more prone to communicate the easier ways; by staring on their electronic accounts on their computers or through their iPods and sending short messages from their iPhones or Blackberries. Why is it so? In my slight opinion, this growing trend gives a lot of dominances in today’s life, which are helping people to save their time and money, create borderless communication and make it easy for people to gain prominent information. First and foremost, the world today is turning more to electronic communications like e-mail, Facebook and Short Message System (SMS) and other electronic communications is because they will prevent people from wasting their time and money. How do these work? As we all know, sending a letter to someone will take a lot of processes and will eventually take a long time and waste a lot of money. On the contrary, electronic communications entail only the tip of our fingers so as an electronic device to work with. Then, what is left for us to do is just, typing! Has that not taken a much lesser time and money? For instance, an e-mail only requires us to turn on our laptops, open our accounts on the website and then, you can start write your letter and send them through e-mails. In short, with the very unstable economy nowadays, having these kinds of communications will ease everyone’s burden especially on their daily expenses and also their valuable time will not be wasted. Secondly, the growing trend of electronic communications is making it possible for a borderless communication which is vital these days. Why is it vital? A lot of things require borderless communication; in education field, businesses and even daily activities, especially when foreigners involved. For example, when trading with foreigners, in order to communicate with each other, they need Skype or Yahoo Messenger as mediums to interact and be able to do the trade at a faster rate as compared to by using ‘snail mails’ or regular letters. Skype is the perfect example of an electronic communication which will cut he boundary that has separated each country and make communication between two different countries from around the world possible. In conclusion, it is crucial to have these electronic communications in today’s age of globalization as they make it easier for people around the world to connect with each other. Last but not least, the dominance of these electronic communications is people could gain prominent information more efficiently than before. As there are lesser borders between countries, the efficiency of getting much more relevant and prominent information is higher. People will have the ability to provide and gain information effectively through Facebook or Twitter accounts. For example, international artists who have planned to do a world concert can inform their fans about it through their Facebook account. Likewise, the fans also can ask just about anything to their favourite artists regarding the concert. Hence, this explains why people make these electronic communications as a huge trend these days and in order to keep the trend ongoing, each person has the responsibility to adapt with the technology itself. In a nutshell, the growing trend of using electronic communications is inevitably vital in people’s lives as it gives out a lot of benefits as stated in above paragraphs. So, to avoid ourselves from not getting the chance of keeping up with the changing trends, we have to try our best to adapt ourselves with the rapid changes. I believe that the electronic communication trend is a trend which is very important to be followed as the world is getting more advanced day to day.

Econ Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Econ - Essay Example ics.This approach assumes that when businesses fluctuate, then this is a clear interpretation of the fluctuation in the output’s growth rate instead of a change in the level of output. This statement implies that economics is a misery in that there is a very peculiar of interconnection of markets and they respond in a very surprising manner to the changes in preferences and resources. For example, if a reduction of a product occurs, the price of the commodity goes up and the consumers get an incentive to consume less of the commodity while the suppliers get an incentive to discover more. It is very surprising that increase in the price of one commodity can be the reason of another commodity’s price going up. Therefore, this approach in economics tends to let people understand the invisible side in economics in order to understand the economics world. Keynes a very popular economist stated that he would like to steer the economy while Hayek articulates that he would like to set the economy free. Keynes, had a very strong believe and supported that during the periods of depression or during recession in an economy, the government should spend during the depression period as a way to increase the aggregate demand and to lower the levels of unemployment. He believed that during the period of recession, the government should buy security bonds in order to reduce aggregate demand since this reduces the flow of money amongst the citizens. By doing this, Keynes felt that government spending is a good way of controlling the markets. Hayek, a fellow economist, criticized what Keynes argued that government spending should regulate the demand in the market by arguing that he preferred to set the market in the economy to operate freely. Hayek argued that the market should operate freely without any intervention and correct itself without intervention too. His argument was that intervention by either the government spending or the policies of the central bank in effort to

Conflict between Turkey vs. PKK (Kurdish terrorist group) within Research Paper

Conflict between Turkey vs. PKK (Kurdish terrorist group) within 1992-2002 - Research Paper Example The PKK is a recognized Kurdish terrorist group. Before September 11, 2001, it might have been considered a rebel group, but following the events of that day an international effort was put in place to try to limit and disrupt such organizations and cut off their financing. Lists were drawn up by the United States and its allies. Turkey was given the go ahead to taker serious actions against the PKK and eventually arrested its leaders. Today the PKK is still a threat, but its significance is limited. The current Turkish government is more liberal than many have recently been on the Kurdish questions and has been more open to the Kurds. New freedoms have taken some of the sting out of the PKK and turned ordinary Kurds away from them. The creation of de facto Kurdistan state in northern Iraq has also released pressure. The world has changed a lot over the last century. Terrorism has shifted too. It is now a global phenomenon motivated by a distorted global ideology. The PKK has lot a lot power because of this in recent

Theories of Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Theories of Development - Essay Example Jacques Derrida can be considered as the most influential person in relation to poststructuralist theory. The poststructuralist theory revolves around the concept of decentralization of language (Crain, 2005). According to poststructuralist theory, language has no center. It is without any center. Saussure looked at language as a structure but Derrida emphasized that all structures are required to have centers while language has no center. Derrida claims that there is no present moment (Crain, 2005). As soon as we talk about a present moment or think about it, it is already past. Poststructuralist can be related to deconstruction that considers that there is no fixed meaning (Escobar, 1995). Language is considered in the same frame. There is no central meaning for any word in language (Crain, 2005). According to Derrida, language is a free play of meaning (Crain, 2005). Poststructuralist theory challenges the existence of each and every thing in the world whether living or nonliving (Escobar, 1995). After analyzing the points discussed in poststructuralist theory, the theory seems most compelling as all the aspects raised in the theory are persuasive and influential. Not only one critic but many critics and theorists are involved in the evaluation of poststructuralist theory. Postcolonial and postmodern theories are also persuasive but as compared to poststructuralist theory, they appear somehow weak. Post-colonial theorists are unable to regard themselves as fully post-colonial (Escobar, 1995). According to them, they are still under the control of colonial powers. Postcolonial theorists regard nationality, language and regionalism as most important aspects that an individual should have (Crain, 2005). Like poststructuralist theory, postmodern theory is also a response to modern theory. This also deals with a set of perspectives related to society,

College Algebra Unit 3 DB Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

College Algebra Unit 3 DB - Assignment Example In the underweight category, in which BMI is 18.5; the height is 69.6 inches. This is established as shown below: This is done to all categories. H in the normal BMI is 59.997 inches, in the overweight category, 54.75 inches, in the obese category the height is 54 inches, and below. The actual height of Angelina Jolie is 5 foot and 8 inches. This is equal to 68 inches since 1 foot is equal to 12 inches (Smith et al., 2005). This makes her placed under the category of underweight. This category ranges from 70 inches to 60 inches (after rounding off 69.6 and 59.997 to the nearest whole number). Her height should be ranging from 54.75 inches to 59.997 inches for her to fall under the normal weight status. The difference in calculations and actual figures may occur due to rounding off to the adjacent full number. The timing may also matter such that, she might have gained or lost some weight from the time the data was collected to now. In summary, Angelina Jolie falls in the category of underweight based on the facts and

The issue of globalization on a human resource management perspective Term Paper

The issue of globalization on a human resource management perspective - Term Paper Example From this research it is clear that there has been a growing relationship amongst the cultures, economies, and people in the world. Coupled with advancement in technology, interaction has been steadily increasing in the current world. Thus, the people, cultures, and economies are increasingly becoming interdependent of each for their continued survival. This is globalization with the world effectively becoming a big global village. According to Sparrow, Brewster, and Harris however, globalization is â€Å"a process whereby markets and production in different countries become increasingly interdependent due to the dynamics of trade in goods and services and flows of capital and technology.† In this case, the customers’ need for similar commodities and services drive the globalization of markets. With globalization of markets, a challenge in striking a balance between universal tendency in human resource management and the influence of different national cultures arises. Therefore, this expose elucidates the issue of globalization on a human resource management perspective. Edwards and Rees noted that, globalization necessitates attention to â€Å"more than conducting business across national borders but also entails expanding competition for almost every type of organization presenting management with the challenge to operate in diverse cultural settings.† In this regard, the global economy requires a company to exploit its human resources effectively through effective planning in order to gain a competitive edge over its competitors. Therefore, human resource managemen

Explore one of the major battles of the Civil War in detail. Who were Research Paper

Explore one of the major battles of the Civil War in detail. Who were the important figures What events or trends played a - Research Paper Example The significant figures of the battle are the generals from the Union and the Confederacy, while the critical events were Sherman’s earlier dismissals of reports of Confederate sightings, the initial fighting, Johnston’s death, and the successful counterattacks that Grant ordered and Buell reinforced. The effects of the Battle of Shiloh on the Civil War are the recognition of the true intensity, duration, and consequences of the Civil War and the importance of experienced soldiers and officers in winning the war. The Major Players of the Battle of Shiloh The decisive figures of the Battle of Shiloh were Major General Ulysses S. Grant and Major General Don Carlos Buell for the Union, and General Albert Sidney Johnston and General P.G.T. Beauregard for the Confederate, although General Sherman affected the unpreparedness of the Union too. Chuck Veit underlines that the first battle of Shiloh occurred five weeks before the April attack, one which already foreshadowed poor planning and intelligence assessment on the part of higher military officers of the Union. Winston Groom specifically blames General Sherman for his â€Å"folly† because he disregarded mounting reports regarding advancing Confederate lines (46). Groom narrates that, two days before the attack, Major Elbridge G. Ricker already reported to General Sherman that they encountered a Confederate group with artillery only two miles from the latter’s headquarters (46). Instead of verifying the veracity of this report, General Sherman easily dismissed Ricker and said: â€Å"Oh, tut-tut. You militia officers get scared too easy† (Groom 46). He also reproached Ricker for inciting a battle when the Union troops were not yet fully prepared (Groom 46). Groom lamented that instead of physically reinforcing the vulnerable Pittsburgh landing, where the Union soldiers were, Sherman focused on drilling exercises (46). General Grant, moreover, greatly relied on General Shermanâ€⠄¢s assessment of intelligence information and determination of enemy threat. Grant sent a telegram to Major General Henry Wager Halleck, a higher-ups officer in St. Louis, that the enemy stayed in Corinth and would not likely attack them, though they were prepared in case they did (Groom 47). Unknown to the Union generals, Confederate General Johnston wanted to take initiative after the defeat at Forts Henry and Donelson. Blair Howard describes Johnston’s awareness of the vulnerability of their Corinth position and that he knew that Grant was still waiting for Don Carlos Buell’s army as reinforcement (45). Johnston planned what seemed to be inconceivable to General Grant and General Sherman, doing an offensive on the Union’s own front yard (Howard 45). Johnston wanted to attack Grant’s forces on April 4, but bad weather delayed him (Howard 45). By the eve of the April 6 attack, Johnston’s army of 44,000 already moved around two miles south of Shil oh Church, the outermost border of the Union army, with the element of surprise on their side (Howard 45). The Turning Points in the Battle of Shiloh The opening attack happened at Fraley Field, as the sixth of April of 1862 began. Union officers in the high command constantly rebuffed reports of advancing Confederate soldiers, but Captain Gilbert D. Johnson, a company commander in the 12th Michigan, was already suspicious of

The Sample Technical Report Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

The Sample Technical Report - Research Paper Example This paper outlines that the tone of document is professional and formal. Teacher education language is used in terms of talking about the curriculum. Students will also learn concepts that teachers use in creating curricula and courses. The report focuses on 2012 teacher and student STARTALK programs and not on other blended learning programs Is the report credible? Why or why not? In what ways does the document ensure its credibility? What information/data/research and/or methods does it present? Is the document persuasive? Why or why not? The report is credible because it has a clear research design with clear data-collection procedures and discussions of results. It also provides the data at the end of the report, so that readers can check the data themselves. For instance, raw figures on the teacher and student blended programs are presented in Table 5 in the Appendix On average. In addition, the report does not make sweeping generalizations. For instance, it says: â€Å"In conducting such studies, researchers must bear in mind that cost-effective instruction does not necessarily result in highly effective education† .

Community safety Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Community safety - Essay Example Home security to low income communities is a service which is been provided by American Corps under Safe Neighbourhood AmeriCorps Partnership (SNAP). They provide free demonstration security assessments and hardware instalments and provide instruments on demand. This helps them in saving their money on training and resident feel secure. Probability of failure is negligible as only one among all accessed house has faced this problem (SNAP, 2000). Fire Safety is a process by which measures are taken for preventing and reducing fire disasters. It can be implemented during and after construction of building. Its education is also required to individuals for their premises safety. Workplace fire safety is a non - domestic area safety. In England, it is done under supervision of Communities and Local Government (CLG) and in Scotland and Wales under Scottish Government and Wales Assembly Government. HSE (Health and Safety Executive) looks after cases responsible for fire safety. Good Neighbourhood Watch Schemes is a strategy which helps in reducing crime in local areas by motivating individuals to accept their responsibilities towards self safety and community safety. CCTV and Radio link are been used for reducing crime taking place in retail shops and streets. Education and promotions of diversionary related to youth are implemented for reducing rate of crime and offences related to young people. It also helps in overcoming hatred and prejudice. For this protection schemes are also been formulated and implemented. Agencies are established and many schemes and policies are adopted for stopping distribution of drugs and alcohols among young generation. Online services and many agencies and policies are been adopted for stopping domestic violence and sexual assault. Stay Safe Stay Secure Scheme is been adopted for helping older people. It helps them to feel safe in their home (BCSP, 2008). There are many issues faced by fire safety departments. They can be

Media Violence Not Good for Children Essay Example for Free

Media Violence Not Good for Children Essay The effects of media violence on children have been studied for over thirty years, with researchers repeatedly finding correlations between aggressive/violent behavior and the viewing of media violence. These education and psychology researchers began asserting years ago that a cause-and-effect relationship existed, i.e., viewing media violence was one of the causative factors in aggressive behavior in children. We often use the phrase that children are impressionable. We mean that children do not see the world through the same filter of experience that adults do. Children see things more literally. They do not yet possess the sophisticated sensibilities to distinguish fiction from reality. It matters a great deal, therefore, how much TV children watch and what they view. Young children often mimic what they see. Parents and caretakers observe this regularly. If children see people punching and kicking, they may act out that same behavior. Older children develop, through years of watching, sub-conscious mental plans of how they will react in conflict situations. For years they have seen conflicts resolved by violence, and they sub-consciously develop the same reaction plan. When confronted with a conflict, the tendency is to react the way they have seen countless others react—in a combative, aggressive or violent manner. Researchers call this developing a cognitive script. Through television, video games, and movies, children and teens view countless acts of violence, brutality, and terror as part of entertainment. They become conditioned to associating violence with entertainment. This is the classical conditioning. First-person shooter video games develop our children’s skills in operating weapons. The games reward marksmanship, and further reinforce the association of killing with entertainment. In the past, the heroes of movie and television shows were usually people who strictly followed the law. Now, heroes are often people who take the law into their own hands, who see an injustice or evil and seek to rectify it personally, sometimes brutally, regardless of the consequences. Such portrayals signal to a child society’s approval of that behavior. Lacking the judgment that comes with age, a child who feels he has been dealt with unfairly may copy that behavior, with disastrous consequences

History Of The Virtual Private Network

History Of The Virtual Private Network A VPN supplies virtual network connectivity over a possibly long physical distance. The key feature of a VPN, however, is its ability to use public networks like the Internet rather than rely on private leased lines which consume valuable recourse and extra cost . VPN technologies implement restricted-access networks that utilize the same cabling and routers as a public network, and they do so without sacrificing features or basic security , a simple cooperation office and remote branched VPN shown in below diagram . Sonicwall_Vpn A VPN supports at least three different modes of use as shown above: Remote access client connections. LAN-to-LAN internetworking . Controlled access within an intranet . A several network protocols have become popular as a result of VPN developments state as following : PPTP L2TP IPsec These protocols emphasize authentication and encryption in VPNs. Authentication allows VPN clients and servers to correctly establish the identity of people on the network. Encryption allows potentially sensitive data to be hidden from the general public. Many vendors have developed VPN hardware and/or software products. Unfortunately, immature VPN standards mean that some of these products remain incompatible with each other till now. Virtual private networks have grown in popularity as businesses to save money on remote network access for employees. Many corporations have also adopted VPNs as a security solution for private Wi-Fi wireless networks. Expect a continued gradual expansion in use of VPN technology to continue in the coming years. Objectives:- A virtual private network can resolve many of the issues associated with todays private networks. Cost: The cost of such links is high especially when they involve international locations. Even when VPNs are implemented on a provider private network, it would still be less expensive. Mobility of workforce: Many companies are encouraging telecommunications to reduce their investment in real estate, reduce traffic, and reduce pollution from automobile E-commerce applications: However, in traditional private networks, this kind of special access provision is difficult to incorporate because it is not easy to install dedicated link to all suppliers and business partners, nor it is flexible because a change in the supplier would require de-installing the link and installing another one to the new vendor. Advantages of VPN VPNs promise two main advantages over competing approaches cost savings, and scalability (that is really just a different form of cost savings). The Low Cost of a VPN One way a VPN lowers costs is by eliminating the need for expensive long-distance leased lines. With VPNs, an organization needs only a relatively short dedicated connection to the service provider. This connection could be a local leased line (much less expensive than a long-distance one), or it could be a local broadband connection such as DSL service. Another way VPNs reduce costs is by lessening the need for long-distance telephone charges for remote access. Recall that to provide remote access service, VPN clients need only call into the nearest service providers access point. In some cases this may require a long distance call, but in many cases a local call will suffice. A third, more subtle way that VPNs may lower costs is through offloading of the support burden. With VPNs, the service provider rather than the organization must support dial-up access for example. Service providers can in theory charge much less for their support than it costs a company internally because the public providers cost is shared amongst potentially thousands of customers. Scalability and VPNs The cost to an organization of traditional leased lines may be reasonable at first but can increase exponentially as the organization grows. A company with two branch offices, for example, can deploy just one dedicated line to connect the two locations. If a third branch office needs to come online, just two additional lines will be required to directly connect that location to the other two. However, as an organization grows and more companies must be added to the network, the number of leased lines required increases dramatically. Four branch offices require six lines for full connectivity, five offices require ten lines, and so on. Mathematicans call this phenomenon a combinatorial explosion, and in a traditional WAN this explosion limits the flexibility for growth. VPNs that utilize the Internet avoid this problem by simply tapping into the geographically-distributed access already available. Disadvantages of VPNs With the hype that has surrounded VPNs historically, the potential pitfalls or weak spots in the VPN model can be easy to forget. These four concerns with VPN solutions are often raised. 1. VPNs require an in-depth understanding of public network security issues and proper deployment of precautions. 2. The availability and performance of an organizations wide-area VPN (over the Internet in particular) depends on factors largely outside of their control. 3. VPN technologies from different vendors may not work well together due to immature standards. 4. VPNs need to accomodate protocols other than IP and existing internal network technology. Generally speaking, these four factors comprise the hidden costs of a VPN solution. Whereas VPN advocates tout cost savings as the primary advantage of this technology, detractors cite hidden costs as the primary disadvantage of VPNs INTERNET VPNS FOR REMOTE ACCESS In recent years, many organizations have increased the mobility of their workers by allowing more employees to telecommute. Employees also continue to travel and face a growing need to stay connected to their company networks. A VPN can be set up to support remote, protected access to the corporate home offices over the Internet. An Internet VPN solution uses a client/server design works as follows: 1. A remote host (client) wanting to log into the company network first connects to any public Internet Service Provider (ISP). 2. Next, the host initiates a VPN connection to the company VPN server. This connection is made via a VPN client installed on the remote host. 3. Once the connection has been established, the remote client can communicate with the internal company systems over the Internet just as if it were a local host. Before VPNs, remote workers accessed company networks over private leased lines or through dialup remote access servers. While VPN clients and servers careful require installation of hardware and software, an Internet VPN is a superior solution in many situations. VPNS FOR INTERNETWORKING Besides using virtual private networks for remote access, a VPN can also bridge two networks together. In this mode of operation, an entire remote network (rather than just a single remote client) can join to a different company network to form an extended intranet. This solution uses a VPN server to VPN server connection. Through the use of dedicated equipment and large-scale encryption, a company can connect multiple fixed sites over a public network such as the Internet. Site-to-site VPNs can be one of two types: Intranet-based If a company has one or more remote locations that they wish to join in a single private network, they can create an intranet VPN to connect LAN to LAN. Extranet-based When a company has a close relationship with another company (for example, a partner, supplier or customer), they can build an extranet VPN that connects LAN to LAN, and that allows all of the various companies to work in a shared environment. vpn-type INTRANET / LOCAL NETWORK VPNS Internal networks may also utilize VPN technology to implement controlled access to individual subnets within a private network. In this mode of operation, VPN clients connect to a VPN server that acts as the network gateway. This type of VPN use does not involve an Internet Service Provider (ISP) or public network cabling. However, it allows the security benefits of VPN to be deployed inside an organization. This approach has become especially popular as a way for businesses to protect their WiFi local networks. TUNNELING: SITE-TO-SITE In a site-to-site VPN, GRE (generic routing encapsulation) is normally the encapsulating protocol that provides the framework for how to package the passenger protocol for transport over the carrier protocol, which is typically IP-based. This includes information on what type of packet you are encapsulating and information about the connection between the client and server. Instead of GRE, IPSec in tunnel mode is sometimes used as the encapsulating protocol. IPSec works well on both remote-access and site-to-site VPNs. IPSec must be supported at both tunnel interfaces to use. TUNNELING Most VPNs rely on tunneling to create a private network that reaches across the Internet. Essentially, tunneling is the process of placing an entire packet within another packet and sending it over a network. The protocol of the outer packet is understood by the network and both points, called tunnel interfaces, where the packet enters and exits the network. Tunneling requires three different protocols: Carrier protocol The protocol used by the network that the information is traveling over Encapsulating protocol The protocol (GRE, IPSec, L2F, PPTP, L2TP) that is wrapped around the original data Passenger protocol The original data (IPX, NetBeui, IP) being carried Tunneling has amazing implications for VPNs. For example, you can place a packet that uses a protocol not supported on the Internet (such as NetBeui) inside an IP packet and send it safely over the Internet. Or you could put a packet that uses a private (non-routable) IP address inside a packet that uses a globally unique IP address to extend a private network over the Internet. COST SAVINGS WITH A VPN A VPN can save an organization money in several situations: Eliminating the need for expensive long-distance leased lines Reducing long-distance telephone charges Offloading support costs VPNS VS LEASED LINES Organizations historically needed to rent network capacity such as T1 lines to achieve full, secured connectivity between their office locations. With a VPN, you use public network infrastructure including the Internet to make these connections and tap into that virtual network through much cheaper local leased lines or even just broadband connections to a nearby Internet Service Provider (ISP). LONG DISTANCE PHONE CHARGES A VPN also can replace remote access servers and long-distance dialup network connections commonly used in the past by business travelers needing to access to their company intranet. For example, with an Internet VPN, clients need only connect to the nearest service providers access point that is usually local. SUPPORT COSTS With VPNs, the cost of maintaining servers tends to be less than other approaches because organizations can outsource the needed support from professional third-party service providers. These provides enjoy a much lower cost structure through economy of scale by servicing many business clients. VPN NETWORK SCALABILITY The cost to an organization of building a dedicated private network may be reasonable at first but increases exponentially as the organization grows. A company with two branch offices, for example, can deploy just one dedicated line to connect the two locations, but 4 branch offices require 6 lines to directly connect them to each other, 6 branch offices need 15 lines, and so on. Internet based VPNs avoid this scalability problem by simply tapping into the public lines and network capability readily available. Particularly for remote and international locations, an Internet VPN offers superior reach and quality of service. USING A VPN To use a VPN, each client must possess the appropriate networking software or hardware support on their local network and computers. When set up properly, VPN solutions are easy to use and sometimes can be made to work automatically as part of network sign on. VPN technology also works well with WiFi local area networking. Some organizations use VPNs to secure wireless connections to their local access points when working inside the office. These solutions provide strong protection without affecting performance excessively. VPN SECURITY: IPSEC Internet Protocol Security Protocol (IPSec) provides enhanced security features such as better encryption algorithms and more comprehensive authentication. vpn-diagram2 Photo courtesy Cisco Systems, Inc. A remote-access VPN utilizing IPSec IPSec has two encryption modes: tunnel and transport. Tunnel encrypts the header and the payload of each packet while transport only encrypts the payload. Only systems that are IPSec compliant can take advantage of this protocol. Also, all devices must use a common key and the firewalls of each network must have very similar security policies set up. IPSec can encrypt data between various devices, such as: Router to router Firewall to router PC to router PC to server LIMITATIONS OF A VPN Despite their popularity, VPNs are not perfect and limitations exist as is true for any technology. Organizations should consider issues like the below when deploying and using virtual private networks in their operations: VPNs require detailed understanding of network security issues and careful installation / configuration to ensure sufficient protection on a public network like the Internet. The reliability and performance of an Internet-based VPN is not under an organizations direct control. Instead, the solution relies on an ISP and their quality of service. Historically, VPN products and solutions from different vendors have not always been compatible due to issues with VPN technology standards. Attempting to mix and match equipment may cause technical problems, and using equipment from one provider may not give as great a cost savings. TYPES OF VPN TUNNELING VPN supports two types of tunneling voluntary and compulsory. Both types of tunneling are commonly used. In voluntary tunneling, the VPN client manages connection setup. The client first makes a connection to the carrier network provider (an ISP in the case of Internet VPNs). Then, the VPN client application creates the tunnel to a VPN server over this live connection. In compulsory tunneling, the carrier network provider manages VPN connection setup. When the client first makes an ordinary connection to the carrier, the carrier in turn immediately brokers a VPN connection between that client and a VPN server. From the client point of view, VPN connections are set up in just one step compared to the two-step procedure required for voluntary tunnels. Compulsory VPN tunneling authenticates clients and associates them with specific VPN servers using logic built into the broker device. This network device is sometimes called the VPN Front End Processor (FEP), Network Access Server (NAS) or Point of Presence Server (POS). Compulsory tunneling hides the details of VPN server connectivity from the VPN clients and effectively transfers management control over the tunnels from clients to the ISP. In return, service providers must take on the additional burden of installing and maintaining FEP devices. VPN TUNNELING PROTOCOLS Several computer network protocols have been implemented specifically for use with VPN tunnels. The three most popular VPN tunneling protocols listed below continue to compete with each other for acceptance in the industry. These protocols are generally incompatible with each other. POINT-TO-POINT TUNNELING PROTOCOL (PPTP) Several corporations worked together to create the PPTP specification. People generally associate PPTP with Microsoft because nearly all flavors of Windows include built-in client support for this protocol. The initial releases of PPTP for Windows by Microsoft contained security features that some experts claimed were too weak for serious use. Microsoft continues to improve its PPTP support, though. LAYER TWO TUNNELING PROTOCOL (L2TP) The original competitor to PPTP for VPN tunneling was L2F, a protocol implemented primarily in Cisco products. In an attempt to improve on L2F, the best features of it and PPTP were combined to create new standard called L2TP. Like PPTP, L2TP exists at the data link layer (Layer Two) in the OSI model thus the origin of its name. INTERNET PROTOCOL SECURITY (IPSEC) IPsec is actually a collection of multiple related protocols. It can be used as a complete VPN protocol solution, or it can used simply as the encryption scheme within L2TP or PPTP. IPsec exists at the network layer (Layer Three) of the OSI model. Using PPTP PPTP packages data within PPP packets, then encapsulates the PPP packets within IP packets (datagrams) for transmission through an Internet-based VPN tunnel. PPTP supports data encryption and compression of these packets. PPTP also uses a form of General Routing Encapsulation (GRE) to get data to and from its final destination. PPTP-based Internet remote access VPNs are by far the most common form of PPTP VPN. In this environment, VPN tunnels are created via the following two-step process: The PPTP client connects to their ISP using PPP dial-up networking (traditional modem or ISDN). Via the broker device (described earlier), PPTP creates a TCP control connection between the VPN client and VPN server to establish a tunnel. PPTP uses TCP port 1723 for these connections. PPTP also supports VPN connectivity via a LAN. ISP connections are not required in this case, so tunnels can be created directly as in Step 2 above. Once the VPN tunnel is established, PPTP supports two types of information flow: Control messages for managing and eventually tearing down the VPN connection. Control messages pass directly between VPN client and server. Data packets that pass through the tunnel, to or from the VPN client PPTP CONTROL CONNECTION Once the TCP connection is established in Step 2 above, PPTP utliizes a series of control messages to maintain VPN connections. These messages are listed below. No. Name Description 1 StartControlConnectionRequest Initiates setup of the VPN session; can be sent by either client or server. 2 StartControlConnectionReply Sent in reply to the start connection request (1); contains result code indicating success or failure of the setup operation, and also the protocol version number. 3 StopControlConnectionRequest Request to close the control connection. 4 StopControlConnectionReply Sent in reply to the stop connection request (3); contains result code indicating success or failure of the close operation. 5 EchoRequest Sent periodically by either client or server to ping the connection (keep alive). 6 EchoReply Sent in response to the echo request (5) to keep the connection active. 7 OutgoingCallRequest Request to create a VPN tunnel sent by the client. 8 OutgoingCallReply Response to the call request (7); contains a unique identifier for that tunnel. 9 IncomingCallRequest Request from a VPN client to receive an incoming call from the server. 10 IncomingCallReply Response to the incoming call request (9), indicating whether the incoming call should be answered. 11 IncomingCallConnected Response to the incoming call reply (10); provides additional call parameters to the VPN server. 12 CallClearRequest Request to disconnect either an incoming or outgoing call, sent from the server to a client. 13 CallDisconnectNotify Response to the disconnect request (12); sent back to the server. 14 WANErrorNotify Notification periodically sent to the server of CRC, framing, hardware and buffer overruns, timeout and byte alignment errors. 15 SetLinkInfo Notification of changes in the underlying PPP options. With control messages, PPTP utlizes a so-called magic cookie. The PPTP magic cookie is hardwired to the hexadecimal number 0x1A2B3C4D. The purpose of this cookie is to ensure the receiver interprets the incoming data on the correct byte boundaries. PPTP SECURITY PPTP supports authentication, encryption, and packet filtering. PPTP authentication uses PPP-based protocols like EAP, CHAP, and PAP. PPTP supports packet filtering on VPN servers. Intermediate routers and other firewalls can also be configured to selectively filter PPTP traffic. PPTP AND PPP In general, PPTP relies on the functionality of PPP for these aspects of virtual private networking. authenticating users and maintaining the remote dial-up connection encapsulating and encrypting IP, IPX, or NetBEUI packets PPTP directly handles maintaining the VPN tunnel and transmitting data through the tunnel. PPTP also supports some additional security features for VPN data beyond what PPP provides. PPTP PROS AND CONS PPTP remains a popular choice for VPNs thanks to Microsoft. PPTP clients are freely available in all popular versions of Microsoft Windows. Windows servers also can function as PPTP-based VPN servers. One drawback of PPTP is its failure to choose a single standard for authentication and encryption. Two products that both fully comply with the PPTP specification may be totally incompatible with each other if they encrypt data differently, for example. Concerns also persist over the questionable level of security PPTP provides compared to alternatives. Routing Tunneling protocols can be used in a point-to-point topology that would generally not be considered a VPN, because a VPN is expected to support arbitrary and changing sets of network nodes. Since most router implementations support software-defined tunnel interface, customer-provisioned VPNs often comprise simply a set of tunnels over which conventional routing protocols run. PPVPNs, however, need to support the coexistence of multiple VPNs, hidden from one another, but operated by the same service provider. Building blocks Depending on whether the PPVPN runs in layer 2 or layer 3, the building blocks described below may be L2 only, L3 only, or combinations of the two. Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) functionality blurs the L2-L3 identity. While RFC 4026 generalized these terms to cover L2 and L3 VPNs, they were introduced in RFC 2547. Customer edge device. (CE) In general, a CE is a device, physically at the customer premises, that provides access to the PPVPN service. Some implementations treat it purely as a demarcation point between provider and customer responsibility, while others allow customers to configure it. Provider edge device (PE) A PE is a device or set of devices, at the edge of the provider network, which provides the providers view of the customer site. PEs are aware of the VPNs that connect through them, and which maintain VPN state. Provider device (P) A P device operates inside the providers core network, and does not directly interface to any customer endpoint. It might, for example, provide routing for many provider-operated tunnels that belong to different customers PPVPNs. While the P device is a key part of implementing PPVPNs, it is not itself VPN-aware and does not maintain VPN state. Its principal role is allowing the service provider to scale its PPVPN offerings, as, for example, by acting as an aggregation point for multiple PEs. P-to-P connections, in such a role, often are high-capacity optical links between major locations of provider. Categorizing VPN security models From the security standpoint, VPNs either trust the underlying delivery network, or must enforce security with mechanisms in the VPN itself. Unless the trusted delivery network runs only among physically secure sites, both trusted and secure models need an authentication mechanism for users to gain access to the VPN. Some Internet service providers as of 2009[update] offer managed VPN service for business customers who want the security and convenience of a VPN but prefer not to undertake administering a VPN server themselves. Managed VPNs go beyond PPVPN scope, and are a contracted security solution that can reach into hosts. In addition to providing remote workers with secure access to their employers internal network, other security and management services are sometimes included as part of the package. Examples include keeping anti-virus and anti-spyware programs updated on each clients computer. Authentication before VPN connection A known trusted user, sometimes only when using trusted devices, can be provided with appropriate security privileges to access resources not available to general users. Servers may also need to authenticate themselves to join the VPN. A wide variety of authentication mechanisms exist. VPNs may implement authentication in devices including firewalls, access gateways, and others. They may use passwords, biometrics, or cryptographic methods. Strong authentication involves combining cryptography with another authentication mechanism. The authentication mechanism may require explicit user action, or may be embedded in the VPN client or the workstation. Trusted delivery networks Trusted VPNs do not use cryptographic tunneling, and instead rely on the security of a single providers network to protect the traffic. In a sense, they elaborate on traditional network- and system-administration work. Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) is often used to overlay VPNs, often with quality-of-service control over a trusted delivery network. Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) which is a standards-based replacement, and a compromise taking the good features from each, for two proprietary VPN protocols: Ciscos Layer 2 Forwarding (L2F) (obsolete as of 2009[update]) and Microsofts Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP). Security mechanisms Secure VPNs use cryptographic tunneling protocols to provide the intended confidentiality (blocking intercept and thus packet sniffing), sender authentication (blocking identity spoofing), and message integrity (blocking message alteration) to achieve privacy. Secure VPN protocols include the following: IPsec (Internet Protocol Security) A standards-based security protocol developed originally for IPv6, where support is mandatory, but also widely used with IPv4. Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS) is used either for tunneling an entire networks traffic (SSL VPN), as in the OpenVPN project, or for securing individual connection. SSL has been the foundation by a number of vendors to provide remote access VPN capabilities. A practical advantage of an SSL VPN is that it can be accessed from locations that restrict external access to SSL-based e-commerce websites without IPsec implementations. SSL-based VPNs may be vulnerable to Denial of Service attacks mounted against their TCP connections because latter are inherently unauthenticated. DTLS, used by Cisco for a next generation VPN product called Cisco AnyConnect VPN. DTLS solves the issues found when tunneling TCP over TCP as is the case with SSL/TLS Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol (SSTP) by Microsoft introduced in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista Service Pack 1. SSTP tunnels Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) or L2TP traffic through an SSL 3.0 channel. L2TPv3 (Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol version 3), a new[update] release. MPVPN (Multi Path Virtual Private Network). Ragula Systems Development Company owns the registered trademark MPVPN. Cisco VPN, a proprietary VPN used by many Cisco hardware devices. Proprietary clients exist for all platforms; open-source clients also exist. SSH VPN OpenSSH offers VPN tunneling to secure remote connections to a network (or inter-network links). This feature (option -w) should not be confused with port forwarding (option -L). OpenSSH server provides limited number of concurrent tunnels and the VPN feature itself does not support personal authentication. VPNs in mobile environments Mobile VPNs handle the special circumstances when one endpoint of the VPN is not fixed to a single IP address, but instead roams across various networks such as data networks from cellular carriers or between multiple Wi-Fi access points. Mobile VPNs have been widely used in public safety, where they give law enforcement officers access to mission-critical applications, such as computer-assisted dispatch and criminal databases, as they travel between different subnets of a mobile network. They are also used in field service management and by healthcare organizations, among other industries. Increasingly, Mobile VPNs are being adopted by mobile professionals and white-collar workers who need reliable connections. They allow users to roam seamlessly across networks and in and out of wireless-coverage areas without losing application sessions or dropping the secure VPN session. A conventional VPN cannot survive such events because the network tunnel is disrupted, causing applications to disconnect, time out, fail, or even the computing device itself to crash. Instead of logically tying the endpoint of the network tunnel to the physical IP address, each tunnel is bound to a virtual IP address that stays with the device. The Mobile VPN software handles the necessary network logins and maintains the application sessions in a manner transparent to the user. The Host Identity Protocol (HIP), under study by the Internet Engineering Task Force, is designed to support mobility of hosts by separating the role of IP addresses for host identification from their locator functionality in an IP network. With HIP a mobile host maintains its logical connections established via the host identity identifier while associating with different IP addresses when roaming between access networks. Conclusion: So what is a Virtual Private Network? As we have discussed, a VPN can take several forms. A VPN can be between two end-systems, or it can be between two or more networks. A VPN can be built using tunnels or encryption (at essentially any layer of the protocol stack), or both, or alternatively constructed using MPLS or one of the virtual router methods. A VPN can consist of networks connected to a service providers network by leased lines, Frame Relay, or ATM, or a VPN can consist of dial-up subscribers connecting to central

Employee Turnover In The Hospitality Sector In China

Employee Turnover In The Hospitality Sector In China People are one of the most significant resources for business, especially in the people-intensive and service- intensive hospitality industry (Kong and Baum, 2006). Additionally, front office plays a role of reception and marketing as well as the brain in the hotel, and it is an important factor that has impact on hotels image and reputation. An increasing number of research in China and in the world are keen on investigating human resources management about the turnover in hospitality industry (Liu,2002; Baum et al.,2006). Gustafson (2002) indicated that high employee turnover had been widely accepted and documented in the hospitality industry. The study also showed the relationship between managers perceptions and staff turnover. Moreover, Poulston (2008) found the poor training was associated with workplace problems, and improving in the training part is likely to reduce the thorny problems such as under-staffing. The result proved via questionnaires indicated that in the hospitality industry, the employers were not generally looking for hard technical skills, especially in the front line positions, but rather soft skills (Nickson et al., 2005). Such soft skills encompass attitude and it was also the essential parts affect staff aspirations about changing work all the time. In brief, turnover in hospitality is affects not only including psychological factors but also physical factors. It is clear that China has a bright future in the hospitality industry, and absolutely it is with potential to open the outside world and thus to obtain advanced international management skills as a result. China is still facing the problem of shortage of quality personnel and high staff turnover which might relate to culture of bias to the hotel jobs (Kong et al., 2006). Due to the importance of about turnover in the hospitality industry, some of the psychological and physical factors may similar be all around the world, yet in China, culture differentials also exist about the job nature in the hospitality industry. 2.2 Turnover KPMG (1991) and Timo (1999) pointed out that high staff turnover rates in the hospitality industry are largely higher than manufacturing industries in Australian labor market. Timo (1999) indicated that hospitality sector employment is always described as a mode of instability and flexible form of employment. In addition, findings in Timos survey (2005), a unit of percentage can evidence this statement: only 23.2% of employee respondents had been employed by the hotel 3-5years. It is also worth mentioned that only a little more half or 56.5% of respondents had been employed for less than two years. Similarly, about half of the manager respondents have been employed by one hotel for more or less two years. A survey conducted by Kong and Baum (2006) found that 75% respondents in front office was their first experience of working in hotel sector. Only about 30% respondents indicated that they plan to stay on their job for one to three years. This percentage largely reflects the potentia l workforce turnover in hospitality environment. Awareness about staff turnover cannot just stay on the surface, it must recognize that staff instability is not only the loss of talent, but that also would result in more costs in hotels. According to the survey by Mitchell (2001), he indicated that turnover is costly in any kind of operations. Cost here is a general concept. It concluded intangible and tangible factors. The former involved loss of experience, technical skills, relationships knowledge etc. The latter is concerned about adding money to recruitment, training, creating of candidates. Additionally, Hinkin and Tracey (2008) also published a report regarding the cost profiles associated with staff turnover in Cornell Hospitality Quarterly. They divided the turnover cost into hard costs, soft costs and opportunity costs. Meanwhile they listed five cost categories during the recruitment, selection, training and development, and performance. The authors found out that the results that the managers spent a great amount of tim e and money in recruitment and selection new staff because of the poor quality of the candidates pool and high turnover rates existing in the hotels. The front office is the first place that customers have contact with a hotel, which employees provided the first impression to the customers about the hotel service. In other words, the front office represents the hotels image and as a consequence staff in front office must know all the answers concerned in hotel to make customers happy( Kaye, Thomas, 2000,pp24-P25). Meanwhile, the clerks in hotel front office face big challenge on daily work. Working stress is one of the reasons that caused staff turnover can be found (Lo and Lamm, 2005). Pressure caused by working challenge may give rise to staffs leaving desire and foreshadowing the final turnover in the hospitality. Moreover, several physical factors have an effect on staff satisfaction about the current job. In Hinkin and Traceys (2000) work, they analyzed major causes for turnover arose, poor working environment, low wages, unreasonable management and lacking guiding for employees and poor training is also mentioned in this work. From the literature it is evident that human resource challenges found that there are many regions all around the world are confronted with the same issue about staff turnover and specifically, the problem of seasonal employment in tourist regions trouble the hotel managers a lot. Martin et al. (2006) published a research paper and summarized that the bad image of tourism hospitality industry, unfavorable working environment, few development and promotional opportunities, these are all the candidates perceptions and the most significant factors for managers to improve and in order to attract and retain the workforce. Specifically, there is an outstanding issue in the hospitality industry that the staff working in hotels is younger and younger and it has closely relationship with turnover issue. According to a New Zealand survey, almost half or 40% of the employees in hospitality sector are less than 25-years-old, the biggest group of the staff being 15-19 year (Whiteford and Nolan 2007).Working in hotel, as well as in front office, the most significant requirement for the staff is not skill levels but service attitude. Selection methods for recruitment can discern such feature, it relied 79% on application forms, 74% on curriculum vitae or/and 89% on interviews and references (60%) (Nickson, Warhurst and Dutton, 2005). A pertinent study conducted by Norris (1995) found that there are low barriers for person to enter most of the hotels, to be front-line personnel. Therefore, low barriers interests young workforce to looking for job in hospitality industry. Meanwhile, the youth staff in front offic e is one of the reasons for its workforce instability. Play and work, this notion may attract those employees to choose jobs in hotel which has low skill barriers to enter as well as opportunities to travel and exciting. (Accirrt, 1996; Chalmers and Kalb,2001) In other words, with the phenomenon of the seasonal turnover, human resource managers in the hotel cannot ignore the using of the students as a temporary labor pool (Farnsworth, 2003). There is no doubt that the close relationship among the local hospitalities and the hospitality manager schools and the tourism manager colleges, they can help provide potential workforce to the hotels. Also, the author advocates that hospitality operators should provide job related training to the students and improve their working competitive strength. Organizational commitment, missions, goals and direction Organization commitment is playing a significant role which as a factor reducing employee turnover in the hospitality industry (Kazlauskaite et al,.). According to Greenberg and Baron (2000, pp.181) definition, organization commitment is an extent to which an individual identifies and is involved with his or her organization or is unwilling to leave it. And there are three types of organizational commitment: affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment (Meyer and Allen, 1991). Among these three types of commitment, affective commitment may be considered most desirable for an organization. In addition to the reduction of employee turnover, according to Schuler and Jacksons research result (1999), they found out that employee organizational commitment was also seen to be important for quality improvement and maintain the importance of such human resource practices as teamwork, appropriate feedback system. Furthermore, employee empowerment as a factor can enhanc e organizational commitment. Empowerment is a rather complex process and it is hard to definite until now, but Lovelock and Wright (1999) define empowerment in service industry as the authorization of an employee without asking for a supervisors approval to help customers to find out service problem solutions and make appropriate decisions. And with regard to the relationship between psychological empowerment and organizational commitment, Sigler and Pearson (2000) found the positive relationship between them and Janssen (2004) indicated that psychological empowerment can be viewed as a way to stimulate an individuals commitment to the organization. Basically, empirical evidence suggests that the hotels organization mission, goals and direction influence employee retention and job productivity. And the organization development direction and support had a significant impact on employee job satisfaction and overall commitment (Kim, Leong, Lee, 2005). Susskind et al.s (2000) research also indicated that perceived organizational support strongly insfluences job satisfaction and employees commitment to their organizations. US Department of Labor (1993) on high performance work practices revealed that involving employees in decision-making, goals and the direction of an organization through participation in terms will help reduce turnover rate and produce job employee satisfaction. Furthermore, Cho et al. (2006) also reported that organizations which non-managerial employees are more likely to experience higher turnover rate comparting with which have high-performance work practice in the organization. Hotel culture and communication According to Becker and Huselid (1999), hotel culture creates competitiveness since it changes staffs working behavior by making them act consistently with the hotels desired corporate culture, thus influencing employee retention. Most of other researches indicated that there were uncovered similar findings between hotel culture and staff turnover rate and retention. For instance, according to Milman and Ricci (2004), they revealed that among the most powerful indicators to predict hourly staff retention in the hospitality industry were positive experiences with the hotels policies and with the hotels humane approach to staff. Work environment and job design In terms of the working environment and job design, most of the studies found that employees who had positive experience with regards to working hours, sense of fulfillment with their jobs and higher level of job satisfaction are more likely to stay with current employer. Although employees care lots about the monetary rewards which can be a top motivator for employee retention, having a comfortable working environment and flexible working hours were also important motivators (Wildes, 2007).The research work performed by Martin (2004), he pointed out the working situation has a quite important influence on the staffs perception and working attitudes. Accordingly, the working performance also impacted by the employees satisfaction of the working environment. Continuously improving the ethical problem in the hospitality, it will ultimately lead to the lower staff turnover and the successful retention of the talent workforce. What is more, the result that hourly employees retention was predicted by self-fulfillment and working conditions, even over monetary rewards was confirmed by empirical studies of lodging properties in Central Florida (Milman Ricci, 2004). Hires and promotions According to the searching result, numerous of the studies examine the impact of hiring and promotion activities on retention and performance (Becker Huselid, 1999; Cho, Woods, Jang, Erdem, 2006; Huselid, 1995; Milman, Hourly employee retention in small and medium attractions: the central Florida example, 2003). Based on the Pfeffer (1999) research, hotels which wishing to succeed in todays global competitive environment must make adequate HR investment and build staff who possess better skills and capabilities than their competitors. In addition, it is important that selective hiring procedures can ensure effective retention of the most qualified employees while lowering staff turnover in the long term (Huselid, 1995). Customer relationship The relationship between employees and customers is a connection that cannot be ignored. A theory about employees and customers satisfaction was tested by Heskett (1990), clients satisfaction is base on the employees satisfaction in the hotel. More precisely, employees in the hotel are the significant factor which is root for hospitality operation. Furthermore, the research study by Dienhart et al. (1992) found that there were positive relationship between customer centeredness and the staffs constructive views of job involvement, job security and satisfaction. If staff can feel that the hotel takes good cares of them, in return, they will provide a better service to customers to meet and/or exceed their expectation. They are more likely lead a higher satisfaction both staff and customers, also to better staff performance, thus making them less likely to leave (Arnett, laverie, McLane, 2002), positively influencing staff retention. Training High quality level training is one effective measure for staff retention. Several studies show that the close relationship between training activities and productivity and retention. In hotels where staff receives the proper training needed to assume greater responsibility, turnover rates are generally lower (Youndt, Snell, Dean, Lepak, 1996). And meanwhile Youndt et al. (1996) theorize that human resource practices designed to develop talented and ream-oriented workers improve staff productivity and customer satisfaction. With the same working situation for choosing, to the candidates, they prefer to apply for work at the hotel properties which have done well with the career progression image (Martin et al, 2006). Alexander and Nuchols (1994) also support a positive relationship between high quality level training and employees turnover. Moreover, work by Poulston (2008) investigated that some turnover is redeemable, meanwhile some is inevitable. In such a case, if hotel provides p roper training focus on individual development features, employees are likely to stay long, and try their best to enjoy a complex and stressed environment. Obviously, hotels with substantial training opportunities should experience lower turnover rates according to Shaw et al.s (1998) research. However, an interesting finding also by Shaw et al. (1998) included a positive relationship between training and the discharge rate. They indicated that hotels provide more training opportunities are concerned about staff skills and performance, and therefore experience a high percentage of staff terminations. Conversely, hospitalities that experience a high discharge rate initiate training activities because of lower workforce skill levels. Employee recognition, rewards and compensation The most notable among hotels retention initiatives is compensation and benefits. Numerous studies have addressed the impact of employee compensation, rewards and recognition on turnover and retention (Walsh Taylor, 2007). In terms of wages, a survey by Norris(1995) indicated that workforce in hotel are usually low paid, compared with government average wage, staff in hotel earns just about 73% of the whole industry average. Another survey conducted by Choy (1995) pointed out that hospitality employees average annual salaried have been found to be about 16.5% to 31.6 % below than the hotel industry average and government average wage. Additionally, highly competitive wage system promotes employee commitment and thus results in the attraction and retention of a superior workforce (Guthrie, 2001). And other further survey noted that staff will remain with an organization as long as it serves their self-interest to do so better than the alternatives available to them elsewhere (Shaw, J enkins, Gupta, 1998). Although several study investigated the compensation can strongly influenced the staff turnover rate, also several other research have indicated that compensation in the form of base or variable pay may not be sufficient to attract or retain staff. The most important retention predictors included intrinsic fulfillment and working conditions rather than monetary rewards were confirmed by Milman (2003). Moreover, the absence of opportunity for professional growth and development affects hotels turnover rate and retention instead of compensation and work-life balance (Walsh Taylor, 2007). Leadership and human resource management partnership Furthermore, another survey (Gustafson, 2002) found that the frequency of managers in hotel sector filling in for workers has a negative relationship with turnover. If front offices managers working side-by-side with front-line clerks, teamwork sense developed from staff so that they will recognize that they are needed. At the same time, the managers action will lead to a sense of belonging and heightened communication, and therefore they would be less likely to leave. Contrarily, poor management, conflict between manager and front-line employees are all negative for daily operation in front office. It is not only negative for customer satisfactory, but also passive for staff to set career perspective it will lead employees more likely to turnover. A survey by Tutuncu and Kozak (2007) noted that supervision within the hospitality industry can bring job dissatisfaction, and otherwise staff turnover. What is more, Chew et al. (2005) reveals that hotel with a value profile of either eli te or leadership, complemented with strategic HRM effectiveness will enhance financial performance. Instead of just focusing on single practice like staffing, the simultaneous use of multiple sophisticated human resource practices was assessed, which was identified as a link between organization-level outcomes and groups of high performance work practices (Huselid, 1995). All the prior work has consistently found that the effective of human resource management initiatives increased staff productivity and retentions. Specially, recruitment and training process, working environment, labor-management and performance appraisal, promotion and incentive compensation system that all been linked with valued firm-level outcomes (Huselid, 1995). Although the effects of human resource management practices on employee turnover and retention of organization-level is significant, many of the research in the hotel industry paid more attention to the individual-level predictors of turnover (Shaw, J enkins, Gupta, 1998). 2.3 Turnover in China According to the statistics from China National Tourism Administration Office(2008), it is shown that Chinas current tourism related staff were around 6million, while the actual the need of that are about 8 million or more. Therefore, the talent gap between the practical situation and the expectation is about 2 million. On the other hand, the loss of existing tourism practitioners was very serious. The ordinary turnover rate is 5% to 10% in the general industry, while the turnover rate is as high as 20% or more in the tourism industry, especially the higher qualification, the higher rate of brain drain. (The Yearbook of China Tourism, 2008) The increased mobility of human resources in the hotel industry was becoming increasingly prominent, the brain drain had become a primary problem troubled hotel mangers. The turnover rate in other industries was about 5% to 10%, while the appropriate turnover rate in hospitality industry was about 8%. However, China Tourism Association, Human Resource Development and Training Center did an investigation in twenty three domestic cities in thirty three of two to five stars hotels human resource department, and found that the average turnover rate was 23.95% (Wang, 2009). According to statistics, it can be seen that the hotel staff turnover rate was 3 times more than the appropriate turnover rate, and it showed a gradual upward trend. Zhang and Wu (2004) also indicated that one of the key issues of human resource challenges of Chinas hotel was the high staff turnover rates. A paper published by Zhao et al. (2006) introduced that the high turnover rate in Hospitality industry is a universal existence question which puzzles the managers a lot. The literature concluded some reasons of employees turnover: instable work, little chance for promotion, pursuit higher returns and display their values, want to obtain the respect of personality, etc. Additionally, the author Fei (2009) did an investigation on the negative influence of hotel turnover, including cost allowance, undermine the team morale, and reduce the credibility of brand, loss business information, and decline the service quality. After analyzing the reasons that leading to the staff instability in China hospitality industry, Zhao brought forward some countermeasures: improve the staff training, make plans for staff career development, and focus on communication to strengthen the emotional management, improve the hotel and cultural construction to foster people-oriented management concept. Meanwhi le Fei analyzed the potential development direction from different angles of social factors, corporate factors and individual factors to elaborate the importance of staff loyalty. Many hotel staff graduated from hotel management and have quite potential to be outstanding employees in hospitality industry, but all these outstanding staffs instability was also troubled their corporate managers a lot. Research from Zhang (2006) was focus on investigating the reasons of hotels outstanding employee turnover and introduced the ERG theory, after that he tried to solve the core issue in the hospitality industry: how to maintain the outstanding staff and pursue the hotels long-term stability and development. In this report, Zhang indicated that the outstanding employees outflow from their desire of leaving and the ERG theory used here to analyze the employees core requirement to prove that staff advantages should be discovered. Additionally, the author enumerates some positive examples to expound some recommendations for hotel and employees to establish loyalty mutually. It terms of the human resource management, dynamic management, relative to the static management, is also a research issue in China. Chen (2006) found out that in order to control the mobility of the employees and reduce the turnover and loss, the hotel should carry out the comprehensive, systematic and long-term dynamic management. Additionally, Chen advocated that investigate the hotels turnover situation, the searchers would not only investigate the external internal environment changing but also do some researches about the human resource inflow outflow and human resource flowing in the corporate at the same time. After that, Chen indicated the most important countermeasure was to establish the warning mechanism. Zhang and Wus (2004) did research about the human resources issues the hotel facing in China. It must mention that the authors analyze challenges the Chinese hotels were facing via hospitality perspectives, travel perspectives and university perspectives, and indicated the hospitality industrys expectation of education. They found that human resource challenges were playing a negative role in the development of Chinas hotel and tourism industry, the critical issue was the staff retention and human resource shortages, at the same time, the education level and the industrys expectation gap also became a thorny topic. All the organizations and the government would establish communication to enhance the graduates skills level and experiences, decrease the gap of expectation and practical operation, in order to enhance the retention rate in hotel and improve the problem of human resource shortage. According to Chinas culture, with the one-child policy, there are not enough citizens are born to supply workforce demands. In addition, the countrys relatively outdated educational system cannot lead the colleges and universities to provided outstanding human resources with types of skills in an increasingly globalized economy. One of the most important factors contributing to the high level turnover rate in hospitality industry in China is work-life balance, long hours working shift and heavy workloads instead of the technological working, especially in the front line post (Michael, 2008). The same evidence could be finding out in much of the related western hospitality and tourism industry work. Deery and Iverson (1996), Deery and Shaw (1999) and Ghiselli et al. (2001), all these research investigated the constructs like organization commitment and job satisfaction are significant elements contribute to staffs intentions to leave an organization. Additionally, work stress and pers onal attribute plays a decision role on leaving an organization (Deery M, 2008). As mentioned above, work-life balance (WLB) also is one of the influence factors that impact on the staff turnover rate in hotel (Wang and Walumbwa, 2007), while Dagger and Sweeney (2006) focus on life quality and staff turnover relationship research. 2.4 Turnover in Guangdong Province Based on the related HRM theories, such as learning organization, situational leadership, quality of working life and employee satisfaction, Chen (2007) deeply investigated the human resource management situation in one hotel in Dongguan which is a industrialized city with rapid economic growth, he got the result that no matter an international brand hotel or a local hotel, the issues of staff turnover and management brought out a series of problems in Guangdong Province. On one hand, due to the labor-intensive industry, the hospitalities have to operate with a large number of employees; On the other hand, the staffs that hard recruited were unable to retain. According to the identification of the basic turnover environment, the author analyzed the high turnover rate and the investigating the countermeasures based on the three parts: external environment, staffing department and human resource department. In Guangdong Province, many of the researchers found that training quality was a significant element on the issue of turnover in the tourism industry, especially in the hospitality industry. Dai (2005) made a hard working on doing the research about the different training approaches and quality between western countries and China, and set the Guangdongs Hotels as examples, pointed out the differences in terms of the importance of training, investment in training, training contents, training approaches and methods, and the training effectiveness and evaluation. According to Shen (2008), she also focused on investigating the important role of the training in the hospitality industry. She kept her mind on searching the hotel training effect assessment with an instance of Intercontinental Hotel in Guangdong. The author pointed out that the personnel quality would be the big issue during the management. Its meaningful influence not only present on the Human-Resource department, the whole hotel, but also on the employees themselves. One positive effect of training for the hotel, it could have a direct economic benefits, and training as an investment process on the staff. The assessment of the training can provide employees with consciousness of the hotels benefit changing based on their capacities and enhance of their senses of achievement, improved employees job satisfaction and loyalty to the hotel. According to the geographical situation in Guangdong province, its a developed area with lots of small medium enterprises as well as the hospitality industry provides a great amount of job opportunities to attract workforce from all the other provinces. It must mention that most of the workforces who live in other places go back to their hometown for the Spring Festival and its the peak period of labor-turnover (Wang, 2009). 2.5 Conclusion and research question After searching the literature with the issue of turnover in hospitality industry, and according to comparing among those researches, several similar points about the situation and reasons on the turnover can be found between Chinas hospitality industry and other countries. Although Chinas hospitality is developing with many thorny problems including staff turnover accompanied by Chinese culture. In this paper, the author aim to find out the following questions, and analyze the relationship among all the influenced factors. Accordingly, the author proposes a mode of managerial turnover cognitions set up by Carbery R. et al (Figure 1) with the purpose of helping identify the four sets of variables and define the hypotheses. The figure showed above, which identified the variables as possible of the hospitality turnover, involve Career Issues, Job Issues, Organizational Commitment and Covariates and so on. Based on the variables listed above, they can be classified into Demographic variables, Human capital variables, and Psychological variables according to this paper specific investigation of the staff turnover in the front office in hospitality. Demographic variables Age, gender and marital status are all demographic variables that influence the hospitality industry front offices staff turnover. There was a phenomenon that the a great amount of staff in front office were youth employees, almost accounts for 40% of the staff were less than 25 years old (Whiteford and Nolan 2007). And in China, in particular the loss of tourism management students of the phenomenon was particularly serious (Dou, 2009). In the research conducted by Hellman (1997), indicated that older staff was more likely represent a lower degree of mobility due to the concerned about the formal and informal benefits associated with age in the work place. On the contrary, it is important to think about whats the main reason for the highest turnover rate of the youth staff. As a result, it is hypothesized that: H1: Younger employees represent higher turnover. Human capital variables Specifically, in hotel front office, education level, working experience and salary level are related human capital variables that impact the employees turnover. Finding from human capital theory would suggest that staff with relatively higher education levels could more cognitive about their career development road relatively and could not change their current job straight away. Wong et al. (1999) found that individuals with relatively higher education levels are better informed of the external labor market and they are relatively good at comparing cons and pros with the current positions. As a result, it is hypothesized that: H2: Employees with higher levels of education attainment represent lower turnover. Psychological variables Thomas (2000) and Lamme(2005) indicated respectively working as a front line employee especially working in the front office, was a stressful job and full of challenge. Hinkin (2000) stressed the influenced factors about turnover were various, concludi

Objectives of the Personnel Manager. :: Business and Management Studies

Objectives of the Personnel Manager. When the Personnel Manager is involved in recruiting new employees for the store he/she has to first has to look into the Internal and External Constraints. Whilst looking at this the Personnel Manager will have to decide weather the new recruit will stick to the terms of the job. As well as this the Personnel Manager will have to think if the new Member of the team will be able to fit in with the team at present or will he/she be subject to bullying or discrimination of any sort. As well as this aspect it could all be the other way round and the new employee may start to manipulate the other members of the team and start to bully and discriminate against them. Lastly the Personnel Manager will have to consult with the Finance Department and with the new employee on terms of - How much money he/she will get, How many sick days, How many days holiday etc. etc. The Objectives Of The Personnel Manager is to find ==================================================  · The right people at  · The right place at  · The right time with  · The right training. The Personnel manager has to find :- The Right people. This means that the Personnel Manager needs to find the right people for the job, this could mean that they need to have the right Qualities or Qualifications. Also these new people have to fit in with the way the business is currently run and the right attitude for this particular post of this job. The Right Place. This means that the chosen person must have the right post within the organisation. If the person is young and has never had a job, they will have to start off with a low post job and not in charge of anyone. Also you will have to know if the person is able to control over people. The right time. The new people have to have a job that will allow them to keep up with whatever commitments they have outside of work. i.e. if these people have young children they will have to be home early and come to work late so that they can meet their children. The Right Training. If these people are in a computer department they may need training to help them use particular software and programs as well as how to type efficiently. People may also need training if they are getting a promotion so they will need to know how to do things to a better standard, and they will probably be in control of more people

The History of Billiards :: essays research papers

There are many different theories as to when and how billiards was first developed. A lack of actual physical evidence has left most of these theories as simply speculation. Most people agree, however, that the game gained its roots from lawn games, which were not unlike croquet, played by nobility. Early players were said to include King Louis XI of France (King between 1461 and 1483); Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots (1542-1587); King Louis XIV (1643-1715); Marie Antoinette and her husband King Louis XVI. If the game did indeed develop from lawn games, then where did the lawn games come from? Many historians believe that the lawn games date back to ancient Egypt. "Bat and ball" games are said to be what the lawn games evolved from, and images of these games can be found on the outside of tombs from as far back as 3000 years ago. The greatest innovation that has led to modern billiards play would have to be that of the modern time cue or cue stick which dates back to the 1700's. Up until that time only makeshift cues were used and it was the mace that was the most popular. During its reign as leading cue the mace was used to push the ball on the table and the skinny end was used as a handle. Difficulty with shots compressed against the rails would lead to the use of the skinny end to shoot causing the fall of the mace and the arrival of a stick. Along with the emergence of the cue came other great improvements. Leather tips were developed around the eighteen hundreds, and a few years later chalk was developed for the tips. Slate beds, fine cloth, rubber rails and standard sizes for tables soon arrived, and pushed the development of the games popularity. Along with popularity came the need for standardized rules, tables, and equipment. Of course with the gained popularity came the "business" of billiards.

Chinua Achebe Essay -- essays papers

Chinua Achebe Chinua Achebe is said to be â€Å"one of the most influential writers† of the century not only in Nigeria, his homeland but also throughout the world (Albany). Chinua Achebe was born in Ogidi, Nigeria on November 16, 1930. He was born a son of a Chrisitan Churchman, Isaiah Okafo and Janet N. Achebe. Achebe was raised an Ibo Christian, which made him stand out among his fellow peers. Achebe’s lifestyle was different than that of other people living in his village because of his religious background and upbringing. When Achebe was fourteen he began schooling at Government Albany College in Umuahia for three years. He then attended the University of Ibadan from 1948 through 1953. Following his education at the University of Ibandan Achebe earned his Bachelors Degree from London University in 1953. It was a year later when Achebe was named Talk Producer of the Nigerian Broadcasting Service. Then in 1956 Achebe began to study broadcasting at the British Broadcasting Cor poration in London. (Critical Survey of Short Fiction) Finally in 1958, Achebe’s first novel, Things Fall Apart was published. (Albany) Following the completion of his first book, Achebe became the founding editor of Heinemann’s African Writers Series. Since writing his first novel Achebe has won many awards and honors for his publications. Among these awards and honors are the Commonwealth Prize, and the highest award for intellectual achievement in his native country Nigeria. (Albany) Following the Nigerian civil war, Achebe was named Senior Research Fellow at the University of Nigeria. Presently he lives in Nsukka, Nigeria where he teaches, Achebe also spends a lot of time lecturing at major Universities. Achebe is married to... ...ting Achebe hopes to eliminate some of those stereotypes and create an opportunity for people to have a better understanding of Africa and the people who live there. He has accomplished this goal by writing from his own personal experience and using his diverse background as the roots of his knowledge and style of writing. Bibliography: Achebe, Chinua. â€Å"Civil Peace.† One World of Literature. Ed. Shirley Geok-Lin Lim and Norman A. Spencer. New York: Houghton Mifflin. 128-133. Achebe, Chinua. â€Å"Chinua Achebe.† Critical Survey of Short Fiction. Ed. Frank N. Magill. 3rd ed. New Jersey. Salem Press, 1981. 819-823. â€Å"Why The Tortoise’s Shell Is Not Smooth.† Discovering Literature. Ed. Hans P. Guth and Gabriele L. Rico. 2nd ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1997. 12-14. Culross, Melissa. Postimperial and Postcolonial Literature in English.

Biodiesel Business Financial Plan

l pabiodiesel financial plan Start-up Expenses| Â  | Land to buy| Â  | Office to buy| Â  | Renovation expenses| Â  | Design works| $10 000 | Assembly operations| $200 000 | Placing into operation| $53 000 | Oil processing equipment (incl. storage and loading)| $100 000 | Seed storage equipment (incl. installation)| $350 000 | Glycerol purification equipment (including installation)| $0 000 | Tanks| $100 000 | Biodiesel production equipment (incl. delivery and installation )| $250 000 | Utility network| $000 |Advertising/Promotion| $5 000 | Land leasing| $0 | Raw materials (1 quarter of operations)| $660 000 | Salaries| $353 000 | Biodiesel production costs (chemicals, utilities, maintenance for 1 quarter) | $84 000 | Rent | $0 | Total Start-up Expenses| $000 | | Â  | Start-up Assets Needed| Â  | Cash Balance on Starting Date| Â  | Start-up Inventory| $0 | Other Current Assets| $0 | Total Current Assets| $0 | Long-term Assets| $0 | Total Assets| $0 | Total Requirements| $3 095 000 | Sales Forecast|Sales| 2007| Â  | 2008| Â  | 2009| Â  | 2010| Â  | 2011| Â  | Price per ton| Sum| Price per ton| Sum| Price per ton| Sum| Price per ton| Sum| Price per ton| Sum| Biodiesel| Â  | $2 800 000 | $700 | Â  | Â  | $2 800 000 | Â  | $2 800 000 | $700 | $ | Glycerol| Â  | $280 000 | $700 | $280 000 | $700 | $280 000 | Â  | $280 000 | $0 | $280 000 | Seeds| Â  | $0 | $220 | Â  | $220 | $0 | Â  | $0 | $220 | $0 | Press cake| $180 | $1 440 000 | $180 | $1 440 000 | $180 | $1 440 000 | $180 | $1 440 000 | $180 | $1 440 000 | Total Sales| Â  | $4 520 000 | Â  | $4 520 000 | Â  | $4 520 000 | Â  | $4 520 000 | Â  | $4 520 000 | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  |Direct Cost of Sales| Â  | 2006| Â  | 2007| Â  | 2008| Â  | 2009| Â  | 2010| Seeds| $220 | $2 640 000 | $220 | Â  | $220 | $2 640 000 | $220 | Â  | Â  | Â  | Oil| $600 | $0 | $600 | $0 | $600 | $0 | $600 | $0 | 600 | $0 | Subtotal Direct Cost of Sales| Â  | $2 640 000 | Â  | $2 640 000 | Â  | $2 640 000 | Â  | $2 640 000 | Â  | $2 640 000 | Sales and costs in tons| Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Biodiesel| Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Glycerol| $700 | 400| $700 | 400| $700 | 400| $700 | 400| $700 | 400| Seeds from own farm| $220 | Â  | $220 | Â  | $220 | Â  | $220 | Â  | $220 | Â  | Press cake| $180 | Â  | $180 | 8 000| $180 | 8 000| $180 | 8 000| $180 | 8 000| Total sales, ton| Â  | Â  | Â  | 12 400| Â  | 12 400| Â  | 12 400| Â  | 12 400| Procurement of raw materials| Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | 0| Â  | 0| Â  | Seeds| $220 | 12 000| $220 | 12 000| $220 | Â  | $220 | 12 000| $220 | 12 000| Oil| $600 | Â  | $600 | Â  | $600 | Â  | $600 | Â  | $600 | Â  | Total, raw materials, ton| Â  | Â  | Â  | 12 000| Â  | Â  | Â  | 12 000| Â  | 12 000| Personnel Plan| Daily wage| 2007| 2008| 2009| 2010| 2011| Director general| $100 | $24 000 | $24 000 | $ 24 000 | $24 000 | $24 000 | Production and procurement director| Â  | Â  | $24 000 | $24 000 | $24 000 | Â  | Farm supervisor| Â  | Â  | $24 000 | $24 000 | $24 000 | Â  | Sales manager| Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Controller| Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Chief Technologist| $80 | Â  | $19 200 | $19 200 | Â  | Â  | Secretary| $56 | Â  | $13 440 | $13 440 | Â  | Â  | Operators, production, 5 employees | $56 | $67 200 | $67 200 | $67 200 $67 200 | Â  | Laboratory technician, 1 employee | Â  | $13 440 | $13 440 | $13 440 | $13 440 | $13 440 | Farming, 5 employee| Â  | $67 200 | Â  | $67 200 | $67 200 | $67 200 | Drivers, 2 employee| $56 | $26 880 | Â  | $26 880 | $26 880 | $26 880 | Electrical fitter| $56 | $13 440 | Â  | $13 440 | $13 440 | $13 440 | Storeman, 2 employee| $56 | $26 880 | $26 880 | $26 880 | $26 880 | $26 880 | Total Payroll| Â  | $353 000 | $353 000 | $353 000 | $353 000 | $353 000 | Production headcount| Â  | 5| 5| 5| 5| 5| ROI Ana lysis| 2007| 2008| 2009| 2010| 2011| Sales| $4 520 000 | $4 520 000 | $4 520 000 | $4 520 000 | $4 520 000 | Cost of Sales| Â  | Â  | $3 326 000 | $3 326 000 | $3 326 000 | Gross Margin| $1 186 000 | $1 194 000 | $1 194 000 | $1 194 000 | $1 194 000 | Gross Margin %| 26. 24%| 26. 42%| 26. 42%| 26. 42%| 26. 2%| Operating Expenses| $434 667 | $101 667 | $101 667 | $101 667 | $121 667 | Operating Income| $751 333 | Â  | Â  | $1 092 333 | $1 072 333 | Net Income| $470 283 | Â  | Â  | $708 983 | $750 633 | Net Income to investor| $244 639 | $368 809 | $368 809 | Â  | Â  | Current Assets| $3 029 283 | $3 804 933 | $4 339 917 | $5 115 567 | $5 137 867 | Long-term Assets| $843 333 | $776 667 | $710 000 | $643 333 | $576 667 | Long-term Liabilities| $795 000 | $795 000 | $795 000 | $795 000 | $0 | Equity| $3 077 617 | $3 786 600 | $4 254 917 | $4 963 900 | $5 714 533 | ROE| 0. 15| 0. 19| 0. 17| 0. 14| 0. 13| ROI| 0. 11| 0. 16| 0. 16| 0. 16| 0. 17| Shares offered to investor| 52. 2%| Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Investor financing| 74. 31%| Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Loan financing| 25. 69%| Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Pro Forma Profit and Loss| | 2007| 2008| 2009| 2010| 2011| Sales| $4 520 000 | $4 520 000 | $4 520 000 | $4 520 000 | $4 520 000 | Cost of raw materials| $2 640 000 | Â  | Â  | $2 640 000 | $2 640 000 | Farm maintenance (fuel, fertilizer, etc)| $5 000 | $5 000 | $5 000 | $5 000 | $5 000 | Production Payroll| $353 000 | $353 000 | $353 000 | $353 000 | $353 000 | Methanol| Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Potassium hydroxide| $8 000 | $8 000 | $8 000 | Â  | $8 000 | Utilities| $80 000 | $80 000 | $80 000 | Â  | $80 000 | Equipment Maintenance| $8 000 | $0 | $0 | Â  | $0 |Cost of Goods Sold| $3 334 000 | $3 326 000 | $3 326 000 | $3 326 000 | $3 326 000 | Gross Margin| $1 186 000 | $1 194 000 | $1 194 000 | $1 194 000 | $1 194 000 | Gross Margin %| 26. 24%| 26. 42%| 26. 42%| 26. 42%| 26. 42%| Other Expenses: | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Design works| $10 0 00 | $0 | Â  | $0 | $0 | Renovation expenses| $100 000 | Â  | Â  | Â  | $20 000 | Assembly operations| Â  | Â  | $10 000 | $10 000 | $10 000 | Placing into operation| $53 000 | $5 000 | $5 000 | $5 000 | $5 000 | Advertising/Promotion| $5 000 | $20 000 | $20 000 | $20 000 | $20 000 | Depreciation (service life 12 years)| $66 667 | $66 667 | $66 667 | $66 667 | $66 667 | Land leasing| $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | Rent| $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |Total Other expenses| $434 667 | $101 667 | $101 667 | $101 667 | $121 667 | Profit Before Interest and Taxes| $751 333 | $1 092 333 | $1 092 333 | $1 092 333 | $1 072 333 | Interest Expense| $79 500 | $79 500 | $79 500 | $79 500 | $0 | Taxes Incurred| $201 550 | $303 850 | $303 850 | $303 850 | $321 700 | Other Expense| Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Net Profit| Â  | Â  | $708 983 | $708 983 | $750 633 | Net Profit/Sales| 10. 40%| 15. 69%| 15. 69%| 15. 69%| 16. 61%| Pro Forma Cash Flow| 2007| 2008| 2009| 2010| 2011| Cash from Operations: | à ‚  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Cash Sales| $3 164 000 | $3 164 000 | Â  | Â  | Â  | Cash from Receivables| $1 356 000 | $1 356 000 | $1 356 000 | $1 356 000 | $1 356 000 | Subtotal Cash from Operations| Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | $4 520 000 | Additional Cash Received| Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Sales Tax, VAT, HST/GST Received| $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | Loan| $795 000 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |New Investment Received| $2 300 000 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | Subtotal Cash Received| $7 615 000 | $4 520 000 | $4 520 000 | $4 520 000 | $4 520 000 | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Expenditures| 2007| 2008| 2009| 2010| 2010| Expenditures from Operations:| Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Salaries| Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | $353 000 | Payment of Accounts Payable| Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | $2 973 000 | Subtotal Spent on Operations| $3 334 000 | $3 326 000 | $3 326 000 | $3 326 000 | $3 326 000 | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Additional Cash Spent| Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Sales Tax Paid Out| Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | $321 700 | Principal Repayment (loan)| Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | $795 000 | Design works| $10 000 | $0 | $0 | $0 | Â  | Renovation expenses| Â  | Â  | $0 | $0 | Â  | Assembly operations| Â  | Â  | $10 000 | $10 000 | Â  |Placing into operation| $53 000 | $5 000 | $5 000 | Â  | Â  | Advertising/Promotion| $5 000 | $20 000 | $20 000 | $20 000 | $20 000 | Land leasing| $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | Rent| $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | Interest Expense| $79 500 | $79 500 | $79 500 | $79 500 | $0 | Purchase Long-term Assets| Â  | Â  | Â  | $0 | $0 | Subtotal Cash Spent| Â  | Â  | Â  | $3 744 350 | $4 497 700 | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Net Cash Flow| $2 788 617 | $842 317 | $842 317 | 317 | $88 967 | Cash Balance| $2 788 617 | $3 564 267 | $4 339 917 | $5 115 567 | $5 137 867 | Annual Break-even, Tons| 961. 34| 961. 34| 961. 34| 961. 34| Assumptions:| Â  | Â  | Â  | Â  | Average Per Tone Revenue| Â  | Â  | $1 130. 00 | $1 130. 00 | Average Per Tone Variable Cost| $742. 00 | $742. 00 | $742. 00 | $742. 00 | Estimated Annual Fixed Cost| Â  | Â  | $373 000 | $373 000 |