A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroines Last Days

A Tragedy Revealed: A Heroines Last Days Today you are going to read an amazing story wrote by a man named Ernst Schnable, this story is about a young girl named Anne Frank. Anne Frank lives in Amsterdam. Anne and her family must go into hiding at the Secret Annex to hide from the Nazi’s. After two years of hiding they are found and taken away to a concentration camps. Today I will be telling you about Anne and some characteristics about her. Anne is very confident, energetic, and also very caring.Anne is confidant in many ways, she is confident because when things go wrong or people start to think negative Anne stays strong, and positive. Anne always sees things on the bright side why think negative when you can think about things in a positive way. Anne also does not give up when she is taken away from her family and friends and sent away to a concentration camp. While Anne is away at the concentration camp she is kind of happy to be there because she gets to feel the cool b reeze, smell the air, and see the sky.When other people saw how confident Anne was they thought why not be confident to and have hope in being free soon. Anne is energetic because she is always talking, smiling, and playing around trying to have some fun. Before Anne went to the Secret Annex, she went to school and did normal things just as we do now. One day while she was at school she was talking so much that her teacher called her Ms. Quack Quack. Even though Anne has went into hiding she still trys to have some fun, though she must be quiet all day she still manages to have fun in any way possible.Anne is also caring because she loves to be around people. She always loves to help anyone when they are in need of something. Though at times Anne may argue with her mother about helping her do house work Anne really has a soft heart. The one thing that I found very touching was that Anne stayed by her sister Margot’s side the whole time she was ill until she passed away. Now y ou know some characteristics about Anne Frank, but their are many more than just the three I have listed. I recommend this story to any age or skill level reader.This story teaches you a lesson on what we should think about people and things, and that we should take a second look at the different things in life. I hope this story will delight you as how she did me, and to imagine what she felt when she was in this situation, and try to relate with one of your own experiences. I hope you enjoy this lovely story about a girl named Anne Frank. Also think of other characteristic than just confident, energetic, and caring, and see the bright side of things as did Anne. Do pass on this story as a reminder that threw good or bad everything happens for a reason.

Winston’s True Love for Julia Persuasion

Love is a word that can have multiple meanings. You can love someone for who they are, because of how they act, or maybe even you love the idea of love and rebellion which may include someone special. â€Å"1984† depicts this idea of love between Winston and Julia in a manner that changes people’s viewpoints. The factors that determine whether Julia and Winston love each other include the idea of love that keeps them together, the physical attraction between them, and the emotional relationship they create.You can determine whether the love that Winston and Julia share is actually true love or is it just the ideas that one loves about another. â€Å"His heart leapt. Scores of times she had done it; he wished it had been hundreds-thousands. Anything that hinted at corruption always filled him with a wild hope. † (p. 125). This quote proves that Winston loves the fact that she has had sexual intercourses with scores of Party members, proving the corruption in the P arty itself. But nowhere in the novel does it mention Winston loving Julia, but it mentions what Winston loves about her: her hair, eyes, characteristics, sexual intercourses, etc. This idea also intertwines with the concept of love and physical attraction. Physical attraction is one of the ideas and human characteristics that the Party is trying to eliminate. Any signs of physical attraction to another member or Prole can result in becoming an â€Å"unperson†. He thought of her naked, youthful body, as he had seen in his dream. He had imagined her a fool like all the rest of them, her head stuffed with lies and hatred, her belly full of ice. A kind of fever seized him at the thought that he might lose her, the white youthful body might slip away from him! † (p. 109-110). This quote proves that Winston indeed has a physical attraction to Julia, but not because he loves her, but because he wants to prove a point against the Party without them actually knowing. By stating that she is â€Å"a fool like all the rest of them, her head stuffed with lies and hatred, her bell full of ice†, Winston attempts to mock the Party by presenting a case where he has attracted a devoted Party member and therefore broken their stronghold. But as later seen in the novel, physical attraction may not only be the main idea behind the ‘love’ Winston has for Julia. Emotional attraction is one of the major connections between Winston and Julia and it affects the overall purpose of the novel. â€Å"He had never before seen or imagined a woman of the Party with cosmetics on her face. The improvements in her appearance were startling. † (p. 142). Although this quote does not directly portray an emotional connection between the two Party members, the physical changes are the ones that attract Winston more emotionally to Julia. He is already connected to Julia in a manner which involves her body, her ideas and her methods of rebellion. Emotionally though, Winston sees that she is more than just an idea outside Party views, but a person with emotions and feelings. Winston is able to see this clearly during this scene. All of these different connections allow readers to analyze whether the there is a true love between Winston and Julia or is it just a love about being an individual in a society which commands all inhabitants to be the same? The idea of love, the physical attraction and emotional connection assist readers in deciding whether or not Winston and Julia are truly in love. Each and all have arguments for and against the point but whether there is truly a love attraction between the two has, and always will, stay as a thought in the readers’ mind. The true answer to this question will always remain with the author of the award-winning novel.

Heritage and cultural tourism Essay

Tourism is third largest industry in the world and according to the report of World travel and Tourism Council tourism industry generates approx 12% of world GNP (Agyei and Samuel, 2006). Heritage and culture has always been one of the most significant aspects of world tourism. People live their lives against rich environment formed by historic buildings, countryside’s of ancient times (Chang, 2000). This present research report has objectives to discuss the growth and importance of heritage and cultural industry. To describe in better form some of the world’s most popular heritage place is considered in this report. Further this report will also focus on various aspects pertaining to heritage and culture industry (Barrà © and Hervà ©, 2002). TASK: 1 Understand the growth and development of the heritage and cultural industry within travel and tourism. a. Breakdown of Heritage and Cultural tourism locations Heritage and Cultural tourism locations are generally considered as a subdivision of tourism industry which is oriented towards the cultural heritages at the particular location where tourism is happening. It includes the process of traveling to experience all the historic places or take knowledge about the history (Chang, 2000). There are various places in world which consists with historic elements in it like Tateva which is situated in Armenia, Briteddine palace, Lebanon, Wudand Mountains, situated in china etc. But in present scenario there various factors which are responsible for destroying world heritage (Evans and Graeme, 2003). To give broad focus on the issue here is an example of some world heritages which are standing on the stage of demolition. Bamiyan Buddha’s statutes are the worlds famous monumental statues of Buddha’s are established in 6th century which was destroys in the year of 2001 (Evans and Graeme, 2003). These statues are built from stone and sand in the ancient times. The reasons are not yet clear for destruction of these two prehistoric statues. Figure : Bomiyan Buddha’s statue (Source: Evans and Graeme, 2003) Bomiyan Buddha’s statues are situated in the Afghanistan, 230 km northwest of Kabul, and standing into the side of cliff in Bamiyan valley. Lots of examples are observed where ancient assets are standing at the corner of devastation. There is also one example of â€Å"Pompeii† which is ancient roman town city. This ancient town was originated in the seventh century BC was captured by Romans in 80 BC (Bernick and Boo, 2013). This place was also known as House of Gladiators, but before some time unfortunately its breakdown report has been recognize. Pompeii is popular in tourist but suffered from lack of investments for further developments. One wall was destructed by the cause of heavy rain falls which reflects the lack of Italian governments in maintain the ancient sites. This place is situated near Nepal in the Italian region of Campania. It is the popular tourism place and it in the year of 2008 this place has recorded 2.6 million visitors per year (Harrison, 2006). Figure : Pompeii after destruction (Source: Bernick and Boo, 2013) b. Growth and development of heritage and cultural sites To consistently ensuring the development of heritage sites of the world, there is establishment of the World Heritage Center in 1992 (Harrison, 2006). They are working as a secretariat of the statutory bodies of the conventions. They assist the state parties in order to implement the development policies of heritages sites. This center also helps in executing the old conventions and to develop the domestic government capabilities to maintain the long term protection of historic sites. Governments of many nations are aware for develop their ancient sites to retain the past. They are working in order to provide enormous opportunities of employments for economy and social developments of their nation. There are various private and government originations which assist in the developments of heritage and cultural sites (Mehmetoglu and Normann, 2013). Culture and tourism is major source of revenue and various steps are taken by governments and private organizations to develop the heritage and culture. There are several steps has been taken by the governments, organizations, an community to develop heritage and culture (Mehmetoglu and Normann, 2013). Authentic cultural and heritage venues and programs: It is essential for each community to realize that heritage and culture is competitive venture (Petia and Peter, 2004). It is required by the governments and private organization to take some steps for gathering people and develop them understanding regarding importance of heritage and culture conservations. They can organize some events or programs to aware the public for appreciation of heritage (Petia and Peter, 2004). Coordination of stakeholders: This is another process of growth and development where organizations can take the help of workers and service providers in heritage place. Service provider can educate the customers regarding usefulness of history and traditions. Coordination of stakeholder will contributes a great support in aware the customers to take care of their heritage and traditions (Uriely, 2009). Development of Necessary infrastructure: By developing major infrastructure of the heritage places government can helps in increasing the numbers of visitors. The major infrastructure includes hotels, transportation, amenities, local attractions etc (Uriely, 2009). These things will attract the visitors to a visit that place and leads to generate sources of income for the local peoples. c. Potential conflicts in the conservation of heritage and cultural sites The term Heritage is generally used by the people for those things which are valuable for them and which they want to secure for future, and that thing will be source of pride for them. The common conflicts which could be occur and concern with defining tangible heritage and intangible heritage (Petia and Peter, 2004). Intangible heritage can be observed as meaning, values, memories, feeling etc and tangible heritage are those which are built in the ancient time. Potential conflicts regarding conservation of heritage and cultural sites should be cut down. In the case when conflict cannot be cut down, then significance of the heritage should be put forward. Different group from community have different preferences and values for heritage. Giving preference to conservation for particular place by skip another valuable place can become the major reason for developing conflicts in the group of the communities (Uzama, 2009). TASK: 2 Purpose and importance of heritage and cultural attractions a. Purpose and importance of heritage and cultural sites and attractions Heritages are divides in two part tangible and intangible heritage, it essential to preserve all the heritage and natural sites around the world. One aspect for retention of the heritage places is that major tourism business is associated with the heritage places. Tourism industry generally prefers to visits their travelers at heritage and natural attractions. It is reflected from recent survey that in between 1996 to 2002 data shows that heritage travel is increased by 13 %, more than double growth of US travel industry (Uzama, 2009). According to the report of US Travel Association, travel and tourism industry directly contributes to approx $800 billion to the economy of United States in the year of 2011 (Uriely, 2009). The main purpose of the heritage is concerned with protecting the environment by encouraging the peoples and government to save the world heritage to sustain local economy. Retention of heritage place also provides the quality of life and helpful in giving cultural identity to the communities (Uzama, 2009). The importance of heritage can be judged by observing the total contribution to the GDP by Egypt tourism which has recorded increase in 4% to 9% simultaneously 2009 to 2010 (Harrison, 2006). In the context of cultural attractions, for example cultural attractions in Saudi Arabia have contributes to 12% of GDP. Figure : Growth ratio of Heritage and Culture tourism (Source: Lafontine and Shaw, 2005) From the traditional point of view heritage is defined as architecture object. In present era heritage includes various monuments, buildings, landscapes, old traditions, urban areas, maritime places, country sites, etc (Lafontine and Shaw, 2005). Heritage sites and buildings, landscapes also contain various optimistic influences on many aspects to develop a social community. Rebuilding, education, economy development, increase in the level of employments are the key areas where positive impacts of the heritage and culture reservation can be observe (Rodgers, 2001). By recognizing the various advantages to these aspects it can be considered that heritage and culture are important for the economy and social developments (Sisay, 2009). The historic environment is proven as a source of benefits because there are various parts in world where tourist generally attracts to visits only that place which is consists with some past. This thing provides information to travelers regarding habits, patterns and preferences, styles, and a business concept of ancient’s communities. Social community feels very proud to have some history of them, but don’t always express how much they give value to the place until it is in problem. Reuse of the ancient building is a significant factor which relates to sustainable communities (Lafontine and Shaw, 2005). b. How do these sites and attraction meet the needs of different customers and stakeholders In tourism industry cultural and heritage is considered as fastest growing segment and consistently showing trends towards the rising flow of specialization among tourists. Developing heritage and cultural segment in the tourism industry reflects the fascination of travelers towards adventure, traditions, past, archeology and interest in interface with the traditional peoples (Laurie and et. al., 2004). According to perception of heritage and culture experts, customers are those who comes to visits heritage places and willful to take the information about local people culture and their traditional beliefs, conventions etc. They are the peoples who takes the services from the management of the heritage places and pay them charges where required (Laurie and et. al., 2004). In continuation stakeholders are those peoples who are associated with the heritage management to provide various services to their customers or travelers. In order to properly comprehend, regarding how heritage and cultural sites meets the needs of the customers and stakeholder, it is essential to understand the perceptions of the travelers (Nagle, 2000). Some travelers are seeking for various adventures in heritage places like mounting, tracking etc but at the other hand some are expecting to observe different cultural beliefs, values of the local peoples (Min, Min and Ahmed, 2005). Now here management or stakeholders of the heritage will arrange the safe area for adventures like organizing various adventures sports at heritage places to satisfy the needs of their customers. In return heritage organizations provide various allowances and incentives to their stake holder to engage in excursion work with them. In this way heritage and attractions sites will satisfy the needs of their customers and simultaneously heritage organizations satisfy the needs of their stakeholders (Laurie and et. al., 2004). Stakeholders are the management staff of the heritage organization which may be private or public (Nagle, 2000). They are continuously supporting the excursion work because heritage places are generally situated on the mountains and there are major chances of climate disasters, so they need proper support for their organization to survive there (Min, Min and Ahmed, 2005). Some of the impacts are perceived in the positive and negative manner (Lickorish, and Jenkins, 2007). If the ownership of the heritage place is in the hand of the government then they would not take initiative in the development of the management of the heritage. All the decisions regarding the heritage place would be in the hand of all employees. Anyone can be able to manipulate in polices of the government. In other words the uniformity in the decisions of the high level of ministers would not be similar by reaching at the lower level (Ottenbacher and Harrington, 2009). But at the other hand in the case of the private ownership of heritage place, organization would always seek to develop their property. In this statement â€Å"Property† word is used because despite of the government only ancestors of the place would be owner of that place (Lickorish, and Jenkins, 2007). Private owners always wants to develop more revenue from their property so the flow of decision would be precise. All the decisions regarding any kind of development or policies can be taken by the top management and all the lower level of managers needs to implement that. No one in the lower management would be able to manipulate in the decision making process (Yakhlef, 2004). TASK: 3 Roles and responsibilities and ownership of organizations in the heritage and cultural industry a. Impact of different types of ownership on the management of heritage and cultural sites Generally heritage and cultural industry are owned by their national government or by private owners who contains the ownership of particular place. This is responsibility of local government are divided in two acts one is Heritage act 1977 and second is Environmental planning and assessment act 1979 (Ottenbacher and Harrington, 2009). The local government needs to establish legislative framework to effectively manage the heritage which also includes the planning system. It is also essential to mention that Wild life service and National parks has a responsibility to take care about the conservations of the heritage and natural sites under the Wile life act 1974 (Yakhlef, 2004). There are different forms of managing the management of heritage private owners and government owners. Private owners generally seek to develop their heritage site to increase the revenue from it. Their flow of decision would always precise means no one can be edit in the decisions. All the decision making powers are in the hand of top management. But in the case of government owners which are less likely to invest in the development of the heritage and cultural sites. Every level of management can take decision in government organization (Yakhlef, 2004). b. Roles and responsibilities of organizations in the heritage and cultural industry Some of the major roles and responsibilities of private and government owners of the heritage places are: To create various effective strategies for the developments of heritage and cultural attractions for the tourism industry. Consistently take initiatives to take care of the cleanliness of the places. Organizations can financially help the traditional and heritage place for their development which leads to the large number of tourists which will strengthen the economy. Manage all the native state forestry to develop the heritage place in more widen manner. Collaborate in the various researches of the industry for innovations in order to improve the production from forest, wood quality etc (Martinez and Slooten, 2011). It is major role of government and organizations to plan future landscapes to increase the heritage and cultural environment to increase the tourism. Organizations can provide infrastructures by providing hotels and restaurants facility in heritage places, this thing will enhance the level of employment. It comes to know that approx 86% of domestic government total expenses they spent on waste management like managing wastewater and all kind of solid waste and balance spend on infrastructure activities (Touropia, 2010). It has observed that Australian Government has a constitutional roles and responsibility in order to managing every kind environmental matter which is very essential. These actions come under Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Planning Act 1999 (the EPBC Act). The EPBC Act has a requirement of approval for functions to perform (VisitBritain, 2012). TASK: 4 understand the methods of interpretation within the heritage and cultural industry a. Methods of interpretation within the heritage and cultural industry In the tourism industry with context to heritage and cultural sites, interpretations can be considered as a manner of learning which helps in embraces the educational concepts. It includes giving information pertaining to natural, cultural, physical, and history about the heritage and cultural sites (Touropia, 2010). These process includes various theories relates to psychology, philosophy, sociology and educational in order to helps in developing awareness and appropriate attitudes and behavior patterns. Interpretation also considered as an imperative manner of acquainting society with its life support system (Hall, Smith and Marciszewska, 2006). It is observe that foremost objective of the agencies and individual interpreters to lead the humans to develop consciousness about the heritage places. Agencies also concerns to make them able to take intelligent actions in order to sustain the nature, heritage and traditional environments. It is essential requirements of thorough understanding and knowledge about psychological terms of tourists to satisfy them and also to encourage them to save heritage nd cultural sites (Touropia, 2010). It is to be noted that the first principal of interpretation is to provide the knowledge which is pertains to experiences of the travelers. The concept of interpretations in tourism industry is developed by Enos Mills and suggested that interpretation is considered as educational activity which aims to disclose the meanings and relationships with the help of original objects by their own experience and also by illustrative media despite of basically communicate factual information’s (Watson, 2010). There are also various modes of interpretation within heritage and cultural industry which are described below. It is understood that interpretation may be give by off-site and on-site but there are also some typical interpretation methods which discussed below (Watson, 2010). Interpretation Methods

Major differences between NEC3 & JCT SBC 2011 Coursework

Major differences between NEC3 & JCT SBC 2011 - Coursework Example The provisional sum for the JCT SBC 2011 contract is not mandatory like the case of NEC3 contract. The project manager is usually at pains to decide whether to adopt the discrepancies manifest in cost estimation for a project. The variations negate the principle of cost control in NEC3 contracts. The variations also compromise the control of overall project cost. Moreover, the costs associated with compensation events are separate from the initial tender price. 3.  Cost scrutiny The cost scrutiny should be made mandatory for both contracts because this allows easy cost evaluation. The large number of firms usually involved in a single mega construction contract requires long-supply chains. This implies that the identification of the costs involved is hectic. Consequently, cost accounting for the project takes a long time. The administration of cost pertaining to the company system increases the overall contract price. Adjudication of the contract cases is mandatory.4.  Ground ris kThe ground risk for the JCT SBC 2011 is higher than in the case of NEC3 contract. Caution should be taken with regard to the productivity and improvement in performance of the contract projects. Project management should be emphasized in the application of NEC3 contract.In both cases, a comprehensive program must be prepared prior to the start of the project. The contract should focus on the contingence events rather than the past. Programming for the contract is essential. The complexity of the project task must also be highlighted.

Bonus 4 assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Bonus 4 assignment - Essay Example The study will focus on bars as the centers to pick the subjects. For the study, three bars have been identified. At the first bar, the researcher sits down, asks a provocative question so as to watch who are the possible subjects at the bar (Dryfoos, 1991). Question: Who hates high school life? After the question, at least a response will be raised and then the respondents will be questioned personally whether they dropped out of school. The choice of the three bars is also based on the information that high school dropouts frequent them. For the study, five subjects are needed from each bar. At the first bar, after questioning those who responded to the first question, it is likely to get a 2/4 school dropout number as the timing will be 11 am – 12 Noon, when non-working, non-school going, dropouts frequent the bar. After identifying the five subjects, they will be assured of their confidentiality, then the survey forms will be administered so the subjects will fill it out (Dryfoos, 1991). The questions will include: How much do you drink and smoke? What were the causes for starting to drink and when? Why did you drop out of school – were you suspended or expelled for drug use, and had you started drinking before dropping out? What effect did the company you kept after dropping out of school play? Did you have trouble during early years of school? Did you perform well at school, and did you have problems at home during your schooling time? (b). Purposive sampling: will involve the study of the entire groups at the three bars during our timing of study: 11 am -12 noon. From interviewing all the members at the bars during that time, the school dropouts will be identified and the information from them compiled. The questions to be asked during the interview include: Are you a high school dropout? If yes, the interview will continue, if NO, they

Critical Paper of Was the CIA's fake vaccination program in Essay

Critical Paper of Was the CIA's fake vaccination program in Abottbad,Pakistan a justifiable method in the effort to capture Osama bin L - Essay Example In April, nurses gained access to the unusually-security-conscious compound, using the ploy of giving free hepatitis B vaccine (Shah). This news upset numerous healthcare and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), because it can create a major setback in their campaign against polio in Pakistan and other countries (Rauhala, 2011). Supporters of the program claim the CIA confirmed that the vaccination program was not fake at all. For them, it served a greater end of capturing a very influential terrorist group and it gave justice to all victims of the September 11 attacks. However, despite whatever good this program might have done, the CIAs vaccination strategy was not justified, because it produced hard-to-reverse effects on an already-ailing integrity of public health programs in Pakistan and other developing countries, on the security and credibility of NGO personnel operating in conflict-ridden areas, and on expanding conspiracy theories. The CIA cleared that the vaccination program was not fake at all, and this clarifies the underlying credibility of the vaccination program. This statement supports the justification of the program, because it stresses the responsibility of the Pakistan government in ensuring that the vaccination program continued, not the CIA. A senior U.S. official pointed out that the vaccinations were real: â€Å"Dr. Afridi was asked only to continue his program. The vaccinations were real, and he never harmed a soul in the course of this campaign† (Ignatius, 2011). Though it is claimed that the vaccination doses were not completed in some target areas of the program, this shows that the CIA did not derail or concoct any health public campaign. The CIA is not responsible for Pakistan’s success or failure in its healthcare programs. The CIA is only accountable for the success of its vaccination strategy, so that it can attain its primary objective of eliminating Osama bin Laden. Henc e, the CIA did not malign all

Cell biology questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Cell biology questions - Assignment Example Therefore it can be concluded with lots of confidence that absorption of an intensive color during this process is the primary reason as to why molecule mobility is reduced between membranes. This aspect is used in a number of ways one of them being is to characterize mobility of proteins and lipids in the body whenever need may be or examination of cytoskeletal dynamics. Proteins take several steps to cross from endoplasmic reticulum, where they are produced and processed in readiness to transport to plasma membrane. You find that proteins are synthesized by the Golgi processes in the endoplasmic reticulum before they are sent to any cell. Studies have shown that prior to the proteins going through the endoplasmic reticulum they are transformed from their protein form into amino acids by ribosomes. As the amino acids enter the Golgi for further processing and refinement, they do so while they are facing the endoplasmic reticulum (cis side) and when they leave, they also do so as they face the plasma membrane (i.e. trans side). This technical move process is of great importance because as the proteins make their progress from the cis side to the trans side, they become modified and are packaged in such a way that makes them appropriate for transportation to any cell located anywhere in the body. Thus the protein must pass through the cisternae stack which varies in number and shape and it is known to be organized differently in different cell types. Protein in question here has several forms. First it can be transmembrane protein. This kind is transported by means of embedding itself in the endoplasmic reticulum membrane. On another means, it can be water – soluble proteins which easily get through the membrane o the lumena. For a while now, differential centrifugation has continued to be of great help in separating rough endoplasmic from the smooth endoplasimic recticulum. It is a procedure which microbiologist and

PESTEL analysis for Bank Barclays Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

PESTEL analysis for Bank Barclays - Essay Example History of the Barclays Bank The history of the bank can be tracked down to the year 1690 when two persons named John Feame and Thomas Gould commenced trading in Lombard Street of London basically as goldsmith bankers. In the year 1736, James Barclay became a part of the operation and since then the name Barclays has been related with the bank, however, only in the year 1896 the company got its name as Barclays Bank. Barclays expanded it’s tentacles in business by acquiring a number of smaller operations in all these years and expanded its business all over the UK and worldwide (Financial Advice, n.d.). In the year 1925, the international operations of the bank gained acceleration after the mergers with Colonial Bank, National Bank of South Africa and Anglo Egyptian Bank. The year 1961 saw the opening of the bank’s first computer operated branch in London on Drummond Street. In 1966, the UK got its first credit card which was launched by the Barclays Bank. The first ban k to make use of advertising in the television was also the Barclays in 1972. The bank has also tied up with Post Office Ltd. to spread out its services in personal banking, particularly in the sector of unsecured and secured loans. The Barclays Bank is spread over 50 countries and attends to 27 million customers (The Origin of, 2008). PESTEL Analysis of the Banking Industry Political Analysis Banks in the UK are trying to draw on research performed by Pricewaterhouse Coopers and the study shows that rigid rules in the banking industry will drain a sum of ?1tn from the financial system. As a result of which the businesses and the households would be deprived of any form of credit and loans. The regulatory changes that are being made in 2011 would require the banks to keep larger capital cushions (Treanor, 2010). The â€Å"Big Four† banks in the UK that have resisted radical shake-up calls in their business after the announcement of the bank reform report are Royal Bank of Sco tland, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and HSBC. The expected subsidiarisation model states that allocation of capital has to be made to different country operations and units by the bank. This would eventually pressurise the top lenders of the UK for new capital requirements (Reuters, 2011). Economic Analysis Banking sectors are the basic providers of financial services. Therefore, the factors such as tax, inflation rate and interest rates have strong influence. According to the latest information it has been discovered that the banks in the UK that deals in loan primarily would be discussing about the prospects of expected investments by the tax payers, with the concerned authorities (Economy Watch, 2011). The UK is within the top 30 rich countries with the UK’s GDP per capita being $37,400. Out of which the contribution of the financial sector remains to be the highest being 76.2% of GDP (Economy Watch, 2011). Social Analysis Demographics influence the banking industry to a great extent. The factors that are having a significant impact in relation to banking sector are mortgage, living standard, total

SEE Business Services Literature review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

SEE Business Services - Literature review Example However, various factors might result to this kind of scenario. For instance, the ever-changing business environment will push many business people and entrepreneurs to seeking more information on how they can utilize the business opportunity effectively. Because of this, the membership will increase because one of the objectives of the organization is to develop members. Additionally, the members have a forum to share their experiences and educate each other on various business and entrepreneurial ventures. Another major cause of increase in membership is favorable business environment that will encourage business hence the need for people to join the organization in order to gain knowledge. The driving force for this is that the organization provides an environment of sharing between members. Moreover, the organization encourages and celebrates outstanding business practices. Similarly, a favorable business environment will lead to an increased number of businesses and as a result, more people would want to join the organization in order to benefit and improve their business (Franz & Huemer 2007, p.6). Consequently, a favorable business environment will also lead to an increased number of entrepreneurs hence increasing the number of people who want to join the organization. ... Furthermore, the organization is bridging an information gap that exists in the market hence many want to join and benefit from the services that it offers. Another reason for the sharp increase in the number of people wanting to join the organization is the few number of organization that offer similar services. These are some of the courses for the increasing number of people that want to become members of the organization. However, for the organization to manage this increase effectively without negatively affecting the value of services it provides then it needs to develop smaller business development teams at the regional level that will deal with all the needs and concerns of members. These business development teams will perform a similar function as those in the head office in order to, effectively, manage the rising number of members without having a breakdown. However, they will not be in a position to make decisions. The management of the organization will be the sole cust odians of all rights and privileges. Additionally, these development teams will work as the head office directs. 2.0 Change Facilitation (a) Force Field Analysis Diagram +10 +5 0 -5 -10 \\\\\ The size of the arrow signifies strength i.e. the longer the arrow the stronger the force the shorter the arrow the weaker the force (Harris, 2002, p. 20). However, looking at the Field Force Analysis Diagram, there are several forces that the organization is facing. These forces are from all involved parties in the organization. For instance, the regional officers are advocating for decentralization in the organization so that more members can get services closer to them and faster than when the head office

Project1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Project1 - Essay Example The products are marketed as a total solution to different hair and scalp problems and thereby act as market leaders in scalp care. Over the years from 1961 to current, ‘Head and Shoulders’ have slowly evolved as one of the best shampoos to fight perennial problems like dandruff and hair fall and also other types of scalp problems. Products marketed under the Dandruff category are further divided into three types like shampoo, conditioner and 2-in-1 for both men and women customers. Shampoos and hair products of Head and Shoulders generate a wide array of benefits to customers like generating protection to damaged and broken hair and also in making hair thicker, stronger and moist in nature (Procter & Gamble, 2014). Procter and Gamble, the company that markets Head and Shoulders operates as a multinational company in the consumer goods segment. The company aims at producing branded products that contribute in enhancing the lives of consumers along different parts of the globe. Value additions are generated in terms of innovating different product offerings to meet the changing needs of the consumers from time to time and in retailing the right quality and quantity of products to the customers (Procter & Gamble, 2014). Procter and Gamble is well known in terms of the global brands created by the company along which are marketed by the company along different consumer segments spread along 180 different countries. Current estimates related to Procter and Gamble reflect that the company through its operation baaed along 23 different brands earns the potential of generating a total sales revenue of around $10 billion. Another set of 14 brands tend to generate a total sales of around $1billion in an annual fashion. The rate of market capitalization for Procter and Gamble is evaluated to be greater than the Gross Domestic Product of a number

Challenges of a Community College Student Personal Statement

Challenges of a Community College Student - Personal Statement Example I registered for 12 credits this semester, which includes 2 English classes and 1 Math. I think I doing good on my Math subject, great so far, even though it's hard to keep up in this 4 hour class. Then again, I try my very best with the help of energy drinks and coffee. My English classes require too much time, but I still manage to do it, even with procrastination. My son goes to the daycare 5 times a week, from 6am to 7pm. He is basically spending his whole day there. Daycare is not a place for a child to grow up. I see family reunions, birthdays; religious celebrations pass by without me. I am never there. I always have the same reason, that I am at school or I have to work to do. Because I have to work long hours, this becomes a conflict with the time I use up for my school. Giving time for my family and friends gets tougher, when I have to work on an 8 to 9 hour job basis and then spend about half of the day at school. Although school and work drives me nuts, the biggest challenge for is not having enough time for my family and friends. My work schedule is Sundays thru Thursdays, from 10pm till 7am. Not only do I have an impossible schedule, but the quantity of work that I perform every night. I work for logistics at Target. Every night I help with the truck unload procedure by scanning 2,500 to 3,000 boxes per truck.

Bmw Swot Analysis Essay Example for Free

Bmw Swot Analysis Essay Logo-BMW’s white-and-blue logo is recognizable worldwide, and recalls the company’s start as an aircraft engine manufacturer. It symbolizes a pilot’s view through a propeller as alternating white and blue segments. †¢Most successful multi-brand premium car manufacturer-BMW has three brands, BMW, MINI, and Rolls-Royce. They delivered 141,952 BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce automobiles in 2007 and sales increased by 7. 4% from the previous year. †¢Super luxury Rolls Royce car-The Rolls-Royce phantom holds the number one position in the super-luxury car segment. The Phantom was launched in 1993, and the final assembly, as well as all-wood and leatherwork are custom made for each customers individual specifications. The plant where they are produced, the Goodwood plant in England, contains only two robots to paint the space frame body; all other work is done by hand, in keeping with the Rolls-Royce tradition. †¢Spends one of the highest revenues on R;D-BMW Group employs about 8,000 people worldwide within the research ; development (R;D) network and has invested millions of dollars over the years. They employ engineers, designers, model builders, computer experts, and scientists of various disciplines FIZ co-ordinates and optimize research activities across the group to create the BMW cars of the future. †¢Brand-BMW ranked in the top 20 most recognized global brands. BMW is now the only multi-brand automaker that utilizes a pure, premium brand strategy. The objective behind this strategy is to generate higher income per vehicle on the basis of products with a high intrinsic value and a strong brand image. Their brand ranked number 15 in 2006. Longevity-Bavarian Motor Works (BMW) was formed in 1916 after two small aircraft engine manufacturers merged. In 1923, BMW began to build motorcycles, then its first car in 1928. †¢Driving School-Many manufacturers have associations with driving schools; BMW runs its own. The BMW Performance Center, adjacent to the BMW Manufacturing facility in Spartanburg, attracts owners and prospects from around the country for an ultimate br and experience. †¢Sales-BMW is one among the leading players in the premium cars segment. It achieved a record sales volume of 1,373,970 units in 2006. BMW is ranked among the ten largest car producers globally. Awards/Recognition-Reflecting BMWs commitment to developing quality and innovative products, the company has been honored with several awards in the past. For example, BMW was presented with the Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany in February 2006 for the BMW 6 Series Coupe and Convertible models. Presented by the German Design Council, the award was the highest official German design award. Following this, the MINI model of the company won the Golden Steering Wheel 2006 award in seven out of 15 categories, ten days ahead of its official market launch in November 2006. Formula 1-BMW won its first Formula 1 championship in 1983 using a four cylinder, 1. 5-liter production based engine. Of course it was turbocharged and could develop well over 1,000 horsepower, some say over 1,500 for short periods of time. BMW continues to field a Formula 1 team because it provides the ultimate in competition and thus the ultimate in learning for BMW. †¢Excellence through quality innovation-BMW Group’s success is its strategic focus on developing customer-friendly innovations, coupled with an approach to innovations management that is unique within the motor industry Customize your own car-BMW has the option of seeing a sample of the car you’d like by selecting different options such as the color of interior design and exterior design, the wheels, the model etc. †¢Intelligent processes-the COSP(Customer oriented sales and production process) bases production on the customer’s customized version and not by company standards. They employ 70,000 workers in 23 different locations to build the customized cars. A customer can change or alter the options and style of the car right before it goes into production. †¢Environment-friendly-BMW considers environmental and recycling requirements. They use recycled products to build cars. They have environmental standards for all the plants throughout the world. They build cars that lower the amount of fuel consumption. †¢Superior technology and development of new products BMW is doing this is by developing a hybrid engine as part of a global alliance. The aim of this development is known as a â€Å"two-mode† hybrid vehicle, combining a combustion engine with two electronic engines. This design is aimed towards improving the performance, fuel consumption, emissions and range of conventional hybrid vehicles. The primary goal of modern hybrid systems is to save fuel. †¢Commitment to customers BMWs’ main goal is to focus on getting the product to the customer as quickly as possible. BMW has a program known as the â€Å"Customer oriented sales and production process. † This way, the customer is able to make any last minute changes to the equipment and accessories they’ve ordered shortly before the vehicle goes to assembly-without delaying the date of delivery. †¢Design Work design process of building vehicles is done by California Innovation Triangle. This state of the art firm uses computers to help aid the process of design. The highlight of this facility is what the industry has begun to call â€Å"the model plate. † The model plate is a measurement system that transfers the contours of the object being scanned to computers where a 3D model is produced. The designers can then go in and make changes to the object through the computer in order to make the part as suitable for its intended use as possible. What makes this machine so rare is the size of object that can be scanned. The model plate can scan very large object, up to the size of an omnibus. With the use of this technology BMW and California Innovation Triangle are able to layout and design entire vehicles piece by piece. †¢Involvement in community South Africa serves as good example of BMW’s social commitment. BMW works to bring change from within by enacting equality in the workface, and investing not only in the business, but also in education, healthcare and recreational facilities for employees. The factory at Rosslyn, near Pretoria, evolved from a CKD facility to serve the old South Africa, into a sophisticated facility that is now part of BMW’s international production-distribution network. This risk BMW took provided South Africa the ability to export. And in 2002, the South African factory captured the J. D. Power and Associates gold award for initial production quality. †¢Environmental commitment BMW factories meet the demanding ISO 14001 environmental standards worldwide. This is not only true for the oldest BMW factory in the city of Munich and at 10 year old American plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, but also with new factories in emerging and less regulated markets like Thailand and Russia. Excellence through quality innovation-BMW Group’s success is its strategic focus on developing customer-friendly innovations, coupled with an approach to innovations management that is unique within the motor industry. From features like the twin-flat motorcycle engine, V-shaped overhead valves, and hemispherical combustion chambers introduced on the classics of the 1920s and 30s, to modern technology including ABS brakes, Xenon lights, smart airbags, the head protection system, Valvetronic and iDrive, BMW constantly reinforces its credibility as a premium manufacturer Management-Chief executive, Norbert Reithofer, who took office on September 1, will be seeking to build on the Bavarians’ global momentum. Reithofer has a brilliant track record as head of production, such as combining lean manufacturing and Japanese-like continual improvement with benchmark flexibility for a premium automaker which gives BMW a big cost advantage over leading competition and making it tough for competitors like Mercedes to gain any ground. †¢Young customer base-With the Mini and series 3, BMW has a significant dvantage of gaining younger and first time purchasers over other luxury brands. The youth market is critically important because if a young buyer chooses a particular brand for a first car, he or she is more than likely to buy others with the same name plate as they mature and move up in the market. Even though buyers in the 16-35 age category only accounted for a small percentage of overall sales it is important to gain there sales because as the old marketing principle goes it is easier to keep a customer than to gain new ones. WEAKNESSES †¢New Models-Is it really worth developing new models? It entails expenses along with shipping prices. Each day BMW is striving to produce and develop new cars to satisfy the customers. In the long run, who actually knows if these cars are going to be a big hit. The company might actually be wasting their time and money in producing a model that will not be worthwhile. When developing and producing cars it is important to decipher whether or not the car will become one that is popular on the market. †¢BMW’s heavy cost German base. -More and more competitors are shifting product development activities to lower cost countries. BMW could be forced to negotiate a way to maintain cost competitiveness and its reputation for German engineering excellence made in different countries. †¢Price-Another weakness of the BMW industry is getting the customers to buy these cars. Yes, the hybrid vehicle will save you fuel, but it will be so expensive that it might be hard trying to find customers to buy them at such a high price. Another reason the price of the vehicle is so high is because they are shipped across the United States and also come from a factory in Germany. The expenses of the vehicles and the shipping rate are two key weaknesses that many companies must work with. †¢Motorcycle Sales-The European market accounts for more than 60% of BMWs motorcycle sales on an average. The group is heavily dependent on this region with Germany being one of the largest markets for its motorcycles business. With the demand in Germany being highly inconsistent in the past six years, this high dependence on a particular region can have an adverse effect on the companys sales, during periods of demand stagnation in the region. For example, BMWs motorcycle sales in Germany declined by 9. % to 24,064 units in 2005, which further declined to 23,617 units in 2006. †¢Corporate image-too serious ad tradition-bound. †¢Hybrid Prices-These types of cars will save you a lot of money on fuel, but the problem BMW is having trouble with is pricing the hybrids. It would be hard for BMW to find customers that would buy the hybrids at a high cost. †¢Ship ment Cost-Most of the cars are shipped from Germany to the United States. The shipping cost would affect the price of the car. This is one the expenses that the BMW company’s would have to deal with in pricing their vehicles for the customers satisfaction. Online Strategies-BMW is not winning the â€Å"information war† in the market place about its own customers, their attitudes, complaints, wishes, etc. BMW is not operating in a manner, which acts to â€Å"include† its customers including their meeting and information sharing sources. Existing online efforts do not meet consumer needs. There is a lack of â€Å"human intelligence† and an over-reliance on visual marketing in BMW’s on-line strategies. †¢Dealer Networks-BMW’s dealer network is in the midst of great change. Overall basic product margins are down while business infrastructure requirements are up. Many dealers do not feel that the field reps are there to help them build their business but rather just to comment arbitrarily and deliver business change requirements from BMW headquarters. There is a problem with two way information flow in the distributor-dealer relationship. Dealers feel that they are not being listened to and are also not being serviced in critical areas of their business by BMWNA staff. †¢Management-Dealers want to be able to discuss key elements of their business given their limited capital resources. Given the size and nature of he motorcycle market many dealers feel that BMW’s current policies are overly restrictive to the healthy development of their business and that BMWNA should operate in a more flexible manner which could be seen as co-development of a dealer’s franchise not just top-down management by memo. †¢Changing Consumer Environments-Also, as it appears that BMW’s dealer strategy is to move to larger centralized â €˜corporate style’ stores, many of the smaller ‘mom and pop’ dealerships that historically or currently serve a key segment of the BMW owners/riders are being alienated and/or eliminated. By following this policy of upgrade or be eliminated BMW is removing both the habitat in which the consumers live as well as the knowledge base and support structure from which they engage in BMW oriented motorcycle commerce. OPPORTUNITIES †¢India-The Company has been launching several new initiatives and has been widening its product base since 2001. The company expects ample growth opportunities in India, and it is keen on expanding its bases in these countries. †¢The expansion of the euro. -In May 2004 more countries adopted the euro making it the world’s biggest trading block. This offers ample opportunities for BMW to leverage its strong European position in the premium car segment to gather more market share across new and expanding markets. †¢A Chinese luxury car market-Rigorous attempt to get into the Chinese luxury car market signifies an increase in the earnings of the company over the coming years. China already ranks as the third largest market for BMW’s 7 Series luxury limousines. BMW predicts that vigorous growth will place China among the company’s seven largest markets in a few more years. †¢Diesel Power-BMW foresees an immense opportunity in the diesel-powered cars segment. Tourism-the Zentrum building is located in South Carolina. This gives tourists the opportunity to take a look at the history of BMW, also at the cars, the speed and innovation free of charge. It is the only BMW museum in the United States. It is also located next to the only BMW manufacturing plant in the United States. BMW should take a look into bu ilding more museums throughout the world. †¢Expansion-although BMW is very successful they should think about expanding their manufacturing plants throughout the United States and other countries. They only have one location in the United States which is in South Carolina. †¢Have the best and most current technology-It is important for BMW to have the best research and development staff where they can keep the company up-to-date with technology. With the latest technology and supplies, BMW can create the best cars the fastest and most efficient way possible. †¢Broaden information sharing -BMW should broaden information sharing amongst their dealers, distributors, and factory. This will improve product repair knowledge resulting in improved customer service and satisfaction. Improve and run their business based on their business plan-Improving the capabilities of dealers to sell more BMW products in the marketplace through refinement of their business plan †¢Utilize the Internet more-Multiply the value of the ‘human capital’ in the BMW network by â€Å"e-knowledge† and â€Å"e-training. † †¢Better training of their salespeople-Deve lopment and implementation of business practices that harness the best of each individual dealer and make their unique market position/skills a valuable part of the entire network. Partnering with Sirius Radio-In 2005, BMW partnered with Sirius Satellite Radio to promote its new 3-serious car for 44 days. BMW used Sirius to promote its new car because the radio station had 1. 24 million subscribers and still growing. On the final day of promotion it broadcasted a live concert with various artists. †¢Acquiring Volvo-The chairman of BMW, Dr. Norbert Reithofer, is plan on expanding the business with a fourth brand name, Volvo. Although sales of Volvo has been slow in the North American and Europe, its brand name focuses mainly on safety and its fashion appeal is not attractive to the eye. BMW could help out by acquiring the company to make it a more global brand, also in the Asian Market. †¢Apple iPhone-The new Apple iPhone is one of the next best things of phones. It is a touch screen phone with a built in iPod. This would give BMW the opportunity to integrate the iPhone into their cars. †¢China market-An opportunity for BMW is the increase in the luxury automobile market in china. The most significant growth of the luxury market can be attributed to Jiangsu province which has created an 84 percent increase. Next to Jiangsu is Guangdong, making 79 percent recorded growth in the market. On the other hand, Zhejiang province also bagged a 54 percent increase. THREATS †¢Demand Patterns-BMW operates in an industry that is prone to cyclical demand patterns due to consumer wants and needs. †¢Currency-Any unfavorable trend in Euro valuation against major currencies can hurt BMWs performance. †¢Fuel Efficiency-While BMW continues to work on high performance, clean and efficient gasoline engines, the company is also committed to a green-house-gas- free hydrogen powered vehicle as a long-term strategy. At this time we have an active development program that will enable us still to bring to market a full size automobile, propelled with hydrogen, before the end of the decade. †¢The continuing decline of the dollar against the euro-This threatens to undercut BMW’s top-line thereby tempering its profitability. The euro to one-dollar ratio has dropped from 0. 702626 euros to 0. 690376 euros from October to November. †¢The rising price of raw materials -Materials such as steel threaten to offset the company’s earnings. BMW continues to face the rising cost of raw materials as the key challenge to maintain and improve their growth performance. The annual average market price of aluminum, copper and plastic rose by 34%, 76% and 13%, respectively, in 2006. Likewise, the price of industrial raw materials also increased by more than 30% in 2006. †¢Rising gas prices – with a weak U. S. market, steadily rising gas prices and gaining popularity in non-luxury vehicles there is the temptation to move down market.

Development of Management Strategy for Growing Company

Development of Management Strategy for Growing Company Introduction Nowadays technologies are growing so fast that if we will not be able to adopt them in time, than our company becomes non-competitive. This project was done with an aim to apply gained knowledges in engineering and management course, to analyse how selected firm can be developed from engineering and management sides. Engineering studies will help from the one hand to apply engineering knowledges, but from the other hand to get known new technologies and how they make our life better. Universities experience in management and marketing studies will help to do analyses of rival companies and make clear how companys management can be improved or adopted from existing successful companies. There are two important processes in building construction, foundation and roof. Both constructions are equally important for building wellbeing. Foundation need to be designed and build up right in the beginning of construction, but roof need to be carry during all buildings life period. It means that roofs are every sequenced time of period that depends on material, need to be overlaid or repaired. On this theory was born projects engineering part. For projects object was selected a construction firm that focused on roof construction, its technologies and sheet metal works. By exploring roofing market will be determined its growing technologies with an aim to adopt them to selected firm. Exploring major roofing companies management, will help to improve chosen firm current way of management. Generally this project is based on roof technologies, management marketing research. Gained experience will be applied to chosen firm development in all directions. Aim Develop management strategy for a small company. Objectives 1. Literature review of management prescriptive strategy development: * Analysis of environment * Analysis of resources * Development of companys vision, mission and objective * Types of management strategies 2. Choose a company with an aim to apply management strategy 3. Literature review of chosen company 4. Develop management strategy to the chosen company 5. Develop additional management improvements 6. Conclusion Strategic Management Essence of Strategic Management According to the Emergent view there are strategist that suggest that it is hard to predict future and strategy need to be more dynamic with an element of risk. The Prescriptive view Strategic management is about defining a purpose and plans of organisation and work out the actions to achieve desired purposes. The essence of Strategic Management consist from two levels that are shown in Figure 1 and described below : * General corporate level Decision making process depends from in what type of business company belong. The leadership and culture of corporation are very important strategy management. * Individual business level Decision making process generally based on competing for customers, generating value from tangible and intangible business resources and focus on resources that can bring competitive advantage. Strategy is about relations of internal capabilities and external relationships. Figure 1 Essence of Strategic Management (Lynch, p5, 2010) (Lynch, p5, 2010) Approaches to Strategic Management There are exist two different approaches to strategy: Prescriptive and Emergent approach. The prescriptive approach Approach is based on idea that future is predictable and strategy development begins from Where-we-are now and all objectives and steps how implement ideas are developed. The prescriptive theory have three core areas: Strategic analysis, Strategic development and Strategy implementation. All three areas are closely related sequentially. The prescriptive strategy development process shown in Figure 2. Figure 2 The prescriptive strategic process (Lynch, p19, 2010) The emergent approach Approach is based on view that strategy emerges and developed during further period of time based on unpredictable environment. The final objective of emergent approach is unclear and objectives are developed during its realisation. Strategic analysis, Strategic development and Strategy implementation are interrelated. But because strategy is implemented by improvisation and allow mistakes, it is not need to make clear distinction in development and implementation phases. The prescriptive strategy development process shown in Figure 3. Figure 3 The emergent strategic process (Lynch, p19, 2010) Analysis of Environment Analysis of environment is a research of everything and everyone in external environment. It includes suppliers, customers, competitors, government, technologies etc. There are exist nine different tools how environment can be analysed and they are shown in Figure 4. Figure 4. Environment analysis tools (Lynch, p74, 2010) Environment basics There are three basic things that should be analysed: * Market definition and size Question need to be asked in this area is What is the size of market?. It is important to know market size because it will help to design strategy objectives. Market size usually shown in annual sales.  · Market growth After establishing market definition and size need to evaluate how much the market has grown in particular period of time, usually in a year. Market growth rate will influence strategy objectives. Organization that would like to grow quickly will be interested in fast growing market  · Market share It can be defined as ratio of all sales in a market that is detained by particular company. There are different ways how market share can be measured, but most important of them are Sales revenue and Sales volume. (tutor2u) (Lynch, p79, 2010) Degree of turbulence It is important to evaluate external conditions of organisation, specially dynamic of environment. In strategy environment will have high degree of turbulence it will be hard to apply analytical techniques. Environmental forces that influence organisation: * Changeability Degree of environment changeability that shows rate how external factors likely to change. Changeability splits further in such factors: o Complexity Degree of complexity of such factors as internationalisation, technological, social and political. o Novelty Degree of how often new situations influence environment. * Predictability Degree of how changeable environment is predictable. Predictability is subdivided in two categories: o Rate of change How fast environment changes. Usually rated from slow to fast. o Visibility of future Based on previous experience determine how predictable is future. Figure 5. Dynamics of environment. (Lynch, p81, 2010) After doing analysis of factors above will be possible see how stable will be strategy for particular environment. In predictable environment with low turbulence can be used prescriptive approach. In case of high turbulence better to use Emergent approach because of high rate of change where designed objectives can lose their value in short period of time. PESTEL analysis PESTEL is checklist type analysis that is widely used to analyse environment in different directions. Analysis rely on past experience and events that after listing can be used to forecast future or apply them on company improvement design. Factors that need to be discovered in PESTEL analysis:  · Political: o Government policy o Regulations  · Economical o World trends o GDP o Inflation o Unemployment o Energy costs  · Social o Changes in lifestyle o Demographic o Customer demand o Population o Culture  · Technological o Patents and products o Technology development o Speed and change of technologies o Innovations  · Environmental o Public opinion o Green issues o Recyclability o Renewable energy  · Legacy o Law o Health and Safety (Lynch, p82, 2010) Industry life cycle Entity of strategy will change as company move from one life cycle phase to another. In the Introduction phase, company try to attract interest in new product. As product became more recognizable and increase in demand than industry moves into next phase called Growth and with demand increase amount of competitors. Over time when market is saturated and most customers are satisfied with product life cycle proceed to Maturity phase where growth is slowed down. Few competitors may join in this phase, but hard to survive because of high competition. After Maturity phase cycle start to Decline. Whole process is shown in Figure 6. Figure 6. Stages of industry cycle. (Lynch, p87, 2010) Company have more opportunity to survive and gain more profit in life cycle early ages while entry barriers are low and there are only few competitors. But it is hard to determine the beginning of life cycle because if its unpredictable duration. (Lynch, p87, 2010) Key factors for success The Japanese strategist Kenichi Ohmae argue that for successful strategy organisation should define key factors for success that will help to define objectives more correctly. Key factors are resources such as skills, labour, experience or attributes that can bring competitive advantage to organisation. Key factors can be determined not only from internal advantages but also designed based on external environment. There are three factors need to be analysed:  · Customers What exactly customers want? Who are they? Are there any special segments? Why they buy from us? Need to be evaluated (Lynch, p95, 2010): o Price o Service o Product or service reliability o Quality o Technical specification o Branding  · Competition What factors help company to compete successfully? Who are our competitors? What factors influence competition? Need to be evaluated (Lynch, p95, 2010): o Cost comparison o Price comparison o Quality issues o Market dominance o Service o Distributors  · Corporation Companies technologies, organisational ability and marketing? Key resources of our competitors? Need to be evaluated (Lynch, p96, 2010): o Low-cost operations o Economies of scale o Labour costs o Production output levels o Quality operations o Innovative ability o Labour/Management relations o Technologies and copyright o Skills (Lynch, p94, 2010): Porters five forces One of the most important organisation analysis that need to be performed is evaluating environment forces that influence particular company. Such evaluation will help to gain better competitive advantage than rivals. Professor Michael Porter provide model (Figure 7) that helps evaluate forces that will help to understand organisation opportunities. Figure 7. Porters five forces model (Lynch, p95, 2010) The bargaining power of suppliers Every organisation require raw materials to produce product or service it mean that organisation depend from raw material suppliers. There are shown how suppliers can influence organisation: * If there are few suppliers it means that it is hard to switch to another supplier in case supplier is exert its power. * There are no substitute raw materials that supplier provide. * Organisation costs depend from suppliers price. If supplier increase price for provided material than costs will increase and organisation need decide: increase product price or not. Increased price can lead to lose of competitive advantage but if price stay the same that profit will be smaller. The bargaining power of buyers To make a profit organisation sell their products or service to customers. Every customer have need, wants and own opinion about particular product. Organisation should make customer power analysis to understand who have more influence over other. There are some issues: * There are only few buyers. Organisation have weak position and generally depend from customers and want to attract them as more as possible. In this case customers can easily influence organisation. * Product or service is undifferentiated. Customer can easily switch to product offered from other organisation. The threat of new entrants Entrance of new rivals is possible whet profit margins are attractive and entry barriers are low. Porter argue that there are seven factors that influence entry barriers: 1. Economies of scale Production cost are reducing when product volume significantly increased. These cost reductions provide entry barriers, because company entered in such market forced to keep small price to be competitive. 2. Product differentiation Brand, level of service, attracted customers provide entry barrier because by entering in such market will lead to spend extra funds and time to make new brand more recognizable and establish in the market. 3. Capital requirements Entrance in some markets require investment in technologies equipment, distribution etc. 4. Switching costs When customer is satisfied with provided service or product he is not thinking about other products and it is hard and require high investments to influence customers opinion. 5. Access to distribution channels Production need to be effectively distributed. It takes long time to establish own distribution channels and make it work profitably. 6. Cost disadvantages independent of scale Already established companies invested hardly in infrastructure and gained mayor buyers in the market. It becomes hard for new company to find what to start with, because infrastructure is already established and it is hard to involve changes. 7. Government policy Government tend to secure local companies and publish law that defend them. The threats of substitutes Substitutes is something that can replace a product or service usually provided for smaller price. Things that need to be analysed relative to substitutes: * Customer ability to switch to the substitute * The possible threat of obsolescence * What costs will provide switching to substitute Rivalry among existing firms Some markets and companies are more competitive than others. There are thing that need to be analysed (Model of competition): * Number of competitors * Size of competitors * Growth rate * Product differentiation (Lynch, p97-101, 2010): Four links analysis Most organisations links together to perform better with other companies help. Co-operation can lead such factors: * Reduce costs * Increase organisations sustainability * Open new market sectors The Co-operation usually divided in four subgroups that help more clearly define co-operation type and how it might be improved:  · Informal co-operative links and networks The organisation links and co-operates together on mutual basis without contract. The analysis need to be made to find out what opportunities will provide such link. Usually analysis contain from strengths and weaknesses. Need to pay attention by forming mutual contract because in case fraud it will be hard to prove that particular company is right.  · Formal co-operative links Formal co-operation is linked with legal contract. The difference from informal co-operation is in degree of formality. Such links usually form alliance or joint ventures that works together for many years to gain competitive advantage over rivals and take more market share.  · Complementors The Complementors are companies that supply products that add value to final product. Usually such co-operation is based on several companies that provide different skills and resources that work together on manufacturing of one product. Such organisations have interdependence between themselves.  · Government links and networks The organisations that have linkage with government. (Lynch, p102-105, 2010) Competitor analysis In most markets there are more than one competitor. It is hard to evaluate each of them and because usually it is done by taking few companies and making narrow evaluation. It will help to understand what advantages and disadvantages compare to organisation rivals have. Broad analysis of competitors and their power helps to find their forces. Basic analysis will consist from making competitor profile based on such issues:  · Objective An analysis of competitors objectives help to forecast its strategy. If competitor tend to gain market share then probably will start to implement aggressive strategy. If seeking profit growth than possibly competitor will invest hardly in new plant or improve technologies. Every objective can help to forecast rivals action. Companies annual statements can be useful in evaluating but need to be analysed wit attention because of factor of bluffing.  · Resources The type, size and amount of resources that provide competitive advantage to company need to be analysed.  · Past record of performance Can provide companys successful performance that can be adopted.  · Current products and services  · Links with other organisations Evaluate links, alliances and other types of co-operation than deliver competitive advantage.  · Present strategies Innovation, customers, investments, market share, product range etc. Evaluate how such things used for strategy purposes. Customer analysis Customer is crucial resource of company profit income. Any company will always be interested in as more as possible customer attraction. There are measurements that can be used in customer analysis: * Identification of the customer and market * Market segmentation and its strategic implications * The role of customers service and quality Previously market was based on Mass marketing theory where one product was sold to all customers. Nowadays is used Targeted marketing where company aims on particular market segment and provide product or service only for this segment. Market segmentation can deliver more opportunities to strategy: * Particular segments can be more profitable than others * Some segments can have less competitors that can provide competitive advantage * Some segments can have higher growing rate. (Lynch, p107-108, 2010) Analysis of resources and capabilities Analysis of resources and capabilities gives not only opportunity to look how resources provide competitive advantage but also help understand two important things: * How resources can provide higher profit and better service * Which resources provide competitive advantage and how they can they be improved all time. There are two way that goes interdependent: Value added and Sustainable competitive advantage (Figure 8). Path of resource analysis (Lynch, p119, 2010) Resources and Capabilities Resources and capabilities analysis aim is to recognize where is value added resources and explore what resources deliver competitive advantage to company. There are four questions need to be addressed to company with regard to resources and capability analysis (Lynch, p122, 2010): 1. What kind of resources and capabilities company own? 2. Why organisation have these resources? 3. Why they are important and what advantage they deliver to company? 4. How they can be improved? Figure 9 Sequence of resources and capabilities analysis (Lynch, p122, 2010) Analysis of resources and capabilities starts with full range analysis of resources. It is hard because of some resources are hard to measure. Resources and capabilities can be divided in three categories (Lynch, p123, 2010):  · Tangible resources Are physical resources that contribute to companies value added. These can be modern equipment, location, etc.  · Intangible resources Resources that have no physical presence. It can be companies recognisable brand name, culture, skills level etc.  · Organisational capabilities Such resources as management or leadership that manage tangible and intangible resources. Value added The role of resources in company is to add value and gain profit. The value adding process shown in Figure 10 and can be defined as the difference between product output price and the costs of input. Figure 10. Add Value process (Lynch, p130, 2010) The Value chain The value chain is a value of all activities that is linked with functional parts. Each part makes contribution in value add process. Company perform two types of activity that add value to product or service: Primary activities and support activities. Primary is activities that process itself. Support activities are performed by management and human resources. Porter designed companys value chain process that is shown in Figure 11. Where margin is difference between Total Value and Cost of performance Figure 11. The value chain (Lynch, p132, 2010) The primary activities add value to company by its own way and they are(Lynch, p132-133, 2010):  · Inbound logistics The areas that related to receiving raw materials and goods from suppliers, storing them till they will be required, moving and carrying within company.  · Operations The production area where products or services being produced.  · Outbound logistics The distribution of final product to customers. It is about transportation, warehousing, wrapping etc.  · Marketing and sales Analysis of customers needs and wants and deliver to customers information about what product or service company offer.  · Service It is about before product selling pre installation or after selling service. The support activities:  · Procurement The person or department that is responsible for purchasing raw materials or goods. The goods need to be purchased for as low as possible price and highest quality.  · Technology development The important are that need to be updated all the time.  · Human resource management Training, recruitment, management improvement, employees motivation is important for companies success.  · Firm infrastructure Background planning and control of system. The value system Every company have own value chain and at the same time belong to wide system that involve supply and distribution chain and customers chain. The competitive advantage can deliver suppliers that supply better goods to you rather than rival organisations. The value chain need to be evaluated and improved. Sources of competitive advantage (Lynch, p147, 2010): * Differentiation The development of exclusive feature or service that could appeal particular market. * Low costs Development of low cost product or service can attract more customers. * Niche marketing Concentration on particular market and distinguish and provide all necessary to appeal customers from this market. * High performance or technology Improved performance and customers needs satisfaction better than competitors will provide growth in the market share.  · Quality Provide quality that competitors not able to match. * Service Provide service that competitors not able to match. * Vertical integration The backward acquisition of raw material suppliers can increate competitive advantage. * Synergy The combination a parts of business that together could deliver better result success and profit than separate. * Culture leadership and style of an organisation The way how company is organised and managed. The good managed company will lead to employees satisfaction and improve their attitude to company. It will improve service, quality and deliver good environment for innovation. Resource based sustainable competitive advantage There are seven resource elements that can deliver sustainable competitive advantage:  · Prior or acquired resources Easier to create value on already available to company strengths rather than start from beginning.  · Innovative capability The innovation is important because it can deliver competitive advantage and improve entity.  · Being truly competitive Identify resources strength and opportunity is not enough because they need to be comparatively better than competitors as well.  · Sustainability Resources are more competitive if they dont have and cannot be substituted.  · Appropriability Resources must deliver success only to individual company, but not shared among others.  · Durability Good resources should last as long as possible. There is no reason to identify a competitive resources if they are not sustainable.  · Imitiability Resources should be hard to imitate. Defined resources need to be classified in hierarchy of resources (Figure 12) by their importance and delivered competitive advantage. Figure 12 Hierarchy of resources (Lynch, p151, 2010) Improving competitive advantage There are three methods how resources and capabilities can be improved (Lynch, p158-160, 2010): * Benchmarking Compare practice and experience with other companies and identify what improvements can be performed. The compared industry can be perform another kind of job, need to be copied only companies principles of operation. * Leveraging Exploit companies resources fully. That method can be subdivided in 5 prescriptive routes: 1. Concentration Focusing companys resources on the key objectives. 2. Conservation Exploit every resource or aspect available to company. 3. Accumulation Evaluate fully resources of company and use it where appropriate. 4. Complementarity Analyse resources with an aim to combine them. New combination can deliver competitive advantage. 5. Recovery Make sure that all resources generate produce as quickly as possible. * Upgrading resources The resource analysis can show that an organisation is losing its competitive advantage, so resources and technologies need to upgraded. Vision, Mission and objective of the company. Strategy purpose is explored by established mission and objectives of company. To identify mission and objective need to be evaluated why company exist and how value adding can be generated? Additionally need to be explored companys vision based on opportunities and how it can be evaluated. The purpose of the organisation The purposes of organisation need to be defined clearly otherwise it will be hard to establish proper strategy. To define purpose more clearly need to be considered six questions (Lynch, p221-226, 2010): 1. What is our activity and what should it be?  · Need to be considered the area of activity is it business or non-profit organisation?  · Evaluate what company is focused on should company concentrate on the purpose or it can be broad?  · Do company focuses on profit or diversifying? That issue can be defined broad or narrow.  · Usually strategists define purposes based on the competitive resources of company. 2. What kind of organisation do we wish to be?  · The company usually chose one of two areas: o Culture and style Organisations chose this area based on previous experience and developed history. o Challenges to be posed to members of the organisation. 3. What is relative importance of shareholders and stakeholders?  · Some companies purpose is to satisfy shareholders wealth. 4. Do we want to grow organisation?  · Is company growth is included in purpose or it should stay the same size? 5. What is our relationship with our immediate environment and with society in general?  · The purpose need to be considered with environment within which company perform. In immediate environment need to be assumed such factors as turbulence, competition etc. Society in general is about pressures that influence company. 6. How do we bring all these consideration together?  · The summary of purposes need to be stated in few sentences that will specifically describe. Vision for the future It is imagination of company that stakeholders, shareholders or owned would like to see it after a period of time. There are two views on the values that need to be explored to develop a strategy: * The irrelevance of strategic vision For approaching short-term goals strategic vision can be not performed. * The value of strategic vision Vision is a challenging and imaginative picture of the future role and objectives of an organisation, significantly going beyond its current environment and competitive position (Lynch, p227, 2010). There are a lot of reasons to develop a strategic vision and most important is that the vision is going far in future than organisation is and help to develop purposes how to get there. New vision can help to develop mission and objectives. The mission The mission of an organisation outlines the broad directions that it should and will follow and briefly summarises the reasoning and value that lie behind it (Lynch, p236, 2010). The mission need to be defined based on previously explored purposes. In prescriptive strategy mission is set to be realised in next few years. The role of mission is to develop direction which company will follow and try to realise. There are five elements of the mission statement that need to be explored and chosen appropriate: 1. Explore the nature of the company. In this case can be asked such questions as What business are company in? and What is desired business for company? 2. The mission should be developed from customers point of view rather than companys. 3. The mission should show the basic values and beliefs of the company. 4. The elements of sustainable competitive advantages need to be shown in the mission. 5. The mission need to show the particular reason for its choice to realise. The objectives Objectives are the aims that need to be realised to implement the mission. This process cover what and when is need to be done. In most cases objectives should be quantified and measurable, but sometimes such objectives as ethic, employee or customer satisfaction is hard to measure. Company should apply any measurements to hard measurable objectives with an aim to get a feedback how successfully they implemented. Usually companies set objectives in two areas: 1. Financial objectives Such as profit, cash flow, earnings per share etc. 2. Strategic objectives Such as customer satisfaction, market share, product quality etc. (Lynch, p242, 2010). Strategy options development When the purpose of company is defined need to develop a strategy options how to achieve it. After options development need to chose more suitable and that will bring advantage. SWOT analysis As a starting point of strategy options development can be summarising current position using SWOT analysis. SWOT is analysis that helps to find companys internal Strengths and Weaknesses, and external Op

Wooden Furniture Industry In Malaysia

Wooden Furniture Industry In Malaysia Being one of the worlds top tropical timber producers, Malaysia has been the choices of the world demand on wood products. Seals with different types of wooden products, the consumers market have been eyeing this country for its establishment in such field. From office furniture to home furniture, this sector plays a vital role in building up the countrys economy. The value of the product produced and the number of employment held within this industry is significant that the government of Malaysia has come out with various incentives to assist this industry where it is part of the small-medium industries (SMIs). Although this industry deals with low technology involvement and high intensive labour skills, its yet to be recognized as the leading raw woods producers which driven by the demand all over the world. Taking advantage of the Malaysia Industrial Master Plan (1986-1995), foreign investors investing in furniture industry have shown a good performance where these investors spurred the money flow into the industry as the rise in demand was accelerating despite having to transfer the technologies to local entrepreneurs. Malaysia is not only the main tropical timber production especially for wooden products like furniture. The country is even competing with 5 worlds leading exporters like China, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia. Year 1990s was a glory for Malaysia as the country managed to catered demands from Singapore, Japan and USA which then contributed to the total export value of RM3, 776.8 million by the year 2000. This significant achievement was due to the fact that Malaysia is rich with the resources and unskilled labour which led to lower cost of production and production can be increased to meet the demand. Malaysia furniture industry however, facing numerous internal and external factors that eventually affect its development including such threats from competitors, technologies, quality, branding and more. Thus theres a need for a better improvement in strategy adopted by all the furniture producers despite to implement better and improved marketing strategy to capture more clienteles. T he high value of their comparative advantage also is needed to bring Malaysia one step ahead as the world leading furniture exporter. Background of Study As the saying once a new technology rolls over you, if youre not part of the steamroller, youre part of the road by Steward Brand, this show how improvement in technology is essential in recognizing the prospect of being efficient in production. Efficient production lead to better quality product thus can cater more demand either current or new demand. Thus, this paper will prove why substantial technology improvement is needed in order to bring the furniture industry in Malaysia to a higher level and then beat the other worlds leading exporters. Apart from technological advancement, comprehensive marketing strategy also considers as the crucial part in determining the level of acceptance of Malaysias furniture products locally and abroad. This marketing strategy will cover all aspect from the internal and external factor on the basis of marketing principles which are price, product, place and promotion. Moreover, the comprehensive marketing strategy develop should also be taken into consideration the Malaysia Industrial Master Plan introduced by the government since 1986. The continuous improvement made the government have given the industry a huge opportunity for growth in the mentioned industry. Moreover, the success rate of the Malaysia furniture industry was also driven by rigorous moves introduced by the government of Malaysia. The implementation of Industry Master Plan started from year 1986 was a total success. In the Industry Master Plan has outlined several ideas on how to improve the whole Malaysia industries especially furniture industry. This master plan is also being implemented until now to safeguard and path for continuation if the furniture industry. Apart from the Industrial Master Plan, the new economic policy or DEB is also was created to channel the growth flow of the furniture industry to a higher level above the major competitors like Indonesia. However, the discussion on furniture industry is much more comprehensive in Industry Master Plan Malaysia thus this paper will discuss how this Industry Master Plan can assist the sustainability of the industry. 1.3 Problem Statement The furniture industry in Malaysia plays a vital role in stabilizing the economy. The growth rate of this industry was significant that Malaysia has recorded a high growth ever since the industry was introduced commercially in Malaysia. Malaysia even became one of the major competitors after Indonesia and Thailand and furniture products produced by Malaysia were exported around the world. Thus from this situation, we would like to analyzed the growth probability involving furniture industry in Malaysia for the past edges. This wills include the process of examining the technology involved in the industry that caused the acceleration of the industry growth. In technology, the flow of capital is crucial in determining the technology know-how used to develop the furniture industry in Malaysia from traditional production onto advance tech machines. Either than that, this paper will also show why Malaysia furniture industry is well accepted around the world as for its quality or for its low cost. The market share will be also examined as to proof the industry is in a good shape. Apart from these views, few suitable marketing strategies for the industry will also be outlined to improve the awareness of consumers around the world on Malaysia furniture. A good and comprehensive marketing strategies are crucial to drive the performance of the industry especially when it comes to capturing new market share or increasing the market share. Meanwhile, the current strategies are included as for discussion purposes and to outweigh the effectiveness of the strategies implemented currently. 1.4 Objective of the Study To study the advancement of technologies used that driven the industry performance in export and import To investigate the current marketing strategies used and new comprehensive strategies that can be used to accelerate the performance to a better level as at the par with other competitors. To review the importance of the Industry Master Plan (IMP) introduced by the government of Malaysia in playing a vital role to validate the current growth rate of the furniture industry. 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW There are four major sectors in Malaysian wood-based industry which are sawn timber, veneer and panel products that include plywood and other reconstituted panel products such as fireboard, moldings and builders joinery and carpentry (BJC). The wood-based industry is fully owned by Malaysian and it is calculated that 80 to 90 % of the businesses comprise small and medium size establishments. The manufacturers of Malaysian furniture produce an extensive range of furniture for households as well as for office use. Before 1995, the activities of Malaysian industry are were mostly in logging, sawmilling and plywood manufacturing. During the period of the 2nd Industrial Master Plan (IMP) (1996 2005), the industry more emphasized value-added processing such as furniture, MDF, panel products and veneer. During this period, the wood based industry has achieved a 5% growth rate. The highest export value is furniture, followed by plywood, sawn timber, logs and fiberboard. The star performer was the burgeoning furniture sub-sector which brought in an impressive double digit return of 11% growth or in real earnings RM 5.8 billion. The 3rd IMP (2006 2020) has earmarked a growth rate of 6.4 per annum for the wood-based industry to achieve RM 53 billion of export value by 2020. The main contributors of this planned growth and export value is to come from furniture and panel products mainly from MDF and plywood. This chapter consists of literature review regard to the wooden furniture export from Malaysia to existing world market. It covers the various aspects of the wood based industry in Malaysia and export of wood based products including wooden furniture to the world countries. The method used in this study to analyze the data was also included to provide a better understanding about the process of analyzing data. According to (MTIB 1994) Malaysia is one of the largest exporters of tropical hardwoods tropical sawn timber, plywood and hardwood moulding. The rapid development as well as the establishment of other primary wood processing industry were supported by large amount of log supply coming from forestland. Once in a while, the wood based sector is dominated by primary processing activities such as sawmilling, veneer and plywood production. However, in recent years, downstream processing activities such as the manufacture of mouldings, furniture and joinery have increased significant ly (Anon, 1 996). According to Lew (1977), the timber industry in Malaysia is an export oriented industry. Malaysias export of major wood based products has increased gradually over the last decade. Even though there is a considerable increase in wood based export, Malaysia is still a small producer in the global market for wood based downstream products. This means that there is a considerable room for expansion in the value added products category. To ensure the continued development of the industry in future, Malaysia is actively pursuing a program of promoting the wood based downstream industry. Many plans and activities have been organized to help the industries in all kind of sectors. These activities including globalization strategy, the knowledge-driven strategy, strengthen cluster development and others. Comparative advantage involves the concept of opportunity cost either in producing or exporting a particular good (Mohd Arif, 2008). According to Mohd Arif (2008), the comparative advantage of one country against others may reflect from the difference of the domestic cost and the world price. The higher the cost differential, the higher is the advantage for the country in producing that good. Some other factors such as abundant resources, technology, telecommunication, subsidized fuel and road development (including low transportation cost) could play their role in the comparative advantage. Additionally, Hunt and Morgan (1995) believed that the efficient use of existing resources and innovation in the production may lead to the comparative advantage of the products. Reduction in trade cost and facilitation of goods and services between places can be done by improving the road infrastructure (Bhattacharyay, 2009). In 1998, Malaysia ranked fifth and seventh in the world ranking of wooden furniture export leaders for office and other wooden furniture, respectively. The United States (US), Japan, Singapore and the United Kingdom (UK) were among the largest destination for Malaysian wooden furniture. Export value of wooden furniture in 1996 was RM 1.6 billion, which placed Malaysia as the second largest exporter in this region, after Taiwan, whilst the 15th in the world (Anon., 2000c). The export value has been increasing every year and it reached RM 3.8 billion in year 2000. However, since early 80s export of Malaysia wooden furniture was mainly to the US and Japan where it accounted more that 50% of the total exports (Anon., 2001) As timber industry in Malaysia traditionally is an export oriented industry, hence the export market is vital in enabling the timber industry in Malaysia to reach its desired growth, despite the continuation from domestic market. During the 70s, major output of the industry which was logs, sawn timber and plywood were largely exported. The export of processed products such as molding has experienced a sudden increase during 80s due to growing demand from overseas market and also governments drive for export which charted out in the Industrial Master Plans (IMP), 1986-1995. The export of molding, furniture and joinery there on continued to increase. The international marketing research, found that there was several dimensions used by the researcher indicate marketing strategy. Previous researchers acknowledged firm strategy (Aaby and Slater, 1989), export marketing strategy (Julian, 2003 ; Akyol and Akehurst, 2003; Zou and Stan, 1998; Cavusgil and Zou, 1994; Koh, 1991), export strategy ( Aulakh et al.,2000;Chetty and Hamilton,1993), business strategy (Baldauf et. Al,2000) or strategy (Cicic et al.,2002; Thirkell and Dau,1998). The International Tropical Timber Organization (2008), Have ranked Malaysia as the biggest exporter of tropical logs amounting to 35% market share. There is an overall of RM22.5 billion worth of Malayasia Timber and related products being exported in 2008. Europe is one of the biggest markets of Malaysia wood products since many decades ago. From ( Boon-Kwee, Ng* and Thiruchelvam, K., 2001) in his statement, Malaysias furniture industry is largely wooden and cane based. The industry is highly fragmented, and the large number of the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the industry is very prevalent. As one of the manufacturing sectors, the industry has adopted the standard definitions of SME that have been approved by the Central Bank of Malaysia in year 2005, that is, firms with total number of fulltime employees less than 150 people, or total annual sales turnover less than MYR 25 million. According to the Department of Statistics (2009), the total establishments in the furniture industry were mostly constitute by SME. However, However, SME and large enterprise have equal share in terms of value of gross output, value added, employment salary and value of asset. Ratnasingam (2004) views the value of furniture is based on perception, as it is sold based on a perceived value, rather than on an actual value. This shows that the creation of value-added furniture is not about producing it using high quality equipment neither state-of-the-art technologies, but rather it is about expressing a way of life creatively and innovatively. The uniqueness of thus furniture determines its value, while the scientific aspects ease the production method. Similar view of the value of furniture has been advanced by Ettema (1981), who argued that furniture is an important tool of self-presentation, and thus sensitive to the way it is displayed. He states that technology had caused degradation of style furniture industry. In general, machines have allowed furniture production to increase, but they have also failed to crate variation in style, because machines are incapable of producing inexpensive copies of an expensive-looking pattern As stated by (Z. Noor Aini, 2009), Malaysia is one of the developing countries in Southeast Asia which experienced extraordinary economic growth especially in industrialization in the past few decades. Exports of the natural resources and related products as well as manufactured goods have contributed to the development of Malaysian economy. Besides that, with the fact that 60 percent of Malaysia is covered with natural forest, it is difficult to ignore that forest product industry plays an important role in further developing the economy. Malaysia is currently one of the worlds top tropical timber producers. This work supports the idea of Uusivuori and Tervo (2002) that a country which has richer forest assets will have larger net exports of forest products. Furthermore, the country with a larger forest endowment exhibits the comparative advantages in their exports as in comparison to countries with lesser forest endowments. According to (Shabboo,2011), challenges of maintaining sustainability could be various depending on different factors such as the type of product, knowledge of established principles, consumers expectations, manufacturers policies and facilities, legislation, local resources, etc. In Malaysian furniture industry, a survey that is conducted in 2009 revealed that the adoption of green manufacturing practices is limited among wooden furniture producers. Another study in 2008 discovered that the readiness to adopt chain of custody certification among wooden furniture manufacturers was low. This certification has the objective to ensure the wood products really come from an environmentally certified source. Although the number of studies on the environmental aspect of furniture industry is still small in the country, all results demonstrate the poor implementation of sustainability. In addition, integrating sustainability into furniture industry has not been studied from design perspectiv e yet. Ratnasingam and Thomas (2008) argue that the level of technology employed by the Malaysian furniture industry is on same level with other countries which manufacture furniture, if not higher. The MTC (1998) has stated that most of the countrys furniture manufacturers have invested very much in machinery and equipment. Ratnasingam (2000) states that the machine-operated process is the most important value-addition operation in furniture production, as it convert the raw materials into the sophisticated finished product. The quality of the machine had contributed to smooth and effective production process. However, most of the machinery purchased is special function machinery which is aimed at reducing used of man labor in the manufacturing outfit, with the aim of reducing the manufacturing cost or unit cost. This is to be expected, as the industry is labor intensive in nature, and there is an increasing reliance on foreign-contract workers within the industry (Ratnasingam, 2005). Procedures adopted are also in place in order to meet the increasingly high business standards in terms of price-cutting, quality and material properties. A periodic review of the existing polices is necessary to ensure that the industries will remain competitive. However, the critical problem faces by industries is mismanagement of land utilization, provided the insufficiency of readily available land for the cultivation of plantation forests. Research and development (RD) is hence important for introducing not only new products and new processes that will increase the industrys competitiveness, but also new technology that will reduce the land intensity of rubber tree growing, i.e. clones with shorter gestation and richer wood.( Professor Mohamed Ariff, 2011). According to (Professor Mohamed Ariff, 2011), to counterbalance the decline in rubber wood supply and the lack of possible alternative wood sources, in order to support the ongoing development of the WBI, one solution can be taken include the importation of logs from abroad and increase of plantation forests at home. However, logs importation face problems like log bans from neighboring countries as well as its high transportation cost. Thus, forests plantation within the country are thought to be a better option. Several countries have successfully adopted this approach, which has encouraged the development of substantial downstream industries in forest products. This, in turn, has led to the growth of clusters of supplementary industries. While the Malaysian WBI is predominantly rubberwood-based now, other species including Acacia, Sesendok, Albizia, may well prove equally suitable in future. A study by Bojei et al., (2002) on global marketing strategies in the Malaysian wooden furniture industry, the marketing strategies used by the wooden furniture companies, either original equipment manufacturing (OEM), own design manufacturing (ODM) or own brand name (OBM), the most important factors influencing the success of those strategies were firms primary characteristics, decision makers expectation of exporting and global marketing strategy. Lastly, since export marketing strategy has been considered as one of the key determinants on export performance (Cavusgil and Zou, 1994), though not all of the marketing strategy elements will affect the export performance simultaneously. Study by Koh (1991) found that the relationships among organizational characteristics, marketing strategy and export performance has found that only export pricing, direct buyer, and channel strategies of marketing strategy variations have effects on export performance. However, adapting marketing mix variables cater the specific needs of developed country markets would enhance export marketing performance (Aulakh et al., 2000). In contrast, a study by Julian (2003) to identify the key factors influencing export marketing performance found that export marketing strategy has no effect on the Thai firms export marketing performance. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.0 Research Methodology The research methodology requires collecting data from the secondary sources, which is overview of Malaysian Furniture Industry: Malaysian furniture export, import and destination that are located in the Annual Report from 2007 to 2011 of the Malaysian Furniture Promotion Council (MFPC) that is being published at its website. There are 10 countries being selected based on the complete data and information of the chosen countries. The data is being analyzed using the Shift Share Analysis. Table 3.1 shows the values of Malaysian Furniture Export from the 2006 to 2011 in (RM million). The initial period consists of year 2006 to 2008, while the terminal period consists of year 2009 to 2011. The data is being analyzed using Microsoft Excel. FINDING,ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION Actual Change Let Vj,t represents the values of Malaysia furniture export for country j at the terminal time period t, Vj,t-1 represents the values of Malaysia furniture export for country j at the initial time period t-1, and  Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Vj be the actual change in market j over the specified period of time. Therefore, The formula of Actual change, = 0 , the Malaysian Furniture Export to the particular country remain unchanged > 0 , the Malaysian Furniture Export to the particular country is increasing According to table 4.0, it shows that the value of Malaysia furniture export to 8 out of 10 countries are declining, excluding Singapore which has an increase of RM 442.2 million, and Japan by RM 150.72. B. Total Growth Rate K = Total Value of Malaysia furniture export for terminal period Total Value of Malaysia furniture export for initial period = RM16600.9 million RM17950.45 million = 0.924818041 (92.4818041%) According to Table 4.0 , the total value of Malaysia furniture export for terminal period was RM16600.9 million, and total value of Malaysia furniture export for initial period RM17950.45 million. Therefore, on average, the Malaysia furniture export is declining by 7.5181959% (1-0.924818041). C. Expected Value E(Vj.t )= K(Vj,t-1) The expected export value of Malaysian furniture in each countries at the terminal period, E(Vj.t ), is the actual export value of initial period(Vj,t-1) multiply with the total growth rate (K). D. Expected Change Expected Change is the difference between the expected value at terminal period E ( Vj,t) and actual value for the market at the end of the initial time period, Vj,t-1. Let E( Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Vj) represents the expected change. Thus, E ( Vj) = E ( Vj,t) Vj,t-1 = Vj,t-1 (K-1) E. Net Shift The difference between the actual change and the expected change of a given market is the net shift. This difference is denoted as Nj. Thus, The sum of the net shift values for all markets should be zero: Each country is experiencing 0 growth in Malaysia furniture export. Therefore, there is no relative gain or loss in the value of Malaysia furniture export to these countries in the given time period. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION Based on the results, it showed that the sum of the percentage net shift of Malaysian furniture industry to these 10 countries is equal to 0. Therefore, there is no relative gain or loss in furniture export. Therefore, the producers of furniture in Malaysia, particularly wood based furniture segment, have to be alert and adapt to changes in preferences of the importers on these aspects: price, product, place(distribution), and promotion, so that it will be favourable to them. Despite the strong competition from lower priced Chinese and Vietnamese furniture, Malaysian furniture quality is far more superior. The initiative of the government to expand the export market of Malaysian furniture can be seen by penetrating into the Algeria and Greece in the near future. The government also has set an annual growth rate target of 6.5 % for wood based furniture, which estimates to reach up to RM53 billion by year 2020.