Distributive Justice and Its Relevance Under Indian Constitution

PAPER ON THE TOPIC THE PHILOSOPHY OF DISTRUBUTIVE JUSTICE AND ITS RELEVANCE UNDER INDIAN CONSTITUTION The jurisprudence of distributive justice, according to juristic cynics, is an essay in illusion. The basic social system is built on gross inequalities and the power to lobby and mould State policy, even judicial policy, is heavily in the hands of the proprietariat. Being social realists and meliorists we have to work with the materials that we have and try to read the constitutional provisions in such a manner that the human essence of distributive justice is won by dynamic interpretation and socialist understanding.The Indian Constitution visualizes an affirmative State action for bringing about a new social order based on justice, social, economic and political (Art. 38). The Directive Principles of State Policy contain the directions of change towards such a new social order. The researcher has examined various theories of justice and has examine how the John Rawl’s theory of justice which means that justice is fairness is the most apt for the Indian situation. Even in th e Constitution we find different strategies of justice. Keywords: Justice, Distributive Justice, Constitution.INTRODUCTIONEver since the birth of society, justice has been one of the most important quests of human endeavor. Justice means giving one what is due to him. As a principle of law, justice delimits and harmonises the conflicting desires, claims and interests in the social life of the people. In the modern society if we take the view that all its problem of distribution then the recourse is left open to distributive justice and nothing else. Distributive justice embraces the whole economic dimension of social justice, the entire question of distribution of goods and services within the society.It demands equality in the distribution or allotment of advantages or burdens. The aim of distributive justice is to strike a balance in the socio-economic structure of the society and bring equipoise between the conflicting interests of individual citizens. It is submitted that the pr oblem of distributive justice in one sense is more a matter of procedural fairness to individuals than of substantive rightness or wrongness of the rules themselves. More specifically, it would seem that even bad rules can be applied justly and good rules in an unjust way, but it does not mean that it is not the concern of the substantive law.Much will depend upon the structure of the society. To establish distributive justice we must create a public system of rules by reference to which the conflicting claims which inevitably arise can be authoritatively determined. Distributive justice essentially is the function of a just society. The problems of Indian society are so complex, perplex and varied that a single formula for distributive justice cannot be found. The Constitution of India talks of justice in the Preamble as well as in Article 38 of the Constitution which is a directive principle of state policy.The Constitution talks not of justice but of social, economic and politica l justice. It does not merely envisage a system of corrective justice in which rights and obligations arising out of the present social structure are enforced. It clearly saw that the existing structure was unjust and needed to be changed. This is what we call distributive justice.PHILOSOPHY OF JUSTICE AND DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICEEver since men have begun to reflect upon their relations with each other and upon the vicissitudes of human lot, they have been preoccupied with the meaning of justice.Justice shares with natural law an institutional immortality which presents a constant paradox: it is so ancient that everything has been said about it, and so modern that it constitutes a continuous and inescapable problem in the ever-changing context of a contemporary society. Justice, as Aristotle said, â€Å"is the bond of men in society. † and â€Å"States without justice† are as St. Augustine said, â€Å"robber-bands. † Fiat justitia ruat coelum let heavens fall, justi ce had to be done became the abstraction of many religious, political, moral and legal philosophers of all ages.The power of justice is so great that it strengthens and excites a person fighting for just cause. All wars have been fought by all parties in the name of justice, and same is true of the political conflict between social classes. On the other hand, the very fact of this almost ubiquitous applicability of the principle of justice prompts the suspicion that something may be wrong with an idea that can be invoked for any cause. Social groupings of today are dynamic, not static, and they do not find the ideal equipoise in a condition of mere imperturbability.Justice is considered to be the primary goal of a welfare state whose very existence in turn rests on the parameters of justice. The greatest contrast, however, between ancient and modern thinking about the social harmony of justice is in the changed conception of individual personality in relation of law. I. The problem of Justice The importance of the subject of justice and the frequency of its use would naturally lead one to believe that there is an accepted definition of justice or, if not, at least a workable definition of justice is capable of being carved out.But defining justice is not as easy as it appears to be. There are difficulties inherent in the concept of justice and it is because of this reason that it is wholly indeterminate and belies all attempts to define it. Hens Kelsen perturbedly remarked: No other question has been discussed so passionately; no other question has caused so much precious blood and so many bitter tears to be shed; no other question has been the object of so much intensive thinking by the most illustrious thinkers from Plato to Kant; and yet, this question is today as unanswered as it ever was.It seems that it is one of those questions to which the resigned wisdom applies that man cannot find a definitive answer, but can only try to improve the question. What i s ‘just’ is again a question which largely remains unanswered and mostly hinges on the hunch of the bench as it nowhere informs us how to recognise or distinguish a just man from the other. The term justice has two aspects, namely, abstract justice and concrete justice. In the abstract sense ‘justice’ means a course of conduct both legel and moral, which tends to augment human ‘welfare’.Those human actions which do not intersect mankind have no significance either for ethics or for jurisprudence. The answer to the question as to what actions affect human welfare varies from age to age or generation t generation depending on divergent conceptions of human welfare prevailing in a given society during a given period of time. It is through the abstract notion of justice that its true significance in its practical application can be ascertained and appreciated. In the concrete sense, justice plays a positive role in regulating the procedural safegua rds afforded to litigants in the courts of law. II.Meaning of Justice and Distributive Justice Grotius and Leibniz believed in the concept of society as the co-operation of beings endowed with reason defined justice as custodia societatis Justum est quod societatum ratione utentium perfecit. This means justice puts an end to the conflict between the individual and the universal, the microcosm and the macrocosm, and brings about the synthesis between the whole and the parts. Justice thus seems to entail the conflict of competing claims and not infrequently the clash of powerful social interests with the right of individuals ensnared from time to time in the mechanism of raison d’ Etat.That is why justice is by its very essence a justitia communis, which reconciles in itself and transcends the commutative, distributive, and universal principles. To Plato, justice is a virtue of that psyche or soul which is the quint-essential personality of human creature. In the Republic the q uest is for justice as the complete expression of the soul’s excellences and, therefore, of the whole moral man. Plato tells us that the four supreme moral qualities both in state and the individual are wisdom, courage, temperance or moderation and justice; and the greatest of these, the indispensable, is justice.Aristotle said that justice implies a certain degree of equality; this equality might, however, be either arithmetical or geometrical, the first based on identity and the second on proportionality and equivalence. Arithmetical equality leads to commutative justice, geometrical equality to distributive justice. The second is the business of the legislator, while the first is the business of the judge. Political rights and goods should be apportioned according to distributive justice, punishments should be imposed and damages paid according to commutative justice.The theory of justice thus involves an examination of the body of rights and duties accepted in a society i n the light of the formal principles of equality, the aim being to rid it of arbitrary elements; that is discrimination not grounded on relevant differences. According to John Stuart Mill, a society which is governed by the legal philosophy of distributive justice is one which: Should treat all equally well who have deserved equally well of it, that is, who have deserved equally well absolutely.This is the highest abstract standard of social and distributive justice; towards which all institutions and the efforts of all virtuous citizens should be made in the utmost degree to converge. It is thus universally considered just that each person should obtain that (whether good or evil) which he deserves; and unjust that he should obtain a good, or be made to undergo an evil, which he does not deserve. This is perhaps the clearest and most emphatic form in which the idea of justice is conceived by the general mind. As it involves the idea of desert the question arises of what constitutes desert.The characteristic of distributive justice is the expansion of the spirit of collectivism, the promotion of the feeling of co-operation and the exercise by society of its collective powers in support of the legitimate claims of individual life. Its formula is â€Å"to every man according to his needs† rather than â€Å"to every man according to his deserts. † The distributive justice considers how it can secure too each individual a standard of living and such a share in the values of civilization as shall make possible a full existence of human life.In all these ways, the notion of justice according to law is gradually pervaded by the notion of justice and the distributive justice in the law. III. Concept of Distributive Justice Modern social and economic developments have made it clear that individual justice, justice between the wrongdoer and the victim is only a partial and incomplete form of justice and it is in the notion of distributive justice, i. e. , rendering to each man his due, the essence of justice lies.The development of the welfare state is generally thought of as an application of the notion of distributive justice. Moreover, the cry for equality of opportunity for the underprivileged and weaker sections of the society is being increasingly heard these days and this demonstrates the importance of the notion of distributive justice in modern consciousness. Distributive justice embraces â€Å"the whole economic dimension of social justice, the entire question of proper distribution of goods and services within the society†.It demands equality in the distribution or allotment of advantages or burdens. The advantages or burdens which are to be distributed are of numerous kinds such as wages, taxes, property, punishments, individual or social performances or rights and duties as allocated and apportioned by the legal system. Distributive justice aims to strike a balance in the socio- economic structure of the society t o bring equipoise between the conflicting desires, interests and claims of the individual citizens. Justice P. N.Bhagwati succinctly explains distributive justice as: And when I talk of justice, I mean not commutative justice but distributive justice, justice in depth, justice which penetrates and destroys inequalities of race, sex, and wealth, justice which is not confined to a fortunate few, but takes within its sweep the entire people of the country, justice which ensures equitable distribution of the social, material and political resources of the community. This is the kind of justice which we in India are trying to realize through the process of law and our substantive law is being geared to this task.Distributive justice includes the quality of being just and fair to all the individuals in the society or group. It seeks to give everyone what is due to him. What is due cannot be ascertained by absolute standards because the standards change with changes in the socio-economic c onditions of the society. It does not mean only a just distribution of the material goods of life, but also means and includes the reasonable requirements of human body, mind and spirit. It takes in both the means and the end, the process as well as the product.It seeks to meet out justice through just means, unjust means may satisfy some, but cause injustice to others. Distributive justice means justice to all and not to a few or a favored class. It does not introduce class conflicts, but seeks to improve and harmonise the society with a view to avoid the socio- economic imbalances. The readjustment of social claims may involve a transfer of resources from one section of the society to another, but the transfer is only an equitable reallocation of the resources and not a destruction of the structure itself.Distributive justice demands preferential treatment of the weaker sections of the society, but that is only to correct the imbalances existing in the society and not to cause unn ecessary harassment or injustice to the advanced sections thereof. Thus, it seeks to remove the imbalances in the social, economic and political life of the people. There cannot be distributive justice unless the society progresses in all the directions. In short distributive justice helps to bring about a just society.The right to distributive justice may be defined as the right of the weak, aged, destitute, poor, women, children, and other underprivileged and downtrodden segments of the society to the protection of the state against the ruthless competition of life. It seeks to give adventitious aids to the underprivileged, so that they may have an equal opportunity to compete boldly with the more advanced sections of the society. It is a bundle of rights; in one sense it is carved out of other rights; in another sense, it is a preserver of other rights.It is the balancing wheel between the haves and have- nots. Its aim is not to pull down the advanced sections of the society, but only to uplift the backwards and the underprivileged sections thereof without unduly and unreasonably effecting and undermining the interests of the former. It only prevents unjust enrichment at the expense of the underprivileged and ensures a balanced and harmonious development of the society. It is this approach and understanding of the concept of distributive justice which permeates the Indian Constitution and is adopted here for the purposes of this work.This takes us to the study of principles of distributive justice which serve as the criteria for evaluating the propriety or justice of distribution. IV. Theories of justice The theories which take in their sweep the above mentioned principles of distributive justice are: – Utilitarian, and – Contractarian. The former represents an established tradition of ethical thought, though subject to continuing refinements and restatements. The later owes much to John Rawls, who, in recent times has most illuminatingly used the idea of primordial social contract to arrive at the basic principles of justice.It is often reiterated that the theories of justice must take into consideration at least three important facets of distributive process: a) The ‘total amount of goods (or utility) to the distributed’; b) The ‘pattern of distribution arrived at’; and c) The distributional procedure described aptly as the ‘principle of selection by means of which the distribution is arrived at’. An attempt is made here to examine the different facets of these theories and to ascertain the extent to which they satisfy the demands of distributive justice.Utilitarian Theory of Justice Utilitarianism is essentially an aggressive theory. Its premise is the greatest good of the greatest number. Justice in its essence is distributive in character. The three principles of justice enumerated above demand that a person’s share of good should be proportional to some quality he posse sses. It is, therefore, unlikely that utilitarian theory will be able to accommodate principles whose form contrasts directly with that of the greatest happiness principle.It is submitted that why someone committed to aggregating good should care how that good is distributed among different people. The main weakness of the utilitarian theory from the perspectives of distributive justice is that it accords a paramount role to the quantity of good or welfare distribution. This has been pointed out by Brandit in the following words: â€Å"If quantity of welfare can be raised by a grossly unequal distribution- for instance, as in an efficient system of slavery- then we have to favour inequality.Equality, on utilitarian scheme, is a servant of quantity of welfare. † John Rawls takes this insight as his starting point in developing a contractual theory of justice which is intended to remedy the deficiencies of utilitarianism. It may thus seem that the utilitarian theory does not br ing home the expectations of society because our needs and desires differ qualitatively and are mutually incommensurable.Man harbours the most varied needs, for example the need for food, rest and sleep, occupation, sexual activity, culture and knowledge, artistic experience and recreation, love and respect, power and social esteem, etc. If all the needs of an individual cannot be satisfied, and if he is faced with a choice, for example, between listening to symphony and eating a good dinner, this choice cannot be described as a rational alternative between two measurable quantities of pleasure. Contractarian Theory of JusticeAccording to John Rawls: â€Å"Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override†. Rawls understands society as a co-operative venture for mutual advantage. In a co-operative society, there is a social union and a shared end, conceived not as a substantive goal, but as a plan of conduct which will assure that the endowments of each will be complementary to the good of all. The actual differences between individuals in terms of natural abilities, social advantages, wealth, etc. are viewed as a cause of social discord; the differences tempt men to pursue their own advantage, what all have in common is a moral personality and this must be the basis of justice. The utilitarian theory fails to accommodate this very conception of justice. To replace it, Rawls has offered the following principles of justice: All social primary goods- liberty and opportunity, income and wealth, and the bases of self- respect are to be distributed equally unless an unequal distribution of any, or all, of these goods is to the advantage of the least favoured.V. The Constitutional Scheme of Distributive Justice Indian Constitution opens with the preamble which states in unequivocal terms that the people of India have solemnly resolved to secure to all its citizens: Justice – social, ec onomic and political, equality of status and of opportunity and to promote among them all fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the nation.The Objectives Resolution from which this phrase has been carved out states: This Constituent Assembly declares its firm and solemn resolve to proclaim India as an Independent Sovereign Republic and to draw up for her future governance a Constitution: a) Wherein shall be guaranteed and secured to all the people of India justice, social, economic and political; equality of status, of opportunity, and before the law; freedom of thought, expression, belief, faith, worship, vocation, association and action, subject to law and public morality; and b) Wherein adequate safeguards shall be provided for minorities, backward and tribal areas, and depressed and other backward classes. Referring to socio- economic justice, Dr. S.Radhakrishnan said that it intended to effect a smooth and rapid transition from a state of serfdom to one of freedom. Then emphasizing the need for such a change, he said, â€Å"it is therefore necessary that we must remake the material conditions†. The phrases thus used by the Founding Fathers clearly indicate that socio-economic justice in its realization is distributive in character. It contemplates a change in social structure in order to effect a transition from serfdom to freedom and attempts to remake the material conditions of the society. Granville Austin has also observed: â€Å"The Constitution was to foster the achievement of many goals. Transcendent among them was that of social revolution. Through this revolution would be fulfilled the basic eeds of the common man, and, it was hoped, this revolution would bring about fundamental changes in the structure of the Indian society†. Thus, the scheme of distributive justice as visualized in the Objectives resolution was incorporated in the preamble, the fundamental rights and the directive princip les of state policy and other provisions of the Constitution. You can read also  Justice System Position PaperThe gist of the scheme may be stated thus: Constitution ordains the state to promote the welfare of the people by securing and protecting as effectively as it may a social order in which justice- social, economic and political shall inform all the institutions of national life. For the establishment of social order, the people of India have been given the following fundamental rights: a) Right to equality; ) Right to six freedoms- freedom of speech and expression; to assemble peaceably and without arms; to form associations or unions; to move freely throughout the territory of India; to reside and settle in any part of the territory of India; to practice any profession or to carry on any occupation, trade or business; c) Right to life and personal liberty; d) Right against exploitation; e) Right to freedom of religion; f) Cultural and educational rights; g) Right to constitutional remedies. In addition to these, the directive principl es of state policy also express in categorical terms the ideals of distributive justice. Article 38 requires the state inter-alia, to minimize the inequalities in income and endeavor to eliminate inequalities in status, facilities and opportunities, not only amongst individuals, but also amongst groups of people residing in different areas or engaged in different vocations.Article 39 requires the state to make available to all the citizens adequate means of livelihood; to distribute ownership and control of material resources so as to sub serve the common good; to operate the economic system in such a way that it does not result in concentration of wealth and means of production to the common detriment; that there is equal pay for equal work; to protect the health and strength of workers men and women and the tender age of children against abuse and that citizens are not forced by economic necessity to enter avocations unsuited to their age and strength, that children are given oppo rtunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and that childhood and youth are protected against exploitation and against moral and material abandonment.The state is also required to provide equal justice through the mechanism of free legal aid in order to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizens by reason of economic or other disabilities; to provide right to work, to education and public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement and other cases of undeserved want; to make provision for securing just and humane conditions of work and for maternity relief, to provide work, a living wage, conditions of work ensuring a decent standard of life and full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities; to secure the participation of workers in the management of undertakings, establishments or other organizations engaged in industry; to secure for all the citizen s a uniform civil code throughout the country, to provide free and compulsory education for children below the age of 14 years; to promote the educational and economic interests of the Scheduled castes and Scheduled Tribes and other weaker sections; to raise the level of nutrition and standard of living and to improve the public health. Thus, it can be said that the Constitution of India has twin objectives: First, to usher in a new social order ensuring distributive justice to all the citizens and; second, to protect the liberties of the people from the onslaughts of autocratic and arbitrary power. These two ideas run like a golden fabric through the entire scheme of the Constitution.Indeed, the substantive and the procedural provisions of the Constitution harmonizing the said two concepts give a new philosophy and sustenance to our socialist, democratic republic based on rule of law. But to our dismay, many of the legislative actions destined at distributive justice pursuance to t he implementation of the directive principles of state policy were struck down by the courts from time to time. The directives have been relegated to the position of inferiority. The bewildering judgments of the Supreme Court right from the days of Champakam Dorairajan,Quaresh, Kerela Education Bill, including the Golaknath, the Bank Nationalisation, the Privy Purse and the Minerva Mills have shattered all the hopes of the Government to implement the directive principles of state policy.These ecisions crippled the state machinery and paralysed the movement of the nation towards an equalitarian social order. These decisions represent a saga of judicial misunderstanding of the avowed ideals of the Constitution. This approach is inherently inconsistent with the spirit of the Constitution ignoring the realities of the Indian societal structure. The poverty of the Indian masses cannot be mitigated by eulogizing the fundamental liberties and mellowing down the positive efforts of state de stined at distributive justice. The Constitutional goals of distributive justice can be achieved only if the courts adopt a pragmatic and sociological approach without making such ado about the rights in interpreting socio-economic legislations.It is submitted that both fundamental rights and directive principles of state policy aim at establishing a just social order based on the philosophy of distributive justice ensuring dignity to the individual not only to the few privileged persons, but to the entire masses of the country including the have nots and the handicapped, the lowliest and the lost. Both these represent a broad spectrum of human rights. The concept of distributive justice as embodied in the Constitution is a living concept of revolutionary import. It gives sustenance to the rule of law and meaning and significance to the ideals of a welfare state. The freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution are not an end in itself, but the means to achieve distributive justice.Ou r Constitution is the unique document for the upliftment of the down-trodden and weaker sections of the society. The greatest need of the hour, therefore, in our society in social integration of the weaker and oppressed sections of the people with the rest of the society. This demonstrates that our Constitution does not leave the individual at the mercy of the law of nature representative of competitive modal of society. It assigns a prominent role to and imposes heavy responsibilities upon the state to assure a dignified life to each individual irrespective of what he deserves on meritarian consideration. Yet, in a way it incorporates the need-based principle of justice.It means securing to each and every human being the basic necessities of life like food, clothing, housing, medicine, education and the like etc. This is the voice of distributive justice and the very Dharma of the Indian Constitution. ——————————à ¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€œ [ 1 ]. Sudesh Kumar Sharma, Distributive justice under Indian Constitution, Deep & Deep Publications, New Delhi, 1989 [ 2 ]. http://www. spotlaw. in/text/910011996/9100119961206001. htm (accessed on 9 march 2013) [ 3 ]. http://www. spotlaw. in/text/910011996/9100119961206001. htm (accessed on 9 march 2013) [ 4 ]. Sudesh Kumar Sharma, Distributive justice under Indian Constitution, Deep & Deep Publications, New Delhi, 1989 [ 5 ]. VII Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences, 512 (1953) [ 6 ].Quoted by Justice George Vadakkel in his paper entitled â€Å"Law, lawyers and political development†, Vol. VIII (4), Journal of Bar Council of India, 629 at 635 (1981). [ 7 ]. Address by Justice P. N Bhagwati at the opening session of the Sixth Commonwealth Law Conference on 18th August, 1980 in The challenge of social justice, 20-21 (1985). [ 8 ]. John Rawls, A Theory of Justice (1976 Reprint) [ 9 ]. R. B. Brandit, Ethical Theory, 415 (1959) [ 10 ]. John R awls, â€Å"Distributive Jusitce† in P. Laslett and W. G. Runciman (ed. ), Philosophy, Politics and Society, 3rd ser. 50 (1967) [ 11 ]. I C A. D 59 [ 12 ]. II C A. D. 269 [ 13 ]. II C A. D. 273 [ 14 ].Granville Austin, The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation, introduction (1979 Reprint) [ 15 ]. Art. 38(1) [ 16 ]. Art. 14 to 18 [ 17 ]. Art. 19(1)(a), (b), (c), (d), (e), (g). [ 18 ]. Art. 20 to 22 [ 19 ]. Art. 23 and 24 [ 20 ]. Art. 25 to 28 [ 21 ]. Art. 29 to 30 [ 22 ]. Art. 32 [ 23 ]. Art. 38(2) [ 24 ]. Art. 39(a), (b), (c), (d), (e) and (f). [ 25 ]. Art. 39-A [ 26 ]. Art. 42 [ 27 ]. Art. 43 [ 28 ]. Art. 43 A [ 29 ]. Art. 44 [ 30 ]. Art. 45 [ 31 ]. Art. 46 [ 32 ]. Art. 47 [ 33 ]. 1951 SCR 525 [ 34 ]. AIR 1958 SC 731 [ 35 ]. AIR 1958 SC 956 [ 36 ]. AIR 1967 SC 1643 [ 37 ]. AIR 1970 SC 607 [ 38 ]. (1971) 1 SCJ 295 [ 39 ]. (1980) 3 SCC 625

Shangri-La Hotel and Resort

[pic] Prepared By: Yee Shan (Sarah) CHUNG, Yan Sin (Jessy) LI, Kim Sang (Anson) HO, Kit Yat (Donald) TAI Table of Contents 1. Introduction3 2. Summary of Macro Environment4 3. Summary of Industry Analysis8 4. Summary of Internal Analysis12 5. Gap Analysis14 6. Recommendations22 7. Appendices26 8. References52 1. Introduction Since the parent company, the Kuok Group, is established in 1949 and until 1979 the home-grown Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore, was opened its doors in 1971 and it was opened under the management of Western International Hotels.However, Shangri-La International Hotel Management Ltd was founded in 1982 and from that time until now, Shangri- La endeavoured through countless challenged from the Asian financial crisis to the outbreak of SARS in 2003 and a lot of other challenges, Shangri- La Hotels and Resorts (SLHR) recently was announced and located its properties premier city addresses and some of the world's most exotic destinations across Asia, Middle East, North Am erica and Europe. As of 2006, SLHR was the largest Asian – based deluxe hotel group in Southeast Asia.The company managed a total of 50 hotels under three brands: the five-star Shangri-La, the four-star Traders and Kerry – with total inventory of over 23000 rooms across 39 locations. Furthermore, SLHR also join the stock market of Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand. As of SLHR’ mission statement â€Å"To delight our guests every time by creating engaging experiences straight from our heart†, SLHR also produce new product differentiation such as Chinese theory spas which named the â€Å"Chi† in most of its organization.The success of SLHR does not stop there expanding its market or increase their inventory, but the management always concern its competitors who can bring the better product and service base on SLHR’s ones. SLHR management also requires having strategies for long term running the organization. The aim of this strategic analysis re port is to create vision for organization in future; by identifying and analysing the major macro-environmental trends which believe the major issues affect to the future growth of SLHR.The report also quickly examines the five forces within the industry analysis to rough idea the current effectiveness of the industry and also based on evidences to expect the future profitability of SLHR. Besides, to create the advantage competitive of SLHR, all of internal operations in term of resources and capabilities could inspect. Moreover, to have an overall the difference between the desired situation and the actual situation of SLHR, a gap analysis will be point out for bringing all analysis together and base on this analysis gap, organization will have an overall difference.Lastly, it is definitely not absent in this report will be a list of recommendations which help formulating for SLHR in relation to achieve to greater its position in all markets in the future. 2. Summary of Macro Envir onment Macro environment or PESTE analysis is the first step in creating the Environmental Analysis. The macro environment examines the general business climate as it relates to the organisation, but the organisation has nothing to do with it. It has an impact to influence Shangri-La Hotels by four different factors, such as Political or Legal, Economic, Socio-cultural, Technology and Environmental.These four factors had been analysed in the Appendix 1, which is based on the Shangri-La over the world. The Global economic has more negative factors that impact the Hotels, Global Financial Crisis nowadays is one of the big issues for most of the industries around the world, as it leads recession which will affect the finance of the countries or industries. Because of the Global Financial Crisis, the unemployment rate of some countries is still increasing in the beginning of 2012, such as Euro Area increased to 11%, Italy increased to 10. 0%, Spain and Greece has increased over 20%, but some of the countries are decreasing such as Japan, Thailand, Turkey and Hong Kong(Trade Economic, 2012). The unemployment rate is increasing because of the cost of labour is increasing as well which the current financial situation is not good enough to support. People are more concern on price or become price sensitive now because of global financial crisis, as they will think the product is worth with the listed price or not.Some of the countries had announced Carbon Tax scheme which will affect the hotels, as every organisations need to pay a certain amount for the carbon that they produced. These negative factors may leads the guests rarely go travel and stay in hotels because they have less income, as the net income of Shangri-La Hotels Group had decreased to $253. 0 million (Bloomberg Business Week, 2012). However, the Gross Domestic Product around the world is increasing while the inflation is decreasing in most of the countries. Same as the Economic factors, the Political a lso has more negative factors impact the hotels.Over 90% of the countries had established a legislation of minimum wages, the legislation is to prevent the employers when there is the intense market competition and they in order to save costs, at the same time the wages of the employees are unable to meet their basic needs. On the recent years, there are some conflict occurs between nations, for example, there was two attackers rammed a border post with a rubbish truck and threw two grenades, and then attacked policemen with knives in Kashgar, Beijing; and a roadside bomb explosion in Diwaniyah.The most recent hotel bombing is the Marriott Jakarta bombing in 2009 because of terrorism which leads at least 9 people killed and 50 people injured. For a hotel chain as Shangri-La, the properties are everywhere in the world, they need to prevent and consider about the location’s political issues before or after they take over or establish a new Shangri-La. On the other hand, some na tions have a legislation to control the people own arms or guns. But when the numbers of arms holding increase, the country and properties need to increase the insecurity as well (Shah, 2011).By having legislation of arms controlling is good for Shangri-La. As in 21st Century, everything is being high technology which means there are lots of new technology products invested and announced into the market such as 3D televisions and surrounding audio systems. When those products had announced to public, the guests may expect the hotels will have one of these products in house. Most of the technology factors are neither positive nor negative impact for Shangri-La, as the number of the internet users is increasing rapidly every year, nearly everyone will have at least one computer and smartphone.When most people have at least one technology product, some of the companies will start produce some up-to-date communication softwares and some new applications will announce to the sociality. B y the time when the number of internet users is increasing rapidly, Shangri-La can take advantages from that, as they can do marketing via internet, especially the social networks (e. g. Facebook, Twitter, Myspace). The guests can book a room via their official website or some travel agents website, and Shangri-La can announce the latest news on their official website and social networks for the guests to read.For the industry, the socio-cultural has average impact. As the population in the world is increasing which is good for all the industries, there are more consumers to consume their products. But at the same time, the fluctuating death rate is increasing which is the age population is increasing as well, because the medical technology has been improving year by year, the people will have longer life than the past. Most of the people will expect a better quality of life, such as for living and for travelling, they would like to have good experience on everything, especially on travelling and accommodation.Multi-cultural is a good for the business as well, because Shangri-La can adopt the culture and develops a different experience for the guests, for example, in India, Shangri-La can design an Indian style hotel to cater and adopt the environment to attract the guests to stay in. However, because of different culture and the religion of the culture, they need to understand and get known about these before they establish the hotel in a country or city. In addition, there are several environmental issues that affect the industry, for example, natural disasters will occur in some countries such as Earthquakes, Floods, Tsunamis and Hurricanes.Nowadays, natural disasters had become more serious and more often, because of the climate change within a decade and global warming, ozone depletion are caused primarily by increases in â€Å"greenhouse† gases as Carbon Dioxide. Due to the natural disasters and the global warming, the lands will be destroyed and lead land shortage. Land shortage will influence Shangri-La as there is no enough land for it to build new hotels, it can make them could not expand their business.While they building new hotels or running existed hotels, pollutions will be produced, for example, building new hotels will produce lots of dust and the lighting of running existed hotels as the light will open 24hours 7days. On the other hand, 3Rs policy has been announced as Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, the government encourages people to reuse and recycle the products that they used. According to Lincoln (2007) Shangri-La have a wide of environmentally friendly measures such as fitting all guestrooms with water saving device in taps and showers as well as using energy-saving lamps in more than half of the group’s guestrooms.For saving energy and resources, Shangri-La has variety of methods, as by rainwater harvesting, hot water production using solar panels or heat pumps and improvements in building envelope desi gn to reduce heat loss or heat gain as well as air filtration. Shangri-La also has several methods to reduce the greenhouse gases, such as through existing systems and processes, the use of new technologies and alternative energy sources and by building more efficient buildings. In summary, the luxury hotel industry has opportunities and threats associated with the macro environment. There is variety of positive, balanced and negative trends.There are still opportunities for reasonable growth in this industry despite the threats. 3. Summary of Industry Analysis Industry environment has a more direct effect on the firm’s strategic competitiveness and ability to earn above-average return as compare to the general environment (Misangyl et. al, 2006). Hitt et. al (2011, p. 51) mention â€Å"Industry analysis will be using the five forces model of competition such as the threats posed by new entrants, the power of suppliers, the power of buyers, product substitutes, and the inten sity of rivalry among competitors to understand the profitability potential within the industry†.The strength and interaction of the five competitive forces are what influence profit potential. This section will discuss about the industry analysis of hotel industry and a more detailed analysis can be seen in Appendix2. The threat of entrants in the hotel industry is not significant which leads to high industry profitability. New entrants need to have sufficient amount of budget in order to build and run the hotel such as require substantial upfront investment in building, specialized equipment, infrastructure and staffs.Products and services are easy to replicate in hotel industry, therefore, brand identity is the differentiator in the hotels. It is difficult for new entrants to gain access to the capital requirements needed to develop and build hotel. The industry’s incumbents have established relationships and experience, which enables them to achieve significant cost savings. In addition to brand loyalty and costs the new entrants must also contend with the probability of retaliation from the established hotels. The xisting businesses in the industry have a high degree of absolute cost advantages as they have built good relationship and trust between the suppliers and customers. The number of suppliers to the hotel industry is extremely high. The types of suppliers for hotels include construction suppliers, monopoly suppliers such as electricity, gas and water, furniture suppliers, linen and bedding suppliers, food suppliers, decor suppliers, appliance suppliers, uniform suppliers and most importantly then staffs. The suppliers have medium bargaining power which will affect the attractiveness and profitability of the industry.There is high concentration of suppliers. However, the majority of hotels have regional contracts with suppliers. This locks the hotel companies into using certain suppliers and creates switching costs. The volume being so ld to the industry is important to the raw materials sources suppliers and equipment manufacturers because hotels will purchase in bulk to operate the business. Contracted suppliers costs and employees’ costs are high because they are needed to work for the operation of the business. These suppliers have high bargaining power.However, they are unable to bargain and will make close to their best offer at the first opportunity in order to gain profit for their business. Differentiation of outputs from suppliers is necessary to deliver performance in order to be more profitable in the industry. Hotels and resorts are part of the accommodation in the lodging industry. Rooms are highly perishable products. There are other options to stay when the customers are away from home such as apartments, condos, cabins and town houses. Buyers have high bargaining power in choosing the accommodation that they would like to stay.Hotels can create differentiation strategy to add value to attra ct customers such as dealing with the pricing strategy, good customer services and provide up-to-date technology in the hotels. However, there is high concentration of buyers relative to the industry. There is very little threat of backward integration from the consumer due to the high costs of start up in the hotel industry. Hence, when the buyers have medium to high bargaining power, then the industry profitability will be low. Substitutes to the hotel industry have a high level of power which leads to low industry profitability.There are a lot of substitutes in the industry. Leisure customers have more alternatives when they travel overseas as well as business customers, they can plan whether to fly to a city in order to have meetings. Nowadays due to the advance technology invented, Internet helps the business people a lot. Business man can do video-conferencing in their own country without flying to other country. This helps the business to save a lot of money. In regards to le isure customers, they have more choices to choose such as staying in boutique hotels, motels, apartments, camping, cruise ships and even caravan.Substitutes gave greater power. The substitutes can provide similar services and products and providing better value for money which make economic sense for buyers to switch. The intensity of rivalry in the industry is medium to high which leads to low industry profitability. Hotel industry is in mature stage, there is no industry growth. With the increase of competitors such as the expansion of luxury Asian brand – Mandarin Oriental, it makes it difficult for the hotels in the industry to maximize its profit by strengthening its occupancy rates.The high cost of building, furnishing and servicing the hotels in the industry create high fixed costs and high exit barriers. This increases rivalry as they need to maximise profits to have significant returns on investment. It makes it difficult to withdraw from the industry and has to comp ete with other existing rivals. The level of diversity among the companies is medium because the majority of the hotels provide similar types of high quality service. Due to this reason, it is easy for buyers to switch from one competitor’s product to another.While there is great rivalry in this industry, there are opportunities for expansion into national and international markets. Moreover, there are many stakeholders involved and large dollar investments, thus, it involves high commitment from every members in the organisation. Overall, analysis of the five forces in hotel industry found out that hotel industry’s attractiveness is rated as medium-low in terms of the potential to earn adequate or superior returns.It is considered as a partly unattractive industry because it has low entry barriers, medium to strong bargaining position of suppliers and buyers, strong competitive threats from product substitutes and intense rivalry among competitors. 4. Summary of Inter nal Analysis Internal analysis is an analysis about the organisation itself, it finds out organisation resources and capabilities to create value to customers and identify area of weaknesses to be addressed by future strategic and evaluate core competencies (Evans, Campbell and Stonehouse, 2003).Acknowledging those resources and capabilities can understand company position and competitive advantage to achieve superior performance and profitability by strategic (Hill and Jones, 2012). Resources Tangible Shangri-la group comprises 110 hotels and resorts throughout Asia Pacific, North America, the Middle East and Europe. In future development more than 20 hotels and resorts will be built in variety countries. Revenue has growing up nearly a quarter from 2009 to 2010, US $1,729 million to US 2,145 million.But, Share of profit of associates of hotel operation total is 15. 0, and property rentals total is 47. 7. Intangible Shangri-la group has great reputation in public, goodwill value is US $84,504,000 in 2010, because create green image to public, ‘Sustainability’ is umbrella brand which has several action to reduce energy consumption, waste water and carbon dioxide emission. It shows the low turnover rate, this is because company pays respects, cares and aware their employee and provide work-life balance program to motivate staffs to work productively and efficiently.Capabilities It has strong human resource capabilities which is compare to others hotel property, the staff turnover rate is low, Shangri-la provide a series training to staff ensure reach service consistency that ensure meet the expectation of service quality, so this is the competitive advantage. The distribution channels are strongly developed, it has several internet distribution channels, e-commerce is the best way to deliver and receive information nowadays.However, the product differentiation, marketing and management are not strong enough to be core competencies. 5. Gap Analysis Macro-environment Business Strategy Gaps |Trend |Date of Impact |Business Strategy match or Mismatch | |Economic Growth in Asia |1-5 years |Match – Currently Shangri-La group is focusing on developing the | |(especially in China) | |market in China. |Euro economic crisis |1-5 years |Match – Europe is not an essential market segment for the Shangri-La | | | |group and does not have big influence on the hotel financial | | | |performance | |Increasing value of Chinese |Now and ongoing |Mismatch – As the exchange rate of RMB is getting higher, tourists | |RMB’s | |prefer going to other Asian countries while China is the main market | | | |for Shangri-La | |Green Awareness |Now and ongoing |Match – Shangri-La really makes an effort on sustainability, creating | | | |a green organisation image to the public and gaining goodwill from | | | |that. | |Use of Technology |Now and ongoing |Match – Shangri-La spends significant resources on network pro moting, | | | |for example customer can book a room through Shangri-La’s Facebook | |Diminishing Target Demographic |3-5 years |Mismatch – Even Shangri-La group has other brands like Traders and | |Segment | |Kerry, but the target market is also focusing on up-scale market. | Industry Environment Business Strategy Gaps Industry Environment Element |Opportunity of Threat |Effect on Industry Profitability |Business Strategy Consistency or | | | | |Inconsistency | |Suppliers |Natural |Average |Consistent | |Buyers |Threat |High |Consistent | |Threats of New Entrants |Opportunity |High |Limited Consistency | |Substitutes |Threat |High |Limited Consistency | |Rivalry |Threat |High |Consistent | |Government |Opportunity and threat |Various by Location |Some Consistency | |Complementors |Opportunity |Low |Limited Consistency | Key Competitor Business Strategy Gaps |Competitor | |Physical | |Brands | |Decision Making | |Values | | | ECONOMIC FACTOR |Recession |Negative | | | Global Finance Crisis, spend money discreetly (Shah, 2010). | | | | | | | |Good & Service Tax, spend more money in good (Kalia, 2010). |Negative | | | | | | |Some of the countries had announced Carbon Tax which increase | | | |expense (World News Australia, 2012). Negative | | | | | | |Gross Domestic Product is increasing which stimulate people spend | | | |in hospitality (The Economist Online, 2011). |Positive | | | | | | |People are more concern on price due to Global Financial Crisis | | | | |Negative | | |High Labour cost, especially in China grow up rapidly fast. | | | | | | |The inflation in most of the countries are decreasing , | | | |China still growing so fast (Global-Rates. com, 2012) |Negative | | | | | | |The unemployment rate in most of the countries are decreasing | | | |(Trading Economics, 2012) |Positive | | | | | | |Negative | | | |(China) | | | | | | | |Positive | |Overall Negative | |POLITICAL/LEGAL FACTOR |Around 90% of countries had established a l egislation of minimum |Negative | | |wages that increase labour cost extremely (Herr and Kazandziska, | | | |2011). | | | | | | |Conflict between nations, it is not safety for travelling that |Negative | | |influence hospitality industry (Global Conflict Map. com, 2011)( The | | | |World Bank, 2011). | | | | | | | |Arms control in some nations, limit import and export goods (Shah |Positive | | |2012).For instance, North Korea has strict control rules in | | | |hospitality industry. | | |Overall Negative | |TECHNOLOGICAL FACTOR |Growth of Internet with fast broadband can assists consumers to |Positive | | |search for rooms available via websites. They can make | | | |reservations easily which help the costs of industry’s marketing | | | |activities. | | | | | | |Communication software or technology improved every year such as |Positive | | |Facebook and Twitter are Social Medias for marketing. | | | | | | | |Many new technology products announced into the market, energy | Positive | | |saving light reduce pollution. For example, the installation of | | | |solar energy system in hotels which can help saving the budget of | | | |the company. | |Overall Positive | |SOCIO-CULTURAL FACTOR |Fluctuating Death Rate which mean age Population is increasing |Negative | | |(Population Reference Bureau, 2011). | | | | | | | |Expectations of service quality. Consumers now expect to get | | | |intangible experience and want to be recognized by the employees. Negative | | |As long as the industry keep up the standards with what the | | | |customers are expecting then it will bring positive effect to the | | | |industry. | | | | | | | |The number of population is increasing over the world; it | | | |increases the workforce and potential customer (Rosenberg, 2011). Positive | | | | | | |Multi-culture around the world, allow knowledge and technique | | | |exchange. | | | | |Positive | |Overall Balance | |ENVIRONMENTAL FACTOR |Greater awareness in global warming i ssues is a concern.Energy |Negative | | |consumption needs to be considered to reduce greenhouse gas. The | | | |most cost-effective greenhouse gas reductions can be made by using| | | |existing low technology in building insulation, lighting, | | | |air-conditioning and water heating systems and electricity standby| | | |(Enkvist et. al, 2007), (Fenger and Tjell, 2009). | | | | | | |Climate change (Shah, 2012) & Global Warming (National Geographic,| | | |2012). For example, mountainous areas reduce snow cover and winter| | | |tourism; southern areas decrease summer tourism period. |Negative | | | | | | |Water use management, reduce water use is a long-term strategic. | | |(Queensland Government, 2012) | | | | | | | |Waste disposal management, Use filters in deep fryers to extend | | | |the life of | | | |cooking oil or sale to driver(Lincoln, 2007) | | | |Indoor air quality, more countries forbid smoking in indoor than |Positive | | |last decade(Lincoln, 2007) | | | | | | | |3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) reduce waste cost in daily operation. | | | |For instance, use mugs to instead of disposable cups (USA |Positive | | |Recycling Facility Service, 2012) | | | | | | | |Some countries may need to face the natural disasters, e. g. | | | |Earthquake, Tsunami, and Hurricane (Shah, 2011). Negative | | | | | | |Land Shortage in nations, less land available, so the cost of land| | | |is become expensive. For example, rise around 9% of the total |Positive | | |property price, since 2001 in Australia (Hopkins, 2012),(Asia for | | | |Educators, 2009), (Your Investment Property, 2012). | | | | | | | |Negative | | | | | | | | | | | |Negative | |Overall Negative | 2. Industry Analysis |Forces |Issues |Impact | |Threats of new |Economies of scale |Medium | |entrants |New entrants need to have a certain large-scale production and huge finance because | | | |hotel industry requires substantial upfront investment in building, specialized | | | |equipment, infrastruc ture and staffs. | | |Small lodges will find it difficult to enter to the industry and compete with | | | |Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts because it requires large investment, however, the other| | | |well-known brands hotels such as Marriot International, Hyatt and Hilton might find it| | | |easier to build new hotels. | | | |Proprietary product differences |Medium | | |Product differentiation in hotel industry is low. It is relatively easy to replicate | | | |differentiation such as the products and services. Every hotels and resort can provide| | | |rooms that meet the demands of the customers and also train their staffs well to | | | |provide personalized service. | | |However, Shangri-La Hotels and Resort have built good brand and reputation; thus, it | | | |is the differentiator to compete with other new competitors. | | | |Brand identity |Low | | |Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts have built a good brand image in the mind of customers. | | | |Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts is alrea dy the leader in Asia (Dogan, 2010). They have | | | |established high product differentiation and brand loyalty.Other new brand hotels | | | |that want to come into the industry, they have to spend lots of costs to attract the | | | |customers to be competitive advantage. | | | |Buyer/customer switching costs |Medium | | |It is simple and easy for customers to switch costs. Customers can be easily attracted| | | |to different hotels that offer more value for money, or affordable prices. Due to the | | | |presence of Internet, customers will search and compare the hotel’s price via | | | |websites. Loyalty program can prevent the guests from switching costs. | | |Capital requirements |Low | | |High capital requirement is required for new entrants even though the competitors plan| | | |to do franchise, merger and acquisition, there is still high investment costs involved| | | |such as costs of inventories, high risk and law return situation and marketing | | | |activities. H ubbard & Beamish (2011, p. 76) state â€Å"New entrants with good ideas but | | | |without finance are unable to break into the industry†. | | |Access to distribution |Low | | |New entrants may have limited sources to access such as raw materials and distribution| | | |channels, as existing hotels have regular customers and partners. | | | |Absolute cost advantages |Low | | |The existing businesses in the industry have a high degree of absolute cost | | | |advantages.They have built good relationship and trust between each others; already | | | |establish hotel’s experience, favourable raw materials, advertisement expenses and | | | |favourable location. Thus, it is hard for new entrants to enter into the industry | | | |because there is low level of trust and familiarity with the suppliers. | | | |Government policy |High | | |Depends on the country’s regulations, government has the opportunity to set many | | | |restraints in the industry or encourage and facil itate the development of hotels. | | |Expected retaliation |High | | |Retaliation is expected as existing hotels will low down price and promotes some | | | |packages to attract customers. Unique and differentiated products by diversifying it | | | |can therefore persist the retaliation. | | |OVERALL RATING: LOW – MEDIUM | |Bargaining power of |Differentiation of inputs |Medium | |supplier |Supplier’s input is crucial to the final product. Good quality of the products and | | | |services provided by the suppliers will create a good outcome.Hence, it will have to | | | |boost the economy of the business. Hotels in the industry are the buyers and the | | | |producers of inputs that are the suppliers (Buffett & Munger, n. d). There are many | | | |suppliers involve in hotel industry such as: | | | |The construction companies tend to have a particular strong position when it comes to | | | |the hotel owner who would like to build a hotel. Thus, it strengthens the power o f | | | |being a supplier. | | |Monopoly suppliers who control electricity, gas and water supplies have high | | | |bargaining power. | | | |Hotels need to spend lots of money in the operational costs. Hotels need to buy | | | |Property Management System and Point of Sales to help the effectiveness of business | | | |operation. Hotels also need to buy amenities products, chemical products and raw | | | |materials for catering. Moreover, it needs to spend money on maintenance and servicing| | | |the equipments.If the hotels are locked into a contract, then the power of suppliers | | | |will be lower, they cannot increase the prices when they want to. | | | |Hotels are in the service industry. Hence, it needs people to provide exceptional | | | |services to the customers. High education and good experience employees will have | | | |higher bargaining power. They may negotiate the wages that they would like to receive | | | |and they think is reasonable before working with the hotels. | | | |Hotel customers are fragmented. Hence, as a supplier to the customers, the argaining | | | |power is low because there are substitutes that the customers can choose such as | | | |Marriott International Hotels and Hilton Hotels. | | | |Switching costs of suppliers and firms in the industry |Medium | | |Suppliers have power if there are few firms supplying the product or if there is no | | | |reasonable substitute for it (VBulletin Solutions, 2012). However in large hotel | | | |chains, many things are done by signing contract legally. Legal costs may increase if | | | |one party is not working as per contract listed. Thus, the switching cost is low. | | |Supplier concentration relative to industry concentration |Medium | | |There are high concentration of suppliers to choose from for Shangri-La Hotels and | | | |Resorts. Therefore, the suppliers have lesser power. | | | |Importance of volume to suppliers |Low | | |The volume being sold to the industry is important to the raw materials sources | | | |suppliers and equipment manufacturers because Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts will | | | |purchase in bulk to operate the business.Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts have a great | | | |deal of power over the suppliers when purchasing raw materials sources and equipments. | | | |Cost relative to total purchases in the industry |High | | |Supplier cost is a huge part of the total cost. Contracted suppliers costs and | | | |employees’ costs are high because they are needed to work for the operation of the | | | |business. Suppliers retain the power. | | | |Information about supplier’s product |Medium | |Hotels are highly aware of the quality of the products they purchase such as raw | | | |materials, equipments and even labour sources. Hotels will not take the risks to | | | |change the suppliers before they did research and compare the market price among the | | | |supplier’s industries. | | | |Supplier profitability |Low | | |Hotel industry ha s higher profitability as compare to the supplier industry.Suppliers| | | |will be unable to bargain and they will make close to their best offer at the first | | | |opportunity in order to gain profit for their business. | | | |Decision makers’ incentives |Medium | | |Hotels need to motivate their employees by giving incentives in order for them to | | | |provide good service to the customers. | | | |Hotels will do promotional packages when it is in low season to attract more customers| | | |to stay in the hotel. | | |Threat of forward integration |High | | |Suppliers can sell their products via Internet and even to the supermarkets. They have| | | |the power to enter the industry (Hubbard & Beamish, 2011). | | |OVERALL RATING: MEDIUM | |Bargaining power of |Differentiation of outputs |High | |buyers |Customers determine the profitability of the hotel’s business by choosing which one | | | |they would like to stay with, they have high bargaining power to choose.Hotel s create| | | |differentiation strategy to add value to attract customers such as: | | | |Customers place products and pricing strategy at first. For instance, the hotels | | | |should plan for low price strategy during low season or include complimentary goods | | | |for customers. | | | |Staffs provide good quality of service. | | | |Good geographic location which convenience the guests. | | | |Good atmosphere of the rooms and restaurants. | | |Give service for disable such as have disabled rooms in the hotels which located in | | | |the first floor to convenient the handicapped people. | | | |Switching costs of buyers |High | | |Shangri-La Hotel and Resorts have created a loyalty program named â€Å"Golden Circle† to | | | |attract existing customers by earning points and then the customers can redeemed for | | | |hotel stays, dining or spa experiences at any  Shangri-La hotel, resort, Traders hotel | | | |or Kerry hotel (Shangri-La International Hotel Management, 2012) .Thus, this group of | | | |customers will most likely be repeat customers and choose to experience services from | | | |Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts. There are low switching costs for customers. | | | |Presence of substitute outputs |High | | |There is an important level of the industry’s output has to the buyer. Hotels and | | | |resorts are part of the accommodation in the lodging industry. There are other options| | | |to stay when the customers are away from home such as apartments, condos, cabins and | | | |town houses (CarrHallCastle, 2012). | | |Industry concentration relative to buyer concentration |Medium – Low | | |Tourism industry is growing rapidly and the demand of hotels for customers increased. | | | |Travellers are highly concentrated relative to the industry, thus, the buyers do not | | | |have lots of bargaining power. | | | |Importance of volume to buyers |High | | |Large volumes of customers are expected to stay in the hotels because they are th e | | | |main source of income for hotels to generate profit.For example, tour operators, who | | | |book thousands of customers into hotels, have a strong bargaining position and can | | | |demand lower prices from hotels. Rooms are perishable, thus, hotels must try to meet | | | |the occupancy level. Buyers have more bargaining power. | | | |Cost relative to total buyer purchases |Medium | | |Corporate customers might invest large amount of money into the hotels when there is | | | |conference happens. They will reserve lots of rooms and meeting rooms. Therefore, they| | | |have more bargaining power. | | |Buyer information about the industry output |High | | |Customers can survey on the best firms that offer great services. They can have | | | |assistance from the travel agents, corporate travel consultants, internet and words of| | | |mouth to determine where they can get the services that they would like to experience. | | | |Positive words of mouth will build good reputation a nd image to the hotel whereas bad | | | |words of mouth will badly impact the business of the hotel. | | |Buyer Profitability |High | | |Customers have the freedom to choose which property they would like to stay in and | | | |dine for. They will gain ‘profit’ when they receive more services as compare to what | | | |they expected. They are still holding high bargaining power. | | | |Decision makers’ incentives |Low | | |When there is a large group coming to stay in the hotel, hotel will provide a discount| | | |price. | | |Threat of backward integration |Low | | |It is impossible for individual customer to enter the hotel industry due to large | | | |investment required. | | |OVERALL RATING: MEDIUM – HIGH | |Power of substitutes |Relative price/performance of substitutes |High | | |Hotelmule (2008) states â€Å"Continual developments in technology keep changing the | | | |potential threat from substitute products†.Technological advancements in th e internet| | | |make the overall market to be more efficient and at the same time expanding the size | | | |of the potential market and create new substitution threats. For example, | | | |video-conferencing has been used instead of holding a conference in hotel. Business | | | |customers tend to travel lesser. | | | |The substitutes for lodging such as camping, hostels and motels, the invention of | | | |cruise ships and trains causes travellers to have alternative choice when travelling | | | |to another country. | | |Switching costs |High | | |It is easy for buyers to switch costs, thus, the substitutes have greater power. | | | |Buyer propensity to substitute |High | | |Substitute products or services will be a threat. Capon (2008, p. 63) states â€Å"This can | | | |be achieved by the substitute being equally good and cheaper, or by it being equal on | | | |price, but offering a better product or more added value†.When other lodges such as | | | |apartments, condos, ca bins and town houses providing similar or equally good function | | | |and providing better value for money, it may make economic sense for the buyers to | | | |switch. | | |OVERALL RATING: HIGH | |Intensity of industry |Industry growth rate |High | |rivalry |There is no industry growth. The hotel industry is in mature stage. Severe industry | | | |rivalry occurs. | | |High fixed costs |High | | |The high cost of building, furnishing and servicing the hotels in the industry create | | | |high fixed costs. This increases rivalry as they need to maximise profits to have | | | |significant returns on investment. Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts must sell more rooms | | | |to cover those costs and increase hotel market competition. Hence, it makes it | | | |difficult to withdraw from the industry and has to compete with other existing rivals. | | |Intermittent overcapacity |Medium | | |Due to there are a lot of competitors in the market, there might be a lot of rooms | | | |that are av ailable and cannot be sold out. | | | |Product differences |High | | |There are no product differences because majority of hotels provide similar types of | | | |high quality service. Products and services in hotels are easy to imitate.It is | | | |difficult to reduce the rivalry through the differentiation of the products and | | | |services. | | | |Brand identity |Medium-High | | |Brand is important because through branding, a business can stand out of the crowd. | | | |People remember the organization and will choose to go to the well-known hotels as it | | | |can heighten the level of self esteem and be part of the social group. Shangri-La | | | |Hotels and Resorts have developed their brand name and are well known in worldwide. | | |However, other hotel groups such as Marriott International and Starwood have great | | | |brand identity as well. | | | |Switching costs |High | | |It is easy for buyers to switch from one competitor’s product to another; industry | | | |riva lry will be increased (Hubbard & Beamish, 2011). Thus, Shangri-La Hotels and | | | |Resorts create a loyalty program named Golden Circle to retain their customers. | | |Informational complexity |Medium-High | | |Consumers can look at rooms available in different hotels and compare prices online. | | | |Internet will have information about the price and service differences. Furthermore, | | | |some hotel websites provide virtual tours which introduce the guests about the real | | | |experience spending time in the hotels. There are also lots of travel websites such as| | | |trip advisor which provide guest’s review about the hotels. Information is readily | | | |available on the Internet. Thus, industry rivalry is enhanced. | | |Concentration and balance |High | | |Cline (n. d) mentions â€Å"Hospitality customers increasingly seek predictable services | | | |that support their ability to move quickly and easily around the world†. International| | | |hotel chains are e xpanding their business to meet the demand of the customers and to | | | |determine the way to be ‘happy’ with their position in the industry. Hence, rivalry | | | |will be significant. | | |Diversity of competitors |Medium | | |The level of diversity among hotels is medium because majority of the hotels provide | | | |similar types of high quality service. However, some hotels like Marriott | | | |International; it diversifies its business into planning and organizing wedding events| | | |for the couple who would like to marry. Marriott provides free assistance from | | | |certified wedding planners and help with everything from selecting centrepieces to |

The relationship between employees job satisfaction and customer satisfaction in service business

The relationship between employees job satisfaction and customer satisfaction in service business Abstract This study is conducted within the bank of America and is aimed at showing the relationship between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction in the banking industry.Advertising We will write a custom proposal sample on The relationship between employees job satisfaction and customer satisfaction in service business specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The study is necessitated by the realization that customer satisfaction is determined by the perceptions the customers have on the nature and the quality of services offered. Since the study focuses on the correlation between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction at a specific point in time, a cross sectional study design is chosen. 104 participants will be targeted for this study, 53 of which will be employees of the bank of America. Data will be mostly collected through written interviews. However provision for oral interview will be available especially for corpo rate clients who may be too busy to fill in written interviews. Seven aspects of job satisfaction will be measured and correlated with five categories of customer satisfaction. The study concludes that customer satisfaction is directly influenced by employee satisfaction. A number of factors interplay in this relationship. These include job security, work load, motivation, and employee empowerment, among others. Introduction Management experts believe that business success is attained through offering quality service to customers. However, not many of these experts link quality service with the level of employees’ satisfaction. Suffice to state that the service industry is seen as one of the key sectors of growth in any economy. As such, proper management of the service industry is needed to ensure that the value of service offered does not compromise customer expectations. This is because, negative customer perceptions about the nature and the quality of service offered is d etrimental to business growth. This suggests that customers’ perceptions about service quality are directly proportional to the business success achievable.Advertising Looking for proposal on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More There a number of characteristics unique to the service industry. Employees in the service industry put in more hours while serving numerous customers, most of whom have complicated needs. This usually makes the job of customer service providers very cumbersome. As a result, Yagil (2006) explains that service providers are most likely to be fatigued and burned out. Such burn out has a direct influence on the quality of service offered. In a survey conducted by Burke, Graham and Smith (2005), it is found out that customer service is a psychological intercreative human experience. This implies that service provision is relational, face to face, and has got nothing to do w ith the products that the service provider offers. A good intercreative environment thus improves the perception of the customer on the quality of service offered. As such, two major conclusions can be made from the assertion above: perception plays a vital role in determining the nature of service quality; customer service provision is a psycho social activity. Burke et al. (2005) conclude that service provision has to be offered appropriately; otherwise the customer is dissatisfied. This leads to loss of business. This assertion is confirmed in a study conducted within the Indian mobile phone industry by Sathish, Santhosh, Naveen and Jeevanantham (2011). In this study, it is evident that one of the major reasons why consumers of Indian mobile phone services switch providers is poor quality of service offered. Therefore, customer satisfaction is directly connected to nature of service offered. The level of employees’ satisfaction varies and can be attributed to a number of f actors. These include poor salaries, employee attrition, work load issues as well as employee empowerment (Bull 2005; Yagil 2006). Yagil (2006) and Burke et al. (2005) add that the perception of the customer on the quality of service is directly connected to employees’ satisfaction. These factors, coupled with employee burn out determine the kind of behavior exhibited by employees within the customer service industry. As a result, service providers portray loss of enthusiasm and positive regard for their jobs, lack of concern for clients’ needs, both emotional and physical exhaustion among other behaviors (Yagil 2006).Advertising We will write a custom proposal sample on The relationship between employees job satisfaction and customer satisfaction in service business specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More During the cause of service provision, if employees portray negative attitudes and behaviors towards the customer, the cus tomers’ level of satisfaction with service quality decreases. This assertion can be attributed to the fact that social behavior is determined by the perceptions about the underlying motives and the prevailing environment, within which service is offered (Yagil 2006). As such, the perception of the customer regarding the quality of service offered is influenced by the behavior and attitude portrayed by employees. The studies above suggest a complex relationship between customer satisfaction, employee behavior and the quality of service offered. Customer satisfaction determined by customers’ perception on the quality of service offered. Employees’ conduct is determined by how the customers perceive value of service offered. The perception of the customer is influenced by the level of job satisfaction. As mentioned above, previous studies reveal that employee satisfaction is directly related to customer’s perception on service quality. As such, it is imperat ive to conclude that there is relationship between employees’ job satisfaction and customer perception of service quality which affects the overall satisfaction in the service business. While previous studies focused on hotel, teaching and telephone industries, there does not exist any study that focuses on the relationship between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction within the banking sector. As such this study seems relevant. The purpose of this study is to test hypothesis that the there is a relationship between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction and perceived service quality. As such, the following questions seem relevant for this study: Do customers report higher satisfaction with service quality when employees indicate higher levels of work satisfactions? What aspects of job satisfaction that directly effect employees’ morale and behavior and how it effects customer satisfaction? To supply answers to this questions, the cross sectional study design has been chosen. Data for this study will be collected, separately, from employees and customers of Bank of America New York branch.Advertising Looking for proposal on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Since previous studies show that customer satisfaction is dependent on perceptions about employees’ job satisfaction, for the purpose of this study, employee satisfaction is the independent variable and customer’s satisfaction is the depended variable. The bank of America was chosen because of the high number of customers served by the bank as well as high number of employee within the bank. As such, the banks employees and customers will provide sufficient sources of data for this study. Methodology This study targets both the employees and customers at the bank of America’s New York branch. The branch is chosen due to its central location as well as due to the fact that its serves a large clientele base. The study targets both individual and corporate customers, who will be observed at a particular point in time. A total number of 104 customers will be targeted. The number 104 has been chosen not because it has any special meaning in relation to the study but since it is manageable, and will also allow the researcher to collect as much data as possible. The target population will be divided into 53 employees and 51 customers. Out of the 51 customers, 17 corporate will be targeted. All the employees targeted for this study will be from departments that deal directly with the customers. As such, employees from the customer relations desk, tellers, loan clerks, information officers among other will be provide valid data for this study. As explained above, the numbers chosen for this study have no special meaning in relation to the topic of the study. However, odd numbers are chosen for the sake of tallying. Since the researcher targets all types of clients and employees at a particular point ion time, a cross sectional study design seems relevant for this study. According to Rose and Barker (1997), a cross sectional study targets a subset of the entire population with the aim of providing data that can be used to formulate generalized assum ptions regarding the entire population. It is also imperative to mention that the study is based on observations made, whose results are related to the employee satisfaction (independent variable for this study) and customer satisfaction (dependent variable for this study). As Rose and Barker (1997) further explain, studies which evaluate the relationships between variables and seek to establish pattern are descriptive in nature. As such, this study is descriptive. Participants As explained previously, the study targets 104 participants. The participant will be selected from both the employees and customers of the bank of America. In total 53 employees and 51 customers (both corporate and individual) will be targeted. Since the researcher aims at targeting all types of clients, 17 out of the 53 customers will be corporate. Employees targeted will vary in terms of age, race, job description and gender. To ensure that equity is achieved, the study will identify employees for participa tion as follows. 25 women and 28 men will be identified from all departments especially those that deal with customers directly. The researcher will also identify at least 2 employees from each of the major races, namely Hispanics, Caucasians, blacks and Asians. It is imperative to get the perception of job satisfaction form employees in different age groups. As such, the age criterion for participant has been identified as follows. 25 years and below 26 to 35 years 36 to 45 years 46 to 55 years 55 years and above 51 customers are targeted for this study. Due to the complex nature of the customers, written and oral interviews have been identified as the suitable methods of data collection. Alternatively phone interviews will be used for corporate clients who may not be available during the time of the interview. Procedure Due to time, convenience and logistic constraints, it will be impossible contact each of the employees physically for a face to face interview. As such, written questionnaires are the preferred research tools for employees. As such each of the employees targeted will be requested to fill in a questionnaire separately. Emphasis will be made on providing responses to all questions. Data from employees will be correlated with data derived from the customers. Data which will be used to determine the level of job satisfaction will be derived from employees. To determine the level of job satisfaction, several aspects will be measured. These aspects are: job security, career future, financial rewards, work load, work appeal, leadership and direction. To address each of these issues, the questionnaire includes a table which employees will fill in their perceptions about each of the aspects The purpose of targeting customers is to measure the level customer satisfaction. As such customer satisfaction will be measured using a survey consisting of 22 questions based on the SERVQUAL scale that cover the 5 categories of service quality: reliability, res ponsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibility. According to Yeck, Morales, Ladhari and Pons (2002) SERVQUAL is the only method which can accurately measure customer service by comparing the expectations of the customer about customer service and the real customer service experience. Therefore, based on Yeck et al.’s (2002) assertions, it is justifiable to use SERVQUAL to analyze findings on customer service in this study The procedure implies that there are two sets of data to be collected for this study. After collection of the two sets of data, an analysis will be done. The criterion for analysis is to compare the live of employee satisfaction and the correlating customer satisfaction. Hypothetical results It is expected that the study will reveal that customer service is determined by customers’ perception about the quality of service offered. It is expected that the study will correlate financial rewards (salaries and other financial benefits) with job satisfacti on aspects. Furthermore, the work load as well as work schedule are expected to portray a significant influence in the employee satisfaction and the overall effect on the customers’ perceptions. Furthermore, employee attrition, work load and labor issues will show a direct influence on employees’ satisfaction. Since, it is assumed that employees of the Bank of America will portray a level of dissatisfaction with their work; the study hopes to find a direct relationship between notable employees’ dissatisfaction with work and the perceptions of customer on the quality of service offered by the bank. The researcher expects to find that employee dissatisfaction directly affects the job morale, and as such the customer perceives low morale with employee dissatisfaction. In this case the researcher hopes that the customer will cite low morale as one of the indicators of job dissatisfaction. Furthermore, the researcher hopes to find data which proves that the customer equates low morale with poor customer service. Within the course of the study, the researcher expects to find a significant level of employees’ satisfaction. This is expected to show correlation with how customer perception on the quality of service rendered to them. As such, the study will find out that in those areas that employee exhibit a high degree of satisfaction, similar degree of employee satisfaction will be noticed. One of the key indicators of employees’ satisfaction with the job is proper remuneration as well as positive perceptions by the customer about the quality of service offered. In this study it is expected that properly paid employees exhibit a high degree of job satisfaction. The study is also expected to expose the fact that positive customer perceptions about the quality of service offered to have a direct relationship with the level of employee satisfaction. As explained earlier, the customers’ perception about the quality of service of fered is founded on the perceptions the customers have about the employee job satisfaction. In this study, it is expected that the researcher expects to identify the speed at which employees offer service, employees’ knowledge about products ad services as well as employees’ willingness to assist customers as having a significant influence on how customers perceive the quality of service. Furthermore, the ability of employees to identify particular needs of each customer, the ability of employees to make the customers feel appreciated as well as confidence portrayed by employees influence customers perception on the quality of service offered. Additionally, both verbal and non verbal communication skills including neatness, dress mode, smiling, use of polite and courteous language, direct eye contacts, among others, as having a directly influence on how customers perceive customer service. Overall, the researcher expects to find out the following correlation between em ployee job satisfaction and the perceptions about the quality of service offered by the bank. In those services which employees exhibited behavior that portrayed them as highly satisfied with their jobs, then customer will be satisfied with services offered in those areas. Conversely, on those areas that employees exhibited behavior that indicated to the customers that they were dissatisfied with their job, customers will equate this as poor customer service. If perception about job satisfaction outweighs perceptions about job dissatisfaction, this leads to increased customer satisfaction, and as such increased rate of customer retention. Discussion The hypothetical results above confirm the hypothesis that employees’ job satisfaction and customer perception of service quality affects the overall satisfaction in the service industry. From the hypothetical results above, it is evident that the quality of customer service is determined by the customer and not the service provid er. As such, this findings support Andreassen and Lindestad’s (1998) assertions that proper management of employees leads to increased employee satisfaction. In relation to this, the hypothetical findings will identify that there several aspects of human resource management, including proper remuneration, affect employee motivation and morale. Additionally, the results above affirm that, as explained by Ahmad, Ahmed, Nawaz and Ahmad (2011) that there are other factors which directly influence employee behavior. These include labor policy issues, work load among others, prolonged contact with customers, among others. These factors are expected to have an influence in the kind of behaviors exhibited by employees and the overall satisfaction with their job. As previously explained, Andreassen and Lindestad’s (1998) assert the need to improve human resource management practices by service industry players. In this regard, Ahmad et al. (2011) stipulates that giving full con trol to employees improves job satisfaction, since employees feel that they are in charge of their work. This corroborates Yagil’s (2006) assertion that empowerment means the process of gaining influence over events and outcomes of importance to an individual or group†. In this case, empowering employees significantly enables employees exert influence over customers. This is as a result of the findings that empowering employs directly influence the performance on the job. As such, the more empowered the employee is, the higher the performance on the job. Coupled with other factors mentioned above, such employees are able to meet the demand of the customers and as such this increases customer satisfaction. It can therefore be concluded that how employees behave determine perception on the nature and the quality of service offered by service providers. These conclusions can be validated through the findings explained above, which assert that there are a number of employee s’ behaviors which are directly related to employee job satisfaction. These behaviors are reflected as follows. The friendliness of employees towards the customers; if employees are friendly the customers perceives such employees as highly satisfied with their jobs. This creates a good relationship with the customers, effectively impressing the employees positively regarding the nature of customer service rendered (Andreassen and Lindestad 1998). Similar effects are realized if employees portray a commendable knowledge of products and services, the willingness of employees to assist the customers as well as the confidence portrayed by employees in handling customer relations issues. Two of the behavior mentioned previously results portray a significance influence on perception of customers regarding customer service. The ability of the employees to identify particular needs of each customer greatly enhances the relationships between the two parties. This creates an immediate positive perception about the nature of customer service. Furthermore, good communications skills by the employees are most like to make the customers feel appreciated, thus raising perception about good customer service. Additionally good communication skills are enhanced by non verbal skills such as neatness, smiling, among others. The discussion above shows that customer perception on the nature of customer service based on observable employee behavior. As such, these findings identify an area of interest of which service providers must consider. While human management issues especially those concerning empowerment and provision of tools and facilities to work are vital towards raising employees’ morale, the study also highlights the need to manage employee behavior. This can be attained through motivation and behavioral training. Furthermore, since this study is cross sectional in nature, it only answers the question of employee’s satisfaction and the relationship it has on customer service, at a particular point in time. This leaves other important questions answered. Such questions include the relationship between employee satisfaction and customer perception on customer service on long term basis. As such, there is need to study this complex relationship over a long period of time. Thus longitudinal studies seem relevant. In addition, this study cannot be used to make valid generalizations, since it is cross sectional in nature. Cross sectional studies are time limited and as such only target a small part of the population (Rose and Barker, 1997). While the data produced is valid, the results cannot used to make generalization about the relationship between customer satisfaction and perception about customer service in the entire service industry, since the target population cannot be used as a fair representation of the entire service industry. Conclusion It is evident that employees’ satisfaction bears heavily on customer percepti ons about customer service and the general satisfaction in the service industry. Despite the fact that there are a number of factors that influence the relationship, the nature customer satisfaction largely depends on the perception the customers have on employee satisfaction. Since customer form their perception based on observable employee behavior, service provider must be keen on the type of behavior exhibited by their employees. As such, other than proving that employees and customer satisfaction are related, the stud provide evidence needed for further action by service providers, especially on the need to train employees on behavior management. Furthermore, the study is cross sectional and as provides opportunities to conduct longitudinal research in future. References List Ahmad, Z., Ahmed, I., Nawaz, M. and Ahmad, Z. (2011). Job Satisfaction of Middle Level Managers in Pharmaceutical Industry of Pakistan Vol. Journal of Management Review, 1(1). Andreassen, T., and Lindestad , B. (1998), Consumer loyalty and complex services.  International Journal of Service Industry Management, 9 (1). Bull, F. (2005). The relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment amongst high school teachers in disadvantaged areas in the Western Cape. Web. Burke R., Graham J and Smith F. (2005). Putting the customer second. TQM Journal, 17(1). Rose, C. and Barker J. (1997). Case-control and cross-sectional studies. London: BMJ. Sathish, M., Santhosh, K., Kumar, K. Naveen, J. and.Jeevanantham, V. (2011). A study on consumer switching behavior in cellular service provider: a study with reference to Chennai. Far East Journal of Psychology and Business, 2(2). Yagil, D. (2006). The relationship of service provider power motivation, empowerment and burnout to customer satisfaction. Journal of Service Management, 17(3). Yeck, S., Morales, M., Ladhari, R., and Pons, F. (2002). 10 years of service quality measurement: reviewing the use of the SERVQUAL instrument. Cu adernos de Diffusion, 7(13).

Leonardo da Vinci, the Renaissance Man

Leonardo da Vinci, the Renaissance Man Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452 in Vinci, Tuscany. He was the epitome of the term Renaissance man during the High Italian Renaissance. Any subject- and there were many- toward which he directed his insatiable curiosity, artistic talent, and keen scientific mind found itself dissected, improved upon and cataloged for posterity. Leonardo, truly, was a man before his time. Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.- Leonardo da Vinci Early Life Though illegitimate, Leonardo was taken in and raised by his father. A child of unearthly beauty, Leonardo showed precocious genius in math, music, and art. His greatest desire was to be apprenticed to a painter, a profession which was looked down upon at the time. Eventually, his father was worn down by the boys undeniable talent and took him to Florence to study painting, sculpting, and engineering under the great Andrea del Verrocchio. Leonardo quickly outstripped his master (though he continued to study with Verrocchio until around 1476) and was admitted to the Florence painters guild in 1472. Body of Work Leonardo spent about twenty years in the service of Lodovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan (who frequently neglected to pay Leonardo). His output during this period included two of his best-known paintings: The Madonna of the Rocks (1483-85) and the mural The Last Supper (1495-98). When Milan was seized by French troops in 1499, Leonardo returned to Florence. It was here that he painted one of the most famous portraits of all time, The Mona Lisa, more correctly known as La Gioconda (1503-06). Leonardo spent his later years moving between Florence, Rome, and France, working on a variety of projects. He lived long enough to be appreciated and well-paid, a rarity among artists. Throughout it all, he kept prodigious notebooks, in mirror writing, to keep track of his ideas, designs, and numerous sketches. Leonardo eventually settled in France, at the invitation of Francis I, an ardent admirer. He died on May 2, 1519, in the castle of Cloux, near Amboise, France.

Indonesia Market Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

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Project MAnagment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Project MAnagment - Essay Example This particular research takes into consideration the example of construction of a new house where the critical path can be determined such that delay in the completion of the total project can be avoided, thereby reflecting the benefits of the use of PERT in management of a project. Acknowledgements Table of Contents Serial No. Topic Page No. 1. Introduction 6 2. The Role of PERT in Project Management 7 2.1. Risk Factors in Projects and the Main Objective of PERT 7 3. Construction of New House Project: Use of PERT 8 3.1. PERT Technique in the Construction of a New House 9 4. Conclusion 13 References 14 List of Tables Serial No. Topic Page No. Table 1. The required tasks for construction of house 10 Table 2. Calculation of Earliest Start Times for all the activities of the project 12 List of Figures Serial No. Topic Page No. Figure 1. House Construction Network 9 Figure 2. PERT Diagram for the Construction of New House 11 List of Appendices Serial No. Topic Page No. Appendix A. PERT Diagram 15 1. Introduction: PERT or Program Evaluation and Review Technique is a technique for the management of any project work. ... The estimations of time durations used by PERT are probabilistic in nature. Thus specific time durations are not used by the technique. Optimistic estimates are used for the estimations of the durations, while pessimistic estimates are used for the activities of the project (Schwalbe 2010). The management of project holds significant importance since in large organizations or for larger project works, the tasks and activities of the project proves to be highly complex and hence need expertise for its timely completion. It is for this reason that highly qualified project managers are hired for the management of projects. Such project managers are required to have the specific skills and competencies needed for the project to be undertaken (PM4DEV 2008). Examples of different projects may include construction of houses, factories, shopping malls, development of military systems, construction of oil pipelines, and so on (Russell and Taylor 2006). The present study focuses on an understa nding of how PERT is used in the management of a project considering the example of construction of a house. 2. The Role of PERT in Project Management: Projects such as the building of houses involve several complex activities and task that need to be accomplished, the tasks that are interrelated with each other. Thus one of the major objectives before initiating the tasks of a project includes scheduling the individual activities depending on specific time, as well as resources. This needs to be done such that the total project can be completed within the planned time, with minimum cost being allocated (Sharma 2006). For the use of PERT in management of projects, a weighted average of the estimated duration for each activity of the project needs to be calculated which is done