Offshoring benefits and advantages Essay

Some businesses choose offshoring to solve the issue of expertise, especially for IT personnel. These companies claim they simply cannot find enough qualified employess in the United States to do certain technology jobs. Do you agree with this assessment? Why or why not? From first glance at this statement, it seems like a line that from businesses to help justify their offshoring practices. This statement is one that seems like it would come out of the PR department when consumers are voicing their displeasure over the company’s choice to offshore their processes. It is definitely not the truth for a company in today’s economy. I have a number of friends that work for Nationwide Insurance here in Gainesville Fl. It is mostly a call center operation here and they are constantly hearing rumors about the company moving the operations over seas to save money. If Nationwide does end up doing this at some point, it will not be because of a lack of qualified people to do the work. With Gainesville being a college town, there are plenty of available and qualified employees to accomplish the work. Maybe this is one of the mains reasons they have not yet outsourced this call center. Although I believe what I have previously stated, there are instances in the past 15 years where this comment could have been completely correct and legitimate. In doing my research for this question, I came across an article about the advantages and benefits of offshoring. They surmised that during the â€Å"mid 1990’s, U. S. -based businesses have looked overseas to locate their manufacturing, business IT Applications Maintenance and Call Center and other operations in emerging countries with strong labor forces, low wage rates and favorable business climates. This trend was accelerated by Y2K and the IT industry’s need to rapidly build software maintenance â€Å"factories† to research, correct and test the â€Å"millennium bug†. With this being said, it is believable that at the rate at which this IT world has grown, the need for more qualified employees could not have been adequately handled with the options in the United States at the time. It would take at least 4-6 years for the future and current students to see the trend of job needs and decide to enter that field. So, at the time, the companies had to make these decisions for more than cost concerns. In the past few years, this has changed in our country. Students are getting IT jobs and with the amount of people out of work there are more students in our country than ever before. In March 2010 Gartner reported: â€Å"India is also starting to face some challenges including wage inflation, local attrition rates, geographical issues and financial irregularities. Because of this and the ever increasing â€Å"hidden costs†, companies are beginning the process of IT Onshoring. In his article, Herge states that the cost savings of offshoring for companies today is somewhere between 0-10%. For most companies this is not worth the negative publicity and the other possible hidden costs to come. They have begun bringing jobs back home and hopefully our students have studied hard to help this country grow!

The Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security

The Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security made a report on Counterterrorism intelligence Capabilities and Performance before the 9/11 attack. According to this report, one of the reasons why this tragedy was not prevented was their less than satisfactory management of resources particularly information that could have be used to forewarn about terrorist intentions. It was reported for example, that the FBI, Homeland Security and the other agencies had very limited ability to watchlist terrorist suspects because of their inadequate access to up-to-date data collected by the different agencies and resources.In addition, it was found out that the actions of the FBI were more towards the investigation of possible terrorist attacks and less focus was placed on the prevention of such. (Report of Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security, 2002). These features harmed the Intelligence Committee’s ability to foresee possible threats of terrorism. Needless to say, forekn owledge of an attack is necessary for its prevention. This necessitates infiltrating communities especially those with significant Arab populations.Still, it is important to note that this infiltration is not an act of discrimination but an act based on the great probability that those involved in terrorism would belong to such nationality. There is a greater probablility that sympathizers and supporters of terrorism would belong to the members of the Islamic population than other populations of different religions. The situation demands that efforts never go below minimum if the safety of the population is to be considered. But this infiltration has drawbacks. One, it sacrifices the people’s liberty and privacy.Two, it creates exaggerated fear among the people especially if the infiltration is most obvious. To minimize the resultant fear among the people, it is necessary that infiltration be done in the most discreet way possible. Clearly, barricading the community with FBIs would not be wise as this would not only cause alarm but would also harmful to the intelligence we are trying to gather. This demands the need for informants and secret agents in the said community, from the said community and in all parts of the community, including mosques.It is very important that informants who are to be sent are selected among those already living in that population. These people are already knowledgeable about their community; they know the important people; have a personal concern over the safety of their community and would be more knowledgeable in finding important information given the right directions. This limits the time and effort required for information gathering, focusing the officials’ efforts in the interpretation and analysis of data, which speeds the process of investigation.The result is a more efficient transmission of deeply analyzed information, which is exactly what is needed in the prevention of terrorism according to the Subcommit tee on Terrorism and Homeland Security (2002). But then, using informants, especially if these informants were selected from the same community involved would entail precautions. The danger here lies on the informant’s loyalty. Since the informant is selected from those already living in that population, it would be wise to assume that his loyalty is not absolutely focused towards the progression of the government’s cause.The possibility that his loyalty would lie towards the side of a guilty individual or the investigated individual, who, like him belongs to the same community cannot be denied. Also it cannot be ascertained whether or not he is in league with the terrorists and is providing them with reports, or probably bound by the same ideals completely against the government’s. In using informants from the involved community, the danger lies in the uncertainty of one’s role: who is pulling the strings and who is the marionette. To manage this danger requires the use of a trusted agent who is beyond the bounds of devotion instilled by community membership.This agent would act as the control, monitoring the local informants’ actions and reporting any act that signals treachery. This way, it is possible to determine the reliability of the reports given, pinpoint possible leak in intelligence and manipulate information disseminated, to the advantage of the intelligence committee. Definitely, there is more to war ethics than preventing needless deaths through terrorism, that is, the need to protect the people has made it to the point that the liberty and privacy of the people are sacrificed.Some means of protecting the people such as expanded surveillance and â€Å"seize and interrogate anyone (O’Connor, 2006)† is in itself an act that would incise the people’s freedom. Infiltrating the community with informants and agents, may also, in a way, harm community’s liberty and privacy but in a relativel y less degree compared to other counterterrorism strategies. According to O’Connor (2006), counterterrorism strategies involving technology and the use of informants are the most effective in terms of ensuring the people’s safety and at the same time limiting disadvantages in people’s liberty.In any case at this point, all actions aiming to provide people with their deserved safety entail a cost to the people’s civil liberty. 2. In any undertaking, it is very important to stick to the objective. This does not exclude counterterrorism, war against terrorism or any war for that matter. The war against terrorism is not an end in itself but simply a means to another end which are to protect the peoples’ rights to safety and to provide, in the long run, freedom. I intend to base my answers on these premises.All peoples in the act of terrorism or fighting against the ideals of counterterrorism with the intention of harm would be enemy combatants, without any distinction of citizenship, soldier or non-soldier. This is very different to the status accorded to different people involved in the war on terrorism today where they are classified as enemy combatant, unlawful combatants, prisoners of war or noncombatant, each with different provisions ideally based on International Standards. Whether or not a terrorist is a citizen of Afghanistan, or a citizen of the United States, anyone captured in the act of terrorist violence is considered a terrorist.Simply being an American does not excuse someone from the punishment accorded to crimes of terrorism and the only possible status, rights and protection I could afford an American citizen in the act of terrorist violence is that of a criminal charged with terrorism. He will be interrogated, given a trial and punished according to law without disregard to his rights as human that is without the use of unnecessary torture. A foreign national engaged in terrorism in the United States would be treated in the same way, based on his actions and without regard to his nationality.There would be no more and no less harsh treatment given to a foreign national engaged in terrorism compared to an American counterpart. â€Å"American national birth should not protect American-born terrorists or fail to protect naturalized citizens (Criticisms of the War of Terrorism, 2006). † In affording rights, status protection and punishment, giving such special considerations would be a question to the justice system and to the real intent and objective of this undertaking. Counterterrorism is not a matter of nationality and citizenship.Counterterrorism is defending the peoples’ rights and freedom, a state’s sovereignty against people who disregard such ideals by instilling fear and uncertainty through violence. Double standards should have no place in the justice system. If nationality and citizenship is to be considered, in deciding rights and punishment, then the effor ts to realize the underlying goal which is the safety of the people would be for naught. This would not be counterterrorism but a war against a specific community. This can be applied in the case of the American Citizen who fights against American forces.Again, this is beyond the matter of citizenship. If the American citizen fights against the American forces, he is considered as a threat against the realization of the objectives of the war against terrorism, which is to protect the innocent citizens. The American forces would have no reason not to fight back. Torturing any of these subjects would never be justified in the context of just war. I, personally would say that the torture of these subjects would not be necessary. Eliminating terrorism does not entail the necessity to torture any of the perpetrators of terrorism.Elimination and torture may be similar in a way that it would provoke the wrath of the enemy but they are different in a way that elimination is exactly what it is—that is, it is supposed to eliminate terrorism by eliminating its perpetrators possibly through conviction and application of just laws. Torture, on the other hand would only provoke the wrath of the enemy without the assurance of eliminating terrorism resulting in possible retaliation. Surely, the means of saving lives of peoples would not be limited on a torture or no torture system.Solving terrorism with terrorism is not only unjust but also unwise. 3. Disregarding popular theories on just war, let me say that a war that is just is a matter of perspective. To the leaders, all wars are just as long as it promotes the ideals and purpose they try to protect and achieve. To the US and maybe to some, the war against terrorism is just because its purpose is supposedly to protect the lives, safety and liberty of innocent people against terror. To the leaders of the terrorists, they are supposedly protecting a certain ideal.To some, war is a religious undertaking. Terrorism may be an unpopular act to most but to its supporters, terrorism is their means of fighting for their ideals and achieve their purpose, which they personally believe are just whether others agree or not. But to some people especially those affected negatively by this war, this war would never be possibly just. The families left behind by innocent people who died in the 9/11 attack and those civilians who have become victims of bombs would never think of agreeing to any argument saying that wars could possibly be just.Those who sympathize with these civilians and those who fear the possibility that someday they would become the unknowing victims of war would think the same way. Theorists, most popular of whom, St. Augustine, conceived of criteria that characterize a just war. The just war theory provided guidelines in determining when a war is just (jus ad bellum), how combatants should fight in war (jus in bello), and when to end a war (Just War, 2006). According to the Jus ad bellum, wars should only be engaged in if there is a just cause.Just cause means that wars should only be engaged in to correct wrongdoings, as an act of defense against threats to freedom, rights and sovereignty. The cause is said to be just if it is an act to resist aggression (Orend, 2005). Right intention is also necessary in a just war. Engaging in war for material gains is outside the scope of right intention. In general, intention should always be to defend or correct suffered wrong doings (Orend, 2005). The proportionality and last resort states that gains should always outweigh the casualties incurred and wars should only be engaged in if all other possible means have been exhausted to no avail.Jus ad bellum also emphasizes the importance of legitimate authority and the probability of success. War should only be engaged in if the chance of success is high because doing otherwise would undermine the theory of proportionality, also one criterion in considering a war as a just war (Or end, 2005). In engaging in a just war, combatants are expected to act in a way that violence and casualties are restrained and attempts to recognize human rights of both allies and enemies are made.According to the Jus in bello, combatants of a just war are expected to apply the principle of discrimination in which war is directed only to the perpetrators of wrong and definitely not to civilians. Similar to the Jus ad bellum, in the Jus in bello, proportionality is expected. In this case, the force to be implemented must be justified when compared to the problem that occurred and the possible good outcome. The more civilian casualties, the more the war being waged are questionable (Just War, 2006).The Jus in bello also preaches the use of minimum force, respect for prisoners of war, and derides the use of torture (Orend, 2005). In the same way, in the just war theory, wars should be terminated only with just cause: if both parties are willing to negotiate and violations made by the aggressor have already been recognized and vindicated; right intention, discrimination, proportionality and public declaration and authority (Orend, 2005). Fighting terrorism would cease to be just if it has lost the purpose and ideals which are its foundations.That is, if fighting terrorism has become a mere machination for purposes other than the ideals it stands for. Fighting terrorism would cease to be just if it resorted to unnecessary ways; if it violates human rights; if it in itself resorted to terrorism which is the exact ideal it is supposed to stand against. Fighting terrorism would cease to be just if it has become an act against the principles proposed by the just war theory. Others assert that the presence of any civilian deaths would define an unjust war (Bell, 2006).If all these would classify wars as unjust, then the impossibility of a just war is definite especially when applied to the war on terrorism. Still, criticisms of the just war theory stresses the inapplic ability of the just war theory in the present real wars, such as today’s war on terrorism which is unconventional one. When fighting terrorist groups such as the Al Qaeda, the conventional guidelines for war become obsolete. Therefore, â€Å"just war† has to be redefined (Bell, 2006). 4. Schools, colleges, universities, the press and some institutions have the power to carry out or instill ideas among the people.Unfortunately for the government, these institutions are the breeding ground of radical ideas, some, supporting terrorism and most of which pertaining to anti-militaristic views attacking any actions involving the war against terrorism, inspiring terrorist support. People who incite violence when they glorify violent acts against America may be responsible, indirectly for such acts because of the inspiration they give. They are indeed indirectly accountable but they should not be punished unless they themselves engage in violent acts directly.America, as it pro fesses, hold most deeply their love for freedom and democracy, and part of this freedom and democracy that they allow their people is the freedom to express one’s insights, beliefs and emotions. If a person feels like glorifying violent acts against America, if that person feels that in himself, he is against the beliefs and ideals that America stands for, then he or she is free to communicate, glorify or say anything about it whether or not it inspires violent acts among others. He should be free to say everything as long as he does not directly engage in such violence.It is, after all, his right. Now this freedom allowed to citizens is exactly what makes it difficult for the government to deal with schools, mosques and charities that indirectly support terrorism because imposing sanctions on such indirect actions would undermine the liberty that they strive to protect. The only thing the government can do is to make parallel actions that would negate the actions of the supp orters of terrorism. If there are local institutions that support terrorism, then they would have to use their power to tap what available resources they have, to negate such support and ideals.They have to make an effort to promote their ideas and market it, indirectly targeting the ideas of the supporters of terrorism and at the same time, indirectly making an effort to reach out and win the key supporters of terrorism. Part of the war against terrorism is to put out ideas that make possible the perpetuation of support of terrorism and not the people who support these ideas (if they do not directly engage in terrorism). In this case the war against terrorism is simply not a guns and bombs war, but also a challenge to make some people realize the correctness of the ideas imposed.If the ideas that support terrorism start from ideas imposed by some institutions, then actions should be targeted toward making powerful institutions publicly support ideas like the government’s. Or better yet, infuse anti-terrorist ideas to the institutions that support terrorism. In a way, this would be propagating anti-terrorist ideas as well as killing ideas that support terrorism. 5. â€Å"The fight against terrorism is now the first and overriding priority of the Department of Justice. (US Department of Justice, 2004).† Following this is the revision of the US Patriot act, which expands the power of Intelligence Officials in gathering information. In general, the main purpose of this expansion is for a more efficient targeting and prevention of terrorism by revising previous acts that limited the government’s ability to gather and use information and provide sanctions to terrorists. The revisions include a freer access to information, allowing information sharing among government agencies, â€Å"strengthening criminal laws against terrorism and updating the law to reflect new technology (US Department of Justice, 2004).All these revisions are said to be re quired to eliminate hindrances to the investigation of terrorist acts. The main purpose of this revision is to provide a more efficient means of using critical information especially those related to terrorism. Prior to the approval of the USA Patriot Act was a report submitted by the Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security in 2002, analyzing the possible causes of failure to prevent the 9/11 attack.The main points of the report is the mismanagement of intelligence caused mostly by certain restrictions in the law prior to the 9/11 attack, and the need for certain revisions to accommodate the present need regarding terrorism (Report of the Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security, 2002). Apparently, the revisions in the US Patriot Act are the response. Undeniably, the revisions in the US Patriot Act are a significant incapacitation of terrorist plans and are a great advancement, although not absolute, in terms of reducing the number of terrorist attacks and thus, ensur ing the safety of the people.This has been proven by situations exemplified in a report by the US Department of Justice in 2004 entitled, â€Å"Report from the Field: The US Patriot Act at Work. † The US Patriot Act has temporarily slowed and probably prevented many acts of terrorism, thus improving the perceived safety of the population. But this advantage comes with the price of increased deprivation of civil liberty. The Act could definitely justify secret wiretaps, increase arrests even at a lower threshold of evidence, increased secret access to personal accounts, records, technological usage, mails and conversations (O’Connor, 2006).The not so few accounts of erroneous arrests that have been recorded since the approval of the US Patriot Act confirm this (Criticisms of the War on Terrorism, 2006). Critics of Militarism and the US Patriot Act, and the proponents of civic liberty agree that â€Å"it is better to think before doing anything drastic (O’Connor, 2006). Those for the Patriot Act agree that in the war against terrorism, time is of the essence as a moment of hesitation could disastrously spell doom (Department of Justice, 2004).Another point to be considered in the US Patriot Act is the span of time when provisions of the Act would still be deemed effective in preventing terrorism and ensuring the peoples’ safety. Anyone motivated by a perceived moral cause would not be stopped by simple revisions of laws, or more appropriately, by â€Å"laws† per se. And this is exactly what characterizes the terrorists in question: their motivation to terrorize is beyond any physical or material cause; they are motivated by their perceived definition of morality and justice.Soon, they will find a loophole in the laws that are presently slowing them down, and continue towards their goals. The question now is would the government foresee possible threats that are beyond the treatment of laws? And if they do, how would they handl e and prevent these possible threats? Would it spell more demands on the peoples’ civic liberty in exchange for the more extensive need for safety? And if they do, what if the bombs and terrorist attacks are mere guises to remove our attention from how they are working on their real target—the peoples’ liberty—the ideal the state is trying to protect.Because if you are a terrorist, what better way to attack than attacking the foundation of your enemies’ framework. Is it not possible that the state is unknowingly working towards the achievement of the enemies’ real goal? Although the approval of the Act has provided the government with better capability to reduce threats of terrorism, it is still very important, especially with the erratic movement of priorities, that such questions be given consideration and other threats to the peoples’ security continue to be studied, understood and monitored (Report of Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security, 2002).Given the present circumstances when the safety of the peoples is at risk, the US Patriot Act seems to be working satisfactorily in terms of preventing terrorist attacks. It would not be wise to change the provisions of the Act if the objective is to ensure the peoples’ safety. But it would be nice to be hopeful that there would someday be a proposal that would ensure the peoples’ safety without sacrificing the peoples’ liberty. At present, all we can do is choose the lesser evil, and think of ways to eliminate â€Å"evil† as a choice.References Anti-Americanism. (2006, August 5). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 02:02, August 6, 2006, from http://en. wikipedia. org/w/index. php? title=AntiAmericanism &oldid=67844288. Bell, D. (2006). Can the War be Just? Or What is Just War Good For? In Crosscurrents Magazine. Retrieved August 6, 2006, from http://www. crosscurrents. org/Bellspring2006. pdf Criticisms of the War on Terrorism. (2006, August 4).In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 02:03, August 6, 2006, from http://en. wikipedia. org/w/index. php? title=Criticisms_of_the_War_on_Terrorism&oldid=67579159. Just War. (2006, August 6). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 02:02, August 6, 2006, from http://en. wikipedia. org/w/index. php? title=Just_War&oldid=67920472. O’Connor, T. (2006, June 6). Civic Liberties in Domestic Terrorism. In Megalinks in Criminal Justice. Retrieved August 6, 2006, from http://faculty. ncwc. edu/toconnor/429/429lect19. htm. Orend, B. (2005). War. In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.Retrieved August 6, 2006, from http://plato. stanford. edu/archives/win2005/entries/war. Report of Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on Counterterrorism Intelligence Capabilities and Performance Prior to 9-11 (2002, July). In Federation of American Scientists Intelligence Resource Program. Retrie ved August 6, 2006 from http://www. fas. org/irp/congress/2002_rpt/hpsci_ths0702. html. US Department of Justice (2004, July). Report from the Field: The US Patriot Act at Work.

Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps

Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps Take the women into the armed service, who then will do the cooking, the washing, the mending, the humble and homey tasks to which every woman has devoted herself? From the mouth of a man who was against women joining the Armed Forces of the United States during World Wars I (WWI) and II (WWII) (Monahan). In 1917, thousands of women served during World War I (WWI), constantly fighting a battle to become part of the United States Army, a battle they were not winning (Monahan).They were nursing, supporting and helping the military forces overseas, but they were not recognized. During that time period many Army Officers put formal requests into the War Department to allow the recruitment and enlistment of women, trying to create a bill to establish a Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC). Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker, disagreed with this suggestion of a bill and the requests to establish a women’s service corps within the U. S. Army ( Monahan).After the war was over the push for a WAAC was forgotten, out of sight out of mind, until World War II. The basis of the WAAC was to allow women into the Army and to try to create an equal environment for men and women from which the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence says we are built upon. When WWII kicked off women were not considered part of the Army, but they were allowed to help with many different roles. This time period posed many opportunities for American women, both domestically as well as roles they could play in the war.A big issue that dominated women’s lives during this period was how to combine home-life with the new demands of the war economy in the public’s eyes. Women had made a few gains between WWI and WWII in the military in terms of the political influence; female workers were utilized for short-term gains during the war, with a long-term goal of seeing women return to the domestic sphere and reinforcing traditional gender roles (Crockrord).Women who chose to help the military in times of war had to obtain their own food and quarters, they had no legal protection or medical care and most importantly they were not entitled to any type of disability benefits or pensions the Veterans were entitled to (Holm). Congresswoman, Edith Nourse Rogers of Massachusetts was determined to change this, she introduced a bill on May 28, 1941, to establish a Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, and the bill eventually succeeded because there was no hint of full status for women; which meant women would be ecognized as supporting the Army but they would still not be a part of the Army (Holm). She felt women and men should have the same benefits and should be treated equally. When the final bill for the WAAC was presented both sides had to compromise, the women and the men’s side serving in the military (Bellafaire). The bill passed, and the bill passing meant that women would be allowed to serve with the Army but they still would not receive the same pay or promotions and lot of the benefits that the men received. They did however receive food, uniforms, living quarters, minimal pay and medical care.There was also a lot of focus on preventing women from attaining high rank and on placing women in positions where they could give orders to men (Bellafaire). For example, although the duties of a WAAC first officer were comparable to those of a male captain, she received pay equivalent to that of a male first lieutenant (Bellafaire). Unfortunately, there were still many things that women had to overcome serving with the military. Men constantly criticized female soldiers, saying that they needed to be home with their family and community.They didn’t want a change and women in the military represented just that. The Office of Censorship ran a pole and discovered 84 percent of soldiers’ letters mentioning the WAAC were unfavorable (Bellafaire). They were questioning the moral values of women attracted to the military service and passed these beliefs to their families at home (Bellafaire). One of the biggest challenges that were faced with the WAAC was the rumors. Most of the rumors were started because they many were trying to force women back to â€Å"their domestic lifestyles† (Bellafaire).Many men started to say women of the WAAC were pregnant or were prostitutes; the women were often returned home based on the rumors and not factual evidence (Bellafaire). One story that was told was that any soldier seen dating a WAAC would be seized by Army authorities and provided with medical treatment (Bellafaire). Though there were many rumors about the WAAC and they were under serious scrutiny, Congress opened a hearing in March 1943 on the conversion of the WAAC into the Regular Army, hoping that it would help to mitigate the rumors and help the women become more of an integral part of the Army (Holm).Army leaders asked for the authority to convert the WAAC in to the Women’s Army Corps, which would be part of the Army itself rather than merely serving with it (Holm). On July 3, 1943 the WAC was signed into law and all WAAC’s were given the choice of joining the Army as a member of the WAC or returning to civilian life. Many decided to join, 25 percent decided to leave the service (Bellafaire). Women in the military have been an instrumental part of our history. The WAAC was the first step for them becoming part of the military.Looking at the bigger picture, whether women were a part of the WAAC, the WAC or just the plain old Army today there will always be a place for women. Even in today’s world women constantly have to fight for their roles and to prove themselves. The Declaration of Independents states, we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal (Jefferson), â€Å"men† is all people, including women. It is always a constant battle for equality, the WAAC was a positive step in tha t direction and it has only gotten better. Works CitedBellafaire, Judith. â€Å"The Women’s Army Corps: A Commemoration of World War II Service. † www. history. army. mil/brochures/WAC/WAC. htm. CHM Publication, 17 Feb. 2005. Web. 29 June 2012. Crockrord, Vanessa. â€Å"Oveta Culp Hobby and Her â€Å"Lieutenants† Transformational Leadership in Action in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps of World War II. † Dissertation. 2003. Electronic. 29 June 2012. Holm, Jeanne. Women in the Military: An Unfinished Revolution. Novato: Presidio Press, 1982. Print. Monahan, Evelyn. A Few Good Women. New York: Random House, 2010. Print.

What's the difference between a Liberal and a Conservative in 2011 Article

What's the difference between a Liberal and a Conservative in 2011 American Politics - Article Example (Student News Daily, 2010) The Liberals want Government controlled health care. The Conservatives support a competitive, free market health care system. Liberals believe that undocumented aliens (illegals) have the right to the same benefits as citizens. Conservatives do not. Liberals believe that the Social Security system should be protected at all costs whereas the Conservatives feel people should be allowed to handle their own savings. Conservatives liken Liberals AKA Progressives to a person who goes in and tears down a house, leaving the tenants homeless, with no ideas for rebuilding. Conservatives are full of ideas but have been unable to rally enough support to initiate any of them. (American Thinker, 2007) When it comes to taxes, Conservatives feel that the people are pretty darn good at handling money and that tax cuts increase revenue and the spending power of the American people increasing Government profit. Liberals on the other hand feel that in the people’s hands money is not well spent and that the Government should regulate it, redistributing it where they see fit. To quote paleoconservative Pat Buchanan, with regards to the bailout, â€Å"What we are witnessing is what happens to a prodigal nation that ignores history, and forgets and abandons the philosophies and principals that made it great.† (Quinn, 2008) While on the other side of the fence, what seems a rather unflattering statement is what the Liberals are saying about Obama, â€Å"Obama Sounds Like a Fool Because He’s Just So Darn Brilliant†, referring to his â€Å"Intellectual Stammer†. (Eden, 2011) To be a Liberal is to defend the freedom - the Liberty - of all people who make up our great nation. (McKinley, n.d.) Conservatives overwhelmingly believe if you go around and work hard and persevere, youre going to get ahead. (Schulte, 2008) As you can see the differences are many. What matters most however, are not the differences, but whether or not they can

Decision Making - Ethic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Decision Making - Ethic - Essay Example In 6 years, it is pÃŽ ¿ssible tÃŽ ¿ say that these actiÃŽ ¿ns and refÃŽ ¿rms initiate business management ethics which fÃŽ ¿llÃŽ ¿ws strict legal rules values and wÃŽ ¿rk in cÃŽ ¿mpliance with internal and external ethical principles ÃŽ ¿f business. Ethical dilemmas ÃŽ ¿ften invÃŽ ¿lve uncertainty and, when rights and duties are in cÃŽ ¿nflict, it is difficult tÃŽ ¿ find guidance. Ethics is receiving wide-ranging discussiÃŽ ¿n in tÃŽ ¿days pÃŽ ¿pular press as well as in accÃŽ ¿unting literature. Many accÃŽ ¿untants find themselves perplexed by these arguments because they have nÃŽ ¿t been expÃŽ ¿sed tÃŽ ¿ a practical methÃŽ ¿d ÃŽ ¿f dealing with ethical dilemmas. NÃŽ ¿ fÃŽ ¿rmal training and few ÃŽ ¿ppÃŽ ¿rtunities in everyday wÃŽ ¿rking life have been prÃŽ ¿vided fÃŽ ¿r accÃŽ ¿untants ÃŽ ¿n a sustained basis. Greek ecÃŽ ¿nÃŽ ¿mic, philÃŽ ¿sÃŽ ¿phical, religiÃŽ ¿us, legal, business, sÃŽ ¿cial, and ÃŽ ¿ther prÃŽ ¿blem areas and prÃŽ ¿pÃŽ ¿sed sÃŽ ¿lutiÃŽ ¿ns are fÃŽ ¿und in their legal cÃŽ ¿des and in their religiÃŽ ¿us and philÃŽ ¿sÃŽ ¿phic writings (Frederick 62). The SÃŽ ¿cratic philÃŽ ¿sÃŽ ¿phers and military are the chief sÃŽ ¿urces ÃŽ ¿f the ecÃŽ ¿nÃŽ ¿mic, business, and sÃŽ ¿cial thÃŽ ¿ught ÃŽ ¿f that day; their writings are intertwined with philÃŽ ¿sÃŽ ¿phy, ethics, and pÃŽ ¿litics. TÃŽ ¿ ÃŽ ¿btain a better feel fÃŽ ¿r precisely what impact these early writers and thinkers had ÃŽ ¿n present day management and ethical, mÃŽ ¿ral, and sÃŽ ¿cial practices, twÃŽ ¿ ÃŽ ¿f these Greek writers will be examined. First, the writings ÃŽ ¿f PlatÃŽ ¿ (427B.C. - 347B.C.) and then AristÃŽ ¿tle (384B.C. -- 322B.C.) will be examined. The scÃŽ ¿pe ÃŽ ¿f PlatÃŽ ¿s and AristÃŽ ¿tles writings was wide and represented the general thinking and beliefs ÃŽ ¿f the Greek philÃŽ ¿sÃŽ ¿phers ÃŽ ¿f that time; th ey delved intÃŽ ¿ the ecÃŽ ¿nÃŽ ¿mic and sÃŽ ¿cial system in its parts, hÃŽ ¿w it shÃŽ ¿uld wÃŽ ¿rk, and hÃŽ ¿w it shÃŽ ¿uld be used tÃŽ ¿ achieve the desired gÃŽ ¿als and ÃŽ ¿bjectives (BuchhÃŽ ¿lz and RÃŽ ¿senthal 62). Even thÃŽ ¿ugh

Applying Diversity Challenges to Your Chosen Field Research Paper

Applying Diversity Challenges to Your Chosen Field - Research Paper Example This affects the process of learning and even noted to be creating a blockage in easy development of approaches that I enjoyed during my secondary course (Grace & Wells, 2007). Specially mentioning, the different experiences of life either block or support the development of cognitive ability to meet the elated requirements of the society and likewise enhance learning ability. However, the accumulation of diverse group of people belonging to different sections and cultural backgrounds certainly enhanced my ability to maintain greater sustainable development within my field of learning i.e. ESL (Drago-Severson, 2004). Additionally, the racial as well as diversified ethnic identities even acted as majorly influencing the mode of learning. In my learning filed i.e. ESL, I came across huge level of gender biasness, representing the fact that ethnic communities are affecting the universal development of people. Sexual orientation of different societies is also noted to be affecting the needs of the people, resulting in affecting the learning processes. Based on my understanding, the only mode of learning for a group of people belonging to diverse culture could be developed by proper use of integrated learning approaches and development of teacher-student relationship (Caffarella & Daffron, 2013). Grace, A. P., & Wells, K. (2007). Using Freirean pedagogy of just IRE to inform critical social learning in arts-informed community education for sexual minorities. Adult Education Quarterly, 57(2),

Social Networking and the Impact on College Life Research Paper

Social Networking and the Impact on College Life - Research Paper Example Social media websites have been thus affecting school and college students’ grades because students end up spending more time on websites rather than studying. Most students, when asked how they spend their day, reply by stating that they spend their hours after school or college in front of the computer, on websites like Twitter and Face book. These websites take up all their time because the new generation is obsessed with documenting their every thought on the internet. Moreover, they like checking into places on their Face book, updating their status and spend hours on a single photograph that someone would have tagged them on, commenting. All these activities eat up into their study time and they fail to get good grades or concentrate in the classroom due to being so hooked on to these websites all the time. The focus of this paper is on college students because school children can still be controlled by their parents and are under the regulation of their parent’s watchful eye. Once in college, a student is on his own, leading his own life and seldom listens to what the parents say, especially if he lives away from home. Such f reedom tends to override the child’s life, leading him into spending his time in the most non productive and enjoyable manner possible. By this I mean to say that the internet can be a very productive place to be as it has so many websites full of information and learning; one can enrich himself by reading the news as well, however college students seldom tend to do that, unless the news presents itself in the form of a Face book update. Almost 96% of college students are on Face book all the time and even if they study, they tend to keep checking their Face book page for updates every half an hour, if not lesser. This hinders work because it reduced the concentration span of the student. (Akhtar, Shabbir) Â  

Religion and Civil Rights Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Religion and Civil Rights - Research Paper Example â€Å"Jains believe that the universe and everything in it is eternal. Nothing that exists now was ever created, nor will it be destroyed† . On the other hand, Confucianism gives more importance to ethical practices in human life even though it keeps silence about life after death or God. â€Å"Each day I examine myself on three counts: whether or not I am loyal to those in whose behalf I act; whether or not I am trustworthy in my dealings with friends; whether or not I practice what is imparted† . Different religions have different beliefs, customs, rituals and Gods. Based on this diverse belief system, religions control the civil rights of people. The rights of one religion need not be the rights of other religion. Same way the wrongs of one religion need not be the wrongs of another religion. This paper analyses the civil rights based on the belief system in different religions. Hindu Religion and civil rights â€Å"According to historians, the origin of Hinduism da tes back to 5,000 or more years. The word "Hindu" is derived from the name of River Indus, which flows through northern India†3 â€Å"The foundations of this oldest surviving religion were laid by ancient rishis (sages), who taught their disciples the eternal principles of life they had discovered through their meditations†4. Hindu religion is often referred as the religion of Vedas and Dharma. (Dharma is the code of conduct of life principles). Anyone who practices Dharma can be considered as a Hindu. Different class system is prevailing in Hindu religion like Brahman, Kshathriya, Vaisya and Shudra etc. Brahman people got the rights to do the rituals in the temple whereas Kshathriya got the right to rule the country. Vaisya and Shudra belong to the working class. In short, civil rights of people in Hindu religion were not even earlier even though at present such classifications are meaningless. The greatest strength of Hindu religion is its respect to other religions. It believes in the doctrine of, â€Å"Sanatana Dharma† or Universal Truth. India is a secular democratic country even though of majority of the people in India is Hindus, because of the above Hindu doctrine. No religion is prohibited in India and people have the right to believe and spread their own religion. Buddhism and civil rights â€Å"The religion of Buddha began in 563 B.C. Buddhists believe in karma and rebirth. Karma determines in which form a person is reborn and rebirth is a second birth†5. The beliefs of Buddhism are slightly different from that of other religions. Most of the other religions believe in single God or multi God theory whereas Buddhists are more interested in karma and rebirth. According to their belief, human life consists of so many rebirths which will be ended once a person attains Nirvana. Karma or the activities of a person in his present life will determine the nature of his rebirth. Buddhists do not have belief in soul. For them, soul will be changing from one form to another based on the rebirths. â€Å"They called soul as "self† which is just a bunch of changing characteristics†6 . The belief of Buddhism is based on the four noble truths; â€Å"Life means suffering, the origin of suffering is attachment, the cessation of suffering is attainable and the path to the cessation of suffering†7. According to Buddhism, â€Å"If there were a creator of the world, he would be regarded as responsible for the suffering8. In other words, Buddhists see no chances of happiness in earthly life. All the human activities in this material world will ultimately end up in sufferings. Even if a person did nothing wrong in his present life, his activities in previous life may affect him in his present

Signal Transmission Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Signal Transmission - Assignment Example The length of the antenna should be more or equal to the wavelength. In order to transmit higher wavelength frequency, the length of the antenna should be larger that become unpractical. In order to limit the size of the antenna, carrier frequencies are used that have powerful signal frequencies. Carrier frequencies make it possible to send and receive the radio waves under a set operating range. It limits the distortion and interference with other frequencies. Carrier frequencies allow the transmission of the signal frequencies to be transmitted wirelessly. Radio waves require carrier frequencies for the transmission as carrier frequencies make it easier to transmit the information through space. Carrier frequencies work in a fixed band where the power transmitted through the carries is considerably higher as compared to that of the packed radio frequencies. Carrier frequencies are transmitted by using a similar physical transmission medium. Signal frequencies and carrier frequencie s are modulated in a manner that the receiver can easily separate the two frequencies. Mainly two basic modulation techniques are used for the transmission of the carrier frequencies. Frequencies modulation and amplitude modulation are the basic types of modulation techniques used extensively. In frequency modulation, the signal frequencies are mixed with the frequency of the carrier frequency and in amplitude modulation techniques, the signal frequencies are mixed with respect to the amplitude of the carrier frequency.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - Essay Example itative Services, Office of Special Education Programs (2003) defines ADHD as â€Å"a neurological condition that involves problems with inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity that are developmentally inconsistent with the age of the child† (p.1). They go on to explain that ADHD is in fact a problem of developmental failure in the part of the brain responsible for monitoring self-control and that it is not a disorder of attention as has been thought all along. The Department estimates that 3-5%of the student population have ADHD, which amounts to 1.46 – 2.46 million children. The National Institute of Mental Health (1996) agrees with this figure and also emphasizes the significance of this prevalence by suggesting that this means that in every class of 15-30 children at least one child will have ADHD. There are three main symptoms of ADHD – inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. These symptoms usually appear early in the child’s life over a period of several months. Usually hyperactivity and impulsivity are first observed and later on followed by the inattention. Generally the child can be seen fidgeting with hands a great deal of the time, running around the classroom, not able to sit in seat for long periods of time, blurting out answers to questions impulsively and having difficulty waiting in line or taking turns. These are all signs of the hyperactivity and impulsivity. The inattention that is seen later is manifested by being easily distracted by irrelevant sights and noises and making careless mistakes. Another common feature of the inattention is that the child will hardly finish one task before moving on to another. According to the Office of Special Education Programs, the symptoms can range in type and level of severity with each child. The behavior can be classified into two categories- inattention and hyperactivity-impulsiveness and there are three subtypes of the disorder. The child can either be predominantly inattentive, predominantly

Law Of Agency Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Law Of Agency - Essay Example Principals by placing fresh orders with Papa Dog. Thus, she is personally liable for her actions and not her principals. Although initially she had remonstrated with Josh, regarding the defect in product K10, later she confirmed order for  £600 without seeking permission from her principals. This action has made her liable under law of criminal tort and negligence. The next feature that needs to be seen is that under the law of agency, it is illegal for an agent to make secret profits out of actions arising out of agency business. Even if she did she would be liable to disclose the same to the principal and act according to their instructions. However, this was also not done, making her an ideal candidate for tort, criminal action under agency laws and fraudulent conduct. â€Å"Agents have certain duties to their principals. This could be in terms of performing the legal duties as embodied in covenant and adhering to â€Å"standards of reasonable care, skills and diligence implicit in all contracts.† (Chapter 19: Agent Duties to Principal, #13). Again agents have a major duty to reveal to the principal information gathered from outside sources regarding matters relevant to business â€Å"that is important to the principals.† (Chapter 19: Agent Duties to Principal, #13). â€Å"The duty of loyalty† in terms of not working in cross purposes or detrimental to the interests of the principal is also sacrosanct for the agent. .† (Chapter 19: Agent Duties continued, #14). Again the duty of obedience entails that agent would have to honour the legal and ethical guidelines offered by the principal â€Å"during the performance of the agency.† (Chapter 19: Agent Duties continued, #14). In the case of Alwood v. Clifford (2002) EMCR -3, the lady, Alwood was expecting eight children, and she hired the services of Clifford, for arranging for leading newspaper to cover the rare event. Clifford

Project Management Essay Example for Free

Project Management Essay Moving forward to begin the process of managing the trade show project for LRH Products, it is important that all aspects of the process are performed correctly and efficiently. After studying the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) and the nine knowledge areas, I have ascertained that the following three areas are of utmost importance to the success of this project: Project Time Management, Project Human Resource Management, and Project Communications Management. Project Time Management, which contains the sub-areas of Activity Definition, Activity Sequencing, and Activity Duration Estimating is a very important part of planning for the trade show. Activity Definition is perhaps the most crucial aspect of this area. If this step is not thoroughly researched and all scenarios accounted for, it can impact the rest of the planning activities. It is essential to remember that training is one activity which must be properly time managed and added to the schedule, as well. Even one forgotten item can put the entire project behind schedule. Unfortunately, if time is not managed properly, there can be no extensions to the trade show date. Activity Sequencing is a bit less important although it must also be given careful consideration. Oftentimes, the performance of one activity hinges on the completion of another so little regard to this area could also impact the time to achieve all required activities. Activity Duration Estimating can be one of the trickiest parts of the planning process, especially for a new manager who has no first-hand experience dealing with the assigned personnel and little or no knowledge of resource availability. Oftentimes, managers will respond to questions regarding time in an optimistic manner, believing that this is what their superiors want to hear. It does no good to anyone involved to seriously underestimate the amount of time required and can add undue stress to those assigned tasks with no hope of completing them according to schedule as well as detrimentally affecting motivation and commitment. It is vital to always allow enough time to accomplish all that needs to be done – as well as accounting for changes which may hamper progress. Of course, as uncertainty declines, the time estimate becomes ever more accurate (Billows, 2006). Project Human Resource Management entails Organizational Planning, Staff Acquisition, and Team Development. This is important in that one person cannot perform all tasks and requires the help of a team. According to Trade Show Advisor (2008), â€Å"†¦the effectiveness of your exhibit team can make or break your success at any given show†. Deciding on who is best equipped to handle each activity is vital, although when large amounts of personnel are needed (depending on the size of the trade show) it may be necessary to train staff members who might not have prior experience. Particularly for a new manager, it is best to assign tasks based on areas of strength; for instance, it is known that Pat enjoys updating the collateral. This is a perfect assignment for Pat, then, and the effective manager will base goal times on completion around this employee’s schedule vacation in order to ensure it is performed effectively. Dealing with Terry, who can make travel arrangements but often makes mistakes in setting them up, means additional time considerations to perform follow-up on Terry’s work to check for accuracy. Staff Acquisition is another area of consideration. Due to the limited amount of time each assigned employee is available to devote to the project and keeping in mind that unexpected circumstances, such as illness or personal emergencies may occur, it is always wise to have a selection of personnel from which to select as back-up. Ensuring that all staff members are on the same page and communicating frequently will aid in Team Development. Everyone involved must realize that this project is a team effort and commit to doing whatever is necessary to accomplish goals. As well, it is critical to encourage honest and open communication so that there are no surprises as the project nears its end. Staff members must know that it is all right to admit they are not going to make a deadline, in order for the project manager to come up with alternatives before it is too late to fix. Project Communications Management is by far the most important area of the project management plan. A loss of, or breakdown in, communication can have disastrous results for the entire project. If not properly managed, lost or missing communication can mean the staff attending the show are unprepared, or do not have the necessary resources. Within this broad category are the areas of Communication Planning, Information Distribution, Performance Reporting, and Administrative Closure. Communication Planning – deciding who needs to know what – is a topic best addressed carefully. It takes the ability to look at the big picture to best determine who must stay in the loop. Oftentimes, it is assumed that a minor player, such as an administrative assistant, need not be communicated with as much, or as often, as others, but this can be a fatal mistake. Remember that support staff left behind during the trade show itself are the only lifeline between clients and absent sales managers. It is also a good idea to have one staff member who is not attending the show to be fully informed of all activities in the project. Information Distribution is also a key component, especially when deciding how to communicate vital information. It is important to ensure that all team members receive communications in a timely manner and let the project manager know it has been received to avoid later problems or excuses. Similarly, Progress Reporting is an additional area in which it is vital to ensure the manager is working with the most up-to-date information and that all personnel are aware of how their progress, or lack thereof, impacts the entire project. Administrative Closure is the final step in communication of the project. This is where the manager is held accountable for the success of the trade show and the resulting sales leads which must be followed up on after its conclusion.

Sustainability Strategies for Proctor Gamble

Sustainability Strategies for Proctor Gamble 1. Introduction: Procter and Gamble is an organization which produces diverse products, and its ambition is to reach the consumers demand. PG began in the 1911; with the theme of innovation by producing every time a different product. For every product they go through three stages. The first stage was to make innovative needed products; the second was to proceed with the successful products with suitable quantities; and the third is to have more investments of capital to enlarge the company. These three stages preserve the success of PG. PG is a multinational corporation with 156 branches in more than 70 countries. There are three main development centers, the first center is in Germany in which paper products like Always and Pampers are developed. The second is in Brussels, used to develop detergents. The last center is situated in the United Kingdom where soap and shampoos are developed. PGs environmental science department plays a unique role to ensure that their products are safe to use for the consumer as well as for the environment. Environmental safety is an internal part of the quality that PG builds into its every product. The Company is committed to produce best quality of products to refine the consumers of whole world. The companys actual performance could be deduced by looking at its 2009 Annual Report. Its worldwide net earnings for the year 2009 were 13,436 million dollar, which is 13.61% increase over the prior year. It has total assets of $134,833 million and liabilities of $71,451 million. PG has been paying a dividend for 120 consecutive years since its incorporation in 1890 and has increased its dividend for 54 consecutive years at an annual compound average rate of approximately 9.35%.This is an evidence of how much consumers demand PGs product and how this initiates the company to develop 300 brands to satisfy five billion consumers all over the world. Alan G. Lafley became chairman of PG in 2000, he made it clear that he wanted innovation across the spectrum-in how the company invents, markets, manufactures, and distributes its products. 2. Methods 2.1 Data collection methods We get the data from the documentary analysis of the PG which come from the website of the PG. The data is easy accessed in the internet. PGs annual plans are useful in the research. At the same time, we keep contact to PG via emails. They give us information on the plan of the companys development. 2.2 Issues and challenges Biases different comments of PG in massive aspects, often find data from some organization within the PG. that circumstances may cause biases, which influence comments to become less objective and even flattery. It is significant to distinguish the information because possibly comments on one aspect could go opposite and cause dilemma. Detailed resource constraints it is not difficult to find general information about PG. However, it was not easy to search details and depth objections. Although, connecting PG for details may work, yet it cannot be certain that the opinions gained from PG are 100% objective and real. Collecting from dispersive information a majority of resources is dispersive. It means much time consuming and less efficiency. Also some information may mislead ideas to somewhere wrong. 2.3 Analysis Through the analysis of companys annual report, we know the performance of PG. according to the structure and culture of PG, we can forecast the development foreground. We evaluate the approaches to management and leadership. We use the view of a manager, trying to give out a better way. We are based on management principles and analysis the existing business model. PG has a unique pattern in the business management which was widely praised by consumers. 3. Business strategy, mission and goals 3.1 Introduction PG products touch the lives of people around the world billion times a day. This happens because PG provides products of best quality to improve the lives of all consumers around the world. This results in sales, profit and value creation, between the company and the consumers in which they operate to prosper. Its business is divided into three global units: beauty, health and well being, and household care. It also makes pet food and water filters and produces soap operas. Some products of PGs brands are billion-dollar sellers, including Gillette Fusion, Always, Braun, Bounty, Charmin, Crest, Downy/Lenor, Folgers (which it reportedly plans to spin off), Gillette mach 3, Iams, Olay total, Pampers, Pantene pro v, Pringles, Tide lemon jasmine, and Wella, among others. The above products were mentioned by Robert N. Lussier(2009) in annual report 2009. The PG consists of over 138,000 employees working in over 80 countries. It began as a small, family-operated soap and Candle Company which now not only provides products but also concentrate on services of best quality and value to consumers in more than 180 countries. In PG, they are focusing their efforts on where they can make the most meaningful difference in both environmental and social Sustainability. According to Andrea Redmonds (2010) research, their dedication begins with PGs Purpose, values and principles, in which Sustainability is embedded, and manifests itself in a systemic and long-term way. They try to make their company better. 3.2 Mission and goals In 2007, PG implemented five strategies to Sustain goals for the future. In March of 2009, PG made a progress to emphasize their commitment to achieve more significant goals. The five strategies are as follows: Strategy1 Products: Delight the consumer with sustainable innovations which improve the environmental profile of the products. They have developed the market which was at least $50 billion in cumulative sales of sustainable innovation products, and products that have an improved environmental profile. Strategy 2 Operations: Improve the environmental profile of PGs own operations. An additional 20% reduction (per unit production) in CO2 emissions, energy consumption, water consumption and disposed waste from PG plants, leading to a total reduction over the decade of at least 50%. PROGRESS (percent reduction per unit production) Since July 2007 Since July 2002 Energy Usage 11% 48% CO2 Emissions 10% 52% Waste Disposal 30% 53% Water Usage 13% 52% Strategy 3 Social responsibility: Improve childrens lives through PGs social responsibility programs. Enable 300 million children to Live, Learn and Thrive. They prevented 160 million days of disease and also saved 20,000 lives by delivering 4 billion liters of pure water for the Childrens Safe Drinking Water program. Strategy 4 Employees: Engage and equip all PG employees to build Sustainability thinking and practices into their everyday work. Strategy 5 Shareholders: Plan the future by working transparently with their shareholders so that they can work with freedom to innovate in a responsible way. Beside the five strategies, they have several goals on the market. 1. Designed to Matter In PG, they focus the Sustainability efforts on improvements that matter, to make the most meaningful impact they can. 2. Purposes, values principles PGs Purpose, Values Principles formulated their shared vision, a common sets of behavior and their beliefs about the business and its potential. 3.3 Marketing strategy Many people think that multi-brand strategy will result in a situation that internal competition happens, but P G believes that the best strategy is to compete with their own product. Gary Armstrong (2009) said this is because the market economy is a competitive economy, while its opponents to develop new products to share the market. As their challenge themselves and overcome their own, so that their products  brands may occupy a different market, in order to consolidate its leadership position. 1. Differentiated brands If P Gs multi-brand strategy to be understood as simply more brands, it would be wrong. Actually the pursuit of similar products, the differences between different brands, including features, packaging, promotion, etc., to form each brand distinctive, such as Procter Gamble brand strategy so that each brand has its own development, the market will not overlap, and it will not lead to market its brand in the consumer confusion. The words above are supported by Piero Morosini (2005) 2. Manufacture of USP According to the report, USP means unique selling proposition. It is proposed by the American advertising guru Rosser Reeves (said Brent Green 2006). Marketing theory: the core of its content: Advertising should be according to the characteristics unique to the consumer for rhetoric,  and allow consumers to believe that this feature is not available to others or others not mentioned. These features can bring tangible benefits to consumers. 3. Unique way: numbers brands in one organization As Michel Philippart (2005) and Hangzhou da Xues (1994) study, multi-brand strategy is very difficult to succeed. While a single image of the brand extension strategy to facilitate the unity of management, reduce marketing costs, easy-to-be customers to accept, but it is not guaranteed, because of a branding, the easy formation among consumers  fixed image, resulting in the customers mind-set is not conducive to the extension product. 4. Overall structure: The Procter Gamble Company (PG) is divided into three main worldwide units, which are household care, beauty and grooming and health and well-being (Marketing magazine: 2009). Every units report is sent to Susan E. Arnold, who has been promoted from vice chair of PGs beauty and health department to the position of president of global business units. The beauty care section is also managed by Susan Arnold. PG has restructured its hierarchy of top executives, who include Arnold, in order to meet the changing needs of their larger, more flexible and faster-paced global business. Lafley, who is the chairman of PG, announced that PG has nearly doubled its business since 2000 with the acquisitions of the Clairol, Wella hair care businesses and Gillette. The change in structure is designed to meet the needs of a larger business that is also developing new initiatives faster than in the past (Balendu: 2007). Initially, PG managed its international operations through an international division of foreign expansion, in the same manner many other multinational enterprises. A variety of products were identified to match national differences and preferences. Consequently, a portfolio, consisting of subsidiaries, run by country general managers was established. However, this management structure may result in two basic problems. Firstly, the cost of operating these subsidiaries is high, and secondly the ferocious autonomy of national subsidiaries prevented the global roll out of new products and technology improvements (Lin, 2008: 9). Therefore, PG needed innovation in the subsidiaries management structure. It concluded that the matrix structure, in which subordinates report to more than one superior (MacKenzie, 2002:22), is a better alternative for PG, as it allows authority to be kept at lower levels. However, most firms would have some difficulty implementing this Matrix structure into their organization because it is difficult to organize multinational activities through this complex structure. For example, dual reporting can lead to disagreements and confusion and a possible overlap of responsibilities. This may result in a loss of accountability and wastes time. Through time PG has been trying to optimize its structure. The current structure resulted in a culture within PG, which was viewed as slow, conformist and risk-averse (Lin, 2008:11). This led to a decrease in productivity and an increase in inefficiency in the organization. Moreover, these factors would slow down the decision making process and reduce the competitiveness of the company. Although, the management structure of PG seems imperfect at the moment. However, the Procter Gamble Company is still a giant in the area of consumer goods and the leading maker of household products in the United States. PG operates its business in over 80 countries around the world and has approximately 300 brands in more t han 160 countries. The matrix structure helps PG develop its global business structure into more specific areas. As a result, the company has become more flexible to change within market competitions and the different expectation of PG. The final stage of completing the innovation process of management structure is to transform the formal structure and responsibilities of the company. For example, the global business units of PG were established in order to manage product development, manufacturing and marketing of their respective categories all around world. Furthermore, global business service units were established to organize with the transactional activities such as Accounting, HR, IT, etc. Eliminating bureaucracy and increasing accountability is another main objective of structure change (Bartlett, 2004: Chp 4). The Procter Gamble Companys corporate structure has been mainly dependent on worldwide subsidiaries and merging. During this time of restructuring, PG has continued its active acquisitions pace. For instance, PG entered the European tissue and towel market through the purchase of Vereinigte Papierwerke Schickedanz AGs European tissue unit and added the luxury fragrance business of Giorgio Beverly Hills, Inc. In the same year, PG returned to the South African market following the lifting of U.S. sanctions. PG has altered its geographic management structure gradually. As a result, PG has divided its operations into United States and other countries, which mainly includes four regions North America, Latin America, Asia and Europe/Middle East/Africa. PG announced a new restructuring initiative in September 1998. A key factor of this restructuring was a shift from an organization centered around the four geographic regions to one centered on seven global business parts based on product lines: Baby Care, Beauty Care, Fabric Home Care, Feminine Protection, Food Beverage, Health Care Corporate New Ventures and Tissues Towels. PG has continued to restructure and adapt to different markets and different financial situation worldwide. According to a firm press release announcing the new structure, This change will drive greater innovation and speed by centering strategy and profit responsibility globally on brands, rather than on geographies 5. PGs Culture: Culture plays an important role in any organization to run their organization well in this fast growing business world. According to Scheins theory of culture it is defined as A pattern of shared basic assumption that the group learned as it solved its problem of external adaptation and integration that has work well enough to be considered valid and therefore to be taught to new members as a correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problem-(Scheins 1992, p12, italics altered). According to Schein organizational culture is the acquired outcome of group experience, as it is to a large extent unconscious. Schein considers culture to the three layer phenomenon. From figure 1 it is clearly seen that the organizational culture comprises of three layers first one is the artefacts, espoused values and underlying assumption. Artefacts Innovation culture is the mission statement of Procter and gamble organization in which they state that the consumer is boss, consumer should be the heart of all PG do from ideation stage through the purchase of the product. For example if 30 seconds with a deodorant or one minute with a disposal diaper have made a small part of your life a little bit better then PG made a difference. PG policies made the company a unique one that respect of governments and law, respects in workplace and respect in the market place (annual report of PG, 2005). PG is a multinational company and it is widely spread geographically. They maintain open work system in lots of work places around the world. Executive offices do not have doors. Leaders do not have a secretary cordoning them off. The executive floors on all the offices at Procter and gamble are open, conference room is an open round space. They made it round as a small symbol of the new approach (Lafely .A, 2000 CEO of PG). Espoused values PG is having hierarchy of company ethics principles. PVP(Purpose, Values and principles), corporate policies, worldwide business conduct standards, operating policies/procedure/practices. For over 170 years PG purpose values and principles has been guiding the way they do business and it is shown in the fig 2 below. There purpose is to provide branded products and services of superior quality and values that improves the lives of the worlds consumer. PG lives with its people and values, they recruit the finest people in the world who built organization by promoting and rewarding people without regard to any difference related to performance. Lafely said that PG have been fortunate that some of this flexible multifaceted ethics exist in our heritage. For example Procter and Gamble pioneered a system which is technician based in its manufacturing plants during the 1960s and 70s. In this system they avoided the approach in which one person assigned to do only one job. The technician sys tem still operates today and working well. To get the highest evaluation rating in PG factory, you learn how to do all the jobs on line and once you have that rating, company expect you to be that much capable of problem identification, problem solving, and innovation. This background has made it easier for company to plug manufacturing and engineering in to the innovation culture. PG CEO Lafely said in one conference that once people in our organization have succeeded at innovation then you can see the energy in the company changing. People at PG routinely says that we can do this, this is feasible and the change of attitude of the people in PG is incredible to watch. Integrity, leadership, ownership, passion for winning and trust are the main asset values of PG. By considering purpose and values they made their principles like the show respects for individual, interest of the company and individual are inseparable and innovation is the cornerstone of PG success. These are the offi cials objectives which had been espoused by the company head and it is common for PG organization all over the world. Fig 2 PVP of PG 2003 sustainability report Underlying Assumptions It consists of unconscious, taken for granted beliefs, perception, thoughts and feelings. PG are having problem relating to external adaption and internal integration. PG keep refining their products, launch model from ideas, to prototype, to development, to qualification and to commercialization. Applying this sequential practice on large scale and replicate them does not mean to eliminate judgment, thats why PG needs active leaders and a strong innovation culture. Therefore PG introduces the inclusive culture for leaders and they expected to build inclusive work environment that welcomes and embraces diversity an environment where people feel comfortable. Forced diversity training/learning process are utilized to equip leaders to values and nurture difference in management experience, style of leadership and problem solving approaches. By analyzing the PGs culture it is seen that PG is having a strong and dominant culture and that culture follows in every part of the world. Innovation is the main theme of PGs success and to bind organization culture together. 6. PGs management leadership: Innovative Management and Leadership of PG When we observe organizations and try to classify, we tend to classify them in terms of their success and describe them as highly successful, successful, struggling to succeed or unsuccessful. There are certain factors influencing their success. Management in the organizations has to perform some functions like planning, organizing, staffing, directing, leading and controlling for success. Management consists of implementation of the vision and strategy provided by leaders, coordinating and staffing the organization and handling day-to-day problems. By Koontz and Weihrich management is the process of designing and maintaining an environment in which individuals work with such performance for optimizing efficiency in reaching goals. HENRI FAYOL identified the main operations in business management- technical, commercial, financial, security, accounting and administration. The administration function he further subdivided into organizational, coordinating, commanding, controlling and purveyance. The purveyance further included the concepts of forecasting and planning.  [i]   PG was facing certain disadvantages using the Henri Fayol method because it was not an empirical but more theoretical. Moreover PG wants to be innovative and wants to differentiate products by its formation. So they adopted the Cooper-Kleinschmidt study of innovation method which was based on the triangle process. The Innovation Diamond in Exhibit 1 began as a triangle process, Resources, and strategy the result of a 1990s Cooper-Kleinschmidt study of innovation across a Broad range of businesses.4 Procter Gambles management in the 1990s subsequently transformed the triangle into their Initiatives Diamond, shown in Exhibit 2.  [ii]   The Innovation Diamond is a guiding framework to help management focus on whats important to success: innovative strategy, a good idea-to-launch process, portfolio management, the climate and leadership. PGs Initiatives Diamond serves as a guide for each businesss product innovation efforts, and helps to focus managements attention on what is important to success. Heres what Bob McDonald, PGs Vice Chairman of Global Operations, says: The Initiative Diamond played a significant role in improving the business results in PGs Fabric Home Care global business unit. This work brought us a new discipline to manage our innovation programs, and yielded a major increase in the in-market success of our initiatives. We aligned our organization on how to use Stage-Gate ® success criteria and portfolio and resource management to deliver better innovations for the consumers we serve.  [iii]   The top half of PGs diamond in Exhibit 2 is strategic in nature, and captures the businesss product innovation strategy: goals, the mix of new products required to meet those goals, and the required resources. Portfolio management (or project selection) is thus closely connected to strategy. The bottom half of the diamond is more operational and focuses on delivering specific new product projects or initiatives: what resources must be put in place for each project; and how individual new product projects are managed so they succeed using PGs idea-to-launch SIMPLTM Methodology? Thus how the PGs business success has been generated through focusing on effective innovative Management. Peter F. Drucker says Leadership is the lifting of mans thinking to higher sights, the increment of mans performance to higher standard, the building of mans personality beyond its normal limitation. Alan Bryman offers the working definition of leadership as: the creation of a goal about a desired future state which seeks to mesh every members of an organization in its net. Many commentators trait spotting approach to; have argued or assumed that the performance of an organization depends on the quality of leadership exercised by its leaders; same is the case with PG organization. The single most enduring thing PG leaders can do is to identify develop our next generation of leaders. If we can get the right people with the right skills and experiences in place to run our business, the rest will take care of itself. By Lura Mattimore, Director, Leadership development PG. So the leader is someone who exercises influence over other people leading is a process of actuation. It provides an electrifying effect to the organization makes people action-oriented and bridges gaps within the organization. Distribution of work, delegation of authority and supervision of work should be done meticulously. There are various approaches to leadership such as trait spotting, style counseling, content fitting, New leadership. PG uses the trait spotting approach to leadership. PG leaders are built from within because they believe that their future success is entirely dependent on the ongoing strength of talent pipeline. So the first trait spotting in PG is done by PG leaders itself who select the next leader of the company by searching a quality of dedication towards the work. PG leaders are not born leaders at first they are just the ordinary people of the company. For PG people are the company most important asset. Their success depends entirely on the strength of the talent which they build from within manage with a disciplined process led by the CEO the senior leadership team. This is an essential element of how PG is designs to lead. Thus PG develop leaders whose purpose is to centre on improving more consumers lives in all parts of the world. Thus PG uses two dimensional style of leadership because it concerns for the production as well as for the people. People are the main asset of PG and for production they always wanted to get differentiated by their innovation method. Thus PG uses the two dimensional style. (Blake Mouton 1964) According to the Likerts there are four leadership systems: Exploitative Autocratic Benevolent authoritative Participative Democratic Democratic leaders have complete confidence and trust in their subordinates, they allow the subordinates to make decision for themselves; these types of leaders always motivate their subordinates by reward for achieving goals and to share the new ideas and opinion. PG uses the democratic type of leadership system. They believe to build their organization from within; PG consider their most important asset as the people of the company because of their faithful work excellent performance. Procter gamble respect all employees and consumers and offer them their trust on condition that they treat them similarly. PG also uses servant type of leadership because they always feels that the customers are the boss .And in servant leadership, leaders put the needs of their followers first. According to the John Adair Leadership is a social process in which an individual influences the behavior of others without using the path of violence. Below is the example of how the innovative product is developed under the innovative leadership of PG, which shows some relationship between leader and follower of the PGs. PG crank up on one on one consumer research, so the marketers of PG spend a time with the consumers, watching the way they wash, clean their floors, diapers their babies and asking about their habit and frustration. So based on this one on one technique PG opened a diaper -testing centre right down the hall of their office, where moms watch their babies get undressed, diapered, and measured by PG technicians. So one thing the PG learn from this experience is that parents are frustrated by the time it takes their youngsters to be toilet trained and they have to change their diapers every time when they wet those. So thus based on the comments received from the parents PG launch their new innovative product in the line of pampers whose mission was to dry diapers to helping moms with babys development. Thus how the PG is always innovative in the way of leadership to find new products which improves their relationship with their followers, as the consumers are the main boss of the PG. 7. Future Aspects: Strategy improvement: Through analysis of P Gs multi-brand strategy we realize that many of the benefits of this strategy are clear, but it is very difficult to achieve in the market, they have to note that several aspects of business practice. According to Sanjay Tiwari (2000), they can make some improvement by the ways below. A company which operates a variety of brands must have the appropriate strength; the work of brand extension is complicated.  From market research to product launch, to advertising, every job has a large number of enterprises to spend manpower and material resources. In the specific operation, they must be through careful investigation, to find the product differentiation. The industries in which according to the specific situation of enterprises, such as Procter Gambles consumer products industry which with easy access to a successful multi-brand strategy.   Structure Improvement: The improvement of structures of PG possibility could be to have wholly autonomous temporary groups or teams that are responsible for an entire project, and are split up as soon as it is successfully completed. Teams are often not very good for decision-making, and they run the risk of relational problems, unless they are small and have a lot of self-discipline. Actually, team members still require a definite leader, which is indicated from decentralization. It means the separation of the organization into competing autonomous divisions. PG has various branch brands, and some in one subject. Competition between own brands may seems unreasonable. However, changing corporate structure may encourage positive challenges among PG. In addition, appropriate manipulating probably is required during the management process. On the other hand, some inefficiency brands or areas may better to be abolished for saving funds and decrease expenses. Decision- making is very crucial of this innovation, which is easy to regret if prediction is wrong. Various differences of brands among PG could be helpful and practical in different occasions. However, this improvement could go to the opposite and create unexpected situation because sometimes the market could be influenced by news in many ways.

Tracking Developments in Media Industry

Tracking Developments in Media Industry Abstract These days the media business is witnessing the next structural transformation in its business model. Due to the reduction of revenues[1] from printed media and advertisements, industry giants are looking for other ways for penetrating additional revenues. The traditional strategy of cost reduction that was previously widely applied does not seem to be sustainable. On the contrary, most key players in the media world see the biggest opportunity in the invention of new models which will contribute to the boost of revenues. To a large extent media executives agree that monetization of online content is the decision they should go for more insistently[2]. One of the reasons why online monetization is a financially attractive way of growth is that, it has zero marginal cost, and as opposed to print media, revenue increase will not induce proportional increase in costs[3]. Another advantage which online news have compared to the traditional printed media is that they can provide news in r eal time regime which is extremely important in this particular industry as â€Å"news is very costly and at the same time highly perishable product†[4]. So far there have been some attempts of online monetization like the Kindle and micropayments but these strategies cant balance the all the losses that the industry bears because of the before mentioned reasons. Up to date, unfortunately for the industrys decision makers, choosing the right model for online monetization was not the only challenge they had to face. Challenges like search engines, which are generating their content and giving it out to customers for free, are not easy to overcome. In fact, bloggers and social networks like Facebook and Tweeter could be considered as posing similar risks for traditional media companies. However in chapter 4 we will see that the attempts of transforming these risk bearing factors into opportunity and getting some kind of revenues from them has started, which logically should lead us to some type of â€Å"business to business† model which will become beneficial for both parts. In this thesis, because of different reasons[5] I will not claim to have found the ideal model for content monetization, but rather will present several alternative models for monetizing online media content, and whats more important, will discuss the most successful models employed thus far which are applied by leading players in the industry. I will compare their features to each other, analyze their advantages and disadvantages. I will also look empirical data of results of each model to give the reader a better sense of each models financial success and the importance of online content in their business, to have better understanding what role content monetization might mean for these news providers. Besides I will help the reader to have knowledge about the obstacles which should be taken in consideration by stakeholders, if they want to find the best match pay model for their news web-site. 1. Introduction Throughout its history the media business, which is one of the most dynamic and fast-developing industries, has passed through many development cycles, each prone to tremendous changes in terms of strategy, structure and model it operated with. The reasons of these changes in different times were different processes taking place in parallel, e.g. advances of post-delivery system, facilitating transportation and logistics around the world, various technological innovations etc. However, without any doubt, the emergence of the Internet and the subsequent development of digital media is the greatest change of at least last two decades. It has once again revolutionized the whole industry dramatically, more than any previous development. Currently we are witnessing a transformation process which might become a ground for the conceptual change of the whole media industry. â€Å"Due to the reduction of revenues[6] from print media[7] (one of the reasons of this is decreased circulation of print newspapers, Exhibit 1) and online advertisements, industry giants have started to explore new ways to restructure their portfolios of income, and how to make their readers pay for the information they get online†[8]. The latest financial crisis played a role in accelerating this process. The downturn of revenues pushed the media companies to sharpen cost cuttings first of all indicated by the massive layoffs of the staff. However as many industry experts like freelance photojournalist Mike Fox believes, massive layoffs itself is not a sustainable strategy for the future[9]. The same view is shared by management consulting firm Booz Company in their research about the media industry. They admit that cost cutting is an imp ortant tool for managers, but in order to stay capable of growing in the long run, companies cant focus only on the expenditures side of their income statement.[10] Media executives are still optimistic about the future. As the survey in the same research from Booz Company shows, â€Å"most of the respondents (nearly 70%) believe that their companies are financially healthy. The which even higher to 80 percent when it comes to the opinion of integrated players (Exhibits 2), and surprisingly just one forth of the surveyed executives expected they would meet the end of recession with a deteriorated situation (Exhibit 3). Moreover, more than half of media executives (57%) believe that they still hold the wheels to control situation despite financial crisis and think that with structural trends developing in the industry they can outperform the negative results of economic downturn. Print executives are even more optimistic, this opinion is shared by 67 percent of them†. Booz Co sees the future of media companies in their ability to identify the markets where they can compete successfully and the business models which will help them to do s o. In the June of 2009, at the Cable Show[11] in Washington D.C, American News Corps owner Rupert Murdoch gave a speech, which also covered the current challenges of media industry, where he specifically underlined the inevitable need of content monetization. He underlined that times when people where reading news online for free should be over, and thus gave a hint to the whole industry that the process of â€Å"online content monetization† is not only non-reversible process, but indeed it should accelerate whether somebody likes it or not. Murdoch mentioned that only online ads cannot cover media companies costs and named New York Times, as a vivid example of that. NYT has one of the most popular U.S newspaper websites, but still their online ad revenues are not sufficient for cost coverage[12]. The signal form the industry guru was correctly understood by other giant players of media world and many of them like Axel Springer and New York Times[13] already second time, started thinking how to charge their readers for online news in the way not to harm online traffic and ad revenues. Finding the balance among these two will be the biggest challenge for the â€Å"followers of the trend†. In the process of monetizing online media choosing the right type of model which will fit to one or another news providers overall strategy and values is a big deal of question. Currently most news online is free, but there are some existing newspapers successfully charging their readers at least for the part of the information they provide to them. 1 shows the increased consumer spending (black curve) and penetration (grey curve) in online content. The research conducted by Online Publishers Association shows the same trend, that the money spent by consumers on online content in United States increase from 1.31 billion USD in 2002 to 1.78 billion USD in 2004, which meant annual growth rate of 17%. However this growth occurred in the entertainment area such as adult material, music, gaming and sports[14]. Currently, among them most successful in terms of revenues generated from online media content, are American The Wall Street Journal and the British Financial Times. Both of these newspapers are providing financial news and are most direct competitors of each other. Finance is one of those few areas which experts consider possible to monetize. The Booz Co research mentioned before makes focus on prior experiments of publishers who tried to monetize content and boost sales with which such an innovative tools as Kindle (Exhibit 4) sales, multi-title subscriptions and micropayments are, but as the results show these methods cant regain all the revenues lost which the media industry faced in the last two years. It also shows that inevitable steps are needed from the whole industry to look for new business models and as the survey in the same research shows, media executives expect most increase of revenues from the innovations in the digital media, from the new innovative models. (Exhibit 5). Expectations towards online monetization is a great, at least from the side of news providers, however the way on which they will have to go does not seem smooth and easy. There are various challenges monetizing volunteers will have to deal with; on the one hand there is a problem of search engines and bloggers â€Å"stealing† news from their web sites and offering them to readers on aggregate web-sites, and on the other hand there is a psychology of people and understanding their personal motivations, what would make them to pay money in online news. Furthermore, it will not be easy to make people pay for the information which they were used to get for free previously[15]. However despite all challenges and obstacles which is expected for industry players, Booz Co concludes that process of media digitization is on its way and nothing can stop it. Mathias Dà ¶phner comes up with same opinion: â€Å"I do not share this kind of pessimism that content business is dying. The opposite is right. Thats the tremendous opportunity through the digitization.†[16] One more factor which theoretically should give more hope to media magnates is psychological: as various studies about personality drivers during online purchase show, the experience of using internet and reading news online are positively correlated with purchase intention. Once the usage of internet and reading news online is a growing tendency in current reality, and the age of internet usage is also shifting fast, we can say that time works on media companies. In this research I will analyse existing online paying models which successfully operate and give the hope to industry players for the â€Å"brighter† future in that prospect. 2. Review of search methodology The aim of this thesis is to find out the features of existing paid models in online news which are already operating successfully. I will also try to measure their effectiveness/importance by various criteria, both objective such as existing financial and quantitative data, and also more partly-objective, such as different expert opinions[17]. The research will be developed in three main parts: Review of types of content which can be monetized, where people show some willingness to pay money (or are already paying) As related to the previous chapter, analysis of the personality drivers and its importance while consumers conduct online purchase Analysis of existing successful models, their features and their effectiveness in terms of empirical results For the sake of development of this three-pillar structure, the information will be obtained through various sources such as existing literature researches, articles, blogs, expert opinions and the consulting project ran by me and my classmates during our practice project[18]. 2.1. Sources for identifying online-chargeable content and consumers personality drivers The biggest contribution for the author in understanding of this issue were insights from consulting project workshop conducted by the ESMT Practice Project of which the author was a team member[19] in the late 2009. During this project, besides analyzing already available literature regarding topic, the team interviewed different kind of experts and also ran a representative survey among 300 German online readers to understand the areas where customers showed some willingness to pay. According to the results, there are not many areas which can be monetized, but only: Deeper analysis of specific articles as an addition to the more general one Old archives; plus specific interest areas of some readers Local news Online sports events The point is almost completely shared by Mathias Dà ¶phner, the CEO of German media company Axel Springer, who held a discussion around the topic at Monaco Media Forum 2009: â€Å"There are not many areas where people are willing to pay money: 1) This is finance, which is related to power; 2) Plus sports or games 3) Regional environments, people around you; 4) And then we are coming to two existential areas: sex and crime, or love and death. â€Å" â€Å"These are areas where people are generally interested in and why should that change in digital business?† asks Dà ¶phner rhetoric question. The CEO of Axel Springer also commented the fact that currently most news online is free and called this fact a â€Å"structural mistake† which has to be corrected step by step. According to Dà ¶phner there is not need of revolution, once most appropriate rules and procedures in legislation already exist. They just need some moderation and then execution. Continuing on the issue Dà ¶phner summed up with the hope that in the long run, for hundreds of years, people are willing to pay for things they are interested in. â€Å"Commodity news will be for free, but special information, added value services, exclusive information should be charged†. Currently, there are already obvious movements in the industry towards fixing the â€Å"structural mistakes† Mr Dà ¶phner talked about. This will be discussed more detailed in chapter 3.2, named â€Å"challenges†. 2.2. Personality drivers of consumers to purchase online Understanding and analyzing consumer drivers while conducting online purchase, is critical for building prominent, profitable business model. However until today there is no perfect study in the area which could claim on being perfect in identifying and analyzing of all motivators which make consumers to pay money online, and whats more important, all researchers would agree on that claim of this study. One of the best researches in this field conducted by Wang et al claims that the main factors which affect consumers willingness to pay money online and are positively correlated with the one, are consumers perceived convenience, essentiality, added-value and service quality. However another research on the same topic e.g. from Choi, Lee and Soriano focuses on following factors: perceived consequences after purchase of product, easiness of use of internet, social factors such as environment around person, satisfaction of the reader after purchase and existing alternative sources to get the same particular information. As we see on this example two group academics have completely different approach and beliefs towards one topic. These two researches are clear evidence how diverse is different researchers approaches to the issue. To all of these factors I looked also form the prospective of researches which are dedicated to analyzing a bit broader field consumers purchasing drivers in whole online market rather than only in online media. In these researches, some of above mentioned factors are considered to be important but others are doubted. Its hard for someone to persist himself not to criticize some of the factors mentioned above, e.g. the word â€Å"perceived† is already very dubious and at the same time very subjective, however very important one. As Barkhi, Belanger and Hocks claim in their â€Å"model of the determinants of purchasing from virtual stores†, the notion perceived/perception has already enormous importance itself, as it defines consumers later attitude towards whole online purchase procedure. To continue analysis, factor such as social community is neglected in Bosnjiaks research, where he referring to Senecals 2005 research claims that recommendations made from close community make decision making process more complex but it does not affect final choice of consumer. Regarding service-quality we can say that, the word quality itself already induces some confusion because its pretty subjective notion. For different people quality might mean different things. For some people service-quality might mean the urgent delivery of hottest news and the exclusivity of this information, whereas for another person the quality of service might be associated with deeper analysis of the article or the easiness of ways to pay money online. Such an arguing can continue further, but what is more important, arguable are not only factors on which researchers build their different models, but also some general statements which are made by them. For example, the work of Wang et al claim the business model is sustainable if revenue-generating method is accepted by majority of the potential customers. However despite all the respect towards the authors and research itself, such a claim can easily become a reason of discussions, because still, the success of any model depends on the ideal proportion of ad revenues and online subscription revenues and for different newspapers the ideal conversion rate of readers to paid customers might be different. Even this research itself contradicts to its statement when brings an example of Wall Street Journal Online and Hoovers Online telling that they managed to make e-content portal profitable by only 10% of conversion rate. While conducting our consulting project, we also got results th at some high circulated newspapers would make their portals profitable even by 3% conversion ratio. Further more, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, has only 0,8% conversion rate of subscribers on its niche site for hardcore Green Bay Packers fans, making revenues of 600,000 USD annually. In other words, depending on the content offered by particular newspaper, and the number and type of readers they have, the effective proportion of online content and ad revenues should be found. More analysis should be conducted to understand the price of lost customers amount versus converted ones and the ideal balance of subscription revenues versus lost ad revenues. To this issue has dedicated his discussion Jeff Jarvis, on the blog-web BuzzMachine. Jeff Jarvis is an American Journalist, former television critic, editor, publisher and columnist. Among the companies he has been working are: New York Daily News, San Francisco Examiner, New York Times Company, MediaGuardian a supplement of British newspaper The Guardian. Besides he is an associate professor at the City University of New Yorks Graduate School of Journalism directing its new media program. He is also creator of weblog BuzzMachine[20]. Jeff Jarvis in his article about paid content published on Weblog BuzzMachine is more persuasive about the complexity of the issue[21] and based on his vast experience highlights for the readers how many different factors should be taken in consideration for identifying one or another model for particular newspaper. For those who will catch in Jeff Jarvis approach some â€Å"sense and consciousness† will become clear that based only on the analysis of psychological traits of people and their purchasing drivers, it will not be easy to find an ideal model, and that the issue needs rather practical approach. Findings of Jeff Jarvis will be discussed more detailed in the 5.1 chapter named â€Å"Expert opinions and Conclusions†. Before moving to the following chapter, we should conclude the started topic and mention that there is still needed some research in the area of personal motivators for online purchase, in order we could claim by 100% confidence that we are using the best model for identifying the online paid model. 2.3. Discussed models and criteria for their comparison Once we are analyzing the existing models, the criteria for assessment of one or another method is the time of their existence and their results shown throughout their lifetime. Besides looking at the thematic differences in the features of the models both in Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C) models, we will look at their financial results, their generated income through online sales and he dynamics in online subscription amount. The biggest attention the author paid was to the models of Financial Times and Wall Street Journal as the most successful financial players in B2C business. In addition, the author took a look at Bloomberg and Reuters as successful players of B2B model. New York Times was an interesting case for the author because it is a case, when after first unsuccessful trial, they are going to try monetizing online content already second time. Taking in consideration their prior experience it should be important to track which model they will choose for the second attempt. Finally, the author took a quick look at some other examples of successful and unsuccessful attempts of monetizing online content so far. Information was gathered from reviews of their websites as well as from articles about these news-providers, and various expert opinions about their models. 3. Possible models which can help to monetize online content Technological advancement has made most news content widely available for free online, which pushed most newspapers to give up subscription fees in the hope of getting more readers and hence by increasing traffic, get more advertisement revenues. However such movements contribute even more to the availability of free content in the web and hence induce decrease in print media circulation and advertisement revenues[22]. Charging for online news is very hard. The biggest risk that media companies face is loosing the visitors, because reduced traffic will induce less interest of advertisement providers on the particular site. Ads are still major source of revenues for most media companies and it will remain so in the nearest future. As Rupert Murdoch commented previously on the example of Wall Street Journal, â€Å"charging online content is not bad but still its not a gold mine†[23]. However, recently after presenting the idea at WSJ to impose premium paid model, Murdoch Justified their decision with telling that, in their case, ad revenues are no any more critical part in revenues and they pay more attention to subscription based revenues[24]. The high risk of loosing switching is easily explainable for SearchDNA founder John Straw, who admits that he himself would never pay for online content if he could get it somewhere else[25]. 3.1. Findings from consulting project While working on our consulting project[26], our group consisting from four MBA participants, I and my three classmates, identified four different types of models which could imposed during presenting the pay wall. The consulting project itself and its results is based on the basis of numerous articles and literature about previous experience, industry expert interviews and representative survey conducted among 299 German media readers. In column 1, table 1 explains four different pay-wall models which are possible to impose on online content in different situation, and column 2 explains the situations in which these different models would have chance to work â€Å"keeping other conditions constant†. Table 1: Types of models applicable in monetized online media[27] Types of Possible Models Situation explaining the feasibility of model Locking down the whole content Really unique content Locking down selected articles Unique content should be part of broader content Limiting the number of customers Very high overall quality, breadth of content offering Locking down the niche articles Want to monetize only highly specific â€Å"hidden† articles Source: consulting PP final draft Its upon news providers which type of model they will choose to match with the content they want to lock down. As we already discussed, there are few things which would motivate people to pay money online for, in other words online readers show at least some willingness to pay in following areas: * Deeper analysis of specific articles as an addition to the more general one * Old archives; plus specific interest areas of some readers * Local news * Online sports events Here we can provide some examples of successfully using some of these methods of pay-wall. The method of locking down selected articles is used by Wall Street Journal. In this case most daily news including political are considered as commodity information and they are given out for free, however if some specific interest area, e.g. finance, have deeper expert analysis, which you cant meet in other newspapers, the articles are locked down in this case. The method of limiting the number f articles is successfully used by Financial Times. New York Times decided to go on the same way from 2011. A good example of locking down niche content is Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and its Packer Insider: The journal locks down specific information, deep content about football club Green Bay Packers, for its fans. In deep content in this case is counted e.g. chat sessions with players. As the same Practice project showed, locking down whole content, â€Å"keeping other conditions equal†, is p ossible if the whole content is really unique. Here we have also to mention that during consulting project about online content monetization, we had some more interesting insights about the factors which increase readers willingness to pay: To our surprise content is not always the thing which might make readers to pay online: 35% of surveyed 299 German readers named following three factors as the possible motivators in increasing willingness to pay: Promotions/ Give-aways Customization Specific additional content As a conclusion of this chapter we should say many experts predict for the future that, free content will be used primarily as a marketing ploy: a complementary trial period is strictly used for purposes of enticing customers to subscribe to a service or buy a product online. (Wang et al). Alternatively some sites attract customers by offering a limited amount of free content. They then hope to convince their customers to shift to a variety of â€Å"premium†, fee-based content (Outing 2002). (Wang et al) 3.2. Challenges Innovative online ways of distributing news like news aggregate sites, blogs, social networks (Facebook, Tweeter, etc.) which are free to access, become more and more of a threat for media companies, because news is a costly product to produce, as well as it its distribution in traditional way. But distribution of news in online has zero marginal cost, as it takes nothing to the person to copy and paste a particular article or link it to the other page (Exhibit 6). Traditional media companies demand from these innovative producers of news â€Å"fair ways of playing†, which means either they should produce their own information or they should pay to original producers some fees for utilizing their articles. In his interview, Mathias Dà ¶phner mentioned that they are not demanding banning of these alternative sources. â€Å"We understand that future is mixed model, mutual existence of both of us declared Dà ¶phner. We also do not request something new and innovative. We just need fairness, respecting each other, respecting copyright rules, paying royalties as it is supposed to be done and for of all this playing rules are already there, we just need to make them better and then follow to†. Rupert Murdoch went even further and called search engine Google stealers, as they take others information without permission and put it on their pages. Regarding this phenomenon, Axel Springer CEO Dà ¶phner told very appropriate example to the Huffington Post co-founder. â€Å"If you want to give others your beer for free, please brew your own beer and then you are welcomed to do so, but please stop taking my costly beer and then giving it to others for free†. Recently there is a clear evidence of starting changes in this regard: Google agreed with several news-provider companies to restrict their articles readerships through Google to maximum amount of five. Another web-site YouTube started removing from their site unlicensed videos. In other words, Mathias Dà ¶phners prediction that the current reality would start changing step by step has obviously started to become true. Thus in nearest future we should anticipate emergence of new pay-models, when media companies will have to think, how to share the cake with news aggregate web-sites, social networks and bloggers. We are witnessing enormous changes not only because of monetization, but because of establishment new type of relationships between industry participants, which ideally should bring in new opportunities. (Exhibit 9) 4. Existing paying models, analysis Studies claim[28] that in order managers found ideal subscription business model for online monetization they need to understand their subscribers personality drivers, their perceptions and attitudes, what makes them purchase news online? In fact there is not breadth of information about consumers personality drivers, indeed the researchers actively continue investigating this area and thus provide us with new and new models. Non-existence of ideal model in this area is one of the reasons why we cant predict ideal online pay model. The other reasons are â€Å"closer† to business. Referring to Jeff Jarvis argumentation in his article about paid content models, there are plenty of criteria which determine the success of one or another model. Once these criteria are individual and very specific for each newspaper, no one can/should claim yet, on identifying one general ideal model which will fit to all news-providers. As director of Association of online publishers, Lee Baker commented in News Media, half of their members already charge for online content and another 19% is going to do so in the nearest 12 months. â€Å"Paid content modelling is important to our members†, continues Mr. Baker. â€Å"Our members are trying to penetrate new areas such as mobile apps. More than half of them express desire to create paid-for apps†. Despite we cant claim on building the ideal model as a proxy for the future, we can cover the most successful news providers and their models which are currently successfully used, both in B2C and B2B business. 4.1. Financial Times VS The Wall Street Journal Currently the most distributed B2C pay models in online media are two: one is Financial Times way restricting the definite amount of free articles for subscribers and then charge the readers if they exceed this amount, and another is Wall Street Journals way offering readers only one or two paragraph for reading and making available the rest only for subscribers[29]. To compare these two models in more details lets take a more detailed look at the ways which they are used by their most successful implementers. Of course there is some room for deviations and different news providers can apply to some minor changes, e.g. in the amount of text which should be given out for free, but the concept remains the same. Table 2 below shows clear distinctions between the features of these two models in the case of FT and WSJ. The essence of difference of these two models is the amount of information provided for free and the ways how it is done: The Wall Street Journal makes clear distinction between commodity and high-value content. The so ca Tracking Developments in Media Industry Tracking Developments in Media Industry Abstract These days the media business is witnessing the next structural transformation in its business model. Due to the reduction of revenues[1] from printed media and advertisements, industry giants are looking for other ways for penetrating additional revenues. The traditional strategy of cost reduction that was previously widely applied does not seem to be sustainable. On the contrary, most key players in the media world see the biggest opportunity in the invention of new models which will contribute to the boost of revenues. To a large extent media executives agree that monetization of online content is the decision they should go for more insistently[2]. One of the reasons why online monetization is a financially attractive way of growth is that, it has zero marginal cost, and as opposed to print media, revenue increase will not induce proportional increase in costs[3]. Another advantage which online news have compared to the traditional printed media is that they can provide news in r eal time regime which is extremely important in this particular industry as â€Å"news is very costly and at the same time highly perishable product†[4]. So far there have been some attempts of online monetization like the Kindle and micropayments but these strategies cant balance the all the losses that the industry bears because of the before mentioned reasons. Up to date, unfortunately for the industrys decision makers, choosing the right model for online monetization was not the only challenge they had to face. Challenges like search engines, which are generating their content and giving it out to customers for free, are not easy to overcome. In fact, bloggers and social networks like Facebook and Tweeter could be considered as posing similar risks for traditional media companies. However in chapter 4 we will see that the attempts of transforming these risk bearing factors into opportunity and getting some kind of revenues from them has started, which logically should lead us to some type of â€Å"business to business† model which will become beneficial for both parts. In this thesis, because of different reasons[5] I will not claim to have found the ideal model for content monetization, but rather will present several alternative models for monetizing online media content, and whats more important, will discuss the most successful models employed thus far which are applied by leading players in the industry. I will compare their features to each other, analyze their advantages and disadvantages. I will also look empirical data of results of each model to give the reader a better sense of each models financial success and the importance of online content in their business, to have better understanding what role content monetization might mean for these news providers. Besides I will help the reader to have knowledge about the obstacles which should be taken in consideration by stakeholders, if they want to find the best match pay model for their news web-site. 1. Introduction Throughout its history the media business, which is one of the most dynamic and fast-developing industries, has passed through many development cycles, each prone to tremendous changes in terms of strategy, structure and model it operated with. The reasons of these changes in different times were different processes taking place in parallel, e.g. advances of post-delivery system, facilitating transportation and logistics around the world, various technological innovations etc. However, without any doubt, the emergence of the Internet and the subsequent development of digital media is the greatest change of at least last two decades. It has once again revolutionized the whole industry dramatically, more than any previous development. Currently we are witnessing a transformation process which might become a ground for the conceptual change of the whole media industry. â€Å"Due to the reduction of revenues[6] from print media[7] (one of the reasons of this is decreased circulation of print newspapers, Exhibit 1) and online advertisements, industry giants have started to explore new ways to restructure their portfolios of income, and how to make their readers pay for the information they get online†[8]. The latest financial crisis played a role in accelerating this process. The downturn of revenues pushed the media companies to sharpen cost cuttings first of all indicated by the massive layoffs of the staff. However as many industry experts like freelance photojournalist Mike Fox believes, massive layoffs itself is not a sustainable strategy for the future[9]. The same view is shared by management consulting firm Booz Company in their research about the media industry. They admit that cost cutting is an imp ortant tool for managers, but in order to stay capable of growing in the long run, companies cant focus only on the expenditures side of their income statement.[10] Media executives are still optimistic about the future. As the survey in the same research from Booz Company shows, â€Å"most of the respondents (nearly 70%) believe that their companies are financially healthy. The which even higher to 80 percent when it comes to the opinion of integrated players (Exhibits 2), and surprisingly just one forth of the surveyed executives expected they would meet the end of recession with a deteriorated situation (Exhibit 3). Moreover, more than half of media executives (57%) believe that they still hold the wheels to control situation despite financial crisis and think that with structural trends developing in the industry they can outperform the negative results of economic downturn. Print executives are even more optimistic, this opinion is shared by 67 percent of them†. Booz Co sees the future of media companies in their ability to identify the markets where they can compete successfully and the business models which will help them to do s o. In the June of 2009, at the Cable Show[11] in Washington D.C, American News Corps owner Rupert Murdoch gave a speech, which also covered the current challenges of media industry, where he specifically underlined the inevitable need of content monetization. He underlined that times when people where reading news online for free should be over, and thus gave a hint to the whole industry that the process of â€Å"online content monetization† is not only non-reversible process, but indeed it should accelerate whether somebody likes it or not. Murdoch mentioned that only online ads cannot cover media companies costs and named New York Times, as a vivid example of that. NYT has one of the most popular U.S newspaper websites, but still their online ad revenues are not sufficient for cost coverage[12]. The signal form the industry guru was correctly understood by other giant players of media world and many of them like Axel Springer and New York Times[13] already second time, started thinking how to charge their readers for online news in the way not to harm online traffic and ad revenues. Finding the balance among these two will be the biggest challenge for the â€Å"followers of the trend†. In the process of monetizing online media choosing the right type of model which will fit to one or another news providers overall strategy and values is a big deal of question. Currently most news online is free, but there are some existing newspapers successfully charging their readers at least for the part of the information they provide to them. 1 shows the increased consumer spending (black curve) and penetration (grey curve) in online content. The research conducted by Online Publishers Association shows the same trend, that the money spent by consumers on online content in United States increase from 1.31 billion USD in 2002 to 1.78 billion USD in 2004, which meant annual growth rate of 17%. However this growth occurred in the entertainment area such as adult material, music, gaming and sports[14]. Currently, among them most successful in terms of revenues generated from online media content, are American The Wall Street Journal and the British Financial Times. Both of these newspapers are providing financial news and are most direct competitors of each other. Finance is one of those few areas which experts consider possible to monetize. The Booz Co research mentioned before makes focus on prior experiments of publishers who tried to monetize content and boost sales with which such an innovative tools as Kindle (Exhibit 4) sales, multi-title subscriptions and micropayments are, but as the results show these methods cant regain all the revenues lost which the media industry faced in the last two years. It also shows that inevitable steps are needed from the whole industry to look for new business models and as the survey in the same research shows, media executives expect most increase of revenues from the innovations in the digital media, from the new innovative models. (Exhibit 5). Expectations towards online monetization is a great, at least from the side of news providers, however the way on which they will have to go does not seem smooth and easy. There are various challenges monetizing volunteers will have to deal with; on the one hand there is a problem of search engines and bloggers â€Å"stealing† news from their web sites and offering them to readers on aggregate web-sites, and on the other hand there is a psychology of people and understanding their personal motivations, what would make them to pay money in online news. Furthermore, it will not be easy to make people pay for the information which they were used to get for free previously[15]. However despite all challenges and obstacles which is expected for industry players, Booz Co concludes that process of media digitization is on its way and nothing can stop it. Mathias Dà ¶phner comes up with same opinion: â€Å"I do not share this kind of pessimism that content business is dying. The opposite is right. Thats the tremendous opportunity through the digitization.†[16] One more factor which theoretically should give more hope to media magnates is psychological: as various studies about personality drivers during online purchase show, the experience of using internet and reading news online are positively correlated with purchase intention. Once the usage of internet and reading news online is a growing tendency in current reality, and the age of internet usage is also shifting fast, we can say that time works on media companies. In this research I will analyse existing online paying models which successfully operate and give the hope to industry players for the â€Å"brighter† future in that prospect. 2. Review of search methodology The aim of this thesis is to find out the features of existing paid models in online news which are already operating successfully. I will also try to measure their effectiveness/importance by various criteria, both objective such as existing financial and quantitative data, and also more partly-objective, such as different expert opinions[17]. The research will be developed in three main parts: Review of types of content which can be monetized, where people show some willingness to pay money (or are already paying) As related to the previous chapter, analysis of the personality drivers and its importance while consumers conduct online purchase Analysis of existing successful models, their features and their effectiveness in terms of empirical results For the sake of development of this three-pillar structure, the information will be obtained through various sources such as existing literature researches, articles, blogs, expert opinions and the consulting project ran by me and my classmates during our practice project[18]. 2.1. Sources for identifying online-chargeable content and consumers personality drivers The biggest contribution for the author in understanding of this issue were insights from consulting project workshop conducted by the ESMT Practice Project of which the author was a team member[19] in the late 2009. During this project, besides analyzing already available literature regarding topic, the team interviewed different kind of experts and also ran a representative survey among 300 German online readers to understand the areas where customers showed some willingness to pay. According to the results, there are not many areas which can be monetized, but only: Deeper analysis of specific articles as an addition to the more general one Old archives; plus specific interest areas of some readers Local news Online sports events The point is almost completely shared by Mathias Dà ¶phner, the CEO of German media company Axel Springer, who held a discussion around the topic at Monaco Media Forum 2009: â€Å"There are not many areas where people are willing to pay money: 1) This is finance, which is related to power; 2) Plus sports or games 3) Regional environments, people around you; 4) And then we are coming to two existential areas: sex and crime, or love and death. â€Å" â€Å"These are areas where people are generally interested in and why should that change in digital business?† asks Dà ¶phner rhetoric question. The CEO of Axel Springer also commented the fact that currently most news online is free and called this fact a â€Å"structural mistake† which has to be corrected step by step. According to Dà ¶phner there is not need of revolution, once most appropriate rules and procedures in legislation already exist. They just need some moderation and then execution. Continuing on the issue Dà ¶phner summed up with the hope that in the long run, for hundreds of years, people are willing to pay for things they are interested in. â€Å"Commodity news will be for free, but special information, added value services, exclusive information should be charged†. Currently, there are already obvious movements in the industry towards fixing the â€Å"structural mistakes† Mr Dà ¶phner talked about. This will be discussed more detailed in chapter 3.2, named â€Å"challenges†. 2.2. Personality drivers of consumers to purchase online Understanding and analyzing consumer drivers while conducting online purchase, is critical for building prominent, profitable business model. However until today there is no perfect study in the area which could claim on being perfect in identifying and analyzing of all motivators which make consumers to pay money online, and whats more important, all researchers would agree on that claim of this study. One of the best researches in this field conducted by Wang et al claims that the main factors which affect consumers willingness to pay money online and are positively correlated with the one, are consumers perceived convenience, essentiality, added-value and service quality. However another research on the same topic e.g. from Choi, Lee and Soriano focuses on following factors: perceived consequences after purchase of product, easiness of use of internet, social factors such as environment around person, satisfaction of the reader after purchase and existing alternative sources to get the same particular information. As we see on this example two group academics have completely different approach and beliefs towards one topic. These two researches are clear evidence how diverse is different researchers approaches to the issue. To all of these factors I looked also form the prospective of researches which are dedicated to analyzing a bit broader field consumers purchasing drivers in whole online market rather than only in online media. In these researches, some of above mentioned factors are considered to be important but others are doubted. Its hard for someone to persist himself not to criticize some of the factors mentioned above, e.g. the word â€Å"perceived† is already very dubious and at the same time very subjective, however very important one. As Barkhi, Belanger and Hocks claim in their â€Å"model of the determinants of purchasing from virtual stores†, the notion perceived/perception has already enormous importance itself, as it defines consumers later attitude towards whole online purchase procedure. To continue analysis, factor such as social community is neglected in Bosnjiaks research, where he referring to Senecals 2005 research claims that recommendations made from close community make decision making process more complex but it does not affect final choice of consumer. Regarding service-quality we can say that, the word quality itself already induces some confusion because its pretty subjective notion. For different people quality might mean different things. For some people service-quality might mean the urgent delivery of hottest news and the exclusivity of this information, whereas for another person the quality of service might be associated with deeper analysis of the article or the easiness of ways to pay money online. Such an arguing can continue further, but what is more important, arguable are not only factors on which researchers build their different models, but also some general statements which are made by them. For example, the work of Wang et al claim the business model is sustainable if revenue-generating method is accepted by majority of the potential customers. However despite all the respect towards the authors and research itself, such a claim can easily become a reason of discussions, because still, the success of any model depends on the ideal proportion of ad revenues and online subscription revenues and for different newspapers the ideal conversion rate of readers to paid customers might be different. Even this research itself contradicts to its statement when brings an example of Wall Street Journal Online and Hoovers Online telling that they managed to make e-content portal profitable by only 10% of conversion rate. While conducting our consulting project, we also got results th at some high circulated newspapers would make their portals profitable even by 3% conversion ratio. Further more, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, has only 0,8% conversion rate of subscribers on its niche site for hardcore Green Bay Packers fans, making revenues of 600,000 USD annually. In other words, depending on the content offered by particular newspaper, and the number and type of readers they have, the effective proportion of online content and ad revenues should be found. More analysis should be conducted to understand the price of lost customers amount versus converted ones and the ideal balance of subscription revenues versus lost ad revenues. To this issue has dedicated his discussion Jeff Jarvis, on the blog-web BuzzMachine. Jeff Jarvis is an American Journalist, former television critic, editor, publisher and columnist. Among the companies he has been working are: New York Daily News, San Francisco Examiner, New York Times Company, MediaGuardian a supplement of British newspaper The Guardian. Besides he is an associate professor at the City University of New Yorks Graduate School of Journalism directing its new media program. He is also creator of weblog BuzzMachine[20]. Jeff Jarvis in his article about paid content published on Weblog BuzzMachine is more persuasive about the complexity of the issue[21] and based on his vast experience highlights for the readers how many different factors should be taken in consideration for identifying one or another model for particular newspaper. For those who will catch in Jeff Jarvis approach some â€Å"sense and consciousness† will become clear that based only on the analysis of psychological traits of people and their purchasing drivers, it will not be easy to find an ideal model, and that the issue needs rather practical approach. Findings of Jeff Jarvis will be discussed more detailed in the 5.1 chapter named â€Å"Expert opinions and Conclusions†. Before moving to the following chapter, we should conclude the started topic and mention that there is still needed some research in the area of personal motivators for online purchase, in order we could claim by 100% confidence that we are using the best model for identifying the online paid model. 2.3. Discussed models and criteria for their comparison Once we are analyzing the existing models, the criteria for assessment of one or another method is the time of their existence and their results shown throughout their lifetime. Besides looking at the thematic differences in the features of the models both in Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C) models, we will look at their financial results, their generated income through online sales and he dynamics in online subscription amount. The biggest attention the author paid was to the models of Financial Times and Wall Street Journal as the most successful financial players in B2C business. In addition, the author took a look at Bloomberg and Reuters as successful players of B2B model. New York Times was an interesting case for the author because it is a case, when after first unsuccessful trial, they are going to try monetizing online content already second time. Taking in consideration their prior experience it should be important to track which model they will choose for the second attempt. Finally, the author took a quick look at some other examples of successful and unsuccessful attempts of monetizing online content so far. Information was gathered from reviews of their websites as well as from articles about these news-providers, and various expert opinions about their models. 3. Possible models which can help to monetize online content Technological advancement has made most news content widely available for free online, which pushed most newspapers to give up subscription fees in the hope of getting more readers and hence by increasing traffic, get more advertisement revenues. However such movements contribute even more to the availability of free content in the web and hence induce decrease in print media circulation and advertisement revenues[22]. Charging for online news is very hard. The biggest risk that media companies face is loosing the visitors, because reduced traffic will induce less interest of advertisement providers on the particular site. Ads are still major source of revenues for most media companies and it will remain so in the nearest future. As Rupert Murdoch commented previously on the example of Wall Street Journal, â€Å"charging online content is not bad but still its not a gold mine†[23]. However, recently after presenting the idea at WSJ to impose premium paid model, Murdoch Justified their decision with telling that, in their case, ad revenues are no any more critical part in revenues and they pay more attention to subscription based revenues[24]. The high risk of loosing switching is easily explainable for SearchDNA founder John Straw, who admits that he himself would never pay for online content if he could get it somewhere else[25]. 3.1. Findings from consulting project While working on our consulting project[26], our group consisting from four MBA participants, I and my three classmates, identified four different types of models which could imposed during presenting the pay wall. The consulting project itself and its results is based on the basis of numerous articles and literature about previous experience, industry expert interviews and representative survey conducted among 299 German media readers. In column 1, table 1 explains four different pay-wall models which are possible to impose on online content in different situation, and column 2 explains the situations in which these different models would have chance to work â€Å"keeping other conditions constant†. Table 1: Types of models applicable in monetized online media[27] Types of Possible Models Situation explaining the feasibility of model Locking down the whole content Really unique content Locking down selected articles Unique content should be part of broader content Limiting the number of customers Very high overall quality, breadth of content offering Locking down the niche articles Want to monetize only highly specific â€Å"hidden† articles Source: consulting PP final draft Its upon news providers which type of model they will choose to match with the content they want to lock down. As we already discussed, there are few things which would motivate people to pay money online for, in other words online readers show at least some willingness to pay in following areas: * Deeper analysis of specific articles as an addition to the more general one * Old archives; plus specific interest areas of some readers * Local news * Online sports events Here we can provide some examples of successfully using some of these methods of pay-wall. The method of locking down selected articles is used by Wall Street Journal. In this case most daily news including political are considered as commodity information and they are given out for free, however if some specific interest area, e.g. finance, have deeper expert analysis, which you cant meet in other newspapers, the articles are locked down in this case. The method of limiting the number f articles is successfully used by Financial Times. New York Times decided to go on the same way from 2011. A good example of locking down niche content is Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and its Packer Insider: The journal locks down specific information, deep content about football club Green Bay Packers, for its fans. In deep content in this case is counted e.g. chat sessions with players. As the same Practice project showed, locking down whole content, â€Å"keeping other conditions equal†, is p ossible if the whole content is really unique. Here we have also to mention that during consulting project about online content monetization, we had some more interesting insights about the factors which increase readers willingness to pay: To our surprise content is not always the thing which might make readers to pay online: 35% of surveyed 299 German readers named following three factors as the possible motivators in increasing willingness to pay: Promotions/ Give-aways Customization Specific additional content As a conclusion of this chapter we should say many experts predict for the future that, free content will be used primarily as a marketing ploy: a complementary trial period is strictly used for purposes of enticing customers to subscribe to a service or buy a product online. (Wang et al). Alternatively some sites attract customers by offering a limited amount of free content. They then hope to convince their customers to shift to a variety of â€Å"premium†, fee-based content (Outing 2002). (Wang et al) 3.2. Challenges Innovative online ways of distributing news like news aggregate sites, blogs, social networks (Facebook, Tweeter, etc.) which are free to access, become more and more of a threat for media companies, because news is a costly product to produce, as well as it its distribution in traditional way. But distribution of news in online has zero marginal cost, as it takes nothing to the person to copy and paste a particular article or link it to the other page (Exhibit 6). Traditional media companies demand from these innovative producers of news â€Å"fair ways of playing†, which means either they should produce their own information or they should pay to original producers some fees for utilizing their articles. In his interview, Mathias Dà ¶phner mentioned that they are not demanding banning of these alternative sources. â€Å"We understand that future is mixed model, mutual existence of both of us declared Dà ¶phner. We also do not request something new and innovative. We just need fairness, respecting each other, respecting copyright rules, paying royalties as it is supposed to be done and for of all this playing rules are already there, we just need to make them better and then follow to†. Rupert Murdoch went even further and called search engine Google stealers, as they take others information without permission and put it on their pages. Regarding this phenomenon, Axel Springer CEO Dà ¶phner told very appropriate example to the Huffington Post co-founder. â€Å"If you want to give others your beer for free, please brew your own beer and then you are welcomed to do so, but please stop taking my costly beer and then giving it to others for free†. Recently there is a clear evidence of starting changes in this regard: Google agreed with several news-provider companies to restrict their articles readerships through Google to maximum amount of five. Another web-site YouTube started removing from their site unlicensed videos. In other words, Mathias Dà ¶phners prediction that the current reality would start changing step by step has obviously started to become true. Thus in nearest future we should anticipate emergence of new pay-models, when media companies will have to think, how to share the cake with news aggregate web-sites, social networks and bloggers. We are witnessing enormous changes not only because of monetization, but because of establishment new type of relationships between industry participants, which ideally should bring in new opportunities. (Exhibit 9) 4. Existing paying models, analysis Studies claim[28] that in order managers found ideal subscription business model for online monetization they need to understand their subscribers personality drivers, their perceptions and attitudes, what makes them purchase news online? In fact there is not breadth of information about consumers personality drivers, indeed the researchers actively continue investigating this area and thus provide us with new and new models. Non-existence of ideal model in this area is one of the reasons why we cant predict ideal online pay model. The other reasons are â€Å"closer† to business. Referring to Jeff Jarvis argumentation in his article about paid content models, there are plenty of criteria which determine the success of one or another model. Once these criteria are individual and very specific for each newspaper, no one can/should claim yet, on identifying one general ideal model which will fit to all news-providers. As director of Association of online publishers, Lee Baker commented in News Media, half of their members already charge for online content and another 19% is going to do so in the nearest 12 months. â€Å"Paid content modelling is important to our members†, continues Mr. Baker. â€Å"Our members are trying to penetrate new areas such as mobile apps. More than half of them express desire to create paid-for apps†. Despite we cant claim on building the ideal model as a proxy for the future, we can cover the most successful news providers and their models which are currently successfully used, both in B2C and B2B business. 4.1. Financial Times VS The Wall Street Journal Currently the most distributed B2C pay models in online media are two: one is Financial Times way restricting the definite amount of free articles for subscribers and then charge the readers if they exceed this amount, and another is Wall Street Journals way offering readers only one or two paragraph for reading and making available the rest only for subscribers[29]. To compare these two models in more details lets take a more detailed look at the ways which they are used by their most successful implementers. Of course there is some room for deviations and different news providers can apply to some minor changes, e.g. in the amount of text which should be given out for free, but the concept remains the same. Table 2 below shows clear distinctions between the features of these two models in the case of FT and WSJ. The essence of difference of these two models is the amount of information provided for free and the ways how it is done: The Wall Street Journal makes clear distinction between commodity and high-value content. The so ca