Research Korner

What is the difference between a product and a brand

There are many definitions about a product, some says a product is merchandise, the commodities offered for sale, an artifact that has been created by someone or some process and a consequence of someone’s efforts of a particular set of circumstances. In marketing, it defines as a product of anything that can be offered to a market that might satisfy a want or need. It is not just a physical object but a complete bundle of benefits or satisfaction that buyers perceive when they will obtain if they purchase the product. It is the sum of all physical, psychological, symbolic and service attributes. Internet. (2006). What is a product. August 29, 2006, from On the other hand, a brand is trade name given to particular product or service. It is the recognizable kind, a trademark. In marketing, a brand is the symbolic embodiment of all the information connected with a product or service. It includes a name, a logo, and other visual elements such as images or symbols. It also encompasses the set of expectations associated with a product or service which typically arise in the minds of the people. Such people include the employees of the brand owner, people involved with the distribution, sale or supply of the product or service and the ultimate consumers. There are many differences between a product and a brand. A product is tangible, you can see and touch it. It has physical attributes, different models, features and prices. It has objective qualities like taste, texture, color, firmness and hardness. While a brand is how the consumers feel about that product, it deals with their affection, the personality they ascribe to it, the trust and loyalty they give it. Above all, the shared experienced they have with it. It is a part of the product that you cannot put in the box. It is extremely valuable because it is incorporeal. Today, marketers are placing great emphasis on the value and importance of their brands. The people or consumers prefer to buy things for subjective reasons and not for objective reasons. The people are looking for the things that have status. They appreciate the branded products than the usual ones mainly because they had trust in it in making them comfortable and satisfied. It’s a guarantee for them if they chose to go with the branded.   (2006). Marketing.  August 29, 2006, However, a brand always start with a product that services a real need or want of a market and then be wrapped with a consistency of logical and emotional appeals. Products happen by accident because the manufacturers or suppliers of a particular product sees to it that their products was made for the consumers in order for them to fill their needs and wants and branded products must be designed or built because the manufacturers or suppliers of a particular product should have been made in order to fill the craving of the consumers who were following the new styles and trends.  (2006). The difference between a product and brands. August 29, 2006,  A core product is the prime purpose of a product’s existence which might be expressed in terms of function or psychological benefits. It is a problem-solving service that a customer is really buying in receiving the product. Nowadays, branded products are very important to the success of a company’s future. Although, the quality of a product and value are important factors in a successful product still, the consumers prefer to buy branded products because they were basing on the popularity of images and logos on a certain product. Most of the companies today have a customer orientation or customer focus. It means that the company is focusing on the activities and products that a customer needs. Internet (2006). Define core product.  August 29, 2006, f There are two ways in doing this: first, the customers driven approach which indicates that the consumer wants are the reason of all strategic marketing decisions. The companies believe that every aspect of market offering includes the nature of the product itself and the starting point is always the consumer. Their decision revolves around the allocation of time, money and resources for new product launch. Branded products are the result of renewal of a certain product that needs to be renewed and improved. (2006). Product Appearance and Consumer Pleasure.  August 29, 2006, Time changes and the needs and wants of the consumer is also stepping thus, product innovations should been made. Marketers and the companies as well, believe that by finding and creating the next big thing or the latest trend of a certain product will flicker the product’s revolution that will result to the increase of sales. In consumer research, a number of methods are used to determine the consumer’s preference for the functional possibilities of a product. It was found out that the people have subjective perceptions and preferences in choosing the right product. The companies considers the taste of the consumers value-based capacity because they know that it is the preference arising from them in order to make the distinctions between physical objects and the pleasure and satisfaction that they might get. This capacity was based on the beliefs and attitudes, and on the values that learned from the culture and history. In making judgments, it requires symbolic and capital forms of communicating to the particular social groups and at particular times. It also allows the distinct appropriation. The companies also considered the quality of experiences that has been determined through the consumer lifestyles.  (2006). Product Design for Consumer Taste. August 29, 2006, The companies develop core products into brands because they noticed that the demands of the people in buying new and stylish products was increasing and that they want to satisfied it by changing or improving the a certain core products into brands. Brand is the relationship in having customers. It exceeds beyond a product and if it communicates effectively to the consumers it can help in bringing the culture together. It has a lot of essence, it is not just a mere graphic look, and it also embodies customer service, the quality of the product and the dependability of delivery. Moreover, it is a performance not just a public relations.(2002, May 5). Developing a brand: create a killer brand. August 29, 2006, from The ultimate test of packaging performs the essential tasks, to contain, to preserve, to protect and to provide information. Almost all the products must be contained or placed inside a box before they can be moved from one place to another.  It plays a vital role in protecting products as they go from the manufacturer to the consumer in good condition. In that case, the product was protected in terms of climatic effects, during transportation and distribution, hazardous substance and contaminants and from infestation. Packaging in brand marketing is very essential because it is the product whose reputation commands a price in the marketplace. The consumers regard packaging as advertising of the product itself. The contribution of packaging to brand identity is in the protection of the product, its shape, the consistency, the flavor or performance reassures the consumer that they have the brand they want. The packaging often defines the brand identity by providing a place to display the product’s name or trademark, the shape, the appeal of graphics and colors to catch the consumer’s attention, the information and instructions for the use of the product, the assurance that the product has traveled intact from the manufacturer to the particular user or consumer without tampering or damage, the functional attributes that enhances the safe use of the product and the emotional connection between the consumers and the product that makes it more desirable and unusual.  (1990, March 5). Packs to play marketing role. August 29, 2006 In addition to that, packaging also plays a bigger role in marketing. It is considered as the marketing tool, an integral element in the movement towards convenience items, and it can also help meet the consumer demands for more product information. The consumer nowadays, wants more security and reliability, bound into national brands. The opportunity for protection and security of the product during shipping and handling is expected to be a major factor to motivate the packaging of branded products produce. As what had said, “brand loyalty can also play a part in the effectiveness of using specialized printed shipping products in marketing”, like the use of packaging in shipping boxes with high impact graphics. It makes easier for the retailer also for the set-up of achieving an effective display of the products, and it can also encourage the consumers in developing a brand loyalty.  (1990, March 5). Packs to play marketing role. Retrieved August 29, 2006, Packaging in today’s competitive world is responding to the pressure of the changing trends and influences, ensuring that it is able to respond and answer quickly and effectively to new challenges. It helps sell products by providing its differentiation and presentation and it increases brand awareness and convenience to the consumers. The continuous changing of demands in the market requires a higher quality graphics like trademarks and provides promotional links between the graphics and advertising to support brand identity and the ability to reflect the current consumer trends and images. Internet. (2006).Packaging-Its Essential Role.  August 29, 2006,

What is the difference between a product and a brand

There are many definitions about a product, some says a product is merchandise, the commodities offered for sale, an artifact that has be...

Industry Analysis: Alternative Investments

The term industry refers to a group of enterprises whether private businesses or government-operated corporations that produce a specific type of good or service for example, the beverage industry, the gold industry, or the music industry. Some industries produce physical goods, such as lumber, steel, or textiles. Other industries such as the airline, railroad, and trucking industries provide services by transporting people or products from one place to another. Still other industries, such as the banking and restaurant industries, provide services such as lending money and serving food, respectively. The word industry comes from the Latin word industria, which means diligence, reflecting the highly disciplined way human energy, natural resources, and technology are combined to produce goods and services in a modern economy. Industries use a range of inputs, such as capital, technology, natural resources, labor, and management, to produce goods and services. In order to manufacture products, money is needed to purchase buildings, equipment, and machinery and to pay workers. This money is called finance capital. Buildings, machinery, and other equipment are referred to as physical capital. Physical capital, natural resources, and labor are combined to yield the final product, which is sold for money. The amount of money received that exceeds the cost of producing the good is called profit. Profit can be used to pay for another cycle of production. When profits are used to hire more labor and purchase additional physical capital, production expands and industrial growth occurs. Alternative Investment Alternative Investment is investing in something that is not financial. This includes investing in antiques, art, or commodities. In the UK a market that they use to sell such investments is the Alternative Investment Market (AIM). The Alternative Investment Market was launched on June 19 1995. It is sometimes referred to as the junior market. It was created by the Stock Exchange specifically to provide a source of raising capital for smaller and dynamic young companies as an alternative to the main market reliance on debt finance and venture capital. AIM is a different and distinct market from the official list as it is specifically for smaller, emerging companies. These may be young venture capital-backed companies, management buy-outs (MBOs), or family businesses. A worldwide association that focuses on the alternative investments is the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA). The said association is dedicated to represent the world’s alternative investment community. It tries to address the issues that affect the industry’s development. It reaches 46 countries on five continents. AIMA’s members contribute to the association by creating global tools that will benefit other members, institutional investors, and regulators.   Industry Organization Industry Organization is competition between companies, company ease/difficulty getting into the industry, similar alternative investment products with companies & varying prices, top companies and reasons for success with products offered. In the said industry there is a little to no competition because it is not only relatively new to people‘s knowledge but it is not that familiar to them. Since the said industry is still in its early stages and the consumers may not yet know of such industry those who want to enter in the said industry is still free from tight competition. In getting into that industry any company can enter easily since the industry is relatively young additionally there are different institutions, and associations that help companies enter that industry. A reason for the success with the products offered is it being easier to sell, there are lesser risks involved when someone invests in a product.   Global Competition Global Competition is competition between companies throughout the world and how it changes from one area to the next, different products offered in different parts of the world. In this industry global competition is not much tight unlike in other industries. Since this industry covers a smaller group of countries the situation in the industry of one country is not largely affected by the situation of the industry of another. The products offered in one country differ from the products offered in another country. This is affected by the culture, tradition, religion and trends in different countries. The alternative investment industries in the different countries follow the culture and tradition of the country they are in. It also makes sure that they are not committing anything negative against the religion of the country. The industry in different countries base the products being sold to the trends, and buying capacity of the consumers in a specific country.   Economies of Scale Economies of Scale focus on operating leverage and merger activity. Economies of scale depend on the size of the area, on differences in tastes, on transportation costs, and so forth. The existence of economies of scale, then, does not imply that gigantic plants are necessarily more efficient than others of relatively smaller size, if the latter are specializing in a narrower range of products. Economies of scale may continue without a disintegration of the production process, however, in certain localized industries, such as waterworks, electricity plants, gasworks, brewing may tend to increase the size of the plant through diversification. In the alternative investment industry merger activity are not so common since there are few companies that will want to merge with other companies. There are lesser problems in the industry and some associations help companies in solving the problems they encounter in the said industry.   Regulatory Structures Regulatory structures focuses on rules and regulations of the different types of investments in different parts of the world. It also focuses on government involvement, tax considerations, state/city subsidies, and government contracts. In the alternative investment industry rules and regulations of the different types of investments in different parts of the world are given proper attention. The industry follows any imposed law by the government.  The government on the other hand makes sure that nothing will happen to the companies in the industry in a certain country. Taxes are paid accordingly and diligently. The industries are given clearance to conduct business in a certain country as long as they will follow the laws of the country, they pay taxes and other monetary obligations, they don’t cause any harm to the rights of the citizens of the country, and they respect the culture and tradition of the country. These conditions of the government of a country are part of the government contract.       Demographics Demographics focus on age distribution most common, product fit most common for who and where, adaptability of the products from place to place and person to person, and outside worldly influences effecting company profits and growth. In the alternative investment industry they try to make sure that they base the products they intend to sale on the result of the study on the demographics. The demographics assists in making a right decision on what products will be sold and to whom it will be sold.    Conclusion The Alternative Investment industry can be affected and is covered by many things like Industry Organization, Global Competition, Economies of Scale, Regulatory Structures, and Demographics. The way alternative investment industry is affected depends on different factors in different countries. The AIM and AIMA assists the industry and companies within it to adjust and contradict factors or situation that might give problems to it.

Industry Analysis: Alternative Investments

The term industry refers to a group of enterprises whether private businesses or government-operated corporations that produce a specific...

Singapore Banking System

Singapore Banking System  Challenges and structural changes facing Singapore banks               It was in the 1980s when Singapore became a global financial centre, housing several famous and large financial institutions worldwide. What makes Singapore a viable place for branching out are its geography that provides time-zone advantage, strict regulations and framework, strong domestic economy, pro-business environment, good infrastructure and skilled labour force. As such, Singapore is an economy with no domestic natural resources that have to look outward to survive hence the internationalisation of the banking system. Nevertheless, such internationalisation strategy of the banking system is amped with several structural issues and challenges. These challenges and structural changes facing Singapore banks will be discussed in this essay.              First amongst these structural challenges is the extent of government participation in the banking system. Singapore still maintains efficient government participation through two banking arms namely Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) and Post Office Savings Bank (POSB). Singaporean government aims to pioneer new changes in banking practice and promote efficiency and productivity in the banking system. The goal is to mobilise funds from the public, which could explain computerisation, longer banking hours, branching out in established department stores and sophisticated savings and payment facilities. Seemed contradictory is the degree of foreign banks participation that shapes Singapore banking policies and leading to domestic banks unable to compete with foreign banks.             Singapore’s financial sector has a high level of foreign participation whereby foreign financial institutions play a very important role in Singapore not only in the offshore banking but also in domestic banking. This is especially true when it comes to enhancing the techniques of bank management, international connection and inducement of foreign industrialists to invest into Singapore. As such, for the purpose of protecting the domestic industry and avoiding being over-banked in the very small domestic market, the Singapore government has imposed various restrictions such as entry restriction and operations restriction on foreign financial institution.             Second challenge encompasses the mega-merger program initiated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) intended for locally incorporated Singapore commercial banks with the aim of strengthening the banking sector to face future challenges. Scale efficiency which could jeopardise the going forward policy in return are the primary reasons behind such initiative. Although Singaporean banks had weathered the financial crisis of 1997-1998, it had created a strong incentive for banks to merge so that larger institutions could be created to cope with international competition. The consolidation of local banks, and restructuring of non-core business banking businesses, leads to integrating domestic financial institutions into two super banks. This was seen to be critical in weathering vulnerabilities to external shocks and financial contagion.     To remain competitive also, Singapore has recognised the need to deregulate closed sectors and to shift into a knowledge-based economy. Thirdly, such paradigm shift to the knowledge-based economy has several implications for the banking sector as new technologies fuel the transformation into a global economy. Singapore banks are then required to strengthen their information technology (IT) capabilities. Because human and intellectual capitals are the key competitive factors in a knowledge-based economy, Singapore commercial banks are also necessitated to encourage greater innovation and continue retraining and reskilling the workforce and also in investing in foreign talent for modern skill intensive positions. One of the core functions in a financial sector under a knowledge-based economy is risk-focused supervision. Corporate governance of commercial banks enhances greater transparency through the process although this also requires the institution to incorporate new roles in the organizational structure such as risk managers. Focusing on effective risk management, Singapore banks are obliged to address its risks while also adhering into the books for control deficiencies. Evaluating risks profiles of banking institutions and the potential impact these risks would have on Singapore’s financial system, economy and reputation are also critical for individual banks to comply into. Prudential surveillance and other stability issues are important for banking institutions to deal with.      In sum, three of the structural changes in Singapore banking industry are: government participation, foreign participation that undermines domestic bankers and merger initiatives of weaker banking institutions.

Singapore Banking System

Singapore Banking System Challenges and structural changes facing Singapore banks It was in the 1980s when Singapo...

The Influence of these aspects of management with respect to the Strategic Competitive Advantage may well prove significant in both application and effectivness

Chapter 2 Literature Review   This review of related literature initially considers key areas of broadly acknowledged theoretical material covering supply chain management and strategic management. The influence of these aspects of management with respect to the Strategic Competitive Advantage may well prove significant in both application and effectiveness. Basically, Hammer (1992) looks at ‘Outsourcing and the value Chain’. He states: “One method of reducing costs is to outsource non-core activities. Outsourcing can bring a number of benefits.” Actually, the topic of outsourcing may help to understand the competitive advantage of the organisation. On the other hand, competitive analysis “Porter’s five forces”; Porter’s (1998) competitive analysis identifies five fundamental competitive forces that determine the relative attractiveness of an industry: new entrants, bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, substitute products or services, and rivalry among existing competitors. Competitive analysis leads to insight in relationships and dynamics in an industry, and allows a company or business unit to make strategic decisions regarding the best defendable and most economically attractive position. Apparently, (1990) wrote an award-winning HBR article on the core competence for the future based on the concept of the core competence. They encourage managers to ask themselves such fundamental questions as: Ø                  What value will we deliver to our customers in, say, 10 years from now? Ø                  What new ‘competencies’ (a combination of skills and technologies) will we need to develop or obtain to offer that value? Ø                  What are the implications with regard to how we interact with our customers? With regards to these management practices issues, the SWOT analysis of any company is all about strategic planning concerning company’s strengths and weaknesses. When combined with an inventory of opportunities and threats in (or even beyond) the company’s external environment, the company is effectively making what is called a SWOT analysis: establishing its current position in the light of its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Moreover, Angel Garment Ltd also considers the value chain as part of its competitive advantage. Michael Porter (1998) believes that it can be understood only by looking at a firm as a whole. Cost advantages and successful differentiation are found in the chain of activities that a firm performs to deliver value to its customers. Further work by Porter on ‘Value chain analysis’ may also help understand the competitive advantage of the organisation. He described the value chain as: “Desegregating a firm into it’s strategically relevant activities in order to understand the behavior of costs and the existing and potential sources of differentiation. A firm can gain competitive advantage by performing these strategically important activities more cheaply or better it’s competitors.” Moreover, Syson (1992) examined the barriers to be found in supply chains. He spoke of: “The interface Model of the traditional supply chain and the Integrated Model of the ideal supply chain, and identifies forces for change which make it important for organisations to move from the former to the latter.”  He goes on to describe the features of his integrated model including: “The supply chain as a single entity, integrated at different levels of management – strategic, planning and operational”             From this discussion, this part of the dissertation divided the categories in several parts.  The said parts assess the Vision Statement, external and internal business process, SWOT analysis will be also described, strategic choices, implementation analysis and evaluation process are also described.   2.1 Vision Statement Assessment               In Angel Garments Limited, the main vision of the company is to be competitive with respect to the quality of products they are distributing.  The company is actually engaged in different business practices that may increase the standard of the quality of products. Angel Garments Limited operates in a turbulent and dynamic business environment. The current business environment of Angel Garments Limited is undergoing a metamorphosis as rapid technological innovations, competitive markets, diverse customer preferences, and extensive global operations prevail in it. To ensure continuous operation and survival in today’s rigid business environment, a business firm has to be open to change and improvement. Their business processes, services, products and operations should be consistently subject to evaluation and refinement. The norm is to deliver quality products and services while maintaining flexible and effective operations.   2.2 External Assessment               With regards to the external assessment of Angel Garment Limited, the researcher will consider the PEST analysis. A marketing model for analysis that can be utilized in order to analyse the corporate strategy of Angel Garments Limited is the PEST analysis.  PEST Stands for Political, Economic, Sociocultural and technological factors that influence of Angel Garments Limited’s overall performance in the market place. In addition, PEST analysis is a part of the external analysis when doing market research and gives a certain overview of the different macro environmental factors that the company has to take into consideration. Actually, political factors include areas such as tax policy, employment laws, environmental regulations, trade restrictions and tariffs and political stability. The economic factors are the economic growth, interest rates, exchange rates and inflation rate. Social factors often look at the cultural aspects and include health consciousness, population growth rate, age distribution, career attitudes and emphasis on safety. The technological factors also include ecological and environmental aspects and can determine the barriers to entry, minimum efficient production level and influence outsourcing decisions. It looks at elements such as R&D activity, automation, technology incentives and the rate of technological change.             PEST analysis is very important that an organisation considers its environment before beginning the marketing process (Crainer, S 2002). In fact, environmental analysis should be continuous and feed all aspects of planning. The organization's marketing environment is made up from the following: Ø      The internal environment like staff or internal customers, office technology, wages and finance. Ø      The micro-environment such as external customers, agents and distributors, suppliers and competitors. Ø      The macro-environment such as political including legal forces, economic forces, socio-cultural forces and technological forces. The acronym PEST or sometimes rearranged as STEP is used to describe a framework for the analysis of these macro-environmental factors (Crainer, 2002). A PEST analysis fits into an overall environmental scan as shown in the following diagram (see Figure 3):       Figure 3. Overall Environmental Scan   Figure 4 the graphical explanation of PEST analysis               The number of macro-environment factors is virtually unlimited. In practice, the firm must priorities and monitor those factors that influence its industry (Mark ides, 1999). Even so, it may be difficult to forecast future trends with an acceptable level of accuracy. In this regard, the firm may turn to scenario planning techniques to deal with high levels of uncertainty in important macro-environmental variables. PEST is a nonlinear parameter estimation package with a difference. (Mark ides, 1996:58) The difference is that PEST can be used to estimate parameters for just about any existing computer model, whether or not a user has access to the model's source code. PEST is able to "take control" of a model, running it as many times as it needs to while adjusting its parameters until the discrepancies between selected model outputs and a complementary set of field or laboratory measurements is reduced to a minimum in the weighted least squares sense. Most parameter estimation packages suffer from two serious drawbacks that inhibit their ability to optimize parameters for the plethora of computer simulation models that are used today in all fields of study (Moncrieff, 1999) The first of these difficulties is that a model normally needs to be partially recoded in order to communicate with an estimation program; this usually involves recasting the model as a subroutine which is then called by the estimator each time it needs to run the model. The second disadvantage is that the performance of many commercial and public-domain estimators is seriously degraded when optimizing parameters for large numerical models or for the sometimes complex models used for simulating "messy" environmental processes. PEST overcomes the first of these difficulties by communicating with a model through the model's own input and output files (Mischief, 1999). Thus PEST adapts to the model; the model does not need to be adapted to PEST. It overcomes the second problem by implementing a particularly robust variant of the Gauss-Marquardt-Liebenberg method of nonlinear parameter estimation. Furthermore, through adjustment of a number of control variables, a user is able to "tune" PEST's implementation of the method to suit the model for which parameters are sought. Because PEST is model-independent, the "model" can, in fact, be a series of models which PEST runs in succession through a batch file; PEST can estimate parameters for one or all of the models simultaneously (Moncrieff, 1999). Thus, a first model can provide input data for a second model; a single model can be calibrated against a number of different historical datasets all at once; a preprocessor can be run, followed by the model, followed by a postprocessor; the possibilities are endless.   2.3 Internal Assessment 2.4 SWOT analysis (Long-term Objective) 2.5 Strategic Choices   Strategy is now a common business word, and is probably the most used and abused term in the business world, but it was not originally used in a business sense. It was first used in popular English literature sometime before 1050. The Greek origin of the word `strategy' is `strategies', which means ‘general’, and in the Byzantine Empire the term was also used in the to describe a military governor (Dai, 1996, p. 54). It is argued by many authors in strategic studies that the concept of strategy is an analogy of or originated from the classical as well as modern military art (James, Mintzberg & Quinn, 1991). Although strategies have been used throughout the history of commerce and industry, the study of strategy as an academic subject did not receive serious attention until the 1960’s (Dai, 1996, p. 14). Nowadays, it is used in the business field with unsurprising familiarity, from the more specific areas of management, finance and, in the context of this paper, marketing. The strategy literature is diverse. Scholars and practitioners have different frameworks for the concept and some do not even agree on a single definition. It is therefore only proper to present as much meaning as possible to acquaint oneself with the various interpretations of strategy.             If the concept is boiled down to its essence, businessmen and entrepreneurs can gain the clearest insight on how thinking strategically can benefit the business venture. There are quite a number of traditional views regarding strategy. According to Porter (1986), strategy is ‘about being different’ and ‘it means deliberately choosing a different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of value’. Porter argues that strategy is about competitive position, about differentiating yourself in the eyes of the customer, about adding value through a mix of activities different from those used by competitors. Sidorowicz (2000) gave several definitions, and the following is one of them: ‘Strategy as a definition of the economic and non-economic contribution the organisation intends to make to its stakeholders, where sustained profitability is the legitimate and deserved reward of a job well done’.  briefly defined strategy as the framework which guides those choices that determine the nature and direction of an organisation. Kenneth Andrews (1980), meanwhile, presents a lengthy definition of the word: ‘Corporate strategy is the pattern [italics added] of decisions in a company that determines and reveals its objectives, purposes, or goals, produces the principal policies and plans for achieving those goals, and defines the range of business the company is to pursue, the kind of economic and human organisation it is or intends to be, and the nature of the economic and non-economic contribution it intends to make to its shareholders, employees, customers, and communities (pp.18-19).’             (2000) succinctly gave this meaning of the word: Strategy is all these—it is perspective, position, plan, and pattern. Strategy is the bridge between policy or high-order goals on the one hand and tactics or concrete actions on the other. Strategy and tactics together straddle the gap between ends and means. In short, strategy is a term that refers to a complex web of thoughts, ideas, insights, experiences, goals, expertise, memories, perceptions, and expectations that provides general guidance for specific actions in pursuit of particular ends. Strategy is at once the course we chart, the journey we imagine and, at the same time, it is the course we steer, the trip we actually make. Even when we are embarking on a voyage of discovery, with no particular destination in mind, the voyage has a purpose, an outcome, an end to be kept in view. Given the wealth of literature on the concept, it is hard to come up with a final, unambiguous definition of strategy. Simply, there is no one absolutely correct meaning of the word, that strategy is a broad, ambiguous topic. Each individual, depending on the need, must come to one’s own understanding, definition, and meaning of this diverse term. If studies on strategy are in profusion, one would be surprised at the doubly large number of studies done on strategic planning. The reason behind this is that there has been acceptance in the business circle that strategic planning, indeed, is the place to start if one wants to go from one point of origin to somewhere. The term has become a catchy buzzword with obvious benefits, less obvious pitfalls, and a variety of meanings. The aura of complexity, importance, and expense it has assumed through popularization might have confused or discourage business people from adopting it into practice but it is now apparent that this is not the case. Goodstein, Nolan & Pfeiffer (1993) defined the term as ‘the process by which the guiding members of an organisation envision its future and develop the necessary procedures and operations necessary to achieve that future’ (p. 3). Steiner summarized his meaning of the word in one sentence: ‘Strategic planning is a backbone to support the strategic management’ (p. 4). Bryson (as cited in Alston & Bryson, 2005), defined strategic planning as ‘a disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions that an organisation (or other entity) is, what it does, and why it does it (p. 3). Cook (2000) gave this meaning of the word: ‘is the technique by which all variables are synthesized and the means by which all energies are dedicated to one real intent. Understanding and commitment are set forth in a plan that is, in effect, both stimulus and expedient’ (p. 4). In the words of Andreas Raps, ‘a well-formulated strategy can only generate a sustainable added value for the company if it is implemented successfully, so regardless of the intrinsic merit of a particular strategy, it can't succeed if an effective implementation procedure is missing’ (2004). Alignment of strategic plan throughout the business could also contribute to the success. Mercer (1991) said that the main purpose of strategic planning is to provide management with a framework in which decisions can be made which will have an impact on the organisation. A conscious effort to systematize the effort and to manage its evolution is preferable to an unmanaged and haphazard evolution. Goodstein, Nolan & Pfeiffer defined the word as ‘the process by which the guiding members of an organisation envision its future and develop the necessary procedures and operations to achieve that future’ (p. 1). Mercer claimed that strategic thinking entails operational (tactical) planning - the planning of those actions to be taken to put strategies into effect. This type of planning answers the question of how to get the job done. It often consists of specific objectives accompanied by short narrative action plans. Below is an illustration of the evolution of strategic planning in the private sector (Mercer, 1991, p. 19): 1950's Early 1960's Late 1960's U+0026 1970's 1980's GENERAL MANAGEMENT PROFIT PLANNING BUSINESS PLANNING STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT Business Survey Business Assessment Business Assessment Business Assessment Management Audit Company Performance Company performance Environmental Intelligence Organizational Studies   Future environment Corporate Strategic Plan   Profit Plan Objectives Stake holder’s expectations     Forecasts Plans Strategic Plan Division Strategic Plans     Mission Objectives Organisation Effectiveness     Product/Market Strategy Resource allocation Operational Plans     Operational Plans   Performance Standards     Annual Plans & Controls   Budgeting & Control Annual Plans & Controls   Budgetary Control   Budgets MOB Control Systems     (2006) asserted that the word is focused on reaching specific, well-defined goals designed to benefit the organisation as a whole. He said that it is possible to have a number of long-range goals and plans that are quite independent of one another and in fact lead in different directions. Strategic planning is a means of making some very fundamental decisions and charting a course so that short- and long-range planning is more efficiently focused and integrated. The organisation, in the course of strategic planning, must: (1) identify and/or clarify organisational values; (2) develop CEO of vision statement; (3) conduct internal assessment by examining the mission and values statement and composing a list of strengths and weaknesses of organisation; (4) conduct external assessment by composing a list of challenges, obstacles, opportunities and niches; (5) determine what business organisation is in or wants to be in; (6) determine key result areas in which goals will be set; (7) set goals in key result area by developing a consensus on goals and relating it to vision and values; (8) set strategies regarding goals; (9) determine tactics as to how to achieve strategies; and finally; (10) assign accountabilities (O’Neil, 2001). Mercer (1991) said that effective strategic plans include six key elements: (1) an environmental scan (situation analysis, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats--SWOT--analysis, or size-up) including an examination of both external and internal factors; (2) a mission statement which defines the fundamental purpose of the organisation and its boundaries; (3) a set of strategies indicating what will be done to carry out the mission; (4) objectives for each strategy; (5) tactics or short-term operating plans for meeting objectives; and (6) controls, measures, and evaluation steps to determine how well the strategic plan is progressing.

The Influence of these aspects of management with respect to the Strategic Competitive Advantage may well prove significant in both application and effectivness

Chapter 2 Literature Review This review of related literature initially considers key areas of broadly acknowledged theoreti...

Political Apathy

Liberalism as a political philosophy was an attempt to generate and give legitimacy to the dissolution of traditional feudal society and, in particular, as puts it, to challenge "the powers of 'despotic monarchies' and their claim to 'divine support.'" Developing in tandem with the idea of freemarket economics and nascent capitalism, it sought to carve out a distinct area of social life -- civil society -- that would be controlled by private, nonpolitical, personal, family, and economic relations independent of state authority or control. Partly a product of the Enlightenment and Reformation, it sought to uphold the values of freedom of choice, reason, and toleration. It gradually "became associated with the doctrine that individuals should be free to pursue their own preferences in religious, economic and political affairs-in fact, in everything that affected daily life." 1 Yet liberalism from the beginning had a dark and a light side, and a potentially radical edge. Thomas Hobbes, the first important liberal thinker, saw as basic within humans a raw, selfish, acquisitive nature that could descend easily into a "war of all against all" if they foolishly remained in this "state of nature." For Hobbes, the individual and not the group, estate, or caste is the basic social unit. Perhaps reflecting the breakdown of feudal society, and certainly what he saw as the anarchy of the English civil war, Hobbes believed the best way individuals could rationally protect themselves from the Armageddon hidden within their own spirits would be to freely consent to a ruler -- a "Leviathan" -- to enter into a "social contract" in which they surrender to the sovereign their "natural rights" to pursue their own interests with abandon, who establishes rules and laws of conduct applicable to all. The authority of the ruler, however, comes from the consent of the governed and is vested in no other divine or worldly source. And since all are to be bound by this social contract, it is designed to serve the long-term interests in peace and security of all. The light side of liberalism was developed most forcefully by John Locke. Like Hobbes, Locke also grounded governmental authority in the consent of the governed, based on a social contract between political authority and its subjects. Unlike Hobbes, however, Locke saw a primary threat to liberty from government oppression; and unlike Hobbes, who, in spite of his theory of consent, in effect would transfer sovereignty from the ruled to the ruler, Locke felt the people should remain sovereign. In Locke's state of nature, people are free and equal, endowed with reason enabling them rationally to pursue their interests. Their natural liberty, however, is tempered by what he calls the "Law of Nature," basic principles of morality individuals are obliged to follow and have the right to enforce. Principal among natural rights is the right to "property," defined broadly as "life, liberty and estate" (including the right to dispose of one's labor as one sees fit), and narrowly as exclusive ownership of land and physical things. Because individual enforcement of natural law often proves inadequate, especially with regard to the regulation of "property," people enter into a social contract to create first a civil society, and then a state. The purpose of the state is to create the conditions under which people can pursue their private interests in civil society. Should the state act tyrannically, people have a right, indeed an obligation, to rebel. As Held suggests, In relation to Hobbes's ideas, this was a most significant and radical view. For it helped inaugurate one of the most central tenets of modern European liberalism; that is, that the state exists to safeguard the rights and liberties of citizens who are ultimately the best judges of their own interests; and that accordingly the state must be restricted in scope and constrained in practice in order to ensure the maximum possible freedom of every citizen. 2 Where Hobbes sought to protect what liberty people could hope for in a very imperfect world through domination by a sovereign, Locke aimed to protect liberty by instituting, and then carefully restricting, the scope of government. It was Locke who more decisively influenced European political thought and American political development. Liberalism also had a radical edge. For in its attack on the privileges and constraints of traditional authority, it substituted the individual for the group, caste, or estate as the basic unit of social intercourse. Coupled with Protestant ideas that individuals unmediated by the church were capable of understanding God's word, grounded in early Christian ideas about the equality of the rich and poor in the eyes of God, liberalism held within it an incipient notion of radical political equality. If all men had natural rights, all men deserved to have those rights protected by and from the state, and therefore, each man deserved to have his interests represented in the state. The Uses of Apathy Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century democratic theory, they conclude, should be revised to accommodate twentieth-century facts, and this could be successfully accomplished without compromising democratic ideals. Indeed, these facts of modern democratic life are actually conducive to the survival of democracy, for how, they ask, could "a mass democracy work if all the people were deeply involved in politics?" The apathetic segment of America probably has helped to hold the system together and cushioned the shock of disagreement, adjustment and change. But that is not to say that we can stand apathy without limit. 5 Having established, first, that modern democratic society could not stand the shock of widespread participation, and second, that we are now to look at the system as a whole for the balance of democratic attributes formerly sought by classical theory in the individual, Berelson, Lazarsfeld, and McPhee feel free to revise "classical" theories of democracy. From a democratic point of view, political apathy is functional and, indeed, essential to the functioning of a modern democratic polity. Their explanation of nonparticipation is tantamount to their explication of apathy, represented as follows: X (a person) is apathetic with respect to Y (politics) if he or she is content with and/or uninterested in present political decisions or arrangements. X freely chooses not to vote or participate in electoral activity. 6 While this explanation of nonparticipation and the peculiar function it assigns the concept of apathy are gravely flawed, they do have one important virtue. Unlike those radical critics of American democracy who would explain away all nonparticipation as political alienation (and those who would explain away most participation simply as false consciousness), Berelson, Lazarsfeld, and McPhee's use of the concept maintains an essential link of responsibility between the nonparticipant and the act of not participating. Integral to the way apathy is used in ordinary language as well as within democratic discourse is precisely this function of helping locate responsibility for nonparticipation. By their account, freely choosing not to participate, apathetics are responsible for their own withdrawal. 7 The problems begin in their reordering of the moral point of the term within their broader revision of democratic theory. If the notion that in- formed and involved people governing themselves, whether directly or through representatives, is basic to democracy, then claiming that political apathy or nonparticipation is a desirable attribute of modern democracy constitutes a redrawing of democratic theory with radical implications. Political apathy, a term that formerly served to warn about the malfunctioning of a democratic polity, is reconstituted as a virtue. Under what circumstances is it legitimate to revise the critical grammar of any political language? Is their revision justified? The connection they draw between responsibility and action is especially important within democratic discourse, where there is a prima facie case in favor of participation. All things being equal, widespread nonparticipation and political apathy are frowned upon, and the burden is on those who would insist that a polity with these characteristics is democratic to explain these facts in a way that justifies this claim. Berelson and his co-authors understand this, attempt to address it, and, I believe, fail. Should one succeed in establishing that nonparticipation results from personal apathy, one can exclude as causes a disenfranchising political, educational, economic, or social system. One is then freer to argue that a nonparticipatory polity with extensive apathy is nevertheless a democratic polity. Instead, they seem to assume that America is a modern, industrialized, mass democracy par excellence, therefore its practices, however much they may deviate from the norms of "classical democratic theory," become the new standards for democracy. Viewed through the lens of "realistic theory," if these practices, including those that generate apathy, promote the stability of this democratic system, it follows they should be positively appraised and included in the repertoire of practices we consider democratic. Their argument is captured well by Carole Pateman: high levels of participation and interest are required from a minority of citizens only and, moreover, the apathy and disinterest of the majority play a valuable role in maintaining the stability of the system as a whole. Thus we arrive at the argument that the amount of participation that actually obtains is just about the amount that is required for a stable system of democracy. 8 If the norms with which we judge contemporary affairs are drawn from the outer appearance of dominant practices, how are we to know if anything is amiss within or beneath these practices? By disposing of the critical dimension that had warned of threats to a particular political discourse's essential ideals, we at best lose some ability to analyze these practices from the point of view of that ideal, and at worst, through the back door, redefine that ideal in ways antithetical to a core element within its original intent: the voters least admirable when measured against individual requirements contribute most when measured against the aggregate requirement for -79- flexibility. . . . They may be the least partisan or interested voters, but they perform a valuable function for the entire system. 9 Trapped by their view that the American polity is the functional equivalent of modern democracy itself, Berelson, Lazarsfeld, and McPhee in effect ask us to use the concept of apathy in the following peculiar way when explaining nonparticipation: "Giovanna didn't vote in the referendum because she is apathetic about the environment. Thank God for people like her, for without them our democracy couldn't stand the disruption of people making policy choices for themselves. If there were more people like her, our democracy would run even more smoothly." Many arguments have been leveled at this thinking, particularly during the so-called pluralist-antipluralist debates of the 1960s and 1970s. Two are directly pertinent here. First, Berelson and his co-authors assume that participation has no intrinsic importance or developmental merit, and dismiss the value attached to participation historically by a diverse array of democratic theorists. Second, assuming that nonparticipation is motivated by indifference or contentment, in the above example they would see  political apathy as adversely affecting neither her wants nor her capacities to understand and defend what is in her interest. Yet it is certainly reasonable to wonder whether what appears on the surface as her political apathy, once analyzed, instead turns out to be her rejection of a system that does not meet her needs. Over time, her political alienation might indeed take on the outward appearance of indifference and apathy. But by misdescribing rejection of political activity as apathy motivated by contentment, Berelson and his colleagues may also miss the deeper significance of what turns out to be, in fact, her principled political act, perversely changing it into a silent vote of approval. Conceptual deficiencies further promote these problems. While there is a connection between apathy and contentment -- a content person over time may become lulled into apathy -- in order to remain content, one also has a need to maintain a sharply delineated conceptual distance between them. Consider that a politically content person may become lulled into apathy after deciding that withdrawing from political activity will not seriously jeopardize his or her future wants or needs, and thereby future contentment. But apathy indicates a letting down of the guard on these judgments, a weakening of will and discipline regarding them, making it more likely that contentment may be jeopardized in the future. Moreover, many of the criteria they suggest are hallmarks of modern democracy amount to little more than balancing opposing tendencies -- involvement and indifference, for example -- and certainly could be construed as qualities necessary for almost any successful political system. Berelson, Lazarsfeld, and McPhee also write as if apathy can only be used to describe a grouping of disparate individuals all of whom coincidentally share the characteristic of apathy -- that is, they are not really a group at all. Undoubtedly one sense of apathy relates to individual responsibility, but another begins to shift responsibility away from the person. It is clear what we mean when we say, "John is apathetic about the environment," but what if we say, "The poor are apathetic about the environment," or more generally talk about "the apathetic masses"? In the latter, the signal from language is that there may be something about being poor or in a mass that promotes this posture, shifting responsibility from the individual. While we might decide that the responsibility still lies with the group in question, we tacitly recognize that other factors, beyond the character of an individual, may play a role. Used exclusively with regard to individuals, the term loses a constituent critical component. To the degree we use the term in vague reference to "politics" and not to specific issues or problem areas, we may also weaken its precision and critical vantage. To the extent apathy is issue specific, we then want to know why this issue motivates persons in this way, and hold open the possibility there also may exist a hidden range of other issues that would motivate interest and active participation. What is it about a class of people, poor people in Brooklyn, New York, and what is it about a specific issue constellation, perhaps the rain forests in Brazil, that might promote their apathy with reference to it?  and his co-authors also confuse the grammar of motivation (apathy) with that of action (nonparticipation). Although they suggest that participants are often indifferent, they virtually equate nonparticipation with apathy. Yet it is perfectly possible that  refusal to vote in a referendum is based not in apathy but deep commitment. In the end, the account of Berelson, Lazarsfeld, and McPhee has a clear ideological ring to it, one with the perverse political consequence of blaming our most disadvantaged citizens for their own disenfranchisement. Evidence has existed for some time that reveals a close connection between nonparticipation in political and organizational activity and low socioeconomic status, especially low educational levels. Indeed, in their 1944 work, The People's Choice, written with Hazel Gaudet, Lazarsfeld and Berelson report, "People on the lower SES levels are less likely to belong to any organizations than people on high . . . levels." 10 In Voting, the authors report that Nonvoting is related to persistent social conditions having little to do with the candidates or the issues of the moment. For example, because Democrats are on the average less well educated and less involved with dominant groups in the society than Republicans, they vote less on election day. 11 Yet, the focus on apathy and indifference only obscures the importance of facts like these. For unless they are willing to suggest that our more disadvantaged citizens are pressured into these postures, dropping their view that the primary cause of nonparticipation is individual apathy, they are asking us to make the counterintuitive assumption that people are content to withdraw from a political system that patently harms their interests. And even were they to focus more seriously on social conditions and the psychological attitudes they produce, they would still not really be giving a satisfactory explanation of nonvoting, because in the institutional and political context of virtually all European countries, socioeconomic class is not nearly as closely tied with nonvoting as it is here. 12 Should the disenfranchised read and take in explanations of their behavior focused on individual apathy, they will tend to blame themselves for their nonparticipation, and fail to analyze precisely those relations of political power that inhibit their own participation. The Rationality of Apathy  tendency to reduce human interests to a calculus of costs and benefits is developed into an art form in the work of rational choice theory. If the goal of theory is to enhance our ability to predict political behavior, and this is the goal advocates of positivist social science postulate, then one needs a powerful model of human motivation to ground theory, with narrowly confined assumptions and clearly stipulated variables capable of spinning off powerful generalizations. This formidable challenge is taken up by rational choice. The act of making a "rational choice, " presumed to be the way persons interact in the political world, is one in which the individual most efficiently gains value, preference, or taste goals from a given set of political choices by analyzing relative benefits and costs. Driven by individually rooted motivation to enhance or protect self-interested wants, in rational choice theory the autonomous egoistic individual is the fundamental macro-unit of analysis, while individual values, preferences, tastes, and the like are the micro-units. The choice is purely instrumental to keeping costs to a minimum and benefits to a maximum -- it has no value outside of this function. Even when groups are considered, it is clear that the logic of their collective action, their seeking of collective goods, and indeed their ability to form at all, is based on a collection of individual calculations of self-interest. In basic form with regard to political participation, a rational choice (R) is equal to the probability that participating makes a difference (P), multiplied by the benefit the actor receives (B) should the activity be successful, minus the cost of participating (Q: R = PB -- C. 1 When Anthony Downs introduced the idea of the rational voter in his 1957 landmark, An Economic Theory of Democracy, he immediately presented the theory with an important internal problem. Since the probability that the act of voting in any election by any individual has virtually no chance to affect the outcome of an election, why would anyone vote? Similarly, when  in his 1965 pathbreaking The Logic of Collective Action tried to understand how groups form, he uncovered the "free- Consider their passivity in this light. Rissarro, has achieved much of what he considers the "good things" in life, yet after his superficial declarations of satisfaction, the doubt shows. He views himself on the receiving end of the good things, a passive agent who is not the cause even of his own success: "I was just at the right place at the right time." Far from showing modesty, this comment reveals that he feels he doesn't belong in the world he now inhabits, an outsider intruding on the middle class, illegitimate in his new situation and undeserving of respect. He explains his achievements to himself as luck. To explain them as deserved success would be to respect himself, but he is not confident of his dignity. Yet he wants respect and so he continues to judge himself and others in a social situation that will serve to reconfirm his doubt. Rissarro may be viewed from the outside simply as acquiescent, or analyzed from the academy as a one-dimensional man. Indeed, he views himself as passive. He may well be politically apathetic. What is distinctive, however, is that it is his active struggle for identity and respect that is crucial in turning the blame for his discontents, not on the role society, elites, class structure, or ideologies may play in limiting his happiness, but on himself. conclude, The examples we have so far given of assertion of individual ability in families point to three general results of such assertion: the search for respect is thwarted; the individual feels personally responsible for the failure; the whole attempt accustoms him to think that to have individual respect you must have social inequality. 2 Acceptance of inequality limits the promise of democratic politics. And the binds that promote political apathy also restrict the freedom of democratic citizens. Passive acquiescence in this undemocratic fate is all the more insidious because it is made possible, and becomes more formidable, through the active participation of the passive person. Social critics, however, often overlook the power and responsibility this person has to free himself or herself from limits that are imposed on the self through the mediation of social structure by the self. Women and Power  argues that women in our culture are encouraged to believe that they "do not need power" and "are most comfortable using our powers if we believe we are using them in the service of others." 3 Therefore, women actually do possess a kind of power, one that empowers others through nurturing and caretaking roles. The location of power of this sort is often in the psychological, emotional, or intellectual realm rather than the political or economic. It is a complicated exercise: Because power in these roles is limited, and because they are roles that serve to empower others, women must be sensitive to changes in the relationship as the powers of the others grow in proportion to the success of the women's work. Miller writes, "Acting under those general beliefs, and typically not making any of this explicit, women have been effective in many ways." 4 Women, therefore, are powerful in ways undervalued by dominant definitions of what power should mean, uncomfortable themselves in seeing these as forms of power, and "do fear admitting that they want or need power." 5 Like Sennett and Cobb's study of working men, Miller's study reveals how women's active interpretive roles reshape dominant views of power but do so in a way that binds them to depoliticized roles. For both the men and the women, there is one fundamental common bind. Society seems to teach that each individual is worthy of dignity and respect, that at the level of private emotions "all persons are created equal." In the real world, however, class, gender, and racial stratification promotes a type of emotional stratification. You are less likely to believe in your ability and self-worth not only because of role expectations drawn for you, but because of your own experiences of shaming, self-doubt, and self-disrespect as you try to advance your position based on the public philosophy of equal opportunity, the emotional damage hidden within meritocracy for all who fail (and probably many who succeed), and the specific emotional damage likely for those consigned to certain positions. Yet the hope remains that the person implicated in her or his own powerlessness has more power and responsibility to become freer than is often presumed by social critics. There is a quiet ambiguity in Miller's work that, when listened to carefully, reveals a lot about power. Miller seems to suggest that the experiences of women have provided them with powers unsullied by male-dominated conceptions of power as control. These nurturing powers are pristine, selfless, generous, unique. Yet the women she describes seem to want something more. Is it simply for these powers to be recognized? Or is it that they want what should be coming to them -- that is, they want their share of power, as defined by men, power as control? Can women both be selfless and want more for themselves? Miller's ambiguity is creative. Clearly, her sympathies lie with the idea that women have a unique perspective on power and should assert it as they come to recognize its worth. But one can't help think that the assertive aspect trades heavily on what she seems to consider to be power as usually conceived by men, and, fortunately, she does not extinguish this tension in favor of her somewhat idealized version of the way women view power

Political Apathy

Liberalism as a political philosophy was an attempt to generate and give legitimacy to the dissolution of traditional feudal society and,...