The Alibaba Group Holding Limited and the Aspect of Disruption Essay

The Alibaba Group Holding Limited and the Aspect of Disruption - Essay Example Notable is that innovation within human societies is as old as history itself. However, it is only from the 19th Century onwards that the greatest level of human advancement vis-à  -vis the period has taken has exceedingly amplified. This has, in turn, influenced the manner in which enterprises conduct their business, especially in the face of increased global competition. As a Chinese e-commerce firm-entity, the Alibaba Group Holding Limited provides platforms on which online sales services can be safely conducted, via available web portals. Most importantly is the crucial element of continuous technological advancement (Schepp & Schepp, 2010). This has availed a platform on which business can be effectively and efficiently conducted online, with some form of security assurance. With enhanced cybersecurity measures, and a growth in consumer confidence in e-commerce has availed a robust and lucrative market arena that remains significantly untapped (Nonaka & Zhu, 2012). As an entity concerned primarily with the provision of sales services, i.e. business-to-business, consumer-to-business or consumer-to-consumer basis, the Alibaba Group is also a provider of other services. These include data-centric cloud computing services, a very successful shopping search engine and electronic payment services. It is important to note that the entity is sector-specific, with its business strategy focusing on technology-supported and enhanced service provision. Taobao, Alibaba’s consumer-to-consumer internet portal is similar to America’s eBay.com. Due to the large-scale nature of the Chinese market arena, the entity features almost a billion products and brands, targeting the multi-billion consumer market. Globally, the website is amongst the 20 most-visited, accounting for over 60% of all parcels delivered in the PRC (Gifford, 2013). This in itself attests to the rapid uptake it has  experienced in this market, further influencing future strategies of market venturing and expansion.  

Creation of Israel Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Creation of Israel - Essay Example made to Israel’s birth. The shared and self imposed responsibility of these nations had serious political, emotional and cultural implications on a world population still fresh from the horrific effects in the aftermath of WWII. Arab countries maintain that this is stolen Palestinian land and has opposed the objective from its inception, as they do today and probably always will. However, this paper focuses on the western countries, their historical and their continual involvement in the process of Jewish Statehood. For many centuries, those of Jewish heritage have felt a desire to return to what they consider their rightful native soil. â€Å"This was first articulated during the Babylonian exile and became a universal Jewish theme after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D† (Wolffsohn, 1993, p. 5). In the last quarter of the 19th century Jews in Europe were generally treated as second-class citizens particularly in Eastern European countries. They were increasingly being subjected to persistent oppressions such as the series of state organized persecution of Jews in Russia during 1881. These actions caused many Jewish populations to begin plans for their escape back to their ancestral holy lands (Taylor & Francis Group, 1983, p. 468). In the 1880s, European Jews immigrated to Palestine to escape the pogrom, the massacre of Jews in Russia and Poland. In 1896, Theodore Herzl began the Zionist movement incorporating support from Jewish idealists in order to create a homela nd for Jews. He felt that Jews always had been and always would be victimized and could effectively make a collective stand against oppression only by creating their own nation. He stated, â€Å"We shall create in Palestine an outpost against Asia. We shall be the vanguard of the civilized world against barbarism† (Abrahams,

The Planning And Scheduling Of Maintenance Construction Essay

The Planning And Scheduling Of Maintenance Construction Essay Building with safety place is an asset that people need to occupy either for shelter or work. It is important to maintain the building in order to ensure that there is no depreciate value of building. British Standard (8210) defines a building is an asset which needs to maintained so that the value of building not depreciate. As an owner or tenant, we must realize that building is important asset for us to keep it in a good condition to prevent any effect that can cause damage or failure on the building. Any damage occurs on the building must do the maintenance work in order to avoid the critical damage occur on the building. The small damage will need less money rather than critical damage. So that, owner or tenants should call the maintenance contractor to carry out the maintenance work on their building. Maintenance as the combination of all technical and administrative action to retain it, restore it so that it can perform as required (British Standard, 8210). Other than that, Building Standard (3811) defines the maintenance as a work that carry out the restoration of every part of building and its contents with compliance with standard. Servicing, rectification and replacement are separate components in maintenance (F.C. Harper, 1969). Servicing work is done regular interval or sometimes day-to-day maintenance. Rectification work usually occurs at early life of the building that may reduce cost of maintenance. Replacement work is done for building with physical breakdown of materials or element. British Standard (3811) subdivides maintenance into two which are planned and unplanned maintenance. Planned maintenance comprises planned preventive maintenance and planned corrective maintenance which are having different definition among them. Planned preventive maintenance means work which carried out to prevent the failure of item or facility within the expected life of facility meanwhile planned corrective maintenance means work carried to restore the items or facility that failure to bring it back operation. Nick Robinson (1982) explain maintenance should be shown to give value for money like anything else, and many maintenance plans can be improved through closer control. The maintenance should be control at the beginning with less cost without to use more money if not maintain it next. 2.0 ORGANISING MAINTENANCE WORK Failure building will need restoration from expertise person such as maintenance contractor who working for profit and direct labour who absence of profit motive in order to keep the building as at the original state. Ivor H.Seeley (1976) explain maintenance work can be undertaken by contractors, direct labour forces or a combination of both systems and the decision may be based on a number of criteria. Both type of labour have a cost to employ them. The cost of direct labour is from wages and materials such as administrative overheads such as labour oncosts, and associated clerical, travelling and supervisory costs, and depot costs meanwhile the cost for employing contractor are contractors charges plus administrative overheads, such as inviting and comparing tenders, drawing up contracts, work supervision and checking invoices (Ivor H.Seeley, 1976). Bampton (1967) said it may be preferable to confine direct labour to little more than emergency and scheduled maintenance, and to use contractors for the seasonal, major and specialist work. 2.1 Maintenance Organization Organisation can mean an organization or a firm or enterprise of some kind or it can mean the process of getting something organised. It is important for the maintenance manager to make sure that the maintenance work are done efficiently in order to keep everyone feel happy. So that, to get the efficient work, maintenance manager should organized the maintenance work in their department in order to ensure that they can meet tenants need and their objectives. There is only one manager can carried maintenance organization in one department. Poor organization work such as planning of work will result poor maintenance work. Maintenance manager is important to apply the management function in department to achieve their goal. There are four managerial functions which are planning, organizing, leading and controlling. Successful organization is important to ensure that the staffs will their work respectively. Maintenance staff must know what work is approved, what parts have arrived and wh ere parts are located to keep everything run smoothly. It is important to record who the maintenance worked after the task is complete. Nick Robinson (1982) said all maintenance managers operate from a maintenance plan whether it be a manually operated of resources available, or sophisticated computerized setup. It is the duty of maintenance management to plan the maintenance plan which means the organization of maintenance within an agreed policy. In order to achieve the maintenance objective, maintenance manager should ensure that the maintenance work will follow the statement in maintenance policy as well as a guide for maintenance management for make decision making. 2.2 The Planning and Scheduling of Maintenance Maintenance planning and scheduling is types of plan of organization to organize their department for maintenance work. Chris Hykin (n.d.) explains planning and scheduling is a disciplined approach for utilize the existence of maintenance resources in order to reduce time and production costs. Richard D. Palmer (2007) explain the maintenance system is an effective if there are effort applied to eliminate in every case the cause of lost production due to equipment failure or to maximize equipment effectiveness. Richard also considers that proper maintenance planning and scheduling will achieve the organization goal. The most efficient way for achieving this goal is to plan proper maintenance scheduling and planning because it will contribute to reduce the maintenance cost due to scheduling the work to be done. Besides that, by maintenance planning and scheduling, it will increase the use of maintenance workforce then will reduce delays and interruptions. By adopting the best methods a nd appoint the qualified workers may improve the quality of maintenance work. Umar M. Al-Turki (2009) explain an effective planning and scheduling will contributes the quality of maintenance work by adopting the best methods, procedures and assigning the most qualified crafts for the job. 2.2.1 Planning Planning is the process whereby the manager set up the decision for the future and the action taken to achieve that future decision. Normally, at planning stage, maintenance manager will create or plan the company goal such as to achieve the tenant satisfaction. During planning also maintenance manager will plan the actions need to be taken to achieve the goal such as provide service for tenants property with a minimum time. According to Umar M. Al-Turki (2009), the process of planning can be divided into three basic levels which depending on the planning horizon which are Long range planning, Medium range planning, and Short range planning. Long range planning It is the planning process that covers a period of several years. This long range planning normally empowers maintenance planners to access essential information in real time, analyze inputs and scenarios, and highlight areas of concern. Plan progress can be easily tracked across the organization and dynamically updated in response to sudden changes or opportunities. Medium range planning It is normally covers a period of one month to 1 year. Umar M. Al Turki (2009) said minimum range plan is the plan which specify how the operation of maintenance force and it will provides details for construction jobs, major overhauls, plant shutdowns, preventive maintenance plans, and vacation planning. For medium range planning, maintenance management should plan with aim to prepare more the maintenance work. Umar M. Al Turki (2009) explain the medium range planning process is coupled with a scheduling process which is considered long range scheduling known as the master schedule due to the maintenance work including the routine and preventive maintenance. Short range planning It is the planning process that concerns periods of 1 day to 1 week. Short range planning will determine the elements required in order performing task and it is prepare once starting to execute the work. 2.2.2 Scheduling Any works that intend to make in order or sequences will put in schedule so that the work will planned together in sequence. There are three levels of maintenance schedule that can be prepared which are long-range (master) schedule, weekly schedule, and daily schedule. Maintenance manager will prepare scheduling to guide or planned for their staff to do the maintenance work. The preventive maintenance are done by follow the schedule to prevent the major damage occur on the building. Long-Range (master) schedule is work schedule for major maintenance work that cover period of three months to one year. Normally the master schedule is planned for long term demand of maintenance work with available resources. Along this period, the maintenance manager will identified the spare parts and ordering material in advance. Meanwhile, weekly schedule is maintenance work that covers in 1 week and it is normally generated from master schedule. Weekly schedule will prepare for the current week and it is allow 10% to 15% of workforce available for emergency work. Daily schedule are prepared by covering 1 day and its normally generated from weekly schedule. Maintenance manager will prepare it the day before. 2.3 Classify of Maintenance Work People will call maintenance manager if there are problem occur in their building and maintenance staff have their liability to maintain the owners or tenants building in good condition. There are three classification of maintenance work which are corrective, preventive, and modification. Maintenance manager will classify the maintenance work according to the three categorized either the maintenance are corrective maintenance or preventive maintenance, or modification maintenance. First of all, maintenance manager will define that the damage or failure of building is emergency to do maintenance due to major damage and it will interrupt the operation so that maintenance manager will appoint contractor maintenance to do the corrective maintenance as soon as possible because it also may damage the occupier of building. Besides that, for the preventive maintenance work, maintenance manager will plan or make schedule at early stage of building design the routines work that should carried out by contractor maintenance or direct labour daily or weekly such as any services on the machine. Other than that, the modification maintenance will be carried out depend on eliminating the cause of repeated breakdowns. 2.4 Recording of Information Any information regarding details of property owner or tenant and any details regarding repairs work done should record by maintenance manager. Ivor H.Seeley (1976) explain recording of information concerning properties and repairs is best undertaken on a card system providing ready means of communication by means of a computer. The records are sometimes described as a property register. The information that recorded should include the tenants and owner details to ease contractor maintenance do their routine services for preventive maintenance. Tenants who want make any complaint should issues notice to maintenance department so that contractor maintenance can do the corrective work as soon as possible. 2.5 Execution of Maintenance Work Once the property or building had detected any damage, the maintenance work then executed. The maintenance manager who want to contract out the maintenance work to outsource contractor will prepared open tender in order to select the best tender and contractors whose expertise in such field will choices. Normally the contractors will interview their report. The maintenance contractor will appoint their staff or subcontractors to run maintenance services and the services provided are based on anything statement that state in contract or maintenance policy. Normally the more urgent task will be maintain or assessed first and it will divided into those need to be done in the current year, in the next five years and the next ten years (Gurjit Singh, TT). 2.5.1 Work in Progress Once work has start, tenant will sign the contract and then the contract will keep in safety place like drawer. The contract should easy to find if any case happen. Any work done on site should compliance with the corrected contract. Figures 2 represent the flow of maintenance work is carried out. Supervision Brian Wood (2009) explains supervision is a management activity carried out to ensure that the work intended is carried out correctly and expeditiously. The supervision activity is normally will conducted by maintenance contractor that had skill to practice. Inspection The inspection work is conduct at the planning stage which is during the establishment of standard, manager should differentiate between acceptable and unacceptable work. Manager should inspect and ensure that the work which not in conformity with contract must be removed due to the re-doing of work may take time. So that, the work must be check regularly to ensure work done compliance with contract and the inspection work normally will carry out at periodically. Payments Normally the payment will be made on the work that has been done by someone. The allowance payment that specify in form of contract will made to contractor at interval for the work done by them. According to Brian Wood (2009), the contract should specify the time at which interim payments will become due and the basis on which the amounts of such payments are to be determined. Feedback Brian Wood (2009) said often all parties involve client, contractor and all others are so pleased when a building is completed that they forget to assess how well things went and how they could be done better next time. They are no alert what the condition of their building is until big damage occurs. There are also no good communication among contractor and client without recognize that they will need each other soon and continuing relationship. Figure 2 Executing building maintenance Sources: Brian Wood, Department Of Real Estate and Construction School of the Built Envirinment Oxford Brookes University Does contract continue? On complete satisfaction, confirm arrangements for notification and rectification of defects. Issue Certificate of Practical Completion Ensure satisfactory correction of all defects-take possession of any certificates and all user manuals Discuss, agree and put in hand arrangements for continuing recording, review and repair of defects Time to end contract? If possible extricate yourself as smoothly as possible. Likely to be an expensive option to break the contract-if possible try to re-establish smooth working relationship Make periodic payments as appropriate per tender contract Candid discussion with supervisor (do not approach operatives) agree new arrangements CONCLUSION From the explanation, it can be concluded that organizing maintenance work are important to ensure that the maintenance work are carry out in order. The good planning will provide the best and efficient maintenance work. Contractor maintenance or direct labour will appointed by maintenance manager to carried out maintenance work. The works done by contractor or direct labour will paid by maintenance manager as specified in contract that had been sign by both parties. Maintenance work will carried out based on scheduling that had been planned by manager. The planning maintenance comprise three basic levels of planning maintenance which are long range planning, medium range planning, and short range planning. After the planning was set up, the action to be taken will classified to different type of maintenance which comprise corrective, preventive and modification. Preventive maintenance should apply according to scheduling to prevent the building failure. Normally minor service will c arry out interval either per day, or per week. Major services will carry out per year. Manager should inspect and ensure that the work which not in conformity with contract must be removed due to the re-doing of work may take time. Lastly, Maintenance manager is responsible to keep information details about tenants property well to easy work by contractor maintenance. The good communication also encouraged between client and contractor maintenance due to they will need each other in future.

House of Mirth - The Nature of Nature Essay -- House Mirth Essays

House of Mirth   - The Nature of Nature       Nature, whether in the form of the arctic tundra of the North Pole or the busy street-life of Manhattan, was viewed by Naturalist writers as a phenomena which necessarily challenged individual survival; a phenomena, moreover, which operated on Darwin's maxim of the "survival of the fittest." This contrasted sharply with the Romantic view, which worshipped Nature for its beauty, beneficence and self-liberating powers. In Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, Lily Bart attempts to "survive" within the urbane "drawing-room" society she inhabits. Although Selden uses Romantic nature imagery to describe Lily, throughout the novel such Romantic imagery and its accompanying meanings are continually subverted. By simply invoking different understandings and views of "Nature," Wharton demonstrates that not only is Lily's ability to "adapt" to various environments isn't necessarily salutary, but also that flower imagery, used in an ironic fashion, captures perfectly Lily's need for "climates of luxury." It is Wharton's image of a "hot-house," however, which ultimately captures the ambiguous nature of what, to Wharton, truly is Nature.    Lily, although a city-dweller, is described by Selden as one who is intimately connected with a benevolent, life-giving Nature. He exclaims, "The attitude revealed the long slope of her slender sides, which gave a kind of wild-wood grace to her outline- as though she were a captured dryad subdued to the conventions of the drawing-room" (13). Selden's notion of Lily's "sylvan freedom" and her interconnectedness to all things "natural" is echoed later in the novel, when Lily is either described as, or compared to, a "rose," (167) an ... ...entury Literature 44.4 (1998): 409-27. Howard, Maureen.   "On The House of Mirth."   Raritan 15 (1996): 23 pp.   28 Oct. 2002   <http://proxy.govst.edu:2069/WebZ/FTFETCH>. Howe, Irving.   Edith Wharton, a Collection of Critical Essays.   Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1962. Lindberg, Gary H.   Edith Wharton and the Novel of Manners.   Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1975. Lyde, Marilyn Jones.   Edith Wharton, Convention and Morality in the Work of a Novelist.   Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1959. Miller, Mandy.   Edith Wharton Page.   19 Nov. 2002  Ã‚  Ã‚   <http://www.Kutztown.edu/faculty/Reagan.Wharton.html>. Pizer, Donald.   "The Naturalism of Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth."   Twentieth Century Literature 41.2  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   (1995): 241-8. Wharton, Edith. The House of Mirth. (1905) New York: Signet,. 1998.

Cultural Understanding on the Movie Example “Bend It Like Beckham”

The main aim of this report is to describe, analyze and understand Indian culture and integration Indians with British culture in a connection to movie: â€Å"Bend it like Beckham†. The aim is also to assign every character to stage of intercultural sensitivity and define what kind of cultural development is possible for each of them. Findings: Jess: In my opinion she is on the fifth level of intercultural learning, she adapts to the british culture, she knows it and totally accept it, e. . she can greet in her language, she wears traditional dress during the engagement and the wedding, she knows that she suppose to have Indian husband, that she should not show her legs and the scar in front of the man. She tries to live like â€Å"normal† teenager from Europe, but she respects all the traditions of her family. She has got problem with learning how to cook traditional meals and when she was younger she often ate been on toast, which is common in UK. She likes british culture more, because it gives her more freedom, her idol is Beckham, she loves playing football, she would like to be independent to make her own choices in such easy issues like choosing shoes or outfit for the wedding. She would like to choose if she can play football or not. Her mum does not want her to play but she shows her resistance even though she should not , because in her mum’s opinion, it is spoiled behavior. She does not like to lie and she feels bad with that but she does not tell the truth because she has high respect to the elders. I can predict that in the future, of course if she stay in the UK, she will be totally integrated with the british culture. Mother: She is on the first level of intercultural learning. She does not like british culture, for her it is like pure evil. She does not want her children to integrate with the European culture. When they are complaining and Jess wants to choose the dress by herself for her sister’s wedding or she does not want to learn how to cook, for her mum it is spoiled behavior. She is scared that Jess will start to wear short skirts etc, that is why he does not let her to play football, because in her opinion the integration can go further than it should. She is defending herself but she even has not noticed that she is already connected to the british culture e. g everybody were checking their mobiles during the engagement, which is a part of fast lifestyle in the UK. She just want to protect the good name of family and she creates perfect image of the members, so that her children will have no problems with finding appropriate husband. Chances for further development: second level – because she finally agreed and accepted that her daughter is playing football, so she is not so closed like in the beginning. Father: Jess’ father seems to realize the differences between his own culture and British one but he thinks that this second one have too big bad influence on his doughter, Jess. He is afraid of this. He finds his own culture as better one that is why he tries to defend somehow against the bad influence of the other. Probably, that is why he does not want to accept that his younger doughter plays football. He thinks, it is a man sport and he does not understand how and why Jess can like it. The piority for her should be to find a good husband, be a good wife, who can cook and takes care of house. She should be also well educated. And it should give her happiness. In his opinion, girls or women should not have got such hobbies like playing football. Additionaly, he has got his own, bad experience with sport in the UK. When he was younger, he used to play cricket but his career did not finish very well because of his origin. It was in former times, so now everything has changed, but he is afraid that his doughter can also suffer as he did. Fortunately, his open-minded position and love to his doughter win and he lets her to play. During his older doughter’s wedding he tells Jess to go and play in final game of a tournament if it makes her happy. In the end the gives Jess the permission to play in the American’s proffessional team. He has got an opportunity to go on ‘higher level’ of the intercultural sensitivity (III) or even he has already achived it. Jules: A wonderful Jess’ friend, who from the very beggining have not seen any difficulties in â€Å"contact† with the other culture. Jules plays in a local football team and thanks to her Jess also has started. She encoureged her friend to play and to find solutions how to deal with the culture differences. Jules also has got some problems with her mother, as Jess has. Her mother is afraid that because of doughte’s hobbies she would not find a boyfriend. So it is not so different as in Jess’ home. Thankfully, Jules has got a great father, who totally accepts doughte’s interests. She is on a high adaptation level of the intercultural sensitivity. She does not have to deal with the cultural differences because for her it is just natural. She can see some problems, which are â€Å"normal† for every teenager (boys etc. ), not problems with other habits. In my opinion she does not have to achive other level of the intercultural sensitivity because this,where she already is, it is perfect.

Disaster Management Viii

An Introduction to Disaster Management for Class 8 Central Board of Secondary Education ‘Shiksha Kendra’, 2, Community Centre Preet Vihar, Delhi – 110092, India Tel : 91-011-22509252-57/59, Fax : 91-011-22515826 E-mail : [email  protected] vsnl. net. in Website : www. cbse. nic. in TOGETHER, TOWARDS, A SAFER INDIA An Introduction to Disaster Management for Class 8 FIRST EDITION 2003 ? CBSE, DELHI ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AUTHORS Dr. Kamala Menon, Principal, Mirambika School, New Delhi Ms. A. Venkatachalam, Mother’s International School, New Delhi Ms. P. Thakur, Education Officer, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, New Delhi EDITORS Shri M. P. Sajnani, Director (Disaster Management), Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt. of India Ms. Aparna Kanda, Programme Associate (Vulnerability Reduction and Sustainable Environment) UNDP, New Delhi COORDINATOR Ms. Sugandh Sharma, Education Officer (Commerce), CBSE , Delhi CBSE ADVISORS Mr. Ashok Ganguly, Chairman Mr. G. Balasubramanian, Director (Academics) PUBLISHED BY : The Secretary, Central Board of Secondary Education, ‘Shiksha Kendra’, 2, Community Centre, Preet Vihar, Delhi 110 092 DESIGN & LAYOUT BY : CBSE, Delhi PRINTED BY : Tara Art Press, B-4, Hans Bhawan, B. S. Zafar Marg, New Delhi – 110 002 Ph. 23378626, 23379686 ii Hkkjr dk lafo/kku mIsf’kdk ge] Hkkjr ds yksx] Hkkjr dks ,d1 [lEiw. kZ izHkqRo&laiUu lektoknh iaFkfujis{k yksdra=kRed x. kjkT;] cukus ds fy,] rFkk mlds leLr ukxfjdksa dks% lkekftd] vkfFkZd vkSj jktuSfrd U;k;] fopkj] vfHkO;fDr] fo’okl] /keZ vkSj mikluk dh Lora=rk] izfr†Bk vkSj volj dh lerk izkIr djkus ds fy,] rFkk mu lc esa O;fDr dh xfjek vkSj2 [jk†V? h ,drk vkSj v[k. Mrk] lqfuf’pr djus okyh ca/kqrk csa vkSj mldk ifjj{k. k djsa( izkd`frd i;kZoj. k dh ftlds varxZr ou] >hy] unh] vkSj oU; tho gSa] j{kk djsa vkSj mldk lao/kZu djsa rFkk izkf. k ek= ds izfr n;kHkko j[ksa( oSKkfud n`f†Vdks. k] ekuookn vkSj KkuktZu rFkk lq/kkj dh Hkkouk dk fodkl djsa( lkoZtfud la ifYk dks lqjf{kr j[ksa vkSj fgalk ls nwj jgsa( O;fDrxr vkSj lkewfgd xfrfof/k;ksa ds lHkh {ks=ksa esa mRd†kZ dh vksj c