Sales and Distribution Management

BRAND BUILDING STRETEGY OF AIRTEL A brand is a name or trademark connected with a product or producer. Brands have become increasingly important components of culture and the economy, now being described as â€Å"cultural accessories and personal philosophies†. Brand strategy is much more than visual identity. While a beautiful logo, catchy color scheme, and clever tagline are all elements of a brand strategy, they are merely supporting elements. Behind Nike's â€Å"Swoosh† and AIRTEL's â€Å"AIRTEL† are all the elements of a brand strategy, the activities the companies engaged in to give target buyers a reason to buy their product or service and not a competitor's. While the visual identity may elicit a response, it does not cause the response—the elements of brand strategy do. Elements of Brand Strategy To build a powerful brand, companies need to have all the elements of brand strategy in place. There are many elements of brand strategy. †¢ Brand strategy includes targeting †¢ Positioning is an element of brand strategy Product or service configuration and pricing †¢ Marketing communications (e. g. , advertising and direct marketing) †¢ Media allocation, an important part of brand strategy †¢ Customer service is included in brand strategy What’s in a Brand? Sometimes it’s easier to understand what something is by first understanding what it is not. A brand is not a name. It’s not a logo. It’s not a product, service or business. Others have described it as a promise, an expectation and, ultimately, an experience that a person—a customer, patient, guest, visitor, physician, or employee—has with your product or service. Mission, vision, values, strategic plan, and brand strategy: Where do they connect? Most organizations’ brands are inspired by their mission, vision and values statements. The organization’s strategic plan will drive the long-term vision for what the organization will do, and the brand strategy should help the organization define why and how they will accomplish those goals. The real differentiator comes when you discover what makes your brand unique, giving it a market advantage. Consider Nike. The brand is not the â€Å"swoosh. † That’s a logo. The brand is not â€Å"Just do it. † That’s a slogan. Their brand strategy—what makes them number one in sports apparel—is an attitude: Give the consumer the freedom to just do the sport. So, when the Nike strategic (business) plan called for a diversification strategy into athletic equipment, such as golf balls, the brand strategy guided Nike to understand why that strategy was appropriate and how it had the potential to strengthen the brand AIRTEL: It's All About the Brand |Bharti Airtel  [pic] | |Telecom giant Bharti Airtel is the flagship company of Bharti Enterprises. The Bharti Group has a diverse business portfolio and has | |created global brands in the telecommunication sector. Bharti has recently forayed into retail business as Bharti Retail Pvt. Ltd. | |under a MoU with Wal-Mart for the cash & carry business. It has successfully launched an international venture with EL Rothschild | |Group to export fresh agri products exclusively to markets in Europe and USA and has launched Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company Ltd | |under a joint venture with AXA, world leader in financial protection and wealth management. |Airtel comes to you from Bharti Airtel Limited, India’s largest integrated and the first private telecom services provider with a | |footprint in all the 23 telecom circles. Bharti Airtel since its inception has been at the forefront of technology and has steered | |the course of the telecom sector in the country with its world class products and services. The businesses at Bharti Airtel have been| |structured into three individual strategic business units (SBU’s) – Mobile Services, Airtel Telemedia Services & Enterprise Services. |The mobile business provides mobile & fixed wireless services using GSM technology across 23 telecom circles while the Airtel | |Telemedia Services business offers broadband & telephone services in 95 cities and has recently launched India's best Direct-to-Home | |(DTH) service, Airtel digital TV. The Enterprise services provide end-to-end telecom solutions to corporate customers and national & | |international long distance services to carriers. All these services are provided under the Airtel brand. | The Name – Airtel was born free, a force unleashed into the market with a relentless and unwavering determination to succeed. A spirit charged with energy, creativity and a team driven â€Å"to seize the day† with an ambition to become the most globally admired telecom service. Airtel, in just ten years of operations, rose to the pinnacle to achievement and continues to lead. As India's leading telecommunications company Airtel brand has played the role as a major catalyst in India's reforms, contributing to its economic resurgence. Today we touch peoples lives with our Mobile services, Telemedia services, to connecting India's leading 1000+ corporate. We also connect Indians living in USA, UK and Canada with our call home service. | |Our Vision & promise   | | | | | |By 2010 Airtel will be the most admired brand in India: | |Loved by more customers | |Targeted by top talent | |Benchmarked by more businesses | |â€Å"We at Airtel always think in fresh and innovative ways about the needs of our customers and how we want them to feel. We deliver what | |we promise and go out of our way to delight the customer with a little bit more† | The Logo – The Airtel logo is a specially drawn woodmark. It incorporates two solid, red rectangular forms whose counter-form creates an open doorway. The title case lettering with its capital ‘A’ reinforces our leadership position. Thered dot cues in our focus on innovation. Our logo is a reflection of our identity – a confident symbol of a brandthat is always ahead of the rest , always ‘In-touch’ and on customer’s side. . The airtel logo is a strong, contemporary and confident symbol for a brand that is always ahed of the rest. The image style –it incorporates two solid ,red rectangular forms whose counter form creats an open doorway. Te airtel typo graphical style – the title case lettering with its capital â€Å"A† was deliberatiely choose to reinforce the brands leadership position. The red dot on the letter form â€Å"I† cues airtel’s focus on innovation. the words express yourself are very much part of the brand identity. The airtels color palette – the lettering is grey so that the pure black of airtel is visually on harmed The Slogan – â€Å"Nigahhein nigahon ko milakar to dekho, Naye logo se rista bana kar to dekho†¦Ã¢â‚¬  With this the focus have shifted to vibrating the innermost core of a viewer’s heart. The ad is made up of five snippets, each one displaying the importance of reaching out the others. In this Ad, there is the range of situations/relationships covered, from two little girls in the first one to an aged couple in the next one to the young lovers and then to student-teacher pair. Best part about the AD is that it never shows anyone using a cell phone!! This is definitely one of the best Ads of recent times. It certainly makes you believe in the line- â€Å"Aasman simat jaayega tumhara aaghosh mein, chahat ki baahen phalli kart ho dekho†. AIRTELS's Branding Strategy Brand Architecture: Bharti is working on a complex three-layered branding architecture — to: †¢Create specific brands for each service, Build sub-brands within each of these services and †¢Use Bharti as the mother brand providing the group its corporate identity as well as defining its goal to become a national builder of telecoms infrastructure. †¢ This is also called umbrella bra nding by Airtel Also the brand airyel follows co- branding in which it is being tied up with nokia, google and also i-phone 3g to cater the need of its increasing customer’s efficientely. †¢ nokia, ———[pic] †¢ google ——–[pic] †¢ i-phone——-[pic] †¢ Integrated Telecom Company 1. Wireless Services a. 2G/3G b. Rural Market 2. Telemedia Services a. Fixed Line b. Broadband c. DTH 3. Enterprise Services †¢ Carrier †¢ Corporate 4. Passive Infrastructure †¢ Bharti Infratel †¢ Indus Tower AIRTEL (Cellular Operations) BHARTI TOUCHTEL (Basic Service Operations) INDIA ONE (National Long Distance) AirTel – The flagship brand for cellular operations all across the country. Touchtel – The brand earmarked for basic service operations. India One – The brand for national long distance (NLD) telephony Though the costs of creating new brands are heavy but the group wants to create â€Å"distinct independent brands toAddress different customers and profiles†. SEGMENTATION- On the bais of gepography –divided Indian market in telecom circles –subdivided states into category –A,B and C TARGETING- †¢ Earlier elite class above age group of 25 years †¢ Corporate people ad bsiness man Again targeted youth by introducing â€Å"YOUTOPIA† plan †¢ Targeted women and senior citizens by introducing postpaid plans POSITIONING- â€Å"we position airtel as a aspirational and life style brand , in way that trivalised the price in the mind of the consumer . it was pitched not merely as a mobile service , but as something that gave him a badge value†. By Henmant sachdev. CMO â€Å"power to keep in touch ‘ year 1995-98 Significance-The tag line â€Å"power to keep in touch† used in the brand promise was designed to make the user feel â€Å"in control†¦ powerful† positioned premium category aimed at elite ckass of society perception of aspirational and ife style brand. REASON FOR CHANGE- now cellular service operators could drop their prces ad target new customer segments . as the category developed with pricess going down sharply , airtel bean talking to wider spectrum of potential users. this gives he birth to the new tag line Bharti is working on a complex three-layered branding architecture — to: †¢ Create specific brands for each service, †¢ Build sub-brands within each of these services and Use Bharti as the mother brand providing the group its corporate identity as well as defining its goal to become a national builder of telecoms infrastructure REPOSITIONING-(TOUCH TOMORROW) YEAR1999-2001 SIGNIFICANCE Airtel started talking to new segments by positively positioning and establishing itself as a brand that improved the quality of life. -New look and feel of the brand tagline indicated the core values of the brand i. e. leadership, performance and dynamism. REASON FOR CHANGE -Airtel started to look from a regional level to pla n India position -rediffusion DY, which is the ad agency that took charge of revamping Airtel’s brand image thought. To become an Indian leader, Airtel needs to change in it’s tagline. FURTHER REPOSITIONING-LIVE EVERY MOMENT YEAR2002-2003 SIGNIFICANCE -This was the first time A R Rehman had agreed to work for any brand, anywhere in the world. The music from the commercial became the most downloaded ringtone it the history of telecommunications. Tagline denots that each and every person in India live every moment(emotions, feelings etc. ) of the life with Airtel. REASONS FOR CHANGE -Rediffusion DY, which is the ad agency that took charge of revamping Airtel’s brand image again changed the tagline to give better tagline to Airtel which catches some emotional appeal. FURTHER REPOSITIONING-EXPRESS YOURSELF Year2003-2008 SIGNIFICANCE -‘Express yourself’ was successfully launched taking the ownership of the entire space of communication and strengthening the emotional bond Airtel enjoys with it’s customers. -The masterminds behind the ‘express yourself’ campaign are the joint vice-presidents:Mr. Prasant Godbole and Zarwan Patel. Airtel is a market leader in the cellular network and they wanted to very fresh and contemporary idea to build a brand image which their customers could identify. BRAND AMBASSADORS OF AIRTEL SHAHRUKH KHAN——–[pic] SACHIN TENDULKAR—–[pic] A R REHMAN—————[pic] SAIF AND KAREENA——-[pic] VIDYA BALAN AND MADHAVAN– [pic][pic] To understand the brand strategy, let’s first look at the brand building exercise associated with AirTel — a brand that had to be repositioned recently to address new needs in the market. When the brand was launched seven years ago, cellular telephony wasn’t a mass market by any means. For the average consumer, owning a cellular phone was expensive as tariff rates (at Rs 8 a minute) as well as instrument prices were steep — sometimes as much as buying a second-hand car. Bharti could have addressed the customer by rationally explaining to him the economic advantage of using a mobile phone. But Sachdev says that such a strategy would not have worked for the simple reason that the value from using the phone at the time was not commensurate with the cost. â€Å"Instead of the value-proposition model, we decided to address the sensory benefit it gave to the customer as the main selling tack. The idea was to become a badge value brand,† he explains. So the AirTel â€Å"leadership series† campaign was launched showing successful men with their laptops and in their deluxe cars using the mobile phone. In simple terms, it meant Airtel was positione aspirational brand that was meant for leaders, for customers who stood out in a crowd. Did it work? Repeated surveys following the launch showed that there were three core benefits that were clearly associated with the brand — leadership, dynamism and performance. These were valuable qualities, but they only took AirTel far enough to establish its presence in the market. As tariffs started dropping, it became necessary for AirTel to appeal to a wider audience. And the various brand-tracking exercises showed that despite all these good things, there was no emotional dimension to the brand — it was perceived as cold, distant and efficient. Sachdev and his team realized that in a business in which customer relationships were the core this could be a major weakness. The reason? With tariffs identical to competitor Reliance Infocomm. and roughly the same level of service and schemes, it had now become important for Bharti to â€Å"humanize† AirTel and use that relationship as a major differentiation. The brand had become something like Lufthansa — cold and efficient. What they needed was to become Singapore Airlines, efficient but also human. A change in tack was important because this was a time when the cellular market was changing. The leadership series was okay when you were wooing the creme de la creme of society. Once you reached them you had to expand the market so there was need to address to new customers. By that time, Bharti was already the leading cellular subscriber in Delhi with a base of 3. 77 lakh (it now has 1. 2 million customers). And with tariffs becoming more affordable — as cell companies started cutting prices — it was time to expand the market. How could Bharti leverage this leadership position down the value chain? Surveys showed that the concept of leadership in the customer’s minds was also changing. Leadership did not mean directing subordinates to execute orders but to work along with a team to achieve common objectives — it was, again, a relationship game that needed to be reflected in the AirTel brand. Also, a survey showed that 50 per cent of the new customers choose a mobile phone brand mostly through word-of-mouth endorsements from friends, family or colleagues. Thus, existing customers were an important tool for market expansion and Bharti now focused on building closer relationships with them. That is precisely what the brand tried to achieve through its new positioning under the AirTel â€Å"Touch Tomorrow† brand campaign. This set of campaigns portrayed mobile users surrounded by caring family members. Says Sachdev: â€Å"The new campaign and positioning was designed to highlight the relationship angle and make the brand softer and more sensitive. † As it looks to expand its cellular services nationwide —to eight new circles apart from the seven in which it already operates — Bharti is now realizing that there are new compulsions to rework the AirTel brand, and a new exercise is being launched to this effect. Right now, the company is unwilling to discuss the new positioning in detail. But broadly, the focus is on positioning AirTel as a power brand with numerous regional sub-brands reflecting customer needs in various parts of the country. If AirTel is becoming more humane and more sensitive as a brand, Bharti has also understood that one common brand for all cellular operations might not always work in urban markets that are now getting increasingly saturated. To bring in new customers, the company decided that it needed to segment the market. One such experiment, launched last year, is Youtopia, a brand aimed at the youth in the 14 to 19 age bracket and for those who are â€Å"young at heart†. With its earlier positioning, AirTel was perceived as a brand for the well-heeled older customer; there was nothing for younger people. With Youtopia, AirTel hoped to reverse that. In order to deliver the concept, AirTel offered rock bottom tariff rates (25 paise for 30 seconds) at night to Youtopia customers — a time when they make the maximum number of calls. It also set up merchandising exercises around the scheme — like a special portal for young people to buy things or bid for goods. The company is now looking at offering other services at affordable prices to this segment which include music downloads on the mobile and bundling SMS rates with normal calls to make it cheaper for young people to use. The other experiment that Bharti has worked on is to go in for product segmentation through the Tango brand name. The brand was created to offer mobile users Internet-interface services or what is known as WAP (Wireless Application Protocol). The idea was to bring Internet and mobile in perfect harmony. The name was chosen from the popular movie title It Takes Two To Tango: basically, you need the two services to tango to offer customers a new choice†, says Sachdev. This, however, had less to do with the branding exercise as with inefficiency of service (accusingly slow download speeds) and the limited utility of WAP services. Subsequently, the ads were withdrawn, but the company re-iterated that the branding exercise could be revived because Tango will be the brand to offer GPRS services — or permanent Internet connectivity on the mobile phone — which AirTel is expected to launch soon. The Magic: Perhaps the more ambitious experiment has been with Magic — the pre-paid card. The idea was to make the brand affordable, accessible and, most importantly, feasible as a means of expanding the market even faster. PHASE I – Magic was aimed at bringing in infrequent users of a mobile phone into the market and assure him that he would have to pay only if he made a call. Such a customer used the phone sparingly — mostly for emergencies — and was not willing to pick up a normal mobile connection with its relatively high rentals (pre-paid cards do not include rental charges). To achieve its objectives Bharti did three things. .One, the product was made available at prices ranging from Rs 300 to Rs 3,000 with no strings attached and was simple to operate. Two, the product was made accessible and distributed through small stores, telephone booths and even kirana shops so that the offering was well within arms reach †¢Third, to make the product more â€Å"approachable† to the customer, the company came with vernacular ad campaigns like à ¢â‚¬Å"Magic Daalo Se Hello† which appealed to local sensibilities. This apart, the company roped in Karisma Kapoor and Shah Rukh Khan for a major ad campaign all across Delhi, a ruse that saw the number of subscribers go up from 5. 47 lakh to 12 lakh today, overtaking Essar’s branded pre-paid card Speed, which was launched much ahead of Magic. The company is now re-working its Magic strategy even further. Earlier, the branding strategy was aimed at roping in only interested customers — that is, customers who were already inclined to opt for mobile services. But now, with basic service providers having been allowed limited mobility at far cheaper rates, mobile service providers could find themselves under threat again. That is why the new exercise is aimed at co-opting non-adopters. While the exact strategy is under wraps, insiders say the new branding strategy would be aimed at offering them value which they had not perceived would be available from using a pre-paid card. PHASE II – Bharti used AirTel Magic to build a strong value proposition and accelerate market expansion through India’s first national pre-paid card TV brand campaign ? First time ever in India – any pre-paid card brand goes on TV A combination of the film genre exposed through the TV medium designed to connect with the masses of India ? Youth based – romance driven strategy platform makes the value proposition of AirTel Magic – ‘Mumkin Hai’ come alive ? All elements – user imagery, context, tone & language created to connect the category to the lives of the SEC B & SEC C segment – the middle class non-mobile user. ? AirTel Magic positions itself on the platform of being excellent for emergency situations – increasing productivity as a part of everyday life. ? Sharukh Khan makes ‘everything in life possible’ while romancing pretty Kareena Kapoor with AirTel Magic, India’s leading pre-paid mobile card. AirTel today unveiled its strategy for market expansion with the launch of its new AirTel Magic pre-paid card brand campaign – ‘Magic hai to Mumkin hai’. The strategy is targeted at the non-user segment defined as young adults, 15-30 years of age; in the Sec B & C segment is aimed at accelerating market expansion. The value proposition is centered around a person’s desire to make all his / her dreams, ambitions & aspirations instantly possible. The new campaign for AirTel Magic is all about empowering millions of Indians to be on top of their lives. The brand is positioned to be relevant to the mass-market who want to make all their dreams, hopes & desires come alive†¦ instantly. (At just Rs. 00/- per month AirTel Magic is so easy to buy. ) Improving productivity, letting you befriend the world and opening up new horizons. It gives you the freedom to control your life in a way never possible before. Indeed, anything that you think is possible is possib le with AirTel Magic. The new brand slogan ‘Magic hai to Mumkin hai’ has been specially created to capture this effectively. This strategy is designed to help us talk to this segment directly in the tone, manner & language of the masses. The â€Å"Mumkin hai value proposition will help us expand the market and gain a higher percentage of market shares in the process. The brand ambassadors Shahrukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor embody this ‘can do’ or â€Å"Mumkin Hai† spirit (infact that is the reason they were selected as brand ambassadors). Sharukh rose from a TV actor to become India’s top film star and national heartthrob. Kareena’s success is due to her ‘attitude’, talent, hard work and the sheer ability to make a mark in such a short time. Both these stars have said ‘Mumkin hai’ and made it happen for themselves. The genre of this new strategy & campaign is Hindi cinema led. This genre connects millions across India. The spirit of romance, dancing†¦ the Indian cinema, well known to most as Bollywood, holds millions of Indians together as one. The new TV campaign of AirTel Magic crafted in the Hindi film idiom, magnifies the empowering optimism of â€Å"Mumkin Hai†, in the endearing situation of a boy-girl romance. Where Sharukh Khan, sets his eyes on Kareena Kapoor and wins her love with the help of AirTel Magic. (Poignantly conveying that special feeling we all get when a dream is made possible and a victory of the heart is won). The strategy & new brand campaign is targeted at the large untapped base of intending mobile customers from Sec A, B & C. The estimated addressable market of such customers in the next two years is around 25 million in AirTel’s 16 states. The new strategy aims at correcting the perception that the mobile category is useful mainly for ‘business’ or ‘work’ related scenarios. The new strategy, brand positioning & brand slogan is an outcome of an extensive nationwide research and is an integral part of AirTel Magic’s new multi-media campaign. The campaign has been created by Percept Advertising. PHASE-III – Bharti used AirTel Magic to build a strong value proposition and accelerate market expansion through India’s first national pre-paid card TV brand campaign †¢ First time ever in India – any pre-paid card brand gives such freedom to recharge any value †¢ A combination of the film genre exposed through the TV medium designed to connect with the masses of India †¢ Youth based – romance driven strategy platform makes the value proposition of AirTel Magic – ‘Aisi azaadi aur kahan? † come alive Sharukh Khan makes ‘everything in life possible’ AirTel today unveiled its strategy for market expansion with the launch of it’s new AirTel Magic pre-paid card brand campaign †“ ‘Magic hai to Mumkin hai’. . The value proposition is centered around a person’s desire to make all his / her dreams, ambitions & aspirations instantly possible. The new campaign for AirTel Magic is all about empowering millions of Indians to be on top of their lives. The brand is positioned to be relevant to the mass-market who want to make all their dreams, hopes & desires come alive†¦ instantly . At a amount of your choice you can recharge your account with available validity time . Improving productivity, letting you befriend the world and opening up new horizons. It gives you the freedom to control your life in a way never possible before. Indeed, anything that you think is possible is possible with AirTel Magic. The new brand slogan ‘Aisi azadi aur kahanhas been specially created to capture this effectively. Other Brand Building Initiatives to create loyalty:- The main idea is to stay ahead of competition for at least six months. Working on the above game plan Bharti is constantly coming up with newer product offerings for the customers. The focus, of course, is to offer better quality of service. To make the service simpler for customers using roaming facilities, Airtel has devised common numbers for subscribers across the country for services like customer care, food services and cinema amongst others. †¢ It will also launch a unified billing system across circles so, customers moving from one place to another do not have to close and then again open new accounts at another place. †¢ To assist customer care personnel to deal with subscriber queries, a storehouse of 40,000 frequently asked questions and their answers have been stored on the computers. †¢ Bharti expects that most of its new customers (one estimate is that it would be 60 to 70 per cent of the total new subscriber base) would come from the pre-paid card segment. So, they must be given value-added products and services which competitors don’t provide. †¢ Bharti, for the first time for a cellular operator, has decided to offer roaming services even to its pre-paid customers, but the facility would be limited to the region in which they buy the card. To ensure that customers don’t migrate to other competing services (which is known as churn and ranges from 10 to 15 per cent of the customer base every month), the company is also working on a loyalty program. This will offer subscribers tangible cash benefits depending upon their usage of the phone. The loyalty program will not be only for a ‘badge value’, it will provide real benefits to customers. The idea is to create an Airtel community. †¢ Another key area which Bharti is concentrating its attention upon is a new roaming service launched in Delhi under which calls of a roaming subscriber who is visiting the city will be routed directly to his mobile inste ad of traveling via his home network. †¢ The company also offers multi-media messaging systems under which customers having a specialized phone with a in- built camera can take pictures and e-mail it to friends or store it in the phone. The cost per picture is between Rs 5 to Rs 7. Bharti is also aware that it has to make owning a ready-to-use cellular service much easier than it is today. A key area is to increase the number of activation centers. Earlier Bharti had 250 Airtel Connect stores which were exclusive outlets (for its services) and about 250 Airtel Points which were kiosks in larger shops. Now activation can be done by all of them, and not only by Connect outlets, all within 15 to 20 minutes. In comparison, the competition takes two to four hours. †¢ Pre- paid cards are really catching up with the mobile phone users and it is actually helping the market to increase. First, they are easier to obtain and convenient to use. Unlike post- paid, one need not pay security deposits for picking up a pre- paid card. It is often available even with paanwalas. As befits a fast-moving consumer service, the game is now moving beyond price to expanding distribution reach and servicing a well-spread-out clientele with technology and strategic alliances. Bharti is focusing on two factors to make pre-paid cards more attractive. Keeping the entry cost low for consumers and making recharging more convenience. †¢ Bharti is in the process of launching a new system in alliance with Mumbai-based company Venture Infotech which will enable a pre-paid card user to renew his subscription by just swiping a card. The system will not only save users the hassle of going out and buying a card every time it expires but also enable mobile companies to reduce the cost of printing and distributing cards. †¢ Bharti Televentures has tied up with ‘Waiter on wheels,' a company delivering food at home, to reach its Magic pre-paid cards to subscribers' doorsteps. The company is also joining hands with local grocery shops which will enable users to recharge their cards by just making a phone call to the shop. †¢ Apart from improving the convenience of recharging, mobile operators are beefing up their distribution channels. The company is constantly innovating to enhance the value proposition for its pre-paid service. They are leveraging technology to expand their distribution network and deliver round-the-clock recharge options to its MOTS (Mobile On the Spot) subscribers. Bharti Cellular has also launched a special service, CareTouch, for high-value, corporate customers, providing them with instant, single-point access for any assistance they require. Customers can dial 777 and enjoy a slew of services, which includes easier payment of bills, service on priority basis, and value-added services without any additional paper work. Bharti Cellular is offering a range of services without going through an interactive voice recorder ensuring that they save time. Dedicated ‘CareTouch’ executives are expected to assist customers with any service on priority basis. Besides the regular proactive reminder calls for bill payment, customers can also call CareTouch for bill payments at free of cost. †¢AirTel presented MTV Inbox; the first ‘on-air’ SMS based interactive music dedication show exclusively for AirTel and AirTel Magic customers. Highly interactive VJ based show with real-time feedback mechanism. Both brands joined hands to target the high growth youth segment. BRAND RECALL- for brand recall airtel used so many promotional strategies as celebraty endorsement ? also goes for promotional activites like hoardings, billboards,sponser many events ? along with this amny corporate social activity being carried out by airtel ? signature tune as given by A. R Rehman being the most successf ul tool of Airtel in creating brand recall; Bharti’s View on its Branding strategy:- First, brand building efforts in today’s context have to be seen in a more holistic manner. Delivering value on a sustained basis is perhaps the most potent key to build a brand that lasts. Unflinching orientation to customer needs is the second key success factor. Customers (be it for industrial products or consumer goods and services) across the world are more informed and, at the same time, becoming more individualistic in their needs and far more demanding with the passage of time. Pro-active tracking of shifts in consumer behavior, anticipating redefined or emerging customer needs, and then reacting in â€Å"real- time† are essential to attract and retain customer loyalty — a key element of creating brand equity in the present situation. Customizing the product (and communication of its benefit) to meet the specific needs of various consumer/customer sub-segments is the third element in creating brand appreciation. As far as allocation of time and financial resources are concerned, too many companies mistakenly allocate a disproportionate amount on mere advertising and promotion. This is not to say that advertising and promotion are less relevant. On the contrary, with more choices and higher media clutter, businesses need to budget for an increasingly higher spend on their brand promotion but this has to be undertaken in tandem with enterprise-wide â€Å"reengineering† of the business philosophy and core design, production, and delivery operations for the product itself. The positive spin to this argument is that by first addressing the fundamentals, the enterprise itself becomes more competitive. This can be the beginning of a virtuous cycle wherein brand equity continues to increase as the enterprise sustains delivery of an appropriate product or service at an ever increasing value. It is, however, crucial to note that in the years to come, not only will the cost of building a regional or a national (or an international) brand will continue to rise but also the time taken to do so will be longer and will need sustained and focused efforts. Brand value:- â€Å"The brand Airtel is our most valuable asset after our people. We have built it with a lot of passion,† says Bharti Airtel CEO and Joint Managing Director Manoj Kohli. Airtel is all about trust, innovation and ownership bundled with an emotional connection. I can think of very few brands in the whole world which straddle so many categories and talk to so many different economic groups. † Tata, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group and Airtel have been identified as the top three most valuable brands in India by 4PsBusiness  and Marketing magazine in its annual ranking released here Friday. And according to icmr survey Airtel is regarded as the second trusted and valued service provided brand after LIC. Brand personality: AIRTEL- |Airtel: Leadership, power†¦ feelings? | |Airtel has a branding strategy that focuses on the emotions and lifestyle of consumers. The Airtel’s brand personality is about lifestyle; | |innovation; passion; hopes, dreams and aspirations; and power-to-the-people through technology. The Airtel brand personality is it is also| |customer centric and a elite class product and most reliable on the basis of is good network service and customer centric approach and | |shows its leadership — be it in network, innovations, offerings or services | |   | |â€Å"In a service industry like telecom, people live a brand 24X7. It’s all about experience; and for Airtel ‘brand=customer experience’,† says| |Rajan Mittal, joint managing director, Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd. |   | |That’s now, but when mobile telephony began in India a decade ago, the brand was all about aspiration. That’s understandable: a handset | |cost about Rs 45,000 — the price of a second-hand Fiat — and call charges hovered around Rs 16 a minute. | |   | |Naturally, the personality of the brand airtel is ike | |: elite class and innovative product/service provider | |Used by professionals | |successful entrepreneurs. |Leader | | | | | |â€Å"We positioned Airtel as an aspirational and lifestyle brand, in a way that trivialised the price in the mind of the consumer. It was | |pitched not merely as a mobile service, but as something that gave him a badge value,† recalls Hemant Sachdev, chief marketing officer | |(mobility) and director, Bharti Tele-Ventures. | |   | |   | |The way to the future, though, seems to be through product innovations such as easy charge (recharging prepaid connection through SMS), | |hello tunes, the Blackberry option, stock tickers and M-cheques (mobile credit cards). |   | | | BRAND ASSOSIATION- The Airtel brand positioned it as a customer centric and a elite class product and most reliable on the basis of is good network service and customer centric approach and shows its leadership — be it in network, innovati ons, offerings or services Airtel associates it self with the customers both on functional and emotional values.. these can be jotted down as follows †¢ elite class and innovative product/service provider †¢ it shows the personality of a leader †¢ reliable network and customized service †¢ innovative product †¢ leading the market †¢ trusted and beneficial BRAND loyalty- |Bharti airtel Offers so manY programs to create brand loyalty which is the basic success of airtel .. some schemes such as | |Bharati Airtel offers two points on every Rs 100 on the member’s monthly billing or recharge. | |   | |The company is also considering bringing credit cards, loans and liabilities services under this program. | |   | | | †¢ PRE-PAID users of Airtel can look forward to some free talk time each time they recharge their card. The company is going to launch a new customer loyalty programme across the country for the pre-paid customers called Recharge Reward. †¢ This loyalty programme, which is supposed to be the first of its kind for pre-paid users, would be based on the number as well as the value of recharges the customers opt for. †¢ Speaking to  Business Line, Mr Ramesh K. Narain, Chief Officer – Sales & Marketing, Bharti Mobinet Ltd, said the company for the first time is specially focusing on the pre-paid segment. â€Å"We are looking at pre-paid as a recruitment category and through this loyalty programme we hope to not only increase our customer-base but also in the long run convert them into post-paid users. † Conclusion

Merits and Demerits of cell phones

When the Laptop is in Battery mode, connect the external USB device which are essential and remove them immediately after use, otherwise these devices will draw power from Laptop. 4. Always remove Charger/adapter from Main when the Laptop is not in use. 5. Delete unwanted files then and there otherwise it may occupy more space. 6. Whenever external storage device is required to be used, please scan before use. 7. Clean the Laptop monitor every day using soft cloth. And not by fingers. Clean the eye board using paint brush. 8. Always lift or hold the Laptop with both the hands. Handle carefully. 9. Keep the Laptop in the bag provided when pot use. 10.Keep the Laptop with proper ventilation 11. Place the Laptop in plain and smooth surface while using. 12. Insert the External devices gently in the proper port. 13. Open and close the Laptop gently, otherwise the hinges may break. 14. In case of any problem with the Laptop, register your complaint and approach the nearest service centre i ndicated by ELECT Don's 1. Do not place the Laptop closer or on to any electrical device such as Microwave Oven, TV etc and directly under sunlight. 2. Do not keep any liquid such as water, beverages near Laptop so as to avoid spill over on keyboard.. 3. Do not keep any book or heavy weight items on the Laptop. 4.Never keep the laptop in â€Å"ON† condition in the bed while sleeping. Always ensure that the Laptop is switched off and kept away from the bed before going to sleep. 5. Do not keep more applications / shortcuts on the Desktop (Screen), it may slow down the Speed of the process. Keep mostly working files / applications alone in the Laptop. 6. Do not open too many files at a time. . Do not shut down forcibly by using power button. Turn off the Laptop by proper shut down method. 8. Do not place your finger on the screen. 9. Do not hard press the keys. Use the keyboard gently. 10. Do not use the Power adapter of others Laptops. 11. Never put stapler pin or paper clips into the keyboard 12.

Graphic Novel Deconstruction Essay

This essay will deconstruct Neil Gaiman’s graphic novel The Sandman Volume#1 Preludes and Nocturnes (1991), in order to gain an understanding of narrative is presented through the use of image. It will also comment on the codes and conventions within the chosen text. Preludes and Nocturnes is the collection of eight comics in the Sandman series, with Neil Gaiman writing for a regular series for the first time. As such Preludes and Nocturnes is somewhat a work in progress, as the creative team honed their work. If read from cover to cover you will see a marked improvement in the writing over the course of the volume culminating in a much more tightly wound climax than at the beginning. The first chapter Sleep of the Just is a good place to start looking at the panel construction of the narrative. On the page (Tab. 1) we see the first three panels over-laying the fourth panel. The first two panels are narrow and rectangular and the third is square. The gutters are very narrow and not a lot is happening in the panels. This indicates that panel-to-panel, not a lot of time has passed between transitions. However rather than use moment-to-moment transition the creators have used subject-to-subject as a method of keeping a moderate pace for the reader to become interested in what they are seeing on the page. This is continued throughout the eight panel page. Alternatively, the creators could have shown the first two panels as one, allowing the dialogue to take place straight away as the car pulls up to the mansion. The panel could then be expanded showing the mansion in more detail and allowing for the removal of panel three completely. We already know the man is here for a reason, therefore we make an assumption he will leave the car and knock on the door. ) This would potentially allow for the removal of Panel Four, going straight to the man knocking on the door and the door being answered. This would then clear up what is a relatively cluttered page and make the narrative much more direct. Dialogue and pacing are used to high degree throughout this chapter sometimes appearing cluttered and confused, and sometimes this is compound by the unusual panel shapes employed. However this has been used to great effect (Tab. 2) The thin oddly constructed/shaped panel’s one and two, are almost seen as though they are slices of Burgess’s insanity and obsession. Subject-to-Subject transitions are used to aid pacing in what otherwise would be a lengthy a page due to the amount of dialogue. Although the majority of the spoken word is short, there is a lot of it to read. A six panel page is probably right for this instance however more conventional panel shapes would probably aid the reader more. The caption box in the first panel is used in parallel to what is in the picture; the reader doesn’t actually see the words of the spell tolling in his head, but they are given a sense of the psychological effect it takes on Burgess. On the very next page closure is used perfectly. Burgess demands for the being to come forward and with each chant, that being becomes more corporeal with the end result, the creature arriving in the room. The dialogue used is interdependent to the imagery. Without one or the other the reader wouldn’t be able to pick up the full picture of what is happening. To speed this page up you could probably remove the panels with Burgess and just have the three panels of the creature appearing with the dialogue situated around him, as if surrounded by people. In (Tab. 3) we can see a classic example of moment-to-moment transitions, twelve panels depicting and old man dreaming of becoming young again as he walks along a dark corridor before realising he is in a nightmare of his own making. Twelve panels on a fifteen panel page seems like a lot, however it serves to really ramp up the tension in the terms of the narrative as this is a turning point for the whole story. Interestingly the transitions used serve as the opposite to what is actually happening; the de-aging process of decades in just a few seconds or minutes intensifies the dream/nightmare feel. For the sake of quicker pacing you could perhaps take a few panels out here and there, showing a larger passage of time between the transitions and the de-aging process, however you would then run the risk of losing the tension build up. An interesting point to note is the dialogue for Morpheus, his speech bubbles are jagged black items with white text, that serve the purpose of defining his character as not of this earth and more important than any other speaker. (Tab. 4) poses some interesting issues. Panel 1 bleeds in from the top of the page to the half-way point with the next two panels over laid. However here is where it can get confusing for a reader who reads from left to right on a single page. Panels 4-6 do not follow the traditional design of a comic book. Rather than continuing the dialogue under panels 1-3 they extend onto the next page and initially this is confusing as the readers first thought is to go down the page. It is almost as if the writer wants you to stop and think for a moment. This layout is continued through panels 7-13 and in panels 10-12 the structure becomes jagged indicating Cain’s fractured mind finally snapping and lashing out at his brother Abel, the word â€Å"IRVING † capitalised and coloured in red accents this. This section uses several different types of panelling ranging from aspect-to-aspect (panels 1-4 7-8) subject-to-subject (5-6 9-13. ) This unusual layout has been created because of the opening dialogue, Lucien the Librarian stating that â€Å"It has been a strange century. † The creators probably felt that they could accentuate this by creating this page layout. It would have worked much better if it had been done over a single A2 sheet but restrictions prevent this so readers would have to be careful to make sure they read the page right. It would flow better if the panels with Cain and Abel had been left out entirely or at least placed on a separate sheet. Again closure is shown on the final panel with blood spatter getting that message across loud and clear. (Tab. 5) brings good examples of word specific text in subject-to-subject panels, also note the colour change to black and white, given in context with each panel it conveys the message that all is well and the world is resting. The use of Morpheus’s coat as a panel enveloping Arkham Asylum is used to indicate that he is back in control of the dream realm and is repairing the damage done by his captivity. Throughout the Preludes and Nocturnes there has been a constant improvement in the way it is presented and written. In particular as the narrative continues, there are subtle changes in colours, from really quite dark to eventually ending up with a white background as Morpheus goes about his quest to right the wrongs done to him. The writers also moved to more traditional conventions of comic books in respect to panelling moving away from the sometimes claustrophobic and cluttered panels in the early chapters to the more familiar boxy panels that most sequential art uses, however that is not to say the gothic inspired artwork doesn’t have its place, in the early stages of the story, entrapment and imprisonment were key themes. As the creative team honed their skills the works became more coherent and easier to understand. It is easy to see why this series is so popular.

Practice of medicine Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Practice of medicine - Essay Example Except for the prudent correction of an imminent danger, I will neither treat any patient nor carry out any research on any human being without the valid informed consent of the subject or the appropriate legal protector thereof, understanding that research must have as its purpose the furtherance of the health of that individual. Into whatever patient setting I enter, I will go for the benefit of the sick and will abstain from every voluntary act of mischief or corruption and further from the seduction of any patient. – An excerpt from ‘The Hippocratic Oath’. Multiple studies and researches have been conducted on the bodily reactions of patients after surgical procedures that were performed. These researches are done by professional doctors and physicians who are bound by their oath and are adamant in keeping their clients from experiencing pain or discomfort as well as discovering a viable treatment to alleviate any pain. To extrapolate such a remedy, hypothesis testing as well as research must be done. To perform to these quite rigorous procedures, the physicians must adhere to a code of ethics that will display their professionalism and protect the rights of the patients. Other than aforementioned Hippocratic Oath - which was formulated in approximately 400 B.C. - there was a plethora of ethics and guidelines engendered respective to each culture. The cardinal evidence of this comes from the bible. In the bible contains the first illustrations of edicts concerning the ethics of physicians. Among the essentials of the oath, the premier edict is honouring the pedagogues of the medical discipline.

The current state of the economy of the United States Essay

The current state of the economy of the United States - Essay Example It is calculated by adding up annual expenditure on goods and services in 4 sectors. The first sector is ‘Personal Consumption Spending,’ involving expenditure on durable goods (like cars and televisions), non-durable goods (like food and clothes), and personal services (like manicures and haircuts). The second sector is ‘Private Investment Spending,’ including expenditure like purchases of real estate, plant and machinery by corporations. The third sector is ‘Government Spending,’ featuring expenditure on goods like armaments and services like wages of public school teachers. The fourth sector is ‘Net Exports,’ which is the value of goods and services exported abroad, minus the value of goods and services imported from other countries (The World Book Encyclopedia). GDP is the most widely used measure to analyze the prosperity of the nation. The U.S is considered the world’s most prosperous economy as it possesses the highest GDP in the world. In 2000 its GDP purchasing power parity which was $ 9.82 trillion, rose to $ 10.13 trillion in 2001, $ 10.47 trillion in 2002, $ 10.96 trillion in 2003, $ 11.71 trillion in 2004, $ 12.46 trillion in 2005 and $ 12.98 trillion in 2006. U.S GDP figures have shown a healthy, continuously rising trend, rising by 3.16 % between 2001 and 2001, 3.36% between 2001 and 2002, 4.68% between 2002 and 2003, 6.84% between 2003 and 2004, 6.40% between 2004 and 2005 and 4.17% between 2005 and 2006 (Cia.gov). As compared to the U.S, other world countries lagged far behind. In 2004, as against the U.S GDP purchasing power parity of 11.71 trillion, China ranked a distant second at 7.272 trillion, followed by an even most distant group of countries led by Japan at 3.745 trillion, India at 3.319 trillion, Germany at 2.3 62 trillion, the U.K at 1.782 trillion, France at 1.737 trillion and Italy at 1.609 trillion

RP Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

RP - Essay Example The positivists view of realist exhausts in empirical structure in order to understand the ontology of economic regulaties (Lopez, J. 2001) 11 Marxism differentiates between an intransitive reality, which may exists independently of human knowledge, and the socially produced world of science and empirical knowledge. Bhaskar’s influence is also acknowledged in the ontology in the philosophy of social science (Sayer,A., 1992) 11 Critical realist philosophy has increasingly encouraged the influence of international realtions. The ontology is also credited to Bhaskar (1998). The private sector in Omani is affected by both politics and international realtions. 11 Most organisations know what good strategy and leadership development are and that good management makes a real difference to organisational performance. There is strong evidence to support this contention: historically, the greatest business leaders have driven economic prosperity and growth (BIS, 2012). The BIS findings are further confirmation of the opinion held by Mabey and Ramirez (2004), wherein they analysed that leadership and management development (LMD) leads to superior performance across companies of all sizes, sectors and national location. Managers as well as leaders at all levels, and not just those at the top, need a common set of skills associated with their management and leadership role, and these need to be developed. Just assuming that well qualified or professional people will be able to assume the management role on promotion does not necessarily help them become effective (Wolff, 2008). Some approaches to LMD are concerned predominantly with organisational strategies while other models strongly emphasize individual aims. There is a range of opinion between these two views, from those who argue that ‘organisational’ strategy may be imposed by leaders on the less powerful

Management accounting Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Management accounting - Assignment Example The following discussion shows how the Management Accounting information assists the management of a company. Planning This involves looking ahead and preparing future courses of action that need to be followed. Managers devise a systematic programme regarding future courses of action. Planning is selection of the best way or alternative of performing various managerial functions in an organization. Management accounting information is very vital in planning management function (Demski 2008). The basic objective of a company is to ensure that the company is profitable by creating competitive advantage in regard to prices as well as market expansion. In choosing any alternative the company management must consider its potential benefits and its underlying costs against the company resources. Management accounting information is important in projecting profits in new established markets. The required information includes profit margins, sales volumes and costs in firms operating in sim ilar markets. This information is combined with projected sales. Most companies express their management plans based on the management accounting information formally in budgets. Budgeting is considered a core part of the planning process. Controlling Controlling management function in a company ensures that the planned alternative is being followed. It is important to note that feedback plays an important role indicating the effectiveness of control in a company. Management accounting information is used when comparing the budgeted results and its actual results mainly referred to as performance report. This report shows whether the company is operating as planned as well as pointing out areas that need some attention. The management accounting information used for comparison includes sales profits, sales volume and the expenses. In cases where the targets are not met then the company management establish the next relevant course of action strategy hence the need for a revised plan by the top management. According to Hermanson (2010) the management accounting information plays a significant role in providing the relevant feedback in regard to company progression and performance (Hermanson 2010). The feedback is mainly used as a control tool in regard to the company operations through the comparison of the actual and the budgeted results. Decision making Decision making is one of the core functions of management which is a continuous process. Company management obtains the relevant management information and various costs calculation (Demski 2008). The obtained management accounting information is used in establishing and developing the best decisions at all the levels of the organization. The information that is used mainly indicates how a company is effectively conducts its operations. The management makes use and exploits the information in the management and its underlying leadership skills in its underlying decision making processes. The management accoun ting information is essential in a company making key decisions in the operational and the production processes. The role of management accounting is to provide key relevant information which is used in making decision within a company. Communicating In addition to the above management functions, company management oversees the company operations on daily and long-term basis thus ensuring that the company is op

Any topic that insights and analysis about Alice's Adventures in Essay

Any topic that insights and analysis about Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Essay Example The role of women was to decorate the home and raise the children. They were not expected to be clever and did not have any rights of their own that would allow them to make any of their own decisions. They were expected to be quiet and demure and to always listen to their elders and the male members of society. The most important things they had to learn was how to control themselves, how to play music and how to sew. When it was published, many young girls saw themselves as Alice figures, identifying themselves with something they saw in Alice’s behavior. In some ways Alice resembles the ideal female character of the period, but there are also several ways in which she breaks the mold, such as in her willingness to assert herself and her ability to think. Alice is introduced initially as a young lady in training. She is learning to be a proper young lady as she sits along the bank of a stream with her sister, who is spending the afternoon quietly reading. However, she quickly emerges as being incapable of keeping up the proper passive attitude or of adopting her own book to read. â€Å"Once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, ‘and what is the use of a book,’ thought Alice ‘without pictures or conversation?’ (Carroll, 1). Her appearance, as reflected in the pictures within the book, also reinforces the concept of the stereotypical young Victorian child. She wears a dress with numerous petticoats and a bright white apron that never seems to get soiled. She also has puffed sleeves, white stockings and patent leather shoes. Her hair is fashionably curled into ringlets and she appears to be everything every little girl would want to be. The White Rabbit reflects these same assumptions when he sees a girl and automatically assumes she is his maid. â€Å"Very soon the

Summary Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 14

Summary - Assignment Example The concept of universality was further expounded by classifying it into two types: the substantive universals and the formal universals. As disclosed, substantive universals construct the description of language; while formal universals were deemed more abstract; yet formalized and highly structured in terms of observance to grammatical rules. Samples of different sentence structures (deep, surface, A over A convention) were presented to differentiate the concept of universality. The criteria for evaluating grammar was likewise discussed based on four syntactic structures, being that: (1) sentences are deemed acceptable to the native speaker; (2) the case of ambiguity noted to be represented by constructional homonymity; (3) alleged diversity in interpretations of sentences which appear superficially similar to be likewise represented by varied derivational histories; and (4) understanding sentences in similar manner to have been apparently represented at one level description (Tranformational Generative Grammar 5-6). Finally, the discourse differentiated between linguistic competence and performance by indicating that competence is knowledge of a particular language, while performance ensued from this competence as a production and comprehension of language (Tranformational Generative Grammar 5). Other differentiating factors were presented to expound on their disparities to include boundaries, linguistic factors, incompetencies, situational factors, and creativity of the speaker, among

Pregant Women with HIV Infections Research Paper

Pregant Women with HIV Infections - Research Paper Example Pregnant Women with HIV Infections Part A HIV/AIDS is a disease that has had its implications on society in a very vast manner especially over the last two decades. The disease came to prominence around the year 1987 and since then the number of infections have been on the steady rise. The disease is spread through very many distinct ways. There is the spread of the disease from having many sexual partners, the sharing of sharp objects with a person already infected with the virus and finally yet importantly, there is that of pregnant women transferring the disease to their unborn babies. This paper will be very clear in expressing the issues faced by pregnant women with HIV/AIDS and the various manners through which society observes and treats them. It is important to look at this issue because there is a lot of stigma around concerning these women. The United States views the problem of these women in various perspectives and offers the best that it can through the healthcare syste m to ensure that they receive the amount of care they require. The problems faced by these women are widespread and are all across the world but the different manners through which the healthcare organizations look at them is very important. One of the very important aspects of the issue that the United States health system focuses on is the counseling of these women so that they cannot feel left out or rather feel weird. The women receive treatment in a manner through which they receive the best medical care because there is also the focus on the health condition of the unborn child. The screening of the women is rather imperative for the research of other health issues that may make them weaker. When a person has HIV/AIDS, the white blood cells that are responsible for the guard of the body do not function correctly. It is for this reason that any other health condition is supposed to be given a priority to ensure that the women do not suffer a lot. This was study carried out by t he National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The United States also takes the issue rather seriously from the manner in which medical practitioners offer the required prophylaxis. The government has a major role to play in this because there are many countries that have bills that have the family of the HIV/AIDS infected patient carrying the burden of paying the bills for the medication. The medication is very important as it assists in the healing of Opportunistic Infections. These infections were reported to have killed around 37% of all pregnant HIV/AIDS patients in the United States over the period between 1990 and 2000. The analysis made it very important for the government to bring in a program that ensured that the deaths resulting from these infections reduced (Adams, 2011). The issue of HIV/AIDS is taken in a rather serious manner in the United States from the number of bills that are passed regarding the issue. One of the bills passed ensured that among all the necessary tests taken by pregnant women when being admitted to hospitals, HIV/AIDS becomes one of them (Adams, 2011). The first step taken is immunization that also assists in protecting the unborn child from contracting the disease. The reason as to why the government decided to make a priority while handling pregnant women is from the manner through which parents’

Leadership Styles of Ho Chi Minh and Ngo Dinh Diem Essay

Leadership Styles of Ho Chi Minh and Ngo Dinh Diem - Essay Example Ho Chi Minh stood to be more powerful in a symbolic context, a standing symbol of the opposition to American efforts, a foe that was elusive and almost impossible to reach by the modern warfare machinery at the disposal of America, a foe that evolved into a mythical personification of the Communist resistance (Duiker, 1996, p. 360). In fact, Ho Chi Minh stood to be the real driving force, sans whom, it would have been impossible to think of a united Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh was a truly charismatic leader who appealed to the expectations and cultural affiliations of a nation that had remained subservient for a long time (Duiker, 1994, p. 212). There is no denying the fact that Ho Chi Minh’s strategy to project oneself as a humble and motivated, old man, with a sense of vision and a knack for down to earth wisdom commanded a great emotional appeal and sway amongst the Vietnamese masses (Duiker, 1994). He was decisively always in touch with the popular aspirations and sentiments. In contrast, Diem happened to be a modern Nationalist, an authoritarian leader who intended to pursue his own agenda (Jacobs, 2005, p. 11). Yet, Diem was always perceptible of popular aspirations and well understood that his leanings towards an American agenda will project him as a puppet nationalist, subservient to the will of the Americans. So, to achieve his purpose, he devised the strategy of rousing the South Vietnamese peasantry for support, while steadily reducing the nation’s dependence on America (Jacobs, 2005). Though being a competent leader, eventually he ended up being a scapegoat of the American disappointment. Though Diem pursued an authoritarian approach towards leadership, this approach on his part was necessary in the sense that a Western style approach towards leadership would not have gone well in a society that was given to a

Charles Darwin Essay Example for Free

Charles Darwin Essay Charles Darwin was a British scientist who came up with the idea of the theory of Evolution. He was also a botanist which would be one of the reasons what lead him towards inventing his Theory of Evolution. Why and How? Charles Darwin travelled to the Galapagos Island as a biologist. He travelled on a ship which was undertaking surveys of the Pacific Ocean. His voyage was to examine plants and animals on the islands through which he came up with Theory of Evolution. Charles Darwin came up with his Theory of Evolution after surveying birds on each island he went to. He saw finches but they all had different beaks, one finch had a long beak the other had a short beak and another had a dipping beak. After seeing all this Charles Darwin started thinking and so he thought why does one bird have a long beak and the other have a small beak. During his voyage on the beagle he carried on observing and found fossils and also saw consistent results for which he came up with the theory of evolution. His theory explained that all living things have a common ancestor. The finches he discovered had different beaks and so he came up with the conclusion that all of these finches had a common ancestor and then they a ll evolved from that common ancestor. Hypothesis Charles Darwin’s hypothesis was that every living thing has a common ancestor and that we all evolve from that common ancestor. His reason for us all evolving was that so we can adapt with the nature around us and survive. For example giraffes have long necks, according to Charles Darwin these giraffes had a common ancestor who had short necks from time to time a mutation resulted in a giraffe having a long neck. The reason being is so that, the giraffe could reach the trees better and get extra food and be more prone to stay alive and reproduce than all of the other giraffes. Eventually, the attribute would be passed down until generally most giraffes had long necks. Evidence and proof Jean Baptise Lamarck, who was a French naturalist, discovered his own theory before Charles Darwin discovered his Theory of Evolution. Lamarck’s theory was that organisms would pass their attribute down to their generations for example if someone was to loos their arm then their coming baby would be born without a arm and then it would get passed down the generation and then eventually you would find most people without an arm. Charles Darwin’s theory contradicted to Lamarck’s theory and so people didn’t believe in his Theory of Evolution. Also Charles Darwin lacked in evidence because he had no evidence that all the finches have a common ancestor or that all organisms have an common ancestor and so because of him not having enough evidence he lacked proof and so his theory wasn’t reliable.

Conflict Between US And USSR History Essay

Conflict Between US And USSR History Essay In the stressful conflict that accrued between the United States and the U.S.S.R. Was after the Second World War with Hitler. The United States and the Soviet Union In 1945 became the two leading super powers in Europe, with the USSR predominately occupying the countries of Eastern Europe. The United States was the peace keeper of the countries of Western Europe. These two superpowers, in Germany along with France and Britain, agreed on occupied areas of land which made up a framework for four-power control over Europes land mass. In the February meetings at Yalta, in July/August at Potsdam in 1945 the two superpowers and Britain negotiated to divide the states for a land territory settlement of Europe. When the Potsdam conference became serious many differences were fought over about the future evolving status of Germany and the rest of the states of Europe. Each meeting the super powers discussed the Far East They paid very close attention to the admittance of the USSR into the war against Japan. By 1947 an east-west division of states was manifesting its head with the Soviets seriously intending on undermining democracy and establishing puppet communist regimes in Eastern Europe. In Germany the Soviets were bent on crippling their economy and creating an overwhelming influence in their territory that they wanted to occupy. The Soviets defended their desires of Europe in terms of creating anti-Fascist governments which were friendly towards the USSR and her beliefs. The USSR was portraying the United States as bent on destroying communism while the United States portrayed the USSR as determined to undermining liberal democracy in the United States as well as Europe. The Cold War was marked by the Berlin Blockade Crisis of 1948-9. As time progressed the victory of Maos Red Army of the American sponsored Nationalist Government in China in 1949 and the Korean War in 1950, received pressure from the Soviet military occupation of Hungary in 1956. From Berlin on to 1958 leading up to the Wall crisis of 1961 in Berlin, Germany and the Missile Crisis in Cuba in 1962. During this time the Americans pulled their resources together and their new role as leader of the West was offering assistance to the economies of the Western European states they occupied through the implemented Marshall Plan of 1947. Recently allied to an emerging alliance of Western European states America signed the North Atlantic Treaty of 1949; taking the lead in controlling the Federal Republic of Germany from the three Western zones that were occupied in 1949. In the early 1950s America worked for rearming of these new states and its full membership in North Atlantic Treaty Organization during the year 1955. The USSR proclaimed its territories in Germany as the German Democratic Republic completely created a formal alliance with its Eastern European new friends in 1955 which created the Warsaw Pact Treaty Organization. The Americans concluded an alliance in Asia making a peace treaty with Japan in 1951 and 1952 and included other states such as Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and the Philippines, within a series of alliances, while the USSR finished an alliance with China in 1950. but the Americans gradually became entangled in a more complex war in Vietnam while the war in Korea ended in 1953 in which it supported the South Vietnam against North Vietnam which the north was backed by the USSR and China. Throughout this era the two countries made policies of rearming of nuclear weapons with continued developed of long-range weapons where they could destroy each other from their own countries. The Cuban Missile Crisis relations got much better after the agreements were finished in stabilizing the situations in Europe. The Quadripartite Agreement from Berlin in 1971 led to the two German states entering the United Nations in 1973. The Helsinki Accords agreed the Co-operation in Europe in 1975 which appeared to mark a tacit peace treaty to end the Cold War and World War II by the Conference on Security. Agreements that limited the nuclear arms race were also finished. The conflict between the superpowers kept on going even through this era of this easing, as of tension between competitors. Even in new areas of rivalry such as was in Africa crossed its Continent while the betterment of relations continued between China and, the United States with the added work of President Nixon, the Secretary of State Kissinger, and Premier Chou En-Lai. Together they eased the tensions between the United States and the USSR worsening the relations between her and China. This gave a new shap e to negotiations towards peace between the two superpowers in the 1970s. By the mid-1970s the Cold War in its original form can be said to have died away. The arms race between East and West had all the characteristics of a classic action-reaction model of international conflict in which each side reacts to an earlier step by the other side. The explanation of the origins of the conflict is more complex, though three broad categories of explanation can be identified. First, some analysts have emphasized that the Cold War occurred primarily as a result of the destruction of German power, the resulting power vacuum in Central Europe and the new bipolar balance of power between the superpowers. From this perspective, the Cold War was a traditional great power conflict in which ideological rivalry was essentially secondary and the structural constraints of bipolarity crucial in throwing the two sides apart. A second explanation, sometimes called the orthodox or liberal interpretation, stresses the American desire for a return to a much more limited internatio nal role after the Second World War. However, after having begun to disarm and disengage from Europe, the Americans were obliged by Soviet expansionism in Eastern Europe to take up in 1947 a much more active, and unsought for, role in Europe in order to contain Soviet power. A third explanation stresses the long-term objective of the American capitalist power to undermine communism and to expand American power throughout the Middle East, the Far East, and all of Europe. Some writers in this category thus trace the Cold War back to American opposition to the 1917 Russian Revolution. Of course, many accounts weave together two or even all three of these broad categories. In the 1980s there was a short-lived but intensive reawakening of the Cold War, sometimes called the New Cold War. DÃ ©tente petered out in the late 1970s, arms control faltered, and in December 1979 the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan. From the year 1980 onward the USSR exerted intense pressure over the government of Poland. In the United States Reagan denounced the Soviet Union in ideological terms and in Britain Thatcher denounced the Soviet Union in ideological terms which was unheard of since the worst days of the Cold War. On the Western side there was rearmament in Europe, under the so-called double-track policy of NATO, changes in the American doctrine of deterrence which appeared to emphasize the political utility of limited nuclear war, and the American pursuit of defenses against Soviet missiles in the Strategic Defense Initiative. In the post-year 1945 era it was difficult to disentangle action and reaction between the two sides. In any case, by 1987 the two superpower s had moved decisively back towards a better agreement on treaties by 1989 while Soviet power itself had crumbled. The US and Russian agreements needed to work together against terrorism after September 11, 2001 which marked the most dramatic change in their relations since the start of the Cold War in 1948. The imploded views of the socialists in Europe in 1989 started this new European order. Germany was brought back together, healing the pain and suffering along Europes heart and soul. This time in history that has been described as the Cold War, needed to be ended. Soviet spokesperson Gennadi Gerasimov stated, this era of conflict had last from Yalta to Malta, a reference to the time between the famous 1945 summit and a brief conference with the U.S. President George Bush including Gorbachev off the coast of the neutral island of Malta in December 1989. Latter at a summit, Gorbachev announced the end of an era and the start of a new one, a lasting and peaceful one, promising that he would never start a hot war against the United States. Bush said, that he looked forward to enduring cooperation. The real end to the period would come two years later, when the Soviet Union ceased to exist. (Freedman, L. 2010)

Employee Retention Strategies in Insurance Sector

Employee Retention Strategies in Insurance Sector Increasing pressures on the corporates to cut the costs, resulting in frequent layoffs and downsizing, diminishing employee loyalty, absence of job security and increasing competition in the hunt for talent etc. are just a few reasons why the process of attracting and retaining talent has become an onerous task more than ever before. As the highly talented workforce in organizations, across various levels, enhances skills and job-hop from one company to another, managers seem to be feeling the heat in countering abnormally high attrition rates. One of the key responsibilities of a manager or supervisor is to get the work done through the employees. Moreover, when we say work, it is not just the basic minimum work to get by, but also those tasks that are accomplished when the employees are highly motivated to succeed, excel in their work, and continue to be committed to the organization. Managers and supervisors indeed find it extremely difficult in keeping their star performers satis fied and not wanting to shift their jobs. Employee retention is important in almost all the cases. It is senseless to allow good people to leave your organization because when they leave, they take away with them the intellectual property, relationships, investments (in both time and money), an occasional employee, or two, and a chunk of the organizations future. Employee Retention Strategies helps organizations provide effective employee communication to improve commitment and enhance workforce support for key corporate initiatives. The insurance sector in India is rising rapidly to bring in growth and employment opportunities. Insurance companies are basically human intensive, and human resources act as an undoubted differentiator. Quality manpower and its retention would act as a Litmus test. Turnover of sales force has been high because of low entry and exit barriers. The paper addresses issues of recruitment, retention, and turnover of sales force in insurance companies. An attempt is made to integrate them to Maslows Need Hierarchy. A survey was conducted among 350 employees who worked in or had left insurance companies to analyze factors that inà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uenced their decisions and job satisfaction. The data were treated with factor analysis. Factors such as Safety Security, Social Esteem, and Personal Work Style emerged as the inà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uencers to join insurance companies. Primary Needs and Social Self Esteem Needs were the factors associated with job satisfaction; Stress, Career Advancement, and Work Environment emerged as factors for leaving the companies. INTRODUCTION Intense competition and globalization of businesses has put mounting pressure on organizations to deliver more and better than before. Organizations need to develop and deploy human resources that can articulate the vision of the organization and make teams with the synergy to perform at much higher levels. Human resource management (HRM) is a strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organizations most valued assets i.e. the people working there, who individually and collectively, contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business. Human Resource management is evolving rapidly. The terms human resource management and human resources (HR) have largely replaced the term personnel management as a description of the processes involved in managing people in the organizations. Human resource management is a business practice as well as an academic theory that addresses the practical and theoretical techniques of managing the workforce of an organization. The Human Resources Management (HRM) function includes a variety of activities, and the most important among them is to decide what are the staffing needs of the organization and the ways to fill these needs i.e. whether to hire employees or use independent contractors to hire employees to fill these needs, to recruit and train the best employees, to ensure that they are high performers, to deal with performance issues, and to ensure the organizations personnel and management practices conform to various regulations. Managing the organizations approach to employee records, employee compensation and benefits, and personnel policies are also the included activities. The small businesses whether for-profit or nonprofit ones usually have to carry out these activities themselves because they cannot yet afford part- or full-time help. However, it must be ensured by them that the employees are aware of the personnel policies, which confirm to current regulations. The HRM function and HRD profession have undergone tremendous changes over the past 20-30 years. Many years ago, large organizations looked to the Personnel Department, mostly to manage the paperwork around hiring and paying people. More recently, organizations consider the HR Department as playing a major role in staffing, training, and helping to manage people so that people and the organization are performing at maximum capability in a highly fulfilling manner Human resource builds and drives the knowledge assets of an organization, the value of which has been established to be many times more than the tangibles. In the present scenario, it is becoming important for organizations to focus on finding, developing, and retaining talented employees. This paper aims to enhance understanding of the phenomenon of high employee turnover in the insurance industry and factors that lead to job satisfaction of employees. Researchers have also made an attempt to integrate Maslows Needs Hierarchy to the underlying inà ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uencers for the sales force of insurance companies to join or leave the organization. The findings may be helpful for the companies to improve retention levels. OBJECTIVES: Employee turnover is a larger problem currently faced by insurance companies, as a major part of their revenue is lost. Analyzing the causes of employee turnover is imperative for insurance companies. An exploratory survey is designed, keeping in mind following objectives: To identify the factors which influence the decision to join the Insurance Industry. To analyze the factors which play a major role in job satisfaction. To identify the factors which influence the high attrition rate. To study and formulate the strategies for employee retention. EMPLOYEE RETENTION OVERVIEW: By looking in a dictionary, we are given that the word retention has synonyms like preservation, maintenance, withholding, and custody. Not just the meaning, the concept has different perceptions for the employees and organizations. Effective employee retention is a systematic effort by employers to create and foster an environment that encourages current employees to remain employed by having policies and practices in place that address their diverse needs. A strong retention strategy becomes a powerful recruitment tool. Retention of key employees is critical to the long-term health and success of any organization. It is a known fact that retaining your best employees ensures customer satisfaction, increased product sales, satisfied colleagues, and reporting staff, effective succession planning and deeply embedded organizational knowledge and learning. Why are we concerned about employee retention now, when we also are talking about a reduced state workforce? The reality of hiring freezes and possibly even layoffs during economic slowdowns means it is critical to focus on retaining and enabling our remaining people to reach peak performance. Lean organizations depend heavily on the performance and quality of current employees. Current employees have specialized, institutional knowledge. Employee retention matters as organizational issues such as training time and investment; lost knowledge; insecure employees and a costly candidate search are involved. Hence, the failure to retain an important employee is a costly affair for an organization. The importance of retaining the best talent in the organization is usually realized by intelligent employers INDIAN INSURANCE SECTOR AT A GLANCE The insurance sector in India is one of the booming sectors of the economy and is growing at the rate of 15-20% per annum. Together with banking services, it contributes to about 7% of the countrys GDP. The sector has completed a full circle in India from being an open competitive market to nationalization, and back to a liberalized market again. The government of India liberalized the insurance sector in March 2000, lifting all entry restrictions for private players and allowing foreign players to enter the market with some limits on direct foreign ownership. Under the current guidelines, there is a 26% equity cap for foreign partners in an insurance company. There is a proposal to increase this limit to 49%. With several reforms and policy regulations, the Indian Insurance Sector has witnessed tremendous growth in the recent past. According to a report by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), a growth of over 200% is likely to be seen in Indian insur ance business by 2009-10, in which private insurance business would grow at 140% in view of aggressive marketing techniques. Insurance companies in India are growing vertically and horizontally bringing growth and new employment opportunities. Even after having so many private players in the insurance sector, still the largest company is the government owned, Life Insurance Corporation of India. Insurance sector is an intensively people-oriented business and human resources will be the undoubted differentiator. The quality of work force attracted and retained by insurers and how their abilities and ambitions are harnessed would be the litmus test for the industry. Traditionally, a large number of insurance agents, who work on a commission basis, manage the insurance business. The turnover of insurance agents has usually been high in this business. The insurance sector faces high rates of employee turnover. The highest employee turnover is at the financial advisors (agent) level, where the entry barriers are low but targets and work pressures are very high. The insurance companies in India are: Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company Limited Birla Sun Life Insurance Co. Ltd HDFC Standard life Insurance Co. Ltd ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd. ING Vysya Life Insurance Company Ltd. Life Insurance Corporation of India Max New York Life Insurance Co. Ltd Met Life India Insurance Company Ltd. Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance Limited SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd Tata AIG Life Insurance Company Limited Reliance Life Insurance Company Limited. Aviva Life Insurance Co. India Pvt. Ltd. Shriram Life Insurance Co, Ltd. Sahara India Life Insurance Bharti AXA Life Insurance Future Generali Life Insurance IDBI Fortis Life Insurance Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance Religare Life Insurance DLF Pramerica Life Insurance Star Union Dai-ichi Life Insurance Agriculture Insurance Company of India Apollo DKV Insurance Cholamandalam MS General Insurance HDFC Ergo General Insurance Company ICICI Lombard General Insurance IFFCO Tokio General Insurance National Insurance Company Ltd New India Assurance Oriental Insurance Company Reliance General Insurance Royal Sundaram Alliance Insurance Shriram General Insurance Company Limited Tata AIG General Insurance United India Insurance Universal Sompo General Insurance Co. Ltd VIEWS OF RECRUITERS IN INDIAN INSURANCE COMPANIES The attrition rate is about 35% in the first year of recruitment. This goes down to about 18% by the fourth year. Most of those who drop out are non-performers, as told by the Executive Director of the Kotak Mahindra Mutual Life Insurance Company; he attributes it to the high expectations on the part of the agents. Most people think that they can make a lot of money in a short span of time. It is a high-pressure job. Sustenance requires constant networking and acquiring new relationships that requires a lot of discipline. MD Kotak Life Insurance opines that it is a sunrise industry, many people just want to join the race, but cannot retain the enthusiasm till the end of a year. The attrition rate in the industry is pitched between 14% and 38% at this rate; it will soon rival the 50 per cent churn rate of the ITs-BPO sector. Country Manager, Tata AIG, argues that the industry today is more at an attraction stage; insurers are also attracting a lot of talent from banking, Fast Moving C onsumer Goods, BPO-IT industries. Head (hr and Admin, HDFC Standard Life Insurance) stated that attrition rates are at 14% in the industry. Companies have to go beyond building a brand to offer the agents careers and let them grow with the market. While retaining employees may be a problem, attracting fresh talent is still relatively easy. The slowdown in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods and Consumer Durables sector and people trained by direct marketing companies like Amway and Orflamme, too find a way into selling insurance. Head (hr ICICI Prudential Life Insurance) opines that companies cannot hold on to people, especially among frontline sales force, and this will rise as the market matures, since people are actually experiencing large amount of money coming in. Managing director and CEO (Prudential Life Insurance), the hr challenge is being addressed by offering employees learning and growth opportunities. The company offers opportunities for cross-functional learning, skills and talent development, thereby expanding ones job profile. Further, employees also develop a sense of belongingness with the company. Recruiters explain that high employee turnover rates significantly increase the investments that are made in the employees. The problem of losing funds in employee acquisition is prominent. Companies invest significant amounts of money and time in training in the initial phase; but these investments do not always get converted into actual profits. In the case of the insurance industry, each agent level recruitment costs a company nearly Rs.5000, other associated costs of training and administrative service are also involved. Each agent works in a non-productive or partly productive mode in the organization for nearly the first 2-3 months. An employee leaving the organization within the first 6 months is a bad investment for the company. While most insurers were not willing to share the number of staff members they lost to competitors and other sectors i n recent times, industry sources indicate that newer companies like Reliance, Bharti Axa, IDBI Fortis, Pantaloons-Generali and others have been active in fresh recruitment of officials from established companies like ICICI Prudential Life, Birla Sun Life, HDFC Standard Life. LITERATURE REVIEW Researchers have done a literature review on the issues related to the reasons for and consequences of the employee loss and how the management may deal with turnover in various industries, in order to have a fair understanding of the strategies that can be adopted by the Insurance companies. William J Rothwell (May 2008) in his article, Motivating for Retention refers to motivation as a topic of perennial interest. As organizational leaders begin a war for talent, they need to consider new ways to motivate people to stay. Since much research indicates that people often make decisions to leave because of their supervisors treatment with them, it only makes sense to consider ways of improving managers treatment of workers and this article focuses on that particular issue. While many theories of motivation have been proposed, many managers today are looking for ways to retain their most talented people. One way to do that is to focus attention on how a manager treats the workers. This article also offers some thoughts on what behaviors to examine for improvement and has provided two instruments that may be helpful in doing that. Dongho Kim (2006) in his article Employee Motivation: Just Ask Your Employees says that the imperative need of discovering, comprehending and implementing employee motivation has been a principal concern for organizations, managers and even first line supervisors, as employee motivation has been and will be the deciding factor in work performance as well as the success or failure of an organization. The purpose of this paper is to re-emphasize and analyze the necessary components of employee motivation so that the contemporary managers, especially those who are inexperienced, can enhance their knowledge and understanding of employee motivation. If a company knows as to why its employees come to work on time, stay with the company for their full working lives, and are productive, then the company may be able to ensure that all of their employees behave that way. The priorities of employee motivational factors change over time, and there is more than one reason why these changes occur. The reasons may be the economic conditions, change of the working environment or industries, labor market conditions, industry competitions, change in the workers attitude etc. An organization must realize that the employee motivation and its process are there to motivate its employees, and hence, the employee input must be valued and included throughout this process. In todays knowledge-based economy, the most challenging task before a HR Manager is to motivate and retain employees. Though various attempts have been made in this direction, there has not been much of success and no one knows as to what exactly is the route to employees heart. Sanjeev Sharma (22 July 2006), in his article, A Right Way to Motivate an Employee is to Win his Heart, focuses on the reasons why motivation is ignored even though it is of greater significance motivation is intangible, drives all human actions, can be observed but not measured and is lost in a twilight zone; he compares motivation to that of a pop-up fly ball which can fall into cracks, if not handled or played effectively. Further, he explains the need for motivation and profile 10 areas that powerfully impact motivation which include economic rewards, promotion and transfers, opportunity to grow, challenging and stimulating work, autonomy, leadership, informal psychic rewards, goals and fun. Helping the management team optimize employees emotions will enable the organization to make significant impact on the primary sources of competitive advantage in todays market place. Beach, Brereton, and Cliff (2003) in their article Workforce turnover in FIFO mining operations in Australia: An exploratory study. examined that the term turnover refers to employee movements that create vacancies within an organizational unit. These vacancies may be the result of resignations, transfers, retirements, dismissals, or the completion of fixed term contracts. Jyothi and Venkatesh (2006), in their book Human Resource Management, have told that the application of skill or competence leads to performance and performance is the criterion for evaluating effectiveness. Therefore, a pay-for-competence program enhances productivity and product quality, reduces absenteeism, turnover, and accident rates. Campbell and Baldwin(1993), in their article Recruitment difficulties and skill shortages: an analysis of labor market information in Yorkshire and Humberside, suggest that in many industrialized countries there is a concern that skills shortages and mismatches are appearing in the labor market and that policy makers are aware that recruitment difficulties and skill shortages may reduce the competitiveness of small and large firms. Islam and Rasad (2006) in their article, Employee performance evaluation by the AHP: A case study, studies that employee performance appraisal has been practiced by numerous organizations since centuries. Though performance appraisal system has been debated by many, however, overall, it is viewed that performance appraisal is an inseparable part of organizational life. Wu (2005), in his article A DEA approach to understanding the performance of Taiwans steel industries 1970-1996, mentions performance management as a complex problem and it involves various kinds of judgments about which performance measure to use. Evaluation scores depend upon these criteria heavily. Hale (1998) in his article Strategic rewards: Compensation and benefits management. stated that employers cited recruitment costs of 50% to 60% of an employees first years salary and up to 100% for certain specialized, high-skill positions. Bowen and Shuster (1986) in their article American professors: A national resource imperiled. stated that while all constituting elements of an organization are important for its success, it is its enhanced ability to attract and retain the best quality talent that separates it from the others. Abbasid and Holman (2000) in their article Turnover: The real bottom-line. Public Personnel Management sought to determine the impact of employee turnover on an organization and found that excessive employee turnover often engenders far-reaching consequences and at the extreme may jeopardize efforts to attain the organizational objectives. Elangovan (2001) in his article Casual ordering of stress, satisfaction and commitment, and intention to quit: A structural equation analysis. has argued that there is a reciprocal link between organizational commitment and turnover intention, i.e. lower commitment increases turnover intention, which lowers commitment further. Abdul Rahman, Raza Naqvi, and Ismail Ramay (2008) in their article Measuring turnover intention: A study of it professionals in Pakistan. revealed that job satisfaction and organizational commitment had a negative effect on turnover intentions, whereas perceived alternative job opportunities had a significant positive correlation with turnover intentions and is the major factor associated with turnover intention among it Professionals in Pakistan. Van Dick et al. (2004) in their article Should I stay or should I go? Explaining turnover intentions with organizational identification and job satisfaction. have also identified job satisfaction as a predictor of turnover intention; however, they argue that it is a mediating variable between organizational identification and turnover intention. According to their study, organizational identification feeds into job satisfaction, which, in turn, predicts turnover intention. Gomez-Mejia, Balkin and Cardy (2003) in their article Managing Human Resources have analyzed that socialization is the process of orienting new employees to the organization or the unit in which they will be working. Socialization can make the difference between a new workers feeling like an outsider and feeling like the member of the team. Zheng and Lamond (2009) in their article Forthcoming Organizational determinants of employee turnover for multinational companies in Asia. found out that training, size, length of operation and the nature of the industry are significantly related to turnover. Determining what constitutes high turnover is a complex issue, because there is no simple linear relationship between turnover rates and the social and/or economic performance of companies. Issues ranging from poor job fit, lack of recognition or support from senior management, uncertainty about the organizations future and poor management communication are some of the reasons why people start looking for other opportunities. Reasons that can be attributed to high employee turnover in the insurance sector are: Being an insurance agent in India is seen as a societal stigma as there is uncertainty of job and income attached to it. People join insurance companies as a part time job or a gap filler occupation and not as a long-term career. Very few competent people want to become agents owing to low social status attached to it. It is a high-pressure job. It is expected from an agent to understand the customers needs and sell the products accordingly. This process involves a high level of persuasion and a sustained effort for a long period. A lot of people succumb to such pressures. The expectation achievement gap adds to the turnover. Many people are lured to the profession with a high earning potential. However, to earn a decent income, agents require a lot of patience, perseverance, and persuasion in the field. During early phase, the earnings of the agents are low despite hard work. This expectation achievement gap leads many of them to break down in the initial period of joining the profession. Scarce skilled or experienced human resource in insurance market leads to wide scale poaching and head hunting amongst the competitors. The industry has yet to witness mature hr processes, like work force planning, training, motivation, and retention. The lack of preplanned recruitment leads the firms to indulge in poaching human resources working in other insurance firms. With insurers having a high percentage of the workforce from multiple sectors (non-domain), the chances of losing employees to other fields, like Fast Moving Consumer Goods companies or other financial outfits, are high. Employee Turnover is perhaps paid the least attention among various employees issues. It is shrugged off as inevitable. Few companies take a proactive approach towards reducing employee turnover. It always includes substantial costs of replacing the key employee who fall into the category of high performers. Replacing includes the costs of recruitment advertisement, referral bonuses, selection testing, training costs, etc. Moreover, turnover results in loss of time and efforts, low productivity, loss of morale, loss of knowledge and so on. DEALING WITH EMPLOYEE TURNOVER Organizations that keep the front line staff motivated and equip them with the right tools are most likely to enjoy long-term superior performance (Rogers and Peccoud 2005). The challenge of creating a dynamic, enthusiastic, motivated front line environment is an opportunity in disguise for organizations. Organizations need employees who are committed, à ¯Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡exible, and ready to participate in decision-making. Retaining such employees in the organizations is becoming imperative in todays competitive environment. Behavioral research studies show that all human activities including jobs are directed towards satisfying certain needs. Patterns of individual behavior and motivation differ, because individuals seek to fulfill different sets of needs in different ways as adopted from their environmental and social backgrounds. Maslow (1943) propounded the Hierarchy of Needs theory originally applied as a general theory of psychological motivation. However, the usefulness of its the oretical model was adopted by organizational theorist McGregor in 1960, who applied Maslows theory in the work place. Later on, the Hierarchy of Needs theory has been adopted and incorporated into applications in many areas in business (Shoura and Singh 1998). In the management field, it is an effective approach towards understanding motivation. Motivation is connected to several levels of the needs hierarchy of human beings. Appreciation, love, respect and fulfilling work are several motivators other than monetary benefits that an individual looks for. An attempt is made in the paper to align Maslows Hierarchy of needs to the findings of the survey to offer a better understanding of employee turnover. Maslow suggests that each individual aspires for a higher-level unfulfilled need once they have gratified the lower order need. An individuals level of aspirations rise when needs on lower levels are satisfied. The lower four layers of the pyramid are called deficiency needs or D-needs, physiological, safety and security, love and belongingness and esteem. With the exception of the lowest layer of physiological needs, if these deficiency needs are not met, the body gives no physical indication but the individual feels anxious and tensed. Various levels of Maslows Hierarchy of Needs are analyzed  in the perspective of insurance agents: PHYSIOLOGICAL NEEDS: These include the most basic needs that are vital to survival, including the need for water, air, food, and sleep. These needs are the most basic and instinctive needs in the hierarchy. All other needs become secondary until these physiological needs are met. In the perspective of insurance agents, these needs are addressed by the compensation plan. Insurance companies primarily work on incentive-based compensation plans, which lead to income uncertainties. An employee looks forward to a sufficient compensation structure, which would take care of all of his/her basic physiological needs. A robust, safe, and easy to understand compensation plan may retain employees who are striving to materialize their physiological needs. It is necessary for the companies to update the compensation plan with time, so that it fulfills the physiological needs of the individual and his/her family at different stages of their lives. SAFETY NEEDS: Such needs are important for survival, but they are not as demanding as the physiological needs. Desire for steady employment, health insurance, safe neighborhoods, and shelter from the environment could be a few. There are two aspects of the security, which would concern a person in the insurance business. One is the personal physical security while on field; and the psychological fear of job security with high targets is the second. SOCIAL NEEDS: Maslow states that people seek to overcome feelings of loneliness and alienation. This involves both giving and receiving love, affection and the sense of belongingness. This need of an individual gets highly affected in insurance companies predominantly. Individuals do not gain a high status in society, which is attributed to the social stigma of being an insurance agent, and big target pressure causes separation from ones family, friends, and relatives. Employees have been found complaining about not being able to spend ample time with their family and friends. The insurance companies may compensate for this by creating a fun-filled work environment and developing a conducive work environment. Teambuilding initiatives can be taken by mangers to inculcate the sense of belongingness. NEEDS FOR ESTEEM: A normal human desires to be accepted and valued by others. People engage themselves to gaining recognition, attaining a sense of contribution, feeling accepted and self-valued, be it in a profession or hobby. Imbalances at this level can result in low self-esteem or an inferiority complex. Those working as employees in an insurance company are viewed as people of comparatively less ability. The attitude is developed due to mass recruitment undertaken by insurance firms, where not much focus is placed on selecting suitable candidates. This diminution in esteem leads to leaving the industry on getting a better opportunity. Many companies are focusing on creating a positive image of the industry by using the media, though much is yet to be done. Measures like change in job title and nature of the job could be positive steps in this direction. As the industry matures, the positioning needs a change from being a mere moneymaker option to an industry that provides learni ng and high growth opportunities. NEED FOR SELF-ACTUALIZATION: Maslow describes self-actualization as a persons need to be and do what he/she was born to do. These needs make themselves felt in signs of restlessness. A person