Michael Graves Essay Example for Free

Michael Graves Essay Art Appreciation Michael Graves Michael Graves is a post-modern architect born in Indianapolis, Indiana on July 9th 1934. He graduated from Broad Ripple High School; he then attended and got his bachelor degree at the University of Cincinnati. After getting his bachelors, he went to Harvard where he got his masters in Interior design. After college he started career as an architect, it was in 1968 when he designed and built the Hanselmann House in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He built houses for about 10 years until he started building all kinds of buildings. He built anything from the Dolphin Resort at Disney world from the Denver Public Library. Graves has been designing buildings of all types since 1968 very rapidly, some years designing four or more buildings a year. One of Gravess most famous buildings is the Portland building in Oregon. This building was made in 1980 and is unique because of how he surprised everyone with the exterior design. He used a pair of classical columns that have no structural function. He made these columns stand out by setting them in a reflecting pool. The Portland public says the building is both formal and playful, governor Ivancie says that most big city building were beginning to be built to simple with Just glass outsides. He says the Portland building doesnt lack design features like other big city buildings. Some did criticize the design but most were thrilled by the uniqueness of the new building. People say there is type of humor to his designs and buildings. Graves has become an opponent of modern works who uses humor as an integral part of his architecture (1). Graves uses designs from the past and puts his own twist on them. Graves re-interpreted the rational style that had been introduced by Le Corbusier in the 1920s into a neoclassical style (1). Michael Graves has many building that are very famous, but his design on the Humana Building in Louisville, Kentucky is maybe his best design hes had. His design on this building got him in the time magazine. TIME Magazine listed it as one of the 10 best buildings of the decade (2). The building looks different from every side. Many say it is one of the most unique and distinctive skyscrapers in America. Critics say it is a textbook example of Postmodernism. Graves Humana building is said to have its fair share of flaws but the brilliant design more than counteracts the flaws. While the building has undeniable flaws, they are easily outweighed by its attributes, hich have only grown stronger with time(3). http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/house/ http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/tv/ http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/technology_internetcritic/ https://books.google.com.ua/books?id=JwhZCwAAQBAJpg=PA225lpg=PA225dq=http://featuresblogs.+chicagotribune.+com/tsource=blots=CwG3pAKd5lsig=5KrPfyo2wN90yu3ZXrsblMPOpewhl=uksa=Xved=0ahUKEwjy0NvQhoPUAhVKD5oKHUzSCe8Q6AEIRDAE#v=onepageq=http%3A%2F%2Ffeaturesblogs.%20chicagotribune.%20com%2Ftf=false https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humana_Building Humana http://www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Michael_Graves.html

Prospects and growth of the fast food industry

Prospects and growth of the fast food industry Tackling the blow of recession has not been easy for any industry. Its Attack was so strong that no industry has been able to save itself from its effects. If the hospitality industry is a measure of the wealthy and the rich peoples pockets then the news is very bad indeed. Many restaurants have went to the wall in the final quarter of 2008.The restaurants have been fighting with the reduction of corporate entertaining and the disposable income squeeze of consumers as well. Not only the restaurants and the hotels, but the pub industry has also been stroked by a number of factors over the past one decade and recession has put pressure on an already difficult trading environment. In the words of a renowned chef Dawn Sweeny, Creativity has always been a hallmark of professional chefs So to survive the blow of recession and to manage this situation a Lot of established chefs are getting in to street vending of their creations more efficiently to people who could only dream in their mortar and brick buildings. Low overheads, low labour costs and mostly cash based business is win- win situation for many. These mobile kitchen vans are saving these brand names from dying. The big brand names are selling their franchises to the people who want to earn a good amount of money by investing at one time. These vans have everything you need in the kitchen including all kinds of appliances and raw material. This food is comparatively cheaper as the mobile kitchen cuts down on the over heads and the labour costs. Street food is becoming a way to indulge pre-recession tastes on post-recession budgets At the same time recession in the US food industry has creating the new opportunity for the food sector in the US. In the recently released research report by RNCOS on US Fast food market outlook 2010even though there is gloomy economic condition in US, the fast food industry in US is growing rapidly because of inexpensive fast food and increasing number of working population. According to the report fast food market is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years and will cross the US$170 billion by the end of 2010. Because of economic downturn people has reduced their expenses of going for dinner in the restaurant and fast food for the launch. Instead of going in the restaurant they have started buying the food from street food vans which cost them less as compared to the restaurant food and they can save that much money in this recession time. This trend is becoming more common in the urban areas where the demand of pre-packed food and readymade food has increased because of the f ast life of their people. This has become now new trend there because American people wants want to have food which can provide instant energy without wasting more time and they can also afford that. The new trend of franchising the existing brands to the mobile carts is look refreshing and a new concept in the States. Through the research will able to judge that will this trend will continue even after the period of recession? Street food is becoming very famous in the United States and till the date only small-scale outlets are driving the trend, but now large food maker have also started to enter the market to get on board with this new trend. The market research organizations Culinary Trend Mapping Report from the Centre for Culinary Development (CCD) examined the booming street food trend, which has seen Americans reaching for a variety of convenient, portable and affordable foods, often with globally inspired flavours and eco-friendly preparation (foodnavigator-usa.com). In the recent time street food has become very popular due to a confluence of larger social trends, mainly because of the economic downturn and the corresponding need for more affordable foods, growing snacking habits, greater interest in ethnic flavours and in local, sustainable foods. 1.2 Purpose This research attempts to contribute to the study of the current prospects and growth of the fast food industry on the wheel. The Food trucks in the NYC and other mobile food carts started by famous restaurants have been introduced. This research aims to find out what was the effect of recession on the food industry and how has it affected the consumer behaviour in this regard. The eating habits and the change in the actual income have affected the behaviour of the consumers and hence their frequency of dining out and their expenditure on food has been affected. So this research will throw light on this change as well. With the intention of exploring the possibility of the Food trucks endorsed by the restaurants that have seen a reduction in the number of customers due to recession, we will also study how these trucks are working and how do they cater to the needs of the people in the current situation. Whether the management and the way they are operating is different and how simila r their ways of operations are. In addition this research will study the advantages of the mobile food carts and if they can be a competition to the conventional style of dining and eating out. Or if these food trucks can add to the brand name of the existing restaurants and chains that have otherwise seen a decline in their business. 1.3 Development and structure of the research This research paper was developed in five steps 1. Define research aim topic Discussion with supervisor and explore possible interests within designated discipline. 2. Gather relevant literatures Begin investigation in existing literature to discover possible gap between academic research and reality. 3. Develop research structure Construct content of study and plan accordingly. 4. Collect the data and Data analysis Collect all required data from different secondary sources. Clear presentation of data in logical sequential arrangement and examine Validity of collected information 5. Develop conclusion from finding Present conclusion of this research and provide recommendation for further research CHAPTER- 2 Literature Review 2.1 Overview The chapter first begin by introduction of Food market in the USA and effects of recession on food market of USA then followed by the restaurant and fast food business in USA. Next consumers behaviour is discussed with respect to spending on the food. In the last section of this chapter significance of the mobile food van and its impact on the competition is discussed with respect to USA. 2.2 Restaurant and Fats food business in USA- Restaurant companies generally work to identify them self as customers retailers and not as a manufacturing meals. Restaurants are primarily retailers of two consumers product time and customers experience (Muller, 1999). People went to the restaurants and fast food providers to save their time from making the food and to get satisfaction of their needs. Restaurant is vast business in USA where consumers are less concerned about the where meal is prepared, they only concerned about the how the food is delivered and how they feel after meal is completed. While the fast food service is totally different they always concerned about building consumer loyalty and market awareness. There is vast difference between restaurant business and fast food service providers. Stalk and Hout (1990) described future economic competition as being based on a companys responsiveness to the time needs of its customer base. Currently, the restaurant industry accounts for four percent of the U.S. gross dome stic product and is the nations second largest employer next to the Federal government (Dumagan and Hackett, 1995). In USA restaurant holders are paying more attention to the growing trend in the eating habits of the people. According to the report of the NRI 2001 they have noticed seventy five percent increases in the restaurant customers as compared to 2001 in 2003. Even the rise of the convenience food in last 10 years can be seen by the growth of the fast food chain in the United States. The main reason behind the increase demand of fast food is these meals are ready to eat on the go and ability to hold these food in hands and to eat according to the consumers freedom. The main reason behind increased the growth of restaurant and fast food business is decreased in the food prices in the USA. Lakdawalla and Philipson (2002) attribute about 40% of the recent growth in weight to agricultural innovation that has lowered food prices Mainly technological change has made huge contribution in decreased price of the food price which eventually provides opportunity to the restaurant and fast food service provider to offer the food at cheaper rate and increased their business growth. The analysis draws on data from the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) between 1971 and 1974, the BLS food price in real terms increased from 1.012 to 1.134, an increase of 12.04%, followed by a decrease of 11.02% between the years of 1974 and 1986, when it reached a low of 1.009. This is reflective of the behaviour of food prices in that period of time (Food prices, 2007). Due to decreased in the food prices percentage of people has decreased and expenditure on the food away from the home increased and increased in working class people is also another reason for growth of the restaurant and fast food business. According to the survey data of the county business pattern number of restaurant provides full services increased to 213550 in 200 6 from 193024 in 1998 and restaurant which not provide service like cafeteria and bar increased to 204311 in 2006 from 172695 in 1998. Data from the Census of Retail Trade highlight the steady increase in the number of full service and fast-food restaurants since the early 1970s; between 1972 and 1997, the number of restaurants per 10,000 population increased 61% from 884 to 1427 (Chou et al., 2004; Rashad et al., 2006). In the rapid development of the restaurant and fast food business taking fist mover advantage through franchise has played very important role. The main of using franchise is to assemble resources making long chain and to get first mover advantage (Micheal, 2003). By giving franchise restaurant and fast food business try to create a premium on rapid expansion of geographic areas. In USA strategy adopted by restaurant and fast food business owner to expanding units rapidly through franchising has created superior outlet share which eventually lead them to have high market share and profitability. Therefore, franchising is one method of securing first mover advantage (Micheal, 2003). Franchising overcomes the moral hazard problem associated with the operation of a chain of dispersed units (Caves and Murphy, 1976; Rubin, 1978; Brickley and Dark, 1987). McDonalds, a famous fast food supplier, opened its first franchised restaurant in the US in 1955. Now it has become a phenomenally succe ssful enterprise in terms of financial growth, brand-name recognition, and worldwide expansion by using franchise concept aggressively. Currently fast food franchise in the United States generates income of more than $125 billion per year. According to latest numbers there are over 2000 fast food franchise in USA and more than 5,00,000 franchisor operated outlets in USA. McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut and Subway are among the more popular fast food franchises worldwide that rake in millions of dollars per year in profits. During the last four decade fast food industry has grown very speedily in American society. An industry that starts in south California has spread in every corner of the USA. Fast food is served not only at restaurants but also at stadium, airplanes, school and college in every part of the USA and it has brought the rapid change in the USA economy (Schlosser, 1998). Fast food business has overcome the restaurant business in last few years in USA and it has benefited from the demographic change, supplying the food at cheaper price and hiring people at lower rate of wage. One of the ironies of Americas fast-food industry is that a business so dedicated to conformity was founded by iconoclasts and self-made men, by entrepreneurs willing to defy conventional opinion (Schlosser, 1998). Now fast food has become the operating system of the todays service industry in USA and it has created millions of job opportunity for the people in the country   when the other businesses have been firing the workers. 2.3 Food Industry and the Recession The Recession hits all parts of the food system, from the producer to the processor; from the grocer to the diner! (Mary Turck) Recent sales of the U. S. eating and drinking place industry have been lacklustre. It is difficult to pinpoint the exact reasons for this sluggishness, but the recent U. S. recession as well as 1986 modifications to U. S. tax law has to be considered factors (Stephen J.Hiemstra). This study aimed at finding out the factors related to the decline in the demand for the food service lately and to bring out the extent to which the eating and drinking place industry sales were declining due to this lack of demand. As it was difficult to pinpoint any single factor. Findings indicated that the decline in demand could be majorly explained by changes in prices, decrease in the income, and the drop in deductibility of restaurant food as a business expense. The economic recession has hit the food industry as much as any other industry in the international market. Food being the prime necessity cannot be avoided and hence is a bigger pain for the consumer whose income has decreased due to the economic downturn. The rising petroleum prices have affected the cost of transportation for the seeds and the grains and have hence added to the cost of production making the food expensive for the ultimate consumer. The food prices have gone up with the increasing dairy and grain prices entering in to the year 2007.By the end of 2009 the economists announced the rising unemployment. As a result Restaurants were also hit as hard as any other industry as the consumer stopped dining out and spending on food as compared to earlier. Hence the cost of living was cut on the cost of eating and dining out. Nearly two third of the restaurant operators reported a decline in their business in the end of 2008 as compared to the sales in the year 2007 (National Restaurant Association). Golden Gate Restaurant Associations (GGRA) presented a study of the economics of the San Francisco Restaurant industry looking at the conditions of the food industry in the recession in the year 2002 and 2003.According to the reports the hotel occupancy in San Francisco was dropped by 20% and the average daily room rates came down by 16%.The city lost 80,000 jobs nearly 14% of the total city employment (Kent Sims). However with time, the economy of San Francisco has improved with respect to the conditions in 2002-03. But there are areas where it remains well below the level where it was in 2000. Over all the economy is smaller than what it was before recession. Hotel occupancy in 2004 was 4% above its low point in 2002, but still 20% lower than in 2000. In 2005, the city driven US restaurants recovering from the recession in 2004 confronted the fact their customers were back again and their sales were back, but the profits did not come back. As the operating costs have raised at a greater pace than the gross margin on sales, despite the higher menu prices. According to a confidential survey conducted by GGRA (2006) the results mainly pointed out that half of the people considered San Francisco and other cities in the USA as the major culinary centre and half of the population also said that the stature of such cities as culinary centre is either diminishing or marking time. Business at traditional business-lunch spots, including the Capital Grille, Mortons, and McCormick Schmicks, is down dramatically this was reported by Chicago tribune in 2008. These researches have shown that Recession is a hard time for food industry as well as more and more people are finding it tough to stay in one job and they want to change their job and add to their income. But even in Recession the people cant avoid food so they started looking for cheaper options and the food industry tackled this by cutting out the middle man. This gave rise to the trend of fast food and the US fast food market started to rise. As people has started looking for less expensive. The Consumer expenditure on fast food rose sharply in these years, accounting for around 30% of total restaurant industry sales in 2008. With the busy life style, cost advantage and increasing demand of convenience food, the total fast food industry in the US is expected to grow at a CAGR of nearly 5% till 2010.(US fast food market outlook 2010, PR log press release). From the past few recent years McDonalds, Burger King, and other fast food restaurants have been scooping up the customers. B oth of the big burger chains are taking market share from competitors with higher price points, building on reputations for low prices and revamped dollar menus (Mary Turck). The Recession has brought about a trend in the menu cycle of the food industry as well.( Stages of the Industry Life Cycle (1919-1988) H.G Parsal). The preferences have changed from the formal full course dinners to quick food which is better known as the fast food. There has been a growth in the fast food business in after the recession (Industry research journal). In the phase of recession, fast food sales in US have increased. This is due to the fact that fast food in the country is comparatively inexpensive than the traditional food and thus, more and more people are shifting to fast food in this economic crisis. Also, hamburger and the Rools are one of the most preferred food items in the country. This represents the growth of around 5% in 2009 over 2008, and the same trend is expected to be seen in the coming years also. 2.4 Consumer Behaviour in USA food industry- Consumer behaviour is very important to know in any business to make it successful. Its very important to take proper care of the issue like consumers like dislike their health issue and consumer satisfaction. Consumer behaviour potentially deals with all of the ways people may act in their role as consumers (Schiffman and Kanuk, 1991) and it also include to focus on behaviour related to searching, buying and using product and service in the market. Generally restaurant and fast food business providers divide consumers in the groups based on the geographic characteristics, common attitudes, and behaviour so that they can provide better services to them. Food industry is closely concerned with food choice and quality, but at the same time has long been considered to offer a rich meal experience to which many other factors contribute (Campbell-Smith, 1967). Every customer has different perspective to rate the service of the restaurant and fast food service. Customers rate the service o n the basis of the food quality, service quality, ambience of the place, price of the food and facility provided by the restaurant and fast food providers like free home delivery. Becker-Suttle et al. (1994) and Williams et al. (1997), respectively, identify the dining preferences of older customers, and the factors that inhibit this group from using full service restaurants. Consumers behaviour is more important in service industry as if customers are not happy with the happy than it will become very difficult to sustain in the competition. In the development of the restaurant and fast food business globalisation has played very major role with respect to food supplies, food habits, and population health and food consumption behaviour. In this fast developing world consumers have adopted to save time and get job done in time. Changes in working and social life of the people have played very important part in the very high growth of the food industry in USA. In social context, gradually the numbers of families where both parents are working are increasing worldwide (Stamoulis, Kostas G. et al., 2004). Due to busy schedule of the people they are getting less time to make food and eat at home so they are diverted to the restaurant and fast food more in the recent years. In recent years the living standard of the people of USA has also changed before few years they used to take dinner together with the family on the dining table now most of the family likes to sit against the TV and watching programme. Number of gathering p rogrammes like birthday parties, anniversary parties has increased in last few years and people tend to arranged these parties in restaurants instead of at home which has also increased the demand of restaurant food in USA. This new trend has provide opportunities to the restaurant and fast food service business to offer varieties of the services to the people and which attracts more people to come to their place for the dinner and launch. Increase in earning of the people has also contributed to the rapid development of the restaurant and fast food industry in USA. According to the research data Americans spent about $6 billion on fast food in 1970, they spent more than $110 billion in 2000. Americans now spend more money on fast food and restaurant instead on higher education and new cars. National restaurant association has reported that Americans are buying 5.8 times average per week form a restaurant and per person spending on restaurant food is $1078. Now a days consumers are giving more importance to the quality of the food with respect to the health safety. Henson and Traill define food safety as the inverse of food risk-the probability of not suffering some hazard from consuming a specific food (Henson Traill, 1993). Consumers attitude towards food safety and practice related to it is more important for the restaurant and fast food service providers to take into consideration. Even government of USA has also formed very strict regulation and food policy which is necessary for the restaurant and fast food providers to follow. In May 1997, US President Clinton launched a National Food Safety initiative to enhance surveillance, improve risk assessment, inspection and compliance, educate the consumer and conduct important new research (Tent, 1999). Food quality awareness has made more responsible to the restaurant and fast food business towards peoples health issue and which has benefited them as they are offering low calorie food to the people. Mc Donald has already implemented its strategy for the consumer preference since last many years. McDonalds has pursued two strategies since 2003. To keep up with rapidly changing consumer preferences, demographics, and spending patterns, McDonalds has introduced new items Premium Chicken sandwiches and the Angus Beef Burger and also doing campaigns to create more healthy foods like Premium Salads in USA. The strategy reflects the philosophy that novelty, as opposed to loyalty to traditional products, is the key determinant of sales in the fast food industry . In the recent years consumers have started to give more importance to the nutrition food and salads due to awareness of their health and increasing obesity. The growing epidemic of childhood overweight and obesity is a major public health concern. Currently 15% of US youth are overweight, a prevalence nearly twice as high in children and three times as high in adolescents compared to 1980 prevalence rates (Rockville, 2001).In U SA size of the family has also played major role in development of the restaurant and fast food service and specially Hispanic American families. Hispanic purchasing power has influenced the marketplace. Hispanic shoppers spend more on food purchases because their families are usually larger. So consumer behaviour and consumer preference has played very vital role in the rapid growth of the fast food and restaurant business in the USA and they also got support from the economic development of the USA also. Mobile food service: Dabbawalas in India to Food trucks in NYC The origin of the Dabbawalas lunch delivery service dates back to the 1890s during the British Empire in India. Various people migrated from different parts of the India for work. Due to lack of canteens, the working class used to stay without eating lunch if they forgot to get it from their houses.. Invariably, lunch would not be ready when they left home for work. The taste of different communities was different; this could only be satisfied by a home cooked food. Recognizing the need, Mahadeo Havaji Bacche (Mahadeo), a migrant from North Maharashtra, 10 started the lunch delivery service. (Paul S Goodman ,2003) This service started with around 100 dabbawalas (workers) and cost the client INR 2 per month. There are around 5,000 dabbawalas in Mumbai today delivering around 200,000 Tiffin-boxes amounting to 400,000 transactions every day first delivering the Tiffin boxes and then delivering the empty boxes back home. (The Economic times 2008)Here nobody is an employer and none are employees. Each dabbawala considers himself a shareholder and entrepreneur .The entire system depends on teamwork and meticulous timing. Tiffin boxes are collected from homes between 7.00 am and 9.00 am, Various tiffin services also provide the service of cooked food and not just the transportation of the boxes. After the collection, these boxes are taken to the nearest railway station. various intermediary stations, they are hauled onto platforms and sorted out for area-wise distribution, so that a single Tiffin could change hands three to four times in the course of its daily journey..( Pradeep Thakkar,2005). Even in the economic crisis, Dabbawalas have been serving and are providing a necessary and recession-proof service as even in the tough economic times, people will always need lunch the dabbawalas are a cooperative that can boast a business record of reliability that would have any operation salivating with envy.(Dean Irvine,nov 2008)In the year 2008, Forbes gave the six sigma efficiency title to these dabbawalas. This six sigma rating the dabbawalas that was received by Forbes magazine precipitated a rush of interest from management supply companies and the various business schools searching for the secrets of its success. The rating means that these dabbawalas have a 99.9 percent efficiency rate.(Dean Irvine,2008)The concept of providing the food to their workplaces, without any need of going to the restaurants and wasting the time that can be otherwise saved for working is very suitable for the working class people of today. This is why these dabbawalas are serving well in the time of recession and people find it much better to get their food from them than going out and eating. The concept of mobile food service is not new to the countries outside India now. The Food trucks in the USA are the biggest example .The restaurant concept in the Country is going mobile! With the changing trends in the food and catering industry, the concept of moving food vans can be seen in the places like New York in the US.(Katherine Marginally., Dec 2009) Whether its because of the economy, cultural exchange, or plain demand, street food is making its culinary mark (International Chefs congress) A young chef Josh Ozersky calls these food trucks as one of the most definitive moments of this generation. Its not a fad like pet rocks or hundred dollar burgers. Its a great way for young chefs to get into the business without having a wealthy backer. Recently the savvy entrepreneurs and the chefs are getting to the streets with their culinary training and experience. This is partially fuelled by recession and a changing trend which is more inclined towards casual dining. The chefs have found more adventure and satisfaction in Global Street food in respect to the factors, cuisine as well as the concept. The new wave of mobile food vans are proving that you dont need a brick and mortar place for producing and providing high quality and high concept food for people. Lunch trucks also called as food trucks are mobile food courts which sell food items at different locations. They reap more benefits than the restaurants which are stationary as they have very limited number of customer base which provides limited amount of revenue. They can also be called as restaurant on wheels. There are different lunch trucks available in the markets which are specifically targeted to cater to the needs of different varieties of food items. From the daily breakfast to the dinner, desserts to juices you have wide variety to choose from.(Yew Chin) These trucks have more variety than any other stationary cafe or restaurant. From coffee to puddings, waffles to rolls and Indian curries to Arabic Falafel. They have it all. There are Coffee trucks, Snacks trucks, Dessert Trucks, Chinese food trucks and proper restaurant trucks that have a kitchen inside and have the same menu as in any other restaurant be in Indian or Italian. The cost of operating an established restaurant often handcuffs ones ability to go outside the box due to dà ©cor and tabletop package expense, high-end equipment in the kitchen that must be paid down and, in my case, our reputation as a classic historic inn which has a presumed menu style that pays the bills. The guerrilla trucks can much more easily think out of the box, since they are often serving out of a cardboard box.(Patrick Byrne,2009) Known for their profits, when compared with the stationary restaurants, these trucks have shown greater profit and a very good customer base. They provide the custome rs with good quality of food that they can afford. In return they get a loyal customer following in different locations that they plan to go around. As they move from one place to other, they have this opportunity to serve more people and with different menu options. There are plenty of hurdles that are faced by these food trucks owner along with the profits.The Initial investment consists of the vehicle followed by the Kitchen and the appliances and accessories used there in. These vans also require a Mobile food service license from the government before they can start their business. There are issues of permissions which vary from city to city and mostly in cities like New York and Manhattan allowing these food vans is not difficult.(Emilly Bell ,Dec 2009)However these rest on wheels should pay attention to providing the food on proper health standards and conditions.(Patrick Byrne,2009) The pedestrian snackers on the streets of Manhattan and Brooklyn are accustomed to mobile eateries, but these new gourmet food trucks take the street-food game to a higher level. Unlike dirty-water dog stands, which often stick to the same corner, these meals on wheels have the freedom of mobility, websites tracking their whereabouts, PR representation and specialized offerings such as restaurant-quality desserts, tacos and waffles. So just like the previously mentioned Dabbawalas of India Food trucks in the USA are popular among the people who want to save on their time and money. Because the obvious reason for the preference of these trucks by the consumers over the stationary restaurants is the low cost food that has the same quality and the ease of getting the food on the go. Also according to George Ebinger, (International House of pancakes), It is unfair to its grossly unfair to allow trucks in close proximity to established businesses trying to make it in this economy. You can t compete with a truck when it comes to pricing and service And for the Owners The obvious appeal of bringing your food into a truck or cart is the low overhead-theres no rent, no getting a restaurant up to code, no large staff to pay. With the economic downturn, restaurateurs have struggled to find funding to open full-scale restaurants, said Tom Forte, an analyst at Telsey Advisory Group in New York City.(Laura Isenzee ,2009) Jerome Chang of New Yorks Dessert Truck says that financially we

Comparative Analysis of Rank Techniques

Comparative Analysis of Rank Techniques Abstract There is paramount web data available in the form of web pages on the World Wide Web (WWW). So whenever a user makes a query, a lot of search results having different web links corresponding to a user’s query are generated. Out of which only some are relevant while the rest are irrelevant. The relevancy of a web page is calculated by search engines using page ranking algorithms. Most of the page ranking algorithm use web structure mining and web content mining to calculate the relevancy of a web page. Most of the ranking algorithms which are given in the literature are either link or content oriented which do not consider user usage trends. The Algorithm called Page Rank Algorithm was introduced by Google in beginning. It was considered a standard page rank because as no other algorithm of page rank was in existence. Later extensions of page rank algorithm were incorporated along with different variations like considering weights as well as visits of links. This paper presents the comparison among original page rank algorithm as well as its various variations. Keywords: inlinks, outlinks, search engine, web mining, World Wide Web (WWW), PageRank, Weighted page rank, VOL I. Introduction World Wide Web is a vast resource of hyperlinked and a variety of information including text, image, audio, video and metadata. It is anticipated that WWW has expanded by about 2000% since its progression and is doubling in magnitude with a gap of six to ten months. With the swift expansion of information on the WWW and mounting requirements of users, it is becoming complicated to manage web information and comply with the user needs. So users have to employ some information retrieval techniques to find, extract, filter and order the desired information. The technique used filters the web page according to query generated by the user and create an index. This indexing is related to the rank of web page. Lower the index value, higher will be the rank of the web page. 1. Data Mining over Web 1.1 Web Mining Data mining, which facilitates the knowledge discovery from large data sets by extracting potentially new useful patterns in the form of human understandable knowledge and structuring the same, can also be applied over the web. The application being named Web Mining thus becomes a technique for extracting useful information from a large, unstructured, heterogeneous data store. Web mining is quite a immense area with dozens of developments and technological enhancements. 1.2. Web Mining Categories According to literature, there are three categories of web mining: Web Content Mining (WCM), Web Structure Mining (WSM) and Web Usage Mining (WUM) WCM includes the web page information. In it, the actual content pages whether semi structured hypertext or multimedia information are used for searching purposes. WSM uses the central part linkage that flows through the entire web. The linkage of web content is called hyperlink. This hyperlinked structure is used for ranking the retrieved web pages on the basis of query generated by the user. WUM returns the dynamic results with respect to users’ navigation. This methodology uses the server logs ( the logs that are created during user navigation via searching. WUM is also called as Web Log Mining because it extracts knowledge from usage logs. 1.2 Page Rank Algorithm (By Google) This is the original PageRank algorithm. It was postulated by Lawrence Page and Sergey Brin. The formula is: where is the PageRank of page A is the PageRank of pages Ti which link to page A is the number of outbound links on page Ti d is a damping factor having value between 0 and 1. The PageRank algorithm is used to determine the rank of a web page individually. This algorithm is not meant to rank a web site. Moreover, the PageRank of a page say A, is recursively defined by the PageRanks of those pages which link to page A. The PageRank of pages which link to page A does not influence the PageRank of page A consistently. In PageRank algorithm, the PageRank of a page T is always weighted by the number of outbound links C(T) on page T. It means, more outbound links a page T has, the less will page A benefit from a link to it on page T. The weighted PageRank of pages Ti is then added up. But an additional inbound link for page A will always increase page As PageRank. In the end, the sum of the weighted PageRanks of all pages is multiplied with a damping factor d which can be set between 0 and 1. Thus, the extend of PageRank benefit for a page by another page linking to it is reduced. They deem PageRank as a genre of user behaviour, where a surfer clicks on links at random irrespective of content. The random surfer visits a web page with a certain probability which is solely given by the number of links on that page. Thus, one pages PageRank is not completely passed on to a page it links to, but is divided by the number of links on the page. So, the probability for the random surfer reaching one page is the sum of probabilities for the random surfer following links to this page. Now, this probability is diminish by the damping factor d. Sometimes, user doesnot move straight to the links of a page, instead the user jumps to some other page randomly. This probability for the random surfer is calculated by the damping factor d (also called as degree of probability having value between 0 and 1). Regardless of inbound links, the probability for the random surfer jumping to a page is always (1-d), so a page has always a minimum PageRank. A revised version of the PageRank Algorithm is given by Lawrence Page and Sergey Brin. In this algorithm, the PageRank of page A is given as where N is the total number of all pages on the web. This revised version of the algorithm is basically equivalent the original one. Regarding the Random Surfer Model, this version is the actual probability for a surfer reaching that page after clicking on many links. The sum of all page ranks of all pages will be one by calculating the probability distribution of all web pages. But, these versions of the algorithm do not differ fundamentally from each other. A PageRank which has been calculated by using the second version of the algorithm has to be multiplied by the total number of web pages to get the according PageRank that would have been calculated by using the first version. 1.3 Dangling Nodes A node is called a dangling node if it does not contain any out-going link, i.e., if the out-degree is zero. The hypothetical web graph taken in this paper is having a dangling node i.e. Node D. II Research background Brin and Page (Algorithm: Google Page Rank) The authors came up with an idea to use link structure of the web to calculate rank of web pages. This algorithm is used by Google based on the results produced by keyword based search. It works on the principle that if a web page has significant links towards it, then the links of this page to other pages are also considered imperative. Thus, it depends on the backlinks to calculate the rank of web pages. The page rank is calculated by the formula given in equation 1. (1) Where u represents a web page and represents the page rank of web pages u and v respectively is the set of web pages pointing to u represents the total numbers of outlinks of web page v and c is a factor used for normalization Original PageRank algorithm was modified considering that all users donot follow direct links on web data. Thus, the modified formula for calculating page rank is given in equation 2. (2) Where d is a dampening factor which represent the probability of user using direct links and it can be set between 0 and 1. Wenpu Xing and Ali Ghorbani (Algorithm: Weighted Page Rank) The authors gave this method by extending standard PageRank. It works on the theory that if a page is vital, it has many inlinks and outlinks. Unlike standard PageRank, it does not equally distribute the page rank of a page among its outgoing linked pages. The page rank of a web page is divided among its outgoing linked pages in proportional to the importance or popularity (its number of inlinks and outlinks). , the popularity from the number of inlinks, is calculated based on the number of inlinks of page u and the number of inlinks of all reference pages of page v as given in equation 3. (3) Where and are the number of inlinks of page u and p respectively represents the set of web pages pointed by v. , the popularity from the number of outlinks, is calculated based on the number of outlinks of page u and the number of outlinks of all reference pages of page v as given in equation. 4. (4) Where and are the number of outlinks of page u and p respectively represents the set of web pages pointed by v. The page rank using Weighted PageRank algorithm is calculated by the formula as given in equation 5. (5) Gyanendra Kumar et. al. (Algorithm : Page Rank with Visits of Links (VOL)) This methodology includes the browsing behavior of the user. The prior algorithms were either based on WSM or WCM. But it incluses Page Ranking based on Visits of Links (VOL). It modifies the basic page ranking algorithm by considering the number of visits of inbound links of web pages. It assists to prioritize the web pages on the basis of user’s browsing behavior. Also, the rank values are assigned in proportional to the number of visits of links in this algorithm. The more rank value is assigned to the link which is most visited by user. The Page Ranking based on Visits of Links (VOL) can be calculated by the formula given in equation 6. (6) Where and represent page rank of web pages u and v respectively d is dampening factor B(u) is the set of web pages pointing to u Lu is number of visits of links pointing from v to u TL(v) is the total number of visits of all links from v. Neelam Tyagi and Simple Sharma (Algorithm: Weighted Page Rank Algorithm Based on Number of Visits of Links of Web Page) The authors incorporate Weighted PageRank algorithm and the number of visits of links (VOL). This algorithm consigns more rank to the outgoing links having high VOL. It is based on the inlink popularity ignoring the outlink popularity. In this algorithm, number of visits of inbound links of web pages are taken into consideration in addition the weights of page. The rank of web page using this algorithm can be calculated as given in equation 7. (7) Where represent page rank of web page u and v respectively d is the dampening factor B(u) is the set of web pages pointing to u Lu is number of visits of links pointing from v to u is the total number of visits of all links from v represents the popularity from the number of inlinks of u. Sonal Tuteja (Algorithm: Enhancement in Weighted Page Rank Using Visits of Link (VOL)) The author incorporated i.e. the weight of link(v,u) and calculated based on the number of visits of inlinks of page u. the popularity from the number of visits of outlinks are used to calculate the value of page rank. is the weight of link(v, u) which is calculated based on the number of visits of inlinks of page u and the number of visits of inlinks of all reference pages of page v as given in equation 8. (8) Where and represents the incoming visits of links of page u and p respectively R(v) represents the set of reference pages of page v. is the weight of link(v, u) which is calculated based on the number of visits of outlinks of page u and the number of visits of outlinks of all reference pages of page v as given in equation 9. (9) Where and represents the outgoing visits of links of page u and v respectively R(v) represents the set of reference pages of page v. Now these values are used to calculate page rank using equation (10) (10) Where d is a dampening factor B(u) is the set of pages that point to u WPRVOL (u) and WPRVOL(v) are the rank scores of page u and v respectively represents the popularity from the number of visits of inlinks represents the popularity from the number of visits of outlinks III Numerical analysis of various page rank algorithms To demonstrate the working of page rank, consider a hypothetical web structure as shown below: Figure showing a web graph having three web pages i.e. A, B, C, D Page Rank (By Brin Page) Using equation 2, the ranks for pages A, B, C are calculated as follows: (1) (2) (3) (4) Having value d=0.25, 0.5, 0.85, the page ranks of pages A, B and C become: Dampening Factor PR(A) PR(B) PR(C) PR(D) 0.25 0.9 0.975 1.22 0.99 0.5 0.8 0.9 1.35 0.95 0.85 0.85 0.829 1.53 0.357 From the results, it is concluded that PR(C)> PR(D)> PR(B)> PR(A) 2. Iterative Method of Page Rank It is easy to solve the equation system, to determine page rank values, for a small set of pages, but the web consists of billions of documents and it is not possible to find a solution by inspection method. In iterative calculation, each page is assigned a starting page rank value of 1 as shown in table 1 below. These rank values are iteratively substituted in page rank equations to find the final values. In general, many iterations could be followed to normalize the page ranks. d=0.25 d=0.5 d=0.85 Iteration PR(A) PR(B) PR(C) PR(D) PR(A) PR(B) PR(C) PR(D) PR(A) PR(B) PR(C) PR(D) 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.25 1 1 1 1.5 1 1 0.5 1.425 0.575 2 0.875 0.97 1.21 0.99 0.875 0.94 1.44 0.97 0.75 0.788 1.46 0.82 3 0.90 0.975 1.22 0.99 0.86 0.93 1.4 0.965 0.77 0.80 1.48 0.83 †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. From the results, it is concluded that PR(C)> PR(D)> PR(B)> PR(A) 3. Page Rank with Visits of Links (VOL) (Gyanendra Kumar) Using equation 6, the ranks for pages A, B, C are calculated as follows: (A)=(1-d)+d((1) (B)=(1-d)+d((2) (C)=(1-d)+d(+(3) (D)=(1-d)+d((4) The intermediate values can be calculated as: Similarly other values after calculation are: 2/3 Having value d=0.25,0.5, 0.85 the page ranks of pages A, B and C become: Dampening Factor PR(A) PR(B) PR(C) PR(D) 0.25 0.83 0.82 1.23 0.818 0.5 0.635 0.606 0.808 0.6 0.85 0.2478 0.22 0.3449 0.1123 From the results, it is concluded that PR(C)> PR(A)> PR(B)> PR(D) 4. Weighted Page Rank (Wenpu Xing and Ali Ghorbani) Using equation 3, the ranks for pages A, B, C are calculated as follows: (C,A).(1) (2) (3) (4) The weights of incoming as well as well as outgoing links can be calculated as: (C,A)= IA/IA+IC = 1/ 1+2 = 1/3 =OA/OA=1 Having value d=0.5, the page ranks of pages A, B and C become: Dampening Factor PR(A) PR(B) PR(C) PR(D) 0.25 0.8526 0.8210 1.2315 0.75 0.5 0.7059 0.6176 1.235 0.5 0.85 0.3380 0.2458 0.6636 0.15 From the results, it is concluded that PR(C)> PR(A)> PR(B)> PR(D) 5. Weighted Page Rank Based on Visits of Link (VOL) (Neelam Tyagi and Simple Sharma) Using equation 7, the ranks for pages A, B, C are calculated as follows: )(1) )(2) (3) (4) The weights of incoming, number of visits of link as well as total number of visits of all links can be calculated as Having value d=0.25, 0.5 0.85, the page ranks of pages A, B and C become: Dampening Factor PR(A) PR(B) PR(C) PR(D) 0.25 0.8061 0.7836 1.015 0.8153 0.5 05981 0.5498 0.8825 0.5916 0.85 0.1734 0.1735 0.3469 0.1994 From the results, it is concluded that PR(C)> PR(D)> PR(A)> PR(B) 5. Enhancement in Weighted Page Rank Using Visits of Link (VOL) (Sonal Tuteja) Using equation 10, the ranks for pages A, B, C are calculated as follows: (1) (2) (3) Intermediate values can be calculated as follows: =IA/IA=1 =OA/OA=1 Having value d=0.25, 0.5, 0.85 the page ranks of pages A, B and C become: Dampening Factor PR(A) PR(B) PR(C) PR(D) 0.25 0.7226 0.7951 1.029 0.75 0.5 0.9557 0.6195 0.9115 0.5 0.85 1.911 0.5561 1.116 0.15 From the results, it is concluded that PR(C)> PR(B)> PR(D)> PR(A) Comparison chart of various Ranking Algorithms Algorithm Page Rank Page Rank with VOL Weighted Page rank WPRV EWPRV

Racial Privilege in America Past and Present Essay -- essays research

The Blame Game: a Prelude to Racial Privilege In order to fully understand an easily debatable and highly controversial policy, such as racial privilege, one must first understand the political and social climates that led up to it. Racial privilege has been practiced during two periods in America’s past: the post-reconstruction era, via Jim Crow laws, and today, by way of affirmative action. After Reconstruction in the American south, landowners reorganized their land in such a way that it could be farmed without the use of slaves. The most common structure employed sharecropping, in which the land owner divided his property into several plots of land, each farmed by different individuals who paid for the use of this land with a predetermined percentage of their harvested crop. At its onset, sharecropping was a racially diverse program. Boyer et all notes that â€Å"By 1880†¦ white sharecroppers now outnumbered black ones, although a higher proportion of southern blacks, about 75 percent, were involved in the system† (597). Tenants, most having no capital with which to purchase farm equipment, livestock, and seed, offer yet another pre-determined percentage of their harvested crop as collateral and repayment for loans. Since both the landowner and the creditor were invested in the profitability of the farmer’s crops, they insisted that these farmer s raise only easily marketable cash-crops, limiting crop diversification (Boyer 598). When supply began to exceed demand, value of these crops rapidly declined. Sharecroppers, both white and black, were plunged heavily into debt and poverty. The failure of this system presented a window of opportunity for the Democratic leaders of the Old South who wish to restore the power stru... ... Eds. Christopher Jencks, and Meredith Phillips. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution. 1998. 431-56. King, Jr., Martin Luther. I Have a Dream. March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Washington, D.C. 28 August 1963. Rai, Kul B., and John W. Critzer. Affirmative Action and the University. Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2000. Skrentny, John David. The Ironies of Affirmative Action. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. Steele, Shelby. A Dream Deferred: The Second Betrayal of Black Freedom in America. New York: HarperCollins, 1998. ---. White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era. New York: HarperCollins, 2006. Sterba, James P. â€Å"The Case for Preferential Treatment.† Affirmative Action in the University. Ed. Steven M. Cahn. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1993. 286-90.

The Negative Impact of Narcotic Regulations on Long Term Care Patients

A family sits by their loved one in the last hours of his life, supporting him in his time of need. He has resided in a long-term care facility for the past two years. As his organs slowly shut down, his body succumbs to immense pain. He is sweaty, his brow is furrowed, and each time he is touched to be cared for he moans. The morphine doses prescribed to handle his pain are no longer effective. In order to provide this patient with the best care possible, his nurse tries to contact the physician. It is the weekend and the nurse is only able to page the on-call doctor. She anxiously awaits a return phone call, while explaining this situation to his distressed family. The pain appears to be increasing. Twenty minutes later the physician calls her, and issues orders to increase the morphine doses. The nurse then contacts the pharmacy answering service and waits for the on-call pharmacist to return a call. In twenty more minutes the on-call pharmacist responds and informs the nurse that he needs to directly speak with the physician before she can legally give the medication and that he will contact her after this has occurred. In the interim, the patient dies in immense pain and the family is distraught that his last hour was spent in agony. This situation is playing out time and time again in long-term care facilities all over the United States as a result of regulation DEA-337N that was reinterpreted by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in January, 2010. The regulation states that a nurse has to be an agent of the prescribing physician to call in a narcotics prescription to a pharmacy (U.S. Department of Justice, 2010). In theory, this new regulation makes sense to prevent illegal acquisition of narcotics, but it is potential... ...dents, DEA-337N requires immediate revision. Patients in the long-term care setting can experience inordinate amounts of pain while waiting for physicians to arrange the dispensing of narcotic medications necessary for pain control. References United States Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration. (2010). Title 21 code of federal regulations Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. Retrieved from http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/21cfr/cfr/index.html Nursing's social policy statement. (2010). Sliver Spring, MD: American Nursing Association. Guido, G. (2010). Legal and ethical issues in nursing. Upper Sadle River, NJ: Pearson. Yukari, T, Noriko, M., & Okamoto, Y. (2010). Literature review of pain prevalence among older residents of nursing homes. Pain Management Nursing, 4(11), Retrieved from http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/734065

Analysis and Interpretation of Religion: Upanishads Essay

The concept behind Upanishads is the existence of a universal spirit known as Brahman, and an individual soul known as Atman. Brahman is considered to be the ultimate, in both the transcendent and immanent aspect, as well as the absolute infinite existence, the totality of everything that existed before, now, and the coming future. The Upanishads are very mystical in nature, and it also offers intense philosophical bent, which gave birth to three main schools of self-realization or Vedanta. One interpretation of the Upanishads doesn’t give Brahman a God-figure in a monotheistic sense; instead it is something with no limiting characteristics. This is the one of the three main schools of Vedanta, the philosophy of Shankara known as advaita. Another one, the dvaita, was founded by Madvacharya, which holds the idea saying that Brahman is but a personal god, the same as other Hindu gods like Vishnu and Krishna. The third school, known as vishishtadvaita, was founded by Ramanujacharya, which has similar aspects with the other two schools of Vedanta. Upanishad knowledge means Brahma-knowledge, giving not only spiritual vision, but also a philosophical argument (Universe). Upanishads are responsible for the conception of the major Vedic doctrines, including Self-realization, yoga and meditation, karma and reincarnation, which were previously clouded by the symbolisms of its religious roots. We often see some of the older Upanishads very much related or affixed to a certain specific Veda, through a Brahmana or Aranyaka, though most of the recent ones are not. Upanishads also emphasized on the spiritual meanings of the Vedic texts that they also adhere to, emphasizing it at its own right. Upanishads and the Vedas go hand and hand in shaping both the spiritual and philosophical leanings of the people at that time. The concept of religion that comes out in the Upanishad represents a threat and a challenge to religious group developments in India as well as any kind of religion, based solely on theism. It’s because of the focus that they give on their central figure, the Brahman, which is in some cases, taken as a god, while in some, a much more powerful entity. Upanishad’s Brahman does not really focus on a monotheistic god, instead it is a universal entity, something that can be attained or be aligned with ourselves by properly doing the teachings or following the Vedas. Upanishads propose a similar concept of the soul, which is the Atman. The atman is present in all individuals, and that it still needs to be nourished in order for it to reach a certain desired state, the ultimate, universal Brahman. These two are similar in state, formless, inconceivable, though it is up to the people to realize it through discrimination that can be attained by doing and following the right things that it calls for, as stated on the Vedas. Putting these against the earlier and later religious developments, which undeniable focus on a central God character, distinct from the world we can see that Upanishads stand out because their ultimate end is being one with everything in the world. It is the main concept of the religion that then challenges the existence of the various Gods of the other religions. Still, it teaches people to do what is right, to practice things that would enable them to be at one with the ultimate end, the Brahman, but it offers people a chance to be at one with all that is, was, and ever will be, instead of being with a separate entity. Upanishads gives us an alternate view of the world, a religion with a unique take of what is real, and what is at the end for all of us. Much like other religions, it still focus on motivating to do the right things, in order to achieve one final end, though it may be different because it does not have a concrete god-figure, instead it has a universal entity waiting in the end. Work Cited: Universe, Dharma. â€Å"Upanishads†. 2009. March 5 2009. .

Strategic Management of Agribank

ABSTRACT In the present age, big cities in Viet Nam are growing at a rapid pace, especially in the economics, as a result many banks are established including Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam.Founded on 26/03/1988, Agribank has always played the leading role in Vietnam’s economic development with 1034 correspondent banks in 95 countries and territories (since 12/2009). In the new period, Agribank constantly improve their competitiveness to maintain the number one position of commercial banks and the dominant role in agricultural and rural financial market, serving farmers, agriculture and rural areas. To become the member of Group Finance and Banking in the country, Agribank’s strategy is associated with the sustainable development of customers, banking, partners and communities.Based on the data obtained from a small-scale interview carried out within Agribank’s employees and reviewed literature, our project’s team analyze Agribankâ₠¬â„¢s strategic management. Another key point of this report is providing recommendations to improve its effectiveness and efficiency. It is hoped that this empirical report can bring the readers with a more detailed look at the Agribank’s strategic Management. TABLE OF CONTENT Abstract†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦1 I. Executive summary†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 3 II. Introduction of the company†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 3 III. Managerial function†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 4 IV.Literature review†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 5 V. Strategic management†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 6 1. Step 1: identifying the bank’s goal†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 7 2. External Analysis†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦7 3. Internal Analysis†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦9 VI. Conclusion and recommendation†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 12 References†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 14 I. Executive summary This report was commissioned to analyze, evaluate and also to give recommendation about the Strategic management of Bank of Agricultural and Rural Development of Vietnam. The research draws attraction to AgriBank’s current missions and goals: focusing on renovating and developing banking technology in a modernization manner.Further investigations give a SWOT analysis about AgriBank and conclusions about their status are made: Internally, Agribank has quite a lot of strengths such as large number of gross capital, high prestige, modern facilities, as well as some weaknesses like bad financial capability and low operation effectiveness. Besides, externally, Agribank also has many opportunities: peaceful political status, economy recovery, the freshness of the domestic market, and has to deal with lots of threats from competitors, loss of well-qualified employees, or governmental policies. After carefully evaluated, Recommendations are given: AgriBank should penetrate the market strategies to get higher performance by focusing its sources of human and facilities on Main market. †¢ AgriBank should also expand the market strategy, which is to take advantage of its available products and services to enter a new market in order to expand market share, get more output and approach new potential customers. II. Introduction of th e company Agribank is the largest bank in terms of fund resources, number of employees, assets, operation network and customer bases with reputation not only in local market but also international market.Agribank has always focused on the innovation and application of banking technology in favour of business administration and the development of an advanced banking service network. As the report of Agribank. com. vn – â€Å"As of November 2011, Agribank had the total asset of VND 5240,000 billion, total equity of VND 22,176 billion, total outstanding loans of VND 414,464 billion, total fund resource of VND 478,000 billion, total staff of 35,000 people, 2,300 branches and transaction offices†.Agribank is one of the leading bank in Viet Nam in terms of receipt and implementation of foreign projects, especially from World Bank, Asia Development Bank, European Investment Bank and French Development Agency. At present, Agribank is serving 10 million household and 30,000 ent erprises. With the position of a leading commercial bank in Viet Nam, Agribank has shown its great efforts and contribution greatly to the nation’s industrialization and modernization as well as economic development. Due to its location and market share, Agribank’s target market is Vietnam, especially in rural areas.About target customer, in the first period, its target was people who did the agricultural work. However, nowadays, Agribank has no target customer as it welcome everyone who provide capital and invest in many fields other than agriculture. III. Managerial function In the context of a profound and comprehensive integration, to make a difference in how well Agribank performs as well as to cope with this uncertain situation, Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development of Viet Nam need strategic management.Hoang Thu Hien – one of the staffs of Agribank – pointed out that: â€Å"One of Agribank’s strategies is making great efforts in fund mo bilization from both local and foreign sources and maintain the credit growth at a reasonable level†. Another way is giving priority in investment in agriculture, farmers especially to farm households with agricultural, forestry, fishery and salt production. She also reveals that those strategies is built in the period 2000 – 2010 by a group of financial experts hired by Agribank. They are still used today and other details of the strategic management are kept as secret database of the bank.The general strategy of Agribank this period is it will put forth a number of solutions which are following the policy of the Government and the State Bank of Viet Nam on monetary policy in 2011 and for coming years (n. d. ). First of all is speeding up the fund mobilization from different sources for serving agriculture, farmers and rural areas then setting up the progress on implementing the Circulation 13, 19 of SBV on safe index for credit institutions or following the SBVâ€℠¢s Governor and relative agencies for adding fund in 2011 and developing strategy on international cooperation and foreign fund projects for 2010-2015.Secondly, Agribank has completely changed into Ltd Company with 100% capital of State and pushing up the modern banking technology based on IPCAS II which is used to develop the new products and services with high quality to better serve the customers. Thirdly, Agribank is trying to train the staff about the core cultural values including honesty, discipline, creativity, quality and efficiency. Finally, Agribank plans to carry out the project on business development strategy for 2011-2015 towards 2020 †¦ to prove the prestige of the largest commercial bank-financial institution in Viet Nam.IV. Literature review Regarding Strategic management, many scholars have researched about it so as to find out the best way to establish strategy and manage it. Stephen P. Robbins   and Mary Coulter with â€Å"Management tenth edition† have drawn the most detailed and comprehensive picture of Strategic Management. According to their theory, strategy is â€Å"plans for how an organization will do what it’s in business to do, how it will compete successfully, and how it will attract and satisfy its customers in order to achieve its goals† (Stephen amp; Mary 2009, p. 163). And then strategic management is defined as what managers do to develop an organization’s strategies. There are three reasons why strategic management is important which are stated that it makes a difference in how well an organization performs, it is necessary to cope with uncertain situation and to provide organizational goals for each part of the organization to work toward. After clarifying the importance of strategic management, those two authors draw a big picture of the strategic management process.There are all 6 steps in the process which the first 3 are most important. The first step is to identify the organizationâ €™s current mission, goals and strategies. Mission is defined as a statement of the purpose of an organization and goals are understood as measurable performance targets. Identifying those concepts will help the organization draw a general path to follow. The next two steps can be combined as SWOT analysis which analyze 4 main factors: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.It can also be defined as doing external analysis – environment around the organization and its effect- and internal analysis – the organization’s specific resources and capabilities. The next step namely Formulating strategies is done after all the analysis and is to establish a detailed path for the organization to follow. The last 2 steps are about implementing and evaluating the strategies that have been built up in the last step. Agreeing with those two authors’ theory, we have conducted interview and done some research and analysis about Agribank Vietnam. V. Strateg ic ManagementTo research about the company’s strategic management, we are required to conduct the first three steps of Agribank’s strategic management process. Our project team will identify the Agribank’s missions and goals and do the internal (SW) along with the external (OT) analysis. Furthermore, the recommendations will be set up to uphold the strengths, overcome weaknesses, maximize opportunities and eliminate any threats or turn them into opportunities. 1. STEP 1: IDENTIFYING THE ORGANIZATION’S CURRENT MISSION AND GOALS To maintain the leading bank, provide the modern and high quality products nd services, meet the demand of customers and increase the non-credit income, Agribank is focusing on renovating and developing banking technology in a modernization manner. That is its mission in 2011 and for the coming years The Agribank An Phu pointed out that Agribank expects to reach the goals for 2012 as follows: the fund resource increases by 15-17% co mpared with 2011, outstanding loans rises by 11-12%, the rate of loans to agricultural and rural areas is 70%, NPLs below 3%, non-credit income goes up by 10%, CAR complies with international standard.In general, Agribank’s goal is bringing prosperity to the customer. 2. EXTERNAL ANALYSIS After deciding the mission and goals of Agribank, the important thing is to conduct an external analysis, which includes the two components: the general and the specific environment. Each factors in the components maybe an opportunity or a threat to Agribank, basing on how they can affect Agribank’s market. A. Opportunities As to mention about the general environment, it is reported that the world’s and Vietnam’s economy are recovering from the crisis and are predicted to be growing in the near future.A recent article from the famous BBC (9 October 2012) has reported: â€Å"What is happening is a re-balancing of our economy. We have created a million net new jobs [and] we are now a net exporter of cars, but it is a slow process. † With the economy flourishing, Agribank has an opportunity to expand the market size and provide more services to the customers. In addition to the country’s economy recovery, Agribank also benefits from the fact that Vietnam has officially entered the WTO. By joining the world’s economic flow, Agribank has more chances to meet big partners and to develop itself.For example, the bank can learn from the foreigners about the new technology and inquire their way of working and technical skills. And, as to mention the political conditions, Vietnam is a peaceful country with no terrorists or civil wars; which encourages the development of law and economy, and Agribank can make use of this to complete their working system. The opportunity for Agribank does not only come from the general environment but also the specific environment, especially from the customers.According to the Standard Charter Bank’ s CEO, saying to baomoi online newspaper (Phuong 2009), Vietnam has a young and fresh banking market, which is not fully exploited. He also points out that in the recent years, the number of banking service users rises gradually and it will continue to rise in the next 5 years. Furthermore, according to the vietnamplus. vn (Son 2009), Vietnam’s average age tends to become higher, consequently, many people will begin to consider saving for their pension plan.Agribank can take advantage of this opportunity to reach more to the customers’ need. B. Threats Besides the opportunities, there are also threats that Agribank has to deal with. The fact that Vietnam has entered the WTO also brings along the trouble of the market share being downsized because Vietnam banks and companies are now freely get investments from foreign companies. It will also increase the competition between Vietnam and other WTO countries, creating great tension to Agribank. In addition to this, the Gov ernment policies are also putting Agribank under pressure.The current ceiling interest rate is kept really low at 9% – started from 11th June, but it’s also predicted to be lower, according to Dr. Vu Dinh Anh’s analysis (Thanh 2012). This policy makes it hard for Agribank and other banks to mobilize capital from people, and so on earn less profit on lending other companies money. In addition to the general environment’s influences, the specific environment, too, holds some menaces. The number of competitors growing rapidly in today’s time of high-technology, following with the decrease in number of high-quality employees is current problems that Agribank have to face.Nowadays, joint-stock company banks such as Vietcombank, Vietinbank or ACB bank are playing their leading roles in banking industry in Vietnam, alluring a large number of users comparing to AgriBank. Not as powerful as JSC Banks, but the banks with foreign investments like the Standard Charter Bank being equipped with higher quality and credit funds and non-bank credit organizations are acting as the harbingers to Agribank. According to Vietnam Credit Information and Rating Company’s report (Thanh 2012), 32 banks are rated to be highly competitive.Unfortunately, Agribank is not listed. Adding to the threats from competitors, the upcoming workforce in banking being estimated to be really large but cannot be so sure about the quality is also a trouble for Agribank. The best workers tend to chase for high position with high salary in foreign countries or other bank rather than Agribank; while the rests are not really well-trained. In general, the threats to Agribank are surpassing the opportunities that the bank can get, but its whole banking business is predicted to be growing. 3. INTERNAL ANALYSISBeside external analysis, it is also very important to explore and assess the internal factors of Agribank which are its strengths and weaknesses. Understanding ab out those internal elements will give us the knowledge of Agribank’s ability to take benefit from the opportunities and to face the threats. A. Strengths The first and the most powerful strength of Agribank is that it has the largest total capital, the biggest operation network and the hugest source of labors and customers in Vietnam. According to the article â€Å"3 ngan hang thuong m? i nha nu? c co v? n di? u l? tren 1 t? USD† on gafin. n (23 March 2012), a familiar website for investors, Agribank is the commercial bank that has the greatest amount of total capital in Vietnam which is over 29. 606 billion VND. It is an advantage for Agribank as it can invest in a lot of fields and activities with its huge capital. About its operation network and source of labors and customers, Agribank has over 2. 300 branches and office and 37. 500 staffs all over the country. Moreover, according to the official website of Agribank (n. d. ), it also signs contract with other foreig n banks from Laos, Cambodia and China to expand its market.Another strength is that it is the unique and main bank that focuses on the field of agriculture and rural areas. In Vietnam, only Agribank is the commercial bank that is nurtured and controlled by the government to develop agriculture and support agricultural workers. Vietnam is the country that has the main focus on agriculture and producing food so that this market share would be a big benefit for Agribank. Moreover, Agribank is considered as having the lowest rank of risk due to its support from the government and it also has the prestige of a governmental bank with tradition and experience.This advantage can gain the customers’ trust that not all other rivals can do. Last but not least, one more strength of Agribank is that its high technology applying in its infrastructure. To approve this point, the article â€Å"Viettel va Agribank ky k? t th? a thu? n h? p tac toan di? n† on danviet. vn (D? c 2011) sta tes that from November 20th, 2011, Viettel would coordinate with Agribank totally with its telecommunication infrastruction. The combination of those two giants will be an extreme advantage for Agribank to upgrade its system and bring better products to its customers. B. WeaknessesIt is undeniable that Agribank is one of the strongest banks in Vietnam at this time; however, it still has its own weaknesses that need improving to get the highest performance. The first alarming weakness is its bad financial capability. Although its system is modern and successful in Vietnam, Agribank’s financial control is still weak compared to the global standard. Stockbiz. vn reported that Fitch Ratings has affirmed Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development’s (Agribank) Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘B’ (12 July 2012). The Outlook is Stable.At the same time, the agency has affirmed Agribank’s Viability Rating (VR) at ‘cccâ €™ and Support Rating Floor at ‘B’. A full rating breakdown is provided at the end of this release. Also according to this rating agency, Agribank has low rank of risk thanks to the support from the government, not from its own ability. The bank’s reported non-performing loans (NPLs) are the highest among domestic peers. Its low level of reserves, together with a high level of special mentioned loans (SMLs) and a slower economic backdrop, is likely to keep credit costs elevated in the near- to medium-term.As a result, Fitch expects the bank’s profitability to remain low, given also potential margin squeeze from a regulatory cap on lending rates on the agriculture sector. Therefore this weakness may not affect Agribank immediately in the domestic market, but if it wants to expand to the oversea market, it has to improve its financial capability a lot. Another clear weakness of Agribank is that its operation effectiveness is not high enough. Although the bank was established in 1988, it still hasn’t made huge impact on Vietnam’s agriculture.Farmers still do the farming work with traditional methods and do not use much technology in working. The rate of poor households in rural areas is still high after years. This weakness could be very dangerous as it would lose the customers’ and government’s trust, which can reduce its total capital. One last weakness of Agribank is that its human resource is huge but not qualified enough. There is a sad truth in Vietnam that people who have social relationship with some â€Å"big men† inside the company are likely to get the job. And Agribank is not an exception.Due to this terrible truth, many people who are not educated well enough still have good job and decide the destiny of the bank. Therefore, its human resource can not satisfy the requirement of the global standard, which would be a disadvantage for it when expanding to the bigger world. VI. Conclusion and Recommendations  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In conclusion, like other corporations and organizations, Agribank has its all strengths such as large number of gross capital, high prestige, modern facilities, and weaknesses namely bad financial capability and low operation effectiveness.Beside these internal factors, Agribank also faces up with opportunities: peaceful political status, economy recovery, the freshness of the domestic market, and threats from competitors, loss of well-qualified employees, or governmental policies. Therefore, based on the analysis of SWOT and the wholesome interview of sole employee, we have drawn up the strategies for Agribank to achieve more success in the next five years. 1. Penetrating market strategies In this strategy, we would focus our resources of human and facilities on Main market to get higher performance.To get the strategy accomplished effecti vely, some methods must be applied such as: Improving the mobilization capital – by allowing wide range of maturities, or periods, interests rate or accumulated interests. Furthermore, the bank can also try to attain   sponsored -agricultural projects or projects of supporting small and average-scale business. Another method is improving the quality of credit service by using up the qualification of the staff to do   research on reducing some steps of procedures so that the transaction duration will be minimized which makes it faster and more convenient to deposit.Another effective   solution is diversifying and developing the quality of the services because at the moment most of Agribank   products are traditional ones, so it is less competitive. Therefore, the bank should introduce new advanced and convenient services and products to ensure the ability of serving customer efficiently. This method also heightens the administrative status of the management. 2. Expandi ng market strategy This is the strategy in which Agibank would take advantage of its available products and services to enter a new market in order to expand market share, get more output and approach new potential customers.There are some methods that can be applied, the first one could be intensifying the process of constructing material facilities or, in detail, purchasing necessary assets especially IT equipments, strongboxes, electric generators. Secondly, it could develop the network by establishing more   transaction posts which help popularize brand name. Thirdly, Agribank can enhance the quality of the staff by focusing on recruiting, introducing new reserving reward policies, retraining the current staff to get higher qualification and ability.Furthermore, in the period of expanding to new market, Agibank may appoint the most important and experienced cadres (skillful employees) to new brands in order to make sure that new brands can operate effectively. Beside those, Ag ribank   should speed up marketing operations/ activities   because marketing plays an important role in popularizing and giving products to the public. Some methods for developing marketing performance are : for products, improving traditional products and services, shortening procedure of transaction, and bringing new benefits to customer.For location, it can choose the most convenient location so that customers can easily make transactions. For advertisement, it is advisable to use radio, television, newspaper and the internet as the important way to advertise the bank. Furthermore, it is the way we serve that is one of the most means of advertisement to customers. Last but not least, we recommend to reinforce the control of internal activities which means that does not merely   check the account or the asset of the bank but verify the quality of credit, the efficiency, safety so that administrator can easily find out and re-correct defects and mistakes.References Agribank An Phu official website n. d. , â€Å"D? nh hu? ng phat tri? n c? a Agribank Vi? t nam†, viewed 17 November 2012, http://agribankanphu. com. vn/vn/company/details/dinh-huong-phat-trien-cua-agribank-viet-nam6. html Agribank Vietnam official website n. d. , â€Å"Agribank phat tri? n b? n v? ng vi s? th? nh vu? ng c? a c? ng d? ng†, viewed 17 November 2012, http://www. agribank. com. vn/101/786/gioi-thieu/dinh-huong-phat-trien. aspx Agribank Vietnam official website n. d. , M? ng lu? i ho? t d? ng Agribank – hon 2300 Chi nhanh, Phong giao d? ch tr? dai cung hinh ch? S, viewed 21 November 2012, http://www. agribank. com. vn/101/790/gioi-thieu/mang-luoi-hoat-dong. aspx BBC 9 October 2012, viewed 18 November 2012, http://www. bbc. co. uk/news/business-19876587 D? c Hi? u, Viettel va Agribank ky k? t th? a thu? n h? p tac toan di? n, 21 October 2011, viewed 21 November 2012, http://danviet. vn/62504p25c50/viettel-va-agribank-ky-ket-thoa-thuan-hop-tac-toan-dien. htm Ga fin 23 March 2012, viewed 23 November 2012, http://gafin. vn/20120323104832101p0c34/3-ngan-hang-thuong-mai-nha-nuoc-co-von-dieu-le-tren-1-ty-usd. tm Phuong Nhi 2009, â€Å"Th? tru? ng ngan hang Vi? t Nam r? t tr? †, Baomoi, April 2009, viewed 20 November 2012, http://www. baomoi. com/Thi-truong-ngan-hang-Viet-Nam-rat-tre/126/2960677. epi Thanh Thanh Lan 2012, â€Å"L? n d? u tien x? p h? ng nang l? c c? nh tranh ngan hang†, Vnexpress, 8 September, viewed 19 November 2012, http://ebank. vnexpress. net/gl/ebank/tin-tuc/2012/09/lan-dau-tien-xep-hang-nang-luc-canh-tranh-ngan-hang/ Thanh Thanh Lan 2012, ‘Tr? n lai su? t huy d? ng co th? v? 8% m? t nam', Vnexpress, 29 August, viewed 18 November 2012, http://ebank. nexpress. net/gl/ebank/tin-tuc/2012/08/tran-lai-suat-huy-dong-co-the-ve-8-mot-nam/ Son Bach 2009, â€Å"Vi? t Nam co co c? u dan s? vang, tu? i th? tang†, Vietnamplus, 31 December, viewed 19 November 2012, http://www. vietnamplus. vn/Home/Viet-Nam-co-c o-cau-dan-so-vang-tuoi-tho-tang/200912/29400. vnplus Stockbiz 12 July 2012, viewed 23 November 2012, http://en. stockbiz. vn/News/2012/7/12/309322/text-fitch-affirms-vietnam-s-agribank-at-b-outlook-stable. aspx *** Group tasks No| ID| Name| Task| Report|