Research Analysis Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Analysis - Research Paper Example Jones also participates in television commercials where he speaks basic Mandarin-language phrases. It’s noted that in large part this constitutes Li Ning’s attempts to keep pace with Nike, as Nike plans to unveil a shoe that is exclusive to China and is endorsed by basketball star Lebron James. In addition, Adidas AG’s Reebok has a long-term endorsement deal with basketball star Yao Ming. The main strategic understanding is that Li Ning isn’t attempting to take over the American market, but to take back the Chinese market from Western competition. The Chinese market is regarded as very interested in basketball and in gaining a competitive foothold in athletic products it’s necessary to do so through basketball marketing. The reason Jones was chosen was because more prominent National Basketball Association stars already had shoe deals, so the Chinese research ultimately led them to Jones. The slogan for the company is ‘anything is possible’. This slogan is said to be in line with Damon Jones history as he claims to have had an uphill climb in his career. The deal agrees to pay Jones approximately $300,000 a year and includes bonuses tied to team performance. One of the prominent considerations in these regards is China’s growing basketball market. Research demonstrates that there are nearly 400 million people aged 20 and younger, many of whom have a growing interest in basketball because of the increasing showing of NBA games in the country. Research also contests that this market will potentially grow 20% to 40% a year for the upcoming decade. While it’s argued that the quality of the shoes are generally the same, it’s necessary for advertising and marketing to be successful to gain increasing market shares. Further Nielson research attests that Li Ning increased advertising spending twenty-fold between 2001 and 2005. In terms of researching specific advertising spokesmen, the company is noted to have traveled to Denver,

In What Ways Did Dengs Leadership Bring Change to China in the Late 1970s and 1980s Essay Example for Free

In What Ways Did Dengs Leadership Bring Change to China in the Late 1970s and 1980s Essay After Mao’s death in 1976, Deng abandoned the Maoist economic model and decided to open China up to free market economic reforms and Western style capitalism all carefully controlled by the state still. He also introduced the One Child policy. The domestic social, political, and most notably, economic systems would undergo significant changes during Dengs time as leader. The goals of Dengs reforms were summarized by the Four Modernizations, those of agriculture, industry, science and technology and the military. The strategy for achieving these aims of becoming a modern, industrial nation was the socialist market economy. For agriculture, it changed for the better. Deng first took steps to repair the damage done to farm production during the Great Leap Forward. In place of the communes he established the contract responsibility system. Under this arrangement, the government rented land to individual farm families, who then decided for themselves what to produce. The families contracted with the government simply to provide a certain amount of crops at a set price. Once the contract was fulfilled, the families were free to sell any extra crops at markets for whatever prices they could get. This chance to make more money by growing more crops greatly increased China’s farm production. Since the introduction of the contract responsibility system, Chinese farmers produced about 8 percent more each year than they did in the previous year. And many farmers have benefited greatly from the new plan. Under the contract responsibility system, families still did not own the land. The long-term leases awar ded by the government, however, helped to develop an â€Å"owner† attitude among the farmers. As a result, many families have made improvements to the land. As for the economy, Deng attracted foreign companies to a series of Special Economic Zones, where foreign investment and market liberalization were encouraged. Which meant that China needed Western technology and investment, and that it could open the door to foreign businesses who wanted to set up in China. The reforms centered on improving labor productivity as well. New material incentives and bonus systems were introduced. Rural markets selling peasants homegrown products and the surplus products of communes were revived. Not only did rural markets increase agricultural output, they stimulated industrial development as well. With peasants able to sell surplus agricultural yields on the open market, domestic consumption stimulated industrialization as well and also created political support for more difficult economic reforms. Another change for China was it’s industry, the four modernizations affected the industry positively. It provided electricity in the rural areas, industrial automation, a new economic outlook, and greatly enhanced defense strength. His program for industry had two goals. First, he wanted people to spend more money on consumer goods. Therefore, he changed the focus from heavy industry to light industry, the production of small consumer goods such as clothing, appliances, and bicycles. He also wanted factories to step up production. So he gave more decision-making power to individual factory managers. And he started a system of rewards for managers and workers who found ways to make factories produce more. All in all, these changes brought good results, and changed China for the better and is the China that is here today. Deng’s leadership really helped modernize China.

Before and After Cloud Computing in DPG Group of Companies

Before and After Cloud Computing in DPG Group of Companies About the company DPR Group, Inc., a full-service public relations, marketing and communications agency, was stuck in a technology rut that stymied productivity and limited their growth. DPG group broke free of the break-fix model of managed services and leaped ahead with cloud computing. DPR Group with a vision to open small satellite offices in technology hubs throughout the eastern United States. At the time of my technology challenge, DPG had expanded to two offices for nearly 15 employees with their headquarters in Germantown, Maryland, and a second office in Cary, North Carolina. However, providing expert public relations and marketing services to high-tech companies requires a strong technology infrastructure to effectively communicate with   clients. Without an on-site IT resource, one of their obstacles to growth was finding a way to keep all   in-house technology running smoothly. For four years worked with a managed services provider to help maintain their PCs, a Dell PowerEdge Server, and internal networks in both of DPG offices. Although the CEO of   managed services provider spoke eloquently about their companys preventative approach to computer maintenance, they actually spent far more time trying to fix things after they broke. What were the problems before moving to cloud Before moving   cloud number   of issues that challenged their ability to maintain the high-level client service that they offer. Downtime, latency, reliability, and accessibility were just a few reoccurring issues. For example,   managed services provider would frequently run software updates on Sunday nights and, due to compatibility issues with the updates and a lack of testing, the server would often crash on Monday mornings. This left   staff scrambling to work from back-up files, while the managed services provider attempted to fix the problem. Also, when working remotely, their staff used Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) with severe latency and connectivity issues that caused delays and required additional time to complete basic tasks such as reconnection, file uploads, or even simply writing an email. Their managed services provider also experienced a lot of personnel turnover. Every time someone new started working on DPG account, they have to re-explain everything about not only the issue they were having, but also how our entire system was set up because the new expert staff was not familiar with their system. Not unexpectedly, DPG received daily complaints from my staff about how technology issues were making it difficult for everyone to do their job effectively. After discussing specific challenges with each of thier staff members, DPG calculated that every employee was losing from seven to nine days of productivity per year due to time spent waiting for a tech to fix the problems. What were the benefits of moving to cloud First they started   search for a new vendor by talking with a number of managed services providers that all promised to do a much better job of maintaining   computers and networks. More importantly, they started hearing the term cloud computing, and learned that it could streamline a lot of processes and significantly improve DPG productivity. Although cloud might be a better model for them, DPG also would need a local IT resource to maintain the basic hardware in our two different offices. After reviewing proposals from a number of providers within the Washington, D.C., metro area, DPG selected Virgina-based Cetrom Information Technology to take them to the cloud. This cloud computing service provider stood out from the rest for a few primary reasons. First, Cetrom offered a truly hosted cloud model. Other cloud providers would host data on the cloud, but install applications locally. It was either that, or they would have to use limited-functionality, software-as-a-service (SaaS) versions of their standard software. Cetrom, however, hosted the full, traditional versions of our software in the cloud and seamlessly mirrored a local environment. The Cetrom Hybrid places a small server on site in DPG headquarters that replicates the data to and from the cloud in real time. previously   they used to having all   IT within the office. Also, Cetroms senior-level engineers really took the time to understand DPG business goals and processes during roll out. From there, they designed   cloud solution for DPG-with strong business continuity and disaster recovery plans, and easy access to key applications-around all business, instead of making them adapt to a rigid, out-of-the-box solution. To avoid lost productivity hours, Cetroms engineers migrated DPG applications and data over the weekend .Working in the cloud provides numerous benefits. The primary benefit is the anytime, anywhere access to all the files and applications, with only an Internet connection. The ability to set permissions by users is also extremely beneficial as it ensures only authorized personnel have access to files, such as financials. Cetrom not only maintains its equipment and ensures the security of all its clients data, the company also constantly reviews the applications and services it provides clients to ensure they are the best available. Since moving to the Cetrom cloud, the company has changed spam filters for the email a few times, and each time they seen an improvement. The current version now catches about 99.5 percent of all incoming spam emails-an immense improvement over our previous provider. Perhaps the most important benefit of all is system reliability. Cetrom has a track record of zero downtime since its founding nearly 15 years ago. This one aspect returned nearly 10 hours of productivity back to DPG staff-equal to $50,000 annually-so they can focus on serving DPG clients. The cost savings from operational expenses in North Carolina-more than $70,000 annually-allowed them to move from   Germantown, Maryland, location to a larger, nicer office in Frederick, Maryland, with double the capacity for staff. Migrating to the cloud with Cetrom was one of the best business decisions DPG ever made. They have not had any downtime since DPG started with Cetrom, DPG data is available anytime, and they dont receive complaints from the staff about technology issues anymore.

Animal Farm, by George Orwell :: Animal Farm Essays

The author of my book is George Orwell. The book I am reading is entitled Animal Farm. My book is a fiction book with talking animals. The animals rebel against Jones and his farm and how their food was low and they had to work to much to just make food for Jones and his family. The animals were victorious in gaining control of the farm. Then the pigs slowly take over the farm and slowly turn it back into just what it had been when Jones had been there. The story takes place on a farm in the country side. Old Major is the first pig and the ruler who gives all the other animals hope of a rebellion. Snowball is the pig who actually put the rebellion into affect and started the whole rules and laws to start their own farm. Then there’s Napoleon who kicks Snowball out of the farm and takes over the farm and slowly he turns the farm back into what it had been with Jones with him and his partner pigs getting lots of food for no work and the workers getting little food for a lot of work.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The story starts with Old Major calling for a meeting of the animals where he tells them of the way animals should live and that he only has a few years left to live, but that the animals must carry out a rebellion one day in the future. So Old Major passes away and one day when the animals had been starved for a few days straight the animals broke into the food room and started eating the food. Jones and his men came out to fight them off, but the animals were to strong for them. The animals drove them out of the farm and declared what used to be called â€Å"The Manor Farm† into what they called â€Å"Animal Farm.† Snowball took over as their new leader and served them good especially when Jones came back with some men and guns and tried to take back his farm and Snowball took control and stopped Jones from winning the fight.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Then Snowball gets an idea that they should build a windmill that symbolizes their farm and could be used for hay storage. Napoleon, another pig who wanted to take rule, said that was a stupid idea and Napoleon went on to plant fake evidence that Snowball

Incident Response Essay

The emergency services (Police, Fire and Ambulance) have to respond to all emergency situations, but they have different roles and responsibilities and they have graded response policies. All emergencies are graded by the call handler according to the information from the caller and not by the way the incident is reported. If a caller dials 999 believing an incident is an emergency the call handler will assess the information and then decide whether it is top priority or if the incident does actually require an emergency response. Call handlers work under the supervision of team managers and incident managers. The standards of fire cover all fire services in the United Kingdom and were set originally in the 1930’s but were established in 1958 by the Home Office. They were more clearly defined and revised in 1974 and again in 1985. Fire risk assessment, until the current year, has been based upon this guidance, which consists of a prose description of the risk categories and a formula designed to determine a points rating or fire grading of premises. When the risk category of an area had been determined, the criteria set by the Home Office demanded that the fire service response to emergency calls, met minimum requirements in terms of speed and weight of attack. Grading of incidents by the Fire service is split into 5 categories: Category ‘A’ Built up areas in large cities containing large commercial and industrial premises or high rise property where there is a strong chance of fire spread. The recommended minimum first attendance was three pumps, two to attend within five minutes and one within eight minutes, to be achieved on at least 75% of occasions. Category ‘B’ Refers to large cities and towns with multi-storey buildings, including large areas of residential housing as well as industrial estates with high-risk occupants. The recommended minimum first attendance was two pumps, one to arrive within five minutes and the other within eight minutes, to be achieved on at least 75% of occasions. Category ‘C’ Refers to the outskirts of larger towns and the built-up areas of smaller towns and extensive areas of residential dwellings such as terraced houses  and semi-detached houses, blocks of flats as well as light industry/commercial properties. The recommended minimum first attendance was one pump within eight to ten minutes, to be achieved on at least 75% of occasions. Category ‘D’ Consisting of rural property, villages and farms and all areas that do not come under categories A-C. The recommended minimum first attendance was one pump within 20 minutes, to be achieved on 75% of occasions. Rural and remote is a separate category and has no pre-determined response time. The majority of Merseyside (91%) is classed as C or D risk. http://www.gloucestershire.police.uk/foi/Information%20Classes/Policies/item11547.pdf Grading of incidents by the police in England and wales are graded as ‘emergency ‘or ‘non-emergency’ in four grades. Grade 1 is the emergency response. An emergency contact will result in immediate police response. It involves circumstances where an incident is reported to the police which is currently taking place and there is a risk of danger to life, the use or immediate threat or use of violence or serious injury to a person or property. Criminal conduct will be dealt with as an emergency if the crime is going to be serious and is in progress, an offender has just been disturbed at the scene or the offender has been detained and there is a high risk that he is a threat to the general public. When the incident involves traffic collision it will be classed as an emergency if it involves or is likely to involve serious personal injury and also if the road is blocked due to the collision and if there is a dangerous or excessive build up of traffic. Also if the call handler who takes the call feels strongly that the incident should be classed as an emergency. The urban response time for this Grade is 10 minutes and the rural response time is 17 minutes. Grade 2 is classed as a Priority response. The call handler feels that the incident is important or urgent but does not need an emergency response. This could include incidents such as a concern for someone’s welfare, an offender has been detained but is not a threat to anyone, a road traffic accident that has injuries or has caused a serious obstruction, a witness may be lost or a person is suffering distress and is believed to be vulnerable. Resourses for a Grade 2 incident should be sent as soon as is safely possible and  within 15 minutes. Grade 3 is classed as a scheduled response. This is when the needs of the caller can be best achieved by scheduling a response. This could be when the response time is not critical when apprehending offenders or a better quality of policing can be given if it is dealt with by a scheduled response by a police officer or even by that person attending the police station. Incidents should be resolved to satisfaction level of caller as soon as possible and must be within 48 hours of first call. Grade 4 is classed as Resolution without deployment. This is used when an incident can be re solved through telephone advice, help desk, frequently asked questions or other appropriate agencies or services. The caller is advised of an agreed call-back time and to be as soon as possible and within 24 hours. Grading of incidents by the Ambulance Service are placed in three categories, this grading also applies to urgent calls from GPs and other health professionals, as well as calls from the general public. Category A is Priority. This is when an incident is considered to be immediately life-threatening examples are when a person is suffering with chest pains/cardiac arrest, unconscious/fainting or has breathing problems. The response time for a category A is within 8 minutes or less. Category B is where an incident is serious but not immediately life-threatening, examples are when someone has fallen or has serious bleeding, a sick person with no priority symptoms or overdose/poisoning. The response time for category B is within 14 minutes in urban areas and within 19 minutes in rural areas. Category C is when an incident is not serious or life-threatening, examples when someone has fallen over and assistance is required, and a sick person with a range of non-serious conditions such as d iarrhoea or someone with abdominal/back pains. In 2000 the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) became responsible for assessing the training and standards of all drivers who drive emergency response vehicles which are fitted with blue lights and sirens. When talking to other agencies the DSA drew up the Blue Light Users Working Party Expectations Document. This document contained a list of the expectations that drivers of emergency response vehicles should meet before being allowed  to drive these vehicles. This document was accepted by the three main emergency services (police, fire and ambulance). This document includes performance criteria and knowledge and consists of these three elements. All emergency drivers need to be over the age of 18 and in good health also must not have any motoring convictions against their name and this is checked every three years. Element one is the ability to assess the need for an emergency response. Element two is the ability to drive the vehicle safely to emergencies and element three is the ability to show the correct attitude when responding to emergencies. Police Service Drivers have to meet the standards set by the DSA but the police service also have their own driving centres. At the driving centres police are trained and graded according to National Training Standards, which is then approved by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). The type of driver training depends on the job role of that police officer. Police drivers can be graded as Standard response drivers, advanced drivers or pursuit drivers. Advanced drivers and pursuit drivers have intense training and they use high powered vehicles and advanced techniques for responding quickly and safely to emergencies. Fire Service Drivers The fire service also has its own driver training centres where drivers are trained to the standards met by their Fire Authority. To drive an Emergency Fire Appliance drivers must hold a Large Goods Vehicle (LGV) Licence and have received the necessary training and assessments. Only then can they be allowed to drive when responding to emergency situations provided the vehicle is fitted with audible/visual warning devices. Ambulance Service Drivers need to hold C1 (medium sized vehicle) and D1 (minibus) licences and receive the appropriate training by the DSA. Although some Ambulance Services especially in London state that ambulance drivers must hold a LGV licence. Ambulance driver training and assessments are usually carried out by independent driver training centres and not the Ambulance Service. Drivers of emergency vehicles also have to understand that bad driving can cause accidents. Drivers of emergency vehicles are not above the law even when attending emergencies they have to show that whilst going to an emergency they drove with care and attention and did not drive in a dangerous way, if they were foun d to have driven dangerously then they can be prosecuted in the same way as a member of the general public can. Also if the driver is convicted of a  serious traffic offence they may be disqualified from driving both emergency and privately owned vehicles. To reduce the danger to themselves and the general public the drivers of emergency vehicles must use their sirens and blue flashing lights to warn other road users as well as pedestrians and cyclists that their vehicle is responding to an emergency. Flashing blue lights and sirens should only be used when attending emergencies although police drivers can use flashing blue lights and sirens when attempting to stop another driver. Drivers of emergency vehicles have to follow the same traffic laws as everyone else, but when using flashing blue lights and sirens they are exempt from a number of motoring rules which means they can go through a red traffic light, pass to the right of a keep left sign, drive on a motorway hard shoulder even against the direction of the traffic and not follow the speed limit. The Highway Code is a book of rules which all drivers have to abide by the Highway Code makes no special rules for the emergency services other than for members of the general public to listen for the sirens and look for the blue flashing lights and to let them pass safely but still taking notice of all traffic signs. During unsociable hours consideration is given to the use of sirens especially around residential areas, unless conditions are bad and they need to use their siren. Blue lights would only be used as they are visible to road users at night. When there is an advantage to a silent approach then driving is altered and speed reduced. Members of the Public service are often judged harshly from the public, when it comes down to the pursuing of stolen vehicles. Although the public services do a good job when they pursuing stolen vehicles or on their way to an emergency incident there have been cases where their have been incidents where it has affected the public services. Example At 11.20 on the 19th of May 2008, Haley Adamson a 16 year old school girl was struck by a police car going 70mph whilst she was crossing a road in a residential area in Newcastle which had a 30mph speed limit. Hayley died immediately from the impact of the police car. The police car was being driven in pursuit of a vehicle that had just been registered on the police number plate recognition system. At the time of the incident the driver Pc

Service Quality Gap Oman Insurance Company

Service Quality Gap Oman Insurance Company Executive Summary The assessment of the quality of service delivery in an organisation is important as it allows consumers to make informed decisions. It also helps the organisation to respond appropriately to improve its services.Advertising We will write a custom proposal sample on Service Quality Gap: Oman Insurance Company specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In the past, service quality has been defined as â€Å"the extent to which a service meets customers’ needs or expectations† (Asubonteng et al., 65). A common definition is, â€Å"Service quality is the difference between customers’ expectations of service and perceived service† (Fitzsimmons and Mona 25). In order for this to be achieved, an analysis of the organisation using the SERVQUAL methodology is necessary. SERVQUAL methodology evaluates five dimensions of quality service delivery. They include reliability, assurance, empathy, tangibles, and res ponsiveness (Fitzsimmons and Mona 26). A gap analysis in service delivery is also important as it allows the identification of â€Å"causes of service quality shortfalls in each or all of the dimensions† (Fitzsimmons and Mona 28). A service quality gap analysis for Oman Insurance Company was carried out with the aim of establishing the quality of services offered by the company. An analysis of the five gaps identified followed with calculation of the weighted and un-weighted values of SERVIQUAL scores for each using the recommended formulae (Fitzsimmons and Mona 26). The data used in the calculations was obtained from the analysis of the responses from questionnaires issued to both the customers of the insurance company as well as the employees. The results showed a small but significant gap in service delivery for which recommendations were made on how to reduce it. This essay therefore discusses the procedure of analysing the gaps in service delivery in the company, the res ults of the analysis, and the recommendations towards improving quality service delivery at Oman Insurance Company.Advertising Looking for proposal on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Service Quality Gaps The service quality concept constitutes about seven major gaps with three (Gap 1, Gap 5, and Gap 6) being important â€Å"since they have a direct relationship with customers† (Luk and Layton 113). Gap 1, which deals with customers’ expectations against management perception (Luk and Layton 114), was partially evaluated in the study. Gap 2 deals with management perceptions versus service specifications while Gap 3 comprises service specifications against the delivery of those services (Luk and Layton 115). The fourth gap is the difference in service delivery and external communication (Luk and Layton 114). Gap 5 highlights the difference between the perception of the customers of th e services delivered against their expectations of the services (Luk and Layton 114). This gap formed the main approach in the survey. Gap 6 focuses on the discrepancy between the expectations of the customers and the perceptions of the employees while Gap 7 highlights the discrepancy between the management and employees’ perceptions (Luk and Layton 114). These were evaluated using the questionnaire issued to the respondents for the study. Methodology The analysis of the service delivery quality was made using data obtained using a questionnaire. The questionnaire prepared constituted two parts, which evaluated customers’ expectations and opinions about insurance companies against their perceptions of service delivery at Oman Insurance Company. Confidentiality was guaranteed in the questionnaire by ensuring that there was no place for the respondents to fill in their personal details. Thus, their answers were anonymous. A score of 1 to 7 was assigned to the responses w ith 1 representing those who strongly disagreed with the quality and 7 representing those who strongly agreed with it. The five dimensions of SERVQUAL methodology, which evaluated the quality of service delivery, were assessed. These included reliability, assurance, empathy, tangibles, and responsiveness. The questionnaire was pretested before the start of the analysis that involved the use of 20 individuals with knowledge of the insurance company.Advertising We will write a custom proposal sample on Service Quality Gap: Oman Insurance Company specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The recommendations from the pre-test were then incorporated into the questionnaire with printing of the final drafts being made for issuing to the respondents. The questionnaire was issued to clients who received services from the major branches of the Insurance Company. Selection was randomly made. This means that the sample of people selected was representati ve of the actual number of people receiving services from the insurance company. The number of respondents was 200 clients. The survey was carried out over a period of five days. The results were then analysed with presentations being made from them. Appropriate conclusions were also made. The making of recommendations on how to improve service delivery at the firm followed. The recommendations were mainly addressed to the management of the company. Results Out of the 200 questionnaires prepared, three were not answered. The respondents did not fill two of them appropriately. As for the demographics, 146 respondents were male while the rest (54 respondents) were of the opposite sex. The ages of the respondents were varied with the most common age being above 40 years, which constituted 59% of the respondents. Most of the respondents also had a level of education above college level with most being undergraduates. The results of the five dimensions of SERVQUAL methodology are as foll ows: Tangibles The assessment of this factor of the company involved the assessment of customers’ perception of equipment, personnel appearance, and physical facilities in the company. The customers strongly agreed with the idea that an excellent insurance company should have modern looking equipment.Advertising Looking for proposal on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The average score was higher than the perception of the same in Oman Insurance Company. They agreed, though not strongly, that Oman Insurance Company had modern looking equipment though this was below their expectations. As for the physical facilities, the customers also strongly agreed that these should be visually appealing, but their perceptions of the same at Oman Insurance Company fell below their expectations. The appearance of employees in Oman Insurance Company was as per the customer expectations. They therefore agreed strongly that they were neat. The average scores were, however, negative for the above factors. For an excellent insurance company, the customers agreed strongly that their materials such as pamphlets or statements should be visually appealing. Their perception of this in the Oman Insurance company fell below their expectation. Thus, the average score was negative for the company. In general, the average score for the tangibles in the Oman Insurance Company w as negative. The score was at -1.40. This represented the best score of all the five factors assessed on service delivery in the company. Reliability On reliability, the questionnaire assessed the ability of the company to perform the promised service dependably and accurately (Wisniewski, and Donnelly 359). In the first question on reliability in the questionnaire, the expectations of the customers on an excellent insurance company was high, as they strongly agreed that it should fulfil promises by the scheduled time. A number of respondents held the same sentiment about Oman Insurance Company with most of them strongly agreeing that the company fulfilled most of its promises to them on time. However, the average score was lower compared to their expectations. The quality of problem solving for an excellent insurance company also featured on reliability with most of the respondents claiming and agreeing strongly that such a company should show strong interest in solving its problem s. Against this expectation, the Oman Insurance Company scored lower in the degree to which this characteristic was true for the company. The company was scored as being good at listening and solving problems in the services it offered though this was inadequate time for most of the respondents. The performance of services for the first time by the company was also below the expectations of the customers, and so was record keeping in the company. The overall expectations of the customers on reliability received a strong agreement with a score of 6.06 with the company scoring 4.26 on perceptions on the same by their clients. This means that a gap of -1.70 existed in the company in the area of responsibility. This was the largest of all the areas. Responsiveness The assessment of responsibility was done by using questions, which focused on the â€Å"willingness to help customers and or provide prompt service† (Dick 28). In the first one, customers strongly agreed that adequate information should be given to them in the case of an excellent insurance company regarding when the services would be performed. This was against a poor perception of the same in the Oman Insurance Company, which though above average, customers perceived that the services were not as good as their expectations of an excellent insurance company. The employees were also a little less willing to help them as compared to their expectations of an ideal insurance company. This situation elicited a negative score. The employees of the company also received a lower rating in their ability to attend to their clients compared to an ideal insurance company. Employees of an excellent insurance company were expected never to be too busy to respond to customers’ requests. The respondents agreed strongly to this opinion. Oman Insurance Company, on the other hand, received lower scores in this aspect of service delivery making the overall score negative. The responsiveness gap score for the company was at -1.69. Assurance The perception of assurance for the Oman Insurance company was weighed against the expectations for an excellent company in the same field. This involved evaluation of â€Å"Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to inspire trust and confidence† (Valarie, Parasuraman, and Leonard 39). It included factors such as competence, credibility, security, and courtesy (Dick 28). In the evaluation of employee behaviour, customers strongly agreed that, for an excellent insurance company, this should instil confidence in customers. In comparison to this case, the company received lower scores on the same with a negative score being obtained. The customers also strongly agreed that employees of an excellent insurance company should be consistently courteous with customers. They felt that this was slightly poor in the Oman Insurance Company with a negative score being obtained. The knowledge of employees in the insurance company was assessed in this section of the questionnaire with customers being asked if it was adequate to answer their questions. They strongly agreed that, for an excellent insurance company, employees should have knowledge to answer their questions. Their perception of this in the Oman Insurance Company was lower thus earning it a negative gap score. The overall gap score in this category was -1.55. Empathy Empathy is the last dimension assessed in the SERVEQUAL instrument. It involves assessing the â€Å"Care and individualised attention that the firm provides to its customers† (Wisniewski and Donnelly 363). Constituents include communication, accessibility, and understanding of the customer (Wisniewski, and Donnelly 363). Oman Insurance company customers strongly agreed that the organisation offers them individualised attention. However, this perception of customers was not as good as what they expected from an excellent insurance company. They strongly agreed that an excellent company shoul d offer individualised attention to the clients’ needs. The resulting gap score was negative for the company. The operating hours for an excellent insurance company should be convenient to all customers. They strongly agreed with this opinion. The company also received a negative score in this suggestion since most of the customers perceived the company as not offering convenient hours compared to an ideal company. The employees were also described as giving special attention to each customer. Again, this was below their expectations of an ideal company. Upon evaluation, they had customers’ interest at heart since the score was the same both for the Oman Insurance Company and for an excellent insurance company. Customers responded that employees of Oman Insurance Company understood their specific needs though their score was below that of an excellent insurance company with the overall score being negative. This dimension of the SERVEQUAL instrument received a negative score, which was at -1.52. Discussion The results of the survey found an existing gap in service delivery at Oman Insurance Company. The Gap scores were -1.40 for tangibles, -1.70 for reliability, -1.69 for responsiveness, -1.55 for Assurance, and -1.52 for Empathy. The un-weighted and weighted averages for all the dimensions were later calculated and presented in the table below. Dimension Expectations Perceptions Gap scores Weightings Weighted average Tangibles 5.66 4.26 -1.40 19.8 -0.28 Reliability 6.06 4.36 -1.70 29.6 -0.5 Responsiveness 5.74 4.05 -1.69 19.9 -0.34 Assurance 6.13 4.58 -1.55 15.2 -0.24 Empathy 5.97 4.45 -1.52 15.7 -0.24 From the table, the average of the Weighted SERVQUAL score was -1.6 Conclusion Therefore, based on the above expositions, it suffices to declare the evaluation of service delivery in a company a crucial exercise that comes in handy to direct any changes that should be instituted in the company. The paper has used Oman Insurance Com pany as a case example to demonstrate the role of assessment of the quality of service delivery in the company. In the analysis of service delivery for Oman Insurance Company, various aspects of the company were compared against an ideal insurance company. A questionnaire was the tool of choice for this task with respondents being the clients of the company. The results highlighted an existent service delivery gap in the company. The company should use the results of this survey to alter its services in a bid to ensure that the gap is closed and the services delivered are up to the expectations of the customers. This outcome will go a long way in improving the performance of the company. Asubonteng, Patrick, Karl McCleary, and John Swan. SERVQUAL revisited: a critical review of service quality.Journal of Services Marketing 10. 6(2000): 62-81. Print. Dick, Schaaf. Keeping the Edge: Giving Customers the Service they demand. New York: Plume Penguin, 2006. Print. Fitzsimmons, James, an d Mona Fitzsimmons. Service management: operations, strategy, and information technology. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2004. Print. Luk, Sherriff, and Roger Layton. Perception Gaps in customer expectations: Managers versus service providers and customers. The Service Industries Journal 22.2(2002): 109-128. Print. Valarie, Zeithaml, Autor Parasuraman, and Berry Leonard. Delivering Quality Service: Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations. New York: Free Press, 2004. Print. Wisniewski, Michael, and Moris Donnelly. Measuring service quality in the public sector: the potential for SERVQUAL. Total Quality Management 7.4(2000): 357-365. Print.

The Magic LinkedIn® Formula

The Magic LinkedIn ® Formula My e-book, How to Write a KILLER LinkedIn ® Profile, enumerates 18 â€Å"Mistakes to Avoid† as well as 7 â€Å"Bonus Tips.† That’s a total of 25 items that I think are important for every LinkedIn ® user to understand and implement (actually more than 25, since many of the chapters have subpoints as well). Nevertheless, on Wednesday I will be giving a presentation at American Family Insurance’s DreamBank on â€Å"Top Five LinkedIn ® Mistakes.† Not 25, but 5. It’s not easy to choose the top five, but I managed to do it. Not only that, but I even narrowed it down to three general categories. I call this my â€Å"Magic LinkedIn ® Formula† and even if you’re unable to attend my presentation live on Wednesday, you can benefit from the formula. Success on LinkedIn ® comes down to what I have dubbed the â€Å"3 Ls† (not to be confused with the class of students in their third year of law school): Locatability Likeability ALiveness 1. Locatability If no one finds you on LinkedIn ®, there’s not much point in having a profile. Unless you are in a rare situation where you prefer not to appear in LinkedIn ® searches, easy locatability means you will get in front of the people searching for someone like you. For job seekers and business owners, being found by a target audience is one big key to success. Increasing your locatability entails two main actions: 1) putting the right keywords in the right places, and 2) growing your network aggressively and appropriately to at least 500 connections. A combination of well-placed keywords and a robust network is a winning LinkedIn ® strategy. 2. Likeability Just because someone finds you on LinkedIn ® doesn’t mean that person will contact you. If your profile is sloppy, incomplete, unfocused, or off target, you will probably be skipped over for someone with a better presentation. If, however, people like what they see, they will be more likely to request a connection or conversation. Likeability means sounding like a human being and not a robot; listing accomplishments without bragging; having an attractive photo and format; and putting your personality onto the page. The more you distinguish yourself as unique, the more you will encourage valuable interaction. 3. ALiveness I like to say that having a LinkedIn ® profile is like having a gym membership. You only get value from it if you do the work! Sitting on your butt will not get you 6-pack abs †¦ or a new client or job through LinkedIn ®. Aliveness on LinkedIn ® includes but is not limited to updating your profile, participating in groups, sharing valuable information, engaging in discussions, and taking relationships off line to the phone or even a coffee shop! That’s my Magic LinkedIn ® Formula: Locatability, Likeability and ALiveness! Are you using it? If you already are doing everything listed above, great- you are a power LinkedIn ® user. In that case, I recommend that you dive more deeply into How to Write a KILLER LinkedIn ® Profile for the fine points that will bring your LinkedIn ® success up even another level. I’ll have time for QA at my DreamBank presentation on Wednesday, and you get to participate too. What burning questions can I answer about my Magic LinkedIn ® Formula and your LinkedIn ® profile challenges?