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Internet Inventions Several inventions have changed the way people communicate with each other. From the old fashioned telegraph to today's modern electronic forms of communicating, people have beencreating easier ways to correspond. Electronic communication, such as e-mail and other internet offerings, have created a cheap and incredibly fast communications system which is gaining steady popularity. E-mail is basically information, usually in letter form,addressed to a destination on the internet. The internet is aninternational web of interconnected networks--in essence,  anetwork of networks; these consist of government, education, and business networks. Software on these networks between the source and destination networks "read" the addresses on packets and forward them toward their destinations. E-mail is a very fast and efficient way of sending information to any internet location. Once an e-mail is sent, it arrives at its destination almost instantly. This provides people with a way to communicate with people anywhere in the world quickly without the costs of other forms of communicating such as telephone calls or postage for letters. The savings to be gained from e-mail were enough of an inducement for many businesses to invest heavily in equipment and network connections in the early 1990s. The employees of a large corporation may send hundreds of thousands of pieces of E-mail over the Internet every month, thereby cutting back on postal and telephone costs. It is not uncommon to find internet providers from twenty to thirty dollars a month for unlimited access to internet features. Many online services such as America Online and Prodigy offer e-mail software and internet connections which work in an almost identical way, however, the cost is more expensive. The World Wide Web (WWW) and USENET Newsgroups are amongother internet offerings which have changed the way people communicate with each other. The WWW can be compared to a electronic bulletin board where information consisting o fanything can be posted. One can create visual pages consisting of text and graphics which become viewable to anyone with WWW access. Anything from advertisements to providing people with information and services can be found on the WWW. File transfers between networks can also be accomplished on the WWW though Gopher and FTP (File Transfer Protocol) sites. Newsgroups are very similar, but run in a different way. Newsgroups basically create a forum where people can discuss a vast array of subjects. There are thousands of newsgroups available. Once one finds a subject that interests them, they may post notes which are visible to anyone visiting that particular newsgroup, and others may respond to such notes. Again, this can be advertising, information, or, more commonly, gossip. Though the internet can be a convenient way of communication, it can become

Marketing Segmentation Essay

Market segmentation is the process of dividing up a market into more-or-less homogenous subsets for which it is possible to create different value propositions. At the end of the process the company can decide which segment(s) it wants to serve. If it chooses, each segment can be served with a different value proposition and managed in a different way. Market segmentation processes can be used during CPM for two main purposes. They can be used to segment potential markets to identify which customers to acquire, and to cluster current customers with a view to offering differentiated value propositions supported by different relationship management strategies. In this discussion we’ll focus on the application of market segmentation processes to identify which customers to acquire. What distinguishes market segmentation for this CRM purpose is its very clear focus on customer value. The outcome of the process should be the identification of the value potential of each identified segment. Companies will want to identify and target customers that can generate profit in the future: these will be those customers that the company and its network are better placed to serve and satisfy than their competitors. Market segmentation in many companies is highly intuitive. The marketing team will develop profiles of customer groups based upon their insight and experience. This is then used to guide the development of marketing strategies across the segments. In a CRM context, market segmentation is highly data dependent. The data might be generated internally or sourced externally. Internal data from marketing, sales and finance records are often enhanced with additional data from external sources such as marketing research companies, partner organizations in the company’s network and data specialists (see Figure 5.2 ). The market segmentation process can be broken down into a number of steps: 1. identify the business you are in 2. identify relevant segmentation variables 3. analyse the market using these variables 4. assess the value of the market segments 5. select target market(s) to serve. Sales forecasting: Slide #6 (p. 136-8) The second discipline that can be used for CPM is sales forecasting. One major issue commonly facing companies that conduct CPM is that the data available for clustering customers takes a historical or, at best, present day view. The data identifies those customers who have been, or presently are, important for sales, profit or other strategic reasons. If management believes the future will be the same as the past, this presents no problem. However, if the business environment is changeable, this does present a problem. Because CPMs goal is to identify those customers that will be strategically important in the future, sales forecasting can be a useful discipline. Sales forecasting, some pessimists argue, is a waste of time, because the business environment is rapidly changing and unpredictable. Major world events such as terrorist attacks, war, drought and market-based changes, such as new products from competitors or high visibility promotional campaigns, can make any sales forecas ts invalid. There are a number of sales forecasting techniques that can be applied, providing useful information for CPM. These techniques, which fall into three major groups, are appropriate for different circumstances. ââ€"  qualitative methods: customer surveys sales team estimates ââ€"  time-series methods: moving average exponential smoothing time-series decomposition ââ€"  causal methods: leading indicators regression models. Qualitative methods are probably the most widely used forecasting methods. Customer surveys ask consumers or purchasing officers to give an opinion on what they are likely to buy in the forecasting period. This makes sense when customers forward-plan their purchasing. Data can be obtained by inserting a question into a customer satisfaction survey. For example, ‘In the next six months are you likely to buy more, the same or less from us than in the  current period? ’ And, ‘If more, or less, what volume do you expect to buy from us? ’ Sometimes, third party organizations such as industry associations or trans-industry groups such as the Chamber of Commerce or the Institute of Directors collect data that indicate future buying intentions or proxies for intention, such as business confidence. Sales team estimates can be useful when salespeople have built close relationships with their customers. A key account management team might be well placed to generate s everal individual forecasts from the team membership. These can be averaged or weighted in some way that reflects the estimator’s closeness to the customer. Account managers for Dyno Nobel, a supplier of commercial explosives for the mining and quarrying industries, are so close to their customers that they are able to forecast sales two to three years ahead. Operational CRM systems support the qualitative sales forecasting methods, in particular sales team estimates. The CRM system takes into account the value of the sale, the probability of closing the sale and the anticipated period to closure. Many CRM systems also allow management to adjust the estimates of their sales team members, to allow for overly optimistic or pessimistic salespeople. Time-series approaches take historical data and extrapolate them forward in a linear or curvilinear trend. This approach makes sense when there are historical sales data, and the assumption can be safely made that the future will reflect the past. The moving average method is the simplest of these. This takes sales in a number of previous periods and averages them. The averaging process reduces o r eliminates random variation. The moving average is computed on successive periods of data, moving on one period at a time, as in Figure 5.10 . Moving averages based on different periods can be calculated on historic data to generate an accurate method. A variation is to weight the more recent periods more heavily. The rationale is that more recent periods are better predictors. In producing  an estimate for year 2009 in Figure 5.10 , one could weight the previous four years’ sales performance by 0.4, 0.3, 0.2, and 0.1, respectively, to reach an estimate. This would generate a forecast of 5461. This approach is called exponential smoothing. The decomposition method is applied when there is evidence of cyclical or seasonal patterns in the historical data. The method attempts to separate out four components of the time series: trend factor,  cyclical factor, seasonal factor and random factor. The trend factor is the longterm direction of the trend after the other three elements are removed. The cyclical factor represents regular long-term recurrent influences on sales; seasonal influences generally occur within annual cycles. It is sometimes possible to predict sales using leading indicators. A leading indicator is some contemporary activity or event that indicates that another activity or event will happen in the future. At a macro level, for example, housing starts are good predictors of future sales of kitchen furniture. At a micro level, when a credit card customer calls into a contact centre to ask about the current rate of interest, this is a strong indicator that the customer will switch to another supplier in the future. Regression models work by employing data on a number of predictor variables to estimate future demand. The variable being predicted is called the dependent variable; the variables being used as predictors are called independent variables. For example, if you wanted to predict demand for cars (the dependent variable) you might use data on population size, average disposable income, average car price for the category being predicted and average fuel price (the independent variables). The regression equation can be tested and validated on historical data before being adopted. New predictor variables can be substituted or added to see if they improve the accuracy of the forecast. This can be a useful approach for predicting demand from a segment. Activity-Based Costing: Slide #7 (p. 138-40) Customer Acquisition costs Terms of Trade Customer service costs Working capital costs Activity-based costing The third discipline that is useful for CPM is activity-based costing. Many companies, particularly those in a B2B context, can trace revenues to customers. In a B2C environment, it is usually only possible to trace revenues to identifiable customers if the company operates a billing system requiring customer details, or a membership scheme such as a customer club, store-card or a loyalty programme. In a B2B context, revenues can be tracked in the sales and accounts databases. Costs are an entirely different matter. Because the goal of CPM is to cluster customers according to their strategic value, it is desirable to be able to identify which customers are, or will be, profitable. Clearly, if a company is to understand customer profitability, it has to be able to trace costs, as well as revenues, to customers. Costs do vary from customer to customer. Some customers are very costly to acquire and serve, others are not. There can be considerable variance across the customer base within several categories of cost: ââ€"  customer acquisition costs : some customers require considerable sales effort to move them from prospect to fi rst-time customer status: more sales calls, visits to reference customer sites, free samples, engineering advice, guarantees that switching costs will be met by the vendor ââ€"  terms of trade : price discounts, advertising and promotion support, slotting allowances (cash paid to retailers for shelf space), extended invoice due dates ââ€"  customer service costs : han dling queries, claims and complaints, demands on salespeople and contact centre, small order sizes, high order frequency, just-in-time delivery, part load shipments, breaking bulk for delivery to multiple sites ââ€"  working capital costs : carrying inventory for the customer, cost of credit. Traditional product-based or general ledger costing systems do not provide this type of detail, and do not enable companies to estimate customer profitability. Product costing systems track material, labour and energy costs to products, often comparing actual to standard costs. They do not, however, cover the customer-facing activities of marketing, sales and service. General ledger costing systems do track costs across all parts of the business, but are normally too highly aggregated to establish which customers or segments are responsible for generating those costs. Activity-based costing (ABC) is an approach to costing that splits costs into two groups: volume-based costs and order-related costs. Volume based (product-related) costs are variable against the size of the order, but fixed per unit for any order and any customer. Material and direct labour costs are examples. Order-related (customer-related) costs vary according to the product and process requirements of each particular customer. Imagine two retail customers, each purchasing the same volumes of product from a manufacturer. Customer 1 makes no product or process demands. The sales revenue is $5000; the gross margin for the vendor is $1000. Customer 2 is a different story: customized  product, special overprinted outer packaging, just-in-time delivery to three sites, provision of point-of-sale material, sale or return conditions and discounted price. Not only that, but Customer 2 spends a lot of time agreeing these terms and conditions with a salesperson who has had to call three times before closing the sale. The sales revenue is $5000, but after accounting for product and process costs to meet the demands of this particular customer, the margin retained by the vendor is $250. Other things being equal, Customer 1 is four times as valuable as Customer 2. Whereas conventional cost accounti ng practices report what was spent, ABC reports what the money was spent doing. Whereas the conventional general ledger approach to costing identifies resource costs such as payroll, equipment and materials, the ABC approach shows what was being done when these costs were incurred. Figure 5.11 shows how an ABC view of costs in an insurance company’s claims processing department gives an entirely different picture to the traditional view. ABC gives the manager of the claims-processing department a much clearer idea of which activities create cost. The next question from a CPM perspective is ‘ which customers create the activity? ’ Put another way, which customers are the cost drivers? If you were to examine the activity cost item ‘ Analyse claims: $121 000 ’ , and find that 80 per cent of the claims were made by drivers under the age of 20, you’d have a clear understanding of the customer group that was creating that activity cost for the business. CRM needs ABC because of its overriding goal of generating profitable relationships with customers. Unless there is a costing system in place to trace costs to customers, CRM will find it very difficult to deliver on a promise of improved customer profitability. Overall, ABC serves customer portfolio management in a number of ways: 1. when combined with revenue figures, it tells you the absolute and relative levels of profit generated by eac h customer, segment or cohort 2. it guides you towards actions that can be taken to return customers to profit 3. it helps prioritize and direct customer acquisition, retention and development strategies 4. it helps establish whether customization and other forms of value creation for customers pay off. ABC sometimes justifies management’s confidence in the Pareto principle, otherwise known as the 80:20 rule. This rule suggests that  80 per cent of profits come from 20 per cent of customers. ABC tells you which customers fall into the important 20 per cent. Research generally supports the 80: 0 rule. For example, one report from Coopers and Lybrand found that, in the retail industry, the top 4 per cent of customers account for 29 per cent of profits, the next 26 per cent of customers account for 55 per cent of profits and the remaining 70 per cent account for only 16 per cent of profits. Lifetime Value Estimation: Slide# 8 (p. 141-2) The fourth discipline that can be used for CPM is customer lifetime value (LTV) estimation, which was first introduced in Chapter 2. LTV is measured by computing the present day value of all net margins (gross margins less cost-to-serve) earned from a relationship with a customer, segment or cohort. LTV estimates provide important insights that guide companies in their customer management strategies. Clearly, companies want to protect and ring-fence their relationships with customers, segments or cohorts that will generate significant amounts of profit. Sunil Gupta and Donald Lehmann suggest that customer lifetime value can be computed as follows: Application of this formula means that you do not have to estimate customer tenure. As customer retention rate rises there is an automatic lift in customer tenure, as shown in Table 2.2 in Chapter 2. This formula can be adjusted to consider change in both future margins and retention rates either up or down, as described in Gupta and Lehmann’s book Managing Customers as Investments. The table can be used to assess the impact of a number of customer management strategies: what would be the impact of reducing cost-toserve by shifting customers to low-cost self-serve channels? What would be the result of cross-selling higher margin products? What would be the outcome of a loyalty programme designed to increase retention rate from 80 to 82 per cent? An important additional benefit of this LTV calculation is that it enables you to estimate a company’s value. For example, it has been computed that the LTV of the average US-based American Airlines customer is $166.94. American Airlines has 43.7 million such customers, yielding an estimated company value of $7.3 billion. Roland Rust and his co-researchers noted that, given the absence of international  passengers and freight considerations from this computation, it was remarkably close to the company’s market capitalization at the time their research was undertaken. Clustering (144): slide #9 Clustering techniques are used to find naturally occurring groupings within a dataset. As applied to customer data, these techniques generally function as follows: 1. Each customer is allocated to just one group. The customer possesses attributes that are more closely associated with that group than any other group. 2. Each group is relatively homogenous. 3. The groups collectively are very different from each other. In other words, clustering techniques generally try to maximize both within-group homogeneity and between-group heterogeneity. There are a number of clustering techniques, including CART (classification and regression trees) and CHAID (chi-square automatic interaction detection).7 Once statistically homogenous clusters have been formed they need to be interpreted. CRM strategists are often interested in the future behaviours of a customer: segment, cohort or individual. Customers ’ potential value is determined by their propensity to buy products in the future. Data miners can build predictive models by examining patterns and relationships within historic data. Predictive models can be generated to identify: 1. Which customer, segment or cohort is most likely to buy a given product? 2. Which customers are likely to default on payment? 3. Which customers are most likely to defect (churn)? Data analysts scour historic data looking for predictor and outcome variables. Then a model is built and validated on these historic data. When the model seems to work well on the historic data, it is run on contemporary data, where the predictor data are known but the outcome data are not. This is known as ‘ scoring ’ . Scores are answers to questions such as the propensity-to-buy, default and churn questions listed above. Predictive modelling is based on three assumptions, each of which may be true to a greater or lesser extent: 1. The past is a good predictor of the future †¦ BUT this may not be true. Sales of many products are cyclical or seasonal. Others have fashion or fad lifecycles. 2. The data are available †¦ BUT this may not be true. Data used to train the model may no longer be collected. Data may be too costly to collect, or may be in the wrong format. 3. Customer-related databases contain what you want to predict †¦ BUT this may not be true. The data may not be available. If you want to predict which customers are most likely to buy mortgage protection insurance, and you only have data on life policies, you will not be able to answer the question. Two tools that are used for predicting future behaviours are decision trees and neural networks. Decision trees (145): slide #9 Decision trees are so called because the graphical model output has the appearance of a branch structure. Decision trees work by analyzing a dataset to find the independent variable that, when used to split the population, results in nodes that are most different from each other with respect to the variable you are tying to predict. Figure 5.12 contains a set of data about five customers and their credit risk profile. We want to use the data in four of the fi ve columns to predict the risk rating in the fifth column. A decision tree can be constructed for this purpose. In decision tree analysis, Risk is in the ‘ dependent ’ column. This is also known as the target variable. The other four columns are independent columns. It is unlikely that the customer’s name is a predictor of Risk, so we will use the three other pieces of data as independent variables: debt, income and marital status. In the example, each of these is a simple categorical item, each of which only has two possible values (high or low; yes or no). The data from Figure 5.12 are represented in a different form in Figure 5.13 , in a way which lets you see which independent variable is best at predicting risk. As you examine the data, you will see that the best split is income (four instances highlighted in bold on the diagonal: two high income/good risk plus two low income/poor risk). Debt and marital status each s core three on their diagonals. Once a node is split, the same process is performed on each successive node, either until no further splits are possible or until you have reached a managerially useful model. The graphical output of this decision tree analysis is shown in Figure 5.14 . Each box is a node. Nodes are linked by branches. The top node is the root node. The data from the root node is split into two groups based on income. The right-hand, low income box, does not split any further because both low income customers are classified as poor credit risks. The left-hand, high-income box does split further, into married and not married customers. Neither of these split further because the one unmarried customer is a poor credit risk and the two remaining married customers are good credit risks. As a result of this process the company knows that customers who have the lowest credit risk will be high income and married. They will also note that debt, one of the variables inserted into the training model, did not perform well. It is not a predictor of creditworthiness. Decision trees that work with categorical data such as these are known as classification trees. When decision trees are applied to continuous data they are known as regression trees. Neural Networks (147): slide #9 Neural networks are another way of fitting a model to existing data for prediction purposes. The expression ‘ neural network ’ has its origins in the work of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Researchers in this field have tried to learn from the natural neural networks of living creatures. Neural networks can produce excellent predictions from large and complex datasets containing hundreds of interactive predictor variables, but the neural networks are neither easy to understand nor straightforward to use. Neural networks represent complex mathematical equations, with many summations, exponential functions and parameters. Like decision trees and clustering techniques, neural networks need to be trained to recognize patterns on sample datasets. Once trained, they can be used to predict customer behaviour from new data. They work well when there are many potential predictor variables, some of which are redundant. Case 5.2 Customer portfolio management at Tesco Tesco, the largest and most successful supermarket chain in the UK, has developed a CRM strategy that is the envy of many of its competitors. Principally a food retailer in a mature market that has grown little in the  last 20 years, Tesco realized that the only route to growth was taking market share from competitors. Consequently, the development of a CRM strategy was seen as imperative. In developing its CRM strategy, Tesco first analysed its customer base. It found that the top 100 customers were worth the same as the bottom 4000. It also found that the bottom 25 per cent of customers represented only 2 per cent of sales, and that the top 5 per cent of customers were responsible for 20 per cent of sales. The results of this analysis were used to segment Tesco’s customers and to develop its successful loyalty programmes. SWOT and PESTE (p. 154-5): slide# 10 SWOT is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. SWOT analysis explores the internal environment (S and W) and the external environment (O and T) of a strategic business unit. The internal (SW) audit looks for strengths and weaknesses in the business functions of sales, marketing, manufacturing or operations, finance and people management. It then looks cross-functionally for strengths and weaknesses in, for example, cross-functional processes (such as new product development) and organizational culture. The external (OT) audit analyses the macro- and micro-environments in which the customer operates. The macro-environment includes a number of broad conditions that might impact on a company. These conditions are identified by a PESTE analysis. PESTE is an acronym for political, economic, social, technological and environmental conditions. An analysis would try to pick out major conditions that impact on a business, as illustrated below: political environment : demand for international air travel contracted as worldwide political stability was reduced after September 11, 2001 economic environment : demand for mortgages falls when the economy enters recession. social environment : as a population ages, demand for healthcare and residential homes increase technological environment : as more households become owners of computers, demand for Internet banking increases environmental conditions : as customers become  more concerned about environmental quality, demand for more energy efficient products increases. The micro environmental part of the external (OT) audit examines relationships between a company and its immediate external stakeholders: customers, suppliers, business partners and investors. A CRM-oriented SWOT analysis would be searching for customers or potential customers that emerge well from the analysis. Th ese would be customers that: 1. possess relevant strengths to exploit the opportunities open to them 2. are overcoming weaknesses by partnering with other organizations to take advantage of opportunities 3. are investing in turning around the company to exploit the opportunities 4. are responding to external threats in their current markets by exploiting their strengths for diversification. Five forces The five-forces analysis was developed by Michael Porter. 17 He claimed that the profitability of an industry, as measured by its return on capital employed relative to its cost of capital, was determined by five sources of competitive pressure. These five sources include three horizontal and two vertical conditions. The horizontal conditions are: competition within the established businesses in the market competition from potential new entrants competition from potential substitutes. The vertical conditions reflect supply and demand chain considerations: the bargaining power of buyers  the bargaining power of suppliers.  Porter’s basic premise is that competitors in an industry will be more profitable if these five conditions are benign. For example, if buyers are very powerful, they can demand high levels of service and low prices, thus negatively influencing the profitability of the supplier. However, if barriers to entry are high, say because of large capital requirements or dominance of the market by very powerful brands, then current players will be relatively immune from new entrants and enjoy the possibility of better profits. Why would a CRM-strategist be interested in a five-forces evaluation of customers? Fundamentally, a financially healthy customer offers better potential for a supplier than a customer in financial  distress. The analysis points to different CRM solutions: 1. Customers in a profitable industry are more likely to be stable for the near-term, and are better placed to invest in opportunities for the future. They therefore have stronger value potential. These are customers with whom a supplier would want to build an exclusive and well-protected relationship. 2. Customers in a stressed industry might be looking for reduced cost inputs from its suppliers, or for other ways that they can add value to their offer to their own customers. A CRM-oriented supplier would be trying to find ways to serve this customer more effectively, perhaps by stripping out elements of the value proposition that are not critical, or by adding elements that enable the customer to compete more strongly. Strategically Significant Customers (157) slide #11 The goal of this entire analytical process is to cluster customers into groups so that differentiated value propositions and relationship management strategies can be applied. One outcome will be the identification of customers that will be strategically significant for the company’s future. We call these strategically significant customers (SSCs). There are several classes of SSC, as follows: 1. High future lifetime value customers : these customers will contribute significantly to the company’s profitability in the future. 2. High volume customers : these customers might not generate much profit, but they are strategically significant because of their absorption of fixed costs, and the economies of scale they generate to keep unit costs low. 3. Benchmark customers : these are customers that other customers follow. For example, Nippon Conlux supplies the hardware and software for Coca Cola’s vending operation. While they might not make much margin from that rela tionship, it has allowed them to gain access to many other markets. ‘ If we are good enough for Coke, we are good enough for you ’ , is the implied promise. Some IT companies create ‘ reference sites ’ at some of their more demanding customers. 4. Inspirations : these are customers who bring about improvement in the supplier’s business. They may identify new applications for a product, product improvements, or opportunities for cost reductions. They may complain loudly and make unreasonable demands, but in doing so, force change for the better. 5. Door  openers : these are customers that allow the supplier to gain access to a new market. This may be done for no initial profit, but with a view to proving credentials for further expansion. This may be particularly important if crossing cultural boundaries, say between west and east. One company, a Scandinavian processor of timber, has identified five major customer groups that are strategically signi ficant, as in Figure 5.22 . The Seven Core Customer Management Strategies (158-9) slide # 12 This sort of analysis pays off when it helps companies develop and implement differentiated CRM strategies for clusters of customers in the portfolio. There are several core customer management strategies: 1. Protect the relationship : this makes sense when the customer is strategically significant and attractive to competitors. We discuss the creation of exit barriers in our review of customer retention strategies in Chapter 9. 2. Re-engineer the relationship : in this case, the customer is currently unprofitable or less profitable than desired. However, the customer could be converted to profit if costs were trimmed from the relationship. This might mean reducing or automating service levels, or servicing customers through lower cost channels. In the banking industry, transaction processing costs, as a multiple of online processing costs are as follows. If Internet transaction processing has a unit cost of 1, an in-bank teller transaction costs 120 units, an ATM transaction costs 40, telephone costs 30 and PC banking costs 20. In other words, it is 120 times more expensive to conduct an in-bank transaction than the identical online transaction. Cost-reduction programmes have motivated banks to migrate their customers, or at least some segments of customers, to other lower cost channels. An Australian electricity company has found that its average annual margin per customer is $60. It costs $13 to serve a c ustomer who pays by credit card, but only 64 cents to service a direct debit customer. Each customer moved to the lower cost channel therefore produces a transaction cost saving of more than $12, which increases the average customer value by 20 per cent. Re-engineering a relationship requires a clear understanding of the activities that create costs in the relationship (see Case 5.3). 3. Enhance the relationship : like  the strategy above, the goal is to migrate the customer up the value ladder. In this case it is done not by re-engineering the relationship, but by increasing your share of customer spend on the category, and by identifying up-selling and cross-selling opportunities. 4. Harvest the relationship : when your share of wallet is stable, and you do not want to invest more resources in customer development, you may feel that the customer has reached maximum value. Under these conditions you may wish to harvest, that is, optimize cash flow from the customer with a view to using the cash generated to develop other customers. This may be particularly appealing if the customer is in a declining market, has a high cost-to-serve or has a high propensity-to-switch to competitors. 5. End the relationship : sacking customers is ge nerally anathema to sales and marketing people. However, when the customer shows no sign of making a significant contribution in the future it may be the best option.You can read about strategies for sacking customers in Chapter 9. 6. Win back the customer : sometimes customers take some or all of their business to other suppliers. If they are not strategically signifi cant, it may make sense to let them go. However, when the customer is important, you may need to develop and implement win back strategies. The starting point must be to understand why they took their business away. 7. Start a relationship : you’ve identified a prospect as having potential strategic significance for the future. You need to develop an acquisition plan to recruit the customer onto the value ladder. You can read about customer acquisition strategies in Chapter 8.

Volunteering At A Food Pantry - 890 Words

Have you ever wondered where you would rest your head at night? Where you would find your next meal? How would support your family given unforeseen sudden circumstances? I’ve never thought about the importance of these questions until a recent experience I had volunteering at a food pantry. There are organizations whose main purpose is to help those in need and provide resources to members of the community who are going through difficult times. A food pantry is a non-profit community serviced organization that provides members of the community with groceries and resources. From volunteering at this food pantry I learned more than ever to never â€Å"judge a book, by its cover†, or in other words, even though I person may look well put together on the outside, you never know what it is they are dealing with on the inside. I’ve encountered homeless members of the community, people who have suffered from physical abuse, and people who have experienced unexpected dis asters such as house fires to expected job layoffs while volunteering at a food pantry. I’ve also come to appreciate everything that I have in my life from the roof over my head to the food in my stomach and that some people are less fortunate than me. Recently I was given the opportunity to volunteer at the grand opening of a food pantry ran buy a local church. I was first approached with this opportunity by a family member, I wasn’t quite sure what exactly what a food pantry was and what it took to operate it. IShow MoreRelatedEssay about Persuasive Speech: The Benefits of Volunteering1127 Words   |  5 PagesStatement: Volunteering in your local community will help those around you and help you feel like you have contributed something positive and it is easier than most people think. C. Speaker Credibility Statement: If we all did our part to help those in need, our community would be a better and safer place to live. By doing this, we can achieve a greater sense of accomplishment. I try and do five or six volunteer activities each month and can tell you of the personal benefits from volunteering that IRead More St. James Food Pantry: How Homeless can Occur881 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.† Helder Camara What is hunger? According to dictionary.com, hunger is feeling of discomfort or weakness caused by lack of food. A person that has no shelter, love and food is considering being homeless. This makes their demand for food and shelter high. 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I am choosing this culture because of the high number of low socioeconomic students who attend schools in our district. I believe it is important to understand the needs in my area in order to connect with future students and their families. There is a need for support in my area to assist these families in feeding their families. I was able to substantiate my assumptions regardingRead MoreFactors That I Have Learned Over The Course Of 8 Weeks1036 Words   |  5 Pagesremaining of the semester. Our Service Learning Project. You were able to choose a service of your choice to spend a few days volunteering your time at. I chose to volunteer at a local Food Pantry at a church in town. I began by contacting the supervisor so to say for the pantry. I explained my class project and what I was hoping to learn from s pending a few hours with them. The pantry is only open on Tuesdays every month, for about 5 hours. 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During my experience with the food pantry, I never knew who I was goingRead MoreSchools Like Crispus Attacks Are Not More Disadvantaged?1137 Words   |  5 Pagesthat do have the means. This has historically been a very conflicting topic when it comes to the data that has been gathered. This is because of a variety of different factors that have been studied to try and explain the phenomenon. After volunteering with the pantry and the distribution center, I feel that there is something to be said when coming from a place of means. When comparing the different schools here in Indianapolis it can be seen that schools like Crispus Attacks are typically African AmericanRead MoreAdvisors At The Local Food Bank1741 Words   |  7 Pagesopportunities for those who work with us to do the same. Starting in 2016, Advisors Excel has made a commitment to deploying a group of approximately 50 employees one afternoon a week to help in the community. Whether it’s helping at the local food bank, volunteering at the Boys and Girls Club, assisting with neighborhood cleanup efforts and helping organize and staff, community events, Advisors Excel will donate roughly 5,000 hours of volunteer time to its home community every year. They believe in making

Theme Of Women In The Great Gatsby - 905 Words

â€Å"The Great Gatsby†; written in the heart of the roaring twenties is a fictional piece that embodies many themes and ideas that reflect the nature of the time period that it describes. A thoroughly explored theme is the roles of women in the early 20th century and how society views and treats them. Author, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote three main female characters into the text, which all have important meaning in the book. The following analytical essay will thoroughly assess Fitzgerald’s text and how he portrayed women in his book, â€Å"The Great Gatsby†, judging their roles in three main categories: ‘gender roles, ‘male possession’ and ‘sexism’. The Jazz age; a term coined by Fitzgerald was a significant time regarding womens rights. In†¦show more content†¦In the scene it is evident that Daisy has a little to no say on the matter, which is very bizarre considering how much general influence she has. Fitzgerald makes it clear that Gatsby feels as if Daisy is his possession and not Toms. An extract from the text says this; â€Å"Your wife doesn’t love you,† said Gatsby. â€Å"She’s never loved you. She loves me.†. Throughout the scene its apparent that Daisy is reluctant to agree nor disagree as she is in a very difficult position, but none of this is taken into account by Tom nor Gatsby as they dont care. This desperate fight over one women says a lot about how women were viewed at the time by society. They were often viewed as toys of men and that men can always speak on behalf of them and control them. Due to time period in which â€Å"The Great Gatsby† was written: the 1920s, the text is littered with sexist themes and ideas as it was common for such views to be present in western culture at the time. At the time of the text, the last ten years saw the allowance for women to vote in the United States so it is unsurprising that many men treat women unfairly in comparison to men. The most clearly obvious character whom is sexist, is Tom Buchanan. His aggressive nature and his one eyed personality makes him a sexist, racist and narcissistic individual, which shows throughout different scenes in the text. It is evident that Tom views women as possessionsShow MoreRelatedSimilarities Between The Great Gatsby And Goodbye Columbus1743 Words   |  7 PagesOn occasion, there can be two novels that share the same theme. Sometimes they can have the same plot, but in the case of the two novels, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the novel Goodbye Columbus, by Philip Roth th ey explore the same dynamics of the American dream. In both novels there are similar themes of sex and money as a form of power. Both novels can relate to each other because the authors decided to show how the pursuit of the American dream may not always be a good thing,Read More Comparison of A Farewell to Arms and The Great Gatsby Essay1267 Words   |  6 PagesComparison of A Farewell to Arms and The Great Gatsby The author’s style from Ernest Hemigway’s A Farewell to Arms differ from F.Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby in many ways. Fitzgerald uses a more reflective style of writing meaning that he makes his characters reflect and the theme also includes reflection from the reader as well as the plot. On the other hand, Hemingway uses a more self-interest style with its theme, characters, and plot, meaning that he makes this book on hisRead MoreThe Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald1272 Words   |  6 Pages author of The Great Gatsby, describes his own insight to his writing techniques, which gain his success through the agelessness of his novels. This is clear with The Great Gatsby, a novel narrated by the character Nick Caraway and centered on Jay Gatsby’s short-lived life. This novel is a timeless piece of literature that is still relevant to American society today because of its attitude on materialism and its portrayal of feminism relating to t he era and modern day. One theme that is prominentRead MoreThe Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald1465 Words   |  6 PagesIn the text, â€Å"Is The Great Gatsby the Most Overrated Literary Novel of All Time,† Daniel Honan argues that the classic American novel, The Great Gatsby is an overrated novel in his opinion. Honan challenges his claim on the novel by questioning, should his book be considered an American classic? Author, F.Scott Fitzgerald, portrays his novel The Great Gatsby with a unique writing style, structure, and captures life in the 1920s realistically. Fitzgerald demonstrates the theme of illusion vs. realityRead MoreThe Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald1389 Words   |  6 Pagesroles of women, but also of many other different social and cultural trends. The 1920s was the Progressive era that was a response to the Gilded Age. The Progressive era was filled with many reformers that aimed to reform the social issues like the women’s movement who had started a temperance mo vement to prohibit people from drinking. The 1920s was also a time of a social gap where the wealthy got more rich and the poor increased and stayed beyond the poverty line. In the Great Gatsby, the ValleyRead MoreWhat Is The Role Of Women In The Great Gatsby857 Words   |  4 Pagesthe years, women have tried to break free from the stereotype of being less than a man. It is understandable that it has been incredibly hard to break this stigma since this standard was established centuries ago. Throughout history, the common role of a woman was to sit at home, cook, clean take care of the kids. In 1925, during the time that F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby, that standard was not any different. Daisy Buchanan and Myrtle Wilson were portrayed as oblivious women who wouldRead MoreThe Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald1599 Words   |  7 Pagesevents and themes that occurred around him. One of Fitzgerald’s most popular novels is named The Great Gatsby. The Great Gat sby is written to reproduce the environment that Fitzgerald was living in. This semiautobiographical work uses fictitious characters to portray how people around Fitzgerald acted and what the overall theme of America was at this point in time. The years that ensued World War I were known for mass productions of alcohol, grand parties, and greed for money. In The Great GatsbyRead MoreTheir Eyes Were Watching God And The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald1404 Words   |  6 Pagesand The Great Gatsby are both novels which came out of a similar era and deal with similar themes but these novels also have their differences. Both Eyes and Gatsby deal with the issue of social class, and within that issue there is an issue of gender which shows how mostly the female characters are being oppressed. This oppression does not allow them to fulfill their dreams like the male characters which is a crucial point since these novels are also about self fulfillment. Eyes and Gatsby are bothRead MoreComparison of the American Dream in The Great Gatsby and â€Å"Winter Dreams†953 Words   |  4 Pages While The Great Gatsby wasn’t published until 1925, â€Å"Winter Dreams† dà ©buted in 1922 and the similarities between the novel and short story were done on purpose. â€Å"Winter Dreams† became a short draft which Fitzgerald paralleled The Great Gatsby after, but also differentiated the two in specific ways (â€Å"Winter Dreams† 217). The main characters are both men, Jay Gatsby and Dexter Green, who desire for the American dream, not necessarily for themselves, but in order to lure back the women they idealizeRead MoreA Modernist Examination of the Good Anna and the Great Gatsby1646 Words   |  7 PagesA Modernist Examination of The Good Anna and The Great Gatsby Modernism is a movement characterized by the re-examination of literary styles, structures, content, and even human existence thought to be standard prior to 1900. The movement was all about looking at things in a new light, and trying to break the mold so long held by society as the norm. This movement took place in art, music, architecture, and as I will further discuss in this paper, literature. In this paper, I will discuss the modernist

Ebola Virus Is An Infectious Organism - 1515 Words

Ebola is one of the deadliest viruses known to mankind! Ebola was originally named Ebola hemorrhagic fever due to its hemorrhagic nature. It is a rare but deadly disease caused by infection from an Ebola virus vector. Ebola can be contracted by humans and nonhumans such as monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees. The Ebola virus has been detected in blood and many body fluids, including: saliva, mucus, vomit, feces, sweat, tears, breast milk, urine, semen, and vaginal fluids (Willett 16). Ebola can linger in your body for several days after recovery in organs such as the testes, eyes and spinal column fluid because it is not easily reached by the immune system. Ebola can also live on the surface of an object for several hours; it can live in†¦show more content†¦The worst epidemic on record is Tuberculosis, Tb, has been traced back to Egyptian mummies by the use of DNA. In the 19th century, TB killed one-quarter of adults in Europe (Bernabeo 870). A pandemic is prevalent over a whole country or the world; the Black Death is the worst pandemic on record. It was the plague of the 14th century, the world population was 450 million at the time and an estimated 75 million people died from the plague. Ebola creates inflammation and fever through many different tissues by prompting immune cells, such as macrophages to release inflammatory molecules or by direct damage (Berlatsky 28). Ebola attacks the dendritic cells (white blood cells), and damaged cells lead to diarrhea and dehydration. The adrenal glands become damaged as well, causing circulatory failure leading to loss of oxygen to organs. Ebola causes the blood to clot causing patients’ blood to thicken slowly, which decreases the blood flow throughout the body. The patient will soon develop red spots on the skin caused by the blood clotting causing blood flow to decrease to vital body organs such as the liver, brain, kidneys, lungs, intestines, testicles and extremities (Preston 134). During the final stages of Ebola bleeding out of the eyes, ears, nose will appear suddenly and uncontrollably. The infected body will go through a catastrophic drop in blood pressure resulting from the damage done to the blood vessels an d massive bloodShow MoreRelatedSymptoms And Symptoms Of Infectious Diseases1680 Words   |  7 Pagesthe term infectious disease Infectious disease are diseases or illnesses caused by micro-organisms that become harmful in the body, these micro-organisms are called pathogens. Pathogens are any organism that cause disease, these can include bacteria, viruses and fungi. Not all the micro-organisms mentioned above are harmful to the body, although, under certain conditions such as an immunocompromised individual or the age of a person, can produce an onset of signs and symptoms of an infectious diseaseRead MoreDiseases Are Bodily Disorders Caused By Organisms Like Bacteria, Viruses And Protozoans ( Pruthi ) Essay1301 Words   |  6 PagesIntroduction Diseases are bodily disorders caused by organisms like bacteria, fungi, viruses and protozoans (Pruthi, 2016). The human body is full of organisms like such and countless others. For the majority of cases, they are not harmful, but can actually be beneficial when housed on or in a person. However, some such organisms have the possibility of causing disease. The passing of infectious disease can come from a number of channels. Some pass from person to person, others are transmitted throughRead MoreThe Mortality Rate Of Ebola1128 Words   |  5 PagesEbola is one of the most deadly diseases known to man. The mortality rate of Ebola ranges from 25% to 90% (World Health Organization [WHO], 2014; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2010; Cowart, 2014). There is no cure for Ebola and no vaccine to prevent its spread (WHO, 2014; CDC, 2010; Cowart, 2014). The virus itself is spreads between organisms through bodily fluids, such as blood and vomit, which are shed by an infec ted individual (WHO, 2014; CDC, 2010). These fluids typicallyRead MoreInfectious Diseases And The Epidemic Essay1273 Words   |  6 PagesInfectious diseases according to the Mariam Webster Dictionary, is â€Å"a disease caused by the entrance into the body of organisms (as bacteria, protozoans, fungi, or viruses) which grow and multiply there†. Infectious diseases has been one of the biggest issues facing mankind since the beginning of time. Particularly due to the fact that we will never truly get rid of infectious diseases as a new one seems to appear every few years. From diseases such as the great plague, the H1N1 influenza and moreRead MoreA Research Study On Aids1396 Words   |  6 PagesEvery single news center has been focusing on the tremendous increase of Ebola cases lately. The thought of the disease itself instills fear in healthy citizens and produces panic in populated areas. Even though Ebola appears to be a relatively new disease to the world- making its first showcase around the 1970 s- its propaganda has overlooked other diseases. AIDS, a disease that was first documented in the 1980 s, has been a very prominent disease throughout the world. The relationship betweenRead MoreHow Can We Protect Ourselves Against Infectious Disease?1404 Words   |  6 PagesHow Can We Protect Ourselves Against Infectious Disease? An infectious disease is caused by a pathogenic microorganism such as virus, bacteria, protists and fungi. It can spread directly or indirectly from human to human or from human to animal, which is called zoonotic. 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5 Forces Model of Verizon free essay sample

Verizon’s wireline business, which includes the operations of the former MCI, provides telephone services, including voice, broadband data and video services, network access, nationwide long-distance and other communications products and services, and also owns and operates one of the most expansive end-to-end global Internet Protocol (IP) networks. Verizon’s domestic wireless business, operating as Verizon Wireless, provides wireless voice and data products and services across the United States using one of the most extensive and reliable wireless networks. High for fixed-line, low for mobile / broadband A threat from substitutes exists if there are alternative products with lower prices that are of better performance parameters for the same purpose. This could potentially attract a significant proportion of market volume and hence reduce the potential sales volume for Verizon. a. Vonage(Threat to Fixed Line service) b. Skype(Threat to Fixed Line service) 3. Competitive Rivalry between Existing Players – High This force describes the intensity of competition between existing players (companies) in an industry. We will write a custom essay sample on 5 Forces Model of Verizon or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The results of high competitive pressure could impact prices, margins, and hence, on profitability for every company in the industry. a. Sprint Nextel b. Cingular ATT wireless c. T-Mobile d. AOL e. Qwest f. RBOCs g. COMCAST 4. Bargaining Power of Suppliers – Low The term suppliers comprises all sources for inputs that are needed in order to provide goods or services. If there is a market with much choice supplier choice, bargaining power will be less. There are many network equipment suppliers, which are suffered from the down telecom market. Having mature technologies also commoditize the products. As such, the bargaining power of suppliers has been weak. 5. Bargaining Power of Customers – Low The bargaining power of customers determines how much customers can impose pressure on margins and volumes. Since most of buyers are small (residential and small business users), they do not have much buyer power. Big corporations are better positioned to negotiate for discounts but industry consolidations of SBC acquiring ATT and Verizon acquiring MCI have significantly reduced the available lternatives for these corporations and thus their negotiation power. Generic Strategy Verizon needs to make the technology customers have today work better through new, customer-friendly products, services, applications and solutions. As well as to invest in the broadband infrastructure that will give customers even better services in the future. â€Å"Competitive advantage can be obtained using three generic strategies; they are cost leadership, differentiation and focus. †¢Cost Leadership oVerizon is required to compete on cost because there are many wireless operators in Europe, reduce cost to increase subscriptions.

Entrepreneur Analysis Richard Branson

Question: Discuss about the Entrepreneur Analysis for Richard Branson. Answer: Introduction: The following report is going to discuss about the entrepreneurial characteristics of Sir Richard Branson of the United Kingdom. Sir Richard Branson is a British entrepreneur, the founder and the director of the company Virgin Groups. Richard Branson has been one of the greatest and highest rated entrepreneurs in modern business world. Richard Branson started his business at the age of sixteen, which he initiated through a magazine called Student. His first venture for the Virgin group was noticed during the 1970s when he opened his record store called The Virgin Records. His greatness of entrepreneurship was established when he was rewarded the Knight in March, 2000 at Buckingham Palace (Storey et al., 2016). The following report is going to recognise the characteristic traits of Richard Branson as an entrepreneur. It further tries to analyse the mode of his business dealing; to figure out the business challenges he has faced in his course of entrepreneurship; to study the mode of endeavours he has taken to resolve the issues in his corporate organisation; and to summarise the type of entrepreneurial segment he belongs to. Types of Entrepreneurs: Before categorising the entrepreneurs, one needs to understand what the term suggests. The term entrepreneur is quite a vast concept. There are some obvious differences between an entrepreneur and a businessperson. A general business definition of entrepreneurship can be stated as the following: Entrepreneurship is the business venture that is developed through the willingness of organising and managing the tasks in order to gain and maximise profit. However, the term is most associated with the start up of a new business venture. A successful entrepreneur is highly innovative and ready to take any sort of risk while doing business. The success of an entrepreneur depends on the innovative way taken in order to resolve the issues in a business. Hence, proper risk management and development of proper organisational culture are the key factors for an entrepreneur to become successful. There are basic four types of entrepreneurship: Richard Branson and Social Entrepreneur: According to (Mair, Robisnson Hockerts, 2006), social entrepreneurs are those who develop their business by generating new ideas about the product or service they would like to deliver in the market. Richard Branson is of no exception. Bransons journey of business from opening a magazine and music record company to creating global service in different fields has been quite spectacular and innovative. He can thus be regarded as a social entrepreneur. Richard Bransons idea on "conglomerate business has proved to be a perfect assimilation of creating new genre and making extreme profit. However, the journey of Sir Branson has not been an easy one. He has been creating his business type in different sectors and industries. The bestselling autobiography of Sir Branson, Loosing My Virginity has chronicled different modes of business strategies that he had taken in his business career (Branson, 2011). The book depicts his hardships and achievements in performing business through conglomera tion with different companies. Virgin Corporation has now become the largest business corporation in the United Kingdom. Major Talents of Richard Branson: Richard Branson is no doubt a legendary entrepreneur. He has struggled for establishing his business from the beginning of the 1980s. In the 1990s, he lost his first business venture and literally cried for the loss. However, there are certain criteria that have made this person such great. These are as follows: The major strength that Branson has is his idea of expanding the business. Richard Branson, a high school drop-out, established his first business of magazine in 1966. He has the idea of free distribution of his magazine in its first year. Such idea of promoting a product was quite inventive in its nature standing in the 60s. However, he managed to recover the making cost through advertisement. His idea of target audience proved that he knew how to deal with the market. He chose the youth segment of the society as his topic. From the cultural venture of business, he moved to open his recording studio in 1972. This was done in order to support his founding business of magazine, Student. Till 1990 the Virgin studio became one of the leading recording platform in the country and Richard Branson did not stop expanding his business. Now his Virgin is a conglomeration of different companies dealing with different sectors and industries. Making Self-Fortune: The strongest advantage of a successful entrepreneur is that he or she keeps striving for making his or her own fortune through business venture. When Thorn Emi took over Virgin Record in 1992, Richard Branson was the most distressed. The decade of 90s had a bi-productive effect on Bransons business career. His constant struggle was immediately recovered by founding Virgin Radio. Then he started expanding his business by establishing V2. At present, the Virgin Group holds more than two hundred companies in more than thirty countries. His business venture has not been captivated in recording studio. It has rather expanded through owning Train Company, mobile and communication sector, gaming sector and so on. Innovative Ideas in Business: The theory of Joseph Schumpeter states that the success of an entrepreneur depends on how innovative one thinks and executes. The innovation has different phases in different industries. However, the basic phases are, the innovation in production, innovation in selection of the products or services or the both, innovation in marketing style, innovation in dealing with human resource and so on. Bransons innovation was vividly noticed when he chose the topic for the first edition of his magazine. The topic of pertaining to the issues faced by the youth in British society was quite contemporary. In his recording business, he kept working with the most suitable artists. Bransons entrepreneurial attitude fulfilled all the required criteria of the theory of innovation that was designed by Joseph Schumpeter (Kuratko, 2016). Following checklist validates his fulfilment of theory of innovation: Criteria (Entrepreneurial Innovation Model ) Checklist Introducing New Product Introducing New Production method Opening of New Market Identification of New sources of supply Introducing New Organisation in Industry Fig 1: Checklist on Validating Bransons Business Innovation Entrepreneurial Orientation of Richard Branson: Richard Bransons entrepreneurial orientation has been measured upon the success of his brand i.e. Virgin. The Global reflective Measure theory in Entrepreneurial Orientation suggests that an entrepreneur needs t be globally oriented with his or her business. This is performed by using risk-adverse managerial philosophy. Bransons orientation with risk has been repeatedly noticed when he ventured new business in railways. The railway business is considered the most risky one in the business world. However, Virgin Trains in collaboration with British railways has been doing fair business. The most successful endeavour of Branson was the decision of designing new trains with the assistance of modern technology. The next venture of Branson was noticed in 2007 when decided to launch virgin Airways and executed the pan perfectly. The intervention into the railways and airways has proved that virgin group under the leadership of sir Richard Branson is not going to halt from expanding busines s ideas and executing them in reality (Baum, Frese Baron, 2014). According to the trait theory, an organisational leader or an entrepreneur must possess a certain characteristic trait that helps him or her become the most adored leader in the industry. Entrepreneurial attitude and behaviour can be discussed through different categorical representations. An entrepreneur applies his or her characteristic traits in their organisational process to inspire the employees. Recent interview with richer Branson by a news channel reflects his nature as an entrepreneur and corporate leader. His orientation with the employees has been praised by many. He has perfect leadership quality. He always strove to build a team. This nature is quite evident in his first venture with the musical studio Virgin Record. The Virgin group has thousands of employees and they are scattered in different countries in the world. The Virgin Air Asia has also confirmed the nature of business cohesion through the leadership of Richard Branson. In an interview, he revealed that touch method really helps in understanding and communicating with the employees (Abubakar, 2016). He believes that by touching or patting the employees one can easily make them believe that the boss is with them. Such philosophical intervention in the business sector is quite rare and he has proved to be one of the greatest business leaders of the world (Higgs Dulewicz, 2016). In spite of huge business success, Richard Branson has come across his struggle period in the 1990s. The first scarcity fell upon him when his company was sold. He began to redesign the structure of Virgin through assembling different sectors. This was the period when he designed some of the greatest business ideas (Acs, Audretsch Lehmann, 2013). The next crisis period was faced by Richard Branson was in the recent years when he eliminated Virgin America from his business wings. In the very first years of his business with the British railways, he faced huge business loss as he introduced new model of train that was technologically quite advanced but expensive. Therefore, the next venture from Virgin Trains was to make good use of the market demand. According to the growing market demand in different countries, he stepped in with his business and franchise ideas (Sanford Fullerton, 2014). The biggest strength lay in that fact that Branson did not focus on a single business field. H e rather intervened in business like mobile business and tourism business. The Virgin Asia Airways is one of the highest voted companies in the continent. He holds more than twenty different individual business fields in his conglomerate (Johnsen et al., 2017). Dealing with Setbacks: The most common setback that has been found in Richard Branson is that he never talks about extending his business in a particular business field. He keeps experimenting with different types of business sectors starting from service sectors to heavy manufacturing industries. This may bring risk in further business endeavours. Continuous increase in the types of businesses in his conglomerate may fall into utter disruption ("Frustration leads to disruption", 2017) The multifaceted ventures of Richard Branson have caused utter failure in different industries. More than ten of his business initiatives failed to crack well in the market due to lack of proper insight and availability of hardcore competition. Following business of Richard Branson utterly failed from doing well in the market:Virgin Cosmetics: Virgin Cosmetics were the worst businesses venture ever taken by Branson. His urge for handling multiple businesses at a time cost him a lot. Virgin Cosmetics were sold out in the year 2009. Virgin Cola: Due to hardcore competition from Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, Virgin cola could not even stand well in the market. To some extent, it tried to look into the local markets of individual countries like USA where it managed to hold 0.5 % business share. However, in 2012 it stopped its production and was sold out in later years (Hulsink Rauch, 2015). The Virgin brand had pretty much talk about its future in different business. However, some of the businesses were tremendously successful and some were disgrace. The basic set back of Branson is that he did not specify his business criteria. He seems to be scattered in dealing with the business industries. It happens when someone is not well organised in creating thought. I think, Richard Branson does not belong to an industry like Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg does. Sir Richard Branson is more a companys man. With the dynamic dream to capture every possible business sector under the realm of Virgin Group Branson paved his way, which led to two different roads- extreme success and utter failure. This approach of Branson is highly commendable in terms of business ethic. History of the virgin Group says more than fifteen ventures were either sold out or stopped due to low sales rate. Inconsistency in business raises question against Branson how far he understands market competition an d continuation capability (Engel, Kaandorp Elfring, 2015, January). Strategies Taken by Branson to Overcome Business Difficulties: Despite several incidents of failure, Richard Branson came up with different innovative ideas to recover the wounds in the market. The basic change he did in his companies was that he strengthened his human resource department. Richard Branson is known to be the employees boss as he has always been supporting the employees in different hardships. The technological enhancement n his tourism sector was a great move to grow interest among the tourists to avail through Virgin Group. He himself visited the spots where his business ran flop and he tried to analyse the problems. Direct interaction with the employees and the customers made him become a successful entrepreneur, even one of the greatest of all time (Grant, 2016). Conclusion: The best part of Richard Branson is that he has never undermined his own technique despite constant criticism from the business scholars and experts. This is how he developed his own idea of dealing with multiple business types. He involved in the grass root level to solve the problems of the company and tried to solve them. Reference: ABUBAKAR, S. G. (2016). Examining the Culture of an Organisation, Its Leadership Styles, Structure, Diversity Issues and Conflicts: A Case Study of Virgin Atlantic, United Kingdom.Development,4(2). Acs, Z. J., Audretsch, D. B., Lehmann, E. E. (2013). The knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship.Small Business Economics,41(4), 757-774. Alter, S. (2014). 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