System Architectures Essay Example for Free

System Architectures Essay It is true that most companies now are looking at how to be competitive in their business, whether they improved their internal processes through improving manpower skills or improving customer service. But those improvements does not end there, most companies would also look into improving their systems through their computer systems and that is the main focus of this research as to how this will take on the future challenges of most organization. One of the most very prevalent these days when it comes to computer systems is the utmost availability of it to almost everybody, like most people these days can access their emails and systems through their mobile phone and can make orders at the comfort of their homes and could even provide them alarms and updates even without them asking for it. These are just some of the trends that continue to affect the business and how it brings business to end users. One of the future of computer systems includes the providing online data and information to everybody, which can be provided by systems that specializes for data sharing with high end technology for instant querying and report for any information that people needs. This kind of systems continues to be the demand and will be more very in demand in the future as most organization would need much information to help them prepared for bigger challenges. Some of these systems include these great features: (1) tailored data grids, (2) supports tailored fir RDBMS, and (3) adopts hybrid architecture of other systems, meaning it can constantly be adoptable and interconnected to other wide systems around the world. This will grow more on more in the future and it will be the information need of anybody that drives a lot to this kind of system. But, the implementation of this kind of system would take a lot of research and understanding to all the different challenges of any organization for it to be adoptable and be appreciative to the growing information public who would need it. (Comito, C. , Gournaris, A. , Sakellario, R. , Talia, D, 2008). Another future of computer systems will be more on the scientific and engineering side; this is because there are continuing focus on improvement on the research and development where it has been the vital part of the economic stability of any business. This continues to provide high efficiency and quality to any product it develops; due to its accuracy bound systems that help stabilize production in most scientific research organization. This also becomes a major need for most organization these days as they already identified the weakness of most products in the market that did not applied high end computerized systems which in result affects the appreciation of the greater meticulous market. The main emphasis here is that it provides high quality and originality to any product and that already is one major attraction and enticement to many end users and buyers around the world, because nowadays technology for them is important and it really matters the most. In line with this the future will also be going into web based scientific and engineering computing system that would also helps scientist and engineers in coming up with better upgrade and fix of their systems online and would not anymore be implemented within offices. This not only helps them to be more flexible but more importantly gives them productivity and efficiency since their systems can be access at their own convenience. This also attracts more business owners to also do business off shore and in return also gives them lesser cost in labor and other expense. (Future Generation of Computer Systems, n. d.). Work Cited Comito, C. , Gournaris, A. , Sakellario, R. , Talia, D. (2008). A service-oriented system for distributed data querying and integration on Grids. Science Direct. Retrieved 16 February 2009 from http://journalseek.net/

Critical Self Assessment Reflective Essay Social Work Essay

Critical Self Assessment Reflective Essay Social Work Essay Self-assessment is always a challengeable task because people always attempt to conduct a self-assessment but they do not always succeed in this regard. The main reason for the failure of the self-assessment is the inadequate self-esteem or self-awareness. At the same time, it is necessary to conduct the self-assessment in order to define clearly the progress an individual has made in the course of his or her development and the identification of problems in the personal development along with goals of the further development. At any rate, while conducting my self-assessment, I focused on my current development both personal and professional, and, on the ground of this information, I attempted to define skills and areas which need consistent improvement and what I should work on. Initially, I supposed to conduct my self-assessment for myself. In fact, it was just interesting for me to know what a sort of person I am, how I assess and view myself and what I actually want to improve in my personality. However, on a profound reflection, I arrived to the idea that I need to share my self-assessment and I extended my target audience from myself to my peers and people interested in psychology because it is always interesting to get acquainted with oneà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s self-assessment to be able to avoid pitfalls of self-assessment made by others in the course of their self-assessment. Frankly speaking, I do not want to be didactic but still I just want to share my experience of self-assessment which may be useful to other people, especially my peers, who may have the same problems as I have. While conducting my self-assessment, I focused on my current personal and professional development mainly and, on the ground of my current development, I attempted to define what I really need to improve in myself and my development to become a better person. On analyzing my current development, I arrived to the conclusion that I have already reached positive outcomes in my personal and professional development. For instance, I have always been successful in my learning and my academic successes always encouraged me to carry on my professional development. At the same time, the more I learned the better I felt because I felt and still feel that my knowledge, my skills and abilities are very useful in my personal life. They contribute to my personal development, extend my eyesight and make me spiritually rich because my knowledge and experience are my personal wealth. At the same time, I would like to dwell upon skills and abilities I have already developed and which I consider to be very important in my life. For instance, my organizational skills are of the utmost importance for me but, as far as I remember, I always had problems with my organizational skills which stay a bit under-developed. At any rate, I cannot say that my regular life is well-organized. Naturally, I can do the routine actions I do day after day but sometimes I feel that I am running of time badly and I need more time to do everything I want and I have to do. I do not have a schedule of to dos for every day, although I attempt to plan my actions. For instance, when I have vacations I plan how I am going to spend my vacation and basically I fulfill my plans successfully. On the other hand, in my daily life, I face some problems with the organization of my working day because I can have an unexpected encounter with a friend of mine that may take a lot of time. As a result, I ma y fail to do something important I have planned at the beginning of the day. Furthermore, my organizational skills often into clashes with my leadership ambitions because, as I fail to organize effectively my own work or learning, for instance, than I cannot always organize a work of a group or team. As a result, my leadership ambitions cannot be implemented because people I want to lead are not confident in my ability to lead them. Nevertheless, I was always concerned with being the first, being the leader. In such a situation, I attempt to compensate my lack of organizational skills by my communication skills. I have a lot of friends and I do like the communication with interesting people. I have a few, if any, problems in the communication with any person. I can start communication easily and I make a lot of friends. In this regard, my high self-awareness and self-esteem may be factors which help me to communicate and lead people. frankly speaking, a feel being a bit too self-assured but this quality helps me a lot in my life, although sometimes it provokes conflicts with some people. On analyzing my current development, I focused on my target development. Taking into consideration the drawbacks I have identified in the course of self-assessment, I would like to focus on the improvement of organizational and leadership skills. In fact, I have to learn to organize and plan my daily life carefully because I believe this will help me to realize my full potential and to become a true leader. The latter is very important for me because I do need to be a leader, who guides people and help them to reach their goals, while working in a team. In this regard, the development of social relations may be very helpful. At any rate, I have good communication skills and I can develop social relations effectively but I believe that I need to change the direction in which I develop my social relations. What I mean is that, at the moment, I develop my social relations for pleasure, to make friends, to spend a good time, and so on. Now, I believe it is a high time to change my life a little bit. In actuality, I need to feel being useful to my community. In this regard, I would like to do some volunteer job to develop my organizational and leadership skills. In addition, I will learn how to be helpful and useful to other people. Thus, I believe that my self-assessment can be helpful to those people, who are interested in psychology and who attempt to conduct their own self-assessment. I attempted to be as sincere and critical as possible. I identified my drawbacks as well as positive traits of character. Naturally, I understand that I may be subjective but people, who read my self-assessment, can identify strong and weak points in my self-assessment and avoid those weak points in their own self-assessment.

The Effects of Violent Computer Games on Children :: Essays Papers

The Effects of Violent Computer Games on Children Children are spending an increasing amount of time playing games. Research shows that as much as 92% of children between 4 and 17 years of age play video games (Zvezdan, 1). Most of these video games are violent and cause physical and mental problems in children. Computer games that are played excessively can damage a person’s health. They can cause epilepsy, damage to a child’s posture, and damage to joints, skin irritation and sight deterioration. Flashing of lights and the radiant energy of the images from the screen can trigger seizures (Randall, 1). Seizures can lead an individual to develop epilepsy. Epilepsy causes a kind of electrical storm in the brain. The most common type of epilepsy is called grand mal (â€Å"Epilepsy,† 194). It causes a sudden loss of consciousness and wild jerking of arms, legs and other parts of the body. Another adverse effect of playing computer games is crooked posture. Crooked posture is one of the most common medical problems connected to playing video games. In fact there is a huge number of children in junior high and high schools that have a crooked posture as a result of playing computer games (Zvezdan, 1). Having a crooked posture can lead to permanent spinal damage. D amage to joints or tendonitis is just another factor that comes with playing computer games excessively. The constant repetition of the same movements to hands induces damage to joints and skin irritation (Zvezdan, 1). Another effect of playing computer games is deterioration of eyesight. Hours staring at the screen, which displays rapidly flashing pictures, can impair sight. Some other physical problems caused by computer games are lack of exercise and psychomotor disorders (Setzer, 3). With lack of exercise, the buildup of fat increases causing a person to become obese. Recent news articles claim, â€Å"some children addicted to electronic games spoke too fast with limited sense, feeling or contents in their speech.†(Setzer, 3) Unable to speak properly would hold children back from excelling in their studies. The mental effects of playing violent games are just as numerous as the physical effects. Excessively playing violent computer games over along period of time can contribute to â€Å"obsessive, addictive behavior,† the player will be dehumanized, and feelings will be desensitized (Setzer, 1). The Effects of Violent Computer Games on Children :: Essays Papers The Effects of Violent Computer Games on Children Children are spending an increasing amount of time playing games. Research shows that as much as 92% of children between 4 and 17 years of age play video games (Zvezdan, 1). Most of these video games are violent and cause physical and mental problems in children. Computer games that are played excessively can damage a person’s health. They can cause epilepsy, damage to a child’s posture, and damage to joints, skin irritation and sight deterioration. Flashing of lights and the radiant energy of the images from the screen can trigger seizures (Randall, 1). Seizures can lead an individual to develop epilepsy. Epilepsy causes a kind of electrical storm in the brain. The most common type of epilepsy is called grand mal (â€Å"Epilepsy,† 194). It causes a sudden loss of consciousness and wild jerking of arms, legs and other parts of the body. Another adverse effect of playing computer games is crooked posture. Crooked posture is one of the most common medical problems connected to playing video games. In fact there is a huge number of children in junior high and high schools that have a crooked posture as a result of playing computer games (Zvezdan, 1). Having a crooked posture can lead to permanent spinal damage. D amage to joints or tendonitis is just another factor that comes with playing computer games excessively. The constant repetition of the same movements to hands induces damage to joints and skin irritation (Zvezdan, 1). Another effect of playing computer games is deterioration of eyesight. Hours staring at the screen, which displays rapidly flashing pictures, can impair sight. Some other physical problems caused by computer games are lack of exercise and psychomotor disorders (Setzer, 3). With lack of exercise, the buildup of fat increases causing a person to become obese. Recent news articles claim, â€Å"some children addicted to electronic games spoke too fast with limited sense, feeling or contents in their speech.†(Setzer, 3) Unable to speak properly would hold children back from excelling in their studies. The mental effects of playing violent games are just as numerous as the physical effects. Excessively playing violent computer games over along period of time can contribute to â€Å"obsessive, addictive behavior,† the player will be dehumanized, and feelings will be desensitized (Setzer, 1).

An Analysis of the Media and Culture Issues of Society :: Media Cultural Essays

The issue of the relationship between the mass media and the popular culture has always been a controversial issue in social sciences. The political economists insist on the role of the media industry in the creation of this phenomenon of the twentieth century. Though, advocates such as John Fiske, argue that popular culture is actually the creation of the populous itself, and is independent of the capitalist production process of the communication sector. Basing his argument on the immense interpretive power of the people, Fiske believes that the audience is able to break all the indented meanings within a media message. He also believes- by giving new meanings to that specific message they can oppose the power block that is trying to impose its ideology to the public. Consequently, this anarchistic activity of the audience creates the popular culture as a defence mechanism. Even when we accept Fiske’s ideas, we can not disregard the manipulative power of the media and it s effects on cultural and social life. Everyday we are exposed to millions of different visual messages, which tell us what to eat, what to wear, what to watch and what to listen. No matter how hard we try to avoid being influenced by these directives, we can only protect ourselves to a certain point. After that, no interpretive power can be helpful. Media then leads us to a path that ends up in the same department store with our neighbour, with whom we have probably never spoken to before. Ironically, we are holding the same pair of socks or CDs, and we might never want to recall the TV commercial that had opened the gates to this path. The United States is the biggest economical power in the world today, and consequently has also the strongest and largest media industry. Therefore, it is essential to take a look at the crucial relationship between the media and the popular culture within the social context of the United States for a better understanding of the issue. For a simpler analysis of the subject we shall divide the media industry into three main branches: Entertainment, News and Commercials (which is the essential device for the survival of the industry, and shall be considered in integration with Entertainment). Researches have shown that the most popular reason behind TV viewing is relaxation and emptying the mind.

The Failures of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) :: Essays Papers

The Failures of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) One hundred and ten people were killed on board ValueJet’s flight 592 May 11, 1996. Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) failure to correct the problems found in an inspection contributed to this tragic crash (McKenna 59). FAA inspections are contributing to too many deaths on board major airlines. The corruption in the system has lead to many frightening statistics and problems but there are still a lot of improvements for the FAA. The FAA’s failure to inspect and report malfunctions caused 26 cases of uncontained disk/spacers. Also 10 cases of uncontained blades, 9 reversers, 9 fires in the undercowl, 6 engine separations, 6 case ruptures and 1 cowl separation. Airworthy planes that fly into terrain are the leading cause of accidents. Pilots do not know where they are going in relation to the ground but the aircraft is under control. It has killed 2,396 people from 1987 to 1996. Statistics show that U.S. carriers are the safest in the world. However the Safer Skies program by NASA predicts by the year 2010 there will be 6 or 7 catastrophic accidents per year if changes are not made soon (Hilkovitch 4). The FAA acquired a reputation as the tombstone agency because it only addresses dangerous scenarios after fatal air disasters occur. General Accounting Office (GAO) found that inspectors often do not write up violations because they are dismissed and proposed fines are set aside by their superiors. FAA inspectors discovered that contractors painting several ValueJet airplanes improperly reinstalled rudders used to steer the plane. AirTran Airlines had falsified documents, improper maintenance, faulty repairs and repeated failures to supervise contractors. Here is an example of an inspection report for AirTran Airlines: -- 3 instances of failing to properly calculate the proper weight and balance of aircraft to determine safe take off and landing speeds. -- A senior pilot who oversees the qualifications of other pilots falsified information about the experience of an unspecified number of them. -- Failure to examine seven planes’ transponders, which sends out altitude and directional information to traffic controllers, after the planes receive major overhauls. -- Improperly trained workers renovated an unspecified number of cabins to make way for larger business- class seats and modify the passengers’ emergency oxygen system (Associated Press 12).

A Comparison of the Merits of using Software or Hardware Transactional Memory, against Traditional ‘Semaphore’ Locking

1. IntroductionTransactional memory is poised to take parallel programming a step higher by making it more efficient and much easier to achieve, compared to traditional ‘semaphore’ locking. This is because transactional memory is easier to handle when tasks are divided into several free threads, especially when these threads do not have common access to data. This implies that each section can operate on a processor core and that there is no connection between cores. It can be challenging when different task sections are not totally free – that is, several threads are forced to upgrade a singly shared value. The traditional approach to this utilizes locks and every time that a thread changes a shared value, it requires a lock. In this case, it is not possible for any other thread to receive the lock if another thread possesses it. Instead, the thread must wait until the thread that has the lock can change the shared value. This is likely to require a complex comp utation, and to take an extended amount of time before eventually releasing the lock (Bright, 2011). The release of the lock allows the waiting thread to continue. While this is an effective system, it faces several major challenges. A key issues concerns updates to the shared value that occurs occasionally; therefore, making it rare for a thread to wait at ‘no time’ – the state in which the lock based system can be efficient (Alexandrescu, 2004). Nonetheless, this efficiency commonly disappears every time updates to the shared value are made. Threads take too much time waiting for a lock to appear and are unable to provide any use when in this state.2.Lock vs. Lock Free Data StructuresWhile it may seem easy to handle a singly shared value, locks are difficult to use correctly and this is a challenge faced in real programs. For instance, a program with dual locks 1 and 2 is likely to encounter a problem called a ‘deadlock’. A deadlock is a case wher eby two threads require two locks and only have the option of acquiring lock 1 then 2, or 2 followed by 1. As long as each thread needs the lock in the same order this will not present any issues; however, if one thread needs lock 1 and the other requires lock 2 at the same time, this can cause a deadlock. In this situation, the first thread waits for lock 2 to become free and the second waits for 1 to be free. This exchange makes it difficult for both to succeed and results in a deadlock. This issue might appear to be preventable and only likely to occur when a program has dual locks; however, it can become a challenge to ensure each section performs the right function when this becomes more complex.3. Transactional MemoryIt can argued that transactional memory can solve the problem of lock conflicts. In this case of a deadlock, the programmers could mark the sections of their programs which change the shared data, so that each of the marked blocks is implemented within a transact ion. This means that either the whole block executes, or none of it does. The program can therefore identify the shared value without locking it. This allows for the program to conduct all the necessary operations and write back the value, eventually committing the transaction (Bright, 2011). The key transaction occurs with the commit operation in which transactional memory system ascertains that shared data has been changed after the commencement of an operation. If this is not identified then the commit updates, allowing the thread to go ahead with its function. In case the shared value has not been modified, the transaction stops and the function of the thread is rolled back (Detlefs et al., 2001). In this instance, the program retries the operation. It can be seen, therefore, transactional memory has several merits over traditional semaphore locking. For example, transactional memory is optimistic; this infers that the threads are positioned to succeed and do not look forward to acquiring a lock. This is in case the other thread makes an attempt to conduct a concurrent operation (Detlefs et al., 2001). In an instance of concurrent modifications occurs when a single thread is forced to retry its function. In addition to this, there are no deadlocks in transactional memory. Transactional memory is a programming approach that programmers are familiar with; the transaction and rollback process is not new to those who have handled relational databases because they offer a similar set of features. Nonetheless, blocks facilitate the ease of developing large programs that are correct (Alexandrescu, 2004). Blocks with nested atomic blocks will perform the correct function, although this is not true in the case of lock-based data structur es.4.Merits of the HardwareThere has been little attention given towards hardware compared to software-based implementations. It has also been noted that most real processors seldom support transactional memory and, therefore, modifications are necessary (Maged, 2004). However, there are systems that use virtual machines to undertake their primary function and in this regard there are changes for the .NET and Java virtual machines (Bright, 2011). In other cases, systems use native codes that require certain special operations to allow access to the shared data. This enables the transactional memory software to ascertain that the right operations have occurred in the background. Such implementations have the advantages of ensuring that the programs that are produced are bug-free (Detlefs et al., 2001). The data in cache contains a version tag whereas the cache itself can maintain many versions of the same data. The software sends a signal to the processor to commence a transaction and performs the necessary action. This then signals the processor to commit the work. If other threads have changed the data, resulting in many versions, the cache will refuse the transaction and the software will be forced to try again. Should other versions not be created, then the data is committed (Bright, 2011). This facility is also applicable for speculative execution. A thread can commence execution with data available, whereas speculatively conducting important work – instead of waiting for upgraded versions of all data needed – might mean waiting for additional cores to complete computation (Alexandrescu, 2004). If the data was upgraded, then the work that is committed provides a performance boost; the work had been completed before the delivery of the final value. Should the data turn out to be stale, then the speculative work is rejected and re-deployed with the correct value (Bright, 2011).5.Logical FunctionsA significant advantage that transactional memory has over traditional lock-based programs is that it support is an extension of a load-link or store conditional. Load-link is an undeveloped operation that can be implemented to build many types of thread-safe constructs (Maged, 2004). This comprises both mechanisms that are known, such as locks, and unconventional data structures, such as lists that can be changed by many threads at the same time without locking at all (Alexandrescu, 2004). The creation of software transactional memory is possible through the use of load-link or store conditional. Load-link or store conditional contains two sections: firstly, it utilizes load link to recover the value from memory where it can then conduct the functions it needs to perform on that value. When there is a need to write a new value to the memory, this utilizes store conditional (Detlefs et al., 2001). Store conditional can only succeed if the memory value has not been changed after the load link. In case the value has been changed, the program has to return to the beginning and start again. These systems are restrictive because they do not follow writes to each memory bytes, but to the whole cache lines. This highlights the fact that store conditional has the potential to fail without modification of monitored value (Bright, 2011). Bright (2011) explains that store conditional is also most likely to fail if a context switch happens between the load link and store conditional. Transactional memory is a version of an enforced link load and store conditional; each thread can perform load link on several different memory locations (Maged, 2004). In addition to this, the commit operation does store conditional. This impacts on multiple locations at the same time, with each store either succeeding or failing (Bright, 2011).6.ConclusionIn conclusion, a lock-free procedure is sure to sustain the progress of a thread executing a procedure. While some threads can be put on hold arbitrarily, one thread is certain to progress each move. The whole system can then make progress despite the fact that some threads might take longer than others. It can be seen, therefore, that the use of software or hardware transactional memory presents better ways of ensuring consistency of stored data when accessed and manipulated by several concurrent threads than traditional ‘semaphore’ locking. Consequently, lock-based programs fail to provide any of the above mentioned guarantees7.ReferencesAlexandrescu, A. (2004) Lock-Free Data Structures. Available at: http://www.drdob bs.com/lock-free-data-structures/184401865 [Accessed 12th March 2014]. Bright, P. (2011) IBM’s new transactional memory: make-or-break time for multithreaded revolution. Available at: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2011/08/ibms-new-transactional-memory-make-or-break-time-for-multithreaded-revolution/ [Accessed 12th March 2014]. Detlefs, D., Martin, P.A., Moir, M. & Steele, G.L., (2001) ‘The Twentieth Annual ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing’, in Lock-free Reference Counting, ACM Press: New York. Maged, M.M. (2004) ‘Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN 2004 Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation’, in Scalable Lock-free Dynamic Memory Allocation, ACM Press: New York.

United Colors of Benetton

I  Executive Summary The United Colors of Benetton: a company of colors and controversies. Offering the world an insight to fashion, as well as, human equality and world issues, Benetton gives us stylish clothing and innovative promotion. While trying to capture an audience favoring Italian character in style and design, the company additionally desires to present the world with contentious campaigns to awaken thoughts and debates. These controversies are jeopardizing Benetton’s position in the industry, and its reputation of being trendily unique and committing to world harmony.II. Introduction The United Colors of Benetton (Benetton), an Italian based company, is primarily focusing its business on clothing and controversial advertising. Presented all over the world, the company is available to young and old in combined colors and stylish fashion. In the following pages a complete internal and external analysis of the company will be explained, as well as, a description of the company’s overall standing. The alternatives as seen are described to include the advantages and drawbacks of each alternative.Conclusively, a recommendation based upon all of the findings outlined is prescribed. III. External Analysis A. Customer Analysis Benetton sells women’s and men’s apparel, accessories, shoes and fragrances to clients that are mostly fashion-oriented women and men between the ages of twenty to thirty- five. Color’s is published in three editions and four languages, with a website that is both popular and praised by critics. The magazine is bi – monthly and reaches young people all over the world.Benetton is an interesting trans – national corporation that truly has a social conscience and tries to employ models who look like the human race–even featuring gay models who are HIV positive. B. Competitor Analysis The clothing industry is a very broad industry selling products ranging from pants and shirts to ac cessories. It is affected by the la test trends in design, models, colors and styles, and also by consumer preference. There are several similar companies selling comparable products, so competition is incredibly fierce. Benetton does not outsource any of its procedures, but is in charge of design, production and distribution.It is therefore difficult to compare the company with other organizations in the same industry since competitors can be smaller and concentrate on only one aspect of the commercial chain. Consequently, Benetton’s competitors were selected by viewing the  www. hoovers. com  web site. According to the organizations available here offering approximately the same products as Benetton the main competitors are Industria de Diseno Textil (Inditex), GAP and Hennes and Mauritz (H&M). It is assumed that these three organizations are Benetton’s closest competitors due to the fact that they target the same consumer segment.According to the CBS Market Watc h the competitors are not all present in exactly the same industry due to the fact that Benetton and Inditex actually produce clothing and fabrics, design and retail fashion products, while GAP only retails, and H&M retails and designs its goods. It is assumed that the exact industry is irrelevant because all companies still aim for the same target market and therefore compose a threat to Benetton. Furthermore, all four organizations originated from four different countries, but this is also looked at as unimportant because they are a global company with global customers. . Inditex Inditex is the closest competitor to Benetton because it is present on the stock market and it also designs and retails its fashion. It is a global company with more than 1,300 shops in almost 40 countries. It is most popular in Europe, just like Benetton, perhaps due to its origin: Spain. Inditex introduces new products by answering to popular trends presented by customers. The company has a larger marke t share than Benetton in the clothing and textile industry with sixty-eight percent compared to Benetton’s twelve percent (CBS Market Watch).This could be as a result of Inditex’s six banners compared to Benetton’s five, and also because of the fact that Benetton has been having several difficulties selling its products after its highly noticeable marketing campaigns were banned in several countries. Furthermore, Inditex is mentioned as number three hundred and ninety on the FT Global 500; the world’s largest companies list, while Benetton is not on this list (Financial Times). 2. GAP GAP is an American-based company with almost 4,250 stores worldwide. GAP only retails its products, but the company is a strong competitor toBenetton. GAP sells basic, causal styles for men, women and children. The company has three chains and all clothes are privatelabeled merchandise made specifically for GAP. GAP is on the Fortune 500 as number one hundred and thirty, and also on the FT Global 500 as number three hundred and forty-eight (Hoovers). 3. H&M H&M is a fashion company from Sweden. It has about 844 stores in 14 countries and is in the midst of developing further. H&M designs its clothes by using 90 different designers who create collections for women, men, teenagers and children.H&M’s intention is to uphold a high fashion content which is up-to-date within design concepts and at the forefront of the latest international trends (hm. com). The organization also sells underwear, sportswear, accessories and cosmetics. The competitive structure of the clothing industry can be explained as very assorted and complicated to plot. Organizations do not segment by age as much as by lifestyle or theme; for example, designer accessories, formal wear and casual wear. There are several channels of distribution available, such as catalogue retailing, department stores and outlets, as well as the typical brand store.The industry can be viewed as fai rly fragmented and there is a large amount of different chains available on the market. The industry is therefore highly competitive. Barriers to entry are low, and chains can expand quickly and grow large in size and popularity. Present companies have to struggle with new competition often and intensely. Companies are very dependent on customer preference and reputation can fluctuate distinctly due to modifications in, for example, fashion and image (Institute for Retail Studies). C. Market AnalysisToday, the Benetton Group is present in 120 countries around the world. Its core business is clothing: a group with a strong Italian character whose fashion, design proficiency and enthusiasm are clearly seen in the United Colors of Benetton and the more style-orientated Sisley brands; in The Hip Site, the brand for teenagers; and in the sportswear brands, Playlife and Killer Loop. Benetton’s sports goods brand, Prince (tennis racquets, footwear & apparel), has a 30 percent global market share, and Rollerblade In-line skates also has a 30 ercent global market share. Additionally, NordicaSkis (ski boots & mountain wear) has a 28 percent global market share. Ektelon Racquetball is the market leader. The Group produces over 100 million garments every year over 90 percent of those are in Europe. Its retail network of 5000 stores around the globe is progressively more focused on large floor-space points of sale presenting high-quality customer services and additionally generating a total turnover of two billion euros net, of retail sales.Benetton has experienced tremendous growth and above-average profitability over the years, and what makes it especially striking is the fact that it has been achieved in mature industry apparel in an apparently hostile environment – labor-expensive and unionized northern Italy. Benetton’s financial reports from 1996 to 2002 show growth and increasing revenue except in 2002; total sales in 2002 amounted to approximat ely 2. 0 billion euro, down from 2. 1 billion in 2001. The main reason for this loss is that the program for the disposal of the sports equipment business resulted in the steep decrease in turnover in the sports sectors.It hurt the Group’s overall performance. Moreover, Benetton’s communication campaigns played an important role in establishing its brand identity. On the other hand, they alienated the target market and Benetton retailers. For example, in Germany, Benetton’s second-largest market, partly because of the controversial print- media campaign, awareness of Benetton had significantly increased relative to other clothing brands, in part due to the controversial print- media campaign; however, measures of likeability relative to competing brands decreased.Also in 1995, several of the 600 German retailers that used to carry the Benetton line banded together in a boycott. Thus, the Group attributed much of its 1994 sales drop to the campaign. Additionally, the company partnered with Sears for a more affordable line of Benetton USA, then lost the contract when Benetton planned to release an ad campaign with death-row inmates. Thus, Benetton lost its place in the U. S. market, as the company became better known for its infamous P. R. than its clothes.The understated image of the Gap replaced the aggressive social advertising of Benetton in clothing campaigns as the 90’s came to a close, but Benetton is Europe’s largest clothing manufacturer and the worlds largest consumer of wool in the garment sector. As a result, the market share in the United States has gradually decreased, even in the European area. In contrast, the Benetton’s market share in Asia area has been increasing, for example in, Japan, Korea, and China due to being the Group’s core targets. In 2000, the revenues by geographical area showed European (74. %), the Amercias (12. 3%), and Rest of the world (13. 4%). However, Benetton’s 2002 r evenues by geographical area sho wed a different trend as European (68. 9%), the Americas (9. 6%), Asia (8. 9%), and other (12. 6%). D. Technology Analysis Using communication and information technologies is a very effective strategy for Benetton. The company is referred to as quick response, in which manufacturing, warehousing, sales and retailers are linked together. In this strategy, a Benetton retailer reorders a product through a direct link with Benetton’s mainframe computer in Italy.Due to the strategy, the company is capable of shipping a new order in only four weeks, and that is several weeks faster than most of its competitors. Furthermore, the company is using integrated information systems; therefore, the company checks daily sales data from its own boutiques, which is integra ted with CAD and CIM. Also, global EDI network links agents with production and inventory information. The EDI is ordering transmission to headquarters, and it links with air carriers, as we ll.Recently, Benetton planned to weave radio frequency ID (â€Å"RFID†) chips into its garments to track its clothes worldwide. The chips would help the Italian clothing manufacturer cut costs by eliminating the need for workers to take inventory by manually scanning individual items of clothing. It would also protect the garments against theft. However, the RFID chips could pose significant risks to customers privacy because they would allow anyone with an RFID receiver to locate customers wearing Benetton clothes, including companies that want to sell them their products.Therefore, consumers would be bombarded with intrusive advertising because a history of customers’ purchases and their identities would be linked with the tag even after they leave the store. It would weave the technology into the collar tags of clothes that cost at least 15 dollars to keep track of them as they ship. The RFID technology offers Benetton a number of advantages, not the least of which is its ease of use. Unlike a bar-code scanner, which must be held directly in front of the item being scanned, mployees with RFID receivers or shelves with the technology can scan entire boxes of items from up to five feet away. The technology would thus require fewer people to scan clothing items for inventory purposes. RFID technology also provides business managers easily with store detailed information about customers buying habits that could spur further sales. The tagging system may also save the company money by reducing theft, because the RFID tags can be programmed to set off an alarm if someone leaves a store without paying for an item.Similarly, the technology would make it harder for merchants to sell stolen or bootlegged versions of clothing in flea markets and other venues; a retailer who spots an item that she suspects is either stolen or illegally manufactured could check its origin using the tagging system. It may also help customers find the clothes they want in th e store and even make it easier for them to return items without a receipt because the store would have recorded the RFID tag. E. Socio-Cultural Analysis From a socio-cultural perspective, fashion is a cultural and societal issue that varies from culture to culture and from country to country.It also varies within a specific culture with time. A company like Benetton must monitor trends for new opportunities or threats because as the fashion trends change, so does the customer base, and the ethnic/multicultural consumer is the fastest growing segment. Clothing, however, is a visual representation, which fulfills the de sire of each individual who wants to be noticed in a society in a particular way. Because of this, the apparel industry will never falter or suffer abrupt changes, but will adapt and change due to various conditions.Linked to this phenomenon is the aspiration of different types of individuals with different desires to either have the newest or most significant types o f apparel, particularly in the industrialized nations. This requires participants in the industry to offer the newest styles of clothing in order to retain market share. Despite this overall socio-cultural trend, there is some indication that majority of consumers are not purchasing as rapidly as they have in the past due to the fact that the economy is recovering.Markets for lower-end brands continue to exist, however, in developing nations where individuals cannot afford the cost of newer styles. As a result, the fashion industry is an industry where the socio -cultural environment is of prime importance. The firms in this industry above all, must bring out new designs and keep†¦ —————————————————————————————————————†”—————Top of Form Bottom of Form