The Rise Of The Improvised Exposive Devise Essay Example for Free

The Rise Of The Improvised Exposive Devise Essay Improvised explosive devices, better known as IEDs, are makeshift bombs usually made of materials like nails and ball bearing first used in guerilla warfare during the World War II. (Crystal, 2007)   IEDs have long since evolved and now, IED builders can improvise on the materials used.   As a result, the devices have become more unique in nature, thus making it harder to track down. In addition, according to Army Gen. John Abizaid, commander of all US forces in the Middle East, â€Å"IEDs have become the enemy’s perfect weapon – they are cheap, effective, and anonymous. †Ã‚   (Knickerbocker, 2007, p.1)     As a result, incidents involving IEDs have surged dramatically and now pose a real threat to the community.   Despite government efforts to curtail IED activity, insurgents are still able to find ways to build and detonate their IED made bombs.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   IED bombings have been on the headlines in the past but currently, it can be seen almost constantly.   The number of IED incidents keeps on steadily escalating and therefore resulting to thousands and thousands of casualties.   This problem not only plagues war ravaged countries but also countries in peace who are caught in between.   First seen in the World Trade Center attack in 1993 and the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, IED use have increased as proven by the Madrid and London transit bombings in 2004 and 2005.   Another case was the war in Iraq.   According to Atkinson (2007): In Iraq, from the former number of 50 IED bombing incidents per day, the number of bombings has now reached an astonishing number of 100 per day.   Since that first fatal detonation of what is now known as an improvised explosive device, more than 81,000 IED attacks have occurred, according to U.S. military sources. (p. A1) A total of 3,837 US soldiers also have died and 27,753 were wounded from the Iraq bombings. (Casualty Counts, 2007)   Figures include every casualty who died ever since the war in Iraq started.   Majority were killed through IED bombings.   It should be noted however that the figures only consist of US soldiers and still not include non-military casualties and the members of non-coalition countries.   From these, it could be said that there is indeed a real threat in the form of IED bombings.   This definitely calls for action on the part of the US government.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The government has been slow in its response to the IED bombing incidents – that’s what some lawmakers and journalists say.   Even Michael Chertoff, Homeland Security Secretary admits to this in his department’s statement â€Å"National efforts lack strategic guidance, are sometimes insufficiently coordinated, and lack essential resources.†(Hsu and Sheridan, 2007, p. A01) Nonetheless, years after being accused of its slow response, the US government has now allocated a $196.4 billion fund for the Global War on Terror. (2008 Funding Request, 2007)   The government’s approach has been a holistic one.   They appropriated designated amounts for armor, training, and weapons to counter IEDs. The Homeland Security also made its moves to help in the government’s mission to lessen IED incidents.  Ã‚   They set up an Office for Bombing prevention which was tasked to take charge of working with both internal and external agencies to tackle possible IED threats. A system named TRIPwire was also established to share information regarding IEDs such as latest tactics, techniques and procedures over a network by bomb squad technicians, intelligence analysts, and state and local law enforcement. (Chertoff, 2007)   In addition, continuous research is being done as well to develop tools to counter IED blasts.   The Homeland Security also has undertaken increased security measures in key areas like the airport and chemical sites and facilities.   All these are part of intensifying the department’s efforts to curtail the surge of bombing incidents. The US government has spent a considerable amount of money trying to counter IED insurgencies but despite this, the latter can still find ways to counter these efforts.   Several long term issues have been raised.   First, bombs become more complex in their make up as time goes by.   IED bombings started with a simple made bomb that eventually evolved.   Currently, the US military have discovered that a new type of bomb has already been in use starting the summer of 2006.   Infrared bombs are now at large and they are even harder to track since they run on different signals as those detecting tools the military has. (Magnuson, 2006). Hence, countering the former low-technology bombs requires continuous development of high-technology solutions.   This entails millions and millions of dollars to be spent on prevention as opposed to a few dollars an IED builder uses to make his weapon.  Ã‚   Second, as the US spends on developing long terms plans on combating insurgencies, the terrorists are also likewise building on their long term plans.   Extremist groups are now banking on education as a means of furthering their goals. They are using their $50 million funds to send their thousands of new recruits to get a university degree on radio engineering or information technology as opposed to using the funds to amass more weapons.   (Magnuson, 2006)   To date, the insurgent groups have already released a video mocking the attempts of the US government to stop them.   The video, released by a group who named themselves as â€Å"The Islamic State of Iraq† was entitled â€Å"The Fall and Decline of US Technology.† (Osman Martinez, 2007) The IED war indeed has turned into something ugly.   IED use surged during the year of 2004 to 2005 and even up to now, there are still ongoing cases regarding this problem.   The US government tries to counter this but still, insurgents are still able to survive.   Hence, the government should try to intensify its efforts and develop more plans to curb this rising problem.    Reference List 2008 funding request. (2007, October 22). Business Wire. Atkinson, R. (2007, September 30). The single most effective weapon against our deployed   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   forces. Washington Post, pp. A1. Chertoff, M. (2007). Preventing IED attacks. Leadership Journal.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Retrieved October 26, 2007, from http://www.dhs.gov/journal/leadership/labels/IED.html. Crystal, G. (2007).   What is an IED. Retrieved from October 26, 2007,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-an-ied.htm Hsu, S. Sheridan M. (2007, October 20). IEDs seen as rising threat in the US.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Washington Post, pp. A01. Iraq coalition casualty counts. (2007). Retrieved October 26, 2007,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   from http://www.dhs.gov/journal/leadership/labels/IED.html. Knickerbocker, B. (2007, January 02). Relentless toll to US troops of roadside bombs.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Christian Science Monitor, pp. 01. Magnuson, S. (2006, January). Adaptive foe thwarts counter-IED efforts.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Retrieved October 26, 2007,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   from http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/issues/2006/jan/adaptive_foe.htm Osman H. Martinez, L. (2007, March 06). Insurgents in Iraq claim they can beat US   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   anti-IED technology.   Retrieved October 26, 2007,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   from http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/03/insurgents_in_i.html

Data warehousing and data mining

Data warehousing and data mining Abstract This paper aims to discuss about data warehousing and data mining, the tools and techniques of data mining and data warehousing as well as the benefits of practicing the concept to the organisations. It also includes the trends and application in data warehouse and data mining in current business communities. Keywords Database, data warehouse, data mining, database management. Introduction Organisation uses information systems to record and retrieve data from daily transactions. The information systems via the database that link to it provides valuable data for making important and strategic decisions in regards to the well-being of a company. An organisation can predict the expectation that is yet to come from the data that they possessed. The data can also be used to provide possible solutions to overcome the problems that they faced, and even, they can use the data to obtain competitive advantage in their business environment. Database has reduces, if not in some place, vanish the old method of storing and keeping the information, that is, through the usage of the traditional filing system. The change towards digitization of data and the establishment of data repository has created a new term in the field of information systems, new position in the organisation, and a new way of doing business and daily transactions in human life. This paper will discuss further about the two terminologies which is data warehouse and data mining from the perspective of database management in the organisation. At the same time, this paper will also include some cases and issues about data warehouse in the organisation according to real situation based on the literatures. According to William H. Inmon, data warehouse is a set of integrated, subject oriented databases designed to support Decision Support Systems (DSS) functions, where each series of data is precise to some period of time. It is said that data warehouse contains atomic data and lightly conclude the data. On the other hand, data mining is the search for valuable information in large volumes of data (Weiss Indurkhya, 1998). It is the process of nontrivial extraction of implicit, previously unknown and potentially useful information such as knowledge rules, constraints, and regularities from data stored in repositories using pattern recognition technologies as well as statistical and mathematical techniques (Technology Forecast, 1997; Piatetsky-Shapiro and Frawley, 1991). As mentioned earlier, many organisations nowadays use computers especially through the usage of information system to collect particulars of business transactions such as records of banking operations, sales of retails, productions of factory, telecommunications and other transactions. Consequently the data mining tools are used to expose positive potentials and association from the data collected. Background of data warehousing and data mining The following part point up the historical evolution of the database and directly discuss about data warehouse and data mining. A brief history of data warehousing and data mining are included. Furthermore is the issues faced in the early years of implementing the concept of data warehousing and data mining and where both concepts are useful. Data warehousing started in the late 1980s from the IBM lab and the responsible researchers are Barry Devlin and Paul Murphy. They started by the development of business data warehouse for decision support surroundings. In the early 1990s, it became a trend for organisations to meet the growing demand for organising information. However Haisten (1999), a columnist for Information Management Website, mentioned that the concept of data warehouse take shape in early 1970s through a study that started out at MIT with the aim to provide optimal technical architecture. And now, the next generation of data warehousing called Trend in Data Warehouse (TDWI) is mushrooming and become popular in many organisations that use information as their vital capitals. The emergence of data mining began in the late of 1980s and it flourished by 1990s. There are three roots that can be traced back along three family lines on the origin of data mining, which are the classical statistics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. In order to automate the process of extracting the data which are increased every single time, human has increased the power of computer and data storage. For that reason, the amount of data becomes huge and more complex. Primarily, Bayes theorem (1997) and Regression analysis has identify patterns in data. The data mining is actually the process or method by using greater discovering in computer science engineering such as neural networks, clustering process, genetic algorithm and decision trees. Data mining can be said as a method to help with the collection of observation of behaviour. Ayre (2006) stated in his paper that todays data mining techniques is due to the work of mathematician, logicians, and computer scientist join together to create Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning dated back from the 1950s. That was a very basic spark for data mining ideology. As mention earlier, in the 1960s, AI and statistic practitioners created new algorithm such as regression analysis, maximum likelihood estimates, neural networks, bias reduction, and linear model. Also in 1960s, the field of information retrieval (IR) made its contribution in the form of clustering techniques and similarity measures. At these time techniques were applied to text document, but they would later be utilized when mining data in databases and other large, distributed data sets (Dunham, 2003). In 1997, Connecticut-based Gartner Group report has mentioned about data mining and artificial intelligence are at the top five ranking of major technology areas that will clearly have a main crash transversely the whole scope of business unit within the incoming three to five years. Presently, data mining techniques and tools are being prolonged to the variety of areas. For instance, the data mining tools like intelligent text-mining system will extract the text waste pertinent to user queries. The above is the process of how the data is transport to database and data warehouse and selection process by using data mining techniques and technology. And then it show us how the information form by the translating the data to be deploy in business. Approaches of data warehousing and data mining in various industries The industry of finance, sales and marketing, administration and others should see information as corporate source but the many local narrow systems that held that information simply did not give way the incorporated commercial viewpoint that was required. (Inmon, 2007) Even though operational data is a greater asset to the organisation, it seemed data is usually not making use to its full capable. Therefore, data warehouse basically is to enable users appropriate access to breaking apart and complete view of the organisation, supporting forecasting and decision-making process at the managerial stage. Additionally, data warehouse can achieve information consistency by carry data from dissimilar data foundations into centre of database. Users from different department for instances, can view the data from consistent single one place repository. The layer of data in data warehouse makes the information consistent by enable data around the data warehouse to be describe in business terms as against to using database terminology. The establishment of data that enforce how business terms are declared or calculated are also defined in the metadata layer and then served to the users. Because of the data in the data warehouse is non-volatile but it must be d esign to adapt the changes periodically. It is because terminologies use in business cannot run from changes. Mannino and Walter (2004) in their study about the refreshment of data warehouse stated that data warehouse refreshment is a complex process comprising many tasks, such as extraction, transformation, integration, cleaning, key management, history management, and loading. This study is base on interviewed of 13 organisations and the author conclude that daily refresh during nonbusiness hours were the most common policy. Sometimes data warehouse is not fully utilized by organisation or it being used by company but not all departments. In a case studied by Payton (2005) conclude that there are three factors why data warehouse is disappointed them. It is because; marketings lack of trust in the data in CDW (Corporate data warehouse); marketings low perceived quality of the data; and marketings perceived lack of incorporation of their needs in the design of the data warehouse and data warehouse interface. Data mining in the industries like information provider as library involved in digital libraries gain benefits from it as they found the method to classify information automatically and apply new way to clustering the subject called MetaCombined the project. Besides database, data mining can be useful in a variety data types like text, spatial data, temporal data, images, and other complex data. Data warehousing and data mining in telecommunication The telecommunication industry is fast fitting the main user of high quantity information system. The problem faced by telecommunication industry is the generation of information which is too fast and in tremendous condition. The difficulties occur when a user, either a manager or high executive, needs access to stored information. If the time is not the issue to search what they want in that kind of stored data where they put in different places, it will not be an issue at all but time limitation is consuming. For instance, in order to produce a report regarding subscriber, an executive need to extract the data, do some analysis, and some other step to make it presentable to their officer. What else can enhance all this besides technology? The exact question to ask is; what is the technology that can be very helpful in this situation? The answer is through the application of data warehousing and data mining. In real case studied by Papaiacovous, Bramblet, and Burgess (n.d) in a paper titled Data Warehouse: A telecommunication Business Solution; they described about the difficulties to produce report. They then design personalized systems which exceed the traditional borders of data warehousing systems by assembling and keeping only important data, analyzing and transforming the data, and then summarizing and rearranging it in according to the demands of the user. Another interesting article by Gomez (1998), expressed the hope that cellular companies and other communications firms to strongly consider data warehousing as a way to achieve competitive advantage. The author also reviews new way to data warehousing that have established successful in compliant concrete business benefits. Service providers realize due to the competition in the marketplace, they need to provide the best for their customer or risk to lose them. It is because customer can simply change their telecommunication service provider if they are not satisfied with their current provider. So the provider must get the knowledge in customers hand about what they want actually. After all the data about the customer are collected via online and phone survey, a data warehouse can enhance the executive to analyze and segments customer into groups by their product usage patterns, demographic characteristics, etc. Telecommunications companies produce tremendous quantity of data. These data consist of call detail data, which describes the calls that cross the telecommunication networks; network data, which explain the position of the hardware and software components in the network, and customer data. Data mining can be used to uncover useful information buried within these data sets. Telecommunication companies might counter fraud from customer that intends to use the service without paying for it. It happens when the users register and manipulate the registration information. The most regular way for identifying fraud is to construct a profile of customers calling behaviour and compare recent activity against this behaviour. Thus, this data mining application relies on deviation detection. The calling behaviour is captured by summarizing the call detail records for a customer. Here is the issue on data mining. In the customer case study by the company ECtel n order to sell their data mining product for fraud detection called FraudView noted that selling data mining product to a telecommunication provider has been traditionally difficult because they dont have data mining experts on staff who can work conventional data mining tools. Additionally, there are many ways to run away from paying for telecommunication services, from stealing phone card to bypassing phone circuitry. ECtel created FraudView, the solution that uses SPSS Inc.s advanced data mining workbench, which enable the detection of telecommunications fraud in real time. Data mining in telecommunication industries is not limited to detect fraud only but it also can be used as network fault isolation, marketing or customer profiling, etc. This is owing to the three main sources of telecommunication data which are call detail, network, and customer data. Data warehouse and data mining in financial services How a retail bank can truly understand and predict its customers needs to the point where it can design product and services that suit those needs? One way of looking at customers can be from the standpoint of channel usage. In the UKs Llyods Bank/TSB merger, data were sourced from both their data warehouse, and then used to segment the customer base by service channel usage. Customers were allocated to segment on their usage of the following channels: ATMs, automated (direct debits/standing orders), cards (credit card and debit) and telephone (Peppard, 2000). Financial institutions struggle with the large amount of data on every transaction deal. Data warehouse helps financial service organisations to analyse large, complex, and rapidly growing data volumes in a quicker way for better decision making and faster speed back to the market. Fundamentals of data mining in finance are coming from the need to forecast multidimensional time series with high level of noise, accommodate specific efficiency criteria, make coordinated multiresolution forecast, and also incorporate a stream of text signals as input data for forecasting models (Kovalerchuck Vityaev, 2002 ). As noted by Kovalerchuck Vitayaev, four main reason why data mining need to be implemented in finance is because the emergence of high volume databases such as commercial data warehouse and computer automated data recording; advances in computer technology such as faster and bigger computer engines and parallel architectures; fast access to vast amounts of data, and the ability to apply computationally intensive statistically methodology to these data. Data mining is used to forecast the target variable, performing the contribution varies in percent within todays closing price and the price five days later, along with next days prediction. Data warehouse and data mining in health service In healthcare there is not much transaction as business environment. The data is about outpatient, visits to doctor office, procedure and so forth. Instead of numerical data, healthcare has textual description if the different medical counters. And there is a little bit problems here, where the technology that own a old method of data warehouse is created to manage process of transacting data that is very conquered by arithmetical information. When textual, non-transactional information is come across, the old method data warehouse technology nowadays is simply at a defeat to handle healthcare information. (Inmon, 2007). Then, if the data is not a number but a textual; it must be kept with different understanding of phrase. It just likes a different language. In order to be standardized, there has to be creation of same vocabulary for instance, with the purpose to gain understanding for all. Then it can be kept in the data warehouse. In a case study written by Kumar and Raval (n.d), they traced a large global pharmaceutical, which has a huge data of clinical trials for a number of drugs projects. Due to data collection and analyses operations that are broadening across the world, it is harder to implement data standards. Even harder to enforce was the programming and validation standards that are required of pharmaceutical companies. Primarily, a data warehouse is an operational middle ground and disparate and incompatible to a big quantity of systems put together to diverse collection from end user platform. In another case, Whiting (2001) reported a healthcare name Intermountain Health that used data warehouse to make an analysis handling provided to its cardiovascular patients for five years. From the result, it improves service provided after the patients return home. These are the data mining in healthcare and insurance where it can give beneficial such as providing claims analysis, it means determine which medical procedure are claimed together. It helps in predicting which customer will buy new policies and can identify behaviour pattern or risky customer and also prevent fraud. Data warehouse and data mining in retail industry The challenge in retailer business actually is inundate of data, the battle of data and expired data. To cope with these challenges, many retailers are building unified repositories of data known as data warehouse. In the early implementation of data warehousing technology in 1990s, the retail business has gained benefits of practical data warehouse. From the daily historical sales reporting database created over past few years ago, retailer can expanded the use of analytical systems to support and produce vital decision. The retail industry is going through a transformation. Data warehouse enable retailers to carry out on their major products, including activities such as inventory replacement, purchasing, and vendor management across multiple other multiple. Financial planning, adjusting for stock outs to seed a top-down financial plan provides all of the data necessary to support well-organized process for the confirmation of invoice accuracy to strategy-based pricing solution. Simple application that can implement the concept of data mining for retail industries are SQL server 2008 and Microsoft Office Excel 2007. To stay competitive, retailer must understand not only current consumer behaviour but must also be able to predict future consumer behaviour. Accurate prediction and an understanding of customer behaviour can help retailers keep customers, improve sales, and extend the relationship with their customers. SQL server 2008 provide predictive analysis through data mining and Microsoft Excel 2007 offer data mining capabilities that can help retailers make better decision. The application that is common for business retail in data mining such as market basket analysis, fraud detection, database marketing, sales forecasting, and also merchandise planning and allocation. Data mining is so beneficial in retailer industries! Recommendations In the business world a transaction is repeated again and again and many of them deal with data in numerical. The same activity repeats with different customers and different figures. To release from this mess, data warehouse and data mining provide solution. Even though data warehouse and data mining is a strategic investment to the business world but it can be risky without a proper understanding of the concept. Governance or control is important to support the implementation of data warehouse and data mining. There must be a proper standard to ensure compatibility in processing the data especially for textual data used in the health industry. There should also be a policy and to manage the data warehouse. It is highly recommended that to be successful in the implementation of data warehouse or/and data mining, an organisations are required to have extensive or comprehensive knowledge about the data in their company. This is to guarantee that a well structured data warehouse can be constructed. A well structured data warehouse consequently will help organisation to exploit via data mining the data that they have. Organisation should also know what exactly they want to implement in their organisation so that the right tools for data mining can be used. And finally, a strong support from top management is important to deploy data warehouse and data mining because the investment on these is not cheap. Conclusion Insufficient of data is no longer a trouble but lack of ability to breed valuable information from data is the issue today. The answer for those issues is through the implementation of data warehouse and the power to use data mining techniques and tools. Nevertheless, the realisation and the awareness of data warehouse and data mining in the organisation should take into consideration many aspects regardless of what industries. The aspects include support of the top management, understanding of the data needed by the organisation, governance and policy, the right design of the data warehouse, and the right tools or techniques for data mining. Bibliography Dunham, M.H. (2003). Data mining introductory and advanced topics. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. Kovalerchuk, B., Vityaec, E. (2002). Data mining in finance advances in relational hybrid methods. USA: Kluwer Academic Publisher. Wang, J. (2003). Data mining opportunities and challenges. USA : Idea Group Publishing. Keng Siau. (2003). Advanced Topics in database research. USA : Idea Group Publishing. M. Kumar Sagar., Raval, H. (n.d). Data warehousing in pharmaceutical and healthcare: an industry perspective. Retrieved January 10, 2010 from: http://www2.sas.com/proceedings/sugi24/Dataware/p115-24.pdf Mannino, V. M., Walter, Z. (2006). A framework for a data warehouse refresh policies. Decision Support System, 42, 121-143. Retrieved January 10, 2010 from: www.sciencedirect.com Syncort Inc. (2010). Business drivers and enabling technologies for clickstream data warehouse initiatives [White Paper]. Retrieved from www.syncsort.com/clickstream Balog, K. (2004). An intelligent support system for developing text classifies. Retrieved January 10, 2010 from: http://balog.hu/itm/thesis.pdf Sang Jun Lee , Keng Siau. (2001). A review of data mining techniques. Industrial Management and Data System. 101/1, 41-46. Retrieved January 10, 2010 from: http://www.emerald-library.com/ft Karthik Jayashankar. (2007). Data mining tools for analytics application in retail. Information Management Online. Retrieved January 10, 2010 from: http://www.information-management.com/white_papers/10000547-1.html Hackney, D. (1999). A data warehouse is subject-oriented. Are they any rules to go about defining the subjects? Information Management Online. Retrieved January 25, 2010 from: http://www.information-management.com/news/1331-1.html Adelman, S., Moss, L, (1999). Data warehouse goals and objectives. Part 3: Long term objectives. Information Mangement Online. Retrieved January 25, 2010 from: http://www.information-management.com/issues/19991101/1564-1.html Bertman, J. (2005). Dispelling myth and creating legends for your e-biz intelligence warehouse. [Power Point Slides]. Retrieved from www.dgigusa.com Luja ´n-Mora, S., Trujillo, J., Il-Yeol Song. (2006). A UML profile for multidimensional modeling in data warehouse. Data Knowledge Engineering, 59, 725-769. Retrieved January 25, 2010 from: http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezaccess.library.uitm.edu.my/science?_ob=MImg_imagekey=B6TYX-4HWXJXG-1-2R_cdi=5630_user=6533825_pii=S0169023X0500176X_orig=search_coverDate=12%2F31%2F2006_sk=999409996view=cwchp=dGLbVtz-zSkWAmd5=35d7b25297f3ee013bded90b43ecf5bbie=/sdarticle.pdf Shin-Yuan Hung, Yen, D., C., Hsiu-Yu Wang. (2006). Applying data mining to telecom churn management. Expert System with Application, 31, 515-524. Retrieved February 12, 2010 from: www.elsevier.com/locate/eswa Weiss, G., M. (n.d). Data mining in telecommunications. Retrieved February 12, 2010 from: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.60.955rep=rep1type=pdf Lamont, J. (2000). Datawarehousing in the telecommunications industry. KMworld Magazine. Retrieved February 12, 2010 from: http://www.kmworld.com/Articles/Editorial/Feature/Data-warehousing-in-the-telecommunications-industry-9153.aspx Gomez, J. (1998). Data warehousing for the telecom industry. 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The Economic Importance Of Hospitality Industry Tourism Essay

The Economic Importance Of Hospitality Industry Tourism Essay The hospitality industry is growing very rapidly and contributing nearly 10 % of the worlds GDP (Boella, 2000). In the last decades the hospitality industry has got much importance of vigorous process of expansion. Consequently the hospitality industry is expanding globally and promoting its growth in a changing multicultural environment. Hospitality is being built at regional, national and global levels. Internationally oriented hospitality industry with different companies competes also locally and regionally. A great number of indicators show the sign of economic growth predicted by the International Monetary Fund and this growth will be distributed unevenly in developing countries (6.4 %) and (2.2 %) in advanced nations. Hospitality industry constitutes many subsectors; hotels and restaurant is one of most source of economic growth. Tourism and Hospitality The terms tourism and hospitality are co-related and grouped together as a single industry. However these both hospitality and tourism industries are viewed as two individual sectors. There exist overlapping between these two. Tourism is defined as the persons travel and goes for the places outside of their usual environment for less than one year to accomplish their business purpose and for leisure; they are not employed there on visiting places. Hospitality is the provision of the accommodations, venues, meals and drinks to those people who are out of their homes. People of UK enjoy these services and also other non-resident residents. Both of these industries cover the restaurants, accommodations, hotels and other exhibition activities. Tourism is not the subsector of the Hospitality merely a source of the tourist services. In this way we have made a clear difference between two overlapping industries (www.baha-uk.org). We carry on our subject further to complete the task of hospi tality and its subsectors. Hospitality industry may include the following sectors. Licensed clubs Food shops Catering activities In-house catering Exhibition and fair organizers activities Activities of conference organizers Other food services These are the areas of the hospitality industry which provide the services in different ways. Hospitality is the focal point in those countries where tourism is the major export industry. Cross border flow of business people and capitals has flourished the hospitality industry. The hospitality is the main source of foreign currency exchange and largest employers to employ the workforce. Hospitality brings the different cultures together in global community. Countries suffering from trade balances look the hospitality and tourism to close the gap. Therefore the hospitality is a not concept but it is a driving force in the global market. Lifestyle and globalization of business is communicated in foreign languages and coping with different political and social systems. Hospitality companies require the globally think to survive and competing hospitality organizations work maturely in UK and U.S. The companies competing in all aspects of the hospitality industry will move across their na tional boundaries. The view that in future the global entities with advantages will compete due to globalization is in not acceptable. Hotels are classified on the base of the season and services as we can distinguish between the Motel 6 and four season hotels. The Marriot Company is well established and covers the price and service levels and serves the extended stay and luxury vacation segment. Marriot hotels Resorts and Suits Courtyard by Marriot Spring Hill suits by Marriot Marriot Conference centers Marriot Vacation Club International Residence Inn by Marriot Marriot operates and owns a luxury group of hotels as a segment of market. The hotel chains grew after the Second World War and more greatly in the following two decades. The trend to rise beyond the national boundaries is due to pressure of growing hotel companies. These companies march to reach the critical point where the property is sufficient to satisfy the tourism and providing their needs. Hotel sub sector of hospitality may reach to a point where no other option for the customer is left. The hotel market which is set in America and their leadership may cast attention to potential for moving it into Asia/Pacific markets to compete the regional companies. These global Hospitality companies introduce the global brands and products to their customers. Large numbers of hotels have developed the single brands and products in a very uniform fashion in global market. It is also observed that tourists and travelers are in demand of unique local products from the hospitality industry. In response the global companies have tried in a way to reflect in a local design. The hospitality sector (hotel and restaurant) are the essential components of this industry. Luxury hotels with other services like beds, breakfast, inns and also cover wide range of accommodation services. The International Hotel and Restaurant Association (IHRA) has represented the hospitality industry at global level. Hotel developments are important for the new opportunities of jobs and stimulate the local economies. Generally hotels provide the two types of the services: (i) accommodation and (ii) dining services. Customers of this industry include the foreign visitors, domestic households and institutional buyers. Competitive pricing, availability of services and extent free services are the main three factors which affect the lodging facilities and selection of hotels. In the past five years the visitors have been growing at the annual rate of 9%. Hotels are the main and popular source of accommodations for more than 50% of foreign visitors. Due to increased demand of accommodations the every segment of the hotel industry has been steady expanded. It is estimated that hospitality economy will be grown to 2.8 million jobs by 2015 in UK. Hospitality and Hotels We are interested to know about the business types of the business covered by the large resort hotels. Hotel provision comes into general context of hospitality with many dimensions providing the shelter and body comforts. Hotels and other establishment catered for those mobile people who go for their personal and work lives. It was recorded that total of nearly 700 million tourist have arrived at international level. This data shows the 241.5 million increases for the last ten years and annual growth rate approached at 4.9%. Most important region where tourist arrived was the Europe with 4.5% annual change in market growth less than the Middle East (10.7%), Eastern Asia and Africa with 6.6% growth and Western Asia (8.8%) (Brotherton, 2000). Availability of capital is very crucial and key drive for the hotel development and hotel companies. The main source for the hotel development comes from the personal support, loans, investing companies, stock and shares and governments. Hospitality and Employment Hospitality is providing more than 10% employment in UK approximately to 2.5 million people. The hospitality business can be divided into two main categories. Firstly the hospitality business (clubs, bars, restaurants, hotels and contract catering), it accounted the two third of this industry. Secondly hospitality services like food outlets and hospitals and account one third of the industry. There are full time and part time employed persons in this sector of the hospitality. It is noted that employment depends upon the working conditions found in the industry as weekends, long hours and other flexibilities (Flynn et al, 2000). Catering Restaurant Accommodation Hotels Transport Visitor attractions Consumer Recreational facilities Government Intermediaries Miscellaneous Services Figure 1: Industrial sector of leisure and Hospitality The above figure shows the major components of the leisure industry and consumers such as tourists or travelers are the focal point of this industry. Different sizes organizations develop the international market with hundreds of leisure products. These organizations work locally as well as globally in public and commercial sectors. Large leisure product providing companies recognize their targeted customers and think about the things across national boundaries. Global fast food chains are now common in Europe market for the global fast food chains. Due to development and openness of this growth in world has made rapid growth in their economies. The rapid growth of franchised fast foods at the McDonalds, Burger King and Pizza Hut have invited the youth of America and all around the world to see the culture. Hospitality industry keeps the hotel business with different products, methods, and technology and less easy to analyze it. Hotel industry produces many products in varying sale markets of the world. It keeps close contacts with its customers who consume the products at the sale points. Importance of Hotels Hotels are important globally as providing the facilities for recreation and entertainment, meeting and conferences and business transmission. When hotels are essential for the economies and societies are appropriate to transport. Hotels contribute the output of goods and related services which build well-being of their nations and communities. Visitors spend the hotels and contribute the local economies directly and indirectly. When foreign visitors avail the facilities of these hotels the foreign currency is earned through the visitors payments. Hospitality industry becomes the source of employment especially for the labors and management. Thousands of jobs are provided to locals as well as foreigners by these hotels in its different occupations. Hotels are also an alternative source for the locals as amenities. Many hotels are the social centre of their communities (Medlik Hadyn Ingram, 2002). In UK the hospitality industry is spread and generates the wealth and employment. It becomes the source where jobs are most required in highlands of Scotland to the South West of England and on major cities like London and Edinburgh. Small enterprises have also strengthened the social fabric of local communities in UK. Hospitality industry has seen many ups and down in UK during the twentieth century and world leading nations have seen many changes in society. Improvements in economy have paved the way for enhancement in living standards for the majority of people residing in those countries. Many social changes for the industrys operators are observed including the increased disposable incomes, cheaper and easier travel and more leisure time. The rise in standards of living by hospitality industry varies providing services and products, employment and leisure services. For the tourism the catering; hotel industry is very essential element and considered to be very fastest growing industry and earning the foreign currency. According to British Hospital Association the total value of tourism was estimated 76 billion GBP in UK during the 2003. Cafe, Public houses, in house catering facilities and restaurant were used by the tourists or the people study in the cities other than their homes. People lik e to eat the meal at these places instead of their homes. In recent years the hospitality industry has made growth in products and services and larger companies are in effort to improve the wages and other conditions of employees. It is noted that most employees generate 40,000 GBP for their employer per year, 10% to 40% labor charges and remainder goes to property costs, fixed cost and profit and material costs. Many changes are expected in hospitality industry in future (Mullins, et. al, 2001). Women are main workforce in hospitality in UK and expect that more progress will be made by the time of the Paralympics Games in 2012. Other significant advantage of this hospitality industry is to recruit the people with few or no qualification and giving them chance to make progress. It is clear from the above discussion that hospitality is major source of income where this industry is established for the services and products in global market. We have largely discussed the contribution o f the hospitality industry in the economy of UK. According to British Hospitality Association more than 500,000 employees are engaged in the Hospitality industry of UK. BHA is launching a new opportunity of partnership between government and industry to make shared efforts to achieve the desired and sustainable growth of economy of UK (http://www.bha.org.uk). Conclusions In this paper we have discussed the hospitality industry and its major contributions towards the economic growth at local, regional and global level. A clear distinction between hospitality and tourism industry is proven with key examples. One of subsector of the hospitality hotel and restaurant is given with statistics and figures. The impacts of hospitality industry at global level are positive and UK is forefront to get the benefits from this industry. Main advantages of hospitality industry are also part of this paper.

Personal Narrative- Most Memorable Christmas :: Personal Narrative

Personal Narrative- Most Memorable Christmas Ever since I could remember, I have spent Christmas at my grandmother’s house, a house which is full of comfort, warmth, and happiness. At Christmas, I have always been able to escape the cold and dark real world allowing myself to truly enjoy just several moments in time. These moments have left impressionable memories from my childhood making Christmas a holiday that is special to me and my family. It is a time for my family to get together, share stories, laugh, and even cry. My most memorable Christmas is one from my past. I was about six years old. I clearly remember sitting in class on the last day of school before Christmas vacation anticipating the bell to ring and signify that the classes were finally over. As the bell rang, I ran out of that class, and once I got home I was ready in an instant to leave for my grandmother’s where I would spend my holidays. It was a two hour drive to my grandmother’s house. I was very impatient throughout the entire drive. I couldn’t wait to see my grandma, my cousin, and my aunts. To make things better, however, snow started to fall filling me with hopes of a snowball fight the next day. Finally, we arrived at our destination. I left the car leaving my parents and little brother behind and ran up the steps to my grandma’s house. I just had to be the first one to knock on her door, so I did. She opened the door for me, and I went inside parting with the bitter cold and darkness surrounding me. Inside the house I was immediately encircled with the aromas of her Christmas cooking and baking. A real fresh Christmas tree which was already beautifully adorned with old family ornaments perforated the air with more holiday aromas. I went into the kitchen with my mom, and together we helped my grandma finish preparing the Christmas Eve dinner. Soon, we all sat around the dinner table enjoying my grandma’s culinary specialties. There was one dish that had stuck in my mind though, possibly because it was the last dish served that night.

The Character of the Curate and Marian in Old Mrs. Chundle by Thomas Ha

The Character of the Curate and Marian in 'Old Mrs Chundle' In Thomas Hardy's short story, 'Old Mrs Chundle', the Curate is a well-respected, well-mannered and considerate man. He is determined to spread the word of God to Mrs Chundle. Mrs Chundle is also a considerate woman. She does not regularly visit the church and lives alone in South Wales. At the beginning of the story, the Curate asks for some lunch from Mrs Chundle. At first Mrs Chundle did not hear the Curate, so he has to repeat what he asked earlier. The Curate is an open man; he is not ashamed of asking food from others and is willing to dine with an old woman. This shows that the Curate is a friendly man and he does not judge people. The Curate strikes up a friendly conversation, which eventually leads to Mrs Chundle lying about visiting the church once a week. Due to this, the Curate thinks he and Mrs Chundle have something in common as ho belongs in the same church, which Mrs Chundle lied about. He hopes to see Mrs Chundle again which shows that the curate has become quite friendly with her and also shows that he is a pleasant man. When the Curate is talking to his rector, he finds out about the lie Mrs Chundle told. His view of Mrs Chundle changes for a short while. He now thinks of her as a wicked woman. In Eudor Welty's short story, 'A Visit Of Charity', Marian is a typical 14-year-old teenager. She is a campfire girl trying to gain a few points by visiting old ladies in an 'Old Ladies Home'. At the beginning of the story, Marian, holding a potted plant, jumps off the bus, stops for a moment besides a prickly dark shrub and then proceeds towards the Old Ladies Home. She says to the nurse at the desk, 'I'm a Campfire girl I ... ...had not avoided her, Mrs Chundle would have had the joy of listening to God's words once more before she had died. Marian had not particularly learnt an important lesson. She is only a young adolescent. The only reason she had visited the old ladies was for a few points. When Marian came out of the Old Ladies Home, the first thing she did was take out her apple from under the bush and took a bite out of it. This shows that Marian was not affected in anyway from her experience with the old ladies. She had not gone to visit the old ladies out of her own choice but only for herself. The Curate had learnt the most from his experience as he showed the signs of confusion, guilt and had to ask for forgiveness from God. Marian had just taken a bite out of her apple as soon as she got out. She showed no signs of sympathy and compassion toward the old ladies.

History of the Magna Carta :: essays research papers

The Magna Carta is often thought of as the cornerstone of liberty and a defense against unjust rule in England. The Magna Carta is also a type of constitution. Just like the English have the Magna Carta, the Americans have the Constitution. To better describe the Magna Carta I’m going to tell you some more about the line of events that led up to this famous document. First there was the landing of the pilgrims in 1620 at the Plymoth Rock â€Å"for the glory of god and the advancement of the Christian faith†. Prior to this happening, another course of events unfolded in England. In 500 (?)A.D., the Anglo-Saxons conquered England bringing Roman Catholicism with them. Only the new Latin Bible was available to the people and the pagan rulers had that in mind so the people couldn’t read it. Two important men, John Wycliffe and William Tyndale tried to translate this new Bible. The church didn’t like this and burned the translated Bibles and killed Tyndale. The idea of a limited government came from the Anglo-Saxons. Before-hand, the King’s counselors were called Witan, but when the Norman conquered they changed the name to Parliament. This is how the Parliament came to be. Another event that connects the colonist and the English together is the event of a hated King in England trying to take away freedom and go back to the old ways. The idea of how much power the King had struck Parliament. After that, the Parliament and the people made the King sign the Magna Carta, which limits the amount of power the King has. The Magna Carta also affected the rights of the American colonies. It practically took away all relationships between the King and the colonies. After the relationship was broken, America broke off from England. All of this happened because of the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta introduced the idea of placing the King under the law of the land.

Philosophy Behind the Leadership Position in a Learning Organization

Imagine this. You have served for years as an assistant to the Principal at a local high school. Recently, the school has become plagued with administrative problems affecting the day to day operations of the school, the quality of education for students, and teacher development. As someone with long-standing experience in that school, you have been promoted to the highest leadership position at that school. Part of your role in the leadership of a learning organization includes policy development, decision making, professional development, and the monitoring of organizational progress. This paper will identify and examine the relevant leadership skills and strategies necessary to develop a successful, thriving learning organization. The philosophy behind the leadership position in a learning organization has emerged in recent years as a concern for parents, teachers and policy-makers alike. Changes must be implemented in the current supervisory process, as the role of leadership in a school setting has progressed from the principal as an instructional leader, to the principal as a transactional leader and, most recently, to the role of transformational leader. High performing leaders have a personal vision for their school and the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to develop, articulate and implement a shared vision that is supported by the larger organization and the school community (Anonymous author, 2001). Numerous studies on the topic have revealed the importance of leadership skills and strategies of the school leader. These studies clearly indicate that improved education for students requires improved leadership and supervisory skills. The leader in a learning organization must develop and administer policies that provide a safe school environment and establish operational plans and processes to accomplish strategic goals. Research indicates that a necessary aspect of policy development is the intertwining of the daily operations of the school to school and student learning goals (Anonymous author, 2001). Additionally, the major sources of fiscal and nonphysical resources for the school including business and community resources must be analyzed and identified (Anonymous author, 2001). The financial and material assets must be managed, as well as capital goods and services, allocating resources according to district or school priorities (Anonymous author, 2001). Policy development includes an efficient budget planning process that is driven by district and school priorities and involves the staff and community. A strong leadership quality is the ability to identify and organize resources to achieve curricular and instructional goals (Anonymous author, 2001). Research indicates that the process of planning, developing, implementing, and evaluating a district budget must be analyzed, and techniques and organizational skills necessary to lead and manage a complex and diverse organization must be demonstrated (Anonymous author, 2001). Furthermore, policy development includes the planning and scheduling of one's own and others' work so that resources are used appropriately, and short- and long-term priorities and goals are met (Anonymous author, 2001). Policy development lies at the basis for a successful learning institution where the needs and goals of students, teachers and the community are met. Research indicates that the decision a leader in a learning organization makes has a strong influence on what will or will not occur in classrooms throughout the country. The leader must take a results oriented approach, and frame, analyze, and resolve problems using appropriate problem solving techniques and decision making skills (Anonymous author, 2001). In this way, good decisions can be made by viewing events and problems from multiple perspectives, and through the use of multiple sources of data to inform decisions. Additionally, decisions must be made based on the moral and ethical implications of policy options and political strategies (Anonymous author, 2001). Research indicates that the leader must recognize situations that require forcefulness and self-confidence in making decisions and delegate authority and responsibility clearly and appropriately to accomplish organization goals (Anonymous author, 2001). Finally, logical conclusions and making high quality, timely decisions must be based on the best available information. According to Marks and Printy (2003), the decision making tasks to be accomplished encompass those of supervision and evaluation of instruction, of staff development activities, of curriculum development knowledge and activities, of group development knowledge and activities, of action research, of development of a positive school climate, and of the creation of links between school and community. Technical skills include goal setting, assessment and planning, instructional observation, research and evaluation; whereas, interpersonal skills are those of communication, motivation, decision making, problem solving, and conflict management (Marks & Printy, 2003). In order to meet the rapidly changing needs of our students, teachers must be given the authority to make appropriate instructional decisions. Therefore, the basis for school leadership must include teachers and parents, as well as the principal, in the role of problem finding and problem identification (Marks & Printy, 2003). Youngs and King (2002) state that a prominent way in which leaders shape school conditions and teaching practices is through their beliefs and actions regarding teacher professional development. Individual teacher competence is necessary for effective classroom practice, and that teachers must be able to integrate knowledge of students, subject matter, and teaching context in planning out units and lessons and assessing student work (Youngs & King, 2002). The studies discussed by Youngs and King examine the relationship of capacity to instructional quality and student achievement, finding that effective school leaders can sustain high levels of capacity by building trust, creating structures that promote teacher learning, assist in the implementation of general reforms. Their study results also suggest that during transitions in school leadership, incoming leaders must be cognizant of shared norms and values among their faculties before initiating new practices into the curriculum, instruction, or school organization (Youngs & King, 2002). Other research on the topic indicates that speaking with teachers in and outside of instructional conferences was the cornerstone of effective leadership (Blase, 1999). Organizational leaders in a school setting use five primary talking strategies with teachers to promote reflection: 1) making suggestions; 2) giving feedback; 3) modeling; 4) using inquiry and soliciting advice and opinions; and 5) giving praise (Blase, 1999). Another important aspect of effective leadership is the promotion of teachers' professional growth with respect to teaching methods and collegial interaction about teaching and learning (Blase, 1999). According the to Blase study, effective instructional leaders used six teacher development strategies: 1) emphasizing the study of teaching and learning; 2) supporting collaboration efforts among educators; 3) developing coaching relationships among educators; 4) encouraging and supporting redesign of programs; 5) applying the principles of adult learning, growth, and development to all phases of staff development; and 6) implementing action research to inform instructional decision making. The study results found that school leaders that were effective provided former staff development opportunities to address emergent instructional needs. These opportunities resulted in innovation and creativity, variety in teaching, risk taking and positive responses to student diversity as well as effects on motivation, efficacy and self-esteem (Blase, 1999). Monitoring of Organizational Progress Finally, a core leadership skill of a learning organization is the continual monitoring of the school's progress. The studies discussed by Youngs and King (2002) reach the conclusion that school leaders can affect achievement indirectly by establishing a mission or set of goals and building school-wide commitment to them. As a result, higher student achievement can be associated with higher levels of school professional community and program coherence (Youngs & King, 2002). Along with monitoring the school's goals and mission, leaders must continue to facilitate the development and implementation of a shared vision and strategic plan for the school that places student and faculty learning at the center (Anonymous author, 2001). The leader of a learning organization must align instructional objectives and curricular goals with the shared vision and articulate the district's or school's vision, mission and priorities to the community (Anonymous author, 2001). The learning organization must be understood as a political system, relating the vision, mission, and goals to the welfare of students, and its' leader must articulate and reinforce that vision in written and spoken communications. In this way, a positive school culture for learning is created, along with conditions that enhance the staff's desire and willingness to focus energy on achieving educational excellence (Anonymous author, 2001). Finally, the leader must model professionalism, collaboration and continuous learning in order to successfully monitor the organizations progress. Learning to become a leader of an learning organization is a complex, multidimensional task. If school leaders believe that growth in student learning is the primary goal of schooling, then it is a task worth learning. In today's rapidly changing world that means becoming a leader of leaders by learning and working with teachers, students, and parents to improve instructional quality. Goal setting and problem solving become site-based, collective collaborative activities. The leadership of the principal is pivotal in ensuring that the process is informed of all school issues, especially those that relate to student instruction. As indicated by the literature available, policy development, decision making, professional development and progress monitoring are all key areas for leadership. If these areas are enhanced by strong leadership qualities, the future of the educational system will remain very bright. Additional studies on the leadership skills and strategies necessary to effectively lead a learning organization will assist in determining the next steps of our future leaders.