The Republic Of Panama Essay Example for Free

The Republic Of Panama Essay Thesis statement. Some economists believe that the Republic of Panama could become the next world business center but others are skeptical about it. Panama is a country in Central America that borders both the Caribbean and the Northern Pacific Ocean between Colombo and Costa Rica .The geographical coordinates of panama are 900 N and 8000 W. Panama has an interesting history as a former colony of Spain starting from the 16th century up to 1821 when it broke ranks with Spain to affiliate with Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela to form the Gran Colombia. This lasted up to 1830 but nevertheless, Panama remained under the control of Colombia. It was through the US backing that Panama was able to break free from Colombia in 1903 when in return, the Panama government signed a treaty with the US to usher in the construction of Panama Canal by the US army corps of engineers. The construction lasted from 1904 to 1914 and upon completion; the canal was to remain under the US control. It was until 1977 that an agreement was signed and subsequently ratified to complete the transfer of the Panama Canal from the US’ stewardship to Panama’s. This was after the deposing of the dictator Manuel Noriega in 1989 that the entire Panama Canal was transferred to Panama together with the areas supporting it, and the US military barracks – an exercise that was completely consummated at the turn of the 21st century. Panamanians have a project underway to double the canal’s capacity (Rigole, 2003).This project is already underway since it began in 2007 and is expected to come to conclusion at the end of 2015. The strengths of the Republic of Panama. Panama’s climate is that of tropical maritime and is hot, humid and cloudy with a protracted rainy season starting from May to January and January to May being the dry season. Based on this, Panama, a country that has 24.4% of its total land as arable land, has a steady food supply since it produces in large scale grain crops such as maize, rice, wheat, cassava, potato, sorghum, millet, and industrial crops such as sugarcane, coffee, tropical timber, peanut, oranges and sesame. Other foodstuffs that are indigenous to Panama include beef (and this is due to the large scale cattle rearing activities in the country), and fishing. The fishing industries thrive herein due to the preponderance of shrimps and lobsters. Although the agricultural output of Panama is not large enough to sustain large scale exports, yet it is reliable enough to sustain steady food supply to sustain the entire population of Panama. An economy that can sustain its population’s food demand stands a higher chance to develop economically to become a business center than its counterpart that lacks these prospects. The economy of Panama is fairing well with the major exports being melons, bananas, water melons, lobsters and shrimps, sugar, coffee and clothing. Of these total exports, the principle market is the US which is now procuring 44.5%. Its imports on other hand entail machinery and transport equipments, chemicals and chemical products, mineral and mineral products, electrical and electrical products and foodstuffs. Panama’s principle source of imports is the USA which makes up 27% of this. The currency used in Panama is balboa, with its mainstay of economy being the industrial sector which account for the 67.1% of the economy. The economic dominance of Panamanian industry is due to the fact that Panama is a country rich in mineral resources such as limestone, deposits of coal, molybdenum, copper, salt and clay. The industrial sector is mainly driven by the processing of paper and paper products, food and beverage processing, textiles and clothing, petrol refining, petroleum products, chemical refinery, light assembly and tourism. America, Spain, Netherlands Costa Rica, Japan, and Sweden form the major trading partners of Panama. The gross domestic product of Panama is 15.5 billion according to the 2005 estimates while the Purchasing Power Parity which is also known as the GNI was American dollar (USD) 7,310. The consumer price inflation remained at 2.8% according to the 2006 estimates. At the same time, unemployment was rated at 13.6% (Institute of Central Business, 32). Given the geographical size of Panama, it enjoys a favorable population of 3,287,500 according to 2006 estimate, and a steady population growth rate of 1.6 % according to 2006 estimate. The population occupying the urban area is rated 58%. However, this should always be checked against the availability of natural resources. A country that has a big population pitted against scarce national resources always experiences lapses in foreign investments since socio economic problems such as unemployment, overcrowding, explosion of diseases, and insecurity are always likely to ensue. Debts are always likely to set in as the government seeks to rectify the situation through foreign borrowing. Such states are always subject to inability to fund the public sector and government projects. Foreign investors shy away from such situations since the securities of their investment in such situations are always in danger of default. At such a time, the government will mostly seek to reverse the situation by selling its securities but this only worsens the situation since this will also lower the worth of these securities Panama’s population distribution is also fairly balanced. The age bracket between 1-14 years makes up 30% of the total population while the bracket representing 15-59 makes 61%. The bracket representing 60 and above accounts for 9%.The age distribution of Panama provides it with adequate labor force since the most productive age group falls under the bracket that ranks the highest. A country or any geo political entity that is about to be considered world business center must have a large working power. A country with a dense transport system, Panama has 116 airports of which 54 have paved runways, a comprehensive road network covering 11,643 km of which 4,028 are paved, 800 kilometers of waterways including the 82 km Panama Canal. In addition to the above, there are 5,764 merchant marines being served by 3 ports and terminals; the Balboa, Colon and Cristobal (Woods, 161). Panama enjoys a fairly balanced political leadership that has taken the form of liberal democracy. The government is well balanced with a clear system of separation of powers whereby the executive, the legislature and the judiciary are clearly separate and autonomous to exercise their duties without interference from any arm. In addition to this, under the aegis of the judiciary, the civil law system and the judicial review of the legislative acts recognize the importance of the International Court Justice. Panama plebiscites after every five years- a process which sees the president and his vice president either being installed into or exiting power depending on the verdict of the majority votes (Schreck, 189). International trade and investments thrive well in democracies and not in communist societies since the former entrenches the concept of free market or the liberalization of the market. Liberalization of the market allows free global flow of capital. Weaknesses of the Republic of Panama Reasons against the notion that Panama cannot arise to become the next world trade center are diverse. The most prominent one argues that as a country, it is still suffering the historical financial crisis of the 80s. In 1980, Panama had a high foreign debt that had accrued as a result of high import rate against the export rate. The explanation behind this was that its high consumption was on imports since there were no local industries. Since 1983 the country has been registering pluses, but the present situation is still tough since Panama has a standing debt which claims 81.2% of its GNP. Although this according to established economies is not very large, yet strictly speaking, Panama will not be able to extricate itself from debt since its debt- to- export ratio is high. The only recourse is to have the 1989 Braddy Initiative to offer Panama an extension implemented, but even this will take 39 years for Panama to clear the debt (World Bank, 217). Other social and health underpinnings can still stand in the way towards the establishment of Panama as world business center. Panamanian medical services are still below the World Health Organization’s standards since out of 10,000 patients, there are 17 doctors (2004 report).On another front, out of 1,000 people, only 13% are landline telephone subscribers. Similarly, out of 100 people interviewed, 16% were internet users, and out of 100 people interviewed, 4.6% were personal computer users. No form of foreign or domestic investment can effectively take place without proper social amenities, communication and communication services. BIBLIOGRAPHY. Institute of Central Business Studies. Mesoamerica. US: University of Virginia, 1982. Rigole, Mark and Langlois, Claude- Victor. Panama. Panama: Ulysses Travel Guides, 2003. Sarah, Kristina. Frommer’s Panama. Central America: John Willeys and Sons, 2007. Woods, Sarah. Panama. Panama: Bradt Travel Guides, 2005. World Bank. Poverty Assessment in Panama: Strategies for Poverty. Panama: WB Publication, 2000.

BT Company: Business Analysis Report and SWOT

BT Company: Business Analysis Report and SWOT Part 1: Understanding the business 1. Suggest the income streams and costs that may be appropriate to an organisation in your sector. The main income streams for the telecommunication industry is the revenue achieved through the usage of their services. Originally those services were limited to the provision of telephone communication using landlines. Today, the communication industry has expanded the number of services that it provides into mobile, VoIP, internet and other communication. The majority of the revenue can come from any one of those different services. For example, in 2005 BT had 75% of its revenue coming from their traditional services, but in 2006 this number decreased to 68%. Instead the company received an increased amount of revenue from it’s â€Å"New Wave† services, such as networked IT services, broadband, mobility etc. The mobile telecommunications provider such as Vodafone gets the most of its revenue from the tariffs that it charges its customers for using their mobile phones. However, the mobile telecommunication has also expanded into the provision of other services such as messaging and data and information provision. The largest cost for any communication company is the maintenance of the business. This cost can consist of staff costs, contractor wages, operational costs etc. Main contributor will depend on the company. For example, BT identifies ‘other operational costs’ as its main contributor to the overall cost of maintaining the business, representing 35%. The ‘other operating costs’ include the cost of supporting the network IT services, maintenance and support of the networks, costs of accommodation and marketing and general overheads (BT, 2007, p. 34). 2. What measures of performance are applicable to the industry? The majority of the industry has a few fundamental performance measures. The prime measure is the satisfaction of their customers. This is not surprising considering the competitiveness of the industry, the ease with which customers can change providers and the fact that the companies’ profits are based on the volume of customers. The other measures can include the satisfaction of the company’s employees. The industry that is so customer focused tries to provide them with as much human contact as possible (as long as it is profitable). Therefore the industry employs a large volume of employees. Satisfied employs are more likely to make sure that the customers are happy with the service that they are getting, allowing the companies to stay competitive. For example, BT has four performance measures regarding the satisfaction of their employees: employee engagement index, diversity, HS: loss time injury rate and HS: sickness and absence rate. Other performance measures can include: the satisfaction of the suppliers; investment in the community; protection of the environment; digital inclusion and sustaining integrity. In order to measure those performance measures, the company engages a number of internal indices. Some of those indices are much easier to measure, for examples the number of complaints that the company receives, the others are more difficult, such as measuring the integrity of the employees. The majority of the companies employ surveys in order to measure the more difficult quantifiable factors. 3. Construct a Value Chain for a company within the industry. The value chain has been developed by Michael Porter in 1985. The method divides the organization into the activities that is performs and them links them to the company’s competitive position. Porter (1985) argued that only by separating the organization into its activities and findings the right links will the managers be able to achieve a competitive advantage. The value chain method distinguishes between primary and support activities. Combined, they should lead to a margin, which is equal to the cost of the product subtracted from the price that it is sold to the customer. Model 1 depicts the value chain. Primary activities in the business are concerned directly with the creation, production and delivery of service and are grouped into inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and service. The Support activities are there to help the primary activities and they are divided into main areas of support activities: procurement, technology development (including RD), human resource management, and infrastructure (systems for planning, finance, quality, information management etc.). The support activities are directly linked to the primary activities, and if those links are produced well, then the company will become more efficient and competitive in the market. The value chain model can be applied to the telecommunication industry. The inbound logistics are the goods and services that the company receives from its suppliers. In the world of telecommunication, this can be the phones (that might be manufactures in China), the cables, the sim cards etc. The ‘operations’ in the original method meant manufacturing of the product. Since telecommunication is already dealing with a finished product, it is the provision of this product that can be named their ‘operation’. For example, provision of the reception, the IT platform that connects people etc. The outbound logistics is the finished product being delivered to the customer. In this case this can be the phone set, the website of the company where the customer can buy their own product etc. Every telecommunication company has their marketing and sales team, that offer services and make customers aware (through advertising) of their services. In the competitive industr y such as telecommunication, the firms pay a lot of attention to the right kind of marketing and promotion. If a company releases a new product, the other companies are likely to follow. Therefore the first ‘inventor’ has to capture as much market as possible. Furthermore, due to the competitiveness of the industry, the companies are under pressure to provide the customers with as much as possible, in order to keep them, as finding a new customer is always much more expensive then keeping the old one. The last section of the primary activities is the ‘service’. Service is something that the company provides after the customer has the product. In the telecommunications this means installation of the product into the customers home, helping the customer with every day questions, replacing the product if is gets broken etc. Under the support activities the first factor is ‘procurement’. The procurement department in the telecommunications industry are people who buy all of the inbound logistics into the company. This department will be in charge of agreeing the best deal with the suppliers of the product and making sure that the product is of high quality. Technology development is an extremely important element in the telecommunications industry, which allows them to gain a competitive advantage. The technology development in this method can also include customer relationship management activities, and not be limited purely to the innovation. Human resource management is a vital part in this method as those people are responsible to the satisfaction of the employees, which can be achieved through remuneration, training and development, bonuses and other HR strategies. The above mentioned would be the base for the value chain. However, it should be noted that the majority of the companies in the telecommunications industry are multi-national corporations. They provide a large number of products to their customers world wide. Furthermore, the components of their services may come from a wide range of suppliers, for example the plastic for the phone will come from Russia, the phone will be constructed in China and painted in India. Due to their size, the majority of the companies have already established the most productive and available route of producing, maintaining and providing the service. Therefore, the value chain would be a lot more complicated with both the primary and support activities. Furthermore, the margin may also come from a wide range of sources, such as mergers and acquisition, investment in stock markets etc. 4. Construct a Value System for the industry. The value system was also introduced by M. Porter (1985). It represents the link between the value chains of different ‘market customers’. For example, it will link the value chain of the suppliers to the value chain of the company to the value chain of the channel and then to the value chain of the customer. The supplier value chain for the telecommunications industry can include the suppliers of the physical products, such as phones and sim cards from the supplier value chain; provision of the telephone connection and services in the company value chain; services provided by the third party distributors (such as Yahoo!) in the channel chain and a wide range of customers buying the products (for example businesses, individuals and other telecommunication companies). 5. What are the environmental factors that may influence the industry? Most of the large organizations today are environmentally friendly, and have special strategies to maintain this position. For example, BT is one of the largest consumers of electricity in the UK (BT, 2007, p. 3). In order to reduce the damage to the environment, the company has adopted the majority of the environmentally-friendly electricity sources, such as wind generation, solar and hydroelectric energy generation. The telecommunications industry face a number of environmental risks that can damage their profitability. For example, global warming increases the number of storms and floods that are occurring around the world. In turn, this damages the telecommunications’ infrastructure and can cost the industry billions of pounds. Moreover, by damaging the environment, the costs of the primary products can increase (e.g. electricity). Since the telecommunications industry relies on a wide range of products outside of their own services, an increase in the cost of primary prod ucts, such as electricity, is likely to have a negative effect on their profits. Part 2: Evaluating Company Resources 1. How well is the present strategy working? â€Å"Group Strategys principal role is to help the BT Group maximize long term value for shareholders. This involves ensuring that the BT Group can sustain competitiveness in all its markets† (BT, 2007, Group Strategy). The financial results for the 2006 showed that the company has strengthened its position in the market. It had increased its revenue by 6% to  £19,514m, provided its customers with both the income and investment growth, by increasing the share price by 8% and dividend pay out by 14% in one year (BT Annual report, 2007, p. 2). Since their share price has gone up over the year, it can be argued that the company’s strategy has worked. Furthermore, BT has also subdivided their strategy aim into a number of objectives, namely: â€Å"to pursue profitable growth in new wave markets to maximise the return from our traditional business to transform our networks, systems and services for the twenty-first century to create long-term partnerships with our customers† (BT, 2007, Annual Report, p. 4). The â€Å"new wave† activities (networked IT services, broadband and mobility) growth has been overachieved by 50% by the company in 2006 (BT, 2007, Annual Report, p. 4). The company has also asked all of their existing customer to swap to the subscription-based packages. They have achieved 67% customer base being swapped to the subscription, which has also overachieved their target. The transfer of all of the services onto the 21C (twenty-first century IP technology) has not been completed yet. Finally, BT has achieved an increase of 3% in their customer satisfaction table, which also brought them closer to their long term goal. Therefore it can be argued that BT’s strategy has been successful. 2. What are their resource strengths and weaknesses? BT’s resource strength is their brand and strong reputation, that is recognized world wide. Their strong brand allows them to form stronger relationships with their customers (stakeholders, customers, suppliers, employees). BT’s reputation of reliability, consistency and effectiveness allows them to keep their customers and increase their customer base. Furthermore, BT provides a wide range of services that are in line with the latest technology, such as IP phone calls and are often a market leader in the industry. BT had a large number of weaknesses a few years ago: it was loosing the DSL market share to every competitor in the market, it had a shrinking market share in the fixed line services and sometimes it was not up to speed with the innovative technology. However, the new market strategy has proved very beneficial to the company. The company was the first in the IDSL provision in the UK market in 2006; its market share is growing and it is transferring most of its services onto the 21C technology (BT, 2007, Annual Report). Although introduction of 21C will be beneficial to BT in the future, it can have a negative impact on the profits in the short run. Furthermore, does BT think far enough? There are a wide range of external risks that BT group faces. From the social aspect, they can be divided into: supply chain working conditions and outsourcing. The ‘supply chain working conditions’ risks arises from the wide range of services that BT buys from across the world. The company is committed to following the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Labour Organisation rules. The main risk of breaching those rules is that the company may be faced with a large number of law suits and loose its reputation. In turn, reputation is one of the most valuable assets of the company, as it has a positive correlation with the number of customers that sign up and stay with BT. The group deals with this risk by asking all of the suppliers to fill in the ‘Risk assessment questionnaire’, which it then examines and decides if it should deal with the named supplier (BT, 2007, Human Rights and Suppliers). BT has outsourced a number of operations such as human resource contracts, pensions, recruitment and training, as well as finance, accounting and payroll (BT, 2007, Outsourcing). The risk arises when the company tries to get the cheapest service and ends up making a very expensive mistake. For example, the BT can loose control of the quality of the service that the outsourced functions provide; or the outsourced departments may make a financial mistake, that will lead to wrong internal decisions within a company. 3. What are the external opportunities and threats facing them? There are also a number of factors that can be quite threatening to BT. The change in the environment, where natural catastrophes can destroy BT’s infrastructure, have already been discussed. The collapse of the stock market can also have a negative effect on the company, as BT invests some of its money in the stock market. Furthermore, an innovative product, such as WoIP being introduced by another major competitor, will strongly harm BT’s profits (since all of the phone calls can be free, without relying on the internet). The economic and political decisions can also affect the profitability of the company. For example, if the interest rates rise sharply in the UK, the disposable income of the customers will decrease. In turn, the customers may reduce their usage of the BT’s services or swap to cheaper providers. Moreover, since BT has global presence, large looses in one of the countries may put a lot of pressure on the rest of the Group to ‘bail outâ₠¬â„¢ the damaged company, which can negatively affect the profits. As has been mentioned above, there is also an issue of reputation. Loss of reputation due to the external factors can strongly affect company’s profitability. Furthermore, mobile phone providers also represent a threat, since they undercut the prices and the majority of the customers find mobiles an effective way to communicate. However, there are also a wide range of opportunities available to BT externally. For example, the technology progress has been very rapid over the last few years, which means that BT can take advantage of this to gain extra customers. The IP voice communication will also allow BT to gain more customers worldwide, as there will not be legal barriers of the contract. More and more people are getting to know how to use the internet. Since BT is moving towards making their phone calls through the internet rather then fixed lines, this means that BT will have an opportunity to deal with a larger customer base. Finally, BT has a good reputation, capitalization and brand that it can use to expand into a wide range of those products. 4. How strong is their competitive position? BT’s competitive position can be seen from two perspectives: in the UK and worldwide. In the UK, BT has a very strong competitive position, since it is the largest communication provider in the country (BT, 2007, Annual Report, p. 7). Worldwide the situation is a bit different (see Table 2). Table 2: BT’s competitive position worldwide BT T Pvt1 VZ Industry Market Cap: 47.23B 232.84B N/A 105.08B 6.51B Employ ­ees: 104,400 302,000 143,251 N/A 12.52K Qtrly Rev Growth (yoy): 5.00% 23.10% N/A 31.80% 3.80% Revenue (ttm): 38.76B 63.06B 5.62B1 88.14B 4.02B Gross Margin (ttm): 84.08% 56.99% N/A 60.33% 65.54% EBITDA (ttm): 11.00B 22.88B N/A 29.53B 1.67B Oper Margins (ttm): 13.31% 16.87% N/A 16.13% 15.46% Net Income (ttm): 5.38B 7.36B 304.40M1 5.48B 402.77M EPS (ttm): 6.35 1.887 N/A 2.12 1.55 P/E (ttm): 8.98 19.76 N/A 17.03 15.1 PEG (5 yr expected): 2.17 1.51 N/A 3.08 1.64 P/S (ttm): 1.24 3.67 N/A 1.21 1.61 Source: Yahoo! Finance Where: T= AT&T Inc Pvt1 = Cable and Wireless plc VZ = Verizon Communication Inc Industry = Telecom Services – Foreign As can be seen, BT has a small capitalization value compared to its closest direct competitors in the telecommunication market. However, its value is still nearly 7 times the size of the average market capitalization of the industry. The revenue growth has also been poor compared to the largest competitors, and hardy exceeds the industry average. However, despite the low capitalization, the net income of BT is very close to that of the other companies, which indicates that the company is efficient. 5. What is your assessment of the culture within the company? Will it be supportive to change or not? BT has a strong set of values within the company. Those values build the culture of the company. Furthermore, judging from the amount of information that is available of their website, it can be assumed that BT is very good at informing all of its employees of any changes that are taking place in the organization. The employees rarely welcome change or restructuring, however over the years it has been shown that good and frequent communication with the employees will allow the company to implement the changes much more easily. Therefore, the BT’s employees are likely to be supportive of the changes that BT makes. Part 3: Strategy and Competitive Advantage 1. Review the generic strategies. Which would be suitable cost advantage, differentiation or focusing on a niche market? Given the 3 generic strategies: cost advantage, differentiation or focusing on a niche market, BT is more likely to go for differentiation. This opinion is based on the existing strategy that the BT is adopting. BT provides a wide range of services. It could go for a niche market if it will have an opportunity to keep the rest of the products. For example, at the moment it’s transferring most of its services onto 21C platform. This will allow BT customers to use internet for communication. Although most of the large telecommunications companies have not done that, there are a number of companies that have already dominated this market e.g. Skype. BT could also go the cost advantage, as the telecommunication industry is becoming more and more price competitive. However, as with any industry, price wars can not last forever. Considering that BT used to be a state monopoly and therefore has an advantage of the largest customer base, it has decided to provide quality to the customers rather then quantity. Furthermore, since BT is launching the large transferal of its technology onto the 21C base, it is unlikely to go for a cost advantage this year. Instead, it will provide its customers with high quality innovative products, that will be cheap once they launch (internet communication is free). This leaves differentiation. As has been discussed above, BT has chosen a number of strategies that will differentiate it from its competitors, such as the 21C platform, direct and clear communication with the customers, emphasis on the good treatment of its employees and innovative products. 2. Looking into the future, how may the company seek to achieve cost competitiveness? Achieving cost competitiveness is the aim of every company in the world. Cost competitiveness can be achieved through economies of scale and scope, as well as synergies. BT is a very large company and therefore has a stronger negotiation power with its suppliers. The suppliers might be willing to provide BT with lower prices for their products, since BT is likely to order large volumes of products. Economically, as the company gets bigger, the cost of production of one more unit of a good or service decreases (marginal cost). Therefore, as BT expands it will be able to decrease the cost of the production. However, the economic theory also states that this decrease in marginal cost will eventually reach a point where the company will enter the diseconomies of scale (the marginal cost will start to increase). In order to avoid that, BT has expanded globally, rather then just within the UK. BT can also reduce costs through the economies of scope – the production of a wider range of goods. The marginal costs will decrease because certain fixed costs will be shared between the products. For example, the IP platform that BT is using will not only be used to generate revenue from the phone calls, but will also be used for the provision of video messaging services. Later on, if BT decides to bring out another product, it will be able to use this IT platform without the need of building a new one. BT can achieve synergies between its businesses. BT operates 4 separate businesses: BT retail, BT wholesale, BT Global services and Openreach. There are a large number of synergies between all of those companies, for example HR, finance and accounting services. Furthermore, if BT decides to acquire another company in the future, it is likely to use the existing synergies to create even more synergies with the new company in the future. Furthermore, there are a large number of other cost cutting exercises that the company can do in the future to achieve cost competitiveness, such as restructuring, selling some parts of its business that are no longer useful to it and increasing efficiency internally. 3. Suggest ways that information technology and information systems can be used to exploit external opportunities and defend against threats facing the company? Information technology (IT) is strongly linked to the information systems (IS) in telecommunication industry. BT is successfully using both to capture new opportunities in the market, as has been discussed previously. However, as the whole industry is moving towards VoIP, BT could use its existing information systems to move a step further – provide WoIP services. VoIP requires internet in order to use free voice calls, while WoIP allows a customer to use free voice calls without internet. In turn, by using the IT and IS BT can capture a larger share of the market not only in the UK but also worldwide. Furthermore, BT has enough capitalization and IT in order to compete with the mobile phone providers. It can expand to provide those services. Efficient IT and IS will allow BT to connect people cheaply around the world, where the customers will not need to worry where they are resident. BT is very much aware of the external threats that it faces. IT and IS will not be able to defend BT from the environmental risks. However, some of the social risks can be eliminated. For example, the outsourced functions of finance and accounting can be checked electronically first, by setting up an appropriate IT system. The work can then be send to Britain for checking. Furthermore, although BT can not control the stock markets, it can certainly install a number of IT systems that will allow it to prevent a large loss of money, for example by using Technical Analysis systems. By making sure that all of BT’s IT and IS systems work efficiently, the company will reduce the risk of losing its reputation. 4. Analyse the current core competencies of the company. The current core competencies of the company is professionalism, integrity, straightforwardness and team work. All of those competencies are built into their core values. Furthermore, by achieving those competencies as a business the company will be able to achieve its overall aim – bring value to the shareholders. Competencies are often measures on the internal scale of the company, which makes it difficult to analyze for the outsider. However, the companies achievements and the strategy for the future work reflect those competencies. It is in the interest of the company to retain professionalism and integrity towards the customers and employees, if it want to keep both groups. Straightforwardness is a good differentiator of the company, as this allows better communication with the customer, and therefore contribute towards building a loyal customer base. The team work, in turn, will allow the company to achieve its performance targets. 5. Apply a SWOT matrix to the analysis carried out in Activity 2 to gain an understanding of how the strengths and weaknesses of the company may be considered, together with the opportunities and threats that exist, to determine a set of strategic options for the company. SWOT Analysis (S)trengths (O)pportunities Stable and increasing share price Strong financial results Strong brand Good reputation Worldwide Reach Market leader in the UK Large customer base Increasing number of customers that will use the IP platform Further expansion into the world market Use of capital to expand into ‘products of the future’ (W)eaknesses (T)hreats Lack of innovative products Sometimes overprices products which leads to loss of the market share (DSL) Weak global market presence Supply chain working conditions Outsourcing Loss of reputation Environment Stock market crash Recession Mobile phone users BT is the largest fixed-line provider of communication in the UK. Since BT used to be a state monopoly it has a very large number of customers. However, since its privatization, despite a strong competition not only from the new fixed-line providers by also from the mobile phone providers, BT still has a very strong market presence in the UK. This indicates that BT has built a certain customer loyalty, which can be added to its strengths. As the communication market matures, new technology and opportunities are entering the industry. The most recent innovation, that remains a threat to the most fixed-line providers is the building of the IP platforms. The IP platforms allows the customers to speak to each other for free by using their internet. BT has been extremely proactive and has built the platform. Since the majority of its customers are still using fixed lines for communication, in order to the customers to start using the new products, BT should communicate the instruction on how to use the products very clearly. Furthermore, it should also inform the customers of the new products available. Strategically, BT should be able to connect the majority of its customers, since it will be cheaper to them to use the platform. The next move would be to make sure that all of the ‘voices of the customer’ are heard, as with any new systems there will be a number a faults. BT should then implement all of the changes that it has decided on. Since the price of the communication will decrease, the BT will be able to make higher revenue through an increasing number of customers that will start using the service and through the sale of other goods and services that it provides through the new platform. Therefore, BT should start making a good marketing plan of how to sell their new products. The number of customers available to BT is likely to increase over time, as more people are connecting to the internet. This is a great opportunity for BT to increase its world market share. Considering that BT is not the first company to implement this, a large number of customers have already been captured. The BT can use

Competitive strategy that Easyjet have utilised

Competitive strategy that Easyjet have utilised The aim of this report is to analyse and evaluate the competitive strategy that Easyjet have utilised in order to develop their current competitive position in the low price no frills airline market. Objectives Definitions of competitive strategy Explain Porters generic strategy Analyse the competitive strategy of Easyjet Evaluate the competitive strategy of Easyjet Recommendation for the future of Easyjet Methodology Porters generic strategy Investigate the strategy clock Find out advantage and disadvantages by creating a SWOT analysis of Easy Jet Theories on Easyjet competitive strategy The Competition Various Recommendation for Easyjets future Where the information was found? University library Internet Journals Newspapers Books Overview From this report, Easyjet can be seen as one of the main airlines in its market, and although it has some tough competition Easyjet is becoming stronger. Its competitive strategies are ahead of the competition and are being very successful. This is proven through various theories such as Porters generic strategy, the strategy clock and a SWOT analysis of Easyjets competitive strategy. Introduction Background Easyjet is one of the best known European low price no-frills airlines. Which begun in 1995 by Greek entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Ioannou. He intended to make flying to Europe affordable for more and more people. Easyjet now calls itself the webs favourite airline. (Thompson, Strategic Management , 2001) The airline is based at Hangar 89, a bright orange building adjacent to the main taxiway at Luton Airport. In an industry where corporate HQs are generally considered to be the ultimate status symbol, it is the very embodiment of the Easyjet low-cost ethos. Objectives To identify and analyse the competitive strategy that Easyjet have utilised in order to develop their current position. To critically evaluate the competitive strategy that Easyjet have utilised in the development of their current completive position. Also make appropriate recommendations regarding Easyjet. Competitive advantage Competitive advantage is the means by which a company can outperform its competitors and more profits. (Lomax Raman, 2006) The ability to create more economic value than competitors (Barney, 2010) Competitive advantage is more generally based on the stability and continuity in relationships between different parts of the organisation (Lynch, 2008) Design is a form of competitive advantageà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Good design allows things to operate more efficiently, smoothly, and comfortably for the userà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Customers appreciate good design. While they cant necessarily point out what specifically makes it good, they know it feels better. Theres a visceral connection. They are willing to pay for it, if you give them a great experience. (Hackett, 2009) Porters Generic Strategies This set of strategies consists of three: segmentation strategy, differentiation strategy and cost leadership Cost leadership strategy pertains to mass production of standardized products to lower the cost. Manufacturing the product in high volumes or by bulk would lower the costs of the product because fixed costs are maximized. Differentiation strategy means creating products that are being packaged as unique. Customers believe that the features of the products are incomparable and superior compared to others hence the reason for its uniqueness. Segmentation strategy means products are focused on few, selected market or the specialized markets. The company creates the product to suit the tastes or demands of a specific market. (Porter, 1998) Main Findings Analyse Easy Jets competitive strategy Easy jet which is the UKs leading low cost airline, currently operating in over 400 routes with over 175 aircraft in 27 countries is a no frill airline, the concept started in the beginning of the 1970s in the USA and then this concept was followed by Airlines in Europe, and the rest of the world. Easy jet is known as No-frills airlines, where airlines that have offer low fares but eliminate all unnecessary services Easy Jet offers a no frills service at low fares. EasyJets generic strategy is a typical cost leadership strategy. The business philosophy of easyJet is that money can be made on any route where a carrier can fly three times a day to a low-cost airport, based on a minimum market size. The basis of commercial success for such strategy is maintaining a 30-40% cost advantage over established airlines. Easyjets low prices strategy can be defined as A low price strategy seeks to achieve a lower price than competitors whilst trying to maintain a similar perceived product or service benefits to those offered by competitors (Johnson, 2005) They believe to achieve competitive advantage through this strategy, the company need two basic choices, one is to find a segment where main competitors are not interested in. The other one is find this segment attracts price sensible consumers. (Johnson, 2005) They utilize this by doing the following; Easyjet is a Ticket less airline which mean All you need to fly is your passport (or suitable photographic ID on domestic flights) and there confirmation number, based on their time of check in at the airport, this determines the order in which they board the aircraft (Easyjet.com). Efficient use of airport. Easyjet flies to main destination airports throughout Europe, but gains efficiencies through rapid turnaround times, and progressive landing charges agreements with the airports By reducing turnarounds to 30 minutes and below, Easyjet can achieve extra rotations on the high frequency routes, by maximizing utilization rates of its aircraft. Theres no such thing as a free lunch Easyjet does not offer free food from company, passengers are given the choice as to whether they wish to buy themselves drinks or snacks from the in flight. (McCosker, 2003) The absence of business class means gaining seats and maximizes capacity. Though EasyJet does not provide the same kind of flexibility as business class in traditional airlines, it is possible to change flights for a premium of  £10, plus the difference in price. Punctuality is a priority Direct marketing and Internet sales Stelios recognized the potential for sales on the Internet before it had become widely available. At first a call center allowed customers to book over the phone, a more familiar communication channel available to all. By offering discounts for Internet bookings, Stelios shaped his customers purchasing habit with the result that 80% of reservations were made on the Internet in 1998. It reduces distribution charges from travel agent commissions and computer reservation system costs. Easyjets strategy was modelled on Southwest air, but Stelios claimed he had been inspired by Richard Branson and Virgin Atlantic. His approach to customers and people mirrors that of Branson. He flies on his own planes some three or four times a week and week talk to the passengers. He is regularly present at Luton (his headquarters) and willing to revolve passenger problems. (Thompson, Strategic Management fourth editon, 2001) Easyjet favours an informal company culture with a very flat management structure, which eliminates unnecessary and wasteful layers of management. All office-based employees are encouraged to dress casually. Ties are banned except for pilots! Remote working and hot-desking have been characteristics of easyJet since the beginning. One of the strategies which easyJet is persuading is a cost leadership. In persuading cost advantage, the goal of the firm is to become the cost leader in its industry or industry segment (Grant, 2002) The Easyjet product is, in reality, a package of service, many subcontracted in. Easy jet provides the planes and their crews, and markets and the sells the flights. As a company, it is focused. Check-in and information services, snacks (for passengers to by before they board the aeroplane), baggage handling and fleet maintenance are all bought in from specialists. (Thompson, Strategic Management , 2001) Competition for customers in this sector of the market is intense, Virgin express and Fly Thomas cook are just a couple from many have low-price , no frills subsidiaries, neither of which is reputed to be profitable. The largest of the rivals is Ryanair, over 25 years old and based in Dublin, carrying over 75 million passengers a year. When Stelios established the position of the Easyjet as one of leading low cost airline in Europe by adopting an efficiency driven operational model, creating brand awareness and maintaining a high levels of customer satisfaction (where we are now) he took a step further in his perused of the strategy to offer low cost airline to masses (where we want to be) which is based on key strengths (how we going get there) (Easyjet: The Web`s Favourite Airline, 2002) Another of the strategies persuaded by founder of Easyjet can be seen, as strategy is perspective, that is, vision and direction. (Mintzberg, 1994) Evaluate Easyjet competitive strategy Competitive advantage grows out of value a firm is able to create for its buyers the exceeds the firms cost of creating it (porter,1985)A company relative position within an no frill Airline industry is given by its competitive advantage which is cost leadership and differentiation, from other frills airline companies and with its choice of competitive scope. Introducing new technologies new or shifting buyer needs the emergence of a new industry segment and availability changes in government regulations are competitive advantages. Where Differentiation is the firms product, associated services, and other activities affect its buyers activities.   All the activities in the value chain contribute to buyer value, and the cumulative costs in the chain will determine the difference between the buyer value and producer cost. (Porter, 1985) Easy jet gains competitive advantage by performing strategically important activities more cheaply or better than its competitors. (Easyjet.com) Comp etitive advantage can come not just from great products or services, but from anywhere along the value chain. To understand how a firm fits into the overall value system includes the value chains of its suppliers, channels, and buyers. Generic strategies are useful because they characterize strategic positions at the simplest and broadest level. Porter maintains that company achieving competitive advantage requires and makes a choice about the type and scope of its competitive advantage.(Porter, 1985) Concerning competitive advantage, Easyjet concentrates on costs therefore achieves overall cost leadership. It inhabits a low cost Niche position. The low cost airlines developed sufficient lead times and competitive advantage to limit any new entrants to niche positions and we still do not believe that the full service airlines have the culture to successfully develop sustainable in house low fares subsidiaries (Binggeli, 2002) However, there are problems associated with the idea of sustainable cost leadership as this entails that Easyjet has the lowest cost compared with competitors over time. This is unlikely to be achieved simply by cutting back costs however their competitors i.e. Ryanair will do this too. The search of a cost-leadership strategy will require Easyjet to have a strong focus on cost management, scale economies, and have experience curve cost advantages through the maintainer of volumes. In reality, it can be questioned whether cost leadership is a separate strategy. (Sharp 1991)  [1]  stated, having a cost advantage is merely a facilitator to differentiate, usually on price, adding that low-cost form seeks to remove bases for differentiation, so as to offer a generic service to the entire market, therefore reducing differences between segments. Another type of strategy persuaded by Stelios Haji Ioannou is express by sentence (Casell, 2002) It could be argued that cost leadership can be a precarious strategy, which may speed up the move towards a commodity market in which; ultimately, no one benefits (Partridge, 1994) Strategy Clock The Strategy Clock is based upon the work of Cliff Bowman. Its another Suitable way to analyze a companys competitive position in comparison to the offerings of competitors. As with Porters Generic Strategies, Bowman considers competitive advantage in relation to cost advantage or differentiation advantage. Easyjet are situated highly in strategic option 1 (low price, low added value) The eight core strategic options are: 1. Low price/low added value Likely to be segment specific. 2. Low price Risk of price war and low margins/need to be a cost leader. 3. Hybrid Low cost base and reinvestment in low price and differentiation. 4. Differentiation (A) Without a price premium: perceived added value by user, yielding market share benefits. (B) With a price premium: Perceived added value sufficient to bear price premium. 5. Focused differentiation Perceived added value to a particular segment warranting a premium price. 6. Increased price/standard Higher margins if competitors do not value follow/risk of losing market share. 7. Increased price/low values only feasible in a monopoly situation. 8. Low value/standard price Loss of market share. The strategy clock diagram http://htmlimg3.scribdassets.com/9l9911lw1u1cczk/images/2-2c81643482/000.jpg (Scribd.com) Easyjet SWOT analysis Strength: Easyjet has a strong brand name in the low cost airline industry; the company also owns the general popularity among customers, business or leisure, for its low fares and high efficiency Most seats are sold through Internet. Ticketless airline makes Easyjet different from rivals. Flattened structure and casual culture give efficiency in management and operation. Easyjet is frequently able to benefit from the latest technology and working practices. Efficient use of airports and aircraft is another critical strength of Easyjet. The sound network helps the company to cut costs. Paperless operation has simplified and given the huge flexibility in the management working practices. Easyjet standardise on a single aircraft type and purchase new aircraft in bulk, thereby minimizing maintenance costs. The merger of Go accelerates the company growth Weakness: Easyjet is limited at the present time to regional operations, which does not allow it to develop a more balanced portfolio of services. Although EasyJets benefits from the deal with airbus in many ways, it also causes a problem the company will operate on a mixed Boeing/Airbus fleet. Staff training and coordination in future are crucial to the move For the elder people or the people who do not use the internet, it is not convenience to book on line. They really should have more ways to book There is no business class in airplane of EasyJet, which makes it lose some business travellers Opportunities: From a political perspective, the deepening and widening of EU provides new opportunities industry wide. New routes can be introduced to those countries that will join EU in near future. Furthermore, Airlines are now able to operate a base out of any European Country, which gives many more opportunities for expansion. Comparing to US market, the European market is still an immature market, which provides opportunities to all players. General slump forces most companies and individual keep in a tight budget, therefore low cost airlines now have more chance to fight their expensive rivals. Threats: The low-cost carriers are facing rising costs, particularly in the areas of fuel, airport charges and salaries. Unpredictable incidents (e.g. Iraqi war, SARS) give uncertainties in fuel supply, customers sentiment, etc. Competition from rivals is another threat, including new businesses copying low price and no frills strategy Recommendations This report has shown that Easyjet has done very well since it begun in 1995, it is dong almost everything correctly using their competitive strategies to become successful and stay ahead of their rivals. Although the huge profitable company that it has become, its important that they do not become over confident, and be aware of what their competitors are doing, they should always have enough capital to them to make radical changes if needed to. There are a number of ways in which Easyjet could improve to take the organisation forward and make the company more profitable and improving performance. Firstly Easyjet could cooperate with other easy business, such as Easycar which could do deals on transport and parking at airports, Easyfinance could offer a special rate for loans used on flights. Easyhotel could give discounts on hotels around the airports. This could not only help easyjet and making it better for customers but also increase other easy businesses. It could be very beneficial for Easyjet to build alliances with transatlantic operations. This would build a better relationship with the transatlantic operations meaning it could create more routs. Easyjet have over 400 routes which means they have many more routes which they could add. This would mean gaining more customers that couldnt reach destinations before in which other airlines visited. As fast as the internet has grown over the last few years, not everybody has it or know how to use, more often its elder people, whom could add a bigger market if Easyjet could find out a way to reach them and make a better way of buying flights for them. Although Easyjet do have a phone number to book flights it has been stated Telephone bookings are more expensive and are not encouraged (Lowfareflights) which is very off putting. Possibly free phone calls or some sort of broacher sent through the post could let the people without internet find out about Easyjet and be able to purchase with no hassle. As the number of low cost carriers is growing another possibility could be created some sort of loyalty scheme such as loyalty card or member card. The customer would then collect points whenever they travel with Jeasyjet, which would add up and when they have enough points, they could receive some sort of reward such as a discount on flights, free flights etc. This would benefit Eeasyjet as well as the customers because the customer would want to travel with Easyjet instead of another company because they know they can save points and be rewarded with Easyjet. Major companies in the UK such as Tesco using clubcard who introduced it in 1994 to gain customers loyalty, it proved to be very successful, making customers from other stores switch to Tesco as they knew they would b rewarded with this scheme. David Sainsbury, then chairman of J Sainsbury plc, rejected the idea of introducing a similar scheme. However, the effect that Clubcard had on Sainsburys sales led to the reversal of th at decision, with the launch of the Sainsburys Reward Card in June 1996. (Randall, 1996-06-23) This will therefore stop customers switching to Easyjets rivals. From this report, Easyjet can be seen as one of the main airlines in its market, and although it has some tough competition Easyjet is becoming stronger. Its competitive strategies are ahead of the competition and are being very successful. No company is perfect and always need improvements therefore Easyjet could become ever more successful and dominate the market despite of the stiff competition. Reference List

The Malaysian Economy: Booming :: essays research papers

The Malaysian Economy: Booming The Economy: Following a period of severe and prolonged recession, the Malaysian economy has returned to growth aided by a relaxation of monetary and fiscal policies and by increased export demand, particularly in the electronics sector. While the world economic slowdown was more severe than expected and the unprecedented September 11 events in the United States had widespread implications for all economies, Malaysia was able to steer away from a major economic contraction and GDP growth for the year remained in positive territory. However, given the openness of its economy with trade accounting for about 200 percent of GDP, Malaysia was not spared from the negative effects of the United States economic slowdown. These effects came in the form of declining manufacturing production and negative export growth, particularly of electronics. Nevertheless, the government’s initiation of strong monetary and fiscal policies to stimulate economic growth through accelerating domestic economic activi ties and reducing the over-dependence on exports helped the nation to sustain a positive real GDP growth. Since 1998 the Government has relaxed the equity guidelines for investment in the manufacturing sector. Foreigners can now own 100% equity regardless of the level of exports and several incentives have also been introduced recently to promote the manufacturing-related services sector. Foreign Direct Investment has been the key to the country's remarkable success in recent years. Hundreds of international companies have so far established themselves in the country, attracted by the favorable investment environment has made Malaysia one of the world’s top locations for offshore manufacturing operations. Manufacturing is now the largest export sector of the economy (contributing around 34% of GDP and employing nearly 28% of the labor force in 2000). The electronics sector (radios and television) is the main export earner followed by processed foods, rubber, chemicals, timber, petroleum-refining and automobile manufacturing. In 2001, the impact of the slowdown in economic activity was also felt by the labor market, particularly in terms of unemployed workers in the manufacturing sector. However, given the flexibility accorded by the labor market, alternative measures that were adopted by employers (such as pay cuts and temporary layoffs) helped contain the number of workers unemployed. The Malaysian exchange rate remained pegged to the US dollar at the rate of RM3.80 per US dollar in 2001 (an arrangement that has been effective since 2 September 1998). The ‘Ringgit’ appreciated against all major currencies, including regional currencies in tandem with the strong U.

The College Experience - Exploration and Self-discovery Essay -- Perso

The College Experience - Exploration and Self-discovery What do you want to do with your life? If only I had a nickel for every time I was asked that pesky question ... in particular, by some overly-concerned adult! I swear, if I hear it one more time, I'll launch into a screaming fit! It's right along the same lines as the annoying, "where do you see yourself in ten years?" As a student wrapping up my freshman year at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, even the question "what's your major?"can pose a bit of a problem. At this point in my life, I simply feel that such questions are too restrictive. Why is society fixated on categorizing everyone into neat little groups? I thought that college was meant to be a process of self-discovery, rather than a mere obstacle on the way to a career that's been predetermined since kindergarten! Yet you'd be amazed at the pitying stares you receive when you tell someone that you're undecided. You'd think that you'd just told them that you'd been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor! I'm here to reassure all those "lost souls" out there that there is nothing wrong with not knowing what you want to do. My first year of college has been a veritable roller coaster of trying on and discarding various ideas of "what I want to be when I grow up." Like most people, I felt the overwhelming pressure to settle on a career before entering college, and so I arrived at USC as a declared broadcast journalism major. The only experience I had in this area was co-hosting my high school news program, which was more sketch-comedy than real news, and yet on the basis of that alone, I decided on my major... ...magazine, Palaver. And next year, in contrast to the small film company where I am now interning, my goal is to have a summer job at DreamWorks. All of this is an effort to cram as much into my four years as possible. And why not? There is something to be gained from every new experience, whether I stick it out for the duration or not. Maybe I'm flaky by nature, or maybe I'm just determined to get every bit of the well-rounded Liberal Arts education that my parents are shelling out big bucks for. Does it really matter? The point is this: don't ever let anyone tell you that there's something you can't do. If you have a yen for something, try it. You never know, you may discover some hidden talent that you didn't know you had. Or you may not. But hey, exploration and self-discovery is what the college experience is all about!

Jean Toomer Biography Essay

Jean Toomer was born as Nathan Eugene Pinchback Toomer on December 26, 1884 in Washington, D.C. His father was a wealthy farmer, who was originally born into slavery in Georgia. Nina Pinchback was also of mixed descent. Jean’s father abandoned his family when he son was an infant, so he and his mother lived with her parents. As a child in Washington, Toomer attended all-black schools. After his mother remarried, they moved to New Rochelle, New York, and he attended an all-white school. After his mother’s death, Jean returned to Washington to live with his grandparents. He graduated from an academic black high school. By his early adult years, he refused to be segregated and wanted to be identified only as an American. Between 1914 and 1917 Jean Toomer attended the University of Wisconsin, the Massachusetts College of Agriculture, the American College of Physical Training in Chicago, the University of Chicago, New York University, and the City College of New York. He majored in agriculture, fitness, biology, sociology, and history but he never completed a degree. After leaving college, Jean published some short stories and continued writing after World War I. In 1923, Toomer returned to New York where he became friends with Waldo Frank, who became his mentor and editor on his novel Cane. In 1923, he published the novel Cane, in which he used material inspired by his time in Georgia. Below is an excerpt from his novel, Cane. â€Å"whisper of yellow globes gleaming on lamp posts that sway like bootleg licker drinkers in the fog and let your breath be moist against me like bright beads on yellow globes telephone the power-house that the main wires are insulate (her words play up and down dewy corridors of billboards) then with your tongue remove the tape and press your lips to mine till they are incandescent† ReadingWoman.com states, â€Å"Cane is one of the works of fiction that announced the arrival of the Harlem Renaissance. Though a slim volume, this collection of sketches, stories and poems makes up a dense and powerful book. Through vivid imagery and authentic dialects, Jean Toomer realistically portrays the lives and experiences of African-Americans, from the Southern peasant to the urban black in the North. Neither glorified nor stereotyped, Toomer’s characters speak in their own voices and are completely themselves, their behavior reflecting the truth about who and what they are. Cane compels the reader to feel its power on a physical level. At the time the book was published, and still today, these full, rich characters and images lead us to a greater understanding of the human condition.† He stopped writing literary works in 1950. Jean Toomer died on March 30, 1967 in Doylestown, PA after years of poor health. Works Cited â€Å"Jean Toomer – ENotes.com Reference.† Enotes.com. Enotes.com. Web. 02 Apr. 2012. . â€Å"Writers of the Harlem Renaissance – Book Reviews.† Great Books for You to Read. Web. 02 Apr. 2012. . â€Å"Jean Toomer Biography.† Department of Mathematics, University at Buffalo. Web. 02 Apr. 2012. .

Medea VS Wide Sargasso Sea

1.0  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   IntroductionRhys’ novel, ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’ is an attempt by the novelist to humanize the racially pejorative life of a West Indian mad woman, Antoinette, who, led to lead a tumultuous life by her husband, and under the watchful eyes of a servant, is transformed from a tragic demise to one of heroism and triumph. Rhys brings to her works the experience she felt as a single woman living in a patriarchal culture. She was influenced by Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, where she thought she would give life to Bertha Mason, and it was with this in mind that Rhys created Antoinette.What Rhys does in ‘Wide Sargasso Sea,’ is to negate the patriarchal dominance by challenging Antoinette’s husband, Rochester’s tyrannical behaviour. When Mr. Mason brushes aside the martial problem of Annette’s sister, saying that it was her story, and that he didn’t believe any part of it, Rhys, thr ough her protagonist Antoinette, targets the bullish nature of men. Rhys, through her work, ‘Wide Sargasso Sea,’ and particularly through her characterization of Antoinette, targets the struggle of women against the dictates of patriarchy. She portrays her women to be stronger than men in the novel, ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’.Euripides, born in Athens in 484 BC, was perhaps a rebel of his times. He was known to be a free thinker, and was critical of the religious practices and oppression of women and slaves. This made him write in support women and the oppressed lot; unheard of before him.Euripedes’ ‘Medea,’ is about the protagonist’s conflict with despair and greed. Medea, who with Jason, settles in Corinth after a long series of trials and adventure, are respected and establish a family. However, things begin to change as Jason seeks to advance his position by marrying Glauce, the daughter of Creon, king of Corinth. This irks Medea, wh o voices her grievances publicly, endangering her and her children’s lives.Jason’s claim that his remarriage would benefit everyone was seen by Medea as being patriarchal, and she plots to take revenge on Jason, Creon and Glauce. She flees for her life with the children, only to be helped by Aegeus, King of Athens, if Medea exchanged her knowledge of certain drugs that could cure his sterility. Here too we see the patriarchal attitude of the king. Medea finds ‘justice’ when she has Glauce and Creon drinking poison. She kills her children, but fails in her justice to punish Jason. She flees the scene in a dragon-pulled chariot provided by her grandfather, the Sun-God.2.0   Patriarchal and its essence in the novel, ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’The term patriarchal in the novel, ‘Wide Sargasso Sea,’ is analogical to the domination of men over women. The book is an attempt by Jean Rhys to hit back at male dominance, as seen in Charlotte Bront e’s, ‘Jane Eyre.’ Rhys attempts to stand up against oppression of slavery and entrapment, as seen in the incidents that take place in Wide Sargasso Sea.The specter of slavery and entrapment pervades Wide Sargasso Sea. The ex-slaves who worked on the sugar plantations of wealthy Creoles figure prominently in Part One of the novel, which is set in the West Indies in the early nineteenth century. There are quite a few incidents that transform this young, sensitive woman to what she was at the end of the novel; a raging mad woman. First of all, Antoinette grew up without a father or the love of her mother. She was married off to an Englishman by her step-brother, Richard Mason, who offered Rochester  £30,000 and rights over the girl's inheritance.She couldn’t stand such treatment meted to her by a man without her approval. This was patriarchal, and Antoinette couldn’t forgive him for being so rude to her weakness. The second man in her mother’s life; Mr. Mason was more than dominating. He was in love with her mother’s estate than them and left them to survive in the care of a black couple who repeatedly humiliated and mocked at her. The sufferings of her mother at the hands of Mr. Mason are reflected in Antoinette’s early recollection of her, and she speaks of Annette’s signs of madness and melancholy. Antoinette was unfortunate not to meet her mother who died when Antoinette was at the convent school.When Annette confronts Mason to ask him to intervene on behalf of her sister, he says, â€Å"That's her story. I don't believe it,’ a sign to show that he supported the other man, and that what women said was just a bunch of lies. These incidents revealed the male bastion of the men around Antoinette, and this led her to rebel the patriarchal treatment meted out to her. When she is married off to Rochester, and taken to England, Rochester says to himself, â€Å"No more false heavens. No more dam ned magic,† in support of his desire to leave the cursed family behind and lead a peaceful life in England.Rochester develops a relationship with Antoinette’s maid, Amelie. She openly slaps Antoinette in front of her husband, who takes no notice of this. He even offers Amelie money to as gift. Antoinette sees this as a way to get at her and show his male chauvinism. Daniel Cosway, another of Alexander Cosway's bastard children, writes to Rochester on Antoinette’s madness. This brings to fore a quote from the book, â€Å"He has no right to that name,† said Antoinette quickly. â€Å"His real name, if he has one, is Daniel Boyd. He hates all white people, but he hates me the most. He tells lies about us and he is sure that you will believe him and not listen to the other side.†Ã¢â‚¬Å"Is there another side?† asked Rochester.â€Å"There is always the other side, always,† ended Antoinette. This went to show that Rochester was more inclined to believe a strange man than a woman, who was his wife.Overall, Antoinette was fighting men for justice and thought that all men were being bossy, and thus patriarchal. She revolts in the end to fight this dominance, first biting Rochester on the arm, drawing blood. Rochester takes her to England where she is locked up in a garret. She is left there to die, looked after by a servant named Grace Poole. When Daniel came to see her, Antoinette draws a knife on him.She follows her dream of walking out of the garret with a candle in her hand, to burn the house down with her and Rochester in it; justice delivered in the end. Annette’s pet parrot, enacted Antoinette’s own doom, when, as Antoinette recalled, â€Å"made an attempt to fly down, by the clipped wings failed him, and he fell down on fire.† Coco was left maimed, analogical to Antoinette’s own flightless dependency. This sums up the treatment meted out to Antoinette and her fall from the attic.3.0   Pa triarchal and its essence in the play, ‘Medea’The word, Patriarchal to Medea meant greed. One sees the attitude of men towards women in their quest for power and opportune. Medea and Jason had fought bitter trials and overcome many an adventure to be together. They were well respected by all in Corinth. However, when Jason was ready to remarry for his betterment, Medea wanted to take revenge. Creon, the king of Corinth, whose daughter Jason married, heard about this, he immediately asked her to be brought to justice.He wanted his daughter to be happy, and was not inclined to see the despair running though Medea or her children. Glauce, who knew about Medea, also showed no pity. Medea thus was forced to run for her life. She knew that she had to get justice for her grievance and plotted to kill Jason, Glace and Creon. She was fortunate to meet Aegeus, the king of Athens, who promised to protect her, provided that she gives him her knowledge of certain drugs that could cu re him of his sterility.This was also an incidence that saw Medea see men interested only in their gain. Her murder of her brother to slow the pursuers from catching them is to show that she believed that men were more worthy than women, and that the warriors would stop to give him a respected burial. She takes revenge to redeem justice for Jason’s actions. She has Glauce poisoned, and seeing his daughter dying, Creon also consumes poison and dies. Medea then kills her children; to have the pleasure of watching Jason suffer their loss. ‘Betrayal’ is what Euripides indicates as the patriarchal element in his play, ‘Medea.’4.0   AnalysisThe term ‘Patriarchal’ has a wide implication in the general sense. In the context of the two works; one by Jean Rhys on, ‘Wide Sargasso Sea,’ and the other in Euripides’, ‘Medea,’ the term has distinct meanings. This can be seen in the way the plot is developed and the ro le of the protagonists in overcoming them. While patriarchal to Antoinette in ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’ is the bullish domination of men against women, for Medea, it was betrayal for personal interest.There is no denying the fact that both the protagonists were affected by their male partners, and had to experience hardship. But, the domination and motive to deliver ‘justice’ at the end, showed them to be more commanding and dominant in the plot. Antoinette was stronger than Daniel, her step-brother, whom she knifed, and she was more courageous in plotting to kill her, Grace and Rochester by lighting a fire to the house where she, Grace and Rochester were residing. Such mental strength was missing in the men in the novel.Medea was powerful, and had magic to protect her. She was strong enough to kill her brother, her children, and Glause. She was definitely the stronger of the characters portrayed in the play.5.0   ConclusionDespite the background, and the conse quence for the actions initiated by the protagonists, both Antoinette and Medea were the stronger characters in the respective works. Though the men did hurt their women physically and mentally, they were not strong enough to plot a murder. Rochester treated her shabbily and had her confined to a garret in the house for ages, causing mental torture. Jason was greedy for power and was not going to let Medea come in the way. He went ahead and married Glauce, much to Medea’s distraught. The women were more successful in the end in getting their ‘justice,’ proving them to be stronger.