Airport Screening

Airport screening has become an essential component of transportation security policy in the United States following a security breach that precipitated the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (Fritteli, 2005).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Airport Screening specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In response to the terrorist attacks, the US Congress moved with speed to pass the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (ATSA), which in turn established the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to ensure the security of the travelling public through screening of passengers for explosives and other dangerous items (Blalock, 2007; Lord, 2012). Although the TSA mandated a federalized workforce of security screeners to conduct inspections on online passengers and their luggage, available literature demonstrates that this piecemeal and reactive mandate resulted in significant cost increases, adverse privacy impli cations, and inconveniences (McLay, Lee, Jacobson, 2010). The present paper measures the impact of the federalization of airport screening and attempts to advocate for a more responsive, intelligence-based, and technology-focused screening aimed at cutting costs, ensuring passenger privacy, and reducing inconveniences. Impact of Federalization of Airport Screening Understanding the Federalization of Airport Screening The two fundamental changes in airport security visible to passengers after the terrorist attacks included â€Å"the federalization of passenger security screening at all US commercial airports by November 19, 2002, and the requirement to begin screening all checked baggage by December 31, 2002† (Blalock, 2007, p. 2). When TSA officially took over the mandate for airport security in February 2002, it embarked on an effort to substitute private security screeners with federal employees who were charged with the responsibility of conducting passenger-screening ope rations at all US commercial airports. TSA not only embarked on hiring 56,000 federal screeners to help reduce waiting time in security lines but also increased the compensation and training of screeners by offering them higher wages and expanding training requirements (Blalock, 2007). Fritteli (2005) argues that federalizing the screener workforce was offered as a potential solution to address the challenges of high staff turnover, low wages, poor supervision and training, as well as lack of regulatory oversight.Advertising Looking for essay on air transport? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Impacts and Concerns This paper looks into three impacts related to the federalization of airport screening, namely travelers’ inconveniences, privacy concerns, and cost implications. The discussion around inconvenience is embedded in the fact that, although greater confidence in the safety of air travel has been found to trigger de mand, the inconvenience of security procedures that necessitate additional time and effort on the part of travelers due to the high expectations associated with airport screening may indeed minimize demand for air travel (Blalock, 2007). The intrusive security measures occasioned by the federalization of airport screening (e.g., arbitrary hand-searches of travelers and their carry-on luggage, expansive inspection and prohibitions on non-dangerous items) have been found to minimize the convenience of air travel, resulting in lost revenues for airline companies as potential travelers choose to stay at home (Hessick, 2002). Although studies have found that travelers often value-enhanced airport security and are prepared to allow some extra inconvenience and/or high prices in order to feel more secure and confident (Blalock, 2007), the requirements for additional time and effort on the part of customers have been found to substantially reduce passenger convenience in domestic and foreig n arenas (Hessick, 2002). From the ongoing, it is evident that risk-based approaches to airport screening such as selective screening and behavioral profiling can be used to avoid unnecessary passenger inconveniences in contemporary airport security operations. As postulated by McLay et al. (2010), selective screening applies high-order security technologies and procedures on a targeted cluster of high-risk passengers and employs lower levels of scrutiny to screen low-risk passengers. However, as acknowledged by Markarian, Kolle, and Tarter (2011), it is always essential to have a prescreening system that undertakes an accurate risk assessment of passengers before their arrival at the airport to enhance the accuracy of passenger assessment. On its part, behavioral profiling is able to minimize passenger inconveniences by focusing attention to high-risk passengers (Poole Carofano, 2006). Due to lack of passenger privacy that followed the implementation of the new security procedures such as the federalization of airport screening and comprehensive baggage screening, a huge decline in passengers flying shorter trips was noted as such passengers preferred to drive to their destinations (Blalock, 2007). Calculations demonstrate that the substitution of flying for driving by travelers seeking to safeguard their privacy not only led to fatal road accidents but also triggered a slump in traveler volumes as well as airline profit margins (Selzer, 2003). Available literature demonstrates that the creation of multiple levels of security (e.g., concentric protection) may indeed be more effective than treating all passengers the same, particularly in terms of safeguarding their privacy and removing bottlenecks that trigger privacy concerns (McLay et al., 2010).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Airport Screening specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Security frameworks such as concentric protection are not intrusive to passengers as they help to integrate security systems and increase the level of penetration difficulty through what is commonly referred to as defense in depth (Markarian et al., 2011). In terms of costs, airline companies are of the opinion that â€Å"the increased inconvenience caused by security measures has cost them billions in lost ticket revenues as potential business travelers opt to stay at home† (Blalock, 2007, p. 8). Tough security measures imposed by the TSA through the federalization of airport screening and comprehensive screening of baggage, though appropriate in thwarting terrorist attacks, have nevertheless imposed a huge cost in terms of reduced profits in the airline industry and less tax revenue for the federal government due to stunted ticket sales (Selzer, 2003). Plan Validation It is evident that the federalization of airport screening has witnessed adverse outcomes in terms of travelers’ inconveniences, privacy concerns and cost imp lications, though it has had a corresponding increase in security (McLay et al., 2010). The solution to these adverse outcomes and concerns, it seems, is nested on the development of a more responsive, intelligence-based and technology-focused screening process that utilizes the federal and private workforce of screeners. Federal screeners will be included in the plan as many travelers feel safer with federal security screeners as opposed to private ones (Blalock, 2007), while private screeners will be included for their innovation and flexibility to provide screening services more competently and with superior customer service (Lord, 2012). The combination of safety, efficiency, competency and enhanced customer service will be instrumental in reducing travelers’ inconveniences and reinforcing privacy. As already acknowledged, the proposed plan will include three main components, namely responsiveness, intelligence collection, and technology. It is essential to have a compete nt and flexible workforce to man the responsiveness component of the plan. These human resources will be sourced from the private sector as available literature demonstrates that private airport screeners are more innovative, flexible, and competent in customer service than federal screeners (Lord, 2012). Overall, this workforce will be charged with the responsibility of implementing risk-based approaches to airport screening (e.g., selective screening and behavioral profiling) with the view to ensuring that the interventions are more responsive to the needs and expectations of travelers.Advertising Looking for essay on air transport? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More As demonstrated in the literature, â€Å"the risk-based approach would produce significant cost savings in both capital and operating costs, while targeting those funds spent on airport security toward the passengers more likely to pose threats to people and property† (Poole, 2006, p. 27). Additionally, it is now common knowledge that selective screening is a useful technique in reducing costs and waste of scarce security resources as air travelers are not treated equally in terms of threat potential (Poole Carofano, 2006). This way, it is assumed that the private screeners will have the capacity to substantially reduce travelers’ inconveniences and associated costs due to the responsive nature of available airport security interventions. The intelligence collection component of the plan will be allocated to duly qualified and competent federal screeners and their mandate will entail the use of available security and safety systems, existing criminal databases, and ri sk-based prescreening techniques to identify passengers and baggage for inspection. The use of these systems and risk-based screening techniques in airport safety operations will increase travelers’ confidentiality and privacy while ensuring that sufficient levels of safety are maintained to deter terrorist attacks (Edwards, 2013). It is proposed that the screening force will be part of the intelligence collection fraternity and will be directly involved in providing concentric circles of security to, among other things, (1) help separate sensitive areas from the airside or other areas, (2) provide defense in depth by instituting another gateway that needs to be altered from a less-secure environment to a higher-secure environment, (3) assist in the integration of security systems for effective airport screening, and (4) enhance the level of penetration difficulty (Markarian et al., 2011). This workforce is also expected to focus on the ‘human factor’ of security provisions and exercise comprehensive due diligence, common sense, and consistency to be useful in the provision of optimal passenger safety using a methodology that does not violate passenger safety (Canody, 2015; McLay et al., 2010). Overall, such screening interventions are bound to increase aviation safety and decrease privacy and confidentiality violations. Lastly, both federal and private screeners will be exposed to emerging safety technologies and information technology (IT) solutions to ensure the optimal uptake of technology-focused interventions in airport screening. Use of state-of-the-art security technologies will be useful in decentralizing operations, re-orienting security policies along risk-based lines, as well as devolving screening functions to each individual airport for efficiency and effectiveness (Poole, 2006). The workforce handling emerging technology devices must be trained to improve airport security by targeting more of these sophisticated devices towar ds passengers who pose comparatively more significant risk of harm and developing technology-focused screening methodologies that are able to rely on various datasets to quantify the threat potential of a passenger as opposed to undertaking full screening. Such a technology-focused platform for airport screening, in my view, will substantially reduce passenger inconveniences, address privacy concerns and cut operating costs. Furthermore, the emerging technology and IT infrastructure can be used in aviation environments to integrate security systems for optimal productivity and efficiency. Conclusion This report has not only measured the impact of federalization of airport screening in terms of passenger inconvenience, privacy concerns and cost implications but also advocated for a more responsive, intelligence-based and technology-focused airport screening intervention to remedy the situation. The proposed plan will utilize a mix of federal and private airport screeners as the two g roups have their unique skills and competencies. Overall, it is felt that the proposed plan will be useful in addressing the deficits and contributing towards an effective and efficient airport screening system. Comprehensive training of the workforce is critical in making the proposed plan a reality. References Blalock, G., Kadiyali, V., Simon, D. H. (2007). The impact of post-9/11 airport security measures on the demand for air travel. Web. Canody, H. (2015). Smarter Security. Air Transport World, 52(7), 20-22. Edwards, C. (2013). Privatizing the transport security administration. Web. Fritteli, J. (2005). Transportation security: Issues for the 109th congress. Web. Hessick, F. A. (2002). The federalization of airport security: Privacy implications. Whittier Law Review, 24(2), 43-69. Lord, S. M. (2012). Screening partnership program: TSA should issue more guidance to airports and monitor private versus federal screener performance. Web. Markarian, G., Kolle, R., Tarter, A. (2011 ). Aviation security engineering: A holistic approach. London, UK: Artech House. McLay, L. A., Lee, A. J., Jacobson, S. H. (2010). Risk-based policies for airport security checkpoint screening. Transportation Science, 44(3), 339-349. Poole, R. W. (2006). Airport security: Time for a new model. Web. Poole, R. W., and Carofano, J. J. (2006). Time to rethink airport security. Web. Selzer, M. (2003). Federalization of airport security workers: A study of practical impact of the aviation and transportation security act from a labor law perspective. Journal of Labor and Employment Law, 5(2), 363-381. This essay on Airport Screening was written and submitted by user Emilia Z. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Biography of Francisco Madero, Led Mexican Revolution

Biography of Francisco Madero, Led Mexican Revolution Francisco I. Madero (October 30, 1873–February 22, 1913) was a reformist politician and writer and president of Mexico from 1911 to 1913. This unlikely revolutionary helped engineer the overthrow of dictator Porfirio Dà ­az by kick-starting the Mexican Revolution. Unfortunately for Madero, he was caught between remnants of Dà ­azs regime and the revolutionaries he unleashed and was deposed and executed in 1913. Fast Facts: Francisco Madero Known For: Father of the Mexican RevolutionBorn: Oct. 30, 1873 in Parras, MexicoParents: Francisco Ignacio Madero Hernndez, Mercedes Gonzlez Trevià ±oDied: Died Feb. 22, 1913 in Mexico City, MexicoSpouse: Sara Pà ©rez Early Life Francisco I. Madero was born on Oct. 30, 1873, in Parras, Coahuila, Mexico, to wealthy parents- by some accounts, the fifth-richest family in Mexico. His father was Francisco Ignacio Madero Hernndez; his mother was Mercedes Gonzlez Trevià ±o. His grandfather, Evaristo Madero, made lucrative investments and was involved in ranching, wine-making, silver, textiles, and cotton. Francisco was well educated, studying in the United States, Austria, and France. When he returned from the U.S., he was placed in charge of some family interests, including the San Pedro de las Colonias hacienda and farm, which he operated at a profit, introducing modern farming methods and improving worker conditions. In January 1903, he married Sara Pà ©rez; they had no children. Early Political Career When Bernardo Reyes, governor of Nuevo Leà ³n, brutally broke up a political demonstration in 1903, Madero became politically involved. Although his early campaigns for office failed, he funded a newspaper that he used to promote his ideas. Madero had to overcome his image to succeed as a politician in macho Mexico. He was small with a high-pitched voice, making it difficult to command respect from soldiers and revolutionaries who saw him as effeminate. He was a vegetarian and teetotaler, considered peculiar in Mexico, and an avowed spiritualist. He claimed to have contact with his dead brother Raà ºl and liberal reformer Benito Juarez, who told him to maintain pressure on Dà ­az. Dà ­az Porfirio Dà ­az was an iron-fisted dictator in power since 1876. Dà ­az had modernized the country, laying miles of train tracks and encouraging industry and foreign investment, but at a cost. The poor lived in abject misery. Miners worked without safety measures or insurance, peasants were kicked off their land, and debt peonage meant that thousands were essentially slaves. He was the darling of international investors, who commended him for â€Å"civilizing† an unruly nation. Dà ­az kept tabs on those who opposed him. The regime controlled the press, and rogue journalists could be jailed without trial for libel or sedition. Dà ­az played politicians and military men against one another, leaving few threats to his rule. He appointed all state governors, who shared the spoils of his crooked but lucrative system. Elections were rigged and only the foolish tried to buck the system. Dà ­az had fought off many challenges, but by 1910 cracks were showing. He was in his late 70s, and the wealthy class he represented worried about his successor. Years of repression meant the rural poor and urban working class loathed Dà ­az and were primed for revolution. A revolt by Cananea copper miners in 1906 in Sonora had to be brutally suppressed, showing Mexico and the world that Diaz was vulnerable. 1910 Elections Dà ­az had promised free elections in 1910. Taking him at his word, Madero organized the Anti-Re-Electionist Party to challenge Diaz and published a bestselling book titled  The Presidential Succession of 1910. Part of Maderos platform was that when Dà ­az came to power in 1876, he claimed he wouldnt seek re-election. Madero insisted that no good came from one man holding absolute power and listed Dà ­azs shortcomings, including the massacre of Maya Indians in the Yucatan, the crooked system of governors, and the Cananea mine incident. Mexicans flocked to see Madero and hear his speeches. He began publishing a newspaper,  El Anti-Re-Electionista, and secured his partys nomination. When it became clear that Madero would win, Dà ­az had most of the Anti-Re-Electionist leaders jailed, including Madero, arrested on a false charge of plotting armed insurrection. Because Madero came from a wealthy, well-connected family, Dà ­az could not simply kill him, as he had two generals who had threatened to run against him in 1910. The election was a sham and Dà ­az â€Å"won.†Ã‚  Madero, bailed out of jail by his wealthy father, crossed the border and set up shop in San Antonio, Texas. He declared the election null and void in his â€Å"Plan of San Luà ­s Potosà ­Ã¢â‚¬  and called for armed revolution. November 20 was set for the revolution to begin. Revolution With Madero in revolt, Dà ­az rounded up and killed many of his supporters. The call to revolution was heeded by many Mexicans. In the state of Morelos,  Emiliano Zapata  raised an army of peasants and harassed wealthy landowners. In the state of Chihuahua,  Pascual Orozco  and  Casulo  Herrera raised sizable armies. One of Herreras captains was ruthless revolutionary  Pancho Villa, who replaced the cautious Herrera and, with Orozco, captured cities in Chihuahua in the name of the revolution. In  February 1911, Madero returned from the U.S. Northern leaders including Villa and Orozco didnt trust him, so in March, his force swollen to 600, Madero led an attack on the federal garrison at Casas Grandes, which was a fiasco. Outgunned, Madero and his men retreated, and Madero was injured. Although it ended badly, Maderos bravery gained him respect among the northern rebels. Orozco, at that time leader of the most powerful rebel army, acknowledged Madero as leader of the revolution. Not long after the battle, Madero met  Villa  and they hit it off despite their differences. Villa knew he was a good bandit and rebel chief, but he was no visionary or politician. Madero  was a man of words, not action, and he considered Villa a Robin Hood,  just the man to oust Dà ­az. Madero allowed his men to join Villas force: His days of soldiering were done. Villa and Orozco pushed toward  Mexico City, scoring victories over federal forces along the way. In the south, Zapatas peasant army was capturing towns in his native state of Morelos, beating superior federal forces with a combination of determination and numbers. In May 1911, Zapata scored a huge, bloody victory over federal forces in the town of Cuautla. Dà ­az could see that his rule was crumbling. Dà ­az Quits Dà ­az negotiated a surrender with Madero, who generously allowed the former dictator to leave the country that month. Madero was greeted as a hero when he rode into Mexico City on June 7, 1911. Once he arrived, however, he made a series of mistakes. As interim president, he accepted Francisco Leà ³n de la Barra, a former Dà ­az crony who coalesced the anti-Madero movement. He also demobilized Orozcos and Villas armies. Maderos Presidency Madero became president in November 1911. Never a true revolutionary, Madero simply felt that Mexico was ready for democracy and Dà ­az should step down. He never intended to carry out radical changes, such as land reform. He spent much of his time as president trying to reassure the privileged class that he wouldnt dismantle the power structure left by Dà ­az. Meanwhile, Zapata, realizing that Madero would never approve real land reform, took up arms again. Leà ³n de la Barra, still interim president and working against Madero, sent  Gen. Victoriano Huerta, a brutal remnant of Dà ­azs regime, to Morelos to contain Zapata. Called back to Mexico City, Huerta began conspiring against Madero. When he became president, Maderos only remaining friend was Villa, whose army was demobilized. Orozco, who hadnt gotten the huge rewards he had expected from Madero, took to the field, and many of his former soldiers joined him. Downfall and Execution The politically naive Madero didnt realize he was surrounded by danger. Huerta was conspiring with American ambassador Henry Lane Wilson to remove Madero, as Fà ©lix Dà ­az, Porfirios nephew, took up arms along with Bernardo Reyes. Although Villa rejoined the fight in favor of Madero, he ended up in a stalemate with Orozco. Madero refused to believe his generals would turn on him. The forces of Fà ©lix Dà ­az entered Mexico City, and a 10-day standoff known as la  decena  trgica (â€Å"the tragic fortnight†) ensued. Accepting Huertas â€Å"protection,† Madero fell into his trap: He was arrested by Huerta on Feb. 18,  1913,  and executed four days later, though Huerta said he was killed when his supporters tried to free him. With Madero gone, Huerta turned on his fellow conspirators and made himself president. Legacy Although he wasnt a radical,  Francisco Madero  was the spark that set off the  Mexican Revolution. He was clever, rich, well-connected, and charismatic enough to get the ball rolling against a weakened Porfirio Dà ­az, but couldnt hold onto power once he attained it. The Mexican Revolution was fought by brutal, ruthless men, and the idealistic  Madero  was out of his depth. Still, his name became a rallying cry, especially for Villa and his men. Villa was disappointed that Madero had failed and spent the rest of the revolution looking for another politician to entrust with the future of his country. Maderos brothers were among Villas staunchest supporters. Later politicians tried and failed to unite the nation until 1920, when Alvaro Obregà ³n seized power, the first to succeed at imposing his will on the unruly factions. Decades later, Madero is seen as a hero by Mexicans, the father of the revolution that did much to level the playing field between rich and poor. He is seen as weak but idealistic, an honest, decent man destroyed by the demons he helped to unleash. He was executed before the bloodiest years of the revolution, so his image is unsullied by later events. Sources McLynn, Frank.  Villa and Zapata: A History of the Mexican Revolution.  Basic Books, 2000.Francisco Madero: President of Mexico. Encyclopedia Brittanica.Francisco Madero. Biography.com.

Strategic Perspectives, TESLA Company Case Study

Strategic Perspectives, TESLA Company - Case Study Example In particular, this paper looks at PESTEL analysis and Porter’s 5 Forces Model as they relate to Tesla Motors. The report also assesses the value chain and resource base view of Tesla Motors with the intension of determining the key competencies and capabilities of the company. Finally, the paper explores the business level strategy and PR crises of Tesla Motors within the short span that it has been in existence. Tesla Motors have been in operation since Nikola Tesla, alongside JB Straubel and Elon Musk, founded it. Since its inception, the automobile company has been growing in terms of revenue and scale of operation largely because of its innovative strategies and growth of the industry. For example, Elon Musk, who is the current CEO of Tesla Motors, announced the first profitable Quarter for the company in March 2013. With Tesla Roadster as the company’s first production, cars, Tesla Motors has advanced over the years to design and manufacture Model S and cars with electric powertrains. Owing to the dynamic nature of the automobile industry and the Public Relations Crises that many companies within the automobile industry, Tesla included, undergo, it is important to carry out a thorough analysis in order to establish the financial and strategic position of Tesla Motors. Some of the major analyses that are crucial in Tesla motors case include strategic analysis, PR crises analysis, and the analysis of both internal & external environment of the company (Carlson 2013,  p. 206).

Arabs and isreal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Arabs and isreal - Essay Example (Citron,25) This conflict has a religious background also as Israelis believe that this land was promised to them by God and have divine right to live and rule in this land. They consider this as their divine right because it was promised to them in Hebrew Bible. Muslims also consider this region as sacred because not only Muhammad stayed at Jerusalem on his night’s journey but they also believe that this land belongs to all children of Abraham and not to the children of his eldest Son Isaac only. Similarly, Christians also have religious reverence for the place and tend to accept the right of Jews to live and rule this land. Christians also view the return of Jews to this land as one of the important signs of Second Coming of Jesus Christ. All three major religions of the world therefore view this region as their own because this region is the center from where Judaism, Christianity and Islam emerged. There have been four large scale wars between Arabs and Israel on this issue including 1948 War of Independence, 1956 Sinai War, 1967 Six Day war and 1973 Yom Kippur War. All the wars resulted into damage to both the sides however, further complicated the overall relationships between various Arab States and Israel. As a result of 1948 war, Israel was also able to capture areas beyond its mandated boundaries and further demarcation in the land took place with Gaza Strip being controlled by Egypt and West Bank by Jordan. Many Arab States including Egypt and Jordan signed peace treaties with Israel. Peace treaty between Egypt and Israel was signed in 1979 whereas Jordan entered into a similar agreement in 1994 to end the conflict and hostilities while at the same time agreeing to resolve other issues. Israel’s relationships with other countries including Iraq and Iran however, remained volatile as Iraq attacked Israel during Gulf War in 1990s. Iran is also believed to be supporting Hezbollah and Hammas, the groups directly engaged with Israel in

WikiLeaks: Ethics vs Execution

WikiLeaks: Ethics vs Execution WikiLeaks is a website which was founded in 2006 by the Australian Programmer Julian Assange, and its purpose ever since, has been to leak and expose illegal or immoral government actions around the world. WikiLeaks, however, is not a simple hacking group and through careful planning of the release of government documents, it has promoted slander on those who the members of WikiLeaks may not like, therefore unethically promoting a political agenda. However, not everything WikiLeaks has released is of bad taste; some of the documents, in fact, have shown the disgraceful actions which the governments of various countries have committed and tried to hide. This does not excuse the damage to political figures which are named in the released documents. Even though WikiLeaks exposes immoral government actions, this organization must be censored because it unethically promotes slander and harms political figures. WikiLeaks has shown that it wants to foist an anti-establishment opinion upon its readers by slandering and promoting slander against the government. The release of the Iraq War Logs in 2010 by WikiLeaks was very quickly condemned by the United States and United Kingdom who suggested the disclosures put lives at risk. (Karhula). The documents of the leak showed its readers that the government was hiding something from its people and while they were, it should not have been a serious scandal in war times. It should be known that wars have casualties and the files state that civilians in Afghanistan were killed but WikiLeaks promoted the concept that this was a serious issue which would encourage strong distrust and dislike of the government. The release of every secret document in the War in Afghanistan is not necessarily for the peoples benefit as it is a mistake to assume that revealing the entirety of what has been secret will liberate us (Ã…Â ½iÃ…Â ¾ek). While knowing how ones government operates can benefit participation in politics, it is detrimental to the people to know what horrible actions had to be made during a war. The information released by WikiLeaks is also not extraordinary, but rather confirmation of what many perceive the government as. The scandal around WikiLeaks released documents is false because much of the information revealed by WikiLeaks is not extraordinary or revolutionary (Eco 219). Torture and death, ubiquitous in the Iraq War logs and Afghan War Diary, is a subject which many people refuse to discuss even though it is used by the United States in a time of war. While many speak out against torture, it is still used on Americans and by Americans in Foreign countries during a war. The revelations of the WikiLeaks documents are nothing more than a confirmation and detailed explanation of how exactly the United States government and army acts during war. With the lack of truth to the WikiLeaks scandal, the [distribution] to major newspapers (Ludlow) makes it even worse as WikiLeaks promoted its philosophy through mainstream media. By doing this, WikiLeaks was essentially forcing anti-establishmentarianism upon its readers, and forcing a reaction from the government. The two possible reactions from the government would be an increase or decrease in security, which would slowdown efficiency or force the government to stop taking risks, both detrimental to the operation of the United States. Through WikiLeaks methods of releasing information and promoting an anti-establishment belief, it encourages that the United States people slander the governments name, in the hope that the government changes its policies of security. Even though some of the actions performed by WikiLeaks are unethical and detrimental to society, the ideology of freedom of information, is a reasonable and good-natured one. In March 2007, WikiLeaks released the Guantanamo prison camp standard operating manual for the United States military which revealed that some prisoners were placed outside of Red Cross allowed areas, even though the government denied this previously (Karhula). The release of the Guantanamo manual had beneficial implications as it encouraged a better understanding of war and foreign policy from United States citizens. The lie by the government shown by the Guantanamo manual gave insight into how the United States military operated. The release of the Guantanamo manual showed the United States public that there were lies in the government. Even though the Iraq War Logs and Afghan War Diary promoted unreasonable distrust, they both informed the public of the horror of war. The philosophy behind WikiLeaks releases follows hacktivist culture, which in philosophy, is beneficial as the political compass of these hacktivist groups has never pointed true right or true left (Ludlow). WikiLeaks promotion of freedom of information is not meant to sway someone one way or another, it is simply meant to inform and make the reader aware of the world and their government. Even though information may change ones political opinion, WikiLeaks is not trying to force one specific ideology. The leaks are meant to show that the government should not always be trusted, even though they encourage a complete disconnect from, or reconfiguration of the government. It is true that the government should not always be trusted, and the voting public of the United States should understand this. While WikiLeaks execution of releasing information is flawed, the major implication of WikiLeaks is that no government in the world will be able to maintain areas of secrecy if it continues to entrust its secret communications and its archives to the Internet or other forms of electronic memory (Eco 219) which may be beneficial. WikiLeaks is something of a warning to the governments of the world, saying that they cannot entrust secret information to the internet anymore. This fear of being hacked which WikiLeaks has instilled in governments should make them more secure and stronger. Who is to say a terrorist organization cannot hack the United States government like WikiLeaks has? While some may consider WikiLeaks a terrorist group, it is simply doing what a potential terrorist could do in the future without action. WikiLeaks release of information also encourages people to bring about a different functioning of power that might reach beyond the limits of representative democracy (Ã …Â ½iÃ…Â ¾ek) which can be beneficial to United States citizens. The representative democracy of the United States is currently limited in its true ability to represent people, somewhat due to the secrets which representatives could hold. The information released by WikiLeaks works to encourage a better society where people know and like their representatives in the government. While it is true that uprooting the current form of democracy is not going to happen any time soon, WikiLeaks is placing in the minds of its readers that the government is flawed and should be improved. This is not what most readers have gained from WikiLeaks, however, and it has not been successful. Even though WikiLeaks has a generally good philosophy and mission, the execution and results so far have proven to hurt individuals more than help the United States public. This can be seen in the initial reaction to the releasing of 251,000 State Department Cables which may have changed the world (Greenberg 3). Department Cables or telegrams are confidential text messages exchanged between members of foreign embassies and their parent country. The release of the State Department Cables and public reaction made it clear to the Obama administration that people were not in his favor. When Obama said that he would pull troops from Iraq, many believed this to be a reaction to the Iraq War Logs, and while it was good that soldiers would be returning, this may have been against Obamas free will as president. Because of the extreme backlash from the public on the Iraq war logs, the Obama administration was quick to distance itself from WikiLeaks (Thompson-Jones 287). As soon as the leaks ca me out and showed Obama in a bad light, citizens were fast to change opinions of him and this hurt his ability to function as president. While WikiLeaks did not directly attack Obama, the leaks of the United States government hurt him and caused diplomatic issues. Another more prominent instance of WikiLeaks harming a political figure is the Hillary Clinton email scandal. In March 2015, 55,000 pages of supposedly delated emails on a personal account were leaked by WikiLeaks (Thompson-Jones 284) While Clintons leaked emails were not of illegal nature, they distracted the public from her presidential campaign (Thompson-Jones 290) and hurt her image as she was running for president. The leaked emails displayed Clintons poor decisions in foreign policy and must have swayed the opinions of some who were going to vote for her. While WikiLeaks may have not had a direct agenda against Clinton, the leak provided people information against her and reason not to vote. The reason WikiLeaks had such an impact with little repercussions is because the it is almost completely anonymous. One of the most dangerous implications of anonymity is that of assassination politics: assassinating a political figure to achieve a political agenda (Greenberg 117). While Wi kiLeaks does not specifically promote assassination politics, the leaks can be used by anyone how is willing to go to that level. WikiLeaks has not been a direct cause of harm to politicians but it encourages direct harm with the methods it uses to leak information through the press and news stories. WikiLeaks seems to be a good idea, and on the surface, it is, but the implications and reactions to WikiLeaks are detrimental to the United States society and livelihood of some. Even though WikiLeaks should be censored, it most likely never will be, at least not completely. There are still thousands of hackers and whistle-blowers who will continue WikiLeaks if its founder is imprisoned. Word Count: 1616 Works Cited Eco, Umberto. Thoughts on WikiLeaks. Inventing the Enemy, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, NY, 2012, pp. 217-222. Greenberg, Andy. Prologue. This Machine Kills Secrets: How WikiLeakers, Cypherpunks and Hacktivists Aim to Free the Worlds Information, Dutton, New York, NY, 2012, pp. 1-8. Karhula, PÃ ¤ivikki. What Is the Effect of WikiLeaks for Freedom of Information? FAIFE Spotlight, IFLA, 5 Oct. 2012, www.ifla.org/publications/what-is-the-effect-of-wikileaks-for-freedom-of-information. Ludlow, Peter. WikiLeaks and Hacktivist Culture. The Nation, Katrina Vanden Heuvel, 29 June 2015, www.thenation.com/article/wikileaks-and-hacktivist-culture/. Thompson-Jones, Mary. 251,287 Leaked Cables. To The Secretary: Leaked Embassy Cables and Americas Foreign Policy Disconnect, W.W. Norton and Company, New York, NY, 2016, pp. 24-34. Ã…Â ½iÃ…Â ¾ek, Slavoj. Good Manners in the Age of WikiLeaks. London Review of Books, Nicholas Spice, 20 Jan. 2011, www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n02/slavoj-zizek/good-manners-in-the-age-of-wikileaks.

The Role of Fate in Oedipus the King – Essay Sample

Oedipus the King was written by Sophocles and was is titled Oedipus Rex in Latin. It is one of the most well-known Greek tragedies. As is the case with Greek tragedies—or roughly most tragedies that make their way to stage—fate plays a key role in the events in Oedipus the King. The play is also the origin of the term â€Å"Oedipus complex. † Fate as Antagonist The primary antagonist in this tale is fate. Most tragedies where fate is the driving theme the characters in its web all attempt to escape it.Unfortunately fate can’t be avoided and if it is tempted fate will usually render a far worse conclusion for attempting to deprive it of its will. Laius’ Fate Apollo tells Laius that he and Jocasta would have a son that would kill him. When Oedipus is born, Jocasta sends Oedipus to his own fate and leaves him on a mountainside to die. Jocasta attempts to cheat fate by doing away with her son to save her husband, but Oedipus is found by a shepherd who s aw the whole thing and raised by King Polybus.Laius’ fate comes when he kidnaps the son of King Pelops and basically showed little respect for Pelops’ hospitality by doing so. The Fate of Thebes Oedipus sends Creon to the temple of Apollo to figure out what will become of Thebes and how to do away with the plague. Fate is tempted here by the Oedipus attempting to end the plague when it is not his place to do so. Apollo tells Oedipus that he will end up killing his father and taking his mother. Oedipus believes he will end up killing King Polybus. Oedipus’ Fate Teiresias—Apollo’s blind prophet—tells Creon of Oedipus’ fate.Oedipus is busy trying to find the murderer of Laius. Teiresias cryptically tells Oedipus the nature of his marriage, but Oedipus doesn’t interpret the meaning in Teiresias’ words. He tells Oedipus that the shame of his relationship will bring about ruin and that the insults Oedipus gives to him will be returned as a result of his deed. Oedipus sets himself up for downfall further when he forsakes Teiresias’ word and says he has no special ability.As prophets are basically the mouth of the gods and do their direct  will, Oedipus is in a way committing blasphemy. The provocation leads Teiresias to—again cryptically—tell Oedipus that he is actually on level footing with his children and that the truth with crush him. When Oedipus relays the events to his wife, she tells him to ignore the prophecy and that Apollo’s prophecy didn’t hold up as she believed that her husband was killed by a bandit. Strands of Fate Tied Up Oedipus finds out that Polybus doesn’t die at his hands, but of natural causes so it seems the prophecy didn’t come true.However, Laius is killed by Oedipus when the two argued over who had the right of way on a road. Neither man recognized the other. Oedipus marries Jocasta, widow of Laius making his both wife and son t o her and father and brother to his children. Oedipus finds out about the true nature from a shepherd, finds his wife Jocasta who had hung herself, took her jewelry and smashed them into his eyes. Oedipus ends up blind and destitute and his children cursed by being the product of incest.

Amazon Ebusiness Essay

Amazon was founded in 1994, spurred by what Bezos called â€Å"regret minimization framework†, his effort to fend off regret for not staking a claim in the Internet gold rush. Company lore says Bezos wrote the business plan while he and his wife drove from New York to Seattle , although that account appears to be apocryphal. The company began as an online bookstore; while the largest brick-and-mortar bookstores and mail-order catalogs for books might offer 200,000 titles, an online bookstore could offer more. Bezos named the company â€Å"Amazon† after the world’s largest river. Since 2000, Amazon’s logotype is an arrow leading from A to Z, representing customer satisfaction (as it forms a smile); a goal was to have every product in the alphabet. In 1994, the company incorporated in the state of Washington, beginning service in July 1995, and was reincorporated in 1996 inDelaware. The first book Amazon.com sold was Douglas Hofstadter’s Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought. Amazon.com issued its initial public offering of stock on May 15, 1997, trading under theNASDAQ stock exchange symbol AMZN, at an IPO price of US$18.00 per share ($1.50 after three stock splits in the late 1990s). Amazon’s initial business plan was unusual: the company did not expect a profit for four to five years. Its â€Å"slow† growth provoked stockholder complaints that the company was not reaching profitability fast enough. When the dot-com bubble burst, and many e-companies went out of business, Amazon persevered, and finally turned its first profit in the fourth quarter of 2001: $5 million or 1 ¢ per share, on revenues of more than $1 billion, but the modest profit was important in demonstrating the business model could be profitable. In 1999, Time magazine named Bezos Person of the Year,  recognizing the company’s success in popularizing online shopping. Amazon.com products and services: Amazon product lines include books, music CDs, videotapes and DVDs, software, consumer electronics, kitchen items, tools, lawn and garden items, toys & games, baby products, apparel, sporting goods, gourmet food, jewelry, watches, health and personal-care items, beauty products, musical instruments, clothing, industrial & scientific supplies, and groceries. The company launched Amazon.com Auctions, a Web auctions service, in March 1999. However, it failed to chip away at industry pioneer eBay’s large market share. Amazon.com Auctions was followed by the launch of a fixed-price marketplace business, zShops, in September 1999, and the now defunct Sotheby’s/Amazon partnership called sothebys.amazon.com in November. Auctions and zShops evolved into Amazon Marketplace, a service launched in 2001 that let customers sell used books, CDs, DVDs, and other products alongside new items. Today, Amazon Marketplace’s main rival is eBay’s Half.com service. In August 2005 , Amazon began selling products under its own private label, â€Å"Pinzon†; the trademark applications indicated that the label would be used for textiles, kitchen utensils, and other household goods.In March 2007, the company applied to expand the trademark to cover a more diverse list of goods, and to register a new design consisting of the â€Å"word PINZON in stylized letters with a notched letter O whose space appears at the â€Å"one o’clock† position.†. Coverage by the trademark grew to include items such as paints, carpets, wallpaper, hair accessories, clothing, footwear, headgear, cleaning products, and jewelry.On September 2008, Amazon filed to have the name registered. USPTO has finished its review of the application, but Amazon has yet to receive an official registration for the name. Amazon MP3, its own online music store, launched in the US in September 25, 2007, selling downloads exclusively in MP3 format without digital rights management.[This was the first online offering of DRM-free music from all four major record companies. In August 2007, Amazon announced AmazonFresh, a grocery service offering perishable and nonperishable foods. Customers can have orders delivered to their homes at dawn or during a specified daytime window. Delivery was initially restricted to residents of Mercer Island, Washington, and was later expanded to several  ZIP codes in Seattle proper. AmazonFresh also operated pick-up locations in the suburbs of Bellevue and Kirkland from summer 2007 through early 2008. In 2008 Amazon expanded into film production, producing the film The Stolen Child with 20th Century Fox. Amazon.com has incorporated a number of products and services through development and acquisitions. The Honor System was launched in 2001 to allow customers to make donations or buy digital content, with Amazon collecting a percentage of the payment plus a fee. The service was discontinued in 2008. and replaced by Amazon Payments. Amazon launched Amazon Web Services(AWS) in 2002, which provides programmatic access to latent features on its website. Amazon also created â€Å"channels† to benefit certain causes. In 2004, Amazon’s â€Å"Presidential Candidates† allowed customers to donate $5–200 t o the campaigns of 2004 U.S. presidential hopefuls. Amazon has periodically reactivated a Red Cross donation channel after crises such as the 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the 2004 earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean. By January 2005, nearly 200,000 people had donated over $15.7 million in the US. Amazon Prime offers two day shipping with no minimum purchase amount for a flat annual fee, as well as discounted priority shipping rates. Amazon launched the program in the continental United States in 2005, in Japan, the United Kingdom and Germany in 2007, and in France (as â€Å"Amazon Premium†) in 2008. Launched in 2005, Amazon Shorts offers exclusive short stories and non-fiction pieces from best-selling authors for immediate download. By June 2007, the program had over 1,700 pieces and was adding about 50 new pieces per week. In November 2005, Amazon.com began testing Amazon Mechanical Turk, an application programming interface (API) allowing programs to dispatch tasks to human processors. In March 2006, Amazon launched an online storage service called Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). An unlimited number of data objects, from 1 byte to 5 gigabytes in size, can be stored in S3 and distributed via HTTP or BitTorrent. The service charges monthly fees for data stored and transferred. In 2006, Amazon introducedAmazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS), a distributed queue messaging service, and product wikis (later folded into Amapedia) and discussion forums for certain products using guidelines that follow standard message board conventions. Also in 2006, Amazon introduced Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), a virtual site farm, allowing users to use the Amazon infrastructure to run applications ranging  from running simulations to web hosting. In 2008, Amazon improved the service adding Elastic Block Store (EBS), offering persistent storage for Amazon EC2 instances and Elastic IP addresses, static IP addresses designed for dynamic cloud computing. In 2007 Amazon launched Amapedia, a wiki for user-generated content to replace ProductWiki, the video on demand s ervice Amazon Unbox, and Amazon MP3, which sells downloadable MP3’s. Amazon’s terms of use agreements restrict use of the MP3’s, but Amazon does not use DRM to enforce those terms. Amazon MP3 sells music from the Big 4 record labels EMI, Universal, Warner Bros. Records, and Sony BMG, as well as independents. Previous to the launch of this service, Amazon made an investment in Amie Street, a music store with a variable pricing model based on demand. Also in 2007 Amazon launched Amazon Vine, which allows reviewers free access to pre-release products from vendors in return for posting a review, as well as payment service specifically targeted at developers, Amazon FPS. In November 2007, Amazon launched Amazon Kindle, an e-book reader which downloads content over â€Å"Whispernet†, via the Sprint Nextel EV-DO wireless network. The screen uses E Ink technology to reduce battery consumption. In 2008 Amazon stated that its Kindle-based library included 200,000 titles. In December 2007, Amazon introduced SimpleDB, a database system, allowing users of its other infrastructure to utilize a high reliability high performance database system. In August 2007, Amazon launched an invitation-only beta-test for online grocery delivery. It has since rolled out in several Seattle, Washington suburbs. In January 2008 Amazon began rolling out their MP3 service to subsidiary websites worldwide. In December, 2008, Amazon MP3 was made available in the UK. In September, IMDB and Amazon.com launched a Music metadata browsing site with wiki-like user contribution. In November, Amazon partnered with Fisher-Price, Mattel, Microsoft and Transcend to offer products with minimal packaging to reduce environmental impact and frustration with opening â€Å"clamshell† type packaging. Amazon Web Services launched a public beta of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud running Microsoft Windows Server and Microsoft SQL Server. Amazon Connectenables authors to post remarks on their book pages to customers. WebStore allows businesses to create custom e-commerce websites using Amazon technology. Sellers pay a commission of 7 percent, including credit-card processing fees and fraud protection, and a subscription fee of  $59.95/month for an unlimited number of webstores and listings. Why Amazon.com is successful as a business on internet and has excellent capabilities supported by information system and e-commerce? Amazon’s initial business plan was unusual: the company did not expect a profit for four to five years. Its â€Å"slow† growth provoked stockholder complaints that the company was not reaching profitability fast enough. When the dot-com bubble burst and many e-companies went out of business, Amazon persevered, and finally turned its first profit in the fourth quarter of 2001: $5 million or 1 ¢ per share, on revenues of more than $1 billion, but the modest profit was important in demonstrating the business model could be profitable. In 1999, Time magazine named Bezos Person of the Year, recognizing the company’s success in popularizing online shopping. Amazon changed the way it does business through the years. First it was an online book seller. Next it expanded into selling music and videos. Then it offered toys, consumer electronics and software to its customers. These were linked with a host of new products until this very day. Amazon has a constantly evolving product line. Its competitors have a hard time catching up with the innovator. During its initial years of operation, Amazon was not making any real profit. It practiced instead the habit of reinvesting its income into new markets. This it did to make possible for its customers to make wider choices for the company’s offerings. Inventory management is an important function for any business and its efficient implementation can play a major role in reducing costs within a company. Policies, procedures, and techniques employed in maintaining the optimum number or amount of each inventory item. The objective of inventory management is to provide uninterrupted production, sales, and/or customer-service levels at the minimum cost, Levi D. S. et al (2003). Levi explains that a high-quality inventory management system provides a smooth and efficient supply chain by reducing costs and time. Initially when a company is established, key individuals may pe rform such tasks as purchasing, manufacturing or inventory control with little problem in terms of overlapping functions. But as a company expands it may be necessary to concentrate on core functions in the aim to have specialized personnel in every department. Each function has an important part to play in the supply chain. The correct management of  inventory enables a company to reduce liabilities and cost of overstocking, to streamline operations and to have better utilized staff. Amazon.com, the world’s largest online retailer and one of the nation’s biggest book sellers, is one of the iconic companies of the Internet era, Eells S. (2010), and by realizing the importance of inventory management can only improve its supply chain. From the text we can see that when CEO Jeffrey P. Bezos went about setting up Amazon.com, he had a clear aim to offer customers a wide selection of books but at the same time did not want to spend time and money on opening stores and warehouses and in dealing with the inventory. Bezos was hesitant in deciding to maintain Amazons own warehouse but realized that this was the only way for the company to keep customers satisfied. Internet shopping was rapidly expanding and with Amazon now stretching its ranges from not only books but to CDs, toys and hardware, they too were a growing industry. Amazon began setting up warehouses throughout the US, strategically placing them in states with little or no sales tax in order to reduce costs. These warehouses were very well maintained and completely computerized, with each item having a separate code which made inventory management a lot easier. Within the large warehouses, Amazon held all products which were available on the website. This was not always a good idea as it cost Amazon money in order to stock these goods. In the holiday season of 1999, Bezos was determined not to disappoint any customers; therefore he ordered larger amounts of every product. With this large amount of inventory, Bezos found it very diffic ult to manage, so aimed to rearrange the warehouses to accommodate the demand in different regions. They then decided to outsource some of its routines activities so that they could concentrate more on their core competencies. Deciding whether to outsource or not was a difficult decision for Amazon but seen in the Strategic outsourcing book by Greaver M. (1999), he explains that there quiet a number of reasons how outsourcing can be a major advantage. These points are broken into 6 headings; 1. Organizational reasons – Enhance effectiveness and focus on what you do best and also makes the company more flexible 2. Improvement driven reasons – Improve operating performance and also management and control 3. Finally driven reasons – Reduce investment assets and free up these resources for other areas of the business 4. Revenue driven reasons – Gain market access and  business opportunities along with accelerating expansion 5. Cost driven reasons – Reduce cost through superior provider performance and lower cost structure 6. Employee driven reasons – Increase commitment and energy in non core areas. Amazon decided to outsource its inventory management, and with this they decided not to stock every item offered on its site. It stocked only the most popular and frequently purchased items and as for the other items, they were requested from the distributor on ordering. The item would be sent to Amazon, unpacked and finally sent to the customer. Amazon entered into an agreement with Ingram Micro Inc. to use its knowledge and experience in the electronic goods and supply chain management in order to provide logistics and order-fulfillment services for desktops, laptops and other computer related accessories. From the case, Kevin Murai, President, Ingram Macro U.S. informs everyone the advantages in which they can offer to Amazons supply chain and satisfaction of customers, â€Å"The customer fulfillment services we are providing to Amazon.com’s computer store will minimize the number of touches to the product, while ensuring a seamless shopping experience for Amazons customers from start to finish†. A collaborative approach was obvious from this. A collaborative partnership has become an alternative approach to care, replacing traditional hierarchical approach as the desired approach to care. The features of collaborative partnerships are (1) Power sharing and sharing of expertise; (2) the pursuit of mutually agreed on, person centered goals and, (3) a dynamic process that requires the active participation and agreement of all partners in the relationship, Elsevier M. (2006). Both Amazon and Ingram Micro both shared the passion for customer satisfaction which was the main driving force to the success of their partnership. Amazon has identified its core competencies as: customer convenience and accessibility, massive selection, personalized service, quality of the site content, quality of its search tools and price, Mulqueen K. (2009). By entering into this partnership it gives Amazon more quality time to put into its core competencies. During the initial stages of Amazons warehousing, it aimed to have every item in stock in o rder to maximize customer satisfaction. By having this inventory, it would enable Amazon to meet the needs of the customers when they purchased the goods online. When the customer chooses the item, Amazon takes it from inventory and sent it to the respective  customer. We can see the logic in which Bezos takes as he is aiming to satisfy every customer in order to build a positive image and reputation of the company. Holding this much inventory on the other can be quite costly and also for a small business which Amazon was when taking on this method can be very difficult to manage. Amazons warehouses were a quarter mile long and 200 yards wide storing millions of books. Each warehouse cost Bezos around 50 million and not only this he started to realize that having all these large amounts of stock was unutilized cash which could be used to improve the business elsewhere. The below image (fig 1.1) gives you an idea of the scale of the warehouses and how an effective inventory management structure is vital. Learning from the difficult holiday season of 1999, Bezos outsourced some of their core competencies in order to pay more attention to othe r areas of the business. In our opinion this was a step in the right direction as when Amazons partners shipped the goods Amazon revamped the layout of their warehouses which makes the items easier to find and allowed customer orders to be sorted more efficiently. In early 2001, when Amazon partnered with Ingram Micro Inc., we feel that this was the correct decision for Amazon in the aim for efficient inventory management and it didn’t take long for changes to be made to the stocking of inventory. Amazon decided to stock only the most popular and most frequently purchased. If an item which wasn’t in stock, Amazon simply ordered in from the distributor and who then shipped it to Amazon where they would unpack it and send it to the customer. This may seem like a longer process but we feel this step which significantly reduce costs and better utilized Amazons finances. This is evident from the case as in December 00; their gross profit was 656.8 million where it was almost doubled in December 02 where the profit was 1,074.9 million. By doing this method, inevitably Amazon reduced holding costs. This method was proving to be a positive for Amazon as the improved inventory management helped Amazon record its first ever profit in 2001. From being initially in a deficit of $2.86 billion seven years earlier, Amazon recorded a net profit of $5 million in the fourth quarter of 2001. By Amazon outsourcing its inventory management, we could see the improvements almost immediately from their financial reports in the case. It is clear in our opinion, that Amazon made the right decision when outsourcing this function. It has reduced cost by keeping fewer inventories  and at the same time has partnered with a company with a great deal of expertise in the technology functions which can again be a major positive for the company. This shows again that outsourcing the inventory function was the correct decision for Amazon. The transfer of Amazons inventory management as shown in the case was a positive influence on the company and we feel that it was a successful task. The reason for this is simple; Amazon has tried and tested various inventory techniques from when it was first established. At first Amazons inventory was too great and was seen to be unutilized cash. Bezos realized that this unutilized cash could possible to used to benefit over departments within the company. The task of outsourcing this area made a profit for the company immediately, at the end of 2001, Amazon had a sales record of 1.1 billion which was a 15% increase on the same period of the previous year. Then again in 2002, we can see from the case that Amazon recorded sales of 3.93 billion which was a 26% increase on the year previous. These figures show that the task of outsourcing inventory for Amazon was an important function which has shown to get record sales for the company and along with the expertise given by Ingram Micro was overall a positive influence on the company. Overall, Amazons decision to outsource its inventory management and concentrate more on other funct ions within the business was the correct decision in our opinion. This is proven by the increase in profit since doing so. Amazon managed to outsource this function and still satisfy their customers which is one of their core values along with being innovative. According to businessweek.com, Amazon in 2010 had a net income of $231 million in comparison to $177million in 2009 which again is an indication that the company’s decisions have only had a positive impact as the company continues to grow. This is a positive for the company but in comparison to its main competitor, EBay had a net income of 397.65 million in 2010 which is also seen on businessweek.com. This shows that there is a lot of work done but still in order to compete with its competitors it must still strive to improve. Amazon prides itself on a strong brand, excellent customer service and a well designed, easy to use website. Its use of E-Business strategies enables the company to cut costs better than its competitors and empower its customers by offering them choice. It could be argued that Amazons’ most valuable asset is its CEO and Founder Jeff Bezos. Bezos innovative style has grown the company from  strength to strength and latest figures, according to the website www.siliconrepublic.com show an increase in profit of 36% to $12.95bn for 2010 from a sink to 3.7pc from 5pc at the end of 2009. In 2001, Amazons CEO, Jeff Bezos welcomed competitors rather than fighting them. This decision was initially seen as somewhat controversial. According to Vogelstein (2003) the decision caused such a stir in the book-publishing community that the Authors Guild formally stepped in. They wanted used books sold on a different page from newly published ones. Amazon was able to do this as a result of its efficient inventory management. Vogelstein (2003) states that Amazons warehouses are so efficient that they need to be replenished 20 times per year and they can now handle three times the volume they handled in 1999. The net result of this initiative is increased profits as can be seen from the case. The success of Amazon can be attributed to E-Business. Tedeschi (1999) state; Business on the Internet is cutting significant cost out of the supply chain, with better procurement and resource planning. With Amazon, these cost savings are passed onto the end customer. Through price comparison and transparency on its webpage, customers could make informed decisions based on price. This created massive popularity with its customers. E-Business also creates brand strength. According to Matthewson (2002) a recent survey demonstrated the importance of online brand building, as it showed that six out of ten internet users directly typed into their browser the address of the brand they are interested in buying. The website is said to attract 81 million unique visitors each month .Amazon has capitalized on this process known as cyber-branding. This essentially promotes the company through superior customer service. Its logistics in both inventory efficiency and technology gives it a superior edge over its competitors. Its operations are very efficient due to the strategic locations of its warehouses and headquarters, which have enabled Amazon to cut a lot of its costs. The market in which amazon.com operates and how it is organized by region and country: Amazon.com has always sold goods out of its own warehouses. It started as a bookseller, pure and simple, and over the last decade has branched out into  additional product areas and the third-party sales that now represent a good chunk of its revenue (some estimates put it at 25 percent). Both retailers and individual sellers utilize the Amazon.com platform to sell goods. Large retailers like Nordstrom, Land’s End and Target use Amazon.com to sell their products in addition to selling them through their own Web sites. The sales go through Amazon.com and end up at Nordstrom.com, Land’s End.com or Target.com for processing and order fulfillment. Amazon essentially leases space to these retailers, who use Amazon.com as a supplemental outlet for their online sales. Small sellers of used and new goods go to Amazon Marketplace, Amazon zShops or Amazon Auctions. At Marketplace, sellers offer goods at a fixed price, and at Auctions they sell their stuff to the highest bidder. Amazon zShops features only used goods at fixed prices. If an item listed on zShops, Marketplace or Auctions is also sold on the main Amazon.com, it appears in a box beside the Amazon.com item so buyers can see if someone else is selling the product for less in one of the other sales channels. The level of integration that occurs on Amazon is a programming feat that few (if any) online sales sites can match. Another sales channel called Amazon Advantage is a place where people can sell new books, music and movies directly from the Amazon warehouse instead of from their home or store. Sellers ship a number of units to Amazon, and Amazon handles the entire sales transaction from start to finish. In all of these programs, Amazon gets a cut of each sale (usually about 10 percent to 15 percent) and sometimes charges additional listing or subscription fees; in the case of Amazon Advantage, the company takes a 55 percent commission on each sale. The Advantage channel is something like a consignment setup, a sales avenue for people who create the ir own music CDs or have self-published a book and are simply looking for a way to get it out there. One of the latest additions to Amazon’s repertoire is a subsidiary company called Amazon Services. Through Amazon Services, Amazon sells its sales platform, providing complete Amazon e-commerce packages to companies looking to establish or revamp their e-commerce business. Amazon sets up complete Web sites and technology backbones for other e-commerce companies using Amazon software and technology. Target, for instance, in addition to having a store on Amazon.com, also uses Amazon Services to build and manage its own e-commerce site, Target.com. But selling goods isn’t the only way to make  money with Amazon.com. The Web site’s affiliate program is one of the most famous on the Web. Through Amazon’s Associate Program, anyone with a Web site can post a link to Amazon.com and earn some money. The link can display a single product chosen by the associate, or it can list several â€Å"best seller† products in a particular genre, in which case Amazon u pdates the list automatically at preset intervals. The associate gets a cut of any sale made directly through that link. The cut ranges from 4 percent to 7.5 percent depending on which fee structure the associate signs up for (see Amazon Associates for complete program details). The associate can also take advantage of Amazon Web Services, which is the program that lets people use Amazon’s utilities for their own purposes. The Amazon Web Services API (application programming interface) lets developers access the Amazon technology infrastructure to build their own applications for their own Web sites. All product sales generated by those Web sites have to go through Amazon.com, and the associate gets a small commission on each sale. References * about Ingram Micro. [Online] Available from: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=98566&p=irol-aboutIMOverview * Aryasri A R (2007) Managerial economics and financial analysis, 3rd Ed, Tata McGraw-Hill, New Delhi * Bolumole, Yemisi A., Frankel R., Naslund D, 2007. â€Å"Developing a Theoretical Framework for Logistics Outsourcing†, Transportation Journal, [e-journal], Vol. 46 Issue 2, p35-54, 20p, , Available through: Business Source Premier database [Accessed 18 February 2011] * Coltman et al (2000) E-Business: Revolution, Evolution or Hype? 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