The Application of the Maslow, Herzberg, and McClelland theories of Motivation to Unemployment in Turkey

Unemployment affects the quality and standards of living in a nation. Moreover, high level of unemployment is associated with social degradation and increase in rates of social vices for instance violent robberies and corruption. This paper seeks to determine how Maslow, Herzberg, and McClelland can be used to explain and address the relatively high rate of unemployment in Turkey.

Unemployment in Turkey
Though the global economy is recording some improvement, the condition in Turkey is still uncertain (Lauer par 1). A factor highlighted as being central to the uncertainty facing Turkeys economic recovery prospects is a rising levels of unemployment. Turkey can recover from the 2008 crisis if it develops multiple systems to employ its rapidly growing workforce. The shrinking of the economy at a rate of approximately 3 in the last quarter of 2008 led to an increase in joblessness in the non-agricultural sector (Lauer par 2). Historically, Turkey has recorded relatively high levels of unemployment averaging 10 (Index Mundi par 1). Increasing rates of unemployment in Turkey can to some degree be explained and addressed with the use of existing motivational theories.

Application of Relevant Theories
A number of motivational theories have been developed to understand the factors that drive motivation for personal and professional development. These motivational theories can be used to understand the causes of low level of motivation among employees and the requirements in improving the input by employees via addressing variables that influence human motivation.

Maslows theory of human motivation posits that the variables that are central for motivation in humans can be structured into hierarchies. The hierarchy of needs is structured into different levels with different motivating factors. The lowest hierarchy is the physiological need. At this level, people are motivated by the need to meet their physiological needs which include food, water, sex and excretion. After meeting the basic physiological needs, man is motivated by the need to be secure and safe (Goble 50). Security of employment, morality, assets and health are some of the motivators after one has met his physiological needs. After the security needs there is the need to be loved, then the esteem needs and lastly self actualization.

Though there are various theories that can be applied to understanding the factors that drive the high levels of unemployment and addressing this social and economic problem, it is apparent that unemployment is only addressed by the provision and creation of job opportunities. To develop new opportunities for employment requires improved performance by the existing firms and appreciation of the effects that high unemployment rates have on the quality of life. Under Maslows hierarchy of needs, employees will only be motivated by the need to stabilize their employment status and other security needs after they have met their physiological needs (Goble 52). This implies that any strategies aimed at improving Turkish firms financial performance have to ensure employees physiological needs are met. Work conditions that do not relay a sense of security may be reducing the levels of motivation displayed by Turkish employees which affects firms performance. Furthermore, unemployed Turks will display minimal motivation to improving their job security and even seeking well paying jobs if they are not able to meet their basic needs. The government has to access the living conditions of the jobless in Turkey to determine how their physiological needs can be met.

Herzbergs two-factor motivational theory asserts that the job environment factors or rather hygiene factors and personal motivation factors contribute to the levels of motivation displayed by employees. The two-factor theory asserts that the work and organization environment have an effect on the levels of motivation displayed by employees. The organization, policies adopted by the administration, employee status, job security and interpersonal relationships within the workplace influence the attitudes and level of motivation displayed by employees (Herzberg, Mausner, and Snyderman 15). Though these factors do not necessarily leads to elevated levels of motivation, their absence results in dissatisfaction. According to Herzberg, the factors that are directly involved in heightening levels of motivation include achievement, recognition, interest in the job and advancement.

A review of unemployment in Turkey reveals that it is propagated by shrinking economies which is a reflection of reduced performance by individual firms and industries. To improve existing firms performance and therefore develop a wider platform for addressing unemployment there is need for a review of the job environment. The existing firms cannot improve their performance if they are characterized by negative working environments and conditions. The hygiene and motivation factors within organizations have to be addressed simultaneously within Turkish firms to improve and sustain positive financial performance which would go a long way in reducing the rates of unemployment. One of the avenues to addressing unemployment is through start-ups and self employment. However, this is complicated by low salaries and work environments that do not inspire innovation by employees. By addressing the work conditions and inclusion of systems that facilitate the development of personal motivation, Turkish employers can improve the performance of Turkish firms and provide multiple knowledge and skills development avenues for their employees. Skill and knowledge development among employees provides a wider platform for applications of the skills that they have gained for personal development.

David McClelland formulated the human motivation theory which asserts that human motivation is highly influenced by three basic needs. The need for achievement, need for affiliation and need for power are considered by McClelland as definitive of the levels of motivation displayed by employees (Aswathappa 363). Under the three-needs theory, the importance of the needs to individuals varies thus, managing their effects on employees requires individual consideration. The development of an environment that provide employees with a mix of factors that addresses their need for power, affiliation and achievement provides a suitable platform for attaining high levels of motivation.

McClelland theory if applied to analyzing the unemployment rates in Turkey leads to the assertion that working conditions that do not meet the needs for achievement, affiliation and power are to blame for the unemployment and poor economic performance. Moreover, the high unemployment rates could also be reflective of poor consideration of individual needs and low appreciation of the need to develop a working environment defined by a mix of factors that address the three needs. Addressing the high rates of unemployment in Turkey should therefore involve increased individual employees assessment to determine how they prioritize the three needs and developing work environments that facilitate address and attainment of the three needs.

Turkeys high rate of unemployment is in part a result of poor performance by industries and firms which minimizes the countries ability to diversify its economy and meet its peoples needs. The hierarchical needs theory, the two-factor theory and the needs theory formulated by Maslow, Herzbergs and McClelland respectively provide a platform for understanding organizational factors that may be driving the high rates of unemployment and how they can be addressed via improving performance at firm level. In general, the three motivational theories highlight the importance of human resource management within firms to the overall economic performance of Turkey thus address of unemployment.

A Research proposal on Exploiting E-commerce to reach New Business Opportunities

The field of information technology has continued to witness new innovations and is probably the most innovative industry today. The business world has taken advantage of these innovations in form of e-commerce whose impact today is not only in the creation of web-based businesses but also in building of a new industrial order. Any contemporary business that has not embraced e-commerce remains at a risk of facing stiff competition from those in the same industry who have integrated e-commerce in their businesses. The future of such a business is also at stake because the number of customers that find e-commerce to be the most convenient way to purchase goods and services is escalating at an alarmingly rate (Bray, 1992).  Due to the important role that e-commerce is playing in the business world and the impact it has brought to many businesses, this paper will be a research on how e-commerce is being conducted and managed as well as assess its major opportunities, limitations, issues and risks.

Hypothesis testing
The hypothesis test will be e-commerce offers potential business opportunities for business organisations.

Objectives
The objective of this research will be mainly to establish a research based evidence on the extent to which various business organisations have embraced the use of e-commerce and the potential present in e-commerce that has not yet been tapped by the businesses. The other objective will be to identify the obstacles faced by business organisations as they make use of e-commerce and the possible solutions that can be implemented to make the use of e-commerce more efficient and accessible to many business organisations.

Using the above objectives, the research findings will be an eye opener to those business organisations that have not embraced e-commerce to realize the potential of e-commerce in terms of the business opportunities it brings with it. It is also expected that this research will help to determine possible ways through which those businesses utilizing e-commerce can gain more.

Literature Review
According to Guttmann and Maes, (1998) in 2004 there were an estimated 800 million internet users in the world and this number were projected to reach three billion by 2010. This shows that through the use of e-commerce businesses can reach a large number of customers. It is therefore important that the management of every business reorganise the existence of this unexploited potential for their business and device ways of reaching the numerous number of customers visiting the internet every day. However, Guttmann and Maes in their study noted that while some countries have advanced in the use of internet and application of information technology, some other countries are just beginning to embrace this new technology. This research study will therefore determine areas where the use of e-commerce presents a good opportunity for business expansion.

This research paper will build on the premise that consumer e-commerce has been observed to be the most reliable and permanent sector of e-commerce in both short term and long term. Other sectors of e-commerce like government electronic businesses are also in the proving stage and there are signs that they too could become reliable in the long term. Research has shown that 70 percent of international trade taking place today involves e-commerce in one way or another during the transactions (Parfett, 1992). Electronic data interchange which is also part of e-commerce has also been observed to play a very significant role in the international trade. Today more than 20 million businesses use e-commerce for supply and demand chain and this number is expected to project upwards with time (Nissanoff, 2006).
According to Chaudhur and Kuilboer (2002) lack of information technology skills among workers in organisations has been determined as the contributory factor for business organisations to shy away from the use of e-commerce. The cost of acquiring information technology systems and skills in the business may proof to be enormous in the short run but in the long run its benefits goes beyond the costs incurred.

Methodology
The research will be conducted on different business organisations which have adopted ecommerce. Both large firms and the small firms will form part of the business organisations on which the research will be carried out so that more comprehensive information on the use of e-commerce will be obtained. The research shall also explore the impact of e-commerce in administrating services. A cross sectional survey research will be used so that the research can be done within a specified time frame.
Data for the research study will be collected from both primary and secondary sources. This research will utilize secondary data especially from research studies which have already been conducted as stated above. Secondary data will also be collected from academic journals, newspapers, government journals, textbooks and company magazines. Secondary sources will be utilized in this research to enable enhance the understanding of the factors influencing the rapid growth of e-commerce and its effects to the economies as well as the opportunities it avails to businesses.

During primary data collection semi-structured questionnaires will be constructed and administered to the sampled respondents from the population of study. The questionnaires will use simple and direct questions and scaling where appropriate. The population of the study will comprise of the management of the business organisation and their members of staff. Where a business organisation has several departments, one staff member will be picked from each department. The research will also target other stakeholders who are not members of individual businesses but are actively engaged in the operations of the business organisations such as suppliers and the customers.

A non-probability sampling method will be used to come up with the sample that will be used in the research. This will help the researcher to sample members at random which is a controlled procedure that ensures that each element in the population is given a non- zero chance of selection. The selected respondents from each sampled individual will be given a questionnaire to fill and prior arrangements made with the researcher as to when the duly filled questionnaire will be e-mailed to the collection canters.

Result Presentations
Collected data will be summarized, coded and analysis done using descriptive statistics. Computer data analysis package will be used for analysis of the data. Results obtained from this research study will be presented in table form. The reason is that this form of data presentation offers an opportunity to present large volumes of data in a more detailed manner. However, where need for comparison will arise, graphs will be used to present the results because this will make it easier to note where differences exists and also the magnitude of such differences.

Outline Assessment Brazil

The assessment of culture in Brazil should go in line with the cultural dimensions proposed by Hofstede these include Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Long-Term Orientation (Hilal, 2006). The proposed outline provides an opportunity to research and investigate the culture in Brazil, but cannot serve a reliable source of critical information about Brazilian culture. The information about communication, religion, values, etiquette, and customs is only a part of the problem, which should be resolved to assess objectively the organizational and business implications of the cultural specificity in Brazil. It should be noted, that the cultural reality in Brazil is integrally linked to the concepts of holism and individualism, and Brazil is generally believed to be somewhere between the two ideal polar extremes (Hilal, 2006). Moreover, the specificity of Brazilian culture implies that those working in it are bound to combine the principles of the modern egalitarian and traditional culture (Hilal, 2006). These principles and cultural environments have far-reaching implications for the organizations and should be properly assessed in the future research.
   
In the outline, the elements and dimensions integrated by locals conducting business in the nation cover only business communication styles and the comparison between the U.S. and Brazilian culture is limited to business relations, employee attitudes, and language barriers. Unfortunately, these cannot suffice to create a full picture of the U.S.-Brazilian cultural dimensions. Again, it is critically important that the assessment of differences between the U.S. and Brazilian culture is performed through the prism of individualism power distance masculinity and uncertainty avoidance dimensions. For example, power distance in Brazil is relatively high, and Brazil is considered to be more collectivist, compared to USA (OKeefe  OKeefe, 2004). These elements produce significant impacts on the quality of business performance among locals conducting their business in the nation. For example, those conducting business in Brazil should remember that power distance and collectivism require using different patterns of communication with the locals communication should be explicit and straightforward, while self-centered behaviors should be avoided (OKeefe  OKeefe, 2004).

It is not clear whether culture in Brazil has anything to do with taxes, tariffs, importing and exporting relationships, as well as foreign direct investment and world energy market, as proposed in the outline but that culture in Brazil produces significant impacts on the quality of business relationships with the US firms is an obvious fact. The future research should provide recommendations to US firms conducting business in Brazil.

The latter should know what cultural behaviors and attitudes can favor the establishment of productive business relationships between the US and Brazilian entrepreneurs. For example, it is possible to assess the cultural implications for business ethics in Brazil and the U.S Beekun, Stedman and Yamamura (2003) write that Brazilians judge the ethical character of business decisions based on the consequences to which they lead, while U.S. businesses tend to rely on the moral principles and rights. In its current state, the discussed outline can hardly create an objective picture of culture in Brazil and does not create opportunities necessary to assess its business and organizational implications for foreign businesses.

Case Study Google Inc.

Google is the worlds number one web-based search engine. The company, Google Inc. had a humble beginning. It was actually started as a graduate school project by Sergery Brin and Larry Page, two Ph.D students at Stanford. They developed a search engine which could analyze the back links pointing to a certain website and called it BackRub (Scott 2008, p43). They developed an algorithm called PageRank which ranked the back links according to the degree of relevance. A search engine based on PageRank algorithm proved to be more reliable and faster than the algorithms being used by other search engines (e.g. Yahoo used Inktomi, an algorithm based on parallel-processing networks at that time).

At first, Sergey and Larry were not interested in starting up a new company and simply wanted to market this technology to other companies. They approached David Filo, the founder of Yahoo, who encouraged them to start their own business. Soon, they demonstrated their search engine to Andy Bechtolsheim, an angel investor, who instantly put money on their business. Google was incorporated on 7th September 1997 and the domain name google.com was registered on 15th September 1997 (Scott 2008, p.7). Today, Google has become a household name.

In 1999,  25 million worth of capital was injected in the company by two venture capitalist companies Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins (Eisenmann  Herman 2006, p. 2). In 2008, Google became the most popular website in the U.S., leaving behind Yahoo - its major competitor. It gained such unparalleled popularity and recognition without any form of advertising. Word of mouth played a major role as satisfied users bolstered Googles reputation and appreciated its efficient services. Google offered some of its services free of cost and this helped gain a large following and users across the globe.

In 2000, Google launched its billion-page index and became the largest search engine with 18 million user requests per day. Google replaced Yahoos Inktomi as its search engine technology. During 2000, it provided services to other companies and focused on providing additional services to its users. It included wireless search and Google Toolbar. In 2001, Google acquired the archives to deja.com which were the building blocks of Google Groups. In the same year, Eric Schmidt was appointed as the CEO of the company (Scott 2008, p. 9). In 2002, Google introduced a beta version of Google News. The company acquired Pyra Labs and launched AdSense in 2003. Around this time, Yahoo was fiercely competing with Google and in response to this the company started Gmail. In 2004, Google went for an Initial Public offering to raise 2.7 billion through equity.

Googles Capital Structure  Governance
Googles capital structure was composed of two classes of shares Class A shares had one vote per share while ownership of Class B shares granted the holders a right to have ten votes per share (Mills 2006). This gave Brin, Page and Schmidt control over 80 of shareholder votes (Eisenmann  Herman 2006, p. 5).
Many shareholders and potential investors were skeptical of Googles dual-class equity structure and the disproportionate voting power that lay in the hands of the top executives. Over the years, Google has come under criticism for its governance structure.

In 2006, a pension fund holder of Googles shares criticized the companys dual-class equity structure, stating that this form of governance grants a high level of control to the management. The three top executives of the company owned (86,753,907 shares) 31.3 of the total shares outstanding but actually controlled 66.2 of the total voting power of all the shares (Mills 2006). According to the union official, John McIntyre, this leads to undue conservatism among managers. Usually the investment and financing decisions of the management is not in the interests of the companys minority shareholders. Also, shareholders became more wary of this governance structure due to the frauds and instances of mismanagement that have been brought to light recently.

Brin and Page have defended it by pointing out that this structure allows them to focus on achieving longer-term goals instead of just generating short-term profits. This way Googles management had the freedom to make strategic decisions that enabled it to attain long-term growth and success. The company did not have to focus on quarterly or annual results and this is a better management approach. Also, it reduces the chances of hostile takeovers and the uninvited control of outside parties. The management argued that although this kind of governance structure is uncommon in web-based technology companies, it is widely implemented in the media-related companies such as The New York Times, The Washington Post etc. to name a few. They stated that the dual class structure has enabled them to be innovative and keep their core values intact. Googles adoption of dual-class share structure shows the co-founders and the CEOs intent of keeping control in their hands. These shares are generally not traded and thus ensure that the company maintains a set number of loyal investors during difficult times.

Googles distinctive governance structure is justified because the company started as an entrepreneurial venture and thus it is not completely wrong for the co-founders and the CEO to have greater control over the company. Also, the top management of Google has high stake in the company and own considerable shareholding which directs financial economic risks at them too. They also aim to maximize the shareholders value because they are to benefit from it too. However, they maintain longer-term growth strategy that ensures sustainability and more stable growth for the company.

Googles Corporate Values
Google has a set of distinctive corporate values such as dont be evil, technology matters and, we make our own rules (Eisenmann  Herman 2006, p. 5). The companys co-founders intended to change the lives of people around the world through their services and this is depicted by their mission statement Googles mission is to organize the worlds information and make it universally accessible and useful. The company has realized the extent and amount of knowledge that is available and continuously being produced and they aim to index more and more of it so that their users have access to it all. Google Images, Google Scholar and
Google Books are a result of this integration of new databases and archives into search.

Their corporate value, dont be evil aligns with their mission statement and depicts their focus on maintaining the trust and reliability of search results. They do not manipulate the rankings of web pages and it is their algorithm, PageRank that ranks pages in the order of relevance to the search strings entered by users. Their ethical values are also reflected in the advertisements they put up. This is also one of their guiding principles that states democracy works best on the web.

Google generates earnings by offering search technology to other companies. It earns major portion of its revenue from the sale of advertising. Adwords is used by millions of advertisers to market their products and services while Adsense displays ads based on their relevance and connection with the websites content.
With regard to their advertising practices, they have a set of principles for the advertisements they place on their own website and other pages on the internet. Relevance is an important criterion as they display ads on result pages only if they have a connection or link to them. They do not include pop-up advertising because it is distracting for users.

The company has laid great emphasis on technology and continuously tried to enhance it. They made efforts to improve their search algorithms and the software for advertisers. They are constantly upgrading their technology to provide accurate, faster and user friendly services to their customers.
Googles management follows a free-style and has its own way of working. Google is a customer-oriented company. Their focus on customers actually leads them to enhance their services and develop new tools and applications depending on the changing needs and preferences of their users.

One of their most importance principles is that they believe in specializing in one area (doing one thing, really well). Their domain is search and so they focus all their energy in providing better search solutions and they can be in the form of Gmail and Google maps. The have worked towards the convenience and satisfaction of their customers. According to Google Corporate Information Philosophy, they call themselves the only people in the world to have a goal to have people leave their homepage as quickly as possible.
For further user convenience, Google has kept in mind the growing need for mobility. Users are constantly on the go and they demand information where they go at all times. They developed Android  an open source mobile platform, free for the users, offering search solutions on mobile phones.

Google has kept in mind the diversity of its users and offers search interface in 110 languages. This is why Google has managed to become a household name across the world. Even in China, which was dominated by the local search engine called Baidu, Google managed to garner a respectable market share.

The corporate values incorporated by Google explain the success of the company in such a limited time. It is indeed their customer focus, out of the box thinking and innovation driven practices that have made Google the worlds best search engine and web-based service provider. However, there are some practices of Google that are often criticized by stakeholders. Shareholders complain that there is lack of transparency in the way Google manages its affairs and business. Google has also been criticized for censorship of its search results. Google was also involved in a controversy over its censorship and privacy policy in China. Google launched Google.cn in early 2006 where certain search results were censored. This action of Google went completely against, Googles value  dont be evil. Google was opposed and in the eyes of many users its lost its credibility as a fair and just company. Google signed the Global Network Initiative agreement with Microsoft and Yahoo, promising to provide greater privacy for all and freedom of speech (Hogg 2010). However, many rejected the companys core values as simply hoax and viewed the company as financially driven rather than ethically. In January 2010, however, Google decided to stop censoring Google.cn. This was done after Chinese cyber attacks on Google and other U.S companies. According to Google, the attacks were an attempt to get access to Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists working against the Chinese government.

Googles Organizational Structure
Google is built on an informal organization structure. Its co-founders created the organization around the idea that work should be challenging, and the challenge should be fun. Teamwork is encouraged while diversity and creativity are highly valued in the company. This is why the company maintains a bank of highly qualified and capable employees who have ideas that are instantly put to test and action. The work environment at Googleplex is infused with energy and vigor. There are no strict formal lines of communication and bureaucracy to inhibit new ideas and innovative thinking in the organization. Employees are free to express themselves and have a say in the important decisions as 360-degree discussions are held. This way they feel empowered, appreciated and motivated and such a workforce is the most profitable asset for any company. It has also enabled the company to excel in the break-neck competition prevailing in the web-based search engine industry.  Googles work environment is flexible and fun. Employees are allowed to bring their pets to work and basically work is made enjoyable for employees (Scott 2008, p. 8). Such an environment is crucial in keeping the flow of creative thinking and innovative ideas in the organization. 

Google Products and Competition
Google has a wide range of products. Google search engine is the fastest, most reliable and widely used search engine. The most successful and revenue generating product of Google is Adwords. This advertising service is based on Pay per click (PPC) and bid-based model.  Advertisers bid for a string of search words or key words that would generate their advertisements which are shown as sponsored links. Adword ads can be shown on google.com as well as on the web pages of its partners such as AOL search, Ask.com and Netscape. The direct competitors of Google Adwords are Yahoo Search Marketing and MSN adCentre.

Adword leads in this product category. 
Adsense is another important product of Google. It provides web page owners a chance to display ads, relevant to their own web-sites content, and earn money either on per-click basis or per impression basis. 
The third most popular Google product is its free e-mail service  Gmail, lauched around five years ago. Users registered and made a Gmail account after receiving an invitation from another user. The most significant feature of Gmail is the mail fetcher and Google Talk is also gaining popularity. Gmail grew by 43 in 2008 and soon overtook AOL Mail. Gmail is ranked third after Yahoo Mail and Hotmail in first and second positions respectively. Despite Gmails growth in the last five years, Yahoo Mail and Hotmail still own the major share of e-mail market and Gmail has an uphill task of over taking the two e-mail giants.

Google News is the automatic news aggregator  page with various headlines collected from 4,500 publications worldwide. Google acquired You Tube in 2006 for 1.65 billion.You Tube owns 45 of the share in online video market. Through this deal Google left its main competitors, Microsoft and Yahoo in a fix. This was a good strategic and competitive decision taken by Google and although it has created a strong hold on the search engine market, it was able to enter and conquer a completely new market. The Google-You Tube merger will be beneficial because as Google has data centers that will help lower You Tubes bandwidth costs. With the decision to continue with Google Video which possesses 10 of the online video search market, followed by 6 each for Yahoo Video and MSN Video. 

New Initiatives by Google
Google works on the policy launch early and iterate. True to this innovation philosophy, Google undertakes some new product or service initiatives now and then. In early 2009, Google launched Picasa, a software application for editing digital photos. It provides photo library options and facial recognition and geotagging features. In 2008, Google launched the Google Chrome browser. The browser became an instant success as 30 million users use it every day. Nine months later, the company announced the launch of the Google Chrome Operating System as an extension of the Google Chrome browser. This new product offering is expected to be well-received by the users. The existing operating systems were developed during a time when internet use was not so widespread. These operating systems have become outdated and the Google Chrome OS is expected to better meet the needs of todays internet users.

In February 2010, Google announced the launch of Google Buzz, a social networking site. Google Buzz has been developed to compete with the other social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Google will have a hard time overcoming the popularity that Facebook and Twitter currently enjoy. Also, Googles Orkut had become a favorite social networking site only to lose the competition and attention of the users to facebook. Google must learn from its mistakes in orkut and work on its existing strengths to compete in this market. Google is trying to integrate Google Buzz into Gmail. 

In December 2009, Google revealed five new features it had developed. The first was the Near Instant Voice Translation (Kirkpatrick 2009). This new product enables users to use their voice to search information. The product also translates English to Spanish through mobile phones. The companys vice president for engineering, Vic Gundotra also elaborated on a new feature called Google Suggest. It is a mobile search feature which makes use of the users location to provide search results. Another interesting and useful feature developed by Google is the product which will inform the user about the nearest stores and the availability of the required product. Google has created a visual search feature whereby the user may take a photo and enter it for search. Google will scan and analyze the image and identify it. These exciting new products show the extent to which Google will play a role in changing the lives of its users. Google has had phenomenal growth and success and it has managed to survive in the industry that is marked with cut-throat competition. Google has become the market leader in the search engine area and is working towards developing and launching new products and entering new markets.

Recommendations for Google
One recommendation for Google is to consider e-commerce as a new market to be explored.  As internet usage is increasing around the world and the users demands for faster and easier electronic transactions are increasing, this area could prove to be a lucrative market that Google can possibly exploit. Another recommendation for Google is to increase transparency in its management and business decisions. Google management must increase the scope of Public Relations and become more open about their strategic decisions. They must give out the right amount of information to external stakeholders like shareholders, investors and users to earn their trust and appreciation, without losing their confidential information to competitors. 

Doing E-commerce in a dental supply company

This report basically seeks to cover the topic of business integration. For this report we will see how a specific business can integrate e-commerce into its day to day operations in order to bring in efficiency and effectiveness in the daily. The report will present three learning points that have been extracted not only from the class room discussions and literature review, but also from the study of a dental supply chain and how it integrates e-commerce in to its daily business operations.

Whenever a business integrates technology or new processes into a business system, it is very much likely that all the stakeholders of the business will not be ready for a sudden change and there has to be a complete analysis of the current information and future information needs of the business before any sort of integration takes place. therefore, most of all the people of the organization have to be analyzed in terms of their work, their use of information, how they process information, how there activities can be merged and what net change a technology implementation will have on their daily routine. Same goes with the current processes and technology of the organization because of the fact that the new technology integration for any business will change the process outlook and technological use to a good extent, therefore current operations and future operations have to be brought into line so that nothing is missed out in the implementation stage and maximum gains and benefits can be reaped from a business integration implementation process (Bauer 2001).

Issues surrounding integration of people processes and technology
As it has been discussed above, whenever a change is brought about in any organization, some resistance always takes place. This resistance can not only be narrowed down to the willingness of stakeholders to adopt the change but it also encompasses the ability of potential of the key elements of the organization to adapt to these changes. From an internal point of view, we can short list the most important elements in an organization as employees, processes and the existing technology that is currently being used. From an external point of view, switiching customers to the new system and attracting more are a major problem along with aligning the strategic partners who have to be integrated to the system as well. A small example of strategic partners can be the suppliers of the organization who will actually be connected to the database of the company in order to keep the stock of the company up-to data to increase efficiency and availability of the products to be sold (Clark and McKenny 1995).
Internal key elements

People
Whenever a company goes about to implement an integration plan, it has to first see what is the goal of the integration plan and how will the plan effect and at the same time be used by the elements who are the basic users of the new system. The reason is the fact that most of the times these employees will both be making information and also using the information that is now integrated with all the departments of the organization and also with the external strategic partners. Now the fact is that understanding the needs of these employees and the information that they will be using is essential before any system is designed. Right information at the right time and at the right place is the essential element for a project to be made successful, thus aligning the work responsibilities and tasks of these employees with the new system have to be aligned on the same scale. Moreover, as the employees will now be using the company website to make and extract information, they also need to be trained thoroughly about the new system as it is now essential to carry out day to day company operations. A system without any users who can operate them not only creates problems but also proves to be fatal (Joseph 1996).

Processes
Many systems and business integration programs fail just because they have not been thoroughly researched upon in light of the processes that the business uses to perform its daily operations. The reason why this mistake becomes fatal for the implementation plan is the fact that the new system is not able to serve all the information needs that are essential for these specific processes. However, if this checking and update is not aligned with the new system at any given point, the whole process will have to be revised through manual input. Then the question lies, what is the use of the system if the whole process has to be revised manually Even if one of the processes is missed out, the e-commerce or implementation system cannot be graded as an enterprise wise system and manual update of all the departments takes away all the effort that has been undertaken for the rest of the processes to bring them in line under one head.

Technology
As far as the technology is concerned, it is important to bring the existing technology in line with the new technology that is being implemented for the system to work smoothly. Many integration programs are designed flawlessly, they integrate all information sources and dispersion centers accurately, take account all the members of the organization and incorporate all users both from within and outside of the organization, however, there is one place that is ignored, the existing technological analysis and its compatibility with the new system which will be implemented in the new business integration plan. Now, the point here is that like all other analysis of for example the processes and the people, current analysis of the technology is also very important because that makes sure that the systems are in line with the new system in order to upload and download information through specific applications and the softwares needed to run the whole system. After implementing the new system and realizing there are technological shortcomings, the extra time and investment incurred to bring everything inline is actually the failure by the implementation team and for the business as well (Thomas 1998).
External environment

The Customers
The customers are the ones who have to make information especially in case of an e-commerce business. The reason is the fact that they will go to the website themselves and move around to find something which suits there requirement. Now the purpose is to help the customer get to find their item as soon as possible and at the right place as well. It is not desirable to make the customer look out at different places and still not having a clue about where to find their specific items. Therefore, the purpose is to design a website which is user friendly and is self informative for the customer to learn how to use it. Also, it should provide convenience to the customer by standardizing the outlook and not changing it again and again to confuse them.

Strategic Partners
These partners are basically connected to the business through the integration process in order to help the business achieve efficiency and effectiveness by lowering the costs and at the same time saving time, as time is money. Therefore while designing the website and the data base it has to be kept in mind that only the business has to be integrated to the system, but the strategic partners systems and processes have to be brought in line as well by understanding their needs and requirements and incorporating those into the system. This helps making available all the information that is needed by these partners, nothing more and nothing less (Moore 2000).

Means and Approaches of Business Integration
There are a number of approaches for business integration with technology. There is no good or bad approach that we can grade from an aerial view because of the fact that every business will integrate on the level which suits the processes and style of the business. a business that can use a couple of softwares and a few computers will not go for enterprise wide design of a system and redesign all of its processes by investing heavy amount of money and spending so much time when all of it can be done in much lesser time and money. This shows that advanced technology and the price of the technology does not makes it good or bad, but what makes integration good or bad for a business is its utility and compatibility with the business processes.

There are generally four types of approaches that come handy when we talk about business integration. These approaches are listed as follows
Mergers and Acquisitions
Packaged applications
Business Process Reengineering
Virtual Dynamic Supply Chains
Customer Relationship Management
Corporative Self Service
Business to Business Commerce
Application Server Providers and Hosting

All the above approaches can be implemented by a business depending on their need of information sharing both within and outside the organization. Some of the above approaches are quite extensive and may even encompass all the others under their name and some of the above approaches are actually specific to certain tasks and functions of a business particularly. In the case study that will be discussed in the last part of this paper will show how a dental care supplier integrates the supply chain function of the business with technology and reaps benefits (Palmer 2002).

According to the case which serves as the base of learning for this paper is ENG dental supply company and they wanted to totally reengineer the business and take it to the e-commerce category. Thus, the business basically went for the business process re-engineering technique in which it re-engineered the whole business and for that purpose it bought a software package which helped connect and integrate all the stakeholders of the business to one common site. This site made available relevant information to all the members who are the stakeholders of the company in the right time, in the right quantity and at the right place. The website runs on the basis of real time information sharing where the information is being updated as soon as it is made (Hirschinger 2001).

Business Integration with in and across organizational contexts
A very good example of the application of theory and practicality of the concept of business process integration can be taken from the case study of PG and wall mart. This is one of the most successful and effective example in which not only the departments inside the organization are connected with each other but also the supplier also keeps updating information as soon as it receives from the company.
The following diagrams represent how distributors suppliers business and the customer buying has been integrated in such a way that timely and paperless flow of information has been achieved by Wal-Mart. There is an information highway through which all the important stakeholders in the supply chain are connected and they actually make sure that the inventories level do not drop below a certain level and there is a constant supply of goods from the supplier. (Clark and McKenny 1995)

Case Study Analysis
The case which served as the basis for this paper was related to transforming a dental supply company into an e-commerce business supplier. The company has around 16000 products to supply pertaining to different categories and they have actually experimented to implement the new technology system enterprise wide (Moore 2000).

ENG is basically a family owned business and has around 1000 major clients to cater to. However, the methodology of doing business by the company was based on the manual data transfer and extraction. With this we mean that the company relied very much on the fax machine both for receiving orders and providing the status of the orders to the clients. For example if a client wants to have query about a product, he would fax the query and the order and that copy of fax would move to different departments one by one to see whether the order can be fulfilled or not. This is not only time consuming but also more costly than it seems.
Whenever a technological decision has to be taken, it has to be clear in the minds of the owners and the management that what areas do they want to target through technology.

At present, the level of technology that is being used in the company is mainly for data storage and records keeping. There is a Database Management System running on one single main frame computer which is trying to fulfill the information needs of all the departments in the organization. However, this information sharing is accessible to only the departments that work inside the company and is not available to the supply team and the sales team for security purposes (Charles 2000).

Another problem with this data base system is the up gradation of data and records. The system only updated the data on the receipt of the goods from the supplier. Although the order has been placed and the items are on its way, still the system would show a deficiency on which new orders could not be served. Moreover, as the data had to be updated manually time and again, some of the data would be missed out and would be shifted to the next working day to be completed. This created problems in calculating the current inventory levels as well.

As the case proceeds, we see one important research that many businesses fail to consider when they are implementing their technology and updating their systems. This is the market and competitor analysis. The reason why the new technology decision at ENG was successful was mainly because they knew where they want to be in the next few years, how they wanted to be there and where can they extract more customers.
According to the case study, some other major competitors of the company in the same industry are Aconite Dental Supply, Atlanta Dental, Applied Dental, Burkhart Dental, Conger Dental Supply Company, Darby Dental Supply, Discus Dental, and Eastern Dental Supply. However, the competitive edge that each of these companies will have on their competitors will be based on the presence of the company on the internet and the world wide web to actually redefine the patient care, practice efficient and effective management, referral relationships, professional and quality services that will be provided with just a few clicks.

Moving on with the case study we see that the company is seeking to centralize its information sources on the web and making it available only to those who need it anywhere any time. The purpose is to increase revenue, decrease costs and slash down time taken to service every order to the minimum so that more orders can be served at the place of one. The stakeholders in this project have been defined as all the major elements of the company (Moore 2000).

The ENG Web site will ultimately consist of four systems
 (a) The product system, which will include product search and an online catalog system,
(b) The customer system, which will include a customer account system, authentication system, and links to the order and product systems,
(c) The order system, which will include customer orders and delivery systems, and
(d) The supplier system, which will tie the products and inventory levels to suppliers for automated reordering.

The first phase of the project was the planning phase which can be clearly understood through the following diagram.

This is essential because the scope of the project has to take the budget in consideration as well because in many cases the budget increases to such extents that the project is no more feasible for companies to undertake or continue.

As shown above, the next phase was research based. The first part of this phase is to see how the competitors are incorporating technology in their business in order to attract customers and make relationships with them through their online portals. The next part talks about the information needs of the clients and employees who will be the key users of the system. For this matter the current processes in the organization will have to be studied that how the order is processed, what information the customer wants and what the employees want from each department to complete the sale and the order (Marks 2004).
The next part of this phase will be gathering information about the internet service providers through which the company will host its website. This is important as well because now this has to be a long term contract, thus, a vendor who can fulfill the requirement will have to be appointed for the companys website hosting. Similarly, a software package that actually accounts for the companys needs and processes will have to be searched for so that a package with the optimum facilities, specifications and upgrade options can be implemented.

Once the package is selected, now the above mentioned functions in the diagram will have to be performed in order to install the package on the website. The first phase will have to be the designing of the user interface that will displayed on the website and will be kept as much user friendly as possible. Then a process will be designed in which every product will be updated on line interns of details, specifications, images, warranties and price. There has to be a process in which all these factors can be modified with time as for example to account for the price change.

Now this is the stage where the company will be purchasing and testing its systems with the new software package that it has acquired. Systems need to be checked for compatibility and performance. The website will be created and it will be tested based on the specific processes that the company wants it to perform.
After testing the hardware and software performance, now is the final stage of integrating the current database system into the new website and e-commerce set up that the company has invested into. The reason for this is the fact that entire data base has to made available online so that every user or every stakeholder can access the information that they want.

In the above stage, the stakeholders will be trained both in meetings, training rooms and online drills so that they are fully aware and acquainted to the new system and any problems at this stage can be removed. This is the stage when a number of discrepancies come forth and it is better to remove them in this stage rather than revising the whole system back again from the very start just because of a small problem.

 This is the final process in which the marketing department will try to market the products not only through the website but it will also market the availability of the website and the facilities at other places as well (Guest 2000).

Conclusion and Recommendations
As the system is new for everyone, therefore it is recommended that the support function performs effectively and efficiently not disappoint the people in their early use of the website. The adaption process of the new system will take some time for people to get used to the new system and the new processes through which the information will pass. However, this has to be handled through helpful leadership and continuous feedback to evaluate people and their performance with the new system.

Moreover, another recommendation would to be to keep updating the security systems of the data base because of the increase in cyber crime. The data base has valuable information assets that are the sole property of the company and incase it gets into wrong hands, the company can lose key competitors.
Lastly, the system should be used to the optimum as it is intended because otherwise the system will not be effective in cutting costs, saving time and attracting more customers.

Customer Inserts Grade Course

E-business has become a commodity for a number of companies all around the world. It has become an essential part of daily business. The reason accountable for its success and wide acceptation rate can be explained by its strategic potential by which it enables new business models, Increases efficiency and influences value chains. It is very essential to keep in mind that E-business is not about systems and technology it is about managing relationships with major stakeholders optimally. Managing relationships with suppliers, customers, and business partners in a very competitive and tough global environment is very crucial for companies to survive.
   
Challenges
Sporting goods market is highly influenced by the outdoor recreation participation rate which determines the growth and trend in the demand for sporting goods. Participation in outdoor recreation by Americans, for instance, was marked by growth in core outdoor segments of sports activities with decline in the youth participation. (Outdoor Recreation Participation Report 2009)
   
The market trends and analysis of online sports industry reveals tough competition, demand or innovation and differentiation. There is continuous pressure on innovation, differentiation and focus on quickly changing consumer life style and requirements. Companies are increasing paying attention to issues of controlling fixed costs, reducing time to market and optimisation of production processes.
Overview of the Market
   
The current trend in online E-business websites for sports equipment can be interpreted as e-friendly as underlying computer and information infrastructure has matured and E-business is contributing to growth and innovation. ( Mohini Singh, Dianne Waddell 2004)
   
When considering the five forces analysis of sports market, it is revealed that the industry is marked by a number of niche markets. There are different areas of different sporting goods which are branched out anywhere from tennis balls to men and women apparel for tennis.
   
Sports market is a consolidated market and has achieved the level of maturity in its life cycle and there is a challenge before manufacturers to differentiate their products. Large corporations have undergone forward integrations to enhance their market efficacy and market share for instance Nike has focused on a niche such as golf industry. The companies compete against each other by supplying customized products to the final customers. The power of suppliers is generally strong as there are no readily available substitutes which can ease it down.

Structure of Market    
Viewers from United States have the largest traffic percentage of nearly 67.6 while those from Greece, Singapore, Italy, Germany, Canada, Mexico etc form only a fraction of 1- 2.
In terms of demographic structural analysis, Midwest sports, Inc attracts mostly male audience aged 25-34 and those aged more than 65 years. The target market of Midwest sports, Inc is consisted of college students or those professionals who access Midwestsports.com while at work.
   
For Tennis Express, United States is on the top with 50.2 in terms of site traffic while Japan is placed at the second position with 6.1 site traffic. This data is the evidence of the fact that Tennis Express has lower site traffic rate than Midwest Sports, Inc. The conventional visitor of Tennis Express is male graduate or college student aged between 25-34, having no children and browsing from work. The difference in the demographic characteristics of the average visitor of Tennis Express differs from Midwest Sports, Inc in terms of upper age limit where Tennis Express is able to attract audience aged between 45-54 rather than 65 plus viewers of Midwest Sports, Inc.
   
Audience demographics of the audience for Tennis warehouse match well with that of Tennis Expresss but in terms of site traffic it surpasses both Tennis Express and Midwest Sports, Inc with 68.1 site traffic where United States viewers are on top while those from Qatar are ranked second with 5.1 site traffic. In this regards, the competitive analysis of Midwest Sports, Inc is crucial before delving into available options.

Porters Five ForcesBarriers to entry
Barriers to entry for online sports selling companies are low as firms can easily control their costs to gain performance advantage over competitors in a short time interval. Websites of the companies are user-friendly, enticing to browse and sophisticated. However, website development requires high capital injection and needs frequent updating with the help of discounts, promotions and attractive features for online shoppers. Barriers to entry in selling footwear online are quite low which makes it highly competitive. Setting up online sporting items shop requires less capital. Also, the switching cost is quite low for users and is highly dependent on the buying preference of the consumers.
  
However the online sports selling market faces threats from hackers who can sneak into sensitive data of consumer profile, credit card numbers and other information. 
Bargaining power of buyers
   
Bargaining power of buyers is high as online sports market attracts large number of buyers therefore companies like Midwest Sports, Inc, Tennis Express and Tennis Warehouse market large number of items and differentiate the products through customization and customers preferences. Online shoppers of sports are very price sensitive and switching cost for them is low therefore there is increased tendency among customers to select the most convenient and user-friendly website. Demand from customers to improve services is enormous.

Bargaining power of suppliers   
Bargaining power of suppliers is very high as there are no readily available substitutes. Suppliers provide with the sports products and apparel. In terms of differentiation in supplier power, there is no difference in supplied brands. For example, Nike and Adidas are the most popular brands and supplier of sporting products but they supply products to the distributors mostly without any differentiation. The brand image and brand loyalty adds to the higher bargaining power of suppliers. Thus online sports companies depend on suppliers to provide them with the products quickly, cheaply and readily. 

Threats of substitutes 
There are no readily available substitutes which makes the threats of substitutes very low. There is low propensity among buyers to substitute as there are very few alternatives to switch. Also, consumers do not switch to substitutes due to brand loyalty, performance specifications and individual preferences. Although, there are trade journals and review press they cannot be a favorite option to shoppers due to convenient features of online shopping.Rivalry among existing competitors
  
Rivalry among competitors is high as the online sports market has entered its maturity in life cycle.  Online sports selling has enlarged the global reach of companies permitting them to raise their sales and revenues while keeping the operating costs low and ensuring convenience for the consumers. There are small competitors like tennisboom.com which sell tennis equipment exclusively but the competition from them is low due to specialized services that large websites provide. Also, Google and Alexa are coming up with equally tough competition with their powerful advertising and reviews.

Competitive analysis of Midwest Sports, Inc
A comparison of Midwest Sports, Inc with Tennis Express shows that Midwest is mostly targeting sports goods and apparel while Tennis Express has diversified itself into other products such as DVD and videos, books, gifts and other accessories. Thus in terms of marketing strategy, Midwest is catering to a niche market of sporting goods and apparel while Tennis Express has penetrated into the market of accessories too.
   
Comparison of Midwest Sports, Inc with Tennis warehouse elaborates that Tennis warehouse is also focusing on diversifying its portfolio of products. Tennis warehouse offers grips, videos and books relating to sports apart from its niche in sporting goods and apparel.

Midwest Sports, Inc website is ranked lowest among the other two rivals. As revealed by  Alexa, Midwest Sports, Inc has the lowest daily traffic rank while Tennis Warehouse is at the top with highest daily traffic. This will determine the number of pages that a number of visitors they visit.
   
The results are consistent not only in a global perspective, but also within United States where Midwest has lowest ranking with Tennis Warehouse leading the competition.     The reasons can range from slow speed of Midwest in comparison to other websites to extent of diversified products. The slow speed of Midwest is the major problem for the todays consumers who have less time for such activities. Preferences for high speed service is high as the 47 per cent of web visitors expect a web page to load in just 2 seconds or less (0.5 secs faster than in 2006).  (UK fast 2010)
   
Tennis Warehouse provides the fastest service which reasons out its popularity among online shoppers. 
Also in terms of target market strategy, the reason for low rank for Midwest Sports can be identified by the fact that it has not diversified its portfolio of products and has not concentrated on the younger market which makes the largest proportion of the target audience. The history and trends in sports goods industry show that youth are the largest buyers of the sporting goods and are highly influenced by discounts and promotions. (Richard 2006)
   
On the contrary to the other websites, Tennis Warehouse and Tennis Express perhaps have the competitive advantage with more viewers as it appeals to a younger audience aged 25-34. However, Tennis Warehouse is above these websites as it also appeals to 45-54 who are quite popular users of the Internet.
  
 Also, in terms of Google rank Tennis Express is ranked highest with the greater number of results linking to the parent website of Tennis Express while Midwest Sports, Inc is ranked lowest .(Google 2010)
   
This factor can be explained the speed and viewership of the websites. However, according to AltaVista, the pages that link to the relevant websites of these three companies are greater for Midwest Sports, Inc rather than other two rivals. (AltaVista, 2010)

Options to develop value added services
The comparison between Midwest Sports, Inc with Tennis Express and Tennis warehouse has elaborated that companies in sports market are facing tough competition as corporations are constantly trying to improve their products. Tennis warehouse is focusing on diversifying its portfolio of products by offering grips, videos and books relating to sports apart from its niche in sporting goods and apparel. Tennis Express has also diversified itself into other products such as DVD and videos, books, gifts and other accessories. Keeping the tough competition in view, it is crucial for Midwest Sports, Inc to focus on options to develop value added services to the final consumer. (Richard, 2006)
   
Midwest Sports, Inc needs to target the main opportunity and option of accelerating the information flow along its value chain to shorten the lead time, time to market and development cycle. It can look into ways to improve its links with the stakeholders including supply and distribution channels.
   
According to Yuan Gao, 2005 the online users behavior is very important in terms of web popularity. Users abandon a website if they feel lost or face difficulty in navigation. Fast-loading pages and user-friendly interfaces make website enticing for online consumers. Fast-loading pages require that the data should be reduced with fewer graphic. Following design elements can add value to the website of Midwest Sports, Inc

Presentatio
Attractive animation, text and images appeal to the online consumers. Also, the home page should not be cluttered as it serves as the cover page. A visit to Midwest Sports website resents a cramped look with all the logos posted on the home page which does not present a good look.

Visual appeal
Visual appeal is reflected by the color, text, graphics etc of the website. A website that is aesthetically pleasant with equally good functionality entices online consumers.

Interactivity
The flow of information between the user and the website is important for developing strong relationships online. Increased interactivity caters to increased user satisfaction and perceived effectiveness of the website.

Personalization
Midwest Sports, Inc can offer individual pages tailored to specific needs of customers. It can offer recommendations to consumers according to their prior behavior just in the same way as Amazon is doing. The relevant recommendation increases the conversion rates of web browsers

Navigation
Sequencing between pages is very important to facilitate users movement across the web. Unclear navigation choices drive users away.

New Web features
Midwest Sports, Inc can offer online shoppers with customer reviews and appraisals of different items to help them in the selection of products. Like Amazon.coms customer reviews, Midwest Sports, Inc can offer customer reviews which would prove not only helpful for consumers but also add to the popularity of the website.

Social network
It can also allow consumers make groups and forums to discuss the latest sporting items and apparel thereby making the site more interesting and attractive for online shoppers. Online forums add to the popularity of websites.

Web service
The options available to Midwest Sports, Inc to improve and develop value added service can be its strong Brand image, competitive price, user-friendly Web site design, quick service, and continuous innovation.
   
It can offer service that will allow consumers to customize and design their own sportswear by permitting them to specify the desired size, colours and the option to personalize sportswear with their name.
Position of supply chain
   
The customers of Midwest sports, Inc are mostly male aged 25-34 and those aged more than 65 years. They are consisted of college students or those professionals who access Midwestsports.com while at work. The products offered by Midwest Sports, Inc mainly fall in sporting goods and apparel category.
   
Midwest Sports, Inc ships the demanded sporting items in the consummate form which requires no further modification or service from any other company or supplier. Products are delivered according to the specifications and requirements of the final consumer.
   
Options available with the Midwest Sports, Inc include linking its supply system to that of suppliers. Thus it can link its software for managing its inventory and supplies internally with the suppliers by directly integrating with them. Such integration would automate the internal flow of materials and information and can be used as a means to communicate with the suppliers. (Richard, 2006)

Advertising
Midwest Sports uses its online business to be promoted across Google, with the use of a sponsored link. Having a sponsored link benefits the company as it the advertisement is reached to the consumers who are of interest in the product presented within the official website. Being at the top of the search engine results is effective as the potential customers search for a keyword and the advert appears at the top of the results page.  With the advent of Twitter, the option to send to friend or twitting the link acts as word of mouth marketing.

Midwest Sports, Inc relies heavily on twitter for social networking and promotion while its competitors Tennis warehouse and Tennis Express have used the popular medium of facebook to advertise their companies.
   
In order to reach younger audience, social networking though facebook is crucial as it is popular networking site among youth.
   
Midwest is at the lowest position in traffic rank in USA and globally according to Alexa. One reason for this could be lack of any forums. Midwest uses blogs but it is not enough for increasing web traffic. Midwest provides regular content to the search engines so that e-commerce sites get more traffic through blogging. Tennis Warehouse uses message board which is a user generated content and a best way of increasing web traffic.

New market segments
A comparison of Midwest Sports, Inc with Tennis Express shows that Midwest is mostly targeting sports goods and apparel while Tennis Express has diversified itself into other products such as DVD and videos, books, gifts and other accessories. Thus in terms of marketing strategy, Midwest is catering to a niche market of sporting goods and apparel while Tennis Express has penetrated into the market of accessories too. Midwest can also look for diversifying its portfolio of products to attract lager number of audience.

Globalisation
Tennis Warehouse has additional linkages with international customers while other companies have not managed to find a way to have a relationship with international customers. This could be the reason why Midwest Sport is falling behind in terms of traffic. With increased globalization, it is essential to provide users with the value added services such as currency convertor. Tennis warehouse provides its customers with a currency convertor option while such option is not available with Midwest Sports website. Also, use of generic languages for customers in France, Netherlands etc plays
   
Moreover, Tennis Express has an offline store which represents offline marketing of brand awareness to customers so they have already seen the company from a tangible view which shows the companies brand to the customer so they know the website is worthy to go online to purchase products. (Richard, 2006)
Partnerships
Midwest can look for partnerships with the suppliers to offer it with quick and cheaper deliveries. On way to achieve efficiency in terms of partnerships is to integrate the internal management of supplies with the external suppliers.

Symbiotic
It is important for Midwest to not only preserve the existing customer base butalso continue differentiating its services.For a successful symbiotic relationship, one company needs to deploy resources through which benefits would be achieved by a single company. (Arnold Picot et al 2008)
It needs to symbiotic and synergies to create new revenue generating solutions and services. For Example, it can offer synergies with search engines such as Google for increasing its traffic. 

Acquisition
Midwest can consider buying another website for catering to the similar customer base but it is marked by a number of risks and threats. For example, acquiring a new website would diversify its portfolio of business thus asking for more attention and capital requirement. At this stage, this does not seem as viable option for Midwest sports. Purchasing another site rather than attracting new customers may not be an economic option as it would require increase capital and can dilute the brand image.

Financial appraisal
In terms of financial appraisal, Tennis Express shows healthy outlook with sufficient revenues and growth. Tennis Warehouse is also marked by low leverage and higher profitability. If the NPV is calculated, it reveals that the breakeven is achieved at a lower volume for Tennis Express as compared to Midwest Sports. Achieving breakeven at a lower volume is beneficial as it enables the company to cover fixed costs and variable costs and then profit is spread over the additional volume. In terms of financial appraisal, Midwest offers a bleak picture as the revenues are not growing at a pace with its competitors which can prove a serious problem in the long run.
   
Midwest needs to offer new services and look for value addition to raise its revenues to compete with the financial performance of its competitors. (Richard, 2006)

Recommendations
Use attractive animation, text and images to appeal to the online consumers. Website that is aesthetically pleasant with equally good functionality entices online consumers thus Midwest needs to focus on esthetic as well as functional aspects of the website.
   
It needs to allow increased interactivity with its customers to increase user satisfaction and perceived effectiveness of the website. It can offer value added services such as recommendations to consumers according to their prior behavior just in the same way as Amazon is doing. The relevant recommendation increases the conversion rates of web browsers.
   
It can also provide customer online chat service with an expert who could guide the customers in choosing their best and most suitable tennis products like the way Dell has introduced this feature. By introducing this feature, Midwest would be able to attract more online customers it would be able to analyze the buying patterns of the consumers plus satisfying each customer individually.
   
In order to cater to global audience, it can focus on features such as currency convertor, use of generic language and localized discussion forums for the customers. Also, it can look for strengthening its brand image by using word of mouth advertising by blogging and Facebook. Since Blogging and Facebook can be more interactive than a website so Midwest should be focusing on its Blogs and Facebook fan pages too simultaneously. These are yet other techniques to get customer inputs and try to satisfy them.
  
 In order to attract traffic to website, it is crucial to focus on online adverts by search engines and symbiotic. Also, the personalisation, navigation, visual appeal etc add to enticing traffic to a website. In order t build strong customer base it is necessary to focus on developing relationships with customers through online forums and popular social networking sites such as facebook. Purchasing another site rather than attracting new customers may not be an economic option as it would require increase capital and can dilute the brand image.
   
With increased globalisation, the proportion of international customers is increasing rapidly which requires modifications and adaptation for the diversified customer base. Modifications such as addition of currency convertor, use of generic language and social networking forums can add to the potential to access international customers.

Verizon Communications.

Verizon Communications was formed in the year 2000 when Bell Atlantic acquired GTE. Verizon now boasts of a huge share in the telecommunication arena in the United States and currently lies second to Cingular as a wireless provider. As a considerate competitor in the phone market, Verizon has subsequently invested heavily in an effort to expand profitability in the provision of broadband internet services. Verizon bought MCI, which was formally known as WorldCom in the year 2005 to broaden its customer base to 49 million access lines in 28 states and Washington DC. The company also serves an approximated 18 million US long distance lines (Hitters, 2009).

As technology improves, most companies would want to be among the first to reap on the benefits that comes with the technology. Verizon Communications has been on the forefront on this concept as seen in the adoption of the new technology that saw the shift from using copper cables to the fiber enabled FiOS technology in the provision of its services. To commence its wire-line business segment, Verizon Communication has concentrated on the Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) service, better known as the FiOS and is looking forward to invest heavily in the new technology. This paper will look at the benefits that come with a shift in technology while focusing on the adoption of the FiOS technology by the Verizon Communication.

How FiOS works
FiOS utilizes the fiber optic cable that are made using hair-like strands of glass to send light pulses carrying information directly to a home computer. The laser-generated pulses are usually converted into electronic impulses ready to be used by the computer upon reaching the subscribers computer. This new technology has come with an amazing improvement in speed with Verizon claiming that FiOS loads music and related functions at an approximated 25 times more quicker than the old cable system. With predictable large amounts of data expected on the web, FiOS is a promising solution as it has a high capacity of handling the increase in web traffic. Compared to the traditional copper coaxial cable, FiOS which uses the fiber optic technology is able to carry more data and at even higher speeds (Crosby, 2010).

Verizon FiOS
The news about the new technology has been discussed a lot in the media. This follows the announcement about the Verizon FiOS meant to digitalize all fiber internet services. This new technology has offered a major breakthrough in what has been referred to as setting of new standards regarding quality in the telecommunication industry. The break-through has seen increased speed and improved quality in services being offered in day to day usage. Verizon has won praises for having raised the standards in the industry and at the same time encouraging developments in new technologies meant to improve communications and mass communication for that matter (Blanc, 2010).

One may want to know what is so unique about the Verizon FiOS venture. Verizon Communications was the first company ever in human history to switch to the new fiber optic technology. This field had not been exploited before and Verizon has really changed the manner in which communication technology will be shaped. Before the venture, the telecommunication industry including telephone services, TV, and internet services relied on a cable system using the copper wires. The copper wires were quickly adopted by the telecommunication companies and are currently in use by a majority of them be it in cable or satellite enabled companies (Blanc, 2010).

Verizon Communications was the pioneer in the creation of the very first network that utilizes the edge cutting fiber optic technology in the name of FiOS. Using the fiber optic cables as opposed to the conventional copper wires has greatly altered the playing ground in mass communication. This is because fiber optics allows for increased movement to up to three times faster when compared to the speed of copper wires. The fiber optic also has high capacity to accommodate massive data on the web traffic as opposed to the copper wires. Copper wires were well known for clogging in the event that there were thousands of users sharing the cable. This meant that some users were to be dropped to avoid clogging hence causing inconvenience. The fiber optic data has provided a lasting solution to this since it can accommodate more information and traffic without failure (Blanc, 2010).

With the fiber optic cable technology, there have been improvements in quality and clarity areas. For instance, the picture on the FiOS digital TV service is said to be clearer when compared to the regular TV picture. The clarity in voice calls made from the Verizon digital phone service is amazing. The Verizon FiOS internet services are characterized by high speeds and reliability and this has been praised by the consumers of the service (Blanc, 2010).

The Future
The fiber optic connection has been hailed for its capability to carry all forms of information including voice, data, pictures, among other forms and these permits Verizon to provide FiOS internet, TV, and phone services on a similar network. There is no doubt that Verizon Communications has opened a new front in the communication sector and it is expected that other companies that are still using the satellite and cable technology will soon follow suit. This will be necessary if these companies would want to stay in the communication industry. This is because the competition has favored Verizon since customers who experience the FiOS for the first time are reluctant to go back to the old technology, having tested the benefits of the fiber optic technology (Blanc, 2010).

The shift in technology by the Verizon Communications has not only created a historic moment in the telecommunication industry but it has also provided a competitive edge where customers have flocked to Verizon to acquire the highly reliable, qualitative, and quantitative services at a relatively same price. The Verizon FiOS network offers digitalized TV, phone, and internet services which are highly improved compared to the old version. The optic technology just like any other technology has come with its share of challenges. The major challenge has been the issue to do with power outages in which case the copper is credited for reliability for the telephone services even during power outages. However, Verizon was quick to respond by developing the power back-ups that can be useful for telephone services in the unfortunate event of power failure. Some people have also regarded the inability to revert back to the copper wire technology as a challenge the FiOS technology advanced by Verizon. Nevertheless, the advantages that come with the new communication technology are more important than the suggested disadvantages.