E Commerce On Marketing Strategy Of Hotel Industry Marketing Essay

E Commerce On Marketing Strategy Of Hotel Industry Marketing Essay E-commerce is defined as the complete set of process that supports business activities in 1970s and 1980s; this would also have involved information analysis. The growth and acceptance of credit cards, automated teller machine (ATM) and telephone banking in 1980s were also forms of e commerce. The web first become well known among general public in 1994 and it took four years for security protocols (like HTTPS) to become sufficient developed and widely deployed. E commerce starts its relations with hotel in twenty first century, which was very different and complex than before. This way of business attract the hotel also for upgrading their business and here the marketing strategies of hotel industry become changed. Direct link with the customers through e commerce gave ideas to the hotel industry to change the customers expectations like when, how they want their needs and what is the budget of the customers for their product (rooms). The usual expectation of the hotels is that e co mmerce promotes friction-free-capitalism (CF. [Gates 1995]), with distribution cost reduced. It is easy to see that how this can happen, as the older communication system such as the post office, telegraph, telephone and the fax have all served but the cheapest, easiest, and time reduction way for the hotel revenue is e commerce. Many hotels have registration and payment done online. By the e commerce a customer can select the hotel, days and type of rooms from those automatically listed as available. Also hotels can order their supplies from companies that have e commerce services available. It also help the customers to choose their needs without thinking of time duration weather it is day or night at anytime. (www.school-for-champions.com) Although we all would likely agree that a balanced distribution strategy, which leverages both direct and indirect channels, including third-party sites and the GDS, is the best solution to optimize hotel revenue, if we will focus on the advantages of direct distribution. Specifically, we will look at how direct distribution is empowering hotels like never before to drive demand, generate profitable business, and maximize ROI for owners, regardless of the affiliation they may choose. Here is just one example of the power of the Internet to level the playing field across hotels of all types. What do the Royal Crown, Sofitel Brussels, Hotel Amigo and Hotel Metro pole have in common? They are luxury properties. They are located here in Brussels. They have different brand promises to their guests. They include an independent, a branded property, and representation company hotel. What they all have in common is that each of these hotels is placed on page 1 of Googles search results when s earching for Brussels luxury hotel. They are on the first page of a popular European OTA, Lastminute.com. And they are listed as a preferred placement on the GDS. (www.hospitalitynet.org) So, the Internet is an equalizer. Hotels can compete at previously unattainable levels. Now, no matter what the distribution strategy or marketing affiliation, hotels can compete effectively across all distribution channels. What this new playing field has done is give control for all channels of distribution back to hotels. In the excitement over the Internet as a new distribution tool, hotels unintentionally relinquished too much control of their bookings to third parties. With direct distribution, hotels can take back control of their pricing, their brand identity, their promise to guests, and their relationship with the customer. Most importantly, direct distribution allows hotels to take back control of profitability. To understand where the marketing strategy is leading in hotel industry by e commerce there is an example. In yesterdays model, hotels entrusted others to do their bookings. In Europes fragmented hotel industry there is not any coordinated effort for its distribution. Here, the mostly independent and small hotels are less than 30 percent represented in the Global Distribution Systems. The travel agents and tour operators were the lifeline to most hotels. In this model, the consumer had to use the travel agent and tour operators access to hotel information to make informed decisions, as there was little information available directly to the consumers. For those that did decide to expand their reach through electronic distribution systems, the Global Distribution Systems were the only alternative. In this model, the Brands provided the much-needed visibility. It gave hotels an identity, a way to be recognized. For the consumer, the Brand delivered a level of comfort. It was a pledge to the customer to deliver THE SAME as they traveled to unfamiliar territory. There were no travel- blogs or other review sites. In yesterdays model, the stars system was THE hotel review system that proved the level of Quality. Some hotels did see the Web as an opportunity to present their selves online, displaying information pages about their hotel, more like an online brochure than an e-commerce site. This while some Travel agents did embrace e-commerce and ingeniously moved their models online with dramatically increased inventories, promising mass volume, but at the cost of profitability for hotels. (www.hospitalityebusiness.com) Things are changing as it is mentioned before and it is crucial for hotels to stay abreast of the market. If they dont, their long-term success might be jeopardized by increasing and intensified competition. Hotels who do not diversify by leveraging the multiple channels can find themselves in situations that parallel the 70s in Spain, where tour operators dictated the room rates. The Center for Regional and Tourism Research reported that in Europe online hotel room sales increased by as much as 34 percent from 2004 to 2005 and reached over 25 billion in Europe in 2005. A further increase of about 25 percent during 2006 is expected. 120 million consumers are online across Germany, the UK, Italy, France, and Spain, according to Forrester Research. Broadband has become widely available, and prices have dropped dramatically. Phocus Wright statistics released last days predict that almost 40% of hotel booking in Europe will be booked online by 2008. Forrester, also points out that TWO of the TOP THREE most popular online activities for all users are travel related-researching hotel for holiday destinations and preparing booking online. (www.hospitalitynet.org) These changes cannot be ignored. Consumer behavior is changing and hotels need to adapt their relationships to reflect these changes, or be left behind. If we will focus we can say the e-commerce does appear to be leveling the playing field, and its transparency seems to be dictating the need for new distribution models. Now Why would a hotel encourage its customers to buy via the intermediary for less when it means even less yield for them? The Intercontinental Hotel Group, who was among the first to implement Best Rate Guarantees, even went so far as to implement a code of conduct and certification program for partner intermediaries. The hotel group eventually withdrew its inventory from Expedia and Hotels.com. Not surprisingly, then, we see why many hotels are moving to a consistent online pricing policy a nd have made their own web site top priority. In 2005, European direct travel suppliers booked almost TWICE as much business as the intermediaries with 66% of travel sales. (www.hospitalitynet.org) The Internets capabilities have matured to the point that it really is changing the way they do business. And so a new direct distribution model has emerged. This change in the online marketplace is not only changing how consumers shop, it is influencing what they shop for. Lets see what this means to competition for a couple sample markets. In London, where all parties are growing, independent hotels have had a growth of 21.3 percent, leading to revenue growth of 19.2 percent-well above the market average. Independents have been able to increase their ADR by 2 percent year-over-year, which has allowed them to see increases in revenue of nearly 20 percent. Reservations also grew for this segment, illustrating that independents can command the high price for the business. Independent hotels are also making gains in Paris. Independents saw an increase in bookings of 12.7 percent, leading to revenue growth of almost 10 percent. They are also seeing some other interesting trends in the Paris market. Independent hotels are commanding a $100 premium on their ADR as compared to the branded hotels in this market. While independents have taken small increases year-over-year to maintain this high ADR, branded hotels maintained their year-over-year ADR and experienced a loss in bookings and revenue. This data, from Travel CLICKs pr oprietary database, shows that independents can in fact compete with the brands today. (www.hospitalityebusiness.com) Indeed hotels have many choices. The choice of direct or indirect distribution is often related to brand affiliation and many times they go hand in hand. It is a business decision whether to go independent or fly a brand flag a decision that includes distribution capability, marketing, management expertise, and more that all together translate into a ROI. Recently, The Righa Royale, The Greenbrier, Grand American, and Grand Bohemian Hotel are just a few of the hotels that have left brand affiliations to go solo. Now the de-branding phenomenon is making its way to Europe. For example, here in Brussels, the Royal Crown Hotel recently de-branded. A brand is the product of experiences and is much more than a name or a logo. A brand is a pledge to consumers to deliver consistency in an effort to meet expectations. (www.hospitalityebusiness.com) Franchise/management company fees do, however, represent one of the largest operating expenses for branded hotels. When we look at the average GDS fees, we come to a sample reservation cost of $25; the average OTA reservation cost is $33. And a direct booking through Web site will cost only $7.50 in this scenario. These high fees can be over 10% of room revenue, which is as significant as having a  ¼ share partner! (www.hospitalitynet.org) Again, we come to the same conclusion. With a level playing field, direct distribution will yield hotels higher profits than third-party bookings. In the new model, every customer counts. It should be no surprise that positive consumer reviews have helped increases sales on Amazon.com and eBay for years and now are doing the same for Travel city, Expedia, and Sheraton. Today there are Central Reservation Systems and enhanced web booking engines that help hotels merchandise and differentiate their properties. New content management solutions help manage and distribute rich digital content including photos, video, room plans, and other brand-defining elements that need consistency across all channels. Today channel management solutions can quickly and easily manage the ever-increasing number of channels including GDS and OTA Web sites through a single user interface. All this, together with real time market based Competitive Intelligence, makes hoteliers informed and in charge of their distribution. In fact, those who have taken control of their destiny are being rewarded with higher revenues. Now that everything is so connected there is consistent 2-way communication. A wealth of market intelligence enables hoteliers to make even more informed decisions on their distribution and marketing strategies. And CRM-like applications keep hotels in touch wi th their most important assets their customers. Another way of e-commerce is Search engine marketing, which is an essential component of the hotel direct online distribution strategy. Almost 85 percent of Internet users rely on search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN to locate relevant information on the Web. Marketing is an extremely dynamic field. Search algorithms change, new search techniques and formats are introduced, new search services are launched, and new challenges emerge daily those keep search marketers busy. The result of web traffic affects a lot on those hotels, which are on the first page. Approximately 50 percent of people on the first page went to the second page and so on. Which affects the hotel and its marketing strategy off course. So the conclusion drawn from above is that competing on the search engines by appearing as early and as often as possible is of increasing importance. How a Web site achieves top position is not simply an adjustment of the Web page, but a concerted effort that requires time, expertise, and resources in Web site optimization and search marketing. Now another mode of attraction for the customers are how the web page of the hotel is made up have like how attractive is it and how much is it easier for a customer to search any information related to their need? If we will see in past there is an example, which can make it easier to understand. In a highly competitive northern California market, a boutique hotel needed to outsmart its competition and boost ADRs, revenues and occupancy rates. Internet distribution and marketing strategy developed from scratch. Actions: HeBS launched an aggressive Direct Online Distribution and Marketing Strategy for the hotel, including an award winning des igned Web site, email marketing, search marketing and link popularity strategies. Results: Within 12 months the hotel opt-in e-mail list grew from practically zero to more than 10,000 recipients. The website ranks in top positions on all major search engines for most popular keyword terms. The hotel website, supported by powerful email, search marketing, link creation and online sponsorship campaigns has indeed become the first point of contact with customers and over 50% of hotel bookings come via the hotel website.( www.hospitalityimpact.com) Many hotel sites are performing poorly as far as online distribution and search engine strategy are concerned. Why? Many hotel sites have been developed by Web designers who know nothing about the hospitality industry, based on input and concepts by hoteliers who are not experts on Internet strategy, online distribution, and E-Marketing. And many of them were designed as online brochures without taking into account principles in fundamental search engine marketing and online distribution. Such hotel sites inevitably produce poor results and few bookings. Strong search engine rankings require systematic, ongoing Web site optimization. Only a fully optimized site developed according to the best practices in online distribution and marketing can produce robust revenues, top search engine rankings, and position your hotel company ahead of the competition. Website optimization takes a comprehensive look at the Web site and prepares it for its best performance maximum user experience, book ability and conversion rates and yes, the search engines.

Organizational Culture And Change Management

Organizational Culture And Change Management The world has become a global village and so do the businesses. Competition among industries is becoming more and more global and businesses are facing ever climbing pressure to compete at this level. The market needs are changing rapidly and continuously and to cope with this, organizations have to keep on changing themselves to meet the new demands. The change can be a change in product or service, marketing strategies, change in management or IT system etc. but the most difficult thing to change is the values and beliefs of the people because its natural that people resist change. Cultural change is a difficult thing to do as there are people involved in it. British Airways had gone through a cultural change which started in early 80s when the company was in bad condition and was about to go bank corrupt. The newly appointed CEO Colin Marshall lead the change and took the company out of the crises and made it one the most respectable airlines of the world in less than 10 years time. This paper will talk about the problems with BAs leadership and organizational culture which lead the company to those crises and its affects on performance and this paper will also talk about the successful implementation of the change. The paper will demonstrate the analysis of the change process and flaws in the change which could have lead to better results if managed properly. Organizational Culture: Culture is the beliefs and values of people. The collective programming of the mind which differentiates the one group of people from another, culture in this sense includes system of values. Culture comprises of language, religion, customs, manners and education (Bode 2008). Language is the most important way of understanding cultures as this is the way information flows. Many scholars have been trying to define culture and they have defined it but it is always said that it is difficult. Culture is a very complex a phenomenon and cannot be captured in a few dimensions (Bode 2008). Organizations do have a culture and in simple words it was defined by Deal and Kennedy (1996) that the culture is the way things get done around here. Organizational cultural is influenced mainly by the leaders of the organization and also by the personal values and beliefs of the people. It is basically the system of mutually shared beliefs and values by the people of the organization. Organizational culture is a key component in achieving the organizational goals and strategies, improving the organizations competitiveness and effectiveness and management of change (Adeyoyin, 2006). BAs History: British Airways came into existence in result of a merger of two British carriers, BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation) and BEA (British European Airways) in 1970s (Marriott 1998). British Airways is one of the most respectable and preferred airlines in the world today. British Airways won the Airline of the year award in 2007 on 25th OAG awards (BBC news). This success of the airline is the outcome of a successful cultural change started in early 80s. Before 1980s BA was doing good as there was little competition in the market and BA controlled 60% of the UK domestic markets and faced competition on only 9% of the routes in and out of the UK (Redman Wilkinson 2009). Due to little or no competition BA didnt focused on customer satisfaction and other issues and carried on the traditional way of doing things which lead them to disastrous situations when they felt the need for change. In 80s the rivalry among the airlines was limited in concerned to BA because BA was controlling 60% of the routes (Business Economics 1982). The threats of the substitutes was also limited for BA because BA has covered most of the routes and had large number of destinations and left the customers some times with no other choice. BA didnt have the focus on customer satisfaction and profit maximization and this caused major customer dissatisfaction. Lack of punctuality and uncomfortable flights were the reasons for this dissatisfaction (Warhurst 1995). BA recorded financial losses of  £140m and this leaves a threat for the new entrant in the market. So the threat for the new entrant was there. Drivers for change: Humans change with the passage of time as per the requirement and situation at hand. Similarly organisations need to change as well to adapt to the changing internal and external environment. A need of change can arise from two kinds of factors i.e. Internal and External factors. External factors include the competition, technological advancements, innovation, and deregulation of industry, labour costs, and access to resources, international economic changes, and government policies. Internal change factors tend to follow on from the external ones, and include adapting to shifts in corporate missions, changes in technological equipment and processes, shifts in employee attitudes and behaviour and corporate culture. In BAs case the initiating factors were both internal and external. The external factors were the competition, the governments threat of privatization, and access to cheaper resources and increasing prices of oil. The internal factors involved in pushing BA towards going f or a change were the internal rigid culture, Change of equipments and staff related issues. How the culture was formed? BAs cultural change was a success and still it is being used as a reference or a guide for the firms who go for cultural change (Mills et al 2008). There were four major companies who went through cultural change and some of the reasons among them were common, e.g. threat of privatization. Those companies were Jaguar, British Airport Authority (BAA), British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL), and British Airways (BA). The founders of a company or the forefathers have a significant influence on the culture formation of a business. The way they do things leave a long lasting impact on the followers thus become the part of the culture (Poole et al 2004). Jaguar and BAA for example have always had charismatic leaders. Sir William Lyons and Sir Norman Payne were both charismatic leaders and autocratic in style (Salama 1995). This leaves the impression on the follower managers and showed its effects in their decision making styles. BNFL and BA till 1984 didnt have any charismatic leader like Jaguar and BAA (Salama 1995). There was variation in departments which shows the values of each of the departmental head. Christopher Harding was appointed as the chairman in 1984 and before him there wasnt a single dominant character at the top management level. Because BA had its origin from the ministry of defence, there was a strong civil service influence in the company. BA had a strong and close contact with Royal Air Force and both pilots and managers were recruited from RAF frequently. These militants left a very operational flavour to the organizations culture. In a survey a manager said that we couldnt get away from the fact that we are on a mission and that mission is everything to us and the customer are just an unfortunate add on. The management and leadership style was not participative as the CEO and the former chairman personally were very distant from the staff. The technical knowledge was considered to be very vital and the managers were recruited and promoted on the basis of their technical abilities instead of managerial abilities. All these factors made the culture of BA very rigid and a critical cultural change became the only solution for the company to survive. The Change Scope: Background: Other than the increasing competition and fuel costs, old fleets, and high staff costs in 80s, BAs management had to tackle these issues in order to avoid going bank corrupt, Improving the companys financial performance fundamentally, pre-tax losses were showing a figure of  £240m in 81 and 82 (Annual report 1st April 1983). CEO of BA said in 1982 that their money is draining at the rate of  £200 every minute (Mills et al 2006). Convincing the workforce of the supreme importance of customer services for the success of the company. Improving the perceptions about BA in the market. Maintaining momentum and regaining the focus which will allow them to meet new challenges. The main reasons for this crisis on BA were its culture and history. BEA and BOAC came together to form BA in 1981 (Staniland 2003). They remained sovereign till 1976 when the group division was changed to a structure based on functional divisions. Still a distinctive split within BA persisted until the mid 1980s. This improper assimilation disallowed BA to achieve the desired benefits of the merger, could not attain a common focus, created management segregation squabbles and resulted in a lack of a unifying corporate culture (Doganis 2002). The funny side of the merger was that most of the BEA and BOAC employees were war veterans who used to fly military aircrafts and they had a great influence on shaping the culture of BA. BAs culture was influenced by military mentality with a purely operational focus. The employees believe that their job is only to fly the plan safely and land it on time. Customer satisfaction and customer care, profit maximization and productivity were not considered as top priorities (Bowhill 2008). BA had financial support from the government and was doing a profitable business in the 70s (Parker 2009). These were the reasons which made it easier for BA to neglect its increasing inefficiencies over time. It was getting even more difficult to persuade the workforce and the management towards the need of a fundamental change. The competition was rising in the market and customer dissatisfaction plus the employees absenteeism were on the rise and the need for change was critical. The 1981 survival plan: The merger in 1981 leaves the company overstaffed and the staff expenses were unaffordable. The survival plan involves downsizing and the staff was reduced from 52000 to 43000 through voluntary measures. A 20% decrease in workforce in 9 months was a major downsizing (Thompson Martin 2009). Freezing pay was increased for a year which caused more volunteers leaving the job than was required. 16 routed were closed, 8 online stations and 2 engineering bases were shut down (Carleton Lineberry 2004). The survival plan was all about minimizing the costs and expenses as the company was heading towards bankruptcy. The activities involved in minimizing the costs also includes the halting of cargo service and selling the fleets and massive cuts in number of offices, administrative services and staff clubs etc (Jones and Lockwood 2002). Things were not going right and the survival plan was amended and staff was reduced by another 7000 and the total number than was appro ximately 35000. The voluntary laying off schemes cost the company around  £150 million and the company ended up with more volunteers than necessary because of no job security and sinking conditions of the company (Carleton Lineberry 2004). Changing image of the Airline: British airways had a bad image in the customers mind dew to unsatisfactory services and relatively higher prices. A survey by the International Airline Passengers Association put BA at the top of a list of the airlines to be avoided. (Redman Wilkinson). To improve the image of the organization BA launched its Manhattan Landing and The worlds favourite Airline campaigns and raised the advertising budget which was  £19m to  £31m for the year 1983-1984 in order to signal a clear commitment to changing the corporate image (Leban et al 2005). Building its turnaround team: 30% of the old employees had left the organization voluntarily which involved senior mangers as well (Barsoux Manzoni 1997). Culture is formed by leaders and now these leaders were not there which helped the cultural change process. Newly appointed CEO Sir Collin Marshall was a very charismatic leader. He brought in some new blood to give the company a fresh perspective and to regain focus. In 1983, Colin Marshall made customer service a personal crusade (Reichheld 1996). Customer services were something absent in the BAs culture which was very rigid and he wanted to achieve a shift from a strongly British, engineering, and operationally driven culture to one that emphasized productivity and profits while increasing the value placed on customer service. Support from top management: To make a change successful the leaders need to play the role model. Leader needs to be the one, who actually put the change terms in practice, supports his team and give them freedom of expression (Cameron 2004). Collin Marshall in this regard was very concerned and he used to spend lot of his time in terminals with staff communicating and reinforcing the desired culture for the organization and its mutual and individual advantages. Employees were given the freedom to share their ideas and thoughts and give their suggestions about helping the change to carry forward. Employees feel listened to and feels themselves as part of the companys success. Education and Training: Change needs to be reinforced and communicated regularly to make it feel happening. A continuous training needs to be done to help employees adapting to the new culture. BA in this regard conducted a training program named PPF (Putting People First). This training program was aimed at the people to examine their interactions with other people. The main focus of the training was to build positive relationships and customer services. Nearly 40000 of BAs employees attended the training program (Leban et al 2005). Another training program conducted by BA was MPF (Managing People First). This training program was aimed at other issues like culture and its importance, the leadership, trust, vision and feedback. These behaviour moulding programs resulted in good and BA was able to move on towards cultural change. After one year of training with TMI (training consultants), BA moved into profit (Senior Fleming 2006). Make the Change visible: Change needs to visible to the outside world. British Airways unveiled their new planes at Heathrow Airport and their new uniforms to give the world an impression that they have gone through a change and now they are a better organization (Leban et al 2005). With in 10 years the cultural change program succeeded in creating a strong commitment to productivity, profits and customer services. The morale was higher and the companys image in the market was better and this change lift the company out of bankruptcy to become one the worlds most respected airline. British Airways have launched a new campaign in 2009 named ONE DESTINATION. The CEO said at the time of launch that we started our journey towards responsible air travel in 1984 and we have discovered that our customers love to fly with us but are concerned about their impact on the environment (BBC news). Getting over the resistance with the help of suitable change models: Kurt Lewins change model comprises of three steps, i.e. Unfreeze-Change-Refreeze. The first stage in Lewins change model is unfreezing that is when manager develops a felt or need for the change which can be because of declining profits or shrinking market shares etc. In BAs case both profits and market shares were declining. This is where the CEO Collin Marshall felt the need for the change. The unfreezing stage is very crucial as this is when managers are making the workforce ready for the change. This is the advertising phase where the vision and content of the change is communicated which inspires the workforce and gains their commitment. Brirish Airways in this regard conducted the behaviour moulding conferences named PPF and MPF to change the behaviours and make the people ready for the change. The next stage in Lewins model is the change it self. This is the stage where the terms of the change are practically implied and practiced. The survival plan discussed above aimed at cost reduction and than the activities like increasing the advertising budget, hiring new blood and educating and training the people was the change process which was very well lead by the CEO. At this stage continuous feedback and reinforcement is required to make the change feel happening. Collin Marshall himself used to talk with the employees in small groups and spent his most of time reinforcing his vision and desired culture. Refreezing is the stage when people start to embrace the change and the organization has moved to the new culture. This is the stage where the change should be visible and BA made the change visible by inaugurating their new fleets and uniforms. John P. Kotter in his 8 step change model says that a strong enough team is required to carry the change process forward. BA did create a team of new blood managers who gave the company a fresh ad current perspective of business. Kotters model emphasize on communicating the vision of the change and BA was up to the task and had a great support from the senior management as the employees had the freedom of sharing their ideas and thoughts. Leadership Styles: As mentioned above that leadership of BA was heavily influenced by the retired army officers and co ordination and co operation was missing and leaders were like dictators. When the new CEO took over he changed the way of leading as in the process of downsizing, some senior managers were also removed from their positions because of the out dated leadership techniques. The success of the change was because of the new leadership who acted as mentors, and by adopting the democratic, consultive and persuasive, and transformational styles of leadership. Analysis of the Change at BA: The Thatcher Governments announcement of privatizing British Airways was the initial trigger which started the whole process of change (Staniland 2003). The need for the cultural change in BA arises in the transitional phase of the economic environment. The airline industry in UK was facing a severe competition which was an outcome of the privatization. Airline industry in UK was put to work under highly deregulated market which historically used to work in highly regulated market. The privatization decision changed the historic values and beliefs of BA dramatically as the organizations mission in the past was to make sure that planes fly safely and land safely. Profit maximization and competition were not much of an issue. Changing the culture is an ongoing process (Schabracq 2007) and even it is fully achieved, it still goes on in the form of monitoring and continuous inspection. British Airways since 1984 is in the transition phase and is replacing some of its main historical values and beliefs to be consistent with the new mission (Salama 1995). Collin Marshall was appointed as the CEO in order to accomplish this required cultural change. Training and behaviour changing programmes and evaluation systems have been introduced to motivate and stimulate changes. But in some areas other managerial career subsystems such as selection and promotion, had experienced minor modifications. Despite BA had put great deal of effort into encouraging certain behaviours, staff did not collate its employment policies and practices around the new culture (Coles et al 2000). BA failed to institutionalize the change through their stabilisation action plans. Management techniques were certainly impressive, but not everyo ne benefited from them. In areas such as marketing, the criteria for choosing Managers had changed from technical to managerial skills. However, some managers still preferred the old fashioned recruitment procedure based on promoting and selecting people who were good technical individuals, therefore BA had difficulties maintaining the change. At the corporate level, the managers were now rewarded based on performance. The new appraisal system varies across functions as the criteria for good performance was different among different departments. This issue arises from the HR departments ignorance towards the different subculture. The HR department had been trying to impose its own values and beliefs on the rest of the organization and this was identified by Marshall and a new structure for HR was developed later on in order to give the department units more autonomy. This conflicting situation reflects a lack of consensus regarding the desired organizational culture as viewed by top management. Recent Issues: BA had won awards for Best Airline and Best Business Class, a total of 7 awards (Investors Report BA.co.uk). However, BA was also on top of the list of the companies that had complaints, made by the AUC (Air Transport Users Council), totalling 117. Air France came second with 110 and Ryanair third with 77, EasyJet had 42 total complaints (BBCnews.co.uk 20 Aug 2002). If BA adopt a strategy for focus differentiation, tighter controls on the safe handling of baggage, more effective booking services would require to be implemented in order to provide this quality service, thus gaining customer satisfaction and justification of price differentiation. This would inevitably enhance its image and reputation (Johnson et al 2008). CONCLUSION/RECOMMENDATION: British Airways had gone through many changes in order to promote this cultural change. British Airways lacked a holistic approach while implementing the change because despite of the HR departments attempts towards forming policies and procedures around the new culture, there was evidently a gap between HR and middle management. Some managers were still using the traditional approaches of reward system and recruiting people. British Airways needed to adopt a partnership model within HR. This model is about establishing a common interest in order to secure the competitiveness, viability and prosperity of an organisation. Economic tensions appreciated within this model, are fitting to British Airways unstable environment. The Partnership model talks about getting a commitment from employees to improve quality and efficiency and the acceptance by the employers as stakeholders with interest to be considered when decisions are made. In the beginning it will require a top to bottom approa ch in order to promote and advertise the change. However promoting good strategies which are suitable for all the departments and areas of the organization, as opposed to some areas, is the key to its success. British Airways need to adopt this model to promote teambuilding and working together kind of environment. This model will help in identifying the organizational goal by mutually sharing the values and beliefs of the people and they will start moving in same direction and the outcome of the change can be seen in the whole organization. British Airways is once again in crisis at the current time and is showing record  £401 million pre tax losses (BBC news). Flights are late and customers are facing some sort of the same issues as there were in 1980s. British Airways has a good history and current image in the consumer market. They might need another change in the organization. The change started in 1984 and still things need to be done. Therefore it can be said that changing culture is a complex and long term undertaking (Thomas 2005). It involves coordinated efforts by the top management to change its own values and behaviour and communicates it to the followers and others in the organization. Such changes must be reinforced by shifts in management education, selection and promotion. Culture cannot be managed on its own or as separate from the rest of the organization.

The Bone People- Relationships Essay -- Essays Papers

The Bone People- Relationships Relationships surround us all though out lift. Everyone needs some type of relationship, whether it's a friendship, family, or lover. People can't last without them, no matter how different the relationships are. In the novel The Bone People, it's based on the relationships between the three main characters; Kerewin, Joe and Simon. The relationship between Kerewin and Joe was very odd. They have a type of relationship that they aren't even sure about, they like each other, but don't realize it. It's starts off with Joe asking Kerewin: "Are you afraid of kissing," and Kerewin answers "I don't like kissing." (pg: 265) It's both a strange question and answer. Then later on in the page, Joe keeps on the topic by saying: "I thought maybe someone had been bad to you in the past, and that was why you don't like people touching or holding you." "Ah damn it to hell," she bangs the lamp down on the desk and the flame jumps wildly. "I said no. I haven't been raped or jilted or abused in any fashion. There's nothing in my background to explain the way I am." She steadies her voice, taking the impatience out of it. "I'm the odd one out, the peculiarity in my family, because they're all normal and demonstrative physically." (pg: 265) Joe is Sharing with Kerewin his feelings about family, and childhood. "I've often thought that maybe what happens to you as a child determines everything about you. What you are and what you do, a...

Katherine and Bianca of The Taming of the Shrew :: Taming Shrew Essays

Katherine and Bianca of The Taming of the Shrew The Taming of the Shrew brings out the comedic side of Shakespeare where irony and puns carry the play throughout. In my paper, I will concentrate on one the irony of the play, the introduction of the two sisters. These two sisters begin off with the elder, Katherine, viewed as a shrew, and Bianca as the angelic younger of the two. However, as the play proceeds, we begin to see the true sides of the two sisters and their roles totally turn around. I will try to analyze the method in which Shakespeare introduces the two sisters and how he hints their true identity and the events for the rest of the play during the first two acts. Although even her father calls her a shrew, Katherine has a deeper character than the epithet would imply. From the beginning we see that she is continually placed second in her father's affections, and despised by all others. Bianca on the other hand, is identified as the favorite, playing the long-suffering angel, increasing Baptisa's distinction between the two. As Katherine recognizes her sister's strategy, her reaction is as one can imagine how another would react suffering this type of bias for so many years. She is hurt and she seeks revenge. This is seen in Act II, Scene I, when Katherine sums up her own state: "I will go sit and weep/ Till I can find occasion of revenge" (35-36). It is an immature response, but the only one she knows, and it serves the dual purpose of cloaking her hurt. The transformation, which she undergoes near the end of the play, is not one of character, but one of attitude. At the end of the play, we find out that her negative attitude becomes a positive one. The shrew is not a shrew at all beneath the surface. The play begins introducing Katherine with her father's words of shame towards her when he offers his eldest daughter to the two suitors of Bianca. The audience is then given their first impression of Katherine from the Gremio, a suitor of Bianca, right after her father's words when he says: "To cart her, rather.

Wordsworth’s Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 Essay

Wordsworth’s Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 The sonnet, â€Å"Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802,† shows Wordsworth’s appreciating the beauty of London and demonstrating it as â€Å"emotion recollected in tranquility.† It’s characteristic of his love for solitude that it is set in the early morning when there is no bustle and noise. Wordsworth is in awe of the scenic beauty of the morning sun radiating from London’s great architectural marvels. However, there are numerous religious connotations throughout this poem. This is indicated in his choice of the words: â€Å"dull,† â€Å"soul,† and â€Å"majesty† in the following lines, â€Å"Dull would he be of soul who could not pass by A sight so touching in its majesty; This City†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The word â€Å"majesty† portrays â€Å"This City† as anointed by God to represent his kingdom on Earth. Dead in spirit would one be if he of she was not moved or appreciated its beauty. Wordsworth also uses the word â€Å"temple† a few lines down. He could have written church. The word â€Å"temple† was used to enhance the belief that the city was chosen by God. ...

Public Key Cryptography

Abstract- Public-key cryptography is a key technology for e-commerce, intranets, extranets and other web-enabled applications. However, to garner the benefits of public-key cryptography, a supporting infrastructure is needed. The Microsoft ® Windows ® 2000 operating system includes a native public-key infrastructure (PKI) that is designed from the ground up to take full advantage of the Windows 2000 security architecture.This paper describes the fundamentals of public-key security systems, including what benefits they offer and what components are required to implement them. It also describes how the Windows 2000 PKI components deliver the needed services while providing interoperability, security, flexibility, and ease of use. I. Overview Public-key cryptography offers significant security benefits when it's properly implemented. Like other enabling technologies, public-key cryptography requires an infrastructure to deliver its benefits.However, the public-key infrastructure, or PKI, isn't a physical object or software process; instead, it's a set of useful services provided by a collection of interconnected components These components work together to provide public-key-based security services to applications and users. This white paper has two goals: to explain public-key technology and its uses, and to describe the features and benefits provided by the native PKI in the Microsoft ® Windows ® 2000 operating system.Understanding both of these topics will help you to decide where you can use PKI technology to improve your business processes and increase your ability to securely handle transactions with others. In this paper, you'll learn what a public key infrastructure is, what desirable benefits it can offer your operations, and how the Windows 2000 PKI delivers interoperability, security, flexibility, and ease of use. II. History During the early history of cryptography, two parties would agree upon a key using a secure, but non-cryptographic, metho d; for example, a face-to-face meeting or an exchange via a trusted courier.This key, which both parties kept absolutely secret, could then be used to exchange encrypted messages. A number of significant practical difficulties arise in this approach to distributing keys. Public-key cryptography addresses these drawbacks so that users can communicate securely over a public channel without having to agree upon a shared key beforehand. In 1874, a book by William Stanley Jevons[1] described the relationship of one-way functions to cryptography and went on to discuss specifically the factorization problem used to create the trapdoor function in theRSA system.Since the 1970s, a large number and variety of encryption, digital signature, key agreement, and other techniques have been developed in the field of public-key cryptography. The ElGamal cryptosystem (invented by Taher ElGamal) relies on the (similar, and related) difficulty of the discrete logarithm problem, as does the closely rela ted DSA developed at the US National Security Agency (NSA) and published by NIST as a proposed standard. The introduction of elliptic curve cryptography by Neal Koblitz and Victor Miller independently and simultaneously in the mid-1980s has yielded new public-key algorithms based on the discrete logarithm problem.Although mathematically more complex, elliptic curves provide smaller key sizes and faster operations for equivalent estimated security. III. What is public key cryptography? When most people hear the words encrypt or cryptography, they immediately think of secret-key cryptography, wherein two parties share a single secret key that's used both to encrypt and decrypt data. Loss or compromise of the secret key makes the data it encrypts vulnerable. By contrast, public-key systems use two keys: a public key, designed to be shared, and a private key, which must be closely held.These keys are complementary: if you encrypt something with the public key, it can only be decrypted w ith the corresponding private key, and vice versa. Public-key systems depend on the mathematical relationship between the public and private keys. It's not feasible to derive one from the other. There are two fundamental operations associated with public key cryptography: encryption and signing. The goal of encryption is to obscure data in such a way that it can only be read by the intended party. In public-key cryptography, if Bob wants to send Alice some private data, he uses her public key to encrypt it, then sends it to her.Upon receiving the encrypted data, Alice uses her private key to decrypt it. The important concept here is that Alice can freely distribute her public key in order to allow anyone in the world to encrypt data that only she can decrypt. If Bob and Chuck both have copies of her public key, and Chuck intercepts an encrypted message from Bob to Alice, he will not be able to decrypt it; only Alice's private key can do that, and she is the only person who holds it. These two operations can be used to provide three capabilities A PrivacyPrivacy is a necessity for businesses of all kinds, but it's of vital importance for ones that use the Internet. The Internet allows anyone in the world to communicate with anyone else, but it doesn't provide security. Even within your company's internal network, if someone can gain physical access to your network media, they can eavesdrop on any data that traverses it. Public-key cryptography provides privacy via data encryption, whether the data is in the form of e-mail messages, credit card numbers sent over the Internet, or network traffic.Because public keys can be posted freely, complete strangers can establish private communications simply by retrieving each other's public keys and encrypting the data. B. Authentication Any transaction involves two parties, whether they're a client and a server or a customer and a vendor. For many transactions, it's desirable for one or both sides to be able to authentic ate, or verify the identity of, the other. For instance, before a customer provides their credit card number to an e-commerce web site, they will want to know that they are not talking to an imposter.One way that a customer can do this is by making the web site prove that it holds the right private key. For example, a web browser might encrypt a piece of information using the site's public key and ask the web server to decrypt it, thereby demonstrating that the server has the right private key, and proving its identity. Authentication can also take the form of assuring your customers that you produced a particular piece of data and that it has not been tampered with. Public-key cryptography enables you to do this by means of a digital signature, a concept which is an extension of the public-key signing operation discussed above.If Bob wants to digitally sign his company's annual report, he first generates a unique fingerprint of the report using an algorithm called a hash algorithm. Hash algorithms are specially designed to guarantee that even a single changed byte in the document will generate a completely different hash. Next, he encrypts the report and the hash using his private key. Alice (or anyone else) can verify the origin and authenticity of the signed report by first decrypting it using Bob's public key, then calculating her own version of the fingerprint and comparing it to the fingerprint she received.If the two match, it proves two things: that the report has not been tampered with, and it came from Bob. C. Non-repudiation Businesses require the ability to enter into binding agreements, whether in the physical world or on the Internet. Suppliers and buyers need the assurance that if they enter into an agreement, the other party will not be able to repudiate the agreement at some later point. Digital signatures on electronic purchase orders, contracts, and other agreements are legally binding in several countries and in many U.S. states, and legal acceptance is rapidly growing. D. infrastructure Manage keys: a PKI makes it easy to issue new keys, review or revoke existing keys, and manage the trust level attached to keys from different issuers. Publish keys: a PKI offers a well-defined way for clients to locate and retrieve public keys and information about whether a specific key is valid or not. Without the ability to retrieve keys and know that they are valid, your users can't make use of public key services.Use keys: a PKI provides an easy-to-use way for users to use keys—not just by moving keys around where they're needed, but also by providing easy-to-use applications that perform public-key cryptographic operations, making it possible to provide security for e-mail, e-commerce, and networks. E. A capability,not a thing A common misperception is that a PKI is a thing. In fact, it's a capability—the capability to easily publish, manage, and use public keys. Think of a PKI like a municipal water system. A wat er system is made up of purification plants, storage towers, pumps, water mains, and so on, as well as the pipes and faucets in your house.All of the disparate service-providing objects work together to provide a capability for users to obtain water on demand. In a similar way, a PKI consists of a group of discrete components that work together to allow you to use public keys, and public-key cryptography, seamlessly and transparently. The best place to implement a PKI is in the operating system. Operating systems already provide a number of other infrastructures, like the printing infrastructure that moves documents to printers and the file service infrastructure that retrieves files from shared storage.In both cases, the operating system provides a capability to transparently and easily use a network service, just as a PKI does. F. Digital certificates:packaging for public key So far, this paper has mentioned public keys when talking about the objects that a PKI uses. While public keys are required for PKI-based security, they're usually packaged as digital certificates. (It's important to stress that only public keys are packaged into certificates. The private key is never shared, so it doesn't require packaging—it's simply stored securely). The certificate contains the public key and a set of attributes, like the key holder's name.These attributes may be related to the holder's identity, what they're allowed to do, or under what conditions the certificate is valid. The binding between attributes and the public key is present because the certificate is digitally signed by the entity that issued it; the issuer's signature on the certificate vouches for its authenticity and correctness. For a real-world analogy, look in your wallet. If you have a drivers' license, you have the equivalent of a digital certificate. Your license contains a unique key (your license number) and some attributes (an expiration date, your name, address, hair color, and so on).I t's issued by a trusted agency and laminated to prevent it from being tampered with. Anyone who trusts the agency that issued your license and verifies that the lamination is intact can rely on its authenticity. At that point, though, the analogy breaks down—in the real world, only the government can issue a driver's license, so everyone knows that a license issued by Joe's Really Good DMV isn't valid. How do you make the same determination with a digital certificate? The answer lies in the concept of a certificate hierarchy.In a hierarchy, as shown in Figure 1, each issuer, or certificate authority, signs (using its own private key) the certificates it issues. The public half of the CA's keypair is itself packaged in a certificate—one that was issued by a higher-level CA. This pattern can continue through as many levels as desired, with each CA certifying the authenticity of the certificates it has issued. Eventually, though, there must be a top-level CA, called a roo t certificate authority. Since there's nobody above the root CA in the hierarchy, there's nobody to vouch for the authenticity and origin of its certificate.Instead, the root CA signs its own certificate—it simply asserts that it is the root. Figure 1: What a certificate hierarchy looks like Clearly, it's not secure to accept a root CA's assertion of its own identity. To verify a root CA's certificate, a trusted copy of its public key is obtained via an out-of-band method-—that is, it's delivered by a third party instead of over the network—and the key is used to verify that the root certificate is bona fide. Microsoft provides the public keys for many popular root CAs in PK-enabled products like Internet Explorer, allowing users to verify those roots transparently.Root CAs can also provide copies of their public keys for downloading from public web sites. Once the root key has been delivered via an out-of-band means, the user can verify the root certificate, an d hence the entire certificate chain. Even better, because each certificate's digital signature protects it from tampering, certificate chains can be freely passed over insecure media like the Internet. G. Public key enabled application Once your PKI can issue, publish, and control certificates, the next step is to deploy applications that can use them.A well-written application that is tightly integrated with the rest of the PKI can make the use of public-key cryptography all but transparent to the user. The user should not need to know how cryptography works, where certificates are stored, or any of the other details—they should simply indicate what they want done, and leave it to the applications and the PKI to make it happen. Applications can use digital certificates to deliver the benefits of public-key cryptography, and they can combine cryptographic functions like signing and encryption to make possible e-commerce, secure network access, or other desirable services.All Microsoft applications that use public-key cryptography are natively public-key enabled. For example, the Microsoft Outlook ® messaging and collaboration client offers built-in signing and encryption support, combined with the ability to use certificate publishers and root certificates from a number of sources. Internet Explorer, Microsoft Money, and Internet Information Server provide the ability to set up encrypted web sessions. PKI-enabled applications can build on industry-standard protocols to speed development and allow easy interoperability with other organizations, too.H. Hardware support The increasing market demand for PKI implementations has spurred hardware vendors to develop cryptographic hardware, including smart cards, PC cards, and PCI cards that offer onboard cryptographic processing. These hardware devices offer a wide range of capabilities. On the low end, smartcards offer limited cryptographic processing combined with secure key storage; on the high end, multi processor crypto-accelerators allow high-volume web services to secure data without suffering from bottlenecks caused by software cryptographic modules.The best thing about PKI hardware devices is that they're optional—if your application requires additional performance or security, you can add hardware to provide it as necessary, but you can still build a completely functional PKI in software. I. Models The standalone CA model The standalone CA model (see Figure 2) is probably familiar to you if you've used SSL-protected web sites. In the standalone model, some third-party entity holds the root key and certificate for your organization, and it issues and revokes all certificates for your users.This third party might be a commercial CA like VeriSign, Thawte, Belsign, or GTE Cybertrust; it could also be a bank, a law firm, a trade association, or any other organization that you trust to issue certificates on your behalf. Figure 2: The standalone CA model This model allows trus t both within and outside your organization, so you can exchange secure e-mail and e-commerce transactions with outsiders. Standalone CAs also free you from the complexities of issuing, revoking, and tracking certificates.However, it requires you to trust some outside entity with your certificate management, and many third-party CAs levy an individual charge for each issued certificate. The enterprise CA model In this model (see Figure 3), your enterprise acts as its own CA, issuing and revoking certificates subject to your business requirements. Because no outsourcing provider is involved, your organization maintains complete control over its PKI. In addition to that control, though, you can guarantee that no one outside the enterprise can obtain a certificate unless you issue it to them.This model works well for controlling access to internal resources, or for generating certificates whose attributes would be meaningless to an outside entity. For example, you could issue certifica tes to managers that would allow them to make electronic travel reservations through the company travel office. Figure 3: The enterprise CA model Enterprise CAs with subordinates You can expand the flexibility of the enterprise CA model by adding subordinate CAs for individual departments, business units, or subdivisions of the organization. Most organizations already delegate some amount of administrative control to their subunits.For example, individual managers at most companies have some level of purchasing authority; higher-ranking managers can write bigger checks. Even though there's a centralized purchasing department that does much of the enterprise-wide buying, individual units still have the ability to perform day-to-day purchasing tasks. Choose your trust model If the choice of a CA model is the most important one you face when implementing a PKI, choosing a trust model comes in a very close second. When you trust a root, you're making an implicit statement that you trust them to be careful about who they issue certificates to.In this case, careful isn't quite the right word; what you're really saying is that you trust them to follow their prescribed policies and procedures to verify the identity of a certificate holder when they issue the certificate. When you choose to trust a root certificate, you're also choosing to trust certificates signed by that root. Depending on the CA model you use, the practical impact of this choice could be large (as when you choose to trust a large, widely used commercial root CA) or small (like deciding to trust your own accounting department).Normally these decisions are made for the enterprise as a whole; however, the Windows 2000 PKI allows individual users (or their administrators) to make their own trust decisions. In addition, administrators may override or augment user trust decisions with group policies. You also have to choose what you trust certificates to be used for. The X. 509 v3 certificate standard all ows you to specify whether certificates can be used for signing, encryption, or both. For example, you might want to give everyone signature certificates but restrict the use of encryption-capable certificates to certain departments or individuals.Microsoft has extended this feature to allow you to specify additional uses, including signing software components, logging on using a smart card, or recovering an encrypted file. When using the Windows 2000 PKI, the issuer has total control over what the certificate can be used for. IV Conclusion Public key cryptography offers critical business advantages, including the ability to conduct e-commerce and normal business operations with increased privacy, security, and assurance. To deliver these benefits, a public-key infrastructure is necessary that makes it easy to manage, publish and use public keys.Windows 2000 offers a PKI that is completely integrated with the operating system and provides flexible, secure, interoperable services tha t are easy to use, easy to deploy, and easy to manage. References N. Ferguson; B. Schneier (2003). Practical Cryptography. Wiley. ISBN 0-471-22357-3. J. Katz; Y. Lindell (2007). Introduction to Modern Cryptography. CRC Press. ISBN 1-58488-551-3. J. Menezes; P. C. van Oorschot; S. A. Vanstone (1997). Handbook of Applied Cryptography. ISBN 0-8493-8523-7. IEEE 1363: Standard Specifications for Public-Key Cryptography Single Sign-On Technology for SAP Enterprises: What does SAP have to say? [1] ^ Ed Gerck, Overview of Certification Systems: x. 509, CA, PGP and SKIP, in The Black Hat Briefings '99, http://www. securitytechnet. com/resource/rsc-center/presentation/black/vegas99/certover. pdf andhttp://mcwg. org/mcg-mirror/cert. htm ^ Stephen Wilson, Dec 2005, â€Å"The importance of PKI today†, China Communications, Retrieved on 2010-12-13 ^ Mark Gasson, Martin Meints, Kevin Warwick (2005), D3. 2: A study on PKI and biometrics, FIDIS deliverable (3)2, July 2005

Belonging – the Simple Gift’ by Steven Herrick and Ort – the Ugly Duckling’ by Hans Christian Anderson

To belong is to fit in, or to be rightly placed in a specified position or environment. The idea of belonging is a dynamic and an essential aspect of human life which can come through, due to the connections made with the concepts of identity, place, relationships, acceptance and understanding to oneself and other people. These aspects of belonging are demonstrated through the free verse novel, ‘The Simple Gift’ by Steven Herrick, and the fairy tale of ‘The Ugly Duckling’ by Hans Christian Anderson. In the very early stages of ‘The simple gift', Herrick displays sixteen year old, Billy Luckett’s, sense of alienation by using his first person character to highlight social issues such as hostility within his family, leading it to break down, and his feeling of loneliness and worthlessness of identity. This is conveyed in the poem ‘Long lands Road’, where billy’s internal conflict is shown through his un-satisfaction of his original community in which he lived in and was a part of, leaving him disappointed and also a sense of embarrassment towards his identity. He states this clearly with the words, ‘My Street. My Suburb. ’, showing terms of ownership of the place in which his identity currently belongs too, but does not like, giving us a sense of in closure and displacement. This continues as he describes his street, as he throws rocks on the roof â€Å"of each deadbeat no-hoper shithole lonely downtrodden house in Long lands Road, Nowheresville†. The use of colloquialism of Billy’s vulgar language, further demonstrates Billy’s displacement, dislike and disappointment towards long lands road, symbolising a decaying and depressing environment. Billy then ends up taking control of himself and moving out of home. Billy then finds himself on a freight train, in search of a new place to go to, to try and gather a feeling of belonging. After travelling â€Å"two kilometres down the track†, he finds himself freezing cold. The harshness of the cold on the train indicates billy's insecurity about belonging and this indicates that Billy desires to feel warm and needed instead of cold and isolated. He then encounters the train driver, Ernie. Ernie see’s billy and has a conversation with him. He tells him to â€Å"make a cuppa if you want, and here’s some sandwiches, too much salad for my liking†¦ Keep warm; I’ve got a train to drive. † This making Billy feeling accepted and belonging, and being made feel at home by Ernie and a sense of warmth. Herrick has used juxtaposition to demonstrate how Billy has gone from being cold, to feeling a sense of warmth that he is now being comforted with Ernie to the town of Bendarat. Herrick also creates a contrast between billy’s dad and Ernie, â€Å"There are men like Ernie and there are other men, men like my dad. emphasizing Billy’s like for Ernie’s character, as Ernie makes Billy feel like he belongs. In the chapter of ‘Locks and Keys’ Old Bill gives the keys to the old home to Billy and Caitlin. This scene symbolises Old Bill giving over ‘the simple gift’ to Billy. It also gives Billy the feeling of being accepted by Old Bill and belonging. He also learns no t only to understand himself but to also understand Old Bill and Caitlin. Billy also understands how to identify his identity and sense of placement by realising â€Å"I can decide what I really want to do here in Bendarat†. In the last chapter, Denouements have been made, and loose ends have been tied up, where the relationships between Caitlin and Old bill are now stronger and reconnected. The relationship is symbolised through the motif of Old Bill and Bill sharing the Weet-Bix for breakfast. The words â€Å"and I looked up into the sky, the deep blue sky that Old Bill and I shared†, demonstrate that belonging can go far, and the relationship between Old bill and Billy can grow together stronger, as well as the identities of both characters are enabled to grow further, to enrich the self-worth, self-esteem and self-growth of the individuals. Similarly, In ‘The Ugly Duckling’, when the last duckling was hatched, the other ducks took a look at him and stereotyped and judged the duckling, â€Å"It is very large and not at all like the others. I wonder if it really is a turkey†. The duckling was left out of society, with the same sense of loneliness and displacement, because it was not the same as the rest of society. The mother duckling then took her ducklings down to the moat, to prove that the ugly duckling was a normal duckling. Despite all the judgment of the others, the mother took pride of her son, â€Å"see how nicely he uses his legs, and how straight he holds himself. The mother then tried to include her son into the community, â€Å"I’ll lead you out into the world and introduce you to the duck yard. † But there too, the duckling got mocked and taunted, â€Å"what and ugly looking fellow, He’s too big and strange†, lowering the ducklings self-esteem and self-worthiness. And again the mother stuck up for her son, â€Å"let him alone, He isn’t doing any harm. † The ugly duckling that, â€Å"looked so ugly was pecked and pushed about and made fun of†. Anderson has created a sense of sympathy from the audience from using emotive anguage and alliteration. It got so bad, that the ugly duckling got â€Å"chased and buffeted† by everyone including his brothers, sisters and even his own mother. He was â€Å"nipped†, â€Å"pecked†, and â€Å"kicked by the girl who fed him†. â€Å"So he ran away; and flew over the fence. † The use of action verbs create the scene of the duckling being a defenceless creature being forced to flee, as a result of the social rejection on all fronts. Similarly to Billy, as he left home as he was abused by his drunken father as well. After running through a great hunt, the ugly duckling had encountered a flock of birds that appeared out of the reeds. â€Å"The duckling had never seen birds so beautiful. They were dazzling white with long graceful necks. They were swans. They uttered a very strange cry as they unfurled their magnificent wings to fly from this cold land, away to warmer countries and to open waters† The use of bucolic language used by the composer to describe the swans triggers us to gain an insight of how much love the ugly duckling has for the creatures. Like the change in temperature Billy experiences on the train, the magnificent birds fly from the cold land that the ugly duckling is stuck on as it experiences unacceptance by others and not being able to belong in society, as the swans move into a more accepted, belonging environment together. He then had to go through â€Å"the hardships and wretchedness† of the cruel winter, to make it into the â€Å"beautiful springtime†. He swept through the air much strongly than before. He flew over the water and re encountered the â€Å"splendid swans†. Bowing his head, thinking he would be attacked and killed, seeing his mirrored self. And was â€Å"no longer the reflection of a clumsy, dirty, grey bird, ugly and offensive. He himself was a swan! † The composer has shown us that after all the hardships the ugly duckling had endured that, he finally found where he belonged. It was a place of acceptance amongst the other swans. After a life time of torcher and alienation he could be happy, because he belonged where he was loved. Belonging is not a set list that must include a connection to people, places, objects and to the wider world, but everyone’s idea of belonging is different but it involves a deeper emotional sense of fulfilment and connection made with yourself, the relationships you have, and with the wider world, but this is different for each person depending on their needs and life experiences, thus forming the foundation of an individual’s self-image, self-worthiness, self-esteem and self-growth.