Victor Frankenstein Essay Example for Free

Victor Frankenstein Essay His horror at how playing God has backfired is exemplified more by associating his creation with Dante and hell, whilst also referring to him as a demoniacal corpse, showing tremendous contrast from his original intentions. Because the reader doesnt yet know what (if anything) is going through the mind of the monster, it is only natural that they can sympathize with Frankenstein, and pity him in his fear and disappointment whether they believe him to be foolish and arrogant or not. After him being occupied with nothing but his work for so long, the arrival of Clerval serves as a reminder to the reader and Frankenstein of his family back home, bringing back an element of normality in Victors thoughts. When he falls ill, he is cared for and written to, showing that no matter how much he may have neglected his family he is still lucky to have them to care for him, whereas his monster has nothing and nobody. The next time we hear from the creation is when Victor encounters him on his way to Geneva. Without any real evidence, he immediately blames his fiend for the murder of William and is no less than degrading with his description of him. Saying that a flash of light illuminated the object quickly gives us an impression of the creature being sinister, as we normally associate lightning with being threatening. The fact that Victor objectifies his creation also shows how he is looked upon by his creator as a simple thing that only resembles a living being. Throughout the next few chapters, Shelley makes us feel sorry for Victors family and possibly Victor himself by using the death of Justine and William effectively. When it seems clear to Victor that these two people have died because of his actions, he has an epiphany-like moment. Besides from the initial thrill and enthusiasm he first felt; Victor knows that his dream has caused him nothing but pain. He says that his guilt hurried [him] away to a hell of intense tortures, such as no language can describe, this is certainly giving us the impression that he feels sorry for himself. He becomes angry at his creation: I gnashed my teeth, my eyes became inflamed even though he has no proof that the fiend had anything to do with the murder, he curses him for it without any doubt. However he also reflects that I , not in deed, but in effect was the true murderer. This is showing how Victor is coming to take responsibility for his actions and suffering in shame for them. Having walked into the mountains and met his creature, he threatens and insults him; labeling him as a vile insect and stating his desire to trample him. He condemns the monster in such a way, although if there were other people who knew about his experiments and results, it could be that he would be condemned too. The creation replies that as long as they both exist they are bound together and that Victor has a duty towards him as a creator even if he has been so far abandoned. Not really acknowledging what his creature said, Victor becomes then so angry that he throws away an amount of dignity and begins attacking his creation in vain. His enraged turn to physical violence while the creation only wishes to talk shows a darker side of Frankenstein and is an interesting comparison as the monster doesnt want to set himself in opposition. He likens himself to Adam and the fallen angel; again hinting at Victors old desires of playing God, as well as the fact that he greeted his creation with the word devil. Likening Geneva to Eden, and the Creation to be the forbidden fruit, Victor also plays the role of Adam, who lived in paradise before the temptation for more caused him to lose what he had. The monster uses words like abhor, spurn and detest frequently, which embellishes his anguish further. The creation asks Victor: Will no entreaties cause thee a favourable eye upon thy creature, who implores thy goodness and compassion? This is clearly a rhetorical question, and it tempts the reader again to doubt Victor and consider how he seems to be selfish and doesnt recognize his creature as a being capable of thought and emotions. You accuse me of murder; and yet you would with a satisfied conscience, destroy your own creature. This gives the impression that the monster knows Victor sees him as sub-human, and not allowed regular justice as is given to normal people. Here Frankenstein uses the word wretched to describe himself rather than his creation, which leaves the reader to compare these two characters further still. Defeated in knowing that if he did not listen to the fiend, his life would most certainly become more miserable; he finally accepts responsibility and lets the creature tell his story. It is likely that Shelley uses the oxymoron-like term odious companion to express the start of Victor having mixed feelings other than hatred towards his creation. Although superhuman in abilities and monstrous in appearance, the Creation is shown to have all of the emotional traits of a human being. As mentioned previously, after he is first brought to life his mind resembles that of a child and he learns and develops knowledge the hard way. When he is talking about the time directly after he was created; although it is not said directly, Shelley uses short phrases fragmented frequently by commas to give a sense that the creature is bewildered. I was a poor, miserable, helpless wretch I sat down and wept. Because he doesnt understand anything and is left to roam outside with only whatever thoughts instinctively occur within him, he is incredibly frightened and like a teething child; he can only weep. As he becomes accustomed to the world he grows to be curious about nature, which he doesnt yet know that he is contrasted against, and this natural beauty inspires him initially to do good things. When he attempts to imitate birdsong, he realizes that the sounds he makes are uncouth and inarticulate; he is frightened by the sound of his own voice. He is shown to have a likeness to prehistoric man in that he has to learn everything himself. His first encounter with a human other than his creator is an anonymous old man. Upon seeing the creation, the man flees immediately, afraid. This happens again on a larger scale, when he enters a village he is rejected and chased out with weapons purely based on his appearance. This gives the creation a skewed view on humanity and leads him to start questioning himself and what he is. Soon after him being driven from the village he first sees the members of the DeLacey family, and is shown to have yet more human characteristics and emotions. I felt sensations of a peculiar and overpowering nature: they were a mixture of pain and pleasure such as I had never experienced. When he beholds the music played by the old man to the young girl, he is overwhelmed by the beauty of what he sees and displays empathy. It is here that he also experiences a desire to have friends and later suffers from pangs of guilt when he secretly takes food from the family in order to feed himself. The creation shows his sympathy and willingness to do good things when he gathers firewood for the family. His behaviour is altruistic, with him gaining nothing except to be able to watch how happy he has made the family by helping them. While staying around the house of the DeLacey family, his personality changes according to experience, whilst he slowly realizes the extent to which he is different from them and everyone else. He begins to refer to them as my cottagers, feeling a human sense of attachment to them, even though they are oblivious to his being there. His deformity betrays him when he makes out his reflection in a pool of water, and he realizes why people have fled from him, but still wonders what it would be like if he could keep the family in high spirits. As well as Shelley using these kind deeds to elevate him above Victor, it is noticeable how the creation constantly admires natures beauty, whereas when Frankenstein is building him, the creator simply ignores the scenery and environment around him. His aspiration to do kind things drives the monster to learn to read, and when he finds several books in the woods, he is led by them to ask himself whether or not he has an ultimate purpose, or any purpose at all. This ongoing existential crisis could be debatably the same for humans also, but it has a great effect on the creation because he knows he is different from anything within the books he has studied. He declares himself as a blot upon the earth and curses his creator whom he realizes he did not ask to create him. The main turning point for the monster is during his brief meeting with the blind old man of the DeLacey family. By this point in the novel, Shelley has shown us how his need for emotional warmth has swelled hugely, much as Victors anxiety that almost amounted to agony, shortly before he was to become heavily disappointed also, and drawing yet another comparison between the two protagonists. The creation is well spoken when he finally comes to have a conversation with a member of the family, showing how much effort he has put into his quest for company. The fact that to the blind man he seems like any other normal person helps Shelley to create more sympathy when he is eventually driven away. The creation tells the old man how he tenderly loves the cottagers, confirming the feeling of attachment which has only been hinted at before. But they believe that I wish to injure them, and it is that prejudice which I wish to overcome. This quotation shows how the monster has learnt exactly why he is rejected by human beings, but still hopes that he can salvage some friendship from them. The old man says to him how there is something in his words that persuades him that he is sincere, embellishing further the point that the creation is perfectly capable of passing as a human without his visual deformities. When the two young members of the family return, however, the creation is clinging to the legs of the blind man in a desperate flail for help. The aforementioned prejudice against him causes his actions to be misinterpreted much like earlier in the novel when Victor thinks that the fiend wished to detain him. With his hopes destroyed, the creation grows incredibly angry with human beings and declares an everlasting war against them. After how he has been treated this decision seems like a fair one, as they seem to be the source of all his anguish. There is a strange balance between him and humanity in that although to him they appear to be beautiful creatures that he only wants to interact with; their actions toward him are always negative. Whereas the creations actions toward mankind are at first positive, and to them he appears to be a vile and hideous monster to be scorned and avoided. He insinuates this himself when he finds the locket containing a picture of Elizabeth. I was ever deprived of the delights that such beautiful creatures could bestow in regarding me, would have changed that air of divine benignity to one of expressive disgust and affright. This is exemplified again when he rescues a young girl from drowning and is shot in return; again only trying to do good but seeing his own benign actions misinterpreted. This then leads him firstly to attempt to kidnap William, who even as a young child is shown to be prejudiced against him. To the reader his decision to kill who he knows to be a relative of Frankenstein seems less shocking because of his miserable story so far. Being kind to humans has only resulted in their rejection of him, and so it seems almost justified that he should take the opposite direction. After the deed is done, he tells how his heart swelled with exultation and hellish triumph and goes on to mention how he will enjoy punishing his creator further. Here is the creations transformation into the vengeful being that he is seen as to other characters. When the creation asks for his own companion it is no surprise due to his attitudes toward the creation so far that Victor initially refuses. It is easy for us to be compassionate toward the monster, because he only wants what we has humans mostly want, and that is to not be alone. He does not ask for much, and is willing to be banished and cast away by humankind if he can only have an Eve for him as Adam. As the story in this segment is told from Victors point of view, it contains much less sympathy and we see the creation again from the prejudiced human point of view: his face was wrinkled into contortions too horrible for human eyes to behold . However, Victor eventually softens to the creations plea, and sees good logic in keeping him contented, accepting responsibility for what he has created. I sometimes felt a wish to console him; but when I looked upon him, when I saw the filthy mass that moved and talked, my heart sickened This shows consideration for the monster but this time from Victors point of view. It is again reiterating how other than his appearance and strength, the monster is just like a human, and is capable of feeling emotions and receiving pity. Doubts about the benefit of creating a companion begin to manifest themselves in Victor as he grows nearer to creating his second creature. Unlike the first time he carried out this task, his heart is not in it as he knows that what he creates will be nothing like his original intentions that he had years ago. Just as now all Victor wishes to do is to settle down with Elizabeth, the creations only desire is to have a partner also. It is ironic that after Victor destroys what was to be the monsters companion, the creation says how despite Victor being his creator, he is his creators master. The creation is clearly mortified and crushed by Victors actions, knowing that he has been condemned to suffer alone, even after enduring incalculable fatigue, and cold, and hunger. Victor remains inexorable despite all of the creations threats and in the heat of the moment doesnt seem to care that this choice will probably be his own undoing. Strangely, when being tortured by the fiend, as well as being consumed by guilt, Victor is faintly selfish. He says no creature had ever been so miserable as I was although to the reader it is glaringly clear that the monster has been lonely much longer than he has, and that if the creation is trying to prove a point to his master, then Victor is stubbornly refusing to take note of it. When everything dear to him is lost, he sees that his only remaining duty is to destroy what he has unleashed on the world. His dedication to his final quest is shown at the beginning of the novel, where Waltons description of him shows us how he has driven himself to death. His limbs were nearly frozen, and his body dreadfully emaciated by fatigue and suffering. I never saw a man in so wretched a condition. Here the word wretched is used again, this time to describe Victor, and not the creation, and yet another time Victor has become emaciated by his obsessive want to achieve something, compared with how he became as he was building his creature. Not long before his death, Victor shows us how despite his stubborn nature, he admits that he has failed, and tries to teach Walton that he should avoid ambition. Even if it is too late, this shows a great change in Victors character and his view of the boundaries of humanity before he passes away. The creation boards the boat and recounts some of his point of view to Walton when he discovers his creators demise. In his closing speech, the creation talks about all of the death and destruction that he has wrought. Think you that the groans of Clerval were music to my ears?

How Wars And Terrorism Affect Lebanese Vacation Industry Tourism Essay

How Wars And Terrorism Affect Lebanese Vacation Industry Tourism Essay Introduction The purpose of this thesis is to discuss how the Civil War (1975-1990), the July 2006 war, the assassination of Prime-Minister Rafic Hariri and terrorism acts like September 11, has affected tourism in Lebanon. Lebanon attracts tourists from every place in the world. Its adorable weather, natural sightseeing, rich traditions and culture and engaged financial trade market have created an environment ready to be enjoyed by foreigners visitors. Lebanon, was known as the Switzerland of Middle East before civil war (1960-1965). After that period the country had this image destroyed by that conflict and it has been hit by negative publicity due to a series of circumstances beyond its control, for example the September 11 act as well as foreigner media spreading the bad news and horrific pictures to all over the world (Kamalipour, 1995). The Lebanese Government has invested and worked on big projects in order to accelerate the progress in rebuilding the countrys infrastructure expecting that action would bring the tourism back to its peak. However the impressions of violence and terrorism, lack of security, language, ruins perceptions, and cultural barriers, low standard of accommodations, and inappropriate infrastructure still deters people from visiting Lebanon (Kanso, 2005). The war and terrorism affected not only the Tourism sector, but also the Economic one, leaving a big financial debt to Lebanon since there were no more income from the tourists and from the service-oriented businesses, according to data collected from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) (Economy Watch, 2009). One of the possible solutions that will be discussed in this study is the use of several communication tools within marketing advertising since the focus on reliable mass-media is crucial, such as: newspapers, radio, magazines, the Internet and the television. Stressing on the fully recovering of the tourism in Lebanon in order to leave the image that the war created behind, massive good publicity is essential to spread these messages and offering promotional advantages as part of a destination marketing communication campaign as well. This paper will also cover another alternatives in dealing with this challenge such as: promoting Lebanon as a tourist destination, reestablish the Lebanese title of the Switzerland of the Middle East and rise the tourism flow, so consequently improving the countrys economy. The promotion and restoration of Lebanon involves many factors not just physical but also political and in order to achieve the expected goals, a list of specific and several objectives has to be developed. Bringing Lebanon back to its old position as the top first tourism destination in the Middle East was a long run process, although not impossible to achieve. The study will cover the essential role of Tourism in Lebanons economy, development and stability as well the difficulties that the country passed through: from overcoming obstacles, political problems and traces from the war to a 1st tourist destination title achieved in 2009 (The New York Times, 2009). Methodology The methodology used to perform this study was done in 3 phases. 1) First was the collection of secondary data from the Lebanese Ministry of Tourism. 2) Intense workloads on articles, research on publications, books and news about the topic monitored by our supervisor. 3) Finalizing by analyzing, interpreting and writing the findings, outcomes and possible solutions. Tourism Scenario In the Middle East Middle East Tourism has experienced a significant growth in 2009 keeping its bright spot towards the rest of the world (AMEinfo, 2009). Data collected from STR Global (Smith Travel Research) between 1st January and 31st December 2009 proved the statistics: the Middle East hotels had reached the highest occupancy rate, average room rates profit and revPAR revenue per available room globally in 2009, according to Deloitte, the business advisory firm (AMEinfo, 2010). Even though the global economic crisis, followed by the H1N1 had slowdown the number of tourist arrivals in the Middle East, the UNWTO predicts a growth rate more than double to this region by 2020 compared to the other worldwide destinations (Bundhun, 2009). Middle East have been investing a lot of effort in order to attract all kind of tourists from leisure to business travelers. Monumental constructions, huge attractions, fantasy lands, rich culture and peculiar traditions are some of their special characteristics. The air traffic in the Middle East has also increased, and a good example of that is that its duty free spot was the only compared to other nations to show a significant growth in the region (Ligaya, 2009). Taking the example of Lebanon, in 2009 the country showed a considerable growth (2.000.000 arrivals approximately), due to several factors as: peace, stability and the fast development of several locations surrounding Beirut and other cities (Lebanese Ministry of Tourism, 2009). Lebanon Overview of the Country Civil War (1975-1990) There is no agreement between scholars and researchers on what was the real cause of the Lebanese civil war , but all what is sure that the war started in 13 April 1975 after the failed attempt to assassinate the leader of Maronite Pierre Gemayel and the ex-president of Lebanon by Palestinian gunmen which ended by the death of his bodyguard Joseph Abu Assi (Ghazi, 1997). In response to this crime, the massacre or Ain-el-Remmaneh incident happened, when a bus with Palestinian passengers was shoot on its way back from a conference to the refugee camp in Ain-el-Remmaneh which was a Christian part located in the east of Beirut , killing 26 Palestinians (Ghazi, 1997). In addition to the assassination of the ex-president Pierre Gemayel and the Ain-El_Remmaneh incident, the distinctions between the Christians and Muslims raised due to 2 factors: 1) the Maronites power was controlling the country 2) the lack of interest in the development of the Muslims areas. These were convenient reasons to start the civil war in Lebanon. The civil war started in 13 April 1975 after this incident between the Christian and the Palestinians. It lasted for 17 years. One year after, in June 1976 the Syrians joined the civil war in order to support the Christian against the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Progressive Socialist Party which was under the Druze command. In January 1989 six-member committee on Lebanon were chosen by the Arab League which was guided by the Kuwaiti foreign minister to find a solution and stop the civil war. After several discussions, the committee organized a conference of Lebanese parliamentarians in Taif, Saudi Arabia, to study the Taif agreement which was approved later by the Lebanese deputies after coming back to Lebanon from the conference (Ghazi, 1997). The goals of the Taif agreement : Stop the Civil War Decide the Arab identity of Lebanon Make sure that Lebanon is an independent, sovereign, free country and final homeland for all the Lebanese. Clear the nations political organization as a parliamentary democracy. Make the socio-economic system a free economy (Krayem, 2003). Significant achievements have been recognized after signing the Taif agreement: The war was finished. Most of the Lebanese citizens got back to their normal daily life. State institutions restored their autonomy. The army was now integrated. The economic decline situation was controlled (Krayem, 2003). The 1975 1990 civil war destroyed Lebanons infrastructure and damaged its economy. And since Lebanons economy and the flourishing of its touristic sector is so correlated to its political stability, the tourism sector was totally ruined 180,000 visitors in 1992 one years after the end of the civil war compared to 2.4 million visitors before the civil war . The Lebanese government has been stressed with the renewal of domestic manufacturing, mainly the tourism sector which make 20 % of the countrys GDP before the civil war (Ladki Sadik, 2004). Tourism before the Civil War Lebanon The Switzerland of MIddle East The Lebanese title Switzerland of Middle East came due to the 30 years of abundance and prosperity, that the country experienced before the civil war (1975-1990). The tourism was one of the most important source of income to the countrys economy, besides the magnificent growth in agriculture. By that time, before the war, the country was worldwide well known for its financial, banking and business polo tourism. And Beirut as a trendy, modern and one of the most open-minded city in the region, was considered to be the Paris of Middle East (Lebanese Global Information Center, 2005). Tourism during the Civil War As we can see from the graph during the civil war Lebanon went through inflation and in the 1990 post-war period the inflation started to decrease. The same with the exchange rate which start to grow after the civil war stopped . Tourism after the Civil War After the end of the war in 1990, the country was ready to start its reconstruction, beginning by the government: electing a president(for the parliament and for the republic), followed by the re-structure of the army. In 1992, after the election of prime minister Rafic Hariri, a real economic plan was designed and proposed, known as Horizon 2000: The plan, known as Horizon 2000, actually consists of securing, over the period 1995-2007, a cumulative volume of public investments of $ 18 billion. These investments are estimated according to a econometric simulation model to generate during the same period in the private sector investments of $ 42 billion. These investments are expected to maintain an average annual GDP growth rate of 8 per cent. This in turn should raise Lebanons income level to the upper limit of the middle-income countries (Norkonmaa, 1995). The Ministry of Tourism started on a large assortment of actions between 1993 and 1994: Reactivating plans and deals with bordering countries to switch over travel tours were used to attract a lot of visitors a year Looking for industrial and financial support from regional and international organizations to accomplish development projects Structure a tourist database to present statistics on the percentage of travelers and visitors of tourist positions and follow up of the business performs in the industry Six tourism bureau in Arab and western centers resumed their activities after they were closed for a period of time Cheering the reinstallation of the local and the international festivals. Instruct employees for all the jobs which is related to the tourism sector like hotels, restaurants and all the attraction places. They opened Jeita grotto now being operated with recent technology Excused broken tourist services from taxes (Kanso, 2005). Between the 1991 and 1996 the development and the reconstruction process achieve significant levels, reaching an average of 6.5 percent growth in the GDP. Most of these construction was from huge sums of private investment, from the Lebanese emigrants and Gulf Arabs who were assigned to rebuild the inhabited and marketable buildings destroyed during the war (Republic of Lebanon, 2010). In 1996, Hezbollah the political and Islamist military organization decided to support the Ministry of Tourism in order to help the reinvigoration of the roman temple of Baalbek in Beka Valley, a major tourist destination in Lebanon. This measure was part of their strategic plan, in order to change their image towards tourist and citizens, and reinvent them not only as political group but as secure and indigenous social and cultural organization. However the United States government continued to intercept their citizens from traveling to Lebanon, whilst Hezbollah is still armed (Theodoulou, 1996). According to Heyer, in the year of 1999, the revenue generated from tourism activities contributed 7.3% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and an average growth of 14 percent between 1995 and 1999 proved Lebanons tourism was back on track (Heyer, 2009). However due to Israelian air strikes, the industry sector was prejudiced again in 2000 (Heyer, 2009). Because of Lebanons problem during several wars and conflicts, several Gulf cities as Dubai, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi replaced Beirut as a main playground destination in the Middle East, specially among the wealthy Arab tourists (Middle East, 2000), increasing significantly the tourism in these areas, leaving Lebanon years away far from development. The 15 years war, besides destroying physically the country, almost killed completely its economy. The tourism which was one of the main supports of direct income, was vanished for a long period and the political and government sectors collapsed. Besides the lives lost and those one injured, the damages, financially analyze were about U$ 5 billion (Norkonmaa, 1995). After the war stopped the tourism started developing again, and this time the country started receiving a special kind of tourist called the curious tourist. People who went to Lebanon they wanted to see the post war consequences, how is the life after the war and how the building were looking like (Raschka, 1992). The Russians arent coming, but the French, South Africans, Japanese, Greeks and Colombians are. They are all flocking to see what post war Lebanon looks like (Raschka, 1992). Lebanon lost a lot of tourists due to the war. The main reasons were that they were afraid to go there and also because everything was damage and destroyed. There was nothing to do there as an attraction but destruction. Tourists from the other countries were still few. The US is not encouraging Americans people to go and visit Lebanon because of its bad image created by the civil war. Before the civil war statistics showed that Lebanon had two million visitors in 1974, and after the war in 1992 (the first year after the war) Lebanon had 175,000 visitors, which was a big difference (Raschka, 1999). According to Abdul Hamid Fakhoury, President of Middle Eastern Airlines, his airline alone used to carry 1.2 million passengers, 85 per cent of whom were foreigners compared to 800,000 passengers carried in 1993 less than 25 per cent of whom were foreigners. All the industry in Lebanon such as Hotels, Port, Airport, and Travel agencies were affected by the civil war. According to the Lebanese Hotel owners Association 145 hotels were damage and in Beirut the number of hotel had fallen from 130 to 44 and the contribution of tourism to GNP which was 20 % before the civil war declined to 7.4% in 1977 visitors spend only 469272 nights in Beirut 1979 compared with 2307122 nights in 1974 which is the period of the civil war. The Middle East Airline lost a lot of profit LP14m in the 1975 and PL69.1m because of the civil war and in 1982 they were obliged to close for 115 days and five aircraft were destroyed. According to the Yearbook of tourism Statistics the number of visitors to Lebanon from 1998 to 2000: (World Tourism organization, Yearbook of tourism Statistics, 2004) The war not just disallowed Lebanon from following a violent tourism rules that assemble the ever-changing wants of the international tourist but from the other side formed a lot of problems like: All the tourism which was going to Lebanon transfer to Cyprus, Turkey and Egypt. A lot of European countries presented their nation a choice of incentives to promote national and local tourism. Tourist imitation of overcome towns, cities and war crimes have continued sturdy. All of these problems lead the tourist to think thousands of times before traveling to Lebanon and make the trip to Lebanon undesirable. Terrorism 9/11 Attack in the U.S.A. The terrible terrorism attack against the twin towers in New York City had a huge impact in political, social, cultural and economical sectors around the whole world, specially in the Arab Countries. After the incident, Middle East region was completely marginalized and stereotyped as a place full of terrorists, war and bomb-men willing to kill. (Kifner, 2004). The easy in-flow tourism between the USA and these countries was banned for a while and severe restrictions and security matters were adopted in order to avoid new attacks. (Kifner, 2004). Consequently, Europeans and Americans were not coming anymore to the Middle East after the attacks and the arabs were not going abroad to Europe and USA because of constant suspicion, airport prejudice and streets attacks. (Kifner, 2004). Due to this invisible barrier imposed by the American government, the wealthy Saudis and gulf arabs had to look for another place to spend their vacation time, once that even in their home country was not safe anymore because of security situation and compounds attacks (Kifner, 2004). So Lebanon was the choice of the majority of them, receiving huge real state development and international consulting companies. The country started experiencing a real tourism booming, and billions of dollars were passing through Lebanon. The Gulf Arabs chose Lebanon not only for vacation, but also for construction, building their multi-millionaire holiday-mansions everywhere in the country such as in the mountains, by the beach and in downtown Beirut (Kifner, 2004). In addition to that, big luxury hotel chains started occupying those empty areas where before were just ruins from the war and begin to build their resorts, hotels and Villas, increasing the value of the area by attracting new tourists (Kifner, 2004). In the airline industry, the increase was also significant. Middle East Airlines, the Lebanese airline company, had its first profit since its foundation. Surprisingly the attacks in the USA helped Lebanon a lot in its tourism reconstruction. The Oslo agreement between Israel and the Palestinians raised hopes for a new era of tourism and prosperity in the area, with travelers making a circuit of historic and religious sites in the previously hostile countries (Kifner, 2004). Since the period where Beirut was known as Paris of the Middle East, before the civil war in 1990, the country didnt host this amount of investment and development. Prime Minister Rafic Hariris assassination Rafic Hariri, was a well-known lebanese entrepreneur, business-man and philanthropist. He was elected the Prime Minister of Lebanon in 1992, right after the civil war, being the one responsible for the physical and economic reconstruction of the country in the following years, until his resignation in 2004. His considerable accomplishments while Prime Minister made him a politician icon all over the world, specially among the Lebanese citizens (Rafic Hariri The Official Website). No single individual has played a bigger role in rebuilding the credibility of Lebanons economy around the world (Hennock, 2005). Being the most wealthy man in the country U$4 billion fortune -, helped Rafic Hariri to start Lebanons reconstruction with significant sponsors. He used his influences and business networking contacts to attract powerful friends from France, the Guld and Saudi Arabia and potential investors to Beirut, accelerating the economy again (Hennock, 2005). For Mr. Hariri, there was no queue of importance for the countrys needs during the post-war era. He initialized a massive reconstruction process effort, declaring everything as priority for the rebuilding process, such as: hospitals, schools, infrastructure (water, phones, electricity) and the economy. During May of 1994, The Prime Minister had a belief that if the downtown of Beirut was rebuilt, the life would be back to Lebanon. So he started a project to revitalize the Central District of Beirut (BCD), in order to achieve this goal. And after 16 years of the beginning of this project, the downtown in Beirut is still the core place of tourism in Lebanon, being the the meeting point for all foreigners, Arabs and Lebanese people. In addition to that it is the financial district and the countrys institutions polo location (Rafic Hariri The Official Website). Since the tourism of Lebanon is directly linked to the economy of the country, the Prime Ministers actions was crucial for the number of visitors to increase. The development of the tourism industry (as well as that of other sectors) was held back over the past few years because of the political stand-off between Mr Hariri and the president, Emile Lahoud, which was a reflection of the deeper struggle over Syrian domination of Lebanon (Business Middle East, 2005). Mr. Rafic Hariri was assassinated on February 14 of 2005. An explosion was detonated against the Prime Minister convoy next to Beiruts marina, right after he had left the Parliament. Besides him, another 20 people died during the attack, which since today has no authorship proofed (Rafic Hariri The Official Website). After his tragic death, the government decided to rename Beiruts International Airport with his name, since its upgrade was a project of the Prime Minister. The re-emerging tourism industry in Lebanon suffered a significant setback recently with the massive explosion that killed Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri and damaged a handful of Beirut hotels (Middle East, 2005). Even though Lebanon was down 10% in the tourism sector in 2005, more than 1.2 million tourists visited Lebanon (Martin Frost, 2006). Terrorism acts in Lebanon .. Why terrorism attacks Tourism? There are several motives to explain the fact that terrorists are attracted by the tourism. The first reason is that the tourism is the main source of income of many countries all over the world, so by damaging it, the core function of the economic basis of the nation stop working. Second, the tourism attractions are the best way for the terrorists to get their message delivered through out media coverage, getting the attention that they need. And third, this industry hasnt focus too much dealing with security matters because they believe that a simple security presence will push away the tourists (Tarlow, 2003). On the other hand, the implementation of security measures is not a cheap action, rising then the need to build a relationship between private and public sectors in the tourism industry. In addition to that the hospitality first obligation is the guest protection. Security must be developed in all segments, as technological investments, education and staff training. Security plus service and value for money will become the basis for 21st century success (Tarlow, 2003). Finally and perhaps the most important point, is the adoption of a risk management control. Avoiding unforeseen circumstances are less costly to the business. Well prepared companies face better the risks then others without any sort of management plan (Tarlow, 2003). July 2006 War This war is known as 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War. It started on 12 July 2006 and ended in 8 September 2006. The clash started when Hezbollah traversed into Israel and attacked an Israeli Defense Force (IDF). They killed three of the armed and kidnapped the other two and they went back with the prisoners to the south of Lebanon. After that the leader of Hezbollah Hassa Nasrallah announced that the prisoner were taken for the purpose of exchange hostages with Israel. From the other side the Israels Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stated that the response would be an act of war on Lebanon and assure that will be a sturdy war. Tourism Before July 2006 War After all the damages that were caused by the civil war, Lebanon rebuilt and developed its tourism from 1992 until 2005. Lebanon was again backing to the world tourism map. The country was ready again to receive over 830,000 visitors in 2001, a growth of 13% over 2000. Everything started again, occupancy in the hotels was very high, and tourists from all over the world were in the streets visiting the new Beirut. The government rebuilt everything. The restaurants started opening again every year; festivals were taking place in different areas like in Baalbek or Beit el Dine. During summer all the private beaches received a lot of clients from all over the world to enjoy the pleasant climate and a suntan. Most of the tourists were from the gulf countries. They usually come to Lebanon to spend their holidays and to enjoy the food, weather and of course the hospitable people. Some of them bought apartments and villas in Lebanon, so they can come whenever they want. All the restaurants in the downtown were crowded, and all the sightseeings and attractions were fully booked. Anyone who might want a special place, booking in advance is mandatory. The traffic in the city was significantly big. Cars were taking hours to move from one place to another. Consequently, taxi drivers were getting advantage of this situation because they started having an increase on their income with the tourists. So tourism in Lebanon prospered again after 17 years of war and damages. Unfortunately 1991 was not the last war in Lebanon. In July 2006 Lebanon had a conflict with Israel. Tourism During July 2006 War During the 2006 war everything change and all the hope disappeared. Reservations in the hotels were canceled, everything started to close and the tourists who already had their trip planned to visit Lebanon changed their flights and went back home or some of them changed their plan by going to The streets were completely empty, with no activities in the restaurants, nightclubs and pubs. Tourism After July 2006 War The 2006 war caused a lot of impact on Lebanons economical, environmental and of course on the tourism industry. The infrastructure was damaged specially in the South where the conflict was. The unemployment rate increased since most of the industries closed their doors and fired their employees. Lebanon got again the marginalized image of war and insecurity. Tourists got scared from coming to this country again. Lebanons tourism went back to zero point again. One of the most important impacts that this war left was in the environment. Israeli jet bomb the fuel tanks at the Jiyeh power station situated thirty kilometers south of Beirut leading to drip 10,000 to 15,000 tons of fuel into the Mediterranean sea reaching twenty- two areas over an extend of 150 kilometers out of Lebanon, in Syria seashore and Turkish and Cypriot water. It took almost two months for the Lebanese government to start the cleaning procedure. In the mean time most of the oil sank down and destroyed all the sea life killing the fishes that were the source of livelihood of a lot of Lebanese families. From he other side it affected the beach resorts occupancy, where most of the tourists Lebanese used to spend their summer time. Before the war started in July 2006 the hotels were almost fully booked, there were no available places or empty flights to come to Beirut. The prices started increasing due to the high demand. The Lebanese Ministry of Tourism was expecting more than 1.6 million tourists. The industry employed over 150000 people. During the war the priority of the government was in how to create a better image for the country and construct better infrastructure by improving the public transportation system, bringing more investment to the country. This would help to reduce the external debt. Unfortunately the priority of the government after the war had to change from improving to rebuilding the suburbs of Beirut, because Israel missed had destroyed them all. The small enterprises were highly affected by this war. Their owners who had taken loans from the bank to build their businesses were now accumulating debts due to the lack of economic activity in the city. Present days The huge investment of several luxury hotel chains into the region has bring Lebanon back on the destination scenario. The investors are now willing to inject capital in the country as they are optimist concerning the development of the economy. Beirut is now experiencing a boom in the tourism sector and Lebanons image nowadays has been all over the world again, but not because of its conflicts, destruction, kidnappings or wars, but because of its beauty, diversity, rich culture, cuisine and trendy characteristics. Beiruts sizzling nightlife, from gritty to glam, helped drive a record tourism year in 2009. Overcoming a reputation as a Middle East trouble spot, Lebanon welcomed nearly 2 million visitors last year, a 39% increase over 2008. It was the No. 1 destination for tourism growth in the world, according to the World Tourism Organization. (USA Today, 2010) The tourism in Lebanon in the year of 2009 experienced a significant growth. And according to the Ministry of Tourism, this happened because the war has cease bringing back stability to the country. Core companies from the hospitality sector are supporting and investing hard and closely to keep Lebanons image an position as first class destination and business polo in the Middle East. Besides that, there are several facilities that the country offer to the tourists, such as: -Direct air links to worldwide destinations. -Easy access to the country. -Ideal strategic location. -Archaeological and historical sites. -Beautiful and amazing natural sceneries. -Modern International Airport. -First class hospitality infrastructure. -Excellent services quality. -Cutting edge telecommunications and utilities. -Buzzing business, shopping and leisure environments. -Friendly, open minded and genuinely welcoming people (Lebanese Ministry of Tourism, 2010). In addition, another awards were received by the country, rising its image positively towards the world as a must-go tourist destination. In 2006 Travel and Leisure magazine ranked Beirut as the 9th city to visit in the world on its annual report. The Clemenceau Medical Center was ranked one of the 10 best hospitals for medical tourism in 2010 by the Medical Travel Quality Alliance. Jeita Grotto was selected to proceed in the competition of the New 7 Wonders of Nature. In 2009, the NY Times ranked Lebanon as the #1st on its 44 places to go list. From a non-existing tourism activity after war, to one of the 1st spots in the world, the country starts from scratch to rebuild his reputation, economy and tourism. Increase of 38.91% in comparison with January last year 2008 when the total number of visitors reached 1,332,551 visitors. Also an increase of 43% in the number of visitors from Arab countries that reached 785,985 visitors during the Year 2009, compared with 549,463 visitors for the last year 2008 (Lebanese Ministry of Tourism, 2010). Conclusion Although the conflicts and war has ended around 4 years ago, the image that Lebanon is a hazard country still persists. Tourists usually tend to point out the lack of security, inst

Gibbs-Donnan Effect on Resting Membrane Potential

Gibbs-Donnan Effect on Resting Membrane Potential How the Gibbs-Donnan equilibrium conditions and diffusion through a semipermeable membrane are involved in creating the resting membrane potential Introduction The resting membrane potential (RMP) is an electrical potential difference in cells, occurring across their plasma membranes. The cytoplasm of the cell is electrically negative in comparison to the surrounding extracellular fluid, this difference in electrical charge gives rise to the RMP. The RMP is essential for the functioning of many electrically excitable cells including, neuronal cells, smooth and skeletal muscle cells, as well as cardiac myocytes, which through electrical impulses control the contractility of the heart. During this essay the generation of the resting membrane potential will be explored, including the effects of the Gibbs-Donnan equilibrium conditions, the structure and function of the plasma membrane, and how, with the diffusion of ions through a semi permeable membrane they give rise to the RMP. (Levy, N. et al.2006) Plasma Membrane The plasma membrane asserts tight control over the interstitial environment of the cell, this is achieved through the formation of a phospholipid bilayer containing protein constituents (ref). Phospholipids are distributed into two leaflets within the bilayer, with the hydrophobic portions facing inwards and the hydrophilic tails of the phospholipids facing the aqueous environment, the presence of phospholipids give the membrane its capacitance. Integral membrane proteins and ion channel proteins span the length of the membrane, like that of the Na+-K+ pump and Sodium-Potassium leak channels discussed later, which aid in the conductance of the cell membrane. The inter and extracellular surfaces of the membrane are negatively charged, due to the presence of acidic phospholipids and the anionic nature of proteins at biological pH, this negative charge on the outer membranes with respect to extra and intracellular fluid is known as the zeta potential, which causes the formation of a sma ll electrical field (ref); This electrical field works to achieve electroneutrality with opposing charged particles, and by doing so aids in the formation of concentration gradients. Changes to surface charges within the plasma membrane, such as ionic concentrations, can therefore effect the resting membrane potential and the ability of a cell to reach threshold (Sperelakis, N. 1998). Concentration gradient and Electrical Potential To understand how the flow of ions contribute to the RMP, the formation of a concentration gradient and electrical potential must first be understood. Molecules diffuse from an area of high concentration to an area of lower concentration, if two aqueous compartments separated by a membrane were formed, containing equal concentrations of the X molecule then no diffusion would occur between compartments (Figure 1). However if the concentration of X increased in compartment A, then the ion would flow down its concentration gradient into compartment B until equilibrium is reached between compartments. However diffusion is more complexed in biological compartments as ions are found in the form of cations and anions. If an X+ion was placed in compartment A, which contained a higher concentration of X+than compartment B, then X+ would again flow down its concentration gradient into compartment B, however X+ now also flows against its concentration gradient back into compartment A, due to th e electrical potential difference across the membrane, generated by the loss of cations from compartment A, causing an increase in negativity, and an increase in X+in compartment B, increasing electrical charge opposing cations (Figure 2); This movement of ions causes a potential difference to arise between compartments, increased movement of X+ down its concentration gradient, increases the potential difference, and decreases the ability of X+ to move against its electrical gradients, thus an equilibrium is reached between the concentration gradient and electrical gradient, known as the equilibrium potential (Aidley, D.1989). Gibbs-Donnan Equilibrium The cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells contain permeable ions as well as many impermeable ionised molecules that cannot penetrate the cell membrane, such as proteins, nucleic acids and glycoproteins. Many of these intracellular molecules are negatively charged at physiological pH, causing a notable effect on the concentration gradient and electrical potential of permeable cations and anions across the plasma membrane. The effect of impermeable intracellular anionic molecules therefore influences the resting membrane potential, this is known as a Gibbs-Donnan equilibrium. Again consider two aqueous compartments separated by a semi permeable membrane, compartment A contains Na+ and proteins (Pr-), compartment B contains Na+ and Cl- (Figure 3a). The semi permeable membrane is permeable to Na+, Cl- and Water but impermeable to Pr-. Compartment A and B contain 0.1 molar solutions of Na protinate and NaCl respectively, as the concentration of Cl- is higher in compartment B it diffuses down its concentration gradient into compartment A, this is turn causes the creation of an electrical potential as compartment A increases in negativity due to the anionic properties of Cl-, prompting a flux of K+ down its electrical gradient from compartment B to A. Equilibrium will eventually occur between compartments so that the concentration of Na+ and Cl- are equal (Figure 3b): [Na+]A[Cl-]A= [Na+]B[Cl-]B This is known as Gibbs-Donnan equilibrium conditions (Sperelakis, N.1998). However it must be noted from the equations that only the permeate ions satisfy the gibbs-donnan equilibrium conditions, the impermeable Pr- are not included as they are unable to diffuse and reach equilibrium (Sperelakis, N.1998). Applying the Nernst equation for either Na+ or Cl- results in a negative electrical potential, this is due to the impermeable protein ions in chamber A (Sperelakis, N.1998), these negative impermeable intracellular anions therefore contribute to the negativity of the cytoplasm in relation to the extracellular fluid, contributing to the resting membrane potential (Donnan, F). Another property of Gibbs-Donnan equilibria should be noted, looking at figure 3b it can be seen that the net concentration of NaCl in chamber A is greater than that of chamber B, this is due to the presence of protein anions in chamber A when establishing electrochemical equilibrium between ions, and is a general property of Gibbs-Donnan equilibria (Levy, N. et al.2006). Finally it is important to mention the equilibrium state of water, as previously mentioned chamber A contains a higher concentration of ions than chamber B, therefore there is a large osmotic gradient between the two chambers; This leads to a flux of water from chamber B to A, however, the osmotic effects of water influx on chamber A acts to dilute ion concentrations building up within the chamber, therefore hydrostatic pressure in chamber A would be insufficient to oppose water influx, leading to a depletion of water and NaCl ions from chamber B (Sperelakis, N.1998); However this situation does not resemble true Gi bbs-Donnan equilibrium conditions, where by the build up of osmotic pressure in chamber A would resist the further osmotic influx of water, resulting in swelling of the chamber, if it were to be enclosed, such as a living cell (Sperelakis, N.1998). If unopposed gibbs-donnan equilibrium would cause the cytoplasm of living cells to have an osmotic pressure greater than that of the surrounding extracellular fluid, as water enters cells, control over cell volume may be lost (Sperelakis, N.1998). However this is not the case due to the cells ability to transport ions (Levy, N. et al.2006). Ion transport The resting membrane potential within skeletal muscle cells is around -80mV, this is due to the differing ion concentrations between the cytoplasm and surrounding extracellular fluid (ref), this difference in ion concentrations is maintained by the active transport of ions against there electrochemical gradient, powered by metabolic energy (ref). The ion pump of most importance to preserving potential difference across the cell membrane is the Na+/K+ATPase, this pumps out three Na+ in exchange for two extracellular K+, through the hydrolysis of a membrane bound ATPase, this ratio of 3:2 leaves the cytoplasm negative in respect to the extracellular fluid, and is therefore termed an electrogenic pump (Huang, F.et al.2009). Although the Na+/K+ATPase is responsible for only a small amount of the RMP between 12-16mV in skeletal myoblasts (Sperelakis, N.1998), overtime inhibition can lead to lack of cell excitability due to the accumulation of small depolarisations. Ion Diffusion To understand how Na+, K+ diffuse across the plasma membrane causing the RMP, their intra and extracellular concentrations must be established (Figure 4). Each ion is capable of establishing a RMP, therefore the potential depends on several factors, the permeability of the membrane to each ion, the intra and extracellular concentrations of each ion and the polarity of the ions (Guyton and Hall.2000). Firstly if the membrane is only permeable to a certain ion then that ion will be solely responsible for the generation of the RMP, for example, in a nerve fibre K+ concentration is greater in the cytoplasm than the extracellular fluid, if the membrane were only permeable to K+, then K+ would diffuse down its concentration gradient into the extracellular fluid until opposed by its electrical gradient, this would leave the cytoplasm with a negative charge of around -94mV with respect to the extracellular fluid, thus K+ would be responsible for a resting membrane potential of -94mV, as this is the Nernst potential for K+ (Guyton and Hall.2000). However the RMP cannot be caused by one ion alone, as the nerve cells has a RMP of -90mV, and the Nernsts potentials for K+ and Na+ are -94mV and +61mV respectively, therefore if the RMP was caused by one univalent ion it would be equal to that of their Nernst potential (Guyton and Hall.2000). Due to the Nernst potential of K+, it can be assumed that this ion is the major contributor to the RMP, the cytoplasmic concentration of K+ is 35times higher than that of its extracellular concentration, and it diffuses through the membrane via Potassium-Sodium leak channels in which its is 100 times more permeable to than Na+ (Guyton and Hall. 2000). However Na+ also contributes to the RMP by low amounts of Na+ diffusing through the Potassium-Sodium leak channels, this small amount of diffusion leads to a ratio of 0:1 Na+ in the cytoplasm to the extracellular fluid, giving a Nernst potential of +61mV (Guyton and Hall. 2000). Using the Nernst potentials for Na+ and k+ in theGoldman-Hodgkin-Katz equationtheir contribution to the RMP can be established, this results in an internal membrane potential of -86mV (Guyton and Hall. 2000). The remaining -4mV comes from the contribution of the previously mentioned electrogenic Na+-K+ pump, leading to a RMP of -90mV in nerve fibres (Guyton and Hall. 2000). Conclusion To conclude, the RMP arises due to a combination of several factors most of which have been covered in the preceding discussions. The cell membranes structural properties allow for the capacitance and conductance of electrical charges, as well as the generation of electrical fields due to the negatively charged outer membrane, this works to aid in the formation of concentration gradients by which ions flow. In the presence of ionic species which are unable to permeate the cell membrane, such as anionic intracellular proteins, a Gibbs-Donnan equilibrium occurs, in which the distribution of permeable ions favour the intracellular environment due to the presence of impermeable anionic molecules, this disruption of ionic concentrations across the plasma membrane coupled with the presence of impermeable anionic molecules, brings about a negative intracellular environment, and thus a potential difference across the membrane. However in a closed system such as the eukaryotic cell, the Gibbs -Donnan equilibrium leads to a greater intracellular osmotic pressure, if unopposed this would lead to a loss of control over cell volume, therefore ion transporters are in place to dissipate ion concentration, like that of the Na+-K+ ATPase. The exchange ratio of 3:2 potassium for sodium respectively, performed by the Na+-K+ ATPase also contributes to the electronegative intracellular environment, and thus the resting membrane potential. The major cause of the RMP is however down to the diffusion of potassium into the extracellular fluid via Sodium-Potassium leak channels, coupled with the low extracellular diffusion of sodium and the aforementioned Na+-K+ ATPase and Gibbs-Donnan equilibrium conditions, the resting membrane potential is formed. References Sperelakis, N. 1998. Cell Physiology Source Book. Second edition. Californa: Academic Press. Aidley, D. 1989. The Physiology of Excitable Cells. Third Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Levy, N. et al. 2006. Principles of Physiology. Fourth edition. Philadelphia: Elsevier Mosby. Huang, F. el al. 2009. Distribution of the Na/K pumps turnover rates As a function of membrane potential, temperature, and ion concentration gradients and effect of fluctuations.Journal of Physical Chemistry B113(23), pp. 8096-8102.

Government Role in Construction Industry

Government Role in Construction Industry ECONOMICS FOR CONSTRUCTION AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT JULIANA SULING ANDREW INTRODUCTION The two main parts of economic theory were typically labeled â€Å"monetary theory† and â€Å"price theory†. Monetary theory recommends that distinctive monetary strategies can advantage countries relying upon their special arrangement of assets and impediments. It is in light of center thoughts regarding how variables like the measure of the cash supply, value levels and benchmark premium rates influence the economy. Financial experts and focal keeping money powers are regularly those most included with making and executing monetary strategy. A monetary theory that fights that the price for any particular great/administration is the relationship between the powers of supply and interest. The theory of price says that the time when the advantage picked up from the individuals who request the element meets the dealers minimal expenses is the most ideal business price for the great/administration. In a nutshell, microeconomics has to do with supply and demand, and with the way they interact in various markets. Microeconomics analysis moves easily and painlessly from the one topic to another and lies at the center of the most of the recognized subfields of economics. TASK 1 There are two types of sectors involved in our construction industry; there are public sector and private sector. It is important to understand the difference between the private sector and public sector because your privacy rights will differ depending on the legislation that an organization is governed under. The private sector is typically made out of associations that are privately possessed and not some piece of the government. These as a rule incorporate enterprises (both benefit and non-benefit), organizations, and foundations. A simpler approach to think about the private sector is by considering associations that are not claimed or worked by the government. For instance, retail locations, credit unions, and neighborhood organizations will work in the private sector. The public sector is generally made out of associations that are claimed and worked by the legislature. This incorporates elected, commonplace, state, or metropolitan governments, contingent upon where you live. Protection enactment more often than not calls associations in the public sector a public body or a public power. A few illustrations of public bodies in Canada and the United Kingdom are instructive bodies, medicinal services bodies, police and jail administrations, and neighborhood and focal government bodies and their areas of expertise. Size is a vital normal for the gatherings, associations, and groups in which social conduct happens. At the point when just a couple of persons are connecting, including only one more individual may have a huge effect by the way they relate. As an association or group develops in size it is adept to experience tipping focuses where the route in which it works needs to change. The intricacy of vast groupings is halfway in light of the fact that they are comprised of interrelated subgroups. As a group gets bigger, including someone else has less impact on its attributes. A thought in any event in littler groups, however, is whether the quantity of individuals is even or odd. Doing things together is simple if each one of those included concede to what to do, or if dominant part sentiment has the capacity override protests without repulsing the objectors. A group of six or eight individuals can part into two equivalent groups, so choice making is not well-suited to be as simple as though the size were five, seven or nine. As groups get bigger stalemates are more improbable yet at the same time can be troublesome. On the off chance that a group settles on choices by voting it can embrace a method for tie-breaking. As the size of a group increases, the number of possible person-to-person links (L) increases rapidly as the size of the group (N) increases (L = (N ² N) /2). In a four-member group there are six possible pairings; add a fifth member for each of the four to relate to and you have ten pairs. Requirement for initiative gets to be more self-evident. Certain things must be finished a gathering to shape and proceed with: individuals must be inspired to meet up and participate; objectives must be set; assignments appointed, booked, and completed; issues comprehended. A couple of individuals who believe one another and offer an essential reason can at times do the greater part of that in an unconstrained and equalitarian way. Substantial gatherings quite often rely on upon perceived pioneers to oversee operations. Assorted qualities build, giving more assets to critical thinking however hindering correspondence and collaboration and making accord harder to reach. Bureaucratic methodology has a tendency to grow, for example, allotting distinctive assignments to diverse subgroups and embracing standard methods. Much economic activity for example farming, mining, production, sales and others are carried out by small groups, each of whose members work together under the supervision of a first-line manager. They usually operate manually using their staff or workers. Manufacturing industries are categories under large groups of organization. They use big machines to build up their products, for example production of cars. When the demand is high from the customers, they don’t have enough time to build the cars one by one, so they need machine to help them. Same goes to highway construction, they need the heavy machine to construct the highway and the workers needed are many. TASK 2(A) The two projects that can enhance economy of the country are highway projects and housing projects which both of this fall under construction industry.   TASK 2(B) The construction industry is a real investment in the economy either in civil engineering construction, non-residential or residential. It is considered as a component of a strategy to promote aggregate demand for building and industrial sectors. The volume of investments varies depending on the policy of stability through the decision to reduce or increase spending on social services. In Malaysia, the sector of the construction industry is one sector of the economy the main countries. In the next 20 years, its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is in the range of 3-6% per annum. In the same period, the construction industry has recorded impressive growth rates of double-digit growth for eight years from 1989 to 1996. Highway transportation is the method for subtle element circulation between homes, shops, and others. It is just the streets which can convey merchandise from and to aerodromes, harbors and rail route stations. Considering the utility of streets anyplace in the distinctive parts of a nation, they can be rightly contrasted with corridors in a human body generally as supply routes keep up mans wellbeing by giving flow of blood; likewise streets advance countrys riches by keeping its kin and merchandise moving. Hence, we see that advance and prosperity of a country depends much on streets. Actually, streets are the life lines of countrys economy. Housing is one of the basic requirements for ensuring the well-being of the people is protected. The construction sector also contributed to economic growth that has direct relevance to other sectors, including the services sector and the manufacturing sector of building materials. In fulfilling this requirement, such factors as the ability of buyers, development costs and selling prices always affect the demand and supply of housing. Based on the current state of affairs, housing construction is largely concentrated in urban and suburban areas densely populated with potential buyers was high and the housing market is more widespread. TASK 3(A) Economics policy-makers are have two kinds of tools to influence a country’s economy: fiscal policy and monetary policy. TASK 3(B) Monetary policy and fiscal policy allude to the two most broadly perceived tool used to impact a countrys monetary action. Monetary policy is principally concerned with the administration of premium rates and the aggregate supply of cash available for use and is for the most part done by national banks, for example, the Federal Reserve. Fiscal policy is the aggregate term for the saddling and spending activities of governments. Monetary policy National banks have commonly utilized monetary policy to either empower an economy into speedier development or back off development over reasons for alarm of issues like swelling. The hypothesis is that, by incentivizing people and organizations to acquire and burn through, monetary policy will bring about the economy to become quicker than typical. Alternately, by limiting spending and incentivizing reserve funds, the economy will become less rapidly than ordinary. Fiscal policy Fiscal policy devices are various and fervently among market analysts and political eyewitnesses. As a rule, the point of most government fiscal strategies is to focus on the aggregate level of spending, the aggregate structure of spending, or both in an economy. The two most broadly utilized method for influencing fiscal policy are changes in the part of government spending or in assessment policy. Fiscal policy Monetary policy Principle: Manipulating the level of aggregate demand in the economy to achieve economic objectives of price stability, full employment, and economic growth. Manipulating the supply of money to influence outcomes like economic growth, inflation, exchange rates with other currencies and unemployment. Definition: Fiscal policy is the use of government expenditure and revenue collection to influence the economy. The process by which the monetary authority of a country controls the supply of money. Policy tools: Taxes; amount of government spending Interest rate; reserve requirements, currency peg, discount window Policy-maker: government Central bank TASK 3(C) The government plays an important role in the construction industry of every country. The involvement of the public sector has such major effects for the competence of the industry that the matters need to be measured in some detail. With the amount of the government’s involvement is not same in all countries, the general principle are alike. The scarcity of land in many countries and growing burdens on it from various types of uses have made it necessary for its use to be efficient and controlled everywhere. At the same time, due to the accordingly high density of development in most urban centers, it is necessary for regulations to be expressed and enforced to safeguard public health and safety. Hence, there is need for actual physical planning laws, building regulations and construction codes. In many countries, and at various eras, construction items are attractive as a form of asset. Governments attempt to protect the interests of end purchases with relevant laws and controls with regard to the operations of developers and the items they produce. To avoid the harmful effects of speculation, government have, on incident, had to interfere in the market for existing and new construction item with relevant legist ration or regulations.

Business Essays Literature Customer Retention

Business Essays Literature Customer Retention Literature Customer Retention Introduction In compiling this literature review, the author has deliberately cast a wide net. This has not only included both major and less prestigious journals, but also practitioner magazines and self-help websites. Customer retention is clearly marketing topic of considerable current and practical interest. Whilst some of what has been written is of dubious value, and some isnt actually even about customer retention at all, it is felt that ideas put forward should be allowed to stand on their merits. Insights by practitioners can often provide useful illumination of academic theory, and it is only by bringing them together that the full picture can be appreciated. The Rise of Customer Retention The sole purpose of a business Peter Drucker (1973) once famously claimed was â€Å"to create a customer†. Marketing has traditionally focused on market share and customer acquisition rather than on retaining existing customers and on building long-lasting relationships with them (Kotler, 2003). However, keeping the customer has become regarded as equally, if not more important, since (Badgett et al., 2004) reported that a 5 per cent increase in customer retention generated an increase in customer net present value of between 25 per cent and 95 per cent across a wide range of business environments. Research done by Gupta et al. (2004) found that a 1 per cent increase in customer retention had almost five times more impact on firm value than a 1 per cent change in discount rate or cost of capital. As a result of these researches, the business case for marketers to focus on the management of customer retention became more clearly established. Because of this, there is a growing recognition now that customers, like products, have a life-cycle that companies can attempt to manage and they can be acquired, retained and grown in value over time. Freeland (2003) points out that customers climb a value staircase or value ladder from suspect, prospect and first-time customer, to majority customer and ultimately to partner or advocate status. In response to these changes there has been a new emphasis on defensive marketing, which focuses on holding on to existing customers and getting more custom from them (higher â€Å"share of customer†), in contrast to activities which focus on winning new customers. One of the reasons for the great popularity of customer retention is the recognition that losing a customer means in fact more than a single sale: It means losing the entire stream of purchases that this particular customer would make over a lifetime of patronage (Kotler and Keller,2006). More recently, market share has been gradually losing its importance as marketing’s wisdom of focusing solely on customer acquisition (hoping that this effort will compensate for high levels of defection) is now being seriously questioned and considered as very high risk since ever more players enter an increasingly crowded marketplace (Baker,2000). Todays banks find themselves more and more in a situation in which they have to build professional customer retention management systems. There are two main reasons for doing so; on the one hand, the costs of gaining new customers in highly competitive markets are increasing considerably. On the other hand, the profitability of an individual customer grows permanently with the duration of the business-relationship (Liu Lai, 2004 ; pg 398). Customer retention attempts to win a slightly larger share of the customer’s spend than would otherwise be the case (McAlexander,2006). In spite of this, according to Weinstein (2002, p. 259), most companies spend a majority of their time, energy and resources chasing new business. 80% or more of marketing budgets are often earmarked for getting new business† (Weinstein, 2002, p. 260). This is in line with Payne and Frow’s (1999) finding that only 23 per cent of marketing budgets in UK organizations is spent on customer retention. Aspinall et al. (2001), in contrast, found that 54 per cent of companies reported that customer retention was more important than customer acquisition. Support for retaining customers in the marketing literature (e.g. Ahmad and Buttle, 2002) is extensive. The benefits of retaining customers to the organisation are higher margins and faster growth, derived from the notion that the longer a customer stays with an organisation, generally the higher the profit. The significance of retaining customers is not new to marketing, as Drucker (1963) believed that marketing is as much concerned with retaining as well as acquiring customers. However, as competition has intensified and markets become saturated, an awareness of the benefits of retention has grown, particularly in the retailing of financial services. Benefits of Customer Retention Dawes and Swailes (1999) explain that successful customer retention circumvents the costs of seeking new and potentially risky customers, and allows organizations to focus more accurately on the needs of their existing customers by building relationships (p36). Researchers have also pointed out that customer retention has a significant impact on profitability and positive customer satisfaction and leads to superior financial performance. This is because firms with high customer retention rates tend to have lower costs, maintain more profitable long-term relationships, and enjoy substantial word-of-mouth advertising (p92). Reynolds (2002) suggests that once a company acquires a group of customers, it can retain that group by making them feel special through customer recognition. Reichheld (2006) in his article ‘Learning from Customer Defections’ identified that longer a customer stays with a company, the more they are worth as in the long-term customers buy more, take less of a company’s time, are less sensitive to price, and bring in new customers. If a customer is retained in a business there is certainly a steady flow of revenue to the business, moreover, there are chances to increase the existing revenue by cross selling or up-selling activities. In addition to this, acquiring a new customer can be a much more onerous and expensive task than keeping an existing one. When banks focus on individual customers by establishing a relationship and encouraging satisfaction and loyalty they have more chances to increase and retain their customer base. Relation banking can be seen as a vehicle to increase single-brand loyalty, decrease price sensitivity, induce greater consumer resistance to counter bank offers or counter arguments (from advertising or bank sales-people), dampen the desire to consider alternative banks, encourage word-of-mouth support and endorsement, attract a larger pool of customers, and/or increase the amount of product bought. It can lead to more purchases more often, give the ability to mass customize communication, minimize waste, helps promote trust and attempts to win a slightly larger share of the customer’s spend (Ongena, S., and Smith,2000). Relationship leads to loyalty, and loyal customers are supposed to buy more, pay higher prices and bring in new customers through word-of-mouth support (Morgan et al.,2000). However, some of these â€Å"profitability-arguments† related to relationship banking have been challenged by Reinartz and Kumar (2002), who compared the behaviour, revenue, and profitability of more than 16,000 individual and corporate customers over a four-year period, concluding that they discovered little or no evidence to suggest that customers who buy on a steady basis are necessarily cheaper to serve, less price sensitive, or particularly effective at bringing in new business. They also found that a considerable amount of loyal customers were only marginally profitable, while a large percentage of short-term customers were very profitable. Woolf (1996) argues that greater success comes from a strategy based firmly on understanding customer economics and only secondarily on customer loyalty and building relationships. However, despite their criticism, even critics themselves have suggested that customer loyalty (relationship) is a worthy contributor to the shareholder value of a company(Houston, 1999;pg33), and that â€Å"firms are encouraged to study their position and options in the pursuit of this goal†(Oliver,1999; pg37). The Lifetime Value Concept Customer retention has also given rise to the concept of Customer lifetime value (CLV or LTV) which represents the net present value of profits, coming from the individual customer from a flow of transactions over time. Novo (2006) describes Customer lifetime value (LTV) as the present value of the stream of future profits expected over the customers’ lifetime purchases. Companies can look at their investments in terms of cost per sale, rate of customer retention and also conversion of prospects. LTV is also used as a convenient yardstick of performance, however, it has tended to become a bit too much of a holy grail for corporate, marketing and sales executives, to the extent that entire conferences and seminars are often devoted to helping optimize it (Romano Fjermesta, 2003; pg 233). It is important to retain customers, but not at the cost of other essential marketing activities. Putting customers into key categories helps to clarify analysis and acts as the basis for marketing activities designed to improve customer lifetime value. While the importance of calculating the Customer Lifetime value in deciding the retention strategies cannot be questioned, some writers are of the view that measuring the lifetime value can sometimes be complicated as it involves a lot of analytical forecasting. Knox et al (2003; pg 207) argue that ‘calculating Customer lifetime value is problematic because it involves forecasting what amounts of what products customers will buy in the future years, and what the sales, administration and logistics costs will be. Because profits in future years are progressively less valuable (because of inflation) and less certain, a discount rate has to be applied. The higher the discount rate, the less valuable future profits will be’. Customer Retention and the rise of relationship banking (RM) The objectives of relationship marketing is to identify and establish, maintain and enhance and, when necessary terminate relationships with customers and other stakeholders, at a profit so that the objective of all parties involved are met. This is done by a mutual exchange and fulfillment of promises. Kabiraj et al. (2004) in their study of relationship practices in India noted that the Indian banking sector can only stay competitive by building lifelong partnerships with their customers. Relationship banking techniques can be employed to develop an ongoing dialog with customers, integrated across all contact points. Knox et al. (2003, p. 19) addressed that RM is a strategic approach designed to improve stakeholder value through developing appropriate relationships with key customers and customer segments and involves an enterprise-wide marketing strategy and technology platform. If done correctly, it enables organizations to retain the loyalty of their customers. It is about managing and monitoring customer behavior and has the potential to change a customers relationship with the banking organization and increase revenue (Dyche, 2002, pg.4). In todays economic condition, relationship banking can help to provide a sense of personal service without an actual person (Seybold, 2007). They allow banking organizations to integrate customer interaction channels and provide consistency in their interactions with customers, generate better customer intelligence, customize their offerings and communications to customers, manage customer interactions and relationships more effectively, and manage the customer portfolio by assessing the lifetime value of customers (Ely, 2006). Relationship Marketing/banking is not a new concept, its roots lie in the marketing basics of repeat purchase, customer retention and customer loyalty. Traditionally followed by retailers, the concept is slowly spilling over to the banking and financial services industry. Berger (2005) describes relationship banking as an attempt to advance the sales culture in bank marketing beyond order taking to a more pro-active form of direct selling which includes knowing more about the customer needs and tailoring products and services to suit individual requirements. Its goal is to establish a long term, intimate and relatively open relationship between banks and its customers. Eg Commercial banks and other financial institutions attempt to apply the concept of relationship banking through Personal Banker and Private Banking programs (Stauss Schoeler, 2004; pg 147). In this way, they are able to understand their customer, give personal advice and develop proximity with the customer. Customer retention has been shown to be a primary goal in firms that practice relationship marketing (Coviello et al., 2002). While the precise meaning and measurement of customer retention can vary between industries and firms (Aspinall et al., 2001) there appears to be a general consensus that focusing on customer retention can yield several economic benefits (Buttle, 2004). As customer tenure lengthens, the volumes purchased grow and customer referrals increase. Simultaneously, relationship maintenance costs fall as both customer and supplier learn more about each other. Because fewer customers churn, customer replacement costs fall. Finally, retained customers may pay higher prices than newly acquired customers, and are less likely to receive discounted offers that are often made to acquire new customers. All of these conditions combine to increase the net present value of retained customers. Lindgreen et al. (2000, p. 295), computed that it can be up to ten times more expensive to win a customer than to retain a customer and the cost of bringing a new customer to the same level of profitability as the lost one is up to 16 times more. Although a number of authorities have suggested that relationship marketing represents a paradigm shift (Christopher et al., 1991; Sheth and Parvatiyar, 1995) from a longer established transactional orientation to customer management, Gronroos (2000, p. 23) noted that the relational perspective on marketing is in fact â€Å"older than the transaction perspective in marketing† and is â€Å"probably as old as the history of trade and commerce†. There has been growing interest in relational aspects of customer management. Relationship banking permits businesses to leverage information from their databases to achieve customer retention and to cross-sell new products and services to existing customers which is why they are synonymous to existing customer promotion. It is believed that companies that implement relationship banking practices make better relationships with their customers, achieve loyal customers and a substantial payback, increased revenue and reduced cost (Blery Michalakopoulos, 2006). Relationship banking when successfully deployed can have a dramatic effect on bottom-line performance. There are two main aims of relationship banking. One is to increase revenue by raising purchase levels and/or increasing the range of products. A second aim is more defensive, by building a closer bond between the banking organization and current customer banks hope to maintain their customer base (retention). The whole idea of relationship banking is based on the argument that profits can be increased significantly by achieving either of these two aims. In todays economic climate building relationships can help banks to do more with less by providing a sense of personal service without an actual person. (Roberts, 2004) Relationship banking seeks to identify and talk to individual customers on a massive scale and this torrential flow of live transactional data offers the possibility to transform how banks manage their business. While it is not important to retain customers, it is important to retain the right customers in the business. Overtime, choices must be made as to which customers to acquire, which ones to develop and which ones to retain. It is true that not all customers are worth retaining, since from a long-term perspective not everyone is equally profitable. It is important to know if a currently unprofitable customer would generate a future profit stream, if an investment were made in enhancing the customers’ satisfaction. These problems can be addressed by profiling customers and making investments in those who offer the desirable growth and profit potential. (Subhash C. Jain 2005, p278) Relational Exchange and Customer Loyalty RM forms the bridge between the banking organisation and the customer, by means of reinforcing linkages, responding to customer needs and serving micro-segments (Berry, 2002; Hennig-Thurau, 2000). Freeland (2003) who has observed and contributed to this body of literature, comments: ‘Marketing practice has increasingly turned towards alliances, partnerships and other forms of relationship marketing, whose success requires effective co-operation. Interpretations of RM vary (Brodie et al., 1997), but common themes are that relationships are based on power being distributed equally between partners (Liu Lai, 2004) and that both the buyer and the seller are active in a rich, multi-dimensional exchange. Further elements that mediate successful relationships are trust and commitment (Garbarino and Johnson, 2006) in which trust is conceptualised as a belief that the partner in the exchange will fulfil the perceived obligations of a relationship. Where the focus is on individual customers, loyalty and retention initiatives can be seen as vehicles to increase single-brand loyalty, decrease price sensitivity, induce greater consumer resistance to counter offers or counter arguments (from advertising or sales-people), dampen the desire to consider alternative brands, encourage word-of-mouth support and endorsement, attract a larger pool of customers, and/or increase the amount of product bought( Bolton et al., 2000) Two aims of customer retention programs stand out, one is to increase sales revenues by raising purchase/usage levels, and/or increasing the range of products bought from the supplier. A second aim is more defensive, by building a closer bond between the brand and current customers it is hoped to maintain the current customer base. Loyalty and retention initiatives can lead to more purchases more often, give the ability to mass customize marketing communication, minimize waste and help promote trust. It attempts to win a slightly larger share of the customer’s spend than would otherwise be the case if the additional value of the scheme were not offered (McAlexander,2002). Research will analyze in greater detail the ways in which retention initiatives can transform the bank’s business and help make strategic business decisions, which is the purpose of the research (to evaluate retention as a key marketing strategy). One of the reasons for the great popularity of customer retention is the recognition that losing a customer means in fact more than a single sale: It means losing the entire stream of purchases that this particular customer would make over a lifetime of patronage – also known as the â€Å"customer lifetime value†(Kotler and Armstrong,2001). Role of Employees Within the Retention Process Another area of research would be the employee involvement in the customer retention process. In the Journal of Marketing Management, Buttle (2004) stresses on the importance of the front line employees. He argues that employees have the power to take actions which provide immediate customer satisfaction and thereby reinforce customer retention. This necessitates actively managing interactions between customer and staff and instigating improvements to the external quality of service by increasing the levels of internal service which staffs receive from within the organization from support departments and technology. (p153) Robert Heller (2005; og 117) insists that the most vital statistic for retaining a customer in any business is its employees. He quotes â€Å"that a satisfied worker creates a satisfied customer and higher financial returns: and that, by the same token, disgruntled staff lead to customer dissatisfaction†. A research by staff at Sears, the US retailing giant in 2006, established a convincing and clear correlation between employee attitudes, customer attitudes and financial results. The research showed that for every 5 units of improvement in employee attitudes, there were 1.3 units of gain on the customer impression index. Moreover, the latter added up to a 0.5% increase in sales over what they would otherwise have been.This outlines the obvious linkage between employee attitudes and customer retention. Therefore, if a business wants to retain its customers, along with devising strategies for customer satisfaction, it has to bear in mind that, employee satisfaction is equally important. The reseserch will analyze the role played by employees in Citibank in promoting customer retention. Researchers have argued that both customer facing and back office staff have a role to play in customer retention. The study will examine the ways in which the staff in Citibank performs their role and the effect it has on customer retention. Customer Clubs Some banks make the use of customer clubs as a strategic instrument for creating customer retention. Customer clubs are communities of current customers that are initiated and organized by companies (Diller, 1997; Butscher, 1997; Butscher and MuÈller, 1999). The current customers are approached for a potential membership to enable a steady direct communication and to intensify the relationship during the total time of business relation (Tomzcak and Dittrich, 1999). As an institutionalized form of added-value services, they aim at offering club members a wide range of benefits and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. The goal of customer club is to improve the general operational profitability by customer retention. A customer club is regarded as a suitable platform to increase the interaction frequency between the bank and the customer (customer interaction effect) by creating contact and feedback opportunities. By doing so, a close contact is built around the client throughout the entire customer life cycle (Coviello et al., 2002; pg 8). A central objective of customer clubs is the augmentation of organizational knowledge about the customer (customer knowledge effect). With each customer contact starting from account opening the organization receives detailed information about the personal situation, interests and demand structures of the account holders. These insights are collected in a global member data base and linked with further customer data, which form the basis for individualized marketing measures (Ganesh et al., 2006; pg 65). However, some argue that it has to be considered that the set up and development of a customer club requires considerable investments. Whereas the cost effects of these investments are obvious and can be calculated rather easily, there is no certainty with respect to the existence and degree of the expected loyalty effects. Also, the customers willingness for a membership depends on the fact whether a distinct advantage is offered to them as customers are only willing to supply data and participate actively in the club membership, if their individual cost-benefit-calculation leads to a positive result (Gupta et al., 2005; pg 7). Therefore the customer club must offer a bundle of exclusive services, which are attractive for the target group from either a financial, material or communicative perspective. Retention measures and process Banking organizations in the vanguard are making several proactive changes in their service capabilities. They are developing diagnostics to understand what their customers need and value. They are examining what they need to do to retain customers and then train their people accordingly and are reinforcing service-oriented behaviours. Banks are exploring how to anticipate and respond successfully to differences in customer requirements between geographies. They are leveraging the intimate product knowledge of technical people and other staff and teaching them about the critical role they play in customer retention. Some financial service organizations are also teaming up sales, service and technical experts much farther upstream in a customer relationship in ways that are cost-effective and value added (Johnston, 2005; pg 211). It is also worth pointing out that the service component of forward thinking banking organizations is no longer relegated to one department containing the lowest-paid people. Major Banks use technology to accomplish menial tasks quickly, allowing everyone in the organization the time to enhance their skills as salespeople, research and development contacts and potential consultants on complex jobs (Morrman et al., 2002; pg 314). Research done by Nyer (2007) showed that everyone who interacts with customers must become an active agent for customer retention. A number of organizational processes can be associated with customer retention, including customer satisfaction measurement process, customer retention planning process, quality assurance process, win-back processes and the complaints-handling process. The notion that companies should engage in planning if they want to achieve desired business outcomes is deeply embedded in modernist management literature. Retention metrics Despite the scarcity of research into customer retention planning, investigators and commentators have begun to report on a number of related questions, such as how to define and measure customer retention, how to segment customers for customer retention efforts, and what strategies to employ to recover at-risk or lost customers. Aspinall et al. (2001) investigated the issue of definition and measurement of customer retention. They found that customer retention was particularly an issue in larger banking organizations but absence of measurable indicators makes it harder to gauge the impact of strategy implementation on customer retention. Buttle (2004) found that banks can employ one or more of several types of retention-related KPIs – raw, sales-adjusted, or profit-adjusted customer retention metrics. Banks that adopt raw customer retention metrics focus on the retention of a given percentage or number of customers, regardless of value. Banks that use sales or profit-adjusted retention metrics will focus their efforts on customers that generate higher levels of sales or profit. Coyles and Gorkey’s (2002) research also notes the significance of focusing on the retention of profitable customers, rather than all customers. They suggest that it may be more important for banks to focus on managing the overall downward migration of customer spending than customer retention in its own right. They note that many more customers change their behaviour than defect, so the former typically account for larger changes in value (Coyles and Gorkey, 2002, p. 80). They report the case of one bank that lost 3 per cent of its total balances when 5 per cent of checking account customers defected in a year, but lost 24 per cent of its total balances when 35 per cent of customers reduced the amounts deposited in their checking accounts. Another question that researchers have attempted to answer concerns the focus of companies’ customer retention efforts (Koch, 1998; Ganesh et al., 2000). Should retention of every customer be the goal, or should retention efforts be focused on subsets or even individuals? A report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (2002) observes that poor management of customer churn is a major value destroyer and that the key to prevention is to predict and avert attrition of the â€Å"right customers†. The â€Å"right customers† are those that contribute most significantly to the achievement of the company’s objectives. The implication of there being â€Å"right† and â€Å"wrong† customers to retain is that companies are advised to segment their customer base for retention efforts in much the same way that they would segment the market for acquisition efforts (Weinstein, 2002). Evans (2002) suggests that the right customers are those with the highest residual lifetime value. Although there has been little investigation of customer retention planning processes, there has been considerable attention paid to assessing the role and effectiveness of retention strategies and tactics directed towards valued, at-risk or lost customers. For example, a number of researchers have examined the contribution of relationship marketing instruments such as loyalty programs and customer clubs to customer retention outcomes (O’Brien and Jones, 1995; Dowling and Uncles, 1997; Stauss et al., 2001; Verhoef, 2003). Others have examined the development of customer attachment to organizations (Moorman et al., 1992; Oliver, 1999; Hofmeyr and Rice, 2000). The research will look into the retention KPIs of Citibank and assess whether the KPIs accurately measure retention. Type of banking relationships Banking relationships can be economic and social. Economic content deals with the economic benefits and costs of participating in the relationship. Customers are only willing to participate actively in a relationship if their individual cost-benefit calculation leads to a positive result (Stauss Seidel, 2005). Social content suggests that although economics may indicate a prosperous relationship, no relationship can be successful in the long-term without a social environment that nurtures communication, honesty, fair play and an awareness of mutual interests and therefore relationships should accommodate opportunities for interactions so that friendships may be developed. Building a customer retention strategy Setting up a strategy around customer retention requires careful planning and should include detailed plans and methods for customer identification and registration, segmentation and reward design. In order to be a source of sustainable competitive advantage, the banking organization developing the strategy must always take into account what its loyal customers value, since loyalty and retention is inextricably linked to the creation of value (Morgan et al, 2000). The strategy should make sure that it directly supports the value proposition. A value proposition is â€Å"the full positioning of a brand , the full mix of benefits upon which it is positioned† and the answer to the customer’s question â€Å"Why should I buy your brand?†(Kotler Armstrong,2001). Moreover, in order to be viable, a retention strategy must build and sustain noticeable differences in its offerings that are difficult to copy, since a lack of differentiation removes any potential of competitive advantage – which is anything but easy in banking., where first movers are quickly imitated (Morgan,2001). It must be considered that the retention strategy do not exist in a vacuum, but should be a coherent element of the bank’s overall strategy and capabilities. The strategy should take into account the nature of the business, its market position, goals, and the competitive landscape. There is still some confusion regarding the nature, scope, role and influence of customer retention initiatives. From a functional perspective, many marketers believe