Aqr Delta Strategy Essay

DANIEL BERGSTRESSER LAUREN COHEN RANDOLPH COHEN CHRISTOPHER MALLOY AQR’s DELTA Strategy In the summer of 2011, the principals at AQR Capital Management met in their Greenwich, CT, office to decide how best to market their new DELTA strategy. After launching in the late summer of 2008, the DELTA strategy had compiled an excellent track record, but David Kabiller, a Founding Principal and the Head of Client Strategies at AQR, was frustrated that the fund had not grown faster in light of its exceptional performance. In Kabiller’s experience, the combination of a solid track record plus an innovative product usually led to explosive growth in assets under management (AUM), but that had not been the case so far with DELTA. The DELTA strategy was a product that offered investors exposure to a basket of nine major hedge fund strategies. The DELTA strategy was innovative in two ways. First, in terms of its structure, AQR implemented the underlying strategies using a well-defined investment process, with the goal of delivering exposure to a well-diversified portfolio of hedge fund strategies. Second, in terms of its fees, the new DELTA strategy charged relatively lower fees: 1 percent management fees plus 10 percent of performance over a cash hurdle (or, alternatively, a management fee of 2 percent only). This fee structure was low relative to the industry, where 2 percent management fees plus 20 percent of performance, often with no hurdle, was standard. These features, while distinct relative to other related â€Å"hedge fund replication† products, had yet to fully resonate with investors, and Kabiller needed to decide on a more effective marketing approach given the large number of competitors entering this space. AQR AQR was established in 1998 and headquartered in Greenwich, CT. The founding Principals of the firm included Clifford Asness, David Kabiller, Robert Krail, and John Liew, who had all worked together at Goldman Sachs Asset Management before leaving to start AQR. Asness, Krail, and Liew had all met in the Finance PhD program at the University of Chicago, where Asness’ dissertation had focused on momentum investing. AQR’s over 200 employees managed $24.0 Billion in assets. A large amount of these assets were invested in hedge fund strategies. Professors Daniel Bergstresser (HBS), Lauren Cohen (HBS), Randolph Cohen (MIT), and Christopher Malloy (HBS) prepared this case. HBS cases are developed solely as the basis for class discussion. Cases are not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of primary data, or illustrations of effective or ineffective management. Copyright  © 2011, 2012 President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-5457685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to www.hbsp.harvard.edu/educators. This publication may not be digitized, photocopied, or otherwise reproduced, posted, or transmitted, without the permission of Harvard Business School. 212-038 AQR’s DELTA Strategy Hedge funds Voor- en nadelen Hedge Fund: While open-end mutual funds had to register with the SEC, calculate and publish daily net asset values (NAVs), and provide investors with daily liquidity, hedge funds were not automatically regulated by the SEC and enjoyed as much flexibility as they could negotiate with their clients with respect to liquidity. In exchange for this light-touch regulation, hedge funds were restricted in their marketing: only high net worth and institutional investors could directly invest in these funds. Nevertheless, academic work had by the late 1990s established that hedge funds offered a risk exposure that was less correlated with broad market indexes than most mutual funds, and potentially offered high risk-adjusted returns. The performance of the hedge fund industry during the 2001-2002 recession was  particularly good; Exhibit 1 shows that while stock market indices (S&P and NASDAQ) fell dramatically during this period, broad hedge fund indices (e.g., DJCS_Hedge and HFRI_FW, which were designed to track the overall performance of the hedge fund industry) rose. In response to the perception that hedge funds truly offered outperformance, institutional money flowed into hedge funds during the late 1990s and 2000s, and the size of the industry grew rapidly. Exhibit 2 charts the growth in the number of funds and total AUM (assets under management) in the hedge fund industry since 1997. With this growth in assets and managers, questions began to surface about the role of hedge funds in a portfolio and whether there were other ways to capture those returns without being exposed to some of the negatives of hedge fund investing. Alternatives to hedge funds Although many investors were attracted to the possibility of obtaining high returns and/or low covariance with other investments in their portfolio, many still found hedge funds themselves to be unappealing. Among the reasons for their distaste were: a) illiquidity, b) minimum investment requirements, c) high fees, d) the difficulty of selecting the right hedge fund manager, e) the inability to gain access to high quality funds, and f) the lack of established benchmarks in the industry. Most hedge funds only allowed redemptions on certain dates – often at the end of each quarter. Additionally many funds had an initial lockup – that is, investors could not redeem from the fund for a set period after investing; the period was often one year though some funds had no lockup and others had locked up investors for as long as five years. Most funds also had a minimum investment size of at least $1 million. In addition, many investors found the fees charged by hedge funds, which often amounted to 2% of assets under management (some funds even charged the full cost of their operations to their funds, amounting to more than 2% management fees) plus an additional 20% of profits generated by the fund, to be excessive and hoped to obtain similar benefits at a lower cost. Some investors also found the idea of selecting a portfolio from the many thousands of available hedge funds to be an intimidating task, especially given the lack of transparency (both as to investment process and holdings) that was common among hedge fund managers. And of course even if  an investor could identify a set of funds that made up an attractive portfolio, the managers of those funds might not accept an investment at that time or from that investor. Finally, in contrast to the mutual fund industry, there was a lack of established benchmarks fo r hedge funds, making it difficult to assess skill versus luck and idiosyncratic versus systematic returns. While hedge fund indices existed, these were just peer groups, not true benchmarks, and were biased by a number of things, including style drift and survivorship bias. In response to these criticisms, alternative products were soon introduced into the marketplace. 2 AQR’s DELTA Strategy 212-038 Funds of Hedge Funds (FOFs) One popular alternative to direct hedge fund investing was the funds of hedge funds (FOFs) structure. FOFs aimed to take investors’ money and allocate it among a select group of hedge funds – sometimes among a small number (even in the single digits in some cases), and sometimes among hundreds of funds. onerous= burdensome/ heavy This approach solved a number of the issues facing hedge fund investors, especially those with modest capital. FOFs had less onerous liquidity rules than individual hedge funds, and FOFs were less likely to encounter liquidity problems than individual funds since they could obtain liquidity from a number of underlying funds. Still, FOFs were ultimately subject to the underlying liquidity (both with respect to liquidity terms and underlying holdings) of the funds they were investing in. In addition, a single minimum investment bought a portfolio of many funds, and an experienced and hopefully expert financial professional, or team of such professionals, selected the funds, and chose allocations among them that (presumably) produced a well-optimized portfolio. Finally, FOF managers  claimed that their experience and connections provided access to hard-to-enter funds. Thus FOFs presented an appealing package, and indeed close to half of all money invested in hedge funds came through F OFs. However, many investors were put off by FOF fees, which historically included an additional layer of fees often as high as half the level of hedge fund fees themselves (thus making total fees paid about 1.5 times higher than for direct investing). Multi-strategy Funds Another approach to obtaining an alternative-investment portfolio while avoiding some of the challenges of one-strategy-at-a-time creation was to invest in multi-strategy hedge funds. Such offerings were often made by large hedge fund firms that offered a variety of individual strategies. Investors might have the option to invest in a multi-strategy fund that allocated assets across the different silos within the firm. One major advantage of multi-strategy funds over FOFs was fees: multi-strategy funds typically did not charge an additional fee layer over and above the hedge fund fee (as FOFs did). Further, multi-strategy funds only charged performance fees when the total investment was in the money; whereas, in the case of FOFs and direct single strategy investments, an investor could be subject to performance fees even if the net, aggregate performance wasn’t positive. A second potential advantage of multi-strategy funds was in portfolio construction. Not only was the allocation among strategies performed by professionals, those professionals likely had a high level of insight and visibility into the opportunities available to the individual silo managers. Multi-strategy funds generally offered as good or better liquidity than individual-strategy funds, and of course there was no trouble gaining â€Å"access† to the underlying managers. Multi-strategy funds appeared to offer strong diversification, although in the famous case of the hedge fund Amaranth, investors thought they were investing in a diversified portfolio of strategies. However, extreme losses in one of the portfolio’s silos led to the loss of approximately 75% of total portfolio value. Consequently many investors felt they were not truly diversified if they had a large allocation to a multi-strategy fund, but this could be potentially mitigated through the right amount of transparency into the positions and  risks of the portfolio, or, of course, through diversification among several different multi-strategy funds, thereby minimizing single firm risk. silos= opslagplaatsen 3 212-038 AQR’s DELTA Strategy One potential concern with multi-strategy funds from the investor’s point of view was the question of portfolio manager quality. Although it was possible that a single firm could gather under one roof the very best managers in a variety of specialties, some investors found this implausible. Hedge fund replication Starting in 2006, a number of investment management firms also introduced â€Å"hedge fund replication† products. These strategies, implemented using liquid instruments, purported to give investors a ‘top-down’ exposure to the broad risk exposures of the hedge fund industry. These products could be viewed as an effort to provide ‘hedge fund beta,’ or the systematic part of hedge fund performance. The rationale for these products originated from studies of hedge fund returns that highlighted the idea that the line between ‘alpha’ and ‘beta,’ was potentially fluid. The alternative systematic exposures of hedge funds could be viewed as a kind of â€Å"exotic beta.† If hedge fund returns could be approximated with dynamically traded portfolios of liquid assets, then investors attracted to hedge fund returns, but potentially looking for a liquid or low-fee alternative to actual hedge funds could invest in a ‘hedge fun d replication’ product that attempted to mimic hedge fund returns using liquid assets. These top-down approaches aimed to use statistical methods to create a portfolio of liquid assets that had similar performance to hedge funds as a class. One top-down approach was to use linear regressions, or optimizations, to build a portfolio that had high correlations to historical hedge fund returns. An example of this  approach consisted of three steps. First one would obtain a long-run time series of returns on a diversified portfolio of hedge funds (e.g., the HFRI monthly hedge fund indices were commonly used). Then one would obtain returns on a large number of liquid investments-these could be indexes of stocks (e.g., S&P 500, MSCI EAFE, MSCI Emerging, Russell 2000, etc.), bonds (e.g., US 10-year government bonds), currencies (e.g., EUR-USD Spot Exchange Rate), etc. () Finally, one would use a standard statistical optimizer, or linear regression, to find the portfolio of liquid investments (either long or short and at weights implied by the statistical analysis) that most closely replicated the statistical characteristics of the hedge fund portfolio. Exhibit 3 presents the monthly returns from a set of indices that were commonly used for hedge fund replication purposes. 1 Specifically, the goal was to create a portfolio that historically moved as close to one for one with the hedge fund portfolio, so that it had high correlation with the hedge fund portfolio, and yet also matched other â€Å"statistical moments,† such as volatility, skewness, and kurtosis. Historically, and ideally on a forward-looking basis as well, this portfolio would fulfill a role in the diversified portfolio similar to the role that hedge funds would play. Exhibit 4 plots the recent return performance of a few commonly used hedge fund indices (e.g., DJCS_Hedge, HFRI_FW, and HFRX_Global), which represent composite indices of individual hedge funds and were designed to track the overall return performance of the industry; as well as a fund-ofhedge funds (FOF) index (HFRI_FOF) designed to track the overall return performance of funds of hedge funds. Exhibit 5 presents the return performance of four popular hedge fund replication index products, produced by Merrill Lynch, G oldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and Credit Suisse. Exhibit 6 presents the return performance of the overall hedge fund indices alongside the performance of these hedge fund replication products. 1 This is an excerpt of the data. The full data series is in the Spreadsheet Supplement to the case. 4 AQR’s DELTA Strategy 212-038 AQR’s approach For years, the principals at AQR had been working on understanding the underlying nature of hedge fund returns and exploring the possibility of being able to capture them in a transparent, liquid and cost effective way. Thus, they were initially intrigued by the introduction of these hedge fund replication products, but very soon came to the conclusion that an entirely different approach to delivering exposure to the systematic risk factors of the hedge fund industry was needed. Whereas AQR’s competitors focused on the ‘top-down’ products described above, AQR focused on creating a ‘bottom-up’ approach that sought to deliver significant risk-adjusted returns instead of simply replicating an index by: capturing classical, liquid hedge fund strategies that were uncorrelated with traditional markets, implementing them at low cost, and then bundling these strategies into a wellconstructed single portfolio focusing on portfolio construction, risk management and trading. Origins of AQR’s approach The idea of direct, simplified implementation of core hedge fund strategies was hinted at by the pioneering work into merger arbitrage of Mark Mitchell and Todd Pulvino. Mitchell and Pulvino were both former academics (at Harvard Business School and the Kellogg School of Management, respectively) who subsequently teamed up with AQR in 2001. A simple merger arbitrage strategy, for example, worked as follows: after the announcement by Firm A of a desire to acquire Firm B, the merger arbitrageur made a purchase of the target Firm B shares while shorting the acquirer Firm A’s shares (if the acquisition was to be made in cash, the arbitrageur merely purchased Firm B shares without shorting Firm A). Typically upon the announcement of the merger, the price of the target shares would not rise all the way to the price that would be appropriate if the merger were sure to be completed. When Mitchell and Pulvino studied the merger arbitrage industry, they found that merger arbitrage strategies did deliver substantial risk-adjusted returns. Specifically, the expected returns of putting merger arbitrage  investments into place was high, and while the risk was higher than one might naturally have expected — because mergers tended to break up exactly at times of market stress, and therefore the merger arbitrage strategy had more beta, or market exposure, than might be presumed — nevertheless they found that even accounting for this risk, the performance of a naà ¯ve merger arbitrage strategy that invested in every deal was substantial. Mitchell and Pulvino also looked at the performance of actual merger arbitrage funds. A merger arbitrage fund would be expected to add alpha by correctly identifying which mergers were more or less likely to achieve completion than the market anticipated. So, for example, if the market pricing of a deal was such that the expected return would be zero if the merger was 90% likely to be completed, the merger arbitrageur’s job was to try to figure out whether in fact the merger was substantially more than 90% likely to go through, substantially less than 90%, or about 90%, and then invest only in those deals that were substantially more than 90% likely to go through. What Mitchell and Pulvino found was that merger arbitrage funds made money, but that they did not show an ability to forecast which mergers would close over and above the market’s ability. That is, the outperformance that merger arbitrageurs were generating was no greater than the outperformance that would be generated by a simple strategy that bought every target and shorted every bidder, particularly net of fees. 5 212-038 AQR’s DELTA Strategy This opened the door to a potential strategy for the replication of merger arbitrage: simply participate in every merger arbitrage deal that met a set of basic screens (e.g., size and liquidity). The benefit to investors would be a potentially more diversified portfolio of merger deals than would be obtained from a fund manager who only selected a subset of the deals, and also potentially far lower fees, because there was no need to pay an analyst  to determine which mergers were more or less likely to succeed. With this as a template, one could easily imagine a whole roster of potential hedge fund strategies that could be captured in a systematic way (e.g., long value stocks and short growth stocks, convertible arbitrage, carry trades, trend following trades and trades exploiting other wellknown empirical asset pricing anomalies). Since the early work into merger arbitrage, AQR had spent years researching these other classical hedge fund strategies that could be captured from the bottomup. Bottom-Up versus Top-Down AQR preferred their bottom-up approach for a variety of reasons. First, they felt that many hedge fund strategies earned returns for bearing a liquidity risk premium, which you could not earn by trading solely in liquid instruments as in the hedge fund replication methods. For example, in order to capture the returns from a convertible bond that traded at a discount to fair value because of a liquidity risk premium, you needed to own the convertible bond, not simply liquid assets that were correlated with the convertible bond. Second, since top-down methods aimed to maximize correlations with recent past hedge fund performance, these approaches were necessarily backwardlooking and based on what hedge funds were doing in the past. By contrast, if you ran the actual strategies, one could respond to market opportunities immediately. Finally and perhaps most importantly, AQR felt that the hedge fund indices upon which most top-down replication strategies were based had a variety of biases (e.g., survivorship bias), had too much exposure to traditional markets (i.e., equity and credit beta) and also tended to reflect the weights of the most popular strategies. Since these popular strategies were crowded with many trades, the expected returns on these strategies going forward were potentially lower. In short, while they shared the noble goals of top-down replication products (i.e., attempting to provide liquid, transparent exposure to hedge fund strategies at a lower fee), AQR felt that the approach had fundamental flaws or, as Cliff Asness put it in a speech in October 2007 on hedge fund replication, â€Å"Not Everything That Can Be Done Should Be Done.† AQR’s DELTA Strategy In late 2007, AQR decided to focus their years of research on capturing the classical hedge fund strategies in a systematic way from the bottom up by â€Å"creating our own product that would seek to deliver these strategies in a risk-balanced and efficiently implemented way.† AQR viewed their â€Å"DELTA† product as superior to the newly-introduced replication products that were being marketed as offering ‘hedge fund beta.’ In fact, AQR staff bristled at comparisons between the existing hedge fund replication products and their DELTA product. To ensure that AQR was taking a broad approach and to avoid being insular, they formed an external advisory committee made up of some very seasoned hedge fund investors to help guide the development of the product. The DELTA name was an acronym that reflected the product’s characteristics: ‘Dynamic, Economically Intuitive, Liquid, Transparent and Alternative.’ The portfolio was designed to be uncor related with the overall stock market, and would be diversified across nine broad strategy classes: a Fixed Income Relative Value strategy, a Managed Futures strategy, a Global Macro strategy, insular = bekrompen 6 AQR’s DELTA Strategy 212-038 an Emerging Markets strategy, a Long/Short equity strategy, a Dedicated Short Bias strategy, an Equity Market Neutral strategy, a Convertible Arbitrage strategy, and an Event Driven strategy. Performance AQR decided to go ahead with the creation of the DELTA strategy in the late summer of 2008. By October 1, 2008, the portfolio was fully invested and had begun to compile a track record. At the time, the staff at AQR had worried that this might be â€Å"the worst possible time to be launching a product designed to capture classical hedge fund strategies.† Nonetheless, the DELTA  portfolio performed well in the fourth quarter of 2008 immediately after its launch, an impressive feat given the turbulence in the market. Exhibit 7 charts the monthly performance of the DELTA strategy since inception. Exhibit 8 shows the raw monthly returns of the DELTA strategy, compared to the raw monthly returns of stock market indices (S&P and NASDAQ) and broad hedge fund indices (e.g., DJCS_Hedge and HFRI_FW, which were designed to track the overall performance of the hedge fund industry). Exhibit 8 also presents the â€Å"beta† of the DELTA strategy with respect to these various market and hedge fund indices, while Exhibit 9 graphs the cumulative return performance of the DELTA strategy relative to these indices. Marketing DELTA Although DELTA was off to a great start, Kabiller felt like it was underperforming its potential. By the summer of 2011, despite its excellent performance, growth in DELTA’s AUM had been modest. After giving it a lot of thought, Kabiller identified three primary challenges AQR faced in convincing investors to allocate capital to DELTA. First, many of his institutional clients had grown very comfortable selecting a set of hedge funds and paying them both management and performance fees. Exhibit 10 presents the recent annual returns of some of the largest U.S. hedge funds, many of whom had delivered stellar returns over time. Kabiller was convinced that one of DELTA’s major assets was its ability to deliver hedge fund returns with a significantly lower fee structure. But many of his institutional clients had difficulty assessing just how large an advantage this provided DELTA. For instance, if a client selected the two percent management fee with no performance fee struct ure, how much higher could they expect their after-fee returns to be? Given that performance fees were typically only paid on returns in excess of a cash hurdle, was a twenty percent performance fee really that costly to fund investors? Related considerations applied to investors that invested primarily through Funds of Hedge Funds. These investment vehicles typically added a layer of fees on top of the after-fee performance of their hedge fund investments – typically a one percent management fee and a ten percent performance fee. Due to DELTA’s multi-strategy investment approach, its after-fee performance should perhaps be benchmarked against those of fund-of-funds alternatives. Conveying to such investors the fee advantage of DELTA in simple terms – for instance, how much better their competitors’ pre-fee returns needed to be than those of DELTA to offset the fee differential – would go a long way in convincing them that DELTA was the superior approach. A second challenge in marketing DELTA was the emergence of the so-called hedge fund replication strategies. These strategies were almost the polar opposite of the fund-of-funds – they had modest fees and, because they replicated hedge fund returns using highly liquid indices, they faced little in the way of liquidity risk. Institutional investors interested in low-fee exposure to hedge fund returns found these products attractive, and Kabiller found it challenging to convey the advantages of the DELTA approach. His inclination was to focus on two key limitations of hedge fund replication. First, he felt they relied heavily on the historical relationship between hedge fund returns and major stock and bond market indices. To the extent that the relationship was not stable, 7 212-038 AQR’s DELTA Strategy or to the extent that a large fraction of hedge fund movements could not be captured by an appropriate combination of these indices, the replication approach would be limited in its ability to truly deliver in real time the actual returns being earned by the average hedge fund investor. Second, even if the strategy could replicate a large fraction of the monthly fluctuations in performance of the average hedge fund, Kabiller felt it was likely that a â€Å"top-down† approach would be limited in replicating the actual edge, or â€Å"alpha,† of the average hedge fund. Even if much of the risks to which hedge funds were exposed could be found in broad stock and bond market indices, it was unlikely that any of the informational or liquidity edges they possessed would appear in the returns of these indices. A final challenge Kabiller faced in the marketing of DELTA was its track record. Although it had outpaced the broad HFRI index since its inception in the fall of 2008, th e track record was still a fairly limited one. Moreover, since the central appeal of the product was its ability to match average hedge fund returns  with modest fees, the outperformance ironically posed something of a challenge for DELTA. Kabiller felt it would be critical to understand its source before determining whether it was an aberration or whether they possessed a sustainable edge relative to the index of hedge funds. As Kabiller looked out beyond his infinity pool and into the calm waters of the Long Island Sound, he worried that without a proper grasp of these issues, many rough sales meetings lay ahead for him and his DELTA team. 8 AQR’s DELTA Strategy 212-038 Exhibit 1 Cumulative Return Performance of Hedge Fund Indices versus Stock Market Indices, since 1996. Cumulative Return Performance of Hedge Fund Indices Versus Stock Market Indices 500 450 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 199601 199609 199705 199801 199809 199905 200001 200009 200105 200201 200209 200305 200401 200409 200505 200601 200609 200705 200801 200809 200905 201001 201009 201105 NASDAQ S&P_Index DJCS_Hedge HFRI_FW Source: Bloomberg. 9 212-038 AQR’s DELTA Strategy Exhibit 2 Total Number of Hedge Funds and Total AUM (Assets Under Management) for the Hedge Fund Industry, since 1997. Growth in Hedge Fund Industry (1997-2010) 12,000 $2,500.00 10,000 Number of Hedge Funds 8,000 $1,500.00 6,000 $1,000.00 4,000 $500.00 Hedge Fund AUM (in Billions $) $2,000.00 Number of Hedge Funds Hedge Fund AUM 2,000 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 $- Source: Created by casewriters using data from Hedge Fund Research, www.hedgefundresearch.com, accessed August 2011. 10 212-038 -11- Exhibit 3 Excerpt of Monthly Returns on Indices Commonly Used for Hedge Fund Replication (1996-2011). The full data series is contained in the Spreadsheet Supplement to the case MSCI EM 7.6% -0.6% 1.1% 5.2% 0.1% 0.9% -6.2% 2.6% 1.4% -1.4% 1.7% 1.0% †¦ -2.1% -1.4% 4.3% 0.8% -1.6% -1.9% -0.9% -7.3% -7.4% 9.1% -3.8% 0.0% 7.4% 3.9% 7.0% 6.2% -2.5% 0.5% 15.0% -0.5% 0.5% 10.9% -0.2% 1.0% 4.5% -8.7% -4.3% -8.8% -11.4% -5.4% -7.0% -1.3% -1.2% -3.5% -2.0% -2.5% -3.7% -1.1% -1.7% -2.0% 0.4% 0.1% 0.2% 0.4% -0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% -2.8% 2.0% 2.4% 2.6% 0.0% 3.0% -0.1% 0.5% 1.6% 2.4% -0.3% 5.4% 2.4% 3.4% 0.2% -0.1% -0.4% 0.0% 0.0% 1.6% 2.7% -0.7% 3.3% 5.7% 2.8% -2.0% 1.3% 2.0% 0.8% 4.0% -0.7% †¦ 4.0% 2.4% †¦ 7.6% -2.0% †¦ 0.8% 0.0% †¦ 2.8% -2.1% †¦ 4.6% -1.2% 3.7% -1.7% 5.6% 2.8% 0.9% 1.2% 2.2% 2.9% 0.9% 4.1% 0.4% 0.0% †¦ -0.7% -0.2% 1.1% 1.7% -0.9% -0.8% 0.6% -1.2% 1.4% 0.0% 1.0% 0.3% 0.0% 1.0% -4.9% 0.9% -4.2% -8.8% 5.7% 0.4% -4.4% 2.1% 0.8% 0.4% 0.4% 1.5% 0.0% -0.5% -0.3% -1.0% -1.4% 3.5% -1.2% 5.3% 3.9% 1.5% 2.6% 0.0% 0.2% -1.7% -0.6% 4.5% -1.4% -1.0% 2.8% 3.0% 1.8% 0.9% 1.0% -0.5% -0.2% -3.6% -1.1% -3.7% -0.3% 3.7% -0.2% 3.4% 0.9% 0.4% 5.1% MSCI EAFE RUSSELL 2000 S&P 500 US TREAS 2YR US TREAS 10YR CURRENCY HFRI HFRI FOF HFRI FW 1/31/1996 1.1% 2.7% 2.9% 2/29/1996 3/29/1996 2.8% 1.9% -0.6% 1.0% 1.2% 1.5% 4/30/1996 5/31/1996 5.3% 3.7% 3.1% 1.5% 4.0% 3.1% 6/28/1996 7/31/1996 8/30/1996 -0.7% -2.9% 2.6% 0.4% -1.9% 1.5% 0.2% -2.1% 2.3% 9/30/1996 10/31/1996 2.2% 1.6% 1.2% 1.6% 2.1% 1.0% 11/29/1996 12/31/1996 †¦ 1.7% 0.8% 2.3% 0.7% †¦ 2.1% 1.3% †¦ 1/31/2011 2/28/2011 0.4% 1.3% 0.1% 0.8% 0.4% 1.2% 3/31/2011 4/29/2011 0.5% 1.3% -0.1% 1.2% 0.1% 1.5% 5/31/2011 6/30/2011 7/29/2011 -1.3% -1.3% -0.3% -1.1% -1.3% 0.4% -1.2% -1.2% 0.2% 8/31/2011 9/30/2011 -4.9% -6.0% -2.6% -2.8% -3.2% -3.9% 10/31/2011 11/30/2011 12/30/2011 4.9% -2.0% -0.9% 1.1% -1.0% -0.4% 2.7% -1.3% -0.4% 1/31/2012 3.8% 1.9% 2.6% Source: Thomson Reuters Datastream. 212-038 AQR’s DELTA Strategy Exhibit 4 Cumulative Return Performance of Overall Hedge Fund Indices, since June 2007. Recent Performance of Hedge Fund Indices 120 110 100 DJCS_Hedge 90 80 70 60 200706 200708 200710 200712 200802 200804 200806 200808 200810 200812 200902 200904 200906 200908 200910 200912 201002 201004 201006 201008 201010 201012 201102 201104 201106 HFRI_FW HFRX_Global HFRI_FOF Source: Bloomberg. 12 AQR’s DELTA Strategy 212-038 Exhibit 5 Cumulative Return Performance of Hedge Fund Replication Indices, since June 2007. Recent Performance of Hedge Fund Replication Products 130 120 110 100 90 80 70 60 200706 200708 200710 200712 200802 200804 200806 200808 200810 200812 200902 200904 200906 200908 200910 200912 201002 201004 201006 201008 201010 201012 201102 201104 201106 ML GS JPM CS Source: Bloomberg. 13 212-038 AQR’s DELTA Strategy Exhibit 6 Comparison of Cumulative Return Performance of Overall Hedge Fund Indices versus Hedge Fund Replication Indices, since June 2007. Comparison of Recent Performance of Hedge Fund Indices Versus Hedge Fund Replication Products 130 120 110 100 90 80 70 60 200706 200708 200710 200712 200802 200804 200806 200808 200810 200812 200902 200904 200906 200908 200910 200912 201002 201004 201006 201008 201010 201012 201102 201104 201106 DJCS_Hedge HFRI_FW HFRX_Global HFRI_FOF ML GS JPM CS Source: Bloomberg. 14 AQR’s DELTA Strategy 212-038 Exhibit 7 Monthly Return Performance of AQR DELTA strategy, Since Inception. AQR DELTA Return Performance 5.00% 4.00% 3.00% 2.00% 1.00% 0.00% -1.00% -2.00% -3.00% -4.00% Source: Company documents. 15 212-038 AQR’s DELTA Strategy Exhibit 8 Monthly Return Performance (and Beta) of AQR DELTA strategy compared to Market Indices (S&P, NASDAQ) and Hedge Fund Indices (DJCS_Hedge, HFRI_FW), since October 2008. Date 200810 200811 200812 200901 200902 200903 200904 200905 200906 200907 200908 200909 200910 200911 200912 201001 201002 201003 201004 201005 201006 201007 201008 201009 201010 201011 201012 201101 201102 201103 201104 201105 Average DELTA 1.22% 1.72% 4.05% 2.79% -0.10% 2.32% 3.09% -0.35% 1.78% 1.93% 4.48% 2.70% -0.31% 0.96% 0.55% -0.66% -0.27% 2.23% 2.18% -3.37% 1.39% 1.62% 2.02% 3.33% 2.47% 1.03% 1.93% -0.41% -0.45% 0.92% 2.31% -0.84% 1.32% NASDAQ -17.73% -10.77% 2.70% -6.38% -6.68% 10.94% 12.35% 3.32% 3.42% 7.82% 1.54% 5.64% -3.64% 4.86% 5.81% -5.37% 4.23% 7.14% 2.64% -8.29% -6.55% 6.90% -6.24% 12.04% 5.86% -0.37% 6.19% 1.78% 3.04% -0.04% 3.32% -1.33% 1.19% 0.09 0.25 0.28 S&P_Index -16.94% -7.48% 0.78% -8.57% -10.99% 8.54% 9.39% 5.31% 0.02% 7.41% 3.36% 3.57% -1.98% 5.74% 1.78% -3.70% 2.85% 5.88% 1.48% -8.20% -5.39% 6.88% -4.74% 8.76% 3.69% -0.23% 6.53% 2.26% 3.20% -0.10% 2.85% -1.35% 0.64% 0.09 0.28 0.32 DJCS_Hedge -6.30% -4.15% -0.03% 1.09% -0.88% 0.65% 1.68% 4.06% 0.43% 2.54% 1.53% 3.04% 0.13% 2.11% 0.88% 0.17% 0.68% 2.22% 1.24% -2.76% -0.84% 1.59% 0.23% 3.43% 1.92% -0.18% 2.90% 0.69% 1.38% 0.12% 1.80% -0.96% 0.64% 0.25 HFRI_FW -6.84% -2.67% 0.15% -0.09% -1.21% 1.66% 3.60% 5.15% 0.25% 2.50% 1.30% 2.79% -0.20% 1.52% 1.28% -0.76% 0.66% 2.49% 1.19% -2.89% -0.95% 1.61% -0.13% 3.48% 2.14% 0.19% 2.95% 0.41% 1.23% 0.06% 1.45% -1.18% 0.66% 0.25 DELTA’s Beta with: DJCS_Hedge’s Beta with: HFRI_FW’s Beta with: Source: Company documents. 16 AQR’s DELTA Strategy 212-038 Exhibit 9 Cumulative Return Performance of AQR DELTA Strategy versus Market Indices (S&P and NASDAQ) and Hedge Fund Indices (DJCS_Hedge and HFRI_FW), since October 2008 Cumulative Return Performance of DELTA versus Market and Hedge Fund Indices 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 DELTA NASDAQ S&P_Index DJCS_Hedge HFRI_FW Source: Bloomberg and company documents. 17 212-038 -18- Exhibit 10 Annual Returns of Largest Hedge Funds (%) Fund Name Winton Futures USD Cls B Millennium International Ltd Transtrend DTP – Enhanced Risk (USD) The Genesis Emerging Mkts Invt Com A Aspect Diversified Programme Aurora Offshore Fund Ltd. Permal Macro Holdings Ltd USD A Canyon Value Realization Cayman Ltd A Permal Fixed Income Holdings NV USD A Absolute Alpha Fund PCC Diversified Caxton Global Investments Ltd GAM U.S. Institutional Trading K4D-10V Portfolio K4D-15V Portfolio Orbis Optimal (US$) Fund GAM Trading II USD Open Double Black Diamond Ltd (Carlson) GoldenTree High Yield Master Fund Ltd Bay Resource Partners Offshore Fund Ltd GAM U.S. Institutional Diversity Firm Name Winton Capital Management Millennium Intl. Management Transtrend BV Genesis Investment Management Aspect Capital Aurora Investment Management Permal Asset Management Canyon Capital Advisors Permal Asset Management Financial Risk Management Caxton Associates GAM Sterling Management Graham Capital Management Graham Capital Management Orbis Investment Management GAM Sterling Management Carlson Capital Goldentree Asset Management GMT Capital Corp GAM Sterling Management Size ($Bil) 9.89 8.84 8.38 6.70 5.71 5.56 5.35 5.21 4.51 4.47 4.40 3.57 3.54 3.54 3.43 3.09 2.98 2.65 2.45 2.43 2001 7.11 15.26 26.36 4.62 15.79 9.82 14.66 12.69 11.50 9.33 31.41 16.34 6.45 39.31 29.01 14.78 11.94 18.30 29.32 9.56 2002 18.34 9.61 26.26 -1.77 19.19 1.31 8.03 5.21 10.47 6.36 26.44 10.69 18.76 43.71 12.15 10.55 2.12 6.24 0.03 4.95 2003 27.75 10.89 8.48 61.98 20.59 13.58 12.56 21.87 17.59 8.07 8.09 14.74 8.46 21.60 10.84 14.49 7.62 31.42 23.24 14.60 2004 22.63 14.68 12.82 31.53 -7.72 8.15 4.86 13.56 9.37 4.06 9.97 3.55 5.56 -0.43 2.25 3.84 4.70 9.89 27.97 6.14 2005 9.73 11.31 5.99 37.86 12.01 9.47 10.65 8.35 7.69 7.00 8.03 4.98 -7.52 -16.97 8.60 4.80 5.08 13.35 30.95 10.48 2006 17.83 16.43 12.04 30.22 12.84 10.95 9.48 14.08 10.48 8.94 13.17 8.68 5.02 6.64 4.95 7.44 21.12 13.21 21.65 16.74 2007 17.97 10.99 22.38 31.68 8.18 13.14 8.90 7.52 8.42 16.33 1.06 9.48 11.62 16.57 6.98 7.93 15.96 4.60 19.84 7.76 2008 20.99 -3.04 29.38 -49.30 25.42 -21.69 -5.16 -28.36 -18.40 -23.02 12.96 7.57 21.82 35.67 -2.49 5.78 -12.40 -38.60 -20.88 -13.96 2009 -4.63 16.28 -11.27 90.44 -11.24 21.26 9.83 55.20 27.32 10.51 5.83 8.32 1.41 3.11 9.92 6.55 28.34 69.94 56.60 6.78 2010 14.46 13.22 14.89 25.06 15.36 7.31 6.38 13.46 10.40 5.36 11.42 7.80 2.46 4.58 -3.93 5.97 9.30 23.61 15.90 -1.14 2011 6.29 8.39 -8.65 -15.29 4.51 -6.01 -3.27 -4.66 -5.28 -2.06 -2.40 -2.32 -4.11 -2.67 -4.19 -2.79 Source: Morningstar Hedge Fund Database, accessed January 2012.

The Renaissance: the Invention of the Printing Press

At the height of the Hussite crisis in the early 1400's, when the authorities ordered 200 manuscripts of heretical writings burned, people on both sides realized quite well the significance of that act. Two hundred handwritten manuscripts would be hard to replace. Not only would it be a time consuming job, but also trained scribes would be hard to find. After all, most of them worked for the Church, and it seemed unlikely that the Church would loan out its scribes to copy the works of heretics.Although the Hussites more than held their own against the Church, their movement remained confined mainly to the borders of their homeland of Bohemia. One main reason for this was that there was no mass media, such as the printing press to spread the word. A century later, all that had changed. Like any other invention, the printing press came along and had an impact when the right conditions existed at the right time and place. In this case, that was Europe in the mid 1400's.Like many or most inventions, the printing press was not the result of just one man's ingenious insight into all the problems involved in creating the printing press. Rather, printing was a combination of several different inventions and innovations: block printing, rag paper, oil based ink, interchangeable metal type, and the squeeze press. If one process started the chain reaction of events that led to the invention of the printing press, it was the rise of towns in Western Europe that sparked trade with the outside world all the way to China.That trade exposed Europeans to three things important for the invention of the printing press: rag paper, block printing, and, oddly enough, the Black Death. For centuries the Chinese had been making rag paper, which was made from a pulp of water and discarded rags that was then pressed into sheets of paper. When the Arabs met the Chinese at the battle of the Talas River in 751 A. D. , they carried off several prisoners skilled in making such paper. The tech nology spread gradually across the Muslim world, up through Spain and into Western Europe by the late 1200's.The squeeze press used in pressing the pulp into sheets of paper would also lend itself to pressing print evenly onto paper. The Black Death, which itself spread to Western Europe thanks to expanded trade routes, also greatly catalyzed the invention of the printing press in three ways, two of which combined with the invention of rag paper to provide Europe with plentiful paper. First of all, the survivors of the Black Death inherited the property of those who did not survive, so that even peasants found themselves a good deal richer.Since the textile industry was the most developed industry in Western Europe at that time, it should come as no surprise that people spent their money largely on new clothes. However, clothes wear out, leaving rags. As a result, fourteenth century Europe had plenty of rags to make into rag paper, which was much cheaper than the parchment (sheepski n) and vellum (calfskin) used to make books until then. Even by 1300, paper was only one-sixth the cost of parchment, and its relative cost continued to fall. Considering it took 170 calfskins or 300 sheepskins to make one copy of the Bible, we can see what a bargain paper was.But the Black Death had also killed off many of the monks who copied the books, since the crowded conditions in the monasteries had contributed to an unusually high mortality rate. One result of this was that the cost of copying books rose drastically while the cost of paper was dropping. Many people considered this unacceptable and looked for a better way to copy books. Thus the Black Death rag paper combined to create both lots of cheap paper plus an incentive for the invention of the printing press.The Black Death also helped lead to the decline of the Church, the rise of a money economy, and subsequently the Italian Renaissance with its secular ideas and emphasis on painting. It was the Renaissance artists who, in their search for a more durable paint, came up with oil-based paints. Adapting these to an oil-based ink that would adhere to metal type was fairly simple. Block printing, carved on porcelain, had existed for centuries before making its way to Europe. Some experiments with interchangeable copper type had been carried on in Korea.However, Chinese printing did not advance beyond that, possibly because the Chinese writing system used thousands of characters and was too unmanageable. For centuries after its introduction into Europe, block printing still found little use, since wooden printing blocks wore out quickly when compared to the time it took to carve them. As a result of the time and expense involved in making block prints, a few playing cards and pages of books were printed this way, but little else. What people needed was a movable type made of metal.And here again, the revival of towns and trade played a major role, since it stimulated a mining boom, especially in Ge rmany, along with better techniques for working metals, including soft metals such as gold and copper. It was a goldsmith from Mainz, Germany, Johannes Gutenberg, who created a durable and interchangeable metal type that allowed him to print many different pages, using the same letters over and over again in different combinations. It was also Gutenberg who combined all these disparate elements of movable type, rag paper, the squeeze press, and oil based inks to invent the first printing press in 1451.The first printed books were religious in nature, as were most medieval books. They also imitated (handwritten) manuscript form so that people would accept this new revolutionary way of copying books. The printing press soon changed the forms and uses of books quite radically. Books stopped imitating manuscript forms such as lined paper to help the copiers and abbreviations to save time in copying. They also covered an increasingly wider variety of non-religious topics (such as grammar s, etiquette, and geology books) that appealed especially to the professional members of the middle class.By 1482, there were about 100 printing presses in Western Europe: 50 in Italy, 30 in Germany, 9 in France, 8 each in Spain and Holland, and 4 in England. A Venetian printer, Aldus Manutius, realized that the real market was not for big heavy volumes of the Bible, but for smaller, cheaper, and easier to handle â€Å"pocket books†. Manutius further revolutionized book copying by his focusing on these smaller editions that more people could afford. He printed translations of the Greek classics and thus helped spread knowledge in general, and the Renaissance in particular, across Europe.By 1500, there were some 40,000 different editions with over 6,000,000 copies in print. The printing press had dramatic effects on European civilization. Its immediate effect was that it spread information quickly and accurately. This helped create a wider literate reading public. However, its importance lay not just in how it spread information and opinions, but also in what sorts of information and opinions it was spreading. There were two main directions printing took, both of which were probably totally unforeseen by its creators.First of all, more and more books of a secular nature were printed, with especially profound results in science. Scientists working on the same problem in different parts of Europe especially benefited, since they could print the results of their work and share it accurately with a large number of other scientists. They in turn could take that accurate, not miscopied, information, work with it and advance knowledge and understanding further. Of course, they could accurately share their information with many others and the process would continue.By the 1600's, this process would lead to the Scientific Revolution of the Enlightenment, which would radically alter how Europeans viewed the world and universe. The printing press also created its s hare of trouble as far as some people were concerned. It took book copying out of the hands of the Church and made it much harder for the Church to control or censor what was being written. It was hard enough to control what Wycliffe and Hus wrote with just a few hundred copies of their works in circulation.Imagine the problems the Church had when literally thousands of such works could be produced at a fraction of the cost. Each new printing press was just another hole in the dyke to be plugged up, and the Church had only so many fingers with which to do the job. It is no accident that the breakup of Europe's religious unity during the Protestant Reformation corresponded with the spread of printing. The difference between Martin Luther's successful Reformation and the Hussites' much more limited success was that Luther was armed with the printing press and knew how to use it with devastating effect.Some people go as far as to say that the printing press is the most important invent ion between the invention of writing itself and the computer. Although it is impossible to justify that statement to everyone's satisfaction, one can safely say that the printing press has been one of the most powerful inventions of the modern era. It has advanced and spread knowledge and molded public opinion in a way that nothing before the advent of television and radio in the twentieth century could rival. If it were not able to, then freedom of the press would not be such a jealously guarded liberty as it is today.

Sushi King

OUTLINE CONTENT| PAGES| introduction| 2| Question 1 (9 degrees of method)| 3-6| Question 2| 7-9| conclusion| 10| Appendix and reference| 11-13| Introduction Sushi King first opened in 1995, pioneering a new era of Japanese cuisine in Malaysia with our unique ‘Kaiten Sushi’ or ‘Revolving Sushi’ with quick service restaurant concept. Offering range of Japanese cuisine where everyone can enjoy it t really affordable price. With the nice environment that they have , they are really gaining quickly popularity to become the favorite among locals foreigners taste. From a single outlet in Kuala Lumpur, we have grown to encompass over 70 (and counting) restaurants nationwide, distinguishing themselves as the largest sushi chain of restaurants in the country. The affordable price, efficiency of services from their restaurant had proved that they have the distinctive advantages, our specially equipped sushi-making machines and conveyor system showcasing quality sushi in a hygienic environment, as we offer quick and fresh food to suit today’s fast pace of life. The unique experience of selecting from a variety of sushi dishes on the revolving conveyor belt at leisure has attracted a wide variety of customers from all walks of life, from Japanese tourists and expatriates to even those initially unfamiliar with Japanese cuisine. Today, we have expanded our expertise to include specialized catering services for a variety of events and functions. As they continue to grow, we set our sights on further regional and eventually international expansion. Come and indulge in the Sushi King experience today. Question 1 Based on your understanding of Services Management, please explain to the Regional General Manager of â€Å"Sushi King SDN BHD† the findings of your study on his company pertaining to the 9 methods (degrees) of classifying services 9 Methods (Degrees) Of Classifying Services Intangibility In Service Management, there are nine methods (degrees) of classifying services. This method helps the company to classifying the services according to the characteristics. The first degree of classifying services is degree of intangibility. In terms of degree of intangibility, all services can be placed on a continuum ranging from low to high intangibility. For example, the higher the intangibility of Sushi King, the more difficulties customers experience when evaluating the offering. Intangibility can poses problems for the operating system since intangible things cannot be stored. Besides that, intangibility things are also difficult to standardize, making the quality much more dependent on the employee providing that particular service. Service also cannot be readily displayed or communicated. In Sushi King if the worker posses to high intangibility, it will be difficult for customer to experience on what they perceived for that services when evaluating the performance. Customer Contact Required Customer contact required has one of the characteristics that is the fact that demand for the service is often instantaneous and cannot be stored and that a flaw in the service operating system will have an immediate, direct effect on the consumer. The interaction between the employee and the customer means that the service employees have to be both competent and communicative. Therefore it becomes even more important to select and train employees that fit these criteria in order to perform their jobs well as front office employee. In sushi king, the interaction between employees and customer is very important as it will perform their ways of job very well in order for them to have both competent and communicative. Simultaneity This is not necessarily the same as the previous dimension. Production and consumption can occur simultaneously without the customer being present. Home banking and phone banking, for instance, allow the consumer to consume the service without face to face contact with the sushi king service provider. This is not necessary same as contact of customer required. In order for sushi king to provide the best service to the customer, what they can do is they need to face to face with their customer in order to allow them consume the service, production and consumption still occur simultaneously. Besides that, with that customer can affect each other while employee might affect the outcomes. Heterogeneity Employee and customer are the source of heterogeneity. As a result, there will be more heterogeneity in high consumer contact organizations. . In order to perform really well, Sushi king need to standardizing the operating system might be away to reduce this homogeneity. The implications are service delivery and customer satisfactions depend on employee and customer actions. For example, when employee serve customer in bad ways, it will affect the sushi king in names as it will gives bad pictures of sushi king. Perishability This dimension is of course closely related to the degree of intangibility and the degree of simultaneity. Means that the lower the goods component in the offering and the more consumption and production overlap, the higher the degree on perishability. As a consequence, these offerings cannot be stored. Managing the operation system by means of capacity management thus becomes more complex. Capacity management itself will influence both the employees and the customers. For example, customers of Sushi King will experience shorter waiting times, while the employees will have to adapt to more flexibility. The implication of this dimension is it is difficult to synchronize supply and demand with services. Other than that, services cannot be returned or resold. Demand fluctuation over time Dimensions related of previous point, the more demand fluctuates the more capacity management becomes important. The implication of this dimension is manager of Sushi King also faced with the challenge of continues fluctuation in demand, for instance. When the demand for the services is higher than the capacity management, the company effectively loses its chance to serve the customer. When the demand is less than the capacity, the company will loses revenue owing to unused resources. Since the capacity is a fixed component, the only viable option for the service manager is to find strategies that assist them to influence demand, strategies which can attract customers to voluntarily alter their demand. Additionally, excess capacity or low demand will not only affect the company's profit, but will also affect the quality of service that experienced by customers. Service customization Customization refers to the need and ability to alter the service in order to satisfy the individual customer's particular preferences. In terms of degree of service customization, unlike goods which are mostly purchased ‘off the shelf’, services can be much more customized. This is especially true when there is a high degree of overlap between production and consumption. For example, a meal at Sushi King, which is assembled from prepared items, is low in customization and served with little interaction occurring between the customer and the service providers. The implication of degree of customization is it will affect the ability to control the quality of the service being delivered and the perception of the service by the customer. Labor intensity Labor intensity can be defined as the ratio of labor cost to plant and equipment. A firm whose product, or in this case of Sushi King service, it requires a high content of time and effort with comparatively little plant and equipment cost would be said to be labor intense. Customer interaction represents the degree to which the customer can intervene in the service process. Service direction: towards people or equipment Personal services like hotels and restaurants are more towards people while transportation are equipment. In sushi king they need to focus more in their service direction to people as it will be more important as people will give the perception towards their restaurants including their services. Question 2 Prepare a short proposal to the Regional General Manager whether the â€Å"future Service Direction† of Sushi King SDN BHD should be towards people or equipment and how to achieve that. Service direction towards people or equipment is one of the classifying services that refer whether company wanted to focus towards people or equipment. Sushi king is restaurant, with that in what that I think, sushi king need to be more concern on people where they are actually providing foods and services to people. For the future direction, sushi king need to be towards people because they are the one who consume what that sushi king had. In sushi king, they are required to prepare their worker with people oriented service in order to well perform in what that consumer wants and needs. Their worker also need to have different value and skills to really success fulfill customer needs. Sushi king future service directions is people so it related to customer relationship management (CRM). It is a widely model for managing a company’s interactions with the customers and services prospects. It also involve using technology to organize, automate and synchronize business processes, principally services activities for instance, but also those for marketing, customer service and technical support. The overall goals of customer relationship management are to find, attract and win new customer, service and retain those the company already has and reduce the costs. Most of the companies nowadays are difficult of improving customer service in order to impact customer retention levels. Customer relationship management can be achieved through the raising customer satisfaction levels that require comprehensive systems approach. There are several steps in building relationships of worker and customer. The first step is to setting a clear customer experience strategy. To establish a good strategy certain key practices are required. First one is staff at sushi king need to understand the overall organizations vision and mission, next, sushi king staff need to define customer organizations customer service direction as well as value and they need to ensure customer service is defined as a key responsibility for the business or department. Second step is to selecting correct people in order for sushi king to be having just a good worker. When recruiting employees to provide customer service, the process often tends to concentrate more on functional expertise, technical competence and knowledge rather than interpersonal skills. However, lack of the right attitude can drastically impact client satisfaction levels. Research has in fact shown that attitude is the most important requirement like skills and functional expertise can be taught. Therefore in selecting the right people, sushi king need to define the critical job requirements and develop scenario-based interviews/assessment centers to screen and select candidates. Sushi king needs to involve multiple team members in the hiring process and ensure evaluation is based on objective not based on subjective criteria. Third strategy is to developing, motivating and managing your people Even though you have hired the right people, there is still a need to orient them into the organization’s customer relationship culture and define key communication skills. Therefore to build a customer relationship culture, it is important for sushi king to provide training in key areas required to deliver exceptional personal service as well as reinforce these skills using ongoing coaching and feedback. Sushi king also need to measure current performance levels and reward performance using a combination of monetary awards and non-monetary recognition. Other than that is establishing effective service delivery processes that provide the foundation for smoothing or inhibiting the material service element of the customer interaction. Efficient service delivery systems appear transparent to the customer. The critical elements in ensuring a positive material customer experience are sushi king needs to mapping the service delivery processes and evaluating critical success points in the process. Sushi king also needs to defining service standards and objectives for these essential points and establishing service delivery procedures to optimize material service as well as sushi king can create service level agreements to smooth internal service delivery. Next is building in continuous improvement, no matter how effective the service delivery processes, or well-trained the service deliverers, things go wrong. Products have faults. Customers get frustrated. Things slip through the cracks. The organizations that are built around managing the customer experience are able to resolve these issues effectively. In order for sushi king to recover effectively, it is necessary for sushi king to actively seek customer feedback and complaints as sushi king cannot improve if you don't know what went wrong in the first place. Sushi king also needs to train staff on how to handle customer complaints effectively using the correct mix of empathizing, apologizing and resolution as well as make sure that the real problem is solved, not just the symptoms. Sushi king also need to focus on proactive (prevention) as well as reactive (cure) problem solving. Lastly is ensuring managers are the key change-agents consultants, we observe that senior management often has the vision, intention and commitment to introduce a comprehensive customer relationship management system. The make or break element is in involving middle management in the change process, and empowering them to be the key change-agents. To do this, it is important to sushi king to engage the management team early and often in the process and its involve management members in articulating the customer experience strategy. Sushi king also need to teach managers coaching skills so that they are able to articulate and reinforce the key personal service skills and use managers as facilitators when rolling out interpersonal skills training. Rewarding managers on establishing, monitoring and updating service delivery processes as well as ensures managers are able to act as an example to their teams. As a conclusion, sushi king really need to build customer relationship in order to gives the best future service direction towards people. Conclusion For the current condition in sushi king, their service actually got little bit of lack in giving service to their customer. With a bit of improvement and innovation, I am sure that they really can come out with very good service quality that people may perceive. Reference http://www. sushi-king. com/

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Case Study - Essay Example Despite serious social movement of the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) community in recent decades, the minority of people are still fighting for equality. And in this fight corporations are extremely important in terms of the LGBT community acknowledgement because they can provide their employees with decent support and do it more profoundly than country and local authorities (LGTB Manual, 2010). There are few companies that are able to risk their reputation, unless their reputation is so immaculate, and make such a contradictory issue as accepting non-traditional sexual orientation of the employees in company`s policy. Such companies receive unnecessary attention and their public relations sphere is suffering. In such a situation Disney, the company specializing on the children`s entertainment content and supporting homosexuality acknowledgment at working places looks absolutely extraordinary (Tully, 2013). However, Disney was and remains such company, and despite its worldwide success it is being accused of promoting immoral values to future generation. Reasonably it raises a lot of questions regarding the place of homosexuality propaganda in a corporate world and especially in children`s content. However, Disney manages to communicate to the world that their policy is grounded on higher values such as equality, acceptance, and diversity, and sticking to these goals can se rve as the most important factor. Moreover, Disney`s internal policy of visibility is coherent with its external representation which proves that the company has well-elaborated policy and know what image to create in consumers` perception. Disney was established in 1923 by two brothers, Walter and Roy Disneys, as a small cartoon studio in California. Today this multinational corporation is one of the biggest Hollywood studios and is the owner of 11 theme parks around the planet, two aqua parks, and several broadcasting companies. The company`s main product was

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Letters to the Editor - Essay Example Junk foods are food containing high levels of fats and calories (Schreier & Hans-Ulrich 5). The continuous consumption of junk foods leads to fat accumulation in the body. Due to the slow rate of metabolism caused by junk food the body gains more weight. The accumulation of calorie and gaining of body weight leads to obesity (Schreier & Hans-Ulrich 5). Obesity has led to loss of lives. Weight gain caused by over consumption of junk food result to other disorders like cardiac problems, increase in the level of cholesterol, artery blockage, high pressure of the blood, loss of muscle mass, depression among others (Schreier & Hans-Ulrich 6). The consumption of junk food increases the level of cholesterol in the body. The increased level of cholesterol leads to the thickening of arteries and thus causing their blockage. The blockage of the arteries leads to high blood pressure which causes death (Schreier & Hans-Ulrich 6). The consumption of junk food causes many health problems alongside the mentioned few. According to the interview done in one of the United States hospitals, the results showed that many patients suffering from the mentioned disorders consume on junk food (Schreier & Hans-Ulrich 6). The citizens should be aware of the food they consume and the government should therefore implement regulations on the making and consumption of junk food (Schreier & Hans-Ulrich 6). The objection due to loss of employment cannot be measured by the value of life of individuals. Are you still consuming junk food? How can the health professionals make us believe that most of us suffer from health problems as a result of consuming the junk food? Junk food is cheap and can be accessed very easily making many people to rely on it as an alternative (Schreier & Hans-Ulrich 6). This has led to many health problems as shown by statistic. Some people argue that

International Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4250 words

International Management - Essay Example There is no care about privacy in US, people must be informed and given chance to object when their information is sent outside for direct marketing, data cannot be sent outside in Italy, and all direct mails should contain the name and address of the data owner in Spain are some of the best examples for how culture affects internet. Internet affects the culture or social systems more than how culture or social systems affect internet use. It is because; internet has caused drastic changes in society. Online communication such as chatting, emailing and webinars, and other modes of interactions such social media, online sales, advertising and e-marketing have tremendously changes culture and social systems. Traditionally, people went to work. But now, with the advent of internet, work comes to home as millions of people worldwide work from home for making money is a good example for how internet affects culture. As markets become increasingly globalized, it is very important to identify and evaluate operational conflicts between nations, religions, values and cultures. In international business contexts or other relations, there can be some operational conflicts due to differences in perceptions of time, change, individualism and material factors. Americans find time as limited and therefore they keep deadline strictly. They feel frustrated when others in a company fail to meet deadlines. For them time is to be saved and they keep specific schedules for saving time. Perspectives of time are largely affected by the religious and cultural views or values. For instance, Deresky (2011, p.104) stated that Arabs regard ‘deadline’ as a kind of insult in them while it is imposed by others to them whereas Americans take an approach of ‘firm commitment’ to meeting deadlines. Individualism is about ‘I’ consciousness. Americans give greater significance to viewing private lives

Communication paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Communication paper - Essay Example In the conversation, the sender was my friend who sent a message to me by directly asking me my plans for the weekend. The question was clearly transmitted to me by my friend to which I responded positively. It was apparent that I am the receiver of the message and transmission was immediately achieved since I answered my friend with choices of places that we can visit. I also suggested some things that we can do like watch a movie or just play games in my room. In a way, there was noise between the message since I was excited by the fact that my friend is back so anything is possible. My friend’s message was clearly transmitted because that is also what I had in mind. Using the linear communication model, the conversation was successful because both parties were very optimistic and looked forward to the topic. If I were to analyze the conversation using simultaneous transactional model, it can be said that I was able to give a positive feedback, the message was decoded very well. I know that my friend has the best intention why he invited me so I relied on that belief. Even before my friend my called me up, I was already anticipating some invitation from this person. The conversation seemed very simple indeed but there lies many important lessons in communication. First of all, messages are can be easily decoded by the receiver when the person receiving the message feels positive about the sender. Since the message was transmitted by a close friend whom I trust, it was not hard to send a good feedback. Of course, this is not applicable in all times since noise can also be an obstacle in decoding the message. I could be experiencing some problems that my friend doesn’t know which can elicit a cold response. Probably, I could be feeling ill at that time and would not want to displeas e my friend so I just accepted the idea. No matter what the case maybe, there is another important lesson in communication

Maggie Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Maggie - Article Example The main objective was to distract Jeff and change his focus. This would not be an effective strategy for changing Jeff’s behavior for long term. Jeff’s problems need to be addressed. Jeff comes from disturbed family environment where he lacks sufficient parental attention or care. Taking to the resource room to calm his aggression would therefore not be the solution to his problem. I would like to involve his parents to make the intervention plan more effective and ensure parental involvement in Jeff’s weekend activities. I would also make certain that he is constructively involved in activities of his interests in the resource room. Most importantly, I would ensure that an empathetic person is attached to him in the resource room who would listen to him without judgment and help build relationship of trust with him. I believe that current problems could have been prevented if he was involved in classroom activities and motivated to apply his intellect in solving course related

Airplane Crash Survival Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Airplane Crash Survival - Assignment Example This research will begin with the list of item collected. The pilot who was among the survivors instructed how to gather all items that had been left after the crush, and listed them down in the order of importance. The items were listed as follows; newspaper for starting fire, liquid lighter for lighting fire, small axe for cutting woods, can of coconut oil and large chocolate bars, which would provide food, a map and compass for direction, extra shirts and pants for the extreme weather. Additionally, large heavy-duty canvas for making a tent, red lipstick for marking the map, lastly the batteries and toothpaste for freshening. After the survival of the plane crush, the pilot stressed that they had to work as team in order to survive in the jungle. Their Primary objective was to survive the extremely cold and snowing weather whilst trying to find help. The author was tasked with the responsibility of fetching woods and setting up fire, while his teammates were tasked with erecting a tent using the large piece of canvas. The following day, their focus shifted to finding help. According to the map that they collected after plane crush, the nearest town was 20 km away. The team tasked the author with role of reading the map and the compass in locating the nearest town since he had some background knowledge in surveying and navigation, while his teammates cleared the bushy forest for their passage.... Concerning leadership, the activity exhibited the fundamental role of leadership in an organization. The presence of a leader, who was the pilot, ensured effective delegation of tasks and provision of guidance in attaining the set objective. The STAR team model The performance of the pilot, the team leader together with the activities of the team members can further be explained with the STAR team model. According to Maginn, the STAR team model seeks to identify what a team leader and team need to focus on. The model combines various teamwork theories such as those proposed in the Tuckman’s model, leadership theories, and theories relating to the surrounding of the team and teamwork (pg 155- 160). The STAR team model focuses on an individual’s strength with the objective to enable the individual attain his/her goals leading to happiness. Thus, the application of the model ensures teamwork, which results to flourishing of individual as they use and develop their strength s. In our activity, the pilot assigned tasks to each survivor based on his or her strengths, which ensured attainment of the set goal. The model also explained that coming together of individual strengths and teamwork creates natural flow of performance and results, which are rewarding to the team. Contribution of members to the outcome of the activity Though every member executed distinctive tasks, the tasks culminated into the success of the team. Specifically my contributions were collection of firewood and lighting of the night fire. I further ensured that the fire kept burning through the night to scare away wild beasts. In addition, my expertise in map and compass reading enabled the team to find the location of the nearest town. Shortcoming in the leadership and

Human resources Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 2

Human resources - Essay Example One tool for monitoring performance management is  performance appraisal. For organizations, performance management is usually known as company performance and is monitored through business appraisal. [Performance Management. (2009). In  BUSINESS: The Ultimate Resource. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/ultimatebusiness/performance_management] What value does Performance Management have for an organization? For the organization, Performance Management’s is beneficial as it facilitates the organization’s capacity to deliver strategic and operational goals which can be translated to a growth in sales, reduction of costs, and increased operational efficiency. It also provides the employee a clear understanding of how meeting target performance adds value to the organization’s strategic goals. What value for an individual? For an individual, Performance Management is beneficial as it creates an environment that motivates employees to be at its be st. Through Performance Management, employees are also able to know how much and how they are contributing to the growth of the organization. And as the employees contribute to the growth of the organization, Performance Management provides the incentive structure by which employees are rewarded for achieving if not exceeding their goal in the organization. 2. What is meant by the term Business Behavior? What are the unbreakable behavior laws? Why is behavior considered the key to quality? What is meant by the term Business Behavior? Business behavior â€Å"underlies what employees choose to do (quality and/or quality), how much effort they will put into accomplishing the task, and how long they will put into accomplishing it†. (Steven Stralser, Phd. MBA in a Day: what you would learn in top tier schools (if you only had the time!) John and Wiley and Sons Incorporated, Hoboken, New Jersey, Published simultaneously in Canada. E-book. P. 20 What are the unbreakable behavior law s? Unbreakable behavior laws are the inviolable laws of business conduct that was drafted to align processes and employee activities within the organization to ensure that behavior will be in consonance to the company’s strategic and long-term goals. They are the set of performance expectations from employees that is tied up with the over-all organizational goal. Why is behavior considered the key to quality? Business Behavior is key to quality because it determines how an employee will perform. If behavior is desirable and consistent to Performance Plan, such behavior will translate not only quality but also greater efficiency. While an underperforming behavior will undermine not only the particular employee’s performance but also the organization as a whole. 3. What is pinpointing? How does pinpointing apply to performance management? What is meant by â€Å"the right† pinpoint? What value does pointing have in managing performance? What is pinpointing? Pinpoin ting is being specific about target performance and communicating it clearly to the employees. It includes defining the drivers that measures performance that will add value to organizational goa

Administrative Law in Public Health Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Administrative Law in Public Health - Essay Example This essay is going to examine the Public Health Emergency Law in the United States as an example of a health administrative law. Administrative health laws are public policies ratified to regulate and govern the health sector either in a country or globally. Public health policies are implemented by a governmental agency or by players in the health sector. In most cases, a governmental agency is appointed to oversee the implementation of the public policy. Public health policies are laws which must be respected and practiced carefully due to its recognition in the constitution. Administrative health laws are distinct from other laws such as criminal laws which are practiced at a courtroom (Gostin, 2000). However, the breach of these public health laws amount to breach of the constitution and thus, legal action is usually taken against individuals breaking these laws. For example, in the case of Frank v. Maryland, 359 U.S. 360 (1959), the court held that the defendant was liable to pay fines amounting to $ 10,000 for operating a health facility without a license after CDC official inspection. Understanding adm inistrative public law is vital in the implementation of these vital laws in the society. Public health administrative law explains the relationship between government agencies, courts and the regulated institutions. The Public Health Emergency Law is a public policy enacted in the United States to govern, regulate and respond to health emergencies in the quickest form possible. In everyday life, several health risks, threats and emergencies are exposed to several individuals. Due to the exposure of US citizens to these health risks the senate passed the law to protect US citizens in the occurrence of health emergencies. After the September 2001 bombing, the US has undergo exposure to several health related risks such as an anthrax

African-American Separatism Essay Example for Free

African-American Separatism Essay African-American novelist James Baldwin (1963) maintained that at the heart of inhumanity perpetrated by whites upon blacks is the projection of their own paranoia, hate and longing. Baldwin supposed that should white people learn how to accept themselves, â€Å"the Negro problem will no longer exist, for it will no longer be needed.† At the core of Baldwin’s hypothesis is that cruelty to the black man persists because of the white man’s dissatisfaction with its own culture (hence the occasional white man who romanticizes and aspires to black ideals). Few other eras in white American history evoke such a level of dissatisfaction as the era of The Great Depression, a period of downturn not just in economy but in morale. When white culture has descended to such low spirits, it is no surprise that black separatism emerged. Marcus Garvey advocated a form of Pan-Africanism which suggested that black people reclaim and re-colonize Africa in order to form its own black nation. Elijah Muhammad on the other hand, advocated a form of black nationalism called The Nation of Islam, which concentrated more on social infrastructure such as the development of economics and nationhood. The emergence of these doctrines are not entirely surprising: with white culture being at its most broken state, the zeitgeist which results for blacks is to advocate a repudiation of this culture. Black pride therefore takes the shape of one race formulating its own society as a means to escape this broken culture, as well as to evade the white man’s inevitable projection of latent self-hate. Separatism and nationalism is therefore of meaningful use to the black races, simply because it allows them to chart their own national, political and civic self-identity apart from that which has been foisted upon them by the white culture, as well as free them from the scrutiny or approval of the white culture. However, it also poses risks because for every weakness, shortcoming or failure that may arise from nations and cultures created by these movements is the potential for more discrimination from the white culture, which will most likely subject these to more racially-charged judgment.

My Memorable Journey In New York English Literature Essay

My Memorable Journey In New York English Literature Essay   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   New York is a very popular city that everyone is familiar with when they heard of the names of Statue of Liberty, Time Square, and the Broadway, but this place to me is not only just an ordinary city; it is a home that I most feel safe and protected. It has a very special meaning in my life since it was the first home that my family and I resided when we came to America ten years ago. New York was filled with such wonderful memories such as when we tried to adapt to a new life, culture, new people, and foods and learn how to speak English. It is place of comfort that I feel most at ease and relaxed. Although we only stayed in Queens for half a year when I was still seven, it has always been a place where I consider special and unforgettable.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   My trip to Bronx, New York last summer was a very remarkable experience for both my sisters and I. We traveled to different places and did many activities that we have never went or done before while living in Queens. The thought of reaching New York was so tantalizing that I began to feel a little worried and nervous. It was an endless six hours trip, and every minute seemed like hours as we kept on looking out the airplane window constantly; but after what seemed like eternity, we finally made to our destination. We took a glimpse of the scenery outside, and there we saw thousands of tall buildings lining up next to one another. The city was still very busy and crowded. The colorful lights from buildings, stores, cars, and more, created such an awesome landscape. Everything remained the same as if it was our first day moving to America, our new home country.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The passengers began to take off their sit belts and hurriedly gathered their luggage and bags, getting ready to exit the airplane. It was hot and crowded as everyone started pushing on one another in order to reach the exit as fast as possible. By the time we got out, it was a relieve for all of us.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   We drove in our cousins car to a small apartment in Bronx where my aunt and grandma lived. It was hard for us to adapt to a new home on our first night of sleep because the bed, the sheet, the pillows, and the smell were quite different, but after my first two days, I was able to adapt more easily to the streets around the apartment, the stores, and the people. A lot of walking was required, and soon it became one of my habits. The area in Bronx and the polluted environment are so different from the ones I know when we were still living in Queens. The neighborhoods were mostly African American, and everywhere you go, you will them see them from here to there. The street was more crowded with people shopping from stores to store. New York is famous for their cultural diversity especially their great variety of restaurants and markets such as McDonald, Thai Tea, Chinese foods, Italian spaghetti, Korean sushi, and Japanese foods.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   While my cousins, my sisters, and I took a train to China Town, a group of African Americans children performed their talent in front of the passengers in hope of receiving back rewards. They brought their radios and carried out a street dance style such as the locking, popping, the moon walk, and other styles that I was uncertain of. From what I witnessed, I felt that these children were wonderful and marvelous since they were using their own skills and talent to make money for their living without feeling shameful in front of passengers, who might think they were foolish. I really admired their hard work and also their courageous, but they made me feel that I have never done anything in my life to make my own money.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     As we arrived to Canal street of China Town, Manhattan, a sudden shock overwhelm me after I observed the place. This was my first time visiting China Town in New York, and I must admit that this place is much more exciting and enjoyable comparing to the empty and boring one in California. China Town in Manhattan was overcrowded with Chinese immigrants and visitors walking from store to store. The streets was tightly packed, and there were so many small restaurants selling fried noodle, dim sum and seafood, and more markets for fruits, meats, fishes, and drinks. Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun when they were competing over the good quality of meats and fruits, workers stood on sidewalk, trying to promote their new products and foods, and young children gathered around in the small playground of the school to play tag and swings. We passed by a market to buy meats and other ingredients for our dinner tonight. The cashier spoke a lan guage that I was certain it was Cantonese because my dad has always spoken Cantonese to me, and I was certain that she did say the phrase toe chei say, meaning to thank everyone, but I still struggled to catch her other words since she was speaking too fast.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   We then stopped at a dim sum restaurant for our breakfast and spent our whole afternoon playing in the arcade and shopping in stores. That day, I experienced the most embarrassing moment of my life while taking a picture with the man who dressed as the statue of liberty. At first, I thought it was totally free of charge to take a picture with him, but afterward, he hold me back and demanded us to pay him a five dollar bill. To our surprise, both my sister and I had already spent all of our money in the arcades and the stores, and we couldnt contact our cousins, who were still shopping in the market. My heart was beating tremendously fast as people stopped by to watch us. The man gave us an angry face, but he let it go anyway.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The next day, we took a long trip in the early morning to visit the Statue of liberty, a symbol that I most feel proud of our country, but the embarrassing moment that happened in China Town somewhat annoyed me. It was extremely hot that day as if I could feel the heat singeing my face liked it was 150 degrees. As we entered the harbor in a ship, the first thing we saw was the huge Statue of Liberty, a gift given by the French, who helped our country fought in the American Revolution. The monument reminded me of the hard work and sacrifice of the soldiers who I always respect and feel proud of. All the privileges that I enjoy today such as freedom to worship my religion, express my opinion, desire the things that I want, and choose my own path and career are given by those brave soldiers. We took numerous pictures with the statue and the gleaming and beautiful harbor that surrounded it. I must admitted that this was my most favorite tour t hroughout my three weeks trip to New York. In the afternoon, we took the subway to Time square to watch the night view at night. As the sun began to fade away and day became a little cooler, we walked around and observe the wonderful and dazzling lights that made the night feel more bright and cheerful. The view was so awesome that it gave me a sense of shock but joyful, which I would never forget. We passed by the Time Square Tower, the GMC, the big McDonald and more, but we stopped by the theater to watch one of most amusing and exciting movies, G. I. Joe. For the following days, we spent most of our time with our aunt and grandma, cooking, watching funny movies, and playing Tu Sac, a four color games. The day before we left New York to return back to California, we spent the last time with our relatives at the Jones Beach. The shining sun, the sound of the waves that hit the shoreline, and the white sands were all my favorite. While relaxing under the tent, I took a moment to feel the atmosphere of the place which I could sense the feeling of joyfulness from the cool breeze and the warmness from the sun just like in California. The young ones played cards and tags and splashed themselves in the water, while the elders prepared the foods. It was an amazing and relaxing place where I could feel the bond with my relatives. There was a feeling of sadness when we had to say goodbye to everyone, but we left with a smile on our face, keeping the memories of New York especially China Town, the Statue of Liberty, Time Square, the beach, the foods, the time we spent with everyone, and finally my embarrassing moment with the man dressed like the Statue of Liberty.

A Study On Digital Technologies

A Study On Digital Technologies The advent of technology has transformed and changed the mode of our lives in all its aspects. People can learn in distant universities without having to travel there. They can access to various sources of information through the World Wide Web. Unlike the traditional schools where students learning was only restricted to the school context, most schools today provide students with various contexts of learning through the use of digital technologies that facilitate their communication with their friends, teachers and people from other countries. Digital technologies are increasingly used by schools to support learning and enable students to communicate with parents and provide access to school resources from home. Therefore, I believe that digital technologies consolidated the communication channels between the home and the school. This matter is of paramount importance as it increases parental engagement in childrens learning. Consequently, parents can take informed decision regarding the future of their children and can participate with teachers in developing the level lf their children. Parental engagement in the learning process enhances children achievement at school. The ever-increasing needs of individuals and society in the 21st century are constantly placing much pressure on the educational institutions. The traditional teaching methods are no longer capable of satisfying the requirements of our modern era. Therefore, we find that most schools in many nations around the world focus on the digital participations of students as an entitlement for them in the emerging digital media era. This entitlement includes knowledge, skills and understanding that are required to be involved socially, culturally, politically, and economically in everyday life. This paper is meant to elaborate and identify what has been said about the use of the internet or other forms of webs-based learning in schools and indicate how these approaches would be applied in the context in which Im teaching. Participation in Digital Technology:- The terms digital technology and new media are used to refer to a wide range of technologies which store and transmit information in digital form. This includes computers, the internet and e-mail, mobile phones and other mobile devices and cameras, video games and web 2.0 technologies the label commonly applied participatory and interactive media (Hague, Cassie Williamson, Ben, 2009. P.3) . The digitization and computerization of many aspects of our lives places a heavy burden on established educational institutions. Alexey Semenov (2005) believes that life in the new knowledge society demands more independent and responsible behavior and much less routine execution of orders. In order to make responsible decisions in new and unexpected situations, people need to continue to learn throughout life. Therefore, information and communication technology are the most efficient tools for personal growth, creativity and joy, consumption and wealth. Students can learn the use of the internet in finding papers that are relevant to their curriculum. Through summarizing papers on the net and discussing their findings with their peers and teachers, students can feel that they are creative. Moreover, Their communication channels with their teachers, peers and other people are consolidated through the net. ICT prepares students to actively participate in a rapid changing world in whic h business nature and other activities are increasingly transformed due to the employment of the advanced and multiple technologies by using ICT tools to find, explore, analyze and present information in a responsible, creative and distinguished way. Thus, they learn how to employ information and communication technology ICT to get much literature and experiences from myriad individuals, communities and cultures. When their capabilities in using information and communication technologies are increased, initiative and independent learning are consolidated as students become more capable of taking responsible and informed decisions on when and where to use information technology to have the best result and to study the uses of ICT at home and work now and in the future. According to Semenov Alexey, 2005 believes that Adams Douglas 1999 believes that using the computer enables us to combine things together to see how they work by emulating and imitating complex and interrelated processes, even life can be imitated. This is a modern era for discoveries and ICT is its gate . Among the main objectives of the national curriculum of ICT in England for the key stages 1-4 are the following: Information Communication Technology (ICT) provides opportunities to consolidate: Thinking skills through helping pupils to determine relevant information sources, develop ideas and work collaboratively to solve problems. Project and initiative skills through encouraging students to design and implement solutions for real problems. Business related learning through providing students with opportunities to have a wide range of ICT applications. Learning for sustainable development through developing pupils understanding of Information and Communication Technology in practical life, community and environment. Digital Literacy and Schools School Subjects:- Currently schools are striving hard to integrate the development of students subject knowledge with the ability to use technology safely and effectively ((Hague, Cassie Williamson, Ben, 2009. P. 7). Therefore, they focus on digital literacy and digital participation as a key to achieve this integration. Hague, Cassie and Williamson, Ben reported that there is a model which offers a conceptual framework for embedding digital literacy as an aim in the curriculum and for developing strategies to develop it through classroom activities. This model delineates types of processes students need to go through in order to demonstrate digital literacy. Moreover, it is based on the notion that learners investigate questions and problems set by teachers, and that over time they should develop sufficient confidence and competence in the skills, knowledge and understanding of digital literacy to be able to define their own questions for enquiry. The author suggests that digital literacy is an amalgamation of: Knowledge of digital tools: hardware/ software awareness and competence. Critical Skills: evaluation and contextualization. Social awareness: Understanding your identity, collaborating, and communicating to audiences in context. Guidelines for successful implementation:- The internet is not intended as a technology that should be imposed on the educational system. Educators should have at least a fair knowledge of the use and benefits of technology in delivering their message. Internet technology for schools is intended to provide a source of comprehensible, accessible information for educators about using the power of the internet within the K-12 academic environment (Mambretti, Catherine, 1999) . In order to create web-based learning at schools and achieve the maximum benefit of the internet as a promising medium for learning, schools should conduct long-range planning not only of their technology infrastructure but of their curricula and educational technologies and strategies (ibid). Since most communities and organizations believe the importance of technology for education, several corporations have established non-profit organizations to assist schools in their technology projects or have announced plans to make major donations to school technology projects. The ICT shouldnt be a closed or self -contained subject to be taught and learned independently from other subjects. However, according to Semenov Alexey (2005) it should be treated as interdisciplinary, integrative, and cross curricular. Using ICT in teaching and learning will help both teachers and students become more conscious of their capabilities and responsibilities. However, it is of paramount importance to support learning by an immediate application of technology that is meaningful and relevant to students. Children should be taught at an early age the skill touch typing which is basically for communicating between human beings and computers. Microworld-like environments allow children from the age of 3 upwards to learn and use ICT for usual applications (graphics and text-editing) and for modeling the real world and multimedia implementation of virtual realities. Semenov Alexey ( 2005) believes that number of students per computer is a common indicator of ICT development at schools. There is also another quantitative factor which is more relevant: the number of hours a week that computers are available for use. Advantages and disadvantages of using the web for learning:- Web-based learning has many benefits for students. Students can have an easy access to a huge library of training and information whether they are working from home or any other place. It is also easy to track students. As students can complete their training while they are connected to the network, it is easy to track them. Unlike with CD-ROMs that require students to print reports or save scores to disk, WBT enables the data to be automatically tracked on the server-computer . Additionally, in web-based learning, the content can be easily updated. However, there are also some disadvantages and barriers that make it difficult to implement ICT at some schools. The most significant disadvantage is that the content of the internet which includes both safe and unsafe materials. Thus, unsafe materials such as porno movies may represent a threat to the students. There are also some barriers to the implementation of ICT at some schools such as : The cost of ICT hardware, software and maintenance. The often unconscious resistance of many educators to the intrusion of still obscure technological newcomers that threaten to alter drastically long-established and time-honored practices and customs; and The lack of teachers who are trained to exploit ICT proficiently . How ICT could be applied to the context in which Im teaching:- ICT could be applied in my context of teaching through establishing a network for the school and creating a computer lab. Each student shall be assigned a computer. Teachers shall be trained adequately on the use of ICT tools to deliver their message efficiently. Students also shall be trained on the use of the web resources through the guidance of their teachers. They will be encourage to be creative and critical in their thinking by processing all kinds of information and creating a new version of their own. Through answering assignments and receiving feedback on their e-mail, students can feel a sense of independent learning. Thus, they can take a responsible decision and depend upon themselves in searching for information and generating relevant theories. Conclusion:- To conclude, I believe that the advent of technology make it inevitable to apply ICT at all schools to create universal students who care for sustainable learning and global development. In other words, ICT should be properly implemented as it qualifies students for the increasing and fast changing requirements of the outside world. Schools shouldnt be isolated from the outside world. However, it should be a mirror for the outside world. All the conflicts and changes in the outside world should be analyzed at the school to connect students with their home and community. ICT represent an excellent communication channel between the school, home and the community as a whole. Moreover, it encourages students to be creative and independent learners. The use of ICT limits the role of the teacher to an outside observer and a guide for students. They will learn what they want to learn by themselves. Although ICT is still facing some obstacles represented by the expensive tools and equipments, its a necessity for all schools to adapt with the changing requirements and changes of our age. References:- Hague, Cassie Williamson, Ben, Digital Participation, Digital Literacy, and School Subjects ( A review of the Policies, literature and evidence, August 2009 www.futurelab.org.uk/projects/digital-participation. Semenov Alexey, Information and Communication Technologies in Schools, a hand book for teachers, Unisco 2005. ICT, National Curriculum For England, Key Stages 1-4, Crown House Publishing 1999. www.qca.org.uk/nc/ http://www.e-learningguru.com/articles/art1_9.htm Mambretti, Catherine, Internet Technology for Schools, McFarland Company, North Carolina, 1999.