Was the Soviet System Reformable Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Was the Soviet System Reformable - Essay Example F. Cohen analyses the case of Soviet Union by looking at it from various angles. He also asks analytical questions as to why the Soviet Union perished and some of the contributing factors. He emphasizes that the prevailing view of changes that occurred under Mikhail Gorbachev’s six-year attempt to transform the Soviet Union along democratic and market lines to some extent proved that the system was unreformable. Cohen asserts that this is from his historical researches and perceptions regarding the non-reformability of the Soviet Union which according to him have been formulated and analyzed from time to time by other scholars too. According to him, the concepts driving the researchers and the ideologies of the reformability of Soviet Union are based on the Communist Party and its dictatorship, monopolistic state economy, and the slow responses of Mikhail Gorbachev’s policies. In his analysis, he emphasizes that it is important for scholars and historians to understand that reform doesn’t just merely refers to change but changes that improve people’s way of lives by widening political and economic freedom. Additionally, reform doesn’t mean a revolution or complete transformation of an existing order, but rather a piecemeal and gradual amendment within a systems broad historical, institutional and cultural dimensions. In the case of Soviet System, â€Å"real reforms† at that time was based on rapid and complete revolutions that would deem it very difficult to make reforms in the Soviet system. Cohen also argues that many studies conducted during the Soviet era however indicate that if certain policies were implemented then systematic change would have been possible in the Soviet system which was all dependent on Mikhail Gorbachev leadership. According to Cohen, other scholars and historians support this position because they are of the opinion that the structural violence which was at the center of Soviet system restrict ed the capabilities of Mikhail Gorbachev’s political, social and economic policies from becoming effective. Asking the question as to whether the Soviet system was reformable thus means asking if all the basic components and policies could be reformed. In fact historians argues that it makes no sense making assumptions that if any components or policies were supplemented by new ones or eliminated, the results would no longer be of the Soviet system. Furthermore, the Soviets of 1917 were generally elected, only turning into something else later. At this time there was no monopolistic control of the economy until the 1930s, and when the Stalinist mass terror which had been fundamental feature for 25 years ended no own would questioned if the system is still soviets. From these proponents historians and scholars argue that the Soviet System was not reformable and thus was doomed to be inherent defects (Kuvaldin, 22). Cohen also attributes the Soviet Union to the five transformat ions of the communist system which was generally advancing towards an economic  policy to be adopted in the Soviet  Union intended to increase central planning and labor efficiency. It however eventually led to the end of central planning in the Russian economy. The transformations were heavily determined by the communist system which included the monopoly of power by the communist party, democratic

Dancom in Russia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Dancom in Russia - Essay Example If they had been equals, administration would not have been easy. MNCs carefully avoid behaving like overlords and expect cooperation from native workers. Western countries, who were impressively successful in imperialism, had been unable to attain same level of achievement here while dealing with cultural syndromes. The provided case study of Dancom operating from Russia is an eye-opener, a situation in crying need of cross-cultural management. Study gives importance to the Russian voices of dissent heard in a Danish company. Russian workers, especially middle managers, who are 'united against headquarters in Denmark,' do not feel loyal for their company belonging to Danes. Problem of languages, lack of frequent/meaningful communication, poor and misguided interpretation, and isolated decision making with very little trust on the integrity and cleverness of Russians are the issues nagging this company. Another complex question is of insiders and outsiders, hosting insiders and hosting outsiders. Looking from Danish angle as the company belonged to them, Russians are workers from another dense culture, that too, ex-communists. From Russian point of view, overbearing Danish company is operating from Russian soil, and this should make Russians main players. There is a major difference in planning between Danish (long term activity, hence, important) and Russians (a short immediate task, not much to be bothered about), while Russians feel that Danes should have more trust in the knowledge and experience of Russian middle managers. What brings the differences other than culture, language and working pattern and natural bias How to reduce cross-cultural conflicts It had been a major challenge to Dancom. Russians are more tuned to the 'one authority' ordering, being under Communist rule for decades and Danes, being capitalistic in their approach, are more decentralised in their handling, even though they depend mainly on themselves. Years of mutual mistrust and prejudice about the other's capability (mainly due to political propaganda fed during days of Cold War) cannot be wiped out at one go. It takes time to develop trust, respect and mutual understanding and such an effort could be made through cross-cultural management. As a solution, cross-cultural relationships should be trusted and developed. Communication and co-ordination have to be developed. It is imperative to find out how Russians perceive themselves and this might be the key to many stagnating questions. Lamenting on not having research results, Jonson and Cullen argue: "Research on trust and its role in exchange has proliferated since the 1990s. However despite the insights offered by scholars, we do not yet have a generalizable and comprehensive model of trust in exchange," Jonson and Cullen in Gannon (2002, p.335). They hope to have much more research on the dynamics of trust, culture's role in the bases and evolution of trust and on business ethics across cultures. There are issues which showcase Danish approach being different from

Grant Proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Grant Proposal - Essay Example Some children start using these drugs when they as young as thirteen years of age (Freeman, 2001). There has been extensive research on the substance abuse, such as alcohol and drugs, among the adolescent population segment. There are a number of generic factors that the substance abuse is blamed on. Also, there are numerous after effects and problems related to the substance abuse that adolescents have to combat in the aftermath of this abuse. Various reasons have been assumed to influence young people into misusing those substances. It is very important to understand the reasons why adolescents indulge in habit of abusing substances and the stage which they have attained so that we can be able to device means to assist them overcome their habits (Connors,et.al., 2001). Some of the causes may be more than mere curiosity hence may require emotional or material support so as to solve the real problem. Intervention is required both at local and state level to save young generation from deadly effects of abuse of substances. According to Deykin et al. (1987), most of the substances used for the abuse in question are depressants. Therefore, due to their continued abuse, they lead adolescent into a dark, depressive state from which it is very hard to emerge back into a happy healthy lifestyle. It has also been stated that adolescents and children who had been depressed to begin with, were far more likely to indulge in substance abuse as a result this depression. The linkage of depressive disorder and substance abuse in adolescent females was six times higher than it was in the male sample used for this study (Freeman, 2001). It was also found that the patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) were more likely to fall prey to alcohol abuse after the onset of the disorder. However, it may not always be the case with respect to the

Dancom in Russia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Dancom in Russia - Essay Example If they had been equals, administration would not have been easy. MNCs carefully avoid behaving like overlords and expect cooperation from native workers. Western countries, who were impressively successful in imperialism, had been unable to attain same level of achievement here while dealing with cultural syndromes. The provided case study of Dancom operating from Russia is an eye-opener, a situation in crying need of cross-cultural management. Study gives importance to the Russian voices of dissent heard in a Danish company. Russian workers, especially middle managers, who are 'united against headquarters in Denmark,' do not feel loyal for their company belonging to Danes. Problem of languages, lack of frequent/meaningful communication, poor and misguided interpretation, and isolated decision making with very little trust on the integrity and cleverness of Russians are the issues nagging this company. Another complex question is of insiders and outsiders, hosting insiders and hosting outsiders. Looking from Danish angle as the company belonged to them, Russians are workers from another dense culture, that too, ex-communists. From Russian point of view, overbearing Danish company is operating from Russian soil, and this should make Russians main players. There is a major difference in planning between Danish (long term activity, hence, important) and Russians (a short immediate task, not much to be bothered about), while Russians feel that Danes should have more trust in the knowledge and experience of Russian middle managers. What brings the differences other than culture, language and working pattern and natural bias How to reduce cross-cultural conflicts It had been a major challenge to Dancom. Russians are more tuned to the 'one authority' ordering, being under Communist rule for decades and Danes, being capitalistic in their approach, are more decentralised in their handling, even though they depend mainly on themselves. Years of mutual mistrust and prejudice about the other's capability (mainly due to political propaganda fed during days of Cold War) cannot be wiped out at one go. It takes time to develop trust, respect and mutual understanding and such an effort could be made through cross-cultural management. As a solution, cross-cultural relationships should be trusted and developed. Communication and co-ordination have to be developed. It is imperative to find out how Russians perceive themselves and this might be the key to many stagnating questions. Lamenting on not having research results, Jonson and Cullen argue: "Research on trust and its role in exchange has proliferated since the 1990s. However despite the insights offered by scholars, we do not yet have a generalizable and comprehensive model of trust in exchange," Jonson and Cullen in Gannon (2002, p.335). They hope to have much more research on the dynamics of trust, culture's role in the bases and evolution of trust and on business ethics across cultures. There are issues which showcase Danish approach being different from

The early history of Eduction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The early history of Eduction - Essay Example This paved the way for determining how man could move ahead and thus acquire new ways and means through which he could be a part of the educated clan. As far as the private education domains are concerned, these have focused a great deal on how education is instilled within the society by means which are not run under the aegis of the government, rather by private entities and bodies who oversee that education is given to those who are ready to pay for it, and pay well. In entirety, education that is understood well is the education that is meant for everyone. If private education is expensive, it is because it was always like this and same will be the case in the coming times as well (Boyles, 2005). Hence gaining education is always a privilege and should always be thought as such because it helps solve the quandaries that are present within the societies and shape up the personalities of individuals on a consistent basis. Works Cited Boyles, Deron R. Schools or Markets? Commerciali sm, Privatization and School-Business Partnerships. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, NJ, 2005

Goodness is operational Essay Example for Free

Goodness is operational Essay According to Dunn and US OSHA (2004), the above sentiments should stand because, at the end of it all, the US will have to use its funds treating the industrially injured immigrant as well. Again, failure to teach immigrants on OSHA policies simply because they are not US citizens is contradictive to the principle of egalitarianism, which the US claims to have been founded upon. The OSHA 2004 promises that there be the training of all employees in meat packing industry alike, so as to assuage oversight in meal packing therefore comes in handy. The proposal to have the lessening of the velocity of the line speed is also very tenable. This is because, the measure allows for the chance of mishaps to be nipped in the bud, in case of any eventuality. The gravity of the matter is seen in the fact that according to the OSHA 2001 Report, 21% of devastating industrial accidents are always seen to have been revertible, should the speed of the machines have been a little slower (OSHA 2001). Mintz (2004) postulates that the importance of the matter is seen in the fact that meat packing industries are always fitted with very sharp massive cutters. It is always a requirement that apart from the abating of the velocity of the speed lines, it is also expedient that every meat packing industry be fitted with automatic detectors and main switch that allows the disabling of the cutters and the speed lines whenever of an alert is issued or an anomaly occurs. Conversely, there are those such as Wang (2003) who point out that the lessening of the velocity of the speed lines in the meat packing factories also helps in warding off cases of overworking of employees. Wang (Ibid) points out that it is increasing the speed of the conveyors and speed lines that acts as an artifice for the employees and the top management to realize maximum productivity without having to necessarily increase the employees’ working hours. This proposal seems to be sympathetic to the well being of the employees. However, when the matter is closely scrutinized, one sees that the measure remains benevolent to all. The meat packing industry or company is also bound to earn a positive corporate image as a corporate entity that factors the welfare of the employees by not overworking them. The society in point is also bound to receive products from a company that produces quality based meat products since proper time is taken to pack meat products. In this case, matters touching on negligence and anomalies in packing are extirpated. However, it is important to note that the utilitarian doctrine of According to Putnam and Langerman (2002), the recommendation that stronger worker compensation laws be set in place is also necessary as it will allow for the setting of penalties that are commensurate too. The setting up of stronger worker compensation as is proposed by US OSHA and Consul Jose Cuevas will also be in instrumental in averting cases of employees being deluded by unscrupulous employers. In almost the same wavelength, the entrenchment of stronger compensation laws will ensure the extirpation of cases of negligence from the side of employers as the employers will seek to avoid the high charges being exacted on the meat packing industry in the form of fines or employee compensation. The validity of this measure is promising, due to the fact that ever since the creation of Section 1910 Subpart 1 of OSHA regulations, cases of employers neglecting the plight of their employees assuaged by 55% in the first year alone (Humphrey 2005). Although the principle of Utilitarianism of the proceeds being beneficent to all may seem to be antithetical against the above rationale, yet, it is important to note that seldom do companies that do not have moral and political good will attain ultimate good. Even if a corporate expedition such as the one listed above may portend some liabilities for the meat packing industries, the fact that it has good will towards employees will reward the company with good public relations. It is against the backdrop of the above situation that Emmanuel Kant, being a utilitarian, quipped that good is that which is totally akin to the concept of goodwill- not profit. This totally supports the deontological notion that all industrial measures to safeguard the safety of the worker, if the principle of intrinsic goodness is operational. It is also true that ever since the inception of Section 1910 Subpart 303 that regulates the working standards in industrial sector; there was a steep plummeting of cases of poor working standards as employers took to escape the legal dragnet by uplifting the working conditions. It can therefore be easily and rightly surmised that the entrenchment of policies that would allow the upholding of international standards in the meat packing industry will inculcate OSHA policies and ideal working conditions. At the same time, the internationalization of meat packing safety conditions will be instrumental in ensuring a healthy competition among different meat packaging companies.

Contemporary Issues in Strategic Marketing

Contemporary Issues in Strategic Marketing Contemporary Issues in Strategic Marketing Your manager has been to a marketing seminar on The Service Dominant Logic. He has asked you to produce a paper on the implications of implementing an SDK programme within the firm embraces both the strategic and tactical implications and the costs and the benefits. Implications of service-dominant logic Nowadays, we need to set up strategies and tactics in a new way due to the huge changes happening in both consuming and marketing environment. Due to the more and more important role marketing plays in corporate operation, understanding and implementing strategy from marketings view could offer firms a useful means to reconfigure corporate value and management concept. In 2007, the revised definition of marketing by AMA (American Marketing Association) illustrates that marketing is a system of vale transaction in essence. Briefly, all forms of goods should be regarded as service. Goods are the physical expression of one or more capabilities, and product is the main type that companies offer, while service, according to Vargo and Lusch (2004), is the application of specialized competences (knowledge and skills). Stephen L. Vargo Robert F. Lusch (2004) also explained that marketing has shifted from the goods-dominant logic (G-D Logic) to service–dominant logic (S-D Logic) which is applicable to all marketing offers (Vargo and Lusch, 2004). They further identified that in fact, all economy is the service economy, and product is just the carrier and physical appearance of the service (Vargo and Lusch, 2004). Apparently, what firms offer is the physical product, but in fact all what they supply is just one kind of service, one solution. Kotler (1977) indicated that the real importance of product to us is not the ownership but the service that we could get from them. Also, there is a growing focus o n services in the marketing because service industry dominants the worlds economy nowadays, for example, eighty percent of the current U.S. GDP is derived from the services industry, which employs over 80% of all employees (Ford and Bowen, 2008). The S-D logic intimates a very different kind of purpose and process for marketing activity and for the firm as a whole: to provide service to stakeholders, including customers, stockholders, and employees (Lusch and Vargo 2006, p. 283). All companies should notice that the real implication of serve-dominant logic is the customer satisfaction not the continual innovation and improvement of products, unless this kind of innovation and improvement is for better satisfying customer needs. Firms blind focus on improving products quality and technology would let them ignore the change of customer needs, which will keep them away from customers. Whenever companies can have the service-dominant view, they will be more rational to make strategies. Especially when managing production innovation, firms will not only keep an eye on the product itself but develop the production more efficient based on the services need to be satisfied. So under the serve-dominant logic, firms should firstly be c ustomer-oriented, continually satisfy customer needs; then firms should enhance the service consciousness and improve service quality, which is a fundamental approach to attract new customer, build customer satisfaction and cultivate customer loyalty (Brodie and Little, 2006). A significant change over the 100 years is that customers could actively choose their favourite products from only passively accept corporate product. This is the result of the market competition, is the inevitable phenomenon among the transformation from the sellers market to the buyers market. In the traditional product times, corporate implement the market-and-sell producing value, producers and consumers are completely separated (Baker, 2003, P454). In the past, companies blindly manufacture, ignoring whether or not customers will accept, what they only care is selling products out for profit. However, this method isnt effective anymore because current customers have a lot of alternative choices, part of them are even finicky, they will only choose the product and service satisfying their needs, they will not waste any interest on anything they dont like. In consideration of this situation, more and more companies become smarter. They abandon the obsolete production concept, turn ing to use the sense and response marketing view as the guide, put customers in the core position of the corporate operation. More than that, firms start to involve customers in the process of product design, producing, evaluation. During the whole process of value creation, customers is no longer a passively accepter, but be regarded as the co-producer. The key element of value creation is to cooperate with customers (Normannand Ramirez, 1993). Thus it can be seen that, customer participation is extraordinary important to companies, the interaction between customers and firms is extremely important, especially for the future corporate. In his book â€Å"future shock†, Alvin Toffer explained the upcoming â€Å"experiential industry†, in which customers would not only satisfy with the basic functions products and services offer, they would be willing to allocate high percentages of their salaries to live amazing experiences (Toffler, 1994). In this kind of â€Å"experience economy†, companies will never again simply produce goods, but become an experience platform, co-create value with the customers. Dell and Starbucks are both good examples. Corporate could be regarded as an aggregation of various resources, validly managing these resources could create profit and value. Firms used to believe that tangible resources such as the land, equipment, and materials are the most important assets, because without these resources, companies are unable to organize manufacture. However, in the current service-dominant times, the key resources have changed to be intangible resources like knowledge, experience, technology and innovation etc (Vargo and Lusch, 2004). It can be said that they are base of corporate competence and core capability. This is not to say that those tangible resources are not important any more, but that their importance has comparably diminished, which is because that the buyers market is the dominant in the current economic environment, customers have unprecedented wide range of choices and their needs are escalating, only the high knowledge and technology based products will be favoured by customers. On the o ther hand, simple physical product without high knowledge and technology is losing competence, which prompts companies to transfer to the knowledge and technology intensive ones. Constantin and Lusch (1994) defined the physical and natural resources to be the operand resources, while the knowledge, technology and innovation kind of resources are be defined as the operant resources (Constantin and Lusch, 1994). This transaction of the focus of resource reveals one fact which is that current corporate competition is no longer the simple competition based on the product, but the full competition based on the knowledge, technology and human resources. If company want to be the winner in such intensively competitive environment, it must set up its own core capability and competitive advantage. Modern corporations more and more emphasize on transferring value from the tangible resources to intangible resources, insisting on creating corporate value through operant resources (Vargo and Lus ch, 2004). S-D Logic emphasizes that knowledge is the fundamental source of competitive advantage, as based on a firms ability to make differentiated use of information flow throughout its value creation chain of suppliers, distributors, and customers (Ford and Bowen, 2008). Also, the transaction of focus of resources requires corporate to make an important change on strategies, which is to be the learning organization. Only learning could increase the group knowledge, experience etc intangible assets in the organization, could create core value. Firms not only need to carry out the internal learning, but also turn its attention to the broader external environment and the whole value chain. Not only requires adaptive learning but also innovative learning. It is indicated by S-D Logic that customer value is created through service experiences and relationships, especially in the co-creation and sharing of resources, including skills and knowledge (Aitken and Ballantyne etc all, 2006). Within the S-D Logic, the customers is a prosumer and co-creator of value, which can lead benefits to both themselves and service providers (Baker, 2003, P461). In the product times, value is almost decided by the producer, value is included in the tangible resources, reflect on the product; however, in the current service times, value is decide by the consumers. Whether or not one product is valuable, how much value it has, thats not producers call, after consumers judgement, its value is embodied in the consumers recognition and acceptance. So this is like that a drop of water is much more valuable than a diamond in the dessert, which is determined by peoples needs. The definition of Customer Perceived Value (CPV) given by Kotler (2003) is the differenc e between the prospective customers evaluation of all benefits and all the costs of an offering and the perceived alternatives (Kotler, 2003, P60). So it can be seen that value relies on customers perception and judgement to a large extent. Customers will make their most important judgments of value received through direct service interactions with firms and on service-ability of goods-in-use (Ballantyne and Aitken, 2007). It can also be said that the time-logic of marketing exchange is open-ended, from pre-sale service interaction to post-sale value-in-use (Ballantyne and Varey, 2006). Baker (2003) said that: â€Å"all marketing is about value proposition.† (Baker, 2003, P452). The service-dominant logic brings marketing innovation to the fore through the sharing of new ideas and knowledge within the firm, and between the firm and key customers and suppliers (Aitken and Ballantyne etc all, 2006). The effect of transition of value determination on strategy is that corporate must implement the innovation process and service progress based on the customers, play close attention to their need, opinions and suggestions, which means that marketing research, product test need to be taken regularly, ensuring customer needs could be satisfied. It is the only way to receive customers recognition and acceptance and let the value of product could express. Also, firms need to maintain stable long-term relationship with customers, set up various social, structural and emotional connections to enhance customer loyalty and customer lifetime value (Aitken and Ballantyne etc all, 2006).Lean solution which fits the S-D logic and the customers role as co-creator could be applied by companies make hands-on strategies, such as continuing improvements, do it right the first time, and management commitment (baker, 2003, P467). Also, there are some principles should be followed (Baker, 2003, P467; Womack and Jones, 2005b, P61): Solve the customers problem completed by ensuring that all the goods and services work, and work together. Do not waste the customers time. Provide exactly what the customer wants. Provide what is wanted exactly where it is wanted. Provide what is wanted where it is wanted exactly when it is wanted. Continually aggregate solutions to reduce the customers time and hassle. In the service times, companies more and more recognize the importance of customers who are the direct origin of profit. Old trading ideas do not emphasize the relationship with customers, ignoring customer needs and satisfaction lead to companys reducing profit and increasing costs. With the further deepen understanding, more and more emphasize on the core position of customers, companies gradually recognize the importance to keep the relationship with customers. This is also one result of the continual development of marketing theories applied to practices. During the process of development, many new concepts have been put forward, such as the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Customer Equity (Kotler, 2003). Managers find out it is possible to reduce costs on one side, and attract more new customers by word-of mouth to receive more profit on the other side through building relationship with customers and maintaining customer loyalty. Strategically, corporate choose customers more carefully, they find out that it is not effective to be indiscriminate customer choosing. Companies discover that not all of the customers are profitable; some customers will even bring negative gearing to them, which is because the too high cost to get customers and/or too short customer lifetime circle, and this is called the lost-for-good customers type. Sherden proposed to change the â€Å"20-80† rule with the following: â€Å"20-80-30†, first 20% of customers contribute with 80% to the enterprise profit and half of these profits are used to cover the enterprise losses generated by the last 30% of the unprofitable customers (Sherden, 1994). According to this situation, companies start to consider how to measure customer value, how to identify profitable customers, which lead to the CLV evaluation. What companies could do is to model profit on both an annual basis and on a CLV basis to determine customer value in terms o f potential profits and CLV (Christopher, Payne and Ballantyne, 2002, P63). For example, Electro plc collected data analyze its customer acquisition and retention economics at the segment level, by doing so it can clearly identify which segment need to be concentrated on and which one is the waste of investment (Christopher, Payne and Ballantyne, 2002, P53). Through this assessment, companies could find out the most important customers and abandon those unprofitable customers. And adopt different marketing strategies and different resource distribution (such as different pricing policies, quality and level of service) to different categories of customers. Firms very focus on building up stable long-term relationship to achieve the supplier-customer win-win relationship (Baker, 2003, P469). IBM is good at it CRM, it can make the best use of every opportunity contacting with customers to impress them and increase loyalty to company, and finally enhance corporate profit and reduce cost (IBM, 2009). For example, its CRM outsourcing service provide reliable methods, new ideas and innovative thinking to help firms enhance customer-oriented marketing, sales and the effectiveness and efficient of services (IBM, 2009). When companies are pursuing the long-term development, especially when we hope to build a permanent operating institution, we must have a broad view, not only focus on customers current value, but also create and enhance customers lifetime value. Firstly, companies need to ensure the quality of its products could satisfy customers need; then, companies need to be able to provide good â€Å"consumption experience† to attract customer participation and build their loyalty to your brand. Tactics could be that firms not only provide after-sale service, but actively offer lifetime service, cultivate â€Å"lifetime customers†, create lifetime value in further (Lusch, Vargo, and Malter 2006). CRM regards that the total value of the firms customer base is an important driver of company profitability (Kotler, 2003, P52). In order to set up a comprehensive customer database, high-quality, timely, and accurate information need to be collected such as customers demographics, past purchase etc and then put into a data warehouse. And the database could be used by companies on marketing like to identify customer response, make attractive or timely offers ect. However, Kotler (2003) also identified three problems of database marketing: firstly, companies need to spend a large investment in computer hardware, database, software, analytical programs, communication links, and skilled personnel to build and maintain a customer database; secondly, it is difficult to get everyone in the company to be customer-oriented in and to use the available information; thirdly, customer may not want to keep a relationship with the company, some of whom may even think that their personal informatio n should not be collected (Kotler, 2003, P55). And some real examples tell us that the database marketing is not helpful to every companys CRM, reasons of failure of CRM implementation could be the high cost, poorly designed system, ignorance by collaborators (Kotler, 2003, P56). Conclusively, we are facing a totally different consumption and marketing environment, so we should also change our ideological foundation of making strategies. Major changes include that marketing has shifted from the goods-dominant logic to service–dominant logic; customers could actively choose their favourite products; the key resources have changed to be intangible resources; customers become a co-creator of value; maintaining customer relationship becomes more and more important to companies. So strategic and tactical implications to companies are: be customer-oriented, continually satisfy customer needs; enhance the service consciousness and improve service quality; increase customer participation; marketing research, product test need to be taken regularly to ensure customer needs could be satisfied; carry out adaptive learning and innovative learning within the company. Two main types of benefits could be brought to companies: reduce costs and increase profit and valu e through CRM. However, the initial investment is expensive, and it is hard to make ensure everyone one in the company could be customer-oriented, also, some customers may refuse to maintain relationship with firms. Strategy is the direction and scope of an organization over the long term, and the tactics is the specific actions implementing strategy(Johnson and Scholes, 2002, P 10). New Definition of Marketing (est. in 2007): Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large( AMA, 2007). â€Å"Future shock† is a book written by the sociologist and futurologist Alvin Toffer in 1970 The Pareto principle ( also knows the â€Å"20-80† rule) states that it is possible for 80% of the companys profit to be provided by 20% of the total number of customers (Sherden, 1994). Customer lifetime value (CLV) is defined as the net present value of the future profit flow over a customers lifetime (Christopher, Payne and Ballantyne, 2002, P62) According to Bill Inmon (1992), a data warehouse is a database that contains the following four characteristics: subject oriented, non-volatile, integrated and time variant (Todman, 2001, P32). Bibliography: Kotler, Philip (1977), Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation, and Control, 3d ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Crosby, Philip (1979). Quality is Free. New York: McGraw-Hill. 0-07-014512-1. New Scientist, 19 March 1994, pp. 22-25. Harvard Business Review, 71, July/August, 1993, pp. 65-77 Sherden W.A. (1994) Market Ownership: the Art and Science of Becoming no 1, New York,Amacon Chris Todman (2001) Designing a Data Warehouse: supporting customer relationship Management. Hewlett-packard Company, Prentice Hall PTR, Upper saddle river, New Jersey 07548 Johnson, G. and K. Scholes (2002). Exploring corporate strategy : [TEXT ONLY]. Harlow, Financial Times Prentice Hall. Martin Christopher, Adrian Payne, David Ballantyne (2002) Relationship marketing : creating stakeholder value. Oxford : Butterworth-Heinemann, 2002. Kotler, Philip (2003), Marketing Management 11th (international) ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Baker, Michael John (2003) The marketing book (5th Edition) Oxford :Butterworth-Heinemann. Printed and bound in Great Britain by the Bathe Press, Bath S. L. Vargo and R. F. Lusch (2004). Evolving to a new dominant logic for marketing. Journal of Marketing, 68:1{17, January 2004. Brodie, R.J., Glynn, M.S. and Little, V. (2006), â€Å"The service brand and the service-dominant logic: missing fundamental premise or the need for stronger theory?†, Marketing Theory, Vol. 6 No. 3, pp. 363-79. Robert F. Lusch, Stephen L. Vargo (2006) Service-dominant logic: reactions, reflections and refinements Marketing Theory, Vol. 6, No. 3, 281-288 (2006) Robert Aitken, David Ballantyne. Phil Osborne and John Williams (2006) Introduction to the special issue on the service-dominant logic of marketing: insights from The Otago Forum Marketing Theory 2006; 6; 275 Lusch, R.F. and S.L. Vargo, Eds. (2006). The Service-Dominant Logic of Marketing. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe. Lusch, R.F., S.L. Vargo, A. Malter (2006). â€Å"Marketing as Service-Exchange: Taking a Leadership Role in Global Marketing Management,† Organizational Dynamics (forthcoming). David Ballantyne and Robert Aitken (2007)Branding in B2B markets: insights from the service-dominant logic of marketing, Journal of Business Industrial Marketing Volume 22  · Number 6  · 2007  · 363–371 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 0885-8624] AMA (2007, December 17, 2007 ). AMA Definition of Marketing . Retrieved 7th Nov 2009, from http://www.marketingpower.com/Community/ARC/Pages/Additional/Definition/default.aspx. ROBERT C. FORD and DAVID E. BOWEN (2008) A Service-Dominant Logic for Management Education: Its Time. Academy of Management Learning Education, 2008, Vol. 7, No. 2, 224–243. IBM (2009) Build sustainable competitive advantage and accelerate time-to-benefit in marketing, sales and service http://www-935.ibm.com/services/th/index.wss/offerfamily/gts/e1028096 (Available) Accessed on 13th Nov, 2009