...Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake 400 years ago. He was tied up, as they gathered wood at his feet. Some report that he was wearing a shawl with daemons emblazed on it, and others say that he was stripped. The reason he was burned was his heresy and his refusal to conform to the Vatican's will. A Pantheist, he believed that nature was god, and all other theology was fundamentally flawed. Giordano Bruno was burned alive 400 years ago by cruel, mindless men, and upon hearing what his fate would be, he said, "Perhaps you deliver my punishment with more fear than I receive it." Oh, what bravery, courage, and stamina of life! This may have been the test of humanity. The spirits of charity and courage watched -- they saw the lighting of his body, the soft glow of embers, they saw what we all now know: that humanity failed; that kindness and justice were overthrown, treated as vestiges and given no value. Giordano Bruno was burned 400 years ago, the flames engulfing his torso, blistering his skin, turning his insides molten. And as I read and learn of the glorious martyr, with his death being a sign forever of the extent of cruelty, I come to uneasy questions about myself. Would I do the same? What would the flame taste like? How long would it last? Asking questions to myself, I seem more and more like a strange. Sometimes I wish I could meet this hero of every Humanitarian. And I wish I could ask what was so precious to him, how he had lived, how he died, the loves...
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...Giordano, International Limited is a Hong Kong retailer of men's, women's and children's quality apparel founded in 1981 by Jimmy Lai[16]. Giordano has become a pioneer of customer service in the Asia-Pacific region and, as of January 2008, currently employs more than 11,000 people and operates 1800 stores worldwide in 40 countries As of 1996, Jimmy Lai no longer owns the company and its current Chairman and CEO is Peter Lau Kwok Kwen, a Chinese-Canadian. The company is Asia-Pacific's most successful retailer and sells its name under the brands of "Giordano", "Giordano Concepts", "Giordano Junior" and "Giordano Ladies"[20][21]. Giordano has been publicly listed since 1991 and since then trades on the Hong Kong stock exchange under the ticker symbol 709.HK Giordano's success is measured by the company's relentless focus on its five corporate business values of quality, knowledge, innovation, simplicity and service[23]. The company has its own apparel manufacturing division where many of its own clothing styles are produced[24]. Giordano is also renowned for its basic and practical men's, women's, and children's T-shirts and trousers, especially denims Jimmy Lai trade on the Hong Kong stock exchange with his life saving and turned his measly original $3000 investment into approximately $40,000 dollars. With that money Lai bought out the owners of the bankrupt garment company of Comitex in 1975 and began manufacturing sweaters. The company was an overnight success and had exports...
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...------------------------------------------------- TO: Giordano Board of Directors FROM: Algoma Business Consultants DATE: June 25, 2007 SUBJECT: How can Giordano plan to continuously succeed during market expansion? Recommendations and Implementation: Short-Term (1-6 Months) * Giordano should maintain a consistent positioning strategy in all countries to reassure existing customers that it is the same brand that they’ve grown to love. This would also make it easier for new customers to be persuaded to shop at the stores because they know it has the same values and great service as all the other stores. Medium Term (6-12 Months) * Giordano has some competitive advantages that they will maintain because they are likely to be sustainable over the years. * The company will begin to modify some of the current competitive advantages that will not likely succeed in the future because of the always changing industry. By making changes to these few current advantages, the company will be able to continuously attract customers from all areas. Long-Term (1+ Years) * Giordano will make strategic adaption’s in their business strategy when entering different countries such as Asia or Europe to ensure that there is more chance of acquiring market share in that area. Control and Feedback Giordano will continue to monitor the sales in the new countries to assure that the new strategies are working. Market research will be conducted to see what customers in different...
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...Giordano started out as a Hong Kong based manufacturer, predominantly selling to the United States market. In 1987, from selling casual wear exclusively for men they changed their positioning and started to selling unisex casual apparel. Giordano has made the culture of accepting mistakes as learning opportunities inside the company. They have used their failures as their learning method and they have incorporated it as a company culture and that they use it as a tool to make the company grow. Employee training is very important to the company, not just in terms of how employees perform their duties but with the way they treat their customers. Giordano has made an emphasis of its employees to have a good relationship with their customers, by treating them well, being very welcome and always smiling at the customers. They find it important to attract customers, as they are the real bosses of the company because of their power to purchase. Training must translate in the stores to be effective, and when the training is effective, the money used by the company for training is well spent. Giordano has an organizational structure on simplicity and speed. It allows Giordano the intensity to react on a day-to-day basis. Management works closely with the line staff. It creates an easy communication, efficient project management and speedy decision-making. Speed allowed Giordano to keep its product development cycle short. Giordano has made its emphasis on service and value for money...
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...Born in what would become Italy, Giordano Bruno lived from 1548-1600, at the precipice of an era of novel scientific and religious thought. His writings encourage speculation about his true beliefs through an ambiguity of illusions to unapproved modes and allows the reader to infer much while preserving religious solidarity. Bruno studied a wide variety of religious thought, both traditional and unorthodox, as well as many pagan, esoteric, scientific and pseudo-scientific genres. Through his concept of Divine Universality, he incorporates the divine into and throughout each level of existence. His forthrightness remains an opening for debate on a wide variety of subjects. He was a staunch believer that varied spiritualities should be melded...
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...Marinelle Briones June 16, 2012 S38-Markma Using the SPADE method, analyze Giordano Holdings Limited, Inc. Case I. SITUATION Jimmy Lai was born into poverty in Guandong, China. He was exposed to many western retail businesses that encouraged him to join the retail market himself. He thought of using a pizza parlor name to open his own clothing chain. Lai founded Giordano in Hong kong in 1981. Giordano’s success is measured by the company’s relentless focus on its five corporate business values of quality, knowledge, innovation, simplicity and service. The company has its own apparel manufacturing division where many of its own clothing styles are produced. Giordano is also renowned for its basic and practical men’s, women’s and children’s T-shirts and trousers, especially denims. In comparison, Giordano is very similar to the American based retailer The Gap. The product is sold under the brands of “Giordano”, “Giordano Concepts”, “Giordano Junior” and “Giordano Ladies”.[1] Giordano’s first beginnings were gloomy. It originally targeted the upscale market of Hong Kong and sold exclusively only men’s casual apparel and with too high prices, as a result, they were unsuccessful. However, this does not hinder Lai to continue his dream and transform the company. Combining what he learned from other successful internationally acclaimed brands such as United Colors of Benetton, McDonalds and Marks and Spencers, Lai created and centered his attention...
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...attractiveness of Asia, and the reason why Giordano choose Asia as its main market. From the analysis of Asian environment, sizeable population, increasing consumption on cloth, pursuing for fashion and globalization of world are all factors that make Asia attractive. Giordano’s FDI-related projects and the FDI modes are exhibited in this report, which can describe a whole picture of this company’s development. In addition, based on the analysis of FDI activities, Giordano’s FDI activities have many impacts on host economies, like job creation in Indonesia. This report draws on sales data of main Asian markets and subordinate brands to analyse the trend of investment of Giordano. Korea is the most important and second market except Mainland China；The Middle East grows quickly during last decades; Singapore is a stable and profitable market. Malaysia and Indonesia are potential markets, and from a long term perspective Giordano will focus on the development of these countries. Asia is the basic market of Giordano, which conducts over 95% foreign investment there. This report applies SWOT analysis to illustrate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and also uses PEST analysis to explain the external factors-political, economic, social and technological, which influence the investment direction in the future. Country screening process identifies company-specific criteria, which enable them to rank countries. Giordano mainly selects countries in Asia and...
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...How Effective Management of Operations Contributes To Competitive Advantage at Giordano Globalization, fierce competition, and unpredictable changes in customer tastes are some of the issues that threaten the future of many companies. Companies need to manage their operations effectively to counteract the effects of these market forces and gain competitive advantage. Competitive advantage has been defined as something that a company does particularly well (David, 2011, p. 9). This means possessing a unique resource, capability, or technology. Porter (1985) pioneered the view that competitive advantage is best achieved through the activities, or operations, of a company because a certain configuration of activities is difficult to imitate, unlike assets, which rivals could easily acquire. Russell and Taylor (2011, p. 18) supported this view by stating that processes, not products, give a company competitive advantage. Pieterson (2010) defined competitive advantage as the gap between value, as perceived by customers, and cost incurred in delivering that value. Since value is created through operations, effective management of operations represents the greatest potential for achieving competitive advantage. Operations refer to the activities that transform inputs such as raw materials or information into outputs that customers value (Russell & Taylor, 2011). Operations determine how well a company satisfies its customers. Operations management refers to the design and improvement...
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...Examination Paper of Customer Relationship management IIBM Institute of Business Management Examination Paper MM.100 Customer Relationship Management Section A: Objective Type & Short Questions (30 Marks) This section consists of Multiple Choice & Short Note type questions. Answer all the questions. Part One carries 1 mark each & Part Two carries 4 marks each. Part One: Multiple Choices: 1. High congruence means: a. High probability of success b. Low probability of success c. Zero probability of success d. None 2. Novo Jim‟s excellent resource book for Recency, Frequency and Monetary is: a. Drilling high b. Digging the top c. Cutting edges d. Drilling down 3. In „FURPS‟ R stands for___________ a. Responsibility b. Resource c. Retention d. Reliability 4. NAICS stands for_____________ a. National American Industry Coding System b. North American Industry Cooling System c. National American Industry Cooling System d. North American Industry Coding System 5. The book „Reengineering the corporation‟ is written by: a. Michael Hammer and James Champy b. Michael Champy and James Hammer c. Michael Douglus and James Ferrari d. Michael Ferrari and James Douglus 6. The book „Building the Data warehouse‟ is written by: a. Michael Doglus b. James Champy c. Bill Inmon 1 IIBM Institute of Business Management Examination Paper of Customer Relationship management d. James Ferrari 7. Which of the following is considered as the bible...
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...Morganne Rhine Tim Timmons US History II 11/27/12 The Oklahoma City Bombing This is a review of the book entitled Terrorist Attacks: The Oklahoma City Bombing by Geraldine Giordano. The author’s purpose is to inform the reader about the life of Timothy McVeigh, convicted bomber, the destructive plan, the actual bombing, the investigation of the case, and the aftermath. Giordano hooks the reader by implementing a very dramatic introduction of the events of that morning. “It was a day no one would soon forget” (Giordano 5). The first chapter is devoted to the life of Timothy McVeigh, his biographical information, and additional facts of interest to the reader, such as McVeigh and a friend bought 10 acres of land in New York and told their parents that they wanted to use the land for hunting. In reality, they planned to use the land as a survivalists’ bunker. It was surprising to learn that McVeigh wanted to be a Green Beret but failed the required psychiatric test. Chapter two is devoted to the alliance between McVeigh, Terry Nichols, and Michael Fortier. The author suggests that the Ruby Ridge incident and the Waco incident concerning the Branch Davidians were turning points for McVeigh. The author argues that the Murrah Building was targeted for several reasons. The first reason being that McVeigh knew the building contained several government offices and agencies. According to her, McVeigh believed that he could retaliate against those who were responsible...
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...05341_02_ch02_p021-044.qxd 9/25/07 10:01 AM Page 21 CHAPTER 2 OPERATIONS, STRATEGY AND OPERATIONS STRATEGY INTRODUCTION An organization’s operations function is concerned with getting things done; producing goods and/or services for customers. Chapter 1 pointed out that operations management is important because it is responsible for managing most of the organization’s resources. However, many people think that operations management is only concerned with short-term, day-to-day, tactical issues. This chapter will seek to correct that view by considering the strategic importance of operations. All business organizations are concerned with how they will survive and prosper in the future. A business strategy is often thought of as a plan or set of intentions that will set the long-term direction of the actions that are needed to ensure future organizational success. However, no matter how grand the plan, or how noble the intention, an organization’s strategy can only become a meaningful reality, in practice, if it is operationally enacted. An organization’s operations are strategically important precisely because most organizational activity comprises the day-to-day activities within the operations function. It is the myriad of daily actions of operations, when considered in their totality that constitute the organization’s long-term strategic direction. The relationship between an organization’s strategy and its operations is a key determinant of its ability to...
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...05341_02_ch02_p021-044.qxd 9/25/07 10:01 AM Page 21 CHAPTER 2 OPERATIONS, STRATEGY AND OPERATIONS STRATEGY INTRODUCTION An organization’s operations function is concerned with getting things done; producing goods and/or services for customers. Chapter 1 pointed out that operations management is important because it is responsible for managing most of the organization’s resources. However, many people think that operations management is only concerned with short-term, day-to-day, tactical issues. This chapter will seek to correct that view by considering the strategic importance of operations. All business organizations are concerned with how they will survive and prosper in the future. A business strategy is often thought of as a plan or set of intentions that will set the long-term direction of the actions that are needed to ensure future organizational success. However, no matter how grand the plan, or how noble the intention, an organization’s strategy can only become a meaningful reality, in practice, if it is operationally enacted. An organization’s operations are strategically important precisely because most organizational activity comprises the day-to-day activities within the operations function. It is the myriad of daily actions of operations, when considered in their totality that constitute the organization’s long-term strategic direction. The relationship between an organization’s strategy and its operations is a key determinant of...
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...| RSM251 | Individual Paper #2 | Professor TsaiL0201 | | | Cun Yu Wang 997531960 | Netflix Trends in the Industry In the 1990s, most people rented movies on VHS cassettes and many “mom-and-pop” stores were present. The retail stores reserved most of the shelf space for new releases and had limited selection for other movies. “Late fee” was a must for retail rental stores to encourage on time returns and higher stock turnover. However, in the 2000s, many trends shifted. Instead of VHS cassettes, more and more consumers switched over to DVDs. Moreover, with the convenience of the internet, many people found an alternative to retail shopping to shopping online. With the internet it was more convenient and had more selection. Effect on Consumer Behaviour The trends in the 1990s caused many customers to buy on impulse. If they felt like a movie night, they would drive to the nearest rental shop and rent the newest release. After completing the movie, customers would attempt to return the rented movie on time to prevent “late fees”. However, in the 2000s, consumers were no longer behaving the same way. With more consumers buying DVD players, they required DVD rentals as compared to VHS. Moreover, with bigger selection from the internet, many consumers place a lower value on new releases than before and wanted movies that suited their interest and preference. Many consumers no longer rented movies based on impulse, but preplanned their...
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...Table of Contents Task 1. Critical Evaluation of Key Concepts and Theories 2 1.1 Literature Review on Customer Experience (CE) & Customer Loyalty (CL) 2 1.2 Creating a favourable CE & Strong CL based on Conceptual Framework 2 1.3 Linkage between Customer Experience Vs Customer Loyalty 4 1.4 Conclusion 5 Task 2. Application of Key concepts and Framework 5 2.1 Cooperate Profile / background 6 2.2 Review of existing CE & CL 6 2.3 Recommendation for Improvement for Weakness 7 2.4 Recommendation for sustaining the Customer Loyalty 8 2.5 Conclusion 9 References 10 Task 1. Critical Evaluation of Key Concepts and Theories 1.1 Literature Review on Customer Experience (CE) & Customer Loyalty (CL) Given the competitive landscape today, organization are leveraging their differentiation and competitive advantages not only the innovative products and low prices, better quality but also customer experiences (CE). This experience factor has been defined in numbers of ways. Customer experience is originated from a set of interactions between a customer and a product, a company or a part of its organization which provokes a reaction (La Salle and Brittion, 2003; Shaw and Ivens, 2005). Meyer and Schwager 2007 see it as internal and subjective response that customers have to contact directly or indirectly with the company. Greval et al (2009) also discussed that it include every point of contact at which the customers interacts with the business,...
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...brand that transcends cultural boundaries. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Number Executive Summary 1 Introduction 4 Industry Analysis Japanese Retail Industry 5 Hong Kong Apparel Industry 6 Competitor Analysis Local Competitors: Bossini 6 Giordano...
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