Leadership 1 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Leadership 1 - Assignment Example This paper compares and contrasts these two leadership models. In addition, this paper also explicates under what conditions these theories would be utilized, what is important about them, and how they would be significant to the nursing profession. In defining leadership, Couig (2012) elucidates the four elements that make up leadership. Firstly, there must be a procedure or course of action between a leader and his or her adherents. Secondly, the leader must have authority or control over the adherents. Thirdly, leadership must occur in a group set-up with a universal target, and fourthly, projected objectives must be achieved. Leadership theories are based on these elements. Situational leadership theory was coined in by Hersey and Blanchard in the 1970s and was originally referred to as life-cycle theory. At first Ledlow and Coppola (2010. p. 73) notes that "Hersey and Blanchard identified four possible styles of leadership: telling, selling, participating, and delegating". Telling involves giving instructions to the followers on how to behave and conduct their activities; selling denotes giving directions while at the same time encouraging followers; participating involve crating connections or affiliations; and delegating involve allocating specific roles to followers but at the same time offer supervision (Ledlow and Coppola, 2010). According to this theory, the leader is obliged to consider the range of attributes available in a particular state of affairs in order to make an informed decision. According to Couig (2010), the leader is also obligated to alter or transform his leadership approach and align it with the level of preparedness of adheren ts, their level of motivation, and capability. For instance, employees with low levels of motivation require a different approach as compared to those with high motivation levels. The second leadership theory is

Abortion and Writing Professor Hyde Essay Example for Free

Abortion and Writing Professor Hyde Essay Technical and Business WritingProfessor Hyde The Advantages of Abortion? For many years, abortions have been performed and so has the controversy over abortion. Today, I have decided to write about the advantages of having an abortion. Some may argue that there are no advantages to having an abortion, but that’s what makes this topic such a debatable one. Abortions have been performed since the 1800’s. Not until the infamous decision of Roe v. Wade that abortions became legal medical procedures. It was also the year the United States Supreme Court recognized abortions as part of women’s civil rights. To the average person whether male or female, abortion should be against the law, but I beg to differ. Abortion gives couples the option to choose not to bring babies with severe and life-threatening medical conditions to full term. Aborted fetuses contribute to medical science through stem cell research that cure diseases and re-grow lost or damaged limbs. It’s almost like donating organs of the decease to someone alive in dire need. In cases of rape or incest, forcing a woman who was made pregnant by the violent act would cause further psychological harm to the victim. No child should be born into this world unwanted. Statistics show that unwanted children are raised in a home with no love or supervision. They become adults who commit crime and are sentenced to prison. Another reason women have abortions is they don’t have the financial resources needed to support a child. The majority of the population has Medicaid as health insurance coverage so termination of pregnancy can be free or low cost. If they decide to keep the baby and raise it, the cost to taxpayers could be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. I chose to title my paper â€Å"The Advantages of Abortions† because your life doesn’t have to stop because you chose to end your pregnancy. Women shouldn’t feel ashamed or embarrassed because they chose a different decision than most. An unplanned pregnancy may be a burden now, but years from now it may become a miracle or joy because you had a chance to grow and mature as a person. Before you can raise a child you need to finish raising yourself first.

History of the Gun

History of the Gun The gun is a very unique piece of work that has all kinds of uses. The Chinese invented the gun many years ago. Since the gun has been invented it has improved tremendously and is still advancing this day. When was the gun invented? The first gun was invented in the year 1232. This invention was introduced after the invention of black powder was discovered. â€Å"Gunpowder is an explosive mixture of 15% charcoal, 10% sulfur, and 75% potassium nitrate, or saltpeter.†1 Gunpowder was used for fireworks that was fired out of bamboo sticks during the ninth century. The bamboo stick was also used as the first gun, they were not very productive because they were so brittle, but they were used to try to stop the Mongol invaders. â€Å"Europeans obtained gunpowder in the thirteenth century.†2 The Europeans took the recipe to this mixture and was going to enhance the gun severely. The first type of firearm invented by the Europeans was the cannon; the cannon was used to siege the defenders in the castle walls. The cannonballs fired from the cannons would crumble the castle walls leading to the end of feudalism. The first siege that the Europeans conquered was the siege of Metz in the year 1324. â€Å"Cannons were very effective weapons in a siege, but soldiers soon wanted guns they could carry. At first, simple â€Å"hand gonnes† were used side-by-side with traditional weapons such as crossbows, pikes, and lances. The development of small arms quickly changed how military battles were fought.†3 The knights that fought on the front line of the military were soon defeated when the gun was invented. The armor could withstand swords, spears and lances, but when a bullet was shot it pierced through the armor making it defenseless against the gun. When the full armor body suits were put away the helmets and the breastplates were introduced. The breastplates were made out of very hard steel and could withstand a straight shot from a bullet. This invention gave each side a chance to survive from a gunshot. Starting around the 1400s blacksmiths began inventing more and easier ways to operate a gun. The first invention that simplified the gun was the matchlock gun. A wick was attached to a clamp that released into a chamber full of gunpowder. This cut reload time down a little but not much. During the 15th and 16th century the only thing that changed on the gun was the way they produced a spark to fire. The 18th century rolled around and a percussion cap gun was invented. The percussion cap gun was invented by a man named Reverend John Forsyth. â€Å"firing mechanism no longer uses flash pan, a tube lead straight into the gun barrel, the tube had an exposed cap on it that exploded when struck†4 During the 18th century there were all sorts of guns invented. Guns ranging from revolvers and center firing guns all the way to shotguns and rifles. The automatic gun was even invented in the 18th century. During the 19th century a new gun was invented: the new gun was an automatic and it was a Winchester. The Winchester automatic rifle was invented during the year 1903. More rifles were invented during the 19th century and the more they were invented the more sophisticated and enhanced they became. Guns anywhere from the Tommy gun to the Assault rifle. When these guns were invented they were able to kill lots of people in a short period of time. The time it takes to reload a gun today verses the time it took 3 centuries ago has changed dramatically. Centuries ago it took almost two minutes to reload and fire a gun. Today you can shoot up to a thousand rounds a minute. Mankind has invented guns so that they can be used to kill people in mass numbers. When ships were introduced to guns they took advantage of opportunity to use them. Sailors could use guns to rob other boats and take over villages and tribes. Even though the people that lived in the tribe would outnumber the people on the boat, they could be conquered by something that they have never seen before in their life. Why were guns invented? â€Å"Guns were invented not for protection against the elements or for sport or for hunting but with the simple purpose to fight other men.†5 There was a man named Samuel Colt that quoted the phrase: â€Å"God made man. Samuel Colt made them equal†6,this is said to be true because of what Samuel Colt invented. Samuel Colt invented the revolver, which is still used in todays society in some countries. With the idea that the gun was invented to fight other men the world has turned into a war. Everywhere that you turn and look you will see someone with a gun or is being robbed by someone with a gun. Some people that own guns dont think before they act. This is why there are so many murders with guns. Everyone in the military has a gun issued to them. Most of the military carry machine guns with them into combat for the simple reason that the machine gun can fire rapid fire for a long period of time. All you have to do with a machine gun is keep it cool and keep the gun lo aded at all times and shooting will never stop. The man who invented the machine gun is Doctor Richard Gatling. â€Å"Doctor Richard Gatling patented his design of the â€Å"Gatling Gun†, a six-barreled weapon capable of firing a (then) phenomenal 200 rounds per minute.†7 The Gatling gun was invented in the year 1861. During the year 1885 The Maxim Machine Gun was invented. Years later the Tommy gun was invented. â€Å"The Thompson submachine gun or Tommy gun was invented by General John T. Thompson, it was the first hand held machine gun. Thompson was driven with the thought of creating a hand held machine gun that would help end the First World War, However, â€Å"the first shipment of prototype guns destined for Europe arrived at the docks in New York city on November 11, 1918, the day the war ended.†8 New and Improved Guns The guns of the 20th century are amazing. They have guns that can see around corners and guns that tell you how far your target is away from you. The equipment that mankind has come up with is far more advanced than anyone has ever thought. We now have radars that can see where you are at night. The infrared radar system has let us see things at night. This helps the military find the enemy in tough weather such as rain or snow, but the infrared radar has one downfall. The radar system cannot see anything submerged in water. Next we have the smart bullet, the smart bullet can follow your every turn, and you cant hide from it. The distance that the bullet can travel depends on where the target is. â€Å"According to recently declassified research by the Department of Defense, the new bullets will allow snipers to hit targets several kilometers away.†9 The smart bullet travels at Mach 3. The reason that this bullet can maneuver like it does is because it have a ball joint that c onnects the nose of the bullet to the casing. â€Å"The nose can move by up to 0.1 degrees in any direction.†10 The gun that this bullet comes out of has to be very powerful to make this bullet travel the distance it does. The military is going from guns to chemical warfare now. Chemical warfare is very dangerous to use because it spreads and doesnt stop and is hard to control. â€Å"Chemical warfare is warfare (and associated military operations) using the toxic properties of chemical substances to kill, injure, or incapacitate an enemy.†11 Chemical weapons are and can be very dangerous and have been used since the 1900s. The way that you use to tell how chemicals were surrounding you was by smell, by the time u smelled the gas you were dead, you had no chance of living. The chemical warfare today has improved its detection. The way that you can tell the chemicals are around you now are by chemical strips, laser detection, alarms, and blister agent detectors. There ar e three schedules of chemical weapons that can be used for warfare. The first schedule has little use. This schedule is mainly for medical research and pharmaceutical use. â€Å"Examples include nerve agents, ricin, lewisite, and mustard gas.†12 The second schedule has no big industrial uses but is used legitimately for small uses. â€Å"Examples include dimethyl methylphosphonate, a precursor to sarin but also used as a flame retardant and thiodiglycol, a precursor in the manufacture of mustard gas but also widely used as a solvent in inks.†13 The last scheduled substance has large-scale industrial uses. â€Å"Examples include phosgene and chloropicrin.†14 Both of these chemicals have been in use when it comes to chemical warfare. The substance phosgene is used in the production of plastic. The chemical Chloropicrin is used as a fumigant. If both of these plants produce up to 30 tons a year they have to be reported to The Organization for the Prohibition of Che mical Weapons, (OPCW). Guns have taken a very big toll on the 20th century population. The improvement of guns will never stop and will keep on getting more sophisticated. History is always in the making and history is always repeating itself, so keep up with time or it will leave you standing alone! Notes 1. Thomas Gale. Bookrags.com The Invention of Guns. Science and Its Times: 700-1449. (Background) 1st paragraph, 1st sentence. 2. Bookrags.com (Background) 2nd paragraph, 1st sentence. 3. Bookrags.com (Impact) 2nd paragraph, 1st 3 sentences. 4. Mary Bellis, About.com. History of Firearms. (Timeline), Year 1825. 2nd part of sentence. 5. Blurtit. Why Were Guns Invented? 1st paragraph, Last sentence. 6. Blurtit. 1st paragraph, 2nd sentence. 7. Mary Bellis, About.com. The History of Guns Rifles and Machine Guns. (Machine Guns- Gatling Gun-1861) 1st sentence. 8. (Machine Guns- Thompson Submachine Gun Tommy Gun) 1st 2 sentences. 9. Justin Mullins-New Scientist. Sniper Country.com. 1st paragraph. 2nd sentence. 10. Sniper Country.com. 3rd paragraph, Last sentence. 11. New World Encyclopedia. Chemical Warfare. 1st paragraph, 1st sentence. 12. New World Encyclopedia. (Three groups of chemical weapons Schedule 1 substances). 3rd sentence. 13. New World Encyclopedia. (Three groups of chemical weapons Schedule 2 substances). 2nd sentence. 14. New World Encyclopedia. (Three groups of chemical weapons Schedule 3 substances). 2nd sentence. Bibliography Blurtit. Why Were Guns Invented? The New York Times Company. Revised 2009. November 11 2009. http://inventors.about.com/od/militaryhistoryinventions/a/firearms.htm CALVO, SHERRI CHASIN. The Invention of Guns. 2005. November 11 2009. . Mullins, Justin New Scientist. â€Å"You can run, but you cant hide†.[Archive: 12 April 1997] November 11 2009 http://www.snipercountry.com/Articles/SmartBullets.asp Chemical warfare. New World Encyclopedia. 14 Jan 2009, 19:22 UTC. 18 Nov 2009, 07:21 .

The Basel Convention - Movements of Hazardous Waste and their Disposal :: Politics Environment Environmental

The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Waste and their Disposal Abstract On March 22, 1989, leaders from 105 nations unanimously adopted the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Waste and their Disposal. The Basel Convention is the first international convention to control the export of hazardous and other wastes. Since the Convention celebrated its 10th anniversary in 1999, it is an appropriate time for an appraisal of how the Basel Convention has affected international trade of hazardous waste. To fully understand the Basel Convention and its ramifications, it is first critical to comprehend the damage caused by hazardous waste. Second, an analysis of the Basel Convention and its criticisms are explored. Next, an examination of the Basel Ban and its significance are presented. Then, the implications for recycling in relation to the Basel Ban are discussed. Finally, three important lessons to take from the convention are provided. "It is a grave abuse and an offence against the solidarity of humanity when industrial enterprises of rich countries profit from the weak economies and legislation of poorer countries by exporting dirty technologies and wastes which degrade the environment and health of the population." --- Pope John Paul II, October 22, 1993 On March 22, 1989, after 18 months of intense negotiations, leaders from 105 nations unanimously adopted a treaty restricting shipments and dumpings of hazardous wastes across national borders. The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Waste and their Disposal, conducted under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), is the first international convention to control the export of hazardous industrial wastes (Ruloff, 1989). A driving force behind the convention is the steady increase in international trade of hazardous waste over the past decade. There is a growing number of tempting, but environmentally questionable waste disposal contracts being offered and taken by nations (Ruloff, 1989). To combat this trend, the convention has three main objectives: to reduce transboundary movement of hazardous waste while minimizing their generation; to promote the disposal of such wastes as close as possible to their places of origin; and t o prohibit the shipment of hazardous wastes to countries lacking the legal, administrative, and technical capacity to manage them in an environmentally sound manner. Since the Convention celebrates its 10th anniversary in December 1999, it is an appropriate time for an appraisal of how the Basel Convention has effected international trade of hazardous waste.

Pass The Opium, Please Essay example -- essays research papers

Religion is said to be the opiate of the masses, and it is definitely a point of interest in George Orwell's famous novel Animal Farm. In it, Orwell pointedly attacks religion in general and Christianity in particular through the use of a well placed symbolic bird by the name of Moses. Orwell's stance is rather apparent as Moses darts about the farm scene conveying the duality of Christianity quite superbly. At the first mention of the raven Moses, one immediately gets the impression that he stands for something quite larger than just a simple bird that lives on the Manor Farm. Firstly his name, Moses, is an obvious biblical reference conveying the idea that he may stand for religion or Christianity. It is not a subtle point that Orwell is trying to make with Moses. From the beginning of his involvement in the plot of Animal Farm, Moses is painted as a very special pet of Mr. Jones, the keeper of Manor Farm before the animal revolution. Mr. Jones in himself stands for something larger than just himself, he represents the old government, the government that the animals have pointed their military coup towards. In this case the most obvious connection can be made to the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917. In this vein of comparison, Mr. Jones represents the government under the ruling power of the czar. And if Moses is the especial bird of Mr. Jones, this means that religion was under the wing so to say of the czar (pun intended). After we learn this quality of Moses, we ...

Uploadng Your Brain Essay -- essays research papers

UPLOADING YOUR BRAIN†¦ "I'm sorry, Jim, but I just don't think it's right for a man's atoms to be scattered all over creation and then brought back together again. It's just not right." (Character, Dr. Leonard McCoy, original Star Trek series) I wonder what Bones would have to say about swallowing, or being injected with billions of microscopic robots, or nanobots, to enter into a three dimensional cyberspace - a virtual reality environment or to enable him to live forever? In an article that could be taken from a Star Trek: Voyager script, I think Dr. Kurzweil is proposing the coming of the perpetual human as a result of nanobot technology. I guess it's not that strange a conception for science and sci-fi to be bedfellows. It's actually quite exciting to see some of the fantastic ideas once seen only in the entertainment media come to fruition. I just wish they'd work on the teleporting theory so that commuting would become a thing of the past. It would sure help the ozone layer. In due time, I suppose, but I don't know if I'm ready for an energizer bunny type of human being. Neural implants are now being used to counteract tremors from Parkinson's disease as well as multiple sclerosis. Cochlear implants are helping the deaf to hear and a retinal implant is now underway in the hopes that the blind may one day see again, or for the first time. Along those lines, Dr. Kurzweil, believes that nanobot based implants will enhance the human brain and in effect I believe, create a race of super intelligent humans. At present, the nanobots cannot be made small enough. But he states that in 30 years we will be able to miniaturize (shades the movies Fantastic Voyage and Inner Space) them and send billions of the blood cell sized scanning machines through every capillary of the brain to create a complete noninvasive scan of our every neural feature. Perhaps noninvasive on a physical level, but what about our emotional and spiritual levels? Right now we find our rights being stepped on more and more as the federal government takes control of areas in which we should be governing ourselves. When governments, extremist groups and terrorists get hold of this of kind of technology the results will be devastating. Mind boggling, if you will. Instead of bugging your phone or house you could be slipped a "nanobot mickey" and the "spy nanobots"... ...l your thoughts and actions. Talk about the ultimate violation. They could be put in the food or water supply of an entire population. Forget cryogenics or cloning. If you combine cybernetic and nanobot technologies you could upload your knowledge and experiences into a computer and then be put into a cybernetic body (the Bionic Man/Woman meet Bicentennial Man) you could, quite conceivably, live forever. But, would you want to? I might if I could outrun a car and eat all the cheeseburgers and chocolate cake I wanted without gaining an ounce! Seriously, though, I doubt that I would. I personally do not feel comfortable with the human race having access to this kind of knowledge. We're not exactly the most stable of species. I want to live my 'natural' life in my biological body as I was meant to. Not some man made super body. Dr. Kurzweil regards the freeing of the human mind from its severe physical limitations as a necessary next step in evolution. He sees it as moving us inexorably closer to becoming like God. Maybe God had a very good reason for our physical limitations. No, I'd rather take the natural, age-old approach to God myself - dying as we were meant to do.

Marketing Relationship in the Organisation Essay

Relationship marketing is a form of marketing developed from direct response marketing campaigns conducted in the 1970s and 1980s which emphasizes customer retention and satisfaction, rather than a dominant focus on point-of-sale transactions. Relationship marketing differs from other forms of marketing in that it recognizes the long term value to the firm of keeping customers, as opposed to direct marketing or â€Å"Intrusion† marketing, which focuses upon acquisition of new clients by targeting majority demographics based upon prospective client lists. Development of Relationship Marketing Relationship marketing refers to a long-term and mutually beneficial arrangement wherein both the buyer and seller focus on value enhancement with the goal of providing a more satisfying exchange. This approach attempts to transcend the simple purchase-exchange process with customer to make more meaningful and richer contact by providing a more holistic, personalized purchase, and use the consumption experience to create stronger ties. According to Liam Alvey, relationship marketing can be applied when there are competitive product alternatives for customers to choose from; and when there is an ongoing and periodic desire for the product or service. Fornell and Birger Wernerfelt used the term â€Å"defensive marketing† to describe attempts to reduce customer turnover and increase customer loyalty. This customer-retention approach was contrasted with â€Å"offensive marketing† which involved obtaining new customers and increasing customers’ purchase frequency. Defensive marketing focused on reducing or managing the dissatisfaction of your customers, while offensive marketing focused on â€Å"liberating† dissatisfied customers from your competition and generating new customers. There are two components to defensive marketing: increasing customer satisfaction and increasing switching barriers. Modern consumer marketing originated in the 1950s and 1960s as companies found it more profitable to sell relatively low-value products to masses of customers. Over the decades, attempts have been made to broaden the scope of marketing, relationship marketing being one of these attempts. Arguably, customer value has been greatly enriched by these contributions. The practice of relationship marketing has been facilitated by several generations of customer relationship management software that allow tracking and analyzing of each customer’s preferences, activities, tastes, likes, dislikes, and complaints. For example, an automobile manufacturer maintaining a database of when and how repeat customers buy their products, the options they choose, the way they finance the purchase etc., is in a powerful position to develop one-to-one marketing offers and product benefits. In web applications, the consumer shopping profile is built as the person shops on the website. This information is then used to compute what can be his or her likely preferences in other categories. These predicted offerings can then be shown to the customer through cross-sell, email recommendation and other channels. Relationship marketing has also migrated back into direct mail, allowing marketers to take advantage of the technological capabilities of digital, toner-based printing presses to produce unique, personalized pieces for each recipient. Marketers can personalize documents by any information contained in their databases, including name, address, demographics, purchase history, and dozens (or even hundreds) of other variables. The result is a printed piece that (ideally) reflects the individual needs and preferences of each recipient, increasing the relevance of the piece and increasing the response rate. Scope Relationship marketing has also been strongly influenced by reengineering. According to (process) reengineering theory, organizations should be structured according to complete tasks and processes rather than functions. That is, cross-functional teams should be responsible for a whole process, from beginning to end, rather than having the work go from one functional department to another. Traditional marketing is said to use the functional (or ‘silo’) department approach. The legacy of this can still be seen in the traditional four P’s of the marketing mix. Pricing, product management, promotion, and placement. According to Gordon (1999), the marketing mix approach is too limited to provide a usable framework for assessing and developing customer relationships in many industries and should be replaced by the relationship marketing alternative model where the focus is on customers, relationships and interaction over time, rather than markets and products. In contrast, relationship marketing is cross-functional marketing. It is organized around processes that involve all aspects of the organization. In fact, some commentators prefer to call relationship marketing â€Å"relationship management† in recognition of the fact that it involves much more than that which is normally included in marketing. Martin Christopher, Adrian Payne, and David Ballantyne at the Cranfield School of Management claim that relationship marketing has the potential to forge a new synthesis between quality management, customer service management, and marketing. They see marketing and customer service as inseparable. Relationship marketing involves the application of the marketing philosophy to all parts of the organization. Every employee is said to be a â€Å"part-time marketer†. The way Regis McKenna (1991) puts it: â€Å"Marketing is not a function; it is a way of doing business . . . marketing has to be all pervasive, part of everyone’s job description, from the receptionist to the board of directors. Approaches Satisfaction Relationship marketing relies upon the communication and acquisition of consumer requirements solely from existing customers in a mutually beneficial exchange usually involving permission for contact by the customer through an â€Å"opt-in† system. With particular relevance to customer satisfaction the relative price and quality of goods and services produced or sold through a company alongside customer service generally determine the amount of sales relative to that of competing companies. Although groups targeted through relationship marketing may be large, accuracy of communication and overall relevancy to the customer remains higher than that of direct marketing, but has less potential for generating new leads than direct marketing and is limited to Viral marketing for the acquisition of further customers. Retention A key principle of relationship marketing is the retention of customers through varying means and practices to ensure repeated trade from preexisting customers by satisfying requirements above those of competing companies through a mutually beneficial relationship. This technique is now used as a means of counterbalancing new customers and opportunities with current and existing customers as a means of maximizing profit and counteracting the â€Å"leaky bucket theory of business† in which new customers gained in older direct marketing oriented businesses were at the expense of or coincided with the loss of older customers. This process of â€Å"churning† is less economically viable than retaining all or the majority of customers using both direct and relationship management as lead generation via new customers requires more investment. Many companies in competing markets will redirect or allocate large amounts of resources or attention towards customer retention as in markets with increasing competition it may cost 5 times more to attract new customers than it would to retain current customers, as direct or â€Å"offensive† marketing requires much more extensive resources to cause defection from competitors. However, it is suggested that because of the extensive classic marketing theories center on means of attracting customers and creating transactions rather than maintaining them, the majority usage of direct marketing used in the past is now gradually being used more alongside relationship marketing as its importance becomes more recognizable. It is claimed by Reichheld and Sasser that a 5% improvement in customer retention can cause an increase in profitability of between 25 and 85 percent (in terms of net present value) depending on the industry. However Carrol, and Reichheld dispute these calculations, claiming they result from faulty cross-sectional analysis. According to Buchanan and Gilles, the increased profitability associated with customer retention efforts occurs because of several factors that occur once a relationship has been established with a customer. †¢ The cost of acquisition occurs only at the beginning of a relationship, so the longer the relationship, the lower the amortized cost. †¢ Account maintenance costs decline as a percentage of total costs (or as a percentage of revenue). †¢ Long-term customers tend to be less inclined to switch, and also tend to be less price sensitive. This can result in stable unit sales volume and increases in dollar-sales volume. †¢ Long-term customers may initiate free word of mouth promotions and referrals. †¢ Long-term customers are more likely to purchase ancillary products and high margin supplemental products. †¢ Customers that stay with you tend to be satisfied with the relationship and are less likely to switch to competitors, making it difficult for competitors to enter the market or gain market share. †¢ Regular customers tend to be less expensive to service because they are familiar with the process, require less â€Å"education†, and are consistent in their order placement. †¢ Increased customer retention and loyalty makes the employees’ jobs easier and more satisfying. In turn, happy employees feed back into better customer satisfaction in a virtuous circle. Relationship marketers speak of the â€Å"relationship ladder of customer loyalty†. It groups types of customers according to their level of loyalty. The ladder’s first rung consists of â€Å"prospects†, that is, people that have not purchased yet but are likely to in the future. This is followed by the successive rungs of â€Å"customer†, â€Å"client†, â€Å"supporter†, â€Å"advocate†, and â€Å"partner†. The relationship marketer’s objective is to â€Å"help† customers get as high up the ladder as possible. This usually involves providing more personalized service and providing service quality that exceeds expectations at each step. Customer retention efforts involve considerations such as the following: 1. Customer valuation – Gordon (1999) describes how to value customers and categorize them according to their financial and strategic value so that companies can decide where to invest for deeper relationships and which relationships need to be served differently or even terminated. 2. Customer retention measurement – Dawkins and Reichheld (1990) calculated a company’s â€Å"customer retention rate†. This is simply the percentage of customers at the beginning of the year that are still customers by the end of the year. In accordance with this statistic, an increase in retention rate from 80% to 90% is associated with a doubling of the average life of a customer relationship from 5 to 10 years. This ratio can be used to make comparisons between products, between market segments, and over time. 3. Determine reasons for defection – Look for the root causes, not mere symptoms. This involves probing for details when talking to former customers. Other techniques include the analysis of customers’ complaints and competitive benchmarking (see competitor analysis). 4. Develop and implement a corrective plan – This could involve actions to improve employee practices, using benchmarking to determine best corrective practices, visible endorsement of top management, adjustments to the company’s reward and recognition systems, and the use of â€Å"recovery teams† to eliminate the causes of defections. A technique to calculate the value to a firm of a sustained customer relationship has been developed. This calculation is typically called customer lifetime value. Retention strategies also build barriers to customer switching. This can be done by product bundling (combining several products or services into one â€Å"package† and offering them at a single price), cross selling (selling related products to current customers), cross promotions (giving discounts or other promotional incentives to purchasers of related products), loyalty programs (giving incentives for frequent purchases), increasing switching costs (adding termination costs, such as mortgage termination fees), and integrating computer systems of multiple organizations (primarily in industrial marketing). Many relationship marketers use a team-based approach. The rationale is that the more points of contact between the organization and customer, the stronger will be the bond, and the more secure the relationship. Application Relationship marketing and traditional (or transactional) marketing are not mutually exclusive and there is no need for a conflict between them. A relationship oriented marketer still has choices at the level of practice, according to the situation variables. Most firms blend the two approaches to match their portfolio of products and services. Virtually all products have a service component to them and this service component has been getting larger in recent decades. (See service economy and experience economy.) Internal marketing Relationship marketing also stresses what it calls internal marketing. This refers to using a marketing orientation within the organization itself. It is claimed that many of the relationship marketing attributes like collaboration, loyalty and trust determine what â€Å"internal customers† say and do. According to this theory, every employee, team, or department in the company is simultaneously a supplier and a customer of services and products. An employee obtains a service at a point in the value chain and then provides a service to another employee further along the value chain. If internal marketing is effective, every employee will both provide and receive exceptional service from and to other employees. It also helps employees understand the significance of their roles and how their roles relate to others’. If implemented well, it can also encourage every employee to see the process in terms of the customer’s perception of value added, and the organization’s strategic mission. Further it is claimed that an effective internal marketing program is a prerequisite for effective external marketing efforts. (George, W. 1990) The six markets model Adrian Payne (1991) from Cranfield University goes further. He identifies six markets which he claims are central to relationship marketing. They are: internal markets, supplier markets, recruitment markets, referral markets, influence markets, and customer markets. Referral marketing is developing and implementing a marketing plan to stimulate referrals. Although it may take months before you see the effect of referral marketing, this is often the most effective part of an overall marketing plan and the best use of resources. Marketing to suppliers is aimed at ensuring a long-term conflict-free relationship in which all parties understand each others’ needs and exceed each others’ expectations. Such a strategy can reduce costs and improve quality. Influence markets involve a wide range of sub-markets including: government regulators, standards bodies, lobbyists, stockholders, bankers, venture capitalists, financial analysts, stockbrokers, consumer associations, environmental associations, and labor associations. These activities are typically carried out by the public relations department, but relationship marketers feel that marketing to all six markets is the responsibility of everyone in the organization. Each market may require its own explicit strategies and a separate marketing mixes for each.